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Episode 43 – Pinball Poetry

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·May 18, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Slam Tilt Ep43: Zach guest on EM expertise, tournament plans, JJP/Spooky news, major Quicksilver repair saga.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast episode 43 features guest Zach discussing his extensive EM pinball collection and expertise. The hosts cover tournament announcements (July Stomp tournament in Schenectady), industry news including JJP's Dialed In production milestone and Spooky's Total Nuclear Annihilation backglass reveal, and extensive technical repair discussions of Quicksilver and Big Game troubleshooting. A lengthy comedic tangent about George Takei and Star Trek dominates the middle section.

Key Claims

  • Zach owns 30 pinball machines and is proficient in EM repairs

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce in opening interview with Zach; Zach states 'Give or take' when asked about owning 30 machines

  • Zach won first place in A Division of Buffalo Pinball tournament with 12-0 points record (pulled L1)

    high confidence · Ron congratulating Zach on tournament victory at Buffalo Finals

  • JJP has completed the first full playfield for Dialed In, roughly 500 more games needed before Ron's turn

    high confidence · Bruce reports 'JJP has the first complete playfield on the line for Dialed In. So just think 500 more for you, Ron'

  • Zach played Dialed In at Buffalo Finals and was not impressed due to wasted display space (3D city instead of information) and unsatisfying shots, though he liked the combos

    high confidence · Zach in interview: 'they wasted 90% of the display just showing a 3D city instead of, like, information' and 'I didn't think the shots were actually that fun'

  • Pinball Wizards Arcade conducted a clearance sale with inflated pricing, including Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash at $3,900 and High Speed at $2,400

    high confidence · Bruce reports pricing from Pinside postings; Ron confirms 'over retail'

  • Ron and Zach acquired Quicksilver partially via trade (Aerosmith LE) and discovered illegal lamp cord wiring connecting GI bus to 5-volt controlled light bus during repairs

    high confidence · Ron detailed troubleshooting narrative: 'They put one end to a socket that has computer control light. They put the other end...on a GI light'

  • Prospector does not hold up to hype due to repetitive spinner gameplay with minimal feature buildup compared to Super Straight

    high confidence · Zach comparing EM games: 'there's no real buildup to it. It's just you sit there and you hit the spinners over and over'

  • Sega Enterprises created Segasa in 1968, which later became Sonic, and produced pinball machines from 1972 to 1986

Notable Quotes

  • “My dad had a pinball machine in the basement, and eventually I was like, we should get a second one of these. And then a few years later, we had 30.”

    Zach @ ~7:30 — Explains Zach's origin story in pinball collecting and repair expertise

  • “Well, there's no real buildup to it. It's just you sit there and you hit the spinners over and over and over...Super Straight has five or six different features on the playfield that you can light by doing different things.”

    Zach @ ~20:15 — Critical game design analysis comparing Prospector unfavorably to Super Straight; demonstrates deep gameplay knowledge

  • “They put one end of the lamp cord to the socket that has computer control light. They put the other end, you're going to figure out where it is in a few seconds, on a GI light.”

    Ron @ ~1:19:00 — Key technical problem diagnosis for Quicksilver; demonstrates dangerous previous repair work

  • “I wish there was any water bottles left. Where's the money? Show me the money.”

    Zach @ ~38:45 — Zach's awkward response when asked to comment on tournament victory; shows dry humor

  • “They wasted 90% of the display just showing a 3D city instead of, like, information.”

    Zach @ ~35:20 — Specific critique of Dialed In design; feedback on modern JJP pinball philosophy

  • “Amazing deals! Crazy prices are insane!”

    Ron @ ~53:40 — Sarcastic commentary on Pinball Wizards clearance pricing; market sentiment indicator

  • “We're bringing it back home to the USA, baby.”

    Ron @ ~1:05:30 — Celebrating acquisition of Quicksilver (Canadian-made classic) for Slam Tilt collection

  • “It's just, like, the opposite of classy.”

    Zach @ ~49:15 — Zach's critical assessment of Total Nuclear Annihilation backglass artwork; reflects aesthetic preferences

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonZachpersonSlam Tilt PodcastorganizationJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companySpooky PinballcompanyPinball Wizards ArcadevenueSteve BowdenpersonDialed Ingame

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: JJP has completed first full Dialed In playfield; approximately 500 more units remain in queue before widespread customer delivery begins

    high · Bruce: 'JJP has the first complete playfield on the line for Dialed In. So just think 500 more for you, Ron, and you'll be ready to get your game.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Critical feedback on Dialed In's user interface approach—excessive use of 3D city display space reduces information density and player enjoyment; shot design lacks engagement depth despite smooth mechanics

    high · Zach: 'they wasted 90% of the display just showing a 3D city instead of, like, information' and 'I didn't think the shots were actually that fun'

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Wizards Arcade clearance sale reveals inflated pricing significantly above retail; examples: Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash $3,900, High Speed $2,400, Bad Cats $2,700, Paragon $2,800

    high · Bruce reports from Pinside: multiple machines listed above $2,400; Ron confirms 'over retail' and compares negatively to fair pricing expectations

  • ?

    product_concern: Quicksilver acquired by Slam Tilt shows signs of dangerous previous repair work: lamp cord incorrectly wiring GI bus to 5-volt controlled light bus, causing repeated fuse failures and potential equipment damage

    high · Ron and Zach's detailed diagnostic: 'They put one end of the lamp cord to a socket that has computer control light. They put the other end...on a GI light' causing F1 and F5 fuse failures

  • ?

    event_signal: Slam Tilt hosting Stomp (Slam Tilt Oh My Pinball Tournament) July 15 in Schenectady, NY; 8 participants interested day after announcement; targeting New York/New England players

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.252

0:00
Son, you don't seem to be grasping the concept here. When you get someone on the phone, get straight to the point of selling magazines. Now your friend here is our sales leader. I'm going to put this call on speakerphone so we can study his technique. For horny co-eds, press 1. For the big, busty, and beautiful line, press 2. To talk to two hot women at once, press 3. Yeah, yeah, press me. I'm a sales leader.
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale.
0:52
Hello. Hello, Bruce. Hello. Hello, Bruce. And welcome to episode... Hello. Yes, Bruce. And welcome to episode 43, Quantum of Solace. Second Daniel Craig movie. Is any good? I haven't seen it. He goes a little Rambo. He actually does, you know, he goes on a little killing spree, which we like to see from Bond.
1:16
All right, so he's abusing his license to kill. Well, I don't think you can really abuse a thing that's really not legal, but hey, we'll try. How's it going, Bruce? pretty good got a lot of news a lot of stuff coming on but as always Bruce comes through what do you mean I'm talking in the third person again of course you are the Bruce should we call him the Bruce you like the rock the Bruce he's the most electrifying man in podcasting yes I is so you're going to be in Baywatch yes I is okay and I'll have Zac Efron rubbing putting his arms around me. Oh, okay. Oh, my. We have to order George Takai. I got to put that in my notes. George Takai must order. Must order George Takai.

high confidence · Bruce and Ron research on-air via IPDB, quoting: 'In 1968, Sega Enterprises made Segasa, which actually then became Sonic...produced pinball machines from 72 to 86'

Total Nuclear Annihilation
game
Quicksilvergame
Big Gamegame
Prospectorgame
Black Rosegame
Aerosmith LEgame
Buffalo Pinball Finalsevent
Stomp (Slam Tilt Oh My Pinball Tournament)event
Timperson
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)organization
Segacompany
Paragongame
Safecrackergame
Bugs Bunny Birthday Bashgame
High Speedgame

high · Bruce: 'we're going to have a nice little tournament in Albany on July 15th...We already have eight people interested, and we just announced it yesterday'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Zach won first place in A Division at Buffalo Pinball Finals with perfect 12-0 points record and pulled L1

    high · Ron: 'Congratulations, Zach. Wow, thanks. You took first place in the A Division of Buffalo Pinball. Very impressive. And he went in major style, he went 12-0 on the points. He pulled an L1.'

  • ?

    announcement: Spooky's Total Nuclear Annihilation backglass artwork officially revealed, showing retro truck stop theme with driver character and somewhat cartoonish aesthetic elements

    high · Bruce: 'Total Nuclear Annihilation backlash was just shown' with backglass displaying on stream/social media

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Zach expresses critical aesthetic view of Total Nuclear Annihilation backglass as 'opposite of classy' and overly cartoonish; contrasts negatively with Paragon as design benchmark

    high · Zach: 'No, it's just, like, the opposite of classy' when discussing the artwork versus personal preference thresholds

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Zach articulates preference for EM games with multi-feature playfield design (Super Straight) over spinner-heavy designs (Prospector); emphasizes gameplay variety and earned progression over simple repetition

    high · Zach comparing games: 'Super Straight has five or six different features...The game is constantly changing how the scoring works' vs Prospector's 'just you sit there and you hit the spinners over and over'

  • ?

    product_launch: Slam Tilt hosts acquired Quicksilver pinball via partial trade of Aerosmith LE; machine requires significant restoration including electrical system repair, flipper mechanism rebuilding, and drop target assembly rewiring

    high · Ron: 'in exchange for the machine, partially, we got, drum roll please... Quicksilver' and detailed troubleshooting narrative spanning lamp cord issues, solenoid board replacement, and mechanical repairs

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Previous service work on Quicksilver revealed dangerous electrical shortcuts (lamp cord jury-rigging) and stripped flipper base bolts, suggesting inadequate repair documentation or quality standards from previous owner/technician

    medium · Ron and Zach speculate: 'We're thinking that one of the fuses was bad or they didn't have AC voltage, didn't have DC voltage and that's how they powered it' as rationale for dangerous workaround

  • ?

    technology_signal: Ron and Zach methodically diagnosed Big Game boot failure by isolating lamp board connections across multiple CPU and solenoid board combinations, eventually identifying solenoid board power delivery issue affecting CPU boot sequence

    high · Ron: testing with 'two different lamp boards and two totally different CPU boards...An Alltech and a Weebly' before solenoid board replacement resolved issue

    • 2:10
    We have a couple things coming up. But first. We have a guest. First time. But we talk about him almost every episode. And he occasionally listens when you make him. Well, actually, he's been listening on his own now. I think. You think? I think we'll find out. We'll find out from him in a few seconds.
    2:30
    Mr. Zach is on. And not Zach Sharp, but Mr. Zach. Hi, Zach. How's it going, Zach? Come on, get going.
    2:44
    Wow, what a great interviewer you are. You'd be great. Come on, talk. Talk, bastards. So, Zach, tell us a little about yourself.
    2:56
    My dad had a pinball machine in the basement, and eventually I was like, we should get a second one of these.
    3:02
    And then a few years later, we had 30. 30? Give or take. That ballooned up, and you have an interesting game in your bedroom. Yes, I do. That's the one that was in the basement. So your first game was a rare game. Yes. Got Leap Spirit. Yes. Yes, folks. Everyone wants it. he grows up with it in his bedroom ladies and gentlemen it's a spirit yes so you learn to repair that one and you've learned to repair of course more and more you are very good at ems actually spirit has never had a problem oh wait a sec wait a sec wait a sec wait a sec it's a system 80 bruce and it's never had a problem isn't that ada ada yes thank you oh hey pulled that one right out of my ass, boys and girls. Oh, it's got seven digits, so you know it's an 80A. Yes.
    3:53
    Did you know it was an 80A, Ron? The 80 anus? What is it? I don't know. There's different 80s? They're all 80 to me. What's the difference? 80 bastard.
    4:07
    So, yes, I pulled that one out of my ass. So you had a spirit in your bedroom growing up. What else have you had that you can go down your list? Meteor, Laser Q, Big Guns, Jokers, Surf Champ, Super Straight, T2, Black Knight, Timeline, Black Rose, Black Hole, Far Out, Blackjack, Spectrum, Pirates of the Caribbean, Prospector, Mars Trek, Gulfstream. Used to have a Mars God of War, a hot tip. I actually have two hot tips now. I used to have a hot hand and probably feel as I'm forgetting at this point.
    4:49
    Okay. And you're very good with EMs. Apparently. Well, I know Ron's looking forward to your EM repair because Ron wants a prospector. I want a prostator.
    5:00
    Oh, my. Well, that's, you know, everyone thinks we're talking about Quicksilver when we keep mentioning the silver and stuff. They don't realize we're talking about prospector. Ah. Silver and gold bonus. We're not kidding. Well, we might be. We might be. Yeah, we'll see. It's a great game. It is a good game. I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Really? Ooh, okay. I've been playing it for the last week, and it does not hold up to the hype for me. All right. So it doesn't hold up to your other Sonic game? No.
    5:34
    Hmm. Super Straight's better? Yes. Okay. I agree with that also. Do you ever play comms? No. Okay. That's another good one. That's actually a Sega Sonic, but, you know, a little different, but yes. How is it different?
    5:50
    Aren't they the same company? It's Segusa, Sonic, whatever. Yeah, it's like a Sega, I think, in the beginning worked with them, and then Williams worked with them, so I think it's like a combo thing. Huh? Sega? I thought it was called Segusa. It was actually, wait. Segasa. Yes, which I think was partially owned by Sega. Let's look at the IPDB. That's my impression, too. Sega. Wait a minute. Sega?
    6:19
    Sonic? Wait a minute. They ripped off their character from the pinball. Damn it. Wow. Little known fact. I can't believe I never noticed that before. Yeah, I can't believe I never noticed that either. If it's Sega and it's freaking Sonic. Damn, they totally ripped that off. Off some poor Spanish company. They probably didn't get any money at all. Yeah, they probably didn't. Hans? They probably ran a business.
    6:46
    Okay, so I guess Spain. Let's see. Looking it up right now. The excitement of Internet research. Well, you keep on talking. You can talk to Zach a little bit. You can talk about why Prospector doesn't hold up. Yeah, why doesn't Prospector hold up? What's wrong with Prospector? Well, there's no real buildup to it. It's just you sit there and you hit the spinners over and over and over. There's an OVL challenge to light the spinners. They light pretty much by themselves by hitting the spinners. And I guess there's an old bonus, but it's not very fun to just go for the left orbit over and over.
    7:24
    And it doesn't change the gameplay at all. It's just you're building up your bonus score. Meanwhile, Super Straight has five or six different features on the playfield that you can light by doing different things. So the game is constantly changing how the scoring works. and it's got other stages that work up where the spinner is worth points at some points and then eventually once you max out your bonus and then the spinner is worth a thousand a spin, you can just go and hammer that all day and it's really satisfying because you work for it. It doesn't happen very often. We can actually put Saguasa in a Bond theme. One of the first machines I had was Casino Royale, 1976. One episode too late. Yeah, darn.
    8:04
    1976, what a great time to get into the EM business. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, if you're Gottlieb, you just stay in denial. That's the only thing that can make good. Ba-dum-bunks. Oh, just the Gottlieb hate is just not... Come on, Bruce. It's true, true. It's very true. But what do you think about that, Zach? Do you think he has too much hate in his heart for these Gottliebs?
    8:25
    I mean, he keeps saying that he only hates the new Gottliebs, not the old Gottliebs. Yeah, but then he's like...
    8:32
    I mean, you've got to hate some of everything, because not everything is amazing. A lot of the old hot leaps are good, and then they slowly go downhill. It's just that some of them aren't quite as bad as Bruce thinks they are. I agree. Okay. In 1968, Sega Enterprises made Sagoosa, which actually then became Sonic, and by 1972 was importing video games with Pong and Space Invaders, and then produced pinball machines from 72 to 86.
    9:02
    86, really? Wow. Sega, Sonic. And the funny thing is, Zach is actually from my neck of the woods. I never met you until after I left. Yep, you never met me until he left. He's actually, well, your parents' house is almost really close to where I, well, where I typically golf during the summer. I haven't been out yet. But you are in Rochester now because you are attending.
    9:28
    RIT. And what is your major? Computer science. Okay. That's why he's always working with Bruce. It's all tech crap. I love when Zach comes over. It's a great time. We fix a lot of shit, which we'll go into a little later on.
    9:45
    So, Zach, out of all the games you own right now, what's your favorite? Black Rose. Black Rose? Where'd you get that Black Rose from? You.
    9:55
    Oh, it's yours? Okay. No, it's not mine. I sold it to him. Oh, all right. So it's not even that one. Bruce slid into his house for almost like 30 seconds, and then he sold it to me.
    10:08
    You know how I have this theme lately of just buying and selling games fast. But we'll get into that in a few minutes.
    10:16
    So, hey, Bruce. Yes, sir. I hear there's going to be a tournament coming up in July. Yes. That might have something to do with Slam Tilt Podcast. Have you heard about that? Some morons hired a third moron. Hey, Tim. Timmer. He's not a moron, but he's our tournament director. We're going to have a nice little tournament in Albany on July 15th. Well, Skodak, a reasonable facsimile, 20 minutes east of Albany. Yes, almost to the Massachusetts border. So all you New England guys, come on out. Plus it's south, so it's actually closer to New York City than Albany. So, will you New York City guys come out? We already have eight people interested, and we just announced it yesterday. So, that's a good thing. We're talking about stomp, the slam, tilt, oh my, pinball tournament. Which is why we need George Takai. We might get the real George Takai. Well, probably not. Oh, that'd be fucking sweet. That would be ridiculous. Especially since he lives on the West Coast. I'm going to come down just for this. Oh my. Oh, my.
    11:29
    What would you do if, Zach, you got to meet the famous George Takei? I don't know who that is. Oh, my fail. Massive fail. Have you ever watched Star Trek? No. You've never watched Star Trek? What? I saw the new movies. Oh.
    11:50
    Computer science? Really? Turn up the geek level, man. Come on. Have you ever listened to Howard Stern?
    11:59
    Is that like related to Gary Stern? No. Don't think so then. Okay, good. Two for two. We're going on this one. Have you ever seen – A movie. Yes. No, no, no, no, no, no.
    12:13
    A TV commercial with a guy saying oh my a lot. Yes. No. Okay. No? I've seen a TV commercial not with a guy but not saying oh my okay so we need to go to Pizza Hut George Takei commercial so if you go now if you go on you're in front of your computer Zach go to Pizza Hut George Takei oh my Super Bowl 2017 commercial do I really want to do this yes but will he really get it at all it's like it's some old dude saying oh my I don't get it We got it. What was the original, the TV commercial? That was the TV, wasn't it, with the four colors? Oh, yeah, yes, yes. I can't remember what brand it was for, but, yeah, he did a commercial for that.
    13:04
    This looks like some old guy. Yes, it is. That's George the guy. Amazing. Oh, here it is. Sharp Quadratron Quad Pixel Technology. So as you can tell, Zach is incredibly impressed by this. I see that. Oh, my. So, Zach, what kind of movies do you watch? Nothing in the past year, probably. He sounds like you, Ron. Yeah, he sounds like me, except I had a period where I watched a lot of movies and then I kind of stopped. I tried to watch the IMDb Top 100 one time. How'd that go? I got like 50. That's further than I would have gotten. Me too. I'm super psyched to go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie and be horribly disappointed. Well, so is my wife, so you can go together to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and be highly disappointed. Oh, my. Oh, my!
    13:59
    At least he catches on fast, right? Oh, very good, Zach. Yes, Kathy's looking forward to that movie very much. You see, there was a show called Star Trek that starred in the 60s. Is it based off the pinball machine? No, no. The pinball machine is based off it, you see. And then it had, like, this Canadian guy that was, like, the captain, like Captain Kirk. Well, he's not really Canadian. Well, he's from Iowa. He's from Iowa in the show, but he's really Canadian. It's a William Shatner dude. He was, like, Captain Kirk. And then you had this Leonard Nimoy guy. He was Mr. Spock. Who originally had pointy ears and didn't have pointy ears and had pointy ears again. No, he always had pointy ears. No. Yes. If you actually – no. Yes. If I actually – what, Bruce? Even in the pilot, he had the pointy ears. Yes, I know, but at one point NBC actually had to film the scene without the pointed ears. That didn't air. And then they decided, because they thought it would scare children. It would scare children.
    14:56
    Oh, but, well, there was also, the navigator on the show was George Takei playing Mr. Sulu. Yes, and then there was also Chekhov, who was a Russian. Uhura, which was, at the time, a very, you know, she was an African-American woman who had a major role in a TV show, which was not too common back in the 60s. What else did we have? We had Bones. Yeah, the country doctor. The country doctor. And Scotty. And Scotty, the Scottish engineer. We liked to drink scotch.
    15:28
    So, see, learned everything. And in the original pilot, they actually had a woman as second in command. And that said, the executives did not, like, no, we're not going that far. We'll do the alien bit, but not that. Yeah. So, it's not familiar at all. And then the 80s, they did it, they started again with Star Trek The Next Generation. See, the one that other pinball games based off of.
    15:51
    We've lost him. We've lost him? Yeah. Hello? I mean, you keep saying these words, but... But nothing happens. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I can only relate them to the new movies, which doesn't really help you much. Okay. Well, the guy Chris Pine, who's playing Kirk, that was played by William Shatner in the original show. And the guy, well, there's Sulu. Sulu is in the new movies. George Takei played the original Sulu. There you go. But he didn't play the new one. Well, no, he's kind of old. They can't do, like, the Spock thing?
    16:25
    I wouldn't be surprised. This is sci-fi. You can do anything. You can, like, go back, you know, some bizarre thing where, like, well, yeah, they did that with Spock, where you had old Spock and new Spock. Okay, we wasted five minutes on trying to explain Star Trek. All right, let's see. Have you seen Predator? Robocop? I have seen Predator. Okay. I think. Is that the one in the woods? It's the one in the jungle. Get to the chopper! And the guy is Heat Vision? Yes. Yeah, I've seen that one. Okay.
    16:59
    All right. But you haven't seen Robocop? No. Oh, man. We need a top 20 list of movies for Zach to see.
    17:09
    Pinball related? Eddie, no. Actually, we should do that. We'll do a new segment, Has Zach Seen It? We're just going to name pinball movies.
    17:17
    Like, have you seen Congo? No. Actually, I haven't seen Congo either, or Shadow. The Shadow? Oh, The Shadow rocks. I didn't even know that was a movie. That was a movie. Let's see, what other ones? Demolition Man? Nope. Highly recommended that one, by the way. Really? It's very entertaining. Yes, it's very entertaining. What do you do with the three shells? I have no idea. They never do explain that.
    17:43
    Let's see. What other? Whatever. Well, obviously, Star Trek is one he has seen. At least the new one. Johnny Mnemonic. Nope. Damn. Arctic Caribbean. Yeah. There you go. Very good. You got one. Yay.
    18:01
    Okay. Let's get to some news. Piece of news. What's going on, Bruce? jjp has the first complete play field on the line for dialed in so just think 500 more for you ron and you'll be ready to get your game uh how much what 500 more games built and then you'll oh yeah yeah probably looks like they did um spruce up the lock area a little bit on the production that right now what do you think of dialed in zach you played it all I played at the Buffalo Finals and was not very impressed. Wow. Okay, why were you not impressed? Well, for one thing, they wasted 90% of the display just showing a 3D city instead of, like, information.
    18:50
    And then, uh... I don't know, I didn't think the shots were actually that fun, although they did have a satisfying sort of, like, smoothness to them, but... The combos were really... I liked the combos. There were a lot of ball hang-ups and little things where it got caught, although that's... hopefully will be fixed when it's on a prototype.
    19:07
    I didn't really experience any of these things, I must say. So, you know, the selfies, the hologram, none of that? Float of your boat at all? No? The electric guy? I mean, Ghostbusters already did one of those things, and I don't... The electric guy does not seem like an interesting addition. Mr. Negativity. Yeah. Man, I'm just... You're bringing us down, Zach. Damn. Well, what games do you like? Other than Black Rose?
    19:33
    A lot of them. At least five. At least five? No. Wow, a whole five games. Freeze. He cannot. We have not gotten to that segment yet. But he could own them all. No. No segment yet. Okay. Plus, they also put a Crazy Bob sign up there, too, on the right left-hand side.
    19:52
    What a great reference. Crazy Bob. And there's also another reference. Well, the girl on the phone is, what is it? It's not. It's Mandy instead of Candy. to the compliment of Safecracker with the Candy 2000.
    20:11
    And then, of course, Trust Us is almost like from Safecracker also. There's a lot of good throwbacks to every part of his game. You seem to be thinking that anyone's ever played Safecracker before. Ooh!
    20:26
    I've owned one. I've owned a lot of games. Yeah, that's not saying much for you. It's not. More importantly, you sold it. I traded it. Same thing. But JJP is on the line. Actually, I think your Safecracker is one of the only ones I played. Actually, at one time in Rochester, there's three. A whole three? We had three of them at the first Rochester Game Room show.
    20:51
    Zach wasn't there. He was like five. Yeah, maybe six or seven. So congratulations to JJP Hopefully we start seeing games coming down into people houses That would be great I would love to see that happen So would I. Zach, we must congratulate you. Congratulations, Zach. Wow, thanks. You took first place in the A Division of Buffalo Pinball. Very impressive. And he went in major style, he went 12-0 on the points. He pulled an Elwin. He pulled an L1. He did very well. Any comments on your play there? Any comments? You've just won. We're coming over. You put the mic right in your face. Zach, what do you say?
    21:40
    I wish there was any water bottles left. Where's the money? Show me the money. Smile, Zach. It's not that bad. Crickets. You can't see me. I see you. I can see how you're going. Wow, you have unique powers, Bruce. I do. I very much do. Very unique powers.
    22:05
    Pinball Wizards sell-off started happening. Pinball Wizards Arcade started their sale of selling all their games. A lot of people were saying it wasn't good pricing. I heard there was a $2,400 high speed. Wow. Okay. Yeah. $2,700 of Bad Cats, I think. Oh.
    22:29
    All right. Yeah, because really the only two games there that I'd be interested in, honestly, that was Paragon, because their Paragon was actually in nice shape. I played it many times. And they're mousing around. Well, that was like $2,800. Really? Where are you getting the pricing from? They posted on Pinside. Oh, they did post it on Pinside. Oh, jeez. No, no, no, no, no. They did. people asking and then going there and then finding out.
    22:56
    The Bugs Bunny... Hold on. How much do you think Bugs Bunny birthday bash was, guys? Come on. Well, it's Bugs Bunny, so obviously it's worth more. $2,800. $3,500. $3,900. $3,900! I was trying to guess high, and I still went slow.
    23:14
    $1,900. Stellar Wars. Jesus, I don't even remember them having that. I guess they did. $2,500 Street Fighter 2. Ooh.
    23:28
    $2,500 Earthshaker. Bum, bum, bum. Da-dum. The sale's still going. You could take advantage of these amazing deals, Ron. Amazing deals! You're closest. Crazy prices are insane!
    23:46
    When Crazy Levy's saying they need to sell, we'll be asking retail. Ha, ha, ha. Like, I understand she wants to make money, but, you know, this is over retail. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. So I think that's all. Oh, that's all about the news, I think. Oh, wait, one more thing. One more thing. Total nuclear annihilation backlash was just shown. Just to refresh our listeners, that was the total annihilation game that is going to be made by Spooky that they had to rename because I guess there's some other game called Total Annihilation. So now it's Total Nuclear Annihilation. Yes, it is. Okay, the back glass is revealed where? On our page. I think I posted it. Originally on Twitch. Yes. That Slam Tilt page? I heard so much. I think I posted it. You think you posted it. Let me go to the awesome Slam Tilt page on Facebook. Just look for Slim Tilt Podcast.
    24:51
    I don't see it. Then I'll have to steal it from Fun With Bonus. Fail. Fun With Bonus. Shout out to Fun With Bonus, Steve Bowden. Yes. Hi, Steve. I'll be seeing you this weekend. Talk about that later. Yep. So if you go to Fun With Bonus, actually, it's elf.com. Scroll down a little bit. There it is. First thing. Picture today. Today. 12 p.m. All right. Total nuclear annihilation.
    25:18
    Okay. So the one with the little pinball on it, that's the actual artwork? Yes, with the woman. All right. Yep. That looks pretty good, actually. I thought it was pretty sharp, and I'm going to post it right now. I'm going to share it to Slam to the Podcast.
    25:34
    Have you seen it yet, Zach? Oh, yeah. So what do you think about it? I was watching the stream. I don't know. It looks like a back glass.
    25:45
    It's no Paragon. Well, yes, but what is, really? I mean, that's only two levels of Backglass. Oh, no, there's three. There's Paragon, there's this, and there's Betty's Truck Stop. Those are the three levels in descending order. What's Betty's Truck Stop? You don't know Betty's Truck Stop? Bally's Machine, 1988?
    26:05
    That was an actual game. Oh, oh, I thought you said Betty's Truck Stop. I thought it was just Truck Stop. Well, no, I think it actually originally was Betty's Truck Stop because they made ten prototypes. Oh. Then they made... So we're judging this on a prototype backless? Well, the backless is the same. Oh, okay.
    26:24
    Yeah, it says Big Betty's right above the word truck stop on the backless. All right. Even non-prototype. Well, see? Terrible game.
    26:34
    Terrible game? Would Ramp Warrior have been better? Yes. Okay. That's the one I was thinking of, Ramp Warrior. Yeah, Ramp Warrior. All right, let's see. So Zach's not a fan of this, uh... Is it too cartoony, or...? No, it's just, like, the opposite of classy.
    26:53
    Ah. Ooh. Wow. So you don't like Joe Dillon there driving the truck? No, although I have the secondary motive when judging back glasses that at any point any of my games might end up in my mom's living room. Ah, okay. I gotcha. So I might judge it differently than some people do. And everyone's laughing at the Lion Man poster on the right-hand side. And it looks like the tank even has a smiley face. Look at the tank. Yeah, yep, it does. It does. It's got, like, two eyes and then the nose. Yep.
    27:27
    Cut a lot of mileage out of Lion Man for an okay game, I guess. It does, actually. It was not that popular until, like, three or four years ago. It's Steve Kirk, man. Come on. Until he got fired. But that was his game number four. How'd that go for him? Well, he got fired, so obviously not well.
    27:48
    Excuse me. First you on. That's the new piece of news. Piece of news. By the way, there's going to be this tournament called Stomp. Stomp? Stomp. It's the Slam Tilt All My Pinball Tournament. It's going to be great. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp. We forgot about one big news item, but it's specific to the Slam Tilt Podcast. Which is? You picked up a game. So first I have to ask you, Ron, how was it owning Aerosmith LE for one week?
    28:18
    I guess it was okay. I saw the box. Yes, you did. That was about all I saw. Just so you guys will know, we actually owned an Aerosmith LE for one week because in exchange for the machine, partially, we got, drum roll please,
    28:41
    Yes? Quicksilver. By partially means it wasn't like a straight up Aerosmith Ellie for Quicksilver because that would be crazy.
    28:51
    Totally nuts. Because clearly Quicksilver is worth way more than Aerosmith. Exactly. Yeah, you wouldn't take advantage of people like that. No, never. Because they're from Canada. Eh? Yep, we're bringing it back home to the USA, baby. Yep. It's got some wear. It's got some, you know, issues. but me and Zach started working on it yesterday. And Zach, tell them what we found.
    29:18
    Lampcord. Lampcord inside the machine. Now, when we got it, the guy goes, when I got it, he goes, oh, we have a new GI issue. Now, when I got it, he said it's got all new boards in it, mostly. You know, the CPU board's been redone with an NVRAM. It has new displays, pin score. it has a new rectifier board down on below so when i'm picking up he goes oh the gi blew okay okay not a big deal you know we'll figure it out so when we get there we get it to the house i set it up and then zach came over and we powered it up and uh no gi and oh excuse me and it was blown fuse on f1 which is kind of weird me and zach bover like why did we have no gi and no, what's it called, computer-controlled lights at all. So, nothing.
    30:11
    Like, hmm. So, we replaced the fuse, and guess what we had? We had both. Me and Zach were both looking at each other like, that's weird, but maybe it's stern, you know. Maybe they did a little thing different, you know. We walked away for a couple minutes. We came back.
    30:26
    Dead again. Me and Zach looked at each other. Okay. We tested fuses. Two blown fuses. F5 and F1. F1 is still the computer control lights. F5 is the AC for the GI lights.
    30:43
    So when we were looking at the electric, the lamp cord, they hooked one end of the lamp cord to the AC. Okay, what do you mean lamp cord? Literal half of a lamp cord. The golden power cable. They put one end to a socket that has computer control light.
    31:06
    They put the other end, you're going to figure out where it is in a few seconds, on a GI light. Just picture someone wiring together the GI bus and the 5-volt controlled lamp bus. The reason why me and Zach think they did this is because they probably had a bad rectifier board,
    31:28
    a.k.a. the new rectifier board on there. And to power up one or the other, they took the AC or DC voltage.
    31:36
    whatever one was working on the Richter fireboard to see what was lighting up and working. Do you guys got a picture of this? Zach does.
    31:45
    What the fuck? Wait a minute, there's more than one of them. No, we cut it in half. We cut it in half. Oh. We cut it in half to prove that that was the problem.
    31:56
    What the, what is, why did they put it there? we're thinking that one of the fuses was bad or they didn't have AC voltage, didn't have DC voltage and that's how they powered it that's fucked up yes and then we had a drop target assembly we had to put in because the other one was fucked up, the three target bank which he gave us and now I have to rewire the switches on the back side because it uses the old style switches instead of the new style switches pay the ass. That's the name of the goal. And then we have to fix the flippers. It has brand new flippers in it. And when I first moved them, the whole base is moved. Cool. Excellent. Yes, totally stripped out. Not even bolted in. The sound works great. We sent a video to Ron last night. And Ron sent us a video last night.
    32:52
    Oh, the frigging big game. What a pain in the ass that was. And I mentioned this on a, well, I guess we have to start with the repairs.
    33:02
    Repairs, folks. This is the repair segment. We were talking about it already. Go ahead. Well, kind of, yeah. My big game, and I mentioned this in a previous episode, where I had this bizarre issue where it would not boot. You turn it on, and it would do the two flashes, and then just keep rebooting, like just doing the same first two flashes over and over and over and over. How do you do those two flashes? because it goes, doo, doo, and then pause, and then back to the first one again, doo. Like the first two that have the long pause, and it would not do three, four, five, six, seven, would not get to that point, and it just kept looping over and over and over. And I found if I disconnected all the feature lights, boom, it boots up fine. So at first I thought, like, okay, maybe there's something wonky with the socket or something. There's some bizarre issue. Well, after working on the play field, you know, replacing a bunch of sockets, doing a bunch of stuff, put everything back in the game, turn it on. Well, it boots up at first because I got no lights in there at all. So then I put the lights in the bingo cards, and it won't boot up. Same issue. It's like, okay, I doubt if it's a socket issue. I mean, it's the frigging bingo cards, you know, the ones I just replaced with the PCP boards, PCB boards. PCB, wow, what are you smoking? PCB, man.
    34:27
    So I take, just as a theory, I took some of the lights out, and then it boots. And it seems to be a number of lights. You get it to a certain level, and then it will start to not, it'll take a couple times for it to boot.
    34:44
    And if you go beyond that, then it doesn't boot at all. It just loops over and over and over. and this is with two different lamp boards and two totally different CPU boards. An Alltech and a Weebly or whatever we call those, the ones we recommended on a previous show. But only one solenoid board. Yes. Very good, Zach. So I'm thinking like because the power goes through the solenoid board to go to the CPU board and in looking through the old guides, unfortunately the ones you can't get anymore one of the issues he had in the in the the old this is clay harrell and his old his old um repair guides he had an issue once where he had a cpu that wouldn't boot because when the lamp board was connected it was bringing something down on the solenoid board so it would have the cpu board would have issues booting like hmm that kind of sounds familiar so i didn't think i had another solenoid board but i actually did i actually had an all tech put it in there boots up it's like okay so now the ultimate test i'll fill the bingo cards up all 27 lights turn it on boots right up yeah so there's something failing or something not working right on that the solenoid board so yet another board that needs to be repaired oh i got a ton of them in my corner so that so if you're counting at home with this big game. This is the one that had the heavily acid damaged CPU board which ruined that. I mean, it was totally covered in acid. Ruined that and then all of it dripped down all over the lamp board and ruined that.
    36:26
    And then the solenoid board also had an issue. So pretty much the only board that seemed to survive was the sound board. Which is the most expensive, so that's a good thing. So I'll be, continue to work on that try to get that all ready to go for stomp stomp want to be ready for stomp gotta be ready for stomp so that's my repair oh uh just just some basic stuff had to make some some adjustments to the stars the plumb bob was not centered properly in the ring had to make some adjustments that was bothering me and then had to make some further adjustments to get the tilt where i wanted it. Let's see. Did I do any other mini adjustments? I think that was it. Yeah, that was it. We had a lot of repairs this week, didn't we, Zach? Oh, yeah. Viking 2. Electric Boogaloo.
    37:23
    We tried to replace the ridge rectifier on the solenoid board. Not the solenoid board, but on the ridge rectifier board. And that did not work. So we... I had another spare board around. We ripped that out and found out that the old one was... a piece of crap that was in that machine. So we only had like 4.2 volts on the tip one, which was giving us no lights, really, bright lights for the computer-controlled lights. We replaced the projector fireboard, and boom! We're now up to 5.7, I think we had, Zach. And then we replaced like 10 light sockets, and Zach reflowed some light boards and Viking 2 is ready to leave Xanadu and head west to Mr. Kevin Manny. Very good. You'll never get his name wrong again. No, I almost did at League Night. That's bad, dude. That's bad. It's not even like it's that hard.
    38:35
    But so we did a lot of repairs. What else did we do, Zach? Adjusted some switches. Tuned the pop bumpers. Tuned the pop bumpers, adjusted the switches there.
    38:45
    But, yeah, he's got five good displays on that thing and sound and lights and just an ugly-ass play field. But it's a player. It's a runner. So that was our repairs for myself and Zach. Zach, you have other repairs you were doing? I've been having fun on Prospector for all the week now, at least. Yes, and folks, this is the Prospector that Zach said, I really don't want to work on this. I can just sell it to you and you can get experience on EMs. I was trying to save some money, Ron. Yeah, and you were going to give me some experience on EMs. Yeah, I would have been completely beyond lost working on this thing. Just the sheer amount of work you've had to do on this thing. Come on. in retrospect but it didn't seem that bad as it was when I offered it to you it just seemed pretty bad nice so uh I am now up to 12 coils replaced and then I found another one that's bad so I need to order that uh like with all my EMs when I get them I take the playfield out and I put it upside down and I go through all the relays and steppers on that and I take out the relay board on the bottom and I put that on the table and I go through all the relays and steppers on that to get them all clean and working properly And while I was working on this one, I made sure to adjust all the pop bumper switches to be nice and really close together, and all the switches on the steppers to be nice and working properly. And then I put the playfield in the machine and was really surprised when all the pop bumpers locked on, and one of the plungers for the chimes shot out and hit my ceiling.
    40:25
    Because I had taken off the metal chime bars first. That's hilarious. So it turns out if you adjust the switches, the pop bumpers, while the playfield is upside down, when you turn the playfield right side up, the switches are no longer adjusted properly. Let me write that down. That's a good tip.
    40:41
    Do not adjust upside down. Yes. Steve Ritchie just posted a thing on Facebook. Oh, boy. Four words.
    40:53
    Almost there. Oh, Jesus Christ. Almost there. Really? Almost is one word. It's true. It's damn true.
    41:04
    Almost there. Is he going to say, it's away? It's away. All right. That's Star Wars. Have you ever seen that, Zach? What? Star Wars. Is that like some 70s movie or something? Yeah, yeah, the 70s movie. If you say Star Wars Episode I, I'm going to smack you in the... I saw that one that came out last year. I saw that one. Rogue One? What? Rogue One? That one too.
    41:36
    Okay, so you saw the two new ones. Okay, yeah. Fail. Almost there. I think it's a special, but it's on my list.
    41:46
    It's away! It's away. Gee, I wonder what game it's going to be. I don't know. World Poker Tour 2. Yes! Electric Boogaloo. Oh stop Jesus no it going to be Black Knight 3000 The Revenge Revenge Revenge Revenge Maybe it won suck like Black Knight 2000 Oh, come on. Come on now.
    42:14
    Come on. Wow. I think there's a reason you still have your Black Knight, but not your Black Knight 2000. That is true. I will agree with that. I'll agree with that. I have my Black Knight, and I don't have a Black Knight 2000. It's because they cost too much. Come on, best music ever.
    42:38
    I guess not for Zach either. Boy, we just... You got the power. You got the fight. Oh, no way. Get ready for battle. Give me your money. Beat the Black Knight.
    42:53
    Well, Zach, if you ever play ACDC, occasionally it does say, give me your money. Or actually, no, it says you are champion. I tried to avoid playing ACDC, too, so. Wow. And last night I forced him. You are champion.
    43:08
    That might be one of the best grand champion. When you get your score up there. Oh. So, Zach, how was our game last night on Metallica?
    43:24
    It was all right. I think I broke 10 million, I think. That'd be cool. I think you did. And I almost got every multi-ball on the first ball. And on the second ball. And almost on the second ball, too. So, hey, did you hear there's a new tournament coming out, Ron? There's a new tournament? Is it called Stomp? It is. And where is it located? It's going to be at level zero. When? It's going to be the weekend after Pantastic, because we're thinking. July 15th. And you can find out this information where? You can go to, well, you can go to, is it on our Facebook page also? It is on our Facebook page. It's on our Facebook page. And it's also got its own page. It's also got its own event. So just look up Stop.
    44:14
    Stop Tournament. Let's plug this more and more all the time. Oh, we're going to keep plugging. Plug away, man. Plug away. I just want to make a quick note. This is kind of funny for me. I've been talking about the Albany Pinball League that I'm in, like there's an actual league in Albany, and it's a five-week league. And the final week is going to be this upcoming Sunday.
    44:37
    And I guess the way the league works is the first four weeks you're kind of playing for just points for your positioning for like the playoffs, which is the fifth week. And I believe I'm in first, and I will not be there for the playoffs. Fail. No, you will be there. I kind of played the four weeks for nothing. You'll be there. Zach is going to take my place. He's going to go in disguise. No, no, no, no. You'll be there. You're not going to be around Sunday for the vault. Which brings us to the upcoming Morristown Game Vault Tournament,
    45:11
    which is going to be at the – there's a name for the tournament. I want to get this right. It actually has a name, the tournament. The Spring Fling. The Spring Fling Tournament at the Morristown Game Room Vault in Morristown, New Jersey. It'll be having its three days, two days of qualifying, Friday and Saturday,
    45:29
    with kind of a weird, unique deal where you play, I think it's like five or six games, and you need to be in the top four of at least one of them to get into the playoffs. But you still can keep playing to get, like if you just played one game and got a first place score in one of the games and made the playoffs, you would be like really low, like the lowest seed possible. but if you had a bunch of high scores and you'd be a higher seed, it's weird. So the playoff size is variable, that means.
    46:02
    How is it variable, though? If it's the top four, say it's five games and top four... But the same person could have the top score on every machine. Well, no. It only... Yeah, no. It'll only count once.
    46:15
    Yeah, but that's the other people that aren't in there anymore that could have been. Yes. So if I had the high score in four games, but three of them had to go. I only can have one of them, so three of them go away. So then whoever was in fifth moved up to fourth, and now they make it. How do they decide which game you bump one person off of and which game you count? It's on their Facebook page. So check it out. Just look for Morristown Game. Actually, you can go to morristowngameroomvault.com. You can also look it up on Facebook.
    46:45
    And you can also go to Fun with Bonus. Steve Bowden has a thing with the rules. the Morristown Spring Fling Professional Disc Golf Association Tournament. That sounds possibly correct. First time on Google.
    46:59
    So, yeah, it's kind of weird. But, yeah, they have some way of figuring out, like, if there's ties, like, which game counts.
    47:08
    As typical with these tournaments and rules, I really just kind of glossed over it, like, whatever. I just kind of got the basic. Like with the Albany League? Yep. Pretty much. Yeah, I never once looked at the standings.
    47:24
    He had the standings there this Sunday, and I think my father looked at the book and, like, oh, it looks like you're in first. Like, oh, okay. I had no idea how many points I had or anything. I don't even know if we have a standings page or anything.
    47:38
    So that's going to be this weekend, so check it out. It'll be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yep, and Ron will be home Saturday night, late. Wow. Well, no, I got my hotel for Sunday. Okay, so you'll be leaving Sunday morning early. Okay, gotcha. Wow. This sounds like a challenge. No, I think, yeah, I want to see you qualify. If you can't qualify, you walk out in shame. Okay, so you're hearing here, folks, I have to qualify or I suck. Yeah.
    48:09
    So is that still reading the rules? Did you find the rules I was talking about? It looks like some people might be getting in the finals based on random luck.
    48:19
    And how is that? Well, if you have the same ranked top score in multiple games, then the one of them that counts will be decided at random. Oh, okay. There's the answer to your question. I wonder what that means. They go to random.org, pick a number, run through whatever the game is, and then just pick it? So when you go there, Ron, and you get a top score on every machine, then five people will be looking at it and being like, I really hope I am not the one that randomly is on the same game that you get chosen to count. Yep. And that one person will randomly be knocked out.
    48:50
    There you go. And then we curse you, Ron. Yes, because clearly I'm getting the top score in every game, especially with some of the players I see that are going there.
    49:02
    Dancer is no. Wow. I'll get in. Don't worry. You heard it here. I'm getting in. I have to. You pissed me off now. No, that's easy. Yeah, it is easy to piss me off. It is. So do we want to do... Do we... Game you like, game you hate, or a mailbag? We can do either. What would you like, Zag? Would you like to put your hand in a mailball bag, or would you like to... I haven't even checked my mail in weeks, Bruce. Okay. So would you like to check ours? Would you like to feel our mailball bag? No. Okay. So we're doing Game You Like, Game You Hate first. All right.
    49:44
    Which makes no difference because we're going to do the mail ball back anyway. Exactly. Okay. All right.
    49:54
    Zach, Game You Like, or would you like us to go first? What would you like to do first? Option of the guess. You're the host, Bruce. Nope, I am the co-host. He's the co-host. Okay, so both of you vote then, and then I'll break the tie. Zach. No, really? All right, I guess we should each do the game we hate first. Okay. Okay, so hate is always easier, isn't it? Yes. And hate is always easier. Ron, you may go first, and then you'll be able to go last. Oh, really? Okay. Buck Rogers.
    50:26
    Beat it, beat it, beat it. Buck, Buck, suck. Fairy Target, suck. Buck. Actually, I don't mind Fairy Target, so I just don't like that game.
    50:36
    Yeah, it does nothing for me. But Greg, who's on next week, will probably argue against your thought process on that one. Well, why? Does he own one? He owns that one. There you go. Yeah. There's a very target on Buck Rogers? Right in the middle. Yeah, right in the middle. I thought that was a captive ball. Nope. Very old target. But it kind of reminds me of – It's a captive ball in front of a very target. Yes. So it's close encounters like – I don't know. It's like the same era that kind of, eh, no. Beady, beady, Buck. At least the sounds fit the theme. Beady, beady, beady. Buck.
    51:18
    Beady, beady, beady, beady, beady, beady. Wait, wait. Bruce, are you saying that Buck Rogers isn't an original theme? No, that was a television show in the 70s. It was a television show in the 70s.
    51:29
    We just ruined him. Gil Gerard. Oh, you know his name. I didn't even know his name. Oh, I know Gil Gerard very well. And the robot's Twinkie.
    51:40
    That was his actual name. Twinkie. Beady, beady, buck. Dr. Z. I guess we lost Zach again. What's your game, Bruce? Game I hate, Gulfstream.
    51:57
    Oh, thanks. Gulfstream? Yes, Zach owns this particular one, and it's at a location in Syracuse. It's not anymore. Oh, it's not anymore? It killed me in League. Killed me. So that's why you hate it, because you suck? It's a fucking turd.
    52:16
    Is it because it's a turd, or because you suck? It's a random turd. How old is the game?
    52:24
    69, 70? 69, 70 EM, and you're going to bitch? 76? It's even worse then because it should have been better because it was newer.
    52:34
    Williams is making four-player games that were better than one-player freaking turds. But you can play tic-tac-toe while you're playing pinball.
    52:44
    Oh, God, I'd rather freaking pull my fingernails out than play that. Ooh, ooh. Damn. Ugh, terrible game. Okay.
    52:54
    Zach, your game you hate. I'm waiting for the revenge one. Spider-Man. I know it. And not just any Spider-Man. Which one? There's two of them. No, Stern Spider-Man. Not the Gottlieb. Although the Gottlieb also sucks. Which one do you hate the most? Oh, I hate them all. No, you hate mine the most. You played actually, what's his name? He's pretty good. Rich's.
    53:21
    Yours might be tied with the one at Swill Burger. Wow. So what don't you like about Spider-Man? Well, each shot is about half an inch wide.
    53:34
    All the modes suck except Bonesaw, which isn't even in the Vault Edition. And it's got a boring set of three targets in the middle that do nothing useful.
    53:42
    And the multiballs suck, and they're stackable. What's wrong with them being stackable? Stackable is a bad idea. Zack hates multiballs. Very unique views by Zack here. Definitely not in the majority. The views posted are explained by... The views posted are not necessarily the Slamtail Podcast, being that both members of said Slamtail Podcast own a Spider-Man. And enjoy it very much. Yes.
    54:11
    Although, I will say for Stomp, the center post is probably coming out, the outlane posts are being removed, and I'm probably going to remove the little gate thingy at the top That makes the upper flipper shot smooth. Why don't you just remove the whole game?
    54:28
    Because I don't want to. Can we just take everything off the play field and just drop the ball from the top and see where it lands? No, no. It'd be more fun. No, it would not. Oh, man, them fighting words. Yeah, them fighting words.
    54:42
    Okay, Zach, so now that you did the game you hated, give us a game you like. Rockstar. Really? Is that a Gottlieb? It is. Can't you go, like, opposite? Like, I think he's backwards. Zach, this is the game you like. You know, you might have liked Spider-Man, so maybe he thinks like and hate is wrong. I don't know. Okay, explain Rockstar to me. Well, you've got a spinner, and then you've got another spinner. And the first spinner determines the value of the second spinner. And there's some other stuff that happens, but mostly that.
    55:26
    Scintillating. Yeah, I'm not feeling it. You're not feeling it? That's not what I thought it was, actually. Okay, so is it an EM or an early electronic? It is a late Gottlieb single-player EM. Okay. With a damn hippie on the back glass. Damn hippie! Most importantly, it's got a game where you try not to hit things sometimes. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is it this thing with the screwed up flippers? Yes. Oh, come on. Immediate fail. Anything with the cockeyed flippers, it goes in the Atari Fail Hall of Fame. No, no. Nothing can be as bad as Middle Earth. Okay. I'll give you that.
    56:08
    But it's got the stupid plastic spinners. Yeah, that can be fixed. You better fix it. Yeah, you better fix more than that. Look at this thing. Come on.
    56:19
    Like? Boy. I think this is the worst like we've had. What do you think, Ron? Yeah, I think this is just. I think he's Bizarro World. Look at it. It's got freaking five pop bumpers. All these stupid stand-ups on the left.
    56:36
    Just come on. Really? This game? Yep. Okay. I want it. You want it. Let's see. How many of them did they make? Is this going to be difficult to attain? Tiny bit. Oh, God. 268 units? For export to Italy only. Oh, yeah, you ain't getting this.
    56:57
    I can try. I can hope. Fail. Yeah, that is a very big fail. That's a fail. Sorry. We usually don't call our guests out, but come on.
    57:08
    Come on. Please. Maybe it's the game he wants to own the rarest of. He already has a rare one. Zach has motivated me for the Stomp Tournament. I was not going to play in it, but now I have to. I want to play Zach on Spider-Man.
    57:29
    Ooh, them fight words. Yeah, them fight words. Well, there's a 50% chance I'll win because Spider-Man is random, and there's no skill involved. What? Wait a minute. Spider-Man is random, and there's no skill involved. A game that's especially Bruce's. Wait a minute. This is a game that usually, when we were at Bruce's, we didn't want to play because the game times were so long. How is it not skill-based when the game times are that long? Last time I remember playing someone besides Bruce on Bruce's Spider-Man, we were joking about how each of our balls lasted about three seconds.
    58:03
    And then Bruce's lasted about 20 seconds. We were all really impressed. Are we talking about Spider-Man or Iron Man? Are we talking about the wrong man? What did you do to your Spider-Man, Bruce? I made it really hard. Obviously. Damn.
    58:17
    Okay. On to the mail ball bag. We haven't heard what game you hate yet, have we? No, you've not. We've not heard Ron's game you hate. Yeah, you've heard it. Buck Rogers. Oh, sorry. Game you like. Yeah, game I like. Flight 2000. It rules. Play it. It does rule. There's one for sale in York, Pennsylvania. I'd love to as soon as Bruce Pryor's won. I don't see that in the future. I don't see that in the cards because there's another game coming soon. Huh? Did I say that? What? Is it better than Flight 2000? Yes, of course. That's good.
    58:52
    So on to the mail ball bag. Yes, it is. All right. It's the mail ball bag. It is the mail ball bag. Stacy, it is finally – you've given in. Yes. There's all these emails in here that say money shot.
    59:07
    Between you and Jeff Teolis of Pinball Profile. Yes, Pinball Profile. We like to plug our friends, and we're going to plug a couple others. today. But we'll first go over Jeff. Jeff's a great friend of the podcast. You can read all these. These were between you and Jeff.
    59:25
    Give me two seconds to get into it. So I get past the... Okay, so Jeff, hope this comes out of the mail ball bag. Try not to yawn, Bruce. Older games have been used and abused, but some of the classics are costing a huge wad. Should I blow my load on a hot new game or everyone is taking a ride on? So what do you guys think? New game or old game? That depends on the new game. And the old game. Yes.
    59:51
    Yeah, it depends. In this market, old game. Old game. I mean, even then, it's probably going to be expensive, but still, old game. And he says, P.S., Mel Brooks rules. We totally agree with that. Looking for my pearls of wisdom. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. So the question is, has Zach seen any Mel Brooks movies?
    60:13
    Yes. Oh, what? What? Hold on. Oh, what? Okay, which one did you see? Three of them. Whoa, three of them? The good three. The good three? Okay, what are the good three? Not producers.
    60:29
    All right. I like the producers. Spaceballs. Okay, one. Young Frankenstein. Two, very good one. And Blazing Saddles.
    60:40
    I still like History World Part One. Did you like any of them? No, they're all good. Okay. Young Frankenstein is less good than the other two, but it's still pretty good. I kind of assumed you'd probably like them being that you saw three of them. I figure if the first one sucked, you wouldn't have bothered seeing the other two.
    60:58
    I didn't actually realize that all of them were Mel Brooks when I saw them. Oh, yes, they are. So Jeff also put in saying that same email after our thread. Another great show, boys, with Jason. Listen all the way to work. Great name, Stomp. So hopefully we'll see Jeff Teolis on his seven-hour drive out to Stomp. Yeah, okay.
    61:21
    Let's see. I have an email here from John. The subject line is semen time. Oh, God. Semen time. But not what you're thinking.
    61:32
    It says you both need to gather all the listeners and head out to sea on this baby. It's the Star Trek cruise. Star Trek the cruise. where they have some kind of, they have a cruise. Oh, here it is. There he is.
    61:48
    Can you hear, George? Evergreen. Oh, my. It's Star Trek The Cruise 2, where they have all kinds of Star Trek cast on there, and everyone geeks out, it appears.
    62:00
    That sounds like a horrible time for the entire cast. Oh, man. For the cast, yeah, they're probably like, oh, man. Oh, God. I've got to see these people dress up again. I can't wait to get my check. Oh. So that was that email. Thank you. Thank you, John. Let's see. We have Ryan. Ryan from – this was good. Down under. Yeah, Ryan from Australia. I have never heard two people slaughter the pronunciation of – and I'll say it wrong because I guess that's the point.
    62:35
    Diggory-do. More than you guys. And he's going to send us an audio clip on how to say correctly, which he has done and given us permission to play it. So I'm going to do this now. And if it sounds like crap, I'll just post edit in a better version of it. So here we go.
    62:52
    G'day, lads. It's Ryan C. from Australia here, mate. Guys just phoning in to let you know that you guys butchered that word diggory mate It not diggory It diggory Diggory Repeat after me All right lads keep up the good work Ryan C signing out. Diggory-doo. How did both of you mess that up? Diggory-doo. I think I said it right. Yeah, you said it right. You don't have to say anything right. Fail. Ryan C, thank you. If anybody else wants to send audio clips like that and join us with their – actually, if they want to put their emails in audio, we'd love to do that. I'd like to try that. More people sending in audio clips of their questions for us. You can actually hear yourself on the podcast.
    63:45
    Okay. Did that sound all right? It sounded great, actually. Okay. Yeah. So all I needed was just put my headset up to the speaker. It's great. All right. Here we go. This is the last email. This is all you. This is all me, and I'm not doing a British accent on this one. But this, I'm going to call this pinball poetry because it's not even really an email. This is from Steph Guida, the pinball princess.
    64:12
    This is 2,031 words. Start the timers. Well, I'm not going to get them. Well, this ain't a. I am going to start the timers. Remember that guy that used to do the Micro Machines commercials back in the day? I'm sure Zach wouldn't remember him. But, yeah, that's what he was known for. Like, he would do all these commercials. We'd talk really fast. Microchips, microchips, get the microchips. Get the microchips. So here we go.
    64:33
    Dear Slam Tilt, Timmy, and insert proper other New York City guy here, I'm going to try and pass this letter off as something that was carefully thought out and planned as opposed to a conglomeration of about ten obnoxious, rambling voice memos on my phone that I am, for some reason, writing up at 1 o'clock in the morning. I would try to excise the countless innuendos from my text, but I don't think that is really possible. Besides, bad puns and dirty jokes fit the Slam Tilt Podcast aesthetic. Aesthetic here has been modified to remove about 10 special characters meant to accentuate the word. As a disclaimer, this is going to be long again. Scroll down to the bottom of the letter if you would like to see what I hope is a summary. though it recounts about three points instead of going point by point. At least I'm all caught up on the podcast now, so I can go for my usual word count quota of 1,000 plus words. It's like rolling a really, really old EM, except that instead of dings and chimes and cursing at tiny-ass flippers that vaguely suggest the ball goes in the same direction that is hopefully not an outlane or right back down to the giant-ass flipper gap, I am racking up groans and eye rolls. I have used the suffix ass twice in there. This is the quality of the one in the morning writing. This pointless tangent of a metaphor needlessly delays my saying that it was cool having the Buffalo Pinball Guys and Jason on the podcast. I enjoyed those episodes.
    66:11
    That's one paragraph. Woo-hoo! We've woo-hoo after every paragraph. In falling behind a few episodes, I clearly missed the boat on naming the Stomp Tournament. A good name for the tournament, by the way. Yay! The name is short, to the point, and has many layers of interpretation. It's practically a poem, except it is the poem's awkward cousin, the acronym. At any rate, it certainly sounds better to me than the names I had managed to dredge up from the bottom of my brain. Although I thought they were brilliant at the time. Luckily for everyone, I just shouted at myself in the car. I did not leap from my bathtub and run naked through the street screaming Eureka, as that would have been traumatic for all involved. Just the next part. Damn. Okay. However, I do seem to recall a call for input on what series of movies to use as the next not really influential base for upcoming episodes. My first thought before the preferred choices were presented was to name episodes after the movies of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Each episode of MS3 3K has a distinguishing feature. After all, this would probably fit well into the podcast, The Stinger. I could easily see a slam-tilt episode ending with the timeless line, It stinks, from Pod People, though the audio was not the same without complementing those immortal words with the unforgettably enthusiastic display of the OK hand gesture. It did not occur to me later that many stingers are more visual-based than audio-based, but the idea was pretty amusing while it lasted. Bruce doesn't seem to be much of an MST3K fan. Nope, he's not. Though I don't know how well that would fly. Probably not as well as winged potatoes, again, a pod people reference, or to put it in a way that dresses in a black poncho embellished with giant red hands, the master would not approve. Which Bruce wouldn't get that either. Huh? Does Zach know about Mystery Science Theater at all? I heard its name one time. Okay. Yeah. I know a little bit of it, but that's about it. Let's see.
    68:13
    This one I didn't really get. I did not. You got this one. You might explain this one. I did note that note that Bruce does like Opie and Anthony, though, or at least knows of, knew of, the meeting behind the wow stickers. Opie and Anthony, back in the late, early 2000s and late 1990s, had wow stickers, which were whip them out Wednesday. and encouraged all women to, when they seen the bumper sticker on the back of a truck or back of a delivery vehicle, they would pass the vehicle and show them. Yes, very classy. But only on Wednesdays. Only on Wednesday. Basing episodes on what would probably not appeal to Ron, though since he likes to keep at least some shred of decency alive on the podcast, I do, and anything in the spirit of Opie and Anthony effectively nullifies that. Again, quote Torgo, the master would not approve. At any rate, being reminded of WoW on the podcast completely changed my perception of Circus Voltaire or added another level of innuendo to a game that boasts it can juggle two balls all day. Oh, my.
    69:20
    That is true. He does say that. I can juggle two balls all day. I know. Well, what's worse? Wait a second. What's worse? Juggling two balls or putting three balls in your mouth on Ripley's Believe It or Not?
    69:32
    Oh. That's a good point. Or you put your ball in Rudy's mouth. That's also true. All right. I've got to get a deep breath for this one. Again, I've gone astray with writing a coherent letter into a meandering monologue that is quickly dissolving into madness. I mean to cast my ballot in the case of Marvel movies versus Mel Brooks movies, which is a tough choice indeed. Both catalogs are of a healthy number and represent a diverse array of excellent films. I can't help but feel that going through Marvel movies chronologically will get jarring after a while. The release pattern has been such that sequels are separated by other titles, and so that it feels as though the episodes, rather than progressing, are jumping back and forth in a strange anachronistic haze of confused logic. Ooh, that's a word even I never heard. To put in pinball terms, it would be like progressing through various level one modes on Star Trek, only to randomly do a level two here and there and rarely, if ever, progress to a level three, such as that you delay getting either the Kobayashi Maru or the double shot for as long as possible, a strategy that, as far as I can tell, makes no fucking sense. Feel free to correct me on that simile. By the way, it's based on my brain addled by the lack of sleep trying to remember what Tim Balls and others have taught me about the Stern Star Trek rule set, which is that completing all the modes gives you the Kobayashi Maru multiball and that completing a level 3 mode makes the shot double for the rest of the game or ball. I hope that's the rest of the game. Having for the duration of the ball would be a crap ton of ever for a well-aimed brick that breaks your heart. Also, for all I know, there is a good reason behind the strategy I just outlined. Since Millbrook's movies, by definition, have little to no sense of logic and laugh in the face of making sense, my vote is for going with these. Bonus points if you guys wear tights for the Robin Hood episode. Extra bonus points. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who says I'm not doing that right now? You could be. Extra bonus points if you travel to a desert with combs in hand. Coming to the desert. We ain't found shit. Yes. Advanced bonus further by vehemently denying the existence of any prominent hunchback humps you may acquire during the Young Frankenstein episode. Nice. So, I think it's going to be Mel Brooks. I think it's going to be Mel Brooks movies. Yep, I think so. But wait, there's more. There's more. I know there is. My unsolicited two cents on Alien and Houdini are probably extraneous, since the both of you, and more than likely at least one of your guests, have played the machines most likely more than I have. Actually, probably played the same amount she has. I did enjoy both machines. Alien did not do the left lane to out lane feed that Ron mentioned, though the ball did seem eager to get out of control and bounced where it seemed it shouldn't, such as when coming in the gate at the right in-lane out-lane juncture. This never cost me the ball, but I found it hard to concentrate when the ball was jiggling around the lanes in slingshots like that, so I can easily see how a left-lane drain could be an issue. As for Houdini, the shots were all smooth to me, and on the rare occasion that I could make them, my problem, not theirs, I didn't get to the multi-ball, but the reverse-invert gimmick sounds like it could be fun. I saw firsthand how it could be punishing for anyone who has a habit of trapping and cradling balls during multiball, though. The game seems to want to keep you on your toes. Agree. Like Tudini. The only items left on my poorly-coupled-together laundry list of talking points, but which I hope to get a decent amount of words, she says somehow, having created a thousand words by this point, amount to a bunch of really bad jokes that are probably better relegated to a dark corner of my Twitter account. Thus, instead of taking those out in the wee hours of the morning when I already think that babbling in half-asleep state of delirium is somehow a good idea, I shall instead leave what I hope will be some good fodder for discussion in the form of a question. She has a question for us. Ooh.
    73:36
    There are many machines themed after licensed material. Yes, there are. While the license is meant to draw players in, there are some instances to which the game that these properties decals have been affixed to are little more than mechanized piles of poo.
    73:52
    Are there any titles you would like to see pinball designers make a second attempt on so that they can play a theme you enjoy on a machine you enjoy? Examples would be the terribly unlikely concept of another Star Wars machine, sarcasm, a Twilight Zone design such that Bruce doesn't hate it, or a Ghostbusters design so that you can actually play the thing, rather than sit there and hope that neither the enormous flipper gap nor the incorrigible Magnusleams fuck you over. Oh, and so you can turn down that fucking Screaming Lady. I want to so badly enjoy Ghostbusters. Sounds like me. I love the artwork and the call-outs, but I cannot stand how the game plays. Also, fucking Screaming Lady. She says herself a Screaming Lady, albeit in text.
    74:36
    Hmm. So, any games you want to redo? I would say, I'll rip this off from Jason last week, Back to the Future.
    74:44
    I agree. The first Star Trek. based on the original cast. I mean the original, original cast, not the other. Yep.
    74:53
    Anymore? I'm trying to think what else. Because I can think of ones that I thought the movie sucked, but the game was actually good, like Congo. Yeah, I think that's about it for me too, actually. I think you nailed two that were perfect on that one. Let me throw out one. Okay. Adam's Family. Oh, man.
    75:11
    Damn. I do like Zack. See? Oh, that's a great game. No, it's not. I think Zack is our contrarian. What do you think of Aerosmith, Zack?
    75:24
    It's a bit subpar. Okay, what's your favorite game that's come out in the last two or three years? Last two or three years? Yeah.
    75:37
    I'm waiting for it to say. It's crickets. None. Game of Thrones. Pro. Really? Okay. Yes. All right. I'm kind of speechless there. Okay. Caught me on that one.
    75:53
    Back to the light. We're not done yet. It is now 2.30 in the morning. This is middle of the night Steph signing off. Daytime Steph will read over her near 1,500 words I just wrote, correct any egregious errors, and probably groan in horror over what I've written, but let most of it pass, because at best it's zany and amusing, and at very least it will because she will not have time to rewrite it.
    76:20
    Insert the intermission song for the Monty Python and the Holy Grail here. I believe that's the music. Yes, it is. Yeah. For you, a short, oddly structured intermission has passed. For me, I have gone to sleep, woken up, gone to work, and am now frantically typing in the break room. I've tightened up some of my writing here since my grammar deteriorates after a certain level of fatigue. And I've added and changed a few things, inexplicably making the letter longer than before. But most of the above was produced between the hours of 1 and 2 in the morning and has been touched by very little editing. I am preserving my madness for your entertainment. But in case you are short on time or do not feel like reading through about 1,500 words of my babbling like I'm drunk, Hi, guys. Lovely podcast. Great to hear Timmy and his un-yet- Oh, she's going by who our original guests were going to be. Timmy and the unnamed NYC guest. I vote Mel Brooks. And what licensed pinball theme would you like to see redone among the bevy of awesome licenses that were married to turds?
    77:22
    So we get that. I'm debating putting the rest of what I have to say in paragraph form. The idea of tacking on whatever else I have until the end of this letter is a series of postscripts. Sounds alluring. except that I know that I will get myself trapped in a cycle of infinite recursion, and I will eventually have to resort to labeling my postscripts P... Oh, I can't. This is more of a digital. P greater than 10. Yeah, for the sake of brevity. I kept forgetting that P.S. actually stands for postscript.
    77:52
    And she says, fuck it, let's do this. I'll try to keep myself from getting too many P's. I have to get back to work soon, after all. Your friend and fan, IFBA player 31915. P.S. When the challenge format goes live in 2018, I would like to reserve a challenge against Slam and Tilt. I'll probably extend this to your guests as well. And with any luck slash skill, I won't just be pumping everyone's ratings up like I would be at present, considering everyone talking has kicked my ass pretty thoroughly in the past. P.P.S. I just mistyped and as nad. P.P.P.S. My sleep deprivation delirium reminds me Anyone going for the 24 hour battle Yes I hope so if I can get through I think I've already set my calendar Yep 31st Any interest in that Zach The 24 hour battle at the sanctum I don't know Or do you prefer sleep to delirium I hate sleep Zach doesn't sleep Wow this is your tournament man You've got to do this then because no one sleeps. That's the whole point.
    78:58
    P-P-P-P-S, fun fact. This podcast reminds me of one of my first computers. It had a Torgo screensaver. The master would not approve of screen burn Torgo theme. And the error dialog box custom sound was a drop of George Takei saying, Oh, my. Seriously, this was not the same computer with a DOS game of 8-Ball Deluxe, but it's the same mid-'90s era. PPPPPS words 2031 okay 15 minutes 48 seconds oh you were timing it good thank you Steph you rock that was like it's pinball poetry it's not even an email it's like a novel it is a novel I like those I'm tired I'm worn out reading that oh boy now you just learned that Ron can't last more than 15 minutes and 46 seconds uh okay let's bring some decorum to the podcast bruce come on yeah that was just it okay well let's put it this way i think bruce's favorite song is uh two minutes to paradise two minutes to paradise i'm done so let's pay some bills let's pay some bills first uh www.pinballlifters.com Come check us out, selling lifters, pinball, helpers, tilters, wheel kits, and other items for your stuff in pinball land. Don't forget, we have www.flipperfidelity.com, making one bad sound system better at a time. if you do buy something from him mention on like your email or comment saying that hey I heard you guys on Slamtail Podcast we're not getting paid for this but if he knows we're helping him out it helps everyone yeah you can just tell him that's Slamtail saying it Slamtail said it yep very much and don't forget that Stomp Tournament there's a Stomp Tournament you mean the one on July 15th that's going to be at the Level Zero Arcade Arcade? Yes. $15 to register or $20 at the door.
    81:16
    And I think we now have two people now registered and one's on the podcast with you. Yes, yes. And I will I can't wait for that tournament. Can't wait. I can't wait to kick Zack's ass at Spider-Man. It's going to be great. You know it's not going to actually ever come up that we play Yeah, that's true. It's totally random. They'll have the video tape it afterwards. It'll probably never come up, but yeah. We'll probably end up on like stars instead Which is good That's much better actually You know I want to have a comeback to that but I can't It's faster It's stars I can't really say anything The fall time is longer Stars? The Spider-Man? What? You haven't played his stars that much Zach Oh man Thank you Zach For appearing on the Slamtail Podcast so now are you listening all the time uh randomly wow episode 38 today oh it was with uh josh was that the one that was 38 we need a table of contents josh was in that one it was with tim and steve that was 37 oh yeah it was the pre-pop of spectacular it was thanks zach for being on the podcast anytime. All right. We'd love to have you on more and more if you'd like. It was hard. You know how long it took me to get him on? To get on? Oh, to get him on the podcast. Yeah. How long? It took a long, it took 43 episodes, 42 episodes. So we can find out that Black Knight 2000 sucks. Adam's family sucks.
    83:01
    Rockstar is a good game. Yeah. Important things that you never knew before. Yes. But now you know. So you can check us out at Slam Tilt Podcast on Facebook. Just search for Slam Tilt Podcast. Our YouTube channel, just search for Slam Tilt Podcast. Correspondence, emails, and short novels, such as was read at the end of the show today, can be sent to SlamTiltPodcast at gmail.com. Thank you, everyone. This has been Episode 43, Quantum of Solace. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Mike Dimas.
    84:04
    Thank you.