Today's episode of the Electric Batcast is brought to you by Stern. Insider Connected. Head to sternpinball.com to sign up today. Marco's specialties, everything pinball. Pinball parts and more at marcopinball.com. And Game Room Goodies. Check out gameroomgoodies.com for new and used pinball machines, arcade games, jukeboxes, pool tables, and more. And now, the click and clack of pinball, Rachel Bess and Cale Hernandez. maybe a new entry or what have you. I don't even know what's going on because I haven't heard yet. Oh, well, I've got the earnings report here. Right on. On top of that, we have some fantastic questions from viewers and listeners because you can do either. Yeah. You can do either. um also what's really cool is we had a tournament last night yes we did and and what happened we had all kinds of people from all over we had nancy from georgia she's rad we had chris clark from california a bunch of other people there was lots of people from out of town we can't name them all and you said nancy yeah she nancy pants nancy pants and she is from portal our good friends over there at Portal. Brian. Well, that's where she plays. That's her home turf. Brian. Yeah, Dalton. Dalton. Yeah. Fantastic crew out there. Sunshine's out there. The person. That's right. Sunshine, the person, and Georgia Sunshine, too. You've got to have those fantastic Georgia peaches, which require sunshine. Do you know South Carolina is a bigger producer of peaches than Georgia, but Georgia's the peach state yes and when you when you told me that i didn't believe you but uh i looked it up but then i proved it i think i just uh deleted all the notes well i'm just kidding oh i scared you didn't i okay there we go no i legit i legit thought i did oh um we have an incredible tournament coming up i'm gonna get the details right here dog days of summer too this is roland's tournament yep second version this is a pinball pitball production at the electric bat arcade this is july the 21st uh 2024 yeah so that's coming up uh gosh 11 days from when we're recording this so people should come and sign up it does have a limited number of entries because of the style of tournament that he's doing. 64 people, right. Only 64 people can show up, so show up. That'll be cool. Early and often. And you can get the full details. If you go to our Instagram, there's a, what's it called when you have a post? Pinned. It has a pinned post, and it goes into great detail in the description of the tournament, the times, the days. The style, the money, all that stuff. All that stuff. You can also check it out on the IFPA website. I'm a little... You're tangled up. I'm tangled up, but it's okay. I'm going to manage. All right. Yeah. Had my headphone cable. It's all wrapped up. Good thing I have an extra long one, huh? All right. So what else are we talking about? You want to get into the earnings report? Not quite yet. Oh, okay. I want to save that for a little bit. Okay. Because this makes good TV. Because that's what everybody wants. If you give them what they want at the beginning, they don't check out the rest. I see. Why you move the groceries or the pit bull machines around the arcade. You know, if you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert. And I've seen at least 10,000 hours of television. That's why I'm a producer. Anyway, any new games coming to the bat? Do we know about anything? Yeah. Are we announcing any? We have a new game coming in a couple of weeks to the bat. Do we talk about it or is it a secret? We talk about it. Okay. Should I say what it is then? Is that how this works? We hooked our friend Mark P., also known as Mark Pearson. Yeah. Not P-Man. We turned him on to quite a find. Yes. This is a beautiful, highly sought after. Gottlieb. Gottlieb. that right there should be enough to give it away uh tx sector we will have a tx sector at the bat in the tournaments within the next couple of weeks couple of weeks yeah uh banger soundtrack super cool pin and this was a home use only until it goes to the bat can you imagine this game we've actually we've actually seen this thing in person yeah we we saw it and then it came up for sale and it was more appropriate at that time for Mark to pick it up. So we said, hey, you grab this. We'll take this game that's been in living rooms for the past, I don't know, 35, 40 years, however old, since the 80s, and let's go. It's going to be at the bat. It's going to be great. It sounds amazing. It's going to be a fantastic game. This is one you want to crank up. Yeah. Last time we were in Expo, you, me, Ian, and Kyle, I think it was, we all played a super nice TX Sector that had an upgraded sound system. And, man, this is almost a necessity. It's almost like it's a little club. We might have to talk Mark into doing that. Yeah. Cool. So we have that. And any other games coming? Whenever Stern releases something new, that'll come. Yeah. And speaking of Stern releasing something new. That Godzilla? Man, that Godzilla. If we didn't have two Godzillas already, I would get this black and white Godzilla. Man. I wonder what the trade in, like, what the difference would be if we could trade in our current premium for the black and white. I'll tell you what. I'll talk to Gomez today. I was going to talk to Game Room Goodies about it. But you just go straight to the top. Who would go straight to the top? Hey, why not Gary? Ask him. Hey, throw us a bow. And send us that Supreme you have in the box. Yeah, good, good, good stuff going on. Anything else? Chewy's tournaments. Yeah, these are great. Chewy's been running these very cool tournaments. They're not worth any kind of Whopper points because they're weird little modes, game modes. The format is not allowable for Whopper points. One of them, he's going to rotate, so I guess every other month he's going to do a split flipper, which we had a blast doing that. And then team play, where you create a team of three players, and then you have to stay in the same order for each match. First player plays the first ball, second player plays the second ball, then you have your anchor that plays the third ball. Right? Yes. Isn't that right? Yeah. And the strategy of making the right choice of which person on which ball, that could make all the difference in your tournament. Last time, Roland was on our team. We talked Roland into it, and we didn't do very good. But he's thinking of a way to reconfigure our team. See, we had him as the anchor last time because we thought he'd clean up our mess. But he's like, no, he needs to set up the game properly. Yeah, and that's a good idea because once he gets – if he can make it so it's not, like, stressful for us, then we'll play more loosey-goosey, which is when you get the points, right? That's 100% correct. You've already mentioned Game Room Goodies, sponsor of the show. We get all our games from those guys, and you should too. But Stern Insider Connected, man, these badges, I'm going to tell you right now, operators, If you do not have a John Wick, call whoever. Call Game Room Goodies. Call whoever and get one of these things because these limited badges. The contracts. The contracts. Yes. This is the funniest thing. Okay, so first, they have one that's still open. I think the first one they released was limited to 2,000 people. Which is a high number. Right. And then after we saw that, we're like, man, they need to make some like super, like hyper limited ones. What do they do? 200 people. The next one was limited to 200 people. And man, were people fighting for this thing. Here's the funniest part. It's the middle of the day when they drop this. The best part is people get a push notification to their phone that says contract available. So it feels like you're a hit man. Yeah. You know, you're riding around. You're doing your Uber rides. Or sorting tokens if you're us. Yep. Even hitmen have day jobs. So we were in the office sorting tokens, you know, pulling out the quarters so we could take them to the bank and what have you. Whoever wants quarters, just let us know. We have a ton of them. And then we get this notification. The funny, we both saw it and just jumped out of our chairs. There was no communication. It was just up and out. We ran to John Wick, and we're trying to get this contract. It was difficult for us. Yes. And we still didn't get it, but we had a blast trying to get it. Chewy walks in. He gets the message and sends us a text, I'm on my way. I'm on my way. Does it first game. He does it the first game. Gets the contract. And then more and more people start coming into the arcade, and we're like, John Wick? And they're like, yeah. And so if you're an operator, this is what's going on. This is the future. You have to get a John Wick. It is completely worth it because this is just the beginning. And it just makes sense that they're going to start doing more stuff like this with other games. Yeah. It's so much fun. It can sound to people like we're just hyping it up because, you know, whatever. We are hyping it up. But we 100% both genuinely feel this is incredibly fun and, lack of a better phrase, game-changing for pinball and operating. We did see the flood of people coming in for that limited contract. Right. It was really fun to try and get it. 100%. Yeah, so that's a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to more. Yeah, I'm going to get the next one. So, Stern, give us what we want. Let's go to the mailbag. I know, you're just, you're itching. You're looking at your, what do you call that? A spreadsheet? Your Google Docs? You want to get into it, but I have to hold you off. Just like the audience, I have to hold you off. That's what makes me the producer with the most. You're the showrunner. I'm the showrunner. We have an email from Pat M. Okay. Hi, Pat M. Pat M. We've talked to Pat in the past. Okay. And he's given us some great suggestions. He has a couple of questions now. First of all, he loves the podcast. Thank you, Pat M. Thank you for listening. We're doing this for you guys. When a game like, say, Godfather or any other pin stops making money, do you go in and change the rules and make it easier for the player to draw them in more? I have a Godfather CE. Love the game, but it can be brutal. I went in and made it more enjoyable. We'll stop there. That's the first question. Do you do that? No. You don't? Well, here's why. Because I put them on enjoyable mode from the get-go, because that's the impression people are going to form of the game. Our games are not set up super difficult. I think they're a nice, happy medium of... Even though we have these giant tournaments, you still make the games enjoyable. I want them to be fun to play. I don't want them super steep. I don't want them weird. If I had them at our house, this is how they would be set up at home. That's been our philosophy for all things electric bat. So no, I don't change them. But they're set up fun from the beginning. They're not on extra easy mode. There you go. I think that answered the question. He has a second question. On average, how many games that are played do you rebuild the flippers by manufacturing? So I think just what he's saying is how many plays before you do a flip or rebuild per manufacturer. We don't have a formula for this. We have enough, and people have asked us questions like this before, but we're fortunate enough to have a lot of players and knowledgeable players in the arcade every day, and they let us know. If something starts to feel weak or loose, any signs that it needs a rebuild, they're going to let us know. It's not like if we had a game at a far-off location, which I guess we do, but we play those games when we go up to Flagstaff. And John Choppel writes the number of plays on coil stops and other parts whenever he's doing rebuilds. With a Sharpie. Yeah, with a little fine-point Sharpie. Love that. So he keeps track of that data just, I think, more for long-term sake. But we do not do it by number of plays. We do it by – and there's so much variance in parts, too. You just – I think our way is better. Yeah. Yeah. So we just wait to hear from the customers. And then we do it right away. If someone says, hey, this feels weak, we'll go check it out. And if it feels weak, then we change it. Yeah. Boom. There you go. Also, he actually had three questions. Because the last one is, how was the wizard's mist? The best smelling cleaning. It's awesome. Best smelling product that we use. We also immediately got a lot of complaints. What did you do to this game? Yeah, we don't use it. So as soon as you turned it on to us, Pat, we used it a lot. Yeah. Because we had a big tournament coming up, and we thought this would be perfect to make the games a little bit harder. We did put them on Godzilla. We put it on the long players because we knew we needed to have all of the games in the tournament. And so we did make those games a little bit faster than what people were used to. But it wasn't crazy. Sure. And it smelled great. Right, right. Love the wizard's mist. So we don't use it as much. You know, you get excitement when you get a new product, right? So we went a little crazy with it. And now we might do it like every once in a while. But the ball was a little too unpredictable. A little too much slide, not enough roll. Right, right, right. But thank you so much. And it's not expensive. I think any operator should check it out and see what they think and experiment with it. Just spray it in the air. It does. It smells very good. What is that smell? Cherry Icy. Cherry Icy. Man, you can't go wrong with that. Moving right along to Guttagool. He always leaves questions on Discord. And if you want to join our Discord, just go to... You know we have like over 300 people in there now? It's been... And we've had that Discord for just a hair over a year. I think the year anniversary just popped up. I love it. I love it. It's fun. People love chatting with us on there. Because it's great. It's not like any other social media. It's really like those message boards you used to be a part of. PBS's. Yeah. It's a bulletin board service. We love those. If you want to join the Discord, go to our website, electricbatarcade.com. Click the podcast link, and in there is a Discord link where you can join us. Just jump right in. Anybody can join us. It's a lot of fun. And the first question from Gutter Ghoul. For storing pinball machines, are the legs on and ready to play, or is it folded up like it's ready for shipping, like soldiered? We like to call that. So does everybody call it soldiered? No because I will often say soldiered and people will give me a look like they don know what I saying But we should let people know that that what soldiering means we not the only people that use that phrase when it up on its back yeah soldiered okay uh is it stored and ready for shipping i assuming the footprint is smaller folded up but means a full setup for moving it out on the floor but if it's ready to play it's taking up more space but less work to rotate and make sure it's playable so he's asking what how the games are stored in the back whenever we have them in the back yeah they're on legs always they're ready to roll yeah yeah because you can't work you can't work on them um fortunately well we did have to do that for a second but we were able to move some machines out um but i wouldn't i mean i wouldn't soldier a game unless we knew it was ready to play and we just had we were just storing it for some reason um and i'd be i would be really hesitant to do that anyway because you and i don't like the less lifting of games that we have to do the better for sure um so yeah we keep them on like so we can either fix them or play them or just you know shuffle them in and out and in you know five minutes instead of or steal some parts or Yeah, that's true. We do sometimes pilfer parts from games in the back. Good deal. Next question. Okay, moving right along. From Guttagool, riding that admin train, would it make it easier? Is there an export for audits? Can you just get a CSV dump of all the machines and plays earning by date range, or do you have to navigate menus? is that high on the list of your insider-connected wishes? So this is what you do. This is what I do. This is an audit question. So he's asking that when we do audits, how do we do it, and would we prefer to just have some sort of exportable file that would automatically go into a spreadsheet, a CSV? I mean, on the one hand, that would be cool to just have the data all right there. But I think there's – and I hear this a lot about a lot of different questions about the focus on efficiency. Like let's hurry up, get in, get out, get it done. That's the same reason that people want to use swipe cards, one of many. You know, that's – I don't think efficiency is the goal, especially with pinball. like we're in that like if i have my hands on a machine yes there is menu diving to get audits out of any machine um if i have my hands on a machine then that means i'm also looking at other things i can see are these rubbers worn is there something else you know if we got 60 something pinball machines on the floor this gives me you know a minute or so with each machine more than that, that I'm looking at everything and can pick up on stuff that we may need to do to keep that game playing awesome. Great point. So it's actually not high up on my want list, although... Right. And there would be no way to do that, because we're dealing with some antiquated machines, and then... Right. I think he's just saying with the Insider Games. Oh, oh. So I'm guessing something like that is coming. 100% that's coming. Right. Because we can see a number of plays already. We just can't see coin drop currently. So, yeah, I'm sure that that's coming. And that'll be cool. But, yeah, like I'm never going to have a CSV shooting out of a big game. I mean, I don't think so. Never say never. Yeah, but also it's not my goal. Our friend Matt at the arcade, he's actually working on some stuff, which is pretty incredible. He accidentally reinvented Scorebit. Right. He didn't even know about Scorebit, and he reinvented it and told us all about it, how he's capturing data from the DMD. And I was like, what? That's Scorebit. And he was like, whoa, cool. Yeah, but he can help us out. He's an amazing programmer, and what a great guy. There's so many cool people at the arcade just doing awesome stuff. Right. We find out about it. Well, like Andrew wrote a script to where we can see who wins the Insider Connected Leaderboard each month. Yeah, so I don't have to sit there with writing a 10, 9, 8, 7 across 16, 17 games. It's so much fun when we have 20 programmers all playing with us. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So we have another question from Guttergool. Okay. What would you tell... This is excellent because we've... So this is a pain, and even locally, some of our friends that run tournaments, they wonder how to do stuff like we do. You run a very efficient tournament, and this kind of rolls into this question. What would you tell new establishments asking for help or best practices on running a pinball tournament? Good blend of classics and moderns? How to set up different game arenas? arenas so the long playing games show up at the end of the night rather than the start right after i just said all that stuff about how efficiency isn't the goal you go into a place where efficiency is is the goal um we are fortunate enough by design to have games we keep our games the games that we put on the floor we put on the floor for a reason we have a certain number of faster playing games a certain number of slower playing games and we have created game banks that reflect that. So that way you don't have someone playing Strikes and Spares and Godzilla in the same round because if you have that happening, one game is going to be over in seven minutes and the other one is going to be 45 minutes. So you've got these people just sitting around for 40 minutes and that doesn't make for an enjoyable tournament experience. And you're there instead of from 6.30 to 9.30, you're there from 6.30 to 11.30. So what I would advise anybody that's able to do, set up so that you have an equivalent number of games that are faster playing and slower playing and then alternate per round. And some people do this by solid state versus modern. There's different ways of breaking it up. But that's how we do it. And it's worked very, very well. and I think it kind of helps keep us in check. You and I naturally gravitate towards a lot of the classics anyway, but some people that may not. It's a nice way of keeping a good balance that makes sure that there's a lot of great things for everybody. If you have a smaller arcade, if you have maybe 15 games on the floor, this becomes way more difficult. So I don't have any great recommendations for that. If you're trying to maximize point value as well as maximize time, I guess this is efficiency, right? Right. My recommendation is to get more games. Yeah, it's hard. It is hard. We're the only arcade in Arizona that can do an all-classics tournament because of the way you've – I've been with you. Every time you buy a machine for the arcade, will this work out in the tournaments? When you're having over 100 people, you have to have fast banks and then mix with these longer playing banks, right? Yeah, we do that. And then there's a certain number of games on the floor that we realize are just kind of for fun. Like Scooby-Doo, we don't put that in the tournament. But people like that game. So there's only a certain number of slots for games that cannot be in the tournament. Right, right. Cool. Let me turn my phone back on because it just turned off. Here we go. Okay. Back to the mailbag. Tuna Delight. Did you put this in here? This is from Tuna Delight via email. Yep. That's correct. Why are you smiling? Well, read on. Okay. This one's for you, bud. And I haven't read this yet. Okay. Well, this is... Okay, so tune of delight. I enjoyed listening to your podcast, and I hope to visit the Electric Bat Arcade someday during cooler Carl Weathers, ideally, though. Yeah. It's hot. Yes, and there's no... What was it, like 117 yesterday? Yep. I think it's been somewhere between 115 and 120 this whole week. It's not good. You know, when I was a kid, I remember we're living in New Orleans. That's in Louisiana. Sure enough. Still is. Yeah. We get a lot of water there. But anyhow, I remember watching the news in the mornings, you know, with my mom. And they're talking about Phoenix. And I was just like, 110? Like, how can anybody survive in 110? But there's no humidity. Right. It makes a huge difference. There is humidity. It's like nine. Right, but I was living in New Orleans, which is basically a swamp. Yeah. 110 there, you're done. You're covered in water. It's crazy. Yeah, so please do come out here. No, we've had people come out here in the hotter months. Yeah, the Waffles Tournament. Yeah, come out here any time you want. Hotels are cheap right now. Oh, yeah, that's the best part. The places, all the school kids are gone. Yeah. Everything. We've eliminated all of them. We've taken them out. So, tune of the light, I just watched Jack Danger's and Steven Bowden's very recent gameplay video on YouTube of Barry O's Barbecue Challenge. Is this an ad? Just keep, I mean. And it looks like a lot of fun. What will it take for the electric bat to have one to play? I'm sure it would make your top earner list in no time. hell i might even be willing to brave az's ungodly heat for some bitchin burritos action thanks and stay cool well if you don't mind braving the heat there is a burritos at danger zone yeah yeah danger zones a local arcade here run by our friend jordan yeah yeah and they do have a burritos i should ask him how it's earning yes i would like that information as well yeah so tuna delight yeah would like to know last name would like to know what it would take for us to get a barrios what's it called barbecue challenge very cute barrios barbecue delight adventure what would it take rachel um i'm not getting one there's not it there's what would it take i have Floor space for games. Even if our friend David Fix, even if he called and said – Close personal friend. And I'm going to send you one. Friend of the show, David Fix. Because right now I think if an operator wants one, they give you like 400 bucks off. But you have to pump them up on social media with these weird hashtags. Yeah, hashtags. But so even if David Fix called you and said we're going to send one for free, We just don't have room on the floor because I doubt it's a good tournament game. Because you still can't even, and I think David even says don't use Galactic Tank Force in a tournament. Because it still loses track of balls. Yeah, so like what we were just talking about, there's only a certain number of games on the floor that can't be used in tournaments. My suspicion is that Berrio's Barbecue Time is one of those games. And I'm not willing to pull Scooby-Doo off the floor for a barbecue game. Right. So it just doesn't make sense for us under any circumstances to get this game. I severely doubt it would be a high earner. I was about to ask. What do you think? I think it would, the first month, everybody would like to play it a couple of times to experience it. I don't think you're going to have any rabid barbecue adventure fans that just come all the time. Although, we can ask Jordan. Let's ask him, like, how many people come to your arcade just specifically to play Barry O's? Right. And that's the other thing. There's already been one here since before it was launched. Like, Jordan got it before they launched the game. Right, right. And so people have had plenty of time to play it. If they want to play it, there's one there. They can play it. So it's not even, like, a new and exciting game anymore for us. So, like, there's just not any reason for us to get that game. Cool. Should we move on? Yeah. Still, please come visit us. There's lots of other games. We'll show you where Danger Zone is. Yeah. And then you can go play it over there and have a bunch of other cool stuff. Yeah, they've got some great, cool indie stuff over at Danger Zone. It's worth checking out. You may want to come in the cooler months. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely, because they don't have AC. It's in the back of a brewery, so it's hot. It's a seasonal arcade. Yeah. from this next... I want to keep going. Oh, okay. I'm going to interrupt you. Oh, sorry. No, no, please, please. Well, I mean, it's not even just a barbecue man game. I mean, there's tons of games that people will ask us, you know, why don't you get this? Like, it just doesn't make sense for one reason or another, or because you or I don't like it. Like, it's so, our decisions aren't just based on, I guess, a couple people wanting the game or it being new. Like, we don't really care about that. This really is, like, this is our home, and we put the games in it that me and you want to play. Certainly. And if you want to come into our home and also play them, then we would love to have you. Yeah. For example, TX Sector. That's not going to earn the money that it costs. Right. But we want the game in the arcade. It's a cool game. And the fans, pinball fans who come to the arcade are going to love playing it. Yeah. And more importantly, us. Us, yeah. We are going to love playing it. And it's a great tournament game. Yep. So, can I go? Yes. Sorry for the interruption. And another thing. And one more thing. Oh, this is from our fantastic friend Erica on Discord. This is from Erica's Pinball Adventure. Is it Pinball Adventure or Pinball Journey? Erica's Pinball Journey. Erica's Pinball Journey. We love Erica. We got a chance to hang out with her a lot in Chicago at Expo. And I bet we, not at Expo, at the Stern thing we did. I like Erica. Yep. Hung out with her all weekend. And she has, this is her first question, and she's been a fan of the program for a while. We're a fan of you, Erica. Is she a fan of the program or the program? The program. Yeah. Of all the remakes that could be made, what game would you like to see redone? Not a super technical question, but maybe some games of older eras feel easier to fix than others if something goes wrong. Ha ha. I had a millionaire at one point and decided the wheel was not for me. A millionaire. That's the Williams game. Yeah. That came out after, I think, after F-14. It has a display that's unique to it, right? Isn't that one of the... Or the F-14. They shared... It seemed like they shared a display, but it wasn't the same. I can't remember. It's been a while since I've sold those. At least one specific part required. I love this question because I think we agree on this. Probably. And we have wanted this for years as far as remakes go. And I've actually talked to people from the company that could pull it off. And they said things have been lightly discussed here and there. And they kind of actually did it with the Beatles. We would love to see Stern re-release some of the classic Stern games. Yeah. Such as Meteor. Galaxy. Nineball. All of those types of stars. And maybe they could do the same thing as with Beatles. Do an updated rule set and then have the option to do the original rule set and re-theme it. I don't care. It doesn't have to be... I mean, Nineball maybe would need that, but Galaxy could be anything. Yeah. So, yes, I agree with you. That would be so cool. I would love that. Have a brand new Stargazer? Yeah. Yeah. That's not homemade. Right. A brand new one from the factory. Yeah And those games are actually the easiest to fix of all the games in their original state So it would be cool if the remake folks like if they redid Twilight Zone if they magically made it easier to fix Right, and 200 pounds lighter. Right. Yeah. I guess it would be lighter. I don't know. The weight comes from all the mechs. Yeah. I don't think the... You can't get rid of those. The smaller coils and magnets and things. More compact PCBs aren't going to make it much lighter. Cool. So that's what we want. Classic sterns. Classic sterns. Man, that would be awesome. And I don't know if it makes sense for them. I don't know if they would sell enough, but we would buy probably every one. Yeah. Yeah. So let's do it. Yeah. Thank you so much for your question, Eric. I hope you're enjoying this show you're listening to right now. This specific one. Okay. So we have one from Chumples. Chumples? That's what it says. Chumples via Discord. It's either Chumples or what if it's C-Humples. Okay. Equally. You know, it might be. So this is from C-Humples on Discord. And if you want to find out what this person's actual name is, join the Discord and you can chat with them. Good morning and happy Independence Day. This came from Independence Day. A week ago. July the 4th. Question for the bats. How does EM maintenance differ from SS maintenance? Can I use the same wax and cleaner on both? Do I have to be aware of any special things when maintaining an EM so I do not damage it? Any other tips or tricks on maintaining EMs would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks, bats, and keep killing it. Thank you so much, Chumples. But I have very limited experience with EMs. I also have limited experience. I've certainly worked on them. I've owned a few, but we do not operate any EMs. Any game that we have that you think might be an EM is the solid state version of that game. We don't want to deal with the extra parts involved. We don't want to deal with the potential for greater fire hazard. but once you once you set them up and get them running and don't move them just leave them and if you keep playing them they they last forever they stay rocking that's that's the key with ems get them working great and then keep playing them you almost like have to treat it like going to the gym like have you played your ems today make sure that they keep going as far as cleaning and maintenance goes different cleaners. You wouldn't want to use any sort of abrasive on EMs, but wax. Use wax. We don't really wax our modern games. So it wouldn't be the same because we don't use them. But it would just be whatever waxes that you do use already, I would use that. And keep it waxed. For the games that we do wax, like Freefall, any of the early solid state games that don't have a what is it like a high gloss clear coat type finish exactly yeah um we keep those waxed a lot out here because of our nine percent humidity it like they get dry so fast so we get nosebleeds they get cracks we gotta keep it keep it waxed right right right um and i heard like the the old timers like to use mill wax but uh keep in mind that's not a Wax. I think that's just like a cleaner. And you can get that stuff from Marco's Specialties. Give it a shot. You might like it. This is like one of those other cans of worms where you've got a lot of strong conflicting opinions about what's best for these things. So I would love to have some people who are more into EMs than we are chime in in the Discord about this. I'd like to see a discussion. I think Ben Clement, he might have some. He's an EM guy, huh? Well, I don't know why I'm thinking that. Maybe just because he's so darn good at classics. Yeah, I would love to hear more people talk, because I'd like to learn more about it, even though we don't really... For sure. We're not going to operate them, but I'd still love learning. There you go. Thank you, Chumples, and good luck with your EM adventure. Chumples EM Adventure the next game this one this is a question for you I think this is like an insurance question or whether you want to have a LLC or something like that anyway I might be getting some stuff mixed up so if there's questions about parties those are kale questions if there's questions about paperwork those are Rachel questions this is how I'm seeing the vision of labor going here. We're going back to Megalos17 via Discord. Hey, Bats, long-time listener, first-time caller. East of the Rockies, you're on the air. Two questions. For an operator with games on location at somebody else's business, is there a certain type of business license recommended? Example, would a sole proprietorship be preferable as it's cheaper and easier to register or would an LLC be the way to go to limit liability in the event of someone rage tilts, shears the front leg bolts, and becomes a double amputee? That's funny. The Megalo is funny. Seriously, though. Funny until it happens. Also, can you discuss the insurance options available to protect pins on location? I'm guessing theft and fire protection is available and advisable without giving specifics. Maybe touch on the price as a percentage of pin value. Thanks. And can't wait to visit again. We can't wait for you to come back out. Yeah. A lot of this stuff, we should have had our, we actually have an insurance expert that plays with us. That would be a good question for him. He could get deep into the weeds. but here we are okay you go because i don't know any of this the first question um llc i would always do an llc because especially you're thinking about liability in general i just think that it's worth the extra as like my art career um that's all done under a sole proprietorship because there isn't anything you know somebody there's nothing that's going to happen with a painting that is going to cause me any liability. Right. Pinball machines, they're heavy, they're electrical, they have lots of metal and moving parts and glass. LLC. It's not that much harder. Just do it. Yep. Do the hard work on the front end so you don't get screwed on the back end. Almost. That's a good Ryan Policky for everything. Almost every city or area is going to have people that can help you for free Just kind of walk you through it And there's websites also that can If you're unfamiliar with how to set up an LLC, it's not hard Right We've seen people much less smarter than the questioner Or anybody, right? Anybody can do this Yeah Insurance we that is a really hard one for me to answer because we have a lot of different kinds of insurance um because ours are all wrapped up with with the business so um i don't know how to i don't know how to tell you the answer to that but i would love to have um our friend brandon the insurance man give us a better answer for that because he he could tell us that it's you know x percent i feel like maybe the there was like a six percent of this could be wrong but i i'll correct myself next episode if it's not something like six percent um of the value per year so if you have a hundred thousand dollars worth of games then it'd be like six thousand dollars in insurance for um just property insurance but again we should really i'll have brandon confirm that for me now now what um what about if somebody's putting like a couple of machines at a bar um right and that's what that number was for for just just the like if uh let's say that bar burns down. Another thing that I've heard is that you can tack it on, and all of this stuff may vary by location too, right? If you're in a different state, that may be different, but you might be able to tack it on to your homeowner's insurance. I've heard that. So that's probably the easiest way for someone to, I would look into that first. Call your homeowner's insurance or your renter's, whatever kind of personal insurance you already may have. Call them up and say, this is what I'd like to do. Can you help me? That would be my first step. I like that. We'll come back with better answers for that. After we talk to Brandon. Yeah. We'll let Brandon look at your question and we're going to revisit it. Yeah. On a future Batcast. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to Hugh Jorgen. Why is that funny? This is from Hugh Jorgen on Discord. Hey, Bats. Great last episode. After listening to it, I've got one question. What's it like living my dream? By what I mean, how did you find changing your hobby into your form of income? I'd love to own or run an arcade one day, but worried it may ruin my love for pinball. Doing it all day and every day. Did it change the way you felt about pinball, good or bad? Keep up the great work. If I ever get to the U.S., electric bat is definitely on my visit list. Well, we'd love to see Hugh Jorgen. Yep. uh yeah you take that first wasn't there another question about here about about fishing or did we leave that off um yeah i i um i saw that because that would roll into this um that was part of his question he said he had a friend that was a fisherman and loved fishing oh that was part of his question yeah okay yeah and had a job fishing and hated fishing okay and you did remove that i was i was excited about that part oh well because i had um the the other part of that was uh hugh's friend was a fisherman and then became a professional professional fisherman by like i think taking people out like a like kind of like a charter type thing and now he hates he hates it And never does it in his free time. And this is what Hugh was worried that if he turns his hobby into a business. What I think, some of that is just like, nobody wants to hear this. To me, it's like the joy of life type stuff. It's like, you just, you have to like really enjoy. But yes, there is some tedious stuff. When you turn your hobby into a business, it's a business, and then it's the business part that people don't like. Like all the questions that get funneled to me, right? All of the audits, the insurance. Paying taxes. Dealing with restrictions from whatever city you're involved in. The bureaucratic part of any business, at least in this. That's no fun, but that's the business side of it. And I don't – I mean, you're either going to like that or not like it. I don't know. But as far as like the story with the fisherman, there may be some things that we don't know. Like he really enjoyed fishing, but then when he turned into a business and started taking people out on fishing adventures, he may just not like people. Yeah. You know, because, you know, there's some people you don't want to hang out, but then when they give you enough money to make you, you know, you have to take them fishing. To show them where the bass are. Show them where the bass are, and then you don't catch any fish, and then they get pissed off and probably want a refund, right? There's all kinds of stuff. The customer service stuff might not be great. I enjoy dealing with people, even difficult people. I enjoy dealing with all types of people. I enjoy some types of spreadsheets. I don't enjoy other types of... Yes. But me and you both very much love what we do, and we have always loved whatever jobs we have had or we wouldn't do them. Correct. Because me and you both prioritize enjoyment over financial success or anything else. Like the most valuable thing that you have is your time and your pleasure, you know, friends, family, fun, all that sort of stuff, right? So we wouldn't, like you wouldn't be asking us this question right now if we didn't still love it because we wouldn't be still doing it. Right. And we've always said, as soon as it stops being fun, we'll find something fun to do. I have always loved everything I've done. And even if it's been like, you know, years and years ago, I was a bouncer at a bar. And then I would do a shift of work at a FedEx warehouse. And I loved all of it. I just, you know, I just always make what I'm doing just in your head. You just you have to enjoy doing things. This is all part of, you know, you have to have some income and you have to do sometimes you have to do some some crazy stuff. But always just like I turn things around in my head to make everything enjoyable because because why not? Right. Because I've worked with those people who just sit down their desks and they're like immediately pissed off. You're wired in a very special way. The answer is we're weird. We are super weird, and most people aren't like us, so good luck. But I think Hugh Jorgen would continue to enjoy pinball. But again, I want to hear from some people that maybe, I guess they wouldn't be listening if they didn't still enjoy it. But I'd like to hear, hey, I started this whole pinball business, and man, I sure hate it now. I don't think you're going to find too many of those people. And that's a really good point because we talk to a lot of people who own arcades and a lot of people who also just operate. And the only complaints I've heard from any of our friends who are in the business are, and this is rare, but there have been a couple that I don't like the person I've partnered up with. Yes, we have heard that. And I think it's important to have good partners because to spread the workload and it's important to partner up with people you enjoy working with, you enjoy hanging out with because now this is basically your family. You're going to be seeing a lot of them. You're going to be seeing a lot of them. But that seems to be the only complaint I've heard from a couple of people who have started our case. I don't like the person I partnered up with. But it's never been like, I don't like this, this thing, this, you know, fixing machines, keeping them clean and, you know, playing games with the people. It seems to be always like a business function. So make a decision going into it. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Thank you for the question. We've always said that, too, about if you're putting games in a location, make sure that the person who owns that location really likes and values you. you individually not just the idea of you potentially bringing them more money because that relationship is going to be very important on down the road and it's it can make or break um you know like oh god i gotta go drive over to you know pete's pizza palace he's not as cool as kale at kale's pizza palace yeah and um man i just like you kind of dread going there because You got to see Pete and those angry pepperoni men The pepperoni men are the people that apply the pepperonis right Yeah How do they get the you know the pepperonis that become the grease cup How do they do that? It's like a little – it's concave. Is that a special pepperoni? You're going to have to ask Pete's pepperoni men. I'll tell you what. If there are any pizza people out there, write in. We want to know about pepperonis. How do you get the ones that turn into the little cups? because they're crispy around the edge and they have the little pool of grease around the outside the shrinkage is greater than the inside thank you that was huge organ right yes thank you so much for listening and thank you for your questions now this is the the segment everybody has been waiting for they've been sitting there they've been on a road trip they're maybe watching us on youtube they want to hear about the latest earnings reports and the Surprises. And I know nothing about this, so it's all a surprise to me. Okay. You've run around the arcade. You've done the audits. I think you have something special for the viewers and listeners. You have the traditional earnings report. The earnings across the arcade. And most importantly, the top ten. Top ten. But some other details sprunkled in. Sprunkled. And then you have, did you do a top ten of classic games? I did top five. Top five. That's fine. You went above and beyond. We had a request. People wanted to know. Because classics are almost never going to make it into the top ten because they cost less to play. But people want to hear. People want to know which classics are the classics people play. Do you want to start with the classics then? Yeah, let's go with the classics because this will be interesting. So this is the top five classics. Are we starting at five and then working our way up to the top spot? Yes. I like doing that. Okay, that's what we'll do then. Let's go. All right. So five, four, and three are all within very small, within 1%, within 2%. So the virtual tie for third, fourth, and fifth. Fifth is big game. Ooh, Stern. Classic Stern. Love it. Who did that, Harry Williams? Oh, I don't. I think he did. Did he? I think so. I think he did that. But I think it came out around the same time as, what's that one we have, Free Fall? Okay. I think so. People will let us know if we're wrong. Yeah, people write in. Oh, they'll let you know if you're wrong. Well, they love doing that. You will find out. Number four, Hot Doggin'. Man, Hot Doggin' is one of my, I blew that thing up in the tournament last night. I almost rolled it. 980-something. Man, just a couple more drop targets, you would have rolled that thing. Man, what a... I love that game. It is a fun game, and right now, our game is... Supercharged. Yeah, it's the whirlwind compliment. So you feel like you're going down the slopes. We've got a gigantic fan on top of it. It's a very stable game. It's a small, compact fan. Like one of those... High-powered. What is it? I don't know what you call that fan. The blades are like it's a cylinder inside, and it's like one of those floor fans. They're the kind that people use when you've had a flood in your house. The professionals come in with these to dry out your carpets and stuff. So we have one of those mounted to the top of our hot dogging. So it's like you're actually on the slopes. Yeah, it feels like you're going down the slopes. You're hot dogging. Cool. Number three, strikes and or spares. You have a beautiful version of that game, and I can see why it's in that spot. Yeah, I love that game. Number two, Dolly. Dolly. People love Dolly, the person and the game. Yes. So there was a pretty good-sized jump between three, and two and one are fairly close together, but they're definitely in their own bracket. So Dolly, I was not surprised to see. I figured it would be number two or number one. Okay. That's where it is. Number one. Drum roll. Eight ball. Man, you've told me before you were blown away by how much this game earns. Why do people like eight ball? I don't know. It's got that brutal left out lane that you have to. I think that's why. It has that, I know if I just play it one more time, I will surely do better. It's on five ball. That's a good point. There's some psychology involved. There's a lot of psychology. So it's on Five Ball. How much does it cost? 50 cents. Man, that's a deal. Yeah. 50 cents for five plays. And to give you an idea of games that Eight Ball has earned more than, I mean, this month it earned more than Twilight Zone. You're kidding me. So for people, to give a frame of reference, it earned more than Walking Dead. It earned more than T2, Kongos. I mean, it earned more than games that you would think would likely be better earners. What a pleasant surprise. People like the classics. Don't underestimate the value of classics in your lineup. Good deal. Also, I mean, you think about the ROI on those games. Right. It makes sense. Yeah. Good deal. Well, thank you for doing that work. and I think we're going to move on to the championship. The championship round? Earnings report. Okay. This is the top ten games from July. This is, no, June. June, I'm sorry. These are June games. We're in July now. Yeah. I get confused. Time machines. Yeah. So we had an actual tie for number ten and nine. Okay. Down to the 25 cents. Elvira House of Horrors and Batman 66 earned the exact same amount. Very cool. Yes, so that was there you go. There's both 10 and 9. Both great games. Number 8, Looney Tunes. Wow. So Looney Tunes this speaks to theme I think a lot. We see a lot of casuals going to go play it. It has some very weird software issues that I hope are resolved soon. We've talked about it before. If anybody is close to spooky or if spooky guys are listening, get in touch with us. I want to know what's going on because we're on our, what seems to be like, I don't know if it's power, if it's programming, but we're on our, what is it, like fifth board on Scooby-Doo? I think it's the fourth or fifth warden board on Scooby-Doo. And then there's little weird things on Looney Tunes where just random flippers just stop working until you power cycle it. Then they work fine. Now, for some context, there probably aren't too many machines in the world that are on as much as ours. Our machines are on from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. And a little bit longer than that because the staff plays. Yeah. So it's a little bit longer. 21 hours a day. And maybe that's it. Maybe there's some ram dumps and then decides to just not have a flipper working. But if anybody knows or has some insight, I would love to know. There's some kind of programming slash power issues, power distribution issues with spooky games. And it sucks because they're – It's cool. But they're getting better. And the game – like Looney Tunes is like fun. And the sounds and the call-outs are just primo. But this game, Looney Tunes would be making so much more money if it worked reliably. Right, because I have not accounted for refunds in these figures. And I know that there have been, if we're not around, the bartenders are giving refunds. Pro tip, I guess, if you want to come to the bat specifically to play Looney Tunes, power cycle it before you start playing. Sure. Yeah, we don't mind. Yeah, go for it. You'll get a fresh go at it, and you will likely not run into those weird issues. Number seven, Venom. I like this game. And it was game of the month last month. You saw me get into that little mini wizard mode. Yeah. Man, that was so cool. Yeah. And I gave you a little tip during the tournament, and you won your round. Yeah, I was like, how do I do this? And then you told me. So for the listeners, some great advice. Okay, and number six, not a pinball machine. It's the Aliens shooter. Do you always have that in there, or is this a new thing? Why are you adding that? I think sometimes I've skipped over it. I think it's good to tell people what's up. Yeah, yeah. I think the Aliens shooter, I think a shooter will probably always be in the top ten. Yes. Somewhere in there, people like shooters. And we're about to add another one. Yeah. We're going to add a Bic. A Bic Bug Hunter. A Big Buck Hunter that also has the Walking Dead game in there. All the zombie stuff, yeah. Yeah, cool. We'll see how that does. Yeah. But people, long-time listeners of the show, we've always talked about how. Get a shooter. Get a shooter. Something simple, casuals know how to point a gun at a screen, and they're always moneymakers. And they keep people around. Yeah. And then they stay around. They see people having fun playing pinball machines and logging in with Stern Insider Connected. It has a little ding that you always hear. Yeah. Then eventually they'll get the courage to maybe drop the 50 cents, a dollar, into a pinball machine. Yeah, they're like, what are people doing? Yeah. Why is this so great? Oh, now I see. And then they're hooked. Number five, Stranger Things. Ooh. Classic. Yep, love that. We have the premium with, man, if you have that game, whether it's the pro or the premium, you have to get the UV kit. Yes. Man, that is a game changer. It's beautiful. And it's not too expensive. It's a few hundred bucks or something. Not hard to put in. Strange Things made an over 50% jump in earnings last month, and I have no idea why. It's in the same spot. There was nothing special about anything. Usually whenever that happens, I think what's happening is that there's a couple of people that are getting – a handful of people are getting hooked on it and coming in every day and dumping like $10 into it or something. And we just – it's weird when that happens. Number four, Jaws. Jaws, good. I was playing a lot of Jaws after the tournament and really Ty was actually teaching me some tips, kind of learning. that game well you'll have to teach it to me later so four three and two just so you know are essential ties as well so these are all within a few dollars of each other speaking of tie he is hooked on the jaws badges oh all all of the jaws badges he's been messaging stern on facebook saying i need more badges he's he's been sending them uh like screen grabs like complete yeah i'm done with all these i need some more please yeah yeah people love this stuff okay um number three godzilla man godzilla is it is it oh it's always at least in the top five right maybe top three i think it's always in the top three i don't i don't know that i've seen it out of the top three um and this was what you were wanting to see um number two for the first time is pulp fiction Wow, because Pulp Fiction has been the king for the past three months? At least three, yeah. Whenever we got it. Since we've gotten it. No game has been able to dethrone it. Until? Until this month, or last month. John Wick. He hadn't seen it, but he knew that he could tell. Because we were both waiting to see what's going to happen this month. Is it going to be Wick, or is it going to be Pulp Fiction? And I will tell you that Wick got 50% more than Pulp Fiction. Absolutely stunning. Huge. So, again, for all of the people saying crazy shit about John Wick, John Wick is an amazing game. People like it. Yes. I like it a lot. And there's tons of more software to come out for this thing, a lot more updates. This game as is, people cannot stop playing this thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's got that, I want to say like a Steve Ritchie feel where it's fast, it makes you want to play it again. I don't mean that in terms of the shots, it's just like it has that kind of adrenaline feel, and I think that that is always a great pairing with pinball. It makes people want to play it over and over again. I like the aesthetic of it and the theme of it, not necessarily like John Wick the character, but I like sort of seedy underworld things. I feel like that's kind of my wheelhouse. And, yeah, aesthetically, shot-wise, there's some cool, all the stuff about having enemies blocking shots, so you have to hit shots to be able to get rid of it. It's like having virtual drop targets, right? Like you're having to clear something to be able to get to that shot and have value. I think it is an amazing game, and I'm thrilled that other people do too. Yeah. Good job. Tim and Elliot. Yeah. Crushing it. Yeah. Crushing it. Can't wait to see what else those guys are working on. They're probably working on something right now. Yeah. Well, probably John Wick. That they can't tell us about. Yeah. Let's call them and see. Let's do it. Oh, man. That is so exciting. John Wick's crushing it and it's only going to get better. And what's interesting is this data is from before they did the limited contracts. Yes. Which has brought a lot more people in and causes people to park on the game to try to secure these contracts. I should say that one of the reasons that you and I did not get the limited contract, the one limited to 200, was because we got off the game so other people could play it. So at a certain point, it was like, well, we can't even really try for this because there are people in line to play it. We want the fans to have fun. Yeah, the other fans. Yeah, we're the fans, too. We're the big fans. So, yeah. Cool. Thank you so much for that. I'm sure everybody enjoyed all that data. I know I did. And don't forget, July 21st, Dog Days of Summer 2. It's going to be an absolute amazing tournament. If you want all the details on that, head to our Instagram. It's the first post. It's a pinned post. Or you can go to the IFPA website to get all the details on that. Do you have any other events you want to mention? I want people to keep coming to Tuesday nights. That's the fun one. I don't have any extra events. Right. Right. Cool. Thank you so much for the sponsorship, Stern Insider Connected. Marco's specialties and game room goodies. We stand by all of these folks' products, and we used them before. They were even a partner with us, and we love these guys. We're not going to turn you on to any products that we don't use daily and trust. Yeah. All right. So I think we're going to head to the arcade and try to get some more badges. Yeah. You like that? Yes. It's our day off, so we go to the arcade. Right. John Chopla is there fixing games, and then we get to play him. We love to hang out with John. Yeah. John said he was going to come on to be – remember, there was a person on TikTok that said they wish there was more pushback on stuff we said. John said he would take that role. Okay. We could bring him in here, put a little headset on, and I think people would enjoy that. I would enjoy that. Yeah, I know you would. I know you would. Okay, everybody, keep on flipping. We're going to head to the arcade. Hope you enjoyed the show. We have a bunch more stuff coming up in the future. Send in your questions to electricbatarcade at gmail. Yep, that'll get there. Or join the Discord. Or DM us on Instagram. Just show up. Ask us in person. Yeah, yeah. We like the IRL questions. You just hand us a Post-it note with a question. That's right. Right on. Well, let's get out of here. Let's go brave that Phoenix sunshine. It's 111 right now. Well, it's a good time to take off. Yeah, okay. All right, the bats are out. Bats out. Hope you guys have a fantastic day. We'll see you next time.