Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. I think we're going to touch on that this week. My name is Benjamin Fiorga. My initials are BCF. And I registered for The Harvest today. I might have been number 65. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1. In Ball 2, we'll have our venue updates and our bullet journal for the week. And then in Ball 3, we will talk about the ever-expanding Scrapple Land. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball results in New York City and nearby surroundings. Well, just New York City. on Sunday, September 21st at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Super 7 by Stern, as I'm told the kids call that X between two things, by Super 7 by Stern pinball Godzilla Championship NYC was gathered. Gabe Chazanov is the director of record. David Potlock talked about it with us a few weeks ago, and I imagine that he was also highly responsible as a tournament director the way that he was talking about it he was very excited there were godzilla figures by this company super seven which i didn't know anything about before i before david said their name a couple of weeks ago but there were figures given out to numbers two three and four in the standings and number one who was matt grady in this instance those figures went to Adam Robinson for second and Alex Kelly and Greg Fertel still show is tied for third I don't know I presume there was some kind of playoff there but I don't know if it really mattered in the overall state like I don't know if they get differential whoppers for it so maybe it was just about who got which figure maybe they brokered an agreement but Matt Grady will get I I believe airfare and hotel is what David told us to pinball expo where he will have an opportunity to play against someone who won at Logan Arcade, which I think our intelligence indicates their name is Matt Draco and someone who won a very similar tournament also at Free Gold Watch in San Francisco. and their name match play tells us is Amy Martin so I presume that those people also get free airfare I mean look Matt Draco won in Chicago so I don't know if you get free airfare the whole way from Chicago to Chicago or not but I don't I suppose in Schaumburg oh sure I guess they could give you a helicopter out right? it could be like that easy lover that Phil Collins video there's a little airfield in Schaumburg they have an independent baseball league team out there, or they did at one point, called the Schomburg Flyers. And it's right next to the airfield. I used to have a season pass. Nice. Also on Sunday, 22 players came to Rulotes to play in the Stern Army's September Rob Wong Invitational, directed by Jess Warren. You're invited, by the way. Every time you see it, you're invited. I'm not sure that they haven't made this like KFC I think this might only be RWI now and not officially called the Rob Wong Invitational anymore, I think it might just be RWI like Kentucky Fried Chicken is KFC Bart grilled out burgers and hot dogs and chicken to feed the assembled crowd who played five rounds of match play after which the top four advanced to a Papa Style finals in the end, Rob Wong the eponymous came out on top. Matthew Carlson got second. Steven Christopher third. And Zen Zokniak fourth. On Monday, in Pinball NYC's left flipper division, Harry's Hand Grenades had a bye. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association went to Rulos to face Special When Lit. That was my second night in a row at Rulos after the Rob Wong Invitational. Special When Lit won it 8-8 after a tiebreaker. We texted at halftime. I think you told me you were up 7-1 then. What happened? That's true. Well, we sort of took our foot off the gas a little bit in the second half. Special Winlet got their own 7-1 in the second half and took us to that tie. Oh, heartbreaker. What was the tiebreak game and how was it played? We played split flip on Roadshow, Special When Lit shows Roadshow. We decided to go split flip. Myself and Alex Kelly failed to keep up with Matt and Sam from Special When Lit. Good games, though. Cool. It's exciting when it goes from 7-1 to 8-8 and then a tiebreaker. Even if it doesn't go the way you want it to, I'm sorry. Yeah. The lesser players faced off against Parliament at Owl Farm. the home team took a 12-4 win there the Mutants travel to Barcade Fidei to see Lionpersons Mutants take a 9-7 road win that's particularly interesting because they're now they won by 2 points but they're up now on the Lionpersons by a win and only 5 points that was a big matchup maybe for 2 teams that have done very well in these last couple of seasons The Pinbots hosted the 2-for-1ers at Scrapple Land. And 2-for-1ers score a big 12-4 road victory. 2-for-1ers. 2-and-1. The Colliders faced Intermission Dolores at Commonwealth. Intermission Dolores wins 12-4. They were up 8-4 after 3. They simply had our number on Godzilla. I had one very lucky point against Nick McCarthy on Dungeons and Dragons in round two that was like $268 million to $265 million or something like that. We got our asses handed to us on Godzilla repeatedly there. The pinpals traveled to Midway to face Balls of Steel. The home team wins 11 to 5. And the aristocrats face the Deluxe Horses at Barcade Brooklyn. aristocrats 12 to 4 that was a repeat of last year's left in lane final and the aristocrats pulled off the win again their last year's left in lane champion they had two really tough matches in the first two weeks and they they pick up their first win against the folks they beat for a championship last year. On Tuesday, September 23rd, in Pinball NYC's right flipper division, at Sunshine Laundromat, Everybody Loves the Sunshine hosted Pinister 6, and the home team picked up a 9-7 win. Neptune's Treasure went to Scrapple Land and bested the home team, Scrapple's squad, in an 8-8 tiebreaker. And that's just a tiebreaker away from Scrapple Squad's first win of the season. They're still winless. Yeah. The replays went to Jack Bar where the Ball Drainers just beat them up 14-2. The Ball Drainers are 3-0 with a couple other teams, but they are 11 points up with that big win, big lead. The ball drainers are going to face the Schlubs next week, who are one of the other 3-0 teams, but they won't face any other of the 3-0 teams for the rest of this season. They may have an easy strength of schedule. Butterballers went to solid state where no quarters for Laundrie, unfortunately for y'all, handed y'all a 13-3 loss. How'd that go? Yeah, they really ate our lunch. They had 11 points by the end of round three. they went into the break 8-0. Yeah, we just really struggled. Ate your lunch, but maybe didn't drink your milkshakes at least. Trolls went to Buttermilk Bar where there was an identical score and again the home team Danger Danger bested them 13-3. Rest in Pinball parenthetically RIP went to At The Wallace to face the Harlem Globe Flippers and the home team again picks up an 11-5 win. Those schlubs who Eric mentioned are 3-0 got there by going to birdies and besting the pin babes 10-6. A lot of blowouts. The only two close matches was Minister Six at Sunshine and Neptunes at Scrapple Land. Yeah, everything else was double digits to single digit. That 10-6, I guess that's not the end of the world, but 13-3, 13-3, 14-2. On Wednesday, September 24th, the third meeting of Scrapple League Season 4 was convened at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, under the direction of Greg Pavarelli and his team of assistant TDs. We played five rounds of match play with the goal of garnering the most points towards our series total. Greg Pavarelli had a perfect night with 35 points. Dan Merrill had 26 and so did Sean the Storm Grant, Ali Bissett, Tyler Convery, and Christian Klossner all picked up 25. A lot of points. The money went primarily to Greg Pavarelli and then Dan and Sean had a tie break to split their part of the pot. We've got three of the six in. Let's look at what's going on here. Yeah, Greg Pavarelli way out in front with 85 points after three meetings. Yeah, that 35 was huge. The rest of the top eight who would be looking at getting into A finals, Zach Till, Adam Kane, Mike Pantino, Woody Richmond, Sean Grant, Speak a Geft, and Nitsan Gabai. Sean and Nitsan both have only two meetings so far. Everybody else has been there for all three. So just pointing out, those two can make big moves real fast and really assure their spot in the top eight. The next eight who would be going to B finals if it were ended right now, All of them are all two-timers. How dare you call them that? And there's a couple two-for-oners in there, too. Oh, you're right. On Thursday, September 25th, at Jack Bar, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes, Eda's Birthday Edition was convened. It seems under Zach Till's capable hands, although Gabriel Chazanov is the organizer of record. It took 11 rounds for Greg Fertel to best, respectively, Sam Hall. Ian Leone and Alex Weisenberger. And since it was her birthday, let's recognize that Ida Kreutzer got ninth place, tied for ninth, and played six rounds. So wasn't that far behind in the three-strike tournament. Of the 25, finishing ninth feels okay. You're just out of the top third. Also on Thursday, the fifth meeting of the South Slope Pinball League's fourth series of the year was held at Buttermilk under the direction of Kate Martin. Five rounds of match play. Rob Wong got 29 points, and so did Janos Kiss Gonzalez. Yeah. John Martin and myself also got 25 points Thursday night. Good top four. We've got five of the six qualifying weeks in, and the standings are starting to firm up. Rob Wong has 116 points and likely top seed. Yeah. AJ Gould and Matthew Carlson are both sitting at 102 points. Janos Kiss Gonzalez has 96. Kate Martin, 93. I have 88. Matt Grady who's only been to four has 83 and also Grady also he had eight last night because I think he didn't show up to the first three rounds and he might have only played the last two in the hopes of getting 14 and filling out his card a little bit better than this because I presume he can't come next week if he started playing when he showed up in round four this week but maybe I'm wrong Caitlin James Rees also only with four meetings so far 80 points and Janos Kiss has those 96 with only four meetings. Everybody above the cut line has been there at least four. Yeah. The first two in B, however, which are yours truly and Billy Vazine, we have each only been there three times. So both of us have only points to accumulate. We are currently sitting eight and nine points. I'm eight points out, Billy's nine points out of the cut line. But as long as I get two non-lasts, I will have exactly nine points on the evening. That said, Caitlin's got a 15. She's going to drop, right? If Grady shows up again, he's got an eight. He's going to drop. I'm chasing your 88 because that's closer to the cutoff. Yeah. With so many people with big chances to really improve their score, I do not feel super safe at 88. Also, Morgan Levinson and Franklin DeFelice sitting with three meetings in 63 and 59. They can make big moves this week, too. They could get well past that 80 cut line. next week if the folks at the bottom don't improve. Next week on Monday, September 29th, Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 7, Week 2 will be convened. It's actually every other week, but I don't think they prefer to call it by Week 2 or semi-Week 2. That will be convened at Barcade Brooklyn. You can be there or be on a team. On Monday, September 29th, the Mutants will go to At The Wallace to visit your New York City Flipper Sport Association. And I feel like I heard that, I don't know, maybe last spring around close to Memorial Day, maybe? Yeah, that was the last matchup of the finals last season. And NYC FSA won that, right? That's right. And now the Mutants are 3-0. And we're 2-1. The Pin Pals will visit the lesser players at their new home, Gebhard's Beer Culture. I know from being on a team up at the Wallace that sometimes Pin Pals don't like to travel all that far up into Manhattan. So we'll see if the lesser players maybe get a nice forfeit win. For their first of the season. The Deluxe Horses have a bye this week. Parliament will visit the two-for-oners. at Scruffy Duffy's Taproom. Balls of Steel will go to Barcade Fidei, where the Lionpersons will be their hosts. First time the Balls of Steel go to Fidei, but the second straight difficult opponent. They had Mutants last week. Harry's Hand Grenades will go to Commonwealth to face Intermission Dolores at their not-so-new home. Both of those teams named for previous bars they had played out of, but both of which no longer have pinball or exist in one case. Maybe in both cases. I don't know. Is the horse bar still there? I don't know. I don't know for sure either. It seems like expensive real estate to have had that kind of bar. The pinbots will visit us colliders at Buttermilk Bar, and as much as I like being at home as often as we have early in the season, I'm not going to like how often we have to travel in the second half of the season. Special Wendlet will visit the Aristocrats at Rulo's. That is the battle of the Rulo's teams. On Tuesday, September 30th, in Pinball NYC's right flipper division, Danger Danger will visit Reston Pinball, parenthetically RIP, at Barcade Brooklyn. The Ball Drainers will travel up to Williamsburg to see the Schlubs at Jack Bar That a matchup of two undefeated teams And like we said earlier that the last time that the Baldrainers are going to have to face someone who currently undefeated this season No quarters for Laundrie and the replays will face off at Rulos They're each looking for their second win. Penister Six will host Neptune's Treasure at Skylark. The Harlem Globe Flippers and Everybody Loves the Sunshine will battle at Sunshine Laundromat. The Pin Babes go to Barcade Fight Eye to see the Trolls. And they're both looking for their first win. And Scrapple Squad and we Butterballers will battle it out at Buttermilk Bar. Same thing there. That is to say, there have been, until now, four teams with zero wins. But next week, there will be only two teams with zero wins in this division. On Wednesday, Scrapple League will hold its fourth qualifying week of this season. That's at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with starting at pinball 8 o'clock. On Thursday at 8 p.m. sharp at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened. also on Thursday SSPL will have its sixth and final qualifying week of the season at Buttermilk Bar at Pinball, 8 o'clock will our hero get enough points to get above the line with only his fourth meeting of the season on Saturday October 4th in Mountaindale, New York this is where we get into the nearby surrounding areas and this, to be fair, ain't so nearby I had to expand the IFPA website's distance to 100 miles around my current location to find it. But the Catskill Classics this year at Howard Levine's private location in Mountaineville, New York, is going to be convened on Saturday. And this year, he indicates, he's called it a drop target derby, and he indicates in the IFPA listing that only drop targets will score points. So I presume that he has disconnected the power for every other target, only flipper actuators and drop targets on the machines that are in the tournament. I presume that's the case. He goes on to explain that most drop targets have a switch that puts them down and then another one that pushes them back up. And that if you hit it, it'll go down and it'll come right back up. You hit it down and there's another drop target ready for you to hit. I don't know how he's going to do it. I don't know what exactly the magic is, but it sounds fun and cool and weird in the best way. And on Sunday, October 5th, which happens to be my birthday, Tommy Ortega will convene Silver Bowl Sunday at Single Cut 30 at Single Cut Beersmiths in Queens. That usually starts at three o'clock. Are you going to go? Is that going to be your birthday present to yourself? I haven't decided yet. Very good. As of September 26th, 2025, there are 347 pinball machines in New York City at 80 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, September 19th, user JNS was at the Gutter Bar LIC in Queens and said of their The Who's Tommy, Pinball Wizard, played great, noticed no issues. on Sunday the 21st, user Pinnash was at Alewife Brewing in Queens and noticed on Theater of Magic, trunk under-rotates on trunk multiball qualifications such that it's impossible to start. And of Monopoly, Pinnash noted, over one year later, the upper right flipper still doesn't work. All playfield lights are off, impossible to tell what's lit. please put this table out of its misery, service it, or stop charging a dollar. Also on Sunday, user MHG went by Bar Great Harry. They said of Jaws, a lot of air balls and a little tough to get the ball all the way up the beach panic ramp. And King Kong was off today. On Monday, the 22nd, a Spider-Man was added to Jack Bar. and user Sick Hands went by Barcade Fidei and said that the Banzai Run is currently turned off. On Tuesday, Scrapple Land gained a No Fear and a Fishtails. And on Friday, September 26th, user Wingnut707 noted that the Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition at Scrapple Land was powered off. Agreed. Shall we talk about our bullet journals? Oh, sure. On Saturday, I worked at Arcade Brooklyn. Any particular fun machine work or just general made sure it all worked? I cleaned up Total Nuclear Annihilation on Saturday. Oh, cool. Got in there with some Novus 2. Novus 2, that's a cleanser? Yeah. Got pinball machine specific, I'm sure, marketed for the purpose. Cool. It is. They sell a Novus 1, 2, and 3 in increasing grittiness. Oh, it's a scourer. Yeah, well, 1 has basically none. It's just a cleaning wax. 2's got a little bit in it, and that will get stuff off of a clear-coated playfield, like ball tracks and stuff like that. Cool. Well, I went to Commonwealth on Saturday because I knew I was going to go play at Commonwealth on Monday. The first thing that I wrote down in my bullet journal for the week after having gone to Commonwealth was, I hate Cactus Canyon. I followed that up with, but I played a lot of it because I had a hard time getting a hold of it when I was there on Saturday. I walked in and immediately started playing Dungeons and Dragons. I didn't sign in until I got a celebration multiball on ball two in the first game. and then I was like, okay, well, that seems... I think I just beat a city as one of the four characters, and so I should probably... If I ever want to make progress on this, I should probably sign in right now for that. It was a fine little visit. I like Commonwealth. I'm sorry to say, only because of the number of people and the amount of space surrounding the pinball machines. I like Commonwealth better on a Saturday or a Sunday when it's me and one other person or something like that than when there are two teams trying to hang out all around the pinball machines or trying to figure out what's going on in a pinball match. It's a very hard place to watch while you're playing. If you are not actually on the pinball machine at the moment, it's a very hard place to follow what's happening in real time. That doesn't mean that I don't like it, because I do really like it. Did you play on Sunday? I did. I played at the RWI at Rulo's. Oh, that's right. Good time. I had a particularly good game of Roadshow, which is not one that I super love, but it's nice to know that at least now I can play it well enough for competition purposes. It's only because of Monopoly and Roller Coaster Tycoon that it's not the worst Pat Lawler game, but it's a bad Pat Lawler game. There are a couple of bad Pat Lawler games. That's one. What about the food? Oh, yeah. You talked about the food a little bit in the competition area, but did you eat anything that Bart made? He grilled? Yeah, so Bart and Scotty was helping out too. Scotty from Buttermilk, right? Yeah, Scotty from Buttermilk. They set up a little grill in the back patio, just a little tabletop guy. And yeah, I had a cheeseburger. Nice. I was thinking about those hot dogs too. There was lots of chicken and some sides inside. cool it's a good good party like uh you know 22 people showed up i was not expecting such a high attendance knowing it was going against the that big godzilla championship at jack sure sure and also rwi i i think uh i love jess i love the people who play in most of the rwis i love playing in them except that it encourages you not to take your walk off because you're supposed to go beat a high score on the game. Every time I've played in it, at least one round goes several minutes longer, it feels like. That's what it feels like in my mind. You could probably show me data that proves me entirely wrong. It happened once, but it was for 15 minutes, and so I fucking threw a fit in my head. I feel like you're right. I think it is a hitch of the format. Right. It's a hitch, but also it's something that a lot of people seem to enjoy. It's unique. I love it. I think it's a great twist. I just... In particular, as somebody who just wouldn't wear the printed t-shirt if he got it, like... You know? It just isn't a draw for me. I will take my walk-off at RWI if I'm playing. If I'm the one that they're like, oh, but you could still beat Rob. Nope. I can't. I'm walking away. It was a nice day out. I biked to the event in a skirt, which was a first try of that. It worked out pretty well. You have bloomers or something? It looked cute. Or was it just a long enough skirt? It's just a short enough skirt, I guess. Oh, okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Stay out of the wheel. It was also Zen Zokniak's birthday. Oh. He had handed out some free drink tickets to people. Cool. I believe there was some cake involved. I held onto my ticket. I just paid for my drinks. I put the little ticket into my pinball keepsake jar with all of my no longer active selfie cards for various weeks and things like that. Zen repeated his performance of Pink Pony Club at karaoke night. On Monday, I went to Commonwealth again we're both going to repeat our last venue for our next bullet I believe. I went to Commonwealth again or at least the venue of our last bullet I had to work late on Monday so I took a pedal assist rental bike whose brand I shall not say although because we bailed them out in 2008 let's say a US taxpayer bike to the match even though I couldn't find my bike helmet and that was probably irresponsible although I felt kind of okay about it because a vast majority of the distance was through the roads of Prospect Park where motor vehicle traffic is largely not allowed and when it's there, there are hazards flashing and people going 15 miles an hour unless it's the police. I was stupid. I was stupid, but I got there faster. I got there in time to see round one, despite the fact that I left home thinking I was going to be half an hour late, partially because we were playing Intermission Dolores. There's a reason they have that name. In the match, I played a good game of D&D, or at least good enough, like I talked about against Nick. And then when they took the score sheet for round four and we needed all four points, I knew they were going to come back with Godzilla and Cactus Canyon because they were kicking our ass on Godzilla all night, no questions asked. And Cactus Canyon had been a bit of a split, but we'd won all the points, I think, on Dungeons & Dragons or had won the majority, if not all. And so I was sure they were going to come back with that. And so I did a warm-up game between the end of round three and the beginning of round four. And I was at like 40 million points on Cactus Canyon at the end of ball one when they brought the score sheet back past me. So I plunged out ball two and ball three and walked back to the table and was like, Cactus Canyon, give it to me. Like, yep, me. I got this. And then I had well under 10 million points in total in the whole game of competition. And we were bested handily. But we always have fun playing these guys. We've been playing that team for as long as we've been in the league because they've been in the league for much longer. and also I do really appreciate that they continue to be named after a bar. We're also named after a bar that no longer exists, the Colliders, but how was your Monday? Back at Rulo's on Monday night after playing the RWI on Sunday. We talked about that match previously. Despite a tough 8-8 loss, I am liking the way the team is looking, and we were really happy on Monday to welcome our newest recruit, Peter Larson. Good pickup. Yeah. Good pickup. You played on Tuesday. Oh, yeah. The Butterballers trooped out to Deep Queens to play at Solid State. It was a fun night. really trounced, but good time. And took the butts car back to Buttermilk afterwards, which is just, you know, we called a hired car. Oh man, I wanted that to be like a Subaru with an ass license plate on it or something. On Wednesday, I think we both went to Scrapple Land, although we didn't see each other. I know I went to Scrapple Land. I went right after work. In fact, I was able to exit work a little bit early because I had started a little early and done some extra stuff earlier in the week. And so I got there pretty close to when they opened. I think I was the first non-civilian pinball player there that night. I got to Scrapple Land because we're going to talk about it in Ball 3, and I needed to get there and see it. I will talk much more about what I saw, but what I want to highlight in the bullet journal of this piece is specifically that I ran into Woody Richman and it was it was good to see him. He was he said some very kind words to me about seeing me out there on a Wednesday night, even though I wasn't going to play. Woody and I played a game. I didn't realize that no fear had just moved in until Eric named it on the on the update just now. But I kind of showed him what I know about No Fear, which to me is start challenges with your skill shots and upper jumps all day. I was really glad to see him. And like I said, he said very kind things to me about seeing me there on a Wednesday night, knowing that he and I had a history of seeing each other every Wednesday night at sunshine in the before times. I didn't get out of work early on Wednesday. and like every Wednesday, it's tough for me to get up to Scrapple Land much before the listed 8 o'clock start time. But I did get up there about 7.45. I was really happy to see a whole lot of brand new players to the league joining us this week. I think I saw a total of about 40 in the series so far, and I imagine that was because there were a bunch of noobs. I don't mean to call y'all noobs in a diminishing way, but new players to this series, at least this time. Yeah, we've been picking up a bunch of people along the way who are new to the scene, and that's really cool to see. This week in particular, there were a bunch, part of whom are a friend group of Woody's nephew who joined us. Cool. About four or six people there and then some other fun new people. Very cool. Your pinball started earlier than mine last night. Oh, yeah. That's right. You came in later. we were both at buttermilk for SSPL although I was to say for SSPL to describe my presence there is probably a slight overstatement no it not it just I wasn there to compete Yeah well I was really happy with the results of League last night with 25 points When you came in later and I think you got to see one particular score that went down, I got a first place on Metallica with a walk-off on ball three. Didn't have to play it. But as you noted, I had left it after two balls with just five million. Oh, yeah. So that no one else got five million. Right. I was like, oh, I don't know. It was being me. I don't feel great about the seven points I got for that. I earned it by being able to at least get five million. Yeah, that's right. That's right. There's no ethics associated with the number. I realized that over the course of the last week with the RWI on Sunday and then special when lit on Monday and on Thursday, I played a whole bunch of pinball with Matthew Carlson this week. That sounds like a good week. Yeah, we had a whole bunch of yucks like normal. Yeah. But I don't remember which one of one of those nights he he mentioned that he loves hearing the pinball bullet journal. Yeah, we do every week. And he's just listening to see if I'll mention his name. So I just want to say Matthew Carlson. I showed up late last night specifically because we have friends in town from Los Angeles for the weekend or a bit. We went to dinner at Ashi's Counter in our neighborhood over here in Crown Heights. I was told, my spouse was told, we want to play pinball tonight. Like, we're coming to see your husband, and we have heard that your husband plays all of this pinball. We want to play pinball tonight. And it was Thursday night, and when they found out that I was skipping out on the league, because I've scored a lot of points in my three meetings, and as long as I don't super fuck up next Thursday, I'm going to be fine. And I roughly said that to them, that this one was okay to skip. It's okay. But they really wanted to play pinball with me. And so I just said, hey, Franklin Park is right up the street. It's like there are four games there. Max, the guy who operates them, he doesn't go there all the time. So maybe two of them would be working really well and maybe less so. But if you just want to go play pinball, that's right up there. They've got fine beer and yada, yada, yada. and then my spouse kicked in with, but he also said to me earlier that if you wanted to go see the rabid pinball culture, then we could take a lift to Buttermilk and see his usual Thursday night league happening. As soon as she said it, both of their eyes got gigantic and they were excited to come see what it is that we do every Thursday night. I was just going to interject there to say, They walked into Buttermilk, caught a gander of us all, and their eyes went wide like dishes. Yeah, yeah. They were really fascinated by what was going on. The one half of the couple explained to me that their greatest idea of how to meet someone or how to get to know someone is to figure out what it is that they're rabidly passionate about and then go do that with them. And so, Eric, you also walked up late in the evening and caught when I was with that half of the couple play. You caught maybe just the end of or came by right after I finished a game of The Walking Dead. I played two pinball games on Thursday night. I played Twilight Zone with Matt, the one half of the couple, standing over my shoulder and narrating what I was going to do to him. and he was fascinated first and foremost just by the concept of the ceramic ball. Oh, wow, yeah. But he also, there were a few times that I trapped up the ball and was like, I'm going to do this, this, and this next, that he said to me, I get it. I mean, I don't get it, but I get it. I understand that you understand what you just said, and I understand that you pointed at three targets and that you will try to hit them in that order. but I don't understand anything else I understand the basics of you're going to try to hit those three shots in order that's it and I played a pretty good game of Twilight Zone not a great game, 300 million something like that, pretty good game of Twilight Zone with him standing there and then he pulled me over to his wife and was like, you have to watch this guy play pinball and so I was going to go play Metallica where I believe two people that you had played with in the game that you had the 5 million walk off wanted their revenge game but they were waiting for someone else to play a game and I, when I walked back and was like okay there's at least three people in line and I don't want to subject this person not just to me playing but to three people playing while I stand here and shout about what the hell is happening in a pinball game so we played The Walking Dead or I played The Walking Dead and narrated to her what I was going to do and I did what I meant to do I told her I was like look this game I might score all my points on ball three and it's because I'm trying to stack three multi balls and I explained what that meant to her and she seemed to follow it and then she watched me not stack but achieve each of the three individual multi-balls in exactly the order that I told her. I'm going to get bloodbath first, and then I'm going to get prison, and then I'm going to get the well walker. But while I've got multiple balls on the table, that's when I'm going to go for the next one. Same thing. And she watched me do it not actually concurrently, but subsequently in exactly the order I told her I would, and not until ball three. At the end of it, she was like, how good a score is that? And I don't know, it was 150-ish, 145, 150. And it's a good score, but I also was like, you know, the only reason it wants to know my initials is that the scores have recently been reset. This is a good score, but this is not the grand champion score, even when it's just been reset, I don't think. It's a good score, but it's not awesome. And she was floored by the depth of decision-making. that I was explaining to her. I think that was what she was fascinated by when she talked with me. But she was fascinated, I think, when she talked with you and just looked at what was happening in the room. Because we saw round five called. I think we walked in right about at the beginning of round four or maybe right at the end of round three. But we saw roughly two rounds of pinball played. on Friday while we were recording this podcast. In fact, earlier, I got a message in the Scrapple League tournament directors chat that I think is a good pinball moment for our bullet journal to share in from Greg Pavarelli. I'm just going to read out this message verbatim. Greg says, I'm at Gebs in my Mets gear and some kid is playing next to me. His friend arrives and mentioned he is really getting into pinball. He says, yeah, I play this league at Scrapple Land. So I'm like, oh, yeah, how was it? He goes, it's totally awesome. You should check it out. It was so fun. I turn and said, yeah, I run it, LOL. He didn't recognize me from behind. let's talk about the ever-expanding Scrapple Land. If you just need a reminder, it's at 1150 Manhattan Avenue. That is at the end of Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That is to say that it is just across the creek from Queens. It is almost more convenient. And Eric and I went at some point that we went and visited there, walked across the bridge to Queens to get on the 7 at Vernon Boulevard, Jackson Avenue, across the Pulaski Bridge. It was a shorter walk than walking to the Greenpoint Avenue G train, I think. It was strangely a more scenic walk, despite the fact that we were walking over one of the most polluted waterways in the world, where somehow miraculously there are also marinas popping up right under that bridge right now. Like people are trying to dock their yachts there. Like I think I saw a yacht club, you know, like a sign for the yacht club there at some point since this venue has opened. But you could also take the G to Greenpoint Avenue. You can also take a B43 bus, which incidentally goes right through my neighborhood and drops you off closer than any other public transit. it's right down at the corner of Box Street from the front door of Scrapple Land. I could shank a pitching wedge and hit the bus stop. I mean, I wouldn't hit it, but I would hit somewhere about that far away if I shanked it probably. That's kind of nice for me. It also means for me from Crown Heights, that's like an hour away because I'm almost at the other end of that bus line. In rush hour traffic, I don't imagine an hour is actually a reasonable expectation. If I got on that bus at 4 o'clock to go up there for a 6 o'clock league, I might need most of that time to get there. I bicycle it sometimes if I don't take public transit. And coming from Sunset Park, it's a pretty long ride, but almost entirely on protected lanes the whole way. So that's pretty nice. You go along the waterfront almost the whole way? Yeah. I come up 4th Avenue until I hit Atlantic Terminal. From Atlantic Terminal, I go up to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Navy Yard. And then circle around that and stay on the waterfront all the way up to Scrapple Land. Right, right, right, right, right. So like Kent Avenue through Williamsburg. Yeah, cool. That is roughly how I drove, although sometimes the BQE was part of it, and I don't recommend doing that on a pedal bicycle. but that is roughly how I drove when I had a Prius for a minute and was playing at Sunshine on Wednesday nights. I called my wife from, I've probably said this on the podcast before, I called my wife from the streets of Singapore having had an epiphany because I realized that if you asked my mother, she would tell you that you could drop me anywhere in the world and I am perfectly at home and I am going to make friends and make my way through. The actual fact is that I am equally awkward in every one of the... It's not that I'm going to make friends. I am going to make my way through, but it's going to be awkward for everyone around me. It is in the perfectly awkward position for everyone in New York City. You know who lives on the G? A tiny minority of people who live in Brooklyn and Queens. that's who lives on the g train do you know who came to sunshine for the sunshine league when it was that everyone who wanted to play pinball individually came to sunshine league in new york city it was something and scrapple league is its descendant in part because it shares this thing it's equally inconvenient for everyone to get there but god damn it it's awesome so people come from everywhere to do it the layout of this place it's very clear when you walk in that it was meant to be a brewpub it is an industrial place but it has like a lot of light up front everything that used to be just like probably a steel industrial fixture has been turned into a window there's skylights in the back even and they're is there's a really great sort of division of what clearly was before the place where you sell the beer to people by the glass and possibly also six packs or whatever. And the place where you manage all of the resources that are required for that operation. And also the operation behind the next wall, which was a shitload of giant vats where you're making beer. So they walked into this place that they're not making their own beer, but they have the infrastructure for that up front. And it's really clear that someone laid this out to be that. Part of why we're talking about it is that they've expanded their lineup by removing those huge vats for beer making. They've been able to expand their pinball offerings. I believe when they first opened the number, it was two digits but it started with a two it was 29 I think and it's now 46 two digits and starts with a four it's two digits and starts with a four that's a stupid number of pinball machines to have in the same place nowhere else in the city even gets to three that's right when I ran into Peter before it opened and we talked about his vision for what it would become when all of those beer vats were out. He said to me, I think I can have about three times as many pinball machines in there as in Sunshine at its prime. Sunshine at its prime was 30-ish. 90 pinball machines is, if 46 is a stupid number, 90 is doubly stupid. Just to mention it, they open weeknights at 4 p.m. Every night they close at 2 a.m. On weekends, they open at noon. Let's talk about hospitality. Like Peter always has had at Sunshine, they have good draft beers. Allie is his partner in this endeavor and I think is more responsible for the bar side of what is happening. And I think that she curates that beer selection very well. I believe that they always keep a cheap beer on draft here. And I don't think that that was part of the Ryan Policky at Sunshine, at least when I was going there regularly. I saw a Narragansett for a very inexpensive price tag, I thought. Yeah, it's been Narragansett since they've opened. That, I think, is a really smart hospitality choice, as is trying to open a kitchen. when it was its previous incarnation which none of the people who were involved in this incarnation were involved with it had food so it also has that infrastructure and I think they've had a challenge finding the right match to bring in because I don't think that the folks at Scrapple Land wanted to manage that themselves I think they wanted to bring in someone who was looking for a kitchen and I think that's probably an easy thing to find They will have what I believe, if I understand correctly, will be roughly Korean barbecue starting sometime in the next week or so. That when I was there on Wednesday, there were mid-stage preparations being made for a restaurant opening. And I actually witnessed when I walked in, I saw Dee behind the bar. I walked up, we had a little chat, I ordered a beer, and a moment later, I heard and saw the six people who were crowded around some piece of machinery just to the right of the bar from my perspective, camera right. they all kind of flinched and it became very clear to me right away that the pilot light was just lit on the oven below that like there was someone crouched under who was like holding one of those fire lighter things that has just like a slightly longer you know it's not your your usual cigarette lighter but it has a little bit longer nose out of which you shooting the flame and it just there was a very dramatic poof oh moment And I somewhat proud of myself to say that I very quickly asked the question of the assemblage, everybody still got their eyebrows? It's very clear that they were ready to start cooking something real soon. After that, if you get the pilot light lit, the next thing you do is start cooking something. I mean, I guess you clean it probably. I presume in this instance you clean it next because you want the heat on it while you're cleaning it maybe. But, you know, it's time to start cooking something. If you got the pilot light lit, we think they're opening tonight. We think that tonight while we're recording this and by the time you're listening to this, you can go get Korean fried chicken or Korean barbecue or something in that realm at Scrapple Land from their partner kitchen operators. So Peep's Kitchen is that Korean, and they call themselves Comfort Food and Fried Chicken Shop, featuring wings, burgers, and more with delivery and takeout. That's what they call themselves on Google. Family and friends tonight. If your family or friends there, or probably also if you just happen to go there to play pinball and don't mind having greasy fingers, get you some fried chicken. Opening party tonight and grand opening tomorrow. So, look, for the list of games, it's just there are too many, but we refer you to venue update segments over the last several episodes. We refer you to pinballmap.com, whose underlying data informs the venue and game updates that Eric provides us at the beginning of Ball 2. All of that comes from pinballmap.com we refer you to them for the full list of games because they removed i think it's three of those giant beer vats of those like whatever 500 gallon beer vats or it's probably you know a kiloliter or five kil i don't know what the hell the i'm sure it's in the thousands those things are huge they're massive at least three of those things i think have been removed and pinball machines have been put in the place that they were in an L shape going back and around on the left side of the space and that's just the part that used to be the brewery part. When I said before there's an office part, there's also this other little room that has a lot of the older games that are on the side. room? Yeah, is it? I mean, it's not exactly, but it like... It used to be the cooler. So that's where the kegs were tapped. Oh, is that what it was? Okay. Oh, I just figured that was an office because there's structure there, but maybe that's because they needed the insulation more than because they needed a door up between the money and the riffraff. Yeah, it's got crazy insulated walls. There's a lot of games and they're all over. There's a few up front. as near as I could tell the Galactic Tank Force was a decoration and not a playable pinball machine when I was there on Wednesday. That may be a specific condition or that may be because it kind of is a cool decoration. This is the sort of thing that Peter would do, I think, is to put this thing out there as just a decoration. He has all the bells and whistles. There's light cycle ground effects under this fucking pinball machine. It's the one with the tank treads. When you fold the top down, it looks like a tank turret. Yeah, the super deluxe one. I believe it's waiting on a part and has been for many weeks. Shocking. I don't know that that part's coming particularly quickly. It's a boutique manufacturer that went out of business. I did not go on to Pinball Map and put in the couple of updates that I had, but I felt like the getaway, which was the whole way at the end of the long bank on the left wall when I was there on Wednesday. It was the whole way at the end. You're standing there and to your right is barely a divider between you and a very functional room where you can see tool bags and shit. It was not in the kind of shape that I typically expect Peter's Machines to be in. That said, most of the games I played there kind of were. I think the ones that had just been moved to those back areas where it has expanded were the ones that I had the hardest time playing. and so I presume this is just a matter of dialing in on how they were set up. The No Good Gophers was back there too. One of the Gophers was just like awkwardly halfway up half the time and there were a few times that I felt like I hit the lock shot clean and it rejected it because of some weird debris or dent up there, but maybe the Gopher was still sticking up and so it got a little jump on the ZX I felt like those two weren't great, but everything else I played was exactly how I wanted to be. Both of those two are among the newer additions to the lineup as it's been pushing backwards. And the newer additions haven't had as much time for teching, basically. Right, right. The League comes in and puts many machines through their paces. Right. And we'll notice little things that are off, and then Peter's there on Wednesdays, and he fixes stuff. Right. Those ones just haven't been gone through as much. It was muggy as fuck on Wednesday when I went there. And I, of course, wear an actual suit. You might think of me as a guy who wears a suit because I often wear a jacket. But the fact is that I wear an actual suit where the pants match the jacket when I go to work most of the time. And I came straight from work. And even though my suit was linen, which is really breathable and it's the right thing to wear in the summer, I took my jacket off and I looked like fucking Mr. Roper or someone from 1970 because I walked in with at least three buttons unbuttoned. When I saw Dee behind the bar and I walked in, she was like, you're looking really casual. And I was like, it's stupid hot out there. It's really hard to climate control a space of that size. And in particular, when you keep the front open, there's a giant garage door that is open behind a four or five bank of pinball machines up front. and even keeping that that way, when I was in the back of the place, I was actually pretty comfortable. But I didn't want to have my jacket on. And at first I walked in and I hung my jacket on the plunger of one of the games that was set up as like a barrier to don't go past this because this is still a work zone where we're taking out other beer vats. And I just like hung it on the plunger. And at some point when I walked up to Peter and said, if you need me to, like, I have hung my jacket on the plunger of a game that is sitting on its back right now. If you need to get that on its feet, throw it somewhere and tell me where it went, if you don't mind, or come grab me by the ear and say, come get your fucking jacket, jerk. And then he pointed me at a couple of those just like simple sticky to the wall hooks right behind the change machine. Speaking of those two pinball machines on their backs that you originally used. I was noticing the dividing line between the playing area and that obviously the back of the space, which is being used as a workshop currently and has a lot of stuff back there. The divisions now largely made up of, I think they're super big video game consoles. Yeah, I think that's true. I think they're like old Neo Geos or something like that. Yeah, they were separated in parts. So the wall, the purported walls were the screen part of it. Yes, I saw that too. In the back were just a ton of the joystick control panel parts. Yeah, they look like, you know, maybe Neo Geos or fighting games. They were like generic. That's where my head was at when I said Neo Geo. It felt like it was a modular piece, the thing that I saw. Now that you mention it, I remember seeing that. I hadn't necessarily noted it, but I definitely looked at it and was like, this is the modular piece of some video game system. There's a bunch of them. And then those two pinball machines on their backs, I couldn't see what they were. As you walked up to them, you're facing their bottoms. One of them, though, I could tell was a classic because I could see that the side was stenciled. I couldn't quite lean over far. I tried to lean over the top and get a look down to see if I could see play field, but I couldn't quite stretch that far. Did you think there was a cowboy on the side of it? It definitely felt like a western themed site because it was like an orange and brown. I have been desperate for him. There has been an Eldorado under the games at Sunshine for a million years that I have been desperate for him to set up. It has been on top of washing machines up front at Sunshine. It has been under the legs in the rear of others horizontally across the vertical axis. I have been desperate for him to set that game up for as long as I have known that Sunshine Laundromat exists. So I'm really hopeful that that's what it was. I thought the other one was the other Batman 66. the color looked like that. It could have also been Circus Voltaire, I guess, based on a very purple sort of theme or something, but I thought it was the other Batman 60s. Yeah, it did look like a modern. I think you probably could have recognized it if I had looked at the decal at all, which I didn't because I saw the classic. And then I'll just review with this tidbit. As I was heading out to head home Wednesday night, Peter had just started putting the legs on that classic. I'm going to go have Korean barbecue tomorrow, I guess. I would like to briefly say that while I have played personally a better game of Whitewater that I talked about briefly in the first episode of this season, than I play routinely on Peter's game of Whitewater, that Whitewater is great. He has another one also. He has this one which has white stuff. It used to be at the ice cream shop. This one did not used to be at the ice cream shop. With the white? Yeah. No. No. It was. No. I mean, if so, then he replaced it with the other one at some point. Because the one that was there most recently was not. It was not the one with the white. The first one, then maybe he swapped it at some point. but I do remember when it first showed up there, I recognize it. Could very well be that at some point it was, but it was not at the end. The snow-capped mountain variant. Yeah, I believe if you look very carefully, and you probably don't have to look that carefully, but I believe that Scrapple, that a Scrapple toy replaces the Yeti toy. I think if you get the thing where you are going at, I'm saying Yeti, but it's Sasquatch, right? in the way that it's in the verbiage of the game, I think it's Sasquatch. But the Sasquatch toy that turns around on this game, I believe that if you activate that mode, you will see a toy that is meant to look like Scrapple's face turn around at you. That's awesome. I saw Scrapple when I was there on Wednesday night. I greeted Scrapple. I think I greeted Dee first because I think she saw me before the dog. Well, the dog didn't care that I was there. but she saw me before I had a chance to talk to the dog and I was not going to ignore a human and go speak to a dog very quickly after I spoke to Dee and had a drink I went and had a quick little pet with Scrapple and then I went and played that Whitewater, it is the best I've ever played I went straight to the getaway and then I played No Good Gophers after that and so I set myself up to be disappointed because I had two not great experiences on the first two games just because they were back in that area and I then had a few games of just great. But like every time I screwed up on No Fear, it was my fault. Every time I screwed up on Bon 60th, it was my fault. King Kong and I could have had a better time with each other, but it was okay. I think that whodunit is probably the best home field advantage for a tiebreaker game choice in the league. Can you imagine a better one? Is there someone who has something better than that? You don't have Transformers anymore, but if you did, that'd be a good one. Yeah, we've got Hot Wheels. you are a co-director of a league there every week you directed one of the largest single day one-off tournaments if not the largest single day one-off tournaments along with jess warren uh co-directed or uh you know assistant directed however that works out i i know the venue almost exclusively as a casual player at this point. I went for the first Wednesday night of Scrapple League because the pinball thing that was most interrupted. I loved the team league. I loved all the other things I did in pinball before the pandemic. But the thing that was most interrupted by it and the thing that I most missed was Sunshine Wednesday night. And SSPL fills a very similar hole. You know, it's the same format at this point. But that was what I missed when there wasn't anything filling that hole. And I had to be at the first one when it came back. But like, as a director, what's it like? With the number of machines they've got going now, the possibilities for giant tournaments is just amazing. It's the sort of variety you can't find anywhere else. They are also, they're set up super tough. Yes. Which is, you know, a plus if you're going to be holding a big tournament with a lot of people. Yep. Keeps them from real long players. It keeps the longest playing games from playing for a really stupid long time. Yeah, so it offers a lot of advantages. in that way. But the return of the Wednesday regular week has brought back a bunch of people that were scattered as a cause of the pandemic. And then we're also picking up all these new players. It's just really nice to be a part of that. That's all for this week's pod. Just a note that when we've been saying today, we were talking about Friday, September 26th. When we said tomorrow, we were talking about Saturday, September 27th. And this podcast will have been released on Sunday, September 28th. Join us next week when we will run down local competition results in Ball 1 as usual. In Ball 2, we'll do venue updates, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users, and also our bullet journal. And I hope that we're going to have a third panelist next week who will talk to us about something that they are going to do soon in pinball. Between now and then, whatever you're up to, pinfolk, go get them. Editors note this would be where Benjamin would cut out my half an hour rant about bicycle helmets.