Hey guys, this is Zach from Straight Down the Middle Pinball. So today we're hanging out with Rick. He's the local collector here. We're going to go through his machines in his collection. Rick, we're going to ask you some questions, man, if you're cool with that. Cool with that. All right, man. So, Rick, what got you into pinball, really? Well, about 10 years ago, we had a tornado destroy our house after we rebuilt an old pinball machine at the consignment shop down the street there. Bought it home. For the last how much time? I still hadn't played pinball for 15 years. I fell in love all over again, man. Hell yeah. So tell me a little bit, he's got the coolest story about, not that the tornado was devastating, it pretty much wiped out your entire house. Yeah, we had to rebuild. The house had to be razed. And I was on YouTube looking at tornadoes and a little bit of a morbid fascination with them and stuff like that. And then I came upon the Whirlwind Pinball. Perfect. Yeah, I look at that and think, well, that's what we need. So that's how that came about. And you still have it. Still have it. I've tried to buy the whirlwind from them a couple times but it didn't work. My wife has convinced me that it would be bad mojo. Bad karma if I sell my whirlwind. That's awesome man. You might be right. So how long have you been in the hobby? Since probably 2006. 2006 we were team builders. Somebody was from the century back there, doesn't she? Yeah. I was already in the 90s. So 2006 you got into pinball. Tornado was? 2005. So what machine did you get from the consignment shop? What I got from the consignment shop was a 1975 Super Soccer with an animated back glass, had little ping pong balls in there that shot up. Who made that? I don't remember who made it. The Gottlieb. Gottlieb. Only Gottlieb. Yeah, I was going to say, have you owned a Gottlieb since? I owned one before then, maybe about, for a short period of time, for two years, I had a Stardust. Stardust. Which is really cool. Okay. Very nice. Who's going now? That's your girl going now. You've got two girls. Oh yeah, my wife's two favorites. You do have Pinbot, and then you've got, I don't know what her name is, StairSit, and then... Elvira. Yeah. And then Andy had two girls. We've got a dude over there. Yeah, he did. He had two girls. Alright, so Rick, what is your all-time favorite machine? All-time favorite? I guess one is, that's kind of a hard question to ask. When you get a new one, you fall in love and stuff like that. So my all-time favorite, I guess, Creatures had the low-bustain power formula. and his family's cool. You like those John Trudeau games, don't you? Yeah, I've liked a few of them, yeah. I like Ghostbusters. That's what I'm looking at getting those tournaments. And right now I'd say my favorite is probably No Good Gophers. No Good Gophers. Yeah, you're loving it. Yeah, I just fell in love with it. I haven't had it very long. I've seen all that ghost guys. We'll see it in here in a minute. It's a light show. It's a spectacle. And you're not a big LED guy either. No, I'm kind of in between the two worlds of RPG and inside and the fact that I still go there and that the older guys were dead set against all the everything so but I try to keep an open mind that's where some machines look better in my mind and other ones do and I'm sort of yeah I haven't really got into it real deep like exactly about that yeah but I'm okay with it you know some machines look really good I'm proud of me as a shadow here that looks great with no good gophers it looks great LED right you had a Johnny Mnemonic that was loaded down with LEDs. And now, you know, coincidentally enough, that's with Greg. Greg owns that machine now. He loves it. He loves it. So we'll see that machine here soon. Alright. What machine do you love but everybody else hates? What machine do you love but everybody else hates? I think I had said I had told you. Two beers ago I had told you. You said Johnny Mnemonic. Yeah, Johnny the Mike, that's right. Everybody, I think when I got that game, I got it kind of on a whim and stuff like that. I got it for a good price and everything. And didn't realize, you know, people complained about the glove, but I liked it because it had a little memory game to it and stuff like that. I really liked the game. I loved the speed on it and stuff like that. And there was a few other people that were collectors that liked it too. But that one really surprised me. And also with games, sometimes it's bang for your buck. Oh, yeah. If you didn't spend a lot for that game and stuff, you didn't surprise it. Very true. It just seemed like it was going to be fun. The Orbitz on that thing are just nasty. Oh, it's really fast, super fast. So what game do you love? I love hitting ramps back and forth. They'll combo, boom, boom, boom, boom. Do you see George go in those rooms? Will, the fast ones coming back to you. Yeah, there's a certain appeal to it. The speed is fun, you know. So what game do you just hate that everybody raves about all the time? They just frigging love it. There was a few people. Once again, I forgot what I said before. There was a few people that really liked Championship Pub when I got it. And I brought it because I had a local guy here at it, and he had it for a good price. And I thought, well, hell, you know, I can't lose. So I got the game, and I played it, and I just thought that I hated it. I just had to get rid of it so fast. That's right. We talked about Champion Pub in our other video. I think I remember you guys saying that. I'm not crazy about it. Yeah. The jackpot, super jackpot, another jackpot, on and on, jackpot after jackpot. So how many machines do you own here? We can count. Right now I've got 11. 11 machines? Yeah. I'm thinking 12 is probably a better number. Doesn't everybody say that? When I first started, I'd tell my wife, well, you know, 4 seems like a good round number. And then it went up to 6 as a good round number. I'd like to have that. You know, then 6 became the one I was shooting for. And then all of a sudden, you know. But I think I've done a good job not overpopulating the garage. I try to keep the center section open. It's perfect. It's perfect. All right. Where do you see pinball heading here in the future? I mean, we've seen a lot of change over the last couple years here. You've been in it 10-plus years. Well, when I first got into it, you know, we were saying things like pinball is dead at the show in Chicago. A lot of people were thinking, you know, it was going to be done. And to see the resurgence and everything, I think it's just going to get bigger. Do you like what Jersey Jacks does? Oh, yeah. I seen him. I was at the Texas show, the first Texas show I went to. Jersey Jack was being introduced to the pinball world. cool and all the guys from RGP were there and stuff yeah guys and you know I took him as being legitimate right out of the gates up because of his background and everything and we damn he didn't make that man she made a nice pinball machine and he continues to make nice ones how do you feel about Stern's because I've been trying to lure you over to the stern side here for a while you don't know anyone yet no I don't know one yet it's not because I don't want one I know because the two that I want are a little bit more expensive then right now I want to spend the money on stuff. That's Ghostbusters Premium and The Walking Dead, of course. That's very nice. I was going to ask you that. What are some of the machines that you'd really like? So you'd like Ghostbusters Premium. Those two right there. Walking Dead Premium. Yes. I've only played a – I have played a limited edition Ghostbusters, but it was not a play for very long. But The Walking Dead, the last Texas show I went to, my wife and I, that's all we played. We got really – You just loved it? We just loved it. It had been modified with a special pen sound board. It had the – Oh, with the pen sound. Yeah, it had the pen sound board, it had all the mods on it and everything. It was just super cool. So I think I want to know the answer to this, but what is your favorite pinball show or expo or get-together? What's your favorite? I love the Texas Pinball Festival. I loved it the first time I went down there, and it's just my favorite. How many times have you been? I've been to the Texas Pinball Festival three times, and I've been to Chicago twice. Okay. And one show most people here watching this probably have never heard of is the Hair on the Way Super Show. Oh, yeah. It was by Rob Craig. You met him. Cool. Yeah, very nice. By Rob Craig. I remember Rob. That was his show. I didn't know that. I emailed him a few times and told him to try to get us going. That would be cool. Because it's close. That would be really cool. We'll get there really easy. Very nice. Me and you have to go to Pinburg sometime. I know it's a hell of a haul, but it would be cool if we went to Pinburg. I think at this point right here, I'm open to going to it. Well, everybody's talking about Pinburg. They're talking about, well, I'll fly. Sure, I'll just fly there and go there. A couple beers. So, God bless your life. Get me there, man. All right. What machine do you regret getting rid of? You just wished you would have never got rid of? Nothing really, but I do get some slack from my wife for getting rid of our really nice Judge Dredd. Yeah. And really nice, nah, not so nice, road show that I had and stuff. My kids really liked that one. My youngest boy really liked that. So, those two right there. I'm upset that you got rid of that road show, let me tell you. What does, what does it call? Scarred your collection. Well, the guy calls it roll blow. I forget who it is. It's like C. Kelly. I can't disagree with that. What do I give you shit about getting rid of? Remember? No. What do I give you shit about I wanted to buy from you? You got rid of before I really kind of knew you. That beautiful wide body. Oh, yeah, the Twilight Zone. Oh, that's right. I had a really nice Twilight Zone and everything. I think when I got my Indiana Jones over here, and you can see I've had a lot of wide bodies. I had the Roadshow. It was one of my first machines. I had Judge Dredd. Have you owned a Demoman? I've never owned a demo man. You have, but I haven't. But Twilight Zone was kind of like the grill that everybody wants and stuff like that. I got it. And it's not that I didn't enjoy it. It's just if you look at the games that I have like Creature, No Good Gophers, they're kind of fast and you know what I mean. They're kind of like, I don't know what they are. They've got character. Yeah, yeah. There it is. The character. There's these guys got character. Yeah, it's been there for a while. But Twilight Zone was super cool, super toys on it, stuff like that. But it's like I felt like I was thinking too much. I was having to think too much. It took some of the fun out of me. So when I got my Indiana Jones, I was able to sell my Twilight Zone. You told me once, and I think it was a perfect description of what Twilight Zone is. Rick has told me it's very cerebral. Yeah, I think so. It's a very cerebral game. There's a lot of thinking involved. That's right. That's right. All right. How long do most games stay in the collection here? I hold onto my games for quite a bit. I've had my world one since the beginning. If I get a game and I like a game, I keep it. I'm not looking to sell it, really. I have a couple games that have been in my collection for a long time back here. The Scared Stiff was one of the early ones, and so was Tales of Rabia 9. That's one of your wife's favorites. Those are my two wife favorites right there. How many people have tried to buy that from you, Tales of Rabia? There's been a few people and stuff like that. Me included. Personally, I would sell one or the other, stuff like that, but my wife, having her involved in the hobby, having her like it. She was actually out here this morning playing one machine after another. She walks around and plays with stuff like that. I enjoy the fact that my family enjoys the machines too. That's super cool. So I try to hang on to certain ones. All right. What games that aren't in here now? I mean you got a hell of a collection I super jealous I always am I love coming over here to play What games have been in here that aren in here anymore We had Twilight Zone Roadshow Johnny M Championship Pub Champion Pub. Strange Science. I had a Strange Science. Strange Science. Super Soccer. The Strange Science was cool. The Strange Science set up the Johnny M.I. Usually with my collection it's been one machine set up another machine. My silly Judge Dredd got the Creature from the Black Lagoon. So I looked at Judge Dredd, you know, I played it out and stuff like that. and stuff like that. I wasn't playing as much anymore. And all the time, it evolved. It evolved because I looked at one machine. Which one is on the cutting board? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? You say, which one can I get rid of to get something cool if it comes along? That's a good question. Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd was on the cutting block when Creature was on it. It's on everybody's cutting. I still love my Creature, but, you know. What game right now? Everybody, don't bombard him with requests to buy it, but what game would be on the cutting room floor? I think because you have certain games that are iconic like Addict, Creature, Whirlwind can't be sold because of the Mojo thing. The two new ones are here for a while. Indiana Jones, I can't get rid of that. There's some back here that my wife loves. I can't get rid of those. So it would have to be Fishtails. Fishtails. It's a great game though. It was fun. I tell you what, I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Great pay time all the time. I really like Fishtails. I focused on shots on certain machines. I loved the ramp shots. Those are cool. Just up and down the ramp, stuff like that. Lighting up monster fish, getting monster fish, getting the 20,000, 20 million, 30 million. It's all about shots of me. And again, when it comes to your collection, it just seems like Fishtails has a lot of character. Again, a lot of character. Little quirks and good call-outs and colorful animations and stuff. Really cool. Fun game. All right. So when you're going to buy a game, what turns you completely off about buying a game? Like, is cabinet a big deal to you? Is lighting a big deal? is Ford Haxes is a big deal to everybody. But when you go up to see a machine to buy it, what really just is a deal breaker? If it's dirty, it doesn't matter. I'm kind of a little bit on the lazy side with fixing things and stuff. I like cleaning them. I like polishing them up. I might make them look good, but if it gets intensive, it gets in a lot of boards and stuff like that. If it's a game I love, it depends on how much you love the game and want the game, then I'll go a little further with it, okay? But it's something I marginally want. I've seen you tear into Shadow, tear into No Good Gophers. So those are your two newest machines. So that's like a resurgence for you. Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of like I had that. You get that itch. You know, I always had that itch. You hear me calling you talking about it, and you're like, damn it. Everybody I knew was getting new pinball machines. I was sitting here on my plank. I even told them, I said, damn, I've got to do something, man. I've got to spend some money. What I love about Rick is he, it's not just 11, 12 machines here. It is totally a collection. so when you talked to me about buying the shadow you said the reason you want the shadow is not only because you like the game but you think it would fit good in your collection so that's pretty important to you you don't want something to stand out like a sword yeah I think it that one there I don't know I don't see I don't know why everybody liked it I like the fact that people said it was challenging and stuff like that and with the new back glass they're already fast glass and yours is clear coated right? yes I love that thing Yeah. All right, Rick. So what we're going to do now, we're going to go to Rick's machines. We're going to talk about each of them, tell a little bit of the story, what he likes and what he doesn't like. We'll go from there. Sound good? Okay. Thanks, brother. All right, Rick. Run us through Dracula here. When did you get Dracula? I've had Dracula probably for about eight years now. Okay. Eight years. What do you love about it? Well, of course, stack it, the multiball. Stack it, multiball, and everything. There's a cool feature on it and everything. It's a good fast game. It's hard to do, too. Yeah, it's a good fast game, and he hit the ramps consistently. get in video mode. Video mode's kind of fun. Oh, I love with the wolves. Yeah, the wolves and everything. The wolves dominate too. It's a good challenging game and everything. I always let them get a little too close sometimes because you get a million points and the closer they get, the more points you get. I didn't know that. Yeah, that's true. The closer they get, you get a million if they're right there. Sometimes I wait a little too long. It's a rig tip. I saw this one game we forgot earlier. I had a party zone. I traded a guy. I traded a guy my party zone for his Brom Stoker's Dracula. But that was redone by Mike Chestnut. This was a Mike Chestnut game three years ago. Maybe you really got screwed on that deal. Would you have messed up? I know, man. I can't believe it. I saw one of my party zones. Well, you know what? This thing wasn't always the most popular game. No, it wasn't. But, I mean, best I heard, it was a hard, it was a player's game and stuff, so I wanted it. And then when I had that party zone, which was just like maybe a one-trick pony, I got tired of it quick. It was easy to let it go and buy this. The music and the call-outs on here are among my favorite of a lot of the movies. It goes so good with the movie, if you've ever seen the movie. The movie's not too bad, and it follows the movie really good. What happens if you stack three multiples in a jackpot? What does it say? Oh, I remember my mother-in-law was out here in the garage, and one time I hit that, and it goes, I just want to cut off her head and rip out her heart. And my mother-in-law goes, oh, my. And he didn't say what I think he said. And then it says 30 million. 30 billion. It's always fun. Everybody loves that. It's a good game. Yeah. It's got a lot of staying power. It's been in the collection for a long time. It's a good change of pace game, too. Yeah. Because it's not mode-based, but you can try to just... I like that I have enough machines where I can come out and play something all the time. It's kind of cool. That's very true. All right, let's move down. We've got one of your newer ones, right? This is fairly new. My wife had played this at the Texas show. and really like it. It's kind of older than most of my games and stuff like that, but she really liked it and everything. I had a chance to pick one up locally, a 10-minute drive, which is always nice. And it's been fun. It's a cool little game. It's like you were talking about that mix. You know, you can play your DMDs and stuff that are fun and everything, the mode banks and everything, but then you can play the old school stuff like this and Whirlwind. Of course, Whirlwind's more complicated than this, but this is fun all in its own right. It's got a really great light show. One of the best ball locks, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and I haven't done a lot with her. I changed the colors to blue on the roundhouse. Silver and yellow would look better and stuff. Kind of played with doing purple, but just stayed with the blue. And it's just a nice fun machine to come out and play with. One of my favorite shots is that left orbit scoop back there with the jackpot where it goes through. Yeah, and the jackpot carries over and stuff. So, you know, you're being 8 million and you kind of start focusing on that and stuff, and that's a good way to lose a couple balls doing that. but it's fun. Terrific. So you've had this for? It hasn't been very long, maybe about. Half a year? Yeah, maybe nine months. About nine months or so. Yeah, I'm not real good on time. I'm always, so it's been about five months. That's what you got me for. Yeah. All right, let's move down to a very desirable game. Yes, my son, I don't have very many, I don't know. Are you going to tell him the story of it? Just a quick story, okay? I don't have very many rules in my house. I'm kind of like, you know, with my boys and stuff, one of the rules I had was we eat at the table. And that's one of those cases. We eat at the table together and we don't split up in different areas. And in retrospect, that's why I have this machine. My son had come home from IU and stuff like that. We were all eating at the table and I asked him what he and his friends had done the night before. Well, they went up to a bar about 15 minutes from our house here and stuff. And I'm trying to get the address. About 15 minutes away from the house. And I said, did you get at a bar? and I asked him, why don't you guys have fun? He said, they mainly shot a bull. But then he said, there was a pinball machine. And you guys all know when you hear the word pinball machine. Especially when it's close by, you get the orange guava. So I was like, really? What was it? He says, well, something about knights. Something about Arabia. And right away, I grabbed my iPad. You were like, was there a G out there? Well, I stopped eating. We stopped eating. I showed him the picture. And I said, did it look like this? He goes, it looked like that. It was really dirty. Oh, and you said even better. Yes, and right away I made a phone call. The next day I was picking up Tel Aviv nights. Out of a bar, it was a rescue is what it was. I rescued it out of a bar. And now look at it. Yeah, it was filthy black. I mean, it was just black, you know, on the graph. How long ago was that, what you said? Christ, I don't know. You can ask me days, stuff like that. Six years ago, five years ago? Yeah, probably about five. I'd say five years ago. So five years ago, because I wasn't in the hobby then, And was this like a huge title? It was already big. Oh, wow. It was already desirable. It was a game that a lot of people wanted and stuff like that. I just felt so fortunate that when I figured out what it was, like I said, I got excited about it. I felt so fortunate that I got it out of a bar. I love that story. And then I used to think about bars, guys. Get them out of a bar, you think, oh, nasty. You may have smoke if you open a door for quite a few years, but what you don't have is a lot of fade. That's true. That's a good point. Because there's not a lot of open windows usually at a bar. That's true. So if they keep them in there a long time, the main thing is they get really dirty. But the counter decal stands take pretty pride, you know. I love it. These aren't too bad. So what do you love shots-wise on this thing? Because this is a – Okay, most machines you pick something that you like to do and you focus on it. After a while you play the game so much you start focusing on this or that. This one here, the loop, so if you get eight loops right here, it's extra ball time. Okay. You hit that 8, okay. You can set it on 13. You set it on another one. But hitting that 8 is not easy to get that extra ball in. With most pinball machines, I look, where's the extra ball? I don't hit that as quick as some kings. It'll go down to get higher scores. And, of course, everybody loves the lamp. I don't know if that's where that saying came from or not, but I always say I love the lamp. I love the lamp. I thought it came from this. I don't know. It works. I love the lamp, too. Getting it lit up and stuff and spinning around is kind of fun. The magnet use is just awesome on this thing. It's one of my favorite rants. What my wife really likes about this game is he redirects the ball. So she's always said, I'm not really sure where it's going. So it's kind of cool. That's right. Those we don't speak of did a good job. Yes. He who cannot be named anymore. That's right. It's a Penn State law. No, it's not. Lord, word, and word. That's right. We'll move down. I can talk about that damn thing forever. Maybe one day you'll let us review. Sure, you guys can come and play if you want. Heck yeah, we'd love to do that. I'll bring you some of these. I'll bring it for you. If you're going to let me film it, I'll bring it. I've got a bunch of those at Christmas time. Remember those specials? What did I talk to you into? I'm glad you did. I like them. Alright, Scared Stiff. What a pretty machine. I love this thing. Ramp's cool. It's not the deepest game ever, is it? No, no it's not. It's a pretty basic game. Every time I play it, it's hard. Super hard. Super hard. But one of the things I remember you telling me about Scared Stiff, you're like, oh everybody will tell you, they get to the wizard mode, and then what do you say after that? Beating the wizard mode. That's right. Actually beating it, because what they do, is they play mind games with you. The lights start to pulse more the sound especially if you got a subwoofer it a little like my machines are Everybody does a Polk Audio 10 inch all minor jack into those But the sound because of the sound Especially if you got a subwoofer most of my machines are Everybody does a Polk Audio 10 all jack into those But the sound because of the heartbeat and stuff just kind of gets you... gets you pumped up and everything, and it makes you take bad shots sometimes. But, you know, more than not, if I get there, I can kind of get up to the top and get that stuff. I've never, like everybody else, I've never accomplished the spider. Which is just kind of crazy. The spider to me is a way to get the extra ball first. Yeah. Okay, and then the ramp. See, you don't get this anymore. This is that 3D layered back glass. It's the best back glass ever made. You get an interactive back glass. It's the best one ever made. I don't think you can tell me that. I mean, it'd be hard to argue that. Yeah. Oh, and when I got mine, if you see her large breast over there, mine actually had the, what do you call that patch? Oh, did it? A chastity patch. I don't think it's called chastity. It's something... Oh, it covered her. Yes, it was a spider web. Oh, a spider web. It was a spider web that the operators could, you know, peel and stuff on there, and it would cover her breasts and put a spider web over her breasts. I'm so surprised you pulled that off. Oh, when I first got mine, I was sitting there cleaning the back of it, and I'd read about that. I'd done a lot of reading and stuff like that. I just put my finger down and pulled it right off. It doesn't look better without it. I agree. All right, let's move down to Indiana Jones. Okay. I knocked my leg on that, which most people do, actually. Yeah. Plastic. Usually people do plastic nowadays, don't they? No, it's metal. This is a real deal right here, guys. I like shadow. Shadow's really nice. This is one of my favorite games ever. It's just so much fun. It's mode-based, which I love. What do you love about this game? I love the fact that I got it out of a warehouse for a really good price. Hell yeah. It's such a great game. It's the one that really, once I got it and everything, and it had a few things wrong with it and stuff, nothing real major, just a lot of cleaning like it is most of the time. Needs a fuse occasionally. Needs a fuse. This is a game that I really wish I would have taken more time with. I'm kind of busy a lot. You know, with my work and everything, I'm kind of busy. But this is a game that I really wish I would have taken more time and broken down more to the, you know, all the way down and rebuild it back up. You know, but you can always be done. Yes. You can always be done. But this game is a blast. Looks pretty damn good the way it is. One of my favorite things on this game here is, and I don't know, there's probably other games that have this, but once you hit the pop bumpers enough, you can get a million for every hit to the pop bumper. Oh, nice. And what I try to do is time that to where I'm getting multiball, and then with the multiball, I get that. I just start throwing them right up there, man. Yeah, I like the, is it the, I was going to say Path of the Dead. That is, what the hell is that thing called? Something. Yeah, we know what it is. I'm right here. The PLA. What's nice? Path of Adventure. PLA. That's what I was thinking, Path of the Dead or something. It's the Lord of the Rings. You kind of just nudge your way, but that thing actually tilts. Oh, yeah, it tilts. Yeah, that's really cool. And if it's working right, you can see the wheels spinning there. That's cool. If it's working right, it's like Marvel Madness. Oh, yeah, yeah. The game Marvel Madness used to have the wood one my son had as a kid and stuff. It's like that. That's really cool. And then you've got the... The Idol. The Idol. That's right, it's a cool ball locker. Yeah, it's one of the coolest ball lockers. That's a good point. Elephant horns going off. Yeah, and you can get a few air balls with this one right here because the targets are so close to it. That's right. So close to the flipper, you start whacking that thing up or you get some... And there's a reason why you use tempered glass. That's exactly right. What a fun game, yeah. I like it. All right, Rick, The Shadow, one of my favorite older games. Yeah, you said you liked it. You got this last year, right? I did. Yeah, everybody was raving about it, and you thought, it's tough. I've got to get my hands on one of these. I wanted a hard game. I wanted something that had some saving power and a hard game and stuff, and it definitely fits the bill. It does. It has a lot of flow. Switch the Ferber rants, and you can pick which way. Now, have you got to the final battle? I've been to the final battle twice. I did within a pretty short amount of time, but I did not beat it, of course. Oh, the final battle is three short of a final battle. Yeah, it was two or three short of a final battle. And I had it for months. It was very nice. Mini play field. Do you like the mini play field on that? It's one of the best mini playfields in any machine I have. I have plenty of stuff. I think it's better and more fun. It's pretty easy to work on, too. It's just a couple bolts, and you lift it up if you need to add it. Unfortunately, the guy I got this from, he had everything pretty much going and everything. It was one of the machines I brought, but I didn't have anything to do. I didn't have to do that much sort of stuff. It's just really kind of cool. I love those. I love those. And you added my favorite, purple LEDs right in the inserts. The Purple Passions. Yeah. They didn't even add them into the domes up here. They had Purple Passions in the domes. You added the actual red dome or the purple dome covers. You can't see it. Can I turn it on? I'll show you real quick. Yeah, go ahead. I'm on. I don't know if it comes on. But up here, it needs to come here. Yeah, there's something behind it. Oh, hey, of course. Wait, one more time. Oh, yeah. Here we go. We're going to do an impromptu one more time. You don't have to touch it. I'm trying to get my brick wall to light up. Oh, yeah. Right here. See it? The brick wall. If you look at it, my wife and I actually made the brick wall, and it's more dimensional that way. So it's three-dimensional. It's not just a flat picture like a decal. That's a really cool idea. I've been trying to tell you that people would love those things. Yeah, yeah. I've changed it over to red. I like the red better. I think your idea was the purple passion might kind of follow through the change. That's right. Her professionals in this dealer are a must. All right, let's move over to No Good Gophers. All right. This is your baby right now. Yeah. You're loving this thing. It was so unexpected. I had bought the Shadow and I had that for a little bit and everything, and I still haven't yet to buy another game. And I called a collector that I know and stuff like that and just asked him if he had anything that was on his cutting block and everything. And he's like, well, this is it and everything. And I was like, well, you know, you've talked a little bit and stuff like that. I picked it up. I brought it home and stuff. And I just fell in love with the humor, the fun. It's just pure fun. You know, it's just something that's not serious at all. It's just fun. It's a Lawler game. It's a Lawler game. You know. It's got a lot going on. One of the best things I think about Lawler games, and I'm not obsessed with this. I'm not just all about his games necessarily. I think I was originally because of Whirlwind. but I like the fact that if you lose your multiball you're on a timer to get it back that's cool I like things that are being time I think pressure making make that shot if you don't make that shot it's over yeah I like deadlines like that this one has you like the hole-in-one shot yes everybody loves that yes it's a fun shot is there strategy to that shot or is it just like I'm just gonna hope for the best and shoot it up there I think if there is strategy I I haven't captured it yet. I haven't had it loaned up. But it's a good feeling when you get it. Sometimes when you hit it, obviously, it's bouncing off. Yeah. It's like a cart that's going in there, and it's just kind of my luck, you know. It is very, very clean. Now, this is fully LED. Yep. And you even added the extra, what are those, eight S&D LEDs? Yeah, eight S&D. Yeah, those are ass-takers. From Pinball Life. I had another order in for some other stuff that I really needed, and I just threw those in on the way. I'm thinking, I'm going to see what the hell that looks like. Yeah. because, you know, I've seen it red, white, and blue, and I was thinking, man, well, let's see if that thing lights up. It's reality. Yeah, and I think usually most of my idols aren't original. Of course, I'm on Pinside, I'm on RGP, and I'm reading other people's, what they've done and seen and everything. And somebody had done it, and I said, well, I've got to try that. But I didn't put it down here on these two white ones because of the close proximity to your eye. Yeah. Those look good because when you do ignite it, when you get multiball, of course, you have a moment in time and you stand back, and you can look at it. You can actually see the display go off. It's a nice show. It's like a firework show. It's one of the coolest things ever. I love it. And then you put frosted in the back. Yeah. It looks really cool. Now, you guys, I'm working on them here. This is me talking, sending to them to get some LEDs. Slowly to come to LED and really wish I had a color DMD on this one and this one over here. It'll come. It'll come. It'll come. You'll get addicted to that and you won't get addicted to power coding. And pretty soon, yeah, you're going to have to talk to them. And I'll be broke. We're all broke at pinball. Yeah. But yeah, this calls for LEDs. I mean, it's a comic type of theme or a cartoonish theme. It really calls for bright colors. I don't know. Like I said earlier, I'm kind of on the fence on this. Some of them, it seems like it's really good to do it. And I really like the sunlight comics because they're kind of a, you know, I don't know, it's just kind of a nice. Nice in between the comics. Nice in between, that's right. Between the warm and the cool whites. That's right. And I really like it. And if I put it in the back glass, before it was, sometimes with the LEDs and stuff, they can become like too much color L and D. You can bleed things too, too much blue or too much green and stuff like that. That one there is going to be toned down with these. It's way too bright. That's right. It looks good, though. It looks fantastic. It looks good. Let's go over Whirlwind, Rick, one of my favorite, I think it is my favorite System 11 game. It's the best System 11 game. Over, well, some people, you say Funhausen, like it's a WPC game. It's a System 11 game, right? Funhouse it runs off the WP it's in between I think there was a couple in between like Bride of Pambon WP the Funhouse that were kind of like separate from yeah I'm with you man I love Shots for Shots this thing is just the call outs are cool the feeling's cool everything is oh the lightning the call you're right about that the call outs and the lightning and everything's just awesome in this game yeah storm is over storm is coming and for me for me it's it's kind of what really got me involved in and stuff like that and I don't think I'll ever sell this one. Yeah, this is a special, special. And what's great about this pinball machine and stuff is if you can not play it for a couple weeks, six weeks and stuff like that, and you can go back and you can start over again, it's fun all over again. Yeah. I think with the System 11s, I think the thing that makes this one different is an extra layer of, it's just an extra layer with a seller multiball. Okay. It adds this whole layer to the game and stuff. Yeah. Trying to achieve completing your supercellar core value, trying to complete that stuff and getting that. What about the siren? The siren is so rare. I've had this machine for 10 years. I've heard the siren legitimately four times. And when I've hit it, I've hit it accidentally. Really? I've never been able to just focus. And that's saying something because I'm a shot guy. I like shots. And I like combos and everything, but it's so difficult to do the air raid siren on this game to make it happen on purpose. That's true. But when you hear it, it's just like a thrill, man. It's so cool to hear it. It's so cool. I love Whirlwind. Whirlwind's a great game. And the cabinet looks awesome, too, guys. All right. Let's go to, this is one of your favorite games, right? Creature. Creech. Now, this thing, tell me if you agree. When you first start playing Creature, it's an easy game to hate. It right at you it hard to know what going on I think a lot of people don like it because because the ramps the they all top each other and stuff like that it a little dark up there underneath the ramps everything so I put a spotlight up there yeah I really need to do the lights in the pop-up first like some people done one of the things I did on this one right here was change it over from the orange up above which I think we went with anything to the teal which I think goes really well on the pop bumper and the inlanes and I haven't done a lot of the machine but it's It's such a pretty machine and everything. People are going to ask, what color is your creature? It's green. Uh-oh. You heard it here, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. We've got a green creature. We're just a tinge of blue. A tinge of blue. So I don't play it very much. Keep it green. Keep the creature green. Say welcome to the race. The Mike DLED mod is pretty cool. I've heard that most people really want to get that mod. I don't know if he even makes them anymore. but once it goes blue, then maybe you can get that. Yeah, once it goes blue and into black, I might do something about it. Right now it's green. It's so pretty, man. This thing is awesome. What's your favorite shot in the game? Favorite shot on this one here, I haven't played this one for a month. My wife's been playing this a lot. Is it Snag Bar? Snag Bar is pretty cool. Yeah, because you're under pressure to hit the Snag Bar, so if you try to maximize your points and stuff like that. It's got another video mode on it. It's really cool. the boxing mode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was good. You know, the PP Tom. Yeah, you beat the crap out of that guy, right? No, I don't. I don't know what it is about certain video modes. Uh-huh. Someone really good at it. No, I'm saying the guy all the time. Oh, yeah, yeah. But as far as beating the crap out of him, that doesn't happen. I don't know. I get like a 60% or something like that on my boxing skills, you know. I get that too. But for some reason, this one here and Shadow, which I think you said you were good at. Oh, my God. I kick ass at that thing. I haven't gotten good at the Furbos yet. It's really strange. I mean, Fischels, I'm one of them. You're a seven times better pinball player than me. But when it comes to that, that's the one thing I can actually do is that. Yeah. I'm waiting through the Furbos and get your extra ball and stuff. Yeah, I love that. I wish, I'm going to get it eventually. I like playing on. I'm really good at Fischels. I plan on getting an extra ball. That's how I plan on getting an extra ball in Shadow. All right. What about the, I love the. Oh, the LED, the speaker panel LED was one of the best mods. Oh, how great. Right now some of my lights are on, some of them are off, which is natural. The starlight on the scrolls? Yes, the starlight is just beautiful. It's fantastic. One later on in time right there. This is one of the best pinball mods. When I first seen it I said, I've got to have this. And I had to wait and find it like a lot of other people. They finally did get it and it was money well spent. It was a fair price. Pretty soon we're going to do a top ten pinball mods of all time. This is going to be hard for that not to be. This will be one of mine. This will be one of mine. And if we're going to at some point do a top ten cabinet art? We're going to do a top ten. We're going to do a top ten. all time. It's going to be hard for that not to be... This will be one of mine. And if we're going to at some point do a top ten cabinet art, there's cabinet art on this. If somebody please with the newer Miley Williams, do something with the speaker panels for everybody so we can put some kind of decal. Change them from black. Because that's a heck of a way to do things. Just a little extra time. See, the artwork kind of pulls everything together. Stern is hitting miss on that, but yeah. I just love the creature on the side of the cabinet. I think it's so beautiful. Awesome. And the claw on the side of the head. Once again, this one has color. It was in a bar where most of us lived. I love it. I love it. But you know what? You can still open the door and you smell the bar. Hell yeah. Fried food. If you've been selling it for four years, you can still smell the cigarettes. Well, if you open it. That's right. That's right. That's what's cool about it. That's cool. If you guys see it in person, this thing is really clean, beautiful, original, great example of a creature. I like it. Let's move on to Adam's family. Everybody's got to have an Adam's family. I don't know. Yeah. I'm just saying it's one of those machines. The reason why I got this machine is because it was one up there on the top chair. Yeah. Everybody talked about it. And they talked about it for good reason. For all the pin-sized snobs out there, no mansionware at all. No magnet burn at all. And Cliffy's on the fester scoop. So it's awesome. And for some reason, my chair is still vacant. I don't know what the hell that's all about. I'm on a budget, I guess. Yeah. I've got to do a little bit of time. I think it looks awesome. Every time I try to talk you into selling this to me, you always say, oh, it's just an average ho-hum. It's nothing special. But every freaking time I come here, it plays great. It's awesome. It plays fast. And the play field is fantastic. It's not collectors by no means, but I don't really care about that. As I said, they do games that play fast. They're clean. They play fast, and everything works on it. That's right. That's right. So that's what I'm looking for. What do you love about this thing? Do you like that flipper over there? Do you like the... I think this one has one of the best multiball shout-outs. You get multiball and you know what the whole show is. That's right. Never gets old to hear that. Everybody comes over and still loves a hand coming out of the box. Everybody loves that. You've got to have that working and stuff. And another cool pin side is great because you can see there's so many smart people on there that are so creative and everything. It's true. Way beyond I could think. But the book mod is so simple on there. Yeah. Up there and stuff like that. The book mod. I really wish somebody would do this one over here. You know, put the container lights in there like that. That would be cool. That was one of the coolest things ever. And it was cheap too, so I like that. Yeah, this thing, you could just go mod crazy on these things. Oh, yeah. Some people do. I got a few things, the train stuff. The saddest thing in the world, Rick. We've got here locally. I can name two places right now that have Adams families and they're considered on location they're beaters aren't they they're on play this game gets abused because it gets played it's like the most depressing thing ever and then you call the guys and you're like please I'll give you thousands of dollars for that oh no we get $5 a week on that thing it's our money maker at $5 a week let me give you a new X-Men I'll show you something bright sorry for the rant It just kills me every time I go to these things. It is true, though. Most operators, and some machines I got from operators, I told you about the bar situation. Yeah. That's usually from operators, okay? And most of them are, Adam's family was, they call their moneymaker. That's the big one. I asked the guy, I said, you know, I know you have an Adam's family. He says, I got two of them. And I said, well, I had to do some talking to get him out of this Adam's family. I really did. Especially for the price and everything. But all he would say what actually happened is, he's a moneymaker, moneymaker. This is the one. It's hard to believe what year it was made, how far back it was made. They're still making money. People still play the game. It's one of the few ones that still make money. But do you think, Rick, that brings up a good point. Do you think that they're just so stuck in their mind, these old school routing guys, they're so stuck in their mind that this is the moneymaker, that they overlook some of the new bright stuff that could probably potentially make them more money? The guy I dealt with was an older guy, of course. I think it's a shit game. It's the Avengers. I hate the game. I'll talk good about games, I promise, guys. Avengers is one I don't like. But if you put it on location for a family phone center or something, it's going to kill. Kids dig it. You've got the Hulk. It's fresh. It's new. Exactly. It's relevant. Everybody loves the Avengers. The Marvel movies are really, you know. Kids over 20 years old. Kids under 20 years old probably have no clue. Some of them might know it because of the movies. I think the movie kind of regenerated a little bit. But that was what, 90s? I don't know what it is. It was 90s or so. Yeah, that was the late 90s. God, we love the Adam's Fiction. It's not Super D. I've never really thought about selling it. It's just one of those games that probably just stay. You know what I mean? You have to have it in your collection. I thought they had Twilight on too, but like I said, it was too cerebral. And once I got Indiana Jones, I was able to sell that there. I'll give them a Ghostbusters premium. Yeah, that's what I'm on. That and the Walking Dead premiums. Let's go down to Fishtails. Yeah. This is all LED. The only thing I changed on this here is I put the monster fish on there for $6.76. Yeah, I love that thing. So what do you like about this game? Okay, the boat ramp. Like I said, I focused on shots. I just want to have some shots. Really, they're fun to do. It's cool, yeah. Of course, I said I was interested in this one. It would sell. It's kind of on the cutting block. I'm not selling it right now, by the way, guys. And actually, my family is going to get first crack at it. My grandsons love this game. They love the topper. They love the fish. It would be cool in their house just to have it. Oh, yeah. This will be their first official pinball machine. Actually, my grandkids are playing his Zizzle pinball machine. That's how I met him. That's right. That's how you met him. And I get videos all the time of them playing it. Is that right? Yes, I do. Now, did you end up upgrading the flippers on that thing? I upgraded the flippers. What was that? My wife and I took a bunch of museum putty, and we put toys all over it and stuff. We styled it up a little bit. And that thing is pretty cool. Pretty cool. With the upgraded flippers and everything, you can make the shots. But is it the $400 eBay machine? Don't touch yourself. All right, what else do you like? Don't touch yourself. It sounds like don't touch yourself. I love this. What is he saying? All right, so what else? We'll get on the shots, back to the shots. I like the locked shot right there. Yes. The far right orbit. I love that. Yes, the far right one is cool, and that's how you build up the bolt ramp. That's how you build the bolt ramp. But one thing I love about this thing, and I loved it from the shot, from the beginning was shot shot and sit back to the foot and I'd light up all the fish down here so and then there's monster fish rawr you know you growl at you stuff like that and you say well big deal but hit it to where you get maximum points that first shot time it's where you get that first shot off there it comes to your right flipper and hit that shot okay with that right away okay the maximum points on that's all I like that's a fun show I like building up the the bolt bonus and stuff by that long orbit shot right there. Now Greg thinks this, he's not crazy about the theme, he thinks it's an ugly game. Sorry Greg, I think you think that. I think this thing is beautiful. I love the characters. I love the side artwork. I love that. Yeah, like I'm not a fisherman. I don't fish. It's just colorful. It's fun. I think it's great. It's kind of like No Good Gophers in the fact that it's just plain fun. It's just plain fun. That's very good. I like the balls, how it locks into the reel there. Yep. It's a well-thought-out game. It's a Mark Ritchie game, just like Indiana Jones. You do have a lot of Ritchie games. Well, and I've had Taxi, too, in the past. That was one game I forgot all about, Taxi. Taxi, you did have that. But I beat it so badly. Pretty much, you've got rid of all your, you've got the Whirlwind System 11. Most of yours are DMDs. Yeah, they are. Most of them. I'm not against System 11. I'd have more of them and stuff. I like the simplicity. They're a great one. It's good to have a mix of games of D&D's and the System 11s. It is true. Well, Rick, that about wraps it up this week on Straight Down the Middle. Thanks a lot, Rick. We appreciate you letting us come and hang out. And then hopefully, if we just keep sweet-talking Rick, maybe he'll let us come review that Tales of Arabian Nights or whatever awesome collection you have here. All right, everybody, check us out next week on Straight Down the Middle. See you. See you at the Expo. I tried to cradle you with my whimper, it was all in vain. It was all in vain. Baby, baby, baby, why are you doing me wrong? Do me wrong.