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Episode 44 – Fun Part of the Segment

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·May 25, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Slam Tilt discusses local tournaments, Greg Pavarelli's competitive career, and pinball venue experiences.

Summary

The Slam Tilt Podcast hosts Ron Howitt and Bruce Nightingale discuss Roger Moore's passing, welcome guests Alex Jones (4th appearance) and first-time guest Greg Pavarelli (IFPA 108th ranked player, age 26), and extensively cover recent tournament experiences including a confusing format at Morristown Game Vault and Albany League Finals on Roadshow. The episode features detailed gameplay analysis, operator venue praise, and personal tournament anecdotes from multiple local New York players.

Key Claims

  • Roger Moore passed away at age 89 from cancer

    high confidence · Ron Howitt opening segment discussing James Bond connection to Skyfall episode

  • Greg Pavarelli is ranked 108th in the world IFPA rankings at age 26

    high confidence · Ron directly states ranking and age during guest introduction

  • Greg is second in upstate New York championship behind Steve Bowden

    high confidence · Ron discussing Greg's regional ranking during interview

  • Dialed In production is ramping up; both Hobbit and another game's production lines are being shut down to make room

    high confidence · Greg discussing Sunshine Pinball League venue plans and production changes

  • There is an exploit on Ghostbusters where soft-plunging and re-plunging guarantees the skill shot (10% of score) every ball

    high confidence · Bruce explaining exploit learned from Jack's stream (Deadflip); Stern is aware of it

  • Stern knows about the Ghostbusters exploit and has not patched it

    high confidence · Bruce explicitly states 'Stern knows about it' and mentioned learning about it from Deadflip's stream

  • The Morristown Game Vault tournament format was confusing and scaled based on participant count (top 4/3/2 scores depending on entries)

    high confidence · Multiple hosts describing format confusion throughout tournament discussion segment

  • The vault charity tournament raised over $600 plus a large prize pool, totaling approximately $1800 in prize money

    high confidence · Greg and hosts discussing tournament payout structure and charity fundraising

  • David (vault owner) uses modified software on games like Lethal Weapon 3 to adjust free multiball mechanics

    high confidence · Ron noting LW3 had modified software removing free multiballs on third ball

Notable Quotes

  • “Stern knows about it. I learned about it from Jack's stream, Deadflip.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~45:00 — Confirms manufacturer awareness of Ghostbusters skill shot exploit while remaining unfixed in code

  • “There's nothing next to Peter's games when it comes to location pinball”

    Greg Pavarelli @ ~22:00 — Praising specific venue operator's machine maintenance quality

  • “The only real way you can do the eliminations, it has to be computerized.”

    Tim (T-Sex/tournament organizer) @ ~65:00 — Tournament format analysis regarding scalable bracket management

  • “I think my favorite part of the weekend was... getting to hear some of those amazing original Papa Duke stories and Broadway arcade stories, like, from the guy himself”

    Greg Pavarelli @ ~87:00 — Reference to Steve Epstein's historical knowledge of Papa Duke and early pinball arcade scene

  • “They're discontinuing them? They're both lines down. For Dialed In. For Dialed In. Yes!”

    Greg Pavarelli / Bruce Nightingale @ ~28:00 — Production capacity shift signal indicating major reallocation for Dialed In manufacturing

Entities

Ron HowittpersonBruce NightingalepersonGreg PavarellipersonSteve BowdenpersonSteve EpsteinpersonDavidpersonSanjaypersonTim

Signals

  • ?

    code_update: Ghostbusters contains a known soft-plunge/re-plunge skill shot exploit that guarantees 10% of score every ball. Stern is aware but has not patched it.

    high · Bruce states 'Stern knows about it' and learned technique from Deadflip stream; describes exact exploit mechanics

  • ?

    product_concern: Ghostbusters has unresolved switch/logic glitch where right orbit from left trap fails to register skill shot or mode start, instead lighting a broken 'jail' state

    high · Bruce describes detailed glitch affecting qualifying rounds; notes 'That's not a glitch. That's a broken game'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Chicago Gaming Company is ramping up Dialed In production; shutting down production lines for both Hobbit and another game to accommodate

    high · Greg states 'They're discontinuing them? They're both lines down. For Dialed In. For Dialed In. Yes!'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Morristown Game Vault operator David proactively modifies game software (e.g., LW3 free multiball settings) and maintains machines to high competitive standard

    high · Ron notes LW3 has 'modified software where you don't get the free multiballs lit on third ball'; hosts praise owner's enthusiasm and care

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Greg Pavarelli ranks 108th globally at age 26; ranks second in upstate NY championship; indicates strong emerging young talent in region

    high · Ron directly states rankings during guest introduction; Greg confirms growth trajectory

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.309

0:00
Everybody shut up! Right now, please give your undivided attention to Clark Cobb and his good friend Socko!
0:16
Socko's got a hand up his butt. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Howitt, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. A sad day today is. A sad day. And we'll tell you why in a second. Welcome to episode 44, Skyfall. And as we're on our James Bond kick, we must mention today is a sad day in the world of James Bond. Probably a happy day in the world of Spectre, I'm guessing. Yes. As Roger Moore passed away at the age of 89. I actually thought he was older. Yeah, but he was the longest running Bond. He was the oldest Bond. So we learned a lot today. Yeah, he's actually older than Connery. Yes. And he unfortunately passed away from cancer. So, very sad day. And it's fitting that we've been doing all the Bond stuff. And don't forget he was the Saint. He was the Saint. I always thought it was funny that in the Saint, one of the gimmicks was the fact that there was no stunt double. He did all his own fighting stunts. Yet in a James Bond movie, there's like always a stunt double for him. Oh, yeah. But we have guests today. We have guests? Plural. Yes, that's true. Plural.
1:54
Well, go ahead. First, bringing back for his, I think his fourth time on the show. Is it fourth? Let me ask him. Is it your fourth time? Yeah, I think four. All right. See, I'm pretty good with these numbers. Mr. Alex Jones.
2:09
Hey, folks. Glad to be back. Talking about George Soros' latest WikiLeaks documents. We've got it right here. So we've got a lot to cover.
person
Roger Mooreperson
Alex Jonesperson
Slack Cobbperson
Frank Romeroperson
Bethperson
Papa Duke (John Papaduke)person
Slam Tilt Podcastorganization
Morristown Game Vaultvenue
Sunshine Pinball Leagueorganization
Albany League Finalsevent
Danish Pinball Openevent
Ghostbustersgame
Roadshowgame
Buck Rogersgame
Dialed Ingame
Lethal Weapon 3game
?

event_signal: Morristown charity tournament attempted scalable bracket format with randomized tiebreaker resolution; format was confusing and organizers acknowledge they would not repeat it

high · Multiple hosts describe complexity; Tim notes 'The only real way... has to be computerized'; raised $1800+ for charity

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venue operators are implementing custom software modifications to adjust game difficulty and balance (free multiball removal, tilt sensitivity adjustments)

    medium · David running LW3 with modified software; discussion of tilt bob adjustments at various venues (Keeler's Place, Sunshine)

  • ?

    community_signal: Young players like Greg Pavarelli traveling to European tournaments (Danish Open, Netherlands); indicating growing integration of US players in international circuit

    medium · Greg flying to Copenhagen for Danish Open and Netherlands follow-up; references established tournament culture in Europe

  • ?

    venue_signal: Morristown Game Vault converted from bank building; maintains original architectural features (vault room with safe cracker); appeals to collector/enthusiast market

    medium · Hosts note building still looks like bank; vault room doubles as merchandise area; hosts appreciate thematic venue design

  • ?

    operational_signal: Local leagues using bracket tournament structures (winner's/loser's brackets); revealing complexity in scoring and advancement mechanics

    medium · Albany Finals League using bracket format; Ron describes two-loss requirement as top seed; confusion about league win vs finals win split

    • 2:19
    Who the fuck is Alex Jones, boy? What the hell are you talking about? Damn. That's probably someone Hank Hill would listen to, I would think. It probably would be. You know, Alex Jones has got it right.
    2:33
    But we also have another guest. A first-time guest. I'm not going to screw up his name because I like his name. So it rolls off the tongue. Greg Pavarelli. What a great name you have. How's it going, everybody? Thanks, Bruce. Thanks for having me. No problem. No, no problem. So, as we ask every guest, what got you into pinball? Oh, let's see. I think the first time I played pinball was at a bar when I was 20. I snuck in to play as Spider-Man. And I realized that there was so much of it in New York City, and there was a big opportunity to get into it. It was a good social scene. So many awesome places in Brooklyn and Manhattan. And I kind of just picked it up quick. I had people like Frank Romero show me the ropes, and it just came to fruition. you are ranked now 108th in the world at the age of 26 that is very impressive yeah thanks man it's been an interesting season I keep getting 10s it's hard to move up when you need to pass a 10 yes you are second in the upstate New York championship right now regular state champion you're right behind that Steve Bowden guy hi Steve that's like virtually being first I love when Steve Batton's ahead of me. He's never playing New York. I know. So you're actually our first. And Jen is like 50 points behind you. So very nice. Sunshine Pinball League, baby. Sunshine Pinball League. Yes, it does help you. I think you guys are all going to be buff this year. I barely played this year. I'm in 33rd. I'm not even on the board or something. Oh, you are. I'm 50th. T-Sex is on the way, though. T-Sex is 13th. He did. The question is, will he play Connecticut?
    4:23
    I've got to take you down, Greg. I can't go to Connecticut. I'm playing Rhode Island. Ron Howlett is 55th in this game. Yes. Excellent.
    4:36
    We have some good players with us right now, so it's going to be nice to get a talk about, you know, IFPA and more stuff going on in this episode of Skyfall. Greg, what games do you own right now? I own one machine. Which machine would this be? Oh, I know you're going to love this first. Oh, I know your game. I know you're a big Gottlieb fan. I love Gottlieb so much. I bought this game due to Levy not having space in the funtorium, and he came across a pretty decent deal. It's got new boards. It plays like a gem. It's a perfect game for a guy like me that can't fix machine death. I've got the all-famous Buck Rogers. Beanie, beanie, buck. Buck, beanie, suck. Suck.
    5:22
    I knew that was coming. How apropos. I believe that was one of our games we hate last week. Yeah, it was. Two.
    5:32
    I just paid a golly. I won't lie. I've played the heck out of it. I kind of love it, but I am willing to trade up. So for all the people out there that are hearing this, if you're interested in my Buck Rogers in playing condition with the new board, I'm trying to move up in the world of Tim Bolling. He's selling it already. I'm kidding.
    5:52
    We have a cold house. There's three of them. We got a cold people getting ready to game. Ron's trying to get rid of his Ghostbusters, so hey, you never know. Hey, Ron had a good game on Ghostbusters this weekend. I know he hates it, but he played well. I had a good ball on Ghostbusters. And then I just needed to... Well, we'll get into that debacle. It'll be soon. And then we also have somebody who's trying to get rid of a Hobbit. so hey, you never know. That's a game I hate. Me too. But Hobbit is no longer going to be available in a couple weeks.
    6:24
    They're discontinuing them? They're both lines down. For Dialed In. Yes! And they're going to put both for Dialed In. They are really ramping up for this. I don't think I've seen either Bruce or Ron at Sunshine yet I'm going to implore you both to take a visit. I think we're getting dialed in LE. Dude, dude, seven and a half hours. I know. For a tournament during the week.
    6:57
    Well, you heard it here first. We're going to try to do a 12-hour tournament overnight with 64 people, the winner of which will get a jackpot. So if we do that, maybe that will give you a little push. That would be incentive to come down because I can always stay at my sister-in-law's house. Let's see. Sunshine, that was no parking, right?
    7:16
    No, but I'll let you park in my house, Ron. Okay. Yeah, Greg doesn't live too close to Sunshine, though, so. I would just take the train in and then take the subway. That's how I would do it. I can usually park at Sunshine on a Sunday pretty easily on the street a couple blocks away. It's not so bad. No, I don't mind a subway or a train system. That's fine. I'm easy with that. You're talking to a person who used to hang out in the city a lot Yay! Hey! You guys value game quality really well You're like probably the two owner players That have the best maintained machines that I know Thank you There's nothing next to Peter's games when it comes to location pinball I disagree Peter doesn't like it because he doesn't win there And it's the only place he doesn't beat us at No, because he's not a player And he doesn't know how the games are supposed to play I wish he could just set a tilt-bob slightly looser or make it one extra tilt warning instead of none or something. But sadly, when you miss a shot because you don't know the game, you pay by tilting every time. So you'll never be able to win a tournament there unless you go there every Wednesday. So, Tim, you have my disease when it comes to Keeler's Place.
    8:27
    I have the problem with Keeler's the same way you have the problem with Sunshine. Yeah, but everyone got mad at me at Keeler's for tightening tilt bobs, So now they're super loose, and if you miss, hopefully you can flange one of those games out and save the ball. I don't know what place Bruce is going to. I never had any problem with it. So not the tilts, but just everything else. Yeah, the games are close. You definitely need to adjust. I remember the first time we ran one of those open tournaments, and I hadn't been there in a couple months. And, you know, you watch the ball float from one side of the play field to the other, and you just don't know how to react. Bowden, you know, Steve was great, though, with his freaking videos. and he was watching and he was talking about that funhouse down there at the vault. He's like, look at the floaty funhouse, Bruce.
    9:14
    Something about that funhouse. Everybody was getting 20 million. I know. Because it was so slow. It's like you were like Babe Ruth winding up for the freaking home run shot. I never saw so many balls go into Rudy's mouth.
    9:29
    Funny shot. Oh, Greg will fit right in, I see. He will fit right in. Oh, good Lord. So, Greg, you're going on a trip soon, aren't you? Yeah, Zen and I both fly out from JFK this Sunday night at 7 p.m., and we land in Copenhagen Monday morning and straight to the tournament. Oh, boy. The Danish pinball open is later that day. Hopefully that does not impede in that. It won't the first day. I did it last year in the Netherlands, and it wasn't that bad. The second day, just as soon as you're done with that thing, go right to bed. Yep. Sleep it off. Yep. And actually, after IFPA is over, we're probably going to go to the Netherlands. We might stop off in Amsterdam. Oh, Amsterdam rocks. Oh, bye. Yeah. Oh, sorry.
    10:23
    You will love it. Is it Copenhagen or Copenhagen? I think Americans say Copenhagen, but everybody I've spoke to that's been there says Copenhagen.
    10:33
    Copenhagen, you went wrong. We say everything wrong in this podcast, but Jesus Christ. They've got cool formats that they're using over there. Just make sure you know all the rules before starting. Yeah, Bruce is familiar with the weird rules of Europe. Well, the Danish Open is a lot like a tournament you would expect. It's just a pop-up entry of eight games, but it's no re-dos, no re-entries, so there's pressure on. But the second tournament is interesting. I've never played in anything like it. You get randomized into a group of nine players, and you play against each person twice head-to-head, so 16 matches, and the top four out of the nine move on to A, and the next two move on to B, something like that. So you're trying to, like, be consistent. I like that. That sounds pretty cool, actually.
    11:23
    I'm confused. I get confused with any rules, really. So last weekend was not good for me. Yeah, that was confusing for me, and I was helping them run it, sort of. I was very confused. Let's talk about that. This past weekend was a tournament at the Morristown Game Vault, which had a very interesting format.
    11:44
    It was something like, now I may have this wrong here. It was like, what, on 10 games? and if you got, was it the top score or the top two scores?
    11:55
    It was supposed to be top four because they had set up everything to look like an 80-plus player tournament with a 40-player finals, but it scaled down for fewer participants. So if it was 60 players, it would be top three scores, 20 players, it would be top two scores, or 40 players would be top two scores, and 20 would make finals. All right, I think it was, what was it then? Was it 40? It wound up being 60 with 12 players playing one game in the last hour, even though it was $5 for three games. They just played one game each.
    12:31
    Magic. Hashtag Super League. I think the idea was that, hey, anyone can make the finals. You literally only have to play one game. Off the street too, right? Yep. Off the street, yep. You just come in. Come on down. Come on in. If you get first or second, you get to the finals. Oh, Jesus Christ. It wasn't actually that. It didn't end up being that at all, actually. Yeah, because when you have 30 players make the finals, you can call it top three players make the finals and some other stuff, but 30 players, there's a lot of players to make a finals. And when we had to go on Steve Bowden's live video way down the list, you realized how many names 30 names is. it takes a while to find all those players and kick them in there. Plus 16 players made B, so I think anyone who came back the next day was probably playing in some sort of final. It was just four people, and they had to wait for them to show up. It was like a 2 o'clock beat. Yeah, it was a stretch. I have to admit that while the format was confusing, and I don't think anyone involved would ever choose to run it again, the qualifying period was cool in two senses, that there was a purpose to playing your hardest on every game, which a couple of us did and having that buy was a big advantage for Game Choice even though I totally choked it after getting it but also it boosted the pot. People were trying their hardest because they didn't realize that they wouldn't qualify without a top three score so a lot of people were paying the entry fee. I think the charity aspect of it helps people feel confident in putting money into it but I mean we got $1800 to play for plus the money raised for the charity so outside of the circuit it was the most money that I've competed for in a tournament and there's something to say about that. That's pretty awesome.
    14:17
    And all I had to do was win in the second round. I was guaranteed $100. But what happened? I failed. However, Bruce, your normal stuff failed out of the money? Hold on. Now, last week we talked about this, and you told me I had to qualify. You told me I would qualify. I think everyone did. Everyone did. I think the bum down the street with the freaking jingle can was trying to... Hey, Bruce, what's the number one score on Amigo?
    14:50
    I don't know. That would be me. That would be me, number one score. So guess what? It wouldn't have freaking mattered if it was like 20 people I would have been in.
    14:59
    So bite me. On my last ticket, by the way. Yeah. I love getting them going. It's so easy. Oh, it's so easy. So I get through the first round, and I almost had a 12er because they were doing the Papa scoring. So I had a 4, 4, and a 2, first, first, and second. We get to the next round, and we get to the last game, and it's on Ghostbusters. You're welcome. Yes. So I'm playing this thing, and I own it, and I still don't freaking understand it. The first ball, I purposely went for the captive ball to light lock. I just wanted to hit it twice just to get the lock lit. I figured maybe I could do, I want at least a multi-ball. Good strategy, in my opinion. Well, just because the modes and the short plunging the skill set and all that crap, maybe I could just get a multi-ball and maybe something will happen. Oh, no, you don't know about the new exploit on Ghostbusters? Oh, well, we can talk about that. Hold on, let me get through my paint. So the second ball, sure enough, I start multiball. So while I'm in multiball, I'm also hitting the captive ball. So I have some kind of doubler crap going. I don't really know what's going on.
    16:16
    The multiball and Ghostbusters has the shortest damn multiballs. As soon as balls come out, they drain. They drain. So I got the deal where, like, pretty much everything drained, and I had the, like, a couple seconds to hit the ramp for the jackpot. and I hit it and I get this super jackpot of like 43 million. But I know I'm like, damn, I don't know how that happened. So I end up with like, I don't know, I think I had, what did I have, 156, I don't remember. About 60. Yeah, about 60, like 160 million. So then Sanjay gets up there on his third ball and he kicks ass. He passes me. So I get up on my third ball and I probably only really need to hit a couple shots because I'm in a mode. So at least I don't have to start a mode. I just need to hit a couple shots. That didn't happen.
    17:09
    I think I got control. You know, I shot one thing, missed it, and I could never get control back, and it was gone, and I lost. I thought you had it for me.
    17:22
    Sucked. Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I know you don't know the rules that well, but you didn't go for the 10% skill shot. You went for PKE. if you went for the right orbit, you had him on the skill shot, and you went for the wrong one. And I can tell you about the exploit, because you're guaranteed to get that skill shot. What you do is, if you keep the skill shot in the default position, so right orbit, and E in the top lanes, you plunge the ball halfway up the ramp,
    17:50
    and then when the ball comes down before it hits the plunge lane switch again, you plunge it back into play very quickly, automatically gives you that skill shot. So you get 10% of your score. Stern knows about it. I learned about it from Jack's stream, Deadflip. And I started doing it every single time on the Topps one at Rock Fantasy. They got to change that. Yeah, they know about it. You take the default. You plunge it. Not hard enough to actually, okay. And rolling back to the plunger, and then you hold it. And as soon as the ball comes back, you let go of it. Pop it around again. Is the idea you don't want it to actuate the switch at the bottom, or is that the deal? That's how it was described to me, but it seems like the switch just needs like half a second to make sure it's being pressed. When you say you plunge it right back and it goes, returns to the plunger, are you plunging it into playback? Yeah, you plunge full plunge. Oh, so you do a soft plunge and then before it even really finishes landing, you plunge it all the way back as hard as you can. Yep, like a windup, like you throw a pitch to yourself. and swing your bat at it. I don't know if I would be testing stuff like that, playing for your life in a third ball three of a game three of a round where there's a lot of money at stake, but that seems tricky. Well, what happens if you fail?
    19:11
    Yeah, when you fail, you miss the hit. The ball lands right back in the trough. You wait a couple seconds until it lets you select skill shots again, and then you just do it again. Lob it up, swing, home run, 10% of your score. This particular Ghostbusters had a really bad glitch that was happening. I don't know if it was a switch issue, but you would hit the right orbit from a left trap on the skill shot, and instead of registering the skill shot or the mode start, it wouldn't register either one, and then it would light ghost to light the mode instead, and then that ghost target wouldn't light the mode at all. So you'd just be in jail. So like ball one, you'd hit your shot, you should start, where's the dog, and the 10%. you don't get it, and then you're in some kind of weird jail where the only thing you can light is multiball locks, but you don't even want to start your multiball because you can't light any modes. It was the worst. It happened in qualifying a bunch. That's not a glitch. That's a broken game. Yeah. They didn't fix it, so that's weird. Who are you going to call?
    20:13
    Ghostbuster! All things aside, the vault is a pretty great place. I think Ron would agree with me on that. The games are playing pretty good. Yeah, the games were in his... And things like you play, well, Lethal Weapon 3 was leaning heavily to the right, but it had, like, different software on it. It had the modified software where you don't get, like, the free multi-balls lit on the third ball deal. So you can tell somebody went through, you know, to try to, you know, some care was taken into the games. That's what I'm saying. The owner, David, the owner, David's very enthusiastic about pinball and bringing the pinball community into the vault. And he definitely cared a lot about what was going on. And I respect him a lot for that. Yeah, I would have gone if I didn't have a panic attack every time I read the rules.
    20:58
    And then piss everyone off. It was better than being at like 10 p.m. the night before, like, what's going on? I don't understand. And then I knew you were a goner, dude. But when it said like, well, there's top two scores will make it, but one of the scores will be selected randomly. And I'm like, oh, God, no. What does that word mean? It could mean anything. That was the most painful process I've ever experienced in a pinball tournament. Like, when I run a tournament, I just want to know exactly what's going on all the time in case anyone asks me. And, like, I don't think any of us knew what was going on by the time qualifying was over. It was just a nightmare. The only real way you can do the eliminations, it has to be computerized. It has to be, like, you have two leaderboards, what everyone is at and then what people are at with eliminations. That's why you need to go to the tournament stomp. You have to go to the stomp tournament because the stomp tournament is not going to be no dicking around. I think my favorite part of the weekend was, you know, Steve Epstein is a legend, and he brings so much to pinball, and it was really great that he was out there running the tournament and that we raised so much for charity, I think over $600 plus the huge prize pool. I got to stay at Epstein's house and got to hear some of those amazing original Papa stories and Broadway arcade stories, like, from the guy himself, and it was just a great experience. Plus, didn't he make the top eight? Yeah, he did great. So, and my favorite part of the place is the fact that they have a safe cracker in the vault room. Safe vault, yeah. Yeah, it's actually the safety deposit box room, but they have a safe cracker in there. That's pretty cool. That's kind of cool. Oh, yeah, from the outside, it still looks very much like a bank. Oh, yeah. You can tell what everything was. You know, the lobby, where they had all the merchandise was like an office. The break room had three games in it now, but you could tell it was the break room. and the winner was Sanjay I know hot streak Sanjay he kept it on good for Sanjay he actually hardly survived the top 8 he was in a group where he ended ball 3 game 3 with only 500,000 on space shuttle and he walked away to go play lord of the rings and I walked up to him and I was like how's it going and he's like I'm eliminated because the player three needed like 60,000. My friend Beth from New York City, she's a great player, and she just got unlucky and got a house ball, and he counted himself out. He thought it was over. Wow. And the funny thing is, like, I think it was, did Sanjay came Saturday? Yeah, he showed up late. Yeah, because Steve Bowden was like, where's Sanjay? I can't believe he's not here yet. And I told him, he'll be here.
    23:35
    He's always late. He'll be here. And sure enough, a couple hours later, there he is. Tim was a witness to this, the weird rules for qualifying. Because people were confused, I had to argue for Sanjay to even stay in A, because they were about to eliminate him from A with their ridiculous randomization. I think Steve caught on. Yeah, it actually hindered my sexting escapade that night, too. Oh, what?
    23:58
    Okay, what's this about, Sam? Well, all right, what happened was I was generally being a huge pain in the ass because I couldn't figure out how they would resolve these tiebreakers. Actually, I think if it was just 20 players in the finals, it would have been a lot less stressful. But when it bumped up to 60 and they had to get 30 in finals, it became much more difficult of a task to figure out who was in finals and who wasn't. So because of me being annoying, I think Steve Fadden's like, look, here's what we're doing. We're going on Facebook Live. I'll show you the process. But this just kind of broadcasts in a three-hour argument between several people on how we could resolve this thing. And I kept getting worried because Greg and Steve Bowden had come to the most efficient algorithm for determining it. But visually, the way they laid it out, it made Bashi potentially lose a buy. So then he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, you can't do it this way. But it's like, no, you have to. And then it made other people go, whoa, whoa, whoa, what about this? What about this? And it's like, no, you guys don't understand. And if you start moving the cards like that, you know, all this stuff's going to happen. So at the same time, once Steve went live on Facebook, this girl DMs me on Twitter. That's a phrase the kids will understand. And I saw this message on Twitter from this girl that I had been chatting with. And I was like, all right, I'll reply to this after. I'm sure, you know, this whole process is going on fine. And then like two hours later have passed and everyone's screaming at each other on Facebook Live. and I like go back and I'm like, hey, sorry about that. I got a little busy, you know. You see what was happening was they were trying to resolve this pinball tiebreaker and I was trying to explain to them you know the most efficient algorithm they could use in order to determine the results And just totally lost the conversation It just went nowhere She fell asleep And, yeah, that was that. So I missed that opportunity. Hold on.
    25:58
    Yeah, T-Sex next morning. And first, bum, bum, ba-dum, ba-dum. And you're called T-Sex? I don't get it. I know. At one point to diffuse Francesco's illogical point of view on the subject, I said, Tim is a math guy. Just trust him.
    26:17
    I wasn't in Jersey. I was so stressed out about that part of the format that that's like, okay, I don't want to go. I don't want to deal with this. I just want to, you know, it's going to happen. I don't need to see it. But then Steve let me see it, and I had to get invested. I had to do all this stuff, cock-block myself.
    26:36
    Yes, yes, you did. The first ever cock block tournament. Yes. I don't think that's the first time pinball cock blocked somebody. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no. I'm a believer of that, and it's happened to me.
    26:50
    Okay. Can we change the subject? Yes, we can. The Albany Finals League Finals. Oh, yeah. See, the one, I guess, if you would say positive thing was when I got eliminated, I looked at the time, and it's like 2.30. It's like, hey, I can actually make it back to Albany in time for league finals, which I didn't think I would be able to make. So got in the car. Off I go. I made it right when they were starting. You know, I walk in. I go, Ron, you did show up. And we started our league finals, which they just did. It was all head-to-head with a bracket with, like, they had a loser's bracket, the winner's bracket, like, you know, the typical bracket-type crap. and I was the top seed, being the tops in the league or whatever, so I didn't play for a little while. But I won all my matches. We got to the final, and I'm playing the president of the league, Tim. Not Timmy. Another Tim. Albany Tim.
    27:50
    He picked the location. He has, like, all the high scores on this. It's a roadshow. This was all one game, roadshow. That is our league game. So the first game, we're in a situation where I'm in the winner's bracket. I have to lose twice to lose. That's the one part I didn't even put on our Facebook page. It's even worse than it appears. So I play the first game, and I get one of those deals, you know, punch the ball, like it hits its fling, drains immediately. I hit Ted a couple times. He doesn't register. You know, that kind of stuff, whatever. So I get slaughtered that game. So the second game, I'm there like, I'm going for multi-ball. I don't care about anything else. As long as I get multi-ball and get one jackpot, I don't care if I lose. That's all I want to do. So what I did is, and I noticed earlier one of the women in our league, she was like hard plunging. She was not going for the skill shot, and it would just hit Ted. I'm there, perfect, three hits on Ted with the ball saver. So I was able to get Ted at least ready, and on the second ball, lock two balls, start multi-ball, perfect. Just what I want to do, except I could never get a shot at Ted. I could never get my balls in his mouth.
    29:05
    Silence. Oh, my. But it was just one of those deals where it was three balls, got down to two balls, and I could not just get a clear shot at him, and I couldn't get trapped up. I must have had at least four or five slap saves, where just saving balls all over the place, could not get a shot on him, and then drained out, like a simultaneous thing, of course, where they both drain. And I'm figuring, like, oh, it's over. I lost at this point. That was my shot. Well, Tim had a shitty game also. So he's got, like, and I'm looking right at it, 70,804,770. And I had, like, 56 million.
    29:42
    So I plunge the skill shot, miss. But I start the mode, which was Mardi Gras. And, you know, it's like switch hits. It's like, okay, I'll go for the spinner. That's a good one. I'll go for the spinner. It switch hits. So I go for the spinner. And, of course, I hit the stand-up next to the spinner instead, and it drains. And I'm figuring, oh, I lost. Like, it's not even close. What I didn't realize is I had actually had a hold bonus award on the second ball. So I had held bonus. And it added everything up, and I ended up with $70,663,490, basically losing by about $140K. 140K. A couple switchers. Yeah.
    30:26
    That fucking sucked, especially after losing earlier in the day and then losing that. And you heard Bruce in the back of your mind going... Well, the weirdest thing is that after it was over, I get money. It's like, yeah, but you won the league. Huh? Okay, what were we playing for there then? I'm still confused on that. Congrats, Ron. Yeah. I feel like giving the money back, like, yeah, I don't even want this. I've failed. What's the explanation on that? How did you lose the final and then win the league? I don't know. It must be like, it must be a separate thing. I have no idea. I didn't get it either. But whatever. I just, so I posted the score on our slam till page and got lots of sympathy from our listeners. Yeah, fail, fail. Oh, my. A kick in the mail ball bag. That was good. Raymond Davidson, one of the top ten players in the world. Fail. Thank you, Raymond. Oh, Bruce. Bruce, wow. So far, two for two in the fail category. Thank you, Bruce.
    31:28
    Zach, I bet you didn't go for the skill shot. Pete, fail. Another one. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you for the love. Thank you for the sympathy. I hate all of you. Yes. Refresh it. There's a new comment.
    31:47
    Oh, God. Okay, refresh it. There's a new comment. All right. I'm looking at it right now. I'm sorry it turned out this way. Thank you, Tim. Oh, wait, wait. Refresh it again, sorry. Jesus.
    32:02
    All right, we're refreshing it again. Scintillating page reloading action. Oh, I'm sorry it turned out this way. Fail. Thank you, Tim.
    32:14
    Five Facebook trolling. Oh. Oh, that's classic. I love it. Yeah, I love it, too. Short of failing, I was actually winning the top spot in Central New York Pinball League. So I won that league night again for Central New York. And I am now the top in the Central New York League for one more match to go. So I'll hopefully get the top. I'll get one of the two top positions and get a bye. Nice one. And if you lose, I will be relentless. So you better win. What? Sunset. Or the league? The league. I've won it twice out of four, or out of four times I've won it twice, so I'm not doing too bad there. Yeah, but there's only like four people in the league, right? Yes, people there's 20.
    33:01
    How many points did you pick up for those? About 11. Not bad. Not bad, if you win it, if you take it all. So we now have heard of Ron's escapades for the weekend and mine. Yeah, I don't have a sympathy for Ron because I played even worse than him on Sunday. He kicked my ass a little bit despite getting eliminated with me. Yeah, Greg, he's been in a position I've been in before where, like, oh, I have game picks. And then you pick games and you end up, like, getting slaughtered on the games you pick. Just like... I was ice cold. I didn't get to play. I was ice cold coming off the bye. I made the mistake of after the first game went terribly, I was really good at that Star Trek Valley, and I felt like I got some bad luck. I tilted my ball three trying to make a save. and after that I just did the worst strategy you could ever utilize when you're driving the bus. I picked the machines that I saw that my opponents didn't do well on in qualifying. Oh, the worst strategy. It's just the stupidest thing you can do. I don't know what I was thinking. I picked Ghostbusters to play against Ron and Mint because neither of them had even played it and I picked Time Machine or whatever that game is because none of them had even broken a million in qualifying but of course the guy that I thought had no clue how to play got like five million on ball two which was the best score throughout the whole weekend.
    34:15
    So, Nint, that was his name? He's old school Papa. He used to work at the Broadway Arcade. Yeah, I never seen that guy before. That guy had it going on, man. That guy was, damn, he was playing Time Machine. He's like alley passing to get the Star Warp. That dude was good. I'd never seen him before. It's like, who is this guy? Damn. He had the hardest group in terms of every player being a strong player. I felt like I didn't get a big advantage from my second seed that you guys came in. And I think all of you had, you and Sanjay both had 10 points in the first round, which is almost perfect.
    34:52
    And Nis is a great player as well. I redeemed myself, though. Last night, Levy and I and the Mutants won our third consecutive team league championship for pinball in New York City, so I feel a little bit better about myself. Nice. Team league. Now, see, that sounds like it would be fun. Yeah. This is kind of team league. You need some people for that. That's the thing. It's the most popular New York City league. How many people per team?
    35:14
    The maximum is 10. We operate with about six, usually four or five show up. The A division has 10 teams or 12 teams. The B division has two separate nights, Monday and Tuesday, so they have like over 20 teams. Oh, shit. It's not that far different than Buffalo. I think there's Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and Buffalo all kind of mimicked the format that Chris Medina made up all those years ago. I think 2011 was the inaugural. No, Buffalo went a little wacky with their stupid split flipper. Now they want to do tag team. That's even weirder. I know. Thank you. That's why. That's a Buffalo flair, baby. It's like you're in the middle of a bad ball. Tag out, tag out. No, no. It's going to be like three minutes in. It's going to be like a whistle or a buzzer, and you have to switch with your partner. And you can't flip until you touch them. Yes. They can't flip, and neither of you can flip. Yeah, it's not pinball anymore. Yeah, that's just... It's a tag team, I think, of wrestling. That's more like a relay. Yeah, a relay, whatever, yeah, but still... Okay, going on to Buffalo pinball, there's a good thing going on this weekend on the 27th. Kevin Manny and Sir McTuna is going to be doing a 12-hour Twitch... Mr. McTuna.
    36:37
    Sir McTuna. I'm going to go that way. That's the way I do things. They're doing a 12-hour Twitch marathon. So Kevin will be doing six games, and McTuna will be doing six games. And they'll be going back and forth between each other, and they're giving away – they're doing auctioning off stuff for prizes and gift certificates to Domino's. I heard they were talking about it a little bit last night on their podcast, and it sounds really good, and it's for a good cause, St. Jude's. Kevin actually asked me to be on for one of the hours. Unfortunately, I cannot because I will be going down to Jersey this weekend, boys. I'm going to the Taylor Ham Pork Roll Festival.
    37:17
    Wow. I'm speechless. Somehow that fits with you perfectly, though. I can definitely see that. Pork roll, baby. Pork roll, Taylor Ham. What? I can't get this image of Bruce eating pork rolls out of my mind now.
    37:35
    Yeah, yeah. I could totally see that, though. And then if you want to go check out those guys this weekend, it is on Twitch, Buffalo Pinball. It's going from 12 to 12. So 12 noon until 12 midnight.
    37:50
    If you do go on there, tell them, Slam Tilt Boys pushed you over there. And if you definitely want to follow them for this good cause for St. Jude's. ACDC re-released. Oh, really? It's back in black. No, it's not.
    38:08
    It's back without people in it. Well, yeah, Phil Rudd, the drummer, the guy who paid someone to kill someone else, yeah, he didn't make it back. He didn't make it back? No. And his whole face, just him dancing across the middle of the place. Yeah, so instead of a hand-drawn ugly face, you get a Photoshopped full picture of him. It's much better. It's a lot better.
    38:32
    And then there's... Yeah. And there's a real bell in it. This time, instead of the pro not having it, it's going to have LED lighting. So a little bit better for that. But MSRP, $6,100.
    38:44
    It's a power move by Stern. So many people rave about that game. I have a lot of friends like Zen that have always wanted to own that game. Now that it's going to be available back, new in box for that price, I think a lot of people are going to jump on it. But not for the pro. That's just the pro. Yeah, that's the pro price. The premium price is $7,600.
    39:05
    Hold on. For an MSRP. I think it's $6,800, $6,500, $6,700. But still, have there been pictures of that one yet? No. Okay.
    39:15
    Some people are saying it's going to be Lucy re-released. Some people are saying it's going to be different hand art. They took the bell out and put it in the pro.
    39:22
    Oh, Jesus Christ. They put his face underneath in the lower place. I know you guys are all good at ACDC. I like that game, but I never really find myself using that mini play field on the premium. I just play Hell's Bells and a whole lot of Rosie. I don't really find it that lower place. Because you're not playing for Encore, baby. Yeah, God knows. I'm not getting that. No one's getting it. I have not seen anyone get Encore yet. Have you? Hey, one of your listeners. Yeah, Raven. Well, there you go. You know, one thing I wish they added to that game is the ability to be in both playfields simultaneously. Like, both of them activated. That would be cool. Think like Stewie mini playfield, like the Stewie multiball.
    40:08
    The Stewie stuff. The World Poker Tour. Those give me like the 18-30 recap. Yeah. That happens, though. But I'm surprised they didn't do, like, and it would be like one of the mini Wizard Modes or something like that, where you have Hell is activated while you have a ball in the upper, you know, the main playfield. I'm surprised they didn't do that. That would be kind of cool. I always thought that would be a cool little feature.
    40:28
    Hey, did you hear about this tournament coming up soon on July 15th, Ron? This July 15th tournament? Is that Stomp? That is Stomp. And we're lucky enough to have the tournament director of Stomp with us today. Hi, Tim. Hey, how's it going?
    40:44
    Oh, Stomp. We picked Timmy because then we can more go towards the Pimble Machine repairs or anything like that also. No affiliation to the trash can percussion band. That's what I first thought of when they mentioned it to me. Yeah, me too. That's what I thought they were talking about, honestly.
    41:02
    But who will get the picture with the fire hydrant? Yeah, the picture of the fire hydrant. I was looking at the whole George Takei thing. It's too expensive. No, it's not. Yes, it is. It's like $90 for the full one. Yeah, I know, but it's ridiculous. Well, we charge $90 a player. There you go. It's the new IFPFB that's going to go towards George Takei. No, no. But then he'll always be in the place, so then every tournament after it would be the same thing. Is the buy-in really that high? No. No, I'm not actually doing $90. No, no.
    41:39
    Jesus. It's $15 pre-registration or $20 at the door. I'll Venmo you right now. See? It's basically like the same tournament as they have at Rock Fantasy. just like any other location. What I would refer to as, back in the day, we called them monthly master's tournaments. Yes. Where it's all match play. It's all match play, yeah. Because back in the day, we called them that because they were run by Brian Smith out of Allentown. And I know... I still have my card. Yeah. I know the first couple I went to that Rock Fantasy had, they were actually still using a software on a laptop before they went to the... before Tim came in and they started using the matchplay.events site. Now he stopped supporting the software and it wasn't available anymore. Oh, there you go. Well, that too. I actually still have it on my app. I have it on my phone. Yeah, if you have an old iPad or something, you might still have it. I still do. It stopped working for more and more people, and then luckily Andreas came out with his matchplay.events software. I agree. What can you tell us about the tournament, Timmy, Mr. Tournament Director?
    42:44
    Oh, it's some of the finest games in the greater Albany area. Actually, I'll stay for the finest games in all of upstate New York. All of New York. I'm going to go there. All right. There's no public transportation to get there, unfortunately.
    43:04
    So hopefully you have a ride. Wait, Ron, do you still have stars? It's essential. Yes, of course he does. Of course I do. Stars will be there. Star Gazer will be there. Star Trek. Star Trek will be there. Star Trek Next Generation. Oh, yeah. Every star. Both of your Slam Tilt Podcast hosts will be there. Maybe two stars. Both of your guests. Maybe two star gazers. Many of your Slam Tilt Podcast guests will be there. Yes, I know. Including ones I can't believe are actually going to be there. I'll believe it when I see it. One particular one. Are we all crashing on your couch or what? That picture is taken. It's not by me. Yes, it's true. You can do a poetry contest for the couch. I have the iron reclining chair. That's all that matters to me. Can I make a pinball haiku?
    43:58
    Pinball haiku. I'm the judge. So I did all your haikus, any type of poem. Doesn't matter what kind of rhyme. But I'm hoping to get something that's quick and silver to be at this tournament also. Yes, it will be at the tournament. It will be at the tournament. That will be the one I'll be bringing out for Mr. Ron. So, yes, you heard it. A Stars, a Quicksilver, a Stargazer. Don't forget the nine ball. Don't forget nine ball. Oh, and don't forget big game. Big game. It's a sternament. Yeah, it's a good sternament. Well, actually, you can have either type of sternament you want, because there's also Spider-Man and Star Trek and ACDC and Metallica. So if you want to have that kind of sternament, you can do that also. I'm into it. But, yeah, it'll be a match play all day, and then we'll cut to a finals with match play still. And we'll do some other side stuff for non-whoppers, for people who don't make it to the finals. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. And if you think like what Rock Fantasy usually does, like if you have a game, just like pick a game and you put money in and high score gets the money or high top three, whatever. Yeah. Whatever. Get into that. Yeah. And we'll just have to figure out what games. Might pick, you know, a game with short ball times or something like that. Stars. That's what I was thinking. Because everyone loves Stars anyway. People will keep pounding money in there to try to get the high score. And please, somebody beat Bruce's score. Get it off of there. I'm sick of looking at it. 260-something. No, no, no, no. 333. Oh, 330? 330, yes. He got 333 playing against me. I had 285 and freaking lost. Bite me. You suck, Bruce. Oh, you haven't played his guys, his Stars guys. It is brutal. Is your set that you can only get the $100,000 once? No, you can't get it all. $100,000, nope. You just get a free game. Turn it off. Yep. Oh, man. Now that score is a lot better than that. Yeah, we can't have that. Come on. That dwarfs everything else in the game by too large a margin. Yes. That's what makes it so much fun. No, it makes it so much easier. You're going to get a special and hear the knocker. It'll be satisfying. I love that knock. I think that was the haiku. If I know anything about Greg, I know he loves knockers. Oh, I love knockers. I'll wear my T-shirt for that one. Oh.
    46:20
    Yes, you do. So, Ron, repairs this week. Well, hold on. You mentioned Stargazer without even saying that you picked it up. I picked it up. There are now two Stargazers in our possession, guys. Oh, that was your cargo this weekend. That was the cargo. So we got two Stargazers in the Slam Tilt Club. Two big games. Oh, wait a minute. What else? Not balls. Two Star Treks. Yep. Two Spider-Mans. Yep. Two Metallica Premiums. Yep. Our tastes are too similar, obviously. Did you sell your World Poker Tour? Yes, I did. Two roller games. No, I have no roller games. Ron does. I know. I do. Oh, that's true. He's part of the Slam crew. Come on. We don't have another Buck Rogers, though. Sorry, Greg. If you guys play your cards right, I can bring a Buck Rogers.
    47:14
    Are you going to put it in my car? I don't think so, man. That would be funny, though, just for all the Gottlieb hate to actually have a Gottlieb there. That would be the highest score contest on Buck Rogers. Oh, God, no. Wait a second. I do have a Gottlieb downstairs, boys and girls. Don't forget. Bruce, you'd appreciate this. My Buck Rogers has ballet flippers on it. That's a good thing. Well, you'd appreciate this. Bruce has a Gottlieb game that no one wants to pick up. That's how much they love it. It's been sold, and the guy who bought it just will not pick it up. It's been in my basement for almost four years now. Almost four years. It seems longer than that. Pay me. It's somebody else's game. It was somebody else's game originally. It was Jerry's game. He sold it, and then the guys never picked it up. And I've asked Jerry, like, hey, Jerry, you going to pick this thing up? He's like, yeah, eventually. Jerry Bernard?
    48:06
    No. No, no, other Jerry. Crazy Jerry. Crazy Jerry from Syracuse. I think after a certain period of time, you own it legally.
    48:15
    I, uh, you know me, I don't care about that game, so it's just, uh, yeah. He gets one and he doesn't want it. That's the hilarious thing. It could be a game he actually liked or wanted. Like, oh, it's cool, they're not going to pick it up. It's like, no, please pick this up. Get rid of it. Kind of like my Ghostbusters. Now this proves that the podcast gets us games.
    48:38
    It does? Really? Think about it. Quicksilver? I didn't realize you got that through the podcast. Okay.
    48:46
    Stargazer threw the podcast. Really? We're going to put out the call for Mr. Ron. Fans of Ron, we need two games only.
    48:59
    Oh, yes. Ron will only take only two games. Hey, you never know. He might even take it towards a partial trade towards Ghostbusters. Yeah, if you want a Ghostbusters and you really are tired of your Cheetah and or Dragon Fist, I would gladly take them off your hands. See? So, there's the... That's pretty fair, I think.
    49:23
    Or maybe both and really go for the... Yeah, just trade me the Dragon Fist and the Cheetah for the Ghostbusters. That's perfect. Premium. Premium Ghostbusters. Probably less than 100 plays. I took a bunch of pictures of it.
    49:39
    I actually was going to be posting it soon. It's non-ghosting. It's a non-ghosting model. And the cabinet is not split. So I'm already two for two there. So come on, pick it up. You're two for three, Ron. I'm two for three. Okay. Yeah, it's Ghostbusters.
    50:00
    We're being positive here, though, guys. I didn't buy it, remember? Yes, you didn't buy it either. True, true. Speaking of that. Is this the game of karate on the backless? Yeah, it has Bruce Lee, but he has a headband, so it's not Bruce Lee. Yeah, it's like Bruce Lee. That's how they would do it. That's the two games, definitely. If Ron would go for even partial trades towards this Ghostbusters for one game. So I'm asking everyone out there in radio podcast land, if you want a Ghostbusters premium or if you want to help out, if you want to sell a game, those are the two games we're looking for. Yep. Thank you for your support. Yes, thank you for your support. I have a quick question since I have you tournament dudes on here. Did anyone win any money at Papa? And if so, have you received it yet? I know some people that won money at Papa and they have not yet received it. My friend Paul made the top four of C, and he's still waiting for his check. I'm waiting for my $100. Yeah, that's about what I got for the B division. I got a circuit final. Okay. So, all right. You'll get it at Pinnberg. So I can, like, lose it immediately. Well, actually, no, it's already prepaid. Three years ago, we all qualified in C and won some money, and they gave us a check in hand that day. Oh, yeah, at the time, yeah, they used to do that. That's what they did when I won Pinberg C Division. They just gave you the check. That was awesome. Yeah. Good old days. Actually they gave you cash didn they No it was a check Okay It was a check I remember because I was so elated at winning I totally forgot there was money I not kidding I literally like I had the trophy Well, it's not even a trophy. They didn't give the cool trophies. It was just like a plaque.
    51:43
    But I was just like, ah, just mind in the clouds. And then when B division ended, which was the last division to end, it was weird. Like, C division finished first, then A, then B. That's when I think. That is weird. Yeah, that's one of the few times that happened. The finals ended up being between Steve Bowden and Brian Shepard, I think. Yeah. And the final game was on Future Spa.
    52:10
    And Brian won. And then when it was over, it's like, you know, will the winners please come up to collect their checks? Like, oh, yeah, that's right. I want money. Right on. This was back in the 400 days of Pemberg, many years ago? Yes, it was the last first. Yeah, it was actually the first of the new Pinbergs, 2011. I think it was 169. Is that the one that Adam Becker won? No, that was the one. He won the next year. Yeah, he won the second one. Elwin won the first one, of course. Here's a good speculative question. Now that we have 800 people in Pinberg this year. And you're eligible for B, Greg. Did you know that? I just realized that. Yeah, that's actually a nice relief. It's less stress, but I still am going to try my hardest for A. You've got to avenge me. I got fourth last year. I qualified in A legitimately last year, buddy. Yeah, you can make finals. No, I know. You've got to get that top of money.
    53:07
    So now that we're at 800 people in Pinberg and they've expanded even further and they sold out just as fast, of course, how many no-shows are going to be there and how many walk-ins are there going to be the day of? It used to be like 30 or 40, right? I think it's going to be 70 no-shows. I think it's going to be double. I think it's going to be close to 100.
    53:28
    I can see that. I hear no-shows. What are you talking about? No, like 70, 75 people that walk in without having the guaranteed spot.
    53:37
    I don't know if people make that risk yet. You'd be surprised. I know the past two years they would have been able to, but it's been close. Like last year it was only about 15 spots.
    53:49
    Is that true? They go through the entire wait list a couple weeks leading up to it. pretty, in the past few years, and it's like, if you hear your name being caught on the wait list and you're still not,
    54:02
    I don't know. If you want to go to Pinberg, I think you're on the wait list. Yeah. That's my opinion. Yeah.
    54:10
    Yeah, so, and there's going to be the other, the Sanctum tournament. Yep. Oh, guys, the registration for that is Wednesday. Yeah, that's Wednesday. Wednesday night, 7 p.m. For me, 1 a.m. in Copenhagen. Oh.
    54:28
    Oh, yeah. He'll be on. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You'll be on European internet, so it'll be faster. You'll probably get registered quicker. Yeah, my internet was quick over there. Yeah, his internet was flying when he was over there. I will be, I'll actually go back to work so I can have access to the three different ISP pipes that we have there to make sure I can get in as quickly as possible. Good idea, Ron. I might do the same. Yep. And, I mean, we do have a web filter, but I just happen to know. To know the password? Well, no, I'm the guy who does the web filter, so that won't be a problem. You're the asshole. He's not blocking me. Yeah, blocking your porn. Sorry, we can't have you searching porn or pinball sites, for that matter. Oh, God.
    55:12
    Bad Bruce. My company has the entire nine block. Wow. I could register for so many different IP addresses. I'm so many of them. I was talking to Jim because I was nervous about being out of the country when the sign-up was, and I asked him if I could have one of my friends like him sign up for me, and he said, no, it's set so that you can only sign up once. And I figure it's probably going to sell out pretty quick. I don't know about you guys, but I think it's my favorite.
    55:40
    It's my favorite. Yeah, I mean, when I'm heard, like I'm listening to another podcast, and it's X Sharp on there saying, like, oh, that interests me. I might try to register for that. Yeah. Like, ooh, okay. I talked to Josh, and he was like, I would never do that ever. Forget that. I will probably only do it once just to do it. Yeah. But the difference between Josh and Zach is Josh has kids. Yes. That's exactly what he said. He said, I don't have the money. And Zach is, like, what, running half Ironman competitions? I know, yeah, he is. Like, yeah. He was saying that that would be cool just to see, you know, to test himself that way. But once you have a few kids, sleep deprivation is no longer a joke, I think. Not even who cares, you know. We haven't even had a circuit on the East Coast yet this season other than Papa, and Trent already has like 400 points, for God's sakes. Yeah, he's gone to all of them. He's crushing. He's been to every single one. And he was on Pinball Profile with Jeff Teolis right before he won the last one, which hopefully I get the reverse luck for that, because I'm going to be on Pinball Profile the week after COVID. Spoiler alert!
    56:47
    Wow. Well, say hi to Jeff for us, because Jeff is a good friend of our podcast. Hi, Jeff. Pinball profile. Check it out. We have decided our next group of movies. Yep. And it is going to be Mel Brooks. We have listened to the listeners. Yes. Also, in tech news, who would have funk it? Bally sound boards Dash 51 boards are now being reproduced And they were used for Give us some game examples For those not so technically inclined Oh god you're killing me for two seconds Oh he's going to have to look it up Yep I'm going to get the full list So I don't want anybody saying Oh you didn't do it right Because I'm sure people are like Wow slash 51 sound boards What the hell does that mean That means good stuff Does that mean my Blackwater 100 will have sound now No, it will not. It means... My Twilight Zone will sound better? That's Valley, right? No.
    57:50
    I'm going right to Clay. I'm going right to somebody's guys that was made in the past. Oh, that aren't available anymore. Yes, they're not available anymore. Well, they are partially hosted in, like, the Netherlands or some shit, if you look at it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
    58:05
    You could go to pinwiki.com, you know, a site that is updated. I'm sure they have the list. No, they don't. They don't. How many of these are you going to end up buying, Bruce, Valley Bruce? Me? I'm actually happy with my Valley selection. Now it's more the Sterns I'm going for.
    58:23
    Wow, I never saw that. Space Invaders, Nitro Groundshaker, Silver Ball Mania, Rolling Stone, Mystic, Hot Dogging, Viking, Skateball, and Frontier.
    58:38
    Just look at some games I love and some games I hate. Yes. We know Tim hates Frontier. It cost me a lot of money, that game. That game sucks. I lose on it all the time. I like the spinner. I can't hit it. It's the worst game. I love the spinner. I love that game. Love that game. I can pass on it, but I can't do anything with it. If I had an old valley to get, that's up there.
    59:02
    Now, Skateball, I fell in love with Skateball at Papa. We watched the Bowen tutorial that morning, and then I did exactly what Bowen did. on my first try. It was amazing. It's a great game, too.
    59:14
    Now, hold on. Let's have a fun little fact. Here we go, guys. So those games we just listed off, Space Invaders, Nitro Brownshaker, Civil War Mania, Rolling Stone, Mystic, Hot Dogging, Viking, Skateball, and Frontier. Which one was the most made?
    59:30
    Space Invaders. Yeah, Space Invaders. I'm going to go Hot Dogging. You failed. Space Invaders was the win. Hot Dog is one of the lowest ones. I just knew that Bruce owned it, so I thought he had some inside information. No, which one's the lowest?
    59:50
    I'd say between Frontier and Hot Dog. I'll say Frontier. I know Hot Dog is the lowest wide body, but I don't know if it's... It's not that. You are correct on that one.
    60:04
    I'll say Hot Dog. Greg? Frontier. I'll go with Frontier. I don't see those that often. Frontier is the right answer. Just go with the roster and you'll be right. Oh, yeah. Yep. I trusted you, Ron. Woo-hoo!
    60:19
    But only by 200 games. Yeah, how many Frontiers do they make? 1,850. Oh, that's not a lot. 1,850. That's not a lot at all. How does that game still end up in classics tournaments? God, it haunts me. The funny thing is, I don't know how Frontier, you see more Frontiers than you do Hot Doggins. Yeah. And you see more Paragons in future spas than you ever see Space Invaders, but they made way more Space Invaders. Well, they parted them all out to get parts for Paragon, you see, because that's a turd. It's a piece of shit. The only good thing about Space Invaders is I beat Keith Ellen on it. That's it. That's its only redeeming quality. What was that? That was the first Pinberg. First Pinberg. 2011 first Pinnberg back or whatever at the Papa facility the first group was a threesome instead of a foursome me Bruce Nightingale and Keith Elwin you guys had a threesome with Keith Elwin yes oh yeah oh my we high fived there and they go oh we played Space Invaders so you won Space Invaders I won Space Invaders but Keith won the group oh yes We only played three games, though, because we had the threesome. What did we play?
    61:38
    Spacing Vigors, Nineball. And Attack from Mars. Yeah. That's a good group. I didn't realize that was the rule because they changed that. Yes, they did. Yeah. The funny thing is the Nineball had, like, the center post removed and the outland post completely removed. And even Ellen thought that, like, that was kind of ridiculous. It's not like it really is an easy playing game with the post in. True. I know Tim has a horror story from, like, failed Pinnberg experience where he had to play a two-person group, but when I played a three-person group, it felt terrible, because you get those fractional points. You just feel like you're getting robbed.
    62:12
    He had two no-shows in my first Pinnberg group ever, and I went one and three, which is three and nine, which is not good.
    62:22
    Well, they saw Tim Sexton, and it's like, oh, God, no. I don't want to play with that guy. Tim was butthurt about that for, like, six months.
    62:30
    You know, I was so excited to play in Pinberg, and I start just in the basement. Meanwhile, his friend, who's like a total amateur, never played pinball, like crushed Pinberg that year. He made B finals. Yeah, he did good. Yeah. I was able to do it the next year at least. So I got some redemption there. This year I'm winning it, so. You're winning the whole thing. Oh. And Papa. You're doing a part of that. Wow. I think Tim and I both learned something playing in Papa A this year that I think, at least for myself, my expectation was that I had a better chance in Classics. In Classics it was tough. I almost qualified in the first two, but I felt like if I put all my effort into A, I would have probably had a real chance at it because we both ended up pretty close. He was like, well, you were 33, I was 39. We had some good scores. I had a couple top ten scores. It was doable with the new format. It was totally doable. I think I'm just going to focus entirely on the main division. It was doable. It only set me back like $500. Oh!
    63:32
    You don't have your Papa credit card yet? Doug already gave me my Papa line. I don't know what that means, Greg. What's a Papa credit card? I used my Discover card. Yeah, I'm just joking around. And now he's finally seeing the bill and discovering how much he spent. Yeah, that's what it was. It grouped all my payments together. That new app was so convenient. It was just like clicking buttons and getting entries, not even waiting on mine. It was too convenient to pay. It's just like, oh, it's not even money. It just clicks. There it is. Look at that. Yeah, that was too easy.
    64:08
    Okay, guys. Fun part of the segment. Let's try that again. Fun segment that is a fun part of the show. No. Fun part of the segment.
    64:19
    Let me write that down. That's what we'll call fun part of the segment. I'm part of the segment. And it is... Game you like, game you hate.
    64:29
    You can do one of each. Or you can pick one of the same game you really want to be. We've never had that yet. Oh, that would be weird.
    64:37
    Greg, as our guest, would you like to go first for game you like or game you hate? Or would you like to pass the buck to your... I'll go first. Okay. Game you like or game you hate? I'm not going to pick my favorite or my least favorite. I'm going to pick a game I like and a game I hate. Game I like, Congo.
    64:54
    And reason why? Just a fun tournament game. I always enjoy it. I usually crush it. And I don't see them that often. Okay. Game I hate. Okay, you're going all the way down. Go ahead.
    65:07
    Black Hole. Yes. You should not drain for hitting a shot. Yes. Well, you should not drain because you didn't complete a bank of drop targets, and then you get to sit there and watch your fucking ball just fuck right through. And then your opponent does the same thing and it pops back into fucking play. Are you kidding me? Well, that's a malfunction, but still, I just, that whole concept of. Unofficial. Yeah.
    65:34
    That's taking the whole, like, what Tim was talking about, he didn't like things saying you failed. That's like taking it to the ultimate extreme. You didn't complete a drop target bank. You failed. Here, asshole, watch your ball drain. Die. With a finger. Die. Yeah. Fail. Poor, poor game. That was a good pick. That was a very good pick.
    65:56
    Mr. Sexpin. I'm going to start with the game I hate. Okay. Bride of Pinbot. Nice pick. Very nice pick. That was on my list too.
    66:08
    Man, what an annoying game. Got a bunch of, you know, loops that go nowhere. The billion point shot pisses me off. Because you can have a great game, miss that shot, somebody else gets it, and they beat you. Bullshit. It should be set so that you always get it. Yeah, but not even miss the shot. You could hit it enough times and never get that award to even shoot. Yeah. You can't set it to always get it, though. You can set it to 99% chance that you get it. And the rest are at 1%, which, figure that math out. And so you have 105% chance, I guess. and everyone will get it except for you if you said it that way because it still is higher than a 1% chance that you'd actually not get the billion-point shot. I hate to be negative too, but the Bride of Pinball 2.0 is not any better. I hate it just as much. It didn't change the strategy. It's still ramp all day for the points. I never liked the music, honestly. Too techno-European for me.
    67:12
    Yeah, yeah. Don't say that. You'll offend Tim with the Skrillex thing. No, Skrillex is American bro-step, not techno-European, not even close.
    67:23
    Please don't confuse your electronic as subgenres. What did you just say? Yeah, everything you say makes me feel old. What? What was that? What did you say? Bro-step is the Americanized version of dubstep, which was a British electronic music genre, and then it was popularized by people like Skrillex especially and then some other people. And then it became tropey and samey and kind of retired very quickly. But Skrillex still remains the best sound designer and pioneer of that whole genre and 2010 to 2013 music movement. That's why I respect him.
    67:59
    Okay. Excellent. And on that note. I have no clue what the fuck he just said. Me neither, yeah. But, you know. A game I liked? A game you like. Alright, so for my game I like I'm going to pick Bride of Pinbot Oh my god I think it's really cool how like You hit the ramp, all the lights turn out The heartbeat starts going, Bride of Pinbot comes alive Starts singing I think it's a really cinematic game It's a lot of fun to play outside of tournaments And it's a cool Pinball experience I think for people Who are getting into it You know, can tell them, hey look at this Bride of Pinbot game It has this story that's very obvious He can do this. Hit this big ramp. A lot of fun, and I really like the music.
    68:44
    Unprecedented. No one's done it before. Yeah. I have to say fail on that one. Fail. You just pulled a Ron Howard. Yeah, I did that once. The same game. Yeah, you stole my gimmick. Fail. You just said before this segment that it's unprecedented someone would do that. No, unprecedented for a person to do that, not a host. Ah, okay. Me, me, me. Okay, my turn. No.
    69:10
    Game I hate. Let's get it out of the way. And this is how confident I am that it's going to sell. Ghostbusters.
    69:19
    Oh. See, I'm just going to say it. Usually you're not allowed to do it because you own it, but, you know. You're allowed to hate. Oh, that's right. Yeah, you make these rules up. Like, why would you own a game you hate? But, yes, obviously I do. Didn't you win it for free? Yep. Well, there was tax, but yes. Yeah.
    69:40
    I've said about as much about it as I can. Just the air ball galore, just the draininess. That's not even fair. I like games that are draining, but not in this way. You feel like you're just getting screwed draininess with just ridiculous crap happening. I just, no.
    70:00
    I'm done talking about it. Now, a game I like. and it's all thanks to the tournament this Saturday because I never really got to play a good working one that was in good shape.
    70:12
    Valley Star Trek. Yeah, that's a good one. Did not mind that at all. I was surprised. I like the games where you have to complete the target bank to get the multiplier, especially when it's as difficult and as grainy as this thing was. Oh, and the target's bricking as bad as they did, but it's Valley. You know what changed the strategy? They had it set, and this was actually cool for tournament, I thought. They had it set where the special was $50,000 and you can get it unlimited. And the shots were a lot easier to hit down the targets than to collect the bonus. So there's a certain point where if you're going for those top scorers, you might as well just chase the special a bunch.
    70:53
    Your way of looking at it? I wish they had, they had like it was a restored, it was like a new play field. I mean, so it looked gorgeous. but they put brand new targets in it, which kind of helped with the bricking.
    71:06
    For those out there, if you have old valley targets that are not broken, just clean them up as best you can and leave them in the game, because the new ones just, they brick badly.
    71:16
    Did you notice that the old play field was up on the wall hanging to its left? Yeah, I had the old worn play field up with a little note on restoration and the new play field and all that. Okay. Game I hate. Oh, okay. What league game is it going to be now? That seems to be a... No. Okay, what Gottlieb game is it going to be now? Thank you. Volcano.
    71:38
    Ooh. Hate the game. I hate the... I don't like the game. I don't like any Gottlieb game where I lock a ball, and then I green that ball, and it kicks out my locked ball, and I can't flip the flippers, and it just says, fuck you. But that's all of them. Yeah. I know, but it still sucks. That's all of them in that era. But yes, I hate that too, but they all do that. game I like.
    72:01
    We're going Williams, boys and girls. Space Shuttle. It's a good game. You can't deny that one. That's Steve Ritchie doing the voice. How can you deny that? Three, two, one. It's so bad now that I can literally recognize his voice, even when it's monotone or digitally altered, I can tell it's him. It's bad. Exit, pilot, one.
    72:30
    They didn't use a pop guard either, so whenever you listen to Space Shuttle and it says pilot one, the P sound is too loud, like they didn't use a pop guard. Exit pilot one. Abort mission. Abort liftoff. Fire power. I have a strategy question for Bruce and all of you really. So for Space Shuttle, do you go for the three ball, multi ball, or do you just pass out? I ignore the multi ball. I ignored a multi-ball. You've been with the spinner all day, right? Spinner all day. It depends. The spinner was not spinning good enough on this one for me to take that strategy. The one I have up by us, the spinner rocks, and you can actually sweep all the targets to get your spinner value up more. Oh, my God. Everyone's going for multi-ball, and they do once in a while beat me, but it's a safe shot most of the time going for that spinner, and then just hopefully it doesn't drain out bad on you, you know, out of the pop bumpers. Most of the time you can recover it, catch it, and go right back up again. Yeah, the Buffalo Open, if I remember, one of the classics they had, Space Shuttle, and the spinner was good, and that's what we, I think it was me, Trent,
    73:46
    I think it was Fred Cochran, and I can't remember the fourth, but whatever. I remember we were all just hitting the spinner. That's all we were doing, so, yep.
    73:54
    Is that a good one? Because Tim is directing this weekend also a very unique launch party. Yes. Yes, there's this new Steve Ritchie game. This is exciting. Brand new. Brand new Steve Ritchie game, and it's a wide body. It's incredible. They've gone, and it's a really wide body.
    74:12
    The widest body you can go. It's called Stellar Wars. It has, I mean, how many drop target banks does it have again? It's got all these cool features. Let me see the post. I'll try to read it in Levy's voice. You can spell Stellar Wars. It's got spinners and drop targets, and it's wide. It's really wide. Three banks and drop targets. Three banks. Five pop-up birds. Four in lanes. One captive ball. 30 inches. One machine. Stellar Wars. It's awesome. I mean, I can't wait to play this thing. I've seen the pictures. It looks pretty cool. I mean, it's nice to see they're going back to the hand-drawn art. It's an expensive one, 25 buckaroonies. But you get some trophies. We have four signed Game of Thrones posters and a couple of Star Trek stickers for your car bumper. Wait, Ron, are you coming out this weekend? It's a possibility.
    75:09
    Awesome. Very strong possibility. And conflicting with Buffalo, I'll be streaming this on Twitch, but I'll keep a link to their channel if you guys want to go donate it. I'll send you over there for the good cause. But if you want to see how the Stellar Wars finals play out, and we're going to learn the rules of this brand new pinball machine. Yeah. It's going to be great. And the artwork is by Connie Mitchell, which I had to remind Tim that that is a man, not a woman. Here, remind you, informed. Yeah, informed.
    75:39
    Everyone says Connie Mitchell, but his name was Constantino Mitchell and did a shitload of games, actually. I didn't realize how many games he did. Because he went to what looks like Gottlieb and did a ton of Gottlieb games, so I'm sure Bruce hates him. Of course. Did he invent snail time? Well, yeah, I believe that's his artwork. But he also did Gorgar, which is probably one of the best art packages that Williams ever had, and especially that era. I should have picked that game this weekend.
    76:06
    Gorgar. Yeah, that was more controllable than the Star Trek, in my opinion. Because you could at least alley pass, and you could keep it down out of trouble at least a little bit. You were creeping on me at the end of qualifying. You watched me almost blow it up a couple times, and I kept just missing the last snake pit to collect the 400,000 square. Yep, and I wanted to keep playing that, but Mike Pantino was, I think, second in it, and I didn't want to knock him out. What a sweet guy. There was a lot of that going on. It's like, well, the funny thing is I was second in Amigo, and what was it, Bosky? Bosky. Bashi was talking shit constantly to Alberto. I love it. He was hilarious. So Alberto wanted to beat his score. And I told Alberto, you know, if you beat his score, I'll be third. That won't be good for me. And he said, oh. And he literally didn't play anymore. He didn't play that game. He's like, thank you, Alberto. The one reason I wanted to go to Morristown was to interview Bashi about the time he met Koksal Baba.
    77:13
    He a Turkish viral Internet star and I had the blessing of encountering some of his YouTube videos and I didn realize Bachi actually met him in real life So I hope I get to meet him soon. So, CokeSaltBaba. What's all this weird stuff he keeps pulling out on this thing? I mean, I thought I was like one of the young guys in pinball, but Tim is like internet trendy, talks about all this stuff and I have no clue what the hell he's talking about. If you guys haven't seen any CokeSaltBaba videos, just look up CokeSaltBaba or Little Man Punches Normal-Sized People.
    77:48
    Number one, you'll have to spell his name because no one's going to be able to spell that. K-O with, is that an umla, the two dots over it? K-O-K-S-A-L and then Baba, B-A-B-A.
    78:03
    He's got a YouTube channel. He used to be on Vine. He's everywhere. He's on Instagram. He's a, he has some type of dwarfism, but this doesn't stop him from taking on normal-sized adult men in Turkey and beating them up with sticks and punching gloves and stuff. Oh, my. Okay. Yeah, he tries to enforce the law. Does he win?
    78:28
    They don't really fight back, so, yeah. Oh, Jesus. Okay. One of my favorite vines is the time that a goose attacks him and he has to jump up on the porch and scramble away.
    78:42
    Yikes. When it comes to, like, a normal six-foot-tall man, he's not afraid to back down from the fight. Just like a goose.
    78:50
    Yeah, okay. Okay, well, on that note, actually. I'm normal. We didn't, I don't think we mentioned this yet. I got this on my list.
    79:00
    Is this tonight, the real sports thing? Tonight, 10 o'clock, HBO. Yeah, so, real sports. Brian Gumbel's real sports, the story on Robert Gagneau. which was a good portion of it filmed at Papa this year. Yeah, we might all be in it. Maybe. I tried when they were doing some interviews, I tried to make sure I was walking behind someone, being the camera whore I am, to try to get on. Yeah. I might have done that. It worked at King of Kong, so maybe it'll work there. Yeah, I was in the other movie with Robert in it for a little bit. So, Bruce, you've seen it already. Yes, I have. No spoilers here, but what did you think about it? It was good. It was really good. You know, I think it was well done. I'm not going to give anything away, but there's a couple little funny things in there and a couple surprises, of course. There's one really good game in qualifying that they captured.
    79:55
    Which was? Oh, I didn't want to be the spoiler. If I can spoil it, I'll go ahead. What was the spoiler? I'm not going to say what the game is. Number one Funhaus score. Number one Funhaus score on camera with the camera, like, in his face as he got $60 million.
    80:08
    Yeah. So I think that makes it in. Yeah. Yeah, I think it definitely made it in. So check that out. HBO if you got it. Yep. If not, you can do what Timmy's going to do.
    80:20
    No, I have it. He's going to watch it legally, Bruce. Come on. Don't get people in trouble. Jesus. God damn it. It'll be on my TV box. Yes.
    80:29
    Is it time for the bag? It is time for the mail ball bag. The mail ball bag. Mail ball bag. As in mail. What do you guys prefer? No, we've decided it's the mail ball bag. I've given it to you. It looks like he caved in this argument. I caved in this argument. It looks good when I type it, because it's mail, M-A-I-L. So it's like, ha-ha, get it.
    80:51
    So let's see. Bringing up some mail now. I'm doing it myself. Me too, I'm doing it. Tim has hacked into our mail. Yes. I will get the first one.
    81:06
    Okay. And you can have the second and fourth one. Wait a minute, we have four? We have four. I'll take the third. Oh, you can have the third. Okay.
    81:16
    Zach, Scott Charles, said, we did not talk about any of his software adventures, which we did not. But hopefully we'll have Zach on for another time.
    81:26
    And I will leave the email, too, to Mr. Ron. Yeah, Pete. Pete, he did not. He was not a fan of Zach.
    81:34
    He should never be allowed back on the show. His opinions didn't make any sense, and his lack of enthusiasm was terrible. Wow. Yeah, I guess you'd have to know Zach because he's pretty much like that all the time. It's just Zach is very quiet. He's very calm, very reserved. He's chill. That's the word. He is chill. The one good thing about him is he sounds like the comic book collector from The Simpsons. Yes. Oh, comic book guy. Okay. I don't think he really sounds like. Nah.
    82:04
    Okay. Then we got, oh, God. We got Ryan. He requested you. Yeah, he requested. And he mentioned Tim in this email, too. And he requested that I, this is Ryan from Australia, and he requested I do the Australian accent on this. So it's actually been requested. He says, yeah, I was going to send you a voice message, but I don't want to get angry and sound like a dickhead on the air. Maybe you guys should hurry up and invite me to the show, or do I have to move to New York competition player for that? So please, Ron, read this out in your best Aussie accent.
    82:39
    I was going to email you guys as I was so indecisive about if I should sell my Ghostbusters LE. It's funny because I had a friend lend it to me for two months. And when you don't buy a pinball machine, I think you can be more impartial about how good or bad it is. So after two months, I asked my mate when he wanted it back. And he asked me if I wanted to buy it with a new playfield and about $1,000 worth of mods for a good price. Even though I didn't love Ghostbusters, I still liked it enough and thought it might grow on me as an owner. Wrong! Fucking wrong, mate. Holy shit, I've grown to hate this game. Today I thought I would have a deciding game. Ball one. Mr. Steel shot. As Tim Sexton says, I'm in jail. Hit the stupid ghost target, and the ball drains straight down the middle. Mr. Steel shot again, and when the ball bounces off me, flipper into the right scoop. For some reason, Slimer's hanging out in the city, moving left to right, but not in a hittable area. Come down to the play field, you green... I'm C-U-N-T, I won't go there, ball drains from Magnus Sling, chucking it down the middle, I saw who bought the dog, Scolari Brothers pop up, I hit both and collect the super jackpot, and he screams out, triple super jackpot, so damn loud, and it's only worth three million, ball drains straight down the middle again, I don't need your advice, I rang up someone and the game is now sold, there's so many things with the software that need to be tweaked and fixed, and with Star Wars rumored to be announced in three weeks, I cannot see Dwight working on this for a while. Should I buy Star Wars or should I start the process again? At least it will be a safe, richy game, and maybe I can hit some combos or some shot satisfaction out of it. Rant off. I really like that. That encaptured exactly how you feel when you play Ghostbusters. It is. Feel my pain. Holy shit. Oh, yeah. Now, we have Pinball Princess as the next email. I have to say, Ryan, you get the email of the week. No, I thought I got the third email.
    84:48
    That was the third email, but he requested Ron to actually. Yeah, Ron really requested it. I got one. I got one here. Okay. Okay, it says, crazy deal on extended auto warranty coverage. Excellent. It might be spam. Hold on. No, hold on. I got another one. I'm in the same. You go get a loaner. Cost of protection increases. Get a free quote.
    85:11
    Yeah, that's not a big money. I got another one from your same mailbag. MILF's looking to fuck in your area. Within five minutes of you, click now.
    85:24
    What are you sending me, Tim? Jesus. Don't put your credit card in there. Really? It's a lot of debt. Oh, too late. Oh, damn it. Have you guys ever checked out the section of Rock Fantasy in the back?
    85:38
    You mean the porno section? Yes. It is littered with guilt videos for some reason. Those Middletown guys have interesting taste. No one bought them.
    85:51
    I tried a couple of normal videos since I had credit with Keeler, and I was very disappointed when they did not work.
    86:01
    That's a no-buy. Along with Ghostbusters. Yeah, no buy. Don't buy that. All right. Don't buy that. Final email we have from the pinball princess, Steph Guida. And this is much shorter. This is only, she gave the, let's see. 670.
    86:19
    Let's see. Dear Slam Tilt and maybe guests who are maybe Timmy and maybe, maybe Greg and maybe, maybe, maybe some other pinball person or people, Coming to you live from the procrastination station, ooh, I like that, is another poorly planned, quickly written email. Nothing's as quality like starting a project mere hours before the deadline. It's well-known college wisdom.
    86:45
    This time I'm only off of one episode. Oh, off one episode, okay. Coming through each episode and taking notes sounds like one hell of a project, and if I ever do that, brace yourselves, that might end up being novella length. I think I said that. Novella, right? Novella length. Is it novella? Novella length. So don't worry. It won't be a marathon of letter reading. Ron is a trooper for reading all 2,000 words of my last email for 15 minutes. This won't be 15 minutes. If you're alternating, it's Bruce's turn, and he drew an easy lot. If you're not alternating, Ron does not have to worry about talking a marathon after talking a marathon. Marathon-ception, if you will.
    87:27
    Let's see. In regards to last episode, I think Zach was a great interview. He, like most of your guests, I suppose, was quite well-versed in many facets of pinball, added an element of deadpan humor to the usual wacky straight man duo of slam and tilt. I'm not. You're the wacky one. I'm straight. No, no. I'm the straight man. You're the wacky one. What the fuck? Yeah. And the cool thing is, back in, like, the vaudeville days, the straight man always made more money. So I'll just remember that. Ron tends to play straight man, but much like Beavis, has the ability to go cornholio and equal Bruce in wackiness.
    88:02
    At which point, things seem to dissolve into prolonged bouts of snickers, giggles, and oh my's. Having Zach on was like Beavis and Butthead being joined by Daria. It was brilliant. There you go. That's a very good analogy. You can tell Zach he's Daria. Oh, yeah. I'm sure he'll love that. I do have to say I am surprised to find out there are people out there who are as badly versed in movies and other pop culture mediums as I am. I don't know if anyone was as bad as Zach.
    88:31
    He didn't even know what Star Trek was or Star Wars. Or at least... On that note, I have to make one last feeble attempt to make George Takei identifiable. On NBC's Heroes, he played Hero's father. Fun fact, his car's license plate was NCC-1701. Interesting. Michelle Nichols, who was also a character on the show, Heroes was awesome for the first two or three seasons, and they were among the many reasons why that, though, is also one of the most recent appearances of Takaya I can think of and have done my due diligence. I also just wanted to share that his license plate was NCC-1701. Seeing that when the show broadcasted was a moment akin to many callbacks the new MST3K has been making to the original MST3K. Does Craig have any idea what that is?
    89:20
    Nope. How about Tim? Well, we don't see him. Yeah, I love MST3K. Have you seen any of the new season? Just the first episode. Reptilicus. Oh, oh, oh, I know what you're talking about. Mystery Science Theory 3000? Yeah. Okay. What do you think of Reptilicus?
    89:37
    I liked, um, I mean, I was kind of thinking about how they would keep the format or what they would change. They pretty much went the same, and I wonder if they should maybe experiment or... No. I don't know. No. They didn't piss off the fans, but... They experimented in different parts before, and it never went well. They just stick to the formula, yeah. It ain't broken. Exactly. The different voices for the robots is, like, the most bizarre thing for me. Well, yeah, and the fact that at least the first four or five episodes, I can't tell which one's talking. Yeah, I can't either. And the puppet work is bizarre. I don't know. Oh, yeah, with Tom flying around. Yeah, but just their movement is, because they have different people. They have two people working each bot now that aren't even the guys doing the voice. The guys doing the voices are like off-camera working the mouth, which is bizarre. Like, they're not even there. And when they're in the theater, they're actually not live doing the riffs. They're lip-syncing to a pre-recorded riff track that they already did. Ah, that's weird. That's weird. Watching a theater like, the crow's mouth hardly moves at all, and it annoys me. But the audio levels are much better. The original Mystery Science Theater had terrible audio mixing. Yes, yes. But Crow's hands are huge now. It's weird. Sorry. Back to the letter. Also, I am glad that there are other people who like Black Rose. I like Black Rose. The one machine that I've encountered is rarely played, and no one around me seems to enjoy the machine. It's probably the one in the shed at Keeler's place. Of course, that could be influenced by this particular machine. If Timmy is on, he knows the machine in question. and could probably elaborate on any of the quirks this machine has as compared to a standard Black Rose.
    91:21
    Leaning, shots don't register, flippers are weak. Perfect. Okay. But I know that most probably do not have their left out lane blocked off. Really? I forgot about that. Okay. I love the theme and artwork of this table, though, and I find it pretty fun to play.
    91:40
    Okay. Oh, no, she's got that word again I'll have to pronounce. Oh. I would be remiss if I neglected a chance to give props to a fellow listener. Shout out to Ryan from Australia. God, I hope I got your name right. In twist of irony, I am not fact-checking myself at all here for correcting those two on how you pronounce, say it, Bruce, the word that we pronounce wrong. How are we saying it? Oh, digger-ee-doo? Digger-ee-doo? Whatever you want to call it. That's the right way to say it. Digger-ee-doo. Somehow, amidst 2,000 words, I forgot to mention that. I will make up for it with an audio clip from Pod People displaying how to properly pronounce winged potatoes, though. Okay. I am going to abandon my three or four other topics of rambling and postpone them for a later letter. I promise less marathon-like than before, after all, and for me to get into that would probably boost this up from 500-ish words back to 2,000. As always, love the show and see you all around. via merely suppressing the urge to call this letter anything related to a quickie. Oh, wow. Player 31915.
    92:47
    Wow. That was only 500 words? That was only 500 words. Okay, I'll play the clip, but unless you watch Mystery Science here, no one's going to get this, but let's see if you can even hear it. I've got to get up close to the speaker. It's a very short clip.
    93:04
    So here we go. It's a winget, Patankos. So I don't know if anyone heard that. It's a clip from Pod People. Ah, my winged potato. Yes, winged potatoes. Which, I like the episode, but I never, I don't know, I didn't like it as much as most everyone else seems to like that episode. I thought it was a good episode, but not like everyone sees it as one of the best episodes they ever had. That's how people feel about Manos, I think. Yeah, it's no Manos. Well, Monster of Go-Go is every bit as bad as Manos. That's horrible. A movie so bad it just ends because they ran out of money. A lot of mystery science theaters I wind up falling asleep during it because the movie's so bad. Oh, that had the single worst scene. They show a phone, and literally a guy just goes, and the guy picks up the phone. That's the sound effect. It was that bad. I'm not making this up.
    93:57
    That empties out the mail ball bag. Oh, my. How many episodes have they committed to making a Mystery Science Theater with the redo? Are they doing like a whole two, three seasons? Well, it would be if they did a full season 11 of 13 episodes. Was it 12? No, 14 episodes. Yeah, 14 episodes. And if they get picked up by Netflix, which it is looking like that's going to happen, there will be another season. It will be a season 12. It's got a big following. It's classic, you know. I have my membership card from, like, 1999 or whatever, still.
    94:33
    Actually, I should say a former guest, Chris Bucci, is also a huge fan. Even more so. Like, he has the Amazing Colossal episode guide. He's got autographs from all of them. He's actually going to their live show they're doing in Chicago, I believe. They should make a pinball machine. Oh, now that would be good. For geeks. That's a topic that I think would be cool for the show, is what would be your custom pinball machine? Beavis and Butthead. Yeah, that's what mine always was. Beavis and Butthead. Yeah, I have no hesitation. The pop bumpers?
    95:05
    Back and forth. The only problem... What would the story be, though? Every pinball has to have a story. Like in the video game, it was like they have to go to the gore concert.
    95:19
    Yeah. You can't have something like they score because they can't score. That can never happen. So what do you have? No, make it an impossible goal where literally it's like a Valinor you can't reach because of some conflicting states so they can never score, and neither could you. I always imagined like a garage shot similar to that of Simpsons, but like where you lock the ball in the garage, and when you finally get all three, it just starts shaking like they're whacking off before it releases a multi-ball.
    95:49
    They gotta have like a Cornholio mode or Cornholio multiball. There you go. Yeah, like the wizard mode.
    95:56
    Jackpot! Hey, hey. Hey, Bruce, you still on? I'm on here. Yeah. I wasn't sure if you fell asleep or something, y'all. Nope, I'm here.
    96:09
    He's got HBO turned on. Oh. Almost time. What the hell, boy? Damn it. Damn you little bastards. You know, I'm sick of doing this damn podcast. You got to use some more propane products on your podcast, you know?
    96:23
    Sorry. You do that well. You do that very well. See, when I do that, I think of Anderson. I don't think of Hank Hill. Yeah. That's the difference for me. That's Tom Anderson. Oh, no, I was hearing Tom Anderson when you did that. You know, you both have been whacking off in my tool shed. Yikes. Okay. All right, are we ready for upcoming events? We are. Which we've gone over a bunch of them. Really? I think there's a bunch. We don't go downtown. Oh.
    96:55
    I know they have a lot of shit down there. You have Levy's thing coming up this Saturday, boys and girls. Solar Wars launch party. Experience Steve Ritchie's exciting new game. And this Thursday, it's Syracuse's The Cloud City Ice and Moment Pinball Tournament.
    97:13
    I don't make these names up, boys and girls. What's that about? What was it again? Ison moment. Spell that.
    97:22
    Hold on. Give me two seconds. Ison? Like ice? E-S-I-N-E-N. Ison. Oh, okay. All right. Yep. I'm just telling you what he's saying. I don't get it, butthead. It doesn't make any sense.
    97:40
    Totally agree. That's this Thursday. What else is going on? What else is going on below? You got your weekly tournaments at Sunshine?
    97:51
    Actually, I'm hosting the finals tomorrow early because we're going to be out of town the next week. So tomorrow, we do the top eight right before the Pinball New York City Ceremony Party.
    98:04
    Ceremonies. See, in New York City, they have ceremonies. We don't have anything like that. It's the culmination of the 350-person league, though, so I think it probably demands it.
    98:16
    350-person league. I am not familiar with such things. Pintastic in July, coming up. And Stomp on the 15th of July. Stomp.
    98:29
    Pinvasion is June 11th. Yeah, in... Georgia. Atlanta. at the SFG. Don't forget the ISK Championship Week. There's a whole bunch going on. Yeah, I saw it on some other continent.
    98:47
    They're going way, way worldly. We're like a regional thing. Yeah, okay. That's, it's the, well, we could mention the IPA thing, you know, being that we had Josh Sharp on the podcast, perhaps. Yeah. You know. We got this guy going too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I think there's the Classic World Open, which is Saturday and Sunday. We're not going to make it up for that, but that's got a really cool games list. A bunch of games that Bruce would approve of. That's sort of like a Papa style. Then Monday into Tuesday, the Danish Pinball Open. And they've got mostly modern games that are super popular, like all the new Sirens. Then the Retro Arcade Open is that format I told you guys about where it's head-to-head where you play the same group of nine people, but you play everybody twice, and then whoever does the best moves on to A. You've got the Epstein Cup, United States versus Europe Thursday. USA! USA! Come on, everyone! USA! Haley George representing USA. Come on! I can't even get a USA chant! But damn, Marcus! Poor big guy! Come on! It's not going to sync up. It's Skype. It's delayed. That's why I don't even bother with that. I'll edit it so it's perfect. Come on! No, you won't. Yeah.
    100:04
    And then, uh, IFPA ends the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Long format, amazing. I'm going to make a prediction right now. Daniele Acciari.
    100:16
    Wow. Okay. So www.pinballlifter.com. Come check out my stuff. Lifters, helpers, tilters, mods. We've got three minutes to finish this all up in a nice bow. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Mr. Greg. Good luck for this weekend. You're always welcome to come on here. Tim Balls, you are a staple. I'd love to be back. You're more than welcome to, anytime. Well, you can come back after you've won, and we can talk about your victory. Last year I tied for 32nd and lost an eight-way tiebreaker, which I finished third in. But I was happy that Zen, my good friend that I'm flying out with this weekend, won that tiebreaker. so that was better, but my goal this time is just to qualify the top 32. That would be a big accomplishment, so that's what I'm shooting for. Is Den going to be wearing any of his colorful light shirts? Or should I say colorful? Oh, yeah. Vulgar light shirts? I have to be careful, because every time I hang out with Den, we get very degenerate and get way too drunk before the tournament. Yeah, yeah. That's funny. Because I think, doesn't he have shirts like the Terminator shirt that says, like, you know, fuck you, asshole, on it? Yeah, yeah, I saw that. It's like, does that say what I think it does? And it's not even like, you know, asterisks for the letters. No, it just says, fuck you, asshole.
    101:40
    Wow. I like that. He's a nice guy. It's just funny watching somebody's crazy shirts he wears. So thanks, everyone, for being on the podcast this week. Thank you once again. Thanks for having us again. Great. Lavarelli. Longtime pinball league. Alex Jones. Better known as Tim Sexton. I can't get used to that. I really can't. That is weird. I don't even know who he is. That's the thing. Yeah. I don't know who Alex Jones is. Is that somebody?
    102:06
    You haven't known a single reference I've made to any pop culture stuff this episode. It's great. So why start now? I'll see everybody later. This has been episode 44, Skyfall. Remember, you can catch us on Facebook. Just look for Slam Till Podcast. Also on YouTube, just search for Slam Till Podcast. We can be reached at our email address, slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Martin Reinhardt.
    103:01
    Thank you.