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Episode 31 – Wack-A-Willie

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Feb 16, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Super League IFPA point purge reshapes NY rankings; hosts debate state finals location.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast episode discussing the Modern Pinball Super League controversy in New York, where retroactive IFPA ranking changes eliminated points from players who participated minimally, dramatically reshaping state rankings and qualification paths. The hosts and Tim Sexton explain how 200+ monthly participants—many playing only 3-4 games—exploited the 128-player diminishing returns rule to accumulate excessive IFPA points, blocking upstate players from state finals despite superior competitive results. The episode also covers debate over New York State Championships location, with hosts advocating for rotating venues outside NYC to accommodate upstate players.

Key Claims

  • Modern Pinball Super League had approximately 200 rated players per month, running monthly from January 2015 with players playing as few as 3-4 games while others played the full 7 games weekly

    high confidence · Tim Sexton describing Super League mechanics; corroborated by multiple hosts

  • IFPA retroactively changed 26+ events from Modern Pinball Super League over the past couple days, requiring 50% minimum participation threshold going back 2+ years

    high confidence · Tim Sexton stating 'a total of like 26 events have been changed over this past couple days'

  • The 128-player rule creates a point distribution curve where players finishing 10th-16th place consistently in a 200-player tournament earn significantly more points than similar placements at circuit events or IFPA World Championships (which only has 62 players)

    high confidence · Tim Sexton explaining the diminishing returns rule and its exploitation

  • In 2015, Ron Hallett, Tim Sexton, and Bruce Nightingale all could not qualify for New York state finals due to Super League dominance of rankings, but would have placed 15th, 11th, and 6th respectively under the corrected system

    high confidence · Tim and Bruce discussing retroactive recalculations; corroborated by IFPA data from Josh Sharp

  • Players who played exclusively Super League dropped from top 100 WPPR rankings to mid-hundreds or 500s+ after retroactive changes; Greg Pavarelli dropped from 23rd to 98th

    high confidence · Tim and hosts discussing specific player impacts; Greg confirmed the change positively

  • In 2016, Tim Sexton qualified for state finals in 10 different states except New York, the state he lives in and had the most points in; he would have placed 7th in New York without Super League points

    high confidence · Tim describing his paradoxical multi-state qualification while being blocked from home state

  • New York State Championships have been held in NYC for the past 4 years (locations: Jackbar, Sunshine Laundromat, Modern Pinball, Steve Marsh's house), blocking upstate players who must drive 4-7 hours

Notable Quotes

  • “at best it's unclear whether a player intends on wanting to participate and have their scores recorded at worst it allows every score from every player that is playing in the building the opportunity to be recorded regardless of any interest or knowledge of participating”

    Tim Sexton (quoting Josh Sharp, IFPA director) @ ~08:15 — Describes the ambiguity in Super League's consent/participation tracking that motivated IFPA intervention

  • “This guy always plays three The Games a month. He always comes in exactly once a month. He schedules the second Tuesday at 2 a.m. to come play or something. Who knows when he's there?”

    Tim Sexton @ ~09:45 — Illustrates skepticism about Super League's claimed 200-player consistency and participation legitimacy

  • “I'm down to 397, but I moved up a bunch of spots. So little interesting things like that happen.”

    Tim Sexton (describing his WPPR swing) @ ~18:30 — Shows how ranking bonuses from Super League victories inflated point distribution across the system

  • “The top 64 players get the smoothest, flattest curve. and very few tournaments, even circuit events, even these other ones that aren't majors, even majors, like IFPA World Championships only has 62 players. It doesn't benefit from this curve as much as Modern did.”

    Tim Sexton @ ~21:00 — Technical explanation of why Super League's scale created unsustainable point generation

  • “I was above the cut line in 10 different states. Except for the one that I live in and the one that I had the most points in, New York.”

    Tim Sexton @ ~31:45 — Demonstrates the absurd outcome of Super League dominance blocking qualified players from their home state

  • “You're making my point for me. You really are making my point for me.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~43:20 — Captures the rhetorical moment in the venue debate: NYC players claiming hardship about traveling to Buffalo mirrors upstate players' 7-hour burden

  • “We've proven we've all proven that we can play in different states look at Alex Levy one north carolina and he lives in new york city”

Entities

Tim SextonpersonRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonJosh SharppersonModern PinballcompanySteven BowdenpersonGreg Pavarelli

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: IFPA Super League point distribution exploit revealed systematic vulnerability in WPPR ranking system where 200-player monthly events generated unsustainable points relative to major circuit events (IFPA World Championships only has 62 players); 26 retroactive event purges required

    high · Tim Sexton explaining 128-player diminishing returns rule and how Modern Pinball exploited curve to give consistent 10th-16th place finishers more points than 1st-5th places at circuit events; Josh Sharp quote about unclear participation consent

  • ?

    community_signal: Heated debate in pinball community forums (300+ posts in single day) over NY State Finals location, with NYC players resisting upstate relocation to Buffalo despite upstate players forced to drive 4-7 hours annually for 4 consecutive years

    high · Ron Hallett describing 'all day today discussion' and '300 posts of heated debate'; hosts discussing community resistance to venue moving outside NYC; Bruce noting NYC players claiming hardship about traveling to Buffalo

  • ?

    community_signal: Slam Tilt Podcast serves as platform for detailed IFPA policy explanation and community venue debate; hosts provide neutral ground for discussing controversial Super League corrections and state finals organization

    medium · Extended discussion of Super League mechanics; hosts inviting Tim Sexton as expert guest; episode dedicating 50% runtime to IFPA/Super League topic as requested by community interest

  • ?

    community_signal: Ron Hallett organizing inclusive state championship location voting involving league representatives, operators, and IFPA point figures (Tim Sexton, Nick Lane, Howard Levine); democratic approach to venue selection with goal of preset location 3-4 months in advance

    high · Ron describing voting process including 'every representative of every league and one or two extra people'; planning to ask for location presets; 'I'll drive you from the train station to the bus station' outreach to NYC players for upstate travel

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.294

0:00
This is a class about life and shadow, a class about form and texture, and our object of interpretation is the skin of a nude model. Yes! Cool.
0:13
Well, it's nice to see such enthusiasm. I'd like to get a feel for your individual talents by bringing up our first model of the semester. Christine? Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Whoa! You can see her boobs.
0:32
This is the coolest class ever. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Let us all bow our heads in silence. Oh, we'll talk about that. And welcome to episode 31, The Spy Who Loved Me. With the worst ski scene ever. Worst? Oh my god, it's really bad. That blue screen in the background is just terrible. So is it, okay, how about For Your Eyes Only? That also has a ski scene. Yeah, but that one's a little better done. It really is. Alright. I think they finally got the blue screen started on this one. They really depended on it way too much. Plus, it's just terrible. Ugh, terrible. Well, it was a hit. It was a hit. It was a good recovery after the poor performance of the man with the golden gun. It was a three-year hiatus. Probably one of the longest periods without one until it came back. And it has the Nobody Does It Better theme song. Major hit for Carly Simon. Yes, and Miss Barbara Bach. Barbara Bach, sister of?
1:59
Daisy Duke. Yes. But we're not alone this week. No, not for this subject. For this subject, we had to pull out all the stops. Okay, we pulled out all the stops for this subject. Yes, so this is going to be a little heavy. Probably half the episode is probably going to talk about IFPA. Oh, half the episode. Yeah, just half. There goes the fast-forward buttons there. Hi.

high confidence · Ron Hallett discussing venue rotation and accessibility issues

  • Ron's house (Level Zero) successfully hosted the Upstate Championship and can accommodate 16+ players plus spectators; Ron is proposing it or other upstate locations for 2024 state finals

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing Level Zero venue and planning to preset location 3-4 months in advance

    • Ron Hallett @ ~42:00 — Argument that multi-state participation is feasible, supporting rotating state finals locations

  • “It's not a vote thing. Basically, there is an appointed or a volunteer.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~50:15 — Clarifies governance structure for state championship location selection

    • person
    Alex Levyperson
    Eric Russellperson
    Steve Marshperson
    Howard Levineperson
    Steve Keelerperson
    Zach Sharpeperson
    IFPAorganization
    Level Zerocompany
    Buffalo Pinball Openevent
    Pinmaniaevent
    Pittsburgh Pinball Openevent
    Pintasticevent
    Pinfestevent
    Franciscoperson
    Nick Laneperson
    Jackbarcompany
    Sunshine Laundromatcompany
    Slam Tilt Podcastorganization
  • ?

    community_signal: Upstate NY pinball players organize separate ranking sheet and championship (Upstate Championship) to counteract Super League dominance; community demonstrates infrastructure and willingness to host state finals (Level Zero venue successfully hosted with 16+ capacity)

    high · Ron Hallett describing creation of upstate ranking sheet with Howard Levine and others as response to 2015-2016 exclusion; Level Zero hosting Upstate Championship with positive reception from community; multiple venues proposed (Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester)

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Multi-state pinball qualification becomes viable competitive strategy; Tim Sexton qualified for 10 state finals in 2016; Alex Levy qualified in North Carolina while NYC-based; players discover can achieve better results outside home state

    high · Tim describing qualifying in 10 states except New York; Alex Levy's North Carolina qualification; hosts discussing players competing across multiple states as proof venue relocation is feasible

  • ?

    design_philosophy: WPPR diminishing returns curve (128-player rule) creates perverse incentive structure where large-scale monthly events reward consistent mid-to-high placements more generously than performance at major championships; Modern Pinball exploited structural flaw

    high · Tim Sexton's detailed explanation of linear vs dynamic curve distribution; modern 200-player finalists (20 players) receiving disproportionate bonus multipliers; comparison to IFPA World Championships (62 players) receiving less curve benefit

  • ?

    leak_detection: Retroactive IFPA Super League point corrections appear to have been discovered/announced suddenly ('26 events have been changed over this past couple days'), suggesting either unofficial leak or surprise policy announcement not widely telegraphed in advance

    medium · Tim saying changes were discovered 'a total of like 26 events have been changed over this past couple days'; hosts discussing as breaking news; suggests community learned about corrections recently

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Tim Sexton recognized by Ron Hallett as effective IFPA point representative for New York State despite not being formal league officer; informal leadership role in competitive rankings governance

    medium · Ron: 'I consider Tim a big part of representing New York State itself. So I include him in the voting' despite Tim not having appointed league role

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: IFPA implements new policy requiring minimum 50% participation threshold in ranked tournaments, retroactively applied to Modern Pinball Super League events dating back 2+ years, triggering recalculation of 26+ events

    high · Tim Sexton: 'a total of like 26 events have been changed over this past couple days'; Josh Sharp enforcing 50% minimum threshold going back to 2015

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Greg Pavarelli's positive response to large ranking drop (23rd to 98th) indicates community acceptance of Super League corrections despite dramatic point losses; reframing as restoration of competitive legitimacy

    medium · Tim reporting Greg told him: 'he's happy with this change because he felt like just flying up the rankings wasn't as fun'; Greg noting profile now shows 'Pittsburgh Pinball Open, Pinmania' instead of Super League dominance

    • 2:27
    Nope, still on it. Nope, still. Oh, Jesus Christ. But we're bringing back Tim Balls. Tim Sexton is joining us once again. I have a little problem with him right now, actually. I'm going to bring it up real fast. I'm going to bust his balls a little bit. Can I say hello? You can say hello, but I'm going to say you never shout us out on your Twitch things. I do. I haven't heard much. we always talk about you brother he will if I go on there and make a comment get Albany Redhead of the Slamtail Podcast hello very good co-hosting Bruce you don't even let the guests say hi and immediately bust his balls before he says anything that's good to back up Bruce's warning though I do agree with him as long as you hear my voice you're going to want to keep holding down that fast forward All right, so without any further ado, we have a full docket of news items, but let's just get right to it.
    3:31
    And this is more, I would say, a more northeast subject, although it will affect other areas, but we're talking about Super League.
    3:43
    Super League. And for those who don't know the story, in New York City, there's a place called Modern Pinball who has a Super League.
    3:53
    And their Super League. What's a Super League? A Super League is, what really is a Super League? It's just a league with more people than you would normally see in a league, I guess. Is that why it's a Super League? Either way, their Super League would get ridiculous amounts of IFPA points. Like just tons and tons and tons of points due to the way that they ran their league, which we'll let Tim take that one over. Tim, can you tell us how did they manage to get so many points out of that location?
    4:26
    Well, first, I want to talk about the name Super League because a lot of people in the past couple of years have made leagues they've called Super Leagues. But whatever, they're like fake Super Leagues. This is the real original Super League, the modern pinball Super League we're talking about. And the distinct difference between the modern pinball Super League and any other league that ran in the world, I guess, is the number of players, the number of rated players, and how frequently this event ran.
    4:58
    So I think a total of like 26 events have been changed over this past couple days. We'll get to the changed part. But just to tell it, so they would have, it was like every month, I believe, is the way it worked? Yeah, it was every month. And the Super League started in January 2015, and it was a pretty simple, straightforward format. You showed up every week. You played seven games. And then at the end of the month, all your scores were compared against all the other players' scores. And then if you had the most points, you won. there was no finals or anything and more and more changes were introduced to the tournament system to force these rules and a lot were due to the super league like you have to have a finals portion at the end of your tournament that's head to head you have to have this threshold like players have to play at least 50 of your qualifying games is a new rule for this year and the super league kept changing to conform to all these rules but the constant was the number of players involved and the number of players participating at a minimum level. What was the typical number of players they would get for a month? It looks like around 200. Now, how, pray tell, is that possible? The running explanation is you have someone who is working full-time, I guess, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so from open to close. who is allegedly writing down the scores of all these players who come in and say, hey, I want to play in Super League, but I only want to play three games for some reason. And then they go into the whole thing and they get rated against everyone else who goes, hey, I want to play in Super League, but I want to play all seven games every week.
    6:43
    And the players who play seven games every week naturally beat the hundreds of players who play three or four games every month.
    6:50
    And that was how the Super League ran, supposedly, for a long time. Now, the reason I say supposedly is because of this latest change, which seems to have been voluntarily done by the person running the Super League, who's actually gone back in time and said, I'm only going to include the players who played at least 50% of the qualifying games. so in the months where it was seven games a week you'd have to show up for two weeks you'd have to play at least 14 games it looks like and that would get you submitted into this tournament retroactively back the past two years hold on hold on hold on hold on I'm opening up my popcorn right now as we speak okay go ahead yeah when you said supposedly are you insinuating it was not really run that way well i'll use uh josh's words uh josh uh sharp runs the ifpa and i'm gonna try to find the phrase he had used because i don't want to um okay at best it's unclear whether a player intends on wanting to participate and have their scores recorded at worst it allows every score from every player that is playing in the building the opportunity to be recorded uh regardless of any interest or knowledge of participating. It's just always assumed. So I guess they took the median of this at best and at worst and said, something needs to change here and went ahead with this change. So basically what would happen is someone would walk in from the street. Is that you want to be a member of a league? What? Here, we'll take your name, play some games. Okay. And they write the name, the scores down and there you go. You're in the Super League. but possibly not that it's even possibly just put your name down here and have fun really i see yeah okay i could have been you know who knows now we're not insinuating that did happen or did not happen but no and there's no way to prove that of course not the odds of it happening are more prevalent i would say i'm not being i'm going to be devil's advocate on this one i can't prove it no one can prove it or prove it not yeah but if you look at the number You have 200 people a month. So 200 people came in and said, you want to be in our league? Here, play at least, what, three? And they all played exactly three games? Pretty much. And in addition, it's the same 200 people. Like, it's not random 200 players every month. It's, okay, this guy always plays three games a month. He always comes in exactly once a month. He schedules the second Tuesday at 2 a.m. to come play or something. Who knows when he's there? Who knows who he is? Wow, really? So that's how it was. Wow. Okay. Well, listeners, you can make up your mind on what you think about that. I mean, I know I am pretty pattern-oriented. I tend to, you know, I grocery shop usually the same day. I do things at the same time. So if you had 200 people that had OCD like me and all came in at the exact same time and played the exact same number of games, I could see it. But there's probably not 200 people that OCD.
    10:12
    So I was unaware of all this other information. I always thought it was just like when people walked in and said, hey, you want to be in our league? And here, play three games. We'll take them down. Okay. I didn't realize it was like all the same people playing the same amount of games at the same time.
    10:29
    Yeah, that gets into the point. If we are wrong, please tell us, people out there. Yeah, please tell us if we're wrong, if the numbers are wrong. But, I mean, because I always took it the other way, that they were just getting people coming in off the street like, hey, and just like, oh, okay. And they just were writing down their scores.
    10:48
    We are equal opportunity. Yeah, I was unaware of this other story until literally a few minutes ago. So.
    10:55
    I knew about the hints of it, yes. Well, you know everything, Bruce. so one of the players in here that i uh had seen when he was signed up in the first ever super league was jason sudeikis who's been moved to the super league b division he doesn't have any points but he's still in the system if anyone knows jason uh ask him if he knows about the super league he just gets some data for us did he know that he came in 100 second place in january 2015 in the Super League. And there's a lot of people who are in this situation. So now if you go to like Modern Super League B division, you'll see a lot of the names segregated a little more and you can click on their profiles and see, oh, they're always in B division.
    11:41
    So a little exercise for fun if you want to just dig down into the... Some homework from Tim. Like I've been doing all day today. Yeah. Okay. So what actually happened to the points and some of the rankings that Yeah, yeah. Right before he does that, just to let our listeners know, one of the main impedances of the upstate pinball rankings was the fact that in at least 2015 and 2016, if you were in upstate New York, which as New Yorkers, New York City people would say is anything not New York City, basically your stuff didn't count, really. I mean, you could not compete with 200 people a month. So a new Josh, listen to the call, and a new specific ranking or specific upstate New York ranking sheet was created for this just to combat this. which we had much help with. We did. It was a lot of people's idea. You know, I ran with it, but a lot of people did help out with Howard Levine in the beginning. Tim did. You did. A couple other people, you know, I might have forgotten who did, but everyone has helped with this, and I ran with it, and I like doing it, and it's going to continue. I'm going to say that right now. Upstate Championship is still going to happen. Josh even talked about it tonight and encouraged it, which is really cool. Yeah, so this allowed players from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, places like that that are probably not going to be going to New York City on a monthly basis just to play in a Super League to get rankings points and at least feel like they're competing against other people in some kind of fair plane, if you want to say. So the unique thing about this is not only are they changing, they're retroactively changing all the points for the last, what, two years? back to 2015?
    13:35
    Yeah, well, whenever the way the system's set up is that if any tournament changes at any point in the past, starting from then to current day is completely rebuilt. So, that has led to some very interesting changes in rankings of players. You would figure it wouldn't move much like Steve Bowden, I believe, what is he, 5th? 6th he was? He was 6th. He was six, and he moved down to 11. So not really much of a change. He's one point behind Motts, and he's eight points behind Bowen. So he's right in this tight little range now. And he really didn't play that much. Now let's give him the benefit of the doubt also. He really didn't have much of his points from Super League. Yeah. He had pre-Super League 890 points, and after Super League he had 780. So between up to 20 events, he only lost five points each for them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So don't, you know, when you, you know, Steve is a friend of the, you know, Steve is a very good friend of all of ours and he didn't use the system. Yeah, Steve, Steve, honestly, Steve took a lot of shit for being in Super League. Like when his ranking started to go up, it was all like, oh, he's a Super League and all that. And Steve wipes our ass for the place. And he's a good player. Steve was also a sponge for these Super League points because he would be first or second in New York and he would play in New Jersey. So he bumped it down at least one more spot to right above Levy, who didn't play in the Super League this year. But I think he was right at the cut line this year of a non-Super League player who almost fainted in. Yeah, I think Steve literally had to win the Expo tournament and finish, what, top five or whatever it was at Pinnberg to get validation. that, you know, like, I am actually this good, you know, it's not just a Super League thing. Well, he's also leading the circuit point standings, and he can't even go to that final. He can't even go to it, I know. So, but some other players, now, I don't know how we feel about keep mentioning people's names on the podcast. You know, they might get pissed. We can go initials. I think we can do initials, maybe a first name and a last initial, just to say, you know, like, Bob Smith dropped 3,000 points, you know, and Bob Smith would be like, why are you mentioning me, asshole? GP. Yeah, let's go over some of the players and their precipitous falling in the rankings. Give us some examples, Tim. Greg likes to hear his name, so. Yeah, he does. Greg does like to hear his name. But Greg's a good friend of, I think, all of ours. Yes. And he's actually told me he's happy with this change because he felt like just flying up the rankings wasn't as fun as watching, like, me or Levy just kind of crawl our way up them by. you know really yes go to these circuit events and putting up good you know a little incremental stuff so now he's dropped from 23rd to 98th and i think he told me there's a little bit of a mistake that might be fixed so he might even be a little higher than that but it's a big drop yes uh to drop from the front page down to the third page second or third page yeah um but he's told me, he's like, yeah, you know, my profile looks better now. You know, it's not just Super League, Super League, Super League. I've got Pittsburgh Pinball Open on there. I've got Pinmania on there. I've got all these other events I was proud of that just weren't really showing up on my card.
    17:07
    Prominently displayed. And he does have good results, and I think you can look at it now and kind of see, like, oh, he did well at Pinfest. He did well at Pinmania, you know. It might be something to this guy. He might be a good up-and-coming player. Yeah, and to explain to the listeners what happens a lot with the rankings is the points you earn for certain things, if it's not enough points, it doesn't even show up. It's just stuff that doesn't count. It shows up in your totals for the state, but it doesn't show up in your top 20. Yeah, if you go to someone's main page, and if you were in Super League, that's where you got all your points. So you could have been third at, like, I don't know, at Pentastic, and that wouldn't show up because of all your Super League points. But some players dropped a lot. Yeah, and these were players who had been playing pretty much exclusively in the Super League. Well, the people I had mentioned before, these players who are now in the B division, dropped from about maybe 2,000 in the world to unranked because all the results are zero points. But I think people will mostly notice the front page, the top 100, I guess, where you had a bunch of players who played a good portion of their events in the Super League, and Bob Matthews had done a little analysis of this before, too, who dropped to the mid-hundreds about, I would say, was the average of a top 100 player in the Super League has dropped to the mid-hundreds now. Some even five-hundreds. Yeah. And actually, some of us have actually noticed a bump up.
    18:46
    Yeah, that's true. I gained about five spots from... I gained seven. ...overnight. I lost points, actually. Yeah, you will. The reason I lost points is because another benefit of always winning tournaments against 200 players is that you get this rating boost and this ranking boost, which carries forward so you bring higher value with you to future events because you're assumed to be a better player. This kind of works itself into the system. So I live in New York. All of us live in New York. We play New York City guys a lot. And these little ranking and rating bonuses gave us little bits of points that sort of got slowly changed by this. So I remember yesterday I looked and I was about 406 Whopper points. I'm down to 397, but I moved up a bunch of spots.
    19:42
    So little interesting things like that happen. And to get really nerdy into points. Oh, boy. This is a pinball podcast. This is all about nerdy. Come on. Yes. All right. I'll be really quick. I'll try to be quick. the key thing to know is that the critical number here of why this is so much is uh it's 128 player rule and this is your point of diminishing returns as far as exploiting pinball points go and the reason this is is because the way your points are distributed from second place down to last place is different depending on how many players are in the tournament and it's given by this there's this base linear point system so that's why you'll go to the bottom of any tournament you'll notice everyone's like 0.11 0.22 0.33 0.44 you'll notice this like very slight increase that's very consistent and then you'll go halfway up a tournament and you'll see that people go up 0.9, 2, 4, 8, 12, and then it jumps up very quickly. And so on top of the linear points that everyone gets is this dynamic curve distribution. And this dynamic curve is basically, you can look at a chart of from one player up to 128 players in your tournament. This is what percent you will get at every single position. And the maximum one was 128 players. The top 64 players get the smoothest, flattest curve. and very few tournaments, even circuit events, even these other ones that aren't majors, even majors, like IFPA World Championships only has 62 players. It doesn't benefit from this curve as much as Modern did. So you see players who perennially came in 10th place or something were getting a ton of points for their consistent 10th places, much more than anyone was getting for a 10th place at a circuit event or 10th place at their local league or something. And this would happen every single month, too. So it became a real big issue for players like us, especially in New York, where we want to get these top 16 state spots, but the person who's averaging 16th place in Super League is just far outpacing all the first, seconds, thirds, fourths anyone like myself, Ryan, Bruce, Eric Russell were getting in any upstate tournaments. And you'd go, why is that? We're doing really consistent. We're doing really well. But 16th place in Modern is getting this incredibly generous point distribution. And they can consistently be 16th place. You'd expect 16th place out of 200 to be quite a task. But because a lot of these players were effectively forfeiting their chance of winning by not fully participating, 16th became a lot easier. And I think you'll see the number of players they're getting at finals is about 20 players, and you can pretty much consider that the core group of modern Super League players, but that's 20 that were submitted on top of these other 100 or so, 200. I think one month had like 600 before.
    22:56
    I know, I know. But let's bring up, now you actually walked me into another subject, which is great, Tim. Tim, in 2015, where did you play your state finals? I played in Connecticut. Yes. Who did I lose to the first time? Oh, God, some guy on this podcast.
    23:14
    Yes, but I did enjoy that. I actually enjoyed playing with you at the Sanctum. The Sanctum is a great place. So we both played in Connecticut. Why did we both play in Connecticut? Well, we couldn't play in our home state of New York. Because we couldn't qualify. Now, Ron, where were you in the 2015 state finals? For the 2015 year, I actually ended up playing in Massachusetts, and that's only because I won Pintastic. That's literally the only reason I had enough points because I actually won, so I was able to get swept, I believe, in them. I did not play well, but at least I got to play, yes. Yes, but the reason why you didn't play in New York because... I couldn't. There are numbers now out. Luckily, Tim and Mr. Josh Sharp put these out. Guess what place you were in if Super League was actually rated now the way it is. Guess where you would have been in 2015, Ron? I don't know. Where would I have been, Bruce? 15th. You would have qualified for the stage. I'm in. With only 10 events played. Yes. Now, Tim, you were in 11th place. Yep. I was in 6th place. So all three of us we all would have been in We are the Triforce of Upstate Yes And Eric Russell seventh We had seven Upstate players out of the top 17 If you want to expand it to 20, we had the top 10 out of 20 in 2015.
    24:42
    Half. How about the next year? That's what I'm going to right now. Ron, do you know where you were? I wasn't top 16. No, you were not, but you were top 26. So I was 26th? 26th. Okay. Just under Zach Sharp. Yeah. Number three in the world. Yes, so very impressive. That makes you four in the world. Yes, that makes you four. Four in the world.
    25:11
    Tim, where did you play in 2016 for your state? Well, first, Ron, where did you play in 2016 for your state finals? I didn't play anywhere. I didn't qualify anywhere. I suck. We're going to get to that. I had to win Fantastic again if I wanted to make it. Yeah. Tim, where did you qualify for your 2016 tournament? I was above the cut line in 10 different states. Very impressive. Except for the one that I live in and the one I had the most points in, New York. Wow, that's pretty fucked up, Tim. Yes, it is pretty fucked up in this world. Tim, you would have been seventh in your own state. without Super League. Me, I qualified in Massachusetts. I did not play in Massachusetts because of personal reasons and work reasons. I qualified fifth. Eric Russell was sixth. Jerry might have made it or might have not. You know, he might have went to Connecticut because it's closer to him there. He doesn't like New York City. You know, there's a lot of players who might have not chosen. But the thing is, the numbers are now hopefully right.
    26:18
    And we did get Bowen for two years. and now we go on to the next subject which is all day today discussion which i've alerted these two guys about yes and and the subject is where to have the state championships it's pretty much four years yeah pretty much a given that it's going to be in new york city in the past four years it has been in new york city even before super league in 2014 when both me and bruce qualified see a pattern here developing no super league we make it we end it we played it um Was it the Sunshine Laundromat? The year before was Pioneer. Oh, I didn't even know. Pioneer was the first year.
    26:59
    Then it was Sunshine. Where was the third one? I don't even know where to... It was Modern. And then the last one was in that gentleman's house. Steve Marsh's house. You're missing one.
    27:13
    There's only been four. Jackbar. It wasn't Pioneer? It was Jackbar? Oh, that was the first one. It was Jack Barr. Not Pioneer, sorry. But my complaint was today when this all came out was maybe this will now encourage people to actually consider the whole state of New York as a place to play possibly. And after 300 posts of heated debate all day today. All day today because everyone couldn't get through their heads that I said let's bring Buffalo back into it because Buffalo has proven that they can have a tournament there first because they have the only major in New York State, which is the Buffalo Pinball Open. Second, people were asking for the past four years or at least the three years that upstate people could qualify. Some people were asked to drive seven hours from Buffalo, myself up in Rochester, even Syracuse, even Albany, just four hours to four and a half hours to drive down to New York City every time to qualify. But Bruce, you don't understand. And they don't have cars. It's cold. You guys have cars, which makes transportation instantaneous and free. Yeah, exactly. It's so free. It's so easy. But the thing was, they were like, I'm telling these people, and I wasn't being rude. If you noticed, Tim, I was actually being very, you not rude? I wasn't, honestly, Tim, was I rude? No, he wasn't. He was on his best behavior. Yeah, he seemed like he didn't piss anyone off. It was a rarefied air for Bruce. It was rarefied air, but I was bringing up the point saying, let's have it in Buffalo because guess what? You guys have wanted us to drive seven hours. Maybe it's time for you to drive seven hours. But we don't have cars. What he actually got was, well, that's not right. It's cold up there. It's not right. Why should I drive seven hours? I'm not going to do that. I'm like, you're making my point for me. You really are making my point for me. it should be told the the locations of this year's event should be beforehand so if you don't like that place or you don't want to play in that place you can maybe try a different state we've proven we've all proven that we can play in different states look at levy one north carolina and he lives in new york city so you know it's you can prove that you can play another state and win in another state or at least compete in another state. Tim just got third in Connecticut this year. I had fourth in Connecticut the year before. We all can play. We're good. Timmy and Levy are better. Trust me. First admit it. I bow to your greatness, both of you. But I want it to be a centralized location. And I brought up Keeler. Rock fantasy. Another. I know Ron's going to fall over and collapse. He actually did. He brought it up. I did. But Steve Keeler, he was not interested. He was not interested. He didn't – I think he thinks there's a certain amount of drama that he just doesn't want to be involved with. He just wants to play and have fun. He doesn't want to get involved with all that stuff. But we brought up Ron's house. And last year for the Upstate Championship, Ron's house was incredible. Yeah. Ron did an amazing job. I got texted by Bruce saying they're using your – I brought it up. Well, actually, Greg brought it up. There were several people, I think, before you even brought it up.
    30:34
    And I couldn't – there's some Facebook group that I wasn't – actually, it's Levy's Facebook group I wasn't even a member of. So I couldn't see any of these posts.
    30:43
    So, yeah, I did join, and I got approved or whatever, and I'm seeing all these posts. It's like, wow, people like my collection. Round Zero is a good place, but I recommend it. Level Zero. I like Round Zero. It's like a bomb pit. No. That would not be good for New York City people to call it that either. Bad, bad Bruce. But it runs as a great place. It can hold 16 easily. We've proven that many times. Even people who want to come and visit and watch also, it can handle it. People were actually receptive, including Francisco. He was very, I will say, accepting of it. I even said I'll drive you from the train station to the bus station.
    31:26
    I will too. I'm on the way. That's what we need. We need, and I'm going to follow that lead also. Well, hopefully in the next three or four months, I'm going to ask and get the location for the Upstate Championships preset.
    31:40
    That's my goal this year. It's going to be earlier this year. All the people, and I even brought this up in talking about it. What I do with Upstate is I ask every representative of every league and one or two extra people who I feel are very just in the pinball, a.k.a. IFPA point man, Tim Sexton, even though he's not a part of a – there is representation of a league for Orange County with Howard. But I consider Tim a big part of representing New York State itself. So I include him in the voting. I include Nick Lane. I include Ron Hallett because he is up in Albany. He does have two people in his Albany group. I also include Binghamton Pinball and Orange County. I even include Keeler, who is an operator of Rock Fantasy. And I ask everyone for their votes and everyone for their locations, and we try to figure out something. And, of course, two years ago it was Ron's house. Last year it was Binghamton. Who knows? This year it could be Buffalo. It could be Syracuse. That's the interesting thing about the way the state championship series works is it's not a vote thing. Basically, there is an appointed or a volunteer. Volunteer. Who is the, what is it called? Is it tournament director for the state? State representative. And the state representative will decide where it's going to be, which is, that's kind of interesting.
    33:07
    Kind of biased. Yeah, and the thing is, like this year's state championship finals, when did they announce the location? I think it was the week before. They announced it a week before, but he had announced it to his – to the people he knew were going to be in it where it was. What was the official announcement? It was a week before. About a – it wasn't a week before. It was about a month before where he contacted everyone on Facebook. He contacted a little bit, yeah. Okay.
    33:35
    But the way I look at it is that's why I ran with the upstate, and that's why I want people to vote on it. I don't want it to be my dictatorship. I don't – that's not me. I'm a dick as it is. I don't want to be a dictator. Very good. I'm a dick, but I don't want to be a dictator. I think we have your motto. Yes, exactly. So I include everyone involved. And I ask for help all the time. I ask for Tim's help for doing the secondary tournament, and he helped out a lot. And I ask for people who are league members to help out with scoring and tracking and stuff. And it all works out well. I think the past two years has worked flawlessly, and I think everyone had fun both years. and that's why I'm going to keep on doing it. But I like the voting idea. It should be a vote.
    34:21
    It should be, guess what? Your players are the people who are making this happen. One of these people is going to be representing New York State. It should all be included. That's what I'm just getting to. It really should be. And what I'll say is the idea Bruce is proposing about announcing it early and talking about this voting, A couple of other states have already set this kind of de facto rotation.
    34:47
    And the ones that I know of for sure are California and Texas. California alternates between the Bay Area and Southern California. Texas alternates between Austin, Dallas, and Houston. It's a three-year rotation because that state's so big that people in the Houston area can play Louisiana. People in Dallas or Austin maybe can play in Oklahoma or New Mexico or Arizona or something. They could go hopefully somewhere. I mean that's still a huge travel. Yeah, way of a huge travel. But if they – But it's a possibility. It's always a possibility. And they know – If they know this ahead of time. That's what the really discouraging thing is. People were bringing this up today was, well, how many people missed Super League? How many missed the finals this year? Well, you can't count this year's finals because none of us were able to make it. The closest one was me, and I would have never qualified because all the people were Super League. It's nice and local. It's like this. It's all easy. But last year, we had nine of the 16 players. But I don't even think of it like that because of like if you look at Pennsylvania where they have Papa, the cut line is at 50 every year. Yeah, exactly. It's a function of a couple of things. But the people who played in it was nine out of 16 upstaters, and we all had – the nine of us had to go down to New York City. That was two years ago. That was at the laundromat. Yes. Two years ago to play in New York City, and there was never a chance for upstate to represent, upstate places, which we have plenty of. We really do. We have Rock Fantasy. We have Binghamton. We have Buffalo. We have Ron's house. We had my house for a while. We even have Eric Russell's house. There's a couple of other collectors out there that I would know would host 16 people.
    36:36
    It could be an easy way of doing it. I can have Vance do it. Vance's collection, honestly, is one of the best ones out here. If you wanted to talk 18, 19 games that are A-quality Williams games, you'd be hard-pressed to find any other place that has it. So there are places. That's what I wanted to bring up. And people are like, oh, why are you bringing this up so early this time? The reason why I brought it up is because we need to talk about it. I don't want to have next November going, it's going to be here. We need to talk about this now and get it set up beforehand.
    37:07
    And I'm going to press this point almost every other week. Oh, boy. That's where I'm going to be the dick. Oh, okay, yes. You're going to get people loving you even more. I know. I love it. And to be – going forward, I think if you're in a state that has a more established pinball scene and maybe multiple cities and multiple hubs that are separate from each other.
    37:32
    Pennsylvania has a huge Pittsburgh hub and a small Philly hub, but they've always had it in Pittsburgh. If you want to be in a conversation with your state rep and he or she isn't listening to you, then bring it up to the IFPA. Try to see if this becomes a big enough problem. It's only in a couple of states now, but if it becomes a big enough issue, If the pinball scene grows enough, then they might enforce a rule that gives you more opportunity or something. Josh was very receptive. Josh was very good, yeah. He was receptive when we brought it up, and he said, no, it should be moved around. And guess what?
    38:10
    Greg thought it was only his house he always has at the Illinois, and the reason why he had it two years in a row is because, one, the person who wanted to do it last year didn't want somebody in the house. so he couldn't not he couldn't exclude that person so he backed out and josh said i'll have it in my house just to clarify if because bruce went kind of fast there because we're quoting we're quoting like uh discussion threads that no one has seen they're like greg josh what the what the fuck is he talking about uh in the discussion thread it was that somebody made a comment to josh sharp like well hell you've had it at your house the last three years you know you have it there every And he was basically explaining, like, oh, the last two years, the only reason it was my house, because the people who were supposed to be at their house, bailed or had to cancel. Including Lyman. Lyman wanted to come face me and beat me. What?
    39:05
    You didn't see that first thread. Total segue there. Okay. He did. No, he actually, Josh was making fun of it. He goes, and Lyman had to go out and try to beat Bruce. So he was going to host, but he had to go out to Massachusetts and beat Bruce. Oh, okay. Yeah, which didn't – as it turns out, it didn't happen because in Massachusetts, Bowen canceled.
    39:27
    Yes, I canceled. And Lyman canceled, and Bruce canceled. I think once Bruce canceled, the other two just said, oh, I just – I don't even want to go now. It's not worth it. I can't beat Bruce. They wanted to beat Bruce. That was the whole reason. They thought it was a Super Leaguer. That's why. See? We got grouped into the Super Leaguers. I don't think they couldn't care less, honestly. Well, since we're on that, just to shore up the whole SCS thing, Bruce ended up not playing. I was not in Super League, so I did not qualify, unfortunately.
    40:01
    Tim got third. But Tim did. Tim got third. How'd that go? You played at the Sanctum, Tim's home away from home. Yes, it is. I played Ghostbusters every round. Oh, good for you.
    40:14
    I continue to find that game incredibly irritating and extremely exploitable, and I will not stop picking it in tournaments.
    40:30
    I had the ball one time hop over the out lane into the shooter lane. Just once? I've had that happen on mine several times. I've had it hop, hitting the ramp, hitting the stand-up target, and go on the fly to the shooter lane. That's some major airball action right there. Yikes. Yes, Jerry Bernard, Orange County's own Jerry Bernard won Connecticut. I don't think – is it the – it's not the first time he's won there, is it? Second. It's the second time he's won. Second time. That's his house, man. It's the third time total Connecticut's had it, and he's won two of them. And our own Levy, North Carolina winner. Yep. Former New Yorker Derek Miaska won in Georgia. He lives in Portland, Oregon now. That's a little bit of travel for you. That was a little bit of travel to get into that.
    41:24
    Wow. Yeah, I believe Zach Sharp won Illinois. Who won New Jersey? The kid, right? Jason Zahler repeated. He repeated. He beat some good players down there. Sanjay was with him. Sanjay was with him in the finals. See, Sanjay, he will get on a streak. He is one of the streakiest players I have ever seen. He beats Steve. Yeah, he will get on his streaks where he's awesome, and then he will get on streaks where you'll hear him say, I suck a lot. Oh, yes. That's his favorite line, I suck. Yeah, he got on one of his hot streaks, and he got to the finals, and then he lost to Jason, I believe, four games to one. Four to one, yes. But it was a good showing. It was good seeing a lot of upstate Europe players and a lot of players around the country. Trust me. It was actually kind of nice when Lyman actually put it on my Facebook page, good luck today. And I had to tell him, like, I backed out also. So we both missed it, you know. But it was really good, and I hope to see him at Papa. We both were talking for a while. I would have liked to have played Lyman, of course. It would have been a fun time. You would have kicked his ass. I would have kicked his ass. Bruce wanted revenge. Yes. See? You want revenge. I brought him to three and a two in that tournament at the Pintastic. The only person to do it. So he was trying. He got brassed probably by the eight players and said, let this B guy do this to you. B is for butthole? Is it good enough for me? Okay.
    42:54
    All right. So I think that's our IFPA. I think we're going to shore up that. Now, listeners, you can now begin to listen. You can fast forward. Maybe I should put a note like. Please skip an hour. IFPA discussion ends at, and there you go. It's about 50 minutes in. Oh, because we still got a full docket in. We got a full, full docket. Let's just do it. Aerosmith. On Friday, Deadflip had their stream of Aerosmith. I didn't watch it. You didn't watch it. I didn't watch it. He's only kidding, folks. He watched it. No, I didn't. I swear to God, I did not watch it. Wait. Okay. Bruce was just at my house yesterday where I mentioned this, and I said it looked good. And you're like – I saw like 25 seconds of it. That's all I watched. Okay, you're right. It was conversation. Hey, Tim. I was – What do you think? Hey, I'm muting. Shut up. Mute. Hey, Tim, what do you think? Looks pretty cool. Honestly, one of the most impressive early game streams I've seen. I agree completely. I have to say – I mean, we knew the artwork was awesome, but just watching the gameplay and specifically the upper play field thing, which when you've seen that in the past, it's like, oh, God. I mean, it looks like you just trap it and hit targets. This sucks. What's the point? Number one, yeah, you can trap it, but as soon as you start flipping it and stuff, it doesn't stay up there that long. Number two, the rules that they put in there, and, yes, I actually said rules, an actual software thing I'm going to get into. Woo-hoo. They made it the doubler, the double scoring, where you have to hit all the targets, and then you actually hit the loop to get out of the upper play field, and it activates double scoring for however many seconds it is. but also there's a third shot you can hit the elevator itself and it will drop down and it will go into the lock area where if you have it lit it will lock the ball in the toy box and i was just like wow damn that does a lot of stuff i went from like thinking that was going to be stupid and just a waste of time but that's premium only yeah that's premium only but the other thing and they designed it in a way that the flow of the right ramp really is no different compared to the pro it comes around the same way which was pretty neat the way they did that i that was what i was most impressed with and like the lcd animations i know some people criticize the they're like when they show the band and they're just kind of moving like like weird i i don't know really how to explain it but i i thought it had enough cool graphics with some of the other stuff that i it really didn't bother me that much and i don't think you're going to be looking at it that much during gameplay honestly yeah for stern's second um non-dmd game lcd i guess is the era now we're in it was interesting that they didn't have any artwork to go off of like batman they have the show they have that style they're kind of going off of but aerosmith they have custom graphics for every single mode instead of just reading the name of the song you've got like a cool color scheme associated on the graphics and on the play field when you go to it and the lighting with the screen actually started working together in a way i hadn't seen yet and i'm like oh that's kind of neat the actual songs each have their own little graphic and when you're scrolling through them along with it that matches the lighting the color changing leds on the play field because you know and again i was on pin side sorry and because they were talking about the stream and you have people on there saying how like oh the upper play field that looks stupid or just, oh, that sucked. Like, really? You saw that stream and you thought that sucked?
    46:25
    I don't understand. I don't get it sometimes. I thought the funniest part of the stream is in, I kind of like what they're doing now. It's seemingly like Josh Sharp just shows up. I'm sure once Keith Elwin is there, he'll just be walking by in the background. Oh, a stream. Let me come over and play. That's almost how they should do it, really, just have these random people just walk by. Oh, look. Oh, my God, no, because if Keith gets on there, it's going to be an hour game. And then you're going to be going, why? Well, you'll see everything. You probably won't want to buy the machine. No. I thought the best ball, because Gary Stern himself was there in the background, and they're all, like, just drinking and stuff, watching. And one part, I'm not going to quote this exactly, but basically Josh Sharp tilted trying to save the ball, and Gary Stern said something like, watch it with my fucking game. like whoa gary start with the f-bomb that was i think it was probably his best stream of that type that i've seen so far that he's done and it just looked i mean a bunch of people just together playing the game and it looked it looked fun yeah i agree i mean there's i i can't wait to play it honestly which where you bruce you think that's going to be in california when we go there oh i think so i think it's gonna i actually think it's going to be shipping within three weeks.
    47:49
    Bruce with his insider sources once again. I think it'll be the first week in March. Pop a voting for the last six events. Or seven or eight people. It's last five events. Circuit events.
    48:05
    The voting is now live. It is now live. And you must have a valid Facebook account to vote. And you must vote three places. Three places. So I voted for Pintastic. What else did I vote for? I voted for... Bruce's Porn Emporium Tournament? Yes. Whack-a-Willy. Oh, God. Did that be your episode title? It could be Whack-a-Willy.
    48:36
    But, yeah, so Pinball Papa's live voting. There's a couple out on the West Coast, up in the Northwest for, I think it was for the Northwest Pinball Championships and another one up in Vancouver. Does anyone have it in front of them where they can just go through the list? No the reason why is you can check it out again Once you vote you can see the list again Oh okay I have not voted yet I think it papa If you go to papa on Facebook.
    49:09
    Yeah, I'm actually going to get it up in a different way. Hey, now. He said get it up. Wow, what a classy organization we have here. Okay. We are the best. All right, you guys ready? We're going to go through the, here we go. I will do announcer voice. Ladies and gentlemen, voting for the 2017-2018 Papa Circuit is live. Here are your choices. Please select wisely. We have the Bat City Open in Austin, Texas, the Western Canadian Pinball Championship in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We have Pintastic New England from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, We have Critical Hit from Van Nuys, California. We have the Vancouver Flipout from Vancouver, Canada, of course. We have the Pinball Asylum Freak Show from Fort Myers, Florida. We have the Texas Pinball Festival Wizards Tournament from Frisco, Texas. we have the Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show from Independence, Ohio. The Northwest Pinball Championships in Bellevue, Bellevue, Bellevue, Bellevue. I'm not taking stuff. Bellevue, Washington.
    50:35
    Yes, I've been there, actually. You've been everywhere. Pinball Showdown in Denver, Colorado. And finally, the, oh, God, it's a European one with a little tilde, like symbol thing over the edge. The Boras pinball open from Boras, Sweden. Ja.
    50:55
    No, no, no. Not Austria. Sweden. So those are your selections. You must pick three. You must choose three. If you choose two, you choose one, your vote don't count. Choose wisely. For the circuit event that you picked correctly will give you life. The wrong one will take it from you.
    51:16
    Maybe not. But that voting is now live. I don't know when it ends. Does it say when it ends? February 21st. Okay, so a week from today. So next Tuesday.
    51:27
    Vote. Vote, people. So there was a kind of a surprise thing happened this past Sunday. A surprise thing? The Super Bowl. No, that was last Sunday. CBS had a big thing on CBS Sunday this morning about the well I call them always as we all will call them the first family of pinball and the royal family of pinball the sharps and also talking about pinball's resurgence and it was a good article I actually enjoyed it I was surprised I actually lost power Sunday we had a storm up in Rochester so I didn't get to see it until about three hours four hours later but I liked it. It was good. We got to live the Roger Sharp skill shot story once again which I'm sure even at this point he's sick of like, oh, this again. Yes. I saved pinball. Yes. I saved it. I think he's tired of it. I'd be tired of saying the same story over and over and over and over and over. I think every interview I've ever seen with him they've asked that question and he's had to give the story.
    52:36
    And people are like, what story? What are you talking about? Watch it. It's online. Just search for it. You'll find it out there. It's on with Fun With Bonus. If you go to funwithbonus.com and look through the past couple of days of his news feeds, it's on there. So go to Steve's site. Check out the link.
    52:54
    Two other manufacturers had some big news. Oh, yeah, we had some. Let's get to the crazy one last. Highway Pinball has started shipping Alien, or as Bruce calls it. Aliens. Even though it clearly says Alien on the game, but it will be Aliens to Bruce.
    53:12
    They posted a picture today on their Facebook of the first machine being shipped out. It's coming to the U.S., it looks like. I didn't see a head on it, though. It just had, like, the body. Did I miss something? Where's the head?
    53:26
    I'm telling you, they're shipping it without a head. You're going to get a game with no head, no boards. It's just a play field. But at least they are now shipping them. I know other people have been very critical of them. hey, if they're shipping machines, that's great for everyone. I really want to play it again because one of the things I heard they worked on was that left ramp. I don't know. Tim, did you get a chance to play it at any point? You weren't at Expo, so you probably haven't played it. Yeah. The left ramp was clunky and lots of ball hang-ups. That was one of the main complaints about the play field was that left ramp. Supposedly they did something to rectify that situation.
    54:01
    So I'm looking forward to it. And Magic Girl. People got a big surprise Sunday. Oh, they got a big surprise. They got two emails, one from Scott, who's the CFO of American Pinball, or actually the marketing guy from American Pinball, and also John Papaduke came saying email.
    54:24
    And they said that all 25 Magic Girls are done and are ready to play and are supposed to be done the way it should have been done, and they have to organize with American Pinball how they're going to be either picked up or shipped. So one part of the three-game saga from John Papaduke will hopefully be done by the end of this month or next month. Who knows how these games are going to play? No one's even seen them. Do they even have software? Yeah, I know. They'll have chimes in them. It's going to be Zidware, maybe. They're going to have chimes in them. It's like old school. We're combining the old schoolness of EMs with the modern play field. You're going to love it. Yeah, who knows? But stay tuned because we could hear a lot more complaints about this. And the only thing that was a little encouraging in the email from John was that he was working on the next two games. They were still on the drawing board, which is kind of scary in my mind. They're still on the drawing board. I got a funny John Papadook story for you.
    55:26
    I learned this when I was at Rock Fantasy. When Steve Keeler was at Allentown, there were people who thought he was John Papadook. Yes, I know. It always happens. I mean, he vaguely might look like John Papaduke. He's got the long hair, but I guess literally he's walking around, and people are like, oh, I can't believe John Papaduke would show his face here at a pinball show. He was at somebody's booth, and people were not going to. They were like, I can't support any vendor that would have John Papaduke at their booth. Like, wow. I thought that was hilarious.
    55:55
    That is fucking hilarious. Oh, that was just great. So if you go to Rock Fantasy, no, that is not John Papaduke there. he has not taken your money to run a record store in upstate New York no believe me he has not taken your millions of dollars to open up Rock fans but yeah I thought that was quite hilarious that was hilarious there was also a New York Times article about actually I think focusing on the New York State Finals no New York City Championship how do I get this wrong I created the name the New York City Championship and it was written very well. Well done. It was written in a higher grade level.
    56:38
    Most stuff in the paper is written at, like I say, eighth grade level. This used fancier words and more, you know, poetic-sounding prose, if you will. And it describes pinball accurately. Yes. It didn't make up words like they often do and say people are aiming for bumper clusters, which has happened before. It was written by someone with a much higher grasp of grammatics than me. I can say that.
    57:08
    And it did make the print edition page, like A19 or something. Big full-page story on Pinball. Which is always a good thing. Yes. Always a good thing. So what do I got here? Wow, we just blew through a lot of the subjects. That's good. People, we need a fathom. Oh, will you stop with the fathom? Oh, man. Will someone just give him a Fathom? No, don't give it to me. I don't want to buy it. Okay, will someone just sell him a Fathom? Yeah, that's all I want. Tim, do you have a Fathom? Did you win one yet? I don't, sorry. No, not yet. Not yet, okay. God damn it. So once Tim wins one, he can sell it to you. Because that's what Tim usually does when he wins a game. He just sells it immediately. I know. I've only done that once. Not twice. Oh, good gravis. I only did that with Firepower 2 and Demoman. Poor Firepower 2. You didn't want to hit that awesome ramp? You didn't want to play the lesser firepower?
    58:04
    Yeah, I was upset about the speech not being in the game. No, there's a bell, though. There's two-ball, multi-ball. The bell doesn't say firepower. I know. I actually got to play Ron's yesterday with the new rules that him and Scott have been making. Yes, well, Scott's been making. Ron's just been reaping the benefits. And adding ideas. Adding ideas. Yeah, my firepower, I did in previous episodes, I've said how I did the seven-digit conversion. So it's running seven digits now. But that's not enough. We need some custom software to make it so it's not just you hit the six targets and hit the spinner repeatedly, which is basically what it is in a tournament. That's all, as Timmy could probably attest to, that's all you would do on firepower in a tournament. You would not go for multiball. You would hit the targets. You would continually hit the spinner. Bonus multipliers. That's it.
    58:59
    Or maybe Tim's there like, whoa, that's what I should be doing? Okay, thanks for the advice, Ron. I hate to say, unfortunately, we made more points off of doing that first mentality still with this new ROM. Well, that's because Ron needs to get the damn one lock working properly. Yeah, the kick out was straight down the middle. Well, not that. Yeah, but also the left orbit shot should go into the lock, and it's not. I agree. I got to fix that. So what's your strategy? To quote the great Papa John, If you're in single ball play and the spinner is lit, you want to hit the spinner.
    59:30
    But if you're in multi-ball and the spinner is lit, you're going to want to hit the spinner. Yes. There you go. So what the rule changes are basically to make – I'd say to make it more Black Knight-esque as far as multipliers. What happens is if you get multi-ball, why you have three balls in play? 3X.
    59:51
    The whole play field. Why you have two balls in play? 2X. So if you hit that 1,000 a spin, it is now 3,000 a spin. But it's 300 because it's seven digits square. No, it's still 3,000. So if you are, say, way behind because of someone doing the first strategy, if you go for multiball and you can get that spinner going, you can catch up. And the other thing that was added, there's a lot of diagnostics and cool stuff like that that were added that probably a lot of listeners don't care about or are nice. The switch test now works more like a system seven. Switch test will actually tell you all the switches that are closed. It will go through them instead of just showing you whatever the last switch that was closed was. I always hated that. But I think, honestly, the coolest function that was added, if you play firepower and you get multiball, if you hit the six targets again while you're in multiball, one of the locks will light. If you lock a ball in there, it stays in there. So you can effectively have your multiball ended. Say you're down to two balls. One of the locks is lit and you go in there. That's it.
    60:58
    Your multiball is over. It's like a ballet game in that respect. So he reprogrammed it so basically it will cash your locks if you are multiball. So if I'm in multiball and I hit the six targets, nothing will light, but it remembers it. And when you drain out to get back to one ball, you will have a lock ready.
    61:18
    Or two or three, depending on how many times you went through the targets. to me that's it worked well that's the best feature it worked well when we when I did it by hand because we couldn't get multiball legitimately so and he fixed the bug couple bugs the special oh yeah he fixed that in the old code but if you have a firepower in stock software look at the attract mode look at the special light in the right out lane it stays on it never does anything it doesn't go with the rest of the light display or the light pattern the attract mode He changed it so basically now it's doing what the other special light is doing. Like it probably was supposed to do. They forgot to program it. And you'll be happy to know Tim as a programmer. He said going through, this was a Eugene Jarvis game, that it was very sloppy code and he did all kinds of crazy shit to get the stuff working.
    62:09
    And he was going through the compiled version of the code. Yeah, so you'd appreciate that. I guess there's all kinds of spaghetti-type code in there to try to take into account, because he had to get the three locks working and make it work with multiple players and try to keep track of where all the balls were. This was new shit in 1980, folks. They had to figure all this out.
    62:32
    Scared Stiff is still for sale, because whodunit went to its new owner, and a video of it is actually on our Facebook page. You got to see the Escalera in action, bringing it down the stairs. Yes. Stair climbing and stair descending hand truck. And, yeah, didn't it bring up a game? Yes, it did. Hey, Tim, what game do you think I brought upstairs?
    62:59
    What's the game you like to play in tournaments, Tim? That you just said you like to play. Who are you going to call, Tim? Ghostbusters. Oh, duh, duh. Duh. So it made the climb that no game wants to make because that means it's going to the showcase area,
    63:14
    namely the living room, where it will be photographed, filmed, and put up for sale. If you want to contact Ron early, email Ron because you can be ahead on the old Ghostbusters preview sale. And this is a non-ghosting Ghostbusters. It's a non-ghosting freemium version with the, I guess you say, in-lane airball preventers installed. It also has the alternate center post if you want to install it. It also has the main ramp airball protector. Do you see a pattern here? and the added steel side to the Ecto Goggles unit protector. Again, see a pattern? It's just like a game full of protectors because of all the ridiculous air balls that it has. So Ron will be selling this. I will be selling it. It probably won't be. I won't put it up there till March or April or, you know, when the weather gets a little better. I mean, if you want to put a reasonable offer out there, I mean, they're new in box. You can buy them now. But, I mean, give me, you know, at least over 6K offer I may consider. Just, you know, if you want to brave the elements because it's quite. Go on up to Albany. Go up to, yeah. It'd be a major snowstorm Sunday, so I had to plow it under. that's why I was going to wait until the spring to actually put it out there but I need my dialed in money so I have for sale still Scared Stiff for $6,500 that comes with the color DMD no fade autographed by Greg Ferris and Mr. Norman himself a good deal and Freedom is still around $700 Freedom we should set it on fire and film it will be truly who knows what will happen with that And I offered Ron up a trade this weekend. So, Dad, I hope you're listening, Dad. This one's for you. I'm not really considering this. You should be considering this. Okay. Tim can say, he can chime in whether he thinks this is a good trade. This is a trade, mind you. Go for it, Bruce. Whitewater. Ron's father's favorite game.
    65:32
    Whitewater. My Whitewater, which is near perfect play-wise and perfect play-field-wise, plays great. new decals in the tube ready to go also. New ramps except for the biggest one. I'd even throw that. I'd even buy one if you wanted that. Four. Okay, Tim, you ready for this? I'm ready. Stars and Stargazer.
    65:56
    Oh, okay. Well, you buried the lead there. Which is Rod giving up Stargazer. Yep. Yep. But this is a game for Father.
    66:07
    He's got a Sea Witch. He's got a sea witch now. He loves the sea witch, right, Dad? You love the sea witch. You don't need that white water. We can't get it in your house anyway. We can get it in there. I can get any game in his house. Don't listen to Bruce. Yeah, you want to trust Bruce? You know I can get any game anywhere. You're going to have big, like, chunks of wood out of your door when he just pounds it through. We will disconnect the head, Dad, and we will slide that game into your house, ready to be installed, and reset up playing perfectly for you to enjoy for years to come. And all your son has to give up is two piddly games with Star in the middle of them.
    66:44
    What do you think? What do you think, Tim? Should I go for it? I don't see you giving up Stargazer that easily. Me neither. For more than I paid for it? No, not very likely.
    66:57
    So this could be a poll, too. do you think should Ron go for the trade? Or nay-ay-ay or nay? It was yay for when it comes to versus things. Because there's just so many stargazers out there. Yeah, there is. It would be so easy to replace it. God, dime a dozen. It's not like it's one of the best spinner games ever made, and that's my favorite play field element. No, it's not. Your dad, it's so important to you, you need to make your dad happy. And if your dad happy, your mom will be happy. And when your mom and dad happy, you'll become happy again. Again? I'm always happy, Bruce. No, you're not. No, no. Mail time. We got mail.
    67:39
    We got mail. Mail bag. We got the slam ball bag, as Bruce calls it. Slam bag. Yes. Got some mail items. We have one here for Tim. I'm just kidding. If anyone wants to send email to our mail bag for Tim, we can get them on to answer. Yes, we would. complex rule questions like you want to know, like, what house should I pick on Game of Thrones? Things like that. Oh, that'd be great. What house should I pick on Game of Thrones? That's the real question we got? Alright, here we go. Game of Thrones. Yeah, I got one from Ron Hallett. He wants to know what house should he pick on Game of Thrones and why?
    68:17
    Who's your opponent? Oh, who's... It depends on my opponent. That's the most important thing to know when you're going to step up to Game of Thrones. And if they know the game well, too. That's the key also. Okay, let's get ridiculous. I'm playing Keith Elwood, so I already lost. But what should I pick?
    68:33
    Not should. You have to pick House Martel. And why is that? Because the add-a-ball in Hand of the King multiball is too important. Big. How do you get to Hand of the King again? You have to get four houses. Four houses. But there's an exact four you will want to complete. Oh, dear God. Oh, see, folks, this is why I play classics right here. This kind of stuff. This is definitely why I play classics. But you have to beat white Stark, green Tyrell, red Lannister, and purple Greyjoy.
    69:10
    And you cannot play Martell. You don't want to beat that mode, but you want to have that at a ball. And then that gives you the hand of the king with the best stack possible. You only have four shots to get to your hurry up. You have one fewer round to get your collect value or something.
    69:29
    Basically, Hand of the King becomes, at that level, the most important part of the game because it's endless. You can continue to Hand of the King forever. Iron Throne Wizard mode ends eventually. Blackwater Multiball just isn't enough points. So Hand of the King is the only opportunity you have to score 10 million. 10 billion, I mean. 10 billion, you mean, yes. Yeah. But if you're playing not Keith Owen, you can pick Tyrell. You can pick Greyjoy if you really want to be daring.
    70:03
    That's the most given win and take. It really is Greyjoy. The top three modes are bottom tier. They don't really do much right now for you, so I would never pick Stark, Baratheon, or Lannister. There you go. That's Game of Thrones. All right. I like that. I think that should be a segment when we end on it. Ask Timmy. Yeah. Ask Timmy. We'll just pick some of these, like one of these new, modern, fangled, really complex software games, and Tim can walk us through what we're supposed to do. Yep.
    70:38
    You need that white water. Will you stop with the white water? You do. Stop. We just got an email from the top five – the fifth top player in IFPA. The fifth-ranked player in IFPA actually also had a comment about Baywatch and High Roller Casino. Yes.
    70:59
    And NBA. Yes. Raymond Davidson emailed us. Hi, Raymond. Very good that we like seeing more West Coast players listening to us and also high-ranked players. His email says, for the record, Baywatch is a great game, so one strike against me. Yep. High Roller Casino is a great game. One plus for me. All right. And NBA, not a good game. No, he said not a great game. So it could be a fair game. And he did say, he did confirm what I said, that Todd McCulloch probably owns one, and he does. Yes, he does. And just for the record, I never said it was a great game. I said I like the game, and I don't think it's a steaming turd. What was your highest level or the lowest level of games of suck? It's the 26th. Whatever the level is, like it shouldn't exist. I don't think it's that bad. Oh, it's bad. What do you think, Tim?
    72:00
    This is Stern NBA? Stern NBA. Which we played together in Pinburg. Yeah, Pinburg is really the only place, or Papa's only place I've ever played that game. But, um...
    72:14
    Eh, it's eh. it feels like that era of stern like just okay like when does it get good when do we get lord of the rings please you know they already had lord of the rings this is after lord of the rings this is when they were making iron man and big buck hunter era of games right right right this is the we're barely hanging on era of games. Yes, it was pretty bad. Let's make NBA Jam again. Whatever. Or Space Jam again.
    72:57
    Okay, our next email was from Scott. Who? Is he going to say it or want me to say it? You can say it. He'll be our guest next week. And hopefully all three of us will actually be on. Yes, hopefully. I hope so.
    73:13
    A three-person conversation like this one is right now. We hope. We hope, but he's going to be on. And he actually emailed both of us about a couple little things including Diamonds Are Forever Trivia The scene where the girl changes into gorilla sound effects are stolen right from Forbidden Planet. And then he says, Forbidden Planet would make a great custom pinball machine. He doesn't have enough to do.
    73:43
    Hi, Scott. We'll see you next week. I can't wait. We can ask him all rules stuff and everything. Yes. Was Forbidden Planet like a 50s movie? I don't remember actually I don't remember well I asked an expert in old movies Tim have you ever heard of Forbidden Planet it's probably been remade or rebooted by now in this era actually they'll probably bring it back now because it's that old no one will remember the original let's just bring it back again 1956 there you go I think that's the one with Leslie Nielsen in it I believe Yeah, let's... Scintillating movie trivia, folks.
    74:23
    Yes, he is in it. Walter Pidgeon. Alexander Adams. No, he's not. Leslie Nielsen, yes. He's in it, and I think Robbie the Robot is in that, too. Yes, he is. Yeah, that is the one I'm thinking of, so... Danger! Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! The next one, sir. We also got mail from our resident Aussie, Ryan C. Good day, lads.
    74:43
    I enjoyed your jackpot calls immensely. I think you guys should applaud for do some on new release pins. Oh, he says we should try out for Dialed In to do some call outs to make Pat Lawler's family pin more hardcore. We should say Jack fucking Pot on Dialed In. Yeah, that'll go over. That'll go over. Oh, and then he has the question. Yes, and you have to say this question, and all three of us can answer it. Yeah, okay. I'll say it like this, because have you ever, like, you know, done it on a pinball machine? And if so, did you tilt?
    75:22
    So, Ron? No, I did not tilt. Okay, so you've had sex on a pinball machine. I did not tilt. Okay, but you've had sex on a pinball machine.
    75:34
    You're ruining the joke. See, the way it works is I just say that part, and then deadpan, you go to the next person. Okay, and Tim. There we go. Have you had sex on a pinball machine? And if so, did you tilt or not?
    75:48
    Hold on. What were the first four words of that question? Have you had sex? I am. Well, I haven't had pinball machines for that long. We'll just leave it there. Okay.
    76:02
    He's waiting for the right pinball machine, Bruce. That's what it is. Guess what? I'm going to really gross a lot of people out. Oh, no. sex on Pimlips you guys have played on. Nice. Oh.
    76:16
    Oh. Hey, you never know. Ron can own one of these right now. And with that, the final episode of the podcast has come to an end. Ron can own one right now.
    76:28
    Oh, okay. And no, I did not tell. So I guess there was some white on the white water. Yes, there was.
    76:37
    That was really bad. That's why I asked to trade it to you. But no swearing, see? You can be completely disgusting without vile language. Yeah. We're classy disgusting, yes. So let me see here. That was that one. Oh, man. Hope you like that one, Ryan C.
    76:57
    And our other resident, Ryan, from Wisconsin, who's been asking us about, he's getting into the hobby, he's been asking us a lot of newbie questions. Newbies, I wish I was a newbie again. Be a newbie, you'd be an awesome. No, I wouldn't. Oh, I would be. I want to be like Tim. See, you'll slaughter these games for the first time. You never played them. Instead of being like, oh, Big Bang Bar, whatever. Oh, Kingpin. They made like seven of them. Yeah, I played it. I got to the wizard mode, whatever. Every time they announce a Papa Classics bag, I'm like, what are these games? Exactly, exactly. Meanwhile, they're like, oh, not that one again. Oh, God, no. Blackjack's one of the games. We'll talk about that in a couple weeks. I missed one, a good one, actually. Somebody had one for sale in Virginia. It had a perfect play field, a perfect back glass for $700.
    77:48
    I would have brought that back into the fold for that. The question. See, everyone loves it. It's going to be the new stars. But the worst thing about it is the EM1, instead of playing that. It just goes.
    78:12
    It does that for 10 seconds. We need a hybrid. We need the art of the EM with the mechanics, the sound effects of the solid state. That would be the perfect blackjack. So the question is the tech question. And we have told people to send us some tech questions. So this one's for Tim. He's a tech head. Maybe not. He's so techy. It's not a programming question, so. Uh-oh. But we'll see. I'm in trouble. But he owns games, so he might be able to answer this. This last weekend while playing Whirlwind, already a good game choice, the three-drop target bank started to only reset once the ball was drained or when a ball was locked. If all three targets are hit on a single ball, they just stay down. What should my starting point be for solving this issue?
    78:59
    I would check the board to see if the solder needs to be reflowed. let's go really simple let's go really simple bruce is it an opto board you would know this it is yeah yeah it is system 11 opto boards they uh use them in four games if i remember correctly including taxi is it the same one that roller games has yes yeah i've had this problem uh what you want to do is put the game in switch test mode and you want to hit each switch down and see if it reacts when you actually put it down. I guarantee you one of them will not register.
    79:36
    What's happening is you have one target that's not registering. So at certain points of the game, the software is just going to reset the targets. Like at the beginning of the ball, and when a ball is locked, it looks like it must have code in it that says reset the bank. But one of your targets is not working. It's not registering. So you have to figure out which one of the three. And with the Optos, you can first try is, with the game off, cleaning the opto, which is the little U-shaped pieces. There should be three of them on the board underneath. You're going to have to take the board off the drop target, Mac. Just a warning. Yes, you will. Or you can put the drop target up and use a Q-tip with some Windex on it and clean in between each black U-shaped opto, we call them, and try to clean it and see if it's a dirt issue. Because what it is, there's an infrared sender and receiver in that opto, and it has a beam of light that's actually infrared that you can't see unless you use a camera, which most people don't remember that. A camera actually can see at a different wavelength, and you actually can see it through the video screen on a camera. I didn't know that. Yes. And back in the day when RadioShack was around, you could actually get like an infrared card thing, and you could actually like wave it in front and see the beam. Yes. But a camera can pick up the infrared wavelength also. But you want to see if – first, if it's dirty. If it's not dirty or if it was dirty and it still doesn't work, you then want to reseat the connector. And if you're good at soldering, take the board off and actually reflow the soldering on the connector itself. Yeah. See, I jumped to the final step. Yes, you did. Yeah, basically go for the easy stuff. We're lazy here. The best repair people are lazy. Yes. Because you're going to go for the easiest stuff first. If the Q-tip thing doesn't work, yeah, like maybe jiggle the connector. If that doesn't work, then you're kind of screwed in that. You're probably going to have to reflow some solder. But, again, that's still the easiest thing to do as opposed to just replacing an opto. It could be the connector itself because it's going to be an IDC connector. But from what I've seen, usually if you take the board out, and I recommend getting an actual soldering station if you're going to do board work.
    81:54
    Okay, Bruce, he's hardcore. You're a 25-watt, ever-increasing temperature soldering iron on your board. Or you can get a temperature-controlled one.
    82:04
    I would recommend the temperature-controlled one, but that's me. I reflow the solder. and you make sure when you reflow the solder you you keep it independent of each each point yes you don't want to yeah don't use use use the thinner solder i can't remember the diameter is but i use the thinner stuff for pretty much everything just do the optos and do the connector that will usually fix it yes most of the time unless it is a wiring connector on the other connector or one of the optos is actually bad yes in which case you're gonna have to replace the opto or if you're... Or you can actually get the boards from GLM. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Great Lakes Modular. If you're really lazy or if you're like, oh, I don't want to deal... If you do the simple stuff and don't want to get the soldering iron out and you don't want to screw with that, you can go to Great Lakes Modular. They sell, I believe, all the System 11 like OptoBoards. So just whatever game... Oh, is it Whirlwind? Yeah. So just go there, look up Whirlwind and just get one of those and then that'll work. Tony is a friend of the show. Tony is a big friend of this show, so definitely If you don't feel like doing the in-depth stuff with the Opto, definitely go to his website, check out all of his products, and purchase from him. And tell him Slam Tilt Podcast says hi, and tell him Bruce says hi. Tell him Slam Tilt sent you. So there you go. That's that question. Yeah. We got a lot still. One more.
    83:27
    Okay. Eric Russell with the S. Eric S. Russell. I think that's Russell number one. No, it's number two. Oh, that's right. Eric Russell S and then Eric Russell C and Y.
    83:40
    Good episode. I do think Baywatch is a good game. I mostly sold it for space and because the one I had was a beater that was kind of messed up with the launch wire form. I actually tried to talk Mike out of buying it, but he really wanted it, so I gave him a good deal. I still play it pretty frequently at Wizard Pinball, despite the particular one having some issues. But he still sold it, so his vote does not count. If you're keeping score at home, I believe that's 2-2. Okay.
    84:08
    Because we have Rami Davidson agreed with me on Baywatch. Eric agreed with me on Baywatch. But he agreed with you on High Roller Casino. And Tim agreed with you on NBA.
    84:19
    And he agreed that it wasn't a great game either, NBA. He said it wasn't a great game. I never said it was a great game.
    84:25
    Good, if I remember correctly. You know, good game. I'm the only one who likes it. Yep, yep. I'm the only one who likes it. I think that's me. Come on. You know, it has one thing. It's got the guy from NBA Jam on it. And World Cup Soccer. That dude is on there. How can you say that game is total shit? Just him alone brings it up to acceptable levels. It brings it up to a 25, a 26 then. Levels of suck. He's the guy in NFL Blitz as well, I think. Yes, he is. But that's the mail ball bag. The slam tilt ball bag. The slam ball bag. It has many names. It does. Are we doing games you like, games you hate? No, I'm going to call it a night. Well, first, I want to ask Tim, do we have any Tim rants?
    85:12
    I think the points was enough. That was enough? Oh, come on, there's nothing else to complain about? Any games that have pissed you off lately? Anything you think could have been done better? I'm going to ask a question. Tim, what do you feel about the points change? Well, I'm going to say that I'm a big fan of the IFPA, and I really like how at the point we're at now, I feel like I have a lot of communication to the IFPA and get a lot of feedback from them. You and Josh are tight. You're like the third sharp. The fourth sharp. Fourth sharp. What happened, I want people to not think that this IFPA is just some overbearing organization. Like all you have to do to really understand the points, I recommend everyone just take your any results and just from the order everyone finishes in, their rank and rating, put it in Excel and plug the formulas they give you into Excel and see how it works. I think you'll get a really good idea of how that whole system works. And from there, I think the criticisms or complaints you'll have about it will make a lot more sense. I, in fact, am trying to work on changes to rating, which I really don't like in the system. But we're at a point in our communications where it's like, I don't like this. And the guy says, can you do it better? And I say, maybe. And he says, here, here's all our data. Go, run, take all of this and do something better. So it's up to me to come back with, hey, here's something better and improve this. And it gets better with all this feedback. so it seems like one random just nerf but I think it puts you in a position where you haven't been deleted from the system you're still in it but you might see other stuff be more balanced and I think that'll be better going forward good I agree it's pretty much all just about being fair really and hopefully the cream will rise to the top I mean the best players will always be up there and it just gets rid of a lot of ridiculousness with the rankings where the state finals basically is the modern pinball finals really all Steve Bowden has to do to get back to where he was is win a major, it's all anyone really has to do to jump up super high that's all he has to do, no problem it's going to challenge you if you want to be number one in the world, you've got to earn it and one thing is not going to there's not going to be an easy way to ever do it and it's just going to keep getting better and i think the system has gotten better over the past four years i've been watching it now see if you want to be number one in the world you just better hope keith ellen doesn't want to be number one in the world it actually does become an issue you have to kind of hope keith ellen stops winning everything yes because if you i mean and he was in semi-retirement last year, but almost everything he entered, he won. I mean, could you imagine if he had a tournament schedule like a lot? The problem is, though, he's ranked so high, I figure he has to win majors to really get any points that count.
    88:21
    But he's one guy that can do that. Be like, yeah, I could totally see him doing that. His lowest events on his card are all first places at circuit events or circuit finals. Maybe he'll get so distracted at Stern making a pinball machine that he can't play that much. Because it's not like a Stern employee ever won a world championship before. I know. Oops.
    88:45
    Oops. Ready to pay the bills, boys? Ready to pay the bills. www.pinballlifter.com. Come check us out. We have lifters, tilters, helpers, wheel kits, mods for your creature.
    89:00
    Come by. We're going to be at Allentown this year with two booths. Booths, stop by, say hi. Ron sometimes is sitting at the booth hanging out, and so is his dad, and other people do hang out. Maybe we'll have an autograph session with, like, Ron and me, and we'll even get Tim balls there. Oh, Tim will be at the tournament. Whose autographs will we be getting?
    89:20
    We'll be giving. What? Oh, okay. Pictures, everything. We'll do, like, you know. Bruce is dreaming big. Yeah, he's dreaming big, all right. He's dreaming big, all right. This is Bruce's high school garage band here. Yeah, man. We're going to sell T-shirts. We're going to sell CDs.
    89:38
    The best of podcast album. Oh, God. Do we have a van with all our equipment in it? Yeah, man. I am looking at my drum kit right now. Bruce, do you play guitar, bass, or are you going to be a lead singer? I'll be lead singer and bassist. Bruce is definitely the lead singer material. Yeah! Don't forget, this Friday, Central New York has the fourth, I think it's the fourth year or the fifth of League, so I expect you and Ron carpooling now. They're coming out the League again. Tim, we miss you out there. Yeah, sorry I moved. I know, what the fuck? And this will be first League night will be at Wizards Pinball, so you get to help a location also. So I expect Ron to come out since he says he can't get in a league. What's a league like? And now he can get on one. Yeah, if he's willing to drive two and a half hours, he can play in a league all the time. Exactly. There you go. And he can stay over.
    90:41
    Peer pressure, Ron. Peer pressure. Also on the 23rd, Thursday is the Valentine's Day tournament at Comic Book Store. We're out in East Syracuse. Starts from 4.30 to 8.30. Six games. Nothing to cost to get into it. Just a coin drop. Top four make it to the finals. Come check it out. Eric actually won a couple nights ago at the Trappers pinball tournament that they had out in Syracuse. Also, I talked about the week before. So, congratulations, Eric. And Zach's going to be carpooling with me to the tournament next week. Or this weekend. for Central New York. So you can play this episode and force him to listen. I can. All right. Excellent. Hi, I have a podcast I'm sure you'd love to listen to. It's all about me. And you get to hear me. It's all about me. Me and more me. And then the 25th of March is the Rock Fantasy Winter Open, I guess. No, no, not March. Sorry, February 25th. Actually, Tim, tell us about it. Tell us about this tournament. Are you the manager again for this? Yep. Tournament director? Okay. So what's the date, Tim?
    91:59
    It's not. It is the 25th. Yeah. You said March 25th? It's February 25th. Not March. February, yeah. And what time does it start at?
    92:11
    1 p.m. Okay. What time does everyone, the doors open? Noon. And what time will you get there? I was there at 1230 last time. I did well. Okay. So what's the format? What's going on? Hey, we are doing a match play qualifying format followed by what Keeler and I are arguing about, but I think I said a Papa-style final where we take the top 8 or 12 or 16 players, we put them in groups of four, and the top two play, or all of them play three games in a round and then the top two move on. We do buys if we need to. We try to get as many people in the A finals. And people who don't make A finals, we have a B finals, not for points, just for a little side pot that we put together from the entry fee, which is a two strikes match play bracket head-to-head. and it's all day pinball playing a bunch of different games the new Batman premiums there and we just heard that we will be doing an Aerosmith launch party there soon in March yeah looks like the date's going to be the same date I'm going to be in California unfortunately more upstate points going down the toilet no I would have rather gone to actually the New England tournament that was going on Did you hear what they're doing out in New England? What are they doing out in New England? The circuit. They're having a little mini circuit event out there.
    93:49
    Three dates. One, unfortunately, is March 18th, which we're going to be in California for. Another one's in April. Another one's in May. Three different locations. It's like a circuit pop-up event where the top player gets 100 points and whoever wins it. And you can be crowned New England Circuit Event guy.
    94:10
    And it sounded really cool, and they're only limiting it to 32 people. They are limiting it. Limiting it to 30. Okay. So really cool. I thought it was a great idea. Do you have to play in all three events? Is that how it works? Well, your point, to win.
    94:28
    Oh, it's a combination of the three events. You pretty much have to play in three events. Okay, I get it. And I would have loved to have done it because there's a lot of good locations with that. But unfortunately, as I said, we'll be in California. But fortunately, there'll be a shit ton of games there. So hopefully that will be a fun time had by all. Smile on my face, it will be. Tim, check him out with us. Yeah, Tim, come out to California.
    94:54
    Come on. All right. Let's do it. Tim, all classic sterns. All. more stars than I can handle. I know, exactly. There's never too much stars. Stars, cheetah,
    95:11
    sea witch, stargazer. I may have to turn down your invitation. My brother just moved out to Seattle, so if I'm going to the West Coast, it's going to have to be the Pacific Northwest. Ah, there you go. True. Very true. Yep, sorry. No problem. We want to get you out, though. Speaking of stars, the one you're going to trade me. We had an epic Stars game. Yes, we did. Where Bruce got, he broke the high score on my Stars, which is what, three, you got like 328?
    95:43
    Or three. Okay, so you got 330, 330K, which is high on Stars, trust me. So usually you figure like, okay, I'm done.
    95:52
    You know, I have no, because the chances that both players have a killer game on Stars is, I can't do the math. I'm sure Tim could do the math better, but it's not high. I got 280. I almost caught his ass. I thought I had a shot in that third ball. But that was probably the best combined stars game I can ever remember seeing. Yeah, it was really cool. With that rule set anyway. Because on mine I have it, if you complete all the stars, the roving shot, it gives you a free game. It doesn't give you the 100,000. Ah, okay. Because that kind of, I don't know, that kind of makes it a little, that's a little too high. Yeah, it nerfs that thing. It nerfs it. I'm sure Scott would agree. Oh, yes, he would. Yes, he would. So I'd like to thank Tim Sexton once again for appearing on the podcast. Thanks for having me again. Our de facto co-host. Yes, he is. Again, we can be found on Facebook. Just look for Slamtail Podcast. We're going to send more correspondence, tech advice, tell Bruce how he's wrong about something or how I'm right about something. You can send it to him. Or that Ron should get rid of that stupid stargazer that stars for a nice new modern WPC pinball machine. Or that you can send emails to slamtillpodcasts at gmail.com. Also, our YouTube channel, just search for slamtillpodcasts.com. I might be putting up some of the Harlem Globetrotters, which I mentioned on previous episodes, is done. I might show off the software on the Firepower. and the fun I'm going to have with the sea witch, which we've mentioned on the show in the past. So once again, thank you, everyone. This has been Episode 31, The Spy Who Loved Me. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Josh Sharp.
    97:51
    Bye.