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Episode - 16 2018 review. 2019 renew.

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 35m·held·Dec 30, 2018
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

2018 pinball year review: Iron Maiden leads favorites; community celebrates inaugural Golden State Pinball Festival.

Summary

Spencer Klingin hosts Episode 16 of The Spinner Is Lit A A Pinball Podcast, reviewing 2018 pinball releases and previewing 2019. The panel discusses favorite games (Iron Maiden, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle), disappointments (Deadpool, Total Nuclear Annihilation), and major community news including the inaugural Golden State Pinball Festival's $37,000+ charity donation and the Steve Sharlin Spirit Award. Hosts reflect on themed game quality, shot design, and the closure of Playland Not at the Beach arcade.

Key Claims

  • Iron Maiden has four flippers, a rare feature for modern Stern games

    high confidence · Spencer Klingin and panelists discuss Stern machine specifications, noting four flippers as notable toy feature

  • TNA (Total Nuclear Annihilation) opened up single-level pinball gameplay back to mainstream imagination

    medium confidence · Spencer states TNA was 'the most influential game of 2018' for reviving interest in single-level games

  • Golden State Pinball Festival 2018 raised $37,000+ for World of Wonders Science and Technology Museum

    high confidence · Spencer announces '$32,516.22 was given' with confirmation of ~$37,000 total raised

  • Deadpool received universal disappointment from panelists despite high expectations

    high confidence · Multiple panelists (Rusty, others) express disappointment; Spencer asks 'How did none of us say Deadpool was the best game of the year? Because it's not.'

  • Alien (Heighway Pinball) had extremely limited distribution; only became playable to panelists at Golden State Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Kendra states 'we didn't get to play Alien until Golden State' and discusses lengthy production delays

Notable Quotes

  • “I think that's really opened up the street level, the one-level games back up to people's imaginations.”

    Spencer Klingin @ ~19:45 — Identifies TNA as design trendsetter for 2018, pivoting community away from multi-level standard

  • “It's a game that like if you love maiden and you love pinball you should own deadpool is a game that if you love Deadpool, I think pinball's kind of cool, you might like, but if you're like a hardcore pinball fan, it might not blow you away.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~41:30 — Summarizes Deadpool's core weakness: IP-driven appeal vs. gameplay depth

  • “It is the complete package... It is a complete package, other than maybe there could have been a cooler toy on it, you know, on the Pro.”

    Spencer Klingin @ ~54:15 — Iron Maiden's dominance attributed to pure shooting mechanics despite toy limitations

  • “It's a shame to see more of that old world entertainment going by the wayside to make room for condos and a parking garage.”

    Spencer Klingin @ ~82:30 — Nostalgic reflection on closure of Playland Not at the Beach, indicator of venue industry contraction

  • “the people who were going to buy Alien, you know, were... I would hope that they got it.”

    Kendra Lynn @ ~73:00 — Acknowledges extreme supply constraints and scarcity of Highway Pinball's Alien distribution

Entities

Spencer KlinginpersonKeith ElwinpersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyHeighway PinballcompanyIron MaidengamePirates of the Caribbeangame

Signals

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Iron Maiden praised for exceptional shooting mechanics and ramp design; Deadpool criticized for geometry issues and middle drain vulnerability; Pirates of the Caribbean noted for wealth of multi-faceted shots (cannon, whirlpool, lock, pop bumpers, spinning dance)

    high · Multiple panelists discuss shot quality: 'It shoots like a monster', 'ball straight down the middle drainage', 'when you hit it, it feels good'

  • ?

    design_innovation: TNA (Total Nuclear Annihilation) credited as design trendsetter for 2018, reigniting interest in single-level playfield design after years of multi-level dominance

    medium · Spencer states TNA 'really opened up the street level, the one-level games back up to people's imaginations' and notes subsequent releases (Mafia, Bewitch) following this trend

  • ?

    product_concern: TNA criticized for being rules-heavy without adequate hand-holding for casual players; designer Mike Denise made post-release balance changes that reduced backhand lock exploit

    high · Rusty notes TNA complexity: 'It just didn't do it for me. Very deep and trying to figure out how to get the reactors to go.' Discussion of Denise 'changing the balance of his game'

  • ?

    product_concern: Deadpool exhibits fundamental disconnect between strong IP licensing and mediocre core gameplay; panelists wanted to love game for Deadpool fandom but game mechanics failed to deliver

    high · Spencer: 'I really want to love this game, and I like it. Sort of.' Theme appreciation vs mechanics disappointment repeated across panelists

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Highway Pinball's Alien suffered extreme production delays; game remained unavailable until Golden State Pinball Festival, limiting collector access and location placement

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.288

0:00
Welcome to episode 16 of the Spinner's Lit Pinball Podcast. I'm your host, Spencer Klingin. tonight's episode is episode 16 of course and that is 2018 review 2019 renew renew renew thank you folks uh with me uh as always lately is my well she's always with me but you know on the show is my lovely wife marianne rusty clingen hello and to her left is kendra lynn hello and And to her right is Dan. And I'm going to get his name right.
0:59
Good friend. I always get his name wrong. I'm so sorry. It's because I'm out of love. Anyway, so that's who's here with us tonight. We're going to review 2018 and all its pinball goodness and talk about what we're looking forward to in 2019. Real quick, Brian Kast couldn't be with us tonight. He had previous obligations. So we say, hey, Dan, Seth, bless your heart, brother. He's always got a family thing going and family always comes first. So we miss you. Our trip reporter, Alex, is on location. Yeah, is on location in beautiful Cabo Wavo, Mexico. I made sure to say, or Cabo, not Cabo Wavo, Cabo, Mexico, Cabo San Lucas. That's it. Maybe it's a Cabo Wavo. Well, I know because I want a little town in like North Dakota to name itself Cabo, North Dakota. So we can go to Cabo, North Dakota and say, where are you? Cabo, how's the weather? Cold. In Cabo? Global warming. All right, anyway, so that's what we got cooking tonight, and we're having some drinks and some refreshments. A lot of crunchy food on the table for us. That'll go well with the podcast. So let's jump right into it. The Year in Review.
2:12
Let's go around the table and talk about our favorite new games from 2018. first on the list I put Pirates of the Caribbean the Jersey Jack Pirates we've all played it and kind of reviewed it last month anybody viewing that one as a favorite or something you like about it or something you don't like about it or Pirates is great like I said I think that that's definitely the best game that I played this year I think that anyone who gets a chance to try it really does need to take it out I mean it's super super cool but be sure to buy it dinner first sure yeah i mean it's nice pirates like food well for me on top of all the you know the the big standouts of pirates pirates of the caribbean everybody knows the theme whether you're really into the movies or not you can you know it's got elements of the ride and you can get into that and who doesn't love pirates um it's a lot of little touches that really make that game stand out like we talked about last month was uh the little led lights on the ship that rocks they flicker and they give the illusion like they're an actual torch you know lit flame and uh um i just think those little touches really make it you know bring the whole experience that the uh quote unquote World Under Glass.
Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle
game
Deadpoolgame
Total Nuclear Annihilationgame
Aliengame
George Gomezperson
Golden State Pinball Festivalevent
Scott Deniseperson
Marianne Klinginperson
Kendra Lynnperson
Rusty Clingenperson
Beatlesgame
Playland Not at the Beachvenue
World of Wonders Science and Technology Museumorganization
Cliff Rainierperson
Steve Sharlinperson

high · Kendra: 'we didn't get to play Alien until Golden State' and 'The highway thing has been going on for so long' with references to multi-year delays

  • ?

    community_signal: Golden State Pinball Festival inaugural event demonstrated strong community mobilization and charitable capacity, raising $37,000+ for local STEM education

    high · Spencer announces '$32,516.22 was given' with commitment to raise additional $5,000 annually; attendees from 'all over America and all over Europe'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Closure of Playland Not at the Beach (historic El Cerrito venue) signals continued decline of independent arcade/carnival venues due to real estate development pressure

    high · Spencer reflects on venue closure: 'It's just a shame to see more of that old world entertainment going by the wayside to make room for condos and a parking garage'

  • $

    market_signal: Mafia game failure attributed directly to pricing; quoted $7,500 price point caused complete market rejection; panelists speculate $5,000 pricing would have enabled sales of full 100-unit production run

    high · Spencer: 'Mafia... not at $7,500. If that thing was like $5,000... $32.95, they would have sold their 100 machines'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Deadpool game made deliberate choice to avoid hard-R movie content, opting for comic book aesthetic instead; panelists accept compromise but note Stern's safety-first approach may limit game edginess

    medium · Discussion of whether Deadpool needed Ryan Reynolds voice acting or movie humor; consensus that comic book approach 'was completely acceptable' but some wanted edgier theme execution

  • ?

    personnel_signal: George Gomez (Deadpool designer) operates outside typical fan-layout conventions, attempting experimental playfield geometries; mixed results indicate design innovation risk-taking

    medium · Panelist notes 'Gomez doesn't normally go for the fan layout... tries to do something a little bit wacky. Sometimes it works'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: 2018 marked inflection point where high IP licensing expectations (Deadpool, Alien) collided with mechanical/availability realities, creating community disappointment despite strong theme attachment

    high · Multiple panelists express wanting to love Deadpool/Alien but finding games underwhelming; Kendra calls Alien 'biggest disappointment' despite being 'cool'

    • 3:35
    I'm really at a... For me, it's kind of a toss-up between that game, because I've only played a few games on it, and Iron Maiden for, I think, you know, my favorite personal game of 2018. Everything on here is... I mean, we only have that, Spooky's Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle. I got about 10 games on that. I really like it. But it was a very early version, though. Exactly. There's still so much more to that game that we're going to see. And, I mean, really, it's barely out there. Yeah, exactly. I'm looking forward to seeing what else comes from Dallas Cooper. Oh, absolutely. It's going to be really good. Oh, yeah. Pirates is a great-looking game, but I think that Dallas Cooper is maybe the best-looking pinball machine that I've ever seen. It was really cool. Yeah, very, very beautiful game. You know, the molded toys, the castle, all that, really. And, you know, like I said, we're playing an early code version. I think I'm a bit of a sucker for anything with a castle on the plate. Yeah, who doesn't love it, you know? Like medieval magic castle, all that. But castles and pinball are just freaking sweet.
    4:48
    So for 2019, more castles. So there you go. Dan's happy. I don't know if there's any more castle games lined up. TNA, Total Nuclear Annihilation.
    4:57
    Probably not my – I can't really say I'm going to give it the best game of the year, but definitely, man, a good offering and a hell of a lot of fun, especially in a group environment, team play, league, tournament play. You know, fast, furious, fun, great soundtrack.
    5:15
    Good adrenaline rush. You know what I think of TNA? I think that's going to be the most influential game of 2018 because I think that that's really opened up the street level, the one-level games back up to people's imaginations. And, you know, you've already seen a couple more releases of that kind of type. You know, you've still got Mafia. Well, no one's really seen that Mafia game. Oh, I've seen pictures of it. And, of course, you know, Bewitch. Bewitch, yeah. Everyone's excited about Bewitch. You know what? I still want to play it. Which, now that Alex isn't here, that's my joke. Screw you, Alex!
    5:51
    He's laughing on the beach eating tacos, so, you know. I hate you so much. honey thoughts um she too hates alex so much hey alex alex is is my my kid who ain't my kid uh definitely uh pirates of the caravan looking it's uh fun to play got it's got a lot of got a lot of pluses uh jeep rule set is always with a lot of Jersey Jack stuff so that it's always something there to keep you entertained and trying to figure out what's going on. Alice Cooper was way back in May was the only time I saw it and although everybody swears I played it. If I did I don't remember so it didn't stand out in my head. It was way too high at the time. Probably. You played it with me dear. Okay. I was there. Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden? And we get quite a little bit of game time on that. Well, we got a friend who has one. That's an awesome, awesome game.
    7:02
    I wanted to love it so much. Today we went out and played Deadpool. It turned out to be at a bar right by our house. Shout out to Louie's in Rancho Cordova.
    7:16
    It's fun to look at. The call outs sound good. everybody's crunching and munching um but but uh too much you know ball straight down the middle drainage um spencer said it kind of has a geometry issue and i kind of see what well the ball drainage straight down the middle is you're sucking today honey oh is that me wow uh tna um that's another one i really really wanted to love and the more I played it, the more I found I really didn't like it. It just didn't do it for me.
    7:56
    Very deep and trying to figure out how to get the reactors to go. And so it was, maybe it was just hard for me because I'm, but so out of all of them right now, probably my stand-on favorite is going to be oh i wanted so much to love dead pool iron maiden it's got to be the best shooting game that's been made in years absolutely the shots are amazing just i don't love iron maiden like iron maiden's fine i don't hate iron maiden but it's not like I see the band and I'm just like, oh my god, thank god, oh, Iron Maiden finally, like all you Iron Maiden fans are. To me, it was like, cool pinball, Keith Elwin had a good design, I wish it had been Archer, but it's cool. The music works. I know some people who have to have it, Brian, but for me, it's like any other thing.
    9:04
    Well, kind of any other thing. I agree with with rusty i didn't think deadpool was bad i thought deadpool was very average it just didn't do anything that you were like wow you know it the bobble head was cute ish the sword lock was cool when the shot worked um i wouldn't say it has a geometry problem but i would definitely say that like that shot is asking the ball to do a lot. And sometimes it was like sweet. And sometimes it wasn't, I think the coolest shot on the game. I don't know if you hit that was kind of when you got the glancing shot off the Wolverine and then it would go off a lot. Did that twice. Yeah. Which I think was, it was intentional. Like you're supposed to be able to do that. Yeah. I think that actually kind of stole the show, but that is really cool. That's a great point to bring up. I'm, you know, Rusty and I are huge Deadpool fans. I, I like everything on the game. The artwork is phenomenal. Amazing. Amazing artwork. I like the call-outs. I like the animations. Some people have issues with the comic book art, the 90s video game animations. I don't. I think they fit the theme well.
    10:17
    The left ramp, it's got that real sweet feel to it. When you hit it, it's got a good feel. There's some really easy shots on there, some really difficult ones. The right ramp. excuse me um it's it's a tough shot to hit correctly when you do hit a sweet it's it feels good into the lock um the other one is the colossus shot uh that little it's kind of a horseshoe but not really a horseshoe shape and it's kind of hidden so you don't see what it's doing and it's not that smooth i think they could have done better on that overall i think it's a really good game and with you know more completed code it'll still be a really good game i'd still own one i think it's just a couple of minor uh adjustments in the shot geometry from being a great game but for you the theme is what's selling it like you a lot of it right because you love dead well see i love maiden too so maiden works great for me yeah well made in a sec yeah it's a game that like if you love maiden and you love pinball you should own deadpool is a game that if you love Deadpool, I think pinball's kind of cool, you might like, but if you're like a hardcore pinball fan, it might not blow you away. Right. Cool? Yeah. Not great. Just cool. Is it $5,000 worth of cool? The skill shot. $6,000 worth of cool. I really appreciate the way they did both. The standard skill shot where you can switch the lanes, the lane, until you shoot the ball. Once you shoot the ball, you're committed. You can't move until you hit a rollover or a switch. You can't move that again. So that increases it to be a real skill shot. And then the super skill shot, holding up the left flipper, plunging the ball so it loops around the orbit. You've got to hit it off the left flipper up into the right ramp entrance. So continuing our impromptu Deadpool review here, Yeah. Let me ask you, you Deadpool freaks, a question.
    12:23
    Okay. So here's what I wonder. Do you guys think that they nailed the theme? I think they did a pretty good job, especially for the comic book, yeah. For the comic book, yeah. Yeah, I do. So you guys weren't disappointed they didn't go for kind of the harder edge, the kind of racier humor, the profanity from the movie? Like you guys thought that what they did was acceptable? No, it was completely acceptable. Now, if they want it, if they want to. See, there you go, whiners. Deadpool fans love Deadpool. Yeah, if they wanted to do the edgy thing, all they have to do is do an update. Because so many people, like, just had themselves a hissy fit because it wasn't based on the movies and it wasn't Ryan Reynolds. And it's just like, the theme was fine. It was represented. It's Deadpool, you know. It didn't need to be Ryan Reynolds. And in fact, I don't know, two movies in, I'm kind of like, you know, the Ryan Reynolds Deadpool, it's fine. It's not like God's gift. It was good. You know, now it's two and a half movies since they released, you know, half of Deadpool 2 again. But like, you know, I think that it's fine as far as the theme goes. I just wish that the game itself was a little bit more, more, a little bit more, more. Yeah, I wish that they'd done something a little bit more exciting. Maybe got some magnet action on it. maybe got a little bit more convincing toy, maybe just made that game kick a little bit more ass. Yeah, yeah. I do also like that they did take some risk. It's not your typical fan layout. It is something a little bit different. Well, yeah. I do appreciate that. You know, Gomez doesn't normally go for the fan layout, right? Like, Gomez normally tries to do something a little bit wacky. Sometimes it works, you know. Johnny Mnemonic. I mean, that game is so damn smooth. Well, you know, Mnemonic, that was his first game, right? So, like, that was. Wait, was that a Corvette? I think it was Mnemonic. Was it Mnemonic and Corvette? And then I think Corvette came after. But, like, yeah, I think. No, you might be right. I think it was Corvette. Okay. It's one of the two. Never mind.
    14:29
    But it was one of his early games. And, like I said, that game shoots really, really well. And, you know, there's probably a questionable design decision or two in there. And, you know, the theme didn't work out so well for some people. But I like it. I actually like that movie. I like all the cheesy sci-fi movies, especially the ones they make into pinballs. Okay, so I think I said Pirates Kendra said Pirates or Maiden I'm going to have to go with Alice Cooper Alice Cooper, wow It's a solid choice I'm going to have to do with Maiden and me I'm going to go with Maiden for this reason only I mean, obviously the artwork, the shots, everything God, that game is like butter It is the complete package It is a complete package, other than maybe there could have been a cooler toy on it, you know, on the Pro. And I'm a Maiden fan. The thing that doesn't do it for me for Pirates, I like the Pirates theme. I mean, I love the gameplay. I love everything about it. But I'm just a bigger Maiden fan than I am a Pirates fan, you know? So it's personal.
    15:40
    Pirates is like three times the game, though. It's an amazing game. There's so much to do. There's so much more stuff. Did you even get to do the cannon shot?
    15:50
    No, I never got the cannon shot. It's amazing. When you flip up the flipper and the scoops underneath it, then you got, like, the whirlpool, and you got, like, the lock. Oh, yeah. You got the pop bumpers. You got the spinning dance. So now you're making me want to change my mind. I want to go. Well, I would play, like, three games. What Maiden does really well is it shoots like a monster, and it had the four flippers. And to me, the four flippers are like Maiden's toy. It is. So many sterns don't have four flippers.
    16:16
    So, you know. What's the last stern that had four flippers before? I'm thinking, like, World Poker Tour. Yeah, I think you're going back. I don't even think. Yeah, well, it's got four flippers, right? Because it's got the two up top. So, yeah, stuff like World Poker Tour. But, I mean, like, you know, with Maiden, like, when you get the ball up top and you got all the different shots, little bank of drops, and then you got big ramps. And, you know, you got the jump. And having to make a ramp shot. It's got the stand-ups. It's got the. Right. It's got everything. And then when you go to the limited edition, it does have, like, the rising crypt thing, and it has, like, the rocking door that opens and the underground. So, I mean, it's got some cool shit that it does. It's just one of those things where, like, when you look at that game, you know, it doesn't have anything that you're like, oh, my gosh, you know, look at the missed multiball or look at the thing. But what it does have is it has just, like, pure, unadulterated shooting action. Yeah, and just adrenaline. And absolute adrenaline. And if you're into the theme, it has the music, you know, which, by the way, it's pretty much got to be the troopers. The troopers are the song to play that game. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you look at the list of games, and, of course, there's a couple I left out because I know none of us have played them, so how can we really talk about it? And that's The Beatles from Stern, which is a re-theme of Sea Witch. Boy, does it look cool. It does look cool, and I can't wait to play. It looks like a lot of fun. Like, I think you should buy one of those tomorrow, Spencer. I think not. I'd buy it. Diamond edition. Don't even screw around. Go bigger, go home. You got $20,000, right? And I didn't bring up Thunderbirds because, well, none of us have played it. No, no, no. We want to talk about pinball machines. Right. Exactly. Or, of course, or the Mafia because, again, none of us have played it. There's 20 machines. Yeah. It was going to be $100,000. Now they're down to $20,000 because I can't sell those. I mean, it looks like a good machine for what it is, but not at $7,500. If that thing was like $5,000. If that thing was like $32.95, they would have sold their 100 machines. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I mean, that's it. You know, people would have given it a chance. Yeah. It's all about pricing. Pinball collectors have money. But, I mean, if you look overall at this year, man, I mean, it's a pretty solid lineup. I mean, there's no real stinkers in there, you know. Well, I think that a lot of people feel like, you know, and then we also, there's a couple that we didn't talk about. We had the contract builds. We had Supreme, which was Spider-Man Home Edition, basically. it's a it's and now the spider-man home edition is really a fun game awesome it's a great game there's a lot to do it's got great shots primus right primus which none of us have played but we have it's woe nelly and you had a couple games sneak in there that you know were were not really new releases but they were cool um i almost got into play supreme well now did alien start ship Alien actually started shipping last year, right? I don't know. I can't keep track of it once I didn't bring it up. If we want to talk aliens this year. Yeah, but we're going to talk about aliens in a minute. So good. So I think we've got two for Iron Maiden, one for Alice Cooper, and one for Pirates. I mean, they're all good. And they're all good. I don't dislike any of them. Yeah. I mean, there's no real loser here. I mean, because they're all good games. I tend to think that. Well, there's Deadpool. Deadpool's a good game. How did none of us say Deadpool was the best game of the year? Because it's not. Because we all want it to be, too. Because it's a loser. We wanted it to be. I sat there, but honey, I really want to love this game, and I like it. Sort of. Did you play the premium or the collector's edition? Maybe it's better. No, no, no. No, it's not. Although, I love my toys. Everybody knows this. It's like the more toys you can have on the game. You know it's got action figures on it. Yeah, I got my own action figure. Oh, I will say it's cool, the little plastic of Deadpool in the hammock. Every time you shoot the left ramp, it swings. Well, you know, that's not even on the collector's edition and the premium.
    20:12
    Well, there's like a real LE. What's the highest one? Limited? Yeah. It's got a disco ball. I know. Oh, I got disco multi-ball twice in two different games. What I got to give that game props for is the fact that it has Dazzler in it. Right. Like, Dazzler's a pretty obscure character. Yeah, I remember when that comic first came out. It was like the disco skating comic character. Well, and it's the disco skating comic character version. It's not even like the 90s X-Men blue outfit, you know, laser beam shooting version. It's like the roller skates disco dazzler. So they really dug deep on that one. That's kind of cool. All right. Well, let's move on to biggest disappointment in pinball in 2018. And it's Deadpool.
    20:56
    Did I just blow the entire segment? I'm not disappointed in it, and I want to play it more. Liar. I mean, no, no, I believe you want to play it more, but I know you're disappointed in it. Hand to God, biggest disappointment for me was Total Nutshell Immigration. I really, I really had that just all built up that it was going to be like this most awesome play thing and forever and always and the more I played it, the less I played it. Rusty, the problem with TNA is you don't know how to play it. That could very well be true. It's really, it's the thing about TNA. It's ridiculously simple. Maybe that's the problem. The rules of TNA are you shoot at the lit shots. That's it. You lock the ball and play multi-ball. You blow up the reactors. It's just the challenge of TNA is doing that how many times? Nine times. Because you've got to blow up nine reactors. If you're a Joe Studboy Bowen Cairns pinball player, you're going to do that. And if you're not, you're like the rest of us. You get to do like two, three reactors. And you're like, that felt good. you know so it's not like and i hate to kind of throw it under the bus but it's not like a game that holds you by the hand and says like you know like an adams family or something it's like you know shoot the ramp and then shoot the scoop shoot the ramp and then shoot the scoop you know it's there's more to it but it's not like it's like you mean backhand backhand for the backhand for the multi-ball? For the multi-ball? Yeah. There's a whole lot to that. We could. I'm not saying there's a lot to it. I'm just saying that what it is is it's like shoot at, like, this lit stand-up and get the ball in here and watch it bounce around, and then if you can, get multi-ball. I love backhanding the freaking Denise Lock thing until Mike changed the balance of his game and then it didn't work anymore. It kind of hurt my feelings. What is it with Mike and Adam making games like, you know, So near impossible that any, you know, mortal human can make a shot. Well, first of all, you know, because you want to get better at pinball. Second of all, because it's league night and we want to move through the games. And third of all, because they're bastards. That's true. They're sadistic bastards. We love you, boys. Sadistic bastards.
    23:08
    Michael, who is also at Cabo San Lucas right now. No, he's home. Oh, he's home? Okay. If you could afford two weeks in Mexico.
    23:18
    That's a new pinball machine, boys. But he took his lovely girl, Edie, for her birthday. Happy birthday, Edie.
    23:27
    Kendra, biggest disappointment? We talked about this last night. We did. We did talk about this last night. You changed your mind already. I've got two disappointments. I do, too.
    23:40
    Deadpool, just because it could have been more. And Highway Pinball with Alien. Yeah. Alien was such... That really wasn't this year. Was it Well we didn get to play until this year We didn play until Golden State It seems like the highway thing has been going on for so long Like the implosion has been going on for so long It has, but we didn't get to play Alien until... That's, like, the biggest not a surprise of 2018. We didn't get to play Alien until Golden State. Do you need a pen? It's right there. It's done. Oh.
    24:17
    We didn't get to play Alien until Golden State, and, you know, we knew that Highway had done what Highway did, and, you know, we knew it was how it was going to end up. Have we talked about Alien already? A little bit. A little bit, yeah. That game is cool. And that's why it's the biggest disappointment for me because... But who was going to buy Alien?
    24:40
    People bought them, man. No, but I'm just saying, like, you know, it was like the people who were going to buy Alien, you know, were... I would hope that they got it. You know, I'm sure that people missed out. I know that there was some sort of weird thing where there were like 20 or 30 games that sort of came out after people missed out and then other people got them but i mean like i think that with alien like the people who were on the ball enough that they were going to buy alien hopefully got one and i hear that the big success of alien is the fact that in the absence of highway existing all the alien owners have become like this like tight-knit SWAT team of like making their own boards and tech supporting each other and getting the drama worked out of that game so that it looks really, really good and plays really, really good. I just, you know, I played the one at Golden State, and I was just like, it's a disappointment. I was like, you know what? Could have been, right? Like, that game could have been so cool. And it was, but it could have been even better.
    25:48
    That was also a big disappointment for me this year. was because we played at Golden State together and for the first time it had a blast playing it. I did epically well. Yeah, yes you did. You were killing it.
    26:05
    It's just a fun game. It shot pretty good. The modes, I mean, I think it captured the world of the Alien franchise and Rusty and I are huge fans of the movies and just the mythology if you will. you're big fans of the first two movies yes thank you yeah yes first two movies absolutely and Alien vs. Predator yes and Alien vs. Predator no you can go ahead just edit that out no no no it was actually good no it was not we enjoyed it you know anyway so you guys have no taste are you flipping me the bird so you can't do that on a podcast you have to edit that out no and then we played it again quite a bit at the Flipper Room in Concord. Oh, yeah. We have one there, too. It's the same one. Yeah. Yeah, I think it is. Okay, we had one there as well. As well, yes. Not we had another one there. Had a lot of fun playing it. It's just a shame that... Miscorrection. You're welcome. It's a shame that more people aren't going to get to play that or the Big Lebowski or get that given to more people's hands and collectors' hands and on location because I think both those games can do quite well on location. Those games are never going to be on location. My other disappointment is pinball related, but it's kind of a little different. Earlier in the year, Russ and I took the family. Alex met up with us and a couple of the guys, Eric Selford and who else from used to was in league met us down at a play land, not at the beach for the final weekend.
    27:35
    Eric Selford came out. Greg and Greg. So shout out to Eric, Greg and Alex, who is still vacationing in Cabo, who all went with us down to the final weekend at Playland Not at the Beach in El Cerrito, California. Where you can't smoke. There's no smoking in the city. We didn't know that. That's fine because smoking is bad for you. I did because I'm a scofflaw. Brickin' and love. Anyway, yeah, we were there for the final weekend. We played a lot of pinball. We played a lot of carnival games. Had a wonderful time, a wonderful experience. and saw a great magic show. It's just a shame to see more of that old world entertainment going by the wayside to make room for condos and a parking garage.
    28:24
    Condos are pretty great. They're kind of like houses, but you also have to pay rent. It's pretty genius if you think about it. It's like timeshare full-time.
    28:36
    Swamp land in Florida. But, you know, that was bittersweet because we had a wonderful time. It's better than owning a house, maybe. It's gone away now. Owning a house is extremely stressful. It had been around a very long time. Did you ever get a chance to go to Plainland? You know what? I never did.
    28:54
    They had a real shrunken head. They had a two-headed chicken. All that old carnival sideshow stuff. I loved that stuff as a kid. It sounded like it was going to be cool, but, you know, I don't go to San Francisco unless you put a gun on me. Well, it's actually in El Cerrito. Oh, please shut up.
    29:08
    Which is home to our good friend, Practical Steve. Practical Steve, shout out. Practically Steve. That guy is Practical Steve. Practical Steve, our good brother, who gets his shout out. And while we're at it, I've got to give a shout out to our own cheddar, Mr. Eric Neth, who also had family obligations, could not be with us tonight. So God bless you, brother. And we'll do a Moe shout out just because I'm feeling good. All these people who had anything better to do. It's like literally all of them had something to do. They're all like, oh, man, I got to wash my socks. I can't make the podcast. I'm doing my nails. And since we're doing shout-outs, I'm going to go ahead and do 139 days until the 2019 Golden State Pinball Festival at the Lodi Great Festival Fairgrounds. Oh, my God, it's going to be so good. So, yeah, we can have your Mother's Day. Absolutely what I'm looking forward to the most in 2019. Oh, I just blew another segment. You just blew another segment. There we go. That's what you get for giving me a table of contents. But, man, you skipped. That's what I said. Yeah. Did we finish the biggest disappointment? We did pretty much. Besides me. No, biggest pinball news items in 2018. Biggest pinball news items in 2018. It was the first year of the Golden State Pinball Festival. Oh!
    30:31
    Oh. It was the best of times. Which was a rousing and amazing success. Thanks to all of you, all of you out there listening. Did you know that we donated nearly $38,000? $38,000. Yeah. To the World of Wonders. To the World of Wonders Science and Technology Museum. That is the mad pinball community at work here in Northern California. So, and around the country and around the world. I mean, there were games brought all the way from Europe, you know, from the East Coast. People traveled all over America and all over the West Coast and Northern California, all the hardcore pin aficionados and pin ambassadors from Northern California. That's not really a word. We gave out the word. I do want you to stop saying that. We pin ambassador. That's easily. We talked about that in the show. Moist. Just don't. Yep, $32,516.22 was given. I thought it was $7,000, $37,000. Okay. Anyway, you know what, man? It's a good chunk of change, and it goes to local kids' charities and supports the community. We'll donate at least $5,000 more next year. That's right. We're going to do that, and we're going to do that more. And just a wonderful time had by all. And I was blessed to be able to present the first Steve Sharlin Spirit Award. God rest your soul, brother. We miss you. Boom, put it up. Boom. Big high five for Steve, man. And his lovely, lovely daughter and grandson were there. And it went to the man, the myth, the legend himself. Self, Cliffy. Cliff Rainier, who I have his number. I got to reach out to him. You said he did the show. I got to get him on. The Cliffy show is coming. The Cliffy show is coming most likely soon. So is the all-women show. It seems like I get all the women together at one time because everybody has busy lives. I want to take bets on which one happens first. I don't. I already know. It's going to be cliffy. Getting you guys all together is like getting cats in a sack. Oh, man. Rabid cats. I want to hear Rusty host it. I want to have this show with Spencer not saying anything. So looking forward to it. Oh, biggest pinball news. No.
    32:42
    I'd say biggest pinball news locally was, yeah, the first Golden State Pinball Festival from organizers that had been organizing the Pinnagogo show for the previous six years.
    32:56
    decided to move to a newer, bigger, and really better location. You know what? I'm going to slow this down for a second. Let's give Pinnagogo credit, though, for persevering. For persevering. Same location, new date. God bless them. Old school vibe. Old school vibe, good. Still a fun show.
    33:16
    Not the spectacle that GSPF is by any means, but you know what? It was cool to have a fall show. It all actually worked out really well in the end. I think biggest news items, as far as national or international with pinball, would probably be a couple things. Pinball getting so much press that you wouldn't normally see. You seeing it in TV and ads and newsprint ads and hearing about it on the radio and getting press coverage like it hadn't ever or at least in decades. Also, Deep Root with everything they got going on that they say they're going to have going on, which also – We will see, right? We will see because many people called it. I'm one of them said they're not going to be ready by Texas Pimoff. They're not going to be able to have four or five games. You know what my thing about the whole TX, TSPF, the TX sector, TSPF thing is, or Texas Pinball Festival. I'm just making up new acronyms. We should have more beer. The new Golden State Texas Pinball Fiesta. There you go.
    34:29
    EIEIO. And I'm not even drinking. I'm drinking tea and less socials party and it's not. Yeah, the good old pinball. Like legitimately, it's just the fact that like they don't, they didn't need to bust out with five games. Just one good one. Right. They could have showed up at the show, showed their back of the future or whatever they're going to show, and everybody would have been like, ooh, Deep Root. But what do they do? They run their mouth, and now he has the slink back of his tailpiece like, oh, no, I don't want it to be unfair to my employees. It's just like, dude, just admit it. You're spending a lot of money. You're in over your head. Yep. We're going to back off. We're going to make it work. You know, bring the game. That's it. And I do it, you know, and I'm with you on that. It's like, dude, you talked a bunch of, you know, you talked a big talk and we all knew that was you weren't going to deliver because nobody can. Yeah. Like love them or hate them. Right. You know, like, you know, I appreciate the fact that they went out early. What's his name? Who? The Deep Root dude. Robert Mueller. So, yeah. OK. I just wanted to make sure if I'm like, isn't that guy the special? You know, I know he's busy trying to take down Trump. no no no different but uh like seriously it's just like you know that dude's hired a bunch of good guys you know he's got our slur he's got nordman he's got uh uh dave thiel he's got was it like dave christiansen like one of the old artists like he's got he's got a duke you know it's just one of those things where it's like you don't want to see them fail because you want to see all of those make more games. What's the player he's got? Who cares? No, he's got a good player. I know. He's got the guy who does... He's a good dude. He's the guy who does Fun with Bonus. Yes. I can't remember his name, but he's not a bad guy. I've heard him on like other podcasts. I can't remember his name, but he's a really good dude, and he's going to help out. We're coming off as ultra-informed tonight. He's got a bunch of good dudes working for him. We don't charge money for this. Don't ask him too much. It's free entertainment. We're just here for the snacks. pretty much, right? I'm here to play my own pinball machines. Ultimately, though, I think that what it comes down to is nobody wants to see Deep Root Bale because we would want to see another Nordman game.
    36:42
    Besides Elvira 3, which Stern is supposed to be getting. We want to see another Arsler game. We'd like to see John Papaduke actually complete a game that works.
    36:53
    For the record, Theater of Magic is really good. It's a great game. Show us the Arabian Nights. Show us World Cup. Yeah, there you go. Well, Tales of the Arabian Nights is debatable. It's a fun game, man. It's a good game. It should be better, right? It's a beautiful play field. I like Shirtless Voltaire. I think that's a fun game. I think it's fun and quirky. I like the artwork.
    37:16
    I do admire the fact and appreciate the fact and do respect the fact that even with all the really bold talk, you know, the locker room, you know, big boy talk, early enough on I said, hey, you know what, man? We've been off more than we can chew. We're going to wait. We're not going to show anything yet because we're just not ready. Okay, that took a little bit of criticism. Yeah, we talked smack and okay. Now it's time to put up a shut up. But that's not what he said. Well, you know what I mean? That might be his text if you want to read it that way. That's not what he said. I'm trying to be fair to the parts for these guys and give them a chance to show us what they can do and what they got. I'm not formatting the show tonight. I'm putting this shit into Crossfire. Well, look. I mean, I think that from day one when the guy started saying, you know, an arm plate, those can be beat to death with a sledgehammer, still remain a razor sharp.
    38:07
    Yeah, it's like, now you're full of it, pal. But anyway, they've not asked for a penny from anybody. No, no, no. The guy's funding it. There's no pre-orders. But like I said, he's got a lot of people worked into a tizzy. And the interesting thing will be, you know, it's like, will he follow, you know, hopefully he'll follow up on it all. Maybe he's going to hold out for Expo. You know, you've got to think of it this way, too. Maybe he's playing a game. TPF is a huge show. It is. And it's his home show. Right. And he's a big sponsor of it. But, you know, Expo sort of came back to prominence. And maybe I'll call that my big pinball news is that Expo came back. You know, Expo was all but irrelevant.
    38:48
    It was dead. It split into two shows. It recombined into one show. Right. And it's kind of the showpiece of the industry. That's a great thing you brought that up. I actually feel bad for Mike Pacek because I know he's rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Because he's an asshole. Well, you know. And I don't know him, and I will preface that by saying I don't know him personally. Why? I only know him by reputation, and the reputation is that he is an abrasive son of a bitch.
    39:14
    No, I'm good. Thank you. More beer? No, I'm still good, but thank you. I'm still sipping. Yeah, I. Kendra's like, Dan definitely needs more to drink. I'm finding a bottle of perfume. Let's get him drunk and see how obnoxious he is. Hey, this could be fun. Time to hit the scotch, huh, boys and girls? Wow. If I didn't have to drive home. When we do the podcast at my house, we'll think about that one. I mean, Mike's always been pretty cool to, you know, me when I'm looking for parts or something. Okay, no, no. Nobody's saying he's a terrible human being. Well, some people are. Okay, let's rewind it, okay? I know I said some big words, but nobody's saying he's a terrible human being. at least okay let me say i'm not saying it's a terrible human being what i'm saying is that his reputation around showtime oh it's bad is bad because he doesn't deal with the stresses of running the show right now and he yells at organizers and he yells at volunteers and he yells at exhibitors and he yells at vendors and he probably would have thought of yelling at steve ritchie but he knows he would have gotten killed so you know and if he's yelled at steve ritchie got some nuts so like let's just be honest it's just like every he rubbed everybody the wrong way And in pinball, we're a bunch of thin-skinned sons of bitches sometimes. Like, they just can't deal with the fact that if something doesn't go exactly the way they thought it should, we're going to, you know, all go on the pin side.
    40:38
    Yeah, no. Or we're going to do a podcast where we go. What I felt bad is he wasn't even invited to his own show that he helped start, you know. Maybe not as an organizer. We were at the show for 30 years. We should have been able to just show up and be just a guest, you know? Well, I mean, that's – but the whole thing is, so it's your baby. Are you really able to disconnect yourself and take a step back? And, you know, to be honest, it's just sort of like, hey, let's just, you know, let's put the past in the past and look at the future. Expo is back. Is Texas Pinball Festival the biggest and best pinball show? It's trying to be. what's the one in Atlanta is it Southern Pride that's a big show the Pittsburgh one, Pinberg that's a tournament though right the show itself is called something else Replay FX, that's a big show but I think that you know for where the big boys play and are going to make announcements, that's a cute show I'm into it I saw, who did I see there I saw Ferreira's there I got a dialed in translate from him yeah it's signed and everything I saw Steve Ritchie there and he did like the most disjointed talk ever because he couldn't hear anything because that's Steve Steve's a gangster and that was the show where he was all like man making Star Wars release suck good machine but I hated making it yeah there's California Extreme is a big one but I mean I think that Pinball Expo is the one where like you're gonna see the big announcements you're gonna see everyone's gonna to come to play. I know that a couple years ago they started talking like, oh, that's not the thing to do anymore, but I'm hoping that everybody remembers that Pinball Expo is... It's the grand dom of pinball shows. I'm going to say that my biggest pinball news item 2018, Pinball Expo's back. Yeah.
    42:38
    So we got Expo's back, the show, Highway Folding. What else we got? well that was our highway 40 was a disappointment it was well oh yeah who else has a big news who else has a big pinball news item of 2018 you said golden state right i said golden state all right that's just you kendra what's your what's your pinball news tell us tell us i don't know what i said now we've been talking but on alien really good like let me tell you about my biggest pinball news and that's what i'm good at the mother alien that was laying eggs was schooling like a little girl with a skinned knee that Kendra beat it so bad. That's because Kendra stepped into that machine and was like, get away from her, you bitch!
    43:22
    The rest of us are sitting there ordering food online, waiting for our turn. You're like, I need a pizza.
    43:32
    I think for me, the biggest real news of 2018 was just Chris getting pirates. That's big news. That's news. that counts. We get to play it when we want. Sorry about that. Don't kill me.
    43:50
    Oh, Nana, not my prison shank. I wouldn't kill you, Dan. I would just make you wish you were dead. Alright.
    43:59
    Are we moving on to looking forward to most in 2019? What would that be? What are we looking forward to most? Golden State Pinball Festival.
    44:09
    139 days. Is there really anything else to look forward to? The Monsters, which should be announced in two days. And Spooky Pinball just got back from a trip to Japan. They're not going to announce anything, though. They're going to be building Alice Cooper for the next year and a half.
    44:28
    Okay, but let's talk Monsters. You always do this. No, no, no, no, no, no. Monsters. We're the Monsters. Okay. Talk amongst yourselves. I have to make a pit stop. You know what I like about this podcast? It's the high level of professionalism that we have. We do not charge money. It's free entertainment. Spencer, quit doing the pee-pee dance and go.
    44:54
    Go. I'm running this show now, ladies. Dance Pinball Podcast. I'm about to make everybody pray that they were listening to Kaneda. like why aren't we listening to canada right now okay you left you don't get to be part of this i'm running the show okay so what are we looking for the most monsters okay moonsters i i can't do it okay either way monsters like mine say mun like m-u-n mine and then spurs sirs monsters moonsters nobody likes you rusty i know i work at it though um okay so they showed um they they showed pictures there were leaks they were there were leaky pictures but they showed one that was the art on the side on what do you call the side so the earlier ones that you saw i think were probably just concepts the later one that you saw was actually supposed to be the side art from the pro okay um i i don't they were both together on the ones i saw and one had earlier one lots of color and and i thought okay yeah that's kind of loud and obnoxious and then they had one that was kind of dulled down so it looked more black and white and i thought you know what that's the one yeah it's not as bright it's not as cheery but it's more with the concept of the machine because the Munsters was a black and white show. It was, you know, this was, you know, what, the 60s? Yeah. There won't be a black and white Munsters.
    46:36
    No, I don't mean the whole thing being black and white. Ted Turner will colorize it. But the side art was very nice when it was toned down and more in theme with what the show was. Because that was the original league. Right. Okay. The one I don't like has the purple trim and lots of color. No. It looks like Ghostbusters threw up on it.
    47:06
    See, I don't even know if this is authentic. And this is all just side art I'm talking about. I'm looking for the other. Yeah, that's just all like that was all like an early leak, and it's probably not even legit.
    47:20
    Well, who's making monsters? Stern. Stern. Stern. Folks, lovely people at Stern. Love your work. Okay. Yeah. It's a black and white show. It's sideways. I'm sorry. That's the more recent. That's the pro. They're going to go big on the purples and greens. It's just too striking and too popular, and everybody loves purple and greens. And hideous. And unbelievably, maybe it's channeling Monster Bash.
    47:50
    Or, yes, and or. Big Bang Bar and Alice Cooper here my big test what the first thing you think of when you think of the Munsters Fred Gwynn Oh good one
    48:06
    I'd have to go with Fred Gwynn. Well, as Herman. As Herman. Yeah, Herman Munster. Frankenstein's Munster. So everyone just thinks of Fred Gwynn. Everybody else has answered that question, the Addams Family. And I think that everybody's, like, so excited about Munsters because they think it's going to be the next Addams Family. And if you look at the play field shots, it looks like it's going to be the next Monster Bash. But, of course, their timing is super perfect because as of last month, you get to see my Monster Bash again. Yeah, that's why I didn't bring up Monster Bash in the games this year, not to take anything away from what...
    48:42
    No, no, we can definitely say that Monster Bash was not a 2019 release. and Planetary Pinball is doing. You know, I applaud them, and they're doing a great job with the reissues of the classic 90s Valley Williams games. God bless them for it. But it's out there, and it's been out there, and you can buy it again, brand new in the box, at a reasonable rate. $6,000, man. For a Monster Bash, yeah. That's so cheap. Yeah. I mean, $6,000 is not cheap, but, I mean, compared to a Monster Bash cost. Right. But, you know, with Monsters, it's just one of those things where it's just like, I think everybody wants it to be Adams. And I think that what they're going to find is that it's John Borg's take on Monster Bash. And, you know, I think it's going to come up big. It's going to sell well. It's going to be fun to play. There's a lot of fans. I'm not, you know. But, I mean, do you think, okay, just to kind of go back on what we just said a minute ago, do you think it's going to be better than Deadpool?
    49:43
    Maybe. I mean. Well, I mean, that's all you can say, right? You know, we don't know. But, I mean, it's just like, do you think it's going to be better than Guardians?
    49:52
    The more I play Guardians, the more I like it. It's a very simple layout. Do you think it's going to be better than Iron Maiden? Yeah, that's a tough call. Iron Maiden totally kicks it out. Yeah, it's just like I don't look at that game and hear that theme and go like, this is it. Yeah. And I couldn't tell you that, honestly, being 43 years old, I've ever watched one episode of The Monster Hunter. I did as a kid. I still remember a few of them. That's because you're ancient. Well, I am ancient. but you know i i don't just so you know he's actually very youthful i'm not going up like with maiden and deadpool hell yeah you know or even guardians like yeah guardians rocks right but like you look at deadpool as a theme and you go right right like you fall yeah i don't maiden as a theme and go oh right who's looking at monsters as a theme and going like there are a lot of people out there have been asking for years really want monsters i think some people do maybe just sit by their albums but okay these are the same people that have been you know caterwauling for a big luau what was his name big big luau lebowski that's different okay so let's talk about big lebowski right as a theme so big lebowski is a cult hit movie right it wasn't it It wasn't a success at the box office, but it's found a popularity within males of the now 40 to 60-year-old range, you know, like kind of enjoy like the slacker mentality that it has, right? So you can kind of understand why that's going to work in pinball, right? You're going to look at that and kind of go, hey. Kill Bill. The Kill Bill game. Mad props to the guys at Dutch Pinball, you know, despite the fact that they flushed their business down the toilet. Because they took Big Lebowski and turned that into a pretty decent game. Very compelling. A lot of fun stuff to do. Ahead of its time. And unfortunately not destined to be because of rampant mismanagement. Okay. What the hell is Monsters bringing to the table that a million other themes couldn't have done better? I mean, hopefully it's not like an Iron Maiden where they're just slapping it on, you know, a reasonably existing design, you know, or, you know, what's the other one that they just did that with Beatles, you know, where they just said, hey, it's Sea Witch. Hey, it's Beatles. Two great cases. Go great together. I just don't understand why everybody is fixated on monsters being like this big thing. Like, I think that everyone's just fixated because we're always really excited about what's next. Yeah, absolutely. But I think that it's going to come out, and people are going to buy a few of them, and it'll hopefully be a good game. And if it's a good game, it'll have legs. And if it's not a good game, people will be like, why do we care anyway? Yeah, if it's not WWE.
    52:36
    Which I've never really played that much of, but I hear that it sucks. And I like wrestling. Me too. Just to put it straight out there. Because Royal Rumble. I'll watch some big time wrestling. The Day Out of East or Day to East Royal Rumble, Rusty and I own that for several years. And that's a fantastic game. and it really captures the theme. They tried some things to be a little different with a different sort of layout, more of a retro layout, sort of like a Joker's with the two ramps that went up to another. Yeah, I mean, I know what the design is. I played the Pro like just real briefly. We played like two or three games on the Pro. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. I wish somebody like owned it so I could play it, but nobody was dumb enough to buy it. Well, a few people are. Now you can pick up a Pro for like $3,200. I saw that there was a limited edition for like $4,000 in NorCal. Man, if I had $4,000 and was feeling stupid.
    53:33
    Oh, no, that was a limited edition. That was more than that. But you know what was funny, too? I think that they missed the opportunity on that. They really should have done an Undertaker edition.
    53:44
    That would have probably sold more. Everybody loves the Undertaker. so where are we oh we're on 2019 so we're still talking about looking forward to the most in 2019 and we totally derailed because of the monsters yes the monsters and I completely failed like word association which you guys fucked up for me that was a good bit and you three screwed it up if you guys had just said Adam I should have been like I should have like scripted you can tell this shit ain't scripted It's not. Well, we have an outline. I didn't say it's not outlining. I spent a whole eight and a half minutes putting this outline together today. And you expertly printed way too many copies. Well, I thought we'd have a bigger showing tonight, but that's okay. You did this from your phone, didn't you? I did. I did, actually. And you have mediocre LTE at home.
    54:41
    Well, yeah, it's because we're blowing the lid on our Wi-Fi and going over. Yeah, we're already. I actually get more bars on Sprint at your house than you get on Verizon. You are overpaying for your house. We live in a Faraday cage. Yeah, remember, we have a stone-infused metal tile roof. And I'm getting better. Oh, no, now it went down. Never mind. It's very fire-resistant and guaranteed for 100 years. He said to my phone, metal roof, and my phone's like, oh, yes. Yeah, he said it. Your phone's awesome, man. What else are we looking forward to 2019? Just all the new pinball, man. Just all the new pinball. So what do we know that's coming up, right? We know about Munsters. Yeah. That's pretty much it that we know about Munsters, right? Jersey Jack, by the end of 2019, they'll announce either Rumored is either going to be Toy Story. You keep talking about those three titles. Toy Story, Guns N' Roses, or Willy Wonka. Toy Story, Willy Wonka. I can't fathom why they'd do another Guns N' Roses. Because it would be awesome. And because Guns N' Roses, the band, happens to, like, Slash really likes pinball. Right. And so they'll get complete support and because band themes are popular. That's true. You know, well, most band things, like how much are people paying for data East guns and roses games? 6,000 bucks or more. I don't know. We can pick this up for 1800. I remember. Yeah, we got, we got a couple going around in North town and they were not expensive and they were nice. You know, Brian's is really good and I know what he paid for it and it was cheap and, and it would, it would have been good, but it's just one of those things where it could be cool. It's not, it's not coming out right away. Everyone's saying now I heard the big hot rumor is that that Jersey Jack might be announcing at Texas Pinball Festival. I think that will happen because I think Jersey Jack is not smart enough to just sit down and let pirates get momentum. I think he's I think he's destined to screw himself. He did it with Dialed In. He did it with Pirates. I mean, it was nearly it was a year after he announced Pirates and showed it. Right, but when he announced it was when people were just starting to go, have you played Dialed In? Because that game's actually a lot better than the ugly art and stupid theme make you think. And Dialed In is a game that, like, if I could get my hands on a Dialed In for a reasonable money, I would buy one. Me too. Because that is actually a super cool game. It's a great game. The flow on that, the shots are great. Dot, dot, dot.
    57:04
    Yeah. They only sold a few because they said, hey, everyone, Pirates is looking real good. And everyone's like, oh, Pirates. and then everyone waited for a year and then said, oh yeah, well, maybe Pirates. And then we opened a Pirates and we're like, oh, you know, this is going to be good. My opinion is, don't say a fucking word to me. You have 50 in a truck, in boxes, ready to ship. Oh, I said that word. Sorry. I feel the same way about Munsters, or about Willy Wonka that I do about Munsters. Who cares? I actually love Willy Wonka. I love Willy Wonka too, but I mean... As long as we're going original Willy Wonka and not the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No, they're talking about doing the wilder version, right? But it's just one of those things where it's all like, that is a movie from, is it 77? No, 72. Okay, that's a movie. That movie is as old as Spanish Eyes.
    57:47
    You know, do they really think that, like, the public at large is like, you know what we really need? We need some motherfucking Gene Wilder and pinball. And if they did, why aren't they making Blazing Saddles? Blazing Saddles, yeah. Or Young Frankenstein, for that matter. Jersey Jack could have a complete new reputation if he made Blazing Saddles. Or Young Frankenstein. Ooh, that's it. Young Frankenstein would be awesome, but, yeah, not happening. Frau Blucher. Frau Blucher mode. Jack. Frau Blucher multiball. Jack. Jack, you're listening. We love you, brother. Jack, you've got to listen. Okay, you know what? You need to talk to, you know, Mel Brooks. Okay? Let's get a whole Mel Brooks line going. All Mel Brooks. The Mel Brooks signature. Springtime for Hitler. How can you go wrong? Three words. Space balls the pinball. Amen. Amen, brother. Faceball is the multiball Very popular with the kiddies Very popular with the kids But it's like we were talking about Ludicrous multiball Yeah I mean come on It writes itself Yeah no that would be good And Jack's such a good dude He shows up to the show now He's just one of the guys He's one of the fellas He's the best dude and he makes the best pinball machines On the planet And even if you don't love Hobbit, you got to admit. I love that game. I'm not a fan of the movies at all. It's a hell of a machine. It's good. It is a good game. Wizard of Oz. Awesome. Dialed in. Awesome. Great. Pirates. Amazing. He's four for four in making kick-ass fun machines. I know. But it's like, don't show it until you've got them in a box ready to deliver. The only machine that he's really launched very well is Dialed In, and he cut that off at the knees by announcing Pirates too soon. so I'm sure that at Texas Pinball Festival he's going to do it again and he's going to announce something to try to take over the industry it's just like what are you doing bro just chill wait until Expo give Pirates a year to be out you announce it a year early give it a year to be out I know that everyone is getting on him because he can't make one game a year happen but you know what it's just like so what if you make a great game He's still selling Wizard of Oz, man. Yeah, I was going to say, they're still running those on the line. You don't need to announce a game or three, four games a year. That's just the public of pinball being like, ah, we need the next thing. We're foaming at the mouth. Just let it go. Don't announce Frozen.
    60:21
    You know what? It would probably be a super expensive license, and it would probably do okay. it would sell great to like family arcades and stuff. But, you know.
    60:33
    But, yeah. I mean, if we're talking about themes that should be made into pinball, like we were talking about last night. No, no, no. We're talking about Tommy Boy. She brought up Tommy Boy last night. You're out of your mind. It'd be great.
    60:47
    That guy and Little Coat. Only if they brought Farley back from the dead to do custom column outs. Rob Schneider's not doing anything today is he? well he wasn't in Tommy Boy that was David Spade oh shoot you're right fail so what other pinball news do we have? so we don't really know what's coming out besides Monsters and then something from Jersey Jack and the second as of yet unnamed title from Scott Denise via Spooky Pinball No, nothing's going to come out from Spooky next year. But, I mean, they'll announce something before the end of 2019. I don't think they will. I think they will at their home show. They'll announce. The show will announce. What is Spooky's home show?
    61:35
    Midwest Game and Cost. They don't announce anything at MGC. I don't know. It's also not a pinball show. Well, they have pinball there. They have pinball there, but it's not a pinball show. It's pinball and arcade games. You are just so combative. I told you I was turning this shit into Crossfire. Crossfire is right, bro. We've got to keep you working. Yeah, I'm tired. We're making compelling podcasts tonight. I went to bed at 1130, woke up at like 10 to 6. I told you guys you were going to pray for Canada by the time I was there. Pray for Canada. I love Canada. And don't start coming up with excuses. You're doing fine. And I've got a buzz now. No, I'm doing fine. I know I'm doing fine. But anyway, I'm having trouble keeping track of where we're at. Oh, I know I'm doing fine. I'm Spencer. I'm the god of podcasts, and I'm great at this. Not even close.
    62:19
    I'm entertaining and free of charge. So, you know, that's – Well, that's why I'm tickling. I was going to say, if that landed you rusty. And it did. Boom! Yeah, but it turned down. I was tickling. All right, so we're going to – Hello!
    62:36
    So we've gone through 2018 and into 2019. Now we're going to kind of – I think we're all agreeing that we're looking forward to Golden State Pinball Festival. Golden State Pinball Festival and all the new games that are coming out and all the new places that are opening up to play pinball. There's so many good ones. We're fortunate we have a couple of real good ones in Sacramento. Do we have anything opening up? Well, you know, in the Bay Area there's always new stuff opening up and people getting more and more games. I mean, and, you know, more and more people are getting collections in their homes and leagues are growing and forming. It's a great time to be in the hobby. What is the website for the pinball map? Pinballmap.com. Alex would know. Alex, well, I know. I looked at it today. We won't play Deadpool on location at Louie's Tavern in Rancho Cordova, California.
    63:28
    Deadpool. Deadpool, yes. Sex and the Buffalo. Anyway, we're up now to a fun topic. Best bang for your buck pins for under 2K for the first-time buyer. So hopefully you've got some people that have never bought a machine, or even if you have, it's okay.
    63:45
    We're going to go down the list. Anybody who does not own a pinball machine is bothering to listen to this. Probably not, but it might give you some food for thought. Or you know what? Just the other day, Kendra, yes, we were talking. Kendra, one of her coworkers, there was another person came in. Tell your story, Kendra. Damn, you just got moderated. I just got moderated.
    64:07
    Best man, tell me a story. Last year, I was crazy insane. It's an H-grade bitch. Good love, that's a lot of money. how much you charge for one pinball? I just need one flipper no I had one of my regulars at work took vacation for the holiday and so we had someone covering him and he was talking to the guy that was there that's normally there and was talking about games and you know for Christmas he got the new classic Nintendo and he was talking about the games he had and the games he wanted and he was saying you know, I really want to get a pinball machine. So my regular that knows me and says, the girl in the back is the one you need to talk to. She knows all about it. So I've got this guy coming to me going, you know about pinball?
    64:58
    Well, yeah, you know. Dan's throwing grapes at my youngest son. Mickey, go to your room. so so he comes to me and he's asking you know well where do i buy a pinball machine and you know what am i looking at cost-wise and i'm like well you know your best bet's gonna be to come to the show you're gonna have all kinds of people you can talk to they're gonna lead you down the right path because i don't know necessarily exactly what you want you don't know exactly what you want other than a pinball machine so come to the show and he's like you know told him about it gave him the website for the show and the next day he comes back and goes, I'm going and I'm bringing both my kids and my wife and anybody else that I can convince to come along. Make converts out of them. They'll be one of us soon. Let me tell you a funny story like that. About that name Jed?
    65:56
    Poor Mountaineer. Barely could keep his family fed. But, one day he was shooting at some food and up from the ground came a bubbling crew. And why is that not a pinball machine? Because it would be terrible. It would be great. If they make monsters... If they make monsters, bring on Beverly Hillbillies. Jethro Bodine, Double Dot Spy, Multiball. Brian, who's been on the show with us before, and I went down to a local town and bought a $100 parts machine a couple months ago. Hurricane. The Haunter King.
    66:36
    The guy who sold it to us, It was his last game, and he was out. No more pinball. But we got him talking about pinball. The next thing you know, we go up to his house. He's got like eight more games. Well, he owns a business in Jackson, California. Right.
    66:56
    It's Mel's Diner. Not affiliated with Mel's Diner, the national chain. The original Mel's is what it's called. But it's called Mel's Diner. It's in Jackson. If you're in Jackson, California, you owe it to yourself to go there. We went there when I was a kid. They have a million types of milkshakes, delicious food, awesome bar. He's got five brand new Sterns there now. He's got an ACDC. He's got an Aerosmith. He's got an Iron Maiden. He's got a Game of Thrones. He's got a Star Wars Premium. Awesome lineup, all meticulously kept. We go up there the other day to buy another game from him, which we'll bring up in our bank for your buck pens, for another guy in our group, Shannon.
    67:30
    You know, and we're playing his new games, and he says, hey, look, you guys buying this game from me and getting me talking about pinball reawoke the fire and now i have to have pinball again the games that he that he operates in his business he operates out of joy he doesn't you know do it because it's making him a million dollars right and he's got games at home too i mean like i said the guy's really back into it it doesn't take much to get somebody either back into it or into it right all they need is access to an affordable game right now i think that all of us who are in the hobby now can all feel one thing is true. It's gotten expensive. It's hard to find your way in the door. So what are the games that we can suggest that are going to give people a positive pinball experience, get them in the door so that they're going to be the ones who are going to come to our shows and listen to the podcast and get operators to put more games out where people can play them and get manufacturers to make more games, hopefully in an affordable price range.
    68:39
    What do you think, Spencer? Well, let's start with the Dot Matrix era. Which is the hardest. Yeah, because everything does it. And I'm going to throw out a couple. I mean, there's a couple more too.
    68:51
    But one number I'm going to throw out that Rusty and I owned, it was the second Dot Matrix game we ever owned, and that's Lethal Weapon 3.
    68:58
    Still a great game. Some people balk at the theme and some of the call-outs, the okay, okay, okay from Joe Pesci never bothered me. It's a fun... You are kind of like Joe Pesci, though, so it might just be sort of like... Did you say Utes? Utes, yeah. I'm funny how? How am I funny? Like a clown? Hey, speaking of Utes, Fred Gwynn. Fred Gwynn, Utes. Yes, that's right. He was the judge in that movie. Six degrees of separation.
    69:22
    So, wow, that was good. No, you know, it's got a little bit of everything. It's got a great ram shot that never gets... I never got tired of shooting that ram shot. It's a total rip-off of Terminator 2. It's got two spinners, two drop target banks. It's got a vertical up kicker. It's got a kickback with the left out lane. You get to shoot it, guys. It's got three video modes. It's got some fun music. It's got ZZ Top and CSC Music Factory. Which is the worst one to choose. I like that one. Wasn't it the first game with a full-size DMV?
    69:53
    It might have been their first game. Or was that Gilligan's? Well, no. It was Gilligan's. It was the first with the full size. And it was the first Williams, for sure. Well, that was Ballot and the Terminator 2 was the first Williams. And then Checkpoint beat it by just a shot. Checkpoint's not a full-size DMD. But it's not a full-size DMD. But they beat it. Checkpoint was the first DMD game. Right. The first full-size was Gilligan's, I think. Okay, so. Gilligan's or Terminator.
    70:18
    Well, Terminator was the first that they were designing, but Gilligan's beat it to market. Right. The dawn of the DMD. There you go. But it's got a lot of – it's not the deepest rule set, but it doesn't have to be. It's a fun game with all kinds of good fun stuff in it. You can still get it at a good price. My second one, and some people are going to balk at this because it's not – Balk. It doesn't have quite the flow, but it's got a really good rule set, and there's a lot to do in there, a lot of drop targets. And that is – I almost said Riverboat Gambler. Maverick.
    70:56
    The Sega, Data East Sega Maverick. I don't feel like you're finding a Maverick for under $2,000 anymore. They're still out there, or they were. Look, we got a, what, two years ago? Well, two years ago, we got a Valley Black Rose for $800. Well, right. But, I mean, you've got to kind of consider that there's going to be. There's going to be good deals out there. The first thing about it is, okay, let's just say generally, what do you do to get into pinball? Okay, first off, don't go to eBay. Don't go to eBay. talk to talk to people who you know who know pinball yeah you know what find local collectors in your area say you're looking for a game that's going to give you your best bang for your buck you know there's a local collector with a large collection they're looking to move some older tiles you know you'll you'll need help you'll need help you'll need reach out everybody in the local pin community will help you they're all don't be annoying right don't be annoying right and you what give something back offer lunch offer gas money you know we work cheap so you know Craigslist has become a bit of a wasteland but once in a while man there are there are still games that pop up you know facebook marketplace there are games that pop up local groups even pin side every once in a while you might go on to the local pin side group and find a great deal on a game so you got to go where the deals are right you're probably not just going to be walking down the street and go hey there's a machine right you know uh but it happened but it does go up at yard sales of all the places on the How many people do we talk to? It's like, yeah, I've had a machine in my basement for, you know, 32 years. What? All right. And then you see it, and you're like, I see why that's been in the basement for 32 years. And now the rats come with it, though. Well, you know. Free rats? What a deal. Well, let's think about some more dot matrix games that you know consecutively. Pretty much you can pick up from the UK. I'm going to say look at Gottlieb. a lot of people won't look at Gottlieb games, but Williams games, the worst of them is over 2000 bucks. Yeah. Most hurricane is 2000 bucks. Yeah. Gilligan's it's 2,500 bucks, you know, black Rose 3000 bucks. You're not in the world anymore where you're finding games that are, that are going to be, you know, like, Ooh, $800, $900. My first game, you know, just to say flat out, was it $900 mostly working judge. Great. You know, You don't find that anymore, right? No. So look at the Gottliebs, right? The Gottliebs tend to be a little bit overlooked. Yeah. You know, Data East games have gotten expensive. We were just saying the other day, you know, Lethal Weapon for a long time. Six, 700 bucks. A great game, $1,000 machine for the newbie. It's creeping up towards the 2,000 plus range. You know, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all the little mini B&B games. hook is still a good one in the day to ease department yeah you could probably still get a hook for up for under two grand hopefully working um you know and and don't and don't feel like oh my god it's not the dream thing the the trick is just like first things first get into pinball get yourself a machine get a good working game and have fun with it well and just get used to the fact that number one what do pinball machines require maintenance maintenance all the time right you got to work on them you need rubbers and flippers and balls oh my right you know switches that get stuck switches and you got to know how to take off the glass we've bought games from people they never took out and this is a straight true story we're buying we're buying a game from a guy and it's not a cheap game brian goes to take off the glass the dude is like what are you doing brian's like it's okay man i'm just gonna look under the play field he's like i didn't know you could do that it's like really yeah we also had to slide that game down the stairs of his house That was pretty fun. You hear that story a lot. I didn't know you could do that. That opens up. I was going to move it on the legs. Oh, jeez.
    74:51
    Yeah. But, yeah, there's a lot of dollars. Well, Street Fighter comes to mind. You can still pick those up, Sub2K. Yeah, those are creepy. But, yeah, Street Fighter is a good one. When you can find it, which is a very often, which is actually a fantastic game, Big Hurt. You have to be a baseball fan to really love it. But that thing's got a great skill shot. It's got good flow. It's a fun game. Another one Kendra's awesome at. Yes, that's right. Shaq. Oh, is it not Shaq Fu? That's a different game. Shaq Attack. The best pinball game ever made. I can't remember if I've ever actually played that or not. I played it at Pinnagogo this year, and it does, in fact, suck. And I don't usually say that. I'm like, all pinball is good pinball. But Shaq Attack does kind of suck. And not just because I got smoked out of it, because everyone else got 20 million mystery awards, and I got like 200,000. I was like, forget this. What about Jackpot? Can you pick one of those up for less than two games? Negative, Ghost Rider. Wow, they're above two games now, huh? They're really good. They're like $3,000 games these days. Good lord. And good luck finding a cheap pinbot, you know? Yeah. But that's going into more like the earlier era. But yeah, DMD games. We're going there next. CMD games, there are few and far between that you're going to get into as a good beginner game, but they're out there. And sometimes you might get lucky and find something really good, like a $900 Judge Dredd, an $800 Black Rose. A $1,500 Monopoly. Yeah, a $1,500 Monopoly. I don't know who found that because I paid less for mine. Oh, you were $1,200, huh? $1,400 home use only Monopoly with the goodie bags. I can't guarantee that that's true, but it was a creep up. It's really nice now. I LED'd it today. Nice, nice. LED'd it. I put the Titan rubbers on it. So, you know, take your time. Talk with local collectors. Introduce yourself. Get to know people in your community, route operators, local collectors. Well, I mean, you know, you don't see that anymore, right? Don't be too picky. There's no route operators. But, yeah, don't be too picky. Be ready to move. Have your money. Don't fight with people. You know, if somebody has a game that's going to be a deal. Oh, and don't lowball. And don't lowball. Oh, yeah. Say, I got a truck. I have cash. I'm on my way. Thank you. Take my money. That's what got me the cheap. Take my money. God bless. Have a nice time. That's what got me the cheap monopoly. Be cool. Be respectful. What got us that? Of course, he was an ex-Army guy, so I wasn't going to screw with him. Also got me the $600 jokers a couple years ago. Be efficient. Bring your own tools. Yeah, there you go. Be efficient. Bring your own tools. Because everybody else wanted 600 pictures, and they wanted a low volume. I said, $600. I got cash. I got my own vehicle. You don't have to help me load it or nothing. he's like, come and get it.
    77:31
    But that's hard if you're a first-timer because you're uncertain. It is. You know, you've got to kind of – and you can screw up, you know, and it can cost you – Oh, we all have. And it can cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Because the roller games I play too much. What do you avoid, right? I'm really drunk. What do you avoid? Water damage. If that thing's water damaged, if it's got mold, walk away. If it looks – if you look at that machine and it looks like more than you can handle, it might be the perfect game because you're going to learn stuff. But if you see a lumpy play field because it's been wet, it is a lost cause. Yeah, if it's been left out on a sun porch in the snow for three winters, yeah. If it is actively on fire, you probably don't want to pick that one up. Board damage is scary unless you're comfortable with circuit boards. That can cost you thousands of dollars real fast. Boards are expensive.
    78:23
    Play field posts, broken rubbers, snap flipper bats, that's the stuff you want because you're going to be able to negotiate a great price, and that stuff is all very easy and inexpensive to replace. It's just a fews and some flipper rubbers, and you're good to go. You know what? Here's the thing. I don't know how you feel about this, but play field wear, not necessarily a bad thing, right? Play field wear knocks the price of a game way down. And it still plays good. And really doesn't ruin how the game plays unless, again, the play field is really hard to ride. So don't be afraid of that. Broken plastics. You know what? Yeah, that sucks. You can get new ones. Well, you can get new ones or you can, you know, tape them together. I mean, what you want is you want to be able to play. Like, there's a different kind of pinball fan, right, who's like it's got to look perfect and it's got to be pristine. But for, you know, for a lot of us, it's just got to work. Someday you'll be a snob. Someday you'll be like it's got to be perfect. But you know what? Today you're trying to buy your first game. Yeah. So, okay. So DMVs, expensive, hard to get into. might get lucky yeah let's let's go back a step let's go back to alphanumerics um i mean are we going to just alphanumerics are we going back into well we're going to go back into solid state okay so we're just talking about alphanumerics that's basically like the 80s yeah well late 85 to 91 yeah once again look at the got leaves yeah tons of great got leaves that are dirt cheap You want a $700 pen? Baby, I got it for you. It's called Raven. Is it a great pinball machine? No, it is not. Is it great looking? No, it is not. Does it flip? Yep. Yes, it does. Yeah, but you've got a lot of those, that era that you can pick up. You got your Ravens. You got your Car Hops. Car Hop is a fantastic game. You know what? Car Hop is not really a great game, but it has a weird, compelling quality to it. It's like Diner, but like $1,500 less. Tag Team. Tag Team Pinball. That is a fun game. That is a weird, fun game. It is. It's some cool shots. And there's a lot of other. Got Leaves. There's some Data East that are still. Hey, man, can you still get a $1,000 TX sector? No. And that's largely my fault. I know, because I opened my mouth. And then people went, did you talk to Don lately, man? That game freaking rocked. You heard the soundtrack? yeah oh great great most story okay i'm talking about tx sector solid with everybody in our in our crew for like two years and then one day mo throws up on the board hey expense why didn't you ever tell me about that tx sector that game looks awesome and everybody's like dude we love you but seriously what the heck he's been talking about that non-stop for two years that's why it's a three grand game now because he won't shut up about it and everybody's figured it out but there's a lot of others there's still some Valley Williams okay you can still pick up a nice high speed or a nice F14 well sub 2k they're in the high 1k I saw on our local Craigslist a well played F14 Tomcat how much do you think it was I think that's the one I saw it's like what 1900 I think it was 1700 okay you know what they'll go down to 15 and they show up between 12 and 14 all the time they'll take a couple hundred bucks off but yeah, System 11 has had a bit of a renaissance, right? System 11s are not cheap and that's everything from high speed up to no, right up in the WPC. You can still get a pinbot. What was Whirlwind the last System 11?
    82:02
    I don't know. Anyways, through that era of game, like 1989-ish, 1988-ish. Whirlwind is 90, so it's one of the last. Also one of the highest priced ones. 89. No, 90. Early 90. You're not right. No, no, no. I'm right, man. I owned that game for a number of years. That's true. You are a whirlwind aficionado. I do. A whirlwind's like, that's like my best girlfriend, you know? I mean, you know, I have my wife and my best girlfriend. Your side piece, yeah. 1990. I'm telling you now. And was one of the last Williams System 11 games. I miss that game.
    82:37
    I want to get the money up to my Brian. It's Diamond Plate Edition. He's not selling it. Anyway. And it was January 1990, see, up there. Yeah, so just brand new into 1990. But, no, I mean, and there are a few others that are still decent games, good playing games. You can get Police Force, sub 2K. But you can get the Gottliebs a little cheaper. Some of the data East, but they're a lot harder to find. There's some good playing games out there in the Alpha Numerica and the Gottliebs. And what else? The last System 11 game was, in fact, Whirlwind. Was it really? Yeah, before that, Mouse and Round, Bad Cats, Elvira, Party Monsters, Police Force, Transport of the Rescue. Oh, okay. And before that, Black Knight 2000. There were a lot of games in 89. Yeah, there were, man. They were pumping. Earthshaker, Black Knight 2000, Transporter, Police Force, Elvira, Bad Cats. You can still pick up an Earthshaker. Mouse and Round! Once in a while, you can still pick up an Earthshaker sub 2K. That's hard. Jokers is a great one that you still see cheap. In fact, I'm still kicking myself. Dude, I got that Jokers for $600. bucks i'm still kicking myself because there was like a really decent looking like 900 jokers and i didn't pull the trigger on yeah i got that one off craigslist yeah this was a craigslist one too 600 bucks a couple years ago and uh but yeah that's a good one to start with and those games are all like you know the williams system 11 like if you can get into a system 11 game they're all super well known the parts are available yeah i mean some of like the plastics and other stuff is, but I mean, you know, boards and stuff are out there. Big guns, space station, cyclone. Big guns. You can get sub 2K. Yeah. Pin bot. That is one of the ugliest pin bot machines ever made. I love that game. You are not finding a pin bot for, this is system 11B, by the way. So there's system 11A too. That'll be another one. But like, you know, yeah, pin bots are getting expensive.
    84:28
    That's crazy. The last pin bot I bought, well, that was like, what, how many years ago? Cut for 900 bucks. Yeah. That was, what, eight, nine years ago? Yeah, if I paid $900 for a pinball eight, nine years ago, you overpaid.
    84:40
    Sorry. Spencer's like, I am done. I am done with Dan tonight. I had good fun with it, so. Oh, no, it's an awesome game. But you get the idea. You know, look around. Don't be, if it's not, you know, well, it's not the A-list or whatever, go play it, you know. Look at videos online. Talk to people, collectors. with that, you know, I have that game. If you want to come check it out, see if it's something you like. You can go play virtual versions online. There's a lot of different options available. Let's go into the solid state. Here you're going from like 77 to 85-ish.
    85:21
    This is where you can get into the pinball hobby these days. You can spend $1,000 and get a decent machine. You might spend a little bit more if you want a Black Knight or a Space Shuttle or one of the marquee games. But there are a ton of lesser known titles. There's a ton of Silver Ball manias. There's a ton of stuff like that out there where you can get into a great game. You can spend a thousand bucks or less. You could probably learn the ropes.
    85:51
    And the action is still moderate enough that you're going to feel like you're playing a pinball game. You know, you're not going to feel like you're playing an EM, right? Okay. Did you feel that way playing my Surf Champ? Well, I'm just saying, for the most part, you know, when you're playing an older game, pre-Solid State, they're a little slower. They're a little more methodical. Don't get all Surf Champ on me. My Surf Champ is that out. Your Surf Champ is good. So it's, you know, let's just say you're going to feel like there's the sensation of modern pinball, right? Right. Like, really, you're going to get, like, modern pinball starts kind of with high speed. Yeah. Like, but, you know, anything older, you know, maybe even, like, Space Shuttle to an extent, but, like, high speed especially. But if you go back a little bit more, you start to find that the games get wider and flatter. Yeah. Much like me.
    86:44
    Oh, there's a ton of good games. I mean, you know, and, you know, people will balk at this title, but, I mean, I've been sitting on one and haven't picked it up yet. for 300 bucks uh as a charlie's angels early got lead system one solid state i mean it's not going to be the be all end all a pinball but it's still a fun game it's got drop targets it's got you know oh sure think of the nice ones that we've seen sell think of like the night riders and you know some of that stuff that like it's like oh if i had a little more space that'd be a cool oh yeah my riders are fantastic you know and they made a ton of them and like i said you're going to be able to get into games in the hundreds, if not the early thousands at that rate. Right. And, again, you'll learn everything. I think Viking's expensive, though, ain't it? It is getting expensive. What's up with Air Cat? Monahari. He sold it pretty quick because he had to move it to get something else. Great game. Another great. Any of the early Stern? Not any of them because some of them are hard to find. They're starting to all get expensive. Boy, do I regret missing the boat on grabbing, like, a Meteor and a Sea Witch and all that crap. Or like Galaxy. Phenomenal game. Well, you know, just wait, Dan. They're redoing Sea Witch. They're redoing it. Oh, man, I can only spend $25,000. And then when you get in, so there's a ton of early solid states. You've got a nice variety to choose from. At that time, there was early Stern Electronics, Gottlieb, Bally, and Williams to choose from. Plus, there was also still Zachariah or Zachariah. I can never get it right. Now, those games. I would not recommend for a newbie. Well, right. Not for a newbie. They are insanely hard to keep running. They are for the advanced 80s pinball affectionado. And parts are harder to come by. Ladies and gentlemen, do not listen to the man behind the curtain. But if you want a beautiful game,
    88:37
    Zachariah makes some of the most spectacular. What did everyone think of Farahala? She got jubbly. Falafel. If you're like our good friends, the banisters god bless you guys i love you uh they got the european back class where the girls did have some titties yes the help noses did you say tits i i you said that i said jubilees the titular backlash so did you just say tits i said jubilees anyway so does that make you horny baby brandy yeah baby yeah anyway um we just i mean yeah oh behave oh behave uh There's a ton of great games out there that can be had in the $1,000 range and maybe a little bit less. Now we get on the EM or electromechanical. That's games with score rules. Now, here we go, right? EMs. Any 70s cop you can get for less than $1,000. Buy it today. Right now, you can repaint the cabinet. You can rebuild the cabinet. I don't care. If it lights up, buy it. You won't regret it. Here's what's crazy about your EMs, right? And most of the Ballys. Some of the Williams. Number one, how do you fix EMs? You clean switches. There you go. Lots of switches. Hope you're patient.
    89:52
    For the most part, once you've got an EM running, if you keep playing it, it keeps running. They use rubbers and light bulbs and all the same stuff that later machines use, just you don't have circuit boards, you don't have digital sound, you don't have displays. Okay, great. But they're built like tanks. They're still a blast, and you can get them for $500, $600. Here's your attraction of an EM. They're still cheap. Not as cheap as they used to be. But did you see, we have a local guy selling a really nice machine that you can get into for $500. Done, working, completely ready to go. Oh, is that the Skylab? The Skylab. That looks beautiful looking. I saw that today on the boards. Nothing's going to hit Craigslist unless one of us takes it. Okay, how much did you pay for your Spanish eyes? Well, I paid $3.99 for my Spanish eyes. $3.99. You got that thing absolutely free. I got that thing absolutely zero. Zero dollars and zero cents. But that was because it wasn't working and somebody needed it out of their garage. And that's always – and you know what, kids? That's the best way to get into pinball. Learn to be a furniture mover and get free EMs and some really solid states. Have a truck and let everybody know that you want one. Somebody eventually will be like, dude, I got this thing and I need it out of my hair.
    91:05
    Realize that if someone's selling something cheap, they probably want it gone. So don't ask them for pictures and don't give them a hard time. Show up with your own tools and your own truck and take it. Show up with cash and walk away with the game. Or if you can, just tell your brother that you won. No.
    91:21
    That'll never happen, Dan. There you go. That'll never happen. I think we've about covered everything, and we've gone longer than I thought we would, but we're doing pretty good, and it's been a good episode.
    91:33
    Oh, yeah, that was our last topic. I thought we had four more pages here. I tried to keep it short tonight. Okay, do we have any final thoughts or shout-outs for everybody? I thought you wanted me to keep going.
    91:45
    All of a sudden it got real quiet. The girls both look like they're just like, we really wish Dan would shut up. Ah, it's been a great episode as always.
    91:53
    I want to play the Beatles. Yes. So do I. But I don't want to buy the Beatles. Yes. Play it. Somebody will put it on location somewhere. I bet you that we'll have one at Golden State Pinball Festival. At the Lodi Great Festival Fairgrounds. How many days? 139 days from now. Booyah, Grillo. Weekend after Mother's Day. There you go. This May.
    92:18
    That's our little Mother's Day. I know. Good job, Rusty. But interesting side note. You're really on the ball. Mother's Day is in December. Is it really? It is. That's because the toilets run backwards? Exactly. All right. There you go. December. December, Mother's Day, toilets run backwards. The world is a perfect place. Anybody else with final thoughts and shout-outs? Anyone? Bueller? Fry? Anyone? 2018 was a great year for pinball. No peanuts. 2019 will be an even better year for pinball. Yes, it will. As long as we all go out and play lots of pinball. Play lots of pinball. Find a local league. Find an arcade that's got machines. Pump some quarters into them. Hang out with your buddies. Talk about pinball on the internet. Buy machines, sell machines, trade machines. Live pinball.
    93:05
    I love it. Two real words are never spoken. Huzzah! I just got a quick shout out No Not you I could go really long on this one but I won't I'm just going to give a quick shout out to three of my old Navy buddies who I've been Kind of communicating with on Facebook Lately and was thinking about you guys As I just turned 53 a little over A week ago So to my old Navy buddies Clay Andrews Or Clayton Andrews Joseph Mudbone Mudloff, and Sean Art Howard, Rush Chairman. Damn glad to meet you. Just a shout-out to you guys. So if you're really hard up for entertainment, listen to the show. Miss you guys and I love you guys, and it's been too long. We should maybe make some plans in 2019 to get together and talk all times and share some food and drinks. Anyway, that's our show. to everybody listening to all the pinheads out there and all the wannabe pinheads who are just want to learn to play pinball or find locations to play pinball, pinball map.com. Find pinball in your area. You can listen to us on, uh, on, uh, where can you listen to us on the internet, on a cast, um, and then sound cloud, which is our home hosting network, internet website thing, uh, and iTunes. So, again, this is Spencer Klingin and the rest of the gang from the Kitchen Table Studios. Have a happy and safe new year, and we'll see you all in 2019. And what do we say, kids? Play pinball. Keep America strong.
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