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Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim, Episode 30: Whatcha Gonna Do, When Grandma Drops the GC on You!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Jul 14, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Tribe Multiball ep.30: Rachel's tournament growth & Madison/Chuck's family pinball collection philosophy.

Summary

Tim Lee and Rachel Risto host Tribe Multiball (Poor Man's Pinball Podcast Network), welcoming husband-and-wife guests Madison and Chuck Rotter (nicknamed 'Jasper'). The episode focuses on personal pinball news: Rachel's tournament play at Neo Skywalker's Queen Anne's Revenge event and her 14th-place finish at District 82's Tuesday league with 93 players; Chuck's recent basement reorganization and family pinball gatherings; and detailed discussion of their 8-game collection spanning classic early-90s titles (Demolition Man, Terminator 2, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Attack from Mars) to newer games (Hot Wheels raffle win). The hosts emphasize accessibility and simplicity as design virtues for casual/family play.

Key Claims

  • Rachel placed 14th out of 93 players at District 82 Tuesday league on July 5th, scoring 35 points against her 30-point goal

    high confidence · Rachel speaking, personal tournament result

  • Rachel is now ranked 14th woman in the world in pinball

    high confidence · Rachel's self-reported statement based on tournament placement

  • Neo Skywalker owns 14 Zachariah machines and hosts Queen Anne's Revenge tournament in Burlington, Wisconsin

    medium confidence · Rachel describing tournament venue and host's collection

  • Madison and Chuck won a Hot Wheels pinball machine through Project Pinball raffle (unit 001)

    high confidence · Chuck explaining raffle win and canceling retail order with Troy North

  • Chuck and Madison own eight pinball machines: Demolition Man, Terminator 2, Johnny and Monica, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Hot Wheels (001), Attack from Mars, and Party Animal (plus one Hot Wheels machine in son's room)

    high confidence · Chuck listing collection chronologically

  • Chuck's design philosophy centers on early-1990s games with terrible licenses because they were affordable and nostalgic to his childhood

    high confidence · Chuck explaining collection preferences and financial reasoning

  • Madison and Chuck reorganized their basement to fit 7 of 8 machines on one wall under a soffit, storing all toppers

    high confidence · Tim and Chuck discussing basement layout constraints

  • Creature from the Black Lagoon was Madison's grail game; she would watch it at barcades before acquiring it

    high confidence · Madison's personal testimony about game history

  • Tim had a stressful week and deconstructed his train layout in response, describing it as 'therapeutic'

    high confidence · Tim's personal pinball news segment

Notable Quotes

  • “So Jasper is the dog's name...my Facebook, I was friends with a bunch of people...and so when we got Jasper as a little puppy, Madison made a joke that it was going to be 24 hours before Jasper had more friends on Facebook than I did.”

    Chuck Rotter (Jasper) @ ~7:30 — Explains the origin of Chuck's 'Jasper' nickname—a humorous backstory rooted in Facebook account naming and social media that became his actual identity in the pinball community

  • “I'm a crazy cat lady. I've got two cats. I wish I could have twelve but I don't want to deal with the litter but I really think mousing around is much more my theme now.”

    Madison Rotter @ ~28:00 — Shows Madison's personality and reasoning for trading Demolition Man for Mouse Around—thematic alignment with her identity

  • “Pinball is always an adventure and learning how to do things and learning how to move games is the first game that I really had to bring home...and I'm figuring things out with it like that by myself so that's kind of fun you know it makes me feel more empowered.”

    Madison Rotter @ ~31:00 — Illustrates empowerment through hands-on learning and self-directed game setup; emotional value beyond the machines themselves

  • “The intention was for the kids to top their own pizzas. And then...the kids went in our basement and they saw our pinball setup. End of story. They spent hours down here just having a blast.”

    Tim Lee (describing Chuck's party) @ ~38:00 — Demonstrates pinball's social appeal and its ability to naturally draw people into play; validates the household collection's purpose

  • “I really like Johnny because it's underappreciated no one else in the house really likes it...I take a lot of pride in the fact that that claw or that glove was not working and I got it working somehow.”

    Chuck Rotter (Jasper) @ ~78:00 — Shows Chuck's attachment to undervalued machines and pride in repair/restoration work

  • “What we found is that when we have people over that don't know pinball, I'll try to explain creature to them...by the time I get to I, they're like, okay, you know what? I'm just going to try to keep the ball from draining.”

Entities

Rachel RistopersonTim LeepersonMadison RotterpersonChuck RotterpersonNeo SkywalkerpersonTroy NorthpersonCP PinballorganizationProject Pinball

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Rachel describes commentating Super Series as a learning mechanism; watching pro players on stream and then replaying games two weeks later for skill transfer

    high · Rachel: 'I learn so much from doing this stream every single time. I'm learning something new about that game. And then when I go play the game two weeks later, I'm like, oh, yeah, I watched Escher blow this thing up'

  • ?

    event_signal: Queen Anne's Revenge tournament in Burlington, Wisconsin is an established fixture hosting mixed/vintage game lineup with strong collection-based venue support

    medium · Rachel's participation and description of Neo Skywalker's collection and pirate-themed arcade hosting the event

  • ?

    community_signal: District 82 Tuesday league (Tilt and Tuesday) showing strong growth with record 93 players on July 5th, indicating thriving local competitive ecosystem

    high · Rachel: 'He had a record number of players. He had 93 players...unbelievable for a Tuesday night in July'

  • ?

    community_signal: Distributed troubleshooting network: Madison seeks flipper problem diagnosis from multiple friends before considering professional repair

    high · Madison: 'I sent a video out to two different dudes you know I'm like hey what's going on here and they're like how about this or that'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Modern complex rule-set games (AIQ, Avengers Infinity Quest) create barriers for casual/family play; community preference trending toward simpler mechanics for household collections

    high · Tim: 'AIQ...people don't really play it in this house because it's really complicated...right beside it is a munsters and it is so easy to explain to people'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.229

0:00
Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiple Podcast with Rachel and Tim. Poor Man Tribe's the thing, that is who we are. It and Drew. They're not in this thing, so how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old blockade, and then we'll learn about each other. Uh-huh, from two pennants to another Uh-huh Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today? Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball. I'm Tim Lee and I'm here with my co-host Rachel Risto. Tribe Multiball is a podcast and the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast Network where we focus on the members of the tribe and the cool things they're doing in the pinball world. How are you doing today, Rachel? I'm doing great, Tim Lee. How are you? I'm doing fine. Hey, are you ready for change? I am always ready for change. You might as well just embrace it in life, right? Okay, so we're going to make a minor change to the show, and Rachel and I decided after 30 episodes that we're going to bring our guests right in up front so they can participate in our personal pinball news. How does that sound? That sounds fantastic, Tim. why it took us 30 episodes to realize that i don't know you know what i think it is we're videoing and we're watching people when they're muted and they're cheering or they're like you know their facial expressions and that's what i think it is is because then we realize oh yeah they might actually like want to comment on that too so away we go all right well hey welcome to the show, tribe members 42 and 43, Madison and Chuck Rotter. Yay! Welcome. Thank you, thank you. I'm very excited to have you on. This is the first time we've had a husband and wife on the show, so that's exciting. Actually, I think it's the first time we've had two people on the show. Yeah, it's our first double guest or tandem guest episode. Let's see how editing goes, Tim.
2:13
Hey, before we get started with personal pinball news, Chuck, I need to know, everybody calls you Jasper. And for about a year, I thought that was your name. So how did you get the nickname Jasper? So Jasper is the dog's name.
2:35

  • Rachel will commentate the Super Series tournament for the second consecutive year rather than compete

    high confidence · Rachel explaining tournament commitments

    • Chuck Rotter @ ~66:00 — Illustrates the paradox of complex rule-set games vs. accessibility for casual players; justifies owning simpler entry-level games

  • “Avengers Affinity Quest I have no idea how that game really works...I'm like I don't know I'm going to light a mode and I'm going to start my Thor multiball. Is that good enough for today?”

    Tim Lee @ ~56:00 — Acknowledges the challenge modern complex games pose even to experienced players; normalizes simplified play strategies

  • “I might be having a little bit of a flipper issue I'm mousing around. I'm so sorry Drew didn't tell you first maybe we'll hear it here first.”

    Madison Rotter @ ~34:00 — Shows Madison's willingness to diagnose and troubleshoot her own machines; breaking news first disclosure

    • organization
    District 82organization
    Creature from the Black Lagoongame
    Attack from Marsgame
    Demolition Mangame
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Mouse Aroundgame
    Terminator 2game
    Party Animalgame
    Johnny and Monicagame
    Avengers Infinity Questgame
    Munstersgame
    Queen Anne's Revenge Tournamentevent
    Super Series Tournamentevent
    Tilt and Tuesdayevent
    Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
    Tribe Multiball Podcastorganization
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Household collection strategy emphasizes accessibility and simplicity for casual/family play over depth; vintage games preferred for low barrier-to-entry and nostalgic resonance

    high · Chuck: 'What we found is that when we have people over that don't know pinball, I'll try to explain creature...by the time I get to I, they're like, okay, you know what? I'm just going to try to keep the ball from draining'

  • $

    market_signal: Raffle-based acquisition channel (Project Pinball) provides alternative path to ownership; significantly impacts retail distributor orders

    high · Chuck calling Troy North to order Hot Wheels retail, then canceling two weeks later after raffle win

  • ?

    community_signal: Tribe Multiball podcast redesign in episode 30 to include guests in personal pinball news segment represents format evolution after 30 episodes

    high · Tim: 'we're going to make a minor change to the show, and Rachel and I decided after 30 episodes that we're going to bring our guests right in up front so they can participate in our personal pinball news'

    • So what happened was, and I was probably using Facebook incorrectly, but I don't know. probably over 10 years or right about 10 years ago, my Facebook, I was friends with a bunch of people, like, that I went to middle school with that were posting, like, what they ate for lunch that day, and I didn't care about any of it. And so when we got Jasper as a little puppy, Madison made a joke that it was going to be 24 hours before Jasper had more friends on Facebook than I did. So we made the account. But then Jasper actually became the account that I would use where he just friended like the people that I was closest to where I actually like wanted their feed and yeah I've got relatives out of town to take pictures of my nieces and nephews and stuff and so I just started using the Jasper account and then it was several years later that I bought something on marketplace and showed up to meet the guy and he was like hey are you Jasper and it didn't even occurred to me.
    3:40
    So I guess I'm like, oh, well, I guess I'm Jasper now. And then the other reason we let it ride is because we are from St. Louis and there is already a Chuck in St. Louis that's very prominent in pinball. He owns a place called CP Pinball, which is just like buildings and buildings of games that he opens up. I believe it's once a week on Saturdays. for people to go play and stuff. So I figured since St. Louis already had their chalk, I could just ride the Jasper thing out for a little bit.
    4:15
    How kind of you. A full year. Actually, it might have been when Madison said about Chuck being on the show. I'm like, who's Chuck? Yes. I'm like, we know Jasper. So that's happened before. So, yeah. When they I guess Ian found out the day they initiated us into the tribe and he was upset because he was like, I really wanted a Jasper.
    4:44
    And he quit the podcast like two days later. So way to go. He's back, though. What did him in? Yeah, I did the same thing. I didn't know Martin was Martin. So, OK, let's dive into it. Rachel, do you want to talk about some personal pinball news? Sure. I've been playing some pinball. Nice. I love that real sarcastic reply. I've done that a couple times now, Tim Lee. I'm so sorry. Not sorry. Yeah, I had an opportunity to go play the Queen Anne's Revenge Tournament that Neo Skywalker hosts in Burlington, Wisconsin. Now, if you are in just about any pinball marketplace Facebook group, and maybe even on Pinside, you will know the name Neo Skywalker. He's a really cool dude with a pretty amazing collection. He had at the time, he was in the process of selling them, but he had 14 of the Zachariah games, the fancy Italian games. He had a sexy girl game. If you lit it in a specific way, it had real sexy gals that would show up in the middle of the play field. He had all sorts of really cool games. And the best thing about it, a couple of really neat things there. He had a Big Lebowski, so he also had a white Russian do-it-yourself bar. So that was fun. So I had one cocktail that day, and that was a lot of fun while I played the Big Lebowski. And also his arcade and everything there is pirate ship themed. So it's just a really cool arcade, and it was a fun tournament to play. I played terrible. It was a bunch of games I've never played before and probably will never play again. And so just the experience of being there and then, of course, being with some of my pinball buddies and meeting new people, too, was a lot of fun. And then, let's see, I also played League, a.k.a. a Tilt and Tuesday at District 82 this past week. He had a record number of players. He had 93 players. That's unbelievable. I know. Unbelievable for a Tuesday night. Yeah, really good. unbelievable for a Tuesday night in July it was July 5th so that's that's pretty bonkers I placed 14th I had only one fourth and if I would have taken a better place in any of the games that I played and gotten two more points I would have tied in eighth place or for eighth place playoff really so it's very again like we talked before about it being a really close league in terms of points that, you know, and I did exceed my goal. My monthly or my goal for every Tuesday is 30 points and I end up at 35, but that still wasn't enough in order to get in the top eight. So you really have to be at 37, but I'm right there. So coming into 14, that was a little less than 10 whoppers, 10 points. And so that put me now, yeah, it's really sweet. And it put me squarely 14th woman in the world now. So I'm very excited chasing my dream. Yay, I could cheer for myself. And I keep thinking up and down about the other tournaments I want to play this year. You know, I do realize that playing at District 82, I have a bit of an advantage because there's always points there. And that I have pretty much endless opportunities with it being an hour away for me to play. So I know I'm going to play one other tournament, the August Summer Classic, but I'm not going to play the Super Series. But I'm super excited that for the second year in a row, I'm going to commentate and announce the Super Series instead of playing. Nice. Yeah. I'll be there to chime in and bother you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I hope everybody does. You know, I really, the reason I do that is because, of course, it's a place where I play the most. And I learn so much from doing this stream every single time. I'm learning something new about that game. And then when I go play the game two weeks later, I'm like, oh, yeah, I watched Escher blow this thing up or whomever, you know, came that weekend and show me a different way of playing it. Or I was able to watch them and commentate with them on stream or somebody else came in the booth or people then chatter like, hey, what about this? It's just all that being able to absorb that knowledge. And for whatever reason, that is the best content for my brain in order to absorb it, other than standing there and watching somebody play or playing it yourself, obviously. But, yeah, that's about it. Those are my big things, I think, that are coming down the road.
    9:16
    That's it. That's pretty cool. That's a good finish. I know you said you didn't make the finals, but 14 out of 93 is pretty awesome. Heck, yeah. I was totally blown away that I actually ended up that high up, and I was super pleased. Yeah, that's cool. I didn't do anything. You didn't do anything? No, not really. Did you ever see the movie Napoleon Dynamite? Yes. Yeah. So there's this scene where Pedro gets like really nervous about this election and he starts to sweat and he gets sick and goes home and he shaves his head. Now, I didn't shave my head, but I had a stressful life week. We all have that last week, and I was stressed out personally in the basement about all this stuff. If you notice, there's a drum set behind me, and my kids had all this stuff, and there was nowhere to move. So I just got this, like, the Pedro sweats, and instead of shaving my head, I tore down more than half of my train layout. I'm sitting where my train layout used to be. So I just rearranged everything in the pinball room, but that's it. did that help you though like because life was stressing you out did it help you to rearrange something or have control over something you could take care of and rearrange was that part of it yeah yeah it was really really kind of fun it kind of de-stressed me my boys helped me deconstruct everything because you had to like tear everything apart it was all bolted together heavily there's still a train layout and we've been talking about this for six months amy and i about you know i'm gonna tear it down but i just did it so it was therapeutic i was gonna say i bet you it was super therapeutic to do that did you have do you keep like all the original train boxes or track boxes and stuff like that yeah i threw some of them out but i kept a lot of them because when you resell those things you kind of that's what i'm curious yeah yeah everybody wants the box yeah the reason people want the box you know like with christmas ornaments it comes in like nice boxes and stuff you know what i do everything gets like wrapped up in tissue paper and thrown into one tub like screw it you know stuff like you know it comes out once a year i'm just really careful just careful with it you know but i'm like i don't keep all the original boxes and stuff do you keep your pinball boxes your pinball machine boxes no i burn those you burn them yeah i have a friend operator friend mike keeps every box in his storage shed yeah yeah he uh when he opens them he just he opens them so that he doesn't even cut the box and he keeps them all okay that's interesting he likes to keep the boxes but anyways what another reason is i want to have that tournament in my house with like 20 to 30 people i wasn't having that with the with the train layout there so i made more room i think i'm gonna have um a kids strikes tournament to kind of practice the whole match play thing with a bunch of neighborhood kids i think i'm just gonna put like a hundred dollar bill and just tell all the kids to sign up and just just the tests running the tournament you know with the kids when are you doing that and what define what age defines a kid uh zero to 20 because my 20 my 20 year old will want to play okay okay fair enough i do owe you a gift box of cheese yeah do you know why yeah my commission yeah you and i had a nice trade there i traded my demolition man for his mouse around a little cash on top so took care of that over the holiday weekend. It was fun. I got an opportunity to see him and Ian and Eric and Jeremy. That was fun too. I suppose I should mention that because I guess it's like tribe related that we got to hook up. But you know what? Nobody flashed their tribe coins. It did have mine on me. But nobody flashed them. So I think they all owe me a drink the next time they see him. Now Rachel. Yeah hon. Are you at all worried that now that you don't own Demolition Man, what you are going to put in your life to replace the somewhat orgasmic sound of Sylvester Stallone screaming every time you get a multi-ball draft.
    13:25
    Orgasmic sound. I don't want to tell tales out of school, but there is a certain lady that has forbade us from getting rid of our Demolition Man for that.
    13:39
    Really? Oh, man. And I'm just telling you, Sly does not do it for me. That's all. I thought we were soul sisters. Good story.
    13:49
    I do like the game very much, but it's also kind of like, I don't know, you can only do so much in the game. It's not deep. And so I just feel like I wanted – what I liked about Monster Round is it's maybe – I think it's maybe a little bit better of a tournament game because there's a couple of ways to attack that game and play it, I think. and I don't know it was time to change it up I'm a crazy cat lady I've got two cats I wish I could have twelve but I don't want to deal with the litter but I really think mousing around is much more my theme now I just gotta get a bad cat I'll be really set then I'll be really set but yeah I will say pinball is always an adventure and learning how to do things and learning how to move games is the first game that I really had to I brought home and I basically my brother helped me and so you set it up together but it was basically all my direction and I'm figuring things out with it like that by myself so that's kind of fun you know it makes me feel more empowered I might be having a little bit of a flipper issue I'm mousing around I'm so sorry Drew didn't tell you first maybe we'll hear it here first I don't know but so I'm researching that but what's interesting because i don't know how to do anything like that but i have friends that do so i sent a video out to two different dudes you know i'm like hey what's going on here and they're like how about this or that so i'll try a couple different things to see if i can resolve resolve the problem on my own and if i can't well maybe i'll phone tim lee and i'll be like tim lee what about this and they'll like you need to order this thing then i'll wait three days and order the fancy part and then the thing still won't work because you know that's pinball baby right yep well the first rule and i'm sure you already know this the first rule is to whatever you do turn the machine off first yes sir that is the first thing we did we got our demolition man it was our first ever game and it wasn't working and i got it working and i was so excited but i was like all right i think i was maybe putting leds in it after i got it working and And then I had the game on and immediately shorted something out as soon as I – until it was working for about 15 minutes. Okay, so from now on, you're going to turn the game off before we work under the play field. So you learn the hard way. Yep. Yes. It's always a fun learning experience. What are you two doing in your pinball world? Yeah, this show is about you. So tell us a little bit about what you're doing right now. Well, I'm not doing a whole lot. I am. Well, what did you do last weekend? What did I do last weekend? Oh, I hosted a party. Yeah, we had a pizza party. We have a little pizza oven, not a big fancy one, in our backyard. One of our pellet grills has a pizza kit. And we had some neighborhood families over that had not actually been inside of our house before. But we did a thing where my daughter made a bunch of pizza dough and the kids topped their own pizzas. And then. Well, let's just say this. The intention was for the kids to top their own pizzas. And then Chuck would put them on the stone and cook them or whatever. What had happened was the kids went in our basement and they saw our pinball set up.
    17:18
    End of story. They spent hours down here just having a blast. They didn't want to leave. And it was all ages, too, which was really, really cool. Yeah, that is awesome. I was like, oh, that kid looks like he likes mushrooms. We'll put mushrooms and peppers in there.
    17:36
    That was really cool because we are still kind of emerging from the pandemic. And when we moved into our house, there were a lot of older people that lived in our neighborhood and several of them have moved out over the last three years and we have a bunch of families with little kids that have moved in, then we haven't gotten to know all that well. So it was a really cool, like an icebreaker kind of event. And then the other thing that we did was we recently, because our basement has the perfect spot for four pinball machines, except we own eight pinball machines now. scattered among two or three different rooms one of which was my son's playroom and i was like you know what now that there are four pinball machines in his playroom we're probably not being fair to him so we reorganized the basement a little bit uh into a way where we actually now have seven of our eight pinball machines all on one wall and then he has his hot wheels machine in his Hot Wheels room. So at least that still fits. The only problem is we had to put them someplace that has a soffit. And so all of our toppers are now sadly in a box in storage. And so until we want to start tearing out ceiling and getting a drywall work and all that topper list for a little bit Yeah you posted that on the tribe page and it seemed the room looks beautiful but it seemed like it would be a lot of work to get rid of that soffit. So just for the toppers, but someday you'll do it, right? You'll be like, ah, I want to see those toppers again. Or we'll just move to a place that has no soffit in the basement. Right. Oh, no. moving stocks that's that's awesome about the kids though right that's what it's all about you've got the cool house on the block now and i'm sure you know you'll have kids coming over the the rest of the summer you know that happens here as well but let's do you mind if we go through your collection you said you have eight so go ahead and read them off we have let's see we have demolition man wait are we starting in chronological order yes for sure it's the only way to go, for sure. That's the way to go, right? So, yes. Demoman. Go ahead.
    20:04
    Demolition Man, Terminator 2, Johnny and Monic, and then we got a creature from the Black Lagoon. Nice. We got Hot Wheels.
    20:17
    We can talk about the story. Yes, which we actually won from Project Pinball, so it is the Oh. 001 Hot Wheels machine. Okay. Then we bought an attack from Mars. And then to top it off, the game among games, we acquired a party animal. Nice. So one of the things, I had to message Ian right away and said, you know what? One of the reasons that I started listening to you guys was I heard about a guy out there that was putting, you know, $2,000 worth of stuff into a $1,000 game called Laser War. And I was like, this is my kind of guy. So when we got it, I sent him pictures. And I was like, I present you with my powder-coated new cabinet decals and Visiglas Party Animal. And he was like, you're nuts, but I love it. That's fantastic. I actually really like Party Animal. My friend Terry has one, and I play it from time to time. Really fun game. So jump back to Hot Wheels. So you won that through Project Pinball. Yes. You know, and it's actually kind of an unfortunate story because I called up a local distributor who had actually done some work, Troy North, who has done several machines for people in St. Louis. I know Jason Fowler, who used to do Slap Save, has used Troy for some stuff. and I believe Josh Mudd at least got his hard body in his South Park from Troy. But I called Troy up, and I said, you know what? We've never done new in box, but I might have to do this for my son. And then I called him up two weeks later, and I was like, oh, never mind. Cancel my order because we just won one on the raffle. Yeah. It happens, though. I mean, good for you guys. Fun. It was cool. Yeah, I won a pinball machine in a raffle as well. I won Dark Knight. So everybody here but Rachel has won a pinball machine in a raffle. Yeah, give me your luck. Everybody, give me your luck. That would be awesome because I enter those things too. Someday, someday my pinball machine will come to me for not a lot of money.
    22:30
    The price of a raffle. Yeah, it was very cool. And the theme was perfect. It was like everything was just meant to be. So we were really excited that we could help contribute to that organization, but also our little guy got, you know, Hot Wheels machines. That was pretty cool. And it's a pretty rad setup that you have, that Hot Wheels setup, how it's set and how it's lit and everything. Right? Do you have an under cabinet light?
    23:00
    Oh, no. No, it's the Nano Leaf tiles where you buy these little tiles and you can link them together. Interesting. Yeah. It looks awesome either way. I'm jealous. The original theme of our basement, I don't know if we're jumping ahead here, but when we moved in, the original theme of our basement was going to be that we were going to be like the ultimate party bar, sports bar kind of thing. And then before too long, both of us had stopped drinking. So we had to redo a lot of things, and those lights were something we initially bought for the bar area and then just incorporated into our son's playroom. Well, they work awesome there, for sure.
    23:45
    So, yeah, we'll get to how you got into pinball here in a little bit. But Jasper, one, you two, Madison and Jasper, I'm calling you Jasper, by the way. Sorry, it's in my head. We're going with it. Madison calls me Moritz all of the time. Yeah. So you two were very active on the Tribe page, and you have been for a while. So what I've learned over the years is you're kind of a 2010 and earlier kind of guy when it comes to machines, right? You like the older stuff. I am, and part of that, it started off with, one, there's a little bit of a theme you can probably tell of decent games based on terrible licenses from the 90s. Yes. Which made them affordable.
    24:37
    But also, that's like when I was growing up, like we didn't have cable until like right around 1994, 1995. So back then I was excited to see all these terrible movies and was completely oblivious to how terrible they were. And so it's just kind of the right nostalgic time period.
    24:59
    But also there's a large financial component of that as well to where we're like, you know what, let's not go too crazy. And then how we ended up with a creature and a attack from Mars, I don't know. I think it just kind of snowballed on us and before. Before we knew it, we were buying higher-end games, mainly because those were two that Madison wanted.
    25:22
    Okay. Madison, do you like the newer games, or do you like the older games? If I'm being honest, it just depends. So we've played some newer games. I'm very much a purist. So what Rachel, we were talking about earlier with Demoman, I actually like the simplicity of that. um you know i i think for me when we're playing hot wheels i my brain can't handle all the rules of the plays so like there's something like nice and just relaxing and rejuvenating about some of those older games that have a little bit more simplistic rules and and things what's the theming of course that always makes you smile too the cheesiness of it but yeah Creature was my baby for a long time that's a great game until we got Attack and then I felt a little guilty because I started looking towards Attack from Mars but I love both of those games and Chuck's done a fantastic job refurbishing, adding different mods making them really, really beautiful. So I'm very lucky in that regard. But ultimately, it's just a fun, you know, just a fun thing to do, to unwind, to do with the fam, the neighbors. But I can't keep track of some of these newer or complicated sets of rules. I feel that. Well, I feel that. I feel that 100%. And I like hearing that, too, because, you know, everybody's brain works differently so uh i was going to say because like attack from mars 2 is a fairly simple straight and creature 2 it's a fairly simple go around collect things you know straightforward kind of games and there's nothing wrong with that because you're still either way if it's relaxing you and if it's like oh one two three you know that's part of the reason why i like classic older games too all the ding ding bells and chimes and stuff because here's the deal you only have to hit like three things or you have to light the spinner or rip the spinner so it's like two shots that I have to get girl then then away I go you know so for me that's also so much easier I mean yes the new games they blink a lot and say shoot here and the call outs and whatever but like I don't need all that depth not all the time so um like uh Avengers Affinity Quest I have no idea how that game really works I've had several people try to give me like even Glenn try to give me like you know the little operational techniques on it I'm like I don't know I'm going to light a mode and I'm going to start my Thor multiball. Is that good enough for today's who I'm playing against? But I'm right there with you, so that's cool to hear that. Is it a tap on ours if it's a remake or an original? It is an original. We are 95 and earlier and then Hot Wheels as far as I can tell. But the reason, I think the reason, not that we can justify it, but we get the most joy, I think, out of having a collection when we have something like this past weekend where people come over and everyone's playing games. And so if you can remember, I think one of the reasons we picked out Demolition Man, other than Madison's obsession with Sylvester Stallone, was that we played it and my daughter got multiball on it right away. And just the excitement of, like, getting multiball. When you first start pinball, you feel like you've really accomplished something. And so what we found is that when we have people over that don't know pinball, I'll try to explain creature to them and be like, yeah, film, F-I-L-M. You hit this shot to get the F. You hit these four targets to get the – and by the time I get to I, they're like, okay, you know what? I'm just going to try to keep the ball from draining. and they're it's almost like that's too much for some people which is one reason i don't think we'll ever get rid of terminator because then it's like hit the skull pull the trigger hit the skull pull the trigger and then if you want to mix it up go left ramp right ramp and repeat uh and so just people that you know aren't looking to you know oh i know all these rules i'm gonna just be over here all the time playing. And we use it, and even when we use it personally, it's like a lot of the times like a 10-minute work break in the middle of the day, go play a game of pinball and then go on to something else. So our collection works really well for us, I feel like. I love it. That's a nice collection. I'd like to play it. Yeah, and to Madison's point, yeah, to Madison's point, I have an AIQ behind me that operator friend Mike forced me to take. people don't really play it in this house because it's really complicated actually glenn calls me and i can hear the disappointment in his voice when he talks to me and tries to tell me the rules and i'm like glenn give me two and he gives me and he's like no no we're gonna work through this and i'm like you're gonna have to drive to pennsylvania and stand beside me because i'm not picking it up but right beside it is a munsters and it is so easy to explain to people i'm like You get Grandpa, you get Spot, you get Herman, you just hit the things. And they can get to what is a wizard mode on that game quickly. So I'm kind of with you. I kind of like the more simplistic games. I have some newer games that Mike brings through, but, you know, there's a lot to be said with just having a nice, simple game that you can get to the end because I'm never getting to the end on AIQ. All right, well, what's your favorite game? It's a question for both of you. What's your favorite game in the collection? I mean, right now, Attack from Mars is my favorite. Historically, it's been Creature since, if I had to say what's been my longest standing favorite game since I've been in the hobby, Creature, for sure. Is that your grail game? Or is there a game you don't own that would be your holy grail of games? Ooh, you know what? That was it. Okay. That's a great game, yeah. Did we trade something for Creech? I don't think so. So we traded, we had a Judge Dredd that we traded for Dirty Harry that we traded for Royal Rumble. I don't know if I mentioned Royal Rumble when we went through the initial list. But we got Creecher right in there, but I think we just bought Creecher. As a matter of fact, we bought Creecher from the real Chuck of St. Louis at CP. Okay, the real Chuck. Yes. Lots of beautiful things that this Chuck, Jasper, has put into it. But that was my holy grail. Yeah, that really was. Because we were going to different barcades and things, and every time there was a creature, I would just sit there for, you know, as long as I could before someone was like, hey, lady, move. Get out of the way. I want to play. I think he got the hint. All right, Jasper, what's your favorite game? I like to stick up for the little guy that no one appreciates. So we have this problem in our house where we're stuck with the machines we have. Because if everyone says, what two machines can't we get rid of? We've got all eight machines covered. But my favorite, I would have to say, is I really like Johnny. one because it's underappreciated no one else in the house really likes it love it but uh also i take a lot of pride in the fact that that claw or that glove was not working and i got it working somehow i still don't know i hope it continues to work for the rest of my life because i don't know if i could fix it again i'm not really sure how i did um but i'm also to give me an idea of the level of pinball player i am i can't get to the wizard mode like every time on johnny like it it's tough enough for me to where like maybe if i play it five times uh or three times in a row you know play three games then i can get to the wizard mode you know possibly once but like demolition man i could probably get to the wizard mode every time so it's just kind of right there for me and then when i don't hit the wizard mode i get that one more game feeling yes i gotta go again so i think johnny is the guy although this party animal game i tell you what it's it's something else as well it's a great game but to your point my family's the same way there's five of us and we can't decide on what games to get rid of and i noticed that nobody was playing world cup and i have a friend and he wants to sell me a walking dead which Amy absolutely loves, and he wants to sell me a Johnny Mnemonic. He's been trying to sell me a Johnny Mnemonic for a while. But I'm like, I'm going to get Amy a Walking Dead, so I said I'm going to sell World Cup Soccer. Back to him because he's the guy that sold it to me. And Amy heard me, and she's like, you can't sell that game. I love that game. And I'm like, every game I go to sell, everybody's like, we love it. I'm like, we're out of room. So I feel your pain. What's your grill game, Jasper? you know what i am not sure i'm pretty content with what we have i'm trying to think if there's any one thing i really wanted uh a theater of magic for a while yeah so i figured out that or saw someone say something like basically if you just go left loop all the time and don't do any of the stuff, you can actually get the highest score.
    35:31
    So I don't really have a Grail game. I'm completely content with what we have. Would you bring back Dirty Harry? I would not bring back Dirty Harry. Sometimes I wish we still had Judge Dredd. The only thing about Judge Dredd is I feel like you could sit there and trap up and time out every single mode to get to the wizard mode. And that's really the only thing, other than the fact that my son, if we're in the basement, hits the start button of every game, and then he may not even play them.
    36:11
    He may not even play them. He'll go sit in his thing. And just there were a couple days where that guitar riff went on forever and ever. And with the beeping at the beginning of Terminator, because it beeps every time those arrows cycle through for that skill shot. Yeah, you know, I'm a fairly simple creature, I guess. I know.
    36:35
    That's fine, yeah. I like Hot Wheels, but I understand everything you're supposed to do in Hot Wheels, but I'm just enough of a simpleton to where I'll be like, all right, I'm going to focus on collecting cars. And then before you know it, I make two loops. And then I'm like, oh, you know what? I'm going to do this instead. And I get to the end of the ball, and it's like I told myself I was going to do four different things. And then I just did like I got one car, I collected one loop. I did it. Totally average in all the things. I don't have the discipline, I think, to really excel at some of the newer. Yeah. Yeah, they take a lot of practice. They sure do. have there been any games that have turned your head you're like oh that might be an interesting game any of the new content that's come out anything i mean you know the toy story 4 does that even like interest you besides we're not going to talk about price today just started to get really red my face feels like bubbling up over there ready to burst about it But, you know, does that content interest you? Or does, like, the rush, you know, because the music, are there other, I guess what I'm asking, are there other pins that have come along that are new that, like, they do turn your head and you look at them and you think about it? Has anything been enticing?
    37:56
    I would say Ghostbusters. Like right when we first got into the hobby was when Ghostbusters came And it either just come out or it had leaked but hadn actually been released yet It was one that we thought but the other thing is once I got WPCs and realized you know what, it's all the same fuses, it's all the same boards and everything. Let's just go with WPC and then worst case scenario happens, You buy one semiconductor kit and one fuse kit, and you can probably use that to fix or work on any of the machines. We screwed that up by getting the one-data Easter game.
    38:46
    That's a good idea, though. Smart. Back to your collection. A little birdie told me that Rachel doesn't like Royal Rumble, and I think that's a shame. You know, and people are entitled to be wrong. Yeah. Rachel, you're wrong here. I mean, 100% wrong. Okay. Let's break down Royal Rumble. I can't even say it. Let's break down Royal Rumble. Now, to be fair, Rachel is, I would imagine, mostly a rules person from the competition standpoint.
    39:20
    Madison is, if you can't tell by the demolition thing, is the who has their shirt off on the back glass kind of person.
    39:30
    Wow. In this case, maybe so am I. I like the old wrestlers. That's a joke that everyone always makes in a negative way about, well, I'm not really into the guys that are, you know. Well, you know what? Madison is. So maybe that game's just not for you and it's for Madison. It could be for you, Madison. and I have no problem with that. Okay. Because that's for me doesn't mean that the actual game, the playability of the game, isn't also for me. Yes. See? Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Right.
    40:07
    Well, and for me, I never played pinball really growing up because my parents thought that arcades were a waste of money. But if I ever did have a quarter or two quarters and play a game, I was the kid that would have gone for whatever the license was instead of looking at the machine and seeing what was actually in it. And so for me, from my childhood, Data East games are what pinball sounds like from my childhood. Because if I ever did play a game, it was probably one of the Batman or the Ninja Turtles or one of those games because Data East really went hard after licenses where it seems like Williams a lot of times got not as good of a license but had a better game. So that's one of the things I really like about the Royal Rumble.
    41:02
    Well, I'll say on the Royal Rumble, I don't even pay attention to what's on the back glass to be quite honest.
    41:09
    Which back glass do you have, though? We have multiple. Well, the district agency has the standard, whatever the standard is. I don't know. But it's not going to really look, you know, because you're right. I'm not, like, thinking about, like, I do think about the art and the beauty of the game when I'm standing there playing because that's very calming, you know. But in Royal Rumble, I will say it's totally spot on content wise, right? They really bring the sound and the feel of wrestling and the tag team button and all that junk. They bring it all forward content wise. So, yes, it's cool that way. But, man, I find that game to be so clunky. and it's such a heavy because to me because it's such a heavy big to me it seems like this big heavy massive game that you can't like it's harder for me to maybe nudge the game and i don't know just like for me i just don't find to be a lot of fun to play you know i'd rather go play no good gophers or something else you know uh where hitting those stupid gophers is much more entertaining than trying to go you know go up or hit my ramps three times or whatever the case may be in that game. But is it fun? Sure, it's fun, but it's not a game I'm going to go up to and say, I want to play this.
    42:24
    If I'm not mistaken, I think if you're playing Royal Rumble from a competition standpoint, there's a lot of incentive to just hit that center ramp over and over and over. Yeah, to start your multi-ball, your Macho Man multi-ball, you can do that. Or you can go up the left ramp or the right ramp. I want to say it's three times each. and then to light your multi-ball. And to light your multi-ball is either it's a shot way on the right, and that can be – that little sucker is hard for me to get. Yeah, it's really hard. Or you can shoot it back up on the ramp up in the mini play field and then shoot it in the little thing up there. I think I've seen people just hit that center ramp like eight times in a row to spot them. Yes. And stuff. And then it's just like, well, yeah, I could see how that – if that's how you're going to play the game, you know, that it's not going to be as fun. Whereas I will sit there, simple me, and just be like, you know what? I'm going to try to, you know. Collect all the dudes. Hitting each ramp three times or, you know, not trying to. Just like in Demolition Man, I try to play without using the freeze lock that lights all your multi-balls for you. I did too. I tried to avoid that and collect everything else first. You know, Tim Lee's a player too where, like, Royal Rumble, He wouldn't be going just like the ramps and trying to get his multi-ball. He'd be the dude that's in there trying to beat the game in terms of trying to collect all the modes. Right, Tim? Yep. Because that would be the way. Yep. And I love that. There's no wrong way to play pinballs, but what's fun for you? Yeah, I like to play the game. But the real reason I really like Royal Rumble, it's a little bit earlier than like the Monday Night Raw days. But this is something you don't know about, Mr. Zan and I. we used to go to the wrestling matches all the time when we first got married we went through a wrestling phase and there's like monday right monday night raw shows where you could see amy and i in like the fifth row and amy going crazy she still goes nuts when the rock comes on it's like wow you know she yeah she likes the rock talking about the rock oh rocks off limits i I would say probably up until, what, five years ago, we were still WWE. Like, mainly for the nostalgia, right? Sure.
    44:40
    But, I mean, I've been to comic cons to meet Randy Orton. I said, let's be real. Yeah, I mean. Let's be real. There's a gentleman from St. Louis named Randy Orton, who is a professional wrestler. Yep. And that was why wrestling was on television most of the time. Sure. There was a comic con where Randy Orton was. signing autographs and I paid for Madison to get a picture taken and an autograph and you would have thought Madison was going to prom or something and the dress you may have gotten a spray tan a little bit in the line with only 8 to 10 year old boys and let me tell you it was glorious I love it I love it. He was so happy to see you after seeing all these 10-year-old boys. Justice is happy to see you. Oh, thank you.
    45:39
    That's great. I love it. Yeah, so, yeah, that's awesome. You guys were into wrestling. Amy and I went through a wrestling phase for, you know, three or four years.
    45:50
    So that's why I like all the wrestling games. So that's pretty cool. The divider is always, are you a Hogan fan or not? Like, do you like Hulk Hogan or not? I feel like that's the divider amongst wrestling people. So I like Hulk Hogan, but we're changing the subject from pinball now. Did you see the documentary on Hulk Hogan as a bad guy?
    46:18
    No. I think it's on NBC. like you can do the not pay-per-view the Peacock yeah Peacock the streaming service on Peacock they have like a villains documentary and they did one on Hulk Hogan as a villain it's fantastic I watched it twice and so check that out I think it's on Peacock but yeah you'll want to go see that I believe fellow tribe member Josh Mudd is a he's a Hogan Yeah, I'm pretty sure Josh Mudd thinks he's Hulk Hogan, by the way.
    46:53
    Now, I was going to ask you about that. You guys, you're from the same area. Have you ever ran into Josh Mudd? This is a funny story. Shout out Josh Mudd and Amanda. This past weekend, it was, what, the 3rd of July or something, whatever the weekend date was, I took my son to the park. Big park. There's a creek. it's a pretty well-known spot.
    47:21
    A lot of people go there. They, the kids swim in the Creek, you know, it's, it's a fun time. That's what Missourians do with swimming Creeks. I love it. You're classy.
    47:34
    But I was just like, we were hanging out, my son and I, and I'm mostly focusing on him. Right. And I'm talking to these other two ladies, some Creek folk. And out of the corner of my eye, I see this giant dude. and he has this like cool straw hat on and like a muscle tee and it probably has some like sarcastic saying on the t-shirt right and i'm like is that no i know he because i've chatted with him before through social media and i kind of know ish where he lives not to be creepy but it's realistic to be in that same area right but i'm like no no no she's creepy and then i'm totally so then i see his partner come on and then one of their grandkiddos and i'm like that that's that no it's not no is it i don't should i uh you know and it's like that inner voice going yeah are you gonna be the creep that goes up and be like hey do i know you from the internet do i know you from the internet right and just as i was like you know what man up woman up like let's go over there and say something. My kid was like, I'm ready to go. So we left. But then I texted him and I was like, were you guys at that? And he's like, yeah, and I thought I saw it. And I was like, you should have come. It was one of those, like, none of us were willing to be that awkward person. It was a close encounter with Josh. A real life tribe member. I love that. You gotta come over. You gotta play in our, you know, whatever. I feel like this is very important. The reason we are here right now is that I listened to Drew and Ian, and because of the quality of sense of humor and whatnot,
    49:28
    found myself being like, you know what, these are my kind of people. And my contribution was basically only sarcastic or smartass comments occasionally on Facebook or something like that. Okay. And I don't post stuff online mainly because I'm like, I don't know why anyone would care. Is anyone really thinking, like, I wonder what Jasper thinks about this right now. So I'll go to type a tweet and be like, no one is going to want to read this. So I am not really involved with, like, the face tweets and, you know, the social books and whatnot. Well, that's where Madison comes in because Madison is the one that starts tagging everyone in posts and everything. And so one reason I'm saying this is to anyone that's a tribe member that's friend requested me on Facebook and I haven't accepted your friend request. It's because I literally don't spend much time at all on Facebook. So I apologize. It's not something to take personally. but I'm sure you're probably friends with Madison on Facebook because she's on there all the time keeping track of her well hold on here I was I was going to bring this up I am friends with Madison but the we're not on video but you have not accepted my friend request you know what I went to creep on you to see to get some content for the show and I'm like hey he didn't accept my friend requests I know a lot of people that have know both Madison and I and I'm just telling you that's the way most people prefer it.
    51:06
    Be friends with Madison and to not be friends with me. So no, that was very important, but Madison came home and was like, I think I saw Josh Mudd, and I'm like, how do you know what Josh Mudd looks like? Does he look like a meme? Is there an actual Facebook page? Does he look like a meme? We need to come up with a Josh Mudd meme, Does Facebook have an actual jail that they put around people when they're in Facebook? Like how would you know?
    51:40
    Yeah, he's off of Facebook more than he's on Facebook. But if you talk to Josh, he's a super nice guy. He gets kicked off of Facebook every month, but he's such a nice guy. We are just so – we're kind of at that stage where we got one kid that's going to college next year and another kid that's going to first grade next year. and so between everything it's just like you know we would like to be social with pinball people but a lot of time we left our house voluntarily to do something for recreational purposes not involving you know one of the kids activities has been quite some time so we yeah there are several good people around uh st louis that we uh should probably reach out one day and be like hey everyone come over to our place but yeah you can have your own tribe meet up yeah having gotten around well that's yeah we can talk about i don't know when you want to insert this but we can talk about kind of the genesis of our collection and our yeah yeah that's that's kind of the next question just tell us how it all began give us your origin story yeah no it actually so it it started it didn't start in in the basement right so right now as it stands we've got what eight machines total in our basement but we first got into the hobby by playing at like not even bars but just restaurants like smaller establishments local places that would have maybe a pinball machine in them right sure bowling alleys when our oldest was like seven, eight. One problem we had, at least in the St. Louis area, was that our daughter would want to go with us and so many of the pinball bars were 21 and over. We really kind of had to look. We tried doing pin maps or I don't even know if that's the correct website. There was some sort of website that would have maps and then we'd show up to a place and they'd be like, no, we don't have that game anymore. But if we found like little restaurants or something that had one machine we'd go to those kind of places a lot just because we could take our our daughter with us and she could play as well so yeah let me ask you a question on that so you you got into it just from seeing machines at different bars so you started to seek them out you know throughout the city or does it come from like your childhood i think you said earlier that you didn't really play pinball much as a child yeah your uncle had what did he have that your grandma this is actually a pretty good story and i completely forgot about this until he brought it up so i had an uncle that in the mid 90s um moved and he put a pool table and a slot machine and a pinball machine in his basement and he would always host thanksgiving and he had a space station pinball machine um which i didn't know at the time it's just now that I got into pinball. I went back and asked them, hey, what game was that? And my grandma, who was probably like 86 at the time, started playing this pinball machine and was so obsessed with getting the high score that she didn't come to Thanksgiving dinner. They were calling us to go upstairs. And she was like, no, I'm going to.
    55:09
    That's great. I'll be up when I have the high score. a story that kind of you know we would always joke about and then my grandma has passed since then but we would always joke about hey do you remember that one Thanksgiving where grandma was playing pinball instead of eating Thanksgiving dinner and so that is probably what started the like well when we do our bar area in our basement that's why we would get a pinball machine and I'm not positive of about this, but I think maybe the reason that we started going out and playing pinball was that I knew that I kind of wanted to get one for the basement. And so I took you guys out to get you to like it. The tricking you into thinking you it was your idea.
    56:02
    And you probably looked at me at one point and was like, you know, we should get one of these for the basement.
    56:09
    Dang it, Madison, you know what? I'd never thought of that before in my life. that's a decent idea master salesman right there let me tell you yeah okay um yeah so we bought our house what now eight years ago or so um built in the 60s like what you would think of just the 60s original ranch house love it salmon color shag carpet like navy blue walls just the the ugliest thing and I was like I hate this place and Chuck's like I am committed to making this your space like whatever you want we're gonna I'm gonna do this for you right so he's since done all these wonderful things which you know I'm not gonna inflate his ego too much because I'm not careful this is all exaggerated the point of that was the basement um at the time I was like I really want a woman cave right So man cave but for me So it sports it booze it games It's just the place where everybody can come and party. And basically, we don't have to leave. It's great, right?
    57:25
    And then, so what, three? So that started, you know, we started kind of crafting that. And then about three years ago, I decided to stop drinking. So we kind of made that family decision of, OK, we're not really going to involve alcohol in this anymore. So how do we take this space that we originally said we're going to craft this into like the ultimate sports bar, sports book, you know, whatever, but still have it be kind of a similar feel? feel. And honestly, the one thing that stayed consistent was pinball. It was the thing that was still going to keep people coming over, having fun. You can have people that are skilled. You can have rookies. You can have kids, adults, right? It was kind of that central thing that kept it true to kind of what we wanted in the first place. And you can fill in the gaps. I'm not the best storyteller but that's kind of you know the genesis of our yeah i mean and then the only other thing was uh i started uh getting like machines like i got a bobby or uh our play that didn't work it was 250 bucks wow and water damage and everything and i got that working and then I got a Kings of Steel for about $200. And I got it working, but, like, the back glass was, like, a clear piece of glass. And it was just rough, and it took up so much time that our son was little. He was probably maybe one or two.
    59:19
    And we kind of had a talk, and I was like, you know what? I think we need to, instead of me having machine in pieces everywhere for months at a time, and me not going down to work on it, or me constantly not doing family stuff to work on it, let's just spend more money and have someone else, you know, fix machines, or just spend more money to buy machines that are already done. And so that's when kind of let go of the, hey, let's find stuff for a couple hundred bucks and try to fix it up and instead just buy other people's machines that they've already put all the work on. So, yep. Nothing wrong with that at all. That's actually been a really great thing to let go of. It's like, because you don't think about, you think about it at the time, like I'm very much like the frugal person, right? I'm like, buy it broken. you know it's 25 cents to fix to order like 100 of these bulbs or whatever uh but you don't think about the time the energy than the stress then you know and it's like all that time you could just be enjoying the game like playing it having fun so you know there's some balance there yeah your time is worth money one way or another not that i'm in the camp of where we're not quite ready to fork over what the new games are going for. But, you know, you've got the time. We don't have any room to put the new games anywhere, and you guys won't let us get rid of any of the old games. So it's not good. Yeah, true. There's no conversation anyway. You need to get an operator friend, Mike, who just drops off random machines at your house. No, no. This is a legit conversation because if we get another pinball machine, the master bedroom is the best place that we actually have to put it. Or child going off to college. Does she really want to come back to see us? No.
    61:27
    Mine comes back in the summer. If we get another machine, it's going in the master bedroom. So that's about the only place to put it. And I think that there's probably a line that's been drawn. My wife has one in our family room So you never know where you can put a machine Well that's actually a pretty cool origin story I love the grandma story That might make the title That's a really cute story That part of that by the way Is that my grandma was a ruthless smack talker So then little E would be playing She'd come by and be like You're not even close to my high score Thanks for the emotional support there, Grandma. I appreciate it. That's what we strive for. So did she get the high score on Thanksgiving? She did, yeah. Okay, okay. And you know what? My uncle was most of the people I know that own pinball machines are people like my uncle that was like, oh, I'm going to refinish my basement and I'll put a pinball machine down there. I know at least seven or eight people that when I tell them I have a pinball machine, they go, oh, by the way, do you know there's batteries in there? Because they didn't. And the batteries leaked, and then they had to do that whole, you know, board repair thing. And so I think one of these one day, because my uncle actually still has that machine, but I think his battery died on him, and I think it reset her high score. But he's got it written down somewhere. And I don't think anyone's put enough time or effort in it to where I'm pretty sure she is still the grand champion of my Uncle Bob's house. The granny champ. Yeah. Love it. Okay. You know, real quick before we get to the most important question, I want to talk a little bit in on pinball. Madison, Rachel, you two have been like living it up in the outdoors. I see hiking. I see kayaking. I don't see what Jasper's doing because he never accepted my friend request on Facebook. But I just assume you're out there, too.
    63:34
    You've seen everything that I've posted online. if it makes you feel better. Yeah. You are not my friend on Facebook, and you are in the tribe chat? You've seen 100%? I've seen it all, yeah. Yeah, you all post a lot on the tribe. But, no, you're both having a good summer, it looks like, doing a lot with friends and family. Oh, yeah. That's our life. Yeah, I know for me, I'm loving seeing Rachel's. Your kayaking trip looked gorgeous. Yes. You're living your best life, girl. I'm just surprised that you have a kayak that doesn't just hang up in the garage and get never used once in the eight years that we've lived here.
    64:21
    We also have a very cute little pink kayak that has never been used. I've had that kayak for 20 years almost.
    64:33
    It has been used, just not in the last decade. Oh, girl, I'm going to challenge you to get out there and get on it. I mean, I don't own a kayak, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to borrow a couple of different friends' kayaks. So I keep trying different ones if I really want to buy one or not. But the problem is I don't have a way of hauling one. So I'm just lucky enough that they have it and they invite me along. But I will tell you the thing about kayaking that sucks is when you get stuck on rocks and you're like four hours into your trip and you've got a half hour to go and there's no energy left in the tank. and I'm screaming out loud at nature, get me off this flipping rock, you know, and using all my strength to get off, you know, get myself on stock and shallow water. That's not so much fun, but I like the rest of kayaking. It's great. You know. Well, any time you want, you could probably work out a Royal Rumble and Pink Kayak for mousing around in cash type of trade.
    65:38
    Well, maybe. I don't know. But, no, like, you know, it's summer. I want to get outside. I don't know what the weather is like down there. if you get enough nice weather during the summer. But, man, here in Wisconsin, it's three to four months here, and I want to be able to get out and enjoy all of it. So, yeah, Mother Nature is the best reset for me in life. So I try to soak up the sunny weather that we have as much as possible. They're probably the same way. Is it a reset for you? Oh, for sure. That's why I love when I see your stuff, I'm like, oh, man, it's just like, you know, and I think I've even commented, It's such a good refresher for your soul.
    66:18
    And just to, you know, like I take my kiddo out there and we'll hike, we'll swim, we'll, you know, he likes cool rocks. He's six, right? And he's a boy, so he likes cool rocks. You know, like the mud and all these things. And, you know, so it's really cool to see him out there and kind of be almost like tamed by the wild, which is kind of weird. but you know if you're a nature person you kind of know what that is but no chuck doesn't come with it it's too hot for him it's been over 100 degrees here um in missouri so like when we the the josh mud incident right when we when we saw him at the it was probably upper 90s that humidity you can cut with a knife so of course everybody's like chilling in the water to be fair Madison works a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 type job and that's her time whereas my schedule is much more sporadic and it's usually my honey do list time when she is out exploring with our son I get that I'm an 8 to 5 Monday to Friday too so I live for my weekends I just shove them as full as possible this time of year I want to get out and do it all with our son it's kind of a tag team like if we both go hang out with him and he wears both of us out there's no one to take over out with madison madison goes as hard as she can and tries to wear him out but then when she gets tired she comes home and she's like i need you to take over and then uh i wear him out and then that's the only way we can get him to go to bed before we do it that's good take team it is then that's awesome yeah or you know i'm usually the one to go to bed first that's why that's okay you guys want to podcast at nine o'clock at night okay thank you for staying up you saw my wife earlier she was on her way to bed so real quick before we go to the final question is there anything that you want to talk about that we didn't bring up say that i miss ian i feel like the world there's this cosmic like uh the universe being like we can't let jasper and ian get too close because it'd be like kind of crossing the streams and ghostbusters so probably that i we quit drinking right before we started listening to the poor man's pinball podcast now right after i joined the tribe he took a hiatus because Ian and I mean just everything from the laser war stuff to loving the Oktoberfest every time Ian has an unpopular opinion I'm like you know what that's my kind of guy and I love Drew too Drew's more of the peacemaker and I kind of feel like Drew's like let's all get along and sometimes Ian's like nope we're calling out this thing that if he's out there Jasper's always got your back, buddy.
    69:30
    I love that. All right, Rodder, so let's get to the last question before we wrap up. It's the most important question that we ask. Are you ready? Yeah. I'm scared, but I'm ready. How did you get in to the tribe?
    69:54
    They're looking at each other just from playing along at home. They're looking at each other. I got it first. I'm the winner.
    70:03
    Madison gets credit for it. Because Madison, how did we get into the track? I would like to think my terrible sense of humor aligning with Jordanian's terrible sense of humor. I feel like it's my terrible sense of humor. Probably. You're not that funny, though. I'm pretty funny. I'm funny online. I will say that.
    70:27
    Yeah, I definitely think it is a combination of that was Madison raising our profile. Yeah. I was posting a lot about our collection. The reason that we could get into the tribe is Jason Fowler, because I had not heard of the Poor Man Pinball Podcast until they were prank calling the Slap Save 800 number that Jason set up. Okay. And so the Slap Save podcast was the first one I had ever listened to. And it was doing yard work, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this guy's from St. Louis too. And so listened and loved Jason and have not met him in person, but he's another one of our online friends that probably lives within 15 miles of us that we've never met. But then early on, he did some stuff with Droney, and that's when I started listening to the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast and listening to them and cracking up and then trying to add to the absurdity as much as I could in comments. And then Madison came along and started tagging us and everything and actually interacting with people online because that's not what I'm the best at. I think I'm sharing about our collections. And I think the one thing right before we got invited in was Creature. I was going to say, I think that may have pushed her over the line because it was right when Ian was doing his creature thing that we got our creature. So I think. Yeah. But I was first. You were first, girl. That's right. Yep. Madison started the interaction, and Jasper, you were just there to comment. He was the pretty face. No, that can be. You said that somehow. Like I said, I said this a couple of times. You both are extremely, extremely active in the tribe chat. That's great. We're glad to have you in the tribe. Jasper, I want to say too is that, I'm going to just keep calling you Jasper. It's never going to be Chuck, by the way, because Ian needs to have a Jasper in the tribe. So boom, there it is. But I will say, you say that you don't post a lot on Facebook, but when there are certain topics that come up in the tribe, I really appreciate that you have, it's not a bad thing. You have such articulate responses to what the issue is and looking at it from all perspectives. And so I really appreciate that, that you put a lot of thought and insight into that response.
    73:00
    So, you know, we've talked before that I'm not big into using the, what did you call it, the social book. I'm not big into that either, but I do like looking at the tribe stuff and seeing that's how you really get to learn other people's looking at the fan page and tribe stuff. but uh you know it's amazing i'm so glad that both of you are part of the tribe it's always nice to have another gal madison what can i say there's not a lot of us so it's nice it's nice to have another talk to another woman too that's into pinball it even if it's just for fun it doesn't have to be competitive i just love that others there are lots of other women out there that are into the hobby as well it's very cool absolutely i'm glad to be here yeah yeah we we appreciate all your commenting and especially when i go on my rants i post dumb stuff sometimes and my wife's like just shaking her head and uh but yeah jasper and madison usually chime in rachel always chimes in because she loves me so sometimes i need people to uh to to put me on the the straight and narrow all right well i think that about wraps it up i would love for you all to get out to a pinball show someday like you said you have kids and that's hard to do but you know i'm really trying hard to get to Expo. We talked, I think we talked around Expo this year when you saw everyone going about if we were going to try to do a TPF or Expo sometime. I think it's on the horizon. It's just it takes us a while to do anything with coordinating schedules and all that stuff. We'll be here. I'm going to try to get to Expo this year. So, hey, I think that's all we have for today. Thank you for joining the show. We love you all. It was a great show. Happy flipping. Drew sucks at pinball.
    75:10
    You've got your rules and your religion, all designed to keep you safe. But when rules start getting broken, you start questioning your fate. I have a voice that is my savior, hates to love and loves to hate. I have a voice that has the knowledge and the power to your fate. I hear voices crying I see heroes dying I taste blood that's drying I feel tension rising I hear voices in my head They counsel me, they understand They talk to me They tell me things that I will do They show me things I'll do to you They talk to me. Talk to me.
    76:09
    They talk to me. Talk to me.