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Episode 189 – Light At The End Of The Rainbow

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 58m·analyzed·Jul 5, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Slam Tilt covers Pintastic 2024, focusing on Toy Story 4 critique and tournament analysis.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast episode 189 covers Pintastic 2024 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, with detailed discussion of Jersey Jack's Toy Story 4 pinball machine, tournament results, and show impressions. The hosts critique Toy Story 4's gameplay quality issues at the show, debate its market positioning at $12,000+, and discuss broader tournament meta and game selections. Notable moments include John Borg performing at a Rush cover band, competitive matches featuring Ron vs. David Dennis, and reflections on tournament performance by multiple top players.

Key Claims

  • Toy Story 4 machines at Pintastic exhibited severe gameplay issues: weak flippers, weak slingshots comparable to Countdown (which has no physical slingshots), and excessive right-side drains

    high confidence · Ron directly experienced poor machine setup at Pintastic; multiple corroborating reports from show attendees and stream viewers

  • Pat Lawler stated flippers should be as strong after two hours as after two minutes

    high confidence · Zach directly attributed this quote to Pat Lawler regarding Toy Story 4 flipper engineering

  • Toy Story 4 is positioned as a beginner/child-oriented game, not for competitive or experienced players

    high confidence · Multiple speakers (Ron, Bruce, Zach) consistently characterized the game's design philosophy and market targeting

  • Toy Story 4 has only three regularly-shot targets: left ramp, right ramp, and scoop

    high confidence · Ron directly observed limited shot variety during play

  • Carl (Michelangelo of IE Pinball) played a two-hour game on Toy Story 4, scored $500 million, then sold it the next day

    medium confidence · Zach reports this secondhand; confirms Carl's facial expression suggested game wasn't for him

  • Pintastic's free play area was the lightest (smallest) ever seen by the hosts

    high confidence · Bruce and Ron both observed this and discussed it as a notable difference from prior years

  • Pentastic had one of its worst showings in attendance/participation

    medium confidence · Multiple contextual clues: lightest free play area, fewer games for sale (~10), host commentary on overall quality

  • Steve Ritchie purchased an F-14 Tomcat pinball machine at Pintastic

    high confidence · Multiple hosts confirmed seeing picture and hearing that Automated Services shipped it from vendor hall

  • Eric Snow (2024 World Champion) failed to meet his own expectations at Pintastic, posting on Facebook about failing to live up to his championship ranking

Notable Quotes

  • “I can't make a good opinion on Toy Story. Because they played so bad, I don't think it's fair to the game to make an opinion.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~15:00 — Core criticism: machine setup issues prevented fair evaluation of game design quality

  • “They should be as strong after two hours as they are after two minutes.”

    Pat Lawler (quoted by Zach) @ ~16:00 — Official statement on Toy Story 4 flipper engineering goals, indicating known durability/consistency challenges

  • “I would definitely go Wonka, Pirates, Woz, Guns N' Roses, this, Hobbit... I'll put that below Hobbit.”

    Zach (ranking Toy Story 4 in Jersey Jack catalog) @ ~35:00 — Negative positioning: Toy Story 4 ranked below Hobbit in Zach's personal tier list of JJP games

  • “The game is not made for him, Bruce. The game is even made for us. No, it's not made for us. It's made for beginners. It's made for kids.”

    Ron and Bruce @ ~27:00 — Explicit acknowledgment that Toy Story 4 targets casual/beginner players, not the expert/competitive audience

  • “I think people are so, they think one of two ways. Ooh, I'm going to jump in and I'm going to be able to sell it and make tons of money or I'm going to get burned.”

    Zach @ ~40:00 — Secondary market concerns: fear among buyers that Toy Story 4 will flood secondary market like Halloween/Ultraman

  • “It was the lightest I've ever seen it... They probably had the most moderns of any era, which was surprising.”

    Bruce (on Pintastic free play area) @ ~50:00 — Notable shift in show dynamics: fewer machines but higher concentration of modern/JJP games

  • “Their lead singer sounded more like Geddy Lee than Geddy Lee sounds like Geddy Lee at this point.”

    Bruce (on Rush cover band) @ ~65:00 — Lighthearted: Rush cover band quality exceeded expectations

  • “He lost 4-0. Yeah. Then he lost 6-0 or 7-0.”

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyToy Story 4 PinballgamePintasticeventRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonIsaacpersonZachperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pintastic demonstrates strong operational commitment to game quality: dedicated tech crew (4+ people), Sunday morning repair incentives, focus on fixing games throughout show

    high · Bruce: 'for any show that's within driving distance of New York, Pintastic is way more serious about having quality games repaired and having a tech crew.' Every machine played by hosts worked without issues.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jason Zoller established as dominant tournament player, winning Pintastic finals and multiple recent championships; described as 'winning everything he plays in for the last year'

    high · Zach: 'He won at Allentown. I think he's won the last two New Jersey state championships. Literally every tournament he plays in, he wins.' Defeated Zach 3-1 in Pintastic finals.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Game selection strategy significantly impacts tournament outcome; Zach's mathematical approach to game selection ('probabilities are higher if you play this particular game') has proven effective for Ron's advancement

    high · Ron: 'Whenever I play what Zach tells me to play, I get in.' Zach uses probabilistic analysis to recommend games based on tournament field strengths. Success documented at both Pintastic and TPF.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Toy Story 4 mechanical design criticized as repetitive with only three regularly-used shots (left ramp, right ramp, scoop); lacks engaging shot variety for experienced players

    high · Ron: 'There's basically only three shots you ever shoot on a normal basis. You have just left ramp, right ramp, and the scoop... Just doing that over and over and over again.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.355

0:00
Okay, what I'd like everyone to do is to repeat these sentences while watching your mouths in your mirrors, okay? All right, here goes. Speaking slowly as such can say just as much. Whoa, she just said as much. Yeah, that's just gross. As much. Very good, boys. As much.
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Show Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett. Here is my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Shoot the targets at order 1, 2, 3. What game is that? We'll talk about it later on. Oh, and this is episode 189, The Post-Fantastic Spectacular. So that means we have to have a guest. Who did you get on? Borg? Did you get Steve Ritchie? No guest. We have our third host. Ah, who would that be? Isaac. I'm not a guest? I'm not a guest in here? No, you're welcome. You're welcome, but you're a third host. I just don't want to get appearance fees, huh? No, no appearance fees for you. I never paid you.
1:24
In the mail. so we're back on our normal schedule here five weekly five weekly so uh we had pentastic just happened that's probably the biggest thing there how was it how was toy story 4 we're gonna just start right with that right with that okay since it was the first release the first time you can actually play it besides location let's take the picture background pentastic is a show the new England show takes place in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
1:58
It happened this past weekend. It's at the Sturbridge, um, what is it called? Just the Sturbridge Hotel. Sturbridge.
2:07

high confidence · Ron directly observed Eric's performance and Facebook post commentary

  • Bowen Cairns played one tournament entry early, disappeared, then reappeared for finals

    high confidence · Zach observed this pattern at the tournament

    • Ron (on David Dennis matches) @ ~75:00 — Competitive context: Ron defeated David Dennis decisively in head-to-head matches

  • “I did have a 1.9 million game on stargazer right at the end on stream that was nice.”

    Ron @ ~82:00 — Tournament performance: notable single game but insufficient to advance past first round

  • “Whenever I play what Zach tells me to play, I get in... Coach Zach for all my tournaments now.”

    Ron @ ~92:00 — Tournament strategy: Zach's game selection recommendations have proven reliable for Ron's tournament success

    • Pat Lawler
    person
    Steve Ritchieperson
    John Borgperson
    David Dennisperson
    Eric Snowperson
    Bowen Cairnsperson
    Jason Zollerperson
    Carl (Michelangelo of IE Pinball)person
    Stuperson
    Raymond Davidsonperson
    Sturbridge Conference Hotelorganization
    Automated Services/Automated Amusementsorganization
    Rochester Pinball Collective (RPC)organization
    Slam Tilt Podcastorganization
    Rush cover bandorganization
    Silver Ball Chroniclesorganization
    Stern Pinballcompany

    design_philosophy: Toy Story 4 explicitly targets beginner/child players rather than experienced competitive audience; limited shot variety (3 main shots) and accessibility-focused ruleset

    high · Ron: 'The game is not made for him, Bruce... It's made for beginners. It's made for kids.' Zach confirmed this design philosophy: 'It's made for kids, and they sold $30 million worth of products, so it's working for them.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pintastic 2024 showed lighter attendance and reduced free play area compared to historical norms, described as 'probably their worst showing ever'

    high · Bruce: 'Free play area was the lightest I've ever seen it... Yeah, that's probably their worst showing ever.' Ron confirmed: 'It still wasn't too bad.' Approximately 10 games for sale vs. typical higher numbers.

  • ?

    community_signal: Steve Ritchie purchased F-14 Tomcat machine at Pintastic, indicating active personal collecting despite previous inventory liquidation

    high · Multiple confirmations: 'I know Steve Ritchie was there, and he bought an F-14 Tomcat... They carried it from the free play room to the vendor hall... Automated shipped it for him.'

  • $

    market_signal: Toy Story 4 priced at $12,000-$12,500 with unclear value differentiation; Zach states he would buy two Stern Pros instead at same price point

    high · Discussion of pricing: '$12,500 okay, or $12,000?' Zach: 'I'd buy two pros.' Concern about whether pricing justified given limited mechanical features and beginner focus.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Rush LE machine at Pintastic exhibited malfunctioning inner loop target (registered 1 out of 8 shots despite foam modification attempt)

    medium · Ron: 'I played it after the concert. And every single minute, the inner loop, I hit it eight times. It registered once... They put some foam or something in there trying to make it work better. And it literally only worked once in eight shots.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Toy Story 4 machines at Pintastic exhibited severe setup issues: weak flippers, weak slingshots, and excessive right-side drains that prevented fair gameplay evaluation

    high · Ron's direct experience: 'I played something that was called Toy Story... I played the one on the right... And I thought, wow, this plays exactly like a dialed-in normally plays... They had to have went in and turned the power down on everything on these games.' Multiple corroborating reports from stream viewers confirming poor machine condition.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Negative community sentiment toward Toy Story 4 secondary market potential; expectations of rapid resale and market saturation similar to Halloween/Ultraman LE situation

    high · Zach: 'I think you're going to see people selling their spots soon... I think it's going to be like Halloween Ultraman type stuff... they're afraid they're going to get burned.'

    • Sturbridge Conference Hotel. And man, that hotel is getting to be legendary. Dump beer. Basically, the hotel is a dump, but because of that, you can do, like, anything you want there, which is one of the appeals of the show. Open containers abound, games and rooms, etc. It's a great laid-back environment. I love it myself. I mean, as long as you don't have to stay in one of the seven rooms, which I did, then your air conditioning may not work too well, the toilet may be broken, other things like that. It's amazing when the Super 8 across the street has nicer rooms. Oh, yeah. It does. I've stayed there a lot.
    2:49
    Yep. That's true. I'm going to try to go back to the Super 8 next year. Is it going to be there next year? I thought they were talking about moving it. I thought they were staying here now. Here's the deal. I mean, after 2019, when they had it there, they must have had a three-year agreement or whatever it was. They went in to negotiate, and the service hotel wanted way more. So they're like, yeah, fuck you. So they shopped around, and they were going to go to Boxborough, which for me would suck because they're like three and a half hours away. Yeah, it sucks for me too. Sturbridge is like less than an hour and a half. It's like the shortest. You need to consider the New York people. Yeah, consider the New York people. Definitely not Boston. So then COVID happened. So they ended up not having the show at all. And I guess new management took over Sturbridge and they were going to renovate it. And they were much more receptive to having the show there. How are the renovations going? Checks in the mail. I don't know what's being renovated. I really don't know what's being renovated. Other than they have lots of new furniture in the lobby area. Yeah, the furniture's nice. Very good couches. When I went to my room, the stairwell I took to get to my room, it smelled like literally shit and urine.
    4:04
    Apparently the elevator did, too, because the person in front of me online was complaining about it when I checked out. Ah, yes. But supposedly they are continuing to renovate. They had a three-year renovation plan, which was interrupted by COVID, so they're a year behind. Well, a lot of stuff to get done in this next year. Yeah, or two years or whatever, yeah. But the thing is, like I said, it's a good environment for the show, as long as you don't have to stay in the rooms. Or use the bathrooms. Oh, yeah, or use the bathrooms. Or use any services of the hotel. Even my father was like, there's like a bathroom between the vendor hall and the free playroom. He's like, I never use that. You use the one up the hall. It's less disgusting. I'm like, oh, okay. What were we talking about? Oh, Toy Story. I think it was Automated Services, the distributor. Connecticut, yes. Yeah, they had three Toy Stories in a big row of shirts.
    4:59
    I can't make a good opinion on Toy Story. Why would that be, Ron? Because they played so bad, I don't think it's fair. Which one did you play? I played the one on the right of the two and then the one over to the side. The one that was like singly alone, not the one that was two of them together? Yeah. That's the one I played. And I thought, wow, this plays exactly like a dialed-in normally plays. Not bad, huh? That's insulting. It felt exactly like a Jersey Jack game. I have heard multiple people that got one. Like mine plays, the flippers are supposedly greatly improved. Pat Lawler has said they did work on the flippers. What was his quote? They should be as strong after two hours as they are after two minutes. Yeah, well, they'll still be weak. They just start off weak, it seems like, so they don't get weaker. I was hearing somewhere that there was incorrect coil sleeves installed on these Toy Stories, or no coil sleeves installed on these Toy Stories. I heard that from multiple people. I don't know if any of that's true. But I swear to God, I think they had to have went in and turned the power down on everything on these games, these three Toy Stories. They had to. These could not. I know we always say the show power thing, that they don't deal well with show power, but this had to be. I have never played anything this week. One of the best playing dialed-ins, Zach, I've ever played was fucking at Pintastic in the vendor area. It had no protectors on it. Any ball that even went near the SIM card area just fell in. It was awesome. It was probably one of the best playing ones I have ever played, and it was in that vendor area. in the same area of the room.
    6:40
    And their row of sterns played fine. I'm telling you, this was just a stock Jersey Jack setup. No way. It can't be. I have watched them on streams, and they were nowhere near what I was experiencing there. The one toy story I played, the slings were about as powerful as the slings on Countdown.
    7:00
    That's the same as Guns N' Roses, though. Let me repeat that for those at home. People at home, Countdown doesn't have slings. It has the rubber, but it has no actual physical slingshots. There was a part where the ball was going back and forth between the swings, and it was like 30 seconds. I was about to get my phone out and film it. I thought it was so comical. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I was like, are you kidding me? It was Pong. You guys played Pong. Everyone was saying how they played it forever. I must have been the exception to the rule. In two games, I played one multi-ball, and I think my total ball time was less than five minutes. Everyone was saying how you never drain down the right side. I think five of my six balls drain down the right side. They actually lean the machine. I must be special in that regard. We all know that one.
    7:49
    Raven taught us how to turn on the unlimited kickback, which is very handy. I can't make an opinion. It played so bad, I don't feel it's fair to the game to make an opinion. If I was Pat Lawler and I came in and I was like, my game played like that, I would be so pissed. But you've always said you're not going to make an opinion until you play a game. Now you've played the game, and now you're going to change your opinion again. No, I'm going to say I didn't play the game. I played something that was called Toy Story. He still has no opinion. It hasn't changed. I need to. When I come to the Rochester Pinball Collective. Where is that again, Bruce?
    8:25
    349 West Commercial Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York. Sweet. 2965. I'm going to have that in my GPS. So when I go there to play their Toy Story, then I will be able to make a good opinion. If we get one. I think we are. I've heard we are, but I haven't gotten any confirmation. Well, I heard that because one of the machines will be leaving to pay for that Toy Story. Well, I've heard that too, but it hasn't left yet. I know. I agree. So, yeah, I'd like to have an opinion on it. Well, I can say, let's see, the art was good. I think it was a definite improvement over Waka.
    9:02
    I mean, it seemed less cutty, pacey. The music. The music can get annoying. I've never seen the movies. You have, Bruce. I don't know. Is that the kind of music you hear in the movies? Yeah, but only certain times, you know. It's like in between scenes, they play the music. This thing just goes constant. I was watching somebody scream, and I was like, after 10 minutes, I was going, oh, my God, turn the background music down to nothing, and let's just listen to the sound effects on the game, it got really old. What is the carnival mode where you pop balloons? Yes. That was because the music changes and it gets faster as the mode goes on and you're into it. A lot of the other ones, like the music will change when you get into some kind of mode, but then it just plays. It doesn't change. It's just like a loop. I heard it's really easy this game now because I heard Carl played the multi-ball. Michelangelo of IE Pinball played a, I think, two-hour game, got $500 million, and then sold it the next day, I believe. Sold it the next day, yes. I've got to tell you. The look on his face after he was done playing it said it all. He just, like, stared at the camera for a good minute straight. Like, yeah, we're done. Yeah. Well, it's just, the game is not made for him, Bruce. The game is even made for us. No, it's not made for us. It's made for beginners. It's made for kids. It's made for kids, and they sold $30 million worth of products, so it's working for them. There are at least 3,000 10-year-olds in the world. Now maybe 2,500 because you've got to get ready to add the extra money. There's at least enough kids with enough rich parents to plunk down the $12,000 to buy this thing. Now how saturated will the second-hand market become? The thing is, again, I don't see how, from what I saw and what I experienced, is $3,000 more than the Godzilla Premium. No, hold on. I mean, I'll say the iPad thing, it didn't look quite as big in person as it did from the... It looked smaller than I expected. Yeah, than those overhead shots where it looks like it's an entire quarter of the play field. It's not. I mean, from what I could actually shoot and see, it looks like it would probably shoot good. The shooting was a bit limited. There's basically only three shots you ever shoot on a normal basis. You have just left ramp, right ramp, and the scoop that you'd give a flipper. Just doing that over and over and over again. Isn't there another scoop somewhere? Yeah, but I don't think it ever made me shoot that. It was there for mystery occasionally, you know, but mystery is not something you'd actually, like, care about. It's just random, you know, literal boards. It wasn't like it's a mode shock or anything.
    11:45
    The call-outs were good. I mean, they spent the money there. They got the actual, I mean, they got Tim Allen, and they pretty much got Tom Hanks because I couldn't tell the difference. It sure sounded like Tom Hanks to me. Sounds like his brother. Yeah, and that's what he does. He does voiceovers for his brother because he sounds just like his brother.
    12:02
    I don't have the connection to it because I've never seen any of the movies. I mean, from what I've heard on other podcasts, I guess people were upset that it's four. I guess what the first three trilogy I think the first one should have been next is it like Star Wars the original trilogy is it and the other ones that's not as desirable is that how that works I think the story is more pure in the first one like the fourth one is like let's just try to make more money and make new characters we can have new costumes and new dolls and everything else the first is still the best in my book but we're talking to somebody who's never seen Back to the Future I've seen Back to the Future Oh, okay, because Steph said you haven't seen Back to the Future. What? No. I've seen Back to the Future. I saw it in the theater. But Steph has never seen Back to the Future. No, I've never seen two or three.
    12:54
    So you're still hanging on it to be continued. So, yeah, I have no opinion on Toy Story, other than what I've done. Zach, let's hear your opinion. Since you've played it, it's okay.
    13:07
    Is it $12,500 okay, or $12,000? Well, I'd buy pros. That is their pro. Would you buy two Stern pros and compare it to one of these? I would say the standard, what do they call it? They call it the standard. The Jersey Jack standard is equivalent to Stern's to the pen. Yeah.
    13:29
    But would you buy this or two pros? I'd buy two pros, but I'm not the market. I don't think they're aiming at it. Okay, you played all the Jersey Jack games. Where is this ranked? I would definitely go Wonka, Pirates, Woz, Guns N' Roses, this, Hobbit. What about Dialed In? I'll put that below Hobbit. Okay. Fuck you. Holy shit. Best game, put it below Hobbit.
    14:11
    Oh, fucking classic. But you're actually putting it probably even with Hobbit, because you don't want to play Hobbit, and you don't maybe want to not play this again. I hate you people.
    14:24
    It's like when I was listening to the music on Toy Story, I kept thinking, why couldn't this be dialed in music? It would be so much better.
    14:32
    Yeah. I think you're going to see people selling their spots soon, and you're going to see an influx. Really? Yeah. You think it's going to be like Halloween Ultraman type stuff? Yeah, I think it is going to be. I think people are so, they think one of two ways. Ooh, I'm going to jump in and I'm going to be able to sell it and make tons of money or I'm going to get burned. And they're afraid, I think now with this beginning, I think they're afraid they're going to get burned. I think there's going to be like one way for that that's going to stop because a lot of these are going to quickly end up in the houses of people who love it don't need to sell, obviously, because they're rich enough to afford a $12,000 pin. Yep. If it survives in their house a month, then they're not going to have a problem with it, and it's just going to stay true.
    15:19
    I think it's a quality product. It's just, it doesn't look like it would be made for me, but I didn't really get a chance.
    15:28
    So I need to have that two-hour game or whatever, like, okay, yeah, this probably isn't, this isn't my bag. so how was the rest of the show guys what else happened at that show besides playing Toy Story how were the deals I don't look for that kind of stuff you'd have to ask hey Zach how were the deals the prices were high but not as high as I expected okay if I actually wanted one of these games it was only slightly out of reach instead of very out of reach but there's also only like 10 games for sale maybe How many games were there in the free play area? Was it filled? Free play area was the lightest I've ever seen it. Yeah, that's probably their worst showing ever. Yeah. Wow. It still wasn't too bad. They probably had the most moderns of any era, which was surprising.
    16:19
    There's probably at least six or eight Jersey Jack games in there. You know, other modern Sterns and other DMD games, a ton of them. The DMDs and moderns probably outnumber the EMs. Yeah. I noticed a lot of them were Gabe's own games in that room, which usually you don't see that until later. That was the first clue that there was a little light, but yeah. I will say, in a positive note, every game I played worked.
    16:46
    Hey, that is a positive. Well, I'm sure Zach will figure out, like, well, there's the... Half the games I played had a machine gunning flipper. Okay. That's an option, isn't it? I didn't play any of those. Then again, I played, like, six games, so... Yeah. Yeah, me and my dad went around our usual, you know, we usually look for, let's play that EM. I've never seen that before, and he usually wins because he beats me at most EMs. But every one we played, everything worked. I can't say that about a lot of shows. Yeah, there's less stuff off, too. Yeah, they had the repair crew there in their corner that were fixing stuff for the whole show. The crew almost seemed bigger than I'm used to seeing, too. There's like four people over at one point. Yeah, there were like four people. But, I mean, in general, like, for any show that's within driving distance of New York, Pintastic is way more serious about having quality games repaired and having a tech crew and stuff. So that's understandable. Yeah. And kudos to them for that, as always. And they do their, they do a thing Sunday morning where they have prizes for people who bring games and stuff. So there's actual, some incentives, Expo, to bring games, you know, that always helps. I mean, Texas also does that, right? Yep. Yeah, a couple shows do. And it sounded like the Northwest show that was a few weeks ago, they also had their own tech crew and things. So I don't know how common that is in areas besides the Northeast. There's ways to do it right, you know, and that's how you do it right. You always laugh when I, because every year at Pinfest, afterwards people complain about the quality of the games. People are like, well, what do you expect? People just bring crap games. And I'm like, look at the other shows where they fix this. They don't have to. That place was mobbed. They don't have to. You're not going to do things unless you have to. Well, you care. And you can afford it.
    18:37
    Rush Cover Band was good. Am I the only one who saw it? I left. That we know. I wasn't there. That's true. So, yeah, I guess I'm the only one who saw it. They were good. John Borg did a song. He was pretty good.
    18:51
    I wonder, did the band know who John Borg was in advance? Or just like, who's this guy? I don't know. So during their intermission, he came over and started talking to them. And then he's kind of sitting there. And the next thing you know, he's got a mic in his hand. Like, is he going to sing something? And then the lead singer says, we have John Borg here who's going to sing. And he did witch hunt. So either they were convinced that he's some important person or else he's just incredibly persuasive.
    19:19
    Just dropped your way onto the stage. Anyone can come on up. Hey, for a smoker, he sounded good. Yeah, I was sitting with David Dennis, Bruce. Yes, I know. Of Silver Ball Chronicles, as can be heard on the Pinball Network. Check out our latest episode on Data East. There's the plug for the episode. There's the plug. Done. One and done.
    19:42
    Yes, I was sitting at his table, and he actually made that comment I thought was hilarious. He's like, and that guy smokes. I'm pissed that he sounded that good. Wow.
    19:53
    Yeah, I mean, they sounded like Rush. Their lead singer sounded more like Geddy Lee than Geddy Lee sounds like Geddy Lee at this point. That's Geddy Lee. Yeah. He sounded like Geddy Lee 40 years ago. So he could actually hit all the high notes and stuff. There you go. Did one set, had intermission, came back. I'm trying to remember. I think they did the full 21-12.
    20:15
    It was good. And they had a Rush LE off to the side that you could play. I played it after the concert. and every single minute, the inner loop, I hit it eight times. It registered once. Nice. And it had like a mod. You could see where they put some foam or something in there trying to make it work better. And it literally only worked once in eight shots. Bored. And he was playing it earlier, like before the concert. I wonder if he noticed that. Like, damn, that's not registering. like I said David Dennis he came to my house the day before fantastic I hear he plays a mean game of pinball against Ron he brings in a big game he was better than I thought let's put it this way he was not double flipping or anything like that he was bounce passing slap saving probably more control than you Bruce no there's no such thing as that everyone has more control than you Bruce wow control is not your game He catches the ball at least once a minute. Okay. That's just it.
    21:21
    But I think I can beat out David Dennis in a second. So we streamed. They challenged me, and he lost 4-0. Yep. Then he lost 6-0 or 7-0. Well, you know, we played some more. And then, like, the chat kept saying they wanted Stu for some reason. I don't get it. So I went upstairs, and I got Stu. He happened to be upstairs. and Stu actually he took a game from Stu but he still lost 4-1 Stu's off his game yeah he lost the game he was upset which is in a Stu rant so let's see that all can be seen on our YouTube channel actually if you go to swamtillpodcast.com in the upper right hand corner you'll see a link to our YouTube channel you can check out that match me vs Dave Stu vs David There's also a Raymond Davidson vs. Ron How'd that go? Best of five It went down to the last game And Ron lost the last game on World Cup Soccer By like a couple million Wow So this Ron guy is almost as good as number two player in the world Is what you're saying Almost as good, yeah In his own house He did better than Stu did against him in a previous year That's for sure So on to the tournament dead silence yeah i i just watched it i thought you guys were in it uh second year in a row i didn't make it to finals i'm starting a new streak after making it to finals every year i didn't last year for the first time and this year didn't make it i did have a 1.9 million game on stargazer right at the end on stream that was nice where did you end up this year what number i don't know i mean i wasn't like 100 or anything i was My final card, and this is the card-based tournament format where you play five games, and it's a combination of all your five games, so you've got to have a good, consistent run.
    23:26
    And my last run, I had two zeros on the card. If I had just had one decent game of something, I could have made it in. And then everyone's saying, Ron, you should have played Theater of Magic. If you just got like this, you would have been in. Or if you played this game and got just this, you would have been in. Like, yeah. Yeah. You got picked, yes. I need more people to tell me like what games I should play because I'm very poor at that, obviously. That's true. If you think about last year when I played a game and you knocked me out using my game, so that's how you got in. Yep. Not that tournament. It wasn't that tournament. I didn't get in last year. Two years ago.
    24:05
    Yeah. So, yeah, whenever I play what Zach tells me to play, I get in. So I need Coach Zach for all my tournaments now. You can hire. I don't think we talked much at all about anything of that. No, we didn't. See, that's the problem. You can hire Coach Zach for your coaching abilities for $29.95 for every minute. No, Zach just uses math. Your probabilities are higher if you play this particular game. It worked at TPF too, right? Yeah, yes. Yes, he said, you know, you should play this one or this one. And it's like, okay, so I played that one. and I got whatever you said to get, and then I told you I better get in, and I did.
    24:42
    Yeah. Yeah, Zach is right all the time, folks. We try to tell. We try to tell you all. So what do you think about the tournament, Zach? I mean, the thing that sucked about me not getting in is when I saw all the games, I had at least three people come up to me and say, Jesus, Ron, did you select the games? This is, like, perfect for you. Like, yeah. And I still didn't get in. Yeah, I was not a fan of the bank this time. Oh, they were games I either own or had owned or really like, for the most part. I think Cosmic Gunfight was the one game I would have not liked the scene in there. Or at least not that one. That one was, it was so playable. Easy, it was too easy. I started playing, I'm like, wait, you can post-bash on it, you can post-gash on it, you can like, yeah. It's crazy to make a game that relies on that much control and then, yeah, there's that right or. Here's the funny thing. You had the right orbit game and you had the left orbit game. Well, I expected memory lane to be the orbits game, but it turns out the flippers can't make it to the top. Yeah, I know. That's true. Well, what was the left orbit game? Theater of Magic. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, conflict gunfight was right orbit all day, which is great for me. I don't have to memorize any complicated rules, I just hit the right orbit. I made the mistake of trying to lock a ball once, and then I drained. I should have just kept hitting the right orbit. That's what everyone did. Yep. I never locked a ball once, and I got one of the top scores on it. And the Stargazer, you could trap everything. It was beautiful. Yep. It was awesome. And it was running the old ROM set. So on my 1.9 million game, I think by the second ball I had almost max bonus, which carries over, so it's great. So if you don't do anything, it doesn't matter. You still get, like, another 300K for doing absolutely nothing. It's awesome.
    26:29
    Although somehow during the finals, I won a game with 240,000. What? Yeah. Weird. Well, that's right. You got in the finals. You actually got past the first round. I always get past the first round. I'm sorry. And you always lose to the eventual winner at Pentastic. That's your trademark. Yeah. Who'd you lose to, Zach? I lost to Jason Zoller. Who wins everything he plays in for the last year. Yeah. Like everything. He won at Allentown. I think he's won the last two New Jersey state championships. Literally every tournament he plays in, he wins. Yeah, I was worried that he was just going to, like, ice me because I'm used to him just, like, playing so long at Pinfest. It's not because I really played him. But with only two player games and a four player, it wasn't actually that bad, which is nice. So we had a good match. But I fucked up Allie really bad somehow, and that was it. Bum, bum, bum. And the finals were best of five, so what was it, 3-1?
    27:31
    Yeah. I did that lead to make it 2-2, and it did not happen. You could see, like, Eric Snow showed up. He played once, qualified, and then I didn't see him again until the finals, I think. Bowen Cairns was there. Well, yeah, we'll get into that. And then Bowen Cairns, he came in, played, like, one entry, then disappeared, and he wasn't back until the finals started. Yeah, Eric, I guess, yeah, he lost, had kind of one of his blow-ups. Then left. Then posted on Facebook how he failed completely to live up to his number one ranking. Or, no, his world championship that he just won. Yeah. I mean, he's right. He did. Wow.
    28:11
    Okay. But he'll be back, I'm sure. I mean, I failed to live up to my second place finishing from last year, too. That's true. You failed. I went out the same level as Eric. Yeah. Fail. All of you failed. Go home. You've been here too long. You go home now. And Levy finished second again. So it's Allentown and Pintastic. Now see if he can make it a three-peat in New York City Championships. He doesn't play in that. Or he only plays in the classics. Yeah. Can he get second in that one? He could. We'll see.
    28:48
    So is that enough for the tournament? Yes. So overall, Pintastic, what do you think, Zach? It was not one of the better Pentastics, but it was still worth going to. I heard the seminars were good.
    29:03
    I actually saw a couple of them. I didn't get a chance to go to most of them because I tried to qualify.
    29:08
    I think Roger Sharp wasn't there because his plane got canceled, so he had to do it remotely. I mean, I think he was scared of Stu. He thought Stu was going to be there, so he didn't want to show up. I don't blame him. That's what I think. Someone said Borg's flight was canceled, so he drove up. Wow. I know Steve Ritchie was there, and he bought an F-14 Tomcat. I bought my own game I saw the picture of him with another guy and another guy and they said look my aunt and uncle went to the show with me
    29:42
    Because Steve Rich, I guess, looked a little bit like a woman in this picture. Well, he has the crazy hair. The mad scientist hair seems to be his new look now.
    29:52
    But he was playing at 14 Tomcat, I think in the free player area, and he got the owner, and it's like, yeah, I want your game. I don't know if it's even for sale or just he's like, hey, I'm using my Steve Ritchie card. Yeah, I'm Steve Ritchie. This is my game. So they carried it. I need to buy this because I need to reprint this feeling on this in my next JJP. I think they carried it from the free play room to the vendor hall because I think Automated shipped it for him. They were going to ship it to his place. So he has an F-14 now. What if he has anything else? Of his own? Yeah. I don't think so. There was a stage there where he sold most of his stuff. Yeah, because he used to have a lot of it, and then he had to sell most of it. Yeah, he had to sell most of it. I mean, he had a... He got laid off from Stern. Yeah, he had a custom Robotron that all the characters were his family members,
    30:43
    which is pretty cool. But so, does that mean that he hasn't been getting his newer Stern games that he's been working on? I'm selling on a piece of it. That's a good question. I would think he's got a... He used to just buy all of his games, or at least most of them, you know. I don't know if that's changed now I don't know I think a lot of these guys don't necessarily have their games because they work on it for a fucking year and a half and that's the last thing they want to see I don't want to see this game anymore Well it seems like some are like that and some are in the buy them all category Yeah some were like Lawler would buy them all and then he put them in his barn unopened and then unfortunately the elements kind of destroyed some of them Yeah it would be interesting just like a good standard interview question when interviewing industry people is what one of your games do you have or did you have?
    31:34
    See what they say. When you get Richie on here the next time. Yeah, when we get Richie on here. So we have Stern Leaderboards.
    31:48
    New Insider Connected feature. They had leaderboards for Godzilla and now Rush. They're, like, timed.
    31:59
    Yeah. I never looked into it, but I assume eventually they just, you know, every game would have leaderboards. But now it seems like Rush is just going for the first two weeks of July. Oh, really? Okay. So how do these leaderboards work?
    32:14
    Hello? Someone's got to know how they work better than I do. Okay. We are really knowledgeable, as you can see, folks. I had no interest in it because, you know, I was interested when I thought there was going to be a Batman 66 leaderboard. No, when it was becoming like a location leaderboard. Well, those do exist, right? I know they do, but they really haven't plugged that properly, I think. That's where I think they should be gunning for to sell more of these units is to make it a location-based. I thought there was a – isn't there a location? Can't you use Insider Connected to have leaderboards for your location, I thought. I think you can, but it's not very user-friendly, I've heard. You've heard? Have you even tried it? I've heard about this feature of people being confused and not being able to do it. Exactly. That's exactly it. Same thing. So the leaderboard, the game leaderboards, though, are different? Yeah, they're national. Apparently, yeah. Okay. They're global leaderboards. And it has to be at a location. Location, so you can't cheat. Yeah. And so if it's only for two weeks, do you win something at the end of the two weeks if you were the leader? Yeah, that's my confusion. Like, if you're running it only on one game at a time for a limited period, is there something to it, you know? Yeah, do you win something or the merchandise, a shirt, something? I mean, they do, as you found out, Ron, recently, that they do ask you for your full address when you register a game or sign up. So, like, they could send out prizes and stuff. Yeah, they say that right on Insider. They say that the address is if we ever have to send you things. Yeah, but I didn't hear about anything from the Godzilla one, which I assume is over now? Or is it still going? I don't know. We should know these things. We're supposed to be the great informers of everyone. We don't know shit. That's why you need to say that the real story is the fact that Stern's messaging is failing, not that we're failing. Oh. No, Stern's messaging is very much failing. Oh. Did you hear about the next thing, Ron? Did you brought up the first thing? Did I hear about the next thing? Could you be more vague? Oh, it's very funny. I told Zach, and Zach looked at me with his face like, what's the next thing? Is that a band called The Next Thing? Nope, Stern Pinball. Yesterday, congratulations on this month's winner, Douglas Malcolm for Game Room of the Month and the Down the Road Beer Company for our Brewery of the Month.
    34:36
    Okay. Sounds great, right? Hey, good. You had a good exposure, and you're showing off a great Stern location. Uh-huh. Unfortunately, the place went out of business in 2019. Oh.
    34:51
    Oh. The first person that posts, Bowen Cairns. I appreciate the chance to play it down the road, but they've been closed since 2019.
    35:01
    Oh. Yeah, that's really not good marketing. Uh. And people told him this, and guess what's still up on their post. It's still up on their, it's still there, is what you're saying. It's still there. It's still on their fucking page. Uh, bummer. I mean, I was upset they didn't put my row of old sterns. I had a row of nothing but old sterns. Like, I can't get game room of the. Maybe two years after your house burns down, you can. Oh. We're still both still losers because we went out of business in 2020, so we should be the next one for next month. Yeah, send them some pictures. I already have. Oh. Three years ago, and you know what I got? Boob kiss. Speaking of Boob Kiss, I looked up the Godzilla leaderboard, which did end on July 1st. Okay. And it's, you know, play a game to be a verification, climb the ranks, follow the action throughout the month to see you emerge victorious, earn ultimate bragging rights, and receive global stern social media adoration. Oh, that's a price. That's adoration. I can be, wow. You can drink fizzy lifting drinks and you get nothing. Oh, my God. That is the perfect. Man, not even a T-shirt? Just a T-shirt. You can't even, like, send a T-shirt or something to the top winner of the tag board. Oh, man. Okay.
    36:26
    Wow. It's like especially for your first ever global leaderboard. You'd want to do something. Exactly.
    36:31
    Well, it's kind of hard getting stuff from them lately because we've been asking for our refill of our Stern Army stuff for six months. and that's been, yeah. I mean, they almost even get the last launch party thing to us either. I know. It was like the second to last day. Here you go, guys. And like Rush, maybe they could get something autographed by the band or something? That is going above and beyond, Ron. Let's not get crazy here. Like a Rush t-shirt signed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee or something? Maybe? Apparently, a Rush Pro Translate, not even signed, is beyond their capabilities currently. Wow. I have a question now. What are your thoughts about this? I love it. Stern. Oh, good. I hate it. Stern Pinball is now selling the accessories, of course, and now they're selling the direct, you know, the connected thing on their own sales site. Okay, hold on. So, yes, Stern sells accessories themselves off their site, and they're selling the Insider Connected kits, which they advertise they're now available. I got an email, I think two days ago, that said, there it's stuck. Do you see this as the beginning of going around their dealer?
    37:44
    I mean, they've been selling some game. Yeah, they're still expelling some of the pen and that stuff online. Yep, yep. So do you see this like the next step to see how this goes, and then maybe further down the road we'll be seeing more and more?
    37:57
    I'd love to know what the agreements and stuff. Because it seemed like, you know, Jersey Jack sells their games directly through the website and also through dealers. Then they said that the Z had sold out at least for their site within, you know, a certain amount of time. But then the dealers would also sell out. Like, how did they split that up? I'm sure the dealers don't like that they're doing it on their own site, too. Yeah.
    38:19
    So, maybe. Well, Stern has a lot of dealers. They do. A ton of dealers. So, now all these people who maybe bought these Insider Connecteds now are going to be like, At least they're not undercutting them. That's the one good plus, I will say.
    38:33
    They're selling them at exactly the same price as they tell people to sell them at, at $199.99. So it would be funny if they were going, hey, these are $179.99. You'd be like, what the fuck?
    38:44
    But maybe it's a future thing. Maybe the new way will be eventually direct buy, like what Jersey Jack does. Who knows?
    38:55
    Okay. Let's see. What else do we got here? The Rochester Pinball Collective. You guys, I think, are the only location.
    39:05
    Are you the only location in the world, or at least in the U.S., that has both Haggis games? Yes, regrettably. Whoa.
    39:16
    We do. We have both. Which means you have Kelts and Fathom. So you got your Fathom in. We talked about that the last episode. How was the experience? it looks cool. It looks great.
    39:32
    Yeah. Yeah, the playfield is very nice. Actually, everything about the game looks awesome. The print quality of the playfield is not nice. Yeah. It's got, like, the same, like, raster printer look that, like, a CPR does, but even worse than a CPR. Yeah. But I think the hard coat overneath actually helps the look of it a little bit. Oh, yeah. It's definitely... I love the plastic layer thing. But I don't like how it makes the flippers feel. The flippers have to now go through a thicker material. I thought they had thinner wood. It doesn't feel like it. When you grab the top of those flipper bats, it is very sloppy. Maybe it's the inside diameter of the... I wonder if there's something wrong with their bushings. That's what I'm saying. I was trying to think of something else with one of the Flipper Macs, and it just felt weird. Like there's some crack name that should be there or something. I don't know if that's a standard version. I don't know if it is or isn't. You know, you'd have to ask. Maybe we'll have to get Mr. Haggis. Maybe since one owner won't come on our show, maybe we go to the backup and go to Mr. Haggis and get some of the boys on from. We should get every other pinball company owner on. Yeah, he once stiffed us. Okay. Wait a minute. Damien's name is Mr. Haggis? Mr. Haggis, because he's doing what nobody else could down there. He's making pinball machines. They're making them. Slowly, but they are. They are. I never expected a barn burner coming out of the gate, like they stated. I think that was a little too optimistic. Plus, they did go through two more rounds of COVID closings than we did.
    41:14
    And the build quality is very nice, too. Very nice. The wood is awesome. So you really like the wood? you're really into Australian wood. Yeah, well, Australian wood is very firm and hard. Yeah, even like the paint just feels smoother than it does on lots of other games. I was like, I didn't know that this was possible to have qualities of paint smoothness, but it just feels like a higher quality paint, which is crazy. It does have some bugs with the software. And lots of weird little issues with the hardware. Yes. Like? It has no support rails for the playfield when you pull it out. Yeah. Not even pegs. On the other hand, it actually has wheels on the sliders in the back, so you don't drag. It just really smoothly rolls out and you tip it back. It's like the most satisfying slider system I've ever seen. The only thing you can do is push all the way back, though. There's no other... Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of the Capcom system. I don't know if you ever saw the Capcom. I've never had a chance to actually use it. It actually is really awesome. But there was a way to actually keep it above the playfield, you know, the lockdown area also. And this didn't. So that's the only thing I don't like about it. Lockdown bar, really nice quality, you know, latches. Is the lockdown bar metal this time? Yes. On Kelter, it was plastic. Yeah, this is metal. And I think Mark was saying it might have chipped already a few places. Oh, really? On Kelter, there's marks on the powder coat or whatever. Yeah, I think there is. The side rails are shiny. They look like mirrors.
    42:53
    Sometimes the ball does not ball search. Yeah, they forgot to code the ball search. They forgot to code a ball search in a new game. In a new game or in classic mode? Both. Oh, okay. The problem is this. If you actually hit one of the saucers and all the drop targets pop up, but the ball pops out of the saucer. So it's like leaning against one of the drop targets that's sitting there? Yeah, you're screwed. The switch on the saucer triggers before the ball is settled. Yeah, and it puts up the drops, but the ball falls out of the saucer. It just, like, rolls around the rim and comes out again. Oh, yeah, you're kind of screwed. You got it. There's no ball search that sits there. No ball search that sits there and pops it out. And then we have to go take off the glass. And then slide it all out, and then get the magnet and pull it out. But that should be just the code thing. But there is new code now. They just released code. They're individually controlled, right? Those drop targets? I'm trying to remember. You can drop them themselves. So, yeah. If they had a ball search coded, it would take care of that issue. And hopefully they do. And then the back gate, the eight ball champ. Every one-way gate on this game is having issues. Yes. Getting stuck.
    43:58
    Other than that, it plays pretty darn good, though. It shoots well. The enhance rules are pretty different. I like that. A little unwise on the score. Some of this was probably expected, right? Normally they'll have all these little tweaks fixed by the end of the run. Yeah, this is definitely, you know, game four ever released. So I expect burps and, you know, that kind of stuff happening. But at least they're very receptive. When we talked to them Monday, they said, yep, we're going to have a new code coming out soon. And this Friday, yesterday, it came out. That's kind of a nice thing. So hopefully we'll see some of the code change some things. Still tweaking some stuff. Came packaged perfectly. The box and everything, no damage. Everything was packed very nicely in there. As Mark being one of the five U.S. guys or something, he got a big, humongous framed, not Mylar, but a framed plastic cartoon of the Fathom cartoon that they made where, you know, I'm going down to find my father's story that they did. He actually got it with his name on it and everything. So that was really nice to get. You know, he was very surprised and happy about that. Other than that, what do you think, Zach? we were talking about Toy Story like is this worth $12,000 if I paid $12,000 for a pinball machine I would want it to feel the way this game feels yes this game feels great for what was it $8,400 $8,500 I don't know I think it was $8,485 either way if you're spending that much on a machine it should have this much premium quality feel to it yes and Jersey Jacks don't no I don't think any manufacturer that I've ever laid hands on does yeah this actually feels like you walk up of this game, you're like, wow, this feels nice.
    45:43
    The only thing I did not I'm going to say one thing I did not like was the apron with the four bolts. Oh yeah, they did look a bit cheesy. Yeah. They have four bolts that are holding the top of the apron to the arch I guess I'm assuming the arch gateway to hold it in together and that looks a little chintzy.
    46:04
    But I think the fit quality I think felt really nice. And I say the same thing about Kelts, too. Kelts feels like a solid game.
    46:15
    So I wish them all the luck, and I'm looking forward to mine. And they can get all the little kinks out of the way, so when they do Centaur... Then when Ronnie will buy it.
    46:26
    Nah. I'm not really... Centaur, I... It's like a ball shooter works good. I like the look. I always love the shade again board, the way it sounds. But it was never in my list of a game that, like, yeah, I want to own one of those. I've had one, and I'll have one again. What do you think the next one will do? Do you think it'll be 8-Ball Deluxe or Centaur? Centaur. You think they're going to go right for Centaur? Right. You got to. Okay. The real question is, will it have the Subway? I think it's got something different. I think it's going to have, like, two shooters, two plungers. What? Like, the auto shooter in the front. And what they'll do is they'll actually load a ball up top, like a subway system up top, to shoot it out again for the other thing, too. Something like that. I'm sort of expecting it to just use the regular auto-launcher like a modern game. Really? You don't think they're going to use the flap? I mean, for the amount of money and effort it takes to engineer all that again and put it in versus the effect that you get out of it, which is very minimal. I'm sure if auto launcher plunder combos existed back then Bally would have done it that way too yeah I guarantee that too I have to agree with you on that part the launcher subway thing on the Bally one is crazy oh it's terrible way over engineered but I understand at the time that's what it was remember how we had to play with mines that one sucked yeah the switches were a bit weird but just even looking at it you're like whoa it was way over engineered For those at home, there's a separate subway system underneath that. It launches the balls out of when you get multi-ball. And it's like three-quarters of the way up the shooter lane. Yeah, as opposed to a newer game where you would just have an auto ball launcher, and it would just fire the balls out. Yep. It's got a cool trough where there's a little flap that's closed by the weight of the four balls. So when the out-of-hole kicker kicks the ball in, it just automatically goes in the trough. Until four balls are in, then the flap closes from gravity. So the fifth ball can be kicked to the shooter lane. Yep. It's a cool piece of work. Yeah, they took a lot of effort to get it to work. Balls are popping, too. I want to see what's in a Balls are Popping under all that. Because it's got a giant apron and all this covering. There's got to be something crazy in there. I'd love to see that. I agree. It's a good game. I like the Balls Popping. But, yeah, I think that would be it. Maybe, though, maybe they do go to 8-Ball Deluxe. You know, what would you like to see first? I've seen enough 8-Ball Deluxes in my life. I need 8-Ball Champ. Champ, me too. I don't think it's going to be one of them. No, it's not going to be one of them. But, I mean, you could literally take the entire upper place field and fathom it, just leave it. Because it is a pulse game. Yeah, maybe. That'd be six. I need to get some more time in on the modern rules and see, like, what they've actually done. I only played one game, and it was very confusing. It is very confusing, and the scoring's a little unbalanced. I didn't even get that far. I started a multi-ball, and then, like, I drained out the multi-ball, but the screen still said the multi-ball was active. and, like, I couldn't tell what I was supposed to be doing during the multiball and, like, it was weird. I didn't know where the, what's it, super jackpot was. That's where I was sitting there, like, huh? So that was a little confusing. Yeah. But, like, especially with 8-Ball Deluxe, like, a game with very few shots or anything, you know, it's got a giant bank of targets over there and stuff, you're going to have to do some work with the revisited rules. Yeah, make that. Make it good. Yeah. I don't think we've really seen any modern game with that many targets and stuff, modern rules yet, to, like, see how that's done. Just make it be like Bad Girls. There you go. Put a spinner in it. We've improved 8-Ball Deluxe. Actually, Bad Girls has two spinners, I think. Yeah, I think it has two spinners. Now, if they did put a spinner left orbit of 8-Ball Deluxe Mermaid Edition, how would you feel about that? What you can do is walk out the gate. You can have the spinner come up out of the way, the regular rules. Then if you hit a coil and it moves down. A moving spinner. Wow. Okay. Wait, we've never seen this before, have we? We have seen it before. It's called Led Zeppelin.
    50:38
    Yeah. Yeah, you have. Yeah, but that's like the entire thing comes up. The spinner is down and then just lifts up out of the way and comes down and lifts up. I was working on a mech to do that for poker, actually, at one point. See? Your homebrew? I could fit it in, yeah. I still think it would be a really cool idea, though. Not only do you get the satisfaction of ripping the lit spinner for the first time, but you get the satisfaction of ripping the spinner at all. The spinner doesn't even drop into place until it's lit, and then you get spam.
    51:09
    But I feel like if you're remaking a game and you just got a spinner, especially just floating in the air during classic mode, that would feel really sacrilegious to me. Now, if the spinner, like, rose out of the playfield so it was completely hidden in classic mode, that'd be different. But that would be also stupid. Or you do a timer opto between the entry and the exit, where it's not used in a regular game. So, like, split second? Yeah, like split second. And you actually hit the timer, and it spins, like, how many... You got it between this much and this much area. Hey, this is your spinner count, you know? Mm. I don't know. on Star Wars Episode I it has virtual spinners, right? Yes. Do they take the ball speed into account or do they spin stupidly? I think they took off their speed. I think because if you hit it very slowly it went bip, bip, bip, bip, bip. But I think it was mostly I think mostly da-da-da-da-da you know, just So we already know this is a bad idea. Yeah.
    52:04
    But it was a bad idea because it was Episode I. Well, Episode I itself was a bad idea. Yeah, exactly. So that's why you're just working off a bad idea. You're working off a bad idea of a bad idea of a bad idea. Correct. Yes. There were only three Star Wars movies, just to let you know. Actually, I'll take four. I will go four. Let's stop at the Rogue One. Rogue One's good. Everyone just wants to see the Vader thing at the end. That was, like, the worst part of it. Yeah, because then 20 minutes later, he's like, let's capture everyone. Yeah, it made no sense. Just 20 minutes before, he's trying to kill everyone. Yeah, exactly. I was enjoying the movie because I got to, like, wait, what? Where the fuck did that come from? It's called fan service because you want to see Vader. They'll make a movie about Vader then. Did you watch Obi-Wan? No, no, don't let him. Oh, God. Did you watch Obi-Wan? Did you watch Obi-Wan, Ron? Me? Fuck no. It was actually pretty good. No. Is it over already? It's already over. Yeah, thanks, Ron. Wow, six episodes. Gee, so many, so many episodes. And you get now season two coming. I don't care. Is Vader in it this time? Vader is in the first one. I mean, Vader's all that matters, so. He was in the first one. Yeah, he lets Vader live for some reason. You could have just fucking killed him and nothing... Again. I mean, stupid. He had the great track record in the original movies, too, about that. Don't forget. Sure. You know, since we're off topic here, Beavis and Butthead. Yes. Woo! Finally. So I take it it was good. I enjoyed it. Well, let me... Let's see. Let me get to the negative. Because, you know, we're at Slant Hill, so we gotta... I got to have some negative part. Number one is Beasts and Buttheads, so that's minus five points.
    53:44
    Zach doesn't like humor. Remember that, folks. Yeah, he's not very funny. Well, no, he actually is funny, but he doesn't like humor. It's weird. But he does like Mel Brooks movies, so there's hope. There is hope. Mel Brooks humor is a much better class. Oh, I totally agree. Well, yeah. Totally agree. But I guarantee, like, you probably hate Three Stooges, right? Yeah, I don't mind the Marx Brothers that much, though. Yeah, but you hate, like, the Three Stooges. Yeah, it's stupid. Okay, exactly. Okay, before we go into the beefs about it, what's your favorite Mel Brooks movie, and what's your worst Mel Brooks movie?
    54:19
    If you're a Mel Brooks guy, you should have both. I mean, famous probably Spaceballs. Yes, totally agree. And then, I don't think I've seen every one, but Producers would probably be at the bottom. Oh, no. Producers is a classic. It is so funny. My worst one is Robin Hood, Men with Tights.
    54:37
    I'll put that above Producers. No. And the silent movie is okay. Yeah. That's so after I don't really even count in the running. It is, though. But Beavis and Butthead. Beavis and Butthead was awesome, I thought. So I could tell just watching the trailer, and I think I might have mentioned this. I knew it wasn't going to be hand-drawn because no one does the hand-drawn animation anymore.
    55:03
    Actually, Beavis and Butthead, Do America, I think was the last fully hand-drawn animated feature. unless someone has done one since then. So I knew it was going to be CGI.
    55:14
    Watching it, the company that did it, I swear, it's spelled T-I-T-M-O-U-S-E. So how do you say that? It would be Titmouse, right? Yeah. I can't think of any other way of saying that. Titmouse is the company, and they do a ton of animation for all kinds of different projects. And when I was watching it, like all the legacy characters, Beavis and Butthead themselves, Van Driesen, who's in it briefly. McVicker's in it briefly. Daria's in it briefly. They all look the same. But when they had all the new characters, I'm looking at them, it's like, man, the style looks familiar to me. Like, I've seen this before. And it's not the Beavis and Butthead style. Beavis and Butthead did have a style of characters, which is basically Mike Judge's style, because he animated all the original shorts himself. So you're saying he didn't do the design. And they carried on his animation style through the original television series. Even though the first couple of seasons of the original television series, the animation was so bad. It wasn't until I think they started using probably the same Korean animation house that The Simpsons was using that it got better. But the style was always the same. When I was looking at the characters in this movie, Beavis and the Butthead do the universe, these look familiar. I looked at other stuff that Titmouse had done, and then it hit me. They look like the characters from Metalocalypse. The characters, they look the similar animation style. And I just wasn't a fan of that because they look totally different than Beavis and Butthead do. And all the characters I'm used to seeing, the way they look, the style is completely different. And the whole thing where in the movie, they're insinuating that Beavis' mom owned the house, their house. Like she sold their house when in the original show, and any Beavis and Butthead family will tell you, it was Butthead's house. They made that very clear in the original. His family, whoever, his mother, dad, whatever, owned the house. Because there were episodes where Beavis was like, can I stay over? You know, obviously you wouldn't ask that if it was his house.
    57:19
    Ron? Yes? The last hand-drawn, full animated movie was in 2009. Oh, so the, okay, by who? The Princess and the Frog by Disney. They didn't like the way it looked in CGI, supposedly, and they said they wanted to do another from doing it, and that's why they did it. And then they laid them all off. Yeah.
    57:41
    And bought Pixar. Yeah. I'll keep Pixar. Oh, I hate Pixar. Well, I hate Disney. They bought Pixar. Other than those two things I mentioned, it was awesome. It was awesome. If my judge ran for president, I would vote for him. He is the only person who has not let me down. Star Wars let me down. Star Trek in the shitter. What about Indiana Jones? Indiana Jones. Well, wait till the fourth one. Well, Christmas doll stopped and wait till the fifth one comes out. Oh, my God. It's going to be so fucking bad.
    58:15
    But Mark Jones has not let me down. And he owns 50% of Beavis and Butthead. So, like, they can't make this shit without him. So, it's just beautiful. Hey, Zach, can you do a little diss here? I guess we've let him down in the past. Yeah, apparently. I guess so. I'm talking about... No. Come on, guys.
    58:35
    No, that's when my second home brigade comes out. And that's when you let him down. Then I'll have let him down.
    58:43
    And he's not in it. I know you guys make your licenses years ahead of time, but, man, you've got fucking two years. Where's my Beavis and Butthead game? I agree. Pinball manufacturers fucking make it happen. Fucking make it happen. And you're doomed. It's like I think the two highest rated features this year have been Maverick and this. Be the somebody that do the universe. Maverick? It's Maverick. Top Gun 2. Oh that Maverick Yes I thought you meant like the pinball machine No 93 people like the movie 96 on Rotten Tomatoes It just it everything it needed to be The whole white privilege section is fucking hilarious. Yes. Oh, my God. And there is a line in there. I don't want to say what it is, but it's up there now, one of my favorite lines ever. And it will be used in a future episode. Oh, cool. That's true. You got more content. It's not going to run out. Yeah, exactly. Oh, there are so many quotes I can use in this. Yes. Because I am running out. I'm in season seven of the original, so I'm getting. Thank you, Mike Judge, for doing your civic duty to America for the Slam Toad podcast. Yes. No, thank you, Mike Judge. Thank you. That's what you should try to ask on. Yeah, Mike Judge. Then we find out that we've had to do that. We've got a combination Beavis and Buggers and pinball podcast. Do you want to come on and just like. You need to be on a pinball machine, Mike Judge. Yes, you do. I mean, and he's like 60 now. And his voice work in this was excellent. I mean, it still sounds like Beavis and Butthead. It does. He smoked.
    60:17
    I've never seen him smoke. That might be the key there. He is 59. He's almost there. He was born in 62, right? So he hasn't had a birthday in this year. Okay. I memorize years. That's why. Not months, obviously. His father was an archaeologist. His mother was a librarian. Wow. I highly recommend it. They actually give Beavis and Butthead street address.
    60:41
    Yes, they did. Yeah. Okay. So that's where they go in the house. It's for sale. It's like, we're for sale. We're for TV. Oh, God. Smart Beavis and Smart Butthead. Oh, that was. Yes. There was a Beavis and Butthead who scores in the movie. I'll just say that. And one something else. They both get awards. and it obviously, I'll say it didn't feel like the Divas and Buttheads of America felt like a theatrical feature, this felt more like a really long episode of the show yeah, like a double episode yeah, a double episode, it didn't feel like as epic as the original one it didn't have Robert Stack in it, so you know you gotta take out some parts there but I mean Robert Stack's dead, so it'd be hard to have him in this one and they kind of did redo the whole government is trying to find them thing they did in the original movie but still, dear God, I needed that movie. I really needed that movie. It needed to be good, and I was not disappointed. Thank you, my judge. I bow down. A lot of people were in it, though. Gary Cole. I don't know who any of those people are. Oh, my God. You don't know Greg? Like the original one, Robert Stack, I knew who that is. You know, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis were in that. Cloris Leachman. I knew who all those people were. yeah mostly uh the only person gary cole you know he was the uh he was mike he was mike brady in the brady movies wow that really helped i didn't know there were brady movies first yes there is there's two pretty movies there were brady movies like dodgeball they were wait but there were brady in a bunch of movies yeah theatrical features yes i've never heard of this wow yes he's in dodgeball though did you know this zach did you know there's brady a bunch Brady Bunch movies? I've heard the word Brady Bunch in my life one time. Okay. That's, yeah, that makes sense. The Brady Bunch movie is the name of the movie he's in. But he's also an office space. Gary Cole, he's the one that has the coffee cup. The boss. Hey, I'm going to need you to make those up. Oh, that guy. Okay, why didn't you say so?
    62:45
    Sure, come on. Yeah, I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday. I love, I love, my favorite movie, one of my top ten movies is Office Space. The funny thing is, if you see Mike Judge's original office space, it's totally different. No, it's not totally different. It's exactly the same, literally. Literally, Milton is the exact same character, talks exactly the same way. He must have had the actor watch it and said, do this. The boss is exactly like, yeah, I'm going to need you to move over there. Yeah, that'll be great. Like, exactly the same. Exactly the fucking same. All right, now that we've just totally not talked about pinball at all for like 20 minutes, what else do I got here? District 82. Yes. They announced when their tickets are going on sale. I guess you could call them tickets. I don't know what you call them. For their big October series. It went up in price, which I agree with. So, yeah, what was it, $200-something before? Now it's like $370. And everyone's complaining about it already. And he knew it was going to happen. But $150 goes to the place. I know, sorry. $220 goes to the place, taxes and everything else, and the rest goes to the people who are playing. I still think people think locations like that make way more money than they do. I think they do. I really do. I think they make next to nothing, and they think when they go away, oh, why did they go away? I know. Why did this place go out of business? No. He needs to make money to pay rent and to pay bills and to fix the games. I have no problem with this. Give your location owners all your money. Yeah. Yeah. July 16th? I think it's going to be on sale in two weeks from today. So I will probably try to get in and see what happens. When is that? Oh, it's the weekend. October 1st. What is the plan for that? October 1st? It's like weeks before Expo, which I'm probably going to, so it looks like I have multiple October fun. But the thing is, at least it's in October, so it's like well, I can't fly anywhere during the summer because the prices are ridiculous. It's going to be ridiculous even more later on, I think. Hopefully not. I think it is. Speaking of District 82, wasn't Eric the owner at RPC? Yes, he was. He came in two weeks ago. A week ago. He surprised us. He was visiting people. In the morning, he went to the museum of play.
    65:09
    And then in the afternoon, he came here. and he was, I think, very surprised. The only complaint he had was on Zach's game. What do you expect? You know, this is what happens.
    65:19
    Zach's insert was falling out of straight shooter. Fix that, Zach. No, I already did. I glued that. You can't get the proper inserts for it, so I didn't really want to, like, glue them in that much. Yeah, but I had to. This one was completely, it was almost in the play field. I glued it, and I actually held pressure and got it to where it's almost flat now, so it's actually a good thing. but he was very impressed with the games he said wow this place looks great he goes you have AC I said yeah that's the one thing plus but I said we love this place and maybe I will try for October maybe I come out of retirement just for Ron if he makes it just for every single tournament that comes up you come out of retirement at least three times did I go to Pentastic? that was local do I go to local? where fun friends and family and play there all the time? not at all I haven't done that yet See? So you literally only come out of retirement for tournaments you have to travel long distances to. That makes sense. And hang out with friends. Yeah, there's no friends at Fantastic, that's for sure. Yeah, there's no friends. Just everyone you know is there, yes. Not everyone.
    66:23
    Okay, Bruce. Jesus. Okay. Yes? Yes, you, Greg? Yes. Yes, Jesus, yes. What do we got here? Well, stop speaking of tournaments. Umph. Plug it again. September 10th. 10th will be 32 people at Ron's house. We will be selling tickets next Sunday, 10 a.m. Eastern Time. How's that, Ron? Better? Yeah, that sounds great. I will put the email and everything up in a couple days on the Facebook page, so you'll probably have at least two to three days after listening to this episode. We are only taking 32 people. This is the decree of Ron. Don't blame me if you can't get in. This is all on Ron. Message us, and we'll give you Ron's cell phone number. Exactly. You know, if it turns out good and it's not overly crowded, maybe we up it again. But, I mean, we've had up to 40-something people there. 44. It was crowded. It was great. No, it was still crowded. I didn't think it was any problem. Did you think it was any problem? It seemed just fine. Stop.
    67:27
    Coming from Zach, the guy who complained the whole time how it was so hot. It was because you didn't turn the AC on enough. No, the AC was on. I have determined that it has nothing to do with the number of people either. Because I had all the games on when David Dennis was over. And it was just, you know, me, him, and his wife. And it went up eight degrees in like a couple hours with just the games on. So it's all the games. No, it's nothing to do with that. It's easy. I already got the fix. Ron, you've got to put all the games in your games. Yeah. You've proven it now. Every game must have LEDs by the time Stomp starts.
    68:07
    It's the few 90s Williams games that don't have LEDs in them. That's the reason it's so hot. You don't need to rebuild all the power supplies to get rid of the linear regulators. Exactly. That would make a lot of heat. Actually, if there was a way to do sensors for different zones, like each game is a zone, like what game puts out the most heat? That'd actually be interesting. Well, you could get one of those Like IR remote sensor just walking around like beep, beep, beep, just pointing at the heads. No, don't point at the head. You open up the door and you pop it in the bottom because sometimes the power supply is on the bottom. I mean, the bottom still go to the top, though. Yeah, but. Okay. If it was like an older Valley or like an older Stern. Stop will be September 10th. For transparency, we do have, just like District 82, we'll typically have the first so many spots are for the certain crew and stuff.
    69:04
    This is going to be the same thing. Yes. So there's even less spots. Even less spots. Because you know Zach's already in. Next Sunday, 10 a.m., tickets go on sale. You'll be able to email me. I believe all our previous tournaments, it's been 100% payout. It has always been 100% except for the PayPal fees and that kind of stuff. We have always given all the money back. That's why I think a lot of people like ours. You will get all the money back. Yes.
    69:32
    All right. I'm not even going to play in it. No, I'm not. I've got to run the rig. Right. Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's got to be it. Unless we're one short and everyone says, you know, pays me to play in it. Oh, so see, he wants me to pay. No. He wants your money, folks. Literally, people were paying me. Actually, not paying me. They were paying my fee for me to play. Didn't he just say, you know, 100%? No, he just turns all around. All around.
    70:01
    Okay, Bruce. Let's see. What else do I have here? Oh, I got a game. And you got Godzilla finally. Woo-hoo! No, I did not get Godzilla. This is going to be like the thing now. I'm never getting the Godzilla.
    70:17
    No, I got the Rush. It was ready before the Godzilla, Bruce. I, actually, before Pintastic, actually, no, right when I arrived at Pintastic, I get a message from my distributor flipping out. Hi, Zach. Basically saying, your Rush Premium should be shipping on Tuesday. So I'm like, all right, cool. It's like, what a great way to start Pintastic. And then I have the next week off.
    70:46
    So maybe it could actually arrive the week I'm off, although I wasn't counting on that. But still, that's a good way to start your Pentastic, right? Cool, I got a game coming. So Tuesday goes by. I don't hear anything. So I figure, like, Thursday I'll contact Zach again, ask him, did it go out? Is there a tracking number, et cetera?
    71:09
    So Wednesday afternoon, I'm sitting there watching TV, and my phone goes off. I'm looking at it, and I screen all my calls because I hate answering. the phone and, you know, some number from New Jersey. I put the screener on and it comes back, you know, hi, this is so-and-so from FedEx. I have a package. It's like, oh shit. I know, immediately know what this has got to be. Get on the horn. It's like, yeah, I'm here at my address. I have a pinball machine here. I opened the door. He's like staring at me. Oh, hi. Okay. So my rush arrived.
    71:46
    Isn't that great? Excellent. Would have sucked if I was at work or somewhere else. We would have been sitting out there. But, yeah, my game arrived. Non-damaged. The pallet was, like, falling apart. The thing was, like, crooked on it. That got me nervous. But, no, this is fine. Yeah, it was the dustiest game I've ever gotten from CERN on the outside. At first I thought it was, like, where? No. When I took it out of the box, it had just dust all over it. It was so weird. And I'm just wiping it off. It's like, oh, it's just dust. That's kind of weird, though. So when I set it up, I got the shot back. I figure, like, it's probably dusty inside. No. It was just like this thin film of dust on the outside. So I had to wipe it all off. It was weird. I don't. Maybe a big puff of dust came out right as they were putting my game in the box. I don't know. But after two days of getting it ready, because I had to put all the mods on it, let's see, what did I do? I replaced the rubber with white rubber.
    72:48
    I left the scoop the way it was because I was instructed by one of the creators of the game. Stern officials. Stern officials to not screw with that, and it plays better with it, et cetera. So, okay, I left. And the cool thing is they're not the blue nubs of death on the thing. They're like brown or black. They probably ran out of blue, but it looks way better that way than the blue. Also on the up-down ramp for the time machine, the nubs there are actually like brown or black. They're not blue, which goes better with the color scheme. What else did I do? I had a VAC protector. I put the exit stage left sign, which is just, it just mimics the inserts that you can't see in the inner loop. So that's nice. so now I can actually see when the interloop shots are lit, which I can't see because I'm like 5'8", and I've got to lean way over the game to see that. I put the interloop fixed in, which I had to modify because the one 3D printed piece was too long. It actually stuck out so far the ball couldn't get by it, which I thought was odd, so I just cut it with scissors. I have yet to have an interloop shot not register.
    74:00
    Did you test it before putting in the mod? No. So, but I did test it before putting everything back together because I had the habit trails off. I had a bunch of stuff off the game. So I need to make sure this crap works before I put everything back together. So, you know, no, worked fine. Does your pop-up get stuck on the scoop? No, I checked that. It does not get stuck on the scoop. I did have to, the scoop itself, I had to bend it up slightly because the ball couldn't fit through it. It was weird. Like, I hadn't done anything to it, the actual scoop. So I just bent it up a little bit, so now it's got room to get through. That was weird. With the nubs on either side of it, it does make it way harder to hit. I don't think so. I find it easier. I don't find it easier at all. You guys are high. I'm sorry. What one did you play without the protector, Ron? Yours?
    74:53
    That was blocked off. No, that was later. That was later. And the one at RPC doesn't have the nubs on the side. Oh, yeah, you must have played before the new kit arrived. Yeah, I think the kit helps it. Okay. Your mileage may vary. I didn't think it helped. So I had just some issues. Number one, it's fast as hell. It is obscenely fast. Yeah. Well, you maxed out all your settings, right? No, I never tucked any of the settings. The flipper settings come at 255 max. That's weird. Because mine, I did a factory reset on mine, and they were not maxed. Mine are 255.
    75:33
    the side flipper isn't, but there's like 192 or something, but the bottom ones were 255, which surprised me. And it says factory underneath it too. Like I didn't change it.
    75:43
    I've gotten to the point where I really only have one real outstanding issue is my right orbit will just reject. The ball goes airborne. It hits something. I don't know what it's hitting. I need some kind of high-speed camera to figure out what the hell is going on there. But it will go in. I can tell it goes airborne, and it rattles and then comes back down. And then other times you hit it and it's fine. Just shoot, no problem. And the shooter sucks. The shooter lane. It rattles. Sometimes when you're doing the skill shot, you do it with the same powers. You normally do it, but it rattles for no reason. It doesn't make it, which screws you out of the skill shot. Did you get the mod for that one? I did not have the mod for that one. Looks like maybe I need to get the mod for that one. Because the other issue I have is my shooter rod does not make good contact with the ball unless I take the play field and I make sure it's shoved over to the right when I put the play field down. Because I noticed the play field, it doesn't have the two little metal pieces in the cabinet that are supposed to center it, which are actually, I think, the same metal pieces that are on the flipper max that the springs go on.
    76:49
    It doesn't look like it has those. So there's some play. You can slide the thing back and forth. But I found it only works right if I jam it over to the right. Now it actually works. ah yeah all these little tweets it's supposed to have like spacers in the cabinet to make it so you can't yeah yes that's what I just said I don't think they're there I'll have to double check I didn't see them yeah I had the plate filled up and where I normally see them I didn't see them right on the stairs you make sure it's interesting I've been having a because I've got some early got these wood rails now yeah I'm finally getting working for the first time and they have like the manual ball loader that's built into the cabinet and they have the flipper switches are on the playfield. Yes. So the alignment of the playfield compared to the cabinet is very important. Yes. I feel like it moves around a ton because it's all made of wood because it's a wood rail, so there's no, like, engineering any of it. To put it like, if I move the playfield already all the way down to the front, the flippers would stay active because the flipper button is not closed. Yeah, that'd be tough. And if I move the playfield all the way to the right, the ball can't make it out of the lifter area because it's too close. so there's like an exact angle you need to put the play code in every time you put the play code down so the game will actually work. Fix it, Gottlieb.
    78:02
    And Russia's been thoroughly kicking my ass most of the time, as it usually does. Which is good. Which is good, except it comes with the outlaying post in the most liberal, I guess you could say, you know, the furthest down, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. Everything drains anyway. So they're still being inconsistent about that. Yeah, yeah, because they were, what, And yours, wasn't it in the middle? Mine was in the second from lowest position. Yeah, in the middle. The original pros did, and then the LEs came in the lowest position. Yeah, lowest position. And now I've been seeing reports of people getting them in both positions for the latest run.
    78:37
    Sam, what are you doing today, Joe? I'm going to put them in the middle. I'm going to put mine on the bottom. I'm going to put the left one on the bottom and the right one on the top.
    78:46
    But everything worked. All the switches were actually in the right locations. Like, I went through the switches and, like, okay, does the right things go off? Is it saying the right switch is actuated when I do it? I will say I definitely like the premium better. I like that buck. I like the lock on the left side. Hey, watch your language. It's a very family-friendly episode. Yeah, sure. Sure it is. I like the clock. Clock is cool. Lock is cool. I'm actually thinking I like the dead end better episode. No. It keeps the time. Which is nice. Now I want to know what time it is. I just look at my rush. There you go. You run all the way downstairs. It's so much. You have to wait for it to kick every time. Ron just goes downstairs looking at a... It turns on his game. It turns on his game 24-7 because he's always playing it. Yes. The funny thing is you can't tell what time it is if it's in the end-of-game light show. Yeah. Because it doesn't have any of the control lights. It just does the flashers. So you only know what minute it is. You don't know what time it is. Rush rules So that'll help soften the blow Of probably not getting Godzilla this year Stern, make more Godzillas What do we think the game Actually next month It's going to be the next game What do we think it's going to be Is it Venom? Is it Bond?
    80:10
    Bond You think it's Bond? I'm betting Bond Which everyone says that's a Gomez game So you think that's ready already?
    80:17
    I think he's had it in his back pocket for a while He's had it in fact. You think he just re-skinned it into the latest theme? Yeah, or he's had it, like, he's had the design always sketched and ready to go. It's like a big full-out thing, but one three-inch wide space, like, thematic toy here.
    80:34
    Because everyone says, you know, that's the game that Richie was working on, and even Gomez himself said it was totally scrapped, and he started it from scratch. You still think there's enough time for him to get all that done, and it's going to be recent. Why do you think they need it three more months? I'd buy their explanation for that, personally. Well, I'm going to stick with Venom. You guys can stick with Bond. Well, or it could be an Eddie game. I think that's the real question. Who's the designer going to be, Gomez or Eddie? Eddie Venom. Or it should be Eddie Van Halen. Yeah.
    81:05
    Everybody wants one. One of them. Yeah, there's a Dan Rock band. That hasn't happened yet. I know. Now, what would you do? Would you do Van Halen? Would you do Van Hagar? You do Van Halen. Well, that's more hits, though. More hits is actually Van Hagar for top ten hits. Maybe top ten hits, but no, you do the original Van Halen. I know, but I'm just telling you what the... I know, but anyone with a brain knows which one to do. They're going to do Van Halen. Or you do that the regular mode and then the enhanced mode. Oh, God. You change the back glass and you go from Van Halen to Van Hagar. Yeah, you use the, what, the transporter technology like they did? No. Yeah, like Star Trek. Data East. And it just, it transforms, it becomes, yeah, Sam Hagar instead of David Lee Roth.
    81:53
    I love it. See? We're always thinking here for you, Stern. That'll be Stern's first DLC rules. Yeah. You can buy the alternate set. Yeah, so you can buy the alternate set.
    82:04
    There you go. And it breaks the glass. It's so high. Awesome. So now we're still on the quest for Godzilla. Maybe we'll have a Godzilla before Stomp. Who knows? Here's the real question is. Well, Ron gains Godzilla before the first customer gets their next Stern game.
    82:22
    That's a bet I think I'm willing to... I lean towards the next Stern game, personally. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I would too.
    82:31
    I can't admit if we all agree. I know. And don't forget the next show coming up by you guys is coming up soon in August. We should start talking about that. What, Saratoga? Yes.
    82:44
    Saratoga. Wait a minute, wait a minute. You're going to come to Saratoga? I was thinking about it. I mean, there's a tournament there. You might have to come out of retirement again. I might have to come out of retirement again, but I will need the hotel at Shea Hallett. Yeah, everyone stays at Hotel Hallett. I know. Leave your light on. We'll leave the light on for you. Maybe I'll have to bring a pinball machine out there and leave it out there for snomp. Ah, well, actually, right now I have ACDCs in the living room. Wow. I know because you put Rush there. Yeah, that was the other thing. Since I knew Rush was coming, Wednesday morning, I caught ACDC upstairs. So is ACDC on the selling block then? I don't know, man. Because Steve, hey, Steve Ritchie, if you're listening, if you want another one of your old games, you can buy it from Ron. We have a second F-14, too. You can have it. No, I like the F-14. Now, you can play the fastest premium ACDC you'll ever play. Smoked Edition. Smoked Edition, yes. Yes, Smoked Edition.
    83:52
    What does ACDC play? Because what I did, I had, so Raymond Davidson, hi, Raymond, he was over here after Pentastic, and he played ACDC and tried to get encore. I turned the extra balls on and all that. Not even close. Just three games, not even close. Had him go over to Spider-Man, get superhero, turn extra balls on. He got within, like, one mode. It's like, okay, one looks possible. The other one doesn't look possible. Oh, Encore is very hard. Encore is ridiculously hard. It is ridiculously hard. If he's having, it's like, no.
    84:31
    I don't know, man. I have a soft spot for ACDC, man. I agree. I'm not doubting you in this one. And I love the Spongy Jackpot. I think it's upstairs already. That's the scary part. It's already upstairs. That was the game. It shows you being upstairs. I mean, that's... I go by, you know, what games I play the least. That's what usually comes upstairs. So, that's another thing I could say. That game was significantly heavier than Rush. Hmm. The wood quality was better. Probably. And the boards are way more heavy. Yeah, those boards are definitely heavier. 10-10, like I could feel the, going up and down the stairs, but that thing is compared to, like, Rush, even my 130-whatever-pound weakling self, I can set it up by myself. I can lift it up and get it on a stool and get the back legs on and all that. I probably couldn't do that with ACDC. I had to use the PB tilter to help me out, to break it down. How many pins are at the Rochester Pinball Collective right now, as of today? You mean out front? Out front. Currently 48. Yes, baby. And hopefully soon to be 48. What? Star Shooter. Yeah, I know. We might have Star Shooter done, and it'll be 49 then. No, it'll be 48. No, I think we can squeeze in two more. Star Shooter didn't work, though, Ron. We got it. What? Star Shooter? Star Shooter booted, and it's actually played a game. Played a game. What's Star Shooter? What? You have not heard of Star Shooter? Maybe you need to look this up on IPTV while you're sitting here doing nothing. What, what? Doing nothing. I'm recording you, idiots. Starshooter. What the hell's Starshooter?
    86:11
    Look at IPTV. Why? Just tell me what it is. You're acting like I should know what it is. Is it like a cocktail? It is a cocktail. There you go. Okay. That's why you don't know.
    86:23
    Yeah, I've never seen a cocktail in the, yeah. There is one. Okay, now there is. It's in the back. Great. It's made by Allied Leisure. Yeah. Don't they make oil cocktails? No, they don't. They make some, too. Yeah, they make some. I didn't actually know there's a difference, but I would have assumed they all won, but it turns out they're not. No. Star Shooter is the... We still have to fix the displays, Zach, you know that, but we did play a game on it. You have to look at those today. Yeah. Look at this awesome game here. And I like it because when you lift the play field up, it has a nice latch system. What the hell is that on the left? Are they all stand-ups? It's all stand-ups, maybe. It was all drop targets. Individual drop targets. Oh, okay, that's better. Yeah, it's all individual drop targets, and you have to hit a certain one. I like how Bruce is like, they're all stand-ups, as you're saying. No, I'm sorry. I mean, the other side, the two on the left and right, the duck balls. The duck balls. That's what Steph calls it. Am I right, Zach? I don't know what you're talking about. On the left-hand side, there's two stand-ups. Again, I'm sure our listeners love this because they can't see shit. And above the two right-hand stand-ups, there's two ducks surrounded by balls. So Steph called these the duck balls.
    87:36
    Okay. I can't wait to see it, Bruce. It's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. Awesome! I like how they put the name of their company on the play field. Like, Allies Star Shooters. Well, that's because it's also the back glass. Yes. Don't forget there's no back glass. Oh, yeah. You're right. You're right again.
    87:55
    Zach, you ever get tired of that? No, I've worked towards my whole life. I told the teachers in kindergarten that they were wrong. I did, yeah. I believe that. I did, too. Yeah, but they were probably right in your case first. No, they weren't. Okay. So that is done. So hopefully in the next month we'll have Star Shooter with displays and everything right at a rock. And it's going to be a tournament game you watch. Well, let's see. Do your repair thing while you're at it. Well, we'll do that, and we'll finish up with the ball bag. We had touch-ups this week. We had our Ashley come out. Ashley Ludwig came out and touched up 8-Ball for a customer and touched up Arena. God, we've Arena. She is awesome in what she does If you saw her before and after pictures you be like holy fuck Even Zach was like wow this is awesome That 8 would be the best touch I ever seen Yeah Although it was in just a solid white color so I guess that probably the easy side but still But you couldn't find the arena one, could you? Well, I'd never seen that one before, so yeah. It was a chunk. I could not find it. Yeah. And I can usually find these things. Yeah. Although the glass was on, so I give myself a slight credit there. Yeah, but you will see. What else did we do for repairs this week? We played with, what's it called? What's the EM we're working on that's for the customer? Gold Strike. Gold Strike is almost done. Had some weird things with it. We had the ball count was not working for the display ball count. What was it? Do you want to explain that one, Zach? Gottlieb uses these stupid spring-loaded wiper blades on their steppers instead of what everyone else does all the time. and they're so finicky that if the wire that you use to connect those blades in is not flexible enough, then the spring won't be able to make the consistent contact. And someone had used a wire with a rubber insulation, and just the fact it had rubber insulation was enough to make the blades get stuck. So we had to get some ground grade and put the ground grade in half to make it thin enough to be bendable enough and then connect it that way. And it's barely working. and work something out. And barely work in there. Yeah. I found on PBR actually sells the correct tiny braid material for this. Oh, wow. For the future. Yeah, definitely a good idea. We worked on a hot tip. Ron, are you sitting down? I'm sitting down. Okay, so I... Yes. I flipped your skirt for you.
    90:30
    What? Oh, oh. If you remember from the last episode, I think it was In the last episode, you had put the pop-up skirt on backwards. No, I did not. Not at all. I don't remember this at all. Yeah, and you literally said you like it better that way. I actually do like it better. I like it pointing at you, like, come on, hit me. Hit me, you fucker. Yeah, and then while he was doing that, he broke the wiring to the GI. That's your fault, Ryan. We had to fix that. Yep, see?
    90:57
    It's not my fault he put it apart and wrong. No, it's not. Nope, didn't do that. If you notice, Zach agreed with me, so. Hey, who was the person who sent me the picture to show me it was backwards in the first place, Zach. No, no, he was definitely wrong, but the fact that he had to fix it again was your fault. Oh, Jesus Christ. No, it's Zach's fault. He started the whole thing. Yeah, because this is what I told you. Yeah, if he had shown me the picture, I wouldn't have said anything. Yep. What else did we... So, Hot Tip is almost ready. We have to work on the drop targets, the registering, but what did... Drop targets. Yep. Great Williams drop targets suck. We're waiting on parts for the games, for the displays. Man, I hope to see that The Games working someday. That's like one of the longest-running things we've had. It's been months now of The Games. I just touched it for a little bit, and then I'm like, okay, now we know what's wrong, but we're waiting on a bigger one. You have to, like, order chips from Germany or something, right? Yeah, exactly. Germany for a display. International shipping just to fix these displays. Well, it's The Games. It's the Olympics. It's international. You should have to go around the world to get the parts to make this thing work. Yeah, we're going to have to try to back that. Yeah, we still need a back glass. Africa or something. Oh, in Africa. Yeah, I'm sure there's one there. No, contact your guy in, like, Brazil who sent you those NOS play fields. I bet he's got one. I bet she does. We need a backlash. Maybe Iceland has them. I mean, Ichi Vesto has it, right? No. No? No. What does that tell you? That no one owns the game. So we need a backlash for that. So if anyone has one or has leads, point them my way. we're going to be tearing down that 8 ball to put in all yopsicles yay Dipsy Doodle is 100% fixed I'm going to hopefully put that back on the floor today and see if it catches fire again see if it catches fire you know what the problem with Dipsy Doodle is it's not Doodle Bug yeah we need a Doodle Bug the Doodles just aren't 10 point Doodles You can do 100 points. Oh, yeah, 100. Yeah, that's right, 10 or 100. That's a 10x scoring, Ron.
    93:06
    Once you experience the full doodle power, you just can't go back to 100. You can't go back to 100. You just can't. When are you getting a doodle bug? Yeah. Someday. There was one close to you, and didn't you just say, nah? You literally got offered a doodle bug directly. And you went, nah. Someday. Did you ever fix a prospector yet, or we got to move? That's the one you should move out. Prostator's working. That's been working. So here's the question. Who's going to get a doodle bug first, me or Ron? Oh, you. And you already have a love bug and a Dipsy Doodle, but you needed to complete the doodle trilogy. Yeah. Doesn't Raymond have one? Yep. No, he has a doodle slug.
    93:48
    Oh, a slug. I can turn slug into bug any day. Well, it might take two days, but I'll do it. What else do we have repairs? Spectrum is almost ready All of Starshooter That was a fun experience Yeah We had to rebuild like five of those drop targets Yep And I've got more 3D printed experimental replacement parts To bring in today too Good The coil melted down so badly it melted the plunger too Yeah And then it'll make those plungers so that you have to 3D print them Yep And Sockets you've put in that star shooter and connectors for the Molex connector for it's been fun. But hopefully we're seeing the light at the end of the rainbow. The light at the end of the what? Rainbow. I don't go tunnels because tunnels are too narrow. I don't like tunnels. Is the light reflecting off the gold?
    94:45
    It could be. Every episode, there's literally a line I've never heard before. I've never heard light at the end of the rainbow. I don't like tunnels. I've always hated tunnels. Tunnels sort of suck. What? I gotta say. I've heard a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but not the light at the end of the rainbow. Isn't the rainbow itself light? Don't know that. Well, it is, because it's hitting a refracting mirror in the sky, you know. I mean, the rainbow itself isn't light. Everything that you see is the light coming to you off the thing. Exactly. So the rainbow itself is not light. Yes.
    95:15
    Without the light, you can't see the pot of gold. Nope. You can't. Unless it's buried, and then you can't see it anyway. I mean, it could be at the end of the tunnel that it's buried. It wouldn't be buried if it was in the tunnel. Okay, okay, okay.
    95:30
    So I thought I'd mention this since Raymond Davidson. Go to his YouTube channel, Ray Day Pinball, and Bruce will love this. You can watch his recent one-hour, one-billion-point game of Simpsons Pinball Party. I did, and I enjoyed it very much. Did he shoot the garage a lot? So check it out. You can see the entire game. I've heard call-outs I don't think I've ever heard. Mm-hmm. I don't think I've ever heard Homer, like, triple jackpot! Mm-hmm. And, man, you know, I hate that play field, but, man, the call-outs are so good. It's a great game. The call-outs are fucking awesome. We need that. What? Hey, I got it. I got an idea now. No. I convinced the boys to buy a Simpsons pinball party, and then you replace Lotharing with it. Yeah, I'll do that. That's the devil's bargain, but I'll take it. Wow, the devil's bargain.
    96:26
    And I apologize to the listeners for a lot of the inside baseball that seems to go on, where I know you probably have no clue what we're talking about, unless you've been a longtime listener. Which I like that one has, of course. Well, yeah, but we really suck for first-timers to be like, what the fuck are they talking about? Do I need to go back? You have 188 episodes. Oh, you have 188 episodes to go back and get caught up on everything. They're like, who's Steph? They just said it's Steph. Who's that? We have no idea who that is. That is a local pinball player. Yeah. Just letting you listeners know I'm with you. I feel you on some of this stuff. Yeah, he feels you all right. Like, I know. He feels you all right. I need to live this with their screeners again. Come on. I think this is day one. Yeah, exactly. I just thought you were worried. I think this is day one. Okay, on to the ball back.
    97:16
    Okay, we got some e-mails from Justin. Hi, Justin. Justin's going to be our guest in the next episode. Woo-hoo! He better get his A-game on. His A-game? Yeah. So we have an email here from Sean. Hi, Sean. Oh, cool. Here's your answer to your question on the last podcast about curling officials. For those who didn't listen last episode, I was talking about the whole pinball's not a sport. I listened to this already, so I don't need to talk. And how you can't have a sport when the people who play it and the people who are officiating it are the same people.
    97:56
    So then curling came up because this seems to come up a lot with people. In curling, we're talking about conceding games. Well, people concede in curling all the time. So I was just wondering, like, in curling, are the officials in curling dedicated officials or are they just players that aren't playing in that match? And Sean says that the officials are dedicated officials and they don't play in the tournaments. You would never have a player as an official.
    98:22
    So there you go. And all these crazy, like, requirements that Ron comes up with. I would like to actually see points increase. Like, you know, the new 5.8 rules for IFPA. It should be like a 1.1. Like, times the total value. If the official has not been playing in the game, you get 1.1 times. Yeah, I like that. The tournament's, okay, the tournament's worth more if the officials are not playing in the tournaments. Yes. Okay. That's pretty neat. I mean, I'd even take it's worth 90% if the official does play in the tournament. Yeah, exactly. But being the guy that makes all that shit up, Josh Sharp plays in all the tournaments that he's officiating in, I doubt that'll ever become true. I think that would make it more neutral. And he is a dictator. He makes all the rules. He says so.
    99:07
    Okay. But he also, Sean also has a blurb, a mail he sent to the Eclectic Gamers podcast. Hi, guys. about how conceding is a normal part of the game in curling.
    99:22
    Like if you mathematically look at your chances of coming back, if it just doesn't look feasible, you just concede.
    99:29
    Still, that's a foreign concept to me. I don't think I'll ever get used to that. I'd be like, is there a mathematical possibility, no matter how remote? If there is, I'm in. I knew that was coming. That's me, but I'm stupid. Yep. Well, no arguing here. Okay, nice. Let's see. We got, this is from Bob. Hi, Bob. He says, hey, dudes.
    99:56
    Dude. Yeah, man. I want to respond with comments after each show, but sadly, I'm listening in the car while driving. Well, that doesn't stop Bruce. I'm old like Ron, but not as dirt like Bruce. Very good. I like this guy. So he's just between us. So I forgot by the time I get around to getting on a computer to type something up. Oh, forgets his comments. Now the show seems to be coming at a higher frequency. Thanks, Bruce. And I've fallen way behind. Oh, well, there's a few of what I can remember. Okay, comments. Ron mentioned doing a video on setting up or maybe modding his Godzilla premium when he eventually gets it. Yeah, I was expecting that from Rush since it came first. Yeah, I thought about that. But, you know, the more I think about the amount of work it would take to actually record everything, the less motivated I get to do that.
    100:45
    Totally. I would love to see, although if Bob wants it, I might have to do it. I would love to see that video happen, especially since he'll likely get his due to his pin celebrity status before me. Don't count on it. Godzilla Premium will be my first new in box. Good choice. but I think I made a poor choice in ordering from a well-known distributor and will be lucky to get it sometime before Elwynn's next release, despite ordering it in November. Oh, that'd be great.
    101:11
    We get to, like, February next year, and Elwynn's next game comes out and starts being shipped, and God still does not have his Godzilla. Uh-huh. Was thinking about trying to get a Cactus Canyon remake to play while waiting on a Godzilla premium, and then sell it once I hear my Godzilla's on the way. In a way, it seems a bit like buying a house, and that you need to buy something at a current market price to hedge against the inevitable stern price increases for 2023. Thoughts? Do we think they're going up in price again next year? Yeah, maybe like $100 or $200. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
    101:45
    I mean, they usually always go up $100 a year. Yeah, I don't see it being thousands of dollars. Yeah, like the big increase, that was a rare thing.
    101:54
    You've got to remember, Jersey Tech, they have a game every two and a half years. That means we need to buy, like, five sterns per jersey jack, so the price is lower.
    102:03
    Let's see. Love the tech and repair portion of your show. So here's something for you. Okay. Looks like we got a tech question. And Zach's on. This is perfect.
    102:12
    My current newest pin is a Firepower 2. Okay. Are we all familiar with Firepower 2? I've seen one one time. Okay, so that's... I've heard you've played it. Well, I am. Trivia. I believe that's the first Williams game to have 50-volt flippers. I think you're right. Yeah. It's the first one to have that extra board thing. Yep. It seems like the orbit shot was easier months ago than they are now. I can still occasionally rip the orbit, but it seems pretty rare now. Is that a sign of a need for flipper rebuild, or is there something else I should look at? Are there two orbits? I think there's – isn't there the one orbit that goes through the metal thing that moves? Yeah, that's usually a weird gate. It's the gate thing. But there's a left orbit, too, isn't there? Uh. Hold on, you know. We want to help our listeners out, so I'm going to go through the effort of actually looking this up. Firepower 2, Electric Boogaloo. Made by Mark Ritchie, not Steve Ritchie. Is the right orbit actually shootable on this game? There's a left orbit with a spinner.
    103:20
    I don't think that's a shot. Yeah, I think he means the left orbit. Yeah. The right orbit, yeah. The right orbit, it cannot be, yeah, because it would hit the gate. It probably goes back into shooter lane, I'm guessing.
    103:33
    No, there's a gate on the shooter lane, too. Yeah, there's a bracket, but is there an actual gate? I've seen games that have the bracket there without an actual gate in it. Creepy. So, you're assuming it means the left orbit. Could do a flipper rebuild. It could be, I mean, I've seen it where you wax the play field up, and now it's hittable. I mean, it should be hittable even if you don't. That is true. It's not even like it's a ramp or anything. It should be hittable no matter what, pretty much. As long as your spinner isn't, like, super rusty where it's killing the momentum. I kind of agree. So we think flipper rebuild time? Yeah. Check your ender switch and your cabinet switch. Yeah. Check the switches. Make sure the coil sleeve is good. Just go through all the basics. That would be the first thing. I mean, learning how to recognize when your flipper needs a rebuild is a good skill. You know? Yes. looking at each part, seeing how much play or where there is on it. You should be able to know even about having the game on if a part needs replacing.
    104:32
    He says, also on that orbit, the movable guide arm that we were talking about on the right side that swings to the left to let the ball complete the loop and register the orbit sometimes doesn't register the orbit, usually on the weaker shots that just squirt through. I tried adjusting the switch and the arm that engages the switch, and it seems to either not get enough force to close the switch or it has too much resistance that the ball gets stuck and needs some violent nudging or the glass needs to come off. Any tips on adjusting? That's a weird one because that's a thing that's not in too many games. Yeah, we'd have to see the Mac. We'd have to see the Mac. Take pictures above and below and then we can maybe get an idea. Yeah, because I don't even know how. Is the resistance a switch itself, like a switch arm that makes it? Or is there a spring? Is there a spring? I don't know how that actually works. What games have a thing like that? That's not the only one that has one like that.
    105:28
    I don't know. So we have failed on that. We need pictures. Pictures. Picture pages, picture pages. Lots to do with picture pages. Lots to do with crayons and with pencils.
    105:40
    Okay. I went to Allentown but was only able to go on Saturday afternoon and got there later than expected. Thought it would be okay since the show went until 8 p.m. But it turns out the show was already starting to pack up. Yeah. If you're going to Allentown, go on Friday if you want all the games to be there. And by 6 p.m. or so, a good number of people were packed up. I was hoping to run into you guys there, but then realized I don't really know what you guys look like, just what you sound like. When you paid for your entry, was it a guy at the booth or a woman? If it was a guy, it was me. There you go. You might have already seen Bruce. But he would have recognized your voice, though. Unless you didn't talk to him, which seems unusual. How many?
    106:20
    Okay. Never heard you despite roaming around the show a good bit. Anyway, next time I hit Allentown, I need to go on a Friday. Yes. Or get the first thing on Saturday. Fridays are the day. Enjoying the content. Keep it up. Can't believe Bruce is such a Gottlieb fanboy now. Yeah, I don't believe it either. I don't believe it either because it's not true. Yes, it is, Mr. Games. It's not.
    106:42
    The thing is, if you want to know what we look like, You can check out, what's the best way? Our webpage. Our webpage? Our pictures aren't on our webpage. Our characterisms, which are pretty accurate.
    106:56
    Our characterisms. Our caricatures, I think you meant to say. But, yes, they are on our logo. Our logo. But you can also see us on Twitch.
    107:07
    Yes, if you go to www.slamtoolpodcast.com, check the upper right-hand corner. Our Twitch link is there. You will see some new videos from this past weekend, so you can see what I look like. And older videos, you will see what Bruce looks like. And when in doubt, just go to the tournament area and look around. Yeah, you'll probably see me there.
    107:27
    I think that's it. I'm looking at that gate again. Yeah, I'd have to see what actually that's – yeah, I don't know.
    107:37
    It's actually not a game I see that often. No, it's not. And it has the, doesn't it have the Hyperball back box thing?
    107:46
    I think they were still using the parts. That's funny. I was watching, unrelated, I was watching some documentary called Insert Coin.
    107:56
    It's about the Midway, those 80s, early 90s, or whatever, to the end of Midway. But on their Facebook page, not Facebook page, on their YouTube channel, the company that made it, they had access to just a B-roll of Williams stuff from, like, the 80s. And it was cool. They show, like, Robotrons being made and shit like that. But there's one scene from the pinball department where they show a bi-level game that I've never seen before. Congo.
    108:26
    No, it's from the early 80s. And it's a bi-level game, and I'm looking at it, and it's like, that's not one of the four. What the hell is that? Wasn't Barracora replaced? What was going to be the fifth one, I think? I don't know, but I'd never seen it before. And then one of the other clips, I see a young Steve Ritchie on the drafting board drawing up something, and I'm thinking from the timeline, that had to be Hyperball.
    108:52
    Just FYI, the Rochester Pinball Collective is in Replay Magazine July 2022. Nice. I was going to say that we were getting a Hyperball, and I was really scared. I would be scared, too. One question. Are we done with the ball bag?
    109:09
    Yes. Okay. You don't want hyper ball there, Zach. You would never win a game. Bruce is like the god of hyper ball. Well, but Bruce is retired now, so I won't have to play him. He's like the only person I know who even knows the rules to hyper ball. He even survives more than like two rounds of hyper ball.
    109:28
    Question. What do you think of Waple's formula of 5.8? I don't understand any of it. so I'll let you guys discuss.
    109:35
    I literally go into Homer like, mode as soon as you guys start talking about that stuff. What does it do? Who does it piss off the most? Like, what are they changing that's the biggest? Just do it that way. You don't care about anything except the controversy. Yeah, pretty much. Like, what is it doing that's pissing off the most people? Like, what tournament format that people like is being ruined by this? How is Josh Sharp ruining pinball again? He's killing flip frenzies. He killed flip frenzies. He really did. But only three ball flip frenzies, not one ball flip frenzies. I know. So guess what we'll be playing next year? One ball flip frenzies. Apparently. Makes no sense. Okay. Yeah. See, I'm already lost, guys.
    110:20
    Flip frenzies also refers to flip frenzy, right, Ron? Huh? You've heard of them? Yes, I played in one. Now picture if you only did one ball per game. Man, they go really fast. Yeah. You'd be like spending more time walking than flipping. I would honestly rather see newer games in that format, because if you're playing an older game, if you're playing like Stars and you don't even get a flip like that's your game, fuck that. Yeah. Yeah, but you lost it. That's all that mattered. Hmm. I think it's too much emphasis on the bigger, bigger tournament somewhat, like the 150 max now for, you know, and now it has to be 38. The TGP. You mean the ones that all the top players play in? Yeah.
    111:00
    Is that it? That's your only flip frenzy. That's the extent of our discussion. Now, if it wants to be an IFPA certified event, it has to be a minimum of 128 rated players. Yeah. That's going to be hard. Not a lot of places can do that. I figure that's the point, though. Yeah. I got no problem there. I'm sorry, that's the 150. Yeah, the 150. The 150% TGP is cool. because I feel like if you run a big, long tournament, it should count for more. I agree. I think we've uncapped TGP completely.
    111:35
    Anarchy. Pure anarchy. And you have to play 38 meaningful games to get the 150 max. If they uncap the TGP, then we'll switch our league to be every single league night is a flip frenzy. Yep. Then we'll just kick ass. And we'll have 500% TGP. Yes. And just win everything. but only have 20 players. It won't help at all. Nope. Did I mention I won my league?
    112:00
    Congratulations. I didn't see any points posted for that either. I saw points posted for the other league I won that I didn't think was actually doing points, but the one I thought was doing points, I haven't seen anything posted for. So you won for one, huh? Yeah, congratulations. Yeah, I won for two or something. Well, you weren't expecting one. He said two. He said number two. I said number two.
    112:25
    Did I mention Beavis and Butthead was awesome? Thank you. Yes, it is. Stern, somebody. No, no, I don't want to be that. No, Stern. Stern, Jersey Jack. No, they're family-friendly. They won't do it. Stern, please, Stern, get this license. Do it. Yeah, the very unfamily-friendly Stern pinball. The thing is, if the rumors are correct and the next Jersey Jack is supposed to be Godfather, I mean, like, okay, that's not exactly family-friendly. Neither was Guns N' Roses with F-bombs and shit. Godfather just feels like such a weird thing It does seem like I mean even for me it's like Really? Even weirder than Soprano Hey what the hell You gotta play the game Better get the dying hits The fuck are you Asshole Yeah You can have the horse head bash toy Yeah the horse head I love it Yeah what kind of next Yeah what kind of toys You're gonna have on the Godfather It'll just be You know the Kenny toy in South Park It'll be that but a horse Oh my god You killed Sonny Corleone. You bastards.
    113:25
    Spiderman, how are you going to do? Are you doing just the first one? Are you doing the first two? Are you doing the third one? You hit the button and you go, I made an awful attempt with you. I'm making an awful attempt with you.
    113:38
    What do you do? I don't know. You start killing people. It's like killing zombies. You're going to kill people to make your way, work your way up to the underboss. Oh, that's right. That's Soprano. They would have did that. Isn't Sopranos the one where you just get money to become the underboss? Well, I think you do stuff, too. No, you rob the bank. Yeah, there's the safe in the middle. That's the advance, right? Which is the same thing like Kingpin had you do. The killing people is ever late, so it doesn't actually do anything. Yeah, you're right. In Kingpin, you do all this illegal shit to work your way up. Yes. Well, I think in Kingpin, you get assigned to do something by some crime dude, and then he always double-crosses you and you have to kill him. and then you take his place. And they do that over and over again. You think, after a while, man, I need to stop taking these jobs. Everyone turns on me.
    114:29
    But, like, that's not even the plot of The Godfather, though. No. You're not working your way up there. You're already there. Well, no, that's not true. If you start as Michael Corleone, so you can start as Michael and you make your way up and eventually take The Godfather's place,
    114:45
    I don't know how you would do that. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like it's a good license for this. It just feels like such a weird rumor at all. Yeah. It's so weird that I have to believe it's actually a good thing. Yeah. I mean, what do you do for music? I mean, is that music going to get you into it?
    115:01
    Like, yeah, I'm really psyched about playing this. I mean, that sounds better than Toy Story. It does.
    115:10
    Wow. Man, I'm just joking. Wow. But again, Stern, Davis and Butthead, make it happen. Do it now. You already have the couch. You can just reuse the couch toy from Simpson's Simple Party. I know you still have it. There you go. Couch TV. We know you've got a lot of TV mechs. Reuse the TV mech from Batman 66. Again, more cost savings. Do it. Make it happen.
    115:31
    And put L1 on it because he already had ideas from when we had him on the show. He did? He did. He said there had to be a couch. So he already has it in his head already. Make it happen. I want my game. This is the only shot we got for this. It's going to be on for two seasons, guaranteed. Make it happen.
    115:51
    Okay. And I'm on now. This has been the Slam Tilt Podcast, episode 189. You can reach us at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Check out our website at www.slamtiltpodcast.com. Upper right-hand corner has all our links, websites working. Oh, I have one more comment, actually, that you said you was going to email us, but we haven't received anything. Ryan C. says we pronounced the John Norris game incorrectly. Oops. Which I forgot what it was again. It was a tour de France.
    116:27
    Yeah, we did it wrong. He was going to send us an email, but he failed. Failed. Not like he had no arrangement. He's failed. He's the real failure. Yes. We never fail here at Slamto Podcast. But thanks, everybody. everyone in the Clusterbuck thread Steve from Abonis Hi Zach Hi to everybody until next time when we'll have a guest on Yes, because Zach's not a guest anymore No, he is the third host Until next time, see you all later Say goodbye Bruce Goodbye Wayne Seeger
    117:13
    Can you fly? Oh my, my. Can you fly? Oh my, my. Yeah, I need to keep you alive.
    117:39
    Oh my. Oh, Jesus. It's 1 p.m. already. It is. We ain't going. Yeah, I got to go to work. Go to work. Okay. Bye-bye, folks. Food.
    118:23
    Thank you.