Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 6-LIGHT’EM UP !! Comet pinball -Ryan Wanger

THE PINBALL RESTORER’S PODCAST·podcast_episode·1h 0m·analyzed·Aug 17, 2021
Buzzsprout-9041184
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Ryan Wanger of Comet Pinball shares his path from software engineer to LED lighting market leader.

Summary

Ryan Wanger, owner of Comet Pinball (LED lighting products for pinball machines), discusses his journey from software engineer to pinball enthusiast and business owner. He covers his entry into the hobby through arcade games and pinball in Boulder, Colorado, his evolution as an operator running machines at offices and a barcade, and the acquisition and growth of Comet Pinball. The episode emphasizes the community support, mentorship culture on Pinside forums, and the business philosophy of Comet as a supplier dominating the pinball LED aftermarket.

Key Claims

  • Ryan Wanger acquired Comet Pinball from the previous owner Art around 2016, who founded the business in 2013.

    high confidence · Ryan Wanger stated directly: 'he started Common in 2013, and then I took over in 2016.'

  • Comet Pinball dominates the LED lighting market for pinball machines with the 'world's largest selection' available.

    high confidence · Host states 'the world's largest selection available for pinball machines. Full-blown LED kits for almost any game' and notes 'Everyone in the business has ordered from this man.'

  • Ryan transitioned from a full-time software engineering career to Comet Pinball as his primary employment.

    high confidence · Ryan states: 'I was a software engineer before and it's just time for something different' and 'Yeah, totally' when asked if this is his primary form of employment.

  • Ryan's wife was instrumental in the decision to acquire Comet and has left her job to work in the business.

    high confidence · Ryan states: 'she was a big part of, I guess, what encouraged me to say yes...she was able to leave her job as well.'

  • Ryan operates or has operated pinball machines at multiple locations including offices and a barcade in Boulder.

    high confidence · Ryan describes operating games at offices and 'ended up operating eventually 12 machines at the barcade that I had started playing at.'

  • Art (previous Comet owner) developed the 'matrix' system of connectors for modular LED lighting additions to pinball machines.

    high confidence · Ryan credits Art with the system: 'he was the one who kind of came up with this work system, which we sort of call the matrix...all link up to each other.'

  • LEDs generate significantly less heat and power draw than incandescent bulbs, protecting backglass images and plastics.

    high confidence · Host explains: 'incandescents generate heat in our power draw. LEDs operate on less electricity and they don't generate nearly as much heat which saves back glass images and plastics.'

Notable Quotes

  • “Everyone in the business has ordered from this man. Special LEDs are, are you kidding me, the world's largest selection available for pinball machines.”

    Host @ Early in episode — Establishes Comet Pinball's market dominance and credibility as primary LED supplier.

  • “I was a software engineer before and it's just time for something different, I think. And I bought a comm that was listed for sale on the Finnside forums and I kind of just, it wasn't something I was thinking about.”

    Ryan Wanger @ Early transition discussion — Key pivot point in Ryan's career and entry to business ownership.

  • “There's no way I would be doing any of this without the Internet...getting a machine and having things not work and being able to go online and read how to fix it or being able to post. And then like minutes later, you know, some stranger, you know, showing you screenshots of manuals and like pointing things out and trying to help.”

    Ryan Wanger @ Mid-episode community discussion — Highlights importance of online community support (Pinside forums) in enabling hobby participation and business development.

  • “I still see things that have never happened before while I'm playing. And there's just something, I don't know, kind of magical about that.”

    Ryan Wanger @ Gameplay discussion — Captures the depth and replayability that distinguishes pinball from arcade games.

  • “we get a lot of thanks for existing. And I'm like, why are you thanking me? Like, I, you know, I should be thanking you. You know, you're buying balls from us and, you know, you're enabling me to sort of live this like pinball dream of a life.”

    Ryan Wanger @ Late episode, business philosophy — Demonstrates gratitude and humility about Comet's market position and community goodwill.

  • “pinball is a great mix of that for me, like video games and board games, because you have these rule sets and then you also have the dexterity part of it. And then, you know, probably also like the social aspect when you start to get, you know, get to be more of an adult.”

    Ryan Wanger @ Gameplay depth discussion — Articulates multi-dimensional appeal of pinball that drives long-term engagement.

Entities

Ryan WangerpersonComet PinballcompanyArtpersonPinside ForumsorganizationStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyWilliamscompany

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Ryan Wanger transitioned from full-time software engineer to full-time Comet Pinball owner/operator around 2016.

    high · Ryan states 'I was a software engineer before and it's just time for something different' and confirms Comet is now primary employment.

  • ?

    business_signal: Ryan Wanger acquired Comet Pinball from founder Art in 2016; Art started the business in 2013.

    high · Ryan: 'he started Common in 2013, and then I took over in 2016.'

  • $

    market_signal: Comet Pinball has achieved dominant market position in LED lighting products with largest selection and universal adoption across pinball community.

    high · Host: 'Everyone in the business has ordered from this man' and 'world's largest selection available for pinball machines.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: The 'matrix' modular LED connector system by Art enables easy addition of lighting to pinball machines, treating custom lights like 'Legos'.

    high · Ryan describes Art's 'work system, which we sort of call the matrix...all link up to each other, and you can use it to add lights to a machine.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong community mentorship culture on Pinside forums with experienced members helping newcomers troubleshoot repairs and modifications.

    high · Ryan: 'minutes later, you know, some stranger, you know, showing you screenshots of manuals and like pointing things out and trying to help.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.182

0:00
There were these lights in the darkness right above us. Flashing in some type of pattern as if they were trying to communicate with us. It was as if it was no fault of his own, as if he was motivated to recreate the same flashing lights as some possible means of communication to extraterrestrial life. The source of all this madness is a man named Ryan Wenger.
0:40
Welcome to the Pinball Restorers Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pinball Restorers Podcast. I am your host and here we are on episode number six featuring Ryan Wang from Comet Pinball. Everyone in the business has ordered from this man. Special LEDs are, are you kidding me, the world's largest selection available for pinball machines. Full-blown LED kits for almost any game. Why do you put these in? Because incandescents generate heat in our power draw. LEDs operate on less electricity and they don't generate nearly as much heat which saves back glass images and plastics their shape bumper caps there's no burn mark there's no hole just open up your machine and look at the entire light baffle board you'll usually see these little like smoke marks burn marks from the original incandescent bulbs this is the guy you're going to be ordering from to get full customization every color every type flashers blinkers he does flex kits he does full-blown led kits but without further ado well who i will refer to as agent molder from this point on i'm kidding ryan winger you ever had the suspicion that you've been abducted by aliens all right we just had to wait for that little thing that says this call is being recorded i've been using those but sometimes i'm just like i hope they don't think that i'm going to suddenly just be like we've been trying to reach you about your vehicle's extended warranty. Here's a question. I mean, is this your primary form of employment? I mean, since you acquired the business? Yeah, totally. And that was part of the move. I was a software engineer before and it's just time for something different, I think. And I bought a comm that was listed for sale on the Finnside forums and I kind of just, it wasn't something I was thinking about and I reached out just because I was kind of curious, Like, you know, is this a real business or just something someone is doing on the side? And it turns out it was bigger than I thought. And so I went for it. Gotcha. You also happened to get your significant other, your wife, roped into this.

Ryan collects vintage pinball and arcade machines, with oldest game from 1977 and newest from 1995, and has machines in both basement and storage unit.

high confidence · Ryan states: 'I got 13 games at home in my basement and I have more in a storage unit...my oldest game is from 77 my newest game is from 95.'

  • “You probably just scared the guy off. And I do try to answer questions when I can, if it's something I know a lot about.”

    Host @ Community mentorship discussion — Advocates for supportive rather than dismissive community culture for newcomers.

    • Bally
    company
    Gottliebcompany
    Boulder, Coloradoorganization
    Coast to Coast Pinballorganization
    Pinball Expoevent
    Joe's Classic Arcadesorganization
    Big Daddy Enterprisescompany
    X-Pencompany
    PinballPimpperson
    Todd Tuckeyperson
    Outside Edgecompany
    CPRcompany
    Steve Ritchieperson

    event_signal: Ryan Wanger will attend Pinball Expo wearing Comet Pinball shirt and meeting community members; Big Daddy Enterprises and X-Pen unable to attend but being promoted.

    high · Ryan confirms 'I'm going to be actually wearing a shirt for Big Daddy Enterprises and X-Pen because they can't make it' and 'I'm going. I'll be there wearing the shirt and meeting people.'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball acquired legendary designer Steve Ritchie (mentioned in industry news segment).

    high · Host news segment: 'J.J.P., Jersey Jack Pinball, has now acquired Steve Ritchie.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Recent game announcements: Stern launched The Mandalorian; Spooky released Halloween and Ultraman; playfield manufacturers released new titles (Catacomb, Silver Ball Mania, Dolly Parton playfields, etc.).

    high · Host news segment lists: 'Stern launched The Mandalorian. Spooky put out Halloween and Ultraman.' and 'Outside Edge is back at it with their new release for Catacomb and Silver Ball Mania. CPR has new playfields for Dolly Parton, Centaur, and Flash.'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Ryan used Comet LED products to customize vintage slot machines, demonstrating crossover applicability beyond pinball to other electromechanical machines.

    high · Ryan describes restoring slot machines: 'that thing now looks like a Mexican disco of illumination...5.5 flashers, that number 44, number 47 bayonets.'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Host maintains substantial personal collection of 13+ machines in basement plus additional machines in storage, ranging from 1977 to 1995.

    high · Host states: 'I got 13 games at home in my basement and I have more in a storage unit...my oldest game is from 77 my newest game is from 95.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Ryan operated pinball machines at multiple venues: offices (providing machines and maintenance) and barcade (up to 12 machines), demonstrating operator business model.

    high · Ryan: 'ended up operating eventually 12 machines at the barcade' and describes buying machines for offices and maintaining them.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Ryan articulates pinball as blend of rule depth (like board games), dexterity mechanics, and social engagement, distinguishing it from arcade games' more limited replay value.

    high · Ryan: 'pinball is a great mix of that for me, like video games and board games, because you have these rule sets and then you also have the dexterity part of it.'

    • 2:50
    That's right. Yeah, she was a big part of, I guess, what encouraged me to say yes. I mean, you know, it was something that we did together and she was able to leave her job as well. And so actually I sort of kept mine for a few months and then took comment the whole time. So I caught that about you guys video for a second there. And I was just like, I envy the fact that your wife was that supportive. I drive mine insane.
    3:15
    You know, she loves seeing me happy. The second there's another game in the garage, the first thing she's looking at is our bank account because she wants to make sure I didn't just buy another one. And I'm like, no, this is for a client. This one's for a client. She's like, she always has to check. So, but it drives her nuts, but she's been actually supportive more passively. Like, look, I know that I, you know, sometimes complain about this because I have never seen you happier. And I'm like, thanks. And it's, it's a hobby. It's a side business for me. For a lot of my clients, they can just contact me. They just want it working again. You know, like something broke. They've had it worked fine for 10 years. and I open up the back glass of the game and there's that acid-damaged battery pack just corroding down the board. So I'm like, well, this is probably 90% of your problem right here.
    4:07
    But it's been fun, and I've loved getting to network and getting to know people in this hobby, in this community, and in this industry. I will say that. This is an industry. And so, you know, just asking, like, so you were on the Pinside forums. How much of an enthusiast were you? I mean, did you happen to have, like, a large collection, or were you just a player, like you went to places to play these games, or did you actually get the collecting bug first? Yeah, so actually, I guess my story for that, starting 2013, I went home to visit my family in Wisconsin, and on my way back from the airport, my mom took me to this um to like a consignment shop and on the side of the this like outside under an awning you know there was this double dragon game and it was the arcade game it was 200 bucks and she said should i get this for your brother for christmas and you know is that a good deal and i was like yeah 200 bucks like why not and um so she ended up doing that and then when i went you know i came back home to colorado and i was just thinking hmm like i'm an adult and i have a room in my basement and i can come up with like a few hundred bucks and so so i went online and found in um you know somebody was selling like a frogger and i went to go i rented a u-haul i'm going to go pick it up and he had two other broken games there and so um i took those two and then brought them home and learned how to fix them and got up to like five or six arcade games and then when I would tell the people the story about how I had these arcade games and I learned to fix them they would always have a story about pinball like nobody seemed to know anyone with arcade games but lots of people seem to know someone who had a pinball machine you know like their uncle or their friend or when they were growing up you know someone down the street and so it's just so many people kept mentioning pinball that I wondered if I was missing something. And when I was a kid, I grew up, I was born in 79. And so there are a lot of arcades around in the 80s and early 90s. And I probably played some games of pinball. But when you don't really know what you're doing, pinball can be frustrating and feel kind of unfair. You know, you just flip, flip, flip, fall goes right down the middle, and then, you know, you say this thing sucks, and then you move to the next game, and flip, flip, flip, goes right down the middle. And so I would always play, you know, I was more drawn to, like, Frogger and Pac-Man and arcade games where there was less randomness, where I felt like, you know, when I lost, you know, I lost the game, it's because I deserved it. And so, yeah, I kind of ignored them growing up, and I played video games, you know, Nintendo and Sega at home. And then, so yeah, so then in 2013, I just, all these people kept, you know, mentioning pinball and a barcade opened in my town in Boulder, Colorado. And so I started going there and getting really into pinball. And I guess, I'm not really sure what it was. I think at some point I saw some people who were being really rough with the machine and they were playing for a very long time. And so I started watching, watching what was going on. And you're like, you're watching the art. They call it nudging. I call it hip check, hip check and hope it doesn't tilt. There's no nudging involved.
    7:46
    That's right. And so, yeah, I'm sure that the probably the Internet had something to do with it as well, because you're able to go online and see tutorials of high-level play and tournament footage and that kind of thing. So I think that most people probably who are aware of pinball don't even realize that they think it's random and they don't even realize that there are rules and that people can play the way that they play these days. And so that was kind of what drew me to it. And I ended up, you know, trying to get a game on Craigslist and thinking everything was too expensive and sort of eventually just broke down and got something that was, you know, started that was less than a thousand bucks. It was a high speed. And I got that. And then, you know, the guy was super nice and he's like, hey, we're having a party. I'm having a party at my house next week. So I went back to his house the next weekend, met some other people, played some more of his games. and then like I wanted a second game. And so shortly thereafter, I ended up, I worked in this office and the people in the office sort of like my company was just like one room of this office. And other people there knew that I was into pinball and they kind of expressed some interest in having a game in the office, but said it was too expensive. So I said, oh, I'll buy it for you. You know, I'll buy it and rent it to you guys and then I'll do the maintenance and that kind of stuff. So I did that, put an Addams Family in there, and then a month later they wanted another game, and then a few months later they referred me to some friends in another office. And so I ended up operating some games at offices, and then I sort of lucked into operating eventually 12 machines at the barcade that I had started playing at a year or two earlier. so yeah i mean that of you know no no it's not often um i do talk to a lot of guys who fall into this hobby and obviously the collection and flipping and swapping and wheeling and dealing i don't hear the uh story of and that's how i became an operator here's why because a lot of these guys these are their cherished possessions you know they don't want a group of people bashing on them other than you know when they do have friends come over i've thought about it i have thought about i got 13 games at home um in my basement and i have more in a storage unit i'm not going to get into that uh because there are people who have been asking now about a few of those particular titles and i'm like i haven't even gotten to them yet and i'm like just just wait i do have some duplicates i'm selling duplicates but i have a friend who really loves wide body games well i have two laser balls and so i have the one in my one in my basement and that's this is one of my duplicates to acquire the other one from me and i went over to his place and he had paragon he had a future spa and on the other side he had everything he had a high speed he had a pin bot he had a raven a daddy east simpsons i'm just like looking through this i'm like this is an impressive collection and the guy is a motorcycle mechanic he works for harley davidson dealership and he's you know he's kind of the biker but he's kind of not he's just kind of like more of like he's a musician skateboarding type guy he goes i used to build custom bikes he goes i got the first machine the addiction just didn't stop and me and him and i was over at his house and you know we're having a drink together he looks at me and he goes you can't see anything you're in the exact same position and i go i know he goes well how do you turn this into something so i've laughed about this don't get me wrong i love new games i do and i i just uh was playing the mandalorian just the other night um i still prefer deadpool over it and people can hate me for that but i do enjoy both games don't get me wrong but the hobby just growing to that point me and this other guy were both he's like do we open a barcade and i'm like i have to think about that i have to think about that i was like they're they already exist could i you know operator but i just i have this bad feeling that i'll be like all right so these are all vintage ones because all my games are older i think my oldest game is from 77 my newest game is from 95 and that thing is a nightmare it's a godly mario andretti and i dread it as i call it and i was just thinking i'm like would people appreciate the i mean the classics as much as the amount of new games that came out and so i don't know i don't know if i could i'm quite at that point yet budgetary constraints do exist. If I had 15 new games in my basement, my wife would want to know why we have a mortgage downstairs and not a cabin.
    12:41
    It's we're playing pinball, which was the style at the time. Playing with pins and dolls. Mad Voodoo Pinball, proudly featuring Pin Caddy, the only pinball designed organizing parts trade. Fits between the rails of any standard machine for playfield repair work, slides into the lock bar for back box repair work, includes soldering iron holder and magnetic parts tray inserts, and featuring pin cards, high-quality artist-designed scorecards for a variety of pinball machines. All this and more at MadVoodoo.com. What are you buying? What are you selling? Muzzy Ball. The pinball place. Your premier retailer and authorized dealer for Stern, Jersey Jack, and American Pinball. Large selection of new and used games, parts, and accessories. Find out more at pinballplace.com.
    13:33
    In a nutshell, I decided to do something different. I made commercials for these businesses. And I don't ask for any money. I don't ask for discounts. I don't. I'm not a shill. Here, I'm going to be your spokesman. I'm like, no. I would like to talk to the people from the company. I'd like to get these guys on, you know, tell, tell the story of how you fell into this. I've heard from people that are like, Hey, I was listening to your show while I was working on a game. And I'm like, all right, perfect opportunity to find out about, you know, this company, you might get to hear a little commercial and some guys, some guys appreciate it. And sometimes it's a really easy way to get a guest.
    14:14
    Well, yeah, I mean, oh God, sorry. Sorry. Yours is going to play. Yours is going to play in this episode. no yeah i mean thanks for the opportunity to be on the show and talk about uh comet and i mean i'm i like talking about pinball i'm probably not the best i'm not you know the aggressive like salesman type so i'm not going to come back to all this yeah i need to be asked i think before things you know come out of my mouth about about comet and everything else i'll ask you this just because i i live in minnesota where in wisconsin are you from originally from milwaukee you know Once I went to college, I didn't live there again, so it's been a while. But, you know, still a Packer fan, of course. And I just went back and got to see my family for the first time since before COVID, so that was great. Coincidentally my work I travel to Milwaukee I travel to Milwaukee I travel to Chicago I traveled to Denver My job is different It was something I fell into and I thankful for the opportunities to travel but I've been using those opportunities now because before, you'd kind of chill by the hotel and get some sleep or whatever. Now, I'm getting no sleep. I'm finding the nearest place I can play pinball, or I end up connecting with the people I've met through the hobby, or I'm trying to buy games and ship them back.
    15:37
    One of the things that was there for me when I was first getting into pinball was Coast to Coast Pinball, that podcast. I'm not sure if you've listened to that back in the day. But yeah, that was what Nate did as he traveled around the country for work and wherever he was he'd try and find pinball machines and then talk about it on the show. It was really cool to I don't know if I started in the very beginning but pretty not too long after. And so it was really fun to see his evolution in pinball, just being somebody who didn't know anything and was just looking for games. And then eventually he became sort of the voice of pinball podcast and almost ended up working at Stern. And in networking, just like you said, it was Pinside that you were able to acquire their current business. Whether people agree with the discussions on there or not, The valuable information on that website is the repair forums.
    16:37
    These guys will all chime in. They will all help you. And there are Facebook groups, too. Don't get me wrong. It is incredible just how helpful everybody is and how much information you can get. I mean, I don't know. There's no way I would be doing any of this without the Internet. If I had been into this 20 years ago, I wouldn't be. You know, because I came in sort of with no, as a software guy, and I was never, I didn't have a bunch of tools that wasn't really handy around the house. And so just, you know, getting a machine and having things not work and being able to go online and read how to fix it or being able to post. And then like minutes later, you know, some stranger, you know, showing you, you know, screenshots of manuals and like pointing things out and trying to help. And that part of it is just really amazing. It's sort of like it changed me as a person where then I suddenly became somebody who had tools and was, you know, fixing things around the house and, you know, like just stopped calling plumbers. And I would figure things out on my own because I kind of got the confidence to do that through Pinball. You get the confidence to tackle any project from people who take a second to mentor. You know, there's the first part, which is you have to get over the anxiety of asking for help. People, this is notoriously studied, people suck at that.
    18:02
    You know, it wasn't until I was in my late 20s, I got really good at, you know, even when it came to work, it was raising my hand. I don't know how to do this. I'm not going to wing it anymore.
    18:15
    And, but then there are people that mentor. And that's such a valuable resource in employment. It's a valuable resource in pursuit of any interest.
    18:28
    And that's why there are moments I do get mad when a new person will post, and they don't know anything, I mean, about the game at all. In fact, they will forget in their rush or their moment of asking for help to say what game it is, what manufacturer it is. And so there are those guys that harp on him right off the bat. I'm like, don't do that. You probably just scared the guy off. And I do try to answer questions when I can, if it's something I know a lot about. I'm not an expert. I am stubborn and driven. So I have brought back certain games that shouldn't have been, like they should have been parted out. And yes, I do take a financial loss on those. But as long as you're keeping the game, it's not really a financial loss. It was a learning moment, training moment, practice. and if you decide to do repair or restoration at all, you need to have kind of a portfolio. Your own projects can speak for themselves.
    19:26
    Now, there is the other side of that. I've had people call me that a customer got a Williams Toledo. It's an EM game. And I'm like, all right, cool. Send me a picture of it. All right, so send me a picture of the back box. Where's the head of the game? He didn't have it. I'm like, okay, so you have the lower half, and I thought about that for a few minutes. I'm like, how much money is it going to take for this guy to get the rest of the parts to do this?
    19:58
    That's when you start to have it. You're either going to put that on a shelf, and you're going to take the time to acquire everything, because there are a few companies that do make AM parts. You still can get stuff, but it's going to take a while. And if not, you either have to at least build the head. You have something to start with, the back box.
    20:20
    And that's where you have to kind of throw those little SOSs out into it. And so I helped the guy. I gave him a little bit of direction, and I said, this one's going to take you a while. I'm not saying you can't do it. It's just going to take you a little bit of time.
    20:35
    And he's like, okay, okay. Well, he went back and got two more games. He wasn't totally turned off. I just said, this is going to take a lot of work. And so he was like, okay. He resigned to that, but the fire had been ignited. And so he went and got two more solid-state games. Next thing you know, he contacted me like six weeks ago just saying hi, and he's now got nine of them in his home. And he's actually gotten a few modern DMD-era games. And I'm like, hey, nice buys. is I feel like this hobby kind of becomes something that either people were always attracted to, or it was that you had that catalyst moment of nostalgia, or you went to somebody's house and they had a bunch of them. And with the older generation that had a lot of them, people like my dad's age, who are, you know, he's 70, in their era of arcades, all that existed were shuffle bowlers and pinball machines and occasionally EM shooting games.
    21:42
    The modern video arcade didn't really start until 78, 79. Well, my dad was a father of children. My older brother is 50. I'm 40.
    21:55
    He wasn't exactly having the time. He was still hammering out his bowling league, But he, you didn't, so when these guys collected games, if it's the era in which you really went to these locations, I could see why that was part of it.
    22:12
    And at the end of the day, I'm just going to be saying, you can have a whole ton of arcade games. Those are cool, don't get me wrong. But the consoles kind of made people look at them differently. When you got a room full of pinball machines, they're like, dude, this is badass. You know, because there's just so much more to them. yeah well you can only play you know i had started out with arcade games and it's like i i don't know how many i would guess maybe i played you know a hundred games of ms pac-man or something like that and you know eventually it's just you know feels feels kind of the same and my first uh in which is high speed i played like several thousand games you know and i could still i could still play that more there's just something about it being you know physical and I mean, I still see things that have never happened before while I'm playing. And there's just something, I don't know, kind of magical about that. And, you know, like for me, it wasn't nostalgia. I don't know what it was. I think I, you know, grew up playing video games, and then I was also into board games the last decade or two. I've been really into, like, you know, complicated board games where you sit down and smoke comes out of your ears for three hours while you're trying to figure out, you know, how to do things better than your opponents. And I think that pinball is a great mix of that for me, like video games and board games, because you have these rule sets and then you also have the dexterity part of it. And then, you know, probably also like the social aspect when you start to get, you know, get to be more of an adult. Of an adult, you need ways to meet people outside of work or excuses to go take an adventure out in the world. I like the fact that it becomes a social thing. And when you own pinball machines, it becomes a conversation piece. But it is a social thing. And so I'm going to be going to Pinball Expo.
    24:20
    I'm excited to go there. All right, I'll see you there. Okay, so you're going. Okay, cool. I talked to the guys at Pinball Life. Even though they're right there, they're not going.
    24:29
    There's not going to be a comment booth, but I'll be there wearing the shirt and meeting people and playing the tournament and stuff. Gotcha, gotcha. I'll be there. I'm going to be actually wearing a shirt for Big Daddy Enterprises and X-Pen because they can't make it, which sucks because those guys really do provide a huge service. And I asked them, are you guys going to X-Pen? And they're like, we can't, sadly. And I'm like, well, I'll be going. I'll kind of push you guys, promote you guys if I can. And next thing you know, my next order, there was a bunch of shirts in it. I'm like, okay, all right, we'll make this happen. I'll be there meeting up with Jeff Miller, a.k.a. the pinball pimp. Todd Tuckey and I have already talked. I'm going to get it due because he's going to be doing a seminar. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to this. Yes, I'm looking forward to the Stern Factor.
    25:16
    I'm Kent Brockman. I'm bringing you pinball news. pardon the interruption folks but it's time to bring you some pinball news in the pinball repair and restoration end of things big daddy enterprises and x-pin have joined forces todd and brett have formed a partnership they are selling each other's products but using their combined experience in repair as well as design to bring you the next generation of pinball power boards, MPUs, displays, as well as complete repair kits for pretty much any game. So congratulations to those guys. PinballPim. He has now the cabinet stencils for Stern Trident as well as Gottlieb Strange World. Outside Edge is back at it with their new release for Catacomb and Silver Ball Mania. CPR has new playfields for Dolly Parton, Centaur, and Flash. In industry news, in my absence, there was a break. I'm sorry it was too long. I missed three major game drops. Stern launched The Mandalorian. Spooky put out Halloween and Ultraman. And in recent industry news, J.J.P., Jersey Jack Pinball, has now acquired Steve Ritchie. That's it for right now, folks, and back to the show. and so being in the industry and aside from the fact that i've actually ordered your products you've you've got the market cornered i'm a sucker for lighting i have adhd give me noise sound and lights bang i'm there and i'm going through this i'm going through your website and i was just like all right this is cool and i just at that moment i had started restoring a couple of slot machines for a customer.
    27:00
    And not a lot of people know, there's a lot of parts, obviously all the companies, pinball companies make them, Williams and Bally, so forth, that's what they still do. All of the illumination is the same. So I was talking to the guy, again, these are older slot machines, very one-dimensional in that. It was a 15-minute selection off of your site, and that thing now looks like a Mexican disco of illumination the second he pulls the lever. So kind of an unforeseen use there. But again, that's, you know, that's 5.5 flashers, that number 44, number 47 bayonets, and it's all there. And so, of course, I was like, okay, we're customizing all the colors here. Here we go. Everyone I know buys from you. And that's not a bad thing. It's one of those things like the aesthetics of old games. What can I do to make this look better without having to necessarily retheme a game? And Illumination does that. And I know there are purists out there that are really upset that, like, there are guys who do prefer incandescence. Joe from Joe's Classic Arcades YouTube channel. Awesome repair stuff. My God, he covers a lot of games. He prefers incandescence. And to me, I just cringe. What, in your opinion, has been the proudest moment of being in the industry? Now being in here. Being kind of a face in it. Do you feel like it's the camaraderie? do you like seeing what people do with your products? I mean, there's a few Facebook groups that are strictly custom pinball machines and stuff like that, and I've seen some amazing stuff done on that. Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, well, I should just say that a lot of the credit does go to the previous owner, Art. He lives near Orlando, and he started Common in 2013, and then I took over in 2016. but he just did a great job going from nothing to just having this great selection. And you mentioned mods, and so he was the one who kind of came up with this work system, which we sort of call the matrix. That's just this series of connectors that all link up to each other, and you can use it to add lights to a machine where there weren't lights before, strips and spotlights and just sort of anything you can kind of think of. They're sort of like Legos, you know, for extra lighting for your machine. And so, like, we got, you know, he did a great job. And since we've taken over from him, it's been, it's really just, like, very humbling and flattering that somehow we're in this position where, you know, everybody knows about us and buys our products. And I, you know, in the beginning, I sort of, I was on the forums a lot and just trying to be there whenever people had questions about lighting and, you know, make recommendations and so forth. And now by the time I find out about something that gets posted on Pinsider Facebook, I go, you know, I go check it out and there's, you know, 20 people in the thread already like recommending comment bulbs and making suggestions for specific things. And so, I mean, just as a business owner, it's just unbelievable that we have so many fans and people sort of like, we don't even have to market because people know about us and everybody is so gracious I don know recommending our bulbs and and turning others on to to the comment symbol and just LED bulbs in general So it I mean it's really cool to be, you know, to be at shows and be wearing my comment symbol shirt and somebody comes up and, and like, Oh, are you the guy? And, you know, and then we have like a great conversation about whatever game they're working on or, you know, new products that we've got. And that's what I'm most proud about. Being recognized. And it's always in a positive light. No pun intended. Yeah. And I think, I mean, and not only that, but it feels like, you know, when you, you know, if you're running a business, there's a, you know, you got to, you got to have some spreadsheets and, you know, the numbers have to make sense. And you have, you know, employees and yourself to support. And so, but it just, it feels like, like people are thanking, we get a lot of thanks for existing. And I'm like, why are you thanking me? Like, I, you know, I should be thanking you. You know, you're buying balls from us and, you know, you're enabling me to sort of live this like pinball dream of a life and support employees and their lives. And so it's just, I still can't get over it that people, how much people just appreciate this. I just left just because, you know, one of, when I first got into this, and, you know, I realized half the bulbs in the first game I ever got were burnt out. I'm like, all right, cool. I was out and about anyways. I just got home. I had to go run some errands. I went by local Batteries Plus, Plus Bulbs, because I'm just like, yeah, maybe they got them. And I was laughing. I was like, okay, so you guys are charging five bucks for two. Okay, not doing that. I'm like, I think I can wait a few days in shipping. and then it was learning about you know color customization learning the difference between you know frosted dome concave dome non-ghosting how that works you know and understanding that voltages in a pinball machine very especially with early solid states vary and so um you can put all brand new led bulbs in the game and you'll end up with a pulse now some people like it okay There are, coincidentally, on classic sterns for some odd reason, it doesn't do a flicker. It does a pulse. So you can take it or leave it. You know, when it goes into attract mode, it actually adds a little more to its attract mode than just lighting up. But the only solution to that is you have to get either non-ghosting or you have to put in an upgraded lamp driver board and run the ground wire. And this is all tech. You have to run the ground and connect it to one of the controlled grounds from the lights that actually are programmed to do something, not from your general illumination.
    33:24
    And boom, suddenly the game is just – looks so much – it's just vibrant. There's always – there was that challenge. Then there was, okay, now what can I do with bumper caps? It's like, okay, what can I do with this? And when you tackle the project, it's not just you're going to just change a bunch of bulbs out. But when you deal with these older machines, you end up having to, you know, your bulb holders, your bulb sockets are always, you know, if they're 40 years old, if the back spins freely, you're going to want to clean, make sure these all align correctly so you're not shorting out your GI, make sure it's not touching anything else. And so you end up realizing there's just so much more than just regular general illumination. You end up having to nip out sockets, recognize you're placing bad ones. For anybody that's listening, the easiest way to take number 44 or number 47 bulbs out of your light baffle board, back box, or the play field, especially in hard-to-reach places, if you ever buy a replacement shooter rod tip, they usually come with ring packages or ultimate tune-up kits. If you just take the extra tip or take the old tip, it fits perfectly on top of those bulbs, and you can twist those out. Because it has a little bit of suction, you can pull the bulb out. It'll save you a lot of time. Don't break them.
    34:41
    I didn't know that. Yeah, not a lot of people. That's compliments, Joe, from Joe's Classic Arcades. I watched that, and that now is a staple in my toolbox. talk about LEDs all day long and all these, you know, different cases for, I don't know, different eras and all that thing. But, but, you know, I, before, you know, I took over a comment, I was definitely a little intimidated about LEDs. It just seems like, you know, if you learn, if you start learning a little bit, it seems like it's just this rabbit hole to go down and perhaps maybe a little paradox of choice where you're not sure anymore. But generally, you know, you can just, you know, buy the, you know, the most popular bulb and that should work, you know, in any game. And although you mentioned like the early Bally and Stern solid states, those do have, like I said, either an all-tech board or you can, some people add solder to their own resistors onto the sockets. And we also have this Flicker eliminator board made by Siegecraft that you can add in the back box that fixes it. But, you know, aside from that, there's, you know, most bulbs, pretty much any bulb will work in any game. And then from there, it's like, how picky do you want to be? You know, do you want different colors? Do you want one with a flex head? You know, does it flicker a little bit and you want to pay a little more for a non-ghosting bulb? Hopefully, people can get into it without being. The Matrix kits, which everybody gets to build on, on the customization. for anybody who doesn't know you guys have covered like post illumination as I recall button illumination definitely for back box but LED's made other things possible so like I like the blue fire I like the fire bulbs I like the I've liked twinkle I've liked all of these things because you can make just when you hit something for instance like you know special when Barstool and Let Baba happens, you can make that stand out more suddenly. And so, I don't know, it adds more thrill because, you know, I just think I like lighting, and I always have, always will. I have a neon light collection in the basement, too. The more interactive the game becomes. And so I always think that's cool. The last few years, we've been sort of adding more of these Matrix kits, And they're using, most of them are using products that we've had for years that some people were doing their own, making their own mods with. And we just kind of found that a lot of people weren't really sure what to do with them. And so, you know, we kind of packaged it up and we're like, oh, well, here, you can use these to illuminate your silver buttons. Or you can use, you know, this bunch of wires and lights to illuminate a slingshot. And so I think that's probably helped a lot of people get more comfortable with modding their own games. And, you know, as somebody, I wasn't into arcade games for very long, but I do really appreciate that the pinball community embraces, you know, sprucing up your game. Because for the arcade, in the arcade world, it seems like everybody wants things to be perfectly the way they were back when this game came out. and so I did I did an interview I did an interview with Corey Massal they know him from arcade pickers I had done an interview with them and they're you know picking stuff from arcade games he's built stuff like like in multi-cades he's done you know he's gotten a cabinet yes it was a you know not necessarily even a rare game it was a house of the dead and he converted it to he put Raspberry Pi and put PC in it and he made it play other games aside from that. So he made the game better. He got demonized for that. And I'm like, guys, these boards are 40 years old and not a lot of companies recreate the circuit boards for arcade games the same way that they are for pinball.
    38:50
    And I'm not saying that there isn't the potential. There's a huge market. A lot of people don't understand this the main reason that like most of the parts are available for these machines that why you're not paying a premium on the actual parts other than you know if there's a name on it a logo on it trademark is trademark the patents on all this stuff expired after 12 years and so if there's ever a game that you know um i'm actually i have a game plan supernova the nobody makes the MPU for this. And due to the people I've gotten to meet, I, at some point, will be sending this perfectly functioning MPU off to a guy to reverse engineer. And so that a new one can be made. That's where you end up with kind of, somebody has to be inspired to do that. And I've seen what modders do. And there are guys in the pinball hobby who are truists, but at the end of the day, half of us are just happy to even just have one. I think it's because the price point is different. Arcade games, you can acquire arcade games for a lot less money.
    39:59
    Until you get to full-size, sit-in, more immersed experience games, your typical cost, like you bought that high-speed for $1,000, there's nobody selling Immortal Kombat for $1,000.
    40:14
    Yeah, in 2013 when I got into it, everyone was saying that pinball was in a bubble. You know, there was a pinball pricing bubble, and everybody was crazy for, you know, paying what you had to pay to get games. And that was eight years ago, and it just keeps going up and up and up.
    40:32
    So, I mean, that's really just, like, shows how much pinball has grown and how many more people are putting games in their houses. And, you know, just what we've seen with arcades. I also like the fact that there's an entire pinball makers movement. Guys who are building their own machines. or re-themes, obviously, because most people can handle the idea of assembling a pinball machine,
    40:58
    the idea of it, and there are people that use VPX to design it. Not everybody has access to somebody with a CNC and a direct-to-surface printer, which is going to be how you make your playfield artwork. So then you're limited to overlays and stuff like that for your own custom artwork. Not everybody's an artist either.
    41:20
    but when it comes to that, I mean, that's a market that you guys are also involved with, because if you're going to build a machine, guess what? You're going to put lights in it. I haven't seen one that's sitting in the corner completely dark, and somebody's proud of it, unless the ball lights up, and that's a different concept, but no, I haven't seen that yet. So the matrix kits, the modifications, flex kits, the idea to be able to move lighting. So there are dark spaces on pinball machines. There's always areas that, like, you know, they should have put illumination here, and they didn't. And you get to change all of that. And it's nice to be able to do it with relative ease. You know, and that's because, again, not everybody can solder. Not everybody can cut wire very well. I hope that people who, when they buy these, you know, anybody who buys a game, and just even if they're just enjoying it, I do hope they do look on YouTube and at least find basic maintenance. And thankfully, most people have. But I have run into now about, I'm about eight clients deep of people who have never owned anything or fixed anything their whole life. And they're like, I got this. It was playing well for three months. Or the best line is, it worked until I brought it home.
    42:43
    transporting a machine you have to be delicate but yeah i mean i always tell people that they they need to be you know i always tell people who want to get their first machine that you know you should either be willing to open it up and try and figure out how things work or you know be willing to pay somebody 50 or 100 bucks an hour who might not be able to come for a few weeks and have to wait. So it's, like I said earlier, it's a great, pinball's been a great tool for me to just become more of a handy person who's willing to fix things rather than just buy something new or getting somebody else to come and fix stuff for me. No, I get that, I get that. Here's a question for you. Because of, I've always wondered this, who actually takes the time and assembles, like, the concept for all the ultimate LED kits?
    43:49
    Somebody had to look at that machine and be like, I think this works. I mean, I've always wondered that. Yeah, it's, so it's kind of been like a process that when we first took over at Comet, we didn't have LED kits and then it just became something that we sort of started, you know, we just started with a few, four of them or something, and now we're probably close to 100. Just over time, kind of like, you know, we get requests from people who say, hey, how come you don't have this kit? And we end up trying to do it. So in the beginning, you know, we always had the game and like, you know, we would make kits for games that we had access to. And then that sort of became unsustainable at some point. So we've had customers help us out over time. And that sometimes goes really well and sometimes that's challenging. and I think we've sort of like, sort of over time have just refined like how we do it and sort of just like the formula that we use to try and get this done. And it's, you know, even despite that, we're trying to sort of, in the beginning, we had a little bit more subjective decisions that we would make in lighting them. And over time, we've kind of been trying to pull those out a little bit and try and make the kits sort of, yeah, as objective as possible, like the GI. Make the GI all white and then color match the inserts and, you know, choose the right wedge or band net and flexes and flashers and all that stuff And so it getting easier for us but it still we end up we be like asking people we know who have the game we be looking at photos of you know, play fields, empty play fields to look at the inserts and populated play fields, you know, to try and make sure that the socket types are right. And, you know, sometimes the manuals can be incorrect and there's some games that um where they've used some versions of the game use the bayonet socket and some use a wedge socket so it's definitely been challenging and um and our early kits used we would include spotlights in them and sometimes lighting strips and other things and over time we've kind of pulled those out just to make the kit again sort of like um more objective and then when you buy it like there's an option Do you want to add a spotlight kit? Do you want to add this? And a lot of people end up adding those on to make it part of the kit.
    46:29
    And spotlight kits are great. And for anybody who doesn't know what a spotlight kit is, it's literally micro stadium lighting.
    46:40
    You know, if you were the size of an action figure. It's to illuminate broadly an area of the play field. Because one of the challenges is if you do color, if you use colored bulbs for the game, you can darken your play field. You can darken areas. And so spotlighting enables you to just keep that visibility increased. Because there are people who really like to put all their machines in a basement and then kill the lights. or they have, you know, I've met people who have bowling alley arcade carpeting in the basement and they have all the 48-inch, you know, black lights. And in that environment, you know, it also counteracts glare. It can counteract the glare from the back box in a totally dark environment because you'll be able to see the play field even through that reflection. and that's what those spotlighting kits are really good for. Strips are great for drain, drain trough, your apron.
    47:49
    If you're willing to bend them, they work great around slingshots. I've seen people take them and make them into a little halo and put them in their bumper caps, just kind of a way to have an illuminate. There's other things people have done with them. And so when somebody says, how much light? Start too much light in the game. And there's no such thing. Add more.
    48:15
    But I'm a good fellow. Yeah, as long as we're just trying to always kind of keep bright bulbs out of people's eyes. And so using frosted bulbs in the general illumination. So sometimes there's that bulb sort of in the back that is behind a target, but trying to turn it into your eyes, that kind of thing. but you know you were mentioning spotlights and a lot of those a lot of people it seems like end up upgrading to LEDs because they've got some you know 90s or 80s games and then they start buying some modern machines and they put those next to each other and suddenly you know your Addams family looks real dark because the modern games just have because they come with LEDs and they have spotlights and all that stuff so especially like 90s Valley Williams a lot of people add spotlights you put them on top of the slingshots you point them at the middle of the play field brightens everything up that's usually the place that ends up being the darkest ironically is the middle of the play field because there's just you know there's no general illumination there bring the sun over that world that's under glass let's see it and so here's a question for you what's your favorite game You're in this industry. You've played them all. Come on. What's your favorite game? Well, you know, I think that everybody's favorite game changes over time, hopefully.
    49:43
    My first favorite game was Twilight Zone. Nice. I'm not sure why. When I was just getting into pinball, I was on a work trip before pinball was my business. So I was on a work trip and went to a co-worker's house that had like, you know, 10 pinball machines in his basement and he had a Twilight Zone. And I don't know if I had played it as a kid, but he was explaining it to me and just, you know, like the ceramic ball and, you know, having that sort of defeat the magnets. And I just, it's so cool. And I love the, I love the multi balls in that game. And just sort of like keeping, you got to keep track of where multiple balls are and sort of, it helps to understand the timing of like, all right, well, when you shoot into the piano, like this is about how long it's going to take to come out of the slot machine. And then I got to, you know, relight by shooting it under the other flipper. And I just, I love all that. And there's a couple little like cool tricks with the multiballs in that game too to end up sort of, yeah, tricking the game into thinking jackpot when you didn't. And I love all that. And then I went through like a phase where I would say that Tron was my favorite game.
    51:01
    And then the latest is, so now what I say is Iron Maiden. And just, I don't know, when the, you know, seeing the sort of one or two minute video that Keith put together when he had made, you know, made this game as Archer in his garage. and I just saw that and I was like, that looks amazing. I had to have that. And so when it came out, I think my first five or ten games on Iron Maiden were just, I don't know why, but just sort of the most fun first ten games I've ever played on any machine. So that game was being rented somewhere and I went to a couple people's houses and so I didn't have it for like a year and then it came back recently and I just, yeah, I thought at the time, I was like, is this the greatest game ever? And then I thought, no, it's too early. It's way too early to say that, but then I got it back and yeah, I'm just playing it a lot and I adore that game. There are people who have different era of favorite games and there's always classics that people like. Twilight Zone is an excellent choice. That game's huge. I do love wide-body games. They crammed so much into that game, including the gumball machine and the actual clock. No, Iron Maiden, I do love that game. I was a metal guy, like listening to music. My dad was also kind of more of a hard rocker, so the first eras of their going on, Iron Maiden was starting in, what, 77? A 43-year career. or sorry, come on, 44-year career, I just, I loved the artwork of those album covers. I was that kid that, like, that was half the draw for, like, heavy metal. It was about the fact that these are album covers that they flip around in the store because people back then used to find that offensive.
    53:02
    And I laughed. So when I got to play Iron Maiden, I'm like, all right, here we go, because there's Eddie, I want to do this. And I love the soundtrack. I love Iron Maiden's music. I do love Bruce Dickinson. At one point when CDs were a thing, I was trying to collect the entire set of CDs because they make one giant image when you put them all together. Oh, no way. Yeah, this is before MP3s.
    53:28
    There's something for everybody, yeah. I mean, with the different eras. It's hard to say Twilight Zone is one-dimensional. I get that. if you're a great player and you, uh, you play a lot of modern games, I mean, there's 40 page rule sheets out there, you know, for some of these modern Stern games. So, um, Oh yeah. And Twilight, and Twilight Zone is a game in competition where people, you know, you just play multi balls and you ignore the modes and, um, uh, and I get it, but there's, uh, you know, then there's people who like eighties games. There's people like seventies games. I started out liking DMDs. I think I probably started liking 90s Valley Williams games the best, and then I felt like I moved into Sterns eventually as I got to be a better player and wanting to get really deep into rule sets. And now a little bit, sometimes I'm going back further in time where if I'm playing against certain people, I don't want to play a half an hour long game of Iron Maiden. and so I'll play a lot of just single level play field games where every shot is dangerous and every little nudge and little flip really matters.
    54:49
    Another game that I actually was playing recently that I got hooked on, and it was because it was local to me. There's a place not too far away from me and it's an Aerosmith. I've GC'd that like eight times, but I also think I'm like one of the only people that ever goes in there and plays it.
    55:04
    But there is always that, too. You always get to find out how many people are actually, like, actually play. And I'm not a professional player by any means. I have watched professional players in awe.
    55:19
    And I will get better. I will get better because I do love playing them. Obviously, we all do. If you collect these for what they look like or what they mean, and there are people that do collect stuff like that. There are people who collect cars like that.
    55:35
    I just feel like the enjoyment is getting to play it. And I love it when my brother, who has four kids, comes over and all the kids just go downstairs and they're just playing on every one of those games. I do love seeing that. I love it when my dad comes over. half the neighborhood comes over and you know i have a barbecue and they they're like uh yeah so i have to i have a walkout basement so you know everybody's outside initially and then half the group is inside my house playing all my games so it is that's great we we need more people to you know get into pinball that's definitely sort of a thing you know people worry about it you know that you gotta we gotta get kids and people who don't know about pinball, just to still be interested so that we can have more games on location and have more manufacturers. It's good. It's great that you're still spreading the pinball gospel. Oh, I have to. I have to. I'm way too deep here.
    56:38
    It's not a cheap hobby. Let's be honest about that. Yeah. It's cheaper than a lot of other hobbies, but it's still not a cheap one. If you need the big Lebowski, then it is not a cheap hobby. But if you just want to go down to the bar and play a few games, it can be really cheap, probably. Yes. And if you're starting to play, be aware you're going to make an initial investment. My wife is terrible at pinball. We went to a local place called Tilt that is a pinball-themed bar in Minneapolis, and I was finally excited to get to go there. I'm over there destroying the castle on Medieval Madness while my wife, on the other hand, is losing more money than a drunken 22-year-old on a slot machine in a casino.
    57:24
    I think I had my watch on my phone going. I think we were there for exactly 41 minutes before she did the equivalent of that person that runs out of money at the slot machine, like, dodging my arm, either give me more money or we're going to leave.
    57:39
    I'm like, we're not leaving. I'm like, here, just take my wallet. but that's the beauty of the hobby i love seeing the artwork illumination is you know is a huge accessory to the artwork and i like getting to know the people who are in these companies that supply these parts here's a question for you just uh you know and we'll wrap up here pretty quick um do you supply to any of the district the actual manufacturers i guess the answer is no i I think it makes me a little nervous to think about the responsibility there, you know. And, you know, it's like, well, something goes wrong or we come up short or, you know, whatever, and then somebody can't release their game. You know, that would be real bad. But, you know, I think what's cool and it's, I mean, we already have, without supplying to manufacturers, would be already have a big challenge in terms of inventory because I always use this analogy. It's like, you know, nobody walks into a McDonald's and orders 100 fish fillets. But people do do that for us.
    58:50
    You know, we get orders from operators. We get orders from mod makers. You know, we get orders from somebody who has a few dozen machines and, you know, waited till one day of the year to buy bulbs for all of them. So I like, I guess, having sort of all kinds of different, you know, customers. And sometimes it's just one, you know, somebody with one machine and it's their first machine. And then, you know, other times it's, yeah, an operator with 50 games who needs to put some new bulbs in there. So it was a pleasure to talk to you and tell your wife. we also, from my wife and everybody else's wife, we should all get together and create a support group for this, but I applaud that. Yeah, she's been amazing. Hey, if you end up traveling to Colorado for work, I have my own arcade now, 50 machines in there, so I'll have you come by and play. No, by all means, I will. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our interview with Comet Pinball's very own Ryan Wenger. and a special shout out to his team, Cindy, Andy, Janet, Greg, and Chris that make this all possible. He's got employees. They fill your orders. So if you haven't used their products, check them out. I do recommend looking at what you can do for customization as well as just update the look and the brightness of that game. But until next time, keep it flippin'. Aziz Light! Comet Pinball, the world's largest collection of pinball LED lighting, back box and play field illumination featuring star post lights, flashers, blinkers, non-ghosting, matrix kits, button illumination, flex kits, and much more at cometpinball.com. This has been the Ruby Butt Production. Ruby, get out of the litter box!