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Episode 165 – Orange Crush

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Apr 22, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Gene Exwong interview covering pinball photography, community events, and industry production delays.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast episode 165 features Gene Exwong (Orange Photography), a prominent pinball photographer and tournament organizer, discussing his entry into pinball, photography contributions to the community, and industry news including Spooky Pinball's facility expansion, the Banning Pinball Museum's potential convention center acquisition, code updates across multiple manufacturers, and the slow pipeline of new game releases.

Key Claims

  • Spooky Pinball is expanding its facility to increase production output to over 1,000 games per year

    high confidence · Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discussing Spooky's expansion plans based on This Week in Pinball news

  • Spooky's next game is expected to be announced in June with a new license (teased as a 'road trip')

    medium confidence · Ron Hallett citing heard rumors about Spooky's next release timeline and license tease

  • Spooky has resolved three major hardware issues: eliminating hot glue connectors, fixing rattling glass, and reducing power supply noise and fan noise

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing Spooky's quality improvements in newer machines

  • Spooky Pinball does not have UL certification, which may create liability issues in certain situations

    high confidence · Detailed discussion between hosts about UL vs. CE certification and regulatory compliance

  • The Banning Pinball Museum is attempting to purchase a 75,000 square-foot convention center in Palm Springs near the airport

    high confidence · Ron Hallett citing news article about Banning Museum's expansion plans

  • The Banning Museum's potential new venue is being compared to Pinburgh as a major West Coast pinball event location

    medium confidence · Gene Exwong and hosts discussing the potential impact of the new venue

  • American Pinball is supposedly planning to release two games this year, with Legends of Valhalla expected first

    medium confidence · Ron Hallett discussing rumors about American Pinball's 2024 release schedule

  • Gene Exwong has photographed approximately 80-90 tournaments, mostly in the United States, plus events in Australia and New Zealand

    high confidence · Gene directly stating his photography portfolio scope

  • Big Lebowski received a code update that finally added multipliers

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm honored to be on the Slam Tilt podcast. This was my life achievement.”

    Gene Exwong @ early in episode — Gene emphasizes his long-time listener status and appreciation for being featured on the podcast

  • “I like the campiness, you know, that they're doing because, like, the call outs are pretty... the voice and everything is so kind of bad that it's good kind of thing.”

    Gene Exwong @ Spooky games discussion — Gene's perspective on America's Most Haunted's intentionally campy design approach

  • “For the first time since 1983, I do not have a working pinball machine in my house.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ late in episode — Bruce humorously marks a major life change related to his commercial venue setup

  • “If I do have a spooky game that burns down my house, does it make it easier to sue them because they don't have UL certification? Yes, because now you're showing that there is a possible link to the two.”

    Ron Hallett (answering Gene's question) @ UL certification discussion — Clarification of real liability implications of lacking UL certification

  • “This might be a little too crowded at this point.”

    Ron Hallett @ California Extreme discussion — Ron's observation about California Extreme's growing attendance becoming problematic

  • “Half the fun of the hobby is kind of going to the shows, seeing people, hanging out.”

    Gene Exwong @ shows discussion — Gene articulates the social component of pinball community that extends beyond competitive play

  • “When they find out the price, I think half the people have a coronary.”

    Gene Exwong @ Guns N' Roses machine discussion — Gene reflecting on public reaction to pinball machine pricing

Entities

Gene ExwongpersonRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonSpooky PinballcompanyBanning Pinball MuseumvenueAmerican PinballcompanyPacific Pinball MuseumvenueLegends of Valhallagame

Signals

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky Pinball expanding facility and targeting 1,000+ games/year production

    high · Ron: 'They're increasing the size. Actually, it looks like they're building a new facility next to the current facility. Yep. To increase their output. And from what I hear, they want to get over, like, 1,000 games. Yes. A year.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple Spooky games have had recurring hardware issues: hot glue connectors, rattling glass, loud power supplies and fans

    high · Discussion of TNA, Rick and Morty hardware problems that Spooky claims to have addressed in newer production runs

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: Spooky Pinball lacks UL certification unlike competitors, creating potential liability exposure in Europe and other markets

    high · Extended discussion about UL vs CE certification and how Spooky's lack of UL could expose them in product liability cases

  • ?

    venue_signal: Banning Pinball Museum attempting to acquire 75,000 sq ft Palm Springs convention center for major tournament venue

    high · Ron: 'They're trying to buy like some. A convention center in Palm Springs that has 75,000 square feet. That's right across the street from the airport. Yes. And everyone I've read, it's like the new Pennburg [Pinburgh].'

  • ?

    code_update: Big Lebowski finally received code update with multiplier functionality

    high · Gene: 'Big Lebowski got an update. We finally have multipliers, right, Gene? Oh, yeah.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.313

0:00
Mr. Head, I found you a wife. Cool. Repeat after me. I, Butthead, do you with all my heart and soul. And my wiener.
0:25
I, Butthead, do you with all my heart and soul. and my wiener. You may now do the bra. This is going to be cool. Yeah.
0:42
Morning. Coming to you from beautiful of State New York, this is the Slam Hill Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale.
1:07
Bruce, are you there? I'm here. Okay. And this is episode 160, is it five or six? I couldn't fucking tell you anymore. We've got so many episodes. We've got so many things in the can. Oh, my God. Okay. Episode 165. Wow. My first guess was right. We have a guest. Please, Bruce, who is our guest this week? He is most famously known for all the photography you see from most of the big pinball shows in the United States and possibly the world. I don't know. Possibly he's been overseas once in a while with it. His name is Gene Exwong. He is the owner of Orange Photography. Hi, Gene. Hello. How's it going? I hope I got that right. Yes, I've never heard that before.
2:01
First, I'd like to apologize. You're probably one of our longest-time listeners. He is. We haven't had you on, and you've been on, like, lots of other podcasts. So we have failed. No, I'm honored to be on the Slam Tilt podcast. This was my life achievement. Wow.

high confidence · Ron and Gene discussing Big Lebowski code updates

  • Bruce Nightingale has moved 60 pinball machines (45 operational) to a new location and has worked on CO (Certification of Occupancy) requirements

    high confidence · Bruce directly discussing his machine relocation and venue setup

    • Golden State Pinball Festival
    event
    California Extremeevent
    Pinburghevent
    Rick and Mortygame
    Alice Coopergame
    America's Most Hauntedgame
    Big Lebowskigame
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Pinball Hall of Famevenue
    Slingshot Loungevenue
    Cameron Silver Ball Saloonvenue
    Chicago Gamingcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Tim Sextonperson
    Dennis Normanperson
    Pinball Expoevent
    ?

    product_launch: American Pinball targeting two game releases in 2024, with Legends of Valhalla expected first

    medium · Ron: 'American Pinball? Supposedly you want to release two this year? Two. Still. I keep hearing Legends of Valhalla for the first one.'

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Multiple manufacturers facing production delays; Chicago Gaming's Texas Canyon and other titles still not released

    high · Ron: 'There's really not much in the news because, like, there's no new games coming out. Do you think, like, a lot of possibly part shortages and other things or what's making things take so long? I mean, you have Chicago Gaming. Everyone knows it's Texas Canyon, but when is it coming out?'

  • ?

    event_signal: California Extreme show experiencing severe crowding with difficulty navigating between game sections

    high · Ron: 'My last year, I couldn't physically get from one end of the hall to the other. I had to give up halfway. And that's when I said, you know, this might be a little too crowded at this point.'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Spooky's next game announcement expected in June with a teased 'road trip' license

    medium · Ron: 'They did tease that they made a road trip solidifying whatever the license is for the new one. And I've heard it's supposedly in June. It's going to be announced.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Gene Exwong describes post-pandemic pinball community re-engagement focused on social aspects over competitive play

    high · Gene: 'During the pandemic, I actually haven't missed competitive pinball at all. I've just enjoyed playing for fun... I miss the travel and hanging out with people competitive pinball you know I like it I don't need it I do miss hanging out with people that's the big thing'

  • ?

    content_signal: Guns N' Roses pinball won Twippy award and received 3+ million social media followers exposure, raising awareness of pinball pricing

    high · Gene: 'He posted on his Instagram how the Guns N' Roses machine won the Twippy for best game. That's a lot of exposure right there. He's got like 3 million followers.'

    • 2:18
    Wow. Rules are low. We love to hear that. Okay. Then let's get to the sperm contest. No, I'm just kidding. last week. We will be getting to that. We have a winner. So, Gene, how did you get into this hobby first, and then what incorporated it with your other hobby, and now, of course, your business, with pinball? Yeah, so when I was in Portland, I was visiting a woman that I was into at the time at the behest of a relationship therapist I was going to, and she got off work, and we decided to go to a bar that was near the bar she worked at that was called Slingshot Lounge. And it was actually hosting this tournament called, I can't remember what it was called, but I just stumbled in there and we were kind of going to the bar. But in one of the side rooms, there's like all these people playing pinball. So I poked my head in there because I already liked pinball, but I would just, you know, around town, I'd see pinball here and there, play a couple games. I always liked it since I was a kid, but there was some sort of tournament going on and there was a woman working kind of the desk and she could tell that I had no idea and I was not there officially for the tournament. And she's just like, oh, do you want to enter the tournament? And I was like, sure. And it was one of those, I guess, Herb style ones, because she was like, she knew that I was clueless. So she was like, oh, it's five bucks and you get to play three games. And then your scores count. And she kind of was, gave me the, you know, the pitch for people that don't know what it is. And so I did that. And, you know, I was looking at the bank of games. I didn't really recognize a lot of them, but there was Iron Man was the first game I played. And putting in my, you know, I think they were on free play because you got entries, played it tilted, which I never tilted before because I didn't know that nudging was even a thing. I can't remember what the other two games were. And, you know, did terrible. That was it. I had fun. Then hung out with my friends. And when I got back to San Francisco, I googled, you know, pinball tournaments and found out that that was a thing. And the Johnny, hang on, I can't remember his name. But Johnny Olkowski, Johnny O, was the guy who ran all the tournaments out here. So I started going to some tournaments around here. They were all in Oakland. There wasn't as many places to play back then. That was 2012. And I just got super into it, went to all the little local bars and kept playing. And that's what got me into it. And then the photography thing was just a tie-in because when I started going to the tournaments, I was just thinking, how can I contribute to this scene? Because whenever I get involved in something, I want to just, you know, I want to, like, not just, you know, take from it, but see what I can give back sort of. And so I just started taking photos at the tournaments and asking people if it was okay. And that just kind of kept going. And then I could also, if I traveled, I could use it as like a work write-off or something. But that's kind of how it all kind of rolled together. And then that's just something I've been doing since then. And kind of got super into it. I'm like the co-California chair for IFPA. I also help run at Three Goal Watch. We have City Champ, which, of course, all this stuff isn't happening now. But Jared Garvey and I kind of are the co-tournament directors of City Champ. But there's a lot more people involved there. But during the pandemic, I actually haven't missed competitive pinball at all. I've just enjoyed playing for fun. So that's kind of my history. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. What's this fun pinball stuff? What are you talking about? It's only competitive pinball. That's all there ever has been. That's right. So podcast is the number one podcast for competitive pinballing. I haven't missed the I miss the travel and hanging out with people competitive pinball you know I like it I don't need it I do miss hanging out with people that's the big thing I really do enjoy well your fading talent probably makes you not like the competitive scene quite as much wait a sec let's see what the head to head numbers we have against each other All of us. Let's do that right now. Oh. Oh, I'm sure the listeners will love that. Like, oh, they're starting with the tournament shit already. Turn off. Next thing you know, they'll be talking about fixing games. Ugh, just terrible. Who wants to fix games? Games just work. They never need fixing. Yeah, never. So you're in San Francisco. Yes, yes. Northern California. Oh, yeah. So how close are you to, like, the, oh, what's it called? They used to do the Pacific Pinball Expo. Pacific Pinball Museum? That's over in Alameda. So during the pandemic, I barely left the city, but then you might have seen that drone footage of the annex at the pinball museum. Oh, is that, like, overhead with all the games, like, all the storage? Yeah, like Indiana Jones warehouse looking. Yeah, that was my friend Eddie. Basically, I had seen that they were photographing all their machines. They're going through to, like, they're doing play fields without glass. They're doing back glasses. They're doing three-quarter angle, kind of like the generic, you know, sales-looking shot of a machine. And they're going through their entire collection and documenting every single one of these, like, old, old games from, like, Wood Rails all the way through, well, through maybe EMs. And so I saw that, and I know Michael, who runs the place, and I was like, hey, man, can I come check that out, maybe take some photos or something? And then I was like, oh, Eddie lives over in – he just moved to Alameda. He's the pinball guy and a drone pilot. And so I was like, this might be really cool to fly your drone in there. And I asked Mike if that would be cool, and he's like, yeah, totally. So, you know, Andy got some amazing drone footage that went totally viral, which was kind of cool because I think a lot of, like, non-pinball people saw it too. But, yeah, that's over across the bay. So I took the ferry boat over there and rode my bike, and it's pretty close. It's all, like, it's just next to Oakland, so it's right across. Nice. I miss the Pacific Pinball Expo. Gene is ranked 197th. Who is better than both of us, Ron? damn it. But we both have a winning record against him. Yes!
    8:09
    Only Hallett I have a winning record against is your dad, who I met at Pinberg. He was in my very first group, I think, at Pinberg. And we've played at almost every Pinberg we've been in a group together. Nice!
    8:22
    Yeah. I like to hear that. So how many tournaments have you photographed and taken pictures of? Photographied is a verb. taking pictures of? I don't know. Looking at my results, let's see. There's current and then there's power. I can't tell. I'm not going to count these lines, but it looks like maybe like I've probably taken photos at most every tournament I go to, so like maybe 80 or 90 or something like that, and most all of them are just here in the States. But I did go over to New Zealand and Australia and took some photos when I went out on that vacation, too. So, yeah. Very cool. Most importantly, though, Bruce, what is our head-to-head record? Oh, so you really want to go there with that one? Well, yeah, that's what I thought you were looking up. Okay. You are ahead by four. Yeah, baby. I've been coming back. I actually was down by ten two years ago. So I am getting better. You're trending up. Yes, I'm trending up. Oh, no, that's another podcast. We're not going there. But, yes, I can't wait to get back competitive in some ways so I can get a better record than Ron Allen. Yeah.
    9:34
    All right. So you guys want to get into topics? Yes. You know how it is. It's very light here, very non-formatted. So first let's just get some news out of the way. We will hop on over to This Week in Pinball. Hi, Jeff. How are you doing today? As we'll just rip off your site once again. Woo-hoo! Spooky. They're expanding, Bruce. Yeah.
    9:59
    Wow. Bruce is the only negative spooky person, I think. There's a couple, but I'm more outspoken. You're more outspoken, yes. They're increasing the size. Actually, it looks like they're building a new facility next to the current facility. Yep. To increase their output. And from what I hear, they want to get over, like, 1,000 games. Yes. A year. Which I can see that. Yeah, that'd be kind of nice. It depends. We're waiting on, you know, they're getting close to the end of the run for Rick and Morty. Yes, they did tease that they made a road trip solidifying whatever the license is for the new one. And I've heard it's supposedly in June. It's going to be announced. Any guesses? I couldn't tell you. Probably another fucking horror one, which will be like, bleh. Wait a minute. Okay. Gene, what's the name of the company?
    10:49
    Spooky Pinball. So what kind of games do you think they would make? Every horror one sucked most of them.
    10:56
    What are you talking about? They were the most haunted, unless you were in the clique of Wisconsin people. That's the only people who got the jokes on that game. Yeah, the call-outs were really... Very clicky, very... Yeah, but they were bad. But I thought that was part of the charm. I thought they were supposed to be bad. No. No, you're saying they were supposed to be good? I don't think so. I just think it was the beginning effort that was not a for effort. I like the play field in that. I like the little jump thing it does. Oh, the play field is so cheesy. What do you think, Gene? I know you must have played this. I have played it. I own it. I like it, actually. I like the campiness, you know, that they're doing because, like, the call outs are pretty, like, the voice and everything is so kind of bad that it's good kind of thing. That's right. My favorite thing is when you get Ghost Photo Hunt, and it's like, you know, it's Ghost Photo Hunt. It says collect three because, you know, like the call out for the three is, you know, a different, it pulls in the number of stops you need to hit, and it just sounds kind of, I hope that they meant to make it sound awkward because if they did, it sounds great. I don't think they did. No, I always thought they did. I love when Bruce gets on a game and we have to guess, like, oh, yeah, I own it.
    12:08
    That's fine. I have no problem with that. Yeah, I like, yeah, when they cut, it's kind of like the One Simpsons episode. Hey, hi there, kids. Welcome to Camp Krusty. This is your camp counselor, Bob.
    12:22
    That's basically what it sounded like. Yeah, and Spooky is supposedly they made these three improvements, which would have all been great on my TNA if I still had it. One was no more hot glue, Bruce. No more of those connectors. No more hot glue. That's terrible. And then no more rattling glass, which I had major issues on TNA with that. I had to put, like, tape on both sides. It was horrible. I had the same problem. Rick and Morty was terrible. I didn't need a shaker motor. It was a freaking sound system made everything else shake. They will no longer have the loudest power supply in pinball, as it will be much more quiet. No more loud fans. We all get screwed. No, these have been problems for years that people have commented about. I have to say. And now we're going to address them finally, all in one spot shot. Yeah. When we talked about Deep Root and their fun trying to get you all certification. Yeah. And we mentioned that Spooky doesn't have that. How did they not have that? I'm confused here. They don't have to. Why don't they have to? Is it just because. That's a consumer.
    13:29
    It's kind of like a good housekeeping seal of approval. You really don't need UL approval. It is encouraged because in case the building got on fire. That's what I'm saying. Like, so if my game had an issue and caught fire on its own, does UL certification mean I can't sue the company or? No, no, no. It states that it was actually properly grounded by grounding procedures that are norm for the whole world. Okay. Let me just say this then. If I do have a spooky game that burns down my house, does it make it easier to sue them because they don't have UL certification? Yes, because now you're showing that there is a possible link to the two. And how do they sell in Europe? Aren't they even stingier with that stuff? Yeah, but aren't they even stingier than we are with that stuff? Oh, yes. So how do they sell to Europe? I couldn't tell you. That I do not know. We had to be both since we were going. We delivered machines all over the world, so we actually had to go. Japan has their own different things. So does Australia. we've sold, I think it was 300 machines total that we built in Rochester and we had to go through all these different things mostly when you got CE most companies and most countries said if you got UL and you got CE we'll approve of it but we would like to see the schematics and see what is going forward like so if they saw something red flagged maybe the first one that came into the country would have to go to their equivalent of UL be looked over and then can continue on. But it's not necessarily needed, but 95% or I think it's about 92% now, they say, of all products coming in the United States. All right. So everyone on the call, what's your favorite spooky game?
    15:13
    Mine is America's Most Haunted right now. I only own that and right now I own that and TNA and have Rick and Morty coming. Ah. Ah, mine's Alice Cooper.
    15:26
    That is very fun. Because of all the shows I go to and the fact that I have been to the Banning Museum of Pinball, which we'll be talking about them, they have, like, every spooky game. So I've played, I've even played, like, Dominoes and Jackson's and all that stuff. And I would say Alice Cooper, by far, I think is their best game. What do you think, Bruce?
    15:46
    Okay, what's their next topic we're going to be talking about? Oh, okay. And I own one. What does that tell you? Well, I don't have it on my thing here, but, yes, the Banning Pinball Museum. They're where they have InDisc. They also have Arcade Expo. They're like two huge buildings in Banning, California, near Palm Springs. 40,000 square feet, if I remember. I think that's the article. Yes. And they're trying to buy, and help me here because I can't find the article. They're trying to buy like some. A convention center in Palm Springs that has 75,000 square feet. That's right across the street from the airport. Yes.
    16:23
    And everyone I've read, it's like the new Pennburg. Yes. It has like tons of parking too. Yes. It would be a major upgrade for any location. And I did not know this, but I did not know that Banning actually is open Monday through Friday for local traffic. That makes sense. It's the museum. Yep. That was pretty interesting to find that out. So I know they're having an open house thing coming up soon, too, where they're restricting it to so many people who have got to wear masks. I think it's actually this weekend or next weekend. Next weekend, the 24th. Yep, I knew it was coming. Yeah, what do you think about that, Gene? You could have like the new Pinberg, but on the West Coast. Oh, I know that. Yeah. I mean, I love InDisc as it is where, you know, where it is, even in the current space, it's great. I mean, even though you're in the middle of nowhere.
    17:14
    But you all have both been, right? Yes, we have. Yeah. I love how they have in-disc and then have, like, probably 89% of the people in the tournament never leave that area or go to the huge building next door with the 500 games in it. Yeah. I mean, they have, like, well, they have Magic Girl, which you can't play, which is funny because it's the same experience as if you would have played it, basically. But that spooky lineup is awesome. I've never seen every spooky machine. It's weird to see, like, Jetsons and Dominoes and, you know, like, you never see those. Or you have the Zachariah section where they're almost all turned off because you can't get parts for any of them. Yeah, you can't keep them running. But going back to these, I have not played Rick and Morty with the newest code.
    17:59
    They have new codes, so I have not played with the new – I forget what the new mode is. It's one of the Moon Man, Moon Man code now on it. Moon Man, that's like an episode? Yes. Okay. Let's see. slash he posted on his Instagram how the Guns N' Roses machine won the Twippy for best game. That's a lot of exposure right there. He's got like 3 million followers. Don't expose it too much because when they find out the price, I think half the people have a coronary. That is usually the reaction that people do. It's like, how much do these things cost? Like you're kidding.
    18:31
    Well, that's where the location pinball. You've got to let people know. Most people probably don't even know that it exists on location still. So that's something that I wish people knew because, like you said, most people probably like, like the same with all these band pins. I'm sure when they came out, all their fans were like, oh, that would be really cool to get that. And then they're like, oh, no, they probably think it cost $2,000 or maybe less. I don't know what people actually think until they look it up. Or if you were like a Primus fan and you're like, oh, look, a Primus machine. And then you saw the Guns N' Roses machine and you're like, man, we got shipped. I don't know. Yes. That's a word you're not supposed to use. I learned a few years back. because it's negative to gypsies or something. Oh, my God. Yes, I heard the term gypsy itself is negative. It's like, oh, because there's a Who song called Going Mobile. I love that song, and it has that line in it. Yeah, I'm an air-conditioned gypsy. I just love that line. Or Cher is now ruined because one of her biggest hit songs, she was a traveling show.
    19:33
    Mom just danced for the money, they know. did whatever he could. Yes, Cher mentioned on the podcast.
    19:40
    I can't wait for the Cher pinball machine. Wait, Cher did date What was that? Gene Simmons dated Cher, so maybe we can get Gene on it. Oh, that's right.
    19:51
    That's right. I wore a mask because no one could see what I looked like because we were doing the kiss gimmick. No one knew what we looked like. Thank God the internet didn't exist or we would have been screwed.
    20:01
    But Gene, you had her on one of your albums, the Gene Simmons solo album. She's actually on the credits for that. Well, that's true. It's an incredible solo album. I'm sure you have it, Bruce. I did.
    20:16
    Uh. Well, it was worth so much money, Gene. I sold it. Oh, okay. That's all right. Profit is never a problem. Exactly. I knew that would be the words we'd love to hear.
    20:29
    More money is more, Gene. We have a home pin update. No. They should get their very first made-in-Taiwan home pin pinball machine. Isn't that great? It just shows a picture of it with it's all wrapped up.
    20:44
    There you go. Okay. Is it a Thunderbolt or is it a Zip? It's got to be the zombie one. Or is it the car one? Oh, that's right. Didn't they do one for Porsche? Yes, they did. Or something? Yeah. I should be better with the news being we're a freaking pinball podcast.
    21:01
    Pinball media. Yeah, Pinball Media. Yes, that's right. I'm in the Pinball Media. You know how I know? Because the last Pinball Expo I went to, I was Pinball Media. And I bring that up because Pinball Expo's new website debuted. They updated the website with a new date, hotel information, etc. So go check that out. Nice. It's going to be great. Bigger, better, longer, stronger. Yep. I was able to take the tickets that I originally got for, it was probably Expo. that I had to cancel, and then I got credit, and now I can use them for Expo two years later. Yay! Yay.
    21:40
    So, Gene, what are your thoughts about these shows now coming out, since we did have our first pinball show? Oh, yeah, the brew one or whatever.
    21:49
    In brew. Yes, in Ohio. What are your thoughts about everything? I know California is now on a down tick. You know, your numbers are starting to go down in California, while ours in New York are going back up. Yeah, I'm happy that things are improving here and hopefully across the country. But with regards to shows, I'm pretty excited for it. I don't know which ones I would go to. It kind of depends on what the setups are, where they are. But like we were talking about with the tournament stuff earlier, like half the fun of the hobby is kind of going to the shows, seeing people, hanging out. You know, I'm not like super good with the tournaments, but I have fun. And it's more about that than winning one because I barely ever win them. But, yeah, I'm pretty stoked. One of our favorite ones locally here that a lot of people don't know about, it's called Golden State Pinball Festival. It used to be called Pinnagogo. And it's a really, really great one because it's one of those shows that's, like, just locals mostly, but really usually a great selection of games. It's not, like, a huge, you know, not a lot of vendors. There's vendors and stuff, and there's seminars. But mostly it's just, like, it's over the last year or two. Well, not last year, but anyways, When they moved it to this new location in Lodi, California, kind of close to Sacramento, there's more campground sites and people have something they just kind of call Camp Silver Ball where maybe a third of the people put machines out in their campsite. I was planning to do a golf, pin golf tour of the campsites because a lot of people, I think, didn't realize you're allowed to go to people's campsites and see their pinballs because people bring them to share. But, you know, when you see people hanging out, sometimes you're like, oh, that's their private little area. And, you know, some folks don't know that you can kind of visit them. So I'm really stoked for shows to come back like that. Even California Exchange is really fun, which is, you know, it's in Santa Clara. That one's fun because it's at the hotel. So just like most pinball shows that are at a hotel, it's stinky and inside. It's all crowded. That part's not so fun. But then there's the pool, and, you know, it's the Bay Area in the Silicon Valley where it's always warmer than in the city. so you can hang out by the pool and have some beers and get some fresh air before you go back in. I mean, the masks are good for stinkiness. That's one thing helpful.
    23:56
    Is California extreme any less crowded? No. Yeah, it's extreme. They call it extreme for a reason. Well, me and Bruce went there before it was extreme extreme. My last year, I couldn't physically get from one end of the hall to the other. I had to give up halfway. And that's when I said, you know, this might be a little too crowded at this point. Yeah. Yeah, they had it sort of set up where in many, many years where it's like you can't like, it's not like rows, it's like kind of a winding thing. Yeah, a curvature, yeah. Yeah, so it's like, I get the concept, but if you're like wanting to get to a section faster, you're like, okay, I'm going to just, you know, it's harder to get around and things. And the tournament's always tight there and everything else, so it's always separate from the main show. Well, it wasn't always. At the beginning, it was in the show, and now it's separate. and it's a little easier, but it's sometimes a little harder to find it when you're first there. Yeah, I like it and don't like it for those same reasons, because it's nice when it's kind of part of the show because you're integrated, but then it's not nice when the whack-a-mole or the ice hockey, the air hockey is next to the tournament area and all you hear is that sound. Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Yeah.
    25:06
    Oh, I agree. That was actually the last big-ish tournament I won was the California Extreme Tournament. They changed the format to a Pinberg-ish format. It's called Bay Bird, and that was super fun. The Monterey Flipper Pinball crew ran it the last several years, and it's really fun because it's match play. Nice. Very nice. I like that. Hey, Ron. Yes, sir? I have a package.
    25:32
    Yes, you have a package. It's got three reach-arounds in it. Wow. Three. Wait a minute. Three? Three. I got one for you, one for me, and one for Robert Frost. It was cheaper to send all three since Robert is in Rochester also. They boxed them up all together, and they shipped them over here from Australia, mate. And I have not opened any of the boxes Okay But it pretty official It kind of nice They actually have the Fine Around Pinball podcast on the stickers I putting it right on my toilet just like I said Yes, I know. I can't wait to hand you my reach around.
    26:16
    Also, we had the Pinball Hall of Fame soft open occur. Yes, it did. In Las Vegas. That's a big pin bar sign.
    26:26
    Yeah. Well, the picture they use is P-I-N-B-A. So if Robert Mueller was really effing smart, which he isn't, but if he was, he would be paying them right now and put an R instead of the L, and then he'd say, pin bar, right in Vegas. Well, you know, brother, that's a great idea, dude. I think I'm going to get right on that.
    26:51
    Wow. Okay. It looks big. It is huge. The ceiling is a huge, huge, huge building. Hopefully it makes money. Yeah. You know, there's another place coming around eventually in Rochester, New York.
    27:06
    But you want to get to that already? Well, you can. Well, let's finish up the news here. We had lots of code. We did. Big Lebowski got an update. We finally have multipliers, right, Gene? Oh, yeah. I don't think there are, but I think they actually integrated some things that I had mentioned maybe like three years ago. My one is on location somewhere, so I'm going to go update the code this week and try it out. Nice. We have one in Buffalo. Pocketeer Billiards has one. Wow. So they're out in the wild. That's definitely it. I still have yet to play one that I got through a game without something breaking. Oh, it happens all the time, but. Okay. I'd like to play one. Code updates all around. Spooky. Good morning. Jersey Jack's doing their beta program. You can be a beta tester for their code. I wonder if you have to agree to anything like if this fries your machine. Yeah, I think you would have to because what if the coil sticks on most boarded? Yeah, I mean, they were testing something. Yeah, it's like, yeah, I'll only be a beta tester if you pay for anything you break on my machine.
    28:13
    Code updates, Guns N' Roses, Avengers. Avengers and Led Zeppelin. Timmy's 1.0. Congratulations, Tim Sexton and his team. Yes. Who we had on and have on one of our past shows. Mm-hmm. Which you can find at slantillpodcast.com. Thank you. Wow. You like that? I have a seat. You like that? There's really not much in the news because, like, there's no new games coming out. Do you think, like, a lot of possibly part shortages and other things or what's making things take so long? I mean, you have Chicago Gaming. Everyone knows it's Texas Canyon, but when is it coming out? When's it happening? American Pinball? Supposedly you want to release two this year? Two. Still. I keep hearing Legends of Valhalla for the first one. Which would be kind of cool. Which makes sense because that would be a junior designer with help from Dennis Norman. A major company. Yeah. Would you buy Legends of Valhalla? Either of you.
    29:15
    I'd have to play it and see how much it costs. Yeah, same. I'm not really buying much because I'm out of room right now. And since there's no locations to use as quote-unquote storage, I can't take anything else. I gotcha. Well, Bruce has a location to use as storage. Yes, I do now. For the first time since 1983, I do not have a working pinball machine in my house. Whoa. Wow, you're old. I am old. Holy crap, I was like 10. And you were still shitting green.
    29:48
    Shitting green? What the hell does that even mean? powerful potent poopies again the highest level of podcasting right here highest but yes all I actually have a garage now yeah it's just been time to sell the place and have another garage but yes so we moved all the games we now have officially in the building over almost 60 games 45 will always be playing. Wow. Now we have to go through each game. Oh, my God. And make sure everything is up to snuff and locks and seating and all this other fun stuff. But until we can get the CO, which is the certification of occupancy, we had to have the games in place so we see how much room we would have to have how many occupants we could have in there. Mm-hmm. So that's the fun part. So we finished up Yesterday we moved 14 pins The week before we moved 18 pins The storage room is about half filled With storage for extra games So I have my Oli in there I have Pinball in there I have Memory Lane And I have Shit Silver Are any of those from the Papa collection? No, I did not buy any I would have I'm mad at Mr. Polka Oh god I am mad at Mr. Polka. I told him months ago when he first put up the list, like, hey, if you have any weird stuff that you want to sell, tell me before you're going to sell this or somebody backs out of something. But you didn't give him a specific name. You just said weird stuff.
    31:34
    Barracora is pretty weird. How would he know that? Okay. You didn't even give him a specific game name. That's like. I know, but still it's weird. And Barracora went, like, he's been having problems trying to sell, like, some of these other, you know, common games. As soon as Barracora goes up for three grand, it was sold within 15 minutes.
    31:55
    I saw that, too. I thought that was a pretty reasonable. I mean, a lot of their pricing was a little bit, seemed a little higher. But I'm like, the market's insane right now anyway. So I was like, that seems fair. And knowing their machines, you know, they're like, those are machines I trust completely because I've played them all. But, yeah, like that pinball lizard or something like that, one of those weird ones that they had. Yeah. Oh, Game Plan. I remember that thing. Yeah. But, yeah, they could sell, like, all the common stuff, but when that rare stuff comes up, boom. Well, my dad has their Congo. Yes. Right. Or one of their Congos. Yes. Yeah, I've got to make it up there just to do a site survey about all the streaming crap. Yes, you do. And I'm sure you want wireless and all that in there. You got internet in there yet? Not yet. It's coming in another two weeks. What are you getting? Is it Spectrum? It's the only thing I can get in that building. Because Spectrum's in the building. Like the actual Spectrum store.
    32:53
    Well, at least you should have good internet. Yeah, you should have good internet. You would think, but let's just... Do you have to get business class? You have to. Yes, we're a business class. So you have to use your equipment. Yes. That's bullshit. Yes. So, yes, we got the 45 games in. It's mine and Zach's fun now of getting them all ready to go. All right. Any repairs you guys done this past week or two weeks in pinball? Mm-hmm.
    33:22
    Gene, we'll go to you first. I've only had one thing. So my America's Most Haunted was in a barbershop for a while, and then the barbershop closed during pandemic, so I took it home. And then I worked on it a lot to get it to, you know, you have to. Get all that excess hair out of it. Yes. And there was an interesting mod that is in the trough on America's Most Haunted. There's a way for the balls, if they kind of are like in multi-ball, where their balls are draining and kind of popping in and out of the trough, they can actually pop out of the trough and just land kind of in the apron and all the way in the bottom, which is obviously super annoying. And so somebody made a 3D-printed part that my friends, Brian and Allison O'Neill, printed for me since I don't have a 3D printer, and I installed that, it just kind of snaps on top of the trough, which is nice. So I actually brought the pinball machine out last Saturday onto the sidewalk, which is something I've been doing during the pandemic. And we played for eight hours and not a single ball got, you know, popped out into the – I mean, it doesn't matter because I have the keys if I'm playing it. But it's annoying if you had it on location and you had to go service this. Exactly. Because that's what we had. We have one in Rochester on location and all the time, boink. Yeah. You'd be playing, and then you had a multi-ball, and you're like, okay, this game's now lost. What's going on? And it's like, oh, crap, the ball went in. And then you call the guy. Luckily, we knew the local vendor. He came over. He was like, yep, here it is on the bottom of the cabinet. Wow. Yeah. Truffles are hard. Yeah, you know, they've only been doing it for how many years? Why didn't they just use the Williams part then? I don't know. There was a reason, but I don't know what it was. I remember seeing something because I was looking at the Pinside thread on AMH for issues and things, and Ben Heck was on there a lot, and I think at some point he said there was a reason why they couldn't use it or didn't use it. Ah. They have two of them on Rick and Morty. Two troughs? Yes.
    35:19
    Well, since we mentioned Pinside, Pinside was hard to go on and search anything. It was really peaceful and really quiet, and I think people were losing their marbles. After like a week after they won the Twippy for best pinball website, they went down for a week. Must have been all the demand from the Twippy award winnings. No, it was just a poor hosting provider who didn't have sufficient backups, obviously. Fire! Yeah. Their hosting provider had a fire, and then the fire suppression system went off, got all the servers wet, and they cut the power to the whole building. And then they couldn't give them any kind of time when they'd actually be back up, So he had to move everything to, like, Europe.
    35:59
    But I thought people were going to lose their fucking gourds. I can't get on Pinside. I can't. Oh, my God. I needed it for some. They're good for, like, pictures of games. There's more pictures there than there are at IPDB.org. So I frequently use them for that. I use them for a lot of tech resources and stuff. Yeah, that's what I use it a lot for, especially on America's Most Haunted, because luckily all the owners have troubleshooted it, you know, troubleshot it for a while. So that was very helpful for me. Yes. I had the same thing with my brand new game that I had to troubleshoot a lot of. So you had a problem with a new game? Well. Well, I guess it was spooky, right? No, no, no. Did you get Richard Morty? No, no. Oh, okay. So, oh, you finally got Deep Rooted. No, they don't have any games out yet. Okay.
    36:48
    Okay, you got your Guns N' Roses finally. Congratulations, Ron. I've been waiting for you to buy this thing. No, too expensive. Homepin? You're the one that got the Porsche pinball machine. No, no. What the hell is this there, you know? Well, before we go into my game, my other quick repair, it wasn't even really a repair, my Johnny Mnemonic Spinner Saga.
    37:11
    So for those out there who have your Johnny Mnemonic Spinner and it constantly keeps going back to, like, the horizontal position where the ball just goes under it and doesn't even hit it because it's just weighted poorly, designed poorly, and you have to keep bending it, and then it works for a while, and then it doesn't. You bend it, and it works for a while, and it doesn't. I have a new solution. It's not really new, but it does work. Get a junkyard spinner. Here's Johnny, they say, and smiles in a special way. Johnny, he says. Is that Eldabarge or somebody? Yes, it is. But it was actually Weird Al doing Eldabarge. Okay. It was actually for Johnny Carson. Here's Johnny, they say, and smiles. Dare to be stupid, Bruce. Dare to be stupid. Exactly. Yes. So, yeah, because the Johnny Mock Spinner isn't available anymore either. You can't get it. So I read some posts that Junkyard may work, and I looked at the pictures, and in Junkyard it's in the shooter lane.
    38:13
    But it's literally the same part. It's the same bracket. It's just reversed on Junkyard, so the switch is on the left side. But I couldn't see the angle of the spinner, so I was kind of taking a risk by getting it in case it didn't work, but it did. It literally looks like they just took the giant pneumatic spinner and redesigned it, so instead of an offset going into the spinner, it just goes straight through now, and they kind of weighted it, so it looks way better. It looks like it won't have that issue. I had a long stream with it, and I just hit the shit out of that a ton, and it never had an issue. On spinner millions? Yep. Oh, yeah. That's so fun. What's fun is when you stream and he's like, I'm going to test the spinner, and I do that, and it works great. And it's like, you know, I'm going to end the stream by trying to get to power down. And I proceed to get power down lit on ball two and then can't hit the shot. And then rage killed out on my third ball and end the stream. It's very cool.
    39:08
    If someone wants to highlight my anger, but it was a very rage-chilty yes. I literally moved the whole game. It was no longer in frame in the stream. That's a great way to finish a stream. That is a great way. And then I just calmed down and looked at the camera and said, I think the stream's over.
    39:26
    Oh, I was so pissed. I hate when, I think maybe Papa does it in some places where they make the spinner not spin on purpose. Oh, yeah, they use the rusty spinner from the flood. Yeah. It's just because that's a fun thing to do. I mean, obviously, it makes sense in a tournament. But it's also, I hate spinners that don't spin well. You know, like those plastic spinners. Oh, yes. We are speaking the same language. Yeah, there's like other operators in SF that I go around. Like some of them I know because I run tournaments, and they see that like pinball actually can make money if they maintain them. So at first, you know, they were like annoyed because we would call them every little thing. But now we have a good relationship with some of them. These are like old-time operators, you know, that run like the pool tables, the jukeboxes, and all that other stuff that makes like ten times more money than pinball. And so the closest bar to my house, I go in there, and when the tech's there, because I'll tell him all the problems, then the tech will come at some point, and he'll usually text me, and I'll just walk over there, and then I'll bring my spinner lube and just, like, weave up the spinners. And, you know, it's just, like, I hate crappy spinners. It's just, like, annoying. They should always be, like, rippable. I have my super lube from Radio Shack that will probably last 50 years. Yeah. Because you need so little of it to put on the spinner, it literally will last my entire life. I will never need another tube of this shit. Yeah, that's like the stuff I use. So, you know, the bar has been closed. Everything has been closed for like a year. So when that particular bar opened up recently, you know, we started playing. And surprisingly, most of the spinners were still good after the machines were just sitting, you know, unused for a whole year. It doesn't solidify. That's why it's awesome. Yeah. But, yes, I got a game, Bruce. So which game? Come on. It can't be. Oh, this is a whole saga. Are you ready for the saga? It's like story time. Story time with Ron. So, we began last year where I used my rewards program, my IPA rewards, my discounted game. I choose Jurassic Park Premium. Jurassic Park Premium is made by Keith Elwin. Yes, I want my first Elwin. So, COVID's going on. So, there's major delays. Nothing happens for months. in months and months and months. Well, finally in April, they're built. And if you've been following like Pinside, you can see everyone's getting their Jurassic Park stuff. So they're finally on the line. They got them done. I get the email from IFPA, Josh Sharp. Your game will be ready. Please send the money. So I send the money. And then I don't hear anything for like a week.
    42:10
    Someone going to get a hold of me? Two weeks passed. I get a call on my phone, and I have a Pixel. So it has the Google, like, screening service that I use all the time when a number comes in that I don't know what it is. I activate the screening service, and I see the text coming across. Hi, this is Shelly Sachs from Stern Pinball. Like, oh, fuck. You know, pick it up, pick it up. And she proceeds to tell me that the shipping company called me last week, but I didn't pick up, so they took it as a bad number. And that's a delay in me getting the shit out. So I assure her, like, yes, I will not screen any more calls. This is the correct number. Please ship my game. It shipped that Monday. Let's see. I'll get a timeline here. We are recording on April 18th. So this was April 5th. And sure enough, it shipped. Like, it was ready. FedEx Freight, they used FedEx Freight. They picked it up, and it brought it to their warehouse. And then Tuesday morning, it started making its trek. to my home. And it was weird. It spent like a whole day in Indiana, which is right next to Illinois. Didn't go anywhere. It was delayed. Then it made its way, and then Thursday night, it actually arrived in Schenectady, which is our local FedEx freight office here. So I call them Friday, because I am over-paranoid that I'm going to have another dialed-in episode where they're just going to deliver it without me knowing, without letting me know that it's coming. I call them, and they're like, oh, yeah, it's not even close to being ready yet, and we actually don't do the residential deliveries. We outsource it to the company.
    43:54
    And the guy says, no one's going to deliver this until we call you. That's why we got your number. It's like, okay, what's my number? And I confirm they have the right number. Okay. Do you see where this is going? Bruce probably sees this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Monday, don't get a call. Nothing. Okay. Tuesday, I checked the tracking number, and it says it's due to be delivered that day. Hmm. That's odd. So I go to work, but I figure, like, I'm going to call them and make sure, because the guy said that they're not going to deliver it until they call me, and no one has called me. My screen service was off. I did not miss any calls.
    44:33
    So when I go to call them, I just check the tracking number one more time, and it says, delivered. Like, are you fucking kidding me? Okay, so I call the guy. It's like, yeah, it was delivered. It says it was signed for by me. I'm not there. How did I sign for it?
    44:51
    And he started giving me attitude, which got me pissed. And it's just like, just check it out. It's probably fine. It's like, well, what happens if it's not fine? What if someone put a forklift through it? I didn't sign for it. It's like, oh, but you just call us back. We'll go from there. Really? So I'm thinking, like, you guys delayed this for a fucking week because you said my number was bad because you needed my number so you could call me, and then you never called me anyway.
    45:17
    Yeah. So I go there, and it's, like, overcast out, and I'm like, oh, shit, is it going to rain on it? As I get close to my house, the clouds open up, the sun comes out, and it ended up being a beautiful day.
    45:30
    Yeah, and there's my game sitting in my driveway. Some guy hooking it up. Yeah, yeah. He's going to get up right now to his truck. Yeah.
    45:38
    This is the second time this has happened. The other time was better because they had no updates to the tracking number, and I just got home from work, and the game was sitting in my front door. That was the dialed in. That was cool. So, yes, I get it inside. I'm not working from home, so I had to drive all the way home, 20 minutes, get in the house, and drive back. That's how it started. That's a great story, Ron. Okay, thanks, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm Roger Sharping it here, but I'm not nearly as interesting.
    46:09
    So I set the thing up Thursday. You know, I got the plate filled up. I'm going through all the connectors, making sure nothing fell off. And I actually, I turn it on, I go into switch test, make sure all the switches actually say, you know, the correct thing this time. God, you're really anal now. Yeah, okay. So I start my first game. Okay, here we go. T-Rex is moving. Like, ah, he's working great, cool. I shoot the left ramp, the skill shot. It comes around the left habit trail and gets stuck. Huh? Yeah, stuck, you know, where the hole is where it goes into the in lane. They had the habit trail moved over too far. So it was like hitting the swing. Okay. Okay, well, that happens. Okay, okay. Move that over. Okay, we got that. Okay, so I play a little bit. Okay, skill shot. I hit the left ramp. Doesn't register. Hmm. All right. Hit the left ramp again. Doesn't register. Hmm. All right. Hit the right ramp. comes around and the habit trail, it just clanks all over the place. Like no kind of feed. It just goes all over the place. Like, okay. Then I hit the center spinner, comes around, and flipper hops off the upper flipper. It's like, okay, so here we go. So I had to take the plastic off of the upper flipper, the plastic that's above it, had to take the screw out and bend the guide. And you can see where it was not even straight. It was like already bent. Bent that. Put all that back together. Now that's working. Screw with the habit trail that's on the right ramp. Kind of get that working a little better. Okay.
    47:42
    Still, left ramp just intermittently does not register. Now on a premium and an LE, well, on a pro, there's one opto. It's at the top of the ramp. It's actually behind the back panel. On a premium and LE, there's an extra one at the front. so it knows when to activate the magnet with the T-Rex when he's down.
    48:04
    So I did determine that it was the upper opto that was the problem. And this is where pin side came in handy, because I guess this is a common issue with the optos on this game. And their solution was tape. Actually, I was talking to Zach, our Zach, Isaac, about this, and he must have saw this too, because he mentioned the tape. And I'm like, well, how does this work? Well, you put tape over the hole where the opto goes through, the beam goes through, so it narrows the beam and makes it more sensitive.
    48:31
    Because what I think was happening is it only happened on really hard shots, and I think the wall was going slightly airborne and, like, blowing past the opto. So I went from it working 60% of the time. I put one strip of tape on there. It has worked 100% since then. Ooh, so we're all good. Thanks, Tom. And it's in a back panel section where you can't see the tape at all. Beautiful. Okay. No, that's not all. Oh, that's not. No. Isn't this great? So I hit the Raptor pen, which it's got the motorized bank. It goes down. Lock a ball in there. I ended up not starting Raptor multiball. So when the game's over, it goes down, but it doesn't go down all the way. So the ball's stuck there.
    49:12
    So I can't, like I'm nudging it. It can't get it out. So I got to take, and I realize, I look at it, and it's rubbing against the actual play field. Like when I push on it, then it goes down. It's like not aligned. So I lift the play field up, and I'm looking at that. I can see where the bracket is bent.
    49:27
    Disconnect that. Take it out. Bend the bracket so it's a nice right angle like it's supposed to be. Put it back in. Then that works. But it was up too high. I had to adjust that. It wasn't flush. One of the up posts wasn't flush with the plate feel. I had to fix that. Let's see. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I didn't replace all the coil stops yet. I'm going to see if I see any metal shavings or anything before I do that. I had to realign the two bottom flippers. Other than that, it worked great. Oh, great. It booted. Hey, it booted. It booted.
    50:00
    And the one thing I was worried about is the one thing that was absolutely flawless, which is the freaking T-Rex. He's aligned directly center on the ramp. When his mouth comes down to get the ball, it's supposed to just touch the ramp, and it does.
    50:13
    So I guess I should be happy with that. You should. Anything else? That game is fucking hard. Yes, it is. I didn't realize it was. This is a player's game in every sense of the word. If you miss a lot like I do, you are fucked. You are screwed hard. Everything drains on this thing. And it's got the post. If you're late on that right flipper, forget about it. They're going in the left out lane. It's got the post in the center spot, so it's not even like it's set up, you know, completely hard. And it's just insane. But then you'll hit, like, five shots in a row, and you feel like God. You'll say, oh, this is awesome. You just hit that left ramp, right ramp, side ramp, and it's like everything's good. And I'm looking at this thing, and I see what people mean now, when they can't believe that the bill of materials on an L1 game is the same as other games. Because you look at this thing. It's got four ramps on it. The thing is completely packed. I go over to, like, my Star Wars. It's a piece of shit. Well, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is this receives, like, so much less on the game. And this thing has mechanical action crap going on all over the place. It just seems like this game has to cost more. And Star Wars is a piece of shit. And then there's the T-Rex head. You see that? It's like, how does this thing? Oh, yeah, my T-Rex horizontal movement is loud as hell, but I guess that's normal. It almost sounds like a grinding noise, like it's going to break. But it works fine. It gets really hot back there, that motor. You put your hand in front. You can feel the heat coming off that thing. And that's my Jurassic Park saga. Yeah. Let me just check that off, because that took up half the running time. I'm going to go now into what I've had to repair this past couple weeks. We are finishing up a blackout. We're almost done. We're just finishing up the flippers. So we started going to the games at the co start taking apart big game a little bit It boots up I hit the flipper for the first time And I look and the ball is stuck Like you know how you can almost zipper flipper a big game but you can't because there's metal brackets behind the upper flipper. So you cannot lose a ball between the upper and lower flipper on either side, except for when your bracket breaks.
    52:31
    Ooh. Yeah. Yeah, I lucked out on that because Pinball Resource had him in his, what does he call it, bargain basement bin, like just extra stuff I have hanging around. Yeah. I have two broken. Both are broken. Ooh. So guess what I got to make this week? Metal guides. You got it. So that's my fun. Yay. And just getting that blackout done so I can actually give it to the customer and make some money.
    53:01
    Make some money. Sorry. And then we have our new project, which is going to be a playfield swap for an 8-ball.
    53:09
    Nice. Yeah, an 8-ball. Mm-hmm. They sold a lot of them, Bruce. It's very popular. It is very popular. It's the second most popular machine ever. Mm-hmm.
    53:20
    So, Gene, we have a question for you, and we ask every contestant on the Slideshow podcast. Yes, contestant. What game do you like and game do you hate? It can't be one you own. Okay. Well, so I was trying to think of games I hate because I don't hate a lot of games. There's some that I hate for tournaments, and then the initial answer that came to my head was Adam's Family because I don't really like that game. And then because I was at the museum, there's actually this other game called Slap the Japs that I also hate that came out during World War II, and it's got this racist imagery and blah, blah, blah on it. So that's the other game that I hate. For a game I like that I don't know, let's see what... I was like, I got to look at my, like, wish list, because they'll probably find something... I'm trying to think of something that's less common, because, like, I like things that everybody likes, like Whirlwind or Frontier or Countdown. Bruce doesn't like Frontier. Stargazer. Everybody loves Stargazer, right? Love Stargazer. I would love to get that, but I will say... Oh, I'll say Flash Dragon, because it's a game that had a Polaroid camera built into the back glass, and if you got a high score, it would take your photo and eject it out. So I'm trying to find one of those. But it doesn't play very well, but I like the integration of the Polaroid camera. Nice. You mean that Jersey Jack didn't invent that? No. 1986 Playmatic. Wow.
    54:48
    And, of course, it was going to be used before that with Bally. Oh, yeah? Yep. And that's where they got the idea for Journey, for the digitalized heads in Journey, the video game. Oh. They were originally going to have that stuff where one of your faces, the bouncer, was going to be a picture taken of your face. And you were going to be the bouncer blocking the guys.
    55:10
    So you would be the bad guy against Journey. So if you hated Journey, this would be the perfect game. No, you were actually the bouncer blocking all the people trying to split up Journey. Oh, okay, okay. Yes, you were the bouncer. It'd be funny as hell if it was the other way, though. It would be. Okay. So, we have another fun thing we like to do with our guests.
    55:28
    What's that, Bruce? That sounded bad. What are we doing with Gene? Gene, you like? No. What's our favorite thing? Would I or would I not buy that? Oh, no. We have eBay.
    55:43
    Okay. Bruce has been prepared, more prepared than usual. Yes, well, you know, this is a very special guest. He's one of our longtime listeners. So, Bruce is prepared more. Remember that, other guests. You suck.
    55:58
    Okay. For those out there who don't know what this is, and you're driving in your car and can't look at it anyway, so I'll do my best to describe this for you. Yeah, we go to eBay and we look up stuff that either looks like a good deal or is not, and sometimes is really not. Basically, it's just a cool way to bash shit on eBay. And we like doing that. Yep. Hate is what makes us stronger.
    56:22
    Yes. Your hands are made to be powerful. Are you ready for the first ticket number? Yes. 1-9-3-2-1-5-0-5-5-9-5-3.
    56:40
    Spirit of 76. Yeah, yeah, micromanufacturing. I just think of micromachines. Micromachines, micromachines, micromachines. Spirit of 76 is the spirit of America.
    56:52
    Micromanufacturing. pinball machine rare it's rare it says so it says so it's in baden pennsylvania local pickup only 100 positive feedback it's rare bruce it says it three times rare rare rare with exclamation points for true collector or museum only three known to exist of 127 made this one is in great shape and works.
    57:22
    Has an extra set of plastics, which is amazing for a game if they only need three of them. That's the most impressive thing in my opinion.
    57:29
    But it's rare. Greco Amusements. Alright. Let's see the picture. Maybe it's a really cool play-tip. Interesting. It's got an American flag because it is Spirit 76.
    57:44
    Merk! Weird board looking. Yeah. Good luck if it has a bracelet. A wonderful cabinet. It has no art. It's just like blue.
    57:53
    The coin door is just bizarre. It was made in Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah. That's weird. I never heard of this. I never heard of this either. Let's see. It's a weird shit. It's got pop-upers with stand-ups directly in front of them. Yes. So you can't actually shoot the stand-ups. You would have to somehow get it in there, and the pop-upers would hit the stand-ups. Yep. Okay. That is weird. It's very weird? It would be neat in a museum setting. I agree. Would it be $6,550 neat? No.
    58:27
    Gene? No. Okay. We have three no's. I mean, if you're a rich museum owner. Yeah, if you're a rich museum owner. Yeah, I saw that. I was like, holy for holies. Okay, Ron. Next one. 1-3-3-7-0-2-6-5-2-3-0-0.
    58:52
    Ooh. New Stern pinball, early solid state playfield spinner, nine ball, cheetah, and more. I love how they say nine ball when that's a game that wouldn't fit in.
    59:04
    Is that the first thing? That's the first thing. It literally wouldn't fit in that game. It looks like it's the Seabird spinner. Mm-hmm. And it's upside down. Mm-hmm. That's the first thing. And on the back of it, it's blank. Yeah. That's a no-no.
    59:22
    So you're saying this isn't original? No, it's not original. He says it's a reproduction. Yeah. But the problem is he didn't reproduce it properly because on the backside, there's blue stars supposed to be on the backside of it. There's like eight or nine blue little stars. Yeah. Yeah, at this era of Spinner, I've never seen one that the back is blank. No. It always has something on it. So he says, these were used in early solid-state machines, new reproductions which have several coats of clear to protect the artwork. Well, problem is you didn't put artwork on the back side of it, so it's only one side you have artwork on. And he wants $45 for it, so it's probably not even weighted properly. $46 per. Man. Well, if you get three, it's $43. Oh, oh, clearly. Yes. If you get one, you know. But the problem is you don't even know if it's weighted right. It's probably not. Because each, we've proven in the past, each spinner is weighted differently, each brand. Bally's were weighted differently, Godley's were weighted differently, and so was Stern's. So you're saying since it's probably upside down and has no art in the back, you're not going to say that the weighting is correct because it probably isn't. And when it says nine ball in the description, when this would not fit on a nine ball, because nine ball is a custom spinner. Yeah. I wish they would bring back those overhang spinners. Oh, it would be great. They did. They're in a bunch of games. Metallica has them. Metallica has them, yeah. Technically, Jurassic Park is an overhang spinner. Okay. I like them just, like, hanging up, you know. Hang on the side. I got you. Yeah. Then Iron Man technically uses them that way. So that's a fail, isn't it, guys? Fail. Yes, it's a fail. Okay. Let's put it this way, Bruce. Devil's advocate here. Say it looks perfect, and it's from some vendor you've heard of before or something. Say it's just absolutely perfect. You'd actually pay $46 for a spinner. I've paid more. Wow. I don't know about the best. Okay. I bought four of them for about $50 each. Wow. Well, they were brand new NOS Stern ones that were wrapped. And they were the proper Seabird with the blue stars. You are hardcore. I am hardcore Stern. All right. I like my Sterns.
    61:48
    Ticket number 313-447-730-294. Uh-oh. Hard body. I've been looking for a hard body pinball. He had his paws there for a second. Yes, he did. Looking for a hard body. Pinball.
    62:11
    Full restoration, free shipping. That's always good. Free shipping. Out of Georgia. All positive feedback here. That's not the original back glass, I'm assuming. No, it is not. Because, yeah, lots of silicone on that back glass. Yes, there is. And not the original side arms. Oh, not the original side arms? No, that's the original side arms. Some color door. That's the side arms original. I didn't think it was. I thought there was only one girl. There's only one girl. No. I don't think that's original. Okay. But it looks like the same setup. It looks like the same style. The same setup. There's only one girl that's usually on the hard body, not all these other girls. Yeah, I think it's not original because that's like Corey Everson and some other people that I don't think they probably had the license for. Yeah. Yeah, and he shows the whole restoration. Oh, that is Corey Everson. so there's lots of great pictures of the cabinet not the cabinet proper the proper cabinet it should be say valley william valley midway on it oh yeah it's that old style yeah with a little pinball well they made it look better they have one shot of the playfield yeah with the glass on yes every other shot is of the cabinet or the back glass to show the new art and to show how they did it what is going on with those flippers they like really yellowed Or is that the plastic protector over it? Yeah, I don't, yeah. That's my bar.
    63:38
    Protecting it. And that's the original color of the play field. That is hideous. Is that the play field or is that a plastic going over the top of everything? I don't know. I've never seen that before. It's really weird. It's weird. It's like a plastic over it. Well, it is $3,000.
    63:55
    Free shipping? Free shipping from Georgia. I'm going to take $300 right off that, so it's really $2,700 for a hard body. Do you feel hard enough for this body? Do you?
    64:07
    It actually says rebuild, re-theme in the description, to be fair. No battery. NVRAM. Game has full LED job. Woo, thank God. New LED scoreboards. Woo.
    64:20
    New chrome rails. New legs. He has YouTube videos. You can watch it in action. I always like that. Yeah. I can watch the hard bodies in action. I guess if you like this re-theme and you really want a hard body, Nike socks off. There you go.
    64:35
    Okay. Yeah, I just want to get an original one, so I would not buy this one. Yes, I would rather have an original one, too. Or just get a BMX and have the original. Original. You mean ET? Yes, ET. Oatle, Oatle.
    64:47
    Next ticket number one. How many of these are there, just so our audience knows and I know? There's two or three more. Calm down. Okay.
    64:55
    It was all not for the audience. It was just for him. Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Exactly. So don't blame it on the audience. 133-727-931-643.
    65:11
    Oh, you're doing all these today, Bruce. Yes. I am. The fully restored Stern Dracula pinball machine, $6,500. I don't think anything is original on this machine. Alpine, California, 100% positive feedback. Let's look at these pictures. Ooh. Wow. Looks pretty nice. Black trim. Looks good.
    65:38
    Wow. Paint jobs. Good displays. It looks pretty sweet. That's the nicest stern Dracula I've ever seen. Yeah, I, I, wow. No wear on the upper part where he usually wears. Didn't take the glass off for his overhead shots. You got it. Love that. But the paint job, damn.
    65:58
    Yeah. Side art looks good. Pretty. Even the apron looks good. Yes. So, and it's free, free. Free flat rate shipping.
    66:09
    Let's see the description here. I mean, this has definitely been a full, full restoration. Elite. It's done by Elite Pinball Restorations.com. Everything is new. New, new, new, new, new. It is $6,500. No I appreciate the work And it looks like beautiful But it's a stern Dracula You know Let's be real What would you think Would be reasonable For this Actually redoing the entire game Maybe $3,500 pushing in So you would go $3,000 Yeah. Not for this machine. I hate it. Well, yeah. Aw, track, it was good. It's okay. It's very nice. Harry Williams, baby. I'd like to see the back of the back glass, actually. I wish he had a picture of that. Yeah. Because that back glass is always totally wasted. Okay, just the last one, Ron. Oh, yes. I mean, aw. This is going to be the talk of the week on Pennside. Oh, okay. Ticket number 124682.
    67:21
    524. It's 397. Yeah, we haven't got to the ball bag yet, but one of our listeners brought this up. Yes, it's on eBay. It's also on Craigslist, too. There's a Craigslist listing. This is out of Hillsdale, New Jersey. It is a rethemed Cybernaut. It was rethemed as Beatles.
    67:48
    Basically, it was, he got it at Beatlefest in New Jersey. It was made for that one year. If you couldn't afford $9,000 for a Beatles, you can get this one. Well, here we go. It works, followed by the very next word. It works. One LED is out on player two. It will need a cleaning and possibly an adjustment and hasn't been used in a while. Then it doesn't work. Yes.
    68:12
    Listeners, you have to look at this. Look this one up. because here's what they did. They put the Sgt. Pepper Beatles on the back glass, but instead of just using the actual picture, they had someone paint, like, old Beatles, like how they looked, you know, 20, 30 years later, like 40-year-old Beatles in the Sgt. Pepper outfits. Yeah. And it looks silly. You have, you know, George Harrison looks ancient. Yes. John Lennon's dead. John Lennon should be in a coffin right there.
    68:50
    Well, it's basically how he looked in 1980. And then you have Ringo Starr with the full beard with all the gray in it and all that. Basically how he looks now. Because Ringo doesn't age for some reason. And it's a cybernaut.
    69:03
    And let's see. The tape on the back has to hold the back. I need this. How much is it again? $2,500? Now, that's actually not too bad. I love how they made different plastics for it, though, too. Yeah, I mean, it's not like it's $6,000. If you want to pay $6,500 for the Beatles machine, you can have the next best thing for $2,500.
    69:27
    Is that back box different, though? It looks like a Gottlieb or something. No, I think that's a Bally. That's actually a Bally. The shitty, yeah. Yeah. Now, I love what they put on the play field. If you look at the play field, there's actually stickers on the play field. I know. It's kind of like a kid Like if you let your kid You're like hey You want to make This pinball machine Whatever you want And they just like Cut out back beans And tape them on the game Yeah It's bad They couldn't get the Like they did the Sergeant Pepper But then they have Earlier pictures of them Like on the swings Yep Doesn't really match Or maybe Like 64 65 Yeah So it's Wow Yeah Um Nope No.
    70:14
    And it's a shitty game. Cybernaut sucks. Well, it's not good. Okay. There you go, Ron. That's impressive. I got everything today. I'm sorry. You didn't want to buy anything. No, I didn't want to buy anything.
    70:29
    Bruce, Tournament Pinball is back. It is. The Great Lakes Open happened yesterday and Friday. It did. At what's it called? District 82 in Wisconsin. People all over the country came. Yes. They had a classics tournament, which was won by the guy who owns District 82,
    70:47
    which is obviously a good player because he was going against – you had Raymond Davidson was there, number one player in the world.
    70:57
    Colin McAlpine was there. The one? Yeah, that was – that got me thinking. It's like the guy who's running the tournament and owns the facility won the classics. Mm-hmm. That's Ron Speppi. Yeah. That's Ron Speppi. Yeah. Yes, stop winner, Bruce. Yes. And you won, too, didn't you? Thank you. I was waiting for you to come back with that. Of course. Yeah, I won because I was told to play by the people in the tournament. Literally, the players said, you have to play in this. Like, really? Like, the players in the tournament are telling me I have to play. Gunpoint. They put them all at gunpoint, Gene. They said, you better play or else. That happened twice. The second time, they, like, we'll pay your entry fee. Like, what? the hell? Why? Everyone loves you, Ron. They want the TGP. Yeah, they wanted the points. They needed one more player. No, they wanted to hang out with you personally. No, they wanted the points. They're whopper whores.
    71:48
    Yeah. So, yes, it was a great late-stage offense. You had the Classics, and then the main tournament, which they did it the same way that, I think, Indisc did their Thursday tournament, where they do 3-2-1 scoring. They have four-player groups, and the first player to 30 wins it all. Target match play. Yep, target match play there. Thank you. Plus other side tournaments I heard about. Oh, I didn't see any of those. It was streamed on Fox City Spinball. And the interesting thing is when it got to a certain point near the end, they were following the top group every round. So it ended up being Keith Owen, Raymond Davidson, and Colin McAlpine, and whoever the fourth person was who would end up in last and get booted. And then another person would come in the next one, and then they'd get booted like the last three or four rounds. That's kind of fun to be that fourth person every once in a while. I love to be that fourth person. Yeah. I did that once at a tournament in Northwest. I forget if it was Northwest Pinball Arcade Show, but I got fourth, and I think it was Keith and Bowen and another Northwest guy, but I was just happy to be in the top four. Yeah, I've been in those groups before. Isn't that great? It's like you're, why am I here? You're like, no, if I don't end up last, it's a win. It's a win. If you catch anything, go to Fox City Pinball. Fox, pinball, Fox Cities pinball and look for the, I think it was the second to last round, it was Shadow they were playing and Keith had like 2 billion and Colin was player 4 got 200 million and he grinds, he basically does vengeance over and over and over and it gets super vengeance after super vengeance then he drains just short but wins on the bonus Yes. Wow. Unbelievable. That's awesome. Most incredible game of shadow I've ever seen.
    73:38
    Congratulations to Raymond Davidson, who won. Yay. He won again. Went to the show. Oh, and I forgot they had the Skins. Yes, they did. I forgot that the Skins was Friday. What am I thinking? They had the Classics. Yeah, I'm losing it, man. They had the Skins. And that was won by, Raymond won the most money. Yes, he did. Which is illegal in the state of Wisconsin. Sorry, did I say that out loud? Winning money is illegal? No, gambling and pinball is illegal in the state of Wisconsin. How is that gambling? Because they're all putting money towards a generalized pot that they can be won at the end of each ball.
    74:16
    It's gambling. How does that scheme work? What happens is you have a goal score, like match or beat. And if nobody beats it, the money rolls over to the next game. So you have to pay each game like $5. Yeah, yeah. $20. If you ever watched golf skins, the money is provided, but this was pinball, so we can't. We had to provide our own money. Yeah, so it's $20 per person per game. Yeah. So they each was putting money in. If you couldn't meet the goal score in the number of balls. It was pinball. Yeah. And if you got it, like player one gets the goal and no one else gets it, they get the money. But if player two gets the goal, then they go on to the next hole. Yes. Or if nobody gets it, they go on to the next hole. Yeah, they go on to the next hole, and then it builds. Builds. and at one point Raymond got up to $460 or $450 or something like that. It's like extreme dollar games. Yes, they were extreme dollars. They were nosebleed extreme.
    75:10
    Travis Murray, he won a hole or two holes, and I think Ray won everything else. Yeah. The other two players got nothing.
    75:19
    So they were putting money in and basically, I guess it is gambling in that they just put money in and lost. Yeah, Ray was thanking them every time. Hey, thank you guys. Thanks, yeah. You're giving me gas money now. Now you're giving me food money. But the only thing I want to bring up, I need to defend the honor of one of my favorite games.
    75:39
    In one of the rounds, they were playing Lethal Weapon 3, which I guess they said Raymond had never played it before. What? Yes. He didn't know about the gun during the scenes, like getting the gun. Oh. But they made a comment that, you know, you don't see many of these, and probably for good reason. And I'm like, okay, wait a minute. This was Lethal Weapon 3. This is the second most popular, most manufactured Data East game that was ever made. You see them at every show. They made over 10,000 of these games. They made more Lethal Weapons than Stern, Zerzy Jack, Spooky, have made any title combined ever, including old Stern. How dare you diss the greatest Data East game of all time? And it's got like some official-ish re-themes, right? Like the Richie Rich and Michael Jordan.
    76:34
    Richie Rich was Tommy. Yes, Tommy. It was Michael Jordan and Aaron Spelling. Yes. And, yeah, that's it. Yeah, but I just want to defend the honor of Lethal Weapon 3, the greatest data East game. I just felt it had to be said. It had to be said. Yep. Checking that off. I literally have that here. Lethal Weapon 3, defend.
    76:59
    Wow. Ready for the ball bag? I love the ball bag. I sure you do. And we've got a lot of them. A lot of ball bags. Because we have the contest. The contest of all contests. And we have a winner. We have a winner, but we're going to go through all the answers, and then we're going to tell you who the winner was. So for those who don't remember, last week. Two weeks. American. Oh, two weeks ago. Yeah. I keep thinking we're weekly for some reason. Day 5, the American dream of American pinball baby. He had a Houdini print baby. A Houdini print that you could win if you answered my question, which, of course, I made it completely on pinball related. I made it Beavis and Butthead related. And the question was, what was the name of the sperm bank that Beavis and Butthead donated to? And we did get a winner.
    77:51
    And here are some of the answers. So Antonio says Enjoy the show fellas For the contest entry the name of the sperm bank On Beavis and Butthead was Helping Hand Sperm Bank That's his answer I'm not going to say if it's wrong or right yet Was he the first one in? He was the first one in I'm doing this in order Then Miles says Dr Rod Johnson Thanks for the awesome show So he thinks it Dr Rod Johnson Okay Then Dan says stork in a bottle sperm bank
    78:22
    Okay. Wow, three different answers up to three questions. Parnell says, I think the sperm bank was called stork in a bottle sperm bank. So we got two for stork in a bottle. Okay. Alan says, the sperm bank was called helping hand sperm bank, and the doctor was called Dr. Rod Johnson. Probably never thought you'd hear this much about sperm on a pinball podcast. I expected it for this one.
    78:51
    Jody and Steve say, helping hand sperm bank. So if we're going by a sheer amount in answers, helping hand seems to be a lot. Let's see. Sean says, I figure I'm late, but the offices of Dr. Rod Johnson.
    79:08
    So we've got three different runners now. Then we have, let's see, Neil says, answer, stork in a bottle, sperm bank.
    79:20
    Okay, so another one for stork in a bottle. Jonathan says, offices of Dr. Rod Johnson. Probably too late, but I love free stuff. Love the podcast. Thanks for keeping me in the loop on all things pinball. You're welcome, Jonathan. Thank you. And we have Chris says, answer to your question, stork in a bottle sperm bank.
    79:43
    So the answer to this question, the answer is stork in a bottle sperm bank. Congratulations to Dan on your Houdini print. I think what threw people is that there is two sperm banks mentioned in the episode. The name of the episode is called Sperm Bank. And at the beginning of the episode, Beavis and Butthead are watching TV, like they always are. and they see a news story about the Helping Hand Sperm Bank and their president, Dr. Rod Johnson. And the reporter wants to know where they're getting their sperm, and Dr. Rod Johnson's, like, locked in the bathroom when the reporter's on the outside. And it's like, what are you doing in there?
    80:21
    It's like, nothing. So, yes, that's where they get the idea, like, we could do that. But they didn't go to that one. I was hoping someone would call me out because technically I'm not 100% correct and that I said, Beavis and Butthead donate sperm. Only Butthead donated the sperm. Because Beavis forgot to use a container.
    80:42
    Yes. So, congratulations to Dan. Congratulations to Dan. Enjoy your marriage. Is Family Guy the only pinball that has sperm in it? Ball. Yeah, probably. Sperm attack mode. Oh, does Rick and Morty have it? No. No? Quicksilver. Oh, Jesus Christ. Yes, green sperm, I guess.
    81:07
    Wow. We have other answers to the ball, babe. Scott, our Scott says, about P-Rock, no schematics? Fuck that.
    81:23
    He's not a fan of not having schematics. Oh, boy, I'm not either. He said Johnny Mnemonic spinner, try a Gottlieb one. Oh, God. I feel worse. You put the plastic one in there if you really wanted to nerf it.
    81:36
    Oh, man. Okay. Plus, I don't want to miss anyone here. Eric Russell? Eric. Which one is it? CNY, I think. He says he – I won't forbade him to, but basically he says he's on the same page with us about the UV kit, and he was considering getting the Stranger Things Premium. Yeah. But when the UV kit wasn't available anymore, it just ended his interest. Stern. If Stern isn't going to make any more UV kits, then they should just stop producing the title and move on. I agree. I played the pro version on location a decent amount and have no interest in the stock setup. It's premium with UV kit or nothing. Stern, you need to generate interest even in this game more. Make another round of UV kits. Then you will sell out the rest of your inventory easily. Yeah. I mean, because you should do the thing where you make it so it's not available and everyone wants it, then make it available and see if that works. If it does, you have another marketing strategy. Let's say we're ending production when we're not. Yeah. Eric also wanted to mention that he likes the direction American Pinball is heading in.
    82:43
    Their commitment to building quality products and good serviceability that Dave spoke about. I will definitely be giving them more attention for future game purchases, especially as new titles get released. We've got a thank you from Dave. Yes, we've got a thank you from Dave. And the other Dave, Mr. Fix himself. That's right, baby. There's so many Daves, it's getting confusing, baby. But there's only one American dream of American pinball. That's David Fix, baby. You can't wait for our new game. It's going to be coming out soon.
    83:09
    Hopefully. Hopefully some game comes out soon. It's like game withdrawal. Like, where are the games at? I don't know. We're getting spoiled. Remember when there used to be one a year or two and it was Stern only? Yeah. Mm-hmm.
    83:22
    Let's see. Last email we have from Mike. Mike, he's local to me. He says, hey, Ron and Bruce, first off, I love the podcast. I want to submit a great buy for your show. And he sent a Craigslist from New Jersey for that Beatles machine.
    83:38
    Nice. He says, super cool. They broke into the Valley Line. Well, a 1985 Cybernaut was in development to steal it, to customize it. He says he's looking to, he wants some advice, He's looking to do a pretty casual tournament at his place with seven System 11 games. He's really into System 11. Okay. And this is what he's got. He's got High Speed. This is Lion Man. I assume that's Swords of Fury.
    84:04
    Whirlwind, Earthshaker, Taxi, Black Knight 2000, Bad Cats, Space Station, and Pinbot. All great games except for one issue. Well, I know that's nine, but I feel like a couple of them aren't particularly tourney-friendly. None of them are. Probably Earthshaker and Black Knight 2000. But open to your recommendations. So which seven, if you had to choose seven, which would you pick? I can't. You have to make one adjustment on each game.
    84:35
    Fixed jackpots. Oh, okay. Forgiving the progressive jackpot stuff because it's going to be just a – think of it from ball time, not fairness in this case. It's a small thing, Bruce. I think any one of those titles except for Bad Cats it's a terrible game because it hits the ramp your score goes really crazy it's a one hit wonder you're breaking up Bruce sorry Bad Cats definitely bad one hit wonder with the ramp there's nine games so you gotta eliminate two I know I'm saying that's one of them I'd eliminate Black Knight 2000 I love Black Knight 2000 No, it's way too long. I would eliminate Black Knight 2000 and Bad Cat. I'd actually keep her, shake her in. Yes. Even though they'll probably shoot the ramp over and over and over. If you miss the ramp on that one, it's most likely going to be a little harder to control. On the Bad Cat, you know, it's just...
    85:36
    It does say, one more time. Meow, meow, meow, meow. I love that. Meow, meow, meow, meow. And again, it's high. how many ramps you can hit in a row. That could be the contest for one of the side games. What does Gene think of System 11 games? I love System 11 games. I really want to get a whirlwind. I played in the System 11 World Championships. That's the thing that was in New Zealand. New Zealand? Oh, man. Awesome. Even Millionaire?
    86:06
    I don't think that was in because they didn't have – I think there was like a bank of – it wasn't all every single System 11, although he has, I think, everything. I know Mr. Pack has a millionaire. That's kind of like the ongoing, the running joke. It's like every system will have a game, even millionaire.
    86:22
    Oh, that game. The skill thought on that is kind of neat with the weird little thing. Yes. That's the only neat thing about that game. That is true. That game is so bad. I remember I played that at Automated Distributor in Connecticut. That's when I went there. I wanted to play Donald N to try to solidify my head whether I wanted one and he had a lot of other games there and one of them was Millionaire. I played it for I don't know 20-30 minutes and it was still like on ball one after God knows how many multi-balls and I just drained and gave up.
    86:57
    Yuck. Yeah. Yuck. All right. Any advice as to this tournament? It's going to be in Troy, New York, Bruce. Cool. I'm there. You're there? You're going to come all the way down? It's on Sunday.
    87:11
    Guess what? I don't have to work Monday until 2 p.m. Oh, well, there you go. So I can sleep over and then drive in. So, yes, Mike, we might be coming. Yeah. It's a distinct possibility. I'd be there for that. All right. We will sign autographs for $27.50 each. Sign autographs.
    87:29
    Oh, man. So, all right. Let's see. I got through the ball bag. I got through everything else. Oh, one more note. our Scott, our very own Scott, he's coming up to pick the roller games up next month. And he wants to challenge me. He wants to have some streamed, you know, match play action, or streamed head-to-head action. But I'm thinking he should play Stu instead.
    87:56
    What do you think? Ooh, I think so. Maybe he gets some three-way action in there. Oh, geez. because if you remember, I already beat him at Allentown a few years ago. We had our matchup. I even had the last game of it filmed. You can see him drain out on Future Spa and me. And shake it. Yeah, and then anger tilt it, yes. I talked to Stu, and Stu, he wants to play Scott because Scott once won the Allentown tournament, so he wants to play Scott and show him who the man is. because Stu McVicker, the 1978 Playboy Lodge Party Champion, who plays at my house, he's undefeated at level zero, my arcade.
    88:37
    He's putting that challenge out to you, Scott. Will you accept? Please, I'll see. All right. I wish we had. You see, if we had Zach on, he was telling me he has trivia. He does. He's been waiting, but he wants to do it just head-to-head. Oh, yes. It's two-person trivia. Two-person trivia. I offered for a three-way, and he did not like that. Oh, jeez.
    89:03
    What about, like, a feature? Because I always like, you know, there's been times where you guys have talked to other folks about games, and I love, like, the manual kickback, which is not on a lot of games, and I doubt they'll bring that back because of cost or whatever, but other things like that on old games. Would you like the C comeback? Well, I definitely like manual kickback. I don't think that's realistic, but maybe, like, very targets. I like the little bullseye targets they had on the EMs where, like, if you hit, it's basically like a stand-up, but there's a little metal pin in the middle. So if you hit the target, you know, not on the center, you get X value. But if you hit it directly, you're going to push both the pin in and the target, and so you get more points for accurately hitting the target. But I'm sure, like, all these things cost too much or something. Well, I would like to see, because every game I've seen it on, I just don't like it, but I think it could be used in a different way. The swinging target. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like a space mission and on, like, Black Pyramid. It's always, like, you never hit it. Yeah, it's in the middle. Black Pyramid, you never hit it. You just hit the orbits. But it's a target that moves. I think you could do something cooler with that. Especially if you could register where you're hitting it so that it does, you know. I don't know how those normal ones work because all those games you basically don't go for it. But, yeah, I think that's it. Yeah, have like a, I don't know, a bash toy or some kind of thing. Like, yeah, hit me, hit me, and you have to actually hit the target, or it doesn't count as a hit. I like another idea. Here's a good idea. You know how in the older games originally you only had one flipper that would do the lane change and only go one way? Yeah, like bear court. Yeah, like that kind of stuff. What you can do is actually in certain modes change it so you can only go backwards, you know, so it's not just the typical you hit it right or you hit it left, you know. it reverses what you're used to being expected or like say the right flipper does the left and the left flipper does right so yeah but you do it with the lane change so you go to the right and it goes left instead yeah exactly that'd be kind of cool too like something to screw you up totally in certain modes like mode change like you know mode mode change or something better you know lane change like if there was a way that you could because one of the best things about whirlwind is if you could stage flip the side ramp and like if there was a way to know that you had a ball caught. I think there's a game with, I think it's Oktoberfest, it has that juggler mode, and I don't even know what you're supposed to do in it, because I don't know that game well, but if you had a thing where you had to, like, you know, keep a ball, like, you're trying to keep one ball trapped, but the thing is, you know, the game doesn't know if you have a ball trapped, because there's not a switch there, but some way to make you do, you know, things with the balls, specifically, to get points or something. I don't know how you'd actually make that happen. It's possible, but something like that, something different. Yeah. Or you know how some of the old games would have, like, you'd take down a bank of targets and do this, like, a rubber stamp. I think something registered. So, like, that could, you know, like, maybe you try not to hit that target or something. So, you know, like, make it not necessarily negative, but, like, it does something to affect the state of the game or something. Well, this isn't an old game, but it was an old game feature they brought back. The boom balloon, you know, you have pop-up or underneath the play field, it pops up. that was actually from an older game but or how about remember Algar that stupid ball thing on the right maybe bring that back but for a much less shitty game they sort of had that didn't they sort of have that on Ghostbusters they had the loopy that's a cool idea I think it's just how you leverage it implement it cool stuff with that sure What other things could you do with captive balls? Do I hit it on Centaur? You hit it, and if you hit it hard enough, it hits another target. Yeah, that'd be cool. Oh, I got one. I want to see this implemented better. They did it in Dungeons & Dragons.
    93:06
    A ramp to inline drop targets. That was cool. I agree. Although they put it way in the back, which was actually kind of smart, because if it was too close to you, it would probably just come right back down the middle when you hit it. Yeah. but yeah I like those like scoopy scoop locky things not scoop but saucer lock things like in hoops and stuff you know like they have a yeah yeah holds the ball and then you do something else and then it kicks it out like a ton later yeah after the first switch it has so many seconds before it kicks it out or stuff that plays with the ball more I hate to bring up Circus Voltaire again but and a lot of some old EMs used to do this you have multiple saucers and it kicks it from one saucer to another saucer mhm you know like um Vector does that. Like, you hit it, and then it kicks it to another saucer, and it kicks it to another saucer. I thought that was super cool. It would have been cool, yeah, like a new game where you'd have to build up some jackpot, and if you hit it on the far end one, then it gives you, like, the mega. If you hit all three holes value, you get, like, 3x super jackpot or something, and if it lands in the middle one, you only get double or whatever. There was an EM that had, like, three saucers, and they're, like, in the center of the playfield, and you hit it in the one, and it would, like, kick it to the one next to it, and then kick it to the one next to it, and then kick it out. Yeah, they had that. I think it had five, actually. I played that one because they used to have it at a bar, a pizza place. I forget what it's called. It has a couple different names for the multiple bird. Here's another one. I think this was only used on Congo.
    94:30
    Multidirectional Vuk. Yes. Well, no. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you look at this, it is a custom mech in every sense of the word. You look at the thing, it's got like two ends of it. It can fire the Vuk one direction or fire it in another direction. Well, Star Trek has something like that, though. Star Trek has a... No, no. Because if they could pivot it, it would... It has a buck and an eject. So it can either just eject it out of the hole or shoot it straight up. I'm talking about it shoots it up in the air, but multiple directions. Yeah, that's super cool, because you could do a lot with that in a game now. I mean, I like all those things that change, like on Shadow, changing the ramps and things like that are cool. Or just the kick out. What is it? Flash Gordon. multi-directional kick out. Oh, yeah. Down or up. That seems like that wouldn't be that expensive. Yeah, that seems like it wouldn't. It's just another Mac, but maybe you only get that on the premium.
    95:26
    I actually like the spinners on the ramp like on Kingpin because if you shoot the ramp really clean, especially if you've got a nice lubed-up spinner, you know, that should just give you way more value versus like hitting the ramp if it kind of rattles in it or something. I like that. But hopefully we have designers listening to us, taking down our ideas, basically just telling us to rip off older games.
    95:51
    Some of the ideas are good. Yeah. Like, look at what Keith did with the rules with AIG. You mean the Avengers in the subway they had all the issues with? No, I'm talking about the drop targets. Okay. Yeah, it's kind of cool. And if you did it in the theater rules. You mean the great drop targets? Yep. Like in what? Yeah, you're thinking of Cheetah, but I think that was more an homage to Ripley's. It was the Cheetah a little bit. Okay.
    96:19
    And more features where you don't want to complete something. That's another one I want. I've said that many times before. Like in Stargazer, you get two of the targets in the target bank down, and the spinner value is maxed, but if you hit the third one, it resets it back to nothing. Or Nineball, where you're trying to go around the roundabout, but you don't want to go around too many times or it just resets it back to nothing. There's simpler things you can understand that you don't need a freaking abacus to destroy. I mean, playing Jurassic Park is so complicated. There's so much crap going on on that game. I made the mistake of trying to read the rule sheet to it on forums, and it's like five pages long. Like, oh, my God. It melted your brain. It melted my brain. It's like, I'm just going to play this thing. Like, I was trying to figure out how do you relight the kickback? I think it's the spinner. After you hit the spinner, it might be the pops, but basically you get it back up top. And then for a while, they'll be blinking, and then you have to hit them while they're blinking, and they'll time out. I think something like that. To relight the escape on the left, you have to go up the spinner weakly. So instead of going in the pops, it goes in that lane that's before the pops. That will light the light escape target on the lower left, which will time out, and then you have to hit it. It's like, damn, that's a lot to relight that. You've got to go up. It's got to go through that lane, which it's not going to do if you hit it with the right flipper. It's going to go all the way around. So you almost have to hit the left flipper. But in a way, I think that's kind of cool that if you hit it with the right flipper, it goes all the way around. But when I hit it with the left flipper, because of the angle, it makes it take that lane instead. So it's like two shots with one shot. I think that's pretty cool. The play field is tremendous. It just takes a lot of tweaking because it's so complicated. Yeah, you can almost combo like every single shot on the game at once. one long. I don't think you can get every single one because probably the Raptor pit area, but you can almost combo, you know, left ramp to right ramp to inner loop to side ramp to far right ramp to... When I'm thinking it, I'm thinking to myself, man, imagine what a really good player could do with this game. Yeah, exactly. If I get the super... Like, you know, if you get the left ramp to right ramp, if I get that happy, and I always just go for the side ramp because the side ramp's easier, I can't get that inner loop, but I usually hit the inner loop by accident, but Yeah, that game feels good if you can string together three shots. Yeah. You feel awesome. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm going to kill this game. And then I just train. Wah, wah. All right, Bruce. We've come up with old, new stuff. Can you see us, folks? Manufacturers, listen to us. Get on it. Yep. And all the features we said, it's not even coding. It's like people can actually physically see it, so understand what the hell's going on. That's another cool thing. Well, some of it's coding. my flipper, you know, the reverse for plane change. But that would be easy. That would be very easy. Out of all of them, that's probably already been done. Are you sure Brick and Morty doesn't do that? Does it have lanes? I can't remember. No. No?
    99:20
    Well, Gene, thank you for coming on today. Where can somebody reach you if they want to get in touch with you? They can follow me on Instagram at GeneX, G-E-N-E-X, or on Twitter at AtX. Wait a minute. At X? Or on photography.com. At X? How would you get that? How is that even possible? Well, you just live in San Francisco and half your friends work in tech companies, and they're like, hey, we just started this company called Twitter. You want to get a username? And that's kind of how it happened. Not exactly, but basically a bunch of our friends all got single letters at the time. That is awesome. And you got the best letter, too. He's just like, I'm X, baby. Yeah. That's cool. Okay, so this has been Episode 165 of the Slam Tilt Podcast. We can be reached at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. You can also check out our site, slamtiltpodcast.com. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner. I usually stream on the Slam Tilt Podcast stream every Tuesday at 8. I've been kind of sticking to that schedule. You have been. I will say that. Oh, and Gene, happy birthday. Oh, thank you. Well, happy birthday, Gene. I think it was yesterday. Happy birthday. Yep. I had to make sure that, you know, he knew that we were listening and everything we knew was his birthday, man. Yeah, I can do masters at Papa now. Oh, really? No, no. No.
    100:50
    Dude, you look 30. I'm saying that completely serious. Do you have some kind of anti-aging, like, technique? Aging blood. I'm just looking at Gene's picture right here on his Skype and I'm thinking like no that's probably an old picture you Skype that often I actually look 70 now you haven't seen me since COVID started oh man I also have another podcast that's Silver Ball Chronicles you can check them out they're on the Pinball Network we talk about pinball history I have one more thing to bring up do you see what they reproduced? I put it on our Facebook page. Tita? Playfields? And they sold out. And they brought back the Flight 2Ks, and they sold out. Wow. So are we taking credit for that? I think I am. Okay. Would you? Sure. Slamtail Podcast, we have raised just the visibility of these games to the point where you could just sell out. So you need to make more of those. And make some Dragon Fist Playfields, please. Yes, God. And Alien Star, I know that's not a term, but still, Alien Star, do that too. I have to agree with that, definitely. Thanks to our friends out there. Hi, Zach. Fun with bonus. Hi, Steve Bowden. Top row pinball, because he said to plug him, so we will continue plugging him as instructed. Thanks to everybody. I think I got everything this time. I always forget something. How did he get in touch with us? I just said that. I said that at the very beginning. I want to hear it again. He wants to hear it again? And, Bruce, if you want to get in touch with us, you can send an email to slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. And then you can look at your phone where you already have that configured, and you can see the email sent to yourself. Woo-hoo! Thank you, Gene, once again. Thank you, Gene. Thanks to all our listeners out there. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, John Baker. We'll be right back. Oh my.
    103:21
    Oh my. No. Do you hear me? There we go. How about now? Keep going. Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Yes. Okay.
    104:06
    Yes, your reach around is here. Oh, that sounded so weird. And I have not touched it yet either for you or myself. I think we should open them together so we have a dual reach around. Oh, my.