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Danni Peck - IFPA Womens World Champion - Episode 26

JBS Show·podcast_episode·55m 21s·analyzed·May 3, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.039

TL;DR

IFPA Women's World Champion Dani Peck shares her competitive journey and strategies for growing women in pinball.

Summary

Dani Peck, the 2024 IFPA Women's World Champion from Auckland, New Zealand, discusses her path to the championship, mental strategies for competitive play, the New Zealand pinball scene, her new content creation role at Spooky Pinball, and her vision for growing women's participation in pinball through public spaces and supportive communities.

Key Claims

  • Dani won the IFPA Women's World Championship in 2024 with victories including Metallica at Texas Takedown and a Congo final

    high confidence · Personal recounting of tournament wins and finals gameplay; mentioned being streamed on Twitch by Jamie and Erin

  • New Zealand has approximately 5 million people total, Auckland ~2 million, with pinball tournaments primarily held in private collections rather than commercial venues

    high confidence · Dani's direct comparison to Houston's population to contextualize New Zealand's smaller pinball scene

  • New Zealand tournaments run roughly twice monthly (one formal 'three strikes' tournament plus one 'super secret pinball club' tournament) versus American venues with leagues 3+ times weekly

    high confidence · Dani's description of Auckland tournament frequency

  • Dani's first tournament win was at Indisc in early 2018, coinciding with obsession over Batman 66 and Aerosmith rules

    high confidence · Dani recounting her defining tournament moments

  • Dani joined Spooky Pinball recently for content creation including tutorials and the 'Dani Teaches' series on Bug's stream

    high confidence · Dani confirming new role at Spooky Pinball during interview

  • Dani's father designed and built the Motorhead homebrew machine that appeared at TPF (Texas Pinball Festival) with significant attendance

    high confidence · Erin asking about the father's homebrew design; Dani confirming his creation and celebrating its reception

  • Women's World Championship format uses 7-5-3-1 scoring (not 4-2-1-0) across 8 rounds of qualifying with top 32 female players, followed by best-of-seven finals

    high confidence · Dani pulling up exact tournament rules during interview and explaining format in detail

  • Dani is currently ranked 11th in Women's Pro, 17th in Women's Open, and 360th in Open standings on IFPA

    high confidence · Jamie providing current IFPA rankings during interview; Dani acknowledging the numbers

Notable Quotes

  • “It's one of the craziest things I think I've ever done in my entire life. And it even makes me emotional to think about because I was there... Bob Matthews came up and sat with me and he was like you know when I was playing it you can just come back on the last ball and you can totally do this.”

    Dani Peck @ ~0:05-0:10 — Reflects emotional impact of winning Metallica at Texas Takedown, crediting Bob Matthews' mentorship

  • “I like to say I was sort of born into it. I was born and then I started playing as soon as I was born. So my dad's been collecting games here and there since he was 18.”

    Dani Peck @ ~0:12 — Origin story establishing lifelong immersion in pinball culture via her collector father

  • “I'm a big 7-5-3-1 fan. I don't like 4-2-1-0 or any other scoring. I'm like 7-5-3-1 is my passion and I will die on this hill.”

    Dani Peck @ ~0:25 — Demonstrates competitive player's passionate engagement with tournament rule details and scoring systems

  • “For me, it's just like I actually think a lot of it is keeping your nerve and having a psychological wedge... if you can like keep that anxiety at bay so that you can make sure that you're hitting the shots that you know you can shoot I think that that's a big thing.”

    Dani Peck @ ~0:45 — Core competitive advice for tournament players about mental management

  • “Don't look at their score and just go up and do your best... it's so true like yeah you got it there is some level of comparison there but like as long as you know you have played your best game that you could have done in that moment then don't live with that like remorse.”

    Dani Peck @ ~0:50 — Mentorship wisdom from Bowen Kerins (Bo) that shaped her competitive psychology

  • “New Zealand as the whole country has about five million people... Auckland's funny. I think my big thing for Auckland and how I could see Auckland growing, especially in the women's space, is figuring out how we can create a public space for pinball.”

    Dani Peck @ ~1:10-1:20 — Key insight about geographic/cultural constraints on women's pinball participation and solutions

Entities

Dani PeckpersonJamie BurchillpersonErin Anthony WinnickpersonBob MatthewspersonBowen Kerins (Bo)personDani's FatherpersonBrad AlbrightpersonBugpersonEmoto

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Dani Peck's role at Spooky Pinball emphasizes community education through simplified rule tutorials and 'Dani Teaches' content series aimed at making complex games accessible to newer players

    high · Dani describes focus on 'plain language' rule explanations and simplifying tournament rulesets to prevent overwhelming casual players with 10x multipliers

  • ?

    event_signal: Wormhole Pinball initiating Wednesday tech nights streamed via 'Marco TV' partnership with Emoto; infrastructure for hands-on education and maintenance skill-sharing

    high · Jamie announces streaming tech repair demonstrations at Wormhole featuring 23 pins with regular maintenance needs; GNR flipper rebuild mentioned as example content

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Takedown pinball tournament successfully streamed on Wormhole Pinball with significant production and audience engagement; emotional reactions to women's competitive performances

    high · Jamie and Erin describe streaming Texas Takedown on YouTube; Dani recounts emotional impact of final ball comeback on Metallica with family support; Jamie directs listeners to Wormhole Pinball YouTube for footage

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive sentiment toward public pinball venues and Bells and Chimes tournaments as drivers of women's participation; Wellington model cited as success case

    high · Dani emphasizes need for public spaces, describes Wellington's thriving female community through public locations and supportive Bells and Chimes environment, contrasts with private-collection-based Auckland scene

  • ?

    community_signal: Positive mentor relationships and support networks evident in competitive scene; Bob Matthews, Bowen Kerins providing real-time encouragement and psychological coaching to advancing players

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.166

0:00
Hello, my name is Jamie Bertrell and you are listening to and or watching our podcast called Wormhole Pinball Presents and today I am joined by one of my co-hosts Erin Anthony Winnick or Erin Winnick Anthony, excuse me, virtually from the other side of Houston and from a little bit further away joining us all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, Dani Peck. How are you ladies?
0:28
Doing good. I'm great. I'm just so excited to be here with y'all because I miss Texas, man. It was my favorite place, I think, that we went. It was so fun and so nice. And Bucky's was there, so how could I not love it? Oh, you got the milestone. You did all of Texas, then. You got Bucky's and you got TPF, I know. So, perfect. What more could you want? And you were, and it was so awesome because Erin was on doing the stream, and I was just there moving the rig. And so I really got, we both got to watch you come back and win on Metallica at the Texas Takedown. That was amazing.
1:05
It's one of the craziest things I think I've ever done in my entire life. And it even makes me emotional to think about because I was there and I was, even though I'd done okay on Whirlwind, I still felt a bit down. And I was like, oh, what am I doing? Because that spin out game was so hard, man. I know the guy who owns that game and thanks for bringing it but oh what a tough game to play um damn no that Metallica game uh Bob Matthews came up and sat with me and it and and he just talked to me and he was just like you know when I was playing it you know you can just come back on the last ball and you can totally do this and my dad even came up at the end and he was like you can do this too for the last ball you just gotta get some orbits or something like that I think just keep going. And so I keep pushing, and I did it, and it just still melts my brain to think. Oh, you rocked it. It was so fun to see in person.
2:02

  • System 11 World Championships in Auckland features 100 machines with focus on System 11 qualifying/finals, held during Labor Weekend (October)

    high confidence · Dani inviting international players to the annual Auckland event

  • Dani's father previously re-themed a Bally Freedom machine into a Led Zeppelin game before building Motorhead from scratch

    high confidence · Dani describing her father's progression of homebrew projects

  • “Wellington, that's the capital of New Zealand... they have a couple of really, really good public locations and their tournament scene is so rich... Bells and Chimes tournaments there... it's such a supportive environment that they come back.”

    Dani Peck @ ~1:25 — Model for women's pinball growth through public venues and supportive Bells and Chimes tournaments

  • “I don't think I have the brain for that... I think to put it plainly I think I too stupid I don have the engineering guts to put it together in my head... My starting point that I want to do is learn how to fix them.”

    Dani Peck @ ~1:40 — Reveals career aspirations focused on machine repair/technician skills rather than design

  • “It's like region-dependent... the New Zealand context and how we involve women is very different from what it would look like in the States... finding public spaces where we can have that sort of launch pad because it's different vibes when it's at someone's house.”

    Dani Peck @ ~1:55-2:00 — Nuanced understanding of regional/cultural differences in growing women's pinball participation

  • “I've had people, because I post pinball videos, reach out to me, my friends that are like, hey, what is this? And I took them both to an arcade last week on a non-tournament day. And I think I might have roped two more women into coming.”

    Jamie Burchill (Erin) @ ~2:05 — Practical example of content creation and visibility driving women's participation in pinball

    • person
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association)organization
    Bells and Chimesorganization
    Wormhole Pinballorganization
    Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)event
    Texas Takedownevent
    Indiscevent
    System 11 World Championshipsevent
    Alice Cooper Nightmare Castlegame
    Foo Fightersgame
    Metallicagame
    Congogame
    World Cup Soccergame
    Old Chicagogame
    New Zealand Pinball Communityorganization
    Marco Specialtiescompany

    high · Dani credits Bob Matthews with encouragement during Texas Takedown; Bowen Kerins advising on mental management; father providing tournament support; Jamie mentoring new female players informally

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tournament strategy emphasizes psychological management and nerve control over pure mechanical skill; World Cup Soccer identified as elite-separating game requiring specific knowledge

    high · Dani and Jamie both discuss anxiety management techniques; Steve Bowen's World Cup Soccer performance cited as example of transcendent skill level; Dani credits mental coaching from Bowen for competitive success

  • ?

    product_concern: New Zealand's small population (~5M total, ~2M Auckland) and private-collection-based tournament infrastructure limits women's participation compared to America's public venue model with frequent league play

    high · Dani contrasts Auckland's monthly tournaments and private-house venues with American leagues running 3+ times weekly; identifies public space creation as critical growth factor for women's participation

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball content strategy focuses on accessibility and rule simplification rather than complex tournament optimizations; Dani emphasizes avoiding overwhelming rulesets in favor of core gameplay consistency

    high · Dani discusses tutorial approach using plain language, avoiding unnecessarily complex multipliers, emphasizing consistent core mechanics over perfect play requirements in tournaments

  • $

    market_signal: Public visibility and content creation by successful female players (Dani, Jamie, Erin) driving organic recruitment of new women into pinball; personal outreach and word-of-mouth proving effective

    high · Erin reports friends messaging after seeing her pinball content; took two women to arcade; expecting two more recruits; Dani identifies content creators as public faces encouraging participation

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball arcade venues (Wormhole) maintaining 200+ machine rotating collections; tournament infrastructure requiring significant machine inventory and maintenance labor; tech education becoming valued service

    medium · Jamie describes Wormhole's 200+ machine collection rotation, 23 active pins, Wednesday tech nights with maintenance list; partnership with Marco TV for tech streaming content

  • ?

    community_signal: Dani's father creating homebrew games from scratch (Motorhead) and modifying existing platforms (Led Zeppelin/Bally Freedom); games receiving significant community attention and exhibition success

    high · Erin reports Motorhead had longest lines at TPF; Dani describes father's progression from modification to custom design; Brad Albright credited as artist with prints available

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dani Peck recently joined Spooky Pinball in content creation role; represents talent/player engagement by boutique manufacturer

    high · Dani confirms joining Spooky Crew for content creation, tutorials, and 'Dani Teaches' series on Bug's stream; hints at additional unannounced projects

    • And if anyone ever wants to go see that, just go to their YouTube and Wormhole Pinball, and you'll find it. You'll find the Texas takedown, and Donovan did a good job breaking that up, and you'll see just an incredible ball three from many of the women that played. and just the emotion after it was really amazing. We were going to talk about it later, but we'll get it out of the open now because it really was special.
    2:30
    Okay, with three of us, I thought Erin and I would kind of alternate questions for you, Dani, if that's okay? Sounds good. These interviews are very informal, so let's just get to it. I kind of like to start with origin stories. You're kind of young, so it's not going to be a very long story of how and when you discovered pinball. but how did you get into this?
    2:51
    So I like to say I was sort of born into it. I was born and then I started playing as soon as I was born. So my dad's been collecting games here and there since he was 18. He bought one off of a local fish and chip shop and kept it in the house, and so he's always been into it. And just, yeah, I was born. We had a few down in the basement, and it's ballooned over the years. You know, used to play for fun as a toddler. And then we had about, oh, gosh, I can't remember, 60 or 80. And then we started having tournaments around the time I was 10 or 11. So I've been playing competitively for about 11 years now, which is pretty crazy to say. But we're here. Do you remember your first pinball tournament?
    3:37
    Oh, gosh, yes. It was at, okay, in Auckland, we don't really have, like, barcades or anything like that. or like, you know, even just arcades with more than a few games. So it's always in people's houses and in people's private collections. And I remember just going over to this person's house and I think I got a few games and then I just totally failed on Creature from the Black Lagoon. And I was so sad. I was like, damn it, because I'm a competitive little child. So I was very upset. But I must have loved it because it kept coming back. I love that you even remember the first game you ever lost, that scarring experience. You're like, ah, now have you tried to, like, is that now your game? You're like, I always have to do good on Creature from the Black Lagoon.
    4:25
    Well, we have one now, and we use it in our super secret pinball club tournaments, and I can tell you I still suck at it some days, but I'm definitely a lot better at it now. I think I've refined and honed the skills on it over the years, and Move Your Car is my favorite. I literally just moved the car. That's all I do on that game. I move cars. What do you do on Creature of the Black Lagoon, Jamie? I move cars. And I'm not getting a strike either because I'm going to move so many cars. So many cars. Go ahead, Erin. I'm sorry. I love it. No, all good. So now we talked about that. Now we have to talk. What was your first win, that first big tournament win?
    5:01
    So the one that for me that was super defining was going to Indisc in 2018, so early 2018 and um winning the women's tournament there was probably one of like was probably like the moment that I thought I'm really in it to like go all the way I'd been to a few um world championships before and I'd actually won the original Texas women's championship a few months before I'd won that indisc win so I'm like okay we're we're sort of moving from I'm doing this pinball thing and I'm somewhat okay to it too I'm actually studying the rules really hard out and I'm really passionate about that side of things now so super interesting and I think that coincided with like Batman 66 and Aerosmith coming out and those two games I am I was just obsessed with the rules still am um so yeah really really getting deep into that side of things cool well speaking of big wins, you had an incredible march. You won the IFPA Women's World Championship. I had a blast watching on Twitch and cheering everyone on. So can you walk us a little bit through what that format was like and how qualifying worked for it? Okay, so just off the top of my head without reading it from a script. Sure. The first day was qualifying and it runs, it basically runs just like your usual ifpa world championship now they've changed the format so you get a full day of qualifying i believe it's eight six or eight rounds of um i can't remember it's great am i allowed to pull it up am i allowed to be that detail oriented absolutely absolutely there you go i i know whether i know where the um secrets are here we go it's just i'm like very passionate about the detail here. So here we go. I love it. No, get it right. Perfect. Awesome. Got to get the fun. So you get the top 32 ranked female players come in, right? And you've got, yeah, eight rounds of, I think it's 7-5-3-1 scoring. I was trying to find that. Yeah, there it is, 7-5-3-1 scoring. And listen, here's something controversial. I'm a big 7-5-3-1 fan. I don't like 4-2-1-0 or any other scoring. I'm like 7-5-3-1 is my passion and I will die on this hill. so each round you get to play three games with three other women and yeah if you win the game seven points second five points third three points last one point and yeah you better hope you get first and second on most of your games so that you can get in the top 16 to go through to finals the next day and finals are super intense they are a best of seven format so you are playing for a long time head-to-head with somebody you pick three games one from each era of machine the other person picks three and then if it comes down to the last game the higher seed has their choice so in the first round of qualifying which the stream catch is the end of I had to pick the seventh game I had a terrible first round I was mentally like not prepared for finals that early in the morning so I sort of was like in a delululand for a little bit but then we went to the seventh game I had to come back, my chair dad was there behind me supporting me and he was like you can do this, keep pushing so I picked Ali and I think that's when I was like okay, we got through the first bit now where do we go kept going up until I got to the finals and the finals is probably just yeah, again one of the craziest parts of my life that last Congo game, just getting $1.5 billion, which was like, that's cool.
    8:58
    Yeah, that's pretty good. Exactly. And then Zoe's just like probably one of the most amazing balls of all time. Yeah. Like, bar none, that was just amazing to see her come back and get $1.2, $1.3 billion. It's just like, wow. How does it get any better than seeing something like that, you know? real good that was incredible and i have to say i love the level of pinball nerddom of picking 7531 over 4210 i'm like i love it it's incredible i can't help myself you know i'm very passionate about these things and uh even though new zealand's small our tournament scene is very passionate so i think that um just a reflection of that yeah all right my turn do Do you know your current ranking?
    9:49
    Are you? Because I know my current ranking. It's really bad. But do you know your current ranking? I can look it up. No, no, no. I just wanted to know if you knew. Actually, not off the top of my head. I know off the top of my head I'm fourth in New Zealand.
    10:05
    The last time I checked, I think I was eighth woman in the open standings. But in the women's standings. So there's different standings for women. Yeah, explain that to us. Because I've got your numbers right here, but you are 11th in the women's pro. Oh, okay, you got it. 11th in the women's pro, you're 17th in women's and 360th in the open. But can you explain the difference between pro and women's?
    10:29
    Yeah, of course. So there's so much that goes into it these days. Yeah. So the women's section of the site and like tournament section is for women's only tournaments. And that is to support women being able to like get in the pinball and be in supportive environments to develop their skills. Right. And it's a safe space. For example, in Auckland, if you want to go to a tournament, you go into some random man's house. And that sounds very weird for some women. So, you know, women's only tournaments. That's a great safe space. are admittedly I have been very bad as bells and chimes ambassador we have not run them for ages but per se um so that's that's the woman's side and then the open side is just your points your points ranking um you know what points are you getting from what tournament obviously if you place first you're getting way more points than if you place even like fourth or fifth um and Admittedly, my ranking's been slipping because I haven't been traveling as much. But I'm telling you, after going to America, I'm back in the game, baby. I'll be back. Yes, you are.
    11:40
    And then pro is different as well. My understanding of the pro rankings is that they're for the elites. And I don't even think I'm on the official pro section of the website because my ranking's so bad after my university years and COVID years of sort of not doing so hot at the tournaments. But again, we're back. We're back in it. I'm back in it to win it. So hopefully, yeah, improve that over the coming months. Well, I don't know. You're doing incredible already. So yeah, sure, you got to go up those rankings, but I don't know. You feel like you're on the top of your game right now. And on that note, Jamie and I, we're two tournament players. We're both decent, but looking to improve our skills. What advice do you have for players that are going from playing, even trying to get that first tournament win and, you know, bringing you to like that higher level of competition?
    12:35
    Oh, yeah, that's a question I get sometimes. And I'm like, there's so many ways to dice the onion. But for me, it's just like I actually think a lot of it is keeping your nerve and having a psychological wedge. Because definitely, if I'm thinking back to first round of women's finals playing against Valencia, I'm like, man, for the first half of that, my mind was so gone. And I'm like, pull it back together. if you can like keep that anxiety at bay so that you can make sure that you're hitting the shots that you know you can shoot I think that that's a big thing and that'll be that's even where like the first tournament wins is it's just being like I can do this I believe in my skill and I can persevere and keep going and never lose the fight even if you're going up against like best person in your town like just know that like you can do it give it your best shot and see how it goes i love that i well i i want to follow up with that real quick yeah because last night i had league all right And I had Wesley Johnson who a pretty good player in the Houston area and then Fred Revenue, another very good player, and then another good player. So my group was full of people that were much, much better than me. And my nerves got to me. They really, really did last night. And then the last ball on Star Wars, I put up a billion, finally. and I snuck a second out of Wesley. And you're right. How do you do the nerves, though? I mean, how do you – because I go on walks. Some people listen to music like Aaron does. What do you do? Do you listen to music? Do you take pep talks? Do you remember the shots, or do you just walk away?
    14:38
    It's a lot of it. I remember back – there's a lot of I remember in this. I'm so sorry, but that's okay. Great. You're fine.
    14:48
    Oh, my gosh. It must have been 2018, 2019 when they had IFPA and PAPA at the same time. No, I think it was 2018, and I sat with Bo and Karen. Sorry, this is very name-droppy as well. I'm very offensive here. Go for it. I was just getting, you know, I was getting a bit upset, and I wasn't doing so well, and I was so stressed out. and he was like you know it's not about their score so just like don't look at their score take your glasses off don't look at your their score and just go up and do your best um and that has really stuck with me because like it's so true like yeah you got it there is some level of comparison there but like as long as you know you have played your best game that you could have done in that moment then don't live with that like remorse because it's easy to start for a long time like I was building that sense of like um I don't know shame around like oh well I lost this so I can't do it again you know almost have that superstition and it's like it's all rubbish it's all at the end of the day you're there to play the game in that moment so all of that pre-loaded junk you just go you just go I think it helps as well that I'm like a psychology graduate so it's I sort of know a lot about systems and the background info behind it but yeah a lot of it's just practice as well I mean I've been really lucky to have had some really good like personal development opportunities in the past year to really also learn about how to manage manage the nerves and keep suing even when things feel difficult. So yeah, a hundred percent. I love it. I absolutely love that. And in the States that would have cost $50 for a therapy appointment. So I can confirm. Yeah. And see now when I'm in that moment, I'll be like, you know what? I'm going to think of Danny. That's where I'm going to go back to. I'm going to go to that, that good mental spot. Think of that advice. That's, that's what's going to get me through. So just know if I, if I win my next one, I'll dedicate that one to you there. so another top secret is that i'm sorry to jump back in starbucks is also starbucks is my holy grail for uh caffeine enrichment during tournaments and i feel very privileged to have had starbucks to back me up with their matcha lattes um in the middle of indiana when i needed them so thank you Starbucks for your matches. And they can send the $50 to you directly. There you go.
    17:29
    As an advertisement for Starbucks. So there you go. I was thinking, Erin, why don't you ask her about the pinball scene? Is that okay? Sure, yeah. So, you know, we're very versed in Houston, Texas pinball. Now that you've seen that a little bit, I'd love to know, A, how New Zealand compares and, like, what are the leagues, the tournaments? Like, if we were coming to New Zealand for a pinball tour, where would you take us? oh that's a good question so to put it into context i think i don't what's the population of houston at the minute and like dallas probably a few million yeah houston's got six and a half seven million and dallas yeah that's crazy so to put that in context then new zealand as the whole country has about five million people um so very very different vibes Auckland has about two million people now I think our pinball community as I said in Auckland is very much based in um people's private locations their houses um doesn't mean we're any less competitive but I definitely think that it is more social still whereas when you go to a lot of those leagues in America it's very serious and intense which is very very nice in its way but it's always intimidating going from you know the family environment that we usually have here we've spent a lot of time making sure that it's a safe space for families and like women to a very intense like come to the bar we are very we are here to slay this it's like oh you know New Zealanders are so laid back I'm like damn this is heated but um yeah it's very very much more relaxed you know we only have monthly big monthly three strikes tournaments here and then a super secret pinball you know one day uh once a month as well so basically two tournaments a month versus some of those places that have leagues like three times a week which I very much respect and sometimes I'm thinking do I want to move to America and just have that much pinball practice I'm not going to lie. I think about it sometimes. But if you were coming to New Zealand, I would automatically say, come to our house. I can't help it. We have a few tournaments here in Pukekohe, Auckland, every year. We have the System 11 World Championships. I'd say that's the one you really want to hit. We've got 100 machines here, but there's a nice focus on qualifying and finals on System 11s during System 11s. Have some side comps on all the other games. It's always a fun weekend. We have some Australians come over. We used to have international people come over. So welcoming them back. If any international people would love to come over and support us. It's Labor Weekend here. Don't know when it is. I think it's October. So feel free to come along.
    20:26
    But if we weren't doing Auckland or you had some more time, vacation time, I'd take you down to Wellington. Because Wellington, that's the capital of New Zealand. and they have a couple of really, really good public locations and their tournament scene is so rich and diverse and just like beyond passionate and the people who run the tournaments down there are just amazing and beyond that, Hawke's Bay has a nice regional hub of pinball and the Dipper family who are there are just some of the most amazing people you will ever meet. They went to the World Champs in Germany last year and just, oh, fantastic, fantastic showing, fantastic people. And then Christchurch is the last big hub. And Christchurch is just such, they have such interesting characters and I love them all so much. And I feel like everyone who meets the Christchurch crew, they just feel like they are welcomed home into family. And I love that.
    21:29
    That's fantastic. What was the first pin that you guys bought? You said it earlier, but I was just curious.
    21:36
    So I think off the top of my head, I think my dad's first game when he was 18 was something like a Solar City, like an old EM kind of thing. But the first one I remember playing as a kid that we had was rocking Bullwinkle. So that's moving a bit further in the pinball collecting career. but we also had things like I remember having a judge straight around and a few of those you know 90s Bailey Williams sort of era games and um yeah those are my favorite yeah 100% I geek out on them and anyone that wants to talk to me about World Cup soccer I'll spend an hour with you so that's that's my right it's so good right yeah i think it's one of the best like tournament games ever and because i've been because we have one and i've been playing it recently to sort of just like hone in my skills because it would if you don't shoot something correctly on r1 it'll just punch you in the face and be memorable for you and i'm just like how good is that game for tournament i think that game is like it separates the boys from the men because like you gotta know what you're doing.
    22:51
    That's very true. We put ours in the Space City Open, my World Cup soccer, and I watched Steve Bowden beat Germany on ball one, and I'm just like, well, this person's just on a different planet than I am, and it was just a complete separation. Sorry. Everyone that listens knows that I love World Cup soccer. It's a great game. I will trail an absolute interview, Erin. I will always take a 20-second timeout for World Cup soccer. You'll have your commercial break for World Cup soccer and then you'll go back. Some people are sponsored by someone. You're sponsored by World Cup soccer from the 1990s. I only own one machine. I technically only own one machine that is at the wormhole that comes through and that is World Cup soccer. I really, because I have best friends named Tim and John, I don't really need to buy machines Aaron. So, yeah, for sure. You know, that makes sense. OK, your turn, Aaron. OK, well, speaking of your father, I know he designed and built the homebrew motorhead that was at TPF. So incredible. I think it had some of the longest lines at TPF for anything like, wow, so cool. Did you have any involvement with the design or build? Like how much have you played that game? honestly this is so embarrassing to say I feel like I had absolute did nothing in terms of that game but I think that almost makes it better because it really was my dad's baby and creation like everything that people saw and played was theirs um what was well was his right and it's just like wow how cool is it that he can make something in his garage and fly it over and to be so celebrated and I was so excited for him that that got to happen because uh he before Motorhead had done the Led Zeppelin game which was um an old Bally Freedom re-themed um with a few little modifications and you know people were so curious about that but to have Motorhead which is totally next level totally from scratch and to be celebrated is just like yeah fantastic and thanks to everybody who you know showed up for it and supported it so fun yeah how much have you played it I have to know oh yeah yeah so in terms of playing it barely at all I remember playing it at Whitewood stage a little bit because he was like I want your input and I'm like I've got no input it's fine it turns out that it pretty much was fine right like it seems like it's gone down yeah really well and people are very very curious about where the motorhead game lies like what's going to happen next with it and to be honest I don't know what that looks like but Brad Albright the designer for the art does have prints available so support support the artists Thank you, Brad Albright. Love it. Well, to pivot a little bit, I have to talk about the other big pinball thing in your life. I know you officially joined the Spooky Crew recently. Can you talk a little bit about what your role is there and what you're doing with them?
    26:02
    Yeah, so mainly for me at the moment, it's looking at that content creation piece, just doing some tutorials, especially for their games. Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle, the tutorial's coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled. um but yeah i do the danny teachers series uh on bugs stream and scream you can check it out on youtube um and it's just it's just have fun and like teach a little bit about pinball and some like plain language because like if someone's walking up to for example foo fighters this is just the one off the top of my head and it's like oh you need to shoot the overlord and then you need to shoot the ufo and blah blah blah like what does that actually mean like no one knows what you're talking about so how can you put it into like plain language and just do some simple rule sets because that's the other thing about like playing in tournaments is I think it's easy to go overboard with your rule set to the point where it overwhelms and clouds the gameplay because most games if you just stay consistent and do the main things you can win you don't have to bring in a 10x multiplier and do, like, the perfect game every time in tournament to win. And I think that that's what I really want to bring to the table with Danny teachers. In terms of other things I'm doing with Spooky, you'll have to keep your eyes peeled. Okay, fair enough. Some exciting stuff's coming.
    27:28
    So would you ever be interested in designing your own pinball machine? I don't think I have the brain for that. But seeing what Dad did and the process of designing one I honestly think to put it plainly I think I too stupid I don have the engineering guts to put it together in my head I have some level of like, I know when things don't feel the best, but I'm not like a creative mind of like, let me engineer a whole thing and put together. You know, my starting point that I want to do is learn how to fix them. And, like, if something happens to them, okay, I know what to do. I could be, like, a tech machine, right? Because I'm definitely not even at that level yet. Like, I can do very simple clean-em-ups, put the switch back in place type of thing. But I want to be able to, like, okay, the reels aren't working on Player 3, on Old Chicago. Let's fix it. That's where I want to be at. Erin just started. Talk, you know, series. We at one of our local arcades here, they just started doing some repair classes and they did. I took an EM repair class, which was really fun and kind of a cool starting point. And now they're just starting a solid state repair class now, too. So I'm and I have my first machine that I just got like a few months ago. So I'm enjoying getting into that repair world a little bit. I agree. I don't think I'm at that design level yet, but I'll start here and maybe work my way up to the design homebrew level. I love it. That's amazing. We're going to be doing something very interesting here. This is a nice little segue for what we've, you know, Emoto with Marco Specialties is starting a Marco TV brand where she's going to be dropping in on people's arcades and doing techs with them. And we're going to set up something with Emoto on a Wednesday. So Wednesday is our tech night here at the Wormhole. And we have 23 pins here. We have a collection, for those that are new to us, of close to 200-plus pins that we rotate in and out of the Wormhole. And this is our public place that we have tournaments.
    29:46
    And these machines get banged on, so we have a list of grievances. And on Wednesdays, people come and fix these particular machines. and we're going to stream that, and I think it's going to be really cool. On the perspective for the techs, GNR just came here. They just did a flipper rebuild on that. That would have been cool to do. So it's just stuff that we're thinking about. Love that. Amazing.
    30:11
    My last question right here, I think, is we need more women in pinball. So how do we make that happen?
    30:18
    Let me think about the answer before I answer this. Yeah, it's a big question, I know. I just hammered you with it. Sorry about that. No, I love it. I think about it a lot, and I think it is, like, region-dependent. And I think that, like, the New Zealand context and how we, you know, involve women is very different from what it would look like in the States, just as, like, a basic example. Because, yeah, Auckland's funny. I think my big thing for Auckland and how I could see Auckland growing, especially in the women's space, is figuring out how we can, you know, create a public space for pinball and host things publicly and, you know, bring people in through that. Because, for example, in Wellington, where there is lots of public pinball, they host their Bells and Chimes tournaments there and they have a thriving female pinballer community. And it's amazing. I've been to a few bells and chimes tournaments there and it's just seriously the most warm inviting fantastic thing and you see these new people come along and it's such a supportive environment that they come back and it's about having that so have the bells and chimes you know let the woman start off with other women and be in that environment where we can build each other up and support ourselves to you know get to the best way possible. can be and then go from there get that core base of people who are interested in it and are going to come back even if it's just for the social environment and then build from there and I mean that probably applies across all cultural contexts and saying that so um but especially for New Zealand I think it's finding more public spaces where we can have that sort of launch pad because it's different vibes when it's at someone's house, I think.
    32:20
    At the end of the day. You need a safe place, right? You need a safe place. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And, Ola, I think that having people like you doing these streams and things like that and being those, you know, public faces for pinball is so fantastic. It encourages more people to see that this is a thing that they can go do too. You know, I've had people, because I post pinball videos, reach out to me, my friends that are like, hey, what is this? And a few of them, they're even nervous to come to a tournament and they messaged me and I took them both to an arcade last week on a non-tournament day. And I think I might have roped two more women into coming. So we'll see. I think it's like, you know, some of that word of mouth and having those people out there that are someone like someone could reach out to you and be like, hey, what is this? And gives them that access and makes it not seem as intimidating. So thanks for going out and doing all of that. thank you i appreciate it and yeah it just just i feel very very grateful to be able to be like a voice in the space i'm not even necessarily a big voice in the space but i'm just glad to be able to have a platform and thanks to spooky for allowing me to have that platform because it's been invaluable yeah so here's the therapist advice for you now i'm going to take the 50 back, right? I'm going to kick it right back. We'll cut this part out real quick, probably, but you do what I do, and I call this podcast stupid when I refer to it to people. I hear you. Hey, I got this stupid podcast to do, but you know what? It's not stupid what we're trying to do here.
    33:52
    You're doing that, what I'm not good enough type of thing that you just said there. Oh, 100%. Yeah. You're a voice in this hobby and we need people like you and we need you you're an unbelievable player it happens to be a woman and uh god bless you for what you're doing i really mean it man and your energy is amazing i feel like it's infectious the people around you and that excitement of people being able to feel that it's not like a dart like there could be a negative vibe around pinball sometimes you have the most positive vibe around that and i love to see that oh my god i met danny for people that know me i'm pretty chatty person and i was sitting there watching the stream because tpf is crazy for us for me particularly because we stream uh the classics wizards and the women's but i get a break in the women's because aaron takes over and i get to tag team my partner here so i was i promised i would be her rig mover and i'm just a producer there if anything breaks so i got to watch you and i got to talk to you and you were you were amazing uh and you were so friendly to me you didn't know me from adam and you just anyway well we could cut that part out but i think oh no no no no because i want to i want to i want to actually talk about that and talk about that point on sort of a serious note because i think it's actually really interesting is something that people don't understand who live in america is that i in new zealand we have a tall poppy scent like like so we have a tall poppy culture and what that means is that if someone's doing too well we cut them down so for example if you know law the big musician like soon as she started getting big and doing like big things and moving abroad like that's when people cut them down and although the pinball community is a lot less like that that's definitely where I come from so it's it's I experience still to this day even though I'm a lot better at it now you know a lot of that imposter syndrome of like um I am not good enough and I'll never be good enough and i think that like if you do feel that way if people do feel that way it's actually like a good thing to like address but look at things look at resources for things like imposter syndrome and i've got this book it's called something like you're a badass and and stuff like that because like yeah because you are it's a legit thing you know yeah and even like even when you say things even when people say things like you just did about like you're so nice i like i'm so i've spent so many years not believing that that it still hits me like really hard in the emotions because i'm like damn but like better start believing it no it's okay i'm sorry i'm the dad right okay i love it and i've got i had to assume that role a little bit there and i apologize for the podcast for everyone but i'm just looking at this sweetheart of a person and I'm saying she you know she's amazing and she needed to hear it today so hey you know wormhole we keep it real you know we're not just going to talk about the surface level stuff we're going to go deep here and I love it so I can't help it again I'm a psychology graduate we can't help it that's just where we sit right I love it but um all right in America I just want to talk one more thing okay yeah yeah in America like I was so nervous coming back to America because I was like it's been four years five years and I'm just this nobody and coming back and having people remember me and especially being remembered like predominantly fondly was actually like so emotionally moving for me because I'm just like because I've had people in the New Zealand scene going back to this sorry this is so deep I've decided I've decided to go there I love it you know I had people in the local scene come up to me and tell me it's not fun when you play in tournaments it actually like ruins my day because it means that i know i'm not going to win and i so because i was a child i was like you know 15 16 17 when i heard this that that totally changed my perspective on shit um sorry sorry for my french no no no well we don't know if you know they might be saying it like a joke but that's not a joke right they You know, exactly. Yeah. And I think that's part of the thing. Not only woman. Right. I'm very passionate about how do we bring kids into the into the hobby. And this is another serious topic I just want to cover off as well. Just on my on my mind. If you've got kids in the scene.
    38:33
    Treat treat them like they were your kid and treat them nice, because like, yeah, even if you are joking when you say shit, like it's not fun when you play that that's actually like they don't necessarily have like the thick skin needed to like absorb that and say that doesn't mean anything it was that was you know so like and if you've got like especially like young girls like make sure that they're being treated right make sure that they are safe and make sure that you know just ensure that the kids are safe around all these strangers because stranger danger is still legit yeah i have to say i just have an example of that this past week where there's i play on my tuesday tournaments with a number of kids and some younger girls and this last week one of them got a fifth out of 15 and i think she's i don't know 11 12 and i know some people in the background are grumbling because they're getting beat by an 11 12 year old girl so i'm like trying to hype her up i'm like you're doing amazing look at you and then she got out and I was like you did amazing we went and played a fireball em game afterwards I'm like you have to keep that going because there's enough of the people in the background they're going to be grumbling about being beat by the kids and you have to try to protect them a little bit from that and Erin it's people like you that let me continue and persevere because it's so easy to take that negative messaging yeah and to just turn it totally into that like you're you're like some sort of bad person and I felt like that for so long so like thank you for doing your part to like support and uplift the kids because they deserve to be uplifted when they're doing well and same for women as well because honestly I've had some times where some guys get a bit pissy that they're getting beaten by a girl like both gender and age factors and it's like yeah why can't everybody be uplifted if they have a good game so thank you for uplifting because that's awesome absolutely well jamie i don't know how much more time we have but i'll end with one more i'll try to be on a fun positive note here just to end it off on all right the question that we all get asked dream theme and you don't have to design it because it sounds like that's not what you're exactly what you want to do dream theme for anyone to design and who would you want to design it then dream theme is always going to be smoking the bandit because i love that film and honestly my dad can design it you know what let's let's just throw it out there and be totally wild because i trust him with my life and i trust him with my dream scene So there you go What a sign of trust I don know if there a bigger one so do you want to ask a couple more questions and then we going to do something called rapid fire yeah okay so two more questions real quick uh do you go back and watch your streams like when you're on stream to see kind of what mistakes you made or how you could get better Honestly, I don't normally, but I did after this tournament because I actually felt like, okay, I psychologically was like, I am not an embarrassment. I actually got the demon down my head and I sat down and watched it. And it's actually stressful for me, though, because I'm like, oh, my gosh, don't do this, don't do that. And when I rewatched them, I twitched them like I'm nudging the machine in real time. it's very visceral for me but I watched it back with my dad and my dad was so again uplifting and supportive and he was just like that was amazing bro and I was like oh thanks bro so yeah no I did re-watch them and you did a great job at Texas by the way I loved re-watching that stream that was fun to re-watch appreciate it she's the best she's replacing me I'm going to be completely another place. Absolutely not. It's the team here. Can't just be one person. Okay, let's do rapid fire. Is that all right? So one of my co-hosts, Donovan Wade, had some rapid fire questions for our last guests. And so we're going to go back and forth between me and Aaron. It doesn't have to be long. It can be rapid fire. It can take longer. It doesn't really matter. It's just goofy. Okay? Aaron's going to start off. All right. You ready? First one, Elwynn or Pat Lawler?
    43:10
    Oh, Elwynn. All right. Marmite or Vegemite? Vegemite, and if anyone disagrees, disgusting. I love it. Rugby or cricket?
    43:24
    Cricket. Controversial. Rugby bores me. Continue. Best pinball show? Oh, Texas. Come on. Come on! I love it. Love it. You're saying the right thing for the right audience. Perfect.
    43:40
    Action button, yes or no? Yes, because it adds more versatility in the game. Period. Cool. Awesome. Looney Tunes or Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
    43:52
    Looney Tunes, purely on theme. I hate horror films. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't be sorry. It's cute. I'm the one that made you answer it. That's fine. All right, we're bringing it back to World Cup Soccer again. um tougher scoop to hit world cup soccer or godzilla oh world cup soccer come on that's so hard to hit bro it's the i know that's a layup that's a layup all right tougher shot left ramp of rick and morty or the s and chaos on jurassic park oh i'm sorry it is rick and morty it's so hard especially when that the coils have had a long day of hard work fair i still love it oh great game all right and we're gonna bring it to some new zealand stuff now favorite new zealand reality show the traitor or the real housewives of auckland the traitor it's so good i've read the premise of the traitor erin we're gonna have to talk about this later and see if we can buy the rights for the united states okay you gotta do it it's so good honestly even better is taskmaster if you can find taskmaster somewhere to watch even better i'm an enormous taskmaster fan and a Taskmaster Australia fan? Yeah. Love it. So good. Do you watch New Legends of Monkey?
    45:13
    New Zealand's number one show. No. No, I don't. Okay. I don't. I've just become a... No, but I'll tell you what I do watch is... I actually don't watch too much, but I have to highly recommend what we do in The Shadow and all of the spin-offs. Taika's the best. Yes, I'm an enormous fan. I've watched all of that, excited for the last season.
    45:43
    All right, what pin are you playing the most lately? Honestly, Foo Fighters, because that's what I am winning for, winning the Women's Worlds. So I'm, like, getting my practice up so that once I get my game, I can just nail a GC straight away, get to the wizard, and just play the game. I love that you're pre-practicing for getting your game and you have the ability to practice on. That's incredible. I didn't know if I heard that correctly. Yeah. That's what she was doing. No, that is legit. I'm pre-gaming my own game, you know, and I want to make sure that I know how to set it up in all of its glory. So it'll be fun. So what's the next game? Last question. What's the next game in your collection? And what's the next game that either you or Dad has to buy? TCM. Actually, no joke, it's TCM. So I better start liking horror. I am so nervous, but it's a great game, so it'll be fine. Okay, good.
    46:41
    Well, Dani, thank you so much for sitting on what we call a hot seat or whatever rapid fire. It was really fun. We appreciate it. And thank you so much for sitting down with me and Erin.
    46:50
    Today, what a pleasure it was. Where can people find you and your work and what you're doing with Spooky?
    46:57
    um honestly uh instagram pinball.danny is my main account and just check my stories and i always update when i upload new danny teachers and there's just lots of fun random day-to-day stuff otherwise danielle peck on facebook if you can't find me my handles danielle.peck.3150 which is crazy to know there you go otherwise spooky danny on all platforms spooky danny nz actually because someone had already stolen that name which is very rude actually i needed that but That's okay.
    47:28
    So just Google me and I shall be found. I love it. Thank you so much. Anything from you, Erin? Do you want to? No, thanks. And look forward to seeing you back in the U.S. at some time in the future, or maybe we'll find our way out there for the pinball tour. We'll see.
    47:44
    Can't wait. And trust me, I'll be back. I actually won a spot into the IPA 19, so I'm back in California in about a month. Fantastic. All right. Safe travels back out here. Danny, thank you so much. Take care. Bye. Wow, that was fun. That was super great. I love Danny's fantastic. I love talking to her in person and virtually. It's so great. I'm sorry to be a dad, but I needed that for a minute. Okay. A hundred percent. Like I said, we're just giving free therapy here for wormhole pinball as well. I love it.
    48:19
    What'd you think of my script? I think it was great. I threw in my few little edits and stuff, but it was super fun. I love throwing all the New Zealand questions in there, too. We ham and egg it really well. In golf, they would call that a ham and egg. It means that when I'm off, you're on and yada, yada, yada. Hey, have you looked at the May calendar in Houston, Texas for SpaceCityPinball.com? Insane. I think, what, more than one tournament every day next week, something like that? Absolutely wild. It's like a week of whoppers without the official week of whoppers. Without the extra points, yeah. It really is exploding in Houston. Yeah. I feel like I need to be playing pinball every day of the week, but I do have a life and have to do other things other than pinball sometimes. You need to get Janine to be in the Bells and Chimes. Wouldn't that just make my life just be pinball all day, every day? There you go. I'd be happy to have her. And I think she'd be good. I really do. And speaking of good, she asked for World Cup soccer back in the house. Oh, okay. There you go. And that is the move, I think, Aaron. I think that's the move. Put World Cup back in the house, get her to fall back in love with it, and now we're playing bells and chimes. There you go. I love it. You know, you can't force your partner to do it. You just slowly drip feed pinball into their life until suddenly they're playing pinball every week. I don't know. It just happens. Well, I told you that that was going to happen. I told Alex, I was like, oh, OK, you're just you're just coming to the wormhole to hang out. Sure. Sure. I know. I told him I'm not not going to pressure you. And now he's like literally either playing hockey or he's playing pinball. There's no in between. So, yep, it is hard to explain this community to someone that's not listening to this podcast of what it does to you. and it really is a cult. I got a wonderful text from your husband professing his love for the cult and how crazy of a beautiful community we're lucky that we have here in Houston. And it sounds like she has it in Auckland and I hope anyone that's listening has it by them. And if it's not, if it's toxic, fix it. Yeah, and come to Houston. We're happy to have you and there's plenty of pinball to go around. Let's talk Space Camp real quick. How did that start? I mean, that was Elizabeth Joneigh and Riley? Yes. And, you know, I think they were looking for what theme to do. And we are Houston, so Space Camp was it. Last year was the first annual Space Camp, and it went so well. We had, I think, about 34, 35 women or something that came last year. And we have substantially more this year. So Rumble is going to be a full house. Yeah, how many do you have? Do you know? It's in the 50s. I think it was 52 was the limit. I think it's a pack in the capacity. That's kind of 52 limit for wormhole. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, it'll be exactly the same as last year because it went so well. And even San Antonio comes in, the bells and chimes, and guests host a tournament here. They do the max match play on Saturday night, and they give out mission patches to everyone for achieving scores on certain games and wins. We got our theming down, Pat. I tell you, women's tournaments do the theming right. We get the cool trophies, we get the cool decor. You do. We blew it for this weekend, too, because it's May the 4th for the 4X, and I didn't even put it out there. I totally forgot. We still have a chance. Still got a couple days. It's Thursday. You're right. I'm super excited for it. How's it going with Barrels? Oh, great. Barrels is super fun. I help and share everything on social media. They're going to a bunch of events, so highlighting that when they're doing it. And, yeah, there's a great video that we put out of some dogs getting terrified of the Goblin Topper when it was unboxed at someone's house. That was really good. It was very funny. So I highly recommend going to look at that. I watched it many times. And, yeah, I think the dogs' names are like Arthur and Robin, and they're just growling at the goblins. It's great.
    52:28
    You're playing pretty solidly lately. Is there anything that you're working on in particular that skill set that's kind of brought you to the next level? Yeah, you know, I think. There's these levels, right? Because I'm working on saving. All I'm working on is saving. Yeah, the nudging and the right directions and stuff. Everything down the middle is killing me, Erin. I know. I think I'm trying to take nudging to the next level where I'm more on the verge of tilting and being able to push it a little more, especially Game Preserve NASA where I play a bunch. There's a lot of older machines. So being able to figure out how to learn the tilts on stuff to really take advantage of those resources and then I did start practicing some alley passing, which I've never done before. So that's been fun to kind of add in there. On your machine? That and also just some of the game preserve machines because there's a lot of those older EMs and like early solid states that are good for practicing that. So that's been fun. So my last question for you is when are you buying Congo?
    53:29
    Yeah, that's on Alex's, my husband's list, the number one. It's happening. So the hard thing is I think some other people in the Houston community also want Congo. So the question is I don't know if we're... He lives pretty close to you. He's out of space.
    53:45
    Yeah, I think that and also Gandalf's Arcade I know is looking to acquire one too. So there's some Congo competition around. I have a feeling we're not first on the list. We want a Congo. For now, I'll settle for playing it at my local arcade. I saw your eyes light up when she was talking about it. Congo's the best. It is the best. It is a really good machine. I do have to say, Wormhole made me fall in love with Baywatch as well, weirdly, which I could care less for the theme. I love the machine now, too. Stupid TV show, pretty cool pinball machine. Congo, bad movie, great pinball machine. Great book.
    54:23
    We're Michael Crichton fans in this house. Oh, you are? Okay. We're book nerds. What can you expect? All right, let me let you go. I've taken up enough of your time. In the last two to three days, you've had enough of the wormhole. But it's been awesome, and we love you. So good. Thanks for having me for guest hosts. This was super fun.
    54:43
    Well, it went too well. Now you have to do it again. Oh, no. All right. Sounds good. You know, you're going to twist my arm. Please follow us on all the socials on Wormhole Pinball. You can find us, all our public tournaments on that Space City calendar that you should go and look to to see what we're doing in May because it's bananas. Information on running the wormhole as well. and to be added to our discord channel just email us at wormhole pinball at gmail.com erin thanks for being my co-host today that was wonderful absolutely thanks for having me thanks guys