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Episode 2 -Matt is solo but not for long

THE PINBALL RESTORER’S PODCAST·podcast_episode·37m 41s·analyzed·Mar 22, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball Restorer's Podcast Episode 2: Industry history, restoration philosophy, and upcoming show segments.

Summary

Matt, host of the Pinball Restorer's Podcast, delivers a solo episode recapping the show's mission and providing an extensive history of the pinball industry from Baffle Ball (1939) through the modern resurgence. He discusses restoration challenges, the arcade industry collapse, regulatory history, and announces upcoming segments including listener-requested featured games and interviews with the Pinball Hall of Fame. A co-host (Michael Harrelson) is introduced for future episodes.

Key Claims

  • Jeff Miller, a Tampa Bay-based restorer, has created vinyl decal stencils for over 300 pinball titles and served 750 machines last year

    high confidence · Matt, episode recap of Episode 1 guest interview

  • Baffle Ball (1939) was the first commercially marketed pinball machine

    high confidence · Matt, historical pinball discussion

  • Gottlieb's last game was Barbed Wire, a film tie-in based on the Pamela Anderson movie, with fewer than 1,000 made

    high confidence · Matt, industry history

  • Spectrum by Bally (1982) had only 994 units originally manufactured, with roughly 400 never sold and likely scrapped

    high confidence · Matt, featured game segment discussion

  • Roger Sharp argued before the New York City legislature that pinball was a game of skill, making it legal in the U.S.

    high confidence · Matt, historical pinball regulation discussion

  • Gary Stern saved pinball by being the last company left standing during the arcade industry collapse

    medium confidence · Matt, opinion on industry survival

  • The Pinball Hall of Fame received an $80,000 donation at the last minute to help complete their relocation and GoFundMe goal

    high confidence · Matt, news segment

  • Spectrum had no shooter lane, no out lanes, and no slingshots to maintain strict gameplay control required for the code-breaking rule set

    high confidence · Matt, featured game analysis

Notable Quotes

  • “If you lift up that world under glass, welcome to hell.”

    Matt — Colorful description of the complexity hidden beneath a pinball machine's attractive playfield

  • “At the end of the day, you are designing a machine that makes money.”

    Matt (attributing to Pat Lawler) — Core design philosophy of arcade/pinball machines during the commercial era

  • “Pinball machines are like the coat hanger effect. You throw a pinball machine in the basement, the next thing you know there's two or three.”

    Matt — Humorously describes how collectors accumulate machines

  • “I will always say that. I will say this, and there are guys who are going to hate me for saying this. Gary Stern saved pinball because he was the last company left standing.”

    Matt — Strong industry opinion on Stern's role in preserving pinball during its collapse

  • “It's like this is the progression of pinball manufacturing. They were difficult to make. And then when solid state came around, they became easier to make. And now we're today where it is impossible to make because there's just so much more that goes into the game.”

    Matt — Observation on manufacturing complexity evolution across pinball eras

Entities

Jeff MillerpersonMattpersonMichael HarrelsonpersonCPR (Classic Playfield Reproductions)companySterncompanyGottliebcompanyWilliamscompany

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: New podcast (Pinball Restorer's Podcast) establishing itself with structured segments: listener-requested featured games, expert interviews, commercial partnerships with industry vendors, and trivia giveaways. Shows strategic content planning around restoration community engagement.

    high · Introduction of new segments (listener-requested featured game), commercial break featuring pinball retailers (Multiball, Pinside), giveaway segment with trivia, and announcement of upcoming interview with Pinball Hall of Fame

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Matt announces Michael Harrelson as co-host joining for future episodes, indicating podcast scaling from solo to collaborative model due to production time demands.

    high · Direct announcement: 'I have a co-host. His name is Michael Harrelson. He's a friend of mine... he's going to be helping me out from time to time whether it be every other episode or at some point every episode because this does take time.'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Extended discussion of pinball manufacturer consolidation and acquisitions: Stern acquired Chicago Coin and Williams, acquired Stern Electronics, Data East sold to Sega, and post-arcade-collapse reconfiguration of the industry.

    high · Detailed historical narrative: 'Stern Electronics eventually dissolved, got sold to Data East. Data East got dissolved, sold to Sega. Sega Pinball was running. Gary Stern was the CEO of Sega Pinball. When they folded, he took it private and kept the company.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Active solicitation of listener feedback through restoration forums, with listeners requesting specific technical content (e.g., 'how do you remove inserts from a playfield without breaking them'), indicating engaged restoration community and content co-creation.

    high · Matt states: 'I did post out on a couple restoration forums of what people would like to hear about, and I had game recommendations or, Or one guy actually asked me, how do you remove the inserts from a playing field without breaking them? These are great questions.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.113

0:00
Welcome to the Pinball Restorers Podcast. But anyways, just to give a recap of episode one, we had an interview with Jeff Miller. He is a premier restorer based in Tampa Bay, Florida. This man restores these machines to museum quality, basically better than new. He puts his heart and soul into those machines. But aside from that, what he did in this process of coming into his future foray of business, in other words, this guy just was like all of us and started with one machine. he ended up having to do work for CPR Classic Playfield Reproductions on the side to basically just get free plastic sets out of the deal and in that assessment of all of the art and recreating those things for these games he came up with the stencil business and what he's done is over 300 titles now where he has scanned in the artwork on the sides of these cabinets and recreated basically a vinyl decal stencil that you can then use to spray and recreate the artwork and hey, 750 machines last year alone. So he has been a huge force in this because that was a big missing component and you know what? I love seeing these cabinets come back to life. The guy's a riot to talk to and he's well-versed in pinball because he's dealt with other machines too. But that was a blast. It was nice to get a chance to talk to him and I hope to have him on the show again because guess what? There's more games and there's more projects and this guy's an expert. We like to consult experts.
1:58
But moving on. So just if you're new to this show, this is what the show is about. We are about pinball. Obviously, that insane little hobby that starts with one machine and then you fall into a hole or as we say in pinball, you go down the drain.
2:16
It starts with one and then it multiplies. In fact, it's kind of like pinball machines are like the coat hanger effect. you know you throw a pinball machine in the basement the next you come down a few days later there's two or three and they just keep coming and that's how a bunch of us get into this hobby and that's how a bunch of us get into the restoration of it now pinball machines are like classic cars you can have you can be a dude that has 60 of them you can be a guy that has half of one and you're like how do i make this work it's an intimidating task because the average machine has over a thousand feet of wire in it and this is in the early days in the uh if you go even further back in time you had you know up to 2 000 feet of very very fine weave wire um incredibly thin incredibly fragile there was a series of motors relays those are electromagnetic machines score reels uh you know dealing with the cam you know you open up this machine and it's like oh my God, what the hell? And I literally call it hell because everybody loves a pinball machine because of the world under glass. Well, that's true. If you lift up that world under glass, welcome to hell.
Bally
company
Data Eastcompany
Sega Pinballcompany
Chicago Coincompany
Jersey Jackcompany
Deep Root Pinballcompany
Pinball Brotherscompany
Chicago Game (Chicago Gaming Company)company
American Pinballcompany
Roger Sharpperson
Gary Sternperson
David Gottliebperson
Barry Owslerperson
John Papadiukperson
Pat Lawlerperson
George Gomezperson
Dennis Normanperson
Pinball Hall of Fameorganization
  • ?

    restoration_signal: Extensive discussion of modern restoration enablers: vinyl decal stencils (Jeff Miller), playfield reproductions (CPR), 3D-printed drop target plastics, backglass reproduction services (BG Resto), translights. Demonstrates mature aftermarket ecosystem supporting machine longevity.

    high · Multiple references to aftermarket solutions: '3D printing has revolutionized restoration for us. There were parts that you couldn't get... CPR, if you pay on the game you have, you can buy a whole brand new seven-layer Baltic birch playfield.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Explicit positive sentiment about contemporary pinball industry resurgence with multiple active manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, Deep Root, Pinball Brothers, Chicago Gaming, American Pinball) and returning legacy designers.

    high · Matt: 'I will say this, and there are guys who are going to hate me for saying this. Gary Stern saved pinball because he was the last company left standing... And now he's not alone. Jersey Jack is cranking out new games Deep Root Pinball is putting out new games... All of these guys came back... and so and that it this is to me this is awesome'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Discussion of restoration market enabling preservation of non-viable commercial titles. Example: Spectrum (1982) unpopular at launch but now desirable due to aftermarket support and collector interest. Indicates healthy secondary restoration market driving game longevity.

    high · Spectrum was initially sold bundled as bonus with other games, was commercially unpopular. Now: 'Compared to today's rule sets that would be welcome um if this was a licensed title in some manner like mission impossible or something like yeah people would play this'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinball Hall of Fame completing major relocation/expansion project. COVID lockdowns in Las Vegas severely impacted revenue; $80,000 emergency donation enabled completion. Indicates venue consolidation and financial fragility in pinball tourism.

    high · Matt: 'COVID has devastated Las Vegas. The lockdowns, restrictions... it's a crowded, packed thing... really hurt their income stream right in the middle of their new acquisition of their new location... they needed the money to complete the project and then move out of their previous location.'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Extensive discussion of pinball's legal history: NYC gambling ban (pinball classified as chance gambling), Roger Sharp's skill argument (1970s era), regulation preventing extra ball payout in some states. Historical context for modern regulatory environment.

    high · Matt: 'At one time, pinball was illegal because it was considered chance gambling... adding an extra ball was a no-no... depending on the county or state you lived in, you couldn't give that because that was considered a gambling payout'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Spectrum (1982) detailed as experimental game with unique design constraints: no slingshots (to maintain control), opaque plastics (obscure ball visibility), no shooter lane, immediate right flipper eject. Design philosophy explicitly tied to rule complexity (code-breaking Mastermind game).

    high · Matt: 'Cleffernan has designed this, and he went out to break the mold. That's why it doesn't have slingshots. It has opaque plastics. It doesn't use a shooter lane... I honestly think that you had to have as much control as possible to be able to execute the sequence of events to code break this game'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Historical manufacturing commentary: EM machines complex, solid state made manufacturing easier, modern machines extremely complex. Contrasts with industry consolidation and capacity constraints.

    medium · Matt: 'They were difficult to make. And then when solid state came around, they became easier to make. And now we're today where it is impossible to make because there's just so much more that goes into the game.'

    • 3:28
    And so the whole purpose of the show is to get a hold of old designers, get a hold of fellow restorers, talk to the companies that supply all of our recreation parts, the services we need, you know, and there's an entire online community that didn't exist, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, you could buy these machines for nothing. People couldn't even give them away. That's the shakeout of the fall of the arcade industry. But then that just means that it moved into different hands. So now everybody's getting machines that they've had from their childhood.
    4:02
    And in my previous episode, Jeff was saying that these guys could be like, yeah, they feel like they found the Holy Grail because they finally got a pinball machine. Well, I'll look at it this way. For a lot of us, that's how it started. you know for a lot of us um we didn't buy a brand new machine for heck we were lucky if we inherited one uh somebody sold us one that didn't work um you know you find them in your grandfather's you know basement and you know your parents attic um heck in a barn behind businesses that went under I mean, there's just so many that were out there.
    4:40
    And the titles that go so far back, I mean, just to give an estimated run, just a badly lost world, there was 10,000 of that made. That's one game.
    4:52
    And particularly, not exactly a much sought-after game, which is fairly common. But this is before the hype of Adam's family. they're guys who have strictly EM collections because they love the sound of hearing those score reels move they love hearing the chime units instead of electronic sounds it's one of the few games where the game is consistently relatively looked the same throughout history though the technological advancements have been present the entire time you start from literally pulling a plunger on a 1939 baffle ball, pulling the plunger, sending a ball and having it go around little pins, the nails that were in the surface, and fall into holes. Baffle ball, it was the first pinball machine, commercially marketed, even though it's existed in other forms. Bagatelle tables are very similar, going all the way back to the 1600s.
    5:53
    These old games still have the same principle. You launch a ball, and your scoring is based on the manipulation of that ball, whether in the early days by chance of where it would fall, to the invention of flippers that controlled it. Original 1940s pinball machines had series of six to eight flippers on each side. They launched eight balls, and that was how you controlled them.
    6:20
    Later into the 50s, it was two flippers, though they're smaller than the ones of today, would still be knocking around a pinball. Advancements happened. I mean, lights were added to these games. Eventually, there was entire chime units added to these games. Score reels were set up. A cam was put in place, which is just a grooved cylinder, which stored the game's information, similar to that of, like, a vinyl record. And when you look at these older... That's just so incredibly complex to put together. I mean, I was talking to Barry Osler once. I said, it's interesting. It's like this is the progression of pinball manufacturing. They were difficult to make. And then when solid state came around, they became easier to make. And now we're today where it is impossible to make because there's just so much more that goes into the game. And I'm not picking on anybody who buys a brand new machine. Please do. It keeps these things alive. I just look at it from this perspective that for a lot of us, and there are a lot of games out there, this is how we get in this. and the economics are there. I mean, I'm not going to judge somebody that they can't afford to get a brand new play field. Depending on the game you have, there isn't one to get. So you have to literally either sit down, repaint it by hand. A lot of people use model paint, guys airbrush. Some guys have gone as far as to, because they work in a place that has a manufacturing capability, they're able to literally scan in the game, recreate a series of screen prints and reprint it. and I'm going to cover a wide variety of tips and methods, techniques to actually bring these games to light. And so some of this may seem a little dry at times, but there's a whole history here. We're on episode two. You can't talk about restoration without talking about the history. And with Solid State, that opened up so many more possibilities. I mean, it was revolutionary. That was near the end of pinball's heyday of the late 1970s. Because before that, everything was an EM machine. Series of relays, and guess what? All those games are still out there.
    8:37
    In fact, I have a friend who just picked up a Gottlieb Toledo full EM game. You can play original Captain Fantastic. There's an EM version. There's a solid state version. Look at the companies that made these. You had Gottlieb that basically started with Baffle Ball. They ran that, and their last game they produced was Barbed Wire. Yes, based on the film with Pamela Anderson that was not a great film, but a cult classic. And I actually do want that machine. Less than 1,000 of them were made.
    9:10
    But you look at the companies that you had. Chicago Coin, you had Stern Electronics. And the reason I say Stern Electronics is that is not the same company of Stern as today. it went through its own unique transitions You had Bally that was started by sales distributor for Gottlieb that couldn get games fast enough so he built his own and sold them under the name Bally which is short for Bally Ho which was the name of a common gentleman's magazine at the time. So I mean and the funny thing is is that's similar to how television was manufactured and produced in basically its entire heyday.
    9:51
    Basically, there's one guy who builds one. The sales rep can't get enough of them, so he makes his own.
    9:57
    And that's the unique, interesting part. Gottlieb dominated that industry for a very long time. And then they did not convert to solid state fast enough, and they could never play catch-up. And there are guys who've worked for Gottlieb that are still around. They're still working for other companies now.
    10:18
    You had Stern, which bought out Chicago Coin, which was making gambling devices, pinball machines, and shuffle bowlers, long before these companies all combined. You had Williams that was attached to a jukebox company.
    10:37
    And for a brief period of time, Stern owned Williams. and Stern Electronics eventually dissolved, got sold to Data East. Data East got dissolved, sold to Sega. Sega Pinball was running. Gary Stern was the CEO of Sega Pinball. When they folded, he took it private and kept the company. That's why his company still exists. Williams made the decision to close their pinball division and continue on with gambling devices because that's where the money was. Gottlieb couldn't get their business moved over to that fast enough and literally in litigation hell, because it takes a while to get approved for gambling devices, folded.
    11:19
    And because Gottlieb has a tragic story in and of itself. Because Columbia Pictures owned a portion, a significant portion of Gottlieb. In fact, it went through a couple of name changes where it was called Premier. and that was a, it says on there, a Columbian Pictures company. And so David Gottlieb's company, when they folded, they were never, the family was never able to buy the company back. And so Alvin and Michael Gottlieb, the son, grandson of David, went ahead and formed a company called Alvin G Pinball and they had titles under them. It didn't last.
    12:02
    Stern Electronics, right before they went under, they formed Pinstar, made a few games, and then that was that.
    12:11
    So basically you look at it this way. All of your big players were out. Williams dominated the entire pinball industry into the 90s, and they had awesome games. I mean, they did. But essentially that was, again, the fallout of the arcade fall.
    12:28
    These machines are all designed to make money. Pat Lawler even says this, at the end of the day, you are designing a machine that makes money.
    12:36
    And with arcades going completely belly up, because you could not compete with the home console market, the saddest part of it all is that pinball was a victim of that. And not only that, skee-ball was a victim of that. It wasn't until much later where they had to reinvent what the idea of an arcade was, that things were able to move forward again with companies making different games. I laugh. At one time, pinball was illegal because it was considered chance gambling. In certain states, adding an extra ball was a no-no. That's why certain machines, you open them up, it was added ball options. That's because depending on the county or state you lived in, you couldn't give that because that was considered a gambling payout. and the ironic thing about this is the fact that did anybody see the Chuck E. Cheese? I'm not picking on them. Just the future of the arcade, which is basically nothing but redemption games. It's come here, eat pizza, play at the child's casino.
    13:45
    Is that pinball with Chance gambling? I've seen people pump $400 in the course of an hour and a half trying to win just Marvel collector's cards out of coin sliders. So it's ridiculous to me that at one point the mayor of New York said that he wasn't going to let kids lose their hard-earned dimes and nickels to chance gambling in a pinball machine. Fast forward 40 years, you'll blow half your paycheck taking your kids to Chuck E. Cheese. but anywho so the arcade fallout happened and that was console games versus arcade games because the arcade game used to be the better version and as technology advanced and the home version anybody with a gaming computer they're on top and so there was no need for that so you had to reinvent the business to more impulse based sales Raw Thrills cornered that market some of their biggest hits, Big Buck, Hunter I've watched people, people go up to the bar they want to play that, you put quirky stuff in it, people like it, the game is simple, anybody can play it and for a buck you play for a long time that's kind of what had to change and so gone were the days of making every type of fighting game to every type of shooting game there are classics in that regard. And I will be doing an arcade edition of this show because I have a friend who happens to own a vintage arcade. It's called Starcade. It's located up here in Roseville, Minnesota. Gotten to know about the Galloping Ghost, one of the largest collections. Todd Tuckey with TNT Amusements. He sells tons of these games and he ships a lot of them overseas. So there's a collector's market for these. And guess what? the revival of Home Arcade. I would say the obsession with it, a lot of it, we owed Arcade one-up. I've gone to Walmart. I saw that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for $400. Don't think I didn't look at it like I could bring that home. It would be, and unlike, I could buy an original TMNT for about $300, but I don't know, you know, because these were in arcades. They were left on for 15, 16 hours a day. Some places never turned them off. You know, old CRT monitors, the image would be burned into it. Pinball machines were no different. In fact, okay, let's talk about the restoration of a pinball machine, the back glass.
    16:24
    That is an image that was screen printed onto glass. And what happens is over time, incandescent bulbs, and they're incredibly hot, if you've ever opened up the head of the machine and you look where the light baffles are, you'll see these little burn marks. Those bulbs heated up. They delaminate the image off of the glass over time. That's where we end up with back glass damage. And for a long time, there was always a lot of videos out there about how you could hand paint and restore these. Now there's companies that specialize in recreating the glass as well as doing translights, which is just a vinyl insert that does exactly what it's supposed to do. But these things didn't exist, and now they do. And they're adding and adding more titles to what's going on, thanks to the fact that people can scan in stuff. and as long as there's somebody willing to recreate, there's going to be life for this. 3D printing has revolutionized restoration for us. There were parts that you couldn't get. You used to not be able to buy drop target, the plastics for drop targets. People have been recreating those. You can buy them on eBay, just universal sets, or you can buy brand new reissued. It's all available. Playfield reproductions. CPR, if you pay on the game you have, you can buy a whole brand new seven-layer Baltic birch playfield. Drop it in the game.
    17:49
    So just so many aspects of this, that whole history of the pinball industry, I am thrilled that Stern held on. And I will say this. Roger Sharp may have been the man who they say saved pinball in the United States because he argued in front of the New York City legislature that this was, in fact, a game of skill. He enabled it to be legal here. All these companies were making money on these machines. They were shipping them overseas. Europe was a huge market. Why was Europe a huge market for pinball? It's an American invention, World War II. GIs went over there. They brought everything with them. We sent, because to keep the guys entertained, because everybody got to finally get away from the lines at some point or another, in their bases, in their USO tents, they would have pool, they had billiard tables, they had dart boards, they brought pinball machines War ended we didn bring any of that stuff back and so the locals fell in love with this stuff And so Roger Sharp pretty much argued it was a game of skill He made it legal here Okay? I will always say that. I will say this, and there are guys who are going to hate me for saying this. Gary Stern saved pinball because he was the last company left standing.
    19:08
    And he did his damnedest to make sure that it continued. And now he's not alone. Jersey Jack is cranking out new games Deep Root Pinball is putting out new games you have Pinball Brothers just put out Alien they're not from here but they're another company you have Haggis down in Australia you have Dutch pinball company making stuff you have Chicago Game which is doing reissues of a lot of classic titles you have American Pinball Company and a lot of the old designers are back Barry Owsler and Papa Duke worked for Deep Root.
    19:44
    Let's see here. Pat Lawler is chief engineer. I believe he's the senior designer over at Jersey Jack. You have George Gomez. He's over at Stern. You have Dennis Norman over at American Pinball.
    20:03
    All of these guys came back. Artists have come back. and so and that it this is to me this is awesome and so it's nice that some of these guys are accessible you can actually talk to them about older titles like what was it like to design this how did the concept come up what was the production run these are these are those things that I want to bring to this show and so I know I've been talking I tried to give kind of this hodgepodge history of pinball. There's so much more, and we'll have shows dedicated to that, but this is episode number two. I just wanted to kind of give a disclaimer of what I'm doing. Now, because this is a new show and there are some things that I'm going to do that I didn't get to do in the first one, one of which is I like feedback, and so I did post out on a couple restoration forums of what people would like to hear about, and I had game recommendations or, Or one guy actually asked me, how do you remove the inserts from a playing field without breaking them?
    21:08
    These are great questions. And guess what? This is the stuff that we can talk about. But we're going to cut to a commercial break. And if you guys notice, all of my commercials are to relevant industries. I did not have this randomly monetized just to have commercial interruptions for stuff that's not related to what we do. So I seek out, get permission from the guys who make this stuff, or I just make ads for it. I am not endorsed by any of these companies. I am just trying to prop up the guys who support our industry and our hobby and our passion. And so without further ado, let's go to a commercial break because I also have to really use the bathroom.
    21:54
    Multiball. The pinball place. your premier retailer and authorized dealer for Stern, Jersey Jack, and American Pinball. Large selection of new and used games, parts, and accessories. Find out more at pinballplace.com.
    22:08
    Pinside. Pinside, the largest pinball community on the internet. Whether you own 60 games or half of one, join and start connecting to fellow pinheads, browse the marketplace, repair forums, game database, rank yourself against other players, and stay on top of the latest news in pinball, all at pinside.com. Ladies and gentlemen, now back to the show.
    22:34
    Okay, welcome back. Alright, so, because, again, this is a new show, these are segments that were not in the first episode, these are now segments that are going to be part of it. So, without further ado, I'm going to introduce a new segment, and this segment is called...
    22:51
    Disclaimer, I am aware of how many times I actually said the word segment. Listener requested featured game. That's right, a listener requested featured game. I had a request to do Spectrum, the classic from Bally in 1982. This thing is a nightmare. If you've ever played this and were frustrated, I don't blame you. Because, and I have played this actually, in fact I want one. Mostly because the back, I love the artwork of it. I liked incorporating the idea that it was a circuit board. And the woman that is portrayed on the back glass image, just very Matrix-y, way ahead of its time, kind of falling in the theme of Blade Runner and stuff like that that was done at the time. Now, what makes this game unique is the rule set. It is literally just like playing the game Mastermind. It's a code-breaking game. And the features that are missing from this game, It doesn't have a shooter lane. It doesn't have out lanes. The ball ejects to the right flipper immediately into play. And if you fail to eject it right away, the machine gets impatient and kicks it out anyways.
    24:06
    And it uses the squawk and talk voice in the game instructions so that it tells you what you're supposed to be doing. And one of the things is that it has no slingshots. and I think there are people who ask about this and I'm like, I can only theorize because I was not able to get a hold of Claude Fernandez for this when he designed this game I honestly think that you had to have as much control as possible to be able to execute the sequence of events to code break this game so the slingshot creating that erratic behavior when it would bounce into it You have to be able to catch this and relaunch the ball, or just send it off the flipper.
    24:55
    The slingshots would cause an erratic pattern, which would interfere with the gameplay and make this game much more frustrating than it already is. In fact, the game, I would say, was almost too hard for your casual player.
    25:11
    I can't imagine somebody walking up to this and being like, all right, cool, typical pinball from the impulse enthusiast is just try to keep the ball moving and not lose a buck. That's usually the first thing people try to do. The second thing people try to do is, okay, how do I earn an extra ball? The third thing people try to do is then how do I get a free game? And the fourth is, okay, I'm actually going to follow the sequence of events and actually beat this game. well that kind of changes how everything was done here because this game the plastic set on it blocks your visibility of where the ball is going to come out when it when it locks the ball so when it locks the ball automatically launches another ball you don't see the lanes in which this ball will travel so it makes it a little bit more erratic in that so the difficulty isn't so much about the obstacles or targets that could send it somewhere else. It's about that you need to be really strict on this set of rules. And there are not a lot of these games left. There was only 994 originally made, and roughly 400 of those games were not sold. and what happened is there's the phrase they went to the scrapyard or the dump typically when they had games that didn't sell well or that they would dismantle them they would take all of the parts off of them the only thing they ever really hashed out which throw in the trash was the play field or if they could retheme it to a different game they'd do that so it's not like a lot of these are rotting in a dump somewhere, just play fields, if that. Cabinets were typically just re-themed. And it was sad. In fact, this game was unpopular at the time because just to get the operators to sell it, they would sell them two other games and throw this in as a bonus. And it was just too challenging. It's just too challenging for the casual player. Compared to today's rule sets that would be welcome um if this was a licensed title in some manner like mission impossible or something like yeah people would play this but at the time this was kind of this was an extremely difficult game and not for the you know faint of heart or impulse half drunk player at bar or for a nine-year-old kid to thoroughly understand unless they were you know granted into Menza.
    27:52
    So that being said, this game is unique. So Cleffernan has designed this, and he went out to break the mold. That's why it doesn't have slingshots. It has opaque plastics. It doesn't use a shooter lane that you can manipulate your drop.
    28:08
    You immediately basically kick it off the right flipper. And aside from that there is the whole aspect of what went into this game the light show on this thing is insane um todd tucky did a video where he actually did the whole breakdown of this game and just looking underneath it was just insane uh the inside of the game is packed with boards and extra relays to control nearly 80 fleet 80 playfield insert lamps as well as flashing gi and back box lamps.
    28:43
    Literally, they're done in sequence. I mean, staring at this, I'm starting to think of the game Guitar Hero because of the way that the lights are in a vertical horizon display.
    28:57
    And it says, guess the computer's color code. And so that's where the whole comparison to the game Mastermind comes into play. and it's just it was a very difficult game it stands out as a unique one the artwork was done by margaret hudson um and the game is beautiful i like it and i like neurotic challenges i have adhd and ocd so this is totally perfect for me i can sit down here i'll be playing that until i beat it or i you know mutually assured destruction i set it afire but thank you john brazenly for the suggestion that is on it's a Facebook group it's Pinball Restorations and Projects and hey now I want one so thank you for that heads up I smell a giveaway that's right folks we're going to give something away I'm going to be giving away a set of cushion covers that are pinball themed and on top of that I'm going to do a $10 donation to NewMadeSociety this is going to be done basically like a little bit of trivia get the right answer send me an email and And if it's correct, guess what? I'll announce the winner. And I'll make that donation. And here we go. Now, the item I'm going to be allowing you guys to get is a set of pinball-themed cushion covers to put on some throw pillows and put them on your couch. If you have this in your game room, it themes out the game room. I have a set of these. I like them. So I'm going to give a set away. So, you have to answer a question, though. And the question is, what game? It was manufactured by Williams. It's an EM game. There are three titles in existence with the same back glass and the same play field. One of those three was manufactured by Segasa.
    30:44
    What is the game? And I'll give a hint. The Williams made the two and four player versions under two different titles. The foreign entity manufactured the single player under a third title. what is the game? And if you answer with any of the three titles, I'll count that correct. But please send your answer to pinballrestoshow at gmail.com and I'll get that back to you as soon as I can. And you can look on the Pinball Restorers podcast Facebook page and you'll see an image of what I'm sending. Because guess what? You might not like it. Don't just sign up for something you're not going to use. So go ahead and do that and get that out there. and we're going to go do another little bit of a commercial break because hey, I got some businesses to prop up I told you I wasn't going to fit through the door just like the lady that sells pull tabs at the bar, definitely shows her age once the lights turn on BG Resto Backglass Repair and Reproduction Service restoring backglass images to better than new from A to Z any machine from Atari to Zachariah and all in between All at BGResto.com All you ever do is drink, play pinball, drink, pass out, drink, and complain about your love life.
    32:06
    And with that music, folks, that means it's time for some news. And there's news in regards to this podcast. I've been using the proper terms of we and our near the, you know, at about this point in the podcast. It's because I have a co-host. His name is Michael Harrelson. He's a friend of mine. We've actually bonded over pinball. he's going to be helping me out from time to time whether it be every other episode or at some point every episode because this does take time. It takes time to put these together. And speaking of which he is going to be on my next episode but in the next episode I'm going to be interviewing Tim and Beth with the Pinball Hall of Fame. That's huge for restoration. They house the rarest games including the rarest one only two of which ever met production is Python's Pinball Circus. One went to a private collector The other is there, and you can play it, because when you go to that location, you can play the games. And it's big news for them. A private donor donated $80,000 at the last minute to help get them above their goal in their GoFundMe page. And the reason they had one is COVID has devastated Las Vegas.
    33:15
    The lockdowns, restrictions, come on. It's a crowded, packed thing. There's all these machines. It just wasn't going to work. And that really hurt their income stream right in the middle of their new acquisition of their new location. It was being built. And they had to be out of their old location by a certain date. Well, they needed the money to complete the project and then move out of their previous location.
    33:43
    And that was the only reason I wasn't able to talk to them for this episode. But it's huge for restoration because, as I said, they house a lot of games. And so there's a unique history with that. We're going to talk about how they actually created this, the legacy behind that. And they're going to give us the info on what happened. And hopefully I will be going down to Las Vegas at some point this next year. And for me, that's a big draw. I love going to the Neon Light Museum and I love going to the Pinball Hall of Fame. I can gamble at any one of those casinos. I like to go there for kind of more of the unique things. And so those two places are always on my list every time I go. And so it'll be a pleasure to be able to talk with those two. And in other news, and this is just hot off the presses, like I literally just checked Facebook like an hour or two ago. Apparently the Super Awesome Pinball Show, this is cryptic. They have a tombstone. This is 2019 to 2021.
    34:44
    I really hope that show is not done. I loved listening to Christopher Franchi and Christian Lane. I loved that show. They had a lot of epic interviews. I mean, they interviewed everybody from Gary Stern to Roger Sharp, George Gomez, Zombie Eddie. I mean, they had everybody on there, and it was so well put together. The production quality was great. In fact, it actually inspired me to make this show and kind of give me the bar. That's why I have music. That's why I have sounds.
    35:09
    I'm just going to be so sad to see that go. and at some point I'd love to actually have, when I do an artist's edition, I would love to have Christopher Franchion. Just to talk about the business of coming up with the art for pinball. I mean, pinball has been the pulse of whatever's popular in entertainment, and whether it's original content or a licensed title, the art is half the draw of the game. It's the light show that's flashing over there, but what's lit behind that back glass, or a translate, however you want to put it. But I would love to get a hold of them. I'm going to be really sad to not be listening to that podcast anymore.
    35:49
    Oh, I really hope they're doing a YouTube channel, because at least then the media moves on. And we will have a YouTube channel as well. It's in its infancy because of the fact that my co-host and I, we live far apart. He's moving. That's the only reason that he's not on the show. So he's moving from the good state of Virginia. He's moving to South Carolina. and so that's what he's doing this weekend three thousand dollars on a rental truck later and i wish best of luck to mike and his wife i really hope they get back you know they get back to normal living situation here pretty quick and you know as i said this is uh this is all new so keep an eye out we're going to get more content out there i have more interviews coming up i have interviews with the distributors and i have interviews with a few other restorers i've reached out to quite a few people. I have heard back. I will get those shows going. But, for episode number two, this is Matt. I am going to be signing off. And, as I said before, keep it flippin'. You know, if you see that game on Craigslist for a hundred bucks, just buy it. It's a wonderful journey. And enjoy the journey. Take your time and enjoy the journey. It's not like it's a car you have to drive to work the next day, which is the most frustrating thing to anybody who's a hobbyist mechanic. They love working on the classic in the garage because they can do it at their own leisure or it's their own vehicle and have to drive to work the next day it's a nightmare this doesn't have to be like that enjoy the journey become obsessed with the game start liking it start planning your new one start thinking about the next one and you know by all means support the industry reach out to people talk to people on the inside just get more involved in the hobby it's totally worth it but until next time keep it flipping This has been a Ruby Butt Production. Ruby, get out of the litter box!