Episode 124: Neil McRae of the UK

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·20m 31s·analyzed·Apr 23, 2018

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

UK pinball enthusiast Neil McRae discusses arcade building, charity work, and space fandom.

Summary

Neil McRae, a UK-based pinball collector and computer engineer, discusses his involvement with Path of Play charity, his newly constructed 24-30 machine arcade in London, and his passion for space exploration and Star Trek. He shares details about the sparse UK pinball scene, his experiences at Pinberg and IAAPO shows, and his personal encounters with astronauts and celebrities.

Key Claims

There are only four places in the entire UK where you can play pinball on location
medium confidence · Neil McRae describing the pinball scene in the UK as very sparse
Neil McRae used a sniping program to win a Pinberg ticket on eBay for Path of Play charity
high confidence · Direct statement by Neil about writing a program to place a maximum bid in the final seconds
Neil McRae is constructing an arcade with capacity for 24-30 pinball machines in London
high confidence · Detailed description of arcade construction starting after New Year, expected completion by April for Path of Play Day
Pinberg has more pinball games than exist in the entire UK or close to it
medium confidence · Neil's observation comparing the variety at Pinberg to the UK's total available machines
Star Trek Generations is one of the first games Neil wheeled into his new arcade room and it weighs significantly
high confidence · Direct anecdote about the physical weight of the machine nearly killing him during transport
Neil met Neil Armstrong at MIT during the 40th anniversary of Apollo in 2009
high confidence · Detailed personal account of the meeting and conversation about fuel tank levels
Bride of Pinball was Neil McRae's first pinball game played and first game purchased
high confidence · Neil's clear statement about playing it in a local arcade in Scotland and later buying it
Flip Out London is a member-owned pinball club with 30-35 machines that acquired an EM Apollo machine
high confidence · Neil's description of the London pinball club he helped establish

Notable Quotes

“I'm a bit of a computer whiz kid. So I wrote a little program that made sure it would be mine.”
Neil McRae @ early in episode — Reveals Neil's technical skills and his commitment to winning a Pinberg ticket for charity
“I call myself an ethical hacker, if that makes sense.”
Neil McRae @ ~5 minutes — Lighthearted response to Jeff's joke about hacking into his computer
“Pinball is such a social game, Jeff. And you know you have the most fun when you playing it with people.”
Neil McRae @ ~15 minutes — Articulates motivation for building public arcade space in London
“There are probably more games at Pinberg than there is in the whole of the U.K. or something not that far away from it.”
Neil McRae @ ~25 minutes — Emphasizes the limited pinball availability in the UK versus major US events
“Listen Neil, everybody knows that when the tank says empty there's always a couple of gallons still in it.”
Neil Armstrong (quoted by Neil McRae) @ ~45 minutes — Famous astronaut's casual response to Neil's question about fuel during moon landing, demonstrates Armstrong's private but personable nature
“You'll never count yourself out, dream big go out and make it happen.”
Gene Cernan (quoted by Neil McRae) @ ~48 minutes — Cernan's motto that inspired Neil's approach to Path of Play charity work
“Everything I learned in life, I learned from Star Trek. I think for many of us, I think that's true.”
Neil McRae @ ~37 minutes — Demonstrates how science fiction shaped Neil's worldview and career choices

Entities

Neil McRaeperson Path of PlayorganizationMike PrimopersonFlip Out LondonorganizationPinbergeventIAAPOeventNeil ArmstrongpersonGene Cernan

Signals

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community_signal: Neil McRae opening private arcade to public via Path of Play Day in April, demonstrating commitment to accessible pinball community space in UK
high · Detailed discussion of arcade construction completion by April, opening to children with special needs for Path of Play
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community_signal: Path of Play charity gaining traction with industry donations; eBay auction for Pinberg ticket raising funds for special needs accessibility initiative
high · Neil winning competitive eBay auction for Pinberg ticket to support Path of Play; using technical skills for charity fundraising
$
market_signal: Growing pinball revival in UK despite extremely limited commercial location availability; grassroots effort through member-owned clubs and private collectors opening spaces
medium · Neil's statement about only 4 locations in UK, founding of Flip Out London with 30-35 machines, construction of new arcade with 24-30 capacity
$
market_signal: Significant disparity in pinball game availability between US major events and European venues; Pinberg hosts more machines than entire UK
high · Neil's observation that Pinberg likely has more games than entire UK; only 4 locations to play in country

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.062

0:00

Ground control to Major Tom It's time now for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teolas. A little bit under the weather. Excuse the cold. You can find us on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. and please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Yes, we get to go across the pond. I love it. I hope you've got some fish and chips ready. Mmm, fish and chips and malt vinegar. Neil McRae joins us right now. Hey, Neil, how are you? I'm great, Jeff. It's great to talk to you. It's good to talk to you, too. And some people are wondering, who's Neil McRae? Well, if you were watching Papa TV and they auctioned off that great prize to get your Pinberg ticket before anyone else, Neil McRae was the winning bidder helping out with Path of Play, which we'll talk about in just a second. So that had to make you feel pretty good, getting your Pinberg ticket all locked up after the shenanigans of so many people scrambling to try to get their Pinberg tickets and some of the people being shut out. Not you, Neil. No, to be honest with you, I had such a great time at Pinberg last year when I saw that ticket come up on eBay for such a great cause. I just decided it was going to be mine. I'm a bit of a computer whiz kid, So I wrote a little program that made sure it would be mine. And I was very lucky to win it. And the money goes to a great, great charity that Mike runs. So, you know, I was, one, yeah, very happy to get a ticket, and two, happy to help a fantastic charity. Hold on a second here. You wrote a little computer program to help you with that? Was it just when you entered the bid? Is that all that program did? Basically, it's called a sniping program. and it basically, at the very last minute, places a bid, basically places the maximum bid that you're willing to spend, and luckily that was higher than everyone else's bid, so I won the ticket. So I'm talking to you on Skype right now, and if you're a computer whiz, have you already hacked into my computer, my bank account? I have not, no, I have not. I call myself an ethical hacker, if that makes sense. Well, congratulations on that, and again, we talk about the reason why that charity was so important. Path of Play, which you saw a little bit about last year at Pinberg, and then also the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. That's right. We're talking about Mike Primo and Path of Play, which is coming up on April 28th. But how did Path of Play affect you? Yeah, well, I saw the video at Pinberg between the finals, and I think the thing that touched me about it was Mike's, you know, the fact that it was very close to Mike's heart and obviously his family. in that I kind of watched the video whilst the finals were set up and the fact that the pinball and games had really made such a big difference to him and his family, it just kind of left me with kind of a great event that pinball was, kind of added something much more stronger to it. And also part of my extended family has autism and Asperger's and from that point of view, I kind of thought, oh, that's interesting. And actually, one of the kids in the family that has Asperger's really loves playing pinball. And I hadn't really put the two things together. So that developed into, you know, Mike had some contacts in London on some of the board game side. And I kind of said to him, listen, if you need a man in London to help with anything, let me know. And then it kind of developed as Path of Play developed. I've got an arcade that I've been building and full of games. And I kind of said to myself, my wife as well, well, let's open this up. on the path of play day and let's get involved. And, you know, it's kind of just blossomed from there. We have one thing in common. We're both very, very grateful for the things that we have and any chance we can to help others, we certainly do that. And you are doing that big time, Neil. When you're talking about that arcade, this is something after Pinberg you decided to build. And I've been to London too, so the flats aren't exactly huge there, the majority of them too, and you're building a pretty big arcade. Yeah, I mean, the pinball scene in the UK is pretty sparse. There's really four places in the whole of the UK where you can play pinball on location. And, you know, two of them are reasonably close to me. Two of them are quite far away from me. So I've been collecting machines. I used to play pinball 20 years ago. I kind of lost interest in it as my own career developed. And then I got back into it through an event at work. And I started buying machines. And as many of your listeners know, when you start that machine buying addiction, it's hard to stop. So I had a small kind of gym at the end of my garden. It was actually my wife's gym. I filled that up with pinball machines and then sadly couldn't stop buying them. And then decided coming out of Pinburg, actually I want to build something much more usable. Something that would allow me to bring friends, family. And really, you know, pinball is such a social game, Jeff. And you know you have the most fun when you playing it with people And whilst I had a bit of space it was quite difficult to do that So I decided to build something a lot bigger and it probably host probably close to 24 to 30 machines not that I have that many but if I keep buying them I probably will soon but something that you know I could really use as a good base where I could have people around and then obviously link to the work Mike's doing use it as a tool as part of Path of Play and hopefully other events where I can share something that's really, for me, very lucky to have, but very easy for me to open up and share it. So I really started construction just after the new year, and luckily the construction team that I used have done a fantastic job. We're almost there, one or two little things to do, and then in April, as Path of Play Day happens, we're going to open it up for kids with special needs to come and play. That's great. It sounds like something that's definitely needed. So when I was in London, I was staying near Kensington Palace and kind of near the Royal Albert Hall, and I looked on my pin finder to try to find pinball, and I found one place. The only problem, well, first of all, the place was very interesting to me because it was called, I think, Red's, and my nickname is Red. So I'm like, okay, this is great. One machine, ACDC Pro, which I have at home. So I was like, I'm not going to go play pinball in London, but now I know where to go. I'll head over to Neil McRae's. Now, Neil, you are a big space nut. in fact named after Neil Armstrong, correct? Correct. Thank God Buzz Aldrin didn't get off first.

6:37

But actually, I've met Buzz many times. He's a phenomenal guy, and he's a bit crazy. He's really, as he's got older, he's really kind of developed his own style. Fantastic guy. I mean, if you get a chance to meet him or any astronaut, actually, I'm very fortunate I've met many of them, including Neil Armstrong before he passed away. and they're phenomenal people. Questions that they probably get asked every day, they love to answer them. I'm in telecommunications, that's my trade, and I study the history of that and the space program helped develop a lot of things. The internet that we use today, even Skype to some extent that we're using to do this call, all of that starts back then. I find it fascinating. I like things that are big. There's nothing bigger than the space program in my view. It's been a real big thing in my life. It's kind of guided me, got me into arcades with Space Invaders and Lunar Lander and games like that. And then that eventually took me to pinball and got me into engineering and right into program and many other things that I can touch. And, you know, there's probably a lot of people who just saw the SpaceX launch with the Tesla car. You know, that was a phenomenally exciting launch and really space programs starting to really pick up again. So it was a very exciting time. And, you know, as an engineer, it's a great thing to kind of admire. and for me personally being named after such a phenomenal guy has really helped me in life. I'm a big Buzz fan too. I'm sure I voted for him when he was on Dancing with the Stars. And he's in my favorite ever Simpsons episode too where Homer goes to space. That's right, yeah. That's a great episode. You and I actually just missed each other. You were in Florida. I was there for Freeplay Florida and you had just left beforehand. But I'm sure you were checking out NASA and other great things. Yeah, I mean we went to Kennedy and saw a few friends there. And then I was at IAPA where Jersey Jack had Pirates and Stern had just launched Guardians of the Galaxy. And I met up with Doug Score from CGC and with their Attack from Mars remake. A phenomenal show. I mean, compared to what we have here in the UK, it was just a huge show of arcade and, you know, theme park stuff. Absolutely fantastic. And if I could have done, I would have stayed for the Florida show. But I had already extended my stay to go to IAAPO, so I had to fly back. But, yeah, I literally just missed you. And, you know, I get to Florida probably three or four times a year. I just find it a lovely place. It's always sunny there. And I love to go and meet people involved in the space program, quite a lot of people. And, actually, I'm involved in another thing here in London called Flip Out London, which is a pinball club we've set up recently. We managed to acquire an Apollo machine, an EM machine. It needs a little bit of work, but it looks great. We're trying to set this club up. It's in the south of London. We've got about 30, 35 machines there, and it's owned by the members. So we're trying to create more places to play. And this is another location that I've helped get off the ground, really. And pinball's really starting to pick up again here in the UK. It's probably not where it is in the US or even Canada, but it's definitely starting to show signs of revival. So you mentioned the Apollo game. I'm wondering what your favorite space games might be, because there's so many great titles out there, and I don't know what era you like better, but I'm just curious. If you had to pick some space games, which ones are they going to be? Yeah, I mean, I'm a massive Star Trek fan, so all the Star Trek games from the Data East, actually even the Bally one I don have that game but I played it the DAE Star Trek game I love it because it got Scotty in it Star Trek Next Gen is an all phenomenal machine although it's one of the first games I wheeled into my new room and it nearly killed me. It weighs a ton. The latest Star Trek from Stern, an absolutely staggeringly good game. I think Steve Ritchie and Dwight really knocked it out of the park on that game. I'll agree, but it would be at the top of my list. For me, Space Shuttle is my favorite spinner game of all time. Ah, yes, yes, yes. That's a great game. Absolutely. I actually haven't played that too often. I mean, that's one of the other challenges that I really realized, Jeff, when I was in Pimberg was, holy moly, how many games are actually out there? You know, in the U.K., if there's more than a – in fact, there's probably more games at Pimberg than there is in the whole of the U.K. or something not that far away from it. And there's such variety there. There are so many different games to play, and actually a lot of those games, and Space Shuttle was one that I played whilst I was there. The first time I played them. So I kind of went back with a long list of games that I love. And, yes, Space Shuttle is a great game. And Bride of Pinball is also one. It's actually the first pinball game that I played, and the first game that I decided to buy. Where I lived in Scotland, in Edinburgh, a local arcade, and a Bride of Pinball and a Terminator 2, I always found Terminator 2 quite a hard game. But Bride of Pinball, I got into it. So it's the first game I bought. And it's got a space shuttle in it. It's probably an easy game, but one that's, I think, got a lot of love in the industry. Because I think it was a really big game in its day in the alphanumerics. So, yeah, I love that game. The music in it is fantastic. The sound is really good. I think it's when the electronic part of pinball really started to mature. I knew you were going to say you liked Star Trek over Star Wars. I think I saw a picture of you with William Shatner, Captain Kirk. Indeed, yes. So he was in the U.K. at one of these sci-fi conventions, Jeff, and my wife bought me, unbeknownst to me, she bought me like a meet and greet with him. And a friend of mine, a guy called Shrocks, he's a space artist, He drew this phenomenal picture of the Enterprise and Apollo rockets from one of the early Star Trek episodes. And I got a copy of this artwork, this beautiful piece of artwork. It's actually going to be in the arcade when I get it framed. And I got him to sign it. And I had a really good chat with him. And I wear this kind of NASA jacket that a lot of people talk about. And he's just such a great guy. And, you know, he's in his 80s and still full of life. So, and someone that, you know, I watched Star Trek as a kid and, you know, I used to love it. Here in the UK, BBC Two at six o'clock every Friday, it would be on. You know, just again, as a kid with a kind of a growing imagination and wanted to get into technology and stuff like that, it was a big influence on my life. You kind of learn a lot from, you know, that Facebook image, everything I learned in life, I learned from Star Trek. I think for many of us, I think that's true. That's interesting that you're so into North American culture, whether it's the space program, whether it's Star Trek. I have been fascinated with the English culture. Definitely music. Zeppelin is my favorite band. I have a cat named Zeppelin. I have a dog named Jagger. And I love Brit rock so much. And British television. The Office, David Brent, my hero.

13:46

And also I think of the great British comedy, Monty Python, right there. So it's funny. I'm on this side admiring the British culture, and you're on that side admiring the North American culture. Yeah, I mean, America, Canada, UK, we've always been kind of close, mostly through language. And drinking. Yeah, and drinking. Yeah, I mean, we love our warm beer in some places, not all places, but we definitely love our beer. And I think, you know, a lot of that culture was transferable. The UK, there's no question about it, it often staggers me as to how big we are from a music point of view all the way back to the Beatles and even before that, to modern-day kind of mega bands like Oasis and then all the stuff in the middle. I'm a bit of a Rolling Stones fan. I saw them at Wembley, phenomenal gig. For guys that are, you know, of a certain age, you wouldn't think that they were, and they could play just as good today as they probably did when they first started, if not better. So, yeah, I mean, that pop culture in the UK is something that just kind of keeps reviving and refreshing and renewing itself. and Abbey Road Studios, which is being used to record some big movie soundtracks now as well. And it just seems to be this is the place to go if you want to do that, where there's a lot of great talent that we keep developing. Ed Sheeran, whether you like his music or not, the guy's got a phenomenal amount of talent in him. He kind of started off the back of YouTube. He's part of Team Ginger. I'm all about Ed. Yeah I mean I like one or two of his songs I not a mega fan but it hard to deny his talent when you see him play We have this thing on BBC Radio 1 called The Live Lounge where artists play other artists' music in a kind of an acoustic setup. He's done a couple of songs on that where he's just really knocked it out of the park from my point of view. So I have a lot of respect for true musicians who can sing, write music, play music. that's the kind of thing that really touches me I'll name a Scottish band well actually some people will have heard of if they think of the movie The Breakfast Club there's a song called Don't You Forget About Me Simple Minds, I saw them in concert in 1986 maybe fantastic yeah so I actually saw them last week the week before last at a place called The Roundhouse in Camden Town which if you ever get a chance to see music there it's a phenomenal venue they're a band that They must all be in their 60s. And again, I saw them in 86. I saw them in 94. And they can play today as well as they did back then, frankly. In fact, even better in some cases. And they've got a brand new album out that I think went to number one for a while here in the UK. And if you want to watch music, if you want to listen to music here in the UK, there's always something going on. Before I leave you, what do you say to all those conspiracies that think man never walked on the moon? Neil? Yeah, I mean, I say, listen, anyone can believe what they want to believe. But I think the evidence speaks for itself. When you look at pictures from the moon, if you Google, you'll see that there's been a lot of satellites gone around the moon taking pictures. Both U.S. satellites, but also Russians and Chinese have independently verified that, yep, they all went there. Here's one thing I can tell you. I've met many of the guys that walked on the moon. There's two that really touched me personally. One was Neil Armstrong, obviously. I met him, and I'll use a bit of time here, but I met him at MIT. I was sitting, there was an event there because MIT brought all the software for the Apollo system. And when I was sitting waiting for something, and I saw this kind of entourage of people coming towards me, and this was in 2009, 40th anniversary of Apollo. and I see this kind of group of people coming towards me and I'm thinking to myself, I know those guys from somewhere. Where do I know those guys from? And they got closer and closer and I'm racking my brain and I'm like, oh my God. It's Simple Minds. Oh my God, it's Neil Armstrong, it's Buzz Aldrin, it's Mike Collins. And actually I said a stronger word but I won't use it on radio. But I kind of jumped up there and kind of ran over to them and a kind of a bit of a crazy fluster, you know, I was like a school kid at a rock concert trying to meet their hero and, you know, I went over and introduced myself, said I'm Neil McRae and I was named after you and, you know, Neil if you read about him, he's quite a private individual and I started talking to him and then I was trying to think of something cool to ask him and of course I couldn't think, so I asked, you know, during the landing they nearly ran out of fuel and I said to you, I said, Neil, did you ever think that you weren't going to make it and he kind of looked at me and he said, listen Neil, everybody knows that when the tank says empty there's always a couple of gallons still in it and I kind of just stood there, kind of not really feeling a bit stupid not really having anything to say but it was great to meet him and I'm very fortunate because not long after he passed away a phenomenal guy, there's another guy, Gene Cernan the last man to walk on the moon commander of Apollo 17 I met him many times and I heard the stories he would tell about how they got to the moon I challenge anyone to think that the way that he spoke he was making it up and he has a movie called The Last Man on the Moon it's a phenomenal movie about an amazing person, if you haven't seen it I encourage everyone to go watch it will blow your mind apart and he had a thing that he would say which was, you know, you'll never count yourself out, dream big go out and make it happen. When I was thinking of Path of Play, I couldn't have thought of more of a more fitting thing to say about Path of Play. And again, really looking forward to helping Mike out with that and trying to help kids dream big and make something truly special happen. Well, Neil, thank you very much for your donations to Path of Play and helping out with the new arcade, which will be open pretty soon there in London. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Thanks, Jeff. Pleasure to talk to you. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. And please subscribe on either iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. I'm Jeff Teolas.