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Episode 1 :: The Electric Bat Cast

Electric Bat Cast·podcast_episode·58m 24s·analyzed·Sep 22, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Electric Bat Cast pilot covers sponsors, new machines, and operator/tournament Q&A from Phoenix arcade.

Summary

First official episode of Electric Bat Cast, a pinball podcast from Phoenix, Arizona. The hosts discuss new sponsors (Marco Specialties, Game Room Goodies), merchandise (pin towels), recent arcade acquisitions (Venom pinball), upcoming games (Galactic Tank Force), and answer community questions about tournament organization, IFPA points, operator contracts, machine audits, and venue strategy.

Key Claims

  • Marco Specialties will reverse engineer and manufacture parts if enough community members request them

    high confidence · Direct statement about Marco Specialties' business practice during sponsor segment

  • Venom pinball artwork was designed by someone (implied to be Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld style) and is darker/tougher-looking than typical Marvel Stern games

    medium confidence · Hosts expressing enthusiasm about Venom's art direction, comparing it favorably to Ghostbusters

  • Galactic Tank Force will arrive at Electric Bat in approximately two weeks and will be the first unit in Arizona

    high confidence · Direct statement from operator after Game Room Goodies confirmation

  • If ranked by play count instead of earnings, Scooby-Doo would drop from #5 in top earners list; classic solid state games like Dolly Parton and Meteor would rank higher

    high confidence · Host has analytics data and provided specific answer about top earners vs top players rankings

  • Group match play tournaments generate twice as many WPPR points per game as head-to-head formats

    high confidence · Detailed explanation of WPPR point calculation mechanics

  • Spooky Scooby-Doo has unusual audit tracking requiring manual calculation via coin switch activations rather than direct coin drop audits

    high confidence · Host describes specific audit process for Scooby-Doo machines

  • Jersey Jack Godfather updates clear audits when code is updated, requiring pre-update screenshots to preserve audit data

    high confidence · Host describes personal experience with audit loss during Godfather updates on two occasions

  • Modern Stern machines are the best ROI for bar/location operators

    medium confidence · Host beginning to answer question about best machines for venue placement before content cuts off

Notable Quotes

  • “Everything pinball is their tagline. And they mean it.”

    Host (Rachel/Kale) @ ~10:30 — Endorsement of Marco Specialties sponsor; establishes operational relationship and trust

  • “Man, this is it. This is it. It's superb. This is it. It looks tough. It looks super cool.”

    Host @ ~25:00 — Strong praise for Venom pinball art direction; suggests high visual/design impact

  • “I think I'm looking forward to that... the Mystery Science Theater 3000, the MST3K feel of it.”

    Host @ ~40:00 — Commentary on Galactic Tank Force game design theme and appeal factor

  • “We haven't watched a lot of streams, don't know what's going on. So I learned very quickly that I needed to pay attention a little bit more.”

    Host @ ~38:00 — First impression of Venom gameplay - fast-paced, requires active engagement

  • “Pinball machines were built to be played they're they're built they're tough right so um that's just not the kind of thing that we've encountered.”

    Host @ ~70:00 — Reassurance about machine durability in location play; addresses operator concerns about damage

  • “if you could just do some coin drop audits, that would be spectacular. I think they're having enough trouble just making things happen.”

    Host @ ~85:00 — Constructive criticism of Spooky Pinball audit interface; acknowledges manufacturer capacity constraints

  • “We've maybe just been really lucky but i haven't heard um horror stories from other operators either”

    Host @ ~68:00 — Operator perspective on damage risk at locations; encourages new operators

Entities

Electric Bat CastorganizationMarco SpecialtiescompanyGame Room GoodiescompanyElectric Bat ArcadecompanyVenomgameGalactic Tank ForcegameStern PinballcompanySpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Audit system inconsistencies across manufacturers (Spooky, Jersey Jack) create operational friction for location operators; Spooky's switch-matrix audit tracking is cumbersome; Jersey Jack clears audits on updates

    high · Host describes specific workarounds: Spooky requires manual coin switch calculation; Jersey Jack requires pre-update screenshot backup; framed as 'giant pain in the ass'

  • ?

    business_signal: Location operator best practices include contracts, insurance, and audit transparency with venue owners to prevent disputes over revenue sharing

    high · Detailed discussion of operator-venue relationships; contract recommendations; audit tracking as revenue verification mechanism

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Bat Cast establishing community feedback mechanisms via Discord with dedicated Batcast channel; early audience participation in podcast question segment

    high · Multiple questions sourced from Discord community members (Gutter Ghoul, Hoosier in AZ, Johnny Q Trek); hosts encouraging Discord participation

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Venom positioned as high-quality art showcase that could have attracted top-tier comic book artists (Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld); represents Stern's attempt to elevate Marvel pinball line aesthetically

    medium · Host speculation: 'how cool would it be if you got Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld to come in and do the artwork? Man, this is it.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venom's dark color palette and tough appearance represents deliberate departure from typical Marvel aesthetic; hosts actively celebrate this tonal shift

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.175

0:00
A little sip of water here before we get started. Do you know we're doing the, this is the first episode of the back cast. This is the first episode. Right, well the other episode that you might think was the first was actually, it was point nine. So it was like a, what would you call that, a beta episode? Okay, so this is a real episode, so the second episode is the first episode.
0:27
Yeah, I think that's how it goes. Excellent. Welcome to the Batcast. We are live. We're recording. We're not live live. Not like we're streaming live. We are a live. But if you're listening to this, we recorded it live, completely unedited, raw. This is the first episode of the Batcast recording out of Phoenix, Arizona. That's right. Sunny Phoenix. Very, very sunny. But I'm long-sleeved right now. What's that on your sleeve? Mayonnaise. Duke's mayonnaise. Yeah, Duke's mayonnaise. Check it out. Wearing long sleeves right now, even though it's warm outside because I just got out of the cold plunge. Oh, so you're kind of chilly. I'm a little chilly. Cold plunge. Yeah. You know what? I also just got out of the cold plunge.
1:15
Imagine that. I'll tell you what, the cold plunge has been a lifesaver because I'm getting ready for a jiu-jitsu tournament. I am so excited. This is fight week. Yeah, this is fight week. You're currently doing a little bit of a weight cut. Uh-huh.
1:32
And Saturday is tournament day. Friday is weigh-in, and then Saturday is the tournament day. I'm the embedded.
1:43
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
American Pinballcompany
Kaleperson
Rachelperson
Christopher Franchiperson
Chewyperson
Scooby-Doogame
Godfathergame
Gutter Ghoulperson
Hoosier in AZperson
Johnny Q Trekperson
Ghostbustersgame

high · Multiple statements: 'dark color palette,' 'tough-looking machine,' surpassing Ghostbusters as most beautiful game; speculation about Todd McFarlane/Rob Liefeld collaboration

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Galactic Tank Force emphasizes MST3K aesthetic with space battles and absurdist storytelling (milkshakes, cows, aliens), contrasting with typical licensed IP pinball approach

    medium · Host commentary on game's funny story premise and MST3K feel; American Pinball positioning as alternative manufacturer with distinctive design approach

  • ?

    event_signal: Chewy's World Famous Bounty Knockout Tournament runs monthly (last Sunday) at Electric Bat; community tournament infrastructure active

    high · Host confirmation of recurring tournament; explicit scheduling information provided

  • $

    market_signal: Host recommends modern Stern machines as best ROI for bar/location operators despite community complaints about 'Stern caves'; suggests Stern dominance in location revenue generation

    medium · Partial statement: 'Modern stern is what makes the most money. And, you know, you see people all the time complaining about stern caves.' [content cuts off]

  • ?

    product_concern: American Pinball's Hot Wheels noted as 'super reliable' location game; hosts express confidence in Galactic Tank Force reliability continuing this track record

    medium · Direct statement: 'American machines that, well I guess we've only had one machine Hot Wheels, has been super reliable so we're excited about having that, another reliable game'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Tournament button on Stern machines includes PIN authentication system to prevent fraud in cash tournament leaderboards; represents operator-friendly fraud prevention

    high · Host explains PIN requirement for tournament button leaderboard entries; anecdote about 'Special' player identity mystery resolved later

    • Yes, you're deeply embedded in this whole crazy operation we're going on. Yeah. It's been fun going through all of the things you're going to do to get ready for some fights. And I have to thank you because you have kept me on track. I've been not anything extreme because at my age you don't want an extreme weight cut. No. But I've been fasting. I've only been eating from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Yes. And then for the rest of the day I've been fasting. You know, at night also. I don't eat while I'm sleeping. so I've been and you kept me on track like after sick like around like 8 o'clock before bed I'm like oh I'd love some ice cream you're like you can't do that you're the best coach thank you you're the best I'm the best subject yeah it's great and we're excited to see how you do yeah I really appreciate all the help that's been great Thank you. Okay, so let's talk about pinball. Enough about us. Let's talk about pinball. The first thing on the docket, oh, we have new sponsors. Oh, yes. This is exciting. This is very exciting. Thank you for, we have Marco Specialties on board. Marco, where we both used to work. We love those guys. We met. Yep, they offered to sponsor the podcast, and we love that, because that's where we get our parts from, and that's where you should get your parts from too. We're making an order today. We are making an order today. We make an order almost every Thursday seems to be the day that I put in the orders. Right, right, and they get it out super fast. So if you need any pinball parts, if you're looking for a part you can't find anyplace, let them know. They've been known to, like, start manufacturing parts. If enough people call in and they can't find it, they will reverse engineer something and actually get that thing made so the pinball community can be supplied with all of their parts. It's a one-stop shop. One-stop. Yeah, you can buy all kinds of things there. You can get glass, pinball parts, all kinds of good stuff.
    4:06
    Yeah, yeah. You can get everything pinball. That's correct. That's totally right. Everything pinball is their tagline. And they mean it. Everything pinball. Also, special shout out to Game Room Goodies. Game Room Goodies is also sponsoring our show. That's where we get all our machines from. And actually, did you know they do more than just pinball machines? Yeah, whenever we go over there to see what they've got in the showroom, there's always a lot of cool stuff.
    4:36
    Skee-ball. We really wanted a skee-ball. We can't. The footprint. It's a little too big, but we really love it. Yeah. It's too big. I think if we didn't, if we weren't pinball-centric and have these big pinball tournaments, I think we would have that kind of stuff. Wouldn't it be cool to have a big skee-ball tournament? Oh, that would be amazing. We did do that. With like a dozen skee-ball, what do you call them? Yeah. Skee-ball lanes, skee-ball machines. I think we could call it a lane. That would be great. Yeah. We used to do tournaments at Chuck E. Cheese. Yeah, we did do that. We did. We had an electric bat, ski ball, turkey, Chuck E. Cheese. We certainly did. Let's talk about who won that. You won it. I did. You are amazing. So game room goodies, you can get arcade driving games, arcade golf games, kind of cool little stuff. Yeah. Dancing music, basketball, alley rollers and bowlers, dart boards, jukeboxes. Did you know they have jukeboxes? I actually didn't know that. Right. So even if you're not into pinball, still give them a call. Or if you're looking for that special machine, like a special pinball machine, they rehab machines. They build. They'll do custom cabinets. Give Aaron a call. We'll put the web address right down here, gameroomgoodies.com. Check them out. Thank you so much for the sponsorship, both Marco Specialties and Game Room Goodies.
    6:05
    Great, great people to work with. And we eat our own dog food. We've been working with these folks for years. Yes. We're not just taking some new sponsors we've never worked with. No, totally. Game Room Goodies has been really, really good to us. I mean, we talk about them even when they don't sponsor us. Right. I mean, the service has been amazing. They could not sponsor us if we still talk about them. Don't tell them that. Don't. Aaron, Fred, if you're listening.
    6:33
    They're fantastic people. Great to work with. Also, on the electric bat side, we have some new merch. Did you want to talk about that? Yeah. So this is some new merch. It's on the website. You can buy it. This is a towel. We keep it clipped to our belt loops. Because you know whenever you're at tournaments and you see people, or even on streams, you see people, they walk up to a machine and someone with real sweaty hands has been playing. Yeah. And then they do this thing that makes no sense to me. I know where you're going with this. They take their shirt, and it's not even the outside. It's the inside. It's the part that touches their skin. And they go and wipe across and wipe some random person's sweat off of a machine onto the inside of their own clothing. Yeah. Why would you do that? I've seen it happen. So next time you see, like, some sweaty person somewhere, I mean, would you just walk up to them and be like, sir, I see that you're sweating profusely. Would you mind just wiping that off on the inside of my garden?
    7:42
    I'm going to start doing that at restaurants. So you're not going to bring up a problem unless you have a solution. Do you have a solution? I have a solution. It's an electric bat arcade towel this will wipe off. I like to call them a pin towel. Pin towel. It's a pin towel. Great. Great name for it. Our buddy Andy made these for us. They're sublimated on. I'm not exactly. It's like a chamois. It's not microfiber. It's soft. It's beyond microfiber. This thing is really soft, really smooth.
    8:11
    It will handle other people's sweat. It's a perfect solution. Or your own sweat. You know, if you're the person with the sweaty hands, you wipe them off. You're playing a term that sometimes things get a little tense. Yeah. So you sweat a little bit. You know what I've always thought? I've thought this for years. And I think I've even brought this up to you when we were bowling. You know how bowling alleys have that, you know, when your ball comes shooting back to you before you grab it, there's a little vent there just shooting some air. I always thought that was just like so that way. I thought that was a function of the ball return feed. Oh, like a car or something. No, that's to dry your hand. and I always thought how cool would it be if Stern or actually it's more like something Jersey Jack would do they put little vents by the flipper buttons by the cabinet buttons right the CEs yeah that's blowing a little air boy that would hey you know what you don't know what's anything Jersey Jack go with that I think that's a little something you can add to your CEs a little selling point did you want to just drill holes in the side of the cabinet for something to proof of time I've actually seen people do that before Not at the button, not at the cabinet switches, but just to give the game some vent. That's true. To vent some games. Yeah.
    9:38
    That's not recommended. Sweet. Anything new going on at the electric bat, or should we get right into the mailbag? I have some, believe it or not, once again, Rachel has no idea what I'm doing. I just tell her to sit down and let's record this. And I have the questions for her. Okay. You want to get into the mailbag? Yeah, let's get into the mailbag. Okay. Oh, we do have a new game. We have Venom. Oh. You asked me if we had anything new at the arcade. Yeah. And that's what I'm talking about, Venom. And you know what? I knew that, too. Yeah. I played it. I only played it, like, twice. One time it was just two balls because I had to run the trash to the dumpster. So I didn't get to play my third ball. And then I played a full game. It was you, me, Roland, and Nate. Yeah. And I won. You did win. I did. But that's... Just by a little bit. I was going to get you. Yeah. All three of you are way better than me.
    10:40
    But we were all just feeling the game out. This is going to be the only time I can brag about beating you three.
    10:47
    So what a fun game. It's super fun. So I played two games as well. people were on it all night. We didn't, you know, we wouldn't let people play. Right. So the first game I played, I had no idea what was going on, and the balls were just, you know, shooting at me quickly from places. We haven't watched a lot of streams, don't know what's going on. So I learned very quickly that I needed to pay attention a little bit more than what I was doing. It's a game. It keeps you on your toes, right? Wouldn't you say that? We have the pro. We don't know, but we might get the premium. Who knows? We haven't played it yet. We will play it in Expo. Yeah. Or at Expo. Yeah. Not in the tournament. We'll play. We don't do the Expo tournament. No. But, yeah, that was a fun game. And I'll tell you, one thing I noticed, I've always said Ghostbusters is the most beautiful pinball machine. Yeah. Man, this won me over. You like this better than Ghostbusters art. This art. just because Venom is so tough. You know, there have been times for years. You and I have both talked about it. How, because Stern's doing all this Marvel stuff. Right. And I was like, how cool would it be if you got Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld to come in and do the artwork? Man, this is it. This is it.
    12:11
    It's superb. This is it. It looks tough. It looks super cool. I like it because it's dark. It is darker. I mean, dark color. It's not, the machine is not dark. The Venom character. And all the characters, you know, dealing with the Venom storyline. Man, Carnage, yeah, the Venom Spider-Gwen, all that stuff. Gwenom.
    12:35
    This is the most beautiful, just tough-looking machine. It's great. And I like where we have it. It's on the end of a row, so you can really see the side art. So, yeah, that machine. And is there any new machines, other machines coming to Electric Bat? What's next? In about two weeks, we think, we're going to have Galactic Tank Force. It's going to hit the floor. Finally. I was worried we wouldn't see this. But we finally heard from Game Room Goodies. It is on the way, and we'll have it in two weeks. This is going to be cool. Yeah. This will be the first one in Arizona on the floor. And we haven't played it yet. We have not. So this is going to be a surprise for us. We know it looks cool. We love Franchi's artwork. Franchi. And it has a really funny story about milkshakes, cows, and aliens. All great. Space battles. Yeah. So this is the thing, the aspect of this game, aside from the art, that I think that I like the best is the Mystery Science Theater 3000, the MST3K feel of it. Right. I think I'm looking forward to that I'm looking forward to it also and also American, in the past the American machines that, well I guess we've only had one machine Hot Wheels, has been super reliable so we're excited about having that, another reliable game for tournaments Don't let us down American Let's see some updates, we want some exciting stuff with this, so that's going to be cool Now we're getting to the mailbag Believe it or not, I have some questions.
    14:18
    Well, I don't have questions, other people have questions, but I'm posing them to you through me. You're the vessel. Yeah, I am the vessel of questions. I like that name You like that You might use that in the little the module the vessel of questions You come across that and then here you go Then you on a podcast This is from Gutter Ghoul on Discord Oh, yeah, Gutter Ghoul on Discord. And if you want to be a part of the Discord, you can check the description of this video or podcast, wherever you're picking this thing up and click on there and get in there. Make an account if you don't have one. It's a lot of fun. and we have a Batcast channel. Yeah, so you can ask questions directly. You can ask. So here we go. It's about the top. He's got a few questions here. We're going to try to get as many as we can. Okay. He's talking about the top earners segment we had in the last episode.
    15:20
    It's nice to talk about it since it's ranking and money and a bit of a popularity contest. Is there a way you can look at just plays since the 50 cents games are half the price to play, you know, so it isn't going to get the money thing going? So is there a way we can get into, or you may already know this because you look at the, it's not the analytics. What do they call that? Analytics. I look at the analytics. Audits. Oh, yes. On the machine it's called audits. Yes. and I do have a little bit of an answer for this. It would change Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo would drop. Oh, wow.
    16:08
    But for the most part, everything is still going to stay the same. The top earners are also the top players. A few things would get switched around a little bit.
    16:19
    So Scooby-Doo from the last episode, which was, we were talking about the top earners from last month. Scooby-Doo was number five. Right. It would fall. If it was just a popularity contest. It was just number five. If it's not about money. Because it's on straight. Everything else would be the same? Well, everything in the top five would be. Okay. And that was Godzilla. Godzilla, number one. Stranger Things. Stranger Things, number two.
    16:48
    Avengers was number three. Okay. and I forgot what number four was. Do you remember? I sure do. You'll have to go back and watch the first episode. And Scooby-Doo was number five. Okay, cool. So, yeah, it was, that would change a little bit. And then also some of the games towards the bottom would change. Some of the classic solid state games would move above some of the WPC games. So, again, some of those games that people think that they want to play, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, things like that, I think Dolly Parton and Meteor would perform better than some of those some of the time. It's not consistent. But, yeah, I will keep track of that. So next month's top five games, the earnings report will also be the popularity report. We'll have two different. We'll have a dual report. Two reports and another report.
    17:51
    You love reports. I love them. You like spreadsheets and reports and all that. Data. Whoa, I just fell back in my chair. If you're only listening to the audio of this, I just fell back a little bit. So go check out the YouTube.
    18:06
    Well, we got this thing from an old hotel, and this chair, it kind of fails sometimes. Okay. So let's move on. Got to go ahead another question. He liked the technical side of when we were talking about coils and all that good stuff and rebuilding stuff. The electrical side could be interesting, like approaching faulty switches, intro to board repair, diagnostics, and what have you.
    18:37
    We might save that for, like, another episode, do a deeper dive into that. Or did you want to touch on any of that right now? I think that would be cool to do as a special episode because you would want to have some visuals for that. I would want to be prepared with something to show you. Right. There's so much going on there. I don't even understand. Maybe I could learn a little bit. Switch matrix stuff. That's always kind of a brain teaser. Yeah. Good deal. Well, thank you, Gutter Ghoul, for the questions. We'll chat with you more on Discord. And thank you for joining the Discord. this is from Hoosier in AZ on Discord an Indianan we suppose a new to our Discord the question was about IFPA points how are they divided up can you get more into points the difference in types of tournaments and points for each type and I got a clarification on this.
    19:41
    Basically, so we don't get too much into the weeds because whopper points, you can get into a super rabbit hole, rat hole.
    19:54
    So basically, as in points for knockout versus match play versus, I guess group match play, versus other types of tournaments, which I guess if you're starting a tournament, which kind of tournament can you get the most Whopper points out of it? Okay. And I guess we'll take just like a one-night tournament. We won't get into like a league. Just a single, like, hey, we're going to go play a tournament tonight. Right. Maybe more importantly, we're going to host a tournament tonight. We've never done it before. So Whopper points are calculated by the number of players, the number of games.
    20:37
    So the simplest thing to do is going to be like a group match play. You're going to get twice as many points per game in a group match play, meaning four people, instead of a head-to-head game, two people.
    20:51
    So what type of tournaments would be head-to-head? You could do a max match play, would be head-to-head. And you can even just run, like how we run a group match play, you can just run a head-to-head match play. Okay, so you do that, or isn't there a flip or frenzy? Flip or frenzy is very much like max match play, but with a little more stress. Right, and you have to have a cue and all kinds of other crazy stuff. So to keep it easy, if you run in your first tournament, do five rounds of group match play. Five rounds of group match play, even eight rounds of group match play, whatever time you think that you want to do. And everybody's going to get some good points. You'll get some points. It'll be easy. Do you need to have a finals? You only need to have a finals if you don't have what's called direct play, which is players playing each other. So any kind of like selfie, league, or pin golf, or any other style where you're just playing solo, you have to have a finals component. But if you already have direct play in your tournament, you don't have to have a finals. That's just optional. Okay. So you could have a, you know, you do your five rounds, group match play. You don't need a finals, but you can add a finals. is there some way to finagle more whopper points if you have a finals yeah so each round of finals is also adding to your whopper point so if you have five rounds of regular play but then have three rounds of finals it's like you had an eight round tournament okay so if you have four people in the finals you make them play 15 rounds is everybody going to get is everybody going to get more points you can't have you can't have your finals be longer than your regular you can't that doesn't quite work. Okay. You only get the points. You don't match. Yeah. I see where you're going with this. Nice. Trying to hack. I'm trying to hack the system. Yeah. Per usual. Yeah. And finals, your finals, you have to have in between 10% or 50% of your original player base. So there's a limit. You can't just like, okay, everybody go home and then have the last person stay there and play like 10 more games by themselves. Yeah. So there are some. We can't do that. Okay, good. Good answer. I like that. Thank you. All right. This is from Johnny Q. Trek. I think that's his pin side name. You think it's like Johnny Quest Trek? Yeah. Do you remember Johnny Quest? Yeah, Johnny Quest. You like Johnny Quest? The little adventure family? Yeah. I like Star Trek better. I think he's Johnny Quest. Johnny Star Trek. Okay.
    23:35
    And we got into this a little bit on the last episode. It's about the tournament button. He's never done this. He's a little confused. How do you keep track of who the legitimate cash winner is at the end of the month?
    23:54
    Yeah, so nobody can. Because you can put anybody's initials in there. How do you keep track of that? So you're talking about the cash tournament game that's on the Stern game. Where you're using the tournament button. Okay. So whenever you get onto that leaderboard and it asks you for your initials, it also asks you to create a pin. Oh, very cool. So there's a way that if I didn't already know who you were and you came up to me and said, you know, I'm CWPJ whatever. Right. I would say, okay, cool. What's your pin? Oh, and it's like, I think it's like a four-digit, simple. Yeah. Four-digit pin. So remember that. Don't just make something up and then like. Right, right. Remember that.
    24:44
    For us, we know all of the folks playing, so we don't ever run into an issue. We did, though, last month. Remember, we didn't know who was special. Special was the third place winner. I had no idea who that was. He was the special pinball person. To this day, we still don't know who that was. We do. It was Chewy. That was Chewy? That was Chewy. Oh, congratulations, Chewy. He works in the arcade. I didn't know that he put his name in his special. I don't know him as that. I know him as that. If anybody plays at the Electric Band, you know Chewy. Chewy runs our Japanese rhythm games. And the knockout tournament. Oh. His bounty knockout tournament. It's this Sunday. This Sunday. This Sunday, and this will be out before Sunday, so we can say this Sunday at noon, come play Chewy's World Famous Bounty Knockout Tournament. Very cool tournament. And if you're listening to this after that happens, it's always the last Sunday of the month. So if it's the last Sunday of the month, you can come play Chewy's Bounty Knockout World Famous. There we go. All right. So back to Johnny Q. Trek. Yes. He has another question with partnering with a location. I've often thought about doing this, but would be so nervous to leave a multi-thousand dollar game at a location. How do operators hold venues liable for non-party related, non-play related damage to a machine?
    26:17
    How do you deal with that? Okay, so whenever we had a game at a location that was not the electric bat, they made us sign a contract. They made us have some external insurance, which would have covered any of that stuff.
    26:34
    But in a more casual setting, that was a very large corporation. If you're putting it in Kale's Pizza Palace. The Pizza Palace that I'm apparently starting. Kale's Pizza Palace. You put it in Gail's Pizza Palace. But, like, we know each other. So I would, like, it would be. I know where you live. It would be like a handshake.
    26:56
    Yeah, so. It would be. And you can certainly have some contracts. I know if you're renting games to home stuff, there's kind of a basic contract you can find on the Internet and use that.
    27:13
    I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how well that would hold up. Right. For there to actually be. This is not legal advice. This is what we've experienced.
    27:24
    But it does help to have that sort of thing in writing. So that way you can at least say, bro, this was the arrangement. But I would also say that sort of damage doesn't happen as much as you think it would. Right. Think about the electric bat. We're open 20 hours a day. People are in there all the time. people just don't damage machines like that right we've maybe just been really lucky but i haven't heard um horror stories from other operators either they just pinball machines were built to be played they're they're built they're tough right so um that's just not the kind of thing that we've encountered.
    28:11
    Yeah. And, yeah, I guess it's just like getting to know this person you're going to be in business with, feeling them out.
    28:21
    Yeah, because weird stuff could come up. And is this the kind of person you want to deal with when a machine catches on fire? I don't know.
    28:33
    If you get weird vibes from the get-go, Yeah. Like working at Kale's Pizza Palace may not be, like it may not be. No, that would be a dream to work with. I mean, come on. I thought we were still talking. Okay.
    28:45
    Back to our friend Johnny Q Trek. This is a good one. How do you assure that the venue that they'll get an accurate cut? Does the venue go through the service menu audits with the operator?
    29:03
    Ah, okay. so they can and I certainly have heard of many situations where the location owner and the operator get together and go through the audits together Most machines that not an easy thing to fake right The audits are going to be the audits. They're going to be accurate. There are, this could come up in something like some of the games when you update them, they do clear the audits. So we had this happen with some Jersey Jack games. We've been Scooby-Doo. Well, actually, Scooby-Doo has a and they've Spooky has a weird way of doing audits. We have to look at the coin drop on either side. So here's how I do the audits on Scooby-Doo side side side note there. But it's still germane to the topic. Yeah, very germane. If you're thinking you want to put a Scooby-Doo on location. Right. You know, go for it. But the way that I have to do the audits is to go in to the switch audits and see how many times the left coin and right coin switches have been activated. Add that up and do the math to figure out what that equates to in dollars. What a giant pain in the ass. It is. It's deep in the menu.
    30:26
    That would be a really nice thing if you're listening, Spooky. if you could just do some coin drop audits, that would be spectacular. I think they're having enough trouble just making things happen. I don't know if they can take demands like that. And then on Jersey Jack, and I don't know if it's with all of them, but it's done it to us twice on Godfather. When you do an update, it clears the audits. So before you update Godfather, like I said, I don't know how the other ones work, get a photo of the audits before you update because you will lose them. You'll lose everything. It's not like a stern where it keeps all the audits. There might be something in the settings where we can go and change that. If you know, if you're listening and you happen to have paid attention to the menus in that, if there's something we can do to switch around, that would be cool. But, yeah, so in cases like that, I can see an issue where you actually don't have the correct audits. And then you're getting into some coin counting and things, and that's when you learn the lesson to not do that. Yeah, we've learned some hard lessons along the way.
    31:44
    Here's another question about what if there's a discrepancy between the coin audits and the actual cash in the box? How do you resolve this? Or has it ever happened? Well, that would be like what I was just talking about. With those machines, you would, otherwise you're not going to be counting. Like who's going to go through and count that many quarters? You never know. Someone might. Well, we talked to a friend of ours, a bar owner, who had some machines in there, and the operator brought in an actual manual token, a token counter. A big old coffee grinder type thing. And the token counter was like 50 cents or 75 cents off of the edits in the, I mean the audits in the software, which is. 50 cents, who cares? And he was kind of worried about it. The bar owner's like, you know, who gives a shit? I'll give you, here's 50 cents. Right. So it does happen. Yeah, but I would rely on the audits on the game before I would on the old hand crank token machines, I think, or token counters.
    32:53
    100%. Okay, I have another. We're moving on. I have another question here. This is from Kale on the podcast. That's me. Yeah, it's me. You have a question. I have a question. I thought about this. I was driving down the road, and of course, as soon as I came to a complete stop, I put this in my notes. um it's let's say this is a stoplight or did you just stop it was a stop i was i was on the interstate everybody else is doing like 85 and i'm just like squeak yeah here i am you know whatever luckily everybody in phoenix understood and like he's obviously just jotting down a note for the podcast um okay so if you approach a bar about uh installing some coin-op machines what are the best machines to add? I mean, of course it'd be whatever machines you have, but let's say you, this is what you want. Do you want to start becoming an operator, get into pinball and video games?
    33:54
    What machines make the most sense? Let's say I haven't purchased them yet and I want to purchase them. You got like a windfall scratcher ticket. I got a scratcher ticket and I already know about machines and repair and I want to like, I want to purchase the best, like, three or four machines that are going to make a place popular. It's going to be an attraction for a bar.
    34:20
    Make me some money. Best ROI. Yeah, what machines do I need? Man, well, just pinball or all machines? No, all machines. Okay. So I would go with Sterns.
    34:35
    Modern Stern. Modern stern is what makes the most money. And, you know, you see people all the time complaining about stern caves. And this is assuming that you have limited budget and limited space, right? Because if you can have, we're lucky we have room for 60 pinball machines. Right. So we have a huge variety because also that's what we love. But we're talking about advice, too. Yeah, let's say in this situation you have enough room for, like, two pinball machines and maybe a couple of video games. Ah, okay.
    35:07
    So pinball machines, I would do new sterns. They're going to require the least maintenance, and they just earn. They earn really well. What about a classic remake, like a Chicago Gaming, what do they have? Attack from Mars. Okay, I'm changing my story. The Monster Bash. Those also earn. Yeah. Especially Attack from Mars. Okay, so you would do like an Attack from Mars and a Godzilla. I would do a Godzilla and an Attack from Mars. And you're in business. Yep. You're making money. So right there, those are two bangers. Can't go wrong. And then I would get one of the anniversary combo Galaga Ms. Pac-Mans.
    35:52
    Everybody remembers Ms. Pac-Man Galaga. They love it. It's going to make money. Okay. People enjoy it. That's crazy. And do you have those on 25 cents, 50 cents? We have ours on 25 cents, but I know most people have them on 50 cents, and they do very well. Cool. We could double. So those three games and you're in business. Yeah, but I would also get a shooter. Oh, and what do you mean by shooter? Like Contra? No, I mean a video game with physical guns that you hold in your hands. and, you know... Because anybody can play that. At the screen, yeah. You don't have to read new rules. You don't have to know anything. You just know you put your money in, you pick up the gun, and you point at the thing that looks like you're supposed to be shooting it. So we've got an Area 51, and we also have a gigantic alien.
    36:52
    Shooter, right, with the machine gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is always great whenever we see families come in during the day on the weekend, you see a little six-year-old in church clothes, blown up aliens. Yeah.
    37:07
    And then if you had the room for a driver, a driving game, like a little cockpit game that you sit in, preferably two of them linked together and you could race against your friends, I would do that. That's where I would start. I think that's a good deal. So you ultimately, you want an attack from Mars. You can probably find these things, remakes out there. They haven't rerun them recently. Oh, they're going to rerun Medieval, supposedly. They've been saying that, but I think they need to get on to our Pulp Fiction. That's true. We're ready for that thing. Finish up those Cactus Canyons and make us a Pulp Fiction. Oh, we don't even have our Cactus Canyon. I forgot about that. I totally forgot we were getting one of those. Yeah. The Cactus Canyon. The LE, okay. Okay, so you would suggest if somebody's clean slate by an attack from Mars, a Godzilla, and the combo.
    38:00
    Ms. Pat Gallagher. That's a, are there CRT versions of that? They need to find an old, I mean, are there LCD versions of that? Are they going to be dealing with like CRTs? Well, the CRT version is the version that we have. There are LCD versions that people... Are they emulators? I'm not sure if they're officially put out. I think people really want the real deal, the CRT. Yeah, this is one, and it's heavy. Because it's a big monitor. That game is heavy. Okay, heavy but worth it. It makes money. Yeah, and people love it. That's good.
    38:37
    Next question. I can't remember who this was from. This was from, like, so many people, so I just added this. A lot of operators, actually we've had some distributors ask us this question because when they're going and installing games in a venue, people ask them, how do I set up Insider Connected?
    38:58
    Man, there's no real easy way to do this. I deal with all this. Do you have any input on that? The input that I have is that I watch you do it, and I'm glad that this is on your list of to-dos and not mine. It looks like it's something that's going to be worked out, but for now you really need to. For sure. There's no, like, easy way to do this until Stern creates an app for, like, an Android device or something like that.
    39:29
    So Stern suggests getting an on-device. It's O-N-N. It's sold by Walmart. It's even manufactured by Walmart. It's inexpensive. You can run to a Walmart, and they usually have them in stock, or you can get them online. You can get them at Walmart.com. You can get them on Amazon. They're under $20, and it's a little stick. You plug into the back of the TV, and they suggest using the Odin browser. So this is an Android device. Odin, like the God. Like the God. O-D-I-N. O-D-I. So you download the Odin browser. and the reason they suggest this is one of the few browsers on there that actually displays insider connected properly uh so you you can use that the the problem with that with the whole the device and the browser is that it won't always update sometimes it'll take days and days and i have to like manually up because people are like hey why why is my score not up there it happened to me i got like 20 000 or yeah 20 000 on bond 60th it was almost like a week before it updated it didn't like i know i was logged in right because we we keep it on 24 hours uh a day on we keep the on on all the time uh so it it's kind of a pain in the ass you have to manually just shut it down and hopefully have that url bookmarked or if not you can go i think you can go into the history pull it back up and boom everything will be updated um here's here's the tricky part we just got a big 4k tv one of our buddies donated to us conrad thank you so much and we put it in another room so when i went to go get an on device i got the 4k version this is a 4k tv i want to see those scores in high depth right um luckily it wasn't super expensive either i think it was like under 30 bucks but odin browser will not even work on the 4k on device so even if you have right it just crashes it's like too many pixels it's something up with the developer uh they need to update it or something it won't work on the 4k device so uh if you make sure you get the hd on device if you want to go this route um don't get the 4k when odin browser doesn't work now there are other browsers that do work and and show insider connected properly, but they fall asleep. After like 30 minutes or an hour, they fall asleep and you have to update it. I mean, if you're not there at the venue, this is a pain in the ass. And especially this sucks because we have friends of ours who have their machines at a bar, a restaurant, and they want to know how they can keep this going, the Stern Insider Connected going on the monitor, on the TV, without having a bar staff. They like to do as little as possible at most places. I mean, it's also not their job. Right, right. And they don't want to have to rely on bar staff to maintain your insider-connected display. So I've been talking to some folks at Stern, and they have suggested using Yodek. Okay, I've heard of that. Yodek.com. It's like that little skateboard that you use with your fingers. Is that a Yodek? Yeah.
    43:02
    Tech Deck. That is a Tech Deck. You should love Tech Decks. Yeah, Tech Decks are great. So Yodek. Yodek, it's not like a Stern, it's not a connected thing. It's for displaying deals and menus and whatever on TVs. I mean, if you've been to any restaurant, I think even like Chipotle would have stuff like this. when it changes flashes through like today you can get a today's special yeah yes so with yo deck also it can accept feeds from like a URL so you could have once you start an account I believe to to show it on one monitor is free I like that but if you want multiple monitors that when you have to charge you like a monthly fee Okay So can you just have like several different monitors Like daisy chain? Or like just set it up separately? I don't know. I'm just getting into this. I just started an account. I'll talk about it more on the next episode or a future episode. but this is kind of cool because one thing, you still need some type of device, it doesn't just access a URL, so you need there's a Yodeck device and I think it's around like 60 to 80 bucks and when you say device, you're describing something that plugs into like an HDMI port or something, just like a little stick, just like an Amazon fire stick, not like a VCR and there's even instructions to use an Amazon device and there's even instructions on how to use a Raspberry Pi. Oh. So as long as it's in, I think as long as it's an Internet-connected device, you can use it with Yodeck. Okay. And I believe if you sign on to the Yodeck service and do multiple, which will allow you to do multiple displays, I think you get a device for free. Oh, that's how they get you. Yeah. But check it out, yodeck.com. Stern. Cool. suggested using that. The coolest thing about this is not only can you display Insider Connected, but you can display other stuff. Tournament dates,
    45:21
    bar specials, drink specials. Photos of winners of your last tournament. Yes, anything. You can display... The monitor can revolve through so many different types of information.
    45:32
    We're going to start using it. It'll be fun to mess with this. If people have been using Yodek and they have any tips, We'd love to hear them. We'd love to learn not the hard way. One hundred percent. We'll send them some stuff.
    45:45
    I like the idea of having tournament winners. Yeah. Players and stuff. Photos. Right. Here's me. Yeah. I won something. Yeah. I would like to be on a TV cycling through for a week. Okay. Back to the mailbag. Oh, wow. You ready for this one? You didn't know I had all these questions. You didn't have all these questions. I don't know. Just stop it on the freeway. I think this came from one of our tournament players when I was just talking to him in person because I didn't jot down a name. But if it's you, thank you so much.
    46:18
    What's a day in the life of working at the arcade? Now, this person was specifically talking about electric bat. Like, what happens? You show up in the morning. You get your coffee. What do you do? What happens when you first park the car and roll into the bat? Let's see. We parked the car, roll in. Okay. The first thing I do is I walk in and see, are both the token machines working? You want to make sure there's no flashing buttons on that. Got to make sure people can play.
    46:52
    The second thing I do is I look at the clipboard that is where people write stuff down that is broken or might be broken and see what's on that list. sometimes people write us nice little messages oh i love those keep up the good work you're beautiful keep smiling right yeah i've seen that stuff yeah you're beautiful keep on smiling kale that's i appreciate it yeah look at look at that smile who who i'm gonna read stuff on the clipboard about that but yeah i want to i want to know i want to get an assessment of like what's going on And then I just walk the arcade and make sure that there's no machines turned off. Okay. That I don't know, like, you know, why. I'm looking for things that might be messed up that I need to fix. Then I go into our office and I sit down. I like sitting down. You said that you reflect on how wonderful your life is. Yeah. Living the pinball dream. I do. I look at my list. I sit there and just kind of make my plan for that day. Okay. The order of things I'm going to fix. Yeah, I do. I look at my tools and think about how awesome my tools are and how I have a nice little cart. We do love tools. Love tools. Would you call us tool nerds? I would. Yeah. And Cale and I each have separate sets of tools because we're both working on games at the same time. If you want to see what we use, there's a tool tab on our website,
    48:24
    electricbatarcade.com. Those are some of our tools. We should add even more of our tools on there. Sure, sure. Yeah. So I have my tools on a little cart that I got. That was my idea. It was your idea. And it may be, it's in the top five best arcade-related ideas that you have. But you did not buy one for yourself. No. I like, I do the big Milwaukee tool backpack. Yeah. And I like it because I want to kind of have some strength training while I'm walking around the arcade. I want to take this big, heavy thing, load it on my back, and walk around. I am the opposite of that. I would like to not lift 40-pound backpacks. For sure.
    49:10
    And so I like to push it around my little cart. I have all my tools very handy, easy to grab because they're not on the floor in a backpack. and yeah, so at that point I take my tools around and start working on machines. Start with the easy things first, you know, stuck balls coin jams, stuff like that and then move on to the stuff that's going to take a little bit more time but we also always have friends in the arcade so you know, a day at the arcade is very much like anyone's day at the arcade except I'm also fixing things. Right? Like, we're not drinking, and we're fixing things. Yeah. It's not that people are, you know, letting us know it's broken. But we... It's a blast. We get to have the experience of, like, hanging out with people... I know. ...all day long, having a great time. Playing Venom, which I'm... You... I kind of want to go play it right now. Yeah. I think... Is it time? We're getting very close to going to go play Venom, I think. Good. Good deal. Yeah. So, what is the day like in the arcade for you? it's exactly the same except I goof off a little bit more that's what you're fishing for I know I'm picking up what you're throwing down but it's not goofing off it's marketing I'm talking to people doing a little palm greasing just making sure shit goes smoothly if you're greasing people's palms maybe they need the right pick up one of those did we tell people where to get those ElectricBatArcade.com? Much. It's like 20 bucks. Shipped. Shipped, yeah. Landed. Free shipping. Landed. Those things are cool.
    50:55
    Thank you. That is, sounds like an awesome day. It is an awesome day. How often do you go to the arcade to work? Six days a week. Good deal. And when we're not there, John Chappell. John Chappell is there. And Mark, taking care of things. Yeah. Mark Pearson. Yeah, he's got some things in there. Good deal. We've assembled a great team. Some days, I'm in the back. just working on so if our games are going to be down for less than 48 hours we keep them on the floor a little sign on says we'll be fixed soon if there's something that's kind of there's a little bit more of a head scratcher we pull it in the back right and so sometimes i'm back there trying to work out what's what's gone horribly horribly wrong why this game is smoking um yeah You know, I was going to, and something I don't think we've talked about on any podcast, you mentioned we have two token machines.
    51:49
    And, of course, I mean, it's obviously for reliability because token machines do go down. I don't want to, I think that would be a good topic for the next episode because we can get into the reasons for two token machines, the reasons for three token machines, because we're about to put another one on the floor. Yeah. and then the the pros and cons of using tokens versus a card system oh yeah but that's people do ask us that a lot yeah in the arcade like why don't why don't we use order why you have straight quarters or do you guys are you going to do that card thing yeah or thank you for not doing that card thing right right um yeah yeah that's a whole that's a whole other that's like that's That's like a whole episode, a whole half episode at least. Yeah, we won't get into that now. I do sort tokens as a part of my daily. Oh, that's right. I sort a lot of tokens. Because we have to pull the quarters out.
    52:44
    Man, we end up with like cupfuls of quarters. We have to figure out what to do with those things. Fantastic. So before we take off, what's coming up at the bat? New games, tournaments? I know we've touched on some of this. oh we've got um well we we said gtf is coming yeah galactic tank force we just got venom in yep venom is there um tournaments we've got a tournament this sunday we talked about chewy's bounty knockout we have next sunday is roland is running another tournament that is a cool format It starts as a max match play, and then the finals portion is another format that I can't think of off the top of my head, but it's awesome and fun. He already did one of these, right? It's like a round robin, something like that, isn't it?
    53:44
    What's the restaurant? You got the burger joint. You found the red, red, yum, right? I want my baby back, baby back. Chili's baby back ribs. Chili's, baby. We don't eat at those places. Don't eat there. Every time I see people eating at places like that, I just want to walk in with a crowbar. You know, there's a great locally owned restaurant down here. I just want to smash the plates.
    54:10
    Anyhow, okay, we got Sunday is Chewy's World Famous Bounty Knockout Tournament. And then the following Sunday, next week, Roland is having his cool tournament. He always has some cool tournaments. I'm glad players are getting into that, using the bat as a venue for their own tournaments. Vessel of questions.
    54:30
    The arcade is a vessel of tournaments. Vessel of fun. Vessel of fun, yeah. If you want to run a tournament. Let us know. We had Jay from California come. Oh, yeah, that's right. He did the Waffle House tournament. Yeah, they flew in from California for a day, went to Waffle House for breakfast, had a tournament at the bat right and then went to waffle house for dinner yeah and then flew home here's the best part they they did the tournament for themselves yeah they thought it was gonna have yeah people because it was the middle of the day on a tuesday yeah yeah yeah the uh they were surprised that over 20 people showed up in the middle of the day on the tuesday i think it was like 40 people it wasn't 40 and then we had a tournament at night so we had like two tournaments Back to back. Also, Mark is doing a big tournament at the bat. It's the fifth year anniversary tournament. Yeah. Oh, Electric Bat's five years old, so this is the tournament to celebrate it.
    55:32
    That's a cash tournament. Oh, nice. You win money. It's going to cost $30. It's live on IFPA right now to sign up. And this is a three-day tournament. Yeah, this is a three-day tournament. and then there will also be some ancillary tournaments surrounding that. This will be exciting because this will be the... Much like District 82. It's going to be in that vein. Sure, like District 82 or Indisc or something like that. Yeah. Excuse me. That'll be exciting because some local folks who don't travel will see what it's like to play one of these big three-day events. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it, and it's only $30, and the money all goes towards... Stuff like this is usually quite expensive, especially if you get into the old pumping up card system. Oh, gosh. How much did I spend at InDisc? You pumped the brakes on that one. Yeah, that was, yeah. You're like, just give me a couple more cards. I had fun trying to qualify for that. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to get in, but it was just a blast playing those machines. Because, I mean, they're set on like extra hard mode. It's crazy. It's like the reverse of God mode if you're playing Doom. it's like let's make this hard as shit reverse dog mode okay thank you so much to our sponsors Game Room Goodies if you're looking for a new game any kind of machine not just pinball get in touch with Aaron at Game Room Goodies it's GameRoomGoodies.com and extra special thanks to Marco Specialties MarcoSpecialties.com I think even MarcoPinball.com goes to it all goes there just google Marco Pinball, Marco Specialties, but marcospecialties.com, where they offer everything pinball. You need parts, lights, flipper rebuilds, legs. You get legs. You can get glass. Oh, they have good deals on glass. You get a tube. A tube banger. You save on shipping with a tube banger. Get your glass from there. Thank you all for coming on board, and we will see you guys at Expo. Expo's coming up soon. We can't wait to check out the old Stern Marco Specialties booth. Back together again. This is going to be a lot of fun. The old crew back together. It's like we're getting, and we're going to be there. Kyle is going to join us. Oh, that's going to be fun. Yep, he's staying with us. He's at Stern now. He's at Stern. Now at Stern. We're all a big old happy family. Iwona will be there. She just opened an arcade. She opened an arcade. You know, we need to have her on talking about her arcade. That would be great. That would be a great episode. Okay, so happy flipping, everybody. We're going to head to the arcade to play Venom. Hopefully you guys can meet us there, and we'll have this episode up as soon as possible. Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you. Send us your questions to electricbatarcade at gmail.com. There we go. And in the Discord. All righty.
    58:20
    Bats are out.