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Episode 271 – Seasick

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 50m·analyzed·Jul 8, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.018

TL;DR

Cruise critique, Sonic success, and Bruce's love for vintage pinball classics.

Summary

Hosts Ron Haller and Bruce Nightingale discuss Barrels of Fun's new Pinball at Sea cruise event (June 2027, Galveston departure, Royal Caribbean Oasis-class ship), critique its pricing and group tour dynamics, and pivot to Jersey Jack Pinball launch (1,300 units in three days) and future title roadmap. Brief segment explores Bruce's rare game endorsements, featuring his passionate defense of classic S.T.A.R.S.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack Pinball sold 1,300 Sonic units in the first three days

    high confidence · Jack (JJP owner) stated at New Jersey launch party, reported by guest 'Nap'

  • JJP will likely build more Elton John within the next couple of years while license is valid

    high confidence · Jack mentioned during Delta Fringe podcast interview, per episode notes

  • JJP acquired Sonic license in 2022 when American Pinball was trying to get it

    high confidence · Delta Fringe podcast interview with JJP representatives

  • JJP's next two releases planned for 2026: one title next year, a third in fall of next year

    medium confidence · Jack's statement during Delta Fringe podcast interview; host expresses skepticism about delivery

  • JJP rejected Beetlejuice license because it was non-exclusive

    high confidence · Jack explained decision in Delta Fringe podcast interview

  • Barrels of Fun group tour charges premiums compared to direct Royal Caribbean pricing; interior cabins are $888/person vs ~$1,088 standard

    medium confidence · Bruce cross-referenced Barrels pricing against live Royal Caribbean booking for same dates/ship

  • Barrels of Fun Pinball topper sold out immediately at $1,700

    high confidence · Direct host observation of product availability

Notable Quotes

  • “You, as a group person, are paying to make their trip free. They guarantee 20 to 30 people, rooms reserved at minimum... every person that reserves gets kickbacks to make their room up to free.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~00:10:00 — Explains structural economics of group tour markup and critiques Barrels' pricing model

  • “No artificial scarcity—wants JJP to build several thousand units of a title rather than cap the runs.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~00:32:00 — Signals JJP's production philosophy shift away from limited-edition FOMO strategy

  • “S.T.A.R.S. will just kick you in the nuts... you hit five stars and make that bonus of 100,000 points. How hard is that?”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~00:48:00 — Rare, passionate endorsement of a classic game; establishes new 'What the Fuck Do You Like' segment

  • “The fact that they had the topper, but all they had was a conceptual artwork picture... how could you have people pay for this when literally it doesn't exist yet?”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~00:28:00 — Criticism of Barrels of Fun pre-selling Dune topper without physical prototype

  • “It's $1,700 cool... Eh.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~00:29:00 — Mixed reaction to final Dune topper despite acknowledgment it matches concept

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personBruce NightingalepersonBarrels of FuncompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballpersonSonicgameElton Johngame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Sonic sold 1,300 units in first three days of availability, indicating strong market demand and rapid fulfillment

    high · Jack stated at New Jersey launch party that Sonic achieved 1,300 units in three days

  • ?

    product_strategy: JJP explicitly rejecting artificial scarcity model in favor of building several thousand units per title

    high · Jack stated 'no artificial scarcity—wants JJP to build several thousand units of a title rather than cap the runs'

  • $

    market_signal: Barrels of Fun charging above-market rates for cruise cabins through group tour aggregation (e.g., interior $888 vs ~$1,088 retail)

    medium · Bruce cross-verified Barrels Reserve pricing against live Royal Caribbean quotes for same cruise/dates

  • ?

    licensing_signal: JJP walking away from Beetlejuice license due to non-exclusive terms; indicates strong preference for exclusive IP control

    high · Jack explained that JJP rejected Beetlejuice because 'anyone else could make it at the same time'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: JJP beat American Pinball to secure Sonic license in 2022, signaling competitive IP acquisition landscape

    high · Delta Fringe podcast reported JJP acquired Sonic in 2022 'when American was trying to get it'

  • ?

    product_launch: JJP publicly commits to two new titles in 2026 (one next year, third in fall), though host expresses skepticism

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.074

0:00
Good to see you young folks at the polls. Is this your first time? Yeah, yeah, but I mean, we've been interested in this stuff for a long time. Yeah, we're like really into it. Well, good for you boys. I wasn't interested in any of this stuff until Ronald Reagan.
0:18
Oh, yeah? Is she a slut? Yeah, yeah. I bet Ronald Reagan has big hooters. I hope she's in there shaking her butt. Yeah, shake that ass, Reagan. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Cell Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Haller, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale. Hi. And this is episode 271.
0:56
Hi. Hi, Bruce. How's it going? Hi. We got your good mic back, thank God. Oh, yeah, you can tell the difference so much. Oh, yeah, you actually can. Really? Oh, yeah. I sound epic. Yes, when I think of Bruce, I think epic. Epic. Not epic fail, just epic. No. There was an epic success.
1:20
Yes, there was an epic success. Thanks to us at the Slamville Podcast. Oh, you're going to take credit for this one. I'll take credit like I do everything, Chief. What happens when we get Chuck Webster on? What happens when we get Chuck Webster on? This is what happens. The miracles. Matt Gay needed a kidney. Yes. And we posted our episode and boom. Boom. He got a kidney. And a pancreas to boot. Yes. It's like a buy one, get one. Buy one, get one free.
1:50
To be fair, I think I put it up like 10 minutes after I read the post where he said he's got his kidney. But we posted. We did it. Yes. It was totally us. It would not have happened. Never would have happened without us. Uh-huh. Okay.
Dune Pinball
game
S.T.A.R.S.game
Pinball at Seaevent
Napperson
Delta Fringe podcastorganization
Royal Caribbeancompany
American Pinballcompany
Beetlejuicegame

medium · Jack stated release timeline in Delta Fringe podcast; Ron notes 'I will not eat my hat on that one either'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Barrels of Fun Dune Pinball topper sold out immediately despite $1,700 price; pre-sold before physical prototype existed

    high · Bruce observed immediate sell-out; Ron criticized pre-sale of conceptual artwork-only product

  • ?

    community_signal: Slam Tilt introducing new segment 'What the Fuck Do You Like' to showcase positive game advocacy from notoriously critical host

    high · Ron designed segment around Bruce's rare enthusiasm for Winchester and S.T.A.R.S.

  • ?

    business_signal: Multiple major IPs (Top Gun, Matrix, Beetlejuice) blocked or limited by exclusive licensing restrictions or rights holder refusal

    medium · Jack discussed inability to pursue Top Gun, Matrix restrictions, and Beetlejuice non-exclusivity

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Ron explicitly acknowledging negativity bias on podcast and attempting to surface positive game endorsements from Bruce

    high · Ron: 'I'm trying to be a little more positive because the negativity sometimes can get overpowering on the show'

    • 2:06
    So you want your... Your chat of heads off. Thank you. So do you want the premium game that Chuck said we... No, no, no. I don't want a game. Oh, okay. I can do it without the game. I'm just saying that we... You want to just take credit. Just take credit, as always. We've gotten so many people hired, you know, from freaking M.A. Yes. Of course. You know.
    2:26
    But congratulations, Matt. Yes, very cool. Hopefully he will be at the upcoming 24 hours at the Fun Spot. Actually, did you know it's Fun Spot? It's not the Fun Spot. Yes, it's Fun Spot. Like Prince. It's not the Prince, it's Prince. That's true. And he is dead, not the dead, he is dead. He's dead, Jim. He's dead, Jim. All right, what else do we have here? We have to bring this up first because, of course, we have Bruce the Cruiser here. Mr. Cruise. Oh, yeah. Mr. Cruise. And we talked about this in our last episode, the thing that barrels of fun is doing, which you were not a fan of. No, nobody was. Oh, nobody was. Well, Chuck wasn't, and you didn't say yes or no, so that's usually a no for you. You're just trying to be PC. I didn't give 75 bucks to it, but the deal was, yeah, it's, what was it called again? See, I had the damn page up here. What the hell? What in the hell's going on here? Man, gosh darn it. The Barrels Reserve Fan Club. Ah, yes, the Barrels Reserve Fan Club. Let's see. Oh, they're doing a thing called Pinball at Sea.
    3:51
    Uh-huh. At first I was confused because I thought it was, like, you could do this if you were part of the Barrels Reserve Fan Club. Yes. But I guess anyone can do the cruise. Yes, anyone can do the cruise. You just don't get the... You don't get the... Exclusivity. Yeah, let me read the thing here. Yes, this is, I'll do my marketing voice here, set sail with barrels of fun for an all-new pinball adventure. Ahoy! With the successful launch of our new Barrels Reserve Fan Club, which Bruce did not like, we're thrilled to announce our first major club event that will be setting sail in June 2027.
    4:34
    With Thiemen. Are you ready? Oh, gosh. Oh, ew. I didn't ruin anything. You ruined everything. Pinball at sea is the first ever pinball-centric cruise that is being hosted by Barrels of Fun. This exclusive family-friendly six-night voyage will blend the excitement and camaraderie of the pinball hobby with the relief... Oh, I got camaraderie right, but I can't say relaxation. With the relaxation, amenities, and entertainment of a cruise and the Oxford comma. I think Oxford commas are coming back. I'm seeing them more and more. They were gone and now they're like back.
    5:17
    However, the scheduled Pinball SC events and activities will be exclusive to our members of the Barrels of Fun Reserve Club and their families who purchased the Pinball SC event package. Who can attend? We welcome any Pinball community members and their families to join us aboard this voyage. Cruises offer a wonderful opportunity to socialize with friends, family, and colleagues. Another Oxford comma. And we would love any pinball industry and community members to embark on this journey with us, regardless of being a Barrels Reserve member. However, the scheduled pinball events and activities will be exclusive to the members of our Barrels Reserve Club.
    5:55
    So you leave from Galveston, Texas. Yes. Which I looked at this, so if I wanted to do this, I would have to fly into Houston. Yes, and then you take a bus. Oh, so there's a bus that goes to Galveston? Yes. For the 45-minute trip, supposedly it is? It's about an hour and a half. How do you know this? You've been there, too? I've been there on a cruise, you putz. Oh, you've actually gone to Galveston, Texas, Philly? Is that like the main place they go? That's where they go out of one of the main places. Oh! That's the Galveston, Texas. So pretty much you have to do this. No, I don't. I don't like Galveston.
    6:37
    Here's the problem with Galveston. Nothing wrong with the state. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is you fly into Houston. So you have two different airports to go by. You either have Jusk or John Wayne or is it Bush? No, no, no, no, no, no. It's Bush for the north. It's north of the city. And then Jusk or John Wayne or is it Bush? All the normal airlines that go flying in there fly into Bush Intercontinental Airport. Intercontinental? I think it's international. The Intercontinental Champion! Bush! Beer!
    7:15
    Head for Bush Beer, head for the mountains! You have to go through Houston to get to Galveston. So, if you land early in the morning, guess what you're hitting? Traffic. Yes. If you're going to the middle of the day, it's not that bad. If you're trying in the afternoon and evening, what are you hitting? Traffic. What pisses me off, and me and Kathy actually talked about this. Oh my God, we got a discussion. By the way, the actual prices are for double occupancy interior. I take it you don't get to look out a window and see cool. No, you do not. It's good for sleeping. It's great for sleeping. And if you get seasick. $17.76. Yeah, so it's $888 per guest. So if you brought somebody with you, Ron, it would be $888. But it's just taxes and port fees are not included. They're not. That's usually about $150 to $200. Okay. Wow, this is good. You're like the cruise expert. I am. Then you have a double occupancy balcony where you can actually see water, I assume. Yes, you can. You have one balcony. You have a deck chair on there. So it's almost $700 more if you want to see water because this is $24.42. That's $2,442. Yes. And this is only a six-day cruise. Only? That seems like a lot. I was just like, no, no. I don't know how to deal with this. No, no, no. And you go to the place you go to, you leave Galveston day one. Usually you leave at four o'clock in the afternoon.
    8:52
    You get one day at sea, so you sail down. And then you go to Porto Castamaya. Yes, Castamaya, very nice area. Then you work your way, then you go to Honduras, Roatan. Roatan, Honduras. And then you go up to Cozumel. Mexico. C. Then you take a C.J. back up and you go to Galveston. Mm-hmm. Okay. So. Okay. There's three things that are a problem with this. Oh, no. There's a problem. What's the problem? You know me. Okay. Oh, Bruce. He's going to ruin everything, folks. I'm going to ruin everything. The bad thing about group tours is you, as a group person, are paying to make their trip free. What? Yes, see? So, they guarantee that they're hoping for 20 to 30 people, rooms to be reserved, at the minimum. There probably will be, too. Yes, exactly. So, you think about that. So, every person that reserves this room, they, the people who are running the cruise, get money back and kickbacks to make their room up to free.
    10:10
    Okay. So that's one of the things I don't like about group tours. Because somebody's making more money out of your pocket.
    10:21
    Oh, I hate when that happens. Exactly. You know, it's like, you don't want it to happen. What, Bender, who's doing this? It says somewhere. It's one of the main cruise companies. It's a Royal Caribbean. It's my friend. I've been on this kind of ship, too. It's an Oasis class. Huge. Oh, this ship can hold 6,500 people. Jesus. It's like a floating city. It's not as big as the new ones, but it's pretty big. Uh-huh. Big there. It's very big. So big. Yes, it is. My God, how big you are. Oh, my God. But I'm going to show you the next part of the fun part of this. Okay, the next thing you don't like. Yes. I'm searching for cruises out of Galveston in that time span. Okay, while you're searching for that. Yes, go ahead. Pinball at Sea event package. So if you, let's see, if you have, if you're a member of the whatever thing, what do you get? You get access to the private Pinball at Sea game room. That's got to be interesting. This game isn't level. Oh, it is. Oh, it isn't. Oh, it is. Oh, it isn't.
    11:27
    Exclusive Pinball at Sea events. Now, hold on. This is where I have a couple problems with. Hold on.
    11:35
    Okay. This is not really... Barrel Reserve Club... Here's what it says, and listen exactly how I'm saying it. Okay. Barrel Reserve Club members who purchase the Pinball SC event package will receive the exclusive C-merch and have access to the game room. Yeah. So, if I was a member of their $75 club, how much do you think the cruise would be if I went through Royal Caribbean?
    12:04
    Oh, are you saying it's cheaper? Oh, yes it is. Yes, it is. Oh, are you looking up the same dates? Oh, yes, I is. Okay, there's probably a catch here, but okay. How much do you think the rooms are? I have no idea, no idea what they would normally be. $1,088.
    12:27
    Okay. So that's the interior. Interior. Yep. So it's not too much different, but, you know, it's just like, you know, and the balcony is $1,200, so it's right around there. $1,200? Wait a minute, the balcony, it's just $2,442 here, what is it there? Hold on, I'm looking right now, hold on.
    12:53
    I wonder what the exclusive Pinball at Sea events is. Well, I don't know either. Maybe it's an orgy or something? See, then it might be worth that extra money. I'm saying, I'm just saying, included merchandise. Oh, no, wait a minute. Family-friendly tournament. Oh, well, there goes the word you had to. Special meet and greets and more to be announced. More to be announced. There will also be a special tournament package for competitive players. So we'll have some pinball designers there that you can hang out with. Yep. And we're going to have a tournament. Yep. So I call it the Seasick Tournament, if you want. So that's what I would do. So, hold on. So the normal price, it's pretty close. It really is. I'm looking at the prices. So the balcony price is almost exactly the same as the other price because it's $1,200 per person that makes it $2,400 even. Okay. But the interior is a little more cheaper for, because most people don't pick interior rooms unless you really want to be Scrooge McDuck, which I can see you being.
    13:54
    No, I actually would want to see the water. What's the whole fucking point of going on a boat if I never see water? True. Yeah. And I think the trophy for the tournament should be like someone. Mark bag. Well, no. No, you got the right idea. You have like a window and the person's leaning out the window throwing up and that's the trophy. Okay. So, and here's another thing. One thing I do like about this. Oh, you like something. Oh, my God. It's fully refundable. Oh, yes. Until March 29th. Mm-hmm. Which is nice because usually when you're booking normally, it's not fully refundable. So, Ron, you can say up to March 28th, I'm going, and then you can bail on March 28th and get all your money back. The problem is I have no idea how much the plane ticket would be there. We can check that right now. Not right now. Google Flights can't because it's too far in the future. It's too far in the future, but you use a month from now because it's the same summer. That's the thing. Same summer. Like summer break. No, I would actually have to use June of this year, which has already passed. I'd have to go back in time.
    15:01
    Gotta go back in time. You gotta remember, from Albany, it's gonna suck. It's gonna be some absurd. It'll be some absurd. It'll be like $600 per ticket. You take the train to New York City, then you take the train to the J.K., then you take the train. No, no. You gotta take all this shit. No, it's not worth it. But it's a great ship. Don't get me wrong. It is an Oasis class ship. There's there's saying they're going on like this is actually a good good ship. This is a great ship. No, if I literally if this is that this actually has a central park and has a park in the center of the ship. Wow. So it's got grass and plants and everything. And then it has five pools. Five, Ron. You have a kids area. See, you lost me there. No, no, but that's their own area. It's by Johnny Rockets. They have a carousel and everything like that also. Plus, up front, there's a solarium. And the solarium is for adults only 18 and over. I don't know what solarium means. Solarium is just a private area for adults. It's like you have pools there, you have lounge chairs. Maybe that's where the orgy is. That's where probably the orgy is. Okay.
    16:19
    And don't forget, it doesn't cover food or drink there either. Well, it covers food, but it doesn't cover drinks. So you'll get basic amenities. You get either for drinks, you get iced tea, lemonade, coffee, water.
    16:34
    Not bottled water, but tap water. That's fine. Okay. If you wanted to buy a beverage package for like sodas, it's like usually $13 per day. How many sodas can you drink in a day? I don't want to drink soda. I would just drink water. Okay. Or lemonade or iced tea or coffee if you wanted to. Or if you want to drink, it's usually like $55 to $75 a day.
    16:58
    But each drink is $15. So if you drink five drinks, you're pretty good. If you're going over five drinks, you're doing really well then. Let's see, from the airport, you can arrange through RCCL, a shuttle. Is that the bus you were talking about? Yes, that's the bus that brings you down there. And it's about an hour and a half. It really is, not 45 minutes. Because the problem is you're going through the city. Uh-huh. And it sucks. And it's bumpy. And the road is terrible going down there.
    17:24
    But it is a nice, it's a beautiful ship. The Symphony is, I think it was made in 2017. Oasis Clash, really nice. Oasis Clash is really nice. Great ship. Yeah, it looks like to make a reservation you have to call Royal Caribbean anyway. Yes, you have to call Royal Caribbean and give them the number. The ID of, hold on, where is that? I saw it. Yeah, it's right here. Group ID number 1929119. Yes.
    17:54
    Yep. Like, what if I'm traveling alone? You are a loser. Get someone else to tour it again. Doesn't say that. No, but here's one of the perks about that, though. If you do travel alone, Ron, you get double points. Yeah, for all the other cruises I will never go off. Yeah, okay. You get double points. No. My issue is simply when it is. It's during the summer. I don't... It's, of course, during the summer, so you'll be nice and warm. No, I... Yeah, I want to... During the summer, I want to do things that don't involve going on a cruise in the summer. No. Why not? You're going to Texas. Texas is beautiful and hot down there. Yeah, wouldn't it be beautiful and hot during the fall? No, not really. Not as much. You like the heat. You do like the heat, you say.
    18:41
    I just have no interest. Plus, you get to watch on the back of the ship. They have swimming. Like, they have high divers. They dive into a pool like 50, 60 feet up in the air. Yeah. They have surfboard simulators up top. Back to school? Yeah, it's almost like it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Surfboard simulators. They have golf, miniature golf. Mini golf. All right. Yes. My dad would probably like this. No, no. If you went with me, Ron, I would. Here's how you do it. What? You automatically, like if we become a couple. Oh, great. You get my benefits of diamond. Diamond. You know what diamond gets you, big boy? It gets you four free drinks a day. That's great.
    19:31
    It gives you all the perks. You get to go into the Diamond Club, but also the Brown Lounge. So Bruce is like the expert. So everyone is going to now come to Bruce to figure out what they should do on his cruise because he's the cruise expert. And you get to go to three. I've been to all those three places I've been to. Custom I. I've been to Roatano. Okay, what exactly do you do when you arrive there? I mean, you just walk out and do what? Well, what I do always in Cozumel. Okay, first, when you go to Castamaya. This is going to be most of the episode, folks. I know. When you go to Castamaya. Castamaya, which is the first place you go. Yeah, the first place you go. We go to the ruins. So we go into the Aztec ruins. Okay. Which is about an hour and a half away. Pretty cool. You see a lot of cool stuff. Wait a minute, an hour and a half away. How do you get there? Bus. You take an excursion. Oh, another. You take an excursion. But that's a cool one because when you get there, you have three or four hours to walk around all these Mayan ruins. Pretty cool. Okay. Roatan, we went there. We walked around the town.
    20:33
    It was okay. It wasn't great, you know. And in a Cozumel, we went to a private club. So there's a private beach club about five miles away. Ah, and they had the orgy. And they had the orgy. Okay.
    20:46
    Got those crabs right from Mexico. No, but honestly, it's a great cruise. If you've never cruised before, this is a good ship to go on. All right, ladies and gentlemen, endorsed by the cruise master, Bruce Nightingale. Yes. The Barrels of Fun Cruise. Yes, so Ron, who are you taking? You taking Dad? You should take Dad with you. I'm not going on a cruise. Why not? I'm not doing it. This is going to be expensive, too.
    21:16
    No, it's not. It's $2,400. That's a good one. Plus, you're probably talking to him. Yeah, plus another, because I paid for his plane, plus another at least $1,200. Okay, so there you go. $3,600. You're in the place six nights in a cruise ship. And you'll probably be sick three or four days. Have you ever been on a cruise ship before? Have you ever been on a big boat before? I've been on the Mini Ha Ha in Lake George. Okay, well, that's not bad. And did you get sick there? No. Okay, so you're pretty good there.
    21:44
    Because this ship is pretty big. I'm sure it is. Okay. And fine dining exclusives, too. Very much so. But Bruce still won't join the whatever club. The Mara High Club? Yes.
    22:02
    The Mara High Club? I've always enjoyed the Mara High Club. Staying on Barrels of Fun here, the topper. Yes. The first time I've actually seen the topper. This is the thing I kind of got, yeah, I was pissed about. The fact that they had the topper, but all they had was a conceptual artwork picture. So they had no actual picture of the thing because it didn't exist. And I'm like, oh man, how could you have people pay for this when literally it doesn't exist yet?
    22:39
    But it exists now. Have you seen it, Bruce? It does. I've seen it. So you have seen it. What did you think? I thought it looked pretty cool. It's cool. I don't know if I'd say $1,700 cool, but I think it's cool. It matches the conceptual thing. It's got a worm. And when you see the worm, the first thing I'm thinking is like, oh, it better undulate like a worm. Like it better not just move in one direction or something because that would be so lame. No, it undulates like a worm. And then it's got, it's undulates day and night. Just like the game, you know, he's dating by nighttime, it has like a moon or whatever the hell goes across the top of it. So yeah, it looked pretty cool. Yeah. Is it $1,700 cool? Eh.
    23:32
    Yeah, I thought I'd get you on that one. And it sold out like immediately anyway, which is just like, ah, god damn.
    23:41
    But yeah, it looked pretty cool. Going through my items here. Let's go to Jersey Jack. So there was the Sonics started making their way out into the wild. Yes, they are in the wild.
    23:56
    And according to the one of the big launch parties was in New Jersey. There was a bunch of they had some designers there. Jack was there.
    24:08
    And Jack said, let's see, I'm getting all this from Nap, our kid. Hi, Nap. J.J.P., they sold 1,300 Sonics in the first three days. Let's see, it's on a second production line being made with a Harry Potter.
    24:23
    This is the part I was interested in. Jack also mentioned that given to Man for the Game, at some point, J.J.P. will probably build more Elton Johns. Oh, Nicholas!
    24:35
    They still have the license for a couple of years. I'm hoping for that. You know, why? Why? People might sell the used ones a little cheaper and I can pick me up ones. Ah.
    24:46
    Oh, Zach, we invited Zach to this and figured he blew us off, but he's actually saying right now, oh wait, shit, Bruce changed it to Monday. Yes, I did. He just forgot what day it was last time. How old is he? He might have early on set, like Alzheimer's. I've dealt with this lately, and that's pretty bad. I think so. I think he just forgets dates. It's just bad. I had some tech stuff I wanted to talk to him about, you know? Is he coming on? I don't know. I mean, like a... Back in my day! I can tell you... Let's see, join in!
    25:27
    It's an orgy! Join in! Just join the party, yes. Isn't it great when I don't edit? It's just like, oh, I was driving yesterday and just saw him say, Blame Ron and figured there was nothing of substance in the message. Wow!
    25:44
    Blame Ron! I got a couple dates. If you go out of Albany, it's $700 per person. You're still looking. $700 to fly to Houston. And it's not even a direct flight because those don't exist in the world of Albany. It's the cheapest place to leave in all of New York. But if you go to Rochester, it's $424 per person. Yeah, of course it is. And it's probably fine in Syracuse. It's probably fine out of Buffalo. Albany will just beat all their asses with the worst fucking pricing ever. Yeah. But I'm excited about Elton John's coming back. That means that it's a good thing. He can sell more of them. Yeah. And hopefully I can get one cheap. Yep. Also watched a lot of gameplay of Sonic. I mean, it looks pretty good. It looks pretty good. I do like the call-outs and stuff, but I mean, these are the people who actually do the call-outs for the video games, so it's unlikely that they're going to suck. No. I mean, let's see, there was some other stuff from Jersey Jack. Let's see, there was an interview he did with the Delta Fringe podcast. I don't know who that is. But I thought they had some interesting factoids here.
    26:59
    Like they got the Sonic, they got in 2022, the license when American was trying to get it. And they got it. Whoopsie! Yes. Yes, but they proved you right again, Bruce, because I believe you said, I asked whether you thought that Jersey Jack would have another game out sometime this year, and you said no.
    27:21
    Well, Jack said, after Sonic, the next title will be sometime next year. Woohoo! And a third in the fall of next year, so two next year. Yeah, well, I will not eat my hat on that one either. I going to say one again Oh okay Yep He said no artificial scarcity wants JJP to build several thousand units of a title rather than cap the runs So, yeah, you like all the stuff they're doing now where they're just, no, we'll just build as many as we can. Many people won. That's what we're doing.
    27:57
    I agree. I like it. Yeah. Let's see what else. Most of the other stuff are stuff we already knew. Like the Matrix, you don't get anything with it, just literally the name. No Keanu Reeves. No nothing, dude. Top Gun, just can't do it because Tom Cruise. Like, it just doesn't work. And they're not the only company that tried to get, you know, Top Gun, and they just can't do it. Tom Cruise is the problem. Listen, let me try.
    28:27
    I'll sell Tom Cruise. I'll show him F-14. I like Gold Wings. Yeah, this could have been your game, but no, you wouldn't license it. Let's see, the Matrix, no, I said that, the Matrix. Beetlejuice, this was the interesting thing. They had the Beetlejuice license, JJP, but it was non-exclusive.
    28:49
    So they walked away because basically Jack said that anyone else could make it at the same time. And he didn't want to do that. No, I totally agree with him. Yeah, that was a good decision. Okay. So those are my notes there.
    29:06
    Oh, Nicholas! Oh, it's a time to dance. Is it a party? I was about to make dinner, Zach says. Sure is. Party in my pants! I'm sure everyone is going to love having our Zach on, Captain Sunshine himself. They will love it.
    29:31
    That's his name. It's Captain Sunshine. Captain Sunshine! I love him. He held me with my victory, so I'm happy. Ah, victory. Another John Trudeau game. Why do we keep getting John Trudeau games? What are we doing? I'm super. Stop it. Good Lord. I like slapping balls around. Yeah, I bet you do. And they're fresh and new and young. All right.
    30:01
    Good Lord. All right. I have an idea. Okay. I told Bruce I was going to spring it this autumn. Yes, he did say it, but I don't know what it is. A new segment. I was thinking of some of our old segments. Like, I wonder why we don't do this anymore. Remember when we used to do the thing? Because we probably burned them out. I think we used all the games up, but we used to do the thing where we'd have a year and we'd pick like three games each and then try to sell the games to somebody like when we would have a guest. And then we had the rebuttal, which was my favorite, where you could just say how shitty the other person's game was and why it sucked. I kind of missed that. Did we even have a name for that game? No. I don't know. That's the problem. You need to have names for these games. But this one I call, What the Fuck Do You Like? And it's based on the fact that when you talked about Winchester and was like blowing Winchester, like I've never seen you blow a game before, I was like, oh my god, this is so crazy. And I was just thinking like, there's got to be other games that he actually likes. Because for our long-time listeners, it just always looks like Bruce hates everything. It does usually. Pretty much. I mean, I think last five years maybe Elton John was okay. Elton John was good. And Winchester is the greatest thing ever. And pretty much everything else is shit in Bruce's world. So I'm calling this What the Fuck Do You Like? Or WTF Do You Like? You know, for the show notes so we don't swear. Dude. So I want you, you need to have a game and put it over like you did with that Winchester game. There's got to be something you like. Godzilla.
    31:41
    No. Hey, hey, no, Seth. Wait a sec. Give me an older one. Everyone likes Godzilla. Stars. Okay. In your face. Why is Stars so great? In your face, kick your nuts in. Come on. I want you to blow Stars. Blow Stars. Why is it so great? It's just awesome because it's so good. The chime set is so cheesy. It's just you hit shots. You mean as shitty as the chime sound? It's like the good part. It's this awesome part. It's so basic. It's kick you in the nuts and you saying, thank you, sir, may I have another? It is that awesome. Like, think about it. Back in the 80s and 70s, would you do that to any other? Would you do, okay, I have S.T.A.R.S. next to Six Million Dollar Man. Oh, wait a second. Wait a second. I'm going to play fucking S.T.A.R.S. till my fucking eyes bleed before I play fucking Six Million Dollar Man Because the game is awesome compared to Six Million Dollar Man, which is shite. Same as Star Trek back then. A lot of those games don't have the, if I had a quarter when I was a kid, it'd be pumping every quarter in that fucking machine until I had a great game. That's a good comparison because they are the same era. Do you want to play Star Trek, Bally Star Trek, or do you want to play Six Million Dollar Man, or do you want to play Stars? Yes, I want to play Stars, sir. Thank you very much. Now, if it was Stingray, I'd go, no fucking way, sir, thank you very much. But I'm going with S.T.A.R.S., because S.T.A.R.S. will just kick you in the nuts. My three balls just ended in five seconds. Let me put another quarter in me, and I'll see how you do again, and most likely you're going to fail.
    33:27
    Okay. And that's what's so awesome about that game, because it's just the geometry, the drop targets rules, going after the five. Oh, it sounds so easy. Let me just hit five targets and make that bonus of 100,000 points. Just so easy. Five targets. Five. You mean the stars? Yes, the stars. Oh, yeah, okay. Yes. Hit the five stars and it's 100,000 points. How hard is that? Well, no, no, no. It's not. You've got to hit the five stars and then hit the roving stars. Exactly. But I'm saying, yes, exactly. Deepness is awesome in this game. And it's not that deep, but it's kick you in enough deep. Some of the rules are interesting. Like the star in the middle is worth 7,000, but only if you hit the outer ones first. Yes. That's like what other games have stuff like that from 1978? None.
    34:22
    Yeah. Okay. I love that game. Trust me. All right. This will be an ongoing segment. We'll just do that one today. That's why I have a brand new play field for mine, NOS. I have a black glass NOS. I have everything I need for me to have stars for the rest of my life.
    34:42
    So see folks, I'm trying to be a little more positive because, you know, the negativity sometimes can get overpowering on the show. Oh, make this. Now, I know Blues Brothers tried to be something that couldn't be. Even you got to be negative on that one. You played it. I'm negative on the, oh, it's just a prototype. Yeah, I hate that. Every single one of the games, their games, I've played, has been a prototype, and that's why it has all these problems. Like, every one of them had endless multiball and bugs. It was broke constantly.
    35:23
    I agree. But they at least had the idea to go cheap. And it really wasn't that cheap, but it was cheap. If they actually made it as fun as Sars and almost copying Sars, don't forget also. Well, yeah, they did copy Sars. But, I mean, if you're going to copy it, make it as fun as that.
    35:48
    Really, it wasn't that hard. You just fucked up. So it's out there. You can do it. You just got to do it right. Okay. If you're going to do it, do it right. Do it right. Do it with me.
    36:04
    So, you know, I look at it that way. You know, it's just, come on. Okay. Knock it out of the park or just fucking lay the bat down and just walk away. Oh, yes, your baseball analogies of, what is this game? So, S.T.A.R.S., is that like the Grand Slam home run? No, that is a, no, no, no, no, it's even better than that. It is a Grand Slam. What's better than a Grand Slam? Is it a Grand Slam with two outs in the ninth and you're teamed down by three? Nope, nope, nope. Even better. How is it better than that? It's the Somen. You're down three, bottom of ninth, but it's an in-the-park Grand Slam. Oh, God, it's okay. So you hit it off the wall and the guy's running for it and you're coming around.
    36:49
    Here's the throw. Here's the play at the plate. Holy cow, I think he's going to make it. Stop right there. My vagina is dry.
    37:03
    That album was recorded in New Jersey, I believe, so like Beersville or something. Let me sleep on it, Bruce. Let me sleep on it. But that's the, that is how good S.... is. In the park, Grand Slam. All right.
    37:22
    Okay, I like that. Between the crews and that, this has been our most positive episode in forever. Let's keep the positivity train going.
    37:32
    Stern released a bunch of new code. Congratulations, guys. You did great. There it has on. That's the rest of my positivity. I will now mute my mic for the rest of it. It's the Stern code explosion. Ron just throwing me softballs right here to say, How bad can Bruce now change his tune? Oh, we have reverb. We can hear ourselves. So that means Zach is on.
    37:59
    Trying to be. He's trying to be. But we still hear us. We still hear us again. He's not good with that.
    38:06
    Oh, Miklos. We were actually being positive. We had, I forced Bruce to be positive about a game. Here we go.
    38:18
    Oh, Miklos. But now that we have Zach on, I think the positivity is about to leave us. Oh, he's going to leave as soon as we talk about the code. Yes, the code. Oh, perfect. He's on just in time to talk about code. I just came on and immediately heard Bruce saying that he was leaving because it's too positive.
    38:34
    The reason why is because Ron keeps on throwing softballs at me. Well, I also wanted, since we're going to go over the Stern code explosion, I also wanted Zach on because I wanted him to explain that whole zero whatever flipper thing. The reason why the Chicago Gaming Flippers suck or whatever. Does it have any relationship to the code explosion at all? No, except it's a tech thing. And I don't understand it. You mean the Pulse? So I need it explained to me. The Pulse. Code is a tech thing? Kind of. Well, here's another. Okay. You know what really grinds my gears? Uh-oh. Here comes Mr. Negativity again. No. Everyone referring to code like it's the rules. You can have shitty code and a good rule set. Am I wrong with that? Zach, you're a programmer. Could you have, like, code that if you looked at, like, who wrote this? Man, this is really poor. But the rules themselves could be great for the game. You mean, like, looking at Alice Cooper? Okay. So you say Alice Cooper, great rules, terrible code. I mean, great rules, but, like, good rules as such as you compare it to the quality of the code. See? So that's why I'm sick of people using the word code to basically mean the rules. Because that's not, that is incorrect. That is not what it is. Considering that four people in total can probably see the code for any given game in most cases ever, considering the actual quality of the written programming language code is sort of pointless to both. It never used to be called code like ten years ago. It was just the rules. Like, oh, the rules on that suck. Or they only released one ROM ever for most games. But still, it's not code. You could have well-written code. You look at it like, wow, this is top-notch shit, but man, the rules suck. They're terrible in this game. See, that's also a true thing.
    40:27
    Yeah, like poker. Poker, oh, your game? I like everything about that, except that the call-outs, that guy sucked, I'm telling you. It was terrible.
    40:38
    Back to the explosion of ass. Cold explosion, yes, CERN had a, what was it supposed to signify? They did the 40 years of CERN thing again with the code explosion. Is that supposed to correlate with 40 years of CERN? Like once every year they just blow their nut and update every code. Well, they updated almost every game. A lot of them got the new menuing system.
    41:03
    I always get worried when I see this many games come out at once. And my worry was justified. No. They broke Iron Maiden. Yes. Yeah, that's right. They made it a pro, Zach. They made it a pro. Basically. That's where we already get to ours because none of the premium makes it even work anyway. If you put the code on, your sarcophagus motor doesn't work anymore and the diverter doesn't work anymore. Then if you roll it back. They fixed it. They fucking fixed it. If you roll it back, they work again.
    41:34
    The thing I don't understand, they're aware of the issue. It breaks, basically, it breaks premiums and LEs. They make it better.
    41:43
    But this also goes like, do not make your games auto-update. This is a pet peeve of mine. I hate auto-update on most things. All my Stern games, one of the first things I did was go in the menu and turn that shit off once I got them. You know what, we have an RPC, right, Ron? We have smart plugs hooked up all our games, so we can turn them on even when we're out there, so they can auto-update without any person even turning them on first. Oh. And this big code thing, we just turn the games on at like 10 a.m. remotely and we let them all update before we even arrived. Yes. And you know what was happening? It broke.
    42:22
    What broke? Iron Maiden. They made a break now. But it was already broken because we turned those off in the first place. Yeah, I know. What happens if they're on? I guess if you put this new code on, like when you go in the menu, if you try to... Does it turn them on? If you try to do like the test, they don't do anything. Like the motor doesn't move. It just doesn't do anything. Oh, so it's really dead. But there were some good parts to this code also. Oh, yeah. There was a lot of good parts to the code. I'm doing the negative first to get out of the way. I'm trying to be positive, Ron. I'm trying to be positive here. But some of the people's comments were the ones I had. Like, how did that get missed? Because the one person was, like, it updated, and as soon as it booted, I could tell it was screwed up because it doesn't do the sarcophagus motor test. It just sat there. And the other, like, yeah, one ball I could tell it wasn't working. Well, do you know my, or at least my suspected reason why they are doing these big yearly code bonans now? Oh, why do you think it is? And do you know why Spooky stopped having interconnected code in their games? Well, actually, Spooky, there was supposed to be an Evil Dead June update, which did not occur.
    43:30
    Cool. Ta-da! Tell us, Zach, why? Why? Basically, or also the reason why the only spooky games that ever supported Scorebit were the Scott and Nisi games was because they realized that if they're putting out these code updates, their code updates are also like the entire operating system, right? So if you have an interconnected thing, now you need to keep up with security updates for your operating system and stuff to keep it from getting hacked and botnetted, DDoSing the government and stuff. So they're like, that's not worth the effort. You're like, we don't update our games enough and we've got too many games. We don't want to keep up with actually being like internet security experts. So we're just not going to put any of our games online. And Scott can do that, but he maintains his own copies of the updates for his stuff. So this is Spooky we're talking about. Yeah, Spooky was. So Stern does it to be secure. Yeah, so I'm guessing this is like Stern once or twice a year, you know, when there's a really big issue We're just like a standard thing is like we have to update all our games that are online now because otherwise they're just going to get hacked too much and we might as well, you know, bring them up to date with the newest menu systems and other stuff and blah, blah, blah. So they just like go through every single code base, go update, update, update, update in bulk. And then obviously, as it turns out, they don't always do that much testing of the actual games physically for this process. Ta-da! Yeah, because I wonder, because if you update the system, because they have a separate, like, system code, and then they have the game code, and maybe something just, they update the system code and it breaks something in the game code. Yeah, or maybe, like, they added some new, like, disable all these things while I'm, like, in my test game harness, you know, or whatever, that is half a whitewood and half doesn't exist, and then they transfer it off, stuff like that. I do like they made a lot of updates for firmware updates, system updates, but there was also game code updates, bug fixes, changes, stuff like that. Save your settings, too. Save your settings again. I'm betting a lot of coders make some small fixes, but it's not worth actually getting the whole recertification and testing done for it, so they'll just sit around until they get swept up in the next yearly thing.
    45:47
    Hmm. So I'm going to wait a couple weeks until they figure out. Well, that sounds like the Iron Maiden was the only one I heard of. There were some other ones, like there was Insider Connected, like the logo was over one of the scores on Deadpool, but I just saw one post of that. I don't know if that's a thing that happens all the time. Iron Maiden was the only one I heard. It was like definitely, like, yeah, it breaks this thing. Hey, Zach. Hmm. You want to go on a cruise with Ron? Oh, Jesus. No. I don't want to go on a cruise with anyone. Yeah. What about a pinball cruise? You think Zach would ever want to go on a cruise? He would get seasick. What about a pinball cruise? I don't get seasick. Don't slander me like that. Oh, that's slander if you get seasick. I'm not inferior. My stomach is superior. Wow. I get sick from any type of motion so far. So far.
    46:42
    So you're going to go on a cruise with Ron. And then on a pinball cruise. No, we're not going on a pinball cruise. I'm guessing if it's a cruise, it's to a place that is semi-tropic, and that means it sucks. Oh, that's right. It is. You've got to remember, he hates all heat of any kind. There's no cruise I could go on that Ron would also go on where we both have good time just because of the temperature differential. True. Very true. Because you would want to go north. I would somehow still be bored, but that's me. That's true, too, yeah. That's true.
    47:08
    Why would I want to pay money to be at a place where I'll be more bored or can sit in a less comfortable chair to use my computer? And less Pinball machines than in my house probably anyway. True. That I agree with on that one. Might as well just come and spend a week or two at my place, Ron. There you go. Yes. Oh, yeah. Something has come up. Something has come up that might be a problem. What's that? Well, Sacked was one of the great tournaments around called? Oh, Death Ball. One of. Death Ball. One of. Wow. It's one of. If you want to play the weirdest shit possible. You go to death ball. But here's the issue. The day of death ball is also the day that the in-disc tickets go on sale.
    47:54
    I'm pretty sure we could have like a five minute break during that. Yeah, but I'm concerned about... Your internet sucks. My gigabit internet? I mean, if Zach would get them for me, because I know he's the king of the guarantee getting stuff. Because I don't want to end up bringing my work laptop there and getting on his Wi-Fi and just praying I don't have an issue and get these things. Well, we can hardwire you.
    48:23
    I still don't want to use that laptop. We can provide another laptop for you. I got mine, Zach. You can borrow my laptop, Ron. Oh, come on. Come on, Zach. Why wouldn't you do this for me? You're like the fastest around. You get the tickets. You're the only person I know that got those Pinberg Ultra whatever exclusive tickets twice. The first time it's bombed out because you... Your credit card. Your credit card bombed out. I can bomb out. And the second time you bombed out too, but luckily they were using Eventbrite and it let you do it again. But the important question here about offering my fast clicking services, Ron, is what's in it for me? What's in it for you? I mean... We get rid of Ron for a week. Well, you never go to Indus, so I can't really... Yeah, we get rid of Ron for a week.
    49:07
    Wow. I'm not in the area anyway. If I actually miss the button at the right time, then Ron won't let me leave it down for the next six months. That's the other thing. Yeah, that is 100% true. That's a much higher risk loss than the potential gains. Yes. That's why I just – this is going to be a tough one because I know if I'm sitting at home with my setup, I have a pretty high chance because I've done it every year. So I just, I'm concerned. Your setup, which you yourself admit is worse than my setup, but you can do it there, but you're worried about doing it here. How's it worse than your setup? Well, because you can't get into Pinnball twice in one go.
    49:48
    Twice in one go, huh? You can't fail out and then come back and still make it through because you're not as fast as me. Well, that's true, but I did the one year get me and my dad in, like in succession somehow. That was pretty good for me. And that's the year when they used the one where you actually had to enter all the information in before it actually, you didn't grab it. It didn't grab your thing and give you 15 minutes to do it. Like you had to do it and get it in immediately.
    50:17
    Well, yes, you're awesome, Zach, but you just, you don't want to do it because you know if you fail, I'll get on you. You've got to sweeten the bargain to make it work. You're not making yourself better for yourself, Ron. Yeah. I don't know. I'll buy the pizza for Death Ball or something. There you go. I mean, that's a pretty good deal. That's a pretty good deal, I think. See, you definitely got the idea now here. We can work, you know. Okay, we'll have to talk about that off. I'm sure our listeners don't want to hear about that. But I wanted to say in the tech thing, because we were talking about the code explosion. The tech thing. I want to talk about flippers, and specifically Chicago gaming flippers. You know how everyone seems to think they don't flip quite right, especially on the earlier AFM, Medieval Madness. There's deals where they're kind of like, they'll be strong one minute and then they're not quite as strong and then they're strong again and people think they're hallucinating and other people are like, there's no issues with their flippers and blah, blah, blah. I think it's more on AFM and Monster Bash than Medieval. Yeah, I think it's more on AFM especially. Yeah, but supposedly it's on all of them. But there's supposedly a technical reason for this that I don't understand and can't explain, but I know Zach can. I mean, I can't confirm it, but I can't explain it. Yes, yes. So this is the rumored reason, and this also applies to Pulp Fiction. Why are the Chicago Gaming Flippers weird?
    51:47
    Yeah, and Josh Sarp says it, so it must be true. Oh, Jesus. I mean, honestly, he would probably be in the know in this case pretty well. Basically, they were saying it's not like, because there used to be this thing for a while, like, oh, like, there's, like, lag on the flipper press, and it's, like, inconsistent lag, so my shots are off, and someone was, like, timing, like, how fast the USB thing would they do with the gun. Yeah, they were doing the timing. Then I was, like, disproven or something. Yeah, I was disproven. So, it comes down to what they're saying is it's about the zero crossing, which you must know about zero crossing since you own a stern, right, Ron? What's a zero crossing? What does that mean? What's a zero crossing in a stern, Bruce? I don't know myself. Yes, this is why you're here. You could have gotten one up on Ron right here, and you missed it. I always do that, so it's not even, it's just boring. So, you know how an AC voltage is a sine wave? It's going up and down, up and down. In digital signal processing, a zero crossing rate comes to how many times a wavefront crosses the zero axis within a given time frame. Yes, AC is a wave. Yes, that I do. So at some point the AC is zero because it gets to the middle of the graph that's like it crosses zero.
    52:57
    So Bally games and also later Williams games have a sensor to detect when that happens. The Bally games use it because that's how they know when they need to repulse all their SDRs for their lamps because an SDR versus a transistor automatically turns off when it gets to zero crossing because there's no current left going through because that's zero. Williams used it, as far as I knew, as a way to make the lamps last longer because that way it wouldn't be turning the lamps on or off at random points in the AC wave, you know, and then basically forcing them to, like, jump to a whole bunch of voltage in them or drop the voltage off really sharply. Instead, they would only turn the lamps on or off at the zero crossing so that then they get a nice smooth, you know, up and down motion. Up and down, yeah, yeah. I get it. That's what I heard it was about before. What does that have to do with flippers? Josh was saying that actually they also do this for the coils. So like, they know what part of the zero crossing is best for good coil action, and they wait to that time to turn the coil on every time, including when you flip. So actually, they're purposely adding a lag on actual WPC games to make sure that your flip starts at the right part of the AC wave, so it has the most power. Which, I guess, like, the lag that it adds is negligible more than the quality to the flip that it adds, is the theory. Okay. But, obviously, Chicago Coin Games and basically every manufacturer except maybe Stern doesn't have that. They just turn the thing on whenever they want, you know, and usually, hopefully, as quickly as possible, if you hit the button, they turn it on. They're not paying attention to zero crossing. So in that case, you know, you might flip at one point right when you're at zero, and you might flip another point when you're all the way at the top of the curve, or when you're halfway up or down the curve. But you don't hear people complain about flippers on those games, especially Sterns. I don't know on Stern if they even have anything like this, but specifically with a game, because the other thing is, it's specific more, not completely, but more to games that have transformers than games that have switching power supplies, Because a transformer just passes that AC signal through with more or less voltage going into it, versus the switching power supply that does a whole bunch of, holy shit. So Chicago Coin as a bank actually does use Chicago gaming as a bank actually does correctly use you know a transformer just like the original games they have an actual AC wave going into the vector fire so they have a DC wave coming out which still has you know the waves of the sine wave going on from the AC coming through
    55:33
    So they are susceptible to it in a way that I don't think Stern would be quite the same way susceptible.
    55:39
    So basically, before people said they had lag, and that was a problem. They were like, no, that lag doesn't actually matter. And now they're saying actually it's because of the fact that they don't have lag when they should to consistently wait for the right part of the zero crossing that the flippers have a bit more or less power each time you flip. And that's what makes your shots off.
    55:59
    And supposedly this is all the Chicago gaming games and Pulp Fiction, including Pulp Fiction. So it's in their architecture, you're saying? Yes, so it can't be easily fixed, but supposedly it will not, this will be fixed for whatever the next play mechanics game is going to be, which is supposed to be what, Halo?
    56:21
    If you say so. I think that's the rumored one, so. Yeah, I guess supposedly they're going to add a sensor so they can tell when the Zero Crossing is on their board so they can do this better. Yeah. But since it was the audio hardware missing component, you know, they didn't recreate the original WPC system. There's no way they could ever fix them existing games without actually, like, building some new boards and sending it out to everyone. Yeah, what's happening? You know, they can't do a code fix. Yeah, so I just thought that was interesting.
    56:49
    Some people are probably falling asleep by now, but other people are like, oh, that's why the flippers are the way they are. I don't know. Well, let's segue into repairs then, because since we're doing tech shit anyway. Okay. Who's been doing repairs? I got some stuff. I have. Okay, go ahead. I have. Okay. We talked about Batman last time, so that's all. Yeah, you said that's all done, all fixed, and it's great. Yep. Yeah, okay. It's super. Thanks for asking. I thought you were going to say it's broken again. No, it's not. Okay. Victory. Zach was helping me with that. And when I got the machine, supposedly the guy said, I replaced the coil and... Supposedly he said that? Or did he actually? No, he said, when I replaced the coil on the kickout, it now resets and would not kick out sometimes. So, okay, no problem. So, finally set it up. It's been sitting for months. Set it up, drilled the lockout, got everything going, played a game, and it resets. Like, wow.
    57:59
    Zach's like looking at it for a few minutes. He's looking at the circuitry. He's looking at the schematics. He goes, let's pull the light boards. Like, what? He's like, yeah, let's try this. So first he checked the voltage and everything like that. And we had, we're losing voltage a lot. What was it, 4.2, Zach? Yeah, it was like dropping a whole volt, basically. And to be specific for people at home is when the switch matrix connector was plugged into NPU, the 5 volts dropped to 4 volts. Yeah.
    58:29
    So he's like, pull, start pulling connectors. I'm like, okay, well, first let's try to find continuity. Nothing happened with that. He's like, okay, let's pull the light boards, the chase light boards.
    58:41
    Okay. Guess what didn't happen then? There's something on the one chase board. It's the left, sorry, the right one that is not working. The chase board. Now, is that for, like, the chase lights? Yes, there's two sets of chase lights, one on the left-hand side, one on the right-hand side. And they're actually independent for some reason. They're independent. And, wait, it gets even better. They never stay on together.
    59:08
    What? So instead of being a really smart company and just put like a switch, like, you know, to go like a relay back and forth between one set and the other set, they will have two sets of boards for this.
    59:22
    So there's two boards on this, and you know what switches them, Zach? I found this out today when I put the one board in.
    59:30
    Luckily, Weebly has boards, so I ordered two, only got one. I contacted Weebly. Weebly was like, I'm so sorry, man. I'll send another one out to you this week. Cool. Thank you very much. Because we didn't actually order two of these damn things. I know. Because the game has to and it doesn't need to. That's the worst part about this. If you put a relay with the wiring, but they did. So when I put the one in, the one for the, I changed the left-hand one. Even though it's the right-hand one, I put the right one in first, and I'm like, nothing's happening with this thing. You know what changes the lights on that Zach? The light switch. No. Slings. Sling shots. Oh. So every time you hit a slingshot, the light goes left to right, right to left, it goes back and forth.
    60:19
    I'm like, why? Is Victory the one that has... Sequential. It doesn't have multiball, but it has multiballs in it or something? Yes. That's another reason. Why does it have a two-ball game? And it won't start, right, without the two balls in there? No. But it never uses two balls. No, it uses two balls. Oh, it does. Yes, it holds the one in the hole, and then when you drain, it then pops the other one out, and you can play that ball. Yeah, but there's no multiball. There's no multiball. Yeah. Okay. But it's not like older Gottlieb's when you lock a ball and then you drain and then the ball just goes right down the middle and makes you want to grab for the flippers again. Nope, nope. At least you know if you drain one ball, you're getting that second one back.
    61:09
    Like on hoops, if you lock the ball and then say, you know, it kicks out or, you know, black holes, even better example. When you lock a ball in a black hole and then you drain the ball, the other ball. It kicks out and you can't do anything. You can't do shit. Yeah. At least you can with this. It's the FU that got laid. Yes. It's the FU got laid. Double single ball versus single multi-ball. Yes. Why has, this is what I'm asking from everyone out there in the world. Everyone's modifying these games to make all the code better. Make victory a multi-ball game. The rule's better, not the code, but yes. I mean, if I bought it, that's exactly what I'd be doing, Bruce, to be fair. Well, Zach, you got one to say. Well, Zach, what do you think of victory? It's by Mr. Trudeau, so you probably like it. Kind of. I like the layout. Potentially good upper playfield. Okay. The lower playfield is mostly just like a giant bank of death targets in the middle you never shoot, so that's not as cool. No, no. Also, I feel like it's got a lot of, like, a thing that a lot of later 80s got leaves have where they just have really long ball times so the balls can drain. Yeah, I agree with that. Just really controllable. You gotta rake that bitch up to nine. Jesus, that doesn't always make it harder. It does make it harder. Yeah. Actually, what new games has Zach played? Has he played any of the new games? Has he played any... I don't think Zach has played... Sonic, has he played any... No. Winchester? Is Sonic even... Sonic's out. That's probably not. It's out live. No, there's a couple of games out there. Transformers, have you played them? I haven't heard of a Sonic being anywhere around here yet. What's like the newest games you've played, Zach? Pokemon.
    62:46
    Yeah, I haven't heard of any Transformers around to go play. And I haven't played any Sonics. And I still need to go play the local Winchester we have. Yeah. Who has that? What's his name? Has that? Yeah. Yes. I love the game. Zach, when you ever go there, Zach, I'm there. Oh, no. I love that game. He loves Winchester. I love to invite myself and Bruce over to people's houses. Perfect. Excellent.
    63:13
    He followed me. I couldn't stop him. I'm sorry. He's bigger than me. He drove me here. So what's the news? I have to be my DD and these six stuck around. Exactly. Thank you. Wow. I thought being at the Rochester Pinball Collective, you guys would have had all this already. No. I mean, someone hasn't been buying all the new games lately. Ooh. Gross.
    63:36
    I bought a lot of games. So wait a minute. I thought you guys were getting the Transformers. We are. Okay. It's not here yet. It's a premium. At the world famous Rochester Pinball Collective, located 349 West Commercial Street, East Rochester, New York.
    63:52
    What's the suite number, Zach? I said it first. Ah, we said it at the same time. Come on. You did. I didn't know you. What's the bathroom code?
    64:03
    The suite's 2965. Everyone knows that. It's the bathroom code. That's the important part. Much more important than the bathroom code is 3492. Very good, very good. Now you can shit without paying. You can't.
    64:17
    Anything else with repairs, Bruce? That's all for me. The second board will be in hopefully at the end of this week, and then I'll put it in, and then we shall have victory or death. Okay. I have an update. My prostator, i.e. prospector, the extra ball insert was loose and falling through. And most of it was because it was warped, which is kind of crazy because I get the heat warps it, but the light that's probably on the absolute least on Prospector is the extra fall light that's hardly ever lit. Is that one of the arrows? Yes. Yeah. My super straight had the same issue. So what I did is somehow I popped it out, which was too, it came out too easy. So it wasn't, the adhesive was long since, lost its adhesiveness. I cleaned up the adhesive, and then what I did is I took the insert, hit it with the heat gun, flattened it out so it was no longer warped. So now it actually fits in correctly and doesn't, like, go in lopsided. So I just had to put the glue in there, stick it in there, put something over the top to keep it flat and let it dry, and boom, my extra ball insert is back. And your prospector is flat. Yes, and I changed the bulb. The bulb that was in there was a 44. I changed it to a 40 step.
    65:45
    I suspect that the cause of the warping isn't actually related to the bulb. It's just related to, like, the insert itself, the design. Just think about, like, how they start adding jeweled inserts and Starburst inserts for the cupping. And, like, when a round one cups, it cups in a uniform way, which can still make it break away from the playfield, but it's much less likely. But for some reason when an arrow insert cups, it cups along the length. It just like bends up at the tip. Yeah. Which makes it break away from the plate field way easier. And this is actually giving me confidence I might attack the nine ball because that insert is also loose and has been forever.
    66:24
    I could probably pop that out and easily flatten it and get it back in there. That one I can see having lots of heat issues because that's a GI light.
    66:34
    That's actually not even a controlled light. So it's like always on. Is that one a starburst or just a flat insert? It's just an arrow. Just the arrow insert. Do you see how much is it bent or is it just that the glue just broke away? No, it's bent. It's warped. Okay. It's warped. You can rock it back and forth. It's so curved.
    66:54
    But I figure now it looks like I could just pop that sucker out, flatten it out, get it back in there. That would be cool. So the thing that made the prospector, it became unplayable because it was warped to the point where it was going down the back part of it. So the ball would get stuck. That happened a couple of times in the Bells tournament. The ball was getting stuck.
    67:16
    Rush. So as you know, my Node 10 board is not working. That controls the up-down. Oh, Zach might not know. He doesn't listen to our podcast. That's not in the messages. My Node, yes, that's true. So I'm waiting. Basically, it's in the hands of Stern currently. They're working with Flippin' Out. They're trying to get pricing for them on this, on a replacement board, correct replacement board. In the meantime, I have modified it, and I want to give a shout-out here to Ben, who emailed us at a slam-tail podcast at gmail.com. And with the – remember the last episode I said I could have swore I saw something which showed how you can make it so the ramp stays up at all times.
    68:08
    And basically that's what he sent me. It's a 3D printed part. He said he could send me the – whatever, the template to print it. But I don't have a 3D printer. But I had an idea of how to do this with a flat piece of metal that I have that's bendable and easily – like you can cut it and do things with it. And as soon as I saw his picture, I'm like, that's it, yeah, okay, I could totally do that with the piece of metal I have. And I did. And it works great. So I have a working rush now. My rush is now a pro. It's a pro rush. So thank you, Ben.
    68:46
    Make it pro in real life. Well, the other issue is, so the first game I played, all of a sudden a screw just shoots that on the plate. A screw and washer and I cannot fucking figure out where it goes.
    69:03
    It's like a hex screw with a washer. Machine, hex head with a washer. Which, that's not used anywhere on there. They're all Phillips screws. Yeah, it's not very common for a Stern. No, where the hell is it? Now, they use the hex screws to hold like the lane guys on, but they don't have washers. They just go through. I cannot for the life of me figure out where the hell this thing goes. And nothing's missing as far as I can see. So I don't get it.
    69:31
    I'm confused. Wait, I got an idea. Okay. Where do you buy your game from usually, Ron? Oh, Flippin' Out? Yes, Flippin' Out Pinball. Zach, I have a request from you. Not you, Zach, but the other Zach from Flippin' Out Pinball. Okay.
    69:47
    I want him to, before he ships the game out to Ron, deliver it to your place, open up the box, and put like 20 or 30 different screws in that box and then close it back up and we'll see how much Ron goes bonkers.
    70:05
    Okay, we just put random screws in there. Because it doesn't even look like it would go anywhere. Zach, wouldn't that be awesome? I found this goddamn screw! I don't know how this comes through!
    70:17
    Usually I can figure out where they go. That's why this is annoying. But you know what's also annoying is fucking Flipper Hop. And my buzz has flipper hop on the right end lane, and if you loosen the screws and jam the thing up and tighten it, it's good for like a game or two. And then it wants to move back down. And this is driving me fucking batshit insane, and I'm not going to stand for it. No? I'm not going to stand for flipper hop. So guess what I did, Bruce? How would you try to eliminate this flipper hop? Let's ask you two. So what ideas would you have to get rid of this? I got an idea. Okay, what's the idea, Bruce? So you're talking about the plastic. No, it's not plastic. It's actually metal on Rush. Really? It's a metal in-lane guide. And no, I didn't look to see if Cliffy has a version of Srir. I'm not even talking about Cliffy. Okay. I would try to either make the hole bigger to bias it up more. I love your bias term. Love that. It is. Biasing it more up. Biasing up. And then tightening it back down. Mm-hmm. And maybe even welding something so that not just squirt your kit. Okay. Like, it wouldn't move down. You couldn't walk back down. All right.
    71:28
    Zach, what's your suggestion? How would you get rid of that? Because I don't think you like Flipperhop either. Oh, I hate Flipperhop. So what would you do to get rid of this? And you have a rush. So what would happen if this happened to your rush? What would you do? You would sell it. Oh.
    71:43
    Sell it. I have Flipperhop that I just can't get rid of. That's why I'm selling it. I know it sounds like a weird reason, but I have to do it. He sees Bruce suffer with that Batman and goes, I am going to have him.
    72:06
    I would do that with Bruce on that. So what would you do? How do you fix this? That's got the plastic clear-in-the-gives, right? No, no, it's metal. That's what he said. I don't remember him being metal. Yeah, they are. Yeah, they don't have the new metal either. They're metal. They're both metal. Maybe your pro has plastic and the premium has metal? Maybe that's your problem. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Okay. You have a premium, though. What are you doing? I don't have a pro. Yeah. You're the pro.
    72:35
    Did you hear that? Hang up. Okay. You're the one who wanted me on here, Ron. Pull the IV. End it. Okay. How would you get rid of it?
    72:49
    So, and that also, I assume, uses machine screws and the T-nuts to hold it? Yes. Not wood screws? That is correct.
    72:57
    So, that's metal. Get the welder out. I did fix it, by the way, so I did come up with something. And you need to move it up. Yes, you need to move it up. Because you move it up, you tighten it, it's good for a few games, and it just slowly makes its way back down. Obviously, you should pull the Become Your Own Cliffy and take it off, scan it into a computer, recreate it in a CAD software, and then get it sent out and rebuilt with the thing the right amount down so you can manufacture them and sell them to everyone else that can fix their premiums too. Yeah, actually, that would be a good thing, yeah, because just make them a little wider. It doesn't have to be a lot. Not even wider, just like you just literally move the hole down. That way it can't get the other way either. So here's what I did. So as Bruce said, the hole itself is bigger than the screw. So there's play. That's what allows you to fix it at least for a game or two before it wants to move back down. So what do you do to make it not move back down? You take up the space in the hole.
    73:57
    So how do you do that? You need to be able to shove something in the hole. Oh my. Number one, that will still allow you to put the screw through it. That will also, because there's plastic spacers, so they've got to fit over whatever you put through there.
    74:14
    That's the other thing. So what I did. It's like two dicks going into one hole. True DP, I guess, yes. Exactly.
    74:24
    Dual penetration. Extreme. So what I did is I still had, you remember my prospector with the spinner that would stop working, And it turned out to be the leaf switch was actually broken on the top. Like it would actually fall out of the leaf switch itself. I still have that because I keep everything even if it's broken because I never know what I can use the parts for stuff. So you're a hoarder of parts. Yes. It's metal. It's thin and bendable. It's a little too thin, but I figured I could get two pieces of it and shove it in the hole and wrap it around the screw. Because you can bend it. You can just do it with your fingers. You don't have any tool.
    75:08
    And I did that. You put the screw through it. And now there's no play. It's like, okay, perfect. And you put these plastic spacers just fit right over it. Because it's small enough that it fits. And I put it in there. And my flipper hop is a thing of the past. Okay, I got a question for you. How old is your Stern machine?
    75:29
    What, the Rush? Yeah. It's three years old. Okay, so in dog years, it's like 21 years old. Yeah, okay, yeah. Okay, so you made your brush machine actually like two years old. You made it like to 13 or 14 now instead of 21. Well, the thing is, I can't see it being an issue again because there's no plate. Like, it's metal. It's not like it's going to... You're going to damage something else, like probably the washer. What could I damage? The bushing inside. The bushing inside? What bushing? The bushing that you're talking about that goes on top of it. No, no. The plastic. The plastic spacer. It fits right over it. It's wrapped around in a way that it's like lengthwise. It just goes around the screw. It's perfect. Like it doesn't move. And it goes right over it.
    76:18
    It's a beautiful thing. He'll complain about five months from now, Zach, and say, All right, listeners, you can put that down and see if I say, oh, it's not working anymore.
    76:29
    But it's beautiful. Flipper Hop is gone. So you'll have one less thing to complain about, Zach, at the stomp. He'll complain about it. Oh, I would never complain about it if I didn't play Rush.
    76:39
    Even with Flipper Hop? The funny thing is the left side has never had Flipper Hop. See, the thing you're forgetting here, Bruce, is that you don't ever use the right flipper to actually make any shots on Rush.
    76:50
    So the flip hop doesn't matter. It actually helps you get control of the ball so you can then post-pass the left flipper to make any shots. That's not true. I hit the time machine. I hit the, well, it's not the dead-end shot on the premium. That's kind of my bailout shot.
    77:03
    And I do occasionally hit the left orbit through the pops. You probably don't want to hit that on the fly because it probably won't work. Yep, or the scoop or the left target bank. So, yeah, if it's not like a valley where it's so bad that actually if you go from a cradle, you still have to do the flipper hop, then it's fine. As long as I'm on the right.
    77:23
    Okay. I can't even find a part for this. So, what repairs have you made, Zach? Because you must have made repairs. You have this billion games. Well, you know, we had this issue at the last death ball.
    77:35
    You're just getting around to fixing it now. Well, I've got to prepare for the next death ball, you know. Oh, Christ.
    77:41
    So I had to turn Stargate back on. Oh. It was having an issue where the buck would not pop well enough, so the ball would fall back in and score again. And so with people just scoring billions randomly in battle. Oh, you can't have that. So I was like, oh god, is there going to be some worn, broken part, or do we need a new plunger, or is there actually some weird alignment issue? And I took it out, and it turned out that when that coil burned up once in the past, we put a Williams coil the same spec in, and the Williams coil was slightly shorter, so it was just wobbling up and down like an eighth of an inch in the bracket.
    78:16
    So I tightened it up, and it's fine. Very good. Ta-da! Is that it? Well, I was going to be working on the new Foursquare I picked up for death ball, but it turned out to basically all work, so that was fine.
    78:31
    Okay. When is this death ball? My birthday. That narrows it down. Yep. I'm glad. The one day of the year. The one special day of the year. Everyone should notice by heart. If you do not notice, you're not a true American. He turns to Big 4-0.
    78:50
    Nope. No, not yet. Mentally, yes. Mentally, I'm still 17. Scary 17-year-old man, I'll tell you. I was, it's true. That is true. It's August 29th.
    79:08
    So where can people sign up for this if they want to play in this amazing event? By PayPal or wallet.
    79:16
    Is there any website they can go to get any information? It's Facebook, right? They could go on Facebook or Discord, you know. What Discord? The WNY Pinball Discord group. Okay, so for only local people, listen to this podcast. No, no, we allow non-local people. Non-local people. We're all to point them out so you can stay away from them if you don't want to be switching to those people. So if you're in Europe, you can come to this if you want. August 29th, it's a one-day event. It doesn't run super long, which is another good thing. You'll get to play great games like... Oh, you're waiting for me to fill that one in? Yeah. I want to hear what your opinion was. Well, the four square you just mentioned. Is that a great game? I have no idea. I don't remember it. You'll get to play the awesome Rick and Morty, the best playing Rick and Morty ever.
    80:05
    I'll say that. The best playing Black Knight ever is also there. You'll get to play the incredible homebrew of poker. It's one of the greatest homebrews ever made. Zach's Demoman is one of the best Demoman's ever played. Oh yes, this Demoman plays good too. Yes, it does. It looks like shit, but it plays like fucking shit. No, it looks like total shit, but it plays good. It's awesome.
    80:29
    Yeah, I can't remember which one. Stargate? Stargate. The best thing, Stargate. What's the one upstairs from the foreign company?
    80:38
    Which one? Yeah, which one? He's got foreign games all over the place. The cards. Lucky, no. Lady Luck. That's an awesome game.
    80:48
    A Pinball classic. Oh, that Zachariah, I'm sorry, Zacharia game. The half EM, half electronic game. Oh, acrobatics. Aerobatics. Aerobatics, sorry. I love that game. That is a good game. Need to fix that one still. Yeah, fix that one. I love aerobatics. It's got a worn part that's not quite normal, so I'm having some trouble with that.
    81:13
    Okay, let's see, what else do I got here? Just some other various notes. I wanted to give a shout out to Carl D'Angelo. He finally finished. He got to the Kiefer Invitational on World Poker Tour, which took a long, long time. It's been such a long time.
    81:35
    I think we should be going. Yeah. Add that to the list of wizard modes. I just will never get to and really never want to have to play a game long enough to get to that Because it's like 40 minutes or something to get to that. You better make the list of which modes you will get to.
    81:50
    Showing how far away they are these days. Scared stiff. I can get to that. My dad can get to that one. No actual wizard mode. They only did the mini. Scared stiff!
    82:03
    Let's see. What else? Oh, tilt forums. Did you see they're shutting down? Again? Again. Man, I didn't know. They're shutting down on September 1st. It's over after 11 years.
    82:20
    Dead silence. No one ever used ports. Literally, I thought it had already been closed for like two years. Oh, man. Okay. I swear like it shut down and maybe it came back again, but it was down for a while.
    82:31
    Yeah, it's closed down. I got a lot of useful information there, but yes, the last couple of years it has not been used as much. I'm usually there every couple weeks because I still post our podcast there, but I guess I'll probably not do that for this one because if it's going away, yeah.
    82:53
    So when are we all buying all of our stuff from Mantis Pinball before it goes out of business in a couple months? Oh Mantis When is that I thought that is September September 1st Mantis get all your metal Get all your metal parts Let see I have a note here for stop You wanted me to mention stop Ron, you keep on plugging this fucking thing. Stop it. Yes, I'm asking you to plug and it's at my fucking house. You need to plug Death Ball instead, Ron. I didn't even know what stop was going to be. Why do you keep on talking about stomp? And it's at my house. Jesus Christ. Zach, I'm so sorry you had to deal with this again. He just keeps on plugging this stomp thing. I'm really sad. I didn't have to deal with it because I wasn't here last time. Yeah. It's a great time for me. For those who's going to get home, it's a joke because I don't even know when stomp's going to be. I kept being told it's going to be this date, this date, this date. You know exactly when it's going to be. Well, yeah, you moved it like three times. No, we didn't move it at all. We moved the other thing and we kept this one exactly where it was, always. No, it was originally going to be in October and then it was moved. No, it was September 19th. 19th, then we talked about October. No, no. Yes. No. Zach. No. Go ahead, Zach. Yeah. Tell me. It was going to be in October. I was told it was in October. It was supposed to be in October, and then Bruce moves in September. There you go. That's what I remember. It was originally in September also. So then we'll talk October, then we'll be back to September. Exactly. It couldn't be in September because you guys were doing something, so it was going to be a problem. No, and then we decided to change that to later. Oh, nice. So that's why it's September. Yeah, so it's September 19th, which is around the weekend. It usually is anyway. So there you go. Tickets go on sale. When? The 11th. Of July, the Saturday. Ah, July. Oh, man, don't make it the same exact time that the Fun Spot one. It goes 24 hours. You can't do that. What time did I say? Let's see. You probably did the exact same time. Probably. That would be fucking awesome. That would be hilarious. 6 a.m. Oh, God, 6 a.m. That would be a Bruce thing. That would be perfect. 6 a.m. I know it would be up.
    85:00
    I'm trying to get my computer very slow. He's trying to get it up. Yeah, don't kill your microphone. That's exciting. I'm looking to see when the 24 hours at the Fun Spot tickets go on sale. I thought it was 11 a.m.
    85:16
    11 a.m. on the 11th. Yep, 11 a.m. is the 24-hour registration. Yes. You might want to move that. No. Because some of the people do the same thing. I'm smarter. 10 a.m. Oh, 10 a.m. Okay, so it's the hour before. So once you've gotten into Samp, then you can try to get into the 24 hours. Yeah. All right, all right. 40 players max. Payments start July 11th at 10 a.m. Eastern. And when we say 40 players, we mean 40 players. We're not doing 36 and then we get to 40. We don't have a standby list. Unlike every other year where we said that and they didn't follow it, this year we're going to follow it. We're going to follow it because 40 is the max. And we're going to have standby in case some people drop out. But yes, I was smart. I picked it an hour earlier. You had no idea. You just lucked out. No, I knew exactly what I was doing. Oh, really? Is this true, Zach? Does he always know what he's doing? Well, he knows to ask me when he doesn't, so yes. Oh, okay. Which he never. So he never. Oh, never. He never. We've covered both the cases here, folks. We're good. Yes. Yes. I love it. All right. Ron hates what he's doing. And I definitely don't need to ever help Bruce fix his gut leaves ever again, apparently. No, never. Never. Because they never break, don't they? They never break. And he'll never buy any more, and he'll never need any help fixing them if he does. Well, I need help from probably one, maybe. Oops. But it's half yours. He just has to keep buying, like, every frigging Trudeau game for some reason. What else are we going to buy? What other good Trudeau game ones, though? You know, I kind of like Rocky. You know, I've softened him a bit. No, fuck, no. No, no, I want a striker. Can you find a striker, Bruce?
    86:57
    It was boring, that game. Really? I never played one. Yeah, we played it at, what's it called, out in California. Can you find one that I can play?
    87:08
    Maybe not. Are you ready for the ball bag, Bruce? Okay. See what you're missing, Zach? This is a troop party.
    87:18
    I know. I know what Zach was missing. Yes, he knows exactly what he's missing. This is from Scott, Scott S., and he sent a link to the Barrels of Fun Cruise. Yes. And said, will Bruce be setting sail for Pinball at Sea? Will Ron join? Will every game play like garbage because you know it's a boat? Your STDs deserve answers.
    87:44
    This semen will not be going, but Ron's thinking about it. No, I am not thinking about it at all. I would like to play a game on the boat just to see. Like I said, it's not level. Oh, it is. Oh, no, it's not. It is. I think that would be funny. I mean, I think that's much easier to accomplish. We can just go get a boat and get a machine. And we have both of those. Get a canoe with a boat on it. That boat's good. There's no canoe. Like good canoes. Like Gary. Well, the canoe I was on, that probably fit. That fit again. It's like a rowboat or a catamaran. Okay. All right. Will Ron join? No. No, Scott. Bruce will not be going. See how mean he is? See, now you see how mean Ron is all the time. He puts on his pleasant act all the time. So mean, yes, yes. Pleasant act. I literally came up with a segment to force Bruce to be positive, but I'm the negative one. No, I said mean. Please get that right. We have trivia again. We had trivia last week, or last episode, from the bastard son of Pinbot. The bastard son of Pinbot. Isn't he the one who had the nickname for Zack?
    89:00
    Yes, he did. I hate that guy. Yeah. What do you call him? The Void? The Charisma Void or something? I can't remember. The Void of all fun.
    89:12
    I'm just repeating what he's saying. Captain Charisma, baby. All right, but he's got more trivia. I love you, Zach. God, you know. We all love Zach here at the Slamtel podcast. But he has trivia. Are you ready for some trivia?
    89:27
    Three questions just like before. Let's see. High Slammers got some more trivia for you. Three questions. And then a bonus one. Oh, so actually four. Totally did not think of the stern kiss. Oh, that was the one. Balls that come out of mouths but don't go in mouths. And I said Gene and Kiss. See, even the son of Pimbot. Because it goes under him and then it comes out his mouth and, you know, the tongue and all that stuff. Let's see. I also thought of Williams Indiana Jones as an answer for it.
    90:03
    What mouth does it come out of? Is it the idol? No. Maybe the idol. It is a mouth. The idol mouth. I wouldn't have thought of that. And it doesn't go in the mouth, but it does go in the mouth. Speaking of Super Pins, question number one. Pat Lawler was the only designer in-house that got two to design, got to design two Super Pins. Yes, Twilight Zone and Roadshow. After all, supposedly he was the one to push to make Super Pins in the first place with Twilight Zone and Roadshow. It has been stated on shows that every designer got to make, oh, every designer got to work on. However, that's not true. What Williams lead designer that was currently there at the time did not get to do a super pin? This one I know. I think I know. How loose were we defining there at the time? When they were that period, they were making the super pins. 93 to like 94. But like, could he be there as like, I'm a line worker? No, he means designer. Like he already designed a game before this, and he designed a game after it, but he missed the window. Yes, correct. What? For Williams? For Williams, yes. I thought this was easy. Because if you go through, you got Steve Ritchie, Star Trek, you know, Zack's favorite game. And you got Lawler with a two. Then you got Trudeau with, um, Popeye, Dredd. No, Dredd. Oh, Dredd. And then you got Ousler with Popeye. Yeah. So who didn't get one? Oh, Norvin with Devilman, of course. Yeah. Of course. So who didn't get one? Lead designer.
    91:46
    Lead designer. He was there? Yeah. 94. That's true. I don't consider him a lead designer yet. What did he do before that? That was his first lead. Yeah, he didn't do anything before that, though. Yeah, that was after. So you went against the thing I just said about who's called. Quite me.
    92:12
    Well, so is what he says the actual answer is. Because he doesn't have Papa Duke as the answer. I was thinking of Zingy Mingy, but he wasn't there after. He wasn't at the beginning anyway. I am not considered a designer usually, even though I get designer credit. I actually forgot about the actual designer of Popeye because I assumed it was him that did Popeye. No, it was Ocelor. It was an outdoor, yeah. But I came up with the incredible story. I wrote the whole book on it.
    92:43
    He's got Brian Eddy here. Brian Eddy wasn't the designer yet. But he didn't start before. I mean, this 94 is Shadow. Yeah, I know. After. Is it after or is it during?
    93:01
    Or did they do all the Super Pins in a row? You'd have to look and see what the order of them is. Because I don't think they were all necessarily in a row. Unlike the bi-levels that Williams did, they were all in a row. But I don't know if all of these super pins were in a row.
    93:18
    They have two lines going one and one. Let's see. Question number two. People appreciate Keith Elwin games for unique layouts and multiple flippers and ball paths. However, he seems to max out at four flippers. What was the most recently commercially developed game to feature five flippers on the playfield? Not a homebrew. Sorry, Zach. Oh, he knew you were going to be on. On the playfield? On a playfield? On the playfield. So does he not include... I think he means the whole game. Like, does Simpsons count because two playfields and two flippers on that one? I think he just means the game. That would be five. What was the last game to feature five flippers?
    94:03
    So what do we say? Was? No, it's got five. Too many playfields, two low flippers, and the upper right flipper.
    94:15
    I always forget about the upper, forget about that one. Yeah, so did the rules presenters. Oh, he had to go there. He had to go there at some point. Wouldn't be Zach without going there. Yes, I did. Can't blame me. I totally fed that to you. How many does Simpsons have? Five. Yes, Simpsons is five. Yeah, Wizard of Oz. Answer, JJP Pirates. Well, who cares about that game? Let's see, one, two, the side, and then the upper, was it two more up? Yeah, it was.
    94:53
    Yeah, five. We failed. How do we fail at that? I mean, isn't that Sash's favorite theme ever? I mean, I tried to block my mind because I was so disappointed by the actual game. Oh, Jesus Christ. Third one. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk. Let me try again. Obviously, there's been a lot of knockoff themes in pinball, like beat time, which is obviously the Beatles. But what pinball manufacturer had the first paid licensed theme?
    95:23
    See, it's going to be obscure. Like Canada Dry or something. Well, they didn't pay for Canada Dry. They didn't pay for it? They just slapped it on there and said, I hope they don't do it.
    95:36
    What? Or were they paid? I don't know. I didn't think it was paid. I mean, it has to be, it could be 60s, 70s.
    95:46
    I mean, obviously there's Meteor, right? Yeah, but that's not even their first licensed name. I'm just trying to put like a baseline like there. Oh, Tommy. The Wizard. Wizard would be your first, if anything. And Wizards up 75. 73, 75. So you need one before 75.
    96:06
    Okay, so they did mix wide bodies and regular bodies all the time. See, that's what I thought. So when did Papa Duke start there? Did he at least, when did World Cup, was World Cup soccer after all the wide bodies? No.
    96:21
    Okay. But the thing is, if Brian Eddy, was he a designer yet if his first game was? The Shadow. Shadow, is that in the middle of all the white bodies? No. I don't know.
    96:34
    Okay, so theme is Valley Wizard. That's what he got. Wow, look at that. Look at that. Good job. Bruce can actually pull one out of his ass. All right. Bonus question. Using the three answers to those questions as clues, what specific game do they point to? So you got the Wizard, you got Brian Eddy, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
    97:03
    I'll say it's Black Rose because you got Brian Eddy and Pirates. So you can say Black Rose. Okay. Thank you, Bastards on Up End Bot.
    97:15
    Okay, we have one last email from Glenn. Let's see. He says, hello, boys, and lady, if by chance Steph is on the show this week. No, we have Zach is on the show. Sorry, Glenn.
    97:31
    I'm just thinking out loud here about an idea that might seem self-serving, uh-oh, but other people might like. What about a B-major tournament?
    97:43
    B-major, in quotes. It's a large format that excludes the top 1,000 or 2,000 players from competing. I'm still in. The goal would be to give lower players an opportunity to play in a large major format and get a taste of a major tournament while still being competitive. The only issue with this is the fact that with the exception of, I think, Pinnberg, every single major tournament, the person running it is playing in it. So they wouldn't be able to play in this major tournament. Because only A-Division players have won tournaments? That's not true. Well, actually, is it true in this case? Let's go through all of them. I mean, you got the Sharps. Yes. So, yeah. You got What's-His-Face-This-Doing-Papa. He's in A.
    98:33
    What are the other majors? What am I missing here? California, you have. In disc, I would say Jim Belcedo. Yep. It definitely would be, yeah.
    98:46
    European, the European one, maybe. I mean, also Pintastic. I don't think he plays in it. No, he doesn't. Do larger tournaments do enough to encourage B finals?
    99:01
    I'm registered for Pinstinati and Top 40 make A finals and the next eight make B finals. So maybe there's already an effort to help mid-level players feel like there's an opportunity to compete in a high-pressure moment. I just know that's not a good example because only eight players. Yeah, but I think we do pretty good. Yeah, we do B also.
    99:24
    I used to like your golf tournaments where you had different scores for different level players. I agree. It was great. So that was actually nice. Most of the time, the B is like, you didn't make finals, you're in B. And like in disc, in disc I didn't even realize I was in B. And the problem here in both cases is that if a bans most of this from happening. Yeah. Because they don't like it when you make B matter for standings, and they also don't like it when you ban A players from tournaments. Yeah, don't they have a thing? Like, if the tournament's open and then you're seeded by how you finished in your B, you still get whopper points, but you don't, you get like. No gain. The lower points you get, the last person in A is going to have more whopper points than you get as the first person in B. But I thought they also had the rule, if you had an actual B division where someone said, like, I'm playing in this B division, then they don't get whopper points at all, if I remember. Isn't that the same? Isn't that still true? I don't know about that rule, but they have a thing that's like, you know, even if it's a 40-person B division and you come in to seed 40 of B and we're going to have to win the whole tournament, you'll still be 80th total in the effort results. You just get some money. Yeah, but see, but what if we just avoid the top 1,000 players to begin with? Do you think this could be successful? Probably not. Because there are all the players that go to all these events. Also, again, if it bans that, because that's being purchased against skilled players. Yeah, or is it unfair to the higher-seeded players to exclude them? Could there even be Whopper points awarded in this situation? The answer would be no. Would people show up if there wasn't? The answer would be no. You could. I think tournaments, like when the Whoppers are gone, you have less people to show up. No, but you have prizes that are money-wise. You know, if you make a good prize pool. It's like the ultimate B division where you get, like, winner gets a pinball machine. Yeah, winner gets a pinball machine. Second place gets $500. Top players need not apply. Fuck y'all. Yep, that's what you've got to have. You've got to have, like, lots of money to say. The only issue with that is where do you make the cutoff? Then you're going to have people saying, like, I played, you play in B divisions where the players are just as good as a lot of players in A division. You're going to be like, that person shouldn't be in B. 2,500.
    101:42
    But would they even know there's a tournament that ranked that low? Maybe not. I've heard of an exploit here of, like, saying, oh, like, you can make it so that B doesn't count towards standings. And that's, you know, if I suppose without, but there are many rules about the money payouts. So you can say like only people who are in the top or not in the top 2,000 are eligible to win money. And then make it so that it's like a $1,000 entry fee, but also it pays out all positions that are B eligible. So if you play it as A, you're just giving your money to them. It's probably been that too for some reason, but.
    102:17
    I just, I'm pretty sure there was a deal that if you picked B, if you, if the tournament had, You used to have different ones. You can play in A or play in B, but if you pick to play in B, that means you couldn't get any whopper points.
    102:32
    Because it wasn't set by your performance. It was just you picked to play in B, so you didn't get whopper points. I seem to remember that was an actual whopper, IFPA thing. I could be wrong. I feel like it's got to be outdated now. Because I've got some of the rules about getting out of terms and stuff. Obviously, we should just run a whole second if, but it's only for people that suck. Yeah, so okay, so you think if you ran this tournament and the top prize is a pinball machine, I still think the tough part would be the cutoff.
    103:05
    And you're using, if you're using IFPA ranking for it, but then you're not going to get any points. You know what I mean? Like what, you're using the, for your cutoff, you're using the thing that will not be sponsoring this tournament. Or you just find another really big tournament all the top players go to, and you just rent the place next door and run a tournament at the same time and day. That's less good than the main ones in terms of payouts and stuff, so all the top players will go in that one.
    103:31
    And then you can still be a Fist Circuside. Okay. I don't know. I think it would be tough to do this, like the B Division tournament. I think you mostly need to find someone willing to put up enough money to make the tournament worthwhile. And people who aren't that good at pinball but also care enough to go and try to... Yeah, that's the hard part, yeah.
    103:53
    All right. Thank you, Glenn. All right. The ball bag is empty. Was that Bruce or was that Zach? That was Bruce. I think that was Zach.
    104:08
    That was Zach that made that sound effect. I know everything. Okay. How was your dinner? We didn't have it in that day. How's your dinner you got out of the microwave? Is it good? No, that was the cat's dinner. Oh, that was the cat's dinner. Ah, yes. My dinner's in the oven for about six more minutes. Uh-huh. Ron, when you come out for death ball, you'll have to meet the new dog. Wait a minute, you have a new dog already? We have a new dog already. My wife can't go too long without a dog. And is it the same, is it the... It's a dog's home. Of course it is. Of course it is. Wiener dog. What's its name? Daisy. Have you ever had a male dog?
    104:47
    Not owned. We fostered, but we never owned one. Daisy. So how's Daisy's temperament? Oh, she's a lover. She'll flip over and rub my belly. Bitches. Cookie reincarnated? No, it's actually Gigi, but it's definitely. She's a red, she's a smooth, but she's a brindle.
    105:11
    So black and red. Mm-hmm. And she's very lovey. Get down on the floor, she'll hug you and kiss you and do whatever you need to. She's a great girl. So how are the cats, Zach? How are Beast and Snake? Mostly good. Except for when Snake shits on the floor. Oh, jeez.
    105:34
    Oh, Snake, you better, you gotta stop shitting. Shit on the floor. Maybe you were playing. See, you were playing.
    105:44
    Holy fuck. That was good. You'd pull that one right out. Shit on the floor. He's playing Rick and Morty and the cat heard it and he just figured that's what he needs to do. Shit on the floor.
    106:02
    Holy fuck. He pulled that one out. Holy shit. I think that should be it. I'll end with that. I think that should be the title. S-Sharp on the floor. Shit on the floor. Yes. No. S, star, star, T on the floor. No, I try to avoid the obscenities in the actual titles. Sorry. I know I'm no fun. Fill in the blank on the floor. No, no, no, no. That's okay. We are the Slam Till Podcast. Don't forget to buy your stomp tickets this weekend, one hour before the 24 hours at 10 o'clock. Yes. And don't forget to buy your death ball tickets this weekend, one hour before a stomp or after or right at the same time, Or also other days of the week. Or whenever you send your money to Zach.
    106:47
    Yes. Yeah, what did I say? Plugs. Oh, I didn't plug. I'm also on another podcast called Silver Bullet Chronicles. Wow, we almost escaped it. Check it. Escaped it. We almost missed it. Fight me.
    106:59
    See our latest episode about John Trudeau. He just keeps coming up. You can't get rid of him. I don't know what it is. He's just the creep that never ends. That's my favorite episode.
    107:16
    Okay. Check out our website, www.slamtailpodcast.com. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner.
    107:26
    You can email us at slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. If you've requested to be on, don't worry, we will get to you. We're making our way through the list. Thank you, Zach, for showing up. Thank you, Zach. Anytime, except when you ask.
    107:45
    Obviously. Okay. Oh, yeah, hi to everyone in the cluster, Buck. Hello. Yes, everybody. So when are you coming out next time, Ron? Is it going to be for Beast?
    108:00
    Oh, yes. Yes, probably Beast. Yes. And then right after that, you've got to go out here for Death Ball, and then right after that, we've got to go out to your house. Might as well stay in the middle and have a cruise. Yeah. In my basement. You know what the funny thing is? The last episode we were talking about the distance to fun spot. I just calculated for my house it's actually quicker to get to the fun spot than it is to get to either of your houses.
    108:21
    Well, that's not as fun, though. And whose fault is that? You guys were moving further away. You were closer before. You just keep moving further and further out. You've got to trump us and go further and come closer. I'm sure Bruce is in Rochester before you got your current house.
    108:38
    That's true. And I was further down in Bloomfield. Back then even. Yes. Before I get into any more, I have to take any more of this shit.
    108:49
    Are you ready with the name, Bruce? Of course I'm ready with the name. God, you make me think I'm 12 years old or something. Oh, you only act like you're 12 years old, but yeah. Okay, thanks everybody. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Houseball Amusements.
    109:08
    I can't move me, can you fly? I can't move me if you try. I can't move me, I can't move me, can I keep you alive. Muteiar, Lulevel Zero, Clusterbuck, Swish the Kind, Jamfalt, Bruce Dissom, Tremantalk, Carholder, Shita, Sanatoo, Chash Grab, ELO, Volper, Bunchy Byand, Gave You Love, Gave You Hange, Oh my.
    110:11
    Oh my. Thank you.