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Episode 241 – For Rickey

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 32m·held·Dec 23, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Year-end pinball recap: American Pinball implodes publicly, Stern vaults games, industry drama abounds.

Summary

Slam Tilt hosts Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discuss year-end pinball industry news, including Metallica topper details, Pulp Fiction shipping delays, Stern's new pinball cup competitive system, Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean 1.0 release, and most significantly, American Pinball troubled state revealed in a recent podcast interview with David Fix where he disclosed layoffs, financial difficulties, pending litigation, and management dysfunction.

Key Claims

  • Metallica topper with Justice For All mode costs approximately $1,000 and provides one new song and one multiball mode

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing the Metallica topper specifications, citing David Raminson as a 'very very close source'

  • Pulp Fiction machines have finally started shipping after being revealed at TPF in March 2023, nearly two years of delay

    high confidence · Ron stating 'Pulp Fiction have finally started shipping' and 'They were revealed in TPF in March of 2023. Oh, yeah, almost two years.'

  • Cactus Canyon upgrade kit with saloon doors and new code was shown at Expo factory tour two months ago with no updates since

    high confidence · Bruce confirming 'they had the saloon doors at their factory tour during Expo' and Ron noting 'that was two months ago. And you know what we got? Nothing!'

  • Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX) has applied to the U.S. Patent Trademark Office for trademark rights to create a Blade Runner pinball machine

    high confidence · Ron announcing 'Dutch pinball exclusive DPX... has secured or applied to the U.S. Patented Trademark Office for the trademark to create a pinball machine for Blade Runner'

  • Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean reached 1.0 code status after six years and six months post-release

    high confidence · Ron stating 'Pirates of the Caribbean 1.0 finally released' and 'six years and six months' after its original release

  • Stern's Jaws pinball machine, released in January, still has not reached 1.0 code status

    high confidence · Bruce noting 'Jaws. JAWS (Premium/LE)? Yeah. That was released in January. Yep. It's not even at 1.0. It's still not at 1.0 yet.'

  • American Pinball laid off Steven Bowden (rules programmer) and Jack Haeger (art director) and is involved in pending litigation with Paul Reno

    high confidence · Ron discussing David Fix interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast podcast where layoffs were disclosed, noting 'Steven Bowden gone' and 'Jack Haeger... one of the two they just fired yep gone'

Notable Quotes

  • “Metallica got one song and one multiball extra... would you spend a thousand dollars for one song and one mode? No.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~14:00 — Highlights skepticism about Stern's premium topper pricing strategy and value proposition

  • “You don't announce on an interview that you fired people or you laid off people. Or talk about possible pending litigation... You never say that.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~51:00 — Core criticism of American Pinball CEO Dave Fix's interview strategy and tone-deaf PR approach

  • “I guarantee if they said to Steve, hey, we're having some financial issues right now... would you take a pay cut? I think Steve would have said yeah.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~57:00 — Suggests American Pinball mismanaged employee retention during financial crisis

  • “The thing about David Fix I don't understand. He would talk more about other companies' games than any person I've ever heard.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~48:00 — Criticizes Fix's inability to focus on and promote American Pinball's own products

  • “All you say is, yes, there is somebody we're in litigation with, and that's all I can talk about. That's it. You stop.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~65:00 — Prescriptive PR guidance on handling litigation disclosures in public interviews

  • “The whole thing where, like, it's Ametron. Ametron is their parent company. And everything, like, accounting is Ametron. The lawyers are Ametron... everything is Ametron.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~54:00 — Highlights structural confusion about American Pinball's relationship with parent company Ametron and decision-making authority

  • “Cuphead was almost close to being done. And what did they need to finish and polish it? Programming... They fired the rules programmer.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~60:00 — Points out the contradictory and counterproductive nature of laying off Steven Bowden while completing game development

Entities

Slam Tilt PodcastorganizationRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonMetallicagamePulp FictiongameCactus CanyongameBlade RunnergamePirates of the Caribbeangame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball disclosed financial losses in 2023, uncertain 2024 status, pending litigation, and layoffs of key personnel on public podcast

    high · Dave Fix interview on Loser Kids podcast revealing 'in the red' status, firing Steven Bowden and Jack Haeger, pending lawsuit with Paul Reno, questioning whether company will survive

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Galactic Tank Force design team dissolution: Dennis Nordman (designer), Jack Haeger (art director fired), Steven Bowden (rules programmer fired), Christopher Franchi (exclusive to Spooky Pinball)

    high · Ron noting Galactic Tank Force team from August 2023 episode completely dispersed; Franchi signed exclusive with Spooky, others laid off or gone

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern's Jaws has not reached 1.0 code status 11 months post-release; Jersey Jack's Pirates took 6+ years to 1.0; industry-wide pattern of prolonged code development

    high · Bruce confirming Jaws 'was released in January... It's not even at 1.0. It's still not at 1.0 yet'; Ron noting Pirates 'took six years and six months'

  • ?

    product_launch: Pulp Fiction Limited Edition machines experienced nearly 2-year shipping delays after TPF 2023 announcement

    high · Ron: 'Pulp Fiction LEs have finally started shipping? Yay, only after what, almost two years? They were revealed in TPF in March of 2023'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern implementing Disney-style 'Vault Program' discontinuing multiple games (Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Avengers, Elvira, Foo Fighters) for minimum 2 years; retiring 70th Anniversary and Beatles editions

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.276

0:00
Butthead, I want you to take one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They should help your behavior.
0:06
Uh, wait a minute. These smell like grape. I want to try one. Come on. No way, Beavis. I'm the one who's aggressive. See? Oh, yeah, yeah. We'll be right back. Never Christmas time.
0:49
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale.
0:58
Hi. Wow, really excited. This is episode 241. Do you like my Christmas music? Oh, yes. It gets me right in the mood.
1:11
Give it to me. Give it to me now. It's the Beatles singing a Paul McCartney Christmas song. And it's like, how is that possible? It's called AI. I know. Soon we're going to have Roosevelt doing the jig in the 40s, you know, dancing up a storm.
1:27
I have no idea what that meant. Because he had polio and he was in a wheelchair. So in AI now, he'll be able to dance and sing and do whatever he wants. Well, no, the one guy wants to get rid of the polio vaccine, so we're going to have more polio. I know. I can't wait. Yeah. You could have just said, like, the fact that, what is it, James Earl Jones, his family sold the rights or whatever to his voice so they could just use it for Star Wars forever using AI. Yes, they can. Which is kind of scary. It's very scary. And who knows? Maybe they got Carrie Fisher now because when she was in Rogue One, they did her face. Well, wait a minute. She was still alive when they did Rogue One. No, she was out.

David Fix disclosed on podcast that American Pinball is 'in the red' financially and uncertain about 2024 status pending accounting review

high confidence · Ron paraphrasing: 'you're in the red 2023 but i don't know if we're in the red for 2024 because i haven't heard from accounting yet'

  • Stern is vaulting multiple games including Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Avengers, Elvira's House of Horrors (Premium/LE) of Horrors, and Foo Fighters from production at end of 2024 for a minimum of two years

    high confidence · Ron announcing 'the following models will enter the vault and cease production at the end of 2024' and listing the titles, with Bruce confirming 'they will not make them for a minimum of two years'

  • Christopher Franchi now has an exclusive contract with Spooky Pinball

    high confidence · Ron noting 'christopher franchi now exclusive contract with spooky spooky' in context of Galactic Tank Force design team departures

    • “It's like if we have George Gomez from Stern, and he just starts talking about Pirates is a great game. Why would you just do that? Shut up. Don't do that. Push your own games.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~48:30 — Contrasts unprofessional communication from Dave Fix with expected executive behavior in competitive industry

    Jaws
    game
    American Pinballcompany
    David Fixperson
    Steven Bowdenperson
    Jack Haegerperson
    Christopher Franchiperson
    Paul Renoperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Dutch Pinball Exclusive (DPX)company
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Galactic Tank Forcegame
    Ametroncompany
    Cupheadgame
    [name withheld pending review]person
    George Gomezperson
    Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)event

    high · Ron announcing vaulting of games 'at the end of 2024' with '2-year minimum' prohibition; Batman 70th and Beatles being permanently retired

  • ?

    industry_signal: Stark contrast in executive communication: Dave Fix (American Pinball) disclosed financial troubles and litigation publicly; George Gomez (Stern) maintains professional restraint despite similar challenges

    high · Ron contrasting Fix's oversharing with Gomez's professionalism: 'George Gomez is honest, too, but he doesn't give away this kind of information'

  • $

    market_signal: Dutch Pinball Exclusive pursuing Blade Runner IP trademark application, signaling interest in major sci-fi franchise for future pinball release

    high · Ron: 'Dutch pinball exclusive DPX... has secured or applied to the U.S. Patented Trademark Office for the trademark to create a pinball machine for Blade Runner'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball's public financial disclosures and management dysfunction creating widespread community concern about company viability and influencing collector/operator sentiment

    high · Extensive podcast discussion criticizing Dave Fix's interview strategy and company dysfunction; questions about whether American Pinball will survive

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern Pinball Cup uses Insider Connected app for tracking goals and progression; app interface criticized for lack of clarity on quest objectives

    high · Ron and Bruce attempting to locate quest details in app, finding information confusing; Bruce: 'I am at 70 points Do I know how I got 70 points? Not fucking a clue'

  • ?

    operational_signal: American Pinball's parent company Ametron controls accounting, legal, hiring/firing, and strategic decisions while Dave Fix handles product-level decisions, creating confusion and dysfunction

    high · Bruce noting 'everything is Ametron... accounting is Ametron. The lawyers are Ametron... hiring and firing is Ametron' based on Fix's interview statements

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: American Pinball involved in pending litigation with Paul Reno; details undisclosed but serious enough to warrant legal department involvement

    medium · Ron noting 'Paul Reno suing them' in context of Galactic Tank Force departures; Dave Fix mentioning pending litigation on podcast

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern's premium topper accessories ($1,000 for Metallica) criticized as poor value proposition offering only single new mode and song; Led Zeppelin topper considered better value with moving spotlights

    high · Bruce: 'a thousand dollars got you one song and one mode' and 'would you spend a thousand dollars for one song and one mode? No'; Led Zeppelin topper with moving spotlights 'was a thousand dollars so that's actually better'

    • 2:10
    No, they did the youth thing. Oh, no. Yeah, she was still alive when the hero cried. I know. Okay, so episode eight, they did that to her. Episode eight. Or was it episode nine? Nine, when they gave her the hug. See, to me, there's three movies. It's all a blur, and they're bad. No, there's three movies. That's it. I'm done. There's a trilogy, and I'm all set. Actually, I don't mind three. Two's not bad, but three is good. I like three. Guess what new 4K Blu-ray I just got? Debbie Does Dallas? No, no. Demolition Man.
    2:46
    I'm watching that. It's like, wow, yeah, these are where all the call-outs are from. Yep. Great movie. Yeah. It's a little disconnected, the movie is. It's a little, huh? Like in the beginning, you know, you have the building blowing up, and you're like, what the fuck's going on here? and then they both get frozen and then all of a sudden you know he's defrozen and you're like talking they didn't even go into the the three shells okay i had i had no problem at the beginning of the movie i was not confused and yes they never explain what the three shells are yes it sucks my bigger issue is the fact that they blow up a real building and it looks cool and at the end they have a really fake cgi looking explosion it looks terrible but yeah they blew the budget I think the outro song should be the Steel Panther song for Christmas, the stocking song. Stocking stuff? The stocking stuffer? Is that what it's called? No, it's called Stocking Song. Just the stocking song? Yep. Okay. Yeah. We've got lots to talk about. This is the end of the year, Bruce. Yes, it is. The final episode of the year and our holiday episode. Yay! Are you feeling festive? Everyone's festive. I'm very festive. Oh, okay. Yay.
    3:59
    So you love everything, right? I love everyone and everything today. Okay. It is the end of the year extravaganza.
    4:10
    So what do you want to crash into first? Well, let's start with correction. Yeah, you fucked up big time. I fucked up. About time he finally admits it. Wow. Well, you know, you're used to fucking up on Silver Ball Chronicles, which could be heard. silverwell chronicles which can be heard on the pinball network there you go there you go done no the the metallica topper yes does have an extra yeah i think we said it doesn't have an extra mode or anything but it does i have actual text here from a very very um close source david raminson okay a very it has multi-ball only with the topper says it on the press release you asshole well it doesn't say that but yes but uh the press release was buried in the 10 other crap things that they put out all within like five days which i also complained about shows expression light shows shows color rgb for band member levels it makes the lady justice more fun because you actually want to focus on it turns into multi-ball if you spell metallica during the lady justice mode only with topper also new song and justice for all if you have the topper or the insider connected achievement for playing the topper mode regardless of topper got it yeah so a thousand dollars got you one song and one multi-ball extra it's true is it like 1500 i thought it was a thousand i mean yeah maybe a thousand okay so would you spend a thousand dollars for no one song in one mode no no i i done see the thing is you can have the coolest code ever created for a hopper but in the end it's a logo with four flasher domes yep i was looking at they struggle to think about this one the led zeppelin one is basically the same thing but the four instead of four flasher domes it's the four symbols from like led zeppelin four or whatever and the moving spotlights yes which are so so that's actually better yes i agree and it was a thousand dollars so i'm thinking what they should have did should have done should have did done just just went just went all out three thousand dollar topper and make four fully animatronic characters and they move like when you get the band member to start moving and then once you get all four they all start headbanging and you can have the metallica in you know as the backdrop in the background no no you're limiting yourself ron you're limiting here limiting for three thousand Okay. You just don't get a topper. You get a siders. The siders. You get both siders with the topper. What are on the siders, Bruce? It's like the fans. Like you have fans on the sides that are trying to reach the stage, and Metallica is on the top of the stage. Oh, no, no, no. I got it. I just thought of it. I just thought of this. Yes, on the sides, you have the colored flame shoot up, and then it simulates when What's-His-Face got burned up. You remember that? No. You don't remember when that happened? No. The lead singer? Oh, yeah. He got fucking burned by one of those flames that came up and just burned his fucking whole skin and his arm off. But we're going past toppers now. We're going to ciders. Ciders, okay. So guess what? That's going to be my copyrighted name. I am stating this, Bruce Nightingale, on 12-21-2024. How do you spell it? Toppers or ciders? Ciders. We know how to spell toppers, Bruce. S-I-D-E-R-S. Now, if it was the 90s, how would it be spelled? Sliders? No, no. I don't know. It would be S-I-D-E-R-Z. Come on. Oh, come on. Remember? The 90s, everything is Z. No, Metallica started in the 80s, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Okay. That's when Metallica went down in the 90s. But, yes, so we're going to have Topper and Siders for $3K.
    7:57
    I do like my idea, though. Fully amatronic, and you keep the backdrop with the Metallica logo, because they insisted on a Metallica logo. Boom. And people would buy that shit. Hey, and if you hit the super duper deluxe wizard mode, Napster comes up behind them.
    8:16
    And they bang a gong and get rid of Napster. Actually, yeah, you should take Sparky and just put like a Napster hat on him. Yeah.
    8:28
    That was such a big deal back in the day. They were the first band to like go after Napster. Yep. I remember that.
    8:36
    Which is funny because they were one of the few bands that would let you record all their shows and stuff. Yep.
    8:43
    That was pretty good. Thank you. I do come up with ones. I forgot about the Napster thing. Oh, I remember everything. I'm like a fucking elephant. Oh, really? You remember everything? Yes. Yeah, okay. I got you a birthday present. I got you a Christmas present this year, and what did you get me?
    8:59
    I came to the Royal Rumble. Wow. You see what I got? You got my present. Wait a sec. Mr. Manny gave his co-host. Oh, Zach Manny of the pinball show? Yes. He gave his co-host, Dennis Creasel, a game for the second consecutive year? Yeah, exactly. And I got you a gift. Zach, would you like a new co-host? Because I would like a game, too. I already stated this before you came. Yes, I know. You said you'd dump me in a second to go to Zach to get a game. You have two shows already, Rod. You have way too many things going on in the pot. I, Zach, have only one show, and I would love to do another show with Zach Manning.
    9:40
    You got a Jaws premium. I know. Good Lord. Yowzer, yowzer, yowzers. I'd take a pro. I'm cheaper. I'm cheap. I'd take a pro.
    9:55
    All right. You ready to get into some news items? Yes, let's get into some news items. I.e. the part where we go to Nap Arcade. Yes, hi, Nap Arcade. Actually, I do go through the headlines of other stuff, and I do make my own list, so I'm not just completely leeching off other people's work. Bruce, did you know that Pulp Fiction LEs have finally started shipping? Yay, only after what, almost two years? They were revealed in TPF in March of 2023. Oh, yeah, almost two years. Yeah, so they'll probably be done by TPF. TPF 2027. Two years ago, yeah. Two years to get your LE. Jesus fucking Christ. That's a strap. No, that's just really slow, like absurdly slow. Yeah, there was no reason for that.
    10:46
    But look at Cactus Canyon. They keep on having this problem where they just drag their feet. Well, what happened to Cactus Canyon in the upgrade, the saloon doors, and the new code? Still haven't seen anything. No, we did. Well, we saw it, but we haven't heard anything. Yeah, they had the saloon doors at their factory tour. during Expo. I haven't heard anything since. Yeah, that was two months ago. And you know what we got? Nothing!
    11:10
    Nothing! Are you ready for nothing? I still, I really like the topper on that. The LE. Oh, I do too. It's very cool.
    11:22
    That's what made me think of the Metallica thing. You could have characters like this. Oh yeah, animatronics. Animatronics, and they start headbanging.
    11:29
    That would be awesome. That would be really cool. I like it. And then you have the siders. The siders. I got it. In other news, Dutch pinball exclusive DPX, or as we call them, what do we call them, Bruce? Dual Penetration Extreme. Yes, Dual Penetration Extreme has secured or applied to the U.S. Patented Trademark Office for the trademark to create a pinball machine for Blade Runner.
    11:56
    Now, which one? Is it the original or is it the second one now that they have? uh is it harrison ford or was the other just says blade runner well harrison ford is in the second one too barely what do you think okay i actually blade runner i i never really got into i've seen it like three or four times every time i see it i'm hoping for something to like really wow me oh come on like like no it's not a ton of action in it but no it's it's intriguing the The whole world that they created looks incredible.
    12:34
    It's all wrong. The future is all wrong, Bruce. The future is all wrong. At least they used the biggest name companies they could find because they figured they'd still be around in the future. And were they? Most of them are. Some are. Some are not. Coca-Cola is and a couple others, but a couple aren't. I think they had Kodak or Polaroid or something in there. And Pan Am and one other, I think another. It was a couple companies that are no longer around. Ridley Scott. Yeah. Didn't he do Gladiator? He did Gladiator and Gladiator 2. Electric Boogaloo. Yeah, he should have not done Gladiator 2.
    13:10
    Yeah. He's 85 now. That's the reason why he shouldn't do any more movies. Yes. Just retire into the sunset. Yeah. But yeah, Blade Runner. I mean. That's nothing for me. Yeah. I mean, what is actual Dutch Pinball going to do? What are you going to do? What is the parent company doing? Are they doing a game? Are they ever going to do anything? because technically, was it Big Lebowski, is Dutch Pinball, and that's finishing up. So what are they going to be doing? Back to the future. You still think so? Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, you heard it here, folks. Yes, you did. All three of you, folks. All three.
    13:48
    Oh, we had Stern announced the Stern Pinball Cup. Are you going to be participating? I always wear my cup.
    13:59
    Let's see if I do my best announcer voice. The Stern Pinball Cup is a series of six-week-long races where players compete for rankings and badges. Kick me in the jimmy. Kick me. Hard.
    14:11
    Any player competing in the Stern Pinball Cup will be placed in a specific skill tier based on their performance in previous races. Your skill tier can be raised or lowered based on performance of each race. Each race will have its own leaderboard, and progress can be tracked using Stern's Insider Connected app.
    14:30
    Okay. Yeah, they're going to have races. And honestly, I read this a couple times. I really don't get it, but I'm pretty stupid. I don't get it at all. I played it today. But I guess just swipe in on every game you play. And you have to figure out what the goals are, which you don't know. It's just really stupid. You should say what the goals are, Bruce. No, it does not. I scanned it on three machines today. I bet you if I go to the app right now, it'll tell me what goals are. Let's see what the app says. Hold on. Now you got me fucking pissed. I mean, how can you have a contest where you're supposed to get to goals and you don't tell people what the goals are? That wouldn't make any sense. That is typical Stern. No, that is not.
    15:10
    I think it's a good idea. I mean, they have the preeminent product like this with Insider Connected. This is what other companies wish they had at this point. I mean, I think they do get lots of extra plays because of this.
    15:25
    I'm old, so half the time I forget to swipe in anyway. but I still think it's a good idea having the old insider connected.
    15:34
    Qualifying begins on Friday, December 13th and runs through December 20th. Oh, shit. I better start playing games now. Oh, it's too late. Damn it.
    15:43
    I failed. Actually, their first race began today. Okay. If you missed out on qualifying, I did. Don't worry. Oh, okay. You can jump into the Stern Pinball Cup anytime in December or January. Oh, so I can do it next month. You can always wear your cup.
    16:01
    Yes, my stern pinball cup. Do you find anything in the app? Not at all. That's how bad this app is. Good job. You probably didn't even log in. I am looking right at it. I'm sure you are. Metallica launch party. Uncanny. Launch party. December 24.
    16:20
    Seasonal quests. Okay. There we go. The cups. Let's go to the quest page. Go to the quest page, Bruce. What are the quests? I am at 70 points Do I know how I got 70 points? Not fucking a clue Okay I'm sure someone will correct us and tell us where this is clearly shown I am in 686th position In tier 5 Wow, I don't know what that means I couldn't tell you either My race tier is race tier 5 That's good Race challenges, okay here we go Challenges, it's Aerosmith Hold on. So let's see what I did today. I did X-Men. You did them? You banged all of them? I banged them all. Wow. Impressive. Who was the best? Very easy. Score five million points. Start Mayhem in Midtown. See? There's goals, just like I said. But it doesn't tell you when you're – Apologize. No. Apologize. You have to go on this stupid app and look for all these things. Yes. Where else are you going to look for them? It should say it on the computer when you're playing the game. Hey, here you go. here's your goals for this game what a simple idea that would be it probably did you just didn't look up nope lovely i don't are you gonna be an elite racer a champ racer a prime racer a skill racer a bash racer i wish it had like normal advanced extreme then i'd play it uh yeah this they talked more about this freaking cup than a lot of other things lately Yeah. And and they didn't really make it clear to every single person.
    17:59
    Bad. Sit, Ubu. Sit. Good dog. Yes. Another announcement from Jersey Jack. Pirates of the Caribbean 1.0 finally released. I think they were on the DPX wavelength of how long it takes. We're trying to be Dutch pinball. VTX was just created. Yeah, I know, but just how long it takes to do something. Well, they didn't beat them. I know. They were trying. They were really trying hard. And then after a while, they said, fuck, it's five years and six months. Six years after release, finally at 1.0.
    18:40
    Congratulations. Hey, but they're doing better than another company out there. Well, we've got to say Jaws. Remember Jaws? Yeah. That was released in January. Yep. It's not even at 1.0. It's still not at 1.0 yet.
    18:57
    Whoa. Just saying. Yeah, I know. Where's the code, Stern? Let's see. There was a couple interviews.
    19:05
    Yes, there was. Well, Super Awesome Pinball had a George Gomez interview, which I haven't gotten to yet. So I cannot comment. But the Loser Kids had Dave Fix on. And it sounded like he requested to be on to clear some things up. I don't know if he cleared things up. Oh, I think he made a fucking wreck out of it right away. There's Wreck-It Dave. Now, instead of Wreck-It Ralph, there's Wreck-It Dave. What do you think, baby? It's American Pinball, the American dream of American Pinball, baby. This is all about. You don't announce on an interview that you fired people or you laid off people. Or talk about possible pending litigation. Pending lawsuits. Or just say that you're in the red. Yeah. Or that you're not doing well and you might not be around. then later that year or next year or say that what you were in the red 2023 but i don't know if we're in the red for 2024 because i haven't heard from accounting yet like what i can't tell what the fuck is that place running right now i don't know what's going on the thing that is so weird oh he's like hold on what i'm gonna ask you something really personal okay yeah i want you to insert some music right now in the background of this when we're doing this recording it's gonna take 10 minutes it's really simple insert the benny hill music oh god a level three volume three that's all i can think of when i listen and i hear these comments from american pinball it's like everyone's running around in that fucking place trying to do something right and nobody knows what the fuck's going on because the guy in the front doesn't know i mean they basically i'll do it for you go ahead talk about that Okay.
    20:47
    The thing about Dayfix I don't understand. He would talk more about other companies' games than any person I've ever heard. Yes. It would be like if we have George Gomez from Stern, and he just starts talking about Pirates is a great game. You know, I really like the new Avatar. Have you played that? It's really good. I'm surprised they got that out so well and so fast. Why would you just do that? Shut up. don't do that. Push your own games, even if you don't believe it. It doesn't matter. Just say, Hot Wheels, it's Warbreaker. Hot Wheels is great. Houdini's still on the line. We've got to love you. Houdini's awesome. Yep. We've got games ready to ship for you. Stop mentioning all these other games and then saying you own them. Oh, I have this game, or I have this game. Congratulations. Everyone should have this game. I don't have this American game yet, but I plan to get them. I'm like, what? What are you doing? Don't do that. I know. He just. That's right, baby. The incredible new X-Men. Did you see it, baby? It's crazy. Play field. It's amazing, baby. It's a, well, we're going to have amazing games too, but I just want to talk about X-Men. You know, I think I might buy that one, baby.
    21:54
    Like, what are you saying? What? And the whole thing where, like, it's Ametron. Ametron is their parent company. And everything, like, accounting is Ametron. The lawyers are Ametron. Yes. Like, everything is Ametron. Nope. Oh, and hiring and firing is Ametron. Oh, by the way, we fired these two people. Yeah. One of them being Steve Bowden. Which is a friend of ours, and we're like, what the fuck? I guarantee Steve would have – And I don't think anyone even knew that happened yet until he mentioned that. I know. Steve was keeping it very down on the low. And here's the worst part. I guarantee if they said to Steve, hey, we're having some financial issues right now or something's going on, would you take a pay cut? I think Steve would have said yeah. Or maybe they would have said, hey, Steve, if you want to go on the line and start building games for us, we'll teach you how. And guess what? You're still useful for us. And if we do sell these games and they go better, you can go back to your original role. And then you're more important in this company than ever. Nope. We're just going to let go of the programmer. Oh hey we going to let go of this guy But wait a sec You said Cuphead was almost close to being done Wait wait wait Cuphead was almost close to being done And what did they need to finish and polish it
    23:09
    Programming. Wait a sec. I don't think Steve is the rules guy. I don't think he programs. Okay, but I mean, what the fuck? The thing is, it's something to behold when you listen to some of these. I'll tell you. I don't get it. the loser kid guys they asked him about nordman kind of intimated like yeah he's wrong i don't think he has it all right like i did you know i think uh we're gonna get close and then he's got amtron is is the one that's doing the hiring and the firing but you know we already brought steve back kind of to see we might might use them in the future and all this like what is going on i'm looking at the podcast we did this is from august of last year we had the whole crew from galactic tank force on here right i have it right in front of me let's see what what happened to the galactic tank force design team that is dennis norman gone gone jack hager he was one of the ones he was the art director and he's one of the two they just fired yep gone steve bowden gone christopher franchi now exclusive contract with spooky spooky paul reno suing them yes i got no other words i mean that that that's and you know who wasn't in an interview the funny thing about this dave fix yeah yeah he was he wasn't there but he wanted luckily he cleared the air with another podcast i'd ask the loser kids too they're they're like the interview podcast they are not sure you're popular belief bruce i i'm uncomfortable doing interviews yeah i i don't want that's not my forte my forte is making fun of fucking people making fun of people yes the bully bruce bully bruce because if you are actually stupid enough to go on a podcast and air your dirty laundry being honest airing your dirty laundry on a podcast mentioned like we're getting sued and yeah we're getting sued and i've talked to paul and we're trying to work. I try to be the middle man here. Shouldn't their lawyers tell them? You never say that. No, you should say anything like that. All you say is, yes, there is somebody we're in litigation with, and that's all I can talk about. That's it. You stop. We're in the red. No, we're having some financial issues right now, but we see a bright future in 2025. Boy, there's a lot of ways to fucking spin it. Not the way he did. They have some flat out. Where do you see this? What do you say to people who say they won't be around? this time next year. He said, well, I don't know. We'll have to see. That's not the response. Even if you have to lie. Yes, you lie. Hey, I want to be in this business for a lot of years, and I see American pinball being my future and the future of pinball, how we're going to lead it. That's how you say it. And our next game is going to be great. Exactly. It's going to be, you know. Wait a sec. Maybe I should be the fucking president of this fucking company, because guess what? The game, supposedly Cuphead was there and was at Expo. In the back. In the back room, and people played it. But not some distributors that we know of. I heard one distributor. Yes, the high-ranking or the exclusive distributors, whatever he said, like the VIP. The super-duper video guy. The super-duper distributors got to play it. But not Mr. Many. Oh, God.
    26:45
    Yeah, he was pissed. But I'm just like, why would you say this much? Why would you say anything like that? All you say is we've had positive enthusiasm for our game for the few that have seen it. That's it. That's all you say.
    27:02
    He's trying to be too honest. He wants to be the man of the people. He wants to be the American dream. George Gomez is honest, too, but he doesn't give away this kind of information.
    27:12
    But he wants to be the American dream. He wants to be loved by all. If he was the American dream, he would have been like, yes, baby, I know we got some hard times. We've had some hard times in the past. We got some people we had to let go, and it was not easy, baby. But, you know, we're going to make it. We're going to make it. We got the talent here. We're a small operation, baby. But we're still going to work hard like the hardworking man does in this country. That's why we're American pinball. It's all about America, baby. wait do you see our new game which i can't say what it is right now but it's going to be incredible it's going to be a license i can say that much it's going to be amazing that's all you say but the problem is he i don't even know if he knows how he gets paid he did he did make it sound like it's just like i just do this one particular thing and amtron is doing everything else and that's just the way it is yeah i was like what the christmas vacation's coming up so all the employees are going to have to take all their time yes if you if they have vacation yeah if they have time now most people don't have time at the end of the year and now hey does that mean you don't get paid you don't get paid hey but guess what they're still hiring you can get a career at american pinball if you go to their website oh yeah their career page it says yeah we're hiring yeah i don't see them getting anybody anymore you know i'm i'm i'm the good cop i'm mr positive And what do you see positive from this? I'm going to hear it. I see nothing positive.
    28:37
    I don't know why he said all the things he said. I do appreciate he wanted to clear the air, but it's kind of like you love Family Guy, right, Bruce? I love Family Guy. You remember when Peter's like, you know, sometimes they go a little too far, and they show like he's giving the guy the clear, clear, and then the guy wakes up like, oh, thank you. Then he does it again, clear. And then he falls back. Yeah, he goes back, back down. He's like, if you're going that one extra, you shouldn't be going. Just stop at the – yes, just stop. So hold on, Ron. All I can think of is one other thing besides the Benny Hill music. What?
    29:12
    Good. Let the hate flow through you, Ron. You can't find one thing positive. I don't hate on anyone. I don't know why you're saying that. Because it's just – I don't see how the face of a pinball company can say what he has said. it's terrible to be positive i hope he figures out a way to keep them going do you see them around in 20 we'll go to our predictions later on then we'll go to predictions later on yeah but um let's see in other news wow i don't think we can top that one no i think the episode's over um no stern is gonna have the stern vault program and i saw it like vaults program like oh they're gonna be vaulting games it's like nope no like the disney fucking completely different now so basically they had announcement that the stern vault program the following models will enter the vault and cease production at the end of 2024 which basically means they're not going to make them anymore nope or actually they said they will not make them for a minimum of two years two years yeah and possibly never and here's the worst part about it well here's the part i don't so you have all the titles except one are fairly old titles yes deadpool yep iron maiden that's elwyn's first game for god's sake star wars which they've been making forever and star wars comic edition yep avengers yep elvira house of horrors yep finally a while ago but then foo fighters foo fighters boy uh i thought they would have thrown john wick at all but i'm like foo fighters just came out last year last year i know i guess either a they got a lot in the factory sitting there waiting to go or b or i was thinking i didn't even i totally forgot about this but what's his name got in trouble remember he got caught cheating on his wife oh yeah yeah and and they're on like hiatus while he rehabs his whatever yeah and yeah i totally forgot about that i don't think it's that I just don't think the game sold well. No, that game sold. That was probably the last game that actually had the COVID hot selling thing behind it. David Grohl, by the way. I completely forgot. But, I mean, I don't know. A lot of them are on sale right now. I just, that one surprised me. Nah, if anything, I thought maybe John Wick should have been put in that category right there and just said, oh, we're done. so you think okay here's now i want to be devil's advocate here now 007 or foo fighters hmm uh i keeps 007 it's a much better license i know but you got to go by license you know in addition to the vaulted titles they're also officially retiring like they ain't make any more of these one is obvious the stern 70th anniversary black and white edition yeah that It was supposed to be limited anyway. And the Beatles. Yeah. So do you think they ever made all 1964? No, no. 1964, no. You don't think they ever got the 1964? No. Okay. But it's like Disney, the vault. You know, where you, oh, these movies are no longer going to be available. We're going to put them in the vault. And, oh, he's like, we need money. Fuck yeah. Let's bring a bar back out. Come on. That's exactly what's going to happen now. The vault was more like, this game's really popular. We're going to bring it back. And we need to make it again so we can get on the cash cow. We're going to vault it. Now it's like the opposite. We're going to put this thing in the vault. And hopefully it gets hot again. That's what they're hoping for. Oh, maybe somebody will ask for it again in two years. Because now you've limited yourself. Say what happens if Foo Fighters puts out another album and it's hot. And now you said everybody, you've told everyone now, hey, you're not releasing until 2027 at least. Oh, fuck. do we keep our word or do we make another fucking round of foo fighters fuck you kind of limit yourself there too so i don't understand the idea of a vault oh the only thing the vault should be is what it was called before if a game is hot bring it back and if you notice what's not in the vault is people what the titles people are asking for tron lord of the rings those two everyone's been clamoring for please make it please make it lord of the rings they're not doing white star well they're not gonna do white star you can you you can do another way look what they did with metallica they upgraded it yeah but that was sam i know he still could do it you can do it is it's so much older you can do it you're gonna use you can do it you can do it Are you going to use the original call-outs? No. But John Rhys-Davies or whatever his name is, he's like 20 years older. He's like fucking 80. Yeah, but he looked better than Indy did. He looked better than Indy. He's not going to sound as good. Age does that to you. Okay, so guess what? The call-outs are probably still at MP3 or digital. Who cares? Wirefiles, yes. Yeah, so who cares?
    34:30
    You bring them back for one or two. I see DC will be out. Toronto will be out before they ever do Lord of the Rings. people want it though and that's what they should be trying to address instead of oh we're gonna put these in the fall it was just another marketing first to try to sell the games that are on the line right now which is star wars and and uh deadpool and a couple others that are probably sitting in boxes waiting to be bought from the distributors or from even from them still they might still have some in the factory and maybe that's their way of saying hey look these are gonna be gone you better buy these or that's it you know and people might go oh shit i can always get a jaws i need to get a food fighters or i need to get a iron maiden so that might be their thinking behind it one thing i forgot to mention about the pirates of the caribbean 1.0 the thing I found interesting in their Facebook post when it was released, they have one of the things it says about it. It says, exclusive movie assets, new movie content featured during this epic final wizard mode.
    35:42
    Now, I wonder what that means. Maybe it took them six years to get the new contract. Yeah, I mean, one of the negatives of the game is the fact it had so little assets. Very little. Oh, my God. It had the characters, but I don't think it had, it didn't have any clips from the movies. no sound quotes barely nothing well no it just had the one guy yeah which he did a good job but it did a great job but guess what you'd only do one guy that sucks what do you mean lord of the ring says the one guy but it has movie quotes from the movie itself that's true and that's where it actually has more than one guy doesn't it have what's his face one of the the other main character i believe he's in there there's a couple of characters in there all of them all of them speaking it no i i mean custom okay let's see i thought it's i thought it's uh the guy you know jackpot one but i thought it's also the other the whatever the the kid is the main character the one who has the ring i'm pretty sure he's in there i don't even know his name i don't know you don't know his name i don't know his name i'm not a big pin i'm just i like the pinball you have the pinball machine how do you not know his name okay but i'm pretty sure he has custom call us in there too elijah wood elijah wood yeah i think he's in the game yeah that's that's most of the news okay time for tournaments so everyone can turn off now yes i i will just briefly touch upon these oh god we're just going to give the winner a move on but uh pinson addy happened yes and let's see i'll go through the the women's jane verways won congratulations she was also in the main final so she had a very good uh weekend nice main final was won by jared august congratulations congratulations sir then we had so when we had our little event the fall rumble yes it was insisted that it be streamed for whatever reason yeah so i turn we start streaming but then i look i wonder who else is streaming and it's like oh fox cities is streaming we're fucked no one's gonna watch us oh my and jdl was streaming too so we got a european tournament and a u.s major u.s tournament going on we're screwed no one's gonna watch us so well we got some people we got a little over 20 so i guess that's better than nothing better than nothing so winter bash yes uh let's see it wasn't winter bash yeah let's see who won that let's see uh go to the final match it was zach mccarthy there you go wow he wait a minute he was the only kid in the finals what yeah you got zach mccarthy you got zach sharp he's old he's like 40 now you got keith elwyn he's like totally ancient and you got uh carlos carlos He's like in his 30s, I think, which is old now these days. The old men could not contain the kid and lost.
    38:50
    So same old, same old. Same old, same old. But then we had Rochester Pinball Collective's Royal Rumble. Yes. Well, I thought it was the Fall Rumble. That's what it said in everywhere. But then on match play, everything says Royal Rumble. So I'm confused. That was Zach. So you're blaming Zach? Of course. How would he even know that? He doesn't follow wrestling.
    39:13
    Oh, my. Yeah. So where is the RPC, Bruce? The Rochester Pinball Collective is located in 349 West Commercial Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York, suite number 2965, home of the 2025 Nationals. Ooh. And soon to be Stomp 7. We have a date already. Oh, okay. That's good. First weekend in June. First full weekend in June. Okay. So it is June. It's going to be June.
    39:52
    Hold on. Going to it. Yeah, June 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th. Oh, God, that's too long. That's too many days. Yes, it is. But you don't have to be there on the 5th if you don't want to. But you want to be there on the 6th.
    40:03
    So I like the format, the way you guys did that. The pump and dump and the match match play. I think it was a hit. I heard nothing but positive things. I think that's a thing you should do in the future. Yep. So what they did, folks, is they had a pump and dump that went on through the whole, what, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
    40:25
    But in between pumping and dumping, you could play in a flip frenzy. Sorry, match match play. Yep. One long match match play in three different sets. Yep. Let's see if I remember this. It's one of 18 rounds, 12 rounds, and 10 rounds. Yep. So it's 18 classics only, then 12 modern, then 10 classics only. Yep. And it's all head-to-head, and the seeding was done so you get to play everyone eventually. Yes. And it was at different times, so you could take breaks in between. Yes. And people liked that. And there was two different finals. The finals for the max match play and then the finals for the pump and dump. Herb. Yeah. Yep. And Bruce even played in the match play. For a little bit, and then it got overwhelming. So he played in there to get us to 48 players, and then you had one of those incidents where you lost to an inferior player who didn't know how to play the game. Yes, and I was running around. That's his thing. And I was running around like a banshee. Full rage, full rage, and it's over. And I was running around like a banshee all the time. Mm-hmm. uh-huh uh-huh i did pretty good i mean for me let's see match play let's see where where was i in match play i was play you was a second i was tied for second so i was tied for second seed i should say i was just saying and then so so i got what i got a buy or something yes and then in my first match they're all head to head three out of five i lost the first two games one of them on a malfunctioning black rose which i called you over to look at yep and was able to replicate the issue yep then i won on cheetah and godzilla to tie it up and then i lost on foo fighters the aforementioned foo fighters got my ass kicked yep i don't think i ever started multi-ball that was pretty sad lots of points were given away yes but as usually happens whoever beats me wins it all so shane jackson won yes he did canadian he won the monthly match play finals yes our home and native land so then you had the pump and dump or the herb as you like to keep saying yep for that oh that's on never drains isn't it oh i have the i have the finals Yeah, but I want to know where I qualified again. I don't know where you qualified, but you finished. So what was it? Never Drain slash what? RR 2024. Ah. I qualified second. I had the number one score on Surf and Safari and the number two score on Lethal Weapon 3. Guess what two games broke during the finals? Those two.
    43:19
    Yay. Hey, they went all weekend. But I got a bye there, and then the finals were the four-person, 3-2-1-0 stuff. And I actually got through a round this time. Yay!
    43:36
    And then I was tied. Yeah, I got eliminated. I was tied for sixth. Me and Mark, one of the other owners of the Rochester Pinball Collective, were tied. So we could either split the money or play it out. so i decided i wanted to play it out and i got and i got to pick demo man and i won i think i played demo man three times and i won on it all three times there you go i love demo man did i mention that yeah lots of good points though giving away yes so then for the finals let's see the herb finals the winner dante oliva oliva dante's inferno yep he was the number one qualifier and he won. So congratulations. Thanks to Kate Martin helping us out and to Jeff Teolis helping us out also who was there. Thanks to Ron Hallett for streaming. Ron Hallett for streaming except for... He didn't want to. And Ron had to buy something after he was done because he was so pissed off I was so pissed off.
    44:41
    Basically the play field cam and the score cam flawless because they're on those scoons that go through walls and shit. But we still have one of the older transmitter receivers, the stupid Hollyland, or Shittyland, as I call it at this point, and it just kept dropping, dropping, dropping, and it made no sense. It had a full line of sight. We always had issues with those, and I think if I took the old mono price out, it probably would have worked better, but that would require changing all kinds of cables and shit, and I wasn't going to do that. So you'd be happy to know that the replacement transmitter receiver have arrived, ready for installation.
    45:18
    Ta-da! but that's it. Hey, guess what I did this weekend? It snowed a lot. Oh, yes. Yes. If you remember, I kept saying, I'm only going if it doesn't snow, it doesn't snow. And it didn't snow the whole weekend. And then when I left, it snowed. It took me four and a half hours to get home. But it snowed this weekend, and I'm glad it wasn't this weekend. You still owe me because it snowed. You promised me it wouldn't snow. I promised you it wouldn't snow during the tournament. No, you never said during the tournament. That was never a word spoken. It will not snow that weekend of the tournament. I said that exactly. Oh, that weekend of the tournament. Well, I came home on Sunday and that's still the weekend of the tournament. Was the tournament done? The tournament done You said weekend Was the tournament done You literally just said weekend of the tournament No the weekend wasn done No was the tournament done You said weekend of the tournament You literally just said weekend of the tournament No the weekend wasn done No was the tournament done You said weekend of the tournament You said weekend of the tournament. Was the tournament done? The tournament was done. There you go, done. That doesn't make any sense. Drop the mic, boop. Drop the mic, yeah, drop the mic down, you asshole.
    46:21
    Weekend of the tournament would mean all of Sunday, Bruce. Don't worry, we're going to plan on it now for the fall brawl will be in either late September or early October. So it will be nice and warm for Ron's little tootsies. Well, don't make it too early because then it interferes with the original stomp. So you don't want to do that. Oh, we might be bouncing around a little bit. Maybe stomp will be in August. No, it's too hot. The whole reason it was moved was because of all the complaints that it was too hot in there. It's getting hotter in here. Is that a kiss song? No. It almost sounds like a kid's song. All right. So that's the end of the tournament section. Yay. Come on back, guys. Yeah. You can all come back. Before we continue, I just want to say my favorite baseball player from when I was a kid. He died Friday. Bob Euchre? No.
    47:17
    Is he still alive? Yes, he is. Dear God. He's got to be like 90-something. I know he is. Just a little bit outside. Just a bit outside. No, Ricky Henderson. I know. Of pneumonia. Pneumonia. 65. Yeah, and he would have been 66 because being the big fan I am, I knew his birthday was Christmas. Ricky Henderson, for all you young'uns out there, he was the greatest leadoff hitter who ever lived. Yep. Period. There is no debate.
    47:45
    Single season base steal leader, career base steal leader, something like 1,400. The next closest is like 900. It's not even close. most runs scored in major league history most leadoff homers in major league history a career on base percentage of like 401 which is just absurd no one does that anymore no one can lead off a game properly anymore this guy was like five foot eight had and he had the deep crouch with the most microscopic strike zone ever if he got on base it was basically it was a double it was a double minimal and probably a triple probably a triple because as ricky said it's easier to steal third and second he was my favorite player and he was a hot dog but frankly if he played today it would be on the he'd be on the tamer side compared to some of the shit i see now so rest in peace ricky you were the best and even though he was the best somehow i was reading you know he was the first battle hall of famer with like 94.6 percent of the vote or something i'm like who the fuck didn't vote for him they should be like killed i mean just completely shot in the head i mean or at least lose their job as as reporters as press that's like absolutely ridiculous so ron yes sir you're going back to tournament talk for a couple seconds oh no you're barely hanging on in new york state i know there's a couple people no yeah i'm like 22nd and there's a bunch of 23rd 23rd now okay yeah i don't think a lot of the canadians there are playing in new york city yeah yeah so i don't think it's a problem the problem is getting there It is. I mean, someone's got to drive me there. Otherwise, I ain't going. Plain and simple. So that's just the way it is. He's actually going down. Is he? Is he driving down there? He didn't drive down there last time he went down there. Well, he did. His dad drove down with him. Yes. So, but yeah, I'm not. No way. Uh-uh. Ain't happening. Ain't got time for that.
    49:44
    Yes. I wonder how many more tournaments are left in the Stern Cup. not the stern cup but what do they call it for the the circuit the circuit yeah or whatever i have no idea they got to be done because i think the one that fox city streamed the winner bash i think that was one of the last one last circuit events or whatever here's the schedule let's look and see hold on i just pulling it up no no uh so uh there's a lot of tb8 tbds here to be determined Yeah. For this year? That doesn't really make any sense. Well, New York Pinball Championships. That never happened. I know, never happened. New York City Pinball Championships, Bruce. Yes. Free Play Florida? Did that ever happen? Yeah, that's in November, Bruce. Okay. Pinball at the Lab? That already happened, I believe. Okay. And California Extreme, of course, did. It is. We're all TBAs. Wait, but California Extreme is a circuit event? Yep. Really? Yep. Okay. I was not aware of that I don't know how any of that works anyway as you know do we want to go to the ball bag or do you want to go to the Facebook questions ball bag first let's empty that alright let's empty the ball bag oh god you'll love the first one oh by the way you can write to the ball bag at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com that's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com so on the ball bag The first one's from Scott, Scott S. And you'll love the subject line. It says, Bruce is right.
    51:23
    So already this email suspect. I love it. It says, when I was new to the hobby, I thought that the complaints about being blinded by the Dwight were overblown. Oh, God. Here we go. Could a few extra flashers really be that bad? Yes, the answer is absolutely yes, and Bruce was right. Venom, Mando, Monsters, Ghostbusters Game of Thrones and more all suffer from blindness followed by total darkness I will never buy a toy game and I hate to play them on location happy holidays and I hope you don't get a Venom under the tree wow that's another title I think you could have went in a vault is Venom honestly I have more issues with his darkness than his brightness yeah I don't mind as much the winner's coming stuff as much as when I'm in the middle of something and all the lights go out and I just completely lose the ball. Like, where is the ball? All right. Well, someone thinks you're right, Bruce. There is a God. This is from Grant. It says, note to Slamto Podcast. It said, what's going on here, Bruce? Ron's got a new coffee table. And it's basically a coffee table that's Beavis and Butthead. Trapped underneath glass. Trapped underneath the glass, like big Beavis and butthead yeah i like that no that scares the shit out of me no it's awesome i love that oh honestly whenever they've had figurines like that that aren't the animated beavis and butthead it freaks me out like they had one that was what was it like wax figures like if they were real yeah and oh my god it was creepy okay uh let's see whoa this one says appreciation mail from um a ran it r-a-n-i-t it says hey slam till podcast so you don't actually know me okay hi i am i am ran it i was going through your content although the content is good but they lack premiumness with good editing style and more motion and engagement the fuse can go skyrocket. Did you know that, Bruce? I did not know that. As I can see that your videos are lacking in motion sound effects engagement, you can also try the new techniques and styles. I can help you with all the things. I will make a personal audit of your profile, like which things are holding you back from getting viral. Then reply back to this mail. Check your spam folder. Thank you. obviously my spam folder did not work well because it didn't get this mail he must really love you yeah i saw this i thought it'd be funny to rate some spam on it would be very funny yeah i actually like reading spam because it's to me it's funny spam in the place that you live rem from the bruce why no no no that's actually weird al there actually is a spam song oh oh So I know Raymond's smiling right now thinking of spam in the place where you live. I just think of money. Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam. I don't like spam. Okay.
    54:32
    Tom. Hi, Tom. Pro it shall be is a subject line. Guess who's back? Back again. Tom is back. Let it be pro. Oh, no. Make it pro. It's time for make it pro, Bruce. And I swear we've done some of these. But remember, we can only change three things. Yes. So the games are, get your ass up to the mic. I'm up to the mic. I'm ready to rock. Not your ass, your mouth. Circus Voltaire. We did that already. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we did that one. We did the Circus Voltaire. So three things.
    55:06
    I'd say keep the head because that's the whole gimmick of the game. Yeah, we said the different DMD put it in a normal position. Yeah. That saves money. Remove the balls thing, like the plastic balls that you're not going to hit anyway. Yep.
    55:21
    Where can we get rid of the juggler? The juggler. Oh, yeah, and I said, or you can get rid of the mechanical back box, just that whole thing. Just get rid of that shit. Yep. There you go. Or you can even get rid of the side art box. They had siders on that game. Oh, yeah, that's right. They had siders. I hardly ever see it with siders, though. Yep. They did have siders. Siders. Let's see. Guns and Roses, Daddy. East. Ooh.
    55:51
    Captive Ball. Get rid of that area. Remove the magnets. Just get rid of the magnets. No one cares. No one wants them used. And the second plunger. You don't need the rose. Done. Yeah, second plunger. Yeah. Don't need it. There you go.
    56:06
    Stargate. Ooh. You don't need the rope light. That's gone. What's the rope light? The rope light in the back. that makes it look like the Stargate. The rope ladder. Oh, like the, okay. Yeah. Yeah, in the back box. Yes. You don't need the hordas,
    56:24
    the little guys that swing up and down when you hit the switches underneath. They pop up or pop down. What do you mean? They actually, that's a shot, though. It lifts up so you can shoot stuff, doesn't it? I know that. You're just making it an open shot. You're making it pro. Oh, I'm sorry. Calm down. What the fuck? You don't know what the fucking rules are in this game? Whoa.
    56:43
    What else? third thing i'll get rid of the moving thingamabobby oh yeah the glider it just the glider doesn't come out move yeah although that seems like that would kind of suck to not have it but hey we're cheap we're making a pro we're making a pro so we made it pro pretty soon it'd be like remove one thing remove remove 10 things no no oh what we should do is like old old games and make them more modern. Bring them up to pro. No, bring them up to premium. Yeah, bring them up to premium. Like, hey, we have a Stars. How do you make it better?
    57:19
    Multiball. First off, right off the bat. It's impossible to make it better. No, no. You can. No, you can't. This next one's from Glenn. It's Glenn time. He says, okay, experts. His subject is classic sterns. What is the most overrated and underrated classic Stern?
    57:39
    See, for me, he says underrated is Catacomb. Overrated is Dragon Fist. No, don't agree with either. Glenn. Okay. Overrated, Flight 2000.
    57:52
    I think it's overrated. I could go with that. I could go with that just because the entire one-third of the play field is for the lot. Yep. It's really overrated. and underrated Oli. Oh.
    58:09
    Okay. I do kind of like Trident. I like Trident. I have one. Yeah. I haven't gotten to it yet. It's still in the vault. It's in my vault. Oh my. But that's what I'll say. Yeah. Okay.
    58:24
    I mean, overrated too could be, I mean, it could still be a good game and be overrated. Like Meteor. No. Meteor is the best earned game ever made. No, it's not. Yes, it is. No, it's not. It 100% is. And Ron is 100% wrong, proven from the past. But I can see saying Dragon Fist is overrated as far as, does people really need to be building them? I know. And there's only 300 or so people, you know. So people are building them, but is it really worth building one? Some people do. Is it worth building one? Is it is building like a Stargazer? You know, you got to, yeah. There's more Stargazers out there now. That is true. There's only 300 of the Dragon Fists, and who knows how many are left at originals. We know about seven or eight of them, unfortunately, me and Ron.
    59:08
    Oh, an email from Stern about the Vault titles. Oh, great. Gimme, gimme more. Yeah, it's basically the same thing I already read. Exactly, of course. Gimme, gimme, gimme, Earl Grey's. It's going to be a great 2024. No, it's been a great 2024. With four new titles, we can't wait to share all the exciting things coming up in 2025 and beyond. The next thing that's in there, which Bruce should have seen, and I'm thinking we can say this because it doesn't have anything in it saying not to say anything about it. But we were invited. Oh, yes. We were invited to exclusive pinball media showing in Las Vegas or Chicago. Yes. So thank you, Stern. Thank you very much. They heard about all our complaining. Yes, and we got included. We got included, although this isn't one of the cool ones that's comped or anything. Yeah, we got to pay. We got to shuffle ourselves. So I don't think I'm making it. Although I looked at the flights, and it's not like $600, $700 like the last time during the summer. Let's see. When was the flight? What was it? For me, assuming that I went there on Tuesday and left Wednesday, it was like $267.
    60:25
    But then you have to get a hotel, and then you have to get transportation to Stern, which I wish you could probably just get an Uber. Yeah, that's what I would do. What date was it? Well, that's the thing. So it says join us Tuesday, January 7th. That's right. For a hands-on experience. But here's the part that scared me, and I told this to Bruce. They have event details where they say, like, when they're doing a factory tour, overview of the game, all that. Very spaced out. and they have a time set aside for individual interviews you could do with the actual designers and stuff. You could pick your spot. Like, Slam Tilt will interview so-and-so at this time. And, well, according to you and most everyone else, it's going to be Dungeons & Dragons, right? Which means Dwight and Brian Eddy, which means, could you imagine Bruce in an interview with Dwight? I couldn't see him, so I'd be fine with it. I'd be blinded by the showing of the game. I'd be like, are you there?
    61:29
    It's just like, oh, my God, that scares me. No, no. Are you there? Because I can't see anymore. Your flight is less than my flight. Wow. My nonstop is $500. What? I know. How is that possible?
    61:47
    That's crazy. Rochester sucks all of a sudden. I don't get it. crazy taxi but um i mean it doesn't i think it's okay to say this it doesn't give any it doesn't say what the game is or anything like that no basically all it says is is come join us to see the new to see the new game before anyone else uh early hands-on experience which tells me they're showing the game before this yeah and they mentioned they mentioned vegas so i assume it will be at that show yes vegas ces yes which i believe also starts the seventh front i think i looked it up so the new game will be there i mean you seem pretty confident that it's going to be johnson's dragon it's not okay bruce says so it's gotta be true so yeah just like every other new game i'm excited to see it excited to play it so i probably won't get to play it till tpf maybe unless someone buys it in rochester who knows maybe who knows oh hey if i go a day late if I go Tuesday to Wednesday, it's $209. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what I was – yeah. No, I know. But the day before, if I went like the 6th to the 7th, it was $500. Wow. Yeah. I can fly in at 630, land at 741 in the morning. So you're $60 cheaper than me, of course. Yeah. That's more like it. That's what I expect to see. That's the ticket. Yeah, that's the ticket. So basically, and I think this was just a blanket email because this also went to my other podcast, which I won't mention, but yes, because I already mentioned it, but we got the same email.
    63:23
    So maybe my podcast mate, David Dennis, he'll go down. Yeah, maybe. Or maybe not. You should go down, David. You should check it out. And then report for us. Yeah, report for us. I'm excited. That means a new game's coming up. I'm guessing maybe beginning of January they'll announce it. Yeah. I think definitely it's late I definitely think it's the beginning of January I'm trying to remember, what's their cadence? Is the teaser trailer a full week before or is it like a few days before? Weekend, it's usually like the Friday they put the teaser out and then Monday or Tuesday they put out the trailer It makes perfect sense So if you go by that the third will be the release second or third or the teaser and then Monday or the 7th will be full all out for whatever this game is. And video.
    64:13
    How exciting! Yes. And it was directly from Zach Sharp. I know, that was cool. It's not the free, but we want the free ones next time. But yeah, it didn't say anything like confidential, do not discern, or whatever. It just said exclusive. Exclusive. So I guess if you're a pinball media, it really pays to be in Chicago. Yes, it does. Unless you're going to be just traveling.
    64:37
    Was that it for the mail ball? Yeah, I think that was it. The ball bag's empty. Oh. Okay. So we'll finish up with, and originally I didn't think we were going to have this much material. So I said, do your thing, Bruce, where you ask people to send us questions on Facebook. And holy crapola. So I already have that up.
    65:01
    Bruce says, end of the year and happy Festivus is coming. Who wants to air grievances? Feats of strength. What do you want to talk about? I got a lot of problems with you people. We record Saturday, so you've got time to let it all hang out. Of course, we had to fix that because you put Monday for some reason. I did because I was frazzled at my new gig. Yeah, how's your new gig, Bruce? I have a window. I have a desk. Whoa. I have a cubicle. Do you have normal hours now?
    65:28
    Not until two weeks from now, but I will. 7 to 3.30. This is exciting. No more ridiculous hours. We can record more normally. This is true. very true and you won't cancel out of me because you haven't woken up yet yeah very true all right what do we got here um oh god sorry i'm getting tired it's yeah steph the pinball princess this is the airing of pinball grievances will itself constitute a good hour of content oh god yes because everyone fucking sucks you're all i hate you all should have people send in their grievances via email and audio clips and have Ron edit it all together. No. Yes. No. Cluster fuck the hard way. Cluster fuck the hard way. Ed says, good cop, bad cop episode, but Grinch Bruce versus Santa Ron.
    66:17
    Christmas is for giving. We should do South Park. I can be Santa, you can be Jesus. Christmas is for celebrating my birth. Christmas is for giving.
    66:29
    This time we finish Shit, there could be only one. This is pretty fucked up right here. Yeah, right here. Yeah, pretty fucked up. You know, Christmas is all about one thing. Yeah, ham. No, not ham, you fat fuck.
    66:47
    It's hard doing the voices without the changer thing or whatever. The pitch changer. Let's see. Oh, John says Bruce is always grumpy. Should be the other way around. Ornery Ron and happy Bruce, like Bizarro World, like you said. I love Bizarro World. All the new games suck. Only the classic sterns are good. There. I did my Bruce impersonation. Wow. I'll do, I love everybody. I shit flowers and fucking bunny rabbits with fucking butterflies coming out of my eyes with rainbows. Yep, that's exactly what I do. Yep. Dr. John. Yay, does this mean another Colin Clusterbuck? Oh, no. If not, that's my grievance. Need more clustering. See? Hey, everyone wants a cluster again, maybe for $2.50. Oh, God. If we did something like that, I'd rather just do it on freaking Zoom or something. Just trying to use this would be a pain in the ass. Zoom would be cool. We should do a Zoom $2.50. Let's see. $2.50. I can just flash around with dollar bills. Yeah. Raymond Davidson talks about the Festivus episode. I have no – I can't say anything about it because I've never seen it. You've never seen Festivus for the rest of us? I've never – I've seen one episode of Seinfeld. That was the final one. That's all I've ever seen.
    68:01
    I'm sorry. Okay, guys. You see what I have to put up with here? I should be getting a Jaws LE for how much I have to put up with this stuff. I saw Seinfeld's stand-up back in the – remember Dangerfield's HBO specials? That's where I first saw him, and I was like, okay. I didn't think he was funny enough to warrant me watching a show.
    68:23
    Yeah, sorry. Brian wants to hear about our excitement for Space Hunt. space hunt space space hunt i'd like to play when it works yeah and stays around for a while you know it actually i mean an expo it kind of worked and then when it went back to past times it kind of didn't work it kind of not kind of it kept getting confused about how many balls it had in play and it was prematurely ending games and stuff and that kind of thing yeah mike he says What the hell is a two-year vault? Are the games vaulted or are they just not making them for a few years Why even make a statement Thank you I love this guy Robert says in my opinion Iron Maiden should be in production forever
    69:11
    I'll go with that. Mike V says it works for Disney. So he brought up the Disney vault. Yep. Oh, Tim. Tim says, because Seth Davis worked for Disney, now he's bringing their BS into pinball. Oh, no. Get the FOMO rolling for the game you're on the fence about. It's gone for two whole years. Thankfully, you can't do direct-to-video, in this case, games, sequels, because they have no original IP of their own. None.
    69:37
    Zero nada. Stern is a strong enough catalog of games that they can rerun it now. If they have a few flops, they can bring back some big sellers to keep the reduction line moving. And that cold, hard cash coming in. Cash grab. To fill the vault that Gary Stern swims in like Uncle Scrooge McDuck. Wow. I love that. Okay. And vodka on the side. He has a jacuzzi of vodka, and he's swimming around in his gold and his cash. Okay.
    70:05
    Tim also has talked about American Pinball's fate, baby, with a gif of Dusty Rhodes. Yeah. That's right, baby. We talked about it. We talked about it at length, baby. Oh, I want to give a shout-out to another podcast. Oh, really? Yes. We are changing roles. NYC Pin Podcast did a nice write-up of the RPC tournament from last week, and they had Zach on three or four weeks ago. So big shout-out to Ben, thanking him for plugging us, and now I plug him on ours. So go check him out. I'm done. Okay. Mike also says, you don't know, they're hiring now, and he had a link. Yeah, I know. I was like, oh, my God. I just feel so bad for Steve. I really do. He's such a nice, lovable guy, and he's gotten fucked by two companies. Well, at least in this case, he actually got to see his games released. Yeah, true. I agree. The other one, no one ever got to see. Well, unless you were at what, Houston Arcade Expo and that one location they brought it to. Yeah. They were the only people who got to play Retro Atomic. What was the full title again? Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. Yeah, Adventureland. Matt, local 518er. Whoppers are a scam Are they? There was a whole thread about the new Whopper 6 point whatever the fuck it is now That's coming out next year I saw it was like 10 paragraphs long And yeah no I'm not reading any of that Another Mike Man there's a lot of Mikes Mike says you guys, Pinball Chronicles I think he meant Silverball Chronicles And Wedgehead are officially the best pinball shows out there The rest have not kept interest Other than repeating nap As we read all kinds of stuff from nap We read your nap also, but we like to put our spin on it. Keep up the great shows. Thank you. We put a dark spin on it. Yeah, you put a dark spin on it. Let's see. Rob, the Bills win the Super Bowl, and Stern will release new games in 2025. Can't go wrong with those predictions. I don't know about Bills winning the Super Bowl. They look pretty good lately. They have. Because I'm a Bills fan now. I'm rooting for them, baby. It's a turd, Coach. I'm rooting for them, baby. That's so bad. That'd be like, oh, I'm sorry, I can't root for the Yankees anymore. I think I'm going for the Mets now. I can't root for the Yankees anymore. They got rid of Soto. They got rid of him. They didn't have him. He's a free agent. Do you get familiar with the term free agent? I know. I'm glad that they didn't pick him up.
    72:32
    I'm not. I am. I don't. I wouldn't. Oh, very. He fit very good. He fit very good, but for $750 million, we can get four or five other players? Not with Brian Cashman as the GM, because he sucks. Sorry. Never again. We'll see what happens. We should have got Walker. That's the one I think we should have got. Texas Ranger? Yes. Kung Fu went his way all the way through to fucking nine innings. Brownhouse Kickman just takes out the batters. Yep. Patrick says, where's the elusive Avatar C.E. Bader playfield with three inks in production now? No photos ever released. No photos. I know. I mean, I saw one of them when we were there. Yeah. They had to turn the lights down, show the UV on it so you could see the stuff in action. But they did say that was a prototype play field.
    73:19
    Let's see. Another Stern Vault question or statement. Stern Vault, are they for reals or will they cave when they need to fill a hole in the production line? Bingo.
    73:28
    If they cave before the two years are up. I will laugh my ass off. I can say, I'm right again. That will piss off some people.
    73:37
    Mike, another Mike. Another Mike. Holy shit, though. Yes. Let's talk about sex, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Keep up the great work, boys. I love it all. Talk about all the things that we do. Yes, indeed. Let's talk about sex. Okay. Are we doing some George Michael? I want your sex.
    74:02
    God, I remember that song. I want your sex. Cool sex. I'm not your sex. Oh, God. I am a lover.
    74:15
    Woo! Oh, yeah. Ow! C-c-c-c-c-come on. There you go. I wanted to do a cover of that. Oh, boy. When he died, I just, for whatever reason, I wanted to do a cover of that, but I never did.
    74:32
    As Bruce is away from the mic. I am. You lousy cocksuckers. You have violated my fargan right. This son of a bitch that country was founded so liberties of common patriotic citizens like me could not be taken away and said fargan assholes. okay somebody else wrote that so i'm just going by what they wrote where are you reading that it's right on that same thing it's the most newest one 45 minutes ago oh okay i didn't see that when i loaded it more than okay yep so guess what i i read something you did you did yay i gotta read that now like what what did you say oh man oh you're right wow it actually said that yes what's with our dpx or what no what do we call our fans again stds stds baby our stds are getting out of control ron i want two positives and two negatives in 2025 that's gonna happen i know the negative is gonna be hard for you but okay two positives yes another elwyn game will come out yes hey wow that was hard yeah yeah um a second positive i'm just trying to think of stuff that i actually think will happen i'll give you one of my positives okay steve bowden will be rehired by another pinball company okay that's a positive i'll do a negative then the one he was fired from will not be around no they will not be around unfortunately i think 2025 amtron or Whoever is controlling the fucking strings of Mr. Fix is going to say either A, we're cleaning house, or B, we're just done.
    76:13
    Do you think they might sell it? They could sell it, possibly. But who would buy it? Who would buy it? That's the first thing. And second is, you'd have to clean house. And it's got such a bad taint right now. It is really tainted. I will say I hope I'm wrong, but I think it almost seems like they're at the point that even if Cuphead is like the most awesome thing ever, it still won't matter. Yeah. Kind of like in the end, like, you know, Attack from Mars didn't matter. Nope. Didn't matter. That was awesome. Nope. Revenge from Mars didn't matter. Medieval Madness didn't matter. Nope. It didn't matter at their certain point. It just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The rock, the most electrified. Okay. But, yeah, no, it's really – that interview did so much damage. It was just weird. It was not even funny. It's like when he's – they're saying things, and it's like I can't believe he would actually just come out and say, oh, yeah, we're in the red. Yeah. At no point – No. At no point – I've never heard another – Even when Stern was deep in the red and fired – Yeah, everyone. The bloodletting in 2000 – what was that? Eight. Eight, yeah. They fired everyone. they never said in an interview, we're in the red or anything. They might have said, you know... Wait, they even had a factory tour still. They might have said something, you know, we've right-sized. They might have used terms like that, but they weren't going to say, you know... They didn't even cancel the factory tour. They made people assume what they wanted. Well, they fired everyone after Expo. It was that Monday. I know, but it was really bad because it was Ghost Town. Well, the factory tour was bad because it was a Ghost Town. It was Ghost Town. Yes, it was a Ghost Town. It was a fucking ghost time. We're like, oh, what's going on here? Nobody's working. Oh, fuck. Okay, so we need another positive. Yep. I'm actually looking forward to see what Barrels of Fun do for their next game. Especially if they have more Muppets stuff. You know, more Henson stuff. You know, Muppets pin would be awesome. The rainbow connection. The lovers. The dreamers. And me. Okay, you need another positive. dwight will not blind me in 2025 okay so you're going to be wearing sunglasses then yes i will be okay how about another negative i think two companies are out of business oh that's all i'm gonna say okay nope i just think like you're gonna see a downsizing from one company I think you're going to see overall sales continue to drop next year. Oh, yeah. The market is soft right now. It really is. That's my other negative. Yeah. The market is not doing well. The pinball market, the new sales. You see, people are selling pros now for $5,000 to $4,700. And they're taking the hits. And people are holding on their LEs. I guarantee you're going to see LEs start really dropping in another three to four months. I think after the old income taxes come out, I'm going to say this. If Dungeons & Dragons isn't a super pin, they're going to struggle to sell all their LEs. Well, they probably didn't sell all the John Wicks. Exactly. They didn't sell the John Wicks.
    79:34
    And who knows about the X-Men? We don't know. Do you think John Wick can be salvaged with code? No. God, no. That play field is so clunky. Even the X-Men is clunky. X-Men is very clunky, and we haven't seen the fixes yet. I know they're coming from Stern for the shooter and everything like that. It should have never left the factory the way it did.
    79:56
    It's really bad. It was rushed out because of other things, because of the aborted Indiana Jones one, which I still wonder if it was for the original movie, all the movies, just one of the movies. Oh, I think it was number five. Then that probably was a good decision. The dial of dysentery. The Tile of Dysentery, where you can watch the ancient, oh, I broke my hip. Oh, my God. Really old, really old, really fucking old. Wait until you see him as Red Hulk. What? Oh, you didn't know about that? What? Red Hulk? Yes, because Harrison Ford is now a new character in Marvel. No. Yes, and he's the president. He's going to be the president. Oh, okay. I can see President Harrison Ford. And the president is going to be turning into Red Hulk. No. He's going to have gray hair. No, he's going to have Air Force One because he was the president. I know. Nope. Yeah, so that's a scary thing, isn't it? That is very scary. So, yeah, I think the second company, if they don't get a business, they will be cutting back on their stuff. Think about it. We lost one company this year. We're going to lose one definitely next year, maybe two. or they're going to be really cut back where they're going to be like, hey, we're going to slow down our production schedule. Who did we lose this year? What's it called? Australians. Oh, Haggis. Haggis, yes. They're gone. Totally. Yeah, they're gone. So we lost one this year. We're going to lose one next year, and maybe the second one we might not lose, but it's going to be, oh, we're in financial problems. Or, you know, we're having problems trying to get our stuff out, that kind of stuff. That's all I'm going to say. I don't think next year's economy is going to be as hot as everyone thinks. I think it's going to be a little shit show, especially with our new president coming in. It's going to be a shit show. That much is certain. And there's not going to be a lot of freebies out there. So everyone's going to tighten their belts, and the first thing that's going to tighten is spending money on pinball. And so you're going to see the market drop like it did in 2008, 2009.
    82:01
    And there's going to be some cheap – like, I'm surprised. Like I saw there's split seconds out there for $1,500 and $1,000. I was like, wow. You better hurry, hurry, hurry. A split second was like $2,500 to $3,000. Boy, you're going to see the market really get soft except for in-demand titles like Joust. You'll never see a Joust go low again. You're never going to see a Defender go low. You're never going to see even possibly a Dragon Fist or even a Quicksilver. but the common games you like judge dreads and that kind of stuff you're gonna see them not dropping down as low as that but they're gonna drop no fears gonna drop play better you're gonna see uh early sterns drop you're gonna see the not so hot a big buck hunter i bet you'll be able to pick that up for 2500 or wheel of fortune 2500 that kind of stuff you're gonna see that really people are going to try to get rid of their crap and make some money so they can do other things. It's not going to be a hot year this year. Next year. Oh, next year. It's going to be very chilly. By the way, I'd like to amend my underrated classic stern pin. I forgot. Nine ball. Oh, nine balls are very underrated. No one likes it. Mine's better now. Mine's now better. Yeah, because you got... I have optos in my mouth. Optos. So it doesn't get lost. It never gets confused. Never gets confused. So hopefully next month, maybe in February. Segwaying into repairs, ladies and gentlemen. No, no. We're going to actually have an interview with the two guys who designed the board and have been using it at the RPC on Flight 2000 for about probably a year and a half now. And so they're making their first round of boards. They're the same guys who did the sound boards for the SP-300s. They are also owners of RPC. They are also owners of the RPC, two of them. So hopefully we'll be getting the first interview from them, and we're going to have opto boards available for some of the older sterns, like Flight 2000 and Nineball. So what other repairs did you have, Bruce? Oh, my God. Drop targets broken from Fall Rumble.
    84:16
    Skyjump, I think it was. Skyjump, and also Genie sheared off. Plastics broken a couple games. I just replaced the Lord of the Rings plastic today, the Arlen or whatever, the left one that the ball drops on. That broke on ours. Left orbit switch was out. We replaced the whole flipper on getaway, the right flipper, so it's a little stronger now. The whole mech we just replaced.
    84:42
    I got to bring back Medieval Madness. The left troll fell apart, so we had to disable that, so that's going to be my new fun thing. and I have a ball three light that's out on my big humongous board underneath the play field of my medieval madness. So I get to try to figure out how to stitch and make some wires. You said that before, though, right? Yeah, I know. We had it in the back. And then when AFM started to get chipped in the play field, we swapped it out with that. So now AFM's fixed. Hey! And Black Knight 2000's fixed. So that's coming back on the floor. Yay!
    85:19
    Anything else? What did I do? I actually don't think I have anything. Everything's kind of working. That's good.
    85:37
    We can go back to Pinside and see what they talk about some games on. What do you mean? I don't get the joke. The ratings and how they talk about. No, no, not that stupid thing again. where we just say how bad Spinside is. Oh, yes. It's great.
    85:54
    Man, I hate to end with the downers like that, though. What? The year in review? Yeah, that was a big downer ending there. I mean, but that kind of fits the podcast. It does fit us. Yeah, unfortunately.
    86:06
    We're not super positive. Well, I try to be. You just actively hate everything. Me? No, never. Yeah, you. Couldn't be. Well, to be positive, I'd like to thank the most important people, our STDs yes without you we would have no disease in this world and without you no one would be listening to us so yes thank you guys for all you all the millions of dollars you donate to us and everything like that for all you do the king of beers is coming through real American heroes here's one you remember this you know what it means when a Yankee hits a home run Don Mattingly, this buzz for you. Yes. Dun, dun, dun, dun.
    86:53
    Dun, dun, dun, dun. Holy cow!
    87:01
    Uh, yes. So, that was episode 241. Dun, dun, dun, dun. Of the Slam Tilt Podcast. You should check out our website. Yes, you should. You should. www.SlamTiltPodcast.com Check us out on Facebook. On our website, all the links are in the upper right-hand corner, including links to our Twitch page, so you can see the wonderful, awesome tournament that just happened.
    87:29
    We did record it. I don't know if Zach put it up on YouTube or anything. That would actually be on the Rochester Pinball. Yes, it would, the Rochester Pinball. The ROC Pinball Twitch, not the Slamtail Twitch. I should link that on there, too. Why not? You should. Why not?
    87:46
    We're doing the Yankee theme, by the way, if people have no idea. On WPIX. Yes. Nobody does it like the Daily News. Yankees surging. I just remember that. Oh, God. I think nobody does it or nobody tells it like the Daily News. Whatever the hell it was.
    88:06
    Oh, man. Oh, yes. And our email address is slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. the most active mailbag in all of pinball, I would say. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. We love our STD ears, and if you want to talk to us, that's the easiest way to talk to us. Yep. Thanks, everybody. Thanks to everyone in our cluster, Vuck. Thank you.
    88:32
    Hi, Zach. See, we're thinking of you. Yeah, follow bonus. Jeff Deolis. He did some announcing. He did? At the Golden Voice. The Golden Voice. I got to see him editing, Bruce. I know, so did I. wow so much so much he had a good interview on uh from uh the museum of play also yes you confused me again bruce no it's your fault your comment you sent a picture of snow and say glad we did have it this weekend yeah glad we had it this we didn't have it this weekend yeah yeah so either you meant to say glad we didn't have it this weekend or glad we had it last weekend yeah but you said it the only way where it doesn't make sense and your point yes and you always like and you understood it perfectly uh actually that one i had to read five or six times and i'm saying it over and over to myself like okay i gotta make this gotta make sense somehow maybe he meant this yeah yeah he probably meant this okay okay got the name bruce of course i do all right until next time well in this case next year next year so happy holidays everyone and have a happy new year thank you everyone for listening until next year thanks everybody say goodbye bruce goodbye ben from new york
    90:09
    It's guaranteed to keep you alive Meteor! Level Zero! Clusterfuck! George Takei! Tim Bowles! Bruce Isms! Tournament Talk! Car Hauler! Cheetah! Xanadu! Cash Grab! ELO! Ball Bank! What you buyin'? Game you love Game you hate Turbo Talk Game of Princess Sir Oh my
    91:08
    Yes, I was thinking we should do a feature where we just do our favorite porn forum names. Like Jurassic Cock, Bend Over, that kind of stuff. I saw a funny thing today. Somebody sent me something. Hold on, I'll try to find it. I'm sending it to you so you can actually see it too yep yep yep you're getting it boom it's on it's way and it's delivered oh my god laughing say goodbye Bruce say bye again bye laughing I love it