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Episode 23 – On The Mend

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Dec 15, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Stern price hike rumors, JJP games at arcade, Ron buys Dialed In LE, Pinball Done Quick charity event coverage.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast Episode 23 covers Stern Pinball's Kickstarter-funded book reaching its goal, rumors of a price increase starting January 2017, and a lack of recent code updates. Ron visited an arcade open house featuring Jersey Jack Pinball games (Wizard of Oz, Hobbit, Dialed In) and decided to deposit on a Dialed In Limited Edition after selling his Ghostbusters. The show includes discussion of Pinball Done Quick charity event, listener mail, and a new segment on toolbox essentials for pinball collectors.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball's third-party Kickstarter book about the company reached its goal and will be published

    high confidence · Ron Hallett discussing official Stern Facebook announcement

  • Price increase for Stern Pinball games expected to begin in January 2017

    medium confidence · Pinside forum post from distributor contact; Ron's source remained quiet when asked, which he interprets as confirmation

  • Batman (Stern) machines coming third week of January 2017

    medium confidence · Ron citing inside information, though expressing some uncertainty about exact week (second vs third)

  • Stern changed playfield manufacturers away from Churchill, resulting in ghosting problems, then reverted to Churchill

    medium confidence · Bruce Nightingale discussing Pinside complaints and recent factory tour observation of Ghostbusters playfield production

  • Playfields with handwritten dates are problematic; stamped ones are good

    low confidence · Rumor discussed on Pinside regarding playfield manufacturer changeover quality issues

  • Ghostbusters version 1.12 code was posted to Stern's website for two days before being removed

    medium confidence · Ron citing player reports; no official announcement, mixed feedback on whether it was buggy

  • Stern has not released major code updates for any game in approximately six months (since Game of Thrones)

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing code update timeline; WWE being last significant update

  • Ron purchased a Jersey Jack Pinball Dialed In Limited Edition deposit

    high confidence · Ron directly announcing $250 deposit, citing Slam Tilt podcast recommendation and plans to sell Ghostbusters

Notable Quotes

  • “The junk is on the mend. The junk is on the mend.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:02:00 — Opening joke about Bruce's injured knee, sets casual tone for the episode

  • “Where's the code guy from Stern? Price increase for 2017.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:07:00 — References emerging community sentiment about Stern raising prices without corresponding code updates

  • “They got to pay for that LCD twice in one year.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:08:30 — Sarcastic commentary on Stern's price increase justification regarding LCD display costs

  • “They'll keep raising it as long as they can as long as they keep selling it, man.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:10:00 — Industry analysis of manufacturer pricing strategy and customer acceptance

  • “I beat it [cancer] just to be on this podcast so you can listen to it.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:58:00 — Personal disclosure about survival from stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 19 years prior; motivates support for Pinball Done Quick charity

  • “Everyone needs and wants a Star. You can't stop playing it.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~1:34:00 — Passionate endorsement of the classic Williams game, reflects collector sentiment about timeless appeal

  • “Get a decent one [voltmeter]. If you're paying $60, $80, $100, that's a good one.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~2:00:00 — Practical toolbox advice for pinball collectors and repair; establishes new segment format

  • “Troubleshooting skills will get you further than anything else.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~2:02:00 — Core philosophy for pinball machine maintenance and repair diagnosis

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySlam Tilt PodcastorganizationDialed IngameGhostbustersgameWizard of Ozgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern Pinball experienced ghosting problems after switching playfield manufacturers away from Churchill; reverted to Churchill after quality issues emerged

    medium · Bruce describes manufacturer change and subsequent problem resolution based on factory tour observation of Ghostbusters production

  • ?

    code_update: Stern Pinball has not released significant code updates for any game in approximately six months; Game of Thrones was the last major update

    high · Detailed timeline discussion between hosts; WWE identified as last significant update; community frustration referenced as 'Where's the code guy'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball planning price increase for all games effective January 2017; no corresponding feature additions or code improvements announced

    medium · Pinside forum post from distributor; Ron's inside source confirmation through non-response (interpreted as confirmation)

  • ?

    product_concern: Game of Thrones machines experiencing decal peeling and wrinkled decals near flipper buttons

    medium · Ron's first-hand observation at Automate It arcade and reference to Steve's machine with 'peeling decals' falling off headbox

  • ?

    leak_detection: Ghostbusters version 1.12 code briefly appeared on Stern website for two days before removal; unreleased, unannounced update

    medium · Multiple players reported seeing and playing version 1.12; mixed feedback on whether it was buggy; no release notes provided

Topics

Stern Pinball price increase rumors and timing (January 2017)primaryStern code update drought and community frustrationprimaryJersey Jack Pinball manufacturing delays and customer experienceprimaryStern playfield manufacturing quality issues and Churchill partnershipsecondaryRon's machine collecting decisions (Ghostbusters sale, Dialed In purchase)primaryPinball Done Quick charity event coveragesecondaryArcade venue conditions and machine tuningsecondaryPinball toolbox essentials and maintenance skills (new segment debut)secondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Hosts express frustration with Stern's pricing strategy and lack of code updates, criticism of Game of Thrones quality, but enthusiasm for Jersey Jack games and community events. Positive segments about charity and collectibles balance negative manufacturer sentiment. Casual, joking tone throughout softens criticism but underlying market concerns are evident.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.167

Oh, let me get this straight. You want a tattoo of a butt, which has a butt-shaped tattoo on it? Yeah. And I want it right on my butt. Hey, butthead. How come you're so interested in butts? Shut up, Beavis. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm Ron Hallett here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Smile and just smile and let the whole world just smile with you. Okay, okay. What's that from? That's from Roger Rabbit. Who framed Roger Rabbit? Oh, smile, man, smile. This whole world is a world after all. Okay, okay, I got it. Yes, yes, it's coming back to me now. And welcome to episode 23. Yes. From Russia with Love. Ah, yes. Which has nothing to do with Roger Rabbit at all. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. I wanted to do this. From Russia with Love. They still haven't got the format down yet because it doesn't have the theme song. How about the naked women? Is that the naked women in the beginning? No, there's no nude women yet. Come on. It's 1963. Come on. They were sneaking in some boob shots. Well, Thunderball's got a lot. He goes crazy in Thunderball. He does. I think he got STDs from that one. So how's it going, Bruce? It's going better. I got kicked into Jimmy last week, but we're doing pretty good this week. Okay, and let's just see if your Jimmy has recovered. It's a little swollen still. Oh, it's a little swollen. Okay. Yes, yes. So all my pinball groupies out there, don't worry. The junk is on the mend. The junk is on the mend. Okay, okay. All righty then. All right. Yes, yes. Let's start off with hot news. Hot news. Hot girls in love. the Stern book that was being, not really done by Stern, but being done by a third party about Stern Pinball, reached its goal for their Kickstarter. So that means, I guess, it's going to be made. Here's the funny thing. Here's the really funny thing. Stern put the release out on Facebook. Not the company that was doing it, that's getting the Kickstarter, but Stern did. So I'm still back to the original thing of shenanigans well they're they're heavily behind it that's very obvious and they and there's no way they couldn't have just easily financed it by themselves shenanigans shenanigans okay shenanigans now the big thing that everyone's been uh bitching about including where's the code guy from stern price increase for 2017 yes yes there was a uh post on the the ever famous pin side the thing the thing you don't know about yes it's a forum guy posted that he had heard from a distributor that there was going to be a price increase starting in january now i went out talked to my person and he was quiet actually so when he's usually quiet usually means it's true oh and And by the way, I think Batman's are coming down the line third week in January. You heard it here first. Third week in January. That's what I've heard. I'm thinking second, but it's going to probably be third. I'm Batman. I'm Batman. So, yeah, so the price increase, I don't know numbers yet, but. They got to pay for that LCD somehow, you know. Yeah, they got to pay for that LCD twice in one year. Of course, supposedly they're upping price on all the games. So obviously all the other games have to have their price increase, you know, to pay for that LCD. Oh, of course. Yeah. No. And no code. And how long? For any game besides the newest current game? When was the last code increase? Metallica. And a slight one. How about Kiss? Didn't that have a code update? That was barely anything anyway. It was barely? No, I thought that had a lot of stuff in it. Nope. Nope. Okay. Nope. Nope. Let me look right now. Nope. Nope. let me go to the site and scintillatingly look at release notes. Yeah, no, I'm not even doing that. Oh, oh. I'm going, where's the code? Where's the code? Where's the beef? Where's the beef? I do like, you know, the where's the code guy from Facebook. Very funny. Does he have t-shirts too to say where's the code? He does have, he depicts Michael Sheffield Stern. Oh, man. Okay. Let's hear about that also. Let's bring that up. Okay. Some people are complaining that they've talked to Stern And now, instead of having a guaranteed play field, now they're like trying to negotiate with these people. That's what some people are saying on Pinside. Okay. Now you have your inside source. The thing going on Pinside is that they changed play field manufacturers. And that's when all the shit playfields came out. So then they went back. Basically, they were using Churchill like they always do. They tried something else. All these ghosting problems resulted, and they went backwards to Churchill. Well, they're definitely with Churchill now because there was a tour recently, and you could see them making Ghostbusters playfields. Yes. So do you have any of your inside info? Do you know anything about that? Not at all. Okay. Not at all. But it's just pretty – Because supposedly, if you have a playfield that has the handwritten date on it, you are screwed. It's the shitty whatever. And if you have the stamped ones, then you're good. now with all the problems they've had and everything else this other price increase and no code really being put out just really it burns my bridges it burns my buttons you know it just yeah you know what it won't mean anything everyone will still like especially soon as like star wars is announced like ellies will sell out immediately i agree but it's just it's just really like they'll keep raising it as long as they can as long as they keep selling it man i'm not buying i'm not buying any new box anymore well you're bally bruce it's just old bally's now well no the thing is this you don't burn your customers and they've you know i'm sick of buying new games aka game of thrones premium that it sucks with it really does it really it's still the code sucks Okay, going to code. The last code for Ghostbusters was 1111. Can you name the next game that got the next code? I still say Kiss. Wrong. Metallica Premium. 629. Which really isn't, I mean, that's just kind of clean up. That game is done. I know. So what's before that? Spider-Man Vault Edition. That's when they released it. Okay, that's just alternate software for an already existing game. Go back. WWE Pro and WWE LE in June 3rd. All right, all right. They made a lot of good changes to that game, so I'll give them that. How about before that? Game of Thrones. Damn, when did they do the KISS code then? What the hell am I thinking of? April. April? Holy shit. Man, I am behind the times here. Wait a sec. They have not really done a code increase to any game in almost six months. Yeah, because what? WWE would probably be the last significant. Yeah, no, but even Metallica. Say Metallica, even though it was a cleanup. But it's still six months. So any major game code increase was Game of Thrones. Well, they were working hard on the all-new, the LCD and the Batmans. And now that that's going to be underlined, you're going to see code coming out like crazy. You wait and see. So Bruce doesn't believe me there. Okay. No? No. No. All right. Not at all. And maybe we'll get a Christmas gift. Yeah, right. We're not getting Christmas gifts this year from Stern. Oh, come on. I'm hoping for another Ghostbusters update. Come on, Stern. Do it. You might get that. I will give you possibly for that. All right. Well, actually, there is a new code out. There was 1.12 on the website for two days. Really? For Ghostbusters. Really? Yes. What happened? I didn't even hear that announced. No, a couple guys got it. They posted it, and then they pulled it back. Oh. Oh. Do they have release notes or anything for it? Nope. Nope. Nobody has any release notes for it. It was just on the site for two days. A couple people played it. One person said it was buggy. A couple people said it didn't. So, what do you believe? Okay. Interesting. All right. What else do we have in the world of news? I really have no more news besides that, unless you have something else. No, that's pretty much all I had. The usual pin-side bitching and et cetera. Yes. The usual stuff. Topics, Ron. Would you like to talk about anything today? Sure. Sure, I'll talk about something. I went to – well, yeah, I mentioned it last week. I went to the automated open house. How open was it? It was a cramped room with games in it. and in that room they had in succession they had a wizard of oz dialed in and hobbit so it was the jj jjp party uh not yeah they had those three games there that was it all all the rest were stern and williams games like surrounding all over the place i i got to play millionaire again and still real you know it still sucks it does yeah i played that for i i let ball two and three drain and I had 10 million with the high score. It's just so boring. Oh my. Yeah, it's just multiball and just re-lock two balls. Lock the balls. Lock two balls. Lock two balls. Lock two balls over and over again. But they had those games there. And so I got the plate dialed in again. I would say it wasn't quite as dialed in. It was suffering for some low power conditions. Because what would, yeah, they had it overloaded. Because what would happen is if you got multiball undialed in, the breaker would pop and the whole row would go out oh my oh my why did it turn some games off well that's uh yeah there weren't that many games on in the row but what what we did is the wizard of oz next to it i just turned it off like when the guy went into multiball and it didn't trip the breaker that time it's like okay leave that off so we left that off there you go No great loss. Yeah, I played Wizard of Oz, and, you know, I'll go with our friend of the show, Timmer, with this whole thing about don't do weird shit in the flipper area, because that stupid left side with the pop-up burr and the way it drains out there every time, eh. But here you go, here you go, here's where it gets weird. I played Hobbit. Yeah, and you loved it, and you had to buy it right away. I didn't dislike it. You didn't dislike Hobbit? Number one, it's got normal flippers other than two inlanes on each side, but whatever. I don't know. This one played better than most of the ones I played, as in I could actually hit the shots with the flipper, and it had enough power, and I could hit things, block balls. I kept getting multiball. I still couldn't figure out any of the mode stuff and what I was supposed to be doing. So you bought one? No, I didn't. Okay. But I wouldn't be able to say I hate that. It kept my interest. Let's say that. And then I played Dialed In, and with the exception of being a little on the weak side, it was good. It was still Dialed In. I was still digging it, digging the Dialed In. They had a cell phone there so you could do the whole cell phone, you know, play with the cell phone deal. How was it? I didn't. I didn't try that. You didn't play with your cell phone? No, I didn't play with the cell phone. I'm sorry. I know. as a reporter. As a reporter. Yes, I have failed. I have failed miserably. I didn't notice anything different in the code either. It looked the same. It has all these lights for the skill shot, like Lord of the Rings, but only one of them is ever lit, just like it was at Expo. And these are the same dial-ins that have been traveling around. They had, like, what, one in Australia. They had one here. They had... I think, actually, Rock Fantasy he's going to be getting one, I heard, for a couple days. The traveling dialed in show. I have heard that on good authority. Aren't they the Stern Army guys? Hopefully Stern doesn't get upset when they find out about it. Oh, my God. They might send Steve another, I keep calling it Lord of the Rings. Jesus Christ. They might send him another Game of Thrones with peeling decals. Oh, that's an option. Yeah, that's an option. His were terrible. I mean, they were literally just falling off the head. Yeah, I know. I'm there like, what's that? I thought he put like, I don't know, a poster or something on the side. Like, oh, no, those are the decals, Ron. Like, holy shit. Wow Okay So when I was at Automated I was playing like a Mustang And when I had my hand down by the flipper i i was feeling this thing i thought it was like the side armor and it like you know this game doesn't have side armor and i looked down it wasn't side armor it was the uh it was the decals that wrinkled like by the uh flipper buttons actually just just flip just totally wrinkled up that's what that was terrible i have to say yeah yeah yeah that was not that was not good but um yep play dialed in um so i made i made a decision uh-oh what was your decision i made a fateful decision well as i has mentioned in previous shows i'm looking at probably selling the ghostbusters bye bye ghostbusters bye bye piece of crap everly brothers wow i'm sure most of our listeners over the age of 70 will enjoy that. Sorry. Maybe my dad. You're that old? My dad will love it. Yes, he'll love it. You're all that old? That's his era. Actually, that might be old even for him. Even he was too young for that. So I'm going to be selling that, and I have put down a deposit. I've listened to the Slamtail podcast, and those guys told me that the LE was the best deal on Dialed In. So you have purchased an LE? I put down a deposit on an elk. So $250, right? $250. Okay. So, you know, more to follow because they won't be shipping those until springtime. What's wrong, Bruce? You got a cough there? You got something in your throat there? Okay. Yeah, it's got to be that. It's called September. September. I hope not. Going by the track record of JJP, you have to go at least a little further into the future. You see how good Stern is with their manufacturing and everything. And how many Batmans have been out since they were supposed to be out in November? I'm Batman. I'm Batman. I'm Batman. So congratulations, Ron. Congratulations. license you are the first of the two of us that owns a jjp no i don't own anything yet and you were just as far as me as the owning one twice twice yes folks he had a uh wizard of oz which you sold to someone in australia yeah say i remember that and you had a hobbit too yep and got out of that when we waited a year and a half and then they wanted it to increase our price if We did not keep our deposit schedule payments. Yeah, that was just two ways of really irking a customer. Well, at least by being a customer when you were, it got us a good video tour of the factory. So it was worth it for that. Maybe I should put that on our YouTube channel. What? The tour. Oh, I still had hair back then. No, you didn't. You look the same as you do now. Fuck! You were just as tired. I was just as tired. Wake up. Come on. Our listeners need you at your best. I'm always at my best. Oh, really? Oh, bye. Oh, bye. So we should start some kind of poll on the Facebook page. I don't know how to set any of that up. How many minutes will it take before Bruce yawns? No, no. Well, actually, we could do how many yawns per podcast. You guess how many yawns you think he's going to have. We could also do, like, guess the date of Batman 66. We could do guess the date of Dialed In. Okay. But we would need actual prizes. Maybe that pinball lifter company guy will actually give up something. Oh, there you go. Okay. So I can donate. Maybe there's something. I'm trying to think if there's any, like, magazines or anything I could donate. I had, like, I thought I had an extra pinball magazine somewhere. Well, my wife just offered to make some keychains for people, possibly, with the Wizard Keychains. With the silver ball like we had at our 2016 upstate championship. Yeah, and I also have modern pinball tickets somewhere. I have one, too. I have a half an hour, an hour. Yeah, I have like a full pass or something somewhere. I think I have two of them somewhere. I keep meaning to bring them to Rock Fantasy during one of their tournaments because at least they have guys there that would actually use them or go down. But I keep forgetting. I have one more piece of news. A piece of news. I do. What's a piece of news? It's like a piece of ass, but a piece of news. Oh, bye. Okay. I'm trying to find it right now. Tim Balls is part of something big coming up next year. His balls? His balls. Okay. So I'm going right now. Tim Balls, he is part of, because he is going to be part of the Pinball Done Quick for Pinball for Charity, January 8th through the 15th, 2017. you can follow these guys all on Twitch the stream team one is Buffalo Pinball that's going to be Kevin and Sir McTuna but of course our own Tim Balls is going to be on there with also Pinball Joe which is Joe Saeed and that would be Kevin Manny by the way. Yes it would I'm glad you finally got that name right. Thank you Cool Art Cartoons they have a shirt they're trying to benefiting to prevent cancer foundation very good thing you can go check out Tim Sexton's Facebook page or you can check out Joe P. Saeed's page and check it all out. We'll post this up. I'll share this on the Facebook page for us right now. It's pinball done quick and what that is is they'll have things like they'll play Medieval Madness and who can get to Royal Madness the fastest. If you're playing Iron Man, who could get to do or die the fastest. And it's an interesting way to watch. It is. If you watch the Stars tournament and you like really short games, this is for you. Because they usually do not take long. And it's for a good cause. So we at the Slam Tilt Podcast, especially one of our members, is very familiar with said disease. Yes, I actually had cancer a long time ago. Almost How long is it now? It's going to be 20 years, actually. No, 19. 19 this year. 19. I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma stage four. So it's for a very good cause. What was the percentage they gave you? 5% of it. So guess what, people? I beat it just to be on this podcast so you can listen to it. Definitely a great cause. And so if you can, check out our – I just put it on the Facebook page, So it'll be up for a couple days by the time this comes out, but definitely check it out. We've got to go to our mail ball bag, don't we? Our mail bag. The slam bag. The slam ball bag. The slam bag. It's a slam. Why does balls have to be in everything? Because it's wrinkled. No, no. It's the slam bag. Okay, slam bag. You ruin everything. I don't ruin everything. We called it slam bag in a previous episode. I am maintaining consistency. And I called it a ball bag in that same episode. So it's slam ball bag. Oh, God. I don't want to write that in the summary. The slam ball bag. Are we going to call it the chin ball bag? Chin ball bag. There you go. Oh, Jesus. That doesn't even make sense. Okay. Who do we have for this week coming up on the old emails? First, our own Scott talking about seven displays for Ron for Harlem. He says get the software change only and make custom software instead of seven X-Pen displays. Use the custom software and do like a modification. He says it's easy. It's easy. I'm sure it's easy, yes. He wants to know how much my Freedom Firewood is for that thing. So me need cheap. So I got him interested. I got the hook in him. The line in the sinker or just the hook? Just the hook right now. I didn't pull. I didn't pull and grab anything yet. Ron has a new friend. I do have a new friend. In Albany. In Albany. He's been listening since the fourth episode. It was the fourth episode, so you missed the first couple, which is good. Which is good. They did suck. No. I mean, they were great. They were all great. You need to go back and listen to them. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But he is into music and... Yeah, you heard the part I was getting back into the music deal. Fail. Fail. His name is... Yes, Tim. Another Tim. Not Timmer. He's just Tim. And Ron gave some good tips to our gentleman here. He said, don't buy stuff you don't like. Go to Northeast Pinball Shows since he's in the Northeast and play as many games as possible. For good tech advice, go to rec.games.pinball, of course, and pinwiki.com forward slash wiki. And what's this third one? I think it's P-I-N-S-I-D-E. I think it's Pinsidy. Pinsidy. Oh, Pinsidy. And Ron writes after it, some good advice, but there's also a lot of noise. I call it static, actually. Oh, static. And don't forget the next thing I said. Have fun. Yes. And the most important thing was the last one. Of course, listen to the Slam Tilt Podcast. Oh, my. Got to have very, very good advice right there. Of course, he wrote back and actually said he's gone to a lot of shows. He's actually been at Rock Fantasy. He's been to a lot of those places. And one of our regulars, who's become a regular, Aaron, who we've talked about in the past, emailed me and said he has a chance to buy an old Kiss Bally. He's got some wear in the play field. It's actually in the Midwest, and he lives in California. Shipping woes. But it's only $600. But how much for shipping? Probably three. Guess what? Old Bally, $900, and it's working. run with it that's my advice run with it okay run with it baby run with it run hard run silent run deep oh hard silent and deep i got it and hit the pussy galore hit the pussy galore with plenty o tool with plenty o tools let's see who is let's see who is in from russia with love i believe it was the first appearance of uh blow felt really i don't know if they even call them blow felt yet I don't think they did. But he was with the white cat, and you don't see his face, and you just hear him talk, and that was his first appearance. So there you go. A little trivia for you. It's a good Bond film. Yes. I don't think it has quite as much action. It's no Goldfinger. No, it's no Stingfinger. I like Stingfinger. Of course you do. I love the Stingfinger. That's what I hear about you. Two in a pink, one in a stink. Oh. The shock. Another edit. Oh, no, no, we don't edit in this thing. Of course not. We don't edit, yes. Also, some more news. I guess this isn't news, but yesterday I had a guest. Yes, you did. J.T. Harrison was over. J.T. Harrison spent the night at Ron's. Oh, boy. Known J.T. for a long time. He's met him through the Orange County guys. He goes to all the, you know, like your rock fantasy tournaments and all that. and he was in the area, and it's like, come over? I'm like, sure. So guess what game we played the most of by a large margin? Sars. Yes. He already told me. Well, yes. But you see, you should pause and act like you guessed, see, for the show, instead of just saying it while I'm asking the question. Fail. Massive fail. Re-edit. Let's do that. Let's try that again. Okay. Okay, guess what game we played more than any other by far. I don't know, Ron. You got a lot of games down in your basement. Oh, God. What game would he want? I know. It's got to be my favorite there. The one you stole from me. It's got to be Stars. Correct. Very good. Yes. Yes. This is why everyone needs Stars. Everyone needs and wants a Star. You can't stop playing it. It's just... Everybody wants one. Everybody wants one. Everybody wants one. I want some too. Yay! So, yeah, we played a lot of stars. I guess I lost more than I won. But I think stars was the real winner. And I think both of us were the losers in this one. Ah. Because stars always wins in the end. So in that cancer thing we were just talking about with Tim Balls and Buffalo Pinball and Joe Syed, guess who else is in that? Who would that be? That would be Steven Bowden, fun with bonus. Yes. How could we forget him? Fail. Fail, but guess what? Great job, Steve. I'm very happy that you're supporting that. Also, we're going to support all of you guys. So let's turn this into a breaking news. Just happened. You dropped your laptop. Alan Thicke just died. Alan Thicke just died? He did. Wait a minute. How old was he? 69. Hmm. What else was he in? Was he in Silver Spoons? Nope he was in the other one Oh I thought it was Silver Spoon Wasn he He was a dad in some show There someone screaming at the radio right now You idiots No he was in that uh show me that smile Ooh, show me that smile. Love is to live on living. Okay, okay. I gotta look this up, folks. Yes, I know. We have to. Alan Thicke sitcom. I apologize. I need to know. Oh, Growing Pains. Kirk Cameron. Growing Pains. Yep. Damn. He died at 69. No more insurance commercials or whatever the commercials he's been doing lately. It's been reported by TMZ and ABC 13. Well, once TMZ reports it, you're done. You're done. It's official. And he was Canadian, eh? Yes, he was. And he had the ever-successful thick of the night. Yes, he did. But he passed away. 69. Bummer. Yep. So that is our breaking news, which will be two days old. Yeah. Our breaking news, yes. Well, to lighten it up a bit. He died of a heart attack. Heart attack. To lighten it up a bit, going back to the pinball done quick, if you had your choice, like if you were in this competition and you could pick what particular goal you could do. They couldn't handle me. No. Okay. Assuming they could handle you. Okay. They could take all of Bruce. All of him. Oh, my. Oh, my. Okay. So what would you pick? What do you think you could get to the fastest? What you could maybe a little better than most people? What could you do? Destroy the ring. Okay. Lord of the Rings. Destroy the ring. For me, for me, I have no clue. I don't know what I would pick. I guess I should have thought of something before I said that. Yeah, exactly. You failed. I failed once again. I don't know. I'd probably try do or die. That's not bad. Just, you know, just got to get those drones immediately. Just start hitting, just flailing would be good. Mm-hmm. Totally agree. All right. So, what have we got here? We did mail ball bag. Mail ball bag. Jesus, the slam bag. Well, Bruce has a new segment he wants to debut. What? What's in your slam box? What do you have in your slam box? Which is our toolbox. Everyone, if you're collecting, repairing, owning a pinball machine, should have a well-stocked toolbox. Now, people don't understand what should be in that well-stocked toolbox. So every week, we're going to tell you what you should have. Lubricant? A voltmeter. A volt, okay. Totally the best tool you can have, besides screwdrivers and all that other stuff. That is the number one tool. Now I know what people are going to say. I don't know how to use a voltmeter. It's easy. There are so many videos on YouTube how to use basic voltmeter skills. Anyone can learn, including you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I learned. Actually, I don't know how to use it. I haven't known how to use it for years. Where do I put the ground again? Ground right on your forehead. Oh, okay, ground on my forehead. The voltage right on the – Ah, yes. I think, yeah, no, ground on my tongue, and then take the voltage. Okay, tongue, that's right. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay. But you should actually have a voltmeter in your toolbox. And get a decent one. Get a decent one. Okay, now I'm going to ask you, what voltmeter do you have in your possession? What brand? Start naming them. It's whatever. It's the one that we used in the old This Old Pinball videos, one of the ones Shaggy used. I think he still uses it. It's not a self whatever. You have to adjust it, but it's digital. I use a fluke. You can go to Sears and get a Craftsman one. Don't go to Harbor Freight. Get a good, pretty good one. If you're paying $60, $80, $100, that's a good one. If you go really high like mine is, it's even better. Watch the videos. Learn how to use it. It's really important for you to have good tools and learn how to use them to diagnose problems with your machines. That's half the battle, folks. It is. G.I. Joe. You know, God, that's half the battle. G.I. Joe. Yep. Because I'll tell you, it's just troubleshooting skills will get you further than anything else. Exactly. Well, I love people. You don't necessarily need to know how to do intricate board repair. No. But you need to be able to diagnose, yes, this is a board problem. Then you can send it off somewhere to get fixed. You don't want to send a board off and it's like the guy who repairs it says, I didn't find anything wrong with it. And it turns out, like, you had a wire fell out of a connector, and you just sent a board out and paid whatever to have nothing done to it because, you know, you didn't diagnose it correctly. There's so many things you can do. You can do voltmeter with continuity, voltage, ohms, anything just to see and even check for amperage drawer with a voltmeter. There's a lot of things. Is the amperage drawer near the tool drawer? It is next to the tool drawer. Okay. And next to the slam-tail ball bag. Oh, yes, the slam-tail ball bag. He's going to keep saying that. He's going to keep – I guess I have to call it the ball – It's going to fucking go in. It's going to be the ball bag, I guess. It's going to be the ball bag. The ball bag. Now, don't check your out hole with your ball bag. It's right next to it, right above it. High job. Plenty-O-Tool. Plenty-O-Tool. So, yes. I wonder what tools Plenty-O-Tool has in her tool bag. I don't know. She might be packing some tools. Oh, my. Plenty-O-Tools. Where to the games you like, games you hate. Yes. Now, I have my picks, but they're not my picks tonight, this week. They're not your picks. So no Gottlieb hate? No Gottlieb hate. Actually. Even JT wants to know, what's your deal? Why do you hate Gottlieb so much? They fucking suck, and he's a Gottlieb lover. This actually, hold on. I'm going to see if she reacts a little bit. Mrs. Nightingale, can you yell a little bit? She's present. She picked these tonight. So I'm actually being, she's not going to talk on here. She'll never talk on this. So games you like, yell it out. Banzai Run. She played it actually when we had our league night at the Museum of Play. They have a Banzai Run, plays pretty good. Very nice game. Good rules. I like it. You know, think about it. If they try to even make that game today. That's the super duper limited edition. That's $50,000. $50,000. Good basic System 11 rules with a gimmick. The gimmick of an interactive backbox with flippers and everything. You have one. How many flippers in that game? You have two in the bottom, two in the bottom, upper. There's three in the bottom. My wife just yelled out three in the bottom. So there's actually six flippers on a System 11. That's pretty impressive. Where's our hate? Where's our hate? Orbiter. Oh, Orbiter 1? Yeah. I think I might have said that on a previous episode. You did, but she hates it. Yes. Our very own Scott likes it for some reason. He's fucking demented. He even has custom software so it doesn't have the timer on it, so it just plays like a straight three-ball game. Yep. Yes. He is crazy like that. And I have to bring up something else after we talk about your games, what I found out today, actually. Well, I found a couple things out. But go ahead. Let's hear your game you like. I'm thinking I picked this before now that I'm looking at it, but we'll do it anyway. Well, supposedly you remember everything. I do. Funhaus. You did say it. I did say Funhaus at one point? Yes. Yes, episode six. Episode six. I said Funhaus. Okay, Funhaus 2. Funhaus 2. Electric Boogaloo. Yes. that's one of you know the little known sequel to funhouse by pat waller yeah that's where rudy was breakdancing rudy breakdancing and jamming along and here we go game i dislike name you dislike okay bally might not like this one bally bruce because it's a bally playboy i like playboy It's overrated. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-wow. I mean, if you play the other Bally's of the era, which now, thanks to all the shows I've gone to, and Bally's personal collection, it just doesn't hold up to me, just a lot of the other titles. It just, no. No, it doesn't. There's so many. I'd rather play Kiss than that. I'd rather play Supersonic. I'd rather play Strikes and Spares. There's so many ones I'd rather play than that, the same era. I'd rather play Bobby Orr's Power Play, Nitro Groundshaker. I agree. You're not hearing any disagreement from me. It is one of the weaker ballet titles that Playboy is. But with Hugh on there, it brings it up a notch. With Hugh on there, okay. Well, no, no, with Hugh Hefner. But it's like he's almost like James Bond in that thing. He's got two women right around him. Since we're on the Bond thing, you have to give it a little bump up for that. I like the grandma on the back in the grotto. I thought that was hilarious. The grandma is actually the one that's on almost half the cartoons in Playboy. Oh, okay. Sorry, I was not aware of that. Yeah, so she's actually... I'm not the aficionado. I don't have every issue of the era. I have some, but... Oh, sure, sure. But for the articles, right? Of course for the... No, for the stories. The stories. Yes. Stories, okay. Very good, very good. Now, two days ago, I come home where me and my wife were talking, and suddenly the Lord came upon me, shined a light, and showed me the way. And you're getting the band back together. I'm getting the band back together. My wife was actually on Pinside. How many wives do you actually know actually read Pinside? Don't look at me. You can't even mention any of them. First, there's not many wives that are in the hobby. how many actually read Pinside my wife does my wife's pretty damn cool Zach doesn't even read Pinside hey Zach oh god that's weak way to get a mention at least you could have said like Zach's been posting several restorations of his on Facebook lately he has been posting of his blackjack his EM blackjack which is the far superior artwork but the unsuperior yeah it doesn't do the when you have the whole list So that brings it down a notch, unfortunately. Yes, it does. Isaac. Isaac. He doesn't listen. I still have to play him in Selfie League this week. Beat his ass and tell him if you beat him, he has to listen. Yeah, I wish. So you didn't put a game you like again, so we're just going to mark that as a fail for you. I said Funhouse 2. Just because no one's heard of it doesn't mean it's – Fail. I'm sorry. So our next segment. I'd buy that. Oh, he's got some. All right. I got three again. He's got three. So get ready, folks. Here's the games you want. You get your NASCAR going on right now because we're talking NASCAR. All right. NASCAR. Ticket number 282284291454. Buy it now. It's $24.50. Way too much. But the current bid is $13.75. Reserve not met yet. it's in Warminster, Pennsylvania. No issue, no errors. Playfield literally has no wear. Boards are clean, unhacked, never touched. Cabinets should have no marks, blemishes, or nicks. So, for a NASCAR, that's pretty good. How many pictures does it have? It has two! Wow, a whole two. Did it at least take the Playfield glass off for it? No! But at least is it not the flyer? No, it's not the flyer. Two pictures. So it's at least an actual game. Yes, it is. But still, two pictures. You're going to need more than that, folks. I'd request more pictures. Of course. Actually, I have four. My fourth one just came up, too. Our games did sell, the ones we talked about last week. The Diner went for $19.27. The Flight 2000 went for $1,100. So game two. This is right up Ron's alley. Oh, okay. This is one Ron's going to bid on. You watch. If you guys don't do it, Lethal Weapon 3. Hell yeah. Ticket number 142208571148. I actually got to look that one up. Let's see. Where's that one at? Thunder, you know, pinball. Lethal Weapon 3. I mean, location. Florida. Oh, never mind. Don't worry. I won't be bidding against you. Price is pretty good. 17.50 buy it now or best offer. Does it have the light? It does have the light. Okay. How many pictures on this one? Three. Three. Is the glass off in any of them? Yes. All right. So they're already ahead of the game. They actually have a play field shot with the glass off. That shows some effort. Yep. And a side shot of a part of the cabinet Not powered on no well actually it lit up but the display is not on which is kind of weird And none of the GI lights are on, but just the backbox lights are on. So kind of weird. So I would ask for more pictures, definitely. Number three, Simpsons Pinball Machine by Data East. The far superior version. No. Yes. No. ticket number one six two three one seven seven four five four oh nine this is a good deal this is in south carolina greenwood south carolina 900 bucks 900 bucks okay how many pictures does this one have two two glass off or on glass is off okay so there's two pictures the playfield It looks pretty good. You know, it needs rubbers, needs some work. But for $900, Simpsons, not bad. I'd buy that. Don't have a cow, man. Don't have a cow, man. I'd buy that one. I knew you would, Krusty. Yes, I would. Krusty would definitely buy it. Remember, it's not just good. It's good enough. It's good enough. Now, here's the one I'm expecting Ron to actually buy. All right. Ticket number. You ready? I'm ready. 30-21-61-15-6755. Bally, Bobby, or Power Play in Templeton, Massachusetts. Only $600. The play field's a little worn. Yeah, but it's already got more pictures. It's got more pictures. I think he's got 12. including comes with a manual and a new all tech in it right there the all tech 200 bucks right there yeah play feel play feels pretty warm yep but for the price it's a good deal it really is bobby or for the one season he was with the blackhawks one season with the blackhawks but it's a fun game if it had a spinner on it'd be perfect but you know it's beat up six hundred but you get a good player. That's the pick of the week for me. Displays look good too, bright. Display 4 might be missing one of the digits. It is. The player 4, the second number is not working. The second one from the right-hand side, but I'd buy that. $600. Oh, yeah, the player 4 is missing at least one digit. So I'd definitely buy that. Would you buy that, Ron, for $600? $600? Sure, why not? See? So that's the deal of the week. Hey, you got the Alltech in there. Worst case scenario, you got an Alltech out of the deal. Yep. I mean, how much are the Alltechs worth? $200. Yeah. So it's a $400 game. Yeah. And you can use that Alltech on any Bally or CERN. You got it. That you desire. So there's one more little piece of news. I'm going to – Piece of news? We got to make that a phrase. That is like your trademark phrase, a piece of news. Yeah, the piece of news. We're going to trademark it. What is the piece of news? In the next nine to 12 months, I'm going to be doing something that's going to be a life changer. Sex change operation? Sex change operation is bought for me. The transformation is going to be complete. All right. It's about time, Bruce. It is about time. I'm coming out. Two things. one thing's personal and one thing's a life changer. So, keep listening, folks. You only have a year to find out. You only have to listen to 51 more episodes. Yes, to find out the life-changing event, ladies and gentlemen. It is personal for me and as always, it's pinball related. Of course it is. I'm looking underneath this the Bobby Orr and I'm trying to figure out whether that's a fax machine or just It's got to be a fax machine. It looks like a number pad. No, it's a bread maker. No, no. Yes, it is. No, that's not a bread maker. The thing I'm looking at ain't a bread maker. It's like a fax machine. The white thing? It's a bread maker. You're high. You are so high. That's a bread maker. I think you're looking at the different white thing that I'm looking at. What is that? Bread maker. No, that's not a bread maker. I'm looking right at it. On the one side, you put the numbers in. On the other side, you put your dough in there. Okay, so our listeners, please look at this. You got the auction info from him. Please write us and tell us what you think that is. 3021-611-5-6755. Oh, and one more thing. Kevin Manny said the next time he was going to see me, he was going to kick me into Jimmy because we said it so many times last week. Okay. Okay, then can we challenge the other crew? I think we have to put out the official challenge. I think what we should do is during their next bro stream, we should just crash the stream and just start posting, like, bro fear slam tilt over and over just so their viewers get pissed at us. Actually, that would not be cool. That wouldn't happen. But we challenge. Slam tilt podcast challenges bro to even pinball. Ron will even drive out at least as far as Bruce's house so Bruce can drive the rest of the way to take you guys on in Buffalo as long as it's not a snowstorm or something or ridiculously cold. But I will do so. We will challenge. We'll challenge you, and we should even challenge you at Kevin's house. No, we don't go to Kevin's. Oh, come on. We'll beat him on his own games. No, we'll go to Pocketeer so all people can come out and watch also. Oh, yes. the huge crowd that will be gathering like, oh, my God, I can't believe this is happening. This is an epic moment. Yes. They'll be telling their children about this for years to come. Yes, they will. They'll be telling the stories of the victories. Kerplop. Kerplop. Or kerplop when the crap hits the toilet bowl. All right. Kerplop. I just think it's Team America, World Police. Are we time to pay the bills? Time to pay the bills. www.pimballlifter.com. Come check out my products. Buy, buy, buy. And if we have to have a contest, we will be donating prizes. How does that sound? No, you may sound like we're forced to. If we have to have a contest. If we have a contest. I believe the contest up the run. I get the guest, which we'll have a special guest next week. Oh, yes, we almost forgot to do the plug there. Yes, we have a special guest, which I think we mentioned his name before, though, haven't we? Yeah, Jeff Teolis from Pinball. What is he from? Pinball Profile. He'll be on, and we will be actually on his show eventually, too. Oh, my. Oh, by the way, you missed out on a Gottlieb teed off in your area in Glen Falls. Yeah, I saw. I know the seller. That's Scott. I know. Yeah. You actually sold it? He sold it. Okay. Yeah, I saw it there. I was tempted for a split second, and then it's like, meh, meh. It sucks. No, it does not suck. Stop. It's a good System 3. Don't listen to Bruce, folks. There are good System 3s out there, despite what he may say. There are good System 3s other than lights, camera, action. Sucks, sucks, sucks. You are such a mark for lights, camera, action. If you love it so much, why'd you sell it? I've had two of them. Yeah, and he sold both of them, folks. That's how much he hates Gottlieb. Excuse me. How many games have you owned more than one? More than once, you mean? Yes. None. Okay. I'm sane. Ask me how many times I've owned Whirlwind. How many times have you owned Whirlwind, Bruce? Three times. How many times have you owned World Cup Soccer, Bruce? Four times. Whodunit? Four times. This is the sign of a problem. Well, I told you I had a problem, and what did I do? I started selling off some games. I'm on a seven-step program. Yeah, JT was saying, like, I don't believe he's selling the Skateball. Yep. Skateball is sold, and then we picked up on when we go down to Binghamton next month. You mean Flashlight? Flashlight, yes. Okay, that's not fair. I actually believe it's a better game than Flash, but it does not exist without Flash, because it is a copy of the Playfield. But it's definitely a superior game than Flash. Yeah, I'll give you that. Yes, the rules are definitely better. Although Flash sold way more, so clearly it's better. So, shows. There's a couple shows coming up for Central New York Pinball. I'm trying to get it up right now. I'm trying to get it up right now. Yep, yep, I've heard that. Oh, my. On the 20th is the bi-weekly three strikes tournament at Wizard Pinball in Syracuse, New York. On the 22nd is Tis the Season of Pinball at Cloud City Comics and Toys. Aren't they the ones that usually have the really crazy names? That is, and that's the Tis the Season. That's kind of too normal for them. It is a little too normal for them. 27th of december is binghamton pinball for the three strikes at moonwalker arcade in vestal new york and december 30th is the salt city pinball league open finals everyone's invited to come on out all this information is found at the central new york pinball on the facebook page buffalo pinball has their selfie league going on right now nox musemix is taking the month off and Central New York Location League is also taking the month off because it is finals for this month. But they're going to have next year's Location League information coming up very soon from Mr. Eric Russell. Which one? I don't know. There's three of them now. There's three Eric Russells. There's Eric S. Russell, Eric Russell, and Eric Russell CNY. You got it. So one of the three Eric Russells we'll be doing. He will be one of the three. MAGFest is coming up. MAGFest in Virginia, right? much. It's at the Gaylord Convention Center or something like that? It is. It's January 5th, 38th, 2017. They sell up really fast there. Yeah, if you're there and you get a parking spot, don't move. Don't move. Don't go out for lunch and expect to get a spot because I believe what happened last year, they had people who were in the playoffs who ended up missing the playoffs because they left for lunch, came back, and could not get a spot to park and drove around and around and were DQ'd. It was Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It's a mere minutes from Washington, D.C. and Virginia. It's a huge convention. I've been there before for business-related reasons. So if you want a good time for pinball and everything like that, definitely check it out. They actually have train stations by it and everything, too. So I heard it's a really good show. I will not be there, but maybe some other people will. They do everything there. They have music and cosplay and everything. Oh, Slayer's going to be there? Slayer. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slayer. Slayer rocks. Yeah. Little known fact, there was at least, no, there was one episode where Beavis wears a Slayer shirt. There you go. Instead of the typical metallic shirt. anything else for you except for our i gave ron my flight information for uh march so hopefully too far in the future folks but don't forget in january is the upstate finals it is it's uh going to be at a public location this year so everyone come out and watch and root us on moonwalker arcade 21st of vestal new york that's what i'll be bringing down the skateball somebody buying it from from binghamton january 21st at the moonwalker arcade get to meet michael jackson or at least a reasonable facsimile uh so uh from russia with love from russia with love episode three kind of weak on the music there yeah they definitely they'd ramp it up with the next movie i can't wait for the next episode is the best Bond movie ever. What is it, Goldfinger? Goldfinger. You can find us on Facebook. Just search for the Slam Tilt Podcast. Look for us on YouTube. I should be posting some more videos soon. Search for Slam Tilt Podcast on YouTube. You can send us your comments, questions, concerns to our mailbag, the slam bag. Ball bag. The slam ball bag. We'll just call it the ball bag. The Ball Bag at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. So thank you, everyone. This concludes Episode 23 from Rush With Love. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Eric Russell S. Eric Russell or Eric Russell CNY.
Hobbitgame
Game of Thronesgame
Tim Ballsperson
Joe Saeedperson
Kevin Mannyperson
J.T. Harrisonperson
Aaronperson
Medieval Madnessgame
Iron Mangame
Starsgame
Kissgame
Automate Itvenue
Pinball Done Quickevent
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Steven Bowdenperson
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community_signal: Community frustration with Stern's lack of code updates and pricing strategy despite quality issues

high · Bruce states 'it burns my bridges, it burns my buttons'; discusses price increases without code; reference to 'Where's the code guy' meme on Facebook

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    collector_signal: Ron shifting from Stern to Jersey Jack Pinball; selling Ghostbusters, depositing on Dialed In LE based on Slam Tilt podcast recommendation

    high · Direct announcement of $250 Dialed In LE deposit and decision to sell Ghostbusters due to poor experience

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    event_signal: Pinball Done Quick speedrun charity event scheduled January 8-15, 2017, benefiting cancer prevention foundation

    high · Detailed event information provided; hosts promoting on social media; multiple community players confirmed as participants

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    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball Dialed In Limited Edition positioned as best value option per Slam Tilt recommendation

    medium · Ron citing podcast recommendation for LE tier selection; $250 deposit amount mentioned

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    manufacturing_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball Dialed In machines not expected to ship until springtime; history of production delays noted

    high · Ron acknowledges spring shipping timeline; Bruce references prior JJP delays with Wizard of Oz and Hobbit (year and a half wait, deposit increase pressure)

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    venue_signal: Automate It arcade experiencing power management issues; circuit breaker tripping during multiball on heavily loaded game row

    medium · Ron describes power issue during Dialed In play; needed to turn off adjacent Wizard of Oz to prevent breaker trips

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    content_signal: Slam Tilt Podcast debuts new recurring 'What's in Your Slam Box' segment covering toolbox essentials for pinball collectors

    high · Bruce introduces segment concept; first episode covers voltmeters with specific brand recommendations (Fluke, Craftsman, avoid Harbor Freight)