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Episode 195. MEGA episode

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·1h 35m·analyzed·May 5, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball Profile mega episode covers Texas Pinball Festival 2019 with interviews from organizers, celebrities, and manufacturers.

Summary

Jeff Teolis hosts a mega episode of Pinball Profile from Texas Pinball Festival 2019, featuring interviews with organizer Ed Van Der Veen, cast members Butch Patrick and Pat Priest from The Munsters, Spooky Pinball's Charlie Emery discussing Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle, content creators, and various community figures. The episode captures the festival's scale, production quality, and its emergence as the premier North American pinball expo, surpassing Chicago Expo in collector participation.

Key Claims

  • Texas Pinball Festival is bigger than last year and continues to grow annually

    high confidence · Ed Van Der Veen states: 'it is a bigger show it gets bigger every year'

  • Texas has a larger collector base than other regions due to lack of basements, making it easier for collectors to transport games

    high confidence · Ed Van Der Veen explains: 'one thing that we have in texas especially in the dallas fort worth area is we have such a huge collector base... in texas there's not a lot of basements it's it's easier for the collectors to get their games here'

  • Chicago Expo was primarily an industry show but lacked collector participation compared to Texas

    high confidence · Ed Van Der Veen: 'Chicago, for a long time, I go to Expo every year, and it was really kind of an industry show for a long time. They don't have the collector base that I think that they need'

  • The Munsters pinball machine took 19 years to be licensed after slot machines

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis notes: 'IGT originally tried to test out the market for TV show slot machines, they used the Munsters as their test market about 19 years ago. Huge success. But it took 19 years for pinball to catch up.'

  • Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle is difficult to build and Spooky intentionally delayed production to refine code

    high confidence · Charlie Emery states: 'It's not an easy game to build, so it's been a little slow getting off the ground. We intentionally drug our feet to get the code where it needs to be.'

  • Over 400 pinball machines were displayed at Texas Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Ed Van Der Veen: 'we have over 400 here'

  • Stern's Black Knight and JJP's Willy Wonka were not announced at TPF but the following week

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis: 'I'd be lying if I wasn't a little disappointed that Stern's Black Knight and JJP's Willy Wonka weren't announced or shown at TPF and were the following week'

  • Christopher Franchi (Stern artist) had a significant flood that destroyed equipment

Notable Quotes

  • “This is the show that everyone wants to come to”

    unnamed attendee @ early in TPF segment — Establishes Texas Pinball Festival's premier status in the community

  • “wherever you live, support your local pinball show because without the help of the community, there really can't be a show”

    Ed Van Der Veen @ TPF interview — Philosophy on grassroots pinball community participation and event sustainability

  • “We intentionally drug our feet to get the code where it needs to be”

    Charlie Emery (Spooky Pinball) @ Alice Cooper interview — Reveals production philosophy prioritizing code quality over rapid release

  • “I don't think about it. You know what I think about any time I travel to all these pinball shows? I see Bob Matthews there”

    Emoto @ food court segment — Humorous reference to the ubiquity of community figures at major events

  • “I've fixed eight games already today. Luckily, it was nothing catastrophic, just silly stuff like people didn't rebuild their flippers”

    Emoto @ TPF tournament logistics segment — Highlights tournament maintenance challenges and volunteer importance

  • “It's so heavy, too. Mark Masserve failed to seatbelt it when he drove it up here and took a hard left turn and it fell over and snapped”

    Emoto @ trophy discussion — Humorous anecdote about TPF trophy transport mishap

  • “The Munsters were my closest thing to a real family while my family was gone”

    Butch Patrick @ Munsters cast interview — Personal reflection on the cast's familial bond during filming

  • “It worked out well for both of us because we weren't up head-to-head. We were on Thursday night, they were on Friday night”

    Butch Patrick @ Munsters vs Addams Family discussion — Historical context on 1960s television scheduling and competition

Entities

Texas Pinball FestivaleventEd Van Der VeenpersonJeff TeolispersonButch PatrickpersonPat PriestpersonThe Munsters (pinball)gameCharlie EmerypersonAlice Cooper Nightmare Castlegame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Infrastructure investment at regional pinball shows; RPM model with collector participation driving vendor attendance

    high · Ed Van Der Veen explains collector base creates show attraction; vendors follow collectors to shows; volunteer infrastructure critical

  • ?

    community_signal: Twippies awards event gaining significance as community celebration of pinball achievements across multiple categories

    high · Jeff Teolis: 'I finally realized how important it is to so many people as a celebration of the different aspects of all things pinball'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball prioritizing code quality and production refinement over rapid release schedule for Alice Cooper

    high · Charlie Emery: 'It's not an easy game to build... We intentionally drug our feet to get the code where it needs to be'

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival established as premier North American pinball expo, surpassing Chicago Expo in collector participation and scale

    high · Ed Van Der Veen confirms TPF 'gets bigger every year' with superior collector base; Chicago Expo was 'industry show' lacking collector participation

  • $

    market_signal: Stern delayed Black Knight announcement and JJP delayed Willy Wonka announcement to prioritize showcasing Munsters and Wizard of Oz respectively

    high · Jeff Teolis: 'those companies wanted to push Munsters and the new version of Wizard of Oz, respectively. So I get it.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.280

0:00
it's time for a mega pinball profile i'm your host jeff tiolis you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile email us pinball profile at gmail.com and please subscribe on either itunes stitcher or google play now that we're in may i'm reflecting on the last two months busy that's an understatement lots and lots of travel personally for me for pinball including Chicago, Texas, Vegas, Cleveland, and more recently in Edmonton. I think all the flying actually took its toll on me. I lost my voice for almost two weeks. I was sick for another week, but finally things are settling down back to normal here. But you're about to hear from many of those in attendance at these events. First up, Texas Pinball Festival, which lived up to the hype. I'm so glad I went. What an amazing show. So much to see. The tournament's very well run, and I got to see and meet many great people and new friends. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Twippies, and after seeing it, I finally realized how important it is to so many people as a celebration of the different aspects of all things pinball. So congratulations to each and every one of the winners, and of course to Jeff Patterson and his committee for a top-notch production. I'd be lying if I wasn't a little disappointed that Stern's Black Knight and JJP's Willy Wonka weren't announced or shown at TPF and were the following week, But those companies wanted to push Munsters and the new version of Wizard of Oz, respectively. So I get it. Finally, a big thanks to all the collectors, the vendors, the pinball companies, and seminar hosts who made TPF a blast. I've already booked my hotel for next year. Here are some of the people at TPF. It's the show everyone wants to come to. It's my first time here. And thanks in part to Ed Van Der Veen, who joins us right now. Texas Pinball Festival, how much work do you put into this? I put in a lot of work. My wife, Kim, puts in a ton of work. Paul McKinney puts in a ton of work. The volunteers put in a ton of work. I mean, this is the show that I'm surprised this is your first time here. What do you think about it so far? You're just here. This is just the first day of setup, and you can see what goes into it just so far. Huge. A beautiful facility. I've seen machines I've never seen before. I mean, some great custom games. And I know there's going to be over 400 here. 400. You've got Butch Patrick here. You've got Pat Priest. You've got John Ray's Davies coming. I mean, you do this every year. You've always, Lou Frigno was here last year. Didn't you have Flash Gordon as well? Yes, Flash Gordon, Elvira, the first time we did that, yeah. So the planning must be just ridiculous. And let's not forget, Ed, you just got finished a great career in law enforcement. Congratulations on the retirement. Thank you. So, yeah, I retired from law enforcement. My original plan was to just play some pinball and land the beach, but now a lot of people have seen I'm running. I'm running for mayor of my hometown in Middle Oathian, Texas, so it's not like I. You're busier now that you're retired. I don't know how I held down a full-time job before I did this. But once I get through this weekend, which is going to be a great weekend, I'll have some time to work on my campaign. No, no, you won't because Franchi's going to get you to do that podcast. Yes. You've got to watch it. The podcast. I'm pretty sure we're going to win Best Podcast for 2018.

high confidence · Ed Van Der Veen mentions: 'He had a flood. All of his equipment got ruined'

Christopher Franchi
person
Emotoperson
Rachelperson
Antoinette Johnsonperson
Spooky Pinballcompany
Lee Wigolinskiperson
Rob Burkeperson
Dick McNicholas & Karen Thornburgperson
Marco Specialtiescompany
Ryan Claytor & Nick Baldridgeperson
Jeff Pattersonperson
Scott Deniseperson
?

personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi (Stern artist) experienced significant flood damage to equipment, affecting production capacity

medium · Ed Van Der Veen mentions flood; Franchi had 'all equipment got ruined'; unclear direct impact on production timeline

  • ?

    announcement: Stern's The Munsters pinball officially released with multiple art packages including black and white retro version

    high · Butch Patrick and Pat Priest present at TPF; machine displayed with three different art packages; reviews positive per cast commentary

  • ?

    technology_signal: Content creation infrastructure normalizing in pinball community with dedicated YouTube channels for tutorials and mods

    high · Lee Wigolinski's PinballSupernova.com has 5-year presence; provides one-stop resource for repairs, mods, and purchasing guidance

    • 3:10
    Is that going to happen? I bug Franchi about that all the time. I'm waiting on him. I'm ready whenever he is. But he's had a lot to go on. He had a flood. All of his equipment got ruined. I don't know. Do you think he turned on the taps himself? I don't know. Come on, Ed. He says, I don't know. At the cops' investigation, you must know some people in the Michigan law enforcement. I haven't talked to the insurance company yet, but no, that was a shame that he did lose a lot of stuff in that. Yeah, absolutely. No question about it. And Franchi's a butt of both of ours, so we're just joking. Ed, this is, again, my first time. It's a pleasure to be here. Everyone talks about this is where things shifted. Years ago, it was Expo, but Texas has just been growing and growing and growing. And I wasn't here last year. compare this year 2019 to last year is this a bigger show it is a bigger show it gets bigger every year i mean one thing that we have in texas especially in the dallas fort worth area is we have such a huge collector base i mean it's and i know you know in some of the other parts of the the country you know a lot of people have basements where their game rooms are they're upstairs it's but in texas there's not a lot of basements it's it's easier for the collectors to get their games here and um so and they take this as part of their show i mean this is their show if you talk to a lot of these exhibitors, they refer to this as our show, and they take ownership in it. That's great, and we appreciate them. We couldn't have it without them. Of course, the vendors start talking to each other, and they go, well, Texas is a great show, so they start showing up. Chicago, for a long time, I go to Expo every year, and it was really kind of an industry show for a long time. They don't have the collector base that I think that they need, but I think I went to the last Expo. It was a really good show. I think Rob did a good job of, he's trying to turn it around, building it back up. So he did a good job of building it back up again. I told him, I said, man, you did a great job. Rob and I have talked quite a bit. He's asked me a lot of questions. But we're just blessed that we've got a great facility and a great collector base. And the vendors, you know, they come, they, you know, we do our best. I've seen a lot of people that go to both shows, too. So I imagine the success of each show actually probably helps each other in a way, too, because it just gets that buzz of pinball going. It does, and I tell everybody, wherever you live, support your local pinball show because without the help of the community, there really can't be a show. So sometimes people complain about this show or that show, and I ask them, well, what did you bring? How did you contribute? And I get it. Not everybody can bring a pinball machine, but if you can, support your local pinball show. Sure. And volunteer. That's a big thing. We always need volunteers. But I don't know. We're just very blessed. We try really hard. We do the best that we can. Of course, I run around frazzled for the next three days. I appreciate people wanting to come talk to me and stuff. If I'm short or rude, I don't mean to be. I'm just busy. Talk to me after the show or I'll see you at another pinball show. Sure. You know what you forgot to do here? Just some constructive criticism. Early voting. Early voting for Marist. It actually starts April 22nd. You should have moved the show. April 22nd is when early voting starts. You would have got a few votes for sure. Hey, Rob, Burke's not running for mayor, is he? No. You got that on him. No, I know. I'll be at Rob Burke for sure. I'm not worried. Ed, to you, Kim, and everyone, thanks very much. Thank you. Looking forward to Texas Pinball Festival. All right. You're going to have a great time, I promise. One of the biggest treats here at Texas Pinball Festival is Butch Patrick. Eddie Munsters here, along with Pat Priest, who played in Maryland. It's got to be exciting for you to finally see the Munsters Pinball machine being made. It really is. I can't believe it took this long, but I'm happy it's finally here. That's interesting you say about it took a long time, because the Munsters was so heavily merchandised back in the day when it aired in 64 to 66 reruns and then the shows in the 80s. So it did take a long time for this to happen. You know, it's interesting. Something similar to pinball, the slot machines. When IGT originally tried to test out the market for TV show slot machines, they used the Munsters as their test market about 19 years ago. Huge success. But it took 19 years for pinball to catch up. And what a great game. What do you think when you see it and you look at that beautiful art and there's different art packages as well? Yeah, there's three different ones. The black and white's awesome. It's great, the retro look to it. I haven't actually had a chance to play it, but I read the reviews, and everybody that has been contacting me that have bought one, everybody seems to really love it, and they really think the design and the people that put it together, these rock stars of the pinball design business, have done a magnificent job. What do you think of some of the clips that they've used? I mean, it's got to be kind of nice to see them. I haven't seen them yet. Oh, Butch, you're going to love it this weekend. I know. That's the whole point. I'm really in for a treat. I haven't had a chance to actually see one in person operating. This is going to be a lot of fun for you. A lot of people are looking forward to seeing you and Pat as well. And you brought a couple of nice-looking vehicles as well, too. Yeah, I tour around the country now. I have a company called Munsters Events, and I'm a gearhead. And I actually purchased these two cars about four or five years ago after working with the cars for about five years. So I love it, and it allows me to get out and do more things than just personal appearances at Comic-Cons and stuff. I do racetracks. We do Indy Racing League. I do baseball stadiums. We do car dealerships. Anytime you can bring a crowd of people to a car dealership, they love you. So we go, we crisscross the country doing all kinds of great stuff. It's got to be great for you to see the different generations that are in love with the Munsters as well, too. We're talking over 50 years since that show aired. I still remember it as a kid, and it's great. My kids are familiar with it, too, thanks to DVDs and whatnot. But it's really something to see something that nostalgic and still mainstream today in the form of a pinball machine. Well, you know, the 60s, the Munsters were on from 64 to 66, which was right in the middle of the, you know, The Beatles came to America in 64. The Mustang. People just remember the 60s. They were lucky enough to live through it. They really remember it. But even people that were born after that, they go back to it, and they enjoy the stuff from that period. And it was a great time for television. It was simpler. It was comedy at its best. You had shows that didn't have to have any basis in reality. You had Martians and genies and witches and monsters and all kinds of great stuff. And people still respond very well to it. What was it like for you as far as not so much the actor but as the family with Fred Gwynn, with Yvonne DiCarlo, with Al Lewis? And what did they mean to you? Well, literally, it was funny because my mom had married a baseball player, and she was living on the East Coast. I was living with my uncle because once I got the part, I didn't have anywhere to go. So they were literally, the Munsters were my closest thing to a real family while my family was gone. But it was great. We stumbled on paper. You look at the show. You would think, this is no way this is going to fly. But it caught fire. The cast was great. The writing was great. The sets, the special effects, it all fell into place. What was it like back in the day? Was there like a Coke-Pepsi thing between the Munsters and Adams family? You know, it actually worked really well for both of us because we weren't up head-to-head. We were on Thursday night, they were on Friday night. But the idea that whether you preferred one or the other, there's a very good chance you watched them both. If you like the Adams family, you were still going to catch the Munsters and vice versa. So it worked out well for both of us. Butch, all the best at Texas Pinball Festival. Thank you very much. I don't know if there's an award for this, but if there was, my vote goes to the hardest working people at Texas Pinball Festival, Rachel Bess and Antoinette Johnson. I've seen what they've been doing all day here at Marco's Specialties. And, Rachel, you've just been go, go, go. I can't believe you've taken time to come talk to me here. That's what I do. Go, go, go. By the way, congratulations on the nuptials. That's very exciting news. Thank you so much. Thank you. Pinball brings people together. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Antoinette, it's great to see you all decked out with your Stern Munsters do. You're going to be a big part of that this weekend. Yes, absolutely. Can't wait. I see, as promised, when Antoinette was on here, she was talking about getting the Munsters. And I'm looking at all of these amazing premium machines. It's got to be pretty impressive. You've got to love it, Rachel. I love it. I can't wait to play it, and I can't wait to get mine home. Now, on the last Stern game, you probably were a bit of a fan of that, with Beatles being a big fan. Was that rooting for Paul, or who was that? That was actually just a little surprise that Franchi pulled on me. I just found out one day, hey, Rachel, I put you on the play field. I'm like, what do you mean you put me on the play field? Oh, sure enough, there I am. It's pretty impressive. It's a cool party trick. It's a nice keepsake. All right, Antoinette, what are you looking forward to here at Marco Specialties and at Texas Pinball Festival? Definitely new Munsters, and I haven't had a chance to try out the premium yet, and really anxious to try that lower play field. I know. It's something very unique with the four flippers, too. What a great, amazing setup you've got here. And we'll take some pictures, too, to show you on our Facebook page. Rachel, Antoinette, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. They come from all over here to Texas Pinball Festival, even from the Garden State from New Jersey. And we're here with PinballSupernova.com, Lee Wigolinski. And one thing I like about this Texas Pinball Festival is I get to meet people like yourself and learn about what you do. And it's videos, it's mods. Tell us about it. I started the channel probably about four years ago, five years ago, when I got into the hobby. The hobby needed something to show how to do mods and just tutorials on how to do repairs or purchasing pinballs and stuff like that. So my YouTube channel, my blog, kind of shows people how to buy games, how to repair them, mods that are out there from the different pinball companies out there today. And that's kind of what Pinball Supernova is all about. So it's like a one-stop shop for pinball. So, from beginners to those advanced collectors, if you will. Correct. Now, that's good because if I go back a few years ago when it came time for me to buy my first pinball game, the biggest fear wasn't where am I going to put this, not even what it's going to cost. It's how do I fix it? And I still have that fear, and I'm almost afraid to ask what I think are dumb questions. Sure. Well, if you watch my videos, sometimes it's things that you don't know about in pinball. and my videos will show how to repair the simplest things and maybe some of the more major things. And I do the same thing. If I have a problem that I never fixed before on a pinball machine, I'll go on Google, do my search, stuff like that. My YouTube channel is a one-stop shop to browse, do a search, or even go online through Google, and nine times out of ten, my videos will pop up to show that tutorial on how to repair or, again, how to install that mod that you... Or a color DMD, like I have from White Star, Sam, all the Sterns. And then I have Williams, the different years of Williams, of how to install a color DMD in each one of my games. So your channel's been around for about five years. Were you influenced by people like Clay in Michigan? He had a great podcast, and I really liked what I would listen to on his podcast. And then the older podcasts that followed him, I would listen to as well. and then um i got into the hobby or basically into pinball when i was eight or nine i'm around your age actually 32 exactly 32 33 and then basically um i used to go to a bar with my uncle he would he knew the owners of the bar so we would go play like black hole haunted house space invaders the pinball machines and that's kind of where i got my start two guys was like this store near my house, and it had a huge arcade. And we would go there, and my dad would go. So my uncle and dad were really into pinball, and that's how I was influenced into pinball. Lee, I'm so glad that you came out to me and said hello, and I got to know a little bit more about pinballsupernova.com, and check out the videos. Thanks very much. I appreciate it. Getting ready for TPF here at Spooky Pinball with Charlie Emery, and looking at these beautiful Alice Cooper Nightmare Castles. You've got to be very proud. Very, very proud. Hey, Christopher Franchi, we'll talk later, okay? buddy. Sure. Bye!
    14:41
    Well, I'm looking forward to We're stirring up weirdness. Yeah, I'm looking forward to Bowen's tutorial, and especially since that's going to be archived too, because this is a deep game. You have to be very proud, like we said. There's a lot of moving parts on this, and still it's new for so many of us to really learn how to play this game, but your thoughts on the game? Extremely proud of it. Our guys have done a tremendous job of getting it together. It's not an easy game to build, so it's been a little slow getting off the ground. We intentionally drug our feet to get the code where it needs to be. Bowen is a huge part of that, as is Scott Denise, as is Mr. Fosma, our programmer, and everybody else involved. David Vaness, our animations guy. This game has wonderful, beautiful animations. And the art package is great. I'm really proud of it. And you should be. And in fact, so is the person on the back glass. I know that you're going to be heading to Phoenix, Arizona to be dropping off one of these at Alice's house. We are, yes. Yes, Alice is as nice a human being as they come. He's even nicer than Christopher Franchi. Well, that's not hard to be. I'm not just saying that because he's behind me. You jerk!
    15:43
    It's wonderful working with Alice and his manager, Shep Gordon. They're just great, great people to deal with. Well, I'm looking forward to this being a great year for Spooky Pinball. Congratulations again on Alice Cooper. I know Scott Denisey's next up, so it's going to be a good year. We're going to be cranking on this game from now until he's getting on the podcast. This is great. We're going to be working on this thing until November, December. We hope it sells out. We've got a few left, so go to SpookyPinball.com if you'd like to see one. And, yes, wait until you see what Scott Denise is doing. I have, and I love that young man. And he is as nice as you think he is. He is, for sure. Thanks very much, Charlie. Thank you, Jeff. You have the most professional, beautiful voice in all of pinball podcasting. You're a damn near professional radio quality guy, aren't you? Thank you. Thanks, Charlie. Thanks, Jeff.
    16:27
    Thanks, buddy. It's a place I haven't been to. It is on the wish list for sure for me to get to Oregon because of so many great pinball players and venues and things to see there. Well, now you can take a piece of that home thanks to Dick McNicholas and Karen Thornburg who have Pinball Art USA. They're here at Texas Pinball Festival. And you'll see on the Facebook page some of these gorgeous prints. Dick, tell us how this all started for you. I've been in the amusement business since 1976. I retired a number of years ago. had all this collection of back glass and I wanted to do something with it. I knew I had to get a permit or licensing from the manufacturers to do it. We've done that. It's taken us two years to build the website and get products. We print on canvas, stretched on one-and-a-half-inch bars. We have aluminum. The images just pop right off of it. We do it on vinyl, and we do it in custom-built frames. at the time of manufacturing, and we also do it on greeting cards. We're looking at other products like jigsaw puzzles and other things coming down the line. Jigsaw puzzles. Jermaine Marriol from also the Northwest also is a huge puzzle guy. We talk about our puzzle doing, do the puzzles, do the puzzles. Yes, yes, yes. Do you like them too, Karen? Oh, I love puzzles. Oh, you bet. Well, you know what? When I first walked in here at the vendor area, I noticed the back glasses. I thought, well, they're a little smaller. I thought they were actual back glasses. And then I come up. I see the canvas. I see the frames. I see the greeting cards. This is pretty impressive, and I can't believe the attention to detail. You've done really well. Well, thank you. You can also find us on our website. It's pinballartusa.com, and we've got many, many images there to view and look at and purchase. I'm going to wish you all the show. I don't think I need to because, again, this pops. This is something you see when you first come in Texas Pinball Festival. These are gorgeous. We'll be talking later. Well done, Dick. Thank you, Jeff. And thank you, Karen. And thank you, Jeff. There's so much to do at the Texas Pinball Festival. Yes, there are a lot of different games to play. There's the tournaments. For me, it's all about the food courts. And who you see at the food court, there's Jeff Patterson of Twip, who's got a big, big night. We're all excited for the Twippies. It's going to be a lot of fun. Jessie Bodell from Buffalo Billiards in Austin, Texas, is here as well. And Emoto Harney. My God, we've seen these people all over. How are you, Emoto? Oh, my gosh. I don't even know how I am. I'm about to explode. It's so exciting. Are you tired? Because you're everywhere. And how can I be tired? There's just so much energy around here. It just keeps me going. When I tell people how often I play and when I play and the long tournaments and stuff like that, people are like, when do you sleep? And I'm like, I try not to think about it. Are you the same way? I don't think about it. You know what I think about any time I travel to all these pinball shows? I see Bob Matthews there, and I'm like, oh my gosh, he's everywhere. There are five Bob Matthews. A lot of people don't know that. I'm trying to figure out. If I can figure out how to clone myself like him, then. There's one in Thousand Oaks right now. I know you see one in Texas, but he's there. It's crazy. He was just there, Arcade Expo, sitting next to me when we were doing a panel discussion there. And now here he is again in the tournament area playing the EMs as per usual. Yes. Classics. And how are things at Buffalo Billiards? They're great, Jeff. Yeah. Really busy year. Added eight new pinball machines to the lineup. We're up to about 20. I was talking to Steve Bowden. He's been up there a few times. In fact, that's what got him qualified for the Texas Pinball Championship, I guess. Yeah. Which he won. He did. I was not here. I was at the Stars game.
    20:03
    I was thinking about going to that, too. Yeah, my buddy's got season tickets, so we sat right on the glass next to the bench. It was kind of nice. And what about teching? Because you can't have a big tournament. Well, you know this, too, Amoto. You can't have a tournament without great techs. I've seen you get under a few games already today. I've fixed eight games. already today. Luckily, it was nothing catastrophic, just silly stuff like people didn't rebuild their flippers before they brought them to the tournament. And they let you come out to the food court area. Oh, yeah. I told Colin I needed caffeine and I wouldn't be useful if I didn't get it. Well, I thank, and I know, Omoto, you're probably the same way, too. Whenever I see a volunteer attack somebody running a tournament, thank you, thank you, thank you, every single time. It's because of them that we have good shows, really. So if you're listening and you're going to an event, please thank them, or even one better, volunteer. That would help. Because right now, I'm the only tech outside of the two tournament directors and they're kind of busy directing tournaments. Hold them ransom. Do it. Do something. Pull your weight around. I know.
    21:03
    Missed opportunity. One breath, I'm talking about the goodwill, but you know what? You could have some big bucks here. I should. You'll have your own season tickets to the starts. Right? I should charge for this. Well, you need to make a shirt that says, hey, other techs, please help. Because so many guys around here, guys and girls, know how to fix the machines. I know how to break them. I keep you busy. Oh, come on. Are you in the tournament? I am, yes. Are you playing well? That's why I'm out here at the food court.
    21:30
    All right, thanks very much, Emoto. Great to see you. Oh, wait, last thing. How did the trophy break last night? Oh, the one that Steve... Okay, go ahead, go ahead. It's so heavy, too. Mark Masserve failed to seatbelt it when he drove it up here and took a hard left turn and it fell over and snapped. That's amazing it didn't go through. Sorry, Mark. It's so heavy. It is. It's great. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Good to see you again. Thanks. See you. Good luck on the tournament. You know, the biggest question here at TPF is really who is the best? A lot of people are asking that. I'm asking that. And what, again, the question relates to is who is the better host of Eclectic Gamers Podcast? You be the judge. Right now, they're with me. Here's Tony. Hi, Tony. How are you? Hey. How are you doing? And Dennis, who you heard recently on a podcast, low ratings to that podcast I had, Dennis. You were the lowest you ever had before. I blame the fact that you were up chucking every 15 minutes.
    22:24
    Tony, you are the glue to the show. There's no question about all the effort that you put in. Is it difficult to have Dennis on on a weekly basis, bi-weekly basis? It can hurt. Sometimes it just tears at my soul. See, I was supposed to have been working that day, but I was too busy, so I couldn't make the episode. I had to have a break. I had to have the time off. And Tony, is there truth to the fact that when Dennis had his house broken into, which is obviously very sad and tragic. It was terrible. It really was. Was the brick intended for him or was it to break in? I think the brick was probably intended for him and it just missed. Bad timing. It happens to all of us. Oh, here's Dennis. Hey, Dennis, how are you? Hey, Jeff. What's going on? You know what? We got another podcast. You were talking to the glue, huh? Yes. He needs the glue. Maybe we should bring in the cement. Hold on a second. The cement of the Eclectic Gamers podcast Let us bring in another guest I in Texas right now and I have just come across JR And he hasn been shot It not Ewing It Jeff Rivera who you know who you love from the Pinball Podcast Which, by the way, is the most creative name ever. Well, you know what? He's got dibs on it. We had to call him with stupid names.
    23:35
    And Jeff, you've been there for a long time. It's a very, very long time. And you're going around getting a bunch of selfies from people. Yep, 100 selfies at least of TPF. So Tony, Dennis, you're up next and next. So that's going to be the deal. I'm going to sort of like middle school direct art project is this. Well, I hope to not run into him this early and hope to have it done before that point. Yeah, you know, you don't want it to cramp your style. It just breaks down sometimes. Jeff, how are things? And you're from Utah, right? I am, Salt Lake City area. So Mark Robbins from Head to Head, another podcaster, he's going to be in Utah for the next couple of days. Are you going to show him around? I am, if he doesn't duck me. You're considered the generous Jeff I am I think it's because I gave him a couple bucks on Patreon Oh really? Boy they beg a lot don't they? They do Do you beg on Patreon? No I'm a GoFundMe sort of guy We don't have to ask That's the thing It just comes They open their hearts and their wallets For my wisdom to just flow Like water You know what I know it's not a good example, but really I suggest listening to Dennis and the stronger of the two, Tony, on Eclectic Gamers Podcast. Make sure you check out Jeff Rivera on the Pinball Podcast. It is great seeing all three of you. Thank you, Jeff. Good seeing you. His strength is all through steroids.
    24:57
    You've heard about it, and people have seen it here at Texas Pinball Festival. Coin Op Carnival, the original book about electronic tales of mechanical contraptions from Ryan Claytor and Nick Baldridge. You've heard them on a bunch of podcasts. And I've got to tell you, you guys had a seminar here earlier this week, and the books have been selling very, very well. You've got to be excited, don't you think, Nick? Absolutely. What's the feedback been from people you've heard already? Extremely positive. It's everything that we hope for and more. Very nice. And you're going to be doing a bunch of shows, too. Talk about the shows you're going to be at, Ryan. Oh, man, where do we start? There's 16 stops in 10 different states across North America. We're starting in Texas, of course, but we're hitting north, south, east west we've got shows in pennsylvania virginia michigan chicago pinball expo california nevada the pinball hall of fame a couple stops in texas michigan what am i missing sounds like you're everywhere in fact if you go to the website you'll be able to see uh kind of the whole tour the website again is coinop carnival.com just simple no hyphens anything just on pointoffcarnival.com. And I know this has been a big labor of love for both of you. The bingo machines, you creating that masterpiece of yours, Nick. I love bingo pinball. I find it to be incredibly challenging and very, very complex. And I wanted to learn exactly how they were designed from the ground up and share that with people. So what I've done is taken all 142 both production and non-production bingo pinball machines manufactured in the United States and put them into one cabinet, swappable plate fields, everything programmed wire for wire, ribbon for ribbon. It's got to be illustrated, too, and we go to our fine friend here from Michigan State, Go Spartans. That had to be fun for you. The animations are great, by the way. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'm not sure if you're talking about the bingo or the book at this point, but they were both incredible projects to work on. I did hardly anything on the multi-bingo. I helped Nick with a little back glass artwork, but the book has been about two years in the making, and we couldn't be prouder of how it came out. What amazes me about the pinball community in general is just how people kind of come together from all different walks of life. We're seeing people from all over the world here at this show, but it kind of is the same relationship for you too, Nick and Ryan, because you're in different parts of America, and yet you found this common bond, and look where you are now with Coin Off Carnival. Did you ever think when you first met you would get to this point? You know, we told a story in our seminar about how we did meet, which was we were essentially listeners of the pinball podcast. And there was this weirdo that wrote in about his bouncy bingo pinball machine being deeper than Twilight Zone. And I instantly wrote the co-host, Don, and said, you've got to send me this email. This sounds fascinating. And, of course, that turned out to be Nick. And we started chatting in very short order. he helped me through the restore of my first electromechanical project and our friendship blossomed from there we started taking family vacations together and it was during one of those family vacations that this idea for a collaborative publication was born so we've been working on it ever since and my gosh, it's here now the love of pinball, bringing people together and producing more great pinball content thank you very much Nick, thank you very much Ryan Point up carnival.com to get your copy of this fantastic book. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having us on, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff. People come from all over to be here at Texas Pinball Festival, and I found, finally, some good Australians. I mean, I talk to Ryan and Marty all the time, and finally, Rorden Osborne has joined us here from Sydney. How are you enjoying Texas? It's unbelievable, Jeff. it's just pinball on steroids for me for what we have at home. I mean, this is like 100 times anything we have. I've got to say I've probably played about three games since I've been here in two days. It's just yak, yak, yak to everyone. I walk down the aisle and there's Steve Ritchie, there's John Ball, there's Mark Ritchie, there's Dennis Nordman, everyone. I talk to all of them. That's pretty exciting too, and you have been into pinball for quite some time. In fact, your first machine probably, what, 30 years ago? Yeah. Well, my first game was when I was five years old. It was a Spanish. 30 years ago. Well, no. Yeah, I wish. You can lie. No one knows. Okay. Yeah, it was Spanish eyes, and I stood on a milk crate to play it. Just a box of flashing lights that was just, what is this? I want to play it. I want to do it. And then when I was about 18, I was just sitting there at work one day, and I just opened the paper at full sail. A Gottlieb Panthera, $50. I thought, you can buy pinball machines for home. Rang up, went and got it. It didn't work. That didn't bother me. Were you able to fix it or find someone?
    29:57
    I electrocuted myself a couple of times. And then I found someone. I just went to the Yellow Pages and the local pinball distributor. I took it there, $200. Came back, took it apart again. And then I went back again. and there was all these other machines there. And then suddenly, hey, you can buy pinball. I mean, I want a Space Invader pinball. I want a Countdown pinball. I want a Firepower pinball. And, I mean, it got ridiculous. These machines were like a – I paid from a distributor $285 for a – They made their money and you just wanted to get a little more out of that. That's good. Now, for those people under the age of 25, the yellow pages were pre-Google. That's kind of how we found out phone numbers. And phones were attached to the landlines, they call them, too. So, again, I just have to clarify that for our younger listeners. But you were talking about meeting Steve Ritchie, Mark Ritchie, Dennis Dordman, all these great people here. You've also been one of the kindest people here because you went around to talk to so many of us podcasters, and you gave us a lovely little treat. That was very kind of you. Yeah, Jeff, I've been listening to podcasts, all your podcasts now, for nearly a year. I'm in the car all day. and what's my interest in pinball. And I found all your podcasts and I've listened to every episode of what you've done on Pinball Profile. I've listened to every episode of Slap Save, Special Win Lit, Head to Head. And I mean, come on. I wake up Monday, come on, download, boys. I will listen to everyone's podcast probably three times a week. It gets to Thursday and I'm going, that's it, I've got to wait till Monday. So I just keep, I roll them over again. You know what I like about the shows you mentioned and the variety, it's that everybody has a different take on it, too. It might be their own perspective. It might be from collectors. It might be from competitions. It might be opinions, news. There is a nice variety, and there are a lot of great people now getting into it. And it's good, too, because the more people that get into it, the easier it is for somebody like me to say, all right, I'll step aside. See you later. Yeah, well, look, Jeff, I mean, the Internet has just brought us all together. Yeah. I mean, pre-Internet, we were just little cluster groups reading the local trading post, looking for machines and we really had no connection anywhere and once the internet came it's just grown and it's made a small community now worldwide where well i can beg my wife and say can i go to texas for three days i just want to hang with you i want to meet these guys that i know so intimately that's so cool so you made the trip over here i am going to be coming to Beer Neck of the Woods next January and February. So you're in Sydney. That's definitely a location my wife Anne and I are going to be coming to. So you have to give us some good tips. You know, we're probably going to have to do some touristy things. I might have to walk the bridge. I might have to see the opera house and some of those kind of things. But I need the, what's the insider? What are the good places to see in Sydney? You've got the zoo. You've got the, just walk over the Harbour Bridge. You don't have to spend the $300. I actually did all the CCTV on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for eight years. I'm scared of heights. I don't know if I'm going to go over. I'll walk it. Just walk it. You just have to walk it. You don't have to go up the top. I mean, how are your knees? Mine are short. My knees? I've got one left. Yeah, well, it's not going to be pleasurable. Worden, it has been pleasurable meeting you, and thanks for stopping by and seeing me and introducing yourself. I'll see you in January, if not sooner. I will definitely see you in Sydney, Jeff. I can't wait. I'll take you out for the time of your life. Oh, even better. Thanks very much. Okay. Thank you, Jeff. If you just watched the live Facebook video that I just put up, when we came by flipping out, I was talking about the hardest working men in pinball. And I certainly think of Jeff Patterson this week in pinball, but also this week in pinball podcast, straight down the middle, and the Twippies, Zach Menny. Hey, how are you, buddy? Jeff Teolis, we love you, man. I am so impressed. First of all, I saw the truck when you first came in. I'm like, pretty badass. How obnoxious is that? No, no, it's marketing. It's marketing. But you've done so much in so little. I didn't say with so little. I said so much in so little. Some might say that, yeah. Like you are like both feet in this whole thing. And it's just, I remember watching the first ever episode of Straight Down the Road. Oh, that was rough, man. That was rough. Oh, they're cute.
    34:18
    They're in the garage. Look at them. They're having fun. But it just grows and grows and grows. It does. You are this in-ball entity with so many different facets. Let's talk about Flippin' Out, first of all. Yeah, absolutely. That just started recently, didn't it? So we took over Flippin' Out Pinball. We bought the establishment in January. So ever since January, two months now, we hit the ground running. And, man, we've been selling most all titles from all major manufacturers, as well as, which is unique to us, as many of you know, is the stair-climbing hand truck by Escalera, helping many people get pinball machines up and down staircases. So we've been hustling, man. It's a lot of work, and it's what, Saturday I'm getting tired, but now I've got to gear up for the twippies. Well, so that's the thing. Like, to do one of the things you've done is a lot of effort. So let's just talk about flipping out. That's certainly a lot. That's full-time on the show. It is. By the way, you have a full-time gig. Yeah, I do, yes. The StairCat. It's very, very impressive. I know you're probably selling very well here at the show. We sell just as many of these things as we do pinball machines. Wow. We really do. So people love them, and they're built well, and they don't break, and they don't come up for sale used because people don't get rid of them. Okay, so flipping out the StairCat, that's two. Add your straight-down-the-middle videos that certainly come out. I mean, that is high production. And we all know that that's all me working, Jeff. That is not Greg Bone. You know what? I'm looking for Bone. I don't see him anywhere. He's probably drinking a beer at the hotel.
    35:46
    Okay, so there's that. And then the podcast. And thank you very much for having me on. Oh, we love you all. And by the way, you have to come on my show. We've talked about that. I would love to. Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. So that is pretty high production. I know from being on the, I guess, co-host side of it, what you put into it. And I got all the notes. So between you and Jeff Patterson, there's a lot of work there too. Absolutely. We're having fun with that as well. It's a totally different dynamic for me because I'm used to going back and forth with my co-host, Greg Bone, on the video show. But for the podcast, it's me and it's a co-host. Luckily, there's so many wonderful, flippant people in pinball that everybody welcomes me, and they come on the show, and they give it their all just like yourself. So I couldn't have a better group of friends than pinball. Now the fifth thing is the Twippy Awards, and there were over 2,500 votes. So you've really caught on to something. I told that to Jeff Patterson, too. I don't know if Jeff originally thought it was going to be this big when he started it off. you know, oh, let's maybe do a poll. And then I was impressed he even came out with trophies. I'm like, dude, that's, so, you know, that's out of his pocket, by the way. So please support him. And now it has grown. And now it is basically the highlight of the seminars here. That's great to hear. It's in the prime position, prime time, 8 o'clock. Saturday at 8. And it's going to be packed. You've got to be excited. A lot of work goes into that. I'm terrified, Jeff. Why? I don't do the group thing, man. It's just, it's really hard for me. A camera is one thing, a microphone is another. one-on-one with you. Love it. But I get large groups of people. Hopefully the lights are shining really bright so I don't have to pay attention to who's out there. The hardest thing, but you know what's good about the Twippies is that it's not a Q&A. A lot of the seminars, it's hard for the people on the booth to hear the questions because of the feedback and the speakers being ahead. So you'll be fine and I know a lot of work, a lot of production. We wanted to make it something special this year. Last year was the first inaugural, if you will. It was great. It was silly, it was goofy, but we wanted it more than just a poll, right? So you had to do something else. So we did that live on Twitch, and the response was so overwhelming that this year came around, and I told Jeff, I said, why don't we create for pinball an Oscars, a Golden Globes, an Emmys? And he said, because we're broke, Zach, we have no money. I said, okay, well, we can do it on a budget. If we mess up, we're with friends. Nobody cares. We're just having fun. And we're celebrating everybody. We're celebrating every single person producing to help make this hobby, industry, sport big. So why not? We'll do it. We'll make it bigger and bigger every year with the support of people like yourself or our sponsors or whoever. We're just having fun, man. Well, I know a lot of people are going to be watching straight down the middle to see the results. Yeah, thank you. Because a lot of them probably voted themselves. So all the best, Zach. I know you're busy. Thanks very much. Thanks so much, Jeff. We love you, man. I'm here with Paul Wilson right now, who's kind of, I don't want to call it a homebrew, it's a re-theme, but you've made this interesting Polynesian-themed game, and I saw it out in the hallway. Tell us about what you did. I got lucky. One of the guys out here had a student prince as a parts game, so he kept the back glass, he kept the plastics, and gave me the rest of the game. It's very unique, and take a look at our Facebook page, because I took a picture of it, too. I was with Carl D'Angelo, like, that looks familiar, but I didn't really know the game very well. And I saw a lot of lineups, people playing the game. It looked good. It looked like it shoot well. It's very unique. So what made you do the Polynesian theme? I guess there's a big subculture that I don't know about. Yeah, the tiki culture. I mean, you go to Disneyland and Trader Sam's. Oh, yeah. Right. The birds are the best. Yeah. I mean, it's just along that line. I got a buddy who's out in California. He goes to Disneyland. I love Trader Sam's. I just like the tiki stuff. I love the wood rail and all that kind of stuff, and I like woodworking. So I can go with the wood, I can get the exotic woods out, and I can just go to town on it. Well, how long did it take you to put that together? If you discount the six months where it's in storage, because I'm burned out, about four years.
    39:49
    And then there's weeks where I'm working 6 p.m. to midnight, I'm working on it. And then there's the pre-TPF. I get off work, go to the Makerspace, and then I don't go to bed for 30 hours. Because, Paul, you're right here in Dallas, aren't you? Yes, I am. Okay, so this show is growing and growing. You've seen it just expand to what it is now. The Twibby Award winner has the best show in all of pinball. It's a good place for you to showcase this game. Yeah, no, it's been great. And I've got to give a shout-out to Dallas Makerspace. There's a Vector comedian there and Nick Schell, when he was still out here before he moved to Roanoke. he helped me so much build that sucker out because he right before he moved out that was his last project here has helped me do that rebuild well paul four years that's obviously a labor of love and congratulations good on you on doing that thank you another project you might want to do uh this one is up for sale and a large chunk of that money is going to be going to pinball life to do it from a ground up custom good for you congratulations thank you very much i appreciate it. It's nice to see some familiar faces at Texas Pinball Festival, but of course all good things come to an end. The show is over. Miles Cameron from Oakville, Ontario. You've been coming to this for a while, haven't you? Yeah, this is my second year, Jeff. It's a really good festival in terms of a great mix of both tournament as well as vendors and games that you can play. For those that were there, you may have seen three or four people wearing like really nice Stetson cowboy hats and stuff, they were all from Toronto area. They were all Canadians too, and you were playing a game last night, I think it was Oktoberfest, and it had to be kind of nice that this young woman came up and gave you a hug. I love cowboys! Yeah, and I didn't think someone from Oakville, Ontario could end up becoming a cowboy so quickly. Just buy a hat and walk around and pretend you love Texas, which is really easy to do. There are so many different things I can think of that I loved about the tournament and the show and the seminars. What were some of the things that stood out to you, whether it was a vendor or a game itself? I think it's the quality of the game in terms of the preciseness of these guys fixing up the machines and being able to spend thousands of dollars on modding up these machines, making them look perfect, and bringing them to the show so other people can enjoy them. I mean, there is no other festival that I've been to, which I've been to about three or four across the country, that has that quality of game. When you get up to it, you think it's brand new. It took me a while to realize how passionate people are about their machines, especially the collectors, because obviously I'm more playing and not really paying attention as much to the mods and the toppers, but you can really bedazzle some of these machines, and we saw some of the greatest mods ever at Texas Pinball Festival. A hundred percent. I mean, there was even a Star Trek game that was a complete reverse profile, where the shooter lane was on the left side versus the right. He took the game entirely from original Star Trek and reversed everything.
    42:43
    All the shots were reversed. All the numbers were reversed. And even took the graphics at the back of the back glass and changed the look of all the characters for the detail level of having a reverse Star Trek pinball machine. I know how much you like Texas Pinball Festival. In fact, you booked your hotel, what, early March last year. You'll probably book 2020 in the week or so, right? Yeah, no, the guys that we came down with, they all loved it. Most of them were here for the first time, and as soon as the hotel block opens up, we're going to be booking it and saving these dates for next year. Thanks, Miles. Safe ride home. Thank you very much, Jeff. Congrats to Raymond Davidson. He was the winner of the TPF Wizards Tournament, and to Kristen Gregory, winner of the Texas Takedown Women's Pinball Championship. Also, Bob Matthews, the Classics winner, just like he did at InDisc. So I flew back to the Northeast after Texas only to fly back to the Southwest the next week for Pinmasters. It was also the North American Championship in Las Vegas. But there was a little trade show the day before. I had to check out and see who was there.
    43:55
    Walking around the amusement expo right now with an operator who has done a lot of good things in California. Jim Belcedo's here and you'll hear some different noise in the background. and we really are walking around checking this out. You come all the time, don't you? Every year. What is the thing you've noticed about the show as far as growth, as far as what the new trends are? Smaller and smaller every year. That's what Roger was just telling me. It used to be in the really big convention center. Is it because there are different shows? Is it the time of the year? Is it too close to IAAPA? Well, IAAPA is tricking over the biggest show of the year for sure. That's a monster show. The industry is definitely smaller than it used to be. I would say there was thousands more operators back in the 80s and 90s. And there was a lot of people that did it on the side. It wasn't their full-time job. And now we're down to really the hardcore people. That's all they do. This is the serious people that's left. And this is the show. And there's less games, too. It's not about video games anymore. It's about ticket games. And pinball is back a little bit, which is nice. But 10, 15 years ago, it was full of all your video games and shooter, driver, joystick games. Those are all gone. It's all about ticket games. So is it more about the venues, like you say? It's just the big players now? I mean, there are people like yourself who certainly are doing big things in California, but across the nation, is it the Dave and Busters, those type of people that are really soaking up all the operator industry, if you will? Actually, in a way, it is. I mean, if you look at what the manufacturers are catering to, it's all about the big FEC stuff. All the games are getting bigger. What? FECs, Family Entertainment Center. That's not what I thought you said. Okay. FECs. FECs, yes. Wrong vowel. Anyway. But, yeah, I'm seeing... So all the games are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, which is harder to do in a normal location, but they're catering to those people for sure. And redemption, redemption, redemption. I mean, that's the moneymaker and probably easier to fix. You just have to refill the stuffed animals and toys and whatnot. Tickets? They're actually more difficult to deal with. Really? There's still a lot of operators that don't touch them because they're a lot more work, a lot more things that could go wrong, the ticket stuff. You have to have ticket eaters. There's just more mechanical parts. You know, video games in the past were a TV and a joystick or a gun, easier to take care of. So in this industry now, you see basically two factions. You see the operator, the FEC side or the redemption operator side, and then you have, like, the jukebox bar guy. There's operators that just do jukeboxes, internet boxes, and that's the other good side of the business, if you can do that. They're really kind of split off. So in years past, the amusement expo was a lot larger, but you said everyone's kind of going to IAAPA. IAAPA seemed pretty big. Now, is IAAPA growing? does this industry only need one show a year? Is that really what it's come to? I think two is great I have a caterer to a bigger crowd too That for like FECs and amusement parks Like they have rides there Yes the virtual reality rides Everything there They have all your Halloween If you doing like a Halloween thing at your park they have all the Halloween attractions you can buy. Which is weird because the show's in November. I know. You're planning ahead for a year. But that's the show. If you're any kind of entertainment industry, where it's even if it's, you know, restaurant stuff with the food or, you know, FECs, the game side is actually a small little section of it. It's like in the back corner. Everything else is amusement park stuff. So that's my next question. That's why everybody goes there, because it's everything. When are we going to see Jim Belcido the carny? When are we going to see that happen? Never going to happen. Come on. Never. Step right up here, Belcido. Come on, play your game, get your tickets. Come on. I see it, Jim. There's a calling for it. I'll get back to you on that. Okay, thanks, buddy. Thank you, sir. There's a lot of noise right here, which can only mean one thing. Pinmasters round one is over. We're here at Gorilla Sushi. Carl D'Angelo, Greg Pavarelli, David Oliver, Jim Balcido, Stephen Bowden, Johnny Modica, Colin McAlpine. Now you're all quiet. I just wanted to hear some of this chatter. I'm just jealous. Well, that's true.
    47:45
    Oh, wow. Carl Dingelo doing a pin-side PD impression. Nice. Weak. All right. Carl's even taking pictures right now. So we haven't talked pinball once, have we, boys? Not at all. It's basically how can you fill your face. Johnny Modica said the best thing. He goes, I haven't had carbs for a week. We're at a sushi place. I have never seen so much rice on a plate. Well done, Johnny. I'm stuffing my face right now. Johnny's paying for dinner for everybody because he won big on the Andy Rosa Stern Pro Circuit. Thanks, Johnny. What was that? I didn't hear that.
    48:17
    Anyway. He's got Benjamins in his wallet. Yeah, he's bucking up. Oh, round two tomorrow. Carl, I heard you're not going to stream round two. Why? My wife's coming down. I'm taking a break. I need a break. That was a lot of streaming these last two days. A lot of streaming. So you're going to see Michael Bublé. Yes, Michael Bublé. I can get a Canadian to sing for you for much cheaper. Not as good.
    48:44
    My wife would love that. Fly me to the moon. Yeah. We got it. You're hired. Anyway. See, I'm trying. Now he won't stream because he's got Bublé tickets. But anyway. Colin, how are you doing after Texas? Great. I'm happy to just be playing pinball. I don't have to organize anything. Okay, well, Belsito's here. Carl's here. Who else runs tournaments? Greg runs a lot of tournaments. It sucks having to play and run tournaments, doesn't it? Oh, yeah. I actually usually like it, but I've never done anything of this magnitude. It's cinemasticus over there. It's tough because you're always being flagged down for a ruling or a stuck ball or this or that. Carl, when you're streaming, you've got that to worry. It's so much fun just playing. and hanging out here. This is actually one of my favorite parts. Especially when it's free on Johnny Modica. All right, we're out of here at Guerrilla. You know what fixes a bad day at pinball? Sushi and beer. Thanks, boys. You think of all the players in North America, and only one person can say, I played in the North American Championships and the Women's Championships. That would be Carrie Wing. How are you doing, Carrie? I'm doing pretty good. I'm a little tired, but it's been a great weekend. A great weekend. I enjoyed thoroughly watching on IE Pinball. You destroy so many different games. And I've said this to you personally. I got to play with you yesterday in Pinmasters. Watching your AFM game might have been my favorite viewing of any AFM game ever. Really? Well, when you went for the $1 billion hurry-up. Oh, yeah. I always go for the $1 billion hurry-up. We saw. Okay, maybe she's going to go for $2. Maybe take $300. No, no. Just kept on going. My theory on AFM is never shoot the saucer, which not everybody does. But that's what I do because it's dangerous. I just don't shoot for it. And no ball save on this one, too, so even the super skill shot? No, no, no, no, no.
    50:33
    You've been playing so fantastic lately. I mean, you've won a circuit event before at Cactus Jack. I am so thoroughly enjoying watching you play, and what's next for you? Are you going to try to travel more?
    50:45
    The next big thing is going to be Pinnberg. I just signed up for the Whipped tournament, and I already have my Pinnberg ticket, so I'm really looking forward to that. Where do you play locally? Kansas City. We've got a couple great locations there, the 403 Club and Pizza West. We have monthly tournaments and weekly tournaments. So it's pretty often that I play two tournaments in a week, which is great for practicing. Has that given you the confidence? Because when I watch you play, no other player, I mean, I think of you and Zach Sharp as the most composed players I've ever seen. Like nothing seems to phase you. Well, I may not show it, but of course I get nervous, especially when a machine is on the line. I mean, that's like the most tense situation usually.
    51:26
    But, yeah, I don't like to show it that much because I like to focus on what I'm doing, and I like to stand pretty still, so I keep my viewing angle consistent.
    51:36
    But, yeah, people say that a lot about me. They say I'm very zen. At least it looks that way. For sure. And the final four, watching you play, I watched the semis against Louise, who's spectacular. She almost won the classics at Indus, too. Yeah. I thought she was going to be the toughest opponent, for sure. But anybody can have off games here and there. and when I was playing her, there goes a plane right under the runway.
    52:01
    Yeah, when I was playing her, I don't think she was quite at her best, although she did have a couple solid games. Barracora was a tough one to win, for sure. You both were dialed in on Barracora. Yeah, that was a surprise because that wouldn't have been my first choice to pick, but luckily I paid attention to the tutorials and kind of knew what to do on it. And Maureen was a great wild card pick from the Seattle area, And that one came down to game seven. She picked that EM on game six, which I thought was very interesting. And then there was the big delay as well. Yeah, that made it really interesting. It kind of killed the momentum a little bit. Could have gone either way after that. I didn't put up a great score on time zone. And then she managed to pull it out after the 20 or 30 minute delay, which hats off to her for being able to pull it out after that, because that's tough to come in cold like that. But yeah, game seven, Game of Thrones, I only put up 100 million, but that was enough to seal the deal. You probably noticed a couple times I chose to go first. That's just to take some of the pressure off of me. Oh, okay. Yeah, because I don't like to put myself in a situation where I'm like, oh, I just need $20,000 or whatever it may be. I like to just play my own game. Which is funny. Today at Pinmasters, that's the whole idea. No matter whether you're first, second, third, fourth, it doesn't matter. That's the whole thing. So a different mindset. That's interesting that you take that kind of psychology about it. That's really cool. And not many of us. I mean, maybe a handful, two handfuls can say they've played one game to win a machine. So, again, that was just epic. Yeah, it was pretty insane. And weirdly enough, I have been in that situation once before. I played at the Winnipeg tournament in Vegas, and it came down to game seven, the last round. I chose CSI, which, yeah, I'd already picked a lot of my favorites, so it kind of came down to CSI. And I was like, oh gosh, I really hope I can play the game of my life on CSI right now. And luckily, I just put the pedal to the metal and put up a big score on ball one and never looked back. So, yeah, it worked out. Never look back. The Kerry Wing story. There you go. Great to talk to you today, and congratulations on your big win. Thanks. Nice playing with you. It's a long way from Ohio, but it's always nice to come to Vegas. Amy Kesting joins us right now, and you've been here a few days, haven't you? I arrived Wednesday late and played in the Women's World Championships yesterday and did pin masters this morning. I know. It's very, very exciting, back-to-back. So let's talk about the Women's Championship. 24 women, and it was great to watch. The entire thing is on the stream, too, on IE Pinball. So that was very exciting. I don't think anybody was going to stop Kerry Wing that day. She's such a great player, and it's so cool to watch her. She's so good. and I was excited for her to be playing in nationals and women's at the same time. Very hard to do, right? You're concentrating on both?
    54:50
    I don't know. I guess you just play when your game is open and then if you're supposed to be on another game, you move to the next one. I want to talk about your great play too because I think the first time you and I played together, once we certainly knew who you were, was last year in September at Cleapin and you were deadly on classics. I know because you knocked me out. Thank you. Are you going to bring up the time that I lost my shoe while I was playing? I wasn't going to say it. You've got both on right now. Oh, they're strapped on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I just, it was a memorable moment. People were like, who's that girl? I'm like, that's Amy. She lost her shoe while she was playing, and then she had to pick it up and put it back on. I loved how intense you were, but you were still very excited. And you had said to me at the time, like, I've never been this far before. And I was like, you look like you've been here many times before. Well, really last year was the first time I went to any tournaments outside of Ohio. Last year, coming to the Women's World Championships was my first time really going to a tournament out of state. And then I went to Pinvasion with my friend Evan and did that. And I showed up and they had to show me how to put credits on my thing and how to cue and all that. And then I did Pinberg. And then I did a cleapin. And, yeah, so last year was my first time really going to any of these tournaments, and I showed up to most of them by myself just to play pinball, you know. It's this kid's first time here at a pin golf tournament anywhere. I wonder how he'll do. Good luck to you. What's your name? Raymond. Raymond Davidson, who is fresh off the big win at Texas Pinball Festival. Pin golf, you've never had a chance to do that with all the action in Seattle? I might have played maybe one in Seattle at a local arcade. And I think I enjoyed it, but it's been a while. Now, it's a different mindset, too, because I know after your first few games, you said, I just have to stop forgetting that I have five balls to do it and just play normal. Yeah, the mind games is totally different where you're just freaked out that I'm going to drain, I'm going to drain. And if you think that, then you end up draining. And you're like, oh, why did I think that? I should just play like it's a normal game. The only difference is if you have an option between a low-risk, low-reward shot and a high-risk, high-reward. You've got to weigh those things out.
    57:11
    But the actual flipper skills and shot making, just ignore everything and play pinball. And it's really hard to separate those two. But there's got to be different strategies when you look at some of the objectives on, say, Attack from Mars, where it's on hard lock, so you're probably not going to go multi-ball. Yeah, I went saucer on that. And I managed to get a four or five, which doesn't sound great. But apparently people are getting nines on it. So, you know, just hitting the ball. Josh got a nine. Yeah. I have to say that all the time here.
    57:44
    Some of the other games, too. I mean, Black Rose was the first game I played, and I thought of you because I know that's one of your favorite games. And the objective wasn't too much. I think it was $20 million maybe, $30 million. It's something doable. $15 million. $15 million, even better. And I was thinking, what's the best strategy to go to? I was getting multi-balls and doing nothing with it. I guess I should just go up the middle. Yeah, if you can shoot that center shot, you can get $15 million in maybe five, six shots. You get those broadside awards, you get those hurry-up bonuses. Multi-ball is definitely what you do if you want to blow it up, but if you don't need to blow it up, you might not need to play multi-ball. I know you were watching the national championships yesterday, the North American championships in which Zach beat Nick Mueller. You might have had some action on the field. You were rooting for Nick, I think. I was. I was rooting for Nick. would have made quite the upset there for no particular reason other than pure excitement. That's it. That's all. Just funsies, right? But I did hear there was a lot of action on the field. Yeah, actually the odds were 18-1 and then they went to 12-1 after a couple of days. So people were betting on that. For sure. All right, good luck, rookie, at your first Pin Masters event and your first pinball. Thanks, Jeff. Two huge powers coming together as one today. Coast-to-coast pinball. Nate Shivers here in Las Vegas and pinball profile first time on this program. How are you, buddy? I thought you were talking about Raymond Davidson and Kaylee George over there. I didn't realize you were talking about us. I'm good. I'm really good. Ask Kaylee how he did on Game of Thrones. Did he lose to you? I wasn't playing him, but double digits, is that good in pinmasters? Yeah, no, that's really good. You want high scores, right? Tens? Tens are good? You got a ten. Anyway, Nate, it's good to see you, buddy. And what's it like coming back here? I mean, I don't know what the scene's like in Amsterdam, but give me a quick Bulls Notes version of pinball in Europe. Pinball in Europe is lacking a lot of me. I don't get out to a lot of things. I need to. There's a scene. There are scenes. I'm just not a big part of them.
    59:39
    There's a World Poker Tour scene in my living room. There's no dining room table, but there's a pinball machine.
    59:45
    It's scattered, but it's okay. I don't know if we have time, because you're up pretty soon, for five quick thoughts. A quick thought here on Pinmasters and playing in Las Vegas. I love Las Vegas. I grew up in the desert. I miss the desert a lot. I grew up in Arizona. I used to work around Las Vegas a lot, so I miss it greatly. It's good to see so many great players. It's good to see you. It's good to see friends of mine. I wish I was playing a little bit better. It goes back to that. For as much as I love pinball, you'd think I'd be a little bit better at it. The passion's all you need because that's what makes you better. But anyway, I hope things are going well for you at Taylor and everything else. Things are really good. Record year for our company last year, so it was really nice. Yeah, it's a good time. And you're a big part of that. I know you're up soon, buddy. We'll talk later. Thank you, Jeff. Always. This is going to be a difficult interview because of his marketing background. He will only respond if a question is asked. He doesn't understand how a conversation works. But what he does understand is how to win the North American Championships. Zach Sharp, congratulations. You always want them, leave people wanting more. It was very, very exciting. It was late into the night. I enjoyed watching the stream. And, boy, let's talk about your competition. Nick Mueller, how great a player he was. The kids, man. I mean, they're like men, but damn. I almost hit a Florida buzzsaw again. Well, in fact, I know you and I two years ago were at Free Play Florida, so you might have had a chance to see Nick play then. He's come a long way. He was great then. He was awesome. I'm like, who is that kid? And I even joked with Josh. He was my pick to click in the Nationals. Just seeing, not that I would bet on pinball because I was playing in the tournament, but if I was a betting man, he was the field. Raymond, I think, bet the field. and that was almost a wise decision. But that was very, very exciting. I mean, there were some real surprises for a lot of people that don't know a lot of these local players in the states and provinces because maybe they don't travel so much and we get to see just incredible players across both countries and it's not an easy task to win this. Congratulations. I know, I think Josh was rooting for you to come in second because of the split. No, he didn't make the dance. You've got to make the dance to split. If I'm home and he goes to City Champ, I don't get mail money.
    61:57
    You've got to make finals. You've got to earn it. So you might not be splitting for a while then if that's the case. I've seen Josh's first round of pin masters too. I'll just say it.
    62:07
    He's side by side here. He's dying to get on the thing. Hi, Josh. How are you? I'm going to the poker room. I'm not even going to be here tomorrow. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not. I'm glad I'm here. Let's just say that. Anyway, Zach, back to you. Enough of your brother trying to rub it, get in on this. I'm checking this.
    62:23
    What did you think about the game selection? I mean, certainly you're used to the no ball saves. I know watching the first game of your playoffs, or the finals, it was outlay and outlay. Yeah, you had no chance. Total ball saves, gone. No ball saves. But there's something about you. You're just like a stone, and not to make a pun on Eric Stone, you're like a stone, and you're not fazed by any of that. Nope. because I've played long enough that I know people are very excited here. There's a lot of high, intense pinball action, but you do this enough, there's enough bad beats, enough house balls that you just know it's going to happen. It goes both ways, too. It goes both ways. You take the good with the bad and don't let it affect you. I know a lot of us are very excited to see the new Black Knight game. Anything you can tell us about it? I know you flipped it. I mean, it looks great on what we've seen on the limited video. It's fantastic. Check it out at MGC, Midwest Gaming Classic. It will be at Midwest Gaming Classic. Well, last year I think there were 30 Iron Maidens there, so I imagine there will be quite a few there. Not quite many, but there will be a good presence of it. Tim Sexton is very, very excited to be first lead on this game. So he's such a great player. I can imagine the rules are really good. He's got some fun ideas. Okay. Congratulations on the North American Championship. You are, again, the sharp to watch. Thank you. if you have to actually i think evan's the one to watch because he needs the most help in life but thanks buddy thank you one of the big surprises a real treat here in las vegas at pin masters was to see pinball hall of famer john norris join us here thanks very much for coming by today oh thank you i'm really glad to be here it's awesome you've done a lot of the streaming here in round two with stephen bowden on ie pinball that's uh what do you think of pin golf today because we're going to talk about the history of pin golf. What do you think about it in this format as it is right now in 2019? Oh, I love it. I'm glad to see where it has gone from where it was 25 years ago. It has really evolved and matured. It's a very viable competitive concept, both for league play and for tournament concept. You and I were talking on the stream a little bit about the history of pin golf, and it was something that you created along with another person here, another pinball hall of famer in Roger Sharp. How did that all come about? Well, this was the early 90s, and there was a company called Arachnid was doing dart leagues with coin-operated dart machines.
    64:54
    And there were no, other than Steve Gutstein and his league with Papa, there was no really organized nationwide pinball leagues. And I'm a Nava golf player, and I realized one of the issues of pinball machines was to do a league or a competition is that every location is going to have an eclectic mix of machines. So every machine is different. So I thought of taking the approach of golf where, like, you go to a golf course, every hole is different. So with every machine is different, you can set objectives on machines, such as a score or get into a threshold or something. But the handicapping idea was great. I wish it came into play today. It would have been really good. Right. That's the thing, was the handicapping, because in golf you can handicap so you can have a golf league and you can have players of all different skill levels playing in the same team. The better players don't get any strokes and the medium up-and-coming players, they get a little bit of handicapped strokes. That was the whole idea behind pin golf as a scoring concept was to do that. And we started a league. And the idea was all the pinball companies would collaborate. Nobody owned it. Anybody could use it. And we had representatives for our first pin golf league from Data East, Williams, and Gottlieb. And Roger Sharp was one of the players. We had Larry DeBar was in there. We had some, and we did the Gayla Lane and Carol Stream. And we had a guy named Dan Ferris, who was one of the best players in the league. and here's just a person there who played in the bowling leagues at Gala Lanes and he wanted to do this just for the competition aspect of it. Well, it's a lot of fun. Pin Masters is a very successful circuit event here. I think of you, before I have to go play my next game, I think of the year it has been, the 12-month period, going back to October, being a member of the Pinball Hall of Fame at Chicago Expo. That had to be very, very nice for you after all the work that you've done over your career. And here in 2019, it's going to be another great year. I know as you sit with Stephen Bowden, Deeproot, we're all excited about that, and I know you must be. Oh, that's awesome.
    67:08
    Deeproot Pinball, I'm going to talk about something about game design quality. A lot of people look back at the WMS Valley Games of the 90s, and they were better than everybody else's because they put a lot of emphasis on game design quality. They would give the game its time to finish it, to tweak it, to polish it, to make the best game it possibly could. I was working for Gottlieb, and we had to do our games in 90 days. Yeah, I know. I can't believe that turnaround. And Dave East, at the time, was somewhere in between the two. With Deepfoot Pinball, for the first time in my life, I'm getting a chance to spend time on a really, really cool pinball machine and get game design quality. I know, and we're looking forward to that. But let's go back to your Gottlieb days. I mean, because you had to turn them out so fast, were you like, okay, I have to sacrifice this because of the time constraints. I can't do what I want to do. I've got only so much time to do as best as I can. Yeah, and we had what was called, they called it just in time. No, just in time. I call it parallel development. So in other words, the artwork is being done at the same time. The game rules are being written at the same time. The ramps are being made at the same time. The unique parts are being ordered. it kind of all comes together at the end a week before it goes down the line and then you put everything together and it goes down the line so i usually had to tweak the game rules and try to balance the game rules about a week to two weeks and that's why a lot of times unreal that's why a lot of times people say that the gauntlet games were unbalanced well yes they were because we didn't have time to tweak them the other thing that gauntlet wouldn't let us do is after the game was first game went down the line and was boxed and shipped away they didn't allow any software updates to polish the rules because they didn't want to have to send e-prompt out to the distributors. Boy, oh boy. John, it's been a pleasure to see you here in Las Vegas and also on the stream on IE Pinball and we're very excited about 2019 for you and Deep Root Pinball. Oh, so am I. I look forward to our games coming out for Deep Root Pinball, our launch. You know, I can't talk about it but it's really exciting stuff. Big smile on your face, John. Thanks very much. Thank you. You're welcome. Congratulations to Kaylee George, who on his last ball on the very difficult Black Rose, had to come back to get $15 million, started with $1.4 million, and pretty soon you had a double danger on that feathery game. How did you pull that through?
    69:36
    Well, you just have to play it. What was your strategy? I mean, like that game, there's no way that you can plunge well because Davy Jones isn't a gimme. If you try and powerpoint it up there, you're risking a danger in itself. So on the skill shot you going to have to just go for the 500k to open up And that thing is a feather tilt so the fact that I actually got away with two dangers was pretty lucky but there wasn't any way to change my strategy. I was all the way down and had to do pretty much the whole pinball score in one, so it was going to be whirlpool millions or nothing.
    70:12
    Rekt a shot, got lucky to light million ramps, which made that even easier. And then you hit three, so there's one, two, three, six million. Yeah, and then I was right there. So then I was already pushing the million ramp on the whirlpool anyways. So one more shot and I was done. So that was nice. Very impressive, Kaylee. And let's go back to day one because kind of the buzz around here was like, hey, did you see Game of Thrones? Kaylee took a 10, a double digit. What the hell happened there? Yeah, that was funny. Yeah, the Game of Thrones is set up like shit. So, I mean, somebody put like this weird rubber on the right orbit, which is totally fine. I mean, generally it kicks down there and comes to the left flipper. I didn't like that, so I was bumping off the rail.
    70:56
    So what happened to me in that game was basically I caught the ball in ball one and bricked something and instant drained. Ball two, it came out of the pop such that it wasn't touching the rail and proceeded to hit the left sling and power drain off the right. That happened two other times and then two other bad flips. So I basically had like a four-flip game and no points. I think I had 10 million or something, which is pretty awesome.
    71:16
    But yeah, that's fine. I mean, I ended up in the day with plus two, which was not the best. Amazing after a ten. But good after a ten and an eight. So, I don't know. I think I had three twos and three threes. Today was a little less good, but we'll see how it comes out. I think we're in a four-way tie for two spots. Yeah, and that'll be done tomorrow morning. So, out of these games, what's been the toughest game for you? Basically on setup. Yeah, I mean, that's Star Wars for sure. No ball save. Yeah, no ball save, but, I mean, you don't get ball on a flipper, and there's no way to plunge well. and you can't short plunge to a flipper, and if you center plunge yourself, it comes back, so that won't happen. So there's not even that way to plunge in the game.
    71:56
    I think it's just a poorly designed game in general. I think it's not fun for novices, even when it's set up normal, because you probably end up with one of your balls plunging with the button and going out on outland and ball saving and happening again. So design better. once again, Kaylee never holding back his true words here, there's no lie detector on him right now this is just how he feels, he's going to the playoffs so you know what, I'm sitting on the outside looking in, I think somebody like Steve Ritchie who's designed some of the best games of all time can also take the criticism of designing a very poor plunge into one of his games now, that being said I played a four player game of Star Wars and we had three different people, we had Han we had R2D2 and Leia, what's your path in this pin golf format? I mean, it's pin golf, and these games aren't set up easy where you're getting lots of ones and twos all the time. So, I mean, for a lot of players, just play what you normally play, because if you're getting decent scores, then you can probably get that in a few balls. I don't think it's a bad idea to pick R2 and just go for Death Star and do that. What a lot of people were doing was pick Han and just go to Hoth and try and play video mode, and I think that was a reasonable strategy with the way it was set up, Since it was set up pretty difficult, you wanted to guarantee some points. Actually getting a lot of the ball on Flipper wasn't too possible. Kaylee, thanks. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you very much. Not everyone can advance at the Pin Masters. In fact, quite a few didn't. Only 16 advanced of the 72. Some didn't even get in. So what do you do in Vegas when you don't advance at Pin Masters? You join Derek Thompson from Edmonton, Steven Bowden from San Antonio, and Greg Pavarelli from New York at the California Pizza Kitchen at the Mirage, and you talk about, oh, could have been this, could have been that, and what was your excuse there? Play better. Steve Ritchie impression, not the greatest I've ever heard. Steven Bowden, I don't really consider you a loser because you actually were never in Pinmasters, but you were there for the IFBA North American Championships, but he barely has any voice left because he streamed all day today. Can we get a word out of Steven? What do you got? I need to suck less. And play better more. That's it.
    74:12
    It was a nice treat, though, having John Norris there. But he was only coming for an hour. Did he give you some relief so that you could rest that voice? Yeah, he did. But we made him feel quite comfortable, I feel. So that's why, you know, if you're doing commentary and you're doing it in a comfortable way, the time passes and all of a sudden four and a half hours are gone and you can't talk. Stephen, I wonder, a lot of people watched the stream over the last few days on IE Pinball and will again for the finals on Sunday. It looked a lot easier, and you were probably wondering, why are these games playing so tough? Why are the scores so low? Did you get that feeling, too? Now, you played some of these games on Thursday. Yeah, I was able to fully understand why the scores were so low, and I also explained a bit of that during the stream, especially Tron. Like, Tron's 12 million. There's a reason why the 12 is there. You can see, like, Tron lulls you into a false sense of security, and then as soon as it senses you're out of control, you die. And that's why it's 12 million. And so I was able to show that to John Norris, and he then understood why it was that low. Because, you know, John Norris is a very accomplished tournament player with skills of his own. I mean, he'd be a top 25 player easily if he came to the scene. and so going through and seeing what Tron was doing to people, he was fully understanding how 12 million was really a great target score concerning what we were seeing, people getting literally 11.8 million, 11.6 million.
    75:45
    So it was certainly interesting having him in there in the booth for that long and also just a pleasure to speak with him. Greg, you and I were playing along with Derek, and I know Star Wars is a game You normally blow up, but that had your number today. Yeah, you know, both times I played Star Trek and Star Wars, I left a lot on the table. I had the opportunities to get twos and didn't execute. Truthfully, I was a little bit in my head day one. I didn't get to warm up like I usually do. I went in cold. Games are super hard, but I knew that Josh and Zach always do that. I'm not trying to make excuses because there was like 20 people in the tournament that are better than me at pinball even when I'm playing my best. One of the harder circuits, and only 16 make it. But, you know, you've got to step up in limited entry like Texas last week or Pinmasters. You don't get multiple tries. And I will admit, humbly, I am a pumped-up, favored player. I almost always qualify and make a run at the buys when I get unlimited tries because I can get the scores when I play hard, and I usually dump a lot of money and all that good stuff. These limited tournaments, guys, are pretty challenging in that you don't have the opportunity to make mistakes. There's no second chances, especially in pin masters. An eight can devastate you, and that's really how I lost. I got all the scores today, par, except for two games I got eights. And it was the same two games yesterday, Black Rose and Star Trek. Black Rose was tough. I mean, I don't know the game. I didn't get many plunges. I barely flipped. So, you know, look, the tournament was fun. I learned a lot about pin golf. You know, Josh Sharp didn't qualify. Various other players, Trent, didn't qualify. So I was pretty stoked about it. But today, I played better. It may be a limited entry tournament, but Greg Pavarelli, not limited when it comes to words. Thank you very much, Greg.
    77:37
    Hey, I don't even know what you asked me at this point. I still have not slept. I'm running on fumes here. Vegas is my favorite place to be. You won the Greg Jenga game, and that's for another story another day. I think I might speak about that on a podcast soon. All right, thanks very much. We'll see Derek Thompson coming up at Yagpin in Edmonton at the end of April. Absolutely. You know, going to be 2,000 people that are going to show up over the weekend. So really excited to put it on. World-class tournaments. We've got five awesome IFPA-sanctioned tournaments that are going to be there. Our Canadian Women's Tournament, for the first time ever that we'll be there. Everything's going to be streamed starting on the Saturday night. We'll have Classics Playoffs, and then we'll also have on the Sunday the Canadian Pinball Championships. And don't forget about one of the coolest things that we'll have, which is the Pinball Pro Tournament, which is a brand-new tournament where you're going to win a pinball bracelet worth over $1,000, just like you'd win on a World Series of Poker. We've got some cool stuff coming, guys. That's pretty rad. Very good. All right. Wait, one question for you, Jeff. Hold on a second.
    78:44
    I'm trying to eat my food here, but go on. Being in Vegas, I know that you're a poker player like I am, and you like gambling in general. Do you feel like tournaments with a secondary outlet other than pinball would be a good thing for circuit events moving forward? What do you like to play at the casinos? I'm confused by the question. What do you like to play when you're here at a casino? And do you think that something else to do other than competitive pinball would be a good thing for future circuit events? Because I know personally, being here in Vegas made this event really fun and a nice destination. It depends. You know, I think of a place like New York City, and I like to see all the different sites, and there's certainly Major League Baseball I'm a big fan of. I like going to a lot of the food places. That's a thrill for me. When you're in Vegas, okay, there happen to be maybe a few casinos. So, yes, poker was fun. I taught my good friend Stephen Bowden how to play what I'm going to call popcorn craps. It's craps, but it's like pop-o-matic trouble. It's the greatest game ever. You'll never play the other game ever again. and I don't know, just lots to do. So it's nice when there are other things to do. I'll give you an example. Bat City opened. The food around there and being in Austin, Texas was spectacular. The festival in Texas in Frisco, well, it's all pinball, pinball, pinball, but there was so much to do there. So it's nice to have a little something extra. Yeah, I mean, we're going to sit down and play some poker together and hopefully make some of our money back that we threw away at pin golf. But at the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is more casinos attached to pinball tournaments. All right. Thank you, Greg. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Darren.
    80:28
    Congrats again to Carrie Wing, as mentioned, for her women's championship, and also to Zach Sharp, who pulled the double victory, winning the national championship and pinmasters. The following week, I took my son Carson to Cleveland. We watched the Blue Jays get crushed each and every game by the Indians, but we checked out the Ohio Pinball Show. Congrats to Marlis Rambo, winner of the Women's Championship, and to Alexander Kazmarchuk, who won the main event just like he won Pinfest this weekend in Allentown. Coming soon, it's NYC PC and Pintastic for the first time for me. I'm looking forward to those. But after Cleveland, I took a couple of weeks off from travel, then headed to Yegpin in Edmonton, which you heard Derek just talk about. Here's what happened in Western Canada. Swinging in the saddle just before the break of morn Take me back to old Alberta, the place where I was born.
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    The biggest sponsor at Yegpin is Tommy Floyd with Nitro Pinball and great display. And you do really well at this tournament, don't you? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know what? We concentrate largely on Western Canada and everybody comes to this tournament. Everyone comes to the show and we just love this turnout. Every year it's fantastic. And, you know, they come to our show at Vancouver Flipout and it's a real brotherhood. and a special thing out here. I just love this absolute show that they do. And Derek is fantastic at putting the whole thing together. You stepped it up. For all these people that bring games and bring machines, there are a couple big prizes. So if you brought a video game, you're in the draw for a Dig Dug machine. But if you brought a pinball machine, and there are a lot of great collections here in Alberta, you've had a chance to win a Munsters game from Nitro Pinball. Boy, you really stepped it up there. Well, yeah, I had to. I mean, these guys are growing, and every year they're getting bigger and bigger. and they needed a bigger prize. And you know what? We'll do everything we can to support pinball all over North America, but especially in our own backyard. You talked a little bit about Vancouver flip-out. Let's have a little sneak peek of what we can expect in the fall. Well, we're doing it October 3rd to 6th this year, and we're actually moving the whole tournament area is being moved into the theatre. So now it's going to be bigger, we're going to have a lot more space, and then we're going to have more room for games in the main hall. So, yeah, we're excited, and, yeah, it's going to blow up this year. We'll do really well. One last thing I want to talk to you about, because you brought a couple of Black Knight sort of rage games, and I know they are going to sell a lot of down payments on those games, but to get those games here, that was pretty incredible. Yeah, you know what? Jamie is a soldier. This guy, I reached out to him on Pinside, and he's a customer of ours and a good friend, and I reached out to him because they would have arrived in Vancouver after the show. So we had to circumvent, we had to get them shipped out to the border, and the closest border we could get them shipped out to was in Butte, Montana. So he drove 21 hours to pick these games up and get them out here. And I'll tell you, we can't thank him enough. And it just goes to show how fabulous the community is. Great support here in Western Canada, too, and a lot of fans and supporters of Nitro Pinball. Thanks, Tommy. Thank you very much, Jeff. To put Yagpin together, it takes a whole village, and there are a lot of people, and they say, what is it, every village has an idiot? What's the saying? Yeah, pretty well, especially if it's me. I don't know what I'm talking about. Derek Thompson, who really is a big part of Yankton, diehard pinball. I've got to tell you, new facility, great tournaments. You added another tournament. You've got to be proud of what you've done so far here. Yeah, it's been special. Every single year that we put this on, it's just a lot of work, a lot of effort from a whole big team that we have here. But it's been amazing. We've got great feedback from everybody that's been here. The extra ad of the pro pinball tournament I think was awesome this morning, doing the playoffs for that, and Jermaine winning the bracelet, first ever. I think we'll continue that tradition, and that'll be a niche for our tournament. It was very, very cool, kind of reminiscent of the high stakes at Indus. So that was a nice little ad. Good job on there. You've got the classes, you've got the main, you've got the little kids, you've got the women's, so many different things to do. And then a great showroom, too. I mean, it really takes a lot of people to bring all these games here, and the collections are outstanding. I've never seen so many great modded-up games in the tournament, let alone out in the floor. Yeah, I think we've got a great donor community here in the Edmonton area, and it helps because it brings in all the best games that we can, and they're not afraid to bring them in the weekend, allow the public to go ahead and play, and they're very free with their assets, and we appreciate the support that we do get from the community. There's a great tournament going on in Michigan right now, part of the Stern Pro Circuit in the pinball at the zoo, and best of luck to obviously the Harmans doing that. But you've got a lot of people that have come here in Edmonton for going to Stern Pro Circuit because they know how great the tournament is. In fact, look at Jermaine and Dave Stewart and Raymond Davidson. They came up last year and they're here again because they know what's good. Bob Matthews, so many people that have come from California and myself and others from Ontario. It's got to make you feel good to see these returning players and it growing. Yeah, look out, Josh Sharp. We're coming, man, and we're going to force our way onto the Stern Circuit here next year. We've got a lot of great players that are here. Eight of the top ten players in Canada are here as well, a number of the top players in the U.S. from Seattle and from California. So we're starting to make a name for ourselves. I think the tournaments are very well run, very well organized. We've got a ton of volunteers that help us with them, and it just makes the experience enjoyable for the people that want to come out and play in them. Derek, the best flattery I can give you is I'm shocked that this is only in its fourth year because it's so well run. Yeah, but it's to the credit of the people that are around, and that's what makes it work. We've been able to take notes from InDesk and take notes from major tournaments that are out there to try to improve what we do on a year-after-year basis. I just give a huge thanks to Carl D'Angelo for DTM. A huge thanks to Jim Belzito, who is my guru and helps me with tournament setup and stuff like that. gives me advice. There's just a number of people that are in the community that want to help us and help us run a world-class tournament here in Edmonton. My final thing to you is, as you know, from being in tournaments, from running a tournament, none of this is possible without volunteers. And you've got a great volunteer base and you reward them, which is what I think you have to do in tournaments. Yeah, for sure. You know, with our volunteers, we have a base of over 70 volunteers that help us throughout the weekend. And, you know, we provide the tournament entries, But we also provide free entry. We provide a bunch of goods. Food.
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    Extra play. Smart. Anything that we can do to try to help. An extra hour for qualifying. All those types of things help our volunteer base. Because that's what makes the show go. You need the volunteers in order to make things work. If you want to see a good tournament, make sure you put Yagpin on your calendar in 2020. If you want to run a good tournament, maybe give Derek a call. Derek, thanks very much. Awesome. Thanks again, man. the winner of the Little Flippers tournament here at Yagpin. She is Arissa Crywalt. Congratulations. That was a great playing. Thank you. You've got a big smile on your face. Are you a big pinball fan? You've been playing a long time? Yes. We have a lot of pinball machines. You do? What do you have? Star Trek, Simpsons, Spider-Man, The Addams Family, The Walking Dead, Metallica, a lot. A lot. Now, can I ask you, because a lot of younger kids aren't into pinball as much as maybe video games or YouTube or Fortnite and all those fun things. But you really like pinball, don't you? And why do you like pinball maybe more than some of those things? Because it's kind of active and I like how all the games are set up differently and have different themes to it. Well, you played a fun game to win the championship on Guardians of the Galaxy. You chose Quill to kind of get a feel and get some progress there, but you were nailing Groot over and over again. We were admiring that a lot. We have Metallica at home, and the setup's very similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
    88:33
    It is very similar. Congratulations. You have to be very excited. Well done. Thank you. There were a lot of tournaments here this weekend. We talked about the Little Flippers tournament. There was the main event with the A and the B division, the classics. There was the pro championship and a great tournament put on by Nitro Pinball, the women's championship, and the winner of that with 23 women and coming out on top, Krista Lucek. How are you doing, Krista? I'm good. How are you? Great. You have to be very happy. A lovely trophy that you won there. Oh, I'm so excited.
    89:03
    Is this the biggest win for you? Yeah. Actually, I won women's the first year Young Pink was out, but it was It's the highest women scoring, qualifying score. And so I'm really excited this time I get to have a trophy. Yeah, the playoff was a different kind of atmosphere, too. The playoff was wild. It was so great. We were so close. Or the games you played. The games. We played, oh, no, Sorcerer and the Attack from Mars and Iron Maiden, which is not a friend of mine, but I chose it anyway. You chose it? I chose it. Because they were all three in a line. So I wanted to play Sorcerer and I wanted to play Attack from Mars, So you're stuck with Maiden. I'm stuck with Maiden, and it turned out to be a good choice. Your new best friend. Well, maybe not. All right, Eddie's not coming to dinner. So what's next for you? What's next? I'm hoping to make it to Vancouver for Flip Out. That would be really awesome. But we play league in Edmonton every second Thursday night, so that's always lots of fun. You know that there are a lot of people here from the Seattle area, and there's some great tournaments in the Northwest, including a chance to win a pinball machine at their women's event, So something you might want to consider. It's a short jaunt. It will be on my list of things. I hope you do it. You played very well. Congratulations, Kristen. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, if you come to a tournament and you're lucky enough to win one of them, I mean, that just makes your day. And there are a lot of tournaments here, so there should be a lot of different winners. No, not at Yankman. Not at all. Because this man did something that the last time I saw it was Escher Lefkoff at Freeplay Florida when he won a Deadpool side tournament, then a Classics, then a Pro. But this man won the high stakes tournament, then the Classics, then the Pro. La Vache! I cannot believe what this man did. Jermaine Marial, last year you came up with Raymond Davidson. He won it. You had to have, I guess, one of your power trios, you, Dave Stewart, and Raymond. And you decided, okay, it's my turn. Yeah, I mean, it's a very fun tournament. We came last year, the three of us. This year we came back with five people. and it's always fun to come here. Derek runs a great show. I've got a lucky weekend. It doesn't happen very often, but when I can, I'm happy for it. I've played with you before. In fact, last year might have knocked you out of it, so you took revenge on everybody this year. I did. That's from memory. I have to focus on these things for my hatred. No, I'm just kidding. I cannot believe how many times, and you saw it on the Die Hard pinball stream, how many times you were shimmying out of outlanes and just the greatest nudges I have seen in a long time. Thanks, thank you. I mean, I try. I know sometimes I overdo it a little bit, and you push the machine and you tilt your ball, but I feel like if I don't try, I may lose an opportunity. So if the timing is right, I'd rather try and maybe push too hard than not try and think I could have saved the ball. Can I ask what may seem as a dumb question, but on a game like Twilight Zone where bonus is huge, or Indiana Jones, are you as aggressive on those outlanes? It depends on the situation. I mean, in the twilight zone, if you mean the last game, ball three, I was over 200 million away from the next score to beat. So tilting or not tilting would not have changed very much the end result. So in that situation, just go for it. I mean, even if you tilt your 50 million, if that 50 million didn't bring you any closer, then it doesn't matter as much. Yeah, you know, do what you think is best for you. You've won a lot, Jermaine, but really, is this your best weekend ever, maybe? Yes, that is definitely my best weekend ever. I mean I was very happy when I made the finals at Pimberg. I've been training for three years and I've always come very short of the finals but winning is nice, right? It's definitely a good feeling. I was looking at IFBA and seeing that you're 20th in the world right now and you've always been kind of a top 50, certainly top 25 player. This is going to catapult you a little bit more. I mean three big wins? It could be. I mean, the high stakes, the way the format was, there was not a whole lot of players. There's no TTP there, yeah. Yeah, it's not really about that. You know, it's nice, like, ranking is good. I mean, it's good for the ego, I guess, but I'd rather come out and try to do my best. Winning and playing is more fun than seeing your name on the front page, I would think, right? Like, you know, there's a lot of great players just because they don't have a good ranking.