I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning, and I don't intend, I won't lose in the game. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. I'm here at Pintastic in Sturbridge, New... New York. New York, George. New Jersey. New Hampshire? No. Hello... Where are we, George? Oh boy, oh boy, it starts already. We're in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. We'll try this one more time. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and I'm here at Pintastic in Sturbridge, Massachusetts with no other than tournament player himself, Dr. Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George, welcome to Sturbridge. Dave and I are in the queue for playing Electrodemo. Not one of my favorite games. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it. But Dave and I are going to enter this tournament, the Silver Ball Rumble. We're going to play the exact same card, so the same five games. And we're going to see where we end up at the end of qualifying. As long as I'm not on the bottom, I'm okay. I played one card last night, George, and I did pretty good. I was probably, I think, number 38 or so, or 50 out of, I don't know, 100 and something. Did you check this morning to see where you are or before we started recording? No, I did not, but I'll check it right now and we'll see where you are. Well, let's go take a walk and we'll pick up the recording after we play game one. Sure. So we played our first game. Dave came in with about $283,000. I came in with about $61,000. Hopefully I'm not at the bottom of the list, but we're going to play what, Rawhide next? Stern-Rawhide next, one of the first Stern solid states. It's not a solid state. It's an EM, but I don't know. They took over Chicago Coin. It's one of the first games that came out, Chicago Coin. Hopefully I fare better this time around. Hope so, George. so dave and i just concluded playing rawhide insert music here and uh i lapped the machine so i got 107 000 you did what you did pretty well i did like 189 i was ready to lap it for number two she even asked me did you flip it around twice or once she said no just once i was going to she goes oh thanks for your honesty it's like yeah there's no other way to play, you know. But it was a fun game, actually, a really long-playing game. Five ball. Five ball, and you can play your extra balls, too. Well, we've been waiting in the queue for how long? Probably a half an hour to play it. Yeah. Yeah, Saturday, everybody's in crunch time. Everybody's trying to get over the threshold to make it into the semifinals. 24 people will make it there. So it's 1 o'clock. We've got one hour, and we need to play three more games. It could happen. It's going to be tight. See which is our next game. So we just completed our third game. We got 25 minutes to go to play two more games on Blackjack. You scored what? I got about three and a half, 350, 360, 100,000 points. I had a really good first ball and then bombed the rest. I asked the guy, the scorekeeper, how was that first score? He said, that's pretty good. That's in the upper percentile, what you got, the 300,000s. And you did pretty good, too, 250 or so. Yeah, 250-ish. I don't think people, not many people make it over 100,000 in this game. Yeah, I just kept hitting that hole. I had the shot the first ball, and then I lost it. So, no, it's a fun game. Hopefully, we're going to move on to see which. And what were you saying? We've got to follow the X? Follow the bouncing X. So it's a little extra for the draw targets. I'm going to have to watch the game for a minute. Yeah. Is this the same one as Beatles? Yeah. Yeah, it's like the Beatles. Oh, okay. I like that game. It's a bit better than the Beatles, though. Oh, okay. But I'm familiar with that game. So you're all set. So do the same thing. Hopefully. There's no spinning disc in the middle. Oh, that's right. That doesn't have that either. we've concluded the qualifying for the silver ball rumble i could not get my fifth game in so incomplete card and dave got in just by the hair of his shitty chin chin there was a two-minute countdown a guy just finished ball five and card whiz and uh he's saying hey i need to seemed like scoring. He wasn't getting his scores, but the time was ticking out. I said, hey, he needs to put his score in. Oh, okay. And I quickly got right in the game, and they said, okay, no more games because I just got in the game. So I just got in the area of my teeth. Right, but tell the audience where you placed. I placed number 14 in the final cutoff, so now I'm in the finals. I think it was, what, 20? How many do you need to be? 20 or? 24. 24. So you're going to play in the first qualifying round. Yes. Because the bottom 16 play, and only eight of those will advance. It'll be interesting. I'll be watching because I'm going to take off, I think, shortly. That Cardwiz game, it's like two wet noodles for flippers. I mean, you really had to bump the ball with those flippers. Yeah, I'm kind of disappointed I didn't even get to get my last game in. Not that it would have mattered. And that sea witch is brutal. Yeah, what did we get, a zero? I get a zero for that one. So think about that. You got a zero. Yeah. And you still made it into the top 24. Yep. How about that? Better than, what was her name, Anna? Anna Duvain? No, Anna, what was her name, Walk? Who was the number one on Sea Witch? Yes. Got 100 points on that game. And I think she said she played Rawhide or some other game. Electronimo. She got a negative, Electronimo. A negative one. A negative one. How do you get a negative one? I don't know how you get a negative one. but it was a lot of fun something different something different it's very exciting I've never really made the final four in something like this but you know this is the first tournament in like a a big tournament event where actually you just play all classic games and excel at them so that was awesome you can thank me thank you George because you weren't going to play I wasn't going to play but George you should play say alright let's play makes good theater so now we have a whole tournament show yeah nice I'll be at home watching you on Twitch, listening to whomever pontificate about the recent players. I don't think you're going to be payday. No? How come? I would love you to play in a dad. Unlike who? Raymond Davidson. Okay. Payday. Oh, payday. Payday Davidson. All right. Oh, this is awesome. Yeah. I think I'm more excited than you are. I'm standing here with one of the great tournament players at Pintastic. He's got a great handle, Chewy Cologne. I asked Chewy, why do they call you Chewy? Well, it's because about when I first got into pinball, I had a buddy of mine that always used to call me Chewy Chewbacca because I used to make Chewbacca noises, and I was really, really hairy. So that's the name that adapted to me. He didn't punch me the first time I called him Chewy Colon. No, not at all. I hope you do well. I hope you make it into the finals. Thanks for your two seconds. Yeah, no problem. What you just heard happened yesterday. Today, it's Football Sunday in America. No, for you Aussies and Englanders, it's American football. Dave is going to tell us about yesterday's competition. but first I have to set the scene a little bit first we were a little premature in Dave's ranking for the tournament he was actually number 16 it was incomplete when we were looking at the board we were kind of just reacting I have to ask Dave here I hope you remember his last name who's the person who is running the tournament jim swain oh swain oh good i'm glad i asked you because i had the wrong name um no thanks jim you got you you did a terrific job we had a a lot of fun i'll speak for dave right here but i'll let him comment in a minute one thing i wanted to make sure the audience understood is that the bottom 16 had head-to-head matches for the best of five games. Those eight players who won would then play the top eight players who got a buy in the tournament. I'll let you start by telling us a little bit about your experience. I still have some other comments and questions, but I'll let you kind of run with it and then I'll interject. How's that? Sure. Sounds good. fire all right well seeing the uh silver ball rumble and again george said we got to definitely do this tournament and so you know george this time i think i have i have actually some time this time around to get this done so uh we did especially since seeing that there was a good representation of classics there there were uh you you pick five you pick five games out of the bank of, I think it's like maybe 12 games there or so. I forgot. I read around 12 games or so. There were five classics there. And again, the card you pick is five games for your card. And so I said, well, I can probably do regionally well in all five of these. And the five that I picked were Stern Rawhide, which is early or late 70s, mid 70s. I'm going to interrupt. Yes. Everybody listened to the episode up till here i i know you didn't know that so i know that everything up until this point all right so which games we played okay i guess i want you to focus a little bit more on you playing in the tournament actually the games you played who picked them oh okay okay how that whole experience went because everybody knows the the first part of story because I recorded all those snippets. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Well, one little flashback to those snippets is since we're a classic pinball podcast, we're going to pick some classic games to play, and we did. So that being said, qualified, like George said, and now we're on to the finals, and the top 24 make the cut. I made 16, and it started out very tense. It's a whole different thing when you're just playing qualifying you're playing by yourself just you in the game it's a little more relaxed and a little more zen whole different animal when you add in now you're playing head-to-head against somebody a little more tension going on a little adrenaline pumping so I said well you know I had the I had a relaxation going on but it's like you know maybe maybe just one beer One beer going in. So we had an hour between qualification and be back here at 3, we're going to start. So I had time to whatever. Got a beer, cracked it, got back there at 3, right on the dot. I started picking people, and I just started chug-a-lugging, you know, 116-ounce IPA, just to kind of quell those adrenaline vibes, you know, get those, kick those out. So he finally announced Mark, Jim's partner in crime there at the tournament, he announced that I'm going to be hooked up with Zay. Well, I think it's No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to let you butcher any of this. Let me ask you a question. Yes. Did you know your opponent? No, I did not. Would you like to know something about your opponent? Yeah, please do. Please tell me. This is great. I knew this was going to happen. I am so happy. okay there's so many elements to this story when it's complete it's going to be pretty good so zach fray is someone i'm familiar with actually when i was having lunch in allentown at that counter uh in the farmer's market it's upstairs it's kind of like a dinery thing he was sitting across for me and I said hello because I know him from the Slam Tilt podcast. He's one of the co-hosts. Now you know the other two co That would be Ron Hallin and Bruce Nightingale Oh okay So he part of that He 27 years old He a Sharpie He's a cat who gets it. He's really good with the pinball. Not only electromechanicals, but solid states and monitors. So he's in the know. and when I got home because you weren't on the YouTube broadcast I listened on the way home geez I was driving like a maniac to get home I'm like oh please Dave make it to the next step and then when I saw that you had you know lost him I'm like oh god he has no idea this cat really likes the classics and the solid state games like ems he's really into that so i think he played you how so well because he really likes older games he's only 27 years old because he he really likes ems and older games and don't ask me which ones you'll have to go back and listen to their podcasts I'm not that familiar with him but I know he likes that but I know he also likes the modern games and I know he's played Total Nuclear Annihilation I'm getting ahead of the story here but the long and short of it is I'm like Dave has Dave they picked all the classic games and then the punch was okay did he have the pick for DNA yes he did yeah okay now you can continue on your story I kind of let the had a little bit out of the bag. Yes, a little bit. Well, I can cut it out. I'm just saying, you had no idea who you were up against. I had no idea. But I figured if you made it this far, you were good at both the ramp stuff and the old school stuff. I took that into consideration, but I just know... He doesn't just play it. He repairs it. He's a you. Okay. I had no idea. And you know what? And I apologize. I should have been there. Because if I was there, I would have pulled you aside and I would have said, hey, hey, hey. You know, you need to know. Well, you know what, though? That would have put too much pressure on me. That would have started thinking more. Okay. I'm fine. I'll never do that again. I'm fine going in blind. You know, what's it going to do for me except to make me all... Ignorance is bliss. Exactly right. So I took it just play the best I could play. I'm sorry I played the curveball on you. I just – I looked and I said – and when I saw the games, I'm like, classic, classic, classic, good, good, good, good. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. But there's more to the story because – There is. Oh. There's a lot more to the story. A lot more. Let me say, so, you know, best of five, right? That's what it goes down to, head to head. So I got to pick, did I pick first? I picked first, and he got to choose. So I picked Electronimo, and I won Electronimo. Well, let's stop there for a second. Yeah. You did really well on that game in the qualifying. Yes, I did. I did well on all those games that qualified. And we're going to talk about that too. Because you know I have all the stats in front of me. So when you're ready to talk about that, let me know. Because that is a story onto its own. Yeah, because I want to find out how did he do qualifying on the games I qualified on in the qualification rounds. I'd like to compare that too. Oh, okay. You're going to make me do that right now. But I can do that in real time. Okay. You talk for a while because I kind of interrupted you and kind of probably messed up your flow and mojo. But that's what I do because it makes for an interesting conversation. So I won again. I got to pick in one electron. He always wanted to go second. He always wanted to go second no matter what. Then loser for first round, which was him. He got to pick. He picked Sea Witch. I was like, oh, not that Sea Witch. that sea witch does not play like my sea witch it's very very tough and lean to the right a little bit and just kind of i just wasn't i wasn't feeling it but i said you know what i know see which well i'm just gonna you know so again um he said i get to choose order so i said i'm gonna choose second so he went first in that he won see which i did horrible i did a couple straight down the middles i i don't think i do you want to talk about that now in the qualifying or later well this was with him no no no i'm saying you had to get to him first when you and i played yeah you want to talk about how well you did and how well i did or do you want to wait yeah we could yeah and qualifying to see which sucked too it's just do you want to know where you stood in the rankings yes see which it's zero i know i got 266 for points right well You're getting ahead of yourself again. But you were 154. I was 172. Yes, we both received zeros, and that will play into the story in a little bit. And you needed around, I think, 280 or 300,000 points to get over a zero on Sea Witch. Now, I believe we also spoke about just got to be consistent. You know, if you score 60-ish, you'll do well. We'll get to that in a minute, too. so he wants to know. So I got to pick up the seaweed. So now we're, now we're one in one. I said, okay, I'm taking into blackjack. And I beat him on blackjack. I kicked ass on blackjack. I w I kept getting, uh, beating the dealer's hand, going the whole beat dealer's hand, going the whole lighting spinner, hitting spinner. I was like, yes. And he couldn't get anything going in the game. I said, this guy isn't so great. I'm doing well here. Uh, Do you want me to interject again how well you did on your card to get there? Sure. Do you know what rank you had on that game? I had around 72. Number five. Wow. On blackjack. Okay. Number five. That's huge. Yeah. 83 points, Dave. That's gigantic. Wow. go me no no people you know again i don't care if anybody tunes out all your hardcores hang in there this was pretty good because dave doesn't do this often i think i'm living vicariously through dave i'm more excited than he is and here's the thing too going into this whole thing all these other guys are hardcore tournament guys they practice all the time they go to tournaments all the time me i hardly ever play i just restore games all day and then i do some play testing games and i'm done that's my that's my play so what makes this story so much fun so i'm coming in as i don't play pinball really i did really well that's what makes this story even better and and you and all our audience knows this because i play them all the time you know you guys all know that i'm not very good but i'll go out and give it the old you know quote unquote college try dave is good and i always say hey you know you should play oh no it takes too much time he's right we experienced it you heard it in the first part of the thing it took us two and a half hours and i didn't even get to play my last game so it's a big commitment and i'm not you know i get why people tune out get it but you should be revered this is a good story it's a great story yeah yeah it's a Cinderella story no it's good it's continue I'm interrupting but I'm interrupting because it's it's theater it's you know I'm doing the build then we went over to play I'm trying to think here I hope I'm getting this this right back and forth there but I know hold on hold on ask my honey here hey Maureen Did I win on Card Whiz? When I played head-to-head? No. I did not win on Card Whiz. You did not. Okay. No, hang on. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. Yes, you did. I'm sorry. I was looking at the wrong page. I was looking at your qualifying. Sorry. So refresh my memory. So I didn't write all this down. It was going by memory. You want me to just let the cat out of the bag and talk about the game? Well, let the cat out of the bag until the last – I'll let the last game, the tiebreaker, out. But what was our head-to-head, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, tie, tie, tie? Oh, here are the games that you won. Yeah. You won Electronimo, which you just talked about. You did win Card Whiz. He won Sea Witch, which you talked about. And he won Blackjack, which, you know, you did really well on it. And, but we, you know, again, I did well on it, but that didn't do me any good. Now we get to the last game. So now with that, so you guys are tied up. We're tied up. Were you up two to one or was he up two to one? We're, we're up two to two with, with a five. No, no, no. But I'm saying before that you're up, who was up two to one? Don't remember. That's okay. You were in the moment. I was in the moment. Well, I'm not really sure what you mean by 2-1 because we both had two games. Well, it had to go 2-1, then it had to go to 2-2. Or did it go, were you 2-0 out of the box? Or was he 2-0 out of the box? No, I got one, he got one. I got one, he got one. Okay, so you were up 2-1. He had to tie you to make it a five-game thing. You could have won game four is what I'm getting at. Yes, yes, right, right, right. Okay, so I'm building tension. Right, yeah. He ties you up, now you get to the fifth game. So I didn't win Card Whiz, right? Or did? Yes, you did. I did. All right. So I thought after that one there. Well, he won Sea Witch and Blackjack. You won Electronimo and Card Whiz. That must have been it. Because after Card Whiz, we did Tiebreaker. We did the fifth game. That would have been. I know. Don't say it. That would have been the game that we talked about before. But that makes sense because Loser Picks. And he was a loser of Card Whiz. Oh, so you tied it up. He was up two to one. You tied it up with Cardwitz two to two. And then because he was the loser. So I'm smelling something stinky. Sorry. Yeah. So. I'm sorry. Hey, but you know what? Hey, you know what? I'm going to just say it. What? That's competition. Oh, I know. It's a head game. I know. It's all a head game. It's all psychology, and it's like playing cards. It's like, you know, Texas Hold'em almost. So I was so happy playing Card Wiz because, like, I know this game. This game has weak-ass flippers. They're like wet noodles, but I know how to play this game with wet noodles because I played the game earlier, so I knew how to flip it. I knew it. I basically gave it – used Eric Stone as my influence because I know when I saw him playing weak-ass flippers at Fun Spot, he'd go – he'd, like, ump the game and kind of, like, push the game with the flipper. so I was like you know chambering my inner Eric Stone with the the card whiz and I was like yes I was like getting all the drop targets down getting the jokers drop targets were worth more more uh points and I was like yeah this is great and he couldn't do crap with it he didn't really know how to deal with the weak flippers on there or at least I don't know he just wasn't really doing it like I was and I was like good I'm making him sweat this is great and it's like then I saw I won that and I looked over and all the games I was like I'm laughing because this sounds It sounds like, you know, hey, you know what? I'm going to throw the game, and I'm going to go pick my game. You think that? You think that? And I'm Mr. I don't want to say the word, but I'm sitting thinking that, hmm, I'm wondering if he knows who Dave is and knows how much Dave's disdain for modern gameplay. I don't know. Well, you know, if he hears our podcast, maybe. Does he even know I'm even a podcaster? Again, I don't know that, but it was running through. Like I said, I'm there rooting on, and then I'm like, oh, man, I'm starting to think all these bad things. I'm like, oh. I was so happy with Cardwell. I was like, yes, I beat him on that. And then I'm looking. Then as we end the game, right in the square down, I'm saying, oh, great. Raw Hyde is open. And you only can pick a game that's open and not being played. It's like, oh, please pick Rawhide, pick Rawhide, come on. So then he goes, TNA. It's like, oh, my heart sank. It's like, oh, shoot. So here we go. And I had no idea. I figured, okay, he's probably familiar with the game. Come to find out later on is that he either owns a game or his best friend owns a game. He plays it all the time. Oh, he's connected. He lives up in the Rochester area. he's part of that brand new Rochester pinball co-op so oh yeah Dave I'm just telling you you ran into the buzz saw and had no idea and I'm saying that with you know hey like I said it's competition and it's all fair I'm not calling anybody out I think it's great for him knowing that Dave I felt bad because I'm post-morteming I'm like oh i'm like dave doesn't know who that is he has no idea who that is here's the thing for him for him knowing that game so well and believe me i've played this game before a couple years back someone had it in uh was uh one of my leagues i had familiar with the game but not intimately because i don play it all the time but i I kind of knew Oh no Dave now I going to really take you for a throw here No, I'll wait. Yeah, so. Because it's about the finals. And when I start telling you about the finals, you're going to go, really? Well, I have the finals here. I have the bracket in front of me so I can see what happened. I can see. Right, but you didn't launch it on. No. Twitch, did you? No, I'm going to have to watch that. We're going to talk about that. I'm going to have to watch that. I'm going to watch that tonight with a beer or maybe a coffee. Yeah, you should. I'll just give it the short version, but yeah, it was... Go ahead. I have so many other things we could go through. I thought this was going to be 15 minutes. I'm such a dope. So he picked that. I choose order. I'm choosing second. I want to see how he plays this game and I want to get any pointers by watching him, what he's shooting for. So I can get up to speed on what I need to do. So I watched him and this and that. And I didn't realize that a full plunge on that game is don't do that. Which game were we talking about? TNA. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. And you do a full, you want to do a light plunge and get in the top there or whatever. So I did that and he kind of just screwed up that ball on my, on my ball, the first ball I did. And then at one point on ball two, I mean, He only had like maybe 80,000. Can I ask you the obvious question? Yeah. And you're going to hate me for this, but just bear with me. Yeah. Do you know the first thing you should do when you play that game? No, and don't give me a smarmy answer. Yeah, unplug it. Tell me what you're supposed to do, then you can give me the smarmy answer. I would say you're supposed to read the rules. That's what my wife just said. No, the first, when you're going to play the game, I'd say plunge lightly to get in the top. After that, the ball comes down, it's on your flipper. What do you do? You want to shoot those little locks for the ball locks. Go to the head of the class. And how many times do you have to do that? I think three or four times. Three times. Two in the locks, hit it, open it up, three ball, multiball. All right. Well, here's what happened. So great segue, George. I'm on my ball. those balls are already locked from him from him doing it i stole his locks i had oh i had multiball but the multiball that's great so he set you up he did but i didn't knock out of the park like i should have it was balls going everywhere i was like i was flailing it's like i didn't know where to put it's like that is gotta be the world's and i'm not being a jerk about this it's got to be one of the fastest games out there i always watch again i'm getting jumping ahead i'm watching the finals so we'll get to that in a minute i didn't know what to show once i had multiball it's like okay what am i shooting for i was like more survival than anything it was it was survival that ball out of that the scoop up oh yeah that's a rocket how fast does that think it's like pretty darn fast 95 mile an hour fast it's a fastball right down the center yeah right Oh, yeah, that's good times. Yeah, so. Like I said, as soon as I saw that, I'm like, oh, no. Oh, my heart was sinking. Then I saw this. No, his score is like, you know, 120. I was like 62 or something. It finally ended up, I think he had 183 and I had like. That's it? He only had 183,000. I had like 92 or something. Okay, so this is a good segue. Do you have anything else? Because I want to come back to that segue. Whenever you're ready. He scored 183 and you scored whatever. Around 90,000. But put it this way, he did not run away with the game. We're going to talk about that in a minute. So then I talked to him afterwards. I said, he said, yeah, I'm familiar with this game. He said, I own it or I play it all the time, but this game is set more difficult than mine. They have this game set up really tough, he said. That's what he told me. You're correct. You are correct. He was having a hard time. Validated by at least six different people I talked to. So good. I wasn't the only one having a hard time. No, no. That was intentional. Here's another factoid about the whole tournament. You know who was supposed to be in that tournament? Q. That stern, rare Q game. There's only six made and maybe three survived. Yeah, we saw that. I watched somebody play that. But that's a real – we're going to – we punted on that. But here's the thing. Can I go to the finals? But here's the thing, George. Go ahead. That two-game, that was for a separate charity thing. I'm telling you, Jim wanted that in the bank. That's stupid. He wanted it in the bank. Mark, his partner, said no. I think it would be great in the bank. Yeah. Dumb. No. Good game. George, it's a classic pinball. Come on. Well, here's the thing. At the end of it, Mark agreed. Did you watch anybody play it? Yeah, but they were all newbies. Did you see some of the scores on it? Someone got a million points on it. They were rattling that game like a bear was trying to get into a trash can. It was really, really sad. No, no, no, no. No. I think it would have been. No. Well, here's the thing. No. Well, Jim wanted it. Mark said no in the beginning. And then Afton, during the middle of the tournament. I'm with Mark. Well, Mark relented. Mark said, you know, Jim, you're right. We should have put it in the tournament. Mark, you're wrong. I think Mark is right, and so is Jim. No. No. So can I tell about the final? Stern hater. Go ahead. No, I don't want to cut you off. I want to make sure that you got your whole story in. I gave away the beginning at the end at the beginning, but you talked about the fill, which is good. I mean, you know, we've lost like 90% of our audience. Right. So it really doesn't matter. But overall, I wanted to say this folks, don't ever think that you can't be in a tournament and this is no downplay to Dave. It's really, it's really a Testament to how good he is, but he only scored on four out of five games he got a zero on one game and he was in the top 24 that's awesome that's why you go and play yeah especially i mean you killed it you had a five you were ranked five in one game 14 in another 26 and 26 that's called consistency and we talked it's it's so funny because we talked about it well i talked about it to you and you were like okay yeah that makes sense and you did how i prepped for each one on the qualifying just a quick thing there is i would just go up to the game take my time get rid of the adrenaline i just take a deep breath and do a little slow in and out breath thing and uh just chill and zen and just plunge the ball and just kind of zen it i was doing drop catching like crazy i was drop catching making my shots so I was just totally chilling out uh different story I still did pretty well you know head to head but when you get that adrenaline kicking in when you're head to head and you get a little more on the line it can play with your head if you don't know how to deal with that you did you did very well you know you know I'm a I'm a supporter always will be I uh I want to just uh put my two cents in because I didn't do very well I didn't get to play the whole ticket it you heard all about that earlier but the long short of it is i did really well on blackjack even though you did better number five i was number 17 so i was pretty proud of that and having never ever played rawhide unless you made me no you didn't make me but we played it maybe two years ago at uh pentastic i don't know you made me play some western game i'm not sure it was that one Yeah, it was in the free play area. Free play, yeah. Did we play it? We did. Okay. Okay, then I can't say it was the only time I played it. But I got 43 out of, you know, the bank. That's not bad for me. But everybody, I sucked on everything else. Not very good. But I had a lot of fun. I thought it was great. Too long. Too long is the only thing. And that's not a slight on anybody. I get it. that's the only thing is it takes a long time to do it. Well, see, we had the time this time. Usually, you know, spending all this time running around. Oh, I know. You're jumping around like a jackrabbit in the high school. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. But I was there all four days. And this time around, I built in time. The way I handled the judging committee and Blue Ribbon and so forth, I did time management differently. So I had time to do this. And on top of that, I did my other things. I played different games I wanted. I did a lot of socializing. I mostly do a lot of socializing at these events. I did a lot of that. So I definitely budgeted time for this tournament, and it worked out well. So I didn't mind throwing it at it because I had a good time doing it. It was fun participating in it. And you know what they always say, George? If you cannot be an athlete, you can at least be an athletic supporter. And there you go. Ding-dong. Insert crickets here. Okay, so you've already heard this, but our audience hasn't. I have to give a shout out to them. I'm literally walking out the door, and I see Brian O'Neill, and he's the one who came in second in the qualifying. Brian O'Neill from the movie? Brian O'Neill from the movie? No way. what's this what's that ryan o'neill from the movies no brian brian with a big oh him okay it's different okay anyway anyway so i see him and i say you know i'm really hoping that you get to meet my friend dave o'neill and you get to meet in the tournament and he looked at me gave me the wave or whatever and you know okay kind of moved along that's who you would have played if you beat Zach and you know the end of the story obviously is that Zach ended up not winning the tournament under a little bit of machine failure and I don't know the intricacies of it you can go out and watch it on YouTube something with the lights on the game not being indicators of where you stood in the game but zach actually stopped the game he was on his last ball and i guess the game was acting up because i listened to the commentary and they were talking about it which game total nuclear annihilation that serves him right that's called that's called karma and the funny part is everybody who was watching the stream hung in there and actually the stream numbers were increasing because it went on for like it seemed like an hour and i really don't know how long it was and forgive me but it was it was crazy and here's the nuttiest part about it okay you know who the designer developer audio dude you know jack of every trade known to man because it was i guess originally a homebrew do you know who it is i don't know offhand no i do okay scott denisi i know you know who that is not ringing a bell you don't i don't well that lock that you know thing on the right hand side where you lock the balls that's called the denisi lock oh i've heard that term before okay right i know you would so they actually reached out to him he was watching the stream and he called in to troubleshoot the game wow ron hallett had his beak under the game ryan o'neill was funny as hell on screen drinking a beer and kind of like directing traffic i was laughing my ass off it was like this is this is the craziest thing and i gave away the punchline obviously um zach ended up not winning but you know who the winner is i don't know him you know him right i know him in fact you know what so here here's here's the end Yeah. Unless you have some other things to add. This is really the end of the story. He ended up winning. Who? Not Zach? No. The person you know. I know. I know that. And so I haven't said his name yet. I know that. But hold on. Before you say his name, I'm just going to go through the chart there. what's it called the uh bracket right yeah so basically so me and zach winner of that was gonna go play brian o'neill so let's say reversal fortune say i beat zach then i'm out then i'm going to brian o'neill say i beat him then i'd go over to ed zeltman and then be a good undercard with him you know that with ed zeltman no who brian o'neill okay i told you he's a he loves He's got old school Bali games And stirring games That would be great Yeah You get the undercard thing Oh yeah You understand what that means later That would be fantastic The battle of the classic people Yeah That was a segue Dave Come on Join the party I get it You know Hey it been a long weekend Yeah well I here to annoy you It working George Yeah I good at it And then we come up to me versus Anna. Walk would have been, and then I'd be up against Mitchell Curtis, which people know him, and that would be me against Mitch. And I don't know what played, But I didn't know even who won until the end of the night, the big after party with the Guns N' Roses tribute band, which was fantastic, by the way. Well, Mitch is there, I seen with a big loving cup, dancing around with the band playing and like, you know, like a nut going around like, I won, I won, I won, I won. It's like, it's kind of like, it's almost like, okay, dude, settle down, Beavis. We know you won. You know, take a chill pill. he is truly a character they work for me he was making all kinds of faces and stuff at the camera he's he's a character yeah he's he's a character that guy he's he's he's he's funny he's definitely funny and you know and he can he can roll it and give it out and the lead singer can get right back to him it was great you know watching that happen that was that was entertaining as well but that'll be a future episode i have a lot to say about that whole concert thing that that shout out to uh help me Dave person putting on the whole event Gabe nice job everybody who way too many names I don't want to go through them all Dave for doing what you did with the you know with the best in play I had a real I had a lot of fun I'm hoping it came through in the broadcast I know I kind of be a little forceful on Dave and spoil maybe the party every once in a while. But I think you guys get the idea. You'll understand in the next show. And Dave, you're going to think this is crazy. You want to take a guess on how many new games I played that I never played before? Ten. Close. nine. Nine. Nine, nine. Nine. Wow. So what do you think? No, that's next. That's not. Next time. Oh, it's a tease. I'm going to tease that. All the teases, dude. Doing the teases. Okay. So you got the mic. I'm going to say happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Put this one out quick. but I think you're going to, I hope you enjoyed it. And I'll let Dave close out. Happy Thanksgiving. Yeah. I think there's going to be a unique, you know, other people, other podcasts do tournament talk, that kind of thing. We do. I think we did a little different, you know, we kind of more from the every man's kind of perspective of a term, the people that don't play tournaments going into one and, and, and, and kind of, you know, bring the funny as much as we can with that as well. so with that happy Thanksgiving to everyone and thanks for your continued listenership and patronage and George is here too, George wants to talk to you yeah, I hear you George, how are you? I'm good Eric, how are you? have you played in any tournaments recently? yeah, I played about six weeks ago in a match play tournament and I actually won, and Dave will appreciate this I won a volley pinball machine. Wow, nice going. What'd you win? A volley. A volley pinball machine. Oh, volley. I thought he said... No, volley. Like, golly volley. I think the only one with good ears around here. No, he's joking because George said volley. I said volley. Oh, volley. See, we could use that. Yeah, we can. Yeah, we can use that. Right, because I say... Now, there was a place called Arcade Monster, all right? Okay. And they're having what they call Arcade Olympics. Okay. Well, what they're doing is there's a couple pinball machines where you pay like $35. Okay. All right? And you get one chance. You get one game on a pinball. And the winner takes all. And the games are set up so hard, they removed the side posts. Wow. No ball saves. Even on multiball, there's no ball save. They're very limited. And the rules have changed to make the game even harder. So I was told that it was paying $500. So they had asked me to do an interview up there Thursday night. So I went up there, and the guy who owns the place, Adrian, really nice guy. I had a good time up there, you know. And so I came back, and I wound up winning. There were only four people, and I got a check for $100. So I'm not sure what happened to the $500, but it's okay. So if you want to say what's the last tournament I played in, yeah, I guess it was last night when I played a one game on a bastardized machine and a winner take all. And I took a hundred bucks. There you go. Okay, a hundred bucks. It should have been 500 bucks, you're saying. So I'm guessing new job, so tough to travel. I didn't see you out in Wisconsin at the District 82. That was a big one. What was the other? There was another big tournament recently. I don't remember which one I watch all the time. Houston? Houston? Oh, Expo. Yeah, well, Houston had some pretty good, well, they have a lot of good players in Texas. Chicago Expo. Chicago, that's the one. So you're not traveling, I guess. No, so, you know, God bless me with this new job in the number one market in the state, in Tampa, and it's a very, very good TV station. And so now I'm doing the Carl Weathers for a very prestigious station that most people in the business know WFLA because FLA is Florida. And if you have WFLA, you've been there a while. I recognize the call letters. Right, right. And many people do. So, you know, I kind of feel that it's the season of, you know, getting accommodated with a new job. And my car crapped out, so I just bought a new car. And now I'm looking for a place to live up there. Everything happens so fast, which is great. And so I've been focused on the new job and the new, you know, career. Well, it's the same career, but whatever. Sure. And so I'm not really able to take weekends off for quite a while just because of, you know, the staffing and updo and everything. So, yeah, I'm not going to be able to play much pinball in the next few months. I'm not going to be able to go to Indis in February. And so, you know, I should be able to do the world championship in Fort Myers since it's about hours down the street. but yeah you're going to see my numbers go down big time but you know what I figured God bless me got me up to number one I won a world championship so you know I guess now is the season of working and you know doing that what's he laughing at that's PJ laughing at something he's in the background oh PJ's there yeah PJ how are you Eric How are you, Eric? His wife let him go, huh? Yes, yes, she did. Just for a day. Just for a day. I don't believe it. He's only going to be here for 30 minutes. He's allowed to be here. That's it. Hey, Eric. Oh, PJ. Hey, Eric, I got one more question, and then I've got to get out of here. I'm sure you heard the news of the passing of Bob Lawton. Oh, Bob Lawton, yeah. What do you think of that? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Did you know? It's a loaded question. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he has history with Bob Lawton. Oh, I've got a lot of history. Care to share any thoughts about Bob and his passing? Boy, I've got to watch what I say here. Well, you know, the one thing that I will be honest and sincere about is, you know, I'm sad. I'm sorry that he died. I'm sorry he passed away. And, you know, my condolences go out to the staff. Nice. You know, as for my interaction with him, you know, when I was a teenager, you know, I guess it could have been a little better. That was one heck of a snowstorm, that's all I have to say. You had a long walk home. we had a long walk to a pay phone because my friend was with me and a long walk home but anyway that's a whole other story you know people that are close to me will get it but yeah I mean I'm sad I you know it's a shame when you know someone someone's health deteriorates like that and you know he was well known he started a great thing he created a lot of fun for a lot of people and I pray that his family keeps it going and continues it and I think they will I have something to say about the Fun Spot episode we did if you can believe this it's our 5th most listened to podcast think about that one for a second yeah I was surprised too they liked your frogger thing I think no that's another episode let's just say now Bob knows now I'm praying Bob's in heaven and now he knows how many pumpkins I have yeah he probably does know now yeah I mean I wanted him to know when he was still alive you better hope he's not at the gate when your time comes you might ask for some of those back He's at the gate, and St. Peter's saying, hey, you're one token short. He goes, is that Eric Stone? I'll give him the token to get him in. Oh, nice. Thanks, man, and good luck with the new job. Good seeing you. Yeah, thank you. Hey, good talk with you. Thank you. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose Thanksgiving dinner has passed and the last plate of leftovers devoured. Drunk Uncle Joe has gone back home, and it's time to concentrate on holiday shopping and gifts. If you're looking for a classic Bally or Stern Dr. Dave's Pinball Restorations has what you want Why battle the crowds on Black Friday Pick up the phone and give Dave a call He has classic games from both Bally and Stern Supersonic Paragon 8 Ball Deluxe How about a Stern Stingray or Sea Witch Dave has them all call for his latest list at Dr. Dave's Pinball Restorations. Make this holiday a happy one. To kids from one to ninety-two Although it's been said Many times, many ways Merry Christmas to you You were young and your heart was an open book You used to say live, let live But if this ever-changing world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry Say you're giving that time Giving that time Thank you. You got to do it well.