Hey, Beavis, if you, like, abstract a chick, then I can, like, stick it in her taco. No way, butthead! We have to, like, give her the Spanish flag first! What the hell do you think I'm talking about, butt plug? Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my, well, not yet, anyway. Bruce is not here. So I am going solo. We have a guest. Hello. This is Nick Schell of the? of the North American Pinball Tour, which is now the executive director of the Rona Pinball Museum. I love saying that, executive director of pinball. It's like, how many people can say that? Me, nobody else. Anyway. It does sound very cool. I like executive director. It's a lot of fun. So anyway, glad to be here. So those of our longtime listeners will remember Nick from, God, how many episodes ago was it? It was a lot of episodes ago when he was in the middle of his tour. I believe you called us from, you were like going into Canada or something. North of Minneapolis for sure. I was about to cross the border, so it's good that we did the interview there because I was like, am I going to make it, I guess? Yeah, but yeah. Gosh, I've listened to every show since. So you were on your tour, and then you were living in Texas. Yes, indeed. And then you had kind of another, like, almost, there's almost a contest on Pinside to guess where you were moving to. Well, you know, hey, you've got to make it fun. Pinball is in the entertainment business, right? So that's what we do. So, yeah, there wasn't a prize, unfortunately, but it was kind of a countdown. And, you know, I did travel, when I was traveling the U.S., I was kind of shopping around for a new city. And I guess when people found out about it, it's kind of funny. I always got the sales pitch no matter where I moved. It was like, you know, oh, you got to move out here to Snodgrass, Arkansas, because we make the most of those brake pad liners, you know, that go on those big 18-wheeler trucks. I mean, we produce more of those domestically than anywhere else. I mean, this is a place. This is it, man. You got to move here. Anyway, I just, no matter what, I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm not going to move to Arkansas. Thank you, though. But not that there's anything wrong with it, but I just, you know, So everyone gave me the sales pitch when I was like, oh, we can have EM guy next door. Oh, boy. You know, and it was great. It was a lot of fun. I really love that. But there's only one guy in the whole U.S., at least on the tour, who was like, hey, Nick, you want to move here? Wow. OK. Where was that? My buddy Matthew Sedgwick up in Warwick, Rhode Island, this suburb of Providence, was like, yeah, Nick, you know I'm okay. This isn't for you. This place will just eat you alive, you know, so get the hell out of here. So you were living in Texas. What made you want to move out of Texas? Well, you know, now this is a polarizing question. And there's probably all of our listeners in Texas are like, yeah, what's wrong with Texas? You, you know, asshole, what are you talking about? And everybody else is like, yeah, I can tell you some things wrong with Texas. I mean, Texas is a state with a big personality. You can go anywhere in the world. You don't even have to say you're from America. You just say, oh, I'm from Texas. Yeah, I know where that is. Yeah. Yes, George Bush. And yes, whatever. But I had been living there for my whole life, yes, in Dallas, as a matter of fact. And although I've traveled, you know, business, friends, all kinds of things kind of get you rooted. But I was ready for a change. So I discovered the Roanoke Pinball Museum on the last little loop of the tour. And, you know, they needed somebody like me, and I needed kind of a place like that. And it just kind of worked out. So, hey, I'm a Virginian now. All right, and I finally got to meet you at the Texas Pinball Festival, which I guess that'll be the last one you'll be at. No. Maybe not. No, you're going to be back. I got to go. TTPF is this show. It's like all things considered, it's just the size of it and the fun of it, and the games don't disappear early. Everybody kind of hangs in there for that little awards thing at the end. And, you know, it's like, it's just a great show. I mean, did you have fun? Oh, I always have fun there. So what was your involvement with the show? You kind of had like your own little section there. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, the little, the Vector Committee, that's the, founded that committee at the Dallas Makerspace several years ago for teaching people how to do arcade and pinball repair and fixing and stuff. So, you know, we would bring out a pinball machine. It's a great learning platform. and take it apart, show people kind of what's in it and how to play it and what to do with it. And, you know, if you have a makerspace out there, folks, you need to reach out, if you're a member, and onboard a pinball project as kind of a learning experimentation platform, because it's really a makery thing. You know, you've got electronics and metalwork and all kinds of stuff in there. But anyway, point being, our presence at the Texas Pinball Festival is kind of a showcase of all of our members, you know, pinball machines and projects. And we've won quite a few awards since we've started going. And I mean, it'll be difficult for me to bring a machine, you know, next year from, you know, from Virginia, truck it there and back. But at least I'll be there. I'll hop on a plane. and hopefully they'll be doing some interesting things in 2019. Yeah, the ones I remember, I remember the 2001 that was there. I don't know if that was this year. It might have been last year. Yeah, I had, yeah, actually that was a, that was one I did for a collector who I wound up selling it to him, but it was, yeah, clear-coated and repainted and everything, and that was a big project. That was, I think, 2016. Yeah, 2016. Yeah, because that one I remember. Like, I love playing that game as long as it's not in a tournament, because in a tournament it's just brutal. Yeah. It's just so brutal. Let's see, what else do I remember? Sinbad. I remember playing Sinbad. I somehow remember multiple Sinbads. Yeah, actually, my friend Chris Schnick and then one of our local Vector members, Chuck, brought his Sinbad. And it was Chuck's that you probably played because he totally rebuilt it and he put all new lamp sockets in it and he replaced that shitty little plastic spinner with a metal one. And I know it's not original, but man, it really has that whack that those kind of earlier Williams EMs have. So it's a good tweak for that game. It makes it kind of fun. Definitely agreed. I'm a sucker for that, I guess, System 1 Gottlieb, the whole complete the drop target bank to increase multiplier rule that they did on, like, Sinbad. They did it on Countdown. I guess I'm a sucker for that feature. So does that mean you own a Joker Poker? I do not own a Joker Poker, I'm afraid. That is a shame because that is a nice game. Yep, that is another, that's definitely in the, basically I just mentioned the three Gottlieb System ones I would consider. It's basically Sinbad, Countdown, and Joker Broker. I remember this year playing that Old Chicago. I became a fan of Old Chicago, just playing that in that booth. Ah, yes, that was my Old Chicago. had that one clear-coated and rebuilt, and that is how an EM can play if it is clear-coated and dialed in. And it's kind of fast and modern-ish, isn't it? Yes, it is. Oh. So, even Ryan Claytor, you know, he's done a lot of our T-shirts. He did the Pinball Tour T-shirt and a bunch of other stuff for Pinside, and he was very much a traditionalist until he played my old Chicago in Skyrocket. And that's where he's like, I don't want to tell some of my friends this, and I'm outing you, Ryan, I'm sorry, but I think I like the clear-cut thing a lot. Yeah. I mean, it just makes it play like, you know, what does new play like? Well, I'm not old enough. I never got to play a new-in-box EM, you know. But I have a feeling they were probably smooth and fast, and that's kind of what a cleared EM will give you. So what did you like about Old Chicago? I know it's a difficult game, but have you played any EMs cleared before? Hmm, now that's a good question. Well, other than that 2001 that I mentioned earlier. And that was cleared as well. Yeah. I don't know if I've played any other cleared EMs. Old Chicago I like and it's weird because I usually don't like weird like stuff at the bottom of the playfield around the flipper area but for whatever reason I liked that trying to control all that down there with the two pop-upers and then you got suicide inlanes basically and no it's really hard to trap you gotta hit a lot of stuff on the fly which goes against what I usually play. So that's why I like it. Yeah, it's unabusable. Unabusable, yeah. Unexploitable. You've got to fight for your life with that game. And it's a great example of that EM design philosophy where they dangle the little treat right in front of you and then yank it away. You build up that old Chicago and then you try and cash it in the middle and it goes down the middle and you lose it. Such a cool design. So you went across the country looking for a new home, and you ended up in Virginia. Ended up in Virginia, yeah. And, you know, Taylor, I did an interview with Tommy and Taylor on this Flippin' podcast, and they were like, it was early in the countdown. Taylor's like, yeah, it's going to be Virginia. I'm like, did somebody tell you? How did you know? He said, no, just Virginia's just a great state, you know. It's, like, green. It's pretty. It's good Carl Weathers and all that. And actually, all that is kind of a nice kind of antidote for the humid, dry, you know, heat wave that is Dallas, Texas. So I got to say I get a kick out of looking at my little Carl Weathers app, and it's, like, still 81. And over in Dallas, it's, like, 97. I'm like, oh, I'm just in time. so what are your duties as the executive was executive director executive director well you see this is the thing and and i i mean i was just kidding about the hubris or whatever i mean really this is a really interesting place the rona pinball museum because it exists inside of a a foundation called center in the square which is it's it's a uh kind of a non-profit museum of museums. So I don't know if pinball's ever been elevated to this level before in this kind of company, but we have a performance hall here. We have a children's museum, an art museum, a science, and pinball! So the fact that it's in this location, it's right in the middle of downtown. I mean, literally the main square is right outside our door. And so it's walkable to like a dozen different bars and restaurants and all this stuff. Makes it like, it's a little bit of a different deal than, you know, like being in a strip mall and kind of having to like run an arcade, you know, like a traditional arcade. So it's kind of half museum, half arcade. So it's a little bit different. I have to cater to, you know, visitors or tourists, families, kids, but also the later crowd that want more of a barcade kind of experience. And then there's groups like corporate groups that come in and other nonprofit groups that come in and want to entertain their people in the space. So there's a lot of hats I have to wear and a lot of people I've got to answer to when it comes to running the place. But I'm kind of, right now they're letting me do pretty much everything. So about how many games are in this high-class museum? I mean, I do want it to be world-class. I want all the games to be clear-coded and stealth LED'd in the best-looking way and have the right arrangement of games. I mean, we're pinball people, so we know what... We've got a much better idea of what people want to see rather than somebody who's going to an arcade or pinball auction just kind of buying things randomly. We like Creature from the Black Lagoon, and we know that some other games are like Revenge from Mars, Attack from Mars. These are your classics. But I have about 60, room for about 60 games. I'm actually here right now because that's the other side of the title that you get as executive director is 90-hour weeks. So I've been working 90-hour weeks since I got here because there's just so much to do, and I'm getting a real education in what it takes to not only turn the ship around but to keep it running while you're, you know, entertaining the public. So it's pretty cool. We've been around for about 60 games. 60 games. Man, that's a lot of games. Yeah, and it's not just pinball. I've got a Slugfest Pitching Bat. I've got a three-wheel Ivan Stewart's Off-Road. I don't know if you've played that arcade game. Oh, yeah, yeah, I've played that before. Just love that game. And we've got to have one crowd pleaser, you know, Guitar Hero. That's, you know, just people love that. But in general, we've got a few Gottliebs, a lot of classic ballets, EMs, two rows of those. So are they a mix of, like, EM games, solid state, all EM? Like, what kind of mix? Well, let's take a stroll. I have my laptop with me, so let's just walk about. I really should have a cot underneath the games because I just, I mean, 90-hour weeks, is that 12, 13 hours a day? Yeah, that's about what I'm doing, at least. So you're actually there right now. Actually, they're right now. I just put some pin gulps on all the machines because we're about to do some Barkady-type nights here. I was thinking of doing that. Are they pretty easy? They look pretty good? Oh, yeah, they're very sturdy, and I opted to select the left-handed ones and then mount them on the right side so they face forward underneath the shooter. All right. All right. Did you get, because isn't there like two types? There's the kind that you can actually remove, you can slide off if you need to get in between, if they're that close together. Yeah, if you mount them in the front, though, you don't have to worry about that. And being that this is the public, I just don't want them to ever disappear or pop off or whatever. So it's like, nah, I'll just. I've heard that sometimes someone said that popped off on one of them with like a drink in it. And I was like, what? So I don't know. So is that like a pro tip? Get left-handed ones and mount them on the right side in the front. Yep, and face forward. And they don't block anything? Exactly, they don't block anything. I've got to take that down because that's easier because then you can get in between the machines. But I digress. I digress. So the games we have, let's see. I'm working on the Bally row. Right now, let's see, our 70s Ballys are KISS, which is on loan. And I've been trying to get – I've got almost all of our loaners out of here because we really – having a loaner in an arcade or a museum is a little risky because if something happens to it, I don't want to be liable for it. And also, you've got to return it in good condition too, so they do get used while they're here. So anyway, but we got a Kiss of the Loner, got a Playboy I want to sell, got a Paragon, but it's the European Paragon, which has three flippers. And I want really the U.S. version with four. So that one's got a limited life here, but we got an 8-Ball Deluxe 81, Nitro Ground Shaker, new CPR Playfield I'm going to swap in, Harlem, then a Captain Fantastic EM, Wizard EM, 72 Fireball, and then a Campus Queen. So that's like our ballet back row there. Nice. It's weird how they, did they just consider Europeans not as good? You know, you think about it, because in the Paragon they did that, and then in like a lot of even later models they have like the European model has the center post. The American one doesn't. Maybe it's a skill difference, but I heard that Europeans like to hold a drink in one hand and hold the ball with the flipper in the other so they can talk while they're playing. I totally believe that. So it's like you can imagine a guy in a beret, you know, and he's smoking a cigarette and he's got a drink. And he's like, yeah, you know, chatting about life. But anyway, whatever. The other weird thing is, like, I guess a lot of times I heard they would disable the knocker for whatever reason. I don't know what the deal was there. Did they? Yeah. Yeah, like European, they would. And I have, like, a no fear. That's like it's a German no fear. And the knocker had been disconnected. which I thought it was broken, and then you go in there and it's literally just unplugged. Weird. Yeah, you've got to have that. I mean, what is this? No, no, no. I don't want these knocking people. Yeah, I don't understand that. Well, hey, that's what keeps Gottlieb guys engaged. If there is no snap for their free game and they're a little special, then it's like, oh, the world is coming to an end. I mean, you've got to have the knocker. you know anyway but we talked about our Gottlieb indifference I think on my last show yeah yeah I got some nice Gottliebs here but you preferred fixing the Bally's and the Williams if I recall I like them all honestly I'm just not a Gottlieb guy you know Gottlieb guys are like they have to all be wedge heads or they have to all be you know they have to all be Gottliebs and nothing else, pretty much. And it's like, okay. There's so many good ones out there you're missing, though, but that's all right. It's a generational thing. If you're 55 or older and you're into EM pinball, you're probably a Gottlieb guy. Probably. That's just the odds. But it's all right. Everybody likes different things. So moving to the next row or the next section. Yes, to the next section. Let's see. So I got TPF Winter Snow Derby here. I've got Out of Sight clear-coated as well, Skyrocket clear-coated, and I've got a SuperSight. So I've got some of my own personal machines on the floor, and soon I'll be bringing some others like the Freedom prototype and that game you love so much. I'm softening out a little, but still, try to get those spinners that weird with the – I don't know. More time. More time. More time. More time. You'll get there. So let's see. Our modern games, let's see, we've got a Wizard of Oz, got a Creature from Black Lagoon, a Ripley's, Ghostbusters, got a Mustang, but I'd like to trade it out for another one. And then a Wheel of Fortune, because this is kind of weird and different. And, of course, Adam's Family. I'm about to sell Starship Troopers, and Color DMD announced they're doing Color DMD for it, so, hey, come and get it. $23.50, call me at the museum. Let's see. That's Terminator 3. That's a loaner. World Cup Soccer, Walking Dead, Doctor Who, and Metallica. Those are like our newest ones in the row. But we're about to get a Maiden. Really? Yeah. That's so weird. I think of a place like a museum, and then there's Iron Maiden in it. Well, the reason why is because I had to pick, you know, again, we're curating. I'm both a player and kind of a curator. So it's Keith Elwin's first game, and he's a world-renowned pinball player. And so it's kind of – there's a reason why, historically, you know. But also, if you're going to have – if you've got 60 games, you've got to pick the best, you know. So it's – I think it's solid, and people definitely want to play it. So – and we can rotate games out, too. That's another thing. We've got enough to do that with. But right now we have probably the nicest Banzai Run on the planet. That's really, we just secured one from a collector, Steph, in Canada. I don't know if you know him or not. But we picked it up at Allentown. And he was like, oh, you'll like it, but I need to be paid up front before you see it. But you'll be happy with it. And I'm like, okay. I didn't know who he was. But then I talked to some other friends, and I talked to some of them. They're like, oh, yes, Death's Fallen. He's got a great collection, and I looked online at his videos. Anyway, so I meet him in Allentown. He's like, yeah, we're about to leave in 15 minutes, so we need to give you your game. And I was like, whoa, okay. I was, like, shopping around. I'm like, well, shit, he already has my money. I've got to do it. So I don't know what's going on. So he comes out. I get to meet him. He's this really cool, you know, he's wearing this, like, black turtleneck and his other two guys. And they're, like, you know, I got that speaking French because they're from, you know, Quebec area. and they're like these Navy SEALs. They just jump out of this van. They've got this game immaculately wrapped. They're like, yes, you put the game up there and you move over here and open it. And then they're just like, boom. And they load the game in my car and it's like, one, two, three, bam. I'm like, all right, you'll love it. Don't worry about it. You'll love it. And it's just the coolest thing ever. So I'm like, all right, all right, cool. I can't wait to unwrap it. But oh my God, this thing is amazing. I mean, it's just, I'm looking at it right now And it's like the, I mean, the stencils are perfect. The paint is perfect. That lock bar, everything's got this, like, glossy black. It's been cleared. The back glass even thing has been cleared back there. Just, like, now some people, when they walk in, they don't know what this is. You know, they're just like, oh, it's just a, oh, cool, the ball goes up in the back glass. But the pinball people, when they see this, they're just stuck on it. They're like, oh, my God, this is awesome. I've never seen one this good. So that's our little crown jewel right now. It's in a condition where most collectors, I think, would be, they put a dust cloth over it, invite you over to play one game, and then cover it back up and say, okay, get out of here. Is it like one of the Diamond Flight ones, or is it just so awesome? I think it's been completely professionally re-cleared, because it looks like brand new, everything about it. Anyway, but I'm like, you know, pinball's meant to be played. I want the public to have a taste of, you know, what we did growing up. So, eh, let them play it, you know. So you were at this year's Allentown. Yes, I was there. And you were there, too, weren't you? Yeah, I saw you for like two seconds. Yeah, I didn't even see you. You went by me, and I even told someone. I said, there's Nick. That's Nick Schell. He's the guy I got my cheetah from. He's the cheetah guy. And how is cheetah coming along? Cheetah's awesome. He's working great, playing great. Yeah, I mean, it had the CPU. I mean, it still had the battery on it, but there was no battery damage. There was no acid damage. I mean, all the stuff was just pretty much mechanical. It had a, well, yeah, the one flipper didn't work. It had a burnt trace on the driver board behind, like, the flipper relay. So the one flipper wouldn't work. So I just got that, put a jumper in there. jumper wire, and back to life it was. That was the only major thing that kind of didn't work, and all the rest of it was just one of the drop targets was sheared off, and I had to go into my collection of, I had like Franken targets. Oh, gotcha. It's got like a one and a three in the fly bank, and the other ones are like, one's like a nine ball target, and the other ones are just like the Seaberg-esque targets, but works just peachy. Good, good. Well, I was really, when I came across that, and the back glass play field looks super nice and everything. I'm like, yeah, I guess it's timely that they were looking for one. So let's hook them up. Anyway, but glad it's working out. I want to come see your bar. That's Bruce. Bruce has the bar. All right. I got to go see this place, you know? Hey. So, well, he has, he has like a Frank and Cheetah. He had like a backbox and a back glass from somewhere he got. Then he got, like, a body for $23.10 in Arkansas, which he drove down to pick up, which is ridiculous. He got it, like, in some kind of a state sale. Like, ridiculous. Then he got, like, he found, like, an NOS play field somewhere. He's going to have an impressive cheetah when it gets done. That'll probably end up in the bar, I'm guessing. That's cool. It's just that you've got to mix it up, you know, give people some classic solid state, alphanumeric, all that. But you know what? We don't always see EMs. That's the thing. Yeah, I'm sorry. He had a Grand Prix in there for a little bit. What happened? What happened? It was actually someone else's, and that person sold it. Well, maybe I'll have to get one of mine up there. We have failed the EM gods once again. Well, you know, that's the thing. I am an advocate of this subtle, subtle use of LEDs, not in the GI, but just under the inserts and certain places in the back glass and the clear coat, you know. But when it's like that, it hooks people who normally wouldn't be, I guess, EM people. and that just tells me it's like maybe the reason people don't play the ems as much is because they just don't feel the same as moderns do and if you think of it that way well it's just because they've got cupped inserts and they're kind of not you know snappy and fresh and that can be fixed so i hear you i hear you but they do take some time to rebuild that's that's the main thing So take me, for example, someone who's a solid state guy. What kind of pitfalls could I avoid? Like, sell me on EMs. Like, what kind of skills would I have to attain to be confident in my EM purchase? Because I know Bruce, I mean, he's had ridiculous amounts of games. But he had, like, two or three EMs, and at least one of them, which I think was a Grand Prix also, like a different Grand Prix, was a basket case, and he just could not fix it himself. And he ended up giving up. Well... Help us. Help us. I would first, I would say, probably start with a one-player. Start with a one-player EM that you really like, because then you don't have to deal with any sort of player selection units or anything like that. I mean, I don't really see... one player so I gotta I gotta find the one players I like 2001 would be up there oh well that's my favorite I mean that's that's I think definitely my favorite one player for sure yeah what a that is that should be the top wedgehead period yeah because you have less to work on like a classic that 2001 isn't too tough to rebuild you got a couple drop target banks to reassemble, but it's, you know. There's like 30 zillion drop targets. Yeah, they have 10 apiece, that's for sure. Yeah. Well, you know, Ron, it's a matter of working with your hands versus sort of working with your sort of computer kind of let's just replace it kind of mentality. Like, it's just shift gears a little bit, you know. It's funny, people who are in the auto car hobby have an easier time with EMs because they're used to cleaning out either carburetors or rebuilding a little fuel injector or whatever. Although that's really more plug and play kind of thing. But yeah, the old car hobby is kind of like that. It that EMs just require some manual knowledge hands And you know do you like working with your hands you know like little projects or anything I guess I would say yeah I mean even people who like to sew or knit it's kind of on that level. It's just a manual, hands-on type of knowledge that's been lost, but it's really rewarding. You know, it's a – I kind of look at it as kind of a Zen meditative thing. You know, there's almost nothing I like better than – I've got a million demands, you know, like people want to do, you know, like call me for these interviews. Oh, sorry. Oh, hey. Anyway, but, you know, there's so many things to do. But then just sitting down, clearing a table, putting my EM motherboard out, and just kind of going through everything, making everything click and move just like it should, and then putting it back in. I mean, hours can go by. It just feels like minutes. That's just the coolest thing. Yeah, I would think, I mean, from what I've seen with EMs, I would think if you went through every unit and everything on every unit worked right and all switches were adjusted right, that it should just work. That's true. If you take apart an EM, I mean, when I get a new EM, I just rebuild the whole thing. And then 98% of the time, it'll work. And then that other 2%, you're just sort of dialing in, kind of getting it dialed in like your little play field switches. But you have to do that anyway with solid states. You know, such as that stuff. Let's see. 2001 or Target Pool. Like Target Pool. Target Pool. Target Pool is like baby 2001. Yeah, I'd like, what is it? Don't they both have in-lanes? Well, yeah, they both have in-lanes. Yeah, maybe that's my thing. They got the two-edged slippers, but they got in-lanes, so it feels a little less intimidating. No, they both have, like, that pop bumper at the top. 2001 is two, but Target Pool has the pop bumper at the top and little slings that kick. So, and they both have targets all around. So, I thought, it's funny you picked those two, because they are the most kind of similar, in my opinion. So, huh, we're learning something about Ron's preferred geometry today. That is true. What that means to me is that he's a flow player. He likes games that form not so much target shooting back and forth, but more of this round, circular movement, a little bit of target shooting, but also a little bit of random flow to it. That would probably explain why I have so many Sea Virtue games. Yes, I do like flow. Yeah, yes. That's good. That's why the Freedom Prototype should be on your list. It is the best figure eight pattern of almost any, but anyway. So we've got to get you one. Yeah, we've got to get Bruce and EM in his bar because it's just, come on, guys, just one. So anything else you want to talk about as the executive director? Well, I mean, once I get ahead of the Project Q and really get some of these games up to where I want them to be, I still want to make tours, you know, little local tours up the East Coast. I want to do pinball school. We have, like, a great building here. We have a whole huge conference room and a work area. I could have people come. I mean, this would be fantastic for people to just, like, take a little mini vacation. We've got like a Hampton right next door. Go out to eat. Go have some beers. Talk pinball. Come in, play. Come learn. I mean, this could be like, hey, this could be, that's actually not a bad idea. We could do a pinball school vacation. Huh. So anyway, all kinds of things are possible for this place. But yeah, I'm just saying I'm still out there, still wanting to help folks, still wanting to spread the pinball gospel, especially EN stuff, and try to turn Roanoke into a world-class pinball destination. So, yeah, stay tuned. It's coming right along. Excellent. So now you're on the East Coast. Are you going to be going to more of the East Coast shows? You said you were in Allentown. Yeah, I'm going to be competing in Pinberg. I did get a ticket. So that will be my first time to do a major tournament. You picked the best one. I'm not really a tournament player. Especially if you're not really a tournament player, it's the best one. It's the one I'd recommend first. Yeah, that's why I figured I'd just take a chance on it and just see what happens. So I'll be at Pinberg, and I'm also going to York Show, most likely. Nice. And then also Southern Pride, Southern Pride Game Room. Isn't that the one in Nashville, I think? No, that's Atlanta. I know there's one that my buddy David Corrigan put together in Nashville. That's right. It's the Grand Ole Game Room Expo. Yeah, David, I think he brought like 40 games or something to that. I mean, just himself. That's just some ungodly high number of games just to get that thing launched, and he's been doing it steadily every year. So, I mean, holy moly. That's kind of like, I think it was the Pacific Pinball Expo. They would have like all these EMs, and I think they were owned by one or two guys. An insane amount, like rows and rows of them. Yeah. Well, you know what? I think I'll bring one to York. What do you want me to bring to York? Are you going to go to that? I don't go to York. Bruce usually goes to York. It's a little, it's like, for me, it's like six hours. Oh. Is it? Yeah, it's a little, you know, it's a smaller show, which I did like to go to it, but it's just too long a drive. Wait, where do you guys live? Well, he lives in Rochester. I live in Albany, New York. Okay. Yeah, we're like three and a half hours plus apart, so. Yeah, if it's just three, that's easy. If it's six, then you're good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's longer than driving to Buffalo. So that's all you need to know there. I do miss the Harley plant. That was always cool to go by. Are they in the same location? Oh, I have no idea. I've never been. Oh, yeah, I probably should be the one to answer that question. Hey, Ron, are they in the same location? I don't know. Then I can see Bruce's in here, so I can do that. Yes, yes, they are. Yes, they are. Yes, yes, they are. Some of Bruce's yes-isms. Yes-isms. Yeah, any Bruce-isms. Yeah, lots of Bruce-isms. I remember, yeah, well, so if you're there, there is the Harley factory. It's a highlight. And depending on how you go there, you might run into some horse and buggy, some Amish stuff. You know what? On the tour, I heard one of the funniest quotes I had never expected to hear. That Dave Jeff Brenner, an awesome collection of games, most beautiful fathom I've ever seen, some nice Zacharias. He's like going to build a shed or a little arcade barn out back, you know. And a friend of his was with us, and he said, yeah, you ought to get the Amish to build you a pinball barn. They do a good job. And I thought, there is a connection that can only happen in the modern age, the Amish building a pinball bar, a pinball barn for, you know, just that connection, taking a horse and buggy up to build a palace of sterns and valleys. I don't know. It was just the contrast. What would you call an arcade in the Amish-built bar? That's what I mean. Now you've got a theme in it. You've got to have a picture. The Jebediah Arcade. Exactly. Yes. Right? I mean, I don't know. I think Amish names for whatever reason, that's the only one that pops up. Ezekiel. The Ezekiel Arcade or something like that. And you go in and there's, like, all these games, but because they don't believe in electricity, none of them are powered on. I guess they'd all have to be, like, pre-war models or, like, you know, just, I don't know, gravity bait. Like, some of the stuff I used to see, was it Texas? Like, one of the shows, they had, like, the pre-war section or, like, the 30s and the stuff that's not plugged in. and it's just mostly marbles. Yeah, that's your Frick's fantastic little area there. So if you had an Amish arcade, that's literally, that's all you could have in it, right, because you can't have any electricity. Bruce says he's on. Okay, we have Bruce has joined us, but unfortunately due to the awesomeness of Skype, we cannot get this. It is so weird. Like, I can't call Nick, but Nick can call me. But if Nick calls me, I can't get Bruce on. We can't have a threesome. Yeah, yeah. As you can tell, Bruce has entered. Oh, my. So, and unfortunately this means we go from the nice clear Nick to cell phone Nick. So I apologize. It's like cell phone sex Nick. Yes, excellent. Man, you know, we had a nice classy podcast going, and then you entered. I'm loved by all. Yeah. Would it help the quality if I were to invoke my radio voice? Oh. Here we come. So, we were talking about the... Nick is the executive director of the Roanoke Pinball Museum. Yes, nice. Yes, indeed. Yes, and it is actually a... answerable to a board of directors who have various endowments and some of them fly in on private jets and they want to know what's going on with their little pinball museum. So I do have to answer questions and demonstrate strategies and show charts and pictures and happy people. So there is a kind of a... It's not like running an arcade in a strip mall. There is an answerable responsibility here, you know? So, I gotta be on point. Sounds hard. Well, I knew this was gonna be a challenge, you know, walking in, because first of all, the games were, you know, you can't walk into a museum of 60 games and have 15 of them off, you know, turned off, because of various conditions. I'm like, guys, you can't do this. Anyway, and so, yeah, over the past several months, even before I got here, I was like, well, you need to sell that one and buy this one, and then you need to put that one inside and you need to put new plastic something that's, you know, so I've been kind of working behind the scenes while I was kind of wrapping up the tour, but not until I actually got here in oh, it was after TPS which, Bruce, were you, you didn't go to TPS. No, I did not. I was, I was getting I'm still working on the bar, still doing stuff at the bar and making sure that's successful, just like you're doing it at the Roald Dahl Museum, I need to do the same thing with my stuff, including bar stuff. besides pinball stuff. Yeah, and I'm getting that too. I'm getting the barcades. I've got the pin belts put in and just talked to Ron about you want to buy the left side ones, but then install them on the right side so that they come out front rather than on the side and block your access and all that. I do it the other way. You go ahead and put them on the side? Yep, because guess what? It's actually a natural barrier so the pinball machines can't get too close. Yeah, that's true. You can do it that way too. But then hopefully your people don't get confused left and right. You know, they're like, hey, I'm left-handed. That's my beer. Oh, it's not. Anyway, I don't know. Just what? If they can't control their own beer, they're screwed. That's their fault. They can't control their own beer. Oh, and by the way, Bruce, you need to put an EM at the bar. That's what I've been told. I have one, and we blew it up. I told Nick that, but you still need one. I would love to get another one. We've got to talk to Zachary. Hi, Zach. Oh, that's right. You've got Zach. He can hook you up with one. Yeah, he did. Come on. We killed his Grand Prix in four weeks. Hmm. What happened to it? The chime unit completely blew apart. The weld broke apart on the chime unit. He had a short where once in a while it would blow the GI fuse and one of the relay fuses. He was playing with that for a little while. Well, then the scoring motor would just go wacky once in a while underneath the play field one for the – and, yeah, he was in there more than he wanted to be. Well, you know, if you're going to have one on low pace and just – I mean, I'd be curious. He probably didn't fully rebuild it because – No, no, he didn't. No, he didn't. Yeah. Yeah, you have to do that. No, when it was running, it ran like a top. For the first three weeks, it ran like a champ. And then all of a sudden, it just like a gremlin got in there. That's the thing. All this stuff, like, okay, like, Ron, did you see the Polynesia game at TPS? I probably did. I mean, it's the Tiki Bar, the Tiki Bar-themed EM. Tell me you saw that. Oh, my gosh. I didn't see a picture. Oh, my gosh. Okay, maybe not. Well, it was a student print, and I was responsible for the mechanical part of it, the rebuild, and then – Is that the one that looked like all wood? Yes. Okay, yes. I did see that. Yes. Yes, so Paul did all the woodwork on that, and I did all the mechanical stuff. Well, it was a student print, and he got it for free, practically, and he did everything. So I rebuilt that thing from the ground up, and then there was – I rebuilt, like, 95% of it, because that's all we had time to do before the show. and then at the show, the other 5% was failing. You know, like everything I hadn't touched was just starting to come apart. I'm like, you know, you just cannot take any shortcuts with these 50-year-old games, you know. I agree. Yeah, so it sounds like that's probably what happened with the Grand Prix, is that it was like all the stuff that Zach didn't have time to touch might have been that stuff that was just on its last leg. Yeah. And being in a public environment will definitely stress it. But Zach's good. He knows what he's doing, you know. He does. And we had a great time with it. You know, people enjoyed it. We played the snot out of it. But they really played the snot out of it. Well, you know, maybe we've got to get you a rebuilt one with a cleared play field, you know, and one that's just, like, just snappy and rebuilt. That would be nice. Let's do that for you. Let's get that for the public. Get it done, Zach. Get it done. Nick is the master of the clear play field EMs club. Yes, I know he is. We've seen this. All EMs must be cleared. No, no, I did not say that. Ron said that. Oh, not all of them. Okay. No, no, no. Only, no, don't need to clear all of them. Just the ones that you're taken to. Come on. I'm going to get a lot of hate mail. you know we're gonna clear my EM no not through that center now they made how many millions there's hundreds of thousands of them that were made and I mean you want to talk about the EMs first of all they're just gonna survive period it's not gonna be a huge number and of those how many are gonna get cleared so you know one or two get cleared along the way there's dozens more that aren't so the collectors shouldn't You know, I'm frat about that. If anything, I think it makes them more valuable, but that's just my personal opinion. Have you guys ever been to Roanoke? What do you know about this little town? I was there about 20 years ago. Well, you know what? It may not seem that different. I guarantee it hasn't. I guarantee it hasn't. Seriously. But I mean that in a good way because the population has changed since like 1966 or something like that. It's still right around 100,000. I mean, your exurbs have grown, but the city proper is still right about 100. And so that's great because it's pretty. You don't have the McMansion thing, you know, and like the just over the capitalist speculation that comes in and just eviscerates everything you love and replaces it with, you know, chain restaurants and, you know, overpriced condos. Like, that didn't happen here. So it's still like this kind of scenic railroad town in the little Blue Ridge Valley. It's like, it's just a cool place. So it's like, I don't know. Maybe it'll, I hope it doesn't get ruined. Yeah, no, I agree with that, too. You know, you want the quaintness and the niceness of it, but, you know, you still want to increase a little bit of population. and also make it a little newer stuff too, but that'd get rid of the quaintness. So it's a fine line. Yeah, I just feel special. That's why I want this. I'm putting 90-hour weeks, and Bruce, you know that's what it takes in the entertainment business. 90-hour weeks, always something to deal with. But I want this museum to be like a world-class destination. So it's like, oh, wow, I wouldn't expect a thing like this to be like this. So I think it's going to happen. But are you putting in, like, you know, are you getting any sleep at your bar? Oh, God. Well, let's just say today we're closed, and I was there at 11 o'clock today, and I left there at 8.30. Oh, so you're coming in late and getting out early. Good for you. Yeah, well, yes, on the day off. On the day off. Oh, day off. What is that like? Oh, it's very rare for me also. But today we are closed every Monday. We're closed every Monday, but I'm there almost every Monday. tomorrow I'll be there at 8 o'clock in the morning and I'll be there until 1 o'clock in the morning so people listening pay heed when you see people owning a bar in an arcade it's like oh man it'd be cool to have my own place and come in and pay money yeah you have to live there I do live there I love my job I love my place there's a lot of pluses and minuses Like, you're always depending on other people. That's the hardest thing. Especially for your internet. No, I don't mean that. I mean people coming in, actually, literally to the building and spending money. That's the hardest thing. But, you know, that's one of the hard things. But when you get people in there, it's great until they start drinking. And then when they start drinking, the IQ level goes way down. Guaranteed. And that's where you whisk beer seal is a little more effective. Yeah. And I love when people put drinks on the machines, even though there's a cup holder next to each machine. And how, you know, I'm going to get to cross this. We're going to do our first, like, late-night barcade thing this weekend. And I'm going to get an education. I mean, I had a bar with my brother, like, 13 years ago in Austin. And so I had a little taste of that. But with pinball, it's just sort of like, ah, so I have a little PA system, and I'm going to walk around. It's going to be funny. We're going to do a little contest, and I'm going to be like, okay, I beat four people at Valley Wizard. And the winner, we're going to get a little T-shirt for the Roanoke Pinball Museum. But I see someone over here. Where are you from? Johnny? Where are you from? From Albany? Yes. Your beer is on the game, and we don't like that, do we? I don't know. You know, like they used to do in old skating rinks. Do a funny little thing like that for adults. But you got, how do you, what do you, you know, you don't want to be the bad guy and say, get that key. No, no. But they can't do it, you know. You know what I do? I actually go over there and just pick up their drink and put it in the cup holder. And they look at me and I said, oh, I just don't want to ruin the electronics in the machine. Beer and electronics don't mix. And they look at me and go, oh, okay. And that's it. and their level of you know shit facery depends on how well they'll take it right exactly it does it does but i i usually when it's really busy in the afternoon in the early evening i'm upstairs usually watching the stuff towards later in the night most people flock back down the stairs to actually go and drink at the bar so then at late night between 11 and 1 or 11 and 2 i'm by the door making sure people don't walk out with their beer bottles outside into the main street. So I have to be multitasking. Yep, yep. That's the fun part, too. But, yeah, no, I just actually, when I see something on the thing, I don't even say a word to them. I just grab the beer and put it right where to drink, and I put it right in the cup holder. And they look at me, and I said, oh, electronics and beer, whatever it is you're drinking, don't mix. I'm going to put a cut-out picture of Uncle Sam, and he's going to be pointing at the cup holder and say, I want you to put your beer in the... Yes, yes, seriously. The best is when they put it, like, we have a lot of, like, stairs around the area and everything like that, and they put it right on the edge of the stairs so that if it fell off, it would fall down. That's the most funniest thing. I'm like, oh, my God, please, no, no, no, no, no, please, no. I haven't had anybody eat on the machine yet either. That's the good thing. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. So what kind of ages do you get up there? It all varies. We actually do kids' parties, but we also all the way up to, you know, next door we have a very fancy Italian restaurant next door, and then some of the people walk by and say, oh, what's in here? And they come in and they see it. So it all varies. We have 12-year-olds all the way up. We actually have one kid that comes in with his parents every weekend, and he's seven. And he plays Pac-Man. He's Pac-Man. He'll play pinball. He'll play everything. Awesome. So we're trying to expand it. That's the big thing. How many square feet do you have? 3,700. Yeah, that's right about where we're at. We're in the three-ish zone, and it would be nice to expand, but we currently can't. Can't, yeah. And, yeah, and you really, to really rake it in, you've got to be in the 6,000 to 8,000 range. That's where you can really, if you're, you know, if you have the location, of course, depends on it, too. But, yeah, when you're 3,000, 4,000 is where you've got to be real efficient with, like, how you do everything. Yeah, well, we only have 25 pins, and then we have the pool table. We have a ball bowler. We have a dart machine. I've got a couple of video games. And then the rest is, you know, restaurant area, spacing, plus our kitchen, plus the bar itself. So we're trying to do multi-touch. Yeah, that billiards machine probably, that billiards table takes up, gosh, it takes up so much space. Oh, it does. It does, but a lot of people go down there and play and drink. That's right. That's right. That's what you need. Yep. Now I've got 60 pins, so that's pretty much, that's the show. Yeah. If I didn't have the pool table and the dart room and the ball bowler and the seating area for the food, I could probably fit, what do you think, Ron, 55, maybe 60 in there? It'd be tight. It'd be tight. I probably could. Maybe 45, comfortably. But I got 25 upstairs now, Ron. What does that tell you? You got a lot of games. I got a lot of games upstairs. We originally planned on 16. So, yeah. more i'm seeing these barcades pop up all over the place um you know we even around virginia you drive two hours in any direction and you got one charlottesville and of course there's ashville pinball museum they're a little further than two hours but my buddy jackie down in bristol has the flip side arcade there's one in martinville there's one in the richmond pinball collective they're all about about two hours away and um and more coming you know more oh yes There's supposedly another one coming in Rochester we've heard about. Well, we have one. There's one before us. They're actually a more video game than pinball. They have a lot of old classics games, but they have, I think, 18 pins. And it's in an old church, which is kind of cool. And there's supposedly another one coming in downtown Rochester. And I haven't heard who's doing their games. I think they're going to try to do it themselves. like the first place did it themselves originally and then they actually got an operator to take over and do the work. It's hard doing your own stuff, of course, as you would know, Nick. Well, museums and bar caves, they live and die by the quality of the maintenance. So they're lucky they got me because they've got a tech who's also, you know, like PR and marketing and all this other stuff too, you know. But I still have some help because I can't do everything. No one can do everything. But, yeah, most folks, they think I'll just buy the machines and I'll hire tech. No, you're dead. You've got to hire tech. You've got to be the tech. You've got to be the tech to make the tech happen. That's right. That is right. So, I can empathize with the no sleep, 90-hour thing. So, folks, heed our experience. It's just you have to eat, drink, and live it 24-7. You've got to live it that much. And then the fun thing is when you actually got to deal with now the beer distributors and the taxes from the state and also the food and the health department and all that fun stuff. Well, that's where we're doing a little thing a little bit differently is that as a nonprofit, you know, we don't have a kitchen. We're not doing our own food. We're having a catering company that is we're writing off their little license. And that way we're able to, you know, they, of course, get some of the profit as well. but at least we don't have to do it all. Yeah. And they can come in and serve and deal with that part of it. So it's kind of nice. That is nice. Yeah, if it was just a pure barcode, not a museum at all, then, yeah, we'd have to go it alone. Oh, yeah. It gets a little nerve-wracking. But it's great. But what a great job, you know? This is awesome. They just provide the games. Anyway, I want to come see your place, and I hope you can come down here when I... Got to give me a couple months so I'll get these EMs all beautified and... That'd be good. You know, get them running. Are we going to have the Freedom prototype there or what? Oh, God. We... We had to bring that up. Nick's already brought it up like twice. Well, you know, Ron, we learned Ron is a slow player and he loves 2001 and Target Pool while I'm doing Freedom prototypes right in that category too, so spend some more time with it. Hey, but we'll have it Soon. Excellent. I know Zach would even come down for that if you ever get him out of New York State. Get him out of New York State? But he doesn't like to travel too much. He'll travel once in a while to Pennsylvania and that kind of stuff, but it's hard. Will I see you guys at Pinberg? Yes. Yes. Yes. I have my three days off. It's the only three days off in a row I will have. And both of you are competing? Yes. But of course. I've never missed a pin. Well, this will be my first. Yes, I told Nick, this is the first one you're going to do, first tournament, like this. This is the best one. Oh, yeah, definitely. Excellent. I know it's completely unrelated, but I'm really excited they're going to have the Mike Tyson's Punch-Out Tournament. Do you see that? What? No, it's not Mike Tyson. It's Buster Douglas. No, you're going to be playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out. No, you're going to be playing Buster Douglas. No, no, no. Read the rules. You play Mike Tyson's punch out, they'll warp you to it. Whoever beats him the fastest wins the tournament and gets to face Buster Douglas in his own game. Oh, God, it should be Buster Douglas. Buster Douglas himself will be there. Isn't that cool? I'm psyched. I know I'm getting my NES out, and I am going to start practicing. I have never, I've only knocked Mike Tyson out once in that game, never finished it, and I tried so many times. I can't, that's way too hard. I got him in two rounds once. That's the best I did. And I KO'd? Yep. You always got a KO. Wow. Wow. So do you win the game at that point? Yes. Is it over? Oh, yeah, it's done. Yep. Yep, you are the awesome champion. Mike Tyson says you're so fast, and your fingers, I've never seen such finger speed before or something like that. Yeah, something like that, yeah. Yeah. So, Nick, Bruce. Yes. Want to talk about news? Yes. Let's go for it. Let's go for it. All right. This is from thisweekinpinball.com, the source for all pinball news. The Iron Maiden premium was revealed. Yes, it was. It looks incredible. Okay. So Bruce likes the artwork. I love it. Has Nick seen it yet? I have seen it. I mean, hey, tell him he's awesome. let's just say right there obviously but of the three it's probably my least favorite of the artworks is real okay yeah it's it's it's very it's heavy egyptian you know you got that little lower playfield thing back glass and side it all it it a lot of a lot of tut i love a lot of i love but power is my favorite album so that why I very excited about it I get to this later but at the New York City Pinball Championships I asked Keith Owen, well, actually, he said, Bruce, Bruce got an Iron Maiden. He said he wasn't going to get one, and he got one. Yeah. And then I told him, like, I'd have to play a premium first, and he told me I haven't played a premium. Oh, wow. So there you go. The designer of the game is yet to play the premium. That's all you need to know there. You know, we are, I told Ron, we are getting a maiden. It's a great game. We've done really well with it so far. We've had it almost a month now. And it's done pretty darn good for us, and I'm very happy with it. And the quality has been very good. I'm waiting for that 1.0 code just to get us a little bit over. I think Keith's already said that he's changing some of the loop scoring. Loop scoring is a little biased. Well, I know he'll fix it because he's got the finger. I mean, if anyone can figure out an exploit, it's Keith. Yeah. The loop scoring, it's, you know, think about it. You're getting the jackpots and all the other modes are like 1 to 3 to 5 million. And when you get 4 or 5 loops, you're up to 40 million or 30 million with the multipliers. Yeah. It's like, whoa, hello. Well, it's not like you're a flow player or anything, Bruce. I know. I like to repeat loops over and over and over again. Actually, I'm very proud of it. Zach and Jeff, who comes to the bar a lot, counted I made 10 ramps in a row. Wow. 10 ramps or loops? 10 ramps. 10 ramps in a row. You mean like Terminator 2 style? Left, right, left, right. That's ridiculous. On that one, it was very ridiculous. They're like, oh, my God, I was in the zone one game. It's a great game. That's insane. Okay. I was actually having better luck. I know everyone says it's harder going to the left. The right is definitely harder. I know Keith said that also. The right ramp is actually harder. But if you know where to hit it on the flipper, right at the point of the flipper, I'm getting it every time. So if I know where to hit something on the flipper, I'll make the shot. That's a revelation. Luckily, I watch Pinball 101. Oh, okay. All right. Next news item is not positive, unfortunately. Dutchess pinball troubles continue. Yeah. We knew that was coming. They're done. They're basically getting sued by the original company that was supposed to build the games for them. ARA. But if they win, they're in. Yeah, okay. Yeah, after the trial ends in three years. Come on. Done. Done. Sorry. I'm sorry to all the people who pre-ordered. You got screwed. You're not going to get your game. That's unfortunate. Next item. Supreme Pinball, rumored to drop this Thursday with 200 units at $10,500 apiece. Yeesh. Okay, and there's a lot of hate about this. And, you know, okay. They're selling pinball. That's all that matters. Right. More pinball is more pinball. And this is, you know, you say, well, it's just for these rich skaters who have more money than sense and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, are you saying that pinball is getting put in front of a lot of people who are well-heeled, kind of young, maybe a little naive, but maybe they weren't exposed to pinball before? So that's getting pinball awareness spread to, like, millions of people who might not have otherwise noticed or cared or seen it. Yeah, even if it's kind of douchey, well, it's more pinball. Yeah. Hey, hooray, we win. I like that, douchey. That's kind of what it is, but, hey, man, it's one of the ugliest looking characters. It's the artwork ever. Just like white with like... Right, right. And if it gets more young people into pinball, that can't be bad. It won't, though. Absolutely. But the problem is it's only 200 machines, and most of these people will... Honestly, there's a lot of... If you go to... Like, if you ever watch an MTV Crib show, there's a lot of guys on there with a lot of pinball machines in their house and arcade games, you know, that didn't spread the wealth of making all these games so popular. They did it so they can have a place to hang out. It's not going to help too much, but it will bring a pinball aura to, you know, maybe the Commonwealth for that one hour they're for sale or maybe one ten minutes or five minutes. It's going to go faster than, you know, people are going to sell out within three minutes. Faster than Fennberg tickets, ladies and gentlemen. Yes. Yeah, but what will happen then is that other companies can say, oh, well, look what I did for them. Maybe we'll do a licensed thing, or maybe we'll contact, you know, it's like, it can lead to more, it's more, more begets more. Like Bacardi with their Bagatelle game from Highway. Oh, that's right, that didn't do well. Oh, wow, okay. It's the truth. You are a cauldron of positiveness. Well, when it comes to that, yes. We have ReplayFX to host the largest women's tournament in the world, which I believe we mentioned that last week. Yes, we did. It's going to be 64 max players, prize pool more than $5,000. Yep. Cool. All right. Awesome. Chicago Gaming's next game will be announced at, not yet. They will decide when they announce it. They will decide when it's announced. It's just going to take a little longer for that Monster Bash to come out. They want to make sure their LE is going to be over the top. Their own words. It's going to be over the top. So a little longer for Monster Bash. We're going to have Stallone in there then? Did you get a reference? Stallone in Monster Bash. Nope. No. Over the top. Oh, Jesus. Yeah, okay. So Sammy Hager going to play the music? Yes. Over the top, Dad. Am I going to turn my hat around? Yes. Oh, God. Yeah, I watched this today. Virtual simulation of Highway Pinball's Playboy title. That was a train wreck. I guess they made, like, a future pinball version of what Playboy was going to be. Mm-hmm. And it's actually out there on YouTube. Mm-hmm. And it's been out there for years. And it's been out there for years, and it's bad. It's terrible. It's really bad. It's really bad. I didn't even look. Shoot here to take more clothes off. Yes. Oh, come on. I know, it's bad. The thing is, it has an upper play field. I've watched it. It didn't look like the ball ever went up there. No. No, it did not. Oh, boy. Okay. Didn't want to have to say this one, but John Trudeau arrested again. This was not for the initial arrest for possession of the child pornography, which he's still awaiting judgment on that. yet he was able to move out of state which is interesting he moved to Iowa probably because he had no place to live and he was arrested again for basically I guess sexual relations with like a 7 year old no 13 well it started at 7 from 1993 to 2000 and was supposedly a family member which if you remember that anonymous post that came out when he got hired by Stern. Yep. I think you read it on the air. Yep, I did. It said, like, something about, like, what you did to someone in your care. Yep. Yeah. Somebody knew something. He's done. He sucks. Fuck him. Let's move on. 70 years old and going to be in jail getting... Oh, yeah. They don't like his kind in jail. No, no, no, no, no. Poor Nick's like, what did I get into, man? Oh, yeah, come on. Okay, one more positive. Did you know, oh, God, Zach's going to love this, Mirco, who makes a lot of the playfields for, you know, a lot of the repro playfields, but I believe they also make playfields for Jersey Guy, they're going to be producing golly playfields with Haunted House in the immortal black hole being the first playfields built. and Spirit and Clocks also. Yeah, Spirit and Stargate. So, Zach could take his black hole to the next level. Yes, right. You could have the greatest black hole ever. So, Zach, get on that. Oh, by the way, they're looking for a Spirit they can use as a master. Spirit, NOS, Playfield. That's what they're looking for. Oh, yeah. Never mind. Never mind. Zach has a Spirit, but it definitely does not have the NOS Playfield. No, no, no, no, no. All right. Let's see. Pinball Arcade losing the license. I think we talked about that last week. Let's see. Monster's Rumors. Wait a minute. So is everyone now buying the whole set? Yeah, I'm wondering because you have until June 30th to get all the games. So I'm wondering how much it would cost to buy everything. $370, I heard. Okay. $370. Wow. God, no. No. No. No. No. No way. They don't play right. No. They don't play right. Yeah, well... If you're just getting into it, or if you want to learn the rule sets, yes. That's great. But especially if you've played a lot of these games, the real versions, you're going to go nuts playing that version. Like, you can save everything. Everything. Let's see. Monsters. Upcoming. Rumored. Upcoming title. John Borg, supposedly. Okay. A Kill Bill homebrew machine. All right. It's a Freddy. Done. Oh, it's a Freddy Nightmare on Elm Street? It's a Freddy. Oh, man. The claws are in the middle. Okay. Check, please, now. Oh, there's the Kickstarter? Those are so good. Yeah, someone started a Kickstarter plan to open a huge arcade in Atlanta. So they have a $250,000 goal. Yeah, I know Tim has been... he seems like a really nice guy, very, very passionate, and that's awesome. That's to be congratulated. I posted a little bit on his thread about it, and the artist concept of having a walkthrough. Do you guys remember since you're my age, you probably weren't well, you might have gone, but the Croft superstars, you remember those guys the Croft shows, Land of the Lost and Signature of the Sea Monsters. Do you know their theme park that they opened? God, no. They opened a theme park, and they opened it in Atlanta. Okay. And they had a pinball machine ride in it. Wow. Did not know that. Yeah, you get inside of this thing, and you're in the ball, and it, like, bounces off bumpers and all this stuff. And it looked – there's only a couple of pictures that have survived from those times, but it looks absolutely amazing. But the park only lasted like eight or seven or eight or nine months because it was not in a great area at the time. And, like, Star Wars was kind of taking all the thunder from Croftland and all that stuff. So, anyway, just timing is bad, business is bad. And then it became CNN headquarters. You know, they have that giant escalator going up there. Well, that used to be the crossed theme park. It's now CNN. The point is, it's kind of like what he drew is kind of like that. It kind of looks like a trip through a pinball machine, and it's in the same part of Atlanta, and it's this grandiose, you know, idea. Yes, it would be cool, but I don't think you can kickstart Disneyland. You know what I mean? you know you gotta have a couple hundred million you know do that kind of thing so yeah deep root baby yeah yeah deep root maybe HR maybe HR Puff and stuff is really the head anchor at CNN okay there is some there must be some that they like they found a suit or something back there and they bring it out I don't know but but look up look up Look at the crossed pinball ride, and you'll see some things about it that's there. That's what that Atlanta thing kind of reminds me of, the location, the ambition. It's kind of uncanny. Did you know that, well, we know because Nick mentioned it earlier, but Bruce might not know that Color DMD announced their 76th game, Starship Troopers. Bug, bug, bug. And I have one for sale. He has one for sale, Bruce. I like the game. I actually like the game. Kill the bug. Bug, bug, bug. I saved this for last because this is kind of its own segment. And this weekend, we had from the greatest city on earth, New York City, the New York City Pinball Championships were held at the Skyline Hotel in New York City. And I was there. It was great. Congrats to A Division winner Bowen Kerins, who beat out John Rapogle, Keith Elwin, and Steven Bowden. Hi, Steve. Final bonus. Hi, Steve. Final bonus. Congratulations to Classics winner Austin Smith, who beat out Raymond Davidson, Justin Day, and Levy Naiman. Congrats to Women's Finals winner, and I'm going to say, I believe this is the correct way, Alisa Parks, who beat out Steph Guida in a tiebreaker to win. That's right. Our own pinball princess. Yes. Second place in an exciting one-game playoff to decide it all. That's pretty cool, actually. She did very well. She did very well. Go, Steph. Excellent event. It was at the penthouse, the ninth-floor penthouse of the Skyline Hotel. The game selection, Howard is a member of the Orange County Pinball Club. Howard Levine, he looked at the classics pack, and he said, like, man, it's like I picked all the games. Except one or two of them, it's like literally this is what I would pick. And they had the women's finals. We're on like four different games. And actually, let me bring that up right here. Actually, a lot of these are EMs. We can get Mick's opinion on what he thinks of these. There you go. So first we had in the classics, we had Gorgar, which had lightning flippers that were pointed to hell. They were pointed like way down. Oh, man, it was so hard to hit anything on that thing. We had Grand Prix. Love it. Everybody loves that one. All right. We had Kingpin. Mmm. The 73 Gottlieb. Yes, sir. Yes. The one that has a similar play feel to the couple other games. Yeah, it's a pretty good horizontal target shooter, yeah. It's getting a lot of love lately. The only thing I don't like about it is if you don't hit the lit saucer at the beginning, it's like you're automatically in the hole. And trying to get it back up there, it's frustrating. Then we had Old Chicago. Yeah, I love it. Yep, love that. There you went. Stars, which was Stars. It did its Stars duty. Brutal, brutal, brutal. I kept thinking this one game was another game. I was thinking this was Toro, but it's Toledo. So it's not a Valley, it's a Williams. Yeah, that's like Kingpin, horizontal targets again, but not drop targets. No, no. and it has these upper side flippers that you don't want to use. You don't want to hit the targets because they're insto-drains, and you've got to force yourself to not use them. Not a great game. To get double bonus, you need to hit the A and B targets, which are on the far left and right, and the ball immediately wants to drain when you hit them. So you want to get like A and B and then just keep hitting it up top repeatedly. And avoid that whole section in the center, which I hate when you have like that many that much crap that you don't want to hit then we had oh my nemesis top score which is the two player version of 300 which I like 300 but this thing number one tilt was way too tight way too tight everyone was tilting this game and then the second problem was it had a slam tilt issue which our own Robert Byers experienced. We basically hit the right flipper button kind of hard, and it slam tilted. Ooh. Yeah. And then in the second round where I got eliminated, I played it, and it slam tilted on me on ball one. Same thing. Hit the right flipper button a little hard, and it slam tilted. Is it necessary to have slam tilt enabled? No, it's not. Is that necessary? Yeah, it's a thing. Yeah, that's a thing to just take note of for next time, but yeah. And, I mean, I was mathematically eliminated. It was kind of a pride game. It's like, oh, the tilt's looser, because they loosened up the tilt for the final, so it's like, I can finally, like, you know, bump this thing a little bit. Let's see what kind of score we can get. And literally, one of the first times I hit the flipper, it freaking slam-filts on me. So then they pulled it after that. Two malfunctions. They considered the second malfunction. They pulled it. And then the perennial favorite, volley. Oh, yeah. Getting a lot of love lately. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Wasn't getting any love from me, though. I hate when I get all the lanes immediately. I have all five balls to hit targets, and I don't hit anything. The ball just drains instantly. Very annoying. Very annoying. But those are the classics. For the women's finals, they had four games. And we actually brought this up, I think, on the last podcast or two podcasts ago. But they had Attack from Mars, Black Pyramid, which Stephanie kicked ass at. That was kind of like her go-to game, if you will. Hobbit and Kiss. The new Kiss. The new Kiss. Yep. Those were the scores. Then we have for the main division, and there's a lot of good stories, a lot of good stories from Steph about her ascension that I will save for her to tell the story on our next Riptide podcast, which should be on iTunes soon, I've heard. So for the main division, we had Aerosmith, another attack from Mars, dialed in, a really nice firepower that unfortunately broke, Genesis, Iron Maiden, guess who had the high score on Iron Maiden for the tournament? L1? Yep. I know. Iron Man, Sorcerer, which I know you love Sorcerer. I got a lot of play during the finals. Star Trek. Which one? Which Star Trek? The new one. And Tommy. Star Trek, it was originally going to be Time Fantasy, the snail game. That broke almost immediately. And Star Trek was called into action. Yeah, Time Fantasy looks like it has the most boring play field, and then when you learn the rules and the time countdown and bonus and everything, it's like, snail time, baby. I love snail time. And that's just the craziest tripped out looking snail ever. Someone was on major acid. I'm telling you. It was in the penthouse and they did two rows, two full rows. And the one row was all just the main, the main, like A and B qualifying. And then the other side, the first, like there was four games that were for women's and then the rest were for classics. That was the New York City Pinball Championships. Yes. Yes, there it is. We got the U.S. So then, time for the mail ball bag. Oh, my. First mail is from Aaron Pennington. Hi, Aaron. Hi, Aaron. Says, hey, guys. I love the show, and I'm a longtime listener. I recently picked up a Stern Stars and Bally Power Play at an auction. Both have been sitting for a decade or more in a barn. Both machines are in need of a complete restoration, but are complete and in decent shape, but missing the back glass on both. I picked up a Starz for $50. Wow. And a PowerPlay for $20. I have been looking for a Starz for about a year. The same day, I get a text of another guy I know about a working Starz, and I ended up buying it, too. Sounds like the only thing better than one Starz is two Starz. Anyway, I'd like to know what you guys recommend for the settings on Starz. We've talked about this, 100,000. Yeah, 100,000 collect. Extra balls off. Have a nice day. There's not really that many settings on it. The rest you can kind of keep default. Like the whole double, triple, bonus, all that, default is fine. Yep. Let's see. The Star State will be going on location. Has an all-tech board in it. I operate a few games with my dad and brother at the game store owned by a buddy. I am also looking for a good back glass for my project Stars and Power Play. Would you guys know of any leads for these? I don't know of any leads. No. I wish I had a better... My Starz backlash is full of crap. There was one on eBay. I was ready to bid on it, and it was gone within an hour. Damn. Yeah, so what does that tell you? Of course, Nick probably has an NOS one, like, in his, you know, storage area. Nope, he's not saying anything. He's crazy. I'm telling you, that means he does. Okay, he just doesn't want to say it. It would be great to find a CPR power play back glass. They redid power play back glasses? They did. And a CPR play field. So if you have any leads on those, that would be awesome. I don't have any leads. Do you have any leads? Nope. I know you both love stars, but what are your thoughts on power play? Good game. I love it. Is it the one that's kind of missing spinners it should have? It should have spinners. I agree. Yes. But I like the force flippers. The force flippers? Is it Star Wars? Or. Oh, Star Wars. I misheard. What do you think about it, Nick? I have not played it enough to really have an opinion, so I'm just jury's out. Okay. All right. That's from Aaron from the Queen City Pinball in Springfield, Missouri. Next one is from John Cosson, Dr. John. Dr. John. We are really popular in Australia, Nick. We really are. We rule in Australia. Probably know already. I'm one episode behind, but I have the DCS soundtrack on my Twilight Zone with the pin soundboard. Chris Granner made it available. Nice. I did see the video on that. The one important thing it's missing is the golden earring soundtrack. You know, I still have to sing without the... It doesn't have that. Yeah. That's hard. That's hard to go... Yeah. And I love that song, Granner. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, me too. I'm sleeping into the twilight snow. Some of the videos were weird and, like, strange things happen to people, and it's, like, kind of just funny and stupid and dark all at the same time. It's just, like, the early MTV. Yeah. Okay, and this one is from Michael Higgins. Hello, guys. I've been listening to you guys for a month or two and thought it prudent to email and let you know how much I enjoy your podcast. I live in Australia, mates, and learned of you from the head-to-head guys. Anyway, keep up the good work, and I hope to hear many more from you. Cheers, Michael Higgins. Thank you, Michael. Hello, Michael. Thank you. So that's actually all I had on the docket. Is there anything else you would like to talk about, the Roanoke Museum, Virginia? Well, I'm digging it. I mean, okay, living in Dallas, okay, there's the, oh, gosh, the food is not as good as it was in Dallas. I will give props to Dallas for that. Now, Dallas isn't quite up to, you know, San Francisco, New York, but it's close, sure is close in terms of food quality. But Roanoke here, oh, my gosh, you know, I'm an expert. I deserve to be an expert on Tex-Mex and barbecue. And so far, neither have really scratched the surface from whence I came. So I'm looking. Hopefully I'll find some good eats. But it's kind of tough. I'm kind of hitting the chain restaurants now because it's like, ooh. But the traffic, Dallas drivers are some of the worst in the entire nation. I mean, I made the big 30,000-mile trek last year, and I got back to Dallas every time. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is why everyone says Dallas drivers suck. I mean, I remember. And they do. They are completely oblivious. But here, when I get up in the morning, checking your traffic app is like this reflexive thing in Dallas. That's just what you do. You check the Carl Weathers, and you check the traffic, and then you go, and you plan your route. here I'm like, oh good, it's all green, all the roads are green and it's like that every day, so I'm like I don't need to ever check the traffic app wow, and now I have a condo it's like walking distance from the museum, so like downtown and yeah, and so that part is really good however, Roanoke is a train railroad kind of city. And the train was kind of close to my window. Is it like Blues Brothers close? Is it like their whole room shakes as it passes by? I brought up that clip. It's not that bad. I mean, what is? That's the craziest thing. But there is a 7 a.m. whistle every morning. And I'm like, ooh, I got to put some memory foam in the window or something because it's they've been waking me up. So we'll have to end this interview because I've got to go home and go to bed. Oh boy. Yes. All right. Well, before I let you go, I'll put this out there because this came up at the New York City Pinball Championships when I was talking to Robert Byers, who is a Texan native. He's actually going to be moving to Massachusetts. The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America. So he's going to be, He might even be able to come over, play some games at level zero. Just like everyone's leaving Texas. That's kind of where I'm going there. Wow, that's cool. Thank you, Nick, for joining us. Great. I'm sorry about all the technical issues. It's fun. It wouldn't be the first time we had, like, the clear sound and then went to the phone sound. I think we had that on the – wait a minute. We had that on the Colin MacAlpine episode. You know where he's from? Texas. I got it. It's an issue with Texans. There you go. Oh, wait a minute. He's in Virginia now. He must just follow you. It doesn't matter. It's like I'm cursed, but it's a good deal. It's a curse with the Texas. All right. Seriously, man, good luck with the Roanoke Museum. Yes. I'm sure it will kick ass. We'll be ready. I'll be ready to go down once all the machines are ready. Me too. Enjoy your Iron Maiden when it arrives. Yes. and we're going to get the tournament and the league thing rolling. And they were pushing it to, you know, chomping at the bit to get that started. Now I'm like, no, let's get the Kansas 100% and beautiful first before the tournament people are a little, you know, a little picky about how the quality is. So let's give them a good show. So we're going to get into that later. Maybe we'll see you for some tournament action later. Cool. You guys have, like, a website or a Facebook page? Where can they find you? Well, Roanokepinball.org is our website, but Facebook is the most fun because you get the updates and all that kind of stuff. So just Roanoke Pinball Museum on Facebook is the best. And if you need to know how to spell Roanoke, just Google Roanoke. Get it close and you'll probably find it. And that's how I know you're not a local and neither am I because we're still using three syllables to describe the name of the city. Roanoke. Oh. Two. Can be one. Actually, that's right. Noak. The Noak. Roanoke. Ronok? Is that how you say it? Ronok. Okay. So on that note, thanks once again to Nick. This has been episode 92, which I didn't even say. Terror of Mechagodzilla. So Bruce, you didn't even have to deal with that. Because you hate all the Godzilla. No, it's going to be Marvel starting next week. It will be Marvel. We, again, still have not been selected for the podcast or Bloodbath, so we cannot mention any podcast. Yeah. Except the Riptide podcast and the Meltdown podcast. And Fumble Bonus. And Fumble Bonus, which is kind of an offshoot in the Meltdown podcast. Yes. Let's see. Just Pinball Star, Joe Newhart, for all your Jersey Jack, Home Pin, American Pinball, and Spooky Pinball Needs. and Flipper Fidelity Mike Pupo for all your pinball sound and stern distribution needs I said that right distribution needs That what That it Thanks everybody Say goodbye Bruce Goodbye Jamie Brundridge Thank you Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Okay. If you're still here, you notice the podcast hasn't finished yet. It's because... Why not? Why not? Because there was an incident that occurred at the New York City Pinball Championships that has made the rounds. and I debated whether or not we should even do this, because we are, quote, feeding the troll, if you will. But I just wanted to get out there, because it involves friends of mine who are directly involved, one of them, and just kind of clear the air. We're not alone. We have another person who is there. And you can find me on Google Stitcher and... Jeff, that's Jeff Teolis. Hey, buddy. Hi, guys. Hi, guys. Hello. So there was an incident involving Kaneda, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. We will refer to as Chris, which is his real name. This came up on Facebook, and there was a lot of comments like, don't feed the troll, this is what he wants, et cetera. And that is absolutely correct. and honestly, this is just to clear the air of exactly what happened for anyone who wants to know. So if you don't want to know, don't care, don't want to be involved in the shit show, that's why I put this after the main show. You can just flip it off right now. We'll see you next week. Unfortunately, people have only heard one side. That is true. So what I'm going to do, because I was about a foot from this as it occurred, I will give you the 100% factual, non-opiniated, opinionated version of what went on. And this is all, and everything I'm saying can be corroborated by video. It was all filmed one way or another, including the actual Papa TV as part of this on there. My iCloud has all of it. Oh my. Oh my. All right, how do I get into this? so I will give the whole story in a newscaster type I'm just reporting and this will be the last time and believe it or not I got Bruce to agree to this which is amazing this will be the last time we are ever going to mention this gentleman's name or anything about him on this podcast period if we have any guests on who mention him it will be edited out we will not feed well we're feeding the troll now but we will not feed the troll anymore after this. No, we're telling the truth is what we're doing. Well, yes, but we're giving him attention. Let's just start the story. The story begins. Actually, the story begins at some other previous show where, and I will not use names where it really isn't necessary. Chris, basically, I think it was at a previous show somewhere he was at, asked the prominent Stern employee, told them that next time you're in New York City, I'm going to buy a dinner. So, okay, well. We are in New York City. This is the New York City Pinball Championships. This took place, the incident took place at the ninth floor penthouse of the Skyline Hotel. So Chris took this prominent Stern employee and his significant other out for dinner. And then when dinner was over, they came back. And Chris and his fiance came along with them to the tournament. Actually, Steve invited him a couple days before and told him to come on down. Oh, Steven Bowden, yeah. But that was not the reason he was there. No, but he did invite him down. Well, and when he was there, he extended, I guess you'd say, an olive branch to Steve because he has said some disparaging things about Steve in his podcast. And last week on Facebook. And last week on Facebook. So they had a little hug moment. So, you know, it looked like that was rectified. However, they had a bar at the tournament. And Chris was getting more and more inebriated as the night went on. This was at night. So we get to the women's playoffs, the women's final, the final eight for the women's tournament. And Papa TV starts their stream. So they start with the, they have four games, two foursomes, and they're doing it Papa style. If anyone's familiar with that, you play three games, and the scoring is 4-2-1-0. Won't get too much in that. It really doesn't need much in the story. But the significant other of the Stern employee who Chris took out to dinner was in the tournament, and Chris started rooting for her, loudly. And there must have been some kind of Karate Kid thing going on, because Chris was basically saying things like, Sweep the fucking leg. Sweet the fucker, late Cobra Kai the fucker. Just to jump in on that, during dinner, Chris told the person, you've got to go Cobra Kai on them, as it was told to me by the couple in question, who, by the way, has been mentioned out there, but we don't have to highlight it anymore because I certainly feel sorry for those two individuals. But he said, yeah, no mercy, no mercy. We'll go no mercy on those women, which is ridiculous because if you watch the women's championship, which was incredible. These women were rooting for each other, and the first thing Elisa Parks did when she won was go and give Stephanie a hug. That's what pinball's about. That's what I liked about it. And his actions were different. I will go back to you, Ron. Another thing to take into account here is the tournament area. You have a row of games. Then in front of that row of games, about, I don't know, five feet back, you have a piece of blue tape that goes all the way across. The reason that's there is the idea is tournament players, if you're playing, you're in front of the tape. If you're not playing, you're behind the tape. So, you know, distract players with peripheral vision, all that kind of thing. So Chris and his fiancée were standing at the four games that they were having the women's final on. They were, like, maybe two games down from that, leaning on one of the other games. So they were, like, basically in front of the tape as he's doing this. And every time this particular player was up, they would do, yeah, the same comments. And at this point, you can very clearly tell he is inebriated at this point. It is becoming very apparent that this is the case. So after, let's say we get to like the middle of the semifinals, Tim Sexton, our own Tim Sexton, who was the tournament director for the women's final, he basically told Chris, you need to get behind the line. Let me add something before this. The person that alerted him of the problem was one of the female players, which is their right to do. There were two complaints by two of the women competitors. And, in fact, the complaints were, it's distracting me. It's, you know, we're trying to watch the game. We're trying to concentrate. And it's kind of, it's just too much. First of all, you're above the line. You're on the machines where no one else is. And it's very distracting. We're actually trying to root for our own people and stuff, and it's not about the Cobra Kai thing. So anyway, there were multiple complaints. So Tim, as you mentioned, Ron, asked him to step behind the line and be quiet, which he was not happy about. But he did. He stayed behind the line. Well, he went behind the line, and he did the same thing, rooting for the same player. And the semifinals actually ended. And at that point, one of the other actually women competitors, and I don't think she was actually one of the ones in the semifinals, they started going back and forth, Chris and her. And it started to get heated. And just to give you a little sense of where I'm standing, like right next to this, Steven Bowden is standing right next to me. At this point, it's getting heated between Chris and this other woman. Again, I'm not going to mention any names. Once he sat down, he was yelling again after asking to be quiet. But Tim issued him a yellow card, and then he proceeded to call Tim a name, swearing. And Tim said, that's it, red card, you're going to be asked to leave. And at that point, Paul Karras got security. Security was on their way. He refused to leave. Levy said, look, just calm down. Yeah, so the part that happens right in front of me is, you know, you have to leave. And it was like, what the fuck? I didn't fucking say anything. I was rooting for so-and-so. I won't say the name. I wasn't, you know, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not fucking leaving. I'm not fucking leaving. So you're hearing one of the female competitors really say to Chris, like, look, you're distracting. You've been distracting. This has nothing to do with you. We're here for competition, blah, blah, blah. At that point, Chris moves aside people. He's asked to kind of leave. He's already been kicked out. And security's basically coming to get him. And his fiancée rightfully says, let's go, Chris. And he didn't want anything of it. Give her a push. And you can hear people say, ooh, ah. And you can hear Levy say, don't push your fucking girlfriend. And, I mean, several people went, whoa. So that wasn't mentioned in the podcast explanation on Sunday morning. Well, we'll get into that. So, yes, Levy comes over. And let me just say, Levy was the undisputed MVP of the whole situation. And he knows Chris. Yeah, and he tried to excuse us. Yeah, and basically the whole conversation was like, I ain't fucking leaving. I didn't fucking do anything wrong. And Levy would be like, come on, man. You got to leave. You got to leave, man. I really don't want to call. Do you want me to call the cops? You don't want me to call the cops. Come on. And no, I ain't fucking leaving. And this went on for a little bit. During this little conversation, Chris backs up a little bit, and he ends up, he steps on Steven Bowden's foot, who pulls back. And I have never seen the expression on Steven Bowden's face that I saw at that moment. And I talked to him later. Don't get mad at me, Steve. But Steve basically said, he was just thinking, I ain't going to jail. I don't want to go to jail. but the look on his face dude Steve is like one of the nicest guys in all of pinball he is the ambassador of pinball and he literally stands there he's ready to go if anything happens so I'm like damn I mean at that point I kind of slowly moseyed out of that area trying not to attract attention to myself at that point eventually they got him out of the immediate area but there was like There's like chairs along the wall for the players while qualifying was going on. So they got him. What would you say, Jeff? Like three or four games down, and then he just propped himself on a chair and kept doing the I'm not leaving deal. Yep. And if you want to go to the next part, which is the shocking thing. So I was talking to that woman who confronted Chris, and I said, what happened? She explained to me on video. And then her eyes popped out of her head as what happened exactly behind me and in front of you, Ron, was the next incident in which Chris, seeing security come, he threw his drink on Tim Sexton and pushed him, which by New York state law is not one, but it is two technically assault charges because there were two actions. which he admitted on his now-deleted Sunday podcast. And at that point, Levy basically horse-called him out of the room. Bruce, if you were there, Ron and I said you would have thrown him off the penthouse. Well, yeah, I was glad that Bruce was not there because I don't know what Bruce would have done. I don't know what I grabbed him and dragged him out the hallway. Okay, so Bruce is far training. I should have known. It would have been just like, you're going to leave. The thing is, he gets grabbed. Levy grabs him, gets him out of the room. And the elevator is like right there, right outside the penthouse. And it must have been on floor eight or something, or it must have been right there, because they got it open. And Levy and someone else, I don't know who it was, they were like holding people back from going after him. And he gets in the elevator, and the last thing he does is he just smiles at everyone. he was trying to understand what was wrong with pinball people and you know ron you said he had a few to drink and he even admitted he had a few to drink but you know to me booze is not an excuse for behavior in fact it's a truth serum the more you drink the more honest you become and and the true colors came out there and you you know i just this was such an amazing event i mean it was so well done a first time event the stream was great the main finals that come back from bowen like i mean it was so exciting you had iron maiden there in the first time in the bees you had pirates there for the first time the women's championship not only the final four but the eight was great when that stream comes up i highly recommend watching that and it was just so well done that i mean look at the event it sold out really really quickly too and it's going to be bigger and better next year And the sad thing is we're talking about one incident because we've only heard one side. And you know what? I'm with you, Ron. I don't want to mention it. I don't want to feed the troll. But had he come on Sunday morning and given a genuine apology, I would have been done with it. You know what? Everyone makes a mistake. I would have been done with it. But it wasn't an apology. And, in fact, every time he said the words, I'm sorry, followed with the word but. I'm sorry but. That's like saying, I don't mean to be rude, but you're trying to be rude. You know what I mean? So the thing that bothered me was the apology was not sincere, and in fact was another jab at Tim who was only doing his job, wasn't being threatening. Chris was not a member of that tournament. He was a spectator. And Tim did the right thing because players were being distracted. and I didn't hear the apology and even at the end of that podcast, which really, this was what pissed me off, was him saying, Tim, next time, tell me what drink you want me to throw in your face and then played the song Take On Me by A-Ha. Like, that is such a, you know, Bruce, you and I talked. I've never listened to Kaneda ever. The first time I ever heard his voice was on Head to Head Pinball podcast, which I really love and you do too. Of course. And I thought, that was actually a pretty good show and he was good on it. It was Christmas. It was a good show. So I thought, oh, I'll give him a listen now. And the first time I listened to his show, he made fun of Martin. And Martin's great laugh. And I'm like, what the fuck? You just were on his show and now you're making fun of him because Martin and Ryan are extremely popular? Are you trying to – I didn't get it. Well, the thing I had a problem with with his past two shows that he's put out, the one he deleted and the one after, Is that he was... Well, maybe we should explain that. It was a show. After he sobered up, he recorded a show Sunday morning. With his girlfriend. Which several people have downloaded. I have it also. A lot of people do. Which, for whatever reason, he pulled after several hours. Yes. And the other thing that I most remember is just, as long as he's kicking him out, he's like, Man, what's wrong with you? I just that's in my head and the other thing to mention you had this great women's final going on they're streaming then this happens right after the semi-finals are over the Papa TV crew is there you had the announcers, you had Bo and Karens, John Rapogle and Megan, you know her last name Jeff Sprank and they were all doing the announcing, and this happens, and it was right on the hard camera. Like, anyone watching the live stream was seeing the beginning of this. And they have their headsets on. They have no clue what's going on. They thought there was, like, a ruling issue originally. That's what they thought was going on. When it became more apparent what was going on, they cut to another camera and had to stall for, like, 20 minutes or whatever until they got started again. Yeah. I mean, and that sucked. I mean, if you're watching the stream, you don't know what's going on. You're probably like, why are they cutting away? And then the fact that it pissed me off, they had a great final, which we'll get into. But people wanted to watch the final like the next day. Like, is the archive up? It's like, nope, it's not up because they can't have it up because that idiot is in the – they have to cut that out. The thing that bothers me is these girls, people who competed, anybody, and it was guys or anything like that. But these people competed for two days, spent all this time, all this money, all this effort, and it gets ruined. For a guy who shows up for half an hour. I wouldn't say it was ruined. No, no, but it was ruined. It was ruined at the moment. That moment was ruined. The best comment I heard was one of the competitors saying, and she had every right to say it. She goes, isn't this funny? A man wrecking a woman's finals. And what I kind of got out of that was I thought, you know, I've heard all of these legitimate concerns about how difficult it is sometimes for women to play and some of the things that they hear. And where they go to bells and chimes, they don't get any of that kind of stuff. And I've never seen it firsthand because, one, I've never been someone who would say that to a woman. And secondly, I've just thankfully never seen it done to a friend who happens to be a woman. I saw it here and now I get it. I get it. I got it before theoretically. I now understand it exactly what they're talking about. And it's so sad that that happened. But when he said what really pissed me off, and the thing that really is what he said to Levy, you know, you know, man, I'm going to, you won't want this. He said it in his own words. You don't want this to go down like this. I have a lot of people listening to me, like, well, biasing the truth. He was telling Levy, like, if you don't listen to me, I'm going to bias the truth. And he did. You and I have talked before, and I've talked to several people who do listen to him, and I've asked the question, why do you listen? And the reason they do, it's kind of like seeing a car crash. You know what I mean? Like you stop and you want – when you go to a NASCAR race. You know, I'll stop right there. That's fine, unless you're in the car crash. Yeah, exactly. Or right in the middle of the car crash. But that's why people listen to the show is to hear, what will he say next? What outrageous thing will he say next? And he doesn't, you know, there are jokes that we do. Oh, yeah. And people get the jokes. And a perfect example is this stupid character I do called Pinside Petey on Head to Head. That's you? What? Yeah, it's me. What? Here's the joke. Everybody knows it's me. Except for the people. If you're not in on the joke, then you are the joke. meaning I'm making fun of the people who are constantly making fun and unfortunately doing some damage to Pinside because I actually like Pinside I just don't like the forums I like the information on there I think it's a great website the forums are toxic it's drive-by shootings it's people trying to get banned from it and Kaneda is the perfect example of that I don't like that aspect of it so my Pinside PD goofy character is just the example of what we see in that. That aside, you know, this women's final was so darn good. The whole tournament was great. It sucks that we have to talk about this because we also can't ignore it. You know, there are so many good things in pinball, but unfortunately you can't just ignore it like it didn't happen. It did happen. Maybe there should be an etiquette class. Well, you know what is good about this thing is that it was an ugly side. It hardly ever happens, but the good thing is it won't happen again. There's no way he's going to be allowed to come to any major tournament. I already know some of the Pampa people said, not happening. I guess it's really up to the tournament directors, but any big thing, just not happening, including things like Expo, maybe Texas Pinball Festival next year. Again, it's up to the individuals, but you saw it firsthand, Ron, where he embarrassed himself at Texas pinball festival in front of a stern employee saying, don't make me show you the photos of the next game. Yes, when George Gomez called him a douchebag, and his response was, I have pictures of Deadpool on my phone. Yeah, just another threat. He was intoxicated then also. Not an excuse. No, never an excuse. Maybe a sickness, but not an excuse. Now, what was his original thing? He felt threatened by Tim? Yes, he felt Tim was too aggressive. Pinball, yeah. By Pinball Smurf. Tim Sexton. I was going to say, Tim was too aggressive. Tim is what, 5'7"? With heels. Sorry, Tim. He probably weighs maybe a buck 40. Yeah. And when I told my father what happened, he was there like, Tim Sexton? He's like, I'm almost 70, and I'd never be intimidated by him. We love you, Tim. We love you, Tim. But, I mean, poor Tim, he's got, like, beer all over him. So now he had to go back to his hotel room to take a shower. So someone else had to TD, the tournament director, the women's final. Plus he was going to have to come back down afterwards because they had to move games around to get ready for the finals the next day. There's total disrespect. You know, Bruce and Ron, one thing, and there's many things I love about Slam Tilt Podcast. You know that. You know that personally. I say it on my show all the time. What I love about you guys is you always talk about other podcasters. And you know what? The more the merrier. Listen to these. For some reason, does he think that you can only listen to one podcast? Because I know I have several. No, he's actually, I will, hold on. I am going to defend him right now. He has said a couple podcasts out there are pretty good. Okay. And he's actually listed us as one and Head to Head as another. And I think one or two others. his new podcast that he put out and I got the clip and I didn't listen to it. I'm not downloading him. I don't download him. People send me the clips. And when he's going, he still didn't he apologized to the women which I will give you kudos for that Chris. He did apologize to the women players he affected. But then he kept on attacking people who were doing their job and protecting the players best interests. He cannot accept that fact. and that's what his problem is. The fact he said, you know what, I'm more of a collector and not a tournament player, you know what, I don't think you need to be a collector or a tournament player to know you're not allowed to throw a drink in someone's face and push them unless you want to be charged with assault. Like, that doesn't, sorry, that doesn't pass. And in the now updated podcast, yes, he apologized to the women. And should I sincerely apologize to Tim Saxon for what you did? And to everyone who saw that? Yes. And to your fiancé? And then threaten, like, saying, oh, you know, Tim should, you know, Stern. What really pissed me off was his first podcast where he said, Stern's got to get Tim under control. Let's talk about the positive things about that. Yes. Because I want 140 people enjoying themselves. Here's the positive thing. After this all went down and he gets thrown out, Levy grabs the PA. They had a PA system there. So Levy grabs the mic and says, I hope everyone enjoyed the entertainment that we provided. I would like to personally thank the actor playing the role of the drunk asshole. Yeah. The thing is, the whole time he was there, he's basically schmoozing with, like, certain employees. To try to kiss ass. And then you throw a beer on a Stern employee. Yeah, really smart. Which, by the way, those Stern employees have met him less than three times in their life. But the funny thing is, do you really think you're really impressed any Stern employee now? You thought you were blacklisted now? You just truly blacklisted yourself completely off of one manufacturer. I was on the phone with Zach Sharp today, and I don't mind saying his name, and he won't mind me saying it either. Yeah, they're talking about it and what should be done. So I don't get what you tried to prove. Anyway, you know what? Continue listening to this podcast if you like. You know what you're getting into, but now you know what really happened, and this is the person that did it. And we will be enforcing our no Canada Ryan Policky. From now on. From now on. And I would encourage other podcasts to do the same, although they're your podcast, you can do what you want. But it's just, it's true. Do not feed the troll. If no one mentions him, if he has no relevance, he will disappear. Yeah, I'm done. I'm not saying gold standard, not saying any standard. I'm done. Well, what did happen was just a fantastic tournament. When that women's finals comes on, I highly recommend watching it. And boy, oh, boy, I mean, that finals was crazy on the KISS game and the math that had to happen. if you haven't seen it. It was good and how close the scores were. The classics were exciting, too. And again, you know, the good sportsmanship all around, too, for all the players, the people that were there. We talked about the hugs that the women gave each other and the high fives, and people were running down the gauntlet for cheers, and the crowd was right into it. In the classics finals, I was playing it around with Bowen Kerins and my friend Ian Harrer, who you both know. and Ian had four points on the first zero on the next and unfortunately tilted on Volley the wedgehead to knock him out of that round but you know what he was all smiles he's like I did it myself like not cursing swearing you know and we were all like you know that's too bad because he would have easily advanced with the lower scores that were in that round that's the kind of thing that happened watch the video of John Rapogle blowing up Sorcerer in a either semi or quarter finals Bowen had $2.9 million. I don't even think John had $1 million going into his third ball and just grinded it out. And you'll see Bowen run up to John after he did it, give him a big hug. That's what pinball is about. That's what pinball players are like. You know, Ron and Bruce, the first time I met you guys, instant connections. And the same with Ryan and Marty and all these great people we meet in pinball. That's the real pinball story, not people being disruptive. So, again, it was a great success, that tournament. And I look forward to the next one. And I'll leave you with this. After Steph, the pinball princess, got her second place, me, her, Jeff Deolos, and Steven Bowden, we all went out for ice cream. Because of course you do that at like 1230 a.m. Because it's New York City. It's the greatest city in the world. Right, Levy? And I had a two-scoop ice cream cone. But I was first in line, and there were about ten people. And then you guys were later. and I even said, look, if you guys aren't done your ice cream, I'm getting back in line. Doubled up. Pinside PD made fun of how fat I was, but that's okay. That's all cool. Again, this was such a great tournament. What a great location in Hell's Kitchen. Everyone at the Skyline Hotel was super nice and accommodating. Wow, man. If all tournaments were like that, things would be great. And we'll all see you there next year, right, Bruce? I hope so. Okay. Well, the bar is still growing, so I got to – we had to fire one of our bartenders, so I guess he was bartending this weekend. Did Kat get fired? No, she's the boss. She can't get fired. She's the boss. All right. All right. We're definitely going to the end here. So I'd like to thank everybody. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Jeff. I'd just like to say, to leave you with one thing, please do not feed the trolls. Have a nice day. See you later. Goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, guys.