Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

#142 - Best Pinballs of the 1980’s

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·38m 58s·analyzed·Jul 24, 2026
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.022

TL;DR

1980s pinball rankings and technical restoration insights on board repairs and aftermarket solutions.

Summary

The Classic Pinball Podcast Podcast #142 focuses on the best pinball machines of the 1980s, featuring curated lists from community members (Scott, Grant, and host George) with detailed commentary on classic titles like Centaur, Fathom, Eight Ball Deluxe, and Quicksilver. The second half shifts to Dave's technical restoration work, including a deep dive into board repair strategies, the discovery of Pinsound's Rocket CPU for Stern White Star games, and troubleshooting complex issues with Lord of the Rings, Star Wars Trilogy, and Austin Powers machines.

Key Claims

  • Stern White Star board (like Lord of the Rings) costs around $1,000; standard boards like The Simpsons are $500-$700

    high confidence · Dave describing board replacement costs for a customer's Lord of the Rings game

  • Pinsound's Rocket CPU for Stern White Star games retails for about $800 and can be ordered as plug-and-play

    high confidence · Dave discussing discovery and installation of Pinsound Rocket CPU on Lord of the Rings

  • Mid-1980s was a 'dead area' in pinball production with very few notable games until Williams released High-Speed and other titles

    medium confidence · George and Dave discussing production gaps and collector preferences around 1984-1986

  • Rotten Dog boards have had reliability issues and are only used as a last resort option

    medium confidence · Dave recounting problems with Rotten Dog driver board in Bobby Bobby Orr Power Play 2 and general skepticism about the brand

  • Scott (Barn Scott/Scottlieb) has been restoring and building multiple classic Stern machines and other vintage titles including Quicksilver, Stargazer, and Centaur-era games

    high confidence · George reading Scott's email about building Quicksilver variants and restoring classic Stern titles

  • Battery leakage is a major recurring issue in Stern White Star and Sega/Stern games from the late 90s-2000s, especially in low-play machines

    high confidence · Dave detailing multiple customer cases with battery rot and alkaline corrosion on Lord of the Rings and Star Wars Trilogy

  • Mitchell Lighting produces LED kits that can cost around $150 per game, providing a brighter incandescent-like aesthetic

    high confidence · Dave explaining Mitchell Lighting products and pricing for LED retrofits

  • 1980 was a weak production year for Bally with limited quality titles beyond Rolling Stones, Frontier, Xenon, and Flash Gordon

    medium confidence · George and Dave discussing early-1980s Bally output and Midway-era manufacturing shortcuts

Notable Quotes

  • “I tend not to put new games in this list because I can go play them anytime I want. I prefer lots of drops and spinners and pretty easy to teach rules as many of my friends are casual players and the 80s provide.”

    Scott (Barn Scott) @ early segment — Defines collector priorities—favoring accessible, feature-rich vintage games over modern complexity

  • “People like our lists and people like when we go to shows. Everything else is a distant second.”

    George @ opening segment — Reflects audience preferences and content strategy for the podcast

  • “This board is a combo CPU and soundboard combo, and it's got a lot of stuff on it. I think it's got either Amtel or some kind of sound thing on it that makes it different from the other boards.”

    Dave @ mid-content — Technical explanation for why certain Stern boards are significantly more expensive

  • “I put a Pinsound Rocket CPU for this generation of game that not only does everything you want it to do, but it has all kinds of different controls on it for sound. It has a better sound section than the original board.”

    Dave @ mid-content — Endorsement of Pinsound as superior alternative to OEM Stern boards for restoration

  • “They're not much bigger than two meters. So he totally got it. He was wearing a Star Wars shirt. When I told him that, he started laughing.”

    Dave @ Star Wars Trilogy anecdote — Illustrates customer engagement and technical problem-solving with humor

  • “It's supposed to throw down this forward bank drop target. You're supposed to shoot the ball in when you aim it. And it's a cannon, just like on Star Trek: The Next Generation T2. And only one drop target of the four would drop down.”

    Dave @ Star Wars Trilogy troubleshooting — Documents specific mechanical failure pattern in Star Wars Trilogy X-Wing cannon feature

  • “Rotten Dog had a problem with their boards. I don't believe some of the Rotten Dog boards... It's the reason why they call it Rotten Dog, you know.”

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonScott (Barn Scott / Scottlieb)personGrantpersonPinsoundcompanyMitchell LightingcompanyWeeblycompanyRotten DogcompanyClive (Coin-Owl Cauldron)personMaureen

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Audience strongly prefers ranked game lists and field stories over other content formats; episode on 1990s games was poorly received compared to 1980s list

    high · George: 'People like our lists and people like when we go to shows. Everything else is a distant second.'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Battery leakage is endemic problem in Stern White Star and late-1990s Sega/Stern games, especially in low-play collector machines; alkaline corrosion requires full board remediation

    high · Dave: Multiple case studies (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars Trilogy) with battery rot; 'Battery Rot Central' descriptor for low-play machines

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pinsound Rocket CPU emerging as premium alternative to OEM Stern White Star boards; offers superior sound controls, equalizer settings, and plug-and-play convenience at $800 retail

    high · Dave: 'Pinsound to the rescue... has a better sound section than the original board... you can get it either regular or plug and play'

  • ?

    product_concern: Star Wars Trilogy X-Wing cannon feature has documented mechanical failure—only one of four drop targets drops as designed; appears to be design or manufacturing flaw affecting multiple units

    high · Dave: 'And only one drop target of the four would drop down... He said never worked from day one since he's had it like for 20 years'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern White Star board replacement ($1,000) costs 40% more than standard Stern boards ($500-$700); driven by combo CPU/soundboard design with specialized chip; affects collector affordability

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.026

0:00
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George. His name is Dave. Hello, Dave. Hello there, George. Okay, folks, got to get on the stick. Last month, we gave you content from the 90s, and you know what? Not very well received. Don't get it? I mean, do you want us to do games, or don't you? You got to listen. Comment? Question?
0:34
Which games? Well, we did Doctor Who. I would think that, you know, people would gravitate towards that. Nope. Maybe we got our classic. Before we, you know, because it was Pintastic. So, you know, to answer your question before we got on the air is, do I have good content? Yes. People like our lists and people like when we go to shows. Everything else is a distant second. Okay. Well, I've got a lot of feedback from people that email me and so forth. And I say, what do you like about our show? They say they like stories from the field. They like the tech stuff. They like our camaraderie. They like you talking about. Well, then start telling your neighbors and your friends to start listening. Oh, I have been.
1:20
Okay. So here we go. So you're like, do we have an attention grabber? Yes, I do. And guess what? You're not prepared. So you better listen real close. Okay.
1:31
The best pinballs of the 1980s. All right. And I didn't use our mustached friend's list this time because he only went till 1984.
1:44
I used the list from the kineticist and it was quite good. And I've also involved some of our listeners unbeknownst to you. How's that? Okay. All right. Oh, Sam, I'm really excited.

  • Midway-owned Bally (early-1980s era) used video game cabinet designs for pinball, cheap particle board, and decals instead of proper painting

    high confidence · George explaining manufacturing cost-cutting and quality decline during Midway ownership period

  • Lord of the Rings uses a combo CPU and soundboard with Amtel sound chip, making replacement boards significantly more expensive than standard Stern boards

    medium confidence · Dave speculating on technical reasons for Lord of the Rings board pricing relative to other Stern games

    • Dave @ mid-content — Industry insider commentary on Rotten Dog's reputation for reliability issues

  • “I typically put his lighting at least in the kickers of the games to light up the bottom area a little brighter. It has the same kind of feel as incandescent, but brighter incandescent.”

    Dave @ lighting discussion — Describes practical LED retrofit strategy mixing Mitchell Lighting with other solutions

  • “I'm like a mash unit, you know, trying to get things done. I got this Bobby Bobby Orr Power Play 2. I finally got him up and running. That was like a 12-hour job total.”

    Dave @ late segment — Documents workload and complexity of restoration projects

  • “All right, so what's the number one game on the list? You own it. I don't know if it's set up anymore, but you do own it. And it's not a Bally.”

    George @ list reveal — Builds suspense in game ranking reveal; shows George's personal collection influences his opinions

    • person
    Lord of the Ringsgame
    Centaurgame
    Fathomgame
    Eight Ball Deluxegame
    Quicksilvergame
    Star Gazergame
    Star Wars Trilogygame
    Austin Powersgame
    [name withheld pending review]game
    The Simpsonsgame
    Rob Burkeperson
    Pastimes Arcadeorganization
    The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
    Pintasticevent

    high · Dave: 'It's stupid, especially for the Lord of the Rings... this board is like $1,000... The Simpsons... only like $500 or $700'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Rotten Dog brand has significant reliability reputation damage; Dave avoids them as first choice; name itself has become industry shorthand for poor quality ('the reason why they call it Rotten Dog')

    high · Dave: 'I don't believe some of the Rotten Dog boards... It's the reason why they call it Rotten Dog'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Midway-era Bally (early-1980s) used cost-cutting tactics: video game cabinet designs repurposed for pinball, particle board construction, decals instead of painted artwork; contributed to cabinet degradation

    high · George: 'Midway owned Bally... made the really crappy stink ray kind of cabinets... decals that would fall off the game because they would peel off instead of painting the game properly'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: DMD communication errors in Stern early-2000s games require systematic diagnosis; ROM corruption and ribbon cable failures are common; multiple component replacements often necessary

    medium · Dave's Austin Powers troubleshooting: 'So now it's got to be the game ROM... The cable from, the ribbon cable... I think I even tried a new ribbon cable'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Collector consensus favors 1980s games with simple rules, abundant targets (drops/spinners), and accessibility for casual players over modern complex rule sets; mid-1980s gap (1984-1986) seen as production dead zone

    high · Scott: 'I prefer lots of drops and spinners and pretty easy to teach rules'... George: 'dead area in the mid-80s... nothing really going on until Williams put a couple...'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Dave employs mixed-lighting approach: Mitchell LED for kickers/select areas (brighter incandescent aesthetic), standard incandescent elsewhere, Comet for modern games; cost ~$150 per game for partial retrofit

    high · Dave: 'I'll mix and match lighting all around... For a modern game, I'll use Mitchell and the Kickers, and I'll put the Comet Warms... everywhere else'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Dave managing 12+ hour complex restoration jobs (Power Play Dudes Part 2) alongside backlog of over-one-year customer projects; operating at capacity with MASH unit-style workflow

    high · Dave: 'I'm like a mash unit... trying to get things done... I still have customers that I'm working on that I've had for like over a year'

  • ?

    business_signal: Classic Pinball Podcast establishing relationships with aftermarket vendors (Pinsound, Mitchell Lighting, Weebly) through on-air endorsements; reciprocal sponsorship/product sampling model emerging

    medium · George: 'We are now sponsored by Mitchell Lighting, Rocket CPU Pinsound. And Weebly... How about some free products?'

    • 2:00
    Jeez. Yeah, even you're hard to please. Got a lot on my mind, George, a lot on my mind. Well, you know, we haven't talked, so I'm not going to ask you the question because we're going to try to do a condensed version of this.
    2:17
    Who do you want me to start with? Would you like me to start with our friend Grant? Or would you like me to start with Barn Scott, who has been contacting both you and I with some of his goings on? Yeah, let's go Pinn Barn Scott. Sounds good. Okay, so I have to bring up the mail. Now, where is my mail? It's right there. Okay, so here we go. So you want me to start with Scott? Okay, let's see. Okay, so this was sent to us last week. It says, oops, Miss George on the reply. Not sure how excited that earlier email would read on the podcast. Maybe I should craft a better one if time allows. Well, time didn't allow us. And he goes on to say, hey, it's pretty boring right now. You know, he's restoring. I think people either who know Scott from Massachusetts or from Pinside know that he's taking not really well-liked Stern titles and turning them into very well-liked Stern titles. You're closer to the flame. You tell me. Okay.
    3:32
    He's creating basically a classic Stern lineup. He wants to do all Sterns. Right. So possibly, let's see, he's likely hitting two Flight 2000 restorables. He might want a Centaur 2. He's not sure about Xenon. I could go on and on. And there's probably a story in my classic Stern pinball building and restoration obsession, but not sure if it's interesting enough to the masses. Yes, I think it is. We'll have you on at some point in time. Now, I asked Scott, I said, hey, Scott, why don't you give me your top 10 list of 80s machines? And I'm going to give him a pass because a couple of his machines were not from the 80s. But he said, I'm short on time. He said, hi. I'm in. Here's my top ten off the top of my head. Not in any order. I tend not to put new games in this list because I can go play them anytime I want. I prefer lots of drops and spinners and pretty easy to teach rules as many of my friends are casual players and the 80s provide. So he starts with Cheetah, Fast and Furious, great shots left and right, a target rich environment, my absolute current favorite. Yeah, I talked to him about that, and he said, do you miss it? And I said, well, I played the crap out of it, liked it as a kid. I got a really nice one that I scored a new old stock play field, and Bill Davis took clear. This was years ago. And I played it, and, you know, I even got the special ROM for it, the prototype ROM, because the sounds were more what I remember in the arcade. It was a prototype game, I guess. Way better sounds than the stock game. And a different colored cabinet, too. There's blue or there's green colored cabinet. Blue and black and green and black. Blue and black was the prototype. Green and black was the regular. So I just used the ROM from the blue and black and put it in my game. And I loved it. Great game. But I just out of all the games I had, it's like, you know, I don't really need to keep this game. And then Rob Burke from Pastimes Arcade contacted me years ago. Oh, yeah, that's right. You've talked about this before. And so it's in his place. So it's like, you know, at least I can play if I want to at your place, Scott. So that's good. Okay. So strikes and spares. Need some chimes on the list. Stars. Love, hate. Short fall times, but hugely satisfying when you get to the special. Also, the second Arduino rule set and sounds are quite fun. We've done a show on that. No thanks. Pass on that for me. Okay. Royal Flush Deluxe. I grew up on Gottlieb games. I think that's a good target shooting game. I have been called Scottlieb by my friends in the past when that's what I collected. So maybe we should change his name instead of Barnes Scott. It sounds like he's a farmer and he's anything but. Yeah, Scottlieb is good, but I think he's becoming more of a, I don't know, Stern Scott or Scott Stern or something. Anyway, so Stargazer owned one and had to sell it during COVID to make room for work. Missed it and building a new one now in a wildfire cabinet. Okay, so there's a story there. Quicksilver, long story short, decided to build one last year, then bought parts from South America for a second one with the infamous Stinkray cabinet. He loves that. He loves the Stinkray.
    6:53
    My friend Mike wanted one, too, so I built three Quicksilvers over the winter. I had no idea he did that. Oh, I was there. I saw them all. I saw them all lined up together with him. He stenciled the cabinets and everything and looked pretty good, you know. He had to hodgepodge some stuff, though, so some of the drop target of Sermies are not available. You've got to get them used from somebody. So he had to put in Bally drop target of Sermies in some of them. So here's one, Harlem Globetrotters. Obviously, that's not an 80s game.
    7:25
    Oh, 79. Right, close enough, but anyway, I'm giving them a pass. Cactus Jacks, not a technical game, just funny and fun to play. Is that an 80s game?
    7:36
    That's not for me. It's one of those 80s Gottlieb games that, let's say, not many people really care for, but there is people that do like that stuff. Okay, Fathom, lots of drops, good sands, a fun player. We've talked about that at Nauseam. And then Sea Witch, had one, same story, sold it during COVID to make space for the company I was working at. And then he puts an honorable mention, 8 Ball Deluxe. So that'll replace the Harlem. I thought there was one other game that was from the 80s. But anyway, so that's, he's got a lot more here, but we're going to be constrained for time today. So we'll come back to some of this at a later point in time. Now, I asked Grant to do the same thing.
    8:20
    And Grant says the following. Where are we? Okay. Righto, George, here we go with my top ten in reverse order. So he actually put them in order. So, number ten, Skateball. A challenging game with great art and sounds. Own one. Haunted House. This is one I would not have put on there, but Gottlieb threw everything at that game. It was very unique. Firepower, a true Steve Ritchie game, great sounds and gameplay.
    8:53
    A game that he has in his collection, Rolling Stones, great sounds and a vibrant art package. That's the Bally one, not the Stern. Fathom again. Here we are at number six. Beautiful art, great rules. Xenon at number five. Okay, I own one. You'll hear if it's on my list or not. Very good art package, Infinity Lights, Great Speech, Ramp and Multiball. Number four is Black Knight. Great two-level game. We've talked about that a lot. Fathom, number three. Eight Ball Deluxe at number two. Obviously, one of your favorites. What do they have as number one?
    9:35
    Okay, why don't you have a number one on here? That weird Oh no Finally number one is Centaur Okay I should have figured that Excellent arc great sounds He has one in his collection Five ball multi ball You know he loves he loves the whole package A game as a 14 year old kid I was in love with that game Comments suggestions I'm not a big Black Knight fan. Pretty much the Williams stuff really doesn't make my cut. You know, anything Williams really. Well, everybody's going to be excited to hear what your 10 are at the end. I have my 10.
    10:15
    Mine are not in order except the top three. And I want to preface it by saying I think everybody's going to be a little surprised at my list given that only one of my games appears on the list.
    10:30
    And you're actually going are you going strict 1980 and forward? Are you going 1980 through December 31st, 1989?
    10:40
    Oh, there's not much. There's not much after 84. Listen to my list and you can comment accordingly. Okay. The first seven are in no particular order. Quicksilver, Sea Witch, Black Knight, Flash Gordon, High Speed, Taxi. Really? Okay. And the only game I put on there is Centaur. Well, I tried to balance it out. Now the top three.
    11:13
    Care to think what the top three are? What didn't I mention that's been on everybody else's list? You own it. It's set up in your house. Fathom.
    11:26
    One. That's number three. Same thing. Number two? Eight Ball Deluxe. Correct. Go to the head of the class. Wow, you're doing good. Okay, so what's the number one game on the list? You own it. I don't know if it's set up anymore, but you do own it. And it's not a Bally. Not a Bally.
    11:48
    No, we're getting it. It's not a Bally. How about a Stargazer? Oh, Stargazer. Yeah, yeah, sure. So that's my list. Oh, that's right. You got ten? I do have ten. Go ahead. All right. In no particular order, Stargazer, Quicksilver, Nineball, Sea Witch, Flight 2000, Big Game, Ape, Bottle Luxe, Fathom, Flash Gordon, and Centaur.
    12:20
    Okay. Williams and Gottlieb did not make the cut. Okay. I had a bunch of honorable mentions here. I don't know if any of these have any appeal to you or our audience.
    12:31
    These were also buried somewhere in the kineticist list. Firepower, Space Shuttle, F-14 Tomcat. They're not bad. Black hole. I tried to put a little bit of everything in mind. Yeah, okay. I mean, you know. These are ones that. Put it this way. I'd say not considering Sterns and Bally's, what would you consider for 80s games you like? So if that's the way to go, then yeah, Firepower. So we can do that with another list at some point in time. Yeah, we can keep doing this forever, but people, some like it. But I'm going to say to our audience right now, don't be shy. Send us your list. We'll comment accordingly. Maybe you like Gottlieb games. Maybe you like the old Williams games. Maybe you like other stuff that we don't like. Tell us why. I'm always willing to read. Earthshaker was on that list. How about Embryon? I own one. I like it, but I won't put it on the list. Here's one you wouldn't put on there either. Frontier. Yeah. My favorites. But again, but again, mostly games I don't own. Bally 1980 was kind of a not so good year for them. It's kind of a lot of clunkers, you know, kind of on one hand, that's really any good. I mean, you know, Rolling Stones, Frontier, actually, Xenon, Flash Gordon with 1980.
    14:39
    Right. But other than that, you got some, you know, not so not so good. Why do you think our famous mustached friend Tim didn't go beyond 1984? Most people don't. And I'd like to hear from some people who collect games. Well, I'm saying just strictly 1980, just the year 1980. No, I understand. I heard what you said. Yeah.
    15:02
    But there's really not much. There was a dead area in the mid-80s. It was 84 to 85 or whatever. It was really nothing, even 86, nothing really going on until Williams put a couple, you know, high-speed and pinball out there and Space Shuttle. Right, but my point is maybe people like those games more than we like the early 80s Stern and Bally games. To Fathom. Oh, you know another game that's actually decent from early 80s is, oh, what the hell is it called? There's Embryon and there's your game, you like with the spinning disc there, Fireball Classic.
    15:44
    Oh, and what's it called? Let's say an 8-Ball Deluxe game. What's the game called? Eight ball, eight ball champ, eight ball champ. That's not a bad, that's a pretty decent and born in a really tough time of pinball when Midway owned Bally and they made the really crappy stink ray kind of cabinets with the fall of particle board and they got all swelled up and heavy cabinets from that when Midway decided to use video game cabinets to make pinball cabinets with. So and decals that would fall off the game because they would in the humidity is like peel off instead of painting the game properly. So they made all kinds of shortcuts. Well, you know, video games were taking over. And again, we've we've talked about that in the past. OK, so I'm done with our best pinballs of the 1980s. All right. OK, sounds good. So go ahead. Floor's yours. I've got some other topics. Oh, okay. You said you've got a lot of stuff, so. Sure, yeah. So, let's go. I'll go in random order here. So, just worked on another Lord of the Rings out in, down the Cape, down in Mashpee. And I've worked on several of these now and had decent luck with the main boards not rotting out, you know, the chains of batteries. This one, however, this game's in perfect shape. This game, he bought it brand new years ago. He's an older gentleman. Doesn't play much. I mean, you look at his shooter lane. Usually it's all, you know, the ball hits from all the chipping, whatever. It looks perfect. It's pristine. So very low plays. Unfortunately, he's, you know, a snowbird. So he'd stay around summertime at his place down the Cape and go to Florida. The game would only get played, I don't know, maybe a handful of times and then not played. So, again, Battery Rot Central, and I tried working on this like a year ago. I tried working the board, tried to do remediation of the alkaline, and I kind of got it going, and then it came back next year. It had another problem. So I said, all right, if you want to spend some money, I had to look around for boards, and I couldn't believe the prices on these boards to get like a – Which board set is this again? Well, it's a Stern White Star. Oh, you've talked about it. So, okay. You've talked about the price of these things. Yeah, it's stupid, especially for the Lord of the Rings and a couple of the games. There's only a handful of games that use this board. I think Elvis might be one of them. So it's hard to find that board. How do people make that board? So that board is like, you know, $1,000. You want a regular game, a regular one, like, say, for The Simpsons, it's only like, say, $600 or $700. $500, $600, $500 to $700. That's a lot of money compared to, you know, the games I collect where you can buy a board for $160 or $170. Right. Well, this board is a combo CPU and soundboard combo, and it's got a lot of stuff on it. I think it's got either Amtel or some kind of sound thing on it that makes it different from the other boards. So anyway, I was looking around, saying, what can I do for this guy, you know, and so I want to have him reliable. So I found, this was Googling, and Pinsound, Pinsound to the rescue. They make a rocket CPU for this generation of game that not only does everything you want it to do, but it has all kinds of different controls on it for sound. It has a better sound section than the original board so it has all these equalizer settings like subwoofer settings So I got it you can get it either regular or plug and play I got a plug and play Just put everything on it Populate it It was only more Screw it. So I had everything. So I just wanted to go in there and pop it in.
    19:38
    How much does this item retail for? It's like about $800. Okay. But it's just like shrink wrap good to go, you know, instead of me messing around with it. Otherwise, you have to download some sound files and throw them in and do all those things. No, I'm not going to transfer chips over. No, I don't do it either. So put it in there and I'm adjusting the sounds like, wow, this game sounds great. I can really adjust this game to sound way better than the original Stern crap that released at the time. Just the original speaker actually sounded good with this thing adjusting the EQ. It made it sound really legit and totally booted up right away, no problem. Took care of all the weirdness of the game. And then just the original driver board had a, you know, it was sort of okay, but I said I don't trust it either. So I put a rotten dog I had in there. That's like about a $500 or $600 board for the driver board. Oh, yeah. So he was on the hook for lots of money for boards. Right, but he has a really nice game and people still like that game. Yeah. Oh, he likes it. So did you just discover this board? I just discovered it. Just discovered it. Has it been out for a while? It's not too long. Not too long. And when I first told him about it, I said, listen, I got this board, but it says like shipping delay, manufacturing delay of like five weeks. So I'm going to try to get it to you by the end of summer. So he said, oh, OK, fine. I ordered it. And then about a week later, he said, oh, we're shipping your board. So it came a lot quicker than I thought it was, which is great.
    21:08
    And it was, I don't know, they're just really, they're really smart, smart people over there. I just like their service and like their products are really good. This thing will also control, you want to put a shaker motor in and some other crap, you can like load things onto this board. Well, that's good. So they thought it through and they added a lot of features. And they added tons of features and tons of connectability that they actually sell the stuff to Connected 2, so you can actually buy more stuff that goes with this board to make your game even more enhanced. So they're just not a board company. If you want to buy other, you can buy it. Yeah, there are people that want to mod their game out. These guys are good for that. They're good at taking people's money. That's a good business. They are, yes.
    21:52
    So after I got the thing done and I said, okay, we're at the, when I said, I said, listen, the ballpark I said it was going to do, we're at that right now. But you still have black rubber in your game. The game's clean, but do you want us to go forward a little bit more? And he said, yeah, yeah, since you're here, you're here anyway. Just go nuts in the game. I don't care. I'll just pay whatever, which I like that. Good. I can work with that.
    22:19
    There's a common thread with some of your customers. There's some of my customers. I like when they just say, do your thing. I don't care. I trust you to do your thing and whatever the price is, it's fine. And I don't take advantage of that. I just want to be released, like get me off leash so I can do my thing and be creative without worrying about the cost of the end. So I took it easy on him anyway. I didn't, you know, no gouge pinball kind of thing. But, you know, I got what I needed, and he got a beautiful game. He said, this game was gorgeous, and it plays great. So he was all set. I do want to give a shout-out. It's going to shout-out pin sound for Rocket CPU. I want to shout-out again is for Mitchell Lighting. Mitchell Lighting does these awesome LEDs that George turned me on to years ago, and I met Mitch. And he turned me on to some free samples here and there, and he gave me some free samples to do for the $6 million man at the show recently at Pintastic. So I want to shout him out again, you know, great guy. Another person that's not very stupid. Oh, yeah. He got you going. He's like, you know what? It's always good to seed the field. Here, have a few samples. Yeah, smart. All of a sudden, Dave is ringing up some business for Mitch. Smart cookie. Yeah, I typically put his lighting at least in the kickers of the games to light up the bottom area a little brighter. It has the same kind of feel as incandescent, but brighter incandescent.
    23:48
    And then I'll put some of that lighting otherwhere in the playfield as well. It does, you know, it will add up a little more expensive if I do the whole game with it, but I definitely will select the blue lighting and put it where it looks great. Oh, no, you could spend $150 on a game without it. Oh, no problem. No problem. Right, I think his Paragon kit is up in that range. So I'll mix and match it. So for something like Paragon or whatever, I'll put Incandescent in there and Mitchell. For a modern game, I'll use Mitchell and the Kickers, and I'll put the Comet Warms, two SMD Warms everywhere else. So I'll mix and match lighting all around and make the best lighting experience. So again, Mitchell Lighting, you know, it's our good guy. Let's go with Star Wars Trilogy, Sega. This was a late 90s game right before Stern took over. They actually are Stern. Sega and Stern are the same company. They just had Sega on the board instead of Stern. So I've had a couple of Star Wars trilogies now. I don't know what's about them, but the batteries always leak terrible and always alkaline nightmare on this one. And so I had for this guy, I said, OK, I'm going to do the whole day spa thing. You're going to need a boardectomy as well.
    25:12
    And I had what's his name down south? Coin-Owl Cauldron. Oh, so you have to prepare. Clive, yeah. So Clive repaired a previous Star Wars trilogy board that was just a wreck. And it's like, can you save this board? It's like, well, I can, but it's going to cut. It's like, I didn't really have any other board for that choice. They were expensive. They don't make a remake for this game? Well, yeah, they do. Like, you know, Rotten Dog does, but Rotten Dog had a problem with their boards. I don't believe some of the Rotten Dog boards. That's another story about Rotten Dog. It's the reason why they call it Rotten Dog, you know. Oh, jeez. You know, it's just, I don't know. I've had problems with them. You don't do much business with them. They're not the go-to. They're actually, if no one else has it, then you go with them. But otherwise, other options, yes, you take it. So, yeah, so I did that, and he had all kinds of problems. He had this X-Wing fighter that's kind of like in T2, where you, you know, take your best shot or whatever it is, and you shoot the thing, you shoot the ball out, and you kind of hit the trigger. They have a similar thing on Star Wars Trilogy. The X-Wing fighter goes over and says, use the force, Luke. And it goes and you goes over, shoot the trigger, and it goes through some drop targets down a hole. And it's supposed to mimic you at the end of the Star Wars when you're going to destroy the Death Star. And then it has Death Star multiball and that kind of thing. So this thing, he said, never worked from day one since he's had it like for 20 years. And I said, well, since I'm here, if you want to spend a little more money, I can do it all the way. I said, yeah, might as well do it all the way. So, you know, so I spent more time. I finally got that working for once. The only thing I didn't get working on it was ran out of time and out of funds, but it didn't really matter. It's supposed to throw down this forward bank drop target. You're supposed to shoot the ball in when you aim it. And it's a cannon, just like on Star Trek Next Gen T2. And only one drop target of the four would drop down. And that's the shot we want to make. So I told him, it's like, well, you know, it's supposed to be two drop targets. It's an easy shot, but there's only one drop target. It's a tougher shot. But I said, you know, it's only target area is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port right below the main port. So you probably don't get that, but other people do. Star Wars is all about Luke says, I used to shoot Wamp Rats with my T-16 back home. It's not impossible. I used to bullseye Wamp Rats with my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters. So he totally got it. He was wearing a Star Wars shirt. When I told him that, he started laughing. He totally got the joke when I was joking about a little Star Wars humor there for him. So that was the alkaline nightmare there. He also has an Austin Powers that adds a little bit of... Yeah, baby.
    27:57
    So that's actually another Stern from early 2000s, shared the same board set as Star Wars Trilogy, and it had no... it powered up, he could play it, but no display at all. I said, okay, well, I'll just bring everything with me for that. So I brought a new DMD. I brought a CPU, a driver board. I bought a driver board, brought a regular driver board, CPU soundboard, a DMD power supply I brought with me, and I brought a DMD driver board. And I said, okay, out of all that, I'll definitely get this thing running. I have to because what else is left, right? So one by one, put things in. No, no, still dark, no. So until finally the DMD driver board, I put that in and finally I was getting a splash screen. So a splash screen on a Stern from this time frame is the game ROM on this display driver board is coded to whatever title you have. And they have to match the game ROM, same game. So when I powered on, it finally said Stern Pinball Austin Powers. It actually just came up and said that I said okay good So now I definitely know that which I knew before I put new parts in that the DMV is good the power supply is good all this stuff is good And then when it goes dark again then you can see any scores or see any animation or anything So that means that the CPU board that has the game ROM on it, I said it probably has bit rot, and maybe I think the next step is to burn a new ROM for your game and try it, Because I've replaced everything else in this thing. So it's a communication error between, I think I even tried, I tried a new cable too. The cable from, the ribbon cable. I think I tried a new ribbon cable. Didn't I try a new ribbon cable? Yeah. Maureen went back home to get a ribbon cable because he wasn't that far away. So it's got to be that. I put that in there. No. So now it's got to be the game ROM. So that's the next step. So that's another weird, a lot of weird stuff lately, a lot of weird thing. Yeah, but you're busy as can be. Oh, yeah, busy, busy. And then I still have customers that I'm working on that I've had for like over a year. I have other little customers, little quickie jobs I'm getting done in between those. So I'm working multiple. I'm like a mash unit, you know, trying to get things done.
    30:24
    I got this Power Play Duds Part 2. I finally got him up and running. That was like a 12-hour job total, like six hours per day on that one, and he's like an hour and something minutes away down Rhode Island.
    30:39
    I originally put in a Rotten Dog, again, sauna driver board. That bit me in the ass because everything was working fine when I was finally done with it, and I started doing some weird stuff. Now, this Rotten Dog board in particular, I labeled it as having, does not work well with, like, games with, oh, what's it called? The games with like 8-Ball Deluxe and Fathom that have that soundboard in it, I would get no sound out of it. But it does work when I put it in my Stars game, it worked with chimes. It's like, okay, so this board still works, but it's kind of limpy, so it's only for certain applications. Say, okay, well, the PowerPlay is a chime game. I'll just use this board in the PowerPlay. Okay, great. Well, it worked for a while until then it started having boot-up issues. It would start, you get the seven flashes, then it would hesitate. You never use Rotten Dog products. You usually use. I don't, but I had it in stock from some other flunky thing from somewhere, some other whatever. I just, I collect these things because the customers will buy these things and I'll take them out and say, no, you want more reliability. I'm going to put some. So I have these boards. It's like, I could just sell them on eBay. I don't know. I didn't get rid of them, which I probably will, especially after this thing. So I said, you know what? Screw the Rotten Dog. Pull it out, put a nice new Weebly in there, all set. So Weebly, way better. Get Andrew, Weebly Boards, another one of our sponsors. That's why I'm surprised when you say, I put a rotten dog in. I get it, you know, money is fine. So we are now sponsored by Mitchell Lighting, Rocket CPU Pinset. I was going to say, you're going to get us in trouble. And Weebly. They're going to be taking dough from all these companies. You're giving accolades. We'll give them free accolades and we'll get some later. How about some free products? Oh, then with the power play, the pin duds thing, then Maureen. So this guy, so he did this whole game. You know, it was like been through a fire or something. It had like this brown grungy crap all over it everywhere, connectors. So I had to do everything in this game. And then he said, well, if you get a little more time, I'll spend even extra money with you, even though I said, well, you're kind of tapped on. I'm actually, I'm over the amount I told you about, and I know you don't want to spend any more. So I gave him free, an hour or two free, and then he said, well, can I pay your wife just to touch up the cabinet because the cabinet's all scrapped up on one side. I said, you bought this thing from these guys in Florida, and they said it's all, well, they called it shopped. Okay, so they put new rubber on it and put a new Alltech board, and that's all they did, and they sent it off to you. They probably spent 50 bucks on the game. So I said, okay. So Maureen brought with her all the paints. So she spent three hours on it. While I'm working on the game, she spent three hours on the cabinet. And then it was all said and done. Well, the side of the cabinet, she spent a couple hours and I said, Maureen, you probably need to ask for a little more money because you've already spent lots of time on it. So you need more money to do the front. So I said, I said, why don't you go up and ask him, you know, come, have him come down, look at what you did and ask him for a little more money to do the front because you're already. So he looked at the thing and said, OK, great, whatever. I'll just pay you extra. It looks so nice. I'll do it. So he gave me a nice review. He showed pictures of the game. And Maureen did a really nice job. The before and afters, you know, it shows. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he was a happy camper. So that was great. Where are we time-wise? We got four minutes.
    34:09
    Okay. I could do one more. Quick. All right. Yeah. All right. Speaking of pinball duds, I have a client who just called me. I'm cold-called looking for a game. He started getting pinball. He wants to get a pinball machine. I said, yeah. I said, what are you looking for? Well, I'd like to get a Bally 8-ball maybe or something like that. I'm like 50-something years old. I have a kid who he's looking at all your website, looking at all your games you know on your YouTube channel. He wants one of those. And then I started looking around. I Googled it. And I found an 8-ball on eBay. It's like, let me guess. Yeah, it's a pinball dud. It's like, oh, do not buy that game. Unless you want to see me come over and fix it for the right one. Did you listen to our last couple episodes? No, I didn't, but I should.
    34:54
    Or did you give them the telephone number of the guy in Rhode Island? No, I should. You should. It's exactly what you should do. It's very frustrating, so I've got to figure out what are these guys doing that they're coming up every time. People want to film a shame, they come up. We talked about this in the last show. Implement what I told you, and you'll do fine. So put a thing on eBay. Put something on my site. Yeah! Okay, I have to. I mean, it makes sense. It works for them. Yeah, Dave, you know, you don't want to wreck your, you know, your restore business because, you know, all these people, after they get their duds, they usually find you. But it's too late. Too late. It'd be nice if you found them beforehand and you said, you know. That's what they always say. I'm going to spend you a lot of time and money. They always say, I wish I found you before. For me. Right. They say, I wish you found you before. I wish I found you. One last thing, the Gorgar Pinball Duds thing from New Hampshire, I'm making great progress with that, doing a playfield swap. I was going to just do a playfield protector on it, that kind of thing. I said, you know what, you want to go the next mile and just really make it nice. Yeah, I want a really gorgeous Gorgar. Okay, I got a C-Pair playfield. I'm just like two-thirds away from the playfield swap. So this guy's going to be in a really nice Gorgar.
    36:09
    And so I'm doing a Gorgar. I'm doing a blackout restoration back-to-back. And I have another Gorgar. So I got lots of William stuff coming up. But anyway, I think that's all I got. I'm going to cut you. Two minutes. You probably only have two minutes, right? Two minutes. Correct. OK, so, folks, Dave is up to his elbows and alligators. I could have used another metaphor, but you get the picture. This is a short episode. Sorry. I have a bunch of stuff that I'd like to talk about next show. It's not time sensitive, so we're okay.
    36:46
    I'm just going to say stay lit and tilted. We'll do a longer show hopefully next month if things calm down for Dave. How's that? That sounds good. I don't know if we're going to calm down, but we'll see. I'm giving you a warning right now. Okay. I'm going on vacation. When I come back, pick a day early in the month so we can put it out. So we're not doing a show six weeks later. You're always on vacation. What are you talking about? You live vacation right now. You're retired. Well, I know that. And after some of the stories I've heard about other people recently, I kiss my wife every day. And so I've got a great life. Nice, George. Same here with my wife. So I'll report from Bethany Beach. I'm going to play pinball in Bethany Beach. Nice. I'm going to be delivering a Star Trek Next Gen and a Twilight Zone very shortly. I might be picking up a couple games. I don't know if I really want to, but I might be picking up two ramp games, a Getaway and an Indy 500 that I'm going to get for the right price. Don't buy them. You see the Ritchie games, right? What's that? Aren't those Ritchie games, both of them? I don't know about that. Getaway is. Indy 500, not so sure. Yeah, I'm not so sure either. You probably got like 20 seconds or so. Say goodbye, Dave. Goodbye, Dave. Goodbye, George. Okay, next month, folks. Stay healthy, play some pinball, and have a great summer. We'll see you soon. Time to drink. Cheers.
    38:34
    No! Dave! Who? Dave! D-A-V-E! Yeah, Dave! Dave! Right! George, you don't know what you're saying! You're under their control! George, we've had it with you. Say no rodeo, bro, Dad. Hasta la vista, baby.