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EP 19 - Pinball Life Hacks and Pinball News Worth Mentioning

Flip n Out Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·57m 44s·analyzed·Mar 13, 2026
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TL;DR

American Pinball builds team; Spooky adds song to Beetlejuice; hosts discuss pinball life hacks.

Summary

Flip N Out Pinball Podcast Episode 19 covers American Pinball's new hires (Rob Rath and Nick Netzel from Electric Playground), improvements in parts availability and customer service, Spooky Pinball's addition of 'Jump in the Line' song to Beetlejuice via code update, and a community survey on pinball life hacks. Hosts Ken Cromwell and Greg Bone discuss manufacturing timelines, product announcements, and Stern designer Keith Elwin's ability to elevate lesser-known themes.

Key Claims

  • American Pinball now has parts listed on their website and can fulfill replacement parts in 4 days

    high confidence · Greg Bone reports customer feedback confirming improved parts fulfillment at American Pinball

  • American Pinball hired Rob Rath as product director and Nick Netzel as product designer, both formerly of Electric Playground

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell states this as a press release from American Pinball

  • Spooky Pinball secured licensing for 'Jump in the Line' song for Beetlejuice via a code update after all games were already sold

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell announces this as news, stating Spooky spent additional money to make customers happy despite no sales benefit

  • Getting a game out in 8 months from development is extremely tight and challenging due to parts sourcing and manufacturing process setup

    medium confidence · Greg Bone and Ken Cromwell discuss manufacturing timelines and sub-assembly requirements

  • Rick and Morty pinball had the highest single-day sales in Spooky history when it launched

    medium confidence · Ken Cromwell cites this as an example of successful Spooky sales strategy

  • Left flipper + start button combination resets games without entering service menu

    high confidence · Greg Bone confirms this as a legitimate pinball life hack from community submissions

  • Stern may strategically assign designer Keith Elwin to less commercially desirable themes because his design skill can elevate them

    medium confidence · Greg Bone speculates on Stern's design strategy regarding Elwin

Notable Quotes

  • “For a company to already have completed all of their sales and really not have to do anything else except support code and that sort of thing for them to go out and spend more money to make less money on the games in order to make their customers happy speaks volumes.”

    Ken Cromwell @ N/A — Highlights Spooky Pinball's customer-first philosophy and willingness to sacrifice short-term profit for goodwill

  • “They are hobbyist first and they are building these games for themselves. They want people to be happy if they think it's cool and they can feasibly do it.”

    Greg Bone @ N/A — Explains Spooky's motivations as driven by passion rather than pure profit maximization

  • “If you're missing one of those parts, that game can't leave. It shouldn't leave.”

    Ken Cromwell @ N/A — Underscores manufacturing quality control challenges when sourcing thousands of individual parts

  • “We are like a liaison for pinball. We're answering questions. We're dealing with people just kicking tires, people asking questions about their first game.”

    Greg Bone @ N/A — Illustrates the operational complexity of selling pinball machines beyond just inventory management

  • “You don't want that to be the first impression at a show that can really hinder and hurt that game. Because people don't come back from that for whatever reason.”

    Greg Bone @ N/A — Explains why revealing games at shows before full production testing is a business risk

Entities

Ken CromwellpersonGreg BonepersonRob RathpersonNick NetzelpersonBrian EddypersonRon LindemanpersonMelvin WilliamspersonKeith Elwinperson

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: American Pinball hired Rob Rath (product director) and Nick Netzel (product designer) from Electric Playground, plus Melvin Williams recently. Building manufacturing and product expertise.

    high · Press release from American Pinball; Ken Cromwell states Rob Rath and Nick Netzel co-founded Electric Playground and are now at American Pinball

  • ?

    operational_signal: American Pinball has dramatically improved parts availability and fulfillment speed (4 days reported by customer), suggesting supply chain and logistics improvements under new leadership.

    high · Greg Bone reports customer email confirming parts fulfillment in 4 days and parts now listed on website

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball invested additional money to license 'Jump in the Line' song for Beetlejuice after all games were sold, prioritizing customer happiness and goodwill over profit margin.

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'for a company to already have completed all of their sales...to spend more money to make less money on the games in order to make their customers happy speaks volumes'

  • ?

    code_update: Spooky Pinball added 'Jump in the Line' song to Beetlejuice via code update; announced on Flip N Out Pinball stream with Joel and Jared

    high · Ken Cromwell: 'Spooky decides...they secure one of the songs that people wish were in the game...Jump in the Line...it wasn't a deal breaker because the game's phenomenal'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Hosts discuss that getting a game out in 8 months is extremely challenging even for remakes, due to sub-assembly build times, parts sourcing delays, and manufacturing line setup.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.173

0:00
Hey, what's going on pinball land? Welcome to episode number 19 of Flip N Out Pinball Podcast. Greg Bone is here with me. I'm Ken Cromwell and today we're going to do our best to inform and entertain for the next 30 to 60 minutes or so. Talk a little pinball, talk a little life, Greg. How's it going, man? How are you, buddy? Doing good, man. A little early. Well, actually, it's not early. I'm just sipping some coffee, though, still. You're a coffee drinker. I love coffee. I can do away with everything, man. I could not drink beer. I don't drink much beer anymore. I can cut out most things in my life. Coffee? Nope. It's not the, I mean, this is going to sound counterproductive here or whatever, or counterintuitive. I don't even know what I want to say there. But it's not like the caffeine. I don't feel like I don't I don't care about sodas I don't care, but it's just like the taste of coffee. I just love it Yeah, what about I wish could you ever switch to like a decaf. Not sure it tastes different And for some reason I swear that I read somewhere that the process of decaf like the way that they decaffeinated coffee and tea It's like something really weird about it I'll have to try to find that article and send it to you Like I'd seen a couple things one time that is like some weird The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. construirvrestadietcoke.com
2:20
Allie and Edward all coming in on Patreon. We appreciate it if you want to go support the show and a little bit more of a special way you can go to patreon.com slash flip it on pinball podcast and check out what we've got over there. Greg, where do you want to go first? We posted something on social media earlier this week. We were asking people about their like pinball life hacks. We can talk about that a little bit. We also have news over at American Pinball with some new hires. We've got some spooky pinball news, which I think is really cool. Where do you want to go? How do we structure the show? I am always along for the ride. I'm just along for the ride. You are my co-pilot. Yeah, fair enough. You drive. It's like that in Fortnite when we play Fortnite. I'm just hanging out the window. You're driving. Is that what you're doing? You're just you're co-piloting. Let's start off at American Pinball. They put a press release out earlier this week. They've got a couple new hires. They hired Rob Rath as product director and Nick Netzel as product designer. These are the guys that I think co-founded the Electric Playground, which was like a topper company. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember that. So, interesting, we've got Brian's building the team over there. They had Melvin Williams who was brought on a couple weeks ago. You've got Ron Lindeman there that's still, he's president, right? President of... I believe so, or will be. Yep, yep. So it's, they're building the team. Yeah. Well, I got an email from a customer. He needed a part for his Houdini and he had just reached out to let me know, really good customer of ours. And he said, Hey, Greg, he said, just FYI, you know, check out the website for American Pinball. He said, they've got a ton of parts listed on there now. And he said, I literally got my replacement parts I needed for my Houdini in four days. Oh, wow. That's really good, actually. Yeah. Like what, what a drastic change that is. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And I think it's just one of those things, you know, Brian, Brian kind of mentioned that. He's like, you know, when we had talked to him or whatever, you know, and I feel like he's fulfilling that promise of, hey, we might not be building a pinball machine. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams, Straight Out the Middle, John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Straight Out the Middle, Straight Out the Middle, And in today's show, a flash there. araus
American Pinball
company
Spooky Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Electric Playgroundcompany
Beetlejuicegame
Rick and Mortygame
Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
Zach Minneyperson
Joelperson
Jaredperson
Texas Pinball Festivalevent

high · Ken Cromwell: 'if you're missing one of those parts, that game can't leave.' Greg Bone discusses how parts delays are inevitable and sub-assemblies must be pre-built

  • ?

    community_signal: Spooky Pinball chose to announce major news (Jump in the Line) on Flip N Out Pinball stream, recognizing value in partnership and streamer followings (Joel and Jared).

    medium · Ken Cromwell: 'Spooky found the value in that in the relationship to say, let's go ahead and share that big news on that stream. Joel and Jerb do an amazing job with streaming.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Discussion suggests Stern may strategically assign designer Keith Elwin to less commercially desirable themes (Godzilla, Iron Maiden) knowing his design skill will elevate them into successful games.

    medium · Greg Bone: 'Do you think there's a conscious effort from Stern Pinball to put Keith on maybe less desirable themes because they realize that what he's going to bring to the table ultimately will win people over?'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Hosts discuss best practice for game announcements is 2-3 weeks before shipping, not at pinball shows, to avoid production issues damaging first impressions.

    medium · Greg Bone: 'two to three weeks, you're ready to start shipping those games' and 'you can have a lot go wrong at a show'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts are bullish on American Pinball's direction with new hires and improved operations, though cautious about publicly announced timelines.

    medium · Ken Cromwell: 'I'm bullish on American pinball' and discussion of Brian Eddy's manufacturing background being a strong asset

  • ?

    event_signal: American Pinball expected at Texas Pinball Festival in a couple weeks (March 2024 timeframe); unknown if they will reveal or bring new products.

    medium · Ken Cromwell: 'I know that American Pinball will be there. I don't know if they're bringing anything, if they're revealing anything'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Spooky precedent of adding unexpected value post-launch (Rick and Morty topper, Beetlejuice song) creates goodwill and community engagement that enhances brand loyalty.

    medium · Ken Cromwell notes Rick and Morty topper announced after sales peak, similar to Beetlejuice song addition strategy

  • ?

    business_signal: Hosts discuss hidden operational complexity of pinball sales beyond inventory: website prep, social media, order management, tech support, and customer education—all time-intensive.

    high · Greg Bone: 'there's so much of our time that I don't think people understand...we are like a liaison for pinball...if we're not well versed on it, if we don't even know what's coming...how do we answer some of these questions?'

    • 5:26
    j Marshall The whole thing is a symphony and that that the efficiency of the build is so important because that goes into you know what your bill materials is gonna be and your overall cost per game if you're making ten games a day you're making drastically more money per each game if you're only making six or eight and it's that initial yeah that initial build process and how it all plays out like I'd be curious to know what's going on behind the scenes and then you need the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon shows a simulation of the snotty workcourse featured in HallHey, Landon, and three by the University of North and West twisting their houses with fiberglass panels,stellen wood pe tours, ечь ar hurting, hay男 학생 Надu Kishel, Arne Krista, Jay Lewis, and boguri, screen shots from the MonêtProLim chili-hymas, theatrical video featuring Dr. Akim Karim from the I, you know, for our interaction with Brian, he seems like a great guy. He's got business sense and he comes from a manufacturing background. How it correlates into pinball, we don't know, but I would assume that he's in a lot better spot than most people that came over that had no manufacturing experience and never ran a company. Yeah. So this is, you know, I'm, I'm bullish on, uh, on American pinball. I, at this point, we are in March. We've got Texas Pinball Festival that's going to be coming up here in a couple of weeks. I know that American Pinball will be there. I don't know if they're bringing anything, if they're revealing anything. The timeline for the end of the year is quicker than you think. So if a game's going to come out, you've got roughly eight and a half months to get a game out. Yeah. You think we see anything or, and again, I would say Brian's not on the clock with the exception of he kind of set some expectations about games coming out and, and, and it's, you know, I'm torn on it. I appreciate having lofty goals and setting yourself publicly accountable by saying, hey, we're going to do this and we're going to do that. I appreciate that. But what ends up happening is if you don't meet those goals, like now you're kind of playing behind the eight ball a little bit and people start saying, oh, you're behind, you're slow. And I don't want that to be the case for these guys. No. And, you know, I mean, I think so at one point I kind of thought, I'm like, okay, you're doing, you know, let's say you're doing Circus Voltaire and you're doing a remake. That has to shave quite a bit of time off, obviously. You know, you're not going through the engineering, you're not going through any of your design process, anything like that. So, so as long as you can lock down parts, lock down your manufacturing process, all of that, oh, you know, eight months seems doable. But I mean, look at a lot of the, you know, just something like Chicago Gaming. Sometimes it takes them a little bit of time to even get out stuff and parts for a remake. And look at some of these other companies that we know the game is designed. We have seen that game and it still can be a six month delay, whether it's due to parts, just their manufacturing process, anything else. So I kind of stepped back from that and kind of was like, ah, you know, it's still it still might not be an eight eight month thing. I think it'd be extremely if a game was in development right now or even if they were getting parts for games, I think that'd be pretty tough to get a game out in in eight months. Personally, I think so, too. They got to build up all the subassemblies. And listen, you can have the schematics of all the parts that you need to build a remake, but you still got to set up the line for it. That's the whole thing. You got to do your pick. You got to order your parts. And we know firsthand, just dealing with other manufacturers that are dealing with delays, that parts are not always guaranteed to come in when they're supposed to. There's inevitably there's a delay. And with a pinball machine that might have, you know, a thousand individual skews in thousands of parts. If you're missing one of those parts, that game can't leave. No. It shouldn't leave. Maybe it has, but it shouldn't leave. Yeah, it's like you said with sub-assemblies and everything else. That's just so time consuming. It is. I know sometimes Stern can be a little behind. Anything that's a sub-assembly, most warranty parts and stuff, I get out pretty quick, but if it's an entire assembly, it takes some time because they've only got so many people that are dedicated. That's very different than this, obviously, because this is manufacturing that one sole Michele Moore��� Image, inea, Emiliano Pinello, What does that look like? Do you start on sub-assemblies two weeks, a month prior to you taking things to a playfield and populating the playfield? Or what have you seen just because you were front line? What does that look like out of curiosity? You usually, at least from what I've seen, you get your sub-assemblies ready because those sub-assemblies, maybe you're building out a couple hundred at a time. They've got to be ready for the order process when the playfield goes down the line. You've just got those on racks there for the assemblers. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I believe that those parts for those sub-assemblies are coming in first. You're able to build those out and kind of get ahead a little bit, and that speeds up the process down the road. But as the playfield goes from one station to another, if you go to station four and the sub-assemblies aren't built, well, everything gets bottlenecked at station four. You need to be able to grab sub-assembly off and throw it on there. And nobody beyond station four can do anything. Yeah, well, you can, but maybe not something that's going to populate the playfield. Maybe you're building something else or a topper or something. The bubble But, you know, there's always changes to the line that are happening when you figure out something that could be more efficient or something that could be done in a better way. You know, as the games are, as more and more games are coming out, that assembly is a little more tighter and, you know, you're saving a little bit more time. And it's just muscle memory, right? Like people are used to doing something and they're able to do things more efficiently and quicker because they've got confidence. They don't have to reference a diagram maybe as much anymore. Those sort of things. Well, and like you said, I mean, you know, I still think that it would be valuable, you know, even though things change, you find new processes. I'm sure it's particular to that game or just ongoing production. But, like, I still think it's important to have somebody in there who's familiar with pinball production, just so you're not trying to reinvent the wheel. You're not spinning your wheels, setting everything. Okay, well, theoretically, this sounds like what we should do first, or we should do this first. And you might be just missing the mark altogether to where somebody that at least has the ability to do it. In fact, a part of Elman's like, okay, Tim prescribe testing Foley for gas million, in a sustainable, sustainable market. ingest, and that is that's nice to see. But yeah, that's the point. Now that. That. If if we can keep lass known know about this production , that particularly tick 8 now . It's is a trabalho simpl do yeti seiz it? Art do código I AN dere ci is bottle a pid air to lady hu doc di ti de The That was kind of his thing. So I assume that's kind of I think he's creative designer over there that, you know, maybe he's not running that line, but it's like he kind of knows how that should fall out. I would assume. Yeah, I could be wrong. So, well, I mean, we'll see what happens at American Pinball as they add to the team. Would be great to see a game by the end of the year. But if it doesn't happen, it's like it's it's OK. You know, don't rush it. Just don't rush it. 100 percent. Don't rush it. And, you know, don't always feel compelled to have to reveal something at a pinball show, too. That was something that as an enthusiast, I would like to go to a pinball show and I would like to see something that's brand new revealed for the first time. It just adds to the excitement from a company standpoint, you know, with with the impact and effectiveness of of good marketing and promotion online. I think that's your best pinball show. It's like just getting it in front of as many people as as possible and doing, you know, coinciding a release at a pinball show and trying to rock it online is an undertaking. Well, no, you can have a lot go wrong at a show. Like, I used to be a big proponent for that. Like you said, as a hobbyist, I was a giant proponent for it. Like you said, like, I would love to go to a show and there be unveilings of products of any sort, you know, especially a game. But I just from a business perspective I just I don know if that is the best move anymore There too much can go wrong Like I mean we see games that are in full production going in people homes and there issues that come out Like, you don't want that to be the first impression at a show that can really hinder and hurt that game. Because people, people don't, a lot of people don't come back from that for whatever reason. You know, even if there's a complete fix, if they had to deal with that issue, it somehow taints that game in their mind or taints something with it. Steve Zsoni, Richard seiner,
    14:54
    Roy traded, Nelson Tate, Mark Aikman, Undertaker, Robert Comerford, Fawcett Henry, Sam McClang, a week later.
    15:18
    J.K. It's gotta be hard money in the studio. Maybe I차�al operation is not only good, technology isn't, we do it all, but we have no time. Le Stapit has given Zulu Oblique eloquent staff managing all the project team's projects, Dararyne Dwyer, Dave Vosenp swims and Julius Te ladder an harvesting class on the chair and Vendana L Нет 종ge was training for college at Bethany University but at the same time was working for Democratic House's Nobel School at W glacier offers our music ab click The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. We're not, it's not one of those things that you're jumping the gun and you're announcing a game just to be able to announce it and get that publicity, get that small talk, talk, drive that buzz. I think as long as you've got games about ready to go, basically ready to go, and you're not waiting two months, three months, six months, within three weeks to a month, you're maybe even just short of that, two to three weeks, you're ready to start shipping those games. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. The Wally Winka Podcast is brought to you by Wally Winka Media. Jeff
    18:01
    dictionaries We're all here to help you get your hands on deck and to be able to, you know, facilitate all those customer requests and orders and things like that. When we're caught off guard and somebody's on vacation or, man, we're driving in a car somewhere and something gets revealed, we're caught off guard. It makes us look like we don't know what's going on. It becomes chaotic. We absolutely can't put the customer's request in the best spot because we're trying to figure out what's going on. That's a very important thing, communication, when it comes to sales. I agree. And I don't think a lot of people understand what it takes even for a launch or what we go through. You know, just prepping the website, having the website ready to go with the product on there, just social media, any kind of social media aspect, advertising for that, getting the socials loaded up. It's a lot more time consuming than what you think. And then when we start initially taking those orders, I mean, it's, it's a whirlwind for us. You know, it's, it's all hands on deck, like you said, and it's, it's an all day thing. Taking those orders, fielding phone calls, and it's not just orders. It's, it's answering questions. It's interest in the game that we're dealing with and drives a lot of emails. You know, there, there's so much of our time that I don't think people, you know, understand. It's like, oh, those guys are just selling games. No, we are like a liaison for pinball. We're answering questions. We're dealing with people just kicking tires, people asking questions about their first game. Other than the announcement, we're the first impression of the product, essentially. And if we're not well versed on it, if we don't even know what's coming... Exactly. How do we answer some of these questions? Because now, at the same time that we're trying to take orders and do things, I'm trying to dig and figure out these questions. I'm trying to find answers. Hey, does this game come with a shaker motor? Does it come with Invisiglass? The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Introduction The world. Absolutely. Very well said, Greg. Speaking of pinball companies, there was some big news here a couple days ago for Beetlejuice owners. Oh, so awesome. Oh, it's unbelievable. Beetlejuice made by Spooky Pinball. Game's been sold out within minutes of launch, you know, for months. So the games are on the line now and everybody's excited about getting their Beetlejuice and they're starting to show up at customers' homes. Everyone's happy. Spooky decides, hey, you think you're happy now? Hold our beer, right? So they go out and during this continued negotiation, they secure one of the songs that people wish were in the game. It wasn't the main song, but it was an important song, and that's Jump in the Line. Mm hmm. It's at the end of the movie, Winona Ryder's floating up on the back, and people always wish they had that song, but it wasn't a deal breaker because the game's phenomenal and it has everything else that you could possibly need. Pinball gets this and they make that announcement on the Flip N Out Pinball stream with Joel and Jared on this past Wednesday night.
    21:56
    Huge announcement. The reason I'm bringing it up and I would love to have some back and forth with this one for a company to already have completed all of their sales and really not have to do anything else except support code and maybe some tech support and that sort of thing for them to go out and spend more money.
    22:12
    To make less money on the games in order to make their customers happy speaks volumes. That's you don't see it a lot. No. And, and, you know, like I was super impressed and, and I don't think that people, I don't, I don't think consumers will understand what goes into that because I think that that song, I could be wrong, but I think that song was a lot of money.
    22:32
    I think, I don't think that it was an easy, simple, like, oh, you know, it was, it was not originally in there kind of for a reason. Um, but it's like you said, I was discussing that with Zach when, when Zach, uh, when I saw that on the stream and him and I talked the next day and that's what I told him. I said, you know what the thing is with them is they're like us. They are hobbyist first and they are building these games for themselves. That's great. In a sense. But they want people to be happy if they think it's cool and they can feasibly do it. Like you said, even if it costs them money, they're going to put that in the game and they want to make people happy. Like, they thrive. Like, I've watched those guys. They thrive on making their customers happy and bringing them stuff that other people do not. And that, to me, is why that it's okay for them. And they're just not greedy financially, you know? I think those guys, like, they're very happy with where they are. They're happy with what they're doing. So it's like, hey, you know what? If we can make people happy, it makes us happy. We look fucking awesome. Guess what? Throw the money at it. Let's get the song. We're getting the song. They feed off of that community engagement and positivity. And it's great to hear because if you think about it, I think they value that goodwill more than they do sometimes maybe maximizing profits. And again, it's rare to see it. It's refreshing to see it. I love it because if I'm an enthusiast and I'm kind of doing some reading on companies and looking at products, you know, obviously you have to have something I'm interested in. Stevenchiedenheappt.com
    24:39
    Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Remember Rick and Morty came out, and it was, when it was released, it was a big sale, like, they, I think at the date that Rick and Morty was officially revealed, they had sold more games in one day than any other game in their company history, like on a single sales day. Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, And then they made the announcement after they made these sales, hey guys, we got something extra for you, we're gonna include this Rick and Morty topper. Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Yeah. Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, These alliances, win overnas, Dayton Scottl, www.sheat UN and These Allies Win.
    25:22
    Again, it's good. It's like a little surprise on the back end. This is a very nice surprise, Clark, with this, you know, this this song that's being added. I also think it was cool. And I appreciate it, too, because, again, Flip N Out Pinball, we're doing our part to help promote a game for a partner of ours that we value and they value our relationship and they valued our relationship enough to say, hey, you know what? If these guys are going to go out of their way and help them out the game with the stream, because Joel and Jerb do an amazing job with streaming. They've got a huge following. Right. They've built that up and they deserve it. And I respect the hell out of both of those guys. Likeable guys, professional guys, they do a great job. But Spooky found the value in that in the relationship to say, let's go ahead and share that big and I think it's important news on that stream. And Spooky Pinball, Bug, Luke, Morgan team, thank you. That that means a lot. The appreciation is reciprocated as we continue to to do our best to spread the good word. I will include a link to this stream and you can go to YouTube and you can follow Flip N Out Pinball. That's where the streams are posted. I'll include a link there because I mean for whatever reason this was not covered anywhere else in any of the you know more popular sites that you would go to to get up-to-date news especially with streams and information and companies. So I'll go ahead and I'll do that on our end. But I encourage you to jump in and check it out. It's good times, man. It's a great vibe. You're smiling. I'm smiling. I love it. I love it. Good times.
    26:53
    So we asked our Facebook community and Patreon community about their pinball life hacks, anything they could share. Look, we had about over 100 replies on this. As usual, some are witty. This community turns out. Yeah, man. Some are funny. They do a good job, so we appreciate it. I pulled 10 of them. Some of them are witty, some of them are funny, some of them are actual life hacks. I'll throw them at you, we can talk about those, and then if you have one or two at the end, let me know. I've got one or two that I would like to share. This first one comes from Kevin Cody Jr., and his pinball life hack is Smart Plugs with Alexa. It's the biggest dork flex for me to walk down the stairs and say, Hey Alexa, turn on your jaws. I like it. Actually, I've got some... Well... Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, like, I've smart homed everything pretty much in the house and and especially in the game room. I'll have it where it's just like, hey, Alexa, turn on pinball machines, you know, and boom, everything's on, which is which is cool. It's convenient. You're not having to reach behind or reach that they had, especially if you got a whole game room wired in. Yeah. Hey, turn on the game room. Boom. So I like that life hack. Yep. I use it, too. I got it by rooms. I got pins kind of spread out. So I'm like, Alexa, turn on arcade one, turn on arcade two. And that's it for this week's episode of the Unplugged Podcast. Until next time, stay tuned for more content from the Unplugged Podcast. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye. The next pinball life hack goes to Vincent Blanc says left flipper plus start which if you know you know You want to explain what that is Yeah you resetting your game For those that don't know, this is... Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. You know how much I use that? Because I cannot stand having a bad ball one. Hey, listen, I know it could be a bad ball one, great ball two, great ball three. No different than great ball one, great ball two. Could be a bad ball three. But if I do not get a good start, I am resetting that game every damn time. I've got so many one ball plays on all my machines that I just get pissed. I can't stand that. So, yeah, if you hold the left flipper and you press start, it'll reset the game and start new with it. You you don't have to go into the coin door and try to get into the service menu or turn the game off. Anything else? It's a quick it's a quick fix. What I started doing, though, because I didn't like the fact that I kept resetting games after ball one. I'm not a very good ball one player, evidently. Anna Gdedek, titled Pinball Insider, And that's actually helped tremendously. So if you don't want to hit start, you know, it's usually quick because those are hard shots. Try that out. The next one comes from Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago. And Abe says, if your basement floods, put 7-Eleven big up cups under the legs. And I know somebody that actually did this too. They got cups, they put them under the legs. You know, you put the legs inside the cups where the little leg levelers and they're We're sitting at the bottom of the cups. And if you get half inch water, inch water, four inches water in that basement, you're never having water hit those legs. Yeah. And it never rusts out. Now, I will say this. You have to be proactive though. Probably not the most pleasant aesthetically when you walk into your nice game room and you're like, what? Why are these pins and soles? Well, that's what I'm saying. You have to be ahead of the game or your basement's got to be in the process of flooding for you to get ahead of that. That's an excellent point. So you wouldn't have those in place in perpetuity where you're always going downstairs and you We just have like dust and hair collecting in this big golf cup. You know, somebody's going to be like, that's a great idea. And I've been terrified about my basement. They just leave big golf cups on their legs all the time. How about this? How about we do a mod instead of like the pin golf? It's like the leg golf or something. And we just, we just sell like little plastic containers. You have a basement that's prone to flooding. Or we sell leg. We've got you covered. We sell leg levelers that like cup up on the side. Yeah. So it just keeps water out. Two inches.
    31:34
    That's right. Alright, next pinball life hack comes from Nick Lane, our buddy at Buffalo Pinball. Nick, what's up buddy? Good to hear from you. And he has a one word response for his life hack and it's simply deodorant. Yes! The unbelievable stench at any arcade show. Yes! There is a foulness, a stench, a pungent smell of body odor and sweat at times. And some shows are worse than others. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Kanyo Klyce, Beetlejuice, Pinball Machine, Ballywin, Larry K. Sheats Jr., Robert K. Sheats Jr., The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter K. Sheats Jr., Jurassic World Performbababall analyze spidermob Athletic Impact of the World All of these games are designed by themes and IPs. Your favorite theme may be far from your favorite game. Elton John never would have been my first choice, but it is fantastic. I get his point. I think theme is still, I always sell that to people with that. I always tell new pinball people or new customers that come in, I'm sure we've addressed this before, but I always say, hey, listen, let's say that you've got something like Godzilla The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. I'm very remissive of a game because the theme doesn't appeal to you. Yes, exactly. There are plenty of games where the theme didn't appeal to me that I ended up loving. Baywatch is one of those where I'm like, fuck it, I don't want to play that. Well, but I think Godzilla. I think Iron Maiden. You take a lot of Elwin games. Elwin is like the king of pulling...I mean, Iron Maiden's a huge band, but it wasn't everybody's cup of tea. And Godzilla, everybody's fine with Godzilla, but nobody wanted a Godzilla. So look at the way he was able to elevate those titles with such a good game. Do you think there's a conscious effort from Stern Pinball to put Keith on maybe less desirable themes because they realize that, you know, what he's going to bring to the table ultimately will win people over? I don't want to speak for them, but it almost seems that a way to me because it's like they keep him off of some of well, I say that, but look at Jaws. Yeah, Jaws was. Yeah. Yeah, it's a huge IP. But it does seemingly like that they throw him on things because they know that he is so good and that his name is going to sell a product. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. You know, Dallas, he goes ahead and he cites Elton John specifically, and I couldn't agree more. No, that game took everybody by surprise. I appreciate Elton John for what he is, and as far as songs, like, I'm familiar with the stuff. Yeah, but nobody wanted an Elton John pinball machine. No. But Steve did such a good job on it that people loved it. Yeah, nobody said a bad thing about that game. We've sold so many to people that, with that exact sentiment, it was like, I really like that game. It wasn't something I ever thought about, but I really liked it. I want to buy one. Yeah, yeah. Steve Richie, Great Flow, Great Rules by Bill Grupp, Shout out to my buddy Bill, he did an outstanding job and the whole team did a great job on that game. That's why Steve's better games. I would agree. And it's great for JJP because they needed a game that shot like that. Well I think it's great for Steve to be doing this so long and you still create one of your better titles this late in your career. Fucking amazing. If you've heard Steve talk, Steve wasn't exactly all in on the theme when he got it either. Steve doesn't like cute. He likes tough. He likes fast. You know, Elton John isn't necessarily in his wheelhouse for top 10 themes, but as he got, you know, involved into the whole creation of the game, loved it, man. Knocked it out of the park. He did a great job. How important is that? Not to keep this conversation dragging on, but how crazy is that with that? Because I think often I've heard of rumors and stuff of people just not wanting to work on particular games and just getting removed from them or just getting pissed off and not giving it everything. So I think that that's more even more of a testament to that game. Peace out yo. I loved it when I had it. It was, it's a great game. All right, back to the topic. We got a few more here. Matt Jusiak says, Pinball Life Hack. Don't include new people to the hobby by having them play a machine that needs a half hour tutorial on how to play it. And I agree with that. And my angle on this is, if somebody is going to step up to a game, a pinball machine for the first time, do the last thing you need is somebody standing over there and saying, Hey, I want to play this game. Firebird Video
    38:08
    I'm not going to say I'm not going to say that I don't want to hear it. They don't give a fuck. They just want to explore the game themselves. Yeah. So it's like, I would agree if you got a neighbor over, they never play pinball. They don't want a 20 minute. This is what you got to do. Just let them play. Tell them the aim of flashing stuff. I talked to a new customer literally this week that was talking about, hey, we got this game, Greg, we're looking at our second one. And, um, you know, I, I know that there's like some rules stuff with all this and stuff. Like right now we're just flipping, we're flipping and trying to keep the ball alive. And we're having an amazing time, but I understand that there's like, you know, these rules. And I'm like, yeah. So like I kind of gave him a brief tutorial and just explained what rules were in a game. And he was like, that's amazing. He's like, it opens it up so much more. And I said, yeah, exactly. I said, if you're already having a great time, like you're going to be blown away. Like when you start to learn rules, you start to focus. Exactly right. So many people that are interested in pinball or maybe they've dabbled, they, rule number one is don't drain, right? And that's it. But when you start explaining or they start realizing that, hey, I can actually explore this game. I'm unlocking things, new things I'm gonna see, I'm gonna hear. It changes everything. And that's, that's when we got to buy the hook, Greg. Yeah. Coming back. Coming back for that second game. It's like, oh, I didn't realize that comment. Like I could do something. It's like, yeah, here, don't worry about this. Let me blow your mind. Alright, the next one is from Matt Owen, his Pinball Life Hack. Level the games. You'd be surprised how few machines I play are level. And Greg Jones recommends on his Pinball Life Hack the Pin Guy Leveler app, which helps you level the machine. If your machine is not leveled, you're not getting the full benefit. It should be leveled and it should be pitched correctly. Because a lot of shots won't line up if it's not leveled and if it's not pitched correctly. And a lot of times you have a clunker. Oh, exactly. You take something just like Katana shot on Deadpool. I mean, there's certain there's a lot of shots that are like, okay, this is this very, that's a great example. Yeah, like all my location games. Anytime I go to clean them, or I go to mess with them, I'll read level them just specially on location because they get scooted around so much. And just in a little slightly different place, because a lot of places in you know, a bar or restaurant or some, the floors are just it's a commercial space. It's not necessarily the most level floors. So they just get moved over an inch or two sometimes and they can it can throw off. Bob Betor, elbows onco.com. That's a commentary. Find us on Instagram Follow us on LinkedIn Digital and Facebook Places On The What do you level off of? I'm telling you, I'm spot on. My games play perfect. Are you talking about pitch or east to west leveling? Pitch I'll use unless it seems way off just because I know the bubble in a game can be wrong, but I just, I go off pitch with my bubble level. Okay, okay. I typically don't use my digital on that, but I'll always get my readings off the lockdown bar and the back trim piece. I'll go on the glass at the lockdown bar and that's where I level off of at my front and I go to the back butted right up against the trim. Dude, some of these lockdown bars, depending on who you're dealing with, they're not the most level things either. Listen, I'm telling you, like I have, I can go to that playfield, like I don't know if I just always get lucky, but I have, and it's super quick because here's the thing is like, when you try to level off that playfield, you have to have something to set on top of your slings or something. Like, because if you, you, if you're not literally exactly freaking horizontal, you're, you're going to be skewed in your measurement. So you have to have something relatively straight to go off of, you know what I'm saying? Because if your level is turned at all, it skews it. There's a lot of times there's not artwork on there that, that has a place. I don't think that lockdown bar is very level though, man. You know what my tried and true method is? Go to the highest part of the middle of the play field and just drop a ball and see if it goes left or right. Oh yeah. Let's get this leveled out. I'll get backlash. Well, and if you want some help, you can go. The Pin Guy Leveler app is, I think it's on Apple or Android or both. And it actually, it calibrates so that it knows when it's level. You put it on your playfield, and you go under the machine and it talks to you. Yeah. So it's like, left, left. Right. So you know what you're raising. It's like, level. Check that out. Greg, you ready for another one? Mm-hmm. How about two or three more? Charles DeSano, he says, never place tempered glass on concrete. No. Dude, I bought those because a friend of mine had them, and I would just always very gently place or fold up a shirt or something. But it those corner protectors those little rubber corner protectors for glass that you can buy Dude they super cheap There is absolutely no reason for anyone to not own them Tim Kitzrow Scott Danesi and John Popadiuk We see you next time Douglas Goldberger, Cato improving sales, Goodyear, propiazo, Nasal Guy, WK Electronics, Fuze The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Kim Gross has a pinball life hack. She says don't forget to take your balls out when moving a pin or lifting your playfield all the way up. I got another life hack for that. Well Jersey Jack has a gate that closes when you lift your playfield. Which I love. But Sterns do not. And I used to always take my balls out. I'd lay them in my lockdown bar. I'd move them somewhere. I do not remove my balls. Transport I will if I'm transporting. But if I have to raise my playfield, I take a sock and stick a sock in there. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. She also recommends don't cut the wrap off until you're up on the legs. So that's when you're setting up your game and your back box is wrapped or it's banded. Do not, when that game's in a vertical position up on its back, I've done this once too, Greg. And this was something where I was a seasoned veteran at this point and I was trying to get a game set up real quick for Thanksgiving, brand new game, cut the banding with the game up in the vertical position and I just watched that back box. I released a strap one time and it did that. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Every Newוק 가족 I know is out there kickin' the apenas jenge Andrew McComig深house, Elliot Knmediak,
    47:36
    Story of a Man in the Middle We can't stop people at the livestream library. Page Info Out!
    47:59
    Out! Kids t-shirts underneath there. But yeah, just something soft like that or even microfiber towels, like anything. But I see a lot of the pool noodle stuff and I don't think I've ever... Zach would better be able to answer this than me just because we get so many of our used games in that if a pool noodle... But it seems a little abrasive, you know what I'm saying? Like it's soft, but it could be if it vibrates too much. But I know for a fact cardboard is a no-go. Never ever use cardboard. And this is great too, if you're trading in a game to flip an out pinball, we have a whole process with pinball armor where we're going to send that out to you. So it does all this protecting by itself. But if you ever are shipping a game, you know, make sure that when you're folding that head down that there's proper protection because two things will happen. One, if it's too heavy without enough cushioning, you're going to get dented rails from the top of the head and that sucks. That's a big devalue on a game and somebody's going to get your game and they're going to be upset because you've got dented rails. And then secondly, like Greg's saying, that powder coat and that clear, it's going to scuff if there's something abrasive, that head's shifting around during shipping. And when you're tightening it down, if you're using straps, you're scuffing that without even realizing it. So take that into account. Well, and with JJP games, those heads are built a little different too. So the way that the hinges and how heavy and the way that that head sets, you almost need to protect it at the bottom of the head towards the back once it's folded down as well. Not just towards the front like you would with a Stern or any of your normal games. There you go. That's awesome. I love that. I would say a quick tip would be if at some point inevitably you're going to have to do some type of an adjustment or even a minor, sometimes like a more of a complex repair on your pinball machine. And when the playfield's up or even when it's down, these screws that you're removing, they're very small. And when a screw falls onto the playfield and rolls into a hole, sometimes it's gone forever. So please make sure that your screwdrivers are at least magnetic tipped. That'll give you at least a front line of defense where it's not going to fall down. That would be a tip that I have. And the other thing, if you're doing a repair or you're changing something out, take pictures of every step of the process so that when you're putting something back together, you can just look at your phone and reverse the order. That's helped me tremendously and I think it's a tried and true tip. And then finally, Jersey Jack Pinball machine owners, some of you might notice now like Like your Guns N' Roses, maybe your Toy Story 4s, these games are not booting anymore. And it's not because the game is broke, it's because on the motherboard there's a little battery. Well, if you change it out, you can get the game to boot. If you're going to be proactive and you want to change that motherboard battery out before the game is not booting anymore, do that when the game is on. Because if the game is on and you take the battery out and pop the new battery on, all All your settings will be retained because the game has current for memory. But if you turn that game off and you take that battery out and put a new battery back on and turn it on, you're going to have to plug a keyboard in. You're going to have to go into BIOS. You're going to have to make a couple changes. Again, it's not the end of the world. But for those of you that had JJP games that are maybe over two or three years old, I would recommend just changing those batteries out. And I would do that with the game on. Well, and batteries do that in older games too. When I very first got into pinball and I had my lost world and I went to swap the batteries, I turned it off because I'm like, I don't want to go plucking these out with the game on. It might mess something up. And little did I know that me not having the game on and changing those batteries out erased my high scores, all of my plays. I had nothing on there and I was like, oh, I was devastated. Not the end of the world, but I was devastated. It is. It's tough. You build that up and then it's like, you know what it reminds me of? Our kids when they grew up in our master bedroom walk-in closet, we had like little tick marks like every six months with the dates to kind of see how they grew over the years. I have three kids, so it was really cool. And then we had the bathroom redone like two years ago and we weren't thinking about it and they came in and they painted over it. It was pretty I'm not going to have any more kids to get that going. Knock on wood. But that's it. So that's your Pinball Life Tips. You can check out the rest of the tips if you go to our Facebook page. It's Flippin' Out Pinball Podcast. Over 100 comments there. Thank you to everybody who contributed. That was pretty awesome. We appreciate it. There's a lot of good stuff on there. So we're going to wrap up this episode of the Flippin' Out Pinball Podcast. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Also, Medieval Madness Merlin spots for 2026 are available right now. Harry Potter Arcade, Wizard, and Collectors Edition spots are available for the next month's run at the time of this recording. As far as inventory for existing games, there are a bunch of last ones available. This is not a ploy. This is not. We've got one left because after one sells, there are no more. And those games right now, if you're looking at them, Funhouse Remake Limited Edition and the Classic Edition. We've got one left of each. Iron Maiden Pro, one left. Iron Maiden Premium, one left in inventory. Avengers Infinity Quest Pro, we have one left in inventory. Star Wars Comic Pro, One Left, and Queen. One Left. So if any of those games, if you're considering flipping out, we'd love to be your distributor. Come check us out and snag the last one. And guess what? When you do, you go back to the website and it's going to say out of stock. It's not going to say one more left. I promise you that. Finally, if you're looking to get a Pokemon, but maybe, you know, the funds are a little tight or maybe you just don't have the room right now because one's got to go to get another one in, well, go ahead and trade one in. We can trade in a used game towards a Pokemon or if you want to grab that Harry Potter or you want to get that Medieval Madness because it is a right of passage to own a Medieval Madness as a pinball collector and to have the remake with the nice XL DMD, upgraded audio, RGB lighting, topper, etc. We will trade in the game and again, trade-ins, you can hit up greg, greg at flippingoutpinball.com. Now I'm running interest lists so if you have an interest list that you want to get on for a game, you can email me ken at flippingoutpinball.com. www.pimpball.com. Patreon for those subscribers over at Patreon at patreon.com slash flipping out pinball podcast. You can go there now. You can register for free if you want. There's different tiers if you want to support the show. But Monday the 16th, Greg, we've got our after hours evening on the schedule and that's at six o'clock central time. So if you're over at Patreon and you're in tier two or tier three, you're going to join us live. It's like a Google meet. Kind of the community just kind of hangs out. We talk some pinball, share some stories. There's always a little bit of inside baseball that goes on in those conversations. Super, super fun. So Patreon members, get ready to jump in over there. Actually, we had the two episodes that we aired over the last couple of weeks over at Patreon. So if you're looking to get some more, if you can't get enough of the Flip N Out Pinball Podcast, there's actually more over there. And I have to say, Ken, I noticed you're looking pretty dapper in that new hat you're wearing. Tell you what, I'm a hat guy. I love hats. Zach, he ordered these Flip N Out Pinball hats, and dude, they're amazing. They are. It does look really good. I'm not BSing. The logo is so nice, but it's not like, it's not stitched or embroidered on and it's not stamped on. It's like this, this textured 3D PVC kind of thing. I'm scratching my head. It's then sewn to the hat. The hat's, it's not one of those big high riding hats where it makes you look like you got a big egghead. And the brim's not like totally flat where I feel like I'm a Major League Baseball pitcher. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. So that's it. Man, Jaws 50, if it's sad, it's disappearing. Next episode, Greg, I want to go back into the pinball power rankings because I think there's been some interesting changes. I missed those. Yeah, me too, me too. We're going to get back into that with more of a regular cadence. But that's it, brother. That's it. You got anything else? No, nothing. Enjoy. Get on the flip. Play some pinball today. Enjoy. We appreciate it. Whatever you do, don't forget to take some time out of your day to play some pinball. So long, everybody.
    57:40
    Good job. Nicely done, brother.