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#70 Holiday Hot Mess- The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·50m 25s·analyzed·Dec 14, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Holiday podcast covering Pintastic games, pinball in pop culture, repairs, and customer stories.

Summary

George and Dave host a casual holiday episode of The Classic Pinball Podcast, discussing recent pinball experiences at Pintastic, TV appearances of pinball machines, a Paragon re-theme project (Dukes of Hazzard), and Dave's recent repair jobs and customer encounters. They cover Godzilla as a standout new game, the Pinnovators haptic vest and audio solution, and reflect on pinball's growing mainstream visibility.

Key Claims

  • Godzilla was the best game George played at Pintastic out of nine new games tried

    high confidence · George, discussing Pintastic event experience

  • Pinnovators has made a deal with Stern to put their pin pack audio/volume control device in all newer Stern games as an option

    medium confidence · George discussing Pinnovators technology, mentions 'I think' qualifier

  • Only six Williams Rat Race machines were ever made

    medium confidence · Dave, researching a call from a woman with pinball collection

  • The Mandalorian game has an 'impossible mode' where the ball automatically drops from the flipper after 1.5 seconds, preventing trap shots and speeding up tournament play

    high confidence · George describing Mandalorian feature

  • The Loser Kid Podcast is approaching 100,000 listens

    high confidence · George citing specific listener data

  • Sweden is the fourth largest country for Classic Pinball Podcast listeners, ahead of England despite English being only Sweden's second language

    high confidence · George citing Spotify analytics report

  • Pintastic is becoming one of the major shows on the East Coast because attendees can play both vintage games and the latest new releases

    high confidence · George offering praise for Pintastic as a venue

  • Data East used a 'popcorn pupper board' (PPB board) that gets so hot from resistors it could theoretically pop popcorn

    medium confidence · Dave explaining Data East design quirk while discussing a Star Wars repair

Notable Quotes

  • “Godzilla Hands Down was the best game I played out of all nine.”

    George @ ~17:00 — Direct assessment of Godzilla as standout title at Pintastic

  • “I believe I talked about in the last show all the new games that I played at Pentastic. Now I'm going to say this to the audience. This is the praise to Gabe and company. I played nine new games... this is going to become one of the major shows of the East Coast.”

    George @ ~15:30 — Endorsement of Pintastic as emerging major venue on East Coast

  • “It keeps the game moving. It's the only game I know that has it. But we're getting there, Dave. Should be on every game.”

    George @ ~47:00 — Advocating for Mandalorian's 1.5-second flipper hold mechanic as tournament standard

  • “You making everybody's Christmas special right now. You made a lot of kids really happy right now.”

    Female customer (quoted by Dave) @ ~1:06:00 — Positive customer feedback on restoration work

  • “run run don't walk run run”

    George @ ~54:00 — Warning to Dave about suspicious woman with storage unit full of pinballs

  • “The kids are running the asylum.”

    Dave @ ~29:00 — Commentary on Pintastic organization of QR codes vs. simple 'For Sale' signage

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonPintasticeventPinnovatorscompanyStern PinballcompanyGodzillagameMandaloriangameModern Marvelscontent

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pintastic identified as emerging as a major East Coast pinball show with diversity of playable games (both classic and new releases), positioning it as a growing destination event

    high · George stated: 'this is going to become one of the major shows of the East Coast. No question, because every time I go to these shows, not only can you play all the old vintage games and everything we talked about in other episodes, but you can play the latest and greatest.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball machines appearing with increased frequency in mainstream TV commercials and entertainment media (Modern Marvels, Windows 11 commercial, Vasalore pharmaceutical ad)

    high · George noting pinball is 'on TV all the time. It's everywhere' and people saying 'I need one of these' as a result; specific examples: Modern Marvels Stern factory episode, Windows 11 with Paragon background, Vasalore digestive system themed commercial

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pinnovators has developed and licensed haptic feedback vest (Woosier Hapti Vest) and audio control system (Pin Pack) targeting high-end home collectors with sound isolation needs

    medium · George describing vest as 'basically a vest that you wear, and it's like a shaker motor on your body' with goal of letting 'little kitties upstairs can sleep' while parents play with full immersion; claims deal with Stern to integrate into newer games

  • ?

    design_innovation: Mandalorian introduced 1.5-second automatic flipper drop mechanic (impossible mode) to prevent trap shots and accelerate tournament play; George advocates this should become standard

    high · George: 'You cannot trap a ball on the flipper because in one and a half seconds... It falls down' and 'Should be on every game' and 'This definitely sped up gameplay'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.151

0:00
Santa Claus Got a Dirty Job goes climbing down ain't exactly all that fun but if he don't do it nobody will so Santa's gonna get the job done don't you know that Santa Claus got a dirty job Santa Claus got a dirty job and he does it all night long
1:00
Merry Christmas and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and I'm joined by my comrade.
1:14
Comrade George. Comrade. Merry Christmas Dave. Merry Christmas George. Who are they? You read your propaganda booklets. They're capitalistic tools of all fit. Folks, it's been a while since we've done one of these shows. we're going to reference the sheep to begin with and then I'm going to talk to Dave about his adventures. It's been a while since we've actually sat across from each other. We're down in Massachusetts for the day just a little bit before Christmas. This is probably going to be our last episode of the year. I vowed not to make any pronostications in this show because we probably don't live up to them anyway. So without further ado, let's go to my sheet. Okay, Dave.
2:04
Little quiz. We're not going to reference where, but this game was played in a couple of tournaments recently. I'm going to hand you a piece of paper. Okay. I'd like you to read the name on the piece of paper. Okay. And the name on the piece of paper is Lectronomo.
2:26
Okay. Now we know my pronunciation of words is sometimes something to be desired. I heard somebody pronounce this. Actually, I heard more than one person pronounce this the following.
Electric Bat Arcade
venue
Dukes of Hazzardgame
Paragongame
Bruceperson
Lord of the Ringsgame
Data East Star Warsgame
Road Racegame
The Loser Kid Podcastcontent
Hot Wheelsgame
Legends of Valhallagame
Cactus Canyongame
Elviragame
Ninja Turtlesgame
Halloweengame
Windows 11content
Vasalorecontent
?

machine_intel: Dukes of Hazzard themed re-theme of classic Paragon pinball machine being unveiled at Electric Bat Arcade (Arizona) on January 9th with modern upgrades (7-digit LED display, LCD settings screen, 108W audio, dual multiball modes)

high · Detailed specifications provided including venue, date, and feature list; George critical of playfield representation of Daisy Duke character

  • ?

    content_signal: Loser Kid Podcast approaching 100,000 listens with high-profile guest appearances; Classic Pinball Podcast audience is significantly smaller but growing across multiple streaming platforms

    high · George: 'They're approaching 100,000 listens' and notes his own Spotify report shows 'we're up on every account' while remaining 'a fraction of that'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: George expresses skepticism about community hype around certain 2024 releases (Cactus Canyon, Halloween/Spooky) while lauding Godzilla as exceptional

    high · George on Cactus Canyon: 'don't get it don't get it just i played the original'; on Halloween: 'it's a horror show and it's you know... not that anyway'; on Godzilla: 'Hands Down was the best game'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Data East flipper hold issues require tracing loose connectors under playfield; single-wound coil with timing circuit uses low-voltage hold (28V) different from standard double-wound flipper design

    high · Dave detailed troubleshooting: 'there's a connector in the, under the play field, toward the back of the head' that was 'unplugged' despite looking secure, controlling hold voltage that was missing

  • ?

    operational_signal: Technicians encountering high-risk customer outreach scenarios involving emotional manipulation (deceased spouse, infant children, financial pressure, storage unit access requests)

    high · Woman with Road Race/storage unit making escalating requests (repair, house visit, family transportation to facility, babysitting arrangement); George warned Dave 'run run don't walk'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Classic Pinball Podcast has more listeners in Sweden than in England despite English-language content and English being Sweden's second language; possible indicator of Nordic arcade/retro gaming culture strength

    high · George citing Spotify analytics: 'we have more listeners in sweden than we do in england' and speculating England lacks pinball infrastructure

    • 2:44
    Lectronomo. No, that's wrong. I don't think so. I can't even say it. Lectronomo. It's like a metronome. Well, they busted it up in three pieces.
    3:01
    Lectronomo. I think they're too much Ready Player One, you know? Okay. I thought it was me. It's Lectronomo. It's like, it's a horse, an electric horse. Hey, come on, Geronimo, Lectronomo, it's a horse. That's kind of what I thought. Yeah. But I also heard. We're talking the 70s now. I also heard, and I don't remember this woman's last name. I think it was at Pinson Addy. Elizabeth.
    3:24
    She's got a multi-consonant last name. I think that starts with G. She pronounced Bally. No way, George. She did. And she did it more than once. Wow. All right, George. You have some compatriots out there. Good for you. So it's not just me.
    3:45
    Okay. Item two. first a shout out to um brian hawkins for dragging me over to see his game and i don't i mean that in the politest of ways he had his uh godzilla there and he took me to the pinnovators booth did you oh yeah did you go do this i did i did this yes you did i know them yeah you do oh yeah well So what's his name? Oh, sure. Now you're going to forget. Yeah, right.
    4:19
    Forgive me. I want to say his name. Whoever you are. Nice. I think his name is Mark, but I'm not sure. It's not on the news. I'm sorry if your name's not Mark. I'm bad with names. Anyway, Pinnivators. A very nice couple. Pinnivators. He had this thing called the Woosier Hapti Vest. They've got to get a better name for the vest. I don't know why it's called that. Sounds like Hachaporn 9000. Right. But I'm, it's basically a vest that you wear, and it's like a shaker motor on your body. Now, I wasn't very good at playing Godzilla, so I don't think I really got the full effect, but it was fun to put on. So, I promised him that we would talk about it in our next episode. So, here it is. And he also does this thing. is this on a lot of games this pin pack thing yeah he has the newer sterns it's some kind of volume control and headphone thing i believe they made a deal with stern to put out this in all their games i think or as an option maybe but um yes and i think their whole claim to fame is that people with high-end collections they have a nice house they have a lot of young kids they don't want to hear the thing cranking up with the subwoofer and so forth so instead you plug this same put the on the nice earphones put on the vest so you get the bass effect and instead of having a subwoofer shake the room it's shaking you therefore the little little kitties upstairs can sleep and you can play uh fully immersive pinball okay cool item inexpensive too there's your ad for it no problem yep free charge there you go so pinnovators.com yes right yep sales at pinnovators.com okay third item i was ready to stick an ice pick in my eye did you read this whole thing i'm breaking the rule already told you not for the first 10 minutes and here i am did you read this thread about the qr codes on the machines at pintastic uh do you know what i'm even referring i know you're referring to yes yeah i know i think That's the main thread that everybody's, the Pentastic bitch thread or whatever thread, the Pentastic thread. I don't know where it appeared. I did see. But they were grousing about the QR code not telling a game for sale and the color of this overthought morass.
    6:49
    Look, you take a piece of paper, you write in bright red marker, for sale. you either put a hashtag an email a telephone or all three george george that's way too simple we're part of the metaverse now we have to make things way too complicated we're gonna go back to the rotary phone george we need qr codes and everything come on done item number four there's nothing good that's going to come out of this conversation i just had to mention it because my eyes glossed over i'm like nitpicking about something to sell your game what's wrong with the universe the problem is is that the people that wanted to buy a game didn't know it was for sale it wasn't clear because of you know some big red sign for sale go to the go to the local hardware store or home depot and buy one of those plastic signs for a buck or two bucks and hang it on your game well they left up the powers that be that were running you know doing this thing The kids are running the asylum. Well, you know, the fantastic, some of the people there wanted this certain way. It's going to be really cool. This technology is going to be great. Watch this. Don't worry about that. It's going to take care of that. Watch. Just press a button and it's all heat shrink and wrapped and ready to eat. Unfortunately, no. It's, you know, it's execution. Sometimes, you know, but it's a learning experience. Every show that we learn and do a little bit different, hopefully improve. And I don't know. Something fell flat on that part this time. For sale. Telephone number. Done. Come over to the game. I want to buy it. How does Allentown do it? They do it pretty well. People know what's going on. Stand next to your game. Right, yeah. I mean, anyway, we're moving on. Now, everybody thinks I'm crapping on them. I'm going to take the other side of it. I'm already here. I might as well just put the stake in the ground or stake in the heart or something like that.
    8:45
    I believe I talked about in the last show all the new games that I played at Pentastic. Now I'm going to say this to the audience. This is the praise to Gabe and company. I played nine new games, or games that I had not played. Even going to Allentown, I had not played these games. So if you're looking in the future to attend a show, this is going to become one of the major shows of the East Coast. No question, because every time I go to these shows, not only can you play all the old vintage games and everything we talked about in other episodes, but you can play the latest and greatest. So here's the list, and I'm going to give you my, I'm going to just cut it real quick and you'll understand why.
    9:33
    Here are the nine games. I played Hot Wheels, Legends of Valhalla, Mandalorian, Star Wars Pro, in Avengers Pro and LE. I played the new Cactus Canyon.
    9:49
    I played Elvira with Dave and that's not, I've already played that two years ago, but Dave had not played it. We'll come back to that. I played Ninja Turtles. I played Halloween. And I played Godzilla.
    10:04
    Cut into the chase. Godzilla Hands Down was the best game I played out of all nine. I could go through all the different games, listen to all the other podcasts. That's not my gig. All I can say is I'm going to be forgiving because some of the games at shows are not set up like they should be or would be in a home. I saw this guy manhandling a Legends of Valhalla. If it was my game, I would have taken him outside.
    10:38
    Unacceptable at a show. for the most part people were real nice and some of these games are definitely overhyped the one sorry spooky that halloween that is scary no no yeah yeah it's a it's a horror show scary it's a horror show and it's you know look up the context of horror show it's not that anyway so that's people were raving about cactus canyon don't get it don't get it just i played the original so all i say it's all it's like out of all these games and again we know how you stand on a lot of these even though that you repair them you don't bite the hand that feeds you did you play any of these you had to have played godzilla i played godzilla yes i did because i had the little The best on, I did that whole thing. So whatever the best thing was called. The Wulji. I was having too much fun with being best in play judge, playing in the tournament with you, and doing a lot of socializing.
    11:47
    Right. So that's Godzilla hands down. To me, I like the theme. I like the movies. When somebody's playing, I'm watching the movies. I'm not even watching the gameplay. like the building going up and down all that is is great so let's move from that stern game to the history channel you ever watch modern marvels with that guy adam richmond yeah i think i have seen it once in a while so they just started a whole new thing on toys and i know where you're going go ahead yeah where am i going you're going pinball right but where am i going well it's a He's going to water Marvel. He's going to stay on the boat. I going to Chicago Okay To the Stern factory Okay That pretty cool Yeah it cool I never have you ever been on the Stern Tour I have not Okay So it was pretty cool So if you haven seen that folks again FYI go out and watch Modern Marvels with Adam Richman It was like episode two. Look it up on your cable system. It's worth watching. It was actually pretty good. Another reason why I'm busier than ever and I've been busy all along is because pinball is becoming so much more in vogue now. It's on TV all the time. It's everywhere. People say, I need one of these. And this is why, you know. And this is why I have you as a comrade. Good job.
    13:12
    Two more things on TV. Have you seen the Val, I've got to say it correctly, Vasilor ad? It's like Vaseline? No. Aspirin made easy. they show it is easy throw a couple pills down you throw some water no but this is like an aspirin alternative i guess but the whole thing is they do a pinball of basically this guy's esophagus and stomach and they turned it into a pinball machine so it's a tv commercial for for this thing and it's a pinball machine but it's you know think of the ball going in the guy's mouth and then going down the esophagus and, you know, the twisty turn into the intestine and into the stomach. You know what's scary about that, George? I think you're reaching the pinnacle of pinball at this point. It's gone. I'm not. We're going to go for it. And there's more coming. I'm not done.
    14:08
    Have you seen the Windows 2 commercial? Windows 2? Yeah. I mean, Windows 11. Oh, what did I say? Windows 2. I have two slash marks. Ah, there you go. Windows 11. Yeah, Windows 11 commercial. I have not seen it. Bunch of guys gaming or doing something, and lo and behold, gets what's in the background. A pinball machine. But which pinball machine? This is going to segue into something else. A game that was brought to our attention recently.
    14:41
    The old or new? Old. You own one. I own one. Monohari. No. Not that old. Paragon. In the background. Wow. even Janice looks I stop the commercial and go what game is that Mata Hari hey look she guessed like I did we heard from our pinball friend and fan in Arizona Bruce and what game did he bring to our attention we just talked about it Godzilla no Paragon A Paragon, okay, yes. A Paragon re-theme? Oh, the re-theme, yes.
    15:26
    Yeah, not really there. Care to, while I look it up? Not a fan. Nice try. No? But no, no, I think it's, I can't forget what even re-themed what to what. I don't know. Oh, now I lost it. I thought I had it here. Anyway, the Electric Bat Arcade in Arizona is having an unveiling party for this rethemed Paragon that's going to be a Dukes of Hazzard machine. Yeah, you know, I like the idea.
    16:05
    But on a poor Paragon, I don't know. I don't get why you're doing a Paragon for. You know what? I would take a high speed. take a high speed re-theme that that's better you're trying to escape the cops you even uh jump the ramp you know have the good old boys you know put that on there just a good old boy never meaning no harm beats all you never saw been in trouble with the law since the day they was born You keep singing that stupid song. I hope they use that song. You have that great tune.
    16:46
    They're rebels. I'll go find it here. God dang it. Here we go. Okay. So, on Sunday, I want to give them some free... Bo and Luke Duke, give them some... Well, I have a couple of comments on this machine. First of all, it's going to be at the Electric Bat Arcade on January 9th. They're going to have an unveiling. and they put seven digits in this thing leds as you can imagine super brights uh it's got an lcd screen behind the coin door for easy settings management it's got a 108 watt audio package uh two different two ball multi balls a three ball chase multi ball whatever that is okay now we're getting into the boar's nest and i saw the pictures of this thing the first thing i want to say is nice picture of the game uh play field but you're missing one asset and that's not a play on words daisy duking her dukes well why didn't you make her like the most gigantic piece of the whole because george that would be sexist of course a woman is not a female object she's Of course, George. Look at the picture. She's got like a little slingshot plastic.
    18:08
    That's the only one I see. Do you see her anywhere else on that play field? I don't. And she's not even wearing her Daisy Dukes properly. Right. So, fail.
    18:18
    You know, I believe in women's empowerment. She should be empowered to wear her Daisy Dukes. Fail. There you go. That's what I say. Take that. Okay. Put that in your pocket. Okay, we're done with that. So, we did the Vassalore. We did the Nine Machines. We did the commercial for Windows 11. Ah.
    18:36
    You've got your wish. All right. What is my wish? What is the one thing you grouse about with all the modern tournaments that are out there? They need more classic pinball. No, no, no.
    18:51
    The play takes... Too long. are you familiar with the new mode on mandalorian i don't know if this is on any other game no i'm not familiar it's called the impossible mode okay is it impossible oh it makes the game more interesting okay you cannot trap a ball on the flipper because in one and a half seconds and i I don't know how much leeway you have. It falls down. Correct.
    19:27
    I'll tell you a story later. That happened to me in a game. I'm fixing the same exact thing. It's a Data East game, which is weird. Right, but I'm saying this is a feature. Makes it tough. This is a feature. So basically if you're having a tournament, no more trapping, no more taking your time because the flipper will fall. So it keeps the game moving. It's the only game I know that has it, But we're getting there, Dave.
    19:54
    Should be on every game. I'm assuming that they're going to incorporate. Why wouldn't they? Yeah, they should. That way you don't have to sit there with the ball and trap it. Well, no, you know, good players, they'll take a breather, trap the ball up, or they'll, you know, put two or three balls on the flipper and save them in a multi-ball. Right, right. No, no, no. Can't do that. Got to keep going. Got to keep playing. And how do you do a catch? How do you do the ball catch? You're coming down, you want to catch the ball. You got a second and a half, so you can do the ball catch, but can't keep it there long. Right. It definitely sped up gameplay. Okay.
    20:33
    Let's see. Oh, we didn't talk about this. Loser Kid Podcast. Their latest. Three years. data point for us. They're approaching 100,000 listens. Wow, that's pretty good. Right. Now, we'll just say we're a fraction of that without saying what.
    21:03
    They have a lot of very popular people in pinball on their show, including Keith the Goat. and I said to myself hmm maybe we should get some guests like that and I said well have we had any guests like that well we've had Eric Stone multiple times and we've had go ahead uh yeah we not really we haven't had anybody okay so maybe that's why we don't get a hundred thousand listens but those of you who do and i just got the spotify report yeah because anchor which we use as our platform gives me our updates and we're up on every account which is nice and here's okay i'm gonna take england to the woodshed do you know that we have more listeners in sweden than we do in england and english is the second language in that country maybe england's too stuffy to play pinball well no maybe they just don't have any old pinballs yeah you know when i went there years ago they didn't really have any pinball they had just like gambling machines they had like slot machines but no real pinball was even in bars so that could be the reason but i found that interesting you know still you know number one obviously united states number two canada number three our good friends in australia yeah but uh Yeah, Sweden, number four. Good. Ja.
    22:58
    Okay. Are you aware, who's your favorite NASCAR driver? Dale Jr. No! Oh, Brandon. Brandon Brown. Yes, Brandon. Now, did you see there is a, not one, not two, three new stores here in Massachusetts? and guess what they're selling? I would say they're selling Let's Go Brandon stickers and so forth.
    23:29
    Yes. The Let's Go Brandon merch stores. I guess they really like racing. So you're not aware of that? No. Okay. And in Massachusetts, we're a little bit left to center here too. That's amazing. I thought that was pretty wild. You know, hope springs eternal that people get a clue. So, let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon. That's what I said.
    23:52
    Okay, I have two items I think that you would like to talk about. The one will be brief on. The other one you can elect to pass or apply. Okay. We'll go with the easy one. You're restoring and getting ready. We're recording on a Sunday for a Tuesday delivery of a Bally speakeasy. Correct? Correct.
    24:16
    So, did we talk about this? Didn't you recently acquire that? I did. very recently acquired it okay but you're going to talk about this you want to talk about this in more length you don't want to let the cat out of the bag because i understand that this game might be a boomerang that's a boomerang okay yeah we'll leave it there's some history okay we'll leave it at that it's a boomerang game okay here's the one you can pass or play on dave called me up it must be at least a week ago talking about this woman with the storage unit ah yes i have this is this on your list on my sheet so this is a good transition i'm i'm done if i find something else on my list oh i do have one thing and then you can you can talk to that do you think you have a dirty job dirty job uh not as dirty as a car mechanic but yeah i say yeah my hands get dirty okay you'll understand why later okay go ahead continue with your uh your your lady with the storage unit story okay so ring ring i get a call young woman on the phone and she says she's a she has a rat race that she'd like to either get fixed but she really wants to sell it uh her husband recently died and has a whole collection but this is in her house and she wants to get rid of it so it's like okay let me let me get back to him in the middle of something else so i look it up i know that i know it played it uh mike engel's house years ago he had this thing called rat race he only made six of them it's a williams rat race very rare it's like wow do i have room for this thing do i have room for it no not really but should i get it yeah because it's you know fun to play and it's worth a lot of money so i'm looking it up and only six made it's like i look at all the stats on it what boards it takes all it's a it's a rare rare thing with prototype kind of situation i call her back a day later it's like so are you sure it's called rat race hold on Oh, wait, no, no. It's called Road Race. Oh, okay. Road Race. Oh, that's an early 70s Gottlieb. That's a whole different animal. Kind of a boar fest. Looks like a snoozer to me. What's the name of it again? Road Race. It has like a clock thing in the middle, like a flipper thing in the middle that goes around. Not much going on. I have no idea what that is. I don't need, unless it's an EM that hits out of the park, I don't need an EM like that. I don't want to play it. I don't want to sell it. There's nothing there for me to do with it. And she says, well, my husband also has a big storage unit that we're overdue on paying because I have no money. And she goes on and on and on about, you know, maybe you want to take a look at that. And they'll open it up for me. They'll cut the lock for me if you want to go down and check it out. And it's like, okay, well, I'm busy right now. Let's address that in about a week.
    27:11
    She keeps texting me a couple days later. Are you coming down next Tuesday? Are you coming down? She's like, really wants me to come down there. And my little spider sense is starting to tingle. it's like this just seems getting weird this whole thing is just getting weird okay so there's there's a few more elements to the story which we don't need to go into yeah but my recommendation to you was run run don't walk run run i said george i don't know i want to give this a chance let me just see so i i call her back and i said yeah i'm coming down but but i gotta know you know i'm not really interested in the road race first of all second of all i'm interested possibly of looking at the storage unit, and I'd go down and check it out with you and see what's going on and see if there's something there I might want and that kind of thing. Okay, well, I don't have a car, and I have a couple. I have a month-old infant, and I've got a five-year-old. So can you drive us over there to the place? And then it's like, well, I'm not really comfortable driving over to the place. Well, if your wife comes down, she can babysit my kids at my house, and you could drive. I say, okay, you know what, I got to go. And Uncle George is right again, run away. Yeah. So that's it. You just kind of left her. I just, I felt bad for her. Abandoned ship. Because she's a little wacky. She's from the other side of the tracks. I could just tell she's had a rough life. I didn't want to leave her totally stranded. So I said, you know what, I gave her a name of somebody that works at EM's down in her neck of the woods. Hopefully he doesn't shoot me. But I said, I need the old handoff. Try this guy.
    28:51
    Dave, are you in there? Dave? Dave's not here. Yeah. Okay. What else you got on your sheet? All right. So going with that theme of the other side of the tracks, I get this guy from Vermont calling me up. And he has... Is he from Winooski? I don't know where he's from, but he's... Insert banjo music here? No, he sounds like he's had a couple cocktails. So he sounds a little bit – Mush mouthy? Yeah, slurry speech a little bit. And he's talking about, you know, the ball won't come out. It's some 90s Williams game. I forget what it was, but, you know.
    29:30
    And he said his uncle was going to leave him a couple million dollars worth of pinball machines in New Jersey, but they had a falling out with the family, so all he got is this one game. I want to say, let's call it Adam's family, whatever it is. And just one thing's not working. and I won't spit a ball out. I said, well, it probably needs a lot more than that since it's never been work done. You probably need a whole day spa thing that I do. I can do this and that. And we're located in Allman, Vermont. It's like, well, you're going to be into it for, you know, you're talking thousands, not hundreds here for me to get up there and all this stuff I've got to do. Oh, it'll just be something simple. Oh, you know, well, I live in a trailer park. Oh, boy. Trailer park. Not your audience. Okay, not my audience at all. I'm going to go up there and I'm going to eat. Oh, don't worry. If it goes over a couple hundred dollars, I can go to the ATM and get some more money. Okay, this is not going good. You know what? I'll give you a call back. I'm really busy right now. So I didn't hand him off to anybody. I just kind of hope that goes away. He maybe has a couple more cocktails and just gets drunk and just plays it by the way it is. But I'm not going there. Have you had any good – anything good on that sheet? I think I gave you the bad news first and the good news later. Yeah, okay. So there's a couple bad news. Oh, here – okay, so here's a victory dance. Oh, actually, no. Before the victory dance. I had a lady call me with a Lord of the Rings, and she was a referral for a very nice couple that I worked on, the Joko Poker and Sinbad out in Paxton. She had a Lord of the Rings that she hasn't worked on forever, but she bought a brand new. I went to a nice house, a really nice place she had out in, it's called Bolton somewhere.
    31:02
    And, you know, nice space for us, very friendly, and the game kind of worked, but she wanted me to totally day spot it out. Maureen and I were there for like four or five hours, LEDs and everything else. So by the end of it she looked at the game and she goes, wow, this thing looks brand new and it plays awesome. You guys are so great. I just want you to know my nieces and nephews are coming over in a week and they're coming for Christmas and this and that. You're making everybody's Christmas special right now. You made a lot of kids really happy right now. I want to know what you guys did. You guys do an awesome job. She gave us tons of praise and on top of that when I gave her the bill she even gave me a tip on top of it. There you go. So that was a nice one. Merry Christmas. And she said Merry Christmas to you and her whole house was decorated with Christmas stuff. It was a very cheerful place, so that was a good one.
    31:46
    Then we moved on to another customer that I've had for a little while. They get a couple games. They get a Data East Star Wars. They have a Williams Space Station, and they have an old EM. And he's bought them over the years, you know, kind of in the Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. So they're kind of in various stages of working. They work pretty well, but, you know, I've done a couple things on each one of them. So this Data East, Data East is kind of, it's a weird, they try to copy, it's in the early 90s, they try to copy Williams stuff to a point. And then they had to go on their own way because it's too much copying, they'll get in trouble, so they had to do their own thing. But do their own thing, now you've got to figure out, well, how do they do their own thing? They have this popcorn, popcorn pupper board, PPB board. They call it popcorn pupper because it gets so hot from the resistors heating up, it can put, it'll pop popcorn. you know so they have all these different boards that watch out for the shrub no yeah they run way too hot you know so this weird problem that um it started out with some things were kicking out of the the buck holes vuk vertical up kick holes that wasn't working so i so i fixed that and then another thing happened where the flippers weren't working and then the sound was cutting out and then the the display wasn't working so i kept chasing my tail around and i had to go back a second day and finally I got it so that I got everything working except for the flippers. And this ties into your story about Stern's feature and Data East is old Stern. Data East is Stern from back in that day. They went Stern to Data East to Stern again.
    33:18
    So what these flippers would do, I brought them back from the dead. Now they would basically, you could flip and they come right back down again. You could active flip but you could not hold the ball. That's what these flippers would do. and that was how the game was manufactured nope that's how the game was acting that was acting right it's like what the frick is it i checked the the voltage that was there and he's 28 volts for that and that that's all there it's not a double wound coil it's a single wound coil it does a timing thing and knows when to kick that in so it's a low voltage hold and i was reading up on it i was trying to google it look on the manual and then finally it's like let me just let me just trace the wiring, trace the wiring, and finally, and the wiring was good, I had continuity, it's like, what the, so I read one post on somebody on, I think, Pinside or an old Wreck Games pinball post, that someone mentioned something, make sure to check, there's a connector in the, under the play field, toward the back of the head, there's a connector that might become loose, even though it's a square pin connector, it looks like it's pretty solid, so I went around and looking for that, finally I found, I found the connector was unplugged, for some freaking reason. I don't know how it got unplugged because the game was working before for years. So what were they doing? Separating voltage to multiple items? That voltage controls the... That was the point. That's the hold voltage. That was not there. Plugged it in. Yay. And so I played a game on it, on the Star Wars game, and I got into the mode where I felt like I told the customer, I walked upstairs in Victoria, I said, we got it. We finally fixed it. I said, cue the main theme at the end when Luke and Han and Chewie were walking down the aisle, there was the whole pomp and fanfare where they actually killed the Death Star and they won against Darth Vader. That's what it felt like.
    35:07
    What did you think of that guy, Chewie Colon, or Chewie Colon that was on our... He did a pretty good imitation of Chewbacca. That one? Yeah, he was pretty good at it.
    35:23
    Right. Okay. He didn't punch me. I called him a colon. What else do we got? Oh, and I got another story. And actually, this is a show and tell. So I can actually show you this. Okay. Why don't we cut? Okay.
    35:43
    All right. We shall cut. We're going to get beer. And then you're going to take me downstairs. All right. Well, one thing. So you're still recording. No, no. You're not going to ambush me again, are you? No, I'm probably going to ambush you a little bit. So one more thing with this thing. I like Columbo. One more thing. Oh, yeah, one more thing. So you're saying you have the sheet here, and we have a beer. Are we going to be three sheets to the wind? Get it? Oh, I'm so – that's bad, George. I haven't even had a beer yet. I should have cut that. So – Okay, cut.
    36:22
    All right, George, it's time for Show and Tell. This is a game that just acquired. And I'll probably, I'll show you it first and see what you think it is.
    36:42
    So, we'll go this way. We're down in the basement here, in the tech area. Down in the basement, yeah. I'm gonna go right by you. Okay. Oh, you're taking me somewhere else? I'll take you somewhere else. I'm gonna take you over this way. Oh, I didn't know we were going for a midnight stroll. A little bit of a stroll here. Okay.
    37:04
    So. Is this what you're gonna show me? Yeah. Do you know what this is? Yeah, it's a blackjack. Okay. Do you know what kind of blackjack it is? Yeah, a dolly. Okay.
    37:13
    Is this the one, is this the electromechanical one, or is this the solid state one? Go to the head of the class. Electromechanical one. You know what I mean, the mate of these? 600. 120. True. My rarest game I have. Look how nice the shape that is. No, I'm looking... It's the same game, except it's electromechanical. And artwork is different. The color's a little bit different. Artwork is different. There's no neon color. No, no, no. I know the colors are different, but I'm saying the layout's the same. Same layout. Right. But colors came way different. Right. No, the plastics are different. It's a nice game. Nice game Real nice game Only like 20 plays on it Yeah this is new New And check out the back glass See the different back glass back there Is this different Yeah it real different It's only a two-play. It's Christian March artwork. Right, but it's blown out in the middle. It is. That's all right. BG Resto, I got one on order. They've already done it? Yep, they've already done it. Now, I might be waiting. According to the customer who came by to pick up a flip-flop recently, he said... He wants it? No. He said he has a couple on order for BG Resto. So he said they're probably months and months behind, you know, six months or whatever you're going to wait. So what's the idea behind this? Collection or? Well, collection. I'll give you the, so here's the background story.
    38:28
    So, ladies. Stop for a second. I'm so distracted. Folks, I'm down here in Dave's basement. Now, you've heard me refer to it as a warehouse. I'm staring at a box with pin score stuff in it. I'm going to, I don't know what, oh, okay, that's got labels on it. There's some boards laying on top of it, a box. I'm sure there's something in there. Then I'm looking at the stack of play fields.
    38:55
    Oh. What is wrong? Look. George. Yeah, I see. CPR, Sea Witch, two Sea Witches, two Sea Witch CPR play fields. Oh, voodoo glass. And a couple of things of voodoo glass.
    39:07
    This is like Christmas here, folks. You don't have to go to Amazon. You come to Dr. Dave's basement. Did you take advantage of the... Lost cause? Yeah, I got two of those. Two Paragons. That's a Paragon. Beautiful Paragon.
    39:20
    I see the rolling... We're not going to talk... We're not talking about that because you still haven't done it yet. Not yet. That's almost ready. And I'm talking at the back side of the microphone. There. That's almost ready to go.
    39:30
    So... Okay, I interrupted. Oh, yeah. Continue. Oh, yeah. So... I got distracted. So I get a call from a lady. She's owned this blackjack for 20 years. She goes, I think I want to, I don't know if I want to fix it, but I think I just want to sell it. And, you know, do you have any interest? I said, where are you located? Oh, in Hudson. She's next town over. I said, okay.
    39:53
    So I said, you know, I've never, I've always wanted a blackjack. I never, one's never crossed my path. I'm thinking, you know, a solid state one. And so I said, all right, close by. And I said, you know, so I'm still thinking it's a solid state. So I was like, oh, you know, it's not a very desirable game, but it's worth something. And so, you know, a couple hundred bucks, whatever, it's not really working all the way. So I go over there.
    40:17
    The husband's home in this garage with a Harley, and he does a lot of, you know, blue-collar guy. Does, you know, a lot of, like, working outside or whatever. He's got this game set up up there, not climate-controlled at all. And I'm walking in the garage upstairs where all the stuff is, a motorcycle and everything else he's got going on there. And I'm thinking, okay, he's Blackjack. Okay, I see a Blackjack. And I walk up and it's like, wait a minute, that's not a blackjack, that's an EM. It's like, wait a minute, that's an EM. My heart sank and I said, oh wait, that's an EM. And it's like, that's a freaking EM. That's an EM blackjack. So this was made in what year and why did they make so few? Was it transition time? Transition time. Yep, this is right around. So the games that are around that were Mata Hari EM, which they made a lot more than this. Right, but all those other games were very similar.
    41:11
    In other words, identical. Where this game had a different color scheme and background. Yes, correct. So this is the one that everything's different. I mean, the layout of the play field is the same, but all the artwork is different.
    41:25
    I mean, 120 units. Not a lot. I mean, even if you were transitioning and saying, oh, you know, we're going to come out with the same game, but we're going to update it. whatever it is, you took the you know, what other games surrounded it? There must have been something else that made up for the shortfall. Because you got ready you put it on the line, you took it off the line. I mean, how long could it have been there? A week? A couple of days? Supposedly, according to IPBD, this thing came out I want to say after the Solace Day which doesn't make any sense. I don't know. I'll look at that again. I might get that wrong. There was some weird... It's cool that you got a game that's pretty rare. I like this game. We've talked about this game how many times? The Solid State version. I just played the Solid State version in the tournament, and I really liked playing the tournament. It was a lot of fun. And then this thing came at me like a couple weeks later. This Blackjack just came at me. It was awesome. So the only games they made like this on EM, the made two of Solid State and the EM version, is Mata Hari, Evil Knievel, Knight Rider, and Blackjack. And Blackjack's the rarest at $120. So I don't see these. I never saw it on the show. I've only seen pictures of this, and even years ago when I had pinball books, I was always looking at before I'd get my big collection 20, 30 years ago. I saw this in there, and it's like, wow, it'd be great to have someday. I like the artwork way better on this one versus the Solid State. Totally different thing. It's all neon colors and the backless. See, I happen to be in the minority. You like the neon colors? Yeah, always have. Always like psychedelic artwork. but you know and i grew up during that time frame so for me i always thought it was a neat looking game we've talked about this jack had the game has the play field he sold that off at the allentown he had the backless he sold that off at allentown i could have had it but i couldn't find a game cheap anymore nobody there's a run on that game you used to be able to buy that game blackjack right yeah the solid state one you used to be able to buy that game for nothing nothing no one wanted it but so i there was a junkie one at pentastic a couple years ago and i think he wanted like 800 bucks for it it was just it was kind of a rat and i was ready i was ready to trade him my supersonic rat i had that was working and he wasn't going to go for it it's like those rat games now it's a blackjack you know no i i don't own one i i would like to but not anymore i mean I'm not going to pay up. It's just like, now, even the Rat Dog Supersonic, and I have one. I don't know if you've ever played it, but it's got the sticker in the middle. Oh, yeah, the sticker. From our buddy there in Pennsylvania who we're not going to give his name. No, I don't think so, no. Somebody was talking about him online. Yeah, he's not a good reputation at all. I said run. Yeah, run, run. Run. I know how he's got the N. We're talking about... I'm going to throw this out there. And this... Promises, promises. I'm breaking the rules. He does not come... I'm breaking the rules again. Okay, go ahead. Break the rules. Rules are meant to be broken, George. They were talking about Embryon, and they were talking about the upper right side of the play field that always gets burned out, where the bonus... Oh, yeah, all the time. Yes, yes. Well, mine is as well.
    44:42
    So they were talking about, do you ever think that somebody will make artwork for that? I have the artwork. I just don't have the knowledge to do it. What do you mean? How do you have the artwork?
    44:54
    Somebody put it out online 15 years ago, and I downloaded it. Oh, so you have the image. I have a paper copy image of it, but somebody could turn that into something, a sticker. And that would, for the most part, I have a little bit of other artwork, but it's all grays and blacks and whites, and it's all like piping. Right. So it's all angles. There's nothing really hard about duplicating that part. But the wheel, you know, multicolored, you know, if it's all die-cut, it would be pretty good.
    45:28
    But we're never going to see anybody make a play field for that. Yeah, how many did they make? Why not? Oh, 2,000. It's a wide body. Who's going to make it? Well, they made Paragons.
    45:39
    I'll take the bet. I'd love to see it. Prove me wrong. I'll buy one in a heartbeat. And I know a lot of other people. I have a nice embryo on. We need to do a show on that at some point. But, again, I'm breaking the rules. Right. I'm making a pronostication, and that usually never comes true. Thank you.
    46:16
    Happy New Year And now from the White House, the President of the United States. Good evening, my fellow Americans. In the past, I have given fireside chats, and tonight, because it is spring, I have chosen to give a plant-side chat.
    46:59
    I love the spring. Everything grows, plants, trees, little baby animals. But some things grow that we don't want to grow, like inflation.
    47:12
    Inflation is our nation's number one problem, yet most people don't even understand it. But it's really quite simple. Inflation has caused about too many dollars chasing too few goods.
    47:22
    Now, the easiest way to get money out of circulation is to maintain higher unemployment, so people won't have jobs or money to spend.
    47:30
    This is a program my administration has actively pursued. Yet inflation continues to rise. And so tonight, I'm proposing a new program, one which will call on all Americans to sacrifice once again, but which will, however have immediate effect i'm asking each and every american to take eight percent of your money and burn it we campaign with the plan uppercase t uppercase p the plan Hold on Let's go back to our friend here What was that again?
    48:20
    Really? Kamala let me see here What was that Kamala? With us in government We campaign with the plan Uppercase T uppercase P The plan and then the environment is such that we're expected to be planned.
    48:41
    Be planned! Be planned! Oh, you know, when you've got it. But you don't know where from. It hurts to walk.
    49:15
    It hurts to talk. And I can't even breathe. I need drugs. So many jewels fall I don't know Should I go to the doctor Or stay right here And watch this movie Like a fool I feel down Down, down George, George, George. Hasta la vista, baby.