Off The Record Pinball Podcast Ep 16: The Aussie Pinball Podcast with Dr. John

The Pinball Network·video·20m 9s·analyzed·Apr 30, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Dr. John launches Aussie Pinball Podcast with intro episode covering Australian pinball culture and maintenance basics.

Summary

Dr. John introduces the Aussie Pinball Podcast, a new show focused on pinball culture in Australia. He shares his personal pinball history (buying/selling ~60 machines, currently owning 12), media background (podcasts, TV appearances), and provides practical advice for newcomers including rental options, second-hand purchasing tips, and basic maintenance techniques like glass removal and playfield cleaning.

Key Claims

New pinball machines in Australia cost $12,000-$15,000+ with 12-month lead times after ordering
high confidence · Direct statement about 2022 pricing and delivery timelines
Second-hand pinball machine prices in Australia have doubled or tripled in the last 5-6 years
high confidence · Dr. John attributes this to lockdown discovery and word-of-mouth about the hobby
Rental schemes in Australia typically cost $300-$400/month with discounts for long-term hire
high confidence · Direct pricing statement for major Australian cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide)
Brisbane Masters tournament is held end of July, organized by Jason Lambert and Jimmy Nails, on Stern Pro Circuit
high confidence · Specific tournament details and organizer names provided
Australian Championship is held in February for the preceding 12 months
high confidence · Tournament scheduling information
Dr. John has purchased and sold approximately 60 different pinball titles since 2014
high confidence · Personal background statement
Dr. John won Hard Quiz using pinball as his expert topic and appeared on Victorian Radio discussing pinball terminology
high confidence · Media appearance claims with reference to funwithbonus.com for verification
Tempered glass on pinball machines can be jumped on without breaking but will shatter from tapping an edge or corner
medium confidence · Maintenance advice with explanatory note but presented as practical knowledge

Notable Quotes

“With the current prices of pinball machines, that being 2022 prices, it's extremely difficult to come in at an entry level. That's simply because all new machines are ridiculously priced and second-hand ones have doubled or tripled their value in the last five to six years.”
Dr. John @ ~14:30 — Key insight on Australian pinball market accessibility and pricing pressures
“The advantage with this is you don't have that large capital outlay to start with, and you have someone who will maintain the machine for you at your location.”
Dr. John @ ~17:45 — Promotes rental as entry pathway for new hobbyists
“Never let the edges or corners even gently touch down on a hard surface such as tile or concrete... a slightest tap of an edge or a corner and you'll find you'll have a handful of little tiny diamond crystals as the glass disintegrates into a million pieces”
Dr. John @ ~24:15 — Practical maintenance advice with vivid description of common mistake
“This cleanliness helps maintain both the play field and the balls which do tend to pick up dirt while you're playing the game. This dirt normally comes from what's called coil dust which is a result of the activation of the coils.”
Dr. John @ ~27:30 — Educational content explaining maintenance principles

Entities

Dr. Johnperson Jason Lambertperson Jimmy NailspersonStephen BowdenpersonDavid AstlepersonAussie Pinball PodcastproductBrisbane Pinball and Arcade Collectiveorganization Brisbane Mastersevent

Signals

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business_signal: Australian pinball secondary market showing significant price appreciation; scams increasing on Facebook and marketplace platforms
medium · Dr. John warns about Facebook scams becoming more common; recommends physical inspection before purchase; notes eBay unrealistic pricing and scam risk
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event_signal: Brisbane Masters tournament positioned as major Australian competitive event on Stern Pro Circuit held end of July annually
high · Dr. John explicitly describes Brisbane Masters as major tournament organized by Brisbane Pinball and Arcade Collective on Stern Pro Circuit with double WPPR points
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community_signal: Rental market infrastructure established in major Australian cities (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide) at $300-$400/month with maintenance included, providing accessible entry pathway
high · Dr. John confirms rental schemes available in multiple cities; pricing structure and advantages clearly outlined
$
market_signal: Australian new machine pricing ($12,000-$15,000+) with 12-month lead times creates significant entry barriers; second-hand market inflation (2-3x in 5-6 years) makes hobby accessibility challenging
high · Dr. John states 'it's extremely difficult to come in at an entry level' due to new machine prices and second-hand inflation; attributes to lockdown and hobby awareness increase

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.060

0:00

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Aussie Pinball Podcast. The idea of this podcast is to explore pinball in Australia and Australia itself. This first episode will just be an introduction to me because I'm the host, Dr John, and in future episodes I will be introducing a guest that is either well known to Australia or a very interesting person. They'll share their pinball stories with us all and also talk about their love of Australia and the places you should come over to visit when you are here on holidays. And in case you're wondering what that awful background music was, that was a remix of Australia's national song, a song called Waltzing Matilda, which you may or may not have heard before. And it's basically a song about a homeless guy that steals a farmer's sheep and gets shot by police. What a happy national song. But that's how we do things over here in Australia. Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you. Amen. Another cue.

1:19

So a little bit about me and the podcast that I'm trying to create here. It'll be a family-friendly podcast that hopefully won't go too long. I'm aiming at about 30 or 40 minutes per episode. If you're interested in the hobby and have been in it for a while or just want to start getting into it, hopefully we'll be able to provide you with some information about the game in Australia, where to play it, how to purchase it, how to rent it and how to maintain it if you do end up with one in your home. A bit about me, I've been in the hobby seriously since 2014 when I bought my first machine. I'd played sporadically on and off before that time as a younger fella, but settled down into my permanent job as a surgeon in 2014, which allowed me to then start purchasing games. As you may or may not know with pinball, once you buy one game, they do tend to breed and you end up with many more. I've bought and sold approximately 60 different titles in the past and currently have 12 games at home and I'm awaiting delivery for two new games. I've been involved in the pinball media since 2016 when I did my first podcast with the Pinheads which were an Australian pinball podcasting group that you may hear from again in a later episode. That's a little hint on what may be coming up. I have contributed to many pinball podcasts, written some articles, and of course appeared on National Australian TV, both as a contestant on Hard Quiz, where I managed to win using my knowledge of pinball as my expert topic, and more recently on Victorian Radio with David Astle discussing pinball terminology. The show notes can provide links to both these things, but they also appear on funwithbonus.com, which is the excellent blog page run by Stephen Bowden, who reports on all things pinball. There won't be much talk about current pinball news, as I want these episodes to be listened to at any time in any order, depending on who the guest is and who takes your fancy. There will be, of course, the obligatory Dr John quiz question to keep you guessing every now and again, and all music featured will be Aussie music with some recommendations on what to see and what to avoid when you're coming over to Australia for your next visit. I tend to visit the US at least once a year to visit pinball conventions and have so far travelled to Texas a few times, Pintastic New England, of course Pinburg when it was around, and Indisc. I'm hoping to make Freeplay Florida and District 82 of course so it's about time some of you lot managed to come over here and repay the visiting favours I'm sure you'll enjoy it and now for this episode's quiz question who can tell me the world's only venomous mammal I heard a podcast lately that was talking about this particular beast which is found only in Australia. Let's see who can work out which one it is. The answer will be forthcoming momentarily.

6:18

People wasting away in paradise Ah, the dulcet tones of another great Aussie band, this one being Midnight Oil. The lead singer, Peter Garrett, actually ventured into politics for a little while and rose to be responsible for renewable energy, came up with a great scheme to insulate homes with government grants, and that ended up in disaster. and luckily he's now back touring with the band doing shows in Australia. But I digress, back to pinball. So we won't be talking too much about tournaments, although I'm sure they will come up as there is a strong competitive bend in Australia. Our major tournament is the Brisbane Masters, which is held in Brisbane in around the end of July every year. This is organised by Jason Lambert, Jimmy Nails and an excellent team of people from the Brisbane Pinball and Arcade Collective. It's on the Stern Pro Circuit, so you get double points for your ranking, and we'll advertise that more, I'm sure, as shows come and go. The Australian Championship is also held, usually in February, for the preceding 12 months, and we might touch on that at one stage, interviewing previous champions. But in general, I want to talk about the hobby itself. So if you're new to it, how do you get into it? With the current prices of pinball machines, that being 2022 prices, it's extremely difficult to come in at an entry level. That's simply because all new machines are ridiculously priced and second-hand ones have doubled or tripled their value in the last five to six years. This is in part due to lockdown and everyone discovering pinball, but also just word getting around on what a great game it is. The option people have is either if they're in a position to buy a new game, which can take at the moment 12 months before you get it after you order it, or the better alternative, I think, is renting a game. most major cities in Australia have a rental scheme going at least I know in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and I'm not sure about Perth but I'm sure someone will let me know there are groups available that you can contact to rent a machine this normally works out to about $300 or $400 a month depending on the title and this price is reduced for long term hire The advantage with this is you don't have that large capital outlay to start with, and you have someone who will maintain the machine for you at your location. Especially being at home, the game is set to free play, so you don't have to keep pumping in the $1 or $2 coins, which is the usual price you play for a game on location. This is a great way not only to experience having pinball at home, but getting a feel for the different types of games, getting to know game rules and generally thinking do you want this sort of large device taking up room in your house a simple google search on your favorite search engine with pinballs for rent and the city you live in should put you in touch with one of these people who rent out their machines and they often include delivery in the price of the rental what more could you want if you are looking for a second hand game to buy care must be taken to actually go and play the game first This is because they vary in quality considerably Usually within the community if you see an ad on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree you get a fairly accurate description but this can be exaggerated somewhat which is why I recommend going to play the game first. eBay generally is a place to be avoided as unrealistic prices are asked and is more designed for people who don't really know anything about pinball and scams can often occur. Unfortunately scams have also recently been seen coming up more and more on Facebook and when you see a deal that is too good to be true it usually is. It's very difficult to get any modern game nowadays for less than eight to ten thousand dollars and this price only goes up. Some older games are available such as electromechanical for less than that, somewhere between two and four thousand depending on the condition. But the problem with this is maintenance. Electromechanical machines can work perfectly for months and months and then suddenly stop working completely. The fun about electromechanical machines is fixing them. Once you know how to do that it's all smooth sailing but that takes a little bit to get used to. So while we're on the topic of pinball maintenance one thing I'm always asked is if I buy a machine will I be able to maintain it? Let's go through some of the basics for pinball maintenance and this will be an ongoing series in the show.

11:51

I know that music's from Tool Time, and it's a US-based show, but we loved it over in Australia too, and I think it typically sums up what can happen when you're trying to maintain a pinball machine, like Tim the Toolman Taylor, as opposed to when you're trying to do it like Al Ballin, who knows what he's up to. So whether you've bought the machine or rented the machine, the first thing to learn to do, which sounds pretty basic, but can be a bit fiddly is learn to remove the glass. This is essential for not only releasing balls that may be stuck somewhere but also for basic maintenance of the game. This is done by opening the coin door of course and either pulling the spring-loaded lever or releasing the latches on either side to release the lockdown bar holding the glass in place. Now once you've done that the glass can be slid forward. Out of politeness, especially if it's a rented machine, make sure the door is closed while you do this so you don't leave a long streaky scratch on the underside of the glass as it rubs down the corner of the door. Basic courtesy and good practice at all times. Once the glass is off, sit it carefully on its side on carpet or something soft. Never let the edges or corners even gently touch down on a hard surface such as tile or concrete tempered glass can be jumped on by an average size person without breaking when it's on the machine don't try this at home but a slightest tap of an edge or a corner and you'll find you'll have a handful of little tiny diamond crystals as the glass disintegrates into a million pieces so So always set it down carefully out of the way where no one will kick it and on something soft. Once off, as I said, if you're playing a game and a ball gets stuck somewhere, which happens moderately frequently, or if you want to maintain the game, you can do so. Now maintenance, when you have a short term rental, shouldn't require much effort at all. If you have just purchased the game, there's nothing more satisfying than a good deep clean. So to start with, the easiest thing to use is a microfiber cloth with a little bit of isopropyl alcohol, which you can buy from your local hardware store, which you spray on the cloth and you use to wipe over the playfield. You'll notice on areas of high ball traffic, such as down the in lanes or through the top lanes or the shooter lane, where the ball travels a lot there will be black streak lines left over by the ball. These can be rubbed off with the isopropyl alcohol in most cases pretty easily. This cleanliness helps maintain both the play field and the balls which do tend to pick up dirt while you're playing the game. This dirt normally comes from what's called coil dust which is a result of the activation of the coils in their sleeves hitting the coil stop with tiny fine particles of metal showering themselves in under the playfield as the ball travels in subways or even just nearby pop bumpers etc they'll pick up these little tiny bits of dust and that's what leaves the black marks for the especially keen especially if you own the game after cleaning the playfield thoroughly you can get some pure Canuba wax from your local auto detailer and give the playfield a wax coating. This is done because the playfield in more modern games has a coating of clear coat which is the same chemical used to seal the paint on automobiles. So if you wax your car to protect it you can also wax your playfield. A lot of modern waxes have some silicon in them which can be used but generally if possible try to use the pure canuba wax as it doesn't tend to leave a residue such as the silicon based waxes do on the playfield. Again this will prolong the life of the playfield by protecting the art and also make the balls slide a lot quicker. After a fresh wax you will notice the game difficulty increases remarkably. The isopropyl alcohol can also be used with your microfiber cloth to rub down any rubbers such as on the slingshots or any posts that have the black marks on them to give them a clean. It's even sometimes a good idea to rotate those rubbers if they're in a triangle or a straight line and the rubber is easily moved to prevent certain wear spots to prolong the life of the rubber so that's pinball maintenance tip 101 basic cleaning we can get into more advanced cleaning further down the track so with no guest on this week i get to recommend the movie which may be recommended by a few other guests because it's one of the greatest australian movies in its simplicity and quirkiness that movie of course is ergonomic chairs four of them what do you want 180 he's dreaming that's right the castle a fantastic australian movie made in melbourne in 1997 starring the stalwarts of australian movie and tv including michael caton stephen curry and sophie lee this is going straight to the pool There are many fine parts and it's a simple story of a family that has a great family home right next to an airport and the government wants to reclaim their land and title to expand the airport runway. This of course results in a unique Australian court battle which is summed up well by their lawyer. In summing up, it's the constitution, it's Mabo, it's justice, it's law, it's the vibe and no, that's it, it's the vibe. If you ever get a chance to watch it, grab that opportunity. It might take a couple of viewings before you actually get the Australian humour but we all love it over here.