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Episode 7: Steven Bowden, Fun With Bonus

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·14m 5s·analyzed·Nov 29, 2016
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

Steven Bowden on competitive pinball, Fun With Bonus site, and patience as the key to mastery.

Summary

Steven Bowden, host of Fun With Bonus and a top competitive pinball player, discusses his entry into pinball through arcade flea markets, his rise through competitive tournaments, and the role of math and analysis in mastering the game. He describes his website as a daily pinball news aggregator since 2012, highlights key competitive moments like his match against Keith Elwin, and emphasizes patience as the cornerstone skill for improving at pinball.

Key Claims

  • Steven Bowden was featured in an ESPN the Magazine article about pinball, which was gathered from Pinberg.

    high confidence · Steven Bowden directly confirmed this in response to Jeff Lee question about the ESPN experience.

  • Fun With Bonus has posted daily content about pinball since July 1, 2012.

    high confidence · Steven Bowden stated this directly when describing his website.

  • Steven Bowden favorite pinball game is Spider-Man, followed closely by Twilight Zone (1 and 1A).

    high confidence · Steven Bowden stated 'Spider-Man is my favorite game, period, the end' and listed Twilight Zone as a close second.

  • Walking Dead was initially frustrating for Steven Bowden but became more enjoyable with new code and the Premium version's weapon system.

    high confidence · Steven Bowden provided detailed explanation of how code updates and the weapon mechanic changed his perception of Walking Dead.

  • Steven Bowden has over 100 IFPA victories.

    high confidence · Jeff Lee asked about this directly, and Steven Bowden confirmed having many victories over the years.

Notable Quotes

  • “Spider-Man is my favorite game, period, the end.”

    Steven Bowden — Direct statement of his favorite game; emphatic delivery highlights deep personal connection to the title.

  • “Patience. That's it. Really? Patience is the watchword, because what happens is, if you find you're not doing well in a game, you get excited and you're not, you know, you get frustrated, you're really not going to do well.”

    Steven Bowden — Core advice for improving at pinball; reflects his philosophy on emotional control and mental gameplay.

  • “Everything puts the ball in danger, which is also good because what it does is it makes you make a decision that could be your last.”

    Steven Bowden — Analysis of Walking Dead's design philosophy showing how challenge mechanics drive strategic decision-making.

  • “Posting every day and it seems like a chore or something, but no, not really. It's really just fun to find out things that are happening and keep me, you know, concentrating on the scene and what's going on.”

    Steven Bowden — Describes his motivation for maintaining Fun With Bonus daily posting streak since 2012.

  • “It's not coming back, it is back. It's just getting more people out and seeing that it's back and seeing how exciting it is and how fun it is.”

    Steven Bowden — Commentary on pinball's current resurgence and mainstream visibility.

Entities

Steven BowdenpersonJeff LeepersonFun With BonusproductModern PinballvenueSunshine LaundromatvenuePinbergeventKeith ElwinpersonSpider-Mangame

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Steven Bowden featured in ESPN The Magazine, indicating mainstream sports media recognition of competitive pinball.

    high · Steven Bowden confirmed ESPN feature article drawn from Pinberg event; photo shoot with competitive player poses.

  • ?

    community_signal: Fun With Bonus operates as primary daily news aggregator for pinball community since 2012, indicating centralized information hub role.

    high · Steven Bowden maintains daily posting streak on funwithbonus.com since July 1, 2012; described as 'aggregation of pinball news.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Modern Pinball in New York and Sunshine Laundromat cited as exemplary venues driving pinball resurgence through game quality and unique integration.

    high · Steven Bowden praises Modern Pinball's league as 'envy of many places' and Sunshine Laundromat's integration of Big Bang Bar with washer-dryer as proof pinball 'is back.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Walking Dead code updates and Premium version weapon system dramatically improved player engagement and perception of the game.

    high · Steven Bowden: 'When New Code came out and also when Walking Dead Premium...That all changed...became a good favorite for me.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Math and analytical skills are significant factors in competitive pinball success, particularly for orbit shots and rule optimization.

    high · Steven Bowden notes prevalence of math/CS professionals in pinball; describes using math to calculate score against Keith Elwin in Casino Run; emphasizes orbit/loop mastery.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.042

0:00
Fun, fun, fun, to the daddy takes the team in a way. Fun, fun, fun. Thanks for listening to Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teelis. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Pinball Profile. Today, we're talking to one of the greatest players in the world, also one of the nicest, too, Steve Bowden. How are you doing, Steve? I'm doing well. How are you doing, Jeff? Things are good. I've got to ask you a bunch of questions. So, first of all, how did you get hooked into pinball? Well, I got hooked into pinball when I was really young. I mean, I was taking trips to my local flea market with my parents, and they would give me money to go to the arcade and I would play some of the arcade games. And then I noticed, you know, a certain other type of game over there that I didn't know what it was. And so I tried putting quarters in that and it turned out to be a pinball game. But I don't remember which one was my first game. I'm not sure what it was, but I noticed I was having much more fun with that than I was playing Centipede and Gallagher and those games, even though I still played them. You know, I got hooked on pinball at that point. And then it was just on and off of me playing pinball as I was younger, you know, coming up and just kept playing. And it's just at some point I just wanted to discover where are all the games in my state because I'm in New Jersey. You know, I figured, okay, where are all these games? There's got to be some more games than what I've been playing. And that's when I really discovered about where the leagues were and really got involved. You know, you talk about playing in your youth. And I think of when I did it, whether it was a bowling alley or something like that, then pinball machines went away for a long time until on Facebook. Somebody said there was a pinball league. And I went, what's a pinball league? I haven't seen one since the mid to late 90s. and then just this resurgence, which we've seen certainly in this century and in the last few years. It's been fantastic. Oh, definitely. I mean, definitely the resurgence has been quick and has been aggressive. But not everyone knows about the resurgence. You still find people who are saying, oh, they still make those games. You know, definitely. Is it Oakland Ball? What do you mean they still make new ones? What do you mean there's one on Ghostbusters? So you start mentioning things like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead and licenses that they'll recognize, and they say, wait a minute, Where can I play these games? I remember pinball back in the day. I want to go play these games. And then you point them to a local arcade and then hopefully get them hooked on it. Well, Steve, people are going to know about it, too, because of the recent ESPN, the magazine article. You were featured in that. And I know they did a lot of that information. They gathered from Pinberg. What was that experience like with ESPN? Oh, that was a very interesting experience. And I was playing some games at Pinberg. All of a sudden, I was asked, hey, you want to do a feature for ESPN? And I'm like, ESPN? Sure, fine. No problem. And then we go in there to this photo shoot where they're taking all sorts of different pictures, close angles, far angles, and you'll see the angle that you see in the photo shoot where we're all sort of like linebackers. But essentially we're standing there in our pinball stances, and so they asked us to just stand there and imagine we were playing our favorite game. So that's kind of where those poses came from. It looks sort of silly, but I guess ESPN photographs people with, I guess, and they're posing without their equipment. I guess in our case, the equipment is the pinball game itself, so I guess that makes sense. And, you know, I looked at my caption, and it's a little bit wrong, and I guess I'll make a clarification on that on my site. That'll be fun. But if you notice the clarification there, it says that I learned how to play on Spider-Man at the flea market. That's almost right.
Twilight Zone
game
Walking Deadgame
The Walking Dead (Premium)game
Big Buck Huntergame
Attack from Marsgame
[name withheld pending review]game
IFPAorganization
ESPN The Magazinemedia
Pinball Profileproduct
  • ?

    competitive_signal: Steven Bowden's early tournament win against Keith Elwin opened pathway to active national circuit play (Chicago, Florida, multi-state travel).

    high · Steven Bowden: 'That got me involved into flying to Chicago and flying to all these other places in Florida, and it really got me active.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Walking Dead shifted from frustrating/draining to favorite due to mechanical and software improvements; illustrates impact of iteration on player satisfaction.

    high · Steven Bowden: 'Walking Dead, when it first came out, frustrated me...Everything about it was frustrating. That all changed with New Code...became a good favorite.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball resurgence is measurable but not yet universally known; venue growth (Modern Pinball, Sunshine Laundromat) is recruiting new players through familiar IP licenses.

    high · Steven Bowden: 'Not everyone knows about the resurgence. You still find people who are saying, oh, they still make those games...Once you mention Game of Thrones and Walking Dead they recognize it.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Patience and emotional control are foundational to competitive skill development; tournament experience reduces nervousness and improves decision-making.

    high · Steven Bowden: 'Patience...once you get used to the situation of play...the nerves go away really quickly.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Walking Dead's design philosophy deliberately creates dangerous shots to force strategic decision-making; weapon mechanic in Premium inverts this to reward player skill.

    high · Steven Bowden: 'Everything puts the ball in danger, which is also good...makes you make a decision that could be your last...When you have the right weapon, the power is all on you.'

    • 3:12
    That's kind of a mixture of two things in one that melded together into that. But great to be in the magazine. It's an honor, and especially with the people who I was on with. I mean, that's great. Who knew this would all come about from ESPN the magazine to being last year's IFBA player of the year Look at your former life you were a math and computer science teacher and kind of like Bo and Karen math seems to come to play in pinball don you think Oh it certainly does I mean when I was playing more often I started to notice how many people are in the math and computer science field in the game of pinball. And it's just part of the mental and analytical part of the game, that it really, once you start getting into rule sets and how things score, and well, once you start realizing that the game is based on some rule sets that can really help you take advantage of play, and take advantage of certain shots at certain times and then getting into the angles and geometry of certain things and how to save the ball using the angles of the game itself. So quick math does help me, especially when I'm trying to figure out what's the most efficient, safest, slash riskier shots to take while I'm trying to beat my opponent or to score well on a pinball game. So definitely. Math definitely does come into play. Just recently this past summer in Buffalo when you and I were playing, I was watching you, and it made me question my strategy of how I'm playing. The game was big buck hunter, and your method was way better than mine of just hitting the posts. Right, exactly, right.
    4:32
    Well, posts don't tend to score points unless there's certain posts. But, I mean, you know, with big buck country, you have that giant post called the buck there. But on one game where I happened to play, I did get pretty lucky with that buck where I would hit him over and over and he wasn't draining me like he's designed to. So part of it is fortunate play, but other parts of it can be reacting and also recovering well when you miss or when you make a shot that is supposed to put the ball out of control as well. Steve, you get to play in several tourneys all over the country. Do you think these tourneys and the constant competition have made you a better player? I mean, definitely it's gotten me less nervous when I play. I remember when I used to play when I was getting started in tournaments, and it wasn't really nerves, it was just more excitement. But then once you get used to it, it's not like the excitement goes away, but the nerves go away really quickly. I mean, you know, I'm playing the same game that I usually play and maybe just sit up harder. But, you know, once you get used to the situation of play and, you know, you've been through this situation before, just hit this shot. If you don't hit this shot, try this shot. Go through the rule set. Stay with the plan. And, you know, it'll work out as long as you stay centered and stay in control and stay concentrating. Steve, a lot of us, like myself, follow you on Fun With Bonus, the website, Facebook, and also Twitter. Tell us about Fun With Bonus. Well, funwithbonus.com is my little pinball corner of the internet. The funny thing is I've heard other people describe my site better than I have. When I see what people say what my site is, I say, oh, okay, let's go with that. That's the ticket. But really, if I were to break it down, it's more like an aggregation of the pinball news that happens in the scene that I can find, and also a mixture of some stuff that I like to create and other things that I find on the internet. Posting every day since July 1, 2012. 12. So, I mean, it was just one day I just decided, you know, if I'm going to be dedicated to this site, I'm just going to post every day about pinball or something, just to keep everything up and running. And one thing that happens is it keeps me in the scene and it never gets boring. I mean, you know, you post every day and it seems like a chore or something, but no, not really. It's really just fun to find out things that are happening and keep me, you know, concentrating on the scene and what's going on. But I guess as far as what My site really is, it's an aggregation of pinball, and I like doing it. It is everything pinball, and I got a few texts from some of my buddies instantly. When we first started doing Pinball Profile, they're like, Steve's got you on his site, and it was almost like a badge of honor so I appreciate your support with Pinball Profile too Absolutely When I found it I saw the link I think it was on SoundCloud I was like oh really Okay Oh I know Jeff I play Jeff Let's see what's going on. And I really like the format. Like, the short conversations, getting there, it's punchy, it's exciting, and it's in-depth. And also looking at some of the other, listening to some of the other interviews you had on that site there. Like, we're seeing punk and things like that. So I was like, oh, this is excellent. You spend a lot of time at Modern Pinball in New York. That is a great place. Their league is the envy of many places. I personally wish I was in New York. I was able to go once in January and just fell in love. Oh, definitely. I definitely like going up there. I mean, I'm a Jersey boy, so it takes me about an hour and a half to two hours, depending on traffic, to get there. But, you know, I definitely love playing there. They have all great games there that I kept up in shape and playing well. And also some of the other places that are in New York City, like, you know, if you've been to Sunshine Laundromat, that's a great place. Yeah, I know, but I haven't been there. Oh, man, if you have the opportunity, you must go there. I mean, any place that has a Big Bang Bar en route running next to a washer dryer or in the next room, you have to see it. Wow. So, you know, just places like that that are really proving that pinball is coming back in a big way, and it's not coming back, it is back. It's just getting more people out and seeing that it's back and seeing how exciting it is and how fun it is to, not even just in competition, just to hang out with a few of your buddies and play pinball. Steve, it's probably hard to pinpoint your favorite game, but maybe there's one you've played the most. Well, I can tell you my favorite is Spider-Man, period, the end. Oh, okay. That's one. That's why it's mentioned in the ESPN article incorrectly.
    8:39
    It's just that I learned about Spider-Man. Spider-Man is my favorite game, followed by Twilight Zone. That's like the 1 and 1A, and those can switch depending on which one I'm playing at the time sometimes. But, yeah, that's it. Spider-Man is my favorite game. I love the flow. I love how there are repeating shots you can take if you want to, the speed of the game, the rich design, the line and sheet code. It's so good. Steve, I know with me, there are some games that just frustrate me, and maybe I don't want to play them. But really, once you perfect those games, and you never really perfect them, they become more popular. I mean, are there some games that give you headaches, and then, wow, the more I play this, the more I really like it. I just, maybe I wasn't doing so well. Oh, I can give you a right answer. It was Walking Dead, absolutely. Like Walking Dead, when it first came out, frustrated me. And it would just seem that every shot I would take, I would train. The exit out of the pop bumpers is frustrating.
    9:34
    Shots off the prison, I would go down, were frustrating. Everything puts the ball in danger, which is also good because what it does is it makes you make a decision that could be your last. If you have the ball cradled, it's like, okay, what am I going to do that's going to give me the most opportunity for points because I might not get this back. That all changed when New Code came out and also when Walking Dead Premium. I played that because that one has the button. It has the weapons you can use, and it changes the entire game because what it does is if you have the right weapon, like if you have first aid or if you have food, what you can do is you can change the entire game and make it to the advantage of the player. You can essentially be, say, one hit away from multiball, and you know you have first aid, and all you have to do is, as soon as you drain, just hit the button, and you've got multiball started. So what does that mean That means you basically invincible You can do anything you want in the game The power is all on you to decide when you want to start multiball or how dangerous you want to be because the danger is gone You have the weapons and it changed everything That when you know Walking Dead Premium really became a good favorite for me because you earned that power If you can get to that point it because you earned it. Steve, you've got over a hundred IFPA victories and so many over the years. Is there a favorite victory or certainly accomplishment? Wow, I guess it wouldn't be, let's see, a favorite victory or accomplishment. I don't know. I guess it would be, let's see, One, back in the day, I guess when I first started getting into the circuit, I think I was at Northwest. I was at the Northwest show, and it was a win that got me into the finals. I was playing against Keith Elwin in Jackpot, and I had to use Casino Run to beat him, and I had to do it mathematically. I literally had to look at his score, jot his score down, go into Casino Run, and then slowly add up, okay, am I past him? I'm not sure yet. Am I past him? Purposely train the ball so I can look at the score, and then continue, and then finally pass him and then cash out and win. But that only got me past that level. I mean, that only got me to the finals, but I didn't win the finals. But what essentially that did is that got me involved into the circuit. It really got me involved into flying to Chicago and flying to all these other places in Florida, and it really got me active. So I guess if that might not be, I mean, that's what I can think of now as far as being a good win. Maybe not my favorite if I had a bit more time to think about it, but it definitely was influential, and it proved to me that, hey, I can hang with these people. Steve, what's the one tip you would give someone who wants to work on their skills? Patience. That's it. Really?
    12:05
    Patience is the watchword, because what happens is, I mean, if you find you're not doing well in a game, you get excited and you're not, you know, you get frustrated, you're really not going to do well. I mean, pinball has a tendency to seek out those who have lost control and drain you really quickly. Okay, so the one thing, it is showing patience and being in control of your emotions, I guess you could say, or just making sure that you stay centered when you play so that you can think about what you're doing and then execute your plan. And if you don't have a plan, just find one of your favorite shots in the game and keep making it because what you'll find is you'll start making that shot and either that shot might cause other shots to light or if you keep shooting that shot over and over, another feature might light and become active. So if ever you feel you're stuck or things like that, Those are things you can do to really get back on track. Well, if there's a game that involves orbits and you're playing Steve Bowden, forget about it because the guy's the king at hitting those things.
    13:03
    Yeah, if you can get your orbits and your loop pass, like on Attack from Mars, those are the best orbits in pinball, I think. I don't know. I'm trying to think of some other ones. If you can really dial in on those orbits, especially a game like ASM, which really asks you to do that a lot, you can really put pressure on your opponent and show them that you're ready to play. Make sure you follow Steve on Fun With Bonus, the website, also on Facebook, and Fun With Bonus on Twitter. Steve, always great to talk to you. I know I'll see you at the tournament soon. All right, thank you. This has been your Pinball Profile with Steve Bowden. You can follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at Pinball Profile. I'm Jeff Teelis.
    13:52
    Bye.