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#56 Anniversary show - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·44m 31s·analyzed·Jun 29, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

CPP 2-year anniversary: restoration updates, FAST boards, aftermarket parts, and Northeast pinball scene.

Summary

The Classic Pinball Podcast celebrates its two-year anniversary with hosts George and Dave reflecting on past episodes, discussing current pinball restoration projects, and sharing industry updates. Key topics include the FAST board platform for Fathom 2.0, the emergence of aftermarket circuit board manufacturers like Pinball Basement, restoration work on classic games (Terminator 2, World Cup, Fireball), and upcoming pinball venues and tournaments in the Northeast.

Key Claims

  • FAST (F-A-S-T) is a control board platform company making integrated packages for pinball machines, used for Fathom 2.0

    high confidence · George discussing boards and platforms; explicitly mentions FAST as alternative to Multimorphic P3

  • Multimorphic's P3 system allows swapping in entire playfields and Spooky uses their P3 platform

    high confidence · George and Dave discussing board platforms and manufacturers

  • Pinball Basement manufactures replacement circuit boards for late 1980s-mid 1990s Williams WPC System 11 games

    high confidence · George mentions Pinball Basement as quality board source; Dave confirms games like Taxi, Bad Cats, Black Knight 2000

  • The 1976 Sears home model Fireball was solid state before arcade solid state games were released

    high confidence · George and Dave discussing timeline: Fireball EM in 1972, 1976 home Sears version was solid state, preceding commercial arcade solid state

  • Approximately 10,000 units of the 1976 Fireball home model were manufactured

    medium confidence · Dave states 'they made 10,000 of these' regarding the Sears catalog version

  • The 1976 Fireball home model sold for $645 from Sears, approximately equivalent to $1,800 in modern money

    medium confidence · George and Dave discussing pricing; George references comparable commercial game pricing from the era

  • Double Bull Tap House is a new barcade on the North Shore in the North Shore Mall with modern pinball lineup

    high confidence · George discussing new venue with games: Led Zeppelin, Avengers, Turtles, Stranger Things, Aerosmith, Star Wars, Batman, Iron Man, and Adams Family

  • The Pinball Asylum in Fort Myers, Florida is moving their mid-tournament, Point Monsters Championship, from its original date to August 6-8, with IFPA Whopper points starting August 1st

    high confidence · George announcing tournament details and date change

Notable Quotes

  • “If you were to ask me what my favorite moment is with doing this podcast, it's the next podcast.”

    George@ 2:20 — Reflects the show's philosophy of forward momentum and anticipation over past accomplishments

  • “Whatever is on the current production line”

    George (quoting Gary Stern)@ 3:59 — Demonstrates George's engagement with industry leadership and willingness to reference other industry figures

  • “I didn't spend too long. I spent a couple minutes just thinking about it... Dummy, why don't you check the fuse?”

    Dave@ 17:42 — Shows troubleshooting approach and self-aware humor about diagnostic process

  • “One is super accuracy, the other one is, you know, almost accurate. That kind of thing.”

    Dave@ 16:44 — Illustrates the performance difference between restored Williams flippers and modern WPC mechanisms

  • “I'm looking forward to us doing Pintastic again. Those are pretty doable, I think.”

    George@ 20:52 — Indicates Pintastic arcade episodes are popular and feasible for the podcast to continue

  • “It's kind of a hallmark of our podcast, now that I look back in retrospect, at how many games I haven't played in our podcast. There's a lot.”

    George@ 19:13 — Self-reflection on podcast format and appeal: George's naivety contrasts with Dave's expertise

  • “I need a bigger Volvo. So that might be in the future for us.”

    Dave@ 23:06 — Humorous indication of Dave's active restoration and game acquisition business growing

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonFAST PinballcompanyMultimorphiccompanyPinball BasementcompanySpooky PinballcompanyGary SternpersonJoe Lemurperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: FAST Pinball platform emerging as alternative to Multimorphic P3 for new game boards; Fathom 2.0 uses FAST; indicates diversification of control board options in market

    high · George explicitly discusses FAST as 'a competitor' to Multimorphic and notes Fathom 2.0 will use FAST platform

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Pinball Basement filling niche in aftermarket circuit board repair/replacement for System 11 Williams games; solving pain point of expensive/unreliable repaired original boards

    high · Dave confirms purchasing multiple boards from Pinball Basement for inventory; notes boards solve problem of $500 repairs on damaged original MPUs

  • ?

    venue_signal: Double Bull Tap House opening as new barcade on North Shore Mall; represents venue growth in Northeast with modern Stern game lineup

    high · George announcing new venue with specific game list and noting lack of comparable venues in Northeast prior

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple tournament events happening in Northeast/Wisconsin on same weekend; District 82 hosting Classics tournament and 'Respect' tournament with streaming on Twitch

    high · George discusses simultaneous tournaments and mentions Tom Graff streaming on Twitch

  • ?

    content_signal: Classic Pinball Podcast celebrating two-year anniversary; hosts reflecting on format success (arcade episodes, variety in topics) and backlog of games/content to cover

    high · George and Dave discussing favorite episodes, backlog of games, and future content plans

Topics

Pinball control board platforms and aftermarket componentsprimaryProfessional pinball restoration and repairprimaryHome pinball machines and Sears catalog sales (1970s era)primaryNortheast pinball venue growth and barcade culturesecondaryTournament scene and IFPA eventssecondaryPodcast production and format strategysecondaryClassic versus modern pinball gameplay and mechanicssecondaryPinball history and vintage game technology evolutionsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Hosts reflect fondly on two years of podcast work, express enthusiasm for future content, celebrate industry growth (new venues, tournaments, restoration work), and demonstrate deep passion for pinball community. Casual, friendly tone with humor and camaraderie. No negative sentiment detected toward individuals or companies.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.134

0:00
Oh, happy anniversary, happy anniversary Happy anniversary, happy anniversary We must say enichiatically, it's happy anniversary Not another day could be a happy anniversary Oh, happy anniversary, happy anniversary Happy anniversary, happy, happy Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy Anniversary All right, knock it off!
0:44
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, and today I'm with my co-host Dave, outside on my deck. motorcycle weekend new hampshire father's day tomorrow emancipation day today i don't know did i leave anything out dr dave day dr dave day yeah hello george yeah i brought my motorcycle i brought my sidecar but my sidecar is actually a uh a six pack of beer so there you go
1:18
I thought you were going to say something else. Sidekick? Not a sidekick. No. Yeah, I don't think she would even like that. No, she wouldn't like that one, no. Today, actually Monday, Dave, two days from now, two years ago, you know what happened two years ago, right? two years ago we found ourselves in a wonderful unique podcast george yeah
1:50
two-year anniversary we're going to do something a little different today we're going to do a show based on past today and then the future so i'm going to start If I look at the past two years, Dave, it's been a pleasure. It's been a lot of fun. I learned quite a few things. I played a lot of games that I never played before.
2:20
But if you were to ask me what my favorite moment is with doing this podcast, it's the next podcast. I always look forward to us recording and doing something different, which we try to do. if you were to ask me what my favorite podcast that I did it would probably be the one that I did on my arcade when I was a kid
Eric Stone
person
Jayperson
Bruceperson
Tom Graffperson
The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
Double Bull Tap Housevenue
Pinball Asylumvenue
District 82organization
Fathom 2.0game
Fireball (1976 Sears home model)game
Terminator 2game
World Cupgame
Allentown Pinball Expoevent
  • ?

    historical_signal: 1976 Sears home model Fireball represents early consumer pinball market; 10,000 units produced; positioned as alternative to arcade play; sold at $645 (~$1,800 modern equivalent)

    high · Extended discussion of Fireball production numbers, pricing, and target market positioning

  • ?

    design_innovation: 1976 Fireball home model featured red LED score display before plasma DMD era; used LED for four-player display logic; represents early adoption of LED technology ahead of commercial arcade standard

    high · Dave explaining LED display mechanism and noting it preceded plasma display adoption by commercial manufacturers

  • ?

    operational_signal: Dave reporting high volume of restoration projects with 12+ games in active shop at last count; managing multiple restoration threads simultaneously including T2, World Cup, Fireball

    high · Dave mentions '12 last count and they keep coming in' and references managing spinning plates of projects

  • ?

    competitive_signal: IFPA restarting Whopper points system August 1st; Pinball Asylum moving Point Monsters Championship to August 6-8; indicates tournament scene recovery/normalization

    high · George announcing IFPA Whopper points resumption and tournament date shift at Pinball Asylum

  • ?

    community_signal: Phoenix, Arizona reported to have 40+ barcades (per community member Bruce); contrast with Northeast which lacks comparable venue density; signals regional variation in pinball infrastructure

    medium · George discussing Bruce's observation about Phoenix venue density versus Northeast scarcity

  • ?

    restoration_signal: WPC flipper mechanisms significantly outperform original Williams flipper rebuilds; Dave demonstrates mixed-flipper strategy on World Cup to balance budget and performance

    high · Dave describing successful upgrade and customer satisfaction; audio difference notable ('whack whack whack' vs 'wet clap')

  • ?

    technology_signal: 1976 Fireball restoration required sourcing rare semiconductor chips from England; parts availability challenge for vintage home pinball games

    medium · Dave mentioning need to source chips from England to complete Fireball sound board repair

    • 2:52
    I liked the content, I didn't like the recording and I also enjoyed all the arcade episodes, not just yours or mine but the one we did with Eric Stone the one we did with Jay and more to come and we'll talk about that under today in a few minutes so what are your favorite moments over the last two years I really liked our Fathom episode
    3:23
    I liked the Fun and Games episode it was great going down the memory trail there of Fun and Games the great heyday of that wonderful arcade those are the two that stick out for me the Pintastic one was cool too it was very different we always have something different to bring to the table we kind of vary it up a little bit we kind of keep things on pinball go off a little bit here and there in tangents but back to pinball so it's I kind of like them all but
    3:56
    almost like Gary Stern said what's your favorite pinball Gary he says whatever is on the current production line so almost the same kind of thing Is that where I got that line? Yeah, I think you did. Yes, Gary Stern said that one. I guess I was paying attention, Gary. Well, folks, we haven't had an opportunity to go through the sheet in recent episodes. So I put some talking points together for today's show. Let's start with something that Dave might know about one of these companies.
    4:29
    We're going to talk about boards for a second. Dave, are you familiar with the platform that they're going to use with the new Fathom 2.0? Have you ever heard of the FAST, F-A-S-T system? I have not. I don't know a lot about it either, but it's out there, folks, online. They make an integrated package for pinball machines. I had no idea that there was a company other than Multimorphic with their P3 system,
    5:03
    but I didn't know there was a competitor. So they're out there making board sets for the new Fathom. So Multimorphic, that's the one you can swap in a whole new play field in there? For their platform. But they sell all the components. I think Spooky is using their P3 platform. I'm sure there are others. Again, I don't play in that sandbox, but those are a couple of the companies. The other one is one I think you mentioned a long time ago, Pinball Basement.
    5:37
    Yeah, Pinball Basement, nice quality stuff. I got a couple boards from him. So WPC stuff, right? Actually, he's more late 80s Williams stuff. 89 and 95, I thought I read. System 11 stuff. So it was a sorely needed niche that no one was doing. People were spending big bucks on roached out, you know, MPU combo driver boards for the game. It was all alkaline damage from batteries and so forth,
    6:09
    and you could fix them all. It would take a lot. People were paying like $500 for a repaired board, and, you know, still it's an older board. It's repaired and lots of spaghetti wires in there. So now this guy, he made a really nice board. I bought a couple of them just to have in stock. What are the games? games like Taxi, Bad Cats I think even Black Knight 2000 I think has it a whole bunch a bunch of games people like from the late 80's System 11 is a very popular platform for a lot of people they like that stuff it's right before DMD came in
    6:42
    another item on the sheet somebody you sold a game to during the last year I've seen selling games like a madman out of hopkington do you know who i'm talking about no no george who's joe joe lemur joe lemur how do you say his name he's in hoppington yeah oh i didn't know that okay yeah uh recently i saw a bow and arrow and he's selling an avengers and i thought this was
    7:13
    funny he bought an avengers used it for that pin clash tournament that was online and now he's was selling it he owned it like for a month or two and then just probably he'll probably get all his money back out of maybe more given that stern has got backlog yes uh that was one what was the other thing i wanted to talk about oh brand new i was thinking of him because of the new machines uh in tournament machines brand new barcade on the north shore in the north shore mall
    7:49
    Okay, what is it? What do we got? The Double Bull Tap House. Sounds good so far. I like Tap House part. You're probably not going to be a big fan of the lineup because it's all modern. I like some modern stuff. Well, let's go through. What do you got? Led Zeppelin, Avengers, Turtles, Stranger Things, Aerosmith, Star Wars, Batman, Iron Man, and old school which one is it twilight zone or adams family uh probably adams ding ding ding
    8:25
    ding ding ding ding ding all right so brand new brew place we're gonna have to go all right sounds good i don't know if it's a corporate thing i'll reach out maybe yeah we interview whoever but all you people who uh are here in the northeast or the massachusetts area you got a new place to play and wasn't that something uh our uh one of our favorite fans bruce out on the west coast was just in in uh portland but we were talking about his home town of phoenix with over
    9:01
    40 different barcades that's impressive that is very impressive that's uh that's actually excessive we don't have anything like that here we don't we're waiting for jay but when jay opens up we'll be uh we'll be ready to go in and do another you know opening review without any barcades how is anyone going to get anything done you know well i think a lot of people are spending their covid money on pinball right now one quarter at a time which brings me to people traveling to wisconsin
    9:32
    this weekend to play in multiple tournaments at District 82. Again, I've got to reach out and say thanks to Tom Graff for putting it on, on Twitch. Classics tournament today, some great games, a lot of my favorites, Viking, Frontier, Xenon, Hot Doggin', Kiss. Wow. Just a great tournament. All classics? Is all classics? It's a classic tournament this morning and then this afternoon.
    10:04
    I don't know if it's ended. We're a little late right now in the afternoon. They were going to have another tournament, and again, we'll probably tune in and take a look. You know what it's called, George? It's called Respect. It's a wind here, George. Yeah, well, look at the... Wow. Wow, that was very windy. Okay. Well, everybody in the audience, you get to enjoy a nice summer day out here with the wind. What are we drinking today, George? I'm drinking a Too Juicy.
    10:36
    I'm drinking some kind of video game. What's it called? Oh, what did you think of that? I thought it was really nice. It's called Player One Standby or something. Yeah, from Otter Creek. Not bad. It had the thing from Galaga. It's a little Galaga. It kind of looked like Galaga. Yeah, Galaga. It was Galaga. One last thing. Shout out to our friends at the Pinball Asylum down in Fort Myers, Florida. They having in August I sure Dave I think we talked about it the IFPA is back giving Whopper points starting August 1st They moved their mid tournament called the Point Monsters Championship to August 6th through 8th
    11:16
    Want more information? PinballAsylum.com. So with these Whopper points, do they actually have Whopper Jr. points too, or just the Whoppers? Can I be king? You know the line I want to use, but I'm holding back. Okay, Dave. That's my today sheet. You say, what have you been doing that warrants a
    11:46
    today? A today. Well, what have you been doing? Alright. It's not, I've only, it's only been, what, 10 or 12 days since I last saw you. We haven't, we have not released our, the World Cup episode, have we? No. Okay, shh. Quiet. that's down low. Well, no, this will come out afterwards. Okay, we'll get a preview. So all of you who listened to our World Cup episode... This is for you. I don't let Dave listen to it beforehand. So he has no idea
    12:16
    what he's in for. I have no idea. So, World Cup. We finished up the World Cup and went back to its home. George did notice when we were playtesting. It's like, you know, the left flipper feels a little bit kind of twitchy somehow. It's like, well, a little bit, George, but these old Williams flippers, I totally rebuilt them with original stuff because I was trying to keep with the customer's budget he had for it. He wanted me to go totally crazy on it. So I just said, okay, I'll just rebuild the original flippers,
    12:49
    which I don't like to do. I like to put new WPC mechs in there if I can, but I'll try to cut back on some stuff and be budget conscious. So I did that, rebuilt them. They were working fine. a little bit twitchy, but within spec of a Williams flipper from the day. So it was fine. It was plenty of power. Just a little something special in that flipper. So it was minor. So it played well. So it went to the customer's place. He played for a couple days, and he said, Hey, I know this is a bulb out.
    13:19
    It's like, okay, well, I should have showed the guy how to replace a bulb. I should have actually... I tried to include bulbs, but I didn't this time. So I said, okay, bad on me. I'm going to bring some bulbs with me when I go out to see him and he said oh and the left flipper is a little bit twitchy it's like oh George he noticed okay so I told him it's like okay I'll come out there you know a couple days later and I went out there and I said well we can upgrade you know you're going to go beyond your budget we can upgrade to these brand new WPC mechs they're wonderful they're going to cost a little bit but it's well worth it
    13:49
    you already put a bunch of money in this game it's from your childhood it's well worth it so he agreed but I said I'm going to try to fix what you have anyway to save you money if I can and it's going to be for free. But if we're going to upgrade, I'm going to charge you for the upgrade. So he was fine with that. It's all cool. So I went there and I tried fixing that little twitchy thing. Couldn't get it going. So you know what? I got these. I brought the brand new mechs you wanted. Oh, let's do them. I'm in for a penny and for a pound. The problem, George, with this particular Williams game, this Williams Classic, every Williams game is no problem.
    14:19
    Switch over. I did it on a Pocorino. I did it on Gorgar, all those other games. this game here is different because it doesn't have an in in um it's called inline flipper feed the flipper feeds are not there they have a little kicker like in space mission williams a little kicker next to each flipper so if you try to hold the ball the ball goes down the flipper into the kicker hole and shoots out at a goal all the time on both flippers so look underneath the play field everything is so tight there i tried looking at the footprint of these w these you
    14:52
    You couldn't put it in because it would encroach. Everything. You couldn't do it. So I said. So what did you do? I showed the guy. It's like, this is going to be really tough to do. I said, you know what I'm going to do? I think I can manage to get the one flipper you were having a problem with. I can do that one. But I'm going to leave the other one stock since that one's actually working because I can't get two in there. They just won't fit. So I manipulated in there actually to take one of the, so much so I had to move things around. And there's a light for the kicker area, you know, slingshot area.
    15:24
    I actually had to remove the light. I had to remove the light, and I had to push it over to a little different area, twist the light bulb, twist the socket, whatever. All this kind of like MacGyvering I had to do to fit it in. I got it in there on a wing and a prayer, and it worked great. And I replaced the guy's bulb, gave him a free pack of bulbs with the game. He was happier than a pig in something. Between you and me, could you notice the difference between the two flippers?
    15:55
    Yes, a little bit. Especially, I actually told the guy, too, say, here, listen to this sound here. And the sound of the WPC was like whack, whack, whack, like solid, bang, bang, bang. The other one is like, you know, kind of a, you know, sort of like a wet clap. You know what I mean? You know, but it still was powerful. It just didn't have a nice solid punch. No, I'm saying you got two different mechanisms in there. But I would say they play well together. I asked you, did the customer know? He was just happy that the thing worked. He's happy the thing worked. He's fine with it. I'd say, you know,
    16:26
    percentage-wise, maybe it's like, you know, 5% not as nice as WPC when you're playing it, but anybody playing the game, you didn't tell them, you're not going to know. No way. Hey, you got one powerful flipper and one sort of powerful flipper. Yeah, they're both powerful, just one is a little more accurate, let's say. One is super accuracy, the other one is, you know, almost accurate. That kind of thing. What other stories in the last 12 days? All right, well, working on a T2 restoration that I'm trying to get done for in July, August time frame.
    17:00
    I'm on a good... Oh, I saw pictures of this. Yeah, it came up pretty nice. So we're going to do an episode. Oh, we are, yeah. Yeah, it's going to come up. So this isn't leaving like tomorrow. No, I've been working. I've been slaving night and day in this thing. In fact, there's been some nice June days that I really wanted to be outside. and I've been in the basement just working on this thing. I really want to be outside. It's so nice. I love the June weather. It's nice and dry and cool. So anyway, but duty calls. So I was doing that and I was wondering why the left flipper just would never
    17:31
    work. It's like, what's going on? You know, I and then it's like, you know what? Dummy, why don't you check the fuse? So I No, don't worry. I didn't spend too long. I spent a couple minutes just thinking about it. That's something I would look at. You know, that cat or dumb dog face. You know, the, ooh, rut row, rut row, Rorge. The fuse looked good, though. It doesn't say anything.
    18:02
    That's a move I would make. And I even, like, I even jump it across the fuse to get a voltage, because usually if you jump it across two differing points, you get a voltage. I didn't get that. The fuse must be good. No, it wasn't good. Pulled it out, put a new fuse in. now the flipper worked but as soon as I hit the flipper it blew again, it's like okay well now I know why it blew somewhere with the flipper coil, flipper coil is good I cut the diodes there's two diodes on the flipper coil, cut them both opened them out, one is shorted, there's the problem a shorted diode on the flipper coil is the problem
    18:34
    did that, replaced the fuse one more time and now we had a party, now we're all set there is a There's a section with Terminator 2 that has a Terminator's face there, and you try to shoot the ball in there, and it says, Lock sequence initiated, just like Arnie says. We need to move this along. We've got ten minutes. Oh. Well, let's move it along. Ten-minute drill. Anything else major that you do? We can say T2 for later.
    19:05
    Anything else major? Well, no. I want to say one thing about T2. You're not surprised I've never played it. I'm looking forward to playing it. I think it's a hallmark of our podcast, now that I look back in retrospect, at how many games I've never played in our podcast. There's a lot. It's kind of, working on the 90s, I like working on 90s. It's a good contrast. It is a good contrast. You knowing the games, and me not knowing the games.
    19:35
    Yeah, it's good. Mr. Knowledge and Mr. Mickey the Dunce in the corner. well it's kind of contrast with you doing all the research on uh who made what where how and all these other podcasts whatever else you're researching i'm coming in blind so it's a contrast to that too so it's like i can play you know hey i'm gonna call out grant hey grant the only script that i have is the sheet and it just has some topic areas i never rehearsed with Dave. Now, I know it's on the front desk,
    20:06
    they might look a little staged, but give me a little credit. I try hard. He tries. I try. I think he exceeds, too. Okay, so we're going to do futures right now. So this is the end of our anniversary podcast. A little different. I know the last time we did this futures thing, I think we didn't accomplish many of them. Mine's a simple future. obviously I want to continue.
    20:36
    I want to do more of these because there's tons of games that are going to come through you that we already have a backlog of. There's games in my collection we have yet to play. I want to do some more arcade shows. I'm looking forward to us doing Pintastic again. Those are pretty doable, I think. Yeah. What about you? for the future yeah lots more games
    21:07
    coming through the shop I don't know probably I think I got 12 last count and they keep coming in it's more of a I have to manage the spinning plates at this point but the future yeah I'm looking forward to shows I'm definitely looking forward to the Allentown show yeah what are we going to do for that show you're going to be there right or sort of I'm planning on being there, but I'm not sure I'm going to go into the show if I have to do certain things.
    21:40
    But I'm waiting until the end of the month, and then we'll see where we go. I think the show is going to be partied like it's 2019. It's supposed to be a gigantic show. I'm hoping that's the case. It is partied like 2019. Let's just see. I'm going to wait and hear what happens at the end of the month. I've got a place to stay. I'm looking forward to going to the farmer's market. I'm not sure I'm going to go Friday or Saturday. You're probably going both days. So that's yet to be determined. But the farmer market is definitely the deal Yeah we going to be going We have a nice place a nice bed and breakfast all set to go We going to take almost a week vacation there and blow the budget and have a good time and definitely get some of that farmer market pho
    22:26
    that George hooked me up with a long time ago. It's the best pho around, or pho if you're pho-inclined, but it's actually pho. Vietnamese soup, call it what it is. Vietnamese chicken soup is just the best. Awesome. That's a great place. Best. Small little hole in the wall. It's about, I don't know, five by five feet square. It's enough for a stovetop and a cash register. That's about it. Anything else for future? I think that does it.
    22:57
    And I think we need to figure out, let me stop for a second. A bigger car for me. I need a bigger pinhole. I need a haul. I can't put a WPC in my Volvo right now. I need a bigger Volvo. So that might be in the future for us. Okay. We need to figure out a way to end our shows. Okay. I don't want to do the... We've got to figure out something. I know. How about be safe? No, let's not do that. I hate that.
    23:27
    Because I say it to you all the time. Yeah, not be safe. No. I say live your life and take chances, folks. Okay. So every time now when you're driving to my house, I'm just going to say take chances. Yeah, take yes. Drive fast. and reckless and be risky take a risk you only live once no make it count no I know it's cliche sorry it's okay it's heartfelt I don't want you to have any problems no I appreciate it George okay that's a wrap beer time all this feature
    24:00
    fireball Fireball. Not the one that, you know, people think about in the early 70s. No, no, we have the 76 home model Fireball. And, yeah.
    24:30
    I've been taking these on lately, George. At first, it's like, I don't know. I didn't make the parts for them. Now I've been getting pretty good at them. So I took this one in, really nice shape, but it was hurting, needed to be cleaned, blah, blah, blah, usual stuff. Got it going pretty well. Sound was really, really faint with a big humming sound. Played it for a little more playtesting, and then I got no sound at all. Then I started doing research on it, and parts on Obtanium. I had to go and get some parts from some chips from England, but I sourced them all, put them all in,
    25:06
    And voila, the game actually sounds great now and plays great. So this thing looks like it came out of a Sears catalog from 76 right out of the showroom. So they made a lot of these. They made 10,000 of these. Let's stop for a second because I'm trying to get the timeline together here. Okay. So Fireball comes out first, the EM. In 71, I believe. We get to 1976. Sorry, 72.
    25:37
    72. 76 Sears Catalog is advertising these. Yep. We've already had the first solid state games come out of... No, we didn't. Not yet. So this was solid state before... Before solid state. Before they actually even... So the home model solid state preceded the arcade versions of these games. Yep. They did. tell the audience and i haven't looked at them folks we haven't gone down into the
    26:08
    workshop yet tell the audience the similarities to the games that we collect are there interchangeable products or are they in your eyes maybe the experimental to kind of get the hang of what the new platform is going to look like and they use that as a launch pad to get into the more commercial games? No, they actually did a lot of commercial parts in these games. Like, anything that kicked the ball around was
    26:38
    commercial. The flipper, flipper assemblies, commercial grade. Pop bumpers, commercial grade. Slingshots, same thing. The spinner was, for the most part, except for underneath. The underneath of this thing is one big, think of like a WPC pin with or even like Chicago Gaming. They use a big PCB with all the lights screwed into it, 5-5-5 lights all in one big PCB underneath
    27:09
    the game. So same thing for this game in 76. One big PCB with everything mounted to it that you would mount underneath there. So like Kings of Steel with the big light board? Yeah, kind of like that, but this had even more than that on it. It had even switch assemblies. Everything was on that thing. And the hardcore things like the flippers and the pop-embers, they were mounted to the playfield, but this thing, the actual switches and stuff, and all the things that would actuate, they were mounted to this PCP board. I'm going to have to look at this when we go downstairs. Yeah, it's interesting how they did it.
    27:39
    It's a unique take on it. This game, it's very similar in layout to Bally's 76 Hocus Pocus. An EM. It's a funny EM, but the this Hocus Pocus had a center spinning target and a ball gate, a return gate, and this 76 Fireball, they made three other games as well. They made Captain Fantastic, they made Galaxy Ranger, and Evil Knievel.
    28:10
    All of the same layout as this thing, but different artwork, of course. Do you have any idea how many of these they actually made? I mean, in its entirety, all the games you just mentioned. Well, this said 10,000 for Fireball. They made 10,000 of these. Like I said, do you think this was the test bed? It sounds like you'd get a lot of mileage out of it. Well, here's the thing. This has an LED score display. It has a red LED, one red LED score display.
    28:41
    It's four-player games. Every time player one or player two was up, it would basically show, okay, player two scored. It would be a light for player two, and now that score is player two. A light for player three. That score is player three. So there was an LED for player one, two, three, four. And the modern, so they actually were ahead of their time doing an LED score display because when they started going digital, they were using plasma displays. And that was up all the way through even today's DMD modern era was all plasma.
    29:11
    They sold a lot of stuff. I had no idea that they did this much. What other information about these games? I looked real quick. I couldn't find anything, but I'm sure you did a little homework on this. well I know they sold for 645 bucks back in the day from Sears which is a lot of money that's about half of what that's probably like an $1800 game I think I said in one of our episodes my friend Jack when he bought his brand new Playboy I think he paid $1650 so right
    29:45
    I do remember when these came out and I remember him saying for you know $100 or $1,000 more, you're into a commercial-grade game, not a quote-unquote toy. Yeah, it's the way to go. Obviously, they were successful. That's a lot of games. This one, its main board, it's the brain of the game, the MPU, was in the back box, and the display was part of that. So it was all in one unit in the back of the head. So there's only one board in the head?
    30:16
    One board in the head does it all. Where did they put the Transformer? the power supply and transformer are in the cabinet. So that main board, so the cabinet has a power supply given the voltages. The transformer is kind of locked away in like this cage with a power plug on the right side of the cabinet in the back. And then that feeds to a power supply board that supplies more voltages out to like the CPU and so forth. But the main logic board has sound on it.
    30:47
    It's got some lights on it. It's got the display, and it's got the CPU on it. So it was all kind of stuff going on that main board that I had to mess with. Do you think this stuff was manufactured in the USA? Oh, yeah. I'm sure. So they made it easy, it sounds like. Everything on one board for the play field for the most part. Everything on one board for the back box and off to the races. They could just keep pumping these out, no problem. Obviously, if they made $10,000 for that, you've got to believe that Elton John was a hot.
    31:22
    Oh, yeah. And definitely Evil Knievel. Definitely. Yep. I mean, all those games did great commercially. But I keep coming back to it. Sounds like they were trying some things. It was easier to do with a home toy than it was to do with their operators who they've got relationships for probably years. Use it as a test bed. Figure out what works, what doesn't work. Some things maybe they thought might work didn't work, like the LED you were talking about. I mean, it makes sense. And these are like the red LED.
    31:53
    Get paid to do research while you're making money. And these are the red LED, which is very popular back in the time frame. I think in the James Bond film, was it Moonraker? I think it was Moonraker. But he had the LED, the red LED watch was all the rage around the same time frame. So they made the red LED was, you know, in fact, Superman, same thing. red led and superman atari they use the same deal in that one too i was thinking that when you were talking about interesting so they went that way i don't know why they decided to go plasma for
    32:24
    everybody else because plasma seems a lot more high voltage and a lot more can wear out more it's just maybe they had a manufacturer right in their backyard it was cheaper somehow i don't know might have been i mean if you look back at led technology for the early 70s that was pretty that was new still even Radio Shack's calculator with the red LED, remember those? HP, I mean all of them they all had that red display whether the display itself was red
    32:55
    or the piece of Lexan or a plastic one way or the other interesting, seems like forever ago and of course this game has no coin door on it so you can't get into the game easily you have to take three screws out of the front the palm bar. There's no lock down? No the lock down bar comes off with three screws then that comes out then you can slide the glass off then you get three screws to hold the playfield down Those come out Then the playfield lifts up and you can get into it They really didn want
    33:28
    anybody playing with these things. No. They wanted a sealed unit. Kind of sealed unit. But you know, with regular screws. 600 bucks back then? That was a lot of money. But you've got to figure, back in that time period in the 70s, pinball was everywhere. It's a lot of quarters, Dave. A lot of quarters. Even though you and I probably put a lot of them in the machine and could have. But I remember when this came out and it was, nah, it's not quite the same thing. I never played it. I mean, if you were a player, you kind of looked at it and like, this is not
    33:59
    the same thing. Not the same thing. But you know, I bet you it's like kind of, you know, for a well-to-do household that didn't want their kids messing with the near-do-wells at an arcade or whatever. That's a bad element down there. But when I want to go, Mom, okay, tell you what, little Johnny, I'm going to buy you this one. You stay at home with Susie and you can go play. The only arcades I played in as a kid were down at the Jersey Shore. Everything in North Jersey, for the most part, was Bowling Alley or the game in the 7-Eleven
    34:30
    or the local pizza place. But other than that, I didn't have, I don't recall any arcades in the late 70s near my house. Maybe later, more like 1980, early 80s. Having what? A full arcade. Oh, okay. The only time I saw them was when they became prominent in the mall, and that was more towards the later 70s. I was in college, so I didn't hang around North Jersey much in the late 70s. But I'm just saying, early 80s there were arcades more so.
    35:03
    The one I used to hit, which was great for all the newest, latest, and greatest games, was Nathan's, believe it or not, in Nyack, New York. It was across the border from where I lived. on one side was the nathan's hot dog fast food place on the other side was a full-blown arcade with probably 40 pinball machines used to be great great place to go play but that was few and again i had to cross the border was only 20 minutes away but i had to cross the border to go
    35:33
    find that i was big you know in the 70s it was like you know pizza shop had at least two or three pinball machines ems and mix a solid state and you know you find them everywhere laundromats or whatever, but also, you know, arcades were cropping up everywhere. I mean, Fun Spot was around, Fun and Games was around, Dream Machine was coming in, so there were tons of arcades in the late 70s, early 80s, they were, you know, all the rage that were coming up, so yeah, that's why, you know, there were some bad, of course there were some bad elements in some of these arcades, and I think
    36:05
    that's why these home models became popular with families that had some dough and wanted to keep their kids away from that, maybe. That's what I'm thinking it was about. So, we should go play some of these, George. Okay. Ready to go. All right. We did talk about it, didn't we? So, here is Fireball. We're going to give this a run here. This is Fireball, the home model. Where did you find information about this game? Is there a forum?
    36:35
    There's a forum on Pinsight about it. Right. There you go. So, would you like to go first or second, George? No, show me. All right. I mean, I have Fireball. Oops, get back here. I mean, a Fireball Classic, but not... This is totally different. Talk about sound. I mean, talk about basic. Talk about basic sound. We'll just talk about a basic game. Two bumpers, two spinners, and a bunch of stand-ups. Two stand-ups. Wow, this is a...
    37:06
    Yeah, this is kind of a barren game, isn't it? It is. flippers buttons feel good oh three i stand corrected three three stand-ups what's that yes you betcha they look like regular bumpers they are it's all it's all legit stuff i mean everything looks
    37:41
    it's just a scaled down version yeah it is a toy though it is there's no question it's a toy but nice crisp display now i could see this being a home game ding dong ding dong yeah avon calling and people don't even probably know what that is well our audience does our audience is uh i looked at our latest numbers yeah our audience doesn't start until about 28 years old we have zero listeners under the age
    38:17
    of 18. And the rest are in nursing homes. Excellent, George. Let's just say we skew older. Okay. But we have a great audience. And we have a dedicated audience. We do. Very loyal. Especially if they put up with us. Yeah, I like the display on this. That actually wouldn't be a bad thing in a regular game. Not at all. That would have been a big money saver.
    38:48
    Yeah, I know. I don't know why they didn't do that. There had to be a reason. Someone has the knowledge on that. Yeah, I would be interested to hear that because this it's actually a really nice looking display. We got the ABCD in the top and George got the D. I feel like Land of the Giants with this game. Yeah, I got the F. Yeah, people will be happy.
    39:18
    Whoever's game this is, they're going to be happy. Yeah, the customer had us as a child. Her grandfather gave it to her years ago, brand new. And it's been sitting in the grandfather's attic forever. And he passed it on to her. How dirty was this thing? Oh, it was filthy. I mean, it's beautiful. There we go. So you got electronic sounds. I mean, that's... When was the first electronic sound game? After this, right? Had to be. It says that we're in the money. Did I just say that?
    39:49
    Oh, you had extra ball. That's why it said you were in the money. Oh, okay. I don't know what I did. What did I do? You got extra ball somehow. I think you got... I don't know how you did that. ABCD maybe? I don't know. I did get ABCD. Maybe you went down the extra ball lane. You could have extra ball that again, too. Yeah, not bad. I mean, it certainly isn't what we're used to, but it's not bad.
    40:21
    It's either, you know, a little attachment to older games. No, no, no. Trust me, I get the whole nostalgia thing. Remember, I have an antique Jeepster, so I'm very familiar with it. 10,000 bonus points for George and an extra ball again we are in the money again oh George cranking I need 150 no 40,000 ratings there's no thresholds
    40:54
    not really but if you score 150 more you're a fireball if you score under 40,000 you're an amateur What am I? A fireball? Well, right now you're... No, you need to say that one more time. Okay. Well, if you get 75,000 points, you're a champ. So you just made champ right now. I don't want to be the champ. I want to be better. All right. So 100,000 points is fantastic. If you're 125, you're a wizard. And if you get 150... I don't want to be a wizard. You're a fireball. I want to be a fireball. Oh, triple bonus one. Lit, George, you got.
    41:25
    You got triple bonus now. You're on your way. And I got another ball? No, not yet. What's that say right there? Uh, that's just light from the other lights. But you're on your way. You've got... Oh, you know what? You just did get an extra ball. What am I doing here? You got an extra ball from points. That's your way. Remember that you did? So there's a threshold. A threshold. I guess you're getting extra ball thresholds. Okay. Oh, well, that's a little... There we go. Okay. I'll let you play. Yeah, thanks, George.
    41:56
    Five balls? Five balls. You're on your way. Wow, old school. You're on the way to fireball here. We play the toy and I do well. Oh, I tilted it. Oh, it's dead. I tilted it. It's got good sound. Let's see, when it tilts, your filters don't go dead, but everything else... I like that. Why didn't they use that in the game? It's weird.
    42:26
    It's... I just find the whole thing strange. There's some things that it's like obvious would be like a great thing. That would be great if you drained your ball and you got that. Yeah. That side doesn't like me. So we got 125 for wizard. You're almost at wizard level. I want to be the fireball. Just a little more. Okay. If I can get the B, I need the B. You only get the B by going up top there. Yeah, I mean, it's a basic design. Four lanes. It's like, it's Hocus Pocus.
    42:57
    standard targets and two spinners. I mean, one goes to the top, one goes back into the playfield by the bumpers. I mean, it's a basic game. I could see this would be a... I could see how this would be a great game for a kids' room. Doesn't take up a lot of space. No. Oh, you tilted. And I didn't become the wizard
    43:28
    You didn't become the wizard You're fantastic though Oh jeez And there you go I already do that though And that's the end Okay That's Fireball Fun Dave Who? Dave D-A-V-E Yeah Dave Right Thank you.