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Episode 8 – Spotlight Series – Spanish Eyes with John Lee

EM Pinball Journeys·podcast_episode·31m 3s·analyzed·Mar 9, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Spotlight on Spanish Eyes (1971): Design, mechanics, and EM pinball collecting culture.

Summary

An in-depth spotlight episode on Harry Williams' Spanish Eyes (1971), a classic electromechanical pinball machine. Hosts David Rick Morgan and John Lee discuss the game's design, unique center bumper feature, playfield mechanics, and broader appeal of EM pinball machines. The episode includes detailed production history, location guides for finding Spanish Eyes in public venues via Pinball Map, and exploration of the EM pinball community's appreciation for historical mechanical design.

Key Claims

  • Spanish Eyes was manufactured by Harry Williams Electronics with 85 sample units in late 1971 and 3,820 units in main production (March-May 1972), totaling 3,905 units.

    high confidence · Internet Pinball Database cited by David Rick Morgan

  • Spanish Eyes art package was designed by John Craig, not George Christian Marsh as previously attributed.

    high confidence · John Lee's research and knowledge

  • Sagasa in Spain made a slightly different version of Spanish Eyes in 1973 with different art and plastics.

    medium confidence · David Rick Morgan's research during episode preparation

  • Norm Clark, Spanish Eyes' designer, had his entire pinball career at Harry Williams in the 60s and 70s before moving to Bally as head of pinball department.

    high confidence · Internet Pinball Database cited by David Rick Morgan

  • Spanish Eyes is playable at 11+ verified public locations including Pinball Hall of Fame, Roanoke Pinball Museum, and Rainville's Hideaway in Williamstown, NY.

    high confidence · David Rick Morgan citing Pinball Map research with recent verification

  • The center bumper in Spanish Eyes acts as a trap door between the flippers—if the ball goes the wrong way, it drains.

    high confidence · John Lee's personal gameplay experience and collection knowledge

  • Earlier EM games with center bumpers (like Magic City) had different mechanics—smaller flippers with rollovers underneath for points, unlike Spanish Eyes' trap design.

    medium confidence · John Lee's historical knowledge from Doldrums tournament experience

  • Rainville's Hideaway in Williamstown, NY contains approximately 60 pinball machines in a garage converted from a junk car repair shop.

    medium confidence · David Rick Morgan's personal visit and conversation with operator

  • Pittsburgh area (Aliquippa, Perfection locations, Pinburgh tournament history) is the East Coast pinball hub with massive EM and modern game collections.

Notable Quotes

  • “There's only one version of Spanish Eyes, right? As far as I can tell, and as far as my knowledge extends, yes.”

    John Lee @ early in episode — Establishes definitive version scarcity in the collector market

  • “That bumper, especially if you hit the top rollover and light the bumpers for 100 points instead of 10, it's such a lucrative feature on that game.”

    John Lee @ mid-episode during mechanics discussion — Highlights the critical skill element and economic design of Spanish Eyes' center bumper

  • “It's going in there. It's just a cool thing to get that ball down in there and just have it just bounce around on that and then pop back up into the playfield. You didn't do anything. The game just dictates where the ball's going to go.”

    John Lee @ mechanics explanation — Emphasizes the unpredictability and player agency loss as core appeal of EM design philosophy

  • “In the first Doldrums, the finals, we used Spanish Eyes in the finals because nobody played it. We didn't even tell people we had it. We just rolled it out.”

    John Lee @ tournament history section — Demonstrates Spanish Eyes' obscurity and strategic value in tournament play

  • “These people who made those things could design space shuttles, go to the moon, but they made pinball machines for your enjoyment.”

    David Rick Morgan @ philosophy section — Articulates the reverence for EM engineering as peak mechanical craftsmanship

  • “The fact that you can take somebody who now, my 14-year-old son, wears his Oculus, this VR device, but at the same time, he'll sit up and he'll flip on an EM machine. That's awesome.”

    David Rick Morgan @ generational appeal discussion — Highlights timeless appeal of EM machines across modern and vintage contexts

  • “EMs fill a niche in time... A lot of it's nostalgia. Some of it is just the cool factor of these things, these mechanical apparatus that were constructed in a different time.”

    David Rick Morgan — Summarizes collector psychology beyond mere nostalgia

Entities

Spanish EyesgameHarry WilliamscompanyJohn LeepersonDavid Rick MorganpersonNorm ClarkpersonJohn CraigpersonPinball MapproductBally

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Venue-based community infrastructure: Rainville's Hideaway (60 machines), Roanoke Pinball Museum (tournament hosting), Allentown Show serve as gathering points for EM community

    high · Detailed venue listings with John Lee's personal visits and recommendations; emphasis on tournaments and social gathering at locations

  • ?

    community_signal: EM pinball community values preservation of historical patina and provenance; machines treated as temporal artifacts rather than purely functional devices

    high · Extended discussion of cabinet markings, cigarette burns, play counts (87,000), and discovered artifacts as valuable historical documentation

  • ?

    community_signal: Pennsylvania identified as epicenter of pinball enthusiasm with organized club infrastructure across multiple counties and cities (Pittsburgh, Allentown, Stroudsburg, Philadelphia areas)

    high · John Lee's extended discussion of Pennsylvania's pinball culture, venue density, and player dedication across East/West regions

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spanish Eyes' center bumper trap design represents unique mechanical constraint balancing player agency with randomness; contrast with earlier EM games' smaller flipper designs

    high · John Lee's detailed analysis of bumper positioning, trap mechanics, and historical precedent in Magic City; emphasis on 'secret trap door' design philosophy

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinburgh tournament restarted after COVID and flood disruption; positioning Pittsburgh as East Coast pinball hub with tiered tournament structure across EM and modern machines

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.093

0:00
This is the EM Journeys Pinball Podcast. Hello and welcome back to the EM Pinball Journeys Podcast. I'm David Morgan. This is the second episode of the Pinball Machine Spotlight Series. Each episode will feature a different pinball machine and sometimes multiple versions of the same pinball machine. In this series, I'll share statistics, descriptions, and stories. Today, I'm once again joined by John Lee, and we're going to talk about Spanish Eyes, made by Williams in 1971. How are you doing today, John? I'm wonderful, David. Thank you for having me again. There's only one version of Spanish Eyes, right? As far as I can tell, and as far as my knowledge extends, yes. There's another game that's very similar in art package called Granada, but the play field is nowhere near the same. Not the same game. I actually own a Granada. So, yes, I can speak to the fact that the art is basically the same. The art package is by a guy named John Craig. And originally, years ago, the art was attributed to Christian Marsh. But at some point, people realized the art was by a guy named John Craig who didn't really design a lot of art. Yeah, it's definitely not a Christian Marsh Yeah, he had a unique style about him I think, wasn't he the pointy cheek guy? He's known for being the pointy people Yeah The pointy elbows Yeah That's not that Yeah At all No That's very Very different The company Sagasa in Spain Made a slightly different version of Spanish Eyes in 1973 That I learned about As I was doing a little bit of research I can see that the art is slightly different but the game is basically the same, and the back glass art is a bit different, and the plastics are a little bit different. You're not going to see that Spanish eyes in the U.S. probably, unless somebody imported it. Probably find one at Rob Burke's pastime in Ohio somewhere.
2:10
According to the Internet Pinball Database, the Spanish eyes was manufactured by Williams Electronics Incorporated with a sample run of 85 units in late 1971, and then the main production run was 3,820 units, which were made in March, April, and May of 1972 for a total run of 3,905 units. The design was by Norm Clark, whose pinball design career was pretty much entirely at Williams in the 60s and 70s, but he went on to work for Bally as the head of the pinball department. His bestsellers are Dealer's Choice, which comes up for sale a lot on Facebook Marketplace. And the other game that I see a lot is a game called OXO. The playfield features two flippers, four pop bumpers, six stand-up targets, one kick-out hole, and there's a horseshoe lane, but the game doesn't have any slingshots. I have the flyer here that reads Spanish Eyes, a single-player game, adjustable three or five ball, replay or novelty model, The distinctively different, brightly colored mosaic design of the back glass and cabinet is a real eye-catcher. The center hoop and bottom bumper rebound and flipper action add continuous zip to this exciting game. Making letters A, B, C, D, and E, and making numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, score extra ball and lights center hoop to score extra ball and lights bottom rollovers to score 5,000 points. Replays for high scores and match feature. Two 25-cent play as the profit way, meaning two plays for 25 cents. Optional single or double shoots. Craded weight 250 pounds. Size 52 inches deep, 26 inches wide, 70 inches high. Tempered playfield glass. Instruction manual and spare parts manual and game. Williams Electronics, Inc. 3401 North California Ave, Chicago, Illinois. 60618. Cable address WillCoinChicago. Available for immediate delivery through your Williams distributor. It says cable address, so that means we could have telegraphed an inquiry to Williams? I think that's hilarious. So the days before the internet, right?

high confidence · John Lee's industry knowledge and Replay Foundation tournament context

  • Pinburgh tournament recently restarted after COVID and flood disruption, featuring tiered play across EM and modern machines.

    medium confidence · David Rick Morgan's research with explicit uncertainty about full history

    • @ why own EMs section

  • “So if they're going to do pinballs, they're going to do it right. They're going to do it insanely well... Pennsylvania is like the weirdest place ever for hobbies.”

    David Rick Morgan @ Pennsylvania pinball hub discussion — Identifies Pennsylvania as epicenter of pinball enthusiasm and infrastructure

  • “That place is great. He fixes like junk cars... I think he's got like 60-something pinball machines in there now. It's definitely a destination. It's one of those weird places in pinball that exists.”

    David Rick Morgan @ venue discussion — Describes Rainville's Hideaway as anomalous community anchor

  • “Cable address WillCoinChicago... So the days before the internet, right? Morse code. Somebody would be like, send Spanish Eyes. Stop.”

    David Rick Morgan @ flyer reading section — Humorous historical observation about pre-internet ordering mechanisms

    • company
    Sagasacompany
    Granadagame
    Rainville's Hideawayvenue
    Pinball Hall of Famevenue
    Roanoke Pinball Museumvenue
    Doldrums tournamentevent
    Pinburghevent
    Replay Foundationorganization
    Roger Sharpeperson
    Nick Shellperson
    Oscar H. Rayperson
    Allentown Showevent

    medium · David Rick Morgan discusses Pinburgh's recent revival through Replay Foundation, noting massive game collections and tier-based tournament format

  • $

    market_signal: Spanish Eyes remains findable in public venues across US (11+ documented locations via Pinball Map); sustained location operator interest in EM machines

    high · Comprehensive list of Spanish Eyes locations from Duluth to Las Vegas maintained on Pinball Map; David Rick Morgan's recent verification of playability

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Growing cross-generational appeal of EM machines; younger players (VR users, Gen Z) actively playing and collecting alongside traditional collectors

    high · David Rick Morgan's anecdote about 14-year-old son playing EM machines; broader discussion of timeless mechanical appeal transcending technology eras

  • ?

    technology_signal: EM games positioned as accessible counterpoint to modern tech (VR, AI) in cultural context; mechanical simplicity valued as grounding element

    medium · David Rick Morgan's discussion of clinging to past while embracing future; AI mentioned as contrasting force driving appreciation for mechanical systems

    • 4:32
    Morse code. Somebody would be like, send Spanish eyes. Stop. Right? John, please tell the listeners about the somewhat unique feature of having a pop bumper right between the flippers. I have a Spanish eyes. That pop bumper feature is amazing. It's one of those things that's super unique in the game where it almost has a horseshoe around it. And if you can get it in there, and in the previous episode we talked about nudging. If you can just don't touch anything, just let it do its thing. It'll come back up at times. That bumper, especially if you hit the top rollover and light the pop bumpers for 100 points instead of 10, it's such a lucrative feature on that game. It'll go down in there. Around the sides of it, it's almost like an open-ended field goal with a slot down the middle. If it goes down in there, there's a good possibility that that pop bumper, what they say, zip, it'll push the ball back up into the play field but there's traps associated with it too there's no slingshots under the flippers are just open gates it's like you're gone it just goes down underneath there so if you flip and miss it's going in there it's just a cool thing to get that ball down in there and just have it just bang around on that and then pop back up into the playfield. You didn't do anything. The game just dictates where the ball's going to go. It's cool. Fun game. I've had the opportunity to play it. I do like the whole art package, but the design is really fun to me. And it was interesting to think about the design with the middle pop. They call it middle pop, having the pop bumper in the middle between the flippers. There are some games later on, but I learned that there were games much earlier that had the middle top design. At the Doldrums tournament, we played one that I believe it was Magic City or something along that line that had that lower center pop bumper, but it wasn't in the same vein as the Spanish Eyes one. The Spanish Eyes, again, it's almost deceiving. Like that pop bumper, you know, potentially could do something but if it goes the wrong way and you're flipping it's going to go under the flippers it's kind of like a secret trap door where you're gone right you'll lose the ball the other ones on some of the older ems i believe they're the smaller two inch flipper games where underneath that would have a rollover that would give you points spanish eyes not so much it's kind of like you just got sucked into the abyss and that's it you're done how did you acquire a spanish eyes I played it in a private collection in my area. Another guy who would live around here has one. So I'm like saying to myself, let me look for one. And I went on Pinside, and I found a guy who was looking, in New York, who was looking to trade for a solid-staking. And I had, at the time, a Big Guns, which, it's a cool game. It got some unique features It a Mark Ritchie game Played it enough where I like all right I going to try to trade it around So Spanish Eyes I always been enamored by playing it I've only seen it the one time in the private collection, and that's something that you don't get to play all the time. So I reached out to the guy, and I worked out a deal with him, where he would give me Spanish Eyes and a project dimension for the big guns. Completely redone Spanish Eyes. The dimension was a project. and it's still a project.
    8:13
    I went and took a trip, drove out, brought the big guns, saw this guy's collection, beautiful EMs and a lot of fun other games. We got the Spanish Eyes, brought it home, and it's been a hit in our collection ever since. The game is so unique. The biggest thing is to hit that top rollover shot, because then it lights the pop bumpers up top and the bottom one. That is that EM sweet spot. Lighting the pop bumpers to score big points turns the hundred and tens into hundreds and thousands. And then there's some skill. This is getting past where there's skill-based stuff. Being able to use the mechanical advantage of nudging to hit the one and the two and the three and the four that are up on the upper part of the play field by the outer pop bumpers. And then there's a five and a six to be able to use your skill to shoot the horseshoe turnaround and the kick out hole to get big points too i'm not sure if it's a b c d e the rollovers one of them gives you an extra ball and the other one gives you like 5 000 points on the horseshoe lane one of them lights that for like 5 000 points lights the outlanes for like 5 000 points and once you hit it goes away. If you keep it in play, it stays on, but if you roll out and take the 5,000 points, that resets. It's such a fun game. In the first doldrums, the finals, we used Spanish eyes in the finals because nobody played it. We didn't even tell people we had it. We just rolled it out. Here it is. Nice. And it was like, oh, people were hesitant because it can be brutal to play. Oh, But it's a matter of hitting certain shots. That top rollover is huge, huge points-wise. Multiplies everything by 10. You can't play a game without that. A high-scoring game. You're going to stay in the low 10,000s, 20,000s. If you can hit that rollover and keep the ball active for a while and do a lot of the things you need to do, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, A, B, C, D, E, you can just keep racking up the points. That's nice. That's the key.
    10:31
    How many other EMs have you owned? I recall that you had a Bally Captain Fantastic. Yeah, I've owned a few EMs. I own a few now. I find that some of them have lasting value like anything else, right? You key into them and you keep them. We mentioned prior that I like two-player Williams EMs, and I have a Valiant, and I have an 8-Ball. I still have that project dimension. Still a project. It's looming, and it looks at me longingly like, please fix me. Someday, someday. Some projects are more of a project than others. Yes, it hasn't even been touched. I have a Neptune, which is a single-player Gottlieb. It's an evolving project. I'm ready to put more attention back into it. I still have the Spanish Eyes that now requires a little bit of attention. With anything else, these EM games are original parts and maintenance and things. Yeah, adjustments need to be made and go through and clean some stuff up. I was having an issue for a while on a five-ball game. It would skip balls three and two. So it would go from ball four to ball one. So essentially it was a three-ball game. I'd probably 85% of the time. Oh, okay. And I would tune it up a little bit and clean some things up, and it would play. And then it would start to slip again. Again, the problem that I have is time.
    11:55
    They require patience and time. Yes. and a space to constructively take them apart and put them back together. And the thing I don't have a lot of is time at this stage of my life. I also have cats, so I can't leave things out. Or I find things in places, it's like, where did that go? And how did it end up over here? And it's not like I picked it up and I put it down somewhere else. It's knocked on the floor, stuck under something. There's a cat in the back box. I can't leave the back of it off. Or there's a cat in the machine. Those things. So the fun stuff in life.
    12:32
    I know we've talked about this. You're more of a solid state guy, and that's great. I like all eras of pinball machines. What is the appeal for you to also own EMs? I think EMs fill a niche in time. We've mentioned that there's just a draw to some of what they do. A lot of it's nostalgia. Some of it is just the cool factor of these things, these mechanical apparatus that were constructed in a not a simpler time but a different time they were the most complicated things mechanically that people could put out these people who made those things could design space shuttles to go to the moon but they made pinball machines for your enjoyment so it's it's cool to be able to put your hands on these things and learn the processes of how they work and the way that they play is a whole different feel than a solid state game it's markedly different to a point you could feel the progression of time it's like meeting people of different ages and seeing their experiences so to be able to have a collection that spans all eras if you don't have em in your collection i think there's something missing that's personally my own feelings and you know i'm sure that uh other people have different opinions and people like certain things like there's people not for nothing who you could like just the datas or you're a nike person shoes are shoes to me i want i just think this one looks cooler than that one you know what i mean it's functional it's a thing you like a subaru versus a toyota car is a car to me same with pinball machines i don't have like a favorite thing i have games that make me feel certain ways about them most of them are like this is cool and sometimes that cool factor wears off and it's time to get something else in its place right right it's cool for a minute it's cool for a year it's cool it's like bolted to the floor cool but i games have a personal you have a personal connection with either your first game or a game that you had as a kid as we talked about before your parents had or your grandfather had yeah so there there could be a connection but uh i find that em pinball machines and pinball machines of any era give you kind of a snapshot in time of what things were like in that time frame because you have the art style you have the game design style you have what is under the hood from the manufacturing standpoint i find that really interesting so you have literally a piece of history well it's like going to a museum and you have vintages, any kind of museum, whether it's art, you could see anything that goes through history, right? Here's this era, here's this piece of art from this time. Here's this mechanical thing. Here is this rock hatchet Here is the bronze age Here is the this We are amazingly lucky to live in an era where this is still a thing to be able to say i have this mechanical marvel from 1960 something 1970 something some of the games i have are older than myself right and they're cool in that way the smells that you can get off of them the places this thing has been the patina on the cabinet that's got somebody's name carved into it or it's part of its charm now yeah you know people refurbish these things i like that to a point if i pick up a game that came from somebody's house and the playfields roached out busted up planked you know no paint i'm probably going to replace that at some point in time or find something that is in a better condition but i love the cabinet that's got like some kid named tom's name carved into it and like a date or a cigarette burn on the wood rail or something weird like that that just at this moment in time it was minutiae of nothingness that didn't mean anything then but now it's look like looking back at the snapshot of history that this thing has 87,000 plays, and who knows where it's been, right? Or you'll find something in there. It was a flyer or something or a cigarette butt or somebody's stale bag of weed or whatever you can find in these pinball machines, right? That's a story I heard. They pulled an EM game out of somebody's basement, and there was this bag of dirt weed that was stuffed in there that somebody forgot about 40 years ago, you know? They all offer this glimpse of history, right? And the history that we're involved in now. This mechanical marvels of time. It's great that they still work. For me, it's a pleasure learning how to repair them and maintain them. The fact that people are still interested in them is the craziest thing in hindsight. Or like as a step back, look at this stuff, right? The fact that you can take somebody who now, my 14-year-old son, wears his Oculus, this VR device, but at the same time, he'll sit up and he'll flip on an EM machine. That's awesome. Yeah. It's super cool that these kids are now playing games that are as old as their grandparents and still having fun doing it. It's like you don't see kids chasing a wheel around with a stick anymore or a hoop, something like that. You know, one of those things. This is a mechanical marvel that's timeless.
    18:18
    I agree. I keep thinking about how their kids are into record players and old technology. One of my kids listens to all the music that we grew up with and listened to AM radio. It's like all 60s and 70s doo-wop that was on, you know, on AM radio. I love that, right? I mean, we live in a time now where we're grasping with the new future and clinging on to the past and trying to merge the two together to kind of keep on level-headed as we go forward with life. Because we're dealing with this modern technology that's just mind-bending.
    19:00
    You know, AI is a thing. And it's going to be a force in our lives as we go forward. So to be able to say this thing that I'm doing now is still relevant in our modern timeline, that's the cool part. I mean, that's the thing. And again, we've talked, it's a release. Games like Spanish Eyes, the games like Granada, which I've played, and it's cool. It's not as cool as Spanish Eyes, but it's still cool. I'd rather have a Spanish Eyes, but it's cool to have the Granada. Yeah, for a minute, there was, at Vintage Game Revival, they were both side by side. So it was cool to see the both of them. And it's cool to see the differences, right? It's like, to be able to see that, just to be able to do that stuff, that it's out there now. It's out there for everybody to see. You can go to these places, they're public, you know, wherever you go. You go to Silver Ball, Asbury Park, which you definitely got to go to, it's worth it. Yes, it's on my list. Yeah, go off-season. right in the summer it's madhouse oh okay very busy in the summer yeah yeah i imagine being right on the waterfront yeah it's hard to keep up with some of the stuff going on down there but to be able to go to those places go to anywhere you know what i mean wherever that a game would like spanish eyes would be if you can find that out in the wild right you mentioned one of your papa card games right where they were i'm sure spanish eyes maybe somewhere on pinball maps? Yeah, it's actually, it segues into, I actually do have a list. I did a little research. So I have a list of the locations where you can play the Spanish eyes on the pinball map app. So in Duluth, Minnesota, there's a place called All Game. And in St. Louis, Missouri, there's a place called City Museum. In Tallahassee, Florida, there's a place called Flippin' Great Pinball. Also Garden City, Idaho is home of the Idaho Pinball Museum. Lions Colorado has the Lions Classic Pinball.
    21:00
    Lafayette, Indiana has a place called Main Street Amusements. And Savage, Minnesota has North Star Pinball Collective. Las Vegas, Nevada has the Pinball Hall of Fame. A lot of games there. And then also, I've played Spanish Eyes in two locations. They're on this list that I found. So that means as of the recording of this podcast, they're still there. In Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, which is near Pittsburgh, there's a place called Pinball PA.
    21:30
    And then also in Williamstown, New York, there is our pinball at Rainville's Hideaway, which I know you've been to. That place is great.
    21:39
    It's a great spot. He fixes like junk cars. Yeah. And he told me that he built this garage to fix his cars, but then he put 50 pinball machines. I think he's got like 60-something pinball machines in there now. It's definitely a destination. It's one of those weird places in pinball that exists. That's kind of like, I don't know if many people would understand the reference, but down in the Louisiana area, like outside of New Orleans, there's this place called the Abita Mystery House. And it's just like this collection of oddities. Oh, okay. So walking into this, our pinball place, there was some trepidation, you know. But once you get in there, it's like, this is the coolest freaking place ever.
    22:22
    If you're in New York and you can find the time and find this place. It's near Syracuse. Yeah. My wife and I went. They were having a tournament.
    22:33
    We drove to Herkimer, New York on the highway. And we ran into a freaking blizzard. I mean a blizzard. We were like, what are we doing? and then we roll up and it was like it's not a place it's like this guy's house yeah that he opens to the public yeah so that was where it was like what is going on here the directions are behind paula's towing yeah we're in this road in like february march in central northern new york north of rome yeah if you know geography yeah and it's like where are we yeah you're in farm country Yeah, there's nothing around. Nothing.
    23:13
    We went there and there was people we knew who played pinball So it was like alright this is cool It the coolest oddity place And that not a slur towards it It's just a cool, weird little spot. Everybody should try to find. Go check this place out. They do tournaments. It's like their own little organic pinball community out there. But the fact that they have one of those. Some of the games dude has is like, where did you get this thing? Yeah, it's a great collection. And there are a bunch of EMs, too. Yeah. So the guy, Ray, his nephew, Matt. I know of Matt. I didn't meet Matt, but that's his nephew that fixes up the games. When we met him, it was cool, man. They rolled the red carpet out. They were like, call me Mack, or you drove all the way out here to see this. And I'm like, we did. Right? You got to go there once. I recommend it. There are a couple other places, too, that I didn't mention that also have Spanish eyes. in Westview, Pennsylvania, there's Pinball Perfection. That's also near Pittsburgh. They have like 300 pinball machines and a huge collection of EMs. I have not been yet, but that's on my list as well. On the East Coast, Pittsburgh is like the hub of pinball. It used to be Pinberg, which was like the biggest pinball tournament in the world. And then, I don't know the whole story, but COVID and the flood and some other stuff happened. It's starting to come back. They're trying to bring it back. replay foundation i think is the name of the organization and pinberg is a thing again it's seemingly without knowing the history of it that you hear people who played and there's multiple everybody plays and then they assign you a tier and they have everything ems modern solid state so you play a little bit of everything in a bank of games so there was a ton of ems in those and again without ever being there because it kind of fell off the radar before i started on my own journey but just the history of what people said like this was a cool thing oh yeah you know world-class players roger sharp was in the tournaments there yeah it's weird to say that the world is coming back to a thing because we all had that like the blip like the Avengers movie. We lost five years of the world.
    25:29
    But now that that's coming back, this Pittsburgh, it's like the amount of games that are out there are massive. As a person who's involved with hobbies or whatever, there's like two, like Pennsylvania is like the weirdest place ever for hobbies. Those people down there are like so involved with things that go on. They're like so hardcore. So if they're into it, you can better believe that they're going to be into it to win it. Everywhere you go, county-wise, town-wise, there is a club to fit whatever hobby you're into. So if they're going to do pinballs, they're going to do it right. They're going to do it insanely well. It's not just the west side of Pennsylvania. The east side of Pennsylvania is huge. The pinball. You have the Allentown Show, but all around Philadelphia, there's a lot going on too. Yeah, you meet some great people doing it. Northeast Pennsylvania, like Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg. There's, what's the guy's name, Mayhem. I think that's what I see popping up on socials now. Younger guy, younger guy, 40 maybe. And they're doing stuff down there. It's close enough to like New York where the people who are there, they're doing it.
    26:45
    Allentown's a great show. A lot of good EMs, stuff like that. This year will be my first time visiting the Allentown show. I'm looking forward. A lot of people have told me I need to go. I'm planning on attending. But it's not all about pinball, too. I mean, obviously, we're going to go out and find some breweries to go hit up, too. Hopefully they've got pinball machines there. Nice. Oh, and the Amish Farmer's Market across the street from there. Yeah, I've heard people say, I'm looking forward to going to the pinball show so I can go to the farmer's market. It's kind of like a bagel hand. You get a twofer. Yeah. and the two more locations in superior wisconsin there's a place called sweden sweets that has spanish eyes and then also last but not least in roanoke virginia is the roanoke pinball museum that's on my bucket that's a cool spot as well i've heard so many good things about this i've watched some videos by nick shell who runs the roanoke pinball museum i know he's a big em guy He put out a video that I referenced in my earlier episode, EM Pinball Resources, because he has a video that I've watched over and over about rebuilding relays in EM pinball machines. And he's well known out there. We went there on a vacation. Oh, nice. Breakdown 81.
    28:01
    I thought that was the Roanoke where they landed ships back in 1600s. That was wrong. But we stopped it. It's inland. We have too much inland. The other in Roanoke is not Virginia. It's in North Carolina. So we stopped there on a little gallivant that we went to. It was a lot of pinball. We went there. And that's in a funky mall. You buy a pass. You go in. There's a whole room full of pinballs. The other side of this mall is all arcade games. So it was kind of like instead of having two rooms next to each other, one here, one there. And it's one fee to get in. but there is a Safecracker game there. Oh, yeah. I like that game. That one takes money, and you can get one of the coins out of it. Oh, really? Yeah, I wasn't good enough to do it because I didn't understand how to get... I got there, but I didn't know how to close the deal. It's part of the video mode up above, right? Yeah, I know. It's kind of unique for listeners. Safecracker is kind of like a mini pinball machine. It's very small. It's actually one of the few solid-state games that has 2-inch flippers or about the size of two-inch flippers. It's like a three-quarter size game. If you can crack the safe, you get this coin in it. So that's the one thing there that they had. But they had a ton of cool other games. The first time I ever saw, not to go off the EM topic, but a Medusa that worked. And that has upper zipper flippers on it, so that's kind of EME. You launch the ball, you knock one of the drop targets down, the zipper flippers close, and you stay up top. You can collect a lot of points. through our pinball journey we've had one of them right and again it was it's a early bally's game so it was right on the edge of going into the solid state stuff but we had it for a couple years and you can't keep them all so right that's the first spot i saw one of them and they had a ton of em games there it's definitely a spot to make a trip to there's a nice brewery restaurant across the street you know so if that's your thing too like i said that's that's my jam yeah i look for food, beer, pinball. Maybe not in that order, but you know. I'll definitely have to check out the place across the street then. Yeah.
    30:18
    John, I want to thank you very much for joining me once again. Thank you so much for having me. That concludes today's episode. I want to thank you for joining me today on the EM Pinball Journeys podcast. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Please look out for upcoming Pinball Spotlight Series episodes If you want to contact me, I can be reached at empinballjourneyspodcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Facebook or Instagram at Adirondack Pinball. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, corrections, or suggestions of future EM pinball topics. I would love to hear about your journey so far. Thanks again for listening, and I'll be back again in two weeks.