I'll get it. Get it. Hi. I'm here to turn on the pleasure machine. Oh, that's okay. The TV works fine now. The remote just needed some new batteries. All these interruptions are making it hard to concentrate on scoring. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Boy, are my arms tired. Everything should be tired. I'm recording from, well, I'm still in beautiful upstate New York, but I'm not at the headquarters. I am at work, recording from the basement. because I have to work tonight. So we're doing an earlier recording. A fail? What's a fail? I need a job, money. I need that to buy a pinball machine. No? No. Well, this is episode 115, Lethal Weapon 3, which... Everybody dance now. The best thing about that movie was the pinball machine came out. So what were the three different songs you could pick? C&C Music Factory, ZZ Top. Which song? What is it? Sharp Dress Man. Sharp Dress Man, okay. And the Lethal Weapon soundtrack. Yeah, Lethal Weapon 3. That's all it said. What was this one about? It was like Dirty Cops or something. Yeah. And this is the one Renee Russo was in when she started her string of being in every other movie for a couple years. That's about all I remember. He wasn't very lethal. He got beat up a lot in this movie. Of course he did. Yeah. Not as cool as me and you. So how's it going, Bruce? Play any pinball lately? No, I didn't play anything today. You didn't play anything today? I cleaned all the pinball today. at the Silver Ball Saloon. I did. I cleaned a whole lot of pinball. Cleaned a whole lot of pinball. Yep. I cleaned all the machines, waxed them, and I cleaned the glasses and the playfields. And this is your, quote, day off, right? Yeah, I know. And then we had repairs done at the bar, and I had the tap lines cleaned. And, yeah, that's just a normal day for Bruce. So, yeah, it's been a very long weekend slash Monday for Bruce and me and other people. Because you know what was this weekend, Bruce? My bar mitzvah. I didn't know you were Jewish, Bruce. Oy vey. So this was the weekend of the 24 hours at the sanctum. Darn, I was close. Listen to the previous, I don't know, 10 episodes where we've been mentioning it. So who wants to go first with their story? You can go first. Yours is funnier. Yeah, mine's funnier. As you all know on the podcast, I did not get in. So I was on the waiting list. I think I was originally at 20. Yes. On the waiting list. And I got out of work Friday early. So I got down there and I got to play in the knockout tournament, which I sucked at. I was, it's a three strike tournament. I was knocked out in four rounds. So I managed to have one round where I didn't get a strike. So that was a fail. That was a fail. The knockout tournament was run, was won by Steven Bowden. Yes. Congratulations, Steve. Congratulations, Steve. Final bonus. And while I was sitting there, I heard, I overheard some, somebody talking to Andy Obelnicki. I hope I'm saying his last name right. Who was one of the people on the waiting list. And he was like, yeah, I got all my stuff here. I'm ready to go if I get called tomorrow. It's like, shit. Okay, so I already know because he's ahead of me. So that means at least two people have to not show up for me to get in. Yep. So I'm thinking, like, I'm screwed. There's people behind you also waiting. Well, we'll get into that. There's other people behind you. I'm just adding to the story plot line. Yeah, people behind me. Oh, my. So by the time we get to Saturday, I'm now 11th. Someone else dropped out. So we got 11th on the wait list. And then we have Andy, who was also there. He's 7th. And then also there was Jerry. Jerry Bernard, Sab, of Orange County Pinball fame. He was 13th on the wait list. Yep. Actually, he's 15th. I'm looking right at it. he's 15th on the wait list and not happy to see me because he knows i'm ahead of him it's like oh shit because now he did like another person's gotta gotta be um like not show up so i just like last year we didn't have like everyone showed up yeah so i just figured that was kind of the norm and i figured you know i'm not getting in so i already had i've had my camera i was starting to do my documentation, my filming of the 24-hour. And then I hear the announcement, all people on the wait list, please come up to the front desk. And I'm like, okay, he said people, not person. Like he didn't even name a name. So there's probably more than one opening. And I walk up there, and he just starts going through all the names, one at a time. So it's like, Dave Hubbard. Nope. Kenneth Wiener, nope. Corey Hulse, nope. Howard Edelstein, nope. Rob Danku, nope. Sinetra something I'm not going to pronounce, I'm sorry. Sluyam, nope. And Andy Obelnicki, he's like, yep, I'm here. So then Andrew Rosa, which I knew he wasn't there. Robinson Culver, nope. Harry Jackson, nope. Ron Hallett Jr., I'm here. and the funny thing is Steven Bowden was he was doing a Facebook yeah Facebook live Facebook live Facebook live stream right at the moment that I like literally at the moment I got in so that was pretty funny so check that out go to Steven Bowden's Facebook and you can see my excitement or realization like oh shit I'm playing in this now because I I was in a staying in a hotel with Steph and Zach Hi, Zach. Hi, Zach. This is the Riptide Pinball Podcast. And I was, I used the air mattress. I let them have the beds because I'm a nice guy. And I wasn't going to be playing in it, so who cares if I'm not comfortable? And I didn't sleep particularly well. Neither did I. And Zach kind of snores a little bit, as I found out. Plus, we all went to bed at 11, but my body usually, six or seven hours, I'm up. That's the way it works. Yep, that's how I am. Yeah, he set the alarm for eight, so literally I woke up at six and just listened to snoring for two hours. That's so therapeutic, isn't it? Snoring isn't – he made noises. It wasn't anywhere compared to you. What? Not even on your level. I snore? Yeah, yeah. People – he snores really loudly. I don't believe that. Yeah, and you got it from your dad, obviously, as I found out. Stereo snoring one year. so I was in so I put the camera away and away I went and I stunk up the place I sucked bad well we'll get to that in a few minutes let's go over my story what's your story Bruce well I left the bar at 3 o'clock on Friday drove all the way out to Meriden, Connecticut stopped one for lunch for dinner, lunch and dinner kind of a combo thing and got there around 10, stopped at the Sanctum. Just after you left the Sanctum on Friday, I stopped in there for a few minutes, talked to some people, got back to the hotel around 10.30, and like, okay, I'm going to go get a good night's sleep. Nope. Woke up at – well, I stayed up until 3.30 in the morning. Finally went to bed and woke up at 6.30. So I had three hours of sleep before a 24-hour tournament. Did you forget – like did you take Red Bull before the tournament instead of during the term? Was that the problem? I didn't drink any coffee that day either, thinking I'll just crash and burn and be tired. Didn't work. So I get to the place, and there I am. I was okay. It was a long night, but when Ron came in, I was like, all right, I got four of my good buddies here. I got a lot of people I know and love, like Joe and Steve and everyone else, and James and everyone and Tyler and Leslie and all these other people we were so happy to see and hang out with and Chuck Webster and everyone. I was very happy. I know I'm forgetting names, and if I forget your name or forget who mentioned you, everyone who I saw there was enjoyable and fun to be around. I didn't have any problems at all. and let's just say right off the bat with Jim and Mark and Dana and whoever else is behind the scenes there. I know they had people making breakfast and everything like that. You guys run an excellent tournament. Facility is good. Food was good. The rulings were good. I know some rulings were, of course, not beneficial to some, beneficial to others. I had one ruling with me, one ruling went against me, but we'll go into that during the rounds. but I had an enjoyable, great time. That was my side of the story. So next on the agenda, oh, we're going to talk about the rounds, aren't we? Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, let's just say one thing. I didn't get, let's just tell right off the bat, I did not beat Ron Seventh. No, but I was going for a record of, like, biggest differential between one year and another. Yeah, I think you almost won it, too. Oh, man. Was I that bad? Yeah. God, I was looking at your numbers, and wow. I just suck at pinball. I guess you do. I mean, I will say, number one, I have never had as many house balls as I had in this tournament. I mean, there were so many games, so many games. have multiple balls where I never even touched. It was like insane. And it was, yes. Let's tell people the format of the tournament and so they'd know. That's my line. That's how I usually say it. But Bruce, yes, let's tell everyone the format. Go for it. Okay. It is match play. It is a three-game group. So the game grouping is one DMD, one solid state, and then one early solid state or EM. it all depends on what group and what games were available. So it's Pinberg Lite. Pinberg Lite. It's three instead of four. Yep. The point scoring is 3-2-1-0. So the same as Pinberg. The same as Pinberg. And nine's the best, and zero's the worst. And if you got a nine, you got to split a bounty or take the whole bounty if you were the only nine during that round of $50. And there was another bounty challenge there. if you actually beat, if you got to the final battle in Shadow, even if you're playing or not playing in the tournament, you could win $100 of a bounty. Which no one has ever done. No. So, those were the challenges there. And, uh, group, round one. Round one was picked just out of the blue. Computer picked the matches. So, and then after that, everything was Swiss. And Swiss is, you get matched up between the same level of score that you're playing against. So say if I had 20 points after three rounds, people around me had 19, 20, or 21. All the way up. So group, round one, Ron was in group. Let's try to find him. I'm trying to find him. I was in the group with X-Men, Blackjack, and Hocus Pocus. You're in group 13. So I managed to not suck at X-Men for once. I got second place, which is a 2, which is good. If you get 2s all day, you're going to be way up there. Blackjack, I think I had one of the few good ball ones I had on it, but all of us actually had pretty high scores for Blackjack. And I managed to get second on that also. And I played Hocus Pocus which is, is that like a two-player EM? Yes, it is. Yeah, so it's another one of those stupid, like, I fucking hate these things, where I play, I have a score that I'm not sure if it's any good or not, or at least I didn't feel like it was that bad, and then I watch all three other players pass me. That does suck. Look at a nice, big, fat zero. So your first zero right off the bat. Oh, yeah, oh, we're going to have a lot of zeros, yeah. Okay, okay, that's not good to hear. I was in group 24 with Anna Walk. She was a very good player. And I got a five for a total. My games were Iron Maiden. I got a one, and this Iron Maiden was the touchiest tilt. You ain't kidding. Yeah, I only tilted two games this whole weekend, and both were DMDs. Really? Yes, and one was Iron Maiden. I tilted at least five or six times. Nope. and sorry both times were Iron Maiden what does that tell you and then the next game I played was Meteor got a 2 on that and then Viper I got a 2 with a Controversy you Controversy, Bruce Nightingale no say it ain't so this is not of anyone's fault during the game the player 4 display went all solid on all 8's on the thousands digit. So my score was 87,000. This guy got 80, and it showed eight, and then three digits after. So we took a couple pictures of it, and you could see the LED display was not full bright number eight. it had a little cutout on the back side and a little cutout on the upper front side of the digit, on the upper left and the lower right. So then he went to test because he tried to swap them out, and the board lost all the scores. I guess the battery doesn't work on that one. So he's like, oh. So he got the score display up. He started going through the numbers, and that wouldn't help him either. So he actually started a game and started adding 1,000 points to each one and trying to see how the display looked until he finally figured out it was a two. So he got 82,000 and was behind me, and that's how I got my point. So I finished with five in that round. So you finished with a four, and I finished with a five in the first round. So then round two. Round two. Fight. Fight. Fatality. Flawless. Victory. So you were in group... 16. 16. So I get to play Medieval Madness, Hulk, and Bow and Arrow. Ooh. Mm. So Medieval Madness, I did Castles. That was the strategy because the feed was somewhat controllable. So that's all I did were Castles, and I won Medieval Madness. So I'm like, yeah, going good. So then I go to Hulk. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Which I friggin', you know, no, it's, the terrible, I fucking hate Hulk, took third. Yes, he did. So I got a point. For me, that's a victory on that game, because that game does not like me for some reason. Full point. Yeah, full point. So then I played Bow and Arrow. And that was, I'm trying to remember, I tilted, I was watching Howard of Orange County Pinball fame playing and he was moving it pretty good so i tried to move it pretty good and tilted and then i hit the flipper button hard and it tilted oh god so i was hearing from like and there was like some people were saying oh bow and arrow tilts easy other people were like no it was fine for me so i don't know what the deal is with the tilt on that thing it might have been off-centered and then if you moved it one way as close as i know is i did shit on that zero So that's number two zero for you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, we're going to count these? Yes, we are. Let's count these. Okay, we're at two zero. I'm going to my second round now. Okay, how many zeros do you have? Zero so far. You have zero zeros. Okay. That's not confusing at all. All right. Yep. Group 12 I'm in. I was playing a couple good players here, and I got – we played Dirty Harry, big game and silver ball mania mine and ron's one of my favorite games of all time okay yeah silver ball mania if i have one request to the sanctum burn it stop putting this in tournaments so far they've tried to put like i think they put lightning flippers on it like two inch flippers on it they did something with the wire form behind it this time they've done everything to try to make this somehow playable in tournament play it's just a really bad game stop putting it in just let it go. Let it go. They seem determined. We're going to make this game not suck. It's not possible. It sucks. Yes. Dirty Harry, I got a two. I got a couple jackpots, but the guy beat me at the end. Big game. Took it by a thousand points. I got three on that. Silver Ball Mania, that thing was just so bad, I got a one on it. I got six points out of that. And no zeros. You gave me a word of advice that actually helped me later on in the final round. What? Oh, in the game? Silver Ball Mania, Bruce is like, I just gave up trying to hit the stupid loop. Yep, spinners. And just went for the spinners because it was just so tight and it was playing so hard. It was just no fun. Everyone else was going for that and draining. So, literally, if you just went for the spinners and got some points, you were probably going to win. Yep. So, next round. Ron has 8 at this point and I have 9. So we're close. Right? Right. Ron's now moved up to group 16. He's still in group 16. Round 3. Fight! Fight! So now I'm playing 24 and I could not hit the right ramp. Yeah, I heard that from a lot of people. Yeah, I just could not hit that right ramp. I tried backhanding it. I didn't play this all day. Yeah, I couldn't get multiball started. That pretty much killed me. I still, I got a point. I got third. Okay. Then we played pinball. Yeah, pinball's good. You played it all weekend. Yeah, the game Stern Pinball. Yes, great game. This actually played well. Yeah, I got caught by like maybe 10,000 points. I got caught. Otherwise, I would have won that one. So I got second. Still two points. Then that turd that is high deal, which is a one player. I think I was first or second playing it. And it has like this lane that doubles your bonus if you hit it when it's lit. But it only lights up. It only lights up so you can hit it every like five, ten point switch hits. Isn't that great? So, like, the ball is bouncing around, hitting stuff, and then it will light. Then it will go off again because it hit something else. So it just by almost blind luck you were going to get it. And it was one of those deals. I think I was player one or two. I put a score on there I thought was decent. But then the next player, like, rolled it over three times or two times. Almost two times, sorry. He had, like, 170-something thousand. I had like 70-something thousand, which I thought was good. Then player four got like 80,000 on their last ball, like just passed me on their last ball. So I ended up getting just one point. But no zeros. There we go, so no zeros. So Bruce got the play, and his group eight dialed in, rack them up, Gottlieb, and stars. isn't Dialed In a great game love it theirs plays good I like the way theirs plays because they have no protectors on theirs yeah but you still texted me that it's a turd it is a turd but this one's better than yours well yeah because it has the protectors off of it yeah exactly I got a three on that very happy with that rack them up I got beat people caught me at the end I only got a point on that one and stars I crushed on. I got a 3 on that one. I had like over 250,000 and nobody was even close. I think the next closest score is 50,000. So I got 7 points in that round Impressive Most impressive my young Jedi Good for you Good for me Round four. Round four. Ron's going down in groups. He's now in group 18. Yeah, you knew you were down in groups when they have two groups per bank. Per bank. Two groups per three-game bank. and if you were up high in a high group, in other words, good player, not sucking, you would play whatever the first game was listed first. So you'd get a sheet and it might say, like, Dirty Harry, big game in Silver Ball Mania. And another team would also have a sheet that said, Dirty Harry, big game in Silver Ball Mania. If you were the higher-seeded group, you got to play Dirty Harry first. If you were the lower-seeded group, you got to play the second game first, which is Big Game. I believe from this round forward, I was in the second group every single time. That's all you need to know. I was only in there once in the second group, and that's because the first group was the lead group. Yeah, fuck you. So my games were Dirty Harry, Big Game, and Silver Ball Mania. Now, this is before I got the tip from Bruce on Silver Ball Mania, unfortunately. So you own two out of three games, don't you? Yes, I do. Okay, so this is a tie-turner. Good. Okay. So we'll go in order. So big game was actually first at this point. So big game pretty much sucked hard, somehow got a point, don't know how, didn't really do anything, couldn't spell big game, couldn't hit the spinner, couldn't do anything. Zero. I didn't get it. Oh, yeah, I did. Oh, all right. Yeah, I'm looking at it. Yeah, you're right. So, yeah, I do remember it as being bad as it was. Yeah, I did nothing. So that's Silver Ball Mania. I'll let you write down another zero. Another zero. Good, we're good. That's three zeros. Okay. Then the next game, Silver Ball Mania. And Silver Ball Mania sucks. I just remember thinking, man, this sucks. But somehow I ended up getting a third. I don't know how. I think just someone was even worse than me. Mm-hmm. Then we get to Dirty Harry. And I sucked at that. I got like one point embarrassingly low. I had like 200 million. Just embarrassing. Wow. And this is the same Dirty Harry that at Pintastic, like last year, I had the GC on it in qualifying. Mm-hmm. I had like almost all the high scores on it until Eric Stone beat the GC. But still, I was getting like billion like almost every game on it. And I literally could not get 200 million. It wasn't – I mean, it was very tight. Mm-hmm. But I didn't think it was playing any harder. I just sucked horribly. Wow. So that was my round. Wow, that doesn't sound like a fun round. And you were in Bank 18, so I just want to make sure we got that down. I'm in Group 4. So you're awesome. I'm playing Chris Stevens in one of my games and Ed Gardena. So I was like, oh boy, here we go. And I get to play three gems. Pistol Poker, Medusa, and Dolly Parton. Pistol Poker. another game that should be taken out of the sanctum and burned it's it's a gottlieb it's a gottlieb by all intents and purposes yeah but it's a gottlieb it plays like a gottlieb it has gottlieb like rules where like just random multiball start for no reason yeah it is a gottlieb but i did get two points on it but somebody beat me because he got a big bonus at the end for his cards. That really sucked. On to Medusa. Now, I will say one thing about this Medusa. It is my favorite Medusa of all time. I have had to... When I used to work out for my old job... You worked out? Were you buff? I'm very buff. I used to work out by the Sanctum for school, and I went there a couple months, you know, doing classes and everything like that, and I used to go out to the Sanctum for their night things, and I got the high score a couple times on Medusa, and I had the high score up there for a while. And on this Medusa, of course, I crushed it and got three points on that. Then came Dolly Parton. Did you put Islands in the stream on your phone? Were you listening to that while you were playing? That's what I did. I didn't have that much time to hit play because it was just two house falls, a couple flips after that, and that was it. I got my first zero. So I'm marking down myself as the first zero on Dolly Parton. I got five points total. All right. Out of that group, though, I was second. Chris Stevens got four. A Gardena got six. So it was a good split group. Round five. Fight. Fight. I'm in group 22. Oh, boy. Were you just in 18? Wow. Shut up. Okay. So then I get to play. We play TX Sector. TX, TX, TX. And I hit the spinner a lot, and I won. Yes, you will. That's what always happens. Yep. Then we play a little Chicago. and Old Chicago was having none of me. I had let's see, the first ball the first ball I made a slap save saved it from going down the middle but then it drained down the left side anyway. Then three house balls that I never touched and then the fourth one I got to flip a little bit and somehow I got a point. I have no idea. I finished third, I got a point somehow. Then I played Tron and I didn't do anything. Didn't start a single multiball. I think I hit one skill shot. Just total shit. Zero. So you can write that down. Okay, so right now we're number four. We got four now. Four. Four zeros. And we're in round what? Five. Whatever you said. Yeah. And I got, you're going to notice I'm getting a lot of fours for the round. Like tons of fours. Yes, I see that. Well, that same, I was in group four again. Reiterating round. I was with Trent Augustine and Dale Geiger, two very good players. And I had Avengers, Alien Poker, and Flip Flop. Avengers, I got the big old goose egg, zero. So that is my second goose egg of the night. Writing that down. Then I went to Alien Poker, had a pretty good ball, got second. and in flip-flop, I got second again. I rolled it, but somebody rolled it just before me, so I got two points. I was very happy that it came out. There were four at that group, and I beat Trent. He had three, and Dale crushed it. He got eight. So good round. So we're going now to round six. Round six. So now I'm in group 22. Still in the same group, so you're still not going down. That's good. So I get to play Alien Poker. Okay. And I think most of the players had pretty good games on this. Okay. And I got third. Not much to say about it. I think I only got through the card to targets once. Harlem Globetrotters did a little better. Managed to eke out a second place. So you got two points. And Bride of Pinbot 2.0. That thing... I spent the entire game trying to... For Bride of Pinbot 2.0, what you have to do first, you got to hit the center ramp to activate the locks on the left ramp. This game has really bad flipper hop on both sides. Yes, it does. Oh, and it's terrible trying to get that right ramp. So I hit the center ramp, and I'm trying to hit the left ramp on the fly, and I just can't do it. So it's like, no problem. I'll just get it. I'll trap. Nope. Literally, the only way you can get it on the right flipper is when it came down from the top, like after the skill shot. And if you could, like, just drop catch it. Unless, of course, it bounced around and came too far left for you to do that, which it did two out of the three balls. The rest of the time, I get it on the left flipper. I try to post pass it over. It would post pass over, try to trap it. It would just roll up the tip. Didn't work. The one thing I should have tried, I should have just did like an alley pass. I should have tried that. The problem is even if it worked, it would roll back down and then flipper hop. If you can't trap it, it's just I could not hit it. So literally the entire game was me trying to get the ball on the right flipper on the trap, and I could not do it. But somehow I got a point. So another four. Another four in group 22. Gotcha. Bruce went down a group, I hate to say, guys. I was in group five. I got to play X-Men, Blackjack, and Hocus Pocus. X-Men did pretty good. I got beat at the end. Somebody came back on me, and I got two points on that. I got the old, ah, ah, ah, ah. Yeah. And this is the – A modified one. Yeah, it doesn't have Wolverine. Wolverine. He's replaced with a Captain Ball. How do you feel about that? You used to have an X-Men. I like it, except for one time I hit it, and the magnet just took it the wrong way and went right out the drain, the right out lane. All right. I was like, son of a bitch. Then I went to Blackjack, and I played it five times in practice. Every time, got over 300,000. This time, I got 30. Had none of it, and I got another zero. So I'm catching up to you, Ron. I got three zeros compared to your four. then I went to Hocus Pocus and as Ron didn't like Hocus Pocus in that first game he out of it I loved Hocus Pocus I crushed it I got a 3 on it I got a win and I got 5 points out of that match and I was going against Chris Point and Matt and I'm on very good players so I felt pretty good after that still staying up in the top top 16 to 20 I should bring up another thing we did during this is we had a Facebook Messenger group that Steph created called 24-Hour Cluster Vuck. Yes. Where he just started putting all of us in there. It's pretty funny. It was. So we are now to round seven. I am in group 21. Oh, you moved up. I moved up. And first game, Centaur. And I got a second in this basically because I watched the player ahead of me. Because the first ball, I'm trying the orb thing, hitting orb in order. That didn't work out. Then I watched one of the other players in our group who ended up winning, who ended up getting first place. He was literally just shooting the captive ball on the left, the captive ball and the targets on the right and completely ignoring orb. And it's like, hmm, that seems to be working. So I did that on ball three and managed to eke out second place. I went from last to second. Then the next game was Paragon. Weird sound, Paragon. Yeah, it's got the chirpy-like sounds on it. But great play field. Oh, yeah. Really great playing, Paragon. I got second on that. So not bad. Then we played The Shadow. And The Shadow was having none of me. I was not shadowing. Very, very bad. I think, is this the one I blew? Oh, yeah, okay. This is the one I think I could have had a point, but I tilted trying to save the ball. And it's one of those very bonus heavy games. And I basically blew a point by doing that. So I ended up with a zero. So another four. Another four for the round. I was in, I went down. I was in group five with Steven Bowden, Phil Birnbaum, and Ryan McQuaid. We played Medieval Madness, Hulk, and Bow and Arrow, the same as Ron did. We started on Medieval Madness, and Ron, I got a zero on Medieval Madness. I could not get anything going on it. I got three million. Don't you own the game? I do. This one just plays totally different to mine. Next, we went to Hulk. I squeaked out a point on Hulk, and I went to bow and arrow, and I squeaked out a point in bow and arrow. Phil got seven in this round. Steve, unfortunately, got a one, and Ryan McQuaid got an eight. So it was very top-heavy, low-bottom-heavy on these two groups of people, and it was not fun. This is where I started to plummet a little bit. Oh, you're with you. So that was round seven. Okay, round eight. I get to play. Rack them up. What group were you in? Group 22. Okay, you're still in 22. Okay. So I'm playing. That one I looked up on pen tips. You get balls. You get multipliers. Rack them up. Yeah. Go for the takedown drops. You get multipliers. So I was last going into ball three, like way last, and finally had a ball where it let me play. It managed to get second, so I got two points. Nice. Then we went to stars, and stars was stars, unfortunately. And it wasn't liking me this game. But I managed to get third. So at least I get a point. And then dialed in, the awesomeness that is dialed in, I did all the right things. Started the mode, played through the mode, got the multiball in, started another mode, played another mode with multiball running, et cetera, the correct way to play dialed in. And I got a victory for a three. So six points. Our total was six. Wow, you didn't do a four. Congratulations. Thank you. And does this one play better than yours? Yes, because it doesn't have protectors on it. Okay, thank you. We already covered that, Bruce. I'm going over again. Don't be a dick. I like being a dick. Yeah, I know. I was playing Group 8, so I dropped down a lot, and I went to the scrub people that Zach Fry had to play and Chris Point. Scrub people. And Paul Harris. Very nice scrub. Yes. Well, you know that Zach, that scrub? Yeah. Didn't he have a 9 one round? Yes, he did. So you didn't have a 9. Didn't have a 9. Just saying. Okay. We'll talk about where we finished at the end. Judge Dredd, Medusa, and Dolly Parton again. So Judge Dredd was in replacement of Pistol Poker because it broke. God. It didn't stay broke, though. No, it didn't. But I did crush the Judge Dredd, and I got three points on that. Next, we went to Medusa. Crushed on that again. So I'm sitting there going, hmm, pretty good. Now we're going to Dolly Parton. And I was ahead going into the last ball. I was the first player because I got the win beforehand, and two people came back on me, including Zach, and I got a point on that. So I got seven total in Group 8. in round eight. All right. And we're going to go to round nine now. Round nine. Fight. Fight. I'm in group 19. Ooh, she's moving on up. You're with Howard this round. Howard Levine playing Centaur. And I don't even remember this game. Like, I remember the first time playing it. I don't remember getting a zero, but I got a zero. So we're going to write that down? Yeah, I don't. I don't remember playing that bad. It might have been one of those deals where just everyone else played it better than I did, and our scores were okay. But, ah, bummer. So Paragon played that, crushed Paragon. It's a victory. Get three points. And then the Shadow played it a little better this time. Managed to actually get a second in it. So for a two. So I got a five. Okay. Not a four. Not a four. So five. A winning record. Five and four. That's the way I looked at it the whole night, too. I was like, yep. So me, I had group six. And I didn't know many new players in this group, so I was like, okay, let's see how it goes. I'm going to play dialed in again, rack them up, and stars again. So dialed in, first two balls, I had nothing. Nothing. This is a dying theme with dialed in. and on the third one i was player four i had like 12 000 going into ball three at the end of ball three i had 325 000 so i got a three i took it all the way from last to first rack them up played it better got like 850 000 but the guy beat me at the end he got 894 000 and then stars i crushed again just crushed it didn't even blink and i got an eight in that round in group six. So I was very happy with that. And this was at round nine, which is probably starting to go like one or two o'clock, right? I don't know about that. Maybe twelve. I use the... I don't use tiredness at all as an excuse, because I never felt tired. I was getting tired a little bit. I took catnaps. Oh yeah, you were taking catnaps. But I would say, just like last year, my last three rounds were some am I better at? Well, no spoilers. So we'll get to that. But next round. So now we are in group. We're in round 10. I'm in group 20. And I'm playing... You went down a group even though you got a 5. I'm playing Pinbot. Pinbot. This is the same Pinbot I crushed at Pintastic. And similarly did that here. Like ball one, started multiball, got multiple jackpots, etc. No one really caught up to me, so I took the victory on Pinbot. Nice. Next game, Frontier. I think I sucked until Ball 3. Then I had a really good Ball 3, where I continuously got the bonus, got the multiplier up there, so I took Frontier. So I got six now. Oh, this is good. So I go to Jackbot, and I played that okay. I end up getting second on that, so I get an eight. Eight in Group 20. Ace. Well, Bruce is back in group three again. I have to play Ian Hauer, James Calcia. I forget his name. How do you say it? But he's one of the New Robert Englunds guys. And Phil Birnbaum again. On Bride of Pinbot, Alien Poker, and Harlem Grove Trotters. Yeah. Bride of Pinbot, zero. Just could not get anything going. So I'm writing my zero down, Ron. Alien Poker, a zero. Writing my next one down, zero. So we're now even, six and six on zeros. And Harlem Globetrotters, I got a two. Almost got a three on it, but got a two. I was really happy. I got two points. Phil got eight again off us, and Ian got three. So not a good round 10. This is where I started to feel a little tired. So I went back and grabbed the coffees and started. We went out and got coffee after this round. and hopefully it shows in round 11. Was this the – where did you get coffee? Right around the corner at the Cumberland Farms. Yep. So as they're leaving, Bruce and Zach are leaving to go to Cumberland Farms. And they're like, can you pick me up a candy bar, Hershey's, Hershey's King Size. I said, yep, I'll tell Zach to get it because I was going to get coffees. So if you know what a Hershey's King Size is, it's like a regular Hershey bar but just a little bigger, a little thicker. Zach took that to me. So we're driving – Yeah. Waze XL gets better. So I'm pulling – we're pulling away. I got the coffee. I'm like, hold the coffee. He's like, I got to hold this candy bar. I'm like, what are you going to hold this candy bar? He's like – I was like, well, how much was the candy bar? We're just pulling away. He's like, oh, $15. I was like, huh? You mean $1.50 or $2? No, $15. I'm like, huh? And he shows this bag to me, and this candy bar is huge. It's like double or triple size of a Willy Wonka candy bar. It was a pound of chocolate. Yep. Yep. I'm like, huh? So I had the same reaction. I think you told me, you owe Zach $15. Like, $15? Like, what the hell? So he shows me his thing. I'm like, are you kidding me? Yeah. But you know what? I ate the whole thing. He ate the whole thing. Of course I did. It took me the rest of the night, but yeah, that guy ate it. Yep. So now we're on round 11. This is where the fun begins. Okay, so. Group 13. I'm in group 13, so I'm moving on up. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So I'm playing first game, Transporter the Rescue. Great game. So you say. This is the one where everyone tries to go for multiball, but Timmy says that's the wrong strategy. You want to hit the toilet bowl shot, hit the toilet bowl a bunch, and then hit the target next to the left ramp, and you'll get like a million. As opposed to the jackpot, which hasn't been hit forever and no one gets. I got it. Yeah, except for this, of course. I did get it later on. It's funny. So first I tried the toilet bowl route, and it just would not – it just wasn't hitting hard enough. There's like an upper flipper, and you actually lift the flipper up to stop the ball. Then you release it and then hit it again quick to get it into the toilet bowl. I've done it on that machine before. It was not working. It just wasn't powerful enough, and the ball was just kind of dying like a turd falling off the ramp. and of course the second time it did it, it like just drained right in the out lane, of course so I just played it trying to hit the ramps, I think I locked one ball, I didn't think I played that bad but I took last in it so that was a zero, I'm going to write that down zero, then I played flip flop, great game fucking piece of shit I literally got house ball, I got no fucking flips on that, it's got like the it's got an in lane and out lane but the in lane is basically an out lane You can save like when it goes through the in lane it gone Okay Out lane maybe you might be able to save it Yeah you can once in a while Because there's a rubber to bounce it off of, kind of like Centaur. But, no, it wasn't working. And I just, like, I got absolutely slaughtered. I played the game, like, after the round, I played another five or six times, and all the games sucked, too. So I guess that made me feel a little better, but I took dead last in that. Zero. And then the next one was? The Avengers, which I hit. What's the one ramp that has the spinner on it? Oh, the Black Widow. I hit that like, I don't know, seven or eight times in a row for whatever mode that was. Black Widow. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Then I hit. I must have moved the in-lane lights enough and hit the, what's the leftmost shot, the orbit, the Hawkeye ramp thing? Hawkeye ramp, yeah. Yeah. I got two balls locked, but not the third. I don't think I got any multiballs and ended up last in that so it's three zeros three zeros so how many zeros is that? that is now you are up to nine compared to my six so now here's the funny thing I was on the same group as Ron but the higher group so while he was playing the transporter I was playing Avengers and then when he was playing flip flop I was playing transporter and we were all shifting one around I was in group five and I played the Avengers first, got a point, squeaked out a point barely in this thing. I was like, ugh. Then I went to Transport and Rescue. And as Ron told you, he went for the shot, you know, the toilet bowl. I went for multiball like everyone else is doing. But I actually got the toilet bowl shot during multiball, got the jackpot, and got it again. Ha-ha. So I had like eight million going. or $7 million after that game. And then it went to flip-flop, and I crushed that puppy, too. And I got a three in that one also for a total of seven in group five. So that's what happens when Bruce drinks some coffee. Yeah. That zero was my, like, first-ever zero. Yeah. Well, I've only played in one of the 24, so. Yeah. So you are now going back from 13. What group are you in now? What round are we in? You're in round, I'll let you go find it, 12. Round 12. I'm now in group 19. Okay. Wow. Okay. Where I am playing first game. That's the poker. Yeah. Well, first game, play Medusa. Okay. Which, this is the same Medusa when I won Pentastic that they had in the bank that I got, like, routinely got over a million on almost every time I played it. So, of course, did next to nothing on it. I could not hit the collect hole at all. Saved my ass. Not good. Yeah. So I end up getting third. So I got a point. Dolly Parton. I didn't feel like I had that bad a game, but, again, third. Then Pistol Poker. That was interesting in that I get in a multiball. One of the mega mode multiballs. and I'm on the upper play field with the two balls. I hit the one ball into the scoop or something up there and I have the other ball and only the other ball is now in play. The other one is gone. So I hit a jackpot or two and I trap up and it's like, where's the other ball? So I call, I don't know where it went. And I can tell I'm still a multiball because all the jackpot shots are lit. So Jim comes over. He's looking at it. Like, I don't see the ball. And he said, oh, you know, I think this is the rule of the game. I think it, like, it holds the ball. Like, it literally holds the ball so you can just hit jackpot after jackpot. Okay, that's pretty cool. So, of course, after waiting the two to five minutes of just holding the ball, what happens, you know, the next shot? Ball search. No, no, I was holding the ball. But what happens? You miss everything. Oh, the flipper died. No, you miss everything. So I shot, like, you know, try to shoot jackpot, miss. Shoot again, miss. Drain. And then, sure enough, it kicked the other ball out. Like, oh, all right. And that was about all I did. It was another one of those games everyone passed me, and I ended up third. So I got a whopping one point. So I got a three for that round. Mm-hmm. So I'm in group four. Even though we're getting a seven, I went down a group. What does that tell you? I was with Trent, Alberto Santana. and we played Bride of Pinbot 2.0, Alien Poker, and Harlem Globetrotters. I missed the Bride on Pinbot for a point by like 40,000, 50,000 points. It was terrible. So Alberta's making fun of me. Ha ha, you gave me a point. So we go to Alien Poker and then I got a point on Alien Poker and then we went to Harlem Globetrotters and he just had a brain fart. I think I was getting tired for him. He had a brain fart. He got a zero. I got a two. And I'm like, hey, you gave me a point. Thanks. He's like, oh. So I had three points total going after that round 12. The coffee wore off a little bit. And I think we're ready to go back for more coffee on round 13. Round 13, I'm playing Meteor. I'm in group 21. Ooh, it's 12 again. Down. Wow. Oh, sorry. Fuck you. So I'm playing Meteor. and the spinner wasn't really working for me, so I just went for the drop targets on the left side. The bank on the right was too dangerous to ball goal all over the place, so I managed to get second on that, playing that strategy. Then played Viper. Which Zach said was one of the best games out there. According to Zach, Viper is better than Iron Maiden, meaning the Stern Iron Maiden, which Tim thinks he's on crack. So Viper, actually, I think Tim thinks it's a gimmick. He thinks it, but I've seen him. He loves it. Then Viper, I played a competent game, managed to get second. So I got four points, better, better. So then we play Iron Maiden. And you haven't played it yet. I haven't played it yet. So I got to experience the tilt. As I tilted, I got to experience, you know, you have to hit this. You plunge in a skill shot and you have no ball safe. Yes. So it's like, what do you do? I tried soft plunging. That worked, actually, but I just sucked. I didn't start a multiball. I think I started one mode, did nothing, took a nice fat zero. Yes, you did. So I've added that to your list. So now I have ten zeros. Yes. How many do you have? I have seven. And I am in group five with, I hate to say it, a fun group but not a fun group. This is the only group I think I actually had to – no, it wasn't. This wasn't the group. I had to play Total Nuclear Annihilation, Hoops, and Bobby R. And this is one of the few groups we had to play Hoops first because the group in front of us, group four, had the higher bank, and they played Total Nuclear Annihilation. So I played Hoops, got a pretty good game, and I got two. We went to Bobby or Powerball, which is Bobby R with a Powerball in it. I got a zero on that one, so I am up now to eight. I could do nothing. I hate to say it, it just was terrible. And they went to total nuclear annihilation and scraped out a point past Chris Point. I had 32,000 points on total nuclear annihilation. It was terrible. Did you see the score that was on total nuclear annihilation later on in the night? Yeah. Somebody was able to, I don't know who, but they were able to get the mythical perfect score of 69-420. Power to them. so you're not not not a fan no not at all i actually like dialed in better than that you got to stop switching before it was you liked it was now you're switching again you were literally flip-flopping and i don't mean the em they're dialed in i played a second over i played a dialed in 20 or 30 times compared to no total nuclear annihilation once okay All right. My turn. So we're in group. I'm in group 21. Round 14. Round 14. I'm in group 21. We're getting tired now. Well, no. See, this is the same thing I did last year. The last three rounds. You came back with a vengeance. I have rejuvenated for some reason. It took me about 17, 18 hours to warm up. So RoboCop. First game. Play RoboCop. hit the spinner as much as possible. Got a second. Nice. That's all I did, hit the spinner. Eight ball deluxe. I think the first ball I got houseballed. Second ball, I actually got the eight ball. And then the third ball, I managed to get 2X and 3X and just pass the person ahead of me to get a second. Nice. And then we played one of my favorite games, Mousing Around. I do like that game. Love mousing around. I managed to, on ball one, spell mousetrap, lock both balls, multiball, re-lock both balls, hit the ramp, jackpot. Bang. So I won that game. So I had a seven points that round. Highest point total for Ron so far. I don't know. I had an eight. Oh, you did have an eight, yes. But no zeros. No zeros. Well, Bruce went down to group six after that beautiful performance on Total Nuclear Annihilation. I got to play Tron, TX, TX, TX Sector, and Old Chicago. But I had to play TX Sector first. So TX Sector, because Tron was being used because we were down in lower groups, TX Sector got a three. Like, okay, got the spinner, just crushed it, kept on crushing it, crushing it, crushing it. Old Chicago, I lost by 1,000 points on Old Chicago. I got a two. So I go to Tron, and I'm losing bad in Tron going to ball three. Ball three, I got like maybe 3 million. I started up light cycle, and I actually kept light cycle going for like four or five minutes. At the end, I had like 28 million. I was really happy. Got first place. I got me an 8 in group 6. Big boost needed. So we both had great round 14s. And now we're getting to the end. Round 15. Round 15. Fight. I'm in group 19. Oh, so you're moving on up again. Good. Played Rack'em Up and did nothing. Zero again. Zero. Big, fat zero. So now we're at 11 zeros. Yes, we are. Then I played Stars. Okay. And, of course, kicked ass and more Stars. And then played Dialed In. And Dialed In was interesting. Did you notice that the QED guy, like, fell apart or something? Yes, he actually fell off. The screw stripped out. He fell off. So he was gone. So it was just the target that was there at this point. Okay. So I start my ball. I actually get the skill shot. I trap up. I hit QED guy, and nothing happens. Uh-oh. Doesn't register. Hit him again. Nothing happens. So I trap up. I call one of my opponents over and say, you know, watch this. And I hit him again. Doesn't register. So we call. Mark comes over, looks at it. Like, eh. See, it doesn't look like there's anything wrong. I mean, there's not a wire hanging off or anything. So it's like, okay. So I try to hit it again, and this time it registers. Okay. So I managed to start a mode, and it registered, as far as I could tell, for everyone after that. So I don't know what the hell that was. I played decent. Not great, though. And I ended up taking a second. So I get a five. But you got a five. I got a five. So, Bruce, you were in group 19. Bruce, after that beautiful eight, went back up to group three, and I was with Joe Lemire and Nick DiStefano, and we played Shadow, Centaur, and Paragon. So the first game, Shadow, I got to start multiball. I got all three balls locked, and I got five jackpots, and then I got the super jackpot. I had 500 million points. Took that one easily. I was like, yes, good start. Centaur. Joe Lemire was pissed after this one. And proceeded to get 4.4 million points on Centaur. And I got a zero. So that did not help. And we went to Paragon and he crushed Paragon. And they were starting to serve food to everyone going past the Paragon. It was kind of noisy. I was like, now I'm smelling the food. I'm like, oh, it smells good. And I got a one on that. So I got a four points going into the final round. of round 15. So the last round, what they do is they put a bounty on there. This is round 16. So what they do is they have every group has a bounty. So if you win the group, you win the bounty. Or if you tie, you split. A way to make it, you know, it works something. So even if you're in group, I don't know, 17 like Ron, and it sucked all day, you have something to play for. Yep. So in this final round, I played Medusa. And this time I played it properly. I even hit the – I have something with the skill shot in there. Once I get it down, I can hit it most of the time where I actually maxed out the spinner. That's the skill shot. You max out the spinner. So just kept hitting the spinner, hitting it up top, the usual. Actually hit the collect hole for once. So I won that. Then we went to silver ball shit. I mean, silver ball mania. And this one, even trying to hit the spinners, it just was having absolutely none of me. I figured I was going to take a zero, but somehow no one, someone finished worse than me. Howard. Yeah, Howard. I didn't want to say it, but. I know, you know me. You're mean. And so then we get to Dirty Harry. And it's like, you know, Dirty Harry, this is, I really should kick ass at this game. So I get the badges, start multiball, goes to load the gun, ball falls out of the gun. Of course. But I still managed to get a couple jackpots. So I got like $300 million after ball two. Then player one comes up in the group, and he passes me by like $30 million. No one else passes me or him. So I'm player four. All I need is like $30 million. this is Dirty Harry. I have... So, Magna Force, you go for the lane. Well, yeah, Magna Force, and mode is lit, and the mode is the warehouse one, where you just have to hit the warehouse repeatedly and get, like, a shit ton of points. So, literally, I should be able to win this in three shots. Side ramp, hit the hole, hit the warehouse. I hit nothing. I literally hit nothing. I missed the ramp, got a trap, tried to shoot the warehouse, missed that. I think I missed one other shot. I literally did not hit a single thing. ball drained I tilted trying to save it which the bonus I had no bonus I had nothing I literally didn't hit a single thing and blew what would have been a $50 bounty by doing that by not getting the 30 million points so I got a 6 and Jared who won the bounty he got a 7 we would have flip flopped we would have been he would have had a 6 I would have had a 7 if I literally could have just fucking got 30 million which is ridiculous That is ridiculous that I could not do that. It was actually a fitting end to the night because I can never remember being as so completely inaccurate. There were games I just could not hit anything. Okay. So Bruce was going against Joe Lemire, Andrew Lee, and James Calcia and myself. So we had to play three games again. You're going to hear this more often than not. Dialed in, rack them up, and stars. So dialed in, feeling okay about it. I'm like, okay, this one plays pretty good. I'm the first player. House ball, first ball. I got the skill shot. That's all I got. Came down. I went to hit the shot. I was too late on the upper flipper, and I actually got it right into the drain hole. They slingshot the kick for the ball save, you know, for the thing. Shot it, hit the QED die, and went straight down the middle. I looked at everyone. I go, that one's done. They're like, huh? The drain hole? The drain hole. The drain hole. So after ball two, I had a grand score of 8,000 points. Ball two. So ball three, I'm like, this is going to suck. I at least get 250,000 and get a point. By the end of ball three, I had 658 million. And I still got third. so that's the kind of competition i had rack them up i was up i had 890 million which game which game was 680 million 680 000 i'm about to say that's a crazy dialed in man that's the greatest score ever and then rack them up i had like not 890 891 and the guy had at the end he passed me and got 900,000. So I got a two on that one. So Joe was in command. We had five points. Everyone else had three, three, and James had one. He couldn't. So it was stars. And Andrew got a three. I needed 10,000 or 5,000 points to pass Joe for second. And then I needed a lot because Andrew had like almost 180,000. I only had like 40,000. I literally had a house, not a house ball, but I got up top. I hit one target. I hit the pop bumper. It came screaming down. I went to go trap it and it actually trapped, rolled over and out into the out lane. But when it did that, it actually went rolled over, got the 3000 points. And then what happens on the stars, it switches to the out lane. And I got 3000 points. points and just beat him by 10 by like a thousand points joe so he joe had to split the money with andrew it was just like i didn't do anything but i still beat him and got two points on that so that was group three so let's go to the final standings yes bowen karen's won this Yes. It wasn't close. He could have, like, taken the last round off and still won. Yeah, he could have went to sleep. Yeah. And it kind of goes along with what I say. To me, when it comes to the best players, it's Bowen and it's Elwin and pretty much everyone else is below them, in my opinion. If you don't agree with me, whatever. But I've seen them all play, and they're at different levels than everyone else is. not saying they can't ever lose, but it was never in doubt. He was in first for so long. I mean, literally, unless he fell asleep in the middle or missed a round, you know, there was no way. And he got such a big lead. I think we calculated we had 16 rounds. If we had 17 rounds, he could have taken two rounds off, and he would have been tied, but still would have won on tiebreakers. Gotcha. Yeah. So, Ron, where did you finish? Steven Bowden, fun with bonus. He ended up third. Yes, he did. I'm trying to avoid saying myself. Jeff Teolis of Pinball Profile was 11th. Yes, he did very good. Tim just beat me out by a tiebreaker. Yep, so Tim was 13th. Bruce Nuttinger was 14th. Yep, Ian Howard was 16th. Chris Point, 19th. Waparelli, 33rd. Phil Barmbom, 23rd. Joshua Senzer, 25th. Gene X. Wong, 27th. We've got Zach. Greg Pavarelli, 33. Zach Fry. Hi, Zach. You've got 35th. My nemesis, Alberto, 38. Tyler was 40th. Tyler, 40th. So we have to go down quite a bit before we get to it. I still don't see you, Ron. I'm still looking through this thing. I'm 61st. 61st place, Ron. What a great show. Yeah, so I went from 7th to 61st. Yeah, they were. So what is that, 54 spots? 54 spots I dropped in one year. Steph beat Howard, though. Yes, Steph. Steph took a bounty on the last round. She did in the last round, too. Congratulations. Chuck Webster. Steph was 76th. Yeah, Howard was 77th. Yeah, poor Chuck. Chuck, I thought I was doing bad. It was nothing compared to Chuck. Because Chuck was near the top. He got 78th. Nope. Chuck was near the top last year. This year he was 89th out of 100 people. The funny thing is Nicole was right there too at 90th. Yeah. Because they always come in together. So it's funny they ended up right next to each other on the – Yeah. So that – So I enjoyed myself. And then afterwards I drove all the way home and worked at the bar for five or six hours, took a nap at the bar first and then worked at that night. Yeah, so you left and drove how many hours home? Six. Only six. So I left. It was me, Steph, and Zach. We were in the same hotel room. So I took them back to the hotel and they slept there I think for maybe two hours and then they both left Steph went home Zach went to his parents house because they were only like 40 minutes from me where I live And I just drove straight home. It's like, it's under two hours. So I got home. I slept for like, I don't know, three or four hours. Woke up, did laundry, got all my crap done, and went to bed at like 10. And to work the next day. Same here. Same here. I was at the bar this morning at 8.30. Yeah. You're certifiably insane. How many Red Bulls did you have? How did you stay awake? All coffee. No Red Bulls. I didn't use Red Bull. I thought you said you would. I had it in backup. I had them in. You had them in backup. Okay. You know what I had? Ten cups of coffee. You had ten cups of coffee? I did. You know what I had? Nothing. I do it. And what did you finish? What does that mean? I was never tired. I was literally never tired. Then you really must suck at pinball. Yes. My accuracy was shitty from the beginning to the end. It was only my incredible nudging skills that even got me where I was. Really. Yep. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I'm just I took a trip if you go up one floor you can see the old sanctum at least the door is still there and if you want a more private bathroom you can use the one upstairs yeah that's what I because it gets kind of crowded in the other one I'm trying to think if there's any other I mean it's a great event to everyone involved great job hopefully I can get in the legit way next year not be on the waiting list. I mean, I'll be doing it again. I don't know about you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I feel now I have to atone for this just absolutely horrible, horrible performance. It was just embarrassingly bad. And, I mean, everyone made it. Everyone made the full 24. There was no, yep, no one dropped out in the middle or missed a round. I mean, even Steph, who was, I think, when we woke up, Steph said, like, what time is it? You know, it's 8 o'clock. He's like, I'm done. I'll never be able to do this. It's like, we haven't even started yet. We haven't even gone there yet. So she made it. And I can't think of anything else. I mean, it was a fun time. I would have been there anyway, at least for a little while. All my pin friends are there. I don't know. You have anything else, Bruce? It's a terrible tournament. Nobody show up and let me be able to get into it next year again. Yeah, that's right. Don't plug it as good as you're plugging it, Ron. We want to be able to get in next year. They did something really nice this year, though, too. They gave out awards. It's 14 people who made it, and they had to take back one of the awards because number 101 didn't make it for the fifth year. Oh, okay. Jerry had an award. Yeah, they gave awards if you were there for all of them. I kind of wish I had been there for all of them. I thought it was crazy at first, but honestly, the reason I did this was two years ago, I was at work while it was going on, and it was a particularly bad work day where I was there until the next morning. And it's like, hey, is this kind of the same thing? I could do this. And I did. I mean, I don't drink the coffee and all the stuff you guys do. I just drink water. You guys are insane. Or milk. No, I didn't have any milk either. I literally drank water. I drank no other beverage but water. And a pound of chocolate. Yeah, I spaced that out in between the rounds. And I just ate granola bars. I think that was about it. That's all I ate. Oh, I had to see this guy Pinside Petey there. God. Oh, yeah, I heard he interviewed you. It's going to be on Head to Head. It is on Head to Head. Oh, okay, so it's already posted? All right. I haven't listened to it yet. God, that guy is a pain in the ass. Really? Very needy. Very needy? Yeah, I think I walked by at the end of the interview. I didn't really see what he looks like. Oh, he was such an annoying guy. Before the interview, he was all around me. I didn't know who he was until I heard him. Once I heard him, then I knew who it was. He has braces, right? That's why he's got that weird lisp there. If you look at him face on, you almost cringe a little bit. Really? Yeah. Okay. I'm surprised Chuck Webster didn't punch him because he was a ginger. He was there. Oh, he was there? He got interviewed too? Yes, he did. All right. So, yeah, I'm surprised Chuck Webster didn't turn around and just pop him in the head. Pinside PD. You know, Jeff DeOles was in the tournament, too. They always seem to be around at the same time. It's kind of weird. Didn't see that guy really that much, except for in the beginning. Was he limping around? Was he complaining about how bad he was? Oh, God. Oh, my God. His leg was hurting and everything like that. Probably after a bad round, his leg was hurting. And if he had a good round, he was... I'm driving through it. I'm driving through it. Powering through it, yeah. That's what I figured. Yep. So that was the 24 hours at the Sanctum. So now, on to a piece of news. A piece of news. Which is really not much other than more details on the Beatles. This is from This Week in Pinball. Hi, Jeff. Hi, Jeff. So, and again, Joe Kamenkow is on the Head to Head Pinball Podcast, So just listen to that if you want to hear what he has to say. But some more details. Out of the 1,964 games, there's going to be 100 Diamond Edition games, 250 Platinum, and 1,614 Gold Edition games. I mean, there's nothing listed about price here. Nope, none yet. And the songs will be as long as they need to be for the mode, which tells me it's not the full song. Yeah, which is weird. Yeah. It's going to be a hard day's night. Can't buy me love. Ticket to ride all my love and help drive my car. It won't be long, and I should have known better. It's also going to feature iconic introductions by Ed Sullivan, along with custom speech by Hall of Fame disc jockey Cousin Brucie. Cousin Brucie introduced the Beatles at New York's Shea Stadium in 1964. Maybe they bubble-wrapped him before he did the stuff. That means he's going to die soon. Oh, so inappropriate. So bad. So bad. But they had pictures of the different cabinets. Looks like they have different artwork. They do, it looks like. So which one did you like, Mr. Eating, during the podcast? Neither. None of them. You don't like any of the cabinets? I really don't, actually. I like the action shot one with the gold trim. That's the one I like. looking at right now. Yeah. I got to play it. One of my friends did play it. What? Huh? Huh? Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Timmy played it. No? No. He said he played it. He did, but another person played it. What? Yeah, Timmy said the loop shot's repeatable, which I remarked how it's repeatable in Sea Witch, too, if it's, you know, set up properly. Exactly. No, another one of my friends played it. Uh-huh. And who was that? Or is this a secret? It's a secret because I don't like his name mentioned, but he went out to one of the trade shows out there, and they had two on the floor, and they were able to play them. Really? Trade show where? Chicago? In Chicago. Yep. Okay. When was this? Two weeks ago. Well, not even two weeks ago, but a week and a half ago. Really? Yep. I've heard this mentioned. Yep. Was no one else, no other Pinside people were there? No, because it was for operators. Okay. Okay. He played it. It says it sounds like Sea Witch. It plays like Sea Witch, but a lot better. He thought it played a lot better, and the rules were more, and the sound was good. It was more fun, he said. So I'm glad he played it, and that's the first person I knew who did play it. When am I going to get to play it? I don't know. Soon, hopefully. Maybe they'll have it in Florida. They will. It's going to be shown there. Oh, okay. So I'll get to play it. It's going to be shown at IAPA, so hopefully they bring it over after that. Ah, yes, Free Play Florida, which is coming up this weekend, which I'll be at. I think Jeff Teolis will also be there. Yes, he will. And so will Steven Bowden. Steven Bowden will also be there. So it's going to be a fun time. The Carl Weathers will be better than it is here. Although it was actually, the Carl Weathers was pretty good in Connecticut when we were there. It was like almost 70 degrees. It was bizarre. It was 60 here today. Yeah. 60 here. It's not here. Me and Gigi spent the whole day together. Ah, Gigi. She brought her to the bar, and she slept on the couch while I was doing stuff in the pinball area. And we made the news. Yes, so if we get past the Beatles segment here. Which we just did. Which we just did. Did you know Orin Day was on the Slam Tilt podcast? No, get out of here. Yeah. And Bowen Kerins actually posted a fun thing about it also on his Facebook feed today. Yeah, about the Independence Day 4 abbreviation that basically Sega slash Data East came up with when they were working on the game. It was their short name for the game. So the makers of the movie decided to use it for their marketing, and they gave a special thanks in the movie credits. But if you want to hear more of that, just listen to that episode of the Slam Tilt Podcast, episode 114. 2014, our conversation with Orin Day. Yeah. So it was worth the two-year wait. Yes, it was. He was great. Got a lot of good feedback from him, too. A lot of people liked it. And thank you, Oren, again. Let's see. American Pinball Updates. Again, if you want to find out, go to thisweekinpinball.com. Yes. I'm not just going to read off the site, but I'm not even going to read. This one thing is so fake. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Pinball. Oh, yeah. The picture came out. It's trolling. We have trolling. It's trolling, folks. Not worth it. There's a Monster Bash remake overview by the Straight Down the Middle folks. Yep. And there we go. News is done. News is done. Oh, and code .99 for Batman came out. I'm Batman. They're getting there. They're getting there. They are getting there. Read the two pieces of mail so we can get this all wrapped up. All wrapped up. Yeah, actually got to go. Yeah, because I got to go to work soon. You've got to work soon, and we're done early, actually. Yeah, so this is the mail ball bag. Yeah, I had to say that. Yes, I did. Let's open up the first. We have two bits of mail. Very disappointing that people are not giving us more mail. Oh, yeah. Well, we did have more mail, but it was. Well, one thing I'll say is we are going to start, like, my edits are getting faster. People noticed the podcast was up sooner than usual. Yes. I knew it threw some people off. It did. But it will probably be up earlier and earlier. I mean, we'll keep recording on Monday because it's Bruce's one day off. But with my new editing method, i.e. hardly any editing, I'm going to get these up sooner because I don't want to spend four or five hours editing these stupid things anymore. So if there's maybe one um too many or a little silence that's too long, I'm sorry. But we'll do our best. Yeah, you know, yeah, really. So this email is from Jim Burrell. Hello, Jim. He says, I'm looking forward to listening to an insightful commentary on PE 2018. In other words, Pinball Expo 2018. So you did get to hear it. That was episode, what would that have been, 113? 113, I think. My first expo was in 1993. Thus, like a Star Wars fan, to get an accurate evaluation of this installment of Pinball Expo, I have to consider both how the hobby has changed and how I have changed. Gameplay. I played some games I rarely see, such as Gottlieb's Spirit and William's Rat Race. Spirit is not the only pinball machine to have flippers on the outlanes, but is the most effective and satisfying. Bally Spectrum, Williams Defender, and Starlight. Starlight. Starlight. Yeah, Defender was there. You would have been happy, Bruce. We know you love Defender. And some new games, like American Pinball, Houdini, and Oktoberfest, and Stern Deadpool. Deadpool is one of the best new games I've played in 15 years. Hmm, just as it is out of the box. American pinballs are fun, and I suspect the things I'd like to improve American has considered and provided related option settings. Classics. Bally Star Trek. Brutally hard, but not obviously so. I didn't see any changes in incline or post position, yet I hardly broke 100K in a two-minute game. Bally Nippet with two-ball multiball, which by playing a multiplayer game, I learned new strategies that improved my score. Bally Evil Knievel and Blackjack. Bally Knight Rider in EM and solid state. Tales of the Arabian Nights with a color DMD. Let's see. So Bad They're Good, Williams Laserball, and Gottlieb Waterworld. I debate the Laserball one. What do you think of Laserball? Bruce. Sorry, I was falling asleep. That's what you think of Laserball? Yeah, it put me right to sleep. I had to wake up for a few seconds. Oh, what? I think Zach likes Laserball. Yeah, he does. That's not a surprise. He's an inventive boy. Yeah. I really had a good time on these this time around, but I'm still tired of Fatso laughing at me in barbed wire. Everyone's tired of barbed wire. Game hall, 60 hours of gameplay. Required some strategic naps, but I played more pinball at Expo than anywhere else. How much did I like that? Well, the hotel security turned off the power. It's Sunday at 12.06 a.m. in the middle of our two-player Whitewater game. It felt like being expelled from the womb into the cold, bright world. Let's see. Number two, industry people. They're making up seminars with slides of the process like Pat Waller's Undialed In, which is good. George Gomez SolidWorks technical drawings for Deadpool. We fans enjoy this, and that is why shows invite industry people. But what makes Pinball Expo special, to coin a pinball pun, is what happens because of industry people attending incidentally from living nearby. E.G. drunk history about Roger Sharp. I was watching it with Roger Sharp. Larry DeMar's question in the Q&A section of the Pinball Hall of Fame seminar, which included previous concerns, commendation, and current insight. Wally Welch of Medusa in the audience. Let's see. Parts and stuff. I bought the parts I need to repair my games at reasonable prices. No shipping required, no sales tax. Glad for the improved vendor support this year. Bruce, feel free to comment on the effort to be a vendor at a show. It's hard work. Expensive. between the hotels and driving out there and back and gas and tolls or anything else. You better have people coming. You better sell a lot of those lifters. Yeah. If not, you're going to be. So vendors work very hard before the show even starts and miss most of the good stuff to man their booths. So I'm glad to spend my cash with them. Thank you, vendors. Also, I noted this year more exhibitors were advertising discounts on the new games demonstrated at the show, and I regret not being more prepared to buy a Deadpool game. Just a little drama. I'm ashamed to admit I like a little, just a little. Like grated orange peel, not too much. Attending the Deep Root seminar rewarded the longtime show attendee just the right amount. Note to myself, we don't do gimmicks. By the way, I have a blue T-shirt that I bought at Expo in 2011, but somehow I only wear it when I'm washing the car or cleaning the gutters. And, of course, related to my favorite pinball podcast, It has become a must-listen, something I look forward to every week. Much thanks is warranted for the time it takes away from finite free time, probably including the time available to play pinball and all behind-the-scenes work it takes to make a podcast good. Not just good enough. So it was a pleasure to speak with the editor, however briefly. And you know what? That Jeff Teolis is just as nice in person as he sounds on the podcast. Jim. Yeah, he's pretty good. All right, so then we have our second-to-last email. The subject of Come On Down, it's from John Cosson. Dr. John, this is finally an excuse to pop over for a visit. I assume he's in the U.S. Meet and greets are available for $1,200 as well, and it's for the Kiss End of the World World Tour. It's the final tour ever, Bruce. Do we fall off it? No. but this is not like our other two or three final tours. This is the real final tour, Bruce. Yeah, okay. Oh, yes, they're coming to Brisbane. So, oh, he's just right there. Okay. Excellent. Are you going to go to Brisbane to watch them, Bruce? I already did. Come on, you know that? I got my ticket and everything. Okay, so the 28th of November, you're going to be in Brisbane. Yeah, baby. That's for next year. Holy shit. Like a year? Oh, my God. They're going to milk this for everything. Yes, they are. Of course we are. That's what we do. We're KISS. That's what KISS does. The greatest band in the world. Not. Wow. Yeah. They suck, Bruce. Come on. They just have a good gimmick. They have a good gimmick. It sells a lot of things. Yeah, it does. It does. It worked on you. Yeah, it got me to buy at least six or seven albums. It got you to buy a Gene Simmons solo album. Oh, that's actually better than some of the regular KISS songs. So bad. So bad. But that empties the ball bag. Do we have anything else? Because we're kind of tired from that 24 hours, man. Nope. I'm pretty much dead to the world. Yep. Oh, no, as in, okay. That confused me, the way you said that. I was agreeing with you. You were. But I said, like, do you have anything? No. Whatever. So thanks, everybody, for listening to Episode 115, Lethal Weapon 3. Let's see. Thanks to all our friends of the show, Isaac, Steve, Fun with Bonus, Riptide Pinball Podcast. Everybody does that. Pinball Profile. Oh, we also talked to Jeff Parsons of the Pinball Players Podcast while we were there. Yes, we did. He kicked my ass in one of the groups early on, one of the rounds. And don't forget, we have Joe Newhart of Pinball Star Amusements. Use him for all your non-stern needs. That includes American Pinball and Jersey Jack and everyone else. Everyone else. Everyone else. Then we have Mike Pupo of Flipper Fidelity. Use him for your flipper sound needs. And he's also a stern distributor. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast. You can check us out at slamtillpodcast.com. You can write to us. Please write to us. We need more material at slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. We are also on Twitch and Twitter and YouTube. And I posted my first picture on Instagram for us. Isn't that exciting? We have people following us on Instagram even though I never posted anything. So I hope to be posting more stuff on Instagram soon. I'll leave that one up to you. Oh, come on. I should just give you the login. No, I got enough shit to do. Well, you could just post stuff from, like, the bar. I got too much shit to do. All right. But what is the name of your bar again, Bruce? The Silver Wall Saloon. Where's it located? It's located at 135 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York. We have 26 pinball machines, bowling, darts, pool, foosball, video games. We got it all, baby. We got it all. We got it all. So www.pinballlifter.com. Use your brain, not your back. Move your pinball machines with ease. And I just got to ship another one out tomorrow, wheels and a lifter. And at the Sanctum, they use the pinball lifters. We have a banner up there also. They probably moved hundreds of games with that thing. That thing has been well used. Yes, it's well worn. And Bruce can't get him another one. They say, like, no, it's still working. We don't need another one. It's just too reliable, Bruce. You've built a product that's too good. I know. I'm like, you know, it's not a Yugo. No. All right. Thanks, everybody. See you later. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Martin Hasslinger. We'll see you next time. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.