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Episode 245 – How Am I Supposed To Live Without You

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 22m·held·Feb 17, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Stern D&D has connector issues; RPC is NY's #2 venue; Ramps debuts Road Trip; David Fix blames AIMTRON.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discuss pinball industry news including production issues with Dungeons & Dragons & Dragons (node board connector problems similar to Rush), the Rochester Pinball Collective status as New York second-largest pinball venue with 80 machines, the debut of Ramp's Ramp's Pinball Manufacturing Trip game at Pinball at the Beach event, and David Fix extensive podcast interview about American Pinball operational collapse and his own departure.

Key Claims

  • Dungeons & Dragons has the same motor/node board connector issue that Rush had, where loose connections fry Node Board 10 when the machine is running

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing D&D issues on Slam Tilt Podcast, noting it's the same problem as Rush (Premium/LE)/LE with up-down ramp motor

  • Stern paused production of Dungeons & Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye (Premium/LE) and LE models and moved to Pro-only until the issue is resolved

    medium confidence · Bruce states 'They stopped the line' and 'They paused the line,' then mentions Pro doesn't have a motor

  • There is no manual available online yet for Dungeons & Dragons on Stern's support site

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce verified this in real-time by checking Stern Pinball game manuals page and finding D&D absent

  • Rochester Pinball Collective has 80 playable machines, making it the second-largest pinball venue in New York State

    high confidence · Ron states 'We are now the second biggest pinball place in New York State' and confirmed 80 games on floor at 349 West Commercial Street in East Rochester

  • Ramp's Ramp's Pinball Manufacturing Trip game debuted at Pinball at the Beach in St. Pete Beach, Florida in February 2025

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing the show and the Road Trip debut, describing features like rotating turntable and proximity sensors

  • Road Trip uses proximity sensors instead of traditional switches throughout the machine

    high confidence · Bruce describes the game: 'it uses proximity sensors everywhere instead of switches'

  • Road Trip flippers were set to reduced power during the debut, causing half-ramp shots instead of completing full ramp shots

    medium confidence · Ron observes 'I saw more half ramps than I've seen on any game ever' and speculates flipper power was intentionally reduced to prevent overheating

  • David Fix was interviewed on Pinball News podcast for approximately one hour discussing American Pinball situation

Notable Quotes

  • “This sucks... I just want to play pinball. Pinball me.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ early in episode — Captures frustration with modern Stern design philosophy emphasizing narrative choices over pure pinball mechanics

  • “This is spooky levels of non-manualness”

    Bruce Nightingale @ mid-episode — Criticism of Stern failing to publish game manual for D&D, comparing organizational failure to Spooky Pinball's notorious lack of documentation

  • “We are now the second biggest pinball place in New York State”

    Ron Hallett @ mid-episode — Major announcement about Rochester Pinball Collective's growth to 80 machines, positioning venue competitively in regional market

  • “For a company that's called Ramp's Pinball Manufacturing, guess what I didn't see hit in any of the three videos? Ramps.”

    Ron Hallett @ late episode — Critical observation that Road Trip's ramps weren't completing due to reduced flipper power, undermining the manufacturer's core brand identity

  • “It's all Amtron. AIMTRON is evil. Yep, the evil overlords.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ late episode — Reflects Fix's public scapegoating of parent company AIMTRON for American Pinball's failure rather than accepting personal responsibility

  • “You don't go airing all the dirty laundry. You don't go bashing the people you just worked for.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ late episode — Bruce critiques Dave Fix's podcast strategy for future job prospects in tight-knit pinball industry

  • “It uses proximity sensors everywhere instead of switches.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ mid-episode — Key technical innovation in Road Trip's design approach

  • “Apple sucks... Apple sucks. Yes it does sucks moose balls”

    [name withheld pending review] @ opening segment — Meta-complaint about podcast distribution platform delays, establishing show's irreverent tone

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonDungeons & DragonsgameRushgameRochester Pinball CollectivevenueRamp's Pinball Manufacturingcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern's Dungeons & Dragons exhibits the same node board connector failure pattern as Rush Premium/LE, where loose motor connections instantly fry Node Board 10 when machines are running. Issue caused by inadequate wire management and connector crimping; fix involves repositioning wires.

    high · Ron and Bruce directly discussed technical details: 'if you disconnect something while it's running, it just instafries the board' and mentioned the node board 10 motor connector issue identical to Rush's documented history

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern has paused production of Dungeons & Dragons Premium and LE models, moving temporarily to Pro-only configuration while motor/connector issue is resolved. Fix involves improved wire management rather than hardware redesign.

    medium · Bruce: 'They stopped the line... They paused the line... They went to pros' and speculation that Pro model lacks the motor component causing failures

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern has failed to publish game manual for Dungeons & Dragons despite machine being in active production and distribution. Verified absence on official Stern support site; represents poor post-launch support.

    high · Ron and Bruce checked Stern's manual database in real-time and confirmed D&D manual is not published. Ron called this 'spooky levels of non-manualness'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Rochester Pinball Collective has grown to 80 operational machines, achieving status as New York State's second-largest pinball venue. Positioning reflects regional market consolidation and operator investment.

    high · Ron announced 'We are now the second biggest pinball place in New York State' at 349 West Commercial Street, East Rochester; hosting major 2025 Nationals and Pinmasters tournaments

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.249

0:00
Mm-hmm. Damn it, butthead. This sucks. You have to stop taking those pills. But, Beavis, I was told to take these pills by an adult. Is there something else that's bothering you? Yeah, there is. It's bothering me that you're acting like a butthole.
0:19
I hear you, Beavis. I'll try to do better. Damn it. Stop agreeing with everything I say. Okay, Beavis. See, you did it again. Stop it. What would you like me to do, Beavis? God damn it, butthead! You're a butthole, and your mom's a slut, and you suck!
0:37
Beavis, thank you for being honest with me. 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 other host, Bruce Nightingale. Oh, my. And this is episode 245. Wow. So many episodes. So much fun. Are you snowed in, Bruce? We're iced in right now. Iced in. Yes. We're iced in, bro. Yeah, we had five inches of snow last night, and now it's changed to freezing rain, sleet, and rain hitting on contact, making ice. We're supposed to get up to like a half inch of rain. And then back to snow for five to eight inches after that. Cool. Yeah. And I got a league night tonight. You chose to live there? Yeah. Well, what do you have?
1:42
The same. Yeah, it's going to be mostly rain here. Yeah. But you get that lake effect, you know. We do. Because you want to be over there for some reason. Yeah, because of the hot lake, you know, the happening lake we have here. All the lake parties we have. It's so hot. It's so hot, bro. Hot, hot, hot.
2:01

high confidence · Ron states they saw the interview and provides extensive summary of its contents

  • David Fix claims American Pinball problems stem from AIMTRON's finance department and lack of control over company money

    high confidence · Ron paraphrasing Fix's interview: 'we didn't have control of our money and well we didn't control It's all Amtron'

  • American Pinball is down to approximately three remaining staff members (one programmer, one marketing person, and one other role)

    medium confidence · Bruce: 'like everyone's gone at American except for like three people' and 'They have like one programmer and one marketing person and one someone else'

    • Road Trip
    game
    Pinball at the Beachevent
    American Pinballcompany
    David Fixperson
    AIMTRONcompany
    Galactic Tank Forcegame
    Cupheadgame
    Pinball Long Islandvenue
    [name withheld pending review]person
    Zach Sharpeperson
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Pat Lawlorperson
    Jim Belcidoperson
    Jack Haegerperson
    Future Spagame
    Pinball Newsorganization
    Gary Sternperson
    ?

    announcement: Ramps Pinball Manufacturing (formerly Tilt Bob Pinball) debuted Road Trip, an original-theme wide-body pinball machine at Pinball at the Beach in February 2025. Game features proximity sensors throughout, rotating turntable mechanic, and custom music integration.

    high · Ron and Bruce discussed Road Trip's technical features and debut performance: 'uses proximity sensors everywhere instead of switches' with rotating turntable similar to Gilligan's Island volcano mechanic

  • ?

    product_concern: Road Trip's flipper power was significantly reduced during debut, causing half-ramp shots across multiple ramps instead of completing shots. Hosts speculate reduction was to prevent overheating or component damage but criticize this as poor showcase strategy.

    high · Ron observed 'I saw more half ramps than I've seen on any game ever... Halfway up the ramp, back down' across three different gameplay videos; questioned why flipper power would be reduced during debut

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Ramps Pinball Manufacturing's Road Trip features extensive half-ramp mechanics that don't complete shots, which contradicts the manufacturer's brand identity focused on ramps. Hosts criticized this as poor design execution for a company named 'Ramps.'

    high · Ron emphasized: 'For a company that's called Ramps Pinball Manufacturing, guess what I didn't see hit in any of the three videos? Ramps'

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball has reduced operations to skeleton crew of approximately 3 staff members (programmer, marketing, one other role) following AIMTRON acquisition. Company pivoting to contract manufacturing model; development on original titles essentially halted.

    high · Bruce: 'everyone's gone at American except for like three people... They have like one programmer and one marketing person and one someone else' and 'they're hiring people to build the games. They don't care about development'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Dave Fix publicly blamed AIMTRON parent company for American Pinball's failure on Pinball News podcast, refusing to accept personal responsibility for design or operational decisions. Industry observers note this damages his future prospects through aggressive scapegoating.

    high · Ron and Bruce discussed Fix's interview: Fix claimed 'we didn't have control of our money' and 'It's all Amtron. AIMTRON is evil'; Bruce critiqued this approach: 'You don't go airing all the dirty laundry. You don't go bashing the people you just worked for'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dave Fix is subject to a 90-day non-compete clause from American Pinball, which hosts estimate is nearing expiration (based on December timeline). Clause may restrict his ability to work in pinball industry immediately post-departure.

    high · Bruce stated 'he has a 90-day no-compete clause' and 'almost over then... so what's the difference' implying expiration is imminent

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts express deepening skepticism about American Pinball's ability to deliver promised games, particularly Cuphead. Bruce states 'Even though I have a news item that says it is going to come out, but I don't know' reflecting low confidence in company's production capacity.

    medium · Ron: 'I'm starting to go more in the Bruce camp about, well, Cuphead ever come out. No' and earlier Bruce doubt is stated: 'Well, Cuphead ever come out. No.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Rochester Pinball Collective hosting 2025 IFPA Nationals (March 5-9) and Pinmasters tournament with pre-tournament Wednesday activities and special accommodations. Event represents major regional pinball infrastructure investment.

    high · Ron detailed event logistics: 'March 5th through the 9th... We actually have a tournament pre-Wednesday... three-strikes tournament... 30 games being used' with 50 additional machines for casual play

    • All right. Hi, what's going on in pinball today besides somebody's promises not being fulfilled? Oh, yeah, we'll get into that. I just want to say before we start, Apple sucks. Apple does suck. And if you want to leave a comment on how bad we suck compared to Apple, you can do that on the Apple podcast. Yes. Our last episode, 244, I put the thing up. It updates Spotify, all the other places, but not Apple.
    2:31
    I'm like, maybe it's a little delayed. Next day, still doesn't update. Next day, still isn't updated. I open a ticket with Apple, and I don't hear back the rest of that day. And then the next morning I notice the episode's up.
    2:49
    Finally. Finally shows up at Apple. And they still didn't respond to me. And then they respond to the ticket and they say, like, your latest episode is up. Closing ticket. Like, are you going to tell me why? Sounds like the government's involved. Oh, Jesus. It's like, what was the problem?
    3:08
    My feed is exemplary. exemplary and to add to that uh youtube took five days to update wow but only like maybe each one of our videos gets maybe 10 views maybe so i really don't care yeah because we're not on the video so you know and that one if you read up on that one people have issues with that updating all the time so i i don't care yeah but apple sucks apple sucks yes it does sucks moose balls oh i i know i mentioned this before but people stop using the term table stop i played that table real hard i played that table what your coffee table your dining room table i mean stop they're not tables i rock that table look at me go has that term ever been used like in any manual. I've heard different terms for like the play field where they didn't call it a play field, but I don't remember ever calling it a table. It's got four legs on it, Ron, so it's got to be a table. When I don't play it, my wife uses it as a table for the clothes to fold them on, so it's definitely a table. Because there's no tables that have more or less than four legs.
    4:27
    Not at all. Okay. Not each corner. I think it's because of those pinball arcade games that have different tables. So I think that's where this terminology is permeating. It needs to stop. They're pinball machines. They're not tables. That was a public announcement from Ron. Yes, it's a public announcement.
    4:50
    It's kind of dead, isn't it? Oh, it's so dead. It's so fucking dead. Is it the calm before the storm? Or is it just in the winter blues? well we talked about it's funny how when we talk about something first on a podcast and then all of a sudden everyone else starts talking about it and acting like it's the first time everyone's heard about this oh god okay what is it bruce how are you gonna piss off people smoky the dragon yeah the dragons you know burning up or burning up the boards smoky the dragon with a happy sappy oh it's okay dungeons and dragons yes the new game from stern Yeah, two weeks ago we said, hey, they're starting to have problems with these things. Well, Pinsight said it too. Yeah, but we are the first ones that have talked about it. And then everyone else started talking about it, and everyone was like, oh, there's a problem. I'm like, what the fuck? So they are ripping us off? Yes, always. But there is supposedly a fix coming just as good as the X-Men shooter rod fix, you know, shooter game fix. Well, it's the same issue that Rush had, and it's the issue with their node board. The fact that if you disconnect something while it's running, it just instafries the board.
    6:06
    Because fuses are expensive, I guess. Yeah, they better fix that with Spike 3. Spike 3, please put some fuses at least on Node Board 10, because that seems to be the one you use for motors. I know. So for those at home, on Rush, Premium and LE, the up-down ramp, the motor goes into Node Board 10. Yes. And the issue they had with that is originally the motor itself had a connector, and then that cord went to the node board. So there's actually two connectors, and the one wasn't crimped right, or they didn't use the right pins or some shit or whatever. So it was connectivity was intermittent. Yes. And the problem is when that happens while it's running, you insta-fry the node board. Boom, it's gone. Done. So then they came out with a fix. If you remember, they did two fixes. The first day had the one where they just gave you the same shit, but with a new connector. Then they thought, like, you know, let's just get rid of the connector entirely. So they gave you an actual motor that has the wires just soldered directly onto it. Yes. That goes to a long cord that has the connector that goes into the node board. That's what I have in mind now. Yes. So it sounds like for Dungeons & Dragons. They just went the same old route again. The dragon, well, the dragon motor or whatever, the way they dressed the wire, either they tie-wrapped it too tight or it's just too tight in general, and it's like pulling itself out as the thing moves around. Yeah. And again, if it does it while the thing's on, insta-fry. Boom, the board's done. Yep. So, yeah, supposedly the fix is just going to be different wire management. Different wire management. And the thing is, trying to save $0.10 on the length of wire is going to cost them a lot of money. Well, I hope it's not that it's too short. How would you screw that up? Well, you've seen it in a lot of games. There's a lot of tight wiring where people think, oh, it's good enough. And over time, with vibrations and movement and everything else, it wiggles out a little bit. And it always wiggles the wrong way. Are we going to call him Puff? Puff the magic dragon, the smoking dragon we know.
    8:16
    Okay, it's a combination of Puff and Frosty. Okay. Yeah, what's wrong with that? All right. Because it's melting down. The board is melted down. But yes. Don't get this wrong. I'm sure Stern is pissed because the last thing they want to do is have to send kits out to everybody. Yeah, just like as good as the kits were the last time. No.
    8:40
    Fucking game. Actually, they're hoping that people just don't ask for them. Of course not. Well, they stopped the line, I heard. Oh, they stopped the line. They paused it. They paused the line. Oh, my God. They went to pros. Which, does that mean the pro doesn't have a motor? It sure looks like it's a motor. I think it only moves. It just moves up and down. So is it just like a coil? I think it's just a coil. Instead of a motor? Okay. Yeah. Unfortunately, there's not a manual yet online for this. Oh, really? Wait a minute. Yep. That's my thing. Oh, you've got to get. Come on. You've got to get on them. I am. We're really into the. Oh, I don't believe that. Really? I know. Yes. There's no manual yet online for Dungeon and Dragon. I'm going there right now, ladies and gentlemen. Stern Pinball support and game manuals. Let's see. What do we got?
    9:31
    Search. Right past it. Yeah. Deadpool, Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, Elvira. Where's Dungeons and Dragons? Thank you very much. Fail. This is spooky levels of non-manualness. Yes. Come on, Stern. Do better. Yeah. Do better, Stern. It's just pretty. I was like, oh, because Zach's like, oh, let me go look and see what's going on. Oh, our Zach. Yes, he got his Dungeons and Dragons. Yep. Is he liking it? I think so. I'm not 100% sure, but I think so. He won't answer me, so I don't know if he hates it or what. Well, you know, he just hates you and loves me. That's all that works. Well, he usually hates every game. He says it's very Dwight, and it's also very Dwight. So what does that tell you? Well, he likes Dwight. He likes Dwight, but he knows how frustrating Dwight is. In streams I've seen, man, there's a lot of decisions you have to make. It's like I don't like the fact that the shot in the center, you hit it, it's a fuck, and it just stops the ball every time and has to fire it out. That fuck's going to fire like 100 times a game.
    10:37
    It's insane. But it's like choose your character. Okay, choose this, choose this, choose this. I don't want to choose shit. I want to play pinball. Pinball me. So I have a feeling that me and this game probably won't get along.
    10:51
    But we'll see. I still haven't played it. I still haven't played freaking Metallica Remastered yet. Neither have I. What? You haven't bought one for RPC? No. Yeah, Mark's trying. The Rochester Pinball Collective? Yes, it is. Where is that? That's at 349 West Commercial Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York. Sweet. 29-65, home of the 2025 Nationals and home of 2025 Pinmasters. Wow. Is that coming up soon? That's coming up in less than four weeks, Bob. Oh, my goodness. What date? That is March 5th through the 9th. We actually have a tournament pre-Wednesday. Oh, God, the pre-shit. We get pre-lubed. Hopefully it will not pre-suck. Hopefully not. But we're never open Wednesdays. This time we're opening Wednesdays. So people can come in, check out the place, not play the games because they're going to be off. And we're going to have a three-strikes tournament, if I remember correctly. That's what's coming up. You're going to have a three-strikes tournament when the games are off. How's that going to work? The 30 games. We still have 50 others, sir. Okay. Remember? We have 80 games. We are now the second biggest pinball place in New York State. Yes. the two biggest ones are in western New York. Yes, exactly. What does that tell you? We're the main player bases in New York City. Come on, New York City. Where are you at? Let's go. It's called price of... Up your game. Yeah, it's called too fucking expensive. That's why it's just so great there. Best city on earth. Best city on earth, and we can't afford anything. We can't afford anything. It's great. Well, Long Island place went down a couple games, so yay. Well, that's not a yay. We like more games across the whole state, Bruce. No, I know, but now it made us better. Ah, yes.
    12:48
    No, I'm just saying, you know, it's weird how he went down because he was trying to sell games. So that was kind of like, hmm? Just a miscellaneous he. Whoever owns this place in Long Island is talking about it. Yeah, I don't know. I can tell you right now. What's the name of the place, Bruce? Give him some, plug him. Pinball Long Island. Oh, that's the name. Okay.
    13:07
    Cool. Yep. He has 79 games, and we have actually 80. It's not updated properly. Oh. So we're ahead of them. Uh-huh. The next one after that is Pinball Gallery. That's a world-famous place in Malvern. And then we're right behind Pocketeer. They have 95. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Malvern is in Pennsylvania. Yeah, Pennsylvania. I said I'm just going over to hole. There's actually, we are, hold on, let's go over to count. Oh, no. Do you know where the biggest pinball place is? In the world? Yep. in the world machines public uh machines public in the world uh someplace in europe uh let's try america first we're going america well wait a minute is it europe or is it in america i'm saying america let's go not world let's go usa and canada uh well it's probably what is it level three whatever it's called level one level something past times arcade All pastimes. 409. Wow. Really? Yep. And then you had second is Pinball Hall of Fame with 359 games, which you have not worked in. Which 20 are working, yes. Yeah, exactly. That doesn't count. It doesn't count. Pinball Perfection, which is 353. Jesus, where the hell are they? Westview, Pennsylvania. Wow. Pennsylvania. Hot bet. Yeah, and then Next Level Pinball is in Oregon. Next Level. Oregon. That's at 316. Then it really drops off. It goes to 183, which Pinball PA, which is in Pittsburgh. Game Galaxy, which is in Tennessee.
    14:44
    Tennessee? Do they talk like that? Okay. Just checking. The Pinball Palace in Brunswick, Georgia. Wizard World in Indiana.
    14:54
    Electromagnet Pinball Museum, I didn't notice, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I didn't know that. Never heard of that. Atomic Pinball in Illinois, 122. District 82 with 111. Pinball Museum of Corbin is Corbin, Kentucky at 107. Level Zero at... No, no, no. Silver Ball Retro Arcade in Nazare Park is 103. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. Pacific Pinball Museum is in 103 also. Oh. The Pin Lodge in Indianapolis is 102.
    15:28
    Starfighters Arcade is 101. and now we're down to the less than 100, which is Game Terminal in Tennessee. Pocketeer Billiards is 95. Pinball Gallery Malvern is 83, and then Tide right now, which is not really Tide because we do have 80 on the floor. Pinball Long Island and Rochester Pinball Collective at 80 and 79. What's the biggest one in Europe? I don't know. The Kineticist does not have to up on this thing, so you don't have to yell at him. They don't care about Europe, huh? Nope, they don't care about Europe.
    16:01
    So, yeah, that's pretty cool. So hopefully, who knows what we'll be doing. Maybe growing. Oh, sorry, did I say that loud? Shit. Why would I say that? Back to the tournament. So the Nationals, the people that are going to be in that are already set. But you can still get in the Penmasters if you want. You can donate $250 to the best players. Yep. Sign up to play. $175 of your $250 goes towards the pot. So pretty good. It is three days. That is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the finals.
    16:37
    You get to check it out. We will be streaming that all on Twitch. Well, we won't. Someone else will be. We won't be. Somebody else will be. Thank God. I don't want to be doing that this year because I'm going to be running around repairing. Backhand pinball. Backhand pinball, yes. And then I found Zach's Holy Grail today, last week, actually. Our Zach. He's been looking for, for years, a future spa with factory Mylar. Future spa with factory. That's right. He likes future spa. Yes. And he wants it with factory Mylar. Uh-huh. And I found one. Unfortunately, it's on crack money. Oh, crack money. Oh, crack. Crack. Okay. so yeah all of that we will be having the side room open for the pin masters and for nationals so we're going to bring in some tables and chairs and there's going to be a room where people can sit and wait in there and we're going to be playing porno movies during it yeah actually we should just play beavis and butthead episodes that would be oh that'd be fucking awesome we would have a lot of people sitting there and watching it just fucking loop them over and over Oh, that would be great.
    17:45
    I have every one ever made. I know you do. You could probably loop that for quite a while. Cool. That would definitely give it a slam-tilt flavor, I think. And it would. And probably piss some people off or something. I don't know. Of course it would.
    18:02
    Dumbasses. We're good at that. Want to do some news? News of the week! I'm sitting here at NAP Arcade, iNAP, and Pinball News looking at news.
    18:15
    Might as well go through this, see if we're missing anything in this dead time. Oh, why did I mention this last time? Fred Young passed away, the voice guy. Oh, yes, yes. Met him personally a couple times. Great guy. Yeah, just because every expo I ever went to, I remember him there. Yeah, he was always there, running around. That's why. Running around. He was one of the people I always remember at expo. Very nice gentleman. Very friendly. You can come up to him and talk to him anytime. He was very happy to talk. It's sad. And he did a killer Alec Guinness. Yes, he did. Of all things. I know. The Crazy Projects is a voice guy you get called into. They did some Star Wars thing where they wanted someone to do voiceovers as Alec Guinness, but Alec Guinness was dead, so he did voiceovers as Alec Guinness. Remember, the voice will be with you always. Always. And while we were away, they had the pinball at the beach.
    19:15
    Well, what's wrong with that? It's February. It's Florida. It's nice weather. What was it, Tampa? Yes. I think it was Tampa. No, I don't think it was Tampa. I think it was south. It was south more. It's somewhere in Florida where it was 80 degrees and beautiful. It definitely looked like a higher-end resort-type show. Yes, it did. It was just pinball celebrities everywhere. They had a cap to the number of people who could go to this. I think it was 1,000. And I don't think they reached the cap. I'm thinking they will reach it next. If they do it next year with the same cap, I think they'll reach the cap. Yeah, I think so. St. Pete Beach. So it is outside of Tampa. It's outside of Tampa. Okay. The Tradewinds Island Grand. Yeah, Dungeons & Dragons was there. Evil Dead was there.
    20:01
    They had all these pinball celebrities there. Not all, Ron. Not all. Oh, we weren't there, no. But it was, I mean, it looked cool. It was like in this tent building.
    20:13
    Yeah, they had like a karaoke night. I just looked at some of the things they had. Looked like I might consider that next year just because I know in February, assuming it's the same month, the weather's going to suck here. So it would be nice to be somewhere where it's 80 degrees. Nice and warm. It would be nice. Yeah. But there was a debut at that show of a game. What was debuting? You remember Tilt Bob?
    20:38
    You have the company Tilt Bob Pinball and their new game that going to come out Road Trip No Don remember that at all Not at all. Well, he changed the name. He's not Tilt-Bob Pinball anymore. Now he's Bob Tilt.
    20:58
    Bob of the Tilt? Bob and my Tilt around. No. He's now Ramps Pinball Manufacturing. Yeah. God. No. No, no, it's too long. It's too long, if anything. Let's think of the hardest name to remember. Well, they can abbreviate it as RPM. Yeah, that's what he should do. Yes. So, yeah, he had Road Trip, which is an original theme. It's a wide body, so our Zach would probably love it. Love it. Yes. It uses proximity sensors everywhere instead of switches. it has the features like it's it's going to be set up so you can put your own music in it because you're on a road trip so you're going to want to listen to your own music like oh okay it's got this cool looking rotating turntable thing like um don't even go with me on turn oh you yeah okay remember gilligan's island yes the thing that rotates that's what it's like the volcano yep and it's a different shot you know it's like three different positions and And each position is a different shot. I like that. That's pretty cool. What I didn't like, I saw at least three different videos of this thing. Three different people.
    22:13
    And for a company that's called Ramps Pinball Manufacturing, guess what I didn't see hit in any of the three videos? Ramps. I saw more half ramps than I've seen on any game ever. They got this ramp right in the center. Every shot, halfway up the ramp, back down. Halfway up the ramp, back down. Ramp on the left. Halfway up, down.
    22:36
    Now, I read somewhere that supposedly they had the flipper power down. Why? Why would you do that? If you're trying to debut this game. They're probably overheating, and that's what their fix was. I just, oh, I don't get it. And he's going to be trying to sell 500 of these. Yeah.
    22:56
    And supposedly, no deposits or anything. You pay, you get the game. Like, okay. I kind of like that part. That's a nice thought. That's good. In April, supposedly. Yeah, I don't see that. But, I mean, the game was running. April 2027. Gotcha. Point whatever alpha code. Yeah. I don't. Dop, trying to overestimate your capabilities. Please, please. Supposedly. When the game is done. They make all their own stuff. Congratulations. I mean, 3D printed stuff. Great, great. I would assume Mr. Bob probably has money. Hi, I'm Bobby Zuzu from... Oh, God. Hi, Bobby Zuzu. Trust him. Yes. Trust him.
    23:42
    These flippers are great. They make all the shots. All the shots. Anytime you want to make a shot, you can.
    23:52
    That would be my only real criticism. It's like if you're going to bring it to the show and you're debuting this thing, crank up the flipper power so you can actually hit the shots. Yes, I totally agree. And he's not the only person to do that. I've been to other shows where it's – I remember going to a show playing a Wonka, and it played awesome. And then I came back an hour later, and someone had obviously cranked down the flipper power.
    24:17
    I don't know if they were paranoid about breaking things or what, but it's like, no, don't do that. You want to put your best foot forward. sometimes i say if the game's truly not ready yet maybe don't bring it yeah too i i don't know why you would have to flip her power down like well you don't want to break things no i don't want to break what does that mean i mean i mean it looked interesting had a lot of shit on it did i mean but it's it's an original theme though yeah that's the problem that's that's always gonna hurt it you know there was another company that insisted on doing original themes and that would be american pinball yeah yeah and formerly of american pinballs dave fix pinball was on the pinball news i have not heard anything about this i'm gonna get first hand reaction like an hour long it was full fix all the stuff you love about fix was here in just full power listen baby that's right baby i'm not gone i said so much shit that i probably said baby i can't believe i don't get sued you know what i mean baby i i've convinced the the owners of american pinball definitely don't even know he's on these podcasts or have any clue what he's saying there's just no way there's no way and they asked him the hard questions and he had predictable answers i would say well you know we didn't have control of our money and well we didn't control It's all Amtron. They control everything. Their finance department is shit. They suck. Well. They asked him point blank, do you think maybe some of these decisions that were made, i.e. you made, may have led to what's happening or may not have been right. And he just would not. Nope. He's not copping to that ever. Of course not, because that makes him look like an idiot. But not saying that and the company failing still makes him look like an idiot. It's not my fault, baby. You know, we could have had all kinds of things, but we couldn't get financing, baby. It's all about AIMTRON. AIMTRON is evil.
    26:24
    Yep, the evil overlords. I mean, I do think there's some truth in that. Oh, I think so, too. And there was definitely some truth when they went public. Some of the people at AIMTRON who were involved with American kind of were not really involved anymore. Yeah. And at some point, it's like, yeah, let's just get rid of this thing. And what Amtron wants to do now is have American Pinball just be a contract manufacturer, just build games for other people. It's hard to run a company when you have nobody running the company. Yes, like everyone's gone at American except for like three people. Yeah. They have like one programmer and one marketing person and one someone else, and that's it. And I'm starting to go more in the Bruce camp about, well, Cuphead ever come out. No. Even though I have a news item that says it is going to come out, but I don't know. Hey, but don't forget, they are hiring. If you want to get a job at American Pinball, call 847-893-6800. We're looking for, if you're passionate, dedicated, looking for an exciting opportunity, we'd love to hear from you. Join us in shaping the future and making a difference. Listen, baby, I'm going to be up on the top rope doing everything I can. that's right baby don't let my hard times get you down you can get a job at american pinball well the other thing is what i this is they talked about and this is true because at indisc at the indisc tournament they had a galactic tank force it actually lasted the entire tournament yep right and we we heard when we were there when i was there i i heard how they did something with the flippers they had done something with the flipper coils replaced them some shit was done with it that made like a completely different game and they fixed confirmed that they were they were working with like jim belcido and they were back and forth and they were working on making the flippers not suck but the thing is that that's fine and if they if that fix comes out that's great if you have a galactic tank force does it help any of the other games the other games yeah And the next thing is, it's funny, Steve Bowden's like, oh, yeah, we found a problem with the code. And, yeah, I don't think anything's going to happen with that. Well, no, they still got the one programmer there. I know, but, yeah, do you think that's ever going to happen? Well, the thing is, if you're one of the three people they didn't fire because they fired everyone else. You got a lot of work. Well, no. Aren't you, like, going on interviews trying to get out of there because you're probably going to get fired, too? Yeah, yeah. That's what I would think. No, you're hiring. They've got opportunities. Yes, they're hiring people to build the games. They don't care about development. Yeah. This is a train. This makes Haggis look like a fucking party animal place, you know. And Dave confirmed that they were looking at selling the company. Of course they were. But their price was a little high. Yeah. And probably had stipulations where you had to buy their boards and everything like that also. I guarantee you. He said all kinds of things like, dude, should you be saying this? You might get in trouble.
    29:36
    He wants his 15 minutes more fame. I got to watch my mouth, baby. I'm saying too much. Yeah. But, yeah, I recommend it just for the humor. Just for full fix, baby. Full frontal. Full fix. And he has a 90-day no-compete clause. 90-day. I can't say day. no complete i can't say compete either 90 day no compete clause well it's almost over then uh yeah almost yeah so what's the december so yeah so what's the difference do you think he'll end up with another pinball company god no really okay no he did say jack jack hager and um sofia the um mechanical engineer they supposedly are now working with other pinball companies so that's guys i don't see him the only thing i see him doing is going back to ice ice baby ice ice baby do do do do do do i mean he did blast antron and oh yeah and they're fine he really blasted the finance department they really suck yeah but guess what you don't make friends that way you don't impress anybody you say hey we had our differences i couldn't make it work that's how we should have spun this whole fucking thing oh the way the way Bruce would have definitely done it, of course, right? Yes, PCR us. Well, guess what? This isn't my life. This part of it is not my life. This podcast is not my life at all. Guess what? You spin it the way you have to spin it for everything else. This is Dave's life. This is Dave's future trying to get a job and possibly another place. You don't go airing all the dirty laundry. You don't go bashing the people you just worked for. You spin it in a positive way. oh but but wait everyone in pinball does it the opposite way let's talk about steve richie let's talk about but some people that's true and some people haven't though you know yes gary stern is the anti-christ actual steve richie quote and that was after the first time he got like yes not the second time that's not even the last time he left no i know and then uh pat lawler had the same thing to say you know and that kind of stuff so what did pat waller say i don't either said it It was just very disorganized at Stern back then. And, you know, every time he had an idea, they would cross-cut it and kill it. And, you know, he was very disappointed the way Stern ended up in 2015. Disappointed! Yes. And what happened with CSI, I think, was just the frosting on the cake. Wow, put a positive spin on it. It's not a line I thought I'd ever hear from Bruce. Yes, but this is your life. You want to try to get a different job in manufacturing for pinball and arcade and that kind of stuff? you would say hey i did my three years my contract was three years four years he had one year and he had a three-year extension he was there for four years okay so four years i you know in the beginning i made a humongous difference we worked really well and then it just didn't work out at the end that's how you say it and you don't go bashing them every chance you get on any podcast i'm sorry you don't you just say hey it didn't work out and maybe you get a job at stern maybe get a job at jjp maybe get a job even you will you have to move to wisconsin to get a job at spooky but you still could possibly get a job if i was a company and i was looking at his resume and looking at it and then hearing all the stuff i'd be like yes sorry sir it's like it's like some of these quarterbacks they're like um the los angeles rams want to trade their quarterback because their wife is in the media so much bashing everything and it's a bad look for the rams and They want to trade him to the Giants. And even though it's not his fault, being out in the media negatively is hurting him. And that's what's doing right now to fix. He's hurting himself. He needs to just shut up or go on a podcast and say, hey, I wasn't perfect. I made mistakes. We all make mistakes in this life. But I think the ones I did positively worked out pretty darn well. They were talking about like they were working on game 10. Cuphead is game 7 and it's not out yet. Really? It's game 10? That's how you spin it. That's how you try to spin it. Hey, we did a lot of great things there. Our R&D and our – the problem was, I will tell you, the first time I knew that company wasn't problems, when Brennan left. That's when I knew. Oh, Dave? Yes. When he was the head of the parts and the teching and everything like that, when he left, that company, in my mind, went down seven notches. As soon as I saw him go away, and he was doing all the manuals and he was doing all the other stuff, and then he went away, I was like, that's a bad sign. That just says, oh, fuck a la roe.
    34:33
    That's just my opinion, and you can take that with a grain of salt. But ever since I saw Dave leave, it did not get any better. Let's hope everyone lands on their feet. They just keep on getting into controversy. Because what is Balzer? He's at, I think he's at Raw Thrills now. He's at Raw Thrills now, yes.
    34:50
    And if you notice, Balzer didn't bash anybody. Balzer didn't, you know, do anything wrong, you know. The only person who can get away with that is Steve Ritchie. Steve Ritchie or maybe even Pat Lawler. But guess what? Everyone else says, let's keep our mouths shut and maybe I'll get another job and work my way back up. not fix he's doing the total opposite yeah steve ritchie anti-christ what he said then he went back and then after now he's at jersey jack but he bashes them like every every chance he gets how he's gonna you know shove this you know elton john up their ass and all this stuff yep i know he always does that but dave shouldn't be doing this dave should be keeping his mouth shut or spinning it in a positive way hey it didn't work out no hard feelings Don't blame everyone else there. Yeah, I'll say this. You can't. If you're Steve Ritchie and you've sold 100,000 games, you've got a little more cachet than other people. Selling 5,000 to 3,000 games isn't a big point in my book.
    35:58
    It isn't. All right. Well, since we're on that nap arcade high nap, the latest on American pinball. When will we see Cuphead? You won't. Okay, well, AP. Every time I say AP, I think accounts payable. I think of Associated Press. Oh, yeah.
    36:17
    Okay. But they sent out an update to the distributors. Did you know this? Not at all. They said they told distributors that is working to grow its business with contract manufacturing for arcade redemption and pinball. They reiterated their commitment in bringing out the seventh and eighth games. OK, whatever the eighth game is that is designed that has designed in-house game seven rumored to be based on Cuphead. It's not on the production line yet. However, parts for the game are arriving in American Pinball Factory every day. and sample units are being built and tested.
    36:56
    Hey, Joe, what are you doing today? I got to answer the phones. I got to do this, this, and this. You got to work on a game? I don't have time because I'm doing everything else. Okay. Outside of this official update to distributors, I guess the rumor is that American Pinball will be bringing Cuphead to the Midwest Gaming Classic. So they're going to skip TPF, which might be a good idea, which takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from April 4th. So we got another two months. Nope. And you're going to stick with no. It's not happening. Not at all. Okay. I've been right so far since last October. You have.
    37:34
    It ain't happening, folks. Okay. Or if it comes out, it's going to be a hot mess of garbage. Okay. That's the weird thing about that game. I've heard from one set of sources that it's their best game. And I've heard from another set of sources that it's complete shit. It's a hot mess. Which is so weird. Normally you don't get that kind of feedback. Well, you don't get that differing feedback. Oh, yeah. It's great to it's complete shit. Usually you don't get that. So that's so weird. Yep.
    38:09
    Unless there's two games out there and they're feeding information to one group. Yeah, that's it. There's a fake cuphead. It's all part of their plan. It's all part of the fix. We got the fix on.
    38:21
    All right. The fix is on. Yeah. Yeah, you coppers. The end of the news here. I figured I'd save this because you'd probably love to gloat on this because that's what you do. What would this be? It involves our friends, Dutch Pinball Exclusive, or as we call them, Dual Penetration Extreme. Extreme because they lube it up for you. They have provided an update that there are more delays to Alice Adventures in Wonderland. surprise surprise uh i just can't wait so here's the bad thing as i told you hold on parts for the next game have begun to arrive and most likely be at the factory within the next one to two weeks however one key component has been delayed while they wait for that part dutch will begin production on blah blah blah so basically it's it will not they will not be able to begin shipping until the second half of March, but they still believe that they'll be able to fulfill all of the game orders in 2025. How many orders was there? Wasn't it like 1,000? No, it was 500, I thought, or something like that. It was low. Come on. Availability and pricing. Here we go. Okay, you were correct, Bruce. Yep, 500 machines. 500 units. So 500 machines. 300 for North America and 200 for the European market.
    39:40
    So here we go. Let's think of this logically. it took them 10 years to build all the big lebowskis that's true a decade and it was at two to three a week i heard at the end they were actually cranking along two to three a week now they want 500 machines in less than 40 weeks which it brings you up to 12 minimum a week a week wait then it gets even better because this can really backfire on them because guess what if the game sucks well everyone played the game at tp no no no but if it now the production unit comes out and it's like oh this doesn't is not worth so much money that they're talking about that gives the other people at the end a get out of jail free card if it's after jane if it's after january 1st i want my deposit back oh that's right because yeah they said they're giving the Deposits back if they can't get you the game this year.
    40:39
    So this could really backfire on them, or it might just be a bump in the road. But, of course, as we expect with every DPX, it's always going to be a shit show with this company. And it's never their fault. Well, no, they'd cop to some of this stuff after they lied first, but then they eventually copped to it. Yes, exactly. They did lie first, but then they eventually did. Yes. So it's never their fault. guess what no fucking way and remember they supposedly have the back to the future license yeah that's gonna be they're gonna build that yeah we're gonna be talking the 50th anniversary for that that the 40th yes that right it the 40th of anniversary 10 years when they keep on building these Alice in Wonderland back to the future hey we need some voice call outs can we ask these guys no they're all dead oh fuck don't take fame don't need no credit card yeah so yeah it's just a typical you're getting it in both holes with this one with the dual penetration boys like i don't have two holes we're making a new one boys and girls yeah it's just holy shite okay now i have a question for you and i want to talk about this is something i just thought of oh we know stern's coming out with spike three uh-huh i'll notice were they smart enough to buy all this stuff and bulk up on all their inventory before the tariffs.
    42:23
    Oh, the China tariffs? Yeah. Which is where they probably get most of the board stuff from. Exactly. Do you think they bulked up and were smart because they know their production is going to be going up? Well, being that they were smart and did that all through COVID, I would say, yeah, probably. I hope they did, too. But now, will they pass it? I think prices are going up. Oh, they are going up. They're going to go up big time. I think it's going to be 10%. I think a pro, it will be almost $7,500 next time you hear it. For the next game or within the next few games? Actually, I think it might even change right at the next game, $7,500. So the Elwynn game? Yes, the Elwynn game will be $7,500 for the pro. If you were going to do price increases, the Elwynn game is when you would do it. Yes, and it's going to be 10%. It's going to be $7,500 to $7,700 for a pro. and that will really hurt the person in the field and even his home buyers you're talking now a premium over 10k and a le up to almost jersey jack standards yeah but it's going up 10 i will bet ron's life on it oh my goodness don't do that i'm as good as dead yes you are but no i'm joking uh it's just it's gonna happen even if they got and they bought all these boards beforehand for spike three they'll take the money and run hey we bought them at ten thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars for all these boards and now there's sixty thousand dollars hey there's ten thousand dollars extra profit we just made ourselves because we thought ahead and that's how they'll do it because nothing's getting cheaper in these days if anything it's going to be it's going to be even harder with this government lately this shit show is just all around all around all around all around ready for the ball bag i love my ball bag when it's filled and i'm ready to empty it okay uh this one i'll i'll summarize this one this is from rodney c Hey, Rodney. The guy that you didn't know who it was. Huh? Exactly. He's looking for the nine ball mod. Oh, yes, we're going to have them on. Luckily, I have inside information for this. They just got all the boards and they're starting to build them right now. So they want to have at least a good stock to have. But the nine ball mod is working kick ass at the RPC. We need to get a hold of Rodney C. Because the Delaware Pinball Collective wants these boards. Yes, they do. Everyone wants these boards. Yes, for their 9-ball. 9-ball and for Flight 2000.
    45:06
    So both games will benefit highly from this. Literally, I have no more lost balls on 9-ball. It does not lose its marbles.
    45:18
    It was never the code. It was the switches for the code. It was never the code. It was the switches the whole time. How many code versions did they do? 80? Like 60. Yeah. Most of those were in-house, though. It wasn't like they had 60 different versions. No, no, no. But, I mean, there was a lot out there trying to fix what was really just a Switch issue. Mm-hmm. So they will be on, hopefully, in a couple shows, and we'll be able to announce, and they can take orders and go from there. But they want to have a good amount ready to go. Mm-hmm. So Brian and Jared are going to be getting that all together. All together. They're net. All together net. All together now. Okay, Paul. All together. All together now. Okay. Next one's from Greg. He says, hi, Bruce and Ron. Hello. So this is a really cool attempt at building a pinball machine entirely from Lego. Yes, and there's a video.
    46:08
    Did you see the video? Not at all. Watch the video. Post the video. Yes. Post the video to our group. But watch the video. Okay. Watch the video. I did watch the video. Did you post it to the Slam Tilt podcast? I did not post it to the Slam Tilt podcast. Why not? Because I didn't. Now you can. But, yes, they built a pinball machine out of Legos.
    46:30
    Did the ball hit it and smash all the Legos? Well, the funny thing is when they put the ball in it, when they started actually hitting things, it starts falling apart. Of course it does. The Legos fly off. Yeah. But, see, you could just put the Lego right back on. Yeah, it's great. Maybe they should make real games out of Legos. Yeah. What they should have used instead of a steel ball is a wiffle ball.
    46:52
    Or what was the ball? Aluminum ball? Tin ball? What was that? No, even those were hard. Those were fast. The magnesium. Ah.
    47:01
    Yeah. All right. Riffle ball. This next one's from Jesse. Hi, Jesse. It says, hey there, Ron and Bruce. I'm sad, I'm sad, and I'm mad. Uh-oh. So he's sad because Bruce is right. He was sad because Bruce is right. He was mad because Ron was wrong. The subject line is an inflamed STD. So he's inflamed. Oh, my God. Inflaming. See, here I've made a nice little place to play pinball in Troy. Troy, New York, with seven games now, meticulously maintained. Meticulous. Level zero inspired spinner rips, monthly well-attended Overlord-approved tournaments. Oh, it must be IFPA-approved. Absurd, silly tournaments in between leagues, workshops, and the like. It's been over a year now that this has been going on, and yet, during the doldrums, which I mentioned, that was the other tournament I just played in where I finished. Failed. Yeah. I finished fourth. You failed. Whatever. When I asked Ron when we'll see him at Mean Max, he said, where? As if he'd never heard of it. Ron, I know you've seen Pinball at Mean Max post on Facebook before. It's in your backyard. I'm sad. I'm mad. I'm shaking my fist at the sky in your general direction. You claim that your podcast is all things pinball, yet you don't even know what's happening in your own backyard. I blame Ron for this, of course, as always. You probably won't get this email in time for it to matter, but attached is a video showing one of the absurdities that will be at the upcoming tournament of Michaels. A tournament of Michaels. That happening on February 11th. And the video is a guitar hero, guitar, hooked to a pinball machine, hooked to a space shuttle. So you can hit the buttons to do the flippers. Let's see, there are Michael-related challenges on the other machines, but this one required the most soldering. Are you not entertained? And inflamed STD, Jesse. Wow. Well, on February 11th, guess what tournament I went to? You went to the Michaels. I went to the tournament of Michaels. Are you familiar with the pinball Olympics, Bruce? Yes. The thing where they do all the crazy shit with all the machines. Yes, all the machines, yes. You like to shoot around to dildo or all this other crap. Or you go through the glory hole and you're looking at a mirror upside down to see the machine. So that's what this was. So they had a Qatar hero. He had a Guitar Hero guitar on Space Shuttle. I'm trying to get all these. He had a Paragon with magnets in it. So when the ball got near the flippers, all of a sudden it turned into Orbiter One. Yikes.
    49:34
    Whitewater, you had to play with boxing gloves. That's funny. Let's see. Foo Fighters, you had to play with these glasses that made everything look psychedelic.
    49:45
    Cool, man. And they were all based off, like, the psychedelic glasses were Mike Myers from... Austin Powers. Austin Powers, get it? Yes, the guitar hero was Mike from Green Day, the bass player. Oh, they had... But James Bond, they had headphones you had to put on while playing it that just played Michael Bolton.
    50:08
    Now, at first I was like, oh, that's not too bad. But it did a loop of the same lyric endlessly. how am i supposed to live without you pause how am i supposed to live just over and over and over yeah oh god that was the most annoying actually of all that was the most painful of it all that was the most painful how am i supposed to live is that drunk bolton no he's at the end okay no no more michael baldwin i'm sorry uh but um yeah so you you got a score sheet and you got to play each game three times or in my case a couple times on the new ones because we ran out of time yeah i thought i did pretty good and then i found out nope you're tied we have to have a playoff playoffs playoffs we had to play a one-handed game on whitewater with a boxing glove no not with the boxing glove okay damn that would have been even funnier yeah let's just say it it didn't go well for my opponent remember i i won second place at a one-handed competition in allentown one year so i heard you're the master of one hand i'm a master of one hand yes we know about that Do you even gain a stroke when you switch hands?
    51:40
    When I had the Star Trek Next Gen, I would go through the video mode one-handed, right and left. Just for fun. But yes. Yes, I won. It was cool.
    51:51
    How am I supposed to play this game? So check it out. Me, Max, and Troy. Seven games. He had, I should say what all the games were. Let's see. He had, because not all of them were gimmicked up. How do you feel being guilted into a tournament?
    52:09
    He even said when he saw me, like, ah, guilted you into the tournament. So it was Paragon, Space Shuttle. Oh, I always forget the name of this. Electra. I always forget the name of the goddamn game. TX Sector.
    52:28
    TX, TX, TX. Whitewater. James Bond. Which James Bond? There's a pro. Oh, okay. I didn't know if it was the original guy. No, no. God, no. That would be awesome time play in the tournament. It would be awesome again. Foo Fighters. Okay. There you go. There's your seven. Yes. That's your seven. I can count, Ron. Oh, okay. I was trying to count. Did I miss one? I thought I missed one. All right. Next we have... This one's from... It's Baron Reynolds from the Student Loan Department. This is regarding your case number 56691. We tried to contact you at your home and did not hear back. Oh, no. My student loans, one word, have been flagged as possibly eligible for forgiveness under the new 2025 guidelines. How can you do that when you got rid of the Board of Education? Your file will remain open in my system for only one more day. Oh, shit. Oh, no. Too late. Please give me a call Thursday at 844-508-2096. Everyone call that number. Yes. We can take your call between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Well, isn't that India time you're supposed to be calling? Yes. Thank you. What is India time? Baron Reynolds is the guy's name. I'm sure that's his name. Yes, of course it is. I'm sure this is 100% legit.
    53:53
    That's my new thing. I'm just going to read spam on the air. Nice. All right. This next one's from Shannon. Subject is winter blues.
    54:02
    And actually, it's called India Standard Time. Okay. It's IST. So, hi, guys. Ron, you seem like you had a bit of the winter blues in episode 244. Yeah, we were not nearly as positive as we've been this episode. Yeah. And Bruce was well Bruce. To help turn your frown upside down, can you guys pick? Oh, boy. Your top three modern games you initially were really down on that you changed your opinion about over time. I don't know if I have three. I know I have one. I got a couple. Have fun, thanks, and be well. Shannon. Deadpool. Right off the bat. Oh, okay. It's true because when it first came out, it was a shit show. and then it got a lot better and the code got better and it just really rocks now you know i'm very happy with deadpool that's one for me iron man oh yeah definitely iron man totally great at uh allentown first time i played first time i played it was in a tournament and you got to remember the the climate that's when stern fired everybody yeah that was one of the first games out after so they they fired everyone in october this would have been that May, and they had already done like NBA,
    55:23
    they were making these stripped down games, and out comes Iron Man, which was seen as a just stripped down game. And even made it more stripped on the classic version. Oh, Jesus, that came later, but yes. But they had one in the tournament, and they had one in the free play area. And I just thought like, oh man, it's gone in the shitter. This game sucks.
    55:44
    And what do you own right now? Now I have one in my basement. It's probably one of the games I played the most. Oh, yeah. I totally agree.
    55:53
    Another game for me that I had really low expectations on and changed my view later on was Spider-Man. In the beginning, Spider-Man, the code sucked.
    56:07
    It really did. And then when Lyman did the change a year later. What change? What was the change? The Lyman did the whole fucking thing almost over again. No, he didn't. He did. a lot no it was the they added animations that were not there originally and talk and rules a lot of rules went into the newer one the basic it was basically the same though and and star trek the same thing star trek yes remember when a bad call outs and oh yeah yeah oh that was terrible yeah i love i own the game we both own the game i was like oh this is painful i i you know i always took those as hopefully placeholders until the real voices got hit yeah because it was painful it was it was obvious employees in the in the company just doing call outs go get my guy just captain like oh no no no and then guardian guardians i just don't like at all so i can't even include that one i can't that was just bad the bad really down see even star trek that i wasn't down on because it shot so good i i was down on it because i couldn't listen to it it was so oh it's harder for me to come up with this because usually i'm pretty good when it comes to picking things up wow i'm not like bruce i don't 360 every game and uh let's okay another one hobbit it's not a good game code made it a little better but it didn't wow me you know But dialed in sucks too. That didn't change anything. Dialed in is awesome. Nope. I'm trying to go down the list of games that I was high.
    57:42
    I think the three I picked are perfect. Perfect Bruce's. Am I supposed to play this game? It says modern games. That's the thing. It's probably more older games I hated and then liked more later. I'm sorry. I can only come up with the one. I'll say Game of Thrones Pro got better.
    58:06
    It was bad in the beginning, and then it got better. I could put Deadpool. Like, I was kind of iffy on Deadpool until later. When we first played it, we just looked at each other like, wow, this is a shitbox. Like, it shot okay, but it was just like the rules were terrible. We were like, oh, the animation's great looking and everything like that. It just didn't piece everything together. I have a question. What? Why doesn't Tanya O'Clyce do more games?
    58:34
    I mean, he did Deadpool and Foo Fighters. And they're probably the most fun games you could play. I know.
    58:40
    Maybe he just doesn't want to be lead. Maybe he doesn't want to be. I know he's heavily involved in the whole Insider Connected stuff, but it's just like, does he go in for the Steve Kirk thing where he's going to be like three for three or two for two? You never know. He could be. Would you rather be really prolific and have, you know, maybe half your games are awesome and half aren't quite awesome or just hardly do anything but everything is great everything's great okay because i don't want to be lonnie ropp oh jesus poor lonnie am i right or wrong he does mediocre shit all of his life i respect you and guess what mediocre shit all of your life and you get no respect so there you go I'll even put Dwight above him because at least Dwight tries. He doesn't do well with his rules and bugs and everything like that, but he tries. Wow. Yep. So it's like one and one A from bottom to top. Okay. This next email is from JT. JT, popping my ball bag cherry. Oh, my. He's never written to the ball bag before? No, he has not. Good evening, Ron and Bruce. my first time venturing into the ball bag i just found a movie that i thought you both appreciate included is a photo of this awesomeness it's beavis and butthead in the children of the corn yes have you seen my bunghole have you seen my children of the cornholio and they put the pictures of them as real people which always freak me out they did keep doing what you're doing and maybe one of these days i'll join you on the show i was supposed to when you first started this nonsense but then life got in the way i guess anyway you both rock and i'm grateful to know you both personally and have you as friends much love to you guys and the show jt thank you jt last ball jeff oh wow did you see the videos i've been sending to our group with the hank hill guy yes that's fucking funny isn't it what the hell boy what the hell bobby so thank you jt for your email thank you for going to the ball back thank you for swimming in my ball back now jt get back to pruning yes remember it's not what you cut it's what you don't cut okay this next one's from mike and you're gonna have to open this because it's a would you buy that they're sending it oh my god mr dimus hey boys keep up the great work as usual congrats to both of you on your recent tournament ass kickings just doing my part in trying to load up your ball bag here is one for you i found on ebay so would you or would you not buy that i see the ca after it so it must be canadian yes because this one's got to be a miss holy because there's a c next to the price does that mean canadian yes that's canadian and below it is approximately that's us uh i'm not getting the approximately approximately okay cool i have it So it's for the Mega Golf Ball Frenzy Pinball, number one of four, for the 2006 Byron Nelson PGA, 99 PGA autographs. Okay, what does all that mean? Let's look at the awesome description.
    61:54
    It was a conversion. It was done by Treasure Cove. I have one of their games, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, under contract, blah, blah, blah. The game serial number one it was brought to the 2006 Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas Texas That probably back when Byron Nelson was actually still alive I don think so I think he was dead before then I think that why they have it No, no, no, because the whole gimmick was at the end you got to meet Byron Nelson. He met everyone after the 18th hole, yes. And then after he died it was just his wife, and she's probably dead now too. He had one of my favorite quotes, Byron Nelson, like, could you play in today's game? And he said, no, they're too slow. They all play too slow. I couldn't deal with it.
    62:38
    Okay, he died in September 2006, so this was probably the last Byron Nelson he was actually at. Yes, you're right, because it was on May 13th. Yes, I found it. So basically, and it was signed by 99 golf pros. Okay, is Tiger in here?
    62:54
    Tiger Woods, yeah, Tiger Woods. I don't see him in here. Yeah, he's not in there. No. Oh, yeah, actually, we should have looked. Byron Nelson himself signed it. So, yes, he would have had to have been alive. No, they took him out of the grave, put his hand in. Jesus.
    63:11
    Okay, Bruce, how much do they want for this? Oh, this is the big shocker. Oh, by the way, it's a no-good gopher. It's a no-good gopher. It's rethemed. With a factory setting restore, so maybe some battery damage on this thing also.
    63:25
    It's $115,000 Canadian. or in the U.S. it's $81,088.70. I would not buy this. No. Even if Tiger Woods was signed on it. Yeah, and majorly into golf. And by signed, it's signed all over the cabinet, all over everything, actually. The artwork looks a lot like the road trip artwork. It does look like the road trip artwork. The cabinet artwork. No, no way in hell. That's like insane. His prices are insane. Wait a minute. How did it end up in Canada?
    64:03
    Well, you know, those Canadians will buy anything. What Canadian pinhead was that much into golf? I don't know.
    64:11
    All right. He sent a second one. Another one. I just saw it right now. I'm like, holy shit. I've never even seen this.
    64:18
    Wow. Something Bruce hasn't seen. Yeah. Now I'm glad I didn't. Until now. So this is the second one. Oh, we should, the number on that, by the way, is 1-8-6-0-2-2-5-0-5-1-8-6. And this one, second one, is 3-7-5-2-9-3-3-3-0-0-8-2.
    64:47
    It's vintage 1970s pinball machine, Nautilus Zachariah. Okay, so it is Vintage, yes, by Zachariah. Playfield looks awesome, by the way, as in quality-wise. No chipping, no. Ah, completely overhauled and working. Okay.
    65:10
    You can hit the whole score. The whole score. It's actually not bad looking. No. It's definitely different. Yes. Is it worth what they're asking? what are they asking bruce uh seven thousand one hundred and sixty dollars canadian or in the united states five thousand forty eight dollars and 65 cents just think if you guys were in the first 51st state guys you would be paying less well think think of the shipping though because it says it's located in italy what yes shipping does not ship to united states oh that's really fucking weird so it's not actually it's in europe so no we would not buy this because we can't even if i wanted to they don't ship to the u.s no fail uh no no thank you i've never seen that game before looks different if it was a thousand dollars maybe i'd think about it not for five no no no no no no no no no no no no no i think we got the title for our new our uh episode this one what how am i supposed to live without you oh god that's definitely the title they play that in the movie the beavis and butthead movie actually the second one yes yes it was awesome well i think i'm gonna since it's a nice icy day outside i think we're gonna work on quicksilver just so i can prove david dennis wrong oh oh david well david dennis yeah david dennis of the silverball Chronicles, my other podcast, which can be listened to when you go to the Pinball Network. And search through all their stuff until you find Silver Ball Chronicles. Or just subscribe to the RSS feed and you got it. We got our own RSS feed, so you can listen to just us if you want. Yeah, I just don't like it on Apple. Apple's so terrible because they just glump them all together. So if you miss one, you gotta scroll through and find... Oh, when's the last Silver Ball Chronicles? Oh, there it is! Click.
    67:12
    Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna try to get this edited quickly. and get it out, how long do you think it'll take Apple to update? Oh, it's going to be three days, four days. Three or four days? I think it's going to be immediate. It's just going to work. Well, don't forget, you've got President's Day on the 17th. They're probably all off mentally. Oh, they're all off mentally. Yes. So it's going to be a couple days at least. If you get it out today. So wait a minute. So you're saying it's not automated. There's actually someone sitting at a computer. With a stamp. No, with a stamp. He's just stamping it. Okay. Okay, yeah. Yeah, post that one. Yep, post that one. Oh, that one looks kind of fishy. I don't think that's how it works. Oh, I guarantee it is. That sounds like Apple. Oh, God. Okay. Repairs. Oh, fuck you guys. Okay. I need help. What does that tell you? Well, wait a minute. You were starting about Quicksilver and you were mentioning David Dennis. I thought you were going to say something there. No, no. Well, Quicksilver is going to work on trying to get the play field all done today. What does that have to do with David Dennis? Because David Dennis said I was never going to finish it this year. Remember? That was one of his quotes for next year. Remember? Uh-huh. God, you don't remember shit, do you? No, not at all. Repairs, I need help. Uh-oh. Aha. I have a Batman 66. That's the first problem, yes. Turntable. Again? Still, communication errors. I've replaced the cable. I've reflowed all the solders for all the optos. Now, there's one post on Pinside that the guy says he replaced the node board for the power, which is a separate node board for the power for the motor.
    68:44
    And maybe that's it. Maybe it's not it. But I don't want to spend $75 on a board and then have a handful of jizz in my hands. So if anyone's ever had a problem with their turntable where it says too many communication errors, and I'm going to go out to Stern also and see if they respond to me. Now I'm going to get on this one. Here we go. Stern always sends people to me to fix their shit. Now I want them to respond fast to me since I'm fixing their shit. They can respond to me to fix my shit, I hope. That's a lot of shit. The odds of it all is going to be I'm going to be sitting there with a handful of jizz in my hand again. Wow, you do that a lot, Bruce. I do. Is that from your former career in the adult film industry? Of course. I am Ben Dover.
    69:32
    I guarantee you there's someone actually called both those things. Yes. But don't forget, I do have my own private video company, which nobody can take away from me. Okay. It's Swankarama Video. And if it ain't swanky, it ain't my video.
    69:48
    So if you were in the adult industry, Bruce, what would your name be? Bendover. I always liked Eric Everhard. Oh, my. You like that one? But my name is initials Ben, so that's why I picked Bendover. Oh, that's true. See, so I'm actually fitting my name. You have to change your name to Eric Everhart. With a K, definitely. Eric. E-R-I-K, yes. Eric. Or maybe two Ks. Make it like European. Ooh, very European. Yes, yes. He's so European.
    70:22
    That's how you can always tell it's European porn, because you just hear ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya. Oom-ya. So, yeah, so that's going to be my fun today. I'm just going to work on the play field. I'm going to try to put in some stuff and get some rubbers on it. You said put in. And put it in and go from there. I've got to look at the pictures that I took on your pinball machine for Quicksilver. I didn't take great pictures. I never do. You need to take the top of your plastics off so I can see the height differences. The top of my plastics. Yeah, just take all the plastics off and then you can see where the heights are. That's all you need to do. The top of my plastics. And then label each one where each small height or tall height. That's all. Uh-huh. That's all. That's all I'm asking. Yes. I don't ask much from you, do I? Do I ever ask a lot from you? Do you ask a lot? No, do I? I don't really. No. See? Well, you're asking me to edit all these podcasts, and that is a lot. No, no, no, no, no. I don't ask you. I tell you to send them right out. Fucking turn them right around. Uh-huh. Unless I really am bad with, you know, my verbiage. Yeah, so, yes. Unless I get a message afterwards. Oh, that thing I said. Yeah. Can you cut that? I do do that once. I think I've done that like five episodes out of 245. So what does that tell you? Yes. I have done about five. All the rest of them I've cut out myself. Yes.
    71:42
    Whoop. He's actually sitting there at a time or looking at the time going, nope, that's a scratch. I guarantee it. Because how am I supposed to live without you?
    71:53
    What sucks is when you say something really offensive, but then you reference it later. So then I have to cut out multiple things. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense. I love it You should just leave it in there And people are going what does that mean It's only for the Patreon Yes that's the Patreon that we don't have That would be a Selling point The completely unedited uncensored version Guess what A thousand dollar Patreon You get to hear all the unedited versions Of all 245 episodes A thousand dollar Patreon Then you get to listen to all 245 unedited Ron will go into the vault and get the head. Oh, that would be painful.
    72:35
    Back to repairs, Bruce. Okay, so yes, I need help on the Batman turntable. Medieval Madness is back up with all the lights on it. I just got to put all the balls back in it. I cleaned it. I cleaned it with my pin snake. I love my pin snake. It's a little tight in the back corner if you're going from the left orbit. One thing I wish we could do, and I guess you would have to have the power on, is to engage the coils for the, what's it called?
    73:02
    Which game are we talking about? Medieval Madness. I don't know, Control Gate, Diverter? Control Gate. But the control flaps, you know, the top. Yes. Yeah. You'd have to have the game on and have the flaps up so you can move the pins. Oh, get all the way through. Yes. Gotcha. Yeah, that's my problem. Or have really small hands where you can get in there. Yeah, I don't. Hi, ladies.
    73:23
    Okay. All three of you. but yes uh that's one thing with that medieval should be back up on the floor hopefully in a couple days batman is my nemesis right now and we're waiting for a part for metallica and then after that i think i'm gonna go back into some projects i'm gonna try to pull back out trident again and get that started on again i'm getting to the end of the projects and And unfortunately, there's not a lot of shit out there lately. Everything's going for buku bucks still. It's gone down a little bit, but it's still people are at crack money.
    74:02
    Crack money. Everything's crack money. I thought. Is crack really that expensive? I thought it was on the cheaper side. No, it's still out there.
    74:11
    Crack is whack. Yeah. That's all I got. No, we got more. Oh, you got more. What's coming up in June, baby? What's coming up in June? Stop. Stop. We saved the dates. We put out a thing for the... We saved the dates, yes. What are the dates, Bruce? It is June 5th through the 8th. There will be four tournaments, including a women's tournament. So once Zach has nailed down all the stuff, we'll be putting that to IFPA. Once we do that, we'll be asking for the pricing to get this in. But I think it's going to be costing $135 altogether for the tournaments. And this year we're going to have four trophies for the top four all the way across the board. And the winner of the main stomp will be getting the belt. The belt. We want the belt. We need a new picture, though. We're running out of pictures of us. Pictures of us? Yes. It's always been us on the front cover. Just put something that says Slam Tilt I. Nope. I want pictures of us. Everyone's going to have our faith next to their room. God, no. Their waist. Ew.
    75:26
    Disgusting. Yes, it is. So Stomp is coming up, so save the dates. It's going to be a big tournament, we're hoping. We're hoping for more than 90 people in June in Rochester. We have AC. If it's hot, we got everything. We got it all, UHF. Yes, weird, Bruce. It's weird, Al. Yes. Other than that, Stomp will be cool. Don't forget Pinmasters. You want to join us, please do. You want to donate $250 to the best players? Donations. It's playing and seeing how good you are against the higher skilled players in the world. Getting just beat down. I got it. Yes. You need a beat down once in a while. You've been too cocky at that in-disc thing. Yep. I think I'm trying to convince Stu to play in this. Ooh, Stu would be awesome at this. I told him how Josh called him out, and he hates the Sharps. He does.
    76:25
    I just want the video conflict of that one. I kill you! I don't know. Stu's been working out. Ooh. Not me. I'm as out of shape as ever. No, I'm fat bastard. I've lost five pounds. That's what I've done. Very good.
    76:45
    I hate Apple. I hate Disney. I mean, you hate Marvel. Yeah, they ruined Marvel. You hate Star Wars. They ruined Marvel. They ruined Star Wars. Yep. And they ruined Indiana Jones. Ruined. Yes, they did. Oh, yeah. The Isle of Dysentery. It's just, yeah. They just keep ruining my childhood. I don't know why. They do. They can't just leave it alone. They are good at it. And you look at all the upcoming movies, they're all just fucking sequels or remakes. It's like, stop. The only thing I've liked about Star Wars in the past three years is Andor. Oh, yeah, I heard good things about Andor. Andor is good, and it's coming out next week. But I don't have Disney Plus anymore because I said, fuck you, Disney. I'm not paying this shit anymore for shit. And you can get it other ways. Oh, wow, I didn't know that.
    77:35
    Didn't know that at all. Nothing I would ever do. Never, ever. Nope. I purchased all my Blu-rays and DVDs and stuff. or dvds i can't remember the last time i bought a dvd actually yeah we've cut back a lot like we watch more youtube than anything else lately yeah you watch youtube but he's got ads oh ads are terrible i couldn't accept that no well it's terrible my youtube doesn't have any ads bruce and it's great yeah well what do you pay it no you just use proper youtube i mean on a pc you just get plugins that block everything that's easy yeah you got a smart tv you just get the right version of the app and sideload it you're all set ah yeah like my nvidia shield i have a version of youtube that has no ads it's great it's awesome oh wow everything's just been working so good my twitch with no ads it's awesome nice and that one you can get from the app store it's right in the uh sorry the play google play store twitch client for windows look it up it's great Okay. Highly recommend it.
    78:41
    Well, let's go for the end show, boys. Let's go for the end show. Plugs. Do we have any plugs? I already mentioned Silverbuck Chronicles. You'll be happy to know our last episode, we did mention Slam Tilt quite a bit. We did? We mentioned it at least two times. Wow, two? Yes. So you're making up for last time. David Dennis kept bringing it up. About what? That he was on there? No, he kept bringing up Slam Tilt. Wow. So you've got to, you know, give us props. I have to listen. I have to listen because I haven't listened lately. I've been busy. Oh, no, you haven't listened to any of our episodes. No, I haven't listened lately because I've had shit at home. Oh. Yeah, so. So the dog is shitting a lot and you had to clean it up? All over the fucking place. I cannot fucking stand it. Oh. And she's fast. I couldn't catch her either.
    79:24
    But, yes, hello to our clusterfuck out there. Hello, Steve, Zach. Pinball princess. Jeff Gillis. His phone was bonus. Everyone in the clusterfuck. Yes. Steve was on wormhole pinball a couple days ago. He was wormholing it. Yes, he was. He was holing a worm. Yes, he was. I think that's all I got. Yeah, so check out our website, slamtillpodcast.com. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner, including our RSS feed in case Apple decides it doesn't want to update ever. You can just plug that into any good podcatcher, and boom, you'll get our episodes instantly. The second I hit post, boom, you'll have it. Boom. And if you want to send to the most popular mailbag in all of pinball, the ball bag. I mean, it is the most popular one, you have to say. It is always. It is. You can send your emails to slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Patreon free for now eight years. Patreon free since before Patreon existed, yes. Yes. We're ahead of the curve. We are way ahead. And this has been episode 245, How Am I Supposed to Live Without This Podcast. How am I supposed to live without this podcast? Okay.
    80:47
    Thanks, everybody. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Ed Young. Hold my mind, hold my mind Can you boogie, can you slide Hold my mind, hold my mind You can boogie if you try Hold my mind, hold my mind Guaranteed to keep you alive
    81:22
    Meteor Level Zero Clusterfuck George Takei Timballs Bruce Isms Tournament Talk Carholer Cheetah Xanadu Cash Grab ELO Ball Break What You Buy It Game You Love Game You Hate Tournament Talk Pinball Princess Sir Oh my.
    81:57
    Oh my. Michael Bolton. I am a Michael Bolton fan. All I can just think of is office space. Yes, that's all I'm quoting. Michael Bolton.
    82:38
    The Michael Bolton? Do you know him personally? Why don't you just call yourself Mike instead of Michael? No, why should I have to change my name if he sucks? Yeah. I was first.