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Episode 170 – Five Year Mission

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 25m·analyzed·Jul 14, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Slam Tilt's 5-year milestone episode dissects Spooky's Halloween/Ultraman dual release and industry transparency issues.

Summary

The Slam Tilt Podcast celebrates its five-year anniversary (Episode 170) with hosts Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discussing Spooky Pinball's dual-release Halloween and Ultraman games, which sold out after launching simultaneously with three edition tiers each. The episode covers the games' design, production, lack of pre-release gameplay footage, and broader industry concerns about transparency and quality control—contrasting Spooky's approach with Jersey Jack Pinball's successful Guns N' Roses marketing. A significant tangent involves Ron being labeled a "meanie" on Pinside forums for criticizing the music on an installation tutorial video.

Key Claims

  • Spooky Pinball announced Halloween and Ultraman simultaneously with the same playfield but different art/rules and production runs of 1,250 and 500 units respectively

    high confidence · Direct discussion of announced production numbers and game specifications

  • Both Halloween and Ultraman games sold out (though some distributor stock remained initially)

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce confirm Spooky sold out, note Pinball Stars still had stock, expect eventual distributor sellout

  • Halloween Collector's Edition with butter cabinet configuration reaches $9,995 MSRP, staying just under $10K

    high confidence · Explicit pricing breakdown: Standard $6,995, Bloodsuckers $7,995, CE $8,995, CE with butter cabinet $9,995

  • Spooky's gross sales from Halloween/Ultraman dual release approximately $14 million

    medium confidence · Ron calculates 1,750 units sold at various price points; exact calculation not shown but stated as approximation

  • Halloween has seven physical ball locks and five saucers, with Charlie (Spooky) claiming 'tons of flow' despite ball-stopping elements

    high confidence · Direct quote from Spooky representative; hosts express skepticism about design feasibility

  • Halloween rules were not designed by Bowen Carothers but by Bug Ebery and David Fosma

    high confidence · Ron clarifies design credits during gameplay discussion

  • Spooky's website crashed during Halloween/Ultraman pre-order launch, with erroneous order confirmations lasting ~40 minutes

    high confidence · Bruce describes customer confusion with red X error indicators despite 'successful' messages

  • Halloween and Ultraman feature different cabinet artwork on both sides of each machine

    high confidence · Ron praises cabinet art quality; confirms artwork differs between machines despite shared playfield

Notable Quotes

  • “It's a five-year mission, number one. Make it center, number one.”

    Ron Hallett @ Opening segment — References Star Trek: The Next Generation while celebrating podcast anniversary; ties into earlier discussion about 'multiball' terminology in STNG vs domestic games

  • “They're making 500 Ultramans and 1,250 Halloweens...same play field, same rules, different art. Yes. Different animation. Think Family Guy and Shrek.”

    Ron/Bruce @ Main game discussion — Explains Spooky's dual-release strategy and product differentiation model

  • “I thought they trolled Stern again...they have Ultraman's like doing the come get some motion, and then they show the Godzilla monster.”

    Ron Hallett @ Ultraman trailer analysis — Identifies deliberate Godzilla/Stern competitive reference in Spooky's promotional material

  • “This game has seven physical ball locks and five saucers. But Charlie Spooky said it has tons of flow. And I'm thinking, how is that possible?”

    Ron Hallett @ Halloween design critique — Core skepticism about design feasibility; compares to Vector (another committee-designed game)

  • “When you have a game that looks this different, multiple upper play fields that looks this different, you have no clue how this thing plays...you gotta you have to be able to play something like this that's this different right now and this costly.”

    Ron Hallett @ Gameplay video criticism — Central argument about lack of pre-release gameplay footage and risk to buyers at $10K+ price point

  • “To me, that will always be the most insane...Wizard of Oz. $6,500, which was $2,500 more than what Stern was charging, for this nonexistent game, for this company that literally has just been created.”

    Ron Hallett @ Historical comparison segment — Uses Wizard of Oz as historical precedent for extreme pre-order risk in pinball market

  • “If they were smart, they would hire the same people that Spooky does...They're the same people that American uses, I believe...Bader.”

Entities

Slam Tilt PodcastorganizationRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonSpooky PinballcompanyHalloweengameUltramangameBug EberypersonCharlieperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball's gross sales from dual-release (~$14M) and expanded facility positioning as second-largest Benton, Wisconsin employer signals significant market success and production scaling

    medium · Ron calculates ~1,750 units sold; notes Spooky's new larger location and employee count

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinside forum community expressed sensitivity to critical commentary on user-generated content (T-Rex mod installation video), with creator labeling Ron a 'meanie' for music criticism; broader discussion about opinion tolerance in community spaces

    high · Ron: 'he put a ton of work into that music' (creator complaint); Ron counters: 'It's America, buddy...You can have a fucking opinion'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Hosts criticize industry-wide trend of insufficient pre-release gameplay footage, contrasting Guns N' Roses success with Haggis/Halloween lack of transparency; argue 5–10 minute edited videos should be standard

    high · Ron: 'you gotta you have to be able to play something like this that's this different right now and this costly'; hosts note Haggis Fathom 'struggled to hit 250' without video despite eventual sellout

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball's Guns N' Roses sustained secondary market demand 8+ months post-announcement, with units still unproducible at required scale; no other game mentioned with equivalent holding power

    medium · Ron: 'Eight months later, people still want a GNR. Does that happen with everyone else?' and 'They can't make them fast enough, literally'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Halloween's design-by-committee approach with seven ball locks, five saucers, and drop target bank creating playfield congestion concerns; compared negatively to Vector

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.256

0:00
A full can of root beer, and I'm gonna drink it, because it's fine. Not yet, dumbass. We gotta shake it up first. Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:10
If there's one thing I know about, it's, like, how to really, like, live it up and stuff. Yeah, yeah, really. Really do, yeah.
0:30
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. Five fucking years. Yes, five years. This is episode 170, and this is our fifth year of podcasting. Isn't this exciting? This whole thing started, what was the exact day? I think it was Wednesday. So something like July 14th, 2016.
1:06
Damn. That's a long time. It is a long time. It's a long effing time. I'm stuck with you. It's a five-year mission. Five-year mission, number one. Make it center, number one. That's the first thing I'll cover. So last week, I brought up the fact that in watching all these tournaments at District 82 in Wisconsin, and all these Midwest people, they all say multi-ball. Multi-ball. And I always knew it as multi-ball. It's multi-ball. And I was just trying to think of games that call it multi-ball. And the only one I could think of is Indy 500. Because it's a Midwest game. And so we asked our listeners, do you know of any others? And, of course, I had several people respond and say, Ron, you idiot. You owned this game. All hands, prepare for multi-ball. Multi-ball. Star Trek Next Gen. But he's not American, so. No, he's not American, so it doesn't count? Doesn't count. All hands, prepare for multi-ball. Yes. Make it sound number one. I'm actually working on one of those right now. Oh, really? Yes. And is Zach helping you, or just refuses to touch it? No, he's touched it many times. Wow. Okay. It's worked all the way down. He hasn't thrown it through a wall or anything, right? No, no, I'm ready to, but he's not. Wait a minute, I thought you liked the game. I love the game. Oh, there you go. I love playing the game. I just don't like OptoBoards, the first generation, and all those freaking – I got it working now. Instead of the next generation, is that the name of the game? Yes. OptoBoards, the first generation. First generation. That's the first game with OptoBoards. I hate the original series, OptoBoards. They're terrible.

Guns N' Roses by Jersey Jack Pinball generated such strong demand that units still cannot be produced fast enough eight months after announcement

medium confidence · Ron notes continued secondary market demand post-announcement; implies manufacturing capacity constraints

  • Haggis Pinball's Fathom and Kelts games have not released gameplay footage despite public announcement/availability

    high confidence · Hosts discuss lack of gameplay videos for Haggis titles; note Kelts was physically playable at shows but underdocumented online

    • Bruce Nightingale @ Playfield supplier discussion — Identifies Mirko/Bader as Spooky's playfield supplier; suggests Jersey Jack should match this for quality

  • “Eight months later, people still want a GNR. Does that happen with everyone else?”

    Ron Hallett @ GNR secondary market analysis — Emphasizes sustained demand anomaly for Jersey Jack's Guns N' Roses vs. typical game lifecycle

  • “I found the music intolerable...It turns out the guy who did the video, he's on the thread and he saw my link...he put a ton of work into that music.”

    Ron Hallett @ T-Rex head mod controversy — Illustrates community sensitivity to criticism and interpersonal tensions on Pinside forums

  • “It's America, buddy...You can have a fucking opinion...I spent six hours editing this podcast just so I can release it so people can make comments on how it sucks.”

    Ron Hallett @ Pinside drama resolution — Ron's defense of critical commentary; reflects broader platform culture tolerating negative feedback

    • David Fosma
    person
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    Fathomgame
    Wizard of Ozgame
    Vectorgame
    Mirko/Baderperson/company
    Rick and Mortygame
    Pinsideorganization
    Pinball Starcompany
    This Week in Pinballorganization
    Super Awesome Pinball Showorganization
    Bowen Carothersperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Zach Minneyperson

    high · Ron: 'This game has seven physical ball locks and five saucers...how is that possible?' and 'Vector is another game that was designed by committee'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Halloween licensor (John Carpenter/Moustapha Akkad Estate) restricted film asset usage, requiring creative integration rather than direct clips; unclear scope on Beetlejuice licensing mentioned earlier in content

    high · Charlie indicated licensor said 'I don't want you to just show movies' and required 'more interesting way' of presentation

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky withheld Halloween gameplay footage due to licensor restrictions on film clip presentation; licensor required 'more interesting' integration than simple movie clips

    high · Charlie on Super Awesome Pinball Show: licensor said 'I don't want you to just show movies...done in a more interesting way'

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts note that platform quality, reliability, and production transparency matter to buyer confidence; tie Spooky's success to known entity status vs. historical Wizard of Oz risk (unproven manufacturer at premium pricing)

    medium · Ron: 'In this case, Spooky is a known entity. You know you will get the game eventually' vs. Wizard of Oz precedent of $6,500 for 'nonexistent game'

  • $

    market_signal: Halloween/Ultraman three-tier pricing ($6,995/$7,995/$9,995 with butter cabinet option) achieving sub-$10K positioning despite premium features; hosts note significance of 'under $10K' marketing language

    high · Ron: hosts mocked Spooky's 'big plug line' emphasizing 'still under $10K' as 'so douche chili' marketing

  • ?

    product_concern: Jersey Jack Pinball's ongoing playfield supplier issues across multiple games, with hosts speculating about contract lock-in or below-market supplier pricing preventing provider change despite quality problems

    medium · Bruce questions JJP supplier change rumors; hosts note consistent issues 'on and off' across JJP portfolio; speculation about cheap supplier pricing ($250–$300 wholesale)

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky's dual-release strategy (Halloween/Ultraman) with identical playfield/rules but different theming allows production flexibility if licensing or parts issues arise with one game

    high · Ron: 'It's good because in case they can't get parts for one, they can go shift to the other machine'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spooky's e-commerce platform experienced critical failures during high-traffic pre-order window (crashes, false order confirmations lasting ~40 minutes) despite recent site upgrades

    high · Bruce: 'It crashed. People were posting screenshots...your order is successful...they would have like a red X next to it...It finally was fixed like 40 minutes into it'

    • 2:47
    Yes. Damn, Kirk, what was getting in the way? I just love on the original show how just you have the captain and he goes down with the away team which is utterly ridiculous and Spock and McCoy at least in next gen it made more sense the captain is not going down with the ship well he's going down with the ship he's not going down with the away team unless it's a really good subject then he needs to go down like oh bye I'm George Takei I haven't been mentioned in a while in this podcast. I'm very upset. Yeah, well, you know, you're getting older. Oh, Bruce, you are a douchebag. A total douchebag. A senior douchebag.
    3:36
    Or senor. Senor. Senor douchebag. I guess the first thing we should talk about is the big news, the new game, which we said when we did the episode that by the time it was released, They probably would have already announced the title, which we were right. But it wasn't just a title. It was titles. Yes, which really threw everyone for a loop and frazzled some people in buying world because they didn't know which game to pick if they had both, you know, they liked both titles. Yeah, so tons of people bought both, which is just insane. Like collector's editions of both. Well, what we're talking about is the new Spooky Games Halloween.
    4:20
    Not a huge surprise. Like, okay, Halloween. But then after that, they came out and announced Ultraman. Same play field, same rules, different art. Yes. Different animation.
    4:36
    Think Family Guy and Shrek. Yeah. That's basically what this is. But instead of a couple months apart, this is like at the same time. Yep. And they're making 500 Ultramans and 1,250 Halloweens. And you can get them any which way. Well, any which way, by that we mean each game has three different levels. You can get the Standard Edition, the Bloodsuckers Edition, and the Collectors Edition. And on the Collectors Edition, there's only one option. The Butter Cabinet. Oh. Well, that's another $1,000. I know. And the collector's edition is the only one that has the topper. Yes. Ooh. And being that Bruce lives in Rochester, he, of course, will get to play probably both of these games. I know three people is getting the Halloween. Yeah, of course you do. But not Ultraman. Rochester is the land of CEs and LEs. So you will get to play it eventually. There's probably no one here who's going to get this. I'm hoping it's at Allentown, so maybe I can get to play it. But, again, these sold – well, first we should say they sold out. Yes, they did. Not an immediate sellout. Some distributors still have some. I know Pinball Stars still had some. Yeah. But Spooky sold out of all theirs, and I would think eventually the distributors would sell out of theirs. Of course. So what do you think about their idea of doing the two different games? It's good because in case they can't get parts for one, they can go shift to the other machine. Which one did you get? I got neither, Bruce. Neither did I. Because, okay, the standard edition was 7K. Yes. By 7K, I mean like $69.95. The Bloodsuckers edition was $79.90, whatever. And then the Collectors edition was $89.95. And then if you want the butter cabinet, you're at $99. Still under $10K. Yeah, that was their big plug line. I was like, ugh.
    6:53
    It was so douche chili. It's all juice. It was. It was like, oh, God, $10,000. Well, here's the funny thing before we get into the games. I thought they trolled Stern again, which I thought was funny, on the Ultraman trailer.
    7:11
    Now, Ultraman, which I had to look it up. Everyone was surprised I didn't know what Ultraman was. I guess it's some show from the 60s originally where Ultraman fights monsters. He does. It's kaiju action, if you will. But a lot of the monsters he fights were basically suits they had left over from Godzilla movies because one of the guys who was part of Godzilla franchise, the original guys involved with that, started this show. So one of the episodes of Ultraman, he fights Godzilla. Now, it's not Godzilla, but it's the Godzilla suit modified slightly to not be Godzilla, but it's still obviously Godzilla. and they use that in the trailer at the very end of the spooky trailer for Ultraman. They have Ultraman's like doing the come get some motion, and then they show the Godzilla monster. Yeah. I mean, very obvious Stern trolling there, which I get a kick out of that. The big old FU. Yeah, basically. And they love to troll, and I don't have any problem with it. I like that. They trolled before the game came out by wearing all these shirts, like Evil Dead shirt and Final Thirteen shirt and all that. So I didn't think it was going to be any of those once they had all that on. Of course not. It's like, which one are they not wearing? Didn't they do? Yes.
    8:39
    I was surprised about Ultraman, though. I think it's a great idea because if you just read the Pinside thread, there was all kinds of people like, the Halloween theme did not interest me at all, but then Ultraman came out. I'm like, okay, now that. That I might get. But you had people that were – I saw so many people. They got both CEs.
    9:01
    And I'm thinking that's like $18,000 plus tax depending on what state you live in. And shipping. You're talking to your 20K. I wish I had that money. Like where are these people getting all this money? I don't have that kind of money. Here's why. Holy shit. I mean I know they're probably just going to play one and sell the other at a huge markup. But still.
    9:22
    Holy shit. but congratulations to Spooky. Yep. They just made $14 million in gross sales. And they're going to be busy for the next year and a half. Yes, with their new location, bigger location. Yep, they're the second largest employer of Benton, Wisconsin, the first being the school.
    9:42
    Oh, he's saying it's the redneck land. Go Packers! Yeah, but Jesus! So, what did you think of the games? Now, Halloween, we'll go over Halloween first. We got upper play fields. They got, yeah, multiple upper play fields. Yeah. Including two that are playable. Yeah, and the third one that's, you know, just there. And now again, they had the trailer, and that was it. That's it. No gameplay video. You don't get to play it. You have no idea if this thing shoots like a dog or anything else. You have no idea. You have no idea what the LCD looks like. Nope. They had a couple of pictures of some of the animations, but you have no idea. How they're integrated. How it's integrated. They had an interview with Bug and Charlie from Spooky on the Super Awesome Pinball Show.
    10:37
    And they asked them, did you get all the assets? Are you showing all the clips? And they said yes and no. Just a warm, funny feeling I want to see when I spend $10,000. Yeah, which Dr. Penn, Christian, was like, could you maybe expand on that? It basically sounds like they couldn't just do clips because the licensor was just like, I don't want you to just show movies. They want it done in a more interesting way. Yeah. Which Charlie didn't agree with at first, but eventually like, okay. And now it's stupendous. It's going to be great. Oh, of course it is. It's so great we haven't seen it yet. Yeah. That worries me. I mean, I like the graphics they had. They did have. They did show. This is at This Week in Pinball. Hi, Jeff. Where they had a couple of screenshots of the graphics. They look nice. Yep. But again, does it show the clips? Mm-mm.
    11:33
    The artwork, the cabinet artwork is tremendous. Yeah, I will say that as well. I would say, they're showing the CE here, but this might be some of the best cabinet artwork I've ever seen. As someone who's watched the movie, it's in my Blu-ray collection, they've captured like every key moment from the movie is on the side.
    11:53
    And I am a huge Donald Pleasance fan. And to see him like on the side, so prominent with the gun, I pop for that. And Michael Myers as a kid with the freaking clown mask on the side with the knife, loved it. And the art is different on both sides. Why didn't you buy it? Got to play it, man. Oh, you don't want to get burned like a Rick and Morty like me? I tried to tell you. But the thing is, Rick and Morty was one thing. When you looked at it, you can kind of get an idea maybe how it played. When you have a game that looks this different, multiple upper play fields that looks this different, you have no clue how this thing plays. Yeah. And things I couldn't understand, like this game has seven physical ball locks and five saucers. But Charlie Spooky said it has tons of flow. And I'm thinking, how is that possible?
    12:50
    How do you have tons of flow when you have that many things that stop the ball? No, you don't. It has a drop target bank that blocks a ramp, which the first thing I thought of was vector. Yeah, I know. Which is not something I want to think about. And they said the game was kind of designed by committee. Yeah, for vectors than you ever want to know. And, I mean, Vector is another game that was designed by committee. Mm-hmm. Now, who knows? This could be the greatest playing game ever. I mean, there's certain things that sounded really interesting, like the wizard mode where it's like seven balls. You have to lock seven balls. It's like a single ball, and you have to lock seven balls, and then it starts like a seven-ball multi-ball. That sounded pretty interesting. It's like I've never heard of that before. That sounds pretty interesting. I'd like to see how that works. Plays and works, and if you can even do it, you know, yeah. I mean, they showed some clips of the upper play fields, and, I mean, they seem to play okay. I mean, it seemed cool. It looks cool. I mean, the game looks really cool.
    13:56
    The topper looks cool. It's got a knife that actually goes into the back box. There's like a slit in the back box. So it's like stabbing the back box. And even the side rails, it's got like the lollipop rails, but it's got like a pumpkin face with the slit, like the flipper buttons, the nose. And it even has the slit that goes into the mouth, just like the credits in the original movie at the beginning.
    14:22
    That's like the knife handle shooter. I hate. Yeah, I hate those. I hate the shooter rods. So that's something that's spooky. I hate all these shooter rods, especially if there's a skill shot and you're trying to do it with this fucking shooter rod thing. Yeah. If there's no skill shot, then who cares, you know? It's almost like hitting a fire button.
    14:42
    The rules were not by Bowen. Bowen Carrots was not involved in this game. So it was by Bug Ebery and David Fosma. I'm saying that wrong. Fosma. He's also doing the code. Did he do the code for Alice Cooper? I think so, yes. They do have the music. That was very obvious, which that's a big plus.
    15:09
    Yeah, the hedge guy, that was weird. The hedge guy? Mike Myers coming out of the hedge. Oh, that was awesome. Yeah, they got all these hedges on the side. Yeah, I love it. He comes out just like he does in the movie, and there's multiple Myers. There's multiple Mikes. I know. Just interesting. I was surprised when I saw it. It's like, oh, there's Jamie Lee Curtis. There's like, wow. You can tell it's an older movie because it was a newer one. They gave up their right to have the act. Because if there was their newer movie, there's no way they'd be able to have all these stars on there. No, of course not.
    15:43
    The one thing about the trailer that kind of killed it for me at the end, to be honest, and I'm anal about this. They had a Donald Pleasance impersonator. you know when i listen when i watch the trailer i could tell it was supposed to be donald pleasance and then i could also tell it wasn't a personator and i was just like i'd rather just have clips from the movie of him talking they got original speech by one of the one of the um jamie lee curtis's two friends there in the movie the one who did the topless scene yeah but she's like 70 now i know what is she going to sound like oh get me mike hit me i don't know um just uh it looks tremendous but man you gotta you have to be able to play something like this that's this different right now and this costly you know i know people do it is like the same way with stern and with gnr you know i just think it's getting a little out of hand where you can't even see like besides the video i think what should be done is this the day before you show this promo video like they did and then that night you showed a prototype playing and you could tell if it's a clunk fest or not even video that was edited you know just seeing like five minutes of it or seven minutes of it i think for any company any company not just i'm not picking on spooky any company you should see the video. As crazy as it is, it's not the craziest thing. To me, the craziest thing will still always be Wizard of Oz. Yeah. $6,500, which was $2,500 more than what Stern was charging, for this nonexistent game, for this company that literally has just been created.
    17:30
    And, like, these are the people we got. You know, we got Joe Bulser. We got Keith Johnson. We got a few other people. Give me $6,500. And people are like, yep, I'm in. including you. Oh, I was for the beginning. To me, that will always be the most insane.
    17:49
    People are just like, yeah, I'm in. Then I tapped out because it took so fucking long and I made money. In this case, Spooky is a known entity. You know you will get the game eventually. You know pretty much when you're going to get it depending on when you are in the order structure. Let's go to something even more wacky. we really haven't seen gameplay from haggis's oh fathom you fathom it's been out what they've announced it what may and you know we still haven't seen gameplay video even for prototype it's it's got you know and think about it if dr john really didn't push out kelts and put it on his you know channel how much have we seen from kelts uh i i would argue though kelts was at shows I know. I agree. It was a chose. You could have physically played the thing. Oh, of course. But the other ones, yeah, you know, what the heck? Why can't these companies be a little more – I know. Because they don't have to be. They don't have to be. And that's the problem. It's not a problem when people spend the money, man. How is it a problem? Well, it is a problem because look at it this way. How long did it take Haggis to sell out 250 of the mermaids? There was a rush at the end. Yeah. But if they didn't have that rush in the end, they might have not got to 250. But didn't you buy one? I did. But if they put the video out. So you're part of the problem is what you're saying. Totally agree because I like the game. But it struggled to hit 250. It did. Not being an a-hole, but they could have got maybe that 250 number sooner with less stress if they put out a 10-minute video. Even edited.
    19:32
    Honestly, probably like a two- to three-minute video. Yeah, even that. But I'm just getting sick of all this stuff. Or like with Jack Danger. Like, you know, oh, we released a video and everyone sold out. And now here comes Jack Danger going to show you Possibly the Premium, Possibly the Pro, you know, in action. Didn't they do that with Rick and Morty? Yes. That's what's getting annoying. You know, at least Guns N' Roses. I will give JJP that credit. They did do the videos right.
    20:01
    Well, the videos were so well done. It's just like, give me money now. Here's my money. Just take it. Just take my money right now. And you see what happened. They had such a big hype over that, that it really did work. They can't make them fast enough, literally. No, no. And this was, wait a sec, this was almost, what, eight or nine months ago they did this? And nobody's learned from their success.
    20:26
    Why do you say that? Everyone is sold out. You just said, you know, Haggis sold out, Spooky sold out. That's perfect success. It is, but it isn't because guess what? Wait a minute. Eight months later, people still want a GNR. Does that happen with everyone else?
    20:41
    Well, let's not let Halloween get all of the press here. What about Ultraman Kaiju Rumble? I think it's a better theme. I think it's the better of the two themes. It's definitely a safer theme. Yes. A more fun theme. Yes. The artwork on this is also excellent. They definitely are killing it with the artists. especially with the freaking side art man yeah between halloween alice cooper uh this game ultra man is just insane and i like how the artwork is different on both sides on all their games i do same play field and and it the same rules Exactly If you go like I on This Week in Pinball again Hi, Jeff. If you bring both of the rule sets up next to each other and go through the exact same rule set, it's just different. The terminology changes depending on the game. If I was going to buy one of these two games, it would have probably been Ultraman. Because, honestly, Halloween does nothing for me. With me, it would have been tough because, you know, I've seen Halloween many times. I've never seen Ultraman. Yeah, I've seen it a couple times when we were younger. But I love kaiju action, so. Yeah. But for me, neither. Didn't even have the inkling to open a pocket and let some money fly out of the muck. Yeah, I looked at it. I got the email from Pinball Star, which would have been a better way to get it because Spooky had issues with their site again. Of course. It crashed. People were posting screenshots like, did my order go through? And it said like your order is successful. They would have like a red X next to it. Yeah. Me and IT, I'm looking like that looks like an error. That doesn't look like it went through to me. And a lot of other people thought their orders went through but didn't, et cetera. And I think at some point it finally was fixed like 40 minutes into it. Hey, hold on.
    22:34
    This internet is new to us. well they upgrade i know they upgraded the site because i i am a member of the uh fan club and i had to redo stuff because of their new the new site their new provider whatever so yeah they might have to uh invest even more money into that maybe they have spectrum they have spectrum it went down our router went down we couldn't take any more orders oh my god that was really the only issue they had yeah ultra man looks better i I think, though, definitely. I like the look of it. I think it's more, and it's going to be rarer, too. Now think about it. If you got an Ultraman CE in a regular version, maybe, what, five or six, maybe? Yeah, pretty much everyone got CEs or Bloodsuckers. I don't think anyone bothered with the standard. So if you have a standard, you have the rarest game. If you have a standard Ultraman, you will have the rarest. You are the king. I don't think it's going to help you resale, though. Super rare. One of four. Yeah, one of four. yeah uh as i said honestly didn't do anything for me congratulations that they sold 1750 congrats to spooky i'm happy there's a company that could actually make halloween because no one else was going to make halloween no and no one else was going to make ultra man so guys since since you you know hey charlie uh bugger you feed us some butted fans at all i mean You should give it a try. I think you should. Yeah.
    24:06
    Keep you from my back door. Yeah. But I'll tell you, if you have a mic judge in person and you're doing the voices, then forget it. You have to get mic judge. Like you did Rick and Morty. If you did a Rick and Morty formula for Beavis and Butthead, you're in. You can probably sell 2,000. With a better shooting play field, please. Oh, God, please, yes. Yeah.
    24:29
    What the hell, ball? You know, back in my day, pinball didn't have flippers. We're going to score. All right. So we can check that off. Check that off the list. And congratulations to all the people who did buy them and did get their versions. You know, good luck with it. Hey, you're not going to have any glue in your machine. No, you're not going to have hot glue. You're not going to have loud fans. Your play field will probably not have ink lifting up. Yep. Great. So maybe that does say something, that they did sell 1750, and people are willing to wait up to a year and a half for a machine that is quality. They do plug their play fields a lot. Yes, they do. Which I would. I would, too. We don't seem to have any problems, except for that short part of the T&A run that, of course, Ron Hallett bought. And he admitted it. But other than that. But, you know, that's the weakness from JJP, that and their late boards. I have been on Pinside a little more lately. I keep hearing people say that they're going to a different play field provider. Is there any credence to that? You seem to know all the insider info. I haven't heard anything. You haven't heard anything from your sources? No, I have not heard one thing. If they were smart, they would hire the same people that Spooky does. Well, they're the same people that American uses, I believe. I know. Isn't it? Exactly, yeah. Bader. Yeah. That would be the one I'd be. I'd be paying $200, $300 more because I think he pays. He doesn't pay a lot for his play fields. I think he got in so early with this, you know, Mirko and got him situated where he's got to lock in on his price. And he really does. Who's he, Jack? Jack, because if you look what they sell their seconds for and their first for a blank play field from, say, Hobbit. They're still selling on JJP's website for three ninety nine for a first and two ninety nine for a second. So maybe I only paid, as Jack, $300. I'm still going to make $100, but I only paid $300, and I get rid of inventory and make a little profit. So how much are they paying for a playfield?
    26:38
    Maybe they're paying $250 for a playfield, and the second they're still making money on. Who knows? But if they're able to sell these playfields for the $399 and $299,
    26:49
    boy, that's kind of telling me that they're pretty cheap, and they must be buying them pretty cheap. I always figured they had to be getting them super cheap for them to stay with them through this many issues.
    27:00
    Well, the same issues, but with so many different games. Unless they're locked into a contract where they have to buy so many.
    27:07
    And that's the only reason why I could see them staying with them. And it's frustrating because it's on and off. I know. I mean, I have my dialed in downstairs. Never had a play field issue. Which at this point, it probably never will. because it has the mystical formula was correct on this one. Yeah. Well, speaking of Pinside, according to Pinside, I am a meanie. Oh, I'm the nice guy, right? I don't know about that, but I am the meanie. Why are you the meanie? Yeah, you don't know about this. No, I don't. That's what I'm actually asking. Yeah, I know something he doesn't know. Well, I got one of those awesome T-Rex heads. the t-rex yeah that the um i don't know his guy's name he's in israel made and they are kick ass but they are expensive okay so you they're like 400 so i spent yeah it's been a lot of money but you get they're all handmade and they look tremendous it replaces the t-rex head and the dress premium yes led yes so when you get this thing i mean she goes all out with this it's got like a case and a certificate authenticity sign with a number on it, you know, 10 of whatever, and you get a custom tool thing, and I got a mouse pad and a magnet. It's like a very nice little package. Yeah, it's a package. There you go. And you get a QR code with it that you scan, and it sends you to a YouTube video that shows you how to install it. Okay. And it wasn't made by the guy who made the mod. It was made by someone. One of the first people who bought the mod made the video. And so it's basically an unlisted YouTube video. Yeah, it's private unless you have the link. Unless you have the link. Well, it's unlisted. Private is something else. There's private, unlisted, and public in the YouTube land. So I watched this video, and the video itself showed everything, including it had a camera like mounted behind the backboard with the playfield out which i was like man that had to be a pain in the ass but it you know shows you how to install it but the music was like this electronic music and i the first time i watched it through the first time it's like i couldn't stand the music i watched it a second time i had to mute it right now this is just my like i just didn't like the music so i installed the thing works like a charm so i figure I'm going to do a stream.
    29:42
    So I streamed the thing. I remember that. And when I was done, I figured like, you know, I'll post a link to the VOD in the thread. There's a thread on Pinside for the T-Rex. So I figured I'll just post one and like, hey, if anyone wants to see an action, here it is. And then I wasn't in the thread for like a week. And when I came back to the thread, I found out I was a meanie. I'm an asshole. why are you an asshole meanie like bruce wait like now hold on this is getting making me smile right now because usually i'm the asshole and i usually i'm the mean dickhead during the stream uh someone asked about someone asked a question i basically said like there's a video that shows how to make you know how to install it but i i had the music on the video i had to mute it because i just i couldn't stand the music. Well, it turns out the guy who did the video, he's on the thread and he saw my link. So he watched the video and he didn't like my comment at all. He put a ton of work into that music. I guess it's some electronic version of the Jurassic Park music somehow, I guess. Okay. Yeah. He went out, he spent a hundred hours making the video and I was disrespectful because I shit over the music and all that. Guess what? It's America, buddy. Well, I think he is American. He's the one who made the video. He's not the guy in Israel who did the mob. I know, but guess what? It's America. You can have a fucking opinion. The funny thing is the very first comment after that was the guy said, he didn't like your music. Get over it. Yeah, exactly. But then there was other people like, I watched it. I like the music. That's an opinion. That's a great thing. An opinion. it's like that's the problem with this world now it was just it was a line i made i think i said i found the music intolerable was my line and i was being disrespectful because he put a lot of work but you know i guess i'm a meanie but i'll tell you i spent six hours editing this podcast just so i can release it so people can make comments on how it sucks or it's like the most boring thing ever. That's just the way it is. You don't like it? Oh, fucking well. Don't listen. I didn't say like you didn't put any work into the music or anything like that. That's not like I hate electronic music either. Ron, I have it. I have the thing you need to do now. I wanted to move on, Bruce. That's why I'm bringing it up now, just because I thought it was entertaining. Oh, I've laughed my ass off. Because usually I'm the nice guy. I know you are. I mean, I know where he's coming from. Oh, I know where he's coming from. Guess what? It's an opinion. I put tons of work into shit and have people just shit all over it. You just – it's – you just got to get – People used to shit all over the bar.
    32:32
    Oh, it's on my kind of thing. Wait a minute. They used to physically shit on your bar? Did you at least throw them out? Yeah, I sometimes would have to, yes, of course. But they actually literally were like, oh, it's on my kind of place or the food wasn't that great. And I'm like, that's not a problem. Guess what? I can't control anything that you dislike. So the only thing I can ask you to do is guess what? If you don't like it, I'm sorry. I wish I could make a better time for you, but that's your opinion. So, Bruce, did they shit on the floor? Did they shit on the floor? Yes, they did. That's like my favorite line. I love that song. But, you know, you can't. The problem with these days is people, you know. You sound old when you say these days. Those are key words that mean I'm old. Yes, it is. Back in my day, people weren't such pussies. Pussies? Yeah. You have to have my, you know, the problem with these days is if you don't have my opinion, how dare you?
    33:32
    You have to agree with me or I'm going to call you out. I never agree with Bruce because he's never right. I'm always right. No, you're not. And I've proven it, haven't I? Yeah, you've proven it all right. I have. All right. You're the meanie. I'm the meanie. So for now on, I am a meanie. And I'm the nice guy. We've actually proved it on our own chat. It would be funny if you listen to the music and Bruce is like, holy shit, that's awesome. Yeah. Did you realize that's actually electronic version of the ELO song something or other? Yeah, exactly. That would be fun. Oh, man. That would be funny. But notice that even on Ron, on our own group chat that we have for all the podcasters that we know, he's been very negative lately. And I've been the positive one. Yeah. I'm sorry. See, he can't even admit to it. He's like, yeah.
    34:22
    I'm not always the positive person I seem to be. Yes. Okay. I'm always not the negative person I seem to be. So what else do we have here? There was a George Gomez and Tanya Klaas interview on, I think it was just another pinball podcast, on TVN, the pinball network home of Silver Ball Chronicles with me and David Dennis. Check it out. Who? Yeah. See, I even put it on here, plug TPN in my show. Oh, wow. Yeah. They talked about Deadpool. But George Gomez put a little nugget out there that basically some exciting things are coming in September. And I think it's pretty much the internet connectivity stuff and all that. Which, one of the theories I had in my head, Tanya Klaas is the lead on Deadpool.
    35:14
    Deadpool is now considered, I mean, I think it's considered one of the greatest. Yeah, classic. It's like one of the greatest Stern games ever. They still have this high demand for it, even now. They're running another run in 2022. Yeah, yet your lead on the game hasn't done a game since, which seemed weird. So I was thinking, like, maybe he's on the other project. Well, the whole Internet thing, and that's like what he's been doing. And that's pretty much what he's been doing. I should say these theories on the podcast so I look really smart when they happen. You should, but you never do. I never do. I keep it to myself because I'm afraid I'll look like an idiot when they're wrong. What? Podcasters guessing what they want to do and what the story is going to be like? Sometimes right. I can't be like our Zach. I'm not always right like he is. Not always. 99.7%. Oh, okay.
    36:06
    All right. What else do I have here? Well, let's keep the negativity up. All right. Yeah. The Hall of Fame. The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas had their grand opening. Congratulations. Fine. Looks great. Opened on July 1st. They already had their soft opening, but this was their hard opening. Grand opening. They got, I think, a day, you know, like, you know, it was Pinball Day. Yeah, it was Hall of Fame Day in Vegas. They got presented a plaque, and they had a party there for all the volunteers and everyone involved. I got one question. What? Today it was 118 degrees in Vegas. Mm-hmm. How do they keep the AC cool in that place with all the games? Well, I'm guessing he LED'd most of them, I would hope at this point. I'd hope, but, you know, I know some aren't still. I know some of the EMs. But we're talking about Tim Arnold. Yes. the main guy the top dog the head cheese doing this for many many years but as usual with these there's an issue there's an issue and i'm actually going to read this verbatim from uh it's vital vegas vital vegas.com because they were the first ones to report this and um on twitter so i figured i'd give them the uh the credit here well i'll just read it here Owner Tim Arnold said that business has doubled from the previous location, a welcome influx of cash for a nonprofit that donates proceeds from gameplay to charities. And it says, like, Salvation Army, but I thought he doesn't do Salvation Army anymore. No, he does. Well, he still does a little bit of it. Really? I thought they had a falling out. They did have a falling out, but I think they now came back a little bit. And he's not doing the full like he used to, like three or four years ago, the full. Now he spreads the love. Okay. He spreads the love, the profits. And chatting with Tim Arnold at the grand opening, he shared a frustrating situation concerning the attraction's new building. It seems a surveyor made an error during the planning stages of the $10 million structure. The screw-up resulted in the Pinball Hall of Fame extending eight feet too far south, it's the right side of the building, encroaching on a neighboring parcel owned by Dream Hotel Group. Yes. so basically eight feet of the building the whole right side not the building but the parking lot and the problem is i know i think it was the parking lot because the building it's if you see the side it's it's almost it comes like the fencing goes right to where the building is oh really i thought it was i thought they couldn't i thought i heard something else but no no they'd have to move the bill which they can't move the building but yeah the studying what the fuck moment has now set in motion what's expected to be protracted litigation. Dream sues the pinball hall of fame, pinball hall of fame sues the surveyor, all that. The domino effect. So, yeah, everyone's going to lawyer up and shit and. We have litigation for years. See, I don't know how any of this works. Tim to Arnold seems undaunted, however. Now, for those, the thing about Tim Arnold, as opposed to the whole banning situation, which we talked about the last episode where everything seemed to be all weird and not really planned and people didn't know stuff and et cetera. With Tim, he has always been extremely transparent in everything and extremely planning everything to the most minute detail. The only reason they had to go fund me was because of fucking COVID. Yes. That's why they ended up short and it was for like 100K or whatever. Yeah, monkey wrench into everything. I guess. So they raise the money and there's the building. So, you know, it is highly unlikely he screwed up anything. This is going to be a screw up on someone else. Well, he doesn't build the building. So guess what? Here. Here's what I was. Here's what the surveyor told and put the stakes in. And this and this and this. Guess what? You have no control over what a surveyor tells everyone else to do. So you're kind of at the mercy of them. Who knows what's going to happen? But again, going to what I said the last episode, if there's locations, shows, stuff, you think like, oh, I'll go there some other time. No. I would go now. If you want to check out the Pinball Hall of Fame, do it now. You never know what's going to happen. No, what's going to happen is this. They'll have to buy the eight feet of property along the whole stretch. Yeah, it'll just be who buys it. Yeah, who buys it. They'll put an extreme monster amount on it. they'll go back and forth like 10 or 12 times and then it'll finally be because i'm not sure i don't think there's a hotel next to it i think it's just it's property owned by a hotel group but there's it doesn't look like there's anything there if you look next to it you can literally see through to the airport yes there's nothing there they just own the property so it's not like it was approaching on anything and that kind of stuff so there's you know there's going to be wiggle room and again that also goes to the thing where we said the money men a few people have these huge collections this is tim arnold's collection and he's not getting any younger no and i know it's a volunteer group and all that and it's it's a group not for profit but it's tim arnold he is the driving force so yes and you know he's not getting as i said he's not getting any younger none of these guys are getting any younger oh not even me not even you i wish someone would interview him for a podcast because he used to have if you listen to any of the old top casts He had great stories. Stories about getting held up in his first arcade, just all these crazy things. The money flowing out of these machines, everything like that, yeah. Yeah, like his whole story, how he basically got rich. You want to talk about right place, right time. His first arcade was just a complete failure. He got held up, got robbed. So then he opened the second one. And then the rules changed right after he opened it that there couldn't be any other arcades in the area. But he got grandfathered in, so he was the only arcade, and it was like a college town. And this was like in the 70s. And then the video game thing hit.
    42:22
    And he said he was making so much money, him and his brother, they both owned it, they would just take just sacks of quarters and take them to the bank. Buckets of quarters Just tons and tons and he just made a shit ton of money And he owned it up until like the early 90s and then he just moved to Vegas And brought all the games with him And brought all the games with him which that story was brilliant Tim is extremely frugal, and there was some kind of promotion like U-Haul had. It was one of those companies that unlimited mileage for like a week or something. So he literally got U-Haul, put a bunch of his games in it, drove from Michigan to Vegas and back and did that like three times and got all his games and then brought it back to the rental place and they looked at the mileage like, holy shit. You got 10,000 miles on this thing. It's like, hey, you said unlimited miles. Yeah. All right. So that's checked off. What else do we got here?
    43:19
    Well, let's talk about Allentown. Allentown's coming up and Bruce wanted me to mention it even though we have another episode before Allentown. But you wanted me to mention it early because... I'm going to be working there. You're going to be working at Allentown. So are you going to be like at the front? No, I'm actually behind the scenes. I'm going to be help setting up and tearing down. Oh. Yep, so you'll be dealing with me with the setups and the electrical and all that fun stuff since I've done so many times other things. So you'll get to set up that blackout that Ivan brings every year? Yes. and I'm going to probably help out with repairs during it for Ivan and that kind of stuff. How nice. Yeah, I've offered that also, but yeah, any way I can help Ivan. Ivan is a great guy. He's always been a good friend to me and my wife and, you know, other people. He does really well. He stepped up and ran with the Allentale show after the Hines family, you know, had it for a while. It wasn't Hines? Yeah, Hines. Hines family. You know, it was really good. You know, and Ivan just, you know, I Honestly, he's on my phone. I can call him, and he will always answer my phone calls, and we BS for 20 minutes, and it's just a great time. So you'll be seeing me there. I'll be there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, all three days. Wow. I took the days off. Yep, I took the days off, so it'll be really cool. Well, you'll only see him if you go there Thursday when it's not open yet. Yes, but the people who are going there to set up games can go in that Thursday. You'll see me then. I'll be bringing down possibly a game. If I get the right trade bait, Gamitron 2, which is the nicer Gamitron, is up for trade. Whoa. The nicer one. Why would you do that? Wouldn't you want to keep the nicer one? I would usually, but, you know, I'm giving up the nice one because I want a nice game in return. I want trade bait. I did ask originally for a hoops, but I don't need that anymore. Oh, what? What do you mean you don't need that anymore? I have a hoops now, Ron. You have a Hoops? Yes, and the Hoops will be coming to the co-op. Ooh. So we don't need Hoops anymore. So wait a minute. So you got Hoops and Surf and Safari. Yes. You have like the best two System 3 games they ever did. And I have a lead on another of my favorite System 3 games. We actually have three. We have three System 3 games there. We also have Stargate. Oh, yes, which is the one that everyone likes or everyone says is always the best one. Yes. and then we might have to lead on the first one. It's not lights, camera, action, is it? Yeah, baby. This game sucks. It's not suck. We might have a lead on that. But, no, I want trade bait for my Gamitron. I'm looking for a radical towards it. I'm putting my machine towards a radical. Yeah, folks, at this point, that's kind of like his Grail game. It is my Grail game right now. He's got everything else. Or Braille game would be either Radical, a Frontier, or any old Stern. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You told me you hated Frontier. I do hate Frontier, but I have to get one to appreciate it.
    46:24
    Okay, folks. Frontier is the game that cost him, what was it? Yep. What division? C. C Division Championship at Pembroke. Yep. It did. Yeah. Why do you want that game? that would be like me wanting six million dollar man yeah i need to show it who's boss okay but yes that would be the you know any old stern that i don't own and most of the people who listen to the podcast know what sterns i have and don't have and if you don't you should have been listening earlier you need to go back and listen to the other 169 episodes to figure out what they are but i do i love split second if it was perfect you know not towards the gamertag but i'm looking for split second. Hurry, hurry, hurry. You love circus. I love the loop. Circus theme just scares me a little bit, but I do like older sterns. So you're scared of clowns. I am scared of clowns. A radical or frontier. I think that would be my bucket list for those three machines. I've already had a Viking. I've had other games like that.
    47:26
    But unless you have something that's really weird, maybe you've messaged me or you've messaged Slamtail Podcast and said, Say, hey, I heard you're looking for this or something weird. Here you go. Message me up. Maybe we can do something in Allentown. You can message him up at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. And I hope to see everyone there in Allentown. It's going to be probably a humongous show. Yeah, me and my dad are going there extra early to get in line to try to make sure we get in. I've already heard from Ivan. he's going to be hopefully we're going to have less of a line this year how's he going to do that off the record okay we're muting now yes we are there you go wow i love this insider info our listeners can't hear yes it's great but just to say you know it should be better this year but it's going to be the biggest show i think because it's the first show after covid the freaking i think everyone's going to be like enough well it's not the first show after covid but it's the first of its size after covid yes and the feeding frenzy of buying games will just be like everyone's saying like oh the prices are starting to stabilize now where the fuck are people saying this is this is the ultimate seller's market really it is it is the only thing i think that's not selling like as you know like you would expect is like regular pros like you know star trek pro oh i get a star trek pro for 51 50 200 okay yeah that's a pretty good deal you know all of these some of these other games like you know like what you want what like today i saw a wanted buy post for a metallica pro i'm not willing to pay more than 6200 like huh i wouldn't be paying no 6200 for a metallica pro but people are putting wanted by want to buy ads in the allentown thread for that. Can you imagine when the Halloweens and Ultraman start coming up? Oh, how much do you need? $20,000 for mine and it's yours. New in box. New in box. Ready to go.
    49:34
    Well, right next to hoops I have repairs. Repairs. So this is the co-op segment. Everyone turns it off.
    49:47
    Zach comes up to me a couple days ago and he goes, the flasher for the AFM doesn't work. I'm like, which flasher? He's like, the one for right in front of the three target bank. So I go into the back box, and yeah, one of the LEDs is out for my power. Look at the fuse, it's blown. Pop a new fuse in, it blows like that.
    50:09
    Okay, start figuring out some stuff now. Well, we found out we have a locked-on transistor for one of the lights. So I kept the fuse out because the game still plays.
    50:21
    And I got to fix that this week. So we had to order the transistor because it's not a regular WPC95 driver board there. Oh. Playtime. Sorry. It is a rotten dog. Oh. So it's just using a different transistor. Not a big deal. And then another customer comes on and goes, hey, we're missing part of your lights on. You're dialed in. Oh, no.
    50:47
    Yes. One of the light boards failed on the JJP dialed in. The Bob targets and the Bob insert and the lock insert on the left-hand side. So how do you get those fixed? I don't know. That's going to be my fun dealing with JJP this week. That's kind of crazy that you don't know, and it's like it's not like it's an old game. Well, it is an old game. It's three years old. Yeah. It is. It is 2018. so that should be fun dealing with that we tried swapping out cables we got power to it that green light is on on the board no lady probably fried the cpu like each here's the bad thing is each board light board has two cpus on it one to handle the data bus and one to actually tell what colors to go to yay how much do you think that light board is probably going to be let's two guesses right now, Ron. How much would a light board cost? How big is a light board? How many lights does it do?
    51:51
    Eight or seven. $75 to $100. I'm thinking $150 at least minimum. Okay. We'll see what we have to deal with next week. It's crazy when you think about it. Your lights break instead of a five-cent bulb. Or even a socketed LED bulb. It's going to be $100 plus to get your lights back. That is kind of crazy. stupid. Someone needs to start doing those boards. I know, or repairing them at least. Fuses were good on them. There's actually two fuses on them. Not physical fuses, but what we're used to with the glass type, but there are fuses and they were good.
    52:31
    Resistors were good. We tested as much as we could, but it's got to be something on the logic. Yay. Excuse me, and Tipsy Doodle will not start a game so hasn't zach fixed it yet nope he's got to take it apart he thinks it's one of the pandawicks in the back that's got a little dirty and a little maybe a little pulled out wait a minute pandawicks what do you mean connectors in the back the three you know the big connectors going from the play field to the head the jones plugs yeah i call them pandawicks because that's what they were called in the phone company uh oh okay man you're trying to confuse me that's what that's what i do that's what you do that's definitely what you do Yeah, they called them, Pandowitz and Foam Company, because we – Foam Company in the old days, in the 60s and 70s – My grandfather. My grandfather, he said when he looked at a pinball machine, like, this is simple compared to what I used to do. It was always electromechanical there too.
    53:28
    So that was the repair section, but we'll know more in two weeks. Well, there's something very exciting happening at the co-op this upcoming Saturday. Yes, there is. Which will be the – that would be Saturday. the 17th. The 17th. July 17th. Doors open at 12. Doors open at 12, and I forgot. I forgot already what the format of the tournament is. Match play. I think it's four-game match play. I don't know what style he's... Zach doesn't like Swiss.
    53:57
    Or tiered Swiss, so I think it's going to be balanced. So, are there going to be finals or anything? I'm assuming so. I do not know, because I'm not going to be there, unfortunately. So, if you don't want to see Bruce at the co-op, this is the time to go. If you don't want the loudness of Bruce in your face, this is the time. Because I'm going to a wedding. Well, you just had like team league there, right? Yes, we did. 30 people. We had a Thursday night. 16 were in team league. So we had a good showing. And that was just to play pinball on a Thursday night, which is great. Thank you for all who came out. There's a lot of regulars there, but we missed a lot of our regulars. So hopefully next two Thursdays from now, which will be the 22nd, we'll have more people. And we are now open Thursday, so if you want to practice on your games, you come out Thursday before the tournament on the 17th. And I brought the tournament up. It's 9 o'clock here right now, Eastern. I wanted to make sure I brought the tournament up at that time because I scheduled someone to call in. Ooh. Yes. We mentioned the legendary Stu McVicker. Oh, yes. I love Stu. If you don't know who he is, He is the 1978 Playboy Launch Party champion, and he used to be on my stream a lot. Banned by IFPA. He's banned by IFPA because of the incidents he's had with Roger Sharp in the 80s, 70s, 80s, I believe. Different controversies. Very controversies. I mean, he said, well, instead of me explaining, why don't I get him on the line here? Yeah, let's get the dude. Because he's going to be playing in this tournament, and the only reason he's playing in it is because IFPA points are not there yet. So this might be one of the only times you're going to get to see him. And we are planning on streaming at least part of this tournament. You'll actually be able to see Stu McVicker maybe play you, Ron. He could play me. Everyone thinks we're the same person. I don't understand. I know you're not. I've been there. Yes, you have been there. I have been there. Hold on. He's calling in. He's like one of our – he doesn't have Skype. No, no, no. In Romania, they don't have Skype. Well, he lives here, but yes. He doesn't have Skype, so he's kind of like he has to call in to our number. So he's going to be using a phone, so it's probably going to sound like shit. Yeah, he's old school. Yeah. He's like Scott. He's old. He's like our Scott. Yeah, he doesn't want to use that. Yeah. So, all right, hold on. Stu. Stu, are you there? Yes, I am here. I am Stu McVicker, the 1978 Playboy Launch Party champion. yet. Nice. Hi, Stu. How are you today? Yes, Stu. How are you today? I knew you were going to say your whole spiel anyway. I am doing great. I can't wait to play in this tournament at the Rochester co-op thing, whatever you call it. RPC, Rochester Pinball Collective, sir. Whatever. What kind of format is this tournament? It's a match play. Okay. And I don't know it all, unfortunately, stew because i am not running this tournament i will not even be there to greet you or say hi to you maybe i'll see you at the end of the night when you're maybe holding up the trophy oh i would definitely be holding up the trophy i mean who's playing in this tournament oh a bunch of locals and maybe we'll get one or two people from out of town yeah and i'll be playing in this tournament too oh wow i'm really scared of ron i know you you have beaten ron many many times i have beaten run many times i've beaten roger sharp many many times i know that's why i banned from the ipa yes but uh hey you never know who might come though stew so you ready to take on all comers i am ready to take on anyone i don't care who you are i don't care you're the number one player in the world you will lose to me so wow so the number one player in the world who is that right now How the hell do I know? I don't know either. I have to go look on IFPA. Stu, it's actually Raymond Davidson is the number one player in the world right now. Oh, he got it back? He got it back due to the weird decay stuff that IFPA does. It's typical IFPA bullshit. You move around in the standings when no one's even playing.
    58:12
    Typical. Oh, I hate that. Whatever. Who's running the tournament if you're not running it? The world-famous Zach from our podcast. Oh, God, not him. Are you ready to take on, like, EMs? Are you good at EM machines? I am good at everything. Everything. Unlike these wussies out there now that just play all these new sterns with these ridiculous rule sets. You have to be, like, a scientist to even understand anything. Mm-hmm. Okay, well, you heard it here first, folks. He is ready to take on all comers. He sounds like he's ready to take on all comers. Man. I know. So if you're ready to play Stu McVicker, you need to come out for one of the few chances to play him in a non-IFPA points thing. You need to come to the Rochester Pinball Collective, and you need to face this man and go USA, USA. That is so lame just because I'm from Romania. Yes. Seriously. Typical American douchebag. Yep, very much so. You're lucky I'm not going to be there, Stu, because you don't want to lose against me. Whatever. do you have any questions to ask the legendary 1978 playboy launch party champion yes uh hold on i think i have an email just coming in oh yes it was from roger sharp he said use it or lose it sucker you still don't get points i don't even understand that i don't know you know ron is worthy about you that you say these things that make no sense i know but he i'm just going that's true, Stu. He says this a lot. I didn't understand that either. Maybe it's just like your thing. Maybe he has a secret thing that just knows how to just push your wrong buttons. Whatever. Do you have any real questions for me? I don't have any. Ron, do you have any questions for Stu? Nah, I don't have any questions for him. I just think we're going to have a fun time watching Stu McVicar run all over us. Okay. If you consider losing fun, I never did. That's why I don't lose. Oh, so you're going to take on. What happens if you do lose, Stu? That's not even a possibility. No, no. But I mean, saying if you do lose, are you going to retire from pinball? I'm not going to lose. OK, that's not even you understand. That's not even in my mindset. Wow. That's a pretty solid mindset of positivity that you are the number one player. Well, Stu, you're not going to be nervous or anything that you're going to be on camera because we do plan on streaming this. I mean, even if we don't stream until we get to the finals, I would assume, of course, you would be in the finals. That is correct. I would be in the finals. I won the Playboy Launch Party Champion on the ABC's Wild World of Sports, seen by millions of people. Do you think I'm going to care about being on your stream with like 10 people watching? By the way, what's the name of your stream? What's it called? slam till podcast or it will be no no bruce it's going to be on the roc pinball oh we'll be on the roc pinball so yeah so if you go to twitch.tv slash roc pinball you will get to watch this stream i don't have an exact time it'll be just probably whenever maybe quarterfinals start or if or if we do it early we might just follow random groups around but you will definitely get to see this too at some point i know i hope he trash talks a lot yes i trash talk a lot okay i cannot wait but i can back it up unlike some people all right i've had enough of you i will be at these tournaments at the rochester pinball collective on saturday july 17th roc pinball on twitch watch me kick everyone's ass later losers hey if you want to play against them come on out and play again he hung up on me what a dick wow he is a dick he is quite the dick all right well i finally got him on i know how long have you been asking for him i know and everyone keeps thinking for the same people i don't see it i don't see it i don't see it so all right so that's gonna be that's it well there's another tournament coming up yes and i promise this is the last tournament we'll mention this is coming up in september the one that started it all kind of stop west four four the search for more no that would be no no it's three no that was three i screwed that up this time it's the voyage home yeah a pinball voyage home a pinball voyage home so what are the details bruce uh we will be opening the banks for uh first we're going to have the maximum of 50 people i think it's 50 or 55 we're going to nail that down the next couple days. We're opening up the banks. What does that mean? We're getting the money to pay out all this prize money? Yes, exactly. How many people we can actually have in a place legally and we have our limits. So we're going to have a limit of how many people can come in and pay. I think we're going to start taking money on the 15th of July and you can prepay, which will save you $10. It's going to be $40 until September 1st or until if we do sell out before then. After September 1st, It goes up to $50. And there's spots you can even come in on the day of. It's going to be the 25th. The doors open at 12 noon. We will start at 1 o'clock. It will be a match play tournament. It will be going it all depends on how many but we probably take a quarter of the people of who So if we have 50 people we say top 12 will go to the finals and then we go from there We don't know how many people we have going into the finals until we have our final total. All right. Is this in addition to the fee to get in? No, no, no. It's all together. Oh, okay. You should make that – Yeah, I was going to say. Because usually it's $25 to get – or is it $20? $20. Usually $20 to get in. So $20 goes to the – if you're going to pay – if you pre-register, $20 will go to the Pinball Collective, and then the other $20 will go towards the prize money. Okay. And hopefully we'll get some prizes from Stern. We're going to ask all these great people who I make fun of every two weeks. Yeah. Okay, we're going to get some great prizes.
    64:40
    But yes, and we're going to try it. And it will be an IFPA-sanctioned event, and we get 50 people in upstate New York, and hopefully we'll get Canadians coming down because I think I heard the border might be opening soon. George Takei will be there? Yes. You will be able to sign George Takei? Yes. And we're going to have a great time. You can bring your own food in. You can bring your own regular drinks in. No alcohol drinks can be brought in, but whatever you do outside the place, I don't care. We have a bar. There's two bars downstairs. You can get food with. We have a Wendy's right down the road. We have a Timmy Ho's right down the road. So we got a lot of food options. Location rules. You got like everything. All right. And where is the Co-Oper's? What's the location? It is 349 West Commercial Street, suite number 2965 in beautiful East Rochester, New York. If you knew where the old Silver Ball Saloon, it's one, I'm sorry, it's two blocks away. And do you have a website? We do. It's rochesterpinball.com or rocpinball.com. All right. And we also have a Facebook page, Instagram. Just look up at Rochester Pinball Collective. Watch us, follow us, like us. Also, for also Slamtail Podcast, you should watch and follow us also. I think I pounded that enough. I've pounded it always.
    66:04
    I'm glad you've pounded it. Always. I just want to throw a shout-out here to Robert Byers. Oh, hey, Robert. Of Top Row Pinball. Check him out on Twitch, Top Row Pinball. He had a thing where he – see, you might not know what any of these people are. But Matt Hardy is a professional wrestler. And his wife, Reby Hardy, got him a custom – she had a custom game made for him, which was basically a rethemed Mustang, like a Stern Mustang. And they have been streaming pinball lately. and I guess one day when Robert was doing his thing and if you haven't watched his streams you should you should watch them uh and if you've heard him on our show he will do wrestler intros and it turns out that Reby Matt's wife was watching his stream it was getting a kick out of the uh wrestler intros so they've had like a back and forth going on there but uh she's definitely the pinhead nice so she's been she was asking questions like uh what was he playing whatever he was playing she was like is there a color dmd for this game oh okay okay she's she's into it yep and i guess during the stream like the mustang the custom game broke and she had to fix it matt was kind of useless nice she's a keeper and then i noticed you know how i say charlie from spooky is bob ross yes yes well i have a new one. I have Mr. Rogers. Wow. I was watching Play Better Pinball, which is the stream of Chris Stevens. Okay. Multiple time, Pinberg, runner-up, you know, top 10 player, etc. That guy is so nice, it's almost unsettling. You know what I mean? It's like, this can't be real. He is the Mr. Rogers of pinball nice it's just relentless positivity what's that i don't know it's just weird it's just so weird and and i noticed that's when uh rebby hardy is definitely into pinball because she was on his stream too nice in the chat so if you see if you see house hardy come up on any of your pinball streams if you're a streamer that's her but the other thing is when i was watching top rope pinball the other day, Robert got to the super wizard mode on Jurassic Park, which is when dinosaurs rule the earth. Which I guess the deal is if you do all the mini wizard modes where you actually complete them or something like that, when you finish Escape from Nublar, you get an extra little mode. Which looks like it's just a friendly a frenzy multi-ball thing. Yeah, that's all it is. That's really all it is. It's a cool hey, look what I did, fucker. Yeah.
    68:52
    And watching him play that, I realize I will never be any good on my dressing board. No, I suck. I mean, yeah. You see a good player, yeah. When you see a good player play it, like, he played two games on the stream I watched. The one he almost got to escape from Nublar. Yep. And the second one he got the Uber Wizard mode. Like, two fucking games. It took him like an hour. My games last like five minutes, and I never get over 300 million. As I said, you might as well just sell it now. I think I might. I think you just got to admit that you failed. I think the game is designed for Keith Elwin or Keith Elwin types. Yes, it is. I mean, it's just too hard for me. It really is. I admit it. I have more fun playing the Lethal Weapon 3 next to it. I know.
    69:37
    All right. So, Ron. Yes, sir. My IFPA ranking has grown. Wait, how does it grow? I've been doing better than everyone else has in this IFPA. I went last month at 885 I was. Now I'm 879 in the IFPA.
    69:56
    Okay. I'm doing really good, ain't I? Yes, you are. And let's see what Mr. Hallett is at. Ooh, you're driving down there, buddy. I'm driving down. Last month you were 417 ranked.
    70:10
    Now you're 486th. Oh, my God. you are crashing and burning it's over for me it is you you've had the good years of your life now you're getting old and decrepit like me you're all there you're done well since i have you on the line bruce yes when is the upstate new york pinball championships going to take place i don't even know myself 2019 i don't even know if We're even going to do it this year. I know I have to look. I honestly, with COVID and everything, it really just, it was right around the time. Oh, come on. A worldwide pandemic is no excuse. I know it's not, but I'm going to use it as an excuse.
    70:55
    I'm looking at all this stuff here like. All right. Well, I got the ball bag open. You ready? Yes, I can. Let's go for it. Open it up. So I have first emails from Ryan. Not Ryan C. but Ryan. Okay. He says, what's up guys. Short time listener. First time emailer. Just wanted to say I'm a newbie to podcast and really enjoy your guys show. I heard episode one 59 and decided to start from the beginning from where it all began. Oh my. Wow. I am now on episode 50. Finally get to hear Ryan C from down under. Great guy. Really love the tech talk and tournament talk. Hey, somebody likes it. Hey, you got one. I have come to the conclusion that Bruce is usually always wrong. I like this guy. Ron, you are right. I really like this guy. Bruce makes some decent points, but the hate is strong in that one. Yes, it is. Anyway, great show. Keep it up. And attached is a picture of a dragon fist we have locally. What? Tommy Skinner from This Flippin' Podcast has a great collection at our local watering hole, North End Pub. Yep. Holy crap, it's a dragon fist on location. Yep, just like mine. Oh, my. there's at least two on location that's insane it is it's cool isn't it yeah it is cool alright next episode 169 and Mama is the subject line Mama this is from Shannon hey guys great episode as usual especially when Bruce inserted a random Mama reference from Goonies in relation to Axl Rose completely out of thin air yeah that's why I didn't know what the hell he was talking about much laughter and applause on this end keep up the great work shannon thank you shannon see you have your fans they love when you just come up with shit that everyone's like what what's wrong with that yeah oh this is ryan again hey guys me again i forgot to tell you my name it's ryan g and i'm from lafayette indiana continue on nice instead of ryan c you're ryan g ryan j i don't know if people want their you know Don't mention my last name. So I don't want to take any chances.
    73:08
    Accents. This is from, well, Dr. John, John Cosson. I will say his last name. Accents is the subject line. It says, just an FYI, the accent of Jurassic Park is supposed to be South African, not Australian. So it's Houdini for the win for worst accent. Oh, wow. Wait a minute.
    73:27
    It's an actual Australian in that one. The thing about Houdini is if you look at the credits, it shows like Martin Robbins, and then it has Ryan C. with his name crossed out. Does that mean he was supposed to be in the game, but they cut him? Yeah, I think they cut him. Oh, God. Fail. All right. Then we have another one from John Cosson.
    73:49
    Subject line says, stuff. Another email for this episode. Multi-ball, as said by Picard on Star Trek The Next Generation. About our thing about not missing shows, like go to more shows. He says, I blame Typhoid Emily. Took her to Pinnberg, disappears the next year. Took her to InDisc, same thing. Should we risk Expo this year? Go for it.
    74:14
    Go to Expo, man. Do it. Just do it. And then we have, oh, okay, total coincidence. We have an email from Robert Fiers. Woo-hoo. This is Top Rope Shoutout for five years.
    74:30
    So, all right, it's a sound clip. I will insert this into the podcast. Are you ready? I'm ready. Here we go.
    74:38
    If you smell what The Rock is cooking. Finally, The Rock from Top Rope Pinball has come back to the Slam Tilt Podcast. the Rob would like to say congrats on five years of awesome podcasting all those other jabroni podcasts get their candy asses whooped by slam tilt the best podcaster in the history of pinball and Ron are a great duo for sure looking forward to many more years if you smell what the Rob is flipping very nice Robert thank you that's right baby I'm sorry baby I love you and Dusty Rhodes it's the American dream here thank you for five years baby ball bag is crossed off thank you for the new listeners don't forget to tell your friends your family, the people you hate about us the people you hate well speaking to that we haven't checked any of our rank ratings for a while let's let's do that i love to do that live apple apple podcast slam till uh it really people don't seem to be rating things that much anymore i wonder if they're just getting tired of rating things yeah it's covid you know there's they got covid head they got covid head yeah there's no nothing new in Apple land. I think ever since they went from iTunes to Apple podcast, change the name. I've noticed that the ratings have not been there. So yeah, if you go to the, this weekend pinball, Oh, what do they call it? Forget. We are so bad promoters database.
    76:34
    DB. It's the one that you were complaining about where we were. We're not on the front page. You know, who is on the front page? Silver ball Chronicles, which you can listen to on the pinball. I already heard this already once today. We're going to be – Oh, I'm sorry. So what page are we on? 10? I don't know. I'm looking right now. What excitement. You get to hear – Oh, there we are. We're on the second page. 4.7. Let's see what our reviews were. It's a podcast. Yeah, it is. I rubbed them the wrong way. Oh, yeah. We said that one. Yeah, Guy Who Hates You. Yeah, that was the last one. We really, yeah. But another person, Thomas C., heard Bruce guest on another pod, really enjoyed his takes and upfront honesty, searched and found the Slamtail podcast and enjoyed it a lot. Great content. Will be one of my must-listen podcasts. Wow. I do have to make a correction from last to last week where I said Zach, not our Zach, but Zach Minney didn't really help our ratings. He did. It was one of the higher ones we've had. Yeah. So congratulations, Zach. So congratulations. you can pat yourself on the back. Where is Zach from?
    77:47
    Indiana? No, I'm saying, like, what podcast does he have? Where is Zach from? We're going to plug him. The Pinball Show. Yes. With the much better Dennis Creasel. Yes, it is. Much better. And he also sells at this, what's it called? Oh, Flippin' Out. Yeah, Flippin' Out. Flippin' Out Pinball. When in doubt, whip it out. I mean, flip it out. Flip it out. Yes. Enough plugs. I love plugs. so it's been five years bruce any reflections okay so let's let's go over to math what do you think our average show is did you think it would last this long no not at all no no really oh fuck oh you did i don't know you've been in like since we started this podcast you've been in three different houses i have been think about it you've had a bar how my internet today my internet's doing pretty good it is it oh god why'd you say that now now you're gonna why why i'm hardwired right into the router the router is right on my desk so you're hard i'm hard baby so that's why it's working so uh what were you saying at figuring it out how many we have almost 18 days of content if you go by an average of 2.5 hours per show yeah two hours per show yeah wow 18 days you You can listen to me and Ron. 18 straight days. Wow, that would suck. That would really. That's almost like maybe in some countries we are torture. It probably is. You know when they have like some cult and they'll be stuck in a compound and they'll usually just play really loud death metal music? Yep. Instead they just play the Slam Tilt Podcast and they just give up immediately. They give up all the secrets. Mm-hmm. I love it. I just like to say thank you to our listeners. Thank you. Without you guys, we would not be doing this. Well, we would be doing it, but it would be a lot less people commenting about it. A lot less people that cannot hug me. But if you do want to hug Ron, come out to this weekend at the tournament at the Rochester Pinball Collective and give Ron a hug. Everyone that does, I will buy you a soda. Oh, man. When I'm there.
    79:56
    But we need to get back on this front page. So please put some comments in this week in pinball. Oh, you're begging for ratings. No, no, not begging. Yes, you are. I want to see us on the top page. Remember, the guy who runs the site explained to you. He had a whole site on how it was done. And it's stupid how they do it. Oh, God. Don't listen to him. He couldn't understand your explanation. No, because even if you go by their filter on the top, what is it? Okay, look at their first page. Any type of podcast, order by rating. The first one that comes up is the 4.9. The second one that comes up is a five. How is that order by rating? Ladies and gentlemen, see, it's five years of bitching. This is the problem I have with. Five years of complaining. How do you have this as order by rating? Oh, stop. Stop. You know I'm right. Stop. No more complaining. You know I'm right. Complain you do. Bitch, you do. Why didn't I do it? Because complaining, I am right on this. Yes, because you were always right, except our listener who wrote in and said you're wrong all the time. Well, I'm not. He's only been this episode 50. After 50 to 150. Oh, then you're always right. Then I'm always right. Okay, okay. All right. Sweet. Got anything else? I don't have anything else.
    81:14
    What else do we have? Oh, me and Kathy are probably going to be recording a podcast next week or two weeks from now. Oh, finally. Yes, so we'll be back on the TPN network. Oh, maybe you'll get a key to the awesome Discord server. I hope so. If I don't get the fucking key this time, I'm going out to Indiana, and I'm going to moon and take a crap on somebody's front porch. You're going to moon and – okay.
    81:40
    Big, hairy dump. Right on his porch. Maybe I'll do it on his pool too. That seems to be an appropriate way to end the podcast with a – taking a dump on somebody's – yeah, okay. He knows who he is. He better give me that key. So this has been episode 170 of the Slam Tilt Podcast. We can be found on our site, slamtiltpodcast.com. Upper right-hand corner has all the links to all our different Twitch feed, YouTube feed. We are on Facebook. You can email us at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Shout-outs to all our usual people. Hi, Zach. Steve, Fun with Bonus. Hi. etc etc keep going hi ryan c hi marty hi jeff teolis the flipper flipping out pinball guys hi uh everybody hi loser kid hi everyone in our chat hi everyone in the entire pinball industry yes so there you go i think i got everybody all right thanks everybody for five years here's hoping for uh well at least a couple more i think i'll be dead by then oh he's dead jim and it's multi-ball you fool yes it's not multi-ball all hands prepare for multi-ball multi-ball yes it's only two games then that's the only two uh well the other one was uh what big buck hunter i don't know how they say it But if it's a southern accent, they probably say multi-ball. Yeah, they do. You know for a fact they say that? I've heard it. I had one on location for the longest time. I actually like playing the game. Oh, God. You like – enough, enough. Okay. Yes, definitely. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Ivan, from the Allentown Pinball Show. We'll be right back. Oh my.
    84:16
    Oh my. I'm still here you guys suck we do suck you've been on this whole time yes I've been listening to this crap I can't believe people listen to you I know holy shit you are terrible hey but guess what you're still better than Romania whatever screw you laughter