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Episode 244 – Score One For Debbie

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 23m·analyzed·Feb 5, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Slam Tilt 244: Tournament updates, D&D shipping, machine repairs, and RPC's ranking rise.

Summary

Episode 244 of Slam Tilt Podcast features hosts Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discussing upstate New York winter weather, pinball tournaments at Rochester Pinball Collective (Nationals, Pinmasters, Stomp), D&D pinball shipping and dragon mech deaths, American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force Classic Edition pricing confusion, and extensive machine repair updates including Batman 66, Medieval Madness, Mandalorian, and Metallica issues.

Key Claims

  • Two people have already posted that their Dungeons & Dragons dragons (mechs) have died

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing D&D shipping issues; characterized as 'really complicated mech'

  • Four of the five RPC owners are buying D&D machines; three total coming to the arcade

    high confidence · Bruce: 'Well, four of the five owners are buying three machines. Zach's buying one. Mark's trading for one. And Brian and Jared are buying one.'

  • Nationals pinball tournament is March 5th

    medium confidence · Bruce: 'The Nationals are coming up on March 5th, I think it is. I'll make sure of the date.'

  • 63 players already signed up for Pinmasters with room for up to 170 people at RPC

    high confidence · Ron discussing Pinmasters registration and venue capacity

  • RPC is now the second-largest pinball venue in New York State with 80 machines

    high confidence · Bruce: 'we are now the second biggest pinball place in new york state'; 'we are now at 80 games at the RPC'

  • Pocketeer has 95 machines and a Long Island location has 79, making RPC second

    high confidence · Bruce: 'Pocketeer has 95 right now. Uh-huh. We're at 80, and the place in Long Island has 79.'

  • American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force Classic Edition pricing display has a font error on the '$7,995' price

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing the advertisement with mismatched font sizes: 'this big fat seven in front of it' in wrong font

  • Medieval Madness Chicago Gaming has a massive board underneath playfield with 74 connections requiring labeling for repair

    high confidence · Bruce describing repair: 'They had this humongous fucking board underneath the play field... 74 connections on that board.'

  • RPC is sponsoring Pinburgh by providing free entry giveaway to Stomp participants

Notable Quotes

  • “Holy fuck, is it cold. It's really cold. It's fucking freezing.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ Opening — Sets tone for upstate New York winter setting; recurring theme throughout episode

  • “Two people posted that their dragons have already died. Oh, on the, okay, they don't move. Yeah, which is kind of scary. It's a really complicated mech, you know.”

    Ron and Bruce @ Early episode — Key concern about D&D reliability issues despite new release status

  • “Well, four of the five owners are buying three machines. Zach's buying one. Mark's trading for one. And Brian and Jared are buying one. Of course, you're the one who's not. I'm cheap.”

    Bruce and Ron @ D&D discussion — Humorous acknowledgment of Ron's reluctance to purchase the hotly-anticipated new release

  • “we are now the second biggest pinball place in new york state”

    Bruce Nightingale @ Mid-episode — Major milestone for RPC; significant growth trajectory mentioned (from under 50 to 80 machines)

  • “That's a big fat seven in front of it... it's just weird... it looks so weird... They just changed the one digit and it was the wrong font.”

    Ron and Bruce @ American Pinball discussion — Describes apparent marketing/production error on Galactic Tank Force Classic pricing advertisement

  • “The rotisserie sucks and the turntable from hell... The rotisserie of pain”

    Bruce Nightingale @ Batman 66 repair section — Recurring playfield mechanism issue requiring extensive troubleshooting

  • “I took the switch out of Prospector, took the two blades out, and then I took the nine-ball switch, ripped that apart, and put the blades in place for the Prospector... You're like Blade Runner... I just like it. It's a Franken-switch.”

    Bruce and Ron @ Prospector repair — Creative repair solution showcasing vintage machine troubleshooting ingenuity

  • “December 28th was the last day in Rochester that it did not snow for the whole day. We are now on a streak. Oh, of non-snowing. Of snowing. Oh, of snowing. Every day.”

Entities

Rochester Pinball CollectiveorganizationRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonDungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's EyegameGalactic Tank ForcegameAmerican PinballcompanyPinmastersevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: New Nickel City Pinball Club opening in Buffalo area with 28 machines and tournament activity; expanding pinball venue footprint in upstate New York

    medium · Bruce congratulating new venue: 'Nickel City Pinball Club... They just opened up. They have 28 games, I think, on location. They had a tournament last weekend'

  • ?

    community_signal: Kineticist's Twippies voting process now used for venue ranking determination; RPC placement indicates community engagement in voting

    medium · Bruce: 'according to kinetic... the people doing the the new trippies which supposedly had more votes than they've ever had'

  • ?

    event_signal: RPC sponsoring Pinburgh entry fee for Stomp participants as tournament promotion strategy

    high · Bruce: 'We're going to give away an entry to Pinberg... We paid for the entry for that. So we're now a sponsor of Pinberg for this year'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: RPC achieves second-largest pinball venue status in New York State with 80 machines; Pocketeer leads with 95, Long Island location has 79

    high · Bruce: 'we are now the second biggest pinball place in new york state... Pocketeer has 95 right now... We're at 80, and the place in Long Island has 79'

  • ?

    event_signal: State Championship Series completed with 49 states and 9 provinces participating; Ron competed in New York City finals

    medium · Bruce: 'A lot of people won that we know of... I played in New York... and New York City. It looks like you had a lot of room there'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.250

0:00
Fascinating. Mr. Van Driessen, I would love to hear more stories about the teachers' union. Oh, no. Well, at the next meeting, there was quite a spirited debate about the health plan. Ooh, the health plan. Damn it, butthead. Are you okay, Beavis? I brought an extra banana if you'd like one. A what?
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slamtail Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale. Holy fuck, is it cold. It's really cold. It's fucking freezing. It's really, really cold, but, you know, we chose to live here. Yeah, I went down to my dad's barn, and it was negative eight last night, and that's in Fahrenheit. Mm-hmm. Wait a minute, there's something other than Fahrenheit? Yes. That's what the rest of the world uses because they're wrong. They're wrong. Yes. America. This is episode 244. How's it going, Bruce? It's going. It's going? It's going. Like a fucking dirty diaper. I got a rash on my ass.
1:17
But let's talk pinball. Yeah, let's please. I don't want to talk about dirty diapers. And rash. Ash rash. Yeah. Ash rash. Oh, God. It's a cash grab. It's Ash Rash. And the guy's got a diaper on. Yeah. Make it happen, Stern. We need an upgrade to that game. It's just dripping out of the side of the diaper. It's going to be the new vault. It's the Monopoly Ash Rash edition.
1:50
So what are we talking about? There's not a lot going on right now. No, there's not a lot, but Dungeons & Dragons are finally shipping. Yes. People are getting them in their houses. And I hear some dragons are dying. Some dragons are dying? Yeah, actually. Two people posted that their dragons have already died. Oh, on the, okay, they don't move. Yeah, which is kind of scary. It's a really complicated mech, you know. It is, but.

high confidence · Bruce: 'We're going to give away an entry to Pinberg. Everyone's included who pays the entry fee for Stomp... We paid for the entry for that. So we're now a sponsor of Pinberg for this year for the RPC.'

  • Stomp West is June 5-8 with women's division in 'herb style' format

    medium confidence · Ron discussing Stomp dates and women's division format planning

    • Ron and Bruce @ Closing — Exemplifies the extreme upstate New York winter conditions emphasized throughout episode

    Nationals
    event
    Stomp Westevent
    Pinburghevent
    Batman '66game
    Medieval Madness (Chicago Gaming)game
    The Mandaloriangame
    Metallicagame
    Prospectorgame
    Nine Ballgame
    AFM (Medieval Madness predecessor)game
    Getawaygame
    Mike Magooperson
    Zachperson
    Kineticistorganization
    Nickel City Pinball Cluborganization
    State Championship Seriesevent
    Pocketeerorganization
  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball Galactic Tank Force Classic pricing advertisement contains apparent design/font error with mismatched numeral styling

    high · Bruce: 'They have this big fat seven in front of it... really fucking weird... the font is completely different font, different size, different thickness'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball Galactic Tank Force Classic Edition priced at $7,995 vs Deluxe Edition at $9,000; limited run of 100 units

    high · Ron discussing three-tier American Pinball product strategy with pricing details

  • ?

    product_strategy: Discussion of Cuphead pinball contractual obligation status; speculation on whether it will be completed if parent company Ametron faces financial pressure

    medium · Bruce: 'I was listening to the loser kids and they said it's coming out because it's a contractual obligation... if the company goes out of business there's no contract'

  • ?

    product_concern: D&D pinball experiencing early mech failures post-launch; two confirmed 'dragon' mech deaths reported by users

    high · Ron: 'Two people posted that their dragons have already died... which is kind of scary. It's a really complicated mech'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple machine reliability issues at RPC including Medieval Madness complex board failures, Batman 66 rotisserie problems, Metallica epileptic LEDs

    high · Bruce describing extensive repairs: 'Medieval Madness... they had this humongous fucking board... Batman... rotisserie sucks... Metallica... epileptic lights'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Advent of P-Touch label makers for complex electronics repair; new tool adoption enabling 74-connection board documentation

    medium · Bruce: 'We labeled each connector... we had the lovely p touch to help us... label maker... connectors are so small'

    • 2:15
    Is one coming to the Rochester Pinball Collective? Actually, there's one, two, there's three. Wait a minute, there's three coming to the Rochester Pinball Collective? Well, four of the five owners are buying three machines.
    2:31
    Zach's buying one. Mark's trading for one. And Brian and Jared are buying one. Of course, you're the one who's not. I'm cheap. Well, you don't need to. Everyone else is getting one. Exactly. Why should I have to bother? So when's the launch party?
    2:46
    I don't know the exact date, but it's been planned. I think we're talking after March, like during March or April, right around there. oh oh i want it before nationals no fuck no we got too much shit going on oh okay what's nationals ron um um will you tell me bruce what's nationals no i asked you that's what the gimmick of the show is what is nationals ron uh it's a car rental place national Yes. There you go. I didn't say national rent-a-car. I said nationals. They're a baseball team, the Washington Nationals. I will take that as a valid answer. Thank you. There you go. The Nationals are all going to come up to Ron's house, and we're going to be playing some ball in the back.
    3:38
    I guess that wasn't funny to you because you couldn't answer Nationals. Yes, the Nationals. What are the Nationals, Bruce? The Nationals are coming up on March 5th, I think it is. I'll make sure of the date. Which, unless you won your state, you're not invited, so you don't care. Yes. But you can still play in Pinmasters. Pinmasters, which is the 638th of March. I call donate to the top 100, because that's what you'll be doing. Well, there's more prize money in this pool than the past couple of Pinmasters, so $175 of your $250 goes to the pool money. Mm-hmm. There is 63 already signed up. Mm-hmm. Nice number. We're going to hopefully get for more. We have plenty of room at the RPC. What's the max for that?
    4:27
    We can go 170 people in our place. No, no. I mean, for the pin masters, I thought there's a max. I don't think so. There's no stated max in the IFPA. I could have swore there was, but okay. Maybe because of games, but... Man, 63 people want to just... play at the Rochester Pinball Collective. About 50 of them want to donate to the other 13 or so. That's kind of... I don't think it's that way. Yeah, I totally think it's that way. Did Stu sign up yet? Stu McVicker? Stu McVicker has not signed up yet. I think he's afraid. I think he's afraid of Josh. Josh challenged him right on the air. Yeah, I know. And what does that tell you? Yeah, I think we know his true colors. I think he's got a white streak right down his back. Yes, he does. That's what I think. You can click there. You get two tee times. It doesn't say anything about Underwood. I thought there was some kind of match, but they never approach it, so I'm not really worried about it. No one wants to pay that much to just hand their money over. And don't forget, there is a novice final. A novice final of what? The top four players not in the top 24 that are ranked over 1,001 in the Whopper rankings will advance to a novice final. All three of them? Wow, there's more than three or four. Yeah, okay. I was telling you. Yeah.
    5:48
    Now, where is this happening? It's at the beautiful Rochester Pinball Collective, 349 West Commercial Street, beautiful East Rochester, New York, suite number 2965.
    6:02
    Bathroom code? 3492. People better get used to that. Yep, yep. And it's fairly simple. The address of the building is 349, so 349, and we're on the second floor. So add the two at the end. I didn't even realize that. Yes, 3492. Wow, that's where it's from. Yes.
    6:22
    So if you're on the first floor, it's 3491. Wow. If you're on the third floor, it's 3493. Of course, there's other bathrooms on that floor, and half the time the doors open and there is no code. Yeah, so we actually have within probably 500 feet of our entrance to our room, we have one, two, three, four, five, six bathrooms and two more about another 200 feet down the hallway also. So we have a lot of bathrooms. So Timmy should be very happy when he doesn't come.
    6:51
    Timmy doesn't like pinball. He just works at it now. Yeah. That's how you do it. uh yes so uh people can still sign up for uh right on the ifpa pin masters page part of it that's ipapinball.com i think yes and that is under uh forward slash tournament pages forward slash pin masters or if you just type in the search engine just go ifpa pin masters it'll bring you right to there and you can see all the players who are coming i'm expecting more of course since people are uh trying i get so many people asking me like Hey, is there going to be a tournament beforehand? And yes, there will be. We are going to have a pre-tournament Wednesday from 6 to 11.
    7:35
    So, Ron, you can come out and have some fun. Nah. Wow. I'm good. Wow. You can actually maybe win something at the RPC. No.
    7:46
    Only Stu can win at RPC. Well, if Stu comes out, he's welcome to come out for the pre-tournament. But it's going to be, you pay at the door for that tournament. So it will be, hopefully, you just come in when you want. And it will start at 6 o'clock, if I remember correctly. And I don't know the format fully. I think Zach will be telling me that format in the next day or two. We're still going over a lot of formats.
    8:14
    There's also going to be a couple side tournaments also during the thing with Howard coming up and helping out. Nice. Is this going to be a super tournament-heavy episode? I don't know if that was popular. No, well, it was. I had a lot of people thanking me for it. And then, you know, we got some people going, ah, my balls itch. But, you know, so. What? My balls itch. My balls itch because of tournaments. Okay, I've got to remember that one. Yes, my balls itch. Uh-huh. So, yeah, so it's going to be a good time for that. But we have to talk about the next tournament at the RPC. see let's see if there's no this is not going to be all about tournaments let's talk about the next tournament i'm just going over what the new details for stomp oh will be the stomp west i forget what number is i think it's seven yeah you're the one with it you're the one who knows the numbers not me i think it's seven and that'll be from thursday the 5th of june to sunday the 8th oh there'll be a pre-termin on thursday and then friday will be an all-day thing saturday will be an all-day thing i think the women's we we are going to have another women's division this year and i think it's going to be herb style which is going to be kind of cool but here's the coolest part what goes on sale this week ron um oh pinberg tickets pinberg tickets yes and so if you don't get the chance to win in pinberg and in the lottery of fun If you don't get tickets, yes. Yeah. You get to have a chance to win at Stomp. Oh. We're going to give away an entry to Pinberg.
    10:00
    Everyone's included who pays the entry fee for Stomp. So that's going to be a really cool thing. It's going to be a giveaway on that Saturday night.
    10:11
    Everyone will be around. We're going to pull it out digitally. Everyone's name will be in there. We'll make sure everyone's names include into the digital, and then we'll do the spit of death. Come on. Can't you do a thing where you actually put all their names in and spin the thing around and all that? I always pray that one falls out and then they never get a chance. Digital, less fuck-ups. And plus, everyone can watch it on the screens. Digital, less fuck-ups. Said no one ever. No. The captain of IT over here. Yeah.
    10:38
    So, yeah, that's going to be pretty cool. We paid for the entry for that. So we're now a sponsor of Pinberg for this year for the RPC. So you play in Stomp, you have a chance to win in Pinberg, which will be pretty cool. That's some big news right there. That is some very big news. And there's more. Oh, there's more. Okay. There's more. We're going to have the tickets going on sale sometime. I think it's going to be March 1st or March 3rd. And from March 3rd, like when we first put the tickets on sale, till May 15th, if you pay, you know, you prepay your stuff, you get into another drawing. And the drawing is going to be you get a chance to not have to pay for Stomp. You get your entry fee back for one person.
    11:30
    Just random person? Random. Yep. Just a random. It would be another computer thing. what every draw and it won't affect the other drawing with the pinberg so we're going to have one draw before that saying hey whoever this person is here's your entry feedback because you prepaid and you so we were trying to really push the pre-qualification so we're not at the last day going who's going to be here people who pay early get this chance you're pushing the pre because you know how i love that term i love pre-lube yeah yeah hopefully hopefully the tournament doesn't pre-suck yeah it won't it's a rochester pinball collective it never sucks uh-huh so that's all the tournament talk for me uh-huh yes so uh dungeon dragons are shipping what else we got out there in the world of pinball so american pinball yeah baby uh can i even do that now that he's he's not here yeah he can because the stain is still there the stain yeah The skid mark is still there.
    12:34
    Yes, Mr. Fix is no longer American Pinball. But that's right, baby. But as part of my legacy, Galactic Tank Force, baby, classic edition is going to be available. So what is the difference?
    12:46
    A strip out stuff. And is it a lot of savings? Well, it's, let me look up the price again. Did you see the banner? Mm-hmm. The advertisement. Yeah, like they thought about maybe making a six or something else, and they had this big fat seven in front of it. Yeah, it's just weird. Okay, so save the ice cream. Classic. Galactic tank fourth, baby. Classic. Now shipping. This will be a small run for $2,025 of 100 units. Contact your dealer, baby. Save your serial number. I don't get that. But basically, it's $7,995, and the 7 is just completely different font, different size, different thickness than the rest of the numbers. It looks so weird. It was really fucking weird. And they have a picture of just a regular Galactic Tank Force with this over it, not the classic edition. Because I don't know, have they ever made the classic edition? I don't think so, because they only showed the deluxe edition, and the deluxe edition is $9,000. And so it's like they fucked up the eight and they, oh, let's really get not the proper font or just wipe that out and make a whole new little note saying the proper price. They just changed the one digit and it was the wrong font. Well, the thing is, then that font that the seven of the $7,995 is in is used everywhere else in the advertisement. If you look at the lettering, so it's like they took the 995. They copied it from the other part of it. And then they just put all this new stuff in and slapped it over the nine or whatever. Somebody's not good at PowerPoint.
    14:27
    But yeah, I just, I saw that. You can use PowerPoint, you know, if you do it right. That's right, baby. When I saw that seven, I was just like, I just chuckled. I had to chuckle at that. It was terrible. It was.
    14:44
    Has anyone known who they've picked now to run the company? Oh, there was some guy there. I think his name is Ron. Ron something. Ron Hallett? Wow, congratulations, Ron. No, I'm not there. So now you have a company that's making three versions of this game. Yeah. They had the limited edition, the deluxe edition, and now the classic edition. Classic edition. And what do they take out? I never understood the whole thing.
    15:13
    The targets that bend. They take out stuff, I guess. now you said you don't think cuphead's ever coming out no now see i i was listening to the loser kids and they said it's coming out because it's a contractual obligation it could be a contractual obligation if the company goes out of business there's no contract yeah but there's nothing ametron is not hurting their parent company so why would they go they are now a public selling company so the investors are going to say when it goes to the board every year or every six months it depends on how their financials go about how it goes and if they say why do we have this losing proposition out of all of their because we're contractually obligated to make this one last game okay get that out and then shut it down you'd be surprised how much sometimes companies go fuck no because that means they're on the hook then for a warranty and everything else are they they would be do they offer warranty i mean stern didn't have an actual warranty they had a 90 day warranty 90 day warranty and they expanded to one year yeah one year yes but it was a 90 day limited warranty yeah limited i know oh i know now it's one year all they get i'll say really as far as warranty all they have to do is like do you have any mods in your game. Okay, voided. But it was only a shooter knob. I changed the shooter. Doesn't matter. Voided. Is your name Bruce Nightingale? Yeah, voided.
    16:48
    Bruce Nightingale, you hate mods so it's probably original. That's good. I had to buy LEDs, Ron, this week. What does that tell you? Oh my god, LEDs. Oh my god. But I did get the factory replacement Proppers for my Batman 66 I'm Batman Oh that fucking thing is killing me And you still love that game I do but the rotisserie sucks And the turntable from hell The rotisserie of pain Oh god So we took it all apart And refloat all the solders For all the optics Re-seated the cable And we'll see what happens It's in the back I've been playing it every day that I'm in the place. It hasn't fucked up once, of course.
    17:35
    Yay. But I know as soon as I put it on the fucking floor, it's going to fuck up, just like Getaway is doing now, too. Oh, Getaway. Yeah.
    17:45
    Your German Getaway. Yep. Your German play field. Yeah. Ja. But that actually has a ball trough issue. And, of course, we have trough switches for switch two and three, but not one. so we have to order one of those. Because it has the loop on the end of it and it's a longer, longer dick.
    18:10
    Yeah, so between the rotisserie of death, but AFM's back on the floor with all of its touch-ups. So we're doing repairs right now. Yeah, what the fuck. Yeah, repairs. So AFM's back. Yep, AFM's back. I have to give a shout-out to Mike Magoo.
    18:26
    Mr. Magoo. He's done it again. I love Mike. I wish he was closer. He loves coming out and just like, what are we doing today? Oh, well, we'll take apart this. We'll take apart that. So he was with me with the Batman. The Batman. He helped take apart and put together our. Here's a funny thing. So is he Robin? Yes, he's my. He's my Robin.
    18:49
    He's my Nighthawk. Wow. I'm really going to comic book lore. Yes. So we then stars. Here's the funny thing. We have two drop target banks on stars. They're each three bank targets. And on the weekend before Sunday or Saturday, I get a message saying, oh, drop target in the middle broke the red one on the right-hand side. Oh, fuck. Okay, who's got a tombstone? Zach's like, I got a tombstone. I'll trade you for another tombstone. So I gave him one of my other ones, gave him that one, put it all in, Friday night. Hey, the drop target's broken again. Say what? No, the other red one on the other side. I was like, fuck!
    19:32
    I can't get my 7,000 points now. Yes, you can, because that's what Mr. Mike took apart on that one also. Then we had the holy hell of holy hell repairs.
    19:44
    Medieval Madness, the Chicago Gamings, they had this humongous fucking board underneath the play field. We talked about this, yes. We took it all apart. And we found that one of the resistors cracked the solder joint.
    20:02
    But the only way to get the resistor is pulling this whole thing off. There is 74 connections on that board.
    20:11
    74. Four. 74. You see why I don't like that board now? So guess what we did before we took it all apart? We labeled each connector. but we had the lovely p touch to help us i love p touches they work so well on me the hell's the p touch it's a little label maker yeah label maker can you just use a sharpie and write on the connector no because the connectors are so small oh yes god they're not even uh the 0 connectors some of them are even the 0 connectors yeah yeah not a fan Not a fan No But we took it all apart We put it all back together The solenoids do work, and the lights do work. So now I have to fix the trolls. One of our troll heads actually broke in half. The troll head broke in half? Yeah, on the backside where the bolts go through it. Damn. It broke apart. Poor troll. Yeah, we're going to be playing as we have on the old Medieval Madness. And that will be this week's project, I hope. And then we'll hopefully clean up Medieval Madness. And I have a set of wings coming because I broke the wing. Oh, dragon wing? Yep, the dragon wings.
    21:28
    Mando, we have another fun thing with Mando. You still have it. The scoop thing. We have to take that all apart. We're thinking there's play in the mech that actually let it slam into the play field. well what was the issue you know the uh the on the le and the premiums they have that lowering ramp that loops back up to the top on the right big uh honking assembly it actually there's a coil that pulls down and there's like a little ramp that's supposed to just float on top of the playfield well ours actually wasn't floating anymore and slamming into the playfield oh became a slam ramp and it chipped the playfield oh that's not so ashley we had to take it all apart so Ashley can hopefully fix it for us and match it up. And then we're going to put some other stuff down and then we have to fix the mech itself. So that's our whole fun job with that one. I'd worry about that because I figure eventually it'll just happen again. It probably will. Even if you fix the mech. And the mech's only $400.
    22:29
    $400? Yep. But it's available. So hey. Yikes. Yikes. Zach is working on Blackjack in the back. There's a couple of advancing issues. He thinks he has that all worked out. The EM blackjack. Yes, the EM blackjack.
    22:45
    And what else is back there? Batman. Oh, we're working on Metallica for Steph. Metallica? It's brand new and it's already got problems? No. Uh-oh. No, premium. Oh, old. Old, old one. Ah. It had epileptic lights once in a while. When the flashes went off, the LEDs weren't getting the full 6.3 volts. I think you have the original Dwight Sullivan code on there. You have to change it over. No, we didn't have to. It was actually the bridge rectifier that was going bad. Oh. So you change the bridge rectifier out. I put all new connectors on it, and no more epilepsy. Okay. The second thing we are working on now is we're working on the coffin lock, and I'm trying to figure out what's going on with that fucking thing. It keeps on hanging up on the magnet. Oh, I hear when that happens. Yep, and we demagnetized the balls. We got new balls in there and still fucking happening. Oh. So if anyone has any hints on that, and I've done all the things on pin side, I might just take the whole thing apart and see what the fuck's going on. I know Raymond Davidson will probably just say, get the new Metallica, and you won't have any of these problems.
    23:58
    No, you will. Say it. No, you won't. Say it back. Yeah, no, it's not. they fixed everything. All the mechs are all improved, supposedly. Yeah, okay. Come on. Didn't you see the Making of Metallica video on Stern's YouTube?
    24:13
    I did not, no. I got the link from you guys. I just haven't watched it. I was listening to the Loser Kids with Josh and Zach and Penny with the Lime and Sheets story. That was really good. The Sharps, not our Zach. Yes, not our Zach. So it was really good. You should listen to that. Definitely. Good shout out to those boys. Weren't all the Sharps on there? Wasn't Roger on there? I think he was on there, too. Yeah. How do you miss him? Oh, I didn't miss him. But, hey, one thing. We beat them on. We had Zach on before they did.
    24:50
    Usually when I'm planning on somebody, boom, they'll get the guy and I'll see the show. I'm like, motherfucker. You mean Josh? Yes. I mean, sorry. You confused me. I'm freaking waking up. I'm still waking up. It's late for you. It's like 8 o'clock. You should have been up for like five hours. No, I didn't get to bed until like midnight last night, so I'm very tired. Well, one in the morning here.
    25:12
    Let's see my repairs. Did I mention Prospector last time? No. What's going on with Prospector? Okay, so my Prostator, for those who have played at Stomps, you know that on Prospector, pretty much every year, the right spinner just stops registering, and it's always the same thing. The rod, is that the correct term? The rod is – It goes through the play field that actually hooks into the lead switch. It keeps falling out, falling out, falling out. It does this all the time. Did you hot glue it? Well, looking at it this time, a little closer, I saw why it's falling out. The switch itself is busted. It's split at the very end. Well, yeah, it has a hole because that's what it goes through. But the hole, it's split. It was hard to see. But once you see it, you know, I bent it over like, oh, yeah. Well, that explains why it keeps falling out. Did you hot wax it? No. That's a typical fix, isn't it? Hot wax. It is? You can hot wax those. I've seen that, you know. So what I did. Got a new switch. I went over, well, from where? Like, where do you get that? Because it's custom. It's got like a bend at the end of it. I know where you got it from, but I'm not going to ruin the story. Well, yeah. Where would you get those? I don't want to call Pinball Resource and over the phone because I'd have to ask for it. You look at Marco. I looked. I didn't see anything there. Okay. Then you're fucked.
    26:40
    So what I did is I went over to my nine-ball play field, the parts nine-ball play field that I got when I got my nine-ball originally that has saved several games now and that has a spinner, and I looked at the switch. So I took the switch off, and it's like as long as the top blade is the same length, I'm golden. And it was. So I did a Franken switch where basically I took, because I wanted to keep all the spacers and everything exactly the same. Yeah, of course. So I took that. I took the switch out of Prospector, took the two blades out, and then I took the nine-ball switch, ripped that apart, and put the blades in place for the Prospector, put it all back together, and it works beautifully. You're like Blade Runner. I just like it. It's a Franken-switch. So it's all the spacers from Prospector, but the blades are actually from Nineball. And it's now a happy camper again. It's now a happy camper. It's just spinning well. So now you're saying somebody has to reproduce these switches. So now I'm saying that the next tournament, the left spinner will stop registering. Yeah, great.
    27:55
    That's when the hot wax come out because we don't have two spinners on. No, I don't have two spinners on nine ball.
    28:01
    Let's see. Did I do anything else? I think that might be it. Yeah. Oh, I replaced the lock on countdown with one of my locks, and I'll be bringing your lock back because it's one of your tubulars, so you'll have an extra lock. I have an extra lock that I don't even use anymore, but I'll take it back. I like those locks. I like those. Well, we couldn't get enough of them. The company that was making them, I wanted to actually get for the RPC when we did it. And when I called the company, they're like, oh, we discontinued that about a year and a half ago. Oh. Why? Bummer. They're like, oh, well, we just did. Thanks. Thanks very much. No tubular locks for you. Yeah, no tubular locks for me. So luckily it's at the RPC, so it's not too big of a deal. hey did you know we are now the second biggest pinball place in new york state i did not know that bruce yes according to kinetic kinetic but that's the website you can say it i can't thank you the people doing the the new trippies which supposedly had more votes than they've ever had yeah hopefully they were all for us yeah they're all being bought right on from a farm Oh, Jesus.
    29:19
    No, we were probably not even in the top five. We didn't really push it this year. I'm sure if we pushed it, it would have been totally different, Bruce. Of course. Our fans come in full anal force. Full anal force. That doesn't make sense.
    29:34
    Full force. Yes. But, yes, we are now at 80 games at the RPC. Remember when you were under 50 and that was a whole thing? Remember that. Oh, I know. And I was trying to get the 50, and Zach was so resistant. Yeah, resistant. I just remember those days. Yeah, now it's 80, and who knows what will happen next. But Pocketeer has 95 right now. Uh-huh. We're at 80, and the place in Long Island has 79. Oh. So we are the first losers of New York State. Second place is the first loser. First loser.
    30:12
    I'm going to do something that's even going to shock you, Mr. Ron. You sitting down? You're going to not quit a tournament. No. Even more. Oh, okay. I'm going to congratulate the newest thing in Western New York. Oh. The Nickel City Pinball.
    30:31
    I'm going to congratulate the thing I don't remember the name of. I don't want to make sure that I'm actually saying it right. City. Okay. Pinball. He's going to look it up for you, folks. It's a club. I didn't want to say it wrong, so I'd like to congratulate them. They just opened up. They have 28 games, I think, on location. They had a tournament last weekend. Congratulations. I know a couple of the owners, so I just want to give a shout-out to Mr. Sousa and the Wheezes. Hi, Wheezes. And a couple other guys out there, I think.
    31:06
    Okay, Bruce, out there, where is this place? You did not say. Well, where's Nickel City? You tell me where Nickel City is. I don't know where Nickel City is. You don't know what the Nickel City is? I don't know what the Nickel City is. I know where this place is, but I don't know what that term means, Bruce. Did you ever seen the Buffalo Nickel? Buffalo Nickel. Yes.
    31:25
    Oh, I have one or two of them. They had a buffalo on it. So it's called the Buffalo Nickel. But since it's a nickel, it's called Nickel City. So that's a nickname. And, like, we are at Rochester called the Flower City. That's the Nickel City. Okay, that's not what I think of when I think of Rochester. No, I call Syracuse the Snow City. We're the Flower City because of the lilacs we have. So they're called Nickel City Pinball Club. I'd like to congratulate them and wish them good luck on having fun dealing with a location. It's fun.
    32:00
    But they have, you know, it looks like a good selection of games, and they have a nice area. I wish them all the luck to the people I like at that place wow well so congratulations speaking of fun what's more fun than a tournament fun fun fun I know we said we were done with that but I have a couple things what's that well we had the state finals occurred we did the state championship series all over the country 49 states and – did he say nine? I think it was nine provinces. Or providences. Providences. Yes, as you would say. Yes. But, yeah. A lot of people won that we know of and you've heard of on the show. I played in New York. Mm-hmm.
    32:56
    And New York City. It looks like you had a lot of room there. Actually, it wasn't that bad. It was a lot of room. But the thing is, it's New York City. And every time I go there, it's like, yeah, I don't want to be here. That sucks. I just, no, I don't understand. I do not understand how people can live there. I don't. It's easy. You just live there. It's just so crowded. It's so bad. You know what they're going to say to you? Why do you live up in upstate New York? It's so cold. You go to snow all the time.
    33:26
    Honestly, the weather is not that different here than it is in New York City. I know. But where I live, where you live, maybe, yes. But in Albany, no. It's not like this huge difference. You want to hear a good laugh? Oh, yes. What? December 28th was the last day in Rochester that it did not snow for the whole day. We are now on a streak. Oh, of non-snowing. Of snowing. Oh, of snowing. Every day. December 28th was the last day of 24 hours that it did not snow in Rochester. Okay. Cute, huh? Mm. So how was the New York City state-level championships? It had a bunch of games I liked, so you would think. You would think Ron would be in his heaven. Actually, I played well, and then I lost in seven games in the first round to Paul. Paul Karras beat me. Paul Karras is a very good player.
    34:21
    Somehow Elton John came up in our conversation, and you know what he said? That game is fun. It's like, wow, we got another one. Another one of like Stilton John. I know. It actually is the best shooting JJP. Oh, yeah. By far. I would say. It hits all, every box of. Here you go. What are the best shooting JJPs? Yes. I say Stilton John's first. Yes, totally. I put Dialed In up there. Third, maybe. And then I put also, Jesus, what the hell is it called? Willy Wonka. Yeah. I think that one shoots a little better. And actually, I always thought that the Pirates shot pretty good. That's okay. I wasn't happy with Pirates. I played it only a couple times, and every time I played it, I wasn't like, wow. That's a repeatable loop. I know, but I think our quote of J.J.P., Elton John is number one, Blanca's two, I would say dialed in is three. So guess what? Something good for dialing in. Wow. Something good. You heard it here first. Shooting good. Dun, dun, dun, dun. Shooting good. 1,000 points for fucking loops. Terrible. Oh, God.
    35:38
    Hey, if anyone from Jersey Jack listens to this, can you put some kind of combo awards to shut these people up? Loop awards. That's all I hear about when it comes to dialed in. It's fucking terrible in that game. Yeah, it shoots great. And I did all these combos, and I got nothing for it. You got nothing for it. But I shot one shot and got 50,000 points. Great! Yeah, they just bitch and bitch. Just shut them up. Yes, please, shut me up. Yeah, well, that's impossible. Unfortunately, for four years, you have not been able to. Four years, it gets way older than that. What do you mean, four years since we started complaining about it? No, you've always complained about it. I know I have, but I'm just trying to be... So congratulations to Alex Kelly, our New York State champion. He beat Dante in the finals. Dante was kind of my pick as the favorite. Yeah, he was playing really good. They both were, and then they faced each other. I think they went to seven games, I think. Yes, they did. Yeah. Oh, they're close. The funny thing is, so we have the state finals, and the very next weekend is in disc. It never drains in Southern California. Never drains. And I see all the same people. I just saw that across the country. It is a small pinball world. it was uh pretty busy at indisc was it so at indisc a lot of people huh uh yeah they had a lot of people i think 354 players i think yes some yeah yes so they have a bunch of different tournaments there they got the classics the main the open women's tournament the high stakes tournament there's actually a kids tournament but the thing i like to play in the most is the classics target match play tournament it's the one thing i seem to do decent at as the first one i played in i almost i almost won in second place and then last year i was second or third seed going into the playoffs where you know i lost on all the games i picked of course so this year i made it in um well i was tied for eighth so there had to be a playoff for the eighth spot because the top eight get a bye playoffs yeah I did not get the bye so I ended up ninth or whatever so I got to pick games again and I didn't lose this time so yeah I did pretty well I was supposed to be on the announce crew for the Classics Target Match Play finals the final four but then I ended up being in the final four so sorry i couldn't do the announcing so that weren't all of our plugs that we could have got fucking ron why can't you fucking do anything right that's that's not true that's not true because well uh yeah i couldn't do anything right in the finals that's for sure we know i was last on all three games uh in in front of a wonderful worldwide streaming audience got to see me do absolutely nothing shite but in a previous round where i was streamed i did well so at least and and i i won a playoff to get into the the final four hey i like to congratulate you also oh okay on owning rpc i heard uh yeah yeah i guess during the playoff game where i played my my way into the top four we had adam lefkoff on commentary and he was going on at how like i was the owner of rpc and i owned all the games and that's where nationals are going to be etc etc i was unaware that i i was an owner of rpc and i owned all those games but they're mine now bruce you better get some fucking work done they're mine now you guys are my employees go fix my games bitch where you where your bitch is i mean i heard this i'm like huh yeah hello and then people started commenting on there like he's not the owner he didn't ignored it well no they didn't ignore it they didn't see any of the comments we didn't see any comments. Oh, that's why. Everyone's like, hey! They don't have the comments in front of us. But yeah, that was funny. I mean, I own half a game that's at RPC. Yes, yes. But that's about it.
    39:54
    So yes, I'll go over this quickly, because we know people don't like tournaments here. We love tournaments. Classics, target match play. Let's see. Playoffs? I can tell you who didn't win. Me. Yay!
    40:09
    Well, Conrad won. And the funny thing is Conrad was first on the waiting list. He wasn't in originally. Wow. Someone didn't show, and it's like, Conrad. You're the next contestant. If you have $100 and whatever bucks it costs to get into this, you're in. Like, boom, here you go. And he ended up being the top seed. Nice. And he went all the way. Let's go all the way. When we got to the finals, I think he blew all his good picks, So we ended up on Safari, which was complete shit, and no one wanted to play that. And everyone was pissed at him for picking that, including me. Target Pool, which I actually like Target Pool, but it did not like me at all. And Jack's Open, which actually I was kind of digging. But then I tilted on my second ball, and it's tilt ends game. So that was cool. I gave a good thumbs up for the camera after that. Josh Sharp really wanted me to win that game because I think then he would have won mathematically or something but you failed so Josh Sharp congratulations on your second place finish classic target match play I guess it's better than fourth here's the funny part we finish so I like fist bump Conrad congratulations you win and they go off to interview him and I'm kind of standing around and I'm like are we taking a picture are we doing anything? Do I get a plaque? Do I get something?
    41:33
    You get nothing Nothing happens You drink 50 lifting drinks I guess not and then i found out later that uh actually yeah i did get a plaque oh nice kate martin has it right now so whatever i see her next i'll get my plaque it's funny because i was looking i looked at the table where they had all the plaques and i didn't see any you know classics target match play but it's like oh i guess i guess i don't i don't get anything well except the money except the money Which they weren't paying anything on site, so I'm waiting to get an email because they're supposedly doing it all through electronically. I have this nightmare that I'm not going to get the email or it's going to go in my spam folder and then I'm going to miss it and not get paid. If you get a bump back from Ron's email, just send it to slamtailpodcast at gmail.com and I'll be happy to cash that out for him. A bump back. So they're just going to send it to the wrong person? Is that what you're saying? Yes. They can send it to me. All right. Hey, guess what I just found out? What? Six more weeks of winter. Oh, the stupid. The fucking rat. The rat.
    42:37
    All right. So in the Classics, the Classics finals, it was three kids and an adult. And the adult won. Yeah.
    42:48
    John Schoppel might be how to say his name. He was the Arizona state champion. We'll be seeing him at the old RPC. But, yeah, he won. Thank God the kids finally did not win. Getting snapped around. Yes, getting snapped around. Let's see. The women's, which that's where I did some commentary.
    43:10
    I did some commentary in the opening round of the women's tournament. And I did plug us. They asked me, what do you want under your name, Ron? Do you want Slamtail Podcast or do you want Silver Ball Chronicles? What's that? Well, Silver Ball Chronicles is the other podcast. Sorry, sorry, hold on. Sorry, we've raised the tariffs. And so we're banning all Canadian products coming into the country. And since he's producing it in Canada, we can't talk about that anymore. Oh, God, stop. No. Hey, I saw his thing. He's banning all of his trips to USA. So in response to this. Oh, stop. So, yeah, Silver Ball Chronicles, a history-based podcast, which can be heard on the Pinball Network. Hopefully we're recording our latest episode soon. But I think we should ban it because, you know, he's banning us. They asked me, do you want Slam Tilt Podcast or do you want Silver Bowl Chronicles? And I'm thinking, well, if I don't have Slam Tilt, if it says Silver Bowl Chronicles, I'm going to take nothing but shit from Bruce. Oh, you've got it, of course. If it says Slam Tilt, then David's not going to be yelling at me. So that was an easy decision. That was a super easy decision. So there you go, Bruce. I hope you make it. For the worldwide audience, they got to see under my name, Slam Tilt Podcast. So there you go. And then after they hear this episode, they're going to never want to listen again. Never listen again. And like, yeah, I want to give it a try, but holy shit, those guys suck. They suck moose balls. Yes. What was I saying? So, yes, Kaylee Campbell won the women's. Nice. Congratulations. I don't know who won the kids. They never actually announced that. Which, you know, the one depraved idea I had, I don't know if I mentioned this last episode. Everyone thinks Bruce is the most depraved one, but I have some crazy ideas. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Some? like to have the youth tournament right and you use all john trudeau games and see if anybody notices at all this is him all him on this one because it'd be so easy and he has so many good games you could just like there's you can do different eras too you'd have an alien star in there you have a congo yeah i have a judge judge dread you can have a creature from the black lagoon like tons of got leaves you could have hollywood heat the games rock it just it never ends tag team uh did he do gold wings i thought he did i don't think he did gold wings actually maybe he's quest it seems oh yeah hubert's quest rocky look boys and girls it's fun to play this spirit we can have all those games see and don't say anything just see if anybody Isn't this a great children's tournament?
    45:41
    This is all Ron, folks. Actually, they did have a Congo in there. And I think there was two. I think there was two Trudeau games in there. Let me see.
    45:57
    I'm sorry. Oh, yeah, they did. Oh, no, I was thinking it was, but no. It's a Gottlieb. That's what threw me. Yeah, they had a Hoops. Yeah, Hoops is not his. Yeah, it's not his. But they had a Congo in there. And I was thinking that as they were playing Congo, like, should those kids be playing Congo? I feel dirty.
    46:17
    What's the name of the gorilla? The gorilla? Yeah. Oh, Amy. Amy! Good gorilla. She's a good gorilla. Does the bad gorilla have a name, or is it just bad gorilla? Bad gorilla. I don't know. I haven't seen a movie in so long. I've never seen it, so I don't know. It was so bad.
    46:35
    Oh, man. Let's see. Who won the strikes tournament? I don't know. Connor Mulberry. That's what it says here. Congratulations, Connor. Congratulations to the strikes. And then we had – I'm saving the main blast. We had the high stakes. High stakes was Escher. Yep. Let's see. I think it was – yeah, two kids and two adults. Well, you know, Escher's in his 20s now, so let's – He's almost adult time. Yeah, yeah, it's adult time. Let's see. And then in the main – The main. The main tournament, the Open, which, as you said, had like 350 fucking people. 54 people. Oh, the queues were insane. It's just like, and the Classics, the queues were, well, not as insane, but still. If I can't get in the Classics target match play, I don't know if I would go to InDesk at this point. Wow. Because I have, there is no way for me to qualify in Classics anymore. They went from four games to five. Ooh. You know, they did that a couple years ago, and there's so many more people there, so the queues are so much longer. I'm just not good enough to have five good games in a row. I admit it.
    47:47
    The winner was Zach McCarthy. Hey, congratulations, Zach. He won on Johnny Mnemonic, and it was pretty neat because in his third ball, he was in Johnny Mnemonic jail where he had already played the Spinner Millions, and he was like three billion behind or something and it's like uh so he just stood there just thinking you can grind all you want there's no way you're going to keep the ball play long enough even these guys aren't going to do that so he figured out a way because he still had decent bonus from his spinner millions on the second ball and he's like i gotta figure out which which well he had the multipliers too but he had to figure out which spot in the grid was the collect bonus because if he could get collect bonus and then he would get it again at the end of his ball that might be enough so that's what he did nice so he had to start like the second multi-ball which is a pain in the ass to start a giant mnemonic and he he grinded and saved everything known to man and he got the third ball in the grid that was the collect bonus so then he played multi-ball and then he just grinded playing um payback time you may notice yakuza strike i just It's called take-back time. And he played that. And at one point, the ball must have hit a plastic and it flew off and his screws like going down the play field. It's like, I'm not stopping. Keep going. And then he drains out and everyone's just waiting for the bonus count up. And it was enough.
    49:15
    Yes. I found that interesting just because I actually know the game. And it's like, yeah, he's kind of in jail. How is he going to end? And he just stood there for a while looking at the game like, how am I going to do this? And that's what he did. Very smart. so that was in disc thanks to everyone thanks to all the organizers of in discs you all rock top notch it's like the tops of the tops it's it's the biggest it's the biggest tournament out there is right now yeah i'd say so i mean thanks i love the fact that you have the pins and pirates or pirates whatever they're called the auction house there they bring all the free play games in which is nice they had an x-man there they had multiple john wicks Why would they have multiple John Wicks? Well, they had John Wick Pro and Premium. They had like Jaws Pro and Premium. They had X-Men only Premium. I was kind of hoping for the Pro. Yeah, I like the Pro better. Yeah, the Pro definitely shoots better. Yeah. And Stern, your fix kit sucks. Okay. I heard one podcast where they said it worked great, and you're saying it sucks. Oh, God, it's terrible. It didn't help at all. Nope. Okay. Bummer. Yeah.
    50:24
    Yeah, it sucks. It's so typical that it would work for everyone, but not for you guys. The guys who actually know how to fix stuff, you know? Yeah. We're bending fucking plastics and all this other shit, and it still shoots like shite when it comes out of the fucking plunger. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm glad we still have that fixed skill shot, though. Hey!
    50:44
    Okay. Another fucking disappointment. The usual positiveness here at the Slam Tilt Podcast. And then, just yesterday, I played in a little tournament called the Doldrums, because it's the Doldrums of Winter. Yes, it is up in upstate New York. Yep. We played 10 rounds of match play at one location, and then went to a second location and played 10 more rounds, and then had finals.
    51:13
    And until we actually got to the finals, everything ran on great time. we're expecting to finish by this time on the first set of 10 and we finished before that and then we we want to finish the next set of 10 by 7 30 and we finished like literally right at 7 30 nice it was nice it was run by john lee hi john hi john and it was at his house and then it was at vintage game revival they do what they what you would think they they revive vintage games This place was pretty cool. I didn't realize a place like this was this close to me. I mean, it's the dude, the guy, Chris, it's his house. Next to his house, it's like a building that he had built that basically just has all these games in it, and it's also the repair shop. So it's got just rows and rows of parts and tools and all kinds of stuff and all organized, and frankly, I was jealous. It's like, man, what a cool setup this is. Yeah, because your house sucks. And he has everything from World Cup soccer there. He's got 90s games, but he also has all the way back EMs, wood rails, old arcade, gun games and stuff, a ball bowler, a Gaties. He's got like a Pac-Man there, all that stuff. Nice. Very nice. Shout out to Vintage Game Revival for all your game revival needs. And the games looked really nice. but they played a little longer than you expected so the top eight go to finals so i was the second seed guess who was the first seed our very own zach who made the trip to play in this yeah we finished our semi-final round and you thought i bitched a lot which which me and uh mike local albany mr mr varney uh we we advanced and we were done and they the other group was still on game two and you thought i bitched a lot during tournaments and zach picked dead bull and the lion man game there swords of fury and i don't even remember what the third one was so zach advanced and mike advanced from that group that just another mike we had multiple mics so in the final four it's zach mike mike and ron and zach unfortunately is the high seat so he picks Deadpool again and he gets like a billion on it and pretty much everyone got to at least have some ball time except me so I had this we have this thing now with our group where it's just like when would Bruce have quit and we figured like you know I think he would have quit right here because everyone else they're going up there and they're playing fucking 10 15 minute balls I go up there it's like sling drain ah it's like yeah I think he would have quit at that point plunge it off and go to the next game. Then we played and I was last again. Thank you. Then we went to Swords of Fury which by the first ball I just realized I could not hit the lock. I just couldn't hit it. So it's like okay, I'm just going to go up to the upper play field and try to do that. That's it. That's all I'm going to try to do.
    54:28
    I could only do that for one of the three balls. The other two balls I didn't do shit. So I ended up last again. And we played that forever.
    54:37
    And then, thank God, though, Zach didn't win that game because they were doing the winner picks the next game.
    54:43
    So Michael won that game. So you pick Flash. Thank God. So at least it was faster. I picked to go first because I was already mathematically completely eliminated with two lasts, and it was going to be between Michael and Zach who was going to win this. So we play Flash, and then I got completely hosed on that game. Boy, you sound like Bruce today. Oh, well, no. I got legitimately hosed on this one in that. So on ball three, I'm like last. Or I might have been third at ball three. But either way, I plunge and on flash, you got the four lanes up top. If you get one, two, and three, you get two X. You get one, two, three, and four. You get four X. Or three X, sorry. So I go through one, the unlit lane, and it doesn't do anything. And I just smile like, of course. Sure. I go back up top. I go through the one again. Doesn't register.
    55:41
    You're loving this now. Then I'm getting pissed. Then I go up there again. I go through the four. That doesn't register. Now I'm trying to trap up to complain, and I cannot get the ball. I can't trap up. The ball's too out of control, and, of course, it drains. I slide the whole game over like two feet trying to slide save it, and it's like, yeah, this shit ain't working. Yeah. I got screwed. He got screwed. I was hoping to get a third. I wanted to, like, try to maybe get a first place. Salvage your reputation. Yeah, if I could have got a first place, maybe I could have got a third. That would have been nice. What I think happened, honestly, is the game had, like, a hard top. Oh. The thing. And I think it just made it so it wasn't pressing the switch down enough.
    56:24
    You know what I mean? And I think that's why it wasn't registering. Now, why it decided to do this. Only for you. Well, no, it wasn't only for me then. Then the other players after that, it wouldn't register. So, but yeah, I got screwed.
    56:40
    And blued. But the thing is, I was thinking, yeah, Bruce would already quit by now. He wouldn't even have had this frustration. That's why I didn't even go.
    56:48
    Less frustration in Bruce's life is better. I played good, though. I can't complain. I got that the trophies were the Abominable Snowman. Yeah, I saw that. From Rudolph the Reynolds Reindeer. Wasn't it first through third they got a trophy? No, it was first through four. Okay. First through three got it on a stand. The fourth place got it on a necklace.
    57:11
    So I got the necklace. So you're going to be wearing that all over the place from now on. I will. I fucking love that. I hope they do this every year, and it's a different character from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Next, I want Yukon Cornelius. If anyone's listening that runs that tournament, Yukon Cornelius. I want Yukon Cornelius for the next year. The land of misfit toys. Okay, you can use those. You can have the Charlie in a box. You can have him.
    57:36
    Don't do Hermie. Hermie annoyed me. He's a dentist. But, yeah, and we're giving the trophies out, and somehow Zach had not even looked at the trophies. I don't know how. Like, he's in this tournament that's all done through Facebook where they post these trophies, and somehow he doesn't see any of them. And we're like, do you even know what this is? It's like, you should not get the fucking trophy if you don't know what this is. You didn't know? and he actually did know wow when he saw it it's like oh yeah yeah i've seen this before like okay thank god jesus that would have oh if he got the main trophy and he doesn't even know what it is that would have pissed me off everyone should know what that shit is i agree damn it burned into our brains yes it's burning to my brains um yeah so that that was that was cool it was all day though all day long glad i did not so i just got back i didn't get home because it's like an hour over an hour away from me and i didn't get home till like midnight then i had to get ready i had to get ready for this podcast because we decided we were recording in the morning so yes we did i we had morning or evening and you said let's do morning and i said yeah we were going to do evening if we could get zach on but he wasn't sure when he was getting back yeah after that Yeah, he's probably sleeping still. Yeah, he probably is. Lucky him. Yeah, lucky him. Yeah, sleeping with his trophy and... Snuggled up in his little... Next to his abominable snowman. And his spirit.
    59:05
    And his... Oh, that's right. He's already got the spirit. Oh, they had a really nice spirit at InDesk. Oh, I think it was nice. Really wouldn't mind a spirit, but they're really expensive. Oh, yeah. If you can find one. I know where one's for sale. Just nutty, but price. Yeah. What do they want? Like $10,000? nine nine thousand dollars yeah mark's mark has one ah nine thousand dollars that's a lot of money it is but you're rich uh yeah you got that freaking patreon money from that freaking other podcast the patreon money yes we're rolling in dough see you heard it right here first yes all right are you ready for the ball bag bruce i am always ready for your ball but i mean the ball bag yeah we're gonna we're gonna end it with the the ball bag ladies and gentlemen because Because I think we're all done.
    59:54
    This one I thought was hilarious. This was, I think, the first email we got after the last podcast. It's from Joe. Hi, Joe. It's his subject episode 243. He says, thanks for all the tournament talk. I'm like, oh, it put me right to sleep. It just has Z's.
    60:12
    Well, it didn't keep him permanently to sleep because he had enough to come and mention it. He had enough gumption. So thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joe. Hopefully you enjoyed this show, too. Hopefully you liked our repair section we did on this show. Yes. Let's see.
    60:29
    This next one is from David. Hi, David. It says, note to Slamtail Podcast. Oh, it sounds like our official thing. It says, hey, guys. I live in Australia. G'day, mate. Right. And love to listen to your podcast. Right, mate. In fact, you have converted me to early sterns. Here we go. Well, that should be a given for everybody. Yes. We're making early sterns more expensive every day. Oh, you want to hear a funny story? So the tournament I played in yesterday, like I said, the first half was at John Lee's house, and he has the Stars. Yeah. So he played a lot of Stars. And Zach was there, and his mom was with him. Yes. and she played stars and she said, you know, I wouldn't mind a stars. See, there you go. It's just like stars just makes everyone happy and sad. It makes everyone happy and pissed at the same time. It is incredible.
    61:30
    Oh, sorry. Back to David. He says, I purchased a Project Trident, which I have got it going and really enjoy playing. The only remaining thing is someone has removed the memory drop target coils.
    61:45
    I wanted to ask, can you still buy the individual coils, or do I have to source a secondhand set? I think they're available through Marco and that kind of stuff. Let me make sure. Bruce will look it up here. Yep. I would think maybe Pinball Resource would have it, too. Yeah, I'd want one of those, too, but let me see. Yeah, double check. I know you guys would be the best to ask with your experience on these classic sterns. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Aussie Dave. Send me your spinner. I'll send you a spinner back. That's quality.
    62:21
    Uh yeah let me say I going to Bruce is going to look it up and we we go to the to the next one here We go to the next part of your ball bag Let see It also a tech question Excellent. We are the tech for the podcast community. This is from, let's see, Louis. Well, L-U-I-S. So is that Louis or Louis? Louise. Louis? Louis. Hi, gents. Just found this show a few months ago, but big fan. and enjoying going back to listen to older episodes. Everyone does that. Oh, no, don't do it. I'm at the cat episode about the bar closing.
    62:59
    Would be interesting to get a look back a few years removed. Any look backs for us? It still sucks. I miss, we were just talking about it today, actually a couple days ago, because we went to one of our friends who used to help work at the bar and do a lot of stuff, opened her new business and a new location, So we went there to support her, of course, and we saw all the people that used to come to the bar. So we were like, oh, we're really nostalgic. And everyone was like, do you miss the bar? I'm like, I miss the people. I don't miss the fucking work.
    63:32
    It was really like – it was sometimes like really bad. He continues, I'm new to the hobby and would like to upskill my very basic tech skills, Getting more familiar with some of the more advanced tools and electronics concepts you guys discuss on the show. Must be talking about you. Probably you, Zach. Would you have any advice on training online classes or reference books that talk about electronics, diagnostics, repairs, boards, etc.? Is there certifications or degrees that could be helpful? Bruce, you could give out certifications. You're certified by me. You're certified insane. Clay is very good. The Clay Guides, if you watch the old videos, the Top Hat. Top Casts? No, this old pinball. This old pinball, yes. I would say pinrepair.com. I think it's called pinrepair.com. It's still out there.
    64:31
    Let me just check. No, but the pinball, those videos are awesome. So, yeah, pinrepair.com, that's where I got started. He did pull a lot of it, but a lot of it's still on there. Let's see, what has he got? You can find it anywhere if you really search. Beginning Pinball Repair, EMs. Oh, he's got Williams System 3-7, Gottlieb, Bally 6803. Oh, he doesn't have the Bally here anymore. I still have them on DVD. Well, yeah, you can still get them. But if you search around, you can find archived versions of pinrepair.com that have everything. Also, PinWiki. Try them out. PinWiki's got all that stuff there. Even Pinside 1 to the Blue Moon will help, but usually it isn't. That's what I would say. As far as I know, I don't know if there's any certifications or anything. There's arcade classes like Andy Fromm. Oh, Randy Fromm. Randy Fromm has the arcade side of it. And you would actually learn basics of soldering and electronics that way also. Very good class. You can get his big blue book of knowledge, as he calls it, his binder. But just get like a, I mean, for soldering. I mean, I hate soldering. I hate soldering on boards specifically. I suck at it. But you can get a junk board, maybe an acid damage board in practice. Yeah, in practice. Yeah, that's how you do that.
    65:49
    Try to get good equipment. Don't get like a cheap, whatever watt soldering iron, expect it to be any good. I have a 70-watt iron. Why can't I solder these little resistors in? And it keeps on burning a hole in my, yeah. But the pin repair and the pin wiki will have all that stuff in there. Yeah, but definitely watch those videos from Clay. Definitely a great thing. You know, it's corny a little bit, and it's, you know, but he does have – Well, you have to purchase them. Well, they're probably out there somewhere. They're out there somewhere. And then, as I said, if you want to get some good basics also, Randy Fromm is definitely a great thing to go with also. Even though it's arcade, you will learn a lot.
    66:28
    Thanks again, and hope to someday join a tournament at the RPC. Hope to see you there. We'd love to have you. Yes. Your coiler relay is C1-34-3400, and they are available at Marco. Well, there you go.
    66:45
    Yes, and Louie is in Houston. Where he might go see the Twippies. Yes, the Twippies. They're going to be – what is that? It's coming up soon. I don't know exactly. That's going to be on the Wormhole Twitch page or Twitch. Yeah, Twitch. Eventually. I'm not exactly sure when. It'll be funny. We'll find out we won. No, we won't. We won't? No. All right. Because they keep on changing the rules every fucking year. And every year when we do something good, it's that rule's gone. You know? And then, oh, hey, this is back now. Something tells me I'm into something good. Tells me I'm into something good. Let's see. The next one's from Cole. Yes. February. February 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. Wait a minute. It's three days? Progressive Strike Tournament at the place. Saturday is the Twippies Live, and Sunday is another tournament. So Saturday. I was going to say, that is one long ass. Well, you know, there's a lot of things we're going to talk about. There's a lot of categories. It's going to take three days to get through them all. Wow. Cole says, what's up, boys? Last couple of episodes was awesome as usual. Awesome, yes. Talk about double trifucta. Yeah.
    68:02
    First was you guys with David Dennis from the Silver Ball Chronicles, which can be found at 349 West Commercial Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York, suite 2965. I didn't know that. Wow. I didn't know either. We imported Dave? Second was the fake president of the Hia Pia, Josh Sharp. Because as we all know, that maple-eating, moose-knuckle Canadian Jeff Teolis is the real precedent. Wow. I love Jeff. I love them all. Ron, it sounds like you had the true DPX extreme with your endoscopy and colonoscopy. Oh, wow. Yes, I did have the dual penetration extreme, I guess you could say. As someone who has the same, I know the feeling. In fact, with both of my colonoscopies, I actually woke up from sedation at the end of both of them. Oh, it got to feel them roaming around, which was truly awesome. That doesn't sound awesome at all. Well, it depends on what your likes and dislikes are.
    69:01
    I call the first time dialed in and the second time Star Wars because that's what it feels like playing those games. Oh, totally true. Oh, my God. No.
    69:12
    Totally agree. As for John Wick, I agree that the theme is completely awesome, but the game and the rules that they are now is just a meh.
    69:20
    Meh. Then X-Men came out and it looked interesting, but is meh to me as well. I don't mind playing them, but neither have the it factor. If you want the it factor, play Elton John. You'll find the it factor.
    69:34
    You'll be like, why do I like this game? It's Elton John. This is stupid. I shouldn't like this. It feels like a 90s Williams. It really does. Here's hoping Elwin comes out with the next Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, or Godzilla, or King Kong. But what do I know? I'm just an idiot pinball player.
    69:51
    What do you think about that rumor? Supposedly that's the next game from Elvin. It's going to be King Kong. It is. Okay.
    69:58
    There's no rumor. It is. What King Kong is it? Is it like classic King Kong? No, I've not seen any of that. See, I'm hoping 30s King Kong. Oh, that'd be awesome. Because, you know, Godzilla, they didn't do the new Godzilla movies. They did classic Godzilla. I'm hoping old school Godzilla. Yeah, that would be really good. But I'm thinking it's probably going to have to be the movies, doesn't it? Like the new ones? I hope not.
    70:22
    Let's see. In talking about themes, I just don't get people going on, making a big deal about Back to the Future. Back to the Future! It's 40th anniversary this year. I could really give a shit if they ever make a pin on this theme. I like the movies. I could really give a shit. I think you meant I couldn't really give a shit. That's like the I could care less or couldn't care less. I like the movies. Actually, no, I could really give a shit. No, I mean, he does give a shit. Oh, I'm confused now. They might as well make a Debbie Does Dallas pin with a bunch of gobbles. Oh, my. They did. It's called, what was the one that was? Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That's what it's called. It's got the whole blow zone upper play field. Come on. Don't you know that?
    71:09
    Mr. Greenfield. Oh, my. How many people get that? God. Wow. Score one for Debbie. Why, how big you are.
    71:25
    See, I could just save that line from anyone, and it's probably correct. Enough old man rants. Wow. Old Mr. Greenfield.
    71:34
    Oh, I love big quotes. So you're literally doing quotes from a porno. Wow. Most people do quotes from Star Wars. You're busy doing quotes from, oh, my God. Oh, come on. What I want to see is everyone giving us quotes from Devinas Dallas. I wanted to be on the football team, but I wasn't big enough. But I had one thing that's big enough. Let's see. One of your DPX STDs, Cole. Thank you, Cole. But yes, I want to see some emails for quotes from Devinas Dallas. Oh, no, don't. Don't do that. And we're going to talk about them. What kind of quotes? They're all going to be disgusting. No, they're not disgusting. They're funny and stupid. That's how bad they are. Oh, God. Okay, hold on. No, no more Kohl. Yep. The next one is also from Kohl. It says, episode 250 is the subject. Hi, guys. I forgot to mention, I agree with Bruce that episode 250 needs a cluster of Vuck. No. See? No, this shit show needs a shit show of a shit show.
    72:34
    No. I told you. Let's see. Put that away. This next one's from Scott. Scott S. It says, kudos to, oh, the subject line is Ron Gersharp. Oh, God. Are they talking about the mustache? Kudos to Ron on getting to the finals of Indisc as he finished last on all three games. It doesn't say that. But, yes. Indisc Classics target match play. Even more impressive was the sick Big Daddy Sharp Stash. Mmm.
    73:03
    Was the final round sponsored by DPX? Yes, it was. Sorry, it didn't go Ron's way, but at least he handled it better than Stu McVicker would have. That's true. Or Bruce. He would quit after game one. Yep, quit after game one. After he said, Safari? What? This piece of shit? Fuck it. I'm taking zeros on everything. I like Safari. No. I do. No, that piece of shit. No, I like Safari. No, it's great when the middle pop-upper doesn't pop strong enough to save anything. Well. Fail.
    73:32
    If I want a center pop game, I'll play a real one. Spanish Eyes. Ooh. Or Freedom. Yes, the original Freedom. Yes. The Freedom prototype. All right. last email is from tom so you know what time it is oh i know exactly what time time to make it pro baby did we do these no we did these already did we we did these i think this i think this might have came through oh i could have swore we did these what are you doing to me ron didn't we do it's getaway no good gophers and safecracker yes we did i thought we did those Yep, we did. I wonder if I'm – yeah, this might be an older email.
    74:14
    You know, I think this email might have come in while we were recording or something, and I did it then.
    74:19
    This email came in on the 17th, but I thought the episode was out on the 17th, though. I don't know. Yeah, it was out on Friday.
    74:29
    So wait a minute. So now I'm confused. Maybe he double sent it. Like he sent it and then he thought, oh, shit, maybe I didn't send this. He says, also, I like the idea of taking a game pre-Stern Pro and premium options and adding to it to make it a premium. Ooh, that's actually a good point. I feel like this would be more of a challenge, so let's start with one title. So let's do this part. What two, three things would you add to Attack from Mars to make it premium? Okay. I would make the ship actually come out, because that was the original idea. Yes. The ship was actually supposed to move. Think of like... Go forward and... Yeah, the crane on... Heist. The one that has... Heist. The crane from Heist, the way it comes out all directions, it's a super mech. And it makes sense, too. So the pro version, it just shakes. But on the premium, it actually moves out on the play field. Let's see. What else?
    75:23
    Better characters for the – I would actually make them more the aliens popping up and down, maybe something different, maybe with them popping with guns or something like that. I don't know, something different. Those rubber, you know, after a while you're like, you ignore the rubber parts. Like, oh, okay, whatever. Or base it off the movie. You bought the rights to the movie, and now you're going to fill it that way. Oh, God. It's not based on the movie, though. No. You bought the rights. It's making it LE now. We have money, baby. We're Williams in the 90s. Okay, premium. I also make it so, because originally Attack from Mars didn't have all the LEDs on the ships, just the mothership. No, yeah. So the premium has them on all the ships, and it has the chaser lights going into the mothership area. Is that enough to make it premium? Yeah, I think so. No, no, we got a real back glass. It's a real mirrored back glass. Or no, that would be the LE. Shit. We'll make it LE. It's an LE now. And we're going to have a green trim, like the kind they did for Ghostbusters. Is it green or Hulk or whatever? We'll do that. No? No, I don't like that one. Oh, well. Okay, thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tom. Hey, did you know WDS Dallas sold 50,000 copies on video?
    76:43
    That's all? I would think it would be more, honestly. Well, you know. Well, that's just the copies you bought. That's all of my copies, easily. Yes. Jesus. Jesus, Bruce. Okay.
    76:59
    Okay. i'm so where where do you get in contact with us to put an email in all right yes okay so yes we can be reached at slam till podcast at gmail.com that's slam till podcast at gmail.com and we'll even take canadian and mexican you know responses because even though we have a tariff on you but how about chinese responses that one slips through and chinese and slight chinese but we'll Let those slip through. Yes. We might have to pay a tariff on them, but hey, we do what we got to do. I do watch a lot of Hong Kong action films. Yes, you do. Hong Kong phooey. Yes. I love my Hong Kong action films. I know I'm going to ask. I'm not going to ask for quotes for W.S. Dallas. Everyone needs to watch it. Oh, no, no, no. People don't need to watch W.S. Dallas. Yes, valid reviews. Valid reviews. How about the sequel? Do they need to watch that, Bruce? No, because she's not in it. No, she is. She's in the sequel. She is in it? I didn't think so. Yes, her and Mr. Greenfield have another go. Oh, wow. Okay. I didn't know that, though. I heard that. I heard that somewhere. I have not seen any of this at all. Yes. That's funny. Mm-hmm.
    78:15
    Okay. I'm speechless after. Yeah, I didn't think we would be discussing classic 70s porn or early 80s or whatever the hell it was. What was her name, Bruce? Bambi. Last name? What was it? Stone or something like that? No, no. I can look it up real fast. But it was Bambi. I knew it was Bambi because it was such a fake name. I was like, oh, my God. It's Bambi Woods. That's it. I think it's supposed to be like a deer in the woods or whatever. Just something like that. Yes. So you can reach us at slamtelpodcastgmail.com. Say hi to all of our friends in the Cluster Vuck. Yes. Hi, friends in Cluster Vuck. Even Zach, who won again. Even Zach. Even Steve Bowden and Mr. Jeff Teolis, the president of IFPA. That's funny. Even at the tournament, we were saying anyone but Zach. And then when they announced, you know, they gave him the trophy, we all booed.
    79:07
    Hey, we're getting donations from one of our pseudo-sponsors who we get nothing for except for good stuff. Flippin' Out Pinball. Flippin' Out Pinball is giving us some good stuff for nationals. Okay. So we'll be giving out some stuff for nationals. So flipping out pinball, that's where you go get your new pinball machines. He will take care of you, Mr. Zach. The other Zach. So many Zachs. There's too many Zachs. So many Zachs. There's too many Zachs. Way too many Zachs. But yes, so don't forget, flipping out pinball. You can check out our website at www.slamtiltpodcast.com. Yeah. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner. Yeah. It feels weird to be ending early. Well, you know. The last couple were like two hours, but I mean. I need a break today. And there's only so much tournament talk you can talk about. Yeah.
    80:01
    But did you see the video I posted online for the Slamtail podcast? What, the stop video? No, the Street Fighter. Oh, yes. Bruce posted a Beavis Street Fighter video. There's tons of those out there, Bruce. I love it, though. I was like, awesome. And he loses. That's bullshit. Here you go. here's some trivia. I'll give you a last trivia. Beavis and Butthead trivia for all you out there. Cause it's the greatest show ever. In the Beavis and Butthead episode of Celebrity Deathmatch, who won?
    80:32
    Beavis or Butthead? Neither. Incorrect. Wow. The answer is Beavis. He turns into Cornholio. Ah, there you go. It's like a superpower and he slices him up. And it's not Mike Judge doing the voices for that either. Wow. One of the few times I could think of that it wasn't him. Because MTV owned the property, so they really could just do it without his permission.
    80:59
    Yeah. All right. Well, thanks, everybody. This has been episode, what is it, 244? Yeah, it's 244. I got it right. Yay.
    81:10
    And don't forget, 250 Clusterbuck. No, no. You heard the fans. They're wanting it. The fans. Our many fans. All two of them. More fans out there. Complain to Ron. Make it so.
    81:23
    Like I said, if we did that, I'm just going to do like a Zoom call or some shit. There you go. I don't mind that. That's going to be such a just total shit show. Oh, fucking to be awesome. And there's no way you can edit when you have that many people. Awesome! Yes. Okay, you got a name, Bruce? Of course I have a name. God, what do you think I am? Bruce?
    81:43
    All right. Thanks, everybody. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Peter Barclay. Meteor! Level Zero! Clusterfuck! George Takei! Timballs! Bruce Isms! Tournament Talk! Carholer! Cheetah! Xanadu! Cash Grab! ELO! Ballpark! What You Buy It! Game You Love! Game You Hate! Tournament Talk! Game Ball Princess! Oh my