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Arcades Across America Part 4 - The Flipper Room and The Pacific Pinball Museum - Episode 46

JBS Show·podcast_episode·41m 43s·analyzed·Nov 22, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Bay Area arcade operators discuss pinball museums, youth programs, and community building.

Summary

JBS Show episode featuring Mike Moretti (The Flipper Room, Concord CA) and Evan Felipe (Pacific Pinball Museum, Alameda CA) discussing their arcade operations, museum mission, Little Flippers youth program, and Bay Area pinball community. Covers museum's 1,300-game collection, educational initiatives, nonprofit status, and expansion plans.

Key Claims

  • Pacific Pinball Museum has 1,300 games total, the largest collection in the world not owned by a single individual

    high confidence · Evan Felipe states directly: 'we have 1300 games we have the largest collection in the world that's not owned by a single individual'

  • Pacific Pinball Museum just received 501c3 nonprofit approval

    high confidence · Evan: 'I'm very happy to announce that we have filed our 501c3 paperwork and are just waiting IRS approval'

  • Little Flippers became a 501c3 nonprofit one week before Pinball Expo

    high confidence · Mike: 'We just became a 501c3 about a week before I came out to the Pinball Expo'

  • Bay Area has multiple active pinball leagues with 30-40 players per night at Flipper Room league

    high confidence · Mike: 'We get between 30 to 40 every Tuesday night' at Flipper Room league

  • Pacific Pinball Museum collection is 105 games in main location, 1,200 in warehouse annex

    high confidence · Evan: '105 games here, and then we have 1,200 more in the warehouse' at old Alameda Naval Air Station

  • Flipper Room has approximately 70 machines in collection, about half on display

    high confidence · Mike: 'There's about 70 in the collection and about half in the building'

  • Museum currently has about 10,000 sq ft and is fundraising for 15,000-20,000 sq ft expansion

    high confidence · Evan: 'we have about I think we're at a little under 10,000 square feet in the current museum. We really want to have something like 15,000 or 20,000 feet'

  • Little Flippers has about a dozen chapters listed with 2-3 more in process of signing up

    high confidence · Mike: 'We've got about a dozen chapters listed on the website with at least two or three that I'm working on signing up right now'

  • Pacific Pinball Museum is in its 21st year of operation

Notable Quotes

  • “Pinball is like kinetic art, right? It's like a campfire that you're staring at, but it's full of artwork.”

    Evan Felipe @ ~10:45 — Articulates the connection between pinball aesthetics and art culture, explaining why artists gravitate to pinball

  • “To inspire an interest in science, art, and history through pinball, and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture.”

    Jamie Burchill (reading museum mission) @ ~15:30 — Pacific Pinball Museum's foundational mission statement

  • “These kids are playing games and then they place these old retro and it's just something different... I would say as a whole, I'm quite surprised how often the kids gravitate to the older machines.”

    Mike Moretti @ ~37:00 — Key insight about youth engagement with classic vs. modern machines

  • “We really believe it's important to make it a multi-generational attraction. Because as people age out, less people will know, say, wood rail games and wedge head games.”

    Evan Felipe @ ~34:15 — Explains strategic importance of Little Flippers program for long-term hobby sustainability

  • “I opened a frame shop not a pinball arcade and now that I have a pinball arcade it turns out there's a gentleman down the street from me three buildings...”

    Mike Moretti @ ~42:30 — Reflects on unexpected business evolution from framing into pinball operations

  • “It's a members' choice room now, and we let people vote on what came into this room... This was about 21 years ago. It was a collection of six or seven games and one jukebox, and it was only open Friday nights.”

    Evan Felipe @ ~24:00 — Documents museum's origin story and evolution from Lucky Juju Arcade

  • “The Little Flippers started at the Flipper Room when my kids were starting to get old enough to come in and play. And they would want to have their friends over to play as well.”

    Mike Moretti @ ~28:45 — Origin story of Little Flippers youth program

Entities

The Flipper RoomorganizationPacific Pinball MuseumorganizationLittle FlippersorganizationMike MorettipersonEvan FelipepersonJamie BurchillpersonCoperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pacific Pinball Museum operating at unsustainable 75-25 admission/donation ratio (target is 50-50), requiring intensive fundraising and grant chasing.

    high · Evan: 'we're a lot closer to 75-25. And that's more common amongst a lot of smaller museums'; fundraising described as 'mission' and 'always a mission to collect money'

  • ?

    business_signal: Both Flipper Room and Pacific Pinball Museum achieved 501c3 nonprofit status within same timeframe, indicating growing institutional legitimacy and support for pinball community organizations.

    high · Little Flippers became 501c3 ~1 week before Expo; Pacific Pinball Museum just approved; Museum working on grants and corporate donation matching

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball arcades functioning as community hubs for diverse populations including artists, foster families, children, and competitive players; strong social and educational mission beyond arcade revenue.

    high · Flipper Room hosting foster families, artists from Meow Wolf; Little Flippers program serving multiple chapters; museum leagues focused on 'fun and social acceptance' over cutthroat competition; Kids gravitating to older machines despite modern themes

  • ?

    event_signal: Arcades Across America podcast series functioning as industry documentation/networking event, connecting regional arcade operators and creating content around community infrastructure.

    high · Jamie booking multiple episodes at Expo; calling it 'turning into something really great' and monthly series; using as consulting platform for Wormhole expansion planning

  • ~

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.125

0:00
Welcome to Wormhole Pinball Presents and part four of our podcast series. we call Arcades Across America. I'm your host, Jamie Burchill of The Wormhole. Let's start off by welcoming back to the podcast my co-host, all the way from Cottage Grove, Oregon, Co. Pleasure, as always. Welcome to Arcade. Hi, Co. Thank you, Jamie. Always look forward to Arcades Across America. Yeah, it's one of my favorite things every month, isn't it? It's turning into something really great. I'm real excited about it. So let's say hello to Mike Moretti from The Flipper Room, a pinball arcade and art gallery located in Concord, California. Welcome to the podcast, Mike. Hello, guys. Thanks for having me. Awesome. And about an hour away from you from The Flipper Room is Evan Felipe. Am I saying that? I screwed it up, didn't I? It's okay. It worked. Filipe. Filipe from Pacific Pinball Museum in Almeida, California. Welcome to the podcast, gentlemen. Great to see you again. I know I met Mike at Expo But I don't know if I met you Evan I don't know No we did a lot of stuff at Expo And met a lot of great people We might have slipped through the cracks But that's okay we're here now We're here now and we've got it going on So the minute I met Mike and his wife Co I said I went into podcast producer mode Like instantaneous I'm talking to Mike for, what, two minutes? And I'm like, you need to be on the podcast. And he goes, all right. Can Pacific Pinball do it with me? I'm like, well, that's just episode four booked.
2:02
That's great. I'm glad that you're, like, good at that because you're always like, okay, I booked so-and-so. I'm like, oh, wow, perfect. I love it. There you go. So since there's a bunch of us today, our goal is to not only get to know your establishments, but also pick your brain on this podcast series with co opening the quarter drop arcade and the wormhole expanding to other locations and growing we want free consulting services from you gentlemen so let's see how that works right let's start with mike from the flipper room take it away co art gallery and pinball how does the two those two things combine together what is the origin story of having framing and pinball together? I'll see if I can make this a short story. I started as a wholesale picture framing company 18 years ago, and there was no pinball in that mix. Our clients are art galleries, picture frame shops, art consultants, artists, photographers, anybody that's in the need for wholesale services with picture framing. And so that's what I did. When I rented my building, I befriended a guy across the street who worked for a demo company. They demo buildings. And a few years into it, he came up to me and said, hey, we went to this building and we got a pinball machine. Do you want it for your break room? And I said, I don't know. You know, I don't know if I want to open that book, you know. And so we didn't. And he kept bugging me, you know, you want the pinball machine, you want the pinball machine. Several years later, he died.

high confidence · Evan: 'And this is our 21st year' (museum started as Lucky Juju Arcade 21 years ago)

  • The Flipper Room started when owner received a pinball machine as memorial to deceased friend's father

    high confidence · Mike: describes receiving machine after friend's death, his son saying 'we should get that pinball machine my dad wanted to give you'

  • “So we're looking in the greater Bay Area, so that is really from San Rafael to San Jose and then kind of Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, but including San Francisco, kind of the greater Bay Area.”

    Evan Felipe @ ~20:30 — Defines geographic scope for museum expansion search

    • Pacific Pinball Museum
    organization
    Michael Sheeseperson
    Melissa Harmonperson
    Johnny Operson
    Meow Wolforganization
    Wormhole Pinballorganization
    Lucky Juju Arcadeorganization
    Bay Area pinball communityorganization
    Alameda Naval Air Stationorganization
    Foster Family Networkorganization
    Data Eastcompany

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive sentiment in Bay Area pinball community with thriving league culture, multi-location participation, and competitive depth across age groups.

    high · 30-40 players per Tuesday night at single location; players participate in multiple leagues per week; young players (10-12 years old) competing with state-level players; described as 'huge scene'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pacific Pinball Museum actively supporting multi-generational pinball engagement through Little Flippers youth education program and deliberately curated exhibits to encourage play across all eras.

    high · Evan: 'we really believe it's important to make it a multi-generational attraction... introduce kids to pinball, help them learn how to be a better player' with documented results of 10-12 year olds playing vintage machines

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pinball museums strategically designing exhibits as curated educational experiences rather than pure collections, with focus on playability, art style analysis, and mechanical education.

    high · Evan describing 'Pointy People' exhibit as curated with research, special toppers, specific game selection for playability; 'Oddball exhibit' focusing on unique/failed design attempts; bumper exhibit explaining mechanics

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball positioned as STEM education tool with explicit connections to physics, mathematics, history, and science; museums leveraging educational mission for grant funding.

    high · Evan: 'people come here to have fun. They, by accident, kind of learn about pinball history and art and physics and math and science, all the STEM disciplines'; chasing Title I school grants for education curriculum

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo serves as major industry gathering point where operators network, community programs get visibility, and new initiatives are announced.

    medium · Multiple references to Pinball Expo; Mike announced Little Flippers 501c3 status around Expo timing; Jamie networked with Mike at Expo and booked multiple podcast episodes

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Modern pinball manufacturers (Stern, Spooky, Jersey Jack, Dutch/Barrels) used as educational reference in museum exhibit to demonstrate current industry landscape and licensing diversity.

    medium · Museum's front exhibit features 4 modern games (Stern, Spooky, Jersey Jack, planned Dutch Pinball Big Lebowski) with plaques explaining current major manufacturers

  • $

    market_signal: Arcade venue operators (particularly nonprofits) facing significant real estate constraints in Bay Area but leveraging tax incentive strategies for property acquisition.

    medium · Evan discussing tax deduction benefits for nonprofits acquiring properties below market rate; fundraising critical for 15,000-20,000 sq ft expansion; current 10,000 sq ft insufficient

  • ?

    community_signal: Evan Felipe transitioned from marketing director to executive director role at Pacific Pinball Museum, indicating organizational growth and succession planning in nonprofit sector.

    high · Evan: 'I started as the marketing director, but now I'm the executive director taking over from Michael Sheese'

    • 3:40
    And I had hired his son in between that. And so after he died, his son said, hey, we should get that pinball machine my dad wanted to give you, and we should get it working and put it in the shop to honor his memory. And I said, well, now's the time. So we did that, and that became the beginning of the Flipper Room, really. We put it in the lobby, and then one became two and two became three. The employees liken it. Someone put us on the pinball map. All of a sudden, I'm fixing pinball machines for free because everything was on free play. And then I just had an idea one day. Maybe this is a way I can open my own retail shop is to bridge this pinball because we decorated the room. And then it became rooms, and everything was decorated really nice because that's what we're in the business of, presentation. Sure. And I went to the city, got a permit, and we opened the flip room as a retail picture frame shop, the hook being the pinball to bring the people in.
    4:34
    What was that first machine? Star Wars Data East. Ah. Awesome. I've always liked that machine. I know a lot of people are like not real big on that, but I've always thought it's pretty fun. It's actually my favorite of the Star Wars machines. Yeah, and I definitely think it needs the updated code. It makes it much more playable.
    4:53
    Art and pinball work so well together. I know so many artists that play pinball and so many, you know, we had Meow Wolf here. We hosted them. They're opening a new location in Houston. And every designer, we had one designer come, and then we had six of their artists come to the wormhole and just became addicted to it. Why does that work so well, guys? Well, pinball is like kinetic art, right? It's like a campfire that you're staring at, but it's full of artwork. And I think that's part of it. I mean, if we were playing games that were bare wood and glass, it would not be quite as interesting. Mike, before we get to Evan, what's your relationship with the Pacific Pinball Museum? Because I went over there and played pinball. I got to know Michael Sheese because he's really into art. And we got, you know, a lot of that in common. Went over to their annex, got to know Larry. So I just got to know the people there. They got to know us. We tend to end up back and forth at our different events.
    5:55
    Evan, how did you get involved in the museum? And can you talk about how the museum started? Sure. I've been with the museum for five years, six in about two months. And I started as the marketing director, but now I'm the executive director taking over from Michael Sheese. And Michael and his wife, Melissa Harmon, founded the Pacific Pinball Museum. We're a registered 501c3 nonprofit. And this is our 21st year. and as such thank you it's you know it's kind of like a restaurant you get past year five or six and you're pretty gold you've got a system that works and we're we're a board managed non-profit and we have a 105 games in alameda that's a 13th of our collection we have 1300 games we have the largest collection in the world that's not owned by a single individual and we were really happy to have a real museum environment here. We have exhibits, artwork, talking about artwork. Pinball is so poppy and bright and colorful. And especially the games from the 40s, 50s, and 60s are so jewel-like in the dark when they're turned on. They're just beautiful art pieces. And like you mentioned, like Mike mentioned, they're kinetic art too, aside from the pop art colors and the design and the kind of comic characters. and it's just a great job. You know, people come here to have fun. They, by accident, kind of learn about pinball history and art and physics and math and science, all the STEM disciplines. So it's a really great job. I'm very happy to announce that we have filed our 501c3 paperwork and are just waiting IRS approval. So, you know, some of the charities. Yeah, thanks, guys. It's been a lot of paperwork. But, you know, some of the charities that we're going to be supporting involve neurodivergent individuals, and we're so excited to begin supporting those charities. Evan, I've read through your mission statement, which I'm going to read to everyone because it's outstanding. To inspire an interest in science, art, and history through pinball, and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture.
    8:14
    Congratulations on everything you're doing over there. Can you talk about fundraising for a 501c3? How's that going? I know that's difficult. Sure. You know, what you'll find out with 501c3s is banks do not like to lend to them. So you're very dedicated to fundraising and donations and patron admission.
    8:34
    Optimally, a museum would be 50% patron admission supported and 50% donations supported. Okay. And we're a lot closer to 75-25. And that's more common amongst a lot of smaller museums.
    8:51
    There are government grants, there are state grants. We, for instance, are chasing right now a grant that's education focused that would help Title I schools, which are underprivileged schools in Alameda and the East Bay and the Bay Area, come to the Pacific Pinball Museum free of charge. It's a state program that cover access costs and would be part of an education curriculum. them kids would come in they would have an overview of the museum that we talk about the connection of history math science technology physics to pinball turn them loose to play and kind of regroup at the end and that's the kind of funding that's important to chase with an education mission it's always it's always it's always a mission to collect money we are coming up on our big fundraising season really this month and next month they're the first we're doing a live stream for the museum on New Year's Day before we're closed for fundraising. Trying to find people that will match donations, chasing corporate donations, becoming an approved nonprofit that a corporation will match donations to is really important. And there's a lot of ways to skin that cat. Looking for people to work you into a safe landing is really great. And sometimes that surprises you. That can come out of nowhere if you didn't coordinate with that person, but they thought about you, which is fantastic.
    10:15
    But there's a lot of different ways. So small donations from a lot of really dedicated supporters larger donations from corporations and then estate planning is really what we chase And then there separate grants at a county city or state level Well, fantastic. And we're just starting our fundraising challenges. So but we're excited to take that next chapter and grow. So, Evan, I was looking at your website and I saw you had from like Humpty Dumpty to Godzilla. I'm curious, like what is how many machines do you have in the collection? And like, what is the, you know, how many EMs compared to how many solid state and DMD? What is the breakup of the collection? Is it mostly old school EM or is it 50-50? Sure. That's a great question. I will actually walk you gentlemen through the whole museum. I'm going to flip this around. So we are the Pacific Pinball Museum. We've got this tiny little storefront and then we go all the way back in the very front. We just have four games that are on walk up play. They're a dollar each. So these are all new games, but it's actually an exhibit in its own. We have a stern, spooky Jersey Jack, and we're actually going to add a Dutch pinball Big Lebowski at some point in the near future. And this is a mini exhibit in itself talking about the current larger manufacturers of pinball that exist. Is that what the plaques above the machines is talking about? It is, actually. The plaques above the machines are information cards that we have for each machine. So we talk about what bottle the machine is from here, who donated it to the museum, what collection it came from, other important information that's applicable to the machine. And as we come in, the first room that we enter is the history room. And this is where we have games from the 1940s forward for play. But we also have a static exhibit of older gambling games. These are not playable because they're a little too delicate for patron play, but they're really important parts of pinball history. And we do have a single pachinko machine as a reference because pachinko and pinball both had the same grandfather, Bagatelle. What year is that Pachinko? 70s? That Pachinko is absolutely from the 70s. We've got what almost looks like the inside of a 1970s car door. I love it. It's a great era, Pachinko.
    12:37
    I've always enjoyed Pachinko machines, and 70s in particular are pretty awesome. This is the oldest game we currently have on exhibit. This is a Bagatelle from the 1880s with the original red-gray patented shooter on the bottom that really changed everything and allowed the game to shrink. and starting with our earliest playable game, of course, Humpty Dumpty from 1947. This is our earliest playable modern, what I would consider a modern pinball game. Of course, with the early flippers that were on the sides, just as a gimmick, it was just a new thing on a game to try to attract people and end up being so popular because people felt like they had control over the game that they retrofitted older boards and we had flippers ever since. but currently in the museum this is our history room so we've got about 12 wood rails from the 40s and 50s if we go over to this other side we have a lot of really popular wedge heads what a great era of pinball I see a 5 million BC there that's one of my favorite games my kids favorite game it's a great game with zipper flippers that come together every now and then this is a good time to mention for people listening to the podcast that they may want to go over to the YouTube channel, Wormhole YouTube channel, and check this out because it's really incredible what Evan is showing us right now. This is our Pointy People exhibit in our Pointy People room. Oh my god, that's amazing. This is a specific art style from the late 60s that where everything was really made out of triangles. And this is a curated exhibit. We've got special toppers on top of the games. But this is something we really strive to do, is have actual exhibits at the museum, not just a collection. So this was curated, it was researched. These games were pulled out of our 1300 game collections specifically for this exhibit. We made sure they were playable, made sure that we chose games which are fun to play. My favorite, personally, in this room is Doggy's. This Western-themed one is fantastic. And this leads us into our oddball exhibit, which has been a very, very popular exhibit. These are pinball games that have a unique feature, a gimmick that they tried, and it was too polarizing. They never tried the gimmick again. So these are kind of dead-end machines. They're relatively rare. We have games like Viking, which has this interesting setup with the different legs, and something which I think is a great idea, which is a drink rest and cigarette rest in front of the game. We have Safe Cracker. Awesome. which is a fun game. Nothing's better than getting that core. Does it have the tokens? And we actually have the tokens. Oh, my God. They are not Sagecracker tokens, because those are collector's items. But they're actually, we measured them, we found a reproduction token that fits, and you can play the game entirely. I think people seek out that game and are often disappointed when the location does not have the tokens, because more times than not, it does not have the tokens. As far as I can tell, We have one of two, I think, that have coins in them. So you can play all the way. This is our second to last room, our members' choice room. This is actually the original museum room that we started in. It was the Lucky Juju Arcade.
    15:56
    This was about 21 years ago. It was a collection of six or seven games and one jukebox, and it was only open Friday nights. You could come in and play in exchange for beer and chips. But this is a members' choice room now, and we let people vote on what came into this room. There's a couple exhibits like our bumper exhibit that shows how bumpers function. We have the first visible pinball game ever made, which is really fun, which is based on a valley of freedom.
    16:26
    And people always get a kick out of things like the little xylophone that you can see inside that makes the noise. And it's actually more fun to watch someone else play this than it is to play it on your own because you get to see everything work inside. Oh, I see the best machine in the world. Indiana Jones. Do you like Funhaus? No. World Cup Soccer. Oh, yeah, of course. World Cup Soccer. I think I lean more towards Indiana. If you listen to me, you know that's my only machine that I own. Yeah. That's the first game I ever, the first and only game I've ever put a billion on. So I love this game because of that. I will say I don't even really care for soccer, but I do enjoy that game quite a bit. It's so fun. It's the best. So this whole wall is the sweet spot renaissance era. These are 90s games. Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Adam's Family, of course. And on this side is a side kind of special to me because this is what I remember playing in arcades in the 80s. These are games from the 70s and 80s like Flash Gordon, Joker Booker, Black Knight, Gorgar, first talking pinball game, Centaur. Centaur, yeah. And we also get into the 2020s, games like Cactus Canyon, Iron Man, Dragon Legacy. You would think that people would be stuck in one era of games, but they really do jump back and forth between games from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. We have people, kids especially, will start in the modern room with movie-themed games they're familiar with, but they end up playing these older games for a long time because you get five balls, they're a little bit quieter, they're a little bit easier to understand rule-wise, and they just won't get introduced to them anywhere else. So it's really important to us to have a huge range of games available. Well, thank you for that. That was fantastic. That was fun. I really appreciate it.
    18:21
    Mike, what makes up most of the collection at the Flipper Room? We have a pretty – it's broken up pretty diverse. We have from 71, The Wizard Behind Me. I mean, that was actually a team one that was rethemed back into a wizard.
    18:39
    And then up to the current stuff. And we do a mix of everything. So it's like we have right now it's three EMs, six solid state. We have about three alphanumeric. And then we go into like the 90s and 2000s. And then we have a room of Stern, like the new Stern stuff. So it's broken up pretty evenly.
    18:58
    I think with people wanting to play modern stuff, There is a little bent on the modern room, but it just depends. We rotate probably too often.
    19:09
    I like to mix things up. We do a big rotation every six months, and then in between that, I'll rotate some stuff.
    19:19
    Are you guys on Coindrop? It's Coindrop, yeah. Okay, and how many are in the total collection, and how many are in the building? There's about 70 in the collection and about half in the building. And same question for you, Evan. You have a thousand. Yeah, you have a lot.
    19:36
    So we have 105 games here, and then we have 1,200 more in the warehouse. It's actually an old aircraft maintenance hangar that's about two miles from us on the old Alameda Naval Air Station air base, which closed about 27 years ago. it's an amazing experience to go into the museum annex and and just witness the amount of pinball machines visible at one time like you can get into a vantage point where you can see like all of the pinball machines and it's wild there's pictures online it's it's fascinating that's actually what we're currently our fundraising mission for the last year and for the foreseeable future is actually for a larger space we have about I think we're at a little under 10,000 square feet in the current museum. We really want to have something like 15,000 or 20,000 feet because we have more artwork, more exhibits, more archives, and more hands-on exhibits that are great for kids that we really need more space. And we want to have classes and hold lectures there as well So that what we currently fundraising for until we don need to which doesn really ever stop but at least at a building at some point That's fantastic. Congrats on that. And I hope to help you get to that goal. That's unbelievable. You guys are a daily fee, right? So, yeah, we are a single fee for all day in and out with a wristband from when we open at 11 until when we close at 9 o'clock. And we also have memberships as well. Great. I know you're looking to expand. So like where in the expansion process would you say you are? We have just in the last couple of weeks really figured out where we are financially in terms of, say, a loan from a bank where we stand with current reserves. So now we know what kind of number we should chase fundraising wise, which is great. That's half the problem in itself is really establishing what number.
    21:40
    Real estate wise, the Bay Area is always tricky just because it's expensive as a nonprofit. you can generally offer tax benefits to folks who maybe own five or six properties and they're in the hole with their tax responsibilities. And if you are sold a property that is under their going market rate, that amount that is different could generally be deducted from your tax obligation. So that's the ace in the hole that we have. And aside from that, it's just continued fundraising. So really we're looking in the greater Bay Area, so that is really from San Rafael to San Jose and then kind of Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, but including San Francisco, kind of the greater Bay Area.
    22:28
    Fantastic. Mike, as an operator, do you look at every building and just say, I could put another pinball machine there, or do you?
    22:38
    No. Well, I used to. I did in the beginning, and then I started doing that, and I was pulling my hair out, driving around, fixing pinball machines, and I just one day said enough and stopped doing that. I have a couple at a brewery on the other side of Concord, and a business called me yesterday and asked if I would put one there, but they're down the street, so I can handle it. I'm okay with that. But, no, I don't want to expand to a bunch of bars and have pinball machines around the Bay Area. Does Concord have a real strong pinball community? Like what's the tournament scene like? The whole Bay Area does. The Bay Area in general has a huge scene. There's leagues. There's a lot of leagues. We have ours. There's one in Oakland. There's one in San Francisco.
    23:25
    There's quite a few. And there's players that play in multiple leagues. We get between 30 to 40 every Tuesday night. Right. In a few hours. Yeah. And then, you know, those same people will play in another league on another night during the week.
    23:44
    How's the scene in Almeida? It's very much the same. We have a lot of microbreweries that are out on the old Naval Air Station. So a lot of them have pinball games, and we've actually loaned some of our pinball games to them before. um the bay area as a whole like mike said and san francisco is a great pinball scene leagues everywhere we have a league at the museum which is a really we feel like it's a very philosophical league and that's really about having fun in social kind of interaction um it's run by a great gentleman uh big into pinball scene in the bay area named johnny o who has a really great approach. We've heard from people that play in our league, it's less cutthroat competitive wise to say leagues in San Francisco. And that's something we appreciate. We want to have fun. We want to compete. People want to win. But really for us, it's about the environment and the social acceptance and the social fun. So we have what we think is a really great league here. Awesome. Before we started recording, Co, they were talking about little flippers. And I think that'd be a good topic right now to shift to Mike. How did you start Little Flippers? And Evan, let's talk about how you got a franchise of Little Flippers going down the road. The Little Flippers started at the Flipper Room when my kids were starting to get old enough to come in and play. And they would want to have their friends over to play as well. We were also, my wife and I were fostering at that time for the Foster Family Network here in the Bay Area.
    25:30
    And we started opening up the flipper room to the families so that they could have some fun. And it was a great environment for parents getting to know the kids, kids getting to know the parents and just the community in general. And through that, we just saw how wonderful it was both for the kids and the parents. and we thought, you know, maybe we can make this a thing that we do each month. And so we started doing that. Then I received a message one day from somebody in Florida saying they heard what we do and they thought it would be really interesting if they could do something similar, had I ever thought about opening up chapters.
    26:12
    And so I let that stew a bit, and we eventually started doing that because more and more people were getting interested in it. And Evan, when did you guys get interested in that in the museum?
    26:26
    That started, I guess it's about two years ago now. We're lucky we have in Alameda, and I think the same gentleman helps the Flipper Room out. We actually have a registered teacher who teaches grade school who comes in to do it and volunteers on his own time.
    26:44
    It's just a fantastic program. It aligned completely with what we're trying to do as a museum. Kind of as a mission as a whole, aside from the mission of education, it's definitely a subject where pinball has ups and downs. And we really believe it's important to make it a multi-generational attraction. Because as people age out, less people will know, say, wood rail games and wedge head games and not be familiar with them, not have access to them. And we really think it's just important to introduce kids to pinball, help them learn how to be a better player if they've never played before. And we do include some history and some overview of pinball before they get to optimal pinball play and actually get on machines at different ages. So we do have kids who are 10, 11, 12 years old who end up being really good on games from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s and newer games, which is so much fun to see. and we just really feel that's an important funnel to make sure the game never goes away and that people are interested in all ages and how they play differently and i just feel really fortunate that the flipper rooms came up with this with this project um and have more chapters have blown up around the country in different locations it's just amazing it's everything aligned with what we wanted to accomplish as a museum and we're just so happy and thankful that Flipper Room is so close to us that we were able to do that as well.
    28:17
    What era of pinball do the youngest kids seem to gravitate towards? Is it the older machines? I think here we get a lot of kids. We'll first play on DMD games and modern games because of the themes. Like they'll see the Iron Man theme, Ghostbusters or Star Wars theme, and go play that game with its loud music and a lot of attractions and a lot of toys. they play longer a lot longer on the wedge heads and wood rail games from the 50s and 60s because you get five balls instead of three um a slower game play less distraction on the play field um easier rule sets unless you're talking about a really complicated got lead from the 50s or 60s which we also have sure um and it's always a concern people always ask and they a lot of times they'll start with those modern games, but they will spend longer playing the older games. We have a similar response, actually. I think part of it is the bells and the chimes, too.
    29:20
    You know, you can feel when it's making sound, you know. I think there's just a different attraction to it because with the modern games, you have these LCD screens, everything's coming at you fast, and they're already used to that, right? These kids are playing games and then they place these old retro and it's just something different. So it is pretty wild. Yeah, it is pretty wild to see how, you know, and it's not every kid. Right. You know, some kids, it's like they're only going to play this machine. But I would say as a whole, I'm quite surprised how often the kids gravitate to the older machines.
    29:58
    That's great. I love it. How can people get in touch with you, Mike? if they have an interest in starting Little Flipper? How can they get in touch with you? Littleflippers.org, either thelittleflippers.org or just littleflippers.org. Mike at thelittleflippers.org is my email. You can first check out the website, see what it's all about, see what other chapters. We've got about a dozen chapters listed on the website with at least two or three that I'm working on signing up right now. So it's growing pretty fast. We just became a 501c3 about a week before I came out to the Pinball Expo. Congrats. And so we're just now finishing up some meetings to, you know, see where that takes us and what we have in store, you know, moving forward. Well, congratulations on that. I know that's a difficult process as we just went through it as well, and it's fantastic. And what you've done to give back to the community there is outstanding. What a great, I'm so excited to learn more about Little Flippers and maybe implement that here at the Wormhole, that'd be amazing. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, it's amazing to see some of the kids that come out of these programs are good. And they play in the San Francisco scene you know at like 10 11 12 And it funny to watch some of the really hot players that are like state players all of a sudden go up against this little kid And it changes their game. It changes their mental state. Because now they're like, I'm playing this kid. I've got to do good. Is this kid going to beat me? And it's pretty fun to watch. Yeah. They've got those young twitch muscles. It's kind of unfair. They do. First time I ever played in a tournament, Wesley Johnson's daughter had a stool, and she sat up on the stool and whipped me. The attack from Mars just destroyed me. And I was like, do I really want to come into this hobby? But, you know, you've got to encourage those little kiddos, and it's so great.
    32:00
    All right, last question I want to get to before we get to the hurry-up because we have some time constraints, gentlemen. uh have you matt had any issues hiring staff especially technicians same question for you evan as well because volunteers and technicians are vitally important for both of our operations well i am the technician here okay i got into this as i told you i was not i opened a frame shop not a pinball arcade and now that i have a pinball arcade it turns out there's a gentleman down the street from me three buildings that has been working on pinball machines since 1968.
    32:39
    He worked for Bally. He worked for Atari. He's been around a long time. And he immediately came into my shop and said, you're going to need to know how to work on these. He gave me a bay in his shop that I could work in at any time I want, a key to the place. And he's been showing me how to do this. And fortunately, I'm a tinkerer, so I've latched on really quickly. And I just, because I'm here every day, if I hear a pinball machine have a problem or somebody says something, I just go deal with it right away. I have that luxury because I'm here. If I don't have the time, I put a note on it and I'll get to it after work. What about you, Evan? How do you maintain these 130-plus machines on your site? So the games we have in the museum, the one day a week we're closed is Monday. We call that our fix-it day. And between about 5 and 10 in the evening, we have kind of a range of 7 to 12 volunteers, and it takes us about that five hours to repair everything we've listed throughout the week. We keep a running list. We have a shared Excel sheet that people can see from remote and they can see kind of what's happening. If people have favorite games they're really familiar with, they can take a look and say, okay, I need to fix the magic chess on Theater of Magic when I come. It's not spinning. So they know what they're walking into when they come in Monday night. But it's just really imperative. If you're running a nonprofit right, you're flipping something like 90% of the money right back into the mission. So it's not a lot of leeway to hire specific technicians to come in. And sometimes it comes to that if you have a very specific problem. But we so far are very, very lucky to have just a ton of mostly retired people that are super invested in the museum, have been associated with us for a really long time. are familiar with what we do and just volunteer their time. And that's really the only way we can function. And when we think about scaling that to, say, a three, four, five, 600-game location with exhibits that day, we think about how, yes, we were very picky about the volunteer crew we had for this 100-game, 105-game setup we have right now. We're going to have to be very, very careful about training and bringing people aboard and what they're allowed to work on for the next leap. And we will have to cast a larger net. We will need maybe three times the volunteer pool. Yeah, you're going to. Because, I mean, we have a great staff of techs that volunteer on Wednesdays. And because we're new guys, we can start and use the technology. So instead of we're going to use QR codes on all the machines, and then the QR code will also go to show everything about the machine for the patron. And then for the text, there'll be a text section where they'll know something's wrong with this machine. It's either a Google Doc or something a little more fancy than that. So that's what we're working on right now. We have a place called The Vault that we're starting to show people where we have the rare machines at. And so it takes a village, and we're all familiar with that. All right, guys, are you ready for the quick rapid fire hurry up game show? We call the hurry up, whatever the hell. I messed that all up. It doesn't matter. Co, rather than being my co-host, you're going to play. We're going to insert game music. We've got ten minutes left. So here we go. Mike, starting with you, what is the highest earning machine at the Flipper Room? Indiana Jones.
    36:39
    Evan, give me your Holy Grail pinball title to add to the museum. Oh, wow. We're getting it, though. Big Lebowski.
    36:51
    All right. Coe, give me a Sega Genesis cartridge that you want in your collection. Well, I mean, I'm fortunate to have most of the heavy hitters. I know. That's why I gave you a tough one. There's an isometric run and gun called Skeleton Crew that's pretty pricey that I don't have yet. I'd like to get that. All right. People, send your info to Co. so we can get that. Yeah. Keep it cheap.
    37:16
    All right. Starting with Mike. OG Metallica or Metallica Remastered? Pick one. OG all day. We repped on his work, so it's a no-brainer. Evan? OG. It grew up in the B area. I expected a different answer on that one. I was going to say remastered. You're saying remastered? I'm all about it, yeah.
    37:37
    I can't break the tie, so sorry. Why not? I would go remastered because I got to play it, and it's pretty bad. Gotcha. It's pretty bad, but I like new shit. I like shiny stuff.
    37:50
    Out of these rumored pins, Mike, which one would you be most excited about? Harry Potter, Goonies, or Sonic the Hedgehog? Goonies.
    37:59
    Coe? Sonic the Hedgehog. Evan? Easy Goonies. I think so, too. Evan, what's the best pinball mech of all time?
    38:15
    I like the Idol in the 90s, Indiana Jones, the spinning Idol that holds the ball. Coe, same question I just did a video about it so I'm going to say Medieval Madness' Castle Alright Mike end it with you Best mech, pinball machine Since you just said the Medieval Madness which I think is the best mech let's go with I'm going to rapidly take my time Intense music and fire effects are happening right now.
    38:57
    The hot seat. You can use Medieval Madness if you want. To me, it's a no-brainer. It is Medieval Madness, is the answer.
    39:06
    Godzilla's buildings. Yeah. Godzilla's building is pretty cool, too. All right, everyone. Thank you so much. It was a great fourth edition of our pocket series called Arcades Across America. Evan, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us about the museum. Please visit Pacific Pinball dot org for more information. Hours of operation. Anything else you want to plug, sir? You know, we're coming into our fundraising season. So people have corporations, jobs, estate planning. If anyone knows someone who will match when we do our special New Year's Day fundraiser, please reach out to us. We would love to partner with you. Awesome. Please do that. People, Mike, thank you as well. I had a great time chatting with you and your wife at Expo. Thank you. Please visit the flipper room dot com for more info. Anything you want to plug, sir?
    39:54
    Just come say hi if you're in the town for some business and, you know, check out our new shirts. They're always fun. Yeah, your shirts were awesome. I saw those. They're really cool. It's fantastic. Co, where can people follow your progress on the quarter drop quarter drop arcade on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, quarter drop arcade dot com? of course all information on the wormhole is on wormholepinball.com or wormholepinball on all the socials next week's thanksgiving gents so here in the states i'm going to release a little mini podcast with aaron winick then a super podcast announcement on december 6th a super podcast announcement co it's okay and before i sign out i want to ask the audience and maybe these three gentlemen, if anyone has seen for sale or is interested in selling any machines by a Brazilian company called Taito, we are looking for pinball machines from a company called Taito to add to our collection. We are also looking for pinball machines made by a French company called Rally Play Company. They make games from 61 to 69. And we'd really like to add that to our collection. So hit us up on warmhopinball at gmail.com. for more information on those machines. Rob Burke, are you here?
    41:14
    I don't know if Rob has these, to be honest with you. So, all right, everyone, thank you so much for this evening. This was a blast for Wormhole Pinball and Arcades Across America. I'm Jamie Burchill. Please visit your local arcades. They're owned and operated by really great people, just like Evan and Mike and Co. All right, remember, have fun. Thanks. See you guys. Thanks, everybody.