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EP27 PinTalk with Sterling and David

The Pinball Studio Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 19m·analyzed·Jul 13, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.018

TL;DR

South Carolina pinball hosts discuss tournaments, community growth, and emerging content/strategy tools.

Summary

Sterling and David discuss recent tournament hosting experiences, venue operations, and community developments in South Carolina pinball. David shares details about Phil Forrester stepping back from pinball operations, the inaugural Pin Jam women's tournament, and his game trading/collecting activities. Sterling discusses tournament format innovations, James LaPlane's PinballCards.net strategy tool, and plans to create micro-strategy video content.

Key Claims

  • Phil Forrester is stepping away from operating and repairing pinball machines due to health concerns with his elderly father and family obligations, but will remain involved through Marco Specialties shows and seminars.

    high confidence · David Venke stated Phil made a public post about this decision; David is a close friend of Phil's

  • The Pin Jam women's tournament in South Carolina drew nearly 40 female competitors across three tournaments in two days, organized by Crystal Grant.

    high confidence · David Venke directly involved in tournament hosting; specific event details provided

  • A Paragon pinball machine was available for $2,200 in perfect condition in the upstate area but was missed as a purchase opportunity.

    medium confidence · David Venke recounting a missed buying opportunity; verified through community contacts

  • James LaPlane created PinballCards.net featuring strategy cards for over 250 pinball games with automated Pinball Map integration capability.

    high confidence · David Venke demonstrated the tool during podcast and described James's vision for future integration

  • Sterling plans to create micro-strategy video content for individual pinball game modes to be embedded on PinballCards.net.

    high confidence · Sterling directly describing his content creation plans and equipment purchases

Notable Quotes

  • “He is stepping away from operating and repairing and all of that stuff because he was going 100 miles an hour for years, him and his dad. His dad is like 82 years old, has had some heart problems.”

    David Venke @ early-mid conversation — Explains Phil Forrester's decision to step back from pinball operations due to family health and personal obligations

  • “A lot of operators just don't understand the importance of things working properly. Like a lot of operators, not all operators, but a lot of operators, if the ball plunges and you can hit some stuff, that's like enough for them.”

    David Venke @ mid-conversation — Reflects operator vs. technician perspective on game maintenance quality standards

  • “You just buy every game twice? And then the games that I haven't sold off, I just upgraded.”

    Sterling @ late-mid conversation — Self-aware commentary on collecting/trading behavior and recurring purchases of the same machines

  • “If you're going to collect pinball machines, buy a house where your pinball room can be on the bottom floor.”

    Sterling @ late conversation — Practical advice from difficult experience moving a pinball machine up stairs

  • “What I mean by that is I'm going to make a video of like just how like the big money works in Rush or just how Red Barchetta multiball works and have a video of just that.”

    David Venke @ late-mid conversation — Describes the micro-strategy content concept that will be integrated with PinballCards.net

Entities

Phil ForresterpersonDavid VenkepersonSterlingpersonCrystal GrantpersonJames LaPlanepersonTurnerpersonKen GrantpersonPete GaspichpersonTodd ReynoldspersonSarah Buchanan

Signals

  • ?

    operational_signal: Community observation that many operators prioritize minimal functionality (ball plunges and basic playability) over proper game maintenance and quality standards; creates friction between technicians and location operators.

    high · David Venke: 'A lot of operators just don't understand the importance of things working properly... if the ball plunges and you can hit some stuff, that's like enough for them.'

  • ?

    event_signal: South Carolina inaugural multi-day women's pinball tournament (Pin Jam) drew nearly 40 competitors, indicating significant growth in organized women's pinball play and community organizing by non-traditional operators.

    high · David Venke organized three-day women's tournament with nearly 40 ladies; organized by Crystal Grant with multiple TDs; Columbia league has 30 participants

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinky's Revenge relocated locations, divested inventory, and required new tournament operations. Community reported minimal disruption with tournaments resuming within 1-2 weeks under new TD Pete Gaspich.

    high · David Venke: 'They didn't skip a beat. I think they might have missed one week, maybe.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Phil Forrester, established pinball operator and technician, stepping back from day-to-day operations due to family obligations and aging parent's health; will remain involved in limited capacity through Marco Specialties and seminars.

    high · David Venke detailed conversation about Phil stepping away from operating/repairing; transitioning to show support and undisclosed project

  • ?

    content_signal: Creation of PinballCards.net by James LaPlane representing emerging strategy documentation ecosystem; planning real-time integration with Pinball Map and embedded video content from community creators.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.053

0:00
Hello and welcome to episode 27 of the Pinball Studio podcast. Today I've got my co-host back, Mr. David Venke, and we're going to do another episode of Pin Talk. But first off, let's mention the sponsors. Old Town Pinball. Do you need a new or used pinball machine? Just head over to his website, oldtownpinball.com. Also, the Electric Playground. Time to level up your game room with the new topper. Just head over to their website, teppinball.com. And last but not least, Spooky Pinball. Order your Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, any other game they have available on their website. Also, check out their new Dead Ring Underglow kit that they've got available for, well, most of their back catalog of spooky games. But yeah, anyway, welcome back to the show, David. How are you doing, sir? Doing good, man. Glad to be back. It's been about a month, I think, and I think we've both done a lot of stuff. Yeah, we just had our four-year anniversary tournament yesterday, which that was a blast. Sorry you couldn't make it, but I know you had something awesome going on as well. Yeah, man. So I traded my X-Men Premium that I don't even think that I had the last time we spoke. I got it like right after we did the podcast. But I traded that for a Batman 66. Nice. So, yeah. I had a Batman 66 whenever it first came out, not whenever it first came out, but a long time ago, years ago, I had one for a little while. Right. And I'm happy to have it back. It's just an amazing game. It's one of those games that's always been one of my favorites.
2:21
And I was not as good of a player whenever I had it, so I couldn't explore it as much as I can now. Right. Yeah, I've always wanted to get a Batman 66. That's the one I've never been able to get my hands on. And every time I have seen one come up for sale, I'm always fucking buying another game. I think the last one I saw was right in the middle of paying for Beetlejuice, so I'm like, well, hell, I can't buy that one.
2:48
Yeah, well, I'll put you at the top of the list. That's what I was going to say. I was like, so when you get ready to sell it, I want to know for sure, man. Yeah, we'll make it happen. It'll end up down there. Don't worry about it. Yeah, that's really like the only Spike 2 I haven't added to the collection that I've really always wanted. Another one, Guardians, never had that one in the collection. Have you ever had it? I have. No, actually, you know what? I didn't. So Chad Patz, my homeboy that used to live down here that lives in Greenville now, he had one for a while. And I was like, they went on their honeymoon and they were gone for a while. And I was cat sitting for them the whole time that they were gone. Right. Like this European cruise like it was they were gone for a while. And so I was over at their house every day while they had Guardians. And I was just like hanging out, playing Guardians, taking care of the cat. It was great. I actually made a tutorial on Guardians. But once everything opened back up and we started playing tournaments, I realized that the strategy that I had suggested is not the way to go. So I just took it down. I think I still have it, but they will never see the light of day again. Right. Yeah, you don't see Guardians. I guess they didn't make that many of those because I never see those come up for sale either. There's one bar downtown that I service theirs, and I think he's getting to the point where he's ready to retire it and get something else. So if he ever does that, I want to grab it and just rebuild it because it is rough as hell. Nothing works on it. I feel like those games always get really beat up. I feel like almost every copy that you see in the wild is toast. Yeah, he's got the node board issues, and I'm like, well, this is pride. We can replace it. And he's like, nah. He's like, it still works, right? I'm like, well, you can hit start and hit the ball. It kind of works. Yeah, a lot of operators just don't understand the importance of things working properly. Like a lot of operators, not all operators, but a lot of operators, if the ball plunges and you can hit some stuff, that's like enough for them. Because all they care about is getting somebody to see the theme and put money in the machine, you know? Yeah, he calls me when the game like doesn't work at all. Like he's like, I cannot start a new game, like come fix it. And yeah, it's always the bare minimum. But I'd like to pick up that game if I can get it for a deal eventually. Oh, you definitely should. And those games come up for deals pretty often. Todd Reynolds, he got the one that was at Pinky's Revenge. They moved locations. I heard about that. So a lot of their games that they had, I think that they don't have enough room at the new place or something. But a lot of those games got sold. And Todd, dude, he got one for a killer deal.
person
Kate Satterfeldperson
David Bredersperson
Pinky's Revengevenue
Pinball Studiovenue
PinballCards.netproduct
Batman 66game
X-Mengame
Rushgame
Shadowgame
Guardiansgame
Paragongame
Godzillagame
Soda City Comic Conevent

high · David Venke demonstrated PinballCards.net with 250+ game guides; integration with Pinball Map planned; micro-strategy video content to be embedded

  • $

    market_signal: David Venke demonstrating high velocity of machine trading and upgrading within personal collection; pattern of repurchasing previously-owned titles and upgrading Pro to Premium/LE variants.

    high · David described trading X-Men for Batman 66, Shadow for Rush; upgrading Jurassic Park Pro to Premium and Godzilla Pro to Premium; owns multiple previously-owned games

  • ?

    design_innovation: Sterling testing tournament format innovations including mixed-era game banks and winner-picks-game finals structure to balance skill testing and playtime concerns; still optimizing era rotation strategy.

    medium · Sterling discussed alternating modern and classic games, considering separate game banks by era (alphanumeric, DMD, modern), and implementing winner-picks structure

  • ?

    technology_signal: David Venke acquiring professional streaming equipment (wireless transmitters, cameras, lights) to produce micro-strategy video content; planning systematic filming schedule across multiple venues.

    high · David mentioned equipment from Jamie Burchill (JBS Show), Sony ZV-1 camera, Axoom wireless transmitters, consultation with Stream Wizard community

  • ?

    venue_signal: Sterling's four-year anniversary tournament successfully executed with 30+ competitors; venue continuing to develop game lineup and implementing refined tournament logistics.

    high · Sterling mentioned four-year anniversary tournament with specific format details; ongoing game trading and optimization of tournament experience

  • ?

    collector_signal: High-quality vintage Paragon machine available at $2,200 in excellent condition; perceived as unusually favorable pricing; successfully sold to out-of-state buyer.

    medium · David Venke described missed opportunity and subsequent verification through community contact that seller had legitimate inventory of well-maintained games

    • 5:53
    Less than what you would normally see Stern Pros going for. So I don't know if he would appreciate me saying what he got. Right. It was a good deal. Yeah, I heard Pinky's Revenge moved and didn't Phil, like, didn't he operate a lot of those games? Now I'm hearing it like he retired or is getting out of the game. Do you know more about that whole story? So Phil Forrester of the Phil's Pinball, he's a very good friend of mine.
    6:20
    He is stepping away. I think that he did make a public post so I can talk about this. Yeah, he did. He is stepping away from operating and repairing and all of that stuff because he was going 100 miles an hour for years, him and his dad. His dad is like 82 years old, has had some heart problems. Phil has a young child that requires a lot of time. He's got a family.
    6:46
    So he's stepping away from some of the stuff he was doing, but he's still going to help Marco specialties with their shows. I think he's going to go around and do some of that stuff. They do like seminars at the shows. Like Phil teaches people how to like fix games. And he also has this cool thing that he's working on that I can't talk about yet. But he's going to stay involved in pinball. It's just not going to be at the same capacity. Yeah, it's a ton of work, but that's awesome. He's still going to stay involved to some extent. Yeah, he'll be around. You'll see him around at shows and stuff. And hopefully he'll come to tournaments every once in a while. Awesome. Yeah, I imagine Pinky's still hosting tournaments and stuff at their new place, right? Yeah, they didn't skip a beat. I think they might have missed one week, maybe. I think that they kind of ran everything over there and got it set up enough that they could do tournaments. And they've been doing tournaments. Pete Gaspich, he is the TD over there now. It's in Greer, actually, so it's in a different part of town. That's where I work sometimes. That's why I went to Pinky's Revenge. It wasn't too far from Greer. They have an inland port up there. I was about to say, what was Yeezy doing up there? Yeah, it's like a rail yard. I think it's all tied to, isn't it like that BMW plant near? Yeah. So, yeah, I go up there. If you're ever there on a Wednesday, I think they start at 7 or 7.15. Really good group of people. It doesn't take too long. Their format is relatively short for a weekday. It's a good time, man. You should go check it out for sure. I think one of your guys, I think David... Yeah, David Breders played.
    8:31
    Yeah, yeah. He went and he made the final four. I saw a picture. He was rocking the pinball studio show. Yeah. I think it's funny. I think one of the tournaments I signed him up and I put David B and you were like, question mark or something. Yeah. A lot of people, even at your tournaments, whenever we are both at the tournament, people get us mixed up and he'll end up standing at the game that I'm on. Oh, really? I've done it too. I've looked up and been like, oh, I'm on Jurassic Park. Oh, no, I'm not. I'm way over here. That's like sometimes we get a bunch of Michaels. We'll have like four or five Michaels in a tournament. I'm like, oh, shit. I think with me and him, it's because our last names start and end with the same letter. And there's a K in there. So you know that your mind doesn't read each letter at a time. It reads words as a whole. So like that's why if you have you ever seen the things where it's like a paragraph of jumbled up words that are not, you know, but the first and the last word. And it just like tricks your brain. Yeah, you can still read it. Right. I think that's what happens. He's a good guy, though. I'm glad he went up there and had a good time. Yeah, I'm glad some of my players get around him and try out some of these other spots from time to time. So how's the tournament scene been over in South Carolina lately? What's been going on, man?
    9:54
    It's been booming. I was not involved in this, but in terms of South Carolina, the first weekend-long women's pinball tournament, Three tournaments in two days. It was called the Pin Jam. It was started by Ken Grant's wife, Crystal Grant. So everybody knows Ken and Nate. Crystal has been killing it this year. She just like she's always played casually, you know, at home, but hasn't played many tournaments. You know, she's played here and there over the years, but she's been really getting into the women's scene. And she has been like dominating, like she's been playing really well. So she just, you know, dove in headfirst and decided to start this three day tournament. She got Sarah Buchanan from Rock Hill to help her run the first event, which was at Dave's, where I host the Barn Burner every month. And they streamed that yesterday. And then they did like a like a nighttime like pizza party pajamas flip frenzy last night. Very cool. Yeah, like a fun time. And then today they did another tournament, but I'm not sure exactly what today was. And I believe that was run by Kate Satterfeld from Columbia. So Crystal just got some TDs together and said, let's do this thing. And I want to say they had almost 40 ladies. Nice.
    11:27
    So, yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I really want to do some more women's tournaments here at the Pinball Studio. I really need to work on getting a few more women to join the group. We have quite a few, but just to do like a monthly tournament and have a decent turnout, I need to get a few more into it. But last year when we did do the women's tournament, the group from Jacksonville came, so that definitely helped our attendance numbers. So I really appreciate them doing that. Yeah, it's hard for us to do like a monthly one. We just don't have quite a big enough following yet for it, but I'd like to do more or host more women's tournaments. I don't think this is going to be a monthly thing. This is like a once a year. That's awesome, though. But they do have a big league in Columbia that rotates throughout the bars. They play at Bang Back, they play at Transmission, Craft and Draft. They go like all over and it's got almost 30 ladies in it. So Kristen's mom, actually, my wife's mom started playing. She's in that league. We put our prospector at her house. So now she's like learning. She texted me the other day and said that she got her high score. She beat like her original high score was like 500,000 or something. She beat it. So yeah, it's cool, man. Yeah, that's awesome. That's so cool. That's awesome. You all have got like that whole the barn burner tournament thing going on now. I think Turner was kind of talking about that at my tournament yesterday mentioning. Oh, Turner was down there. Yeah, yeah. He came down. Hey, I love that guy. He's great. Yeah, he came in a third, I believe. And then the Stafford family took the other spots. Florida come to town. I was thinking that you would come from South Carolina and represent.
    13:23
    Yeah, I mean, I really was. So me and Travis were originally planning on doing the trade for Batman next weekend. Oh, okay.
    13:33
    He had to move it up. So, I mean, Kristen was with her mom playing at that pin jam. So I kind of had the weekend open and I was like, well, I mean, whatever. I can move it up.
    13:48
    So I just had to do it, you know. But I would have been gunning for the top four, you know. Absolutely. Yeah, they finished at, what was it, like 11.45 last night, I think, when finals finally wrapped up. And one of my buddies, like, dipped out. He's like, man, I'm just tired. And he's like, I know this is going to go to, like, 10.30. And I messaged him. I was like, more like 11.45. He's like, see.
    14:14
    So what did y'all do for finals? Just group elimination, top eight. How many games? Three. Three games per round? Three, yeah. So is that, did y'all do winner picks game?
    14:29
    Yeah, of each game. We didn't do top seed picks, all three. Gotcha. We did individual. Gotcha. Cool. Yeah, yeah. I think it caught Turner off guard, too. I was like, all right, we do finals a little bit different sometimes. Yeah, yeah. See, like, you guys. It is different, but it's cool. It's worked out for me before, so it's a twist. Well, it's funny. He finally got to choose game, and he's like, I don't even want to choose. You choose.
    15:03
    Well, he's so good, and your games are set up really nice. I'm sure that he probably was like, man, whatever somebody picks, I'll be cool with. Well, they kept choosing all the Stearns, too. That's why it went on for fucking ever. At least I pulled post-robbers out of all the long-playing games. I'm like, I'm pulling these out today. Well, that's why I told you that, dude, you've got to come up with a system where you've got to force these people to pick.
    15:32
    Well, I mentioned the banks. I was like, all right, David kind of mentioned we could make some cool banks, Like maybe do like one, you know, alphanumeric and then like one DMD and then one modern game, you know, and make like a few different banks they could pick from. Yeah. I mean, well, if you're if you're concerned with time, you know, like if time is not a concern, just do whatever you want. I think it's cool, too, because it makes them play one of every error, you know, instead of like staying on all the CERNs. So it is cool in two ways. One, it tests you in different eras. Yeah, your skills of all the areas of games. And it also gives the, I would say, the, you know, obviously if anybody is in finals, they're a good player, right? I'm not saying anybody's a bad player in this scenario. I mean, if I'm in finals, something's wrong. What I'm saying is that it gives the players of lower skill level in the finals a better chance to make something happen. Because those older games, if you're on strikes and spares and all you got to do is get the B lane and rip the spinner, Turner might get screwed. And then whoever else, like somebody else that probably wouldn't beat him on Godzilla or something, can beat him and make it really interesting. You know? Yeah. So that's why I like it. I think it makes finals a lot more exciting. If it ends up being a tournament, I feel like it narrows the possible winners down a little bit. I know it makes finals last for fucking ever. And I really wanted to like, you know, I'm going like moderns, then classics, you know, going back and forth for each round of qualifying. How's that working? You've done that twice now, right? Three or four times. Now I've finally got the rhythm I like, but I really wanted to stagger it every other game. But I think we had one group too many for me to be able to stagger it, so I was like, well, fuck it.
    17:39
    But it's still nice because everybody's on one side of the room, so the other side is really easy to walk around over there. It's like I just play my game and I walk away. So are people fine with everybody being on one side? People aren't getting upset because it's all crammed over there? No, because I guess it opens up the other side so well where you just stand back unless you're really hovering. But most people don't hover over the player to watch them that religiously. They can stand back a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. That's awesome. I'm glad that y'all are doing that. I feel like it also adds an element. And if you end up in that scenario again, did you have one less old or one less new that you needed? Like, did you need one extra old game to make it work?
    18:34
    Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, I may need more old games. I can't remember. Yeah, it was like, yeah, at the beginning. But then one guy dropped out like halfway through the tournament. Then that made one less group. Then I would have just needed the one more game, I believe. If that makes any sense at all. If you've got a game that plays really fast, like faster than the other olds, you can just do an A version of that and a B version of that. And then you can have group one play and they get through and then group two plays the same game. Right, like Paragon or Strikes and Spares. Yeah, just whatever plays the fastest. So I don't know what that would be at your place, but I imagine it would probably be Paragon. Yeah. Scissor flippers, man. Dude, that one is brutal. I put up 900K on the Paragon at Fellowship the last time I was up there. And on yours, dude, I don't think I ever broke 100. Well, Neil's got the playfield protector on that, and it makes it play fast. Yes, it flies around. It's fast. It weird I know it kicks my ass Yesterday I plunged the ball one time I did not touch it with either flipper but it hit something at one point So you know registered and drained me and I was just like I hate this game
    19:57
    That's a game, though. Like, it is brutal, but for whatever reason, I always play it. Like, if it is somewhere, it doesn't matter where I am in the world. Paragon is there. I'm going to play it. Oh, everyone that comes like, you know, that's not like a regular at my place. They're like, oh, they got Paragon and it's a really nice one, you know, and they enjoy playing it. So it's a good tournament game. It's an ass kicker. So I missed out on a amazing copy of Paragon. It was for sale in the upstate for like $2,200 and it was in like perfect condition. So much so that I thought that it was a scam because I didn't recognize the guy's name or anything. And I texted somebody up there and was like, hey, do you know this person? Ken didn't know him. I texted somebody else. No, I don't know him. That's got to be a scam. So I just let it go. Then I find out, no, this guy Chris Terro had bought a game from that guy. And he was like, oh, my God, dude, every game that that guy has is amazing. They're all in amazing shape. He's just been in the game forever. So he paid nothing for these games. He fixed them all up. So I could have gotten a Paragon for $2,200. I think Chris told me that he talked to the guy and it got shipped somewhere. It got shipped to Texas or something. I don't know. This one came from Southern Pride last year, if I remember right. I think Neil got it from there. I've been selling a bunch of games. I sold my Grand Slam, which I really didn't want to let it go because it's like one of those weird... It's a game you don't see. A member in the group at least bought it. And then I was like, damn, now I've got to get another old game. So I got Galaxy, a Stern Galaxy from my guy over in Hilton Head. And then I traded Shadow for Rush Pro with Retro City Arcade. So I've been moving all kinds of games around. Oh, that's cool that you got to Rush. That's a sweet game. Yeah, I had Rush right when it came out, and I just didn't give it time. It just came out, and I kept it for, I don't know, two or three months, and I moved it on. I traded it for whatever the next Stern was, traded it in towards it.
    22:16
    Well, hey, I mean, they can come back around. It's not a big deal if you miss out on a Stern. Dude, I was looking at my Stern wall yesterday. I have a big freaking problem rebuying these games, because the first game over there is Iron Maiden. It's my old one. And Neil has it. And I was even thinking about rebuying it. And I'm like, no, don't do that. And then the next game is Rush, which I've already owned before. The next game is Foo Fighters LE, which I've owned the Pro before. The next game is Deadpool, I think, which I've owned before. The next game is Bond, which I've owned before. Ghostbusters, I've owned before. It's like, what are you doing, dude? You just buy every game twice? And then the games that I haven't sold off, I just upgraded. It's upgraded. So like I got Jurassic Park Premium instead of Pro and then I upgraded my Godzilla Pro to a premium.
    23:08
    Well, hey, you're trying them all out. You're figuring out which ones you like. Stern loves it. They're like, just keep buying them. Yeah. Yeah, man, that's awesome. Dude, Rush. That's one that you can spend a lot of time on. Kind of like Batman. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of stuff you can do in that game. Yeah, I agree. And the Shadow was great. You know, Retro City Arcade, they're enjoying it. But in tournaments, every once in a while, it would do something a little odd or something. That game's so complicated where I only run tournaments. I get kind of tired of people like, you did something kind of odd. You know? Yeah. It's like, shit. Well, that sucks, too, because that's a great tournament game. Yeah. Like, you know, it's kind of – it can be brutal. It can be like a decently fast player for a DMD. Mm-hmm.
    24:03
    Man, that's a fun game. That's one that I would like to have again, but it's – Mine was in great shape. It's one of those things where it's like – it's hard for me to bring in a Williams game because I don't have a lot of room. Yeah. So I need some games that have some depth. Exactly. And that's kind of how I looked at it too. I'm like, I've got the Shadow, it plays perfect. Every once in a while I have one little odd thing happen in a tournament, but other than that everything's fine. But I was like, Rush is so much deeper and it's got achievements and I can put it on the leaderboard. It has a lot more to offer, I feel, for my group at the moment. I've got a whole wall of classics too. We're still in good shape. Yeah, and that's a – I mean, Rush is one of those games where, like, if you get Turner on it, he can play it forever. But a lot of, like, you know, mid-level players, casual players, it can be a pretty quick playing Stern. It can be, you know?
    25:06
    So, yeah, that's a good one for the club, for sure. Are you going to dive into the rules yourself? Do you do that much? Hell no. No, I leave that up to you guys.
    25:20
    Man, I love that stuff, dude. I love it. So this guy, James LaPlane down here in Charleston, he moved down here like a year or two ago from the D.C. area. Been playing for a while. Super smart guy. He started this thing called PinballCards.net. I actually have this really cool thing I'm going to show you. So let me tell you what it is real quick. And he has made basically like little strategy cards for over 250 games. So you can just click on the game and it'll tell you kind of what you need to do. It's kind of like a condensed rule set, basically.
    26:02
    And he's got it in a really cool format and he is setting it up. It's not set up like this yet, but he said that he can set it up eventually to where it can auto-update whenever somebody updates their pinball map. So, like, if you're on Pinball Map, which I think you guys are, right? Not anymore. I don't know. We were? Maybe. Well, let's say that you were. And you changed out, you know, Shadow for Rush. Yeah. It would update and whenever somebody went to play in your tournament, they would click on the pinball studio and then it would have Rush on there instead of the Shadow.
    26:46
    So I'm going to actually, I asked him to do this for me so that you could see what I'm talking about. Yeah. No, he made one for you. So I'm going to have to text it to you.
    26:57
    Yeah, it's going to be sick. I think that you're really going to like it. And this is, you know, something that you can send to your guys at the next tournament. Like, it's made. It's happened. You can put a link to it on your website or whatever you want to do. But I think you're going to think it's really cool because you're the type of guy that enjoys, like, well-done, clean-looking stuff. Oh, nice.
    27:28
    I see my four-year anniversary is on here. Oh, and it's got all, I do like this. Damn it. That's very nifty. Yeah. And all the games are not correct. They're close.
    27:42
    Yeah, I think that he went off of whatever you had at the tournament or on your website or something. Yeah, yeah. I just updated the website the other day, too. He may have looked at it, like, right before I changed it. No, this is really cool, though. This is a, yeah, we got Southern Pride also on there and South Carolina Bells and Chimes. Yeah. So I think the first one that he did was, yeah, that's the, that's the pin jam that I was talking about. So you can click that and see the locations that they did. Oh, okay, cool.
    28:22
    Yeah. But yeah, I'm going to actually, what I'm going to do with all of this streaming equipment That I've been acquiring. Yeah. Is I'm going to start making like micro micro strategy content. So what I mean by that is I'm going to make a video of like just how like the big money works in Rush or just how Red Barchetta multiball works and have a video of just that. I like the idea of that because like sometimes you just want to know how to do one thing and you don't want to watch a two hour long stream. Exactly. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make this micro strategy stuff and James is going to put it on his cards and there's going to be like, you know, in the mode section or whatever, you're going to be able to click the mode and it'll have a dropdown and it'll have the video embedded. That's awesome. Yeah, man. I like that. It's going to be really cool. So that's why I've bought all of this streaming equipment. Jamie Burchill of the JBS show. I got some Axoon wireless transmitters from him. I got another Sony ZV-1 camera. I went on Tilt Forums and like all of those Stream Wizard guys just told me all the lights to get and all the batteries to get and all that. I have had packages showing up from Amazon left and right. I have like just don't just don't buy like 40 foot cables for everything. No, we're going to have proper cable management. OK, buy cables the correct length afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to do all of that. We're going to have zip ties. It's going to be nice. It's not going to be hectic. Whenever I get all of it set up, obviously I'm going to do the games that I have at home first, and then I'm going to start branching out. So I'm going to come down to the studio and I'm going to spend the weekend and I'm going to stay in the Gary suite.
    30:42
    We're going to film all your games and then I'm going to start making micro strategy content. And I've got a YouTube, I got a new YouTube channel that I'm going to put it on, but I don't want to announce what the channel is yet, but I've already made it. Like I own, I have it. That's awesome. So what is your lineup at the house right now? Tell us the games you got at home right now. So I've got Hocus Pocus, Stern Jurassic Pro, Batman 66, and Rick and Morty. Nice. And Batman. Probably the next thing to go will be Rick and Morty.
    31:18
    And I probably will. So the Jurassic Park I am borrowing, and that will probably move on pretty soon as well.
    31:27
    So I'll have two open spots. I've got some like older games that I could move down, but I'm helping run this big classic tournament at Soda City Comic Con in August.
    31:43
    And I want to have it's going to be basically a limited, limited entry, 40 entry thing. And we're going to have like 10 games and I want all my classics to be in it. And some of them are in Columbia right now. So I don't want to bring them down here and then bring them back up there for that. Yeah, it's no fun moving pinball machines all the time. Oh, dude. Travis, the swap with Batman, we had to carry the X-Men premium up. No. On the second floor. Oh, my God, man. If you're going to collect pinball machines, buy a house where your pinball room can be on the bottom floor. Oh, yeah. That's what I told them yesterday. I was like, dude, I will never have pinball. After doing this, because that's the first time I've ever moved games upstairs, except for the very first game I moved in my entire life. I moved a Xenon up these treacherous stairs at the Palmetto Pinball Club back in the day. Yeah. And I knew that it sucked, but it was 10 years ago, so I didn't really remember exactly how bad it sucked. But so I was the low man and we had a dolly and his stairs are very carpeted and they have a lip. So we were having to move up one stair at a time. I was pushing from the bottom. He was pulling the dolly and the wheels were catching on the lip every single stair. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It was brutal. And you can't rest because there's a pinball machine in the middle of the stairs. You can't let it go. So you just have to keep going, dude. It sucked. My buddy, he rented this house in downtown Savannah years ago, and it had this, like, I don't know. He was on, like, the fifth floor, but, like, he had to take his couches and all that, like, up the stairs, and it had, like, you know, 20 fucking turns in the stairs to go all the way up. And when he was moving out, I remember he got the couch, like, halfway down this building staircase, and he just stopped, and he's like, fuck it. And he just left it there in the stairwell. Left it halfway down. Just peace out. Oh, my God. Did he get like a did they keep like a deposit from him or anything? Did they know who did that? He was so young. He was like renting this house with like five or I mean, I don't even know what it was like a massive apartment type deal that had like multiple bedrooms. He was renting of like five or six people. I don't think they even knew like who it came from because they were kicking all of them out. They're like, ow. Jesus Christ, man. But yeah, sorry to get off topic. No, not right. All right, man. Yeah, definitely first floor for me. Yeah, first floor for pinball machines. Yeah. Yeah. Even like my new building, like I didn't even want two or two or three steps. I'm like, there's going to be a ramp going into my building. No steps whatsoever. Yeah, whenever, if I actually do build this extra building like you have, I'll definitely have a way, like there's going to be cement on the outside kind of like you have, so I can back my truck up and get it off onto, I've got one of the Harbor Freight lifts. And what Ken does is he just backs his van up and just pulls it directly out onto the lift and just wheels it right in. It's perfect. Yep, we do that when Neil, when he like lets us borrow games, he backs his little SUV up and that's how we take him in and out. And yeah, it's definitely the way to go. I mean, right now, it is like tough for me and Kristen to move a game because like she just isn't strong enough to carry the, like what we have to do is pull the game out, put the legs on, the back legs. Because then we've got to pull it out further and I've got to like hold it up and get the front legs on. And then we've got to carry it like 10 feet at a time. And then she's got to stop. And it's just it's tough. Oh, yeah. You got to have a pinball cart and a good dolly. And then you're good. If I've got a pinball cart, I can do it all by myself. But otherwise, it's more like you're going to fuck up your back. I've done it. I've done it by myself the shitty way. Yeah, I mean, I think that she's getting really sick of all of the swapping that's been going on. Yeah. So if I could do it by myself, I totally would. Like, the only reason why I ask her is because right now, how we have it set up, I cannot do it by myself. Yeah. But I don't want her to be – I don't even want her to be lifting these things, dude. They're heavy. Just like you said, she could hurt her back. She could hurt her knee. Yeah. You know, I don't want anything to happen to her for my – because I am obsessed with him. Yeah, I totally can agree. Dude, now I'm thinking, so the pinball studio is pretty much full of games. Like, I can start putting games in the center of the room. I really would hate to do that. There's a few games in there that aren't still mine, so I could technically kick a few of them out for the next few games I'm going to buy. But I'm already, like, somewhat thinking about Site 2.
    37:04
    Yeah. Another building, like, directly behind it with, like, a breezeway into the other building. Oh, like at your at your same property. Yeah. Like directly behind the current building, like you would walk out the back door and it'd be like a 10 foot breezeway, you know, covered area. And I didn't even realize that you have a back door. Well, it's just I've got it marked emergency exit, you know. So, oh, yeah, I haven't even paid it. You probably have like posters on it or something. Yeah, I haven't really paid attention to it. But right now there's a shop back there, but I was like, I could flatten that and then build another one. And part of it could be like a shop where I could like restore games. And then like the other half could be like overflow of more games. But yeah, we will see. You should do that. The problem is when you band the amount of people that you allow at your tournaments. Oh, so I bumped it up and I even I even I even thought about bumping it up. Would you say 32? 32. Yeah, I was like, fuck it, whatever.
    38:09
    So what did you do it to? What did you bump it up to? I want to say I changed it to 32 for some later tournaments or something like down the road. Of course, I could go in and modify it. Oh, I thought you were saying you did that for the fourth anniversary tournament. No, but we didn't fill it up with the 28. Oh, okay. So I was like, well, you know. But honestly, if like people like if it was filled up, I was like ready to extend it, you know, to 32.
    38:41
    Nice. Yeah. Getting on board here, Sterling. That's what we like. Maybe for so our Halloween tournaments really popular every year. So for that one, I think I'm definitely going to shoot for 32 and see what happens. Nice. I'll be at that one for sure. Yeah, and I want to put, me and Will have been talking for a couple of years, like it's cooler out by that time of year. So we're thinking about maybe putting a few games outside in the covered area. Like underneath the awning? Yeah. Yeah, you should. So maybe you could even have some of those in the tournament and kind of spread it out. I saw that you changed the time on some of your tournaments. Is it like getting hot in that building? Is the mini split not able to keep up with the heat this year?
    39:31
    It warm but not hot So it like borderline So I playing it really close So I like I just going to push these in the afternoon For one thing, like people like to go outside in between rounds and just get some fresh air. And that is freaking miserable. So, yeah, I was like, let's push it until like the sun's kind of going down. So at least it's not beating down on everybody. Yeah, it's tough, man. I mean, living in the South in general is just super tough. So brutal, man. Oh, my God. I was drenched, like, moving these games. And it doesn't take that long. It's not like I was, you know, doing, like, heavy lifting for two hours or something. But I was drenched after doing these moves. It was tough. All right. So are you going to Southern Fried here in a couple of weeks? I'm actually going to skip it this year, honestly. And I think I'm just going to do Halloween Horror Nights instead. I'm like only got kind of probably money for one vacation and one pinball machine before the end of the year. So I think that's what I'm going to be doing. But are you going to make it?
    40:36
    I am not going this year. I kind of like it seems like I kind of go every other year. It's not like I have to be there event for me. But I can't go this year because it is right after Pemberg. And me and Kristen both got in. So we're going to Pinnball back to back years. So that's what we're doing. So yeah, nothing. I will be I will be going to Pinnball. We are leaving on Tuesday night, which is the 21st. And it's really cool. We actually there is a concert going on in Charlotte on Tuesday night. So we're going to stop and go to a show in Charlotte, see Motionless and White, and then we're going to wake up and drive to Pemberg and we're going to play in like the opening day strikes tournament. Cool. And then get it going. It's going to be freaking amazing. Yeah, that sounds like that'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, I haven't. Dude, it's funny. I haven't been to Southern Pride in four years. Like since I started, I just had the four year anniversary for the pinball studio. Never went to – never have I been back. But I go to Texas every year, so that's my jam.
    41:58
    Yeah. I mean, Southern Fried is – it is a good show. Don't get me wrong. It is a great show. I have always had fun there. But it doesn't feel – it doesn't have the same, like, draw for me as some of these other ones. To me, Texas Expo, all of these other shows just feel more special to me. Maybe that's just because I live in the South and it's just going to Atlanta. I've been to Atlanta a million times.
    42:30
    I don't care for Atlanta. I see all the same people there that I see at all of my normal tournaments. I see a little bit more people from Alabama and Tennessee and stuff, but I know all the Georgia people pretty well. I know all the North Carolina people pretty well. That's who's going to be there. So it just doesn't have the same like excitement for me, you know? Yeah, it's the same for me. And it's not like I always tell people that have never been. I'm like, it's a really cool show. But don't if you've been to Expo or, you know, Texas Pinball Festival, those are like pinball festivals where this one's more of like a gaming expo and it's got like wrestling and a bunch of other stuff. So it's not all don't expect to just walk in there and only see only pinball vendors and only pinball machines like you're going to, you know. Yeah, it's it's an eclectic group. Right. For sure. But it's definitely fun. Pinball like you have to walk through everything else to get to the pinball. So you get to see all this like interesting stuff. But it also it kind of feels like. Like, it's kind of a, like, if you are interested in other things other than pinball, it kind of sucks because, like, pinball is over in the far corner. Like, you know, it's way far away from some of this stuff. And you kind of end up just being over in, like, this one little area of this big convention, you know? Yeah. And especially if you're a tournament player, I mean, forget about it. You're just going to be in the tournament the whole time. Right. At Southern Pride, I would say I get maybe two hours of just walking around, going to the Marco booth and playing random games, but pretty much I'm in the tournament area the entire time. That's for me. I wouldn't want to play in the tournament, and I don't think there's enough to keep me entertained for a whole weekend there, unless I'm running a booth or something, which it was. I will say it was extremely nice. They reached out to me, what was it, last week? And they were like, hey, we should get you a booth and we'll give you a spot and all this for Southern Pride this year and help promote the pinball studio. But it was just kind of too, I was like, let's talk about this next year. It's just a little too late for me to start planning a booth this late in the game. But he did send me a couple passes for free, so I gave those away at the four-year anniversary tournament. Oh, sick. And a couple posters and stuff. So that was really nice. I do appreciate all that. Yeah, everybody that I've met that has worked there has been super nice. I kind of like helped me and Jacob kind of like helped fill in for Tommy one year whenever he was running it. He had like a family thing going on and he had to leave. So it was, you know, kind of ended up being like a handful of people kind of taking up the slack with Tommy leaving. So I met I met some of the people that actually work there and stuff, and they've all been really cool. Again, this is a great show. It is a good show. It's just right after Pinnberg. So I just can't I just can't make it. I hate when they put them too close together. I've always wanted to go to pinball at the beach, but it's like two weeks apart from Texas Pinball Festival. And I'm like, I can't afford like two expensive like vacations back to back and taking off for work and all that. It's just too hard. So next year I'm actually going to do pinball at the beach and skip Texas. I might just kind of go back and forth between the two shows. Well, and I'm sure for you, too. I mean, you go down to Florida all the time. So it's probably a little bit of what I was talking about, where it's like not as intriguing to run down there. I don't have to buy a plane ticket. I can drive. It's a long drive, but I can drive. What is it, like five hours? Yeah. Five hours? Five hours, I believe. Something around there. Yeah, that's not bad. I think Pinnberg is like 11 for me. Yeah. It's going to be brutal, but that's why we're breaking it up. We're going to do it in two days. We did the same thing last year, and it ended up not being bad. I mean, the ride home on Sunday, absolutely Absolutely terrible. But, you know, it just is what it is, part of the game, you know? Yeah. But after playing, that is an intense tournament. Do you know the format? No. Oh, my God. All right. So it is, you're in groups of four. So it's group match play.
    47:05
    Each group has four game banks. So every group that you're in, you play four games with them. And it's going to be an old like an EM and then like an early solid state type game and then maybe another like a late solid state or an early DMD and then a modern. So it's kind of like the banks that we were talking about for finals. Yeah. But that's how it is for qualifying. OK, that's cool. You do that. So after you do it all day, like all day long. And after the first day, they break you up into divisions. So depending on how well you play, you can end up in A, B, C, or D.
    47:49
    So then day two, you're playing within your division. So it's the same format, but you're only playing people that are in your division. So it's kind of like Swiss pairing, but it's like a cut line in golf kind of. And then the final day, it's like they cut it down to like the top 40 or something. So my goal this year is to make A again because I made A last year, but I did terrible. I got smoked.
    48:24
    Yeah, I ran out of gas, man. I wasn't expecting. It's like physically draining. I'm sure. The ball that you're playing, it's mentally draining as well. Like you just your brain is on like the whole time. It's like it's tough, but I want to make a and I want to I would really love to finish top 50.
    48:46
    That's kind of what I want. And Kristen last year, she qualified as the number one seed in C and then she fell apart in finals, got smoked. Damn.
    48:59
    So I think that her goal is to make B this year. So that's what we're shooting for. And the banks look really cool. They've been releasing the banks. So they do they like release one bank every day. Yeah. And just to give you an example of like what what we're talking about here. Let me pull up this the newest bank or a bank. The first bank that they released is. It's sponsored by Barrels of Fun. So each bank is sponsored by somebody. So it's Winchester. So hopefully I end up in this bank because I really want to play Winchester. But it's Winchester, this game called Summertime, which I've never heard of. It's an EM. Attack from Mars and Stars. Stern Stars. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's a sick bank, isn't it? Yeah, I'd want to play that one. So they've released 12 banks so far. And I think that they end up with like, I don't know, 30 or 40 banks or something. It's crazy. Yeah, that's an interesting tournament. I'd be interested in doing something along those lines. Oh, it's so fun. I saw your boy Will there last year. He was the first person I saw whenever I walked in. He'll probably be there again. He doesn't miss those kind of tournaments. He did miss my four-year anniversary tournament, Mr. Vice President.
    50:20
    How? He was the mascot of the pinball studio. He was at a bachelor party in Miami. I'm like, well, he's, you know, he made the right choice. But still, that's kind of crazy. He has to be there for the five year. He better tell his boys. That's what I told him. I was like, no bachelor parties for the five year anniversary. I do want to do something big next year. Maybe I need to talk to you about like some kind of cool format for that. But I want to do something special. Yeah, five years is big, man. Five years is big. Finally getting to like a milestone here. Yeah. You better get cracking on this extra room. I know. The second, yeah, yeah, Sight 2. Yeah, Turner was screwing with me yesterday. He's like, what are you going to give away? Like a new Spike 2 game? I'm like, I wish. No, just talk to your boys at Spooky. Yeah, yeah, just give me what's not selling. Give me one of them Looney Tunes. They probably got like a Rob Zombie somewhere in a closet, you know, just off in a break room somewhere.
    51:31
    Oh, funnier Jetsons. No, no, now people want money. Dude, I had a chance to buy a Jetsons for like, I think it was like $2,800. And now I see people selling them for like $7,000, $8,000, $9,000, $10,000. I'm like, what? That's crazy, $2,800? I mean, that's like the price of a solid. That's like the price of a solid. It's not a good game. I mean, this was years ago. This is like when I had my Back to the Future, and that was my whole collection at the time. So, yeah, it was a while ago. I don't know. I've never even seen one of those, a Jetson's. Really? Yeah, never.
    52:06
    Have I seen one? Does it have a ramp? Or is it a single play? It's got like a ramp. That's like the game. So you've been playing a couple of these new games. We've got Sonic out now. We've got Transformers. I haven't played either one of them in my local arcade. You haven't played Transformers yet? They don't got a Transformers in Savannah somewhere? You know, I could probably look around Savannah and find one, but I always go to the Palace, Pinball Palace, but they aren't getting either game. It's like the only Stern game that he's not bought. That and Sonic. No Sonic. I think you'll get them later, just at the moment. And I think he's not going to be getting anything new for a little bit or something. I don't know. Well, Transformers is a good game, man. So I've played it quite a bit. I've played it at two different locations.
    52:57
    And from playing it at two different locations, I'm thinking that it's going to be kind of setup dependent, kind of like X-Men was.
    53:06
    Well, I heard, I think it was Ralph, he said he was having some issue on, I think he was on Triple Drain talking. And like Stern supports helping them through some kind of shot isn't working right. Yeah. I mean, it's just one of the copies that I played was real smooth.
    53:24
    Or let me not say real smooth. Let me say it was relatively smooth. Yeah. And the other copy that I played was a clunk fest.
    53:32
    And I don't think that that that that it's on the operator or anything. I think that sometimes they just come out of the box and some need more adjustment than others, you know? And I played it right after they got it. So I'm sure that with time they'll dial it in.
    53:49
    But man, that second copy that I played, the upper flipper shot, it almost would never make the ramp. And whenever it didn't make the ramp, it would come back like an L. You know how if you miss the upper flipper shot with an L1 game, it goes to the outlane? So this one was coming back not to the outlane but to that bumper, that pop bumper. Okay. And it was hitting right where it would fire to the left outlane. So it was coming back and power draining down the left outlane like all the time. Oh, man. I feel like you're playing Spy Hunter. Yeah, this is like not that big of a deal for me because I don't use the upper flipper a lot unless it's like there is something going on that I need to use it for, right? So I ended up just being like, well, the upper flipper is just, I'm just not using it. And it's fine. I mean, the game itself is really cool. The layout's cool. I'm getting the feeling that Elliot, his style to me seems flowy but punishing. It's kind of like the vibe that I'm getting after Wick and... It's like Kewth Elwin Borg had a baby. Yeah, it's like he has well-placed pitfalls. Like his stand-ups and like some of his shots, if you miss, they are going out or they're going straight down the middle, which I think is smart. I think that that's what you want. You don't – I don't like baby games. So this is – it's cool for me. Like if someone showed me a leaked image of that, like, and I had no idea who designed that game, like someone's like, hey, this is a game Stern's working on. I honestly would have probably said probably a Keith Elwin game. Like that's before playing it and knowing where all the shots go, just seeing all the wire forms and everything. Like, so I think he's definitely taking a page out of his book. But yes, brutal, brutal games as well. Yeah. So we were talking last time that I was speculating, like, how are we going to slowly feed the upper flipper? Well, apparently that left orbit is kind of like a ramp, I guess you would call it. And it feeds a habit trail that drops the ball right in front of the upper flipper. It's perfect. Okay, there you go. Yeah, so that's pretty cool. And that shot is also how you start. There's like these dyno modes, and there's three different dyno modes, and one of them is a two-ball multiball. They're kind of like auxiliary modes that you stack on top of other things and kind of use them to help boost scoring or help facilitate getting the mode done or whatever. But I mean, the layout is really good. It's just, man, that upper flipper shot, man. It's all about the upper flipper. Like, were you breaking the shot or just not enough power to get up the ramp? So the way that it's set up is it's like half a loop. Like, you know how in Jurassic Park where you hit the tower shot, it's like right whenever you hit the shot, it's going up the ramp.
    57:00
    This, it comes around like half of an orbit. Like half of an orbit, it goes back behind Optimus and then it goes up the wave ramp or the tower ramp. Almost kind of like how Jaws is feeding the upper plate field. Yeah, kind of like that. But it's just so much travel that is going on before it even starts going up the ramp. Yeah. But I think that if the ramp started earlier in the shot, that it would be smoother. But I think that because it originally did loop, you know, originally that was a diverter. Yeah. So Kale kind of, you know, told everybody that that originally was a diverter whenever Optimus moved. And it originally fed the upper flipper. You could loop it. And then at certain times during certain game states, it would feed how it feeds now. And they just, for whatever reason, they decided to just make it just one shot. And I think if he would have originally designed it to just be that one shot, it would not, the entrance would not be that far back. It's an afterthought. So now you got to make it work without fucking up the design. It seems like it wouldn't have been designed that way if he just wanted it to be that one shot. The fact that it was going to be a diverter, they had to hide it behind Optimus and whatever.
    58:31
    Man, I would love to play what the original layout was just to see how it was. I know. They're probably never going to release footage of it, but I'm sure footage exists. Yeah. I know in the trailer, like, apparently there's one point where you can, like, see it down. I haven't looked through it to try to see the one part. Yeah. But the code is freaking awesome. Like, like last time we were talking and we were, like, speculating. That's what interests me is, is Giski on code. Dude. So the way that she has the mode set up to where there's essentially every mode, there's three different versions of that mode. There's the energized version, which is easy. Then there just regular And then there rusted which is harder but worth more So like the people that play to explore the game and get through like get to the wizard modes or whatever they can just keep doing energized modes and get through you know like if that what you going for if you just want to see all the modes you want to play all the modes you want to get through She gave an easier path, right? But for people like me that want to maximize points, she gave us a path as well. And then for people that aren't even looking at the screen to know that they need to press a button or anything, there's a normal path that's kind of in between, right? And the way that the modes are set up, man, you pick a mode by your flipper.
    60:03
    So for me, that is super smart because like in Jaws, a lot of people are not able to hit the wave ramp or not able to hit the reel on purpose, you know? So like those modes don't get played as much just by casual players. Those casual players probably only play Scars and the right orbit or the right ramp, you know, because those are just the easiest shots. But this way, the way that she has it, the modes change with the flippers. So people that are just flipping, just going through the game, like not paying attention, like just playing, they're going to end up playing all of the modes, right? So they're going to get to see all of them, even though they're not a good player or whatever. They're just flipping around. If they flip around enough, they're going to run into all the modes. That's awesome. I think that's great. Yeah, I agree. And to me, just knowing that she worked on Jaws and that she obviously, this is her first, you know, lead. She's the lead. This is the first time she's the lead. And that was a, that's a decision that she made. I feel like she did that on purpose. I feel like everything that she did kept casual players and tournament players in mind. I think that she did an amazing job of giving both types of players the game that they need. You know? Yeah. It's just great, man. Like, I am, like, so stoked for her. I just really wish that the game was not – it's just that upper flipper, man. I can't get over it, bro. I really can't. I'm kind of sad. So I guess Rick Nagel usually runs the Elwynn crew for doing all the code, but she helped out with Jaws. But now since she's a lead, it's like, will we see her on another Keith Elwynn game? Because I would really like to see her do some more stuff for one of his games. I think King Kong was kind of missing some of her elements. It's like bring her back. Let her do some really cool things with the game.
    62:18
    Well, I don't know if we'll ever see that again with her. For me, I think that Keith has done a really good job on all the games that she wasn't on. I agree. So I think that the company is better served to have Keefe's ideas on the Keefe team and have Gieske's ideas on whatever other team, on the Eisman team or the, you know, the board team or whoever she ends up working with. That was my thoughts as well. But I was like, I still would like to see it eventually. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm sure that they all talk. There's no way that they're just completely separate and like, oh, I'm sure they get ideas from each other all the time, regardless if they're the one coding it or anything like, hey, you should maybe do this or add that. Yeah, I mean, I think that the companies, I think that the different companies talk about this stuff because they come up with similar shit all the time. You know, like the like the Dr. Robotnik on Sonic. Yeah, dude, it's it's the mouth. It's the I guess it kind of is. It's weird. The Sonic one looks a little cooler, but yeah, yeah, it's basically just a toy that comes down on arm and you hit it. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's just weird that they came out right at the same time. It's like there was another one recently, too. Shit. What was it? Like two companies did like the same exact thing. I feel like the pop bumper being the little pop bumper being down in the bottom right area. A couple of companies have done that at the same time. Oh, shit. My power is flickering in and out. I may lose you.
    64:06
    I just heard some kind of USB connect disconnect. Yeah, like my lights are flickering, but somehow the Internet has not went out. Yeah, there's a badass storm going on right now.
    64:24
    Yesterday, whenever I got home with Batman, there was a tree down in my backyard because of the same storm we're dealing with now we dealt with last night. There was a tree down in my backyard. I literally had to move tree limbs out of the way to drive my car into the backyard to unload the game. We had to drag limbs away from where the fence is and everything. Well, thanks for sending the shitty-ass storm my way.
    64:55
    Hey, man. We got to deal with it. So do you all. Right. That's why they call us sister cities, right?
    65:03
    So have you played Sonic yet? That's another one I really want to play, and I've heard a lot of good things from my buddies that already got one at the house. Have not played it yet. I've watched a little bit on it. So I was kind of disappointed that it's not the old Genesis version. But like I think we were saying on the podcast last time, that I just didn't think that there was a way that they could do the screen how they want to do with the 16-bit assets. I was like, there's no way they're going to be able to do this.
    65:41
    So it makes sense that they used the more modern Sonic. Which is fine. And I think the layout that Richie did, I mean, standard fan layout is going to be fast as shit. I mean, I think Steve said on an interview, I believe as well, like, I believe the licensor also was like, this is the version Sonic you're going to use. But he was totally selling it. He's like, this is the one you want to use anyway. You know, it looks the best out of all of them. Yeah, I mean, it does look good. And I mean, the animations are awesome. I mean, JJP gets a lot of shit for their UI and stuff on their screen, but as somebody who has been to school for animation, the level of detail and effort that goes into the JJP screens is so far beyond the other manufacturers. Yeah, you would know. Dude, I mean, just the fact that everything that they have on the screen has depth and movement. So everything. So there's no flat text.
    66:49
    Most of the text has some kind of like it's going to pulse or it's going to pop or move or it does something. There's something moving on the screen at all times. Stern and just do the still image with like the moving background and that's it. Yeah, I mean, it's just a different level of effort, man, a different level of skill. Like, I know that Stern has good animators. I know that they have skilled people there, right? But it's just, to me, it feels like... The big time is their issue over there, like so many projects. Yeah, I think that they just prioritize differently, you know? It's like sports teams. Like, some teams are going to be really good at defense, and that's what they're going to focus on. And some people are going to be really good at offense, and that's what we're going to focus on. I just feel like Stern just doesn't put the same amount of focus on making the screen rise.
    67:44
    Like, they do a decent job. It's not that they can. It's probably just they're being told, like, that's good enough. We don't need to spend. Yeah, I mean, countless hours. They have a lot more budgetary concerns, I think. Yeah, I agree.
    67:59
    But, man. Yeah. The one at JJP is awesome. And unfortunately, I hear that that guy's leaving. No shit. Tom Pauld to win? Well, that sucks. Yeah, I can't remember what podcast I was listening to. It might have been Retro Ralph, but dang, I wish I could remember. But anyway, I heard that he is stepping away from JJP, but that some of his junior animators or whoever is on the team there is going to carry the torch. So hopefully the same level of hopefully they're trained well. Yeah, exactly. But we're going to see. I mean, whatever J.J.P.'s next game, if he wasn't working on it, because I mean, who knows? He may have still been working on it now, you know, and the next game is going to be his last game. Who knows? But the first game without him is going to be very telling because he's awesome. Yeah, sad, sad. They all got to retire at one point, and they were asking Steve Ritchie the other day, they're like, you know, not to say you're old or anything, but you're getting up there, like, how much longer are you going to do this? And he's like, I still want to do a few more games, so I don't know what that means. It sounds like he's like George Gomez, he's just going to do it until he can't do it. I mean, what are you going to do, go home and just sit down? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to be said for having purpose later on in life, you know? I mean, and he's still giving us cool games. I mean, I think the Sonic game is going to be cool. I don't think that it's necessarily my cup of tea because I prefer dynamic layouts. I don't prefer, you know, fan layouts. I don't prefer a lot of time in an upper playfield. Like I hate whenever you are playing a game where there's so much that needs to be done in the upper playfield that your goal is just constantly getting up there and staying up there. And then if you drain out, then it's like, oh, God, I got to get back up there. Like, I hate cleaning that bitch to one of the playfield. I said, I hate cleaning that damn thing, too. When the upper playfield so big and you got to clean all that shit underneath it. It gets hard to maintain the machine when all that's covering half the playfield. Scooby-Doo, can you imagine maintaining that game and trying to keep it clean? You've got that massive upper playfield. I know. And that's one of the games. That's one of the games that I don't like because you're just constantly getting it up there and trying to keep it up there. And maybe that's just because I'm a tournament player and I'm not looking to – I don't like mass and upper play fields. I'm trying to be safe. I like the Jaws upper play field, the Food Fighter's upper play field. I like these little tiny ones. You're up there for two seconds. The Jaws one's perfect. Yeah, I agree. You're up there and you get like one, maybe two shots at it. And then it's done. And the shot that you have to hit to get it up there is the most difficult shot in the game. So you're not constantly doing it. On Scooby-Doo, the upper playfield shot is dead center in the middle, which I understand there's two ways to get there on Sonic, and one of them is dead center, but that's not always open. Oh, okay. So if that's not open, then there's like a tighter shot on the left that you can get up there. Scooby-Doo was almost my first spooky game. They launched that game, and the theme really spoke to me. And I remember I saw the video and I was like, my buddy had just ordered it. And I'm like, shit, should I get one? And I held off and I played it at a Texas Pinball Festival. And I'm just like, man, I like the theme, but I do not care for this layout at all. Like the first thing was just like the upper play field. I'm just like, it's a no. And I love everyone at Spooky, nothing against any of those guys. But, you know.
    71:56
    They did some cool stuff with it, though. The bookcase thing at the top. I do like the bookcase flipper too. That is really interesting. I think that if I had the game, I would start getting annoyed with it maybe. But as an innovative way to use the upper play field, I think that that was really smart.
    72:17
    And I think that the animations and the art was good on that game too. Oh, yeah. I think they did. Yeah, all the video assets and all the call outs and all that, they did great on that. It was just a fucking play field. Yeah, it felt kind of like, have you played Alice Cooper?
    72:37
    A couple times ever. I haven't ever spent any real time on it, though. Alice Cooper has a big upper play field also, and that's also a spooky game. And it's just the way that like all the shots cut off and you don't see anything, you shoot it here and then it just pops out there. There's something that's not satisfying about that. No.
    72:58
    You know? Yeah, yeah. That's what I really didn't like about Scooby. Like I'd shoot the ball and I'm like, where'd it go?
    73:05
    And then it just pops out over there. And you're like, oh, okay, whatever. But I mean, I'm, I don't know. Yeah, it's more satisfying actually for me to like keep my eyes on the ball the most like most of the time. Like if I hit it up this fucking crazy ass ramp and it comes around this wire form really nice and slick, like that's way more satisfying. Like, whoa, that was cool. I want to do that again. It's something it's it's almost like for me, it almost feels like a childish part of my brain that it's like like watching roller coasters do loops. Exactly. It's like giving me the same excitement watching a spiral ramp or something.
    73:47
    Versus me putting a cup over the ball and like, oh, it's gone, and then just taking it off like, oh, there it is again. Like, where did it go, though?
    73:57
    Yeah, a little subtle movement of the ball gets me, like Shadow, the lock. Yeah. That little bit of movement, it's going to fall and then it zips back there. I do like that. That's like, oh my God. The other day I had a flipper, supposed flipper malfunction. Yeah. And I went and I flipped the flipper like 50 times and it didn't do it. And then I walk away and they come back and they're like, oh, I just did it again. Well, some people say that shit like they'll drain. It'd be like a brand new Stern game, and they'll be like, that left flipper just died on me. And I'm like, bullshit. I think you drained. I think your finger missed the flipper button. I have had some weird flipper shit before. Yeah. Like, normally coming out of, like, a stuck ball or something. Yeah. I have had where I pressed the flipper button and it didn't fully energize or something. I've had some weird shit like that happen before. Well, David, was there another topic you wanted to jump on or did you want to go ahead and cut it here? We're at about an hour and 10 minutes or so. Yeah, that's cool. We can cut it here. I think that after I get back from Pinnberg, I'll have a lot of stuff to talk about. So I'll hit you up after that. Hell yeah. Yeah, we can do this again. I guess we'll try to do it, what, once a month, give or take? It seems like it was about a month ago that we did the last one. So yeah, maybe once a month around this time, it'll make sense and we'll do it every month. All right. Well, sounds good, man. I'll see you later, buddy. All right, bro. Peace.
    75:46
    Thank you. See you next week. Thank you. Keeip Giggles That's all, folks.