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Tribe Multiball with Tim and Rachel: Episode 9, The Pinball Pizza Trap

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Jun 13, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Ryan Kuiper on streaming culture, collecting, and how pinball strangers become lifelong friends.

Summary

Ryan Kuiper, a Friday-night Twitch streamer (TurboGrafx7), discusses his journey into pinball streaming, his collection of deep-rule-set games, and how the pinball community's welcoming culture led to lasting friendships. Tim Dan Lee and Rachel also share personal pinball experiences from recent trips to pinball museums and arcades. The episode emphasizes community, collecting trends toward premium/limited editions, and the social bonds formed through pinball.

Key Claims

  • Ryan has been streaming on TurboGrafx7 for approximately six years with Dave Brennan every Friday at 8 PM Central Time

    high confidence · Ryan Kuiper stated: 'probably six-ish years ago now maybe, when I kind of start getting into pinball like I am' and 'I stream with Dave Brennan at about 8 o'clock Central Time on Friday nights'

  • Rachel placed second in District 82's back-half Sam May League after 21 months of playing there

    high confidence · Rachel stated: 'for the first time, I have been playing at District 82 for 21 months. And the first time I came in the top five for the overall month league. So I actually came in second place. Yeah. I tied actually with Eric Thorne, the owner of District 82'

  • The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas has relocated and many machines need maintenance (broken standup targets, missing flippers)

    high confidence · Rachel reported: 'I was at the previous location three or four times, and definite work needs to be done on broken standup targets and flippers that are missing rubber' at the new location

  • Tim played Elvira's House of Horrors (Premium Edition) for 1 hour 15 minutes on $2 at Tilt Arcade in Maryland

    high confidence · Tim stated: 'I played Elvira's House of Horrors (Premium Edition) for an hour and 15 minutes on $2. And I just kept winning games'

  • Pinball PA museum in Pittsburgh charges $20-30 for all-day play and features mostly vintage games from EMS through early 2000s plus ~100 old arcade machines

    high confidence · Tim described: 'it was pay to play. You pay like 25 or something like that, 30, or maybe it was 20... mostly vintage games from EMS up until I'd say early 2000s, and they had about two or three hundred of those and they had probably about a hundred old arcade machines'

  • Max (regular on TurboGrafx7 stream) is ranked 286th in IFPA/WPPR rankings

    high confidence · Ryan stated: 'He's 286th' after Tim asked for confirmation of Max's ranking

  • Dave Brennan moved from Minnesota to Ryan's area and they met through Pinside map, purchasing games together including Cyclone, Stargazer, and Quicksilver

Notable Quotes

  • “strangers come on over and hang out in your basement... You know, any other circumstance would be creepy and weird.”

    Ryan Kuiper @ mid-episode — Highlights the unique social dynamics of the pinball community where purchasing machines and visiting strangers' homes is normalized

  • “I really felt like every game had a little something wrong with it... I wanted to hug every game because I felt like almost every game had a little something.”

    Rachel @ early-episode — Reflects on maintenance issues at the Pinball Hall of Fame's new Vegas location and the condition disparity between museum and location-operated games

  • “the biggest thing to worry about when you're streaming is keeping up with chat and being engaged... My gameplay is literally the last thing I'm thinking about because I'm paying attention to chat.”

    Ryan Kuiper @ mid-episode — Key insight into streaming best practices and community engagement priorities over competitive skill

  • “I'm calling Breakshot on your story because I think what happened with you and Dave is you asked him, hey, what's in your collection? And when he told you about his collection, he's, you're like, hey, there's this house here...”

    Tim Dan Lee @ mid-episode — Humorous accusation that Ryan deliberately helped Dave move nearby to facilitate game-playing together

  • “The very first game that I owned was The Simpsons Pinball Party... after watching a lot of tutorials... That's kind of what made me appreciate deep rule sets.”

    Ryan Kuiper @ late-episode — Explains Ryan's collector philosophy: deep rule sets and educational content drive his collecting and streaming priorities

  • “I think there's got to be a player out there that might be as good as the greatest of all time, whoever you want to decide that to be today... that they're just playing at their house and they're really a badass player but we're never going to see them in the light of day.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ late-episode — Speculative observation about hidden talent in the pinball community not visible in competitive rankings

Entities

Ryan KuiperpersonTim Dan LeepersonRachelpersonDave BrennanpersonMaxpersonEric ThornepersonKevinpersonZach Sharpeperson

Signals

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas (new location) has significant maintenance issues including broken standup targets and missing flippers across many machines in collection

    high · Rachel: 'definite work needs to be done on broken standup targets and flippers that are missing rubber... I really felt like every game had a little something wrong with it'

  • ?

    community_signal: TurboGrafx7 stream (Ryan Kuiper and Dave Brennan) on Friday nights has cultivated loyal audience; Rachel watches almost every episode despite not attending in person, indicating strong community pull

    high · Rachel: 'I religiously watch his stream on Friday nights... I have missed very few of his streams' over more than a year

  • ?

    collector_signal: Ryan Kuiper's collection shows clear preference for games with deep, complex rule sets (Simpsons, Dialed In, Walking Dead, Star Trek) rather than casual/theme-driven titles

    high · Ryan: 'the very first game that I owned was The Simpsons Pinball Party... after watching a lot of tutorials... That's kind of what made me appreciate deep rule sets'

  • $

    market_signal: Limited edition machines sometimes available at below-premium pricing during seller liquidation events; Tim acquired Star Trek LE at premium pricing due to seller fire sale

    medium · Tim: 'the next town up, there was a guy selling his whole collection because he had to move to Florida for a job. I got the Limited Edition for Premium Edition pricing because he had a fire sale'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Wide variance in pinball arcade maintenance and setup standards; Tilt Arcade in Maryland set machines for easy play (different from typical location difficulty), Pinball PA offers better condition vintage games than newer locations

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.214

0:00
Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiple Podcast with Rachel and Tim. Poor Man Tribe's the thing, that is who we are. It and Drew. They're not in this thing, so how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old blockade, and then we'll learn about each other. From two pennants to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today?
0:40
Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim, a podcast that's part of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast universe, where we just focus on the tribe members of the poor man and some of the awesome things they're doing in pinball. I'm Tim Lee and I'm here with my co-host Rachel Lilge and we have another exciting guest for you today but first we like to talk about what we're doing in pinball. So Rachel how about you go first and give us some personal pinball news today. Sure I've got a couple of things to talk about. First I was recently out in Las Vegas and I had the opportunity to stop at the pinball hall of fame that is out there at the new location. You cannot miss it if you're driving on this trip You cannot miss the gigantic word pinball. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photo of it at night, but it was pretty cool to be there. The collection definitely needs some work. I was at the previous location three or four times. Definite work needs to be done on broken standoffs and flippers that are missing rubber. Some of that was really hard to see. I wanted to hug every game because I felt like almost every game had a little something. Really felt like every game had a little something wrong with it. But I think I'm really spoiled with the places that I'm able to play that are always like top pristine. And even the ones I get to play that are a routed game, quote unquote, those are really in great shape, too. But it was still really neat to get out there and see that and see the space and support them. All the folks that are there work very hard to try to get it to go. It's a nonprofit, right? So I did that. And I also played the back half of May League. And I really want to talk about that. And I'll try to do it quickly. But for the first time, I've been playing at District 82 for 21 months. And the first time I came in the top five for the overall month league. So I actually came in second place. Yeah. I tied actually with Eric Thorne, the owner of District 82. And we had a playoff on a game that I own. I only own four games. So that was pretty awesome on Lost World. Okay. I was super stoked. That seems to happen to you a lot. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, right. Well, second time it's happened to you. Yep, yep. Second time it's happened to me, right. I was so excited that when I got home, I had to take a video and I posted it to our tribe. And I greeted everybody saying, hello, buttholes. But I couldn't even get through that without laughing because I don't call anybody butthole in my real life. Just, you know, the poor men podcast universe folks, I suppose. So, yeah, I was super stoked about that. I forget what the side tournament was, but I think I did awful in that. I just have to remember. If I remember the game later, I'll poke it and say something about that. But, yeah, so it was pretty exciting. Nice. You know, I didn't think of this, but the gentleman who was the best man in my wedding lives about a mile from the Pinball Museum in Vegas. I should have had him come over and give you a hug, although you might have like gave him a throat punch if some guy just came up to you and gave you a hug and said, this is from Tim Lee. But I didn't think about that until right now. Well, if they would have disclosed that it was coming from Tim Lee, I probably would have given them a hug. You know I'm a hugger. Yep. So what about you? What's your pinball news, Tim? Well, first, actually, that sounds pretty awesome. You know, I'm always jealous of your league play, but, you know, the Pinball Museum sounds like a lot of fun. But I actually have some pinball news myself. I actually did something besides fix a game or two. And edit. Yeah, my son was in the Pennsylvania State Championships for track and field. And afterwards, he wanted to go eat. We told him he could go wherever. And the place he picked, I brought a pin map. And I thought, well, 20 minutes down the road, there's a nice pinball place to play. There was also an outlet mall for shopping. So I said to my wife, I said, how about you go to the outlet mall and I'll go play pinball? So I went to this place called Tilt Arcade. It was like, I don't know if they converted an old Sears department store into an arcade, but it was massive. You know, they had indoor bowling and all the basketball games and the huge redemption games, the really large ones. And like those arcade games that are like, you know, the Jurassic Park that are huge. And they had about 20 pinball games. So I went, you know, this was in Maryland. It was hours from home. And I played for about two hours by myself. And I played Elvira for an hour and 15 minutes on $2. And I just kept winning games. The games were set up really easy. They weren't like a typical location game. They were set up really easy, and I played Elvira until I got tired of it, fell in love with that game. Then I played Aerosmith, which I'd played that game before, but I got a lot of time on it, and I fell in love with it. And then I played a little bit of Batman 66, and then I figured it was time to go. And I turned around, and there was a guy standing there who I'd actually become friends with. I had bought a Metallica and an Avatar from him in the past, Scott. What are the odds of that happening? That's crazy. And the funny thing is he told me that he got a job in the town where I work and he's working for my old boss and he doesn't live near me. So it was kind of a weird meetup, but then I just gave him the rest of my credits because they give you these cards. So I had a lot of fun. And then the next day was my birthday and my family played pinball with me all night. We all play pinball in the house you know that but they all decided to play at one time and then after playing for about an hour my buddy operator mike came walking through the door and he stayed him and his sons and played pinball for about an hour and we had some ice cream cake but we decided the next day we were going to go to helicon my favorite place so i drove down to helicon well there were some kids birthday parties at helicon and i love kids and i love birthday parties but it was absolutely packed and you know you had to wait to get on some machines and so forth so i said there's this museum in pittsburgh called i think it's called pinball pa and i had never been there i talked my family into to driving maybe another 20 minutes to to this museum and it was uh pay to play you pay like 25 or something like that 30 or maybe it was 20 and play all day and it was mostly vintage games from ems up until i'd say early 2000s and they had about two or three hundred of those and they had probably about a hundred old arcade machines and my family absolutely loved it we played all day long i played bonsai run since i was a child it was my favorite game as a child i played tron for the first time i really liked that circus voltaire uh you know i fell in love with that one i think there was a one called bone bruiser i mean i just kept playing all these games that I either hadn't played in 20, 30 years or, you know, I'd never played. So I was kind of in heaven. So I had a weekend full of pinball, you know, three days straight, nothing but pinball. So not crazy, but I really enjoyed it. That is amazing. I'm really so happy for you that you had an opportunity to share your love of pinball and playing with your family. I don't think that you necessarily had to convince them so much to go an extra 20 minutes. I mean, what's that, right? No, no. and they actually liked it more than any location we've been to. We love Helicon, but they really like those old games. Now, my middle son, Noah, he played Black Knight Sword of Rage for two hours, nothing else. And when we were going home, he's like, Dad, I really want to get that game. As you know, I've been trying to buy one for about six months. So if somebody has a lead on a BKSOR premium, let me know. Which Alvera did you spend your $2 on? The newest one, House of Horrors. Okay. And then I love Aerosmith, too. I think that's a fun game. I really, really, really like Tron. I think that's like a top ten game, as well as Circus Voltaire. But I think you meant to say Bonebusters. Was that the game? Was it Old Gottlieb? Yeah, it was Old Gottlieb. Was that it? Bonebusters? Yep. Yeah, very quirky. I kept playing it. I would go around, play all the other games, and I would come back to that one. I really enjoyed that one. Yeah, really a fun game. Well, again, I'm so glad that you had a fun birthday weekend. You deserve it. And I also wanted to ask, how did your son do at the track meet? He did well. He ran his best time ever. He was on a relay team. I think they ended up overall, they finished 16th. But that's 16. In the state, there's 350 teams or something like that. So they kept advancing rounds. So 16th in the state isn't bad. And, you know, they were a bunch of cross-country runners that formed the team about a month before, you know, the league championship. So I was really proud of him. He got to go to a state championship. So it was fun. It was a really fun experience. That was Noah? Yep, that was Noah. Good job, Noah. Way to go. Way to make your old man proud. Yep, we were really proud of him. Proud of all of our kids. Yeah, anyway. All right, so you ready to get to our guest? Absolutely. I'm very excited for this guest. I've been able to meet him in person once or twice. I have never met this guest, but I message this guest all the time. I religiously watch his stream on Friday nights. My wife works, and he posted in the tribe one time that his stream is on Friday night, and that was over a year ago. I just keep watching. I have missed very few of his streams. So welcome to the show, the most avid Deadpool enthusiast I know, Ryan Kuiper.

high confidence · Ryan explained: 'Dave was moving to the area for a job and he was moving from Minnesota... he said I saw that you live because I'm on the map on Pinside' and later: 'He opens the bed of his truck and it's Cyclone, Stargazer, and Quicksilver'

  • Ryan's first pinball machine ownership was The Simpsons Pinball Party, which deepened his appreciation for complex rule sets after watching tutorials

    high confidence · Ryan stated: 'the very first game that I owned was The Simpsons Pinball Party... after watching a lot of tutorials on YouTube in particular Total Nuclear Annihilation' and playing against Buffalo Pinball at Pinburgh tournament

    • “This is going to sound really weird. And I'm like, well, it's pinball, so of course it's going to sound weird.”

    Ryan Kuiper (quoting Dave Brennan) @ mid-episode — Humorous exchange capturing the absurdist nature of pinball culture and how newcomers experience it

    Greg
    person
    Steven Youngperson
    Matt Scottperson
    Mikeperson
    Noahperson
    Glenn Rogersperson
    Buffalo Pinballorganization
    Pinball Hall of Famevenue
    District 82organization
    Tilt Arcadevenue
    Pinball PAvenue
    Pinburghevent
    TurboGrafx7organization
    Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
    Pinsideorganization

    high · Tim: games at Tilt Arcade 'were set up really easy. They weren't like a typical location game' contrasted with Rachel's observation that she's 'spoiled with places... always like top pristine'

  • ?

    content_signal: TurboGrafx7 stream includes rule set explanations at beginning of stream and leverages skilled player (Max) to demonstrate game depth, prioritizing education and entertainment over competitive showcase

    high · Ryan: 'at the beginning of every stream, you do a great job of explaining the rule set to the game' and 'we hope that he can at least show some depth to the game instead of me flailing around'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Rachel achieved top-5 placement (2nd place) in District 82 Sam May League back-half month after 21 months of consistent participation, including playoff tie-break victory

    high · Rachel: 'for the first time, I have been playing at District 82 for 21 months. And the first time I came in the top five for the overall month league. So I actually came in second place. Yeah. I tied actually with Eric Thorne'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinball PA in Pittsburgh offers excellent value (all-day play for $20-30) with diverse vintage inventory (~200-300 games from EMS-2000s era plus 100 arcade cabinets) appealing to collectors and families

    high · Tim: 'my family absolutely loved it. We played all day long... it was mostly vintage games from EMS up until I'd say early 2000s, and they had about two or three hundred of those and they had probably about a hundred old arcade machines'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball community culture normalizes stranger-to-friend conversion through shared gaming interests; multiple examples of Tim and Ryan meeting local players through Pinside map and expanding social circles

    high · Ryan on Dave: 'he was moving from Minnesota... he's a pinball guy... literally moving down the street from where I live'; Tim: 'I saw on the Pinside map that he had some games and he was 15 minutes from me' leading to lasting friendship

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Established Twitch pinball streamers (Buffalo Pinball/Kevin, Zach Sharpe, Straight Down the Middle/Greg, Steven Young) actively mentor newer streamers like Ryan Kuiper, creating support infrastructure

    high · Ryan: 'I got a lot of help from Kevin, from Zach Sharpe and Greg at Straight Down the Middle... and then I got a lot of help from even Steven Young of Pinball Indesirables when I started'

    • 10:08
    welcome that was beautiful thank you so how you doing ryan i'm doing very well how are you guys thanks for having me on yeah happy to have you here and i have to tell everyone ryan is he's not a huge deadpool fan but he probably gets tired of me because every friday night i bring up deadpool in the stream no it's great no you know it's i don't think it's the worst game ever i just it doesn't do it for me Sometimes I like to play it up a little more than I really, really hate it on stream. It gets people kind of worked up and people jump in chat and start throwing jabs. Yep. Hollywood, Ryan. Hollywood. It makes me laugh. It's fun. It makes me laugh. Yeah. I enjoy it. All right. Well, welcome to the show. We're going to dive right into the interview. I think you know the format. I wanted to talk about your stream first. Can you tell me a little bit just how did the stream start? I don't think I've ever asked that question. I just hop on and start talking to you and everybody that joins the stream. So how did it start? So way back, probably six-ish years ago now maybe, when I kind of start getting into pinball like I am, where I'm an actual rabid enthusiast, I kind of started getting my first games in my house. I was offered from a coworker a Gottlieb Operation Thunder, and I had never seen it before. And I went on YouTube to see if there was any gameplay videos and there was from Buffalo Pinball. So I kind of watched it and I'm like, eh, I don't think I want that game after I'd watched the video. But then I saw that they were on Twitch, so then I started watching them actual live stream, so just watching YouTube videos. And I kind of lurked and lurked and lurked and then I kind of ended up making a Twitch account just so I could follow Buffalo Pinball and give them a follow. Okay. And that group of people are so awesome. They've been, Kevin especially, has been very, very helpful to me with all the questions I've had about streaming. Kind of getting on a tangent, but. No, that's fine. I watched them. Back then, my wife and I didn't have any kids. Work wasn't as crazy as it is now. I had a lot more leisure time, so I kind of lived on Twitch. And after a while, I was like, you know what? I really enjoy the community. I think I want to stream too. Even though I'm a terrible player, don't have the personality a lot of the better streamers have, but I really enjoy the people. And that's kind of how it started. And I got a lot of help from Kevin, from Zach and Greg at Straight Down the Middle. And then I got a lot of help from Steven Young of Pinball Indesirables when I started. And it's kind of been one of those things where the longer you do it, the more you really appreciate the community because you start making more and more friends. And that's kind of been the best thing about being a streamer is the friends you make. So that's kind of the long winded answer, I guess. I think that's a terrific answer. That's a great answer. You know, Kevin from Buffalo Pinball, I watched him as well from time to time, and he really is a great guy. I join your stream just for the community. I enjoy the games, and we'll get to your game list later, but I enjoy the specific type of games you stream, but I really enjoy talking to you guys. Sometimes I don't even pay much attention to the screen. I'm more listening to you guys and typing frantically on my phone or voice to texting. So I enjoy the stream. So tell everybody what time the stream is. So I stream with Dave Brennan at about 8 o'clock Central Time on Friday nights. What is the name of your stream? So the name of the stream is TurboGrafx7. So it's not spelled the way you would think it is. It's spelled T-U-R-B-O-G-R-A-F-X number 7. The reason it's not a PH, like you would think it is, is because the namesake comes from the TurboGrafx-16 video game system from the 80s. Interesting. I was going to ask about that name, but we'll touch on that a little later. I thought it might be video game related. Okay, so you and Dave stream every Friday, and you have that other guy come in to show you up every week, every couple of weeks. Yeah, we bring Max in. Max is a local guy who's a really great friend of ours as well, and Rachel knows Max. Max is a very, very good player. Well, I don't know. I know the rankings just kind of changed, but last we checked, he was like ranked 300. I'll look it up. Please. Thank you. Like I said, it may have changed since something kind of got reassessed. Yeah, the rankings kind of got rearranged this past week, right? Yep. Yeah, Max, he's a really nice human being, and he's an amazing pinball player to watch. the amount of control that he has and just i like to watch his eyes while he plays to see where he's looking really looking on the field he's a cool dude he's an amazing player and he's just such a a really just a great person like we pretty much told max like you have an unofficial always welcome to come join on the stream whenever you want he's 286th so he's jumped up yeah he was like 300 something last week shock so yeah he's he's a really good player Yeah, you can tell he's very skilled. I think one night I was watching, and I think it was James Bond that he blew up. Probably. Yeah, Goldine. He just had an amazing game on it. Yeah, the reason we have him come on, besides being an awesome person, is that because he's so good, if we're playing a complicated game, we hope that he can at least show some depth to the game instead of me flailing around missing everything. Dave is obviously a better player than I am, and we hope with Max being there, if anyone actually cares about the game and seeing the depth, he will at least let those people see that. He certainly does. I think you're playing Centaur, I think, I don't know, a little bit ago, and watching him play that, he was able to open the multi-ball like twice within a couple of seconds, which is very interesting. Yeah, when Glenn Wechter and I did the podcast of Genius Segment for Turbo, we made sure we had to mention bringing in the other guy to actually do well in the games.
    16:40
    As opposed to you and Dave. It's a very true statement. But, you know, a lot of people have asked me, you know, about getting into streaming, and I've told all of them, I'm like, you can't worry so much about your gameplay. I would say the biggest thing to worry about when you're streaming is keeping up with chat and being engaged, which is something I really need to work on myself. But there's so much more going on to streaming. My gameplay is literally the last thing I'm thinking about because I'm paying attention to chat. I'm watching all the equipment. I'm making sure nothing's crashing. I have seen what happens behind the curtains there. Yes. Rachel has been on our stream several times now. Yes, we streamed Diamond Lady not too long ago. And I was thinking, man, I hope I can find a date. I don't know if it's going to happen in June, but maybe in July. I'll get an opportunity to come back down there and do something else. Yeah. But you really do a great job, both of you. You do a fantastic job. I think you do okay keeping up with chat, because when I was there, you were pointing things out to me. I'm like, oh, because I totally forgot, because I'm so into playing this game I haven't played before. It was a lot of fun, though. Really, really enjoyed it. Thanks again for the opportunity to do that You always welcome to come on down I know You keep inviting me i doing something right yay streaming with other people is such a blast and for me personally it alleviates the load of paying attention to everything because if i have someone who can play i can keep up the chat better and i can kind of you know answer questions or you know one thing which makes i actually really enjoy is when people get dave going on like non-pinball related technical questions like talking about peanut butter jar lids and like weird stuff like that. Dave is such an interesting person. He certainly is. He, he, he'll be at my house, like helping me fix something or whatever it is. And he'll be talking about some job he had with something. I'm like, I had no idea he even did that. Oh yeah. And I'm like, like he's such an interesting person and he's a, he's seriously one of my best friends. Like it's, I'm so happy that we crossed paths and he's the one that messaged me out of the blue on pin side just randomly yeah so i like dave stories and that's why we put that into the genius segment because it seems like every other week dave has some sort of crazy story but yeah that's kind of how you guys met right you he messaged you and tell us a little bit about that story so dave was moving to the area for a job and he was moving from minnesota and he said hey i'm moving to your area and he's like i saw that you you know live because i'm on the map on pin side. And he goes, are there any places you would recommend we look for a home and where should we avoid? And I said, oh, no problem. So I offered up my opinion. A month or so went by and it was kind of getting close to MGC. And he says, hey, we should meet up at MGC. And I said, yeah, that'd be great. He goes, we bought a house and he actually sent me his address. And it was right down the street from where I live, literally. I mean, it's like less than five minutes away, which is so funny you know this guy from a different state is literally moving down the street from me he's a pinball guy and the funny thing is we did not get a chance to meet up at MGC because I had just so much going on and talking to people because you know MGC or any other show it's kind of like a homecoming thing where you get to meet up with all your friends from around the country or the people that maybe live just too far from where you live in general yep it's just a lot of hanging out and catching up and just you know having a good time so I didn't get a chance to meet with him. And then after the show, I think it might have been like Monday or Tuesday, he was messaging me like, hey, like, let's meet up. And I'm like, okay, the only free day I have this week is Wednesday. And he goes, all right, cool, I'll come over. I'm like, okay, I'm like, I'll order pizza.
    20:33
    Love it. I love that. Yeah. So, you know, that's pinball for you. Just strangers, come on over. and hang out in your basement exactly come in my basement yeah let's go in my basement we'll play my games and uh you'll leave and it'll be normal but any other circumstance would be creepy and weird yeah exactly when i first started playing i told a couple of my girlfriends yeah i'm going over to this guy's house and he's got like 30 games in his basement i'm gonna play pinball and they're like okay in his basement are other people going to be there i'm like yeah it's gonna be like you know probably other pinheads will be great you know you know it's funny i agree Totally. Yeah, I did the same thing with my buddy Justin. You know, we're good friends now, but I saw on the pin side map that he had some games and he was 15 minutes from me. So I said, I hope this isn't creepy, but I noticed you have games, I have games, and just started a conversation. And now we go to Helicon together. And my buddy operator, Mike, I saw him walking through a bar. I think I told this story. And he had a stern pinball hat on. And I said, is that a stern pinball hat? And to make a long story short, when I came home that night, we talked for like two hours at the table. As soon as we got into the car, when we left the building, we left the restaurant, my wife said, your dad's in love.
    21:49
    To my kids, so I get it. It's so creepy, but it's totally the norm in pinball. It is. It's such a strange thing. I bought a game from a local guy that I've never met before. When I say local, he was like a little less than an hour away. And the guy does not come to any leagues or tournaments or shows. He's just kind of a, I don't want to say he's a loner. It's just that he's so busy that he doesn't have time really to go to anything. So he just has this insane, immaculate collection. And he said the same thing. He goes, you know, pinball is the weirdest thing. He goes, strangers come in your house with wads of cash to buy games and you don't blink an eye. And he goes, I sold a guitar on Craigslist. And the guy was so creepy. I couldn't wait for him to leave. but pinball people yeah come on come in the basement let's go play pinball yeah it's crazy how that works i still want to point this out i think that there's got to be a player out there that might be as good as the greatest of all time whoever you want to decide that to be today uh that they're just playing at their house and they're really a badass player but we're never going to see them in the light of day i really believe that exists i think you're right it's me ryan you and i are about the same skill set i'm not i'm not bad but i'm not gonna set the world on fire but i'm calling bs on your story because i think what happened with you and dave is you asked him hey what's in your collection and when he told you about his collection he's you're like hey there's this house here and you gave him the address about two blocks away and Yeah, move into this house so you can play all those cool games.
    23:26
    You're just looking for a new bestie. That's what really went on there. The funniest thing about the first time I met Dave in person at my house, we came in the basement after we ate pizza and we were playing pinball and just getting to know each other. And then he goes, this is going to sound really weird. And I'm like, well, it's pinball, so of course it's going to sound weird. He's like, do you mind if I store some games in your house while I move?
    23:50
    Yes, please, let me pin set. No, not at all. So I got this guy who I just met asking to store games in my house. And at the time, I'm trying to think how many games I had at the time. I'll bet I might have had eight at most, maybe less. So I had a lot more room than I have now. And I'm like, oh, sure, you know, that's fine. And he goes, oh, great, they're in my truck. And I'm like, what? so that's why he wanted to get together so bad because he had to put these three games somewhere before he went back to minnesota oh so he picked them while he was there he brought them to the show oh man so he just had he stored them he took him he brought him to the show to put him on free play for everyone to play him right and then he had to put him somewhere before he went back to you know help pack up and everything to come back to move oh that's hilarious that's so funny so i was like oh my gosh they're here he goes yeah and i'm like well i guess we better go get them out of your truck and i wouldn't even tell i didn't even know what they were so he opens the bed of his truck and it's cyclops stargazer and quicksilver i was like oh my gosh let's get them in get them in the house get them in the house let's bring them in so we actually actually set them up in my office and then we kept them upstairs for i don't know like two months and then we brought them into the basement for probably another two months so they were they were here for quite a while so you got to i got to play them quite a bit that's cool they're awesome games i mean they're expensive and rare but they're they're awesome that's great so speaking of collections i want to read off your collection because you don't have a shabby collection yourself so you have a dialed in an avengers infinity quest premium october fest simpsons pinball party stern star trek walking dead premium stars alien star demolition man big game magic castle spy hunter pinball magic tx sector and victory i missed one uh you got them all wpt all world yeah now i'm not to be not to sound like i'm being snide but my walking dead and my star Trek are both LEs. Ah, LEs. Okay. No, no, no. Well, the reason I bring it up is because my Star Trek LE, I think is the most beautiful LE Stern's ever done. And I always wanted it. I never thought I would get one. So I kind of settled on a premium. And then I got real lucky where the next town up, there was a guy selling his whole collection because he had to move to Florida for a job. I got the LE for premium pricing because he had a fire sale. I jumped on it. I'm so jealous. I really do like that game so very much. The LE is so gorgeous. It's done so... The reason I got the Walking Dead LE is because it was a price thing. The price was right. I apologize. You're right. I've seen it on the stream. What a jerk. No need to apologize for that. Stream's over. Ryan's leaving. You know, there's probably somebody on Pinside that that really would have insulted. No, I'm sure. I'm not like a big, I'm not a gotta have the LE. Usually I'm like, I don't feel like the LE is worth it. It's just kind of, I mean, don't get me wrong. I like the flair that it gives to the game, but I don't think it justifies the price almost every time. Okay. I think it's a beautiful game. I actually bought a Star Trek Pro because I had watched you stream Star Trek. and I had it for about six months and I really enjoyed that game. But you seem to have games, I've known you for a while now, you're a rules kind of guy. You like games with, I'd say, a deep rule set. Yeah, and the reasoning for that is because the very first game that I got was Simpsons Pinball Party, as far as owning a real pinball machine. And I bought it because it was local, it was very clean, I liked the theme. I had played it in the past but didn't really put a lot of time on it so the price was right and I went and looked at it and I'm like all right I'll take it and I didn't understand how deep the rules were on the game and after watching a lot of tutorials on YouTube in particular Mixer Tuna on Buffalo who one of one of my greatest memories in pinball is actually playing Tuna on Simpsons Pinball Party in Pinnberg and he destroyed me and I love it it It was great. That's awesome. It is awesome. It's cool to have someone that taught you how to play the game really beat the crap out of you. Yes. That is why it kind of made me go from really liking pinball, which is why I got a game, to going, wow, there's so much more going on here than I really understood.
    28:44
    And that's kind of what made me appreciate deep rule sets. I'm starting to understand that. My skills of being able to catch the ball and post pass and all these other things, those are coming along quite nicely. I do find my deficit is that I don't know enough rule sets or I only know a limited portion of a rule set or what I'm going to go about on a game. I might have to really go back and look at TurboGrafx-7 because I know at the beginning of every stream, you do a great job of explaining the rule set to the game. We try to. I think you do great. Well, I would say 80% of the time we stream at Dave's house, so Dave's kind of going over the rules. I mean, they're his games, so he knows them better than I do. But if it's a deeper rule set game, I will try to brush up as best I can and kind of go over it before we start. I did not do that with The Walking Dead the last few times I've streamed it because it's probably my second newest game. and the tutorials to learn this game are so long on YouTube that I still, I have a good overall understanding, but I don't know all the nuances yet. So I haven't felt comfortable explaining anything about the game. Sure, you're still a newbie on the game. Right, you're still learning it. And I always make sure to say, hey, I don't know much about this. If you really want to learn about it, go to YouTube and, you know, watch XYZ person go over the rules. Right. Helpful suggestion. Absolutely. Pro tip. Yep. All right. Well, thanks. I've learned that about you. I'm kind of like that as well. I kind of like to play the game for the modes and to try to progress through the game. I'm not big into points. You know, points come with progressing. But, you know, I don't know how to exploit games and all that stuff. So I do notice on your list you have a lot of mid-80s games. You seem to like that era. I would say, yeah, my lineup's probably half and half. I enjoy all pinball. I guess if you made me choose my favorite era, I would probably still stick to modern games, being like D&D and newer. However, I do also like the early solid states, and my appreciation for them really increased at Pinberg, and for EMs as well, to be honest, which I don't have an EM anymore. I had one for a while and I bought it from Dave and I sold it back to Dave. But there's something about the early solid states that make you play better. They're a little more or less forgiving. The ball times are shorter, which makes them great for competitive play. I have a Stars and an Alien Star, and I would consider those games butt kickers, especially Stars.
    31:34
    I love that game. I love every game, let's just be honest. But I really like Stars. Exactly. after playing in a tournament like pinberg that's you know as big as it is and covers literally every era of games there's what pinberg did so well for me is it took a game that i would have either been like i don't like that game to going wow when you have when you're forced to play it competitively you have to appreciate what's going on you have to pay attention you can't just go i flipped it it's not for me well now you have to play it and you you're trying to beat other people to play it so it takes a game that you wouldn't give the time of day to to making you give it the time of day and I walked away from that tournament going man have I been missing out on so much other aspects to pinball and like I said it's not that I didn't like them I did but I didn't appreciate them like I do now.
    32:32
    Another, I guess, nice thing about the early solid states, typically, not always, is they're more affordable.
    32:40
    Yeah, exactly. Well, maybe not anymore. There's exceptions. We all know that. For sure. Especially with some of the Bally, some of the Stearns. Some are more collectible than others, I think, as part of that, too. Sometimes it's a theme, too, that I think people are much more interested in, versus is something that's unappealing. Yeah, I agree. You mentioned that you're at Pinnberg. Mm-hmm. So do you consider yourself a competitive player? I guess if I were to term myself, I would call myself an enthusiast. I love that. Because I do really love playing competitively, but it's not my burning passion. Right. I'm not someone who gets distraught if I lose or take last. I really enjoy the social aspect of playing competitively. Or playing in a league. Yeah, or a league or a tournament, whatever it is. You know, leagues are great because you're seeing the same people over and over again. Yes, you get to form friendships within the community that way, absolutely. Exactly. I guess I would not consider myself a collector, really, even though I have gotten games. Do you play every day? I do not. I wish I could. Yeah, it's a time thing. Well, between work and having a family with two small children, I probably play, well, for sure, every Friday when we stream. Right. And then maybe once every other week during the week. Yeah, you said that before, that you're a very busy guy. Yeah. So an enthusiast, I like that. I think I just joined a Facebook pinball enthusiast group not too long ago, and I'm like, I've never heard that term before. yeah i mean i think it's it's a broad brush which i i like all the aspects of pinball right like i like the competitive side i like the collector side i like just the community the community streaming side of it all of that right and i would say i'm not great at any one of those facets but i uh appreciate them all equally yeah i mean don't get me wrong i i would like to win Yeah, I think we all do, right? But, you know, I don't let it get to me if I don't, you know, take first in a round or something. I just go, you know, I'm having fun. That's the nice thing about League. You just crack jokes and have fun with each other. You know, there's some people you can kind of rib on when you're playing with them, and they kind of give it back to you. That's all fun to me. I really like that. Right. Yeah, again, it's that camaraderie and community that pinball builds. So I agree, especially within a smaller league is really nice that way.
    35:20
    Milwaukee Flippers? No, I can't recall where he played. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, Milwaukee Flippers, and then I don't know if Eric's going to bring his league back or not, but Eric Pripke had a very casual league at his house, so we were doing that for a while too. Well, I hope so. It would be great. It always fun to play It nice to play by yourself but it more fun to play with friends For sure And I always make sure that I tell the person hosting that we grateful they let us come and you know bang around in their games
    35:52
    Me too, especially when I tilt Dave's games. And the thing is, when you have that many people come over to play your stuff, things are going to break. Right. That's pinball, baby. That's pinball is right. And the fact that people let us come in and play their stuff, I'm grateful for that. Yeah, it's amazing. Just people that are willing to open their collections and they're not afraid. They know people. If you're a physical player like I am and I'm going to push a machine around, I'm going to try to observe the host to see how they play their games first. I'm going to try to behave myself. But sometimes in the moment, I might jump up in the air and come down and double slap save. I don't know. but but if they know me as a player they can anticipate that too but yes i think a big part big rule that you said there my friend is that is being grateful and saying thank you to every person that opens their collection to you absolutely yeah it's a treat yeah rachel my brother slid my metallica like two feet across the floor because it was at the end and my wife's eyes lit up because she knew how much i paid for it and i didn't even i didn't bat an eye because my brother and I both would slide and shake machines growing up and she's like he's gonna break our machine and I'm like no no they were meant to do that but I remember the first time it was like two feet wow yeah I just remember her reaction it was great see that's just a big part of it too it's like it's a used vehicle or a fairly nice you know vehicle sitting there in your living room or your arcade or whatever so it's about paying respect to the property but it's also a game and a toy that is meant to be played with yep so so ryan i don't think i ever told you this i actually i think you know that i got my pirates of the caribbean stern from pinberg i bought it from the replay foundation but i looked it up to see if you guys any of you guys played it i'm like i wonder if anybody from the tribe played it but nobody from the tribe had played my machine but jack danger and roger sharp did that doesn't i mean it's you know i'm not a big celebrity kind of guy but i did go to see if any of the tribe members played my machine because they record that stuff right and they didn't so then i creeped on you all and i went back through all my pictures because i was taking selfies and i was trying to see if i took a selfie in front of any of you because i didn't know any of you but there was like 10 of you there so but none of you popped up in my uh in my pictures so i tried no that's when you almost got kicked out though right I did get kicked out, but that was earlier in the day. I love to razz you about that because that's something that I, as a rookie newbie, it's something that I would have done. I find it so cute and charming. I'm telling you, I was three weeks into pinball and my buddy said, go to this place. And I was mesmerized by it. I was in love, but I didn't understand what was going on. To me, it was just a bunch of people playing pinball in a tournament. and I couldn't understand why I couldn't go play those games when there was a break. So I went and played those games when there was a break. Now I actually feel bad about it. I joke about it, but I feel like, oh, boy, no wonder they were so upset. No, I didn't do it. I'm not dumb enough to do it while they were playing. But, yeah, but I like to joke about it now. That was 2019, right? It was 2019, yep. So, but think about this. So you did not play in the tournament, but you still got to go and see Pinberg and you got to go in and play the games in pinberg yep and now that's gone it's kind of special because you still did that they might not have liked it but you can at least say hey i was there too that's right yeah did you have anybody in your selfies tim did you have anybody in the background of those there was a lot of people but but nobody that i recognized oh darn i think i did tell you on one of the previous episodes that i played jurassic park while they were on break right beside Keith Elwin. He wasn't playing, but he was talking and showing people the game, and I didn't know it was Keith Elwin. I didn't know that. So mind-blowing. I thought he worked for Cointaker. So funny. Yeah. I probably did the same thing. Yep, but now I know. All right, so that's cool. I wanted to ask you one more question about your collection. Well, two questions. One, which road did you pick up Spy Hunter along?
    40:16
    I'm just kidding. I know the story behind it. It makes me dizzy when you stream it, that flipper off to the side. Yeah, it's... I enjoy unique games, but that game is a little too much. I think it's a game that's really endearing because it's so unique. It has awesome art. I love the art. like the back glass is so awesome like i wish i could hang it up it's it's it's just so 80s all the the sound effects and all the audio is that 80s arcade sound so that that part's awesome right it just it doesn't translate well from the video game to the pinball i think that's where it gets lost in translation and you know do you know the story behind the game at all or no no So Spy Hunter, the video game, was made by George Gomez when he was at BAM. And he wanted to make pinball machines, and they wouldn't let him. So he wanted to make the Spy Hunter pinball machine since he made the video game, and they would not let him, and they had George commit to it. And if you listen to podcasts and interviews, George is very not happy about the game and how it turned out. I can't blame him. But the thing is – Well, it was his idea, correct? All of his creative idea and whatever. Greg Kmic has made some of the most iconic early South States, like Harlem Globetrotters and Paragon. And then along comes Spy Hunter, and you're like, oh, boy.
    41:54
    But, you know, it's not like it's the worst thing ever. Like, it's fine. You know, it has its place somewhere. I'll put it that way.
    42:03
    Okay. I was just poking at you because you guys make jokes about it on the stream sometimes. Yeah, yeah. I knew it was fair game. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Oh, anything's fair game, so we know that. We're not thin-skinned. Nope. But a legitimate question I wanted to ask you on the stream a couple of times, and I actually decided to hold it for the show. It's not anything major. But you have a Zachariah game, Magic Castle, and I've come across a couple of those in the past, and I've had a chance to buy them. Are they hard for you to maintain? Like, are parts available? so depending on the game the parts can be hard to find if it's like a plastic okay i would say the mechanical stuff's not that bad we're very fortunate uh where we live here there's a guy named neo skywalker he goes by captain neo on pinside and he's all over facebook and he you can usually find Neo on Pinside berating people for putting awful LEDs in their GI and calling it clown puke. He is a really funny guy that way. It's funny because any time a Frisale ad comes up and it's got insane GI coloring like pink and purple and orange instead of white, they tag Neo just to make him come in and just berate the seller. like and he doesn't it's there was this one i'm trying to remember what game it was it was a gottlieb it might have been a panthera and the gi i mean you couldn't even see the play field it was just purple and pink and just crazy colors everywhere and someone take neo and he wasn't coming in and then someone's like oh my gosh this color job so bad you killed neo all right You know, he's not even jumping in the thread. Like, it's stuff like that that makes me laugh with him. But, you know, a lot of people actually kind of are offended by him because he kind of comes off as kind of gruff that way. But the truth about Neo is he's actually a really nice guy, and he does a lot of stuff in the local scene for us. He's very, very helpful. And to get back on track, Neo has one of the largest Zacharia collections. He actually owns all the Gen 2 games. okay because there's gen 1 and gen 2 and he owns all the gen 2 and he has lots and lots of parts and he's a really good resource to have and there's a few other people and so i guess to your question it's game specific and there's some zacharias that are really really rare that you know they made like 40 of them or less and it kind of just depends on what one you buy gotcha what like would you know which ones you were looking at or no no i i don't remember it's been about a year but a couple have popped up here and there close by yeah they're they're very fun games don't don't let the fact that they're you know from italy deter you from thinking that they're not fun because they're a blast like magic castle is a really fun game i've had the opportunity just from getting to know people over the years where i've i have passed on some of the really rare ones that I could have bought them. But my fear was to your point, was like, well, what do I do if I break something? I can't get a part for this game. You know, they only made 40. And, you know, good luck trying to find spare parts. And, you know, some of that stuff, you kind of end up getting into fabricating something, which, you know, if you know how to do it, fine. But, you know, there's also Zacharias that are extremely common. like I would say Magic Castle is one of them amongst like Farfalla and Time Machine yeah I think Time Machine was one of the games and I want to say is there a clown or a circus or something clown's actually not that common they've had a clown for a little bit and he sold it it's just called Clown I think that was the one it came out a few hours away so hey I just wanted to ask I was thinking about it on the stream a few weeks ago. I'm not an expert on it. I would default to Dave and especially to Neil. There are resources out there, so I guess I wouldn't shy away from buying one. Okay. I guess I'll leave it at that. Okay. So speaking of the 80s, did you play pinball as a child or were you too busy on your BMX bike with the pegs and jumps? A little bit of both. Yep. I did have a BMX. It was actually my first bike did you have pegs uh i did not my my friends did though and of course i was i was mocked because i wasn't as cool as them could you bunny hop i could bunny hop and all that stuff uh i didn't have mag wheels like my buddies did either so i got made fun of for that but yeah i uh my so my very very first pinball machine i ever ever got was from you know i'm sure like most of you, I mean, we're not young, so we kind of grew up with the Sears and JCPenney Christmas catalogs. Yep. Yeah, circle what you want. Yep, that's exactly what it was, and my aunt said to me, hey, why don't you go through this and circle what you want for Christmas, and I'll get it for you, and I didn't remember what year it was, and I actually ended up finding the Christmas catalog that I picked it out of. It was from 1986 from the Sears Christmas catalog, and it was on page 486 and i know that because there's you can actually look them up digitally now and find stuff you can actually there's a search bar you can type in what you're looking for and i'll pull the page up okay 486 so it's page 486 from sears christmas book 1986 and i circled a wolverine toy company brand laser lord pinball machine amongst other things and that was like the more expensive gift that I picked, which I was not expecting to get. It was just something I thought, I'm going to circle this and going to go for it. Yep. Yeah. It was 50 bucks in 1986. And that was not money. My aunt normally would have spent on me. It was my aunt and uncle, by the way, I shouldn't just, I shouldn't leave him out. My uncle was on that, put it all together and set it all up. So ironically, they got it for me for Christmas. And I will, I will never forget getting this thing because this was one of those things where it was you know they had those tabletop ones for kids where they were like you know a little longer than a shoe box and they kind of had more like marbles for pinballs well this machine was like i had let like big legs and was like three times as big as one of those tabletop deals and that was the first kind of entry into pinball that as far as having one. As a real little kid, my first time I ever saw a pinball machine is actually Black Knight. And I remember it because I remember seeing the knight and wanting to play it. And we were at a bar, like walking through the bar to the back outside because my mom's friend was playing volleyball in a volleyball league and she asked us to come watch. So we were walking through the bar to go back to the sand pits. And I remember walking past this pinball machine going, what is this i mean i'm like i don't know four years old and i'm like dad we gotta play this he's like no we're not playing anything here let's get out of here and i'm like what and but i will never forget seeing black knight because i was blown away by just the artwork and everything on it so i never forgot that so that's kind of what made me when i saw this pinball machine in the christmas catalog i was like oh i want to get one one day and then they actually got me this pinball machine and i played the crap out of it i mean i played the crap out of that thing and i eventually like destroyed it i played so much we ended up throwing it away yeah and the funny thing is i ended up finding it again on ebay like six or five or six years ago so i have it again it's in my i'm looking at it right now in my basement nice it's it's it's not as nice as the one i had it's missing some stuff, but it does function. But it's such a weird, I mean, if you try googling Wolverine toy company pinball machine, if you look at images, all it pulls up is the Stern X-Men game. It's so hard to find Wolverine brand stuff. And if you do find stuff, it's a lot of those more like pachinko, tiny handheld deals where you pull the plunger back and it shoots the ball up, and it kind of just plinkles down. Wolverine had made those, and that was kind of their claim to fame way, way back in the 60s and 70s. Well, I found it. Did you? Yeah. I just had to take off the Wolverine because it did bring up the modern Wolverine machine. Yeah. So I just looked for Laser Lord's pinball, and it brought up the Sears catalog. Yep. 486. It's red. Yep, it's red. Yep, it's red, and it's a poor quality picture, but there it is, number three. Yep, that's it. Awesome. so when did you get into modern pinball you know you you played as a kid so i you know i played in arcades i played a bowling i probably played more bowling alleys and arcades we didn't go to the arcade a whole lot as a kid the arcade for us was chucky cheese more more times than not but we did go to aladdin's castle and in tilt and time out around here and you know i remember as a kid playing Whirlwind. I remember Simpsons, Day to East. I remember Adam's Family. I remember Turtles, obviously, from Day to East. I think I remember playing a bit of a madness at Aladdin's Castle in my hometown here. And that's really about it when I was younger. So when I was in college, in our student union, we had a small arcade. And it was, I mean, nothing to brag about. I mean, there was probably, I don't know, maybe five arcade machines, but they had two pinball machines, and one was T2, and the other was Revenge from Mars, the pin 2000 game. The gap between my playing pinball previous to this was years. I mean, when I was a kid, I wasn't really paying attention to it. It was just, you know, what theme was it? Like, I know Ninja Turtles. I know The Simpsons. I know The Addams Family. Sure, yeah. And this time around, as I'm older, I'm kind of going, oh, what blew me away about Revenge from Mars was the technology of the 3D effect. I remember looking at it going, how are they doing this? How does it work? So I played so much Revenge from Mars that I kind of got it piqued my interest a little bit. Like I was like, oh, wow, this is really neat. And then I kind of left college and forgot about it again. until, I don't know how many years later. I graduated high school in the year 2000. So, I mean, I was playing Revenge from Mars shortly after Williams went out of business, which I didn't know that, of course. Right. I got back into pinball as I am right now about six years ago because I was playing the pinball arcade on PlayStation 4, and I stumbled across it because I was bored with the stuff I was playing with. I'm like, well, what do they have in the shop? So I'm kind of scrolling through things, and I saw the Pinball Arcade. Okay. I click on it, and they give you Tales of the Arabian Nights as a free game. You just got to download it. There's no money. So I playing it and playing it and playing it I like oh this is so much fun I remember playing it as a kid and in college I was looking at the other games you could download and buy and I like oh my gosh I remember all these like Adam's Family and Whirlwind, and I'm like, T2. And I'm like, it was kind of like a nostalgia thing. Right, that's fun. I love that feeling. Yeah, and so I started buying some of the games I had played as a kid in college, and after I kind of got my fill of that, I started downloading the other games and playing them. And I got, I got hooked. I mean, I was hooked playing pinball arcade and I got to a point where I said to my wife, I said, we got to get a game. Like I'm, I'm too bit by the bug. I have to get one. And she's like, oh, fine. You can get one game. I'm like, that's all we just, we just need, who needs more than one pinball machine? They cost a lot of money. You know, famous. Yeah. And my wife will laugh. Cause she'll remember this conversation plain as day. Like we just had it yesterday. And I, so I get the Simpsons pinball party and I put it in my office, in our main floor. I kind of start going to league and meeting other people and I see their collections and I'm like, wouldn't it be cool if we had two pinball machines?
    54:47
    I mean, you know, with one game with more people over, everyone's kind of waiting around. They can't play. It just makes sense to have two. so i i end up getting a whirlwind wow from a local um repair guy and my my wife and i kind of laugh about it now because we put these two games in our office side by side and my wife looks at me she goes wow it feels like we have an arcade in our house two games and we both laugh now because obviously i have a problem yeah oh no we've established that collecting pinball machines is not a problem right tim yep it's not a problem at all but that is hilarious i know i feel that way when people walk into my home the back door you see uh three of my games set up and people are blown away they're like it's an arcade i'm like yeah but you should see other people's you know collection yeah exactly i i when i had my games upstairs so i i got to a point where i had three games in our office and my wife's like they got to go in the basement put them downstairs but the cool thing is when i had them upstairs our office was by our front door and anytime we would order pizza i'd make them come inside just so they could see the games and then they would be like oh my gosh you had pinball i'm like well how much time you got let's play some games so i try to make all the delivery guys play pinball with me that's great i'm just gonna lose my mind over that that's so funny that's really i was totally trying to bait people into getting into pinball anyway that's really why you gave dave like an address right down the street hey buddy what's your collection yeah you want to go to this address yeah meet this meet this realtor so you were into some other type of game though before you were into pinball right yeah that's the old me that's it was the old addiction that's yeah the old the old uh that was the the different me they uh so i when i was a kid i had nintendo like most people did and my mom and dad had bought that for me in you know 1987 or whatever year it was 88 i don't i don't remember and the super nintendo had come out and my mom and dad said we're not buying that for you and i'm like i need that everybody else has it i'm the only one without one i gotta have it so some time went by a couple years and they became okay with the idea of me selling my nintendo to buy a Super Nintendo. Because I had saved up some of my own money, and with the money I got from selling the Nintendo and the games we had, with the money I saved, I could afford a Super Nintendo. So that's what happened. Many, many, many years later, when I was in high school, which would have been in the mid-90s, I was at a flea market, and someone was selling a Nintendo and a box of games for like 20 bucks. I mean, it was a ton of games. It was like 30 games. Okay. And I was like, oh, man. I'm buying it. I'm like, I wish I wouldn't have sold my Nintendo, but, you know, situation was a situation. Yep. So out of nostalgia, I bought this box of Nintendo games. And it got crazy after that. I just kept going back to the flea market and buying all the games I could find. And it started off out of nostalgia and playing games I had as a kid, games I played at my friend's house when I was a kid. And then it turned into actual outright collecting. and it just ramped up and ramped up and got crazy and i was the guy in the in the 90s flying around everywhere buying old nintendo games and then it got into sega genesis and sega master system and turbo graphic 16 and it just got more insane and more insane and it got to a point where i had people from nintendo calling me to sell me stuff no and and my wife was like this is out of control and i'm like yeah maybe you're right i mean uh it i had a room in our house in our current home that was like my game room and i just it was wall-to-wall stuff i got into store displays and all the signs i mean i stopped collecting games have you met tony scoots i've seen some of his stuff yeah i had a lot of that stuff too and i had gotten away from the collecting the games and got more into collecting the store displays and corporate paraphernalia from the companies that wasn't a public thing which is why people were calling me to sell me stuff i got some really cool stuff that so a lot of stuff i sold so my my collection i have because I sold the majority of that stuff. Because a lot of people will come over and say, well, how did you buy all this stuff? Because they think I went in my bank account and pulled a bunch of money and bought games. And that is not the case. If I didn't have that retro video game stuff, I would not have the collection that I have. You traded up on hobbies. I traded hobbies. I jumped ship completely. And my main reason for it, besides loving pinball, was I had all this stuff in a room and we were starting our family.
    60:19
    And I would look at the stuff and my friends would come over and we would go in my room and we'd look at stuff and we reminisce about the old days and blah, blah, blah. And I thought to myself, you know, even my friends and I don't play this stuff. So I'm going to have little kids come in this room or not even let them in the room because I might break something. It's expensive. Don't touch it. You know, just leave it on the shelf. We can look at it, but don't touch. And I got to a point where I said, I want my children to have stuff I want them to play with. And that was kind of the main reason that pushed me to letting go of all that stuff. That's great. It, and I don't regret it at one bit. Like my, my daughter comes down here and if I'm in the basement, she's down here with me and she's banging away on the games and she's pushing start in every single game and walking away. And then she's, you know, dragging the stool all over the place and she'll, you know, plunge three balls and get down and go to the next game. And, you know, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I really am happy that I made the switch over because even another thing I noticed having family functions, you know, before the world was falling apart, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, even the younger kids would be playing pinball. And before that, they were being antisocial and playing on the phones in the corner, not talking to anybody. Right. Even though there was like five of them, they wouldn't even talk to each other. And now they come over and they're all playing pinball and they're asking me how to do this how to do that and it's it's it's been something that I didn't think would be a side effect of switching over from one hobby to another but I had some really cool stuff that a lot of people wanted I had stuff that the top collectors in the world didn't even have because I got it from people working at the company corporately that were willing to sell it to me because they wanted money. And I just had some nice connections made. And I had a guy from Florida, from Fort Lauderdale, drive up in a pickup, and he took about a third of my collection in one shot. Wow. Because he knew all the stuff that I had, and he's like, I will buy it from you for what you ask. And I was like, then you can come get it.
    62:34
    That's crazy. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. Did you keep your Super Nintendo? So I still have all of the games I had growing up. I love that. The thing is, the funny thing about that is that that amount of stuff that I had growing up is very tiny relative to everything that I did have. So it's easy to kind of put everything in a couple boxes and kind of keep it tucked away. I do have some signs still. I didn't get rid of everything completely. I kept some of the cool stuff that wasn't priced astronomically but still kind of neat to have. But the one thing I want to make a point is the video game community is very different than the pinball community. I know a lot of people want to talk about how terrible Pinside is and how toxic people are. And I will tell you right now, Pinside is like going to kindergarten compared to the video game community because the video game community wants to swat people. And that's not happening with pinball. I mean, the video game community is very, I don't know how to put it without sounding really crazy. I was happy to walk away. I'll leave it at that. Okay. Yeah. The pinball community is a great community. I've actually met people that I thought weren't very nice on pin side that were phenomenal people in person. Oh, for sure, yeah. Yeah, it's fun to just pick on pin side because you go on there and people are ready to jump off the bridge because something X, Y, and Z happened or something along those lines. But no, no. I understand, yeah. I've had a couple of other friends in gaming say that it's a crazy world in video games. Yeah, over something as trivial as video games. Well, that's a cool story. I wish we could ask your wife if she liked the pinball machines or the video games more. I think she would say the pinball machines within reason. I don't think she is happy about what it's become. She does like pinball. Not that she does not like pinball. She does. but you know we we laugh about how we're getting one game and now they're 16 down here well well my wife just said to me this past week she's like you know that guns and roses would look good upstairs in our family room see there you go that's very encouraging it's hardwood floors it's hollow i'm like it would be so loud up there so i suppose but yeah at least at least you got that going for you. It'll be up there next week.
    64:59
    Alright, so we have one more question for you, Ryan. Rachel, you can go ahead and ask the most important question. The most important question. I'm glad I'm sitting. Number one, Ryan. Yes. The most difficult question is, how did you become tribe member number one? They kind of texted me and said, hey, you're the first person we're putting in. And I was like, oh, cool.
    65:27
    But I think, was there, they were doing two at a time back then. So it wasn't just, you know, I wasn't the only person inducted that they also did Fulgore. Oh, yes. So that's a pretty simple story. Yeah. Did you hear that? I wish it was some big, crazy, elaborate thing. So no butthole jokes, pictures, drink recipes, or anything. You didn't pay them money. Some people claim to do that. I had met them early on when they first started because they don't live too far from where I live. So I had reached out to them, and I had been on quite a few of the episodes they had invited me on. And because I'm a little more established than they are in the community because I've been around longer, you know, like being in Eric's league and whatever, and suggested, why don't you have this person on, that person on. That's kind of how it all started. Okay, so you were tied into the show early. You had been a guest and so forth. All right. All right, so that makes sense how you ended up being number one. The rest of us are just second losers, or what do they say, first losers? Second banana, second fiddle.
    66:31
    Number 35 fiddle. That's okay, I'll take it. Can you remind everybody when you stream? So I stream with Dave Brennan and other guests, Rachel being one of them on occasion. Oh, yes. Friday nights at 8 o'clock Central Time. Follow along on TurboGrafx7. We have to make sure to mention the stream name. Yeah, TurboGrafx7 on Twitch.com. There you go. Yeah, Dave and I laugh about how poor promoters of ourselves we are because we're just, you know, if anyone does not know, Dave Brennan works for American Pinball. He's their tech service manager. So he's busy all day doing his job. I'm busy doing my job, doing family stuff. He's got family obligations as well. and you know the streaming thing is something that we you know it's we do it like clockwork every friday and we carve the time out but you know leading up to that we're not really thinking about it because we're just busy living life and so we're always like yeah we should do a better job promoting what we do probably but i think that's okay that's a nice way to be because when you do get together on friday you just pop open a beer and play some pinball and relax and have fun with a friend that's exactly what we do yep we don't stream for any other reason than to have fun and interact with the community that's literally all that's our reason for doing it we really enjoy that it's thanks for doing that i like to tune in on friday nights and sometimes that caps off my evening i appreciate it well we appreciate everyone that comes and hangs out and people like you who are willing to come on and be part of the stream that's that's what makes it fun we we really enjoy the community being a part of it the interaction and if people are local enough or willing to travel to be on the stream we are always willing to have people on you know we're not we're not snobby like that we don't care we don't uh we're not trying to compete with anybody either it's just meant to be fun and that's all it is we don't take it too serious so i do want to give a lot of credit to dave because dave came along probably a little over a year and maybe a year, year and a half after I started streaming. And, you know, he's got this gigantic collection and he's also a very good tech, which is why he's the tech service manager for actual manufacturer. And Dave does a really good job of bulletproofing the game before I get there and going over it, which sometimes it's not that bad. Sometimes it's a real pain. He's got to put a lot of time into it. So I want to give a lot of credit to him for the work that he does do on his end, because I kind of come over and put all the cameras in place and fine tune the technical side and download updates and do whatever I have to do on my end, which sometimes can be frustrating if something's kind of crashing on me, but he definitely puts more time into it than I do. And I want to make sure that, you know, I publicly give him the pat on the back that he deserves because he definitely deserves that. And he's also getting a lot more into video editing. So he's been kind of playing around with the videos that we're doing on our end and putting a lot of time into that as well. So, like I said, I just want to make sure that I am publicly giving Dave his kudos that he deserves because he puts a lot of time into it, and I really, really appreciate what he does. Oh, you're so sweet. You're so sweet, Ryan. Yeah, Dave's a great guy. We can't wait to have him on the show in the future. Yep. Yeah, you can ask him about peanut butter jar lids and ham. That's not even here. We have a specific time that we're going to ask him to be on this show as well. And you two are a great team. So enjoy the stream and thank you for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's always been a blast. Love both of you. Okay, friends. Thanks for hanging out with us. Take care and happy flipping. Drew sucks at pinball. Oh, jerk.
    70:20
    Happy flipping. See ya. Four Man's Tribe presents Pinball Streamers of Genius. Today we salute you, most passionate scholars of classic pinball. TurboGrafx-7 Pinball Streamers. You can stream the new shiny, but you choose to pay homage to the glory days of pinball and stream one of their 8,000 vintage games stockpiled in a basement. Dave might have a problem. Want to stream a modern JJP tonight? Screw that shit. We're going to stream Magic Castle, Skateball, and maybe a little Stargazer. Please don't stream again on Alien Star. Want to get Ryan to stop talking about his man crush on Keith Johnson? How about his love for Deadpool? Well, ask Dave about packaging, and you'll get an education on creamy peanut butter. We know who likes the Skippies. A razor glass of beer no one's ever heard of, TurboGrafx-7. And know that if you can't blow up your own game, you'll bring someone else in that can. Because you're just two awesome dudes doing it for the love of the hobby.