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SDTM Walkthrough: Texas Pinball Festival 2018

Straight Down the Middle·video·45m 41s·analyzed·Mar 22, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Walkthrough of Texas Pinball Festival 2018 showcasing games, vendors, and community.

Summary

A casual walkthrough video of Texas Pinball Festival 2018, capturing tournament setup, vendor booths, game displays, and community personalities. The host showcases new releases (Pirates of the Caribbean), highlights major manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, Spooky, American Pinball), and features aftermarket modding companies (Back Alley Creations, Measle Mods, LER Mods). The event demonstrates the breadth of pinball culture, from competitive play to collecting and customization.

Key Claims

  • Eric Minger released Pirates of the Caribbean with long lines throughout the festival weekend

    high confidence · Host directly observed and filmed the game with crowds playing it

  • Back Alley Creations does handcrafted work for Jersey Jack Pinball, Spooky Pinball, and American Pinball machines

    high confidence · Host directly states this while at the Back Alley Creations booth

  • Measle Mods is rumored to be entering the topper business

    medium confidence · Host mentions rumor; Measle Mods representative confirms they are putting a topper on Dialed In

  • The Wizard Enterprises released new Xpandas XL color DMD (long time in development)

    high confidence · Host observes the product at the booth and notes 'Long time in the making. Everybody's waiting for this one.'

  • Pirates of the Caribbean includes custom flow charts and will have a Collector's Edition with elaborate Davy Jones playfield sculpts

    high confidence · Host views flow charts and CE preview; discusses custom work with Matt at Back Alley Creations

Notable Quotes

  • “This guy has his hand in damn near everything new pinball now. He does all of the handcrafted work that you see in some of your favorite Jersey Jack Pinball machines, some of your favorite Spooky Pinball machines, American Pinball, everything.”

    Host (Straight Down the Middle)@ 13:23 — Highlights the centrality of Back Alley Creations (Matt Reister) to modern custom pinball manufacturing

  • “I think it's a hit, guys. I think it's a hit.”

    Host@ 10:03 — Early assessment of Pirates of the Caribbean reception based on crowds and gameplay observation

  • “There's a rumor going around. Yes. That you guys might be getting into the topper business. I don't know if you've heard it yet, but we want Measle to make some toppers. It's true. It's true.”

    Host and Measle Mods representative@ 36:58 — Community-driven demand signals interest in Measle Mods expanding product line into toppers

  • “Long time in the making. Everybody's waiting for this one.”

    Host@ 33:09 — References significant anticipation for The Wizard Enterprises Xpandas XL color DMD product launch

  • “These locks are old enough to have been on a carrier unit... Over a hundred years old.”

    Vendor at booth (discussing vintage lock parts)@ 35:20 — Shows collector interest in authentic antique components for pinball machine restoration and customization

Entities

Texas Pinball Festival 2018eventStraight Down the Middlecontent_creatorBack Alley CreationscompanyMatt ReisterpersonEric MingerpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Pirates of the Caribbean released by Jersey Jack Pinball (designer Eric Minger) with heavy foot traffic at festival

    high · Host directly observes long lines throughout festival weekend; shows footage of children and adults playing; discusses custom flow charts and CE sculpt details with Matt Reister

  • ?

    product_launch: The Wizard Enterprises released Xpandas XL color DMD after long development cycle

    high · Host observes product at booth; states 'Long time in the making. Everybody's waiting for this one.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Pirates of the Caribbean features elaborate one-piece Davy Jones sculpt with barnacle details; Back Alley Creations providing custom handcrafted work

    high · Host discusses with Matt Reister: 'this is all going to be one piece. All of this is going to be full. Full, full, full.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception to Pirates of the Caribbean; host predicts commercial success based on crowd enthusiasm

    high · Host: 'I think it's a hit, guys. I think it's a hit.' Footage shows continuous engagement and play

  • $

    market_signal: Measle Mods expanding from flasher covers and mods into topper business driven by community demand

    medium · Host mentions rumor of topper entry; Measle Mods rep confirms they are currently putting topper on Dialed In and framing as 'very first product' in line

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.137

0:00
Alright guys, we're going to try to go in here and do a walkthrough of Texas Pinball Festival 2018. I doubt that you're going to be able to hear me, but we're going to try our best, aren't we?
0:30
Hello! Here we are guys. A lot of stuff going on here. We got the tournament area right over there. Pretty cool, huh? Alright. Games are kind of just set up everywhere here. One of my favorites, Circus Voltaire. He's doing pretty good.
1:19
It's a beautiful Indiana Jones right here. Check it out. See if I can get in there. Ready? Looks like it's black powder coat. Color DMD. There's the man himself Lou Ferrigno. The hug. Got an artist here.
2:13
Rampage artist. So this is really cool over here. So this is Tari's phone. Check this out. It's pretty cool, right? Very cool, very cool. Lineup of games.
3:03
This place is hopping. Over to your right hand side you'll see Cosmic Kart Racing by P3 Multimorphic. This is pretty cool, check this stuff out.
Multimorphic
company
The Wizard Enterprisescompany
Measle Modscompany
LER Modscompany
Coin Takercompany
Melissaperson
Fred Marcocompany
Mark Wagnerperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Pirates of the Caribbeangame
Kingpingame
American Pinball Houdinigame
Dialed Ingame
Pin Soundcompany
Titan Pinballcompany
National Video Game Museumorganization

collector_signal: Collector interest in authentic antique locks (100+ years old) for game customization

medium · Host extensively negotiates and purchases vintage lock; vendor describes sourcing old locks from carrier units

  • ?

    industry_signal: Back Alley Creations operating as de facto custom manufacturing partner for multiple major manufacturers (Jersey Jack, Spooky, American Pinball)

    high · Host description: 'This guy has his hand in damn near everything new pinball now' and lists major manufacturers relying on his work

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2018 shows massive scale with hundreds of machines, multiple manufacturer booths, vendor areas, and tournament competition

    high · Host repeatedly comments on size and density: 'Ginormous booth', 'pinball everywhere', 'This place is so big it's hard to cover everything'

  • ?

    content_signal: Straight Down the Middle producing detailed festival walkthrough content; popular channel with audience appreciation noted in video

    high · Viewer acknowledges support; host has extended access to multiple booths and vendors; significant production value

  • ?

    venue_signal: Fred Marco operating as major retail/distribution hub with extensive game inventory and sale floor

    medium · Host notes large booth, multiple games available for sale, and transaction discussions with booth operator

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pirates of the Caribbean using visual flow charts to communicate rules/progression to players and spectators

    medium · Host: 'these flow charts are so cool. Look at these. You've got all these flow charts for Final Game, The Wizard of Oz...'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Host observes child player demonstrating skill on Pirates of the Caribbean despite game complexity

    medium · Host narrates: 'He's loving that map spinning... He's a natural... I think it's a hit, guys'

    • 5:09
    We got Kimball's, Pindle's, Mod's over here. This thing's mottled out right here. Got the trans light lighting, speaker lights, the lit up side panels.
    6:09
    Somebody's got some audio problems too. The whole lineup of multi-morphic P3 systems. Lexi Lightspeed. There's a wizard blocks here too.
    6:44
    Something you don't see all the time. Let's see if we can take a deeper look at this thing. I'm gonna have to play that today.
    7:17
    So you don't see this over there, it's the championship link for Fast Break. Really cool All kinds of more games More games Austin Powers isn't working Which really kind of upset me
    7:49
    You got Titan Hey guys I spent too much money here All the time, all the time, yeah, yeah. And I love these mats. Check these out.
    8:02
    If you guys don't have Titan mats, you're going to get some Titan mats. Very cool. Thanks for all you guys do. Got the best silicone in the business. I love it. Love it. Visit titanpinball.com? titanpinball.com. Don't forget to say hi to Rudy.
    8:17
    Ah! Thanks, guys. All right. Here they are. There's been lines all weekend long for Eric Minger's new game Pirates of the Caribbean.
    8:40
    10 pin games. And these flow charts are so cool. Look at these. You got all these flow charts for Final Game, Wizard of Oz, Hobbit.
    8:52
    Really cool stuff. They even sell T&As. So this is what the CE's going to look like, collector's edition.
    9:03
    The Davy Jones. Look at these barnacles. So on this, I was talking to Matt at Mac Alley Customs, Creations. He said this is all going to be one piece. All of this is going to be full. Full, full, full. Love it.
    9:19
    They're playing right now. Happy people playing fighters. This little guy's loving it. He's got that map spinning. Oh yeah, he knows what he's doing too. Dang! He's better than Greg, I'll bet you that. Nice little man, nice. Very cool, very cool.
    9:53
    He's a natural, isn't he? He's a natural. I think it's a hit, guys. I think it's a hit. Let's fight the crowd here. Let's fight the crowd. Let's sneak through here. Got dialed in.
    10:18
    The Hobbit, Wizard of Oz. Social Fantasy with all of their ramps. It's always nice to come to these shows and pick up a ramp if you need it. Look at all these things, they're new. Very nice. Ooh, a little totem ramp. Might be one of the best ramps in pinball right there. We got TNA. This is where Alice Cooper's war at.
    11:19
    And the wheels will raise up and the balls will come in and they will be attacked What can be achieved with it? You can do Feed My Breakfast on it, you can do the guillotine and the vampire mode, and you can just take them out as well.
    11:42
    The multiball is in there but it doesn't have all the animations yet. I didn't know that. Feed them to the game. Hey, we got a Hilton play. Why not? Of course you can.
    12:05
    Your left ramp is going to be great. Nice. Hold on. Now, your next one you want to shoot the right side. Drop target three times. It's right on the tip of the wind. We need you. Yeah, we got it. What is that?
    12:30
    TNA. That KT and the... You know who this guy is. Yeah. And Hilton. Hey. What's up, guys? We're talking about stuffing things. What are you talking about? Stuffing things. Stuffing things? Yeah. What are you stuffing?
    12:49
    Always a good conversation with Scott and Denise. Oh, she's yawning. Hi. There's a little baby. There's a baby.
    12:59
    Hey, baby. So cute. How cool are these shirts? I love these shirts. So cool. It's time to buy your first spooky machine.
    13:14
    This is one busy man right here. This is Back Alley Creations. This guy has got his hand in damn near everything new pinball now. He does all of the handcrafted work that you see in some of your favorite Jersey Jack machines, some of your favorite spooky pinball machines, American pinball, everything. Say hi to everybody. Woo!
    13:39
    He's the hardest working man in pinball right here. And he doesn't quit. He's still going to make games. More and more and more machines. Alright, I think that about wraps it up. Let's see if we can get into any more trouble today. Look, everybody's loving the Escalera. Check it out.
    13:58
    Motorized right down the stairs. Come on, you guys know you want to buy one. It's time. It's time to buy one.
    14:11
    Got cool attachments and everything. A bunch of cool Python artwork. Look at this stuff. That's badass. That's pretty gnarly. What?
    14:45
    That dude was a trip, man. He was a trip. We got some other different stuff over here. Very cool, oh, nice kingpin. Let's go check out some kingpin, you want to? There it is.
    15:56
    Okay, kid, here's what you do. Get on the train. Get the money out of the safe. you got that kid Hey, kid, how about a little action? Shoot for the bars, kid.
    17:26
    Don't push it, kid. Now you're dead. Oh, I needed that shot. Alright, some more cool games.
    18:00
    There's pinball everywhere. That's a DeLorean. Yeah. Do not sit. Very cool. As far as the eye can see, there's pinball everywhere.
    18:42
    The National Video Game Museum's got some advertisements up here. Oh, I love that voice. Such a nice voice. That's right, we're at Penn Stadium booth here. Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, not eight, not nine. We're gonna check these things out you guys. Wave.
    19:14
    Play fields that you can see. Bet you've never seen the Walking Dead play field. Very cool, very cool. We have some more games over here.
    19:43
    This Indiana Jones is unreal. There's a couple of nice ones here. That's a brand new play field. I was talking to the guy that owns it. Really cool guy.
    20:00
    Alright, we got a little shop over here. Some cool stuff. Some cool mini RKs. A whodunit playfield. 900 bucks. Alright, what else we got guys? Some stand ups, we got Cointaker's booth over here. They've got a mounted out Star Wars here. Let's get in there and see this thing. All the tie-podders up there.
    20:50
    The white powder coat. Flipper toppers. Extra lighting. LCD bezel. Yeah, that's everybody's favorite part. Got the translucent apron with lights in it. Cool product, cool product. Got the little Millennium Falcon right there. Very cool. I like it. I like it, I like it. That's the Segway that I want to hop on right now. All kinds of cool coin taker stuff. And before we miss it, we've got Gopher's Twilight Zone, Corvette, Funhaus, Johnny Mnemonic, a little Jagbot action, we've got a Rollercoaster Tycoon that's under the weather, Avengers, Spider-Man, Flash, Jungle Queen, Sinbad, Captain Fantastic, Space Invader, F-14 Revenge, Remarque. Alright, here's everyone's favorite, Melissa from Coin Taker. Melissa say hello to everybody! Thank you. We got cool stuff here. That's nice. LED flipper buttons. Some back alley creation mods. We kind of got everything. Check it out. For sale. Really cool attack from Mars.
    22:45
    Looks really cool Oh the lonely big Lebowski over here in the corner See if we can squeeze around here and check it out It's still playing. It's just playing.
    23:29
    Very cool. $100,000 to $600,000. I like the show. Hey, thanks, man. I appreciate the support. Somebody who likes the show. That's freaking awesome.
    23:45
    Got all kinds of little marquee stuff up here. I'm out of Harry. What else we got? VP Cabs. Got a crap load of stuff here.
    23:56
    Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas Pinball Club. Working hard on fixing a NASCAR. Is that a panthera? I think so. Dead Man's hand? Pretty cool. All right, some more games and more games and more and more games. But this is the thin side booth. That's Robin right there if you guys don't know who he's saying. He's talking to Josh Kugler. at least cool ass shirts right here
    24:51
    that's a cool shirt I like that it's a heated discussion oh yeah say hi guys yeah thanks guys alright what else we got
    25:17
    Oh, you guys know this is my corner right here. American Pinball Soudini. Check out how cool these shirts are. I want this shirt right there. That's awesome.
    25:47
    Very very cool Hugen So how did he do? Say hi to this guy. Hey, thinking about my next game. Hey, that's nice. I like the thought bubbles. Alright guys, this is where it's at. This is the Marco booth. Wow. Wow!
    26:30
    They don't do things small here at Marco. Brand new ACDC Lucy, Guardians of the Galaxy Premium. Let's go up in here, shall we?
    26:46
    It's St. Patrick's Day here. We're having fun. Transformers here. Batman 66 That's the Marcos Wagner, Mr. Mark himself
    27:19
    What's going on man? Hey, what's happening buddy? How's everything? Doing nice job Doing a nice job. Doing good. Thanks, bud. Thanks.
    27:27
    Say hi to everybody. Woo! Hey, what's happening? It was a good night last night, wasn't it? Poor Lyman's still probably in his bedroom. I saw him. Did you? Smile or no smile? Really? Okay. All right. Good deal.
    27:50
    All right. I mean, there are games everywhere. Star Wars on top of Star Wars. Look at all the talent over here. You got Steve Ritchie.
    28:12
    Flaming Shoes. Signing some stuff. What's up, dude? Dirty Donnie. And this black light, look at this stuff.
    28:26
    I don't know if this picks up on video, but it's insane. What's up, darling? How's it going? It's nuts.
    28:41
    This is our man right here. Check out the artwork of this dude. Check it out. I want that banner. Look at him. He's just signing stuff like the pro that he is. You guys go check out French and some of his artwork. He does all kinds of stuff. You're gonna film me, you gotta tell me so I can suck in my gut. What's that? You're gonna film me, you gotta tell me so I can suck in my gut. Oh, stop it. Do we have pin sound over here? Yeah, we got it. I don't know what's going on there.
    29:22
    Alright. This is lighted pinballmods.com and as the name suggests everything's lit up. I do like these panels though and the different hinges.
    29:38
    Isn't that cool? Those go behind the panels. It's pretty neat Oh nice look They got a Guardians one That's cool I like it Oh Cool That's pretty badass actually I think I really like that Look at all this stuff I could spend too much money there.
    30:18
    Some more engines. Rude hands. That looks like Greg when he doesn't have a beer. Alright. All kinds of stuff. Glow rope. We got plasma pop bumpers. Look at all this stuff. What a pleasant problem. Check those out. That's cool. Very, very cool. Twilight Zone here with the color changing. Oh man, that's a lot of people. I'm going to go ahead and take a picture of this. Very, very cool. Twilight Zone here with the color changing. Oh man, that's pretty gnarly right there. I like it. So what did we miss? We missed something here. There's Marco again. Marco. This place is so big it's hard to cover everything. I like it. That's some Merco Playfields. Oh, this one's got that gold on it. Look at that. Woo! That's pretty. That's the glitter. Addams Family. I think I'd go for that. That's the kind that I'd want right there. go for that that's the kind that I want right there safe cracker Oh cactus candy
    32:08
    like that like a sheet of glass I love it I can respect having the family here with the company. That's cool. I'm a father. I love seeing the kids. Look at this booth.
    32:32
    Ginormous. Ginormous booth. This is Winner Wizard Enterprises. She's checking her Facebook. Snapchat. Don't tell nobody.
    32:50
    Alright. What's up, guys? Yeah. This is our favorite mod right here, the Color DMG. Check out the new Xpandas XL, right? Wow.
    33:02
    That's insane, man. Long time in the making. Everybody's waiting for this one. How cool is that? You guys got to get one if you have any of these second machines. Come on.
    33:23
    Thanks, Ranger. All right. Electro 8-Ball to lock. Sharpshooter. Lost in space. That's a Sega you know. See we've got Junkyard Creature.
    33:52
    Some stand up. We've got Pinballs. PinballsArcade.com in Austin. They got some cool machines over here.
    34:06
    My favorite place though... So it got to be flipping out pinball That the layers Look who it is Look how easy Larry makes it. I know that guy. He's a sexy son of a... Super Force skill shot shooters. These things are cool. I like that one. The 3D effect.
    34:40
    Got the cool locks. Are these locks available now? Oh, yeah. Oh. These are all unique because these are almost 100 years old. 100 years old? Wow. I think I might need to buy one by the end of the show of this one for my Houdini. Well, I ought to pull it off of there because there isn't any other one. There's another one. Let me see which ones I like. Okay. Let's see.
    35:05
    Which one do you think is the nicest one? I kind of like this one. Yeah. Which one do you guys think? That one probably is. You know, it's got the embossed letters on it. I do like that. And that's a real lock, huh? That is a real lock. How old is this lock? Over a hundred years. Over a hundred years old. These locks are old enough to have been on a carrier unit. That's really cool. What's this one say? This one says... This is a very slim chance that they were used to locks. Yeah, I never know. You never know. I don't know. You never know.
    35:40
    Which one do I want? I kind of like the one with the patina on it. Oh, my God. What do you guys think? Yeah, pull that one for me. I'll take that one later, okay?
    35:50
    Thanks, buddy. All right, well, there you go. The lady also has an American pinball, Sardini. There's all kinds of cool games right here. Raven.
    36:02
    Galaxy. Six Million Dollar Man. I will buy her a... You can't have a pinball show without having the measles.
    36:15
    Well, you don't want the measles, but you want to visit Measle Mods. How about that? Here's some of their new mods. Check this out.
    36:23
    They have the hammer for Guardians. They've got the inside for the... Oh, shit. What is that? The orb.
    36:36
    That's cool from Dialed In. That's brand new. Here's our favorite gal. Hi. Here's some measles. I was telling everybody it's not a pinball show without having the measles, but that didn't sound good. That doesn't sound good at all. So I told them they got an order from Measle Mugs. Yeah. You know, there's a rumor going around. Yes. That you guys might be getting into the topper business. I don't know if you've heard it yet, but we want Measle to make some toppers. It's true. Right now they're over putting the topper on dialed in. I'm going to have to go over there. I'll show the people. Very cool. This is our very first product right here. Yeah, it all starts with that. Donuts in heaven. And it still holds up today. It's cool. It does. If you've got a getaway, you have to have that. I like the Walking Dead RV, Dale's RV. Yeah, Dale's RV, that's badass. And this, come on. It belongs in the game. How about these? Oh, the Batman. Thank you. The crane. I like that too, the 3D. Yep, we have a whole line of flasher covers and flasher cover replacements. Very nice. I like to call it our lampshade line. Fill it up. Go to Measlemods.com and do a favor and tell them SDTM sent you. Yeah, I like it. You have fun. So yeah, we're going to go ahead and get on with the show and we'll be right back. Thank you. We're going to go check out that topper. Have fun.
    38:07
    All right. These games are modded out. LER or LER mods have done a good job, too. They've got all kinds of cool stuff here. Check this all out.
    38:22
    This is like a fantasy for the eyes for me. I love this stuff. Very cool. My favorite though is the behind the trans light stuff you guys do. Oh thank you. I love it. For the dialed in? All of them. Just all of them. I love them all. It does nice work on the backboard light. Yeah. Absolutely. You guys will have to check out. Do you pronounce that L-E-R or Lermont? Lermont. Lermont.com? Lermont.com. Awesome. Very cool. Check out all the stuff they have guys. I need that Gandalf. That's what I need. I need a Gandalf. I need that Gandalf. That's what I need. I need the Gandalf stuff.
    38:59
    You guys know me. I love my mods. I love them. Oh, I like the lightsabers. Those are cool. Millennium Falcon with the light-up mod. That's neat.
    39:14
    All the Avengers and Iron Man stuff. Even the spider. Awesome. Very cool, that ghost can go in so many different games too.
    39:30
    All of the backboard lighting to light up the back of those machines. Very cool. Thanks guys. Alright, that's my favorite right there.
    39:43
    Pop-Pot. These are only $2,000. It looks like a dirty one. I love my Pop-Pot. I love it. Nobody's playing now. All right, this is where we start Kingpin.
    40:02
    Jersey Jack games. I think Kingpin from now on is just known as Eric Menier's brother. We got Titan. We've got machines over there. I missed a road. I think I missed a road.
    40:18
    Sweet mother of Mary. Pin sound! Pin sound for all your sounding... I need to pick up one of those for Lord of the Rings.
    40:27
    That's a cool jazz thing. Sweet-ass centaur, isn't it? That game is brutal. We got some Andromedas. We've got a guy filming.
    41:17
    Good shot, buddy. Good shot. We got wood rails over here, wood rails. My goodness, there's so much stuff.
    41:30
    Everywhere you go, there's a pinball machine. Every single place you go, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, pinball, spinal tap, spinal tap, what is this?
    41:48
    Looks like Glass Gordon. All right. Thanks for watching.