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Episode 8: The Classic Pinball Podcast - Half Moon Arcade Weirs Beach Laconia, NH.

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·32m 2s·analyzed·Aug 21, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Eric Stone tours childhood arcades, dominates high scores, discusses tournament tilt controversies.

Summary

In Episode 8 of The Classic Pinball Podcast, hosts George and Dave visit Laconia, New Hampshire to meet world-ranked pinball player Eric Stone at two arcade venues—Half Moon Arcade and Petty Arcade—where Stone grew up and learned pinball. The episode covers Stone's origin story (receiving a Captain Fantastic machine at age 4 for developmental therapy), his domination of local high score boards, arcade gameplay commentary on classic and modern machines, and discussion of recent tournament experiences including disputed tilt rulings at Pinburgh and Pintastic, plus brief impressions of newer games like Jurassic Park and Willy Wonka.

Key Claims

  • Eric Stone's parents bought him a Captain Fantastic pinball machine at age 4 on doctor's advice to develop his hand-eye coordination

    high confidence · Eric Stone directly stated this in the episode opening, explaining the origin of his pinball interest

  • Eric Stone is ranked #12 in the world for pinball

    high confidence · Stated in the episode introduction by host George

  • Eric Stone won Free Play Florida tournament two years in a row

    high confidence · Eric Stone stated directly: 'When I did work, I played. I won it two years in a row.'

  • Eric Stone shot 4.731 billion on Addams Family at Petty Arcade—a score he describes as nearly unattainable

    high confidence · Directly observed and discussed during arcade walkthrough; score visible on machine

  • A disputed tilt at Pinburgh on Hot Tip cost Eric Stone seeding position, dropping him from 6th to 10th seed and forcing him to play Willy Wonka unprepared

    high confidence · Eric Stone recounted the incident in detail, noting Raymond Davidson experienced the same issue with the same machine

  • Eric Stone rolled over 100 million on Earthshaker but the machine only credited 39 million due to a rollover bug

    high confidence · Eric Stone described this technical failure: 'The problem is, the game didn't remember the 100 million... only gave me credit for 39 million'

  • Free Play Florida tournament occurs in November

    high confidence · Eric Stone directly stated: 'What time of year is that? November. Oh, so that's upcoming.'

  • Eric Stone grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and moved to Weir's Beach, New Hampshire at age 11, with family settling there around 1989

    high confidence · Eric Stone detailed his biographical timeline throughout the episode

Notable Quotes

  • “The doctors said that my nervous system wasn't developed right, and so I had no hand-eye coordination. So they bought a pinball thinking that that would develop hand-eye coordination.”

    Eric Stone @ ~2:30 — Explains the unusual origin of Stone's pinball career—therapeutic intervention by parents rather than pure recreation

  • “I'm here every day.”

    Eric Stone @ ~16:00 — Demonstrates Stone's deep connection to and frequent play at his local arcade

  • “It's not Iron Maiden.”

    Eric Stone @ ~58:00 — Direct comparative critique of Jurassic Park vs. Iron Maiden, both Elwin designs—establishes Stone's assessment that Jurassic Park falls short

  • “I know that it wasn't a tilt. I'm 100% sure.”

    Eric Stone @ ~46:00 — Emphatic assertion of the disputed Hot Tip tilt ruling, echoed by Raymond Davidson

  • “I won over 100,000 tickets to the Half Moon for free because of this game.”

    Eric Stone @ ~33:00 — Demonstrates Stone's historical dominance at skill-based redemption games at his local arcades

Entities

Eric StonepersonGeorgepersonDavepersonHalf Moon ArcadevenuePetty ArcadevenueFun SpotvenueRaymond DavidsonpersonCaptain Fantastic

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Eric Stone's disputed tilt ruling at Pinburgh on Hot Tip dropped him from 6th to 10th seed, forcing an unfamiliar Willy Wonka matchup and early elimination. Same issue confirmed by world's best player Raymond Davidson on same machine.

    high · Stone's detailed recounting: 'I got seeded 10th instead of 6th. So I got stuck playing Willy Wonka up on stage, which is a brand new game I've never played in my life.' Raymond Davidson confirmed identical experience.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Multiple instances of game malfunctions and technical issues affecting tournament outcomes discussed across Pinburgh and Pintastic events

    high · Hot Tip tilt issue at Pinburgh; Meteor rollover issue at Pintastic where Stone was awarded consolation ball; discussion of pitch adjustments (2x4 under back legs) during tournament play

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Eric Stone's unfamiliarity with Willy Wonka (brand new game to him) resulted in immediate elimination at Pinburgh; contrasts with his quick mastery of other games like Jurassic Park and Jersey Jack Pirates

    high · 'Willy Wonka, I've never played in my life... I literally had one flip. I bricked it.' Scored zero in qualifying; forced matchup caused elimination.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Eric Stone assesses Jurassic Park (Keith Elwin, Elwin Pinball) as falling short of Iron Maiden (also Elwin), citing repetitiveness and lack of depth despite impressive mechanical features

    medium · 'It's not Iron Maiden... it seemed like, all right, spell chaos, start multi-ball. What else am I supposed to do?... Iron Maiden, there's a lot of stuff you can do.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.096

0:00
It's Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Summertime, Batосс!
0:24
Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 8 of the Classics. classic pinball podcast. My name is George, and in this episode, Dave and I take a road trip to Laconia, New Hampshire to visit with number 12 world-ranked pinball player Eric Stone. We visit the arcades of his youth and play several games of pinball with Eric.
0:49
Here we are in Weir's Beach, Laconia, New Hampshire. I'm with Dave. Hello, George. Maureen and our special guest from Florida returning a month later Eric Stone actually I'm from here I'm from about a mile away well right okay you're back home at my favorite place phone spot where I love to win tokens and tickets just a few though just a couple I think Dave has a couple of questions to get us started today. Yeah, Eric. So, how did you get started with this whole pinball thing in the first place? There's a rumor that you had a pinball machine early on, like two years old, something like that. Four years old. Right, yeah. My parents bought me a Captain Fantastic when I was four years old. Now, why would they buy you a Captain Fantastic? How did that all happen? They just, the doctors said that my nervous system wasn't developed right, and so I had no hand-eye coordination. So they bought a pinball thinking that that would develop hand-eye coordination. Wow, they were visionaries. Look at that. That's amazing. Yeah, they're Christian and they said you know what, we're not going to believe this. Wow, so they didn't believe the whole doctor thing. They rejected that and said and had faith that I was going to grow up to be halfway normal and I guess I'm halfway normal. Yeah, I think you're halfway at least. You know, I mean. So what year was this?
game
Pinburghevent
Pintasticevent
Free Play Floridaevent
Jurassic Parkgame
Willy Wonkagame
Iron Maidengame
Hot Tipgame
Keith Elwinperson
Chuck Websterperson
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Addams Familygame
Attack from Marsgame

venue_signal: Eric Stone reports severe shortage of recent Stern machines in Florida market; only local access to Munsters, Deadpool, and Aerosmith, with most quality collectors concentrated on East Coast

high · 'We don't get any. We hardly get anything local... The only Sterns that I have close by are the Munsters... most of them are on the East Coast.'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Named collectors in Florida include Jeff Palmer, Ron Donahue, Sebastian Bobbio, and Eric Leon in Naples; concentration of collections in West Palm Beach to Miami corridor

    medium · Eric Stone listing collectors: 'Jeff Palmer... Ron Donahue... Sebastian Bobbio... Eric Leon's got a good collection. He's down in Naples, so he's about 40 minutes away from me.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Free Play Florida tournament occurs annually in November; Eric Stone won two consecutive years but has faced scheduling conflicts preventing recent participation

    high · 'Free Play Florida... What time of year is that? November... When I did work, I played. I won it two years in a row. And then last year I had to work.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple late 1980s-early 1990s machines (Earthshaker, Theater of Magic, Grand Stoker Dracula, Genesis) have rollover scoring bugs that fail to credit scores above 10 million, suggesting design limitation where manufacturers didn't anticipate such high play durations

    high · Earthshaker: 'only gave me credit for 39 million'; Dracula: 'forgot the 10 million'; Theater of Magic: '15 billion, and it forgot the 10 billion, gave me credit for five'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Eric Stone's pinball journey began unusually at age 4 when parents purchased Captain Fantastic machine (1976) per doctor's recommendation to develop hand-eye coordination due to nervous system development concern

    high · Stone's direct account: 'The doctors said that my nervous system wasn't developed right... They bought a pinball thinking that that would develop hand-eye coordination.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Significant variation in arcade game maintenance across venues; Half Moon and Petty Arcades show inconsistent upkeep (GI lights out on Cyclone, multiple non-functional machines, variable waxing and pitch settings)

    medium · Cyclone: 'GIs are out, but I can still play it pretty well'; 8-Ball Deluxe: 'Haven't worked forever'; Theater of Magic: 'waxed the crap out of it... plays just like a tournament game'

  • ?

    content_signal: The Classic Pinball Podcast planning continuation with Eric Stone tour of Fun Spot (world's largest arcade in Laconia) in next episode, indicating structured multi-part arc

    high · 'In our next episode, Eric will be back and give us a tour of the world's largest arcade, Fun Spot, in Laconia, New Hampshire.'

    • 2:25
    1979 when they bought it. Oh, so that was a fairly new game. Captain is 76. Captain's made in 76. Is it? Yeah. Okay. So that's a pretty new game for a four-year-old. Yeah, it was great. Had to be. I didn't know anything about it. And then a couple years later, because I lived in Jersey, we would go to 7-Elevens, and 7-Elevens had pit bull machines inside way back when. Did I know that you were from New Jersey? I don't know. Because you don't know I'm from New Jersey. No, baby, you don't. I didn't know he was from New Jersey. Where? Cherry Hill. South Jersey. Oh, okay. I grew up in North Jersey. That's why. So you were on the boardwalk, too? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. So you know what boardwalk, though? Wildwood. Different than mine. Right. Were you at Poy Pleasant? No, South. I was at Seaside Heights. Oh, okay. Wow. I didn't know that about you. That's pretty cool. So I was born in Philadelphia. We lived in Jersey until I was 11, and my parents spent vacation right here at Weir's Beach for years, even before I was born.
    3:34
    And, you know, my mom liked it a lot up here compared to South Jersey. Sorry, Cherry Hill. No, Cherry Hill was nice. Well, they had the racetrack, right? Yep, yep, the horse track right there. Right, Garden State? Garden State Parkway, yep. Yeah. And so we came up here when I was 11, and we lived in South Down Shores, which is closer toward Laconia. And they bought land in Weir's Beach in the early 80s and decided to build a house on it. So 89 is when we moved in, so about 30 years ago.
    4:07
    Wow. It was 30 years ago, right around Labor Day is when we moved in. If you want to park in this church parking lot, Dave, it'll be free parking right here. I was just going to tell everybody we really are on the road. So just keep going and see if you can find a spot. If there's no spot in here, I'll tell you another parking lot you can park at. So before we go in. I wouldn't park on the right just because I don't know. I know it says tow. So when was the transition from home play to arcade play? Oh, it was when I was six years old. My dad would take me to 7-Elevens, and he would get a coffee and a paper and give me 50 cents. and I would go in and play. Usually they were the, what is it, System 80 Gottliebs?
    4:53
    Is that what they were? Series 80? What year would this be? About 1980. Yeah, it would be System 80. Yeah, System 80 Gottliebs. Genie and Counter Force. That's System 1, isn't it? That's System 1. System 1 is 79, so probably System 1, which is a great system. Yeah, and so I would go in there with 50 cents and usually I'd only need one corner and play for 45 minutes to an hour. And my dad would get a paper and drink his coffee and everything was great.
    5:23
    That's a great story. We did it every weekend. He would come in and tell me, okay, we're ready to go.
    5:36
    I can show you some of my scores. So first of all, where are we? Weir's Beach at the Half Moon Arcade. Okay.
    5:47
    And we're going to my little playground where about all the games are EJSs. Oh, we got pinball. Oh, Dave, look. Dave, there's a free game on Cyclone. The only problem is the GIs are out, but I can still play it pretty well. Do it up. See how the GIs are going? So we're playing William Cyclone. Well, you know what? It looks like the ball's not too. Oh, there it is. Alright. Oh, you didn't even get a tilt! I got a danger. I guess that means I'm only good because I, uh, shaped the game, right? I don't know anything about this game, so if you want to do some commentary while you're playing... Well, first of all, I've got no light, so I want to hit that right ramp three times in a row. So there's one. We'll transfer the ball over, hit it again. Yep, yep, and then we'll do it again. There's two. Oh look at you there! Not quite. And there's three. Jackpot! And you heard the pop. So
    6:47
    there's two million right there. Will this give you free games? Oh yeah, I just got a free game, did you hear it? Oh that was a free game? Oh yeah, oh yeah. And you're only on ball one. Right. But I mean that's, you know, when I come to an arcade that's typical. especially for Cyclone. I think the replay on Cyclone is $800,000 to a million, but the GIs are out, so you can't see the likes. You can't see the one, two, three likes. You passed the scoring threshold. You won a jackpot. Yes. Oh, no, no. I passed the scoring threshold for a free game. Okay. But also got a jackpot at the same time. Now, I just relit it, so I'm going to go for it again.
    7:30
    It's only going to be worth $500,000, but you know what? It's better than nothing. There's two. And there's the third. Nope, not quite. Oh, that was bad luck there.
    7:41
    So I got two of the right ramps and then right down the middle. It went up the ramp a little bit and came straight down. And when it does that, sometimes it's difficult.
    7:51
    Difficult to save it. So now I got to relay it again I could also go for the bonus multiplier if I hit the bonus multiplier two or three times it will give you a free game And all Cyclones are set to a certain number of bonus multipliers. But it's a risky shot. So, I don't know anything about this game. So basically the right ramp and then on the left there, is that a scoop or a target for the multiplier? That's a scoop. Okay, so the scoop is the multiplier. Right. So with no GI, as you can see, there's no GI. I got all four of the high scores.
    8:35
    So you actually are the blind king playing. 8,000,008, 7,000,008, 7,000,005, 6,000,006. You look at the getaway. You look at the getaway over here. He did it. He did. Look at that. He checked the coin slot. So not only does he get a free game, he got a quarter. He got a quarter. He is a liar. Yeah, but I know which games. There's my 62 million on Attack from Mars. See? And then I've got all the scores on this. They're all EJS everywhere. Oh, yeah. How often do they take your EJS off the boards? They're not like Fun Spot. Okay. No, Fun Spot will sometimes reset them. Okay. Sarah, I think, you know, might reset them. So when was the last time you were here?
    9:18
    Yesterday? I'm here every day. When did you... I'll ask the question. When did you... Yeah, how long is this? The score was probably a year or so ago.
    9:27
    They haven't reset this, but I did have three billion on this one, which is really good. But that was four or five years ago. I will show you at the other arcade probably one of the highest scores you've ever seen on Adam's Family.
    9:40
    No, I guarantee it's the highest score you've ever seen. And that's actually on the Adam's Family. It's probably not optimized and not really restored. No. Linting along. Right, exactly. Why don't we take a walk and go through. You guys can mention all the different games and then you can decide to play one. How's that? Yep. So let's do the walkthrough here. Well, so this is the getaway. Great game. The only thing about these arcades at Weir's Beach is that they don't have many sterns. They only have the Sipsons and Lord of the Rings, unfortunately. Yeah, for sterns.
    10:14
    So we have getaway, cyclone, twilight zone. Which has been out for a while Looks dark and very lonely Attack from Mars The Simpsons Pinball Party And Lord of the Rings And then we have old school Hold on here Look at EJS on Attack from Mars Re-election number one Never heard of that before If you rule the universe One game It says ruler of the universe EJS If you do it twice in a row It'll say re-election number one If you do it another time, it'll say re-election number two. And it'll just keep going up. Wow. I know. That's pretty funny, huh? That's kind of cool. It's almost like Trump's playing this game. Oh, he went there. He went there. Maybe. It hasn't happened yet, but... It'll happen.
    11:04
    And what else we got here? We got... Now, this game has a malfunction. Obviously, $652 million. On the pinball party. Yeah, right. That's not going to happen. Okay. And how about Lord of the Rings? You got in that one, too? Yeah. $300 million on that one. Oh, and then we have some nice old school games. All right, old school games. We've got Godly Eldorado. That's a really good one. Yeah. And that one actually plays pretty well. How do you do on this one, Eldorado? Oh, I do fine. Flip it over a couple times? No, there's no extra balls. Okay. So just once. Okay. And then... Yeah, how about 8-ball? You've got a nice 8-ball deluxe. It's actually the original 8-ball deluxe, 81.
    11:47
    Haven't worked forever. It hasn't worked in forever. Well, maybe I should apply my services here and I can get it going for you. Let's see. And this, this was working a year ago. I don't know what, I don't know. It's a Williams Jumpin' Jacks. It looks like a 1965 because it's got a ball push-up, not an automatic ball serve. That's right. So I'm going to say mid-60s somewhere. Yeah. Little flippers, little two-inch flippers, two-player.
    12:15
    It's got girls dressed as bunnies on the back glass. Kind of like Ariana Grande a little bit. And then we got a Williams upper deck. We got a baseball pitching bat. You got to have one of those in the market. Have one of those. Probably not Eric's claim to fame as a pitching bat thing. No, I've done well. I used to play these games at Fun Spot winning tickets. You'd get 10 or 15 runs and you'd win like 10 or 20 tickets. So that was cool. Very nice. I'm going to quick knock on the door of the Fix It guy and see if he's in there. All right. a couple credits. Excellent. We're going to get some free credits from the Fix-It guy, I think.
    12:57
    This is the Petty Arcade at Weir's Beach. This is where I learned how to play Miracle Hat. That was the first game, first redemption game, that you could win tokens on, that I mastered when I was 14. So I actually won over 100,000 tickets to the Half Moon for free because of this game. Well, they had the same game in Fun Spot, and I won thousands of tokens before they threw me off for winning too much. So you're in the professional gambler situation. Yeah, and that's one of many games that I mastered that were actual skill. A lot of games are not skill. A lot of games are luck.
    13:35
    A good example? It's a stacker game. It's got to take in so much money before it'll let you hit the top level for a major prize. So how much skill is that? Nothing? Nothing, no skill there. It's a game of skill. That's what we're looking for. Just like pinball. A little bit of luck thrown into it. It is kiddie redemption. Actually it's kiddie gambling land is what it is. Is there any kiddie gambling here? Probably not. Well, it's some old school video games. You have the Galaxian. Oh, there's some pinballs. There is some pinballs. Here we go. Oh, there is pinballs. We do. We have Funhouse. So Funhaus, I just put up And this is a rough playing Funhaus 77 million like two or three days ago Oh no, 77 million Yeah, it's a rough playing one Look at the play field It's all You can tell the inserts are all jacked up So there's a 77 Somebody got 28 I don't know who that was It doesn't look like your game, Dave No, no, no, no How's the flipper power on the Funhaus here?
    14:39
    Yeah, kind of Okay Yeah How's about the high speed? His high speed looks pretty good. Yeah, but there's an issue with the flipper. I had rolled all four scores, and they just reset last year. Or this year, actually. Then I got 41 on Harley-Davidson. Oh, it's the old Valley 1990 Harley-Davidson. Yep. I got all the highs. So this Adams family, it was a two-hour game. 4.7 billion.
    15:05
    Right there. 4.731 billion. 4.7. Just shy of 5 billion. Pretty unattainable by, I don't know, everyone, I think. Yeah, yeah, I don't think many people are going to beat that. If they do, they'd have to play it over two hours. Yikes, that's a long time. I mean, even I was getting a little tired. My first ball was 3.2 million. Wow. Yeah. Wow. But, I mean, you know, you get a lot of extra balls in this game, but still you've got to make your shots or it's very easy to go out. The outlanes are not. The outlanes are pushed up, as you can see. Oh, yeah, they're at very. The outlanes are wide open. Okay, yep. And the tilt is like an Adams family tilt. But you get one decent nudge, you get two warnings. If not, you'll tilt the game. How's your flipper power in this game? Good power for flippers? Not bad. But I noticed this year I played it, and I got three scores of 1,000,003, as you can see there. And the left flipper is really difficult to make that ramp now It wants to push it to the right So it a little off compared to
    16:07
    How about Earthshaker? Some Earthshaker. Yeah, that's one of my favorite games. I rolled this a couple years ago. I got over 100 million. It took an hour and 45 minutes. But the problem is, the game didn't remember the 100 million. So 139 million, it only gave me credit for 39 million. So I did all that work for nothing. And then another time, I got to 99 million, and I tried to tilt it right before it got to 100, and it gave me two warnings, and by the time it tilted, it had rolled over. Didn't you just have this happen, the rollover thing? Yeah. At Pintastic, Robocop rolled over 14 million a month ago. Right, but nobody was there, right? Oh, no, they were there. Oh, who was watching? They saw it. Levy, right? Was it Levy watching? Yeah, yeah, Levy was watching and a couple other guys. I make sure when I get close. Yeah, someone's there. Yeah, but I didn't think it would forget it. Like, it forgot the $10 million part. It only gave me credit for $4 million. So it did let me put a high score for $14 million. So it was really weird. So I guess some of those games in the late 80s, early 90s, Dracula does the same thing. I got over $10 million on Grand Stoker Dracula, and it forgot the $10 million. You know why? They probably don't think that anybody's crazy enough or good enough to get that high. We don't need to put that feature in there. We'll leave that off. Genesis was another one. I got $156 million on Genesis. That game was at least two and a half hours. I had the multiplier, if people know that game, up to 80 times. Wow, that's insane. 80 times play field multiplier. But when you complete all the body parts, it likes an extra ball. So I just kept completing the body parts. You've got to do it on one ball, but I kept doing it.
    17:40
    But in tournament mode, for some reason, I struggle in that game. A lot of times the flippers are really weak. They don't make the ramps. And when it goes halfway up the ramp, it comes down and goes right down the middle. So there's really not much you can do on that. So are we going to see a high score in Theater of Magic as well? Well, normally you would, but this game had a malfunction. So that 5.8 by somebody else was basically every time you flipped the flipper, it was giving you credit for hitting the trunk. Oh, wow. So you were getting trunk billions. Wow. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Okay. And so I actually played it like that, rolled it over, got 15 billion, and it forgot the 10 billion, gave me credit for five. And they erased the score. They thought they had it fixed, but they didn't have it fixed. So the high score is 5.8 million on the malfunction. I just played it the other night for the first time as it's playing. Normally it got 4.1 billion. They waxed the crap out of it. This plays just like a tournament game. It plays fast. Fast and furious. And for my first game, 4.1, that was pretty good.
    18:44
    I was happy with that score. Yeah, I'm looking at the back leg. This thing is jacked up all the way max. that Bureau of Magic is always jacked up. Do you have a 2x4 back there? Well, they could put a 2x4 back there to add a little more, but it is pretty high. You know what's funny? I was playing a Joe Junot tournament down in Florida, Daytona Beach, right? And I was doing so well on Spider-Man, the Stern.
    19:08
    The day after qualifying, well, it was three tournaments in three days. After the first day, he put a 2x4 under the back legs. Wow. And I still got over $100 billion. But everybody else was struggling. So I thought, well, that's fine with me. I can play games going fast. But I've seen multiple people do that. That's the one case that that's the first time I've ever seen it. Put a two-by-four to make the game play fast. I said, that's okay. And if people are going to do that, you really need powerful flippers to get up those ramps, especially in a modern game. His game was great. The Spider-Man played amazing. But I just thought it was funny that in between the tournament days, he put a two-by-four in the back to make it harder. but my first game was a hundred-something million. So the way he did that is he actually had some people play it on a little easier setting, and then later on someone played it on a hard setting, and it's all equal? Oh, no, no, no. The settings were tournament settings. Well, I'm saying the pitch of the game is a lot harder, so is that all in the same qualification? No, no, no. There were three tournaments in three days. Okay, gotcha. So the first day was one, and then the second day was... So the second day he put the 2x4 and raised the back up and there it is. This might be a good time to talk about other things that have happened more recently. I was listening to another person's podcast and they were talking about one of the rounds at Hindenburg where there was an issue with the tilt.
    20:45
    And I guess midway through that particular round, they figured out something was wrong. They stopped the play and made the correction, which doesn't sound right, but other people backed up that it was the right thing to do. Did you hear anything about this when you were there? No. Uh-uh. I would have liked to have heard it. When I was playing hot tip, I was flipping just as normal, and I shats passed to the right flipper. I had the spinner lit. I hit the spinner for 60,000. Ball was bouncing to the pops. I caught the ball back on the left flipper, cradled the ball for a few seconds like I do. Then I shats passed it again, and as soon as I shats passed it, the game tilted.
    21:34
    And I knew it wasn't a tilt. I'll always know it's not a tilt, because on EMs, I don't go crazy. I'm aggressive on games where I got tilt warnings. But on EMs, I'm not going to be shaking this and shaking that unless the ball's going down maybe on ball five. But this was ball three, and I would have at least taken the lead.
    21:57
    I would have at least taken second place if I just hit the spinner one more time. And I'm confident I would have because I was dialed in on it. and I got the guy to come over right away. It took me 15 seconds to get over to the light because I ran. It took 20 seconds for Lewis to come over to me, and it took 15 seconds for me to walk him over, 20 seconds for me to walk him over to the game.
    22:22
    And he opened the game up within a minute to a minute and 10 seconds, and the tilt bob was barely moving. And the rule was that I tilted, even though I know it wasn't a tilt. and I posted on Facebook about it, and the best player in the world, Raymond Davidson, said the same thing happened to him with the same exact game.
    22:42
    Same exact title. No, it was that game. He said that particular hot tip at Pittsburgh. Same thing happened to him. So I know that it wasn't a tip. I'm 100% sure. And George, when you were saying about this thing that you were talking about the other podcast, you were actually talking about hot tip?
    23:00
    I don't remember. But we're recording, so I can go back and listen and figure out what game they were talking about. So I think I remember the podcast. I listened to so many of them that, you know, especially Pinberg, you know, everybody had their opinion. Everybody did a wrap-up. But I think I know where it is, so I'll take a look. So anyway, at Pintastic, you remember I was playing Meteor, and I was playing against Chuck Webster, and I had $750,000 of ball won with a full bonus. I flipped the ball and the game tilted.
    23:35
    And Chuck said, no, he just flipped the ball. Just like the guys at Pitberg said, no, he just flipped the ball. And the ruling was a malfunction of the game and I got awarded a consolation ball. That's what should have happened. But, you know, I'm not in charge and stuff like that happens. I think if your opponents that want to beat you confirm that you didn shake you didn do anything but flip you open the game up and the tilt bob is barely moving
    24:08
    then it shouldn't be a tilt. Some people arguing on the other side of it would say, well, yeah, but those people that you're playing against don't want to piss you off, so of course they're going to agree with you and say that everything's cool. I think with me, people would lead to not giving me any advantage whatsoever. They might just say, I don't know, leave it up to the judge kind of thing. But they didn't even say that. They didn't say that. No. They said he didn't do anything but flip.
    24:33
    Jermaine, a great pinball player, he was in my group, said the same thing. What round was this? The last round. So basically, because of that, because I lost that point. You got seeded, what, like 13th or 10th? I got seeded 10th instead of 6th. So I got stuck playing Willy Wonka up on stage, which is a brand new game I've never played in my life. and I took a zero on it, and I was out in the first round. Otherwise, I would have gotten a six. I wouldn't have played Willy Wonka because I would have had the choice, and I think I would have done a lot better than out in the first round. Because you can pick a whole, if you're picking, you get to pick the whole lineup. The whole bank, right. The whole bank, yeah. Do you want to take a minute to talk about Willy Wonka? No, because... Okay, good. Good, good, no, that's it. It's a bad memory. Good, good. You know, I like Jersey Jack Pirates. I was at a friend's house The guy that runs a pinball asylum in Fort Myers I was at his house From midnight until 3 in the morning one night I played three games of Pirates And my third game I had 3.7 million And I said okay I know what I'm doing on this game And that's tournament mode, no extra balls So I was all set On Jersey Jack Pirates And in qualifying I played it and got over a million So But Willy Wonka, I've never played in my life. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
    25:54
    I literally had one flip. I bricked it, went right down the middle. The second ball, zero flips. And the third ball, I think I had three flips. Not knowing what I... Oh, the scoop rejected it. It was supposed to go in the scoop. It rejected it and went right down the middle. Do you know anything about this game? No. Yeah, I've seen it, but I haven't played it. Me too. Apparently, there's a scoop where you lock the ball. It went in the scoop, popped out, and then went right down the middle. It probably means something to somebody. I don't know how much of our audience. Our audience, probably not. I'm sure once I get to know the game, maybe I'll like it.
    26:28
    You don't have enough time on it to... I had zero time. Right. And you guys, you know, you know me well enough that when I play a game for the first time, I'm not good. A good example is I played the New Jurassic Park. My first game was $3 billion. Oh, here we go. Dino talk. Oh, more dino talk. My second... No one's talking about this game. my second game, well the whole point is the scores, $3 billion in the first game the second game was $841 million grand champion, because I figured out some shots, and I figured out what I needed to do, so if I could have found a Willy Wonka I might have known what I was doing, but I didn't right, so is the Jurassic Park as good as everybody claims it to be? I don't know, it's alright, I mean, I don't know the whole game I don't think it's not You're a good read. I don't think it's an Iron Maiden.
    27:20
    Oh, okay. That's good. It seemed to be. Okay, there you go. It seemed to be. Let's frame that. Eric Stone just said, it's not Iron Maiden. Not Iron Maiden. Okay. There you go. Well, because they were both made by Elwin. Right. So, I mean, he did a darn good job with Iron Maiden. Yeah, he did. And, I mean, from what I see with Jurassic Park, it's not bad. It's not a bad game. you definitely sprinkles Keith Elwood's magic in there with the shots and this and that. Sure. But it just seemed like, all right, spell chaos, start multi-ball. What else am I supposed to do? You know what I mean? So this was the pro model, right? Yeah. I want to see this dino mech throwing the ball all over the play field, wrecking stuff, plastic. It's going to be the mechanics nightmare. Dave, you're going to make a lot of money on that game. Well, that's not a bad thing. Well, the whole thing is, you know, until you get to play it and you understand the game, you can't really say whether a game is great or not. You know what I'm saying? Right. First impression, I like the game, but for me it was very repetitious. Iron Maiden, there's a lot of stuff you can do.
    28:31
    And maybe Jurassic Park, there is too. I just haven't got into it yet. Same thing with Jersey Jack Pirates. There's a lot of stuff you can do. Willy Wonka I don't know what to do Where did you play Jurassic Park At Pinnberg Yeah Okay So you don't have one local yet Are you kidding We don't get any We hardly get anything local It's awful You know The only Sterns that I have Close by Are the Munsters I think I have a Deadpool I can play An Aerosmith And That might be it This is weird Iron Maiden Out of Fort Myers. Fort Myers, okay. So there's no private collectors that buy? Well, yeah, there are a few, but most of them are on the East Coast. So not close by. A lot of great collectors. Jeff Palmer, if you heard his name. Ron Donahue, Sebastian Bobbio. I don't know any of those people. Other people that live from West Palm Beach down toward Miami.
    29:34
    They've got a lot of good collections. Eric Leon's got a good collection. He's down in Naples, so he's about 40 minutes away from me. So you're going to help our Florida demographics by mentioning all these people. Right. Is there more we should know about the Florida scene? Isn't there a big show down there once a year, right? Yeah, yeah. Free Play Florida. What time of year is that? November. Oh, so that's upcoming. Yep. So it's tough for me. When I did work, I played. I won it two years in a row. And then last year I had to work, so I wasn't able to go. And I don't know how it's going to work this year, if I'm going to be able to go or not.
    30:17
    That concludes Episode 8 of the Classic Pinball Podcast. I want to thank Eric for giving us a tour of the two arcades from his youth. in our next episode, Eric will be back and give us a tour of the world's largest arcade fun spot in Laconia, New Hampshire. So until next time, be good and be well. I want to tell everybody to keep those spinners spinning and have a blessed day and be grateful.
    30:57
    You want to know something? What? I'm feeling really, really old. Well, you are old You don't know what the poopy thing is I mean, everybody wants one I've been wanting one forever I've seen that emoji, but I didn't know it was called a poopy emoji Is it a hat one? A hat emoji? A poop hat Do you know what they sell? They sell unicorns That actually poop out swirly poop They're the unicorns You can buy them I have a polar bear that poops out milk duds Awesome