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 is true. They're not in this thing, so how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old barcade, and then we'll learn about each other. From two pennants to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today? Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball episode 16. I'm Tim Lee and I'm here with my co-host Rachel Lilge. And we're here to bring you another great guest and another great episode. How are you doing today, Rachel? I'm doing all right. I'm having a beer. Having a beer. Okay. I'm having a beer as well. What kind of beer are you having? It's a blueberry ale from Sideswipe Brewery in Columbus, Ohio. Oh, Amy Lee would love that. She likes blueberry beer. I'm having a Lancaster Brewing Cerveza beer. So I'm having a Mexican-style beer that came from Lancaster. Does it have a lime in it? It does not. I didn't have any limes. I went and looked for one, but I didn't have one. That's okay. I drink it as is too, especially if it's the only ice-cold beer. Yeah, yeah. It's the way to go. So we haven't been together in a few weeks. You were traveling, and then I was traveling. But I still don't have a lot of personal pinball news, so we'll jump into that. And I'll tell you, I haven't done a lot. I had a couple of parties, and I had a lot of people over to play pinball. And they really enjoyed the games, but I didn't do a whole lot. I put LEDs in Adam's family. I put a new board in Adam's family for the magnet. But that's about it. Outside of that, just playing pinball with friends and family. It was quite enjoyable, but not a whole lot. Oh, I got my Guns N' Roses topper today from JJP. Yay! Yeah. It's nice, a little underwhelming. There's not a whole lot to it. I was hoping it would flash with the music or something, but it's not bad. Amy likes it, and that's all that matters. Yeah, well, do you like it? That also matters. Yeah, I do. I do. It's kind of neat. I was just hoping it would be a little more interactive, but it's not. So life goes on. It's still a pretty cool game. So what have you been up to? Well, I'm so jealous about your Addams Family. I think that is a grail game for me. Man, it takes me back to being on a roller skate. I was like, I don't know, 13 playing it at the roller rink. Man, I want that game someday. The more I play it or run into that game on location or other places, the more I want to have one. someday we win the lottery do you know what's crazy about that game but we've talked about this before there's no ball save it kills me it is like i have so many balls go just right down the outlanes right down the drain and i'm just waiting for it to kick out and nope nothing that's so interesting i actually had that question recently maybe we talked about that on our podcast or maybe i talked about that in real life about that there is no ball save on adam's family i didn't know if that was just a setting or that's all games all adam's family games nope if you let the ball drain and it doesn't touch a switch it will give you the ball back but there's no like five or ten second ball save i really wish there was i think it's impossible i think it's impossible to not hit a switch or not score any points in adam's family before it drains yeah you kind of just gotta plunge it and not go into the thing um lock and have it not hit a yeah have it not hit a sling on the way down. I've done it once. So, all right. So let's talk about your personal pinball news. What do you got going on? Yes. You and I have both been doing a lot of traveling recently and part of my travels does include pinball. I have opportunity to attend Wizards World in Fort Wayne, Indiana held by my buddy, Mike. It was really an unbelievable weekend. I decided to spend a Friday and Saturday night. I thought it would be smart for me to go out Friday because it was a six-hour drive, I think, or so from my house to there, maybe a little bit longer than that to get there. So I had the opportunity to take off my Friday afternoon, drove out, and I was able to play Friday night. I thought it would be great to scope out some of the games for the tournament on Saturday. That place is amazing. Number one, if you live anywhere within an eight-hour drive of Fort Wayne, Indiana, you need to go to Wizards World. it is the games are fantastic they have several several there have custom shooter knobs the it's a it's coin drop the best thing about that place is that it was so much fun in terms of some games had a really tight tilt other ones are super loose so you never knew what you're going to get and it was also very refreshing for me as a player playing somewhere other than competitive of pinball just at District 82 where everything there is set to tight, which is good and a good way to make you a better player and all that. But also at the same time, pinball should just be fun for the joy of, hey, you know, I can really shove this game around, right? Yep, yep, I agree. Yeah, so on Friday night when I got there, there was a four-strike event. I did pretty good, actually. I came in second place. Oh, nice. Thanks. I won a plaque. I couldn't even believe that. I thought that was really incredible that he had first, second, third place plaques, and he does that for all of his women's events that are held there. And it's actually the Women of Wizards World. Anyways, it was crazy. I took two strikes right away, and I went on, I think, an eight-win streak, six or eight-win streak, and then I lost the last two to come in second place. All I had to do was win one more game, but I lost to Dub Dull, and she is a fantastic player. I was able to learn a lot from her and watching some of the other gals that night that this is their place, this is their league, and being able to observe how they bump their games around. Okay. Well, congrats. Congrats. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. It was really such a cool place. When I walked in there, there's, you know, it's, it's a little, can be a little overwhelming walking into this place with 130 plus machines and looking around and walk up to the front counter and I look at Mike and I look at the Pentex and other folks that were there. And I asked them, have I died and gone to pinball heaven? I mean, it's so wonderful, that place. Please, friends, if you're listening and you live within the region, please go check out this place. It's unbelievable. And his plans for expansion and down the road there are pretty unbelievable. Okay. I also want to talk about, I have a lot to talk about today. The second thing that happened there at the first Women of Wizards World Tournament, or they called it their WOW Tournament. It was great. great. It was a six round, three games per round. It was a different style. I never played before. They included coffee orders, pizza, snacks, water, all the goodies during the day. Plus they gave away, everybody went home with a water bottle or canned koozies. I also got hooked up with some cool Wizard World sunglasses as well. They really treated their tournaments fantastic. In addition to the $1,000 purse prize, which I believe was Emily Sweeney out of Chicago that took it all. Wow. Yeah. I came in 15th out of 30. I'm okay with that. I met women from Alabama, Ohio, Illinois. It goes on. Nice. My best game of that day was Hot Wheels, especially with our upcoming guest today. I just want to note that Hot Wheels was the only other place I played it is at our guest's home. and so this is the second first time i've ever found it on location and i really didn't know how to play the game and i walked up to it i didn't know i texted glenn actually and he knew nothing about it couldn't help me thanks glenn so i did the second best thing which i don't want to look at my phone look at pen tips and mess around with all that i walked up to the game you know what i did tim what i read the card oh i never have my glasses so i can't read the card Oh, thank goodness my eyes still can read that. I don't know, maybe in a year from now I'll have to bring readers and hang those on my neck or something. But I read the card, and I went for the, I think it's the Red Maniac multiball. I'm sure I'll get corrected. And then I back-to-back that with another multiball and blew it up on ball two. And that game was a lot of fun. The layout and the shooting of it, what am I looking for, the flow, was a lot of fun. That was my best game that day. I really just enjoyed myself. And I believe that Wizards World is looking to do another one next year. And if there is 100 women that show up, he will give away or do a drawing or raffle or something for a pinball machine. Nice. Right. So I'm going to, you know, keep recruiting ladies into pinball because I want that to happen. Yeah. Being one in 100, why not? Awesome. So the second really cool thing that I did, like I said, I did a lot of traveling. It was over Labor Day weekend. I went out to visit my sister in Columbus, Ohio. I also got to see my cousin Amy, her husband Brett. I got to also see our other tribe member Pete Quint and, of course, Tish. Two lovely people. Yep. Yeah, all the Seabus people. Woo-hoo. I played in their they call it their Friday tournament at Arcade Super Awesome which is near next door to Sideswipe Brewery where my beer is from today it was a knockout it was cool I got to play Big Lebowski and Dialed In and Arabium Nights and Popeye games that I never get to play around here on location also oh I got to play Safecracker at both places have you played that game Tim? I have I didn't know what I was doing. That game is so freaking awesome I want to have it like this mini pinball game I need to learn the rules I think a little bit better on it but it was just so much joy to play. Yeah I had no clue what I was doing but I can tell you backing up I love the Big Lebowski it's my favorite game ever made. Really? Yep absolutely love it I like the theme I like the integration of the theme I just love that game. I'm not willing to pay $12,500 for it, but I love it. Or more. Yeah. Yep. And then I also want to give a shout out to Tish because the next day, that Saturday, she planned a Bells and Chimes knockout at level one. I feel, I wanted to say something about ladies pinball stuff is that I felt when I was out at Wizards World, I didn't know anybody and I just went. And I ended up knowing two ladies from, a couple ladies from Columbus. And it was so nice. I felt like they took me underneath their wing, like I was their adopted homegirl, I think was the term that was used. And so when I was out in Columbus, just having that feeling spread in this, I think there were 10 of us that played in this knockout. Which, by the way, I came in last place for the first time ever. Eh, who cares? Who cares? Yeah. But I got, I had so much fun. and afterwards when we were done Tish and I played several games together and I put up a new personal score on Theater of Magic it was a great day, it was a great weekend I also went to Ren Faire and did other cool stuff with my family and it was good that is good to hear yeah so I know that was a lot of pinball stuff but I'm just so excited to share all of that and encourage other chicks that perhaps listen to the podcast to get out there and go check out all their stuff and if they run into me especially with expo coming up um you should feel free to stop and say hey because i'd like to meet you too yeah yeah i agree well that's what it's all about having fun enjoying your friends enjoying your family making new friends and making new families so that's awesome yeah it's about those pinball relationships tim episode third or fourth one now that we've talked about that but i appreciate that too in the community that's there within pinball it's so awesome yeah oh i almost forgot probably the biggest news okay go ahead i got my iron maiden pro yeah nice nice it's like a history lesson in every song with iron maiden oh it's fantastic they actually just had a new album that released this week this past week i think so yeah when uh when we went to see guns and roses the first thing my boys said when we got into the car is both of them said Maiden is next. I'm like, okay. I'll go to that with you, Tim. That sounds like a blast. Yeah, that's a cool game. I like the band. My boys love the band. So awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. That's it for me. All right. You ready to get to our guests? I am. I'm very excited. As always, I'm super excited about our guest. You kind of gave a hint earlier. I did. I'm thinking it's Jay Leno. I know that he had something to do with Hot Wheels. Ha! All right, so today's guest is tribe member number nine, Dave Jeff Brenner. Dave, how are you? Good, good. How are you guys doing? I'm doing fantastic. Welcome to the show, Dave. Hey, yeah, glad to be here. We're glad to have you, Dave. Been a while. Well, I talk to you guys regularly off the podcast, of course. and so yeah i know that uh rachel's been been to my house a few times and tim we've talked many many times over texts and and calls and stuff so yep yep no no i i enjoy the conversation you and ryan i don't let either of you alone i message you at least weekly bi-weekly sometimes so i'm always appreciative of the friendship and uh no it's good to have you on the show So let's jump right into it. Are you still working for American Pinball? Yep. I've been with them since, was it May of 2020? Okay. So basically the start or the launch of Hot Wheels. Let me ask you this. Are you enjoying it? Because you're living like the dream working for a pinball company. Yeah, it's kind of a weird story of how that all came about. But yeah, it is, you know, like anything, any job, there's definitely some joy in what I'm doing. It's way different than what I used to do. So I was, for a long time, I was a packaging engineer. And so really it was changing careers, which I never thought I would do. and in fact I was kind of working both jobs for a while there until I just decided in January of 2021 to make the switch full-on to American Pinball. Anyway it was it was kind of a funny story where I was working for my previous job and kind of looking around on pin side like I normally do And I happened to stumble upon a thread that they posted where it was like an announcement thread. And they said they're looking for a tech and I guess customer service tech type of thing. Anyway, so I sent it to my friend Ryan Kuyper, who I stream with on. We'll get into that, but it's now Buffalo Pinball on Twitch. Yeah, we got that on the list. Yep. Yeah. So anyway, so I said it. I was like, Ryan, look what I just, you know, stumbled on is like, go for it. So I like made up this, this resume of all the basically the pinball stuff that I've done over the years. And so I've been doing it for a while. I basically I started in 2014 ish is when I started collecting and you know I got into restoring and repairing and basically built up this whole resume of things that I can do and that's what I presented to American and so actually Jim Patla was the manager at the time as well as the owners of the company. And so I went and interviewed with them and they liked me. And initially I ended up, they gave me an offer and I initially turned it down because they wanted it to be full time. And I didn't think it was worth the switch right away. I wanted to, you know, it was sort of the beginning of COVID. and all that. It's like, well, Jim called me up after I declined it, and he's like, well, what can we do to make this happen? I was like, okay. Wow. It's like, you got the experience, you can learn everything that you don know It just clerical stuff but it like we need somebody like you that has lots of depth and experience in repairing games Because you've got to think, this is, you know, I guess I didn't have that experience before. where after I started this job, I come to find out that there are tons and tons of people in relatively the same boat where they are just starting out. They don't know that much about pinball, but they need somebody that can speak clearly and explain how to go through troubleshooting and demonstrate that. And it's not just answering emails and phone calls. You've got to be able to explain it clearly to them so they can get in there and have the confidence to do it themselves. It's incredibly technical. It is. And I think, you know, I try to explain this to people on the phone. Just about every week I have somebody ask me, well, are you going to send somebody out here to fix this? So like, no, we're not, we're not, we don't have a geek squad like Best Buy. That's not how it works. That would be awesome. That'd be awesome. I wish you did. I think a lot of collectors would agree with that. It'd be awesome if that was a thing, though. That would be the dream job for some people, probably. Well, you know, there, I think that's where I think, you know, building a network of people. I know that Marco Specialties was building something up of a network of pinball technicians across the country. Our friend Mark, who streams on the Midwest Gaming Classic Twitch channel, he's part of that network of people. But it's really one big piece of advice that I can give to collectors or people starting out is to get on Pinside and find the pin map and start clicking around and looking at your local area. Start clicking on those dots because you're going to find somebody that's got 10, 20, 30 games in their collection. if they don't know how to fix pinball machines they know somebody who does yeah so you know i encourage everybody all the time get involved in your local pinball community and and start learning because the reality is at the end you're going to need to know how to adjust a switch and make you know make these little tweaks to your game because i don't care if it's an EM from the 70s, or a brand new game out of the box. They're all going to need little tweaks and adjustments and things like that. So, you know, that's me on my soapbox a little bit. But that's the reality of owning pinball machines. Yeah, absolutely. I wish somebody would make a video library of all that stuff. Well, I have been doing, and thanks for Tim for that segue. So through my job and also with the encouragement of and help from my streaming partner, Ryan, I got into recording YouTube videos where it's basically the way I look at it is it helps me be more effective at my job. And it makes it so I don't have to explain things over the phone or through email over and over again, because a lot of times it's the same kind of stuff where, you know, I need to adjust this pop bumper, I need to adjust this drop target or something like that. And, you know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a video is worth 60 pictures a second, right? so you're it's so much quicker i can make a five minute video and people see it oh i got it okay i can get in there and do that no problem sure so so i started making building a library of all these videos and i continue to as things come up you know make more to add to that and uh just basically help owners and and the feedback has been been really great on that so yeah yeah i've watched them dave they're really good they're very helpful i actually appreciate it because you're a very helpful um dude by the way there's been a few times i've sent you some things and you've gotten back to me right away and i always chuckle because you always say like i'm not a stern tech you know right or something along those lines but i'll ask you anything i remember one day I don't know if you remember this. I could not figure out why my ball was getting stuck in the tunnel in Dracula, and I couldn't figure it out. And finally, I thought, I think that my plastic is supposed to be above the metal for, you know, where it comes out of the tunnel and just slides right into the to the view. And I kept thinking, man, this thing looks really painful to take apart. So I'm like, I know somebody that has a Dracula and I ask you to take a picture. And I'm telling you, 10 minutes later, you had the play field flipped up and you sent me a picture and that was it. And it took me an hour to figure out something that probably took 10 or 15 minutes to fix. But I'm really appreciative of all the help you give me and all the help you give the community. It's very grateful. Yeah, no, I like doing it. And it's honestly something I take pride in. I want to be the best at what I'm doing. Otherwise, you know, why do it? And I think it's helped to elevate the reputation of American Pinball because I've had customers say this when I actually pick up the phone or I answer my emails. they're like oh you're the same guy in the videos and they take comfort in that and they they like to see that you know there's a face to the name and you know when whenever you call it's always me that picks up the phone so I think that's people see that there's value in it and I'm already seeing and I've heard it several times where people they buy because they want the support. Absolutely. If I would buy an American Pinball machine in the future, that would give me definite comfort just knowing that I've got someone that I can reach out that will get back to me within a reasonable time and that will work with me until me still as Rookie Rachel would be able to understand the issue. And that is a huge asset that American Pinball has for sure. Nice job. thanks all right dave so just let me ask you you know what else do you do for ap you know kind of give us a day in the life of dave sure yeah um so my day-to-day is is really customer service at the beginning so it's it's i'll get service tickets so our process is if you have an issue with your game doesn't matter if you're if your game's under warranty or not you can still submit a service ticket and get some help or you can just reach out service at americanpinball.com or 833-API-HELP anyway you'll always get me and my day-to-day is answering emails and phone calls from customers or owners getting help that way but then what you don't see is so I talked about I started at the launch of Hot Wheels. Well, so I basically picked up and completed the Hot Wheels manual or assembling the manual. Okay. There was some of it written, but it wasn't all done. It wasn't polished up. So I completed that. That was my first kind of shove into this is part of service kind of thing. But it comes down to, like, I also write documentation. So we talked about videos. There's also written, like, instructions for certain things. So if you're going to install this knocker kit or shaker motor or whatever, so making those types of instructions. And then I also do, I got more involved with some of the development process with Game 4 as that was going along. So the inception of some of the ideas and back and forth of all that. So then I ended up raising my hand and said I'll work on the bill of materials for Game 4. So the vast majority of that was done by me and just working with the designer and categorizing all the parts and pieces and mechs. It's a huge undertaking. Sure. To do that. So I got that just about to the finish line and then got handed off to another guy on the team that does a lot of the cabling and stuff. and then from there I proceeded to do, I've already done, GameForce manual is done. You'll see some nice little touches to all those videos that I was talking about. So this is kind of a cool thing that I don't think any other company has done. So I started, as I'm going through the manual, like, hey, here's a good spot for a QR code for one of these videos. Nice. So you can scan that, like, oh, how do you set up your game? okay camera get the video boom you know then you have the uh that reference right there no that's great game four yeah yeah i gotta ask you dave i'm not gonna ask you what game four is i'm not gonna ask you anything about it but i am gonna ask you is it hard to know what the game is that early and be so excited about it but know that you can't tell anybody for six months to a year Yeah, I mean, I think that's it's tough for for anybody that's into it where you kind of have to keep that under your hat. But it's I get it now that, you know, behind the curtain, that reveal, that anticipation. It's it's so important that presentation to to the to the community or to your customers like that. you want to get them excited. And I think we all know what that good formula is where you, you get them all excited. And then at the time when they're most excited, then that's when they open up their wallets and they buy their game, the game. And, you know, so I think that's probably where you get the most sales is at the very beginning. And that's why it's important to execute. But yeah, that's when drew and tim cannot resist that's right exactly so it is fun though i i think it was very eye-opening and uh a learning experience to go through that development process i'm not i'm not a stranger to product development in general i've been in in product development for over a decade in the consumer products industry and it's it's similar but it's a similar development type process but but way different because there's there's a lot of elements to it that that i'm not as familiar with so yeah all right well that's that's awesome you You actually do a lot for American Pinball, and I'm sure they're very appreciative to have you on board. Wow, it's been over a year, so congrats. Congratulations. It's really fascinating for me. I think that would be such a cool job to have because you really are helping people, especially newbies that have no idea. I just love every aspect of that, and I'm excited for Game 4, whatever it may be, for it to come out. I'm stoked. yeah it's uh it's it's right around the corner here so i i think the i'm not part of the the the launch team portion of it but i i get the whole aspect of we want to have games ready to go that people can can get in their homes sooner than later because i i think that's where other companies have have fallen short they they tease them with it and then you got to wait wait wait and we don't want to do that. I do not like the wait. It drives me insane. I would have an Ultraman ticket if I had the patience to wait because that was an awesome game, but I just can't wait. I love when the games are available right away or within a month or two. I can wait a couple of months, so I'm excited. Yep. So let's talk about your other job, being Ryan Kuyper's friend. i'm just kidding i love ryan i talk to ryan daily to be honest he probably gets tired of me so uh he can he'll get me back but no let's talk about um the stream so there have been some big changes in the stream right yeah yeah so uh so basically ryan kuiper he's tribe member number one and he He basically got involved with Drew and Ian at the start. He reached out to them when they had their first podcast and just some encouragement and that. And I think he was one of their first guests on. Anyway, so Ryan was actually the first guy that I met here in Wisconsin when I moved here from Minnesota. and the majority of my collecting days and and that were done in Minnesota and when I moved to Wisconsin I reached just like I was talking earlier I reached out to some local people through looking at the pin map and kind of the area that I was looking to live just getting their feedback on you know just the general area had nothing really to do with pinball but it it was sort of a double-edged thing, like, well, reach out to people, ask them about the area, but also, hey, I'm a friendly guy, you know, want to see what the local pinball scene is like. And Ryan was more than willing to accommodate, and, you know, super friendly guy. He, uh, we, we actually had plans to meet up at MGC in 2019, but then, uh, I think it was, we, we had conflicting things going on for whatever at the show. We didn't end up meeting. And then like the, after the show was over, I had to start work. And so I reached out to him and just, I just met him at his house and kind of hit it off there. And I come to find out what streaming even was. I had no clue what, I didn't know what Twitch was. I didn't know what streaming was. I collected games, I restored games, but, and I played with friends and stuff, but I had no clue. and so he really introduced me to all of it i'd never even been in a pinball league before i hadn't for for most for a lot of the u.s if you're not close to a metropolitan area area you don't really have any pinball leagues so i i really just kind of played pinball with you know a handful of friends around Rochester, Minnesota. I originally lived in Austin at the time. Anyway, if you follow the streams, you know I talk about peanut butter and stuff. You'll get education beyond pinball if you join our streams. No, but I know what you mean about the pinball leagues. They won't let me in. I'm too good. So it was great in that way. So not only did I get involved with streaming with him, and I enjoyed doing that, and so basically opened up my collection so that, you know, Brian would bring his equipment back and forth, and we'd stream at my house and his house, and then we'd also go to some local leagues and that. And it's been really good, even through COVID, to have that online Twitch community and still be involved in pinball. So it's been really good. So we did that for the past two years. And very recently, we got tapped by Buffalo Pinball, who Ryan has made friends with over the years. And basically they invited us to join their streaming team and so instead of streaming on TurboGrafx on Fridays at 8 central we will now be doing the exact same time except on the Buffalo Pinball channel so congratulations well thanks yep you started last week right yeah yeah so I was at a wedding last this past weekend so I couldn't join the first one but you know it's pretty important that you go to your wife's brother's wedding so well i'm gonna be honest ryan told ryan told me he fired you so all right so every friday i i'm pretty religious with your stream that's the one that i i watch the most that's how i've become friends with you guys you know i i if i'm not there there's you know something going on in my life as well but are there any changes or is it just the same turbo just on buffalo yeah as far as i know it's i mean it'll be a different logo and it'll still have it'll say like buffalo pinball like turbo graphic 7 underneath that and but yeah essentially it's going to be the same personalities same same type of thing we're still going to be hanging out and playing pinball and that. Having fun. Yeah, we did part ways with the pinball network, but I think we did it graciously, and everybody was very supportive with the transition. It's not like we didn't like anybody or anything like that. It was like, well, this is a move that we want to do for our own reasons. Yeah, the folks over at the Pinball Network, they're very classy. They're stand-up people, so I knew you wouldn't have any issues there. Yeah. So, Rachel, how come you didn't laugh when I said they won't let me in the pinball leagues because I'm too good? Oh, well, we've been over this, Tim. When you compare yourself to be better than Keith Elwin or whomever else, I kind of have to just let that go now. Maybe that just gives you a little bit of grace there about that instead of pointing out how much you suck at pinball. So has Keith Elwin ever beaten me? No. So how do we know? Have you beat Keith Elwin? No, no. Maybe I should challenge him at Expo to like a $200 charity match for Project Pinball, and the loser has to donate. That's actually – that would be a cool, fun thing to do. Yeah, if you know Keith Owen, let him know. I challenge him. Well, if I'm brave enough and I run into him at District 82, I'll say something to him. The guy that I podcast with would really like to duel you at Pinball. I think that would be fun. We'll see. I think one of our normal guests on TurboGrafx has beaten some of those good players before. That was going to be my next question. Is Max back in Buffalo? Yep. Yeah, I mean, we'll still have our regular guests. So we try to invite over some of the pinball locals in Wisconsin to come and play and have some regular guests. So it's cool to, you know, we've had Rachel on before, but there's like other folks that we've met through leagues and that, and they all have their interesting and unique stories to share. And a lot of them are really good pinball players. So that's always fun. Yeah, it's really entertaining when Max is on. I've said it before, but he is great to watch, especially on anything, a solid state or older classics, you know, definitely for him. Anything is just amazing to watch his ball control in. Just the way he sees the game. You know, when I interviewed him a little bit ago for our podcast, he said he just steps up to the game and clears his mind. I do try to think about that, but I don't know how anybody does that. But love you, Max. You're so awesome. Yeah, he seems like a good dude. I bet I could beat him. Huh. Is that what you're looking for? Dead silence. I love it. All right. hey you play enough you play enough of the same games you're eventually you're gonna get them uh i'm gonna be honest i suck a pimbo just like drew oh there it is there it is so let's let's jump into your collection if you don't mind so you have a pretty fantastic collection so i'd like for you to tell me a little bit about your collection but i'd also like to hear how in the world you obtained such a nice collection like where did that start yeah um i guess it all started in 2014 the the first game i ever bought was a valley hotdoggin it's a ski themed 80s game it's one of the the few valley wide bodies little did i know that it was even a rare machine i i got it off of a it was a classified ad thing that it wasn't craigslist it was something through work but um anyway so i ended up picking up this game and knew nothing about it i was one of those guys just like any anybody else or transported it with the legs on it rented a trailer it had the head on it still just going down and I think it was in it was in February uh so it was freezing outside and the back glass was still in it and you know all that stuff you know that that newbies do and anyway so I get this thing home and I had a friend help me uh lock it into the house and set it all up and and uh you know everything it it played for the most part um you know there's a few lights out here and there um the there was some marker touch up that the previous person had had done and but so I played the crap out of it for you know a few weeks and then and then I all of a sudden I had a few things going out like you know some more lights went out on it and and I you know started to research a little bit more and you know that's when I was kind of looking around, well, who repairs these things? And I found a couple places in Minneapolis, you know, but it was all like, well, you got to pack it up and lug it to, you know, was it an hour and a half north? And at the time, I mean, I rented a trailer to pick the thing up. So I'd have to rent a trailer, take it there, and it was all a big hassle. So that's when I found Pinside, and then I looked on the map, and I reached out to some local people. And just like I said, you know, and those people that I reached out to are still my good friends today. And I went over to their house and one of them, I was just in awe when I went over to his house. His name is Dwayne. And he had, I want to say, 12 or 15 games at the time, something like that. And I was just like, how did you obtain so many? And he got good at fixing them. And so I learned from him how to fix some of these things. And then it became less scary, you know. And so then I just started collecting more. And, of course, my next jump into it, I learned about the, what is that, the pinball arcade, the app. Oh, yeah. So I played a lot of stuff on there, and then I also went to some locations up in Minneapolis and just playing as much as I could to get a feel for, well, what's the next game? What's available? What can you buy? And so the next game that I bought was Theater of Magic. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. And I shipped that. I had that one shipped. I bought it off of eBay, like another noob mistake. but I'm trying not to laugh at you. That made me laugh. But the guy was nice. He was, you know, he was a collector and stuff and, and it, it was in nice shape. I actually lucked out with that one. It could have, could have been a lot worse. So I, I got that one and I was playing that a lot. And then I just, you know, when I jump into hobbies, it's, it, it's both feats. And, you know, so I ended up, the next one I got was a Metallica, and then the next one was Scared Stiff. And I got those all within, like, you know, like a month. Wow. Something like that, or two, something. Is the Metallica and Scared Stiff that are in your collection now the same two games that you purchased then? Yep, yep. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of been like that for quite a while. So when I lived in Minnesota, I got crazy with it. I was probably picking up three to four games a month, various places. But I was that guy that I was willing to drive the distance to go and get something. You know, it could be South Dakota or Nebraska or, you know, middle Iowa, whatever. And, you know, a lot of people might not be willing to make that trek. So that's how I picked up quite a few different games along the way. And then, you know, that in combination with going through and fixing them as I went, you know, that's, you kind of build up that nicer collection. You know, certain games that you want to keep around, you know, restore. Sure. So I've restored quite a few of my own games. I got pretty good at, so my background back in high school, I did auto body. And so I learned how to do painting and kind of restoration work there, a little bit of welding and all kinds of things. And prior to pinball, I did custom motorcycles. so I already had I wasn't afraid to do any of the that cosmetic type stuff but I didn't have necessarily like fine art skills and so pinball has really taught me like I got into restoring playfields and like touching up and clear coating all of them I've done I wouldn't say I wouldn't say a ton but a lot for a hobbyist. And I even dabbled a little bit in doing it commercially, but shortly after decided I'd leave that to the professionals. A good friend here in Wisconsin is Neil Skywalker. He does playfield restorations. So I'd rather push people to him than to it myself. So I'll do it for my own games, but I don't know it for other people anymore. What are the custom mods that you did to your Fathom? Oh, so yeah, Fathom was, I actually shipped that game from California, and I feel like I got a pretty good deal on it, even with shipping at the time. It hadn't exploded like it did now, but anyway. so I went through and basically touched up and clear-coated the play field so it's an original play field it wasn't too bad to start with there's you know a few few ball marks here and there but it's not like I had to redo like a you know a roached out play field so that was good but then when it came to I always separate the project into two two separate things it's it's the play field is one project and the cabinet is another so I finished the play field and did all that but then when it came to the cabinet the cabinet was already pretty nice you know with maybe a couple of scrapes here and there but not bad and the color was still good so but I wanted to kind of like you know refresh it so this one I actually made a stencil kit with brisket paper and like exacto knifed out all the spots for each of the colors and so what i did was in normal light like your your room lighting it looks like a normal fathom but when you turn on the black light which is what i have in my basement now the whole thing glows so it's i didn't do the the blue i did the green there's like a it's like an aqua green and and it's unbelievable it's unbelievable Dave it matches the unbelievable arcade carpet that you have going on it's really a pristine game to play the way that you what do I want to say here all of the hard work that you put into restoring that game just reflects I don't know how else to put that do you think maybe Haggis took a little inspiration maybe I really hope so. What you've done to that game is unbelievable. It's just so pretty, and I hope that you share a photo or two of it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, please post it on the page. Sounds awesome, Dave. Yeah. So, yeah, I just kind of got into that. When I lived in Minnesota, I had a bigger garage, and I actually had a paint booth. Like, basically, the size, you could fit a car in there. and at one time I think I was I had like three clear coat projects going in the same paint booth I was I went nuts with it so I was I was helping out friends and doing all kinds of different restoration projects and so needless to say no cars ever really got parked in that garage it It was pretty much all a pinball shop. But, yeah, so I've worked my way up, and today's collection is sitting at 54 pinballs, 11 of which are in a project queue, but otherwise they're all set up and playing. Okay, so what's the breakdown, EMs, System 11s? What does that look like? Well, I would say my collection is probably maybe 70% or so early solid state. I tend to gravitate towards the 80s early solid state. But I do have, I wouldn't say an example of every single era, but close to it. So just about every era and every manufacturer, at least every major manufacturer. So, you know, Bally, Stern, Williams, Gottlieb, um, Zacharia. I have examples of those. Even have some Sonic games. Um, so I, I like the weird and different stuff. Sure. It's not, I think you asked me this before, but like what, I guess I would gravitate me As I look at my collection as a whole, I seem to gravitate more towards the fantasy-type themes. Okay. But it's not always true. I'm also a sucker for really nice sound packages and sound effects on games. I think that has, you know, it's a big part for me anyway. Interesting. yeah i've been trying to kind of piece that together because i've had the pleasure of playing your collection a couple of times trying to piece together what's what's the main theme here because some people collect you know just music pins or certain things but yes i can totally agree that maybe it is fantasy overall but i think the one game that surprises me the most that's in your collection is the flintstones oh i'm very jealous i really want that game It's a great game. And honestly, so that one is a sound package one. For sure. That had premium sound for that game. And, I mean, I'm nostalgic for the movie, too. I remember back then, like, it was a huge deal. That when they really pushed the McRib you know That was a big thing for McDonald It was a big movie at the time It sure was Yeah they had one at Allentown and I went back to buy it and it was already sold I was so disappointed. I think I fell in love with that game at a show, and that typically happens whenever I go to shows, and they have a bunch of rare and different games that you don't get to play. I always gravitate towards playing games that I've never seen before. And I typically make a list of stuff. And, you know, those are the ones that I kind of seek out. Not that I won't go after common games, but I feel like, you know, I can get a firepower anytime I want. Or I can get a, you know, whatever, it's whirlwind or something anytime. but you know it's it's those those unique games that's why i go after them sure like magic castle or cyclops exactly yeah yeah do you have like a a top three that are your favorite games and do you maybe also have a game that you want to burn but you just can't get rid of it that's a great question so top three i'll have to think about this here give me a second this question throws everyone off by the way with big yeah yeah yeah uh so i guess i would say my favorite early solid state game is is cyclops i think i've said this before the it's not only a fantastic layout and and game i mean there's there's certainly some things that i would like to see different on it but i love the backstory on it you know it's it's a roger sharp design game it's you know well thought out rules and geometry is what really makes that game fun so i mean i would put that game up against any early solid state game of the same era so So as far as ones that I'd like to burn, they probably wouldn't be in my collection if it felt that way. Well, some people have a game they just – they want to get rid of, but they just can't for some reason. No, I guess – I haven't had too much trouble with moving games along if I needed to. Okay. You can cut the cord and break away. Some people can't. Yeah. It was, I mean, I had, let me think here. Oh, I picked it up on a package deal kind of thing. It was an Allied Leisure called Hoedown. Hoedown? Yeah, the theme was terrible. It was, you know, country music themed. Pass. It was just a basic, almost like a home pin, but there was nothing really to that game. And I couldn't have gotten rid of it fast enough. Luckily, I found somebody that just wanted a cheap game, and that would probably be in that burn category if I didn't find anybody to take it. We're going to burn the hoedown. Okay. Okay, so this is a really important topic that I want to discuss. I heard a little birdie told me that there's a tournament coming up that's going to be played with your collection. Is that true? Yeah, yeah. What are you talking about, Tim? I don't know. I got some inside info right here on the show. Well, so, yeah, when Rachel, I think it was the first or second time you came and streamed with us, you asked about doing a tournament at my house. And I thought about it for a bit. You know, I've hosted league and stuff before. So this is a bit bigger undertaking. And but, yes, I found it exciting. I like, Rachel, what you're doing with Ladies Flip Wisconsin, and I think it's a good opportunity for more women to get involved in pinball. And happy to host. My wife, Lindsay, was all about it, and not sure if she's going to join the tournament per se, but she likes playing host. They're just going over some snacks and things for the day. So, but yeah, I think, well, I know Ryan and I will be streaming that on the TurboGrafx-7 Twitch channel, and it's going to be September 25th, starting at 10 a.m. Central. And we will probably start the stream maybe a little bit before that, like a pregame or something like that but um basically it's going to be different than if you've watched tournament streams before it will be different than what you've seen because we do not have a method to follow around the the top players and in a way i think that's a good thing because what what i'm planning to do is have like a small bank of games and each round will feature a game within that bank that we will we can move the cameras and stuff to in addition to that we're planning to have a commentator couch which i happen to be sitting on now but it's it's basically adjacent to the streaming area, but it's in a separate room. So it's going to be a pretty simple setup where a TV will be in front of them with the Twitch feed. And so people can sit down and talk about the round that's going on or their past round or, you know, talk about themselves and pinball. But essentially, each round, we're going to have to take a break and switch over to whatever game. So it'll be, you know, take a little bit more time than some of the streams that you may have seen before. But that's essentially what the vision is. Okay. Well, first of all, you did such a great job explaining all of that, Dave. And just listening to you talk about it, that you and Lindsay are excited to host, that just pumps me up so much. Thank you. You know, I am so appreciative that when I came to you a while ago and talked about it, I just knew. I just knew. Dave's my kind of guy. He wants chicks to get into pinball. I know he's a friendly person that wants to open his home to the community. And I just feel so lucky that we met because of the tribe. and that I get an opportunity to bring women in to play your freaking awesome collection. I keep telling the gals, especially the ones I play League with, at how special and unique your collection is. I sent out the game list today, so I'm excited to get some feedback when I play League tomorrow night. But, yes, so we're going to stream the event. It's currently sitting at 20 players. I really hope that Lindsay plays. you know i do have a last place trophy i have a walk-off trophy and um a stuck ball trophy as well as first to fourth place you know i really try to amp it up every player gets a a swag bag or a parting gift as well i'd like to make my pinball tournament not just a tournament where you can get whopper points and all of that but also a fun event uh for other women to go do It's like, you know, you can go to, if you're into cooking, you can go to a pampered chef party or, or, you know, a pure romance party or whatever the case may be. But for me, like I'm throwing a pinball party, everybody come and have a good time, play some pinball, get to meet new people and go home with something fun. So I'm super stoked. Dave, thank you so much for helping to make my dream come true. that day I do want to point out too with the streaming because Ryan Kuyper will be there helping as well my scorekeeper right hand man Matt McCarty will also be there helping to commentate and I'm certain that Cassidy and a couple of the other gals that I know that play routinely and that do commentate on other streams tournament streams that they'll be there to jump in and chit chat as well so i'm just super stoked yeah uh we're we're excited for it and also it's it's um you know if there's people listening to this that are kind of on the fence and uh you we also have a local um pinball collector daryl who's opened up his house to spouses if they want to still play some pinball and enjoy the day, they can certainly come and still have games to play while their wives or significant others are playing in the tournament. Yes, for sure. For information about playing Daryl's Collection, for the other people that come along with the gals to Ladies Flip Wisconsin, please email me, ladiesflipwi at gmail.com. You can also message me on Facebook, and I can hook you up with Daryl's information. Thanks, my friend, for doing that and hosting something like that alongside my ladies tournament series. Just crazy. I'm like the luckiest lady ever. Hey, I have an idea for a side thing that you could do and you can say no. But so you talked about like all these these different things for like stuck ball and that. Yeah. So I do have a shuffle puck bowler. And what if there was, you know, there's like in between round or something. You don't have to play a multiplayer game, but you could play a regulation game of bowling. And then whatever, you know, you could do like the best regulation bowling score. and you could write down their score on the chalkboard door or something like that. Okay. If you wanted to have some sort of a side little thing. I like that idea. I like that idea. I know that I'm also getting some sponsorship from American Pinball, so let's see what they end up hooking me up with. I'm sure I could put together maybe a little basket or something yet. I like the idea of doing a side tournament. it's also it's a it's a great way to meet other people because sometimes you have to be forced to play with another person it won't be whopper women's whoppers or points but I still like the idea of playing for the fun of it especially something that's not pinball right yeah yeah it's a good idea yeah just something like I've been to plenty well not plenty but a few tournaments where you could have some people be on an EM or a short playing game and you finish your round and you're waiting for somebody that's playing Lord of the Rings or something and it takes a while to get through it. Right, and plus we're going to have a little bit of extra time between when you change games as far as streaming, but it's all going to come together. Either that or it's going to be a complete mess. Sounds like an awesome time, Rachel. you two are gonna put on a great event oh i'm i'm i'm very excited again i'm just i have to say that again how grateful i am and thankful uh because of the tribe of the poor man's pinball podcast and being able to meet dave and meet ryan and just having such cool opportunities open to me because of them so thanks ian and drew i love you and hate you and all that so So speaking of that, is there a very important question that you need to ask Dave? Oh, I get to ask it, huh? Yeah. All right. Dave, are you prepared? Okay. Are your wits about you? Sure. That sounds very convincing. I don't know what I'm in for. Oh, okay. That's even better. Woo-hoo. Dave, how did you get into the tribe? Oh, that's an easy one. See? Not so bad. I'll just like you out. I think it worked. Yeah. So basically I got into the tribe because I think it was shortly after. So Drew called me up and said, Dave, I need your help. I know you've got a truck and an Escalara. Of course he did. Yeah. And so he got a game shipped through Fastenal, and so he needed somebody to go and pick it up. And, oh, by the way, take it over to Ian's house, and we get over there. And so this is Laser War that I picked up. Oh, the famous Laser War. That's funny. And so I pick it up. And so Data East actually has a little wider backbox than most games. And Ian's house has a lot narrower doorways than most houses. So it was quite the fiasco to try to get the thing into his basement. But I'm creative and I've done it several times before. in these situations, but we ended up wrangling it down there. And so shortly after that, I was inducted into the, uh, into the tribe. Well, that's a pretty easy way in just help them out with the game. You bought your way in just like the rest of us. Right. Well, they, they, they do have reached out to me for several tech help and things like that. Whenever they're going through their game and fixing it up and they randomly he'll send me a message hey what do you think of that or this so always happy to help yeah you're a handyman to know dave for sure yeah absolutely well i hope to get to your collection someday dave a little birdie told me that i might be in wisconsin in the milwaukee area within the next two months for work so hopefully i can stop by and um pull a dave just call you up and say hey I want to come over and play pinball. Yeah, hit me up. Yeah, I'll do that. Dave, we thank you for being on the show. We really enjoyed it. You're a great person. I like what you're doing with American Pinball. I like what you're doing with the TurboStream and Ryan, and just thanks again. How about it, Rachel? Yeah, thanks, Dave. Great guests. It was really interesting to hear more about what you do at American Pinball. I'm so fascinated by that. And I really do like the idea of like a geek squad pinball repair service at your fingertips to be kind of cool. But in the interim, I think what you're doing is pretty awesome. And I also want to plug my Lady Slip Wisconsin for please like me on Facebook. I don't normally plug it, but please like me like it on Facebook. And there is still room in the tournament for September 25th. It is $40. you may email me ladiesflipwi at gmail.com or of course reach out to me on Facebook or social media. Thank you. And ladies you're not going to want to miss this collection so sign up. Heck yeah. Well thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate you inviting me. You're welcome. Alright well happy flipping everyone. Happy flipping. Drew sucks at pinball. Tim the Toon of Mount Lee. Four Man's Tribe presents Pinball Streamers of Genius. 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. Days might have a problem. Want to stream a modern JJP tonight? Screw that shit! We're gonna stream Magic Castle, Skateball, and maybe a little Stargazer. Please don't stream again on Alien Star! Wanna get Ryan to stop talking about his man crush on Keith P. 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. Rude and Lott of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And a bill to be damned, thank you, Deisman.