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Episode 2 – Sophomore Jinx?

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·held·Jul 21, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Slam Tilt Podcast EP2: News, restoration projects, upcoming tournaments, and game preferences.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast 2 features Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discussing pinball news, community events (ReplayFX/Pinberg, Buffalo Pinball Open, upcoming tournaments), personal restoration projects (Stars restoration, Centaur rebuild), and a new segment on favorite/hated games. They cover Keith Elwin's California Extreme win, venue updates, and reflect on pinball collecting and repair culture in upstate New York.

Key Claims

  • Keith Elwin won the California Extreme tournament, with his NASCAR score exceeding 400 million on the first game while other scores ranged 70-110 million, and he's won every year or nearly every year of the event

    high confidence · Ron Hallett discussing California Extreme results

  • Ghostbusters (Pro) from a specific eBay purchase had zero build quality issues out of the box, which is noteworthy given typical Stern QC concerns

    high confidence · Ron describing a Ghostbusters (Pro) that came out of the box perfect, with good decals

  • ReplayFX/Pinberg will have 700+ people in a pinball tournament with the entire convention center taken for the event

    high confidence · Bruce Nightingale on upcoming Pinberg/ReplayFX event logistics

  • Stars (solid state Stern game) was purchased on eBay for $565 after bidding $600 maximum, unknowingly outbidding Bruce Nightingale who had a $500 limit

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce's eBay auction story about the Stars machine

  • Stars game had a Gottlieb chime unit installed instead of the original Stern chime, indicating previous repair work or parts sourcing

    high confidence · Ron's restoration narrative of the Stars machine

  • Bruce owns 13 Bally solid-state games (from '77-'84 era) and 36 total machines in his collection

    high confidence · Bruce revealing his collection size during the podcast

  • Buffalo Pinball Open (August 12-14) has 45 pre-registered players and is a PAPA Circuit event with significant prize money

    high confidence · Bruce announcing upcoming Buffalo Open details

  • A previous eBay seller incorrectly diagnosed the Stars game's firing issue as a CPU problem when it was actually a single miswired connector pin

    high confidence · Ron's repair story detailing the diagnosis and one-wire fix

  • Bruce is expecting twins and is acquiring a 13th Bally (Viking) from New Jersey this weekend

Notable Quotes

  • “So we made it to episode two. So we're already ahead of the game. Yeah, so it's like Empire Strikes Back. You get the best one second.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:02:00 — Opening meta-commentary on podcast success, using Star Wars analogy to frame episode quality progression

  • “You sniped me, you bastard.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:25:00 — Bruce's reaction to discovering Ron outbid him on the eBay Stars auction; comedic revelation of the snipe-bid story

  • “It's dead, Jim. It's dead.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:35:00 — Reference to Stern chime unit quality; humorous commentary on electronic component reliability

  • “Centaur... I did. So then what did I do? I took the CPU out of my Embryon and put it in all tech.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:45:00 — Self-deprecating moment where Bruce shorts out the newly reassembled Centaur CPU by accident, forcing a quick parts swap

  • “He's just on a different level there. Yeah, he was.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:16:00 — Assessment of Keith Elwin's dominant California Extreme tournament performance and play strategy (rule-of-the-universe vs multiball)

  • “I hear Ron Hallett's coming out to the Buffalo Pinball Open.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:58:00 — Announcement of Ron's attendance at upcoming Buffalo tournament; light teasing about his late-night drive home concerns

  • “It's such a destroyer of people's hopes. So you just want to beat them. You want to destroy their hopes and dreams also.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~1:18:00 — Explanation of why he loves Paragon—its difficulty is weaponized against tournament opponents; reveals competitive tournament psychology

  • “Pinball Wizard has been banned.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~1:04:00 — Humorous aside about DJ music selection at Pins and Needles tournament; implies the song was overplayed

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonKeith ElwinpersonKevin MannypersonRichie KnucklespersonJim BelcedopersonVance ColumnpersonZach Sharpeperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Slam Tilt Podcast successfully reached episode 2, establishing itself as a regular content series covering pinball news, repairs, and community events

    high · Episode 2 title and structure; established format with recurring segments (game preferences, news roundup, repair updates)

  • ?

    event_signal: ReplayFX/Pinberg event in Pittsburgh (July 28-31) is growing with 700+ player participation and full convention center takeover

    high · Bruce's announcement: '700 people playing in a pinball tournament' and 'the whole convention center is now taken'

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern Pinball exhibits variable build quality; individual machines can be either flawless or problematic; decal quality varies by production run

    high · Ron notes Ghostbusters Pro 'came out with no issues' and credits 'good factory workers' and 'good decal guy'; acknowledges this is unusual

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Vintage pinball restoration requires sourcing obscure replacement parts (chime units, knockers, connectors); compatibility and availability are major constraints

    high · Ron's Stars restoration: struggled to find correct Stern chime unit, eventually sourced Gottlieb unit; had to source knocker coil separately

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Keith Elwin's dominance at California Extreme is exceptional; his strategic play (rule-of-the-universe vs multiball) places him on different skill level from other players

    high · First game NASCAR score >400M vs other scores 70-110M; Bruce: 'he was just on a different level there'; wins most/every year

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.135

0:00
Hey, gang, tell you what. How about coming by my house for a while? I got some great new records. Not me, Jeannie. Band practice. I wouldn't miss it for anything. I'm bucking for the first clarinet chair. Oh, do you dare? Come on, Betty. Grab your horn. We'll be late. From beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Hello. And welcome to episode two. So we made it to episode two. So we're already ahead of the game. Yeah, so it's like Empire Strikes Back. You get the best one second. That is true. That is true. Smart man. But that means the fourth one is going to be Jar Jar. Well, that means the third one, though, is going to be pretty good. Yes. Yes. Yeah, but we'll have like teddy bears in it. Yes. Yes. No. No. Did you know they were actually not called Ewoks in the movie? They're not called Ewoks. They're never named that.
1:15
That was later. Short people? That was short people? Marketing maneuver. Oh, I thought it was short people.
1:23
Well, welcome, everyone. We're here at Episode 2. Bruce has some corrections he would like to make from Episode 1. Yes, I would. But I'm going to do only a couple. Chicago is not a city. It's not a state. It's a city. It is? It is. Okay. So it is Illinois, so I said that wrong. And instead of the Central New Hampshire Pinball Club, it was actually the Southern New Hampshire Pinball Club. So those are the two I want to get out of the way because I don't want everyone emailing me saying, you know, I was wrong.
1:57
Oh, well. But I'm human. Shoot me. Well, I just – quickly, I'd like to bring up something. You talk about the southern as opposed to – what was it? You said southern instead of – Central. Central, yeah. When it comes to New York, basically, if you say upstate, pretty much to the entire country, upstate means anywhere other than New York City. But if you actually live upstate, there are areas. We don't call everything upstate. Just to review, Rochester, Buffalo is Western New York. Syracuse is Central New York. Binghamton is the Southern tier.

high confidence · Bruce's announcement mid-podcast about his personal life

  • Party Zone is criticized as a one-shot game where you repeatedly hit the left ramp for points with hokey music

    high confidence · Ron's game hate segment on Party Zone

  • “One of the six parts of the Odyssey.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:50:00 — Reference to Star Wars Episodes IV-VI; implies their YouTube/Facebook video series will be part of a longer arc of content

  • “Well, at least you're in the basement. Yes. So at least if you go to Bruce's house, it looks normal until you go downstairs.”

    Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:38:00 — Commentary on hiding extensive pinball collections in basements to maintain normal home appearance to non-pinball guests

    • Steven Bowden
    person
    Tim Sextonperson
    Greg Pavarelliperson
    Mr. Keelerperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Slam Tilt Podcastorganization
    California Extremeevent
    ReplayFX / Pinbergevent
    Buffalo Pinball Openevent
    Pins and Needles Pinball Tournamentevent
    8 On The Breakvenue
    Modern Pinballvenue
    Pocketeer Billiardsvenue
    Ghostbusters (Pro)game
    Starsgame
    Centaurgame
    Paragongame
    Party Zonegame
  • ?

    venue_signal: Upstate New York/tri-state pinball community has strong tournament infrastructure with multiple events across venues (Syracuse, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, NYC)

    high · 5+ tournaments announced for July-September window; mix of PAPA circuit and regional events across NY, PA, NJ

  • ?

    collector_signal: Serious collectors in upstate NY maintain large collections (36+ machines); storage in basements is standard practice to maintain normal household appearance

    high · Bruce owns 36 machines total, 13 Bally solid-states; Ron notes 'if you go to Bruce's house, it looks normal until you go downstairs'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tournament players deliberately select brutally difficult games (Paragon) as a competitive strategy to demoralize opponents and control match outcomes

    high · Ron picked Paragon in tournament to 'destroy people's hopes'; acknowledges 'it's such a destroyer of people's hopes'

  • $

    market_signal: eBay remains active venue for vintage pinball machine trading; snipe bidding is common practice; geographic sourcing (New Jersey proximity) influences acquisition decisions

    high · Ron's Stars acquisition story; 2-hour drive criteria; snipe bidding at 1-3 seconds; only one-two bidders on specific machines

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball restoration content on YouTube (Gizmonic channel) shows strong engagement with shorter video formats outperforming longer content

    high · Bruce notes 'shorter videos are the ones that always get the hits'; splitting Stars restoration into 6 YouTube videos

  • ?

    operational_signal: Regional tournaments frequently run late (midnight-1 AM finishes) creating travel fatigue for attendees; logistics challenge for aging players

    high · Ron's historical experience at Eight on the Break tournaments: 'midnight, 11:30, midnight, one in the morning' endings; 4-5 hour drive home

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Bruce Nightingale expecting twins; continues active machine acquisition and restoration during major life transition

    high · Bruce's mid-podcast announcement: 'I'm expecting twins' while planning Viking acquisition for same weekend

    • 2:44
    And Albany, where I am, that would be upstate New York. Yes. That's the usual names. And it's not used anywhere else. I can't think of any other states where they use that term.
    2:56
    Even like Jersey, you got, you know. Northern Jersey. Southern Jersey. That'd be like if you lived in Miami and everything else in Florida was upstate.
    3:06
    Now, how about this? You know, what if you're in northern Southern Carolina? That's really screwy. I think my headset just broke there.
    3:17
    Dammit. All right, so we'll do some quick pinball news here. We just had – well, let's do – any Ghostbusters updates at all? Nothing on the code, but I did get to actually open up one this past weekend in western New York. Ah, do tell. And Kevin Manny put out his party. Kevin Manny? Yep, 15 people. I thought it was man. It's Manny, man.
    3:48
    You say potato, I say potato. I can't keep it straight anymore. My wife's yelling at me probably right now, looking at me. Manny. Okay, so that's what she says. I'm going with Manny. He got a Ghostbusters Pro right out of the box. Perfect game. Except for being hard, of course, because it's a pro. But perfect. We played about 60 plays on it that night. And I was very impressed with the build quality.
    4:17
    The speed, of course, of Ghostbusters is very challenging, and so are the shots. But actually, kudos to Stern. Get the applause out for this part. and uh great job so it was nice to see i actually have one one new in box actually come out with no issues make it sound like they then they always have issues i i got a metallica freemium that had no issues so i was happy i must have got the good the good factory workers run the the good decal guy was working that day because my decals are excellent yes well that's a good thing because you know, his was built on a Friday. His was actually built on July 9th and he had it the next week, which is pretty good.
    4:58
    Yeah, that's better than the poor premiums. Yes. I've heard August, I've heard September. Yes. And I think on the next episode, I'll kind of get into at least why I have a vested interest in when the premiums come out. Yes. Because I'm getting one, but not in the usual way, I would say. what else happened news uh there was a california extreme california extreme which is a show me and bruce went to for many many years um just it's a very long trip for us being on the east coast and it is very very crowded at this point but very popular show um and and a lot of rarities there that you really don't see anywhere else. Like an original Big Bang Bar, one of the original ones, back before the remakes came out. That was one of the few places you could actually play one. One of my favorites, which I wish they would remake, would be Kingpin. Yes. Which, if you played it, I would say I enjoyed it more than Big Bang Bar. Oh, definitely. Definitely. The death flippers, when your flippers go down in power while you're playing the game, it's great. It's Mark Ritchie's last game, except for Ocean Orange County Choppers. That's truly his last game, but his last mechanical pinball machine, and plays excellent. I wish they would make that one. That would be my next two from PPS. Yeah, and if no one's ever seen it, it basically had crisscrossing habit trails, think like Fishtails, Taxi, use that again. It had spinners on both of them, I believe. It does. It's a very satisfying shot.
    6:43
    It looked like another successful show. Congratulations to Keith Elwin who won the tournament for, I don't know, what, the 20th time? I think he's won every single year they've had it or something like that. No, actually, Jim Belcedo won it once.
    6:59
    But he just crushed. It was actually a very impressive showing where the first game he played, he was the first player, and his final score on NASCAR was over 400 million. let's just say every other score before this was between 70 and 100 110 the attack from our score was what was it 7 billion? yes 7 billion everyone else was going for multiball he was going for rule of the universe just kind of on a different level there yes he was but yeah that's about it with the news except for one more thing coming up which is Pinberg Pinberg, or as you may know it, ReplayFX. But when this comes out, it'll be within a week.
    7:47
    I know I and myself is going, and so is Ron and his dad, and a lot of people I know from the area are coming out. And it should be a great time with over 700 people playing in a pinball tournament. That's a lot of people. It is, but the whole room they're going to have this time, the whole convention center is now taken.
    8:06
    So there'll be a little more spread out room. I can't wait to hit the bounce house. The bounce house, yes. Here's a fun Pinberg fact.
    8:16
    I was the first Pinberg winner at the Pampa facility. I can say that. I won C division at the first Pinberg they had there. And we finished first. We finished before the A and B divisions. So I was the first winner.
    8:30
    Not champion, but winner. Winner. so and that was weird because that's one of the few times i can ever remember a division was did not finish last it's a c division finished then a division finished it was actually b that finished last yeah so that's i think it's a very good time if you get if you're not even in pinberg it's a great show to go to because there's a lot of pinball machines that are out in the main hall there's a good distributor good uh vendors a lot of tons of video games there's There's a video game tournament. If you're into classic video games, the Kong-Off Donkey Kong will be going on.
    9:08
    By Mr. Knuckles himself. Richie Knuckles of the Knuckles. Does he still have an arcade? He has. Yeah, he's moved around a bit, but he still has an arcade. I think, is it still in New Jersey? It is still in New Jersey. so so that will be replay fx from uh pittsburgh at the dh lawrence convention center i think i said it right yes it is from the 28th to the 31st it's actually it's thursday and friday and then the finals are saturday so sunday is a free play have a nice hangout day and uh there's actually a golf tournament the day before on wednesday that uh one of the guys pin golf that They throw in and down on the bar district. I think one of the bars that has pins.
    10:00
    I don't know the exact details, but if you definitely look it up on Pinside or something like that, you'd actually see that there is a golf tournament going on. It's definitely not in Albany, that's for sure. Yeah. We don't have pinballs in Albany. Yes.
    10:14
    So I think that's a bit with the news this week. Anything else from you? No. Well, we can get on to an interesting Stars story. I'll get into the Stars.
    10:29
    Yeah, my Stars. My Stars. Yes, it's Bruce's Stars, but I own it. Talking about Eastern Stars, which is an early solid state certain game. I think it was their third solid state game. I think it was Pinball. Great original name there, Pinball. It's a great original name for a game. Stingray and then Stars. Yes. And I really liked Stars for years, but even before it was in the Bowen Papa tutorial, I was always into Stars. I think they had it at Allentown Show one of the years, and I just played a ton of it. So one popped up on eBay in New Jersey. Yes. Yes When I see these things I just look at the location I like okay how far away is this Do I want to drive there And it was like two hours away I was like I can deal with that So the opening bid was, I don't know, like $400. And there was no reserve. And I think the listing was something like stars, needs help. Yeah, needs help. Yeah, I think it needs help because it doesn't work, right? But whatever. so what what i did is i i when i bid on something on ebay i don't bid till like the last one to three seconds of the auction and and most people know how ebay works but in case you don't when you put your bid in i whatever bid you put in is your max so if it's like four hundred dollars you put a bid of like six hundred dollars in that means it'll go up to six hundred dollars but But if the bid is $400 and you bid $600, it's not going to bid $600. It'll bid like $405 or whatever the next one is. And it'll keep going up to your limit. So there was only one bid, one guy, like $400. So when the auction was about to end, with about six seconds left, I put a bid of $600. And that's the most I wanted to pay.
    12:29
    And I won the auction at like $565. and I look in an eBay you can see who bid on it and I saw there was a second bidder who hopped in I could see the original bidder must have had a limit of $500 because when it got to $500 they dropped off so it went to like $501 so I knew his max was $500 but then there was this other guy he had a bid I don't know what his max was but I had to go up to $565 mine was $559.69 You're ruining the story, though. We're supposed to be the big reveal that it is you. Well, basically, I pick the game up. I bring it home. I take a picture, and I send it out to fellow pinheads, and I get a text from Bruce saying, like, was that from New Jersey? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, you sniped me, you bastard.
    13:24
    It's like, are you kidding? And sure enough, he was the other bidder, So he cost me $64 by my estimate. And you cost me a game. So I'm actually worse off than you. You just, you know. Insert the music small world right now. Well, I was like, why? Yeah, exactly. It's a small world. I don't know what the moral of the story is. Fellow pinheads, make sure they're not bidding against you. But I thought that was funny. And I've been working on the game, and it indeed did not work. It had, but not only did it not work, it was, it had weird things like the, if you ever played Stern, it's a really solid state game that has chimes in it. When they're kind of transitioning between electromechanical and solid state. So they had chimes in it. but the weird thing... And the sterns are different because they actually have one unit of four chimes. Yeah, they have four of four chimes, which I found out the hard way, which was I'm looking at the chime unit, and it looks, the coils, the wires are all cut on it like it had been previously removed from something, and it just, and it was, where it was screwed in, there was like ten different screw holes. Like they kept trying to find the right place to put it, and it was just weird. So I get the manual out, and it's got like the tens chime, the hundreds chime, the thousands chime, and the ten thousands chime. And I'm looking at this, and it's like it only has three chimes, this chime unit I'm looking at. So I have a parts catalog, and I get a picture of it, and it doesn't look anything like the picture.
    15:13
    So at this point, I think I went to Pinball Resource, and he had a picture of a Gottlieb chime unit. And it was like, oh, there it is. It's a Gottlieb chime unit. You're cursed. See? See what happens when you steal it from me? Yeah, well, it had a Gottlieb chime unit, which that could have been just because the stern chimes, if you've ever heard a stern chime, it is probably the tiniest, maybe crappiest sounding chime of all of them. It's very cheap. The chime unit itself is very cheap. It's dead, Jim. It's dead. Yeah.
    15:44
    But it's, I like this. I got used to that sound, so I wanted that sound. It's like, but where the hell do you get a chime unit? You can't get the, you can't just go to like Pinball Life and say, yeah, I want a plastic stern chime unit. So I had to do some digging. Chimes R Us. Yeah, Chimes R Us. Yeah, that would be kind of cool, the Chimes R Us store. But I found one, but there was like the knocker was missing entirely. That's another thing. So I had to find one of those. So, and the, you know, the usual, the power cord was like electrical tape city. a lot of stuff like that but the cabinet was solid the play field was was solid i mean had a lot of replaced coils a lot of bad sockets but i mean what do you expect for what should have been 501 but was 565 so but as of uh last night i actually got it up and running i i if i have a youtube channel. If you search for Gizmonic on YouTube, G-I-Z-M-O-N-I-C, you will see I have a series on my attempts to get it working. I try to split it into smaller videos because nobody likes longer videos. I've noticed my shorter videos are the ones that always get the hits. But I got it running last night. There was a connector that was pinned incorrectly by a previous idiot.
    17:11
    Because the original problem with it from the eBay description was that it fires the wrong coils. Like you hit a switch and the wrong coil fires. And the previous owner thought it was a CPU issue. Which seemed reasonable. Maybe some kind of bizarre, like CPU's telling it to fire the wrong coils. But the issue was the connector between the CPU and the driver board, where it connects to the driver board, someone had repinned the connector and they moved one of the wires. So you got, like, wrong coils firing and no coils firing. So I moved literally one wire and everything works, with the exception of the knocker coil, which I've got to figure out.
    17:50
    That's enough talking. Now that I've talked for 20 minutes. That's Ron's repair stuff. Now I'm actually going to talk about my repair stuff. Yeah, Bruce has two things going on. Nine ball. I hate the plastic pieces where the ball sits for in the trow and also for the first lock. The trough. Oh, my God. The trough. It's the trough. And you didn't tell them with the nine ball, you had to get one nicer than mine. Well, we told them that last time. That was in episode one. Oh, yes. That's true. You were nice. I'll bring it up again for those who didn't hear episode one. It's nicer than mine. Okay. Keep going. revenge for the $65 you boned me out of. But the 9-ball, I'm getting the bugs worked out of it, except for I have a weird switch issue. I'm trying to figure out right now. I think I have a bad diode on one of the switches, so it's just trying to figure that out. But I turned my attention to my year-long project right now.
    18:57
    Four weeks ago, I actually – well, let's go through the whole story. I bought a Centaur about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. Destroy Centaur. Total project. It worked partially. It booted up CPU to everything like great.
    19:11
    So I found a CPR play field. I had the cabinet sent out to one of my buddies, Vance Column, who did all the cabinet and stencil work. So I've got all the pieces now together finally. And tonight, me and Zach said we're going to put the play field finally in the cabinet. We did. We fired it up. uh we have a light board auxiliary light board issue we actually but have all the sounds everything until i started screwing around with one of the connectors on the uh display credit display and i shorted out and took out the whole cpu oh my no i was so instead of destroy centaur it's destroyed Centaur. I did. So then what did I do? I took the CPU out of my embryon and put it in all tech. So I just switched to jumpers and we're back up and running there. I have no solenoids except for the knocker, which Ron does not have a knocker on his star. So now I have to go the opposite way and figure out what's going on with that and figure out which coils because they're all daisy chained. Figure out which one's not getting that power and continue from there. Hopefully that's the simplest And then I have to figure out the light board. Unfortunately, I have to spend more money. Oh.
    20:29
    Well, how's the speech board? How's Mr. Say It Again board? Is that working? That is working. I will actually post a video on that. And I think you should post your stars video, the little one you sent me a couple of minutes ago. We'll both post it to Facebook on our Slam Tilt podcast page. Or what I can do, I'll just link my YouTube channel. That's good. You guys can check it out there. One of the six parts of the Odyssey. Yes. So you can see what we actually deal with all the time. And one more little piece of tidbit. Ron doesn't even know about this, so I'm actually going to hit him over the head with this one. Oh, hit me right in the middle of the podcast. You're pregnant. You got it. I'm pregnant. Yes. I'm expecting twins. Ah. Yes. No. So this weekend I am going down to New Jersey to pick up a Viking.
    21:25
    Oh, man. All right. He's Mr. Mr. It's Bally Bruce. It is Bally Bruce. This will be number 13, but I'm actually going to let somebody else hold for a while. Number 13 Bally's or number 13 games? 13 Bally's. Yeah, that's just Bally's, folks. He's not even talking about games. That's older solid states. That's from 77 up to 84.
    21:47
    So how many games would that be, Bruce? How many are we up to? It's 36. You know you have a problem. I do. It's called not enough room. Well, at least you're in the basement.
    22:00
    Yes. So at least if you go to Bruce's house, it looks normal until you go downstairs. Yes. That was kind of my goal with my room is to at least, Because with my old setup, remember from the previous podcast, I said how I had a 600-foot slab. I mean, you would walk in, and the first thing you see is like three machines in the living room and my main machine. So you're immediately thinking like, okay, this guy is out there. What the hell is this guy doing? Oh we all know that Well yeah we know that Well here a funny story I just throw this one Speaking of just way too many games One of the years at the Chicago Pinball Expo I in the expo It takes place in a hotel and I in the hotel I in the elevator with two other pinheads guys from the show and the one guy was making a comment how like he was he was talking to his friend saying like hey dude man there's some really weird people hanging out here and his friend looks at him and says dude you got like 50 games in your house you can't call anyone weird and he's there like yeah yeah point taken you got me on that one so i that's my my attempt at humor there so my story yes Yes.
    23:23
    Okay, so that's what we've been doing for this past week repairing. Have you done anything else? Not really, just getting prepped, getting ready for replay effects. By prepped, I mean really not doing anything, just getting ready.
    23:40
    I heard this week also another bit of little tidbit of news. I hear Ron Hallett's coming out to the Buffalo Pinball Open. Yeah, I put in for Friday off because it's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
    23:56
    And I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the day off, but I got the day off. So we'll see how it goes. I just have bad visions of me getting home at like 4 in the morning on Monday and having to go to work. I just have that vision in my head. See, that's... I don't because the finals start at 10 a.m. or not 11 a.m. So it's going to be easy on Sunday. Cause I'm, I'm getting all, you know, my younger days, I would frequently like back in the day, I would go to like, say, um, there's a place in New Jersey called eight on the break. It's, uh, it's, it's got pool tables and video games and it has a room with the pinball machines in it. It's actually like, uh, Steve Bowden, fellow friend of the show. That's his, like his home arcade. That's, that's where he lives. So, So they would have, and they still do, they have tournaments there on a semi-regular basis. And I would go to these tournaments, and for me it was like a three-and-a-half-hour drive. And like typical tournaments, they would always end way too late. I mean, we're talking midnight, 11.30, midnight, one in the morning, and then I would drive home, like get home at like four or five in the morning. I just can't do that anymore. So I've been cutting back on that kind of thing. I'm going to get you a little scooter. A scooter? Yes, like I had to get for Dad. Well, no, it's more like driving home when I'm falling asleep. I can't be doing that stuff anymore. It's just not – it ain't safe. Ah, lots of coffee. Lots of coffee. Well, that's a good thing that you brought up eight on the break because I'm going to actually go over a little bit of shows and tournaments coming up in the tri-state area. I'm actually going to do tri-state this time, so great thing. Next week, of course, is Pinberg slash ReplayFX, and that is July 28th through the 31st in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA.
    25:54
    But before that, there's actually a tournament in Syracuse. It's called the Pins and Needles Pinball Tournament. They actually have a DJ playing in the background with all music. While you're qualifying, it's from 4.30 to 8.30 on this Thursday. It's at Cloud City Comics in Syracuse, New York. So how much do I want to bet he plays Pinball Wizard like 20 times? No, he's been banned. It's been banned? Okay. He's been banned, thank God. So that's actually this Thursday. Then, of course, next week is Replay FX. So there's two good shows coming up. After that, speaking of 8 on the Break, there is a Summer 2016 8 on the Break tournament, August 6th at 1 p.m. down in Dunellan, New Jersey. also that same weekend the day after is a charity tournament at modern pinball in new york city in manhattan on august 7th check that out also good cause and my birthday that's right everyone give gifts boards i'll take boards i'll take gift certificates to pinball life for marco happy 3-0 yeah 3-0 yeah and add 15 to it and uh then we We talk about, of course, the tournament that Ron Hallett's going to be staying at, Chateau Nightingale, which is the Buffalo Open on August 12th through the 14th in beautiful Buffalo, New York, at the Pocketeer Billiards. Which I've never been to, so it'll be my first visit. They have about 40 games there.
    27:29
    40 games, yeah. And there's actually, I think right now, there's 45 pre-registered people for, and this is a Papa Circuit event, so big points. Big money.
    27:42
    Big points. You can win a free VCR. Oh, no. Yes. No, no, no. Who can name that game? Who can name it? You have five seconds. Four, three, two, one. It's Smash TV. But not the best of the two games. What's the other one? Total Carnage! Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, you got me there. Yes. They'll probably have that at ReplayFX. You can just continue into Oblivion. You can actually finish the game. Yes, you can. You can get as many keys as you can because you've got to go beat Ackaboo.
    28:18
    That's General Ackaboo. And the last thing coming up, we just found out today, actually, is the Rock Fantasy Summer Bash, September 17th, in beautiful Middletown, New York.
    28:32
    The good thing about that tournament is it's like a meeting point for upstate players of New York who meet the people coming up from the city. And it's usually a good mix, plus also the local Middletown players there are really good too. So it's a good tournament to go see. Mr. Keeler runs a great tournament with Tim Sexton and Greg Pavarelli so definitely good shows coming up every time we have our be sure to go to Rock Fantasy and check out the Kiss Bong, officially not endorsed by Gene Simmons so don't mention it because if he finds out he might too, because he is Gene Simmons yes he will but we're going to talk about these shows all the time coming up And hopefully, I don't know, what's our next broadcast going to be? Are we going to have a broadcast before Pinberg and release it during Pinberg?
    29:28
    Possibly. Possibly, we could do that. Would that be the Return of the Jedi episode? Return of the Jedi episode, yes. Episode 3, yes, Revenge of the Pinball or something. Yes, Revenge of the Sith. Yes, yes. Which was the original title. No, no, Revenge of the Jedi. not Revenge of the Sith originally it was supposed to be Revenge of the Sith because they were going to change the story and then it went to Revenge of the Jedi and then it went to Return of the Jedi I've never heard that so feel free to comment on Bruce's I don't remember that particular story look it up because if it's on Wikipedia then we'll know it's right it's got to be right alright do you have anything else to add? yes I have a segment I just thought of off the top of my head. This is how we're going to wing it here. Okay.
    30:21
    I'm going to ask you, give me a game you love and a game you hate, and why. And then you do the same thing to me. And usually the games you hate are more fun than the games you love, but you have to tell me why.
    30:35
    Give me a game you love. Game I love? Now you're talking Desert Island game, like the only game? No, no, no. Because if it's a continuous segment, we can't do Desert Island game. Just a game. Okay, game you like. We'll do a game you like and a game you hate, because they're easier, usually, the games that you hate, to tell why you hate them. Game I hate? Party Zone. Okay, why do you hate Party Zone? One-shot wonder.
    31:03
    Hit the right ramp. Pass it over from your left flipper to your right flipper. Hit the right ramp.
    31:09
    Find a left ramp. That's all you got to do. I was about to say, I thought it was a left ramp. It's a left ramp. Is it a prototype? No. Prototype Party Zone? No, but you just keep on hitting the left ramp, left ramp, left ramp, and you'll make your points. Very boring game, and some of the music's a little hokey. Unfortunately, I have it downstairs. I knew a guy who hated that game so much, he said that if it was picked in a tournament, he would forfeit and take a loss rather than play it. I don't know if I'd ever go that far. No, I'd never go that far. Okay, game you like? A game I like. It's downstairs also. We'll go for the best wide body ever made by Bally. And that is? Paragon. I'm surprised you didn't say hot dog again. I'm really surprised. No, no, no. That's one of the others, but Paragon definitely is the best wide body from Bally. And why do you like that? It's brutally hard. It's brutal. If I, as I have done in one tournament, I got to pick the games, and what did I pick?
    32:09
    Paragon. People looked at League of America and thought, I would too because that could backfire in your face badly, picking something like that. But it's such a destroyer of people's hopes.
    32:21
    So you just want to beat them. You want to destroy their hopes and dreams also. Well, if you can actually get a pretty good ball on the first ball, most people don't get good balls on Paragon. That sounded weird. Oh, okay, on Paragon, yes. Yes, I said it on Paragon. So you actually get that mentality into people already. First, they're already saying they're going, oh, Paragon. Second, they're playing it. They plunge the ball. It might go into Paragon hole, hit the center target, maybe go for the Golden Cliffs once, and then it's just a free-for-all after that if you're not used to the game.
    32:56
    Okay, okay. So I guess in my turn, I'll start with a game. I'll start with – oh, man, there's so many games I hate. there's more selections from there. I'll do a game I like, and I'll pick one I don't own. I'll try to pick ones I don't own. Maybe that's what we'll do. We'll do that, like games you like that you don't own. So then, like in later shows, we can see when you end up buying it anyway. Like, see, you mentioned that. I knew you'd pick that up eventually.
    33:23
    This one, and I was really into this game, again, before it kind of became more popular due to, I believe it was one of the Popper broadcasts. It was at a Popper final. I think it was, yeah, I think it was a Popper final. or a Pinnberg final, one or the other, and that's Alien Star,
    33:38
    which is actually a John Trudeau game. Yes. And it just trying and the game it has like a multi multiplier that rotates with the spinner So you hit the spinner and it have a 2X 3X 4X 5X thing that strobes It rotates. And whatever it stops in, that's what it's locked in on. So the whole game, you're just trying to get multi-ball started with the 5X play field, and then you want to go through the right end lane and crush the left spinner for like, what is it? So if it's 5, it would be like 50,000 a spin. Yeah. I believe because it's 10,000 a spin when it's lit. So if you get the 5X, it's 50,000 a spin. And your score goes from just shit to hit in short order.
    34:23
    So that would be a light game. Hate. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. You get scared like a Gottlieb game. Because I played that at a tournament, and that game just pissed me off. There are games like Paragon that are hard that I just have to play over and over. Then there are games that just frustrate me to the point where I just hate this game. I don't want to ever see this game again. And that was one of them. Okay, now I'm going to ask you one more question. Game that you own that you like? Game that I own? Well, all of them. No, you know what I mean.
    35:01
    Look at me. I've got one downstairs. Yeah, you've got Party Zone. You own games you don't like. See, that's when it's really bad. You have games you don't even like downstairs. I don't own it, though. My dad's. But it's still downstairs, so it takes up space.
    35:13
    A space that could be taken up by a ballet, another one. That's what will happen. Yes, yes. Is that where Viking's going, or do you have a space for Viking? No, that's going to, Neil's going to grab that from me. So he's going to borrow that for right now. Neil, a fellow. Fellow Western New York player. He actually won the Western New York A Division last year. Neil Parrish. The league. The Western New York league, yes. Yes, we don't have leagues in Albany, so this is a foreign concept. If we had a league, it would be me and my dad.
    35:44
    So I think I would win. Maybe he'd win. I don't know. We could submit it for points. Yes, you could. Yeah, yeah. I think I talked to Josh Sharp once. He said, like, hey, if you have a tournament, like, every day you can win, like, a half a point. Yes. And if you did that for the whole year, you could actually increase your rating tremendously if you wanted to go through with that. You could, but you'd be very tired of it. All right, a game I like. I'll be very simple. The Stars. There you go. Just got that one. Now, a game I like that I don't own,
    36:15
    Getaway. But you had one, didn't you? I did a long time ago. But what happened? You got rid of it. Why do you do these things? The body was pretty bad on it. The cap was pretty shot. It was faded completely. And I traded... Here's the funny thing. I traded it. It was so bad, I traded it for a roadshow. Then two weeks later, the roadshow went bye-bye because I got sick of that real fast. My wife, Kathy, got creeped out by the hedge.
    36:41
    So Funhaus is out of the question. If I brought a Funhaus to this house, my wife would probably not go downstairs ever again.
    36:51
    I'm a fan of Funhaus. I think it would be a great thing to have in a horror movie. It talks to you like, you need to kill your parents or something. It's like a kid. and then they look down and the machine's on but it's not even plugged in and that's how it ends like a Tales from the Crypt or something with an evil broody so what's on your radar?
    37:19
    oh for game okay well I'm probably going to be looking to sell my Terminator 2 soon yeah no that's a better game that's Terminator 3 It is a horror game. I have it right next to the Terminator 2 right now. But I clear that space out, and that's where the Ghostbuster will go. Don't you have a lot of room in your basement, though?
    37:40
    See, I'm trying to keep it under control. No. Yeah, yes. One of the better things about my basement, there's a lot of room to walk. Like, when I had the tournament there, you can walk around, and you're not running into players. And I have, what is it, four distinct areas or rows. I call them sections.
    38:02
    And the one I have two games in now, I can have up to four or five. So there's still room to expand there. And I guess if I really got the sickness really got bad, I could put some games in the center. Yes. Sorry. No, no, I don't want to do that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
    38:22
    Oh, wait until you see it in three weeks, mister. See what? See the basement. Oh, yes, yes. You haven't been here in a while. And Bruce has all these games with 30, what did you say, 36? Yes. But you also have a ball bowler down there. I do have a ball bowler. But at one time I had seven Rush 2049s in my basement. Yes. Sit-down driving games, seven of them. Yes, all linked. Six of them that were the sit-down. One was the stand-up. Yes. All linked, yes. Yes, that was fun. It was fun, but. But the ball bowler, I think that's where people put their coats when they come over. I think that's... That is the official coat holder of Western New York pinball. Yes, the ball bowler.
    39:09
    But it is the ball bowler to my dog lights. Miss Cookie likes the ball bowler. Yes, if you go to YouTube and search for ball bowler dog, and you will find the immortal cookie going just berserk over a ball bowler game, trying to go at the ball. And you'll hear my Black Knight 2000 in the background. Yes, your Black Knight 2000. Your second one. Not the one he sold me that I sold, but another one that he also sold. Oh, I've gone through so many games, it's not even funny. Yeah, you've got a problem, dude. Yep. Hey, but if anyone wants to buy an Embryon, I got one for sale. Oh, he's got an Embryon for sale. Yes, I do. I told you that was the weakest of the ones you had. It is. See, and that proves you agree with me. No.
    40:03
    The problem with an Embryon is you have all this, like, stuff that looks cool to hit, but in reality you end up just – It's a death shot. Yeah, it's a death shot. And just getting multi-ball, like, let me spell Embryon, then lock a ball, then hit another captive, well, no, hit the drop target first to get to the captive ball, then hit the captive ball just to start multiball, which doesn't even give you anything. Does it even give you double scoring or anything? It's just, wow, you have multiball. That's your gimmick. That would have been good if they actually had a double or triple play field, because it would have been nice if they actually had a three-ball multiball in that game. Yeah, yeah. But instead, I mean, if you've ever played Embryon, you just soft plunge it so it barely goes over, hit it with the upper flipper to hit the drop targets up there, and just repeat. Just keep hitting it up in that upper right section over and over. If you ever play in a tournament, if any of our fellow listeners are going to replay effects playing in Pinnberg or see that in any tournament, that's what you do. Just keep going to the upper right flipper and hit the targets. That's it. That's the whole game. It is. But it's a great game, and mine has a perfect back glass in it. Yes, it does. A new all-tech board and a new driver board. So you need it. Even though I just put it down, you need it. I know. You do need it. Somebody out there will want it. Somebody, somebody, I mean, I'm not saying you can't play it the dangerous way. I mean. It's actually fun playing the dangerous way, but, and the displays are perfect on it, too. So, come. I will say one of the, I'd say, bad things about getting tournament crazy is you start to find yourself, like, playing games different. You just play games the tournament way all the time when it might not be the fun way. I try to really try to guard against that if I can. It's hard. Because especially if you're the second or third or fourth player and you watch the first player. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about if I'm playing a game by myself. Like if I'm playing Firepower, you know, what's Firepower? You hit six targets and a spinner repeatedly. That's it. But if I'm playing it by myself, I'm trying to get multi-ball because it's fun. Yes. And I want to not get to the point where I just can't play games because, oh, well, it's too shallow. I can't play it any other way than the tournament way.
    42:18
    I think that's enough content for our second show. We've got to save something for the third show. Yeah, I know. What are we going to talk about? We've got 35 more games to talk about for you.
    42:29
    I'm sure by the next show there will be some other game you've picked up or sold. Hold on. Let's think about this. There could be, actually. No, not by the next show, but maybe in two more shows we might be really lucky. Getting chimed on my phone while we're talking. Maybe you are getting lucky. No, I'm going to get like, ooh, you're lucky.
    42:54
    Okay, well, thanks to all listeners for listening to the podcast. Again, comments can be sent to slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com.
    43:04
    I said that right, right? Yeah, gmail.com. Check us out on Facebook. Just go to Facebook and search for Slam Tilt Podcast. we are on iTunes now and I believe we actually come up under the search now which is cool so just thanks everyone we will probably have one more show out there before replay FX slash Pinberg and I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about for Pinberg after you win, what division are you winning? I'm going for big points after Bruce wins A division so you'll be watching him in the finals I will probably do what I do every year and make A and then not get to the playoffs and enjoy myself Saturday not having to play in anything. But the good thing is going to be this. If we go to talk about it, it's going to be the fourth episode, which will be the Jar Jar episode. No, technically the Jar Jar episode will be episode one. Yeah, I know, but it's actually the fourth one released. This will be our fourth one done. So it will be the Jar Jar episode. Pinberg talking about will be Jar Jar. Yeah, those, yeah. Misesay, we're going to talk about. The prequel trilogy, that's on a short list of movies that, like, I saw in the theater and never saw again. There's a very short list, because usually if I see it in a theater, I like it enough to actually watch it again. The trilogy and Crystal Skull.
    44:29
    Misesay, you've got to watch them all. No, God, that's so bad. It's just such a bad, other than, not just Jar Jar, it's just a bad movie. we're not here to talk about movies we're here to talk about pinball which we will in our next episode be sure to tune in for our next episode goodbye folks bye guys