Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiball 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 blockade, and then we'll learn about each other. From two pennants to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today? Hi friends, welcome to Tribe Multiball with Tim and Rachel A podcast that focuses on pinball pals that belong to the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast How are you doing today, Tim? Good, how are you, Rachel? I'm doing alright Good, good. Glad to hear it. Today's episode is going to be just a little bit different than usual. Is it? Yes, I think so. We've both been pretty busy with, again, with traveling and just life. But we have other pinball news that we like to share. Tim has had an opportunity to do some really awesome things recently. And I'd like to chit chat a little bit about my recent ladies flip tournament. How does that sound? Sounds great to me. And maybe one or two other things. I mean, we could talk about Godzilla. We could talk about Halloween. We could talk about the games, too. But I like the interpersonal pinball stories the best. Yeah, okay. Sounds like a plan. So what's been up with you, man? Well, this is the leading news for me this episode. I had a trip, and I took a trip to Milwaukee. And do you know who lives in Milwaukee? Yes, I do know. Jeremy Schmitz lives in Milwaukee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So – And Drew and Ian. Yeah. Yeah. So I took a trip to Milwaukee and I finally got to meet Drew in person and I got to meet Jeremy in person and a couple others we'll save for later. But yeah, I had a surprise trip to Milwaukee, and I called up Jeremy and Drew and a couple of others, and I got to meet Drew last Thursday. And I'll be honest, we hugged. I'm not surprised. How many times did you hug while sober, and how many times did you hug after having maybe a couple drinks? 25. That was what Jeremy told me. It was 25. It might have been 25. I tell you what, it was like two people running through the meadows at each other, right? I love it. That's pretty much how it went. Jeremy picked me up at the hotel, and we went to a place called Vanguard for dinner. Both two great dudes. I might have pushed Jeremy out of the way and said, let me at Drew. And yeah, we gave a hug, and the three of us went out to dinner. It was a really good time. Everybody knows everything about Drew, and I hope to have Jeremy on soon because Jeremy is a pretty interesting dude when it comes to pinball. He certainly is. Yep, he has a big collection. He loves his pins, and we went out to have a drink afterwards, and we sat on a patio and had a few drinks. I forget the name of the bar we went to, but they've talked about it on the show, and I met Mike. They've talked about Bartender Mike before. And just we solved every problem that existed in pinball in that two hours on the deck outside in Milwaukee. That is amazing. Good job, guys. I heard that big things are now happening in the pinball world because it was a trifecta of the three of you coming together trying to figure things out. I appreciate that on behalf of pinball mankind and womankind too. Yeah. Here's the problem. None of us wrote any of it down, so we can't remember it. Well, we'll just see what happens in a couple of weeks, right, at Expo, right? Yep. Well, that sounds like such a great time. I'm glad that you were able to come to Milwaukee. It's not your first trip here, correct? I think this is also a business trip. Yep. It was my first trip to Wisconsin. Oh, I did not know that. I'm so sorry I couldn't make it down to meet you. But again, we'll see each other in a couple of weeks. Yeah, for everybody listening, Rachel was out of town, so it was unfortunate, and I didn't control the date that I was coming, or I would have made sure that I tagged up with Rachel as well. Yeah, absolutely. I live one hour north of Milwaukee, but that weekend I actually went up to Mountain, Wisconsin, which is about an hour north of Green Bay, and went ATV riding and just enjoyed the autumn. It was just absolutely beautiful. And such a nature is the best reset for me. Pinball works in a pinch, but nature is really where, you know, the real deal is. Anyway. Well, did you get recharged? yes absolutely so it was worth missing out on you but like we had chatted previously we're going to see each other at expo and you know we'll probably hug you know i want to hug you more than drew did and the first time that i meet you because i want to prove that i'm much more of a hugger than he is i don't know that's good that's gonna be tough to beat so okay all right well you haven't you haven't met me in person yet so we'll just see oh that's really exciting oh by the way um did you play any pinball so yeah this is very important oh no very very important drew and i finally played pinball against each other how many games did you play together we played a best of seven our first game was lord of the rings and then we played six others is it a place called blackbird i don't want to get it wrong that's correct yep and we did a best of seven well it It was Jeremy, Drew, and I, and I'm not bragging, but Drew really sucks at pinball. I beat him six out of seven games. What game did he win? He won Funhouse. Okay. But to Drew's credit, he won when money was on the line. The one game we bet money, he won, and then we bet money a second game, and Jeremy won. Okay. Yeah. Maybe he just wasn't as motivated to beat you. I don't know. Or maybe he just had a really bad ball because that's pinball, baby. Yeah. I stomped him bad, really, really bad. So the only thing you can take away from that is I'm next to last. Well, that's okay. Yeah, when it comes to sucking at pinball, I'm next to last. Next to last. Yep. Well, I don't know. I think that, well, you also set your games to five balls, correct? I do not. Not anymore? No. You did for Wallerpot. That was one game that somebody lent me, and I didn't want to change it because I didn't want to reset it. That's the story you're going to tell people. Okay, all right. I have to go back and listen to our former audio and review that because I thought there was a different story there. Again, I'm so glad that you had the opportunity to come to the land of cheese and bratwurst and beer and pinball. So I'm glad that you really enjoyed your stay and had a fun time. Yeah, the food and the beer was fantastic. I got to walk around Milwaukee a little bit during the day. Nice. Again, I enjoyed meeting Drew and meeting Jeremy and hanging out, and it was a lot of fun. I will tell you this. Drew and I were playing pinball, and I spied one of those picture booths where you get in and take the picture, and you get a strip of three pictures. Oh, sure. And I said, Drew, you know we're going in there. And he said, hell yeah. So on my refrigerator is a picture of Drew and I, and we might have gave each other a little hug and some smiles in the picture. Getting all cute and cozy. Kind of made Mistress Anne angry. She's like, you've never done that with me, and I've asked you. What? What? No, that's going to get co-host Rachel upset, too. That's a very small thing. like if a person really wants to take a photo of you or with you it just means they care about you and they want to remember you so you should always be saying yes to that i don't know i don't recall her ever asking me but she says i said no so well i'm certain that she is right you can tell her that yeah if they have a photo booth at expo i will take a photo with amy and drew in the same booth well well you have to be running with mr mr san as well you know You have to do, you got to make it all even out. I'm a Libra, so I believe in that. You know, it's got to balance itself. Yeah. So, funny. Hey, so the week before I was in Milwaukee, you had something going on pretty big in Milwaukee, right? I certainly did. Okay. I ran Ladies Flip Wisconsin 4. 4? 4, the fourth one. Roman numeral 4. Is that like Rocky 4 when Rocky fought the Russian? No, and actually I've not seen, I might have watched the first Rocky movie, so I'm going to say no. You've never seen Rocky IV? No, no, not at all, not at all. But I like the Roman numerals. It's a thing in my family too. Sure. But I went ahead and I organized Ladies Clip Wisconsin IV. That was hosted by Dave and Lindsay Jeff Brenner. Dave is in our tribe. He is an awesome human being. It was also streamed by TurboGrafx7, which is him and also tribe member number one, correct? Ryan Kuiper. Yep. I am so incredibly... I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to try to get through it. I always have so much gratitude when I talk about my tournaments series because so much effort and time and patience and money and thought and care goes into the process of trying to craft an event for women that to get their friends to come play women that are new to pinball women that have been playing for a long time to come play it i like making it like i said before like trying to make it an event and this one for whatever reason it just seemed like because there's a lot more moving parts that were going on it was a much crazier day it was amazing i didn't know where to start ask me a question tim all right so give us a brief overview what the format was again and we'll go from there okay so the format for the day was 13 rounds and it was a four player match play i don't think that there was any three round matches i'd actually have to go back look don't quote me on that it was pretty crazy i had 22 women that signed up i had one no show but it's really funny because the day of the event and the day before i had a couple people dropout and a couple people that added in. I just, I also think anytime that I have over 12 players for any type of women's tournament or event, I think that's a fantastic outcome. Dave and Lindsay did such a great job accommodating. Lindsay also, I just have to say, she made the dough the night before, but she got up and she baked off pumpkin, maple glazed pumpkin scones and birthday cake scones. It was going to be my birthday shortly thereafter. She was just such a thoughtful human being and I'm just so happy that I got to meet her because of Dave as well. Taking a tournament series into a person's home, there has to be a lot of hard work and communication from the hosts. And I know that they put a lot of effort in making sure that their basement looked to the best that it could. I want to mention that every gal that walked into their home and went downstairs into Dave's arcade, the first thing they said is, oh my God, look at the carpeting. Dave has amazing arcade carpeting that's uh blacklight right and it just is something else eventually during the day we did have a turn off i think after the first round we turned off most of the overhead lighting because it helped with the glare on the tables too but also made everything in his arcade really pop it was won by cassidy milanowski she has who's also i want to say co-directed this tournament as well um she did a great job she had it's kind of funny because she had several issues that happened with the game while she was playing it. So she had to stop and come seek me out, and, you know, I had to come over and make a lot more TD-related calls this event. That was different for me. It was much more fly by the seat of my pants. Usually I'm a person, like I said before, I'm a Libra, so I like to weigh and think about things a little bit. But as a TD, you don't always have that time, unless I tell myself to have that time, right? Hope that makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, we had like a weird thing happen on Dracula, and she realized that she ended up with an extra ball and then the same thing happened to Jane after she played, so we dumped the game. I felt bad, but it was also, you know, I could have dumped the game after it happened to Cassidy, but we figured we at least can try it on and see if it errors her second time. But I feel like I'm always learning from that. And I will say all the ladies that encountered issues, they are very patient with me and very patient with the other players. And I felt like every two seconds, I'm like, Dave, can you come here for a second? Because I have a question on the game or whatever. Not every two seconds, but, you know, I felt like I couldn't put Dave couldn't just sit down. I kept him busy and hopping, too. But Ryan, I want to mention again, did so much work for TurboGrafx-7 with and Dave, too, was setting up a bank of different machines, specific machines that they streamed for those rounds. It was Hot Wheels, Torpedo Alley, Congo. And the last one was Sea Witch for the final round. He did an amazing job punting different ideas, figuring out. I just really appreciate you, Ryan, and all the time and effort that you put into that and helping to make my dreams come true, too. I have talked about before about how pinball is a community. And I want to say that those two gentlemen, I might cry. Those two gentlemen have really stepped up within my pinball community, you know, to put forth so much effort to make that happen. It was a different style of streaming is what I'm saying there. Usually streaming is you're following around the top group all day. And I can find that somewhat boring. I do like being able to see, yeah, I like being able to see the other players that their family might be watching at home or following along on match play at home. There are several women there that their partners were doing that. So when they got an opportunity to be on stream, that sometimes can make people nervous, but it can also pump them up a little bit too. And having your family say, hey, I saw you, that can be a lot for a person. so Matt McCarty my scorekeeper you did so much work in making that happen on that day I know that not everything went 110% that neither you and I wanted it to go in terms of a couple little blips but I'm so proud of having you right there as my right hand man and we sorted it and figured it out and I know you worked very hard that day too thank you again see even though I'm tournament directing and I'm organizing this tournament series, there are all these other people that are just making, they're the ones that are making it work. Yeah, so I'll make a couple of comments there. Yep. Yeah, I had the opportunity to watch the Hot Wheels segment, and then I caught a little bit of the Torpedo Alley, and then I had to leave, and then I came back right at the end when you all were doing the awards. And from the stream, it went really well. You know, I didn't see, I thought it was really entertaining. I enjoyed seeing different people play I mean no offense to the top players in the world But you see them all the time And you see them stream all the time So it was good to see Everybody come through And play the game I thought that was a good concept I enjoyed it And I thought the stream presented very well They executed it wonderfully Yep and you know Dave was in all his glory Oh yeah Yeah, you made him run around, but that's his thing. You know he spent all week getting the games ready and maybe two weeks. He sure did. I want to make sure that I mention Max Senesac also, who is a TurboGrafx-7 ringer that they bring on on Friday nights, and I've talked about him before. He was so kind and generous that day also to commentate on Ladies Flip. So we always had a constant commentator as well. So thank you, Max. It was very generous of your time. He also helped me in a couple other little things that way that I was able just to delegate some tasks and that was nice. Again, it was the most crazy one and I think it was just because there was more stuff going on maybe. I don't know. But I really enjoyed it. Oh, there's two more things maybe I should talk about. One, we hosted a side tournament for the first time ever. Dave was able to collect a rejected Hot Wheels playfield from American Pinball. And I'm so grateful to American Pinball. I'm grateful to all my sponsors. And I did have my, if you look at Ladies Flip Wisconsin on my Facebook page, I'm going to post the thank you videos that we had running during the stream. American Pinball, thank you so much. That playfield that you donated, I did that as kind of a raffle on a side tournament. on Dave has a bowling shuffle puck machine. And I want to say, I can't tell you the high score, but it was another woman within the community that I've met once before that she plays, I think in the Twisted Flippers, which is another league in the Milwaukee area that she ended up winning it. And she was very excited. And that ended up raising $155 towards a charity of my choice. Everybody, I'm sorry, let me back up. Everybody had to put $5 into a cup for each chance they wanted to play. It was unlimited chances to play to win. And we ended up raising $155, and that has been donated towards the ovarian cancer research. And I can't begin to say how important that is to me. My mother passed of ovarian cancer 15 years ago. And so being able, anytime I can, to fundraise and add a little bit towards that, that was just an amazing thing, an amazing cause. So, again, thank you, American Pinball, for really bringing such a cool thing to my tournament series. Yeah, that's fantastic. And that was a really good idea. And it's for a really good cause. And, you know, I like those puck bowlers. It was fun. It was really fun. And I think it was Einstein that he wanted to eat the puck every single time that if he was down there, that Einstein is one of Dave's dogs. Einstein and Emmett. They were definitely cute dogs the whole day. They're so much fun, too. So I think the last thing there is that the top four, it was an interesting day. I also played the tournament, so I suppose I should mention that. The top four, Cassie took it all. She has swept all four ladies' tournament. Yeah, I was going to ask you that. I thought she won the last two. Or the last three. Yeah, she won them all. Okay. Even despite having these little blurps with issues with games, the resilience that that young woman has is unbelievable for some players. It would be very hard to get, for me sometimes, it's hard to get refocused when a ball gets put back on your flip or put back in the chute, whatever, and being able to move on to the next thing. But she overcame a lot that day. I'm just really proud of her. Such a nice young lady. And then coming in second was Rebecca and Jane of Hot Nudge. Rebecca Hensdale, and I'm going to murder Jane's last name. Next time I see her, I'm going to have to ask her how she pronounced it. Jane Verwees is how I like to say it. but they actually tied in second and anna neil also hot nudge those three ladies came up from chicago and myself tied in fourth i played terrible with a couple of games in between i had i played good and then i played terrible because i got distracted i think with you know people coming up rachel i need help with this game or this thing happened or whatever sure so trying to juggle this is a lot was a lot harder juggling playing and tournament directing I think is what I'm getting at there. But somehow I did it. But I think this is the key, how I played so well that day. The only games that I played were the 13 games in the actual tournament. I did not have time beforehand to play or in between rounds to flip another game. So I kind of think, well, maybe should I use that strategy in the future? It keeps you kind of fresh. I don't know. But overall, it was an absolutely amazing day, hosted by amazing people, streamed by amazing people. I had folks that donated really cool items to the event, not just manufacturers, but the trophies that were handmade were donated by Shiner Dave. That's Dave and Nikki Oshavsky. And they will be hosting my next big Ladies' Flip Wisconsin tournament. That will be in February of 2022. so we'll take a little bit of a break there i think from that doing big tournaments however because you know i love pinball right and i just can't sit all winter long you know i mean yeah i play league and whatever else but i'm really excited about trying something else i'm thinking about doing like a flipper frenzy on fridays there's three different locations in wisconsin that have all said, hey, why don't you come over here and bring your ladies' flip event? So I'm going to meet with a gentleman this week and try to get the ball rolling on that. So maybe I'll do just not a big ladies' flip, big tournament thing, but just like a mini size tournament. Oh, my gosh. And, Tim, I have to mention one more thing. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to my listeners that are still there. I'm getting there, but there's one really huge important thing that I want to mention. Go ahead. This past week, I had a gentleman that is an avid listener reach out, and out of his generosity, he made a donation to my Ladies Flip Wisconsin tournament series. A significant donation. And I'm not getting emotional about that, too. Go ahead. Get emotional. What I have learned in the last two years of being into competitive pinball is that the pinball community is really amazing, and people will surprise you. and having someone that I've never met that, you know, that he loves pinball too and wants to support women in pinball and is supporting my passion. I think that's just such an amazing gift. So thank you. And I'm just going to keep that person anonymous. But you know who you are. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Well, thank you, anonymous listener. We love you. I mean, that's what the show is all about. and that's awesome news. That's right. So, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to blow my nose after that. It's fine. Rachel, you're doing great things. Congratulations, Cassidy, for winning. The Hot Nudge, ladies of Hot Nudge, they're really entertaining. I love their show. So congratulations and congratulations for you for tying for fourth. Maybe that should be your strategy. Just go in cold. Yeah, and it was funny because I played actually the game I lost the worst on, was Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. That game has hidden shots. Have you played that at all? I have. I feel like the shots on that game are hidden to me, kind of like Popeye. I don't know. Maybe it's just in my head. Yeah, Ryan Kuiper and I always talk about he thinks they're like the tightest shots in pinball. And I think they're pretty tight, but I really enjoy the game. The art and the layout and everything I really like. Just making some of the shots is just really hard, I think, is what I'm going with there. but that might have been my favorite game of the whole day because i lost terribly um and another gal that's a very good player also lost terribly to a young lady that who is i believe she is 16 that has now played in two of my tournaments and she comes along with her mom and it's amazing to watch her she just stood there and she was so calm with the ball just waiting for it to do its thing it was mesmerizing to watch her and she had this she's never played the game before and she had this huge whopper of a game. That's what I love about pinball too. And those kinds of tournaments is seeing that, you know, that raw, that raw, can I use talent or that raw, you know, stuff that's sitting in there waiting to come out for her to play. It's awesome. Yeah. And sometimes when you haven't played the game before, you're not really stressing out about what you need to do. Like you might have an idea of what you need to do, but you know, some of my best games ever were within the first three games I've played on a machine because I kind of have an idea, but I'm not stressing out about this strategy that I need to follow. I'm just playing. Right. There is so much truth in that. I had a friend come over recently and play my Iron Maiden Pro, which I am loving, by the way. I am so glad that I purchased that game. That was the first game I played a lot on location. I first started playing two years ago, and I'm still in love with that game. I got up yesterday morning and played for like an hour. It was like getting up on Saturday and watching cartoons, you know, but playing pinball was amazing. Yeah, that is a great game. My boys both asked me just last week. They were both home. They said, are we ever going to get Iron Maiden again? Because we had it here. It was operator friend Mike's machine. We had it for six weeks, and it is fantastic. It is just amazing. So my friend was here, and she's playing, and I'm like, I totally lost against her. And the reason was is because I'm thinking about what I need to be going for, or I'm really trying to aim and trying to hit those ramps. I have a hard time with the ramps in that game. So I get so caught up in that that sometimes, yeah, you can just play so terribly. And she's only played a handful of times, and she had a ball. She had a great game. So I'm right there with you, Tim. Sometimes I get lost in the chess in my head about that, too. So, but, but again, I just, finally, I'm just going to say thank you to everybody for all of your support and your help with Ladies Flip Wisconsin. Thanks for making my dreams come true with four tournaments in the last little over a year. I love y'all. That's it. I love you too. I know. I love them all. You know, I, I like what you're doing. I say it all the time. Just, just keep it rolling. Do the small things. Yes. Recuperate. Have your big tournament in February and it's, you're doing a great thing for the community. Thanks, Tim. I really appreciate your support and all the support that I get from my tribe members too. Especially the day of the tournament, it's kind of funny. I get so excited when I can finally put my phone away. Once everybody's there and checked in, I can put my phone in my pocket and forget about it. And then I pulled it out later and I look at it and I have all these messages of good luck, have fun today. It's going to be great. And I just really appreciate that. It helps. That inspired me a little because I'm going to be honest, I threw a little bit of a pinball hissy fit this week and I heard yeah I did it to you as well and it's okay yeah your statement about the community and everybody being so great that's true and I shouldn't let some of the the negativity get me down so I'm glad you said what you did because you know I I'm sitting here thinking maybe you went a little bit overboard this week so me are you me me me on the negative side. I think I was texting you, Glenn and Drew. I was just, I was annoyed. Why don't we talk about that? What your frustration is there, Tim? Because I think that you're not alone. Yeah. So I did overreact, but I didn't overreact. And what I was frustrated about, I'll give you the short story, is I have two or three distributors that I work with. and I had a Mandalorian Pro on order for a friend of mine through a distributor and we ordered it. I'm almost certain it was like the week it came out and we paid for it and we've just been in a holding pattern. They said probably June and then August and then, okay, now it's not going to come to October and then they said, all right, it's going to be November. I get it. Everybody's having part shortages. Everyone's having labor shortages. But where I kind of blew a gasket was, yeah, it's coming in December. And by the way, you owe us $300 because of the Insider Connect that they were putting on it. That did not go very well with me because the machine was for a friend of mine who is not a pinball person. I sold their game for them. They have one pinball machine in their game room just to have a pinball machine. You know, I told them to get the Mandalorian. I felt really embarrassed to go back to them and say that, yeah, by the way, you paid for the machine, but you got to give another $300. So I honestly was going to just pay the $300 for them but i will say the distributor ended up working with me and we got them something different okay and um i won't say what it is just yet but you know they're working with us to get us something that won't cost them extra and i've calmed down but i still thought that was crappy i'm gonna be honest with you i thought that was crappy to to come back and say yeah you'll get your game but you owe more money hey tim that's complete garbage yeah okay i think that if you've Was the game already prepaid in full? Yes. That's absolutely ridiculous. And shame on Stern. I'm just going to say that. If a person's already prepaid for that game and now you're putting a different implement in it, that person wasn't buying the game with that implement. They're buying the game just to buy the game. And that should be on Stern. I can be very understanding, too, about all sorts of things are in need of this world. There's a chicken wing shortage, apparently. I don't know. Yeah, there is. Yeah, there's shortages of all sorts and kinds, right? So I can be flexible and understanding as a human. But when you're talking, and maybe $300 doesn't seem like a lot to a person, when you're talking, you know, several thousand dollars for a game, it's the principle of the matter. Why are you selling one thing and then decide you're going to add something and then upcharge it? That upcharge should be free at that point. Now, if that was me and my Iron Maiden and it would have got pushed back, the run of my Maiden would have got pushed back, I don't know what I would have done there. The reason for me, it might have been different because I am a competitive player. I am interested in that option, that feature, you know, checkpoints and play against friends and all that kind of stuff. That sounds interesting. But it's not a requirement either for just a real basic person just looking to have a game in their house. Yeah. And if they would have said, hey, plastic went up or the boards went up $200, it was just the Insider Connect that kind of hit me the wrong way. because it's like if you order a car and they said, hey, you didn't order a sunroof, but we put one on. Now you owe us three grand or whatever. It's not right, Tim, so I can't blame you for being outraged, and I am going to assure you that you are not the only person that's upset by that, and your friend is not the only person that's being affected by that. I'm going to swear here, but I think it's bullshit. I said it. Yep. So moving on, negativity, right? The distributor worked with me. We got him something. Good job, distributor. Good job. I'll tell you next time what it was and all that. I just want to get it all finalized. It's not the distributor's fault either. You can't blame them. They're doing the best that they can with what the information they're being provided. So I do understand that. I really do. Yeah, and I talked to a few distributors. like you know me i i sort of went in on a godzilla premium but i knew the price was going up you know it the fact that fact that it changed When you advertise a price and somebody orders a machine within a week or two after the game comes out and the price is advertised it not our fault that we had to wait six months because we literally ordered the game immediately Instantly, right. Yeah, it was the whole Insider Connect thing. Right. I'm not going to say whether I like that or not. I'm like, can't they take it off? Right. You might not want that. You may not want that feature. I mean, there are plenty of people that take a game home and they bolt it. Yep. And the game stays there. And the only people that play it are their family. And they're never going to use the insider thing at all. Yeah. So it's kind of a waste, too, of parts for them doing that. They should make it as an option, like an add-on option maybe. I don't know. Yeah. Because the number one people that are going to purchase that, right, or are really going to be interested in that, don't you think would be vendors or – Operators. Operators. So, like, what does Operator Mike feel about that? You know, he might be more interested in that style of game than John Smith that lives down the street that he's looking to buy his first game that he's going to own for the next 20 years. So, to me, that's the difference. And Operator friend Mike and I have been talking about that because he has a lot of machines, but they're onesies and twosies. He doesn't have like a big location. So we've just been talking back and forth on whether or not – he's going to try it, but how it will go. But here's the thing. If I buy Godzilla or I buy, say, Rush comes out, I know that the Insider Connect is on the machine, and I made a decision to purchase it. Back in May, nobody heard of Insider Connect. No idea. Yeah, we purchased the game at the price that Stern advertised. Yep. Didn't want the Insider Connect because we didn't know it existed at the time. So that was the issue. Yep. Yeah. And it's the first time I've gotten mad at Stern. I appreciate Stern. Don't get me wrong. I love my pro. You know, I do. But I think that it's – I just want to tell you, Tim, that the frustration that you feel is valid and your viewpoint is valid. I just really hope that you heard about that. Yeah. And you know what I did? and I didn't have a machine on order for myself, but I had some accessories and a topper and so forth that I had on order. I canceled them. I said, hey, but I did not want to screw the distributor, so I took the sum of the money of the things I had ordered and I ordered something else from them. Okay. I did not. Yeah. Actually, I ended up spending double of what I had on order. Kind of re-arranged it. Oh, that's all right. Yep, but I got something from them because I didn't want to hose them. Right. Absolutely, because they're trying to make their bread too. I get it. I understand it. Like I said earlier, I've been doing the pinball thing for a little over two years, and I keep learning more. Like almost every podcast with you, Tim, or every day, not every day, but when I do happen to look on Facebook at different pinball communities and so forth, I'm learning a little bit more about different games, about designers, and so forth. It goes on and on. Got to love it. Yeah. So let's get off the negativity. That was my little rant. Let's get back to positivity. Yeah. I wanted to let you know that I also saw that carpet at Dave's house last week. That's what I heard. I wasn't able to tune in, but I heard that you were on TurboGrafx-7. Yes, yes. So I love Ryan and I love Dave and they invited me to be on the stream. I went over to Ryan's house and I played the P3 for about an hour and a half before the stream. Do you now want one? I do. So everybody always talked about the flippers. I'm going to be honest. They weren't stern flippers, but they were very powerful. I thought they flipped better than my JJP Guns N' Roses. Interesting. I liked them. I thought we played Heist and then he swapped out the play field and we played the Sorcerer's Apprentice and it shot well. But I thought Heist shot and flowed really well. I loved the integration of that screen. So I have a hard time looking up at the backbox. So do I. Yep. Everything was down there and they utilized the screen. Like I thought there was this really cool part where things were going across the screen and you had to hit them with the ball. Like you rolled over the ball and bang. It was like donuts or something. I forget what it was. But I enjoyed – That would be cool. I enjoyed the total package. I highly recommend if you haven't gone over there to play it that you go over there to play it. I've been thinking for two weeks how I can pick one of those up now because I'm a believer in the P3 now. Nice. It looks like an amazing game I do need to get down there That's about two hours For me to get down there It's hard sometimes on a Friday night The stupid Milwaukee traffic But lest I digress I do want to get down there and play it I think it's a fascinating idea Cool concept I can't wait to talk more about that Hopefully I'll be able to play it at Expo I think so Yeah, I'm sure I'll be there Yeah, that's awesome That you had an opportunity to do that too what did you actually stream with with ryan and dave so we streamed lord of the rings i i played lord of the rings at the beach i think i told you but it was broken and i played two games but i had never really played lord of the rings until the night before drew and i played a couple of games on it with jeremy and here's the thing i'm going to pause there for a second how about that collection i was so mesmerized by dave's collection that i didn't practice lord of the rings the first game i played was on the stream because man i played that alice cooper i thought i fell in love with 1812 i don't know if you like that game or not but it's so corny right that's when i think that's my first streaming experience there with them was class of 1812 because i never played it before and it's really dorky but it's definitely not a tournament game at all because you just ramp ramp ramp ramp you know in terms of that game would go on forever but it is a really funny game to play for sure. I fell in love with that game and I'm going like game to game to game and just taking pictures, sending them to my friends and then playing the game. And I could have stayed there all night just, just playing Dave's games and they were, they were beautiful. They were as advertised. Yes, they're absolutely gorgeous. Dave's collection is something to behold. I do love his workshop there area there too, where he, I think he has five or six other games sitting there. Yeah. ready to go but he does such an amazing job taking junked out games and making them so beautiful yeah i'm just uh again so glad that i was able to to be there and play and i'm so lucky i get to go there whenever i really want i just got to make the time find the time yeah i i it was awesome so back to the stream yes i don't get nervous you know me i i could talk and talk and talk like i don't get camera shy but i got kind of nervous on the stream and for the first hour tim sucked at pinball day dave was joking to ride and i because he waxed the machine i guess that day and it was it was playing really fast the night before drew jeremy and i all had super long ball times on lord of the rings and then dave ryan and i had super fast ball times and of course mr sand was on there saying Tim sucked at pinball. Good job. That's just Anne. That's so funny. Yeah. And my kids, my boys were on there making fun of me. But in the second hour, I got to the Destroy the Ring. And in Tim Lee fashion, as soon as I got there, I drained. That's what I do when I get to every mini wizard mode. But after everybody left, I started to do well. It was a little stressful trying not to suck with people watching. and I sucked with people watching. I understand that so much, so much. Yeah. Oh, that's funny. It was a good time. I am so grateful. They did a really good thing for you with the tournament, and they did an awesome thing for me, and that just goes to show the character of those two gentlemen. Yep. Just two great dudes. I didn't get to meet Max. You know, he wasn't there that night. He wasn't able to make it, but I got to meet, you know, in person, you know, Ryan, Dave, Jeremy and Drew. And I know I'm going to say this on the air. You were actually going to try to come down and like stuff me in between your, your trip and work. And I said, Rachel, I will be there in three weeks. Don't, you know, don't go out of your way. And we'll get to, we'll get to see each other in three weeks. We'll get to hug. I don't know if you'll it's going to be hard to beat that hug with Drew well we'll just see how tall are you I'm 5'4 and a half so I think if anybody is like 5'7, 5'8 5'6 and a half your perfect hugging height it'll be great I love it I'm really excited for Expo I've actually try to look a little bit at what tournaments am I going to play because it's classics and open and then it's also the same for women's. So there's all this stuff going on, but I'm thinking I've never been there before. Do I really want to be running around with my head cut off and how much is it really like? There was a thread on one of the Facebook forums, pinball forums about it that was actually helpful. People kind of contributed what that format looked like for them, qualifying and so forth, so that helped. but I'm a little nervous about that side of that, figuring that out, but I'm super stoked about all the social interaction and hanging out with friends and so forth. That would be the best part of it all. I don't even care how I play. And I'm going to give you some real-time life lessons with Tim Lee. Great, bring it on, Dad. I didn't sign up for anything because I'm all about the social aspect, but tournaments is your thing, so you should try to get into a day of tournaments because I, and you'll have, you're going to be there all week. So you'll have plenty of time to socialize. But knowing you, I think you need to sign up for at least one of the tournaments, right? Maybe the Thursday night one. Yeah. Well, I thought, yeah, well, maybe. And I thought, well, maybe I would sign up for the women's classic and then the regular open or the co-ed open or whatever you call it. And I thought maybe I'll just play those two. And it's funny because I like to imagine myself that I'm a really good classics player. I'm not. but I really like classics games so much better. I'm a much better modern pinball player, but I want to pretend that I'm better at the old stuff because that's what I like more. So this is Rookie Tim. What's considered a classic? Oh, man. I might have to scroll here and look for the answer for you on that. It's a specific games that are from a certain era and older, and I want to say it's like 1982 or something. something bizarre like that maybe i could be able to search the answer for you yeah i was just trying to see if system 11s were in classics or oh see this is where ricky rachel shows up because i have i mean i know what what that what you mean by that but i have no idea i can't even name you one game yeah that's how i roll late 80s early 90s your taxis your cyclones your f-14s oh it's the non heat well at district 82 that's because i happen to be on their web page looking they have It's the non-DMD 1991 and older games. Okay. So he considers them the B group, the faster playing games. Yeah, sure. That's the System 11 games. That would be fun. Yeah. So I'm into all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I think that's your thing. You got to do something while you're there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's no way I'm not going to compete. I mean, that's part of the reason why I'm going, as long as I am, I'm going to be there for the whole thing. Because I really want to have the opportunity to do that and also the opportunity to watch other people play. we should talk a little bit about that maybe have you seen that Tim about what I'm going to be doing in a couple of days here the craziest thing of my life some days I wake up and I'm like this is my pinball life now it's crazy but I just want to plug it because I think maybe we'll drop this episode before this event but District 82 Pinball which y'all know is my home pinball league my home pin palace my favorite place to be I, well, one of my favorite places to be. I'm very excited that I'm going to be announcing and commentating on the Fox Cities Pinball stream for the pinball super series. That's going to be held at district 82 this coming week, which is October 14th to 17th. It will be live on Twitch through Fox Cities Pinball stream. And I am nervous and excited and terrified. It is six tournaments in four days. Okay. And I'm going to be chit-chatting about them all. I will be, I don't know. I think the idea is for me to just keep the stream moving along. Tom Graff that runs Fox's pinball stream will also be playing. So give him an opportunity to, you know, he's always moving the rig around. I think I need to put a horn on his rig. I'm not lying. So it moves people out of the way. Because like if I see him coming through, I'm like, get out of the way. Tom's coming through, you know. And so that gives him the opportunity to free him up a little bit more time. and also gives a dedicated person on the stream for that time frame. Usually how that runs is that he's usually the main commentator and other people just jump on and off the stream as they can. With this being such a bigger event, I thought this is a little too much for me. Now I know this is my home pin palace and all that. I know the games and everything. Six tournaments in four days just seems overwhelming to me. And knowing that as me, as Rachel, meaning I think that's just too much of my body standing around for four days on concrete, you know, it's concrete, basically, and even the most comfortable shoes and everything. So I had signed up and I did get into it. And I just decided, well, maybe this would be a different fun way to relieve some of the pressure that can be there while streaming. And it's something that I really, really enjoy. If other people have caught me on Foxy's Pinball before during an event or TurboGrafx-7, I really like the media. I enjoy chatting and interacting with people. I like learning from people in the chat. But I'm going to give you my biggest hesitation about it all, Tim. I'm nervous. I'm nervous. Yeah. Listen, you'll be fine. That's actually awesome news. You told me. I saw the announcement come out. You'll be totally fine. you're always prepared oh see but i'm rookie rachel right so still in my head like but this is the number one thing i i'm really looking forward to chit-chatting meeting new people from all over the country that's coming into play i'm very excited about all of that but i'm really stoked to be able to watch people play because generally there he follows the top group and so if the top group playing they know what they're going to step up to that game and set it and they know what they're doing. So I'm hoping that I can just like stick my eyes on it so hard and absorb all that information. So the next time I go play that game, I can do the exact same thing. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Yep, absolutely, yeah. So it going to be an incredibly educational week incredibly fun I hope that our listeners that are out there that you join me That again on Fox City Pinball stream October 14th 15th 16th 17th They're currently... He has 112 people that are signed up, but I think that'll probably filter down closer to 100. He tends to have some people that don't show up. There's also a huge cash prizes that are involved in this and it's been sold out since July, since it opened up. So super exciting event, super exciting to see that in my own backyard at my pin palace. So anyways, if you are available those days and tune into Twitch, please shout out and say, what's up, Rachel? I will do that. What are the times? I know you will. Keep me entertained, please. Yeah, you gave the dates. What are the times? Man, I think that it starts at the one on Thursday, the 14th starts at 5, I believe at 5 p.m. and then each day I think they start at 9 so it's one that's in the morning on Saturday, one in the afternoon, Sunday they're all different styles of tournaments different formats I should state like one is going to be classics another one's going to be a match play, another one's going to be a strike or knockout, another one is going to be target match play which is where you're trying to accrue 30 points I like that style, that was fun it'll be a pretty amazing day and I think I'm really also excited for new people that are coming there. So if you are new to District 82, I'm going to give you the biggest secret, skill shot secret, the biggest secret that I can tell you, yes, is that if you are playing there, you need to look underneath the game. I'm not kidding you. You need to look underneath the game and see if the back legs are on paving stones or bricks. There's a reason because there's a drain actually that runs underneath there and he's got some of the games up, but it does make a really big difference to how some of these games are, you know, that they play. So take the moment to look underneath because that ramp or that shot might be a lot harder than what you anticipated it to be because of that. So that's my big secret, you know, rookie Rachel secret about District 82 or something. So check for the bricks and be prepared. All right. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to listen to rookie Rachel. You'll do fantastic. Thanks, Tim. I kind of got a little secret I didn't tell you. Oh, boy. I signed up for a tournament. You did? Shut up. It's because of you. I'm like, all right. I'm like, all right. Rachel would want me to join this. There's a tournament. That's me too. Yeah. State College PA. It's Penn State University. They're having a tournament the following week. I think that would be the 20-something. That's Sunday. And I signed up to play. I don't know how I'll do. I'm so used to these machines being so easy, you know, locally. Because I set Mike's machine. Set to five balls. Yep, set to five balls. It's not five. You know what? While we were thinking, I did have BK2K set up at five balls. I think that's the one you were thinking. But that was – I probably only played that one like 20 times. My kids liked that one. So there was one machine that I set on five balls, and that was BK2K. But the rest are three. But, yeah, I signed up for a tournament. It's a match play tournament. We'll see how I do. I'm excited to hear about that and how you feel about that because you've only done a very limited, correct? Yeah, I've only done one or two, right? I did two, and then I did a Stranger Things release party. So we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll just drink a lot of beer and have a good time. That's what sometimes pinball can just be about that. Also, again, just relaxing and having fun with friends. For me, one more little reflection I'm going to put in here about the last two years of playing and getting into pinball, the community, and all of that. One of my favorite things really is when I get to District 82, and I try to get there, it opens an hour earlier, so you can pre-play and practice and so forth. But I also really enjoy spending that front time chit-chatting with people that I haven't seen in a couple weeks. What game did you get? What have you been playing? How's life? How are your kids? What's going on with you? I'm sorry to hear the loss of your mother. It goes on. So again, Tim, we talk about the pinball connections with people, and the farther along and more I get into it, that almost matters almost as much as playing the game because I love people. I do. Yeah. Happy girl. Yeah, that's my favorite part because I'm nervous. It really matters. Yeah. I'm not really nervous, but I'm nervous because the games will be set up like a tournament. And I went to Helicon Brewery this weekend, and I spent just as much time talking to people from the Pittsburgh area that play in the Pittsburgh leagues or just played Helicon than I did playing Godzilla. But I did get a little nervous when I played Godzilla. So they had four Godzillas at Helicon. They had four right in a row, but they were set up. I don't want to say brutal, but they were set up like a place that has tournaments and an operator's location. And man, that was – first off, I will tell you, that game is as advertised. I did not think the Pro would be that fun, but then I played the Pro, and I'm like, this game is fantastic. It shoots like an L1 game, plays like an L1 game, but I had some quick drains until I got used to it. Once I got used to it, I started to have some good games. And for me, I think I got like 200 million. I think that was my highest score. But it took me a while to get used to it. But I was also, hey, how have you been? Just like you said, you know. So I talked to somebody and come back. But, yeah. Sometimes I think the best games I have are after league when we're playing dollar games. You know, everybody puts a buck in the cup and we're just playing and we're shooting the breeze and jabbing each other, you know, egging each other on a little bit all in fun i really enjoy that sometimes i have the best games when someone's like rachel go back to sheboygan you know or whatever that's where i live folks sheboygan wisconsin but you know they'll say things like that to me and that just makes me crack up because i just want to play that much harder or better or whatever um and it's just fun so much fun and i'm glad to hear that godzilla is that awesome i haven't had a chance to play it yet uh it is going to be i think a premium is going to come to plymouth tap is what i heard so So when that comes out, I like to savor that and come in and play it the day he gets it. I think Nate enjoys that too. Yeah, I was in Pittsburgh. My son Noah ran in the city in one of the parks in the city for a race. And I said to Amy, I said, do you want to go to Helicon and get a growler? And we could only go for an hour and a half. But as much as I wanted to be annoyed with Stern for Godzilla being whatever it was, $1,000 more, Keith Elwin, it's another home run. You have Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, Avengers was a home run. I don't want to compare Avengers to Godzilla because they're different, but you know how Avengers just shot so well. The Godzilla Pro just shoots so well. I struggled a little bit with the Mechagodzilla shot, but eventually I got it. There was a shot like when you shoot it through the building, it does a really quick turn. It's like a really small orbit, and it comes back down to the left flipper. when I shot that the reverse way just about on three out of the four machines it kept going right down the middle so I had to practice my slap saves and again it took me about 20 minutes to get used to it but man anybody that has ordered a Godzilla Pro or Premium you won't be disappointed we have Tim the Toonamount Lees endorsement yeah it's as advertised and you know what else I played? what? Halloween you did Oh, man, I can't wait. I have some friends that they have a very low number on that, and I'm hoping that theirs comes up really soon. Super excited about that game. I'm not big into the theme, but that game looks like a heck of a lot of fun. Yeah, so I will tell you this. Amy played Godzilla for about 20 to 25 minutes with me, and then she disappeared for an hour, and she was playing Halloween because we got there earlier in the morning because cross-country races are always really early. so she played for about maybe about 45 minutes and then i went over and played halloween for a half hour completely different godzilla was a little bit too fast for amy but i went over and she was killing it on halloween she actually beat me in a couple of games because we played and i think it might be the first two times she's ever beat me in pinball and you know she was trapping up and i saw her do a couple uh passes from the left to the right flipper awesome it played really slow though it's it's just it's different it was a completely it was like you know how i tell you guns and roses was an experience i don't think halloween wasn't an experience because they didn't have any of the movie clips and i agree with everybody there but the game itself i could see why she loves it so much because on the way home she's like we got to get that game you know we got to get that game and wow it it it played slow it was fun i could see there was a line of people after you know we were done people just kept coming up to halloween and they were playing godzilla too but i noticed a lot of you could tell they were non-pinball people because they were trying to figure out how to play it but you know it grabbed their attention they played it played completely different and i love that you know some people don't like when games play different i love the fact that godzilla and halloween were two completely different games and i i enjoyed them both me too I love that when you can find, you know, it's funny, right? Because it's all a world under glass, as they say. Sometimes I'm standing there playing and I'm like, what am I doing? In terms of I'm whacking this ball around, these slippers inside this box. But let's look at all the stuff that's inside this box here, right? We've got these really cool art blades that are going on. And look at that stuff on top of the sling. And holy crap, that ball plunges hard or whatever. and i get so lost in just the beauty of this is a cool freaking thing it's cooler than a video game yeah you know to me it's cooler than any other kind of like game i think i've ever played i think pinball tops it yeah but that's just me no me too yeah one little complaint about halloween the middle ramp kept rejecting i don't know if that was on purpose because amy kept saying like i think it might be cutting it off like that might be on purpose and we couldn't tell but there were there were a lot of rejects in the middle ramp and but that that didn't deter us i did tell her when the standard comes out that i would consider a standard for what it was i don't think i would pay the money you know i have a little buyer's remorse with gnr not that gnr is not a badass game we've talked about that but just just for what you get yeah so i i think i'll probably go in on a on a halloween nice standard or i will tell her i'm buying a halloween get an ultraman and say well hey spooky shipped us the wrong game we gotta keep it so but wasn't it really wasn't it a really small run of the ultraman though i thought it was like a very like 500 or something right it's like really small yeah that's crazy no it's that's really awesome that she found a game that she really jams with i think that's fantastic that she wanted to go along and play with you too that's great yeah she she likes to go to helicon she likes her beer i think i posted a picture you saw my facebook feed of her her having a nice beer and my kind of gal yeah she really connected with that game just the same like when she played guns and roses for the first time i thought this machine's gonna end up in my in my basement and so halloween will probably be in my basement i do i heard they're adding more movie assets i really hope they they do because the one thing i agree with um some folks about is the fact that the cartoon not the cartoon but like the the the animated michael myers and so forth on the screen they need movie clips they really do yeah good yeah whoo i don't know what else tim you know i i that's everything i had that's that's a lot but that's that's a lot you know i i think that's everything for me i I think, what are we in? October, I think I finished September League in 29th out of 60, which I think was two points, two Whoppers. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it is crazy. But again, District 82 is definitely a Whopper farm. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I have thought about a Toy Story 2 if that comes out. I keep thinking about that. That's just such an ultimate cool theme and back to the future. So I think I need to start my pinball fund all over again. yeah i i um i think it was ryan kuiper i would i was complaining to ryan kuiper too about some of the the price increase and all that and i said but you know i'm going to be a hypocrite as soon as back to the future comes out i'm going to be ryan i ordered the premium right right that's all right that's okay i'll just have to maybe you can order it and then i'll just take like a trip to your house and play all your games and set new gcs on them all and then we'll turn the five balls off uh you're you're you're twisting the knife only one game with five balls so what did we learn on the show today tim as usual i don't really know what i learned but i had a great time me too you know what i learned i learned that you're still doing awesome things in pinball. I learned that Drew honestly does suck at pinball. I learned that David and Ryan are exactly who I thought they would be, two great guys. I learned that Jeremy Schmitz, we're going to have him on soon because he's a pretty cool dude. I hadn't talked to him much in the past, but he was fun to hang out with, and that's what I learned. I love that. I love all of that. What did I learn? I learned today that I have a co-host who constantly encourages me to keep at it. And I'm so appreciative of you, Tim. I also learned that that was your first trip to Milwaukee. I wish I could have been there for you and taken you to Cop's Custard, but that might be another trip. I'll be there again. I hope so. I had such a nice time just chit-chatting with you and catching up. and maybe we'll do this format again in the future. It's just nice to kind of get some of the more lengthy pinball news out of the way too. Yep, yep, and just for the listeners, we did this on purpose. We thought that we had so much to talk about that we don't want to cut any guests short. So next episode we will be back to interviewing tribe members. And quiet as mice. Yep. Probably not. No, no, no. All right. Well, you take good care, Tim. You too. Happy flipping. Happy flipping, and Drew really does suck at pinball. Bye. Thank you. you