It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host Jeff Teolis. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com or on Instagram, X, Twitter, at pinballprofile. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. We have a great Facebook group as well. And if you'd like to show your support, don't worry, the show will always be free. But it's patreon.com slash pinball profile. And thanks so much to Lua W, Gambling Media Entertainment Law, Colin M, Bart V, Jerry S, Fox Cities Pinball and more. I'm here in Manitoba, Canada. Yes, that's a province for everybody outside of Canada. And it's a growing province when it comes to pinball. And thanks in part to our guest today, the Manitoba Provincial Director, David Morris. Hey, David, how are you? Good, good. Thanks for having me, Jeff. So you might hear a little bit of pinball in the background. We've kind of gone to a quiet area here. It's the Manitoba Pinball Championships. And we'll tell you about that in just a second. But what David does, and he's been doing this since 2018, he runs Phantom Amusement, a great arcade and a real need here in Manitoba because the scene has been growing. I mean, the Manitoba Pinball League started in 2017 and, well, you've got to play somewhere. So Phantom Amusement came to the plate. Yeah. So we had been looking to do something for a while and I wanted to play pinball competitively and there was nothing locally. So I kept trying to find somebody that would do it and nobody wanted to do it. So I said, well, I got to do it. So I started the league in 2017 and then I found a friend to partner up and start operating games. And we kind of made our own scene and it kept growing and growing from one location to another. And next thing you know, we had Phantom Amusement. Okay. So you were obviously a fan of just playing pinball. Then you found out about the IFPA and leagues and stuff like that. What got you into playing pinball and falling in love with the game? So I was given a gift of a arcade machine as a housewarming gift when I moved to my new home. And so I went to a local operator's place to gather parts for it. And one of the employees that he had there would always tell me, ah, that arcade stuff's junk. You got to play pinball. And then eventually he invited me over to his house. And then I went there, went downstairs, and he had 22 pinball machines in his basement. And all those sounds that I heard that night brought me back to the 1990s. And it was right then there that I knew that I had to have one. And then it just spitballed from there. I could see your eyes popping out when you walk into a place, 22 of them, as opposed to a few video games and stuff like that. Yeah, pinball is unique and special and every game is different. What was your first game? My first game that I purchased was a 1972 Bally Time Zone and I do not own it anymore. But I do know the guy that has it and I'm trying to get it back because it is kind of sentimental that way. It's not really a good game, but I kind of want it because of that. That was the first game you bought? Yeah. Just the price was right? It was $160. I'd buy it too. In Gatineau, Quebec. And my dad's a truck driver, so I couldn't find anything locally. So I started searching our local classifieds nationwide and then I found that game and I called up my dad and I'm like, where are you? He's like, oh, I'm in Ottawa. I'm like, I need you to pick up a pinball machine for me. And he did. And then he brought it home and we set it up and played it all night long. And then it wasn't long from there. It's like, oh, if I move the chair over, I can get two. If I get rid of the chair, I can get three. So I was the same way. I had a lethal weapon and I was downstairs in my basement. My buddy Dan Bitterlich, who does the Victoria Island podcast, he said, well, you know, if you get a game, you can go in there and you move that couch and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, no, no, no, I got to. Anyway, there's zero furniture where my pinball machines are right now. In fact, we've even converted a bedroom into holding pinball machines. So, yeah, that's what happens. They just snowball, don't they? Absolutely. It's the same for me. My rec room in the basement is pinball machines only. Standing room only. But it makes sense. What is neat about this whole conversation too in the Manitoba scene is there wasn't a scene and just... There was nothing. Not only was there nothing, there was no location with more than like two games at the time. Like it was a very, very dry pinball market and so I had a tall task to bring people to play pinball but you know what, it was easier than I thought it would be. People were hungry for something different and we're very proud with what we've built here. How'd you spread the word? We just made a Manitoba Pinball League Facebook site and we broadcasted there and I partnered with a local operator and we found a downtown bar and we got them to help us advertise and we just made a pinball tournament I didn know anything about running a pinball tournament I tried to reach out and I was getting you know not a lot of help So I just kind of had to figure it out And we went from there It was a big success We had 52 players at our first ever tournament in February of 2017 Yeah it was it was a big success 52 for the first time. Yeah, I can see people getting the bug. And I imagine learning the software or learning, you know, what the rules are in the IFPA. There was a bit of a learning curve there. Absolutely. And at that time, I don't think there was match play. We were using a program that was iPhone only at the time called Bracalope. Oh, yeah. Do you remember that? Well, I think it's still around. Yeah. So it's just 1v1. It's a bracket. Yep. Well, you do what you have to do, but you've created this scene and not just you. I mean, Drew Sitch, we're here at his place right now at Sitch drywalling for the Manitoba Pinball Championships. But, you know, back in Ontario where I live, I know of certainly Jack Tadman, Canada's, if not one of the best players in the world, certainly one of Canada's. And, you know, he's from Winnipeg here. I come here and I see great players like Jay Wolston, who just seems to dominate. He went to his first ever NACS and yeah, you've got some great players here. We've got a lot of great local players here and some of them that don't do a lot of travel that we hope to get traveling. You mentioned yesterday to me in a conversation that Ian Gomm is a great player and he's a local player and we'd love to see him travel more and see what he could do nationwide as well. But yeah, it's a great scene and we got a lot of great players here and it's a growing pinball community for sure. So I imagine it wasn't long after doing the Manitoba Pinball League and how do we grow and how do we find out more, you started going and traveling and going to different events. Because I've seen you at Indisc, you definitely come to the Beast. In fact, you're a Beast Booster. There's three Winnipeggers that are Beast Boosters. That's how much they love Pinball in Winnipeg. Certainly, Maple Pinball in Mississauga, Yag Pin, Canada's biggest tournament and quite honestly to me, maybe the best tournament in the world. And Starfighters, even saw you at the wonderful event they do there in Arizona. It's fun to travel, isn't it? It's a lot of fun. And I didn't, I've always wanted to travel. My first tournament that I played in out of Winnipeg was at Pinball Expo in Chicago, of course. And that kind of got me into it. But I didn't know a lot of people locally that wanted to play in tournaments. And then when Drew started coming to league in 2018-19 and then COVID hit, unfortunately, but once COVID was kind of wrapping up, you know, he reached out to me and was like, would you like to go to Indisc? And I've always wanted to go to Indisc. And I'm like, absolutely. And then it was history from there. We we've gone many times throughout the years and have a lot of fun. You mentioned Drew Sitch and traveling. Well, it was in 2020 that I first knew of Drew. And in fact, it was his first year of playing, I think obviously 2019, but he made it to the North American Championship Series. And I'm watching it from the game exchange in Colorado. And there's Keith Elwin playing against this guy from Manitoba. And Drew Sitch, I had no idea who he was. And we're all watching him like he's going up against Elwin. He just took Elwin to game seven. Who is this guy? Drew Sitch is an amazing player. And yes, I remember watching that, too. And while that was going on, I was getting messages from all kinds of people going, who is this guy? Drew Sitch, Drew Sitch. But you're right, he took Keith Elwin to Game 7 and he actually almost won, if it wasn't for on Black Knight, that button, that the Magna Save button. If you watch the replay, you could see Keith Elwin pull that ball from the outlane back with that Magna Save button. Otherwise, Drew would have won that game. But yeah, he came that close in his very first big out-of-country event to getting, you know, real deep in that tournament. From the NACS he went on to a world championship so some great players here in Manitoba for sure and in fact it's drawing people because here right now the Manitoba Pinball Championship I think it's the third kind of real expanded year and you've got people from out of province all over and definitely from even stateside. EJ's here from Michigan helping out with the tech side. Luke Nahorniak is a staple here comes up from Minnesota with a bunch of his friends and in fact he's done really well here. You're a bit of a drive, but you've created something that's really attractive. Yeah, yeah. Drew and I had a vision of, you know, once we started going to District 82 and was another place that we used to go to. And, you know, we kind of wanted to do something like that here. And we kind of looked at each other and we're like, maybe we can do that. And we started and we've had amazing support from other provinces, you know, including Ontario and Saskatchewan and Alberta and BC. And, you know, and you mentioned that we have a large U.S. audience this year coming out from Minnesota, North Dakota. We even had a guy from Arizona, Michigan and Massachusetts come here, which is awesome. So we love to see this grow and we hope that it continues to as we continue on. We'll watch for it in the spring next year in 2027. But again and the American dollar certainly helps make it easier for our American friends to come up to Canada And you know you don get taxed on winnings here in Canada Correct and I always advertise it to them as they get half off everything so it kind of makes it easy for them to come up You know we were a part of something very special this year. You're the Manitoba Provincial Director, I'm the Ontario Provincial Director, we have all the women's directors. We kind of unanimously decided last year we wanted to hold a Canadian National Pinball Championships and Women's Canadian National Pinball Championship. We made a whole weekend of it with a Pin Masters, a Canadian Open, even a provincial battle too that I gotta point out Saskatchewan won. I think that was a pleasant surprise. People probably thought maybe the host Alberta would do it or maybe BC with all their talent, maybe Ontario. But again, no way. Anybody can do it in Saskatchewan. It's got great players. Another growing scene too in different areas. But the Canadian Pinball Championships is something that we just held at Arcadium in Edmonton. It was wonderful. We wanted to probably host it to where people are really experienced with big tournaments and with what they do at the Egg Pin. It just made sense, too. But it's going to rotate from Western Canada to Eastern Canada and back and forth and back and forth to really mix it up. I know Manitoba is looking at, hmm, we might want to do it next time it comes this way. We would love to host. And yeah, we're definitely going to put our name in the hat in one of the upcoming years for sure. Yeah. So we're in Ontario next year at Maple Pinball and then we're going to go to the new Neon Ranch in BC in 2028. But it was needed, wasn't it, David? Because Canada, out of all countries in pinball, has the second most players. So there's a lot of country championships. I think there's 19. So finally. And didn't you say we were the only one that didn't have our own championship? Yeah. So, you know, with working with Josh Sharpe and Adam Becker and making it possible, we were able to do it. But it's just kind of a testament to how the scenes are growing. And then put this anywhere too. It can be stateside, it can be Europe or anywhere in the world. Build it and they will come. And you did it with the Manitoba scene here starting the league. And I can tell you right now like New Brunswick, another province, a small province out in the Maritimes, you know, they've seen growth. We mentioned Saskatchewan. You can name that anywhere probably in the world. Create it, make a buzz for it, whether it's Facebook or get a few machines, people will come, won't they? Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes you're nervous when you're starting out, but you just got to keep pushing forward. And and like you said, if you build it, they will come. So it's just something you just got to keep pushing forward. And it's amazing to see the success and results of hard work from all the pinball community in Canada. And it's well deserved and earned. And I really hope that our scene continues to grow where I remember talking when we were talking about starting. Starting this last year, you know, there was talk, will we get, you know, four players from every province that want to travel? And, you know, there was some questioning on that. Well, there was not one province that was eligible that didn't send their full amount of players to the event, which is amazing. Yeah, we took the top 25 percent from each provincial finals and then top ranked players to fill out the field. And it was easy to have people come. In fact, I think it was 35 out of 38 possible people came and then we rounded out the field. So that was nice to see. And with what we did the first year, people are going to be excited for years to come and always bigger, always better. But I think whether it's starting a league, whether it's an arcade, whether it's just getting into pinball, whether it's IFP or not, the most important thing is make it fun. Create an atmosphere that people are going to enjoy and not feel like, oh, I didn't do well. It shouldn't matter how well you do. It should be just about having fun and getting to meet different people. And we all come from such different backgrounds, but we all love the same thing. We all love pinball. And it's funny how you can just bring people together like that with a little thing like a pinball league. Absolutely. And myself and Drew, who run the pinball league now together, you know, we both consider ourselves pretty outgoing people. And, you know, so we're very good with making everybody feel welcome and feel secure that they're in a safe environment to play pinball as well. So I want to talk to you about Phantom Amusement because it's one thing to have a pinball league and go to an arcade that's existing. But when you have to create an arcade, that is a different animal. It's a coin drop arcade and you've got a nice mix of games, don't you? We do. We have everything from, you know, the early solid states like Bali. Currently, we've got Dolly Parton and we've got, you know, you'll find your Williams System 11s like F-14 or Whirlwind and, you know, your WPCs like Bram Stoker's Dracula and Medieval Madness. And then of course you're going to find your 10 to 12 new Sterns and a Stern Insider leaderboard. So we try and have a little everything and it's kind of become the place in Manitoba to go to play the new games that come out. Stern Insider leaderboard is really a must if you have an arcade too. I mean people are drawn to that and again being part of the Stern army that's impressive too. Launch parties are a big draw. I curious as an owner of a coin arcade what are some of your big earners What are some of the surprises when it comes to games Well for us what really surprised me was when we put the Addams Family in a game that is from 1992 And this was just two months ago in February. It was our highest earning pinball machine. And that's competing against games like King Kong, Star Wars, Fall of the Empire, Dungeons and Dragons, Stranger Things. It's unbelievable that a game that's 30 plus years old can not only still compete with them, but out earn them. So that was a surprise, but typically the new Sterns earn the most and the biggest surprise right now, well, I guess it's not really much of a surprise, but Pokemon. We have the new Pokemon and it is amazing what we're seeing with that. The new players that me and my staff are seeing play Pinball is incredible. And we think the future is very bright for Pinball with what Stern is doing by bringing the new players that Pokemon is bringing to Pinball. Yeah, it's a great home run of an IP for sure. And you mentioned the young players. A young player is somebody that you know very well, your son Barrett, who also helps work out at Phantom Amusement. He's all into Pinball, I assume? He is. And you know what was funny because growing up he kind of was, but not a whole lot. It took working for us at Phantom Amusement to get him really into it, but he loves it now and he's competing and he actually did really well this weekend at the Manitoba Pinball Championship. He did. He's a very good player for sure. Now back to Phantom Amusement. This is going back quite a while ago. I remember watching NHL hockey on TV and it was a Winnipeg Jets game and they showed the Jumbotron. The Jumbotron, oh look who's in the stands there. It's Bob Odenkirk. He's filming a new movie there and it was Nobody 2. And I'm like, oh, okay. I remember Nobody. It was a great movie. I look forward to the sequel. Well, fast forward a few months, they now have the trailer out for Nobody 2 and I'm watching and I'm like, that's an Iron Maiden pinball machine and it's filmed in Winnipeg. I wonder if they got it from David. And yes, in fact, they did. And that was your machine in there and probably a few other things. Yeah, absolutely it was. And yeah, we supplied almost all of the games in the movie Nobody 2. And we had a real, real great time working with them on that. And yeah, they used it in the movie, which was awesome to see. So we actually took the night off and took the whole staff out to watch the movie together. And we had a sign made to put on top of Iron Maiden saying that this was the game featured in the movie just to kind of drum up some extra excitement for people playing. We'll throw a picture of that on our Facebook and Instagram as well, too, because, yeah, I mean, that's pretty cool. You sometimes see like prop serial numbers on games, too, because they have to be inventory. So I bought a Flight 2000 that was in some commercial or movie or something, but I never really figured out where it was. But that was cool when I saw that. But what wasn't cool was I'm watching Nobody 2 and I'm like, that guy just went through the glass. They smashed the glass. Explain that. So, yes, that's true. They did do that, but it wasn't the actual Iron Maiden Pinball glass. They removed that and installed something that they use in the movie business called, which I was told was called Candy Glass. And then so it has the look of real glass, but has no fear of cutting anyone or anything like that. And they they did use it and they broke it. And we're still finding little pieces in the bottom of the cabinet every now and then. But yeah. But I mean, that's a great little paycheck, I would say. Of course, they they they paid well. No, that's good. It's you know, it's a big part of the industry, too, because you'll see this all the time in TV shows and movies where games pop up. And I think there's even a Facebook page like, oh, look at this game here and there. And there's yours in Nobody 2. But that's good. You even got to go on set, didn't you? We did. We, my son did as well. We spent over 80 hours on set. So, and especially for the arcade scenes. So I was able to know what was going to be said while watching the movie, which was pretty cool. Being a part of that for the first time was a lot of fun. And yeah, I look forward to future opportunities with that, too. And they said that they'd contact us. Sounds good. But when you come to Winnipeg or if you want to make a little road trip, go to Phantom Amusement, check out the Manitoba Pinball Championships in the spring and say hi to David Morris. Good to talk to you, buddy. Yeah, good to talk to you too, Jeff. Thanks for having me on. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter, X, Instagram, at Pinball Profile. Great Facebook group page as well. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you'd like to show your support, that would be wonderful. It's not necessary. The show will always be free, but it helps keep it going. So thanks very much on patreon.com slash pinball profile. And thanks again to wonderful people like Ken G., Francis W., Erica's Pinball Journey, Derek S., Jake C., Sean I., and more. Check out Manitoba the next time you're traveling through Canada. Some great pinball right here in Winnipeg. I'm Jeff Teolis.