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Episode 11 :: The Electric Bat Cast

Electric Bat Cast·podcast_episode·1h 2m·held·Feb 15, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Electric Bat Arcade returns with Jaws success story, Elton John earnings record, and American Pinball investor news.

Summary

Electric Bat Arcade hosts (Cale and Rachel) return from a month-long hiatus to discuss local pinball news, arcade operations, and community events. Major topics include the surprise success of Stern's Jaws game (countering negative pre-release sentiment), Elton John pinball setting a location earnings record, the Electric Bat Winter 1X Open tournament, ZapCon convention details, and American Pinball investor search. The hosts clarify misconceptions about Electric Bat being a 'points farm' and discuss their arcade's role in the local pinball community.

Key Claims

  • Elton John pinball set a new arcade earnings record at Electric Bat, more than doubling the previous record held by Foo Fighters

    high confidence · Cale discussing January earnings report: 'It basically doubled the previous record, which I believe was held by Foo Fighters in the first month of earnings.'

  • American Pinball has been attempting to sell or find investors for at least 6-7 years

    medium confidence · Cale: 'Americans have been trying to sell and or look for investors for at least seven years that we know of, maybe six. Because, I mean, they offered it to a friend of ours many years ago.'

  • Jaws game reception dramatically reversed after release from negative internet sentiment to very positive reviews

    high confidence · Email progression: customer initially said 'looks like it's gonna suck' then later emailed 'I love this game and I want to buy it'; Cale confirms 'everyone who's played it says that [it's amazing]'

  • Elton John is currently the only Stern Elton John machine on location in the Phoenix valley

    high confidence · Cale: 'it's the only one in the valley on location. As far as I know.'

  • Pulp Fiction pinball is arriving at Electric Bat soon after payment was confirmed

    high confidence · Zach Manny from Flippin' Out Pinball messaged Cale: 'it's happening. Yes, I paid the bill. It's actually happening, and we should have that soon.'

Notable Quotes

  • “Elton John set a new arcade record, but it didn't just set like a little bit of a record. It basically doubled the previous record, which I believe was held by Foo Fighters in the first month of earnings. Unbelievable. So this game, I didn't even know a game could make this much in our arcade.”

    Cale @ ~56:00 — Demonstrates exceptional commercial performance of Elton John game, potentially signaling strong demand for music-licensed titles

  • “I accidentally broke the Internet when I received a text message while I was on the Pinball Party podcast... american pinball somebody told me american pinball is up for sale”

    Cale @ ~1:07:00 — Documents the origin of the American Pinball investor search news breaking live on air

  • “Galactic Tank Force? I like to call it Galactic Jank Force. I think we've talked so much trash about this game. People just come in and want to play it. And it's earning a bunch of money.”

    Cale @ ~49:30 — Illustrates counterintuitive marketing effect where negative commentary drives curiosity and revenue

  • “Are we a points farm? Not intentionally. We just have a lot of people having a damn good time.”

    Cale @ ~1:37:00 — Clarifies Electric Bat's operational philosophy vs. competitive gaming structure

  • “I'm so, it's the thing that I am the most proud of is just seeing so many different people getting together and having an awesome time together on a Tuesday night. Playing pinball.”

    Cale @ ~1:42:00 — Articulates community-building mission as primary success metric beyond revenue

Entities

Electric Bat ArcadeorganizationCalepersonRachelpersonStern JawsgameElton John (Stern)gameAmerican PinballcompanyGame Room Goodiescompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball actively seeking investors/buyers; not a new situation but ongoing effort for 6-7 years

    medium · Cale breaks news on Pinball Party podcast; clarifies this is continuation of existing search: 'Americans have been trying to sell and or look for investors for at least seven years'

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Bat Arcade demonstrating strong community building with 120 people attending Tuesday night session; diverse demographic mix generating word-of-mouth growth

    high · Cale: 'yesterday, Tuesday... we had 120 people show up just on a Tuesday'; emphasis on new players and diverse attendees; customer conversion to machine ownership

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Galactic Tank Force earning strong revenue despite being criticized as 'Jank' by hosts; negative commentary appearing to drive curiosity and play

    medium · Ranked #5 in earnings; Cale: 'I like to call it Galactic Jank Force...People just come in and want to play it. And it's earning a bunch of money'; comparison to 'Primus Sucks' marketing

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2024 celebrating 40th anniversary; Electric Bat hosts confirmed as panel participants discussing independent arcade operations

    high · Rob Burke invited Cale/Rachel to panel; confirmed participation; noted as 40th anniversary year

  • $

    market_signal: Elton John pinball achieved exceptional location earnings (doubled previous record from Foo Fighters), indicating strong market demand for music-licensed IP and Steve Ritchie designer brand

    high · Cale's earnings report showing Elton John at #1 with more than 2x earnings of #2 ranked game (Godzilla Premium); specific claim of $241,000+ earnings

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.188

0:00
I am the leader of this fair boyhood. Oh, look at us. We're live. We're back. Man, we have missed the whole crew here at the Electric Batcast, but we're back. We are back. My name's Cale. I'm Rachel. And we are the Electric Bats out of Tempe, Arizona from the Electric Bat Arcade. Man, it's good to be back. We took like a month off, huh? Yeah, you know, I got sick, you got sick, we got busy. Right.
0:32
Everybody's getting sick for a little time there. Hopefully we all got it and got it out of our system. Yeah, we're not the only lucky ones. One way or another.
0:43
Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day to you. Today is Valentine's Day. I love you. We are hanging out all the time. It's also Arizona's birthday. Is it? Arizona is 112. 112? 2012, that's a young state. There are still people that are alive today that are older than the state of Arizona. Unbelievable. Yeah. And before it was a state, it was just desert, right? Well, and you know what? Now that it's a state, still mostly just desert. Yeah. There's some golf courses. Yeah, yeah, good deal.
1:18
Cool. This is good to be back. We have to do this more often. I know a lot of people have been missing us. And most importantly, we've been missing the people. Yeah. We love chatting with the people. And if you want to chat with us, join our discord. If you go to our website, electric bat arcade dot com, you can go to the discord. There's a link under the podcast tab. You can go in there and join the discord and ask us questions or just join a whole group of people who like pinball, bananas and whopper points. yes you can also email us questions at electric bat arcade at gmail.com that is correct and uh before we get into our sponsors i don't want anybody to fast forward through this part uh check out will you check out these sweatshirts yes this isn't this an amazing surprise yeah a fantastic gift from forever the flip yes and go and i think they're the website's forever ever the flip like the number four i don't know but google it uh the these folks make some amazing things you know we we've seen these in the past and we've just never we've of course never tried any on ever uh been close enough to somebody that was wearing one where we could actually touch him man these things are lush not appropriately yeah these things are like it's almost there's like a almost a fleece type lining yeah they're in them they're warm and comfortable and i was so impressed that there's one with black and death and books. Yes. There's references to that. I feel like this is like... Isn't that cool? It's pinball and death and books, which is kind of me all wrapped up. Yes, I think. And, you know, they said they picked these out for us because this is like a Mobius-inspired artwork on my hoodie. And if you're listening to this, you have to go to YouTube and check these things out. These things are so fresh. Very high quality. um even the the metal uh these are these are called aglets are they not oh my gosh i have no idea yeah well it's something this lush i think it's an aglet yeah so if you're just listening to this yeah trust us these are amazing hoodies or go to youtube and look yeah and uh thank you for sending us these things we actually as soon as we opened them up we wore them all over the place for two days yeah two days we went to pinball tournaments Everybody freaked out about them. Yeah. Thank you so much for sending these, and thanks to Emoto for delivering them. Yeah, they were careered. Yep. They came to InDisc and hand-delivered by Emoto, our friend Emoto Arcade, who is with Marco Specialties. That's right. And speaking of, we have Marco. Pinball is one of the sponsors of the show, Everything Pinball. It's where we buy all of our pinball parts from. A-plus, industry leader customer service. I would say I used to be on the customer service team, so I know. Definitely say it's A+++. Important to me is it gets here quick. Yeah. Oh, my God. There was one time when the package actually arrived before you made the order, which blew our minds. I don't know how they do it, but thank you, Marco Specialties, a valuable asset to the pinball community. And the space-time continuum. That's right. Go grab your wormholes. from marco specialties uh game room goodies yes those are that's where we get um uh most all of our games from um and we just got stern jaws yes the brand new stern jaws uh we got a call in aaron called us it's here yeah you guys can come pick it up or we'll deliver it that's one great thing about those guys are local to arizona and uh man though you get a white glove treatment yeah they They will show up, set up the game, you know, make sure it's all working. Correct. Especially if you're a first-time buyer or you don't like lifting heavy objects, that is a fantastic thing to have. Yeah, and also industry leader and customer support. They take care of all of their products. They go above and beyond. Yes. They really do. And not only do they have pinball machines, they have arcade games, skee-ball, jukeboxes. and the basketball game with the actual basketball. If we had room, we would get one of those.
Marco Specialties
company
Stern Insider Connectedproduct
Keith Elwinperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Chris Franchiperson
ZapConevent
Galactic Tank Forcegame
Pulp Fiction (Stern)game
Zach Mannyperson
Rob Burkeperson
Pinball Expoevent
Electric Bat Winter 1X Openevent
Brian Kingperson
Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
  • ?

    announcement: Pulp Fiction pinball confirmed arriving at Electric Bat after payment confirmation through Flippin' Out Pinball

    high · Zach Manny message: 'it's happening. Yes, I paid the bill. It's actually happening, and we should have that soon'; commitment to stream content post-arrival

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Jaws game reception reversed from strongly negative pre-release internet sentiment to universally positive post-launch reviews

    high · Email progression showing customer skepticism changing to purchase intent; Cale states 'everyone who's played it says that [it's amazing]'; no negative reviews found

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern Insider Connected badge system driving engagement through gamification challenges; mentioned as successful retention/engagement tool

    medium · Multiple badge types mentioned (Ball Hog, candy hearts, I Love Gary); Cale participation in challenges; noted as contributor to coin-drop

    • 5:54
    But check them out at GameRoomGoodies.com. They're a wonderful family that's been taking care of us for years.
    6:01
    Three generations of operators and stuff? Very knowledgeable. Love those guys. Thank you. We get I guess we got Jaws. They also sell a bunch of Jersey Jacks and they have the brand new Elton John game, which is absolutely phenomenal. And did you want to talk about that? Or are we saving that for the earnings report? Saving that for the earnings report, but I just realized that my earnings report is in the other room. Okay. Well, do you want to go grab that while I tell them about Stern Insider Connected? Excellent. Yeah, right on. We don't cut anything out here. We just, you know, Rachel runs out of the studio and goes and grabs some gear.
    6:47
    Stern Insider Connected, valued supporter of the podcast here. They're doing a lot of cool things February, the month of February. We're in February right now. One cool thing is the ball hog badge. Play 10 games on any Insider Connected machine during February. You can get that little badge. Is that the one that looks like a little gopher or something? It's like a caddyshack type thing. It's a groundhog. So it's a groundhog. It's a ball hog. You know, because February 2nd was Groundhog Day. Oh, okay. Very good. So it's sort of a groundhog. It's a ball hog. Right. And you can also get all these little candy hearts. And that's from Stern with Love, a little insider-connected game here. Play any insider-connected game with two or more players and get increasingly difficult combined scores to earn candy heart badges. We've got a bunch of these. We did. You have to play with a friend. And last night. Or three friends. Last night someone came over to me and said, hey, is there any significance to this picture of Gary Stern to you? They asked me that. Oh. And I said. Oh, that's, yes, that's on the I Love Gary badge. yeah so who drew that i drew it you drew that it was crazy somebody showed me and i was like holy shit i drew that thing uh that silhouette of of gary with the glasses on uh i drew that when i was at marco specialties we did a shirt and i said feel the stern and it had a silhouette of gary stern on there and uh me and the team at uh marco specialties came up with that idea and i I actually drew that silhouette. It keeps popping up in different places. Right. Well, Stern got a hold of it because they were like, hey, we love this thing. Can we have it? And they've actually included it on some of their apparel. I've seen it on a small version on the back of their shirts. And now my artwork is on one of the Insider Connected badges. This is incredible. You know, a lot of people at Stern probably don't even know. But now they will. Now they do. But thank you for putting that on there. and I expect to have my check in the mail. Okay. In the form of a... How about some... Shooter rod. Jaws, Jaws Art Blades. Oh, yeah. I'll let them have it for that. I'm down. But check out... Log in to Stern Insider Connected. It's been awesome and it brings more coin drop to these machines. People love collecting these badges. I do. Um, so on, it's actually today. Hopefully I'll have this edited and out today. If not, you know, we talked about it on social media, but you get the, you can only get the I heart Gary badge on Valentine's day. I think they opened it up last night and some people may have gotten it. So you have to get 250 million with two or more players on a insider connected game. We're going to do that on jaws today. Yep. We're going to do that on jaws. Speaking of jaws, holy crap. the shark kind of eats the ball right we glued a ball in the mouth and what a cool game I love this game there are shots that I have not seen before and I love the way it plays I love so far and we've only had time to put a few games on because it's been you know other people want to play I am so far very impressed. Yes, and this is a great game. It's really funny how the whole news slash rumor cycle works. What do you know about that? This game was, well, we'll get into that. I mean, this game was, if you listen to everybody on the Internet, this game sucked, right? What a horrible, horrible game. I want to tell you a story about that. I think we've covered it, you know, a little bit. But so we had an emailer email us saying, are you going to get Jaws? no do you have jaws yet and this was before it came out no we don't have it yet we're getting it when as soon as it comes out we'll have it next email looks like it's gonna suck right from the comments and i'm like well okay like why do you he's like i want to come but it looks like it's gonna suck okay and then he keeps messaging there's like a series over a couple of week period um is maybe it's you know i want to come play it finally i get an email yesterday or the day before where did you guys buy your jaws i love this game and i want to buy it so we went from socked to i need to drop several grand yes on this machine yeah i think i think goodies i think this is yeah we said on the game room goodies i think this is awesome marketing it's kind of like uh Remember Primus? Yeah, Primus Sucks. Everybody would go to the – Primus is a band, if you guys don't know. Also a band. And they're coming to town here for Maynard's 60th birthday party. We just saw Tool. That was an amazing show.
    11:57
    So, yeah, dude, that's a true story. Guy played it and was like, oh, my God, this thing's amazing. But I think so – that's a double-edged sword. like so many i mean this is obviously this is keith elwyn's latest it's obviously going to be a fantastic game and everybody was talking about how horrible it was before it was released i mean just it doesn't even make any sense like well i think it works because people are like uh you know i have to have now i have to play this yeah it's so i want to see how horrible this game is and we haven't been able to play jaws because somebody's always on it yeah well and kudos to this guy for very quickly changing his mind i mean it was not like uh he was not swayed by the internet rumors right the game is amazing the game is amazing and everyone who's played it i think says that i don't think i've seen any um reviews that i've played this game and boy is it a stinker it is nobody says that right it's a great um right now we have the pro uh we have not played the premium layout yet, but we're looking forward to it. And the cool thing is Game Room Goodies gives us the option to trade it in, to get the premium if we want it. We'll have to go play... I think the LEs are coming out soon, so we can find one and see what that premium layout is like. You know, the Jaws. Is that the name of... Doesn't the shark have a name? It's like Harry or Frank or something? Anyway, but it pops out of the play field and you bash it and then on the premium and then LE and then you have an upper play field. I want to see how all that works. Yeah. We might get both. Who knows?
    13:43
    It seems to be every bit as good as Godzilla in very different ways. Yeah. You know what? I haven't gotten to the video mode yet. I know you can like fast forward. You start at the video mode and put the little 3D glasses on and what have you. Let's do it today. Let's do that today. other things in the news the electric bat winter 1x open yeah that is uh this uh friday saturday sunday that's the february 16th through the 18th no player limit no player no player limit uh the main uh you're gonna do a nine game best game format out of a bank of 12 games so you can have but a bank of 12 games. You can pay for as many tries as you want. Unlimited qualifying. Unlimited qualifying, and they're going to take your best nine scores for the qualifying. And I think the top 16 go into finals? I'm not sure what the finals are. I don't know what the cutoff is. It might also depend on number of entrants. I'm not sure. Roland has that info. But I like that you can do either nine tries, 90 tries. 900 tries if you played really fast. I like that you can come in any time for qualifying, whenever it's convenient. On Friday, any time between noon and 10 p.m.? Correct. And then also on Saturday, any time between noon and 10 p.m. Although I think Classics, the cutoff for qualifying is Saturday at 4, because the finals start on Saturday night at 5. the main qualifying, or the main finals are Sunday morning. Right, right. That is correct. And classics is the six game best of out of an eight game bank I going to focus my attention on classics I going to hammer both of them Well I also going to hammer You're going to do some hammering? Okay. And yeah, come on out. If you want any more information about the Electric Bat Winter 1X Open, go to bit.ly slash ebwinteropen. Cool. Yeah. and also you can go to our social media if we've left some links and pumped stuff in there we'll do some more today happy belated Mardi Gras oh happy Mardi Gras you know what we had a wonderful king cake sent in from New Orleans our friend Greg Drews brought that and we're really happy he did that because that reminds me of my hometown of New Orleans Louisiana and it always this Tuesday it always brings back the feels and I really enjoy it. Thank you Greg for bringing the king cake and taking us back home.
    16:41
    Yes, thank you Greg. It was awesome. Yes. So for right now, do you want to get into the earnings report and then we could get into some questions from the audience?
    16:54
    First I'd like to take a second to talk about zapcon oh how can we forget about zapcon uh arizona's premier pinball and arcade convention yeah so zapcon was a convention that uh myself and a few other folks started 10 years ago and yes you know and that's an important part a lot of people um who aren't familiar with with you and what you've done that well you just stated something you and your friends started 10 years ago that's also known as a decade yeah um the uh states that 10 years equals a decade you know they talk about the success of electric bat that's a huge part of it that you've been in the local pinball and arcade um scene i've been involved for a while for that long yeah yeah uh okay continue Okay. So this year is significant because the original folks, myself included, are passing the torch. So there are new people running it this year, and we're helping them with that. But the guys that are running it now are old school, classic arcade guys. and they've been helping. The way that we originally met them is because one of the guys, his name is Brian King, hosts arcade repair parties where you bring your broken games to his house and they set up tents and stuff and he's got basically a whole parts warehouse in his living room and helps you fix your games. I mean, just a really helpful guy in the community. Right. And so those people are taking it over and we are very happy to see them do it. We want them to succeed. ZapCon this year is March 9th and 10th.
    18:48
    You can volunteer for a five-hour shift. That gets you a free entry. You can bring a game or many games. That will also get you a free entry. There's going to be tons of tournaments, some sanctioned, some just kind of wild. I know that Electric Bat's going to do some stall ball tournaments for some prizes. Some cool stuff that's going to be there. There's going to be a working computer space. So I know I've seen lots of computer spaces out and about. I've never seen a working one, and I've never had a chance to play one. So that's really cool. I know that Star Wars Battle Pod, the thing that's like your own personal IMAX sphere that you get inside. Yes. It will be there. I love that thing. That thing is super cool. That was amazing. So there's a lot going on there. So zapcon, Z-A-P-C-O-N, .com. You can contact folks from there. But that's March 9th and 10th. And, you know, best of luck to the new crew.
    19:43
    Absolutely. Godspeed. Tickets are pre-sale now. Yep, yep, yep. Go to zapcon.com. That's right. For info on that. And speaking of volunteers, I forgot to mention for the Electric Bat Winter 1X Open, you can volunteer to be a scorekeeper. And the cool thing about that is you do a two-hour shift and you get 12 free tries. You get 12 entries, yeah. 12 entries, which is cool. I think that's like a $20 discount or however you put that.
    20:16
    Yeah. Okay. Good deal. Okay. We're going to go on to the earnings? Yeah, we're going to go on to the earnings. I don't even know what these are. So these are earnings for January. Yes. What is it? 2024? Yeah, we're in 2024. Okay. These are the January numbers. Do you want me to start at number five or number one or ten? How do you want to do this? I think let's do top 10 Okay top 10 So starting at 10 Jurassic Park And I would say that These bottom 7 Are all very very close Together within 5% So this is really in my eyes Kind of a tie So starting at 10 you've got Jurassic Park Ghostbusters Then Batman 66 And number 7 is Attack from Mars and number six is Medieval Madness. Wow. Yeah.
    21:12
    Number five, what do you think that one, this is where it gets interesting. I think five is Bond 60th. You are incorrect. We haven't gotten there yet. It is Galactic Tank Force. Galactic Tank Force is number five. Number five. You know how we were talking about the slogans like Primus sucks and...
    21:31
    Galactic Tank Force? Yes. I like to call it Galactic Jank Force. I think we've talked so much trash about this game. People just come in and want to play it. Yeah. And it's earning a bunch of money. It is earning a bunch of money. It is not without issues, but it is still a beautiful game, and it is unlike other games that are out there, so it does have a draw for that reason.
    22:00
    Let's see. above that Elvira House of Horrors oh that's because that was the story inside of Connected Stuff see operators you have to listen this inside of Connected Stuff does pay off it does you know how many games I played just trying to get that Lyman Sheets badge you can hear me cussing in the glass I was so close I didn't get it that was a difficult one and it should be difficult Yeah, it was $241,000. That's a very special badge. Special man, special badge. Third place, Bond 60th. Okay. That is a fantastic game. Yep. Second place, Godzilla Premium. Makes sense. First place, with more than twice the earnings of Godzilla, and Godzilla had a good month. This is no... Always does. Yeah, but this wasn't like Godzilla fell off for a little bit so people played something else. Elton John set a new arcade record, but it didn't just set like a little bit of a record. It basically doubled the previous record, which I believe was held by Foo Fighters in the first month of earnings. Unbelievable. So this game, I didn't even know a game could make this much in our arcade. It's a beautiful game. And, you know, I was hesitant about the music because I'm not the world's biggest Elton John fan. But now you find me kind of humming Elton John songs to my dismay. Yeah, I love Elton John. The game is great. Steve Ritchie did a great job. It is. Bravo. Yeah. Jack, Ken, Steve.
    23:47
    Who else? The whole crew. Chris Franchi. Worked on it. Yeah. Worked on it. Frenchy's got a number of games in the top at the arcade. He does. Yeah. He does. Yeah. Good job, guys. Yeah, that game is an incredible, it's a blast to play. Mm-hmm. And it is bringing a ton of people to the arcade because as of right now, I think it's the only one in the valley on location. As far as I know. Yeah. So, man, we have the, yeah, if you want to play Galactic Tank Force, Elton John and Jaws, come on out. People are having a blast. And Freefall. Oh, Freefall, yeah, Stern Freefall, a Harry Williams game that has a, you know, an antiquated ball lock that actually works, unlike the one on Galactic Tank Force. Okay.
    24:41
    Speaking of Galactic Tank Force, like, we can't have a podcast without bringing this up. Yeah, you kind of broke the internet. I accidentally broke the Internet when I received a text message while I was on the Pinball Party podcast. Shout out to Jason there and his awesome podcast. He's doing a lot of good stuff there. So we should go over this from my point of view. You were in the other room recording this podcast. Right. I'm sick in bed. And I can kind of hear your end, but I'm tuning it out because I'm not feeling all that great. And all of a sudden I hear, this just end in breaking news. I just got a text. uh-huh american pinball i somebody told me american pinball is up for sale oh that that let's get it right now sorry sorry is looking for buyers looking for a buyer looking for a buyer uh so i mean that could mean yeah sorry i don't want to start a whole right that could mean the the whole uh you know amusement arm of ametron or just they're they're shopping for some investors uh yeah so i shot up in bed and i was just like oh my god because i yeah i i could foresee the storm that was coming right right indeed it came man i did not expect that so first uh nap arcade shout out to nap arcade i guess that's a great guy yep that's a go-to for uh pinball news uh he he reported it and then it blew up from there uh on you know on what like Facebook and Pinside and all that stuff. And everybody's like, even Chris Franchi got in touch with you. He was like, why is Kale saying Americans going out of business now? Nobody wants to buy Galactic Tank Force. Nobody said it's going out of business. And nobody wanted to buy the game before that anyway. But, yeah, I never said they were going out of business. And people who have been in touch with the industry as long as we have, I mean, Americans have been trying to sell and or look for investors for at least seven years that we know of, maybe six. Because, I mean, they offered it to a friend of ours many years ago.
    26:46
    So the news did not surprise. Some of the people that currently work at American may not even know about. There's some stuff that we know about that company that they may not know. Right. So it's all new people now. Yep. Yes. Yeah. So that was fun. People took some information, a little bit of information, and really ran with it in all different directions. But then, you know, lo and behold, look at their investors. Yeah.
    27:10
    I think Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball did, like, the best piece on it. Yeah. Because, like, if you go to, you know, Jeff Teolis interviewed Dave Fix, and it was just all a bunch of lip service. I think the Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball guys, like, really dissected the news and what have you and what's going on with American and all that good stuff. Yep. So go check out that. And always, man, that's like my favorite podcast. Go check. They're funny. They're great guys. I like funny.
    27:42
    Cool. So now we are done with the news. Yep. And we are moving on. I've got to grab my phone here. We have questions from the audience. Dun, dun, dun. I have a paper straw. I found it. Where did you get a paper straw? I found it. There's a giant hole above where the water line is. These things are the most. Yeah, paper straws are horrible. Yeah.
    28:15
    So, first of all, what's actually, we're not going to get into, I'm sorry, we're not going to get into the viewers' questions quite yet. What's coming up at the bat? Any new games or tournaments? We went over the electric bat. 1X. Winter 1X. and that is February 16th, 17th, and 18th. Excuse me.
    28:39
    We will be doing a panel at Expo. Oh, yes. This was very cool. Tell me about it. Rob Burke called me the other morning, and he would like us to do a panel. I think it's going to be with Zespi from Logan Arcade. Awesome. It's going to be about how to successfully run an independent arcade.
    29:04
    We haven't worked out all the details. We're still eight months out. But that's going to be awesome. I'm really looking forward to doing that panel. Me too. Something that we can talk about. Yeah, this will be the second panel we've been on talking about aspects of running an arcade. last time it was marketing I obviously have to get into marketing on this one thank you Rob Burke for the invitation we are looking forward to it we always look forward to Expo in Chicago every year and this is a very special one this is the 40th anniversary they've been doing Pinball Expo since I was 4 years old wow I was 8 when they started incredible just running around Louisiana they used to call me Louisiana Jones I was riding the big wheel I think I had a Dukes of Hazzard big wheel I wish I had one I didn't have one I had just a no name brand regular you know I always wanted that the green machine the one I could do like donuts the green machine ok so actually it's going to be really cool Did you put this question in here? Are we a points farm? Have people been asking if we are a points farm? It's been brought up a time or two. Really? Yeah. If you folks don't know what we're talking about, points, the Whopper points, W, P, P, R, I don't even know, world pinball rankings. Player rankings. Those are the points that all of the quote-unquote pro players are looking for. and when you get a venue that's able to bring in a bunch of ranked players you can like get more points and especially if you turn it into a league with a finals and all that stuff you can get even more points you can uh make your uh what's it gtp you can raise out yeah i think we're getting a little too uh inside baseball here but uh basically a points farm is what you call a venue that able to house like a bunch of machines and a bunch of uh ranked players for for pinball tournaments sometimes points farms manipulate the um the whopper points system so that way you're getting very large multipliers um you make it sound nefarious with manipulating um what's another the way I could say that. They're not gaming the system. It's just... You're maximizing benefit. Okay.
    31:50
    So, do we have an answer to that question? Are we a points farm? Not intentionally. We just have a lot of people having a damn good time. Yeah. Speaking of, yesterday, Tuesday. Tuesday night. We had 120 people show up just on a Tuesday. I mentioned that already.
    32:09
    Man, we... I mean, the people just kept rolling in. The best thing is we're seeing a lot of new people. Fantastic. And so many different types of people. Right. There was some guy last night wearing, what do you call it, fiber optics? Yeah. Very cool. Like he had a whole crazy business. Just so many different cool people. And there was a guy there with a fishnet bat top. Yeah. Yeah, we have that too. Or one piece or whatever it was. Yeah. What an eclectic group of amazing people. And everybody gets along and we all have a great time. Also, lots of high end professionals, like just the best mix of people. Some hit men, drug dealers and hit men. The whole gamut and the lawyers to bail them out. Yeah. Speaking of drug dealers and hit men, Pulp Fiction. We should have Pulp Fiction soon. And my friend Zach, Manny, at Flippin' Out Pinball messaged me and said, it's happening. Yes, I paid the bill. It's actually happening, and we should have that soon. And thank you, Zach, at Flippin' Out Pinball. Have a good time. Yeah, oh, man. We've played this game at Expo, and it is a banger.
    33:26
    And it's a good price. Yeah. You know? and if you want to find the price call Zach at Flippin' Out Pinball he will hook you up and he takes care of everything you just got to sit back at home and wait for this thing to come he is a nice guy who will take care of you and we are going to do a really once we get in we are going to do a cool stream so we can show everybody how fun this game is and all that good stuff Points Farm I don't know I don't even know what a Points Farm is get back to us about that it sounds negative I don't want to be any part of that. We're just having a good time playing pinball. We really don't try and, you know, it's not like we're bringing in people off the street like, hey, come. And you can't do that anyway because of the way Whopper points are structured. But it really is just a very good time. And people are telling their friends. And it is, I'm so, it's the thing that I am the most proud of is just seeing so many different people getting together and having an awesome time together on a Tuesday night. Playing pinball. Yeah. And it's all part of the plan to keep this machine running. Yeah. Because a lot of the players have come in and purchased pinball machines. Yeah. And they've gone from fan to owner and who knows, the sky's the limit. Some of them operate or some of them put their machines in the back. Yeah. We'll get, you know, a handful of those. Good job. Thank you for doing all this hard work to get us to where we are today. It all started 10 years ago. It's app time.
    35:02
    All right. Let's get to the mailbag. We loved it. So are you ready for it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you have a question you wanted to start out with? No. I was just going to go from the top. Yeah. This is from one of our favorite question submitters. Is that what you would call him? Yeah. Gutter Ghoul. Okay. Gutter Ghoul is back. How do you see the pinball scene as an operator changing? Is it a merry ship and you're just keeping it afloat? Or are there new advancement and changes that you see happening or you would like to happen to make the operation or logistics easier for you?
    35:49
    I mean, I'd like the machines to be lighter and be able to compact them into a very small space for storage. Right, right, right. I don't know how much.
    36:03
    It's kind of like going, what are you seeing changing in vinyl, like records and what have you? What would you like? It's still a flat disc with a needle. And that's kind of where pinball is. Now we've got the 180-gram vinyl. Right. But I think the biggest leap has been Insider Connected. That's been the biggest change because... It changes the way people interact with the game. Right. And the way that they choose to play it, whether they're going for a high score, whether they're going for completionist, trying to get all the achievements. True. It makes for new ways to play pinball that would not have been possible with the addition of something like an upside-down ramp.
    36:58
    Yes. That, yeah, I agree with you. This sort of something, I love where it is. I love where it's going. I don't have a lot of requests that are able to be done with physics as we know it. Really, my number one problem is where am I going to store them? How could I get more in a smaller space? I'm not getting any younger, so lifting them is not getting any easier, although I do use a pin jack now. That does make it easier.
    37:38
    That's my thought on it. Now, I'm going to skip ahead because this is on topic. Okay. And this is from, we'll get to some more of his questions here. this is from uh brian aka big papa uh this is a two-part question here if you could give stern more feedback on insider connected what would you tell them how could they make it better personally i get a bit frustrated when badges can only be obtained on specific days which can be a challenge not to mention finding certain machines when you don't have electric bat in your backyard first of all with the you get frustrated when badges can only be obtained on specific days that's the magic in it. Yeah. You know, that badge is come and gone, and you can show it off, and I think that's cool. Yeah. Me too. It can be frustrating, especially if you might have to drive an hour, an hour and a half to try to get a badge, but that's what makes it special. Yeah. Right? Exactly. If anybody could get it at any time, it wouldn't really mean that much. There's plenty of day-specific badges that you and I were not able to get, and not only do we have electric bat in our backyard, we have the keys. Right, right. And to the first part of the question, advice on how Stern could make it better.
    38:58
    Right now, the only thing I can see that would make it just legit better is push notifications. Yes, I want to know when somebody beats me. Right. When one of your friends, like somebody you're following, gets a better score than you, it pings your phone. and they could do all kind of great stuff like I think I would cut on notifications. I don't have any notifications on my phone. I want to check my phone other than just my text messages but I don't have email or any social media notifications on because I want to check my phone on my time. I might have the Insider Connected notifications on because if it goes, hey, you can get this badge today I want to know that. That stuff might slip my mind sometime.
    39:47
    On the topic of push notifications, I don't know if you were with me when that Jay from Scorebit was talking about how expensive that is. I think I did hear part of that conversation. Right. That there's a lot of things that we, not being on that side of this world, we just, you know, there's a lot of stuff you don't know that you don't know. Yeah. Ghost for everything, this was one that surprised me. Sure. and whatever, you know, I don't know whether it's like a server space or there are companies that will, you know, you got to say just like, you know, we have subscriptions with like Spotify and anything. A company would have to get a subscription with this service that handles push notifications. And apparently it's like extremely expensive. And, you know, you have to think about ROI when you're when you know you're a business. And is it is it is it worth it? Are we making money back on all that?
    40:44
    Anyhow, I think they can make it better with push notifications. And I think it's all coming. I mean, that's why they created an app. Right. That's the first step. And I like the way they're rolling out things slowly. Instead of, like, giving you everything all at once and then it's all, like, buggy. And it's overwhelming. Right. Like, I don't know what to do. So this is cool. So one other thing is I would like to see the description of the badges. Sometimes I have a hard time finding, like, the badges aren't necessarily where I think that they would be, or, like, I want to be able to push on it and see a description of what it is instead of having to look somewhere else. Okay. But, again, I think all of that is coming. Yep.
    41:31
    And we might as well go on to Brian, a.k.a. Big Papa's other question. How do you decide what model of game to bring on your floor? Pros and cons of a pro versus premium model from an operator perspective. Does Ellie even enter the decision process? What jaws will you get? Okay. What jaws will we get? Do we have a pro right now? Yeah. With any stern, we start with the pro since those are the first ones off the line. And then later on, we decide if we want to upgrade to a premium. As far as Sterns go, we don't get any LEs.
    42:09
    We do get some Jersey Jack LEs, but they start at an LE and then they go to a CE. So that's not really the same thing. But as far as Stern goes, we would never purchase a LE. We would just get a premium. Save that for the people that want to keep it polished in their basement.
    42:31
    Pros and cons of a pro versus premium. Well, dollars for one. A premium does not necessarily equate to more income. Right. The biggest thing for us is going to be reliability. When you have more moving parts, more fancy parts, they're going to, you're probably going to have to fix them. You have more things that you're going to be looking at fixing. but even still that doesn't always unless something seems especially I'm not sure that I want to tackle that for us it's more about the playability of the game we have a Swords of Rage Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro over the premium because it feels like it plays true to the game it doesn't get slowed down in the upper playfield I enjoy the gameplay better. You actually sold me on gameplay of Godzilla Pro for a premium. We have both, the Pros and Flagstaff, the premiums in Tempe.
    43:33
    But after we talked about that, I feel like I like the Godzilla Pro gameplay better. Bond, we have a premium. I like the way that works better. So it really just boils down to what Cale and I feel. Right, right. For example, with the Bond, this was a chance where we got to play both at the same time. We were at Expo when they released Bond, and they had premiums and pros on the floor, which was really cool because we played the shit out of both of them. Side by side. And we liked the premium better because we liked the mechanical lock, and the jet pack was cool. Yeah. Not super necessary, but mostly we wanted that mechanical lock, whether the rocket is.
    44:27
    And I like the little guy under the play field. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. So we thought the extra money would be totally worth it.
    44:37
    For our own fun. Yeah, yeah, because we felt like it. Now, on Foo Fighters, we decided to stick with the Pro because we like the gameplay. and our friends with other arcades around us went with either the LE or the Premium. So this gives a chance for the pinball fans of the Valley to experience a Pro and Premium, depending on which arcade you go to.
    45:06
    But both, as far as both of those games, Bond and Foo Fighters, the Pro and the Premium are both great games. Yeah. Thank you, Brian, a.k.a. Big Papa.
    45:22
    Let's go on to our friend Jard. Jard Cade. Jard. His question is, as far as pinball gameplay goes, what was the pinball move strategy or technique that most changed or improved your game across all pinball machines i'm okay i got one for this dude yeah you want me to go first i mean just because it's on the top of my head and if i don't say it now forget it you know you know what i'm saying i know the top of your head so the biggest thing is mindset for me. It very much is mindset.
    46:12
    And it's lowering your adrenaline. This is for me. Not, you know. Your heart rate. Slow your heart rate. Practice some breathing techniques before you launch the ball.
    46:27
    And, like, don't worry so much. it's just pinball it's just pinball and and i found like if you if you worry like you know if you're you're in a tournament you're like you know i'm i need to get i have to get first place in this round that really like sets me off that's a bad start because you're tight yeah you're tight you not as you not as loose and flowy and the biggest thing is for me playing better competitive pinball has been uh just being loose and and mentally and physically if you having a good time you playing well and i think that translates to a lot of people whenever like they have a goal of starting multi-ball early because it's sort of a breather right you've got you've got a couple of free passes when those balls drain doesn't matter you turn that over i think that gets to the same point of having um of having that looseness and that relaxation to become a better player. I'll give an example of the opposite. Last night at league, I got paired up, or Amber was in my group. Oh, she's a killer. On Jurassic Park, a game I have seen her blow up a million times. And I tried not to psych myself out about this, but I'm like, man, I am going up against Amber, who I have the utmost respect for. She's so much fun to watch play. She plays really well. And I'm being like, I can't go in with this mindset. I'm just here to have a good time and make sure everybody else has a good time. But that was kind of the opposite to, like, don't let that happen. I'm going to give a different one, and it's a more, the physical side of it, which is just ball control. So whether that means learning, obviously just to catch the ball is the first step. After you learn to not double flip, then you learn to control the ball a little bit better, catching the ball and aiming. so then just keeping stepping that up from there sometimes the tap pass is the next or a post pass or some kind of putting the ball on the flipper that you want it on to make the shot that you want to make so just having control of the ball right and that was going to be my answer but i think your answer is better i think no yours is also valid thank you thank you in this case yours was better because the mental game with any game, hobby, sport, anything in life, the mental part is the most important part. You go into it with a good attitude.
    48:55
    That's what's going to win you the game. Also knowing rules helps. Yes. I don't know. That's my problem. I don't keep up with rules. I'm asking people before I play the game, I'm like, what the hell do I do? People are like, don't you own this game? I'm like, yes, but we can tell you how to fix it. We don't know the rules. You know, one other thing that really gets me, I think it definitely makes me play better. It gets me hyped. Beastie Boys. Beastie Boys, for out of doubt. Please, Stern, work on that game. Terrible stream. Yeah, that's not working.
    49:28
    Watching streams, and I'm not talking about watching, yeah, you can watch like Carl DeAngelo's streams and see some amazing stuff. But watching competitive streams. Go back and watch some old in-disc stuff. I don't know if Carl keeps that on IE Pinball on Twitch, but probably has an IE Pinball YouTube channel where those long tournaments live. Watching all those killers go at it and watch how they can control the ball and hit the same shot over and over again, that gets me hyped. also on our YouTube channel two videos one where Walt Wood rolls Dracula such an inspiring, just watching him play, it gets me really hyped up to play and where he beats Jurassic Park, there's another video where he does that, and just watching him explain the game and then hitting these shots, and like the same shot over and over again And it sort of humanizes these crazy feats you see the big players do.
    50:37
    And that gets me really hyped, too. I've noticed how much better you play after you watch somebody like Walt Wood play. Yeah. It's measurable. It's crazy, right? It's very interesting. So, yes, watch good people play, either in real life or... Or an imaginary life. Or in your head, on streams, is what I was going to say. Also, I've talked to a couple of highly ranked players, and they all said, I was like, how did you get this good? And it's always, well, you practice. Right. But they don't just go, and I've had multiple ones tell me this, they don't just go play pinball. Right. And usually they have a machine at home because this would get expensive going to an arcade to do this, unless you have like a free play arcade like Starfighters or something like that.
    51:36
    They try to hit this. They pick a game and pick one shot and just take three balls and just see how many times they can hit that one shot.
    51:47
    I think John Chappell and Serge do that. They do. They consistently beat me. Right. And so they're just like coin up a game and they don't go for modes or doing anything else. You're just like one shot over and over again, over and over again.
    52:04
    And that's another way to get good. That's a little too hardcore for me. It feels like I'm training for a jujitsu tournament or something.
    52:12
    Smart. Yeah. So there you go. I hope we answered your question, Jard. Thank you so much for the question. And he actually gave us that today while we were eating. We had a Valentine's Day brunch. At? At Valentine.
    52:28
    That was cool. Let's get on to Retro Ralph. Oh, I like Retro Ralph.
    52:45
    Our man Ralph. We've known Ralph for a long time. Yeah. I love seeing what he's done with his YouTube channel. Check out Retro Ralph. Man, he's got great content there. Really, really good stuff. Hey, guys, I have a question for the next backcast. Here we are at the next backcast. There's a thread on Pinside that says stern stock coil stops are basically terrible. I would love to know from your perspective if this has any merit and if it's something me as a home pinball buyer should be concerned about. Thanks in advance. You guys are awesome. And the Batcast kicks ass. Ralph, you're awesome. No, it's nothing you should be worried about at home.
    53:27
    If it breaks, just replace it. But I think you're going to see, and we know they're talking about the peening on the coil stop fails. So that little, that cord loosens and that's no good. You need that part. You need that. Yes. You get bad flipper action without it.
    53:48
    That does happen. This has been going on for a long time. I've talked to people at Stern and said, hey, I thought we fixed that. But I've seen recently that that kind of stuff is still happening.
    54:01
    Luckily, it's a cheap fix to just buy another one and replace it. The best coil stops we found are Marcos Specialties. They order from a different supplier than Stern. So I think they're a little more hardy.
    54:17
    Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, as a home user, I wouldn't even worry about it. Just use it until they don't work. But, I mean, we have a few new sterns that have come out recently. Probably have the original ones still pumping on there. Maybe, but we've certainly received it. They've lasted the expected amount of time. If I was a home user, when I bought a pinball machine, I would buy a full flipper rebuild kit from day one because those parts aren't going to go bad. And that way, if for whatever reason your link breaks, for us, the flipper, the actual link is what goes. The plastic. The plastic link. It is supposed to. It's plastic. Everything else is metal. That's the point of failure you want. Right. But it's not going to hurt your machine if any of these other things go. So, you know, no, it's nothing you need to worry about. And I would just have a full rebuild kit on hand so that way whenever it comes time to replace or rebuild your flippers, which me and you have talked about, I think ad nauseum does not include the coil, you do not need to replace your coil unless the coil like gets stuck on heats up melts the coil sleeve plastic um your coil or is otherwise actually shorted and does not work at all the coil is still good all the other parts they come in a rebuild kit buy that yep and have like some rubbers on hand so if those break you don't you don't ever want to have to wait right like Like, you're excited to play after work. If you have one machine at home, yeah. You're excited to play, and then something happens, and you don't get to play. But, no, I think that those coil stops are generally going to work as expected. Right. And luckily, you'll know if they don't because your flippers won't work properly. It'll be real obvious. Yep. Cool. Thank you, Retro Ralph. Hope to see you soon. Yeah. um here's a question from our boy defrag oh yeah from the discord does rachel or kale have a dominant flipper i.e make more shots with a right flipper than a left or are you just badass with both um i'm not badass with both i don't you're you're more badass than me i never even thought about this question until he asked it. But you can't. And pinball, you can't have a... Because there are shots... You can make from the right or the left. And if you need to make it... No, ambidextrous. Yep. Yes, indeed. Pimpidextrous.
    57:18
    You know what's cool? We'll have this podcast dropping soon. We did a couple of other podcasts. Yes. You recall those? We did Indie Arcade Wave. yes our friend joe yeah we did wedgehead wedgehead um the indie arcade wave podcast is out right now i know it's on youtube so just search uh indie arcade wave and um we're i think with the latest video on there and i think um he'll eventually be on on spotify and other like apple podcasts and what have you and the uh we met up with uh alan and alex right yeah from the uh from the Wedgehead podcast, please go listen to those guys. If you haven't checked out the Wedgehead podcast, go back to the beginning. Listen to all of them. It's cool because you have a podcast from an operator perspective, plus they're so knowledgeable in pinball history, and they do a lot of research for their shows, and it's so very well put together.
    58:20
    We're more shoot-from-the-hip. We're shoot-from-the-hip. We don't really know what's going on At any point. Like right now, I'm just thinking about what do we do next?
    58:31
    So they would have had an outline. Yeah. Information. But go check out the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast on your favorite podcasting device. Unfortunately, they don't have video. I wish they did. I need to ask them why they don't have video. Video really pays off. You can see these badass hoodies. Yep. These cool hoodies. Check out Forever the Flip. But our episode on the Wedgehead podcast is probably coming out in the next couple of weeks. So we'll do a little post about that. They just did one with our good friend Jess DiNardo. She's fantastic. That was a good one. She is another woman in pinball that has really seen all sides of it. She did teching. She's done apparel. Now she's working at Barrels of Fun. And she's a very cool person. Right. We've met a number of times, and I like her a lot. She is super dope, and congratulations for landing that spot at Barrels of Fun. Yeah. That's a cool game. We played Labyrinth for a while at our friend's place. During the Super Bowl. Yeah, we watched the Super Bowl. Mostly played Labyrinth. Yeah, mostly played Labyrinth and had a couple of other sweet games there. Right on. Cool. Well, we are done with the mailbag. Do you have anything else for the fans before we leave? Man, I've missed doing this. Please send us some more questions. Yeah. I think we'll get back on a regular schedule. It just took a little while there. I'm so happy to be doing this podcast with you. I know. Happy Valentine's Day. I love you. I love you more. No. All right. I don't think the people will. awkward we're going to go play Jaws and get some badges that you just happened to have designed by accident fired up illustrator and drew Gary Stern cool well thank you all for joining us hopefully we'll see most of you at the electric bat on Tuesdays at 630 for our league night we have hoodies in stock Oh, yeah. We just got a new shipment of our lightweight hoodies and our regular weight hoodies and all of the sizes that were out of stock. It seems like, you know, medium, large XL and two XLs go out of stock. And I know there were some people at the tournament last night asking about the three XLs, which we we don't have yet. But that's in the works and we'll save them for you. Right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So that was it. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for all who come out to the electric bat lead night. We had 120 players last time. Man, that was so much fun. We really appreciate all the support. Thank you, guys. We love maintaining these machines so you can all have a good time.
    61:38
    365 days a year from 20 hours a day. Yep. from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. We will see you on the bat floor. We're headed there right now. We're going to get some Stern Insider Connected badges. Thank you very much to our sponsors, Marco Pinball and Everything Pinball, and Game Room Goodies. Everything, everything. I mean, they've got it all. If you need some games, any kind of games for your game room, call Game Room Goodies, GameRoomGoodies.com. All righty. I think we're going to go play some pinball. Let's go do it. You have a very cool looking hoodie on. As do you. I think we need to get some more of these. Yep. And maybe talk to them about a collab. Yeah. That's hot. Everybody's doing collabs. Yeah. That would be, that would be wild. The bats are out. Bats out.
    62:26
    Thanks, everybody. Happy Valentine's Day. And Arizona State Hood Day.