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Episode 206 – Scooby Dooby Bruce, Where Are Yous?

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 1m·analyzed·May 17, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Slam Tilt covers Pinfest, Haggis/Rush news, and new game impressions.

Summary

Ron and Bruce (absent) of Slam Tilt Podcast discuss their experiences at Allentown Pinfest with co-hosts Zach and Steph, covering tournament results, vendor acquisitions, code updates, and game impressions. Key topics include Haggis Pinball's Mermaid Edition upgrade kit availability, Rush's unclear production status post-license expiration, and detailed gameplay impressions of Scooby-Doo, Galactic Tank Force, and other recent releases.

Key Claims

  • Haggis announced a two-week limited window to purchase Mermaid Edition feature kits (screens, RGB displays) for non-Mermaid Fathom owners, breaking original exclusivity promise

    high confidence · Zach describes official Haggis announcement; states two-week window 'has already passed'

  • Rush production is not scheduled for this year or next year according to information provided to distributors; license expires next year

    medium confidence · Zach cites Pinball Show and distributor communications; Ron notes this is 'heavily discussing a rumor' and relies on assumption about license renewal

  • David Ravenson won the Allentown Pinfest main A division tournament; Lindsay Rhodes won women's division with a tiebreaker win

    high confidence · Tournament results stated directly by Bruce and confirmed by Steph during recording

  • Scooby-Doo game received praise for theme integration and art quality; features mystery-solving mechanics that align with franchise identity

    high confidence · Ron provides extended gameplay analysis and positive impression after first play; notes excellent art execution 'every time' for Scooby properties

  • Galactic Tank Force has severely bent stand-up targets on early distributor units and airball issues due to tank impact mechanics design

    high confidence · Ron observed bent targets 'severely' on tournament unit; described airball over center saver mechanism hitting glass

  • New Dragon Fist code exists but lacks release notes; new Cheetah code with reduced features (less locking up) also in testing

    high confidence · Ron and Zach discuss Scott's ROM updates; Zach mentions brainstorming features with beta testers

  • Haggis is planning to announce the next Phantom sequel title (likely Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe) mid-year with production starting early 2024

    medium confidence · Zach states 'they're supposed to be announcing in the middle of this year' but indicates uncertainty ('I think it's going to be Centaur')

Notable Quotes

  • “Bruce isn't here. Which is funny because Bruce is the one who set the time for us to begin recording. And he insisted on having guests, who are all here. And he is not.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:30 — Sets comedic tone for episode; Bruce is mysteriously absent throughout

  • “They basically could get the stuff that was supposed to be exclusive to the Mermaid Edition, the Mermaid Editions... similar where we told you that this is it, no one else can get this, and now they can because they saw an opportunity to make some more money.”

    Zach @ ~31:00 — Captures Haggis Pinball breaking exclusivity promise to existing customers; industry pattern of retroactive availability

  • “If you get like 100 people saying, hey, I wanted a rush, I wanted a rush, you know. I just think it's weird because when it came out, you had George Gomez say that they, it sold better than they thought.”

    Zach @ ~38:00 — Questions Rush's future and licensing viability; references Gomez's initial positive sales feedback

  • “It looks fantastic, art-wise. It's sort of impressive how Scooby just, like, gets the art every time... if you were going to make a Scooby-Doo, it's got to be the cartoon, and you have an idea in your head... and it's, boom, there it is.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~45:00 — Praise for Scooby-Doo's consistent art direction and theme authenticity

  • “Playing it as a fan of Scooby-Doo, I'd be like, well, if I was making a Scooby-Doo game, how would it, what would the rules be?... You solve mysteries and unmask people. And, man, your points go up a lot once you unmask somebody.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~48:00 — Demonstrates successful rule integration matching franchise identity

  • “The problem with GTF is you have this toy, the main gimmick, and you can't hit it without dying. The robot coming out of the tank is cool, but I would like it better maybe if you hit the targets a certain amount of time and something maybe went down.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~52:00 — Critical design feedback on Galactic Tank Force's core mechanic; suggests iterative solution model

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonZachpersonStephpersonDavid RavensonpersonLindsay RhodespersonHaggis PinballcompanyScottperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Allentown Pinfest attracted significant attendance with strong vendor presence, tournament participation, and notable game lineup including Pulp Fiction (2 units with longest lines), Scooby-Doo, Galactic Tank Force

    high · Multiple speakers discuss tournament participation, game availability, and observation that Pulp Fiction had 'the longest lines were for Pulp Fiction. Granted, there was only two of them, but they were really long lines'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception of Scooby-Doo's art direction and theme integration; rules successfully capture franchise identity (mystery-solving, unmasking mechanics)

    high · Ron: 'It looks fantastic, art-wise... Playing it as a fan of Scooby-Doo... You solve mysteries and unmask people... your points go up a lot once you unmask somebody. And I thought it was fine'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: New Cheetah ROM variant with reduced features (less locking up, target spotting removal) being developed to address stream-unfriendly gameplay from previous updates

    high · Zach: 'all the stuff they did at Indus to make it unwatchable on stream has been nerfed... I made it so that the right bank only awards bonus on completion instead of each target'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Galactic Tank Force has critical mechanical design flaw: central tank/toy cannot be hit without resulting in airball/drain; contradicts design philosophy of main gimmick being playable

    high · Ron: 'The problem with GTF is you have this toy, the main gimmick, and you can't hit it without dying... I would like it better maybe if you hit the targets a certain amount of time and something maybe went down'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.366

0:00
What the hell was that all about? Yeah, it's like, it's like, stay in a float of light, stay in trouble, an island of fire. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, penis, blah, blah, blah.
0:12
Yeah, Loader. Don't think that just because you get all serious and stuff, you're going to score. Because we've tried it. Oh, yeah, yeah, many times.
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slamtail Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, with my other host, Bruce Nightingale.
0:45
Bruce? Well, Bruce isn't here. Which is funny because Bruce is the one who set the time for us to begin recording. And he insisted on having guests, who are all here. And he is not. But they're really not guests. They're more like co-hosts. Hi, Zach. Hi, Ron. Hi, Steph.
1:09
Hey, Ron. How's it going? Also, we lost Steph there for a second, too. No, no, I'm good. She's good.
1:17
So, yeah, we were recording on this Mother's Day. This is episode 206. Waiting for Bruce. He said 7.30, and it's 7.50, and no Bruce. So what do we say we think happened? I think he's asleep. I'm betting that he just had either a really good dinner or a really long shit afterwards.
George Gomez
person
Allentown Pinfestevent
Scooby-Doo (pinball)game
Galactic Tank Forcegame
Rush (pinball)game
Fathom (Mermaid Edition)game
Dragon Fistgame
Cheetahgame
Pulp Fiction (pinball)game
Rochester Pinball Collectiveorganization
Phantom of the Opera (pinball)game
Pinball Showorganization

licensing_signal: Rush licensing appears increasingly untenable; Stern may be using production delays as gauge of interest rather than genuine roadmap commitment

medium · Zach: 'Maybe they want to gauge interest. Maybe they'll just have a spot where... we're going to make a couple more rushes... their license is such a pain in the ass, I wonder if they're just like, I'm just going to cut this loose'

  • $

    market_signal: Haggis breaking Mermaid Edition exclusivity to recapture revenue from non-Mermaid purchasers suggests demand pressure and margin concerns

    medium · Zach: 'this is similar where we told you that this is it, no one else can get this, and now they can because they saw an opportunity to make some more money'

  • ?

    announcement: Haggis Pinball announced limited-time (two-week) availability of Mermaid Edition upgrade kit (code 2.0, screens, RGB displays) for standard Fathom owners

    high · Zach: 'Haggis had an announcement that they were going to allow, the 2.0 version of the code would be available as a kit... It was going to be available for two weeks, which I think has already passed'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Rush production status uncertain; reportedly not scheduled for this year or next year according to distributor communications, with license expiration next year

    medium · Zach: 'other podcasts, I know the Pinball Show said this, I know distributors have been told it's not on the schedule for this year or next year. And being that the license runs out next year, I would assume that means no more run'

  • ?

    product_concern: Galactic Tank Force early distributor units feature severely bent stand-up targets and center saver mechanism ineffective at preventing drains

    high · Ron: 'I looked at the stand-up targets, and they were all severely bent back... it came full air ball over everything... jumped the thing between the flippers that's supposed to save it, and drained out'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Haggis planning to announce next Phantom sequel title mid-year (likely Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe) with production starting early 2024

    medium · Zach: 'what's going to be the next title, which is it's going to be Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe. I think it's going to be Centaur. And they'll start making them at the beginning of 2024'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multiple code updates (Dragon Fist, Cheetah) lacking proper release notes and feature documentation, hindering player understanding of changes

    high · Ron: 'Scott, where's the release notes? You didn't update any release notes on there. How do I know what's different in the version?'

    • 1:46
    Oh, God. Okay, Steph, what do you think? I think that Zach mentioned he was having a really good game of Stargazer, and that that game is still going. He's rolled it at least twice by this point. And he could have a really good game of Stargazer at home because he stole RPC's Stargazer. Oh, that Stargazer that was at the Allentown Pinfest show. Part of it, yeah. You like that segue? That was pretty good. Everyone's going like, oh, God, please don't tell us. There's no Bruce for the whole episode?
    2:21
    Hopefully not. Hopefully if he joins, it doesn't screw up the recording because I have no idea. It's all on borrowed time now, Ron. We're on borrowed time. That's why I'm saving every few minutes here.
    2:34
    All right. Well, we gave them almost a half hour. I think that's good. Yeah, we were fair. And we really need, I mean, our audience demands an episode every two weeks, so I cannot let them down. Otherwise, they'll steal your pinball again. They'll steal my pinball again, yes. Wait, they stole my pinball? When did they steal my pinball? Well, they would. you leave it sitting outside all the time when you buy a new one. So sooner or later they're getting annoyed. They know where you live. My pinball machines, they're always delivered when I'm not home. As you always tell us.
    3:05
    I'm not making that up. It's not like I want that to happen. Half the time I don't even get the tracking number. They're just there. Yeah, the last one I got, they just showed up at my house, even though, like, I just have a tracking number and, like, a day's warning and a half-hour call. Yeah, yeah, sounds familiar. Luckily I was there. Hmm. Uh, well, Allentown. Let's get into Allentown, because we were all at the Allentown Pin Fest show. I think that's the official name. Pin Festival, maybe? I think it's just Pin Fest. I think it is Pin Festival. No, of course it is. That can never be wrong. Well, especially since I said I think, that means I can't be wrong. That's true. Damn, he's right again. So, what did we all do at Allentown? Did we play lots of pinball? There was a tournament. There was flea market. There was games to be bought, games to be sold. Free play games, vendor games. Yeah. But what happened? A surprising lack of rain. Yes, the weather was actually excellent. Very weird. So what did we all do?
    4:09
    Well, we played the tournament. Yeah, and I beat you. Yeah. You sucked. None of us qualified. Yeah, but I almost qualified. You sucked hard. Yeah, I sucked hard, and then I continued sucking, which is the bad part.
    4:22
    That's, yeah. I realized I was sucking, and I was like, oh, this will just stop sooner or later, right? And I just kept sucking. I mean, you brought games. I mean, you practically should have got in. You're just playing all your own games. No, no, that's the usual curse, though, is if you play a game that you own, you do worse. Really? It works for me. That's true. It does work for you. I hit level zero. It does work great. That works way too well for you. Well, hopefully that won't work for you at your next tournament. Well, says the Rochester Pinball Collective perennial winner on many of his own games. About half. Uh-oh, wait a minute. Now that Bruce is in here, who's going to give the address correctly? I can try. Well, the Rochester Pinball Collective, which is located at 349 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York. Suite number? 2965. Yes! We did it. Wow, I got my feet plugged out of the way already. Yes, you did. So You picked up some games Well I brought down games first right Yeah what did you bring down I brought Rush Pro Mini Pool and Surfing Safari For the tournament And a Super Straight for sale The one with the Crappy sound Not anymore because the sound died Oh the one with the electronic sounds that died Yep The one that's completely silent Is now the correct answer And Bruce brought down Stargazer and... Whitewater. And Dragonfist. Oh, yeah. So you're saying that Super Straight became Super Silent?
    5:59
    Yes, it became Super Silent. And look at the cabinet. It's probably not very straight because it was definitely not in good condition. It's probably bending a bit in the middle.
    6:09
    Yes. So you sold that game. Did you sell it? You sold it. Yes, I sold it. Excellent. To a guy in Canada so they can't sue me afterwards. Is that how that works? I don't know. Okay. But you bought stuff, of course. Of course. What did you buy? I bought Doodle Bug because someone passed on it when I offered it to them. It didn't work? It might work. We don't know. That completes your Doodle Bug trilogy, doesn't it? Yeah, I have the whole trilogy. You have Dipsy Doodle, Love Bug, and Doodle Bug. I can put that on the back of having the four bi-levels. That's like my second set, right? Mm-hmm. What other sets can I go for?
    6:52
    EM and solid state dupes. You already got Hot Tip down. Yep. Every Atari game. Ew. Exactly. That would require you getting a Hercules, and we don't want that. I can go for, like, every Alvin G game. That would suck, but at least it would be smaller.
    7:11
    Mystery Castle. Alvin G on, what, World Tour? Yeah. Maverick? Maverick's a daddy of Sega. Flipper Football? Flipper Football's Capcom.
    7:25
    Damn it. Wait, not Maverick. Pistol Poker? Is that the Alvin G? Pistol Poker, yep. That's the Alvin G. There's some kind of Alvin G that has to do with Western theme, and it's really bad. Yep, I mean, they're all really bad. Wow.
    7:38
    I thought Mr. Castle was kind of popular. I feel like it's just cheesy. And you don't like cheesy? But, like, cheese is good. But, like, nothing else is good. It's just, like, it relies on novelty of its cheesiness. Okay. There's another game by Doge's, right? Did they make, like, a head-to-head game? Drop targets. Uh, probably. I think they made novelty games, so that's possible. Pinball's not a novelty, Ron. Ah. What else did you buy? Uh, Doge's. Or doggies or doggies. Yeah, we need a poll. I keep missing out. What is it? Doge's, doge's, or doggies? D-O-G-I with, ooh, wow. D-O-G-I-E-S.
    8:16
    Wait a minute, only one G? Only one G. Yeah, D-O-G-I-E-S. I'm pretty sure Merriam-Webster says doggies for the motherless calf, which is what a doggie is, but... Factoid. That's why there's cows all over it. I just thought that's what a cow was called back then. No, Get Along Little Doggy is apparently because it's a motherless calf, which, why is it motherless? I don't know. I don't really want to think about that. It's a game about orphans getting herded. Orphan trauma, the game. Orphans getting herded. Okay. Into a canyon, no less, as the main gimmick on the play field. Does the game work? Well, considering the fact that all the fuses have been placed with wires, and some of the wires, the insulation has melted off of them, I'm going to go with no. Oh. Okay. Don't forget the amazing amount of corrosion on that thing. I try to forget that every day, Steph. It's been like a day. We popped the popover once and like a giant plume of dust fell off of it. Nice. It was snowing corrosion. It was great. Snowing corrosion. I hope it's not conductive. What games did you want to buy that didn't get to in time? I missed out on, what was it, Paul Bunyan? Wait, you were going to buy that? Yeah. I looked at it, I was like, this is a bit expensive, but it's really nice and it seems cool. I'll buy it if Super Straight sells.
    9:43
    And then Super Straight sold it, and I looked at Paul Bunyan, that was like five feet away, and it also sold. So I couldn't buy it. Oh. Yeah, but that's Wayne Nyen's, I think, co-designer game, as you can listen to and find out about on the latest Silver Ball Chronicles. With input from the official designer of the Slant-O podcast. Which can be heard on the Pinball Network. So check it out. That was our latest episode, which just came out, I think, recording Sunday. I think it came out yesterday to the non-Patreon people, and it was on Wayne Nines. Well, you fit all of that into one episode.
    10:20
    Yeah. We didn't go over every game because we'd still be recording if we did that. And, yes, it came out yesterday for all of us plebs. Yes. He designed an insane amount of games.
    10:34
    Let's see. Well, my Allentown experience – well, Steph, you go next. What was your Allentown experience?
    10:41
    Doing really badly on main, doing all right on women's, and then being, like, fifth above the cut line, and then a last-minute thing in the scorekeeper's hour after qualifying was done. Put together the perfect combination. Like, someone took down one of my higher scores, and someone grand-champed a different score. And it was some combination. One of those, the math had to be perfect, and the math was perfect, such that as we were driving back to the hotel, it was like, oh, hey, Steph, you got knocked out of finals.
    11:20
    So then I spent Saturday eating at the farmer's market. They had crepes, and they were really good. So it was the top eight got to the finals. So you dropped from like fifth to ninth. Yep. Yeah, I thought I played pretty good, and I was in it until maybe the last hour, and then I dropped out. So it was what, top 24? In A division. In A division, yeah, and I dropped in, I don't know, 27, something like that. But they had a B division, but it was only for people who were not in the top 250,
    11:56
    so I didn't make it. I would have been in B, but I was one of, I think, only three people that didn't make it in B because of that restriction. What a great feeling that was. So you sucked, but not enough. Yeah, my performance at Indisc actually screwed me here.
    12:14
    If I played shittier at Indisc, I would have gotten in B. And obviously that's the better thing in the long run, is to be in B at Pinfest. No, not at all. No.
    12:27
    Let's see, what else? Who won the tournament? Some guy. It's David Ravenson. It's Raymond Davidson.
    12:37
    He won the main tournament. Who won women's, Steph? I was just trying to remember who did that. Oh, fail. Crap. Give me a second. You're our correspondent, Steph. Yes, you are our correspondent. To be fair, I wasn't paying all that much attention. I was busy eating food and taking pictures of games. Because there are a lot of games, you know, searching at Excalibur, things like that. I'm just hearing excuses. That's all I'm hearing. Fine, fine. While she looks that up, yeah, I didn't buy anything at all this year. Not even a part? Not even a part. I went to look in my usual spot, see if they had any things like stern spinners or anything like that. Bruce, he found a couple of nine-ball stern spinners. I was like, what? He bought those before the show. They were posted on the Pinsides, right? Oh, okay. Never mind. Not as impressive, then. What did you buy for parts?
    13:34
    I got what looks like a Data East Vuck that would be fed by a Subway. Maybe from, like, Tommy or something to a scoop.
    13:43
    I got another Vuck that's not fed by a Subway that I have no idea what it's from. A taxi bell. A parts manual for Premiere 90s games. Because that could be useful someday. Wait a minute. A taxi bell. And I played one of the taxis in the free play area, and the bell wasn't working. Yes, I stole it. I was going to ask. I think you stole it. Yep. I dropped Target Bank from Panthera and the entire back wall of a Ginormonic. What about the entire play field of a Panthera? No, you bought that stuff, technically. And that's why it's just living in my trunk? Yep. You bought a play field stuff. Yeah, and it's chilling in my trunk because I can't move a playfield. Wait, oh, populated playfield? Yeah, Steph wanted, like, a parts playfield. Ah. Steph wanted a parts playfield, but it's, like, a Gottlieb widebody parts playfield, so it weighs more than some whole games. By the way, Lindsay won women's, Lindsay Rhodes. Okay. There we go. Yay!
    14:47
    Yeah, I remember walking by at some point during the finals, and she was definitely killing it. It looks like there was a tie after the last game, and she won the tiebreaker.
    14:59
    So that's really cool. Ties are the best way to win. Oh, for me, they're the best way to lose. But, yeah, if you actually manage to do it, it's great. Tiebreakers are the best way to win. You can't win in a tie.
    15:13
    I'm going to pre-win this tie, Ron. Uh-huh. Okay. Let's see. What else? any other stuff for Allentown? Met a lot of fans of the show who are probably listening right now saying where the fuck is Bruce? Oh yeah. We had somebody who said hi to me. Yeah, we had someone say hi to me. I was touched. Our fame grows daily and so does our ego. So you were Zach and Steph from the Slam Tilt Podcast. What's that? Yeah, we should wear shirts that have arrows pointing at each other. Yeah.
    15:45
    Zach and who? Slam Tilt Pinball Podcast. We're going to have to make the arrows go, like, diagonally up and diagonally down to account for our height.
    15:57
    Yep. Get to work, Mrs. Penn. I forgot, Mrs. Penn. Dr. Penn, we're there. Haven't seen them in, like, a year. That was nice. Yeah, it's been a long time since the last Penn's writing. Yeah. I saw, well, Scott. Our Scott was there being the usual Scott self. Yep, stealing my pop bumpers. Yeah, he stole pop bumpers from me right here. And they were like in a box, and he said, is that in that box for sale? Oh, yeah. And he went to grab them, and he just grabbed them from you? Yep. Why didn't you just punch them? I'm not a violent person. Okay. But, yeah, I talked to him. I guess there's new Dragon Fist code out, so I downloaded it. And, Scott, where's the release notes? You didn't update any release notes on there. How do I know what's different in the version? Fail. Come on. And I guess there's new cheetah code, but people were testing it, and he's like, oh, I didn't think you would have been interested. You use that stuff now. Come on. You want to have my new cheetah code, Ron? Wait, what's the difference? Less features. Yes, I want the less. Does it have less locking up?
    17:03
    Hopefully. We'll find out at Stomp. Yeah, so I was brainstorming with one of the other beta testers of Scott's ROM of features that we could add, and then I added the MyROM, and then later I heard that, oh, Scott's at least a new one of the same features. I'm like, huh.
    17:17
    Yeah. Yeah, he did. But only, you know, Ron and you will need that ROM now, Ron, so. Mm-hmm. It does things like take off the stupid target spotting when you go through an in-lane. More importantly, also the orbit spotting. The orbit spotting. That's the worst, because, like, you'd like your bonus halfway, but it's shooting up and down. Yeah. Basically, all the stuff they did at Indus to make it unwatchable on stream has been nerfed. Wait, mine does have one new feature that his does not have. Oh, and what is that? I made it so that the right bank only awards bonus on completion instead of each target. So you can't just jam that bank and match your bonus out quick. Rude. Okay. Let's see. What else happened there? Farmer's Market is always great. I mean, I can't really eat much of anything anymore. What did you eat there, then? Went to the Amish place, just had like a burger. Actually, I think I was to the Amish place once this entire time. Which place was the Amish place? That's very nonspecific for what we're talking about. The diner? Yeah, the diner in the center. I don't think I've ever been to that diner. Really? It's okay.
    18:25
    Oh, we had the pizza. Yep, me and Ron braved the pizza. Yeah, which we say never to get. How was it?
    18:33
    Eh. It was fine. It was pizza. Nothing to write home about, but if you don't want to eat any other things you ate the past two days. I mean, the most interesting part of that story was the person next to me who I didn't notice. Well, actually, there were a couple people away from me, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, we walk out. After we eat, we walk outside, and there's, like, an ambulance out there. Or was it a fire truck? Yeah, a fire truck for some reason. But, you know, oh, medical issue, I figured. And Zach's there. Yeah, it was the person, like, right to the left of you. You didn't notice it? Uh, no. And then someone was, like, some woman there was, like, yeah, they were slurring their words. I think they had a stroke. Like, oh.
    19:17
    Yeah, it was impressive. Five people ran over there, and, like, the people running the pizza place were getting them water and stuff, and Ron didn't notice. I was somehow completely oblivious to that. You were so engrossed in the pizza. Well, I was turned in your direction. It was all happening on the other side, so. Someone grossed at me. Oh.
    19:36
    Okay. I think that's it for Allentown. Just thanks to everyone who came up to me and Bruce. That was cool. Did anyone hug you? I had one person hug me, yes. Damn. So check that out. Man, that's only one item. We've got a lot of other things to go through. Let's see. If we go through this slowly enough, we'll be fine. Yeah, we'll wrap around to 7.30 a.m. tomorrow, and it'll show up. Yeah, I don't think he's showing up at this point. I think he would have been here by now.
    20:06
    So let's see. Haggis had an announcement. Sort of. What was the announcement, Zach? Basically, if you thought that you'd gotten an exclusive Mermaid Edition Fathom, you're screwed. Because now people can just buy this important stuff of it and add it to your non-Mermaid Fathoms. Okay. So the original, when the Fathom came out, the deal was you had the classic Fathom, and then you had the Mermaid Edition, which was the only way you could get the new code.
    20:37
    And other features. Like what? The screens in the apron, RGB displays, a few other things, I think. The under-cabinet thing with the water effects? I think that might still not be available. That might be the Mermaid Edition specialty, because you need to cut a hole in the cabinet to do it. All right, but they basically, Haggis had an announcement that they were going to allow, the 2.0 version of the code would be available as a kit, so you could upgrade your apron, put the screens in. It was going to be a kit. It was going to be available for two weeks, which I think has already passed.
    21:13
    But you basically could get the stuff that was supposed to be exclusive to the Mermaid Edition, the Mermaid Editions. Just like the Bond topper. I could see how that, oh, the exclusive Bon Topper, which really wasn't exclusive. It was exclusively from Stern. Exclusively from Stern. I mean, it sounds like it's half of the Mermaid Edition, so it's just a Merm edition. Or an Irma edition. It's one of those deals, it's similar. I remember Stern had the, what was it, Batman 66. It was supposed to have a certain number, and then they sold out, so then they added 30 more to commemorate the 30 years of Stern. Okay. this is similar where we told you that this is it, no one else can get this, and now they can because they saw an opportunity to make some more money. No, they did the Cactus Canyon toppers. So they did. Oh, yeah, the Cactus Canyon toppers. It's only on the LE. Okay, wait a minute. Okay, we'll do the SE Plus Edition, which is the same as the regular ones, except it has the topper, but it costs as much as the LE, but you don't get all the other stuff that's on the LE. That one was, and people paid for them. Yep. They wanted the topper that bad. I'm surprised that there are that many non-Mermaid fathoms out there to make it worth bothering to do this. Yeah. Yeah, you would think most people would have went with the Mermaid Edition. That was my impression, but I've got to assume at least, you know, like 20-plus people. Honestly, I think what happened, they went to Texas, and they had a lot of interest. And a decision was made. Like, you know, let's do this. I mean, they had to know it might piss some people off. Yeah. They did a limited, like I said, two weeks. I think it was two. You have two weeks to order this kit before they're no longer available.
    22:58
    Is there anything more on the Haggis announcement? I don't think so. I think that covers it. No mention of, oh, they did mention more about you could also buy into the five-game pack deal still. But one of the games is already out. Yes, like if you were a Phantom of the Mermaid owner, but you didn't buy the five-pack, you can now add on the four-pack. Okay.
    23:20
    Of mystery games that will be announced someday. Yeah, they're supposed to be announcing in the middle of this year, also soon, what's going to be the next title, which is it's going to be Centaur or 8-Ball Deluxe. I think it's going to be Centaur. And they'll start making them at the beginning of 2024.
    23:40
    But if we're speaking about things like this upgrade kit that's no longer available after two weeks, let's talk about Rush. We have two weeks to buy Rush? No, you have no time to buy Rush. Oh, shit. From what is being said, other podcasts, I know the Pinball Show said this, I know distributors have been told it's not on the schedule for this year or next year.
    24:04
    And being that the license runs out next year, I would assume that means no more run. I was surprised we know when licenses run out. That's like an assumption, though. Assumption that they won't just change their mind and decide to do a run? A troll-a-low. Maybe they're gauging interest by bluffing, basically. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, if you get like 100 people saying, hey, I wanted a rush, I wanted a rush, you know.
    24:30
    I just think it's weird because when it came out, you had George Gomez say that they, it sold better than they thought. It was selling better than they thought it would because it was in the dead spot after Godzilla.
    24:40
    But did it just peter out at some point? Did once everyone in Canada get one, that was it? It kind of died? Yeah, the entire population has all gotten their one requisite rush. Yeah. I don't know. It's just... And just in time for the accessories to come out. The accessories, yeah. The accessories coming out. For the dead game. This just sounds a little too... I mean, I get the basis and the logic, but it sounds like we're just heavily discussing a rumor until something is, you know, completely said. What do you think that pinball podcasters do all day? act like 12-year-olds, and make dirty jokes about pinballs. Yeah, but that's just a Slam Tilt podcast. I'm talking the other podcasts. Well, supposedly that's what they've told their distributors. So take it with a grain of salt. Maybe they want to gauge interest. Maybe they'll just have a spot where, like, yeah, we're going to make a couple more rushes. And wink, wink, if you want a Bond, order now. Bond, it's like, their license is such a pain in the ass, I wonder if they're just like, I'm just going to cut this loose. We've had enough.
    25:50
    Or whether we've gone through so much pain in the ass with this licenser, we're going to freaking sell some of these. I mean, unless they're not selling. I mean, they seem like, at Pinfest, we didn't talk about the vendors, but there's like six True Fighters there and one Bond. Yeah. Which makes sense because it's a newer game, but I think they had more of other games before Bond. One thing I didn't mention on Allentown is they had Pulp Fiction, Foo Fighters, Galactic Tank Force, Godfather, and Scooby-Doo were there.
    26:25
    By far, the longest lines were for Pulp Fiction. Granted, there was only two of them, but they were really long lines. Me and my dad got there early on Saturday, and we immediately run into this line, like, where's this leading to? And we looked like, oh, Pulp Fiction. And my father said, well, there's another one over here on the other end. So we go over there, and there's another long line. Like, they just opened. None of the other games have a line like that.
    26:57
    And I didn't mention I got to play, for the first time, I got to play Scooby-Doo. And neither of you played Scooby-Doo. Nope. I didn't play anything. It looks fantastic, art-wise. It's sort of impressive how Scooby just, like, gets the art every time.
    27:18
    Like, when is the last time they did a bad art on a game? I mean, you look at it, if you were going to make a Scooby-Doo, it's got to be the cartoon, and you have an idea in your head, you know, how the character should look, there should be a mystery machine in it, all that kind of stuff, and it's, boom, there it is. It's exactly what you would, as a Scooby-Doo fan, would want it to have. And Zach here, he's a Scooby-Doo fan, correct? Yep. It was one of your dream themes or higher-level themes you would like to have seen. One of the last ones left. And you have one in order. Yep. And I know I've heard every place that talks about it, like, it plays forever, it plays forever. I didn't have that issue, but I only played it once. I could see, if you got used to the upper play field, how you could probably play it a long time. and it was interesting. So many shots just are U-turns that come right back at you. In your face action. But, I mean, playing it as a fan of Scooby-Doo, I'd be like, well, if I was making a Scooby-Doo game, how would it, what would the rules be? Like, well, I'd want to get clues. I'd want to solve mysteries and I'd have to unmask them at some point and get the, you know, I would have got away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids, you know. And guess what? That's what it does. That's the whole thing. You solve mysteries and unmask people.
    28:40
    And, man, your points go up a lot once you unmask somebody. And I thought it was fine. I didn't have an issue with it. I thought it did a really good job with the theme of Scooby-Doo. I think the theme integration was excellent.
    28:55
    So do you have one loaded now, Ron? No. Oh. I did like the locks, the apron locks, because my father locked a ball, and then I hit it in the same buck, so it just kicked the one out there and it locked his, and it was cool. I have to say I like that. Now, will it physically hold up, mechanically hold up? How often will it break with all that stuff in it? Who knows?
    29:22
    I did like the one point when Scooby comes out of the barrel and his head pops up. That was cool. Let's see, what else did I play? I played Galactic Tank Force again. And this must be one of the first ones they had for the distributors, because I looked at the stand-up targets, and they were all severely bent back. Even, like, the metal behind them? You could see none of them were straight. And holy crap, air balls.
    29:52
    I keep forgetting there's a thing in between the flippers that's supposed to prevent you from draining when you hit the tank. You know, it comes up. Because, yeah, it comes up, but I hit the tank. Well, number one, I tried to avoid the tank completely. But when I mistakenly hit it, one of the times, I hit it dead center, and it came full air ball over everything. Hit the glass, jumped the thing between the flippers that's supposed to save it, and drained out. It's going to be like Black Knight. We just have that dent on the apron at the bottom. Yes. Yes, yes. Anyone who has a Black Knight knows what we talking about There a dent That from it coming down and hitting the bit bar I don know what you talking about You have a black knight so that makes sense Yeah Look at Zach black knight Look at my black knight. Where is this dent? Any black knight. On the apron. It's on the, usually, what, the left side? Left or center? Yeah, it's on the left, because it's from the center ramp draining down the middle. The right ramp, kind of. Or are you center ramp? Whatever. Yeah. And then usually people power plunge and don't know to flip, and this goes slam right down. It comes down, and it'll hit the biff bar, which is the little bar behind the flipper, and it goes airborne and hits the same exact area over and over and just bends it up.
    31:04
    The problem with GTF is you have this toy, the main gimmick, and you can't hit it without dying. The robot coming out of the tank is cool, but I would like it better maybe if you hit the targets a certain amount of time and something maybe went down so then you could hit the ball into something. Yeah, like a reverse monger.
    31:23
    Like Stranger Things had, you'd hit it, the thing would come down, so you could hit the, what is it called? What is that thing that you had in Stranger Things? The Demogorgon? The Demogorgon.
    31:34
    Or just, you know, hold attack for Mars. You got the three bank, you hit it, it goes down, and then you can hit another thing. And then it goes down. Yeah. Three stage toys, where's that? I don't know. This one, at least the lock worked. Although I couldn't figure out, like, I hit the two targets on either side of the ramp, which that's supposed to light the lock, which I remembered, that part. And then you're supposed to hit the left orbit. But I hit the two targets, but the left orbit didn't light up. And I'm there like, did I do something wrong? So there's targets around the ramp to light lock. Yes. But then the lock is not on the ramp. No, it's the left orbit. What? Now, someone can correct me, but I hit the – If you hit the two targets on the ramp and you hit the ramp, it's just, it hits a ramp. It doesn't lock. That's so wrong. But you hit, I hit the left door a bit, and the magnet stopped it, and it went into a buck, and it fires it up into the lock on top. And I'm like, well, that was weird that it didn't have a light. And then the light came on. Then the green arrow light came on to lock the ball. Like, oh, there it is.
    32:37
    I don't know if that was a weird thing I discovered or whether just, I don't know. That was kind of weird. Then I locked the other two balls and started the multi-ball.
    32:46
    I mean, I like the goofiness of it. The art looks great. I just can't get past the death tank in the center.
    32:54
    You just hit the thing and die. Makes me think of the Black Ants with a Rage, the dude in the center with the target. You're just like, I'm not shooting that target. No, with the flail? No, between the flail and the sword. There's just, like, the death target right in the middle under the knight dude's torso. The knight dude. Yeah. Whatever his name is. He's the Black Knight. The sound, too, it had very, like if you took the treble and just put it up really high, it kind of just cut through everything. As opposed to the Godfather that was right next to it where it had, like you could hear the bass. It's like I couldn't hear any bass from that.
    33:31
    But, yeah, if you avoid the tank and you hit the shots in the orbits, it does have a full orbit. It goes all the way around. So I like that. Thumbs up there. but just avoid the tank and hit the other stuff and you will play longer. See, so shots that come around and come back at you are good, right? On an orbit, because it's controlled. It's not like I hit a tank and it comes directly between the middle of my flippers and then the thing that pops up that's supposed to save it doesn't work because it goes airborne over everything. So since Scooby-Doo has three orbits and Gladiator Tank Force has one, it's three times better. Yeah, and then it'll go right down the middle. I was never in danger of hitting any of those turnarounds. Do they at least return fast?
    34:14
    Mm-hmm. I always felt like the ones on Alice Cooper, I expect them to come around faster than they do.
    34:21
    Does that make sense? Yeah. You're thinking you want to play like Star Wars fast or something. I want everything to play like Star Wars. Yeah, yeah. We all do.
    34:31
    Well, everyone here at least. Well, I don't know. Steph might hate Star Wars. I don't hate Star Wars. Okay. That's the correct answer. This is the best podcast ever. This is. Yes. So, are we going to spend the next hour talking about how great Star Wars is then?
    34:49
    Well, you forgot about one game that got sold at Allentown. I'll let you guys make fun of me right now. What got sold at Allentown? There was an RPC game that got sold at Allentown. We sold. And you guys were so happy. The eighth worst game at RPC.
    35:06
    That's a metric. Yeah, that's a... I can't wait to hear what the other seven are that are worse than this one. Are you putting it above or below Rescue 911? Below. Wait, you're saying that Rescue 911 is better than the game that was sold? At least because I only ever play in tournaments, and it doesn't suck as much in tournaments. Because I can just do the multivariate split over and over. That's like the exact scenario in which it is in the game. Okay, what was the game that was sold?
    35:33
    Dialed In. there's only one left in upstate New York we can get rid of that one and it'll be free of the scratch never, never yes, get in no Ron is the sole defender of Quantum City yes, I am, yes, that's it Quantum City, I am the sole defender I am the QED guy I keep getting just hit over and over you're the QED IT guy I wish more games had the QED guy see, oh wait a minute, is that a feature about it you like? that's the only good feature, yes It's the only good feature. Not the fact that it shoots like butter. It's just awesome. Can we make the butter worth something, please? Can we make you want to shoot? Yeah. Can we give it some good sounds when you shoot? No.
    36:19
    The music in that game is so much better compared to almost all the Jersey Jack games, the last three or four. And I'm not talking about Guns N' Roses. I'm talking about the other sounds in Guns N' Roses besides the actual Guns N' Roses. But even then, it plays Chinese democracy songs, and they suck. They didn't even get the good Transmocracy song either, which amazes me. Every time I play that, it's like, just use your illusion or appetite. Do not, avoid, avoid the Transmocracy song.
    36:45
    Ah, yeah, so Dialed In was sold. Yes. Yeah. And replaced with? With? Diner, with a brand new play field. Okay, what are the seven games? Now you're Dinered In. That were worse. Oh, God. What are the seven games that were worse than Dialed In? I can't wait to hear this. Kelts. Kelts, okay.
    37:08
    Fathom. Jesus, okay. Black Knight 2000. Lord of the Rings. Wow, Lord of the Rings is worse than Dialed In. Internuments Only. Oh, is this Internuments Only, Bruce? Bruce, yeah, Zach. See, I'm having... I mean, who else would ever play any of these games? Think about it. Okay. That is true. Keep going. And O. Okay, you got two more. Yeah, it's getting hard now.
    37:36
    Did you just arbitrarily choose numbers? I think he did. Yeah, I estimated. Now he's going to have to make up shit. James Bond. Wow.
    37:48
    And... TNA. There we go. I know he got there. So just all the games you hate. Did you just choose seven arbitrary games? What if there's eight games that are worse than dialed in there? Well, then I'll have to take my word back or just suck on it. Can you name another worse game out there, Steph? We're getting pretty subjective here, aren't we? Yes.
    38:11
    Dead silence. Were we going to rate games objectively somehow on this podcast? Oh, yeah. We're obviously going to find really good, mostly objective metrics through which we can determine which games are best. That's possible, yes. Totally. Nothing can go wrong. All right, what do we also got here? I got Whirlwind 2.0. We got another Pedretti kit for a Williams game. The first one was a Funhouse. We got Whirlwind 2.0. I noticed Mark Silk is on this one too. Yay, Mark. It looks weird. Like they went a totally different direction with this.
    38:50
    They created a weird new world for this game. It's got wizard modes, and there's a van again. There's like another game with a van. There's a van on the back glass. I'm pretty sure that's standard. It just seems like a lot of vans lately. The next game gets announced, we just walk up to it. Where's the van? Well, it's going to be Food Truck, obviously. Oh.
    39:13
    You all saw the trailer. What do you think? It's an interpretation of Whirlwind that gives it more depth and a different story. Because Zach, you have a Whirlwind, so would you put this in your Whirlwind? Have you seen the other Whirlwind 2.0 that was being played with? There was another one? Yeah, not like a commercial one, but there was someone who was making their own Whirlwind 2.0 of new code and a colored DMD, and they were going to sell kits for it. Oh, was that the one they were told, no, you can't do that? I don't know. Well, last time I knew it was still being made, but I don't know how far it got. Wait a minute. Wasn't it the deal where you couldn't call it Whirlwind? Maybe. I think that was it. Like, he got a little call from Planetary Pinball saying, you know, you can't do this. So he made it another name.
    40:00
    I wouldn't use it either just because, like, I don't think either of them really did what I would want a 2.0 kit to do. But at least it felt more Whirlwind-y than this Whirlwind-y did. Whirlwind-y? It felt very much like they were trying to make, if Whirlwind was made in 1992, what would it have been? DMD, more advanced rules, but still, like, based off the same rule set, sort of lullery feeling. Mm-hmm. this, I don't know, I mean, like Funhaus, it feels like it's mostly just bait for restorers. What's wrong with restore bait? Maybe people want to, you know, have a Whirlwind, and then a Junk Whirlwind that they restore and make into a super cool Whirlwind. Yeah, Zach. To each their own. I've yet to hear anyone actually say that Funhaus 2.0 is good. I played it a little bit, but there was too much Rudy in it for me. Yeah, they went all evil clown thing, like the evil Rudy.
    40:57
    I mean, to be fair, OG Funhouse has too much Rudy. Oh, no. He's just Rudy. He's doing his job. Funhouse is closed. You're provoking. Have you never heard me play Funhouse?
    41:10
    Uh-oh. Should we film this? Did you argue with Rudy? Oh, it gets nasty. Oh, oh, my. He and I do not get along. Rudy and I do not see eye to eye. Oh, that's too bad. I love Rudy. And I should not be allowed to play it near children.
    41:29
    How many people are just freaked out by Rudy? Hi. If I kept my shirt down the mod that you put his pants on the bottom.
    41:37
    What? It had a picture that Rudy's head is here. Oh, yes, yes. If you were standing full height, his pants would be hanging down the bottom with feet on the end. The legs. Like it would hang off the pinball machine? Yeah, right off the bottom. Yes. Picture a Hulk on the bottom. Cutting the bottom under the game. And the play field. So, like, direct, so just, like, three-quarters of the way back on the cabinet, just Rudy's legs hanging down. That's... Yeah. Basically, Rudy... People hurt hysterical, and I need to unsee. Like, that was, like, the exact, that's the Rudy vibe I want, not Rudy's nightmare vibe.
    42:11
    Let's see. What else do I got here on the list? Do-do-do-do-do-do. Well, pin clash just happened. Sure did. Pin Clash was the thing that Carl D'Angelo was running at IE Pinball. It was a tournament, heads-up format, head-to-head. You each get a challenge and over-finish his first wins. Sort of. But you play it against people from around the globe, literally, worldwide.
    42:38
    Like three countries. Three countries. Was it three countries? Yeah, it was Great Britain, Australia, and the U.S. No, Canada. Four countries. Wow. That is more international than like 95% of pinball tournaments. That is truly international.
    42:54
    And some of the, well, did we watch it? I did. A little bit. Okay. I was shopping doggies while working, watching it. So it was won by Zach McCarthy, who won it last year. My only issue with it is when they had the qualifying, and you had to qualify to get into this by getting, what was it, the largest carnage bonus possible. The largest Tokyo carnage collect. Yeah. So when I saw who was in it and who qualified, I was looking at it saying, okay, is it going to be Zach or Escher? Which one's going to win? No love for Ray? Sorry, Raymond.
    43:32
    Oh, God. Good thing he's not on. He made a pretty decent attempt. I mean, if he was on, then he wouldn't listen to this. That would be safer. That is true. That's true. Now I'm in trouble. I just went by rankings. They were one and two. They both had the highest carnage, whatever, the qualifying scores. You're saying that the highest seed won? Yes, the high seed won. And the second seed got second? And they ran into an issue. The way they did the scoring was you get a challenge. Say, like, I'll do something. Defeat you, Kaiju. And then they'll have times. Like, if you do it between two and three minutes, you get this many points. Between three and four minutes, you get this many points. That kind of thing. Once they got to the finals, most of the playoffs, it was three challenges. When they got to the semifinals, it became five.
    44:19
    And then the finals were five. But what happened was when they got to the finals, they got to the tier five challenges. Like these are the hardest challenges. So they had a minimum time of like four minutes. So if you finished it in under four, you get 30 points or whatever. Max points. Yeah. But the problem is you'd have one player would finish, like between Escher and Zach, one would finish at two minutes, and then the other one wouldn't finish until like 3.50. But they'd have the same score because they both finished in under four minutes. It's almost like they underestimate or overestimated the amount of time it would take them to do the challenge. And it'd actually end up kind of hurting the advantage one would have had over the other. because they end up both, and that happened multiple times in the finals. Yeah, there were times earlier when, like, one person finished at, like, two minutes, 29 seconds, one finished at 234, but the threshold was 230. So, like, one got five more points off of that. Yeah, and then there's multiple instances in the finals, like I said, one person, like, two minutes, the other person, 350, but still under the first, you know, whatever. Yeah. And so it's like, that doesn't seem fair, do it. Like when Ray got three allies in some ridiculously short amount of time, but his opponent also got it underneath the first threshold, even though it was like two minutes later. Yeah. I knew Ray was in trouble when he was playing Zach McCarthy in the semifinals, and I think the challenge was, was it defeat, Gigan, and Titanosaurus. Right? That was the challenge. Ramps and Tartans. Yes. And Zach picked Abra for some reason.
    46:07
    He just picked the wrong thing. Oh, shit. And it's like, oh, well. And then Raymond went through and defeated his two without... He drained in Titanosaurus where he had to restart it, but then he finished. So you figure he'd win because, you know, Zach picked the wrong damn one. And like, no, it was almost tied for that challenge. Like, ooh, that's not looking good. Yeah, I wish it was like a time differential threshold instead of time thresholds. Yeah. Like if you finish within 10 seconds of each other, you get the same score. If it's within 30 seconds, you get 10 points. You know, if it's within a minute, you get 20 points.
    46:46
    But congratulations to Seth McCarthy. Kudos to Carl D'Angelo and the crew for putting on. That's got to be just logistically, technically, in every respect a nightmare to run that thing. It's probably the best produced pinball live thing there is. Yeah, that you'll see. And they have judges. I mean, they have people. It's like you're watching an actual sporting event. We're going to New York for the replay. We're going to so-and-so to check the time out again and make sure everything's right. Yeah. Between that and Shoopy, we have a couple of really good produced things. Well, Shoopy is sort of easy because it's pre-recorded. What's Shoopy? The Stern Heads Up Pinball Invitational? I know. I'm just saying it for the listeners that are probably going, what the hell is Shoopy? Thanks, Ron. Yes.
    47:36
    Doing maybe almost better produced live than Big Company does pre-recorded. Yeah, the Shoopy thing still, it's like we're going to pick random things and take the clips and just figure out who won, even though they never actually play each other. That part is just, this one they're actually playing each other. Now, there could be instances of lag where things aren't quite synced and all that, but they have judges and they account for all that. So, yes, I thoroughly enjoyed watching that Saturday.
    48:06
    I was actually going to stream after they were done, but they finished later than I thought they were going to finish.
    48:13
    What were you going to stream, Ron? My new Rush Topper. You got a Rush Topper? Yes, I did. Wow. Aren't you excited? No. More excited for the expression lighting. Ah, yeah. I watched the installation video that Tim Sexton did with Stern, and it looked way easier there than the instructions that they sent for this one. There's, like, a lot more crap in it now. And it also requires getting the play field out of the game, which I will need help with, so I could not put those in. Oh. All right, rush party at Ron's. Yes, but the topper was easy. The topper for Rush, just looking at it mechanically, it's literally a motor. It's a single motor that runs the clock, which has four positions. And I believe it's got like four microswitches. And the gears are just attached. They're all just gears. They're all connected, and they just go with that same motor. And then it's got albums that are lit up that show you what combos you've gotten and some other lighting. But that's basically what it is.
    49:31
    And I noticed on mine, when I hooked it up, the clock would move and the hand of the clock would kind of just sag when it would stop. And what it is, is there's a plastic piece that keeps the metal clock hand on. So if you want to remove it, you could just, there's a little set screw. You loosen it, you take the plastic part off, and the hand, and Zach will probably know what I'm talking about, the shaft of the motor, Bruce isn't here, so shaft. The shaft of the motor is one of those. It's got the circle and then the straight edge. Yeah, the D shape. The D shape, and that's the D shape. There's a D shape opening on the hand, so you can only go on one way, but it has a fuck ton of play. for some reason. The hole is not as small on the hand as I thought it would be, so it just kind of flops. No one likes a floppy shaft. Yeah, you know, the shaft isn't flopping, the hand's flopping. So what I had to do is I just repositioned the hand and pushed the plastic part in a little tighter so it would keep the hand in place and then tighten the set screw. So, yes, I did a repair, not a repair, an adjustment to my new topper. To be repaired, it had to work in the first place. Uh, well, yeah, it did work. No, it flopped. What about the D shape? I'm confused. You want to set screw with stuff? Can you define it for me just to make sure that I might know? So you got a shaft. Yeah, do you know what the shaft is?
    51:02
    I had to do it. Are we talking about of, like, a nail or a screw? No. Like a motor shaft. A motor, and it has a shaft that comes out. It's like a piece. An axle. Yeah, an axle. An axle. And the axle is not round. It's shaped like a D because there's a straight part. And that straight part is where the set screw screws into, so it'll always go in the same place because it has a nice flat spot to go against. Motor axles aren't circles? They're circles most of the way, but then you just shave off one bit where you'd want the set screw to go. And in this case, the hand of the clock has the same shape, the D shape, so it can only go in one way and it can't flop all over the place. But it did anyway. But it did because it's too, it's big.
    51:50
    Yeah, I would think it would be closer to the size of the shaft, so you put it on there. It's big for the shaft. But it's a little too big, so it's got some flop in it. I do my best to take the flop out. These jokes write themselves, folks. They do. Bruce, where are you? I want all my, this is just so annoying. The albums are nice, though. That's like one of the biggest features of a game that you can't actually tell what's going on. Lightly. The combos. Yeah, now you can tell which combos you've gotten. Despite that part not actually being added gameplay, it adds more to the gameplay than probably some of the Clock Awards actually added to the gameplay. But the clock itself, it literally just has four positions. And I could hear the microswitches inside, so I'm guessing there's just four microswitches, so it just knows, stop here, stop here, stop here, stop here.
    52:39
    So four microswitches, a motor, some gears. There you go. There's your topper. And lights. Now, do you have to turn off competition mode to use the topper awards, or is it just always action? There's topper awards? Well, the things on the clock. What do you get for awards? Whatever it says on the clock, don't you? Oh, is that what they are? They're awards? There's some way to, like, one's extra ball, one's... Oh!
    53:04
    There's some way to earn them. I think you get that in the mystery. Okay. I didn't... I have mine in competition mode, so I didn't see it give me anything. So you thought the clock was just decorated? I thought, like, when it got an extra ball, maybe the thing would point an extra ball and it would flash or something. No, I think you got your effect and cause mixed up. Oh. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't know. Is it always in the mystery, or is there something you do specially to trigger the mystery? Well, then I'll do my Bruce. So, Ron, did you say that's worth $2,000? And I'd say, of course not.
    53:38
    I just have too much money. I like it. So I'm supporting Stern. Here's my money. I think it looks cool.
    53:47
    Okay. So the mystery, when you have the topper installed, sometimes your mystery award is topper mystery, and then you get the mystery topper award, as per a very reliable source. So it's a mystery mystery. Mm-hmm. Okay. Double mystery all the way. What does it mean? Is that from Congo? It almost sounds like. The hieroglyphics. What do they mean? No, it's not a vine. It's pre-vine, isn't it? Oh, God. Oh, God, pre-vine. Yeah. There's a time before vine? Yeah, believe it or not. I know, right? There's a time before the Internet. No, I know about that part. I thought vine just came with the Internet. It's like the Beavis and Butthead comment. There's always been TV. There's just more channels now. Just imagine a guy who is stoned out of his mind is in the mountains and sees a brilliant double rainbow, and he's losing his mind. And that's pretty much what we're talking about here.
    54:47
    Okay. Let's see. Allentown Pin Clash World 1 2.0. Haggis. Rush. Oh, some weird scheduling has occurred in the tournament world. in that the New York City Pinball Championships, I think they had issues. They usually have it in the summer. They liked the venue they had last year, but they didn't have any free dates in the summer.
    55:12
    And I think if I remember from what Timmy told me is that one of the days they had free was this weekend, but they didn't want to do it because it's Mother's Day weekend, which makes sense. But then they didn't really have anything until like into the fall. So they had tentatively scheduled for the weekend before Expo. Which is cutting a bit close.
    55:37
    Then you have District 82 with their Super Series, which they usually have, at least the last couple have been in October, and they schedule it for the same date. They just schedule it. So now they're both on the same date. And a lot of people who go to the New York City Pinball Championships also have the same ones that go to District 82 events. so now they're going to have to decide. So this is the year for the easy NYCPC? Yeah. No, this is the year that we figure out intercity wormholes and we start traveling a lot more freely and we do both District 82 and NYCPC. It'll be great. So, like, where's Ron? He's supposed to be up. Well, he's in the wormhole. He's playing his ball in NYCPC. Then he'll be back. Yeah, where is he? Oh, he's in Brooklyn. Give him a minute. So, I was thinking earlier, could Pin Clash be IPA certified? Pin Clash? Oh, we're back to that. Does that count as direct play components? I mean, it's the finals. You're head-to-head. It's definitely direct play. How would you even... Does that count as a full game? Like, does one task count as a full game? So, you think the format would be the problem, not the fact that it's over the internet? Yes. So what if they just played actual head-to-head games over the internet, live streamed? Would that be IFPA certified? Not certified. IFPA legal? Do I look like Josh Sharp to you?
    57:07
    Yeah, why are we going on an IPA? No, but that's a good... We're talking about tournaments in two places. So if we just had the same games at D-State 2 and at NYCPC, you could play both tournaments at once. So, the fact that they are not verifiable by a third party, that it's in someone's house versus in someone's house, unless you had somebody act as, maybe you would need a live second, like this is suddenly a duel, like someone to confirm that, yep. Verifying the game, do you actually need to be there physically? Like, could you technically have a herb where every game was live streamed simultaneously, and the Square Enix just worked on the internet? I feel like that's a possibility, but that also opens up so many avenues for, like, not being able to tell, you know, are they set up the same? I mean, I know games change throughout the course of a single tournament, but the variable of, like, 50 different black roses would be very interesting. It would, but I don't know if AFP cares about that. I don't know. So that is sort of one of the cruxes of the issue, though.
    58:19
    At least in my opinion. And there's your tournament talk, ladies and gentlemen. No, this is an if-play discussion. That's different. That's a subcategory.
    58:29
    Okay. We already had a tournament talk earlier. Okay. Confessed. Yes. And we'll talk about more tournaments later. Well, yes, we will.
    58:37
    So I just thought that was, they could avoid, I mean, I'm sure, I mean, District A2 could say, like, hey, you guys usually have it during the summer. You know, we usually have it in October. This is the only day we can have it.
    58:49
    I don't know. Yeah, the pileup of events is kind of making me a sad walrus because it's going to make it harder for a lot of people to attend, you know. It is harder, and a lot of these events ended up being in the same day or a consecutive, you know, like. I mean, we have the fantastic NYCPC and or District 82 Expo. That's three weekends in a row. Sure, some pinball players will have the resources to swing that in terms of days off and money, but there's a lot of people who are not going to be able to do that, and they're going to have to miss out on events that they were otherwise planning on. I might be among them because that's a lot. Yeah, I'm not going to everything. I mean, the fact that the NYCPC and then the very next weekend is the Expo, it's like Jesus. Yeah, Pintastic is in September this year, and then next year it's going to be in April. I think it's the weekend before or two weekends before Allentown. I think April's at least better than having three tournaments in two weeks. It's just, it's weird to be in a, like, when I started in this, you know, centuries ago, you'd have a couple events a year. That was it. Now it's like it's the opposite. It's like so many events. It's a cool problem to have, but it's still kind of distressing because it is a problem. Yes. I feel like we don't have quite enough player base to really, like, make them both be able to be simultaneously completely successful. Hmm. Yeah. We are sort of halfway there, chicken on a chair. But the ribbon is not on the pair, so we're not all the way there.
    60:22
    Ah, yes. Uh-huh. Just what I was going to say. Oh, I should have mentioned this when I was talking about the topper. The expression lighting for Rush. Just a little tech tip. At least it's from a very reliable source. You may have to change the dip switches on your expression. When you get the expression lighting kit, one of the things that's included is the node board, like a little node board, and it's got four dip switches on it. And they're probably all off, and you need to set them to a specific setting.
    60:52
    And so I have it here So supposedly the dip switch settings for the expression lighting node board at least on Rush dip one on dip two off and then dip three and four on So on, off, on, on.
    61:07
    Let's see what else do I got here. Oh, well, this came out a couple hours ago, or actually earlier this morning. And I don't know if someone hacked Joe Kamenkow's Facebook or not. Or he's just very drunk. or okay, but he, on his Facebook page, his own Facebook, he posted, I'm just going to read this exactly the way he wrote it. Hey, pinball fans, here's the scoop. Jersey Jack has secured the license for Harry Potter for pinball. No waiting, no speculation, they locked it in.
    61:42
    So if this isn't a hack, why would he do that other than just to piss off J.J.P.? Yeah, seems like a really valid reason. I mean, being that JJP on, I think it was the Super Awesome Pinball Show, Jack Guarneri pretty much intimated that Stern has the Jaws license, and Jersey Jack wouldn't do it because they could only get the Shark. Didn't they also mention, like, that they passed on Rush? Yeah, there was something, yeah, that they mentioned they passed on. So maybe this is just a middle finger.
    62:14
    Because, you know, Joe Kamikawa with Stern through and through, I mean, he co-founded Data East with Gary Stern. So there's only one pinball company I think Kapow is ever going to work with in that stern. Or maybe he got hacked. Maybe he's about to do a TGP game. I don't think so. Give me a minute. No. So I guess we've got to do the ball bag. Although it just doesn't seem right doing the ball bag without Bruce here.
    62:40
    I mean, we've got to do it, though. It's the next thing on your list. It is on my list. The ball bag is on my list. We must follow the schedule. All right. So let's see. The first email is from Mike Magoo. Hi, gentlemen. Congratulations on 200-plus episodes, and also congratulations on not begging for money.
    63:02
    Every other pinball podcast. One of your last episodes gave your top five gauntlet games, which was fun, although you both dropped the ball and didn't mention class of 1812. But in the spirits of Bruce's bitching about everything, I think we need a worst five list. I'll start. The five most badly designed side flipper shots. You alluded to this, how unsatisfying the Simpsons side ramp shot is, and it definitely makes the list for me. The other four. Stern 007. Why does this shot feel like I'm shooting the ball horizontally? It's super uncomfortable and adds to the underwhelming factor of the game.
    63:43
    Zed Zeppelin Pro. Hard to top hitting a dead stand-up. Oktoberfest. The whole game is unsatisfying, but that side ramp is almost impossible to sink.
    63:54
    Tales from the Crypt. I never understood why the upper right flipper exists. You can shoot with it, or how you even feed to it. It's the worst upper flipper in pinball. What do you think? What are your top five or top three?
    64:09
    Isn't there a way to feed that upper flipper in Tales from the Crypt? Yes, the side, and then you feed it backwards. Yeah, just almost... Isn't it like a spinner or something? No, I thought there was something you hit over on that side where it would actually...
    64:20
    No? I thought it was the same way. You have to look at a picture. I've never figured out the layout to tell us a crypt. It's so confusing to look at. Well, remember, it's reverse Tommy. Well, it's actually before Tommy, but... It's before Tommy. Yeah. Tommy's just reverse Tron, isn't it? No, it's forward Tron. Shit. Yes, it's forward Tron. It can't be. No, it's reversed and then forwarded and... Because remember, it's not Borg. Tails from the Crypt is bored, but Tommy is in port. Yeah, because Tails from the Crypt is just funhouse. No, Tommy is just funhouse. Yeah.
    64:54
    Well, the worst side – he's got some of them here. The Led Zeppelin Pro hitting a dead standoff. Yeah, that is the worst. That's pretty bad. I'll say Captain Fantastic.
    65:04
    Oh, yeah, definitely. Because you never use it. A Mars Trek? Okay. Actually, Captain Fantastic was Steve Ritchie's inspiration. He liked the idea of a side flipper, but he thought it was in the wrong spot. He looked like, how can I make this not shit? Yep. And thus won the greatest dynasty that pinball was invented. Even though I own the game, hot-dogging's upper right flipper is fucking weird also. Yeah, you don't want to use it. No. I mean, you could shoot the... Does that count as a side flipper? It says upper flipper. And it is on the side. It's further past the other one. It's on the... It's on the right. Is it... Are we going for side flippers or upper flippers? What did it say? He said side flipper. Side flipper shot. So now this is a side flipper because it's further past than the other ones. Okay. I wouldn't consider Sinbad a side flipper shot because it's next to the other one or Paragon. But this is up higher.
    65:56
    What's the... Oh, Embryon. That's a side flipper. Yes. And it sucks shit. It does suck shit. But you've got to have the light lit to use it. Yeah, even worse. Like, you can't even save it when the light is lit. So just leave me the light, okay? Do we get enough shitty upper flippers, side flippers? I don't agree with him on Simpsons. No, I totally agree with him on Simpsons. No, I don't. No, that's shit. Shit. Pure shit. Doesn't work 90% of the time. It's even worse than Oktoberfest. Ooh. Wow. I've made the Oktoberfest shot before.
    66:30
    Ooh. I once played a four-player game where we played for 40 minutes, and none of us hit the side ramp. I started the side ramp multi-ball one time. Wow. Oh.
    66:41
    Who are you? Alex is doing a lock. It's like they tried to do the Steve Ritchie shot, the Picard maneuver, but without it actually working. Make it so. Oh, no, you can't make it so. You hit the orbit, it comes around, and then you never can make the side shot. So what's the point? You cannot do the Picard maneuver. No. It has a magnet, doesn't it? Does it increase the power, or is that the other flipper? That's for the roller coaster. That's right. It has the magnet, and I still couldn't hit it. Yeah, I only did it from the magnet. I can never do the Picard maneuver. Now, another bad side shot is Roller Coaster Tycoon. No. That flipper. The upper flipper. The upper left. The lower one sucks. Yeah. The left side flipper. Yeah, that's terrible. It's awful. The right side's fine. Yeah, the right side's totally fine. The left one is totally dog shit. I don't understand how Lawler can make an upper flipper that bad. Although, why would everyone give it around for the money? They could give it around for the money.
    67:32
    All right. I think we got these down. Okay, Bruce. What's the next email? Scott Charles. Title is Pony Factory.
    67:43
    You sure TNT isn't going to buy the whole Pony Factory run? God, I hope so. Is he talking about TNT? Yes. Oh, yeah. TNT Amusements? Yeah. Because then you have the deal where he's suing or whatever. Yeah. There's a book involved or something. Yeah.
    68:00
    Very good, Scott. Next one. This is Daniel. I'm a longtime fan and listener, and I thought, what the hell? Why not start messaging the slam, tell guys, and join the male ball bag community? That sounds so weird. It is so weird. Way worse than usual. Community, yeah.
    68:20
    Congratulations. Yes, you just made the club. I've been listening to all your recent podcasts, and I'm going through the library of past shows. I'm on episode 44. Yeah, that's pretty rough. It's pretty cool getting live takes of last seven years of pinball happenings. I'm pretty new to the hobby, but I've been jumping in head first. Here's my lineup. Okay, we're going to rate his lineup? We can rate his lineup. I say we rate it. On a scale of like an order or like a one through five or one through ten? One through five. Five being the best, one being the lowest. Atari Superman.
    68:55
    Two. Ron? Really? I have to rate this poor guy. Who eat? You know that. He voted for the ball bag run. He asked for the pain to his ball bag. What's the rate? Is it 1 through 10 or 1 through 5? 1 through 5. Okay, Superman, I'll say 3 because it is the best Atari game. It is the best Atari game, but I, you know. 2.5. I go with 2.5. I get it right in the middle. Meteor. 5. 4.5. Elvira and the Party Monsters. 2. 3. 2.5. I'm going two also on that one. Star Trek Next Generation. Zach?
    69:40
    We said one through five, right? Yes, not zero. There is no zero. Okay, .5. Wow. That's such poor shit. 3.5.
    69:51
    Two. 4.5. Stern Star Wars Premium. 4.9. Four. 4.5, I guess. 0.5. What? 0.5? 0.5. That's what Zach used on the other one. I'm doing this. You have one. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Star Wars? Oh, I thought it was Star Trek. No, Star Wars. Star Wars premium. I'm sorry. Three.
    70:17
    Even less. It's not as good as the Pro. Sorry. See, that's why I did 4.9 to the 5. I can't give it. It has too much shit that doesn't work in the same section. Stern Ninja Turtles Pro.
    70:32
    2.5. Eh, 3. I like turtles. 2.5. 2. Foo Fighters Pro. I feel I haven't played this enough, to be honest.
    70:46
    But on play field, I'll give it, like, 4.5. Zach? 3.9. Wow, he owns it. Steph? 4.7. I'm going to 4.3 Okay I just recently reached a point in my collection Where I pushed my wife past her tolerance level So the next step is start routing some of my games And help pay for the hobby My goal is to have high quality games out there For my community to share I expected the next line to be Okay so the next step is I'm going to sell one of these Which one should it be? I thought it was going to be that too I appreciate that's a much better attitude Yes it is As you start depreciating your games because they're going to get beat the crap out of. Just dip into the sack of the mail ball bag current topics. Here are my thoughts. Patreon and paywalls. Oh, no. First of all, I love the idea of coming together. How do you spell that? Guess how they spelled it. Okay. And supporting a good cause. I'm going to donate to your suicide prevention charity. Great idea, guys. My issue with Patreon is that it makes the enjoyability of the podcast so much worse. Shows that have Patreons spend like five or ten minutes an episode giving their Patreons feel and describing tears and the like. It's basically advertising and gets boring and old quickly, and it's the same every episode. Can't they at least mix it up and just say, if you are interested in Patreon, go check out our website. For sure, go ahead and accept money, but don't bring down the enjoyability of the show in doing so. It's annoying. Let's see, some podcasts are better and worse about this. For example, I used to enjoy listening to the pinball show. Poor Zach. Uh-oh. But now I have to hear the same crap every episode begging for money. I'm done with it. It won't listen anymore. Wow.
    72:34
    He brought a chair to my eye right now. I'll keep listening to the free parts. I do, too. Anyway, enough ranting. I love what you guys are doing and the entertainment you provide. Really great for listening to when I'm working on my machines. Keep up the good work, boys. May the fourth be with you, Dragonlord. Good title. I like his name. Dragonlord. Yeah. Do you know, Zach in the pinball show, he mentioned you. Me? Yeah. What'd he say? He was complaining about the Patreon.
    73:04
    He said Bruce Nightingale and his stupid incandescence. Yep. Yeah. But my incandescents are lighting the way. That's a bad name. Bruce Nightingale and incandescence. Long tails and barely seeing the machines. The guitars. That's his pan. Bruce and the incandescents. Yes. There you go. I like that. I guess he doesn't like because I don't like Patreon. Maybe he's just upset because I'm... See, I don't have an issue with Patreon. That's how you use the Patreon. I don't like cutting out a part of a show. Well, just don't cut it out then. But if you just come on and say like, Hi, we have a Patreon. If you want to support us, here you go. There you go. And then that's it. Then fine. And don't talk about what you're going to... In the beginning of the show and then cut it out later on. I'm still saying, Bruce, before Expo, without telling Ron or anyone else, make the Slam Tote Patreon, and the only tier is, like, every $10 gets you one more annual hug with Ron. Oh, I can't do it because I promised no Patreons. Damn it. But we could do it for a charity. Oh, God, hug Ron for charity. Hug Ron for charity. He's got to wear dessert. What's with you guys? Hug Ron for charity. I think we would make $15,000. You know what makes me very uncomfortable, and then you want everyone to hug me. Do you not care about my mental health?
    74:20
    Do you, Ron? Really? Zach? Steph? At some level, but we're not there yet. No, we're not there yet. Yeah. Steph, don't you care about my mental health? Yeah. I'm more concerned about your lack of chocolate intake than the hugger. Yeah, me too. I can't do it. Sorry.
    74:35
    I'm concerned that your mental health is going to drop from your lack of chocolate intake. Lack of chocolate intake. But I think we can do this, guys. We can do this for Expo, where everyone donates money and they get the hug, Ron. All right, next one. This is from Robert.
    74:51
    Two equal hosts. Thank you very much. Another for me. You know, Bruce is so equal, he doesn't even have to be in most of the episode. I know. How'd that happen? I don't know. Let's see. Yeah, someone may have fallen asleep. Let's see. Two equal hosts. Would love to see a picture of the two of you with Ron wearing the dialed-in shirt I donated. Guess what? You will be able to see it. Yeah, we're going to do that this weekend. And Ron has an extra shirt.
    75:21
    He gets two shirts. Oh, I do? You do. Oh, is it a surprise? This is a surprise. Okay, don't tell me, don't tell me. I'm not telling you, I'm not telling you. Oh, see, come on, Bruce and Zach. It's Lawler Swan Song to Disaster Fiends. Great loaded game. Thanks for all the entertainment. Ron. Oh, Ron? Yeah. Are you sitting down? Yeah, we already went through that at Soul, Bruce. I know, but it's great, isn't it? No, it's not.
    75:49
    Zack and Ron, instead of Bowden, any other Lawler game? Yes. Even CSI. Oh, that's not a Lawler game. That's only a half Lawler. That doesn't count. I'll give it to him still. No. Whatever it takes. No. This is funny. So this was during Allentown. Bob sent us a picture. It says, what the hell, Bruce? and it just shows this line, the line that went all the way around the parking lot. I was in the line. You guys talked about that? Yeah, we talked about it all the time. Me and my dad were in the line for 45 minutes. Now, everyone was complaining about this. Holy line, Batman. I never expected this, but never been here on a Friday. Collect money faster, Bruce. I know, but everyone was complaining, and nobody wants to donate their time to, so guess what? Start volunteering. So if you volunteered, they'd open up another ticket counter instead of just the one? Yeah. Okay. But still, we're going to have the log jam. Wait a second. When you go to a concert, are you just walking right in? I don't go to concerts, so I can't say. Okay, every other person in the real world. When you go to a concert, is there a line? Sometimes. A lot. And they've got to check you, search you. Imagine the search being the wristband.
    77:01
    There you go. It's still going to take time. If you get more people to volunteer, maybe you'll go faster. Cavity search, deep and hard. Hey. Pinball pat-down. I like that. Mm-hmm. Ooh, hold on. Got to trademark that one. Pinball pat-down. Could use that for something. Let's see. This is from John. Hey, guys. I hope Allentown went well for both of you. I operate games in my area, and I'm trying to grow our local pinball community. What separates a great pinball location from a good one? Good games. and well-working, clean games. That's my take. Beer. Any tips from your travels or Bruce's locations would be greatly appreciated. We'd love to hear your opinions on events, the vibe of the location, etc. To me, the vibe is just the background. It really is the background stuff because I go to Allentown to have fun with the games, and the background is just a building.
    78:04
    People are there, and that kind of stuff is always cool, but it's not like, ooh, I'm looking at these TVs. I'm looking at – that's, you know, if it's got good food, which Allentown does, you go right across the street and you've got a ton of good food, it's still the games. You're still going there to play pinball. That is the number one thing you're going there for, pinball.
    78:22
    I don't know what you guys think. Yeah, it's all about pinball. Wow. Pinball, baby. I like the high score thingy you got. All of ours, high score board? Yeah, the high score board. Give away free entries. I like clean, working games. Yes. You know what? It's the best, though. Locations that have 50 or more. They are the best.
    78:43
    I love his first floor locations. Yeah, me too. Oh, you don't have one of those. I'd be happy to know that Zach did know the suite number. Wow, finally. I gave the address, but he knew the suite number, so good for him. Very impressive, Zach. At least I think he gave the right one. See, I don't know what he said. What did you say, Zach? Plan 65? He's right. Okay. He ends it with, oh, God. It says, thank you, cunts. Whoops, sorry, wrong podcast.
    79:12
    Nice. I'm looking. It says Missouri Pinball, so he's not Australian. No, he's not Australian. Right.
    79:19
    This is from Jeff. It says, hello, gentlemen. The subject is Pinfest. It was so great to meet you today at Pinfest. Bruce, you are so welcoming. You give a great hug. Thank you for taking the time to introduce my buddy Scott and me to Ron and Zach. Ron, hope you did well in the tourney. I did, actually, and I still didn't qualify. Boo. I wanted to also say how awesome it is that you are raising money and awareness for suicide prevention, leading by example. I would hope more people would follow the example of selflessness. Thank you. I look forward to many more of your podcasts. Keep up the great work. Bruce, keep on hugging. Ron, read a book.
    80:00
    Yes, yes. When was the last time you read a book, Ron? You don't strike me as a book person. No. I did in school when they made me. I did in cruise when I just went on my cruise. I read three books. Ron is behind Bruce in the book reading. Oh, definitely.
    80:20
    I can't think of the last book I read. No, I read three on the cruise. I just sat in the front underneath the sun and read away and relaxed. My attention just wanders too much. Ooh, squirrel.
    80:36
    But, like, your brain doesn't get sucked into the world of the book? I know. I love the books. My brain gets sucked into multiple things at once, so I end up just not finishing any of them. That's fair enough. You don't, like, end up zeroing in on the book and being unable to extract yourself. I mean, I watched a movie for a little bit, and then, like, get distracted and just start doing something else, start doing something else. Yep. No focus. And they sent a picture. Look at Bruce smiling. Look at that beautiful smile. Yep. I was actually running the glass area and the T-shirt area. Was that before or after your fight? That was after. And I did not fight. It didn't have to come to that. Yes. Bruce was involved in a near altercation. Near altercation. And guess who didn't back down? Who did you piss off, Bruce? You pissed someone off. I did piss somebody off. What did you do? I didn't do anything. Oh, come on. I was following the rules of the place. Did you tell them they had clown LEDs or something and they just went off on you? Nope. I told them they were not allowed to enter the building without a pass. And then when I followed them, we got into an altercation with a person. The person came right up. You want to fight him off to go outside? I'm like, let's go. And he came right up to me. He was bigger to me. He was taller than me, and I didn't even blink. And I think after a while, I said, let's go.
    81:57
    And then he went and thought about it for a few seconds and said, let's start this again. And that was it. And, you know, I call it, you know, the rest of the weekend, he was coming up to me, sorry about this, sorry about this. You know, I really went off the wrong foot. And guess what? I'm just doing my job here. Most people understood. Some didn't. They didn't. Guess what? That's the rules. You know, they went off the wrong foot. They went off the wrong foot. We got it, Bruce-ism. I love it. Yes. Let's see. Next one is from William. Hi again. It's your pest from the west.
    82:34
    Ron, Bruce, great to meet you and the other guys. Pinball Princess, Zach. He spelled it both ways, just to be correct. It's the second spelling, Z-A-C-E. Only two ways?
    82:45
    Well, there's a lot of ways to spell Zach, actually. Yeah. And everyone else at Allentown this year. Good show. Was able to find a couple of manuals and a few parts there myself. Love the podcast, even though I don't compete myself. Not going to embarrass myself doing that. Just a casual player and wannabe collector. Great idea, Bruce, on the collection in Lyman's name. Was happy to contribute to it. I do hope everyone will follow your lead and give what they can. Take care. See you at the show. Bill. P.S. Ron, you said I could stop by level zero. Yeah, we never did. We were able to hook up. I see that. It never worked out. But guess what? Ron's always willing to have people over. Yeah, and no one ever takes me at my offers.
    83:27
    Well, don't forget, people, you can donate until the end of the month, and then at that time I will send out the picture with the donation number. Let's just say it's blown my mind away. Yeah, I'm trying to think how much we talked about this before you came up. I mean, you were here the whole time. I was here the whole time. Yeah, the whole time.
    83:47
    I was very quiet. Yes. Because we had one particular person who donated a... Yes. I was amazed by that donation. We thought it was... Fake. But, I mean, the more you think about it, what would be the purpose... The perfect number it was. Yeah. Yeah, that too. But what would be the purpose of faking that? But I've been blown away. The people, the outpouring, the number is just jaw-dropping. And it's going to be for a great cause. So, as I said, if you give me $10, it's not going anywhere. None of it's going to us. Where do they send it again, Bruce? You can send it by PayPal, only PayPal. It's wizard underscore mode at yahoo.com.
    84:32
    Yes, I'm old school. Yes. Send it, and it could be $10, it could be $20, whatever you want to give. Just saying thanks for, you know, and it's not going to us. It's going to a great cause. That's all I'm going to say. But I've been very humbled. by this. You guys probably thought I went on vacation this past before the show.
    84:55
    Maybe I just came back, right? Yeah, no. Bruce is kicking the money and run. He's loving the show. Woohoo! No, not at all. I was very, very blown away. And some people want to be anonymous. Some people made some fucking funny ass comments. Oh, God. Oh, yeah. Let's see, where was I? This is from Steven Hey Steven Hey Bruce, hey Ron Hellos are alphabetical Good to be home after a wonderful Pinfest 2023 Got to thank Bruce for all the great shows And talk to your Scott about assisting me In getting some tournament friendly ROMs for my older games Like Police Force Which I guess he made in like 2012 Of course he did That was probably for Papa That's probably the one they had the show was great with an absolutely loaded free play area. They actually were turning people away for the free play on Friday. Wow. That's turned me away. Yeah. Can you imagine that? Did you say, do you know who I am? I had to tell them my name when I signed up so they knew who I was. Okay. I'm not Zach. I am the Zach. The Zach. I am Zach of the Slam Tilt Podcast. Let's make sure you say that. Next time I form, when I ask you my name, I'll put Zach in parentheses from Slam Tilt. Yes, and that will just get you right in. It's like the black card from Amex. Just gets you right in. Oh, yeah, yeah. My favorite Zach moment was when we were, I think we were standing in line for pinbird registration. And someone recognized Zach's voice. I've had that a couple times. They look at me like, are you Bruce? I'm like, yeah.
    86:36
    Let's see. I dragged my feet by 20 minutes on both a big game. Yes. Bought by a friend of your show and a World Cup stocker. Bought for RPC, I believe. Which it was. I did come home with a very nice Valley Viking for far less than, he originally posted $42.50. Less than $3K to be specific. And that is my question. What is your opinion of the change in prices this year in the free play area? It seems everything came in at around Pinside average prices. But by the end of the day Saturday, if you have been patient and were open to a larger variety of titles, you could really pick up some games at great prices. Does it seem this was more like a pre-COVID show, or at least did it feel like more of that we should expect in the future?
    87:23
    I think this is the second largest show they ever had for a amount of paid people. And the free play was completely full, so hopefully this is a great sign for the future. Maybe they're going to outgrow this place. What do you think of their prices? Prices were, I thought some were high, some were low.
    87:43
    Like, you know, you don't see many safe crackers pop up, and it sold right away for $9,000. Mm-hmm. So the problem isn't just like any other show. It could be an okay price, but somebody else is going to think that okay price is a great price and maybe buy it before it gets to that deal section. Like, I think the Viking was way overpriced at $42.50, but you got under $3,000? Hey, you did great. I kind of miss my Viking, even though it's now for sale. My Viking is for sale, my old Viking that's at the Sanctum. I know much he's asking for it, and it's more than what you got it for. So there was deals somewhere out there, you know, and a lot of people did pre-deal, of course, and make your selections. Pre-deal. They dealed before they dealed. I loved it. Pre-deal at the pre-show. Yes. At the pre-show. Yep. And you did, didn't you, Zach? Sure did. Yep. Love the show, as always, and looking forward to making it out to a stomp in the not-so-distant future. Best Habermania! P.S. I'm going to be running a tournament at the Greater Philly Convention Center as part of TheGeek.com. Or, no, TheGeekDomCon. This will be a limited-attempts tournament. Saturday qualifying, Sunday finals, May 27th through 28th. That's a hard weekend. You said hard. I will be looking for donor games and will be giving a few free convention and tournament entries to those that can provide a game. Please let me know if any of the Slam Gang would be able to make it out. I would not because that's actually our pool opening weekend, so I get to play pool boy. Oh, my.
    89:18
    But that's a hard weekend. I would love to go down to Philly. I love Philly. And he sends a picture with the Viking. was $42.50, then it scratched out, then it was $37.50, then it scratched out, and then he had $3,100. Yeah. If he put it, like, for $33, maybe that person that looked at that Viking for $42.50 and said, boy, I only got $3,200. He ain't got it well for $3,200. And if he started at $35, he might have gotten more money instead of maybe the guy spending his money on something else.
    89:48
    You never know. There's no way I would ever offer $3,000 on a $4,200. No, sure shot. So you think you're insulting the guy, But if he said $35,000 and you got $31,000, you said $3,000, he came back with, hey, how about $31,000 or $31,500? You would think you would have got a pretty good deal. He would have got more money instead of overpricing it like a crackhead. A crackhead.
    90:11
    But it made out well for Steven. Next email is from Derek. Let's see. Any thoughts for a Father's Day episode featuring your fathers as guests? My father passed away three years ago. Yeah, I don't think that's going to work. We can't even dig him up. And when it comes to parents, we're each one short. Yes, we are. So shout out to Frank Guida, who I was playing Pulp Fiction with. Yes.
    90:34
    This one has Robert. It says, hey, guys, I've been having an issue with my spinners on my game. I was told in order to keep your game in tip-top shape that you should lube them up to keep everyone happy. Oh, my. I read this one beforehand. Yeah, he's going in another direction. I was wondering what you guys thought of this brand. And he has a link to a brand of lube. He suggests this for a good buy to keep them moving along. The only thing I hope is that I don't get it on my side rails or in my shooter lane. My friend said he ruined some good rubbers in a similar fashion. You should check my balls for it as well. All right. That's a lot of lube for this. I'm going to describe this link to you guys. It is visit the Passion Lube Store Passion Lubes natural water lubricant Wow you think okay this might work for her Unscented Unscented even too
    91:31
    Unfortunately, it's a 55-gallon drum. And it costs $1,429.10. And wait, the worst part is there's 15 in stock.
    91:46
    This is almost as bad as would you have put it on my back. Go to Amazon, look under health and household, sexual wellness, safer sex, and lubricants for this product.
    91:58
    Remember, it's slick and slippery. Yes. Perfect for men, women, and everything in between. Passion Sleek Formula enhances your sexual experience by supplementing you and your partner's natural lubrication.
    92:13
    Wow, you almost sound like a spokesman. Oh, yes, I am. You didn't know that? I did not know that. I'm Troy McClure for the... No. And this is a friend of the RPC, Robert. I didn't think you had this in him.
    92:28
    I'm impressed because he showed me that, and he was like, I've been thinking about sending this in, and I said, do it. Fuck yeah. And that completely exceeded all of my expectations. See? So much lube. That was amazing. So much lube. I mean, you could drown in lube. Help, I'm drowning. You just take the whole flicker, just dunk it in and take it out, and it'll play ten times faster. It'll play a hundred times faster. We guarantee it.
    92:56
    All right. This next one is from Soren. Hey, Soren. Hi, guys. Please accept my humble donation. Thanks for the great show. Thanks for the support. Keep it up. Thank you. When the sad news of Lyman's passing had settled a bit, I decided to give my Spider-Man in the wild a good tighten-up and polish. Then I made a plaque in his memory and put it on the game. May he rest in peace. Pinball greatness, Soren. Yep. And then it says on the plaque, This amazing pinball machine was created by Lyman F. Sheets, 1966 to 2022. Very nice. We love Soren. Thank you, Soren, for the donation, too. I did get it. You do rock.
    93:34
    Oh, God. Hey, Ron. What? I think Zach should do this one. Zach should read this one. What, the story? The review. Yeah. Well, first I'm skipping to this one here. Okay. All right. We got, this is from Jimmy. It says, got you excited? And it's a link to a Beavis and Butthead homebrew someone is doing on Piss High.
    93:54
    Sure, I'll play it. Like, where are they at? You can play anything. Let's see. They're in Georgia. East Coast. Good. Big. It has the gobble holes like a Gottlieb.
    94:03
    Makes sense. It does. Maybe they're toilets. Maybe. Well, maybe they're pop bumpers in the back three, but the one out on the side is definitely.
    94:13
    Let me just say, season two so far, they have been killing it. They have it. It's actually awesome. Oh, my God. They get married. This is fucking awesome.
    94:26
    Do we want to do the Stern game? Yes, we do. Even though this podcast will be getting to like two and a half hours at this point?
    94:35
    You really have to have this all edited, and then I have to. You guys don't care about me. Not at all. We've talked about your health already. Can I be Gene Rayburn? No one knows who that is. What? You know who it is. I know, but no one else on this call knows who that is. Isn't that the match game guy? Yes, it is. See, we have somebody else. Okay, when did your dad tell you that stuff? What are you talking about? I would love that show. My dad is a game show guy. Exactly. Don't think that I haven't been exposed to various game shows over the course of my life, and the match game was one of my favorites because it's hysterical. It is. Even as a kid missing half of the innuendos, it was great. Zach, you know who we're talking about? Nope. Okay, you need to actually watch. Okay, which one was the match game? Where they had the six people on the side. They all had to, when Johnny was young, how old was Johnny? When he was so young, he used to do blank. And then people had to fill in the word. Cocaine? And then the person at the match it. And then whoever had the most matches after two rounds would move on to the match game bonus game. Well, what we're talking about is this game that the Pinball Princess sent in. This is on the call.
    95:50
    This is Plastic Stern's most classic spinner. So we have all these sterns on here, including ones like Laser Lord that I've never played, and Q that somehow I have played.
    96:07
    I'm somehow surprised that you've never played Laser Lord, even though there's one that has never shown itself in public. I just sort of assumed that you would have found it. Technically, I played the one Laser Lord, which is because I have a Quicksilver, so it's the same game, just with different art. So does Q win by default? Well, let's get to the bracket here. Let's get to the bracket. So we have Wildfire versus, oh, yeah, Steph, how did you want to do this again? You going to keep score? I will keep score, sure. Let me open up the thing in a thing where I can make marks on it. On the thing.
    96:45
    Let's see. It's me, Bruce, and Zach. These three players are after big bucks, but they'll have to avoid the whammy. They play the most exciting game of their lives. From television studios in Hollywood, it's time to press your luck. And here's our host, the star of Press Your Luck, Steph Guida.
    97:05
    Yay. So it's going to be the best out of three, whoever. Yeah, because we have an odd number, so we're going to have a winner. I'll be tiebreaker. We're going to have a winner. You guys have to agree on what advances. Or if not, Zach's tiebreaker. That's scary. All right. Just give them to us. You're the host, Seth. All right. Our first matchup, Wildfire and Cheetah. Zach, what would you have said? Cheetah. Okay.
    97:38
    Cheetah. An anonymous pick. I mean, yeah. Good answer. Should we do those preliminaries first? Because there's two brackets. Yeah, we can. We can. Yep. Okay. The other one is Laser Lord and Caustic Princess. Laser Lord. Because it's Quicksilver.
    97:58
    Okay. She's like, damn it. I want a Caustic Princess for a reason. Go Australia, mate. Yeah. Ryan. Ryan's lead. He'll get you one. Anyway. Okay. What's next? Magic or Cheetah? Cheetah. Okay, Meteor or Disco? Meteor. What's Disco? I don't remember. Disco is the E.M. from 1977. Meteor.
    98:28
    Trident or Dracula? This is a different, this one's a hard one, because it feeds the same way almost. You mean not at all? Yeah, exactly.
    98:40
    Well, on Trident, there's two. I'm going Trident. I'll go Dracula. Zack! Comes out of the coffin. I'll go Dracula. Okay. Gee, I wonder if that's the one he owns. Yeah, gee, I wonder. I wouldn't mind owning a Trident, except I did the opportunity. Wow. This is the hardest one coming up. All right. And I'm pretty sure that this is how the randomizer put it. Wow. Dragon Fist and Stargazer. That's three. That's three, and they're all good shot ones. I don't think you can say it's better just because it has more spinners. Everything's better with more spinners. Better spinners. It still has both. It has two you can absolutely crush on either side. Where Dragon Fist has one you can absolutely crush. So we're going Stargazer. Yes, Stargazer. Ooh, this is another bad one. Quicksilver and Sea Witch.
    99:38
    Quicksilver. Sea Witch, you hardly ever hit the damn spinner. Yep. Do not wrong She would just spin her Deserved better than it got Okay toast your nine ball Okay for those at home What is toast Stern catacomb Or nine ball Nine ball I have a nine ball It's nine ball definitely because it's at least a hittable shot The catacomb one is so far away It's terrible It's hittable though But yeah I'll go nine ball I find the catacomb one way easier to hit The stern one's so low down to the side, like on Nineball, it's... You're not at the power angle. You're not in the sweet spot. So we're going Nineball, right? Nineball.
    100:23
    I don't know if this one's going to be hard. This one's really going to be hard. This is going to be the hardest one yet. Oh. Stars or Orbiter One? Stars.
    100:32
    That took a really long time. Ron just edited out all the silence and hemming and hawing. Okay. Okay, Rawhide slash Stampede, they're basically the same game, right? They are, yes, two-player, four-player. So, Rawhide or Stampede versus Galaxy.
    100:51
    This one is going to be a difficult one, too, but I'm going to go with Stampede. I'll go with Galaxy, just to make that do something. I'll go with Rawhide because the MC gets the spinner sound on the reels. There you go. Wait, the spinner sound is what tailed galaxies run? Yeah. Very easy.
    101:17
    Okay. This one's a thing. Laser Lord or Q? Laser Lord. This would be really funny if we go to the end and it's the same. Yeah.
    101:31
    Laser Lord is in the final against Quicksilver. Yes, gee. Oh, my God. I made that possible, didn't I? Yes, you did.
    101:40
    Yeah. Luckily, Quicksilver doesn't have the best spinner, so. You could have stopped this right at the beginning and said, like, no, I mean, the Laser Lord, the one that no one's played. No one's played. Only one wide body. Oh, I assumed that was the one. And then you said, oh, no, it's Quicksilver. There's two. There's two Laser Lords. Yeah, because I got nothing to go by on the other one. Yeah, nor do I. Zero to go by.
    102:03
    Okay. Big game versus hot hand. Hmm. I'll let you go first, Ron. I don't know. Since I got my big game working good, I really liked it. Big game. I have to agree. And you got the bird spinner, the one on the right. It makes the birds sound.
    102:21
    Big game advances, and I delete my line. Okay. Lightning versus Viper. Where is the spinner on Lightning?
    102:33
    Right. Yeah. It's the right. Have I ever played Lightning? And it makes a horrifically bad sound. There was a lightning at Pinfest, but maybe you didn't play it. I know I went and played it. Viper. You were standing right there, Zach. It was right next to, what the hell was it next to? The one thing we were playing. Should I have played it, Ron? No, it's lightning. Don't play it. Viper, I agree.
    102:58
    It's super early on the flipper, but it is cool to hit that thing. It is cool to hit that shot, too. So Viper is actually beating lightning. Yes. You sound surprised. I didn't know where we would go with that, if I'm honest. Okay. Freefall versus Flight 2000.
    103:14
    Flight 2000. Freefall. Okay. Zach. I'm also going to go Freefall. I don't know what I expected. It's really far away. It is far away, but it's nice. Maybe the longest spinner shot? Yeah. Freefalling now.
    103:33
    Freefalling. You're going to love me for this one, and I'm pretty sure, again, that this was the randomizer. Pinball versus Stingray. Bad rules. Same rules. Same ROM.
    103:45
    Pinball. I've never seen a Stingray where the spinner actually rips well. No, never has. It's weird. Okay.
    103:53
    Split second versus Nugget, also known as Nugent. Split second. Because I've been playing it now, it's a pretty good shot. trying to remember, where's the Nugent spinner? It's like a normal stern on the outside. Flip up, you know, to the right orbit. Oh, Nugent. Okay, Zach. I never played a Nugent.
    104:15
    Uh-oh. So, I gotta go split second. Yes! That game has you in a stranglehold. It's time to wango tango this next question.
    104:28
    Wow. Thank God there's no more Nugents. That's two more songs than I know of his I Just Know the Cat Scratch Feeder one, and that one not much at all. How would you not know Stranglehold? Yeah, you gotta know Stranglehold. If I know it, I've tried to forcibly forget it. You've heard the riff at some point. Sure.
    104:47
    Electronimo versus Memory Lane. Memories. Memory. Memory Lane. Iron Maiden. No, not that one. Versus Ali.
    105:01
    Ugh. Ali is so far away because it's just a one spinner. It's got the, yeah, it's the... It's a loop spinner, but when you hit it, it's good. It's the Harry Williams spinner. Yeah. The one that's in the... It's a good spinner in the back. The loop, the roundabout there. It's a good spinner when you hit it, but our main spinner is just... That's just in front of the ramp, right? Yes, it is. And it's not that inviting. I'm going Ali.
    105:27
    I'll go Ali. Maiden sucks. That one. Yes. You heard it. Stop. Stop. Okay, that was round one. Next round. This would be the eighth finals.
    105:43
    Okay, we have Cheetah versus Meteor. Oh, that was easy. Cheetah. Yeah, Cheetah. Just that one on the right, I just love hitting that. No Cheetor? I know a lot of people will be like, you know, Meteor is the one. Yeah, but it's got multiples. It's got the cool one in the turnaround, the Harry Williams shot. It's got the one on the right, which is butter. And it has the one on the left where you're like, you'll never hit that. And then you hit it every once in a while. Whoa. Mind blown.
    106:13
    Okay. We have Dracula versus Stargazer. I don't know why I bothered asking. Next is Quicksilver versus Nineball.
    106:27
    Quicksilver. Stars versus Rapide Stars I feel like we're cheating or something at this point I feel like Zach is stuck in the he's like ah this sucks I can't argue with most of them either cool alright Laser Lord versus Big Game I mean it's Quicksilver but you know Well, maybe they didn't spin as good. I mean, they made a game later. That was the rusty spares on the bottom. Yeah, exactly. That was the rusty spares on the bottom. I'll say big game. Big game.
    107:07
    Get that laser lord out of here. Get that shit out of here. Fake Quicksilver. Thereby avoiding a hilarious but frustrating silver off. Oh, my God. Viper versus Freefall.
    107:25
    Freefall. I really like the Viper's fair. I'll say Viper. Okay, Zach. I'm going to make a free fall. There you go. Okay, but what game has the better turret? The only one with a fucking turret. I mean, they're both games where you go up top and then try to fall in a mechanism in the middle. Exactly. That is an oddly specific and correct comparison.
    107:48
    Viper is the most amazing mech because it has 360 and the ball doesn't fall out, and I don't know how.
    107:54
    There's probably a post or something. I forgot. Okay, what's next? Next is pinball versus split second.
    108:04
    Pinball. I have to say pinball. Oh, you should have said split second to make sense. No, I had to. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. That is just perfect. That is actually a great spinner shot.
    108:20
    Even though it's only one, it's still a good spinner shot. What would you have picked, Zach, I'm going to ask? Pinball. Okay. Memory Lane versus Ali.
    108:31
    Memory Lane. Ali is not the greatest. I am the greatest. I've never liked that you turn spinner. You don't get to hit the spinner directly. You're losing momentum by the time you hit it. Yeah. But you can definitely hit the right-hand side of that loop and get a pretty good spin on it. You can get pretty good, but if it was right in the face of it, it would be even better. Like a loop right in the middle. Just put two spinners, one each end of the loop. Picture that. I love it in Cheetah, though. I do love it in Cheetah. With the blue ROM, because then it plays the 2000 spinner sound. Yeah. Okay. Here we go.
    109:10
    Cheetah versus Stargazer. Oh. Battle of the three spinners. Yeah, no spinner count bias here. Got to go with Gazer.
    109:22
    Cheetah. Oh. Zach, you are the tiebreaker in one of the most important... Of course, he's going to pick Cheetah, yes. The right spinner's too good. It is really too good. No Stargazer spinner is as satisfying as that spinner.
    109:38
    I think the right one's pretty close. The right one's pretty good on... I like the left one more on Stargazer. I don't like the right one. It dies after it comes back down and makes you sad. Yeah, but I love the left one on Stargazer.
    109:49
    But, yep. Okay, Cheetah moves on. Yeah, Jada advances to the semifinals. Quicksilver versus Rawpeed. Quicksilver.
    110:01
    Oh, hi. Wrong. They've had a good run. Gee, I wonder what game Zach hates. Gee, it sounds very obvious.
    110:10
    Big game versus free fall. Big game. Let's pick a free fall on this one. I really do. Zach, I'm going to go big game. Okay. Because the right spinner sounds too good. It is good. Don't get me wrong. That was a hard one. But it's just like, ugh. I still like the placement of that free fall one. But I would agree on both.
    110:36
    Next. Somehow, we are pinball versus memory lane. The battle of the EMs. The EM sounds. Well, not quite for memory lane. Well, it's got a chime unit. It's got a chime unit. But it doesn't have the reel. It's only half an M. Well, no. You could have pinball with solid state. But you could have pinball with a reel, too. It's an action M. True. We just aren't allowed to have one. Memory lane. Yeah.
    111:06
    Pinball. I'm going to make it interesting. Leave it all up to Zach. Okay, so you light the spinner and pinball via the random award of the hole, right? Yes. But memory lane, you get the shats for it. So I go to memory lane. So all things considered, the way to light it is the winner. They're both pretty equal, otherwise, I feel. Okay.
    111:29
    Next. Top. Back to the beginning. All right. We have cheetah versus big game. A cat wins either way.
    111:39
    Meow. Ah, cheetah. Cheetah. Okay. And who won between pinball and memory lane? Memory lane. Okay. It ain't going to win this round.
    111:54
    Yeah, we're about to start on the bracket here. We're entering the slaughter zone. The slaughter zone is coming up right now.
    112:01
    Quicksilver versus Memory Lane. Quicksilver. You had a good run, Memory Lane. You had a good run. You got further than most. They're basically the same game. You know, in-lane spinners. Like the spinners. Two spinners. What did we say between Cheetah and Big Game? There's no difference. My brain is shot. Cheetah. Okay. So now it's cheetah versus Quicksilver. Yeah, that is correct.
    112:24
    No difference except the saucer on the left and the bank in the center. We're talking spinners. We're not talking other features, Ron. Yeah, we're talking spinners. We're talking spinners. You have to forget about the bank. Yeah, you have to. I did. Well, actually, no. No, I disagree because you can sweep the bank and crush the spinner in one shot. One of the best shots in pinball. You have to forget about the other bank and the hole. Okay. Forgotten. So now, Quicksilver versus Cheetah for the best stern spinner game.
    112:56
    Boom, boom, ba-dum, boom, boom, ba-dum, boom. I mean, you got two that can absolutely crush. But then you got Cheetah with that one that feels great.
    113:07
    It's a non-symmetric layout. Both non-symmetric layouts. Yeah, both are non-symmetric layouts. Quicksilver is more symmetric. It is more symmetric. The one that looks like, well, we know if it comes to a tiebreaker, we know what Zach's picking. Exactly.
    113:23
    I just, I shoot spinners more on Quicksilver than I'm going to shoot them on Cheetah. That is a good point. That's a personal failing, though. That's a personal failing. Just for that, 100%, Quicksilver. You're leaving it all to me. Well, yeah, because if you pick Cheetah, then it's going to be Cheetah. Should I have stayed and made the Steph vote?
    113:44
    No, what we should do is we should have you guys have a unanimous decision. No, we can't. We can't. That's not possible. No. But we are going to have one. Quicksilver. Yeah. I hate to say it. I like the feeling of both spinners on Quicksilver. I do like all three on Cheetah. With Stargazer in there, I really thought that would get there, but couldn't beat the cat. but then if it was Stargazer versus Quicksilver. Quicksilver still. Quicksilver is still my fun, the most fun spinner game. Is there anything in this bracket that could have taken it down? Stargazer got beaten by Quicksilver. Oh, yeah. I forgot that completely. You know, I think Stargazer could have taken it down, but you guys eliminated it.
    114:32
    I think Star should beat Quicksilver. Star, no. I actually love Star. Stargazer versus Quicksilver, go. Both the Stars spinners are just so good. They're so good. And you get the do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Like, it's got the best chimes of any. So you're saying, which one are you saying, Steph? Stars versus what?
    114:49
    Stargazer versus Quicksilver. Go. Stargazer. Quicksilver. Go ahead, Zach. The Stargazer center spinner bank rule wins it. There you go. So that has been a game of... Now about Stars versus... Now we're just making up stuff. We went through the bracket.
    115:08
    Damn it. Can't chase the rules. That's the way the brackets, you know, that's the way they... That's the way they fumble. It is good looking at what ifs, and now I have to make more brackets.
    115:21
    The worst spinner, you know, the best valley spinner games. The best scout leave system one spinner. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast. We should have more like the worst something.
    115:32
    That's more along our... We did have it, though. We had the worst flipper. We need a worst something bracket. Yeah. I have it in my mind. All right. Give us your ideas. Okay. Well, not now because, you know, we've been recording for an hour. But, yes.
    115:46
    Well, that's it, Bruce, on my list. Really? Your list was pretty short today. Yeah. Just the ball bag for you. Yeah. The ball bag is empty.
    115:58
    There you go. Now you made a sound. It's actually. It's actually empty. folks, the work we do for you listeners, you wouldn't believe it took us two days to get that down two days yes alright, well now we can do a proper ending instead of the one that may have been previously recorded so, yes don't forget stomp stomp, stomp, stomp why don't you give the quick run through Friday at 6.30 We are starting Stomp pre-Stomp. That's 5.30. I know it's 6.30 because I've had a lot of people complain. So we're going to get it done fast because it's all classics. 6.30. Okay. Zach. 5.30.
    116:45
    Zach, you're the master of rules. So what is the rules for pre-Stomp? I don't think I forget. I have to look at the info. Classics, three strikes. Then finals? Then finals. Top six? Top six. Okay. Very good. After that, we have Stomp. The world-famous Stomp tournament. World-famous Stomp. Spots are still open for both times.
    117:10
    You can come one, come all. Have some fun. Stomp is, it's all depending on how much time, but it's 10 or 12 rounds. We'll get to a certain time point. An hour break for dinner and then finals of at least, what do we say, half, I think it is exactly. I think on the rules. I don't know. But you'll have fun. All the rules are clearly stated, but only on location, obviously. No, IPDB has it. IPDB, no. IMDB.
    117:40
    IFBA. NFL. The Internet Pinball database has all the rules. Oh, man. It would be cool. Well, thanks to everybody for listening. This has been Episode 206. Yes. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast. You can email us at slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. Check out our website, www.slamtailpodcast.com. Don't forget to donate to Lyman's Suicide Prevention. You've got another 15 days, 16 days. Everything you send in goes right to that. Again, that's wizard underscore mode at yahoo.com. Don't forget the underscore. Sure. What are the donation tiers? There is no donation tiers. It's what you want to do. So basically, choose your own donation tier and name it with the most ridiculous name ever. Got it. Give me five. You can give a dollar. You can give $3,000. You can give anything you want. You want.
    118:47
    So thanks to Zach. Yes. Steph. And Bruce. Thanks, everybody. Until next time. Let's see. Have I forgotten anything? You forgot how to say goodbye to everyone. Well, hi, Zach. Yes. Hi. Hi, Steve. Well, I'm saying it for the second time, Bruce. Good. That's good. Yeah. It was fun with Bonus. Everyone in the Clusterbuck. Mm-hmm. Mrs. Penn, Dr. Penn, when you were at Allentown. You saw them. Saw a lot of good people. A lot of good people. Everyone that said hi to us, thanks again. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Joe Kamikow. Thank you.
    119:51
    Meteor Level Zero Clusterbuck George the Guy Timbald Bruce Dism Tournament Talk Car Holder Cheetah Santatoo Cat Crab ELO Ball Pay What You Find Give You Love Give You Hate Tournament Talk People Princess Oh my
    120:47
    Yeah, when do we want to give them to? Because I'm just going to start. 7.50. Okay. One minute. Oh, it was two minutes when I said that.
    121:04
    One minute. You got one minute, Bruce. So if this happens, will you say, here without my co-host, Bruce Nightingale, or? I don't know what I'm going to say. Or will you say, here my co-host, Bruce Nightingale, and then awkward pause? That's actually a better idea. That would be the way. This is the way.
    121:23
    We can play the game. I know, but it doesn't feel right doing it without Bruce. Yeah, it doesn't feel right without Bruce. Part 2 coming soon on Patreon. Oh, no, don't go there.
    121:38
    I mean, I could probably pull another game out of my butt. Check out that stream on our Patreon. No.
    121:47
    I guess if we're talking about tournaments, that's the RPC.