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Pinball Party Podcast Ep 29: Rachel & Cale Kick It...Sup?

The Pinball Network·video·1h 23m·analyzed·May 11, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Foo Fighters Pro becomes Electric Bat Arcade's top earner; location operators prefer Pro versions of Godzilla and Foo Fighters.

Summary

In Pinball Party Podcast Episode 29, host Jason interviews Rachel Bess and Kale Hernandez from Electric Bat Arcade (Tempe, Arizona) about top-earning pinball machines on location. Foo Fighters Pro has become their #1 earner, surpassing Toy Story by 15%, followed by Godfather and Godzilla Premium. The discussion covers game preferences, pricing psychology (Foo Fighters at $1 or 3-for-2 vs. Godfather at $1), and playfield ergonomics comparing Pro vs. Premium versions across multiple titles.

Key Claims

  • Foo Fighters Pro broke the previous location earnings record held by Toy Story, surpassing it by approximately 15%

    high confidence · Rachel Bess (Electric Bat Arcade operator) stated this directly when asked about top earners

  • Godfather was installed at the same time as Foo Fighters and is the second-best earner, described as a '10' vs. Foo Fighters as an '11'

    high confidence · Rachel Bess provided this comparison when discussing recent installations

  • Godzilla Premium has been earning well for over a year and a half (since 2021 release)

    high confidence · Rachel Bess confirmed Godzilla release date as 2021, discussing its sustained earning performance

  • Foo Fighters Pro charges $1 or 3-for-2 play pricing, slightly cheaper than Godfather's flat $1 per play, yet earns more

    high confidence · Rachel Bess and Jason discussed pricing and its psychological impact on player choice

  • Toy Story dropped approximately 50% in earnings after initial placement surge, likely due to being the only Toy Story on location in Arizona

    high confidence · Rachel Bess explained the novelty factor and decline in repeat plays

  • The Godzilla Pro has superior playfield visibility for the upper-flipper destruction jackpot shot due to the bridge not obstructing the view

    high confidence · Jason stated this based on direct gameplay comparison and timing consistency

  • Godzilla Premium's building animation and multiball feed from the building can be unreliable, requiring players to aim for the left flipper tip

    high confidence · Jason referenced Keith's podcast guidance on proper ball routing and described the inconsistency

  • Foo Fighters Premium features an upper playfield that is 'so big and boring' compared to the Pro version

    medium confidence · Jason expressed personal opinion comparing Pro and Premium layouts

Notable Quotes

  • “Foo Fighters broke the previous record which was Toy Story. Foo Fighters blew that away by a good 15%.”

    Rachel Bess @ ~07:30 — Confirms Foo Fighters Pro as new location earnings leader

  • “Foo Fighters is a tiny bit cheaper [at 3-for-2 vs. Godfather at $1] and it is earning a little bit more which may be a factor—people just the psychology of being able to do three for two may make people play that one over godfather.”

    Rachel Bess @ ~09:15 — Identifies pricing psychology as potential driver of game selection and earnings

  • “when you're trying [to hit] the destruction jackpot... I was able to keep it in that loop forever because the view is not obstructed... you can actually see the ball coming around so you can time the shot perfectly”

    Jason @ ~33:00 — Articulates Pro ergonomic advantage over Premium for specific high-value shot

  • “This is the first time where we're like I don't know which one to go with because usually it's like we immediately know we're keeping the Pro.”

    Rachel Bess @ ~27:00 — Indicates Foo Fighters Pro-vs-Premium decision is unusually close for experienced operators

  • “the building during multi-ball slows the action down. You don't get that with the Pro. You get quick action.”

    Jason @ ~34:30 — Identifies pacing difference as key playability factor in Pro vs. Premium comparison

  • “Godzilla Premium still right underneath [Foo Fighters], earning just way more than I ever seen a pin that's been out as long as it has earned.”

    Rachel Bess @ ~13:00 — Highlights sustained earning power of Godzilla Premium despite age

  • “I would choose Foo Fighters, Godzilla, Godfather, Toy Story.”

    Rachel Bess (personal ranking) @ ~22:00 — Operator's personal preference order differs from earning order, showing earning ≠ enjoyment

  • “I'd be the same as Rachel. I've only played Godfather one and a half times, though.”

Entities

Electric Bat ArcadeorganizationRachel BesspersonCale HernandezpersonJasonpersonFoo FightersgameGodzillagame

Signals

  • $

    market_signal: Pinmonk gel insert gradient mods for Foo Fighters Pro gaining traction, with Jason noting they 'subtly blew away' the visual presentation similar to Iron Maiden's gradient inserts

    medium · Jason: 'My favorite mod I've seen so far in Foo Fighters... Joel's was yellow, orange, red to signify like an increasing amount... I was honestly very subtly blown away.'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive feedback from pinball community on seller ethics discussion; Jason's transparency about problematic seller practices resonated with community members who shared similar experiences

    high · Jason: 'I got a lot of feedback on last episode... Some honestly heartwarming messages about me being honest, I guess, about the Tron situation' and multiple listener emails confirming similar seller dishonesty patterns

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Godzilla Premium's building animation during multiball creates unreliable ball routing requiring specific left flipper tip targeting; Pro version eliminates this pain point and provides faster pacing

    high · Jason: 'you don't get that unreliable feed from the building on the multi-ball... the building during multi-ball slows the action down. You don't get that with the Pro. You get quick action.'

  • $

    market_signal: Rachel's personal game ranking (Foo Fighters > Godzilla > Godfather > Toy Story) differs from Kale's (Foo Fighters > Godfather > Godzilla > Toy Story) and both differ from earnings ranking, suggesting game preference is independent of earning performance

    medium · Rachel prefers Godzilla over Godfather despite earnings data showing Godfather performs better; Kale has only played Godfather 1.5 times despite it being #2 earner

  • $

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.251

0:00
The Pinball Network is online. Launching. Pinball Party. Hey, Mef. What's up, man? Sup? Uh, what you doing on my computer? Googling stuff. Like, what kind of stuff? Just stuff. What kind of stuff could a fucking robot want to Google? Animal stuff. Animal stuff? Dude, you're weird. Get out of my chair, man. What are you Googling here? Horse digestive track human mouth. What the fuck? Are your bits and pieces okay? You need some oil or something? Eat shit. Why the fuck are you Googling horse digestive track human mouth? I am trying to learn more about you. What? How would Googling that have anything to do with me? About what you say About what I say? What are you talking about? Horse digestive tract? What the fuck? What are you trying to learn about me? All the horse shit that comes out of your mouth You piece of shit Oh no, get back here you little shit Come here Fucker Ow man Sup Jason Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa Truce Hey, hey Alright Eat shit Alright God damn it I'm sorry Ouch Put the laser down. You can use my computer whenever you want. Googling all sorts of animal shit. Okay? Okay. Nice. Okay. See ya.
1:38
Damn. Let's get going on episode 29 of the Pinball Party Podcast. This is your host, Jason. I've been playing a lot of Foo Fighters. Still. We'll talk about that. We're going to talk with Electric Fat Arcade. not just kale got ourselves the payer rachel and kale owners of electric bat arcade we're going to talk about the top earners and all sorts of other shit i always do these figure it outs with secondary market and it's great and everything the feedback is wonderful. But what about figure it out from a different point of view? How about those fuckers on location? Huh?
2:29
Some people suck. Some are great. We'll hear from the horse's mouth. Horse theme this week. Brought to you by the letter H for horse.

Kale Hernandez @ ~24:00 — Reveals limited hands-on experience with highest-earning game; preferences based on different game types

Godfather
game
Toy Storygame
Jurassic Parkgame
Iron Maidengame
Bondgame
Black Knightgame
Pinmonkperson
Joel Engelberthperson
Ray Dayperson
Flippin' Outorganization
Zachperson
Mike Vinicoreperson
Keithperson
Neon Daleperson
Nickperson
Camperson

market_signal: Toy Story machine experienced ~50% earnings drop after initial novelty period, likely due to it being the only unit on location in Arizona; establishes ceiling for location-specific demand surge

high · Rachel Bess: 'Toy Story did so well because this was the only Toy Story, I believe, in the state on location... the first month and two months it did just blew up the coin box and now it's still earning very very well but not Godzilla well'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Location operators increasingly prefer Pro versions of multi-tier games (Godzilla, Foo Fighters) over Premium, citing superior playfield visibility, action pacing, and shot consistency

    high · Rachel: 'This is the first time where we're like I don't know which one to go with' (unusual indecision suggests both are competitive). Jason preferred Godzilla Pro for destruction jackpot sight lines and spinner consistency.

  • $

    market_signal: Pricing tier (3-for-2 vs. flat $1) appears to influence location play frequency independent of game quality, suggesting players respond to perceived value/deal mechanics

    high · Rachel Bess identified pricing psychology as a factor in Foo Fighters outearning Godfather despite Godfather being described as an excellent game

  • ?

    product_strategy: Foo Fighters Pro and Premium are unusually close in gameplay satisfaction for location operators (vs. typical Pro vs. Premium gap), making equipment decision difficult despite cost difference

    medium · Rachel Bess: 'I don't think because they're both so good and there aren't people saying, God, I wish you had that upper play field the same way that people say that about Godzilla.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Godzilla Premium (released 2021) continues to perform exceptionally well on location after 1.5+ years, earning 'way more than I ever seen a pin that's been out as long as it has earned'

    high · Rachel Bess: 'Godzilla premium still right underneath [Foo Fighters], earning just way more than I ever seen a pin that's been out as long as it has earned.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Godfather requires higher cognitive load and immersion than Foo Fighters/Godzilla, limiting casual play opportunities; players prefer simpler, quicker-cycle games for location play

    medium · Kale: 'I really want to get sucked into it and have the time where there's nobody around me and I don't need to do anything. Foo Fighters and Godzilla are much easier for me to play.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Foo Fighters Pro breaks Electric Bat Arcade's location earnings record, surpassing Toy Story by ~15%, despite being priced slightly lower (3-for-2 vs. $1)

    high · Rachel Bess: 'Foo Fighters blew that away by a good 15%.' Jason: 'Foo Fighters is earning a little bit more which may be a factor—people just the psychology of being able to do three for two may make people play that one over godfather.'

    • 2:43
    There's a lot of horses in pinball. Right? In fact, I can't think of any. I can't think of a single horse in pinball. Please email in to pinballpartypodcast at horse.com with all of your pinball horse examples. They should really make a Monty Python pinball machine. So just so that there's a mode where they're doing the fake horse galloping. You know what I mean? Dude's just behind him, banging two coconuts together while he's moving his wrist like he's riding a horse.
    3:16
    Hold! Who goes there? It is I, Arthur, son of Uthopem Dragon from the castle of Camelot, king of the Britons. I must speak with your lord and master. What, ridden on a horse? Yes. You're using coconuts. What? You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're banging them together. So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land through... Where did you get the coconuts? We found them. Found them? In Mercia, the coconuts tropical. What do you mean? Well, this is a temperate zone. The flower may light out with the sun. Well, I would love to just stop and watch that movie. Let's get on with it. Monty Python, top tier shit. And speaking of top tier shit, there's two letters in the English dictionary before the letter H. That letter is F. When I think about the letter F, I think about pinball. Why? Because when I think about pinball, I think about flipping out. When I buy my pinball, shit, I buy from flipping out. Sincerely, a wonderful pinball distributor to work with. Whether you're buying new in-box machines, trading something in, use, getting accessories, Stern, JJP, Spooky, you name it. They got it. Even if you have a question about, are they going to rerun this game? Zach will try to give you an answer if he can, if he's not under NDA, etc. But anyway, thanks again, Zach, for sponsoring the show. Let's talk about Foo Fighters immediately again.
    4:59
    I did a show last week gushing over, hey, it's been 27 hours and all the quote, I came, all that. Gross, Jason. Come on.
    5:08
    How do I feel now? About a week later, I feel the same. The game is still great, if not better. It's gotten a code update to .94, I believe. You could Google it and read the changes. I think there's some call-outs, a couple bug fixes. And actually, Joel Engelberth just did an awesome stream with his brother and Ray Day. It's on the Flippin' Out YouTube page. I think you click on Live once you go to the Flippin' Out YouTube page, the Live section. They do some gameplay with Ray Day while he's walking him through some great strategies, and I watched it. But while I was watching it, something I noticed is the inserts on Joel's were multicolored in spots where I have just white. It's the rollovers right when you launch the ball. I think it's like the rock-a-meter stuff. There's three of them. Mine are all three white. It's part of a skill shot, and you build it up to get playfield multipliers. Joel's was yellow, orange, red to signify like an increasing amount. I was like, whoa, is that in a code update? I checked mine. Nope. But it's an awesome mod from Pinmonk. So if you want to put a little spice in your game, very similar to Iron Maiden, where they had all white inserts on a lot of the modes and the third flipper shot. I forget what those are called, where you build it up to get the jackpot on the loops. They went from a gradient from yellow to red on that, and then the modes had some color inserts as well. I saw it on Joel's and was honestly very subtly blown away. I texted him immediately this morning and, hey, did you do that yourself or is that a code update? Nah, pin monk. So go check out Pin Monk. Get those gel inserts. I think they're shit. They're awesome. So far, my favorite mod I've seen so far in Foo Fighters, and I don't really think it needs mods. But overall, the game is still something I play almost daily, especially when I have time. If there's a game I want to play, it's that. It's still great. Honeymoon Fae is still just as strong as it was last week. I think this game, if there's enough ratings on Pinside right now to put it where it ought to be, I really think easily top five. and I personally like it better than Godzilla.
    7:17
    I'm number one. I'm just going to say it. I would think it's number one. Yeah. That's not to say that things can't change or that, you know, pin side is its own thing and it doesn't really mean anything, but it's a gauge. It's something you can use to think about market or prices or are you comfortable buying a game? Will you lose money? Will you, I mean, make money? I wouldn't go into pinball trying to make money off pinball machines because those fuckers suck, in my opinion. Flippers. Hopefully, we're well past that COVID nasty era. But Foo Fighters, gut check. It's number one, honestly. And shit, there's just nothing bad to say about it. In fact, there's not even many neutral things to say about it. It's just pick a category. Art, above average. Shots, way above average. rules way above average um the premium differences over a pro i would say above average but it's also one of those games kind of like iron maiden and jurassic park where you're gonna get a great value and a great gameplay either way but there's enough of a difference but this is more like jurassic park where i think if you want a premium and you have the money yeah i think you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. The dead post on mine is like 99% consistent. The upper play field is awesome. It's fast. It's smooth. Anyway, if you want to hear me more talk about details of Foo Fighters, last week's gushing about it, I feel the same way this week. So if you want more details, go listen to episode 28. Just to give you an update, I feel the same. Aside from that, in my personal pinball life, I'm getting rid of Star Trek and Dracula just because, you know, that's how it goes. Games come in, games come out. I'm still... Jurassic Park is still a game I have and play quite a bit. It's still one of my favorites, and it's kind of just staying here for the long haul. It's honestly been the longest game I've ever kept. I guess for me that says something. Foo Fighters has no feeling of getting rid of it. I really want to hold out for the Expression Lights. I'm gonna try, damn it! for me owning a game super long is just not normal well it's just not what i normally do but i really want to get those expression lights but after talking with mike vinicore a couple weeks ago and the amount of passion he puts in to the expression lights and seeing it on youtube or twitch on the le i think it just makes that game elevates it even more so for me i'm kind of just sitting on jurassic park premium and foo fighters premium i mean i have a couple other but someone's going to pick one up a little later this week and the other one might get shipped, but we'll see. I got a lot of feedback on last episode. I just want to say thank you to a lot of listeners, a lot of people that emailed in. Some honestly heartwarming messages about me being honest, I guess, about the Tron situation, which to me, I was somewhat venting, but also like, yeah, I think it's bullshit when people do that kind of thing on a sale. And then further, make the buyer feel like they're the asshole. And from the amount of emails I got about it, it sounds like that's not as unusual as you would hope. Let me read a couple. One came in from Nick from Pinsomniacs. Again, I mentioned it last week. Florida, if you are anywhere in the realm of pinball in Florida, Google Pinsomniacs. But anyway, he reached out afterwards and said, But damn, man, I hate hearing about that Tron. People suck, are deceitful, and selfish. I hear that misery loves company, so here you go.
    10:57
    Two weeks ago, I drove from Jacksonville, Florida to BFE, which I don't know what that is, South Carolina, to buy three change machines to turn ones, fives, and tens into quarters. He runs arcades. I had pics and everything looked good. The guy said he tested all the units and they worked great. Said they were only a few years old. I drove almost 400 miles and he drove 50 to meet me. They looked okay, so I bought all three for $2,400. To cut to the chase, I get home and they only accept ones. The other functions are broken on all three units. The guy ghosts me for a week, and when I finally get a hold of him and say they aren't what he advertised, he said sorry, but he won't take them back. He said he would, quote, help me fix them, quote. The extent of his help was to send me an ad of a repair guy and then ghost me again. After research and contacting the manufacturer, I learned the units were 20 years old and parts are not available. I was fucking pissed, but after a week or so, I just resigned to people suck, but not all of them. I try to forget about this douche with the CoinMex. And now my quote, new $2,400 paperweights. Instead, I focus on good folks in my life. Fuck, dude. So if, you know, he was talking about he bought three change machines. They were all supposed to accept all these type of dollar bills. Nah, they didn't. And then the guy, of course, goes some. Yeah, it sucks. People suck. Another one came in from Cam who mentioned, if it was a $2,000 game, it's one thing, but a $10,000 game better be as described and have every single issue disclosed, even minor ones. It's the right thing to do. By the way, let me back up and say, I think it's important it was for a podcaster or basically anyone with an audience to share such an experience because believe it or not, it does impact the community and people's behavior. So you just made it, quote, not all right, quote, to sell an expensive game and not disclose a blemish. That's all I wanted to say. Also, thanks for the shows. That meant a lot, Cam, honestly. So thank you.
    12:50
    I really didn't think of it that way. I wasn't like, oh, let me make a difference out there. But fuck, I'm glad to hear at least something because I shit you not, the amount of times I've had problems with sellers, you know, you say right away like, hey, something's wrong with this and they immediately get defensive and blame you. Oh yeah, well, fuck you. You didn't look close enough. Jesus, man. I mean, I get it. It sucks because you're immediately like, oh man, that wasn't the right thing to do or maybe I'm going to lose money and that's probably where the defense comes from. But God, over time, it's just one life to live and this is, I don't know, is this how you want to do it? I guess. For some people it is. It's worth it. I don't know. For me, it's not. I try to just take every time this happens to me and double down the next time I list something of being even more honest. Because every time I've dealt with a seller who's brutally honest about every little piece of insert wear, every little under cabinet flaw, dirty, hey, one time I had a bulb out here. Every time I'm so comfortable buying from them. My guard is down. I'm almost like in a place of disbelief that people are this honest because I'm so used to either middling or dishonest so for those out there who have been so honest even if it means you lose two to five hundred dollars I strive to be like you so thank you aside from the feedback on the Tron there was quite a few people that enjoyed the Neon Dale song at the end thank you Again, I guess I've interspersed some Neon Dale music here or there in various episodes, or I've used it for most of the stuff you hear that's not like something you know has been Neon Dale. So maybe I'll just start putting full songs at the end. So if you want to listen to it, feel free. If not, you know, end it. You know, no harm, no foul. But that last song, Mist, is on the album Cosmic. I'll use some stuff off Cosmic and some demos anyway. We'll put some at the end today. But before we get to that inevitable end, let's bring in a couple of my favorite guests, a couple of the most awesome pinball people there are, two people that run Electric Bat Arcade in Arizona, one of the most popular, no shit and no lie, pinball arcades in the world, Rachel Bess and the man on the street himself, Cale Hernandez. What's up, fucks?
    15:22
    Man on the street and this is my beat. Can you like get away from me? If you could just like get a little further away from the electronic equipment. Alright. That would be great. Yeah, that would be great. You know we're recording, right? Oh, shit. Welcome to episode 29 of the Pinball Party Podcast. The team is back. Introduce yourself. I'm Rachel. I do Electric Bat Arcade. That's true. You do so much more. well we're here to talk about pinball okay yeah come on don't get like personal we don't my name is kale and i am rachel's assistant yeah you how much she pays you very little hopefully i get free pinball nice dude it's worth it it's a system i guess it's worth it if you're playing a lot of jjp games because like a buck a play right yeah he's got keys to the machines Are you supposed to pay them on top of that? Speaking of, not JJP, but speaking of the cost of pinball, we played a pinball tournament at our buddy's arcade. And for the first time in our life, we paid a dollar and a half for a game of pinball. What? Bond? And it was the only one that cost this much. It was and is a Foo Fighters LE.
    16:45
    A buck and a half? book yeah figure it out dude for sure figure it out figure it out i would let you play mine for free if you fly here well this is a better deal it's a premium you've actually paid a dollar 50 before but these are all card swipe places and so you haven't noticed before but i pointed it out because i knew that that i had exactly the amount loaded on my card that i needed to play this tournament and then I saw that this was going to be $1.50 and that was going to throw my whole system off. So I needed to get a match or something to make it through, which I did. So we're good. Good job. But this was $1.50.
    17:31
    That doesn't feel right. Not to me. No, if I was on the receiving end, it would have felt great. But on the... My assistant, Kale... Yeah, your assistant, Kale, has got his head in the gutter. The people that don't know who the two of you are, because our listeners keep growing, thanks to everyone out there listening, thanks to you guys for supporting the show and spreading it on social media and all that. Electric Bat Arcade in Tempe, Arizona. It's cool as shit, popular as shit, founded by Rachel Bess herself, and then her assistant, who she may or may not pay, Kale Hernandez, has been on the show a couple times. and you've been on the show once before rachel but we've been trying to get you back on um i've been kale hasn't so i'll let you guys figure that out together and fight about that but no thanks for joining the first i've heard of that kale told me that there was any interest so yeah you can't see it but uh that'll start something we have a lot of feedback about when we're talking about like best earners on location and i don't know people want to hear that shit all the time i asked kale and he's like you know i don't i don't you know because he's your assistant he thought well let's bring you on and talk about it um this week so if you don't mind can we just juice right into it and talk about the top earners at electric bat arcade and and for those who think like it doesn't matter uh trust me they're very busy a lot of tournaments very popular check them out on instagram social media um i think your sample size is very um probably comparable to you know pinball location as a whole so what is doing the best on location currently we got a new record foo fighters broke the previous record which was toy story Foo Fighters blew that away by a good 15%. Holy shit. So Foo Fighters Pro. Okay. Amazing. I couldn't believe. I mean, it could because I was emptying out the coin box a lot. Yeah. But Foo Fighters is really, it and Godfather went in at the same time.
    19:44
    And Godfather is also, if Foo Fighters hadn't been there, that would be just an amazing earner, still is. Foo Fighters is even better So Godfather is a 10 Foo Fighters is an 11 Holy shit And since we were just talking about a buck and a half a play Are they both, do they charge the same? Is Foo Fighters less? So they don't That kind of makes it even more interesting All the Jersey Jackpins are straight dollar Foo Fighters is a dollar or three for two So the Foo Fighters Is actually a tiny bit cheaper And it is earning A little bit more which may be a factor you know people just the psychology of being able to do three for two may make people play that one over godfather i'm not sure but um those are our two biggest earners however godzilla premium still right underneath that shit so i think that's going to be the most interesting data to look at maybe in like three or four months is how is Foo Fighters holding up compared to Godzilla which is still just earning just way more than I ever seen a pin that been out as long as it has earned Yeah. Because even though it's number one, it's at the top of a lot of people's minds. When did that game come out? Two, three years ago at this point? It's been probably a year, year and a half.
    21:14
    Shit, what has it been? Have your assistant Google it on the machine. Get to work. But yeah, I'm not surprised. It's what's that? It has been over a year because I'm looking at the data from...
    21:30
    What you've actually made on it? Yeah, from before. And Godzilla Premium or Pro? This is Premium. We have Pro up at our Flagstaff location. Okay.
    21:43
    2021. Yeah, wow. 2021. Yeah, that makes this even more spectacular. You guys are talking about the Stern Godzilla, right?
    21:52
    Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to ask some questions. Imagine if it wasn't. Wow. We've really been tricking some people. Hey, come play Godzilla. Yeah, it's bad. You'll love it. People keep dropping money and trying to figure out, like, I've heard this was really, really good. But I just don't want to play it. Why do I keep putting money in this thing?
    22:13
    Oh, shit, Jason. What? We have an audio malfunction. Ah, shit. Can you fix it? Eat shit. Dude, just fix it. Okay, okay. Fine.
    22:23
    Fixed. Nice. Good robot. Fuck you. Sorry, we were talking about me owning Foo Fighters. So you think I'll own the game... Okay, you said three months or longer? Sorry, I didn't catch that part. Over, under is three months. Yeah, we say longer. Three months.
    22:40
    And you know what? It might not leave. It's that good. it's that much fun you might get a new house that would allow you to accommodate a larger number of pins before you get the urge to get rid of this one you know the house thing is kind of like either i have to have less pins to have a new house because money so it's not like i get a new house and suddenly i'm just gonna fill it with pinball machines so i but i think i'm at least gonna hold on to it until the expression light kits hopefully because fuck man that looks so good on the le and i think on led zeppelin the expression lights were huge on rush when i played it was huge i want to outlast the expression lights but we'll see things change by the minute in these parts you can always put it on location which is the location just put it outside anywhere yeah like so right like just show up hey yo i'm to put this here it's heavy as fuck high school auditorium we played in le so we got to see the expression lighting in action and it is it's it's fantastic so that's a bummer you guys have a pro you can't put it in there if it comes out yeah it does kind of suck huh yeah it's okay though what are we keeping the pro or are we going with the premium i think i think we're probably going to keep the pro i really like the pro i like the premium too um yeah i i don't know we'll see what happens they're both so good this this is the first time where we're like i don't know which one to go with because usually it's like we immediately know we're keeping the pro and then we see the premium with uh with bond we were lucky enough to play both the the pro and the premium at the same time at expo so we kind of we had a good feel for it and we had to go with the the premium but right here we've played both of them we're like man we really don't know because they're both so good i don't think i could go i mean i don't want to say like i couldn't go back to the pro but i really like the upper play field it's so simple it's so just like you know it's fun to be up there and you're not up there long do you like black knight upper play field no i hate it Fucking hate it. I love the pro. That is the correct answer. Yeah.
    25:03
    I wanted to like the premium or the LE because Black Knight for me is probably one of my top three games. So I was like, oh, shit, you know, the LE would be cool to like have it or play it. But then I'm like, I don't want to be. It's so big and boring and dumb. And even that main shot of the game in a pro always comes right back to your right flipper and you can hit that ramp. It's so satisfying on the LE or premium. It goes up there and you've got to fuck around on that gymnasium up top. Yeah, yeah. Dumb as hell. And then the shot, you know, to get it up top rejects a lot. Really? So on the ones that I've played. So check this out. On the Foo Fighters premium layout, upper play field, and I'm wondering if this was just because the one we played was completely flat.
    25:51
    I was able to trap the ball in the upper play field with the flipper. can you do that on yours yes i blew okay shit have i i know it's i think so shit that's a good question uh yeah hmm i know for i say that because i know for sure like when it's rolling back down you can't like get the with the tip of it and i keep it up there because it's like when it's going down it's going down but trapping it i think so i think you can trap it okay but when you start getting it fucking whipping it around that fucker oh that That was very cool. Good time. I like it. I'm going to have to go pay $1.50 to play some more.
    26:31
    $8 in gas to get out there. Worth it. Okay, so in order of doing best right now, it's Foo Fighters, Pro, Godfather, Godzilla Premium, Toy Story. Oh, shit. It's still hanging in there. It's hanging in there, but it dropped off almost 50%. Yeah. We got the huge – Toy Story did so well because this was the only Toy Story, I believe, in the state on location.
    27:00
    So any of the hundreds of pinball players – Hundreds of thousands. Sorry, you had a little stroke. Well, I mean there are so many people that wanted to play that and hadn't got a chance to, and it has been out for a while. and we just put it on location you know what was that three months ago two or three months ago and so the first month and two months it did just blew up the coin box and now it's still earning very very well but not Godzilla well Foo Fighters Pro, Godfather Godzilla, Toy Story what are your order of like if you were to play the four of them would you rank them right now because I still have some newness there. I would choose Foo Fighters, Godzilla, Godfather, Toy Story. So pretty close. Just God... Okay. How about you, Kale?
    27:55
    That is the order. Foo Fighters, Godfather, Godzilla, Toy Story. So yours is different than mine. Slightly different. Yeah. She want Godzilla over... Okay. Wow. Yeah. I'm going to have another spreadsheet. That's what the position is.
    28:11
    I... Yeah, I'd be the same. Shit. I'd be the same as Rachel. I've only played Godfather one and a half times, though.
    28:21
    Godfather is amazing, and I look forward to playing it more whenever I have a chance, whenever that may be. But I really want to get sucked into it and have the time where there's nobody around me and I don't need to do anything.
    28:37
    Foo Fighters and Godzilla are much easier for me to play. and none of those are as immersive, and so it lets you play them without that focus.
    28:49
    What do you think would happen if you bought a second Foo Fighters? Well, I mean, we did that with Bond.
    28:56
    If we bought a premium, we would have them side by side here and then take the pro up to the Flagstaff location, and I think it would earn... I think the premium and the pro would earn the same here. I don't think because they're both so good and there aren't people saying, God, I wish you had that upper play field the same way that people say that about Godzilla. I wish that building went up and down or the bridge broke.
    29:24
    Um, I guess for me in the home, sometimes in the Godzilla building, I'm like, hurry the fuck up. Oh, thank you. I have a hot take. And I don't know if you want it now about why the pro is better than the premium. I, yeah, I'll take it. Give me it. Give me the take. Do you want it? Okay, so I was playing.
    29:44
    We have the Godzilla Premium. We love it. Everybody loves the Premium. All the fans love it. But we went up north to Electric Bat Flagstaff, and I had to do some work on the Godzilla Pro. And so I started playing it. And I hadn't played it in a while. I did play it at a tournament at Atomic Age Modern, and they have the Pro. And I absolutely blew it up. In the tournament, what did I put? You did well. Like $500 million or something. Anyway, which is incredible for me. I was shaking and blown away that I did that.
    30:17
    Have you not gotten a billion on Godzilla? Are you not in the Billy Club? No. I think my highest is maybe $700 or something. Okay. Yeah, you've got to get in that Billy. Yeah.
    30:30
    So I'm playing the Pro after I fixed it and cleaned it up. And I was like, man, this is so good. Why? Is it so good? First of all, you're going to save some money. How much money? Like $15,000? $2,000. You're going to save $2,000 if you go with the Pro.
    30:46
    Second, the shots are all exactly the same besides the building flip-flopping the shots, right? All the other shots are basically the same, but you don't have the turntable. But that shot's still there with the spinner for the Mechagodzilla. mm-hmm this is the most important part for me when when you're trying like the destruction jackpot you know that shot right upper upper flipper i was able to keep it in that loop forever because the the view is not obstructed well you know with the bridge and all that stuff you can actually see the ball coming around so you can time the shot perfectly uh so that's another plus uh um and another plus by getting the pro is you don't get that unreliable feed from the building on the multi-ball everybody playing you remember when people the first start playing this game where the ball's supposed to go you didn't know until you know keith came on a podcast and said it's supposed to hit the tip of the left flipper so that everybody was adjusting their game uh for that um this the the in the building and like you just said the the the building during multi-ball slows the action down you don't get that with the pro you get you get quick action so have i sold you uh i was kind of already sold because the first time i had a godzilla was after i took a break from pinball i came back in it i was like what the fuck's happening reached out someone said just find a Godzilla you can get it I'm like okay what so I went and pro was the first one I could find I got it home I was like oh this game's pretty great my favorite shot on the pro was the right spinner because it's that kind of like little mini hook spinner I it was like oh I could hit it over and over and I don't know I just really liked that shot and I remember but people on the internet and podcasts premiums of shit you gotta have premium fucking premium so like I don't know six months a year later I got a premium like all right cool and I understood the building lock thing and yeah the shots are identical but i don't like the i mean the shot is easier on the premium the big spinner that ramps up to the mechagodzilla but i don't know something about it not changing on the pro i like there's always a shot it was always consistent you can just kind of keep hitting that spinner over and over to get mechagodzilla to start versus on the premium it changes you have to hit that shield and all that shit and then yeah you see the building collapse a few times and you're just like hitting both flippers like hurry the fuck up just come on just i want to play the game i don't yeah fuck like can i get a soda or something or a pop depending on where you live come on guy for me it's a yeah we're giving we're giving the premium a guy yeah come on guy it's not like i'm the building's falling down and i'm calling people everyone come in here kids grandkids look at the building everyone fucking jizz over this thing it's so incredible look at that fucking no one gives a shit i'm standing by myself like wasting five seconds of my life gone five seconds of my entire life gone because of that fucking building so no offense i like the pro i like them equal but um i can see why like i i could throw the premium off of a building you know i mean well i mean there's a few things just from our side on the premium that we've had to fix that we wouldn't have had to fix on the pro which is kind of why they make the pro so you don't have to fix those things. Some of them were just on the bridge, some screws falling out, no big deal. But there was, we did have a bracket on the building break and have to be re-welded. So we had to disassemble a lot to take that out and go weld it and then put it back in. So those things are always stuff that I like to think about whenever we're making that decision upper play fields some of them are great and not hard to work on and some of them uh halloween are are just like terrors like why would anyone build this this way um so godzilla it seems like it has the godzilla premium has enough of a um reputation that people probably seek out the premium maybe though right it's kind of they're both so good they're both great yeah similar to foo fighters were like and jurassic park they all were kind of like they're both great i don't know i say that and i don't even mean it it's weird like the most fun i've ever had what the fuck am i saying oh shit shit when but when i had a jurassic park pro i played it more because it was cheaper and i was like ah fuck it who cares whatever and it was routed so i kind of didn't have any investment in it i don't know what it was a psychological thing but the fucking raptor gate is such a difference on jurassic park to me they're like they should just make a an in-between model for a grand more the moving t-rex had similar to the building i don't give a shit it moves skip it fuck off just get out of here but that raptor gate shit to me that is the biggest game changer in the premium is it worth two grand apparently to me um yeah i would love that middle of the road jurassic park because almost every tournament we've played in there's been some type of malfunction with the the t-rex head catching the ball yeah and it's not as consistent where like if it's flinging around i mean it's cool i like the kind of randomness but sometimes it doesn't catch in the mouth so then it drains and you're starting um multi-ball already and it's like i don't know what i'm really looking for is man could i just get extra models that i have to choose between like three wasn't enough let's make at four yeah come on well what if yeah well let's take away the super le's that shouldn't cost 20 grand let's take away the pins no offense to jack danger whoever gomez is that who designed the other one they're fine but take those shits away make a middle of the road pro in the premium because now the price difference is what is it i guess it's it is three grand or no what is it two grand i think it's about two grand still two grand two grand like objectively seems like too much for some of the difference in some of the games.
    37:00
    Let's just do it a la carte. Why not? Let's just design it on our own. Let's hope that there's some code that would work for whatever thing you've chosen.
    37:11
    These things aren't great enough. You know what? I'd really like to fine-tune the thing you worked on and you're the professional. Everyone on Pinside knows how the code should be written anyways. Yeah.
    37:22
    Okay. New model, Stern. It starts at $0. The cabinet is like $1,000. You want a play field, there's two more grand. You want some flippers, there's 50 bucks. Let's just build it ourselves. Code, pick your coder. You want Ray Day, you want Tanya. How many voices do you want? You want to complain about Goldblum not being in it? Pay the F for like five grand and you can get Goldblum. You go to sternpinball.com and there's a bunch of drop-down windows. Yeah. Which art do you want? I think we're starting something here. Well, I think people would complain about the drop-down windows, too. Those probably wouldn't be implemented properly. Right, right. Do you want Dirty Donny or Zombie Eddie? I don't like the font. Stop it.
    38:07
    Hey, you want another income hot take? Of course I do. Please. Check this out. So, Dolly, like the old 1978, 79, whatever it is, Bally. Fucking blonde, big. Old, old Dolly machine. that makes more than a lot of the WPC machines why and that's on 50 cent play the WPC's are on 75 cents and it still earns more people love that game I think this speaks to theme because it's not like the gameplay is fun I love it you know Kayla are both just classic Bally people we love those games but random Some folks that don't really know how to play pinball, they just came to check it out. To them, Dolly versus say Black Knight, which is right next to it, they don't know what the fuck a Black Knight is. What is that going to do? But Dolly, you recognize it and people look for it. Oh my God, I heard there was a Dolly here. That's strange. So maybe to the pinball community, but if I'm thinking of your average Joe or jane coming into a pinball like just some hi my name's my name's steve you know i'm from i'm from texas i don't fucking know what am i doing a fucking accent here he comes in i wouldn't think they'd go to black knight because he's like i'm a badass right i'm fucking steve no steve from texas goes to dolly that's the point like really um and also probably like all the stephanies from texas maybe more importantly, are going to Dolly.
    39:45
    Okay. I was looking over some earnings and stuff, and Dolly is a solid, solid earner for us. I've never played Dolly. I've seen it in person, and I'm like, I don't want to play it, because unlike Steve, I'm badass, and I'd play the Black Knight Dolly. I'm like, nah. She's a wonderful singer, whatever. I want to watch her. I want to hear her. I mean, there's not call-outs, right? No, it's just chimes. Yeah.
    40:17
    All right. So are you saying Dolly is like after Toy Story level? No, no, no. Okay. Just surprisingly up there. But it's probably Creature from the Black Lagoon level. Dang. Maybe. Maybe a little below that, but not much. It's certainly better than like T2.
    40:38
    Okay. Steve, get with it, man. Go play Black Knight. Go play T2. That, I can see that. Can I ask you a question that you're completely not prepared for, and hopefully we don't get a minute of dead air? Oh, I love that. Okay, yeah, everyone strap in. We don't have to get awkward and silent.
    41:00
    When you get a game, let's just use a Stern. Let's say it costs you $6,500. I don't know. It costs you $6,500 for a Stern Pro, right? It's a little less than MSRP, maybe. how long historically does it take to like for you to the payoff sure thank you it really depends on the game some of them will take a very long time but less than a year more than three months dang that's pretty pretty good across the board so pretty pretty Godzilla much faster Godzilla was Yeah, three to six months. Wow. Yeah, I don't have these numbers off the top of my head, but I do pay attention to that. Right. And I know that some of them I looking at it thinking like okay so I spent this much time I spent this much money maintaining it it been on location for this long it should have paid itself off by now Some of them just have issues. When we got our House of Horrors, that was one of the very first machines made of those. It was one of the demos at Expo, one of the first 10 machines off the line. So you know you're taking the tradeoff of having it first, but also all of the learning curve at the factory. So that game we had a lot of issues with. And so it was down a lot for the first little bit till all that got sorted out. So it took a lot longer to pay off.
    42:37
    So are those games considered prototypes? Prototypes? Because I've heard, when we were working with the Stern guys, I heard them call them prototypes. Yeah, that one's definitely a prototype.
    42:49
    That was a disaster, but we were so happy to have it, because I mean, I love the game. It just took a lot of getting that one to work how it should.
    43:02
    Thinking ahead, is Foo Fighters Pro? What is even going to need to be fixed on that? like exactly it's right i mean maybe the up kicker maybe yeah i mean you always have you'll always have wires break on coils like you know solder that kind of stuff but but as far as actual mechs um yeah the fork the up down forks underneath the overlord maybe but i don't know plastic spinner popped out but we put it back in yeah but here in the popping out is like a thing because ours popped out during a tournament and then i read somewhere on on social media some other people were having problems with the spinner popping out but man that's just bending a little metal to get it back in there that's what she said the on the pro uh because you know i'm elitist and only have the premium yeah not a big deal but Is there a magnet inside the Overlord? No. Yeah. I thought there was. Does it, like, moves it around? Yeah, I think so.
    44:11
    I don't know. I think so. I don't believe there is because the first time I noticed it was when we played the LE. And I was like, oh, shit, there's a magnet in there. It'll be like, fuck you, I got your ball, and it moves it around. Right. Well, there's plenty of people in their car screaming, like, no, no, no, no.
    44:29
    But we love you. Thanks for listening. I should start sharing with you guys the emails that come in, the correct little points. I love that.
    44:40
    I'm like, what do you want me to say back to you? You're right. Have an errata section at the end of each podcast. Here's the shit I fucked up on the last podcast. You know what? That insert is actually two millimeters to the right. Put on some sexy music.
    44:57
    But I'm guilty of that. I do yell at the... down the radio a lot well it's okay to yell but i mean email in to make sure that you know yeah but just know i'm judging you yeah no no i would hope so all right speaking of judging you and people that suck shit i often do figure it out as you know figure it out i gotta imagine that there is types of customers you may have. Now, all money is the same, same color, no judgment, but there's got to be certain customers or clientele that you have that don't quite have it figured out.
    45:40
    Is there any like that that come into the arcade? Oh, yeah. I mean, there's always people that you like more than other people. Yeah.
    45:50
    Welcome to Earth. Right. I think the first figure it out customers is putting other arcades tokens in our machines.
    46:03
    Oh, yes. Some of them really don't think it's a big deal, but Rachel will explain why. Yeah, so they think I've paid for this token, so I can use it, whether it's at the arcade I paid for it at. Or a car wash. Yeah, so we love having tokens. I don't want to switch to a card system. I like the tactile. I like dropping tokens into machines. I like everything about it. I like having a token that I can look at and says Electric Bat Arcade or wherever I am.
    46:38
    So we do that. But there are also other arcades that have that same feeling. And so there's a lot of arcades that use the same size tokens. So it'll work. Well, yeah, unfortunately, yes, they will work, but you're really screwing over the location by doing that. Because, first of all, you didn't buy that token from me. You're just putting it in my game. So at best, it's one of my games and you're playing for free. But if it's one of our buddy Mark's games, he's got some games here, and I'm paying him a cut, then I am now paying for your game that you're playing. And then also people are like, well, I've already paid for it, so it doesn't really matter. But the financial part of a token is, let's say it cost me between 16 and 18 cents to get that token that you pay 25 cents for. It really kind of needs to be recycled through the arcade a certain number of times before that the token itself pays off um considering how much money gets just put into maintaining the machines all the stuff you know running a business costs so there's a multitude of reasons why it's really really important if you care about the arcade you're going to and you want them to stay in business to use their tokens at their arcade figure it out i no offense you know maybe offense i mean who i i really can't even so it really it just it doesn't even register with most people because we'll we'll even get good friends of ours who are like dirt we just got here we just came back from a florida trip and then after the tournament's over and we're sorting tokens there's like 20 worth of tokens from some florida arcade and but they but they're like they're super nice people they support the arcade and and and usually very wealthy people and then and then they they do this it really just doesn't click that it's a a bad thing to do and there's a lot of so there's so many arcades out here that people are playing a tournament on monday night tuesday night wednesday night thursday night and those are all different tokens so they just have like a bag that is my arcade tokens without thinking to sort it and i understand And it's a pain in the ass to have like your electric bat bag, your, you know, all the other arcade.
    49:12
    But just like. It is really important from a business owner's side, there's you know, there's not really a way I can enforce it other than just asking you politely to please not dick me over. yeah i mean and as a fan of arcades and classic arcades uh you know if this keeps happening that's why people go to the card system which sucks yeah it's a big investment yeah well you're asking nicely for people to i think it's forty thousand dollars i think for our we'd be looking at about forty thousand dollars to put it in plus you'd be destroying a bunch of old you know solid state coin doors to implement it like there's just so many reasons why i don't want to do it right okay well for all those that do it figure it out you know okay what else you got there's everyone else great okay something else okay next we have during tournaments not respecting ifpa rules and getting and getting into argue when it's very clear stuff and then they'll get into arguments with Rachel about why they don't think it's right. And she's just like, that's the rules. Yeah. I mean, you play somebody else's ball. Sorry, you're DQ'd. Like there's not a gray area. There's not room for me to make a call, for you to like make an argument, plead your case. Like it's you played somebody else's ball.
    50:38
    You are DQ'd for this round. And not just me. Like people argue. I see it all the time. anywhere you go and play a tournament somebody really really doesn't want to get disqualified or whatever the rule is especially the the very obvious ones like that that everybody knows it's announced before every tournament things like that like don't um don't yell at the td well that's me or anybody else over something td being tournament tournament director yeah don't at the tournament director. They are just following the rules set out for us. We would love for you to not have to be disqualified, but you got to follow the rules. Figure it out. A lot of this stuff is very common sense, but if you get a couple beers in somebody, the common sense level goes down. Sometimes you're very emotional. You're invested in this tournament. You're doing really, really well. I was in first place, but then I played player three's ball and now I'm going to not be in first place. That's the beauty of alcohol. It just turns people into great humans. You get in car crashes, you die, your liver gets fucked. Alcohol. This is where we look for the weak sponsor.
    51:54
    Where's your marijuana sponsor? We're sponsored by Coors Light and Bud Light, surprisingly, both at the same time.
    52:01
    Get your Bud Light here at the pinball party. You guys have any on the other side of the fence? You have to have customers that you enjoy. Oh, tons. 100%. Yes, basically all of them. These are the outliers. Very small percentage. And we do have those on the list. We have one more. Oh, give me some trash. One more and I'll get into the good stuff.
    52:24
    Most importantly, abusing the machines, throwing the machines around. Well, you got some strong motherfuckers in there tossing machines around. You got some huge dudes that are fucking machines up. $10,000 machines and because recently we just had to fix a batman 66 cabinet the entire cabinet split from people uh nudging i think it's more than a lot more than a nudge yeah what are they yeah what's the cocaine right cocaine i love a drug yeah but we were able to repair it and and put braces on the inside of it and got it. Corners. Yeah. It just makes you sad. Like whenever you see people have a bad ball, slam their fists on the lockdown bar, you just like cringe or punch the glass. Like, why are you doing that? Why? Like, don't kick the leg. Don't kick the coin door. Don't slam your fists on the machine. Like, there's just no reason for that. I am going to go to your house and, uh, take a shit on the couch. Yeah. Okay, cool. Figure it out. Yeah. I'm going to go over to your house and whenever, like we're playing board games and something doesn't go my way. I'm just going to turn everything upside down and step on some of the pieces. Or we'll just have a candy dish full of Xanax for everybody so they can calm the fuck down and figure it out. Let's party. Okay. I lied because I have one more bad one. And this actually fucks with us more than anything.
    53:57
    Changing the level of the machines when we're not around. figure it out who does that we don't know we we need to check the cameras and it's been happening for several months so you're saying more than just like someone's like oh this is way off let me just level a little bit well they they will jack up the front legs so they can i guess they think they can make the ramps easier and and we we used to notice it on on the high score games because we used to do a monthly high score tournament and we would come check the legs and they would be all jacked up because they think they can get a higher score like that well enjoy your outland you know drains but uh uh what sucks is i mean we don't know to look at that stuff so we'll start a tournament and then you know i don't i don't know godzilla's like jacked up and completely flat and people are Like, did you guys change something? Because, of course, the players can know. No, Steve did. He was fucking playing Dolly Parton and came in. Yeah, yeah. NBD, man. Just play it. You know? Hey, on that note, anyone who's shipping games, also, put the fucking levelers back in there. Because I've gotten games here where it's like, you know, it's out two inches. So, like, your pivot point is this little tiny fucking screw with 200 pounds of wood on top. And you're like... Right. It's happened three times. Same thing. Yeah. I actually do look at the front legs now. But, yeah, people, if something is in fact not level, and we do a pretty good job of keeping things level. Can I ask you? We have the digital levelers. Yeah, that's what I was about to ask. Do you have the circle bubble one? We don't use the circle bubble one. We use the one that actually tells us. It's a Klein.
    55:43
    It's a little orange. It's invested in a nice one. Yeah, so it'll tell us to a tenth of a degree. Right, it's exact. We got it from our good buddy, Jack Danger, uses it. That's who turned us on to it. Okay. And I will tell you this, using that thing is a lot of fun because 98% of the time when somebody says a game is not level, it is level.
    56:10
    There are like two guys that play here. when they say it's not level, I'll actually go and okay, it's definitely I'll bring the tools and everything and we'll get it level, but 98% of the time, and I think it's just somebody having a bad ball, nobody has a fantastic ball a billion on Godzilla and it goes that's unlevel they have a shit ball and then they go oh, it's obviously the machine they nudge it, they kick the fucking coin door, raise the legs yeah, yeah, thanks Steve so, okay That's part of our day is just going around and looking to make sure that things are pitched properly and level side to side. And side note, I looked it up. Foo Fighters Pro does not have the Overlord magnet. You guys were correct. Whoa. I was correct. Yeah, the assistant. I was correct? You were correct. Yeah, I was correct. Got it. Recorded it. New ringtone. Interesting. And I don't want to beat up on customers. No. This is really such a small, this is less than 1%. The people we have here are the best. They really are. We've made some of the best friends that we have, just people that come through the arcade. We have so many great people helping us out, stopping people from doing dumb shit when we're not here.
    57:31
    People that'll stop fights, people that'll help you with the level. Yeah, we've got some big dudes here that if you start acting up, they're going to walk over. You've heard about the bat. Come on. Yeah. I often see a guy either from Instagram or Twitch, Tattoo Guy. Who's Tattoo Guy? Ty. Ty? That's Ty Bull. Yeah, he is. Face tattoos. Yeah. He's the one you're talking about. He is awesome. He is here more than we are, and it's so great because he will send me text messages. I'll wake up to text messages from him because he's playing all the games. He knows how they're supposed to play. And I will wake up and there'll be two or three messages because he'll be here till 2 a.m. playing. And he's like, hey, there's a ball stuck here on Iron Maiden, you know, and so and so, so on and so forth. You may want to check like this flipper starting to get weak on this game type thing. He's dating one of the bartenders here now. Yeah. He's extra awesome. Yeah, we love that. So he's here all the time and he is, again, he's become a very close friend through the arcade. Just a great guy. Really, really nice. But if you're fucking around on a machine and this dude walks up to you, what is he, like 6'5"? Right. Fuck. If he says, hey man, would you please not do that? You're like, I want to see the person that's like, fuck you man, I'll do what I want. Fuck you man. Cocaine again. Yeah. Right. So. And a big shout out to a lot of the players that we don't even know who leave us messages. Rachel has a clipboard right when you enter the arcade and you write down questions, comments, and they really help us out keeping track of all the issues with the machines. Just as if anything needs to be fixed, write it here. Wow. I would recommend to any arcade owner, please do that because the people playing the machines. like right now we have 60 machines on the floor Kayla and I can't possibly know about every single switch on every single game but if you tell us that something is wrong I guarantee you we'll look at it the next day and fix it so that's really helped us keep everything in great shape so that's a big thank you to the people that play here I love that you have a clipboard or something because not only will it gives someone a chance to do that I've never actually seen that anywhere. But sometimes, and even me, I'll notice something wrong. I don't necessarily want to go tell.
    60:07
    Does this person work here? It's not like they're wearing. I mean, you guys have electric bat, fucking cool ass shit. But does that guy work here? I don't want to be insulting. I'm like, hey, guy, you look like you work here. But I don't fucking know. Jabroni is this ball. Get the fuck out of here, dude.
    60:20
    A lot of people think it's an insult, too. If you come up and tell me. But no, we really, really appreciate it. As long as you're not like, you know, crazy rude or something. But yeah, if you let us know that something, even if it's just like, hey, I'm not sure, but you may want to look at this. We appreciate that. Like, just please, please let people know. People want to know. We want to take care of our machines and we want them to play great. Shout out to actually Doc Monday. I was playing a Star Trek Pro locally. This is like a month and a half ago. Star Trek Pro I was playing. It was not in great condition. but the one to the left of it, I think it was attack from Mars, even worse condition, barely worked, but the couple playing it, you could tell like either never played pinball. This is the first time, you know, hitting both flippers the whole time over and over. A ball got stuck, um, UFO or whatever. And you could hear them just like, Oh, I don't know. I don't know what to do. And Doc Monday came down. He's like watching me play or something. He's kind of looking and you could tell they were just going to let it be. Cause like, I don't want to tell anyone. I don't know what to say. I don't want to come across as assaulting. maybe I did something wrong. And he's like, oh, hey, heads up. And I think he went and told someone, you know, to help him out. Unfortunately, that place doesn't even have the fucking keys and they don't even open the glass. It's a joke. But yeah, I know a lot of people that won't say anything to your point, like they feel like they're insulting or they just don't, you know, for lack of a better phrase, have the guts to say it. Nothing against him, but it's like, do I either want to waste my time or just move on with my day? You know, but if you have some like something a clipboard or a number you can text or a facebook or something just send a message you know yeah a lot of like oh i'm so so sorry this drop target broke like man i'm i'm really i feel bad i broke your game nope this is a metal ball and it's hitting a plastic drop target every once in a while it's gonna break it in half so like people should not feel bad about that if they're playing the game how it's supposed to be played shit's gonna break yeah yeah and if anything you guys would be the ones apologetic like oh so sorry you know you paid maybe not to the people who gave you florida coins yeah oh did it break that sucks stuff you know pinball machines break a lot all of them new ones old ones they all break yeah physics fuck maybe not foo fighters though i don't think that'll break well i mean even from time to time there's gonna be like a solder a wire that becomes unsoldered breaks Like just simple stuff Stuff that takes you three minutes to fix It just vibration stuff banging around It just breaks
    62:59
    My assistant, Kale, here. Vibrating, banging around. Thanks for sharing all the money info. The earners, I want to keep track for sure on this Foo Fighters. Let's say, if you're betting on me, is that... Does one of you have over three months and under three months on Foo Fighters? We both have over. Shit. Okay, so let's see. We're about a week in, so I got... Jesus. That's a tall order. You guys don't know who you're talking to. Three fucking months. Holy shit. That's basically forever for you. Yeah, like... I'm going to be going through withdrawals of having this game after three months. I can't hold on to it any longer. Just take it. Just give it away. I think it's going to be to find other spaces for other new games.
    63:49
    We'll see. All right, so you have three months for me on Foo Fighters. When will the next game take over Foo Fighters? Or let's say Godzilla. Oh, okay.
    64:01
    I think Foo Fighters is going to stay ahead of Godzilla. I think it's going to be three months. It'll still be ahead. But I think that they're going to remain neck and neck for a while. I think they're both just fun games to play. What do you think, Cale? So August. I concur. August, it'll still be going. What do you think the next thing to, let's say that the rumored game is true, the next game, Venom from Stern. Let's say that's the game. I think that has a pretty good theme. that could maybe kick it in its ass a little bit maybe? For a month, a new game is always going to, the first month you put it out on the floor, it's always going to do really, really well and then you see the taper from everybody just you want to play it, you want to try it out but what are the games that stick?
    64:57
    Godzilla apparently. What will be interesting is the next game we're scheduled to have is Galactic Tank Force This should Ask me about when that game pays itself off. After a month of that game, I would like to see if it even comes close to Foo Fighters. Or if you even enjoy playing it. There's also that. We are really curious about that. I figure worst case scenario, we'll keep it until it earns a few thousand dollars and then we'll sell it or trade it back in towards the next game. Break even, make a little bit. I'm not nervous about getting it. I'm very interested.
    65:35
    That's the right attitude. dude. Very interesting. This is the first game we've ordered and we don't keep calling the distributor asking him where it is.
    65:45
    Usually I'm like, so I hear these are shipping. When is ours coming this week or this week? Yeah. Don't even want it. It doesn't come till October or October of next year. We're totally fine. But I am really curious to play it and to see how other people, what other people's reactions are to it. Yeah. It could do well. It could do very well. And on the American pinball front, we made a trade recently. Oh, yeah. We pulled a Jason. We used to have Hot Wheels. Good. And we enjoyed Hot Wheels. Everybody here had a lot of fun with Hot Wheels. One of the most well-built machines ever made. Yeah. We had almost zero problems with it. We made a trade. Somebody offered us a trade that we couldn't refuse for a beautiful No Fear. Okay. We did it. And now we have No Fear in the arcade. No Fear plus cash. No Fear plus cash, right.
    66:49
    And, man, what a fantastic game. I've only played No Fear at conventions. So this is the first time I'm actually sitting back and playing it a long time. What was the reason? Was Hot Wheels not earning or was it just an opportunity? It was all a big accident and she'll explain. No fear has been on my want list for a while. But it's just been a hardcore want. It's like, man, I enjoy this game. It's fun. I'd like to have it. I think other people will like it too. Hot Wheels, casual players love it. Tournament players don't. And so it was kind of, you know, we were thinking about maybe just swapping it out temporarily. We were going to move it up to Flagstaff. I pulled it off the floor, and then one of our tournament players mentioned it. And then one of my buddies who does not like playing Hot Wheels in tournaments said, why don't you trade her for that No Fear? He knew that they had a very nice No Fear. I hadn't seen this particular No Fear. So I was just told, hey, it's in good shape. I'm like, okay, fine. Let's do it. So it was basically another player that just didn't enjoy playing Hot Wheels that made the trade happen. And I'm very, very grateful. Hell, yeah. So we went and picked up this No Fear.
    68:20
    And it is beautiful. like brand new uh color dmd mirror blades fancy speakers or flipper fidelity speakers yeah um wow plus cash plus cash for hot wheels that's been used it's a hot wheels that's been used i mean and rented out for to that our money on that hot wheels nfl dude uh yeah yeah so it was and they really wanted a hot wheel. So it wasn't, um, this particular, like this, no fear had been a gift to this guy's wife and she did not like no fear, but she did like hot wheels. So it was, basically it came down to her decision and she, she did the trade. It wasn't just any hot wheels. We outfitted it with the Mario cart, hot wheels, cars, hot wheels, Mario. It was, it was really dope. Probably the coolest hot wheels out there. So get rid of it. Yeah. That's the way I like to do it. I get something, oh, this is the best fucking thing. Get the fuck out of my house. Go on. Yeah, go on. Base in school.
    69:28
    Well, any last words from the Electric Bat Arcade fine folk in Tampa? What are you guys doing? You got tournaments coming up? Tomorrow. We'll have about 100 people here for our Tuesday Night League. Cool. So if anyone wants to go back in time roughly two to three days, go check out that tournament a couple days ago. But guess what? There's another one next to it, like every Tuesday. Every Tuesday? No matter when you're listening. If you're listening to this in 2025, Tuesday at 6.30. Be there. There'll be a no fear, most likely. Yeah. I tend to hang on to games. I can count the number of games I've sold probably on two to three hands.
    70:09
    For someone that, and I own, I don't know, 60 something. I've done that this year. I know. But I also have a place where I can put 60 machines on the floor or 75 if you include Flagstaff.
    70:23
    Okay. Your numbers are much better than mine. My games don't earn nearly as much as yours do either.
    70:30
    Mine are usually at about zero to zero in that range. you know but I like your idea of putting a game in some random school auditorium it sounds like Dolly is the game to do it I'll get a Dolly for all the Steve's in Georgia I don't fucking know where's Dolly from? buy some player quality machines stop getting all the super fancy if someone touches it with a ring on it I'm gonna get sad about it or sells me a Tron it's not as described and I get jammed in the ass Yeah, something like that. That's what I'm going to stop doing. Figure it out. Yeah. Well, thanks for joining, everyone. Go check out Electric Bat on Instagram, on Facebook, in real life, on Tuesdays, and every other day. You guys are open like 24-7 type shit, right? Basically, we're open 27. We're open 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Fuck. If you're friends with the staff, you can probably stay here until 3.30 or 4 in the morning. Is there an arcade open more than us? that's a call out to all arcades emailing if somehow you're open more than electric bat arcade we have to be open 24-7 and 365 days a year I bet Ty would do it I'm really not bragging I just I would like to know if anyone's open more than we are because yeah man this is a little too much for me are you quitting is that what today is about not now just get choo choo god damn it All right. Thanks, Rachel. Thanks, Kale, for joining. Thanks for sharing that. We'll check August on Foo Fighters. We'll see how that's earning. Otherwise – Excellent. Thank you. It's been an absolute slice. I appreciate it, Jason. As always. Thanks a lot. See you. Right on. Bye.
    72:17
    Wait, wait, wait. What the fuck? In college, I used to make money. This was in the early days of eBay, and I would draw all kinds of fetish stuff. So, like, amputees was a real big thing. semi-pornographic like amputee porn what? and just sell these drawings that I could do a very nice drawing a charcoal drawing in an afternoon and of like a dude or girl no legs or like a stump fuck, just going to town on some guy this is the deep dark secret of how Electric Bat Arcade the origins um so i used to do these like you know or sometimes they'd be like skulls or just something like kind of weird but again this was like early early wait wait involved in the amputee porn they told me this pinball podcast how did no no you don't just like uh you know okay i go to i go to middle school i'm you know i'm eighth grade and all of a sudden i make money making amputee porn paintings that there's a process to get there right okay the process was when i was in middle school or early high school, real into goth stuff, ended up at the goth clubs, was hardcore into that. So I guess that's that. Then I went to college and made amputee porn. Is that a better? But then, no, it gets better though. Yeah. So I was a high school teacher for eight years, I think. High school art teacher. Teaching about amputee porn, paintings, et cetera. Telling people how to make money. Yeah. Amputee porn. No, no, no. No, that's not the story. So I worked in a charter arts high school teaching life drawing. So teaching teenagers to look at naked people. True. And that was one of the best jobs in the world. And I know people are thinking like, weren't they like snickering and the whole problems? no teaching high schoolers to draw naked people was much easier than teaching college people to draw naked people because they knew that if they misbehaved like even for a half a second they were out and when you're in high school and you have the privilege of looking at real life naked people every day you don't fuck that up no my boss one of the early um people that worked there he i didn't go to any of his parties but he um he the best way to tell this he commissioned me to draw to do some ink drawings of all different kinds of dicks so big ones small ones white ones that's what he said so like what are you talking about cut uncut pierce not pierced like tell me about these dicks soft and he was like and he's like kind of blushes and he's in you know he clearly he really wanted this stuff but how do you ask someone who works for you to draw but it's an art school so it's kind of you know we're we're kind of used to this sort of stuff and so he's like uh uh um yeah i actually all of those would be good i was like all right cool so i did i mean this whole series of very nice i don't have pictures of them sorry this was back before like digital cameras were people snatch these shits up so he he he has um like a wall full of like pierced like cock and ball rachel dicks well i mean they're not mine i don't have one anymore but you had a I did have reference material, right? So, yeah, all kinds of fetish.
    76:05
    I made a good bit of money doing it. What year is this roughly? Sorry, a decade. This has been maybe 2001, 2002. So for reference, you know, you don't have your assistant here. You're just Googling soft. Magazines. This was magazines. I had all the, like, yeah. Well, we don't need to get into the magazine collection. Well, yeah. We could, but yeah.
    76:31
    And that's how we started Electric Bat. And that's how Electric Bat was made. Now you know the rest of the story. So this one guy bought all these dick pics from you? Yeah. No, but he commissioned them. It wasn't – I mean I'm not just making – Whoa, whoa. This one guy just wanted a bunch of dick. He paid you for a bunch of dick. Yeah. Does he have customers or he just loves cock? No, he collects art of dicks. Yeah, he's flipping dick pics. Yeah. Let's make a little extra money. Flipping out. Sponsored by flipping out dick pics. He had money. Right. He had money and then he spent it on art that was very beautifully realized. Cock. Yeah.
    77:16
    I can't. I can't, people. Jesus Christ. I love it. So I worked – I had – one of my jobs in college, like the regular people jobs, was reading books onto tape for blind people, textbooks. And that made – at the time, that was really good money. I think it made $6 an hour.
    77:40
    So I could make some amputee drawings, which at the same time was using my craft, and I really enjoyed it. It was fun. throw those up on eBay make you know what if you made like $100 off that that's huge money whenever you're in college and minimum wage is like $4 so wouldn't you do that like why wouldn't you that's like that kept me not having to have a roommate or right nobody so okay we got creep guy wants thousands of dollars of dick pics just likes dicks loves cock yeah so much like i mean yeah okay yeah yeah um uh but think about all bringing it back to pinball all of these pinball machines with tna all over it right like dudes are buying these many thousands of dollar machines for their house and one of the big selling points is the big fucking rack on the back class the dolly part steve yeah so i mean this guy likes dicks and he wants to put those on his wall what i'm feeling we need a dick game stern stern's dick pete's premium sausage pete's big juicy sausage le yeah the powder coat would be peach you know what i mean just a veiny fuck get vein mods on the side of it you know what i mean there's a there's a mech in there that when you hit it enough times it gets you wrecked there you go oh yeah stern's penis this ramp ride the ramp it comes with a topper and a bottomer it's truck nuts on the bottom just too huge fucking head that is the tilt that's the tilt back again all right thanks for joining guys we'll see you later right on right well i guess that'll about do it thanks for joining the pinball party email us in at pinball party podcast at gmail.com stay tuned for next week doc monday coming up thankful list as promised Here's another Neon Dale song. This time, a work in progress. A demo. It's all there. But some of the levels are off. Need some tweaking. It's a little muddy in the mix. But, you know, I'm finishing up writing it in the next couple weeks. It's called Down These Roads. See you later.
    80:33
    When I get older, I'll leave blacked alone. I've been down all of these roads before. I live the present and I live the past. That doesn't make my future crystal clear. I know for certain that I might be wrong. But I've been down all of these roads before. And I'm learning to reflect, take it to the day All I have is me anyway
    81:22
    I put emotions where they can't be found And hit you right along that fabricated wall I pray to patience as I try again Been down all of these roads before Now I'm in love with who I ought to be She's always there for me when I need her most I don't know everything but I know for sure I won't be walking these roads all alone And I know it's distant, far from over Make me believe That I'm learning to reflect Take it day by day All I am is me anyway
    82:27
    guitar solo Over me. Learning to reflect. Take it day by day. All I am is me anyway. And I'm learning to reflect. Take it day by day All I have is me anyway Bye