and hello there ladies and gentlemen don garrison i have got a pinball podcast and dang it can i just talk about how much fun i'm having at pinball let's do that for an episode forget the predator news forget the drama hit the drop let's dig it give me an air horn You know what? Give me another one. It's supposed to be fun in this business. What's going on, everybody? Four days hence my last episode here. We're still replete with tons of new games that are being coming out. Games that are being coming out. We're even beyond the English language here in the studio. Harry Potter's out. It's on location. People like it, people don't. People are buying the collector's edition, now they're buying the wizard edition. Everything is rad, cows, mad, Finnish, whatever. If you want to go and watch 10 hours of YouTube content all about Harry Potter, you could already go do that. This time, I just kind of want to bask in what's going on. Over in my bar area, sits to the left of where I record here, I've gone and done a little bit of redesigning. I now have more room for some pins. I took some pinball machines that were kind of scattered around the game room, and they're all in a lineup now. Now the majority of my games are running east to west, all in one nice lineup, aesthetically pleasing. My feng shui is on point. I'm totally digging it, and I just want to reflect on that. Also in the news, I bought a new pinball machine. Let's talk about that. So it's not what you're thinking. I posted about it on the Facebook page. I got myself one of them electromechanical games, if you can believe it. This is a 1977 Gottlieb Wild Hand. And I think it, no, Lucky Hand, Lucky Hand, sorry. I think it's like a sequel to a game that came out a year before that. Some sort of like, you know, one ball at a time mode or some crap. I'm trying to wrap my brain around it. How this happened, because I was definitely not looking for an EM. I don't know how to take care of these things at all. I think it's actually one of them wedge heads that people talk about. So here's what happened. Okay, so it's kind of known throughout the community here where I live that, you know, pinball is something that interests me. And so as a byproduct of that, if somebody says, you know, say they have a game in the basement that they're looking to get rid of and they have no idea what they have or what to do with it, it kind of filters through me. So somebody at work had somebody that lived in this home here in my neighborhood that actually had this game down there in their basement. and it's been down there. I got the pedigree for this thing since 1978. So this game was built or released by Gottlieb. They made around 600 of these. You can go check it out online. I became an expert in the pedigree of this game last week. So the game was built or designed in 1977. It spent part of its time in Milwaukee at some kind of pub and then it wandered up to my humble town, like literally a mile down the street from, probably not even that, maybe it looks like three quarters of a mile and it's been in this basement lovingly cared for since 1978 that's like 45 years ago 47 years ago something crazy like that and then you know it's time for uh the house to be cleaned out they're doing rummage sales and everything they're like hey you know a pinball guy uh give him a call maybe he wants to come down help us with this thing uh this thing ridiculously heavy man it's half the size of a stern and i swear it wears the same amount as avatar. Holy crap. Um, so I went down there to go and, and, and check this thing out. Uh, not only did it turn on, but just about everything is working. There's a couple of lamps that are out, but like, it looks, it looks great. It looks like it's been lovingly taken care of for 40 something odd years, a true basement fine. Like the thing I live for, right. You know, it's like, if you're becoming a doctor, you want to be like, you know, on a plane when someone's having a baby so you can jump up and be that hero. Like you're always waiting for that moment, I guess. This is my pinball moment here. Like, you know, the basement find, right? Here we go. Just get it out of here, man. So I was happy to help. So I went down there and I'm a professional, man. I move games. I've taken games out of some ridiculously hideous basements, stairs that don't even line up at 45 degree angles. The stair lifters don't even fit through there, but somehow we get it out. So I show up with my equipment. I've gotten my pin armor from barrels of fun that I purchased. I could wrap up any game and transport it without dinging nothing. We're not tearing no decals. We're not getting any discounts when we sell our games because they're going to come out pristine, right? So I show up, I can take the legs off, no problem. I don't know if you've noticed this, but these old, I guess, can I call it a wedge head game? These EMs, at least these got leaves, they don't have any backbox hinges. It's like, yeah, normally I can undo the bolts, pull the backbox head down, a whole thing goes vertical and out it goes right no problem and in this case this was some very narrow like like the the run of these steps was like half of what this thing was not up to code put linoleum on them man linoleum has been down there since 1978 but it was a straight shot out the stairs out the door like no problems i got this i got this so we had the key uh the seller had the key to the the cash cash box and the coin door Could not find the key to the backbox In this case it comes off the back There's like a metal pan that sits on there. You put a key in there and then you can access inside. There's four bolts that need to come out. None of that was happening. So here I am just trying to like, you know, come in, grab this game, get going. I don't want to waste too much of this guy's time. And I have no idea how to get this backbox off of this game. long story short I left the damn backbox attached took the legs off flipped it vertical uh threw my pin armor around the entire backbox put it on the pin crawler and out she went with the backbox upright it's I never moved a game like this I felt like such an amateur um but you know my my uh my instinct was to go ahead and just drill out the lock on site which I've drilled locks out before that's not a big deal uh but then I went and watched a quick youtube video and there's like some sort of interior locking mechanism for this thing and if you drill it out You then have to get a coat hanger and some pliers and fish it out. And it was all looking like it was going to take way too much time to get this thing out of the basement. So I got it out. Luckily, the backbox is flush with what is the bottom of the cabinet when it's vertical. So I could actually stand it up on end. You got lead people are probably like, what? This guy's ridiculous. What is he doing? But we put it up on the pin crawler, came out, no problem. Put it right in the back of the truck, drove it three quarters of the mile down the street, got down here, set it up. It's great. uh game's working fine i don't know anything about the maintenance and characteristics of this game i mean i know pinball and i i think these are the original rubbers that are on here uh one of them is hanging on by a thread man it looks like it's never been you know removed or messed with at all so i need to go probably i don't know uh marcos or pinball life somebody will have like a kit that i could redo all the rubbers on this thing i'm sure i can go to comet and get a new set of lights oh maybe i'll upgrade and throw led lights all in this game I just said that so that I could hear the groans from the people that are like, no, no, that's a terrible idea. People like classic games, they don't like them, you know, just LED puke lights. They want like the original incandescence. So I'll have to hit up Comet to redo all the lights. I can do that. I can do that. What I need to know, though, is what the heck is going on with this power cord? This power cord is from the 70s. It looks like something that's off of a lamp that you fished out of a dumpster or something. It's just like lamp cord, like lamp cord from the 70s. Like I expect it to be threaded through some golden chain hanging from the ceiling or something. This thing does not look safe. It looks like it would take a rat 30 seconds to gnaw through this entire thing. I'm sure I could blow my entire self up leaving this game plugged in. It's sketchy as heck. How can I just replace this with like a typical cord? I have to go look that up. So I'll be trolling the Pinside forums, finding out how to take care of this dang thing. And then with luck, I may just be bringing it to Pinball Expo. So how about that, man? I didn't start the week knowing that I was going to purchase an EM. I just found out I was purchasing Harry Potter. And then here it is. Here it is. So game number, what is it? I think we're up to 16 or something now. I got to get some stuff moving, man. But how do you turn that down? A very nice family right up the street. They were in a bind. They needed to get this thing out of here. They're cleaning out the house. Here I am. I've got all the equipment. I've got cash money couldn't be simpler so that was fun so I'm looking at I'm looking at this lucky hand and it plays exceptionally well man the chimes man it's got real chimes in it I'm loving this game I don't know that I need 20 ems but uh you know I'm kind of digging it I'm kind of digging it I will say uh popping the uh play field and looking in this thing it's not terribly complicated not as complicated as I was thinking I was thinking it would be like steampunk madness inside there, but it's just like a collection of relays and probably worn insulation. I have no idea like what even to do. So I have to hit up the forums, hopefully the Facebook group for 70s Gottliebs so I can know like the 10 things that I need to do with this thing before I break something. But that's kind of how my week's going here and it's only Thursday. So before I bought myself an EM, I went ahead and set up four games over in my bar area and they're looking fantastic and they are each different from the other so i thought i could just go down the lineup here and just talk about each one because i've been spending a lot of time over here i'm taking a break from spooky corner this week because i'm over at the bar and i'm digging this new lineup so here's what we got king kong premium you've seen this game you've watched joel stream it um game super awesome uh you know but we expected it to be awesome so it wasn't like earth shattering or anything but the game is good dawn is it better than jaws is it better than jurassic park is it better than Avengers Infinity Quest? Is it the Godzilla killer? That is totally subjective, right? It's a great, fine playing game, and it's going to be everywhere. And if you want one, email jeffatmadpimple.com. He will hook you up, use code WAP, get a t-shirt, all that business. The game's super fun, though. And I've been putting my little touches on there. So I got myself a premium. The knocker, the shaker is in there. I got art blades from, I think I went with, not pin graphics this time, but tilt. Because he makes those cool graphic decals that go on the inside of the apron that faces the flippers in the play field. Yeah you didn know you needed art blades inside on the backside of the apron but damn it if they don make the game look better I did that to Venom back in the day and I loved it I loved it for some reason So Homeboy's done the same thing for Kong, so I went ahead and purchased everything. They were discounted, too. I think it was introductory or something. $70. I got art blades and, what do you call them, drain blades? And drain blades. I've replaced flipper toppers that are themed to each region of the game. in there. I like doing those subtle little things, you know, make everything kind of tie in. And of course the banana shooter rod has been fun. In true Don's status or fashion, I went ahead and made something that made me laugh, right? And I thought, what's better for a gorilla themed game than a half eaten banana as a plunger? It came out way better than I thought it would. And like, it made me giggle. I think I've sold eight of them so far. I just restocked them on pin side there. If you want one, I mean, 60 bucks for a shooter rod. I think that's priced 20 to 30 dollars below what you typically see i just want to see these bananas out there man so if you want them which you people do because i'm getting people buying them all the time um go ahead and check them out of the pin side store otherwise it just it just makes me chuckle dude it looks like a freaking half of a banana and and i'm gonna say it feels good in the hand too and that's important to me the tactile aesthetics of a shooter rod you know is important um that The John Wick one, not great. The horse head on Godfather, didn't love it. Didn't love it. Avatar, the Navi arrow, I don't really like it. Doesn't fit in the hand very good, but we have it there. So I've been playing myself some Kong, and I'm starting to get strategy with it. I will say that upper left area, it's not an upper play field, but it kind of plays like one. It's fun to kind of hit the ball up there and then just play around with that upper flipper. I've never had so much satisfying fun with the drop targets. when this game was announced and they made a point of saying that there's four inline sweepable drop targets i was like yeah sure like i'm gonna be able to sweep those like every every time i shoot up there or something you know there's sweepable drop targets on burials barbecue challenge i couldn't make it a habit of hitting those every time but damn it if i can't get you know at least three or four three out of the four of these things in sweeps fairly regularly um and then i This is the key to good design here, or the reason we know Elwin's awesome. When the ball is bouncing around there, and if you don't have the diverter up and it goes down the river, it takes a circuitous path, which slows down the ball just enough for you to get ready. And then if you just hold the left flipper up, at least on my game, the ball will bounce safely over to the right flipper where you can catch it in a nice cradle. It lands like a soft butterfly. And then you can just repeat the shot back up there until you get all those drop targets. Hit the drops twice. That's how you light the locks. And then gameplay continues. You get two balls in the lock, and then you're stacked, right? One more ball will start the multiball. You go for the gong, start your mode. The next shot, you start your multiball. There you are in a mode, in a multiball. We're having a good time. Rinse and repeat. Hit the spider. I'm loving Kong. My GC is around 400 million, which feels good for me. That's usually with two extra balls. I've gotten through some modes. I spelled King Kong twice now and played the T-Rex mini mode wizard whatever. So I'm having fun with it. I'm not a top level tournament player. I haven't gotten to the end of this code yet, but I'm having some more fun with this game. It's not just, you know, monkey flipping. I don't understand what's going on. So I'm having fun with Kong. It's a Stern premium. It's their newest game that's out. There's nothing else like it. Nothing else like it except for maybe the last three games that have come out from Stern. So, you know, it feels familiar. It feels familiar in a good way. Right next to that, I've got Pulp Fiction. I've got a Pulp Fiction Standard Edition. I've added mirror blades. I added the shaker motor. If you don't have a shaker motor in Pulp Fiction, what are you even doing? When you rip the spinners in the clean the car mode, the shaker motor goes nuts, man. And so does your score. Totally unbalanced and I'm not updating it because I love that exploit. But the game's super fun. A 70s throwback, right? New game, plays old. uh, good call outs, you know, simple and some of the best hidden light shows in that game. You wouldn't know to look at it. And through casual play that the, the, the amount of, uh, choreography in the lights is as cool as it is. Get into frenzy, go collect all the Pulp Fiction letters and play that mode. The lights are insane. Everything's purple and green and just going nuts, man. I've got a topper for this game from the electric playground. Uh, you watch me unbox it. Uh, it's got a kinetic motion in there. It's got speakers in the topper, super fun man hey jersey jack could we have gotten something like yeah i mean i mean obviously not this but i mean you know incorporate some of this stuff you've done really good on oh i'm not gonna rant on the harry potter topper go listen to the 20 other youtube channels that are all gushing all over how terrible that topper is i think it's i think it's fine i do wish it was better it's one of the two things from harry potter i wish i could have had improved um art in the ceb and the other one but you know what two gripes and then the rest is a bunch of grapes man a bunch of grapes dripping in gravy game's fun so pulp fiction i've got mindset on five ball don't come at me it lets me get into the later modes a little more frequently it lets me if i'm having a really good game finish all the modes and get to the shot right if i was better and can do it in two balls or three balls I lower it back down But that my handicap That my game It plays completely different than King Kong does. And I love that. I love that. And ripping the spinners with the shaker motor on, fantastic. I dig it. I dig me some Pulp Fiction. I'm having a Pulp Fiction moment again. Next to that, what do we got? Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro Edition, which is the definitive edition. I've had good games in the LE, like the upper play field. I get it. It's fun. There's some extra shots in there. Yes. But like for a pro, this is a hell of a pro. I got the whole thing made over. Of course I got that topper. Um, I got the hooked on pinball metal golden caps for the pop bumpers. Oh my God, that game's fun. So Kong, I can get it on Kong and I can play for 20 minutes. We can go chase dinosaurs, uh, punch stare at stare dactyls in the face. you know I rub my banana all over myself it's great you know Black Knight Sword of Rage not like that it's not a 20 minute player it's a 90 second player sometimes it's fast it's brutal and it's got Steve Ritchie man what a legend Steve Ritchie as the topper as the Black Knight yelling at me berating me in my own home with my own game that I'm playing in my own home and I can't get enough of it man uh it plays different than Pulp Fiction it plays different than Kong. It fits in that lineup great. And like, just imagine this, like the palate cleanse of going from Kong premium to Pulp Fiction to Black Knight Sword of Rage. And then right next to the window bathed in ambient light is Avatar Collectors Edition, a game that I'm totally digging. I got an offer this week, a trade offer that I considered and then actually turned it down, which, you know, I didn't think I'd be in the position to do just because I am enjoying avatar that much uh shout out to uh brian savage at barrels of fun he hooked me up with some glow balls so i've replaced the traditional chrome shiny balls in that game with glow in the dark balls um they've got some heft to them but they are lighter than a traditional ball so you do get a little bit more air balls but i'm telling you man when you're playing that game and you get into a multiball and the eclipse is in and everything is glowing and you've got like four or five glowing balls banging all over the place flying through the air with the greatest of ease like the the game is a moment, man. It's an epic to sit back and watch and play. Score? Who cares about the score? Let's go play the blue people. Which mode are we starting? Doesn't matter. Let's just start it. Things go off, things happen. I can't keep track. I've got a flow sheet, and I still can't keep track of the rules in this game, and I don't care. I know how to start the multiballs. I know what to do when I'm in the modes, but as far as navigating through there and finishing the see Vaco or whatever it is and, uh, you know, getting all my milestones and stuff. I have no idea when they happen. I'm happy. I've gotten all the Pandora letters a couple of times. I've played that cool wizard mode. It's pretty sweet. But like, if you were to ask me, Don, what do you do to get all the Pandora letters? I have no idea. I know if you get an extra ball, you get one. And if you hit the eclipse jackpot, which is absolutely a moment in that game, uh, you get one for that. Everything else. I have no idea. I could go and cross-reference it again. Like I've done 20 times and by the time I walk over the game I will have forgotten and it doesn't matter the game is fun it's got those extra little green highlights in the play field in the back plate that kick on with the uv and then I'm just an avatar town and it plays so much different than any one of the other games it's next to so it's so it's like it's like the best palate cleanse going from right to left over here it's like jumping in the pool and then jumping in the water slide and jumping in the hot tub and then jumping in the sheets, man. Just like everything is different. And, and that's fun, man. That's fun. I've spent the last year or so with mainly like almost exclusively a stern lineup plus two spookies that became three spookies. And this things have come and gone. I, you know, I had a big Lebowski for a little bit, but it's mainly been just like a stern Cade down here or a, what do they call that? A sternament when you go out and it's like 10 stern games and that's your local tournaments you play. um so the fact that we're now getting a little bit more nuance uh makes sense to me i would say if you've got a collection of three to four games five or so um maybe then adding in something like a spooky or adding in something like a jersey jack game that plays just so much different than the insider connected you know deadpool iron maiden ninja turtles whatever that you already know it adds a little bit more spice there right you don't want just like all noodles and marinara You've got to hit it with some garlic. You've got to throw some parm on top. You've got to come with some garlic bread. And that's what I'm doing, man. I've got a nice, well-balanced breakfast sitting over here in the lineup, and I'm just having fun with it. And I wanted to take a moment and share that here with everybody else. So what's going on with you guys? We've got Predator coming out soon. I'm sure we'll talk all about that. I'm sure we'll yell at each other. I'm sure we'll say that Kyle Carl Weathers makes it good enough. Other people say, no Arnold, no way. I say no woman, no cry. How about that? I want to see what Predator's like, and then I want to go play the damn thing. And then I want to go down to Jersey Jack Pinball and pick up Harry Potter, and we're just going to go nuts. In the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find a way to jack on some grounding wire to this EM I picked up.