You're listening to TopCast, this old pinball's online radio. For more information, visit them anytime. www.marvin3m.com slash TopCast Okay, welcome to another episode of TopCast. Me, I'm here with, I'm Shaggy, and we also have... I'm on satellite, Norm. Norm on the phone. I'm on satellite. Norm's on the satellite, if that's what he thinks, at least. Good luck over there. Yes, and we also have our engineer with us. That would be Mr. Shelberg from the Pin Game Journal. Wow, you let him out of your basement? Just a couple times a year, not too often. He's like the groundhog. You mean like as in Groundhog Day? Yeah, you let them up to do the show and then you put them back down. Yeah, maybe so. Anyways, Norm, so what are we doing tonight, Norm? I think this is your gig. I'll sit there and make stupid remarks about myself and your family heritage. Thank you. Okay, so tonight we're going to talk about electromechanical games. In particular, we're going to talk about Gottlieb's classic wedge heads. Starting about 1960, Gottlieb changed the design of their cabinets from their wood rail format. Wood rail meaning that the side rails that hold the top glass in place actually were made of wood. They were like a hardwood maple. And the back boxes too. Yep. The outline around the back boxes too. That's right. And then they went to what's known as a metal rail format, which is pretty much how games exist today with metal side rails. And in that process, they also changed the cabinet backbox head to what's known as a wedge design. And Williams, actually, to copy this, came up with something called a reverse wedge head, Which was really neat If you have a Williams game They match Kind of like completely opposite Of Gottlieb's wedge design So you can set them up right next to each other Really really tight Williams had that foot That the games The weird cabinet Yeah they used They used a cabinet That's called the cocktail cabinet Where it's got a little cocktail tray in front of it But we're not going to really talk about those They did it for about a year. Jungle, for instance, in 1960 looked like that. But they quickly formatted over to their reverse wedgehead design. But anyways, the ones that we're showing right here, the one that's probably the most famous is Buckaroo. Buckaroo was the game that, what was it, what's his face played in that Who movie? Roger Daltrey? Well, you had Daltrey and you had the other guy. Elton John. Yeah, Elton John. And what was it? Daltrey played Kings and Queens, and the other guy played, you know... Elton John played Gay Bush. Yeah, he played the other one. There was also a corral, right? Wasn't that the Adderall version? No. You mean cowpoke? You're right. I'm sorry. I'm going to go in the basement. Yeah. I thought you were in the basement. Sounds like you're in the basement. But the one thing that's kind of interesting... Fill it for me there, Schubert. I'm just going to wet you. Talk a little bit about it. Talk about how there was a fourth... Um, the fourth score reel was added. Don't pick it up. Yeah, there was a... Fourth score reel added to the machines. Come on, keep going. Still in with what? The fourth score reel I was added to Buckaroo and Kings and Queens. I just published a magazine. You mean you don't know a dick about anything else? I didn't prepare for this. I can do camera and I can do sounds. I can do sounds. Quit picking on him. Yeah, he is. It's okay. Well, I'm figuring out what's wrong with the web camera. In the short run, Silver's going to run an ad by Pinball Life, who is our sponsor. Top Guest is brought to you by Pinball Life. Get your pinball machine new life. Parts from Pinball Life. We ship pinball parts worldwide. Pinball Life is located in Orangery, San Francisco. Their phone number is 773-202- I'll do some dirty limericks if you want. Top Guest is brought to you by Pinball Life. Give your pinball machine new life with parts from Pinball Life. We ship pinball parts worldwide. Pinball Life is located in the great city of Chicago. Their phone number is 773-202-8758. We have an open door Ryan Policky and you're welcome to call us with your questions and concerns. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. Their website is at pinballlife.com. Pinball Life. The hassle is just the parts you need best. That's good. That's fine. So the one outstanding feature on Buckaroo, well, the one thing that Shelberg, who runs the magazine, but apparently doesn't really know anything about pinball, when Daltrey, during the scenes in Tommy, when Daltrey and, what's the other guy's name? Elton John. I keep forgetting his name. When Daltrey and Elton John are playing, you'll notice the scores spin really, really fast. Really fast. And the one thing about the original Wedgeheads is the replay versions only had three score reels. It's like, for instance, on Buckaroo, you can see here that the score is 5-1-5 with three score reels. But the thousands dial isn't really a dial. It's a backlit one. So when it's not lit, the score is 515. But when it is lit, it can be 1500. But it can't go above 1515 or 1999 in that case. So what they did is they actually put a fourth score reel into Buckaroo in Kings and Queens. Now, a lot of people will say, well, maybe that isn't actually the case. what happened is that they're using Cowpoke, which is the Adaball version of Buckaroo. But that's not the case. They actually used the replay version of the games, and they modified them for an additional score reel so that during the movie, they could spin the reels around really well. Totally exciting. Well, there was a big controversy about that, And the reason why you know it's not actually the Adaball version, because the Adaball version of Buckaroo or Catapult has a four-score wheel. Don't move it in the stairwell. So maybe they take that and they just cut the one back glass down and moved it and took the window off. Right, and that's exactly what they did. And they did that just for the movie to make it work. Now, the interesting feature about Buckaroo, and the reason why it's somewhat valuable, is the animation in the back glass. Like if I start a game here, and I plunge the ball, you watch the horse kick. That's the part that everybody likes, the horse kick. And every time the horse kicks, you get 100 points. I just want to replay. And it makes the cowboy spin around too. And now you can see the back glass is lit on the score for 1,000 points. So instead of having an actual score reel in the replay version, they just did it this way as kind of a cheap substitution for a score reel. Now, the other thing that this game implemented, which actually I'm not much of a personal fan of is a roto target. And the roto target is this thing in the center here. Actually, I don't have frame very well. And what happens is... Well, what you're trying to do is get all these numbers lit across the front of the game, across the playfield. And what the numbers represent is these numbers in the roto target. So if I hit the two, it lights the two. If I hit the two on the roto target, it lights the two on the plate field. It's like a wild card. It's not a card theme, though. Yeah, but it's like a wild card. It gives you an opportunity to get something that you can't get on the top. Right, so if I hit the center target and a couple of roll orders on the plate field, it actually spins the roto target across the front of it, which I'm hoping is getting picked up by the webcam. Okay, so once that's done, and I can get, it advances to different numbers. So if I hit, like here I have a one lit, and if I hit it with the ball, it lights the one and the two. Now if I, here's a three, and I got one, two, three. Now if I spin it, and I can get five, so I've got one, two, three, and five. If I can get a four across the world of target, maybe, where's the four? And certain numbers are harder to get than others. like the four. Okay, so now I've got the four shown. If I can get this four, I'll have five numbers in a row. I'll want to replay. There you go, and you heard the knocker knock as I hit the replay. So you can see I got the numbers across. So what's wrong with that? Nothing. But that's part of the game. I know, but you said you didn't like this Roto Target. Well, the reason why I'm not a big fan of this Roto Target is it takes up so much playfield real estate that if you're trying to get the ball up through here, you have to try and get it up on the side, on either one of the sides. It's an evolution of a game, so what? It's part of the history. It is the history, but it's just a tough shot to try and get around the rototargets. I think it's prejudice against rototargets. Yes, I do have a prejudice against rototargets. What's the name for people like you? What am I, a rototarget? I don't know, what's the name you had in mind, Norm? Ada. Got it, got it. But anyways, that was like the magic behind Buckaroo and why it was so famous was mostly because of the fucking horse. Now, a lot of people say I don't want the replay version of this game. I want the add-a-ball version, which was another concept that it's arguable whether Gottlieb came up with this all on their own. But they probably didn't. But they certainly implemented it well. Give me another count on the next one. And the reason why... Wait, hold on, I'm going to get you a picture here. Let's see if you get the kicking cowboy. Anyways, the reason why Godley did so well with the Adderball is in certain territories like New York and Wisconsin. I'm back at that cow here. It's true. The reason why they did so well with the Adderball concept was in certain territories like New York and Wisconsin and certain counties and other various states. Couldn't get a free game. Right. You couldn't win anything of value. So winning a free game or replay wasn't allowed. So Gottlieb came up with this add-a-ball thing where if you completed that number sequence on the play field, you would get a ball, an added ball. And the back glass would go, you would start with five balls and it would work down. It would say fifth ball, fourth ball, third, two, and one. Kind of the opposite of what most other EMs, or even games today where you say you run ball one, ball two, ball three is the last ball. Well, it went kind of the other way around, where your fifth ball, fourth ball, third ball, second ball, one first ball, which was actually the last ball, then it would go game over. Yes, but isn't a ball of value? It wasn't considered winning anything of value because it was all within one game. So they sold the Adderball version, like Calco, to these Adderball states or Adderball territories. In New York, Wisconsin. Right, exactly. So a lot of people like to add those. I personally kind of like the replay games myself, but I'm definitely in the minority. Now you're prejudiced against Adaball. Yeah. So you really hate Adaball games with Rototarget. Yeah, Adaball games with Rototarget. Now we're going to move over to the next game. Buckaroo, by the way, came out in 1965. The next game is Slick Chick. We're going to talk about Slick Chick. I've got to run a little advertising here. Let's see. This is another one of our sponsors. Wet White Video is a proud sponsor of TopCast. For all your video needs, head on over to wetwhitevideo.com. We got some other guys that have been plugging our show This is Elmer Fudge If you listening in and you your closet on the radio for the TopCast Hey, this is Curb, and you're listening to TopCast, where you got a guy from Detroit who sounds like he's from Connecticut, and another guy from Boston who sounds like he's from Jersey, but they both are better than the guy in Arizona that sounds like a... Anyways, we're back at TopCast. I got an idea. I don't like these commercials. Can I pay you $5 not to play a commercial? That might work for us. So this is Norman Shaggy at TopCast, and we're reviewing the 1960s Gottlieb EM games, the classic wedgehead single-player games. Now, you'll notice that I'm talking about single-player games exclusively, that I don't have any multiplayer games here. You'll see a lot of guys that are into the 70s multiplayer games. Now, your big question might be, why don't you like multiplayer games? Why are you prejudiced against multiplayer games? And there's a very simple reason for that. Mr. Shelburke, tell us why I don't like multiplayer games. You have no friends, and you always have to play the game by yourself. Very good. He doesn't play any games anyway. Well, I know. That's just the way it is. He has to do it all by himself. He needs more electricity. And too much noise, too. all those reels going around all the time. It's just bad. No, that's not the reason. Come on, try again, Mr. Shelburne. What's the reason why I like single-player games? They're easier to fix. There's a lot more things to go wrong. All those different score reels and relays and everything will cause all kinds of problems to have the game screw up. And you don't like fixing games, I know. Now you're right the first time He had no friends That was my first thought That's the right one No, you're wrong again You're wrong again The real reason is I guess the depth of the rules On a multiplayer game Electric mechanical games These are pre-solid state games There's no computer involved No silicone There's no way for the game to know Where a particular player is on any particular ball. So that means that the game completely resets on every ball, every player. Now, there are a couple exceptions to that rule, but for the most part, any multiplayer electric mechanical game is going to reset all the playfield features. So like on Buckaroo... That doesn't do that on Fireball. Yeah, well, let's not muddy the waters. Oh, well, that's not... No, it does actually on Fireball. No, it doesn't. It leaves the balls in the hole. No, it leaves the balls in the hole. So say I set up the game, and Fireball is a multiplayer four-player game that came out in 1972? 71 or 72. 72. And it's actually a multiball EM. But say that player one locks the two balls and then drains the current ball. It comes up to player two, and then he can reap the benefit of player one. And that was the big problem why EM multiplayer games reset every feature from ball-to-ball, player-to-player. Now, for example, on Buckaroo, one player could set up all the balls across the front of the play field, you know, the spots, the one, two, three, wanting to get that fourth one, and then the next player could come up and re-ball that. So what happens is on single-player games, it doesn't reset every ball. So the rules tend to be deeper, and the accomplishment that you're trying to get to get that added ball or to win a replay is generally a lot deeper. So that's why I like Adderball games, besides the fact that I don't like Friends so much. I just don't like Shelburne. You said you didn't like Adderball. Well, I like winning games. One of the reasons why I don't like add-a-ball games so much, add-a-ball you can only play one ball at a time. On replay games, I can play up to five balls. I can play a five ball multiball all at one time. For instance, I'm going to play slip-jig here. Okay, I've got to reset. Give me a shot of the play field this time. This is why I like replay games. I'm playing five balls at one time. Why would you want to do this? Why would I want to do this? You have no control. Of course, why not? You lose all control. It's like 5 ball multiball. If I'm really a loser, and I want to play a quick game, I can play up to 5 balls at once. Or I can play 2 balls at once. Or I can play 3 balls. I can have different strategies of attacking this game. It's a bit bizarre, but I like it. It's just a different play strategy. Now, the purpose of Slick Chick, though, we're going to talk about the features of Slick Chick. Show the X across the top there, Mr. Shelburgan. See the slick? the slick and the chick in an X formation across the front. Okay, now the reason why that's important is you have to actually spell out slick chick. So say I have my ball and it hits the L. I'm trying to un-light these bumpers, but they have to be done in order. So now I've got the S, the L, the I unlit. The next thing I have to hit is the C, or if I hit the K, notice it doesn't light D light the K or the C Why would you play five balls at once? Because I'd like to Would you stop blowing me crap? Sometimes I want to play a quick game Or, you see, if I hit the C it unlights the C and then the K Now I've got to do check and again, in order and if I do it all and I do this several times it's how I win my replays Now it also has some targets up here across the top of the playfield If I roll the ball through here, it spells the entire slick. Likewise, if I do it over here, it does the entire chip. And then I advance these lights up, and I can go even further and set up the game. And I've got a couple targets on the side here, and I can set up myself for replays that way. But what Gottlieb was famous for was getting you within an inch of winning a replay or a special, and you not able to get it. Because the games were that challenging, where it would start off seeming like you were going to win that particular replay, but in the end you wouldn't because you just couldn't achieve the final goal. Slick Chick is considered a really famous game. But now I'm going to go over to the next game, Which the selection came out in 63 by the way, we're gonna look at skyline next what it's time You know put 63 and you're putting dimes and they ruin me playing five balls at once Time to run another couple little Well, yeah, okay norm, so I'm gonna ask you to shut up for a second while I do this You know, that's it norm norm likes to make a lot of noise But we got to run these plugs Hola amigos, this is Cliffy, CARGPB number two and maker of the world's finest pinball protectors. Welcome to another edition of TopCast featuring Norm and Shaggy. Hi, this is Cliffy again. See, if you're not listening to TopCast and learning how to fix your own pinballs, then you're just not pissing enough people off. So let's get to it, my man. This is Richard F. Nixon. If I was still alive, I'd listen to the TopCast with Shaggy and Norm. The Pin Game Journal is a proud sponsor of TopCast. It covers pinball like no other publication can. The Pin Game Journal is America's only pinball publication. Whether you're looking for new games or the classics, reports on industry shows or collector expos, Insights on a game you want or features to help you fix the game you've got. Pin Game Journals for you. Their website is at Pingamejournal.com P.A.C.E. Norm, you there? Okay, we're back. And now we're going to talk about Skyline, which is one of my favorite wedge heads. Now, the cool thing about Skyline is it's got some animation. is opening up barks we're drinking barks root beer here though yeah they're not a sponsor but we like barks root beer barks has the bite barks is the only barks is the only root beer I know that actually has caffeine mmm tasty and the diet version doesn't have caffeine for some reason but anyways you need a lot of caffeine yeah the thing that I want to show you is the backlash animation on skyline it's got like a little elevator door that when it opens up when I start this game see if I can time it yes a transvestite comes up so I don't know if we got that but what it was cool is it kind of opens up and it also resets it's got a floor number animation too see if I can do that again let's see if I can get it I got a few more seconds to go before the webcam comes back around to show that animation I want to show it with the door open see if I can catch it you know so you can see what's behind the door I didn't get it. Try it again. Tell me when I'm coming around, Shelberg. Five, four, three, two, one. I think we might have gotten it. But anyways, it's got this kind of neat back glass animation with the elevator door, and it shows like the people behind the elevator door. It's kind of a comical scene. Show the playfield now Mr. Shelberg I like this game This game has a clear-coated playfield It plays way fast Actually the Slick Chick Had a clear-coated playfield too I do clear-coating myself On the Slick Chick I used an automotive clear Much like what they do on 90's games On the Skyline I used Varathane Which is a water-based Product You can use whatever you like I kind of like the auto clears better, but it's a little easier to apply. The verithane is kind of tricky, you know, as far as you have to put more coats, and it ends up being a lot more work. But this has a rotation sequence. Again, you're trying to get lights lit in the center. So we're kind of a rollover game. So I've got 12 rollovers associated with this center kind of number scheme, And every time I hit a number, like here I'm going to hit the 7, and the 7 lights or unlights, the 6 unlights, the 5 unlights. If I get them all unlit, see, and now all I've got is number 1 left. If I hit that, it lights my special, and then you have a rotation. Now 8, if I hit the 8 rollover, I will win a game. And the knocker goes off. Here it again. I can win a bunch of games. So it's kind of a tricky thing because it rotates as I hit the slingshots. The number rollover rotates. It's actually a really hard and challenging game to beat. But the thing I like about it is it just plays really fast, and there's a lot of good shots, and it's kind of an unusual play field design where you've got these five pop bumpers all in the center and not a lot of room between the flippers, but you've got killer outlanes on the side. And it's just, I find it to be a real challenging game, a game that I really like to play. We'll do it again. And again, because this is a replay, I can load as many balls as I want into the shooter lane and play multiball if I so desire. I know that's not Norm's favorite approach to playing this game, but it's one that I really like. Now this elevator thing they used on a couple other games. Skyline wasn't the only game they used that on. They also used it on Crosstown and maybe one other game, the Adaball version of Crosstown, which would be Subway. Skyline was only produced in a replay version. There was no Adaball version. Gottlieb liked to make both an at-a-ball and a replay version of most games, but not every game. Right, Norm? You still with me, or did I put you to sleep? I'm almost dead. Yeah, good. Okay, Norm. So how did your operation go the other day? It went all right. I'm still alive. They removed the... Your penis. I heard they removed your penis. No, they removed your penis. No, they removed it through that, but they took a stem out. It was not... It's alive! It's alive! Imagine having a root canal into your bladder It alive Yeah that was Norm after they woke him up No they didn wake me up They didn put me to sleep They did it live. All right, hold on a second, Norm. We are Federales. Hello. The mountain police. If you're the police, where are your badges? Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges. Better not come any closer. That was Norm, his dialogue with the doctors as they were trying to, you know, pull things out as, well, whatever. I didn't hear that commercial. I don't know what you guys are doing behind my back. Yeah, that's exactly it, and that's the way we like it. Anyways, the next game is Kings and Queens that we're going to look at. Kings and Queens was really a famous game because, again, it was in the movie Tommy, and it was the game that Tommy liked to play. Kings and Queens does not have any backlash or play field in it. you know mechanical animation but it does have kind of like some interesting light animation i guess you could call it but the thing that makes this game so famous besides being played in tommy is it's a card style game got leap was the king of the card games but the main thing is is just that it was one of those games that got you really close to winning a replay where you didn't actually win the replay. It was a really challenging game is what it comes down to. But the thing that it liked, let me move this microphone around the stand and get a little closer here. The thing that made this game difficult was all the rollovers. So the rollovers would all start out lit, like here, and then as you bring the ball over them it would unlight them. Now as you unlit all the rollovers it would light a matrix here down the middle of the play field that would enable you to win assorted replays. And let me see I got the jacks I got them all lit so what it would do then it would light a hole like here I I have all the aces lit across the play field and if I drop the ball into this kick out hole I would win a replay. So here I'm going to drop it into the ace hole. I win a game and then you can see the ball kind of moves from hole to hole in the kick out style. Okay that game is over. I'm going to have to reset it here. Leave it right there Mr. Shelburgan. And we'll show how the ball moves from hole to hole. Okay, how many seconds have we got? Three, two, one. So now you can see on the webcam as it moves the ball from hole to hole. We'll show that again because it's kind of a neat little thing as it kind of kicks the ball from hole to hole. Now, the disadvantage of this game is it's really hard to find one in reasonable shape. Because of those kick-out holes, this thing just gets beat to hell. Now, this game was so popular that it actually only came in replay version, the Kings and Queens, that a couple years later they came out with the same design, but with different graphics. It was called Sing-A-Long. So it was the identical game, but just slightly newer, and with different graphics. Sing-a-long. I personally don't like it quite as much. Sing-a-long, that is. Because sing-a-long has what is known as an automatic ball feed, where Kings and Queens had a manual ball feed. Now, you're going to wonder what the heck I'm talking about, ball feed. Well, you know, you're all used to new games where you press the replay button to start it. and it kicks the ball out to the shooter lane and you play. Well, on these Gottlieb games, on these older Gottlieb games, how close can you get in on this, Schilberg? Yeah, there you go. Stop. There you go. Just took that picture. You can see that there's actually two knobs. Okay, there's the shooter knob that I have pulled out right now. And the manual ball loader. Yep, and below it is the manual ball loader. So right now I have the shooter knob pulled out. That's what puts the ball into play. But then you also have to, before you do that, you have to load a ball into the shooter lane by pressing the manual ball load. Some people call it the spoon because it's kind of this spoon thing that feeds the ball up into the shooter lane. But, you know, I just call it the manual ball load. Now, once you've done that, that's why I can play the game multiball. is because 4, 3, 2, 1, I can actually manually load balls into the lane. I can load as many balls as I want into the lane. That's how I can play the game multiball. And that's why I like replay games, because the add-a-ball version of this, there's only one ball in the game at any particular time. where in replay, I can put one to five balls into play at any particular time. So it's kind of just what you like. That's why I kind of like the replay games, is that I have more choices as to how I want to play. Sometimes I'll be drunk on my ass with naked chicks hanging around me, and I'll say, hey, look, babe, before we go any further, I've got to play a little pinball. Never happened in your life. Yeah, you're right. Usually I've got two naked chicks saying that. You know, they've got one on each arm. Yep. And I'll say, look, I've got to play a quick game of pinball. Maybe. Yeah, and I'll come in here and I'll just shoot five balls all in one shot. You know, I'll blow my load quick, as it may be, in pinball, that is. And I'll play a quick 30-second game of five-ball multiball. Or other times I'll be like, no, I've got to take it slow and long, hard, and, you know, ready for you, babe. and I'll come in here and I'll play a long game on my wedge head, one ball at a time. So it just depends kind of how you feel. Depending on your mood, you can play the game differently. So anyways, that's Kings and Queens. Now I want to move to another game. Remember I told you how they recycled play field designs and that? Well, here's another example of that, and this is called Flipper Cowboy. Flipper Cowboy is an add-a-ball game, and it actually came out before Buckaroo, though it is almost an exact copy of Buckaroo. We're getting the webcam around here real quick. That was a bad shot. Shelberg, whatever I'm paying you, Shelberg, it's way too much because he is a buffoon. Hey, quit picking on him. Why? Okay, I'm going to pick on you? Whatever I'm paying you is way too much, too. I'm going to make you inferior. Well, anyways. You have low self-esteem? Is that your problem? I have no self-esteem. That's why I hang out with you. because hanging out with you makes anybody look good. Yikes. Anyways, we've been rambling for like an hour on this, so we're going to try and wrap this up. I think this is about the last game we're going to look at. We'll look at these two together, Flipper Cowboy and Flipper Parade. Yeah, these two games are what's known as classic out-of-ball games. They both have background or back-class animation. In the case of Flipper Cowboy, it's a similar animation to Buckaroo, The actual mechanics are exactly the same. Playfield design is exactly the same. Graphics are different. And the animation style, instead of the cowboy kicking the horse going around in circles, this has got a guy that actually fires a gun at a target. And as he fires it, his arm recoils back and the target spins around like he's hitting it. So Schoelberg's going to put a close-up on the... Back out. Yeah, I think four, three, okay, two, here we go. Hopefully that captured on the webcam. If not, I'll do it again. It's kind of interesting because as he shoots, it's really cute. As you hit the replay button, you know, you can see the thing spin around. It's really neat. He recoils back five times. But anyway, show the play field now, and we can see how similar, or really how exact it is compared to Buckaroo. Now, why did Gottlieb do this? Why did they recycle play field designs? Because these games were popular. People loved them. Try and find a Flipper Cowboy in any condition. It's a tough game to find because most of the times when collectors get them, you can't get it out of their hands. Now, this is a true add-a-ball game, which means on the back glass, it says the ball number right there. You can see that it shows balls to play. No, don't get up that close, Gilbert. Show the whole thing. Back it up. There you go. Stop. Perfect. It shows ball to play. So as I play my ball as I load it through, we start out at 5. It'll back itself down and we'll be all the way down in the game until it says one. Okay, for example, here I'm going to start a new game and when we start a new game you'll see it will go to five balls. Okay, so now it's at five balls and now this game is only loaded with one ball so I can't play five ball multiball. I have to actually cycle the ball through five times, hit the manual shooter rod to load it back into the shooter lane and then manually plunge it. So I can't play a quick game. This is a game that you're playing to win extra balls and I'm going to set it up here to win an extra ball which just like Buckaroo I have to do the number sequence across the top of the play field. I think if I get a one or a five. Okay, here, show the roto target for me, Shelberg. It's hard to get good help here. I want to show the one over here, Shelberg. There you go. Okay, so now if I hit this one, it'll light this guy right here, the one on the play field. So I hit the one on the roto target. It'll light this guy. And you heard the knocker go off. Now it went from five balls up to six balls to play. So now if I hit it, if I get a five across the front, I'll show you, it'll advance it up to yet another one. Okay, so here, now let me reset the game back to five balls. Okay, now here's another interesting thing. On the roto target, I have a red dot. If I hit the red dot, it'll advance it from five balls to six balls. And if I hit it again, it'll go seven balls. And if I hit it again, it'll go eight balls. So I can go all the way up to nine. I can go all the way to ten balls. So I can play ten balls now. And if I back it all in, I play my ten balls, and I get it all the way down to the last ball, and I get that red dot again, or I like the number sequence, I can win it back all the way up to ten balls if I'm really good. So essentially, if you were a great pinball player, you could play this game forever and ever. It's not like, it's way better than stacking extra balls like in, say, you know, any of the newer solid state games. Because this could go on endlessly. You know, in the options in most solid state games, I can limit the number of extra balls. And in a true out-of-ball game, you can't. You could play forever. Also, it's better than multiplayer EMs. because multiplayer EMs, the best they can ever do is same player shoots again, which means you can win one extra ball. This is a little different. So anyways, that's Flipper Cowboy and the animation. The next one I want to look at just real quick. I like to hate it, Ataball. Well, you know, I don't hate them. I just, I don't know. They both, I like them both. I just, I like, tend to play replays more than Ataball because I can, I don't know, I'm always in a rush and I can play a quick game. Anyways, here's Flipper Parade. and Flipper Parade has a little cannon that fires as you reset the game. Try and get me a cannon shot. Two, one. Hope we got that on the webcam. Anyways, it was firing the ball. Kind of a bizarre game. Add a ball again. I have to do on the play field, I have to get the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 numbers lit across the top of the play field and then this has a slightly smaller style rotor target and then once I have that lit I get the appropriate numbers I can actually go up to a number of add-a-balls just by lighting the numbers across here so it's kind of a similar style game to the other ones but a little bit different. You know, I mean, the same type of thing. It's got a nice five pop bumper nest across the top. And I'm basically just trying to hit those roll orders across the top, one through five. And if you have a good skill shot, you can do it in five balls. And then you can set up the rotor target to hit that and win an extra ball. So anyways, this is a pretty rare game, flipper parade. You don't see too many of these. I mean, Flipper Cowboys, they made a lot of it because it was really, really popular. Flipper Parade doesn't nearly have the name in it. The one thing I like about Flipper Parade, though, the one thing I really like about Flipper Parade, I like the chicken Flipper parade She got really nice hooters What do you think about that Norm Norm? I fell asleep, I'm sorry. Okay. I'm pulling the plug on you, Norm. We're going to, when I'm done showing these games, we could probably take a couple calls from people. If you want to call in, this is Norm and Shaggy at TopCast. If you want to call in, you got any questions or any comments, We'll take a couple calls. We're not going to take a ton of them because we're kind of going to wind down a little bit. We've been going for 37 hours, and it's about time. But I'm going to run an ad, and then we're going to take some calls. If you want to call, it's 1-800-484-8061, and then you've got to type in the code, the magical code 1212. So Norm, I'm going to hang up on you, and then we're going to take some calls. Adios. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right, and in the meantime, we've got to run an advertiser from Marco. This podcast is brought to you by Marco Specialties, your pinball parts superstore. Visit their website at marcospecialties.com. You can search for parts by game name, game make, or part number. Marco Specialties was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Lexington, South Carolina. They specialize in pinball parts, supplies, books, and anything pinball. Marco has been online since 1996 and is the web's oldest and largest pinball parts supplier. Their new 12,000 square foot distribution center services 25,000 customers in over 50 countries. Feel free to call Marco Specialties at 803-957-5500. Marco Specialties, your pinball parts superstore at marcospecialties.com. Top Guest is brought to you by Pinball Life. Give your pinball machine new life with parts from Pinball Life. We ship pinball parts worldwide. Pinball Life is located in the great city of Chicago. Their phone number is 773-202-8790. We have an open door Ryan Policky and you're welcome to call us with your questions and concerns. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. Their website is at pinballlife.com. Pinball Life. No hassles, just the parts you need fast. Okay, we're back. We've got a caller on the line. What's his name? Okay. Hold on one second. Hi. Welcome to TopCast. Russ, how are you doing? Good. How are you doing? This is Shaggy. This is Shaggy. How are you doing? I'm doing a program here. I'm up in Woodstock, New York. Oh, cool. Cool. You're in Adaball land. Yes, I am. Yep. And have you... I'm Scott Lee Adaball. Yeah. Do you have a lot of Adaballs? I got nine games total. That's about all I got room for in the game room. Okay. And what do you got? I got Melody, I got Cowpoke, Dimension, Goldstrike, Pinup, Neptune, Pop-A-Card, Park, and what's the other one? They're all Adaballs. Yeah. Like Melody is the Adaball of Sing-A-Long, which is the copy of Kings and Queens. So, you know, yeah, you've got them all. You've got the classic Adaball collection. The guys in New York and Wisconsin are really, really lucky in that they can find Adaballs way easier than me. You know, we're in Detroit, so this was replay land. To find an Adaball game is kind of hard around here. I never got much into the replays, especially, you know, having them in the house. I'd rather get a free ball than a free game. It kind of defeats the purpose. I think that's the way most people feel. I'm kind of unusual. And again, the reason I like to replay is because I like to play multiball on these things. Sometimes I'm just in the mood to play a quick game, and that's kind of what I want to do. Well, hey, I appreciate you calling, Russ. Oh, you've got a question? Well, I've got a question. A buddy of mine just picked up a gold strike, and I was helping him go through it, And in the back, all the end of stroke switches on the score reels are gone. They're all broken off except for the 10,000 score reel. Right, the one that gets used the least. Yep. So when he got the game, the guy he got it from, he said that the 10's chime unit wasn't working. So when we opened it up, that was disconnected, and we found that the coil was fried. So he started to play the game, and in the back, one of the wires was taken off the end of stroke switch on the 10 score reel okay when you put that wire back on it would lock on whenever you hit a 10 and wouldn't release so i was thinking that it was probably a stuck 10 point switch somewhere on the play field yeah well it's not if if when you start a game and it's not stuck and then you score the 10 and it becomes stuck well what happens is those end of stroke switches can release the relays, the point value relays. I would really encourage that you put them back on, but you don't, I mean you can run the games without them. If they break so that the switch is permanently open, the game will still work. You won't get the full pulse to the score reel, so you might get a slightly lower score because the game doesn't score quite as much because of that. But it should work. The one thing about those things is if they never open, those switches never open, that is if the blades were stuck together, then you have the problem like you were describing where the switch never opens, then the relay will stay locked on. Well, what happens on the tens reel, somebody tried to make their own switch by installing a long blade towards the back and one short blade that would normally be closed? Well, what I would do, again, I would either leave the switches open, permanently open, or I'd call Pinball Resource and get new switches and install them. But what happened was he called him and he said you don't need those and he wouldn't sell them to him. Yeah, in a way he's right In a way he's wrong You need a full pulse For those things Really to get a full score And allow enough time For the reel to really fully advance Because other times what will happen is The reel will only be Powered to that score reel For as long as the ball is touching The play field switch So if you get just a light hit On a play field switch it may not give a full pulse to the score reel, and then it doesn't click it forward a number, which means you get a lower score. What happened was, like I said, somebody had put their own version of the blade into stroke switch, and they're actually backwards. Yeah, I would fix that. They're open. They've got the switches open, and when the score reel goes to score, it's closing them. Well, yeah, that's reverse of what you want. But when they're both open and you hit something, that score reel locks on. Well, maybe there was some other modification. It's really hard for me to say without seeing it. Yeah, it's tough. Like, you can play, if you take the one wire off the end of stroke switch, it'll play even though the switch is wrong. Right. But as soon as you put that wire back on, it locks. Yeah, I would just then, at that point, yeah, at that point, I would also check the schematics. Okay, well, thanks a lot and congratulations on the show. Okay, well, thank you. I appreciate it. All right, take care. Okay, bye-bye. Yep, bye-bye. Okay, sorry about that. I thought I had another caller there. I guess I lost them. I actually had a couple people calling in. If you want to call in, we'll take one more caller, and then we're going to call it quits for the night. If anybody else has any comments or questions or tech questions or playability questions or whatever they want to ask about, you know, classic 60s or even 70s or any era of EMs. Heck, we even talk about Woodruff. Did you put a picture of the, right there on the minstrel man play field on the wall? I got a bunch of playfields hanging in the wall. So, you know, I told the Shelbergian to give us a picture of the minstrel man. Okay, here we go. Let's try this. Hello, how are you? Hey. So what's your name? This is Doug from Ann Arbor. Doug, how are you doing? Not too bad. Okay, Doug, what can I help you with tonight? Well, I was wondering if I could hashtag your question. Sure, go right ahead. Okay. Well, I'm right in the middle of working on my William Screamo from 1954. Okay. And what I've done is I've basically retouched up all the playfields. and I actually almost all the way through my clear coat operation, and I've used Verithane. Okay. Okay. And, you know, actually I'm very happy. But here's my question. You know, I've taken out all the inserts out of the place, you know, while I was touching it up, and I got them all leveled and everything like that. So you removed all the inserts because on wood rails you typically have to level them to the playing surface because the plastic shrinks with time. Yep. Yep. And I actually got them all re-leveled. I pounded them out from the backside. And actually, I saw you do it at one of the club meetings. Okay. And I got them all leveled, and I used a little poop to glue them back in. But there's a gap all the way around the perimeter. Right. And I was just wondering, because I heard earlier on the show that you used the automotive clear. You talked about the Verithane. how do you fill in that gap because well there's there's two there's two schools of thought pardon me there's two schools of thought to that there's um a more quick and easy version that's a little less uh permanent and then there's the permanent version the permanent version is to go and get some gel based super glue you know the the you know the stuff that's really thick and And basically you kind of got to build it up. You know, you glue the insert with the super glue in, get it leveled, let it dry, which it dries actually pretty quick. And then you can kind of fill that gap in by kind of applying it around the edge of the insert and then wiping it off with a paper towel and it leaves the material in the insert. That's the kind of tough way to do it. And also you'd have to do this before you clear coat it, obviously. You couldn't do this after the fact. The other way, which is far less intrusive, is to get some what's known as butcher's tape, which is kind of a brown, it's a little thicker than masking tape, and wrap it around the insert and then trim it with a razor blade because it'll extend out wider than the insert, and then use just carpenter's glue and glue it in place. A lot of guys do that. The tape fills the gap. The brown tape fills the gap. A lot of guys do that, especially if they're not clear coating, because it's not nearly as intrusive. You know, the super glue you've got to be careful with. You can make a mess if you're not careful. And the insert's got to be perfect. This way, if you ever need to get the insert back out, you can still get it back out, because you're just basically gluing it in with carpenter's glue. And that's what, you know, I've used both ways, and I just, which one I use just kind of depends on my, you know, how I'm feeling. When I did it, I was afraid of the superglue because it would touch up. Right, it can be tricky. Right. Yeah. And I'm right, wrong, or indifferent, and I seem to have good success, but I use something called a modeling Joshua Clay. It's like a plastic Joshua Clay. Right. It's synthetic. And I wiped it into the groove. And then, you know, I've had this stuff for like years. It just doesn't dry out. And it's really, it's also exhaustive. and then I wound up just touching up with some wax. And, you know, it seemed like it worked, but, you know, we'll see how it goes, you know, at the test of time. Well, cool. Let us know how you did, you know, how it worked out. Yeah, it's, you know, like I said, I'm looking at the play field right now, and I use the Verithane, and only because, you know, it's indoors right now, and that's the only thing I can do, and I was really scared of using clear coat to begin with. Right. But it sounds like you're a real fan of using the automotive clear. Well, it takes a certain level of experience to do it. I mean, you know, the Verithane comes in a spray can, and the automotive clear is a two-part. You've got to mix it. You've got to use it. You've got to spray it with professional equipment. You kind of, and if you screw it up, you screw it up big. Verithane, you can always get off, and, you know, you can do it again if it's really all screwed up. All right. All right, well, let us know how that worked out. I'll do that. And, oh, by the way, I just really just enjoyed the hot theater show, looking at all those games on the webcast. Well, cool. It was really nice refreshing and actually seeing the games on the TV, on the computer screen while you were talking about them. Great. Really great show. Hey, thanks a lot. I appreciate that. All right, man. Take care. Bye. Bye. Okay, well, that's it for tonight. We want to thank everybody that helped the show. I want to thank Mr. Shelberg for running the camera. Couldn't have done it without him. It would have been tough. And I want to thank Norm for calling in. Even though he couldn't have been here tonight, he called in remotely, and we really appreciate that. This is Shaggy at TopCast saying goodnight. And this is James from the Pin Game Journal saying goodnight. And you guys all take care, and we'll see you later. Thank you.