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episode 32. rebooting normal life

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 58m·analyzed·Jun 7, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Post-pandemic arcade reopenings, venue updates, Butch Peel's move to CGC, and Ninja Turtles hype.

Summary

Spencer Clingan hosts The Spinner Is Lit podcast with roundtable guests Dan, Alex, and Brian, discussing the reopening of arcades and barcades in California post-pandemic (June 12 green light), venue updates across the Sacramento and Bay Area region, Butch Peel's move from Jersey Jack Pinball to Chicago Gaming Company, and reactions to Stern's incoming Ninja Turtles pinball release.

Key Claims

  • California will get the green light to open barcades and arcades on June 12 during Phase 3, with limited capacity

    high confidence · Alex, identified as roving correspondent, discussing reopening timeline

  • Vallejo Vinyl and Pinball has closed permanently

    high confidence · Podcast hosts discussing venue closures in Bay Area

  • The Flipper Room is hoping to reopen in July with limited social distancing

    medium confidence · Spencer citing conversation with Mike Moretti about The Flipper Room reopening plans

  • Press Start arcade is already open and now has seven machines due to social distancing requirements

    high confidence · Spencer citing conversation with Jeffrey Newman and pictures from Press Start

  • Butch Peel, formerly with Jersey Jack Pinball for about eight years, recently left to join Chicago Gaming Company

    high confidence · Spencer announcing personnel move as news item

  • Stern is already starting to ship Ninja Turtles pinball machines

    high confidence · Spencer reporting Stern releases and shipments

  • Atticus (Brian's five-year-old son) has watched about 700 hours of pinball streaming videos during quarantine

    medium confidence · Brian discussing his son's viewing habits and skill development

  • Cal Extreme 2020 was canceled, but a virtual California Extreme event will occur on July 5 with online seminars

    high confidence · Spencer and Alex discussing California Extreme cancellation and virtual alternative

  • Coin Op (Sacramento venue) may reopen next week with Stern Ninja Turtles

    medium confidence · Spencer speculating on Coin Op reopening and game arrival

  • Chicago Gaming Company has Chicago Gaming Company remakes in production including Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, and possibly Cactus Canyon

Notable Quotes

  • “Well, as far as I know, next Friday, June 12th, California will get the green light to open up barcades and arcades of any type during Phase 3”

    Alex @ early segment — Official confirmation of reopening timeline for California venues

  • “Butch Peel, who was formerly with Jersey Jack Pinball for about eight years. Pretty much since the beginning of Jersey Jack. He is now, he recently left Jersey Jack, and he is now over at Chicago Gaming Company.”

    Spencer Clingan @ news segment — Major personnel announcement affecting two major manufacturers

  • “He's an engineer by trade and he's the guy that you could call him on Christmas Day at 3 a.m. and he'd walk you through a repair or a maintenance.”

    Spencer Clingan @ discussing Butch Peel — Characterizing Butch Peel's value to Jersey Jack as a technical resource

  • “I think Ninja Turtles is going to be a solid hit.”

    Spencer Clingan @ Ninja Turtles discussion — Positive prediction for upcoming Stern title

  • “It's definitely a better thing for me than Stranger Things. Oh, gosh. That just ended up being just a complete and utter disappointment.”

    Spencer Clingan @ game comparison segment — Negative assessment of Stranger Things compared to incoming Ninja Turtles

  • “In Atticus we trust.”

    Dan @ discussing Atticus's game opinions — Jocular reference to using a five-year-old's game assessment as barometer

  • “It's not a terrible game. Like I said, it's not a great game. But you know what? It's fun to play a few games on. Every game doesn't have to be the world's deepest game.”

    Spencer Clingan @ vintage Ninja Turtles discussion — Balanced take on 1990 Data East Ninja Turtles game quality

  • “Ninja Turtles is directly inspired by the artist and the author's love of Daredevil. That's why the ninja clan instead of being the Hand, is the Foot.”

Entities

Spencer ClinganpersonButch PeelpersonChicago Gaming CompanycompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyNinja TurtlesgameStranger ThingsgamePress Startvenue

Signals

  • ?

    venue_signal: California arcade and barcade venues preparing for Phase 3 reopening June 12 with limited capacity; multiple Sacramento and Bay Area locations confirmed opening or planning reopening

    high · Alex confirms June 12 green light; Press Start already open; Coin Op, Flipper Room, Blind Pig's, and others listed with specific reopening dates/expectations

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Butch Peel, veteran engineer and technical support resource at Jersey Jack Pinball for ~8 years, has moved to Chicago Gaming Company

    high · Spencer announces Butch Peel move as news item; characterizes him as key engineer and support person for JJP

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern Ninja Turtles pinball in production and already shipping to locations including Flipper Room and Coin Op

    high · Spencer: 'Stern releases and is already starting to ship Ninja Turtles'; confirmed deliveries to named venues

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Ninja Turtles generating anticipation and positive pre-release sentiment; contrasted positively with Stranger Things which received negative reception

    high · Spencer: 'I think Ninja Turtles is going to be a solid hit'; comparison to Stranger Things as 'complete and utter disappointment'

  • ?

    community_signal: Young players (age 5) actively learning pinball through streaming video content and developing rule understanding; positive parent/guardian support for skill development

    high · Brian describes Atticus watching 700+ hours of pinball streams; demonstrating Iron Maiden soul shard achievement and rule knowledge

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.356

0:00
Welcome to the Dinner and Quiz, the whole podcast. Episode 32, we've been talking a lot. I was a little bit excited for that.
0:21
Hey, welcome back to the show, everybody. As usual, I'm your host, Spencer Clingan. Tonight is some of the members of the Roundtable crew. Dan, Alex, and Brian.
0:34
Hey, you almost forgot your name, dude. And I've only had half a beer. So we're recording. Hard name to remember. Give me a break. We're in the auxiliary studio tonight, the kitchen table studios. We're actually on my back deck in lovely, sunny Sacramento area. Back what? Yeah, the back deck. The deck, the patio, the covered deck behind my house. The deck of the back patio. Yeah. So if you hear fireworks going off, it's the neighborhood. You know, Spencer, I've got to compliment you, being a Navy guy, about how clean your back deck is. Obviously, you've been out of the service for a while.
1:07
Yeah, this is not working just okay. There you go. I did notice the entrance is in the rear. Fucking edge. Any port in the store, boys. Any port in the store. It's going to get a little bit of... Hey, Gabe, it's underway, baby. There we go. Yeah, haystack underway. way. Hey, it's great to be back after a bit of hiatus with, you know, the zombie apocalypse and the world coming to an end and all, which it has. I am legend. Right, exactly. Name the original and it's not the Omega Man.
1:36
It's the Yoda version. Legend am I. There you go. Actually, it's The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price. Quite a new box. There's your sci-fi dystopian future trivia for the night. Okay. So, rebooting normal life, man. We're getting back to, well, we're starting to get back to normal. Off air, we were just talking with Alex, who's our roving correspondent. And, Alex, why don't you go ahead and give us, you know, I'm kind of going to, we're going to start this topic later, but arcades and barcades reopening, man. Talk to us. Well, as far as I know, next Friday, June 12th, California will get the green light to open up barcades and arcades of any type during Phase 3, as far as I know.

medium confidence · Spencer discussing CGC's remake lineup

Dan @ Ninja Turtles background discussion — Historical context about TMNT origins and Frank Miller influence

Coin Op
venue
The Flipper Roomvenue
Vallejo Vinyl and Pinballvenue
California Extremeevent
Pacific Pinball Museumvenue
John Borgperson
Dwight Sullivanperson
Atticusperson
Alexperson
Danperson
Brianperson
Mike Morettiperson
Jeffrey Newmanperson
  • ?

    venue_signal: Vallejo Vinyl and Pinball (record shop with live music and pinball) permanently closed during pandemic

    high · Spencer and crew confirm closure; described as loss of community music/pinball venue run by Mike Goline

  • ?

    product_strategy: Chicago Gaming Company positioning itself around remake/reissue model with Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash confirmed; possible Cactus Canyon and original licensed title with Mark Ritchie in development

    medium · Spencer lists CGC reissues and hints at upcoming original with Mark Ritchie; speculates on Cactus Canyon

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Ninja Turtles rules designed by Dwight Sullivan positioned as complex but more accessible than prior Dwight designs; community perception of balance between depth and playability

    medium · Spencer: 'deep and complex but not Dwight complex'; references Dwight's reputation for complex rule sets; mentions Loser Kid podcast discussion

  • ?

    event_signal: California Extreme 2020 canceled; virtual alternative event scheduled for July 5 with online seminars and content

    high · Spencer and Alex confirm Cal Extreme cancellation and virtual event date; refer listeners to California Extreme website

  • ?

    business_signal: Chicago Gaming Company hiring veteran engineering and support talent from Jersey Jack Pinball suggests operational capacity building and commitment to new product development beyond remakes

    medium · Spencer: 'At least that implies that they're going to be making new stuff. Rather than just using all the existing stuff.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: 1990 Data East Ninja Turtles reassessed positively as solid casual game despite historical reputation; contrasted with Stern Ninja Turtles as likely superior design

    medium · Spencer: 'It's not a terrible game...It's fun to play a few games on'; comparison suggests Data East version not bad but new Stern will likely exceed it

  • ?

    content_signal: Podcast discussion of Dwight Sullivan's Ninja Turtles rules design appeared on The Loser Kid podcast; rules changes made after that appearance

    medium · Spencer mentions Dwight Sullivan interview on The Loser Kid podcast where rules were discussed and subsequently adjusted

    • 2:28
    I can guarantee arcades will open, but for sure bars and bars that have arcades with them will definitely open back up again with limited capacity and whatnot.
    2:41
    I'm looking forward to that happening. I've seen there actually are already a couple of bars with one or two pinballs that have opened up in my area which I'm real happy about. I haven't gone to any yet but plan to soon maybe next week. I'm dying to get out and play some location pinball I'm hoping Coin Op opens up next week. Shout out to Ace Jedi and the crew over there. Absolutely I have a feeling it will if Sacramento gives them the green light or if they want to open it their own will they can They can do whatever they want at this point, you know, because it's not up to Newsom. It's up to the county if they want to reopen or not. So Gavin Newsom says they can reopen, but the county needs to first. Right. Danny Adams was supposed to reopen then with the recent goings on. Yeah, but that's not happening. It's probably going to happen next week, though. I hope next week. I don't have any word on that. And that's Steve Burrell's game? I was talking to him a little bit. Yeah. I have no word on, about Fanny Ann. Whose games are always kept just. Kept off shape. Oh, absolutely. So. Sadly, we lost the location. Yeah. Vallejo Vinyl and Pinball. Yep. I think that got out to everybody. If you don't know yet, Vallejo Vinyl and Pinball is a record shop. They had all kinds of live music, hip hop. I mean, they would feature live music. One night it would be hip hop. The next night it would be country. I went to a show. Yeah. That's great. And the next night it would be a metal band. I mean, it was great. Mike Goline put on a hell of a production. Yeah, everybody was welcome, man. Every form of music, every style, every person. The E-40 records. Yeah, that place was a real, you know. Rock records. Yeah, a whole assortment of records. It was pretty awesome. And a great selection of pinballs. It's a shame to see it go. However, the Flipper Room, which wasn't looking too good, is looking like they're going to get back in the game real soon. Yeah, they're hoping for a July. I talked to Mike Moretti a little bit about that. you said maybe whenever they get the green light to open up, they'll open up with pinball and restricted limited social distancing.
    4:50
    That means no tongue, people. Exactly. Just don't. I mean, come on. There are rules. Yeah. Quit licking going off. Yeah. Don't be inappropriate. Just don't. Yeah. My middle name is inappropriate. There you go.
    5:08
    It's good to be back, man. Oh, I told Alice earlier, you know the last episode we did via Zoom? Yeah. I lost all of your audio. Like, I got about five to ten seconds of you and Alice's audio, and my audio came in perfect. I have no idea how to fix it, and I just gave up. For some reason, with Dan gone, it was the highest rated show ever.
    5:30
    I missed out because I was particularly brilliant. You actually were. Yeah, you were. I came up with all the solutions to all the problems, and now it's gone. I don't remember any of it. Dan figured out how to fix flaky back glasses. Dan turned Elvis into a mediocre game into a terrific game. He figured out a better solution than a cardboard.
    5:50
    He figured out how to make toppers that don't cost $600 and give you free extra modes. We're going to get to that. Damn you, Spencer. It wasn't me. I didn't build the fucking thing. Tell Shaggy.
    6:02
    Okay, so Sacramento area, Bay Area, we got stuff going on. Free gold rocks. Unfortunately, I've talked to Matt.
    6:10
    He's actually opening up. Well, I don't want to get into details about that yet because we don't know for sure. But if you read an article or go on to someone's Facebook thing, you'll see something about Regal Watch. I cannot tell you what it is, though. You'll have to figure out.
    6:24
    Phoenix Games? Yeah. I talked to Bryce. They say that they may open up pretty soon, maybe July-ish, end of June. Okay.
    6:33
    Contra Costa is kind of a little different. They're handling things way different than Sacramento, it looks like. They're kind of part of the Bay Area. San Francisco, we're looking at it August. We're looking at August. What about Pacific Pinball Museum? Any word? I have not heard any word from Pacific Pinball Museum as to when they're reopening. And, of course, we all know that Cal Extreme was canceled.
    7:00
    Finally. You know what? God bless them for, like, you know, just holding back and waiting to see. Yeah. Instead of just, you know, cutting the cord, they just held on. At least they're opening things up to where we can play. And there will be virtual California Extreme. There is going to be that. On the 5th of July. Yeah, I don't know how that's going to work, but, you know, we're going to have to talk to them. Online seminars, the works, go to the California Extreme website for all the deets. Hopefully it's cool. I think it's going to be neat. You know, it would be cool to see, like, the virtual seminars. I'll check it out. You know, my plan is to just not shower for like four days before it, and then it's going to be just like being in California Extreme with the smell near the DVR. Good call. Exactly. And then I'll probably also get really drunk at the same time, so it'll be just like being at the car. You'll be hearing guys playing Boom Boom Dollar all day on the DVR. You'll have to burn like, you know, $70 or $80 every time you drink a six-pack of beer if you really want to replicate the experience. Or smoke Mr. Ed Jumps the Gun.
    7:57
    That's true. Okay, maybe that's not a good idea. And so we know Press Start's already open. Correct. I talked to Mark, and I talked to another guy named Jeffrey Newman. He's kind of been a pinball advocate for a while, friends with Neil Schatz and Mark Conant, played in tournaments back in the day, you know, kind of since I retired from that. But, yeah, he was telling me he had a long phone call conversation today, BSing about pinball, as we always do every week or two. And, yeah, he's saying Press Start is already open. They now have seven machines, though, due to the fact because they did have to reduce their lineup just to correlate with the social distancing guidelines, and they have done a terrific job of spreading everything out, it looks like. All right. Nice. Jeffrey sent me some pictures. I'm a big fan of when certain things get spread.
    8:47
    Yeah. Like peanut butter. Exactly. Coronavirus. Peanut butter, coronavirus. Peanut butter especially, but it depends on the dog.
    8:57
    Skippy? remember, boys, it's not cheating if it's your dog. No, no. Because it's your dog. Peter Pan whipped. The whipped Peter Pan. Peter Piper picked a pack of peanut butter. You gotta go with the good stuff. I'm terrible at tongue twisters, so you are terrible. Yeah, I am. That's what she said. So we got, you know, arcades and barcades, play set of pinball. I haven't heard anything about Uncle Vito's pizza, but I imagine next week it'll probably be great French fries. As long as I get the type, Rob. No buffalo wing fries? I talked to Chris a little bit today. He's temporarily taken out all the pins there. Because, you know, they've got to kind of make way, you know. Tell him he can leave Stranger Things out. Because they have to distance. Just put it by the dumpster. 34.95. Or have Mickey post a dumpster fire video on Stranger Things. You know what? It sinks if the games are out. and I will go back, like we mentioned, for those fries. Fucking hell, those buffalo fries. If you're here in Sacramento, go get those buffalo fries, but there was Thai fries. I didn't have the Thai fries. I went back and I need some Thai fries now. Those things are legit. We're not even going to order pizza. We're going to go there and make them bring back the pinballs.
    10:21
    Bring back Iron Maiden. Or we can just get to go prize. Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park. And Deadpool. You can also go down to when it opens back up, and I'm assuming the three years will be there because they were pretty well spread out would be Holy Diver. And they had this.
    10:41
    Metallica, premium, ACDC premium. And they also had really good pizza. I think they're going to open up next week. I have not been there yet. I need to get down there. It's a great place. You said Blind Pigs will be back up too. Next Friday. They have sold Sopranos. Shout out to David Horning, Big Dave, as we know him as. He bought the Sopranos from Blind Pig. Oh, that's funny. Yep.
    11:05
    He loves the game. Best Sopranos story ever was one of those. What a fucking buddy. Justin. I actually watched the entire series. I've never seen an episode. It's great. I love it. I end up mocking it all the time. Speaking of episodes, what were you guys watching on quarantine? I was watching Rick and Morty, Office, Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I've seen every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
    11:32
    Stranger Things, Sopranos, obviously. And, yeah, that's pretty much what I've been watching. I don't know. My wife and I were sitting watching a lot of ER.
    11:46
    Nurse Jackie? Yeah, yeah. Well, no, ER. way before Nurse Jackie. We watched Nurse Jackie too, actually. When else were we watching? I forget. She was watching, then I'd come home and I'd watch. I never stopped working. I never, you know, there was no, because we're health and safety technically, so I worked straight through all this recent fun. Where were you watching, Dan?
    12:13
    Hundreds and hundreds of hours of Animal Crossing. And shout out to Evan over at Blind Pig. He's a real solid dude and an awesome pinball wizard.
    12:22
    I know Brian having kids so much was probably watching a lot of PBS. We watched, well, besides watching the boys, I was limiting their viewing, but we watched a good amount of movies that their mom sent over. We got to watch a whole bunch, all the Shreks and Puss in Boots, the Madagascars. A lot of movies were pretty bad, but the ones the boys really liked was we watched Frozen, American Tale, which I haven't seen since I was a kid.
    12:54
    I haven't seen that since I was a kid. I forgot how kind of brutal that movie is. The sequel, Five Will Goes Last. Yeah, they're pretty intense. I was like, man, it was intense. Five Will Goes Last. But the one thing we watched a lot of on YouTube,
    13:12
    and if your listeners out there have grade school kids, and it's great because it's very educational, is Mr. DeMille. and he's like a third or fourth grade teacher out of Jersey and he does a whole series of stuff towards kids like facts about Venus, Mars the Titanic, hurricanes all sorts of great stuff and it's actually pretty entertaining we watch a whole bunch of just random YouTube videos, I want to learn how to carve concrete, so you watch some crazy British guy like in Thailand who shows how to carve concrete rocks, just really random of weird stuff.
    13:49
    People here know me. I'm not exactly the most normal person on the planet. And how? I dig the fact that you're not normal, man.
    13:58
    You're normal. And a whole bunch of YouTube, some pinball vids because Atticus discovered pinball streaming. So he's watched about 700 hours of people playing games, which explains why all of a sudden he's gotten a hell of a lot better over the quarantine. Get all Jack Danger. No, like random guys where, like, it's a crappy camera angle. He's like, hey, watch me play Earthshaker for 45 minutes where you can't really see what I'm doing. But he likes it. And the scary thing is now he can watch, like, Twilight Zone, obviously. And now he's starting to understand the Twilight Zone rules without having played it, which is scary when he starts rattling stuff off randomly when you're driving down the road. Looking forward to League next season. And he'll be like, we're driving down the road. Hey, Dad, what you need to do during Powerball Mania is just shoot all your metal balls up into the power field so you can try to collect the jackpots easier.
    14:51
    Genius. It's so easy. It's like, I got this. Yeah, he's going to be the next Bo and Kieran, as I can see it. And he's what, five?
    15:04
    Five. He's gotten a lot better, but he also has this same thing where he'll be playing a game and Dan's seen this. He'll be like, you'll get like a jackpot, and he'll leave the game to go tell you. you know no he'll just leave he's been playing Iron Maiden before I got a jackpot dad we're good and he's playing it because dad I got jackpots I don't care I think I told Dan I've already won that's awesome he was playing Maiden one night and I'm doing dishes after dinner he's like can I play Iron Maiden I said sure go ahead and he starts rattling I can hear the sounds going off he's doing pretty good and he's like dad dad I got a soul shard cool kid whatever you know you're fine sure as shit and I finish dishes I go over I watch the ball drain fucker got a soul shard on fear of the dark wow and it's just like I've never got a soul shard on fear of the dark okay how'd you do that he's like well I just hit the spinner and then I hit the ramp dad yeah that's not how you do it you gotta hit the ramp first well yeah but then I hit the ramp then I hit the left the lower left spinner you're white Yeah, it's really neat to see him start to understand that there's rules to the game.
    16:21
    It's just interesting, because when I was his age, my goal was to keep the ball in play. That was all of our goals. His goal is to keep the ball in play, but he's also learning what to do.
    16:32
    You know, we've all played those games. You remember playing when you were a kid? Spencer, as for you, I believe it was what you had to actually carve the ball out of stone or something like that, right? But, you know, like Dan and I have talked, when we were kids, you'd play like an Addams Family. You didn't care what you did so long as you got to see a thing come out of the box. Right. Or you're playing Funhouse. Man, if you got rooted to sleep, it was just the coolest thing ever. Your goal was to see that specific toy do its thing. Right. Which is still his, like with Funhouse, let's get rooted to sleep. But now that he knows he can get there more and more each time, now he's starting to understand, okay, now I've got to start going for jackpots. and at five I had no clue. You didn't grow up in a household with pinball. No, I didn't. I got to play very rarely when I came here to Sacramento. It was my grandparents. I mean, your son's watched Pinball 101 70 times. At least. Yeah, right.
    17:29
    This is awesome. Let's get into some news. News. You got some news? Alright. Butch Peel. I don't want to say nudes of Butch Peel. Oh, you said news. My bad. Sorry.
    17:43
    News. Sorry. With this quarantine, I've also been watching a couple of channels with kids. I'll get to see them.
    17:49
    Yeah, I think we all have. Yeah, news is Butch Pill, who was formerly with Jersey Jack Pinball for about eight years. Pretty much since the beginning of Jersey Jack. He is now, he recently left Jersey Jack, and he is now over at Chicago Gaming Company. Makers of Fine reissue or remake of All Machines. Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, and coming soon, I believe... Nobody knows. Nobody knows, for sure. Maybe Cactus Canyon, and an original, possibly unlicensed theme, or no, licensed theme. A licensed theme with Spooky and Van Hecht. Van Hecht and a licensed theme, I believe, with Mark Ritchie is now with Mark Ritchie. So that's incredible. I've heard that. That'd be cool to see another Mark Ritchie game. I used to think that, and then I played Stranger Things. What's the dude's name? I'll take your IJ cheap then.
    18:53
    Zach Manning's partner. What's Zach Manning's partner's name over on the Jamal Network? I don't know. No, I actually said it earlier. He's over, he's over. Just so you know, I have no idea what this whole Pinball Network is. I know that it's like all the other podcasts in the world join the Pinball Network, but I don't watch or listen to any of them anymore. Isn't this like the NWO thing in WCW back in the day? Sort of, kind of, actually. Maybe. I mean, I don't know.
    19:23
    Yeah, so he's over at Jersey Jack Pinball now. Who is Butch Peel? Weren't you at the dinner when I gave Cliffy the sure. Cliffy was like a more hammer I thought. Two or three years ago. Cliff was with Jersey Jack. Jack couldn't make it that year because his dad was dying. Yeah. Yeah, he was with his dad when he passed. He's an engineer by trade and he's the guy that you could call him on Christmas Day at 3 a.m. and he'd walk you through a repair or a maintenance. So he's an engineer at Jersey Jack? Yeah, an engineer.
    19:58
    The guy's got a long history. He used to do some kind of weird engineering for the government. Well, at least that implies that they're going to be making new stuff. Rather than just using all the existing stuff. And he did some tech support. I mean, he's a really sweet guy and a really righteous student. We wish him well. And I think that's a huge, huge catch. Because, I mean, he's one of those guys you can call and talk to. He's a good dude.
    20:20
    If I'm CGC, I don't do that. They've got a sweet thing with the remakes. Yeah. So, we already covered Arcade Sparkade's reopening. We're getting back to normal. Stern releases and is already starting to ship Ninja Turtles. In fact, isn't the Flipper Room getting one? Yes, they are getting a Ninja Turtle.
    20:40
    I'm assuming Coin Office because I heard that Joe's getting one. Yeah, he's going to probably get an LE Premium.
    20:48
    So Ninja Turtles, you guys did some video? Yeah, I watched the streams of it. Yeah, looks pretty good. It looks awesome. My first thoughts.
    20:58
    By the time Ninja Turtles came on and around, I was already in the Navy. I knew about the comic book, and I read comic books my whole life, and I still do. I never got into the Ninja Turtle comics, so I was, yeah, I know. Yeah, so, you know, any port of starvation.
    21:17
    Remind me, if I get a couple more beers in me, I'll tell you about the time in Hawaii I lit a hooker on fire. True story, not on purpose. It really wasn't on purpose. Brian, I told Brian this. That's hilarious.
    21:28
    Yeah, I got called. Yeah, though. Anyway. Not the officer fire? I was not engaging her services, if that's what you're thinking. It was a random happenstance. Whatever. You were burning the evidence.
    21:43
    People are like, tell this fucking story, right? So, okay. All right. I'll tell. Fuck it. I'll tell. Okay. It's in Hawaii when I was there. It's probably still the same now. you could not buy booze, beer, or wine, or any liquor at a grocery store or liquor store after midnight, but you could drink in the bars till 4 a.m. So we're leaving the club 3, 34 o'clock in the morning. We're walking the mile and a half, whatever, back to our Fort DeRusse. It was a free military park in DeRusse Beach, so we parked there because it was free fucking parking. So we're sobering up and walking back, and I'm coming around a blind corner. This is downtown Waiquit Key tall buildings, out of the corner of my eye, I see something coming right at my Johnson. So I just brushed my hand away, and it was some hooker reaching for my package.
    22:29
    And my cigarette cherry caught her yellow spandex pants ablaze. And she's screaming bloody murder as she's patting herself out.
    22:39
    That's great. Hey, it's cheaper than patting you out, right? Right. Well, cheaper for him. Anyway, that's my story of how I lit a hooker on fire. Never, never my Navy buddy still to this day. Remember that time you got really shit-faced with the Grand Fire? The more you know. Dan and I are pretty much close to the same age, and when the Ninja Turtle cartoons and toys came out, I was already kind of out of my toy phase.
    23:04
    I wasn't doing really toys. My brother and his friends, though, collected... Why did they both get caught? I have no idea. My phone's such a piece of shit. I'm sorry. That's all right. So I never got into the toys. I remember I'd watch the cartoons my brother had them on, and I'd check it out. The toys were kind of cool. My brother had them. His friend had all of them.
    23:26
    But I never got into it. But I'm excited to see the game. I was kind of sad to hear the original voice actors aren't back. I think that's really kind of a shame.
    23:35
    But I watched the streams. You know, Attica seemed – he gave a positive review for a five-year-old, so I'm looking forward to trying it and seeing what it's like. They both look cool. From now on, if I ever want a game, I'm just going to ask Atticus, is this a good game or not? Fuck, man. In Atticus, we trust. Well, he hated Stranger Things. Yeah.
    23:55
    It's cool to see because they are going after, right now, that real core demographic of their younger buyers, where they're not the older. Their guy's probably in their, what,
    24:07
    mid or late 30s? In the late 30s, early 40s. You know, because I'm only 43. Dan, you're like 43 or 44. So it's only like a couple years earlier. My brother doesn't turn 40 until Monday. And he's that, you know, he's just, it's that tail end that they're going for, and they're getting it. It's a good theme. It's a solid theme. I mean, I'm not excited that it's the cartoon because, yeah, that cartoon was a little, it was not the niche for Zag. But I did like the arcade game, which was also based on the cartoon. And so it does have some music that's flat out out of the arcade game, which I think is great. it seems like John Borg you know he's definitely got the stroke I mean he always turns out a good game it seems like Dwight has really killed the rules on this one I think it's going to be deep and complex but not Dwight complex so I think that people will like what's going on there and the graphics are like super good they're very very faithful to what I think that everyone wants them to be how funny would it be if they decided we're going to make it Dwight complex and all they did was put in the underwater level from the first video game on Nintendo where you had to go and disarm the bombs. Yeah. They knew it.
    25:21
    Well, and I think that it's just like, you know, he needs to put in like 48 times multipliers and then everybody's just like, oh, I don't know how to play this game. I'm really looking forward to Friday. It's got two buttons. It looked a lot. It's definitely a better thing for me than Stranger Things. Oh, gosh. That just ended up being just a complete and utter disappointment. I love games with a 10-year-old girl with a nosebleed on the back lap. That's awesome. That's great. At first I thought it was just Drew Bray. You're laughing. Party years. But I was wrong. Oh, man. You know, the show is great, though. The show is great, and I was so excited. The show was great. And I'm going to give Stranger Things more chance. The mall? Oh, the mall is the best. Because, you know, the boys started watching. I said now I started watching with them, because Russ is like, yes, this is really good. And then the boys looked at me and was like, yeah, was that what it was like when you and monochism, the rest of the team each other, right? More or less, yeah. You know? And so that, I love the show, and I'm hoping they do more with it, but back to Ninja Turtles, I'm kind of with you guys, you know, looking at it, the rule set looks good, the theming looks good, the integration looks good.
    26:27
    Like I said, I'm not, you know, I don't hate the theme, I don't love the theme, but it's still a drastic part, but the game is phenomenal. I think Ninja Turtles is going to be a solid hit. You know? And I'm looking really forward to playing it. Upper flipper, cool side shot, you know, the button that actually does something where it changes the lanes. Well, on the... Yeah.
    26:54
    It's going to be a better... Unless they really, really screw it up, it's going to be a better game than the original Data East Ninja Turtles. That's not the greatest game. It's not the worst game on the planet, but it's Definitely. It's not the greatest. Not the greatest game. Drew Stratarino brought a really nice example to Golden State two years ago. Ninja. He brought that to Robocop. And you know what? And I played Ninja Turtles maybe one or two times before, and I got a few games on his. And he's done a really nice job of getting it cleaned up. Whoa!
    27:24
    It's not a terrible game. Like I said, it's not a great game. But you know what? It's good for... You know what? It's fun to play a few games on. Every game doesn't have to be the world's deepest game. It doesn't. It's a sewer. Yep. My main issue with that game is way back in the day, the local 7-Eleven had a funhouse, which I was completely addicted to. And I came back one day and they replaced it with the Ninja Turtles. And I gave it a go. And it's like, this is not funhouse. And, of course, even back then it had the normal data east kicker issue. That one has still, unless you do the upgrade kicker, where it would catch and it couldn't kick the ball all the way up because it's a poor design. But, again, these games are supposed to last like 30 plays. you know, it just didn't work right. Right. It's not a bad game. I still love the back glass. It's a great back glass. Is it anything to do with Artwork is good. Does it have anything to do with the cartoon or the comic books? Not really. But it's your typical I think it's kind of more like the movie. It wasn't even that. If you remember the graphics on that, it featured none of the like, it's kind of, you know, I just miss me being a man again. You know, right around that age, it's Pure retime right then. I just remember April O'Neil just busting out of that outfit, which he absolutely didn't do in the movies or the cartoon. Right. Nah, she busted out of it. No, you know what? They were talking about that, though, on one of the podcasts, and they had Dwight Sullivan on. I forget which. I think it was the Loser Kid. It was the Loser Kid.
    28:48
    Those guys do a great podcast with that guy. And they had Dwight Sullivan on top of the rules and stuff. And then it made some change. They're not going to have anything with April that they tied up. like that, kind of keeping it real, you know, G-rated, which I get is cool, but, you know, Busty April and O'Neil tied up is pretty fucking cool, so.
    29:09
    Well, they have to. You know, they're not going to do the comics. You read the comics. I know Dan did. I actually never have. I've never read an interview. They were incredibly violent. That's what I've heard. Like, they were brutal. They couldn't do it like that. Yeah, they can't tread or I go back to the days of reading Howard the Duck and X-Men, Fantastic Four,
    29:33
    Daredevil is always my go-to, Moon Knight. I wish I still had it I had every single issue of the original Just so you know Ninja Turtles is directly inspired by the artist and the author love of Daredevil That why the ninja clan instead of being the hand, is the foot. Is it really? Yeah. They love like that Frank Miller era run of Daredevil, and so that's what Ninja Turtles was based on. Oh, nice. So it was much, much more hardcore. It was splinter instead of stick, stuff like that. Yeah, even as a kid, I just I remember seeing my buddy had all the Ninja Turtles, and I was like, wow, this is pretty violent. But it was cool. And for me, you know, my comics weren't my thing. I like Gru the Wanderer. And, yeah, how many people know what that one is, really? I read Gru. Yeah, I love Gru just because, well, Stegrog wrote it, and I love this stuff and that. And that's more my comic book's way. I just heard Al Jaffe just retired at 99. Bless his heart. That's awesome. You know, good for him, man. that well and Mark just kicked the bucket yeah more drunk yeah which is too bad I loved his stuff oh of course yeah that guy was the prototypical mad artist yeah man I you know I understand that a lot of people just like maybe it wouldn't have been a big hit at the time but if they made mad that would be the day to east to own now oh yeah that for sure it was it would have been their final it would be so unbelievable that would have been cool I would kill to have a mad yeah that would be great because we all grew up reading it you know yeah And it was just a cultural touchstone.
    31:04
    But, yeah, Ninja Turtles, I think, is going to be a big one. Yep. I mean, I think it's going to do real, real well for the locations. I think a lot of the homebuyers are going to get it. They're going to be into it. I think that it's going to really – I think it's going to – They're going to top Jurassic Park? No. Jurassic Park's awesome. But, I mean, I think that it's going to do a lot for Dwight's reputation. But you know what? There's a lot of people out there going to Jurassic Park. Talking. Me talking. me now you wait you don't interrupt him you interrupt him you interrupt me you bastard go it's gonna do a lot for Dwight's reputation which had been taken a beating because nobody seemed to like the rules on Star Wars nobody seemed to like the rules on Ghostbusters even when he fixed them they loved the Game of Thrones redo and everybody was like oh fuck you Dwight over uh monsters so I think that this rule said everyone's gonna look at Dwight and go like oh Dwight's a fucking pimp like he's a kicking ass You know, nobody remembers that, or seems to remember that he did Star Trek Next Generation. Well, but that's 20 years ago. Yeah, almost 30 years ago. I mean, you know, it's like, what have you done for us lately? And I said, I love almost all those games. You know, I haven't played enough monsters to really, like, you know, damn him for it. But I know he was going for, like, a getaway, like Will said on it. Yeah. Or a Terminator 2. He was going for a Terminator 2. But, I mean, I think that Star Wars is brilliant once you... Star Wars sucks, everybody. I buy it. I think Star Wars is pretty damn good that's what I just said once you get used to it and I think that he's been doing really really good work on a lot of the games I mean Ghostbusters is kind of a train wreck but they fixed it so I think that this game will do a lot for his reputation and I think again it's going to just keep Borg cemented as Stern's number one game although L1's coming up hard L1's already got his next game in the camp You know, Elwin's coming up on it super hard. Elwin is coming up on all the designers super hard.
    33:05
    He's had two home runs for Stern. Yeah. Maiden and Park. Yeah. And, you know, taking a game, and not just him, the whole team deserves the credit. For taking a game, Jurassic Park with very few movie assets and making it a really good game. Well, that's not Elwin. He didn't do that. Well, he had a hand in it. made those shots and that's just a fun game to shoot. It is. Like, it's got such good shot flow but it looks like Turtles is going to have Fuck it, turn off the podcast. We're going to go to Adam's house, look at windows and there's doorknobs and play some fucking Jurassic Park. What about that, dude? Let's go to Mike Ridgway's place. I don't know. We're coming. Mike, we're going to do it. We're going to do it big. Doc, it's going to be a lot easier to go to Jeff's. Oh, he got one too, didn't he? He got a premium. He got a pro. Hold on, we're going to Jets. We're going to grab Atticus so we can play Pirates. And probably drop a high score.
    34:00
    But yeah, I think the back game is going to do good things. I think so. I'm excited to play it. I mean, if I can't even do pinball. At this point, anything new, anything different would be great and is going to be great. Because, you know, it's like I just want to get out with you guys again and go get, well, I'll try the what is it, fries? Thai fries. We'll get some more of the hot wing fries. And, Jesus, God, those were good. And, it just hang, man. And just like we're doing now. You know, we'll get together and just hang out and have sodas or beer or food. By the way, don't forget this cake. It's a four-way cake. Cake by the ocean? Yeah, it was, since birthday's Monday, we had his party tonight. Yeah, I think those boys have worked that cake over. Yeah. That was good. I would get that. It was one quarter carrot cake, one quarter red velvet, one quarter chocolate, and one quarter German chocolate. Jeez. It was good cake, too. It was really moist. The funny thing is the German chocolate took over the other two spots. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. And who the fuck eats red velvet? Red velvet's so good when it's made right, are you kidding me? I've never, it just, it creeps me out, man. You know what really creeped me out about red velvet is, I know, Chip Flick, watching with Rusty years ago, watching, oh, fuck, what's the movie?
    35:17
    Still Magnolias. And they make a red velvet cake that looks like an armadillo. And that just gave me the heebie-jeebies. Red Velvet Cake, and it's made from scratch. Remember, my grandma taught me how to make it. It is amazing. It has to be. You can't do the mix. It's awful. It has to be done from scratch. Yeah, yeah. What one?
    35:34
    The fruity one. Guys, segueing into the next topic, with turtles. So what's, yeah, it's kind of like, it's kind of like James, James, I don't know, strike back. Did you read the script? There's a script?
    35:48
    Let's do some, a fun game for us. guess as I'm seeing this turtle topper what it's going to look like. How much is it going to cost? Well, it's going to be an arm and a leg. That's already given. What kind of mode could it have? My guess, the topper is going to be the topper of the turtle van or the old pizza shooter. And it's going to turn like the dolly. And it's going to actually shoot little dicks. I was going for a mill with like 38 triple E's. I know, but... You know. so obviously I'm on a rampage are we talking about Jurassic Park Topper now is that what I'm hearing yeah hold on let me check I don't want to get out of no actually we're going to Hot Wheels now what's your show role alright so we're talking about the Jurassic Park Topper nice thing Brian so has everybody heard that there's a $600 Topper for Jurassic Park that comes with an extra boat yes I have you spell Jurassic Park and you get a special extra vote and it's $600 in Kaneda. I was actually, when Brian got here, I was listening to the latest Kaneda. It's the second episode in a row where he's just gone on a 30-minute tirade about how bad Stern is screwing over the pinball public. So, man, I know that not all of us read Pinside, but for those of us who did read Pinside last week, I have not. The Pinside thread on this is awesome.
    37:13
    So, have you read it, Alex? No, I'm not. So it's like 5,000 posts long now. It's not, but it's really, really long. Here's the TLD article if you could. Oh, I am. So basically you got dudes who are pissed off that's turned into the $600 topper. You got dudes who are pissed off that they can't get the mode that's going to come with the $600 topper. You got dudes who are pissed off that apparently the topper's out of stock already. And then you got one motherfucker, Lacky Bracky, who's like, fuck y'all, I'm buying the $600 topper. I've ordered the $600 topper. And so everybody's hating on him. And then, like, the next day he says, in my defense, I was pretty drunk off that when I ordered it. But I'm looking forward to getting it now because they did a video on it, and now everyone's like, that does look pretty cool. So you've got to love Pinside.
    37:59
    It's such a cool community because these guys are instant outrage. And then they see it, and they're just like, no, man, that was $600. So I haven't seen pictures of it. I haven't looked at the thread. is it look like the normal crappy like Iron Maiden topper or is it more like Black Knight? No, it's nothing like Black Knight. So when it's off, it basically looks like a bunch of flat, you know, plastic panels. Okay. But when it's on, everything, you know, lights up in different sequences and it's got like a lot of light. There's no moving parts. There's no mechanics. It's all just light. So it does look cool. It looks like for $400, it would be about the equivalent of, like, the Kiss topper, which I've always thought the Kiss topper was the best topper they've done besides Black Knight. Besides Black Knight, which is just amazing. But the divisive thing about it is this mode. And the mode, if you watch the Zack Meany, whatever it was, straight down the middle. Is that what he's called? Flippin' Out. Well, he's on the pinball show now. He's straight down the middle is what he branded it as. he actually unboxes it. I mean, it looks like a topper. And he throws it on the game, and he plugs in the one plug, and then it's working. And then he plays the mode. And the mode is like goat mania or something. And it's just like, that's it? Really? That's what you gave them? Like, everybody's flipping out? Ah! Over this? Like, it could have at least been something really, really awesome. I mean, come on, Stern. Well, so if it's just a light mode and you have to spell letters, How long is it going to be before someone figures out how to build a board that plugs in and does it? Well, I mean, it depends. From what I'm understanding, Stern is putting shit on lock. Like the other thing that I heard lately was that Stern has declared war on Pinball Browser. And Pinball Browser is no longer going to be compatible with new Stern games. And that was because motherfuckers figured out, oh, Pinball Browser is a great idea. We're going to sell it. We're going to sell these features. We're going to sell custom ROMs. And I guess that what happened was that, like, one of the last shows that went down, like, the dude selling custom Pinball Browser ROMs were right next to Sturge. And it's all fun and games until they see you making money. Oh, yeah, of course. And then they're like, well, that's our job. We want to make money. That's what we do. Well, so I think that, you know, they put the kill on Pinball Browser. Now, I mean, yeah, we've got a lot of, you know, technical-minded dudes in pinball who I'm sure can figure out how to do anything. But, you know, is, you know, it going to be the kind of thing where, like, yeah, someone's going to make a workaround mod? I have no idea. But, yeah, this is the future of pinball. You know, this is what you're going to get. I mean, love it or hate it, you know, we live now in the era of $500-plus toppers. I mean, this is, like, what, the third or fourth super-expensive topper. You have Star Wars. You have the Medieval Madness one, which is crazy expensive. And now you have this one. People are paying up to $1,000 aftermarket for used Ghostbusters toppers because they don't make them anymore. The kid's topper goes for big money. Everybody knows it doesn't matter if they charge $600. They're going to sell out, and they're going to be expensive on the secondary market. So it's just like, guys, quit your bitching. If you've got a Jurassic Park and you think you want the topper, do yourself a favor. and spend the money now.
    41:32
    Yeah, no, you're right. And, like, all that stuff's gone crazy expensive. And, like, the funny thing is you mentioned, you know, aftermarket stuff for, like, $1,000 aftermarket secondary that's out of stock. Yeah. It doesn't make the whitewater decal when those show up in NOS condition going for that kind of money, too. But the whitewater decal showing up in NOS condition is because – You can't find them. like a 30-year-old part that has been long since sold out. I mean, you know, it's not that it's just like, hey, we made this two years ago, and I didn't buy one then, but I've got to have one now. Yeah, that and the creature hologram, those are the two, you know. There's a new, like, answer for the creature hologram. It's like $150 or something. It's not a hologram, but it's like a, it's like a, I think it's like a sheet of Lexman with, like, an etching on it, and the lights are built into it. It looks awesome. Yeah, I saw that. It looks pretty cool. I haven't seen it yet. I've got to check that out. My hologram is kind of shady, but it's not like complete garb. So I'm not like, oh, my God, I've got to spend $300 on a new hologram. But I admit that I thought about it because it's just like, man, what happens when it goes bad? And then, you know, there's the Mighty Mod, but it's just like, fuck. That's the animated one, right? Yeah. That one's sick. Yeah, those things are worth like $1,000. Doesn't Brad have that one? Brad had one, yes. Yeah. That is awesome. you know, it's problematic and complex, but it's super cool when it works. And then, but now you have, like, this other option where dudes are, like, yeah, they're making new kinds of holograms for that. So, I mean, you know, pinball will figure out a way around the problem. Like, pinball will, you know, find a way. You know, chaos.
    43:23
    Tied back into the pinball machine. Bam! So, is Hot Wheels on the line yet? I know they were taking orders like a month ago. Oh, yeah, but, you know. Well, if Stern's back on the line and they're running, then I would say they're probably Americans running. Spooky, I know, is running games again. They're getting games shipped out, which will lead us. Yeah, I haven't heard any more about Hot Wheels other than I know they were taking orders and they should be back up and running since Stern is. I really want to play that game me too so far I've been really into both of American Thin Ball's first few games I think Houdini is way better than people give it credit for I mean sorry that game sucks don't buy it and I think that October Fuss is better than people gave it credit for and honestly I know a lot of people are shitting on it as a theme I love Hot Wheels I think Hot Wheels are cool I love car games in general so I want to check the shit out I heard a podcast a while back, I forget which one, and they have some of the guys on there from American, and Joe Bowser, Joe Bowser. And they went through and they kind of fixed up the programming on the spinning car. So it's not just spinning all the time. It spins during, you know, certain periods, certain modes, collecting bonuses, multi-ball, stuff like that. So it's now kind of a thing where, oh, it's spinning because you're doing something now. not just, oh, okay, it's spinning because it's spinning. I haven't seen, like, streams or anything about Game of Nations, so I don't even know if the spinning car really does, besides just spin. Yeah. I want to play it. It looks cool. It looks fun, you know? And, you know, who doesn't love Hot Wheels? I mean, you know, it brings you back to a time when you're, it's kind of like for people in the era of Ninja Turtles, man. It brings you back to a time in your life where you were a kid and there was no real responsibility.
    45:20
    You know, like playing Star Trek, playing Dan's cool Only Star Trek? I wonder what rhymes we played it today. Yeah, isn't that thing gorgeous? Oh, it's beautiful. It plays great. It plays faster than Mother. Man, it's great. Wait, you have a new starter? I have. I bought a Valley starter. Oh, yeah, that's right.
    45:36
    My boys love Hot Wheels. You know, they're right at that age. You know, they're three and five. They're made. They have Hot Wheels. They have newer Hot Wheel tracks. And they're cool. They got boosters. They've been making custom tracks. They're jumping them all over the place. They're cool. Hot Wheels have always been cool. they still are. And, you know, no matter your, you know, social life, no background, man, you know, when you're a kid, you know, you'd always, you know, get mom or dad to flip the bill for a hot wheel car. They're still, in most places, about $1.30. Yeah, exactly. Except for the monster trucks, those are $4 a problem. Yeah, and you like the special ones. Like, it pisses me off when the hot wheels are $5.
    46:14
    Yeah. And it's not that, you know, they're bad, you know, usually they're a little fancier, but it's just like, hot wheels are supposed to be an honor. You remember when they made the ones that had, like, the real rubber tires? Yeah. I love, there was, like, a red El Camino in that series that I must have owned, like, 10 times.
    46:29
    Right on. I want to play, like Dan said, I want to play Hot Wheels, too. I love Houdini. I love Oktoberfest. If I didn't have to get rid of the Guns N' Roses for the other crap, I would have traded it for a Houdini. I remember you talking about that. I still want a Houdini. You know, that's a fun, fun game. I mean, it's definitely, like Dan said, it's tight shots. Yeah. It's hard, but I like it. And Oktoberfest is fun, too. I have a bag on the animations on that game, too, and I don't get it. I think they fit the theme well. The theme of that game is fucking great.
    47:02
    It's a great... A lot of different modes on Oktoberfest. Koudini's probably my favorite magic-themed pin out of the, what, the three, the top three, basically. Right, right. You know, it's just, it's cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's not better than Theater of Magic. I'll disagree, I'm not a big theater fan I think Pinball Magic is the coolest I just like the skill set I think Theater Magic's the best game and I think Houdini by far is the hardest it's so fucking hard that game is fucking tough I like Houdini I don't hate it, I don't love it but I need more time on it Oktoberfest I think is a fantastic game and criminally underrated I still want to play an Oktoberfest at someone's house where I have unlimited time. Like at Lauren's last year? I played it a bunch of times at Lauren's, but I mean, I didn't really have unlimited time. Was it the drop target? It was very hard to hit that towering ring. Yeah, it is.
    48:06
    It was actually Don Hiley's that was there. The other thing about Hot Wheels for the Oktoberfest party is Hot Wheels is looking like it's going to retail out at about the same price as a Stern Pro. It was much cheaper. Yeah, like they really dropped the price.
    48:22
    That's genius. Well, they also hope to get more into arcades and barcades. Yeah, they need it to do because you know, they... And this is the thing that Deep Root keeps coming and saying, we're going to be cheaper.
    48:38
    You know? Somebody needs to get in there. And here's the thing, every pinball aficionado I was bitching that it's getting too expensive. It's getting too expensive. So, hey, man, if a company comes out with a great game that's cheap, you better fucking support it. You better show those guys that you'll let them win at the economy of scale if they're going to make a less expensive game. Force Stern to be competitive. Because right now, as far as Stern's concerned, you're going to pay $8,000 for a game. You know, you're going to pay $6,000, $7,000 for a game. I'm not. They'll get you. Well, you're not. I would. I would buy a Pro if it was the right game. Yeah, oh, I'd buy a Pro. I'm on my second premium now. They're both used. But, I mean, you know, I respect owning the next level up. I've never owned an LE. But it's just like, if I was buying a new in-box, I'm just like, man, $6,000 is a lot of money. I've only bought two games that cost that much or more, and for me, it's just like, fuck, if I have to spend $6,000, you know, to get something new. I was talking about that earlier today. Was, you know, you can get... Because Turtles are $6,100. That would be Stern price. You can get a Monster Bash Classic or... Yeah, the same price. As a new Star Wars. Sure. Or an Attack from Mars. Or a Medieval.
    50:05
    Not a Medieval. Medieval starts at $8. Yeah, Medieval starts at $8. Yeah, I mean, fuck man, Attack from Mars or, you know, a new unboxed Attack from Mars or Monster Bash at six and change. I saw a nice original one, but they want like $7,800 for it. That's too much. And this is original, not remade. No, for Attack. I think you like that. Yeah, for eight you can get the new one with all the bells and whistles and that bitchin' topper. Yeah. I don't think you get the topper anymore, but you can get the special edition. Well, Brad bought, he searched for, like, weeks to get one of the last ones with the topper. What is it, the special edition? The special edition has the topper. No, it's like, I don't know, I don't remember exactly how they break it down. Their answer for the collector's edition. There you go. Right. And then he sold his to Mike. Yeah. So, yeah, he was telling me. Well, because I got his, too. He bought his secondhand, you know. He had a cheap, too. Gorgeous game. Did he really? Yeah, he got, I mean, for what it is. I mean, it wasn't dirt cheap, but, I mean, he saved some money. But, you know, he got the Martian green armor and he's got the talifer and everything like that. Yeah, I mean, I think that they play great. You know, I'm a remake owner because I'm at MMR. Right. And, you know, I think the remakes are fucking good. Like, I think that's the best thing to ever have. I do, too. I've played yours. I've played the Attack from Mars remake and now it's Flipper Room. You know, I, you know, I love the fact that, you know, it might be a chance to own shit that you couldn't own. But, you know, I also get why some dudes are like, hey, you know, originals are better, you know. There's a catch in it, right? Like, you know, there's something to owning the real thing. But, you know, you get in there, get in there cheaper. But, you know, $6,000, you know, is entry level for a pin these days. and you can get some of the best things of all time, as Alex pointed out. Yeah. For $6,000, you can get Monster Bash, and you can get an App from Mars.
    52:15
    Now you have Stern Pros. They're over $6,000. Right. And I think that they're talking, like, Hot Wheels is going to come in at, is it $6,000 or $6,500? No, it's like $6,100 or $6,200. $6,100. So, yeah, right there. I like that. I mean, I know. A lot of people from the looks of it. And that's our view from what I understand. So, you know, you talk to your distributor, you know, at 57 maybe? I don't know. I'll throw on, you know, just throw it out there.
    52:47
    Plus packs and shipping. Yeah. Plus packs and shipping! Okay, so we covered Blunch, Peel, we covered Arcade, the Barcade, Reopening. Hot Wheels. We covered Hot Wheels. Woo woo. Toppers.
    53:00
    Toppers. I think we should talk about Toppers some more because that's what I'm most familiar with. We'll talk about some Toppers some more. We have other topics, but... So, I'm about ready to buy a Black Knight topper. Good. I told you you should. I don't even have a Black Knight Swords of Rage. I want to put it on my Black Knight 2000. Oh, dude. I'm so excited about toppers that I need to buy a topper. You should do that and get some replay points.
    53:20
    Brian and I have this... We all talked earlier today. Brian and I had this talk. Brian came by earlier today. Brian's just desperate I should put a new playfield on my Black Knight 2000. I'm just the devil on your shoulder, dude. If I can't run any money to spend, I'll make my friends spend theirs. If I could have been played good at any game, I'm putting it in the ring. You were talking about toppers, and back in the Valley Williams days, you know, the topper meant something, you know. It's like, if you had a topper on a game, it came with the game, and it did something, you know, for the most part. No, it didn't.
    53:47
    Well, you know, like Whitewater, you know, which Brian owns, Whirlwind, which we both own. Fish Tales, Doctor Who. Doctor, yeah, I mean, you know. Doctor Who, Doctor Who, Doctor Who, Doctor Who, Doctor Who, Topper doesn't do anything. Well, two of them did. It should have looked around. The early test games and like that. And then there's the aftermarket kit.
    54:09
    Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd Topper. It will when I'm done with yours. What's it going to do? Just sit there. What other games have static toppers? During the coronavirus thing, I've had a lot of time to kind of think and work on various... You guys know I'm up to my neck in projects and then some. One of the things that Dan mentioned, we both experimented with the fireballs, the fireballs, the connoisseurs. Not spared you in their project. It's great they have something out there that works. I just wasn't happy with the effect. I thought it looked lousy. Again, my opinion, yours may vary. And we both agreed that'd be really cool somehow to come up with a way to do a fire effect that reflected on the eagle on Judge Shredlock. It was on fire. Oh. It would look awesome. Especially with the new shinier one that they make. Well, I've been doing some digging around online, and I'm pretty sure I can make it happen.
    55:10
    It involves getting two of the flame bulbs, taking them apart, making a couple reflectors, figuring out some resistor loads, and then tying it in, because basically those things get rectified down from 120 to 1.6 volts. so there's no reason I can't rectify it down to I thought we had found like some strips or some bulbs that did the fire effect 12 volt bulbs will but I'm not sure if I'll be able to line them up and have the effect go that way I know that if I get those fire bulbs basically it's LED strips that are programmed to go off that are just bent around so there's no reason why I couldn't get one of those lay it out like on a bent piece of metal, reflecting towards that, tie them both in, use the proper resistors, get it down to 1.6, you could run it off of the 6 volts easily, and have it work. Again, I haven't even, I haven't had time to really go into this much more than me thinking about it, but I'm pretty damn sure I can make it work. And my electronics knowledge isn't the greatest, I'll be hitting up like Cheddar and folks for some help, but I'm pretty sure I can design it and make it work. Shout out to Cheddar. He has become the man on pinball repair. And you should see that Maricora, that him and George's cabinet. I mean, to kind of hark back to when George was on the show, is fucking gorgeous. Work for pinball.com, man. If you need cabinet work. George Gonzalez is his daddy. And I pointed out He did like a blue sparkle for the blue on that cabinet. Justin Pictures one. He doesn't even do it justice. The lines are sharp. The colors are rich. And like, yeah, it's got this sparkle to it that's just unbelievable. It's not stock. I'm sure you can do a perfectly stock Calvary if you wanted to. But this one's. It's beautiful. It's just a little custom. But you know like how a lot of the Miracle Playfields now you can get with like the gold flake. Yeah. They use it as a very beautiful accent. This cabinet does that. And then the play field, I mean, we're still working off the bugs. It is a fresh build, brand-new play field, but, like, it's the cat's meow. And that game is just so beautiful. Yeah, that plays great. You actually got to see it up close. Oh, yeah, we got to play it. I have, yeah. Yeah, we came across a couple small bugs. We got them fixed relatively quickly.
    57:36
    And I've heard back and forth. Your start was beautiful. And it takes me back because that was, like, the last episode I did was, you know, my little arcade, The Odyssey. I just kind of did a retrospective on it. That game was in there. I used to play it a lot. Yeah. Well, that one was, again, that was like some dude's restore, and it was like he was kind of a garage restore. It's nothing like this Barracora, but, you know, it's got a playfield overlay that had a good job done on it. It's got a redone cab that's pretty decent. It's got some interesting wiring that we're going to clean up, and it's got a hard-stopping back box lock.
    58:11
    We were taking it out, and we lifted up the head, because the head had been laid down instead of unplugged and taken off. And the back glass just flopped out. And it's got that prototype-style repro that has the original series on it instead of the movie-era uniforms. And just fucking Brian and I both, like, aged 10 years. Okay, for some reason, when I was playing with Brian, I thought, oh, that's the original style of that glass. It is. It's a prototype of them in their TV series uniform. That's the one I like better. and the plastics match it, but when the game actually came out, because it came out in, what was it, 78, 79? Yeah. It came out right around the time of Star Trek The Motion Picture. And the original back glass had the movie, the gray. The movie, yeah, the gray movie. The fucking gray uniforms look like jammies. So, yeah, like, if you're going to buy a Bally Star Trek, I mean, you know, you can go to CPR, and you can get this plastic set, and you can get this back glass, and I mean, it's what's meant to be on the game, Because the Enterprise and everything on the play field and on the side is all the TV series era Enterprise I not like to swap back myself You know know nerd alert But yeah it fucking it a great game and I really really glad I like the way it shoots. That game needs a spinner, though. Yeah. It does. That's what is missing is a spinner. And this one doesn't have, like, the custom ROM that keeps you from just abusing the scoop, so you can still play the old school style, but apparently for a competition now there's a custom ROM that, you know, you can collect that once. Oh, okay. I don't know. I didn't even know about that. I've been so busy with work and family stuff that I've really just kind of been off the grid a lot. I haven't played much besides ACDC because I picked up an ACDC as well, but it... A Lucy, right? Yeah, and I'm finally coming to... I'm finally understanding how to make points on that game and now I'm just hating it more. Because now it's like that I know what to do, I get really frustrated when the game fucks you, which it does with impunity. Like, that game is a ball breaker. Like, just does such janky things to make you drain, and you're just like, oh, fuck!
    60:29
    It's not as bad as the plunge on Star Wars killing you 30% of the time. Yeah, I'm going by the right outline. Well, when you park, what happens on ACDC is, like, you'll park a ball in the cannon while you play a hell mode in the mini play field. And then the cannon will just swing out and it'll just fire the ball off at random. And 50% of the time, it, like, careens off the drop targets straight to the left out lane. No chance to save it. And you're just like, loser! Oh, and yeah, then Steve Ritchie gets in there and fucking makes fun of you, and you're just like, I could pick this whole thing up just flipping. But it's a super, super fucking badass game, you know. Well, I will tell you that I think Atticus has been on his own since he's been at the house. He's played that game at least 100 times. At least. Well, it's weird not to play that at home. Oh, yeah.
    61:19
    He came over when he came. You know, I didn't tell him a thing. And he came in and he saw, Papa, what's that? Oh, that's a pinball machine. You don't know how to play it?
    61:30
    I just looked. Can I play it? And for a solid hour, I had 40 credits on it. He played them all. Nice. he managed to spell ballet before I did kind of embarrasses me I was like what's that noise and I looked and he spelled ballet I did it on my second game probably had a lot more practice but yeah it plays like a beast and the game that play feels so nice and shiny and the ball is shiny you can see the English on the ball while you're playing it and I love seeing that where it's coming down and you see the ball moving forward at the same time it has like a backspin to it and you can see it. And it's just, it's gorgeous. It plays great. I think now that we're putting games in there, Brian, we should take Spanish Eyes over and set it up in there too. I wish I had room. The reason I say Spanish Eyes is because it's not the game that we will get in there without the head on it. Yeah. I'd play Spanish Eyes without the head any day. I love that game. That game is awesome. Did you guys see the women's finals at It Never Drains? That amazing save that I forget what Oh, yeah, it was awesome. But Spanish Highs is the game of Amazing States. Everyone's all impressed with that happening. It's just like, you guys haven't played much Spanish High. Right. And that's just how that game works. Was that this one guy or some asshole? I don't know. I don't remember. There was some guy that, I guess, I'm not going to mention names, but there was some guy, I guess, that when someone made an awesome save, he kind of criticized it or whatever. Really? Yeah. Like me. Now that would be damn. No, I. No, and I'm not trying to say. It was a great play. It was an outstanding save. She really, really recovered. But I was just like, Spanish Eyes is like a game of just amazing saves. Because of the way that that pop bumper and that nest of rubber is just, and the ball would just come out of just straight hell. That's so good. That's definitely a game where if you could find it and have it done, a clear-coated play field in that game would make that game an absolute nightmare in terms of ball speed in that little pop bumper area. It'd be obscene. It'd be so cool.
    63:39
    You get it nice and sensitive with a nice slippery play field on there, and it would be amazing. Just need a back door for the back box in that game. I told you how to do it.
    63:48
    How? Measurements in a sheet metal shop, dude. It's four bends. He's right. It's four bends and one hole for a lock, man. Spooky is shipping games again and shipping Rick and Morty's, getting more of the Rick and Morty's out to folks.
    64:06
    And, oh, by the way, if you have Prime, Things That Go Bump in the Night, the spooky documentary, is on free thanks to COVID or was. I watched it again. I actually rented it a few months ago, paid money for it. It was good. And I watched it again for free, too.
    64:25
    It's a good documentary. Check it out. Anyway, so they're shipping games. They're doing good, but they got a code update. And they got a... Meek Seeks Multiball Frenzy! Yeah, man. They got some cool new code updates going on. I watched it. And it comes with a topper. That's really cool. It's a fun game. You gotta get Swifty. Hold on. It comes with a topper? It comes with the topper. Man, we just gotta keep tying in that topper. You gotta get Swifty. Daniel and I played it. It's a fun game. I went to play it. It was broken. Well, we played it. We were playing our prototype software, right? Oops. We played the one that he went to play, but we went to play it. Yeah, we went to play it. So, yeah, fucking Rick and Morty is great. I mean, it's really good that they're doing new software and stuff for it, but I don't know why they're showing it off because you can't buy it. You've got to get tripped. It's sold out, right? Oh, yeah. No, it's gone. Dudes are still scalping. There's a dude in California right now scalping one. Like $3,500 to get his place in line. That includes his $1,500 deposit. And then you still have to spend the extra. So you're basically paying $2,000 just to get his place in line. And then you still have to finish paying for the game. And the game, I think, is like, isn't it $8,000 or $7,500? It depends on which one you get. There's like, what, the Bloodsucker Edition? Well, the Bloodsucker Edition is just like any time that you order the one that comes with extras, you get the Bloodsuckers Edition. See, I don't know. I'm still on the loop on that stuff. But it is... Well, I haven't really kept up since they first announced it. It's a super fun game. And they nailed it with the theme. It's TNA with Rams. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. And I'm not... It's outstanding. Rick and Morty is a great cartoon. I like it. But I'm not one of those really weird, obsessive, compulsive people over it. It's fun. I like it. And that's about my level of Rick and Morty-ness. I'm not going to go wait in line for a Szechuan sauce or anything like that. It's a fun game. and they did a good job trying it into the show. It was fun to play. The fact of the matter is they got the dudes from Cartoon Network to do the art. They got the guy who created the show to do the voices and write the scenario.
    66:34
    They have some talented people designing and making games for them. It was Denise who designed it and they got Bowen doing rules. I don't know who the programmer was, but that dude's got some chops. and, like, yeah, they did a great job. But, I mean, to me, it's not, you know, and I think we talked about this last time, maybe it was last or maybe even the time before. To me, it's not a game that's best. It doesn't look like a game that goes for the money it goes for. It's expensive because it's limited. Right. But, you know, to me, it's like if you've got Rick and Morty out there, you know, and I know that they're a small company, the economy of scale doesn't work for them. If you can make a game like Rick and Morty and sell for $5,000, you know, hopefully you'd sell $5,000. Right. You know, because pinball fans would say, hey, they're making a game, a good game, and it's not crazy expensive. We're going to support it rather than it turning into, I was just talking about how, like, there's a dude, I think here in California, who is selling his $1,500 deposit for $3,500.
    67:31
    What's the biggest price on Rick and Morty? $6,900? I think it was, wasn't it $7,500? I thought that was for, like, the Bloodsucker edition. I'm sure. Yeah, I don't know. I have no idea. I think it was $6,900 for the base. It ain't cheap. Yeah. It's a $6,000 game. It's what, $600, $700 more? It's going to pay for itself at the office. And it's about a Stern Pro. It's schwifty. Yes, it's schwifty.
    67:57
    Have you guys heard on the Spooky Pump Pinball Podcast last few episodes in the beginning of the show, the show intro, they actually have the guy from Richard that does the voices. Justin. Justin Roiland. Doing a thing, doing a lion fan. Lion man or whatever. It's fucking great. I haven't listened to it. It's absolutely... I was listening to the newest episode. They come out every month on the first of the month. I was listening to the new episode the other day in the work truck, you know, on the road. And I just want to hear it. It's like, you know, Justin Rowland doing Rick is, you know, it's like, Lion Man! Whatever.
    68:37
    Defeats the ball rock! Like I said, it's a fun game. But like Dan said, does it look like it should cost what it does? Well, probably not. but there's a whole bunch of games out there that don't look like they should go what they go for. No one here I'm pretty sure thinks a Tron LE should go for like $9,000, $10,000, $11,000. They do. Right. But I mean, a Tron LE didn't sell for that price. No, they didn't. No, they sold for like what? $65,000. No, they're less than that, weren't they? Everyone I know got one for like around $6,500, I think. I thought they were like $5,600, $5,700. I could be wrong. You know, they're a little more expensive. You think about it, what was Tron like? next year. In 2013? 2012? Man, now I'm feeling like ancient. But no, it was legitimately like one of those things. What is it? Meeseeks costume.
    69:29
    If I have one show up in future What about the big one that you automatically win? No, that's not until Halloween. Anybody heard about Heavy Metal? Yeah! Heavy Metal is just a re-theme, again, of No.
    69:45
    Is it heavy metal? Is it just a re- It's just a- A re-skin of Star Wars, essentially. I think there was a couple of pages. Yeah, heavy metal. But I mean, it's just kind of, it's kind of just, kind of in the backdrop now. I think they're really just pushing Ninja Turtles. Yeah, I think it's- Oh, I have no idea. Well, it was a boutique game, right? Like, it was ordered by the magazine. Yeah, yeah. It was a contract game. It was ordered by the company that does the heavy metal merchandising. Yeah. I don't know a thing about it. Honestly, didn't care. Just, I love the movie. I loved looking at the comics when I was a kid. Yeah, me too. But that's about my limit of it. You know what's great is when we started recording, didn't mean to interrupt you, I'm sorry, the fireworks stopped and the wind stopped. And the ghetto bird came up. So obviously it wasn't working.
    70:31
    Mine's playing tricks on us. Yeah, heavy metal, that's another thing that I'm just like, man, I wish that was a real game. Yeah, I agree with Dan. especially it'd be really cool to see it based on the movie just because I've it's a let's be honest it's a crap movie it's got a cult following oh it's a great movie what are you talking about it's fucking amazing it's a crap movie I love that movie I watch it about once a year so good oh I watch it all the time Dan's I think he's probably come over to my house at least a half dozen times in the past eight months and it's been on and the soundtrack is so good oh yeah you can't go wrong with Don Felder or Sammy Hagar or E.L. or whoever else was in that. Black Sabbath, Little Apricot, Riggs, Truss, Journey, Stephen King. Imagine if a real company had gotten their hands on that, right? Instead of Stern. Like if Spooky had made heavy metal and based it on the movie, it would have the soundtrack, it would have hits all over the place. It would be crazy violent. The only thing I can imagine, the only thing I would change in that, and this is just me because I'm a Futurama fan, is that, what's his face would have to be replaced by what's-his-face from Futurama.
    71:53
    I would absolutely kill for a Futurama pin. Yes, so would Malcolm. Yeah, why are they making a Futurama pin? No, no, Mal, everybody wants it. Everybody wants some.
    72:07
    Everybody wants some. Yeah, I would kill to this day for a Futurama fit. I'm sure, you know, I could see it happening in the future. I think Spooky would have to do it. I don't know if Stern could pull it off. They certainly got the... The hot rumor was always that that's what Simpsons Pinball Party was supposed to be. They certainly got the clout now. I mean, think about it. Spooky's got... The coolest things about Spooky is they've got incredible clout and well-earned in respect from not only the pinball community, but the properties they work with. You notice that they're really hands-on, and, you know, they're the little guy. Domino's cannot say enough good things about Slick. That's true. And you know what? Actually, if you were ever on there, like, when they were pushing Domino's, like, the dude from Domino's, who apparently has some sort of cracked pinball pad, absolutely was loving the spooky pinball crew. Oh, yeah. I mean, because they're just, I mean, my God. That's a fun fucking game. That's a great game. It's a blast. What, Domino's? Yeah. Domino's is super fun. I played it, Joe. It's a fun game. Yeah, it's a fun game. Domino's is a fun game. Yeah, it is. I keep eyeballing all the Domino's as I drive by to see if they have one. They have them around here, too. Apparently, they're not, like, literally not allowed to have the machine inside of a Domino's. Oh, really? Unless they get some sort of special dispensation. Yeah, because it's just, that's not how Domino's pizzas are built. No. They're really all focused. I actually went to Domino's right when the COVID first took off and everything was closing down. It was like nobody wanted to cook one night. And it's like, fuck it. Let's go get Domino's. We haven't had Domino's in forever. There's one not far from here. And I just drive by it occasionally, but I never go there. You know? It's like, fuck it. Was it the one on Folsom Boulevard? Yeah. That's the one Brian and I went to the other night. Yeah. It's fine. They make a great pizza for eight bucks. Yeah, they do. The pizza was good. I was happy with it. Brian, I would even go out and say that deep dish pizza that they did, the pepperoni was good it wasn't even just passable I used to eat a lot of Domino's way back in the 80's and early 90's you know, and I hadn't eaten one, I hadn't had a I never really ate a Domino's I hadn't had a Domino's in like 20 years at least, so I was like, let's go get Domino's they're good pizza deep in pizza for what you're paying like Dan mentioned and they're actually that new garlic crust they have. It is really good. We got three pizzas for $25, and none of them were like, you know, the pepperoni was a deep dish, and the other two were more of their deluxe kinds of pizzas. And you know what? I'm not going to put them up against some sort of real pizza place, but I mean, they were passable stomach-lighting. Yeah. Better? Yeah. It's just good. You know, what we refer to in the Navy days as good industrial brain chow. And like you mentioned, there's those nice sometimes. He's being hungry. Where you don't want to cook. Yeah. And, you know, you got seven people here. And, you know, I got me and myself and the boys, and it's just like, sometimes, like, alright, I gotta feed people who are gonna melt down on this stuff, and I need to do it cheap. It has to be alright. Well, you and the boys, you can do, what, one large? It depends. It really does. Those two little guys can eat. They're, like, on this really weird, like, opposite schedule, where one guy's like, alright, gross work time, I'm eating everything in the house. Right. And then the other one will be like, I'm not hungry. And then they'll just randomly swap. I think at night, they go to bed and they're like, hey, tomorrow, you're going to eat everything in the house. And then you're not going to want anything that we're going to swap because there's some nights where, and it really depends on how they're feeling, you know, they're kids, so. Yeah. They'll like peanut butter one day and the next day they hate it. Right. You know, I think earlier, late last week, I made ribs and Atticus ate almost a half slab of ribs to himself. He was his first time having ribs. I love both of your boys. They're awesome. Thanks for letting me know.
    76:08
    You would have had to fight Atticus for them. I think I'm going to have to do it tonight. You know, Seth's birthday dinner, so we picked out what he wanted. And he wanted steak, so I picked up some decent rib eyes. He wanted lima beans. No, he likes peas. Here's the thing. He likes peas. Mickey likes cream beans. So we had rib-eyes, and I'm buzzing good now off this beer.
    76:36
    Ventilating pinball. I know, right. Oh, baked potatoes. Domino's pizza. I picked up a Velveeta cheese sauce, so packets of Velveeta like you put in the macaroni, but there's packets of the cheese. And then we had some cheddar cheese in those little containers. for nachos, but it was cheddar. We already had those in stock. I also picked up some nacho cheese, plus the boys can make nachos, which they're probably doing now.
    77:05
    I picked up real bacon bits, a couple bags of those, and of course sour cream and butter. We have cheddar I can shred, but I thought I took the Velveeta cheese and put it in the potato and then unloaded the fury of God with bacon bits oh man, that was a good meal. And grilled the ribeyes.
    77:28
    I just did salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and grilled them and they came out fantastic. Does this go off a pinball even on tuning house? I know. Evidently we all should have been over here for dinner. No shit. I gotta do another, like yeah, we'll just throw a table out here, a picnic table and I gotta have you guys over. Get all the pinballs up and running. We'll do some nice dinner. Because I don't want to get Brian in that space and get off his ass. No, you know, the garage, I got one half of the garage cleaned, and I took a dump run today. I'm doing the other work. The next month, I've got my repair crew from home office coming. They're going to start doing some work. I did a new faucet in the kitchen last night until about 10 o'clock because the old one was just on its last leg. Anyway, I'm side-tracking, but I'm buzzing here. it's just so good to have you guys over it's so good to be here Spooky's doing good check out on Amazon Prime the Spooky Pinball documentary things that go bump in the night thank you Dan bump that go things in the night oh shout out to yeah the beer God, we can't wait for Bar Cade's to open. No, no, no. I love that thing. Thank you, King. The guy in Minnesota. The pinball guy. Brian Kelly? No. Lloyd? Lloyd, thank you. LTG. He's got the word. He can reopen next week. Show me what you got. God bless his heart. I wish I had the money right now. I would jump on a fucking plane and fly out just to put 20 bucks in Lloyd's machines. God bless you, Lloyd. If you're listening, man, shout out to you. Shout out to all you guys who weathered this horrible storm.
    79:23
    LTG's a good, solid dude. Yeah, man. He's just a saint of pinball. Yeah, he's a nice guy. Oh, dude, he was great in the RGP days.
    79:32
    This is during the RGP days. Years ago, it was my first trip ever, and I flew with Best Buy, and I got to go to Minnesota for it. It was my first time there, the corporate campus for a training.
    79:41
    And Brian Kelly doesn't remember me, but that's fine. Whatever. what happened is I was like hey I'm going to be in Minnesota I would love to come and check out Lloyd's Place but I don't have access to a car I didn't have access to a car at that point Brian picked me up at the corporate office him, Lloyd and a couple other guys whose names I don't remember and I apologize they took me out for beers and burgers at some brew pub that was awesome they took me to Lloyd's Place I played a bunch of games and this is really Big Bang Bar remake. And he wanted to know if I wanted to play his Big Bang Bar, which is off all the time except on certain days. And he has a real one. And I said, no, because I'm going to be playing the remake here soon, or it was either that or shortly after they came out. And about midnight, I was like, hey, I need to get back to my place. And one of the local guys came and picked me up, gave me a ride back to my hotel.
    80:37
    They were awesome. It was way more than I was expecting. Every single one of those guys were great. It was a blast. And pinball people are just the best people. They really are. Absolutely. It's just a weird thing that, you know, you look back on it now, it's like, hey, random strangers, I need someone to pick me up and take me to play pinball. They're like, all right. And they'll do it. And we all will. Well, that's how Dale and I met. We were all bros on RGP, though. Like, everybody was so cool, you know. That's how I am. The first pinball party I went to was literally like the guy who took the invite on the open Internet. He said, if I don't know you, just check in with me first. It's so funny. Because for years, I see you on Pinside, and I'm like, he's in Sacramento. I've got to meet this guy. He sounds so cool. And then we finally met. And now, like, we live, what, three miles from each other, and it's great, you know? Dan, like Dan mentioned, Rob Bell put out the invite. I'm having a pinball party. Here's my address on the Internet. Like I said, if I don't know you, please send me an email. Hey, Rob, I'm Brian. I know Cliffy. Okay, come on over. And then Dan was there with Will, and I was dating some other girl. Yeah, we were literally like, hey, we like pinball. We're in Sacramento. And I'm not a serial killer. Oh, that wouldn't have mattered. The funniest thing about that, that was when we met pretty much everyone in Sac, right? Well, that was, we met Cliffy, and, like, he thought it was hilarious because we were, like, a little starstruck. He said, fucking Cliffy. And so, hey, I'm Cliffy, and he said, holy shit, you're Cliffy. And then I'm like, hey, Will, it's Cliffy. you know, the guy who makes Clippy. And Will's like, fuck yeah! And we're just, I mean, Clippy just was one of them. Clippy's one of the sweetest humans that's ever walked the earth. You gotta get Clippy. I think he's like in 2004, 2005 maybe. It's like 2005. Oh wow. It was 2005 when I got into it. That's when I first met Rob Bell, first met Dan, first met Will, and that's when I was like, I knew who Dan was through SPG. I knew from the RPG that he lived somewhere near me, but who knows? Yeah, I knew it was Gunstar. I didn't even know his real name. He did a very good job of fighting that. I didn't even try. We just all used handles. But it was great to meet everyone that way. You know, and that's... It was like when I first met a lot of the guys. You know, Rusty and I knew nobody. We were still up, you know, in Butte County, and we went to our first pentagogo. And Sparky didn't know, just knew him a tiny bit from Pinside, and a Sacramento pinball group. and he invited us to the barbecue and we brought a dish or two and met all the Sac Pinball group guys and I talked to them a little bit online and met Steve. And we traced that moment back to the beginning of the downfall of pinball in Sacramento. Pretty much, yeah. I fucked everything up. You know. We have the before Spencer and the after Spencer. Before Spencer, everything was great. After Spencer, just... Yeah, it was BS as hell. It's like, I moved in and everybody's lungs died. It's a mess. All our games broke down. The ball's rusted. You know, it was terrible.
    83:48
    JVP's got a teaser video up. Oh, excuse me. Show your words. Nothing. Trying to get a new Chicago. New technological advances. Rumor mill has that they're going to be putting bows, sound systems in their games.
    84:05
    Some kind of connectivity. I mean, there's supposedly, okay, a certain podcaster, fucking I'll name him, I listen to his show, Kaneda, has got pictures of the Guns N' Roses game, supposedly. And he says he's bitching. And they've got some new stuff. He does have a big boner for Guns N' Roses. Well, this isn't the first time that Bose has been put into a pinball machine.
    84:26
    Data East, I'm a fan of the operas, did a very small run with the Bose systems in there. Oh, really? Yeah, and Kerry Richards used to have one. and it sounded amazing. Now, granted, and Dan knows speakers as well, this is when Bose made good stuff. Bose right now... Back in the days when the 901 was real new and... No, the 901 was real new in like the 60s. Oh, really? Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. What's the little cube one with the big bass? The Acoustimass. I was stationed in Hawaii, and you know like, at the time, you know, you had stuff like good guys in Circuit City just coming around. We had our own across the street from Pearl Harbor on the Air Force Base. It was called the Sonic Boom. And, I mean, because you can just have dirt shoot there because there's no taxes, right? Was there a guy with, like, real long blonde hair working in there? There fucking was. It was Kyle. Yep, exactly. Sonic Boom. It was, like, nice thing. We're talking, like, 87. Oh! Oh, that's when Street Fighter came out? Yes. I remember going to the Pearl Ridge Mall in Pearl City, Hawaii, and playing Street Fighter, not Street Fighter 2, where you had the big pads, and you beat on them.
    85:49
    I was playing Pinball, and I was playing some other video games, and I saw all these kids gathered around the Street Fighter game. I was like, oh, yeah. It's 87, yeah. Yeah, it was 87.
    86:04
    We had the sonic boom. We're segwaying so badly. I'm segwaying so badly tonight. But I'm really glad. I don't even know what segway means. So that tells me how bad we're going to do. I'm a fucking train wreck. That word. I don't think you know what it means. And we'll get towards the end of the episode of the shout-outs. I'll get to it all. But, you know, with everything going on in the world, I just, I seriously, I just want to hug all of you. I'm so glad to have you here. I'm pretty sure we haven't offended, like, the four people who listened to the podcast. Yeah, right. They're probably just like, thank God, he's finally putting out a damn new episode. The dozens and dozens of the speakers. The Guns N' Roses is supposedly going to have a Bose speaker system. That's the rumor, you know. I get my rumors from Canada.
    86:47
    You know what, man? I dig his show. Even when he's going off on a rampage. You know, I like everybody's podcast, you know. So I listen to them all because I'm a load of my truck. The Deuce Bad Pinball Network. Happy members right here.
    87:02
    You know, I'm alone in my truck a lot. Like I said, we've been just, you know, with the lockdown and everything, man, business has been great. And the weather conditions and everything. When we had those few days of that 100-plus degree weather, things went insane. And, I mean, it was just like the phone would just ring. I mean, constantly my phone was going off. Can you catch one more emergency call while you're out in Antelope? Yep, I got it, you know.
    87:28
    But, yeah, anyway. But yeah, so, I mean, we know Guns N' Roses is coming. We don't know when, but it's coming soon, you know. We need to see. You know what? I really, really, I mean, I played a couple of games on the shows, and there was a club up in Oroville. When I first bought my first couple of games, it was really nice. A guy named Dave, really sweet guy. He came over. He helped me do some repairs. He showed me how to do basic repairs and maintenance. He was really nice, you know, to a new. And he had a Guns N' Roses. I went to his house, played a couple games. And Guns N' Roses he got for $400 because it needed a board. This was 2008. Yeah, smoking deal. 2007 maybe.
    88:22
    2007, yeah. Yeah, he got a bunch of games like that from an old operator. And then I played yours a bunch. That is a fantastic game, the Daddy's Scones and Roses. It's jam-packed. It's one of their best games.
    88:36
    Dan, I sold mine. It was the second game I ever bought. I had it for 15 or 16 years before I sold it.
    88:49
    And I really don't miss it. It's been on the butt in my garage for almost a year now. I don't miss it. it's going towards a good thing and I was actively going to trade it for like a Houdini I still would have done said I still would have done it Yeah we talked about that event It a good game It fun and it staying local and you guys can still play it And it's a good game, and mine was in reasonably good shape. The play field was one of the nicer ones I've seen. Yeah. And Mike's got it, and it's – Yours was great. Yeah, it's definitely a fun game. And the next tournament, we'll probably be playing it. Well, he took the massive stub that was underneath it, too. I made him. Not enough. Dan was there. No, I'm excited to see Guns N' Roses. I mean, don't get me wrong, man. Guns N' Roses is a great game, and I'm sorry to see it go. I'm glad that it went where it went. I am not going to miss moving that heavy son of a bitch. Yeah, that's definitely a... That thing is definitely Star Trek The Next Generation. You know, people bag on some data east. You know, I just... My Royal Rumble. That is an underrated, fantastic game. Lyman did the code on it. Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! Dude, that game's got so much going for it. Man, I got a slim jim all of a sudden. And you know what? Make the tag! And a great cool little feature with both Guns N' Roses, because that was the last two data East games was Royal Rumble and Guns N' Roses, is there's a captive ball that you hit, and it hits up into the pop bumper. And that's how it scores. Oh, that was one of my favorite shots in Guns N' Roses. The one thing I never did is... The match scoring. Yeah. No, no. Match scoring is the loops. The Duff targets are in there. The one thing I never did in my game that I wish I did is I should have put a Powerball in there. Because when I first got that game, you know, I barely knew Dan. I think Dan got one right around the same. No, it was right when you got your Twilight Zone, I think. So you got that Guns N' Roses right before I did. Yeah. And then, you know, and I was like, oh, you've asked for it. Because it was a good buy. I mean, Guns N' Roses were not super expensive then. and then 1600, 1700 and then I got my Guns N' Roses yeah Karamorb is what I think but yes yeah I got my Guns N' Roses from a similar deal it was like a weird like a three way trade and so I you know alright I got a Guns N' Roses it's awesome and yeah fucking you know they were around and you know they were super cool games and mine eventually ended up with I traded mine for Simpsons Pinball Party which I thought was a great trade and then it ended up going to Cary Richards for a while and then God knows where it ended up after that Was it Simpsons? No, Simpsons was Justin's for a long time. I sold that shirt to Justin for a wink and a smile, and then he had it for years and years and years, and then he eventually sold it off. I was a little bitter he sold it off. I think he now has another one. The thing with my strings with Data East, and I've now worked through three of them extensively, like lots and lots of work, is that they play great once you get them kind of dialed in. I hate using that term, but two were dialed in. You know, when I first got my Guns N' Roses, the pop bumpers were normal Day to East pop bumpers. The ball would hit it, nothing would happen. It was garbage. I got them adjusted, and they'd lose the adjustment. I ended up swapping out spoons. Way back then, there was Day to East spoons you could buy in valleys, or Williams, and they were different sizes. Now I think they just have the straight Williams-style spoons. and if I remember it, the Williams ones are slightly shallower. And once I put those into the game, I got way more activity. You know, the duff, you had to adjust the switches so the ball would, the screen would actually work. Right. They just took a little bit more work to get to play as good as the Williams that I had at the time played with a lot less attention to detail. I've gone two down east, the Royal Rumble, which is the first GMT game I ever bought, and it was the third game I ever owned. And then the fourth game was Lethal Weapon 3, which I think I paid $800 for at the time. And it had some GI issues, and then that guy Dave came over and helped me figure them out. And both of them played great. I paid $1,200 for that Royal Rumble at the time. Bought it from an older couple up in Red Bluff. Could add it for a few years.
    93:11
    It was clean. It played great. I wouldn't say it was collector quality, but it was very nice. And that's the one I traded straight across for the Lord of the Rings. Because the guy hated Lord of the Rings and loved wrestling. That happens sometimes. Yeah.
    93:28
    We had Lord of the Rings that didn't used to be expensive. It was a heavily rattled Lord of the Rings. They were coming off of it. It was a heavily rattled Lord of the Rings. But it was still in nice shape. The cabinet had some dings and scratches, some pretty good dings and scratches. The head looked like somebody ran it through a narrow doorway about eight times. It'll fit this time. No shit, right? But, I mean, it was solid in the plate filler size. Everything worked. It was full LED. It had the aftermarket little guides, like on the Path of the Dead, so where it went all the way down and just dropped off.
    94:03
    You know, it was fantastic. But, yeah, man, I mean, you know, time and money and down the road, I'd love to have Guns N' Roses, and I'd love to have another Royal Rumble. That is a fun game with a great rule set. My last one I have, you guys know, is Tommy. I love Tommy.
    94:26
    It's absolutely the hardest game I've ever owned. Your Tommy's great. I've never got him on the high score line. But I got a real, real nice Tommy, and it plays great, but it's going to be the one I have to sell because I'm not going to miss it. If I said to sell my Whirlwind, I would miss it. If I sold my Funhouse, that means I have a terminal disease. Yeah, I know. Don't sell your Whirlwind. Don't sell your Funhouse. I'm not selling Whitewater. So, Tommy's the next on the list. If you sell Whitewater, you have sell to me. It's not for sale. I know, but I'm just saying, if you do have to do it, just tell me.
    95:00
    I'll miss Tommy. Mine's great. I'll save that one. Mine's great, and I put a... I thought about saving Guns N' Roses, and at the end of the day, you know... What do you think is a good surprise for your Tommy? 32, 34. There you go. Mine? Four. Four, okay. It's unfaded. It's undrilled. That play field is immaculate, and I hate that turn, too, but you guys have all seen it. Oh, yeah. It's nice. Yeah. My Tommy came out nice.
    95:27
    The shooter lane was professionally repaired. Your Tommy is like the least janky Tommy. Well, I remember how much work I had to put into it. Oh, I know. The blinders worked. Oh, yeah. The spinners actually spin and don't stop the ball.
    95:43
    It took a lot of work to get it to work right, but I got a good deal on it, and it came out nice. It has the topper.
    95:49
    You know, and that's the one I'm going to have to sell next. I'm going to miss it. But, you know, it is what it is.
    95:55
    If I want another one, I can always find it, but it's going to take a lot of work to get to play how mine does.
    96:02
    You had the original Rob in that, right? You don't have to, like, Michael had Michael Hosier. No, I kept the original ROM in there. He had the aftermarket, which is cool, too. The aftermarket ROM, the only reason I would have got the aftermarket ROM. So there's the Greg Preach. The only reason I would have got the aftermarket ROM is because it makes way more use of the blinders. And let's be honest, that's one of the best integration toys from a theme for a pinball machine that's ever been done. Yeah. I'm like, you know, I honestly played it more with the blinders completely on all the time than I did normally. Dude, yeah, the Blinder challenge is pretty fucking fun. I was going to start by an extra ball one. Yeah, that's the only reason I would have got it was because it integrates it more. I'm not a big fan of some of these ROM updates where the simple thing is they increase the scoring so you can get a high score easier. I think it's a cop-out. Usually what you're seeing them do is they're adding more randomness. Like, there's a lot of games that have, like, Roadshow. Yeah, and Roadshow was great. Yeah, Jurassic Park, you know. Roadshow, though, didn't change the amount of, didn't it change the scoring of this game? So they randomized. Yeah, so, you know, the very linear games are a little bit less linear. Yeah. And a lot of the games, honestly, they reduce the scoring so that they're not so unbalanced. I know that there's some creature custom ROMs, like tournament ROMs, so just, I mean, it's fine. But I'm not putting in tournament ROMs, you know, like that. Yeah.
    97:28
    Come on. Yeah, Davey's games are great. I love them. you know, and the only part, the only bad side about the games, besides the amount of work they take to get to play as nice as a newer game, is that parts are more expensive. Yeah. Like, yeah. Oh, yeah, what's his name was selling my, uh, my last action hero. Yeah, I remember you mentioned that. I think you were selling it for less than he bought it from you for, too. Really? So, if anyone's looking for a good deal on a beautiful action hero. Okay, you pick that up here at my house, and I don't know what he paid you for it. Yeah. Wait, was like, Who'd you sell your last action hero to? Was it? Patrick something of the other. Was it $2,500? Patrick, uh... I think it was a... Patrick and Oakland? No. Woodland. Oh, Woodland? Dude from Woodland. Oh. Yeah. He was selling that, and he was selling a Dread. Oh, okay. I saw that. Yeah. The Dread was a little... a little on the high side, although it came with a lot of nice stuff. It has a Dead World mod. Is there any Judge Dread out there that doesn't have the Dead World mod? Yeah. There's a lot. Really? Topper. I think the game's better without the Dead World mod. I'm going straight on it. It plays better with the L7 ROM, but the Dead World mod is cool, and, you know, I have it in mind. But, yeah, I think that the game actually plays better. In fact, it plays better if you just bypass that entirely, and the game will never go down into the actual planet. Because that just slows the game down. It does virtual locks anyway. Right. so, you know, Judge Dredd is just a way faster, better game when it doesn't use the dead ball. But, the dead ball's the eye candy. You know, it's got the balls that orbit the planet. It's so neat. The crane is just a magnet on a stick but it works good. It's so cool. That's not the Easter Bunny, that's just a magnet on a stick.
    99:18
    That's just a guy in a suit. No, Dan's right. A scooter is a sailboat. It plays better without it, but it's just so cool. the dead world mod's cool and I'm glad that you kept it in there even after the headaches well because Martin basically told me in no uncertain terms he's like oh the hell with that yeah he's over you know for the guy who makes the dead world mod or the company the mayor owns the company who makes the dead world mod like he's in my game like an even short little guy and so he's like got his legs basically hanging out of it and he's like you got a paper cup oh never mind here's a piece of wire and he like rips it off and this dude's like a rocket scientist like he makes rockets and he's like stabbing things And he's like, okay, it's this. And he gives me the thing, and, you know, I run over, I have it fixed, put it in, and everything works. And I was like, Martin, you're a miracle worker. And then he took my Optos to fix them, and he still got them, but that was like five years ago. But, you know, he gave me the advice that, you know, I've given to everybody who's ever had trouble with that dead world. It's like, look, if the Optos work, the mod works. Your Optos have to work, because that's how the game knows where the ball is. If your Optos are clunky, mod doesn't work. So everyone's like, oh, my op-ed was working. Does the mod work? No. Then you're missing an op-ed. Something's wrong. I'm with two mods right now. Not about the Dead World mod. Although I'm like, oh, I want to play one without the Dead World mod. Because most of my play has been with the Dead World mod. Yeah.
    100:42
    Just to keep us going, just talking about random shit. There you go. Or to cut this show off at the legs. Because we're at 140. I'll give an update when you're done. What was that? I can do an update on what I'm working on when you're done.
    100:59
    I've got a lot on the plate. There you go. Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah. You had two beers, man. You are definitely not going to do a lot. Dude, I'm Irish. I can't hold my liquor.
    101:15
    And I'm tired. It's been a long day. So I'm up early and running to the dump. You were talking like we were going to be drinking, you know, dumpster fires. Oh, dude, I have a fully stocked liquor cabinet. During the zombie apocalypse, I, okay, leave me alone. We're not going to live, but we're not going to be sober enough to know that we're dead. Listen, getting the COVID cash and then let me go to the fucking grocery store and I'm hungry, bad fucking idea. Because, like, that old joke about being the proud owner of aisle seven, I literally am the proud owner of aisle fucking seven. I just started buying random shit. it's actually, we've got it down now because we haven't got a job going on. Stop, stop, stop. You didn't buy a pinball because of your COVID money. Yeah, me and my COVID mate didn't buy a pinball. Alright, moving on. We fully I took the ad to Total Wine and War Cup. No getting them on track. We restocked the liquor cabinet big time. Total Wine.
    102:14
    The pinball machine. We're going to get to shout outs and thank yous. Who wants to start? I thought Brian was saying something about things he was working on. Oh, well, okay, Brian, things you're working on, then shout-outs. So I guess the project that's almost done is I have Henry Nanjo's Star Wars trilogy.
    102:32
    Originally it was going to be just plain polish the ramp, and then when I took off the ramp, I realized, like, you could see the plate a little bit more clear. It was an absolutely just dirty mess. Became a shop job, plain polish the ramps, waiting. Eric Siefert is doing a weld job for me, so thank you, Eric, for all your hard work on that. He is a righteous dude. For the kick-out. And he did it on the show. I started reassembling it, and it was being held on by like a wink and a smile. All the welds are broken. We found by looking at it, it was actually two spot welds were missed when they originally built it. Holy shit. Good Sega quality right there. And then a repaint on the front for where the lockdown bar holes were. That's been a headache with the COVID because with all the stores closed, trying to match paints has been difficult. I don't have the right colors.
    103:21
    In a lot of places like Michael's we're doing in-store, you go and pick up, but they won't let you into the store. And I need to go with a picture of the paint colors I need to see if they have it. I can't just guess. No, Brian, you're not doing it right. What you need to do is you need to show up with a hand truck and a pinball machine and go, hey, can I get this? I actually was going to break out just the front of the game and glue it back in. I hope Henry didn't notice.
    103:42
    So that's almost done. Dan dropped off his World Cup soccer for a repaint in a shop. That was going great until I injured myself and I got to relearn how to paint with my right hand. But Dan seeing the side I did get done came out amazing.
    103:58
    A quick touch-up. And mostly it's going to be Ryan's favorite shop because it's mostly just a new part installed.
    104:05
    Yeah. In fairness, man, if you haven't seen Dan's World Cup, then you're not local. or if you aren't, if you're not, if you aren't called in, if you want to see this play. It is a good play. It's a real nice, it's a solid play. It's a solid playing world. It's a solid player grade game, but it's going to be a nice player grade game when we're done with it. There'll be some touch-ups to be done. Still working on the heavy metal meltdown. I got one side, just airbrushed on that spin on hold because I, again,
    104:34
    I can't airbrush it. I got to learn how to airbrush with my right hand. I thought it'd be a very easy thing to learn how to do. And M-Ab is underway.
    104:42
    What's that? And HMM is underway. Yeah, I started the board work on that. And RBG is G-O-N-E. And then I'm going to be bringing over Delos Derson to have him get that back up and running again. Well, as soon as the scoop kick out is done, then Henry's game will be playable, and it's just the front touch-up part. And that just may be I go over to his house with the paint and I do it. The holes are all patched. It's smooth. It's ready to go. It's just matching. the brown I think I got is getting that bronze gold kind of reflective paint to match which has proven to be a royal pain in the butt I think what you should do is get like some Jar Jar Binks stickers and just use the means that cover up holes, slap a couple of those suckers down and done it's just it doesn't look right, I've gotten the colors, I've put them on there it was close but it just it's off and it looks weird and you'll get it On Dan's game, I started on the left side, and it was just hard to do it. Can you get those at the hobby shop? They don't have acrylics. Oh. And I use acrylics because I can wipe them off if I fuck up. Right. And that's the problem.
    105:55
    Dan, I was working on the other side of it, and I was getting brush strokes, so I couldn't paint on and not leave brush strokes with my right hand. Yeah. So, excuse me, I have to learn how to paint. I've been doing that all my... What, brush strokes with your right hand? No, burping, yeah. He's been stroking with his right hand all right. Hello!
    106:15
    And I did finally get the Funhouse trapdoor fixed, so it actually comes off the right amount, which I'm happy with. Funhouse?
    106:22
    Dan, it's so nice now. Even that little leaf bubble going there now, it's like where it hits the door and gets stuck. It's so nice. Even though my game's a total beater, and I did do a quick wipe down of the plate, too, and that rag came out black. You ever see a total beater in what I've seen it shows or on location as total beaters? That's hard. My funhouse is pretty well beat. Dude, his funhouse is beat, but it's beat in, like, the way that it looks like it's supposed to be. Yeah. Like, it's very decrepit looking. It's still a nice funhouse. Yeah. I think that we should, like, clear coat it like that so it always looks beat up and make, like, a super evil looking trans light. like it looks all broken down and graffitied and the people look evil and insane and it'd be like a nasty evil funhouse but he's got all the parts to actually make it nice someday so what a shame. Yeah, that's kind of where it sits. Don't you have a new play field for that? Got a new play field, got a new artwork. Murko or? No, you have a Chicago IPB style. I have an OG IPB it's dimpled, I have to do the T-nuts still the story with that is when what happened is when I started looking for one originally I got my fun house and then there was nothing available and then one year they did overlays and so I got an overlay like dirt cheap somehow and I still have the overlay and I was like okay I bought a used playfield for like a hundred dollars on eBay and I was my idea was I was going to sand it and then do the overlay and back then the thought for an overlay was you would cut it up like into thirds or sixths or whatever. You lay down those individual pieces, let it cure them. Then you do the clear coat and you wouldn't have so many issues. Ah. I don't know if that works or not. I never really followed up on it because shortly after I got the overlay, the repros came out.
    108:12
    And what ended up happening is Steve Ligoria got, he put in a repo play field through IPB, never heard back, bought another one and they find it like, hey, you want this other play field? And he got it and I purchased it through him. Nice. He was my second play field to do the mapping of all the top and bottom holes and everything and then transfer it on to mine. Wow. And so it's just waiting for me to really my skill level to get ready to do that. And right now it's just a matter of space. We need room and rotisserie. Yeah, I need two rotisseries and I need space. Did you not want to start with that one? Oh, Whitewater's first. Because I love Whitewater, but Funhouse is a keeper. So I will learn on Whitewater and the mistakes I make on Whitewater, I'll make sure I don't make on Funhouse. Nice. But, you know, I didn't really start on Funhouse. Because I still remember when Adam bought that Mirko. He came back from Arcade Expo with the Mirko Funhouse. I was like, oh, my God, that looks beautiful. He got it in the game. It's beautiful. Remember that the first Mirko run they did was like a quarter inch too long. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, people were having to cut them down or sand them down or something like that.
    109:28
    But mine's absolutely beautiful. It's been in the closet four years. Puring? Very nice. Well, I believe Tom Cruise actually uses it as like a bed mirror, I think.
    109:43
    Is he still in your house, Dale? Tom, please don't sue me. I want to see Top Gun 2 real bad. It'll be nice when it gets done. You know, the only thing I don't have for it is I don't have a reproduction Translight, because when they first released those, they were garbage. And then for a hot second, really nice ones came out, and they sold out immediately. I know now they have back glasses, but back glasses give me a heart attack, as Dan knows.
    110:09
    We'll see. Man, I'm so pissed off the subject on the back glass thing. Like, for a minute, they were making back glasses for Indiana Jones and for Creature, and now they're gone already. Already? They sold out. They didn't sell out. Something happened with the license. Yeah. But we'll see. It'll get done sooner or later. You know, that's my definite I will never sell game. I will sell every other game I have before I sell that fun house. It's just my favorite game, and it was my first game. First game laughed out. Yeah. That's been. Well, you can't sell all your games now. My first game was a $100 Gottlieb pinball pool system one. Because I played it as a kid in the arcade. Yeah. Pinball pool. And I got it for $100, and, like, the faces on the play film half of them were gone. It was terrible.
    110:55
    I had a blast playing it, though, you know, so. Well, that's how most, you know, most people get started. It's like they buy that beater game and, you know, let's get back into the world. Adam's first game was whodunit. Yeah. God, I love that game. Yeah, me too. That is a good first game. We've all thought on it, and everyone else is like, whoops. Yeah, I've got a whole one, but that's one I want to get and keep. Yeah, Henry's is really nice. The problem with having whodunit, though, is it doesn't stay playable forever.
    111:25
    Dan, you and I have discussed this. I love the theme, and I love the music. No, me too. That Bill Noir thing does it for me. No, me too, and that's why I had it. That's why it stayed as long as it did. But the problem with that game is just it is not a game that, like, you can keep going back to. That would be like Sullivan game.
    111:43
    Yeah. And very awkward. It could have been so good. It really could have been so good with just like a little more code. Well, they could always do a re-team to L.A. North. That would be fucking fantastic. Or just something you can write to Kevin. That's a great game.
    111:59
    It's just not popular enough, and they only made a couple few thousand. Yeah, they're not exactly. Yeah, it's not a tech you guys call who played it or who bought it. That's right. Back in the day, before pinball took off, there was a bunch of games that were on that list. They were considered dogs and stinkers. That's rad. The old thing was the really bad games, and you might remember this, Dan, they disemboweled them. And when you posted on RGP, you put stars where the vowels were.
    112:27
    And that's how bad the game was. It was like who played it. There's a bunch of them. But who played this one I remember the most? Popeye. I love that game because we have one at Sunrise, not Sunrise, but at Roosevelt Balls. Yeah. Like a really nice brand new one. and it was working and so I played that shit there all the time. When I had a chance to own one when I started buying pinball machines, you know, I could fucking, I can have a whodunit, so I bought one. Yeah, it was great. And yeah, we played the shit out of it, but mostly I did because I think Will was much more into dread and just eventually it was just at the point where like I could just stand there and just be like, someday we'll come in some real money and he'll have a dread and his life will be perfect. He doesn't want a dread, he wants a Rob Zombie. And there was a Rob Zombie in Utah like for $4,500. And I just texted that to him and he was just like, someday, man. I was like, they're getting cheaper. Yeah, I like that game. Rob Zombie's so good. I like that game. Alright, guys, we're at nearly two hours. We have an hour to go. Yeah, there we go. You ain't quitting the midnight game? I don't know. Well, the fireworks started again, so we're obviously I noticed that. But the wind died. At 1130, lock is lit. Lock is lit. And so am I. Let's wrap it up, boys. I love that. Rick and Morty. He says that. All right. And so am I. Oh, well, you guys go ahead with shout-outs and thank yous. I've got mine. Shout-outs to the people at Spooky Pinball for making an awesome Rick and Morty game. Damn right. Oh, a new code update is great. I watched Carl D'Angelo on IE Pinball play it. It's terrific. I don't have any shout-outs. And good to see everybody, too. It's good that everything's slowly coming back to normal. Yep. You know, and be safe and have some fun. Shout-out to Brian for working incredibly slowly on my game so I don't have to find a spot for it.
    114:36
    And for helping me extract that Star Trek and letting me have him set up at his house. Man, it was going like fire at that paint job until I screwed up my arm, too. I had the entire right side done like in three days, and everything was going great, and then my normal bullshit caught up.
    114:55
    It happens. I'll just give an update. I don't know how to have a shout-out or thank you with the world being crazy.
    115:04
    I'll just say, everybody, you know what, man? It's just the easiest thing in the world to do is just treat other people like you want to be treated and just, you know, be kind and nice to each other. But I'll give you an update because we talked about it before on the show. You know, my wife, Mary Ann Rusty, has been battling cancer.
    115:22
    She's been doing immunotherapy. The treatment's going really well. Her doctor's been grinning ear to ear because the progress he's seen has been amazing as far as shrinking the tumors. it's immunotherapy and there's two different chemicals or products that she's been given. I can't remember the names of them now, but one of them it actually literally says on the label human programmed death receptor, which should be a name of a metal band which is reacting but it does have its share of side effects and they're giving her other medications to counteract those But she's doing really well And I want to thank everybody for their well wishes And you know We're doing good And you know Why is he moving along Seth you know his birthday is Monday We have his party today The boys are growing and doing really good Hey fireworks And my dog is out underneath the couch Yeah right So thank you guys for supporting us And tuning into the show I want to thank the round table crew for showing up tonight and, you know, still sore at social distancing. Alex, move a foot over. Kidding.
    116:44
    Breathe in on me, Alex. We really put literally no effort into this. I wrote up the topics in about five minutes while I was getting the oven preheated for the baked potatoes.
    116:57
    This is going to have everybody over. Good to be back on the air. Four more minutes worth of planning than we put into most of these. Pretty much, yeah. So, you know what? As things are starting to return to a somewhat bit of normal, I strongly encourage you to go out and, you know, meet with friends, play pinball on location. More than ever, local mom and pop and family-owned businesses. Have more locations. Yeah, need your help, need your support.
    117:29
    Go out and put some money into the games. buy some food, buy some drinks get out and live your life I had an experience four years ago where I had a nasty flu bug, not COVID but I spent six weeks in the hospital after not missing a single day of work for ten plus years so just the worst thing I can see any human doing is living in fear don't, tomorrow is promised to no one so go out and live your life you know, don't be stupid, don't be reckless, but just live your life, man, and go out and do the things you want to do and hug your kids and your friends and play pinball. Keep America strong.
    118:17
    That's it, man. We're out. We'll see you all soon. Go out and play some pinball. Yep, there we go. We'll see you next time.