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Arcades Across America Part 6 - Coe from the Quarter Drop Arcade - Episode 57

JBS Show·podcast_episode·56m 42s·analyzed·Mar 14, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Arcade operators discuss first-location success, community building, and expansion strategies.

Summary

Jamie Burchill (Wormhole Pinball) and Coe (Quarter Drop Arcade, Cottage Grove, Oregon) discuss their arcade operations and community impact. Coe reports exceptional success in his first seven weeks of operation, attributing it to a balanced mix of pinball, classic arcade, and redemption machines, real quarters/tickets, and strong community support. Jamie discusses the Twippies awards event he hosted in Houston, lessons learned, and plans to potentially expand the Wormhole with additional locations or regular operating hours.

Key Claims

  • Quarter Drop Arcade went through 300,000 tickets in a week and a half due to unexpectedly high traffic

    high confidence · Coe directly states he had 300,000 tickets before opening, went through them in a week and a half, and had to turn off SpongeBob and Wintersweel due to ticket shortages

  • Redemption machines are essential to arcade success; without them, Quarter Drop would not be viable

    high confidence · Coe explicitly states: 'I can tell you 100 if i didn't have the redemption stuff in my arcade, the quarter drop arcade would not be successful. That period.' Compares Turbo OutRun at $10/week vs SpongeBob at $800/week

  • Quarter Drop is booked 2-3 months out for birthday parties

    high confidence · Coe: 'Birthday parties at the quarter drop. I'm booked like two, three months out already'

  • Jamie spent approximately 40 hours building OBS scenes for the Twippies event

    high confidence · Jamie: 'what's so funny about the Twippies itself, Ralph, I spent, and I'm not joking, probably 40 hours building OBS scenes'

  • Twippies event experienced multiple technical failures: Xfinity outage, YouTube sent stream to wrong link, Twitch was having an outage simultaneously

    high confidence · Jamie details: internet outage, YouTube routing error, Twitch outage all occurred during the live event

  • Wormhole is currently only open 3 days per month for tournaments and relies heavily on rental income

    high confidence · Jamie: 'we're only open three days a month for tournaments and then we're available for rentals. And if you look at what our cash flow situation is, rentals are very, very important for us'

  • A major consulting firm offered three team-building event options (pickleball, pinball, shooting) and 30 people chose pinball

    high confidence · Jamie describes corporate rental where consulting firm offered three options and 'Every one of them to a person when they came when they were done with their event here' chose pinball

Notable Quotes

  • “It's better than I could have ever imagined at the Quarter Drop Arcade on multiple fronts. I'm way busier than I ever thought possible”

    Coe @ early in episode — Establishes the exceptional success of the new arcade venue in a small town

  • “I can tell you 100 if i didn't have the redemption stuff in my arcade, the quarter drop arcade would not be successful. That period.”

    Coe @ mid-episode — Core business insight about arcade profitability and operational viability; directly contradicts arcade purist philosophy

  • “I spent, and I'm not joking, probably 40 hours building OBS scenes”

    Jamie @ Twippies discussion — Highlights the significant production work required for the awards event and creator burnout challenges

  • “There's a day and a half where I had to turn off SpongeBob and Wintersweel because I didn't have enough tickets”

    Coe @ operational challenges section — Illustrates supply chain vulnerability and unpredicted demand intensity

  • “Do you like money? Yeah. Do you want the arcade to be successful and you can do redemption stuff?”

    Coe @ advice to prospective arcade owners — Direct, pragmatic business philosophy about balancing operator preference with customer demand

  • “Not only do I want to serve my community, that is super important, but I want to create something that's not just an ordinary arcade. There's something special about the quarter drop”

    Coe @ destination arcade discussion — Articulates the mission of creating a 'destination' venue rather than just a machine collection

  • “Every one of them to a person when they were done with their event here...can't wait for the next conference to come to Houston”

    Jamie @ corporate rental discussion — Demonstrates commercial success of pinball as team-building experience and Wormhole's revenue model

Entities

CoepersonJamie BurchillpersonQuarter Drop ArcadevenueWormhole PinballvenueTwippieseventRetro RalphpersonRachel

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Corporate team-building pinball events are significant revenue driver for venue operations; pinball selected over competing activities (pickleball, shooting) by 100% of 30-person consulting firm group

    high · Jamie: consulting firm offered three options, 'Every one of them to a person...chose the pinball' and clients want to return for future conferences

  • ?

    business_signal: Wormhole Pinball shifting from limited tournament-only hours (3 days/month) toward potential expanded operating schedule; exploring multiple building locations for growth

    medium · Jamie discusses 14,000 sq ft building 'maybe going on the back burner' and considering second location strategy; considers Friday/Saturday/Sunday opening schedule

  • ?

    business_signal: Real quarters and real ticket systems are operationally critical for retro arcade success and customer satisfaction; customers actively avoid venues without these tactile elements

    high · Coe identifies use of real quarters and real tickets as 'key things' that made arcade successful; kids 'have never even seen real tickets before' and become 'addicted to getting these tickets'

  • ?

    business_signal: Quarter Drop Arcade reported exceptional first-seven-weeks performance with sustained high traffic and booked birthday parties 2-3 months in advance, indicating strong market demand for destination arcade venues in small towns

    high · Coe: 'It's better than I could have ever imagined' and 'I'm booked like two, three months out already' for birthday parties; mentions being 'slammed packed arcade from open to close'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.170

0:00
Welcome to Wormhole Pinball Presents and part six of our podcast series. we call arcades across america and i'm your host jamie birchall of the wormhole let's start off we had a guest today co but they canceled so you know what this works better for us because we have to catch up my friend we haven't talked in way too long of a time i'm talking of course to co from the quarter drop arcade in cottage grove oregon how are you my friend we have been too We have not even talked at all. I know. How have you been? It's wild. Jamie and I normally talk quite a bit. We have texted a few times, but not like we normally do. And it's because we're both swamped right now at the moment, which is good. Oh, my God. Today is March 11th. We record on Tuesdays for Warm Up and Mo Presents, and this will be on on Friday. But the last two months, we went from texting and talking multiple times a week to maybe once a week because we're swamped. So tell me right now, how are things at the Quarter Drop Arcade, my friend?
1:29
Jamie, it's better than I could have ever imagined at the Quarter Drop Arcade on multiple fronts. I'm way busier than I ever thought possible because it's a small town, Cottage Grove. And I thought, oh, people are going to really enjoy this arcade. And, you know, people will be coming in and out and having a good time. I had no idea that it would be absolutely swamped the way it is. like i get slammed from like sometimes like sunday uh just uh two days ago i open the doors people pour in and all day long we were slammed packed arcade from open to close and it's wild and also i'm enjoying like the operation side of it more like i didn't know like how much am i gonna like this is this gonna be crazy i love it it's fun i'm like you know hosting a party all the time And it's really cool. So what we thought today is that we're going to update each other. We're going to kind of interview each other today, Coe. And very impromptu. No script, no nothing. We're just going to talk about what's going on at the quarter drop, what's going on at the wormhole. And a lot of progress has been made since we started this ridiculous podcast. Absolutely. Nine months ago. Has it been nine months? I think so. Yeah. Since we started our first one with Emoto and Rachel and Cale. And I know people are eager for this episode Because they've been messaging me And they've been messaging me at all They've been messaging me as well And so we didn't have one last month Because we had a little thing In Houston called the Twippy So that was a little busy And you had a little thing called opening the quarter drop Two months ago Just a little busy Please understand folks that we're trying We are like 100% on board with making these episodes But we've just both got hit real hard at the same time, which is amazing. And congratulations on the Twippies, by the way. I want to congratulate you, the team, everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. And I'm so happy that you guys got to host it. And seeing you with Retro Ralph and Eric Winnick-Anthony and Colin and Ian Jacoby. I mean, what an all-star group of people that you put together. Thank you. Yeah, it was really great. It was really great. Let's talk about it for a little bit. Yeah. Because we'll give you some behind the scenes, right?
person
Barrels of Funcompany
Legends Arcadevenue
Shilohperson
Travis Mosemanperson
Electric Bat Arcadevenue
Russell Schruteperson
Erin Winning Anthonyperson
Colinperson
Ian Jacobyperson
Aaronperson
Eureka Heights Breweryvenue
Cottage Grove, Oregonlocation
Houstonlocation

event_signal: Barrels of Fun manufacturer tour and D&D launch party (65 attendees) integrated into Twippies weekend, suggesting coordination between manufacturers and major community events

high · Jamie mentions 'Barrels of Fun, we had a tour on Saturday' and 'we had a D&D launch party with 65 people showed up at Eureka Heights Brewery'

  • ?

    community_signal: Arcade operator network providing mutual business advice, supplier recommendations, and operational mentoring; successful venues sharing proprietary knowledge with aspiring operators

    high · Coe receives calls from prospective arcade owners seeking advice; connected with Legends Arcade for ticket supplier; references James at Vintage Vault, Mike at Flipper Room for problem-solving support

  • $

    market_signal: Destination arcade venue model gaining traction; small-town arcades positioning as regional tourist attractions with curated machine mix, event hosting, and community impact strategy

    high · Both Jamie and Coe explicitly discuss building 'destination' venues: Jamie on Wormhole, Coe on Quarter Drop. Comparison points: Electric Bat (Arizona), Pastimes (Ohio)

  • ?

    event_signal: Twippies 2025 experienced significant technical production challenges (Xfinity outage, YouTube routing failure, simultaneous Twitch outage) but event was perceived as successful by community; organizers planning structural improvements for 2026 including dedicated producer role

    high · Jamie spent 40 hours on OBS setup; multiple simultaneous platform failures occurred; planning debrief with Colin, Ralph, Aaron, Ian to improve workflow

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator network effect: both Coe and Jamie report increased professional connections and business opportunities directly attributable to podcast/social media presence; arcade operator referral network strengthened through public content

    high · Jamie: 'it's amazing that we met...nine months ago...our networks have increased from this podcast...and getting advice from them and giving advice to them'; Coe gets calls from prospective operators due to podcast visibility

  • ?

    product_strategy: Barrels of Fun maintaining strict confidentiality on next IP project; security protocols include NDAs even with industry insiders; next project different from Labyrinth IP

    high · Jamie after Barrels tour: 'what we got to see is something pretty rare that they might want to look at that's all I can really say I won't press yeah because I don't want to lose my house'

    • 3:52
    We had like a weekend, an amazing weekend, Coe, because, you know, next year it'll be even bigger. So I, you know, just have to pitch it a little because it's such a great event that we're going to have again next year. Good. But even more stuff like we had a breakfast at Russell Schrute's house. It was amazing. I saw some footage of that. Man, dude, his house is Legit Shit You know, if you geek on collections Of like the last five to ten years Of brand new machines This guy is Almost unmatched And his topper game is so strong I saw that, I was impressed His topper game was bananas As someone that likes toppers And every machine in the quarter drop has a topper I appreciated that detail It was pretty cool and then we had a D&D launch party with 65 people showed up at Eureka Heights Brewery. That was crazy. And then Barrels of Fun, we had a tour on Saturday, and we got to see some secret stuff. I was just going to say I'm, like, so interested in what the next Ferrells machine is because I might be in the market for a pinball machine here pretty soon, and I'm kind of holding out because I'm thinking, boy, that labyrinth is a first offering from a company. I mean it's hard I can't believe how good of a job they did as far like a first launch I mean talk about solid now I'm like what is the next you know IP that they got I have no idea what we saw is not that their next IP co so what we got to see is something pretty rare that they might want to look at that's all I can really say I won't press yeah because I don't want to lose my house no no no no We want to support them in their privacy, their right to privacy. But at the same time, as a pinball geek, I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see what they do. I know Travis Moseman very, very well, and he's one of the head engineers, if not the head of engineering there. And he, you know, when he was working there, he was at my house for dinner, and he didn't even tell me that he was working there two years ago. So, I mean, he has been. Oh, wow. They're the most secretive group of individuals that you're ever going to meet, and there's no way we're going to find out until they're ready to let us know. I think that's the right move. I mean, with Labyrinth, it paid off because not only did they say, hey, we got this machine, but, hey, it's ready to go, and it's awesome.
    6:31
    I don't want to get a call to shill for barrels of fun like they do, but they are great. I have a great relationship with him and it was a great tour. And to meet David again and just good people.
    6:47
    And then we had the Twippies. And, you know, what's so funny about the Twippies itself, Ralph, I spent, and I'm not joking, probably 40 hours building OBS scenes.
    7:02
    Yes. And you know OBS. I do. So how I did it, Coe, is that I had it sequentially just perfect. I had the show just dialed in, right? Yes, dialed in. And we go in the intro. Everything's kicking ass. And all of a sudden, there's an internet outage of Xfinity, which is Comcast. Do you guys have Comcast up there? We do. I don't use Comcast, but we have Comcast. We do, unfortunately.
    7:33
    So there's your problem. Jiminy Christmas. I mean, I almost had a panic attack. Oh, I believe it. Yeah, of course. We were streaming. Also, YouTube screwed up and sent it to the wrong link. So we had to send out a YouTube link again because restream sucks.
    7:55
    And I'm trying not to use restreaming anymore, but that's a whole other thing. Yeah, yeah. And so anyway. You just streamed to YouTube, right? Did you not do the Twitch? Yeah, that's what we wound up doing. Okay. Because Twitch was having an outage at the same time. Wow. You know, sometimes all the planning in the world won't do you any good when it comes down to game day and stuff like that. But kudos to you guys. And I mean, this is like you had major problems, but you rallied and watching you interact with your co-host. I mean, I really enjoyed watching it. I thought it was great. You know what? I won't. talk about it a little bit. Here's the changes I'll make next year. One, I cannot produce and host. Yeah. So you're not texting when Richard Ralph wins an award? I can't be texting Carrie Hardy. Hey, dude, you better get on this show. Well, Ralph is talking about how thankful he is.
    8:53
    That's a mistake. But, so what we're going to do is I decided I'm definitely going to host. I had too much damn fun. And we're just going to have a producer sit right over here, and they'll do the scenes. They'll talk to us in our ears. We've got to get a bigger board.
    9:12
    Ian, when we reset the computer, it reset all of these things that we had made for Ian over here. And so that's why he had to keep bouncing behind us. Oh, yeah. I mean, it worked, but, yeah, that was nice. It worked. He was going to be the man on the street kind of thing. Yeah, but next year we've already figured out how to give him a roving mic, too. It's going to be really cool. It's good. Yeah. You know, year one was already great, but year two is going to be even better. Yeah. Okay, that's always how it works, right? Thank you for the kind words. I didn't look at any socials for two weeks.
    9:54
    Oh, yeah. I don't know. I haven't seen. And I heard it was pretty good. I think there was one guy posted the Twippy Suck and Pinball Enthusiast, and then he got hammered pretty good. That hurts. So that's – I don't want him getting hammered or anything. No, but, I mean, it's always going to be – Yeah, of course. I have to go with the positive. I know I get plenty of it too, and it's okay. Oh, I don't understand that either, right? Like how do we both get killed? We're pretty nice people, but it is – Well, I mean, overwhelmingly positive, but, you know, it's still. Well, thank you. Yeah, it was really great. I can't wait to do it again. In fact, we're doing a debrief with Colin Alzheimer, Ralph, Aaron, Ian. We're all doing it with Aaron.
    10:43
    Just a debrief on Thursday night, just so it's still fresh in our minds. What do we want to work on for 2025, you know, for 2026? What do we want to work on? What can we do better? all that so that because we're taking it seriously i think if anyone watched it and didn't think we were taking it seriously no they're wrong well and i know just from talking with you not you know offstring how seriously you take it yeah and it shows that you care and that's why you're doing and everyone that you assembled clearly cared i heard ralph talking about it and i know aaron cares, Ian cares. Erin was really great, you know, because she kept us in line, she kept us moving. You know, she's a professional, Erin Winning Anthony. Oh, clearly. Clearly. She really is. All right, let's switch to you, sir. Okay, sure. How many months has it been? Just quarter drop arcade and cottage grove. Week seven. Cottage grove, Oregon, week seven. I opened January 25th, 2025 and um it's just been everything i could have hoped for and more i mean people come in here and like they just thank me for like creating this space in our town where people can hang out because we don't have anything like this and they're like i hope you're just here for i hope you don't go out of business like that so they love it so much yeah they're supporting you yeah they're supporting and like we have a major construction going on right now on main street and people are like i came out specifically today because i want to support you during this construction and stuff like that i'm like oh that's so nice and i say well make sure you get a meal at one of the restaurants or go to the bookstore as well you know because those are i want to make sure that all the businesses on main street are getting supported because this is uh they're totally redoing main street uh repaving the road right uh breaking up the sidewalks and redoing those replanting all the landscaping and trees.
    12:48
    They're putting like gold flecks in the sidewalks to like honor our gold mining heritage here in town. So it's going to be really nice when it's all done. That's awesome. It's super cool. I mean, it's a little, you know, for some of the businesses, it's kind of been a pain point temporarily. But long term, it's going to be such an improvement.
    13:08
    And, yeah, people just pour in here. And there's several key things that I realized that I really it's so important that I did with the quarter job. But if I hadn't have done it, I don't think the arcade would be as successful. All right. Yeah. And this is I've been helping a lot of other like people message me and like they'll email me and say, I'm thinking about opening an arcade. Can I pick your brain? I'll say, just call me, you know, because it's easier to do that than write a novel. And I've been telling them the same thing. So one is the use of real quarters instead of the card system. That's really important. People love that. It's for a retro arcade. And that's going to be different for everybody, of course. But for a retro style arcade, people love the tactile nature and the use of real tickets. Kids come in here and they've never even seen real tickets before. And it like blows their mind and they love it. They addicted to getting these tickets and they run around the arcade with the big stacks of tickets and they like screaming and yelling look what I got jackpot got Jackpot Running around They just love it Oh you let kids run around That's, you know... Well, I can't either. Hall of Fame wouldn't like you. Okay, yeah. Well, if they get too crazy, we'll have to be like, okay, settle down. Sometimes they start, yeah, a little bit. For the most part, I let them have fun. And everything's carpeted. So that's good. so nothing no lock on wood nothing no injuries so good let's keep it that way i don't want insurance claims um and then having that mix of like classic machines pinball and the redemption stuff i feel like is i'm so thankful i did that because a lot of arcade purists they say oh i don't want the redemption stuff on the arcade right and i can tell you 100 if i didn't have the redemption stuff in my arcade, the quarter drop arcade would not be successful. That period.
    15:08
    Turbo OutRun might make $10 in a week. SpongeBob SquarePants might make $800 in a week. That's the difference between a classic machine. Yeah. Remember Rachel told you on episode one, you know, shout out to, you know, Rachel at Electric Bat. She said, get a redemption machine. It will outrun your pinball machines. She sure did. And it does. Pinball does well, which is nice. Yeah. So it's like redemption stuff does best. Pinball does second best drivers and shooters. And then the classic machines are important to have in the mix, like Miss Pac-Man and Centipede and area. You know, I have those machines and they people love them. They see them. They go, oh, my God, I remember that. And they put a couple quarters in and they play it. But then they go and spend 20 bucks on Godzilla. so that's the difference so I'm glad I have the mix and I'm glad I stuck to that and I've had a couple like people reach out and say they want to open arcades and two of them already have said I'm not going to do any redemption because I don't like redemption I said just so you know like I hear you do you like money? yeah do you want the arcade to be successful and you can do redemption stuff you don't have to be like kiddie casino with it. It doesn't have to be Dave and Buster's and Area and Round One. It doesn't have to be like that. You can do skill-based redemption machines. You can make sure that they're not, you know, some machines you set the payout, the win ratio, and you go to these big FECs and it might be play it 50 times and win one time. So there's ways to do it in which the customers having fun. The arcade's making money. It's a win-win-win.
    16:56
    And that's the machines people want to play. They want to play the claw machines. You know, they want to come in and try to win a plushie. So don't deprive your customer of something that they want, especially if you want the arcade to be well-rounded. Because the kids are going to play that, and the parents are going to play pinball on Ms. Pac-Man. Exactly. And that's, yeah, that's 100% true. The dad will be over there playing jaws the kids will be playing spongebob or the claw machines everyone's having fun and that's what you want you want people to come in and have a good time if i didn't have claw machines everyone would come in and be like where's your claw machines you know yeah so yeah so you know try to think not just what you want in the arcade but what everybody wants i want shinobi in the arcade so i have shinobi right and i and it's great i have a couple people that come in and just play that. It's like their favorite machine in the arcade. But it doesn't, it makes like $20, $30 a week or something. It doesn't make much. And that's okay. I like it. That's why it's there. So I try to, you know, you've got to find that balance and really think about what your customer wants. What are some of the challenges that you faced in your first seven weeks and maybe some challenges that you didn't think were going to happen that kind of crept up on you. Yeah, I had, I'd say that two major pain, well, three major pain points that I discovered right off the bat. One is I had no idea just how busy I would be. I set up the arcade to run by myself. I thought, oh yeah, I'll just, I'll streamline everything and I'll run it by myself. That's, that's no, I already have help. Thank you. That's good help too. You know, I'm so thankful for Shiloh, who helps me at Tar Cane, because she's amazing. And without her, I would be really stressed, because it's a lot. You know, you might have five people waiting to get their tickets redeemed at the prize counter. And then, you know, ticket mechs or coin mechs are getting jammed. So I'm working on the floor, and you got people turning in their prizes. So help was necessary. You needed Shiloh. Yeah, I needed. And I got a lot of resumes, but I wasn't getting resumes from someone that I thought would be actual beneficial help to the arcade in the way that I needed.
    19:16
    And until Shiloh came in, I'm like, she gets it. Perfect. And she does. Yeah. She used to work at like video rental stores and stuff like that. Oh, laundry mats. Yeah. So she gets it. And it's just a gift. She can help out. Yeah. good help is hard to find man I'm a recruiter yeah you know and then I didn't realize just the sheer amount of tickets I would go through so I had 300,000 tickets before I opened up I went through those that seems like an exorbitant amount I went through them in a week and a half that's how busy I was that first week can you believe that and I wasn't prepared for it And I ordered tickets. As soon as I realized, uh-oh, this is a problem, I ordered tickets. They didn't arrive. There was a day and a half where I had to turn off SpongeBob and Wintersweel because I didn't have enough tickets.
    20:16
    There's nothing I can do. And then I realized this supplier that I was going through, I wasn't happy with. So I reached out to some of my arcade owner friends. So if they had real tickets, I said, where are you getting your tickets? And luckily an arcade that I network with Legends Arcade Shout out to Legends Arcade in Brookings, Oregon Thank you Legends They use real paper tickets And they get them from A supplier that was cheaper And more reliable And I like the ticket better It has confetti on it It's a nice looking ticket Isn't it amazing That we sit here after we met Like nine months ago whatever that our networks have increased from this podcast and from our social media that we're talking to people at these arcades and getting advice from them and giving advice to them and it's just amazing don't you think that the network that both of us are building and it's so cool i love that aspect of being you know putting yourself out there on social media the best part about that is that i become friends with a lot of these really amazing content creators and arcade owners that i have this network that i can reach out to like you said i'm not going to name drop a bunch of arcades but there's a lot of arcades that you know it's fine it's just amazing and it's amazing and i love it and then people reaching out to us to you know for advice and stuff which i'm of course more than happy um from the beginning that was i'm always just putting everything out there, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
    21:56
    And I'm happy to do that. So it really is such a positive part of this whole experience. And there's so many cool people in the hobby, too. Oh, my gosh. Really, like they'll take the shirt off their back and give it to you kind of thing. Honestly, honestly. Yeah. It's just been amazing, the support that, you know, just that I have gotten from the community. and when I reach out to someone and say, hey, are you available for an interview? I'd really love to tell your story. They were like, you know, I've had like three people go, I've been waiting for you to ask. Well, just ask me. Yeah, right, I know. You know, because I'm just a one-man show like you are in the social media, right? Exactly. Yeah, I'm filming, editing, posting, responding. Oh, yeah. Ditto. While running an arcade. Yeah, and while running a Wormhole Collective. Wormhole. So it's like, my God. But I love this community so damn much. A hundred percent. And they've helped so much. There's so many instances where I'm like, oh, no, this happened. And I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know that, you know, James at the Vintage Vault or whatever knows and he'll help me or whatever it might be. And they just, they're there. There's no question if you had an issue, Mike from the Flipper Room would help you in two seconds, right? Exactly. Any of these guys and gals are going to help you because they want you to be successful, right? Yeah. And I always try to let them know if there's anything I can do, just let me know. I'm here for you. So it's not just a one-way street. It's like we're all here to help each other.
    23:38
    Absolutely. One of the guests we were going to have on today, I consider a destination place. We'll get to them when we get to them at a later date.
    23:51
    We're trying to build the wormhole to be a destination place, meaning what I mean by that, ladies and gentlemen, is if you're in Houston, check out the wormhole. Right? That just makes sense. No brainer. Okay? If you're in Arizona, you're going to Electric Bat, right? Okay. If you're in Ohio, you're going to go see Pastime. These are the things that I'm trying to build. You're building that at Cottage Grove. So you're in Oregon.
    24:21
    You got to go to the quarter drop. What do you see? So that's both of our goals. Would you say that's correct? It is. Oh, 100%. From the beginning, I was like, not only do I want to serve my community, that is super important. but I want to create something that's not just an ordinary arcade. There's something special about the quarter drop and it's the, all those details come together to make it that special sauce. Like you guys have at the wormhole. It's not just a building with some pinball machines in it. It's the people. It's the way you have it set up. It's the rare machines. It's a whole bunch of different things that come together to create a destination.
    25:01
    And it's definitely what I'm doing here. And I've got lots of plans, you know, even moving forward that I can do now because the quarter drop is kicking butt. So I'm already like, I'm already like, OK, let's spend some of this money. Let's make it even better. And I'm excited because there's lots of cool stuff in the works. Well, I congratulations again on it and continue this this destination because that's our goals. Right. When we started the podcast, when we started our socials, we we know that although we have a big community here in Houston, we're lucky we're the fourth largest city in the United States. So but we do want when people come to Houston, check us out. So we're looking at some changes at the wormhole. I guess we could talk about that a little. OK, let's let's do that. You know, we're only open three days a month for tournaments and then we're available for rentals. And if you look at what our cash flow situation is, rentals are very, very important for us. Yeah. Okay. And we do corporate rentals, which is really – and I'm the one who hosts them, which is hilarious, right? Like we have a huge – let's just call them a web services company come here. Okay. Oh. A very large one. Yeah. They had sales and IT, and we did a flip frenzy, if anyone knows what a flip frenzy is. You ever play a flip frenzy? I have not, no. Dude, it's so fun at the pinball tournament. If you ever ran out the quarter drop and – I have already. Once. Okay. How many pins?
    26:38
    I have seven. Totally can do a flip frenzy with seven pins. Okay. So say you've got 20 people. You would put – 14 would be playing in a game, six would be in a queue. all right and it's non-stop pinball for one hour because these because they're amateurs if you will on pinball we just do an hour because they can get done with a game in six minutes whereas me and you are going 15 20 right sure um well maybe you but not as many me i do have the gcs on many of my games and you should yeah but you know they're my games i should right so it starts it puts you know if we're using this 20 analogy at the quarter drop it would put seven groups seven two-man groups on those machines that are being used and i heard you mention you've got a jaws jaws is finished bob beat sally he comes to you you type in bob beat sally goes uh gets the person who's number one in the queue bob goes back into the queue and it's non-stop pinball now we try to keep our because we have 23 machines we can keep a queue of only three to four people so it's constantly moving right i love the kind of frenetic energy that must bring to the it's it's fantastic no it's fantastic for corporate rentals it's a team building is really what it is and we had a huge consulting firm offer three events it was pickleball pinball or shooting And we had 30 people choose the pinball Every one of them to a person when they came when they were done with their event here. Because then we have bartenders for them. We show them the pinball machines. We make it a real event for them for the three hours that they're here. Yeah, of course. So every one of them can't wait for the next conference to come to Houston. Oh, I love that. tell everyone because they really had fun i mean and and it's it's really been the key to to keeping the wormhole profitable because we're we're a foundation now right we're in 501c3 and you know we can't just be leaning on the back pockets of our of our main donor we have to you know fund ourselves but should we open that's the question i ask you should we well what's the time frame for the next you know the next iteration because i know you're building out well so we have multiple buildings that we're looking at right one of the buildings is the 14 000 square feet building which is almost too damn big okay the undertaking to get that building after permitting and everything uh is is a nightmare oh so is that maybe going on the back burner now i i think so My gut would tell me I would look at the wormhole As Ourself as a museum And then we have another building Fairly fairly close That we will look at as a second location Well if that's on the back burner I'd say open up the wormhole I mean people I can only imagine I mean you're in Houston You have the following People want to probably get in there During like normal not have to come in at a certain time. They probably just want to get in there when they can. You have normal business hours.
    30:19
    I can't imagine. What would you think of a Friday, Saturday, Sunday thing? Those are the three definitely most busy days for me. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
    30:30
    I'm open on Wednesday and Thursday too. People come and go on those days. I'm certainly not slammed like I am Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Sunday has been wild. I think Sunday. Really? I go back and yeah, I couldn't believe, I don't know if Sunday or Saturday are my busiest days now. I keep going back and forth. I think it's because church gets out right about when I open up and they just come in and have a good time. And then there's a lot of parties, birthday parties. That's been huge. Birthday parties at the quarter drop. I'm booked like two, three months out already. It's wild. And they come in these giant groups of people and then you have a bunch of people coming in uh on sunday i had a large church group come in as soon as i opened up and then i had a vip birthday party booked they came in and then other people were coming in so you can imagine you know it's not a huge space uh you're kind of having to turn around and like elbow your way through to get you know get around it's amazing and uh but people were having a good time so yay that church story made me laugh about a story the biggest trouble I ever got into we cut this out but the biggest trouble I ever got into in my life was taking my father gave me a quarter like 50 cents to put in the collection plate you know Catholic they send the collection plate through I palmed it put it in my pocket alright and then I was playing. Well, I know. Later on in the day, we went to Pathmark and they had asteroids.
    32:09
    Oh, my God. And I'm playing asteroids, right, with my chords. Wow. And my dad goes, where'd you get that money? And I panicked and that was the end of that. Oh, my gosh. Well, you got to leave that one in because that's good. That's a good story. I love that. Hearing arcade memories is one of my favorite things because people, that's part of operating arcade and you know this because i'm sure people come in and say oh i played this machine and this happened and oh my god it happens all the time i i love hearing about it's like oh it was 1984 and i was at this mall and so you know and they tell me that i played centipede for the first time and you have a centipede i can't believe it you know i haven't seen it since you know 40 years ago they're just like thrilled that i have a centipede yeah so it's fun. That's my earliest memory of getting my ass handed to me. Yeah. I was going to say, yeah, I bet.
    33:04
    All right. Well, I went to confession. It's all good. Um, what else do we want to talk about, sir? Oh, maybe like, um, some future plans for arcades across America and some potential like guests and maybe people, uh, on social media could comment in and make requests as well as people that we have on the show. Absolutely. We're the Mike. So I do. We do two podcasts. Warm Up Pinball Presents. One is my interview series, and I tend to do one or two of those a month if I get booked up. And then, of course, Arcades Across America, which we want to do one a month. And I'm having a tough time figuring out each podcast because there's so many that we want to do. Yeah. And so we could really use some advice of who you think we should be reaching out to on socials. Hit us up.
    33:58
    So what where can they catch you again? Quarter Drop Arcade on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitch, which we need to talk about that as well, because we remember we talked about what we were going to do. And now we're I've been watching. I've been working. So we're going to talk about. Oh, good. I've definitely been lurking on that. And then, of course, you know, you can email us at warmallpinball at gmail.com or warmallpinball on all the socials. But we do need help picking because I have a bunch that need to line up and showcase their arcades, right? Yeah. I could think of a couple right off the top of the bat that would be really cool to have on. You want to make it public? Oh, should we hold off? No, make it public. It's fun. Okay. I think Galloping Ghost would be a really cool guest doc, Matt, because from an operational standpoint, it's super interesting to me of what they got going on there. Over a thousand machines on the floor. I can't imagine the maintenance of something like that. They're in Chicago. They have multiple buildings linked together. And also their doc is a big person in the community as far as helping other arcade owners and reproduction artwork and parts and stuff. So there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of really interesting details that go into operating that arcade. And I think that would be a super interesting guest to have on for sure. But there's so many. There's so many. And I'd love to have Cale and Rachel back on at some point because they're always just the best, of course. But, yeah. Do you have any ones? Yeah. Well, the guests that we wanted to do today. Yeah. And that's, you know, I don't want to rat them out. No. No, no. But that's a great guess. And I want to definitely do that. Houston has a guest, two guests that I'm going to put on soon with us. And it is Game Preserve. They have two locations. They have a Game Preserve North Houston and a Game Preserve South that really were the foundation of Houston pinball. So I'd like to tell their story sometime later in the year. And what an incredible looking Arcade too of all the murals And just this huge space Yeah the NASA one is enormous Yeah with the hallway the giant hallway I don't know if you've seen that online but it's really neat I've been there It's absolutely great It's Erin Winnick Anthony's home Court that's her home that's where she Plays out of If she were to have a trading card It would say playing out of NASA Game Preserve NASA if you will There we go. Yeah, but a bunch of different people I'd like to get on here and tell the story. The downloads have been great. Just been fantastic. So I'm very, very happy with the response. And people really like Arcades Across America. I would say, considering how many people message me when we don't post, you know, at least once a month, I figure the views must be good. They're great. Yeah. They really are. I'm very, very happy. Let's switch to Twitch Okay So you've been streaming on Twitch Tell us about it Yeah well we talked about this Going back to our first Wormhole episode We talked about wanting to stream From the arcade And what that would look like And I've been Streaming every day so if the arcade's Open unless like there might be A day once in a while where I just don't feel like being on camera But that's that's pretty uncommon. But for the most part, if the arcades open from open to close, I'm streaming behind the desk here.
    37:47
    And that's been great. I mean, it's a really good reception to it. People are enjoying it. You know, it's not because I stream so long. I'm not always able to engage with people. Sometimes it's just, you know, you're a fly on the wall and you can hear the sounds of the arcade and you see the chaos of the prize redemption area, all the tickets coming in. And then when it's not, when I'm not running around, I can sit here and talk to chat. And it's really fun. It's mostly behind the counter here. I do have an overview cam that I switch to on occasion if I know I'm going to be, like, playing pinball. I did just set up what's called DroidCam so that I can have my phone and I can stream that because people want me to do, you know, they want to see the arcade like walkthrough form. And then I. So cool. Yeah. And that's been really good. The only thing is, so I have the streaming pinball rig.
    38:44
    And because I don't have the Xsooms, we talked about this, Jamie, you know, with that, I have to end the stream and start a new stream. So that's a little clunky. So I haven't been doing that as much. But that might change That might change Depending on the space you might not need exoons Oh yeah? There's cheaper options we could look at Really? Look exoons are the best Sure But if your pinball are close to your PC And there's a good line of sight There might be A rig possibility that you could do And I can help you with that of course Okay interesting that's good to know And you can also buy Exun's direct from China on eBay for like $2.95. That's not bad. It's a lot better for a pair. That's not bad. Yeah, that's not bad at all. Okay, well, I'm definitely looking into that because what happens is like if it's – my favorite part of running the arcade is like maybe an hour before we close, and it's not crazy. It's starting to – you know, it's just a few people here and there. and a lot of the kids are not here playing the ticket machines. It's more of the adults playing the classics and the pinball. Then I can step aside and I play pinball with the regulars because there's several regulars that come in and they love pinball. And they love, you know, when I join them and play with them. That's like my favorite thing to do. But sometimes I'll be away from the desk for, you know, an hour, an hour and a half, two hours even sometimes playing pinball with the regulars. And then it becomes kind of chair camp or, you know, Shiloh will be back here doing stuff. But I'm trying to like Okay I probably should be taking you guys With me on the pinball experience And I'm trying to figure out I think you should Yeah I think you should get a rig Put it over Jaws and play some Jaws Yeah it was just like Because people would love to see you play And they do and you know I feel bad I'm like okay guys I'm going to go play pinball You know bye Two hours later They still you know I'll come back and they'll still be watching which is great, but from a viewer standpoint, that's probably not the most interesting part of the night, I would imagine, when I step away and play pinball for an hour or so, but I enjoy it. So I'm going to look into sharing that with the stream.
    41:07
    That's a smart move. Let me ask you a question, Twitch or YouTube. This is a fascinating question for me. I hear a lot of mixed opinions on this. I'm hearing a lot through the grapevine now Oh Twitch is dead I hear that a lot I like Twitch Because of the interaction tools built in The monetization tools Are a lot better on Twitch No question Yeah and that's good because It adds up when you sub for $6.99 You know That helps Every little bit helps A lot of content guys are moving to YouTube. I know. They like the interface. The issue is, do you stream from OBS?
    41:58
    Streamlabs. Okay, same thing, right? Yeah. When you click start streaming, the interface, this is some geeky stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Sure. Well, people like that.
    42:09
    When you click start streaming from Twitch, which is in your settings of Streamlabs or OBS, it is seamless. yes it's click boom you're on twitch I have a macro set up on my stream deck I just literally push one button and I live I too anal I have to touch it with the keys and everything so but well i still touching a button but yeah okay the interface to youtube messes up from obs and it makes it very difficult so i've been using restream a lot so i can stream on both obs i can stream on both youtube pardon and twitch and And the restream on YouTube fails consistently. And even when I go direct at YouTube, it'll create a different link. So I'm having difficulty scheduling. And you know who's going to help me with that?
    43:12
    Joel Engelhoff. Yeah. He's going to help me because he's been really doing a lot on the YouTube. So I'm going to plug him in a little bit. And his streams are really good. Yeah, they're excellent, right? And he made the move. They're completely on YouTube. right now.
    43:26
    The truth is, if I streamed on YouTube, I'd have a lot more people watching because I have, I don't know, 11,000-something subs on YouTube. And I have 400-something on Twitch. So that's a big difference. But if you have 400 subscribers that are paying on Twitch... Oh, no, just this one. I don't have 400. I wish.
    43:50
    No, I don't have 400 subs on Twitch. That would have been great. Yeah, then I'd be definitely staying on Twitch.
    43:58
    We just don't have enough. Well, but Twitch has always been a fickle beast. I've been streaming, you know, I streamed retro games on Twitch before the arcade.
    44:11
    And what I thought was a really compelling setup, I was all from a CRT television, original hardware, super convoluted systems so that I could stream retro content in the best way possible. and I certainly have built up like a loyal group of like friends and followers that love to watch the streams and I appreciate that immensely but it never took off like say my um you know social media with a quarter drop did um and even with streaming from the arcade you know there'll be 15 people watching or something but it's it's not crazy I think it probably it probably would make more sense to stream to YouTube, but I would feel like I'm abandoning Twitch. Yeah, that's the rub. Yeah. Right? I don't want to abandon the people that have been subscribing religiously to us on Twitch. But if I could figure out this interface to YouTube, I'm probably going to do it. I did see that. Yeah, well, you know, Streamlabs, I know you use OBS, but Streamlabs now has a feature where you can stream to Twitch and YouTube simultaneously without using Restream.
    45:21
    That might be worth experimenting with. I'm so vested in OBS. Yeah. I'm so vested in it. You've spent so much time setting up.
    45:32
    It's tough. It's tough to abandon. It's like I'm a Mac guy and I can't go to Android. I just can't. I'm so vested in Mac.
    45:42
    Android is Samsung, Android I could tell immediately you were an Androider because of the text I was like ugh I've been Windows and Android Forever My first computer was a Macintosh 2, an Apple 2 Oh mine was too Mine was too That's the only Apple product I've ever had I liked it I had a Commodore 64 as well, I don't remember which came first Yeah Oh, I did have a iPod Touch, too, when that first came out. So that's not true. I've got two Apple products. That's it? That's it. I've got more Apple products on me right now than you probably have. Than I've had in my life. Yeah.
    46:28
    All right. What else, sir? We're almost done. We're definitely going to do the hurry-up today because I've got some questions for you. Okay.
    46:36
    No, I just – well, first of all, I'm glad that we could catch up and chat. Absolutely. I always like this is super fun as always.
    46:45
    And I'm really happy for the wormhole. I'm glad that we're doing this together at the same time. We're like the wormhole is doing really well and kind of like taking off online and like becoming this destination, which I think it already is. And the quarter drop is doing amazing. And we've kind of been on this journey together and we're sharing it with everybody. It's fun. I've learned a lot from you, dude. I've learned so much on the social media aspect from you, and I really appreciate all your help that you've given me. It's been fantastic. My pleasure. And you've done a great job of keeping true to the wormhole in you while implementing some changes that clearly have paid off because I see your social media kicking butt, and I love it. I love it, too. It's so fun. Engaging with the users is hard. You were talking about that before, right? we're one man shows right so it's like how do you engage with everyone because it's important if they're going to come to us and say hey do you guys you know I love Banzai Ron or I love this or I love that and you have to reply yeah I love Banzai too Banzai's the best before opening the arcade I prided myself on responding to every single comment and I'm having a hard time doing that since I've opened up with Arcade. Actually, it weighs on me. I feel guilty because people take the time to watch the content, to leave a comment, and it's not like I'm sitting there going, I can't possibly be bothered. That's not it at all. I just physically don't have the time to do that. I think about it. Sometimes I've been doing, if it's not real busy at Arcade on stream, I'll pull up the phone and start reading comments and share it with everybody. And that's helped get caught up. But, like, I know on YouTube I must have, like, 5,000 comments that I have not responded to. And I just feel so guilty. So just know, if you're commenting on the – I appreciate it, and I'll get to it, and I do my best to at least react to all the messages.
    48:55
    It's certainly not that I want to. It's just crazy with Arcade being open and everything, and daily posts and stuff. But, you know, it's fun. well absolutely uh i love following your progress i i love it i love it i absolutely do you're killing it on youtube and uh on tiktok and everything congrats all right let's play some uh hurry up i i didn't like i didn't really have i wasn't prepared for this but i've got some yeah for you okay oh okay okay good all right and i i don't know what they are so this will be no you you have no idea so this will be good okay all right quarter drop arcade cottage grove Oregon. What is the most played, highest earning pinball machine you have in your current location?
    49:41
    Attack from Mars. Yeah. Surprisingly. Wow. It's not Godzilla. It goes Attack from Mars, Alien, Godzilla. Really? Yeah. I would have lost money on that. Right? I know. Me too. I'm blown away. Yeah. Well, Attack from Mars is pretty darn great. Brian Eddy, he's pretty good. It is, but I would have never guessed that in a million years.
    50:08
    Give us your highest earning non-pinball machine, and then after you say the redemption machine, tell me your highest earning arcade machine.
    50:17
    SpongeBob SquarePants dominates the arcade in earnings. It's insane. I have to empty that coin. It's a big coin box. I have to empty it daily.
    50:29
    The best earner that's not a pinball or redemption or like Icefall or anything like that. Pac-Man Battle Royale.
    50:37
    Oh, okay. It's a four-player Pac-Man machine. Yeah, that's pretty cool. People are always on that, and they just go crazy and have a great time with it, and they're laughing hysterically. All right, give us – I've asked you this before, but we're going to change it up a little bit. All right, give us your holy grail arcade game to add to the board drop. I mean, the one that I want the most is the Konami Aliens Running Gun from 1990, because I have that Aliens-themed backroom. And I've got the Alien Ripley Edition, and I've got the Aliens Extermination. I have a spot that I'm keeping open, but they just never come up. But I want it so bad. Konami Running Gun. Awesome. All right. Which of these rumored titles will we most likely see at quarter drop in 2025? King Kong or Harry Potter? Oh. well King Kong 100% Harry Potter would be really good for earning so I'm a little torn there but why would that change anything I don't think that's going to be a Stern product I think King Kong is going to be Stern and what we're hearing is Harry Potter and Jersey Jack no shade to Jersey Jack but they're expensive from an operator standpoint and bloody hell for how much you get in return to them. So King Kong. Time for a name drop. Any famous people come up to Cottage Grove and come to the quarter drop yet? No celebrities have been to the quarter drop yet.
    52:12
    I had a gentleman come in the other day that looked just like Bill Gates, and I had to do a double take. But, no, it was not.
    52:19
    Wait a minute. But, yeah, no, not yet. Feel free. celebrities out there listening, come on down with a quarter drop. I'll give you the VIP treatment.
    52:27
    In 30 seconds or less. And by the way, let's take a time out from the hurry up right quick. No one has played this hurry up as well as you have played this hurry up right now. Really? The last five guests that I get on a hurry up, they just keep going and going. So I've changed the way I'm going to ask my questions, and I'm going to ask it this way. Well, I'm trying to be quick because I've experienced this phenomenon where people don't actually hurry up, and I've been guilty of it too. So this time I was actually thinking, how do I actually save these things? As a returning guest, Coe is outstanding at the hurry up, ladies and gentlemen. All right, in 30 seconds or less, please describe expansion plans that you have for the Quarter Drop Arcade. I have 12 feet of empty space above me. I'm going to have a contractor out here and see what the reality of putting a second floor on the Quarter Drop Arcade will be. It could be very exciting. Yep. I might double my square footage.
    53:25
    That's fantastic. Would you put an elevator in? Stairs. The space lounge in the back would get the axe. Staircase would go up above the bathroom. And then I'd put a door above. And then I'd have an entire floor. I'd do a dedicated party room. And then I'd have floor space for more machines.
    53:45
    You're going to get one of those lift carts that take a stair, Master. I would have to get an Escalara. Yes. Thank you. You'd have to get an escrow. Yeah.
    53:56
    So thank you so much for playing the hurry up with me. It was a quick hurry up because we really weren't prepared today. But I enjoyed this so, so much. Thank you so much for being my partner in this endeavor we call Arcades Across America. And I'm so happy that everything's going so well at the quarter drop. Thank you, Jamie. I really appreciate these times where we can chat and hang out on AAA. And I'm glad that people are enjoying our show here. And plenty more coming in the future. Absolutely. We won't take a month off again. I'm sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen. And I have – do you have any plans for any shows coming up? Because I've got TPF in two weeks.
    54:41
    I don't have any plans for shows. But I need to start doing that. the show circuit because I know that's important, especially with the content creation and all that. I need to figure out someone that can open and close the arcade and run it without me. It's kind of a very specific... There's a lot of weird things that come up that makes it hard for me to get away. You know Rob Berg's going to be all over your ass if you don't come to the expo. I know. I want to be there. Trust me, I wanted to be at Expo.
    55:17
    I tried to make it happen, too. But no, I just couldn't. I just want to hang out with you guys. Yeah, that's all I want to do. We'll do it. We totally will hang out with me, Rachel, Kale, Ralph. These have become my good friends. I can't stress that enough. I talked to Ralph for 30 minutes last night. Yeah, I believe it.
    55:42
    What this community has given me is not only a lot of love, but it's also a lot of great friends. Thank you so much. Ralph seems so cool. I've been watching his content for a long time. I have yet to meet him in person. We chatted online a little bit. I can't wait to meet Ralph. He's the best. I'm going to Electric Bat at the end of April. Yay. All right. Look for me and a couple of wormholes. They're going to go out to Arizona, Tempe. Number one pinball destination in the Southwest rated by the Twibby. Yes, by the Twibby as well. They're a big Twibby award winner.
    56:23
    And so I can't wait to see them. All right, Coe, thank you so much for Wormhole Pinball and Arcades Across America. I'm Jamie Birchall. Please visit your local arcades. They're owned and operated by great people just like the Intel.
    56:41
    you