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#54 Rollercoaster Tycoon - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 27m·analyzed·Jun 15, 2021
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TL;DR

Classic Pinball Podcast documents RCT setup in New Hampshire, troubleshooting hardware issues.

Summary

George and Dave from The Classic Pinball Podcast travel to Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire to set up and test a recently delivered Roller Coaster Tycoon pinball machine (Stern, 2002, designed by Pat Lawler). During setup, they encounter and resolve multiple issues including a stuck drop target, loose screws in the opto mechanism, and a cracked diverter assembly on the left-side auto plunger. The episode includes commentary on Stern's early-2000s game quality, flipper coil cooling issues in modern games, and broader reliability comparisons between vintage and contemporary machines.

Key Claims

  • Zach Minney estimates Stern manufactures around 20,000 games per year across four titles

    medium confidence · George cites Zach Minney (dealer/distributor) from another podcast discussing Stern's production volume

  • Modern Stern games experience weakened flipper performance after 45 minutes of continuous play due to coil heat

    medium confidence · George reports hearing this on a podcast (Bruce Nightingale source), expressing surprise at the claim

  • A product called 'Tibetan Breeze' exists—a fan bracket that attaches to Stern flipper bodies to cool coils

    medium confidence · George describes the product to Dave as something he had conceptualized years ago but someone else manufactured

  • Roller Coaster Tycoon pinball was designed by Pat Lawler with artwork by John Yusey, released around 2002-2003

    high confidence · George and Dave discuss the game's credits while en route to setup

  • Stern games from the early 2000s (Terminator 3, Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, Roller Coaster Tycoon) used the Sam Whitestar board system, which was reliable despite less stellar themes compared to modern games

    high confidence · George directly states this based on his knowledge of Stern's platform architecture from that era

  • The Mandalorian pinball machine has delivery delays, with customers waiting until August and no new production run until November

    medium confidence · George references another podcast discussion about Mandalorian availability and production gaps

  • Older Stern and Bally machines (late 1970s–early 1980s) were built for operators and prioritized reliability over complexity; they can withstand abuse and be rebuilt to tank-like durability

    high confidence · George and Dave discuss operator-focused design philosophy, with Dave confirming the durability of classic machines

  • Modern Stern games use node boards placed under the playfield, near vibration sources, rather than in the back box, causing reliability problems

Notable Quotes

  • “Dave couldn't have picked a better day. It was 79 degrees at 6 a.m. in southern New Hampshire. It's now approaching 90, and we've got to move this game.”

    George @ early in episode — Establishes setting and weather challenges during equipment delivery and setup

  • “The rules mimic the computer game, so we're already at a loss.”

    George @ mid-episode — Humorous commentary on Roller Coaster Tycoon pinball's complexity and learning curve

  • “These games were built for operators. Operators want reliability. They want money being put in. They don't want games that break down and have to be repaired and cost money.”

    Dennis Creasel (referenced by George) @ mid-to-late episode — Key insight into 1970s–1980s Bally/Stern design philosophy vs. modern games

  • “I don't really care if you've loaded this game up with mechanisms and it breaks every 50 to 100 plays. I would be out of my mind if that happened.”

    Zach Minney (cited by George) @ late episode — Stark contrast: distributor's acceptance of modern game reliability issues vs. operator expectations

  • “The key thing in these games that no one does, it seems like it, is no one ever tightens down the flipper linkages. They leave them just factory tight, which is not tight enough.”

    Dave @ during setup section — Technical maintenance wisdom applied during RCT setup, actionable for collectors and operators

  • “It almost drops straight down, which I love in a roller coaster for real life, but in a pin machine, hard to pull off to have it done right.”

    Dave @ setup troubleshooting section — Describes the unusual tall yellow wire-form ramp that required multiple adjustments during setup

  • “I would be able to afford this brand-new sculpture this Italian designer just did in Italy, and it just sold for $18,000. The thing is, though, it doesn't exist. It's an imaginary sculpture.”

    George @ mid-episode tangent — Anecdote about virtual/NFT art nonsense, illustrating broader cultural critique about empty value

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonPat LawlerpersonJohn YuseypersonEric StonepersonZach MinneypersonBruce NightingalepersonDennis CreaselpersonSchultzperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Modern Stern games experience weakened flipper performance after 45 minutes of continuous play due to coil heat buildup

    medium · George cites Bruce Nightingale podcast discussing flipper weakness; Dave confirms Zach Minney's acceptance of games breaking every 50-100 plays is problematic

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern's use of node boards placed under the playfield (near vibration sources) causes reliability problems compared to placement in the back box

    high · George and Dave discuss design flaw during reliability comparison; Dave confirms he's already repairing Led Zeppelin machines post-warranty

  • ?

    product_concern: Roller Coaster Tycoon machine arrived with multiple issues: stuck drop target, loose screws in opto mechanism, cracked diverter assembly, playfield assembly misalignment

    high · Dave describes step-by-step troubleshooting during setup; identifies loose screws, cracked plastic, and playfield 'clunk' caused by shipping

  • ?

    design_philosophy: 1970s–1980s pinball design prioritized operator reliability and durability; modern games prioritize features and mechanisms over robustness

    high · George cites Dennis Creasel's observation; Dave confirms vintage machines are tanks; contrasts with modern machines requiring frequent repairs

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Stern's Mandalorian pinball machine faces significant production delays; customers waiting until August for delivery, no new run until November

    medium · George discusses from another podcast; speculates on parts shortages or production capacity constraints

Topics

Roller Coaster Tycoon (Stern, 2002) setup, testing, and troubleshootingprimaryModern Stern pinball reliability issues and design flaws (node boards, flipper coil heating)primaryFlipper maintenance and optimization (linkage tightening, coil cooling)primaryComparison of vintage (1970s–1980s) vs. modern pinball design philosophy and build qualityprimaryStern production capacity and lead times (Mandalorian delays, estimated 20k games/year)secondaryArcade venue culture and token pusher games (Fun Spot, Eric Stone's gameplay)secondaryPinball hardware shipping, handling damage, and restoration techniquessecondarySam Whitestar board system reliability in early-2000s Stern gamessecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.55)— Generally positive toward RCT and the setup experience; nostalgia for vintage machine reliability; critical/skeptical of modern Stern design philosophy and reliability issues; frustrated but matter-of-fact about troubleshooting requirements; humorous/cynical commentary on broader cultural issues (virtual art, modern game design)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.262

See you next time on the had knknk We'll see you next week. Useful Familyант winning. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and today I'm joined by my co-host Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George. Dave, it's been almost two years and we're on the road again. Tell the audience where we're going and what we're going to do. We are heading to Wolfboro, New Hampshire. right on a lake at his lakeside house and to set up a roller coaster tycoon that this customer bought last December from a restoration place on the whip. And it's been waiting to be set up and delivered. It just got delivered the other day. We looked for somebody in the area that could set it up, check it out, make sure it's all good to go, and that's what we're doing. So Dave couldn't have picked a better... I said so. Dave couldn't have picked a better day. It was 79 degrees at 6 a.m. in southern New Hampshire. It's now approaching 90, and we've got to, I'm guessing, move this game. I'm hoping I'm not dripping wet by the time we move it from wherever it is to wherever it has to go. Well, what we're going to do is we're going to go up three flights of stairs, and then there's a couple turns we're going to make. Oh, just kidding, George. No, we don't. No, none of that, no. As Dave said, we're off to Lake Winnipesaukee, for those of you who are in other parts of the world or country. It's our biggest lake here in New Hampshire, and it's also where Dave and I almost two years ago recorded for the Fun Spot. They're not on the lake, but close enough in the Penny Arcade. So if you're interested in learning a little bit about our arcade adventures, that is one we did back in August of 2019. And that was with Eric Stone up there too when he was scooping up those token pusher games and getting the tokens, right? Was that the one? that the Frogger episode is another one if you're interested in Eric's escapades with the, what would you call it, redemption game? Well, I'll tell you what. Yes, we were up there recently in Campton doing a little vacation, and it's about 40 minutes north of Laconia in Fun Spot. So we went down there. One day it was raining, and I said, you know, there's a lot of people there, Memorial Day weekend, a lot of kids around. and it struck me, Eric likes to go there when a lot of people around, a lot of, you know, a lot of dupes, let's call it, let's call, you know, throwing money into these games, in these quarter pushers, so they get filled up, and they leave the stuff there, and he wound up, he wound up telling me, I texted him and said, hey, what's your skill on that, what do you, what do you do, how do you, how do you do your thing, and he told me, He puts three coins in and that kind of thing. So I said, all right. So I went to him, and I started winning. I felt like I was Eric Stone, and waiting for little kids to finish and then fall right behind him. I said, I feel kind of dirty, though. I don't know. I just feel kind of like rubbing the candy from the kid. So after a while, it was good for a couple tokens, but I said, I'll let the kids have it some more. It was fun for a little bit. But if you listen to that episode, you'll get the true Eric Stone redemption game fun at Fun Spot. Let's see. I got a question for you. Were you one to play Roller Coaster Tycoon, the PC? And the reason I ask on PC, and the reason I ask you that is, you're such a roller coaster freak. My guess is you probably did play that game because you wanted to construct your own roller coasters. That would be big and negatory on that one, George. Not a PC gamer. Do you remember when that came out? Yeah, probably early 2000s, right? I think it was the... I don't know. I'd have to go look. That's something I didn't research. I'm guessing the late 90s. I think I owned a copy of it, but I'll be honest. It couldn't have been that memorable because I really have no recall on it. I know the game, the pinball machine from Stern came out in the early 2000s, I think 2003, 2002, somewhere around there. 2002. I was surprised. Oh no, that was the other game. Can't get numbers on it. But this was in the kind of low part of pinball, wouldn't you say, 2002? Yeah, they started putting out games like Terminator 3, Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, that stuff. So kind of a, you know, Star Wars just trying to get their sea legs going. But I will say the games they made during that time frame had the Sam Whitestar board system in it. And really nice system. It was pretty reliable. and even though the themes weren't as stellar as maybe today, their reliability was there. So they got that going for them back then. Do you think they made a lot of these? I think so. I don't know. I'm thinking maybe a run of 5,000 maybe. I don't really know. You think that many? I think. I didn't check. I'm just guessing. Well, you can't. That's stern. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, okay. Oh, no. That's why I caught myself. I was thinking about another game. No, they don't publish their numbers. Although I did hear on another podcast this past week that the estimate, according to Zach Menny, who probably you know, he's a dealer as well. He thinks that they probably make somewhere around 20,000 games a year. That sounds about right. Across four titles. So again. Across four titles. Right. But again, we're talking 2002, not 2021. So quite a bit of difference. And game titles, obviously, are a little bit more sought after. Although they also talked about The Mandalorian. We'll come back to that for just a second. they're saying people are going to be waiting until August to get their games and then they're not doing another run until November. So it's kind of weird that they're falling, it seems to me, they're falling way, way behind in manufacturing games. And one can only wonder it's probably certain parts for the games. So you're saying this is the Mandalorian? Well, I don't know if they're lacking parts. I guess my case would be, that's a hot title. Why wouldn't you just put that thing on the line and then just run it until it runs out? I don't know. I'm still waiting. I'm waiting for the woman DeLorean instead because that's more, you know, where I'm at these days. And Dave just ran a yellow light. That's all right. Dispatch, this is 504. Subject in sight. Do you want to talk a little bit about this game before we go and set it up? Sure. Sure. So this game, well, the logistics of it all, it's going to be... Well, let's go first. Okay. Who designed it? Stern. No. Who designed it? Pat Lawler. So you don't know anything. No, I don't. Okay. So, again, so's. You so-and-so. I'm trying to break the habit, but I watch people on TV do it all the time. Ah, that's where it comes from. See? You turn the TV off. Just whatever. I'm just not conscious enough of it. Now I lost my train of thought. Well, you know what, George? A lot of people are saying... Oh, we're back to rollercoaster type coolness. Learning about the game. So you can't tell the number of games. We know that Pat Waller, John Yusey is it, I guess, did the artwork. I don't know who that is. Probably you do. He's done a bunch. First impressions. Before I even set eyes on the game, I don't like it because of the troll. The Wishnick. You don't like the Wishnick? I don't like the troll. And I want to tell a troll story. It's probably one of the reasons why I don't like trolls. Trolls were popular when I was a kid, so you could figure out how old I am. Internet trolls suck. I'm not allowed to tell old jokes, but I had a troll as a kid. They made big ones. They made small ones. They made medium-sized ones. My sister got so mad at me that she took my big troll and cut all its hair off. Oh, that was a Jean-Luc Picard troll at that point. Nice. She didn't pull the hair out. It's got all those little holes where they stuff the hair. No, she took scissors and gave the troll a trim. Oh, so she's trying to do you a favor. Right. So that's my thought on trolls. But the rest of the game, just looking at it, you being an amusement park guy, I'll ask you, do you like the look of this game? I like the look of the game. I like how the different colored wire forms. See, I don't like that. I understand it, but I don't like it. Because it mimics a roller coaster park with the different colored roller coasters that are out there. It's also part of the gameplay. You know, the blue coaster, the yellow coaster, the red coaster. And it's very diverse, too. Okay, go ahead, George. You can hit me now. Okay. It took me a second to figure out what you were saying, and now that you've said it. But not unexpected on our podcast. People are used to it. Look, people, I figured out if it sounded like we were in a wind tunnel, it's because I was holding the microphone in front of the air conditioner in the car. So if the beginning of this podcast sounds a little fuzzy, it's because of that. Well, you know what, George? You did say it was hot out, and you were blowing air conditioning on the audience. I would be. So there you go. Yeah, we blow a lot of hot air. There you go. So it cools down. We don't need it to be 90 outside. the game looks nice actually I think I have a flyer from the game that I got from Betson's back in the day I think they had one on their showroom floor but I don't know if I've played it since in almost 20 years you? actually I did a day spa on one of these maybe a year or two ago for a customer So, yeah, that's when I play tested it. Besides the play test on it, I maybe played one back in the arcade when it was new, maybe, a couple times. But very, not many plays I put on this game, no. I don't recall. Don't they have one of these? Oh, now we're going to have to go listen. Didn't you guys talk about this game at Fun Spot? Right. Good question. Don't know. I don't remember either. That would be the only place. Hmm. Too many brain cells ago. Yeah, it seems like forever ago. So the game looks okay. I'm not cool on the colors. I've tried several times to figure out how this game works, or what the strategy is. I went as far as the other night watching some guy, Schultz. I think that's his name. I'll go look up. Sergeant Schultz? I've seen nothing. I know nothing. I could not figure out what to shoot for on this game. Do you have any idea how to play this game? I would say hit the ramps, but I don't know. It's just me. Right. Hit the colored lights. Hit the colored lights and the colored ramps. There is a strategy. What you're trying to do is fill the amusement park with 15,000 customers. There's that little LCD, is it on the right-hand side, or dot matrix? Dot matrix. On the right-hand side that displays a number. That number corresponds with you hitting certain attributes on the game in order to boost that number. I'm going to read the rules in a second at least the beginning of them and people's head will start spinning so it's a little color LED TV kind of thing right? like the Simpsons had what's that called? dot matrix right? yeah it's sort of a dot matrix but it's not like a DMD it's bigger dots but Stern was using those a bunch in the early 2000s they did it on Monopoly they did it on Simpsons did it on this game here. They must have bought a stock of this stuff and said, well, let's just use this on a couple games. But since then, they haven't really used it. Well, I think probably in the interim, Jersey Jack or some other manufacturer started using some other kind of display, and as always, Stern then adapts. They get away with it for as long as they can. Exactly. Yep, that's right. Keep that bomb down, right? Keep that bill of materials down. Exactly. I'm going to cut it here. Unless you have something else you want to say. Yeah. Okay. Well, there is something. There's a... I was thinking of selling. I have a Twilight Zone that I'm going to restore. Oh, we're changing gears altogether. Yeah, just a quick gear. Because this is a current event thing. Okay. Because I'll tell you where this is going. So, once I'm done with it, I was thinking, you know, If I could sell it for $18,000, I would be able to afford this brand-new sculpture this Italian designer just did in Italy, and it just sold for $18,000. The thing is, though, it doesn't exist. It's an imaginary sculpture. Oh, not that NTF thing or whatever they call it. Yeah, you just look at it. You put tape around it and say, that's the sculpture I did, but it's not really there. It's a virtual sculpture, so there's nothing to really see. Is that what it's called? It's empty space. It's just an empty space. And you just imagine the sculpture being there. And you pay $18,000 for it. Oh, it's not even, you don't even get a card with it on it or some kind of drive. It's just basically... Empty space. Ether. Ether. And someone has to pay $18,000 for this. Because obviously, I don't think the classics are being taught anymore. Like, you know, the emperor is wearing no clothes. If people would read those stories, they might not fall for this junk. But anyway. Is this going to be on public display? Because that could make for a really good show. Just start asking people as they come up to the exhibit. What do you think? What do you think? What do you see? What do you see? Take this blue pill or red pill. What do you see now? Okay, I'm going to start reading the rules. Are you done? Yeah, I'm done. Okay, so here we go. Somebody on pin side. I don't know who it is, and it doesn't really matter. Take a bow. The rules mimic the computer game, so we're already at a loss. The object is to increase the amount of guests to your current park while working towards becoming a park tycoon. Upon completion of the six modes, your park becomes full and no more guests will be added to the park until you complete park tycoon. There are two pages of this, Dave. Wow. There's three skill shots. That's one thing I do remember. There are three skill shots. The first is a short plunge into the kiosk hole and will reward 100,000 points and 100 guests. A slightly harder plunge will land behind the handyman, whatever that is, target, and will begin a fun mode. A full plunge will be stopped at the ABC lanes and dropped down to the bumper cars. That must be the bumpers. Top bumper, yes. I would argue that you should just use a full plunge so that the ball ends up in the pops as they are essential to increasing your guest count. The bumper cars can really add guests to your park quickly. I'm not going to read how many. Open coasters. So basically, like you said, we're shooting for the coasters, whatever entrance is, we'll figure that out. And you want to get it in the bumper cars. Yeah. unless you want to read the rest of this, which I don't. Yeah. We're not going to play it enough times where it really cares, where we really care. Exactly. We're just going to ride some coasters. So you're going to let me try to redeem myself after the last embarrassment. Do you remember what I did when you went upstairs? Yeah. I played very, very poorly, and some people thought that was pretty funny. Yeah, exactly. That kind of tells you a little bit about our show. I don't claim oh here's where I can do my mea culpa look we're here for entertainment if you come to us trying to seek facts you're in the wrong place look it up on google we can't possibly remember everything I make mistakes I call Dave out on his mistakes but I make a lot of mistakes so don't take what we talk about his gospel unless I'm reading something like that. And even then, I can't validate it until we play. We got horseshoes and hand grenades. Oh, look where we are. Oh, cool. We're at the circle. Oh, we're close. We're very close. This is where we went on vacation with my family a little while ago. Years ago. No, I know exactly where we are. There's the gas station with the bathrooms. Okay. Cool. All right, so right now we can either drive on the parkway or park on the driveway. I'm not sure which one we want to do. Well, we're going to... We can also sit here in the waiting room or wait here in the sitting room, depending on what you want to do. We're almost there, so I'm going to cut unless there's something else you want to talk about. Oh, I do have one thing. Go ahead, lay it on me. Continue for 12 miles. Oh, continue for 12 miles. So we're close. We're behind a bucket loader. That's right, I've got a downshifter here. I've got a Volvo. I read this somewhere on, I believe... No, it wasn't. Excuse me. I'm going to... Oh, that's polite. Actually, I think I heard this discussed on a podcast. I think it was Bruce Nightingale. Are you familiar with the fact that if you were to play a modern Stern game for more than 45 minutes straight, that the flippers start to become weak? I was not aware of that because I haven't really played. I can't keep my attention that long for 45 minutes on a game. And I'm not applying it to you. I asking you A if you aware I would guess that a no No Let look at some of the games that have come out recently They certainly have long play times Sure If you are a tournament player Yeah, okay. This just took me by surprise. You'll understand why. Do you realize there is a mod or a product out there called Tibetan Breeze? No. I'm going to tell you, guess what it is, though. Are these like intercoolers you put on your flipper coils? It's a fan. Somebody actually made a bracket that attaches to a stern flipper body with these mini fans to cool those coils. I had this idea years ago. Well, somebody has beaten you to the punch. I swear, I was going to put a heat sink on top of flipper coils, especially in the hot Carl Weathers and you're playing a lot. Even in the old school games, they get a little bit weak. Take the heat away. In fact, I don't know if I told this story. I probably did years ago, one of our first episodes maybe, of the Stern Quicksilver. Did I tell that story? The Quicksilver that went boom? I took some dust off spray upside down, and it's really cold air that comes out of it, but it's a chemical through inside the cabinet of the Quicksilver on a hot day. You put your hand in there, it feels like you're an icebox, and then everything's nice and cool now, cool coils, and everything's nice and snappy. Of course, when you close the door up and leave it for a while with some other chemical I had in there that was gluing something, and my friend comes back and turns the game on and hits the flipper button, that arc right there, it made a great bomb because it went boom. What broke? The Quicksilver broke. In fact, it broke so much that it actually sent the bottom of the cabinet down to the floor explosively. It shot the playfield glass up. It shot the back glass out. So they crashed. This is your game? Oh, my game, yeah. And sent the glass into my friend's face and his body and behind him into the mahogany piano. The glass of shards got stuck into the piano. But you have a really nice game. Oh, I made a nice game after I... It was. It was. It wasn't. Then it was again. And then it was again. How long ago was this? 2004-ish. Oh, a long time ago. I think you did tell this story, but it, well, that's not, that's a great story. I remember you sort of telling the story, but it's a good one to revisit. So here's my question, and this is what came out of it. The reliability of the games that we collect, the older Stern and Bally games, the reliability factor is very, very high. Correct? Yeah. When you compare it to what I would call a modern Stern, which would be post-2000, it appears that, you know, and this was Dennis Creasel, another podcaster, he made a very good observation. He goes, these games were built for operators. Operators want reliability. they want money being put in they don't want games that break down and have to be repaired and cost money i believe that's probably a great summary and statement yep the the game is back the ballads especially the ballads of the day back in the you know late 70s early 80s that these those were tanks they were like the cadillacs and they basically take the abuse of young teenage boys all hopped up on testosterone and beaten the crap out of them, and they could take it. They were built. Electronics and everything. And even now, you can rebuild this older stuff, and it's still like a tank. The newer stuff with the node boards and all that kind of stuff, you started messing with that, putting circuit boards underneath games, underneath the playfield where vibration is, and not in the backbox where it should be, away from vibration. You can cause all kinds of problems. In fact, I'm going to go see a Led Zeppelin very soon that's out of the box. Really? He's got issues, yep. Oh, cool. Can I come? Sure. Yeah, you want to? Well, I'm trying. Friday. I would like to play. You want to come Friday? Sure. Sounds like I'm stacking up here. Yeah. I'd love to play that game because one would guess there's going to be one at Allentown, right? I would think so, yeah. I think this guy has an LE or premium as well. Just the fact to look at it and play it up front and close would be fun. Yeah. Hmm, now I've got to make a decision. That sounds like more fun. You can come for Friday, you can do the Led Zeppelin, and you can do the World Cup. You can do a two-front. Where's the Led Zeppelin? That's in a town away from you, Northboro. Oh, okay. Close. Okay, cool. so I wanted to talk about the flipper thing because it just here here is the thing that really got me the other person we talked about him earlier Zach Benny made this statement which I thought was just crazy he said I don't really care if you've loaded this game up with a game up with mechanisms and it breaks every 50 to 100 plays I would be out of my mind if that happened you'd be probably skipping down the street saying well you're probably skipping down the street now given that Led Zeppelin's been out a couple of months and you're already repairing one yeah but you know what though the problem is though I don't carry these node boards on me maybe you should maybe I will but these are under warranty so Stern is supposed to send these things out to them then I can be going out there to fix them but it's like once they're past warranty then yeah I'm going to have to start well maybe I'll order it on demand I don't know that's interesting I don't know what that's about that guy's an idiot he's going to be a head on collision right there he didn't give a crap he wasn't even trying to pass him that was fun that was that was an idiot that was an idiot driver right there coming right at us That was a lot of fun, George. No, that was not a lot of fun. That was actually... That was crazy. You know what would make it more fun? If I was texting and driving and that happened. You wouldn't... Who are we talking to right now? It would be a hell of a podcast. It would be a hell of a podcast. Boom! Boom! The end. Boom! And with a bang, George. That's all. Hey fellas, you okay? Acknowledge, Big Bopper. Acknowledge, are you okay? Charlie? Do you see me, cold cutter? Do you see me, man? Keep going. Keep going. We're okay. Here we are in the $5 million house on the water in Lake Winnipesaukee. it's being built as Dave sits here and repairs the single drop target on the right hand side of the play field on the restored pinball machine that I don't know something happened somewhere well it was shipped from somewhere far away so the jostling but although it was pretty well wrapped but when you took the play field to get underneath it didn't really didn't really slide out nice. It kind of went clunk. So clunk isn't good. I thought it went to the bottom of the channel. Almost. That's not how it's supposed to go. But it looks like a fairly nice game. Yeah. It definitely does. A couple of scratches but they're going to go into an alcove. So you're not even going to see the sides of the cabinet. All you're going to see is the fascia of the coin door and the back glass. That's it. You can hear it. And that alcove has fresh paint, so you have to be very careful you don't get the fresh paint on there. Right. And I get the grand job of going underneath the playfield or the cabinet and playing turtle. Turtle. It's turtle time. So I'm sure some of you out there have done that, but I'm willing to do it. This is definitely a very, very cool home. I knew you liked this, George. That's why I brought you along. No, I was nosy. You know I was. Before Dixie came down, I was saying, yeah, I wanted to come along because I'm really nosy. Call me Mr. Kravitz. Are they going to rent this place out? Oh, they're renting out to you. We can stay here sometime. Are they going to rent it? I'm going to ask her. I think it's like 20 grand a week, I think. Got to be. I'm not sure. I bet you it is. It depends how many bedrooms there are, but I bet you it is. I wouldn't doubt it. Well, I can tell you. I didn't tell you this in the car. Janice rented us a home out on Nantucket in August. Yes. Five a week. You're not even in the ballpark. Wow, okay. You're not even close. Wow. Right. Yowza. But then again. It's only money, George. Janice knows how to negotiate, so let's just leave it at that. So I've never been. You ever been? I have been to Nantucket. We actually even went to the Nantucket Nectar's store while we were up there. There you go. Oh, you mean the fruit juice? Yeah. Okay. Okay. One thing I would have done in the past. I've never been, so I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun. The key thing in these games that no one does, it seems like it, is no one ever tightens down the flipper linkages. They leave them just factory tight, which is not tight enough, and you get play in very short order, and you get a weak flipper. This goes for Stearns and WPC Williams. So standard practice, I tighten those puppies down nice and tight, and you have a nice, strong flipper for years to come. Otherwise, you have a sloppy flipper in short order. So I'll probably hit that too while I'm in here. I don't know what this thing is, but be careful. Whatever that black box is there, it was hanging up on the side rail. You can see it's kind of bulged out just a little bit. Oh, my Lord. It gets kind of violent. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, it is violent. It's going to wave like that. All right, so let's try this again. I'm still going to say Okay, Dave's starting her up the second time Sometimes the game says, fuck you, but I don't take it personally. Okay. And also sometimes the game says, fuck off, but I still don't take it personally. Okay, start the thing off there. Just play the game, Dave. Let's see the thing work. Okay, folks, you probably hear the fan. Let me shut my fan off. Dave couldn't have picked a better day. we're in this brand new house as I said with no air conditioning well George it comes with its own sauna we're in the sauna I'm already on t-shirt number three enough so Dave had a couple of issues to rectify considering this game was shipped in from wherever go ahead Dave tell us a little bit about what you did this game is Ramp-O-Rama but it's a fun Ramp-O-Rama I like the different colored steel wire form ramps are cool But the biggest thing in this game, and I don't think any of the game has this, is the really tall yellow roller coaster. When the ball comes out down towards the bottom of the flippers and comes around, it almost drops straight down, which I love in a roller coaster for real life, but in a pin machine, hard to pull off to have it done right. So it wasn't right. It had to be done a couple of bends to make sure that the ball kept falling off track, falling off track. At one point, it got three in a row, and then the number four came off track. Okay, so they keep bending. George looked at an angle on the other side, come over here, went over there. Finally, we got it right. So he's actually hugging the rail all the way down. No more bouncing off the yellow roller coaster. I think what you need to tell the audience is, A, this wire form is fed by a buck, and that the wire form almost touches the playfield glass. So there's a steep first drop, just like a roller coaster. It's definitely unusual for a game like this. So I've never seen a wire form like that. And when we first were setting this up, we were play testing before we had to go into a small nook. So we play tested outside in the room, and it was a stand-up drop target in the back right that was supposed to, you know, go down. You hit it, it didn't go down. The ball would go behind it, and it's supposed to hit an opto. It's supposed to drop down, let the ball come out, upper right flipper, shoot it around. That was never happening. So it's like something's going on. So they pulled the play field out. The back play field kind of went clunk down. and that wasn't right. So in shipping or handling, whatever happened, something happened in the game. So I had to pull it all out, look at the holes, tell me to take it out, and there was some loose screws in there for the opto and also on the drop target mech that were causing it to be all hung up. So figured that out. That's working fine now. And the last, the third thing that was wrong with it was the left-hand side, what do you call it, shoot back in the play field thing. I call it a kicker. A kicker. Yeah, the shoot back into play on the left side. Oh, there's a kicker on the lower left-hand side of the play field that launches the ball all the way up to the back. An auto plunge, a left-side auto plunger. Better word. Let's call it that. So it's supposed to shoot up all the way up and around in the top and then come back down. Well, a lot of times that was getting hung up by this little diverter assembly that was actually not, that was kind of, had a couple cracks in the plastic. It wasn't lying straight like it's supposed to. It was kind of hanging down. the ball would go so fast it would hit that and get diverted. It would also get diverted. So I had to apply a little bit of some sticky stuff underneath there and some bushing material to bring that up. And so that's all set now. So there are three things wrong with the game that we rectified. Not too bad, but it took a little while, and we're here in the human sauna. So why don't we start a game? I'm not sure we're going to play three games because I'm melting. But let's see how game one goes. Alright, game one. I think we should... I think we should do the following. Go ahead. I think not only should it be based on points, but I think we should also base it on who gets the most people to attend the supermarket. Fair enough, sir. The supermarket. Alright, the supermarket. Yeah, the rollercoaster supermarket. What's going on now? What happened? As long as we don't move back and... Step right up, alright? Go ahead, you do the honors. Guests in park, 1,000. All right. Oh, so you start with 1,000. It's time to play Dancing Digits. Hit the stand-up. Hit the stand-up. Okay. So you want to hit those three targets, I guess? Stand-up. Where is this? Oh, the stand-up. Those three. Oh, those things, the yellow thing. I missed it. Oh, that's it. I got one of them. Okay. Two. You just got 24 more new guests. on the way to $15,000. I thought I got that one. They didn't give it to me. Shushi. Shushi. Shushi. It's selling sushi at the seashells in the seashore. So Dave's got how many points? I have 286,000 big points. I think a good game on this is like five or six million. Well, replay at 10 million, so I'm way low. Okay, fuckers are good. George is getting some guests. He got 50 guests awarded. The upper left flipper, you forgot that. The other thing we need to talk about is that this has a small flipper on the upper right side. Left side. Oh, yeah, my other left. Your other left, yes. Okay, what did I just say? You hit the loop-to-loop, the Chicago loop. Oh, that's kind of like a spinner thing? A spinner thing and a thing. What do you call it? Oh, what the hell is that? It's a Chicago loop, I think. Boo time It's a boo time Here you go George you are Ramping with the best of them Like I said I watched Schultz Or whatever his name is Play this on YouTube I still don't have any clue as to what the hell I'm doing. So how many deaths? Oh, almost 2,000. Wow. Okay. We should go. Okay. Flying Ghost is open. So what's the Flying Ghost? Good question. Oh, Flying Ghost. Right there. Go for the ghost and shoot that. Oh, there's actually a ghost. There's a ghost. We are... We're worthless when it comes to these. You know that? Why do people even listen to us? We're not the best of them. Well, you know. Oh, come on. That's a bunch of horse-ooey. Okay. Okay, so I've got more guests than you. You know one thing, George? This ain't no fathom. All right? I just want to say that. No, this... Oh. Try again. Hmm, that's a little... Oh, you can move the thing. You can move the lane. You can lane change. I like the bumper thing. That gets you a lot of people. You missed your flipper again. And out you go. Oh, that's right. No ball save. Boy, that's really stingy, the ball save. Can I get some more people? Oh, I have 2,200 people. You did. Dave's only got 1,470. Oh, there we go, Dave. Bumper it up. There we go. Thank you. Come on. Now, that... All I can tell you is that center lane over there gets you the multiball. Underneath that billboard that tells you the number of people, the number of guests you have. the LED. Yes. Okay, 150 guests. You're doing well. Oh, sorry. That's all right. Thank you. Somebody building a house. We're doing very important work, too. We're testing a film machine. We're sweating profusely and playing the game. It's almost as important as building a house. I do. Okay, I said this earlier when we were off air. That troll needs to be replaced with somebody. Yeah. Like a Donald Trump or Krusty the Clown or Baby Scrotum. No, Baby Scrotum. I like Baby Scrotum better. I would up to you. Does the audience know who Baby Scrotum is? Yeah, it's our name for Baby Yoda. Okay. Or what do we call him? Groot? No, Groot is a tree. Grogu. Grogu. Grogu. How about the Gronk? The Gronk who stole Christmas. No, we did this shtick together. The Gronk who stole Christmas. We've already done this once. I know, but I like that. Sometimes you wake up Gronky, sometimes the Gronk wakes you up. Dunk the dummy. Dunk the dummy. All right. Actually, are there any bobbleheads from famous pinball people that we could put out there and start a troll? Todd from TNT Amusements. There you go. Put it in there. He'd like that, too. He probably would You doing much better on this ball I have a feeling I going to end up losing again Because you must be adding a lot of people. Oh, you got the extra ball. You got to hit that. Where's the extra ball? I don't know where the extra ball is. It's not down there. So how many people? 3,600 people. All right. That's better. Okay. Well, you're winning. How many more do you have? 3 million? Oh, dang! Right. Roaring back, man. You got 1.3. What is this, our second ball? This is ball three. Oh, wow. I'm really doing cool. It feels cooler in here somehow. It doesn't look it? Not by looking at you, George. Okay, let's try this. I'm not going to pull it over. That was horrible. I think I'm going to get in the soundtrack track for this game on my mp3 player. Maybe not though. Actually, you know what, I just thought about it. Okay, I will. There we go. Oh, look at that! Oh, look at that. George is multi-balling with the best of them here. I'm going to call you George Elwin at this point. One ball down. Oh, he saved it. He's still in the game here. And it's out the left side. It lights going down the left side. Ka-Bradlee Ching. I think Dave won on both counts. Will it match? Let's see. No. So, final score. 3,000,001. 2,000,002. Dave had I had 1900 guests I think Dave had 3000 guests so he won ok Dave give me the rubber give me the ability to at least try to beat you alright go one or two I'll go first I'll go first George is stepping up to the roller coaster plate trying to be a tycoon I'm not going to forget that little flipper right there there you go you got into the vuck George is vucking with the best of them kicker action so what do you think about the description I read earlier that really was helpful right about adding guests not really right behind you Oh, here we go. Alright, we're back. Oh, here we go, here we go, here we go. Yes, it worked! Sweet! Oh! Well, he didn't quite make it all up that one. That's alright. Didn't quite go for it. Yum, yum. Okay, so I got dancing digits. What does that mean? There's a lot. I think that's an old math club, I think, in high school. Dancing digits. Yee-haw! Oh, George with the pump-upers again. He's getting bumper car magic. Did you have the tilt on this? I left it alone. It's very liberal tilt. Yeah, there you go. You get the oil. Yeah, digits total. No 2,500 guests. I'll take that. That wasn't a bad deal. Ride the flying goat. Ride the flying goat. Ride the flying carpet. And no pop-up or action from you. And that is a deadly little... Oh, come on. Where is my ball save? I'm going to change that in the software. There has to be ball save in this. There has to be ball save in this game. I'm going to research that. That's just not fair at all. This thing was built in the 2000s. D&D Williams was doing ball save. Before the team was even a concept. Is that the stab that Dopey's been saying? I think so. Nice save, George. Look at that. Okay, I'm going to go for that target on the right side. No, instead I got... The flying turd. Oh wait no, flying turds There you go That's the brown ramp Flying turds Let's try this one Oh look at that You get in there Oh you got a ball one locked Look at you go George Ball one locked and ABCs Extra ball, where is it? Oh extra ball, I get it, it's that ramp Upper right ramp is what you want for extra ball No, no, no Ha Oh, he laughed at you He said ha Oh, he almost got it Yeah, yeah Alright, now Wishnick is still saying hello Oh, he almost got the ramp And He's hitting a lot of rubber Kickers And out And out she goes I do not I'm going to I'm going to have to level that It goes out there all the time I've had it go every ball I have It never has gone over here I don't know if this game has got any holes. But I think for a home game, you get a lot of fun out of this game. Oh, yeah. So you've got only 1,250 guests here. That just helped you. That just helped you. Every time you do that, that's 25 gas. All right. Let's do that again. Oh, nice. Lock is lit. Brian, don't tell me what to do. You're doing well. I hope it's denying us multiple, all right? Spin till you win. Go that way? All right, what is that? Oh, that's going to do something. Oh, I'm going to do a big roller coaster. Here we go. Big roller coaster. All right, ball one blocked. There we go. And up and around. I always hit the A. Okay, so that ramp I was telling you about in the upper right, where the target is, the next one over, that's how you get your multiball. I believe. Okay. The top right. Right underneath the sign. Okay. That ramp under the sign. I think that's it. All right. You're doing well. trying to go down there you're scrambling eggs whatever that means i'm scrambling i'm guessing that's the scrambler spin bump that must be that spinner thing that's like um turtles no avengers right toss your cookies i get it now where's the hanging There's like nine of them around here. I mean, on the play field. Oh, I knew we were going to do that. We got it again. I knew we were going to go up there. Shoot the handyman. We can't do that. Who is the handyman? We get arrested, George. I know who the handyman is. It's against the law. That's Sammy Davis Jr. Who? The Candyman Can. Yes. And delicious. You can even eat the fishes. Something like that. After you do the dishes. Oh, George, we're so bad, aren't we? I'm cringing right now. We sing like power cats. Okay, so do I get a... Oh, he made it. I got it again. How come you didn't get that the last time? When you got the ball stuck. The wishnick likes you, that's why. The troll likes me? The troll likes you, yes. I think it's called they. It's got pink hair, so it's they. You've got to shoot your ball, George. You do. Look at you go. It's true! How did that do that? I don't know. Oh, there you go. multiball. Oh, George. He's got a multiball. Do you have any idea? No. Okay. I don't have any idea. I'm using our tried and true strategy. Just play blind. Just shoot stuff. Shoot stuff. All right. Shoot the flashy crap. Oh, there you go. Big. Oh, he's working nice now. Oh, I got it. How come? What the hell is going on? I think you're kicking my butt. That's what's going on here. George's been holding back on me. George is a closet ramper. You missed everything. You missed everything, George. I wouldn't say that, Wishnick. I'm going to just keep scoring. There you go. Keep doing Eric. It's the Eric Stone move right there. Okay. I don't know what you call that. It's not the handyman. Where's the handyman? The handyman ramp. The handyman ramp. Satisfying and delicious. You can even eat the dishes. But we don't recommend it. Oh, here we go. Up the big one. It works every time. Ten times out of ten. Oh, I didn't quite make that, though. I got that one, man. This is just like constant Rambo. Yeah. You gonna call me that? Rambo? I do like this better than Monopoly, I will say. I wish that thing over in the corner that it's spiritually wasn't hidden. It's kind of like you don't even see it, you know? I must have a motive. Wow. I got three of the modes done. And you got a shoot again thing too. Do I? Yeah, you do. You might make a free game. You're at five, but you're on ball three with an extra ball. And you have 400 guests awarded. Oh, you got the scoop there. You just got fries. You got your drink. I feel like I got to dump the junk. You got drink. You got a burger. You got cotton candy. You got some fries going on. I.E. happening. Get the ghost. Extra ball for George. Oh, I go again? You go again, George. I got 6,200 people, man. That's a lot of people. I'm rocking it. Big bonus. Big bonus. Shoot again. Blah, blah. 5.8 million. George is going for 10. If he can do it. 46 more guests. R&D, this full fun mode. All right, we've got a couple drop targets down. We're on the blue roller coaster. And it's laughing at us. Please, I'm going to give it. And it's not just because I'm winning. Two ramps up? No, I'm going to give it a positive. I think it's pretty good. Big bonus! What do you think? I would sell this to... I would sell this as a single game to a homeowner. I think they'd get a lot of fun out of this game. Yeah. It's a good theme. Good kid-friendly theme. Yeah. It'd be interesting... I really wonder how many people actually own this game. And I can see this doing well on location. Because like you said, it's approachable. It's just not very intuitive. No. I have no idea how to do any of this. Except shoot. I've got to lock. Shoot high and shoot often. Okay, Dave. So that is now lit. So if you hit that ramp, like I've said for the last four times, you'll get that one. That one. You'll get the multiball. Because see how the arrow is lit? Ah, the arrow that says multiball. Yeah, that one. That one. I think you can backhand it. I think you can. Nope, not enough power. It didn't go from that ramp. Or from that out lane. If I can get my left flipper, it'll be kind of nice. I'm trying. Alright, now we go. There we go. Up the ramp. Did I make it? Yes, you made it. Alright. And I got multiball too. Whoa, here we go. Alright. It's... Where's the multiball? Coming. Here we go. It's... Multiball! And a two second multiball. Wait, no. Still happening. Looks like you got a ball save. I do. So why doesn't it give you a ball save? The ball save must be... When you have all the balls on it, it kind of gives you a little bit of a race period. But I'm saying when you gas at the beginning, it doesn't give you anything. Right. Whoa. Is that a setting? I think it's a setting. You'll be back here. It's only a matter of time. A matter of time. You're right. It's only a matter of time. You're catching up now. jackpot oh yeah piece of junk yeah you're rocking it though and you've got three out of the five modes You're working on number four right now. So we both... I asked your ball, though. We've both done pretty well on this. Let's see. How are you doing in relation to me? Big bonus. Big bonus. Do you know what I heard? He said, big... No. Big. Big deal. Big deal. Big deal. That's what Rudy said. Big deal. It could say, big sausage. You really caught up. Oh, I thought it was dead. Whoa, that was loud. That was loud. It sounded like the Wishnick Burke or something. Okay, a lot of stuffing. I think one of us. Is this ball two? Ball three. I think he's ready. I think you're going to catch me. Shoot the left ramp. The left ramp, all right? The left ramp. Oh, that one. The left ramp? No. You're talking about my ramp skills. Look at you, Rampy Rampster. I'm ramping with the best of them. Oh, yeah. Bum. Oh, I don't know, George. I don't know if that's enough to beat you. 5,000 guests, though. You did pretty good. Not big enough, though. I think George took me. I think he took me. Let's see what we got here. And... You did. 6.3 to 5.6. Georgie, the winner. Do we play the rubber match? We could. We're here. Okay, go ahead. All right, hold on one second. You mean while I sweat my... While you sweat your patootie off there. Yeah, that's one body part that I'm sweating. Overall, good playing game. fun theme would take me a while to figure out what I'm actually doing but I don't know how long I would I could probably get a month out of a game like this have you been playing at all? well me? yeah no I've been playing Battlezone but although I will say I do play test I'm doing a bunch of play testing of games but you're not playing your own games No, I haven't played many games at all. Nope, not for a while. Shall we? Go ahead. All right. Do you want to go first or do you want me to go? Your choice. We'll go first. Okay. And what I just did, I just adjusted the left front leg to make it not drain as much on the left. So let's see if that helps us here. So I think that was good strategy, that thing I read on Pinside, that the bump bridge definitely does get me gas. But there's it. But it still drains. Oh, I hate that thing. That left mount is just brutal. It needs a bumper there or something. No, it needs a piece of rubber band across it. Or a post right in the middle. Okay, we still haven't figured out where the handyman is. See, I'm hitting that ghost. That should hit that. and do what? I don't know, do something. Shouldn't it? Well, you just hit it. It's open now. I think that's the whole idea, isn't it? Okay, I guess. Right, they want you to go back up in there so you can go on that giant yellow one. Oh, blue, I did get him. Blue. Alright, hit him now. Ghost, no. Oh, almost. So now there's something timed for whatever reason. Because we're doing a countdown. Okay. Okay. That's something new. It's going blue. Blue. Blue, blue, blue. Is it giving you time to get that? Did you get it? I have no idea. I don't know what I'm doing. Because it's counting down on the LED. 13, 12, 11. So you're in some kind of timed mode. What do you want me to do? Yeah, well, let me know what it's supposed to be. Oh, there you go, that ramp. Oh, I see that ramp right there. The right ramp. That's where it wants. It wants that right ramp. If I can get there. I can't get there with this clipper. Lock is locked. You're doing well. You almost have two million. That's a lot of rubber on this game, man. It is. You're not asking for anything. You haven't hit anything. There you go. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of these black rubbers. No. I change them all out to clear. I would probably put colored ones in. It's not that easy. It's a clown machine anyway. Might as well just clown it up a little. Didn't go nutty with the LEDs in this thing, though. No LEDs at all, because it's before LEDs. This is early 2000, so no LEDs back then. It looks nice looking. Yeah. I put LEDs in the GI whenever I come back here for a service call. Got a good ball going, Dave. Chicago Moops. The Moops is now open. Okay. Oh, so that ramp I keep talking about, that's where you're going to get your multiball. It's lit again. Okay. Not that one. It's really tough to get that one. It's kind of a bear. So now... Dancing dishes? dancing what dancing i think dancing bitches no dancing in ditches is that a b or a D I think that you George Player one is lit George didn't have a beer yet. What do you mean he's lit? I'm doing horribly. Let's see if we can change this. Lock is lit. Ball one locked. That's good. He's got the map. Jackpot lit. ride the scrambled egg I thought that was called the scrambled well it is but in this game it's called scrambled eggs because it scrambles your brain up to anything I'm doing scrambling four cha-Bradlee Ching I'm doing scrappy I think you're going to take me I'm not going to be going So you're supposed to spell eat as well. That's something there. Eat, okay. That's those fixed targets on the right-hand side that say eat. Ah. Yeah. Oh, those. Yeah, those. Is that right foot right? We do what we normally do. At least I read a little bit of the rule set. Usually we don't need anything. That's true. Oh, it's so close to getting that stupid ramp. Oh, come on. I get that one all day long. Hang on. Alright, here we go. Up the ramp. Up the ramp. Multiball. There you go. Multiball! Yay! Here it comes. All right, Jay. Maybe you can be the ringmaster. Oh, no, that's the wrong guy. What is it, the tycoon master? Tycoon master. King of the tycoons? King of the rams. Jackpot. Jackpot. You need to get a couple more moes. But you're doing pretty well. Just keep doing what you're doing. All right. Go, Dave, go. Five million. That's good. Great. I always get tricked. No, I know. You're thinking it's going to drop there and it goes apart. It never does. That must be the only game that does. Yeah, I think so. It's pretty cool, though. It's pretty freaky. Basically, the yellow pavitrail crosses directly over the center of the bottom of the pipe. Once you get all the roller coasters going at once, it's a very interesting game. All three balls are hitting all different roller coaster ramps. Visually, it's a cool game. Visually cool game, I will say. I'm getting new respect for this game I still don't think the control should be on here I think change it, be creative and put something else on there that would be better that would be my mod I almost got it I want to get the drop target there we go, got it good save you're kicking it You're king of the ramp. I think I got the same number finally. Oh, almost. Right, but you have to complete all the modes, which we don't even know how to do. You'd have to read that rule book. The five pages of rules. I don't know if I get the time for that. I'd rather just shoot stuff. That's a bolly bricker. Yeah, it's a bricker. You've got to hit that hard. There you go. Oh, you got 6,500 guests. Not enough, though. You need 15,000 to be the Typhoon. 15,000. Wow. That's a lot. A lot of balls. Well, you're working on your third mode, so you're doing pretty good. 15 hits for 400 guests. Okay. I had no idea we got to hit 15 times. Shoot for duck. Shoot the dummy. Don't hit me. I would hit you. I'm trying to shoot you. You're trying to shoot Stolzberg? I've got to shoot this. There you go. There you go. Oh, there you go. Shoot the dummy. The thing's taunting you. It is. There. Eight more hits. Two more hits. What are you... Oh, the bumper. You got 400 deaths by doing that. You're really doing it. Oh, man. You could become the dungeon master. Excellent. You could be king of the circus I like that Right next to the dog-faced boy What's open? Something's open I don't know I see lights blinking up on the upper right That's always a safe shot You have 8,000 guests? Is that right? Not bad. Shushi. I don't know what you're doing, man, but you are just killing it. You're almost at 10,000 guests. 9,400 guests. Excellent. All right. Duck the Dunk. You've got to get it up like that. I couldn't do anything. Oh, really? Hey, Bozo. Hey, Bozo. Really? Okay. Oh, so now we're... You're done biting words. There, how about that? I think you got him. Shoot him again. Oh, it's out to him again. You got 15 seconds. It's going to come down. Oh, you got multiball again? I think so. Rub it in. I know this one wouldn't be funny. Okay, now you gotta be the roller coaster tycoon master because you're just... Oh, they're free, Dave. Oh, look at you. Ten million, Dave. Wow. Too bad you can't see this, folks. The party is full! Wow. Really? Okay. I'm glad you announced that on full volume. Wow. 10,490, 10,500 guests. What do I need? How many? You need two modes. You've got to complete all the modes. So you're missing toss the cookies, toss the somethings, and spin and bump. That must be that thing over on the left. Oh, that thing. That thing. Yeah, how's that? I'll let you know when it lights. And I'll read the... Pop the cookie? Toss your cookies. Oh. Like when you hit a roller coaster and you had too much to drink or eat or whatever. Never did that. Me neither. I think this game's got your name on it, man. I know. 1,100. 11,000 guests. Dave's close to being. Oh, you did get the spin and bump. I did. So the only thing you don't have is that one that's not lit. What does it say? Toss the cookies? Toss the cookies. Where is that? Right there. Right there. Toss your cookies. Is that what it says? It gets loud all of a sudden. That's a little bit disappointing. You're special at 15,000 guests. So you're at 11,300. You're close. Close for what now? What do I have to get? You need to get 15,000 guests. You're over 11,000. And what happens if I make 15,000 guests? You get to be the super tycoon master or something. Super tycoon master, okay. Whatever I read. All right. You got 65. You're almost at 12,000 guests. You're doing... 45 more hits. Oh, for 500 guests. So if you get it in that pop bumper area, that's why the guy said shoot for the pop bumper. Okay. That makes sense now. But it's not... I'm wondering what those timed modes were. I don't know what that was. You're almost at 13. You're almost there, man. I just got off. Okay. Because you're doing pretty good. Oh, come, you get multi. Oh, I got to toss your cookies. You got multiball again. Oh, that's all you've got to do is toss the cookies. And you can be the dungeon man, the roller coaster tycoon. Oh. Extra ball, though. Oh. Somehow. 12,800 guests. You're really close. Big deal. Okay. You want to get into those bumpers now. Okay. 24 more, 21, 18 hits, 13 hits, and you get 500. Six more, four more. That's the place to get the... That's the place, Dave. All right. You're almost at 13,000. Oh, I got it. Park Tycoon. I got it. Park Tycoon. Oh, so you can become the roller coaster tycoon? Everything's lit. I got super wizard. I got wizard mode. Shoot fives to light jackpots. I got the wizard mode. Shoot more jackpots. Shoot rocket. Wow. All right. Thank you. Oh, look at... I'm not even going to play my last role. Wow. Whoa. Whoa. That's a little loud. Is that caught? Gabe is just killing it. Whoa. As you're talking about other games, get multiballs. Get a lot of multiballs on this game. I did a lot of multiballs on this game. Ew. You're almost at 20 million. You're the park tycoon, man. Excellent. I like it. I get my name in life. Oh, I think you're going to put your initials on the game. I think so. The homeowner is going to be a little... He's going to play better, that's all. It's my first time playing this game. You might want to leave him a little bit of a love note. Dave is juggling four or five balls, I can tell. Four. I see four. Is that maximum? I think. I made this five. Is this five anymore? I see four. Okay. Three. Shoot the rocket for super bonus. Wow. Did it just die? Oh yeah, because you entered the tycoon mode. Keep shooting. Alright. That was like a special wizard mode there. So you made it to the end. I made it to the end. On our third game. the game on the third game. On the third game. And that's with no ball shape either. Which I think is pretty neat. No, you really did well. We still don't know where the handyman is. He's hiding somewhere. But he comes up quite a bit. Oh, and once... Oh, so you started all over again. Now you're at 1,800 guests. So it basically starts you all over again That's not fair Well, because you only have spin and bump You lit all those up before Too much for my brain to digest That's weird how that gets loud and soft though And that scrambled egg mode It goes between 25 and 400 Something about that amp Exactly. Something's wrong with that amp. It's back. He'll be back. Yep. Didn't do it when I was there. Just don't listen to our podcast. Right. Whoa. It's part of that 45 plays and the clippers get warm. Maybe the amp gets warm on the speaker amplifier. I don't know. No, we're not noticing any clipper degradation. No. Dave plays for 900 minutes. I feel like Eric Stone here. You did very well. This actually should have been on stream. I know, on video. Somebody would really like to have seen this. Because I watched the guy on Sunday night, Schultzy, whatever his name is, and he didn't do this. He came close a couple times, but he didn't do this. And he owns the game. Wow, wow, interesting. I've got a friend named Toe Cutter, and I wanted to say, Can you see me, toe-cutter? Can you see me, man? I actually went and looked that up. You did? That's a really weird scene. What, toe-cutter? Oh, yeah. That's a great scene. I love that. That's a bad max. Where he basically takes the guy and kills him afterwards, the old guy, right? He says, I am the toe-cutter. And he's there with his goons, and the goons kind of take him away from the train station. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He says, Bubba, Johnny. I've been looking for a point to put that in one of our podcasts now I do right, doesn't he say something like that? hey, I'm the Toad Cutter well, that's the first guy he says, I'm the chosen one I'm the, not the eye-told rock and roll I don't know, I gotta look it up poor bastard the Knight Rider that is his name the Knight Rider the Knight Rider. Remember him when you look at the night sky. I will. Take your hat off. Anything you say. Anything I say. What a wonderful philosophy. Take him away. Bubba. Johnny. I feel like I'm playing with our neighbor, who we haven't talked about in a while, because I'm standing here for ten minutes watching you play the game. Keep it up, you two. Rank games are easy. That's all. Whoa. Is that your mantra? Yes Ramp games are easy It's like Earth Girls are easy Yeah Ramp games are easy Okay I kind of got the reference There you go Just make sure other people did You never know Not so sure about that movie No Jeff Goldblum I think right Yeah Who's the woman He's the woman No who's the woman I was going to say He's the woman No he's not the woman I said who's the woman It's the movie today Who's the woman in the game In the remake He's the woman now I'm sure Jeff's going to appreciate that. It's a different world these days. I can't believe you're still playing. George, I'm sweating more than you right now. No, you're not. Folks, my friends always refer to gays as a how many bandana gay. Right. Today it's a how many t-shirt day, which is even worse than a how many bandana day. It's an upgrade. We're up to three. Yeah, hey, Bozo, stop playing. That's you. I want to get the high score. You got the high score. You got 24 million. How many more do you want? All right. There you go. That was it. Okay, I'm not even playing. I concede. Let's see. You got 15,000 guests the first time and over 5,000 guests the second time. For a total score of... I remember the ball to play. Okay, I'm just pulling. Yeah, I'm done. 24 million. See, look. See the hits? Oh, yeah. Done. But you know what's... You know what's... Oh, you took another ball. The highest score, 18-5. I do have the highest score. Sweet. I didn't know that was... Oh, jeez. I thought you were done. Me too. You never know. Oh, I'm almost done right there. I'm kind of getting tired. So that scrambler thing, whatever that is, that must be that turntable thing on the left-hand side. I don't know what the proper name is. Everybody dance! Everybody dance. When you turn that thing around, it gives you anywhere from 25 to 400 guests. So that's a lucrative target, too. Oh my god, dude. You're just... You were killing it. Here you go. Here you go. I'm not playing with you anymore. You're no fun. You don't even give me a chance. George, I like the girlfriend of the arcade that keeps waiting for the... For the guy playing the pinball machine forever. Say, can we go yet? I need to go shopping. No, I just keep wanting to say to you. Whoa. I keep wanting to say, hey, Bowen, you going to let me play? Yes, there you go. Very good. Thank you, bro. Okay. Let's see. What are you going to put in for your initials? I think dock would be appropriate. Wow, that is loud. Yeah, that is really loud. I've got to look into that maybe. You might want to cut... But the regular sound is good. One. I only get one for that? Two. That's a bunch of... Two. And I matched two. Well done. Thank you. Dave! Who? Dave! D-A-V-E! Yeah, Dave! Dave! Right. So anyone out there that wants to explore getting their games worked on, getting their games restored, or buying a restored game from me, you can check out my website at pinballdoctor.com. That's pinballdoctor, all spelled out. Or you can reach me at dave at pinballdoctor.com. Or you can reach me at drdavespinball at gmail. And that's d-r-d-a-v-e-s, pinball, at gmail. THE END This is a routine pursuit. May the force repeat, this is a routine pursuit.

high confidence · George and Dave discuss design philosophy differences, with Dave confirming issues with node board placement

  • A Led Zeppelin pinball machine (LE or Premium) that George and Dave plan to visit in Northboro is already requiring repairs after only a couple of months in production

    medium confidence · Dave confirms he's already repairing one Led Zeppelin machine while discussing node board warranty coverage

  • Flipper linkages on pinball machines are commonly left at factory-tight tension, causing premature wear and weak flippers; tightening them properly extends flipper lifespan

    high confidence · Dave states this as a standard practice for both Stern and WPC Williams machines during the RCT setup

  • “look we're here for entertainment if you come to us trying to seek facts you're in the wrong place look it up on google we can't possibly remember everything”

    George @ mid-episode disclaimer — Establishes podcast's entertainment-focused approach and disclaims factual accuracy

  • “You wouldn't... Who are we talking to right now? It would be a hell of a podcast. Boom! And with a bang, George. That's all.”

    Dave (joking about texting/driving accident) @ late episode, during drive segment — Dark humor commentary on dangerous driving observed during the trip

  • “The playfield kind of went clunk down. And that wasn't right.”

    Dave @ setup troubleshooting section — Indicates shipping damage to the RCT playfield assembly, requiring investigation and repair

  • The Classic Pinball Podcast
    organization
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Fun Spotvenue
    Lake Winnipesaukeevenue
    Betsoncompany
    Roller Coaster Tycoon (Stern, 2002)game
    Sam Whitestar boardproduct
    Mandaloriangame
    Led Zeppelingame
    Tibetan Breezeproduct
    Nantucketvenue
  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball manufactures approximately 20,000 games per year across four titles (per Zach Minney estimate)

    medium · George cites Zach Minney from another podcast discussing production volume; no official Stern confirmation

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Flipper linkages on pinball machines are routinely left at factory-tight tension, causing premature wear and weak flippers; proper tightening extends lifespan

    high · Dave states this as standard practice for both Stern and WPC Williams machines during RCT setup; describes applying tighter tension as routine procedure

  • ?

    technology_signal: A commercial product called 'Tibetan Breeze' exists—a fan bracket that attaches to Stern flipper bodies to cool coils and prevent heat-related performance degradation

    medium · George describes the product to Dave; notes he had the same idea years ago but someone else manufactured it

  • ?

    product_concern: Led Zeppelin pinball machines are experiencing failures within a couple months of release; Dave already repairing one machine despite warranty coverage

    medium · Dave confirms he's repairing a Led Zeppelin machine; discusses node board warranty replacement challenges; George and Dave plan to visit another machine in Northboro

  • ?

    historical_signal: Stern's Sam Whitestar board system (used in early-2000s games like Terminator 3, Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, RCT) was reliable despite less stellar themes

    high · George states directly; contrasts positively with modern Stern board systems and design philosophy

  • ?

    venue_signal: Fun Spot arcade (New Hampshire) features active token pusher/redemption game scene with regular collector activity; Eric Stone frequents during busy times to collect leftover tokens

    medium · George and Dave reference Eric Stone's arcade activity at Fun Spot; discuss earlier podcast episode from August 2019

  • ?

    community_signal: Multiple pinball podcasters (Bruce Nightingale, Dennis Creasel, Zach Minney) are discussing reliability and design philosophy issues in modern Stern games

    medium · George cites conversations from other podcasts; indicates ongoing community dialogue about modern vs. vintage machine quality