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Late Breaking News

Pintastic New England·video·22m 53s·held·Jul 26, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Pintastic conference updates: new arcade, shipping tactics, Project Pinball charity tour details.

Summary

Pintastic New England covered multiple industry updates including a new arcade opening (Pinball-O-Rama in the Far East), shipping cost strategies from Dino Gasparri of ShipMyPinball.com focusing on dimensional freight quotes to avoid fuel surcharges, and an extensive Project Pinball charity presentation by Dan Spolar detailing their Love Across America tour with six machine dedications, 61 total placements, and upcoming events including Pinball Expo and Pinball at the Lab.

Key Claims

  • Dino Gasparri shipped a Mata Hari machine from Montreal, Canada to Puerto Rico for $223 using dimensional freight quotes

    high confidence · Dino Gasparri, ShipMyPinball.com speaker at Pintastic New England, directly stated this specific example

  • Project Pinball has donated 61 pinball machines across the United States since 2011

    high confidence · Dan Spolar, Project Pinball director, stated during presentation at Pintastic New England

  • Project Pinball's Love Across America tour has been running for eight years, even through the pandemic

    high confidence · Dan Spolar stated during Pintastic presentation

  • Dino Gasparri has been shipping machines for about 30 years

    high confidence · Dino Gasparri self-identified during Pintastic presentation

  • Project Pinball's original support vehicle (the pinmobile) had over 350,000 miles on it

    high confidence · Dan Spolar stated during presentation, explaining why they opted for a crate engine rather than a new vehicle

  • Seven Graylins' Pinball-O-Rama arcade in the Far East aims to open for customers before the end of June

    medium confidence · Host announcement at Pintastic New England; presentation did not provide extensive detail

  • YRC Freight's fuel surcharges are prepackaged into dimensional freight quotes and change every Wednesday

    high confidence · Dino Gasparri stated he was notified of this by his YRC relationship contact with 30 years history

  • Roger Sharpe was unable to attend Pintastic in person due to pilot shortage affecting flights to smaller airports

    high confidence · Host announcement at Pintastic New England

  • Project Pinball placed their first machine in a school (Eden Ridge) as part of their latest tour

    high confidence · Dan Spolar stated during presentation with details about autism and special needs program partnership

Notable Quotes

  • “I just shipped a Mata Hari to Puerto Rico from Montreal, Canada for $223. People don't know that. That's why I'm here today.”

    Dino Gasparri@ 3:27 — Demonstrates the dramatic cost advantage of dimensional freight quotes strategy that the speaker was promoting

  • “I'm still shipping machines at the same price I was six months ago. How can that be? Well, because I'm shipping dimensional freight quotes.”

    Dino Gasparri@ 4:02 — Core value proposition of his shipping strategy despite rising fuel costs

  • “We've been doing the Love Across America tour, which we're currently on for eight years now, eight years. Even through the pandemic, we were able to find a way to dedicate our pinball machines.”

    Dan Spolar@ 5:57 — Highlights Project Pinball's commitment and resilience through economic and health crises

  • “Once he found out that there was something fun to do, like a pinball machine, he even offered to get up out of his wheelchair. And I was quite surprised because if you look, he has a cast and all these tubes... But he jumped right up and he wanted to play the machine.”

    Dan Spolar@ 10:10 — Emotionally compelling example of therapeutic impact of pinball machines on pediatric patients

  • “First time he said it was stressful. But the second time he just forgot about all the pain, all the stress, and just played pinball. It was really great to see.”

    Dan Spolar@ 10:36 — Demonstrates the psychological benefit and distraction value of pinball gameplay for post-surgery patients

  • “We have a steam and stem development program that they're taking a look at to help us with and they're giving us ideas of how they work with their kids there. So it's a beneficial relationship that we have.”

Entities

Seven GraylinspersonDino GasparripersonDan SpolarpersonRoger SharpepersonJim PatlapersonMark SeidenpersonRyan McQuaidpersonDavid Fixperson

Signals

  • ?

    venue_signal: Seven Graylins opening Pinball-O-Rama arcade in Far East with 50 machines from personal collection, targeting opening before end of June

    medium · Host announcement at Pintastic New England with limited detail provided

  • ?

    operational_signal: Dino Gasparri promoting dimensional freight quotes as strategy to lock in stable pricing despite weekly fuel surcharge fluctuations; YRC Freight prepackages fuel charges into dimensional quotes

    high · Detailed technical explanation from 30-year shipping veteran; specific example of $223 Montreal-to-Puerto Rico shipment

  • $

    market_signal: Fuel costs remain volatile constraint on pinball shipping; trucking companies applying weekly fuel surcharges; pilot shortage affecting air freight to smaller airports

    high · Dino Gasparri presentation; Roger Sharp unable to fly to event; discussion of industry-wide impact

  • ?

    community_signal: Project Pinball has achieved 61 machine placements across US since 2011; Love Across America tour running 8 years continuously including pandemic; expanding into school-based partnerships

    high · Dan Spolar's comprehensive presentation with video documentation and specific dedication details

  • ?

    design_innovation: Project Pinball developed miniature legs for pinball machines (partnering with Marco Specialties) allowing wheelchair and small child access, tested and validated in field

    high · Dan Spolar detailed Cincinnati Ronald McDonald home modification with welded-down legs; personal testing; partnership announcement

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.069

0:00
50 out of his collection are going to an arcade. And for those of you who travel Lat Far East. You can find out about it online. Former IT worker, so pinball is what he, his Refuge, after that hard work.
0:44
It's called Pinball-O-Rama. Seven's Pinball-O-Rama. And Seven Graylins is the guy's name. Aims to be open for customers before the end of June. So that means next week, I guess.
1:03
Next item, we have a guy who came down from Canada. It's a news story outside of the world of pinball, of course, is the price of fuel. It's not only what you pay, but when you have things shipped, the trucking companies will tack on fuel surcharges. I'm going to wake up here. And so Dino Gasparri is going to tell us a little bit about some tactics he knows that will help with those fuel surcharges you might be hit with when you're shipping your pinball machine. Dino? Dino Gasparri Just a couple of minutes. Maybe bring this up a little bit. So I'm Dino Gasparri. I am with ShipMyPinball.com. I've been shipping machines for about 30 years and always looking for ways to pass on to you guys the best way to ship a machine, the best way to insure a machine, and specifically today, the hot news is that I spoke to my relationship I have with YRC Freight for the last 30 years, and he notified me that Dimensional Freight quotes are prepackaged fuel charges. So what that means for us, essentially, is that when you're guaranteeing a specific size to the freight company, because remember, the freight company is telling you,
2:47

  • Project Pinball completed six machine dedications during the 2022 Love Across America tour leg shown in presentation

    high confidence · Dan Spolar detailed all six dedications (St. Petersburg, Birmingham, San Antonio x2, Eden Ridge, New York City) with specific details

    • Dan Spolar@ 13:14 — Shows Project Pinball's evolution from pure charity into educational partnerships

  • “Sam Stern, we have a distributor that we've been dealing with for years. If it's Jersey Jack, we deal with Jack directly. He's really great to work with. American Pinball, now it's David Fix.”

    Dan Spolar@ 19:38 — Reveals manufacturer relationships and highlights American Pinball's operational change to Dave Fix leadership

  • “We love giving that specialized service... We had two machines in the Escalade when we left. That way we could hand deliver them, make sure that they're in pristine condition.”

    Dan Spolar@ 18:58 — Explains Project Pinball's operational philosophy of direct delivery versus shipping to maintain quality

  • “this will probably be the most extensive review of his 50-year career in pinball that has ever been done.”

    Host@ 21:36 — Indicates Jim Patla interview at Pintastic will be significant historical documentation

  • “She helped us many a times along the way. When she was diagnosed with cancer, she was fighting it and then she had a relapse and she found out it was terminal.”

    Dan Spolar@ 14:57 — Tribute to Dahlia, a key NYC pinball community member and Project Pinball supporter who passed from cancer

    • Steven Bowden
    person
    Jack Guarnieriperson
    Sierraperson
    Fluke Skywalkerperson
    Dahliaperson
    ShipMyPinball.comcompany
    Pinball-O-Ramacompany
    Project Pinballorganization
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Sterncompany
    YRC Freightcompany
    Marco Specialtiescompany
    Pintastic New Englandevent
    Love Across America Tourevent
    Robert Englundscompany
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Mark Seiden (new Jersey Jack designer) and Ryan McQuaid (new American Pinball designer) both came from Robert Englunds organization; career progression into major manufacturers

    medium · Host announcements of upcoming speakers and their backgrounds; indicates emerging designer pipeline

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball's game sourcing now managed by David Fix; represents operational change in company structure

    medium · Dan Spolar stated 'American Pinball, now it's Dave Fix' when describing manufacturer relationships for charity sourcing

  • ?

    operational_signal: Project Pinball uses hand-delivery via personal vehicle (Escalade) rather than shipping to ensure machine condition and reduce costs; drives nationwide avoiding air freight

    high · Dan Spolar explained distribution strategy; history of pinmobile with 350k+ miles; cost comparison with air freight

  • ?

    content_signal: Pintastic screening Canadian documentary 'Full Tilt' (20-25 minutes) about arcade passion project; programming indicates interest in adjacent arcade culture content

    medium · Host schedule announcement during Pintastic event

  • ?

    historical_signal: Jim Patla interview scheduled as 'most extensive review of his 50-year career in pinball that has ever been done'; indicates growing focus on industry historical documentation

    medium · Host announcement emphasizing unique scope of Pintastic interview opportunity

  • ?

    community_signal: Project Pinball dedicated machine in NYC in honor of Dahlia, deceased community member and charity supporter who died of cancer; cultural practice of commemorating influential figures

    high · Dan Spolar detailed Dahlia tribute with plaque and daughter's emotional response

  • ?

    design_innovation: ShipMyPinball.com (pinballdepot.ca) offering custom rethemes; displaying Jaws retheme at Pintastic; enabling game life extension for older machines

    medium · Dino Gasparri mentioned booth presence and retheme service; Project Pinball also used rethemed older machines for school placement

    • we'll give you this price if you can guarantee that your freight won't be bigger than this. And that's how dimensional freight quote actually works. If you're doing a rate quote, they have a formula. The fuel surcharges changes every week. It's every Wednesday. They have a formula to calculate how that's going to affect the price that they quote you. It's very complex and convoluted. If you can guarantee me that you're going to do a 31 by 31 by 60, 350 pound on a new machine, maybe 300 on an older one, and we pass that along to the freight company, they'll give me a killer rate. I just shipped a Mata Hari to Puerto Rico from Montreal, Canada for $223. People don't know that. That's why I'm here today.
    3:37
    You can reach me at shipmypinball at gmail.com. Ship My Pinball also runs pinballdepot.ca. If you've ever seen that association, we do custom rethemes. We're showing off the Jaws retheme at the Pintastic at this time. So come see us at our booth. will tell you a little bit more details about how to get a better rate and how not to let the fuel surcharges affect you. I'm still shipping machines at the same price I was six months ago. How can that be? Well, because I'm shipping dimensional freight quotes. I'm happy to pass on that news to you guys. And please give me a call or an email, and I'll be happy to walk you through the whole process. Thanks so much for your time. Thanks. All right. I think when we get Roger Sharp connected up later this morning, he will have some news about the movie he's involved in, so we'll save that for then. Roger Sharp was unable to get a flight because of a shortage of pilots, so for those of you who are thinking or shipping anything air freight. You might want to keep that in mind that the pilot shortage is affecting a lot of flights, particularly to the smaller airports. They're going for high volume flight routes. The last item I have on the planned schedule is the usual update from Project Pinball. So Dan Spolar, what do you have to tell us today?
    5:22
    We've been busy. Thank you guys. We've been really busy. You guys probably know what our charity does but for everybody out there I going to play a short very short video video here There a lot of people maybe at home that do not know who Project Pinball is but we like to help patients by donating pinball machines. We've been doing this since 2011 and we've been doing the Love Across America tour, which We're currently on for eight years now, eight years. Even through the pandemic, we were able to find a way to dedicate our pinball machines.
    6:16
    And we do this a lot by not flying. We actually drive everywhere we go. You've probably seen the need that we had to put a new engine into the pinmobile. We had over 350,000 miles on that vehicle. It was my personal vehicle and then the charity just took over and put all those miles on it. It's a great pin hauler. In times like this, we really had a rough time trying to find a new vehicle. We found out it was way cheaper to get a crate engine and put in there. We're back on the road.
    7:00
    And this is what it looks like when we get fully loaded up. We had two machines loaded up this time, and we pack it right to the ceiling.
    7:13
    And usually I have my dog with me, but unfortunately she couldn't make it. And here's what the road feels like when we're on it, because we're moving from city to city. And, you know, we started out in St. Petersburg.
    7:30
    On our Love Across America tour 2022, we wanted to dedicate six machines in 24 days, traveling over 6,000 miles during that time. So we did start in St. Petersburg. We had a hook that was donated by a family several years back, and we've been working on placing that machine for probably about four years. and we were all set up and all of a sudden the pandemic pretty much shut down access to the hospital. So we were patient and we finally were able to add that machine to their hospital. And you can see the patient that came up to it never played pinball before.
    8:18
    And we had a person out of the community. he's a tournament player so he was helping out showing the rules and how to play the machine as well and this was a first-time player as well I believe the dog was a first-time player as well and believe it or not the dog was very well trained it's a service dog and the kids love it so they wanted to do this photo shoots this photo for us and the dog would not stay on the pinball machine so I mentioned how about if we put the ball in play and sure enough the the dog was you know captured by the ball moving across and it shows you the power of the silver ball how it captures your attention so we went from St. Petersburg to Birmingham, Alabama. We did a dedication in Ronald McDonald home there. We used the older machine. That was a roadshow. Here's a little child that couldn't wait to play the machine. And you could see I get quite busy trying to you know point out the machine to these first-time players. And we had such a great time at that dedication the kids just loved it then we moved right on to San Antonio you could see the transformers in the back but we had this row of cupcakes where they just welcome us with all these sweets they did a great job to make us feel at home this little boy had surgery a couple days before and we were hearing that he did not want to get out of bed for took him like an hour and a half to get out of bed the day before. Once he found out that there was something fun to do, like a pinball machine, he even offered to get up out of his wheelchair. And I was quite surprised because if you look, he has a cast and all these tubes and you could tell that, you know, he had to do something with his foot. But he jumped right up and He wanted to play the machine.
    10:36
    First time he said it was stressful. But the second time he just forgot about all the pain, all the stress, and just played pinball. It was really great to see. Even Sierra was saying that she was paying attention, you know, getting those photographs like she does. And she looked up and seen the mother actually have tears in her eyes. So, you know, that's just a great story. and we were welcome there as well. You know, we had a big crowd come down. These are staff members and people out of the community that heard that we were going to be in there. So, you know, we just love that. It makes us feel right at home And you know on the road it takes a lot of energy So anytime we have a dedication like this and people show up it gives that energy right back to us On the very same day, which we'd never done before, we did two dedications in the same day. This was in San Antonio as well, but in a Ronald McDonald house, only a couple blocks away, so that was nice. it was a home pin if you guys ever thought of getting a home pin they're remarkable you know we use them because they don't have the roles of the the bigger games maybe like acdc and you know batman 66 where they're really heavy on the roles this you walk up and you could see what you need to do and it's right in front of you. So it's a good beginner's game for sure and it works well in these crowds. And you could see we had patients just roll up to it and want to play. And I love that sign. That was a sign that they had and I knew I had to pick it up and hold it. But we had plenty of players. They did not want to take turns at all. They did not want to share. They just wanted to keep playing.
    12:50
    So from there, we went to a school. It's in Eden Ridge. This was the first time that we placed a pinball machine in a school and we did so because they have a program where they work with kids with autism and special needs so we started talking to them and we have a steam and stem development program that they're taking a look at to help us with and they're giving us ideas of you know how they work with their kids there. So it's a beneficial relationship that we have with the hospital or with this school. And you can see we rethemed this machine. It's an older machine, so we had fun with it. We cleaned it up. And it allows us, when we get a donation of an older machine, we sometimes can't put them in the children's hospital because the UL ratings not being attached to the older ones. So we found a home for these older ones now. So we're quite happy about that.
    14:01
    But again, the kids would not get off of this machine. When we went to take photographs, they kept facing the machine until the very last minute. Then they would turn around and then swing back as soon as the picture was taken. It was great to see. and you could see they came out in force to welcome us on what was that a Friday afternoon or Saturday I'm trying to think because when we're on the road it just all jams together Sierra's shaking her head like oh wow and the last dedication our sixth dedication was in New York City and it was a special one. It was for Dahlia.
    14:49
    She was very special to the New York City pinball community and very special to us and Project Pinball. She helped us many a times along the way.
    15:01
    When she was diagnosed with cancer, she was fighting it and then she had a relapse and she found out it was terminal. So we contacted her and asked if we could help in some way and mentioned that we could do a dedication in her name. So she gave us some kind words that we could put on the plaque, and you could see her daughter was so happy that she could read the words that her mother gave to us, and she just said, that's her mother. It just described her mother to a team. So it was very special to leave that legacy, to leave that memorial back to someone special.
    15:47
    I mean, it was just a great dedication. And we're 61 machines total right now across the United States, which we're very happy about.
    16:00
    And this was a machine, I just added this to the slideshow, because Derek was actually talking to me about this machine. It is one that we dedicated last year in Cincinnati, Ronald McDonald home. What we did was we cut the legs down, re-welded them so the machine sits inches from the floor. That way someone in maybe a wheelchair could roll up to it or a small child, a four-year-old, five-year-old could walk right up to it. It is very inviting. As you can see, Sierra is sitting there.
    16:41
    And when I tried sitting in front of it, I thought it might be uncomfortable. Maybe my knees would be in the way since I am taller. But I did not notice it affect my play at all. So this is something that we're going to do. We going to work with Marco Specialties to offer these miniature legs for other people to try maybe with their kids as well I was surprised how I did not miss standing up in front of a machine It was a really great experiment. And we had a special guest.
    17:22
    They call him Fluke Skywalker because it was a fluke that someone walked up to him and said, Hey, you look exactly like Luke Skywalker. So he goes around to all the Ronald McDonald homes and Children's Hospital. He found out about our program, and he made it happen for the Ronald McDonald home. He raised the money for the machine to be placed there, and he's just a great guy. If you go out on Facebook, put in Fluke Skywalker, and tell them we said hello.
    17:58
    And that's our presentation here. Thank you. Is there any questions or anything like that? Does anybody have any questions? I'm here to... You've got a plan to go for how long? Tell us about coming up on the tour. Well, right now we're at the end of the tour. We knew that Pentastic was pretty much going to be the final thing, so we'll be headed back. it's like a 21 hour drive from here to fort myers florida but we're already planning other trips we'll be at the pinball expo we'll be out on the west coast for pinball at the lab we're going to be doing the fundraiser there but we have other dedications coming up hopefully at the end of the year. If not, you'll see them in the spring. But Love Across America, as you see, is a way for us to keep the costs down and control what happens to our machines. We had two machines in the Escalade when we left. That way we could hand deliver them, make sure that they're in pristine condition, just like we had them before they might have been shipped. Sorry, Dana. But, you know, we love giving that specialized service. Yes? Where do you source your games?
    19:26
    It depends. If we're dealing with Stern, we have a distributor that we've been dealing with for years.
    19:36
    If it's Jersey Jack, we deal with Jack directly. He's really great to work with. American Pinball, now it's Dave Fix. All these guys, they know who the charity is and who we are. We've been dealing with them as pinball enthusiasts before the charity. So they just think it's great. You know, they see their products in the hands of kids and, you know, they just really appreciate what we do. So they do help us out as much as they can. Any other questions? I got answers, I hope. Thank you, guys. Thank you.
    20:24
    And, of course, if you have other questions later, both Dino and Dan have booths along the south wall of the vendor hall, so you can talk to them in there.
    20:35
    So for the rest of today, we'll have Roger Sharp remotely, as I said, at 11 a.m. And then in the afternoon, we've got an update from the Scorbit guys,
    20:53
    what's been happening, sort of the news from Scorbit, the American pinball update with David Fix, Steve Bowden, and their new designer from New England, Ryan McQuaid.
    21:09
    Then we'll have a screening of Full Tilt, short documentary film, like 20, 25 minutes, something like that.
    21:19
    Again, a Canadian story about a guy who had a passion to open an arcade. 3.45 p.m., Jim Patla, famous game designer and pinball executive, will sit down with me right up front here, and this will probably be the most extensive review of his 50-year career in pinball that has ever been done.
    21:46
    And then at 6 p.m. tonight, the Jersey Jack crew rolls in and they'll talk about what's been going on there. And again, another New Englander who went pro as a pinball game designer, Mark Seiden, will be around to tell his stories of his first few months at Jersey Jack Pinball. So I hope we'll get a good turnout there, whether in this room or for those that are streaming, you know, watching on the stream. But if you've got your questions you really want to ask, it's best that you come down here to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to the Sturbridge Host Hotel, right near the junction of I-84 and I-90. come on in live to see the people and ask your questions live in the room and interact with our special guests. That's all for now. Thanks.