As Birthday as Apple Pie

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·42m 18s·analyzed·Sep 23, 2024

Analysis

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TL;DR

NYC PinPod reports league results, reviews Quarter Club venue, discusses pinball theme demographics and accessibility.

Summary

NYC PinPod covers local tournament results from the past week across multiple leagues (PinballNYC Left Flipper, Right Flipper, South Slope Pinball League, Barcade Brooklyn finals), reviews Quarter Club as a new venue in Williamsburg with three pinball machines (Demolition Man, Foo Fighters, Hot Wheels), and discusses the demographics and themes that appeal to different pinball player segments, with particular focus on attracting newer/younger players and underrepresented demographics to the community.

Key Claims

As of September 20th, 2024, there are 279 pinball machines in New York City at 84 public locations
high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, citing Pinball Map data
Rob Wong has not been beaten at the Rob Wong Invitational for five consecutive months
high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, discussing tournament results at Rollo's
Quarter Club is located at 312 Grand Street, Brooklyn in Williamsburg, near Jack Bar and Midway
high confidence · Madeline Lynn, describing venue location
Demolition Man at Quarter Club is exceptionally clean and well-maintained
high confidence · Madeline Lynn, direct observation
The pinball industry faces a challenging business model trying to satisfy both location players (who play for quarters) and home collectors (who buy $15,000+ machines)
high confidence · Eric Sweetland, discussing capitalist dynamics in pinball manufacturing
Shrek is the closest pinball machine to an exclusively younger-person IP released before 2000
medium confidence · Madeline Lynn, researching Wikipedia list of pinball machines
Quarter Club features bowling alley tables as seating and rotating bowling pins as decoration
high confidence · Benjamin Furiga and Eric Sweetland, describing venue interior
Gina Koleckio of NYC won the Catskill Classic tournament
high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, reporting tournament results
Sean Astorm Grant won the Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League A division finals on September 25th
high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, reporting Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League results
Neon Genesis Evangelion would be a viable pinball theme because it bridges older and newer audiences like Marvel does with comics and MCU films

Notable Quotes

“Big ups Gina.”
Benjamin Furiga @ ~5:30 — Celebratory acknowledgment of Gina Koleckio's tournament win at Catskill Classic
“this is the cleanest demo man I've ever seen”
Madeline Lynn @ ~35:00 — First impression of Demolition Man machine condition at Quarter Club venue
“It would be a great bar to call home.”
Eric Sweetland @ ~36:30 — Recommendation that Quarter Club could serve as home venue for Williamsburg-based pinball league team
“You don't see the modern arcade in the same way you see the 80s and 90s arcade with the stand-up video cabinels because that business model is no longer sustainable.”
Eric Sweetland @ ~45:00 — Analysis of why traditional arcade business models have failed in modern context
“There should be a Neon Genesis Evangelion pinball table. And that's because that's a very popular... the only franchise in Japan like Star Wars and Marvel equivalent is old enough that older people would know it but it's 95 so newer people, newer, in quotes would know it too.”
Madeline Lynn @ ~52:30 — Concrete IP suggestion demonstrating understanding of cross-generational appeal strategy
“you gotta change your strategy soon or you gotta make space for your new markets”
Madeline Lynn @ ~57:00 — Commentary on industry's need to address younger demographic representation in theme selection
“I'm really glad that my first league I joined was Bell's because everyone's first of all really nice and a lot of people are also relatively new.”
Madeline Lynn @ ~48:00 — Testimony on importance of welcoming league culture for new players
“There's no Justin Bieber Pinball Table... You're not going to want to do something outside your comfort zone, unless you're me who's kind of crazy in general.”
Madeline Lynn — Explanation of how IP selection drives player engagement across demographics

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonMadeline LynnpersonGina KoleckiopersonRob WongpersonQuarter ClubvenueRollo'svenueBarcade BrooklynvenueButtermilk BarvenueDeluxe HorsesorganizationCollidersorganization

Signals

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venue_signal: Quarter Club in Williamsburg identified as new pinball venue with three machines (Demolition Man, Foo Fighters, Hot Wheels) in upscale dive bar aesthetic with excellent interior design and condition
high · Extended venue review by all three hosts, location details at 312 Grand Street Brooklyn, descriptions of wood paneling, bowling alley tables, and exceptional machine condition
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competitive_signal: Rob Wong maintains undefeated streak at his namesake invitational tournament for 5 consecutive months
high · 'No one beat the cat for the fifth month in a row' quote from Benjamin Furiga
?
competitive_signal: Stern Army Rob Wong Invitational attracting out-of-state visitors including players from Washington State and DC
high · Jess Warren social media post noting 'four new players and visitors from both Washington State and DC'
~
sentiment_shift: Community prioritizing welcoming new players through accessible leagues; Madeline Lynn emphasizes importance of non-competitive introductory events like 'Pin golf' and friendly league cultures for retention
high · Madeline's testimony about joining Bellows league and later Pin golf tournament designed to be fun rather than competitive
?
licensing_signal: Community discussion indicating gap in younger-demographic IP themes in pinball; suggestions include Neon Genesis Evangelion, Kim Possible, Winx Club, Totally Spies, Bee Movie as underutilized licensing opportunities
medium · Madeline's analysis that 'definitely not' is Gen Z the target demographic for current pinball themes; extended discussion proposing specific IP with cross-generational appeal

Transcript

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0:00

PINBALLotine VTEC LENTS PINBALLUP masturbation 004 cinemacימo, PINE�CINEMA PINちょっと O commander还 sozusagen, dor inexxhxks�� MULTRON preparing papers forخ钱 007 007 NUP- tournaments, Cronenrock movie 077-7-1700 Brasilio-주간 thousand piano and poker whatever day you're listening this is NYC pin pod in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas my name is Benjamin furiga my initials are BCF and I forgot to write a third thing to say this week my name is Eric Sweetland my initials are HIP and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City everyone my name is Madeline Lynn my pronouns are she her hers my initials are MXL and this week I actually Learned how doubles scoring works. On this week's pod, we'll rundown local competition results. In ball two, we'll review Quarter Club as a pinball venue. And in ball three, we'll talk about the archetypical pinball customer. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas in the past week. This didn't happen in the city and we have on NYC Pinpod talked about the Catsskill Classic in the past but I specifically want to mention it because Gina Koleckio of New York City who is a member of the Deluxe Horses on Monday night, funnest team, Gina won the Catskill Classic. Nice job Gina. Big ups Gina. On Sunday, 15 players gathered at Rullo's for the September meeting of Stern Army's Rob WongInvitational. The eponymous invitee, Rob Wong, came in first place, second place going to Benjamin Furega, third to Zendzakniak, and fourth to Nels Evanson. Director Jess Warren posted on socials afterwards that they had four new players and visitors from both Washington State and DC. Oh my. Bart made pasta salad. Benjamin won the Venom translite giveaway. Woohoo. Nice job. Noone beat the cat for the fifth month in a row. I just want to point out that I'm the first of those noones who didn't beat Rob. The next Rob Wong Invitational will be back at Rollo's Bar on Sunday, October 20th. Meow meowmeowmeowmeow On Monday, in PinballNYC's Left Flipper Division, NYC FSA traveled to Solid State to face the Mutants, and we Associates walked away with the win 8-8 after a tiebreaker on Black Knight Sword of Rage, Split Flipper style. Nice job. Intermission Dolores went to Barcade Brooklyn to visit Pinball Union who picked up an early season win. This team, it took them a long time to get a win last season, but they have picked up their first win in week two at home, 9-7 over Mission Dolores. The lesser players came to visit us colliders at Buttermilk Bar. Madeline, I feel like your play ties directly into what you said in the intro last week. Do you want to talk about that? Well, when you have a new special interest, you should just spend hours googling it, watching YouTube videos, reading about it, going to it. So a week or two weeks ago, I played the jaws at our opening evening and I realized I didn't really play that much. And then I found myself a day or two later at the St. Mark's Barcade. And then I found myself at like 11pm I'm watching hours of how to play Jaws on YouTube. And so now that I actually know how to play the game, I felt more confident this past week with competing against the lesser players. And so Jess and I, we ended the evening with the doubles and we both played on the Jaws table. And I thought doubles was scored like, you know, the first one and the second one is the points. But no, no, no. Doubles actually just add the scores together. So I was pleased to say that I got The highest number out of all four of the players and through the combined score not the first and second place, but the combined score the Colliders were able to win on JOTS. Not a big fish. I played a couple of good games. I actually earned my first points this season this week I had lost all three of the points that I had contested in the first week and then I lost The first two points I contested this past week, but I played three times and I won the other three points Unfortunately, that means that I am operating at a deficit of two points for the Colliders this season, but I'm hopeful to turn that around. The Lionpersons took an away win at Balls of Steel 10-6 at Midway. Wow. Rarrr. Parliament won their second tiebreaker in a row. They've got 16 points and two wins, folks. They beat the aristocrats at home this time, 8-8. Who? The Pin Pals went to Special When Lit's Special Location Change Bar at Boat Bar and Special WhenLit acted like it was their home venue when the Pin Pals and they both came across the Gowanus Canal. Special WhenLit won 13-3. Funnest team Deluxe Horses Went to Makenna's pub to beat Two for Oners who had vanquished us Colliders in week one.

6:42

He wrote us that they split round one. Two for oneers took Avengers Infinity Quest and the horses took the Demoman game. Then the horses swept round two. And then, and this is the most important thing, I think. At the halftime, they had a break for apple pie for Tyler's birthday. Happy birthday, Tyler. Last week it was happy birthday Scrapple. This week it is happy birthday, Tyler. The horsesTake Round3 3-1 to win the match. It included a ball three walk off by Emily Baldasara on Avengers Infinity Quest and HagenMajor got the score, got the one point for the two for oners. They split round four 2-2. Two for oners took Demoman, horses took Avengers. Both teams won their respective games by close margins. It's an 11-5 final for the horses. And I'd like to thank DFW on Tuesday night in the right flipper division. The Harlem Globe flippers went to solid state and visited no quarters for laundry. In the second night in a row that an AtTheWallace team went to Queens to visit a solid state team. This time it worked out in the home team's favor 12-4 unlike the tiebreak win that we heard about just moments ago. Danger Danger hosted The Trolls at Buttermilk Bar and picked up a big 14-2 win. The Pin Babes went to Barcade Brooklyn to visit Rest in Pinball. Michelle Capobianco emailed us to tell us that RIP members Ash and Matt had a noteworthy doubles match on Godzilla where they combined score was 890-1. The game is currently at a total of 294,798,090 points. That sounds like a great doubles match to me and behind that doubles match, Rest in Pinball won 9-7. Neptune's Treasure was looking for a home win after a home loss last week and they beat the replays 11-7 at Milo's Yard. The Shlubs picked up an away win at Kettle Fish 10-6 over Kettle's Hand Grenades Scrapples Squad went to Jack Bar to visit the Balldrainers and the home team picked up an 11-5 win The Butterballers went to Boat Bar to face Pinister Six Eric, do you have any insight there? Yeah, no, it wasn't great It was unfortunate Sorry to hear that An 11-5 Pinister Six win On Wednesday, Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League held an A and B finals for its August-september season. And the whole thing was streamed on Twitch at pinball underscore nyc by our friend Matt Grady. At the top of the A finals, the champion of Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League was Sean Astorm Grant, followed in second by Dante Oliva, Adam Kane in third, and David Patlak in fourth. and then roundinging out the top eight Matthew Grady Nintu Mike Pantino and Alex Kelly The B finals saw eight players contend Two finished at the top at the end and went to a tiebreak Sean Spencer won the tiebreak over Spica Geft Int players got together and it took eleven rounds for Greg Fertel to dispense of Matthew Grady It only took nine for them to dispense of the third place players who were Stefan Callender and Adam Kane Also on Thursday at Buttermilk Bar in Brooklyn fifteen players were gathered for the The fourth meeting of the sixth season of South Slope Pinball League which will have its finals on October 10th. At the end of the night, Thomas Milburn came out on top with 29 points and I gotta say he played great. Zen Zokniak came in second with 27, Robert Wong with 25, and Matthew Carlson came in fourth with 24 points. Nice job, everyone. Also on Thursday at Geb Hearts, five players convened for eight rounds of Match Play and Glenn Gilliar came out on top. This coming week in PinballNYC action on Monday night, September 23rd, the two for one ers will take the train all the way uptown to visit their Manhattan rivals, New York City Flippers Sport Association. Balls of Steel will go from No Bro to SoBro to visit the Pinpals at Skylark. The Mutants will go to Rollo's where Special When Lit will have their first home match at their new home bar. Parliament will visit Pinball Union at Barcade Brooklyn. Parliament will be looking to get 9 points this week instead of 8. The Deluxe Horses will take their fun to Commonwealth to visit Intermission Dolores. We Colliders will travel not way uptown but uptown to the Upper West Side to visit the Lionpersons at Gebhard's BeerCulture. The Aristocrats will head to Barcade in Chelsea to visit the Lesser Players. On Tuesday night, September 24th, in the right flipper division, the Pinister Six will go uptown to face the Harlem Globe Flippers at At the Wallace. Neptune's Treasure will take their show on the road and head to Scrapple's squad at Sunshine Laundromat. No Quarters for Laundry will take whatever quarters they might have left to Jackbar to visit the ball drainers. Kettles Hand Grenades will go to Buttermilk Bar to visit Danger Danger. The Butterballers will head to Bar Great Harry to visit the Trolls. Rest in Pinball will visit the Replays at Rolo's. And the Shlubs will visit the Pin Babes at Birdies. Also on Tuesday, Tuesday Pinball at the Vault will be met at the Morristown Game Vault in Morristown, New Jersey. In Greenpoint. On the IFBA calendar, it says Jack Bar Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be met on Thursday, September 26 at Jack Bar, but I have a sense based on this week's rebranding that we might see that on Match Play as being called No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes. Also on Thursday, the fifth meeting of SSPL will be held at Buttermilk Bar in Park Slope. Also on Thursday, Thursday night at Gebhard's Beer Culture will be met. They are set for a match play format this week. Also on Thursday in Oceanport, New Jersey, the Birdsmith Beer Monthly Social Tournament September 24 will be met. Next Saturday, September 28, National DrinkBeerDay will be met at a private location in Brooklyn. Termines September 24 at Jack Bar by FLR parentheses suck end parentheses will be convened at Jack Bar in Brooklyn. As of September 20th, 2024, there are 279 pinball machines in New York City at 84 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are location updates from the past week. On Saturday, September 14, at Gebhard's BeerCulture, a Godzilla Premium and Indianapolis500 were added. A cactus canyon was removed. Also on Saturday, user Rocco1515 stopped by Milo's yard and said of their Whirlwind, "'Plays fantastic." On Tuesday, September 17, user Madebyita commented on the two machines at Kettle The game of thrones dragon scoop is not registering and the ghostbusters librarian scoop is not registering and the machine is severely leaning left. On Thursday, the fishtails that was at sunshine swapped places with the attack from mars that was at singlecut beersmith in queens. User Dan Tastic said, Attack on Friday September 20, 2016 User MH commented on the jaws at Bar Great Harry, the plunger is extremely sticky so you gotta pull it out and then manually hit it with enough force to launch, don't plan on hitting the skillshot. Userjns went to the gutter bar and says that the cactus canyon there plays fine. And finally, I'll leave you with this small saga gleaned from Pinball Map API returns. Over the course of the week, user Dergi left these comments on the two machines at Area 141st, a bar on First Avenue between St. Mark's Place and East 9th Street on the Lower East Side. On Sunday, Dergi said the World Cup soccer lean was removed, playing well. On Monday, Dergy commented on the Revenge from Mars, Workinging now, come play. And then on Tuesday, God damn it, turned it on this morning and I'm getting a check cable message, Yesterday was great, today, not as much, updates when it's up and running again, grrr. And then on Friday, Okay, Harry gave it a tune up and it is working, we changed the rake a bit so it tends slightly left, which negates a couple Outpinball of straight drains, worth a play, come on by, and then slightly later in the day. Until further notice, it is only taking quarters. Well then, y'all, let's talk about the quarter club. If you Google the quarter club NYC, you're probably going to get Club Quarter Hotels NYC. The QuarterClub, 312 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211, I took the G&L to get to Metropolitan and Lorimer Street Station, same neighborhood as the Williamsburg Barcade Brooklyn and Jack Bar There's Abouts. Quick walk over. In fact, right around the corner from Jack Bar. Indeed. And on the same block as Midway. Oh, I forgot about that. If you step out of Jack Bar, and take a right, and I step out of midway and take a right, we'll meet at the corner just outside Quarterclub. But holy cow, I just typed Jackbar and it is, it's as you say almost a caddy corner, almost a caddy corner. And indeed, they're Jackbar John's machines at Quarterclub. Satellite location perhaps. Benjamin and I ran into each other on our location scouting this week. I arrived first and Benjamin arrived as I was leaving. When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to see the bright lights and open spaces. I'm always a fan of both of those in my preferred venues. A lot of more rustic decor, if you will, kind of feels like a, this is the wrong way to say but it's like a The Match at all but right that's not meant to be an insult like that's just what connotated in my mind like I don't know How to know the better adjectives for it, but I felt very at home there felt like an upstate New York kind of place when you walk in there's a there's a place I like to go to In the hometown of ithaca that looks just like that on the inside so I was pretty pleased with it. There's a lot of wood In yes, there's a lot of if you there's wood paneling on the walls there's wood floors The bar is a big hunk of wood. The tables along the wall as you first enter are made out of bowling alleys. Are you serious? You still see the guide arrows in the... I didn't even notice that! Holy cow! When you walk in if you didn notice if you look up on the left hand side and I mean 12 feet up there are three spinning discs up there with bowling type exhibits Just within, I mean, four feet inside the door. If you look up in there are relatively high ceilings in this place and there are three just cubbies up there. And one of them, I think I remember three bowling pins effectively rotating on a lazy Susan that was on a motor. Those names are all nonsense? Come at me with your Peroammed

30:24

Well people like us all of us want to drop quarters into a month site and also Somebody who's got a car's worth of money sitting around and the game is a game. It really feels like that old school style of business model with the original arcade. Why would you go to a place and pay maybe a dollar in today's money to play a game where you can play it on your, what turned into your home console, You can play the game on your computer or your mobile device for free and access it anywhere. You don't see the modern arcade in the same way you see the 80s and 90s arcade with the stand-up video cabinets because that business model is no longer sustainable. And you have a machine that takes a lot of physical beatings every time you play it. You can play with the machine, whether you nudge, whether it's the metal mass you're flinging around, there is no way you get to 5 to 10 to 15,000 plays on a machine before something breaks. So thus even as a business person if you one of the location owners trying to have one of these tables or machines in your been into this genre aren you to trying to do you You know, the vast majority of those are bars and single digit counts of machines. So if you're a competitive location player, which is the kind of location player that I am, you're thinking about where are their tournaments. And as the tournament director, I'm putting on the tournaments at the locations that are suitable for competitive location play. in New York City. Franchiounty Informer, the and the pinball consumer, I think we touched on this a little bit in ball three last week as well, that the bigger tent feels really good to the three of us at least. And to be able to expand that tent and also see who's coming to that tent might be a big part of this conversation to be able to say how do we include The new members of this bigger tent. Does that scan for both of you? Definitely. I'm really glad that my first league I joined was Bell's because everyone's first of all really nice and a lot of people are also relatively new. So I could be like, I don't, I don't, how do you make a game for more than one person? And then the other people there too, who also were new to figuring that out. So I did not feel alone in me being a walk on to this community. Whereas if you go to some of the more competitive A new player I would get terrified the heck out of my mind. I was so glad when I saw on the match play Facebook that the Pin golf where you the 18 different Pinball tables to play with crazy hats and glasses hosted by Gina and some of the horses a few years ago that was the first in-person tournament I went to because I said hey that's a fun tournament. It's not competitive Dec sometimesforcementitole sono by 2009 TAR, and others , Okoyezi Olverde rejoice Ohr Kataw mystery guy named Ong speedubakup Matthewер

35:28

MARK Look at the To answer it that way, what would? There's no one-direction Pinball Table, okay? Right? There's no Justin Bieber Pinball Table. You're not going to want to do something outside your comfort zone, unless you're me who's kind of crazy in general. You're not going to want to do something unless there's already a layer of friendliness or approachability to it. And if you don't know any of those bands and you're just hanging out in a third space, it's very unlikely you would go up to a rock band's pinball machine to play it. So if there were a theme that were closer to a newer or younger demographic or different demographic and that was the intended market, I don't necessarily think I've been dissuaded from any of those tables because I really want to play them and see what they're like. The only super not great things other than the Nellies would also probably be the Master from Champion Pub and then the Bandolero I would probably imagine from the Cactus Canyon. Those are kinda risky. Some racist stuff. Yeah, that's not great. I would say there's only a few, I don't wanna say minor, but a few instances of negative. I don't think there's a few, I don't think there's a huge number of unpositive things. Like I'll play any table, I'll give it a go, I'll try it out. But, am I the tar- is Gen Z the target demographic, the marketed demographic? Definitely not. Definitely not. So, how do you feel about the Marvel themes? Does that help? J-haul Will, Win,BW in Clifton Woods an Q. What do you see in the future? Powerpuff Girls That would be so cool! Tending older 20 years vs 40 At least we're in spitting distance What's the Gen Z table, I was like? Uh, Foo Fighters? That's about the same. What works with the Marvel in general, right, is that you can have older folks who knew it from the comics and you bring in the newer folks with the movies and the newer, you know, Disney XD cartoons and such. The way they brought back each of the heroes, one movie, one origin story, you release it slowly, you rework in everybody, and then they had a whole 10-15 years from Iron Man to Endgame. of a new audience that they grew. And of course, now everyone's fatigued again, but you grew a whole new generation of an old IP, and I feel like that's also possible in the pinball sphere as well as the movie sphere. I think it would be interesting to see, you already have a Godzilla and you have Ultraman. This is a legit serious suggestion. There should be a Neon Genesis Evangelion pinball table. And that's because that's a very popular The only franchise in Japan like Star Wars and Marvel equivalent is old enough that older people would know it but it's 95 so newer people, newer, in quotes would know it too. And already there's a bunch of very crazy licensed merch for Neon Genesis Evangelion that I think a pinball machine wouldn't stand out too far. So that's my actual business idea. I have some more fun ideas as well, but that's my actual possibly, vaguely possibly, business soluble idea. Do you want to tell us the silly ideas? Give me like a Kim Possible table, right? Give me a Winx Club table. You know, give me a Totally Spies table or the Warner Brothers Teen Titans table. Make me a Justice League table with Hawkwoman and Wonderwoman and all that. I think those would be pretty cool. I think those would sell interestingly, you already got a Shrek table, make a Bee Movie table. I think that'd be really fun. Just a bright yellow cabinet. Is Shrek the closest? Honestly, I'm looking at the Wikipedia page of wisp of pinball machines that I'm sorting the chart by year. I've scrolled back until the year 2000 and I think honestly it is Shrek. Maybe you could say it's a Spider-Man. Maybe you could say it's like sort of Hobbit-ish, but that's also older like an exclusively younger person IP. I think ironically is Shrek. That's interesting. I mean, what are they going to do in 20, 30 years? I mean, like, you gotta change your strategy soon or you gotta make space for your new markets and if it doesn't come on the supply side, well, that's why I'm glad there's so many different events that are both identity based as well as experience based, at least within New York City. I'm glad that there's so many ways that somebody can experience the community and so many different ways we can see ourselves within the community. That's all for this week's pod. Join us next week when Eric and I will run down pinball competition results in New York City and nearby Surrounding Areas. In Ball 2, we'll review At the Wallace and I'm not quite sure what we'll do in Ball 3 just yet. Between now and then, whether you're out playing pinball or not, go get them pinfolk.