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#111 December - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 18m·analyzed·Dec 27, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

December podcast covers Merco playfield reliability concerns and Looney Tunes Spooky game impressions.

Summary

In this December episode of The Classic Pinball Podcast, hosts George and Dave discuss Merco playfield quality issues affecting Jersey Jack games like Elton John, share podcast analytics showing strong international reach and Black Knight as their most-discovered episode, discuss initial impressions of the Looney Tunes Spooky Pinball game focusing on voice acting and cartoon authenticity, and tell anecdotes about collector customers and a credit card payment solution (PayRange) for older pinball machines.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack Elton John machines are experiencing Merco playfield clear coat failures requiring expensive restoration services

    high confidence · George and Dave discuss thread on Pinside about 'Mirko Playfield warning' and extensive complaints about Merco playfields tearing up, with Dave noting ceramic coating issues versus older superior clear coats

  • Merco playfields can be restored by sanding with 600-800 grit and reapplying automotive clear coat, a process Ron Kruseman specializes in

    medium confidence · Dave explains the restoration process and mentions Ron Kruseman as 'one of the kings' of Merco playfield restoration work

  • Looney Tunes Spooky Pinball game does not feature original Mel Blanc voice acting and uses new voice talent instead

    high confidence · George and Dave note absence of Mel Blanc, reference Scooby-Doo precedent where Spooky overdubbed with new voice actors, and George mentions discussing with person knowledgeable about Hollywood IP rights

  • The podcast's Black Knight episode attracted the most new listeners despite hosts not remembering recording it

    high confidence · Dave references Spotify analytics showing Black Knight as top episode for attracting new podcast listeners, surprising both hosts

  • 82% of Classic Pinball Podcast listeners discovered the show in 2023

    high confidence · George and Dave discuss Spotify analytics for the podcast

  • The podcast is streamed in 18 different countries with Canada #1, Germany #2, and Netherlands #3 outside the US

    high confidence · George and Dave review Spotify analytics data

  • PayRange is a credit card payment system for pinball machines that works via Bluetooth key fob in the coin door at approximately $70 per unit

    high confidence · George researched PayRange on Pinside and explains the system, mentioning $70 cost and 3% transaction fee to merchant account

  • Modern Looney Tunes cartoons lack the thematic depth and soul of 1950s cartoons due to modern writers not understanding farm/rural life subject matter

Notable Quotes

  • “It's like 20 minutes of vitriol. It was crazy.”

    George @ early in episode — Describes intensity of Kaneda's criticism of Jersey Jack Merco playfields on a podcast

  • “People are pissed”

    Dave @ early discussion — Confirms widespread community frustration with Merco playfield quality issues

  • “Just a box of lights”

    George @ Merco discussion — George's comment on how high-end Elton John owners treat the game as display piece rather than playing machine

  • “It has no soul. I saw part of that because I wanted to see who is this guy that's doing the voice for the new Looney Tunes.”

    George @ Looney Tunes discussion — George's critique of modern Bugs Bunny voice work lacking the character Mel Blanc brought

  • “They don't put quarters in. But even if you want to do quarters, you can just, oh, I don't want to do quarters because they might break into the game.”

    George @ PayRange/Airbnb discussion — Illustrates customer concern about credit card payment system protecting against theft and vandalism

  • “Are you a performer?”

    Interior designer from LA @ anecdote section — Unexpected question asked to George at a party that led to conversation about Hollywood pinball collection

  • “It'll tell you what game it is because it'll come up saying I'm going to play El Dorado. I'm going to play 8-Ball Deluxe.”

    George @ PayRange explanation — Describes how PayRange Bluetooth technology identifies specific pinball machines

  • “I'm not going to make money on this piece of it so you go buy it and you know what it is so you know what you're getting into”

    George @ PayRange installation discussion — George's transparent approach to recommending PayRange without markup

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyGeorgepersonDavepersonKanedapersonGrantpersonRon KrusemanpersonGarypersonChris Hutchinsperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Widespread reports of Merco playfield clear coat failures on recent Jersey Jack machines like Elton John, requiring expensive professional restoration services

    high · Extended Pinside thread 'Mirko Playfield warning' with numerous complaints, Kaneda's detailed podcast criticism, Dave's personal observations of ceramic coating degradation

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Jersey Jack appears to have switched to ceramic clear coat on Merco playfields (possibly for environmental/regulatory compliance) that is inferior to previous automotive clear coats

    medium · Dave's statement about 'green police' compliance changes and shift to ceramic coating that looks like 'fake clear coat'; restoration specialists now sanding and reapplying premium automotive clear

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Looney Tunes Spooky Pinball chose not to license original Mel Blanc recordings, using new voice talent instead, following precedent set by Spooky's Scooby-Doo game

    high · George and Dave confirm absence of Mel Blanc, reference Scooby-Doo precedent of re-overdubbing with new actors, mention George's Hollywood IP contact provided insight

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Unclear licensing constraints around original Mel Blanc voice recordings for modern pinball games versus acquiring new voice talent

    medium · George mentions insider information from Hollywood videographer about IP/animation rights; Spooky chose to replace rather than license original performances

  • ?

    content_signal: Classic Pinball Podcast sees 82% listener acquisition in 2023, strongest in Canada/Germany/Netherlands; Black Knight episode drives most new listener discovery

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.235

0:00
A long December, and there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving Oh, days go by so fast And it's one more day up in the canyon And it's one more night in Hollywood If you think that I could be forgiven I wish you would Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, his name is Dave, and we're at the last show of the year. What do you think of that, Dave?
1:23
Exciting. Okay, I've got some Thanksgiving leftovers. We have not talked extensively about this, and we need to. I've had enough turkey.
1:34
Oh, that leftover. All right, go ahead. Why do I even ask this question? Do you recall us having a quick conversation about the Merco play field for Embryon? Yes, I do. And do you remember the question I asked you? No, I don't. I asked you about the quality and you said good. Now, after that happened, I received a post, I think it was from Grant, saying, hey, our wonderful podcaster, Kaneda, has something you might want to listen to. Okay. And man, did he tee off on Jersey Jack pinball and the Merco play fields for Elton John. He was, it was like 20 minutes of vitriol. It was crazy. So it got me to thinking, he can't be the only one. He might be, but he can't be the only one. I don't know how I found it, whether he said something or I just saw it pop up on Pinside. But there is a thread called Mirko Playfield's warning for potential buyers. Oh, yeah. We have a definite discussion point on that one. I'm glad you reminded me. That's a great little discussion point. I read, that's a long, long thread.
2:55
Oh, man. People are pissed. Yeah, well, when you tighten a post and all the artwork comes up in like a little scroll, you know, it kind of can piss you off if you spend a grand on the play field and all your stuff. Right, but I asked you about the ones you had.

medium confidence · George's opinion discussed with caller Gary from Seattle about themes, violence censorship, and cultural differences in cartoon storytelling

  • The Looney Tunes Spooky Pinball game does not include Mel Blanc voice work but features a new voice actor who 'sounds really, really good'

    medium confidence · Gary (caller from Seattle) and George discussing the game's voice acting approach

    • Looney Tunes
    game
    Elton Johngame
    Black Knightgame
    Bugs Bunny Birthday Bashgame
    PayRangeproduct
    Pinsideorganization
    Chuck Jonesperson
    Mel Blancperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization

    high · George and Dave review Spotify analytics showing 82% 2023 discovery rate, 18 countries streaming, Black Knight as top acquisition episode

  • ?

    community_signal: Growing specialist service economy around Merco playfield restoration; Ron Kruseman reports playfield restoration business is lucrative due to ongoing demand

    medium · Dave's statement that Kruseman 'keeps him wealthy and in business' redoing Merco playfields for customers

  • ?

    technology_signal: PayRange Bluetooth-based credit card payment system enabling modern payment methods on classic and contemporary pinball machines at $70 per unit

    high · George researched on Pinside, detailed explanation of Bluetooth key fob in coin door, 3% transaction fee structure, customer ordered same day after learning about it

  • ?

    operational_signal: New use case emerging for pinball machines in vacation rental properties (Airbnbs), with customers seeking credit card payment capability to protect against theft

    medium · Porsche-driving customer couple wanted to install soccer game in Berkshires Airbnb with credit card capability; George mentions existing Airbnb operator customers in Boston

  • ?

    collector_signal: High-net-worth collectors creating themed pinball rooms matching game aesthetics (e.g., Dolly Parton-themed room with Dolly Parton pinball), with multiple restored games and animation cell displays

    medium · Gary from Seattle collector described by George as having themed rooms for each restored pinball game, animation cells hanging in rooms, late-50s professional videographer with palatial estate

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Collectors prioritize aesthetic appeal and theme authenticity over modern game mechanics; 50s Looney Tunes cartoon authenticity influences purchase decisions over contemporary content

    medium · Gary loves 50s cartoons specifically, liked advertising for Looney Tunes game's use of authentic 50s clips, called distributor immediately for pre-order; George's extensive discussion of cartoon era preferences

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Negative sentiment toward recent Stern game offerings from at least some collector segments; Boston Porsche customers rejected all new Stern options despite having purchasing power

    medium · George states 'the whole new Stern stuff, not really my thing. Not bad to play, but I would never own again'; customers rejected new Stern games at distributor before coming to George

    • 3:15
    Okay, well. Don't you have Quicksilver or is it Quicksilver that you have? I have a Quicksilver and a 9-Ball.
    3:23
    Okay. Now, did I... Did you do anything with them? No. Did you even take them out of the box? Yes, I did. Okay. Here's the deal. With this Merco stuff, now, I actually have a Merco play field from years ago I did install before they changed the coatings over there. Did they change something for maybe to be green or to be whatever? Compliant. Compliant with the green police? They coming your way, the green police? So what the green police did is make things crappy. So we have a Funhouse one from Merkle from years ago. Fantastic. Thing holds up great. No tearing up the play field. Durable. Awesome. Fast forward to the past couple years, and you look at the clear coat on these things. It looks good, but almost like it's a fake clear coat. It's something weird with it. Something's just not. And these are ceramic coating on it. It's a ceramic clear, whatever that is.
    4:18
    So I know the Chris Hutchins of the world. And who's the guy? Oh, he's going to kill me. So do they take these play fields down and then redo them with a different clear?
    4:34
    Yes. So what they do, and I'm really not sure how that really helps things, but they actually will, they can't take clear all the way down to nothing. They can't. They'll go into the outwork no matter what. But they will heavily scuff them with a 600, 800 grit to make it bite with a new clear, so they will sand some of it off and put the good clear on, the good automotive clear on there.
    4:58
    And that clear binds to the other clear so that there is no issue? That's the story. That's a very expensive play field. Yeah, Ron Kruseman is one of the kings of this. He actually, all he does lately is just redo these Merkle playfields for everybody. He says they're keeping me wealthy and in business because people keep sending him all the Merkle stuff to redo. Sorry about that. I wanted to get one of my solutions for this whole debacle of the Merkle playfields that I talked to somebody about. So where were we with the... Well, you were talking about, I think, Hutchins and not understanding the complete process, but that somehow it works. And I made the statement that, hey, you know, that becomes an expensive play field. But I guess my point is the way it came up in a roundabout way is, you know, Canada going after a brand new $12,000 or how many thousand dollar Elton John game and then having that all happen. I mean, that's just... That's fantastic. People love that.
    6:06
    Anyway, unless you have tips and tricks, here's something I want to move on. There was a lot of chatter about this. The owners of the Elton John game won't be that affected because I think the typical owner of that game is going to put it in a corner somewhere and just have it lit up and not play it. I think they're just going to have it sit there and just kind of look pretty. That's what I think. But I don't know. If you don't play it, it's probably fine. So there you go. Just a box of lights. Anyway. Okay.
    6:43
    Second item. Oh, do you want to hear our analytics from Spotify? Yeah. They're pretty good, actually. Okay. What do you think our top episode this year was?
    6:56
    Oh, boy. throw some episode throw some subject I didn't prepare that we'll pass you come back to it it's pretty obvious Rolling Stones no did we do that this year I think we did did we I don't know anyway it was Allentown oh guess this was a weird one 82% of our listeners discovered us in 2023 that's bizarre i thought so as well huh right something to think about what do you think the number one show is that gets people interested in our podcast this one was weird too el toro we talked about that on the phone oh my god i went back and checked the absolute worst episode we ever did. How many listens on that one? Ten? I don't, yeah, it wasn't that low, but yeah, it was a fraction of what we normally do. But you didn't, the show that attracted people to our podcast, I would have thought it was Harlem Globetrotters.
    8:15
    It wasn't. Black Knight. Really? Black Knight, huh? Is that wild? It is wild. I don't even remember that podcast Yeah I didn't either I had to go back and look and say Hey did we do a podcast on that You must have had to come through at one point in time But that was this year It must have been Why would I have copied it down I'm not reading the webpage I copied it down Anyway we're streamed in 18 different countries That's pretty cool Yeah other than Canada at number one, Germany, number two, and Netherlands, number three, as far as most streamed, you know, countries other than the United States. Okay.
    9:04
    So we're starting to get people in Germany, which I think is pretty weird. A lot of pinball players there, but not exactly, uh, you know, two similar languages. How's that? Yeah. Oh, okay.
    9:18
    Okay. calm down there sparkle um let's see okay so we got that oh this is the one that I think people are probably looking for us to comment on and you have some thoughts obviously we're way ahead of the curve having had looney tunes snippets in our podcast for a long time yes yes so I'm guessing our audience would like to know our initial impressions of that game. I'll let you go first.
    9:55
    Well, initial impressions of that game, I like what I was seeing in the play field. It's like, oh, okay, nice. I like the dynamite thing with the Tasmanian devil.
    10:05
    No, coyote. Sorry, coyote. I saw Taz was doing something else. Right, the Tasmanian devil. Does that thing spin around? Yeah, that's right. That spins around, and the coyote was the dynamite thing. That's right. They both died. I got confused because Taz was eating dynamite in one of the episodes.
    10:20
    So I liked all that. What was very curious to me when I was watching the preview of the game was, like, it has all this kind of music and so forth, and it kept showing really good clips from the 50s Bugs Bunny stuff, which was great. That hooked me in. So, okay. Oh, I didn't see any of that. Yeah, they kept showing little clips to hook you in more, a quick snippet of a 50s Bugs Money cartoon, you know, the real deal from that time frame, and then they show more play field stuff. What was very absent was... The wind-up. The Mel Blanc. And the pitch. The Mel Blanc was not there. Actually, there was no voices at all in this thing, in this... Well, I heard a podcast, and forgive me who it was, it doesn't matter. They were saying that with Scooby-Doo, i.e. Spooky, they overdubbed all the episodes with new, except one person, I think, new voice characters. Yes. So what I also heard was, and I'm not know now, I think this is where you're going, they did the same thing on this game. That is correct. And I have some inside info from a guy who, a really interesting guy that gave me a call the other day. It's going to work out pretty well with him and I. It's very interesting.
    11:47
    What the hell does that mean? Well, this guy... Does that mean I can't tell you what I really would like to, but I can't tell you? Oh, no, you can. No, this guy is not on the inside. But he knows, what's it called, rights and software rights and animation stuff and this kind of thing. He gave me a call.
    12:08
    So he knows how to work with companies for their intellectual property. Yeah, this guy is from Hollywood. This guy is actually a videographer that worked in Hollywood. Yeah, Hollywood. Ah, me, public. You know, that kind of thing. Was that one of our episodes this year, Hollywood Dave, which never came to fruition? Never came to fruition. Oh, well, that's okay.
    12:30
    You got stood up, and so did John and a bunch of other people. Well, John actually got the scoop on this other guy who was doing a documentary. He goes, come over here, and I'm supposed to go to my customer's house and look at the firepower and do all that. And he's like, oh, yeah, we're going to do this and this and this. And then, I don't know, I think, I forget why. Maybe I think at that rate, maybe I was having like a, I just came off an operation kind of thing, but I was going to do it pretty soon anyway or whatever. But he didn't want to wait, and he didn't even return my phone call or anything. I kept trying to call him back. And he kept bugging, bugging, bugging me. Finally, I got back to him. I said, okay, we can do it. We'll do it. Then he blows me off. Then he finds out through Dave Marston, a different guy, which is John Day has one. And Dave and this guy went over there and interviewed John instead. And good old Dr. Dave over here on the side did not have way. You got boned. I got boned, but it's all right. I got plenty of irons in the other fires over here. So I really, you know, do I need another documentary? No, you know, whatever. Good for John. I'm glad John has, you know, got some good stuff there. So that's fine. No big deal. I have a loose Hollywood story. You'll laugh at this. All right. So, property owner, two doors away, owns 75 acres and has this big bonfire thing every, the first Saturday of December. Okay. Well, they couldn't have the bonfire this year because of the drought. Unfortunate. But there were probably 100, 150 people there from the town and neighboring area. Got to talking with this gal.
    14:08
    And I don't know how the hell this came out. But she asked me deadpan. She's from L.A. She's an interior designer. And she looks me straight in the eye and says, are you a performer?
    14:23
    Huh, really? And without missing a beat, I go, does having a podcast count? And she looked at me like, that's not really what I meant. And then she's like, well, okay. She asked the next question. What kind of podcast is it? I said, I do a pinball podcast with a friend of mine.
    14:44
    Oh, I have a story. She starts, and then she holds back. And I'm like, no, no, no, come on, come on, tell me. She goes, I can't. I go, you can't or you won't. So she knew somebody in Hollywood that had a big pinball collection, but she wouldn't tell me the person's name. She wouldn't go into the story or anything, because she's an interior decorator. She would know. Right, right, right.
    15:10
    So I'm going to meet up with her again. I'll make sure she has a couple extra glasses of wine and pry some info out of her. I'm curious. No, it's not Jack Danger. It's that tranny guy there with the blonde hair. What's his name?
    15:25
    You know, Jack Danger was over his, her, them's house or whatever a while back. I have no idea and whatever. Yeah, you really don't want to know, but it could be that one. I thought that was interesting. Are you a performer?
    15:41
    Is this person, she's decorating your place? I forget again. No, no, no, no, no. I just met her at a party. She is formerly from L.A. She was an interior decorator out there. Okay.
    15:54
    She seemed to know what was going on. She wasn't a dummy. Okay. So she moved here, I don't know, five, ten years ago, whatever. It was just an interesting question for somebody I knew nothing about other than she was an interior decorator. Okay.
    16:12
    Interesting. Well, that's interesting about the interior. But why would she think that you were a performer, though? That's why I don't understand why.
    16:22
    Janice looked at me afterwards and goes, I go, Janice, I don't know. I mean, maybe it was just some of the stories I told her. I don't know. I don't know what I was saying to her. maybe she thought I looked like family guy I don't know I didn't say that that's funny you won't be the first and you won't be the last so speaking of that Looney Tunes game I got a call from a real nice guy named Gary out in where is he from again he's out in Seattle Washington and he called me up he just cold called me up and he wanted to i guess he's a big fan of my youtube channel my restorations and he he watches a lot of different people you know pinball youtube videos that kind of thing but he really likes the way i shoot the youtube videos and i said really i say because i just do them all in one take i just i don't even edit them or anything. And he said, yeah, he's a professional videographer that came from Hollywood. I know what he's doing now. He's doing pretty well from what he's telling me about his collection and about what he's got going on. But he said he really liked how I described the game, all the different history of the game, and then I play the game, and I show the game and then play it. So I said, yeah, because I like to show the game what it is and then show how it plays so you can see how nice it looks and how nice it plays. So I give you everything. So I really like that. So we kept talking and talking and come to find out he's like late 50s. He's like my age. He loves classic ballet. He pretty much does like some 90s stuff, but he really likes the old school classic ballet. He must have a big house because every room has a different restored ballet game in it and he does the room with what the theme is. So, like, say he has Dolly Parton, he's going to Dolly Parton-themed room for the game. And then another room will have a different game and a different theme. So he must have, you know, a nice palatial estate. I would love to come out and see what you've got going on there. That sounds very interesting.
    18:52
    How about chat him up and say, hey, can you give me a walkthrough in your house? I'd like to see all your rooms.
    18:59
    Yeah, you know what? Maybe I'll work. He is a videographer after all. That's true. You know, I like where you're going with that, George. That's good. That's very good.
    19:09
    Then we started talking about, you know, he really wants to, he said, I really was psyched about that Looney Tunes game. You know, I basically called up, you know, because I'm like you. You were talking. I guess he listens to, he must listen to the podcast, I guess. Yeah, he must have. Or maybe not. But he mentioned the Bugs Bunny birthday bash. I wasn't a fan of that. of poor use of the rights I said I agree It was kind of stupid But he likes what they did with Spooky Day with this game from what he saw on the advertising And I said well I said I was ready to go too, but he said, oh no, I called the distributor right away and I said, I want one right, I want it as soon as it comes out. Put my name in. He's ready to... He likes pretty things. He doesn't want, he's a big Looney Tunes fan from the 50s. He loves the 50s cartoons like I do, you know. So, you know, then we started talking, then I said, well, you know, the only thing is, though, it doesn't have, you know, Mel Blanc. It's missing that. It's going to have this new stuff, and it's, oh, but the guy sounds really, really good. And then he said, well, he said, you have to remember, Mel Blanc didn't even sound like Mel Blanc when it started getting into the 60s and 70s cartoons of Bugs Bunny. He started doing, it's like, yeah, it's true. It wasn't the same. Well, I don't even like those cartoons. I think we talked about this last time. Yeah, they cheaped it out. I saw them in the 80s, some of the 80s ones that were done. Yeah, terrible. It's just, it's not the same thing. And even today, today's stuff They have Bugs Bunny of today.
    20:29
    Young Bugs Bunny or whatever that is. Maybe. No, that's even older. That's like animation or animaton or anisomething. Anyway, I don't like any of that either. Well, but they have a new one, though. Well, see, Bugs Bunny is still so popular, they're trying to revive it. But instead of, like, just play the freaking 50s stuff, just play that. It's great. It's timeless, you know. but I guess what he was saying why they don't do the 50s stuff anymore is because of it's really weird because of all of the PC stuff you know we can't I watched one the other day on YouTube with Hitler oh well Hitler yeah but I'm saying that's the extreme position there are other things where they won't show it because there's some undertone that is acceptable in today's society for whatever reason Well, it's more like the violence thing. That's what he's saying. He said basically even Wile E. Coyote, you know, exploding stuff up. They cut that out of the TV, Saturday Morning TV. They do show anything on TV anymore, on MeTV, whatever. They'll cut that stuff out. They'll cut out any kind of Bugs Bunny shooting a shotgun or whatever.
    21:44
    They'll cut that stuff out. So he said they cut it all up. So now they're doing the new Bugs Bunny stuff with this new guy's voice. And I said, it has no soul. I saw part of that because I wanted to see who is this guy that's doing the voice for the new Looney Tunes. Let me just see what he sounds like. So I went on YouTube and found the stuff, the new Bugs Bunny stuff. And he sounds a little bit like him, but there's not as much soul there that Blank put into it. Right, but think of how many thousands of hours you watched old Bugs Bunny cartoons. We can recite them because we've watched them so many times. True, but never mind just the voice inflection, which is a miss. But besides that, the themes, the themes that this guy is going with, the modern crappy themes. Like back in the 50s, that generation, which we should really get back to, get back to our roots, that generation was all about the farm, chickens, chicken hawks, what happens on a farm, the eggs and all the classical music and stuff. you have all this like base stuff about you know living on a farm basically surviving on your own in a way and this is the farm life kind of thing they all were taking all that stuff from like back in the 50s and older probably back in the 30s and 20s really from these people that were doing the cartoon work there you actually were born like say the 20s so they had they knew all about that's what they you write what you know so that's what they did so now though today's writers are writing what they know and what they know is a cell phone uh going to an amusement park and then texting and that's what bugs bunny's doing he's in an amusement park with a with some cotton candy and a cell phone texting somebody and it's just like there's there's nothing there it's plastic there's no soul there's no what are you doing what are you um how are you living your life bugs bunny how are you oh i'm like the one that we talked about uh Offline.
    23:38
    What was it called? Not Boxing Bugs. What the heck was it called? Oh, Bunny Hugged was one of them. 1951 with Crusher. Big Crusher. Yeah.
    23:59
    That's a, that Boxing Bugs is a great one. There's two of them. There's another one. I don't remember the name. I wrote that one down. Ladies and gentlemen, a wrestling contest for the world's heavyweight championship. Introducing the world's heavyweight champion, The Crusher.
    24:36
    So this guy with the collection, he actually, I said, do you own any animation cells? He goes, oh, yeah, I get a bunch. I think he has like 10 of them or something like that. Of all these really, you know, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the real cells and the stuff, and he has them hanging up in different rooms. And I said, I'm really happy because I scored one. I went to a customer's house recently, and I saw he's, this guy was a big, Disney fan. He kept going to Florida and went to Universal Studios as well. So Universal Studios owns Warner Brothers now, so they have all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and Disney, of course, is Disney. And Disney and Warner Brothers always were enemies. They always were in competition, especially back in that time frame, back in the 50s and 40s. So that's why I asked him, where do you got that? Because I saw that this guy, he had a pinball. And he had this great animation cell, I think one of 600, that were made by I think Chuck Jones. It was 1994.
    25:39
    Actually, I should actually, I can actually get it for you because I actually decided to go buy it. I should show you this. Wait a minute. Let's see.
    25:49
    He's a what? Oh, yeah, this guy is the band. You know, that guy with the band. You know, he runs, he's the drum and bugle corps guy. That guy I was talking about a while back. Remember him? The drum and bugle corps guy. Yeah, remember he, with the drums and so forth, he leads the whole drum thing. Remember when we were talking about that right before Thanksgiving, the Macy's Day Parade and so forth?
    26:15
    Vaguely. So as soon as I saw this thing, this guy's hanging at this guy's house, you know, I said, where did you get that? He said, I got it. And I saw it was numbered, and he told me about it. It was Chuck Jones in 1994.
    26:35
    He personalized a couple retro 1950s cells that he did, and it tells a story. So you'll know this one probably. Oh, yeah, Robin Hood. Robin, yeah. And Friar Chuck, right? Right. Porky Pig is Friar Chuck. Yeah, of course I do. Yeah. So this has, it has Daffy Duck with a buck and a quarter staff and Porky Pig with a quarter staff, right? So kind of, remember Daffy Duck said, well, I've got a buck and a quarter staff, but I'm not telling him that. Ho, ho, and ha, ha, eh? Oh, ho, ho, and ha, ha, you fat friar.
    27:16
    With my trusty quarter staff. Actually, it's a buck and a quarter quarter staff, but I'm not telling him that. So as soon as I saw this, I need to get this. So I looked it up on eBay. That's a nice print. Yeah. I found it on eBay. Paid some serious dough for this. It was way cheap.
    27:34
    My only connection to all the cell buying was, and I'm sure a lot of other people remember this, was Gary Delabate from Howard Stern Show. He got made fun of quite a bit. Yeah, Baba Booey. I gotta find a powerful We can't say that enough Bababooey Okay are you Are you done with your Looney Tunes Cause I wanna hear A story that you told me And we can Now play Some Looney Tunes How's that Yeah Let's go to your Favorite segment What's up doc That was an intro Let's go to your Favorite segment What's up doc Is that the one Oh my god What are you doing? Why do you do that? Tell that story before you.
    28:33
    We have so many segments now, George. Which segment are we talking about? No, tell the story about the people who came to buy the soccer game. Oh, yeah. No, this is a different story. This is Ask Uncle Georgie.
    28:48
    Okay. The people that came by to buy the World Cup soccer? That one? or no yeah yeah i i mean you gotta tell it it's got the twist and i'll give you my take that's go ahead i don't want to spoil it okay so uh a couple people interested in this game well you mentioned it in our think our last show but you also put out a teaser out on your uh website right no well i know i put a teaser on youtube on the youtube uh channel yes How did they find you?
    29:25
    How did they find me? They found me... Who? Who's Vic? What are you talking about? The guy that sells the new games.
    29:36
    No, it wasn't from him. I don't think so. No, they found me through... They're from near Boston. This other... I guess there's a Boston customer that's a fan of mine that I did some work for. So they knew him. And they asked him, hey, do you know anybody that's looking to buy games? Oh, you've got to go see Dr. Dave. So they're going to do that, but in the meantime, they went to go see Tim at Pin and Pixels to see if they were getting a brand new Stern game. So they checked all that stuff out, and they were kind of like, eh, they weren't into it. I mean, they wanted to spend some money, but they didn't like any of the new Stern stuff.
    30:13
    I really can't blame them because I'll tell you that story later by, I don't know, the whole new Stern stuff, not really my thing. Not bad to play, but I would never own again. So they came by here.
    30:27
    I see this car come up the end of the road. It is a brand-new four-door Porsche electric vehicle, electric sports car coming up. It's like, okay, it's interesting.
    30:38
    Bang that bell a few times. Yeah. Insert cash register sound here. So it's like, oh, boy, this could be good. ever do that. Folks, if you don't buy something, come up in the heat. Make somebody feel bad for you.
    31:02
    So, so they get out of the car, two kids, parents, and, you know, bring them in, and I have the game all, all set up, all playing, and they play it, the kids loving it, the little boys jump on him, and now he's playing, he's loving playing the game, he wants to play more. The little girl play one game so can we go now you know she wanted to go it's like okay um she wanted a barbie dream house probably but yeah barbie dream house probably uh so you know they played it and played it and they and they they liked it and then they said you know uh how often does it break and this and that we want to want we want to have to go out to the berkshires it's like well that's kind of two hours away it's like you know you know i'll i'll give a warranty but not like that far away i can't really cover something like that because it's like, you know. Right. It's time and car and it's... Yeah, it's just not going to work. If you're close by, I can do something, but so... It's not going to go free. Yeah, yeah. So, then the kicker was, well, we want to... Can you make it take credit cards? And I go, well, what do you want to do that for? Well, we have an Airbnb out there and we want to put it in the Airbnb. It's like, well, I have a couple customers in Boston with Airbnbs, nice places, and they have a couple games here and there, and they have them for free. It's part of your value add when you do your Airbnbs. Hey, I've got a pinball machine. You just play it. They don't put quarters in. But even if you want to do quarters, you can just, oh, I don't want to do quarters because they might break into the game. It's like, well, that's what your security deposit's for. If they break into the game, they did something bad, and then you ding them with a nice $1,000 security deposit. So, So now I want credit cards. Like, okay.
    32:44
    So they gave me a deposit down. It's a small, just to hold it. I said, you know what? I will hold the game for you.
    32:51
    Small deposit. I do have someone else interested, but we'll hold it for you. And I will look into doing, making that happen for you. So when they left, it's like, it intrigued me. Can you do a credit card on a game, especially an older game?
    33:05
    I know when you go to Dave and Buster's, all the other places, they have their little token. token you kind of can charge it up card there, put it in, and it has credits on it. So I know it's doable that way in some manner or form. So I found this thing. I went on Pinside, and Pinside had a whole thread on it. And one company came up with really good solutions called PayRange.
    33:26
    PayRange will work on any game, even an EM. And what it does is you hook this little key fob inside the coin door and attach it to the credit switch. and you have an app on your phone that finds the little key fob of whatever game you got. It'll tell you what game it is because it'll come up saying I'm going to play El Dorado. I'm going to play 8-Ball Deluxe. How much of a range? Like Bluetooth.
    33:57
    50 feet, 100 feet. Oh, okay. It'll find all the games around. It'll say which one you want to play, which one you want to add credits to. No kidding. And you swipe it, and as soon as you swipe it, you see, say it's like bow and arrow, it'll go bang, bang. It'll put credits on just by swiping your phone. Do they also do the credit card transactions?
    34:20
    Is that a service that is part of it? Yes, yes, yes. So what happens, so yeah, so they're going to take 3% VIG or whatever it is at the top. It goes into your special pay range bank account. It builds up, and then maybe you take it out once in a while or something. So you cash it out at a certain increment, whatever. Yeah. so I told them about that they really liked that so much so the guy ordered it that night how much is this thing? it's not bad, it's like 70 bucks oh ok I'm waiting for a couple hundred dollars really? but then I said I've never installed one before and I had him I was totally open very open about what it cost here's the link to the site here's where you can buy it you know i'm not going to make money on this piece of it so you go buy it and you know what it is so you know what you're getting into because you know i'm not the salesman for the place uh i could be but i'm not um so he did that and already look you read about it and you ordered it you set up an account with them and it's supposedly going to be sent to me um and then i said then they said okay we'd like to you know pay you half and then and what's that going to be pay you half and then for the whole thing and they're going to actually bring it out there the Berkshires themselves okay so I said well I want to set it up here I want to test it here so what's that going to cost you I don't know but I'd say probably under 500 bucks but I'm not sure what because I don't know how much time it is to install it how much time is it tested how much what if I run into a problem I don't know it might it might be 100 bucks who knows but I didn't want to you know cut myself short that I'm going to be married to this thing you know but it's still weird thing.
    36:03
    So what's the ask me question? Uncle Georgie, dear Uncle Georgie, would you do this deal? So you're going to put this thing on this game. It's going to go out a couple hours away. If they say, hey, something's not working on this. The pay range ain't working. Can you... Yeah, that seems to be the deal breaker. You don't have any kind of idea how this will work commercially and my thought is you know what if somebody goes to play the game the thing doesn't work and they rented the place for the week and you're going to get the call you know i got people there for three days and they can't play this they wanted you know are you going to be on the hook to hey you know get up and go quick you know this can't wait, it doesn't, I don't know. It's an interesting thing. I mean, you know, I'm curious of how this thing actually does work. It actually will take quarters at the same time. They actually could put quarters in, too, so you're not down and out. Yeah, that whole, I mean, right, the whole theft thing. I mean, please, if you've got that kind of person coming to your Airbnb, you've got to go on a festival. Right. What's that? Stones. Waiting on a friend. It's not playing. You can't hear it? Nope. Here we go again. Nope.
    37:35
    Well, let's try the bell. Yes, no bell? No. What the heck? Wait a minute. No, you got nothing? No. You got it before though, right? Yeah.
    37:50
    I don't get it. Frickin' I don't get it. that's ridiculous hey mix it master lady turn that on can you hear that yeah okay well that's weird you don't hear that oh now I hear that okay wow alright well there we go that's weird well now to end the other story yeah no you shouldn't do it I think it's going to be a time suck but I think you should tell the story about not having sound because it just happened again.
    38:29
    Yeah, so with the Zoom thing, I did some research on it. We had no bell, no bell, and it's no bell, no bell, you know, it's for Christmas. Oh, boy. It's really bad. Sing for that, too. So I did some research, and basically there's different settings for filtering on it on Zoom, and you can turn original sound for musicians to on, which means you get all the background of a live performance of people who want to record a band and you get everything so I turned that on and it works for the most part but when I just tried something just now it didn and now it came back again Now it does so I don know What do you want for free
    39:13
    Low budget. Mm-hmm. Yep. How about no budget? Or no budget, right. Okay, so do you have any other stories?
    39:26
    Let's see. We had the World Cup one. we had the Gary one from Seattle oh and then we had this one here's a good one you'll like this one I got an email from actually this is oh what's our segment George with the Dr. Dave Ask Dr. Dave what's our segment called me what's up doc what's cooking what's up doc Oh, you're looking for bugs, bunny bunting Duck is gonna hunting Just to get a rabbit skin But now the rabbit's gonna get What's up, duck? What's cooking? Hey, look out! Stop! You're gonna hurt someone With that old shotgun What's up, duck? That's the one. What's cooking? What's up, duck? Here we go. What's up, duck? Well, I got a what's up, duck. So, I'll tell you what's up, duck. Well, I got this call or this email from Nick, Nick Dangerous. I like the name.
    40:33
    It said, yo, Dr. Dave, it's Nick from Roanoke, Virginia. I enjoy listening to your recent podcast about Knight Rider and seeing the video with the upgraded ROM. With the upgraded ROM, and is there something available for purchase? I run an all-tech MPU in mine and about to do a CPR swap with seven-digit LED scoring upgrade. Now, I'm thinking, you're going to put a seven-digit in a Knight Rider? I was like, I scratched my head on that one because that's overkill. You're never going to get it. You got to talk to him a little bit more because I've been playing mine. Yeah. No way. Right. And I basically, don't worry. I don't care how good you are. That's a tough. Yeah. There's no way. Not even like for the Jeff Blairs and Eric Stones of the world.
    41:23
    But I'm going to say this email. I have a back and forth. I'll read the back and forth. So I'm going to do seven digits, LED upgrade, CPR swap, just the thing for a higher scoring version of the game. I got the alt type because it works with the seven Lucian X-Pin seven-digit display boards, George, which you're a big fan of. I remember that, right? We're not going to go through this, are we? Somebody saw that. he lost the sale I mean long story short I wanted to buy Rambryon right yeah I just no no no it wasn't for Rambryon it was going to be for Paragon but I put the Alltech in it because I got it right away the guy Dave is only I got it in one day no but you want to do the 7Luxion X-Pin 7-Digit Display. I don't even know what the hell that is. Remember you tried to do a 7-digit thing on X-Pin? No, I wasn't trying to do any kind of 7-Digit. No, years ago, years ago. A couple years back, you were pissed off. Oh, a long time. Oh, no, I bought an X-Pin one. Yeah, that's this thing. That's this thing. Oh, that's a hunk of crap. Yeah, I know. You know that? Yeah.
    42:41
    Hey, this is the email I sent to my podcast partner telling me every which way to Sunday why I made a mistake buying an Altec. That was horrible. You were mean.
    42:55
    It works. I put the Altec. Forget just the MPU. You've got to put the solenoid driver board in there, too. I put those two in my Paragon. It's like Super Paragon now. That thing runs great. Yeah, we know Wheatley does the same thing. The reason why is they're using MOSFET technology. technology and stuff. Right, but you can't go on vacation for two weeks and not ship product out. He's a one-man band. You can buy an Altec almost anywhere, and I know he's probably on a low budget, and I don't want to trash on him. He's got a good product. But long story short, you need a distributor. You need a third party. You can't just be... Alright, okay. You want it cheap, fast, or good? Pick two. No. I like it all. I'm greedy.
    43:43
    You're a greedy duck. I'm honest and I'm greedy. I'd rather wait for the quality. I don't care. I got plenty of things to do. I know you were in a rush, but a lot of people are. It's priorities, prioritizing. So for me, it's important. I just didn't want to wait. I'm like, no, I'm ready to order it right this minute. Sorry, you lose. On top of that, I order four or five of these things at a time, so I have plenty of stock from him at all times, so I'm all good. Right. Well, then afterwards, here's the latter part of the story. So everybody's heard, you know, the move and everything with all the boxes of parts. So what do I'm looking for a box of rubbers that I bought? And I'm like, damn it. I know I have them. So if you saw my pinball room, which is just all the boxes of parts, I have this. Never mind. Doesn't matter. I went through every freaking box, tore it apart. What do I come across? Two MPUs, three solenoid driver boards, and something else. I'm like, wow, I didn't even know I had that box. Oh. So I found all the original stuff in a box. Now, one of them was bad, I think. Like, I had a Paragon MPU in there, and I'm like, eh, there must be a reason why I took that out of that game. It must not have been working right. And the traces around by the battery were looking pretty dismal. So I don't know how good that MPU is. But for $200 for an MPU, $150 for your Weebly, whatever, the long and short of it is it makes a game bulletproof. And the other thing I discovered by putting all my games together, I couldn't believe how many games I did connectors on. A lot. That's a lot of time. And I found a third octo-rectifier board. I must have been on a roll one winter.
    45:42
    Do you mean Georgie connectors or you mean like necessary connectors? Both. Okay. All right. Well, that's even more time.
    45:52
    Wow. Well, let me. When was the last time I had all these games apart? You know, the only time you go looking is if something doesn't work. See, the problem when you do more of this octorectifier, when you add connections into a game, you're adding failure points. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've had this discussion. You do what you want. My games work really nice. I was really psyched. I only have one game I have to put up. We're not going to talk about Centaur now. That's after the holidays. But I have a lot of questions about those freaking, that ball trough thing. I was trying to just think about how the ball's laying there and everything else, but we're not going through that. Long story of it is, the only game I don't have up is hot-dogging. My son's coming this weekend. That'll take me 10 minutes to hook up because I've got everything for it. So I'm stoked. Sweet.
    46:44
    So let me continue on with the What's Up Docs segment here with this guy's email. This is my buddy here, Nick, Nick Dangerous.
    46:54
    Nick Danger, third guy. Let's see. So the bad part is that you get this 7-digit X-Pin 7-Lution, which I anticipated that it might need the higher score potential of the modded ROM and possibility of rolling over a million points. The bad part is it doesn't work with Weebly's MPU. So the 7-digit 7-Lution does not work with Weebly MPUs. And he went rut-row. I plan to put this on location likely with 3-ball. Do you think rolling the score will be easy for pros? And here's what I wrote back to him. I said most people can barely break 100,000 on this title, never mind a million, because remember, this game was originally an EM with five-digit scoring. The EM version, once you broke 100K, would light up in the back glass, king of the road. Weebly has seven-digit upgrade capability for LED and plasma seven-digit displays on board already without much to do. if it were me I would either sell the alternative and those evolution displays or save them for a different game that could use 7 digit scoring which I still love the Weebly for in games that really need it like Harlem Globetrotters and Embryon and buy a Weebly put 6 digits back into it hit the dip switch for Knight Rider Home ROM another benefit of the Weebly is that you can put in a home ROM of your own or choose from the myriad of stock and home ROMs available on his dip switch settings on the board unlike the alternative Altec, which is bare bones. You don't get any of that stuff. You can run with a Knight Rider home run for an original MPU, or go with a Weebly MPU that has this code.
    48:26
    Oh my god, Dave, I could have written him back with three sentences. Save your money, send that hunk of crap back, and why are you even spending any time trying to modify a Knight Rider? Done.
    48:44
    Come on! I like to give a little more value add to my repertoire. I'm sure. Repartee. It's like, come on.
    48:55
    So I said, in addition to quarters, you may want to consider. He's got way too much time on his hands. Well, he wants to put a game on location. I don't blame him. Come on. Yeah. That game? Yeah, that game would be, you know, if that's the only game in a bar, a night ride, people are going to play it. Especially if it's a nice one. If it's a nice course. At three balls, make it so that it's tough and it's a quarter. People will get so enthralled with playing it and trying to beat it. At a quarter of play, you'll clean up. It should be five balls of play. That game needs five balls. If you want to make a lot of money, put it on three balls for a quarter. You're not going to get any better entertainment out of it, and people will shove at least a buck in or more every time they play. I also said, in addition to quarters, you may want to consider a product called PayRange for the cell phone generator. Oh, God, no. Well, here's what I said. Are you fucking for a Weebly contract in this? Yeah.
    49:54
    Andrew's my buddy. You know, stop. He's got the best of them. So I said, you may want to consider PayRange for the cell phone generation to swipe your phone payments, works on any amusement device that takes quarters, et cetera, even EMs. and you can still take quarters too. So he wrote back, very cool man, you always have good answers, much appreciated. Keep the games humming up yonder. Do let me know if you ever pass through Roanoke. We'll be happy to give you the grand tour of the museum and my collection at home. Oh, he's from, oh, it's that Nick, Nick Baldridge. Is that who it is? Of course it is.
    50:32
    I didn't, until you said the museum, it's Nick Baldridge. I don't know who that is. I've actually met him. What is RPM?
    50:39
    Roanoke Pinball Museum. Okay, so you know this guy. Oh, you left out a big part of the story. Oh, well, tell me. So what did I miss?
    50:50
    You met him. You talked to him. He is an EM guru. He is supposed to be like the king of EM. Oh, wow. And he's not only an EM guy. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nick. You can write us. I believe he's also, what's the gambling games from Valley back in the day? Oh, bingos. The bingos. I think he's a big bingo guy. Wow. And I believe it was Nick that I met in Houston. I never told you about the bingo game that had every bingo in it, and it was in a plexiglass clear cabinet? We probably did, but it's so long ago, 2019. Yeah. Yeah, no, very. That cat's really cool. Yeah, I like what he does. He's very appreciative. He watches my YouTube videos and stuff, and I'd definitely like to meet him. So basically I said, you know, my buddy George moved right down that way, so I plan to make a pilgrimage down to his house at some point maybe this year or this spring, and we can swing by your place too, you know, do a whole bunch of stuff. I've never, I know where Roanoke is. That's probably two and a half, three hours from here south, I'm guessing.
    52:07
    What Maureen has something to say. The salvage dogs live there. The salvage dogs, Maureen's favorite show, they live down there too. The what? The salvage dogs. Yeah. Salvage dogs. They have all kinds of antiques. All kinds of antiques and crap.
    52:23
    Really? Uh-oh. This is a TV show like The Pickers? Maureen just gave me a symbol that says I'm number one, but I'm not sure if she meant to say I'm number one with that comment. I'd rather have the number two sign. I got a different finger.
    52:37
    Oh, okay. Hey, I got something. So that was that What's Up Dog segment. That was a good one. Thank you. Yeah, because you actually brought it all around. It's like, oh, that Nick. It's kind of cool. A whole little thing happened there. um i i said we could segue into uh talking to bill davis last night because bill davis he calls me i don't know at least once a week or more uh famous pinball rest uh playfield restoration guy i use him for a lot of my games years ago uh he's pretty much retired now but he'll do a couple jobs for me here and there if i want him to uh did a lot of my playfields clear code him that kind of deal.
    53:18
    And so he was, you know, old school auto body guy years ago and knows how to paint a car, knows how to clear coat a car and all that stuff. Very talented. And I guess years ago he heard of Chris, Chris Hutchins. And is it Hutchins or Hutchinson? I'm getting this wrong. Hutchins. Hutchins, okay. I know someone else's Hutchinson. I know I keep getting this confused. Chris Hutchins. I thought so. So he said that he reached out to him and said, hey, from one car guy to another. So they started talking shop about the automotive industry and fixing cars and painting cars and that kind of stuff. And how he clear coats and how he does his thing and how he does. So they talk every so often, maybe once a week or something. And he's a really cool guy. He's really, you know, he's very, you know exactly where you stand with him. He kind of is very, you know, no nonsense.
    54:21
    He definitely, I'd say he's a little right of center, which is good. You know, I like that. And I said, hey, Bill, you know, I've been watching his videos because they come up in my feed, and it's like he's entertaining to watch, especially the guy has a lot of attention to detail. and he actually has a lot, I have a lot of patience to do these restorations, but you need a lot of patience to do them right and just stick with it until you get it dialed in the right way. But I think he has even more than I do because he takes so painstakingly long to get every last thing painted the right way and all this stuff that just goes, if I had to do all that to my customers games, they'd be paying, I don't know $25k or $30k a game by the time they're done I think because it's way too much time for me to do all the stuff he does. So hats off to him for all he does. Then I said, I wouldn't mind talking to the guy sometime. I'd like to actually, you know, just kind of from one restore to another, just kind of talk some shop and, you know, that kind of thing. He said, oh, he'll definitely will. And so he gave me his number the night before. And he said he talked to Chris about me and said that, okay, you know, Dave, you should call us. I said, oh, yeah, sure. I'll talk to Dave anytime, you know. So that's cool. So I'm going to be reaching out to him at some point and just kind of, you know, chew the fat kind of thing. It'll be kind of interesting conversation. Then I think down the road I'll say, after our first conversation, say, hey, you want to come on the podcast? I'll try to get him. I don't know if he's ever, I don't know if I've ever heard him on a podcast.
    55:55
    He might not want to do them. I don't know. I don't know either. But I know he's well regarded and he's famous on Pinside, among other places. Yeah.
    56:06
    So that was that. So, and back to the Merco Playfield debacle. I have a customer who wants me to do a real nice nine-ball restoration. I got a nine-ball here that I'm going to be selling him as well. I'm selling him a restored one. The Playfield's nice on already. It's a nice original. Someone did clear coat it and touch it up with something a while back. And it looks nice from a distance, but you look up close and it's not, you know, it's not quite as nice as like a brand new one. But it's very, very presentable. But he said, no, I want to go with the new one. So he bought the Merco one. Now, these days you can buy a CPR one as well. CPR is in the game for that too. I think they have a nine ball. So now you have a choice. But he bought the Merkle already. So now we're thinking, well, I told him about, look at this thread, the one you were talking about, Pinside. He looked at it and he goes, oh, what are we going to do? So he's ready to have me send it off to Ron Kruseman because Ron's been redoing these play fields, like sanding the clear down a little bit and then redoing them. And I think it's like, I don't know, probably looking around $600 or so to do it. You've got to be with shipping. You've got to be up in the $800 range. Yeah, you're somewhere in there. You've got to send it there. He's got to do it, and then he's got to send it back. Right.
    57:18
    So then I did some further research on it, which I don't know. You probably looked at the thread, too. And I found this guy that said, I've got a solution for all this stuff. Never mind re-clearing it, all this stuff. And he uses these.
    57:32
    Oh, not those dopey washers. Yes, the dopey washers. no I saw all that but it works I'm sure it does work but you shouldn't have to do that what else are you going to do? are you going to re-clear it?
    57:51
    according to Canada stand up and not buy it but everybody wants it yesterday like me so they go and buy it as much as I dislike looking at my embryon because it's roached up at the top where the bonus area is. I'm not doing it. I would be, if I took a really, you know, original play field out and then put something in that was pooling and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, I'd just be mad. I'd be angry. Well, these things, these nice little rubberized washers, you put them under everywhere and it won't have a problem, you know? Mm-hmm. I don't know. I don know I not sold I look and say just do it right There no reason for that not to happen Well, the problem is people bought these play fields and have them. Now they're realizing they haven't. No, but I'm saying from the manufacturer. And I'm saying to people, I get that you've got a roached game. I get that you want to make it nice. But do the product the right way the first time. You shouldn't have to go out and clear-coat it. You shouldn't have to put extra money into it. I know why, though. Because in Europe, I guess, they have new green whatever standards, and they can't use the good stuff anymore. That's why. We talk about this all the time, you know, this whole green movement thing. And I have something I want to talk to you about. Lefty's going to lefty, George. Lefty's going to lefty. Go ahead. What do you got? so in our last show we talked about Soylent Green right the movie right is that the name of the movie yeah it's people yeah because of your customer food lab that went out of business yes etc so I don't know if you happen to catch this I know your love of Bill Gates oh yeah he's the best he was at that uh that summit in uh in somewhere somewhere in Abu Dhabi or wherever the how it was. Yeah, they're going to take care of you, tell you what to do. Right. They like you. Did you happen to see the video of John Kerry?
    60:08
    Mr. Cigarette Man, Mr. Botox Face. I think I saw some of them. What does he want us to – what does he want us to – Oh, COP28 was the name of that Enviro Summit. Does that mean they all should be arrested? No. Well, he's on this – Crimes Against Humanity? Wait, wait, wait. He's on this panel, right? Mm-hmm. And, you know, the video's going. All of a sudden,
    60:34
    Huh? Really? He had a problem? Did John carry a little... Oh, boy, John carried a little... What on video? So he had a little problem? He had a little problem with the backside? He had a little flatulence.
    60:51
    Fantastic. You know, that's where God winks. God winks at him. I'm sitting there and I'm saying to myself, you know, Bill Gates, your love, wants us to go out and eat his manufactured meat or his insects. Or bugs. I'm saying to myself, you know, if we were to eat insects, right? Yeah. When you flatulate, would it sound like crickets?
    61:24
    George, that's right. I don't know, George. I will say that what could have happened, they should have put a filter on his butt because he's causing greenhouse gas emissions from his backside. So he actually caused global warming that day.
    61:39
    Yeah, yeah, he needs to do that. Yeah, I like to take all my health and life advice from people that got awards for depopulation because I think it's a good way to go.
    61:53
    I knew you would enjoy that. You didn't like my cricket joke, though. It wasn't bad, George, but it wasn't as daddish as my joke, so you keep crying. Okay.
    62:07
    Yeah. Do you have anything else? If not, we're going to. Oh, you know what? I just, yeah. Oh, no. I've been watching those, too. What's that? I'm getting Columbo. I started watching those again. Oh, good. Well, the good one. Are you going to say just one more thing? Yeah, just one more thing. One more thing, sir.
    62:26
    How many times are you going to say that? Probably ten. Okay. So, LaMaitre, up in Burlington. So, they're my corporate client. Oh, your corporate client. Yeah. You know, they have about, I don't know, eight modern games. You know, they have, they just, they left it up to the staff, especially the staff that plays pinball, because they get about, I don't know, eight or ten Stern games or whatever there. And they left it up to the staff, said, okay, I'm going to buy another game, you know, for you guys. What do you want? Oh, no. They were thinking about a spooky pin. They were thinking about a stern pin. Not sure. And they wound up with Godzilla.
    63:06
    Well, that's a good choice. So, yeah, that's a good choice. So they got a Godzilla, and so they wanted me to go through all the games because they're having a big Christmas tournament.
    63:17
    It was on the 20th, and they had a big tournament for all their people. And the winner wins one of the games in the lineup. in the game of the line, but was it Simpsons? One goes out, one comes in? Right, the Stern Simpsons they had. Wow, that's pretty good. It's a nice little prize for the winner of the tourney. So they wanted me to go pick a couple things. So we spent a good solid day and a half there working on the games and getting stuff going.
    63:41
    Medieval Madness, Kiss, Game of Thrones, Simpsons. What else is there? That's in Medieval Madness. Ghostbusters. what else is there oh Deadpool yeah ok they got a lot of games yeah a lot of games so what the person win they won a Simpsons pinball party oh ok you know the Simpsons is it Simpsons oh wait sorry sorry no I'm wrong hold on ding ding ding no they won a family guy they won sorry family guy oh my game Yes, your game. So I actually worked on, they had a problem, I worked on a little Stewie pinball, miniature pinball. What a clever little device Pat Lawler made this. So it's actually very easy to take out of the game. And it's all miniaturized flippers, he miniaturized everything on it. And I fixed a switch problem with Meg and got her running again and put that back in.
    64:45
    So that was all set. The other problem was that Medieval Madness had one of the trolls was popping up and flopping around, and that broke a weld on the whole assembly there. So basically, but in software, it's pretty cool in that Medieval Madness game. You can turn off the troll, one of them, or either one. And what it does, it's supposed to have both in troll mode. Both trolls pop up. You hit them each three times. You defeat the trolls, and you get whatever, jackpot, whatever, the points, whatever. And there's much rejoicing and so forth. so I had disabled the left troll because a broken wall he wasn't going to work until I get a part for him but in software you can turn him off and instead of hitting the troll you can hit the actual troll qualifying yellow stand up target instead to act as a troll so I made a work around for him so I got him going for that ok what else did we get oh here's another story so the other story is speaking of Godzilla I had a customer from New Hampshire who got a brand new Stern Godzilla shipped from Stern. And you want to see, I want you to come up here Christmas week, which is a couple of days ago and uncrate it, install it, put in arc blades into it. Take all the crappy black rubber out of it. The Stern is crappy, cheapo black rubber that turns to crap real quick. It's junk junk.
    66:08
    And they're, the balls are junk too. You're not, You're not getting any product endorsement from that company. No, that's all right. I make their games better. So I took this game, and I took all that crap out. I put in some nice Titan Premium shiny silver balls in there, put in clear rubber and some red post rubber and some red flipper rubber, and now the game was nice and tight. I tightened them. And also, of course, the flipper links in the game, they're loose as always because they don't tighten from the factory. So I tightened those up where they're supposed to be. Did you put in noose to ups?
    66:39
    No. Coil stops? No. No, I'll let them run for a while, and then I'll replace them, actually. And then I'll replace them. I'll replace them down the road. It'll need a cleaning at that point anyway, so that's fine.
    66:52
    And then he said, and I want you to install this. And he handed me, and actually, no, when we pulled up in his place, I saw this big white box in front of his garage. And I said, what is that? It's like, something got shipped today. so when his son and he said and he came up to me and he's like oh it arrived they go what arrived my stern topper so I got my first stern topper my Godzilla topper I got to install I'm not familiar with it what it had so it's a big is it a plexiglass thing it's a big plastic 3D model thing you bolt to the top of the game wires run down inside the game it hooks to the MPU so it's not even like a Godzilla Muffet type thing. No, it's a Godzilla. It's a plastic 3D thing with lights in it. The buildings have fire stuff going on during the game.
    67:47
    Is it good or not? It's cool. I don't know if it's $1,000 cool, but it's cool. It casts a shadow. It casts a shadow and there's a light on it that casts a shadow on the wall to make Godzilla look really big against the wall. Fire for a thousand. Well, it does kind of breathe fire. It does breathe fire. I need real fire. Well, not real fire. No, that'd be kind of like on Kiss. They should have that for Gene Simmons. You know, breathe fire. Did you happen to see that? Did you watch the final concert of Kiss?
    68:18
    No, I have no interest in that jerk. I don't like Gene Simmons. He's a dildo. I, I, they were probably good in the day, but man, was that a tired band. yeah they're all done but you know as uh i mean the execution with all the you know with all the stagery is pretty good but they're way past their prime as bob dylan said in the recent interview maybe five ten years ago with a cbs report or cbs i don't know 60 minutes so why do you keep doing it bob why do you keep doing these concerts you're older now you're tired it's like well you no, I made a deal with it years ago, and I've got to still go. It's like, who do you make a deal with? Well, you know, the number one commander. The guy said, this Earth and many other realms. It's like, okay, you made a deal with the devil. I get it. So you've got to keep going, dude. Okay. I think a lot of these guys have got a little sign in blood, a certain concept. You've got to keep going.
    69:20
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bob Dylan. I think the same thing with the Stones. That's why the Stones have got to keep going. They're going out on tour again. Yeah, it's called the Walker Tour, where they're in all the walkers. So good transition. So what was that thing we got from Grant today? That was crap.
    69:37
    Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. You got the same email, and this will be the tease for the next show. You got the same picture I did with the wrapped pinball. Do you think that's Rolling Stone under that wrap? You didn't get that? No, I didn't get the wrapped pinball. I got a stone pinball of the guy from Orange County out there in California. No, no, there was another email. maybe just send it to me send it to you i didn't get the special secret you're more special than me everybody's heard about brant our our pen pal buddy in in australia and he's our critic anyway he said he's got a story of another attempted buy for a pinball he said this one's a doozy and i'm like oh well i hope you get a pinball under the tree this year and he sends me a picture of a pinball wrapped in wrapping paper. So I'm wondering if he actually did get a pinball machine for Christmas.
    70:34
    He probably did. But what is it? I don't know. That's why I'm wondering that Rolling Stone thing he sent you. Oh, yeah. Was that a tease to say maybe I got a Rolling Stone? It could be. Do you see my response to his email? Yeah, I mean, you ripped it every which way. I did. It's a trailer pin. I mean, it looks great. From a trailer park? A trailer park pin or a trailer pin? Like, you know, the car everybody loves to look at. You don't play it. It runs like crap. Right. There you go. Exactly. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, that game was. Call it whatever. Yeah. That game was not the best ever playing Rolling Stones. I'm sorry. No. Oh, I have a story, a Brush with Greatness story for you. So I got this call from some guy in North Shore or Redding or whatever, Massachusetts, near Boston, and he's got this 1940s Gottlieb game, Wood Rail, that's like, I don't have the time for it. So all these older games, you know, sometimes I will take the older stuff on depending if I have time. You send it over to Stu? Over to Stu. Stu's the man. Stu likes working the stuff. He has time to work on the older stuff so he can, him and Benny get it going. So I went over to his house the other day, you know, stopped by, you know, chewing the fat with him. And I said, oh, is that the 1940s game I gave you from that guy? Oh, yeah. And I guess the guy said, the older guy said, oh, yeah, you know my son. I go, how do you know your son? Bill Burr. Bill Burr's dad. The comedian, Bill Burr. Never heard of him? I've heard of him, but I'm not familiar with him. The audience will know. Very famous comedian. He's got one of the number one movies on Netflix right now, which I don't know the name of because I don't want to watch Netflix. But, yeah, famous comedian.
    72:29
    I liked him years ago. He's more edgier. He kind of cucked all the madness of the past couple years and did a Gene Simmons, everybody, you know, made everybody feel guilty for no reason. He went on the 15th World Tour?
    72:44
    Yeah. Well, no. No, he just basically went along. I thought that was the Gene Simmons, right? No, Gene Simmons is, I go along with it. Hey, we're retiring, but we're not retiring. No, Gene Simmons was. But we're not retiring. Yeah, Gene Simmons was the do not question authority tour, like Bill Burr. Don't question authority. Listen to nonsense and follow along. Not a fan. So I like to question authority from the 60s.
    73:08
    Okay. That's where I am. How much time do we have left here? We have three minutes and 40 seconds. Okay, so time to cut. All right.
    73:19
    Where? When? You can say anything nice. Yeah, okay, I can say something nice, George. Sure. Well, I just want to wish everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
    73:34
    Hopefully more Santa brings a pinball machine under your tree, if it can fit. and hold on something from over his side yes dear and thanks for listening that's what she's saying she's very thoughtful over there thanks for listening to two old men going on and on about well we're not old we just smell bad I think we're mature immature yeah okay we uh thoughtful it's been a better year i like doing once a month it works yeah especially now my bell works what's that we just babble we babble we're babbling brook we have been referred to it's two guys as if they're having a telephone conversation yeah Exactly. Okay, so if you don't like it, turn it off. That's right. Oh, sorry. Don't mean to be grinch. Ho, ho, ho. Sorry. Merry Christmas.
    74:41
    And Happy New Year. One more thing, sir. Oh, yeah. Musings, on the way up to New Hampshire, saw this sign, LED sign on the road, and it said Chowder Factory. So this is a restaurant that has chowder. Why would you want to call it a chowder factory? When you call it a chowder kitchen, as an industrial kitchen, industrial chowder, why don't I want to go eat somewhere where it says factory? Is this like a parallel to the food lab type thing? Yeah, I think it is. So we know where that went.
    75:16
    So the chowder factory. Yeah. Bad naming. Don't like it. It sounds very Simpson-esque. Like smoke stacks. We throw the cruddy old fish into one end, and this soylent green chowder thing comes out the other side. Some petroleum-based products in there. Who knows? Is Bill Gates on the packaging? That's possible. Or is it John Kerry? Or both? They both care about you and your health. Okay. Well, I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, whatever you happen to celebrate. Enjoy it. we'll be back in the new year we didn't do the soccer game i told dave not to sell it maybe we'll do it next month i've got some other ideas for games we need to get back to so maybe we'll do you do a game i do a game yeah because i got a couple we've talked about for five years that we would do we still haven't done all right let's do it sounds good so merry christmas everybody Thanks for listening. Stay lit and tilted.
    76:25
    I don't know. Anything else? Cheers, everyone. Thank you for another great year of pinball excellence.
    76:34
    Hopefully Santar comes to your house. Santar. Yes, Santar. Come pick this game up. This game is ready. It's way ready.
    76:46
    Oh, the guy still hasn't come? No. No, I need to talk to him. Okay. no more Centaur Talk next month yes World Cup Soccer bye everybody bye bye
    77:20
    © transcript Emily Beynon Who do you call when you want your pinball machine restored? Dr. J! But George, you don't know what you're saying. You're under their control. This joker's not only stupid, he's a moron besides. I heard that. Thanks for the compliment. Hasta la vista, baby.