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Ep 66: The Biggest Lava Lamp with Tim Purcell
37 Plays4 years ago
Harlem Globetrotters, Lava Lamps, and Bride of Pinball. What do these all have in common? Tim Purcell!
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Transcript
Introduction and Special Guest Announcement
00:00:06
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
This is episode 66.
00:00:11
Speaker
I am Josh Roop.
00:00:12
Speaker
With me, my co-captain, as always.
00:00:14
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:16
Speaker
And Scott, we have a very special guest on today.
00:00:18
Speaker
I say that all the time.
00:00:18
Speaker
I apologize.
00:00:19
Speaker
We have a fantastic... We have an exceptional guest.
00:00:23
Speaker
Exceptional.
00:00:27
Speaker
We have an unusual special guest because he's not really part.
00:00:32
Speaker
We typically go for the pit bull industry or someone who's a designer.
00:00:36
Speaker
We're actually coming out from the collector side today.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, let's do that.
00:00:40
Speaker
So before we get going on that, we just want to remind you, I know that Zach and Nicole don't really have a ton of stock.
00:00:46
Speaker
You need to message them.
00:00:47
Speaker
They do have usually about four or five still on hand right now.
00:00:51
Speaker
But if you're looking for that new pinball machine, if you're looking for a rumored, I don't know, Cactus Canyon remake or...
00:00:59
Speaker
Godzilla or Toy Story.
00:01:02
Speaker
These are all rumored.
00:01:03
Speaker
Remember, you can get on that rumor list with Zach.
00:01:05
Speaker
You just message him and say, hey, this is what I want to get on.
00:01:08
Speaker
Or even better, you can just say, hey, I want to be on the next Keith Elwin game.
00:01:12
Speaker
He'll get you on that list.
00:01:13
Speaker
Those lists are filling up and quick.
00:01:16
Speaker
I think we're all jonesing for a new pinball machine to come out.
00:01:19
Speaker
And, uh,
00:01:20
Speaker
You can also find out with the supply chain issues, they are limiting how many games they are making, but they're still trying to take care of the distributor.
00:01:29
Speaker
So if you contact him and ask him what the schedule is, he may be able to say, well, if you want a Jurassic Park, you can get one around this time.
00:01:36
Speaker
If you want a Guardians of the Galaxy, you can get one around this time.
00:01:39
Speaker
And so current trending pins are, I would say Jurassic Park is still very hot.
00:01:45
Speaker
It's one of the, it's probably the biggest
00:01:49
Speaker
the most challenging Keith Elwin game, but it has the theme and the last ability.
00:01:54
Speaker
That's a great one.
00:01:55
Speaker
Guardians of the Galaxy is, is had a second resurgence too.
00:01:59
Speaker
And I recommend it for people who are looking for that fun theme.
00:02:03
Speaker
And if they're looking for that first pinball, Guardians of the Galaxy is a great option.
00:02:07
Speaker
So contact him and find out when the next time you'll be able
Meet Tim Purcell, High-End Pinball Collector
00:02:10
Speaker
to have that.
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Speaker
Exactly.
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Speaker
Okay, so this is my good friend.
00:02:13
Speaker
This is Tim Purcell.
00:02:15
Speaker
He has a blog, and we have talked about his blog before.
00:02:18
Speaker
It's the pinballloft.com, and we wanted to interview him for a couple reasons.
00:02:24
Speaker
One, he is a high-end collector, so he has an enormous game room with a lot of really cool odd machines, but high-end machines.
00:02:35
Speaker
And I actually reached out to him because I saw that he was selling an Ironman, like a life-size Ironman, which I
00:02:41
Speaker
was kind of jealous because I just have a life-size Mario in my game room.
00:02:46
Speaker
And we just started talking back and forth.
00:02:48
Speaker
And so he's become a good friend of mine.
00:02:51
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And he just restored a Harlem Globetrotter.
00:02:56
Speaker
So basically gave it the high-end pins treatment where he took it down, scrubbed it all down and built it back up from the studs.
00:03:04
Speaker
So I wanted to talk to him about that, but there's a couple of things that we want to talk about before that too.
00:03:11
Speaker
So first off, just want to welcome you to the show, Tim.
00:03:13
Speaker
Thanks for staying up late and you are straight out of Knoxville, Tennessee.
00:03:18
Speaker
Is that correct?
00:03:19
Speaker
It is, and thanks for having me, and you and Josh.
00:03:23
Speaker
It was good to finally talk to you all live.
00:03:26
Speaker
I've known Scott for a long time, more than 15 months, I think, is the first time we texted each other.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, we looked about that.
00:03:35
Speaker
part of the family.
00:03:37
Speaker
I've watched him buy a truck, go to Disney.
00:03:39
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We traded messages on hot tubs.
00:03:42
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Musical taste, a lot in common there, from Bach cello suites to the band Rush, which is an unusual mix, but true.
00:03:53
Speaker
Mini Coopers.
00:03:54
Speaker
We've talked about aluminum dinosaurs.
00:03:56
Speaker
I'm not so sure how that subject came up.
00:03:59
Speaker
Well, we're in Utah, so you can buy an aluminum dinosaur for $600.
00:04:02
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Yeah, and I was jealous about that.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah.
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Speaker
My wife brought it up the other day when we were driving.
00:04:08
Speaker
Hey, what about that dinosaur?
00:04:09
Speaker
We can just put it in the yard.
00:04:11
Speaker
So anyway, so Tim, welcome to the show.
00:04:16
Speaker
How how's the weather in Knoxville right now?
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Speaker
We are we are drowning a little bit in water, which is good because we've gone through a huge drought.
00:04:23
Speaker
But how's it?
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Speaker
How's it over there?
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Speaker
We wish it was.
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We've got a full day of rain yesterday, and I cannot remember in the past eight to 10 years when we had a day of rain in July or August.
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Speaker
So it was desperately needed.
00:04:39
Speaker
We were glad to have it back to the 90s and sunny now.
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I was going to say, we're flash flooding out here.
00:04:44
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Yeah, a little bit.
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Speaker
That's the problem with it so dry.
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Apparently, the ground gets really compacted down.
00:04:49
Speaker
So even with the rain comes, it treats it a little bit like clay and just slides right off it.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:56
Speaker
But anyway, speaking of sliding right off it, let's talk about the first thing we want to talk about.
Custom Pinball Creations and Rare Collections
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is the custom pin that was revealed on This Week in Pinball.
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Speaker
And this is a topic that, even though it's a big 80s game, or a big 80s movie, I've actually never seen anybody mention it as a theme for a pinball machine.
00:05:19
Speaker
But have you guys taken a look at the Ferris Bueller's Day Off custom game by Brian Suarez and Reby Hardy?
00:05:28
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:29
Speaker
Seen it.
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Speaker
Beautiful game.
00:05:31
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Amazing.
00:05:32
Speaker
Okay, so Tim, I actually want to get your first impressions.
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When you look at it, what do you think?
00:05:39
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Well thought out, great artwork.
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Centerpiece is the car, obviously.
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Speaker
I struggled a little bit to figure out what was the base game.
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Speaker
What was the donor game?
00:05:48
Speaker
I figured it out now.
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Speaker
I think it's a Stern Mustang.
00:05:52
Speaker
It's just a beautiful game, and I understand they're building two of them.
00:05:56
Speaker
they're making two there's two of them and they're made differently too so that they're two opposite like they're they're still the same interior but the exterior I think one's all chrome the other one's like brass beautiful looking machines
00:06:09
Speaker
So, okay, what do you think of their interpretation?
00:06:12
Speaker
I mean, Mustang's actually a good one to take.
00:06:16
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There's actually not that many Mustangs out there, so that's interesting.
00:06:18
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But it's a good theme integration, right, with the car, because the car plays an integral part of the show.
00:06:25
Speaker
So what do you think of their re-theme?
00:06:27
Speaker
I think it looks pretty solid.
00:06:29
Speaker
It has that 80s, 50s vibe.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yes.
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I think one of the coolest parts is the start button is the actual voice receiver in the movie where you push and he's like, sorry, I cannot come down because I'm afraid I'll fall down the stairs and hurt myself and have less days at school than I already have.
00:06:52
Speaker
Anywho, the game's interpreted perfectly.
00:06:56
Speaker
It's a fantastic looking game.
00:06:59
Speaker
I'm excited that...
00:07:00
Speaker
uh, Reby Hardy said they are going to stream this on their Twitch channel, which they just made like three weeks ago, uh, house Hardy.
00:07:08
Speaker
Um, and you're not going to want to miss this, this, uh, stream.
00:07:12
Speaker
This game looks fantastic.
00:07:13
Speaker
I wish, I wish they'd get in the pinball making business.
00:07:17
Speaker
I mean, Matt Hardy's expedition of the gold that she did for her husband is fantastic.
00:07:22
Speaker
Um,
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Speaker
I heard that she was going to retheme a stern playboy for herself.
00:07:27
Speaker
I think they already did that, didn't they?
00:07:29
Speaker
She talks in the interview.
00:07:30
Speaker
So if you go to pinball profile, Hey Jeff, how you doing?
00:07:35
Speaker
It's a 30 minute interview.
00:07:36
Speaker
She bought it originally for herself to retheme.
00:07:40
Speaker
And they got about halfway through it.
00:07:41
Speaker
And then that's when they decided to make the Matt Hardy expedition of gold.
00:07:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:46
Speaker
I guess I was confused.
00:07:46
Speaker
I thought she had already done that.
00:07:49
Speaker
So she said that she started, she guys, as far as like putting stickers on the standups and stuff like that.
00:07:54
Speaker
And then, but, um, yeah, I just,
00:07:59
Speaker
they're killing it with these rethames and, and granted, I guess a rethames a little easier than building your own pinball machine, but well, they're also, okay.
00:08:07
Speaker
This isn't as easy though, because with expedition of gold, they, they rewrote the code.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so I'm, that's, that's basically a design there.
00:08:19
Speaker
Because if you're doing the code right, that's completely different than taking a firepower and just putting different stickers on it.
00:08:27
Speaker
It's a new game when you have their code.
00:08:31
Speaker
Well, code, DMD, all that stuff.
00:08:36
Speaker
It's a good looking game.
00:08:39
Speaker
They're doing a great job with these side games.
00:08:44
Speaker
side themes that they're doing that just fantastic.
00:08:46
Speaker
So I highly recommend if you, if you want to learn more about the machine, uh, between this week in pinball, uh, Hey Patterson and pinball profile, both wonderful deep dives.
00:08:58
Speaker
Highly recommend them.
00:08:59
Speaker
If you haven't checked them out, go do so.
00:09:01
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:09:02
Speaker
All right, Tim, as a, as a collector of niche games, what would your interest level be on owning this game?
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Speaker
Scale of one to 10.
00:09:12
Speaker
Probably about a seven or eight.
00:09:15
Speaker
I mean, you're never going to have more than two of these likely.
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Speaker
They've got some branded things they put in here.
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Speaker
Like there's a Pepsi can right on the play field and stuff.
00:09:23
Speaker
So, I mean, they're just not going to be more than these two.
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Speaker
So it's pretty rare.
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:29
Speaker
And does rarity play into your decision making process on whether or not you buy a game?
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Speaker
Say, say you, the game is there and you have, you know, there's 5,000 of them out there versus 10 of them out there.
00:09:42
Speaker
Does that play into your decision on whether or not you want one?
00:09:45
Speaker
It does, but it's absolutely not the primary.
00:09:48
Speaker
It's got to be a game that's interesting, interesting to play, right?
00:09:53
Speaker
So gameplay is important.
00:09:54
Speaker
And I'm a big fan of the story behind the game.
00:09:58
Speaker
I mean, as you know, Scott, I've got a Batman SLE and, you know, others poke fun at the fact that you had to do a video and write an essay and begs for it.
00:10:08
Speaker
It was kind of weird.
00:10:10
Speaker
The Batman SLE, that felt a little...
00:10:14
Speaker
I don't know, brave, I guess, to say we're auditioning you to pay $15,000.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:10:21
Speaker
Okay, well, that's a good transition.
00:10:23
Speaker
So we want to get into your entrance into pinball.
00:10:27
Speaker
Like what entered you into this weird world of pinball?
Evolution of a Pinball Collection
00:10:34
Speaker
And you have a pretty awesome game room, right?
00:10:38
Speaker
And I even saw pictures that you shared with Bo Duke hanging out at your place, John Schneider himself.
00:10:47
Speaker
So kind of a big deal.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah, he's a great guy, humble guy as well.
00:10:54
Speaker
The story started with my wife and I buying a summer house.
00:10:58
Speaker
This is quite a few years ago near one of the lakes here in East Tennessee.
00:11:02
Speaker
And it was a place to get away on the weekends, really relax, decompress from work.
00:11:07
Speaker
And I literally asked her this question, what could we put in the house that would be fun?
00:11:12
Speaker
So we just went through the normal laundry list of things and I just blurted out, well, what about a pinball machine?
00:11:18
Speaker
And to be honest, as a kid, I was intimidated by pinball.
00:11:21
Speaker
I didn't play much.
00:11:23
Speaker
I definitely played, but it was very rarely.
00:11:25
Speaker
And I can guarantee you the games didn't last very long.
00:11:28
Speaker
So it wasn't on my radar as fond memories I had.
00:11:32
Speaker
It was something that I was going to try new.
00:11:34
Speaker
Long story short, we bought the house.
00:11:36
Speaker
We bought the game.
00:11:36
Speaker
First game was theater magic.
00:11:38
Speaker
Paid way too much for it.
00:11:40
Speaker
Thankfully, with the inflation, now it's worth what I paid for it.
00:11:44
Speaker
But by the time we left and sold that house, I was up to seven games.
00:11:48
Speaker
moved back to our regular house and ended up growing the collection up to about 17.
00:11:54
Speaker
And at this point right now, it sits at over 40.
00:11:57
Speaker
So that's how we got there.
00:12:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:01
Speaker
I know that you've got a wonderful collection.
00:12:03
Speaker
I don't know if you want to dive into this yet, Scott, but speaking of Ferris Bueller, you did your own project recently.
00:12:10
Speaker
You took on Harlem Globetrotters.
00:12:13
Speaker
I want to know, why did you take it on?
00:12:16
Speaker
Is there something specific to this game that just speaks to you?
00:12:20
Speaker
Was it one that you played when you were younger?
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, go from there.
00:12:26
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:12:27
Speaker
I think that it's really the question when you ask anybody, why did you spend so much time, hundreds of hours, literally restoring something?
00:12:35
Speaker
I think my story is that with a collection as large as I have, you get the privilege of being able to understand what you really, really like.
00:12:43
Speaker
So there's a ton of variety in my collection from an EM space mission that I've also done a ton of work on.
00:12:50
Speaker
all the way up to all the modern sterns, right?
00:12:53
Speaker
And I like modern sterns, don't get me wrong, and I love JJP's Guns N' Roses.
00:13:00
Speaker
But what I discovered was the gameplay was significantly different on those older valleys, and if anything, more challenging, simpler, quieter for sure, no ramps, so to speak.
00:13:13
Speaker
But it always I kept pushing the button to play it again, play it again, play it again.
00:13:17
Speaker
So, number one, it's a fun game.
00:13:20
Speaker
And I'll tell you, you know, the short answer is once it was restored, I discovered that what it what it feels like to actually play new.
00:13:29
Speaker
It's even more fun.
00:13:30
Speaker
So I tackled it because it was a good game to start and its gameplay was different than the gameplay of anything else that I had.
00:13:40
Speaker
And the inspiration actually came from Rotor Dave.
00:13:43
Speaker
I don't know if you all know Dave Peck.
00:13:45
Speaker
Who's on Penn State, has a massive collection over in New Zealand.
00:13:50
Speaker
And he's been over here to the States.
00:13:51
Speaker
And he and I went over to my buddy Darren's house.
00:13:55
Speaker
A shout out to Darren, Dr. Darren.
00:13:59
Speaker
And we had a, you know, an East Tennessee barbecue, you know, for just having Dave in the States, so to speak.
00:14:04
Speaker
And Dave was with his wife and with his daughter, Danny.
00:14:07
Speaker
So we played some pinball.
00:14:09
Speaker
And it must have been a couple of years later, he posted on Pinside.
00:14:11
Speaker
He completely restored an Evel Knievel.
00:14:14
Speaker
I mean, same way I did the Harlem.
00:14:15
Speaker
And it was just beautiful.
00:14:17
Speaker
I mean, chromed out, all brand new play field, fully painted cabinet.
00:14:22
Speaker
And it was just stunning.
00:14:22
Speaker
And it was like, I actually said to him on Pinside, man, you inspired me.
00:14:26
Speaker
I'm going to go out and look for a Harlem because it happened to be something my wife was interested in.
00:14:31
Speaker
So that's what got me started.
00:14:33
Speaker
Okay, so Harlem, like, I know it's a fun game, but did you have any connection with either the theme or that actual game?
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I think a lot of people do, right?
00:14:44
Speaker
If you're a baby boomer age like I am, a little older than you guys, you probably saw them play live.
00:14:51
Speaker
You probably remember the days when Curly was there and Metal Ark Lemon and the gang.
00:14:55
Speaker
And I got to watch them and I got to meet them.
00:14:58
Speaker
And, you know, it was 20 some odd years, maybe 25 years ago where he signed a basketball for my daughter and we still have it, you know, and it was just it was back when a time when, you know, and I wrote on the blog as well, you know, there is red, white and blue as apple pie and hot dogs.
00:15:12
Speaker
And I mean, look at their uniforms, right?
00:15:14
Speaker
It just screams have fun.
00:15:16
Speaker
This is the United States of America.
00:15:18
Speaker
Don't forget about politics for a little bit and the things that divide us.
00:15:22
Speaker
Everybody enjoys watching them play.
00:15:25
Speaker
So big nostalgia play.
00:15:26
Speaker
I'll just admit it right there.
00:15:28
Speaker
Right.
00:15:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah, definitely.
00:15:30
Speaker
OK.
00:15:31
Speaker
And did you did you remember playing this game before?
00:15:34
Speaker
Like as a kid, you said you didn't play it much because probably like a lot of us, we weren't a good when we were kids and we only had like five bucks to to to slowly delve out at the arcade.
00:15:46
Speaker
No, I didn't.
00:15:47
Speaker
What happened was I got inspired by Dave.
00:15:51
Speaker
I literally casually mentioned to Tammy, my wife, I said, hey, any interest in a Harlem Globetrotters if I can find one?
00:15:57
Speaker
I'm thinking about, you know, doing a ground up restoration.
00:16:00
Speaker
And she loved the team, obviously, and she has at least a passing interest in pinball, thank God, or at least puts up with me.
00:16:08
Speaker
And I started looking right away and a local guy here does a lot of, you know, gets some machines that are that need some love and attention, gets them running.
00:16:15
Speaker
And it was pretty quickly he posted one for sale.
00:16:18
Speaker
I went to look at it, brought it home and actually played it quite a bit, you know, and it's kind of beat up, worn out state.
00:16:25
Speaker
And even in that state, I was like, this is a fun game.
00:16:28
Speaker
This game, looking at the pictures, it looks like it came out of the arcade that Polly walked into at the beginning of Rocky III.
00:16:41
Speaker
I can hear this game being played and I can smell it just because I can picture like the era that it was.
00:16:50
Speaker
Probably like a smoky bar situation, probably.
00:16:54
Speaker
So, yeah, and that's awesome.
00:16:58
Speaker
So was it playable when you got it first, you said?
00:17:00
Speaker
It was, it had a couple of, you know, nitpicking issues, but it was playable.
00:17:05
Speaker
So when I went to look at it, it was like, all I care about is the bones.
00:17:08
Speaker
You know, I don't want to pay too much for the darn thing because I know I'm basically going to rebuild it from scratch, but I want a good cabinet.
Restoration Challenges and Insights
00:17:15
Speaker
I want the electronics to be, if not perfectly functional, really close.
00:17:19
Speaker
And I want the basic playfield components, solenoids, you know, the mechanicals to be functional and all the wiring.
00:17:27
Speaker
All of that was good.
00:17:28
Speaker
I ordered a new back glass for it, a brand new CPR play field, brand new plastics, brand new chrome all the way around.
00:17:35
Speaker
And as you know, Scott, I stripped it right to the bare wood to remake it.
00:17:40
Speaker
Yeah, well, it makes it a lot easier if you don't have to deal with the electrical gremlins.
00:17:46
Speaker
I know this personally because I bought a 720 about five years ago that sat in my garage for four years because the monitor couldn't turn on.
00:17:55
Speaker
And I don't know anything about electronics tuning.
00:17:58
Speaker
And if you think it's hard to find someone to work on a pinball machine, try to find someone who works on a classic arcade game.
00:18:05
Speaker
Um, that was, it was difficult.
00:18:07
Speaker
So I understand the approach in that you wanted to make sure all the electrical stuff was out of the way.
00:18:13
Speaker
And really this was an elbow grease situation where if you're willing to put in the time, you can do nuts and bolts and swaps, but you're not having to troubleshoot all the, um, all the electrical systems.
00:18:24
Speaker
Is that, is that fair to say?
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's fair.
00:18:26
Speaker
The other big benefit, I don't know if people know this, you know, if you haven't restored a game or you're not thinking about doing that, is that if the electronics are working, it points to the mechanicals being good as well.
00:18:36
Speaker
So if all the parts are functioning the way they should, like in Harlem, the right side, you know, ball gate that can typically be messed up.
00:18:44
Speaker
If that's functioning, if your electronics are working, then you can see whether that gate's functioning properly or not.
00:18:49
Speaker
So anyway, it ended up being good.
00:18:52
Speaker
And I don't know that I told you this, but
00:18:55
Speaker
I think before I even bought that game, I'm always chasing memorabilia, you know, interesting tidbits of pinball history.
00:19:02
Speaker
I'm a huge history buff.
00:19:04
Speaker
I think it's part of my love for pinball is I just love listening to your podcast and others that, you know, talk to some of these folks that are legends in the industry and hear those old stories of how games were built and the stories behind how themes were picked up, designed, and then created and, you know, brought to life.
00:19:22
Speaker
And I bought...
00:19:24
Speaker
the original Williams blueprint drawing to the Harlem Globetrotters basketball spinner.
00:19:30
Speaker
So, you know, Harlem's got three spinners on it.
00:19:32
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure I bought that before we ever talked about buying the Harlem game.
00:19:37
Speaker
And it came from the folks that were friends with Python.
00:19:40
Speaker
They're out of Atlanta.
00:19:41
Speaker
I was lucky enough to get that from them.
00:19:43
Speaker
So it's now framed and it's sitting next to the actual game.
00:19:48
Speaker
Was this the very first game that you restored?
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, and it's really a great question.
00:19:54
Speaker
So Chris Hutchins deserves a ton of credit.
00:19:57
Speaker
So if you ever have any questions about what the proper standard is for Game Restore and what your potential options are for approaching it, because there's not just one way to do it.
00:20:07
Speaker
Everybody goes to, you know, Chris Hutchins posts that are on Pinside.
00:20:11
Speaker
So a big tip of the hat to him because I learned a ton.
00:20:15
Speaker
I studied some of his posts and images hundreds of times to get there.
00:20:20
Speaker
But no, this wasn't my first game.
00:20:22
Speaker
The first game was actually a Bride of Pinbot.
00:20:26
Speaker
And it wasn't a complete restore, but it was pretty significant.
00:20:29
Speaker
And I spent, I don't know, two or three years on it in total, not in total time, but over time.
00:20:34
Speaker
We were on vacation in Charleston, South Carolina.
00:20:37
Speaker
And you know, pinheads are always thinking pinball and looking for pinball deals.
00:20:43
Speaker
So I'm cruising Craigslist, looking for pinballs for sale.
00:20:46
Speaker
This is back in a time when you could find them, number one, you didn't have to rush to the house with cash in hand, number two.
00:20:52
Speaker
And you didn't even have to be first.
00:20:54
Speaker
You'd have a pretty good chance of getting it.
00:20:56
Speaker
So I drove over there on vacation and looked at a beat up Brida Pinbot.
00:21:01
Speaker
And I literally said to the guy, I said, man, it's way too rough for me for what he was asking.
00:21:05
Speaker
He was probably only asking $1,500 for the game.
00:21:08
Speaker
But the play field was completely trashed.
00:21:11
Speaker
Cabinet was okay.
00:21:12
Speaker
It functioned, but the play field was difficult to even look at.
00:21:15
Speaker
Long story short, the guy really needed the money.
00:21:18
Speaker
I mean, his dad was sick, I believe, with cancer.
00:21:21
Speaker
He told me that, and I could see his dad was actually sitting in a wheelchair.
00:21:24
Speaker
I hate to even share the story because it sounds terrible, but that's what happened.
00:21:28
Speaker
So I bought it, paid him for it.
00:21:30
Speaker
I said, you know, this is probably going to sit in my basement forever.
00:21:33
Speaker
I'll never do anything.
00:21:34
Speaker
Well, I got up enough gumption to pull the play field, strip the entire top, and I spent
00:21:41
Speaker
quite a few months hand painting the artwork back on it with an airbrush.
00:21:46
Speaker
My training is in fine arts.
00:21:48
Speaker
I actually have a degree in fine arts.
00:21:49
Speaker
I don't work in that industry, but that's my training.
00:21:53
Speaker
So I was able to repaint the art by hand and then clear coat it, which I had never done before.
00:21:58
Speaker
So not a complete restore, but the top of that game is brand new, all brand new parts.
00:22:03
Speaker
And the artwork looks like it came right out of the factory.
00:22:06
Speaker
So that's what started it.
00:22:08
Speaker
How many other games have you done this to?
00:22:11
Speaker
Um, none that I can think of, although I will tell you when I do a top down strip, um, you know, I probably go deeper than most folks.
00:22:20
Speaker
A good example of that is I just finished a wipeout.
00:22:22
Speaker
You know, I've, I got a lot of skiing history behind me.
00:22:25
Speaker
I worked at a ski area.
00:22:27
Speaker
I skied a hundred days a year, raced on a couple of teams and I love the sport.
00:22:30
Speaker
I haven't skied in years, but it's a fantastic sport.
00:22:34
Speaker
So I have a lot of, again, nostalgic memories about it.
00:22:37
Speaker
And I bought a wipeout, another odd game, right?
00:22:39
Speaker
It doesn't get a ton of love.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's not that expensive.
00:22:41
Speaker
And it's simple.
00:22:42
Speaker
I get it.
00:22:43
Speaker
But I literally stripped that right to Bear Playfield and did a lot of work on it.
00:22:47
Speaker
Rebuilding ramps.
00:22:48
Speaker
I did the same thing with Truck Stop, Big Betty's Truck Stop.
00:22:52
Speaker
So that's another game that's not worth a ton of money, but it's very unique.
00:22:55
Speaker
You know, when Valley and Williams merged, became a company.
00:22:59
Speaker
They actually have different parts in the game from each company.
00:23:02
Speaker
So
00:23:03
Speaker
I've gone down to the bare play field on those and something that I would call much deeper than a shop out.
00:23:09
Speaker
What did you learn from this process that you could give others that might want to dabble into it?
00:23:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:16
Speaker
And what surprised you the most?
00:23:17
Speaker
That's usually you get into these projects and you don't know what you don't know.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:24
Speaker
I learned a ton actually.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:27
Speaker
I guess my biggest takeaway was I always knew that I could do it.
00:23:33
Speaker
The reason for tackling this was to find out would I, right?
00:23:37
Speaker
That's kind of the challenge.
00:23:38
Speaker
I'm impatient.
00:23:39
Speaker
I'm big time impatient.
00:23:40
Speaker
I'd love to have every game be able to, you know, the day you get it, shop it out and have it finished, you know, that night.
00:23:46
Speaker
So you're playing it.
00:23:48
Speaker
Restores don't go that way.
00:23:50
Speaker
You have to be planful, thoughtful, and you absolutely have to be patient.
00:23:54
Speaker
You're not going to get it done in a day.
00:23:56
Speaker
You're not going to get it done in a week.
00:23:58
Speaker
And if you live a normal life, you're not even going to get it done in months.
00:24:01
Speaker
So I worked on this over the course of a couple of years.
00:24:04
Speaker
Of course, not full two years.
00:24:06
Speaker
It was hundreds of hours for sure.
00:24:09
Speaker
I discovered it's a lonely process.
00:24:11
Speaker
I know that's probably an odd thing to say.
00:24:14
Speaker
Nobody else really cares too much about your pile of rusty parts or your beat up play field or the cabinet you've now got, you know, sanded down to bare wood.
00:24:22
Speaker
My family would humor me and say, hey, it's OK that he's disappearing into the pole barn for a while.
00:24:27
Speaker
hours at a time but you're not going to have too many spectators in this kind of a sport and i think if you look at how people do these games you're working by yourself for long periods of time so it helps to listen to podcasts it helps to crank up the music your favorite your favorite tunes but be prepared to be in it for the long haul that was a surprise
00:24:49
Speaker
have the right tools.
00:24:50
Speaker
That's not a surprise.
00:24:51
Speaker
You know, I'm a big fan of you don't have the right one and you're going through a restore, go buy it.
00:24:56
Speaker
You'll hate yourself for not doing it.
00:24:58
Speaker
The coin door, that area of the game, if you're a restorer, you know what I'm talking about.
00:25:04
Speaker
Holy cow.
00:25:05
Speaker
You know, I was just about finished with this thing.
00:25:08
Speaker
I've got the cabinet painted.
00:25:09
Speaker
It's clear coated.
00:25:11
Speaker
The, uh,
00:25:13
Speaker
The play field's done top and bottom.
00:25:15
Speaker
It's sitting on a rotisserie ready to go in.
00:25:17
Speaker
The back box is finished.
00:25:18
Speaker
All the electronics are in.
00:25:20
Speaker
All I got to do is bolt the coin door back on.
00:25:24
Speaker
Right.
00:25:24
Speaker
That sounds easy.
00:25:27
Speaker
You have a decision to make.
00:25:28
Speaker
You're going to clean that up like you did the rest of the game or not.
00:25:31
Speaker
That decision is 12 to 15 hours worth of work.
00:25:35
Speaker
If you decide to bolt it back on, you skip all that work.
00:25:38
Speaker
But now you have a game that's got everything except that.
00:25:41
Speaker
So every time you open the door, you're going to be looking at it.
00:25:43
Speaker
So when you get to that part, I guess my encouragement to everybody was don't give up, don't stop.
00:25:50
Speaker
You've done this much work, finish it out.
00:25:52
Speaker
So it was complex.
00:25:53
Speaker
That took a lot of work, not just doing the coin door, but literally the frame that goes in there, all the ground straps that go behind it.
00:26:00
Speaker
That was a bit of a surprise.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I actually am looking over the notes you sent us, and I want you to talk about some of the mistakes.
Lessons from Restoration Projects
00:26:10
Speaker
So I see one, I see fingerprint on backside of head with clear coat over them.
00:26:17
Speaker
I also see rough spot on the cabinet right of the plunger where you can see it.
00:26:21
Speaker
And I also see soldered one wire to the left flippers and the wrong lug.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yep.
00:26:27
Speaker
All of those things are true.
00:26:28
Speaker
We'll start with the first one.
00:26:30
Speaker
So that's an easy one.
00:26:31
Speaker
I violated my number one rule, which is take your time, think about it.
00:26:36
Speaker
Right.
00:26:36
Speaker
Easy to violate.
00:26:37
Speaker
I'm impatient.
00:26:38
Speaker
Right.
00:26:38
Speaker
The first thing I want to do is act.
00:26:41
Speaker
So we had a big club event over here at the ranch.
00:26:43
Speaker
As you know, I live on a horse ranch.
00:26:45
Speaker
So we had a bunch of folks over with a bunch of cars and
00:26:48
Speaker
Had a big time, but it took a lot of time away from that weekend planned restoration time, right?
00:26:54
Speaker
So as soon as they were gone, I huddled into the pole barn.
00:26:56
Speaker
I said, you know what?
00:26:57
Speaker
I got plenty of time here.
00:26:58
Speaker
It's Sunday to get the clear coat on this thing.
00:27:01
Speaker
So without thinking, I grabbed the head, my hands were dirty from doing something, God knows what.
00:27:07
Speaker
I set it on the block I was using to spray and without cleaning my hands and checking, I just started clear coating.
00:27:14
Speaker
Well, I now have my DNA in the head back box, on the back, thank goodness, of a brand new white cabinet for Harlem.
00:27:22
Speaker
So that's one.
00:27:23
Speaker
Number two, man, I was super careful on the cabinet.
00:27:27
Speaker
I'm sure folks that do this and done more than one double check and triple check, but I had flashlights out there.
00:27:33
Speaker
I did everything, five or six coats of primer, Bondo in between that to fill the cracks, sand it smooth, et cetera.
00:27:41
Speaker
And there's one, you got to look close to see it, tiny rough spot just above the plunger.
00:27:46
Speaker
The chrome plunger plate that says Bally on it just to the right.
00:27:50
Speaker
Didn't even notice it until I put the pictures up on pin side.
00:27:53
Speaker
And it's a little rough.
00:27:54
Speaker
And I was like, how the heck did I miss that?
00:27:56
Speaker
Because that's a five second fix, right?
00:27:58
Speaker
If you don't clear code over it.
00:28:00
Speaker
Right.
00:28:01
Speaker
And here you go.
00:28:02
Speaker
So here's the story that everybody who's ever worked on a game or restored it is asking themselves.
00:28:07
Speaker
You put the play field back in or you put it all back together.
00:28:11
Speaker
You plug it in, you turn it on, you hit start.
00:28:13
Speaker
First thing you want to do is hope it boots.
00:28:16
Speaker
Number two, you want to see a ball get into that shooter lane.
00:28:19
Speaker
And number three, you want to see if it works.
00:28:21
Speaker
Right.
00:28:22
Speaker
One and two were fine.
00:28:24
Speaker
Number three, I pulled the plunger.
00:28:25
Speaker
The ball goes up around the hoop.
00:28:27
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm on cloud nine because this thing's been apart for two years and everything's been unsoldered off the bottom.
00:28:35
Speaker
All new lamp sockets, controlled lamp sockets, all new GI, all new wiring.
00:28:40
Speaker
All the mechs have been desoldered, cleaned, replaced, repapered, put back together.
00:28:45
Speaker
You're bound to get something wrong, right?
00:28:46
Speaker
Well, yeah, you are.
00:28:47
Speaker
And I did.
00:28:48
Speaker
So I literally wrote down every wire color, where it went, to what mech, and I soldered one wire on the left flipper to the wrong lug.
00:28:56
Speaker
Whatever that mistake was, it wasn't bad enough to blow a transistor or blow the game up.
00:29:02
Speaker
It just would quit.
00:29:04
Speaker
So I'm like, hmm, left flipper, that's when it's happening.
00:29:06
Speaker
I must have it wired wrong.
00:29:07
Speaker
I looked at my old photos.
00:29:08
Speaker
It was one wire to the wrong load.
00:29:10
Speaker
Took five minutes to fix it.
00:29:13
Speaker
Sure, but that's the challenge is when you have an error, finding and diagnosing the problem is most of the problem.
00:29:20
Speaker
Anybody can re-solder or screw a nut on better, but it's actually diagnosing where the mistake is.
00:29:30
Speaker
I made the luckiest mistake, Scott, that you could make, which is it was on the flipper.
00:29:35
Speaker
And when I hit the button for the left flipper, the game was saying, hey, dummy, you did something wrong.
00:29:41
Speaker
If I would have turned the game on and then it quickly shut off, we probably wouldn't be talking.
00:29:47
Speaker
I'd still be working on the game.
00:29:48
Speaker
Right.
00:29:50
Speaker
OK, so you you did this whole process now.
00:29:55
Speaker
Okay, I know there are people who are asking themselves, hey, I have a classic game that I really want.
00:30:00
Speaker
Hey, I want that Meteor to look brand new.
00:30:03
Speaker
I have an Eldorado that's beat up, but I'd love to make it brand new.
00:30:07
Speaker
Okay, I want you to give them some sort of time estimate and also some sort of cost estimate because I guarantee it's about three times the time and at least double the price of what they think they're going to get.
00:30:22
Speaker
That's actually a really good estimate.
00:30:23
Speaker
You know, I was thinking maybe 150 hours.
00:30:29
Speaker
I didn't keep track of my time.
00:30:30
Speaker
So, guys, this is 100 percent guess, but I'm pretty confident saying it's well over 300 hours.
00:30:37
Speaker
The big amount of time, easy cabinet by a mile.
00:30:41
Speaker
You know, by a mile, I don't have the professional tools that a Chris Hutchins would have.
00:30:45
Speaker
I have middle of the road tools.
00:30:47
Speaker
They're certainly not, you know, weekend grade.
00:30:49
Speaker
I have a compressor, a big compressor.
00:30:51
Speaker
I've got Palm Sanders.
00:30:52
Speaker
I've got a place to do it comfortably.
00:30:55
Speaker
But man, the cabinet work just takes a while.
00:30:59
Speaker
And part of that is the amount of sanding and coat you need to put on to get it smooth.
00:31:03
Speaker
Part of that is you need to let your paint dry in between painting, you know, when you're doing decals.
00:31:08
Speaker
So that was a challenge.
00:31:11
Speaker
So it took for me, I would guess probably two or three times longer than I thought it was going to setting aside the total length of time.
00:31:18
Speaker
Just the total invested time was was a lot longer.
00:31:23
Speaker
Not to the point, though, to be honest, that I was disappointed or ever wanted to quit on it.
00:31:28
Speaker
And I think others who have tackled this kind of thing, as long as you're making good progress and not making a ton of mistakes along the way, it actually feels pretty good.
00:31:37
Speaker
Price.
00:31:38
Speaker
Yeah, that'll blow your mind.
00:31:40
Speaker
So, you know, a game like a classic game.
00:31:45
Speaker
especially one they made a lot of, you know, they made over 14,000 Harlem.
00:31:48
Speaker
It's going to run you a couple thousand.
00:31:50
Speaker
A really beat up one you probably get for 1,200 bucks, right?
00:31:54
Speaker
Knowing you're going to replace most everything in there.
00:31:57
Speaker
The parts on top of that, that I spent on this game was 4,000.
00:32:01
Speaker
So you have a real, a key decision to make along the way.
00:32:05
Speaker
How much do you care about Chrome?
00:32:08
Speaker
Because if you don't care that much about Chrome, you're going to pull at least a grand off the price.
00:32:13
Speaker
If you do care about Chrome, that's just going to add to it.
00:32:17
Speaker
I chromed my Tron out and it looks amazing.
00:32:21
Speaker
But yeah, that added a couple thousand to the custom build that I was not expecting.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, that blows you away.
00:32:34
Speaker
You know, and people, if I'm anybody listening to this, I'm like, why would you do that?
00:32:38
Speaker
I mean, tell me how a Harlem is worth six grand.
00:32:42
Speaker
I'm not worried about that.
00:32:44
Speaker
And I don't even know, you know, if this was maybe the only other game I had, I only had two or three games.
00:32:49
Speaker
I'm still not sure I would be worried about it.
00:32:51
Speaker
This was more about...
00:32:53
Speaker
You know, what can I do and what can I challenge myself to do?
00:32:56
Speaker
And I think you all, you know, Scott, that I think there's a couple of reasons why I did this, because I think it does get appreciated by others.
00:33:03
Speaker
And I think every single time you do something like this and document it and anybody who's interested, go to my blog and and I think you'll learn to learn a ton there.
00:33:11
Speaker
You'll learn everything I did because I documented everything.
00:33:14
Speaker
So I think people appreciate that.
00:33:17
Speaker
And honestly, it also proves something to me.
00:33:20
Speaker
That part I shared earlier about I thought I could do it.
00:33:24
Speaker
Would I see it through to the end?
00:33:26
Speaker
I actually grabbed a quote from Colin Marshall, their open culture
Restoration Popularity and Future Projects
00:33:30
Speaker
website.
00:33:30
Speaker
I thought it was super interesting.
00:33:32
Speaker
In our increasing digital age, characterized by nothing more than acutely, than our tendency to spend hours clicking through increasingly specialized YouTube videos, he says, skilled physical work has become an impressive spectacle in itself.
00:33:49
Speaker
So I don't know that you all know this, but there is a whole, I don't watch these, but there's a big deal out on YouTube on just restoring videos.
00:33:56
Speaker
And there's very little commentary on it, but it's people actually taking something that's, you know, beat up and old and rusty and making it new again.
00:34:03
Speaker
So I think people do appreciate, I mean, who isn't awed by what Chris Hutchins does at HEP?
00:34:10
Speaker
You're like, man, that's amazing.
00:34:13
Speaker
And I think people appreciate seeing that kind of skill.
00:34:17
Speaker
And if you're trying to emulate it, like I was trying to do, and you come close, it feels pretty good.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah, and we did interview Chris back in the day, and that was quite an interesting interview because we did talk about how if you really want that grail pin and you want it to look like it's better than new in box, absolutely.
00:34:37
Speaker
If you have the funds and you're willing to hire Chris, he will give you a premium product.
00:34:42
Speaker
And you're selling yourself short a little bit here.
00:34:46
Speaker
I'm looking at your Harlem, and I think it looks pretty darn close to what Chris can do.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah, well, I appreciate that.
00:34:53
Speaker
I know the details, so I know what Chris pulls off.
00:34:56
Speaker
And it's a great different, I think.
00:35:00
Speaker
But I appreciate those comments.
00:35:02
Speaker
It was as good as I could do and probably as far as I could go with the tools and equipment that I have.
00:35:06
Speaker
So I feel good about it.
00:35:09
Speaker
So now that you've done this project and you've, you've put all these hours in it and you've done Pim, write a pin bot, what do you like more?
00:35:14
Speaker
Do you just like buying the, the nice box pin balls right out of the box or do you like restoring?
00:35:21
Speaker
Do you already have another project on the horizon?
00:35:24
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:35:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:25
Speaker
Um, my interest, people ask that question a lot.
00:35:28
Speaker
First, the first question I asked is why do you have so many of them?
00:35:31
Speaker
Right.
00:35:32
Speaker
Um, and it, it's,
00:35:35
Speaker
You know, that's a tough question to answer.
00:35:37
Speaker
First of all, I don't want more.
00:35:38
Speaker
Let's start with that.
00:35:40
Speaker
The room will fit more.
00:35:41
Speaker
I'm not going to add more.
00:35:43
Speaker
As if I buy new machines or try to restore an old one, some are leaving.
00:35:48
Speaker
When you get to that size collection, keeping them running, anybody that has more than four or five knows this.
00:35:54
Speaker
That's a challenge, right?
00:35:55
Speaker
So there's always one that needs something.
00:35:58
Speaker
Sometimes they need a lot of something.
00:35:59
Speaker
So that's, I don't want this to be always working on them.
00:36:03
Speaker
I like playing them.
00:36:05
Speaker
I love watching other people plan them.
00:36:07
Speaker
I love learning the history about them.
00:36:09
Speaker
I love the artwork.
00:36:10
Speaker
You know, like I said, I'm an art major by trade and I really appreciate them as works of art.
00:36:17
Speaker
And I really like fixing them.
00:36:19
Speaker
I know that sounds weird.
00:36:21
Speaker
I don't want to do it 24 seven.
00:36:22
Speaker
Otherwise, it's not fun anymore.
00:36:24
Speaker
But and yeah, I've got another project.
00:36:26
Speaker
So if you're going to go, go big.
00:36:28
Speaker
So I bought a haunted house.
00:36:30
Speaker
Just for that reason.
00:36:32
Speaker
Nice.
00:36:33
Speaker
Three brand new play fields sitting up in the pinball loft.
00:36:36
Speaker
And the machine is still sitting out in the pole barn.
00:36:38
Speaker
But that's the next project, which is three, as you know, three play field swaps on a game.
00:36:43
Speaker
Lots of new parts.
00:36:45
Speaker
And when I'm done, it should look brand new.
00:36:47
Speaker
It's a fun game, too.
00:36:49
Speaker
That one was operational when I bought it.
00:36:50
Speaker
Not perfect.
00:36:51
Speaker
But, man, I just enjoyed its simplicity.
00:36:54
Speaker
And it's a beautiful game to look at.
00:36:57
Speaker
My recommendation too is when you're working on that one, if you can, put some fuses in line to the coils that up kick from the basement to the main level.
00:37:07
Speaker
I don't know what it is.
00:37:08
Speaker
On the one that my... When I bought my very first pinball machine,
00:37:12
Speaker
I picked one up and then a doctor that works with my wife's like, well, if you're picking one up, pick one up for me too.
00:37:18
Speaker
And so the guy was selling a haunted house as well.
00:37:20
Speaker
And so I just grabbed both of them.
00:37:22
Speaker
And we've had nothing but issues with that upkicker from the basement to the main level.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, I would love that.
00:37:30
Speaker
It's not the challenge with those games.
00:37:32
Speaker
It's like Amazing Spider-Man.
00:37:34
Speaker
And you had one of these, Josh.
00:37:35
Speaker
It just, it's hard to keep them running because the design was flawed from the beginning.
00:37:41
Speaker
They don't have the reliability of the current ones and they were kind of meant to be disposable.
00:37:46
Speaker
So they didn't put the time in to make sure that they, they, you know, cross the T's and dot all the I's.
00:37:53
Speaker
So I've heard that haunted house.
00:37:56
Speaker
Actually, Chris Hutchins highlights this in one of his restores and maybe the only haunted house he's ever done.
00:38:01
Speaker
He did a beautiful job.
00:38:04
Speaker
There's a pop bumper board I think you can put into those that helps to mitigate that issue.
00:38:08
Speaker
That fixes that.
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah, I need to look into that.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, I would definitely tease that out because there's nothing quicker than a completely malfunctioning machine electronically that makes you want it to yeet it out of your window as fast as you can because it's just not worth it.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yep, I can attest to that.
00:38:29
Speaker
I can definitely fix the mechanical stuff, but the electrical stuff, it's usually beyond me.
00:38:35
Speaker
I agree.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:37
Speaker
Haunted house is a fantastic game though.
00:38:39
Speaker
I know it's one of those ones that, uh, people kind of, I mean, it felt gimmicky.
00:38:43
Speaker
Let's, let's not, it's a cool theme though.
00:38:47
Speaker
It is.
00:38:47
Speaker
It's a fun theme.
00:38:49
Speaker
It's kind of like that classic, uh,
00:38:52
Speaker
the early Disney theme that's like the Mickey goes into a spooky house or something like that.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:58
Speaker
I'm always looking for games too, guys, that casual players can play.
00:39:03
Speaker
I don't honestly know a ton of great high-end professional players.
00:39:09
Speaker
The people that come and visit
00:39:10
Speaker
you know, to enjoy some snacks or play up in the loft, so to speak.
00:39:15
Speaker
They're casual players and they just don't encounter a ton of pinball machines.
00:39:19
Speaker
So giving them an opportunity to play something that is simple, that's fun, they can keep the ball alive for a period of time, maybe get to a quick multiball.
00:39:27
Speaker
Those are cool games.
00:39:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:39:30
Speaker
And Haunted House is just, people gravitate towards it because it's such a unique game.
00:39:36
Speaker
I think it holds the record for the most flippers, most play fields, most pop bumpers, if I'm correct.
00:39:45
Speaker
It's one of those ones that just, you'll never see another one like it, in my opinion.
00:39:51
Speaker
No, I don't think you will either.
00:39:52
Speaker
And so that's why it makes it so great to have a part of an eclectic collection.
00:39:57
Speaker
You don't want to have it as your only game, but hey, if you have a couple of games, it's always fun to have that oddball.
00:40:05
Speaker
I am completely with you, Tim, in that I...
00:40:08
Speaker
There's a reason why I still keep Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness because anybody who comes down, I can say, shoot the castle and shoot the flashing lights and it's accessible to them.
00:40:18
Speaker
It's a little more challenging to get into some of the other games just because the complexity of the rules to satisfy the high-end players, it just goes over their heads a lot.
00:40:33
Speaker
That's why I would take a Munsters in my collection because it is quite
00:40:38
Speaker
readily accessible.
00:40:40
Speaker
And I know for high-end players, it's not their game, but hey, I know a lot of players who would really appreciate it.
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah, the gentleman I bought the haunted house from had a Munsters.
00:40:50
Speaker
He had two games.
00:40:51
Speaker
One was Munsters.
00:40:52
Speaker
And that was the first time I played it.
00:40:53
Speaker
I loved it.
00:40:54
Speaker
It was fun.
00:40:55
Speaker
Was it simple?
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:57
Speaker
Could you keep the ball alive for a long time?
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah, if you've played a lot.
00:41:00
Speaker
But man, people just love the theme and they love the simplicity of the gameplay.
00:41:05
Speaker
I had a ball playing it.
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's the same.
00:41:08
Speaker
Josh and I were talking about this with Brad Hunter of Lit Frames.
00:41:12
Speaker
We were talking about Monster Bash, and it's the same thing.
00:41:16
Speaker
There's people who don't like Monster Bash because it's a simple-ish game.
00:41:20
Speaker
And you can make it mean if you want to, but it's still a fun game.
00:41:24
Speaker
People will come down who are casual players who will have a lot of fun on that game, whereas if I put them on Jurassic Park or something, it's going to kick their butt.
00:41:35
Speaker
I don't know.
00:41:35
Speaker
There's still something about monster bash though.
00:41:38
Speaker
It is just so fun when you get all of them lined up about ready to start them all.
00:41:44
Speaker
Then you start them all one by one and you end on Frankenstar and you get into the multi ball and you have unlimited because each mode is timed.
00:41:51
Speaker
You have to complete it within the time.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:54
Speaker
And if you do it right and you start them all and you hit Frankenstein, you feel like King Kong on steroids.
00:42:00
Speaker
And it just... I mean, at that point, you can kind of flail.
00:42:05
Speaker
You still have to hit shots.
00:42:06
Speaker
But, I mean, you can take down all the modes during a multiball and it just feels so great.
00:42:13
Speaker
I think that's one of the challenging aspects of Monster Bash.
00:42:16
Speaker
I know a lot of people say it's easy, but if you...
00:42:19
Speaker
If you can do that consistently, I'm impressed.
00:42:22
Speaker
Because it's just hard to do.
00:42:24
Speaker
It's like trying to get the one billion hurry up on Attack from Mars.
00:42:29
Speaker
If you can do it consistently, it's impressive.
00:42:31
Speaker
But most people don't even know that one billion even exists there.
00:42:34
Speaker
I did that in a tournament once.
00:42:35
Speaker
And the next guy was like, what the heck did you just do?
00:42:39
Speaker
I tried to explain it to him.
00:42:41
Speaker
And he's like,
00:42:42
Speaker
let's get a picture so i had to pull up a picture of the the play field and explain it to him just just those little quirky things that lyman did with you know medieval madness attack from mars and monster bash just wonderful coding there so okay so speaking of king kong on steroids you own a guns and roses collector's edition
00:43:04
Speaker
So you, you really go after
Collector's Editions and Personal Journey
00:43:07
Speaker
the high end ones.
00:43:07
Speaker
You obviously have a Batman 66 SLE and what prompted you to buy the collector's edition on guns and roses?
00:43:16
Speaker
That's a pretty price tag.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yep.
00:43:18
Speaker
Great, great question.
00:43:19
Speaker
Um,
00:43:21
Speaker
Well, I'll start this way.
00:43:23
Speaker
For some reason, every title my wife is interested ends up being a game that is just a butt kicker, right?
00:43:29
Speaker
So Aerosmith, great example, right?
00:43:32
Speaker
I got to have Aerosmith.
00:43:33
Speaker
And then you play the game and I mean, the ball lasts 10 seconds every single time.
00:43:38
Speaker
And anybody who plays that and is an average player and is barely keeping the ball alive, it doesn't matter how much you like the game or the band, you're going to lose interest.
00:43:48
Speaker
So that's been a theme of hers.
00:43:50
Speaker
Like, I got to have an Aerosmith.
00:43:51
Speaker
I got to have a Waz.
00:43:53
Speaker
So we got her a ruby red Waz for her, I think it was for her 50th birthday.
00:43:58
Speaker
It's a beautiful game.
00:43:59
Speaker
But man, that game is a challenge.
00:44:01
Speaker
That's it.
00:44:01
Speaker
You know, if you're a newbie, that's going to work you.
00:44:04
Speaker
It's a hard game.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:44:06
Speaker
So she says to me... I actually closed the outlanes on mine.
00:44:10
Speaker
So it does help, by the way, to make it a little... You actually have to get in there and careful because I scratched a little bit of the coding when I did it.
00:44:18
Speaker
But the...
00:44:19
Speaker
the left out lane that goes to that ridiculous, there's no place like home mode.
00:44:24
Speaker
Right.
00:44:25
Speaker
You can actually, they have it, so you can actually bring up that rail and put it to a closer pin so it does close it off a little bit.
00:44:34
Speaker
You know, why don't most people think of that?
00:44:38
Speaker
I mean, why don't I just put a rubber band across it, right?
00:44:41
Speaker
Yeah, it could be.
00:44:42
Speaker
I can do anything I want.
00:44:43
Speaker
But I closed off some of my outlanes because I'm trying to get my kids to enjoy it more.
00:44:49
Speaker
Because if they're draining so fast, they're not going to have fun.
00:44:52
Speaker
And so just on WAZ, just keep that in mind that you can adjust the outlanes and it does help a little bit.
00:44:59
Speaker
It's a good idea.
00:45:00
Speaker
And by the way, she's probably the only person that plays it.
00:45:02
Speaker
It gets played occasionally by visitors, you know, when they're here.
00:45:05
Speaker
I mean, folks will gravitate towards it.
00:45:08
Speaker
We have an entire dedicated corner for Wizard of Oz memorabilia, and the game sits, you know, in the middle of that.
00:45:13
Speaker
So it's a centerpiece.
00:45:15
Speaker
People like it.
00:45:16
Speaker
They love the movie.
00:45:17
Speaker
But, man, it's a hard game.
00:45:18
Speaker
So anyway, long story short, she's also a Guns N' Roses fan.
00:45:22
Speaker
And I knew that, and I heard that, you know, the rumor was that was the next game coming from JJP.
00:45:27
Speaker
So I said to her,
00:45:29
Speaker
Hey, Guns N' Roses is going to be the next pinball from Jersey Jack.
00:45:33
Speaker
Are you interested?
00:45:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:45:36
Speaker
That's like one of my favorite bands.
00:45:38
Speaker
We got to have the best one they make.
00:45:40
Speaker
Well, you don't have to tell me that twice, right?
00:45:42
Speaker
The pinball guy.
00:45:43
Speaker
It's like, come on.
00:45:45
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:46
Speaker
But that advantage that gives you was this.
00:45:48
Speaker
It's actually pretty simple.
00:45:50
Speaker
The moment it goes on sale, I don't need to see it.
00:45:52
Speaker
I don't need to worry about the gameplay.
00:45:54
Speaker
I don't need to worry about what it looks like.
00:45:55
Speaker
I don't need to worry about who wrote the code.
00:45:58
Speaker
I don't even have to worry too much at this point about the price.
00:46:01
Speaker
The wife said she wants it.
00:46:02
Speaker
We're going to get it.
00:46:03
Speaker
So, you know, 45 seconds after this thing launches, I've already paid for it.
00:46:08
Speaker
And I literally had the first one delivered that I know of, you know, that wasn't a prototype in the U.S. And posted those pictures that you all saw, Scott, that was early on.
00:46:19
Speaker
You saw that we put out there on Pinside.
00:46:22
Speaker
And the game is actually, forget about how fun it is because it's over the top.
00:46:27
Speaker
It's insane.
00:46:28
Speaker
But...
00:46:29
Speaker
She can play it and you can keep the ball alive and you can start a song.
00:46:33
Speaker
And if you want to go deep into it, man, it's got all the code that's there.
00:46:36
Speaker
And, you know, professional players, professional grade players can have a ball with that thing, but casual players can get into it as well.
00:46:43
Speaker
It's absolutely a ball and it's a concert in a box.
00:46:47
Speaker
Definitely.
00:46:48
Speaker
That's what I hear a lot with that game is it's a whole different experience when it comes to pinball.
00:46:53
Speaker
It is immersive like nothing else that's been made before.
00:46:56
Speaker
Yeah, and I wanted to – that was part of Scott's question, I think, is I wanted to make it more so.
00:47:03
Speaker
So it was enough to blow you away when you plugged it in, the sound, the light show.
00:47:09
Speaker
The songs, the integration of the Shaker.
00:47:12
Speaker
I mean, one of the questions you guys were kind enough to ask Eric was, you know, that I shared with you when you were interviewing him was about, you know, how did you go about coding the light show and the Shaker to all these songs?
00:47:24
Speaker
Because it's so well done.
00:47:26
Speaker
And the one that blows me away is Live and Let Die, right?
00:47:28
Speaker
Where they had to get permission from...
00:47:31
Speaker
I think it was Sony Music Studios that owned the rights and that now historical story of- Well, it was Paul McCartney.
00:47:39
Speaker
Paul McCartney had to, yeah.
00:47:41
Speaker
So it was a phone call away from one superstar to another, yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:47
Speaker
I mean, that story just is like, that's cool as hell.
00:47:51
Speaker
And then to then hear from Eric, the answer to my question was, well, that was the first one we coded, which kind of set the standard for how we were going to finish out the rest of the songs in the game.
00:48:01
Speaker
And I've had time since then, Scott, to play through all the rest of the songs in the game.
00:48:06
Speaker
There's songs on there that are even better than that.
00:48:08
Speaker
They just, they continue to blow me away.
00:48:11
Speaker
And I was like, okay, if it's this good, what could it be with aftermarket?
00:48:15
Speaker
So I started experimenting.
00:48:17
Speaker
I bought some, I already had a bunch of home speakers around here.
00:48:20
Speaker
I've been dabbling in audio for a long, long time.
00:48:24
Speaker
spending stupid amounts of money on home stereo systems.
00:48:27
Speaker
So I grabbed a small pair of bookshelves, I shoved them behind the machine, I hooked up a stereo receiver to the, you know, the audio out jack, did a little Y, you know, a Y out adapter.
00:48:38
Speaker
And it sounded pretty good.
00:48:39
Speaker
I mean, it sounded better than stock.
00:48:41
Speaker
And the only issue was I couldn't get enough volume out of the receiver.
00:48:45
Speaker
And I didn't want to long term have a bunch of speakers hanging on a wall behind it or sitting on stands.
00:48:50
Speaker
So
00:48:51
Speaker
I started searching for a better answer, which was, how do we get more volume and cleaner volume out of the machine?
00:48:58
Speaker
And the bottom line was this.
00:48:59
Speaker
I landed on center channel speakers from a Clips system.
00:49:05
Speaker
You can still find them used on eBay and whatnot.
00:49:09
Speaker
And I had to buy two.
00:49:10
Speaker
And the reason for buying two was center channel speakers are not stereo.
00:49:14
Speaker
They're almost always mono.
00:49:16
Speaker
So, and the ones that I was going to put up there had to be small enough to fit on the left and the right of the topper.
00:49:23
Speaker
So I pulled the stock topper off there and built some custom brackets, which weren't too difficult.
00:49:29
Speaker
Added a preamp and an amplifier and the rest is history.
00:49:31
Speaker
And it is amazing.
00:49:34
Speaker
Now it helps that I put a 2,500 watt SVS subwoofer underneath it, but that moves a lot of air and the top end is nice and clean and it's awesome.
00:49:43
Speaker
It's like being at a GNR concert.
00:49:45
Speaker
I love that you casually say just the stock topper because the stock topper that comes with your collector's edition that has the sound bar up there too that blows the windows off anyway and you decided to make it louder.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:03
Speaker
It's no slouch, but I wanted to really hear it, number one.
00:50:09
Speaker
And there was just not enough mid-range, you know, high-end clarity.
00:50:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:14
Speaker
Not trying to sound like an audio snob, but let me put it this way.
00:50:19
Speaker
The guys at JGP and the folks that worked on the sound did an amazing job.
00:50:23
Speaker
And anybody in their right mind is probably totally satisfied.
00:50:27
Speaker
I was when I turned it on, I was just fine trying to find a way to take it over the top.
00:50:31
Speaker
The pin deserved to be over the top.
00:50:33
Speaker
Oh, I just, it's just kind of like saying I have a nice high, a nice stock Porsche that I made faster.
00:50:38
Speaker
There you go.
00:50:40
Speaker
There you go.
00:50:40
Speaker
Nothing wrong with that.
00:50:42
Speaker
Faster and louder.
00:50:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:44
Speaker
So what made you, what convinced you to make a website on top of all of this?
00:50:48
Speaker
Oh, I love that question.
00:50:50
Speaker
Cause I get to talk about my friend.
00:50:52
Speaker
Um,
00:50:53
Speaker
And the beginning of this is a tiny sad, so I'll keep this part short.
00:50:56
Speaker
But within the same exact year, my dad, my best friend and a neighbor all passed away from a very rare blood disease.
00:51:06
Speaker
At least that's what I heard.
00:51:07
Speaker
It was very rare.
00:51:08
Speaker
It was pretty odd that three people I knew very well, including my own father, suffered from it.
00:51:14
Speaker
And it's basically, you know, cancer of the blood.
00:51:17
Speaker
And long story short, he was a very young guy, you know, in his 40s, came to visit me at the ranch one day.
00:51:23
Speaker
And he's the guy that was, you know, our local pinball buddy.
00:51:26
Speaker
His name was Andy.
00:51:28
Speaker
And Andy was responsible for a lot of the East Tennessee pinball scene.
00:51:33
Speaker
Maybe you could even argue all of it.
00:51:36
Speaker
We've got some great local barcades and for sure one of them was completely outfitted and the owners would tell you this and set up with pinball by Andy.
00:51:46
Speaker
So he came to the ranch one day and said he wasn't feeling that well.
00:51:49
Speaker
I hadn't heard from him in a couple of weeks and wondered what was going on.
00:51:51
Speaker
Ended up, you know, he had this exact same disease.
00:51:57
Speaker
About two weeks before he passed away, I started writing this blog.
00:52:04
Speaker
And I didn't really have an exact reason why other than, you know, big time passionate about pinball.
00:52:10
Speaker
But I started a blog and it actually came from a session that at work where we were talking about leadership and about how writing can help drive creative thoughts.
00:52:21
Speaker
So one of the speakers actually suggested, you know, everybody should write.
00:52:24
Speaker
So I thought, well, why not?
00:52:26
Speaker
Two weeks later, Andy passed away.
00:52:28
Speaker
And I think it became pretty clear to me why I had started a blog two weeks before that, because I literally went on to start to write a story about Andy's life with the permission of his parents first.
00:52:41
Speaker
And that was going to be a blog post that turned into a book.
00:52:44
Speaker
So I wrote a book about Andy over the course of just a couple of weeks, maybe four weeks in total.
00:52:51
Speaker
And I honestly think that the beginning of that blog was me getting ready to write that story.
00:52:56
Speaker
So it's a really interesting story about pinball because it talks about how pinball brings people together and how certainly if you read Andy's story, which is on my blog, you just click on Andy up at the top, you'll understand what I'm talking about, how he used pinball to
00:53:16
Speaker
to bring people from all walks of life.
00:53:19
Speaker
It's one of the things I really like about this hobby.
00:53:22
Speaker
We have a surgeon in our group.
00:53:24
Speaker
We have factory workers in our group.
00:53:26
Speaker
We have people that work in IT in our group.
00:53:28
Speaker
Literally people from all walks of life, what brings us together is pinball.
00:53:32
Speaker
That's why you'll never find politics on my website.
00:53:35
Speaker
I don't talk about it.
00:53:38
Speaker
I don't want to find ways of pulling us apart.
00:53:40
Speaker
I want to find ways of putting us together.
00:53:43
Speaker
And when people are up in the loft and we're playing pinball, politics is off limits.
00:53:48
Speaker
We're here to talk about, you know, family and fun and enjoy ourselves.
00:53:52
Speaker
So I know that's a long answer, but that's how I got there.
00:53:56
Speaker
And I've continued doing that just because I really enjoy writing.
00:53:59
Speaker
It's for most people, long form writing.
00:54:02
Speaker
Blogs are a thing of the past.
00:54:04
Speaker
I think what you all do is certainly more accessible in a time-starved society.
00:54:10
Speaker
I listen to podcasts almost exclusively, but I enjoy writing.
00:54:13
Speaker
So that's why I do it.
00:54:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:15
Speaker
Now give them the website too, because I want them to go and check it out.
00:54:20
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:54:21
Speaker
It's thepinballloft.com.
00:54:23
Speaker
Real simple.
00:54:24
Speaker
Just spell it out.
00:54:25
Speaker
T-H-E pinballloft.com.
00:54:29
Speaker
The story about Andy's up at the top.
00:54:30
Speaker
The story about me is about us.
00:54:33
Speaker
You'll learn about the ranch.
00:54:34
Speaker
If you want to learn about how we built the game room, there's a lot of information on that that would be helpful to anybody who's, hey, I'm going to build a dedicated game room.
00:54:43
Speaker
Do what I did.
00:54:44
Speaker
You know, I poured over Pennside.
00:54:45
Speaker
I asked lots of questions.
00:54:47
Speaker
I reached out to Rotor Dave, who has one of the biggest game rooms maybe in the world, you know, with well over 100 games.
00:54:53
Speaker
He was kind enough to share his blueprints of his actual home and his game room back to me.
00:54:58
Speaker
So,
00:54:58
Speaker
You know, I stood on the backs of others to design it.
00:55:01
Speaker
So help yourself to the information that's there.
00:55:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:05
Speaker
This is the last topic I want to talk about.
00:55:09
Speaker
Lava lamps.
00:55:11
Speaker
I want to talk about your lava lamp.
00:55:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:15
Speaker
That's an odd one.
00:55:16
Speaker
So, I mean, the genesis of all that is if you go into the loft...
00:55:21
Speaker
you're going to see a lot more than that.
00:55:23
Speaker
You know, there's a piece of a Saturn V rocket, you know, the most powerful machine ever built by humans, over 160 million horsepower.
00:55:30
Speaker
There's an actual piece of that rocket up in the loft.
00:55:35
Speaker
There's a ton of signed memorabilia from all of our pinball heroes, as you would expect.
00:55:40
Speaker
If you were at the last TPF that I was at, Steve Ritchie was playing a priest with Gomez sitting by his side.
00:55:47
Speaker
It was called Pinball Confessional or something.
00:55:50
Speaker
Steve Ritchie had a sign he was holding up that said, bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
00:55:55
Speaker
I ran up afterwards and grabbed that handwritten sign and asked him to sign it.
00:55:58
Speaker
That's hanging up there.
00:56:00
Speaker
Right.
00:56:00
Speaker
All kinds of odd stuff.
00:56:01
Speaker
And as you said, Scott, the lava lamp.
00:56:04
Speaker
So how did that happen?
00:56:05
Speaker
I'm always looking for something unique, conversational, different.
00:56:10
Speaker
That's why there's an eight foot tall Spider-Man up there and a six foot tall Iron Man.
00:56:15
Speaker
And I didn't have a lava lamp.
00:56:17
Speaker
So where do you go to get the best lava lamp?
00:56:22
Speaker
Well, you go to a website called Oozing Goo.
00:56:25
Speaker
I'm not making this up.
00:56:26
Speaker
There's actually a website where you can learn about lava lamps.
00:56:29
Speaker
And the best lava lamps made in the world today are made by Mathmos, M-A-T-H-O-S.
00:56:34
Speaker
Unfortunately, they're made in England and they don't ship to the U.S.
00:56:38
Speaker
So you go and you get a European address, which you can do with a company called Forward to Me.
00:56:45
Speaker
I think that's the name of the company.
00:56:47
Speaker
They ship it to your now European address, which I have an address in England now in Britain, and then they forward it to you.
00:56:54
Speaker
And it's stupid amounts of money, but I now have the biggest lava lamp that Mathmos makes, and it's big time cool.
00:57:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's two and a half feet tall.
00:57:03
Speaker
I mean, we have like one of those 18 inch lava lamps, but we do not have a two and a half foot tall lava lamp.
00:57:09
Speaker
Yeah, they sell those too, but I wanted to have one of the biggest ones they had.
00:57:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's still just crazy.
00:57:19
Speaker
Love it.
00:57:20
Speaker
You know, you got to plan for that.
00:57:21
Speaker
If people are coming over, you got to turn it on a couple hours ahead of time.
00:57:24
Speaker
You know, I do love, though, the things about game rooms that make them interesting and just pieces of fun.
00:57:34
Speaker
And just like you said, I have similar rules.
00:57:38
Speaker
Pinball is a great way to connect with people that doesn't involve players.
00:57:42
Speaker
Politics doesn't involve income levels.
00:57:45
Speaker
It doesn't involve religion.
00:57:48
Speaker
It doesn't involve sexuality.
00:57:49
Speaker
It doesn't involve anything.
00:57:50
Speaker
I mean, it's basically how basic can you get?
00:57:53
Speaker
I'm just, I am flipping a ball.
00:57:55
Speaker
And if we have nothing else in common, at least we can connect on this.
00:58:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
We've forgotten how to enjoy each other's company by forcing us to divide ourselves, which is ridiculous.
00:58:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:11
Speaker
And I agree.
00:58:12
Speaker
It's this is what has drawn me to pinball is the not necessarily the inclusivity of it, because I think it's there, but it's more of a it's a it's a parallel universe where none of that really matters as much as it does in your real life.
00:58:30
Speaker
It's just something that is it's an escape.
00:58:33
Speaker
We don't have to worry about that here.
00:58:34
Speaker
This is we all know those are important in in our in everyday life.
00:58:39
Speaker
But this is a great escape.
00:58:41
Speaker
It's like going to a summer popcorn movie where you don't really care too much if the storyline doesn't make sense.
00:58:47
Speaker
You're just there to have a good time.
00:58:49
Speaker
That's a great way to put it.
00:58:50
Speaker
You know, I have very, very strong political beliefs.
00:58:53
Speaker
I'm going to keep them to myself because I don't want to ruin the experience.
00:58:56
Speaker
What you just described is a really good way of putting it.
00:58:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:01
Speaker
Well, honestly, I think that kind of brings us to the to the end of our show, unless you got some other questions, Scott.
00:59:08
Speaker
No, I think I've been able to ask Tim all the things that we need to in the roughly hour allotment that we normally have.
00:59:18
Speaker
But Tim, if people want to reach out to you, you already gave your website, but if people want to reach out to you and ask any questions about restorations or two and a half foot lava lamps, how do they get a hold of you?
00:59:30
Speaker
Yeah, they can put comments right on the website and I respond to those.
00:59:34
Speaker
So yeah, reach out right to thepinballoff.com.
00:59:38
Speaker
And we'd like to thank Tim again.
00:59:40
Speaker
Again, Tim Purcell out of Knoxville, Tennessee.
00:59:43
Speaker
If you, we appreciate him coming around.
00:59:47
Speaker
And if you are in that area, I highly recommend trying to get that coveted ticket into his game room because I am seriously jealous of his game room.
00:59:55
Speaker
I wish I had something as epic as he does.
00:59:59
Speaker
I totally agree.
01:00:00
Speaker
If folks want to do that, reach out on Pennside, please do so.
01:00:03
Speaker
We host people here all the time.
01:00:05
Speaker
So happy to give you a tour.
01:00:07
Speaker
We'll play some games, have a couple of drinks, relax, enjoy each other's company.
01:00:11
Speaker
Awesome.
01:00:13
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us, Scott or I, you can get ahold of us on Facebook at loser kid pinball, same with Twitter and Twitch and Instagram.
01:00:23
Speaker
And if you want to get ahold of us via email, the old way loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:00:30
Speaker
We thank Tim for coming on today.
01:00:32
Speaker
It was awesome to get to talk to him about these projects.
01:00:36
Speaker
I highly recommend you go to this pinballoff.com.
01:00:39
Speaker
There's some pretty amazing in-depth detail here to do all your own stuff.
01:00:43
Speaker
Even if you are curious, if it's even something you'd like to try, I highly recommend you go check this out.
01:00:52
Speaker
And it sounds like Tim's be willing to give you some pointers too, if you need them.
01:00:56
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:00:57
Speaker
Yeah, and we're going to be getting stocked up on hats again.
01:01:03
Speaker
We kind of took a little break during the pandemic, but now it feels like it's time to get that going.
01:01:08
Speaker
And I'm planning on being at Expo, and I know Josh is too.
01:01:11
Speaker
And so if you don't want to wait and have it mailed off to you, we'll be bringing some to Expo.
01:01:18
Speaker
So go ahead and hit us up, and we'll hook you up at Expo.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yes.
01:01:27
Speaker
Don't forget by the end of the month, August 30th or 31st.
01:01:32
Speaker
Oh, it's been a long time.
01:01:33
Speaker
Anywho, we got the pin quest going on.
01:01:35
Speaker
So if you got the World Cup soccer challenge and you've got the Avengers challenge, if you complete, you get one entry per completed quest.
01:01:44
Speaker
specific to the loser kid stuff.
01:01:46
Speaker
There's more quests on there.
01:01:47
Speaker
It won't give you more entries, but you'll be able to be put in for an entry to win a hat.
01:01:52
Speaker
And we'll be talking about that.
01:01:55
Speaker
What is today?
01:01:56
Speaker
Probably not the next episode, but the one after that.
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:59
Speaker
So, yeah, well, today, so we record this live, actually, when you're listening to it, but just in case we're in the middle of the month sometime in August.
01:02:08
Speaker
Yes, correct.
01:02:09
Speaker
So,
01:02:12
Speaker
Hey, John, it was great to meet you, Josh, for the first time.
01:02:15
Speaker
Scott, I appreciate your friendship over the past, well, more than a year now.
01:02:20
Speaker
I don't know that all listeners know this, but these two guys are real genuine and I appreciate them.
01:02:24
Speaker
I appreciate your podcast as well.
01:02:27
Speaker
We appreciate all the good people we've met in podcasts because it seems to be growing everywhere.
01:02:33
Speaker
I think we do get a lot of positive feedback.
01:02:36
Speaker
We appreciate your positive feedback, Tim.
01:02:39
Speaker
Our last episode, I'm sorry, I got to bring this up really quick.
01:02:42
Speaker
Someone left a comment and it was worst podcast or worst episode of the podcast ever.
01:02:47
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:48
Speaker
All I could hear that was the comic book guy saying that.
01:02:50
Speaker
So I actually laughed.
01:02:51
Speaker
It's probably true.
01:02:53
Speaker
We weren't hitting a thousand, but hey, I thought we had a good take on Steve Ritchie.
01:02:58
Speaker
Hey, Tim, we did not get to cover your Ultraman purchase.
01:03:02
Speaker
And so I'm really curious.
01:03:03
Speaker
We're going to have to have you back on when you get the Ultraman because I want to hear your review on that.
01:03:09
Speaker
Very cool.
01:03:10
Speaker
Looking forward to it.
01:03:11
Speaker
Okay.
01:03:12
Speaker
Awesome.
01:03:12
Speaker
Thanks, everyone.