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Ep 140: Pinball Expo 40th with Rob Berk
29 Plays10 months ago
Rob Berk, owner of Past Times Arcade and Pinball Expo, joins us to talk about the 40th anniversary of Pinball Expo and shares some of the exciting things they have planned.
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Transcript
Introduction and Shoutouts
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
I am Josh Roop with me, my co-captain.
00:00:12
Speaker
As I'll listen.
00:00:16
Speaker
And today we've got a pretty awesome guest on.
00:00:18
Speaker
But before we do that, Scott, who do we always talk about at the beginning of this shenanigans?
00:00:23
Speaker
You know, if you want to pick up your new pinball machine, go ahead and hit up Zach and Nicole at flipping out pinball.
00:00:28
Speaker
You know, the good news is they have all the new stuff.
00:00:32
Speaker
But if you're also looking, they're taking in trades and they're always listing deals for, you know, the older games, too.
00:00:39
Speaker
So that's something to look at to say, hey, if you have that past title that you're looking for.
00:00:44
Speaker
But if you're looking for the new stuff, we talked about the Jaws, the Jaws accessories last week.
00:00:48
Speaker
So if you want to take your Jaws to the next level, reach out to them.
00:00:52
Speaker
And they are well known for toppers and accessories and all things pinball.
00:00:56
Speaker
So go ahead and contact them.
00:00:57
Speaker
Zach and Nicole, many at flipping out pinball.
00:00:59
Speaker
Definitely.
00:01:00
Speaker
And one more thing before we move on, Scott and I want to give a quick shout to Neil Shelton, the new owner of silver ball swag.
00:01:08
Speaker
He's come out with a whole new line of shirts and the logos are impeccable.
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Speaker
We're both wearing our shirts tonight.
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Speaker
We just got them today.
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Speaker
Mine is Nintendo themed.
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Speaker
So mine's the America.
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Speaker
So it's a flipper and a flag.
00:01:22
Speaker
So the America.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, mine's Nintendo theme.
00:01:25
Speaker
It says pinball in the retro Nintendo logo.
00:01:28
Speaker
If you go there, get yourself a shirt, grab yourself some Loser Kid shoes and a shirt, whatever it may be.
00:01:33
Speaker
But check that out, silverballswag.com.
00:01:35
Speaker
If you're looking specifically for us, it's slash loserkid.
00:01:38
Speaker
All right.
00:01:39
Speaker
I think we've held off too long.
00:01:40
Speaker
We should introduce our guests.
Guest Introduction: Rob Burke
00:01:42
Speaker
This man just got the Guinness world record for more than 1,400 machines in his location.
00:01:49
Speaker
He's been over Pinball Expo for coming up on 40 years now.
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Speaker
We have with us Rob Burke.
00:01:55
Speaker
How are you doing, Rob?
00:01:57
Speaker
Good, Josh.
00:01:57
Speaker
I'm tickled to be here to see Scott.
00:02:01
Speaker
It's unbelievable.
00:02:02
Speaker
I've been looking for him for years at Expo.
00:02:06
Speaker
I've been to Expo.
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Speaker
I couldn't come last year.
00:02:13
Speaker
I couldn't come last year.
00:02:15
Speaker
But I will say this.
00:02:16
Speaker
You guys are styling and profiling with your shirts.
00:02:19
Speaker
I never got mine.
00:02:20
Speaker
So just FYI.
00:02:22
Speaker
Neil, you better get him a shirt.
00:02:23
Speaker
You better get Rob a shirt.
00:02:25
Speaker
We'll figure it out.
00:02:27
Speaker
We'll at least get you a cap.
00:02:29
Speaker
We have some sweet loser kid caps.
00:02:31
Speaker
I'm wearing one right now.
00:02:33
Speaker
There you go.
00:02:34
Speaker
So Rob, this is a pretty epic
Pinball Expo 40th Anniversary Plans
00:02:37
Speaker
year.
00:02:37
Speaker
You've been doing this for 40 years now.
00:02:39
Speaker
I know you're doing an extra day for Expo.
00:02:42
Speaker
Is there any more insight you can give us to the shenanigans you're gonna be doing that are extra this year for 40th?
00:02:48
Speaker
You know, there's gonna be a lot of extras.
00:02:50
Speaker
There's so many things.
00:02:52
Speaker
It's almost like I'm excited to think about it, but I can't tell anybody because it's, I want everyone to just be like every turn.
00:03:00
Speaker
So, oh my gosh, next turn.
00:03:02
Speaker
Oh, this is cool.
00:03:03
Speaker
Because, um, you know, for the 40th, my wife was really on me.
00:03:07
Speaker
Like, what are you doing?
00:03:08
Speaker
You're knocking yourself out.
00:03:10
Speaker
Why are you doing all this stuff?
00:03:11
Speaker
But to me, the 40th is a fantastic banner year.
00:03:16
Speaker
And, um, to make it this far, you know, just think basically one promoter to do one show.
00:03:21
Speaker
I mean, as you know, Texas is a big show, but you know, they, they've gone through some changes and some other shows have been around for a while, but one guy, 40 years, it's like this guy must've lost his mind.
00:03:32
Speaker
But, um,
00:03:33
Speaker
You know, I'm glad to do it.
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Speaker
And it's all about the hobby.
00:03:36
Speaker
And it's great to see people smiling and have a good time.
00:03:39
Speaker
And that's what I get my satisfaction out of.
00:03:42
Speaker
But there's so much happening, guys, I can't tell you.
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Speaker
You know, the one thing I've tried to do real hard is bring in the international aspect to Expo.
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Speaker
And I always get a kick out of when people say, hey, I went out with a guy from Italy for lunch.
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And now we know we're friends.
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He's inviting me to his home.
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Speaker
You know, this is, Expos really opened up the pinball community to an international community.
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And everyone speaks English for the most part.
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And we have well over 125 people so far registered that are coming throughout all parts of Europe.
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Speaker
Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, Austria, Australia.
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Speaker
I mean, the list goes on and on.
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So to me, that's really satisfying.
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Speaker
And it's cool to me also to have these guys, some of these guys have actually volunteered to speak at the show.
00:04:35
Speaker
So that to me is really pretty wild.
00:04:38
Speaker
But there's so much going on.
00:04:40
Speaker
I mean, you're welcome to ask me some questions and maybe a few things will leak out.
00:04:44
Speaker
But I will say that starting off with, you know, Wednesday evening when we have our get together, we
00:04:51
Speaker
Normally we have like chips and potatoes and some of the very basics.
Expo Tours and Evolving Focus
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Speaker
Even that's going to be notched up.
00:04:58
Speaker
So whatever you experience at this show, it's going to be the top of my game as far as offering you guys an experience that you'll just shake your head and say, this guy has lost his mind in a good way.
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Speaker
This is just a blast.
00:05:11
Speaker
It's beyond a blast.
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Speaker
How do you put it into words?
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Speaker
So I want everyone to have a great experience, even starting off with four different pinball tours.
00:05:22
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:05:23
Speaker
That is awesome.
00:05:24
Speaker
So we're doing that.
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Speaker
And we're also offering a tour of Logan Arcade.
00:05:34
Speaker
So it'd be Logan Arcade and American Pinball one day.
00:05:37
Speaker
I'm sorry, Logan Arcade and American Pinball.
00:05:40
Speaker
No, you're right.
00:05:41
Speaker
You're right.
00:05:42
Speaker
I think Wednesday.
00:05:43
Speaker
Tuesday is Chicago Gaming.
00:05:46
Speaker
I can't remember all the places we're going.
00:05:49
Speaker
Okay, so I'm looking at right now.
00:05:51
Speaker
So Tuesday, you have Chicago Gaming and Galloping Ghost.
00:05:55
Speaker
Wednesday, you're featured is Logan Arcade and American Pinball.
00:06:00
Speaker
Thursday is Jersey Jack.
00:06:01
Speaker
Friday is Stern.
00:06:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker
So, I mean, everything for everybody.
00:06:07
Speaker
I guess, you know, one of our old taglines used to be Pinball Expo, the everything for everyone show.
00:06:12
Speaker
So we're kind of bringing that back again with just so many things we're going to be doing.
00:06:18
Speaker
It's almost mind-boggling.
00:06:19
Speaker
You know, I have a feeling I'm going to get some negative press when this thing's all done.
00:06:23
Speaker
Like, you did too much.
00:06:24
Speaker
I couldn't go to everything.
00:06:26
Speaker
I couldn't be everywhere because there's just so much to choose from that –
00:06:32
Speaker
I mean, you can do it, but you're going to go home mighty exhausted.
00:06:41
Speaker
Well, Rob, the hotel you have is massive and it sold out quick.
00:06:46
Speaker
And that's crazy that people are already in anticipation.
00:06:49
Speaker
This is, you know, people are excited to come see what's going on.
00:06:53
Speaker
What would you have to say, Scott?
00:06:55
Speaker
Oh, well, what I was saying is that if you look at, okay, Expo has morphed over the years and I do want to get back to the origin of it and how it's changed.
00:07:07
Speaker
But what I want to focus on is what are the things that have made this year?
00:07:13
Speaker
What have you brought from this year that you didn't have last year?
00:07:18
Speaker
It seems that this is more of a fan event, whereas expos historically
Collection Expansion and Pastimes Arcade
00:07:24
Speaker
have been more for the manufacturers to promote and sell games to distributors or people who are buying them for location.
00:07:34
Speaker
Well, I think the one thing is I'm trying to get every manufacturer under the sun to be a vendor there.
00:07:41
Speaker
And the one guy that I'm kind of excited about is a company called Hexa, H-E-X-A, Hexa Pinball.
00:07:49
Speaker
These guys are out of France.
00:07:52
Speaker
You know, their production numbers are, I think, pretty low.
00:07:54
Speaker
I think they're pretty much designed by order or created game by order.
00:07:58
Speaker
but they'll be coming to Expo.
00:08:00
Speaker
So to me, that's going to be really interesting.
00:08:02
Speaker
I use the word interesting because, I mean, we don't know what to expect from these guys.
00:08:05
Speaker
But every major manufacturer, every boutique manufacturer will be there.
00:08:11
Speaker
Melvin Williams is coming from Dutch Pinball, and he's going to bring, I think, Alice of Wonderland.
00:08:18
Speaker
It's kind of in public knowledge.
00:08:20
Speaker
He's kind of advertising that.
00:08:22
Speaker
This is the game that John Perdue,
00:08:26
Speaker
Papadou.
00:08:26
Speaker
Nope.
00:08:27
Speaker
John Pockadou.
00:08:30
Speaker
I saw the prototype way back when when John was still allowing people to tour Zedware.
00:08:37
Speaker
But that game is becoming a reality.
00:08:40
Speaker
And he's not going to stop there.
00:08:42
Speaker
So that's pretty wild.
00:08:45
Speaker
And speaking of kind of unique games, we're bringing back Magic Girl.
00:08:50
Speaker
It made its debut a couple of years ago at Expo.
00:08:53
Speaker
but I have a fellow that bought one of the Magic Girl games.
00:08:57
Speaker
It's still in the box, and he wants to sell it, and he's going to sell it at Expo.
00:09:01
Speaker
Now, whether he gets the price he wants for it, I don't know.
00:09:05
Speaker
But if you guys know anything about the history of Magic Girl, I think they produced about 20 or so, 22 or whatever it may be.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:13
Speaker
So anyone that's looking to buy a really, truly rare game, it'll be there.
00:09:18
Speaker
Plus another surprise, I guess it's a surprise, although we've listed it, is we're bringing in Chris Campbell from Captain's Auction.
00:09:25
Speaker
We're going to have an auction at Expo this year.
00:09:27
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:09:30
Speaker
For the old timers out there, we used to do an auction every year.
00:09:34
Speaker
It was called U.S. Amusement Auction Company.
00:09:37
Speaker
They're out of Louisville, Kentucky, but they used to come every year.
00:09:39
Speaker
And this is back when the majority of games we auctioned were EM games, just to give you an idea how far back this goes.
00:09:46
Speaker
But that's something new that I'm looking forward to seeing.
00:09:50
Speaker
And that's going to be happening on Saturday.
00:09:52
Speaker
Saturday evening, we're doing something I've never done before.
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm hoping it's success.
00:09:57
Speaker
Maybe yes, maybe no.
00:09:59
Speaker
but I'm bringing not one but two bands into the hall on Saturday evening.
00:10:05
Speaker
They're going to start at nine and they're going to go to like one or two o'clock in the morning.
00:10:10
Speaker
So, you know, when you come to Expo, you meet a lot of friends and you're high-fiving and everything.
00:10:15
Speaker
But I felt the last day, hey, let's hook up and we'll have a beer together or we'll listen to band together and just let's act goofy and rock and roll and jump around and really enjoy our last moments together.
00:10:29
Speaker
So it's just a thought.
00:10:31
Speaker
I hope it goes well.
00:10:33
Speaker
And that'll be going on in our third hall.
00:10:36
Speaker
And that's something else new this year is, you know, Expo for years was about a 20,000 to 25,000 square foot vending space.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then two years ago, when I moved to this new hotel, we went to 66,000, which is kind of crazy.
00:10:54
Speaker
This year, it's going to be 100,000.
00:10:57
Speaker
Wow.
00:10:58
Speaker
So this is where I'm getting a lot of heat from the missus.
00:11:01
Speaker
How are you going to fill that thing up?
00:11:02
Speaker
What are you doing?
00:11:03
Speaker
But we are going to fill it up.
00:11:06
Speaker
And there's so much fun things going to be happening.
00:11:09
Speaker
I will share one thing that to me is exciting.
00:11:13
Speaker
Not everybody is into the 1930s games.
00:11:17
Speaker
And these are the games, of course, that started it all.
00:11:20
Speaker
No flippers and worked off a battery and whatnot.
00:11:23
Speaker
So some of the shows, they've had this little 30s exhibit.
00:11:27
Speaker
Well, what we're doing is with Jeff Rick and some of the other guys that collect the 30s games, we are going to have a 1930s tournament.
00:11:39
Speaker
So imagine this, guys, out there in Radioland.
00:11:42
Speaker
Is this Radioland?
00:11:43
Speaker
Is that TV Land?
00:11:44
Speaker
Radioland?
00:11:44
Speaker
Sure, we'll go Radioland.
00:11:46
Speaker
It's podcast land.
00:11:47
Speaker
It's pinball land.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, pinball land.
00:11:52
Speaker
Imagine a booth 30 by 30 with a Persian rug in the middle, a 1930-ish black leather couch, a 1930-ish, I don't know even if they call them the lamps, where it's got the lampshade that kind of
Expo Logistics and Seminar Highlights
00:12:10
Speaker
tips down.
00:12:12
Speaker
And we're going to have about 15 to 20 games from the 30s set up in a tournament type of arrangement.
00:12:21
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:22
Speaker
With trophies and plaques or whatever for the winners.
00:12:27
Speaker
So I'm assuming you're going to have some rock old those like jigsaw and baseball.
00:12:32
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:12:33
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
00:12:34
Speaker
I've seen these games.
00:12:36
Speaker
I've never got to play these games.
00:12:37
Speaker
That's exciting.
00:12:38
Speaker
Well, see, what's crazy is, and it's all my fault because I'm so goofy.
00:12:43
Speaker
You know, when I put this collection together, and we can get to my collection here in a minute, but, you know, when you have a collection as extensive as I do, it's like, where do you go?
00:12:52
Speaker
What do you collect next?
00:12:54
Speaker
So...
00:12:55
Speaker
I had a couple of 30s games in my collection.
00:12:58
Speaker
And then the more I kind of looked at them and saw how basic they were, but at the time how some of the original designs, the introduction of lights even, and the introduction of some of the, I'm not saying ramps, but curved metal pieces just to make the ball kind of go some different direction.
00:13:17
Speaker
The more I got into it, the more I said, boy, this is kind of cool.
00:13:20
Speaker
Well, that's all I needed to start thinking about.
00:13:22
Speaker
Now I'm buying 30s games.
00:13:24
Speaker
Nice.
00:13:25
Speaker
Kate, where do you buy 30s games?
00:13:28
Speaker
Kate, there can be a huge amount of them out there because LaGuardia, like, chop them all up.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah, good point.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
The bottom of the East River, is that where they're?
00:13:40
Speaker
That's where he's fishing them out of the Hudson.
00:13:43
Speaker
Let me write this down, Scott.
00:13:44
Speaker
I'm going to put down where I might check out when we hang up.
00:13:46
Speaker
But anyways...
00:13:48
Speaker
You know, a lot of fellow 30th collector guys, you know, would help out.
00:13:52
Speaker
And then eBay occasionally, Craigslist occasionally, and some of these auction sites occasionally.
00:13:58
Speaker
But, you know, I've got about, I don't know, about 75 of them now, and of all different sizes and types.
00:14:06
Speaker
But a couple of the very, very early ones were produced in Youngstown, Ohio, which is 15 miles from where I live.
00:14:15
Speaker
So, again, for the old timers, they may remember there was a machine called Wiffle.
00:14:20
Speaker
Well, Wiffle was produced in Youngstown, Ohio, and the son of the founder spoke at Pinball Expo.
00:14:28
Speaker
So I guess that kind of resonated in my mind, you know, thinking way, way, way back in the early years of Expo.
00:14:35
Speaker
And kind of recreate, you know, I found that game called Whiffle.
00:14:39
Speaker
I found that and a couple of others that were made in Youngstown, Ohio.
00:14:42
Speaker
Very basic, just nails in the holes in the middle of it.
00:14:46
Speaker
It's just nothing, nothing to speak of, nothing to get excited about.
00:14:50
Speaker
But the more you look at them and how the games evolved, you can appreciate, let's put it that way, you can appreciate how the industry has grown.
00:14:58
Speaker
So I'm collecting those games now.
00:15:00
Speaker
And then when I talked to Jeff,
00:15:03
Speaker
he's out of Texas.
00:15:03
Speaker
I said, what do you think about doing a tournament with these 30 games?
00:15:06
Speaker
He says, man, that sounds like fun.
00:15:08
Speaker
So the one guy, Cliff, he's out of Chicago.
00:15:11
Speaker
His wife's going to, shows up as a flapper.
00:15:14
Speaker
And, you know, these, they're getting into it.
00:15:17
Speaker
So that's going on.
00:15:21
Speaker
And another thing is, geez, I don't know so many things.
00:15:24
Speaker
So pinball expo is been my dream show, but, um,
00:15:31
Speaker
My son, who is 22 now, he's one of these guys that's into the retro video games, you know, the Atari, Nintendo, and all that.
00:15:38
Speaker
So I've kind of hooked up with a guy in Chicago who I've known for several years, and we're incorporating his show into Expo.
00:15:46
Speaker
It's called the Video Game Summit.
00:15:48
Speaker
I saw that, yeah.
00:15:49
Speaker
So there'll be about 20 or 30 vendors there selling the old cartridges, you know, those old PlayStations.
00:15:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:15:55
Speaker
Okay, that's what I grew up on.
00:15:57
Speaker
That's what I grew up on.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I'm not saying that's my complete audience, but you know, it's kind of cool to see it.
00:16:04
Speaker
So that'll be part of the show this year.
00:16:05
Speaker
And I hope I don't get too much flack for that, but you know, it's something my son likes.
00:16:09
Speaker
So I kind of promote that angle, but just for his sake, you know, I'm not going to be around forever and this is something that he enjoys, but that'll be part of the show.
00:16:20
Speaker
And, um, and more.
00:16:23
Speaker
So maybe as we're talking, you guys might squeak something out of me, but, um,
00:16:28
Speaker
I'm really super excited.
00:16:33
Speaker
We are going to get into more of this, but before that happens, tell people when the show is, where it is, and if they want to come, what they need to do.
Expo History and Future Vision
00:16:46
Speaker
Well, go to the website, pinballexpo.com, and it'll give you a real clear explanation of what's happening.
00:16:53
Speaker
The show runs for all practical purposes the 17th, the 19th, which is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
00:16:59
Speaker
But then, you know, I've added the two additional days.
00:17:02
Speaker
Of October.
00:17:03
Speaker
Of October.
00:17:04
Speaker
Thank you, sir.
00:17:05
Speaker
So I've added the two additional days, the 15th and 16th.
00:17:08
Speaker
For those who want to come, just for the tours only.
00:17:11
Speaker
But the seminars will be like they always have been, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
00:17:14
Speaker
So that won't change.
00:17:17
Speaker
So the one thing I want to share with the audience is, initially, originally, we had the Stern tour on Wednesdays.
00:17:26
Speaker
But about the third month into the planning of the show, Stern reached out to me, and they've got some sort of internal bookkeeping or auditing going on in the company, and we had to move it to Friday.
00:17:42
Speaker
So just as an FYI.
00:17:44
Speaker
But that current information on the website is current, and people that have bought their ticket for a Wednesday tour will still honor it, but it will now be a Friday tour.
00:17:58
Speaker
And Josh and I just got back from the tour like what a month ago.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:01
Speaker
And just, it's amazing.
00:18:04
Speaker
I go and see how the machines are made.
00:18:07
Speaker
It's, it's awesome up close.
00:18:09
Speaker
We also have tour Jersey Jack too, and they have a great assembly thing.
00:18:15
Speaker
Ken Cromwell was willing to give us a little tour and that was a blast.
00:18:20
Speaker
I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, the CGC and American pinball too, to, to get the all four in the area.
00:18:28
Speaker
So that's an amazing opportunity.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:31
Speaker
I can't wait to see Stern again.
00:18:32
Speaker
Cause they promise that they're going to have that even more filled out and decorated for expo.
00:18:36
Speaker
Cause you know, and they've, they've, they've even, I'm not sure if the right words warned me, but they said we are going to put on an event that you guys will not blow your mind.
00:18:48
Speaker
So that's another reason to come, you know, guys, you got to think about something.
00:18:53
Speaker
Pinball expo started in 1985.
00:18:53
Speaker
And back then,
00:18:57
Speaker
You know, you got a bunch of enthusiasts, collectors, players, historians, but enthusiasts entering the industry.
00:19:08
Speaker
And by that time, I became friends with Norm Clark, who worked at Valley.
00:19:13
Speaker
I became friends with Alvin Gottlieb, who had the connection at Premier, and became friends with Steve Kordak, who had connections at Williams.
00:19:22
Speaker
So I said, guys, I had this dream about doing this pinball show.
00:19:26
Speaker
And if I do, would you consider being a vendor there?
00:19:31
Speaker
Well, they all agree.
00:19:33
Speaker
First of all, first of all, the Valley said first, okay, we'll be there.
00:19:36
Speaker
Because back then we were charging like 200 bucks to be a vendor.
00:19:40
Speaker
I mean, to those guys are used to being a thousand dollars or more for a booth doing it.
00:19:43
Speaker
I was like, what?
00:19:44
Speaker
That's nothing.
00:19:45
Speaker
So they came and then William said, well, Valley's coming.
00:19:50
Speaker
We're going to come.
00:19:50
Speaker
And the bottom said, they're coming.
00:19:52
Speaker
I'll be there.
00:19:53
Speaker
But imagine, Williams got a booth and right next to them is John Doe selling his parts, you know, used parts and half beat up machines.
00:20:03
Speaker
So it was crazy at the time, you know.
00:20:06
Speaker
But they gave me the support.
00:20:07
Speaker
I always felt from day one that the Expo couldn't survive without the support of the industry.
00:20:13
Speaker
And that's why I did the show in Chicago.
00:20:16
Speaker
But it was a lot of fun in the early years.
00:20:18
Speaker
And they would often say to me,
00:20:20
Speaker
Starting with Roger Sharp.
00:20:22
Speaker
He said, you know, we come to this show, but we don't really make any money being here because your people don't buy machines.
00:20:33
Speaker
We sell them to the operators.
00:20:37
Speaker
Well, guess what's happened?
00:20:38
Speaker
Guy's going to play turnaround now.
00:20:40
Speaker
The collectors are probably one of their biggest customers.
00:20:44
Speaker
So it's interesting how things have evolved.
00:20:46
Speaker
But in the early years, that was their mindset.
00:20:48
Speaker
But as many years as they told me that, they still came to the show.
00:20:52
Speaker
So back in those days, we toured Premiere.
00:20:54
Speaker
We toured Game Plan.
00:20:57
Speaker
You name every manufacturer there is.
00:20:59
Speaker
And it was fascinating because that was a closed industry.
00:21:04
Speaker
And I remember talking to people at Premiere.
00:21:07
Speaker
AKA Gottlieb, whether it be Wayne Nines or Alvin, these guys were really quiet and they didn't mingle with the other manufacturers.
00:21:15
Speaker
So I kind of opened the door to communication with these guys where they kind of met and talked to each other like they were bosom buddies.
00:21:21
Speaker
It was really a lot of fun in the early years.
00:21:27
Speaker
Tell me how pinball, now that's the early years.
00:21:31
Speaker
Tell me how it's evolved over the 40 years because you've had some booms, boom years.
00:21:36
Speaker
You've had some lean years to say the least.
00:21:41
Speaker
And it seems like even in the late 90s, 2000s, pinball was really on life support and started really getting a resurgence in the last 15 years.
00:21:53
Speaker
So lead me through how the expo has changed.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, you're dead on because I remember, like you said, was it 90 or whatever year that was when Stern was the last man standing?
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah, it was 2000.
00:22:11
Speaker
William shut down after Expo, really.
00:22:15
Speaker
So that was after Pinball 2000.
00:22:17
Speaker
So then Stern was the last one standing really for about 10 years.
00:22:23
Speaker
And then when the game over my left shoulder, Wizard of Oz, when it was announced, it really put some juice into the tank.
00:22:35
Speaker
And people started really stepping up saying, we want better games.
00:22:39
Speaker
We're willing to pay for better games.
00:22:41
Speaker
And that seemed to really revitalize the pinball industry because, you know, okay, I know there are people who love Big Buck Hunter, Nick Lane.
00:22:52
Speaker
But that wasn't the game that was selling a lot.
00:22:56
Speaker
But, you know, you start off with ACDC.
00:22:59
Speaker
You started with Tron.
00:23:00
Speaker
You started with these games that really started taking traction.
00:23:03
Speaker
And then it's exploded since then.
00:23:05
Speaker
So I'm wondering how each era of the Expo has evolved.
00:23:11
Speaker
Well, I think it kind of evolved slowly.
00:23:13
Speaker
First of all, back in 85, we had five different companies.
00:23:17
Speaker
And then that number kept going
Rob's Favorite Pinball Games
00:23:20
Speaker
down and down.
00:23:22
Speaker
And then what was it when all the Pac-Man games and all the videos came?
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, there was the video games in the 80s, and you had the video game market collapse.
00:23:35
Speaker
That happened in 82 as well.
00:23:39
Speaker
And so that was just something that they had to weather and to get back into.
00:23:45
Speaker
But I just recall Gary Stern, when he was the last company going, they had gone down to one production line.
00:23:53
Speaker
Yep.
00:23:53
Speaker
And he even said to me, he says, we're not going to say no to the tour.
00:23:58
Speaker
We made a commitment to it.
00:24:00
Speaker
But the tour, there wasn't a lot to see, a lot to show, a lot to talk about.
00:24:05
Speaker
Because they were on pins and needles about just the company even staying alive.
00:24:10
Speaker
Yep.
00:24:11
Speaker
And somehow they got through that year and things have only gone upwards since that time.
00:24:17
Speaker
But, you know, I've seen all the evolution of, we talked earlier, the mods, the evolution of companies coming and going and the evolution of play field designs.
00:24:29
Speaker
I mean, it just goes on forever.
00:24:32
Speaker
So let's get rid of Pepe here in a second.
00:24:34
Speaker
It can even be quiet.
00:24:35
Speaker
I'm on the podcast.
00:24:38
Speaker
So, um,
00:24:40
Speaker
And the evolution of the hotels, I've been through five different hotels with Expo.
00:24:46
Speaker
Some of the early years, people used to always make fun of the Rosemont Hotel.
00:24:49
Speaker
And in fact, I used to sell buttons and the button said, I've survived Pinball Expo in Rosemont.
00:24:56
Speaker
You know, it was like, it was like the laugh of the day.
00:24:59
Speaker
But the different people we had speaking, you know, in the early years, we used to have the banquets every year.
00:25:06
Speaker
We had guest speakers speaking.
00:25:09
Speaker
So,
00:25:11
Speaker
That kind of reminds me of the first year when I went to Alvin Gottlieb.
00:25:14
Speaker
I said, Alvin, would you consider speaking at an expo?
00:25:17
Speaker
Again, I didn't know him.
00:25:18
Speaker
He was just a complete stranger.
00:25:20
Speaker
And he said, why don't you come to my house?
00:25:22
Speaker
We'll talk about it.
00:25:23
Speaker
I go to his house.
00:25:24
Speaker
I'm envisioning this huge mansion with marble everywhere and like the two lions on both sides, you know, sitting there waiting for people to enter the house.
00:25:32
Speaker
And I go there, just an average house.
00:25:34
Speaker
And, you know, I'm thinking he's wearing a tuxedo or a suit when I come to the door.
00:25:38
Speaker
He's wearing blue jeans and a white shirt.
Maintaining Electromechanical Pinball Machines
00:25:40
Speaker
You know, can you think?
00:25:41
Speaker
God love this big, giant behemoth.
00:25:45
Speaker
But he was real down to earth.
00:25:46
Speaker
And I told him my whole dream about doing the show.
00:25:49
Speaker
And I said, you know, to me, the expo won't really happen unless we have a guest speaker of your magnitude.
00:25:55
Speaker
He said, you got so much passion.
00:25:56
Speaker
How can I say no?
00:25:58
Speaker
Yes, I'll be your speaker.
00:26:00
Speaker
And Alvin Golub.
00:26:02
Speaker
spoke at the banquet three and a half hours.
00:26:06
Speaker
He had a slide presentation of every game, starting with Humpty Dumpty, every game they had made and had a storyline for each one of them.
00:26:15
Speaker
There was a lot of people squirming in their seats for the third hour.
00:26:18
Speaker
That was a long banquet.
00:26:20
Speaker
That's a long talk, yes.
00:26:23
Speaker
I remember we had a talk.
00:26:25
Speaker
Or that's also just one question with Roger Sharp.
00:26:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:30
Speaker
We had a guy by the name of Rufus King talk.
00:26:34
Speaker
He was the attorney that handled the legalization of pinball machines if they were gambling or not.
00:26:43
Speaker
And Joe Kamikow, good old Joe Kamikow was sitting in the front row.
00:26:49
Speaker
And Joe, every time I looked over at him, he had his hand and like he was slicing his throat, like, cut this guy, cut up, you know.
00:26:58
Speaker
So I'm looking at Joe and I go, Joe.
00:27:01
Speaker
And then this guy is talking and dragging on it.
00:27:03
Speaker
You know, it was so, the guy was an attorney, so it was so dry.
00:27:07
Speaker
I didn't know.
00:27:08
Speaker
I thought it might be interesting.
00:27:10
Speaker
So finally, you know, Joe's ready to stand.
00:27:14
Speaker
And then I stand up for this guy, Rufus.
00:27:17
Speaker
I said, hey, I think it's lasting too long.
00:27:19
Speaker
We're going to cut it short.
00:27:21
Speaker
So he cut his talk short.
00:27:23
Speaker
He would have been there for hours, too.
00:27:25
Speaker
Another favorite thing I'll share, and we can go into more questions from you guys, but the second year that we did Expo, we had Alvin as the speaker again, but he was a plant.
00:27:37
Speaker
And what I wanted to do is I wanted to recognize Steve Corder for what he had done to the industry.
00:27:42
Speaker
So what Alvin said was, I want to talk for about 10 minutes, or five or 10 minutes, and when I mention this guy's name as a distributor in California, you come up and interrupt me.
00:27:52
Speaker
So he starts talking and people are getting into it.
00:27:54
Speaker
And then there was this, whatever this distributor was.
00:27:58
Speaker
Well, I slowly stood up and I looked him sideways.
00:28:04
Speaker
I says, can't you talk about anything more interesting?
00:28:07
Speaker
Well, if you're going to see the faces on the people, they're sitting there, you know, watching this banquet.
00:28:12
Speaker
It was priceless.
Vendor Diversity at Pinball Expo
00:28:15
Speaker
So he said, yeah, let's talk about Steve Kordak.
00:28:19
Speaker
And then we brought Steve Kornak up front and then we roasted them all night.
00:28:22
Speaker
But that was a lot of fun.
00:28:26
Speaker
Speaking of speakers, don't you have a special thing coming up with Pat Lawler at Expo?
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:34
Speaker
Thanks for asking, Josh.
00:28:35
Speaker
So Pat Lawler has always been a very popular speaker at Expo.
00:28:42
Speaker
In fact, every one of his seminars were always packed.
00:28:45
Speaker
And then I coined his seminar, the Pat Lawler Show.
00:28:50
Speaker
And he would bring, he would clear out his desk at Williams and pass out stuff left and right.
00:28:56
Speaker
And back when they, when they made, um, as family, you know, it was like, it was like the running joke, greed, greed, greed,
00:29:04
Speaker
And then he would want to give something away.
00:29:06
Speaker
He's, no, I better not.
00:29:07
Speaker
And then everybody in the audience would say, greed.
00:29:10
Speaker
You know, so, I mean, it was just so much fun with Pat in those early years.
00:29:15
Speaker
And he spoke and spoke and spoke with Williams.
00:29:18
Speaker
But what people loved about him was all the stuff he used to give away.
00:29:23
Speaker
And he'd have, like, tickets, and he'd pull your ticket out, and he'd give you something.
00:29:27
Speaker
And they were basically parts and prototypes and stuff he made in various games over the years.
00:29:33
Speaker
He would just clean his desk out.
00:29:35
Speaker
And Pat Lawler agreed to speak this year.
00:29:40
Speaker
And I'm excited about that because I know how popular he was.
00:29:45
Speaker
And we all know the great games he's built over the years.
00:29:49
Speaker
So Pat Lawler is giving a talk.
00:29:51
Speaker
And just to give you an idea, he's calling it the 40 Years of Pinball Expo, 1985 to 2024.
00:30:01
Speaker
So, you know, he's planning on giving a brief history of those years.
00:30:07
Speaker
And on his panel, he's going to have Larry DeMar, Greg Farris, Roger Sharp, Chris Granner, who's the sound guy, Bill Krupp, Jack Winery, and Steve Ritchie.
00:30:18
Speaker
So for the newer guys, maybe they don't really appreciate or recognize some of these names, but those people have been around for a while, they do.
00:30:27
Speaker
Pat's talk will be Friday at 9 p.m., but I guarantee you,
00:30:32
Speaker
that room will be packed because he does a fantastic job and he engages the audience a lot.
00:30:40
Speaker
So that's one thing that you'll want to, if you're coming to the show, you really want to make an effort to see it.
00:30:46
Speaker
It's going to be really fantastic.
00:30:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:48
Speaker
What, what day is that again?
00:30:50
Speaker
Friday night.
00:30:51
Speaker
Friday night.
00:30:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:53
Speaker
I'm glancing at the, I'm glancing at the, at the, the reference schedule and I'm not seeing it right now.
00:30:59
Speaker
So you may want to update that.
00:31:01
Speaker
Well, what we do is typically I don't come out with scheduled events until, for not argument's sake, maybe July.
00:31:10
Speaker
Because, you know, I'm still getting people, I'm stepping forward to people, hey, can you speak?
00:31:13
Speaker
Yes, no.
00:31:14
Speaker
And then, you know, you wait for people to get back to you.
00:31:17
Speaker
But it's going to be another full schedule going on Thursday from Saturday.
00:31:21
Speaker
So you're saying keep that in mind.
00:31:23
Speaker
Friday is a don't miss seminar with Pat Lawler.
00:31:28
Speaker
But we do about 40 hours of seminars.
00:31:32
Speaker
No show does to the extent we do.
00:31:34
Speaker
I mean, we try to cover a lot of interesting topics from a lot of different people.
00:31:40
Speaker
So we have a couple of questions from people that have written in.
00:31:45
Speaker
It sounds like the Alvin Gottlieb one.
00:31:47
Speaker
I don't know if that was your most memorable seminar, but Colin from Kineticist and This Week in Pinball want to know, what are the most memorable seminar sessions or speakers you've had from any past expo?
00:31:56
Speaker
Great question.
00:31:58
Speaker
And I will say the first expo, it was called Meet the Pinball Designers.
00:32:04
Speaker
So we had Cordek from Williams, Norm Clark from Valley, and Wayne Nines from Gottlieb.
00:32:14
Speaker
And Wayne Nines, being from Gottlieb, being from the culture of Gottlieb, they didn't really intermingle with any other manufacturer.
00:32:25
Speaker
So it was really kind of the first time that he was on a panel with Kordak and Clark side by side to him.
00:32:35
Speaker
They would say hi, and it shows, but never to that degree.
00:32:42
Speaker
And after that seminar, they sat there, the three of them, sat and talked and talked and talked because it was such a taboo thing back in the day.
00:32:51
Speaker
God was like in their own little circle of friends.
00:32:54
Speaker
And they didn't intermingle with any of the manufacturers.
00:32:57
Speaker
So for him to be with these other two guys was like, wow.
00:33:01
Speaker
So it was just so cool to see it happen.
00:33:04
Speaker
That was a favorite seminar of mine.
00:33:05
Speaker
Man, there's so many of them.
00:33:09
Speaker
Imagine, guys, 40 years with a samurai, it's just hard to remember.
00:33:14
Speaker
The early years, just like being in high school, you remember the early years in high school, you can't remember near the end.
00:33:21
Speaker
But there were so many
00:33:23
Speaker
people that spoke and people that talked about and finding people that's to be there at the show.
00:33:32
Speaker
It was, man, I just don't know where to start.
00:33:34
Speaker
I'll have to have my paperwork with me.
00:33:36
Speaker
I will say this.
00:33:37
Speaker
I'm planning on giving a talk at Expo with that exact question.
00:33:42
Speaker
You know, the highlights of 40 years of Pinball Expo.
00:33:44
Speaker
So I'm working on that now between pictures and my notes as far as some of the highlights of, you know, 40 years is just nuts.
00:33:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:33:55
Speaker
Well, Julianne Talbot and Baba Hafiz both asked, what's your vision for Pinball Expo going forward after this, maybe for like the next five years?
00:34:06
Speaker
And are you looking to mentor for a successor or anything like that?
00:34:10
Speaker
Well, it's funny you should say, because I was going to see Josh if you would consider being taken over the show.
00:34:16
Speaker
Josh would be great.
00:34:17
Speaker
He'd be great.
00:34:18
Speaker
Sold.
00:34:18
Speaker
I'll do it.
00:34:20
Speaker
You know, I talked to my wife about this, and she says, you know, do you think this is the last hurrah?
00:34:25
Speaker
You know, my thinking right now is this.
00:34:28
Speaker
I've put so much heart and passion into the show that if I were to hand it over to anybody, how could they have the feelings and emotions and passion that I do?
00:34:41
Speaker
You know, being my baby, you could say, for 40 years.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's hard for someone else just to walk in and just have the same –
00:34:48
Speaker
hunger and injuries and the level of excitement like I have.
00:34:53
Speaker
But, um, you know, I'm going to keep going after the 40th, you know, the 40th is such a milestone.
00:34:58
Speaker
Like how do you top it?
00:35:00
Speaker
You know, can I make it to the 50th?
00:35:03
Speaker
And, you know, I say, we'll say this, you know, when you start, uh, getting older, the bones don't quite work like they used to.
00:35:10
Speaker
And that's the only thing would slow me down.
00:35:13
Speaker
But right now, you know, I'm healthy and I, and I hope to keep on going.
00:35:18
Speaker
And, um,
00:35:20
Speaker
I hope to make this show interesting and fascinating.
00:35:22
Speaker
I've always tried every year to add some element to make it different than previous years.
00:35:26
Speaker
So we hope to keep on going.
00:35:29
Speaker
How long?
00:35:29
Speaker
I don't know.
00:35:30
Speaker
I guess someone walks up to me and says, hey, my name is Josh.
00:35:34
Speaker
Hi, my name is Scott.
00:35:35
Speaker
Do you guys want me to take over the show for you?
00:35:38
Speaker
And, you know, timing is everything in life.
00:35:40
Speaker
It could be the right time.
00:35:42
Speaker
Scotty, tell the wife.
00:35:43
Speaker
Yeah, we're moving to Chicago.
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah, there you go.
00:35:47
Speaker
Rob does it from Ohio.
00:35:48
Speaker
So that's true.
00:35:51
Speaker
Isn't that crazy?
00:35:52
Speaker
You know, because most people live in the, in the town where they do the show.
00:35:56
Speaker
Yep.
00:35:56
Speaker
You're right.
00:35:57
Speaker
That is crazy.
00:36:00
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:36:00
Speaker
So we have another, now you have, what is it?
00:36:04
Speaker
How many games?
00:36:04
Speaker
1400.
00:36:05
Speaker
So here's the story guys.
00:36:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:10
Speaker
Um, I've been collecting for a long time to the point where, um,
00:36:15
Speaker
my memories fail me a little bit.
00:36:16
Speaker
So sometimes I've got three of one title and six of another golf stream.
00:36:20
Speaker
I finally had six of them.
00:36:22
Speaker
I can't believe that.
00:36:23
Speaker
But, um, my daughter, uh, reached out to Guinness for whatever reason.
00:36:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:36:31
Speaker
Um, this year we celebrated our, our,
00:36:35
Speaker
first year anniversary of pastimes.
00:36:38
Speaker
So what pastimes is, is an arcade museum that I put together with the idea of a place where I could show my collection.
00:36:48
Speaker
And initially I thought, let me buy a building and put a half a dozen games in there, a dozen games in there, and I can come and go when I want.
00:36:55
Speaker
I just bring a key with me and go in there and play for a couple hours and call it a night.
00:37:01
Speaker
So my wife said, you're crazy.
00:37:02
Speaker
What are you putting all that work in this place?
00:37:04
Speaker
It was a 30,000 square foot grocery store.
00:37:08
Speaker
So we cleared the grocery store out, cleared the aisles out, took out the drop ceiling, painted the walls.
00:37:14
Speaker
I mean, you know, the list goes on and on.
00:37:17
Speaker
And we start putting the games in, you know, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400.
00:37:23
Speaker
And during that same time I was collecting pinball machines, I was collecting upright arcade games.
00:37:29
Speaker
Why?
00:37:29
Speaker
I don't know.
00:37:31
Speaker
But I was collecting.
00:37:31
Speaker
I had the whole Pac-Man series.
00:37:33
Speaker
So Pac-Man, Miss Pac-Man, Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Land.
00:37:43
Speaker
And there's one I still don't have you, the Professor Pac-Man.
00:37:45
Speaker
That's the one I haven't found yet.
00:37:47
Speaker
But I'm kind of one of these guys who's the completist.
00:37:50
Speaker
If I have a certain type of game, I want to get all of them.
00:37:53
Speaker
And I started buying these games and I started putting them in the museum.
00:38:00
Speaker
So we had our one year anniversary recently.
00:38:03
Speaker
And my daughter said, the press was down there.
00:38:05
Speaker
My daughter said, hang around for a second.
00:38:09
Speaker
So I said, okay, take nothing of it.
00:38:11
Speaker
And then she hands me this plaque or something wrapped up.
00:38:15
Speaker
So I open it up and congratulations on behalf of Guinness,
00:38:20
Speaker
You know, you were the single largest owner of pinball machines.
00:38:24
Speaker
Now, this is single title.
00:38:26
Speaker
This isn't all the duplicates.
00:38:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:28
Speaker
You're right when you said 1400.
00:38:30
Speaker
That's including the duplicates.
00:38:32
Speaker
But it was 1,040 different title games.
00:38:38
Speaker
And one of my workers today just said, oh, by the way, you're up to 1,090 now.
00:38:43
Speaker
You know, there's a time period, you know, whenever you present to Guinness and then you've got to give them all the backup.
00:38:49
Speaker
You have to have the stats.
00:38:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
So then, guys, I'm at 1,090 now.
00:38:54
Speaker
I never thought of it, and I can't believe it.
00:38:57
Speaker
And frankly, a lot of these games, I'd like to set up more of the games.
00:39:01
Speaker
And I'd like to set up a whole area just for the 30s games.
00:39:04
Speaker
And let's face it, you can't get real excited about the 30 games, but to see so many of them won.
00:39:09
Speaker
spot.
00:39:09
Speaker
He's like, wow, this is cool.
00:39:13
Speaker
So then a guy by the name of Oscar Terrell reaches out to me.
00:39:19
Speaker
We're going back a year or two.
00:39:22
Speaker
And he says, hi, I'm from Spain.
00:39:23
Speaker
I'm thinking about coming to Pinball Expo.
00:39:25
Speaker
So at the time, we were playing with the family to go to Spain.
00:39:29
Speaker
He said, hey, we're going to be in Spain in two months.
00:39:31
Speaker
I'd like to meet you.
00:39:33
Speaker
He said, sure, come on.
00:39:34
Speaker
So I meet the guy.
00:39:36
Speaker
And he turns him down to a collector in Spain, Barcelona, who's got this massive collection.
00:39:44
Speaker
But guess what?
00:39:46
Speaker
I didn't recognize one title.
00:39:48
Speaker
All the games were made in Spain.
00:39:51
Speaker
They had their own unique titles, own unique play fields, own unique layouts.
00:39:56
Speaker
I never heard of these guys.
00:39:58
Speaker
So I'm going up and down.
00:39:59
Speaker
I was, hey, man, would you consider selling this stuff?
00:40:02
Speaker
No, this is my personal collection.
00:40:04
Speaker
Well, then I start reaching out to some other people I had met through Expo and so forth.
00:40:09
Speaker
You know, I'm going to start buying.
00:40:10
Speaker
Start.
00:40:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:11
Speaker
Start, Scotty.
00:40:12
Speaker
Start buying Spanish games.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yep.
00:40:16
Speaker
So various people reached out to me, and I brought in one container, 45 games in Spain.
00:40:23
Speaker
All these crazy, unique titles.
00:40:25
Speaker
I said, man, this is so cool.
00:40:27
Speaker
So I brought them to Expo one year.
00:40:29
Speaker
We had them for the –
00:40:31
Speaker
the opening night, and people were playing like crazy.
00:40:33
Speaker
The best way of saying it, they were digging it.
00:40:38
Speaker
So crazy me is there's probably more of them out there.
00:40:43
Speaker
So I brought in another 45 games with Spain and Italy.
00:40:48
Speaker
Titles you've never heard of before.
00:40:51
Speaker
I just fell in love with them.
00:40:52
Speaker
I was goofy.
00:40:53
Speaker
Well, there's another load coming in in about three weeks, another 20.
00:40:57
Speaker
So it's close to 100 Spanish games.
00:41:01
Speaker
So if that wasn't bad enough, I'm in Japan because I do a lot of business in China.
00:41:07
Speaker
So I'm visiting one of the Japanese pinball guys, and he's got a Sega pinball.
00:41:15
Speaker
Sega pinball.
00:41:16
Speaker
I've never heard of you guys.
00:41:17
Speaker
Sega.
00:41:18
Speaker
Game called Surfing.
00:41:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:21
Speaker
Well, I fell in love with it.
00:41:23
Speaker
And I said, would you sell it?
00:41:24
Speaker
Yes.
00:41:25
Speaker
So I ended up buying that game.
00:41:28
Speaker
So then I started thinking to myself, you know, this is kind of cool to have all these screwball titles because the museum, everyone's got a medium of madness.
00:41:35
Speaker
Everyone's got a Godzilla.
00:41:36
Speaker
Everyone's got his family.
00:41:38
Speaker
No one's got the crazy Spanish game.
00:41:40
Speaker
So I started thinking to myself, I'm going to start getting goofy even more.
00:41:44
Speaker
So I picked up the game called Bullseye 301 made by Grand Products.
00:41:50
Speaker
Aftar, which is a one of a kind made by Waco.
00:41:54
Speaker
Yep.
00:41:55
Speaker
And, you know, I'm buying all these goofy titles.
00:42:00
Speaker
And, you know, for these allied leisure, you know, they made a half a dozen games.
00:42:05
Speaker
So people had mentioned, you know, do you have any games from Australia?
00:42:10
Speaker
No.
00:42:12
Speaker
I remember the one game, Empire Strikes Back was made in Australia.
00:42:16
Speaker
Oh, yep.
00:42:17
Speaker
Yep.
00:42:17
Speaker
That one.
00:42:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:19
Speaker
So I put my feelers out again.
00:42:23
Speaker
And I hooked up with a guy, and thanks to Colin helped me with this.
00:42:28
Speaker
And he says, I can help you find these games.
00:42:34
Speaker
Really?
00:42:34
Speaker
So there's my head, everything.
00:42:36
Speaker
I'm getting pumped up, man.
00:42:37
Speaker
The adrenaline's moving.
00:42:38
Speaker
Oh, boy.
00:42:39
Speaker
He said, you know, they made five different titles in Australia.
00:42:43
Speaker
I said, five?
00:42:44
Speaker
I only knew the one.
00:42:46
Speaker
Five.
00:42:47
Speaker
He says, give me a month or two.
00:42:51
Speaker
Don't hear from the guy.
00:42:53
Speaker
Reaches out to me.
00:42:54
Speaker
He says, well, I got the Empire for you.
00:42:57
Speaker
And four more.
00:42:58
Speaker
I got one of every title they ever made.
00:43:00
Speaker
I said, you've got to be kidding me.
00:43:03
Speaker
Wow.
00:43:03
Speaker
What were the other titles?
00:43:04
Speaker
I haven't heard of the other titles.
00:43:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:08
Speaker
It's in the database.
00:43:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:11
Speaker
Let me see if I can find it here real quick.
00:43:13
Speaker
So he sends me a video of these titles.
00:43:16
Speaker
I never heard of these games.
00:43:18
Speaker
So crazy man, I ended up buying those five.
00:43:22
Speaker
All right.
00:43:23
Speaker
You looking up, Josh?
00:43:24
Speaker
You looking them up?
00:43:26
Speaker
I am.
00:43:26
Speaker
I am.
00:43:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:28
Speaker
I will say at Pinball Expo, this is three years ago.
00:43:32
Speaker
I saw a game that you had, which was Nemesis, which seemed very like 70s fantasy.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:39
Speaker
I love that game.
00:43:43
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:43:43
Speaker
The artwork is probably not, uh, like it wouldn't fly today, but it certainly is very 70, 70s fantasy art.
00:43:52
Speaker
But, uh, we had a blast playing it because I'd never seen that.
00:43:55
Speaker
I'm like, I'm never seeing this game again.
00:43:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:57
Speaker
Here's the five titles, right?
00:43:59
Speaker
For this, this is Hankin pinball.
00:44:02
Speaker
I I've never heard of this.
00:44:03
Speaker
So,
00:44:03
Speaker
They did make five titles.
00:44:05
Speaker
FJ is their first one, which looks like a racing game.
00:44:09
Speaker
Orbit one, not to be confused with Orbiter one.
00:44:12
Speaker
Different.
00:44:13
Speaker
How's that?
00:44:15
Speaker
Which looks like a disco thing.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:44:19
Speaker
They made soccer.
00:44:20
Speaker
Shark, just straight up shark.
00:44:23
Speaker
And then the Empire Strikes Back.
00:44:25
Speaker
So guess what, guys?
00:44:27
Speaker
I'm guessing Empire Strikes Back was the only one that sold.
00:44:30
Speaker
It was probably the best game.
00:44:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:31
Speaker
That's what I'm actually.
00:44:32
Speaker
No, it wasn't.
00:44:33
Speaker
So there's only 350 units where orbit orbit one sold 1020.
00:44:37
Speaker
Wow.
00:44:37
Speaker
It's like it sold more than the rest of the games combined from their, from their catalog.
00:44:43
Speaker
And I'm glad you, I'm glad you and Scott are separated because I'm afraid both of you guys would lunge at me through the,
00:44:50
Speaker
through the TV scope.
00:44:53
Speaker
But imagine just your excitement just talking about it.
00:44:57
Speaker
It's like, wow, this is so cool.
00:44:59
Speaker
So anyways, Crazy Me ends up buying all five of them.
00:45:04
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:04
Speaker
The guy said, oh, by the way.
00:45:07
Speaker
Okay, here's a scoop for you.
00:45:09
Speaker
Scotty.
00:45:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:12
Speaker
I found an extra Empire Strikes Back.
00:45:16
Speaker
It will be for sale at Expo.
00:45:19
Speaker
I haven't seen one of those in person.
00:45:21
Speaker
I've only seen them on the internet.
00:45:25
Speaker
Josh, you are the first podcast to hear it from my lips.
00:45:29
Speaker
Nice.
00:45:30
Speaker
All right.
00:45:30
Speaker
So if you want the elusive Hank in Empire Strikes Back, it sounds like it will be for sale in Chicago.
00:45:35
Speaker
If you want the Star Wars collection, absolutely.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yes.
00:45:38
Speaker
All right.
00:45:39
Speaker
You ready, guys?
00:45:40
Speaker
It's going to get crazier again.
00:45:41
Speaker
There's an operator in Texas going by the little shop of whores, a little shop of pinball.
00:45:51
Speaker
Yep.
00:45:52
Speaker
Yep.
00:45:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:54
Speaker
So I'm talking to him about my collection and all the different things I got and so forth.
00:46:00
Speaker
He said, you got to get a hold of a friend of mine.
00:46:03
Speaker
So the guy's name is Marshall Dickinson.
00:46:07
Speaker
Little house of games he goes by.
00:46:10
Speaker
So he turns me on to a guy from Brazil.
00:46:15
Speaker
So I said, I've heard of some games in Brazil.
00:46:20
Speaker
He said, isn't Taito from Brazil?
00:46:22
Speaker
He said, well, actually, it's pronounced Taito.
00:46:25
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:46:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:26
Speaker
I don't know.
00:46:27
Speaker
So Taito made quite a few games, but they were all knockoffs of American games.
00:46:36
Speaker
Just different artwork, different layout, maybe a post here that removed one way or the other, but basically the same game.
00:46:43
Speaker
But
00:46:44
Speaker
They did make one original game.
00:46:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:49
Speaker
Same title as the one that Hankin made.
00:46:52
Speaker
Was it Jaws, was it?
00:46:55
Speaker
Shark.
00:46:55
Speaker
Shark.
00:46:57
Speaker
So Taito made a shark as well.
00:47:02
Speaker
And that's the only original game they made.
00:47:07
Speaker
That game will be at Pinball Expo.
00:47:11
Speaker
Cool.
00:47:12
Speaker
Okay, so basically the people who really want to complete their collection with Eclectic Games.
00:47:19
Speaker
It sounds like there will be a lot available at Expo.
00:47:22
Speaker
There will be some really rare ones there for sale.
00:47:25
Speaker
So it's going to be crazy, guys.
00:47:28
Speaker
And Scott, it sounds like you're kind of, you like me are kind of intrigued by some of these odd titles.
00:47:35
Speaker
But some of the layouts are really cool.
00:47:36
Speaker
So Joe Kamiko, do you guys know Joe Kamiko?
00:47:39
Speaker
We know Joe.
00:47:39
Speaker
We do.
00:47:40
Speaker
Friend of the show.
00:47:40
Speaker
He's been on the show, yeah.
00:47:43
Speaker
So Joe's been down to our place about a month ago.
00:47:47
Speaker
He says, I got to get Gary Stern and his design team down here.
00:47:51
Speaker
He says, there's so many.
00:47:52
Speaker
I mean, imagine, guys.
00:47:54
Speaker
There's about 650.
00:47:55
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:47:56
Speaker
There's about 450 games of just pinball.
00:48:00
Speaker
And we have about 200 of the video games.
00:48:03
Speaker
But he says, there's so many different and unique layouts here of all these games, of all these different manufacturers, they can't help but get an idea.
00:48:11
Speaker
So when he was there, he called Gary up.
00:48:13
Speaker
He says, you've got to bring some Adania.
00:48:15
Speaker
This is crazy what I'm seeing here.
00:48:18
Speaker
So, you know, the past times have been a lot of fun.
00:48:22
Speaker
We've had collectors and players come from coast to coast.
00:48:26
Speaker
We had one guy come from Australia.
00:48:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:31
Speaker
all over the world just to see all these games in one spot.
00:48:34
Speaker
And so one thing we've taken pride on is every game is up.
00:48:39
Speaker
Every game is running.
00:48:42
Speaker
Every game is clean.
00:48:44
Speaker
And every game plays like it's brand new.
00:48:47
Speaker
Now, not to say that any given moment, if you stop in there, you might have two or three down.
00:48:51
Speaker
But for the most part, you know, 95% of the games, if not higher, are all up and running.
00:48:57
Speaker
So people that come there find it to be a really fascinating experience because to have so many games up and running is – it's really crazy.
00:49:05
Speaker
I mean, we've got five techs.
00:49:08
Speaker
You would have to.
00:49:10
Speaker
You would have to.
00:49:10
Speaker
Yeah, we're open Thursday through Sunday, Monday morning, all day Monday, all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday.
00:49:17
Speaker
And have a day Thursday.
00:49:18
Speaker
All they're doing is getting the games up and running again.
00:49:23
Speaker
And where is this?
00:49:24
Speaker
Because people are going to want to come.
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's in Girard, Ohio.
00:49:29
Speaker
G-I-R-A-R-D.
00:49:31
Speaker
Girard, Ohio.
00:49:31
Speaker
Girard, Ohio is near Youngstown, Ohio.
00:49:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:35
Speaker
And the name of the location?
00:49:39
Speaker
Past times.
00:49:41
Speaker
But the closest airport is either Cleveland or Pittsburgh.
00:49:46
Speaker
I had a guy come down I just thought about it I had a guy come down about three months ago from Poland crazy I had a guy come down from Germany and this guy was just a new pinball guy and he says you know I love pinball and I work for an airline we fly all over the world if I come down to Cleveland can I come to your museum I said heck yeah
00:50:15
Speaker
Well, he came down.
00:50:18
Speaker
If I thought he was bad off then, well, he's been totally ruined.
00:50:22
Speaker
So, you know, these stories go on and on.
00:50:26
Speaker
It's easy to get captivated by this hobby.
00:50:28
Speaker
Well, it sounds like you can almost find any game.
00:50:31
Speaker
Is there a game?
00:50:32
Speaker
So John Lee wants to know, is there a game you don't have or is there a game that eludes you?
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:43
Speaker
The one is made by Gameplan, Loch Ness Monster.
00:50:48
Speaker
But they only made one or two of those.
00:50:50
Speaker
And Herb Silvers owned one at one time.
00:50:53
Speaker
And then it seems way around a couple of different places.
00:50:57
Speaker
But that game's hard to find.
00:50:59
Speaker
And if you find it, it would cost ungodly money.
00:51:03
Speaker
It'd be like a pinball circus or something?
00:51:06
Speaker
You got it.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:08
Speaker
And that'd be a cool game to have.
00:51:09
Speaker
But...
00:51:10
Speaker
It would be.
00:51:11
Speaker
I hear it's finally up and running.
00:51:12
Speaker
It was kind of under shop for a while.
00:51:15
Speaker
Okay, so one thing I do want to know with all of your games, and I know that everybody's favorite list changes through time, I want you to give me your top five favorite games right now.
00:51:29
Speaker
All right.
00:51:30
Speaker
Drum roll.
00:51:31
Speaker
Drum roll.
00:51:32
Speaker
Go.
00:51:35
Speaker
So Medieval Madness ranks up there tied with Theater of Magic.
00:51:41
Speaker
Okay.
00:51:42
Speaker
Nice.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I'd say Close up there is also – I like Papa Deuce games.
00:51:49
Speaker
I like Circus Voltaire.
00:51:53
Speaker
I like Monster Bash.
00:51:55
Speaker
And, you know, it's interesting, guys.
00:51:57
Speaker
Look at these titles.
00:51:58
Speaker
They're all made by Williamsburg Valley, all in the mid-90s.
00:52:02
Speaker
What was so special in that time?
00:52:03
Speaker
You know, everything was just really dialed in between the art package and the designers and the programmers.
00:52:11
Speaker
You know, they just, they had it.
00:52:13
Speaker
They had it.
00:52:14
Speaker
We got it, man.
00:52:15
Speaker
We got it figured out.
00:52:16
Speaker
And they
00:52:18
Speaker
I don't care who you talk to his favorite game.
00:52:20
Speaker
I will say Godzilla has got to be up there.
00:52:22
Speaker
Because I've always been a Japanese into the Japanese culture.
00:52:28
Speaker
So to have that black and white Godzilla on the screen, I remember seeing as a little kid watching that Godzilla in the black and white on TV back when it shows you how old I am when TV was black and white.
00:52:40
Speaker
So I remember seeing that show growing up as a little kid.
00:52:44
Speaker
So that game would certainly be up there.
00:52:48
Speaker
But as far as the EM world, one of the games I like is a game called Texan.
00:52:55
Speaker
No one's heard of Texan.
00:52:56
Speaker
And Josh, you're welcome to look it up on IPDD while we're talking.
00:53:00
Speaker
Texan was made by Golub in 1960.
00:53:02
Speaker
And I have a guy that works for me.
00:53:07
Speaker
And I found a Texan, and he put 80 hours into rebuilding every component of
00:53:14
Speaker
And the game plays like it did back in 1960.
00:53:17
Speaker
Fast action, the thumper bumpers, or jet lightning.
00:53:20
Speaker
But it's a layout that I'm so intrigued by.
00:53:24
Speaker
It's a simple game.
00:53:26
Speaker
You know, a lot of the golf games from the 60s and 70s were very simple.
00:53:29
Speaker
Squarehead, tic-tac-toe, you know, volley, knock down the targets.
00:53:34
Speaker
But...
00:53:38
Speaker
Those games were really a lot of fun.
00:53:40
Speaker
But, you know, I also collect a lot of Williams at a ball games in the 60s.
00:53:44
Speaker
Again, that's when I grew up during that time.
00:53:46
Speaker
So that's all we knew.
00:53:47
Speaker
I mean, back then, the speed of that ball was what we knew.
00:53:51
Speaker
That was fast.
00:53:51
Speaker
And you had to have quick reflexes.
00:53:53
Speaker
Not like today.
00:53:54
Speaker
It's pretty nuts.
00:53:56
Speaker
But I'm kind of jumping around here a little bit.
00:54:01
Speaker
So I gave it a three solid state.
00:54:03
Speaker
The one EM got a little bit.
00:54:06
Speaker
I'm trying to think what other game I would die for.
00:54:09
Speaker
You know, I like Big Bang Bar.
00:54:12
Speaker
You know, Gene Cunningham, you know, reproduced, you know, 200 titles and I was able to get one.
00:54:19
Speaker
But that game was made by Rob Morrison and he was the only game he built.
00:54:23
Speaker
But I always thought, man, that guy did a pretty darn great game.
00:54:28
Speaker
Have you read that?
00:54:31
Speaker
There's an article that someone wrote back in the day.
00:54:34
Speaker
It's called When Pigs Fly.
00:54:36
Speaker
When pigs flew.
00:54:37
Speaker
When pigs flew.
00:54:38
Speaker
Yes.
00:54:38
Speaker
And it actually goes over like the, the remake of big bang bar and how G can actually, it's, it's actually quite interesting.
00:54:47
Speaker
We'll we'll look it up and send you a link.
00:54:50
Speaker
It's, it's quite a long form.
00:54:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:53
Speaker
So one thing I do want to know the last 15 years.
00:54:56
Speaker
So these are the modern pinball.
00:54:58
Speaker
So I would say the, the second golden age of pinball.
00:55:02
Speaker
your top five games.
00:55:04
Speaker
So from 2010 on 2010 on.
00:55:11
Speaker
Well, Godzilla.
00:55:12
Speaker
So that made it easy.
00:55:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:16
Speaker
Um, you can just go everything.
00:55:19
Speaker
Elwin Jurassic park.
00:55:21
Speaker
Iron.
00:55:21
Speaker
Let me look at behind me.
00:55:23
Speaker
Um,
00:55:27
Speaker
Let me think.
00:55:28
Speaker
As family, I think I like that a lot.
00:55:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:31
Speaker
Attack from Mars, Revenge from Mars.
00:55:37
Speaker
I'm just trying to think of the games I have in my basement.
00:55:39
Speaker
I got about 80 games in the basement.
00:55:41
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:42
Speaker
How big is your basement?
00:55:43
Speaker
I have 10 games and I have no more space.
00:55:46
Speaker
I would kill for your basement size.
00:55:48
Speaker
So what happens, we build about a 4,000 square foot home.
00:55:51
Speaker
And I told my wife, I want a big basement.
00:55:54
Speaker
So...
00:55:55
Speaker
We built the home, and then I was able to fit about, I don't know, let's say 40 games.
00:56:01
Speaker
And I said, there's so many more games I want to put in the basement.
00:56:03
Speaker
So we added on an addition to the house.
00:56:07
Speaker
We had to add it up in order to build down.
00:56:11
Speaker
Yep.
00:56:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:12
Speaker
So that added another 20 games to it.
00:56:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:16
Speaker
I could really use a little bit more room.
00:56:18
Speaker
We added on to our bedroom.
00:56:20
Speaker
It used to be upstairs, and then we had a ground-level bedroom.
00:56:23
Speaker
So we added that on, and that's a third add-on to the house, which gave me room for another 30 games.
00:56:30
Speaker
that took it to where it is today.
00:56:31
Speaker
But, you know, I have a little bit of everything in there from, you know, ball bowlers to some of the older arcade games, video games, you know, another game I kind of like, and we'll see which one of you guys knows about this game made by game plan called Andromeda.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yes.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yep.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yep.
00:56:48
Speaker
Well, that was, that was on like one of the finals, like a pinball final.
00:56:53
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:56:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:54
Speaker
A few years ago.
00:56:55
Speaker
And it was a major competition.
00:56:58
Speaker
It wasn't at the final game.
00:57:01
Speaker
Josh, do you remember this?
00:57:02
Speaker
I think so.
00:57:03
Speaker
Yeah, and that's when I heard about Andromeda.
00:57:06
Speaker
But made by Gameplan, which is really an obscure manufacturer, that was really a pretty darn good game.
00:57:12
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:57:13
Speaker
So I'm just kind of remembering the games as I walked down in my basement and...
00:57:23
Speaker
So Jamie Marie wants to know, what is the monthly electric bill for Pastimes Arcade?
00:57:29
Speaker
Because that place is huge.
00:57:31
Speaker
$3,000.
00:57:31
Speaker
And I will say this, anyone out there in Radioland, if you guys want to help me and either devise, install, or build solar panels, I'd like to give it a shot.
00:57:45
Speaker
Because, you know, it's only going to get higher if we keep adding more games.
00:57:50
Speaker
Yep, yep.
00:57:51
Speaker
Well, you also need a major air conditioning bill on top of that.
00:57:56
Speaker
We have that.
00:57:57
Speaker
And then we had fans in there just to get the airflow going on in there.
00:58:04
Speaker
All right.
00:58:05
Speaker
Albert Agar wants to know what makes Expo stand out from other pinball or arcade shows.
00:58:11
Speaker
Well, I will say this.
00:58:13
Speaker
All shows are good in their own right.
00:58:15
Speaker
They all have a special magic to them.
00:58:18
Speaker
I think what makes Expo unique, of course, is the tours of the factories.
00:58:23
Speaker
I mean, you can't do that anywhere else.
00:58:25
Speaker
And number two, I think just the ability to see all the pinball designers and artists.
00:58:32
Speaker
And it's true, the other shows will have a smattering, two or three different guys, maybe four guys.
00:58:38
Speaker
But we have 20 and 30 different guys.
00:58:42
Speaker
It's just people that you just don't normally are able to see.
00:58:46
Speaker
So that's very special.
00:58:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:48
Speaker
And I think what else is...
00:58:52
Speaker
We mix the combination of collector, vendor, or collector exhibits.
00:59:02
Speaker
So I'm saying like Andy Sokol, for instance.
00:59:06
Speaker
He's got the planetary pinball, or not planetary pinball, Andy Sokol.
00:59:11
Speaker
He's out of Florida.
00:59:12
Speaker
He makes the custom replay buttons.
00:59:17
Speaker
Do you remember who I'm talking about?
00:59:20
Speaker
I think so.
00:59:21
Speaker
I'm just trying to find here real quick the name of his company.
00:59:28
Speaker
He goes by Rocket City Pinball.
00:59:30
Speaker
Yes.
00:59:31
Speaker
I actually just got a mod for my jaws from him.
00:59:36
Speaker
A guy like him will be there, and the major manufacturers will be there.
00:59:41
Speaker
And a guy like...
00:59:44
Speaker
I'm just trying to think, but some of the small guys, they're a part of the hobby, but you don't hear about them all the time or see about them.
00:59:51
Speaker
Tanner Walters, he's a guy that created this.
00:59:59
Speaker
It goes on EM games.
01:00:01
Speaker
It records a high score, but he created this unit that would do it.
01:00:07
Speaker
We had the guy from Canada, if you guys saw those clocks he was doing.
01:00:11
Speaker
It was like a little digital clock with a got-lib artwork on it.
01:00:18
Speaker
He's out of Montreal, Canada.
01:00:21
Speaker
But I mean, you see all different types of vendors.
01:00:23
Speaker
You don't know who you're going to see next when you turn the road.
01:00:27
Speaker
Whereas, you know, a lot of the other shows, it's the same old guys, same old guys.
01:00:31
Speaker
So we're able to pull out some of the unique guys.
01:00:33
Speaker
Plus, a lot of the vendors come from Europe and overseas.
01:00:37
Speaker
So that makes it unique as well.
01:00:40
Speaker
Okay.
01:00:40
Speaker
So one question I have, I am a
01:00:44
Speaker
I'm a first time pinball expo person.
01:00:48
Speaker
So I call you, you say, this is what you need to do when you come to expo.
01:00:57
Speaker
Number one, make sure you get plenty of sleep.
01:01:00
Speaker
Yes.
01:01:01
Speaker
Wait before you show up.
01:01:02
Speaker
Number two, make sure you get your camera ready.
01:01:06
Speaker
What's going to happen is you're going to see so much stuff, at least the first time it'll blow your mind.
01:01:12
Speaker
So just be ready to walk through the show slowly and absorb everything.
01:01:17
Speaker
But you're also going to meet a lot of people.
01:01:20
Speaker
And it just will happen.
01:01:22
Speaker
I don't care if you're the shyest guy.
01:01:24
Speaker
You're going to meet people, whether it's an interim where we have our meet and greet for the first time or on the pinball tour or whatever.
01:01:33
Speaker
And that's very special because the next thing you know, you met Josh from Loser Kid or you met Scott.
01:01:40
Speaker
And hey, man, it's kind of cool to meet you in person.
01:01:43
Speaker
How you doing?
01:01:44
Speaker
You know, I'm John Doe.
01:01:46
Speaker
I love your podcast.
01:01:46
Speaker
I love the one podcast you do with Larry DeMar.
01:01:49
Speaker
You know, so you guys would love to hear this.
01:01:52
Speaker
But then you have a new fan and you meet the fan.
01:01:55
Speaker
And that makes it special for everybody.
01:01:59
Speaker
And that also, for the first time, which is something you can look forward to.
01:02:03
Speaker
We're going to have a lot of different souvenirs this year, guys.
01:02:06
Speaker
I've lost my mind on the souvenirs this year.
01:02:09
Speaker
So if you were there last year, Josh, you remember we had Flippy.
01:02:12
Speaker
We introduced the character Flippy.
01:02:15
Speaker
That was an idea I came up with, the Flippy mascot.
01:02:18
Speaker
And he was very well received.
01:02:20
Speaker
And then last year we brought his sister, Flippette.
01:02:24
Speaker
Well, this year you're going to meet more of the family, including Aunt Tilt and Poppy in parentheses Pop Bumper.
01:02:35
Speaker
So you're going to meet more family members.
01:02:39
Speaker
And there's something else going on, guys.
01:02:42
Speaker
Why does Aunt Tilty sound like she's drunk all the time?
01:02:45
Speaker
Aunt Tilt.
01:02:46
Speaker
Not Tilty, Aunt Tilt.
01:02:47
Speaker
Oh, Aunt Tilt.
01:02:48
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:49
Speaker
But we have on the website, we're going to do a comic book.
01:02:53
Speaker
The Adventures of Flippy.
01:02:56
Speaker
So it's on the website.
01:02:58
Speaker
So anyone that views this is welcome to submit their entry.
01:03:04
Speaker
You don't have to be a professional photographer or artist, I'm sorry.
01:03:08
Speaker
But you can do anything you want.
01:03:10
Speaker
Or like Jake Danzig does with his dog.
01:03:12
Speaker
He's got the little bubble there, the cartoon bubble.
01:03:17
Speaker
You can use some sort of artwork to make that.
01:03:21
Speaker
But I'm putting this all together into one big comic book, The Adventures of Flippy.
01:03:26
Speaker
That'll be a first time I've ever done any show.
01:03:28
Speaker
So we're going to be having them at the show.
01:03:31
Speaker
But there's going to be a lot more surprises, guys.
01:03:34
Speaker
Awesome.
01:03:36
Speaker
You know, you're going to just, you're going to walk away from the show just shaking your head.
01:03:41
Speaker
and shaking your head is like, I can't believe what I saw.
01:03:45
Speaker
Or you're going to say, I don't think I saw everything.
01:03:48
Speaker
Or like, I got a chance to meet these guys from Europe, Spain, Italy, Germany.
01:03:53
Speaker
And I'll tell you what, anyone who's Spanish-speaking, there's going to be plenty of guys there from Spain and Argentina that speak Spanish, so you can brush up on your Spanish.
01:04:05
Speaker
Hola, como estas?
01:04:07
Speaker
Muy bien?
01:04:07
Speaker
Como esta?
01:04:08
Speaker
Me gusta pinball.
01:04:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:10
Speaker
Okay.
01:04:10
Speaker
So I'm looking at hotel reservations.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:15
Speaker
It looks like the Renaissance is sold out, but it still looks like there are Homewood suites available and embassy suites.
01:04:22
Speaker
Is that correct, Rob?
01:04:25
Speaker
It's not next door, but it's a relatively close walk.
01:04:28
Speaker
Close enough.
01:04:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:04:30
Speaker
And not only that, these hotels have shuttles that will shut you to and back.
01:04:34
Speaker
So if you are worried about that.
01:04:37
Speaker
You know, it's...
01:04:38
Speaker
You know, it breaks my heart for some of the guys that have been coming for years and they're calling me.
01:04:43
Speaker
They're calling me in June.
01:04:44
Speaker
Hey, I can't get a room at the hotel this year.
01:04:47
Speaker
The hotel, there's always rooms in June.
01:04:50
Speaker
I said, I know.
01:04:50
Speaker
I said, this year, just things just changed.
01:04:53
Speaker
Exploded.
01:04:53
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:04:55
Speaker
But, um,
01:04:56
Speaker
You know, as long as you're part of it, guys, we're going to be showing the Roger Sharp film again, the man who saved the game.
01:05:04
Speaker
It's a great film.
01:05:05
Speaker
Great film.
01:05:06
Speaker
That's going to be shown Tuesday night, by the way, when we come back from our tours of the factories.
01:05:12
Speaker
And we're also going to show Tommy.
01:05:14
Speaker
That's an old cult film.
01:05:16
Speaker
Yep.
01:05:16
Speaker
Get ready because you're going to see him destroy those games, man.
01:05:18
Speaker
Oh, it's tough to watch.
01:05:20
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:05:22
Speaker
But, you know, we just, there's just so much we do there.
01:05:25
Speaker
It's like, man, how do you, how do you think of half this stuff?
01:05:29
Speaker
How do you do this stuff?
01:05:31
Speaker
And by the way, I think we're going to have some live streaming there this year for those people that can't make it.
01:05:36
Speaker
Awesome.
01:05:36
Speaker
So, you know, what about, what about tournament players?
01:05:41
Speaker
What do you got for tournament players?
01:05:42
Speaker
It's a great question.
01:05:43
Speaker
So Trent Augustine runs that.
01:05:45
Speaker
And, um,
01:05:47
Speaker
we're having the tournament in the same room we had last time.
01:05:50
Speaker
So that's a big part of the show for people that are in the tournament play.
01:05:53
Speaker
You know what I'm finding, Scott, is a lot of guys – I talked to one guy recently that he's into the tournament play.
01:05:59
Speaker
But last year, for whatever reason, he either got –
01:06:03
Speaker
beat early on, and he didn't make the semifinals or whatever, so he walked the show.
01:06:09
Speaker
And he said, I couldn't believe how much fun it was walking the show.
01:06:13
Speaker
I'd never walked the show before.
01:06:15
Speaker
Man, I really enjoyed it.
01:06:18
Speaker
So this is the thing.
01:06:20
Speaker
Some people are just coming for the tournament, and you're right.
01:06:23
Speaker
But if you're coming just for the overall experience, it's going to blow your mind.
01:06:28
Speaker
That's all I can tell you.
01:06:30
Speaker
Well, Rob, we appreciate you coming on.
01:06:32
Speaker
This has been awesome.
01:06:33
Speaker
And I love the little tidbits you've been dropping for us.
01:06:36
Speaker
If someone does want to get a hold of you, what's the best way to get a hold of you?
01:06:40
Speaker
Well, I can get my phone number, 330-716-3139 or email brkpinball at gmail.com.
01:06:54
Speaker
Perfect.
01:06:55
Speaker
And I'm one of the old school guys.
01:06:56
Speaker
I prefer the phone over email.
01:06:58
Speaker
bravest man on the planet just putting his phone number out there right now yep that's what i thought okay rob i do have one one final question though what is the question that we should have thought of to ask you that we didn't oh no what do i say to my wife when i tell her i'm going to be gone for a week
01:07:23
Speaker
Bring back 40 more pinball machines.
01:07:25
Speaker
That's what she says.
01:07:26
Speaker
By the way, if you're looking for homes for your extras, Josh and I are great pin setters.
01:07:31
Speaker
And so you go ahead, all those extra ones that you're like, you know what?
01:07:35
Speaker
I can't play that many.
01:07:36
Speaker
Go ahead and send them our way.
01:07:37
Speaker
We'll take care of them.
01:07:38
Speaker
Oh, by the way.
01:07:39
Speaker
So let's mention one more thing.
01:07:40
Speaker
So John Peterson, we have four guys have been to all 40 expos, four guys.
01:07:45
Speaker
Wow.
01:07:46
Speaker
Okay.
01:07:46
Speaker
We're going to make a presentation to those guys.
01:07:48
Speaker
John Peterson is one of the 40.
01:07:50
Speaker
He's from Chicago.
01:07:52
Speaker
John has volunteered to bring his collection of EM games to Expo.
01:07:58
Speaker
Ooh, awesome.
01:07:59
Speaker
Can you guess how many he's got?
01:08:00
Speaker
200.
01:08:00
Speaker
Well, don't forget, he's going to bring them to Expo now, so he's got to be a little realistic.
01:08:06
Speaker
But he's got 70 games.
01:08:08
Speaker
He's going to bring his 70 games to Expo.
01:08:11
Speaker
Oh, he's bringing all of the games.
01:08:13
Speaker
See, I was just wondering how many he may have in storage.
01:08:18
Speaker
The challenge that I've always had with EMs is because it takes a motivated person to actually get in there and degrease them and make sure that they're running correctly.
01:08:29
Speaker
And it's a lot of times when I go to an EM, it just feels like it's on life support.
01:08:35
Speaker
And that's the hardest.
01:08:37
Speaker
That's the hardest thing about playing an EM is that it's not the same experience that you would have had 60 years ago, 70 years ago.
01:08:43
Speaker
That's a great, great point.
01:08:46
Speaker
Point of the year.
01:08:48
Speaker
And that's the problem with EMs is most people that have either they're older guys like me who do know how to work on, but they're too lazy to.
01:08:58
Speaker
Or guys your age that they have a Riviera and they don't know how to work on it or they don't know what to do to fine-tune them to make that game play like new again.
01:09:09
Speaker
I would love to have an EM, but I legit do not have the know-how or the time to really tear it apart and make it function like a well-oiled machine.
01:09:19
Speaker
Guys like me that grew up with the EM game, that's all we knew.
01:09:21
Speaker
But a lot of stuff was trial and error.
01:09:23
Speaker
But it's like...
01:09:27
Speaker
rebuilding an engine of a car.
01:09:29
Speaker
What do you do?
01:09:31
Speaker
Change the seals, you know, for instance, new spark plugs, you know, whatever you do just to bring it back to life again.
01:09:41
Speaker
And it's almost the same idea with the pinball machine.
01:09:44
Speaker
A lot of it is just the basic cleaning of the grease off the gears.
01:09:49
Speaker
in the alignment of the contact points.
01:09:51
Speaker
So they're in the direct correct spacing the way they used to be.
01:09:56
Speaker
So this is the kind of things like they did with my Texan.
01:10:00
Speaker
It plays so fast.
01:10:01
Speaker
You would never know.
01:10:02
Speaker
The game was in this case, 60 years old.
01:10:05
Speaker
Can you imagine, you know, let's face out who thought these games would be lasting this long.
01:10:10
Speaker
So they were disposable.
01:10:12
Speaker
They were, they were disposable.
01:10:13
Speaker
You'd buy it and you put it on location for a year, maybe over a year.
01:10:17
Speaker
And then when it was,
01:10:19
Speaker
worn out, you would throw it away and get a new one.
01:10:22
Speaker
Just think about all the guys.
01:10:23
Speaker
There's the guys in Germany.
01:10:26
Speaker
He'll be coming to the show, but the guy that reproduces the play fields, he'll be there.
01:10:31
Speaker
But this hobby has really expanded to keep these old games, bring them back to life again.
01:10:37
Speaker
Between the new cabinets, new play fields,
01:10:41
Speaker
And, you know, there's some guys out there that are reproducing some of the older back glasses.
01:10:45
Speaker
You know, that's been a chore for me.
01:10:47
Speaker
With these games from Spain, you know, when I got some glasses are really bad.
01:10:52
Speaker
They're all flaked off, yeah.
01:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's been a chore, finding someone to reproduce them.
01:10:58
Speaker
But, you see, we have an internal art department that's able to create, even if the glass is broken, they'll be able to recreate it and bring it back to life again.
01:11:06
Speaker
So that's a plus for me.
01:11:09
Speaker
Hey, Rob, I'm going to track you down at Expo, and I want to talk to you about finding a good EM machine.
01:11:15
Speaker
That's me, boy.
01:11:17
Speaker
I would recommend Gottlieb games, the Gottlieb wedge heads.
01:11:19
Speaker
You can't go wrong.
01:11:22
Speaker
my son loves the one 2001.
01:11:24
Speaker
That's the one that's got 20 drop targets on it.
01:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, drop targets are great.
01:11:29
Speaker
EMs and drop targets.
01:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, you got it.
01:11:32
Speaker
Those are games, but what I want to do for you, Scott, is lift up the play field and show you some tips just to clean the game up.
01:11:40
Speaker
See, for us oldsters, and maybe for a guy like you, Scott, when you understand some of the cleaning and some of the
01:11:50
Speaker
pointers to bring it back to life again half the fun of the em games is bringing them back to life yeah and actually so my i i work in a hospital now but my major is actually mechanical engineering so it's something that i would be super interested in yeah yeah and it's really once you kind of get the concept and you know what else is a crazy thing on some of the em games cold solder joints you know what that is yeah
01:12:18
Speaker
That's where they've kind of cracked over time.
01:12:20
Speaker
So you've got a wire that's soldered to a contact.
01:12:24
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:25
Speaker
But over time, it loses.
01:12:29
Speaker
It'll actually pull away.
01:12:30
Speaker
Just by simply grabbing it, it'll come right off.
01:12:33
Speaker
It's almost like a snap-off.
01:12:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:36
Speaker
Because it's lost its adherence to the properties that it once had.
01:12:42
Speaker
Okay, I do know how to solder, so I can do that.
01:12:44
Speaker
You're right there, man.
01:12:45
Speaker
You can do it.
01:12:47
Speaker
But, you know, for a lot of us guys, like the EM games, you know, it starts off with cleaning each score reel one at a time.
01:12:56
Speaker
Even for you, Josh, you do it in your Riviera.
01:12:58
Speaker
Pull it out, clean all the grease and trash around there.
01:13:02
Speaker
You can re-grease it, but on a very light scale.
01:13:06
Speaker
And that's the start of it, and then you go underneath, and it takes time.
01:13:10
Speaker
But when you're all done,
01:13:12
Speaker
You can start strutting around town and you put some bling on and say, man, why are you all blinged up, man?
01:13:18
Speaker
Because I'm bad, man.
01:13:19
Speaker
I can clean those EM games.
01:13:23
Speaker
Thank you again, Rob, for coming on.
01:13:24
Speaker
We really appreciate it.
01:13:26
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us, we are lose a kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:13:31
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us on the socials at loser kid pinball, that's Facebook X Instagram, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube, all that stuff.
01:13:39
Speaker
I want to do a quick shout out to our content creator of the episode.
01:13:43
Speaker
If you have not checked out AB Pinball on YouTube, he does wonderful videos kind of showcasing older games, giving a little history on them, how to play them, and just the storyline behind them.
01:13:55
Speaker
It's a wonderful YouTube channel.
01:13:57
Speaker
So go check out Alpha Bravo, but he just goes by AB Pinball.
01:14:01
Speaker
Scott, you got a word for us to send us off?
01:14:04
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:14:04
Speaker
The starting thought is go and get your pinball tickets for Expo.
01:14:18
Speaker
Thank you.