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Ep 16: The Man of Many Hats, Josh Sharpe
49 Plays6 years ago
Scott and I had the pleasure of sitting down with creator of IFPA Josh Sharpe. It was awesome to just shoot the breeze with Josh and pick his brain on different topics!
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Transcript
Introduction and Technical Apology
00:00:00
Speaker
Okay, disclaimer before we start the show.
00:00:03
Speaker
Our typical recording process was not working, so we had to go to our backup recording process, which somewhat worked.
00:00:11
Speaker
So I wasn't able to edit this down like we typically do for a Loser Kid Pinball podcast, so I'm gonna just apologize right now if there's
00:00:20
Speaker
bumps and pops and stuff like that that we usually don't have in the show i know that we're not 100 professional but this show this is gonna be a very rough cut raw uh interview that we did so please enjoy
00:00:41
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
Special Guest: Josh Arp
00:00:43
Speaker
I am Josh Rupp with my co-captain, Scott Larson, as usual.
00:00:46
Speaker
Scott, will you please introduce our very special guest for today?
00:00:51
Speaker
Well, today we have the legendary 2020 IFPA North American Pinball Championship current leader and also the first person to win both the IFPA and PAPA 2020, Josh Arp.
00:01:08
Speaker
That's I'm going to keep that recording.
00:01:10
Speaker
If you could send me an audio file of that, I'll just put those in my headphones while I'm playing and just repeat that on loop over and over again.
00:01:17
Speaker
It's on a mantra.
00:01:20
Speaker
That's how it works, right?
00:01:21
Speaker
You say it enough and it will become true.
00:01:23
Speaker
Exactly.
00:01:24
Speaker
Because I, you know, I've been telling myself that I'm going to be 6'6 and be able to dunk a basketball and eventually it will happen.
00:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, at least yours is achievable.
00:01:35
Speaker
Mine's not really remotely achievable.
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm proving that mine's not too achievable either.
00:01:40
Speaker
Don't worry.
00:01:42
Speaker
So, Josh, welcome to the podcast.
00:01:44
Speaker
Thanks for slumming up with us.
00:01:46
Speaker
My pleasure.
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm assuming you're just doing it for the free hats we're giving away.
00:01:50
Speaker
I was insanely jealous watching, you know, Alan walk around with his hat.
00:01:54
Speaker
I'm like, how do I get one of those?
00:01:56
Speaker
I think you got to go on the podcast, man.
00:01:58
Speaker
That's about it.
00:01:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:59
Speaker
I think my favorite, though, is I'm really...
00:02:03
Speaker
We did these for fun.
00:02:04
Speaker
We made, uh, Josh, uh, made this great hat and he said, what do you think?
00:02:07
Speaker
I said, great.
00:02:07
Speaker
So we just started sending them out to people and especially people who are on the podcast.
00:02:11
Speaker
And I'm not kidding.
00:02:13
Speaker
Uh, when Keith did his reveal stream and also, uh, around, uh, walking around, um, Pinberg, uh, I kept getting all these pictures of him just walking around and texting.
00:02:24
Speaker
He was like, dude, he's wearing your hat.
00:02:28
Speaker
Time to open up that web store of your dreams.
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:02:31
Speaker
He must have run out of hats if he decided that ours is the go-to hat.
00:02:37
Speaker
Anyway, so Josh, what is new with you?
00:02:42
Speaker
What's
Post-Pinberg Hiatus and Pinball Expo
00:02:43
Speaker
going on with you and pinball?
00:02:44
Speaker
We're in the post-Pinberg hiatus and now what's on the future for us?
00:02:51
Speaker
What are we looking forward to in pinball?
00:02:54
Speaker
Man, that's a wide
00:02:56
Speaker
That's a wide berth question for me.
00:02:59
Speaker
What is it?
00:02:59
Speaker
It's pushing Labor Day.
00:03:01
Speaker
I am waiting for Pinball Expo, which is my next chance to not win something.
00:03:11
Speaker
Mid-October.
00:03:12
Speaker
You can still shoot for second.
00:03:14
Speaker
It's good.
00:03:15
Speaker
You know what?
00:03:16
Speaker
Expo is not a major, so all bets are off.
00:03:18
Speaker
I can actually take that one down.
00:03:20
Speaker
There you go.
00:03:21
Speaker
You can roll that one.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, we got asked if we were interested in coming out to Expo.
00:03:29
Speaker
And man, I swear that that week in October is the only week when anything is done because we have, it's our schools get out for that weekend.
00:03:42
Speaker
And so everybody takes time off.
00:03:43
Speaker
Also, my professional organization, that's the weekend they always have their annual conference.
00:03:51
Speaker
And so people are trying to get off for that.
00:03:53
Speaker
And so it is impossible for me to get that off considering I do the schedule and it would look really fast after everything was set up.
00:04:00
Speaker
It was like, you know what, guys, I'm going to take some time off.
00:04:03
Speaker
Why?
00:04:04
Speaker
I'm going to go to a little pinball convention.
00:04:06
Speaker
So why don't you just take care of all that stuff and get back to me?
00:04:10
Speaker
So it's one of those things.
00:04:11
Speaker
I'm going to go visit a children's hospital in the Chicagoland area and maybe check out this pinball event while I'm out there.
00:04:16
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:04:17
Speaker
Something like that.
00:04:18
Speaker
Doing it for the kids.
00:04:19
Speaker
No, I totally get it.
00:04:21
Speaker
Josh, you are a man of very many different hats.
00:04:24
Speaker
You've got to tell me, how do you do it?
00:04:26
Speaker
How do you balance IFPA, Raw Thrills, and your family all at the same time?
00:04:33
Speaker
Well,
Balancing Commitments and Dedication to IFPA
00:04:34
Speaker
my default is I neglect my family.
00:04:36
Speaker
That's the first thing to go.
00:04:38
Speaker
As you should.
00:04:41
Speaker
I don't know.
00:04:41
Speaker
I mean, over the years, I've certainly gotten help.
00:04:45
Speaker
The IFPA workload 13 years ago compared to now,
00:04:52
Speaker
is a vastly different level of attention that's needed.
00:04:56
Speaker
So there's more people helping me out now to sort of keep the time that I put into IFPA week to week.
00:05:05
Speaker
It's probably, I don't know, 20 hours a week.
00:05:08
Speaker
And it's been 20 hours a week for a long time.
00:05:10
Speaker
So anytime that it pushes to more than that, I find someone to help fill those hours.
00:05:14
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:05:16
Speaker
Between that and work and life, it just works itself.
00:05:21
Speaker
out i'll go through phases where i may be able to get a little bit of the ifpa stuff done here at work when it's slower i'll go through phases where you know i'm at home and instead of watching a tv show with my wife i'm it's on in the background while i'm you know hammering on the laptop trying to do some stuff but uh it ebbs and flows it ebbs and flows so with the ifpa
00:05:44
Speaker
In many ways, I understand you're passionate about this.
00:05:47
Speaker
You're doing something to grow competitive pinball and keep everything alive.
00:05:55
Speaker
At some point, does it feel like it's still worth it?
00:05:58
Speaker
Because really, from the background, I look at everything you do for nothing or pennies.
00:06:06
Speaker
pennies or whatever.
00:06:07
Speaker
And I think, man, I don't know if I could keep maintaining that all much, uh, all the criticism every time you try to put something out there.
00:06:17
Speaker
I mean, praise, praise.
00:06:20
Speaker
Um, but no, it's just, at some point I would look at the entire community and say, are you guys kidding me?
00:06:26
Speaker
Do you have any idea what I'm doing for you?
00:06:28
Speaker
I don't know.
00:06:29
Speaker
How do you, how do you not just give, give everybody, you know, the double finger?
00:06:33
Speaker
I, I think, uh,
00:06:37
Speaker
like what I feel from the community is, is I, I do feel that level of appreciation more than I feel that letter, the level of, uh, you know, things I can't say on your podcast because it's family friendly.
00:06:49
Speaker
Um, but for me, like, I mean, this all started because I'm also a player.
00:06:56
Speaker
So a lot of the things that,
00:06:58
Speaker
that I would put my time into doing, like even like creating the original ranking system was like, I wonder where I would rank in the world on this.
00:07:06
Speaker
So for me, there was a lot of like selfish rewards for putting in this work.
00:07:13
Speaker
Sure.
00:07:14
Speaker
And, and a lot of that is still, you know, drives me like, I mean, I still try to compete at a high level depending on the event and not nearly as often, but you know, I'm still interested in the sport day to day.
00:07:27
Speaker
Like I think,
00:07:28
Speaker
it will get harder.
00:07:30
Speaker
I mean, I imagine if I look at where my dad is and, and, and, you know, 30 years later, if, if I'm not playing at a high level or playing even nearly as much as I am now, I'm not sure, you know, where that level of interest will be, but for now it's not something I have to worry about.
00:07:48
Speaker
Right.
00:07:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:07:50
Speaker
And that's fair.
00:07:52
Speaker
And you know, haters going to hate man that, that, that stuff never bothers me.
00:07:57
Speaker
It's a,
00:07:58
Speaker
you grow a thick skin after you've made 1,100 changes to a system over the last decade.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, it just seems that there are more people taking from the system or benefiting from the system than actually putting in.
00:08:13
Speaker
So I appreciate everything you're doing.
00:08:16
Speaker
It's just, it really, I don't think I could say that positive, given all the criticism.
00:08:23
Speaker
It seems that the criticism is probably heavier than the praise, but
00:08:28
Speaker
I'm sure the praise is in the background.
00:08:30
Speaker
It's not reality.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:31
Speaker
It's, it, it works out enough that, uh, yeah, believe me, the, I think they call that the vocal minority.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:39
Speaker
So, uh, I'd probably insert something else.
00:08:42
Speaker
It, uh, it truly is the vocal minority though, with respect to all the feedback that I get.
00:08:47
Speaker
So I like, I feel great that I'm not even close to,
00:08:52
Speaker
to thinking that the things that we're doing aren't positive, just based on outside of my own thoughts, but based on the feedback we're getting.
00:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:09:01
Speaker
Well, it's probably easy to take what the minority of the hobby says, because there's only a handful of them compared to, what, 50,000, 60,000 people in the IFPA right now?
00:09:11
Speaker
Right, something like that.
00:09:12
Speaker
Let's see, how many players are we at now?
00:09:14
Speaker
72 to 48.
00:09:18
Speaker
I kind of wonder where I am.
00:09:20
Speaker
I haven't competed in a long time, so I'm probably down to 50,000 or something.
00:09:25
Speaker
Beth, that means you can move, easier to move up.
00:09:28
Speaker
Easier to move up, that's right.
00:09:29
Speaker
No way to go but up.
00:09:31
Speaker
So with that, when you grow sports, I know you've talked about it before, and I completely agree with you.
Challenges of Engaging New Pinball Players
00:09:38
Speaker
In order to get a sport to grow, then you need to have exposure.
00:09:44
Speaker
And so whether or not that's darts on ESPN or
00:09:48
Speaker
or anything like that on the Ocho, there's two things.
00:09:53
Speaker
One, people need to be exposed to it, and two, they need to find a place to go play.
00:09:58
Speaker
So it seems the challenge with growing pinball is finding places to play.
00:10:05
Speaker
I know the majority of people, when they find out that I have pinball machines, they always have the same response.
00:10:11
Speaker
It's, really?
00:10:12
Speaker
Huh?
00:10:13
Speaker
Do they make those anymore?
00:10:16
Speaker
Can I come and play?
00:10:18
Speaker
It's always the same thing, but it's so different because I grew up when you grew up.
00:10:24
Speaker
There were arcades everywhere, and that was when pinball started going to the sidelines and Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, all those big games started coming on.
00:10:35
Speaker
and people still went out to get entertainment.
00:10:39
Speaker
Now, it's a different world for kids now though, because they can stay home, they have streaming, they have games on their phone, they have games on their iPads.
00:10:48
Speaker
How do you still find that niche to get people, one, to leave the house and go to a place to play, and two, how do you encourage people to actually set up a place
00:11:00
Speaker
for them to play because it's certainly a lot easier to maintain an electronic game than it is to maintain a pinball machine.
00:11:09
Speaker
No doubt.
00:11:11
Speaker
I think the one thing that pinball has going for it is its uniqueness.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I think as you've had a generation, our generation,
00:11:23
Speaker
it kind of understood what pinball was.
00:11:25
Speaker
Even if we didn't play it, if we went to an arcade, you'd see it as you walk to the Mortal Kombat machine or the NBA Jam machine or whatever your game of choice was.
00:11:34
Speaker
Like, I think there's, there's the ability now for, for true rediscovery of, of pinball by people.
00:11:44
Speaker
And you get that magical, like the whole, the whole 3d world under glass thing is like a magic trick.
00:11:52
Speaker
to people who really have no idea what pinball is.
00:11:56
Speaker
So like, I mean, I've seen, I've seen it myself in places, but the hardest thing is definitely keeping the games running.
00:12:03
Speaker
And a lot of that has to do with, with places that are willing to, to put pinball in their establishments.
00:12:10
Speaker
It's either committing to hiring staff that is aware of how to repair these things or partnering with outside tech support that,
00:12:21
Speaker
is on some sort of regular schedule.
00:12:24
Speaker
And I know that there's locations here that go through that.
00:12:26
Speaker
Like, like the, the, the staff techs just don't know how to fix the pins full stop.
00:12:33
Speaker
So if something breaks, it is just rotting until it's dead, but they've,
00:12:38
Speaker
they've partnered with a local tech in the area here who, you know, does weekly stops, you know, every Tuesday to plays all the games, you know, the, the community is really good at putting together lists of stuff.
00:12:50
Speaker
That's, that's not working properly.
00:12:53
Speaker
So unfortunately I think you kind of need that community atmosphere in order for like the random person who's going to be walking into that place tonight for them to,
00:13:06
Speaker
to be able to experience pinball for the first time on a game that's actually working.
00:13:10
Speaker
So I think it's the community's involvement that can then, you know, support new people finding the game.
00:13:19
Speaker
It's, uh, I agree with you.
00:13:21
Speaker
It's tough.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
This is, I've been, I've been trying to brainstorm to think about this because, uh, we have, we had a Chuck E. Cheese here and the only, uh,
00:13:31
Speaker
It's hard for me to play on site.
00:13:34
Speaker
I have to have full disclosure.
00:13:36
Speaker
It's hard for me to go to an arcade and play because the games are so hammered.
00:13:44
Speaker
We went to Chuck E. Cheese for my kid's birthday and my wife said, hey, there's a game over there.
00:13:48
Speaker
You should go play.
00:13:49
Speaker
And this was before we actually owned it, but it was Pirates of the Caribbean, the Stern one.
00:13:54
Speaker
And I went up and man, it was... It was a blown out city.
00:13:59
Speaker
Oh, it was great.
00:14:00
Speaker
bad and the flipper wasn't was barely connected didn't have rubbers on half of the uh the tortuga area didn't even work and i look at this and i think why would anyone want to put money into this machine because it is so used whereas you know the pac-man machine i'm sure it's been ridden hard also but they still will put you know five cents in or whatever they're doing for the pac-man machine so that that pivots to my next question is
00:14:31
Speaker
How as a pinball community can we develop a tech support?
00:14:35
Speaker
Because I'll use the car analogy.
00:14:38
Speaker
When my friend was a mechanic, he actually went to a training program from Toyota.
00:14:46
Speaker
And he went through and they taught him, they said, hey, these are the areas you need to know how to repair.
00:14:50
Speaker
These are how you do it.
00:14:50
Speaker
And then he was hired by Toyota.
00:14:53
Speaker
Is there a way for the pinball community to have a way of
00:14:59
Speaker
you know, stern putting out either educational things or ways of educating the new people to get into it.
00:15:06
Speaker
Because I know enough about pinball, but I also know enough that if I really get deep down into a, into a, under a play field, I'm going to break something because I don't know where that next step is other than just haphazardly
00:15:23
Speaker
looking at different videos to try to find, well, you know, because you need multiple things.
00:15:28
Speaker
You need to be able to diagnose the problem and fix the problem, which are two different skill sets.
00:15:34
Speaker
I mean, I think that falls on the manufacturers and it falls on the distributors of those manufacturers to deal with, you know, their customers.
00:15:41
Speaker
I know that Betson, who's our distributor,
00:15:45
Speaker
they run a ton of service workshops, usually tied into trade shows where there's a coming together of a lot of operators and customers that buy our games into one centrally located place.
00:15:58
Speaker
But, you know, Betson's dozen plus offices around the country can do those things out of each of their offices and service, you know, that community of operators in that area.
00:16:11
Speaker
And,
00:16:12
Speaker
whether it's the team here at Raw Thrills educating, you know, bets and headquarters on the do's and don'ts and tips and tricks on how to keep, you know, game X going, then, you know, bets and headquarters can then disseminate that information to their individual offices who can then share that information down.
00:16:34
Speaker
I think it's definitely a really important step in the process and probably the most popular one that breaks down.
00:16:42
Speaker
I think, uh, you know, with respect to, to pinball being able to work on location, it needs the community's help of, of players and enthusiasts far more than any other coin op game.
00:17:00
Speaker
And the good news is the, the pinball player base, I think is, is one of the most awesome groups of, uh,
00:17:11
Speaker
people that are, that are willing to put in the time and effort to keep a locations games running.
00:17:17
Speaker
I know that, you know, again, I can, I can speak to my experience here with, with our local monthly tournament, but you know, the ability for players of an event to offer their time to, and I did this in college when I ran a league, I did it when I started running events back in the suburbs in Chicago and I moved back home.
00:17:37
Speaker
But
00:17:38
Speaker
you know, if you give me the keys, I'll fix stuff for free.
00:17:41
Speaker
I just want these games working so I can enjoy them.
00:17:45
Speaker
And then the ancillary benefit there is everyone else can enjoy them.
00:17:48
Speaker
So, you know, and through there's a lot of what we're doing with Stern and the Stern army is, you know, trying to bring location pinball back.
00:18:00
Speaker
And
Community Involvement in Pinball Maintenance
00:18:01
Speaker
I think
00:18:02
Speaker
bringing people together to experience like competitive pinball in a social setting at most of the locations are like barcades that, that there's something there that can work for operators to make money and pinball.
00:18:16
Speaker
It just takes, there's no like silver bullet, you know, for better or worse compared to a raw thrills game where it's like, okay, so take this game, you take it out of the box, you stick it in the corner and you're going to make a bunch of money.
00:18:27
Speaker
Congratulations.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:30
Speaker
Unfortunately, it's not that, but there is a way to be successful at it.
00:18:35
Speaker
You're right.
00:18:37
Speaker
It is more of a community-based things.
00:18:38
Speaker
And really what you said seems to be exactly why you're spearheading the IFPA is because you said, I want a place to play.
00:18:49
Speaker
And if I'm not doing it, no one else is doing what needs to be done.
00:18:53
Speaker
And so I'm going to develop the league and the setup to have a matrix to play.
00:18:58
Speaker
I guess it's the same thing with location.
00:19:01
Speaker
I'm not that guy, but I know there's enough people who say, hey, I want that pirates to function and not be completely blown out.
00:19:08
Speaker
I'll change the first.
00:19:09
Speaker
I'll tighten everything up and make sure it works.
00:19:14
Speaker
But yeah, I think you're right.
00:19:17
Speaker
We see it as we're approaching, I think the Stern Army program started at the end of 16.
00:19:24
Speaker
And we're approaching...
00:19:26
Speaker
200 army members you know worldwide 200 army locations yeah and i mean that's 200 volunteers that are not getting paid to really we're we're leveraging their own best interest in wanting a place to play you know it's 200 versions of the local version of me of like hey if you want a place to play let's work together
00:19:50
Speaker
And hopefully, you know, what Zach and I would call it back in the day when we were talking to operators at trade shows is sell the dream.
00:19:56
Speaker
Sell them the dream of what they can have.
00:19:59
Speaker
And the one thing that pinball has going for it that, you know, even Raw Thrills games don't is there's a – Stern's tagline is it's new money.
00:20:14
Speaker
coming into an establishment.
00:20:15
Speaker
And that's absolutely true.
00:20:17
Speaker
You know, people who are rabid pinball people will seek out pinball.
00:20:23
Speaker
And I think, you know, seeing the P3 Dave and Buster's test, like, believe me, it's tough for us to have a successful test at Dave and Buster's, even with our games.
00:20:34
Speaker
But, and we can't claim to be bringing in any new players.
00:20:38
Speaker
And, you know, pinball really can sell the fact that, hey, if you have a dedicated group of machines here that are kept in working condition, there's a community and, you know, through the IFPA, a chance to connect to that community to really draw people into your establishment that literally will not go there the whole year.
00:20:59
Speaker
And the only thing that will bring them in is this particular game.
00:21:03
Speaker
And there's something special about that as a product.
00:21:05
Speaker
There's not a lot of products that
00:21:07
Speaker
that really can pull in, you know, this outside demographic of player and, and player leads to someone that, you know, eats and drinks inside the establishment, you know, et cetera.
00:21:18
Speaker
Good for business, new money.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:21
Speaker
The, the location here in Utah, that is, is basically exactly what you said.
00:21:27
Speaker
It's Dan Newman, who's the local guy.
00:21:30
Speaker
He,
00:21:31
Speaker
He partnered with someone who he knew had a bar and he put all these machines in there.
00:21:36
Speaker
And really that's the main place I go.
00:21:38
Speaker
And there's no other reason for me to drive to Salt Lake city to go to a bar.
00:21:44
Speaker
Um, because I, I don't need to, but I go there.
00:21:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:49
Speaker
I go there because they have the games and they, you know, they just got a Jurassic park.
00:21:53
Speaker
So they're, uh, they are actually moving forward.
00:21:56
Speaker
I, you're, um,
00:21:58
Speaker
It's like you work in the industry or something.
00:22:00
Speaker
You actually have thought these things out.
00:22:04
Speaker
Only all the time.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:06
Speaker
Stuff that rattles into my brain all day, every day.
00:22:09
Speaker
It's important.
00:22:09
Speaker
I mean, at some point, the pinball industry, I agree with Gary Stern.
00:22:16
Speaker
The industry won't survive the
00:22:19
Speaker
beyond the people that found pinball in the 90s and have discretionary income now to become home collectors outside of their kids, you know, it's dead.
00:22:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker
So you need to find the next people that will find it in the world who then 20 years later will be the next group of home collectors.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
You need to.
00:22:45
Speaker
The ecosystem has to continue that way.
00:22:47
Speaker
You're right.
00:22:48
Speaker
If you don't continue to feed the fire, you're right.
00:22:51
Speaker
It'll die out.
00:22:52
Speaker
I will say the interesting thing about everything I've said about people finding out, oh, you're into pinball?
00:22:58
Speaker
One, did they make them?
00:22:59
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:22:59
Speaker
Well, can I come play it?
00:23:01
Speaker
Every time they come play, within 10 minutes, they turn to me and say, okay, so say I was thinking of getting... How much?
00:23:11
Speaker
How much?
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, how much?
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
Along the lines of people's kids, really, it's a broader example than people's kids.
00:23:22
Speaker
You become that tree trunk, right?
00:23:24
Speaker
Anyone that's your branch, that's the only way pinball survives.
00:23:28
Speaker
And if it's left to the people like us as the tree trunks and anybody that we can find via our branches, it needs to be more than relying on
00:23:38
Speaker
the people who are in their 40s now collecting to leave a legacy that carries the sport and game forward.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, and that's basically my story.
00:23:48
Speaker
My story is I actually never played pinball because I grew up and that's when, so I'm turning 45 this year.
00:23:56
Speaker
That's right when like 1980, 1981, when the electronic game, that was the new thing.
00:24:02
Speaker
You could actually interact with something on the screen and
00:24:06
Speaker
and pinball just was pushed to the corner.
00:24:10
Speaker
And the funny thing is, I wasn't really smart enough to figure out, I was like, well, I don't want to play that because I'll lose my money too much.
00:24:16
Speaker
I'll go play this Donkey Kong, which will kill me in three seconds.
00:24:21
Speaker
So, you know, and I guess this is before all the internet days, and I didn't have someone who I'd go and was like, man, that guy's playing a long time on one quarter or two quarters.
00:24:32
Speaker
Maybe I should figure out how to do that because it'll make my money go longer.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I didn't get into it until about five years ago.
Host's Pinball Journey and Nostalgia
00:24:43
Speaker
But then I love that nostalgic feel of the arcade, and that's what I wanted to create in my house.
00:24:49
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to perpetuate the cycle, because at some point, you're right, if we don't replenish the well, it's going to die out.
00:25:00
Speaker
At some point, my kids will be, if they don't get into it,
00:25:03
Speaker
My collection will be sold for pennies on the dollar after I die to whoever they can get rid of it to as fast as they can.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's actually funny.
00:25:15
Speaker
There was a meme out there that said, my greatest fear is me dying and my wife selling all my collection for what I told her I paid for it.
00:25:25
Speaker
No doubt.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, thankfully, we all have some friends who are like, hey, if something happens to me, contact them.
00:25:32
Speaker
I'm all over it, man.
00:25:33
Speaker
I'll give your wife half.
00:25:34
Speaker
All right.
00:25:38
Speaker
So let's play pretend.
00:25:41
Speaker
I am a new guy to the hobby.
00:25:43
Speaker
I want to prepare for Pinnberg.
00:25:45
Speaker
And I come to you and say, you know what?
00:25:48
Speaker
I want to buy eight games.
00:25:49
Speaker
I want to put two sets of four together so I can get that Pinnberg skill.
00:25:58
Speaker
how would you construct those eight games or those two blocks?
00:26:03
Speaker
I mean, certainly the biggest thing is, is era diversity.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:08
Speaker
Making sure you have, you know, out of those eight, probably a small flipper game, probably got leaves high hand, probably a game with, you know, four or five flippers, something with a side flipper,
00:26:27
Speaker
And then probably a basic fan layout just to make sure you're giving yourself a chance to, I don't know, experience different geometries because you run into so many different geometries during the two days at Pinberg.
00:26:45
Speaker
So, I mean, as far as titles go, I mean, ultimately, I mean, that's what's so great about competitive pinball is, you know, even bad games, you know, quote unquote bad games,
00:26:55
Speaker
when you put them in a competitive setting, every game's kind of awesome.
00:27:00
Speaker
So, so even, uh, you know, a game like, like El Toro or a game like Popeye saves the earth or whatever, like when you have to execute in, in the moment, you know, the pressure of dealing with that, it doesn't really matter what the game is.
00:27:16
Speaker
It's, it's, it's the high of, of trying to do something and accomplish something on that play field.
00:27:22
Speaker
When you're limited to the three balls that you have, the three bullets you have in the gun.
00:27:29
Speaker
You have been to Flipperspiel in Vegas, right?
00:27:32
Speaker
I have.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah, you have the chance.
00:27:33
Speaker
They host us the last two years.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, which is great.
00:27:36
Speaker
Adam's great down there.
00:27:38
Speaker
He's amazing.
00:27:39
Speaker
I went down there when Don and Jeff did their 100th episode.
00:27:43
Speaker
So I was there and we played a friendly competition.
00:27:47
Speaker
And there was one guy who anytime you do it and he would select, he would select this really obscure cocktail game.
00:27:56
Speaker
And I honestly can't remember what it was, but nobody could play it except for that dude.
00:28:02
Speaker
I don't think the home field advantage.
00:28:05
Speaker
Oh, absolutely.
00:28:07
Speaker
But I, it was, it was, it was such an interesting game, but I, you're right.
00:28:10
Speaker
I don't believe that that cocktail game would, would fit very well in someone's house unless you have competition.
00:28:19
Speaker
Cause no one, no one cares to play it.
00:28:21
Speaker
Right.
00:28:22
Speaker
You know, it's not, it's not as fun if you're playing alone, but it's more fun if you're like, I don't care how crappy that is.
00:28:27
Speaker
I'm going to beat you at it.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yep.
00:28:30
Speaker
And that's like,
00:28:31
Speaker
the spirit of competition, you know, I mean, at least for me growing up with a brother, you know, who was two years apart, you know, we'd compete on anything, you know, who can, who can run up the stairs the fastest, you know, when, when our parents were calling us up for bed, I see it with my kids now who, you know, they'll race upstairs, they'll race downstairs who could eat faster.
00:28:50
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's unbelievable.
00:28:51
Speaker
It's kind of a,
00:28:53
Speaker
a big human thing competition.
00:28:56
Speaker
So, uh, pinball's an excellent outlet for, uh, a competitive thing.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
My, my, my trick is now, okay.
00:29:07
Speaker
Who gets to brush their teeth the first, right?
00:29:09
Speaker
For some reason, who's going to sleep by themselves.
00:29:12
Speaker
The first, please guys, please.
00:29:15
Speaker
They haven't got to that point yet, but I, I will get them to who can brush their teeth.
00:29:19
Speaker
The first, I'll try that tonight.
00:29:22
Speaker
There you go.
00:29:24
Speaker
And that's usually before you pick out the fake garbage can to throw away the toys that they're not going to put away.
00:29:32
Speaker
So what was your last purchase?
00:29:34
Speaker
What'd you get?
00:29:35
Speaker
My last purchase?
00:29:38
Speaker
Well, I'm mid-purchase right now.
00:29:40
Speaker
Should I count that?
00:29:41
Speaker
Sure.
00:29:43
Speaker
I'm picking up a Spirit of 76 tomorrow.
00:29:50
Speaker
How do you find... Like, most of the stuff that I find is still random Craigslist, let go, those kind of random finds where there's still deals.
00:30:03
Speaker
There's still deals that you can't pass up.
00:30:06
Speaker
So the game before that, I think a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Bally Aladdin's Castle.
00:30:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:12
Speaker
And...
00:30:13
Speaker
You know, it popped up and it was a hundred bucks that it's like, you know, there's not many questions to ask.
00:30:19
Speaker
You just type back like, I'll take it.
00:30:21
Speaker
Am I the first one?
00:30:22
Speaker
I'll take it.
00:30:24
Speaker
And it was like, yeah, it's yours.
00:30:27
Speaker
Oh, OK.
00:30:28
Speaker
I guess I'm getting an Aladdin's castle.
00:30:29
Speaker
Dad, is that game any good?
00:30:31
Speaker
Is it good?
00:30:33
Speaker
Well, I just I just did that recently where there was a laser ball that came up.
00:30:40
Speaker
And I said, does it work?
00:30:41
Speaker
And they said, yeah.
00:30:42
Speaker
And I said, okay, I'll take it.
00:30:43
Speaker
And they delivered it to my, they delivered it here.
00:30:46
Speaker
And so I go out and I plug it in and it doesn't credit up.
00:30:50
Speaker
Of course.
00:30:53
Speaker
It was one of those where they're, they are trying to sell it on behalf of their neighbor.
00:30:57
Speaker
Who's, you know, moving away for a few years.
00:31:00
Speaker
And so, you know, I just said, okay, fine, here's the $400.
00:31:03
Speaker
And so I kept it in my garage for about four months and,
00:31:08
Speaker
Finally, I said, you know what?
00:31:10
Speaker
I'm not going to fix this.
00:31:11
Speaker
I don't have time.
00:31:12
Speaker
So I just put it up and I was like, okay, who wants this for 400 bucks?
00:31:15
Speaker
All right.
00:31:15
Speaker
Time to move it on.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:17
Speaker
Pay it forward.
00:31:19
Speaker
But anyway, yeah, it's, it's, it is funny how some of those games, I really wanted to get it set up, but then, um, uh, then a genie came available and it's, it's, uh, it's Jeff Rivera's from the pinball podcast.
00:31:32
Speaker
And I've been telling him for years, dude, if you ever see,
00:31:34
Speaker
all that i get i get first tips so so i said you know i'd rather just sell that and buy buy the genie as space becomes an issue with everyone in this hobby yeah the the pickier you pickier your one gets so i still have a little bit of room in uh in my current setup so so i'm all for you know buying a game i'll i'll clean it up with my seven-year-old and
00:32:00
Speaker
And we'll see if it's any fun.
00:32:01
Speaker
And I've had some Craigslist finds over the years where where the game I wasn't expecting to keep it for that long.
00:32:09
Speaker
I figured, you know, set it up, play it for a year or whatever and move it on.
00:32:12
Speaker
And and I've had some that were like, you know, this is pretty damn fun.
00:32:16
Speaker
Oh, my God, it's really good.
00:32:18
Speaker
And games that I've had, you know, over a decade now.
00:32:20
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:32:22
Speaker
What what what's your what's your favorite pre 76 game?
00:32:27
Speaker
Pre 76.
00:32:29
Speaker
So, you know, EM era.
00:32:31
Speaker
What's your favorite pre EM era?
00:32:34
Speaker
Current.
00:32:35
Speaker
Let's see.
00:32:37
Speaker
I mean, of the ones I have at home, like I'm really enjoying my faces a lot.
00:32:45
Speaker
That's a Sonic.
00:32:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:32:47
Speaker
Because it just beats the crap out of me all the time.
00:32:52
Speaker
And then one out of every 20 games, I get ahold of it.
00:32:55
Speaker
But, uh,
00:32:57
Speaker
Air races, surprisingly, that that's the game that I got.
00:33:01
Speaker
I've got, I don't know, 15 years ago that it was from one of my dad's friends at Williams and it came in like pieces and then I put it back together and figured it was going to be.
00:33:14
Speaker
And I don't know if you're familiar with the game, but it's kind of like I'm looking it up right now.
00:33:17
Speaker
OK.
00:33:18
Speaker
So when you look it up, it's pretty much just a center bank of targets.
00:33:22
Speaker
It's a lot like Jack in the Box, Jumping Jack from Gottlieb, which my dad had when I was growing up.
00:33:29
Speaker
Air races?
00:33:30
Speaker
Air aces.
00:33:31
Speaker
Air aces.
00:33:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:33:33
Speaker
Because I was looking at air races, and I thought, that's like 1937.
00:33:35
Speaker
Not that old.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:36
Speaker
I'd always assumed it.
00:33:42
Speaker
I'd always assume that that air races was going to be a lesser version of jumping Jack, Jack in the box.
00:33:49
Speaker
And.
00:33:50
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:33:51
Speaker
Oh, that looks like death.
00:33:53
Speaker
After I set it up, it was like, it's, uh, it's a ton of fun and, and better than, uh, than jumping Jack, I think.
00:34:01
Speaker
So it's, uh, it's, it's stayed in the collection.
00:34:03
Speaker
It's pretty, uh, it's certainly not the first man out when I, uh, when I have to pick off one to sell.
00:34:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah, and each one of those shots has to end.
00:34:13
Speaker
It looks like a centered range is waiting to happen.
00:34:16
Speaker
And you have those midget side flippers.
00:34:20
Speaker
You really want to, you raise your bonus by the jet bumpers.
00:34:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:25
Speaker
And so you're avoiding the target bank a lot or trying to take like indirect shots rather than just like, I'm just going to shoot it right up the center like a machine gun.
00:34:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:34
Speaker
That'll kill you.
00:34:35
Speaker
But now there's a fun part of that game where as you build your bonus,
00:34:41
Speaker
it lights your extra ball and double bonus holes at the top.
00:34:45
Speaker
And man balls love going in those saucers at the top when there's, when they're not lit for anything.
00:34:51
Speaker
And then once they pop on and they're lit, I mean, you shoot it up there seven, eight times that it's just not falling in.
00:34:57
Speaker
And I think there there's a level of, uh, what I've come to appreciate now, like the way pinball design was back then compared to now is,
00:35:08
Speaker
you know, with most games, if you, if today, if you make a shot successfully, you're going to get paid off for that shot.
00:35:17
Speaker
And in the olden days, you sort of like, it was less about shot making and more about you, you'd make the shot into an area that you were trying to aim for.
00:35:28
Speaker
And then like the game had to help you, you know, there wasn't like a guarantee of like, well, if I shoot that ramp, it gives me the ramp.
00:35:36
Speaker
It's like,
00:35:37
Speaker
if I, and I'm on air races, if I shoot, you know, around the outside up to the top, you know, I've done what I needed to do as a player.
00:35:45
Speaker
Like, uh, is the game going to pay me off or not?
00:35:48
Speaker
And the anticipation of whether that's going to happen or not is a feeling that you don't really get today in modern pinball that I think is like amazing.
00:35:57
Speaker
The more that I appreciate sort of that previous generation of design philosophy.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:03
Speaker
It's it,
00:36:04
Speaker
in many ways they were taking, taking advantage of the limitations of the era and that they couldn't do crazy ramps.
00:36:11
Speaker
They couldn't do all this stuff.
00:36:12
Speaker
And so it's more of, I'm putting the ball in the position and there's a chance it may actually go somewhere as, as opposed to, you know, Keith Elwin taking a laser shot at something and saying, well, I can just hit that.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:24
Speaker
There was a, a great gift in the finals of Pinnberg last year on, uh,
00:36:32
Speaker
God, I can't remember the game, but that one was playing on it and he, he had to have like this final target down for double bonus or whatever.
00:36:41
Speaker
And the only way to do it was literally to like, you, you couldn't guarantee that you were going to make it.
00:36:47
Speaker
If you, if you made the shot, you sort of had to throw it off a rubber on the side of the play field and have it like ricochet up and sort of hope that it clipped it.
00:36:57
Speaker
And he totally did it.
00:36:58
Speaker
And that was just like, that's what that era of pinball is all about.
00:37:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:03
Speaker
Speaking of Elwin, did you see when he was playing Metallica this year how he had a ball cradled on the right flipper?
00:37:10
Speaker
He live caught and shot a ball off the right flipper and left the ball cradled on the flipper?
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah, I can't explain that.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:20
Speaker
That's when I basically looked at it and said, I have no idea how he did that, but that was the coolest shot I've ever seen.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yep.
00:37:27
Speaker
I can't tell you how many times.
00:37:29
Speaker
as I brought that up, because I just watched that and I was like, wait, did, did I just see that?
00:37:33
Speaker
Did that really happen?
00:37:35
Speaker
Special physics just for him.
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:37
Speaker
Well, I think that's how it is.
00:37:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:37:40
Speaker
So air races.
00:37:41
Speaker
All right.
00:37:41
Speaker
So solid state favorite game right now.
00:37:44
Speaker
Solid state.
00:37:45
Speaker
Well, solid state is favorite game of all time is my, my Cyclops game.
00:37:49
Speaker
That's my baby.
00:37:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:37:52
Speaker
All right.
00:37:52
Speaker
All right.
00:37:53
Speaker
And then you're getting to the DMD era.
00:37:55
Speaker
DMD.
00:37:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:59
Speaker
Let's see.
Favorite Pinball Games and Experiences
00:38:01
Speaker
Probably... Ah, it's tough.
00:38:05
Speaker
I guess it's not tough.
00:38:06
Speaker
Like, Walking Dead.
00:38:07
Speaker
I don't consider Walking Dead like that... When I think DMD, I think like that Williams era, but like... Sure.
00:38:13
Speaker
Technically, DMD, I think Walking Dead is the greatest.
00:38:17
Speaker
Sure it is.
00:38:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's... I'm not good enough to actually play that game very well, but... That's actually... Neither am I, and that's part of the reason why I like it.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:27
Speaker
The...
00:38:29
Speaker
For me, it's tough for... I'm at the point where I need to feel... Part of feeling challenged by a game is part of the allure to me these days.
00:38:40
Speaker
Sure.
00:38:42
Speaker
And it scares my kids to death.
00:38:44
Speaker
So that's a bonus in the basement.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:47
Speaker
The funny thing is, I looked at... Well, it was the same thing.
00:38:51
Speaker
We had a local Metallica came up.
00:38:53
Speaker
And I turned to my wife and was like, Hey, on a scale of 1 to 10...
00:38:59
Speaker
how interested are you in owning a Metallica machine?
00:39:03
Speaker
I probably, I probably should have started better, but she said, can the scale go negative?
00:39:08
Speaker
And I was like, Oh, okay.
00:39:12
Speaker
I guess I won't get that, but I'd really like it.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:14
Speaker
If the scale goes negative, does that help me take this home?
00:39:17
Speaker
Is that good?
00:39:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:19
Speaker
We can totally do that.
00:39:20
Speaker
It's, is one like awesome.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I, I totally, it's a,
00:39:28
Speaker
that game is it's, it's one of those where if you are not precise, you're going to get killed.
00:39:33
Speaker
And even if you are precise, you're going to get killed.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's brutal.
00:39:38
Speaker
And you know, you, you end up, there's what's great is the loss of the potential of what was just ahead of you is usually so great that it just, it hurts so much.
00:39:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:50
Speaker
And, and that's, if you're a masochist, like I am, like those are great moments where,
00:39:56
Speaker
Where it's like, oh man, oh, I was four shots away from something incredible and now it's all over and it urges me to want to play again and do it again.
00:40:06
Speaker
Now, do you have the pro or the premium?
00:40:08
Speaker
I have the premium.
00:40:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:10
Speaker
Walker bombs for the win.
00:40:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:14
Speaker
You also like the crossbow shot?
00:40:16
Speaker
That doesn't matter.
00:40:18
Speaker
Doesn't matter.
00:40:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:19
Speaker
Like, it's fine, but the Walker bombs add a level to strategy in that game that I think is awesome.
00:40:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:27
Speaker
How much overlap is your collection with Zach?
00:40:31
Speaker
And your dad, I guess, all three of you.
00:40:32
Speaker
That's a good, so I've definitely, maybe it's my subconscious, but I've definitely been, my collection of my dad's collection overlaps a lot now.
00:40:43
Speaker
So we, and as I joke with Zach, you know, the fight over who's going to get my dad's games is becoming less of a fight if I own all of my dad's games already.
00:40:53
Speaker
I'll just have to argue with Zach.
00:40:54
Speaker
But like, hey, you know what?
00:40:56
Speaker
Dad's is in better shape than mine.
00:40:57
Speaker
You could have mine.
00:40:58
Speaker
I'm taking dad's.
00:41:00
Speaker
I think Zach and I both have a Cyclops, as does my dad.
00:41:05
Speaker
All three of us have a sharpshooter.
00:41:08
Speaker
Zach and I both have a maiden.
00:41:10
Speaker
Zach and I both have a walking dead.
00:41:13
Speaker
My dad and I both have a medieval.
00:41:18
Speaker
We both have an Addams Family.
00:41:20
Speaker
We both have a Twilight Zone.
00:41:22
Speaker
All three of us have a jumping jack.
00:41:26
Speaker
That might be it.
00:41:28
Speaker
My dad is a pin bot.
00:41:29
Speaker
I have a jack bot.
00:41:30
Speaker
Maybe that's that's close, close, but no cigar.
00:41:34
Speaker
Yeah, I jackpot looks a lot more fun.
00:41:37
Speaker
I have a hard time getting into pin bot, but Jack looks like a lot more fun.
00:41:41
Speaker
I agree.
00:41:42
Speaker
I agree.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's the the the you know, the DMD really does change that game, which is it's just weird.
00:41:51
Speaker
But it does.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a better rules package for tournament play, especially.
00:41:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:00
Speaker
All right.
00:42:00
Speaker
So in the last five years, so Walking Dead was five years ago.
00:42:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:05
Speaker
Last five years, favorite game.
00:42:08
Speaker
Too early for Jurassic Park?
00:42:10
Speaker
Probably too early, right?
00:42:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:42:13
Speaker
You know what?
00:42:13
Speaker
You can put that as potential.
00:42:15
Speaker
Maybe.
00:42:15
Speaker
There you go.
00:42:17
Speaker
It's actually true.
00:42:18
Speaker
When I saw that, and I still haven't got up and played it,
00:42:21
Speaker
But Josh and I were talking back and forth, and we were talking with Marty, and we said, you know, it really is a perfect game for me.
00:42:31
Speaker
Actually, Maiden is a perfect game for me, because I grew up with Iron Maiden, and I would love to have an Iron Maiden machine.
00:42:37
Speaker
I think my wife would probably give me the Metallica vote on that one.
00:42:41
Speaker
But I think she would love me.
00:42:44
Speaker
It's Maiden for me.
00:42:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:47
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:42:47
Speaker
And my kids love it because the first thing I did when I opened it up in the basement was I made up that that the the Eddie character is hilarious.
00:43:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:02
Speaker
And somehow they bought that.
00:43:04
Speaker
So I somehow I changed the mood of the perception of the game as they were finding Eddie's around the play field.
00:43:10
Speaker
It's like, isn't he funny?
00:43:12
Speaker
He dresses up in different costumes.
00:43:14
Speaker
What a wacky guy.
00:43:16
Speaker
This is Halloween.
00:43:18
Speaker
Who's that?
00:43:19
Speaker
Who's that devil beast guy over there?
00:43:21
Speaker
It's like, don't worry about him.
00:43:22
Speaker
He's the bad guy.
00:43:23
Speaker
But it's going to beat him up, man.
00:43:25
Speaker
It's so fun.
00:43:28
Speaker
And they love it.
00:43:28
Speaker
Both of my kids will play it.
00:43:30
Speaker
I mean, they won't even look at The Walking Dead, but they'll play Maiden, so that's good.
00:43:34
Speaker
Nice.
00:43:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:35
Speaker
Is it the pro or premium?
00:43:37
Speaker
It is the premium.
00:43:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:40
Speaker
Yeah, and I really would love to get that in my house.
00:43:45
Speaker
I guess a few things need to go.
00:43:46
Speaker
I'm such a hoarder, though.
00:43:47
Speaker
It's hard for me to actually look at a game and say it's time for me to sell it on.
00:43:51
Speaker
It's tough.
00:43:52
Speaker
I just sold three games, and it's tough to ever see anything go.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:57
Speaker
So do you usually sell them to friends or how do you usually sell them?
00:44:01
Speaker
It's a mix and match.
00:44:03
Speaker
Like normally I'll offer them up to like one of my best friends who's actually still in Champaign.
00:44:10
Speaker
He he's probably bought 10 games for me over the past, whatever.
00:44:14
Speaker
So if I, if he has something that it's like, Hey man, I'll take that.
00:44:17
Speaker
I'll usually feed him that.
00:44:18
Speaker
And, and some of the other games, you know, as he's running out of space that he's not interested in,
00:44:24
Speaker
I'll do the, uh, the pin side Facebook listing and, uh, and see what goes.
00:44:30
Speaker
And ultimately a lot of the times the people that show up are people that I end up knowing anyway.
00:44:34
Speaker
So it, uh, it works itself out.
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:38
Speaker
So how big is your collection right now?
00:44:41
Speaker
It is 29 with spirit.
00:44:45
Speaker
So tomorrow would be adding number 30 at the moment.
00:44:50
Speaker
How big is your basement?
00:44:52
Speaker
It can hold.
00:44:54
Speaker
Will my wife listen to this podcast?
00:44:56
Speaker
Probably not.
00:44:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, because I'm sure your wife's a big fan.
00:45:00
Speaker
It can hold like 33 if I don't touch the rooms that she we have like a guest room down there and like a storage room for, you know, all the bins of Christmas decorations and Easter decorations and whatever.
00:45:14
Speaker
There's probably another eight to 10 if I convince her like, hey, you know, a good place for those Christmas bins is under all of these games that are out in the main room.
00:45:25
Speaker
I'm with you on that.
00:45:27
Speaker
You know who doesn't sleep down here?
00:45:28
Speaker
Nobody.
00:45:30
Speaker
Why don't we do an air mattress and we can put four games in here?
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure that fight will come at some point.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah, we have two guest bedrooms downstairs and I would love to fill them with pinballs.
00:45:44
Speaker
But yeah, we have an office downstairs.
00:45:46
Speaker
I never use that.
00:45:47
Speaker
Maybe I can just do that.
00:45:50
Speaker
I thought about putting one in the bedroom, but she said no.
00:45:53
Speaker
It's a it's a pretty nice basement, though.
00:45:54
Speaker
I know that like as we go around and look at houses, you know, with the realtor, I'm sure found me hilarious because I would always just go directly to the basement first.
00:46:04
Speaker
And if, if my wife really liked the house, cause she would typically go and look first before she dragged me out.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:11
Speaker
She would, she, if she really liked it, she would not allow me to go into the basement until she showed me the rest of the house first.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:19
Speaker
I, I actually, when we were looking at, we were thinking of building a house and I actually messaged you a few years ago and I was like, Hey, just wondering, uh, and actually this is funny because, uh,
00:46:31
Speaker
This isn't really the first time we've ever talked.
00:46:33
Speaker
You're very approachable.
00:46:34
Speaker
And I sent you a message on Facebook.
00:46:36
Speaker
I said, so if I were building a house, how many, how did I need to wire the basement per circuit breaker?
00:46:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:46:45
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:46:48
Speaker
Well, we decided not to build, so we're just kind of stuck in our house.
00:46:50
Speaker
But actually, it still works out pretty well.
00:46:53
Speaker
We have good power.
00:46:54
Speaker
It's a necessity.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:57
Speaker
Hey guys, really quickly.
00:46:59
Speaker
Oh, Hey, Josh is still here.
00:47:00
Speaker
Hey, Josh.
00:47:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:01
Speaker
Sorry.
00:47:01
Speaker
I've been back and forth and up and down, but I wanted to ask, we are coming up on the hour mark and I wanted to see if you guys had anything else to add to the conversation or there's a certain subject you want to hit before we wrap this up.
00:47:15
Speaker
What else was on those list of questions that we didn't get to?
00:47:17
Speaker
It's always, it is like every interview I've done.
00:47:21
Speaker
I feel like it makes me feel like my dad where you get a list of like 11 questions and then you're hours up after three of them.
00:47:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:28
Speaker
No, it's well, it, okay.
00:47:30
Speaker
I will say nothing's more painful.
00:47:32
Speaker
I, I'm sure that Keith Elwin was the first interview we did.
00:47:36
Speaker
And, and, and, and he's such a nice guy and we, and we're still pretty rank amateurs.
00:47:43
Speaker
And so we're talking to him and then we got to the end.
00:47:45
Speaker
We're like, I still want to ask him questions.
00:47:51
Speaker
What's your next game you're going to buy?
00:47:53
Speaker
What's your grail?
00:47:54
Speaker
What's your grail game?
00:47:56
Speaker
What's my the next thing I'm going to buy is a Jurassic Park premium.
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's my next game, too.
00:48:04
Speaker
That looks like so much fun.
00:48:07
Speaker
I joke with with Zach that.
00:48:11
Speaker
Like, just man, Keith Elwin, guys, it's it's ridiculous, I think.
00:48:19
Speaker
I joked with Zach that if you had to like put a percentage on the chance that he would put a game out that wasn't excellent, would you put that at 0%?
00:48:28
Speaker
I mean, I might actually put it at 0%.
00:48:33
Speaker
Isn't it crazy?
00:48:34
Speaker
Like, you know, it's, I think that there's no one who lives a better pinball life than Keith Elwin because he's like, you know what?
00:48:40
Speaker
I'm going to take a semi-retirement.
00:48:43
Speaker
And by the way, every time I come back, I'm going to kick your butts by playing the games.
00:48:47
Speaker
And then, you know what, maybe I'll just design something.
00:48:49
Speaker
That sounds fun.
00:48:51
Speaker
Well, and if the play I know, like even after playing the the Whitewood, it's like, well, I'll buy it because whatever rules he puts in there.
00:49:00
Speaker
I mean, it's freaking Keith Owens.
00:49:01
Speaker
So, I mean, he's going to like it.
00:49:03
Speaker
And there isn't anything that he likes that I don't like.
00:49:06
Speaker
So I'm in.
00:49:07
Speaker
That's it.
00:49:08
Speaker
No, I'm with you too.
00:49:10
Speaker
I'm actually, there are games downstairs on my chopping block that I'm going to start paring down and saying, okay, so I need a Jurassic Park.
00:49:20
Speaker
The game looks so much fun.
00:49:22
Speaker
I have a feeling every 18 months there's going to be like the, oh God, what has to move?
00:49:27
Speaker
Because Keith's game is coming out.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah, it used to be.
00:49:31
Speaker
Okay, again, how great, how lucky, well, okay.
00:49:38
Speaker
How smart has Stern been in being able to find their designers?
00:49:43
Speaker
I mean, it's crazy.
00:49:45
Speaker
Just the talent level that they have there just in their designers.
00:49:50
Speaker
And then they pick up Keith, they pick up Brian Eddy.
00:49:53
Speaker
Like, what else?
00:49:56
Speaker
It seems kind of unfair that they have all of the great design.
00:50:03
Speaker
I'm not downplaying all the other designers.
00:50:05
Speaker
I mean, Eric...
00:50:06
Speaker
did a great job.
00:50:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:08
Speaker
I can't wait to see Eric's number two.
00:50:11
Speaker
Oh, I know.
00:50:12
Speaker
No, it's like, those are great too.
00:50:14
Speaker
And I'm saying that's amazing.
00:50:16
Speaker
Scott Denise's game is amazing.
00:50:18
Speaker
All these in, in many ways, that's pretty awesome.
00:50:21
Speaker
And obviously Jersey Jack has, has Pat Lawler too, but it's just, it just seems that right now Stern has kind of the
00:50:32
Speaker
Yankees when it comes to designers, they don't have one guy.
00:50:35
Speaker
They don't have two guys.
00:50:36
Speaker
They have like five guys.
00:50:37
Speaker
It's a pretty deep bench.
00:50:38
Speaker
It's a pretty deep bench.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:40
Speaker
They're thinking, you know what?
00:50:41
Speaker
And also, George, I know you're running most of the company.
00:50:45
Speaker
Why don't you just design something?
00:50:48
Speaker
In your copious amounts of spare time.
00:50:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:51
Speaker
And I will be the first person to say, when I first played Deadpool, I thought, man,
00:50:57
Speaker
I can't find any of these shots.
00:50:59
Speaker
I don't like, I must not one.
00:51:01
Speaker
I must not be an amazing player.
00:51:02
Speaker
That's no news to anybody.
00:51:04
Speaker
But then I thought once I started nailing that Katana shot, I thought, okay, I want this game.
00:51:09
Speaker
This game is awesome.
00:51:10
Speaker
That shot is most satisfying shot I've had in the last 10 years.
00:51:13
Speaker
So anyway, it's great.
00:51:18
Speaker
You know what?
Acknowledgment and Contributions of Josh Arp
00:51:19
Speaker
Thanks for coming on.
00:51:20
Speaker
I know that we, you know,
00:51:22
Speaker
In many ways, you probably get pulled off by a lot of people who just want to chat and all the things that you do for pinball, including these small podcasts.
00:51:32
Speaker
You've always been very approachable.
00:51:33
Speaker
And no, seriously, it's amazing that in many ways, I look at their pinball celebrities and their pinball ambassadors.
00:51:42
Speaker
And I can't think of many people that would fit the pinball ambassador role more than you.
00:51:46
Speaker
I appreciate it.
00:51:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
And you're not even working in the game.
00:51:50
Speaker
You're, you're certainly into pinball, but they're not even paying your, your salary.
00:51:53
Speaker
So, uh, how much I somehow, I found a job better than pinball, which I didn't think was possible, but, uh, very blessed, very blessed.
00:52:02
Speaker
No.
00:52:02
Speaker
Well, in Roth drills, you're doing a great job with that.
00:52:05
Speaker
Obviously they're taking over a lot of these, uh, amusement that they're picking up the void where a lot of arcades left.
00:52:12
Speaker
So it's definitely, yeah, it's been, it's been a great time over here and,
00:52:16
Speaker
You know, maybe I'll get into pinball at some point if this arcade dream ever dies out.
00:52:21
Speaker
But yeah, it's nice to be able to have my cake and eat it too.
00:52:24
Speaker
And obviously with Zach over at Stern and my dad doing some work for other companies, it's nice to stay connected together.
00:52:32
Speaker
to the pinball industry and, uh, you know, and talking with Zach who, who literally has to deal with pinball, you know, eight hours a day, every day.
00:52:40
Speaker
It's kind of nice.
00:52:41
Speaker
I feel like a grandparent to the industry where I can, I can visit anytime I want, but if I want to go home, I can kind of just go home whenever I want to, like my parents do for my kids.
00:52:51
Speaker
So it's kind of, I feel like it's perfect.
00:52:53
Speaker
I'm not beholden to anything, but I can, uh, pick and choose and enjoy it at my own pace.
00:52:58
Speaker
So it's great.
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:00
Speaker
You get to focus on the fun stuff.
00:53:02
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:53:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:04
Speaker
You're right.
00:53:05
Speaker
It is the grandparents.
00:53:06
Speaker
It's not the, hey, go to your homework.
00:53:07
Speaker
It's, hey, see if I can spin you around.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah, candy?
00:53:11
Speaker
Who wants candy?
00:53:12
Speaker
Who wants candy?
00:53:14
Speaker
Thanks again, Josh, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on our show.
00:53:18
Speaker
We really appreciate it, even though you had to deal with my technical difficulties through this whole show.
00:53:22
Speaker
I'm sorry, your mic didn't record.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah, it stinks that my microphone didn't record the way that I wanted to, but next time we'll make sure things are different.
00:53:32
Speaker
Next time you guys can swap, we'll do part two with just you.
00:53:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:38
Speaker
This is the reason why he asked me.
00:53:40
Speaker
He asked me to be the co-host.
00:53:41
Speaker
He's like, you have a lot of useless things to say.
00:53:43
Speaker
Anyway, thanks, Josh.
00:53:47
Speaker
We're planning on, we're going to try, I can't, like I said, I can't make Expo this year.
00:53:51
Speaker
I would love to just call in sick.
00:53:53
Speaker
So I'm an anesthesiologist.
00:53:54
Speaker
I work at a hospital.
00:53:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:53:56
Speaker
That's more important than Expo for sure.
00:53:58
Speaker
Well, I think they would, they would probably kill me if I just failed on, but our plan is to come to Texas next year and hopefully Expo in another year.
00:54:10
Speaker
So maybe we'll see at either of those places.
00:54:14
Speaker
Definitely, guys, and keep it up.
00:54:15
Speaker
The podcast is awesome.
00:54:16
Speaker
Keep it going.
00:54:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:17
Speaker
Thanks, Josh.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yep.
00:54:18
Speaker
Take care.
00:54:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:19
Speaker
See you.
00:54:19
Speaker
Bye.
00:54:20
Speaker
Well, that wraps it up for this episode of the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, episode number 16.
00:54:24
Speaker
I appreciate everyone tuning in.
00:54:27
Speaker
I just wanted to do a quick wrap-up at the end of this episode.
00:54:30
Speaker
We do have the results from the Slam the Top 100 when we had Martin on the episode last episode, but we're going to save those results for the next show.
00:54:37
Speaker
And we did get some mail this time.
00:54:39
Speaker
We appreciate when you guys write in at LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
00:54:44
Speaker
We're going to share those thoughts because it was on our topic of location pinball and how to make it more
00:54:49
Speaker
appealing to the general public.
00:54:52
Speaker
So we'll be discussing all that on our next episode.
00:54:54
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in.