Transcript
Speaker: Okay, disclaimer before we start the show.
Speaker: Our typical recording process was not working, so we had to go to our backup recording process, which somewhat worked.
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
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 th is is gonna be a very rough cut raw uh interview that we did so please enjoy
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
Speaker: I am Josh Rupp with my co-captain, Scott Larson, as usual.
Speaker: Scott, will you please introduce our very special guest for today?
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.
Speaker: That's I'm going to keep that recording.
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.
Speaker: It's on a mantra.
Speaker: That's how it works, right?
Speaker: You say it enough and it will become true.
Speaker: Exactly.
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.
Speaker: Yeah, at least yours is achievable.
Speaker: Mine's not really remotely achievable.
Speaker: I'm proving that mine's not too achievable either.
Speaker: Don't worry.
Speaker: So, Josh, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker: Thanks for slumming up with us.
Speaker: My pleasure.
Speaker: I'm assuming you're just doing it for the free hats we're giving away.
Speaker: I was insanely jealous watching, you know, Alan walk around with his hat.
Speaker: I'm like, how do I get one of those?
Speaker: I think you got to go on the podcast, man.
Speaker: That's about it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I think my favorite, though, is I'm really...
Speaker: We did these for fun.
Speaker: We made, uh, Josh, uh, made this great hat and he said, what do you think?
Speaker: I said, great.
Speaker: So we just started sending them out to people and especially people who are on the podcast.
Speaker: And I'm not kidding.
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.
Speaker: He was like, dude, he's wearing your hat.
Speaker: Time to open up that web store of your dreams.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: He must have run out of hats if he decided that ours is the go-to hat.
Speaker: Anyway, so Josh, what is new with you?
Speaker: What's going on with you and pinball?
Speaker: We're in the post-Pinberg hiatus and now what's on the future for us?
Speaker: What are we looking forward to in pinball?
Speaker: Man, that's a wide
Speaker: That's a wide berth question for me.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: It's pushing Labor Day.
Speaker: I am waiting for Pinball Expo, which is my next chance to not win something.
Speaker: Mid-October.
Speaker: You can still shoot for second.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Expo is not a major, so all bets are off.
Speaker: I can actually take that one down.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: You can roll that one.
Speaker: Yeah, we got asked if we were interested in coming out to Expo.
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.
Speaker: And so everybody takes time off.
Speaker: Also, my professional organization, that's the weekend they always have their annual conference.
Speaker: And so people are trying to get off for that.
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.
Speaker: It was like, you know what, guys, I'm going to take some time off.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: I'm going to go to a little pinball convention.
Speaker: So why don't you just take care of all that stuff and get back to me?
Speaker: So it's one of those things.
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.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Something like that.
Speaker: Doing it for the kids.
Speaker: No, I totally get it.
Speaker: Josh, you are a man of very many different hats.
Speaker: You've got to tell me, how do you do it?
Speaker: How do you balance IFPA, Raw Thrills, and your family all at the same time?
Speaker: Well, my default is I neglect my family.
Speaker: That's the first thing to go.
Speaker: As you should.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, over the years, I've certainly gotten help.
Speaker: The IFPA workload 13 years ago compared to now,
Speaker: is a vastly different level of attention that's needed.
Speaker: So there's more people helping me out now to sort of keep the time that I put into IFPA week to week.
Speaker: It's probably, I don't know, 20 hours a week.
Speaker: And it's been 20 hours a week for a long time.
Speaker: So anytime that it pushes to more than that, I find someone to help fill those hours.
Speaker: So I don't know.
Speaker: Between that and work and life, it just works itself.
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
Speaker: In many ways, I understand you're passionate about this.
Speaker: You're doing something to grow competitive pinball and keep everything alive.
Speaker: At some point, does it feel like it's still worth it?
Speaker: Because really, from the background, I look at everything you do for nothing or pennies.
Speaker: pennies or whatever.
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.
Speaker: I mean, praise, praise.
Speaker: Um, but no, it's just, at some point I would look at the entire community and say, are you guys kidding me?
Speaker: Do you have any idea what I'm doing for you?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: How do you, how do you not just give, give everybody, you know, the double finger?
Speaker: I, I think, uh,
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.
Speaker: Um, but for me, like, I mean, this all started because I'm also a player.
Speaker: So a lot of the things that,
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.
Speaker: So for me, there was a lot of like selfish rewards for putting in this work.
Speaker: Sure.
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.
Speaker: Like I think,
Speaker: it will get harder.
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.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And that's fair.
Speaker: And you know, haters going to hate man that, that, that stuff never bothers me.
Speaker: It's a,
Speaker: you grow a thick skin after you've made 1,100 changes to a system over the last decade.
Speaker: Yeah, it just seems that there are more people taking from the system or benefiting from the system than actually putting in.
Speaker: So I appreciate everything you're doing.
Speaker: It's just, it really, I don't think I could say that positive, given all the criticism.
Speaker: It seems that the criticism is probably heavier than the praise, but
Speaker: I'm sure the praise is in the background.
Speaker: It's not reality.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it, it works out enough that, uh, yeah, believe me, the, I think they call that the vocal minority.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, uh, I'd probably insert something else.
Speaker: It, uh, it truly is the vocal minority though, with respect to all the feedback that I get.
Speaker: So I like, I feel great that I'm not even close to,
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.
Speaker: Yeah, that's good.
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?
Speaker: Right, something like that.
Speaker: Let's see, how many players are we at now?
Speaker: 72 to 48.
Speaker: I kind of wonder where I am.
Speaker: I haven't competed in a long time, so I'm probably down to 50,000 or something.
Speaker: Beth, that means you can move, easier to move up.
Speaker: Easier to move up, that's right.
Speaker: No way to go but up.
Speaker: So with that, when you grow sports, I know you've talked about it before, and I completely agree with you.
Speaker: In order to get a sport to grow, then you need to have exposure.
Speaker: And so whether or not that's darts on ESPN or
Speaker: or anything like that on the Ocho, there's two things.
Speaker: One, people need to be exposed to it, and two, they need to find a place to go play.
Speaker: So it seems the challenge with growing pinball is finding places to play.
Speaker: I know the majority of people, when they find out that I have pinball machines, they always have the same response.
Speaker: It's, really?
Speaker: Huh?
Speaker: Do they make those anymore?
Speaker: Can I come and play?
Speaker: It's always the same thing, but it's so different because I grew up when you grew up.
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.
Speaker: and people still went out to get entertainment.
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.
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
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.
Speaker: No doubt.
Speaker: I think the one thing that pinball has going for it is its uniqueness.
Speaker: And I think as you've had a generation, our generation,
Speaker: it kind of understood what pinball was.
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.
Speaker: Like, I think there's, there's the ability now for, for true rediscovery of, of pinball by people.
Speaker: And you get that magical, like the whole, the whole 3d world under glass thing is like a magic trick.
Speaker: to people who really have no idea what pinball is.
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.
Speaker: And a lot of that has to do with, with places that are willing to, to put pinball in their establishments.
Speaker: It's either committing to hiring staff that is aware of how to repair these things or partnering with outside tech support that,
Speaker: is on some sort of regular schedule.
Speaker: And I know that there's locations here that go through that.
Speaker: Like, like the, the, the staff techs just don't know how to fix the pins full stop.
Speaker: So if something breaks, it is just rotting until it's dead, but they've,
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.
Speaker: That's, that's not working properly.
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,
Speaker: to be able to experience pinball for the first time on a game that's actually working.
Speaker: So I think it's the community's involvement that can then, you know, support new people finding the game.
Speaker: It's, uh, I agree with you.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: Yeah.
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,
Speaker: It's hard for me to play on site.
Speaker: I have to have full disclosure.
Speaker: It's hard for me to go to an arcade and play because the games are so hammered.
Speaker: We went to Chuck E. Cheese for my kid's birthday and my wife said, hey, there's a game over there.
Speaker: You should go play.
Speaker: And this was before we actually owned it, but it was Pirates of the Caribbean, the Stern one.
Speaker: And I went up and man, it was... It was a blown out city.
Speaker: Oh, it was great.
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
Speaker: How as a pinball community can we develop a tech support?
Speaker: Because I'll use the car analogy.
Speaker: When my friend was a mechanic, he actually went to a training program from Toyota.
Speaker: And he went through and they taught him, they said, hey, these are the areas you need to know how to repair.
Speaker: These are how you do it.
Speaker: And then he was hired by Toyota.
Speaker: Is there a way for the pinball community to have a way of
Speaker: you know, stern putting out either educational things or ways of educating the new people to get into it.
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
Speaker: looking at different videos to try to find, well, you know, because you need multiple things.
Speaker: You need to be able to diagnose the problem and fix the problem, which are two different skill sets.
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.
Speaker: I know that Betson, who's our distributor,
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.
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.
Speaker: And,
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.
Speaker: I think it's definitely a really important step in the process and probably the most popular one that breaks down.
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.
Speaker: And the good news is the, the pinball player base, I think is, is one of the most awesome groups of, uh,
Speaker: people that are, that are willing to put in the time and effort to keep a locations games running.
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.
Speaker: But
Speaker: you know, if you give me the keys, I'll fix stuff for free.
Speaker: I just want these games working so I can enjoy them.
Speaker: And then the ancillary benefit there is everyone else can enjoy them.
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.
Speaker: And I think
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.
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.
Speaker: Congratulations.
Speaker: It's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Unfortunately, it's not that, but there is a way to be successful at it.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It is more of a community-based things.
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.
Speaker: And if I'm not doing it, no one else is doing what needs to be done.
Speaker: And so I'm going to develop the league and the setup to have a matrix to play.
Speaker: I guess it's the same thing with location.
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.
Speaker: I'll change the first.
Speaker: I'll tighten everything up and make sure it works.
Speaker: But yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker: We see it as we're approaching, I think the Stern Army program started at the end of 16.
Speaker: And we're approaching...
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
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.
Speaker: Sell them the dream of what they can have.
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.
Speaker: coming into an establishment.
Speaker: And that's absolutely true.
Speaker: You know, people who are rabid pinball people will seek out pinball.
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.
Speaker: But, and we can't claim to be bringing in any new players.
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.
Speaker: And the only thing that will bring them in is this particular game.
Speaker: And there's something special about that as a product.
Speaker: There's not a lot of products that
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.
Speaker: Good for business, new money.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The, the location here in Utah, that is, is basically exactly what you said.
Speaker: It's Dan Newman, who's the local guy.
Speaker: He,
Speaker: He partnered with someone who he knew had a bar and he put all these machines in there.
Speaker: And really that's the main place I go.
Speaker: And there's no other reason for me to drive to Salt Lake city to go to a bar.
Speaker: Um, because I, I don't need to, but I go there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I go there because they have the games and they, you know, they just got a Jurassic park.
Speaker: So they're, uh, they are actually moving forward.
Speaker: I, you're, um,
Speaker: It's like you work in the industry or something.
Speaker: You actually have thought these things out.
Speaker: Only all the time.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Stuff that rattles into my brain all day, every day.
Speaker: It's important.
Speaker: I mean, at some point, the pinball industry, I agree with Gary Stern.
Speaker: The industry won't survive the
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You need to.
Speaker: The ecosystem has to continue that way.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: If you don't continue to feed the fire, you're right.
Speaker: It'll die out.
Speaker: I will say the interesting thing about everything I've said about people finding out, oh, you're into pinball?
Speaker: One, did they make them?
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Well, can I come play it?
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?
Speaker: How much?
Speaker: Yeah, how much?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Along the lines of people's kids, really, it's a broader example than people's kids.
Speaker: You become that tree trunk, right?
Speaker: Anyone that's your branch, that's the only way pinball survives.
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
Speaker: the people who are in their 40s now collecting to leave a legacy that carries the sport and game forward.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's basically my story.
Speaker: My story is I actually never played pinball because I grew up and that's when, so I'm turning 45 this year.
Speaker: That's right when like 1980, 1981, when the electronic game, that was the new thing.
Speaker: You could actually interact with something on the screen and
Speaker: and pinball just was pushed to the corner.
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.
Speaker: I'll go play this Donkey Kong, which will kill me in three seconds.
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.
Speaker: Maybe I should figure out how to do that because it'll make my money go longer.
Speaker: Yeah, so I didn't get into it until about five years ago.
Speaker: But then I love that nostalgic feel of the arcade, and that's what I wanted to create in my house.
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.
Speaker: At some point, my kids will be, if they don't get into it,
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.
Speaker: Yeah, that's actually funny.
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.
Speaker: No doubt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, thankfully, we all have some friends who are like, hey, if something happens to me, contact them.
Speaker: I'm all over it, man.
Speaker: I'll give your wife half.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So let's play pretend.
Speaker: I am a new guy to the hobby.
Speaker: I want to prepare for Pinnberg.
Speaker: And I come to you and say, you know what?
Speaker: I want to buy eight games.
Speaker: I want to put two sets of four together so I can get that Pinnberg skill.
Speaker: how would you construct those eight games or those two blocks?
Speaker: I mean, certainly the biggest thing is, is era diversity.
Speaker: Yeah.
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,
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.
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,
Speaker: when you put them in a competitive setting, every game's kind of awesome.
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.
Speaker: It's, it's, it's the high of, of trying to do something and accomplish something on that play field.
Speaker: When you're limited to the three balls that you have, the three bullets you have in the gun.
Speaker: You have been to Flipperspiel in Vegas, right?
Speaker: I have.
Speaker: Yeah, you have the chance.
Speaker: They host us the last two years.
Speaker: Yeah, which is great.
Speaker: Adam's great down there.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: I went down there when Don and Jeff did their 100th episode.
Speaker: So I was there and we played a friendly competition.
Speaker: And there was one guy who anytime you do it and he would select, he would select this really obscure cocktail game.
Speaker: And I honestly can't remember what it was, but nobody could play it except for that dude.
Speaker: I don't think the home field advantage.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: But I, it was, it was, it was such an interesting game, but I, you're right.
Speaker: I don't believe that that cocktail game would, would fit very well in someone's house unless you have competition.
Speaker: Cause no one, no one cares to play it.
Speaker: Right.
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.
Speaker: I'm going to beat you at it.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And that's like,
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.
Speaker: I mean, it's, it's unbelievable.
Speaker: It's kind of a,
Speaker: a big human thing competition.
Speaker: So, uh, pinball's an excellent outlet for, uh, a competitive thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My, my, my trick is now, okay.
Speaker: Who gets to brush their teeth the first, right?
Speaker: For some reason, who's going to sleep by themselves.
Speaker: The first, please guys, please.
Speaker: They haven't got to that point yet, but I, I will get them to who can brush their teeth.
Speaker: The first, I'll try that tonight.
Speaker: There you go.
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.
Speaker: So what was your last purchase?
Speaker: What'd you get?
Speaker: My last purchase?
Speaker: Well, I'm mid-purchase right now.
Speaker: Should I count that?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I'm picking up a Spirit of 76 tomorrow.
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.
Speaker: There's still deals that you can't pass up.
Speaker: So the game before that, I think a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Bally Aladdin's Castle.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And...
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.
Speaker: You just type back like, I'll take it.
Speaker: Am I the first one?
Speaker: I'll take it.
Speaker: And it was like, yeah, it's yours.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: I guess I'm getting an Aladdin's castle.
Speaker: Dad, is that game any good?
Speaker: Is it good?
Speaker: Well, I just I just did that recently where there was a laser ball that came up.
Speaker: And I said, does it work?
Speaker: And they said, yeah.
Speaker: And I said, okay, I'll take it.
Speaker: And they delivered it to my, they delivered it here.
Speaker: And so I go out and I plug it in and it doesn't credit up.
Speaker: Of course.
Speaker: It was one of those where they're, they are trying to sell it on behalf of their neighbor.
Speaker: Who's, you know, moving away for a few years.
Speaker: And so, you know, I just said, okay, fine, here's the $400.
Speaker: And so I kept it in my garage for about four months and,
Speaker: Finally, I said, you know what?
Speaker: I'm not going to fix this.
Speaker: I don't have time.
Speaker: So I just put it up and I was like, okay, who wants this for 400 bucks?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Time to move it on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pay it forward.
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.
Speaker: And I've been telling him for years, dude, if you ever see,
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
Speaker: And we'll see if it's any fun.
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.
Speaker: I figured, you know, set it up, play it for a year or whatever and move it on.
Speaker: And and I've had some that were like, you know, this is pretty damn fun.
Speaker: Oh, my God, it's really good.
Speaker: And games that I've had, you know, over a decade now.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: What what what's your what's your favorite pre 76 game?
Speaker: Pre 76.
Speaker: So, you know, EM era.
Speaker: What's your favorite pre EM era?
Speaker: Current.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: I mean, of the ones I have at home, like I'm really enjoying my faces a lot.
Speaker: That's a Sonic.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because it just beats the crap out of me all the time.
Speaker: And then one out of every 20 games, I get ahold of it.
Speaker: But, uh,
Speaker: Air races, surprisingly, that that's the game that I got.
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.
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.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: So when you look it up, it's pretty much just a center bank of targets.
Speaker: It's a lot like Jack in the Box, Jumping Jack from Gottlieb, which my dad had when I was growing up.
Speaker: Air races?
Speaker: Air aces.
Speaker: Air aces.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because I was looking at air races, and I thought, that's like 1937.
Speaker: Not that old.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'd always assumed it.
Speaker: I'd always assume that that air races was going to be a lesser version of jumping Jack, Jack in the box.
Speaker: And.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Oh, that looks like death.
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.
Speaker: So it's, uh, it's, it's stayed in the collection.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and each one of those shots has to end.
Speaker: It looks like a centered range is waiting to happen.
Speaker: And you have those midget side flippers.
Speaker: You really want to, you raise your bonus by the jet bumpers.
Speaker: Okay.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That'll kill you.
Speaker: But now there's a fun part of that game where as you build your bonus,
Speaker: it lights your extra ball and double bonus holes at the top.
Speaker: And man balls love going in those saucers at the top when there's, when they're not lit for anything.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
Speaker: It's like,
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.
Speaker: Like, uh, is the game going to pay me off or not?
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.
Speaker: The more that I appreciate sort of that previous generation of design philosophy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's it,
Speaker: in many ways they were taking, taking advantage of the limitations of the era and that they couldn't do crazy ramps.
Speaker: They couldn't do all this stuff.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There was a, a great gift in the finals of Pinnberg last year on, uh,
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.
Speaker: And the only way to do it was literally to like, you, you couldn't guarantee that you were going to make it.
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.
Speaker: And he totally did it.
Speaker: And that was just like, that's what that era of pinball is all about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Speaking of Elwin, did you see when he was playing Metallica this year how he had a ball cradled on the right flipper?
Speaker: He live caught and shot a ball off the right flipper and left the ball cradled on the flipper?
Speaker: Yeah, I can't explain that.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I can't tell you how many times.
Speaker: as I brought that up, because I just watched that and I was like, wait, did, did I just see that?
Speaker: Did that really happen?
Speaker: Special physics just for him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think that's how it is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So air races.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So solid state favorite game right now.
Speaker: Solid state.
Speaker: Well, solid state is favorite game of all time is my, my Cyclops game.
Speaker: That's my baby.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: And then you're getting to the DMD era.
Speaker: DMD.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: Probably... Ah, it's tough.
Speaker: I guess it's not tough.
Speaker: Like, Walking Dead.
Speaker: I don't consider Walking Dead like that... When I think DMD, I think like that Williams era, but like... Sure.
Speaker: Technically, DMD, I think Walking Dead is the greatest.
Speaker: Sure it is.
Speaker: Okay.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The...
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.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And it scares my kids to death.
Speaker: So that's a bonus in the basement.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The funny thing is, I looked at... Well, it was the same thing.
Speaker: We had a local Metallica came up.
Speaker: And I turned to my wife and was like, Hey, on a scale of 1 to 10...
Speaker: how interested are you in owning a Metallica machine?
Speaker: I probably, I probably should have started better, but she said, can the scale go negative?
Speaker: And I was like, Oh, okay.
Speaker: I guess I won't get that, but I'd really like it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If the scale goes negative, does that help me take this home?
Speaker: Is that good?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We can totally do that.
Speaker: It's, is one like awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I, I totally, it's a,
Speaker: that game is it's, it's one of those where if you are not precise, you're going to get killed.
Speaker: And even if you are precise, you're going to get killed.
Speaker: Yeah, it's brutal.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and that's, if you're a masochist, like I am, like those are great moments where,
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.
Speaker: Now, do you have the pro or the premium?
Speaker: I have the premium.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Walker bombs for the win.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You also like the crossbow shot?
Speaker: That doesn't matter.
Speaker: Doesn't matter.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like, it's fine, but the Walker bombs add a level to strategy in that game that I think is awesome.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: How much overlap is your collection with Zach?
Speaker: And your dad, I guess, all three of you.
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.
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.
Speaker: I'll just have to argue with Zach.
Speaker: But like, hey, you know what?
Speaker: Dad's is in better shape than mine.
Speaker: You could have mine.
Speaker: I'm taking dad's.
Speaker: I think Zach and I both have a Cyclops, as does my dad.
Speaker: All three of us have a sharpshooter.
Speaker: Zach and I both have a maiden.
Speaker: Zach and I both have a walking dead.
Speaker: My dad and I both have a medieval.
Speaker: We both have an Addams Family.
Speaker: We both have a Twilight Zone.
Speaker: All three of us have a jumping jack.
Speaker: That might be it.
Speaker: My dad is a pin bot.
Speaker: I have a jack bot.
Speaker: Maybe that's that's close, close, but no cigar.
Speaker: Yeah, I jackpot looks a lot more fun.
Speaker: I have a hard time getting into pin bot, but Jack looks like a lot more fun.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the the the you know, the DMD really does change that game, which is it's just weird.
Speaker: But it does.
Speaker: Yeah, it's just a better rules package for tournament play, especially.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So in the last five years, so Walking Dead was five years ago.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Last five years, favorite game.
Speaker: Too early for Jurassic Park?
Speaker: Probably too early, right?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: You can put that as potential.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: It's actually true.
Speaker: When I saw that, and I still haven't got up and played it,
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.
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.
Speaker: I think my wife would probably give me the Metallica vote on that one.
Speaker: But I think she would love me.
Speaker: It's Maiden for me.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's awesome.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And somehow they bought that.
Speaker: So I somehow I changed the mood of the perception of the game as they were finding Eddie's around the play field.
Speaker: It's like, isn't he funny?
Speaker: He dresses up in different costumes.
Speaker: What a wacky guy.
Speaker: This is Halloween.
Speaker: Who's that?
Speaker: Who's that devil beast guy over there?
Speaker: It's like, don't worry about him.
Speaker: He's the bad guy.
Speaker: But it's going to beat him up, man.
Speaker: It's so fun.
Speaker: And they love it.
Speaker: Both of my kids will play it.
Speaker: I mean, they won't even look at The Walking Dead, but they'll play Maiden, so that's good.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Is it the pro or premium?
Speaker: It is the premium.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, and I really would love to get that in my house.
Speaker: I guess a few things need to go.
Speaker: I'm such a hoarder, though.
Speaker: It's hard for me to actually look at a game and say it's time for me to sell it on.
Speaker: It's tough.
Speaker: I just sold three games, and it's tough to ever see anything go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So do you usually sell them to friends or how do you usually sell them?
Speaker: It's a mix and match.
Speaker: Like normally I'll offer them up to like one of my best friends who's actually still in Champaign.
Speaker: He he's probably bought 10 games for me over the past, whatever.
Speaker: So if I, if he has something that it's like, Hey man, I'll take that.
Speaker: I'll usually feed him that.
Speaker: And, and some of the other games, you know, as he's running out of space that he's not interested in,
Speaker: I'll do the, uh, the pin side Facebook listing and, uh, and see what goes.
Speaker: And ultimately a lot of the times the people that show up are people that I end up knowing anyway.
Speaker: So it, uh, it works itself out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So how big is your collection right now?
Speaker: It is 29 with spirit.
Speaker: So tomorrow would be adding number 30 at the moment.
Speaker: How big is your basement?
Speaker: It can hold.
Speaker: Will my wife listen to this podcast?
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, because I'm sure your wife's a big fan.
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.
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.
Speaker: I'm with you on that.
Speaker: You know who doesn't sleep down here?
Speaker: Nobody.
Speaker: Why don't we do an air mattress and we can put four games in here?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm sure that fight will come at some point.
Speaker: Yeah, we have two guest bedrooms downstairs and I would love to fill them with pinballs.
Speaker: But yeah, we have an office downstairs.
Speaker: I never use that.
Speaker: Maybe I can just do that.
Speaker: I thought about putting one in the bedroom, but she said no.
Speaker: It's a it's a pretty nice basement, though.
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.
Speaker: And if, if my wife really liked the house, cause she would typically go and look first before she dragged me out.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
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,
Speaker: This isn't really the first time we've ever talked.
Speaker: You're very approachable.
Speaker: And I sent you a message on Facebook.
Speaker: I said, so if I were building a house, how many, how did I need to wire the basement per circuit breaker?
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Well, we decided not to build, so we're just kind of stuck in our house.
Speaker: But actually, it still works out pretty well.
Speaker: We have good power.
Speaker: It's a necessity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hey guys, really quickly.
Speaker: Oh, Hey, Josh is still here.
Speaker: Hey, Josh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sorry.
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.
Speaker: What else was on those list of questions that we didn't get to?
Speaker: It's always, it is like every interview I've done.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's well, it, okay.
Speaker: I will say nothing's more painful.
Speaker: I, I'm sure that Keith Elwin was the first interview we did.
Speaker: And, and, and, and he's such a nice guy and we, and we're still pretty rank amateurs.
Speaker: And so we're talking to him and then we got to the end.
Speaker: We're like, I still want to ask him questions.
Speaker: What's your next game you're going to buy?
Speaker: What's your grail?
Speaker: What's your grail game?
Speaker: What's my the next thing I'm going to buy is a Jurassic Park premium.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's my next game, too.
Speaker: That looks like so much fun.
Speaker: I joke with with Zach that.
Speaker: Like, just man, Keith Elwin, guys, it's it's ridiculous, I think.
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%?
Speaker: I mean, I might actually put it at 0%.
Speaker: Isn't it crazy?
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?
Speaker: I'm going to take a semi-retirement.
Speaker: And by the way, every time I come back, I'm going to kick your butts by playing the games.
Speaker: And then, you know what, maybe I'll just design something.
Speaker: That sounds fun.
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.
Speaker: I mean, it's freaking Keith Owens.
Speaker: So, I mean, he's going to like it.
Speaker: And there isn't anything that he likes that I don't like.
Speaker: So I'm in.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: No, I'm with you too.
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.
Speaker: The game looks so much fun.
Speaker: I have a feeling every 18 months there's going to be like the, oh God, what has to move?
Speaker: Because Keith's game is coming out.
Speaker: Yeah, it used to be.
Speaker: Okay, again, how great, how lucky, well, okay.
Speaker: How smart has Stern been in being able to find their designers?
Speaker: I mean, it's crazy.
Speaker: Just the talent level that they have there just in their designers.
Speaker: And then they pick up Keith, they pick up Brian Eddy.
Speaker: Like, what else?
Speaker: It seems kind of unfair that they have all of the great design.
Speaker: I'm not downplaying all the other designers.
Speaker: I mean, Eric...
Speaker: did a great job.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I can't wait to see Eric's number two.
Speaker: Oh, I know.
Speaker: No, it's like, those are great too.
Speaker: And I'm saying that's amazing.
Speaker: Scott Denise's game is amazing.
Speaker: All these in, in many ways, that's pretty awesome.
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
Speaker: Yankees when it comes to designers, they don't have one guy.
Speaker: They don't have two guys.
Speaker: They have like five guys.
Speaker: It's a pretty deep bench.
Speaker: It's a pretty deep bench.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're thinking, you know what?
Speaker: And also, George, I know you're running most of the company.
Speaker: Why don't you just design something?
Speaker: In your copious amounts of spare time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I will be the first person to say, when I first played Deadpool, I thought, man,
Speaker: I can't find any of these shots.
Speaker: I don't like, I must not one.
Speaker: I must not be an amazing player.
Speaker: That's no news to anybody.
Speaker: But then I thought once I started nailing that Katana shot, I thought, okay, I want this game.
Speaker: This game is awesome.
Speaker: That shot is most satisfying shot I've had in the last 10 years.
Speaker: So anyway, it's great.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Thanks for coming on.
Speaker: I know that we, you know,
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.
Speaker: You've always been very approachable.
Speaker: And no, seriously, it's amazing that in many ways, I look at their pinball celebrities and their pinball ambassadors.
Speaker: And I can't think of many people that would fit the pinball ambassador role more than you.
Speaker: I appreciate it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And you're not even working in the game.
Speaker: You're, you're certainly into pinball, but they're not even paying your, your salary.
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.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Well, in Roth drills, you're doing a great job with that.
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.
Speaker: So it's definitely, yeah, it's been, it's been a great time over here and,
Speaker: You know, maybe I'll get into pinball at some point if this arcade dream ever dies out.
Speaker: But yeah, it's nice to be able to have my cake and eat it too.
Speaker: And obviously with Zach over at Stern and my dad doing some work for other companies, it's nice to stay connected together.
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.
Speaker: It's kind of nice.
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.
Speaker: So it's kind of, I feel like it's perfect.
Speaker: I'm not beholden to anything, but I can, uh, pick and choose and enjoy it at my own pace.
Speaker: So it's great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You get to focus on the fun stuff.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It is the grandparents.
Speaker: It's not the, hey, go to your homework.
Speaker: It's, hey, see if I can spin you around.
Speaker: Yeah, candy?
Speaker: Who wants candy?
Speaker: Who wants candy?
Speaker: Thanks again, Josh, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on our show.
Speaker: We really appreciate it, even though you had to deal with my technical difficulties through this whole show.
Speaker: I'm sorry, your mic didn't record.
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.
Speaker: Next time you guys can swap, we'll do part two with just you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is the reason why he asked me.
Speaker: He asked me to be the co-host.
Speaker: He's like, you have a lot of useless things to say.
Speaker: Anyway, thanks, Josh.
Speaker: We're planning on, we're going to try, I can't, like I said, I can't make Expo this year.
Speaker: I would love to just call in sick.
Speaker: So I'm an anesthesiologist.
Speaker: I work at a hospital.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's more important than Expo for sure.
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.
Speaker: So maybe we'll see at either of those places.
Speaker: Definitely, guys, and keep it up.
Speaker: The podcast is awesome.
Speaker: Keep it going.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Thanks, Josh.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Take care.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: See you.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Well, that wraps it up for this episode of the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, episode number 16.
Speaker: I appreciate everyone tuning in.
Speaker: I just wanted to do a quick wrap-up at the end of this episode.
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.
Speaker: And we did get some mail this time.
Speaker: We appreciate when you guys write in at LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: We're going to share those thoughts because it was on our topic of location pinball and how to make it more
Speaker: appealing to the general public.
Speaker: So we'll be discussing all that on our next episode.
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in.
