Support the show and receive a link to our private discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode Alan & Alex are joined on the show to discuss the short-lived Pinball 2000 platform, and Ian defends SWE1, the last game that Williams pinball ever made against a flood of bad reviews. I mention in this episode a fantastic documentary that you should check out, called TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball check it out to learn more about this incredible project. As always though: this is an ...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Support the show and get a link to the private dischord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode is all about why pinball's natural habitat is on location, and why location pinball still matters (and matters much more than private collections) in the year 2025 and beyond. Our whole podcast is basically centered around the importance of pinball being put on location, but this episode in particular is a love letter to on location pinball ...with swearing. Support the show...
Jun 23, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Support the show and receive a link to our private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode is all about the joys and fun that a hard game of pinball brings. For whatever reason this seems to be a minority opinion in the modern era, even though we set out to prove that pinball was always supposed to be hard, and that challenging games are way more fun in the long run. Obligatory naughty language warning. Support the show...
Jun 16, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Support the show & receive a link to the private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode has been teased multiple times over the run of the show, and is a solo episode based upon what I started out writing as a short article about the business of location pinball, the economics of it, and the feasibility of pinball earning money on location. What started out as a short article quickly grew wider in scope, and eventually I just felt like it would make a better podcast episode...
Jun 09, 2025•53 min•Season 1Ep. 86
Support the show & get a link to our private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast Good friend of the show and all-around expert solid state assassin, Ty Palmer joins us on the show once again for his SIXTH appearance to defend his DOTH game, 1979's Future Spa. Designed by George Christian and released by Bally in their golden era, this game is a super wide body with a very weird and very horny art package, but it's also a game that is widely mocked. At least it was, until this episode...
Jun 02, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Support the show & receive a link to the private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode is all about the mystery and mystique surrounding Bally's best game designer from their early solid state golden era, previously covered in our Susan B. Anthony Years episode. And just like last time, we are joined by local Solid-State assassin and good friend Ty Palmer to discuss what is all of our favorite designer from this era. For a guy that designed some of the best-selling games o...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Support the show and get a link to the private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode we discuss Stern pinball's interesting way of approaching certain licensed games that they make, including their recent games Dungeons & Dragons and King Kong, before we dive into the differences with their earlier Marvel games like Spider Man, Iron Man, or Avengers to what they make nowadays with Deadpool, X-Men, Venom or Avengers (the second time). Roger Sharpe used a phrase called a "So...
May 19, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Support the show & get a link to our private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode was written by Alex, about how to get the most out of a Pinball Show. As the popularity of pinball has grown in the last 5-10 years, so too have the number of Pinball Shows/Expos/Conventions, and there is probably one near you too. Shows can be overwhelming, so listen to Alex & Alan discuss their tips for getting the most out of your weekend! Warning: We are badboys, and so we use badboy...
May 12, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Support the show and join the private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast In this edition of DOTH, Marcus Petersen from the previous episode about creating a pinball scene in a rural town, is back to defend his love for Sega's final pinball machine: 1999's South Park. I am sure everybody has heard of the show at this point, but this game was released after the first two seasons of the show. The pinball machine is nowhere near as well loved as the IP it's based upon, which is we are cover...
May 05, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Support the show and join our private discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode we are joined on the show with Marcus Petersen, who became a pinball operator in Lassen County, in Northern California near the Lassen National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Susanville is the biggest city in the county with less than 10,000 residents, so Marcus really had a small pond when he decided to first start operating pinball machines. Marcus speaks to us passionately about the importance ...
Apr 28, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Support the show and join our private Discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This the follow-up episode to Episode 76: Original Themes, and in this episode, we explore the licensing wars in the early 90s through the lens of Joe Kaminkow at Data East pinball and their shift from original themes to only making licensed games. We talk about how Williams and Gottlieb follow suit and compare sales strategies amongst the companies. Then we end up discussing the major shift in pinball buyers from o...
Apr 21, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Support the Show and get a link to the private discord channel: ko- fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode we are joined by the Underboss of the Stern Family, Mr. George Gomez to discuss the single most popular location game in the Portland pinball scene and celebrate the 20th Anniversary of its release. George tells us stories about the production of the game, working with Lyman Sheats and Chris Granner, as well as answering our questions about the psychology of game design, and why he believes h...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 78
Support the show and join the private discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast On this episode, we have a listener from the New England area Josh who wants to talk about the first Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine released in 1987 by Bally. It's a famously hard game with very weird inlanes, so it should be no surprise that it is not well loved by most pinheads. But Josh came on to set the record straight, and respond to all the haters. Warning: We swear on the show. Always have and always...
Apr 07, 2025•43 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Support the show & join our private Discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This is a good one, where we discuss how Williams was able to prove that during the renaissance period of the late 1980s and 1990s, they were able to design, manufacture, and most importantly, SELL the crap outta their original theme games. In this episode, we talk about how Williams beat their competition with original themes and then discuss why almost all of the modern original IP themes suck. Warning: we swear...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Support the show & join our private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast Scott Danesi rejoins us on the show to defend his love of Gottlieb Premier's Raven, the lowest rated game that we have ever featured on the show! Scott goes on the record with why he thinks Raven is actually great and confronts and addresses all the bad internet reviews. Standard warning: We curse on this show; in case you weren't aware of these fact in the first 74 episodes of this podcast. Support the show...
Mar 24, 2025•43 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Support the show & receive a link to our private discord server: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast In this episode, we are joined on the show by the patron saint of making pinball challenging again, Scott Danesi. Scott works a full time job at Pinball Life as a multidisciplinary engineer, creating replacement pinball parts for all of us to benefit from, but he also famously has designed 3 (as of this recording) production pinball machines. Scott is also one of the nicest dudes in pinball, who just ...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Support the show: https:/ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast In this episode we discuss the final chapter of Gottlieb as a pinball manufacturer. The prevailing narrative around these games is that they're all terrible, but that's simply not true. There was a bunch of talented individuals working at Gottlieb at this time, making some very interesting games on extremely tight deadlines, with few resources and we wanted to highlight their talents and work. You may know these games by their pointy boy flippe...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Support the show: https:/ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast We are joined on the show by our friend Todd Robinett, to discuss creating a pinball scene from scratch in a small town near the Oregon Coast. He operates pins in his two businesses: the Merry Time Bar, and the Labor Temple Diner. When Todd first moved out to Astoria, there were no pinball machines. Now Astoria has 45 pinball machines on location in a town of 10,000 people, and Todd operates about half of these games. Todd tells us all about hi...
Mar 03, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast IFPA director, and former women's world champion Zoe Vrabel is back on the show to discuss the past, present, and future of women's competitive pinball. Zoe tells us all about the rise of competitive women's pinball, and what she would like to see in the future. Stream the Women's World Championship March 29th-30th on Twitch through Backhand Pinball Local Portland Women's events mentioned in the show: Gator Queens - Every last Monday of the month at W...
Feb 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast In this episode, Alan is joined on the show by Zoe Vrabel, an IFPA director and former Women's World Champion to discuss some of the legendary women who have worked in the pinball industry, and we discuss their impact on the games that we all know and love. ....but, we do swear sometimes. Support the show
Feb 17, 2025•50 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode our special guest Glenn Waechter (of the Saw Homebrew machine) joins us on the show, to Die on the Hill for Stern's 2001 game, High Roller Casino. This early stern, rare non licensed title wasn't well received upon its release, as evidenced by all the bad reviews we found, and it's low overall rating on pinside. But it was loaded with cool mechs and toys, and actually features a very deep ruleset, complete with 3 wizard modes. And Glenn d...
Feb 10, 2025•49 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode is all about the history of the licensed band pin starting way back in the late 1970s, with a couple dots in the 1990s, and finally into the explosion of them in the 2010s until today. We talk about the effect it has had on the industry, and why, love 'em or hate 'em, old man band pins are here to stay. Warning: If you don't know by now, the explicit warning you see listed in your podcatcher is there because we swear when we talk....
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This is the finale episode of our 3-part trilogy of episodes that began with the first episode: Pinball Buyer's Guide, continued in our episode Pinball Maintenance, and finally culminates in this episode right here. Alex and Alex talk about coming full circle on a pinball machine and give you some hot tips for kicking that giant box of lights down the road. And if you're new to the show: we do all of that whilst swearing. This is your warning. Support...
Jan 27, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast Companion piece episode here from Alan to talk about how to maintain that pinball machine that Alex convinced y'all to buy in the Pinball Buyer's guide episode. There's a lot of bad or wildly unnecessary advice and ridiculous precautions out there on the forums, and it can get confusing fast as others loudly argue amongst themselves about what cleaner is or is not appropriate. Do we replace the balls immediately out of the box? Every 300 plays? Every ...
Jan 20, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast Scott & Ryan, the creators of the Pinball Map are back on the show to defend Scott's DOTH game: Stern's 2007 machine, Wheel of Fortune. It's got a tweaked lower playfield, a theme nobody asked for, and code that was never completed. But Scott loves this game. So listen up as Ryan and Alan read him all the bad reviews pulled from the internet and get his reaction to the haters. Obligatory: Yes, we swear on this show by adults for adults. Su...
Jan 13, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This is a sequel to our earlier episode 16 - So You Wanna Buy a Pinball Machine? And in that episode (which we HIGHLY recommend listening to first) we mostly discuss a lot of the things that we wish we knew before we bought our first pinball machines, including a lot of the downsides that you might not even be thinking about. But this episode is a deeper dive taking the plunge, and in particular, buying used games, which is a whole lot differe...
Jan 06, 2025•55 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Support the Show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode features an interview with Ryan and Scott, two regular guys and former roommates who created the Pinball Map all the way back in 2008 right here in Portland, Oregon. Alan talks to Ryan and Scott about the history of this incredible resource, and they talk about the expansions to bring in more cities and regions, the development of the app, the changes in features over the years, and we end the episode discussing some fun stats and...
Dec 30, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode is all about the hotly debated definition of what a fan layout is, what it isn't, whether they are good, or whether they are cookie cutter derivative BS. We discuss the history of them, some of the most famous ones, and some of the designers most associated with them. And at the end of the episode we even argue about some "modified" fan layouts that really seem to kick the old hornets nest amongst public opinions on how broad or h...
Dec 23, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode, we are joined by our friend Isaac Ruiz, a legendary tournament director and organizer from the Portland scene to discuss the rise of tournament pinball here, breaking the IFPA rankings systems in the early 2010s, developing Brackelope, the world's first software for running pinball tournaments, some format explanations for new players curious about all the jargon, and some advice for players who want to TD their own tournaments i...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 61
Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast Local Deathsave enthusiast Jeff Hart returns to the show to defend Stern's 2006 game, World Poker Tour against all the internet haters. This is one of those games with a star studded design team, loaded with mechanical features, and yet it still is widely derided by many pinheads. Jeff is here to set the record straight, and respond to the all the criticisms. Maybe it's time for you to give WPT another chance. Warning: our language gets spicy ...
Dec 09, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 60
