On Thursday, September 8th at 5pm Eastern, Stern Pinball’s George Gomez and Taylor Bancroft will join us on PinTech LIVE to discuss all the new and amazing updates to the Stern Pinball Insider Connected™ platform!
Our PinTech LIVE series is available on multiple streaming platforms. Subscribe/Follow now to get instant notifications on when we go LIVE!
Stern Pinball continues to expand its award-winning Insider Connected platform with new features to enjoy at home and on location. With an easier to use mobile ID card and Home Team system that will automatically log in home users, Insider Connected is even easier to access anywhere. Milestone Badges tracking daily streaks, days played, and games played are live now! Milestone Badges earned will display on your Insider Connected profile, so Connect, Play, and Achieve!
Available for all Stern Insiders, listen to this special episode of the Stern Insider Pinball Podcast with President Seth Davis as he describes all of the great new features of Insider Connected and the future of pinball and connectivity!
Insider ConnectedTM Global Leaderboards:
Test yourself and participate in the next Global Leaderboards! Find your nearest Stern pinball machine featured on our current worldwide Leaderboard via any connected machine. Log in with your Insider Connected account at your home or a location near you to climb up the ranks, follow the action, and see who will emerge victorious and earn those ultimate bragging rights! As always, we’ll also be running a verified location leaderboard, showcasing who the true grand champion is!
Q: Where are you located, how long have you been around pinball and how long have you been working on games for? A: My name is Pat Choy, and I do full service pinball store – we do tech work, on site repairs – mobile repair service in your home, full restorations – play field swaps / full cabinet restorations and silk screening and installation of decals, and we retail and sell games too.
Q: How did you first get into the hobby? A: Bought my first game in 1991, Williams 1980 Black Knight pinball. Hobbyist / collector from 1991 to 1998… in 1998 started my first company Perfect Amusements when I lived in Chicago , then in 2007 I moved out to southern California and started my second pinball company Endless Pinball in 2007. Endless Pinball is now 15 years old!
Q: Did you jump right into repairing machines or did you learn under someone else? A: A little of both, I learned on my own, but also posted questions on rec.games.pinball newsgroups – there was no google back then.
I was lucky enough to have Williams and Bally employees who were friends of mine and that helped speed up the learning curve tremendously. Plus a lot of hard work and reading too.
Q: Did you have a background in another field that made that transition easier? A: My background / my college degree is a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science so I believe the analytic skills help me in repairing and troubleshooting pinball games.
Q: Some techs have a particular aspect they really enjoy working on or they have a specialized set of skills (ie: boards, EMs, new Sterns, restoring cabinet art, etc) – Do you specialize in something? What’s your favorite aspect to work on? A: My favorite tech work is troubleshooting and fixing games. Why isn’t this working? It’s like a jigsaw puzzle trying to make all the pieces fit and work again. I also really enjoy play field swaps and full cabinet restoration work especially applying decals to beat up cabinets. The satisfaction level is great since you are taking something that doesn’t look very nice and you are making it look almost brand new. That’s very satisfying and fun. I also enjoy doing board level repair and fixing circuit boards as well. I’m not thrilled about working on EM games though, they are just too temperamental and tweaky although I can and have worked on them.
Q: What are you working on now? What has been your favorite project/game that you worked on? A: I’m working on a ton of stuff right now – full restoration on white water – new cabinet decals and play field swap out. Troubleshooting many games – Data East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Scared Stiff, Indiana Jones, that’s a partial list. Covid and people staying indoors have really ramped up pinball work for us.
My favorite project of all time was being involved with the Skittles company. They came to us and wanted a reskin of a game – they wanted a Skittles pinball game. So we took a 1979 Williams Flash pinball game and re-skin it as a Skittle pinball game. We sanded the whole cabinet down to plywood and we also sanded the play field down to plywood. They brought in a team of artists and made decal overlays for the play field and created new art for the cabinet and back box, our job was to install everything perfectly. We even removed the metal coin door and replaced it with a plexiglass see-through door with shelves inside that would hold about 20 packs of Skittles so you could get free Skittles candy whenever you wanted! That was a fun and challenging project. I love doing custom work like that. Those projects are rare and few though since they are so costly. We ended up building just 3 of these custom Skittles machines.
Q: What is the best way to contact you and what areas do you service? A: Best way to contact me is email: [email protected] or by cell phone (630) 220-8478 (text messages are always great).
I service all over Southern California… Basically as far south as San Diego, inland empire areas like Riverside and Temecula, Orange County of course, Los Angeles areas (North Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills), and the valley (Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, 1000 Oaks, Ventura, Moor Park, etc). I cover about a 200 mile radius of Orange County.
Our most recent Pinball show took place at Marco’s own hometown of Columbia, South Carolina at Soda City Comic Con 2022! The show took place from August 20-21st, and included meetings with actors from horror & science fiction films, cosplay contests, various vendors, but most importantly.. a Pinball Arcade!
The team set up over 60 pinball machines at the show and set all the machines to free play for the weekend, making Arcade Alley look fabulous! Bang Back Pinball Lounge brought Stern Pinball’s Stranger Things, and the set was transformed into the Upside-Down.
Stern Pinball and Marco teamed up to bring Godzilla, Rush, and Jurassic Park to the event. Our giant ballroom was packed all weekend, with machines being played with little pause in-between players.
Carolina Pinball brought Cactus Canyon and other arcade games to the show. This show also featured one of the newest games to the Pinball World… Jersey Jack’s Toy Story! The Mandalorian LE was also available to play, with only 750 out in the wild it’s always nice to catch a game.
To add to the excitement of Soda City Comic Con being our hometown show, there were also 3 PInball Tournaments! Two of the Tournaments were held on Saturday, which were the Open Progressive Strikes Pinball Tournament and the Kid’s Pinball Tournament. Part of the games from the tournament were donated by Phil’s Pinball, who refurbish old games and have games available to rent so you can have your own tournament! Other games were provided by Granby Grill, where you can get a great burger and catch some pinball in their arcade lounge. Bang Back, Transmission Arcade, The Fellowship of the Silverball, The Little Flippers of Columbia, Carolina Gamelab and Kennebunk Pinball also provided many of their pinball machines.
The Open Progressive Strikes Tournament on Saturday started off with pairing contestants into a group of 3 or 4 of similar skill levels. They were then given a pinball machine at random to play and the top player in each group moved ahead, until the final champion was awarded! 1st place winner Jason Werdrick was given a custom Soda City Comic Con trophy, and has all the bragging rights until next year.
The Kid’s Pinball Tournament was sponsored by our very own Little Flippers! Little Flippers is a youth inspired network of players who enjoy and share the excitement of pinball. With the help of Transmissions Arcade, Bang Back, and Carolina Game Lab, the tournament went off without a hitch! Miles Bradley took the first place prize of the 1 Up Arcade Machine, donated by Marco’s own Jess Hutfless!
The final tournament which took place on Sunday was the Belles and Chimes Women’s Progressive Strikes Tournament. Belles and Chimes was founded in California, and the Belles and Chimes Columbia Division hosted this contest. This tournament had similar stakes as the Open Progressiuve Strikes Tournament, where women who joined were paired into groups of 3 or 4 players of similar skill levels. They were also assigned to a random machine, and the winners out of those groups progressed! Brittney Matto claimed the #1 Spot and received an exclusive Soda City Comic Con trophy.
The Pinball playing did not wind down, until the lights were turned on and the power turned off. We had quite a few cosplayers visit our booth and showed off not only their costumes but also skills on the machines.
Another successful Pinball show has now drawn to a close. We could not have made it possible with the help of Stern Pinball,Bang Back, Transmission Arcade, Carolina Game Lab, Granby Grill, Phil’s Pinball, and Carolina Pinball, Kennebunk Pinball, Fellowship of the Silverball, and the greater carolina’s pinball community! Everyone made this a great hometown experience and we cannot wait to do this all again next year!
Our next show is the Houston Arcade Expo in Houston, Texas on Nov 11-13th. Stop on by and say hi to us!
The launch of the “Skill Shot, BABY!” (SSB) project is already underway this summer. James and cinematographer Imoto Harney are gathering actors and crew and will be filming a sample scene from the completed screenplay that will be the catalyst to excite the pinball community about SSB and get the feature film funded and produced.
“This is where pinball enthusiasts can get directly involved, both through our Kickstarter and even possibly as actors in the short,” James told us.
An SSB Kickstarter campaign launched on July 29, offering pinball fans a chance to help fund the SSB short film and, in return, get a range of unique rewards.
Auditions for roles in the SSB Short Film will be on Saturday, August 13, and Sunday, August 14, between 12:00 PM EDT and 6:00 PM EDT.
“I want to see members of the pinball community turn out and show us their acting chops,” says Imoto. “We hope to see some actual pinball fans starring on screen!
“Be on the lookout. This is a unique opportunity to help us launch the pinball movie you’ve always wanted,” added James. “You’re going to like what you see.”
Making a movie, even a short one, requires bringing together a huge number of people and resources. So join us on the Big Picture Pinall Show and meet key players on the SKILL SHOT, BABY! PINBALL EPIPHANY production team.
BRIAN “CHIP” BIRGE aka bkbirge
COMPOSER & MUSICIAN
Brian “Chip” Birge is a multi-instrumentalist with over 30 years of experience behind and in front of the glass. He has written hundreds of songs, produced for dozens of artists, and performed as a solo artist on several records. Chip brings an encyclopedic knowledge of musical style to every project while adhering to the “if it sounds good, it is good” philosophy of production. Chip is the producer/performer of the “Skill Shot Baby Theme Song.”
JEN RUPER
PRODUCTION MANAGER & ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
This is the first time Jen Ruper has “herded creatives” on a movie set, but she is a pinball lover and up for the challenge. Much of Jen’s professional career has been in learning and development for the past eight years, although after she clocks out, her focus is on pinball. During the day, she is responsible for creating, organizing, and executing training programs and workshops. By night, she is an avid player and enthusiast who is passionate about getting others excited to play pinball!
LISA BARCY
ANIMATOR
Lisa Barcy is a mixed-media artist, award-winning animator, and native Chicagoan. Her work includes stop-motion and experimental animation, collage, book arts, and theater puppets. Her short films have screened all over the world, including Slamdance, The Ottawa International Animation Festival, The Black Maria Film Festival, and Chicago International Film Festival. She’s also created music videos for musicians such as Andrew Bird and created animated projections for dance performances by The Seldoms. Her BFA is from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her MA is from Columbia College Chicago’s Interdisciplinary Arts program. She teaches at DePaul University.
Our Location of the Month is Arcade Dungeon, a pinball gem located in Alamogordo, New Mexico and is owned by Daniel Humm. They are open exclusively on Friday and Saturday from 5PM – 10PM on a purely volunteer basis. They currently have 12 machines and growing.
In fact, that’s our motto; “With your help, every quarter will go toward the acquisition, restoration, and maintenance of classic arcade games.”.
Q: When did you get into the pinball business?
A: It was never our goal to be in the pinball business, actually. Brent and I (Daniel) are the managers at a local restaurant that Brent’s Dad owns called Pizza Mill and Sub Factory. We’ve worked together for 25 years. He and I share a love for classic arcade games. The restaurant has always had a few arcade games in it for customers to play. We used to have a fantastic vendor for most of it, until he moved out of town. Around 2002, when we just started using our own machines, it wasn’t long before one went down and now there was no one in our small town that could service them. So, I took it upon myself to learn how to fix them and my passion for arcade games really began.
We started buying more with the intention of building the ultimate personal collection of golden era arcade games. We never intended to add them to the restaurant. It was our hobby. We kept them in the building Brent’s Dad owns next to the restaurant where, on my off time, I would try to fix them and Brent would clean them up to make them look as original as the day they came from the factory as possible. After a couple years, of fixing and buying arcade games, I made the observation to Brent that our collection was growing pretty good, but it’s just sitting there. The building I was working on the games in, is right on a main street next to our already popular restaurant. If we were to open it up for the public to play our games, the quarters they bring in could go towards fixing and buying more machines.
Brent’s Dad gave us the building space and power for free, so we went to work creating the first real arcade in Alamogordo in about 20 years. We went all out to make it an authentic experience. From the decor, to the music, and pricing the video games a quarter a play…makes it feel like you stepped back in time to the 80s. Brent and I volunteer our off time to run it on Friday and Saturday nights, so that every quarter goes right back to the machines. In fact, that’s our motto; “With your help, every quarter will go toward the acquisition, restoration, and maintenance of classic arcade games.”
We don’t allow food and drinks inside and give instruction to those that enter that we are trying to preserve and protect the machines, and to play with care. People seem to love our model of preservation of arcade games over profit. Although, we had one glaring omission in our arcade, pinball machines. Brent has always loved pinball more than video games. I never really played them much as a kid, and since I was the tech guy at the time, I was intimidated by how hard it looked to fix. That was until three working pinball machines fell in our lap, and I couldn’t resist anymore. Just like the video games, I started learning.
I started with small fixes, adjusting switches and such, until I got a hang of it. Then I just fell in love with it, way more than fixing video games. Soon the arcade went from no pinball, to 12 machines and growing. They are priced era specific from a quarter up to a dollar. Our “business” model will never make a profit, but it helps us offset the cost of repairs and such so we don’t have to go into our own pocket so often. When the deal is there, you got to go for it. All but one of our machines is second hand. We try to buy as cheap as possible with the intent of restoring them. Plus, it gives the locals a way to experience something they wouldn’t otherwise get to do in our small town.
Q: When did you open this location?
A: The Arcade Dungeon opened in April of 2018. We added pinball in December 2018. We’re open from 5PM-10PM on Friday and Saturday nights, completely volunteer based.
Q: Do you guys run any tournaments or leagues? If so can you give us more details?
A: We are definitely open to it, but as of yet, no. Our small town has had a huge gap with having access to arcades, so much so that I’m finding whole generations of people coming to the arcade that have never seen a pinball machine, let alone played one. We have taught basic pinball skills to adults and children alike every weekend in an effort to try to promote pinball to new players. Maybe one day, we will grow enough that we can start tournaments.
Q: Do you have a specific pinball night and what other events/specials do you run?
A: As the arcade is only open on Friday and Saturday nights, plus we volunteer our time off to run it, it’s difficult to do special events. We did have a Stranger Things Arcade in the Upside Down Weekend event. I decorated and lit it to look like it does in the show complete with fog machine. It was cool, but a lot of work. I run the arcade on Fridays while Brent runs the restaurant. Saturdays it’s reversed and I run the restaurant. However with enough notice, anyone can rent the arcade for two hours for a private party during the times we’re normally closed, for a small fee.
Q: Do you fix your own games or do you use a local operator/tech?
A: I fix them, and together Brent and I restore them. Repairing them is where I actually find the most joy. I’m not that great of a player, Brent’s the pinball wizard. I love figuring out the problem and getting them working again. I’ve shifted my focus to repairing pinball over video games. We have so many projects in line right now that I only repair our own machines. There’s no one anywhere near us that maintains pinball machines, especially to the level that we want them. They all have to function properly and play just as the players expect or it is not in the arcade. We take pride in having properly working games and are quick to fix any problems that come up.
Q: What’s the last game you brought in and how often do you rotate?
A: Currently, Devil’s Dare was the last machine we placed in the arcade. Other pinball machines in there now are: Revenge from Mars, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Iron Maiden (Pro), Johnny Mnemonic, Star Wars: Episode I, Lights…Camera…Action!, OXO, Jurassic Park (Premium, the only machine we ever bought NIB), Volley, Black Pyramid, and Hyperball (technically not a pinball). We also have in the repair queue: High Speed, Haunted House, Stargate, Superman, Baby Pac-Man, and Bally’s Star Trek that will enter the arcade once they’re finished. We like having a broad variety of machines from different eras. Rotating is difficult. We are limited in space by our current building. We are hoping in the future to expand to the other half of our building doubling the size of the arcade, but that’s just a dream right now. Since we are trying to build the collection, we don’t sell anything. We would love to have every working machine we have in the arcade, so people can get a sense of every type of game out there. One day, maybe.
Q: What would be your holy grail of a machine?
A: Brent and I usually say we want ALL the games, but for me it’s probably Star Trek: The Next Generation, for Brent, it’s a little more difficult to narrow down to just one. Does he go for something rare like Defender or one he enjoys playing like Scared Stiff? A Top 10 he could probably do, but not just one.
Q: Do you partner with any other locations?
A: We don’t. There’s no one within 70 miles of us. I have offered to help the new bowling alley with their games. Their few pinball machines were set up so wrong it hurt my heart. I couldn’t help but offer assistance since I’m the only tech around.
Q: Do you go to any shows and IF SO which one is your favorite?
A: We would love to one day! We run a restaurant full time when we’re not in the arcade. It’s difficult for us to go anywhere and all the shows are quite a distance away from us. The only thing we do is not really a show, but it’s the the Stern Pinball Room at San Diego Comic-Con, which was fun and the only chance we get to play games we don’t own. That’s the only time off we really get.
Q: And your closing thoughts and what you do for the pinball community or your local community?
A: I couldn’t do anything I do with the arcade games or pinball machines without the resources on the internet, be it Pinside or suppliers like Marco. I have also been sharing about what I have learned about repair and also continue to learn new skills through our Twitch channel (twitch.tv/ArcadeDungeon). Since I’m a horrible player, most of the time I spend working on a machine and helping others that watch with advice about owning and maintaining their pinball machine. Recently, I streamed my first ever playfield swap on our High Speed. It was a learning experience for me and those watching. I always say to my viewers, owning a pinball machine is not like owning a TV. A TV you can usually just take out of the box and after a basic set up you don’t even have to think of maintenance for years. If you want to own a pinball, you have to learn at least basic maintenance on it or very quickly it could become a giant paperweight in your home. I also dump the raw streams onto YouTube for someone to reference in the future. I’ve learned so much in the short time that I’ve been repairing pinball machines that I now also am working on my own unique design that combines traditional and some never before seen features that I hope one day will pique the interest of a major pinball manufacturer. I plan on building a prototype soon which, of course, I’ll need to purchase some parts for from Marco Specialties. 😉
We get a lot of questions from people asking about coil substitutions. Let’s preface by saying we always recommend replacing a coil with the same part number as the original. Remember, a weak flipper probably won’t be fixed by replacing the coil with a stronger one, and changing to a non-factory recommended coil can cause damage to plastics, drop targets and ramps. Click “Read More” at the top right for more info.
Every day, we have customers that need help with their games beyond their scope of knowledge. We decided to create a “Rolodex” of vetted pinball technicians from around the world, so when our customers ask for repair help, we can send them your way!
