Brokentoken Classic Arcade and Pinball Podcast

It only took 97 episodes, but it finally happened. We were lured in by the promise "of the next pin" and Stern Pinball got us hook, line and sinker. SPOILER ALERT: It was actually just jigsaw puzzles.... *sigh* With that humble pie out of the way, we get on to the business of what was February (??) 2021. Brent finds his way to the game he never wanted - William's Make Trax and concludes the Rottondog saga of working on a High Speed. Whitney shares some lessons learned on nozzles for the Ender 3 series printers and makes a C64 pickup. Let those games begin... We talk about a new Raster+Vector TPG that was just announced from "Arcade Jason" (as well as discuss the upcoming TPG2 from CraftyMech), review the current state of multi-Pac kits and do some listener feedback while discussing some upgrade options for the Sega Dreamcast. And somewhere along the way, we talk some feedback on Bob Ross, the Pinball Hall of Fame's "angel" donor and Susie the Little Blue Coupe... yeah... figure that one out!

Happy little podcasters is the theme of this month's show, especially with us being at MAXIMUM HOSTING POWER now that Whitney has recovered from COVID-19 and has returned to the podcasting studio. We catch up on what life has been like over the past month, hear Whitney's COVID chronicles and discuss some gameroom updates as well. Brent digs further into the console mountain, gifts Whitney an Atari 5200 and some games and then doubles-down in the Tempest coin bucket for some belated Christmas cheer, all the while making it crystal clear that Whitney doesn't deserve Brent. We dig into some classic computer talk, gameroom LED strip lights, Sky Skipper revisited, some 3D printer upgrades, IC chip lifters and wax on a bit about Led Zeppelin as a theme for a pinball machine in 2020/2021. We also dig into the mailbag for some listener e-mail (and some VERY hot takes) and talk about the latest news on the Pinball Hall of Fame. I'm sure we missed something above, especially after we got off track talking about Bob Ross, but we'll leave that for you to hear! Wherever you are in the world – we thank you for listening and hope that you and your family are safe and continue to be in good health.

Salutations and tithings everyone, we trust that you are healthy, safe and ready to kick 2020 in the hiney to see it out proper. Speaking of "we" (as in not we, but he) Brent does this show solo (for reasons we'll get into in January) so please give him the virtual "hug" and let us know if you liked the focus on this month's show. It's clear that he has spent some serious time over the past several weeks going "console crazy" and he told me in discussion it was like climbing a mountain - and a show title was born! This month we feature another panel discussion from the 2019 Portland Retro Gaming Expo entitled "The Best Classic Consoles at any Price Point" and we think you'll find it very interesting given the recent boom in retro console gaming and the interest there driving prices up almost everywhere online. We hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas and New Years Holiday and we look forward to being back at full for January!

We hope your Halloween pumpkins were stuffed to the brim this past month. To celebrate "All Hallows Eve" we go old school with a long(ish) episode this month and the all references on this show run as deep as they do wide. We'll leave it to you, our astute listener, to unpack everything and make sense of it all (pretty much the same as every other month). We dig into quite a few topics this show: Parts and tool storage solutions (summoning the inner ratchet strap on this discussion) The Multigame and High Score Save kit, revisited Jersey Jack Pinball's Gun N' Roses "Not In this Lifetime" new release Mailbag show follow-ups The wrap-up of Brent's part sort and the start of the show "prize closet" Whitney's foray into 3D printing parts for Pinball machine And that's just what I pulled from the show notes and that only accounts for 20% of the episode! We also feature our next installment in the "2019 PRGE Seminar Series" with the audio from the "Atari Arcade Games - The REAL Atari" panel discussion. This is part of the panels that Whitney attended at last year's PRGE and is included here with permission from the show organizers. This session features stories and insight from Ed Logg (Super Breakout, Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Gauntlet), John Salwitz (Paperboy), Rich Adam (Gravitar), and Ed Rotberg (Battlezone, 3D work internal in Atari).

As the "year of strange" marches on, we try to get back a sense of normalcy with this month's show and and spend some quality time with our listeners. To that end, we embark on our first ever "mailbag" show and respond to some long-waiting feedback and answer questions posted to both our Facebook page and our Twitter account. Somewhere along the line, we lost count as to just how many we read on-air (20?) and we've easily got that many still in queue for "mailbag vol. 2" so let us know if you enjoyed the format and would like to hear us do this again! We also cover off on our normal gameroom and hobby updates (shattered pinball glass, anyone?) and catch up on just a little bit of news and give our thoughts on the upcoming Avengers: Infinity Quest from Stern Pinball, the Deeproot (non)reveal and the upcoming C64 We also feature another panel discussion from the 2019 Portland Retro Gaming Expo as we hear from the legendary Howard Scott Warshaw as he talks about his time at Atari and developing some of the most beloved (and one ridiculed - unfairly, IMHO) Atari 2600 titles. Lest we forget, we also announce the winner of our LitFrame contest! Wherever you are in the world – we thank you for listening and hope that you and your family are safe and continue to be in good health. We hope you enjoy the episode - thanks for listening and GAME ON!

August 2020 - it took a lot from us. The news of losing both Chadwick Boseman and Curt Vendell hurt and hurt badly as their contributions to the collective community are as meaningful in both number as they are in prolific and lasting impact. With that, we reflect on the respective contributions from both and pay our due respects, then it's back to business as usual with gameroom updates, spend some of Brent's money, discuss the new Pixel Planet Arcade that is opening soon in TN and speculate a bit on the newest game release by Stern Pinball (Avengers: Infinity Quest). Add to all of that and we feature a panel discussion panel (entitled "Dan Kitchen's Goldrush") from the 2019 Portland Retro Gaming Expo where Dan Kitchen talks about his upcoming game for the Atari 2600 (it's a sequel to Activision's Keystone Kapers) and is joined by his brother Garry Kitchen and prolific game designer David Crane. Also - don't forget to enter the Lit Frame's contest giveaway! We're taking submissions until Midnight EST on Sept. 15th! Wherever you are in the world – we thank you for listening and hope that you and your family are safe and continue to be in good health. We hope you enjoy the episode!

It's our "conquering quarantine" episode! Back in the (socially-distanced) studio for our return show, we discuss what's been happening the past three months, give some gameroom and hobby updates, discuss the Cricut Air Explore and 3D printers as well as a new Kickstarter. Don't forget to check out our Lit Frames giveaway as well - winner to be announced on our Sept. show!

With continued unrest all around us and uncertainty at almost every corner, there are two things that we can count on to make the world a smaller (and better) place - our children and inclusivity. Both of those themes are front-and-center in this episode as we spend some good time listening to the “kids of the show” (Grace Roberts & Gareth Milwood) as they continue to grow up (way too fast, btw) and we get some fantastic insight from Elizabeth Gieske into women in pinball with a heavy focus on competitive play and how inclusive the hobby is and what works well and what could still use improvement. We’re also visited by friends of the show David Corrigan and Dan DeBusschere as they sat in with us to talk gaming and their current projects. A good time was had by all. It’s our hopes that if you weren’t able to join the live broadcast (or if you want to re-listen) then this (and the previous Friday livestream show at ep. 89) will bring some cheer to your shelter-in-place regiment – whatever that may look like. Wherever you are in the world – we thank you for listening and hope that you and your family are safe and continue to be in good health. Enjoy the show!

It’s amazing what 6 weeks will do from a “perspective” perspective…when this was recorded, the nationwide COVID-19 response hadn’t even kicked into gear and we had no idea what was in store for us. It’s our hopes that if you weren’t able to join the live broadcast (or if you want to re-listen) then this (and the upcoming Saturday livestream show) will bring some cheer to your shelter-in-place regiment – whatever that may look like. On this episode, we had the distinct good fortune of getting the following to sit down in front of the mic with us at expo: *Jeremy Fleitz (where we talked a LOT of Tron pinball) *Corey Sims (of RecBar 502/812) *Daniel Pesina and his manager Luis (this conversation went almost two hours and we talked a LOT about Mortal Kombat!!) Wherever you are in the world – we thank you for listening and hope that you and your family are safe and continue to be in good health. Enjoy the show!

February 2020 88 MPH...this is a once-in-a-podcast opportunity, and we're not going to waste it... so you (our beloved listeners) are squarely along for the ride! (see what we did there!?!) BTTF references aside (and trust us - we love them), there's right at 4 hours of podcasting goodness for you this month and we cover so many topics, we thought it best to just list them out for you straight away: Project tool storage IKEA furniture (another first for the show???) Ghostbusters pinball fixes More pinball art blades Vectrex and Atari presents from across the pond CRT and PVM/BVM masterclass (courtesy of Steve Nutter @ the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo 2019) Portable parts storage Cinematronics monitor gel reproductions The Arcade 1UP NBA Jam cabinet Stern Pinball Heavy Metal Stern Pinball Stranger Things UV Kit Bitmap Books Atari 2600/7800 Compendium Color DMD announces support for Stern Pinball's Mustang The Nintendo VS. System PPU changer But wait - there's more! GoFundMe for friend of the show Jonathan Wilde Listener feedback 42 other things I'm likely forgetting at this time and last, but certainly not least: The winner of the Superman '78 translite contest (sponsored by Brad Hunter @ Lit Frames)!! Yes - we really pack in the value to make your podcasting dollar go as far as possible this month and live up to the name!

It may be January here in the States, but the (NBA Jam) heat is on! We talk gameroom updates, Getaway restoration, metal aprons, art blades and get a visit from Joe Stith & Corey Stup @ The Louisville Arcade Expo, as it's the 10th anniversary show this year! We also "podcast after dark" with J. Patrick from Pod Casserole and Cale Hernandez from Marco Specialties. Yep - it's all in there.

Here we are - at the end of another year and with that comes a bit of reflection and some looking forward to what we hope will be an excellent 2020. We have a bit of a mash-up show this month as we draw December to a close - we square off on our monthly updates just as normal, but we then detour a bit and get right into what we think is some great "New Years Eve humor" courtesy of Cale Hernandez (of Marco Specialties) and Mark Vinikour (of Stern Pinball) as Brent and I had some time to sit down with them at the 2019 Grand Ole Gameroom Expo last month and talk about quite a few subjects besides pinball - it's good fun and the guys there never disappoint. We also spend some time with Patrick McKennon (of Music City Pinball) as he tells us about his newest venture - a combined pinball & arcade "destination" location that is coming to the Nashville area in 2020. We are also proud to announce a Christmas contest, made possible by Brad Hunter of LitFrames. Be sure to enter before Feb. 15th for your chance to win one of 25 limited-edition Superman '78 translites signed by renowned pinball artist Christopher Franchi! Full details are available here - https://www.brokentoken.com/contests/win-a-superman-78-translite-courtesy-of-litframes/ We hope you enjoy the show - thank each and every one of you for the support this past year and we look forward to a great 2020!

November 2019 It's time to officially kick off the 2019 Christmas Holiday season and there's no better way (that we know of) than to give all our listeners a whopping 5+ hours of "back in action" podcasting to chase off those holiday blues. Fair warning on this episode though - although Whitney is back in the studio with Brent this month and discusses his recent hiatus, it does tug on the heartstrings a bit in his update segment. Outside of that, it's everything you've come to know and love, but with MORE HOURS! :) In addition to the normal arcade and pinball discussion, updates and some reflection on recent news (of which we talk about desoldring irons, Ghostbusters code update, Firepower, our thoughts on the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo, parts storage and displaying your Pinball translites in style, Deeproot RAZA and Haggis Celts, just to name a few off the top of our heads), we are humbled this month to share the MP3 with some distinguished ladies in gaming - Imoto Harney and Belle Wheeler. Both were featured panelists at the 2019 Grand Ole Gameroom Expo and we've included the audio from those panel discussions as interview segments this month!

It's a whole lotta September and little bit of October for this show! We have guest-host Jim Hale sitting in for Whitney this month and Brent drives the bus as they cover off on 10+ topics that range from thoughts on Stern's Jurassic Park & Elvira, the lament of Suncoast Pinball, the Pontiac Fiero catching fire, the new "Star Wars" Arcade 1Up machines and how cast changes to the Dukes of Hazzard scarred them both for life. All up, just another normal episode!

Ah August....we barely knew ye. There's so much that transpired this past month, it's hard to get it all in a blog post - fortunately for us (and to everyone else's dismay) we have 3 hours and 20 minutes to tell all you fine listeners all about it! If the math is right, that should be about 1.7 O'Shea Commutes. #WINNING All joking aside, we've got a pretty jam-packed episode for everyone - we discuss the latest play field clear coat issues that has taken the pinball internets by storm over the past couple of weeks and dovetail that with our thoughts on Jurassic Park and Star Wars "The Pin", both announced and released from Stern over the past 30-45 days. We also discuss a really neat offering for anyone with a Cinematronic arcade machine (Star Castle, Armor Attack!, etc.) and talk about a recent trip to Brunswick, GA where Whitney visited the "Pinball Palace" (and Planet Fun) over family vacation. Brent gives us a good education on video and pinball optos and we respond to a challenge issued forth by our friends at Pod Casserole. We also cover off on our monthly updates where Whitney picks up a "spare" Robotron and Brent gives us his thoughts on both Cosmic Carnival and Black Knight: Sword of Rage (spoiler: Whitney loves it, Brent doesn't... it's like Donkey Kong all over again). Oh.... don't miss Brent's "Facebook Rant" segment this month... it was so much fun that we named the episode after it!