Nico if you need a rest-stop in Southern CO your welcome here, my sad lone EM is a donor for a re-theme project that I hope to keep EM. the playfield's shot but the rest is worth keeping EM at heart. I'm about 15 min west of I-25 on the north end of Pueblo, CO. I'm not on FB so feel free to PM if your in need of a stop.

EM central for CA IMO is NorCal. Pin-a-GoGo has an entire room of them, and the Pacific Pinball Museum is half, if not more EM, or was when I was last there. I wish I was more into EM's when I lived in CA. I drove past a $300 Farafalla in great condition on the move out, and bought my working (but well worn) Lucky Ace for just a bit over $100.00.

Agree, I already own a Jokerz, the machine already laughs at me all the time. No reason to stop and consider new sources.

I can't help picture some poor feline pinned helplessly under you and your balloon bed mattress, desperately hoping it's one extended claw can help work him free.

I can wait, get enough rest to finish out the trip, with plenty of flat texas driving left, its best to be rested up and make it home safely.

Always great to have a place that's right out of a David Lynch movie. I had one once at a BBQ 'shed' in outside of St. Louis where a man slept splayed out on a table, woke up suddenly, jumped up, and said ' I wonder what chestnuts taste like' and split out the door, seconds later, his pregnant sister comes in, apparently to get a ride, starts crying, and two old ladies, actually mock her for no apparent reason. It had great 'nature scene wallpaper' right out of the 60's, a staff of chain smoking swearing cooks, and a helper guy setting up a buffet who didn't know the difference between a ladle and a spoon "Which one is a ladle". I'll give him credit for asking, but fail the state for the sad level of his education.

Sounds like quite the trip.

Congrats, a real pleasure to follow along.

Great piece. I especially like the peek inside the machine's hinting at the wonder's of how these things works. Very fitting!

So often new bits and interviews make pinball out to be something retro or a forgotten trend. I like that there was no mention of that, just a pleasantly positive message about getting out of our digital world into the real world; Lemon aid with a slice of lemon meringue pie out of lemons.

Great job Nic.

Enjoy Nic!

Credit to Jack Danger, he has to hustle and invest a lot of time and money into making that work as well as it does. Its no small feat to collect that many viewers and retain them, let alone get them to pony up money continuously. If Nic did this, it would have great value, but IMO not more, just a different kind.

I do agree 100% on hoping that Nic does more to promote and build more of us into brave world of repair and improvement of these older machines.

Agree entirely. The per-view model on YouTube now only rewards the largest groups. Patreon is where the funding comes from for niche groups, but even they require some size and scale, and even then its a risk. Ultimately the best approach is what your stating. Make it for free as a passion at your own pace when the time is right. You can plug in any of those other pay models as a bonus way to fund side project like another road trip or something else.

One of my favorite channels and agree. What's more alarming for those that depend on it for an income, YouTube is constantly changing how it measures and rates for payment, making payment inconsistent and often changing without notice

I'm going to use "chime grommets" as my default goto for any pinball question. Someone mentions their pin won't turn on or score. I'll ask them, "Did you check your chime grommets?"

Joking of course but it feels and sounds a lot like 'muffler bearings' so couldn't resist.

I haven't tried it on this, but a loop of stripped16-18G stranded copper wire would probably work. Twist the loose ends together to create a gripping point for the chuck. If you reverse direction from the twist it will open up the strands to provide more contact points and the copper's fairly soft.

I've done this to clean out similar holes where I felt a drill bit would probably bore out material.

Agree. Techniques can vary but the core advice is to ensure connectivity. Nic's method is more invasive but harkens to a specific 'zen'. Vid's is less invasive. Both have merits.

I'd also add that each is targeted a bit more to a different audience. Vid's advice is sound for a very wide range of experience because its not likely to produce damage if done wrong and maintenance focused. Nicks advice is more holistic and about a strategy to rehabilitate a machine.

I think each can share a place in any one person's arsenal. A contact can only has so much surface area to sacrifice before it looses integrity. On the flip side, getting it clean and removing grit that can transfer from other parts also has long term value.

Pinball people are resourceful. By the time we polish out the last button contact away technology and new ingenuity will come along to extend these machines even further.

I didn't know there were 20 different tables. I can think of about 5-6 (Roy, Eros, Take 5, Joust 2player, Night Moves...that's it for me.)

So Colorado folks should start a clear lobby to incentivize a choice in our favor. I've lived in CA and think that its hard to imagine without some bonus reasons we can add to the mix, that we can win out over them.

I'll put the most obvious one. Better air quality, less congestion, lower cost of living and a good slightly off center starting point for future pinball tours.

Its also home to the lowest highest point. Go DE

I lived in the central valley in Visalia, dead center between Fresno and Bako, which is equally between LA and SF. It was GREAT for being able to go to either city in a few hours.

If you move a bit east close to the mountains, there's affordable property that isn't part of the farmscape wasteland of most of it.

I miss fresh produce.
I miss being able to do anything that I want in LA or SF without needing a hotel or having to live there at 10x the price.

What I don't miss. The worst air quality in the world. Living in line of site to the Sierra Mountain Range that you can only see 2-3 days a year when its clear.

The biggest reason I don't move back, and this was critical to me long term, is water. I think there's going to be a devastating water crisis in the next 10 years that won't be fixable. There will be mass exodus and property will be abandoned because it was run dry through to the aquaphores. I know people who ran out of CITY water and have been without until the recent rains. All while farmers bargained and cheated out water from below their feet and from 100's of miles away.

Its going to get scary IMO. If your curious about it, there's a decent documentary on Netfilx now about the water problem.

I LOVE California and miss it almost daily, but to me there's no long term stability in an place so populated and tied to a critical and dwindling supply of water.

Agree, the north end is a night and day different problem. I left a few years ago ahead of the worst of the drought. I take credit for the rains that ended the drought as they started, quite literally, the day I left.

I want to move back, but can only afford the central valley, and think the water problem will get much worse there soon. Last year's rainfall was out of the norm, projections show that long term that area will be dryer and rains north will diminish overall.

At the height of the last drought, even the north was showing stain. The Sequoia and redwoods were all showing signs of diminished water and if you look at the surrounding forests there's a boon of bettle blight (same here in Colorado) all from higher winter temps, so less stored water. Add to that the growing population at those city centers ALL drawing water from great distances, its just not sustainable.

When I left. A whole city 20min east was without water. I couldn't flush more than a couple times a day, and had to put locks on my outside spigots to prevent theft which put me over my 'water limit'.

Not many people in the US can imagine a 'water limit' and conservation that essentially deletes lawns, regular car washes, gardens, basic indoor sanitation.

I'm glad that it pushed and created an atmosphere of greater attention to conservation, but it was barely enough. I think long term it will be more severe and I'm not sure I want to own land that might be rendered dry even at the tap.

I'm sure they will somehow manage, but expect it will be painful.

Its subsidized by the farm water. It was a trade off for the evil deal made to give away the human drinking water to commercial consumers. Something noted in that Netflix doc.

Whoh Nellie was as close as I think we can get in modern times, and its sales didn't make much of a case to chase it further. I could see a SS game with a simplified EM layout become a small market, but think the charm of the EM group isn't its play style but what the mechanism do to make that play style different. IMO that's where the charm lies. PINAGOGO had a room full of EM's, rarely full of players, and even less of the younger generation. Video games create a set of expectations and honestly higher reflexes that the old machines won't fulfill.

I predict you will live where you decide and will be happy. Congrats on which ever way you go. I too have unhindered flexibility to move and you've made me consider it again. Its nice to know you don't want to stay where you are and the world is your oyster. Congrats on narrowing it down to two pearls of your design.

Congrats. From steel guitars to banjos! It sounds like a well reasoned choice and certain its the best fit for you.