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The Spinner is Lit Pinball Podcast
The Spinner is Lit Pinball Podcast
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Episode 84_Nationals or Monopoly

PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday2 hr 1 min listen
From the creator

We chat with Michelle Leutzinger. Nevada state women's champion. Dan gives us the details on his low buck Monopoly restoration.

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Highlights

  • Dan purchased a Project Monopoly machine for $1,200, then spent approximately $375 in additional parts to restore it to working condition
  • Michelle originally disliked Monopoly but grew to appreciate it through forced team league play with her partner Mike at Comic Kingdom
  • Monopoly's left ramp is an 'unobtainium part' due to design flaw where the ball launches and breaks the entry switch
  • Monopoly™ at Comic Kingdom is running at higher turbo speed on the Waterworks flipper compared to Dan's machine which runs factory settings
  • Pinball Underground hosted its second tournament in early 2024; first was a women's tournament in December
  • Comic Kingdom is running a themed 'pin golf' league with rotating weekly objectives (multiball, extra ball, bonus multipliers)
  • Dan's original Monopoly was purchased from an estate-connected acquisition where the seller received it as severance from a property owner
  • Pat Lawlor led the design team for Monopoly pinball, alongside Yowsey, Chris Granner, and an unnamed coder

Notable quotes

“the left ramp on Monopoly is an unobtainium part because they all break because there was a design flaw where the ball would launch off of the entry of the ramp, and it would smash into the switch, and eventually it would snap that off”
Dan
“I used to hate it. I used to think it was so brutal, but my partner, Mike, liked it a lot... since Mike liked Monopoly so much, he always wanted to pick Monopoly, so I determined to get better at it. And then I started liking it”
Michelle Lutzinger
“why Monopoly? Like, what's so special about Monopoly? And I just tell them, like, there's nothing special about Monopoly. I mean, it's a Lawler. And honestly, for its moment, it was an important game because it was Lawler's return to pinball after the whole Williams thing.”
Dan
“I ended up spending about $375 in parts in addition to the stuff that I kind of took out of my own collection because I had all kinds of used parts, extra parts, parts from other projects, even some Monopoly stuff that was included”
Dan
“I love taking those early Sterns, you know, like my Transformers and Monopoly out there because they're that perfect blend of you don't see them every day, but they're definitely hardy enough to take the pounding”
Dan
“there's actually a whole, like, you can go online and find it. It was like a design, like, blog that, like, Pat Lawlor and his team did about designing Monopoly and the life and times at Sam Stern, which is really interesting if you ever find it”
Dan

Entities

  • Doctor Who· game
  • Fishtails· game
  • Judge Dredd· game
  • Monopoly· game
  • White Water· game
  • Capital Corridor Pinball League· organization
  • Comic Kingdom· organization
  • Pinball Underground· organization
  • Playfield· organization
  • Brian· person
  • Chris Granner· person
  • Cody· person
  • Dan· person
  • Jason· person
  • Joe Abate· person
  • Jon· person
  • Mark· person
  • Michael LaFrida· person
  • Michelle Lutzinger· person
  • Mike· person
  • Pat Lawlor· person
  • Shannon· person
  • Spencer· person
  • Yowsey· person

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