Author Archive

Todd Tuckey, Electronic skills and the Future of the Pinball Hobby

Posted: July 1, 2018 by datechguy in fun, pinball, Uncategorized
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Todd Tuckey Pintastic NE 2018

Yesterday we highlighted Jersey Jack as one of the People who are driving the Pinball Hobby by his creation of brand new games designed more toward public purchase rather than arcades.

Today I’d like to Focus on Todd Tuckey whose forte is the repair and restoration of the older games that were designed for a different era when the primary goal was for an arcade/bowling alley etc to fill the coin box. Todd Talked about this during his seminar yesterday.

His seminar was all about restoring an old Six Million Dollar Man Game and the procedure to fix it. There is a whole section of the Pinball hobby for restoring pinball machines (the term used is “shopping a machine” which involves a knowledge of electronics, soldering etc. He took a few questions on that as well.

This highlights one of the real difference between those who have been in the hobby for some time and those newly entering via barcades and events like this. The old guard tends to have a fair popular who knows about circuit boards, capacitors, heat syncs etc but many of the new folks are just interested in a game that runs. I asked Todd about that in the Q & A.

Now in the old days there were a fair amount of young men who would learn about electronics in “shop” classes and decide to go in that direction, but with society convincing people that unless they put themselves in debt a few hundred thousand dollars for a degree (even if such a degree is LBGT dance studies) they are somehow inferior, you are seeing less people of either sex learning these kind of skills.

On the plus side because games at home are not continually on have perhaps 8-10 hours a day of play 300+ days a year (and are likely subject to less abuse as you are less likely to mistreat a machine you own) both a new Jersey Jack machine that you are paying 6-10K for an old game after a Tuckey restoration that might cost $2500 your game is likely to last you decades.

I did a very long interview with Todd in three parts as my cameras alternatively kept running out of battery or shut themselves off for no apparently reason it is in three parts

Part 2

and Part 3

Todd’s business TNT Amusements is here
Todd’s own Youtube channel has made him a legend in the industry, you can see is here and includes this classic moment from last year of me getting in trouble with DA wife until she realizes she’s being recorded

His videos are a plethora of knowledge about electronics and repairing machines, in other words actual practical skills worth knowing.

I submit and suggest that with the growth of the hobby it might be worthwhile to ditch the prehistoric microaggression studies degree that you’re working on and instead pick up this electronics knowledge which pays real money. Even better if haven’t built up more debt than the cost of the entire Jersey Jack Pinball line because your still in High school see if you can begin to pick up the knowledge there that can provide a career and a hobby for a lifetime.

Welcome Todd Tuckey fans: We have a lot of Pinball coverage here including coverage of every Pintastic since the first one, Pinball locations in NJ and Maryland and of course a ton of interviews of all types. Take a peek around I hope you enjoy it.

The Red Sox and Seattle Prove Why Baseball is THE Best Sport AGAIN

Posted: June 22, 2018 by datechguy in baseball, Sports

If you turned in early to the Red Sox Seattle game you saw a lot of offense.

You saw the Mariners put up 4 in the top of the first and the Red Sox answer with five. Then Mariners put up six more meaning that Red Sox starter Stephen Wright, who had given up a single run in his last game against the very same team, had given up 10 earned runs before the book was closed on him, Nelson Cruz with two 3 run HR’s and a single to drive in seven on those 10 doing most of the damage.

It didn’t stay that way.

The same Seattle pitcher Wade Leblanc who had shut out the Red Sox in that same game against Wright would give up one in the fifth. J. D Martinez would hit a 2 Home run in a 3 run Red Sox 6th and then a key single in a five run seventh with the bases loaded and then three in the 6th and then in the seventh went on a tear to score five more.

As I’m writing this the score is 14-10 with one out in the bottom of the 8th, now the top of the ninth. Seattle is coming to the plate and while it looks very good for the Rox Sox they will still have to get those three final outs before Seattle scores 4 to get that win.

And that is why Baseball is better than Basketball, Hockey, Football or Soccer and it isn’t even close.

No matter how big a lead you have you still have to get those outs before you can celebrate, and no matter how bleak it looks, you team will still have a chance to score as many runs as you can before that third out is recorded.

No Clocks, no taking a knee, no pulling a goalie, no LeBron sitting down because he knows its hopeless. As long as you still have a single out yet to be given your team is not done.

That’s baseball and that’s why it’s the best.

Oh and the Sox won 14-10

The Single Most Important Lesson from Barbara Bush, Harry Anderson R Lee Emery and Bruno Samartino

Posted: April 19, 2018 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Early this week R. Lee Emery the marine turned actor first known for Full Metal Jacket but more famous for his show Mail Call died at the age of 74

A few days ago Barbara Bush, wife of one president, mother of another not to mention the mother of a governor and matriarch of a grand political family after a long and useful life died at the age of 92.

Yesterday we learned that one of the legends of wrestling and one of the working class heroes of my pre-teen years Bruno Samartino died at the age of 82.

Finally we also heard that Harry Anderson actor and magician, who millions knew as the eccentric but honorable Judge Harry Stone from the very long running series Night Court died at the age of 62.

These people are very different in terms of where they come from although all in the end had fame and were performers (don’t think for one moment Mrs. Bush did not have to perform).  Some had lasting fame, others less known, some had a niche, and others would be recognized anywhere they showed their faces but all of them taught a lesson this week and this is it.

Everybody dies!

It does not matter how rich you are, how famous you are, how funny you are, how strong or fit you are or how determined you are.  It doesn’t matter if your friends are the most powerful and wealthy people in the world or if  you have access to the best doctors and the best medical treatment, either experimental or conventional  that the world can offer you.

In the end YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!

Today society denies reality all the time, our society has pretended that marriage is something other than what it is, that we can spontaneously change our sex/gender (which meant the same thing for more than 2000 years), that criminality is never the fault of those who commit it, that Islam is a religion of peace and that if we only use the right invented pronouns, smoke the right weed, and bring down western civilization as we know it, we will create paradise here on earth, but no amount of denial will change the fact that every single person who reads this post (and every person who doesn’t for that matter) is doomed to die along with the author of that post.

Act accordingly.

In closing I strongly suggest, implore and plead with you dear reader to take that reality into account, not in terms of life insurance or estate planning (although both are sensible things) but in terms of your soul and the mercy of God.

I am a very ordinary Catholic in a theological sense,  but in one respect my Catholicism is very strange in that it’s not faith based, but reality based.

I maintain that the doctrines of the Catholic Church are truth.

God’s exists.
Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary was his son.
Christ suffered, died and rose from the dead to pay the debt for the sins of man.
Either Hell or Heaven (after a comparatively brief stop in purgatory for purification) awaits us for the rest of eternity.
The Choice of Heaven or Hell rests on our decision to accept the Mercy of Christ and act accordingly.

I submit these are not matters of faith and opinion but facts to be dealt with.

Now you might say my maintaining that these are facts make it so and you are right.  No amount of my stating these facts makes them true, however by the same token no amount of denial of them or insisting they are all fantasy make them false.

100 years from now we will either not exist or both know that I am telling the truth, the only question is will that knowledge be a source of eternal joy or pain.

30 Tips to Stay Married 30 Years Today Tip: #22 Ignore the Jones

Posted: April 4, 2018 by datechguy in culture
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Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s goods

The 10th Commandment

This is straight out of the Ten Commandments and is one of the most sensible bits of advice that a couple might get.

In our consumer culture we are constantly bombarded with things we MUST have and even more importantly the idea that if our neighbor has something that we don’t, it’s a problem.

If you’re happy with your TV and it’s working fine, it doesn’t matter if the folks next door got a bigger one.  If your iPhone is working fine and does all you want, who cares if your friend bought a new one.  If your car is running fine, passing inspection and serves all your needs then if the folks next door got a better car, big whoop.

It’s my experience in life that the difference in such upgrades are usually pretty small, and in the end it becomes all about vanity and even if you get this new thing or a model one better than the guy next door, it doesn’t stop them from upgrading and suddenly you find yourselves in a consumer arms race where the only winner is the credit card company.

Forget that arms race and keep that money in your pocket, get things when you need them without worrying about what the next fellow has, and not only will you have less debt but less worry and if that doesn’t convince you think about it this way, the fact that you aren’t bothered by your neighbors new stuff will drive the Jones’ nuts.

Da Tips so far

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