Archive for the ‘business’ Category

Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: Tuckey, Tuckey and more Todd Tuckey

Posted: April 27, 2026 by datechguy in business, fun, pinball, special events
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If you have to point a finger at who is responsible for the rise in popularity of Pinball in the 21st century in general and over the last decade in particular you won’t go too wrong wagging a finger at Todd Tuckey of TNT amusements whose video promotions of his business and unique style predates youtube.

I’ve interviewed him several times over the last decade but at this year’s pintastic I did something different and interviewed him with a couple of his many fans.

I had intended only the one interview but he recorded a special video for their children about the pinball machine they were buying and my coverage of it turned into a 2nd interview and a shameless plug for myself:

Their kids will be watching that video long after we are dead and gone and say: “My parents knew Todd Tuckey!”

I also shot some of his seminar, because of limited battery and limited space on my camera I only managed part of it but on his own TNT Amusements site they have the full thing:

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

For those unaware these seminars run on Friday and Saturday and include all kinds of interesting pinball stuff.

His youtube channel is here.

His site is here.

And since we had a shameless plug on the video let me add one more. I’m currently 13 subscribers away from being able to monetize youtube. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but I lose my job in ten days. If you want to help soften the blow please consider subscribing to my youtube channel.

Of course if you choose to hit DaTipJar I won’t complain either.

Previously:

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Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day: Pixels and Pinballs & EMP Pinball

Posted: April 24, 2026 by datechguy in business, fun, pinball, special events
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The single most important thing about Pintastic NE are of course the pinball machines that people bring for others to play. The various pinball clubs (There were 4 at the convention) all brought their own machines for their club rooms. The extra ball lounge consists of games brought by Gabe  D’Annunzio (whose interview will be the final Pintastic blog post I make in this series) and I’ve already talked about Tycoon Pinball out of NH and the games they brought.

But when it comes down to sheer volume of games EMP Pinball (Electromagnetic Pinball Museum) annually knocks it out of the park

You really need to go to Pawtucket and check them out: I never got a chance to talk to Michael & Emily this year as they were even more flat out than normal but as I mentioned in this video there are plenty of such interviews by me over the last decade that you can find. (Here is one from Pintastic 2021)

But one thing that you don’t see as much from EMP are the brand new games and that’s where the vendors who sell those new games come in. I talked to Matt one of those vendors. He just purchased Pixels and Pinball who had a bunch of new machines:

You can find Pixels and Pinball’s web site here.

Previously:

Pintastic NE 2026 Videos of the Day, Gameplay: King Kong, Dune, Yukon Yeti and Ace High Plus commentary on Beetlejuice, Pokémon and Harry Potter (Trailers Included)

Posted: April 18, 2026 by datechguy in business, fun, pinball, special events
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The intrinsic part of every Pintastic is gameplay so lets take a look at the actual gameplay of three new machines and one old one:

First let’s start with the new King Kong Game from Stern

This game surprised me. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, there were plenty of nice design features and shots and the more I saw it the more it seemed playable. It’s definitely worth your time.

Here is the trailer:

Next let’s take Dune from Barrels of Fun:

I found the design odd, and frankly my gameplay didn’t improve on balls 2 & 3 as we played a three player game. It was usually full but it’s a ramp game and I’m not big on ramp games. If you’re into the movie it’s worth a view but it’s not my cup of tea

Here is the trailer:

Next here is a blast from the past, Ace High from 1957 from Gottlieb

These games get a lot of play on day three when you have every machine full. You don’t get to the current pinball without these old games like this: It’s fun and great as an intro for kids.

Finally let’s finish with what I thought was the best new game of Pintastic Yukon Yeti from Turner Pinball:

I mentioned how much I liked the artwork in a previous video and the gameplay is just as good as the artwork. A lot of interesting shots and features that get more interesting as you play. I would have liked to play more but there were two drawback.

  1. There was only one copy of the game at Pintastic
  2. As the next video shows everyone else liked this game as much as I did:

Bottom line this game is as good as people think and it’s worth a trip to Tycoon Pinball in Manchester NH to play it.

The Trailer:

I should point out that while I don’t have gameplay for the new Beetlejuice, Harry Potter or Pokemon machines I did play them here are my quick takes

First Beetlejuice from spooky pinball

Beetlejuice looks good & has the feel of the movie but for some reason it didn’t really ring my chimes. Can’t really say way I found myself passing up chances to play it. From what I saw of the response however I was clearly in the minority.

and it doesn’t get cooler than this:

Here is the official trailer

Pokémon

I had a chance to play this a few times, there were lines but also quite a few of the machine there. The design itself reminds me of the games of the 70’s it’s very retro and very simple as if the primary audience are young kids who are into Pokémon who might not be into pinball. Put simply the game plays like the TV show and is all about catching Pokémon. It’s simple, it’s clean and with the uploads allowing them to add more Pokémon to the game I suspect it will be selling for a long time.

Frankly it’s nice to have a game with a simple rule set. Well done.

Here is the promo

Finally Harry Potter from Jersey Jack

I was surprised there was no Harry Potter in the Extra Ball lounge and there didn’t seem to be as many as I expected in the place so I only got to play it once. This is a deep game a VERY deep game. I suspect I will need to play it a whole lot more to understand it better but from the time I did play it I can honestly say this. I really got the feel of the movies playing this game. It’s design fits the subject perfectly and it seems to have a deep mystery around it. I suspect when I go to Tycoon Pinball next month I’ll give it a lot more time and will have a solid video to show but I suspect fans of the series will adore it.

Here is the promo

Jersey Jack on the side is practically a guarantee of a great pinball machine.

Cause and Effect DaTechGuyblog’s YouTube Channel Edition and a Flexible offer

Posted: September 24, 2025 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, business, dablog, opinion/news
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Three years ago when my blog was still a business and I was closing in on 1000 subscribers and hoping to monetarizing my thousands of youtube videos I had gone to youtube to check out a Mel Brooks video and saw this on my site:

If you are a regular reader of this blog you can guess what my answer was, but if you don’t remember:

Nothing says “Election 2020 is the most honest election there has ever been” then to ban videos and commentaries that question it.

This is a rather old video but I’ve noted that I’m closing in on 1000 subscribers which means that I can monetize videos there so I suspect the time has come to preemptively start the process to ban me.

I was of course correct and promptly banned by youtube.

Well the following year June (2023) youtube put out an announcement that they were reversing their ban on election 2020 commentary that they disagreed with so I appealed again saying:

I understand that you have now changed your policies on election commentary due to the curbs it made on free speech. As you banned me based three commentaries I made on election 2020 (all of which had under 100 views each) coincidently just as I was about to reach 1000 subscribers, I am asking if my over a decades worth of work including thousands of hours of interviews and reports, covering not only elections local state and national all over the nation but events from CPAC to Pinball festivals to quilt shops to religious gatherings will now be restored.

Let’s see if you actually meant these words:

“In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”

I pass the ball to you.

Joe Biden still being in the White House with an election to win apparently the words didn’t mean all that much to wit:

Their answer took less than 30 minutes:

Hi DaTechGuyBlog,
We have reviewed your appeal for the following:
Channel: DaTechGuyBlog
We reviewed your channel carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our Community Guidelines. We know this is probably disappointing news, but it’s our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all.

Note they didn’t just review it, they reviewed it CAREFULLY that time and CONFIRMED I violated their guidelines and was thus still banned to keep youtube “safe”.

Well guess what happened this week:

Google Admits Censorship Under Biden; Promises to End Bans of YouTube Accounts of Thousands of Americans Censored for Political Speech

Google also admitted the following to the House Judiciary Committee: 

  1. The Biden Administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube’s policies.
  2. The Biden Administration censorship pressure was “unacceptable and wrong.”
  3. Public debate should never come at the expense of relying “authorities.”
  4. The company will never use third-party “fact-checkers.”
  5. Europe’s censorship laws target American companies and threaten American speech, including the removal of “lawful content.”

These major admissions come after Chairman Jordan’s subpoena to Google and a years long investigation into the company. 

When I saw that I decided to log in and appeal again only I didn’t write a long piece, I just noted this admission and said do you mean it?

Well you’ll never guess what was in my email when I got home from work and checked:

So my channel is back and THIS makes it right?

I lost years worth of views, the monitorization of my channel during an election year where, as the first new media person in history to question Donald Trump at a press conference (twice) could have meant enough income to justify keeping my business, which I had to close at the end of last year, open, not to mention the ability to push my book and podcast and blog through videos and NOW they’re saying I didn’t violate any standards when they IN WRITING said they had carefully reviewed my case and determined I violated rules and made youtube unsafe and now it’s OK?

I think not.

Hey youtube tell you what lawsuits take time although given your admission and previous correspondence I suspect I’d have a pretty good chance of winning so he’s what I’ll do:

This is the Classic Jersey Jack Pinball Machine The Wizard of Oz

And here is the much newer Stern James Bond Pinball Machine Dr. No.

Per pinside the estimated value of a Wizard of Oz is between $8970 – $10430. You can by a new Dr. No for $6995.

I’m a flexible fellow. You give me either one and we’ll call it even.

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