A somewhat grounded look at the people who actually make pinball happen. From game designers and tournament organizers to top players and studio heads, the D...
Site
RSS
Apple
Data updated on 28/10/2026
Recent rankings
Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.
Shared links between episodes and podcasts
Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.
Francis from Pinball Capital joins me to talk about running an arcade in Chicago, right in the middle of one of the biggest hubs for pinball manufacturing and design.
We get into the realities of operating a modern arcade, maintaining a large lineup of games, his relationship with the manufacturers and people building games nearby, what Chicago’s pinball scene is actually like from an operator’s perspective, and where he sees location pinball heading.
Keith Elwin joins the Dirty Pool Podcast to talk about his path from competitive player to game designer, how Randy helped pull him into pinball, and the way he approaches building a new machine from the earliest ideas forward.
We also talk about the pressure that comes with being called the best, the designers he looks up to, what defines Keith outside of pinball, obscure Steam games, and, most importantly what sandwich relates to each flipper skill.
Tasker Smith joins the podcast to talk about his book Pinball: A Quest for Mastery and a bigger question behind it: can you actually learn pinball from a book?
We talk about what can and can’t be taught through text, how much of pinball comes from repetition and instinct, whether fundamentals translate from classic games to modern machines, and how Tasker decided what knowledge was important enough to put on the page.
We also get into practice, competition, ball control, and what it really means to get better at pinball.
Joel and Jared Engelberth join the Dirty Pool Podcast to talk about the evolution of their weekly Flip N Out Pinball stream, going from brothers with very different levels of pinball experience to hosting one of the most popular regular streams in the hobby.
We talk about Joel's early days in pinball media, Jared starting out as the pinball novice, how their relationship with Zach Meny and Flip N Out developed, getting early access to new games, working with manufacturers and designers, and giving honest opinions when thousands of dollars in purchasing decisions may be riding on them.
We also get into first impressions they've gotten wrong, games they disagree on, the inevitable "shill" accusations, balancing industry relationships with audience trust, and where pinball streaming goes from here.
Serge has spent a lot of time behind the mic calling tournament pinball, so we wanted to dig into how he approaches it. How much homework goes into a broadcast? How do you explain a game without talking over it? What do you do when absolutely nothing interesting is happening?
Serge has a great perspective on the game from the other side of the glass, and this felt like a good excuse to finally get him on and talk about it. Plus he promised after I tricked him to play Bon Jovi after his trip to LA.
Philippe Grégoire is the owner of Ayscrim Studios, where he hand-builds officially licensed pinball clocks using artwork from classic machines and original collaborations with pinball / adjacent artists.
We’ll talk about how a homemade Gottlieb Surf Champ score-reel clock grew into a fully licensed business, the engineering hidden inside each clock, working with original game artwork, and the strange process of building a creative niche inside an already very specific creative niche. Also how to bring these products to market and showing them at conventions to reveal the mystery behind the billion dollar lucrative business of pinball arts and crafts. /s
We’ll also get into the one-of-a-kind Great Pyramid clock Philippe made for Dirty Pool, complete with a moving eye that watches back. Pretty damn cool.
Dirty Pool Podcast - Ep35 - Mike Vinikour | Designing Modern Pinball Rules
Mike Vinikour (MXV) has had one of the more unusual careers in pinball. From testing games at Williams/Bally Midway during the arcade era, to competitive Mortal Kombat, to helping shape modern Stern Pinball software and rules, he's been involved with games from several different angles.
In Episode 35 of the Dirty Pool Podcast, we'll be talking about Mike's path through the game industry, how rule design has evolved, balancing depth with accessibility, software testing, field testing, working with designers, the realities of developing modern Stern machines, and plenty of stories from both the arcade and pinball worlds. We'll also get into his photography, massive vinyl collection, and whatever unexpected rabbit holes the conversation decides to find.
Jason Knapp of Knapp Arcade joins Dirty Pool Podcast to talk about running one of the few dedicated pinball news sites still trying to keep track of the hobby in real time.
We get into pinball journalism, how stories are chosen, how much work goes into keeping information accurate,and what it’s like covering a small industry where the people, companies, rumors, and drama all exist. Also I eat a taco. It was pretty good.
We also talk about the Knapp Arcade redesign, what changed behind the scenes, how the site has grown, and the balance between building something useful for the community without getting dragged into every argument the hobby creates for itself.
Steve Bowden has one of the stranger paths through modern pinball. Tournament player. Broadcaster. Rules analyst. Designer. deeproot employee. American Pinball employee during one of the company’s rougher stretches. A lot of the modern hobby overlaps with Steve somewhere along the way.
The conversation moves through tournament strategy, how commentary changed the way players learn rules and scoring, balancing games for casual players versus high-level competition, working inside pinball manufacturing, streaming culture, and the lingering fallout from the deeproot era now that parts of that story have started resurfacing again in community discussions.
The P3 has carved out a very different lane in modern pinball. Swappable modules, a ball tracked LCD playfield, physical mechs, and a platform that approaches game design from a completely different angle than most traditional machines. Gerry joins the Dirty Pool Podcast to talk about the origins of the Multimorphic platform, designing games around modular hardware, how different modules take advantage of the system in unique ways, and how the P3 has evolved over the years.
We also get into the balance between physical and digital integration in pinball, the realities of building a platform meant to support multiple experiences in one cabinet, and how players have responded to pinball that experiments outside the standard format.
Discover shows related to Dirtypool Pinball - PODCAST - An Exploration Of The Pinball Industry, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
