Episode 86 - Pinball Economics 101
Pinball Economics 101: Location pricing analysis and operator ROI calculations.

A weekly pinball podcast brought to you by the people that run Wedgehead, a pinball bar in Portland, Oregon. Each week Alan and Alex discuss a different pinball topic, occasionally with other guests.
If you have any questions, or might want to guest on a future episode, please email: wedgeheadinfo@gmail.com.
A weekly pinball podcast brought to you by the people that run Wedgehead, a pinball bar in Portland, Oregon. Each week Alan and Alex discuss a different pinball topic, occasionally with other guests.
If you have any questions, or might want to guest on a future episode, please email : wedgeheadinfo@gmail.com.
Pinball Economics 101: Location pricing analysis and operator ROI calculations.
Hosts defend Future Spa (Bally 1980) against poor ratings, citing innovative design and art
Deep dive into George Christian, Bally's forgotten design genius and creator of the best-selling pinball machine ever.
Wedgehead hosts share pinball show tips emphasizing community, respect, and managing expectations.
Wedgehead defends 1999 South Park pinball against PinSide haters, arguing theme and location earnings justify its low ranking.
Rural operator Marcus discusses building a pinball scene in small-town California with practical advice for aspiring operators.
George Gomez discusses Sopranos design philosophy, theme integration, and casual player accessibility.
Defending Bally D&D (1987) as an underrated gem; difficulty and magic saves are features, not flaws.
Wedgehead explores why Williams dominated with original themes but modern boutique makers fail at them.
Scott Danesi on engineering, design philosophy, and making pinball hard by design.
Wedgehead examines Gottlieb System 3 design failures and the cult-like persistence of bad engineering decisions.
Support the show: https:/ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast In this episode we discuss the final chapter of Gottlieb as a pinball manufacturer. The prevailing narrative around these games is that they're all terrible, but that's simply not true. There was a bunch of talented individuals working at Gottlieb at this time, making some very interesting games on extremely tight deadlines, with few resources and we wanted to highlight their talents and work. You may know these games by their po...
Small-town Oregon operator builds thriving pinball scene through tourism strategy and community events.
Support the show: https:/ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast We are joined on the show by our friend Todd Robinett, to discuss creating a pinball scene from scratch in a small town near the Oregon Coast. He operates pins in his two businesses: the Merry Time Bar, and the Labor Temple Diner. When Todd first moved out to Astoria, there were no pinball machines. Now Astoria has 45 pinball machines on location in a town of 10,000 people, and Todd operates about half of these games. Todd tells...
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast IFPA director, and former women's world champion Zoe Vrabel is back on the show to discuss the past, present, and future of women's competitive pinball. Zoe tells us all about the rise of competitive women's pinball, and what she would like to see in the future. Stream the Women's World Championship March 29th-30th on Twitch through Backhand Pinball Local Portland Women's events mentioned in the show: Gator Queens - Every last Monday of the m...
Podcast celebrates pioneering women in pinball history across art, engineering, programming, and operations.
High Roller Casino defense: underrated Stern game with deep rules, multiple wizard modes, and essential company survival role.
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This episode our special guest Glenn Waechter (of the Saw Homebrew machine) joins us on the show, to Die on the Hill for Stern's 2001 game, High Roller Casino. This early stern, rare non licensed title wasn't well received upon its release, as evidenced by all the bad reviews we found, and it's low overall rating on pinside. But it was loaded with cool mechs and toys, and actually features a very deep ruleset, complete with 3 wizard modes....
History and analysis of band-themed pinball machines from 1975 to modern era.
Practical guide to selling pinball machines: fix first, price fairly, list everywhere, and sell in-person.
Support the show: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast This is the finale episode of our 3-part trilogy of episodes that began with the first episode: Pinball Buyer's Guide, continued in our episode Pinball Maintenance, and finally culminates in this episode right here. Alex and Alex talk about coming full circle on a pinball machine and give you some hot tips for kicking that giant box of lights down the road. And if you're new to the show: we do all of that whilst swearing. This is your warn...