This month on Open Coin Door, we recap a packed Memorial Day weekend at Reclaim Arcade, including the massive Stars & Stripes pinball tournament that drew 78 players and some of the region’s top competitors. We discuss tournament logistics, streaming challenges, and whether a new budget-friendly mobile streaming rig built from prepaid burner phones could change how and where we broadcast pinball events in the future. We also dive into the possibility of hosting fighting game tournaments, the success of Saturday night Emo Night, moving pinball machines across multiple houses, and the ongoing balancing act of running an arcade, organizing events, and building a community around gaming.

It's the May edition of Open Coin Door and we've been everywhere — Vegas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and somehow back alive. This episode, we break down our wild adventure streaming the pinball tournament at PinFest in Allentown: a buy-sell-trade pinball festival where the peanut guy moved, the internet barely existed, and one of us ended up in a maintenance closet on the phone with a stranger trying to save the stream. We also go deep on Scorbit — the platform quietly connecting old pinball machines to the internet — including live tournaments with real cash jackpots, how NFC login actually works (and where it doesn't), and why Jersey Jack is still the villain of this story. Plus: a fully functional Windows 98 PC with flying toasters is now in the building, shoutout to Branden.

In this episode of the Open Coin Door podcast, we’re catching up on a wild few weeks at the arcade, from launching Pokémon Pinball (and dealing with immediate game-breaking issues) to diving deep into the evolving world of pinball tech and player experiences.

We talk about:

• The highs and frustrations of new pinball releases (and support… or lack of it)

• Why Pokémon is dominating play counts despite the hiccups

• The future of connected pinball with Scorbit and real-money tournaments

• A surprising deep dive into 3D printing and how it’s changing repairs, customization, and even trophies

• Behind-the-scenes of major events like Fools Fest and what it takes to run them smoothly

• Plus upcoming tournaments, arcade events, and what’s next for Reclaim Arcade

It’s a mix of arcade ownership realities, pinball nerd talk, and some big ideas about where this industry is headed.