Dirty Pool Podcast - Ep22 - Mapping It Out - Pinball Map with Ryan

Ryan Gratzer from Pinball Map drops by to untangle how the world’s most obsessive pinball location tracker actually works and how your favorite arcades lineup changes the second you visit. This one digs into Ryan's pinball origins, community reporting, app evolution, and the odd psychology of people who will happily move a mountain to report a broken slingshot but won’t like, comment and subscribe. Also there's a lot of dog barking.

Special shout out to the entire team that keeps Pinball Map running, Scott and Beth here in spirit.

🔻 Pinball Map Links:

🧭 Pinball Map – pinballmap.com

🎧 Pinball Map Podcast – pod.pinballmap.com

🛒 Store – pinballmap.com/store

💖 Donate – pinballmap.com/donate

🕊️ Bluesky – @pinballmap.com

🔺 Praise the Great Pyramid:

📡 Twitch – twitch.tv/dirtypoolpinball

📺 YouTube – youtube.com/@DirtyPoolPinball

📷 Instagram – instagram.com/dirtypoolpinball

📘 Facebook – facebook.com/dirtypoolpinball

🔊 Discord – https://discord.gg/bSbXnA38Q8

Pinball images from www.pinside.com

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:13 - In-person Dirty Pool Pinball intro (with dogs)

00:00:31 - Meeting Ryan Gratzer and the Mapping Around podcast

00:00:48 - What Pinball Map is and how the app and site work

00:02:19 - Home locations, privacy, and “please don’t list your house”

00:03:04 - Which locations have the most pinball machines

00:03:34 - Ryan’s Paragon origin story and pinball at home

00:04:54 - Moving to Portland and discovering a city full of pinball

00:05:42 - Crazy Flipper Fingers and early Portland league days

00:07:15 - Tracking games with custom Google Maps before Pinball Map

00:08:06 - How the on-location pinball landscape has changed over 17 years

00:09:21 - Why modern games are taking over older Williams and Stern titles

00:10:34 - Remote locations, Maldives, Hawaii oddities, and under-mapped regions

00:11:53 - Admins, bad actors, and keeping the map neutral and fair

00:13:33 - From separate regional maps to one unified global Pinball Map

00:14:50 - Tech history: Pearl Mason to Ruby on Rails and why it stuck

00:18:02 - Gratification, community obsession, and why Pinball Map matters

00:19:34 - Costs, donations, and keeping the project non-monetized

00:21:41 - 8,500 edits a month and what that says about activity

00:22:37 - Operator tools, comments, and spotting well-maintained locations

00:23:32 - Filters, “number of machines” search, and operator-focused features

00:24:26 - How many operators are tagged and how comment digests work

00:25:16 - Broken games, first impressions, and shouting out good operators

00:26:40 - Pinball people getting salty and channel-level sarcasm

00:26:53 - Winding down the platform questions and interview main arc

00:27:17 - Future app update: viewing all 12,000+ locations at once

00:28:03 - Mapping Around podcast and what they cover in episodes

00:28:27 - Coin pouches, tiny merch, and where to find the store

00:28:55 - Praising the Great Pyramid with improvised hand pyramids

00:29:25 - Call to action: update your local locations and help the map

00:29:56 - League rivalry, finals nerves, and “top of B is where I belong”

#DirtyPoolPinball #PinballPodcast #PinballMap #RyanGratzer #PinballCommunity #LocationPinball #ArcadeHunting #PinballTalk #PinballLife #PinballCulture #PinballNews #DataNerds #BehindTheScenesPinball #PinballPlayers #PinballJourney #ModernPinball #PinballStories #DirtyPoolPodcast #ArcadeLocator #PinballApps #PinballHistory #PinballChat #PinballObsessed #TechInPinball #OpenSourceProjects #PinballFinds #BarcadeLife #PinballEverywhere