Full Tilt (Documentary)

Based in Canada's capital, retired business owner Mike Loftus has succeeded in opening a gateway to his youth in the form of a classic pinball arcade. Going on four years of success, Mike has his sights set on expansion - in the process, diving deep into his passion for this all but forgotten mechanical staple of decades past.
This film won Best Documentary in the Long Short Category of Toronto's Alternative Film Festival, where it was also a semi-finalist for Best Director! It was also selected for inclusion in the Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival, the Hamilton Youth Film Festival, and the SHINE Online International Film Festival.
Thank you for watching!

[@xAnAngelOfDeathx]

What a great video and a great guy. I'll be making a trip to Ottawa to experience that place!

[@calvinengel3830]

It’s hard to find quality documentaries on KZbin, this was great! Great visuals, and those opening titles were fantastic. Great work, keep it up!

[@billchapman0]

Awesome place - I stop by every time I'm in Ottawa. Pinball is timeless, my young children love it too, and Mike is a great guy.

[@derekthomson2482]

Great documentary, our story is very similar in Edmonton where we created one of the largest pinball and arcade collections for free play in Canada. Wish you all the best of success!!!

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

One interesting thing I learned about pinball after my many years of visiting pinball museums and clubs is basically, "The older the pinball machine, the greater the "Screw You!" factor for the layout of the playfield. Older machines seem absolutely designed with layouts that just send those balls into the gutters, and right down that middle, without any flippers having the ability to stop them, than more modern machines. Older machines seem a lot more luck based than modern ones as well. The old machines have their charm, but the ones from say, the late 80's and onward are a LOT more skill based (with some luck thrown in) than their predecessors, it seems. I've played older tables where you're lucky to get one flipper hit on the ball before it gets swallowed up by a gutter.

[@S.J.C._Entertainment]

El dorado is a pretty brutal game

[@willierants5880]

I would agree with you if it weren't for two things. Human intervention and skill. For someone just walking up to a pinball machine without knowing what it is, yes. For someone who sticks with it, watches and learns it's a whole other game entirely. That said the beauty of pinball is that there is an element of luck or fate. Also no two pinball machines are the same. Every game plays differently. You could have 10 of the same type of machine lined up and each one will play slightly differently. Then there is the mechanical nature of the game. The physicality of it. My son and I, we like the classics. We also like modern machines, but the classics have something about them.

[@davidcollier6156]

They were obviously made to make money, not give you 10 minute ball times.

[@patrickledonne5547]

All coin op games were difficult by design. A game that averages 5 minutes of play for 25 cents can earn $3 per hour. A 10 minute play only $1.50 per hour. Games became longer and easier on home consoles which likely carried over to pinball.

[@LuRuello]

In the 70's I was a pinball wizard! So much so that I would win free games and take the coin off the table from the next guy waiting and let him have say 5 free games for 10 cents lol. The shopkeeper banned me from playing because I was too good and would hold up the machine for hours lol. He eventually had the board raised to Pro level so that you would gutter ball in seconds lol...This of course ruined interest in playing again and he lost revenue lol.

[@wizardofyore]

dude this is such a great documentary! super compelling and well made! loved it!!

[@GoMArkkrAM]

There is nothing in this world can stop a man when they find his passion and the purpose of his life.

[@alZiiHardstylez]

Mate. Top tier and well put together. I admire and respect the fella. It was a reminder that passion and love for what you do breeds success. Sometime I get lost in numbers and the bottom line rather than loving what I do. Mike was the breath of fresh air I needed to wake myself up a little.

[@BillAnt]

Pinball is summed up well at 14:02 "it's an interesting time capsule in the subconscious..."

[@GrantLenaarts]

This is absolutely beautiful, the portal into the past indeed.

[@edwardqueen1559]

Amazing! So glad there is people like him keeping these amazing works of art working. I love Roadshow. My 1st pin.

[@moobutt]

Fantastic. I have the pinball disease as well. There’s pins and gumball machines and a jukebox in my living room for Pete’s sake. Thank you for keeping the scene alive.

[@jimmycroce9902]

Thank You!

[@jessreagansalzman]

Love this story ❤ Thank you for doing what you do for pinball 🪩

[@krikon575]

Great documentary and perfect running time, sometimes excessively long documentaries can get boring but this one never did. Im not quite as obsessed by pinball but i got my digital pinball cab at home with vpx etc....

[@jameswilson4426]

Excellent production values. Very enjoyable documentary. I was rooting for Mike the whole time.

[@warhogz5638]

One ball to rule them all...Thank you ;-)

[@drasticmart]

Great documentary, will look for your stuff in the future

[@nancyhiscock9063]

Fabulous- love it! Well done!

[@brewedVFX]

That intro is super cool, hats off to you for the visual design and transitions.

[@xbman46x]

I wish this gentleman much success. Nice job on the documentary. They should host IFPA tournaments on some nights and draw in the tournament players.

[@bobgomez9481]

There's a reason these places do not host IFPA events.... the players are a pain in the ass...

[@joninfect8681]

​@bobgomez9481 we play tournaments there every week 😅

[@bobgomez9481]

@@joninfect8681 - still a bunch of pains in the ass, "professional pinball players"

[@datagod]

Awesome documentary! I love going to the Neighborhood pub for pinball.

[@antonnikolaevichvlassiouk6490]

Awesome documentary!! ( I think Pinball is becoming more popular now)!!

[@ALLSKIING133]

Awesome job!

[@cigarsandpins4781]

Great job on this! I really like the production quality but it was short and sweet at the same time. I’m a home collector and love all things Pinball so this was right up my alley. Thanks for uploading!

[@robertfrost8264]

12:42 I love that this video made it into my algorithm

[@robertfrost8264]

He's gonna get a Rush though, haha obviously

[@benwillms]

@@robertfrost8264 All I can say for certain is that Mike has his sights set on a Led Zeppelin. That said, were both surprised and delighted by the announcement of Rush due to them being a Canadian band. Personally, anything made in the 90s and backwards is far more interesting to me both aesthetically and gameplay-wise.

[@deuzdeuz8115]

I dream about a place like this in my area. Or even a tiny arcade with just 5 pinball machines. There's almost nowhere to play pinball in France. Here, it's recently coming back in people's houses (got one myself, wish I could have the place and money for more) but still not in arcades ans bars, where it's meant to be :(

[@stefanb7015]

Great video,thanks for sharing your story.

[@nolesdennhardt8986]

Awesome!

[@Andrew-pk9vz]

I love this, I live in Ottawa and had no idea this existed❣️

[@jakedemarsh]

Great Job Buddy super cool! 👌 well done!!

[@LoveXKnife]

I think I might have a newfound addiction to pinball and this video is a great look into the hobby. Wonderful video. Thanks for sharing.

[@LexEllis]

Thank you for this Ben!

[@andyblackpool]

Fabulous!

[@SG25]

Great job on this! Congratulations and thank you for making it.

[@traviswright456]

Your living my dream. Gald to see you preserving those awesome machines. Keep it up man👏👍🤙🎮🕹

[@kunekshan]

Thanks for this 😎❤️

[@supersonyk4343]

Great pinball documentary ! I already go there once in 2017 with my brother & friend, great place and we also meet Mike, really cool guy !! We really need to go back soon...

[@junior_pinball]

There used to be an unlimited pinball place in Tennessee but they sadly shut down not too long ago and got replaced by a crappy pay to play arcade. They had one of the rarest games: Hercules too

[@RetroReef]

Really well made doc! Thanks for sharing. Love pinball.

[@danielschiavo5371]

Very good documental, and WOW, the opening titles were fantastic !!!!!! 👏👏👏 Greetings from Buenos Aires 🙂 Daniel

[@DJDonkeytron]

I like the DMD and LCD games; Anything from Theatre of Magic as a casual to newer games like Stern's Star Wars or Godzilla etc.

[@intheshedd]

Awesome doc. Great Job! I love pinball.

[@marcelcevani5688]

You have so much passion ❤️. I loving it. I wish I could visit this place in the future. Greetings from Germany.

[@jayme69]

Awesome documentary! Thanks for sharing your passion and all the best for the future :-)

[@chaos120]

Awesome

[@DidYouReadEULA]

13:08 Nice camerawork. Love the history, thanks.

[@georgewindsor2667]

i own a Captain Fantastic...simple game but the art is tops.

[@clydeg4274]

Man I love pinball.. wish it was still common to find machines around

[@shnibby69]

Eight Ball Deluxe, yes! (Capt. Fantastic was AWESOME, too!)!

[@benwillms]

Chalk up!

[@shnibby69]

@@benwillms Yes! Forgot about that! Great doc, Ben!

[@friguy4444]

5:07 "It isn't rocket science. It's layers of simple complication>" LOL! Talk about an oxymoron LOL. AWESOME!! Genius!!

[@IJUSTENDEDU]

well done

[@eyeprod3101]

I liked it. This guy is cool.

[@travisguide4516]

What a cool dude one place around here where i live runs this theme too i love the time machine they provide

[@coten]

i really enjoyed this! i especially liked the wide variety of tables you featured from the arcade & Mike's collection. i wonder how much time was spent during filming/editing making sure the different games' displays had as little flicker as possible...

[@benwillms]

Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed. The answer to your musings is a lot! A good chunk of crew time at the start of each shoot involved checking and rechecking shutter speeds. We learned the hard way that the varying brightness of DMD dots (for shaded areas of the animations) wildly affects the amount of flicker, so unfortunately some flicker was unavoidable in those cases.

[@pinballjunkies]

"I have a 6 year old, she has no idea what she's doing" that part made me lol 🤣

[@tait316]

That was great. It's wonderful to see people running places like this. What's with the Blonde Red though Mike? lol.

[@benwillms]

I was curious about Red too, so I asked him. The short of it is he was dissatisfied with the quality of the red braids she wears from the factory, and replaced them with a human hair wig made by a former girlfriend, who was growing her hair out at the time. I must admit, if I didn't know better I'd assume it was stock, it's applied very carefully. In his defense, Red is shown as blonde on the side art of the backbox!

[@HAUB]

Nice nice nice

[@rustylozanolpc4227]

Your playfields are pristine! How do you keep them so clean??

[@benwillms]

Doctor’s orders: New posts, rubbers, and a full cleaning of plastics for every “new” game that comes through the arcade door (using Windex, Novus No. 2, ultrasonic cleaning, or any combination of these), steel wool and a couple days of walnut tumbling for grungy metal components, and an initial wipe-down with Novus No. 2 for shine (repeated occasionally as needed over time).

[@parkerbohnn]

You need to talk to Adam Becker he's got about 120 machines and did that documentary without telling me he was doing it. If you make another documentary get in touch with me. I taught Adam to play pinball but this country has no talent other than me.

[@dangermartin69]

Pinball Medics is the place for parts.

[@Rage-td9wv]

I wish I would have been into pinball when there were actually tables one could play. They were around here and there, but basically no tables anywhere. If you do find one once in a blue moon, it's in terrible shape. And those aren't even around anymore. Back in the day, I was into the arcade games so ignored pinball. I didn't even play the arcade games very often. I spent my money collecting albums then albums and beer.

[@Nik-ny9ue]

Ontario accent my beloved

[@richardjohanzh]

Very very nice! But green leds in the Space Invaders head? I would say stay away from colored leds in classic games...

[@davidcutts9079]

Good luck, don't suck.

[@Gypsycat19]

I have a banzai run pinball

[@benwillms]

That's fantastic, Gypsycat! Great-looking machine and one of Pat Lawlor's gems, I'd love to play one.

[@jmike2039]

The opening music is the most confusing sounding song on the planet

[@dggratton]

Targ subcontracts pinball medics to fix their pin tables right? I've seen guy with pinball medic patch on his back tinkering with out of order pin tables @ targ.

[@lukeaustin814]

Guacamole.

[@LaserSharkPhotoablations]

Teds Face needs servicing...