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Ep 51: Stairway to Canada with David Dennis
60 Plays5 years ago
Canadian sarcasm abounds in Episode 51 as we get to sit down with David Dennis from the Silverball Chronicles and talk about Led Zeppelin, PIA, and of course Silverball Chronicles!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsors
00:00:06
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
This is episode, what are we on?
00:00:12
Speaker
51.
00:00:12
Speaker
51.
00:00:12
Speaker
Come on, we just had 50 last time.
00:00:14
Speaker
I'm so glad we weren't recording just 30 seconds earlier.
00:00:17
Speaker
So with me, my co-captain is always Scott Larson.
00:00:21
Speaker
It's Scott.
00:00:22
Speaker
Let's get our wonderful friends of the podcast.
00:00:25
Speaker
Let's talk about them for a second before we introduce our guests.
00:00:27
Speaker
Okay, first and foremost, if you want to pick up that new pinball machine or pinball swag to upgrade your machine, please check out Flippin' Out Pinball.
00:00:37
Speaker
I just got my new Avengers topper, and I'm going to be installing it here soon.
00:00:42
Speaker
And so that's a great place to either get a machine or bling things out.
00:00:47
Speaker
Zach and Nicole have always been great to work with.
Pinball Resources and Awards
00:00:50
Speaker
Also, if you want to look at how to play that pinball machine, check out Rate A Pinball.
00:00:55
Speaker
He is currently the world's number one, and he finished this year as number one.
00:01:02
Speaker
So he's a great resource for you.
00:01:05
Speaker
Also, if you want to find out more about the things going on in pinball, please check out This Week in Pinball at Jeff Patterson.
00:01:11
Speaker
And right now, the Twippy Awards are going on.
00:01:14
Speaker
So if you feel so inclined, please go ahead and cast a few votes and vote for your favorite machine, favorite podcaster, favorite, et cetera.
00:01:25
Speaker
Also check out the Pinball Loft.
00:01:27
Speaker
It's a blog of my friend and he'll be able to help you out there.
00:01:31
Speaker
If you want to pick up those pin shades, so if you want to play on location but actually be able to see past the glare of the glass, go ahead and check out pin shades.
00:01:40
Speaker
If you want to pick out some extra art, check out Brian Allen.
00:01:43
Speaker
He just released a Whitewater Alternative Translight, which is a lot of fun, has a lot of Easter eggs from the Williams Valley era.
00:01:50
Speaker
And if you want to light up your translights that have been sitting around and gathering dust, please check out Lit Frames.
00:01:57
Speaker
They always have a good deal going on and a way to spruce up your pinball.
00:02:03
Speaker
area also if you want to check out some more information on pinball please check out pinball supernova and if you're looking at the history of pinball a great podcast that has just finished their 10th episode is the silver ball chronicles that is on the t the pinball network and currently with us we have the co-host of the silver ball chronicles uh way up from the great white north the land of russian getty lee it's david dennis
00:02:32
Speaker
Hey, how is everybody?
Guest Introduction: David Dennis
00:02:33
Speaker
Thank you for having me on.
00:02:35
Speaker
This is the top of the mountain, the loser kid pinball podcast.
00:02:39
Speaker
It's a big deal to be on this one.
00:02:41
Speaker
Well, thank you.
00:02:42
Speaker
I will.
00:02:43
Speaker
We don't feel that way, but no, we shower us with more praise.
00:02:46
Speaker
We don't mind.
00:02:46
Speaker
That's right.
00:02:47
Speaker
I just need to get that ego going.
00:02:49
Speaker
So I get all the softball questions, all the praise and love.
00:02:52
Speaker
It's going to be amazing.
00:02:54
Speaker
Okay, first off, I do want to start off.
00:02:57
Speaker
I saw David post something on Facebook, and this is how we started interacting.
00:03:01
Speaker
It was about the election time, and they had Canadians be like, and I had a guy eating some Lay's ketchup potato chips and staring out the window like Mrs. Kravitz from Bewitched.
00:03:15
Speaker
And so I talked back and forth, and David actually sent me
00:03:20
Speaker
some culinary treats from Canada.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so now I have been able to enjoy Canadian cuisine.
00:03:29
Speaker
And even when I was at Epcot Center, I got some, okay, how do you pronounce this?
00:03:33
Speaker
Is it poutine or is that what it is?
00:03:35
Speaker
That's the way to go.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:37
Speaker
So if you get the Francophone pronunciation, it's poutine.
00:03:41
Speaker
And if it's, you know, your Anglophone kind of way, it's like poutine.
00:03:45
Speaker
But, you know, it doesn't, it's tomato, tomato, really.
00:03:49
Speaker
It's, all it is, is the most amazing thing that fills your heart with love.
00:03:55
Speaker
And fills your, yeah, your arteries with a plaque, so.
00:04:00
Speaker
But hey, it was very good.
00:04:01
Speaker
And so anyway, I promised him a shirt and in true to form the last of the year, I've been completely slammed the last two months.
00:04:08
Speaker
And so I have not been able to get that off again.
00:04:10
Speaker
Those things will be out and I'll probably recruit Josh to help me send those things out because he is much better actually getting to the post office than I am.
00:04:17
Speaker
I can't believe Dennis Creasel has one of these, one of these hats and I'm, and I'm without one of these hats.
00:04:25
Speaker
And, and quite frankly, I think I am much more charming than somebody like Dennis Creasel.
00:04:31
Speaker
Well, Dennis is kind of, I've, I've mentioned this before.
00:04:34
Speaker
If you watch SpongeBob, he is kind of the Squidward.
00:04:39
Speaker
He's, he's usually trying to get the job done, but he's not really the ray of sunshine.
00:04:42
Speaker
The Zach is so,
00:04:46
Speaker
Anyway, good times.
00:04:47
Speaker
So we will get things up to you.
00:04:49
Speaker
So Dennis, how are things up in Canada right now?
COVID-19 in Canada
00:04:52
Speaker
Things are going fairly well.
00:04:53
Speaker
We've had a very mild sort of beginning to the winter.
00:04:56
Speaker
So we're all very pleased at how this is going.
00:04:59
Speaker
Um,
00:05:00
Speaker
My area, particularly when it sort of comes to the COVID outbreak and whatnot, we are probably one of the best places in the entire world when it comes to caseload and where to live and where to be.
00:05:13
Speaker
So we're incredibly lucky.
00:05:15
Speaker
We're taking it incredibly serious here with masking since like July.
00:05:21
Speaker
You know, everybody is physical distancing like you would not believe.
00:05:25
Speaker
So it's turned out fairly well here for the most part.
00:05:28
Speaker
I do very much miss people.
00:05:31
Speaker
I haven't been to any events.
00:05:33
Speaker
I haven't gone to any tournaments in Nova Scotia, which is the province next to mine.
00:05:37
Speaker
I haven't played a lot of the newer games, and that's a bit of a bummer.
00:05:41
Speaker
But in general, how things are going, I would say significantly better than most places.
00:05:46
Speaker
That's really good.
00:05:48
Speaker
I feel like in the retrospective of the year, I feel like all I do is I go to work and I come home and not really do much of the other stuff.
00:06:01
Speaker
We've been able to do some limited events.
00:06:04
Speaker
Like I picked up
00:06:06
Speaker
Turtles machine and I also picked up an Avengers and was able to get some people over but a couple people over we wore masks dropped them down but it just the dynamic is different usually when events get around there's there's fun there's eating there's drinking there's playing and when you're it feels more sterile I guess and it doesn't have that relaxing feel the social aspect has been completely nuked this year
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, and you have this weird anxiety all the time, which doesn't help you when you're trying to relax with friends as well.
00:06:39
Speaker
But, you know, it could seriously be a lot worse, especially where we are here in Canada.
00:06:46
Speaker
But the expectation with that vaccine...
00:06:50
Speaker
the distribution of that here.
00:06:51
Speaker
Canada is all about sort of lefty bureaucracies and government overreach.
00:06:58
Speaker
And so far, the vaccine rollout has been going incredibly smooth, incredibly fast.
00:07:04
Speaker
Testing is easy and quick, and majority of it is online.
00:07:09
Speaker
So things have gone really well here considering what they could be.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, I got my vaccine two weeks ago, and so I have not grown a third head, but I have been able to read mine, so it's been really useful.
00:07:22
Speaker
Nice.
00:07:24
Speaker
Sadly, it's just my mind that I'm reading, and I'm kind of boring.
00:07:30
Speaker
It's like the sound of rocks.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:07:34
Speaker
It's all good.
00:07:35
Speaker
So anyway, you have a good New Year?
00:07:37
Speaker
You have a good Christmas time?
00:07:39
Speaker
Everything was great.
00:07:41
Speaker
Things have gone really, really well.
00:07:43
Speaker
The family had tons of fun.
00:07:45
Speaker
We were able to do the Christmas dinners.
00:07:46
Speaker
We were able to do all of that stuff because caseloads are so low.
00:07:50
Speaker
Got to see a few friends and play some pinball with their collections here locally.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I did a lot of tweaking.
00:07:56
Speaker
I got a couple of new coils there on some Black Fridays.
00:08:00
Speaker
And of course,
00:08:01
Speaker
Those show up right just before Christmas, so you're able to do some soldering and fix a couple of coils here or there, strengthen them up.
00:08:10
Speaker
So yeah, I would say I got ahead quite well this year.
00:08:15
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:08:16
Speaker
And we are going into the new year now.
Led Zeppelin Pinball Machine
00:08:18
Speaker
We had an announcement recently.
00:08:21
Speaker
So we kind of all knew this was coming.
00:08:24
Speaker
We've heard about it.
00:08:26
Speaker
Led Zeppelin.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yes.
00:08:28
Speaker
Let's talk about initial response.
00:08:30
Speaker
And one, when you when I tell you the word or the band Led Zeppelin, what do you feel when it comes to pinball?
00:08:39
Speaker
Oh, it's rocking out, right?
00:08:41
Speaker
It is the definition of rock.
00:08:45
Speaker
And I have to be totally transparent.
00:08:48
Speaker
There is one rule in my car, and that is never turn down Led Zeppelin.
00:08:55
Speaker
Are you being sorry with us right now?
00:08:57
Speaker
That's the one rule?
00:08:58
Speaker
That is the one rule in my car.
00:09:00
Speaker
Never turn off Led Zeppelin.
00:09:02
Speaker
So if it's on the radio or I have it on Spotify, it never gets shut off.
00:09:07
Speaker
And in fact, it rarely gets turned down.
00:09:12
Speaker
It is pretty great.
00:09:13
Speaker
I have two children.
00:09:14
Speaker
I got a five and a half year old and a two and a half year old.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I've had to teach them a very difficult lesson a couple of times on you never turn Led Zeppelin because they don't want to listen to it.
00:09:25
Speaker
And I say, and I had to, and I have to explain it to them and, you know, they cry, but it is important life lesson that they learn that Led Zeppelin is to not be turned off.
00:09:35
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:36
Speaker
Is that, did they turn it off when they were shoveling?
00:09:38
Speaker
You know, is that why you sent them out to shovel your driveway?
00:09:41
Speaker
Cause I mean, I saw you, saw you yelling at them.
00:09:44
Speaker
That's right.
00:09:44
Speaker
They, they, they, they need to learn these important lessons in life.
00:09:49
Speaker
I'm a, you know, I love Led Zeppelin.
00:09:51
Speaker
I'm not a, I'm not a massive Led Zeppelin fan.
00:09:54
Speaker
I'm not a, I don't have that, that level of love like a Jeff Teolis has, but I really do enjoy Led Zeppelin.
00:10:00
Speaker
I think they're a fantastic band.
00:10:01
Speaker
And I think that this is an amazing, amazing theme for, for somebody like Stern to pick up.
00:10:07
Speaker
I totally agree.
00:10:08
Speaker
I think that a Led Zeppelin.
00:10:11
Speaker
Well, they're one of the top, what is it, seven bands to ever break like over 300 million albums sold or something like that.
00:10:17
Speaker
I mean, they've obviously etched their name into the histories of rock and roll and music in general.
00:10:24
Speaker
just how many people have they influenced, right?
00:10:26
Speaker
How many bands have, you know, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones and, and, and, uh, John Bonham, you know, how many bands have they influenced to do what they do now?
00:10:39
Speaker
Like that it goes well beyond, they've played some awesome rock songs, you know, and sold some albums.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:45
Speaker
Wow.
00:10:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:46
Speaker
No, it's a standout theme for sure.
00:10:49
Speaker
And I would consider one if I was in that era for a new in-box pinball machine, if I was in the market for something like that.
00:10:59
Speaker
That would be something I would consider.
00:11:01
Speaker
But it's a Richie, so there's no major surprises when it comes to Playfield layout.
00:11:09
Speaker
I think the big surprise here is how it's coded and what the code is going to be like.
00:11:14
Speaker
And I think that's where the game is going to shine.
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree with that.
00:11:18
Speaker
See, when I thought of Led Zeppelin, I'm thinking, okay, if I ask you to name three icons from a different era,
00:11:28
Speaker
So in the 50s, in the 50s, you would definitely say Elvis Presley, right?
00:11:33
Speaker
Yes.
00:11:34
Speaker
Oh, I would, yes.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
And in the 60s, you're going to say the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and pretty much everybody else, right?
00:11:43
Speaker
So you're talking bands that other bands say, I want to do what they're doing.
00:11:49
Speaker
So that's different.
00:11:50
Speaker
So you have the, and then think of the 70s.
00:11:54
Speaker
Is there a more iconic band band?
00:11:58
Speaker
You could say Led Zeppelin.
00:11:59
Speaker
You could probably say Fleetwood Mac.
00:12:03
Speaker
I would honestly, if I was going to fight you on it, I would say ACDC is up there with Led Zeppelin.
00:12:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:12:10
Speaker
But I guess I look at ACDC and Back in Black came out around 1980.
00:12:16
Speaker
And so I would consider that the end of the 70s.
00:12:18
Speaker
But if you're looking at a band that drove the 70s, even Aerosmith said the reason why we made it big is because
00:12:27
Speaker
Led Zeppelin wasn't touring around here every year.
00:12:31
Speaker
And so they're like, Led Zeppelin's not coming, but Aerosmith is coming.
00:12:35
Speaker
And so that's when they made their chops because, you know, I would say Aerosmith's a good band.
00:12:41
Speaker
It's a great band, but I don't think it moves to the icon status.
00:12:46
Speaker
But Led Zeppelin is an iconic band.
00:12:49
Speaker
And when you look at the 80s, the iconic bands, I would say Van Halen,
00:12:55
Speaker
I would say ACDC.
00:12:58
Speaker
I would actually say, and I'm going to push back on this.
00:13:01
Speaker
I would say Bon Jovi because once they release their stuff, there is a shift in the way other bands are making music.
00:13:11
Speaker
And you could say the same thing about Guns N' Roses.
00:13:15
Speaker
They were a glorious sunset to that 80s sound.
00:13:18
Speaker
Then you had Nirvana, who twisted things and moved on.
00:13:22
Speaker
Well, they were 90s, though.
00:13:24
Speaker
No, no.
00:13:25
Speaker
I'm just saying I'm moving on with icons.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:27
Speaker
Okay, gotcha.
00:13:28
Speaker
You got Nirvana, you got Pearl Jam, and U2 is, okay, I forgot U2.
00:13:32
Speaker
I would say U2 is probably the biggest iconic band of the last 40 years, even though they really haven't done much in the last 20 years, really.
00:13:43
Speaker
But really name other bands that are super iconic.
00:13:47
Speaker
And anytime you can land an iconic band or an iconic theme, whatever it is, you're going to take it.
00:13:55
Speaker
No, I totally agree.
00:13:56
Speaker
I think that my first impression of Led Zeppelin is the art feels to its era.
00:14:05
Speaker
I felt like it hits the 70s feel on the mark.
00:14:10
Speaker
I also felt like, though, that we've rehashed this play field before.
00:14:14
Speaker
And like David said, man, it's Steve Ritchie.
00:14:16
Speaker
You kind of know what you're going to get with it.
00:14:18
Speaker
But the thing that kind of...
00:14:20
Speaker
is a no it's weird to me is like when you think of steve ritchie and you think of this layout you think of star trek you think of spider-man you think of you know and all those have in commons that warp ramp and it just it feels right you know it's spider-man i guess it loops back around to the left side but still it's like the greatest shot in pinball yeah and it's weird to me that
00:14:44
Speaker
Now this is technically behind a paywall because you don't get it with the Pro.
00:14:49
Speaker
You get it with the premium and the LE.
00:14:52
Speaker
It's a weird move to me.
00:14:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:57
Speaker
Is there anything new about this?
00:14:59
Speaker
Yes, I will give you that.
00:15:00
Speaker
But I think you're going to find that they have made compromises or they've made decisions based on what they can satisfy for the location pinball because you're still going to sell the majority of your machines in the pro price range.
00:15:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:19
Speaker
then you're going to get the collectors and the premiums and some sort of mix out there.
00:15:23
Speaker
But it's a challenging thing to kind of walk that line.
00:15:28
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:15:29
Speaker
I think it's good.
00:15:30
Speaker
But if you really look at the 50s and 60s and 70s, there wasn't much variation in pinball layouts either.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:36
Speaker
Well, but here's the thing, though, like from what I've heard, though, is the pro has had lukewarm reception to at best.
00:15:44
Speaker
numbers wise being bought.
00:15:46
Speaker
Like it is obviously if you want this game, people are buying premium or Ellie.
00:15:51
Speaker
It's not the pro on this one.
00:15:54
Speaker
So do you think though, that's because locations aren't selling games like there is no like location pinball right now.
00:16:02
Speaker
And so you're mainly selling to a home collector.
00:16:06
Speaker
I would, I would say yes, but,
00:16:10
Speaker
look at Turtles and Avengers this year.
00:16:12
Speaker
Avengers has sold pros to locations, even though locations aren't really technically open.
00:16:18
Speaker
I mean, I know people that own pros of that.
00:16:21
Speaker
And Turtles, it seems like the pro is the better way to go versus the premium LE.
00:16:26
Speaker
Oh, don't tell me that kills me.
00:16:28
Speaker
I have a premium.
00:16:31
Speaker
But my point being is, I feel like the numbers will go with the machine that feels like it's worth it the most.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if you're trying to find that value proposition right now, we're buying a box of lights that...
00:16:46
Speaker
is more expensive than what it actually costs to actually build.
00:16:54
Speaker
But if you're looking for unique, fun, interesting things, the premium LE of this is stellar.
00:17:01
Speaker
If you're a diehard Zeppelin fan and you just want the tunes and the good time, you're going pro.
00:17:10
Speaker
If you're more of the player collector hobbyist, you're going in premium LE.
00:17:15
Speaker
I agree.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:16
Speaker
Like, I mean, I don't, when it comes to art in, in general, the premium LE package, I think is beautiful.
00:17:23
Speaker
And
Licensing Challenges in Pinball
00:17:24
Speaker
if people are going to freak out, okay.
00:17:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:25
Speaker
There's a difference though.
00:17:26
Speaker
Road here.
00:17:27
Speaker
Dennis, there's a difference though.
00:17:29
Speaker
You have the play field and you have the side art.
00:17:31
Speaker
And so are you lumping them both together?
00:17:33
Speaker
I'm going to jam them both together.
00:17:35
Speaker
I'm okay with the black and white because that is Led Zeppelin, right?
00:17:39
Speaker
That image is Led Zeppelin.
00:17:41
Speaker
And as a Led Zeppelin fan, I'm like, yeah, I'm good with that.
00:17:45
Speaker
Now, would I rather a hand-drawn, you know, Franchie-esque band members...
00:17:53
Speaker
Beatles treatment.
00:17:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, of course, but this isn't going to make me, you know, drive to Chicago in the middle of the pandemic and burn stern to the ground.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:01
Speaker
You know, the, the, the pro with the, the Zeppelin three album art, um, you know, my least favorite album art, like of all of their, you know,
00:18:15
Speaker
albums, right?
00:18:16
Speaker
But it is Led Zeppelin.
00:18:18
Speaker
I, you know, I got to give them, that's the brand.
00:18:20
Speaker
That's the, you know, that's the iconic album.
00:18:22
Speaker
I, you know, it's not the greatest.
00:18:24
Speaker
It's thematically consistent, I guess.
00:18:27
Speaker
It's artistically consistent with what Led Zeppelin has done themselves.
00:18:31
Speaker
Exactly.
00:18:31
Speaker
And it looks like, you know, a pop star in the seventies threw up on the album cover and that's exactly what this machine looks like.
00:18:39
Speaker
So I can't, I can't, I can't fault them for that.
00:18:42
Speaker
Well, and I think this is a prime example.
00:18:44
Speaker
This is your first one if you're ready to start taking tallies.
00:18:48
Speaker
I think this is where when a licensor gets involved versus one that just is somewhat interested, like Guns N' Roses versus Led Zeppelin.
00:18:58
Speaker
I mean, Led Zeppelin, it sounded like the band.
00:19:03
Speaker
had a lot of direction of where they want stuff to go on Led Zeppelin or, uh, guns and roses on, on Led Zeppelin.
00:19:10
Speaker
And it wasn't for the better, in my opinion, artwork.
00:19:14
Speaker
Like, like David said, I mean like album art number or their number three album, would you really pick that as your main artwork?
00:19:22
Speaker
That's probably what they wanted because that's exactly how they envisioned their pinball machine.
00:19:27
Speaker
You listen to Eric with Guns N' Roses.
00:19:30
Speaker
Slash came in with an entirely different concept of what the pinball machine was going to be for Guns N' Roses.
00:19:36
Speaker
He came in as a fan of pinball saying, you know, pinball art is this.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:19:41
Speaker
And get me a great artist and make me pinball art as opposed to the licensor for Led Zeppelin saying, this is Led Zeppelin.
00:19:47
Speaker
Here's flip through the book and find what you like.
00:19:50
Speaker
Exactly.
00:19:51
Speaker
And so I think that that is the difference between I think that's the problem that Stern is now going to have from here on out when it comes to licensors, especially with Gary Stern's remarks on Super Awesome Pinball Show.
00:20:03
Speaker
It's like if we can't mod these things and we're going to be threatened to, you know, whatever it may be, because we're changing it from stock to
00:20:13
Speaker
then people are going to demand better product coming from Stern when it comes to artwork and stuff like that.
00:20:17
Speaker
You're going to have to work a little closer with the line sister because it's obviously can be done because look at slash and Eric with guns and roses.
00:20:25
Speaker
It also depends though on, um,
00:20:28
Speaker
Now, that's not necessarily a good or bad thing.
00:20:31
Speaker
My attitude is if you are contracting with someone who they have created a product, they've created a brand, and depending on how involved or non-involved they want to be, sometimes that makes it better and sometimes that makes it okay, mainly because
00:20:52
Speaker
That's their product.
00:20:54
Speaker
When you have Iron Maiden and you have the classic iconic visual style of Iron Maiden was done in the 80s and it was done by an artist named Derek Riggs, who
00:21:07
Speaker
He wasn't actually a trained artist, but he had a very style that resonated with him.
00:21:11
Speaker
And what Zombie Yeti was able to do in the Derek Riggs style was still consistent with what Iron Maiden was trying to do.
00:21:20
Speaker
Now, with Led Zeppelin, I look at this art package and...
00:21:25
Speaker
I look at it, I don't have a problem with that.
00:21:27
Speaker
I look at the way that Led Zeppelin has crafted their brand.
00:21:30
Speaker
They've always been very jealous of how they want to present themselves.
00:21:35
Speaker
And I don't have a problem with that because the alternative is, okay, so you're just not going to get a machine.
00:21:40
Speaker
If you don't want to do what Led Zeppelin wants to do, then it's their product.
00:21:44
Speaker
So if you're not willing to work with their constraints, then maybe you need to go somewhere else.
00:21:50
Speaker
I think it's worth it.
00:21:52
Speaker
Right.
00:21:52
Speaker
Like dealing with those issues.
00:21:54
Speaker
I think it's worth it.
00:21:54
Speaker
They're going to sell a ton of these.
00:21:56
Speaker
And some licensors, when they say easier to work with, what that means is that they don't really have much input.
00:22:03
Speaker
They're just going to let you do what you want.
00:22:05
Speaker
Now, okay.
00:22:06
Speaker
That's great.
00:22:07
Speaker
If you have a good idea, but what if your idea sucks?
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:12
Speaker
And legitimately, right?
00:22:13
Speaker
We're assuming that, oh, well, the person who has the most creative control, they will produce the best product.
00:22:21
Speaker
But how many things has... Well, I'll use Star Wars for an example.
00:22:26
Speaker
Like Star Wars books.
00:22:28
Speaker
I read like a... I saw there was a series of books that were supposed to be done after Return of the Jedi.
00:22:36
Speaker
And I listened to them on audiobook and I thought...
00:22:39
Speaker
yeah, I mean, it's okay.
00:22:41
Speaker
The story was okay, but it wasn't great.
00:22:44
Speaker
And my attitude is they probably just rubber stamped it.
00:22:47
Speaker
It's going to be a book that we're going to put out that's in the Star Wars theme and it'll sell because of that.
00:22:52
Speaker
But maybe if they had more constraints, so they said, no, why don't you push it this way?
00:22:56
Speaker
Why don't you go that way?
00:22:58
Speaker
Sometimes that's a better thing.
00:22:59
Speaker
Having unlimited creative control is the difference between the last three Star Wars movies and The Mandalorian.
00:23:08
Speaker
So you have the Mandalorian who I, uh, what's the guy's name?
00:23:13
Speaker
Uh, the John Favreau.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
Favreau.
00:23:16
Speaker
So you have John Favreau who does it, who's amazing at what he does and is, he knows how to do it.
00:23:23
Speaker
And the other three, I think the had, uh, at best they had mixed reviews because they had all the control to do what they wanted.
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, but I think it's hard to compare with that one because John has built a repertoire of – he knows what he's doing over decades with Disney.
00:23:42
Speaker
And so it's hard to compare, especially where it's Stern is building a product that is a representation of what the licensor wants –
00:23:53
Speaker
I just I don't know.
00:23:54
Speaker
It's hard to compare, but I get it.
00:23:56
Speaker
Like, I get it.
00:23:56
Speaker
I get what you're trying to put out there.
00:23:58
Speaker
OK, but there is one thing that I don't hear a lot of people talking about, which I think is really impressive, is the lighting system with the integrated side decals, even on the premium.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, very nice.
00:24:13
Speaker
And I think I don't hear a lot of people talking about that.
00:24:16
Speaker
And I look at that and say, that's actually pretty amazing.
00:24:20
Speaker
That's on the level of integrated pin stadium stuff that they were able to integrate into and not an aftermarket.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
And you're not going to bang them when you lift the play field up and down.
00:24:34
Speaker
Um, you know, there, you don't have to worry about magnets on and off.
00:24:37
Speaker
Like they are really, really cool.
00:24:40
Speaker
Um, led integrated, like it's a, it's very, very cool.
00:24:45
Speaker
Uh, granted the GNR, um, hot rails are a similar product, but, but I, I, I haven't seen a GNR in person to see them and actually, um,
00:24:57
Speaker
you know, actually dive into what they are.
00:24:59
Speaker
But when I look at these, I think, man, that's pretty darn cool too.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:04
Speaker
It feels a little more, uh, thematically consistent though.
00:25:09
Speaker
If you have a seventies band, you're not going to want that blinding over the top light.
00:25:16
Speaker
You're going to get some nuanced lighting and
00:25:19
Speaker
And I, I don't know, this is a personal thing.
00:25:23
Speaker
I bought a truck and so I'm actually looking at upgrading the lights so I can see things.
00:25:28
Speaker
But I went to purchase one of them and said, hey, are you putting this on a straight car?
00:25:33
Speaker
Because they're way too bright.
00:25:36
Speaker
And I wonder at some level, is there a Guns N' Roses has a crazy amount of lights.
00:25:43
Speaker
And I'm sure it's great.
00:25:45
Speaker
And I haven't played one in person, but I'm wondering at some point, is there too much?
00:25:50
Speaker
And this seems to be more of the I would get a lava lamp topper and put it on this machine.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, it fits the theme.
00:25:58
Speaker
It's very cool.
00:25:59
Speaker
I don't know.
00:26:00
Speaker
Overall, I think it's a good machine.
00:26:01
Speaker
I'm honestly, personally, me, I'm glad they came out with Led Zeppelin because I can't handle buying another new in box because I just bought turtles.
00:26:08
Speaker
I've bought Avengers.
00:26:09
Speaker
It's like if they came out with another theme that was geared directly towards me, it just it wouldn't work.
00:26:16
Speaker
And so maybe that's how a lot of people across the board are feeling, because the last two were more geared towards a younger generation, in my opinion, where this would be getting those collectors of the vintage age.
00:26:29
Speaker
Of a certain age.
00:26:29
Speaker
So you're saying I'm a collector of a certain age.
00:26:31
Speaker
I'm a distinguished gentleman.
00:26:33
Speaker
A vintage.
00:26:34
Speaker
Yes.
00:26:34
Speaker
I'm a vintage collector.
00:26:36
Speaker
All right.
00:26:37
Speaker
So, yeah, I am actually getting this.
00:26:39
Speaker
I'm getting the premium and I'm quite excited about it.
00:26:42
Speaker
So, yeah, I went I went Simpsons earlier in the pandemic here.
00:26:47
Speaker
So I am all tapped out for all purchases for the next couple of years until I can get my children to generate some sort of level of revenue.
00:26:57
Speaker
Or you decide Simpsons is no longer doing it for you.
00:27:01
Speaker
Exactly.
00:27:02
Speaker
You know, Simpsons was my first machine, and I actually don't think that that will leave.
00:27:06
Speaker
I think Spider-Man, I think I've scratched that itch.
00:27:09
Speaker
It's time to sell that on.
00:27:11
Speaker
And I'm actually really glad that I'm able to sell Spider-Man to bring in another Ritchie game because that's my only Ritchie game.
00:27:18
Speaker
When it comes to Steve Ritchie games, when you're talking stern Star Trek at a competitive price on even the pro or premium LE level, you're getting somewhat similar things.
00:27:33
Speaker
What you're missing out on, though, is this Tim Sexton code, which I think looks...
00:27:39
Speaker
totally unique oh yes it's chase the blinking light which is stereotypically a a steve richie you know design but it's it's gone to another level where the lights change based on where you are in the song and combos left to right like i am so excited to play this because i think it is just gonna be a riot
00:28:04
Speaker
Does it does it feel anything like to you guys that this feels like a.
00:28:13
Speaker
I don't want this to sound insulting.
00:28:14
Speaker
I actually think it's a good thing.
00:28:16
Speaker
But kind of that rock band thing where it's making a video game out of all these songs that you know, and it's actually putting it together in a fun way.
00:28:29
Speaker
And that's what Steve and Tim together are doing with these.
00:28:34
Speaker
Because I really like what he did with Black Knight because I felt more like that
00:28:39
Speaker
that video game draw.
00:28:42
Speaker
And I like, it was a different take than the chase, the flashing light.
00:28:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
Kudos to them for sure.
00:28:51
Speaker
I just kudos to Stern.
00:28:52
Speaker
Cause I mean, there are hires in the last two, three years have been so good.
00:28:57
Speaker
Like,
00:28:58
Speaker
You can't argue that they've got a super team going over there between Tim Sexton, Raymond Davidson, Keith Owen.
00:29:06
Speaker
They're picking up so many good, fresh blood that's going into these games, and you can feel it through these games.
00:29:13
Speaker
They are getting...
00:29:14
Speaker
Nice new designs.
00:29:15
Speaker
And that's why I'm not passing judgment on Led Zeppelin yet.
00:29:18
Speaker
It's not for me because it's not my theme, which is, you know, like I've always said, like the theme can be like a pinball machine is kind of like what you're looking for and maybe a spouse or someone else.
00:29:28
Speaker
But the beauty of the machine is the artwork.
00:29:30
Speaker
That's what's going to draw you in.
00:29:32
Speaker
But the personality is the play of the game and the code.
00:29:35
Speaker
And that's what keeps you coming back for more.
00:29:38
Speaker
But yeah, I think, I don't know, that's probably pretty good on Led Zeppelin, don't you think?
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, no, sorry.
00:29:44
Speaker
While you were talking, I was looking back and forth at all the close-up pictures of the playfield to see what else I could be missing on that.
00:29:53
Speaker
There's a lot of tight horseshoes in there.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:57
Speaker
So...
00:29:59
Speaker
Yeah, no, I will tell.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be great.
00:30:02
Speaker
But I again, they've been putting out some really good machines.
00:30:07
Speaker
So I'm looking forward to this one.
00:30:08
Speaker
I agree.
00:30:09
Speaker
So let's talk about David.
Silver Ball Chronicles
00:30:12
Speaker
You have started a pinball podcast with Ron Hallett.
00:30:15
Speaker
Let's let's talk about that.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm the co-host of Silver Ball Chronicles from the Pinball Network, which is a history of pinball sort of podcast.
00:30:28
Speaker
So rather than a couple of guys talking about Led Zeppelin and the new pins, Ron and I sort of chat about historical figures, machine eras, technologies, those kind of things of the bygone eras of pinball.
00:30:44
Speaker
And if you're looking for a different kind of podcast, Silver Ball Chronicles is that kind of podcast.
00:30:51
Speaker
I totally agree.
00:30:52
Speaker
And the one thing that I appreciate about the podcast that you and Ron have been doing is, can't remember this last episode or the one before, someone had mentioned COVID.
00:31:00
Speaker
You had mentioned COVID and Ron's like, hey, hey, hey, we're trying to keep this timeless now.
00:31:04
Speaker
No time markers of what era this is.
00:31:07
Speaker
We're trying to make it so anyone can listen to this at any time.
00:31:10
Speaker
And I think that's awesome because the problem with pinball podcasts, it is very...
00:31:16
Speaker
news based and so to go back and listen to one from a year ago and like or two years ago like head to head uh you're only gonna kind of see what happened back then it's almost gonna be like a time capsule kind of thing where this is not doing that so yeah and that was not necessarily the goal of of the original show so back at about this time in 2019 um so wait let me let me wind that back
00:31:40
Speaker
Back in around December of 2019, I was thinking, hey, you know, I would, you know, I'm enjoying these podcasts.
00:31:49
Speaker
I chat on stream with Dennis Creasel and a few others.
00:31:52
Speaker
And, you know, I've
00:31:54
Speaker
my opinion I feel is not, you know, any more valid or more important than you guys or the others and adding just another one of me to the, to the mix, even though I am incredibly charming.
00:32:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:32:06
Speaker
I don't want to just sort of rehash the same news over and over again.
00:32:10
Speaker
Cause, cause guys like, uh, guys like Christian line and Franchi and you guys and Dennis and, and Zach, like they do just such a great job already.
00:32:20
Speaker
I thought if I did a podcast, what would it be?
00:32:22
Speaker
And I remember that Jeff Teolas on Pinball Profile did sometime last year in 2019, I guess now, he did an anniversary show for Tommy the Album where he brought in John Borg and talked about Tommy the Machine.
00:32:40
Speaker
And I thought, wow, that is something that was really kind of interesting and cool.
00:32:48
Speaker
So I went and I listened to some of the older podcasts like Topcast and I was, and I, and I could hear these stories,
00:32:54
Speaker
being weaved throughout pinball history.
00:32:58
Speaker
And I know that seems a bit silly, but Steve Ritchie being the character that he is, he has all of these amazing stories that he's told time and time again.
00:33:08
Speaker
How do I bring those out for new people like myself in the hobby who've only been around for a couple of years?
00:33:13
Speaker
Because I like to learn and I come from a history background, I found it very easy to pull those stories out and then weave them together in a narrative.
00:33:22
Speaker
And that was where I thought, okay, this is different than me talking about the latest pinball machine.
00:33:28
Speaker
And it's great.
00:33:29
Speaker
I, and the chemistry between you and Ron is really great too.
00:33:32
Speaker
Like I get chuckles from one of the episodes you guys were talking and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, it's been 45 minutes.
00:33:39
Speaker
If, if you want to shut it down, we're biweekly.
00:33:41
Speaker
So we are the perfect amount of time to listen to.
00:33:44
Speaker
Now's the time to shut us off and then turn us back on next week to the last 45 minutes.
00:33:48
Speaker
You know, it's just, just great stuff like that.
00:33:50
Speaker
It's,
00:33:51
Speaker
It's making history fun and not making fun of history.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:56
Speaker
The interesting thing about Ron, and I'm appreciative of Ron like you would not believe, is he adds this elder statesman dynamic to the podcast where he's done a lot of soldering on a lot of these old machines and he's played a lot of these old machines.
00:34:13
Speaker
And he's been around when some of these stories are told.
00:34:17
Speaker
and maybe given more context than they are when the person who is there tells them.
00:34:23
Speaker
So he adds so much to that podcast, but originally when I sat down and I said to Dennis,
00:34:31
Speaker
in early 2020 when all the sort of podcasters, you know, resigned in one week, I guess, for lack of a better term.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:39
Speaker
I reached out to Dennis and I said, Dennis, you know, now that you don't have a podcast, would you want to do this podcast with me?
00:34:46
Speaker
And he's like, well, you know, there's some other plans.
00:34:49
Speaker
I got something going on.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:50
Speaker
But, you know, and he goes, why don't you talk to Bruce Nightingale or Ron Hallett?
00:34:57
Speaker
And I thought, well, you know, I've never spoken or met these people.
00:35:01
Speaker
So why are they going to even talk to me?
00:35:03
Speaker
And at the time, I was thinking, okay, Bruce Nightingale would be pretty good because I envisioned the podcast to be a little more silly than it actually has ended up being.
00:35:15
Speaker
And I figured he would be really great to bounce off of.
00:35:20
Speaker
But unfortunately, he was running the Silver Ball Saloon in East Rochester, New York, and he would not have enough time, I don't think.
00:35:31
Speaker
So I was like, well, maybe I'll reach out to Ron.
00:35:33
Speaker
And Ron was like, I don't have to edit.
00:35:36
Speaker
And I'm like, no, no, you don't have to edit.
00:35:37
Speaker
He's like, do I have to, do I have to write down a lot of stuff?
00:35:41
Speaker
And I'm like, no, not really.
00:35:43
Speaker
He's like, oh, I'm in.
00:35:45
Speaker
And I'm like, well, okay.
00:35:46
Speaker
And then I was like, well, I'll show you the show notes.
00:35:49
Speaker
And I reviewed the show notes sort of over Skype with him, sharing my screen.
00:35:53
Speaker
And each episode I've got typed out is like 5,000 point form notes, words, right?
00:35:59
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, this is great.
00:36:02
Speaker
I'm like, so, you know, that'd be great if you'd come aboard.
00:36:05
Speaker
And he's like, oh yeah, no problem.
00:36:06
Speaker
And then like a week goes by and I'm like, ah, you know, I didn't ask him like 100% are you in?
00:36:14
Speaker
And then I reached out and I'm like, yeah, are you like in, in like a hundred percent?
00:36:19
Speaker
He's like, man, I told you like six times I'm in on this.
00:36:23
Speaker
And I was in, I'm in.
00:36:25
Speaker
You just need to do the work.
00:36:26
Speaker
I'm in.
00:36:27
Speaker
Right.
00:36:27
Speaker
And I was like, oh my God, I'm doing a podcast with Ron Hallett, right?
00:36:30
Speaker
The slam tilt guy.
00:36:32
Speaker
And it's, he has added so much to it that, you know, he wrangles me in a lot.
00:36:40
Speaker
He tells me sometimes when my jokes are really not funny and I have to cut them out.
00:36:46
Speaker
And there's a lot that I cut out to jokes that I've made.
00:36:51
Speaker
Is it a Canadian thing or is it just jokes in general?
00:36:54
Speaker
Well, we just have this self-deprecating sense of humor, Canadians.
00:36:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:59
Speaker
There's rarely things that are off limits.
00:37:02
Speaker
And for the way the podcast ends up, it does have some silliness and some fun running jokes in it.
00:37:08
Speaker
But again, I had envisioned it to be a little more silly.
00:37:12
Speaker
And Ron has brought that down, and I think he's brought it down to being incredibly good.
00:37:18
Speaker
And I'm super happy to be doing the way I'm doing because I'm able to pay homage to a lot of people who don't normally get their names out there.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
you know, Python Angelo, people know Python Angelo, but they don't know how, you know, how crazy the man actually was.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
You know, people don't know why the, you know, Gottlieb System 1 games are so bad, except for three of them.
00:37:50
Speaker
So let me tell you the story as to why that happened.
00:37:53
Speaker
And then I'll throw in a couple of, you know, humorous stories in there and hopefully that'll help.
00:37:59
Speaker
So that kind of fun stuff,
00:38:01
Speaker
it naturally comes out with, with us.
00:38:03
Speaker
And I'm so happy to have somebody like Ron with me.
00:38:06
Speaker
Oh, I totally agree.
00:38:07
Speaker
It's, it's awesome.
00:38:07
Speaker
It's a very good, it's a very good show that you got your guys's chemistry together along with the stories make for a great show.
00:38:15
Speaker
And that's, that's all you want to in pinball, right?
00:38:17
Speaker
Like us, us getting all this free content is very demanding of what we receive.
00:38:21
Speaker
And so we're, we're glad that you're able to obtain that bar.
00:38:27
Speaker
A lot of it is just sort of, you know, listening to it.
00:38:30
Speaker
I do a lot of driving for work from time to time and I'm in the car for a couple hours and I'm like, oh, listen to this.
00:38:36
Speaker
And then as I'm going, I'll kind of maybe write down on a piece of paper, a couple of notes here and there, copy and paste some of the, some of the resources that are really good are written resources.
00:38:46
Speaker
Cause then I literally just copy paste things in and then it just sort of naturally happens.
00:38:51
Speaker
It's the editing of the podcast.
00:38:53
Speaker
And I know that's a cliche.
00:38:54
Speaker
So if you're, if you're,
00:38:56
Speaker
on the podcast cliche drinking game, now's the time to drink.
00:39:01
Speaker
The editing is the worst part because there's quotes that we'll say and I'll bumble through a quote or I'll misquote a year or a name and then I'll cut it out.
00:39:12
Speaker
And I have a lot of mannerisms because it's like we're naturally having a conversation here, which is easier.
00:39:18
Speaker
But if I'm like, oh, hey, Ron, why don't you read this quote?
00:39:20
Speaker
I got to cut out, hey, Ron, why don't you read this quote to make it sound like he's just saying it.
00:39:26
Speaker
And that happens like 40 times.
00:39:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:39:30
Speaker
So it's so weird though, because I don't have any problem with the editing.
00:39:35
Speaker
What about you, Josh?
00:39:36
Speaker
Josh.
00:39:38
Speaker
It's not too bad.
00:39:38
Speaker
One of the things, I don't know if this is something you do, but you can have a pad of paper next to you with a pen and just write down your timestamps as you go through so you know exactly where to edit out.
00:39:49
Speaker
It kind of cuts back on the time process.
00:39:51
Speaker
It's every three minutes.
00:39:55
Speaker
You can be like, most times I just throw them on.
00:39:57
Speaker
You can tell with the 50th episode, there was some editing there, but at one point I totally spaced to edit out.
00:40:02
Speaker
I'm like, am I echoing Scott?
00:40:04
Speaker
And he's like,
00:40:05
Speaker
No, no, I think we're good.
00:40:06
Speaker
I forgot to edit that all out.
00:40:08
Speaker
And so it's like, it sounds like us fumbling before playing a clip.
00:40:12
Speaker
And I was like, eh, like that.
00:40:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:13
Speaker
Can we talk about that day really quick?
00:40:15
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:40:15
Speaker
I'm going on a tangent for a second.
00:40:17
Speaker
Like that day was, was a sucky day for me.
00:40:22
Speaker
Like I woke up, got to work.
00:40:25
Speaker
My wife texts me.
00:40:26
Speaker
I'm not going to tell you the story that happened, but let's just put it this way.
00:40:30
Speaker
Literal crap hit the fan.
00:40:32
Speaker
Like that's about as good as you're going to get out of this.
00:40:35
Speaker
Oh, come on.
00:40:35
Speaker
Tell the story.
00:40:37
Speaker
I've already discussed it.
00:40:40
Speaker
We're not.
00:40:41
Speaker
I've already discussed it with my wife.
00:40:43
Speaker
We're not.
00:40:44
Speaker
She's forbidden you from talking about it.
00:40:48
Speaker
Out of respect to other people, we're not going to talk about the story.
00:40:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:52
Speaker
All right.
00:40:53
Speaker
All right.
00:40:53
Speaker
All right.
00:40:53
Speaker
All right.
00:40:55
Speaker
And so, uh, and then noon hits and I'm helping clean up a mess that happened that morning.
00:41:02
Speaker
And we get a call from my son's school and he'd slipped in on the ice, hit his head and gave himself a concussion.
00:41:09
Speaker
And, uh,
00:41:11
Speaker
And we're like, crap.
00:41:11
Speaker
So we had to run there and grab him.
00:41:12
Speaker
Oh, I forgot to tell you, between all of this, I didn't receive a call.
00:41:16
Speaker
I called FedEx because we had some issues with shipping with Avengers.
00:41:22
Speaker
And it ended up somewhere skumwampus.
00:41:24
Speaker
And so the dude had got his truck stuck.
00:41:27
Speaker
And he's like, if you want it sooner than this time, you need to come pick it up.
00:41:32
Speaker
It was funky.
00:41:33
Speaker
And so I ended up picking it up with a liftgate truck.
00:41:36
Speaker
And I lowered the lift gate all the way down, got the, got Avengers in the back of the truck.
00:41:41
Speaker
And then the gate wouldn't come back up.
00:41:44
Speaker
And so I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with a lift gate that I can't get to go back up.
00:41:49
Speaker
And so I had to use a come along and ratchet it up.
00:41:52
Speaker
And any who, that was, that was before the crap hit the fan.
00:41:57
Speaker
And so.
00:41:57
Speaker
Like seriously, by three o'clock in the afternoon, it just – it all just kind of melded together.
00:42:03
Speaker
And so when we started recording episode 50, even Scott was like, are you sure you don't want to put this off for like – Yeah, you were not happy.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:10
Speaker
You're like, are you sure you want to put this off?
00:42:12
Speaker
And I'm like, no.
00:42:13
Speaker
Like we've been prepping for this for –
00:42:15
Speaker
a week or two now between clips and editing and stuff like that.
00:42:19
Speaker
I just want to, I just want to record like this will be like a good end of the day.
00:42:23
Speaker
And then for some odd reason, my microphone did something super funky, but we didn't realize it till it was all done and said.
00:42:30
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm not going back to record my whole thing that we just said.
00:42:35
Speaker
So that's why, that's why I was like, when I posted it and I said, Hey, like Josh's audio quality is not perfect.
00:42:42
Speaker
That's because I was like, you know, I'm done.
00:42:45
Speaker
That was the cherry on top to the whole day.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah, just time to move on.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:50
Speaker
Yeah, fish or cut bait.
00:42:51
Speaker
And you're like, I cut.
00:42:52
Speaker
I'm done.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yep, I cut bait and called it good.
00:42:55
Speaker
So anywho, sorry, that was my random tangent about episode 50.
00:43:00
Speaker
But back to Silver Ball Chronicles.
00:43:01
Speaker
So...
00:43:07
Speaker
Did it just kind of naturally flow with TPN or is there a specific reason?
00:43:10
Speaker
Is it because like Dennis was like, Hey, you should hit up Ron.
00:43:12
Speaker
Is that why you ended up on TPN or is there?
The Pinball Network and Industry Awards
00:43:15
Speaker
So kind of during that sort of purge at the beginning of 2020, um, I was like, Oh, I'm thinking about starting this, this sort of this podcast.
00:43:24
Speaker
And I ran it by Dennis cause he, he had done editing before he had used, you know, editing software.
00:43:32
Speaker
He, he knew what kind of microphone to get.
00:43:36
Speaker
And I was asking that stuff.
00:43:38
Speaker
And then he just sort of reached out and said, hey, would you like to join TPN?
00:43:43
Speaker
And at that point, I didn't have to learn how to set up a feed or an RSS feed.
00:43:49
Speaker
I didn't have to get a SoundCloud account.
00:43:51
Speaker
I didn't have to do any of that stuff.
00:43:53
Speaker
He's like, yeah, you just send us the podcast.
00:43:55
Speaker
We'll put it up.
00:43:56
Speaker
And then, of course, the natural question then is like, do I have to put a flipping out pinball account
00:44:02
Speaker
Yes.
00:44:02
Speaker
You know, stinger on.
00:44:05
Speaker
Right.
00:44:05
Speaker
Like, you know, can I make jokes about Stern pinball and, you know, the lack of things on the play field and things?
00:44:13
Speaker
And that's when Zach reached out.
00:44:14
Speaker
He goes, man, say whatever you want.
00:44:16
Speaker
You know, I don't care.
00:44:17
Speaker
And I'm like, no, but really?
00:44:19
Speaker
He's like, yeah, like, we're not going to kick you off or whatever.
00:44:23
Speaker
slap you down or anything like that.
00:44:25
Speaker
Do whatever the heck you want.
00:44:26
Speaker
And, you know, they said, do a couple episodes and we'll see how it goes.
00:44:30
Speaker
And we did a couple episodes and we're like, yeah, man, this is great.
00:44:33
Speaker
Keep it up.
00:44:33
Speaker
And they've been incredibly, incredibly supportive
00:44:37
Speaker
beyond my expectations.
00:44:39
Speaker
There's times where Dennis reaches out as my producer seducer, and he'll say things like, you know, this was good, but did you really have to talk this long about this one topic?
00:44:50
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, that's probably true.
00:44:53
Speaker
Probably didn't have to talk about it.
00:44:55
Speaker
I could have cut that like 30 minutes out, right?
00:44:59
Speaker
Or he's like, hey, why don't you try balancing your mic a little bit better?
00:45:03
Speaker
or Zach will reach out and be like, Hey, you know, when you're doing your show notes, can you include these?
00:45:07
Speaker
They've been beyond incredibly helpful.
00:45:09
Speaker
And all of the podcasters on TPN will, will say that they'll come out and they'll say, Hey, you know, they, everybody here is helping and supporting me and building on what I was doing, which I think is inevitably the goal of that network.
00:45:24
Speaker
Um,
00:45:25
Speaker
And I'm pleased to be a part of it.
00:45:27
Speaker
Now, you know, if I ever left or anything like that, would, you know, would I go to Indiana and leave a flaming bag on Zach's front step?
00:45:36
Speaker
Yes.
00:45:37
Speaker
Yes, you would.
00:45:39
Speaker
But, you know, I don't think so.
00:45:41
Speaker
Right.
00:45:41
Speaker
Like, we're all adults and we're, you know, it's fun.
00:45:44
Speaker
We're all having fun.
00:45:46
Speaker
Well, and I think also the beauty of TPN is it's got its own built in fan base.
00:45:51
Speaker
Like that is one of the hardest things about starting a podcast in pinball.
00:45:54
Speaker
The joke is, is there's what 78 podcasts out there.
00:45:57
Speaker
It's just whatever's your flavor.
00:45:58
Speaker
Right.
00:45:59
Speaker
The problem is, is if you don't network and you don't, uh,
00:46:04
Speaker
get yourself out on social media and pin side and stuff like that, it can be a lot of work.
00:46:11
Speaker
And so TPN takes that work and kind of negates it a little bit for you.
00:46:16
Speaker
And that is the beauty of it because, trust me, it is hard to build a fan base.
00:46:22
Speaker
Oh, hands down.
00:46:25
Speaker
You had mentioned at the beginning here that the Twippy voting had started this year.
00:46:29
Speaker
And Ron and I got an email from Jeff Patterson at This Week in Pinball.
00:46:34
Speaker
And, you know, he said, hey, by the way, guys, you just finished just outside of the dropdown for the Twippies this year.
00:46:41
Speaker
I just wanted to give you a heads up.
00:46:42
Speaker
And I thought, man, that is so gracious of Jeff that he would reach out and let us know.
00:46:46
Speaker
Because quite frankly...
00:46:49
Speaker
I didn't think we would even be remotely close to being on the list, let alone just outside the list.
00:46:56
Speaker
I think if I didn't have TPN doing a lot of that promotion and popping up into people's feeds the way we had been, I don't think we would have that exposure to even be remotely close to making it on the top 10 Twippy list in our first year when we haven't even had 12 months in.
00:47:14
Speaker
I think there's a lot of positives to be said there.
00:47:17
Speaker
I agree.
00:47:18
Speaker
Well, I want to make a case in point.
00:47:20
Speaker
Have either one of you heard of the play better podcast?
00:47:23
Speaker
No, I had never.
00:47:26
Speaker
No, go ahead.
00:47:27
Speaker
No, no, I was thinking about it.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, I've, I had never heard of them.
00:47:32
Speaker
until i can't remember if jack danger had posted that he got some swag from them or something like that and it's it's very richie based i mean it's competitive base is what it is but you know they're using the skull from no fear is their logo and stuff like that and it's i would have never had heard of them because i wasn't searching for that if it wasn't for jack danger and so
00:47:58
Speaker
My advice to anyone starting a podcast, first, have a good concept.
00:48:03
Speaker
Do your own thing.
00:48:05
Speaker
And then second, network as much as you can.
00:48:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:08
Speaker
One of the things that's pretty cool on TPN is they have an off-the-record podcast.
00:48:12
Speaker
And a lot of the podcasts that have on there, like Just Another Pinball Podcast with Joel Engelberth and I,
00:48:19
Speaker
and Craig Bobby's TPS, the pinball show midweek, that sort of started off as what they called the off the record one time deal, where anybody with a microphone and some editing software can do an, you know, a one off podcast if you want to, and see how it goes.
00:48:37
Speaker
And if you get a positive response, and people enjoy it, you know,
00:48:43
Speaker
people will send you an email and be like, Hey, you know, I think this is pretty good.
00:48:46
Speaker
Or why don't you talk about this or whatever?
00:48:47
Speaker
And you get that feedback and then maybe you try another off the record, the same thing.
00:48:53
Speaker
And maybe you get a little bit better feedback and then maybe the TPN, you know, folk, myself included,
00:49:00
Speaker
would, you know, say, Hey, this, this is a good, this is great, right?
00:49:03
Speaker
Why don't you, you know, why don't you join as a full-time podcast?
00:49:06
Speaker
Here's kind of a day of the week or, uh, you know, biweekly or fortnightly as it were.
00:49:13
Speaker
And then you could do your own podcast and come into the TPN, you know, network.
00:49:19
Speaker
So if you want to do your own podcast, you can just come on board and do it.
00:49:24
Speaker
And again, there's no commitment required.
00:49:26
Speaker
There's no, you know,
00:49:28
Speaker
necessity to bow to anybody just to do your one-off podcast.
00:49:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:33
Speaker
And I say, why not do it recorded on your phone?
00:49:37
Speaker
I mean, there is no risk or, or of losing anything by doing it with loser kid.
00:49:43
Speaker
Like we have to pay for our own hosting through SoundCloud and we have to, you know, there's, there's payments up front that you have to get done before you can even get one episode out.
00:49:52
Speaker
Why not take advantage of what TPN has to offer?
00:49:55
Speaker
If you, even if you've thought about doing a podcast and you have an idea, you know,
00:50:00
Speaker
You might be the next Silver Ball Chronicles.
00:50:03
Speaker
Oh, thank you.
00:50:04
Speaker
That means a lot.
00:50:06
Speaker
So I want to move on to our next subject because it's something that you're heavily involved with, and I think this is going to take up the rest of our time.
00:50:13
Speaker
Let's talk about the Pinball Industry Awards.
00:50:17
Speaker
And this sounds like it's kind of a brainchild of some of those there at TPN.
00:50:21
Speaker
I want you to kind of explain what
00:50:23
Speaker
where the concept came from, kind of who the brainchild of this initiative is and what you hope to gain from it.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah, the Pinball Industry Awards, really co-founded by Zach Many and Dennis Kreisel of the Pinball Network, it's really sort of from their gray matter that this has appeared.
00:50:44
Speaker
But I think the idea of a Critics' Choice Award or Critics' Choice-based award
00:50:52
Speaker
judging panel is something that many people have, have talked about.
00:50:56
Speaker
And I'm sure you've had discussions and things like, what if, you know, an expert chose it, or what if pinball podcasters chose the games and, you know, the best music and sound effects like that conversation is not unique.
00:51:10
Speaker
It's not like we, you know, Dennis or myself or any of the members of the, the, the pinball industry awards governing committee, you know, came up with anything kind of on our own in a,
00:51:23
Speaker
What we were able to do is we've got somebody like Zach, who's a bit of a hype man.
00:51:28
Speaker
And, you know, he's, he's able to push people to sort of say, Hey, let's do it.
00:51:31
Speaker
Right.
00:51:32
Speaker
Let's like, let's actually get off the couch and do something.
00:51:36
Speaker
And that's where we said, okay, well, what would it look like?
00:51:40
Speaker
I remember I had a discussion, I want to say March, maybe February of 2020, and I sent Zach a message and I'm like, what if TPN had its own awards, right?
00:51:50
Speaker
Like what if TPN had its own awards?
00:51:52
Speaker
He's like, well, that's not going to work because, you know, we can't just give out awards.
00:51:57
Speaker
That's silly.
00:51:59
Speaker
And then he said, Dennis and I are talking about something.
00:52:00
Speaker
We'll let you know.
00:52:01
Speaker
So it rolls forward till about November.
00:52:04
Speaker
And he's like, hey, here's what we want to do is we don't want to have just TPN voting.
00:52:08
Speaker
We want to open it up to all pinball media as judges.
00:52:13
Speaker
And what does that look like?
00:52:14
Speaker
And then that's when we build a committee.
00:52:17
Speaker
And on the committee, it's myself, Dennis Creasel, Zach Minney.
00:52:23
Speaker
There's Jesse Jay from Jesse Jay's Pinball Podcast from Australia.
00:52:27
Speaker
There's Josh Jacobs who does Silver Ball Stories.
00:52:31
Speaker
And George Fisher, who does Don't Panic Flip.
00:52:33
Speaker
So we kind of created a core group and we said, okay, well, if we created these awards and here's our high level goal, how do we manage that?
00:52:43
Speaker
And that's when we start, that's when sort of the, you know, the real work started.
00:52:49
Speaker
And it sounds like it's been quite in-depth.
00:52:51
Speaker
The one thing I do appreciate that you guys are doing about this too is it's not drawn out over months.
00:52:58
Speaker
Like you're starting today, which is January 1st, and it ends on the 26th, correct?
00:53:05
Speaker
Yeah, so we wanted to do it.
00:53:07
Speaker
There was some discussion as to when in the year to do it and should we do an awards ceremony.
00:53:14
Speaker
Inevitably, and I'll leave that to sort of Zach to sort of,
00:53:17
Speaker
maybe describe what his inevitable vision will be
00:53:20
Speaker
But, you know, we didn't want to really piggyback off of an event.
00:53:24
Speaker
We wanted to have our own sort of destination event.
00:53:27
Speaker
This year, of course, it's online, so that sort of solves itself.
00:53:31
Speaker
But we wanted it to be in January.
00:53:34
Speaker
We didn't want to conflict with the Twippies that happened in March.
00:53:38
Speaker
We didn't, you know, we didn't want to do anything the same as that.
00:53:41
Speaker
So we set out to be as totally different from any other awards ceremony as we could in pinball.
00:53:46
Speaker
And, you know,
00:53:51
Speaker
The idea was really that we didn't want to do a popular vote.
00:53:56
Speaker
We wanted to do a critics choice vote.
00:53:59
Speaker
So we had to come up with a way to choose judges.
00:54:02
Speaker
And those judges, you know, we had to vet them.
00:54:06
Speaker
And then, of course, then you get into, okay, well, how do we vet people?
00:54:08
Speaker
And how do we prevent people from gaming the system?
00:54:11
Speaker
And what are the rules and the criteria around who qualifies, right?
00:54:15
Speaker
Like all of a sudden you create this big frigging bureaucracy, right?
00:54:20
Speaker
And so we were able to sort of get that in the can and get that solved.
00:54:23
Speaker
And that's over at the pinballindustryawards.com.
00:54:26
Speaker
So the pinballindustryawards.com.
00:54:28
Speaker
And all of that documentation as to who qualifies as a judge in what we call pinball hobbyist media, which is people like yourselves, all that information is there and you could apply.
00:54:42
Speaker
So if you wanted to be, if you were a podcaster, for example, and you wanted to be a judge to vote for best art, best code, best machine, game of the year, that kind of stuff, you can apply to do that.
00:54:57
Speaker
So then you apply, there's a form.
00:54:58
Speaker
And then, of course, the committee members have to look at it and say, well, this person counts, or this one doesn't, or this person is this.
00:55:05
Speaker
So that was the major goal.
00:55:09
Speaker
And then we wanted to get it sort of done and in the can by January.
00:55:12
Speaker
So we wanted it to be short voting times, short application times, get it done.
00:55:18
Speaker
We didn't want to drag it out and then have an event, you know, in October of next year.
00:55:23
Speaker
Yeah, I get you.
00:55:25
Speaker
So, David, with you brought this up, this isn't really intended to be a competition with TWIP.
00:55:32
Speaker
And I just want to make sure that people know that that certainly is out there.
00:55:36
Speaker
We support this week in pinball and support what Jeff is doing.
00:55:41
Speaker
So this is just a, I guess, a different take on looking at it, just like a different podcast or something like that.
00:55:48
Speaker
We're just trying to look at it and say, OK, what would a podcast
00:55:53
Speaker
I guess an interested group, um, almost like, uh, okay, this is the view.
00:55:57
Speaker
This is the pinball version of the view, right?
00:56:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:01
Speaker
And, and then exactly that's it.
00:56:03
Speaker
So if you're pinball hobbyist media, so if you're a podcaster, if you're a streamer, if you're a pinball writer, uh, if you're, you know, involved in some way that's sort of beyond being just anybody with an email address, uh,
00:56:19
Speaker
you know, video content creator, you have a different critical eye.
00:56:24
Speaker
And we wanted to make sure that this sort of hobbyist media was able to make the choice.
00:56:28
Speaker
Now, in the end, we'll see at the end of January on January 28th at 8 p.m.
00:56:33
Speaker
Central,
00:56:37
Speaker
You will be able to figure out, okay, did this experiment actually work with the pinball industry awards?
00:56:45
Speaker
And, you know, that will be, will these critics awards be different than the Twippies in March, right, that are chosen by popular vote with anybody with an email address?
00:56:55
Speaker
And we're excited to offer a different piece.
00:56:59
Speaker
But again, we're not competing.
00:57:02
Speaker
I have a silver ball swag store for silver ball Chronicles, which is co-owned by Jeff Patterson, right?
00:57:09
Speaker
I'm,
00:57:10
Speaker
big supporter of twip i give to the monthly on their patreon so you know i am in this for the hobby to add a little bit something extra because you know do we need another award show i don't know probably but do we need another youtube channel or another podcaster like it's free fun content right and yeah i'm stuck at home in a pandemic right i can write some verbiage for a website like come on
00:57:34
Speaker
Right.
00:57:35
Speaker
I guess that's I've always said this, that this is another way of bringing more chairs to the table, just a different perspective.
00:57:42
Speaker
And everything kind of adds synergistically to all the things that we have going on.
00:57:48
Speaker
So I like that it's it's basically a different take as opposed to.
00:57:53
Speaker
Well, Pinside, there's a lot of great content and great things on there, and we all use that.
00:57:59
Speaker
But we tend to realize that in many threads, there are some vocal people who try to drive the conversation, and it drives things away from a consensus view.
00:58:12
Speaker
And so this may be a way for people who are
00:58:15
Speaker
active involved in the pinball industry to have some sort of discussion and consensus to say, well, this is what we feel is the best in this category.
00:58:24
Speaker
And I think it's, uh, it certainly gives a different perspective and I like that.
00:58:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:28
Speaker
It's, it's just a fun, it's sort of a fun way to do it.
00:58:31
Speaker
We also, um, have some interesting takes on things like art and things that make us a little bit different when it comes to, to cabinet play field, um,
00:58:40
Speaker
that kind of stuff.
00:58:41
Speaker
So there's a, there's a bunch of things.
00:58:42
Speaker
And I think people in the end will be very excited with the way things turn out.
00:58:47
Speaker
It's going to be a lot of fun.
00:58:49
Speaker
And in addition, so what we've done, you know,
00:58:55
Speaker
One thing that is with, you know, Pinside and awards and things like that is they are highly, highly competitive.
00:59:01
Speaker
And that creates a lot of rifts within the pinball hobby.
00:59:06
Speaker
And we wanted to be able to recognize, um, outside of, you know, machine of the year and art and the industry folk, we wanted to recognize some levels of excellence amongst streaming and podcasting and photography and videography, um,
00:59:23
Speaker
that was not based on a popular vote because there's already the twippies and they do a much better job of managing that.
00:59:30
Speaker
They do a much better job of doing, you know, a competitive popular vote.
00:59:37
Speaker
We wanted to do something very different, but we wanted to avoid a lot of conflict and hurt feelings and anger.
00:59:48
Speaker
And some people, for some reason, just really want that, so they go to Pinside and they'll post on things.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:55
Speaker
It really makes you wonder what their spouses deal with on a day like this.
01:00:01
Speaker
Wow.
01:00:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:01
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:00:02
Speaker
Like you are the happiest person I've ever seen on the Internet.
01:00:07
Speaker
What is your real life like?
01:00:09
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:00:10
Speaker
Maybe their spouses drive that kind of attitude.
01:00:13
Speaker
You never know.
01:00:13
Speaker
Birds of a feather.
01:00:15
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:17
Speaker
One thing I want to point out, though, because you are talking about the one thing I've noticed with the Twippies in the past.
01:00:23
Speaker
Honestly, this is just my perception.
01:00:25
Speaker
There hasn't been much drama when it comes to the categories that have to do with pinball machines like artwork.
01:00:32
Speaker
And yeah, some people like, yeah, this probably deserved it more than the other where the drama comes from.
01:00:38
Speaker
is, is this category of streaming, podcasting, you know, photography, um, well, you know, YouTube, yada, yada, yada.
01:00:47
Speaker
And so why did you guys decide to go with that can of worms when you could just focus solely on pinball machines?
01:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, there was, there was a lot, there is a lot of discussion among this, the central governing committee, um,
01:01:02
Speaker
And we wanted to be able to say, you know, there's some serious people out there that are doing amazing things in streaming.
01:01:10
Speaker
You know, Jack Danger, George Fisher at Don't Panic Flip, Manu at Mystery Science Pinball 3000, Carl D'Angelo at IE Pinball.
01:01:24
Speaker
There's a lot of content providers out there.
01:01:27
Speaker
And we wanted to be able to recognize them in a way.
01:01:32
Speaker
And it was really our goal to do that in a, as drama free way as possible.
01:01:39
Speaker
And I think that in some ways that is in its, in itself sort of created a bit of an issue.
01:01:46
Speaker
And Dennis Creasel had mentioned this, um, on the special podcast about the pinball industry awards and
01:01:53
Speaker
And this is highly experimental.
01:01:56
Speaker
So in addition to the Pinball Industry Awards voted on by the pinball hobbyist media that all applied for their judges, we created a secondary category called the Excellence Awards.
01:02:11
Speaker
And that's excellence in streaming, podcasting, photography, and videography.
01:02:17
Speaker
And what we wanted to do was
01:02:20
Speaker
was rather than bring in those judges, um, from the, the judging pool that we have through application, we wanted to have that as a smaller, more closed group.
01:02:33
Speaker
And we would have a, uh, online video chat discussion, um, argument, um, you know, defense and nomination process.
01:02:43
Speaker
And what we would do is we would take that information and, um,
01:02:47
Speaker
you know, put it on the website as to who was nominated and who went through.
01:02:51
Speaker
The main goal was that we didn't want to have a winner, right?
01:02:55
Speaker
We didn't want to say, hey, here's 10 people.
01:02:59
Speaker
Hey, group, pick a winner.
01:03:00
Speaker
And everybody else is a loser.
01:03:03
Speaker
You know, we didn't want to do that.
01:03:05
Speaker
We wanted to have a recipient and we wanted it to have, whoa, sorry there, Google.
01:03:12
Speaker
Oh, wow.
01:03:14
Speaker
Where was she three months ago to help out?
01:03:18
Speaker
We wanted to have that recipient, and we wanted to have a closed judging pool.
01:03:23
Speaker
The problem is if we start bringing in a bunch of people as judges, they all have agendas and people they don't like.
01:03:31
Speaker
There's no secret that Zach Manning has problems with some people in the industry.
01:03:36
Speaker
You don't say.
01:03:36
Speaker
No.
01:03:38
Speaker
Really?
01:03:38
Speaker
But Zach is only one-twelfth of the people that were in our meetings.
01:03:44
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:03:45
Speaker
There were 12 people in our Excellence Awards meeting.
01:03:49
Speaker
Many of the names you will recognize, and all of those names will be published after the event.
01:03:54
Speaker
All of the information will be published after the event.
01:03:56
Speaker
But just because Zach Manning has an issue with somebody doesn't mean that that person is not nominated.
01:04:02
Speaker
And it doesn't mean that the positives and the negatives of that person are nominated.
01:04:07
Speaker
So I think he takes a lot of heat when he doesn't actually need to take a lot of heat and a lot of people crap on that.
01:04:14
Speaker
But what we did is we created the Pinball Industry Awards Excellence Awards Subcommittee.
01:04:22
Speaker
God, we're so good at creating bureaucracies here.
01:04:25
Speaker
Seriously.
01:04:25
Speaker
And what we did is instead of a popular vote runoff, what we did is we had all of anybody at TPN who wanted to come aboard of this, you know, this judging category, this panel.
01:04:42
Speaker
they could nominate somebody and then defend their nomination to the group.
01:04:47
Speaker
They would say, hey, I want to have X person should receive a Pinball Excellence Awards in streaming.
01:04:55
Speaker
And then they would defend that person.
01:04:58
Speaker
And, you know, there were pros and cons and this person and that person.
01:05:02
Speaker
And then the next person would have a couple of minutes to nominate somebody.
01:05:06
Speaker
And we went through a whole list of nominations.
01:05:08
Speaker
And then at the end is the hard job where we say, do we have a consensus as to who we think rose above all of the other excellence category nominees?
01:05:21
Speaker
And, um,
01:05:22
Speaker
In some cases, it was very clear.
01:05:25
Speaker
We were like, yes, all the other people obviously have displayed some pinball excellence, but this one individual should be included.
01:05:33
Speaker
And of course, there may also be categories where there are multiple recipients of an excellence category award.
01:05:41
Speaker
Because quite frankly, we couldn't just say this person was better than this person.
01:05:47
Speaker
There were no winners, right?
01:05:49
Speaker
We wanted recipients.
01:05:51
Speaker
I think what that has done, though, is it's opened up some critiques to say, you know, we're trying to give TPN awards, right?
01:06:01
Speaker
We can't beat Kaneda on our own merits for a Twippy.
01:06:05
Speaker
So what we're going to do is we're going to create our own award show so we can give ourselves our own award.
01:06:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, come on.
01:06:14
Speaker
That's going to be a lot of fun going online the day after this and me giving Silver Ball Chronicles an award.
01:06:21
Speaker
you pull up the podcast category.
01:06:23
Speaker
It's, you know, Jesse J and silver ball and the pinball show and final round.
01:06:27
Speaker
Right.
01:06:27
Speaker
Like, come on.
01:06:29
Speaker
The other issue is,
01:06:31
Speaker
that TPN by happenstance happens to have a lot of really good content providers.
01:06:38
Speaker
So then, then the conversation in our meeting sort of, you know, do we exclude those people?
01:06:43
Speaker
Do we, you know, we can't give ourselves awards or should we, or how would we like, come on guys, we do as much work as everybody else.
01:06:49
Speaker
Maybe we should recognize ourselves.
01:06:51
Speaker
So because it is highly experimental, there will be changes in,
01:06:57
Speaker
you know, going forward as to how that sort of has run, but our heart was in the right place.
01:07:02
Speaker
I think inevitably the, the outcome, you know, people will be, will be happy and people will have fun.
01:07:10
Speaker
But, you know, the idea was that we wanted to give excellence awards to people, not have a bunch of popular votes and,
01:07:20
Speaker
You know, we didn't want, you know, Scott to pick up, you know, his phone and call one of the judges on this committee and be like, hey, you know, you should you should give me an award because, you know, I'll give you some free anesthesiologist advice.
01:07:36
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be great.
01:07:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
01:07:38
Speaker
Right.
01:07:38
Speaker
So our hearts were in the right place.
01:07:40
Speaker
Right.
01:07:40
Speaker
So inevitably, I think it's going to be people are going to be very surprised.
01:07:45
Speaker
It's going to be really professional.
01:07:46
Speaker
We're going to have a lot of fun.
01:07:48
Speaker
Really.
01:07:49
Speaker
I agree.
01:07:50
Speaker
Okay.
01:07:50
Speaker
I think it's something new.
01:07:51
Speaker
I think it's something fresh.
01:07:53
Speaker
I can see the direction that's different from with TWIP than
Community Hopes Post-COVID
01:07:57
Speaker
this.
01:07:57
Speaker
And so I really think it's a good, it's a good thing to be doing in the hobby itself.
01:08:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:04
Speaker
The third piece to this is that we wanted to have some public engagement.
01:08:09
Speaker
So we didn't want to, you know, be elitist, right?
01:08:13
Speaker
Where only a person with a pinball podcast that's done seven podcasts in the last 12 months can vote.
01:08:20
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:08:21
Speaker
We wanted to open that up a little bit more.
01:08:24
Speaker
And the excellence categories that is run by the closed TPN committee, you know, that sort of made that even smaller.
01:08:33
Speaker
So we wanted to create another thing.
01:08:34
Speaker
And this is all on Zach Minney.
01:08:36
Speaker
He wanted to have a pinball machine hall of fame.
01:08:40
Speaker
And instead of voting for the people that made the machines or the designer who gets all the glory and or the head programmer that gets all the glory, but there's 40 people at Stern working on a single machine now.
01:08:53
Speaker
How do we give the machine itself an award and everybody who was involved in that gets to celebrate it?
01:09:01
Speaker
So we chose, if you go to thepinballawards.com and you scroll down, you can choose on the Hall of Fame or click on the top of the page, I guess.
01:09:11
Speaker
And we're choosing machines from different eras.
01:09:15
Speaker
So electromechanical is a write-in because there are so many of those.
01:09:19
Speaker
I didn't want to create lists.
01:09:23
Speaker
So, so Jesse J Martin, Martin Robbins did an amazing job collating these lists together.
01:09:31
Speaker
There's 70s, Solace State, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 2010.
01:09:35
Speaker
So you go in, you click vote now, and you can choose your favorite machine from
01:09:40
Speaker
from those categories and they, the machines will get a nod at the pinball industry awards ceremony on January the 28th at 8 PM central.
01:09:52
Speaker
Awesome.
01:09:53
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it.
01:09:53
Speaker
I'm excited.
01:09:54
Speaker
Jump into the 2010s.
01:09:56
Speaker
Please choose Tron.
01:09:59
Speaker
I want to make sure that I keep my game's value up.
01:10:02
Speaker
So that is the only lobbying and underhandedness that we're trying to do here at the Pinball Industry Awards is to make sure that Dave can keep his Tron's sale value up.
01:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, sounds good.
01:10:13
Speaker
I agree.
01:10:16
Speaker
You're going with the slam tilts approach.
01:10:17
Speaker
I respect that.
01:10:18
Speaker
Yeah, you're trying to drive it up.
01:10:21
Speaker
Let's talk about Stern Classics, Solid State Stern Classics.
01:10:26
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
01:10:27
Speaker
I did vote for a Stern Solid State Classic, though.
01:10:31
Speaker
The official pinball machine of the Slam Tilt podcast is the one that I choose.
01:10:36
Speaker
I chose.
01:10:36
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:38
Speaker
You chose Gammatron?
01:10:40
Speaker
No, that's not the official one.
01:10:43
Speaker
I also voted for Simpsons Pinball Party in the 2000s category because I own that machine.
01:10:49
Speaker
I want to keep its value up.
01:10:50
Speaker
Okay.
01:10:51
Speaker
All right.
01:10:51
Speaker
So you're basically just voting for everything you own.
01:10:54
Speaker
So basically what you're saying is everything you're saying is completely unreliable and biased and you should start a flame war on Pinside.
01:11:01
Speaker
And that's exactly why we didn't want to have that type of award for game of the year as well as we tried to make the excellence awards close.
01:11:11
Speaker
Oh, there you go.
01:11:12
Speaker
Well, David, this we're, we're getting close to wrapping up.
01:11:15
Speaker
We really appreciate you coming on, doing some clarity with this pinball award stuff.
01:11:19
Speaker
Cause I know, you know, everyone's curious and there are stuff that usually flies within the first day or two about, you know, like you said, the people saying that certain people can't win awards.
01:11:30
Speaker
And so you got to make your own.
01:11:31
Speaker
But, uh, I truly firmly believe if you feel like there's something wrong in the industry, you should try to fix it or see if there's a way that you can help that issue.
01:11:41
Speaker
Like Stern Pinball, Stern Playfields.
01:11:44
Speaker
If you're worried about their quality, I would recommend maybe starting up a playfield company and making them better and trying to sell your product to Stern because let's all agree that Merico has had their chance.
01:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, if you have issues with the way Jersey Jack makes their GNR playfields and they're chipping and pooling and you're angry about that, go ahead and cancel your CE order.
01:12:09
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
01:12:10
Speaker
Like it, I'm just going to reference to vote with your money.
01:12:14
Speaker
Is that what you're saying?
01:12:15
Speaker
With your money, right?
01:12:16
Speaker
Like, yeah.
01:12:19
Speaker
So everyone else can jump on that CE.
01:12:22
Speaker
No, because everybody will, will get rid of those.
01:12:25
Speaker
Cause there's all these issues.
01:12:26
Speaker
If there's a problem, there's a problem.
01:12:27
Speaker
If not, we're all ignoring it.
01:12:28
Speaker
It's the worst.
01:12:30
Speaker
Exactly.
01:12:33
Speaker
You got anything else for Scott?
01:12:35
Speaker
You know, I'm just looking forward to a new year.
01:12:38
Speaker
I'm looking forward to being able to get people vaccinated.
01:12:43
Speaker
I'm looking forward to people's businesses going back to normal.
01:12:46
Speaker
I'm looking forward to being able to interact with friends that I feel like for the last year I have really been isolated from.
01:12:56
Speaker
I'm looking forward to people getting their businesses back online.
01:12:59
Speaker
I'm looking forward to people
01:13:01
Speaker
finding hope and not being afraid anymore.
01:13:03
Speaker
And so that's really what I'm looking forward to in the new year.
01:13:07
Speaker
And I hope that everybody who's been drastically affected by COVID, either emotionally, either financially, or I know people have lost loved ones, that we can all try to look forward to a better year and be able to bring more hope this year.
01:13:26
Speaker
And so that's what I'm looking forward to.
01:13:28
Speaker
Yeah, I was actually planning on going to the Pintastic show, which I hear in New England is fantastic.
01:13:37
Speaker
You know, well-run, professional, really great.
01:13:41
Speaker
And I was going to meet Ron for the first time and likely Bruce.
01:13:45
Speaker
We were going to have probably a pint or something like that and hang out.
01:13:49
Speaker
And then that all went out the window.
01:13:51
Speaker
So I'm looking forward in 2021 to seeing the people that
01:13:57
Speaker
getting out there.
01:13:58
Speaker
Hopefully we'll all be vaccinated in Canada by September.
01:14:03
Speaker
And I'll be out there licking flipper buttons at a show soon.
01:14:07
Speaker
Yikes.
01:14:09
Speaker
Got to test this vaccination out.
01:14:11
Speaker
Yes.
01:14:13
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
01:14:14
Speaker
Well, if you want to check out, if they want to reach out to you in the Silver Bar Chronicles, Dave, how do they do that?
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, so you can reach us on Facebook at facebook.com slash Silver Ball Chronicles.
01:14:26
Speaker
You can also email us, Ron and myself, check the email quite regularly, silverballchronicles at gmail.com.
01:14:35
Speaker
And we'd love to hear from you.
01:14:36
Speaker
We really like engaging with people, which...
01:14:39
Speaker
is a byproduct of doing the podcast that I'm, I get to chat and have these silly and awesome conversations with like Australians.
01:14:49
Speaker
Like, come on.
01:14:51
Speaker
Yes.
01:14:51
Speaker
When did I ever think I would be chatting with like a guy named Rarden who has a, you know, an El Camino.
01:14:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:59
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:15:00
Speaker
Like that's pretty awesome.
01:15:01
Speaker
Or two random dudes from Utah.
01:15:03
Speaker
So yeah.
01:15:04
Speaker
Or two, two random dudes from Utah and their five wives yelling in the background.
01:15:08
Speaker
Exactly.
01:15:09
Speaker
All of them.
01:15:11
Speaker
That was a Mormon joke.
01:15:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:15:14
Speaker
No, we got it.
01:15:17
Speaker
I got to say, I really appreciate you sending that clip.
01:15:20
Speaker
It was fantastic.
01:15:21
Speaker
I think it's the one that got me laughing the most out of them all.
01:15:23
Speaker
I was a bit stiff in my delivery, actually.
01:15:26
Speaker
After listening to some of the awesome ones that people did, I was like, I really tried to play it like straight face deadpan, and I probably should have.
01:15:34
Speaker
been more a little more natural but i really did enjoy your 50th episode uh mark silk cracking me up
01:15:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah, no, Mark's great.
01:15:42
Speaker
And the funny thing is, I talk to Mark pretty regularly in the background on things, and the guy just sounds like a fun guy.
01:15:51
Speaker
I just wish that I lived closer to him because I would totally be hanging out at Mark's house, hanging out with his dog and playing his his his home pin version of Star Wars all the time, because it just sounds like such a great event just going over to his house.
01:16:06
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:16:07
Speaker
And thank you so much for having me on guys.
01:16:09
Speaker
It really means a lot to, uh, to sit down with, uh, with you guys, because I know Keith Elwin probably couldn't make it this, this week.
01:16:17
Speaker
So it's nice that I was your backup.
01:16:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:21
Speaker
Well, I got it.
01:16:22
Speaker
Oh, go ahead, Josh.
01:16:23
Speaker
Well, I got one question before we go and then I'll do our little send off thing, but, um,
01:16:29
Speaker
One of my favorite bands in high school was... Okay, do not bring up Aquabats again.
01:16:34
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
01:16:35
Speaker
No, no, sir.
01:16:35
Speaker
They're from California, but Sum 41 is from Canada.
01:16:39
Speaker
I didn't know if you were into them or if you guys even know who they are up there.
01:16:44
Speaker
I have a really funny Sum 41 story.
01:16:49
Speaker
So in university, the way that I survived buying my beer money was that I was in cell phone sales.
01:17:00
Speaker
I was in cell phone sales.
01:17:02
Speaker
And I'm from a sort of rural Canadian community.
01:17:07
Speaker
I live in a city.
01:17:08
Speaker
It's a very metropolitan city, but it's a very urban city.
01:17:12
Speaker
It's very trendy, but at the same time, it's very small, especially by American standards.
Unexpected Encounter with Sum 41
01:17:18
Speaker
And all of a sudden these guys come in, three individuals, and they all have sleeves in their tattoos and sort of dark hair and clearly not from my hometown.
01:17:33
Speaker
Okay.
01:17:35
Speaker
And I was like, wow, these people are different.
01:17:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:39
Speaker
And they had to buy a cell phone charger or something.
01:17:41
Speaker
They're in our small, you know, rural Canadian mall.
01:17:45
Speaker
And they bought a cell phone charger and they were on their way.
01:17:48
Speaker
Two minutes later, somebody comes from one of the other stores and says, oh my God, did you know who that was?
01:17:52
Speaker
And I'm like, no, not at all.
01:17:54
Speaker
And they're like, that's Sum 41.
01:17:55
Speaker
And I'm like, huh, how about that?
01:18:00
Speaker
And that is my Sum 41 story.
01:18:02
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:18:03
Speaker
You can recognize them because they're freaking short.
01:18:05
Speaker
Yes.
01:18:05
Speaker
Like I met them and I'm like, is this just typical for Canadians or did they just build them small in their town?
01:18:11
Speaker
Like, why are they so small?
01:18:13
Speaker
Canadians are small.
01:18:14
Speaker
They're like five, two is the average height of a Canadian.
01:18:17
Speaker
Yes.
01:18:17
Speaker
We don't have the, we don't have the hormone milk like you folk down there.
01:18:22
Speaker
I guess.
01:18:22
Speaker
So yeah.
Closing Remarks and Humor
01:18:25
Speaker
But thank you for coming on, David.
01:18:28
Speaker
And if you want to get a hold of us, we are Lose a Kid Pinball Podcast.
01:18:32
Speaker
You can find us at Loserkidpinballpodcast at gmail.com.
01:18:36
Speaker
Send us your email there.
01:18:37
Speaker
Contact us on Facebook at Loserkidpinball, Instagram, Twitter.
01:18:42
Speaker
We have not started an OnlyFans.
01:18:44
Speaker
I know a lot of people have been clamoring for Scott to open up the OnlyFans.
01:18:49
Speaker
But he's denying the ladies out there.
01:18:52
Speaker
I apologize.
01:18:53
Speaker
Oh my.
01:18:57
Speaker
Hey, I only celebrate with one lady.
01:18:59
Speaker
You know, my five wives.
01:19:00
Speaker
It just depends what day.
01:19:04
Speaker
They're all the same wives, though.
01:19:07
Speaker
Thanks again for coming on.
01:19:42
Speaker
Shut up and sit down.