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Ep 63: Road Tripping with Colin MacAlpine
40 Plays4 years ago
Colin MacAlpine joins us on Ep 63 to talk about competitive pinball, Spooky's success, and Pinball Hall of Fames predicament
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:08
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:11
Speaker
This is episode 63.
00:00:13
Speaker
With me, my co-captain as always.
00:00:15
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:16
Speaker
And Scott, let's kick off the sponsors really quick before we get to our guest for the day.
00:00:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:22
Speaker
So the main sponsor of the show is Flippin' Out Pinball.
00:00:24
Speaker
If you want to pick up that new or used pinball machine, or if you want to be a trader and buy a Rothrills machine, you can certainly contact Zach and Nicole Minnie.
00:00:34
Speaker
They will find anything that you need to decorate your game room.
00:00:39
Speaker
And they're always easy to work with, certainly.
00:00:41
Speaker
And I've had good luck with them.
00:00:45
Speaker
I bought like five machines with them.
00:00:46
Speaker
Josh, how many do you got?
00:00:48
Speaker
I've bought three from them.
00:00:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:52
Speaker
So they've always been really good.
00:00:54
Speaker
I'm also a mod fan and a topper fan.
00:00:58
Speaker
I'm an unabashed topper fan.
00:01:00
Speaker
So I buy toppers for all my games.
00:01:02
Speaker
And so, yes, I am that guy.
00:01:03
Speaker
So.
00:01:05
Speaker
Of course.
00:01:05
Speaker
Also want to give a shout out to Bradlet frames.
00:01:09
Speaker
Again, if you have that trans light that is collecting dust and you want to display it in your game room, go ahead and hook up Brad.
00:01:16
Speaker
Josh and I talk to Brad regularly and he's just a great guy.
00:01:18
Speaker
It's a relatively inexpensive way of displaying that.
00:01:23
Speaker
I have a Monster Bash remake from Brian Allen in my frame and it's a lot of fun to change all the colors in the background.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:32
Speaker
All right, so we have a special, very special, this is like a very special Different Strokes episode.
00:01:40
Speaker
We have one of the Pinberg champions on the line with us.
Guest Introduction: Colin McAlpine
00:01:49
Speaker
In case you haven't heard of him, he's Colin McAlpine.
00:01:52
Speaker
He is an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules in the game, and he can play it one-handed while instructing you on the game, which is pretty impressive.
00:02:01
Speaker
Wasn't he also texting too while he was taking your high score?
00:02:04
Speaker
Uh, well he was, but yeah, we'll get to that.
00:02:08
Speaker
We'll get to that.
00:02:09
Speaker
So, uh, all right.
00:02:10
Speaker
And I believe it was Pinberg 2017.
00:02:13
Speaker
Is that correct?
00:02:14
Speaker
Colin?
00:02:15
Speaker
Did I get that right?
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's correct.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
Quite a few less, uh,
00:02:19
Speaker
Pinberg Championships than one of your first guests ever in Keith Elwin.
00:02:24
Speaker
So I at least have my one.
00:02:26
Speaker
Okay, Colin, how many pinball machines have you designed?
00:02:28
Speaker
I mean, come on.
00:02:29
Speaker
This is a race between you and Keith Elwin.
00:02:32
Speaker
So we need to find out.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:36
Speaker
No, thankfully that's a zero.
00:02:38
Speaker
I am not a pinball designer.
00:02:40
Speaker
Although I do, it would be interesting at some point to do like consulting or something like that on rules.
00:02:47
Speaker
I think I have a pretty...
00:02:50
Speaker
Like you mentioned, I kind of geek out on that type of stuff and have an appreciation for balancing that type of thing and coming up with really one of the key things that I think with pinball rules in modern pinball machines is interaction factors.
00:03:04
Speaker
And so coming up with those cool ways for the rules to interact with each other, I think is what really makes a good modern pinball rule set.
00:03:13
Speaker
And Keith does a phenomenal job of that.
00:03:17
Speaker
So I do have a question.
Colin's Pinball Journey
00:03:19
Speaker
There are different ways that people get into pinball, and we're happy to talk origin stories or whatever.
00:03:25
Speaker
But a lot of people, I'm more of a collector slash hobbyist.
00:03:29
Speaker
I don't really do tournament pinball, mainly a time limit for me.
00:03:35
Speaker
So at what point did you decide I'm going to be a tournament player?
00:03:41
Speaker
Because that is a different approach to a game than, hey, I want to buy a game and put it in my downstairs.
00:03:46
Speaker
Hold on, two seconds.
00:03:47
Speaker
Two seconds.
00:03:48
Speaker
It's not time.
00:03:49
Speaker
He's a pinball snob.
00:03:50
Speaker
He's like, my games are much better than everyone else's games.
00:03:54
Speaker
I can't be burdened with going to other locations like the Nickel Mania.
00:03:59
Speaker
Now, there's a Nickel Mania that they have flippers that aren't even trued.
00:04:04
Speaker
There's one that's giving you the bird the whole time because it's already pre-flipped up.
00:04:09
Speaker
And half of the switches are broken.
00:04:11
Speaker
Hey, pre-flip pinball.
00:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
00:04:13
Speaker
I don't even have to trap.
00:04:14
Speaker
It just lands there.
00:04:15
Speaker
I'm not kidding.
00:04:16
Speaker
We went to a Chuck E. Cheese and my wife's like, hey, there's a pinball machine over there.
00:04:19
Speaker
And this was when I was pretty early into it.
00:04:21
Speaker
I had like four games at the time and I went over it and it was a stern Pirates of the Caribbean.
00:04:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:27
Speaker
One of the flippers wasn't even attached.
00:04:29
Speaker
The other one had no rubber on it.
00:04:31
Speaker
And it was so blown out that you couldn't even see any of the inserts.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I still put coins in it, but man, it was, that was painful.
00:04:40
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:04:41
Speaker
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, okay.
00:04:43
Speaker
So I'm a pinball snob.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yes, yes.
00:04:46
Speaker
Who likes toppers?
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, so competitive pinball.
00:04:51
Speaker
You're crossing a Rubicon into I'm going to do this.
00:04:56
Speaker
So yeah, it didn't start until 10 years ago.
00:05:00
Speaker
So 2011, I don't remember the exact date.
00:05:03
Speaker
I could probably look it up if I went into an IFPA, but it was at a Tron launch tournament.
00:05:08
Speaker
So
00:05:09
Speaker
The Tron launch parties, this is, you know, before all the launch parties became a bigger deal.
00:05:16
Speaker
And I should have bought one of those Trons back then.
00:05:21
Speaker
I would have been, you know, either made a lot of money or been very happy with my purchase because Tron's a great game.
00:05:26
Speaker
But that was the beginning of competitive pinball.
00:05:29
Speaker
I did not know competitive pinball existed until that time because growing up, you know,
00:05:36
Speaker
in the era that I grew up in and, you know, in Minnesota and, you know, and there were even, well, I guess I'd moved away by then, by the time the IFPA world was held in Minnesota at one point, but by that time I had moved away and was going to college and stuff like that.
00:05:50
Speaker
But yeah, I just, I competed with the high scoreboard, you know, growing up with pinball was first, well, first competing for the replay score.
00:05:58
Speaker
That was the main competition because I was on a limited set of quarters as a kid and wanted to keep playing and
00:06:06
Speaker
and then competing with the high scoreboard, trying to get your initials up, and then didn't learn about competitive pinball.
00:06:13
Speaker
Well, I take that back.
00:06:14
Speaker
I did stop by Chicago Expo before I really even knew what Expo was, and I don't think they even charged for admission, or if they did, it wasn't much.
00:06:25
Speaker
This is when they were releasing Stern Pirates of the Caribbean.
00:06:28
Speaker
They mentioned that in Chuck E. Cheese or Chuck E. Sneeze earlier.
00:06:32
Speaker
But in terms of actually legitimately wanting to play competitively,
00:06:36
Speaker
It was that Tron launch party tournament, which by happenstance, I happened to win it.
00:06:41
Speaker
So it makes for a better taste in your mouth when the first tournament you were playing, you win.
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, I would say.
00:06:49
Speaker
It even says, I looked it up just for you, June 10th, 2011, Stern Launch Party.
00:06:54
Speaker
Number one.
00:06:55
Speaker
There we go.
00:06:55
Speaker
So we're just a month, nearly a month past my 10-year anniversary of playing competitive pinball.
00:07:01
Speaker
And then, yeah, after that time, yeah, it was hook, line, and sinker.
00:07:05
Speaker
Totally into it.
00:07:08
Speaker
I like competing.
00:07:11
Speaker
I've never been great at sports, but I played soccer and tennis growing up.
00:07:16
Speaker
I wasn't particularly good at them.
00:07:18
Speaker
But I still like competing, and it pained me not to be able to really win that frequently.
00:07:23
Speaker
And I always liked playing card games, board games, and enjoyed competing with pinball.
00:07:30
Speaker
And then when I found out the stuff that was the resources available online in terms of how to get better and by playing in leagues,
00:07:39
Speaker
being around other people that move the machine and nudge the machine.
00:07:44
Speaker
Because I didn't do that growing up.
00:07:46
Speaker
I thought that was cheating.
00:07:48
Speaker
So I very happily then learned and start, you know, and you really learn that the best by playing physically in person with other people.
00:07:58
Speaker
In my opinion, you can not learn effectively how to nudge the machine if you're just watching video.
00:08:04
Speaker
Not going to happen.
00:08:05
Speaker
You can learn flipper techniques from watching video, and you can learn rules from watching video.
00:08:10
Speaker
You can't learn nudging techniques until you play in person, watching somebody physically move the machine, and then trying it yourself.
00:08:19
Speaker
Okay, I've got to ask, because I'm looking at your rap sheet right now.
00:08:21
Speaker
You escalated quickly.
00:08:23
Speaker
So you did a Stern launch party.
00:08:25
Speaker
Then you did Texas Pinball Festival, and then you ended up at Papa World Pinball Championship.
00:08:31
Speaker
What the heck?
00:08:33
Speaker
And this is just within the first three tournaments.
00:08:35
Speaker
I mean, that seems to go pretty quick.
00:08:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
Well, I found out, you know, the online stuff is like, oh, wow, there's this thing called the Papa World Championship.
00:08:46
Speaker
And we were, you know, having a, we were taking a road trip into the Midwest.
00:08:51
Speaker
My wife's family's, you know, grew up in Ohio.
00:08:54
Speaker
And so we had the opportunity then to like, Hey, let's go drive through Pittsburgh when this is taking place.
00:09:01
Speaker
And I did not play in the A division, by the way, the first time.
00:09:03
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:09:04
Speaker
It was the first time.
00:09:05
Speaker
Well, I I'm glad the first time you didn't.
00:09:07
Speaker
No, no.
00:09:07
Speaker
You've got to look at this one.
00:09:09
Speaker
Sorry.
00:09:09
Speaker
It's like the, I'm going to assume this is your second time.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:11
Speaker
Your second time you took 139th in classics.
00:09:16
Speaker
That's like the lowest you've ever done too.
00:09:18
Speaker
I was scanning through too.
00:09:19
Speaker
And most of them was like first, second, fourth, and then it's like 139th.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:24
Speaker
And there's only once.
00:09:26
Speaker
It's like you only did it once.
00:09:28
Speaker
You learned from your mistakes.
00:09:29
Speaker
Most are single digits.
00:09:30
Speaker
Many are double digits and like one triple digit.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker
I didn't know what I was getting into there as far as the classics and didn't have a clue as far as how to play them.
00:09:42
Speaker
Didn't really learn how to play them until after my first pinberg and then realized that, hey, classics are a lot of fun to play and compete on.
00:09:49
Speaker
You need some classics in your collection, Scott.
00:09:51
Speaker
Although you told me you have some and they're
Challenges in Pinball Collecting
00:09:53
Speaker
not in your basement.
00:09:53
Speaker
Right.
00:09:54
Speaker
I have a genie.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great pin.
00:09:57
Speaker
No, it's great.
00:09:58
Speaker
And I actually need to bring it down.
00:10:00
Speaker
But as you have seen in my basement, I'm out of space.
00:10:04
Speaker
So I'm looking at my games and I'm just like, which one would I move out to move Genie in?
00:10:09
Speaker
And Genie is huge.
00:10:11
Speaker
It is not a small game.
00:10:13
Speaker
It's a big boy.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, and you saw the Stairs of Death.
00:10:17
Speaker
Boy, girl, whatever.
00:10:18
Speaker
There's a wizard and a Genie on there.
00:10:22
Speaker
But you saw the Stairs of Death that go down, and so it would be really hard for me to do.
00:10:25
Speaker
That would be murder.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, you were talking about, I think you were talking with me, or maybe it was Kara talking about the addition of,
00:10:31
Speaker
that you're contemplating.
00:10:32
Speaker
So that's what you need to do before you put Genie in there.
00:10:34
Speaker
No, absolutely.
00:10:36
Speaker
My only complaint about classics right now, are they just, they're either too expensive to buy or you can't find them at all.
00:10:42
Speaker
So you got to find like some like back alley sleazy job.
00:10:46
Speaker
Like I'll take it off your hands and,
00:10:50
Speaker
I've got a future spot on a black night at home, but the only reason I've got them is because I'm fixing them up for a friend, but it's, uh, they're rough.
00:10:56
Speaker
You either get garbage piles or someone wants top dollar.
00:10:59
Speaker
It's like, well, at that price, I might as well just buy Avengers.
00:11:02
Speaker
So someone wants 5,000 for an Eldorado.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:06
Speaker
I'm thankful that I got my classics when I did because the, yeah, like you mentioned, the price of pinball on all pinball is gone up, but especially per my, especially from a percentage perspective,
00:11:19
Speaker
the price of classics is gone up far, far more than the price of new in box.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:24
Speaker
And that is a simple supply and demand is because there is no additional supply coming in.
00:11:30
Speaker
And as you mentioned, the, the actual supply of,
00:11:34
Speaker
even decent quality of like a player's quality, you know, classics is even smaller supply because there's some classics out there that are just roached.
00:11:44
Speaker
And then if you want really, if you want like, you know, Scott Larson level of quality, then you're talking about really, really low amount of supply out there.
00:11:52
Speaker
And then, then you're talking about repros and, you know,
00:11:56
Speaker
having to repaint, re-stencil the cabinet and put a new hard top on it or just a complete new CPR play field, CPR back glass.
00:12:05
Speaker
And yeah, the cash register goes ding, ding, ding as you do that.
00:12:11
Speaker
Yeah, I don't want to restore freedom that much, but it'd be fun, yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
Just hit up Martin Robbins and get one of those new fathoms coming to your house, right?
00:12:19
Speaker
Okay, so that is something in the future I want to talk about.
00:12:22
Speaker
I actually talked to someone who ordered a mermaid edition.
00:12:26
Speaker
Nice.
Competitive Pinball and Community
00:12:27
Speaker
Here in Utah?
00:12:27
Speaker
It's good.
00:12:28
Speaker
No, no.
00:12:29
Speaker
So this is a... Yeah, sorry.
00:12:31
Speaker
Power.
00:12:32
Speaker
So this is my friend, Tony Murphy.
00:12:33
Speaker
He's he's up in the Minnesota area.
00:12:37
Speaker
So he said he's run into you once or twice at the tournaments.
00:12:41
Speaker
Colin, but he said you would have no idea who he was.
00:12:43
Speaker
But he I talked to him yesterday about getting the he ordered the mermaid.
00:12:52
Speaker
And I said, yeah, he has 31 games and they're they're super high quality.
00:12:58
Speaker
And so he was talking about being excited about that.
00:13:00
Speaker
And he, he ordered a Halloween also.
00:13:04
Speaker
And you know, so yes, I, I'm, I told him, I was like, I kind of want to come up and just visit you once you get that mermaid edition.
00:13:12
Speaker
Cause I want to play it in the flesh.
00:13:14
Speaker
That'd be fun.
00:13:15
Speaker
Road trip to Minnesota.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:13:20
Speaker
So yeah, but that's the very long-winded way of how I got into competitive pinball, which, you know, and I still, you know, obviously like to play a lot.
00:13:29
Speaker
Haven't been able to play much competitive pinball recently because people haven't, you know, it wasn't safe to do so initially.
00:13:36
Speaker
And then there's very people, everybody's pretty tentative about doing so.
00:13:39
Speaker
I was actually out playing on location quite a while ago, just wearing, wearing my mask and
00:13:44
Speaker
doing that and then got vaccinated and been ready to go.
00:13:49
Speaker
Even flew up to Wisconsin for one of the, uh, the tournaments at district 82 without new, relatively new location there and, uh, made some good, uh, new friends up there planning on going up there again in October for their super series where they're doing six tournaments over the course of four days or three days.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:09
Speaker
So that'll be fun.
00:14:10
Speaker
But yeah, competitive pinball is great.
00:14:11
Speaker
And I think more and more people continue to get into that.
00:14:15
Speaker
I think one of the best things about well-run competitive events is when they are running it in such a way that it caters to the broad spectrum of skill levels.
00:14:30
Speaker
And that's why you saw tournaments like Pinberg become so popular.
00:14:35
Speaker
was because it catered to a broad spectrum of skill levels.
00:14:39
Speaker
And from the expert level player down to the novice, new player, and social player, everybody could find ways to have fun.
00:14:50
Speaker
And of course, you're still going to play bad games.
00:14:53
Speaker
You're going to get frustrated about not playing well.
00:14:55
Speaker
But all in all, you still have a good time.
00:14:57
Speaker
So that's the thing I try to emphasize at the events that I run by having other divisions, B divisions or novice divisions, because I've seen the success and the feedback from players across that spectrum of skill levels.
00:15:15
Speaker
And, and I do, yeah, I just, I get it.
00:15:17
Speaker
I don't really like it when I hear people talking about, oh, well, this is good for tournament players, or this is not good for, it's like, what?
00:15:26
Speaker
No, I'm, I, I play in tournaments.
00:15:29
Speaker
Yes.
00:15:30
Speaker
But I'm a pinball player.
00:15:32
Speaker
And I, I'm a pinball player that likes to compete in tournaments.
00:15:34
Speaker
I still, we still all play pinball.
00:15:37
Speaker
And yeah, there are things you can do if you have the patience and the skill level to exploit certain things or features or rules in a particular game based upon the situation that presents itself in a competitive situation.
00:15:50
Speaker
But at the heart of it, we're still all just flipping the silver ball.
00:15:53
Speaker
And even people that don't play in tournaments, you're still competing.
00:15:56
Speaker
You're just competing for different things.
00:15:58
Speaker
You're competing to try to get to a certain objective or certain wizard mode or
00:16:04
Speaker
Or trying to take down one of the high scores or get your initials up on the pinball machine.
00:16:08
Speaker
So we're all competing.
00:16:09
Speaker
It's just a matter of how you're doing it.
00:16:12
Speaker
You're also involved in somewhat with the Texas Pinball Festival.
00:16:17
Speaker
Is that correct?
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, correct.
00:16:20
Speaker
I'm one of the tournament directors for the TPS tournaments.
00:16:25
Speaker
So is that, so we want to, Josh and I wanted to talk about with this opening backup of the IFPA and tournaments.
00:16:33
Speaker
And first off, I want to talk about how, well, first or second, however you want to put it.
00:16:39
Speaker
I want to talk about how that has, uh,
00:16:43
Speaker
I guess how it feels opening that up after having like a dam of on the water of this desire for playing pinball for a year.
00:16:52
Speaker
So that's, that's one question I have.
00:16:54
Speaker
And another one is lead me through Texas is, is been a huge success when it comes to everybody coming and enjoying it, whether or not they're coming to enjoy it.
Texas Pinball Festival Insights
00:17:05
Speaker
the festival or coming to compete or just experiencing the whole thing.
00:17:09
Speaker
Does that put more pressure on you as you know, as replay and pin Berg have become smaller with the pandemic?
00:17:18
Speaker
How are you adapting to the new changes?
00:17:20
Speaker
So either, either a question first.
00:17:25
Speaker
So the first thing in terms of the, the,
00:17:31
Speaker
The dam breaking or releasing.
00:17:33
Speaker
So I don't anticipate there being much change in terms of TPF.
00:17:39
Speaker
The reason why is because we were already selling out the tournament.
00:17:45
Speaker
It's a capped number of player event because of the design of the format.
00:17:53
Speaker
you know, we don't, you know, we give everybody a limited set of entries.
00:17:56
Speaker
And so if you're, if I'm offering or expecting people to set aside their time and their vacation and travel and then pay money to enter the tournament for a limited set of entries, I want to make sure that they have enough time to actually play those entries.
00:18:11
Speaker
So then it becomes a matter of crunching the numbers and doing the math as far as capacity of your, you know, your bank of pinball machines and the time it takes.
00:18:19
Speaker
And so, you know, you have to, you know,
00:18:21
Speaker
put forth and do the planning and things like that.
00:18:24
Speaker
And so I, I don't, I, you know, I do also that type of stuff for a living as well.
00:18:27
Speaker
So, uh, you know, doing that, you, you, you have it set up as a limited entity.
00:18:32
Speaker
So we, we already were selling that out, uh, not as quickly as something like, as like Pinberg, but, um, but still selling it relatively quickly.
00:18:40
Speaker
And when we had to cancel TPF for 2020, uh,
00:18:45
Speaker
two weeks prior to the event taking place, we made the offer to all of the people registered for the tournament.
00:18:53
Speaker
We refunded all their tournament entry fees, but we asked similar to how the TPF, you know, organizing team.
00:19:01
Speaker
So,
00:19:01
Speaker
Ed and Kim Vander Veen and Paul McKinney, they offered and said, hey, if anybody's willing, would you mind not just asking for a refund for your event pass?
00:19:13
Speaker
Because at that time, there was still some question marks about whether the venue was going to still force them to pay all the money, even though they weren't holding the event.
00:19:22
Speaker
thankfully they were able to work things out there but in doing so that helped to let the texas pinball llc you know remain afloat and financially viable so they could continue scheduling stuff so i think maybe out of 160 players i think there were less than five that didn't want to have their event passes carry over and by doing so i offered to them like if you let your event passes carry over you will retain your spot on a um
00:19:52
Speaker
You know, on a will call base, not will call, but on a you get right at first refusal.
00:19:58
Speaker
So in other words, we won't be holding an open sign up for TPF 2022.
00:20:04
Speaker
All those players that elected to allow their money for their event passes to roll to 22 from 2020.
00:20:12
Speaker
are going to be able to retain their spot in the tournament for 22.
00:20:16
Speaker
So there might be a sign-up as few as only five or ten spots for the main event.
00:20:23
Speaker
There's a side tournament of classics that we will have a sign-up for that, which will also be capped, but that's at a higher number.
00:20:31
Speaker
I think it's in the 200s for that one.
00:20:34
Speaker
And, uh, that will open up in October.
00:20:37
Speaker
I'd look for announcements later in the next coming couple months, but we'll probably have those signups open up sometime during the first week of October.
00:20:45
Speaker
And, um,
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't anticipate there being any difference.
00:20:49
Speaker
The demand for competitive pinball was high before COVID.
00:20:53
Speaker
The demand for competitive pinball, for TPF in particular, is still going to be high.
00:20:58
Speaker
It's probably going to be even higher just because of the number of people that continue to find pinball and find enjoyment in it.
00:21:06
Speaker
specifically coming up here in the next couple months, you're going to see that, like you mentioned, the dam releasing or whatever.
00:21:12
Speaker
There's a lot of people that are scheduling events for August, you know, when the IFPA is sanctioning events again.
00:21:20
Speaker
And so that will certainly take place.
00:21:21
Speaker
But these larger events, you can't just on a whim schedule a big, huge tournament in August on a month's notice.
00:21:27
Speaker
You know, these are things that you have to plan.
00:21:29
Speaker
You know, we start planning for TPF, you know,
00:21:32
Speaker
within a couple months of the other one wrapping up.
00:21:35
Speaker
And we even have like kind of a wrap up, you know, feedback session powwow for the, the one that just took place, you know, with the week after.
00:21:44
Speaker
So it's fresh in our minds, but then we're planning for the next one right away.
00:21:49
Speaker
And there's a ton more planning that, you know, obviously that I'm not even privy to for the event itself that, that, that the Vanderveens do and, and, and Paul and others on the TPF team that take care of as far as,
00:22:01
Speaker
that, you know, what I consider a marquee event for not just the U.S., but for the world in terms of a pinball event.
00:22:10
Speaker
So, yeah, so in that regard, so that's the first question.
00:22:13
Speaker
The second question you asked was, how do we, oh, I forget, what was it?
00:22:17
Speaker
How do we manage all the, the,
00:22:20
Speaker
holding the event itself or well, it does there feel like there's more pressure because, um, with, with, uh, Pinnberg basically ceasing to exist as we know it, it seems like it pushes Texas pinball festival into, uh, and, and it's already an elite status, but, uh, even more that there's less of them.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's an interesting take.
00:22:41
Speaker
I hadn't really thought of it in that way.
00:22:45
Speaker
I've talked about it with various people on, okay, are we going to have another, is there going to be some other event to replace Pinberg?
00:22:55
Speaker
So TPF is not looking to replace Pinberg, at least from my perspective.
00:23:02
Speaker
I'm not personally...
00:23:05
Speaker
willing to set aside what I deem to be the amount of time
00:23:11
Speaker
and effort it would take to organize something like that.
00:23:14
Speaker
And you just, and you can't do it because PPF does not have a, a standing collection of pins.
00:23:20
Speaker
I'm at the mercy of, of, of awesome collectors like yourselves that in terms of, you know, the local collectors here in Texas area, also people coming from Oklahoma, as far away as from like Missouri, Kansas city, bringing pins to TPF.
00:23:36
Speaker
So to try to replace Pinberg, no, TPF can't do that because we don't have a standing collection to hold a tournament anywhere close to that size.
00:23:45
Speaker
So the other thing about TPF is that it is a pinball show first and foremost.
00:23:51
Speaker
ReplayFX started out as a pinball tournament.
00:23:55
Speaker
So Nucleus, if you will, was Pinberg in a pinball tournament.
00:24:00
Speaker
It then evolved into
00:24:03
Speaker
a greater pinball and amusement show.
00:24:05
Speaker
It wasn't just pinball.
00:24:07
Speaker
TPF is first and foremost a pinball show.
00:24:11
Speaker
Now it's also an arcade show because there's a lot of arcade stuff that goes on there.
00:24:15
Speaker
It has also over the years morphed into an industry show.
00:24:19
Speaker
I would say second only from an industry level involvement to something like Expo.
00:24:25
Speaker
I would argue that there's elements of TPF I think that have actually eclipsed Expo in terms of some of the overall show
00:24:32
Speaker
But I think just be the proximity of Expo and the history of Expo, that it still remains the premier industry show, if you will.
00:24:41
Speaker
But TPF from an overall getting everything and fun factor from the event itself to the number of pins and the collectors that are bringing them in and the quality of pins that get brought in, I think it's in some ways eclipsed what Expo does in some areas.
00:25:02
Speaker
Now, Expo, from the sounds of it, is trying to do some retooling and may figure out ways to do things just as well on that front as well.
00:25:14
Speaker
But as far as the tournaments, I don't feel any additional pressure now that Replay and Pinberg are gone because I was never trying to make the TPF tournaments Pinberg or Replay-like.
00:25:27
Speaker
What we were trying to do, when Ed Vanderveen called me up,
00:25:31
Speaker
And, you know, cause I'd played in the TPF tournaments, but I'd never run them.
00:25:35
Speaker
And I'd run some local ones here and I had offered him some suggestions after one year.
00:25:40
Speaker
And so he called me up then later that, you know, that next summer and said, Hey, you know, Hey Collins, Ed, I'm like, Oh, Hey, would you like to, you know, would you like to be part of the solution or would you like to be part of the, you know, turning it into this?
00:25:53
Speaker
The idea from my perspective was trying to take what is a world-class show of TPF.
00:25:59
Speaker
And I wanted to have the tournaments,
00:26:02
Speaker
be at a world-class level for the tournaments.
00:26:06
Speaker
And they were still good tournaments before that, but in terms of just how we organized them and executed them and making sure that they were at a world-class level, I wanted those tournaments to evolve and be at the same level as what the show's at.
00:26:25
Speaker
And so that's what I think we've been successful in doing that.
00:26:29
Speaker
I would like, I would prefer it if the tournaments were still given a little bit more prominence at TPF, but I understand the place of the tournaments.
00:26:38
Speaker
And the TPF show, it's about the show first and foremost.
00:26:42
Speaker
The tournaments are there and they're awesome.
00:26:45
Speaker
And I encourage everybody and everybody to play in them.
00:26:48
Speaker
But the TPF as a festival is still about the show itself.
00:26:53
Speaker
It sounds like everything you're getting prepared for a really good TPF this year then.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be great.
00:26:59
Speaker
It'll be nice after having to, you know, who would have thought we would have had to have a two-year hiatus because of it.
00:27:06
Speaker
But that's just the nature of, you know, when TPF, the show, was going off, was, you know, literally right on the cusp of seeing what, you know, what COVID was doing and how quickly and easily it was spreading.
00:27:18
Speaker
So, yeah, we lost two years of TPF.
00:27:21
Speaker
Be glad to have it back, you know, in March of next year.
00:27:24
Speaker
Go to Texas Pinball.
00:27:27
Speaker
for all the information on that.
00:27:29
Speaker
I don't think that they've released the hotel block yet.
00:27:33
Speaker
So just kind of you go follow Texas Pinball.
00:27:37
Speaker
Texas Pinball Festival, the event, or Texas Pinball itself on Facebook.
00:27:41
Speaker
And you can then, for any of your listeners that are wanting to, make sure that they get... There's not just the hotel itself of the event, but there's surrounding hotels that are easy walking distance and literally right across the street.
00:27:54
Speaker
I forget, have you guys... Have the two of you been to TPF before?
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, we were going to go back in 2020, but the shenanigans ensued and we ended up having to stay home.
00:28:05
Speaker
So...
00:28:06
Speaker
We were, we were also, I was booked to do the, uh, the deep root reveal.
00:28:11
Speaker
Oh yeah, you were, I was, I was going to do that first and then go to, uh, Texas.
00:28:17
Speaker
So, uh, we are planning on doing it, uh, this next time.
00:28:21
Speaker
And certainly, uh, I'll expect a text from you when it's time to book our hotel.
00:28:25
Speaker
So we don't get into the shenanigans that we have for expo this year.
00:28:31
Speaker
Oh, you're sleeping under one of Josh Sharpe's pinball machines in his basement.
00:28:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:35
Speaker
Well, you know, Josh did say if I could help him move a pinball machine, then he would let me sleep under the bait.
00:28:41
Speaker
Now, Colin, you just did, you just did a big tour and you swung out to the West and you actually came through and visited Josh and me.
00:28:52
Speaker
So I did now.
00:28:54
Speaker
I, I will say in full disclosure, I,
00:28:58
Speaker
I was actually toying with the idea of having Colin stay at my house.
00:29:03
Speaker
And let me give you a little background history on this.
00:29:10
Speaker
I let someone stay at my house who was a college friend and my wife didn't know them.
00:29:16
Speaker
And their children were monsters.
00:29:20
Speaker
And it was...
00:29:22
Speaker
I seriously, it was one of the most stressful days of our life that they came and I, like we were, it just was not a good fit.
00:29:33
Speaker
And so my wife was like super nervous.
00:29:34
Speaker
She's like, I, you know him, but I, you know,
00:29:38
Speaker
we don't know the kids and all that kind of stuff.
00:29:40
Speaker
And so we were, she was nervous and I was on call and I was working late.
00:29:45
Speaker
And so we didn't, however, I will say in full disclosure, you have fully passed the test since you came to my house that you get a, you get a pass next time you're coming through the, the blind date worked out and you can actually come and stay over next time you're here.
00:30:03
Speaker
Awesome.
00:30:04
Speaker
Wow.
00:30:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:06
Speaker
Hopefully not having to sleep out in the, in the backyard or anything like that.
00:30:10
Speaker
I was going to just say, I don't know if the bar is super high though.
00:30:12
Speaker
Cause I got to stay and, and I'm apparently I was a good guest.
00:30:15
Speaker
Cause now we have a podcast.
00:30:17
Speaker
That was before.
00:30:19
Speaker
Oh, I'm not kidding.
00:30:20
Speaker
That was before my, my friend came out and it was, it was like my wife's like, dude, we got so burned on that one.
00:30:28
Speaker
So, but yes.
00:30:30
Speaker
So if I would have shown up wearing like a John Belushi college, you know, sure.
00:30:34
Speaker
That probably would have been bad.
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:36
Speaker
With a sign that says eat me.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:37
Speaker
Probably not.
00:30:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:42
Speaker
But yeah, no, that's, that's cool.
00:30:43
Speaker
It was, it was awesome to be able to, to, to visit both you guys and yeah, you guys are very hospitable.
00:30:50
Speaker
If anybody's going through the, the Utah for whatever reason, you know, vacation like we were or for work and you're going through the,
00:31:01
Speaker
Salt Lake City area, or as I discovered, I thought that Josh lived just north of Salt Lake City in Ogden, near Dinosaur Land.
00:31:12
Speaker
But no, no, no.
00:31:12
Speaker
Josh lives in legit Dinosaur Land in the northeast corner of Utah.
00:31:16
Speaker
But yeah, it was very cool to be able to get to meet you guys in person and to...
00:31:22
Speaker
uh, you know, share, share meals and, uh, and play pinball and talk pinball.
00:31:28
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, it was a great trip.
00:31:31
Speaker
And also for anybody who's, who's ever just didn't even know, like, I didn't really know much about the, all the different national parks in Utah.
00:31:39
Speaker
My family, we're big into going to national parks and hiking and camping and stuff like that.
00:31:43
Speaker
This time we were, we were glamping at, we were staying in hotels, but a lot of times, you know, we don't have to travel as far.
00:31:48
Speaker
We'll go camping.
00:31:50
Speaker
But the, uh, man, the, the,
00:31:52
Speaker
parks and the landscape and topography and stuff in Utah is really spectacular.
00:31:59
Speaker
Great place to visit.
00:32:01
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a, we don't get out enough.
00:32:03
Speaker
I even told you that I, I told my wife when after I talked to you and I said, I've actually never even been to the Grand Canyon and I know a Grand Canyon South of us, but I feel that we, we don't take advantage of the things that we have in our own backyard as much as people do when they come in.
00:32:20
Speaker
So it was a nice reminder for me to try to get out.
Pinball Skills and Tutorials
00:32:25
Speaker
Now, when you came and played my games, I think you played five games or maybe six games and took five GCs on every single one.
00:32:36
Speaker
And guilty.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
I will say that when Colin's talking about being able to see someone with elite skills in person, that is a hundred percent true because just the small things I saw while, while Colin was playing and he was legitimately giving me a tutorial while he was beating all the high scores in the game.
00:32:58
Speaker
And he got to a alien invasion on Simpsons pinball party, which I've never seen.
00:33:03
Speaker
Uh, and telling me, oh yeah, you need to do this.
00:33:05
Speaker
You need to do this.
00:33:06
Speaker
And so it's a combination of rules, knowledge and skills and nudging knowledge.
00:33:11
Speaker
But the one thing I want to bring up that actually took me to the next level, because, uh, I'm proud to say last night I defeated Collins grand champion score on Deadpool.
00:33:23
Speaker
It was when you talked about imagining the outlanes as two extra flippers.
00:33:31
Speaker
And I want you to tell that quick tidbit because that was very interesting to me.
00:33:35
Speaker
And that really took my understanding of nudging to a new level because I always nudged side to side and it seemed to not work as well as what you told me.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:33:44
Speaker
It's, you, you have to, yeah, I think it was, you had another person over there as well.
00:33:50
Speaker
That was, you know, some, I think he even newer to pinball.
00:33:53
Speaker
And, and so we, I was, I was walking through.
00:33:55
Speaker
Well, we had Gary, we had Gary and I can't remember.
00:33:59
Speaker
Oh yes.
00:34:00
Speaker
My friend Kyle came over.
00:34:02
Speaker
Was it Kyle that you were talking to?
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:34:05
Speaker
And he was, and so you had mentioned that he was, you know, relatively newer in a pinball.
00:34:08
Speaker
He had some pins at home as well.
00:34:10
Speaker
And so I was just,
00:34:11
Speaker
I was walking him through and, you know, nobody ever really explained it to me like that, but I, it was, it was, I had never thought about it.
00:34:19
Speaker
And then just the, the kind of the light bulb went off one day.
00:34:22
Speaker
And so when I, you know, see a pin like Deadpool, so Deadpool, I'm guessing most people who are listening to this podcast, no Deadpool.
00:34:29
Speaker
It's a, it's your fan layout.
00:34:31
Speaker
Now it's got, you know, great pin, by the way, it's not just, I'm not trying to demean it anyway by calling it fan layout.
00:34:36
Speaker
But what I mean there is it only has two flippers.
00:34:38
Speaker
There's no upper flipper on it.
00:34:40
Speaker
And so,
00:34:41
Speaker
What I ask people when they see the pin, I say, how many flippers does this pin have?
00:34:47
Speaker
And they go, well, duh, Colin, that's obvious.
00:34:49
Speaker
There's two flippers.
00:34:50
Speaker
I say, no, there's actually four.
00:34:53
Speaker
And the third and fourth flipper on that particular game, and on 99% of the games out there, are your top of slingshot and in-lane, out-lane post area on either side.
00:35:06
Speaker
And by an additional flipper, what I'm trying to really drive home to somebody is that you can control how the ball bounces and reacts in those areas.
00:35:19
Speaker
And when I first started learning how to nudge, I was just trying to do the same thing you mentioned, Scott, of side to side.
00:35:26
Speaker
And when the ball was already pretty much on death's door of already going between that in-lane, out-lane post and the side wall,
00:35:34
Speaker
and going to its unhappy home, you know, down the out lane and into the drain.
00:35:40
Speaker
And the goal is to upward nudge most of the time.
00:35:44
Speaker
Sometimes you can do a little bit combination of a diagonal and some side nudges as well.
00:35:48
Speaker
But your goal is to get the ball the heck out of there.
00:35:51
Speaker
You just don't want it anywhere near those areas.
00:35:54
Speaker
And you can physically control that as a player
00:35:58
Speaker
not through flipper buttons, but through nudging.
00:36:01
Speaker
And most of the time, those upward nudges are not going to get you in big trouble with the tilt bob either.
00:36:05
Speaker
And if people can learn that, you will end up playing two or three extra balls per game.
00:36:15
Speaker
So when you see elite players playing the game of pinball, they are playing a six-ball game instead of a three-ball game.
00:36:21
Speaker
And the reason why is because they're getting extra balls because of their skills or nudging skills, and they're not draining as often as the novice player.
00:36:31
Speaker
So they're getting to play pseudo extra balls.
00:36:33
Speaker
And you get to play extra balls by learning that those top of slingshots and the post in your in-lane, out-lane areas are extra flippers.
00:36:44
Speaker
You know, Scott, what you should have done...
00:36:48
Speaker
is had Colin help you on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles like I did.
00:36:53
Speaker
Sorry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles like I did.
00:36:56
Speaker
And just kind of like suck his soul because he couldn't get the triple Mondo jackpot.
00:37:03
Speaker
Or just you can't hit them in rapid succession in multiball on that game.
00:37:12
Speaker
Yeah, that was brutal.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah, it was brutal because you had to
00:37:17
Speaker
the design of that game and the rules of that game is you get one, I think it's one of each multiball before each mini wizard mode or wizard mode.
00:37:28
Speaker
So if you miss, then you have to then chop wood at modes to get to the next mini wizard mode or wizard mode.
00:37:36
Speaker
And then you can now qualify a new, what is it?
00:37:39
Speaker
Ninja turtle power.
00:37:41
Speaker
Turtle power.
00:37:43
Speaker
Pizza multiball.
00:37:44
Speaker
So yeah, that triple mono jackpot though is absurd.
00:37:47
Speaker
Josh nailed the single ball one with ease, I think, on ball one of your first player.
00:37:52
Speaker
It was quick.
00:37:54
Speaker
But you then have to hit, I think it's three upper loops, Josh?
00:37:58
Speaker
Yes, consecutively, too, yes.
00:38:01
Speaker
In multiple.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, within two or three seconds of each other.
00:38:04
Speaker
Well, because I think if you missed, if you got a rebound, you could still kind of get it up there.
00:38:08
Speaker
Because there was once where you'd missed, but made the shot again, and it counted as a double mondo.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
So yeah, that's brutal.
00:38:16
Speaker
But that is one of the requirements for getting to the wizard mode.
00:38:19
Speaker
It's a cowabunga or something like that?
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, cowabunga, yep.
00:38:24
Speaker
But yeah, that's a very... I'm sure if Dwight ever had the time to go back and change things, I mean, that's one of those things as a rules designer, I don't think that's ever intentional to try to create something that... So hard, yeah.
00:38:41
Speaker
Yeah, well, not just that it's so hard, but that you...
00:38:45
Speaker
Once you miss it, the light at the end of the tunnel to try to get back there again is so far away.
00:38:54
Speaker
Although I will say there's some games out there where if you miss it, there's no chance of getting it.
00:38:58
Speaker
In Jurassic Park, if you want to qualify the When Dinos Rule the Earth Ultimate Wizard Mode, you have to beat and complete each of the three mini wizard modes.
00:39:13
Speaker
So the Visitor Center...
00:39:14
Speaker
the raptors in the kitchen thing or whatever in the museum mayhem.
00:39:20
Speaker
Or a control room, secure control room.
00:39:23
Speaker
You have to complete all three of those in the same game and then defeat Nublar.
00:39:30
Speaker
And then that unlocks the When Dinos Rule the Earth.
00:39:34
Speaker
So that's even more heart-wrenching because you could play the whole game and get two of those, but then on the third one, flub it up, which is very easy to do.
00:39:44
Speaker
especially in a secure control room.
00:39:45
Speaker
That's a beast.
00:39:47
Speaker
And then, you know, you've just, now you don't have a chance.
00:39:50
Speaker
Now you can still go forward and still do the escape Nublar and have fun with that, but you will have zero chance because once you, you only get one shot at it.
00:39:58
Speaker
So, and that way Elwynn was, was more diabolical than Dwight on that one.
00:40:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:05
Speaker
I, that's only happened to me never.
00:40:07
Speaker
So yeah.
00:40:10
Speaker
I'm saying these things like secure control room and raptors in the kitchen and Scott's just nodding along and just like his bedside manner with the patient, you know.
00:40:21
Speaker
I think I've activated one or two of those modes, yes.
00:40:25
Speaker
But raptor in the kitchen is really fun to play.
00:40:27
Speaker
I like playing it, even though it can be frustrating at times if you stop hitting shots and those raptors start moving backwards instead of forwards.
00:40:34
Speaker
Indeed, yeah.
00:40:36
Speaker
But it sounds like there are the things I do like about Turtles, though, is the co-op mode and the competition mode.
00:40:44
Speaker
And so I love that there.
00:40:47
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing things more like that, because that will take pinball to a next level of being able to play cooperatively or, hey, I'm the best player and I'm going to challenge all three of you guys and see who can win.
Pinball Design and Wizard Modes
00:41:02
Speaker
And really, I mean, Dwight really did push the boundary on that.
00:41:05
Speaker
And he started the whole, are you a God mode with, you know, so jumping to the end of games and trying the wizard modes without actually having to go through the game to get there.
00:41:17
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:41:20
Speaker
Is it a wizard mode, though?
00:41:22
Speaker
What would you consider, like, Calabunga and Valhalla?
00:41:25
Speaker
What are those kind of modes where you... It's obviously past, like, Destroy the Ring and Final Battle, but... Wait, Valhalla?
00:41:32
Speaker
Valinor?
00:41:33
Speaker
Or Valinor, sorry.
00:41:34
Speaker
Sorry.
00:41:35
Speaker
Norris, you know, versus... Anywho.
00:41:39
Speaker
Middle Earth.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah, whatever.
00:41:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:41
Speaker
It's all good.
00:41:44
Speaker
I mean, I only consider there to be one wizard mode in each pinball machine.
00:41:50
Speaker
meaning the ultimate wizard mode.
00:41:51
Speaker
And everything else I call, I usually call them mini wizard modes.
00:41:55
Speaker
Some people call them now just they call them all wizard modes, but I like to differentiate.
00:41:58
Speaker
I think every game, the rules designer has come up with some ultimate challenge in the machine.
00:42:08
Speaker
And I fully understand, and it's not trying to brag about it because there's many, many other activities and sports that I am awful at, and I still like to do it.
00:42:18
Speaker
I still like to play, but I'm not good at it.
00:42:21
Speaker
And so I get it that there are many people, Scott, that will never, ever get to those things.
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, no.
00:42:31
Speaker
Unless I take the glass off and add some rubber bands, there's no chance.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:35
Speaker
Which, so to your point, I think it is, it is.
00:42:38
Speaker
genius to put those things at the start button in a challenge format.
00:42:48
Speaker
Also, because those coders, they put a lot of effort, and the rules designers put a lot of effort into programming and the rules design and the choreography and lights and everything else, the video assets that go along with it.
00:43:02
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:43:03
Speaker
Now, the sad part, though, is most people
00:43:07
Speaker
people have no clue that those things exist.
00:43:10
Speaker
I mean, you're... I think they're going to get there, though.
00:43:13
Speaker
Dear listener, if you're new to pinball on these newer machines, you can hold both flipper buttons and it will give you options as far as gameplay options.
00:43:21
Speaker
So try that out and see what happens.
00:43:24
Speaker
But yeah, to be able to play at least some one of the wizard modes, like a mini wizard mode.
00:43:30
Speaker
So I think most of them are all the mini wizard modes.
00:43:33
Speaker
So there's still some...
00:43:35
Speaker
ultimate wizard mode that you can't get to from the start button, which I think is also appropriate.
00:43:42
Speaker
So, but it gives somebody, because most people, 99% of the people are never going to get to the, the super duper mega extreme wizard mode of Simpsons.
00:43:51
Speaker
So you saw alien invasion, Scott, that's, that's a mini wizard mode.
00:43:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:55
Speaker
That's not the ultimate wizard mode.
00:43:57
Speaker
Right.
00:43:58
Speaker
And so it would be really cool, in my opinion, if Simpsons Code had in it that you could just start Alien Invasion from the start button.
00:44:05
Speaker
Because I think it's one of the best, you know, mini wizard modes in all of pinball.
00:44:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:44:11
Speaker
I love how that works in terms of you go these progressively more difficult because there's more balls in the multi-ball and having to tuck each one away to advance to the next one.
00:44:25
Speaker
And so I actually, not to completely segue, we can talk about Spooky and Halloween later, but listening to the super awesome pinball show and the interview they did with the Emerys, I was kind of excited to hear
00:44:40
Speaker
I think it was Bug described that they're using all their physical seven ball locks for their wizard mode.
00:44:46
Speaker
Because it kind of reminded me of Alien Invasion, which is one of my favorite of all time.
00:44:52
Speaker
So yeah, kudos to the pinball designers and manufacturers out there that are putting more game features at the fingertips of
00:45:00
Speaker
of the player and of the collector that they can enjoy these even more so, which is great.
00:45:05
Speaker
I mean, if you're spending that many thousands of dollars on a toy, better to be able to get more enjoyment out of it and not feel like you're cheating like Scott when he takes the glass off and beats my Deadpool GC.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:21
Speaker
Well, I did magnets too.
00:45:23
Speaker
I had a magnet to keep it above.
00:45:28
Speaker
That's a great transition, though.
00:45:30
Speaker
We want to kind of go to the news.
00:45:33
Speaker
Let's talk Spooky.
00:45:34
Speaker
Let's talk Ultraman.
00:45:35
Speaker
Let's talk Halloween.
00:45:38
Speaker
I guess I'll start it off.
00:45:39
Speaker
I was shocked that they sold out in three hours.
Spooky Pinball's Market Success
00:45:45
Speaker
Not because I'm underestimating Spooky and their ability to sell pinball.
00:45:51
Speaker
I just don't feel like Halloween was a title that carried enough weight with it to sell
00:45:58
Speaker
was it 1,250 machines?
00:46:00
Speaker
I mean, this movie is from 1978.
00:46:01
Speaker
I think so.
00:46:03
Speaker
Obviously has a great following.
00:46:05
Speaker
I didn't realize it was one of the most highest grossing independent films of all time.
00:46:11
Speaker
At the time, it set the bar.
00:46:12
Speaker
They only put like roughly 300,000 into it.
00:46:15
Speaker
And then it ended up making it worth from like 60, 80 million dollars off of a two-week project.
00:46:22
Speaker
So I just, I guess I'm, I don't know.
00:46:25
Speaker
I'm not a huge horror fan.
00:46:27
Speaker
um and so maybe i didn't see it but then again i guess they're hitting a part of the market that isn't being tapped by anyone else at this point either so i don't know what are your guys's thoughts uh fun fun fact first um do you guys know what mask michael myers is wearing i do do you colin um who's the who's the man in the mask
00:46:51
Speaker
I mean, I haven't seen that movie in so long.
00:46:55
Speaker
It was like a family opera.
00:46:56
Speaker
No, no.
00:46:57
Speaker
You've seen a picture.
00:46:58
Speaker
So who, like, whose mask is it that he's wearing?
00:47:03
Speaker
Like, who's the character that is the mask?
00:47:07
Speaker
Oh, I don't know.
00:47:08
Speaker
It's not Jason.
00:47:10
Speaker
It's not a hockey mask.
00:47:11
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:47:12
Speaker
Who is it, Josh?
00:47:13
Speaker
It's a stretched out James T. Kirk from Star Trek mask.
00:47:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:19
Speaker
It's William Shatner.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:21
Speaker
Seriously?
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:22
Speaker
Yep.
00:47:27
Speaker
Wow.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:29
Speaker
Now you're going to be staring at it.
00:47:30
Speaker
You're going to be like, what the heck?
00:47:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:33
Speaker
There's something on the plane.
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:37
Speaker
So Colin.
00:47:39
Speaker
They sold out in three hours.
00:47:41
Speaker
So is this a game that you are interested in?
00:47:46
Speaker
One theme wise.
00:47:47
Speaker
Let's talk about that.
00:47:48
Speaker
Theme wise, Colin, you.
00:47:51
Speaker
Theme-wise, I mean, not at the top of my list, no.
00:47:57
Speaker
I mean, similar to Josh, I'm not a horror movie fan.
00:48:01
Speaker
I mean, I've watched a number of horror movies, but I'm not chomping at the bit to go watch one.
00:48:10
Speaker
I much prefer different movie genres than horror.
00:48:14
Speaker
So it's not at the top of my list.
00:48:16
Speaker
Now, there's some nostalgia to it in terms of when I grew up and watching the Halloween movie for the first time, or
00:48:26
Speaker
the Friday the 13th movie or the Nightmare on Elm Street movie for the first time and being freaked out, you know, because I was of the age, you know, that it was truly scary.
00:48:38
Speaker
It wasn't just, you know, cheesy scary, you know, as a, as a, you know, as a kid and an adolescent or whatever, you know, just like, oh, wow, that actually was,
00:48:46
Speaker
that was good quality scare dream.
00:48:49
Speaker
But, you know, I, it's, I, I like most, even though I don't like, you know, like, I don't like Iron Maiden as a music, but I love the Iron Maiden pinball machine.
00:48:58
Speaker
So I'm never going to, you know, thematically exclude a, a pinball machine, unless it's something that's like, you know, beyond the,
00:49:12
Speaker
the range of reason for me from a, you know, from some like a moral standpoint or something like that.
00:49:18
Speaker
So there's certain, there's certain pinball machines that have been made or, you know, these one-off themes or whatever that I'm just not, I'm not interested in playing those, but that's a whole nother story.
00:49:28
Speaker
But as far as Halloween goes, no, not my favorite theme.
00:49:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:33
Speaker
Josh.
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah, I'm right there with Colin.
00:49:38
Speaker
I mean, it's one of those things.
00:49:39
Speaker
I won't exclude the game because it's themed Halloween, but...
00:49:43
Speaker
Yeah, I, it just doesn't appeal to me.
00:49:46
Speaker
And, and Scott and Colin, you're both family men.
00:49:50
Speaker
I mean, that's one of those things too.
00:49:51
Speaker
Does this even get into your house because of the theme and how brutal it can be as well?
00:49:56
Speaker
Like not in my, now I will say though, I have a friend who's an oral surgeon.
00:50:01
Speaker
And when this came out, he is a big horror fan.
00:50:07
Speaker
And he texted me the reveal video and said, this is amazing.
00:50:13
Speaker
So, um, while I will say this is not something that caters to me, it, it does cater to an underserved crowd.
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:50:23
Speaker
So for you, Josh, I mean, cause you're, you know, you're 10 years, a little more than 10 years younger than me.
00:50:27
Speaker
So when you grew up, I'm, did you do where the Halloween and Friday, the 13th movies were those, were they even like in, yeah.
00:50:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:35
Speaker
Were you, were you watching any of those, uh,
00:50:38
Speaker
the honestly the only reason it was because my mom grew up in the 80s and it was kind of like we we snacked on that 80s culture in my house but it wasn't like my friends or anything were watching it you know it wasn't
00:50:51
Speaker
it wasn't relevant at that point.
00:50:52
Speaker
I mean, I grew up in the late nineties.
00:50:54
Speaker
High school was mid two thousands.
00:50:56
Speaker
And so you were still having the reboots and the spinoffs and the Jason versus Freddie and stuff like that.
00:51:02
Speaker
But it just, it, I never felt like it was relevant to me.
00:51:06
Speaker
It was just a, a reboot of a late seventies, early eighties franchise, you know?
00:51:12
Speaker
So outside of this being a horror theme, is this also then guilty of some of the same niche age group that it's appealing to?
00:51:24
Speaker
Some of these older classic rock band themes that are appealing to the mid-40s on up pinball collector crowd.
00:51:37
Speaker
because I think I've only watched the original Halloween movie.
00:51:42
Speaker
I don't recall ever watching any of the others.
00:51:46
Speaker
All 11, yeah.
00:51:47
Speaker
The 11 others.
00:51:48
Speaker
So I'm guessing all the reboots, similar to some other movies and series that I like, most of the time, especially if you get past the second one or third one, they start really getting long in the tooth, and they jump the shark.
00:52:02
Speaker
And so I can't imagine that all these reboots have been all that high quality.
00:52:06
Speaker
So I wonder if Spooky is – but it didn't hurt them at all.
00:52:10
Speaker
They still sold out.
00:52:11
Speaker
But I wonder if it's still in the same vein of pinball in terms of these themes and licenses that are appealing to people that are not younger than 35.
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah, over 40.
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:27
Speaker
Well, but the other thing too is Halloween is releasing.
00:52:30
Speaker
So they, they made like a sequel to the original.
00:52:33
Speaker
They like got rid of all the, all the sequels except for the original and they're releasing a sequel to the original from 78 this year.
00:52:42
Speaker
So I wonder, obviously still relevant if, if they have 11 movies, including two more planned or something like that.
00:52:51
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's a very well known.
00:52:53
Speaker
I mean, I think there's a lot of, it's a,
00:52:57
Speaker
people recognize it.
00:52:58
Speaker
It's a very recognizable theme.
00:53:00
Speaker
So I was happy that Spooky was able to get something like that.
00:53:03
Speaker
I mean, they've got a very current and relevant theme with Rick and Morty.
00:53:08
Speaker
But then Halloween is also very recognizable.
00:53:11
Speaker
So good for them and good for them that they sold out.
00:53:15
Speaker
I mean, it's an interesting, you know, looking layout.
00:53:22
Speaker
Definitely something I haven't seen before.
00:53:25
Speaker
There were some elements where I saw it.
00:53:27
Speaker
I'm like, oh, it kind of almost like looked like some of like Rob Zombie's layout.
00:53:32
Speaker
just a little bit here and there, but, um, you know, the, the stacked upper play fields is, you know, be interesting to play that.
00:53:40
Speaker
I like, I like me a good quality upper play field.
00:53:43
Speaker
I also detest upper play fields that are not well implemented.
00:53:48
Speaker
And, uh, but, uh, these look like they, they have, they have potential.
00:53:53
Speaker
Um, I'll be interested to find out, you know, just how, you know, beyond the teaser trailer video, just how the ball, uh,
00:54:01
Speaker
interacts with the mechanical features and things that they've thrown in there for the theme yeah because when i first looked at the pictures like oh wow they threw a bunch of stuff in there but is it just a lot of eye candy to try to you know make that whole world under glass you know make it look like
00:54:23
Speaker
the Halloween thing, but then is it, is it, is it going to be fun to play and fun to flip?
00:54:29
Speaker
And I hope it is.
00:54:31
Speaker
I think it could be, and I'm, I'm not going to base my opinion on it until I actually get to play it.
00:54:37
Speaker
But I'm, like I said, I like, I like upper play fields.
00:54:42
Speaker
I like wizard of Oz, for instance, and having two upper play fields that are both very different.
00:54:47
Speaker
Love since his pinnacle party, upper play field.
00:54:49
Speaker
So yeah,
00:54:50
Speaker
Yeah, bring it on.
00:54:51
Speaker
And I obviously won't be having one coming to my house, but that's okay.
00:54:57
Speaker
You could also have Ultraman though.
00:54:59
Speaker
There is a theme for you.
00:55:00
Speaker
The Ultraman theme is for you.
00:55:03
Speaker
If the Halloween theme doesn't work and you like the play field, you can legitimately buy the Ultraman.
00:55:09
Speaker
I to be full disclosure, I practically have no idea what Ultraman is.
00:55:15
Speaker
So full disclosure, I, I had no idea that Ultraman was a thing.
00:55:20
Speaker
I don't know, Josh.
00:55:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:25
Speaker
So what do you, what do you see, Josh, when you see the layout?
00:55:28
Speaker
Cause that's really all we have to go off.
00:55:32
Speaker
Well, between the layout and listening to what they said on, on, uh,
00:55:35
Speaker
Super awesome pinball show.
00:55:36
Speaker
If you haven't checked it out, go check out Franchi and Christian line.
00:55:40
Speaker
They sat down with Charlie and bug and it sounds like you have to unlock the upper play fields.
00:55:48
Speaker
They won't be available from the very get go.
00:55:50
Speaker
You're going to have to do something on the base play field to actually unlock to go up top.
00:55:57
Speaker
I'm nervous because they said this is a flow game.
00:56:00
Speaker
I haven't played this, but there's a lot of holes the ball drops into that comes out of a subway kind of thing.
00:56:07
Speaker
I just don't see how you're going to get flow with how many holes and stuff that you're dropping into.
00:56:14
Speaker
And the one thing I learned from the Mandalorian reveal was people don't mind upper playfields as long as they're integrated properly.
00:56:24
Speaker
But that's a lot of people like, I don't want to be up on that play field very long or that upper play field very long.
00:56:29
Speaker
Or I don't want the objective...
00:56:32
Speaker
have forced me to go back to that place that many play filled multiple times and it's funny because it's like you know people like it seems like they're very on the fence with upper play fields and then spooky's like i got three you know um i do the one thing i'm very intrigued about um i think it'll go one of two ways uh they called it the butt pretzel um
00:56:56
Speaker
on SAP's show, you have to, if you're looking at the play field, it's the second one up.
00:57:02
Speaker
It's got the double spinners on it.
00:57:04
Speaker
You backhand that
00:57:07
Speaker
the right spinner.
00:57:09
Speaker
And if you hold up the flipper, if you do it right and you hold up the flipper, it will go through that spinner, come right back through the flipper and then go through the second spinner and flip right back around to you.
00:57:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:19
Speaker
And that's like, that's like wizard of Oz on the munchkin.
00:57:22
Speaker
If you flip it and you hold up the flipper, you can usually get two loops and it slows down enough.
00:57:27
Speaker
Correct.
00:57:28
Speaker
But the ball diverts.
00:57:29
Speaker
So it is similar to that, but the ball goes different ways.
00:57:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:33
Speaker
I see.
00:57:34
Speaker
It's like a figure eight almost.
00:57:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:36
Speaker
And so, uh,
00:57:37
Speaker
I'm intrigued by that.
00:57:38
Speaker
I half wonder if it makes it too easy.
00:57:40
Speaker
I don't know.
00:57:41
Speaker
Rules can always fix anything, especially on layout.
00:57:44
Speaker
I mean, look at Walking Dead.
00:57:45
Speaker
But...
00:57:47
Speaker
I actually was somewhat intrigued with Ultraman.
00:57:49
Speaker
The problem with spooky games is you have to get in on the order and then you've got to decide if you want to keep it or not.
00:57:57
Speaker
Well, sure, but there are people.
00:57:59
Speaker
That's if you want to be the first in.
00:58:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
I've always said, if you have that grail game, it will be available.
00:58:07
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to... Here's my take on it, and once I say it, you're never going to look at this play field differently.
00:58:15
Speaker
Bring it.
00:58:15
Speaker
Okay?
00:58:16
Speaker
That's quite the bold statement.
00:58:18
Speaker
It is a bold statement, but as soon as I say it, you're going to say bingo.
00:58:24
Speaker
I've got it ready.
00:58:26
Speaker
Okay, you got it?
00:58:28
Speaker
I got Ultraman.
00:58:29
Speaker
You got Halloween?
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:58:32
Speaker
Okay, here's the word, and the word of the day is whitewater.
00:58:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:41
Speaker
Do you see it?
00:58:44
Speaker
This is a very similar layout to whitewater.
00:58:50
Speaker
I don't know.
00:58:51
Speaker
That's a little too bold.
00:58:53
Speaker
Too bold.
00:58:55
Speaker
What is this, Sriracha?
00:58:56
Speaker
Yes, it is.
00:58:59
Speaker
I'm trying to get a good angle of it.
00:59:01
Speaker
Here we go.
00:59:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's just too...
00:59:05
Speaker
Yeah, I could see that.
00:59:07
Speaker
There's some elements, but I don't think there's enough.
00:59:11
Speaker
Look under John Carpenter, like the trans light, and then go underneath.
00:59:16
Speaker
And I'm on This Week in Pinball, by the way.
00:59:18
Speaker
Hi, Jeff.
00:59:19
Speaker
Great site, thisweekinpinball.com.
00:59:22
Speaker
But it seems like the shot selection have a lot of it.
00:59:26
Speaker
Now, the scoop's at a different location.
00:59:29
Speaker
But you have the upper flipper that takes it to the – so it's slightly different to have the pretzel up there.
00:59:35
Speaker
But then you also have the shot that goes up and then drops down on the hedges like the Insanity Falls shot.
00:59:42
Speaker
Yeah, I just think it's – it has a lower – the lower playfield ramps.
00:59:49
Speaker
Right, where the whirlpool would be, yes.
00:59:52
Speaker
So the basement upper playfield, yeah.
00:59:55
Speaker
Yeah, and it doesn't have the pops over on the right.
01:00:00
Speaker
It doesn't have a scoop kick out on the left.
01:00:03
Speaker
Okay, well, I didn't say it was a carbon copy.
01:00:05
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just saying it has an upper play field, upper flipper shot that returns the ball down a return that feeds your left flipper.
01:00:16
Speaker
There you go.
01:00:18
Speaker
But to me, that's not a big enough stretch to be like, oh, this is just like Whitewater.
01:00:22
Speaker
Well, I'm just saying I think it gives you a feel of... When I first saw this, I thought, wow, that's a lot of upper play fields.
01:00:30
Speaker
And I wonder how that's going to feel.
01:00:32
Speaker
However, when I play something like Whitewater, it's a fun game.
01:00:36
Speaker
And it doesn't feel as over the top as you would think with the five ramps in there.
01:00:44
Speaker
but this feels like it would still have a similar feel to it and that there's a lot of stuff to do, but it doesn't feel like it's returning back at you at lightning speed.
01:00:53
Speaker
Like say black night does.
01:00:56
Speaker
I mean, I'll give you one other, I'll give you one other thing that is like whitewater.
01:01:02
Speaker
I don't know why they chose to do this.
01:01:05
Speaker
I've,
01:01:06
Speaker
the layout of the inserts up the center of the play field are like the rafts.
01:01:12
Speaker
Yep.
01:01:12
Speaker
If you're wet willies, I'll give you that.
01:01:15
Speaker
But that's, if you're looking at the, uh, Oh, what is it?
01:01:19
Speaker
The, uh, Ultraman one, I guess it's more of a bomb.
01:01:22
Speaker
I don't know, but it does look like a waterfall.
01:01:24
Speaker
Now that you say that too.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:26
Speaker
Huh.
01:01:27
Speaker
All right.
01:01:28
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:28
Speaker
Listeners tell Josh that I'm right.
01:01:30
Speaker
That it does look like white water.
01:01:31
Speaker
So,
01:01:33
Speaker
I get concerned with that much upper playfield.
01:01:35
Speaker
It abstracts the right side of the playfield so much.
01:01:37
Speaker
That's hard to, you feel like you're shooting the center and the left, not much of the right.
01:01:43
Speaker
Well, and legitimately to pivot a little bit, I actually went and played the Mandalorian and I, okay, I thought the Mandalorian was actually a fun shooter game.
01:01:53
Speaker
And I told Kyle, I'm,
01:01:55
Speaker
who's a local distributor, that I thought it would be a big seller because it didn't feel like I was hunting for shots on the first and second play.
01:02:03
Speaker
It felt like I kind of knew at least where the shots were, so it felt very intuitive, which I think is important on many games.
01:02:11
Speaker
But there is a question about how often the Mandalorian helmet mini playfield is going to be used because you don't want to feel like a gimmick, you know, like most lower playfields.
01:02:23
Speaker
I would say, I don't know anybody who says, wow, I really like that lower playfield in ACDC.
01:02:32
Speaker
or Congo or monsters.
01:02:34
Speaker
It just feels like it's yeah.
01:02:36
Speaker
Or monster.
01:02:37
Speaker
It's a similar thing.
01:02:38
Speaker
It's like a diversion.
01:02:39
Speaker
So if that feels like it's a challenge or if it feels like pinball circus, where you go up to the upper play field, then you move to another upper play field, then you move to another upper play field.
01:02:50
Speaker
Is that, is that good or bad?
01:02:52
Speaker
I don't know because I haven't seen it that much in a production game and just played it in a gimmick game.
01:02:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:00
Speaker
I don't know.
01:03:01
Speaker
We'll have to see.
01:03:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:02
Speaker
Because I fear because I don't like, for instance, the amount of real estate blocked by the Game of Thrones premium LE upper play field.
01:03:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:14
Speaker
And this gives me some nightmares of that type of dominance of your field of view when you look at how far that lower...
01:03:25
Speaker
that second one extends forward.
01:03:29
Speaker
It is that kind of, you know, how far down it is.
01:03:32
Speaker
It's maybe not quite as wide or maybe it is.
01:03:36
Speaker
But I do give, I don't, I do give spooky a lot of credit because their upper play fields, including Alice Cooper's there, there there's lots to do on them on the upper play field.
01:03:49
Speaker
There's not just, you know, for, so for instance, I mean, I'm just going to have to,
01:03:54
Speaker
it's not just an arc of targets to shoot at.
01:03:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:58
Speaker
There's a lot of different things to do.
01:04:00
Speaker
And the notion of going from like one upper play field to another is,
01:04:03
Speaker
I like that.
01:04:04
Speaker
But I completely agree with you, Josh, earlier.
01:04:06
Speaker
You mentioned that you're like, what?
01:04:08
Speaker
Flow?
01:04:09
Speaker
Tons of flow?
01:04:10
Speaker
I agree.
01:04:12
Speaker
And I don't mind that, by the way.
01:04:14
Speaker
I like variety.
01:04:16
Speaker
I like pinball machines that have stop and go.
01:04:19
Speaker
Like, for instance, Simpsons Pinball Party has a lot of stop and go to it.
01:04:23
Speaker
Now, it has shots that you can say, oh, that flows.
01:04:25
Speaker
Like, it has a ramp.
01:04:27
Speaker
Oh, that's great flow.
01:04:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:29
Speaker
So this also has a ramp.
01:04:31
Speaker
Hey, that's great flow.
01:04:32
Speaker
And it, maybe it has a, one of these shots that you shoot through or under the, under upper plate fields that wraps back around and maybe is an orbit.
01:04:40
Speaker
So it has some flow to it, but it's not like your star Trek or led Zeppelin where you have, you know,
01:04:49
Speaker
Multiple options to shoot at to continue this never-ending combo, like some of your Steve Ritchie games or the flow that you can get into on Deadpool and other games like that.
01:05:05
Speaker
I just don't see that level of flow.
01:05:08
Speaker
It has shots that have flow.
01:05:09
Speaker
Don't get me wrong.
01:05:09
Speaker
Every pinball machine has flow, just no matter how much of it.
01:05:14
Speaker
But I think they should own it.
01:05:15
Speaker
Own the fact that you've got a bunch of really cool, hopefully really cool to shoot stop and go shots.
01:05:21
Speaker
I think that's great.
01:05:24
Speaker
Honestly, the artwork looks great to me.
01:05:26
Speaker
The toys look great.
01:05:28
Speaker
I like the peekaboo, the whack-a-mole.
01:05:31
Speaker
I can't wait to play this in October.
01:05:32
Speaker
I know I'll definitely see one at Pinball Expo.
01:05:35
Speaker
I'm ready to give it a try.
01:05:38
Speaker
The numbers they sold, are you impressed?
01:05:42
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:43
Speaker
Double what they had of Rick and Morty in less time.
01:05:48
Speaker
I mean, Rick and Morty was $750.
01:05:50
Speaker
They did Ultraman and Godzilla $17.50.
01:05:52
Speaker
So that's more than double.
01:05:56
Speaker
And Charlie was drinking a beer for lunch.
01:05:59
Speaker
He was celebrating.
01:06:01
Speaker
He was done.
01:06:02
Speaker
As he should, man.
01:06:03
Speaker
Good job.
01:06:04
Speaker
So next round's on Spooky, I guess.
01:06:08
Speaker
Well, that tells me that they are leveling up as a pinball company.
01:06:13
Speaker
Yep.
01:06:15
Speaker
And I will say I was, I hopped on the pin side thread and I was looking through and there were some obvious comparisons to deep root.
01:06:23
Speaker
When they said, when they said, you know, spooky sold out in three hours and you had a month and you sold 130 Roses.
01:06:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:33
Speaker
I mean, it's a, I mean, I don't want to beat this drum too much, but it does speak a little bit about what, where people's confidence is.
01:06:44
Speaker
And especially with a theme that they, that resonates with them.
01:06:48
Speaker
I agree.
01:06:49
Speaker
I don't think too many people were resonating with the Raza for Raza.
01:06:54
Speaker
Well, and but that's my other question, though.
01:06:55
Speaker
I feel like you're not just buying a Halloween.
01:06:58
Speaker
You're not buying an Ultraman.
01:06:59
Speaker
You're buying a spooky game.
01:07:02
Speaker
And sometimes, I mean, every pinball machine is going to have a problem.
01:07:07
Speaker
I don't know a single company out there that hasn't had a problem.
01:07:10
Speaker
But it seems like their customer service when it comes to repairing those machines is pretty good.
01:07:18
Speaker
You get you get.
01:07:19
Speaker
I mean, I have Charlie's personal email, so if I need anything, I can just get right to him.
01:07:24
Speaker
And I don't even own a spooky game.
01:07:26
Speaker
I mean, it's just.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:28
Speaker
I feel like they're doing it right.
01:07:30
Speaker
They're expanding slowly, but they're doing it the right way.
01:07:35
Speaker
And so I think when you do it the way that they've done it, they've done it right.
01:07:41
Speaker
Whereas Deep Root came in fast and hard.
01:07:43
Speaker
They were like a firework, you know, they shot up, blew up, nothing left to see.
01:07:49
Speaker
I was just saying, this is what their fifth game.
01:07:51
Speaker
I mean, they have...
01:07:53
Speaker
Uh, they had America's most haunted.
01:07:54
Speaker
They had rods, Rob zombie.
01:07:56
Speaker
They had Jetsons.
01:07:57
Speaker
They had TNA.
01:07:58
Speaker
Alice Cooper's nightmare castle.
01:08:02
Speaker
Maybe it's Rick and Morty, uh, dominoes.
01:08:05
Speaker
Oh, seven.
01:08:05
Speaker
Oh, you're right.
01:08:06
Speaker
Oh yeah.
01:08:07
Speaker
Okay.
01:08:07
Speaker
So I, I missed a few in there.
01:08:10
Speaker
I was gonna say, I thought there was, can you count the Godzilla homebrew?
01:08:14
Speaker
I mean, probably, probably not.
01:08:20
Speaker
I could have swore there was just one more that we're missing.
01:08:23
Speaker
And someone's sitting there like, no, you're fine.
01:08:25
Speaker
Or someone's, you're right.
01:08:27
Speaker
It's this one.
01:08:29
Speaker
Rick and Morty, Alice Cooper, TNA, Jetson, Domino's, Rob Zombie, America's Most Haunted.
01:08:34
Speaker
Yep.
01:08:35
Speaker
So two, four, six, eight, nine.
01:08:40
Speaker
Lucky number nine.
01:08:41
Speaker
And they've been a business for eight and a half years.
01:08:44
Speaker
So.
01:08:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:46
Speaker
Let's move on really quick.
01:08:47
Speaker
Before we wrap this up, I just want to talk really quickly about the oopsie down in Vegas.
01:08:53
Speaker
Because it still baffles me.
01:08:54
Speaker
I hope this is wrong.
Pinball Hall of Fame Construction Issue
01:08:57
Speaker
It baffles me.
01:08:57
Speaker
And this is the reason why.
01:08:59
Speaker
I work in construction.
01:09:00
Speaker
I've had to deal with permits and stuff like that before.
01:09:03
Speaker
Not only did it get past the surveyor, I don't know how it is in Nevada, but in Utah, you have to have an inspector, a city, or county inspector.
01:09:11
Speaker
You have to say what the issue is.
01:09:12
Speaker
Oh, sorry.
01:09:13
Speaker
Let me rewind this.
01:09:13
Speaker
Josh, you have to say what the issue is because some people may not know.
01:09:16
Speaker
Correct.
01:09:17
Speaker
So what...
01:09:18
Speaker
Pinball Hall of Fame's neighboring hotel, I can't remember their name, but the neighboring hotel has just noticed that the building itself is sitting on eight feet of their property.
01:09:30
Speaker
And it says that everyone's lawyering up, which...
01:09:36
Speaker
And it's prime real estate right on the strip.
01:09:38
Speaker
It's not like, oh, I'll just gift that to you or we can make an agreement on it.
01:09:42
Speaker
But what baffles me is, like I said, in the state of Utah, you have to have a city or county inspector come out to verify that all the measurements are correct on top of the surveyor who came out and did all their work.
01:09:55
Speaker
And why did the hotel not notice this as they were digging the hole?
01:09:59
Speaker
Because there obviously would have been a hole dug.
01:10:02
Speaker
There's so many comedy of errors up to this point.
01:10:07
Speaker
It's just weird to me.
01:10:08
Speaker
Because it's like, how did you catch it so quick?
01:10:11
Speaker
But you didn't catch it during the construction.
01:10:12
Speaker
And nor did, I don't know.
01:10:14
Speaker
I feel bad for Tim Arnold because I don't feel like he's at fault at all.
01:10:17
Speaker
He hired a company to come do this.
01:10:19
Speaker
And the company messed up.
01:10:23
Speaker
I hope it's not as reported.
01:10:29
Speaker
I guess that's what I'm saying.
01:10:30
Speaker
It just seems so weird.
01:10:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:33
Speaker
Well, I think I looked at the Pinside thread on at least one of them on this, and somebody was saying that they attended the soft opening or grand opening festivities at the Pinball Hall of Fame.
01:10:48
Speaker
And Arnold mentioned, he mentioned that he alluded to it in his opening talk.
01:10:55
Speaker
So I don't think this is, I don't think this is hearsay.
01:10:59
Speaker
No, I will say that while this is on the strip, this actually isn't prime strip real estate.
01:11:05
Speaker
This is really on the, it's on the South side, which is really Mandalay Bay is the end of the strip.
01:11:12
Speaker
And this is really pushing close to that.
01:11:15
Speaker
And so it's, it's,
01:11:17
Speaker
Yeah, but it doesn't matter the property value to Josh's point.
01:11:23
Speaker
How are they off by that much?
01:11:25
Speaker
I mean I'm not in construction.
01:11:27
Speaker
I'm not in surveying.
01:11:29
Speaker
I don't do that type of work.
01:11:31
Speaker
I mean I just remember when buying the houses I bought, you have the platts.
01:11:36
Speaker
that you were given that shows and it's an excruciating detail and i'm off by eight feet yeah that's that's andre the giant you're off by yeah that's a car link you know yeah just that's that's what baffles me it just how did the i don't know i just it's a comedy of errors and it's and that's the part that stinks is like
01:11:59
Speaker
The lawyers are going to get involved.
01:12:01
Speaker
And what's the best case scenario in this?
01:12:04
Speaker
The hotel says, whipsies, we'll sell you that part of the property.
01:12:08
Speaker
And Tim Arnold does another fundraiser and we call it good.
01:12:11
Speaker
I don't know at this point.
01:12:13
Speaker
Well, the surveyor, whoever he contracted has got to have some type of insurance.
01:12:17
Speaker
It's going to have to be the first one to pay the bill.
01:12:20
Speaker
But it could turn into a nightmare where they request him to tear down eight foot of his building.
01:12:26
Speaker
I think that's pretty unlikely.
01:12:28
Speaker
That would be unlikely to happen mainly because that would also affect their structural integrity.
01:12:35
Speaker
Well, you don't want a damaged building next to where you're going to build your hotel.
01:12:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:42
Speaker
The optics look bad.
01:12:44
Speaker
And so, you know, so I'm sure something will happen, but it still is just, you know, it really depends on the size of the check.
01:12:53
Speaker
That's how it is.
01:12:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:55
Speaker
Well, man, I sure hope the the surf because that's the other problem, too, is the insurance.
01:13:00
Speaker
The surveyors, depending on their insurance, can only cover up to so much money.
01:13:03
Speaker
And then and then the pinball Hall of Fame might be liable after that as well.
01:13:07
Speaker
I mean, it opens up so many cans of worms.
01:13:10
Speaker
It's just yeah, it's just a nightmare.
01:13:13
Speaker
But I feel for the hotel does also doesn't want a bankrupt derelict building next to them too.
01:13:20
Speaker
And so.
01:13:20
Speaker
Correct.
01:13:21
Speaker
I mean, they, there is something to say, Hey, we're at the hotel.
01:13:25
Speaker
And by the way, there's a pretty awesome thing for kids next door.
01:13:29
Speaker
So you can go gamble at our place while the kids are playing.
01:13:33
Speaker
Go to it.
01:13:34
Speaker
Right.
01:13:35
Speaker
So I'm just, I'm just looking at this from a pragmatic standpoint to say what's in the best interest of the hotel too.
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:43
Speaker
So I think they'll money, some money will exchange hands and they'll move on.
01:13:48
Speaker
And those, those strip properties and eight feet does sound like a lot.
01:13:53
Speaker
And I totally agree.
01:13:54
Speaker
However, it's those properties are almost like a half mile.
01:13:57
Speaker
They are crazy big.
01:13:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:02
Speaker
You get lost in Casino Caesar's palace and you, you end up some back door.
01:14:07
Speaker
You're like, I didn't, what is this?
01:14:08
Speaker
So it's this rabbit hole.
01:14:10
Speaker
So,
01:14:10
Speaker
So I think as long as it doesn't really affect their, uh, their casino real estate, the, like the gaming floor, it's probably something they can come to an agreement on.
01:14:21
Speaker
No, I agree.
01:14:22
Speaker
So, well, I'm, I'm going to say it's time to wrap it up.
01:14:25
Speaker
I mean, we've been going at it for, uh,
01:14:27
Speaker
a little over an hour and yeah 10 15 minutes well the other problem too the listener hasn't heard but we for some odd reason our recording site's just like boom you're done they keep stopping and it's like yeah and we're gonna start again even they got bored so the website it's like i'm done i'm done but no we appreciate you coming on colin it was fantastic to meet you um
01:14:53
Speaker
it was really cool that you came through Utah and even diverted your, your vacation plan to come down to little dinosaur land.
01:14:59
Speaker
I hope you enjoyed the wall of dinosaur bones.
01:15:02
Speaker
Um, we did.
01:15:04
Speaker
And, uh, seriously, if you're ever back in Utah, there's an airport right here in town.
01:15:09
Speaker
You can fly right in.
01:15:09
Speaker
We'll, we'll make you dinner and everything.
01:15:11
Speaker
So round trip tickets are not bad.
01:15:16
Speaker
Uh, that's how I'm getting to the expo.
01:15:18
Speaker
I'm just flying right out of town.
01:15:20
Speaker
So anyhow,
01:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, you guys are going to have fun there.
01:15:25
Speaker
I would like to go, but yeah, it's Halloween weekend.
01:15:29
Speaker
Right, yeah.
01:15:30
Speaker
Ooh, geez.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, that actually... I'm using some dad, saved up dad credit because I have two kids that are... It's their birthday that weekend.
01:15:41
Speaker
So...
01:15:42
Speaker
And one of them is actually on Halloween.
01:15:44
Speaker
So you're going to be in the hole for a long time.
01:15:48
Speaker
That's okay.
01:15:49
Speaker
You're going to hear the sentence start with, uh, you remember that time you left for?
01:15:53
Speaker
And ball convention on Halloween.
01:15:55
Speaker
I'll say, you remember how I took you to Hawaii a month before?
01:15:59
Speaker
So, yeah.
01:16:02
Speaker
Oh, the old tip for tap.
01:16:05
Speaker
Anyhow.
01:16:06
Speaker
Well, Colin, if anyone wants to get a hold of you, how do you want them to contact you?
01:16:10
Speaker
Or you can be like Elwin, just be like, no, I don't.
01:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, well, I guess they can get a hold of me via, I don't know, look me up on Facebook, I guess, and they can message me that way.
01:16:27
Speaker
I don't want people emailing my email address.
01:16:30
Speaker
Go to Facebook and see your massive trophy from 2017.
01:16:36
Speaker
But yeah, no, I'm not here to, I don't have any, uh, I don't have any podcast or, uh, website or anything like that.
01:16:43
Speaker
I just, I just like hanging out and playing.
01:16:45
Speaker
It sounds like the best way to contact you is to go up and shake your hand at a Texas pinball festival.
Social Engagement and Repairs
01:16:50
Speaker
There you go.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, they can, they can do that.
01:16:52
Speaker
It's always a crazy, you know, weekend of, you know, don't remember, you know, half of the people that I meet because there's just so many people to meet and so much that has to be done in a short period of time.
01:17:02
Speaker
But, uh,
01:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, other than that, if people are coming through the Austin, Texas area, they can give me a shout out.
01:17:10
Speaker
I'd love to meet up with people at the various locations.
01:17:12
Speaker
I've got to get a couple more of my pins fixed up before I have a bunch of people over at my house because I've got too many of my very limited collection are in states of disrepair, so I've got to get them fixed back up.
Loser Kid Pinball Platforms and Streaming
01:17:26
Speaker
If you want to contact us, we are at Loser Kid Pinball on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now on Twitch.
01:17:33
Speaker
If you want to watch us, we will be jamming out every once in a while.
01:17:36
Speaker
Just make sure you follow us and it will notify you as soon as we go live.
01:17:41
Speaker
We don't have like a super steady schedule.
01:17:43
Speaker
or I don't and so I usually film not film stream during lunchtime so for me it's noon but uh for I guess the east coast you're two o'clock in the afternoon but um if you want to get a hold of us for a hat we just send another hat out to Mr. Dan in Arizona I hope you enjoy that and uh it's a good looking hat it is it is and so um other than that what you got anything else for us Scott
01:18:11
Speaker
No, I think it's
Weather and Next Meeting Anticipation
01:18:12
Speaker
great.
01:18:12
Speaker
Looking forward to the next two weeks and hopefully the temperature in Utah will get below 100 because we've been a heat wave right now.
01:18:20
Speaker
Yes.
01:18:20
Speaker
And then I can finally stop working so much.
01:18:24
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:24
Speaker
I wish I knew a good air conditioning guy.
01:18:26
Speaker
Oh, hey, Josh.
01:18:27
Speaker
Oh, hey.
01:18:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:28
Speaker
All right.
01:18:30
Speaker
We'll talk to you in two weeks.
01:18:43
Speaker
Shut up and sit down.