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Ep 72: Expo Recap
45 Plays4 years ago
Scott and Josh give their take on Expo. From Homebrews and Pinball Olympics to the vendor hall and seminars, we cover it all.
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Transcript
Customer Appreciation and Equipment Decisions
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
I am Josh Rupp.
00:00:10
Speaker
With me, my co-captain as always.
00:00:12
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:14
Speaker
And Scott, we went to Expo.
00:00:16
Speaker
We met the hardest...
00:00:18
Speaker
We met the hardest, hardest working man in, uh, in pinball sales, right?
00:00:23
Speaker
Exactly.
00:00:24
Speaker
And if you haven't hooked up with Zach many and Nicole menu over at flipping out pinball, I saw firsthand this weekend, how hard they work for their customer.
00:00:33
Speaker
It was like bedtime and we were heading back to our room and I walked past Zach and he's, he's showing someone an escalera going up and down the stairs and
00:00:42
Speaker
I'm like, dude, it's time for bed.
00:00:44
Speaker
But he wanted, he did great.
00:00:46
Speaker
He talked to everyone that came up and wanted to talk to him.
00:00:49
Speaker
I mean, he really is great on customer service.
00:00:52
Speaker
We have a friend right now that's having an issue with Godzilla.
00:00:55
Speaker
Zach is sending him some personal parts out of his collection to make sure that this customer gets taken care of because he knows how much this game means to him.
00:01:03
Speaker
And so Zach goes the extra mile.
00:01:05
Speaker
And I'm glad, I'm proud to say he takes care of us.
00:01:09
Speaker
you know yeah no it's good uh the man that escalera is really impressive in person um i was able to get a used escalera and it it needs to it needs some tlc it needs to be resurrected a little bit but i saw the new ones and i was thinking man i maybe i'll maybe i'll sell the this escalera and pick up a new one because it they looked that good so who knows if you want to project escalera reach out to me um
00:01:36
Speaker
But if you want a new Escalera, reach out to Zach.
Expo Schedule Challenges and Vendor Area Observations
00:01:40
Speaker
So we went to Expo, and I think I've listened to plenty of the coverage from Expo.
00:01:45
Speaker
I think we have quite the interesting different take because we did stuff differently than a lot of people that went to Expo.
00:01:54
Speaker
I didn't know what to expect, and so I think I spread myself thin.
00:01:58
Speaker
I don't know about you, Scott, but I did like a knee-jerk reaction and entered the tournament on top of everything else.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, that was probably a bad idea.
00:02:07
Speaker
Well, the challenge, though, is when you look at it, this is a casualty of the way they schedule it.
00:02:13
Speaker
And I was a little surprised that I and I flew in Wednesday night.
00:02:19
Speaker
So we have Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
00:02:22
Speaker
And most of the stuff, the seminars were going on.
00:02:25
Speaker
But on Thursday night and Friday night, you didn't even get into the vendor area until about 6 p.m.
00:02:34
Speaker
And I think it was slightly different, like on Friday and Saturday.
00:02:38
Speaker
Saturday was there all day, but we did the pinball Olympics, which we'll talk about.
00:02:43
Speaker
But I wish there was a little bit more time in the, that we could get into the vendor area.
00:02:50
Speaker
Not necessarily because of where all the pinball machines are, but I felt that some of the people who traveled to set up their displays, I didn't feel like they got a lot of attention just because there was such a mad rush because it was so compressed.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:04
Speaker
So I felt that, yes, it was a mad rush in many ways, but in some ways you were kind of waiting for things to open up.
00:03:11
Speaker
Correct.
00:03:12
Speaker
And I felt like we were very fortunate.
00:03:13
Speaker
So speaking of that first night, you got in at 6.
00:03:15
Speaker
I got in at 11.30 because the flights had went like just smooth as butter.
Travel Experiences and Virtual Stern Tour Insights
00:03:21
Speaker
And got there, and I'm waiting for a Lyft car, and I'm watching the GPS on my phone, and they're like –
00:03:29
Speaker
going zigzag it's like oh they're three minutes away no they're seven minutes away no they're five minutes away what the heck is going on this this person pulls up i get in the car right and the first person the first thing they say to me is oh don't mind the noise i hit something on the way here and my car is making a funny noise now but we'll get you to where you need to go i i was like is this a good sign or a bad sign right confidence building exactly and it was a 20 minute drive from the airport to the hotel
00:03:58
Speaker
And it took this person like 35 minutes because for some odd reason, they kept doing circles on the off ramps.
00:04:04
Speaker
Anywho, long story short, I got there safe.
00:04:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:08
Speaker
So I got there at 1.30 in the morning, woke you up.
00:04:13
Speaker
We went to bed, got up the next morning.
00:04:17
Speaker
The seminars had started with the virtual tour of Stern, which kind of stinks that we didn't get to go in person.
00:04:22
Speaker
But the cool part about the virtual tour is there was a lot more to see.
00:04:26
Speaker
because they were able to get you into areas that you wouldn't be able to go otherwise they were able to uh it was jack danger
00:04:34
Speaker
I'm sorry, I can't remember whose cameraman was, but they were able to get in the designer's area, show the cubicles, stuff like that.
00:04:40
Speaker
There was a lot of information there.
00:04:42
Speaker
And I just wanted to share some highlights.
00:04:45
Speaker
What did you like from it first?
00:04:47
Speaker
You're 100% right in that if you have 80 people, there's no chance they could have gone through all the locations we went through.
00:04:57
Speaker
Um, you would have been on the factory floor and it's a, it's an assembly line, uh, just like, uh, most factories are.
00:05:05
Speaker
And you would have been focused just on seeing that and the large areas, but it was really cool to see going back to, you know, where the, the white woods are built and where the offices are.
00:05:19
Speaker
And I need, it looked like a factory and that's pretty much how it is, but it felt, uh, I actually thought was fine.
00:05:26
Speaker
Um,
00:05:27
Speaker
I, uh, at some point I would like to go to a real factory tour, but I thought it was a really good option.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yep.
00:05:37
Speaker
Sounds like me and you need to go during when it's not expo and just hit them up or something.
00:05:42
Speaker
Cause yeah, I knew it would be nice at some point to, uh,
00:05:46
Speaker
But it's tough on Stern and all the other manufacturers.
00:05:50
Speaker
I mean, JJP's there, American Pinball's there.
00:05:52
Speaker
Where during the expo, they are so busy.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:56
Speaker
And so it would have been nice to get a small tour.
00:06:03
Speaker
But really, it would have been us and like 400 other people who said, hey, I'm into pinball.
00:06:07
Speaker
Can you just show me around the factory?
00:06:09
Speaker
Exactly.
00:06:10
Speaker
So it just doesn't work out.
00:06:11
Speaker
But I thought, all things considered, they did a good job.
00:06:14
Speaker
I agree.
00:06:15
Speaker
Gomez narrated.
00:06:16
Speaker
Jack Danger was on the other side narrating in the factory.
00:06:21
Speaker
Some of the things he had said, Stern is making more games now per day than they were pre-COVID.
00:06:27
Speaker
So that's pretty impressive.
00:06:30
Speaker
COVID shut them down for three months.
00:06:32
Speaker
Four shut down.
00:06:33
Speaker
But in that time, they re-evaluated how they were manufacturing.
00:06:37
Speaker
They were able to cut out some of the dead weight and become more efficient in manufacturing.
00:06:42
Speaker
So they actually felt like COVID helped them more than it hurt them at some points.
00:06:47
Speaker
They have two CNC machines now for playfields.
00:06:51
Speaker
And they are doubling that.
00:06:52
Speaker
They should have that.
00:06:54
Speaker
They should have that shortly.
00:06:56
Speaker
Gomez didn't give a time frame, but he said that they've essentially ordered the CNC machines for their play fields and they should be here soon.
00:07:03
Speaker
Let's see.
00:07:04
Speaker
One of the other interesting parts too is he was talking about fixing the lower cabinets on the stern machines.
00:07:08
Speaker
I guess just recently they fixed the upper cabinets by going mostly metal.
00:07:12
Speaker
So they were kind of looking at doing something like that with the bottom cabinet and helping cut costs and it'd be a little more efficient because the back box has become really efficient.
00:07:21
Speaker
and not only assembly, but, um, also on the line and whatnot.
00:07:26
Speaker
I think it was also lighter weight too, but I don't think that was the driving force.
00:07:30
Speaker
I think he, he said, clean up some issues.
00:07:33
Speaker
And so, um, certainly, uh, uh, it, it does make things, it modernizes things.
00:07:39
Speaker
So, uh, you're, you're going to lose slightly a feel of an older cabinet, but you know what, if,
00:07:46
Speaker
if you can maneuver things a little easier and it ends up being more compact and efficient, then that's the way to go.
00:07:54
Speaker
Yep.
00:07:55
Speaker
Including vendors, people that make parts, all that stuff for Stern, they estimate anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 people's, how many they employ for Stern.
00:08:05
Speaker
So obviously they don't make all their own product, but they're counting, you know, people that make the sculpts that all down to even the little bits and screws, I guess.
00:08:13
Speaker
So,
00:08:13
Speaker
And then the last thing that I thought was very interesting is Gomez had then announced Spike 3 is in development.
00:08:21
Speaker
He said that pretty much technology is moving on and they need to keep up with it.
00:08:25
Speaker
And because of that, they are now starting to work on Spike 3.
00:08:31
Speaker
And that shouldn't surprise anybody.
00:08:34
Speaker
It's basically, it follows an operating system timeline of
00:08:39
Speaker
like Nintendo or PlayStation or something like that, where it has become almost like a mini video game operating system.
00:08:48
Speaker
So those cycles last anywhere from four to five years.
00:08:52
Speaker
So being able to make sure you keep up with technology.
00:08:56
Speaker
I mean, if you think about it, open the back box of any game in the 80s or 90s and now look open a back box.
00:09:04
Speaker
And it looks completely different because the computer technology has overtaken any sort of the fuses and the bits of wire that they used to do.
00:09:16
Speaker
And so it's so much better and more reliable, really.
00:09:22
Speaker
I agree.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I think one of the points that they'd kind of made, too, as well as like.
00:09:26
Speaker
the LCD screens are kind of becoming obsolete and everything's turning to 4K.
00:09:31
Speaker
So I think that's kind of one of the pushes as well to Spike 3.
00:09:35
Speaker
He mentioned that, but he didn't confirm they are for sure doing 4K screens.
00:09:38
Speaker
Right, but it makes sense.
00:09:41
Speaker
It goes back to what Joe Kamenkau told us, is that when you do a pivot between an old technology and a new technology, it immediately visually makes the old technology just appear dated.
00:09:55
Speaker
And
Stern's Technological Advancements and Strategy
00:09:56
Speaker
it's like looking at a color DMD now versus looking at the LCD.
00:10:00
Speaker
It looks, or sorry, not a color DMD, just a typical DMD.
00:10:04
Speaker
It looks significantly dated if you don't have the LCD in there.
00:10:11
Speaker
So it's, you have to keep up.
00:10:13
Speaker
Otherwise it just looks sad.
00:10:15
Speaker
So the virtual tour ends.
00:10:17
Speaker
Gomez is there.
00:10:18
Speaker
Gary Stern has arrived.
00:10:19
Speaker
The new president, Seth Davis, is there.
00:10:21
Speaker
Jack Danger had actually finished the virtual part and had already made it back to Expo.
00:10:26
Speaker
So that tells you how close the new convention was to Stern itself.
00:10:30
Speaker
Moda Harney was there.
00:10:31
Speaker
She was helping with all the technology.
00:10:33
Speaker
And they kind of did a Q&A.
00:10:36
Speaker
Some of it was really awesome questions.
00:10:38
Speaker
Some were very awkward.
00:10:39
Speaker
We're not really going to go into those.
00:10:41
Speaker
And then they stayed around and they signed some stuff.
00:10:45
Speaker
So it was pretty cool.
00:10:47
Speaker
That was the most packed seminar I saw out of all of them.
00:10:49
Speaker
It was pretty front to back with just people.
00:10:52
Speaker
And it was a good vibe.
00:10:54
Speaker
It really was.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that was good.
00:10:57
Speaker
And it was a good look for pinball.
00:11:00
Speaker
It feels like Stern has embraced their front runner status.
00:11:06
Speaker
And they are taking the lead in both volume and in also forward thinking performance.
00:11:13
Speaker
The new president of Stern, Seth Davis, he has a history of like the Walt Disney World and ESPN and the subscription-based streaming services, which is – I understand people feeling nervous because a lot of the nice things about pinball machines is that you buy it and it's done.
00:11:36
Speaker
You have paid – it's an out-the-door cost, right?
00:11:39
Speaker
And so I understand why people are nervous when you start implementing some sort of possible subscription thing.
00:11:48
Speaker
But the way I look at it is I have no idea where it's going to go down in the future.
00:11:53
Speaker
Currently, it's just free.
00:11:55
Speaker
And it could be that in the future, if you want to add
00:11:59
Speaker
something, and this is me, me completely speculating, then it's an optional service.
00:12:04
Speaker
And in many ways, I see it being a huge thing.
00:12:07
Speaker
And George Gomez says, we need to walk before we run.
00:12:12
Speaker
And so people were talking about, you know, privacy concerns and everything associated with some sort of integrated thing.
00:12:18
Speaker
But I felt that it was a very good thing.
00:12:21
Speaker
And he was talking about, look, this, this will give us more information on games.
00:12:25
Speaker
And so
00:12:26
Speaker
it'll tell us what modes are done and how often these things happen.
00:12:29
Speaker
And so this is one of the best feedbacks they could possibly get on being able to implement new code updates in games.
00:12:40
Speaker
Because if there's a mode that just no one gets to because it's too difficult, then they can actually look at that.
00:12:46
Speaker
I also look at this as a great troubleshooting option because just like on your car, you take your car into the dealer, what's the first thing they do?
00:12:56
Speaker
They hook it up to a computer and say, oh, well, this is the error.
00:13:01
Speaker
So I know they have a system like that in the service menu, but most people, I'd say the average pinball player is unfamiliar with the service menu.
00:13:10
Speaker
So I say that as being a huge plus.
00:13:13
Speaker
And so we'll see where this goes.
00:13:16
Speaker
I'm sure there'll be people who like the new integration.
00:13:20
Speaker
I thought, uh, I guess let's transition to, um, the stern connectivity then.
00:13:26
Speaker
Um, what, what did you think?
00:13:28
Speaker
I thought it was a lot of fun.
00:13:29
Speaker
You and I both signed up, uh, Josh signed up first.
00:13:31
Speaker
So he got loser kid.
00:13:33
Speaker
I signed up second.
00:13:34
Speaker
So I got loser kid, the number two.
00:13:37
Speaker
Um,
00:13:38
Speaker
And I thought it was just kind of fun because you would be playing a game and a little badge would pop up and said, hey, you just achieved this or you just did this.
00:13:48
Speaker
And it really didn't affect the game much, but I thought it was kind of fun.
00:13:54
Speaker
And especially because I'm not really a score chaser.
00:13:57
Speaker
I like like a completion aspect of the game.
00:14:02
Speaker
To say, hey, I've done Chaos Multiball or hey, I've gone this pathway on Jurassic Park or hey, I've been able to start this multiball that I've never done before.
00:14:16
Speaker
So I thought that was a lot of fun and it seemed really easy.
00:14:21
Speaker
Currently it's web-based, but I'm sure there's an app in development.
00:14:25
Speaker
I enjoyed it.
00:14:26
Speaker
There was a hiccup that we experienced.
00:14:28
Speaker
It was a day two.
00:14:29
Speaker
We had had four people on the pinball machine.
00:14:31
Speaker
We'd invite some people we just met.
00:14:34
Speaker
We're playing Godzilla.
00:14:35
Speaker
And I know that I had put my phone...
00:14:38
Speaker
my name popped up as player four.
00:14:41
Speaker
And then the next thing I know I'm playing, I'm playing what we thought was player four.
00:14:44
Speaker
And all of a sudden I'm playing, I think it was your ball.
00:14:46
Speaker
Wasn't it the very first ball?
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:47
Speaker
Something like that.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:48
Speaker
And I'm like, where did I go?
00:14:50
Speaker
And so it looks like there's a couple of bugs.
00:14:52
Speaker
That's honest.
00:14:53
Speaker
I mean, that's the only bug.
00:14:54
Speaker
It was super, it was very slick.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
Other than that, it did really well.
00:14:58
Speaker
I like to try it out.
00:15:00
Speaker
I think it's going to be huge.
00:15:01
Speaker
I, I,
00:15:04
Speaker
this will be a big push to get people onto locations because they can look up and say, hey, there is a linked machine that is out there and it's at this location.
00:15:15
Speaker
So they can go to it.
00:15:16
Speaker
Also, even George Gomez was saying this is going to be a huge benefit for operators because operators will be able to see if a game is functioning.
00:15:26
Speaker
Because if you're running a route, especially depending on how big your area is,
00:15:30
Speaker
you're typically not going to stop off there every day.
00:15:33
Speaker
And you're probably going to stop off once a month.
00:15:36
Speaker
And if you were...
00:15:38
Speaker
Uh, if you, you know, the weekends are probably going to, when you're making most money.
00:15:44
Speaker
So if you just don't know that your game's off or there's an issue, cause you know, the, the, the waiter, the bartender, or the, the amusement center, the movie theater, that's not their gig.
00:15:57
Speaker
They're not, they're not going to focus on making sure your games are running.
00:16:00
Speaker
And so,
00:16:01
Speaker
having an ability to say oh this is down i noticed this in my hot tub i i have a hot tub and i'll get a message hey your hot tub lost connectivity is there is everything okay is the power down and so that that keeps it up and so i see a very similar thing with insider so the stern tour ends you and i look at each other we're like what do we do the the vendor hall doesn't really open till six free play wasn't even going at that point
00:16:28
Speaker
So we were kind of working with Zach Manny with flipping out and was like, we'll just walk in like we own the place and go, go help in the vendor area with Zach.
Vendor Area Dynamics and Game Highlights
00:16:38
Speaker
And you're like, I don't know about this.
00:16:40
Speaker
I'm like, no, just, just walk through like you own the place and they won't even question you.
00:16:43
Speaker
So we start walking through and Scott gets through and a lady tries to stop us.
00:16:48
Speaker
She's like, where are you going?
00:16:49
Speaker
She didn't stop.
00:16:50
Speaker
She just asked.
00:16:50
Speaker
And I said, where are you going?
00:16:52
Speaker
And you just like, what did you say?
00:16:55
Speaker
I said, I'm flipping out.
00:16:56
Speaker
And I just kept walking.
00:16:57
Speaker
And you like book it.
00:16:58
Speaker
And also she flips around.
00:16:59
Speaker
She's like right in front of me.
00:17:01
Speaker
And she's like, what did he say?
00:17:02
Speaker
Where are you going?
00:17:03
Speaker
And I'm like, we're helping with flipping out.
00:17:05
Speaker
And she's like,
00:17:07
Speaker
What are you even talking about?
00:17:08
Speaker
Like she starts giving me like the fifth degree.
00:17:11
Speaker
And Rob Burke's daughter walks over and is like, they're good.
00:17:13
Speaker
They're fine.
00:17:14
Speaker
Let them through.
00:17:15
Speaker
And so you were already gone.
00:17:17
Speaker
And so I get it.
00:17:18
Speaker
I was already in the vendor hall.
00:17:20
Speaker
So.
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:22
Speaker
So imagine walking.
00:17:23
Speaker
It's a massive room.
00:17:24
Speaker
I'd say it's about two, three blocks long.
00:17:26
Speaker
City blocks.
00:17:27
Speaker
It's huge.
00:17:28
Speaker
So I, we never went to the old one.
00:17:29
Speaker
I heard that the old one was more partitioned into a whole bunch of small rooms.
00:17:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:36
Speaker
The plus and minus of this was, it was a very typical convention center feel.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yes.
00:17:44
Speaker
Comic-Con.
00:17:45
Speaker
If you've ever been to Comic-Con.
00:17:46
Speaker
If you go to any of these things, I mean, it's, it's basically like a giant warehouse.
00:17:50
Speaker
And so they can set up everything.
00:17:52
Speaker
And so they had two areas.
00:17:53
Speaker
They had the free play area that had a decent amount of games.
00:17:57
Speaker
And then they had a vendor area.
00:18:00
Speaker
So that's where, you know, flipping out set up.
00:18:03
Speaker
That's where Stern set up.
00:18:04
Speaker
That's where Chicago gaming company, American pinball, JJP, like all of them had a major presence.
00:18:11
Speaker
And there were also a lot of vendor booths that you could go and see.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:16
Speaker
So you had to walk through free play to get to the vendor.
00:18:19
Speaker
And we got into the vendor area and the very first place we go is Legends of Valhalla.
00:18:23
Speaker
And Steve Bowden's there.
00:18:25
Speaker
We ran over, congratulate him.
00:18:26
Speaker
Like, congratulations, man.
00:18:28
Speaker
Again, it is fantastic that you're worth American Pinball.
00:18:31
Speaker
I hope they put you to great use.
00:18:33
Speaker
It looked like...
00:18:34
Speaker
I mean, that man's enthusiasm for pinball is through the roof.
00:18:38
Speaker
We're sitting there playing Legends of Valhalla, and he's just soaking in all the information we'll give him, what we think, what we don't think he's giving us ideas of what he's going to do.
00:18:47
Speaker
He's only been there, what, a week and a half is what he said?
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker
And he was already telling us how he's going to balance this rule and that rule.
00:18:55
Speaker
It was very awesome.
00:18:57
Speaker
And my only suggestion to him out of all of it was,
00:19:00
Speaker
the flipper power at the bottom was really weak so you were barely hitting that center ramp and he'd mentioned they were nervous because of these games being played 12 hours a day that they turned down the flipper power to make sure that they didn't overheat and stuff like that which i get so i i get it's it's challenging because uh
00:19:23
Speaker
Even at a bar location or an arcade location, you're not going to get 1,000 plays in a day.
00:19:32
Speaker
But at a convention, you will.
00:19:35
Speaker
And it will be consistently moving the whole time.
00:19:38
Speaker
And so it's hard because I know some people...
00:19:44
Speaker
didn't have like a, they were questioning how well it flows because obviously at a, at a convention, you have to make some modifications.
00:19:52
Speaker
I actually went in.
00:19:53
Speaker
And so the night before I was there and I met Jeff Theolis in person and we actually went back and Dave Fix took us and we played the game.
00:20:04
Speaker
So we played it when it was cold, when it was set up and it wasn't overheated.
00:20:08
Speaker
And like it, it wasn't used like all the other machines.
00:20:11
Speaker
I mean, this isn't unique to American pinball.
00:20:13
Speaker
There's,
00:20:14
Speaker
You have heard these things from other vendors during other expos.
00:20:19
Speaker
But I played it and it was, I thought it was a lot of fun.
00:20:23
Speaker
I legends of all, just to refresh your memory.
00:20:28
Speaker
This is a, it was a homebrew game that American people contracted out.
00:20:34
Speaker
It's with riot pinball and Scott from riot pinball.
00:20:37
Speaker
He's the one who, who developed it and, and did the storyline.
00:20:43
Speaker
And so,
00:20:44
Speaker
you know, the, the art that Scott did and the, and you know, it's, it's it's basically a Viking who's away marauding and comes back and finds his, his home, his home is ransacked and burned and his family is murdered.
00:21:02
Speaker
And so he goes through this journey and eventually his wife comes back as the Valkyrie.
00:21:07
Speaker
And so that's the whole storyline.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:10
Speaker
of Valhalla, but I actually thought it was a solid game.
00:21:14
Speaker
I thought it was a big step forward for American Pinball.
00:21:18
Speaker
And it was a really solid showing at the show.
00:21:24
Speaker
It was great to talk to Steve and just get our hands on the game.
00:21:29
Speaker
We went and talked to Zach Many, but he was running around with a chicken with his head cut off because he was still trying to get all set up.
00:21:35
Speaker
So we moved over to P3.
00:21:38
Speaker
Got to talk to Jerry, uh, jelly, Jerry Stellenberg.
00:21:42
Speaker
And we played heists and then we played sorcerer and they were both, I thought they were really fun.
00:21:50
Speaker
It is fun.
00:21:52
Speaker
It seems a little bit like a hybrid.
00:21:53
Speaker
I understand when people say it doesn't feel like pinball because what they're used to is they're used to a physical game without the augmentation.
00:22:08
Speaker
This felt very pinball-y to me, but it also felt like a pinball machine and an iPad game.
00:22:16
Speaker
fused together.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:18
Speaker
And so it has a lot of those similar aspects where instead of using your finger, you're using the ball and you're using flippers.
00:22:24
Speaker
The flippers were solid.
00:22:25
Speaker
They were uniquely designed to float above the, above the screen.
00:22:33
Speaker
And I, I thought it was a lot of fun.
00:22:35
Speaker
And I think for the right market, this actually could be a really big, big hit.
00:22:41
Speaker
No, just like everything is, it's not for everybody, but,
00:22:45
Speaker
However, I felt that it still was quite fun.
00:22:49
Speaker
And in many ways, I could see this being a huge hit at Ticket Redemption Centers because you can have very similar type games where the goal is to capture as many monkeys as you have on the field or something like that.
00:23:05
Speaker
I'm excited for whatever they have planned next.
00:23:08
Speaker
I know that we started talking to him about what the possibility might be.
00:23:13
Speaker
And they just wanted to hear the rumors that we had heard.
00:23:15
Speaker
They weren't going to give us any information.
00:23:17
Speaker
So we, we just talked and it was, it was cool to talk to Jerry.
00:23:21
Speaker
Um, I, I could see owning a P3.
00:23:25
Speaker
I thought it was really fun.
00:23:26
Speaker
I actually thought it shot really well.
00:23:28
Speaker
Uh, my only, I guess my only complaint, I don't know.
00:23:31
Speaker
We kind of discussed this with some other people as well and they had brought it up, but, um,
00:23:36
Speaker
When the game is turned off, it's not a very pretty game off.
00:23:41
Speaker
Well, it looks like a powered down computer because it is a powered down computer.
00:23:47
Speaker
If your art is wholly tied to the electronic activation of the screen, then it can be a little challenging.
00:23:56
Speaker
However, I'm really...
00:23:58
Speaker
To be blunt, though, if you're in Vegas and every single slot machine is a similar thing, and they've gone through the same evolution where it's basically an iPad-style game that has been merged with a slot machine.
00:24:13
Speaker
That's how all the slots are now.
00:24:14
Speaker
And if you look at the P3, it's a very similar fusion of pinball and an iPad.
00:24:23
Speaker
Overall, I really enjoyed
Innovative Homebrew Pinball Creations
00:24:25
Speaker
it.
00:24:25
Speaker
I actually think I enjoyed the pre three more than some of the other games I played there.
00:24:30
Speaker
It was very creative.
00:24:31
Speaker
It was it was really fun to see pinball taking a different avenue.
00:24:38
Speaker
It's not the same thing as your standard game, but everything doesn't have to be your standard game.
00:24:44
Speaker
Right there by American Pinball and P3 and flipping out was the homebrews.
00:24:48
Speaker
I know we didn't hit those till day three, but I want to I want to insert them here.
00:24:54
Speaker
I didn't get to play Sonic, but you did.
00:24:56
Speaker
Right, Scott?
00:24:56
Speaker
There was I did.
00:24:57
Speaker
I played Sonic.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, so many people there.
00:25:00
Speaker
And so that's always a good sign that's doing good, right?
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:03
Speaker
So I talked with Ryan McQuaid, who actually designed Sonic, and they had a homebrew seminar.
00:25:08
Speaker
So I would say the homebrews that seemed to bubble up with the most integration were Sonic the Hedgehog.
00:25:17
Speaker
There was a Metroid-themed game.
00:25:20
Speaker
There was also a Castlevania-themed game.
00:25:24
Speaker
There was one that was called Boys' Night Out.
00:25:28
Speaker
And that was someone who was interesting because he was actually in movies and he made the movie and he ended up making the pinball machine too.
00:25:37
Speaker
That was in a very basic phase, but it was still interesting to play.
00:25:42
Speaker
And there were a few others too.
00:25:46
Speaker
They had a TNA machine there, which I thought was kind of fun.
00:25:50
Speaker
But the music was off for some odd reason.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was.
00:25:54
Speaker
You're missing Greek gods, which I thought was very impressive.
00:25:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
um yeah and that was the one that had the lower play field right yep that had and you couldn't see it until you completed something and the the screen that was in the bottom of the playful that you did almost like the size of black hole or um haunted house yeah but it was actually a bigger play field underneath yeah it was had a magnifying glass down there so that was that was a lot of fun um
00:26:25
Speaker
But Ryan's game was pretty awesome from what you were telling me.
00:26:29
Speaker
It was great because now the good news is he talked about this in the seminar that he specifically found that Sonic is very, very free with using their intellectual property, their assets for hobbyists.
00:26:47
Speaker
And so he was able to use, um, like primary sources for the animations for Sonic.
00:26:53
Speaker
And he was able to use like their animations and their art.
00:26:58
Speaker
And it was, you know, because this is not a money-making venture in, however, if they did move to a commercial venture, then I'm sure that's when licensing would come in.
00:27:08
Speaker
But he said he wasn't too worried about, um, about Sega really doing anything just because it was, uh,
00:27:15
Speaker
they were very friendly with hobbyists.
00:27:18
Speaker
Uh, Nintendo and Disney tend to be a little less, um, uh, I, I guess welcoming in that sense.
00:27:25
Speaker
I still feel that there would be less likelihood that you would get in trouble for something that you made on your own because it's a, you know, it's, it's a home project.
00:27:34
Speaker
They, they do home art that people do on their own, but, uh, he, he felt freer, I guess.
00:27:41
Speaker
Um,
00:27:43
Speaker
But hey, we had a Metroid and a Castlevania one there.
00:27:45
Speaker
So, and I doubt that Nintendo really cares those were made.
00:27:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:48
Speaker
So.
00:27:49
Speaker
But Sonic felt very good.
00:27:52
Speaker
It still feels like it's a homebrew and that it would need to go through some iterations before it became a production machine.
00:28:01
Speaker
The ramps felt fun.
00:28:03
Speaker
And one of the cool ramps is they actually had a loop-de-loop ramp, like in Sonic the Hedgehog.
00:28:08
Speaker
And it was hooked up to a kicker.
00:28:11
Speaker
And so it loaded it and then it went through the loop and came around.
00:28:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:18
Speaker
Ramp seemed wide and easy to hit, but that was also a positive because you got used to the game.
00:28:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
00:28:30
Speaker
And same thing with Metroid.
00:28:31
Speaker
Metroid was really good.
00:28:32
Speaker
I thought the theme integration was really good.
00:28:35
Speaker
And he's the one who was just hired at Jersey Jack, though, as a primary designer.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yes.
00:28:42
Speaker
Mark Seiden.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yes.
00:28:44
Speaker
Mark Seiden.
00:28:45
Speaker
And I didn't get to talk to the other designers except for the Boys Night Out.
00:28:51
Speaker
Well, I want to pause you there because I played Metroid and I really enjoyed it.
00:28:55
Speaker
Yeah, I played a little bit, but you played a lot of it.
00:28:58
Speaker
So my only complaint is I wish I could take this game home.
00:29:01
Speaker
There is a lot of depth to this game and I want to explore it.
00:29:06
Speaker
The back glass animations are amazing.
00:29:11
Speaker
It's very cool that he's taken the concept of Metroid.
00:29:14
Speaker
If you've never played Metroid, I don't know how to explain it to you because it's its own genre of video game.
00:29:20
Speaker
Well, you can definitely say it's basically a space game where you're fighting aliens and your hero, your protagonist is a female.
00:29:35
Speaker
But you're exploring the map like you would in Metroid from room to room and stuff like that.
00:29:41
Speaker
I guess one of my only complaints is besides the I can't take it home, the flippers did feel a little weak.
00:29:47
Speaker
I felt like I couldn't hit certain areas of the game.
00:29:50
Speaker
Once again, we were expo.
00:29:52
Speaker
Who knows?
00:29:53
Speaker
It's hard to make 100% like this is what's going on at a show.
00:29:58
Speaker
Did you question whether or not it was your deficient talent level?
00:30:01
Speaker
Maybe.
00:30:02
Speaker
That's a good possibility.
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:05
Speaker
But seriously, it's a really cool game.
00:30:08
Speaker
And I'm glad that JJP picked him up.
00:30:10
Speaker
Let's talk Boys Night Out because this game, I still know how to feel about this game.
00:30:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:17
Speaker
It was very basic.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:19
Speaker
Except for the animations were really good.
00:30:21
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:30:22
Speaker
It wasn't animation.
00:30:23
Speaker
It was actually clips from the movie.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:26
Speaker
And so the challenging things, I think.
00:30:32
Speaker
The theme, I think, veers into maybe stereotypical boys' behavior.
00:30:37
Speaker
And so it felt a little bit like if you've ever seen the Vince Vaughn movie, Swingers, feels very much along that vibe.
00:30:47
Speaker
And so that may or may not ring well or poorly with people.
00:30:52
Speaker
But the problem is, though, is when I'm playing this,
00:30:55
Speaker
it's, it's hard to tell what you're doing because the bear, the play field is just bare.
00:30:59
Speaker
There is no indications on, which is fine.
00:31:02
Speaker
It's a homebrew.
00:31:03
Speaker
Um,
00:31:04
Speaker
So you have these two gentlemen riding around a car.
00:31:06
Speaker
It feels very night at the Roxbury's without the music.
00:31:10
Speaker
It's like they're exhausted from our listening music.
00:31:13
Speaker
And so they're sitting there just kind of chilling in the car.
00:31:17
Speaker
And so you don't really know what to do because there's really no call-outs or anything.
00:31:20
Speaker
So you're hitting a bunch of shots.
00:31:21
Speaker
And I had started a mode called urination station.
00:31:25
Speaker
And I figured I'd see something, but I guess I wasn't hitting the right stuff.
00:31:29
Speaker
And so it still was just the two dudes.
00:31:31
Speaker
So you weren't hitting anything of the urination station?
00:31:33
Speaker
I guess.
00:31:34
Speaker
Because obviously it paused and they said their thing that they say in the movie and then it showed them back in the car, right?
00:31:41
Speaker
And I was like, okay.
00:31:43
Speaker
It was a decent game.
00:31:44
Speaker
It was a good start.
00:31:46
Speaker
I'd like to see more.
00:31:48
Speaker
Theme doesn't necessarily resonate with me, but not everything does.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:51
Speaker
I guess we could go watch the movie and see if it does resonate with us.
00:31:54
Speaker
Could be.
00:31:56
Speaker
After that, Castlevania.
00:31:58
Speaker
Holy crap, that game was brutal.
00:32:00
Speaker
It was hard.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:01
Speaker
Well, Castlevania is brutal, so it made sense.
00:32:03
Speaker
Exactly.
00:32:03
Speaker
The original Nintendo Entertainment one, you would get to a certain level and you would just leave the game on because you did not want to lose that space.
00:32:12
Speaker
It was fun.
00:32:13
Speaker
I didn't play a ton of, get a ton of time on it just because it was so brutal, very unique, different back glass.
00:32:19
Speaker
Cause it was etched wood.
00:32:20
Speaker
Wasn't it?
00:32:21
Speaker
Yeah, it was late.
00:32:21
Speaker
It was laser engraved wood.
00:32:23
Speaker
So it had a very cool feel.
00:32:27
Speaker
Um, just because it, it felt very, uh, you know, very shoppy, you know, like a kid built this and shop class.
00:32:33
Speaker
And I don't mean that to sound insulting.
00:32:35
Speaker
I actually mean that to sound like, Hey, this is a really cool home project.
00:32:40
Speaker
And then I think the last one that we hit all of them was Greek gods, which was the most impressive one that wasn't a theme.
00:32:47
Speaker
Well, it's a theme, but I didn't recognize what they were going for kind of.
00:32:52
Speaker
Right.
00:32:52
Speaker
I think they did a great job on that.
00:32:55
Speaker
And that was really impressive that they were able to layer the modes so you actually go to the underworld.
00:33:02
Speaker
And that was more...
00:33:07
Speaker
That was more than I anticipated a homebrew would do.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yes.
00:33:12
Speaker
And so that was, I think they took a lead from, I guess a hint from the Kroll machine, because I think that playfield underneath the main playfield is actually a lot bigger than you think.
00:33:24
Speaker
It's a possibility.
00:33:24
Speaker
Because you're using it with the telescopic lens.
00:33:28
Speaker
There was a knee button that he'd installed on the coin door.
00:33:32
Speaker
And if you held it in, you could control the pop bumpers up top, if I remember correctly.
00:33:37
Speaker
and then, but it killed your flippers down below.
00:33:39
Speaker
So you had to decide when to use the knee button.
00:33:43
Speaker
Um, the call outs were amazing.
00:33:46
Speaker
The animations were great.
00:33:47
Speaker
They all looked like they are hand down animations.
00:33:50
Speaker
Um,
00:33:52
Speaker
I guess my only one complaint about that game is, so in the game, there's this big wire form that goes from the left side of the play field to the right side of the play field.
00:34:01
Speaker
It goes all the way around the back of the play field and makes a big horseshoe, right?
00:34:05
Speaker
And it's like a captive ball and the power ball's in there.
00:34:09
Speaker
But it's crucial to hit this thing because it changes the diverter.
00:34:14
Speaker
You swapped, yes.
00:34:15
Speaker
Where you hit the power ball, it actually is where the diverter goes.
00:34:19
Speaker
But I could never get the power ball.
00:34:22
Speaker
I hit it as hard as I could, and I could never get that thing to go around.
00:34:25
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:34:25
Speaker
I was able to.
00:34:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:34:28
Speaker
I was able to get that to go around.
00:34:29
Speaker
Once he told us that's how you changed the diverter, there was a center ramp that went two ways, right and left.
00:34:35
Speaker
And that's how you changed the diverter was by moving the power ball.
00:34:38
Speaker
but it was such a big horseshoe.
00:34:39
Speaker
I could never get around.
00:34:40
Speaker
I'm glad you did.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:41
Speaker
But, but honestly, if that's your one hiccup, that that's easy, easy change.
00:34:47
Speaker
It was a really solid homebrew.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:50
Speaker
And it's, it's one people should keep an eye on because it's, it's impressive.
00:34:54
Speaker
It's up there with a Sonic and Metroid, in my opinion.
00:34:58
Speaker
Going on with the homebrew, uh, we should talk about the American pinball announcement where they gave a challenge, uh,
00:35:06
Speaker
Yeah, so American Pinball, the Ron Hallett Challenge, where they said to bring a homebrew machine and they will present it.
00:35:14
Speaker
You present it and they will...
00:35:17
Speaker
vote on it and they have a possibility of hiring you to design a pinball machine or to produce your pinball machine.
00:35:24
Speaker
So I thought that was very cool.
00:35:26
Speaker
And considering if you want to be a pinball designer, that is the best way to do it because it, well, it's the most predictable way because for a company,
00:35:38
Speaker
And that's exactly how Keith Elwin was when George called and said, hey, are you going to be at Expo?
00:35:42
Speaker
He had heard about Archer or or someone had talked to him about it and he was interested in looking at it.
00:35:48
Speaker
And so that that's how Keith got in.
00:35:50
Speaker
Scott Denisi designed TNA as a homebrew.
00:35:53
Speaker
And so coming through the homebrew avenue is not a bad way if you're really considering.
00:35:59
Speaker
And, you know, Jack Danger, too.
00:36:02
Speaker
That's he was working on his homebrew.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, he said that's the best resume you could have for if you want to join up a pinball company.
00:36:09
Speaker
Well, if you want to be a designer.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:13
Speaker
That kind of wraps up the homebrews.
00:36:16
Speaker
It was weird because, like we said, the vendors didn't really open until 6.
00:36:19
Speaker
We kind of went through, played some Godzilla, really enjoyed that game.
00:36:23
Speaker
I cannot wait for mine to show up.
00:36:25
Speaker
I know that mine's after the beginning of the year.
00:36:28
Speaker
Any thoughts of Godzilla really quick?
Godzilla Pinball and Connectivity Features
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
Godzilla had the best showing.
00:36:32
Speaker
It was the, it felt like, you know, it felt like it's a predictable, great design from the Elwin team in that everything felt smooth.
00:36:46
Speaker
Everything felt well thought out.
00:36:49
Speaker
It looks, it looks beautiful.
00:36:51
Speaker
The art is fantastic with Jeremy Packer, IK zombie Yeti and the,
00:36:58
Speaker
the flow just seems so much fun.
00:37:02
Speaker
It feels, it feels different actually than some of the other games in that it felt like it was faster.
00:37:07
Speaker
Like it didn't, it feel like you were hitting more balls on the fly.
00:37:11
Speaker
I did.
00:37:13
Speaker
It was very awesome to hit.
00:37:15
Speaker
I didn't realize cause whenever you look at the Godzilla,
00:37:18
Speaker
uh streams all of them are top down so you don't actually get to see into the mouth of the building and there's actually two bump blue bumper pads in there so the hole to actually shoot into the building is small and that's why they've been calling a bash toy i'm like i don't fully understand why they're calling this a bash toy it's a tight shot but it it's not hard to hit like it's it's like a 50 50. but even if you hit those blue bumpers it still gives you damage towards that building
00:37:44
Speaker
Everything felt great.
00:37:46
Speaker
Three spinners.
00:37:47
Speaker
Holy crap.
00:37:48
Speaker
Playing Eberra and having to knock down those spinners and then get a multi-ball.
00:37:52
Speaker
I loved it.
00:37:52
Speaker
It was... I cannot say enough good about this game.
00:37:56
Speaker
I'm excited for it in my collection.
00:37:58
Speaker
And I played a ton of Stern games this weekend and it showed the best out of all of them.
00:38:02
Speaker
It did.
00:38:02
Speaker
It really had... That was basically the coming out party for Godzilla.
00:38:08
Speaker
And it's not really taking away anything from...
00:38:15
Speaker
the other big manufacturer that had a lot of games there was JJP and they had Guns N' Roses and it's not really taking anything away from Guns N' Roses, but Guns N' Roses has been out for about a year.
00:38:26
Speaker
So I think people have at least had some experience with it.
00:38:31
Speaker
With Godzilla, this was really the first time most people had played it.
00:38:37
Speaker
And the code was really good.
00:38:40
Speaker
It felt very solid.
00:38:42
Speaker
The seminar when Keith was talking about the designing of it and they had...
00:38:45
Speaker
you know, Rick Nagel and Harrison Drake there and the zombie Yeti, all of them seemed like they worked really well together.
00:38:52
Speaker
And you could tell that they, they felt like they, they were dialed into a process, I guess.
00:39:01
Speaker
And if you could feel that they have, they are a good working team.
00:39:05
Speaker
So this is the product of that good working team.
00:39:08
Speaker
So yeah,
00:39:10
Speaker
Um, yeah, I, I thought Godzilla was, uh, it was really the star of the show.
00:39:15
Speaker
Yep.
00:39:16
Speaker
And they had a ton of them there too.
00:39:18
Speaker
Uh, you, if you wanted to play Godzilla, you could play it.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yep.
00:39:21
Speaker
And they also had other things, which were nice.
00:39:23
Speaker
They had some of the other games, uh,
00:39:25
Speaker
They had an Aerosmith there.
00:39:27
Speaker
They also had a Deadpool there.
00:39:30
Speaker
A virus house of horrors.
00:39:33
Speaker
They had an Iron Maiden there.
00:39:35
Speaker
So they had all these ones that were there.
00:39:37
Speaker
Yeah, we'll talk about the 40th.
00:39:39
Speaker
They had all these things and they were all set up to Stern Insider, the connectivity.
00:39:48
Speaker
So Insider Connected.
00:39:49
Speaker
And that was really smart.
00:39:51
Speaker
So people could try that out.
00:39:53
Speaker
I agree.
00:39:54
Speaker
So that I enjoyed it.
00:39:56
Speaker
I think it's a very good showing for the connectivity as well.
00:39:58
Speaker
I think so too.
00:39:59
Speaker
Um, okay.
00:40:00
Speaker
So Elvira, Oh, go ahead.
00:40:03
Speaker
Oh, well, yeah, go ahead and tell Elvira, but I want to get to Jack dangerous game.
00:40:06
Speaker
Cause we did play Jurassic park as well.
00:40:09
Speaker
Yep.
00:40:09
Speaker
Uh, so let's start with Elvira.
00:40:11
Speaker
Uh, I, I think this is a great move for Stern.
00:40:14
Speaker
Uh, the, uh,
00:40:16
Speaker
It does feel like, hey, this is a premium product.
00:40:19
Speaker
And if you want a premium product, you're going to be charged a premium price.
00:40:22
Speaker
So if you happen to be an Elvira fan and you have a lot of money,
00:40:27
Speaker
and you want to buy this game, it looked good.
00:40:31
Speaker
It looked like a good showing.
00:40:32
Speaker
It is certainly going after a certain demographic.
00:40:35
Speaker
It is a high-end collector demographic who wants a combination of exclusivity and a blinged-out Elvira machine.
00:40:47
Speaker
And I think it connected on both levels.
00:40:51
Speaker
I don't have a problem with them doing this because you can still buy a standard Elvira for the, for the price and it will have all the functionality of the, of the 40th anniversary edition.
00:41:05
Speaker
I went back and forth a little bit with one of our friends here in Utah where he was, he was, he, he was concerned that,
00:41:15
Speaker
Uh, if people order these house of horrors machines and they put them off to do a limited edition machine, uh, I countered by saying, I don't think they're going to retool the entire line and run 199.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:31
Speaker
So this would be, Hey, we are running an Elvira house of horrors and included in that run is going to be these 199.
00:41:40
Speaker
which are going to be a premium cost for, uh, that the distributors, they are paying a higher cost for this.
00:41:48
Speaker
This is not a standard pro price that they are buying from them.
00:41:53
Speaker
So the distributors are, are paying more for this game, but they're also charging more too, because it's to the discretion of the, uh, of the, uh, dealer.
00:42:05
Speaker
Um,
00:42:06
Speaker
Most of them went for about 29,000.
00:42:09
Speaker
That's the going rate.
00:42:12
Speaker
Some were going for as low as 25.
00:42:15
Speaker
That's not my style, but hey, not everything is my style.
00:42:20
Speaker
So I'm glad they did it because I think it's a good way of providing a premium product for the right audience.
00:42:31
Speaker
And hey, it's a good way of just raising some capital really quickly.
00:42:36
Speaker
I have no real opinions on it because I just, it doesn't appeal to me at all on almost every front.
00:42:42
Speaker
So I just looked at it and went, awesome.
00:42:45
Speaker
Not for me.
00:42:46
Speaker
But for the Elvira fans, it is perfect for them.
00:42:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:50
Speaker
Jack dangerous game.
00:42:51
Speaker
Jack dangerous game.
00:42:51
Speaker
Talk about it.
00:42:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:53
Speaker
Jack dangerous game is very impressive for a stripped down stern game that is aiming for, I would say a budget stern game.
00:43:03
Speaker
Okay.
00:43:04
Speaker
A budget.
00:43:05
Speaker
So stripped down, stripped down makes it feel like it's, they took a lot of stuff out.
00:43:10
Speaker
I, it has a lower build of material.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
Um, but,
00:43:14
Speaker
But it did feel like a complete game.
00:43:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:18
Speaker
It honestly shot better than some of the other games at Expo.
00:43:22
Speaker
It's very impressive.
00:43:23
Speaker
It reminded me of maybe a mid-90s Williams game.
00:43:27
Speaker
I'd say an early 90s Middles game.
00:43:31
Speaker
It didn't feel like it was full up to an Adams family.
00:43:37
Speaker
However, it was fun.
00:43:40
Speaker
It had a jump ramp.
00:43:41
Speaker
It shot really well.
00:43:44
Speaker
It would go really well in someone's home collection.
00:43:48
Speaker
The one quote that I heard, and I'm going to repeat it, I'm going to steal from Jeff Teolis, is he said the major complaint that he could hear from people is that it doesn't have a coin door.
00:44:00
Speaker
And so you can't put it on location in its current state.
00:44:03
Speaker
And I agree with him.
00:44:04
Speaker
I think that this would be a good location game because it is that fun.
00:44:09
Speaker
It was...
00:44:11
Speaker
It was a solid effort by a rookie designer in Jack Danger, and it showed really well.
00:44:19
Speaker
I agree.
00:44:20
Speaker
My only complaint is how small the screen is.
00:44:22
Speaker
But I've become accustomed to what they have now on a regular, quote, regular-sized pinball machine.
00:44:28
Speaker
Which, everything's regular-sized except for the head on these things.
00:44:32
Speaker
It's the same size play field and all that jazz.
00:44:35
Speaker
Really good game, though.
00:44:36
Speaker
I enjoyed it.
00:44:36
Speaker
Jack did a good job.
00:44:38
Speaker
He said he got a lot of input, and he tried to soak up as much as he could as a sponge.
00:44:42
Speaker
Like a sponge.
00:44:43
Speaker
um we played some gnr honestly it's a fun game i felt like it had the weakest flippers even behind valhalla um but it's a great light show and the music's rocking on there it is a beautiful machine i i i stick with my initial assessment on gnr in that it is an experiential machine
00:45:08
Speaker
So it focuses on being able to say, Hey, I feel like I'm at the concert.
00:45:12
Speaker
I feel like I'm really in there and it's, it's fun.
00:45:15
Speaker
It is.
00:45:16
Speaker
I'm sure you can change the settings.
00:45:18
Speaker
It's very multi-ball and ball saver heavy in the current setup.
00:45:24
Speaker
Now that you can always modify those things.
00:45:28
Speaker
So it was, but it was, it was a lot of fun and it's, it probably is the prettiest machine that I've ever seen.
00:45:35
Speaker
I agree.
00:45:36
Speaker
I get it is over the top pretty.
00:45:38
Speaker
Um, and we talked with Eric, um, Eric was great.
00:45:43
Speaker
And that must be, I gotta say, that's gotta be a rough life.
00:45:46
Speaker
We're sitting there talking to Eric and some guy just walks up and he's like, Eric, I told you I'd buy you a beer.
00:45:50
Speaker
So he hands him a beer.
00:45:51
Speaker
It's like, yeah.
00:45:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:52
Speaker
Good job.
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:53
Speaker
He's like, thanks.
00:45:54
Speaker
And Eric, and it was interesting talking to him because he was talking about, um, having like,
00:46:03
Speaker
the LE number.
00:46:04
Speaker
And I do want to talk about this, the, the LE number where he's like, this was, this was kind of a gut feeling of like, okay, so how many can we possibly make?
00:46:13
Speaker
He's like, I was, I was shooting high in $5,000 or excuse me, 5,000 games.
00:46:21
Speaker
But he said, actually, it feels like we're going to hit that.
00:46:24
Speaker
Like we're probably going to sell out here.
00:46:27
Speaker
Um, because it was that, and I was like, and that, that is, uh, that's his wildest dreams of being able to do such a great showing on the game.
00:46:35
Speaker
And I understand why people would do it.
00:46:36
Speaker
Cause it, it is a fun game that you would have in a home collection, uh, on location probably plays it a little, little long.
00:46:43
Speaker
And I think people would have to adjust the settings, uh, because it w it is a long playing game.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:52
Speaker
It is beautiful though.
00:46:53
Speaker
When you have one of the band members provide all those assets, then it is a designer's dream, I'm sure.
00:47:01
Speaker
And that kind of did it for the vendor area for us.
00:47:04
Speaker
I was like, well, there's so much time between now and when the actual vendor hall opens and kind of some of the other stuff that's going on.
00:47:11
Speaker
I decided to enter the tournament.
00:47:13
Speaker
I didn't fully understand how it worked because I haven't played one of that caliber.
00:47:18
Speaker
Um,
00:47:19
Speaker
It was pretty much, you got 12 games you could play.
00:47:21
Speaker
You could play as many as you want, as many times as you want.
00:47:24
Speaker
Sorry, within that 12 times, they took your top six scores across six machines.
00:47:29
Speaker
And I didn't realize that like they added up your score and then it was like the top 100 people on that machine got points.
00:47:38
Speaker
And, you know, the number one being getting 100, the number 100 getting one point.
00:47:45
Speaker
I wish I had played a little bit harder.
00:47:46
Speaker
I got frustrated because there were just so many people and the wait times were long.
00:47:50
Speaker
So I went up to the front and said, hey, is it better to try now when there's like eight to nine people waiting for a machine or do I come back later?
00:47:58
Speaker
They said that, you know, it could get worse as it gets later on in the day.
00:48:02
Speaker
And so I just kind of stuck it out.
00:48:04
Speaker
But I didn't play my 12 stuff, my 12 entries.
00:48:07
Speaker
I just played eight.
00:48:08
Speaker
And I kind of regret doing that because
00:48:11
Speaker
I wanted to be higher up in B because wherever you landed dictates where you have to play up from the bottom.
00:48:19
Speaker
It's a ladder system, so you get buys if you're higher up.
00:48:24
Speaker
It makes sense.
00:48:26
Speaker
Did you at least have fun?
00:48:27
Speaker
I had fun about halfway through.
00:48:31
Speaker
On Friday, I was just like, I'm kind of burned out.
00:48:33
Speaker
I wasn't super fighting hard because there's so much going on at Expo, and I felt like
00:48:39
Speaker
I was kind of not confined to the tournament area at one point because one of the games had ran long.
Expo Tournament Experiences and Community Interactions
00:48:46
Speaker
The game in between that hadn't even started yet.
00:48:49
Speaker
So I was there at two or three, whatever time I was supposed to be there.
00:48:52
Speaker
And the other two games hadn't even taken place before me.
00:48:55
Speaker
But I couldn't go anywhere because what happens if they finish their games and I'm not there?
00:49:00
Speaker
I don't want to be disqualified for not being there.
00:49:01
Speaker
I waited around like an hour and a half for all this stuff to happen.
00:49:05
Speaker
And any who I just, I think I was burned out by the end of it.
00:49:09
Speaker
So I was kind of glad when I was done.
00:49:13
Speaker
But other than that, we hit lunch with Tealus on Thursday.
00:49:16
Speaker
Was it Thursday night we went to dinner with Tealus?
00:49:20
Speaker
I think that was Friday.
00:49:21
Speaker
That was Friday.
00:49:22
Speaker
So we did lunch with Tealus on Thursday.
00:49:27
Speaker
Caught up with him.
00:49:28
Speaker
Wonderful man.
00:49:29
Speaker
I cannot say enough good about that dude.
00:49:31
Speaker
I know he'll never take it.
00:49:32
Speaker
He'll never claim to it.
00:49:34
Speaker
But he's a really good dude.
00:49:36
Speaker
And Jeff is – I was actually –
00:49:39
Speaker
chatting back and forth with him is that just one of those guys who's he is exactly who you think he's going to be.
00:49:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:46
Speaker
And that he is, uh, he's as nice in person and as personable and approachable as you would imagine.
00:49:52
Speaker
And he was super nice.
00:49:53
Speaker
And by the way, that goes for really everybody that we met for the, for the first time in person.
00:50:01
Speaker
Um,
00:50:03
Speaker
And we met a lot.
00:50:05
Speaker
We met the poor man's tribe and we hung out with them a lot.
00:50:10
Speaker
And that was a lot of fun.
00:50:12
Speaker
We saw Ron Hallett and Ron Hallett is a great guy, super knowledgeable.
00:50:17
Speaker
And that was fun to talk about.
00:50:18
Speaker
He even pointed out the Beavis and Butthead arcade game that was never released.
00:50:22
Speaker
And so it was like a Simpsons basher type game.
00:50:25
Speaker
So I went and played it for a little bit.
00:50:28
Speaker
Um, we, uh, so, so I Jeff Tealos, you know, we met, um, um, Chris, Chris of Canada.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:37
Speaker
We saw him sitting by himself drinking a drink.
00:50:40
Speaker
Well, he was between events and he was just sitting there and we went over and talked with him.
00:50:46
Speaker
And legitimately, he was very personable, very nice and very approachable.
00:50:53
Speaker
So it was actually good to catch up with him.
00:50:56
Speaker
I was going to say, we really didn't even talk pinball with him.
00:50:57
Speaker
We sat down, we talked about our families.
00:50:59
Speaker
We exchanged stories.
00:51:00
Speaker
He showed us his baby.
00:51:01
Speaker
I showed him my babies.
00:51:02
Speaker
I mean, it was...
00:51:04
Speaker
I think that was the one thing I did enjoy about Expo is there's so much drama and stuff on Pinside and Facebook and stuff like that.
00:51:11
Speaker
I was kind of nervous going to an Expo because I was afraid maybe some of it would bubble over, you know, because there are keyboard.
00:51:17
Speaker
Well, on Pinside, there's a few people who really try to ratchet it up.
00:51:22
Speaker
Yeah, correct.
00:51:23
Speaker
And so I was nervous of something happening.
00:51:26
Speaker
Honestly, everyone is very calm.
00:51:27
Speaker
Everyone.
00:51:28
Speaker
It was like family had come together and hadn't seen each other for a long time.
00:51:33
Speaker
And so it was, it was nice.
00:51:35
Speaker
It really was.
00:51:35
Speaker
I, um, I don't know all in all, it was, it was very cool to meet all these people.
00:51:40
Speaker
So, yeah, it was super nice.
00:51:42
Speaker
I saw Joe Fox.
00:51:43
Speaker
He's a super, super easy to talk to, too.
00:51:47
Speaker
Uh, you know, an enthusiast from Delaware.
00:51:48
Speaker
So that was, that's a lot of fun.
00:51:50
Speaker
Uh, what Joe's doing, he just started the, the collective out, out there, um, on the, on the second floor, which I think that was an interesting choice, but you know, you take what you can get.
00:52:01
Speaker
What made me chuckle too is like if you did the vendor stuff, you ran into certain people.
00:52:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:06
Speaker
But if you did the tournament stuff, you ran to an entirely different set of people.
00:52:09
Speaker
So when I did the tournament, I ran to Raymond Davidson.
00:52:13
Speaker
I ran to Tim Sexton.
00:52:14
Speaker
I ran to Kate Martin.
00:52:16
Speaker
Jan Ruper, she was wonderful.
00:52:19
Speaker
She was really nice to talk to.
00:52:21
Speaker
There's a group that we're in.
00:52:22
Speaker
We met Zach, which is famous from the Slam Tilt podcast when he guest stars.
00:52:27
Speaker
Stephanie, it was nice to meet her.
00:52:29
Speaker
I mean, there was just a ton of people that I don't think I ever saw outside of the tournament.
00:52:36
Speaker
I think they were spending a lot of time in the tournament, in running that tournament.
00:52:41
Speaker
And Raymond, he was playing deep in that.
00:52:43
Speaker
And he played deep into classics on Saturday or on Sunday.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yep.
00:52:48
Speaker
Tom Graff, he was doing all the streaming.
00:52:51
Speaker
He even invited us on stream at one point.
00:52:53
Speaker
We chit-chatted with Joel Engelberth.
00:52:55
Speaker
That was Friday.
00:52:56
Speaker
Got dinner with them.
00:52:58
Speaker
I mean, it just, it was really cool to talk to all these people and just get to know a lot of them.
00:53:04
Speaker
I really want to say thank you to Joel though, because we didn't take a vehicle because obviously we're from Utah, so we flew in, but Joel drove up to Expo.
00:53:12
Speaker
And so he was nice enough to let us tag along on a lot of the mishaps that we had done.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
I also shout out to Dan Costa, uh, Sacramento area.
00:53:21
Speaker
So, uh, talked with him a lot.
00:53:23
Speaker
He's, he's relatively new to pinball.
00:53:25
Speaker
Uh, so that was a fun catching up with that guy.
00:53:30
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, there, there was just a lot of really good options that we had.
00:53:36
Speaker
So let's, let's talk Friday.
00:53:38
Speaker
I noticed you typed something here.
00:53:40
Speaker
What, what happened Friday with CGC?
00:53:43
Speaker
So CGC, they had a, a, an announcement.
00:53:47
Speaker
It was what's happening with Chicago gaming Ryan White.
00:53:50
Speaker
And it felt like they were announcing cactus Canyon, but they,
00:53:57
Speaker
it didn't feel like they had time to prepare a lot.
00:54:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:01
Speaker
So, uh, Ryan, he was there.
00:54:04
Speaker
It was a little late.
00:54:05
Speaker
Um, super nice guy.
00:54:06
Speaker
We talked to him while he was setting things up.
00:54:09
Speaker
And, uh, basically it was a, uh,
00:54:13
Speaker
Here's Cactus Canyon.
00:54:14
Speaker
We think we've dialed, we're working on the, the, the numbers and, and it felt like it was kind of last minute rushing to get everything all set up for this.
00:54:25
Speaker
And I'm sure it is rushing to get it.
00:54:28
Speaker
Apparently it's 90, 92 50 for the LD 8,000 for the special edition.
00:54:31
Speaker
The, the,
00:54:37
Speaker
There is a Lyman Sheets and Josh Sharpe code that is being developed.
00:54:42
Speaker
It will not be a sequentially updated code.
00:54:45
Speaker
but it will be a single after, well, available option for your Cactus Canyon that once it's done, it's done.
00:54:59
Speaker
It's not going to take multiple iterations.
00:55:02
Speaker
And this is the first time that we're getting to the, hey, if you want extra code or an updated code set,
00:55:09
Speaker
then you're going to be paying for it.
00:55:11
Speaker
Wouldn't be surprised if this is something we're going to see in the future.
00:55:16
Speaker
However, it may be, it may not be, it may be a one-off just because Cactus Canyon is famously was, production was cut very short.
00:55:24
Speaker
And so it still wasn't a fully finished game.
00:55:28
Speaker
You played Cactus Canyon though.
00:55:30
Speaker
So what did you think of Cactus Canyon?
00:55:33
Speaker
I thought they've definitely brought a long way from where it was originally from the 90s game.
00:55:39
Speaker
I've played both the original and now the new one.
00:55:42
Speaker
And the new one's just bright and shiny.
00:55:44
Speaker
They've really polished it up.
00:55:46
Speaker
They've made it look good.
00:55:47
Speaker
They've made it sound good.
00:55:48
Speaker
They've redone some of the art.
00:55:50
Speaker
They've modernized it.
00:55:51
Speaker
Even the animations on the screen were fantastic.
00:55:54
Speaker
It felt almost 3D in the gold mine multiball.
00:56:00
Speaker
It felt really good.
00:56:03
Speaker
I'm intrigued to see what Lyman and Josh are going to do.
00:56:07
Speaker
I think they're probably going to do a tournament style.
00:56:11
Speaker
It's a little harder because the code said that was there.
00:56:14
Speaker
We waited to get on the pinball machine.
00:56:16
Speaker
The gentleman in front of us destroyed it.
00:56:19
Speaker
I think he got to high noon or something like that, and then just walked away.
00:56:22
Speaker
So the code was the way the games were set up.
00:56:27
Speaker
Overall, it looks great.
00:56:28
Speaker
I think anyone that's buying this game is going to enjoy it very thoroughly.
00:56:32
Speaker
If you've enjoyed the other Cactus Canyon remakes, you're going to like this one.
00:56:38
Speaker
I would consider buying it.
00:56:40
Speaker
It really is a good game.
00:56:41
Speaker
And I've owned Attack from Mars and I've owned Monster Bash.
00:56:43
Speaker
Love those games.
00:56:46
Speaker
I think I'm just getting to the point where I need something I can explore a little deeper.
00:56:51
Speaker
And I think Keith Owens games do the best for that for me.
00:56:55
Speaker
Well, now, okay, once you get the Lyman code, it will be different.
00:57:00
Speaker
Correct.
00:57:00
Speaker
The Lyman sharp code.
00:57:02
Speaker
Yes.
00:57:05
Speaker
The one possible criticism I could have for Chicago gaming is I wish they had time to do a better presentation.
00:57:13
Speaker
I wish I knew a little more about, hey, this is what we were thinking.
00:57:16
Speaker
This is what we were trying to do.
00:57:17
Speaker
This is why we're doing it.
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:20
Speaker
Um, the, so that, that was disappointed.
00:57:24
Speaker
Um, another aspect is I think they're doing a big miscalculation in that they have the best game, the best complete package game they have includes the topper, includes the art blades, includes everything, but they are limiting themselves by only placing only making 1250 of them.
00:57:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:49
Speaker
Um,
00:57:50
Speaker
they need to really consider having their, their toppers are the best.
00:57:56
Speaker
The only topper that I can say is better is the black night topper.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:01
Speaker
But their toppers are their 3d sculpts.
00:58:04
Speaker
They're well lighted.
00:58:06
Speaker
They are interacting with the game.
00:58:09
Speaker
And when you only allow 1250 people to have that option, you are limiting your market.
00:58:16
Speaker
So, uh, they need to adopt something like a, their LE, the 1250 or whatever that needs to be there.
00:58:25
Speaker
Their exclusive, whatever you want to call it, the super limited edition, the, the collector's edition, the, uh,
00:58:34
Speaker
the super sunrise edition, whatever you want to call it.
00:58:38
Speaker
They, they can still do that and charge a premium price for that, but they need to have the ability for the average collector who is willing to spend money on a game and to be able to,
00:58:50
Speaker
update it to get all that effort they have put into that topper.
00:58:54
Speaker
They put a great, it's a shooting gallery up there.
00:58:56
Speaker
There's a guy with rotating hands that reminds me of Hogan's alley.
00:59:00
Speaker
It's an old Nintendo game from like 1985 and it felt fun.
00:59:06
Speaker
However, if you're, if you're willing to spend eight, $9,000 on a toy,
00:59:13
Speaker
you want to be able to upgrade it to a the best option like you don't want to feel like oh well i was going to buy the best version but it sold out and they only had 1250 of them like why would you go to all that effort to develop these really cool toppers if if there's more demand than what you're able to sell i i understand if you're trying to sell
00:59:40
Speaker
you know, a thousand and your takes a while to sell all those out.
00:59:45
Speaker
But these LEs were gone instantaneously.
00:59:48
Speaker
Yep.
00:59:49
Speaker
And so that tells me they need to really adapt their market and allow the special edition people to buy the, to buy the topper, to buy, to upgrade to whatever version they want to upgrade to.
01:00:04
Speaker
My medieval madness, it's not the Royal edition.
01:00:07
Speaker
It is the standard edition, but I paid for the updates.
01:00:11
Speaker
And so I have a topper.
01:00:13
Speaker
I have the light show.
01:00:15
Speaker
I have the bigger panel, whatever that is, the screen.
01:00:22
Speaker
The DMD.
01:00:23
Speaker
Yeah, the DMD.
01:00:24
Speaker
And so it's really nice.
01:00:27
Speaker
But...
01:00:29
Speaker
It's not a limited edition.
01:00:31
Speaker
My Medieval Madness isn't a limited edition, but it still feels like a complete game.
01:00:36
Speaker
That's the one thing about this is if I spent $8,000 for this, I would want to be able to complete the game.
01:00:43
Speaker
And right now, I don't think they're allowing that, but I did suggest to them, so I'm hoping they take that to heart.
01:00:50
Speaker
They should be able to sell these toppers without being linked to only LEs.
01:00:55
Speaker
Friday, so besides CGC, we did go to lunch with Eclectic Gamers.
01:01:00
Speaker
It was awesome to meet Dennis and Tony in person for the first time.
01:01:06
Speaker
And then the next day, let's see, Saturday, kind of, Pinball Olympics took over.
01:01:12
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:14
Speaker
Luckily, Joel...
01:01:16
Speaker
was going.
01:01:17
Speaker
So just another pinball podcast and triple drain, Joel Engelberth.
01:01:22
Speaker
And he brought along, or I guess he brought along us.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:27
Speaker
Nick Brown.
01:01:27
Speaker
We got to meet him.
01:01:28
Speaker
Pinsomniac.
01:01:30
Speaker
Really nice dude.
01:01:31
Speaker
I really sat, I really enjoyed sitting down talking with him.
01:01:33
Speaker
He was a really cool dude.
01:01:36
Speaker
And we really got to know each other because it was like an hour drive to the location to Bangor J's house.
01:01:43
Speaker
And this thing is like, if a dude, if a kid grew up and got a bunch of money and loved pinball, decided just to go nuts.
01:01:52
Speaker
Because there were some crazy creations in this house.
01:01:57
Speaker
Okay, explain what the Pinball Olympics are because a lot of people don't understand what it is.
Pinball Olympics and Unique Challenges
01:02:04
Speaker
So Pinball Olympics are... I asked Bangor Jay where this idea came from, and he said that they really like dollar games, and then it got out of hand.
01:02:13
Speaker
That was literally the whole explanation.
01:02:15
Speaker
So Pinball Olympics is a tournament-based style... Let me rephrase that.
01:02:24
Speaker
It is a...
01:02:25
Speaker
It's a style tournament for pinball.
01:02:27
Speaker
But what has happened is pinball or banger J has taken his collection and alter some of the games.
01:02:34
Speaker
So let's take a quick silver.
01:02:38
Speaker
For example, he has a stern quick silver.
01:02:40
Speaker
The play field, he's put it in like a little wider cabinet.
01:02:42
Speaker
So the play field actually shifts.
01:02:44
Speaker
It turns while you're playing.
01:02:47
Speaker
And you got to get a high score on the game to, to metal in that event.
01:02:53
Speaker
So each, each game that has been altered is its own event.
01:02:58
Speaker
Uh, there was, what was it called?
01:03:00
Speaker
Barakora.
01:03:02
Speaker
The Barakora luge was awesome.
01:03:04
Speaker
You had to lay on the floor while playing Barakora, looking through a mirror on the play field and the flippers were at the base of the feet.
01:03:13
Speaker
There was a beer goggle time fantasy, scissor flippers.
01:03:18
Speaker
I came more game that was on.
01:03:19
Speaker
And when I say scissor flippers, it's like someone to cut the handles off of scissors and then use the blades as flippers.
01:03:26
Speaker
It's really goofy.
01:03:27
Speaker
Well, it was also fun because you could actually use that and save the outlane so that it's a, it's a seesaw.
01:03:34
Speaker
It's a teeter totter.
01:03:35
Speaker
So if you were really good at it, you could actually save a lot of games.
01:03:40
Speaker
I didn't get the full grasp of it until we'd moved from his house into the garage he'd built specifically for this.
01:03:47
Speaker
That's when you ran into the mechanical bull Bronco where you had to play it while it was spinning.
01:03:54
Speaker
Granted, it was slower, but it was very, you're like riding a mechanical bull while playing this game.
01:03:59
Speaker
Hanging from the ceiling Avengers where you're hoisted up in like a harness.
01:04:05
Speaker
There was just so many crazy contraptions.
01:04:07
Speaker
I will have to say, I feel like...
01:04:10
Speaker
Joel, Nick, Scott, and I now share a special bond because we have played Xenon at Bigger J's house.
01:04:19
Speaker
I'm not going to explain it because we're not doing that.
01:04:23
Speaker
But yeah, it was crazy.
01:04:24
Speaker
It was, yeah, we'll just leave it at that.
01:04:28
Speaker
If you want to find out, I bet you can Google it.
01:04:31
Speaker
But I feel like you share a special bond with someone when you're in the same group playing that game together.
01:04:37
Speaker
It was certainly a creative way of setting up a game.
01:04:41
Speaker
They also had a TNA that was on a turntable.
01:04:44
Speaker
So it was, so you were spinning right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round, round, round.
01:04:51
Speaker
That's what was impressive too.
01:04:52
Speaker
He even made, got music that was all themed to that stuff too.
01:04:57
Speaker
So, so the game was on there.
01:04:58
Speaker
So you were rotating the whole time with the pinball machine.
01:05:02
Speaker
And so the ball's going all these crazy directions because the,
01:05:05
Speaker
It's flying.
01:05:07
Speaker
It's rolling on a rotating play field.
01:05:13
Speaker
Jay did a great job.
01:05:16
Speaker
It was a lot of fun.
01:05:18
Speaker
Anybody who goes to Expo, I highly recommend it.
01:05:23
Speaker
Yes.
01:05:23
Speaker
Investing the time going up and doing the pinball Olympics, which was a lot of fun.
01:05:28
Speaker
The only downside is it took a lot of time out from Saturday, which I think was a big day.
01:05:33
Speaker
But I don't regret it.
01:05:36
Speaker
It was a lot of fun.
01:05:37
Speaker
It was great.
01:05:38
Speaker
I agree.
01:05:38
Speaker
By the end of it, though, I was wiped.
01:05:41
Speaker
I was exhausted.
01:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, I was tired.
01:05:43
Speaker
that that four hours or whatever it was it was ridiculous glenn weckert who shared a room with us uh did the treadmill challenge which was essentially playing no fear
01:05:55
Speaker
Rawl running as fast as you could on the treadmill.
01:05:57
Speaker
They bumped it up to 11, as if I'm going to still have a spinal tap reference.
01:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm surprised someone didn't fall on that one.
01:06:04
Speaker
I'm surprised no one puked.
01:06:05
Speaker
Glenn came out and it looked like he was going to puke.
01:06:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:08
Speaker
They had a tilt bob hanging from a hard hat right in front of your face.
01:06:11
Speaker
I won that challenge.
01:06:12
Speaker
That was on Junkyard.
01:06:13
Speaker
I took gold on that one.
01:06:15
Speaker
Nick Brown won a couple of golds, uh, one in kiss hell storm.
01:06:20
Speaker
And then I can't remember what the other one was, but even Joel had taken home a couple of medals as well.
01:06:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:26
Speaker
I did not.
01:06:27
Speaker
I, uh, I, I should have retried a few games.
01:06:30
Speaker
I, I would just play the game once.
01:06:31
Speaker
I'm like, Oh, that was interesting and kind of move on.
01:06:33
Speaker
But,
01:06:33
Speaker
Next time I will take it more seriously and bring home a medal.
01:06:36
Speaker
It was cheaper.
01:06:37
Speaker
Like, don't, I'm not trying to take anything away from the tournament at expo.
01:06:40
Speaker
It was cheaper to do the pinball Olympics.
01:06:43
Speaker
That was the main tournament at expo.
01:06:46
Speaker
Well, and I felt like I got more out of pinball Olympics.
01:06:49
Speaker
Pinball Olympics was like an amusement park.
01:06:51
Speaker
And that's really what it comes down to.
01:06:53
Speaker
It was a fun, like it was an obstacle course slash pinball.
01:06:57
Speaker
And so it was a, it was well done.
01:06:59
Speaker
It was, everybody had a lot of fun.
01:07:01
Speaker
Yep.
01:07:02
Speaker
And your ticket included food.
01:07:03
Speaker
They had these amazing tacos there.
01:07:05
Speaker
The tacos were great.
01:07:06
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:07
Speaker
And that's honestly, as we were sitting there eating, that's all I could hear was people saying, this is the best taco I've ever had.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:15
Speaker
Um, they had free booze that came with your ticket.
01:07:18
Speaker
We weren't, we weren't a part of that, but Hey,
01:07:20
Speaker
If that's your jam, I really, it was available if you want it.
01:07:25
Speaker
So correct.
01:07:26
Speaker
So if you're going to go to expo, this is your first time.
01:07:28
Speaker
I'd highly recommend doing that.
01:07:30
Speaker
Uh, we wrapped up pinball Olympics, hop back in the car with Joel and Nick.
01:07:34
Speaker
They gave us the ride back to expo.
01:07:36
Speaker
Uh, that was pretty much when, uh, Keith, Owen and company got on stage to their seminar on Godzilla.
01:07:46
Speaker
Uh, amazing.
01:07:48
Speaker
There was a lot of cool behind the scenes, a lot of cool questions.
01:07:52
Speaker
And then they encouraged you to ask a question.
01:07:55
Speaker
If you did, you got essentially a prize.
01:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, what did you get?
01:08:03
Speaker
I'm going to say like a one of a kind, four and a half foot tall, three foot wide.
01:08:09
Speaker
all the CAD drawings of all of Keith and company's games at this up to this point.
01:08:14
Speaker
And it was all signed by the teams.
01:08:16
Speaker
And so it was insanely cool.
01:08:20
Speaker
And like, I opened it up after I got home and just stared at this thing for like half an hour.
01:08:25
Speaker
My wife even stared at with me and she's like, that's really cool.
01:08:27
Speaker
Cause it even shows like the placement of the circuit boards underneath the play field.
01:08:31
Speaker
all the way to the very top.
01:08:32
Speaker
It's like a schematic drawing.
01:08:34
Speaker
It's really cool.
01:08:35
Speaker
Um, I, uh, now one thing I did win, uh, from American pinball is actually one of legends of a hall backlash, which was glass.
01:08:44
Speaker
Uh, so he handed it to me and I, I was surprised cause I thought it was going to be a translate.
01:08:49
Speaker
So, uh, thanks to David fix.
01:08:50
Speaker
He's sending that out to me.
01:08:53
Speaker
Uh, but that, that would be a great art piece.
01:08:56
Speaker
Um,
01:08:58
Speaker
One other thing I did, I bought a shooter rod.
01:09:02
Speaker
And it was kind of fun.
Memorable Expo Souvenirs and Chicago Culinary Delights
01:09:04
Speaker
So I was going through and there was a vendor who was super nice, had these really custom shooter rods.
01:09:10
Speaker
So if you actually want to check out his custom shooter rods, it is super skill shot shooters based out of, I believe it was out of the South.
01:09:23
Speaker
But anyway, it was really cool.
01:09:26
Speaker
I threw that in my bag and I didn't even think about it.
01:09:29
Speaker
I went to the airport and I went through TSA and they scanned my bag and they
01:09:36
Speaker
they pulled it off to the side to screen it and, uh, pulled it out.
01:09:41
Speaker
And of course the, what's the first thing you say when someone pulls something out of your bag is, Oh, that's a shooter rod in, in the airport.
01:09:49
Speaker
So, so I had to explain a little bit what a shooter rod was and why it was used.
01:09:55
Speaker
Uh, but thankfully they let me keep it.
01:09:56
Speaker
So now I have my Deadpool shooter rod that I can, uh, that I can put on, but that was, that was really fun.
01:10:02
Speaker
Um,
01:10:05
Speaker
It was an amazing expo.
01:10:06
Speaker
We had a great time.
01:10:08
Speaker
I got deep dish pizza and I can't wait for Geno's East or anybody, anybody from Chicago to open a franchise here in Utah.
01:10:17
Speaker
So I don't have to fly there to get it.
01:10:20
Speaker
Portillo's was really good too.
01:10:23
Speaker
I wish I had gotten the sandwich you'd gotten with the sausage and the beef inside the sandwich.
01:10:26
Speaker
That looked really good.
01:10:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:28
Speaker
Josh was the only one who did not order a sausage.
01:10:31
Speaker
The seminar that we went to that I was surprised there wasn't more people there.
01:10:38
Speaker
was the feud without the family of Dwight Sullivan.
01:10:42
Speaker
Oh, it's hilarious.
01:10:43
Speaker
It wasn't put on by Stern, but it was sponsored by Stern.
01:10:47
Speaker
And holy crap, they gave away so much stuff there.
01:10:51
Speaker
It was insane.
01:10:53
Speaker
Like, I don't think people fully comprehended what was going on because...
01:10:59
Speaker
How many people do you think was in that seminar?
01:11:00
Speaker
30?
01:11:00
Speaker
Maybe 40?
01:11:01
Speaker
No, I think it was more.
01:11:03
Speaker
Maybe 40.
01:11:04
Speaker
But we were able to play it a few times.
01:11:06
Speaker
They gave away banners.
01:11:09
Speaker
They gave away shirts, glasses, those limited edition bandanas, frisbees, which apparently if you convince Dwight, he'll give you a handful of them because they have a ton of them.
01:11:21
Speaker
I mean, they just had so much stuff.
01:11:24
Speaker
And I'm surprised.
01:11:26
Speaker
Next year, if you go to Expo...
01:11:28
Speaker
Feud without the family.
01:11:29
Speaker
It's usually the very last seminar of the very last day.
01:11:33
Speaker
Hit it up because you will not regret it.
01:11:35
Speaker
Unless if you only have one carry on and you might regret trying to stuff all that, all that stuff in your bag at that point.
01:11:42
Speaker
I came home with glasses, a Frisbee, a Stern bag, uh, the bandana.
01:11:49
Speaker
I mean, it just, it was insane.
01:11:50
Speaker
All the stuff they gave away for it.
01:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, I ended up with two of the Godzilla sculpts, the big Godzilla at the back and the mechanic Godzilla on the right side.
01:12:03
Speaker
So that's fun.
01:12:04
Speaker
That's actually in my, that's sitting in my, what's it called?
01:12:09
Speaker
We have some uranium glass, so we put Godzilla in the uranium glass, which makes sense because he's radioactive.
01:12:15
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, it was great.
01:12:20
Speaker
So take home.
01:12:22
Speaker
What is your take home from Expo?
01:12:24
Speaker
What did you find was most interesting?
Balancing Experiences and Reflecting on Expo Learnings
01:12:27
Speaker
What do you wish you would do differently next time?
01:12:31
Speaker
And what was the one thing that you learned most?
01:12:33
Speaker
Okay.
01:12:35
Speaker
Do you want to go first?
01:12:36
Speaker
You want me to go first?
01:12:36
Speaker
Go ahead.
01:12:37
Speaker
All right.
01:12:39
Speaker
I think my biggest takeaway is...
01:12:43
Speaker
Make a game plan before you go.
01:12:45
Speaker
With this being my first expo, I wanted to explore all, and I definitely did, but by the end of it, I was super wiped out.
01:12:55
Speaker
I don't regret doing all the stuff that I did, but I do feel like I missed out in some areas I would have enjoyed more if I hadn't overextended myself by going in the main tournament and maybe valued my time a little bit better at expo.
01:13:12
Speaker
Overall, it was fantastic.
01:13:16
Speaker
Don't be afraid to talk to people.
01:13:18
Speaker
The thing that I loved about Expo, I don't know about this of any other convention that they do that might happen at TPF, but since it's in Chicago, a lot of the people that work for these companies just show up.
01:13:32
Speaker
And so imagine Comic-Con, but you could just rub shoulders with any of the actors that might be there or any of the directors.
01:13:41
Speaker
It was pretty much that.
01:13:42
Speaker
It was like, oh, hey, here's Jack Danger.
01:13:45
Speaker
And we sat and talked with Jack.
01:13:47
Speaker
Or, hey, there's Keith Elwin walking through all the Godzilla.
01:13:49
Speaker
So we pulled him aside and talked to him with him and his brother Randy, which was awesome to meet him.
01:13:54
Speaker
Mike Vinicor, just chillaxing.
01:13:57
Speaker
You know, it was... How many times did I either... Jerry Thompson, too, is super nice to us.
01:14:02
Speaker
Jerry Thompson, Steve Bowden, you know, Jack Guarneri, Eric Meniere, Ken Cromwell.
01:14:09
Speaker
The one that was super awesome to meet was Jason Fowler.
01:14:14
Speaker
I don't know if you people remember Jason, but he was from Slap Save Pinball Podcast.
01:14:19
Speaker
That didn't stop too long ago, so I hope you do remember him.
01:14:22
Speaker
But it was awesome to get to meet him.
01:14:25
Speaker
And we sat and talked 20, 30 minutes in J.J.
01:14:29
Speaker
Babich's suite.
01:14:32
Speaker
And it was just really, really cool.
01:14:34
Speaker
Like I said, I'd said it on the way home and I had said it totally wrong.
01:14:38
Speaker
So I do apologize to like Joel and Nick.
01:14:41
Speaker
because it probably came off the wrong way.
01:14:42
Speaker
But I was seriously nervous because I felt like there might be some attention that bubbles over from Pinside or Facebook because there's some really weird stuff that gets posted and it's just like people want to fight.
01:14:54
Speaker
And so I was nervous to see what would happen.
01:14:56
Speaker
But honestly, none of that ever happened there.
01:14:59
Speaker
And it was just really cool to meet everyone.
01:15:03
Speaker
And so I really wish that I would have...
01:15:06
Speaker
a lot of my time a little bit better because by the time I went to bed on Saturday night, my flight was at, I had to be out of the hotel room at two 50 in the morning.
01:15:15
Speaker
So I could be to my flight and on the airplane before five.
01:15:19
Speaker
And by 10 o'clock Saturday night, I felt like I hadn't done everything I wanted to do.
01:15:27
Speaker
Uh, but I was very happy with everything that did happen that I got to do.
01:15:31
Speaker
So what's your takeaway, Scott?
01:15:33
Speaker
my takeaway is approach any of these shows as if you are coming back.
01:15:41
Speaker
And so you don't feel like you have to, you know, just think of going to a buffet.
01:15:46
Speaker
There's so many options out there and you don't have to eat everything because if you try to eat everything, you're going to be overstuffed.
01:15:55
Speaker
You're going to be miserable.
01:15:57
Speaker
And so you,
01:15:59
Speaker
Just pick the things that some experiences that you want to take away.
01:16:02
Speaker
And then next time you come back, pick some other ones.
01:16:05
Speaker
Uh, I liked that we were able to, I was able to go to law seminars, which I thought was really nice.
01:16:11
Speaker
Uh, I didn't play in the tournament because I didn't feel that I had enough time to really, um, play up.
01:16:18
Speaker
So I would have a good showing.
01:16:20
Speaker
And so I was okay with sacrificing that a little bit.
01:16:23
Speaker
Um,
01:16:25
Speaker
The nice thing is some of the seminars that I did not go to, I can stream later.
01:16:33
Speaker
So I want to actually see the making of the Mandalorian with Brian and Dwight and talk with them, or at least visualize that.
01:16:45
Speaker
Talk with making a blood Zeppelin.
01:16:46
Speaker
Tim Sexton did that.
01:16:49
Speaker
There's a few other things that I'm just like, you know, I just, I can't make it to everything, but I didn't want to pigeonhole myself into one thing.
01:16:58
Speaker
One thing I would do a little differently in the, in the vendor hall.
01:17:02
Speaker
So I, I was a little wrong vendor hall opened on Thursday at 6.
01:17:06
Speaker
PM closed at 11.
01:17:08
Speaker
PM Friday, open up 4.
01:17:10
Speaker
PM and close at 11.
01:17:11
Speaker
PM and Saturday Saturday,
01:17:13
Speaker
It opened at 10 a.m.
01:17:14
Speaker
to 10 p.m.
01:17:15
Speaker
So that there's a there was a lot.
01:17:17
Speaker
But we chose to try the pinball Olympics on Saturday.
01:17:20
Speaker
So that took a lot of that away.
01:17:22
Speaker
Well, and I felt very fortunate, too, that we were able to get in on Thursday morning when everything was kind of still setting up.
01:17:28
Speaker
So it was almost like we had a personal tour of the vendor hall.
01:17:34
Speaker
Before everyone else was there.
01:17:35
Speaker
I would make a little more of an effort to go and talk to some of the vendors.
01:17:41
Speaker
And because it was so much fun to go and play all the new games, I wish that I had taken more time and talked to the people who came there with the mods, came there with...
01:17:54
Speaker
you know, their art that they were trying to sell.
01:17:56
Speaker
They have all these mechanics there.
01:17:58
Speaker
And so next time I go, I'm going to spend a little more time talking with them and thanking them for coming because that is a big investment in their time.
01:18:09
Speaker
And you can pick up some really cool things.
01:18:11
Speaker
That shooter rod I got was actually really cool for Deadpool.
01:18:13
Speaker
So I'm excited to put that on.
01:18:16
Speaker
Um, I, I came in a Wednesday night.
01:18:21
Speaker
I may or may not do that again.
01:18:22
Speaker
I may come in Thursday the next time.
01:18:23
Speaker
Uh, Sunday, I thought I actually got a little later flight because I thought that I didn't want to rush it, which a lot of people were rushing to get out.
01:18:34
Speaker
But then I, I was kind of alone.
01:18:36
Speaker
So, so, um, you know, there, there were a few hours when I, when I was just kind of chilling out in the hotel room, waiting to head off to the airport.
01:18:46
Speaker
Uh, so I may have tried to get an earlier flight out.
01:18:49
Speaker
Um, but staying with people was great.
01:18:52
Speaker
Uh, staying with Glenn, staying with you.
01:18:54
Speaker
Uh, that was a lot of fun.
01:18:56
Speaker
And, uh, if you don't, if you feel like you're kind of wandering around alone, just go up and talk to someone because there's so many people to meet.
01:19:03
Speaker
And it was, it was great, uh, that we were able to, to meet so many different people from everywhere.
01:19:09
Speaker
Just, just two more that stood out to me.
01:19:11
Speaker
Uh, George Fisher, I felt like I've known the man for a while.
01:19:14
Speaker
But it was cool to actually go and talk to him as well.
01:19:17
Speaker
Don't Panic Flip.
01:19:18
Speaker
If you haven't checked out his Twitch channel, very awesome Twitch channel.
01:19:22
Speaker
Go give it a watch.
01:19:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:24
Speaker
So the one that shocked me was Todd McCullough, former NBA player.
01:19:30
Speaker
You can't miss him at Expo because he's taller than everyone else by at least a couple heads.
01:19:37
Speaker
And he came over to us at Pinball Olympics.
01:19:40
Speaker
And we got talking.
01:19:41
Speaker
And he said they just loved our show.
01:19:44
Speaker
And that was pretty cool.
01:19:45
Speaker
That was kind of a cool honor.
01:19:47
Speaker
I didn't realize that someone of his stature would listen to us.
01:19:53
Speaker
It surprises that stature tall.
01:19:55
Speaker
I got it.
01:19:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:58
Speaker
The nice thing about it is because you're able to connect to a lot of people and whether or not they listen is great.
01:20:05
Speaker
is, is nice, but either way you have that common bond.
01:20:09
Speaker
Like you could really talk to almost anyone on there.
01:20:11
Speaker
And it was a, we played dollar games.
01:20:14
Speaker
It was a diverse group.
01:20:16
Speaker
There were a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life and we had a lot of fun playing stall ball.
01:20:22
Speaker
So that's another thing I would bring like $21 bills.
01:20:26
Speaker
So when you, when you play these dollar games, you actually have dollars that you can, uh, that you don't have to figure out, oh, I need to get changed.
01:20:33
Speaker
So that, that, that was different too.
01:20:36
Speaker
And I think it reinforced what I've said for years now that I love about pinball.
01:20:43
Speaker
It doesn't matter race, religion, what shoe size you wear.
01:20:48
Speaker
If you love pinball, it brings all walks of life together.
01:20:53
Speaker
And it's nice to have something in our lives, especially with such a weird, diverse, controversial time we live in, to have something that brings us all together and drops all the barriers that you might have in your normal life and just play some games, convince someone to steal some of their dollars from dollar games.
01:21:13
Speaker
Or have a beer with Eric Meniere.
01:21:16
Speaker
It was amazing to see how much pinball has brought such a diverse group of people.
01:21:22
Speaker
And I do say diverse.
01:21:24
Speaker
There was a lot of different people.
01:21:27
Speaker
And it was like we were all brothers and sisters because we all were there to play pinball.
01:21:31
Speaker
Yeah, we met Darren Walker there.
01:21:35
Speaker
I saw Scott Denisi and he gave me some cassette tape.
01:21:38
Speaker
So that was a lot of fun.
01:21:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:41
Speaker
And I'm trying to just think of all the different people that I. It's hard because it's like if we missed you, like seriously, each one of you that we saw and met, it stands out as part of a highlight of my trip.
01:21:54
Speaker
Yeah, we had so much fun.
01:21:56
Speaker
So it was great.
01:21:58
Speaker
It was really awesome.
01:21:59
Speaker
And I was not expecting as many people to come up and say, I kept introducing myself as like, hey, I'm Josh.
01:22:05
Speaker
I'm with the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
01:22:08
Speaker
And usually the response says, Josh, I know who you are.
01:22:10
Speaker
Like I can tell from your voice.
01:22:12
Speaker
I'm like, oh, oh, okay.
01:22:13
Speaker
Like I wasn't expecting that.
01:22:15
Speaker
Like, yeah.
01:22:16
Speaker
I don't know.
01:22:17
Speaker
They didn't tell me that as much, but you're the one that has the voice for radio.
01:22:21
Speaker
Right, right.
01:22:21
Speaker
But it was just really cool.
01:22:24
Speaker
And like I said, this is our first experience with this.
01:22:27
Speaker
I'm hoping for TPF.
01:22:28
Speaker
We'll see what happens.
01:22:31
Speaker
We did talk to, speaking of TPF, we did talk to Jeff Patterson, and he did tell us that he's still aiming to do Twippies.
01:22:37
Speaker
He doesn't feel like that's going to go away.
01:22:40
Speaker
And I know Scott just got all excited for that because he's ready to take down the reigning champ.
01:22:46
Speaker
So, yeah, we'll see about that.
01:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was just a lot of fun.
01:22:53
Speaker
So it was great seeing everybody.
01:22:54
Speaker
If you have any thoughts on what you did at Expo or what you wish you had seen at Expo, reach out to us, let us know.
01:23:04
Speaker
It'd be interesting to see what people liked, what they didn't.
01:23:07
Speaker
And it seemed like a very positive show experience.
01:23:11
Speaker
It felt like a lot of people had a great time.
01:23:14
Speaker
Well, I think that pretty much does it for us, Scott.
01:23:16
Speaker
We've ran a little longer than usual, but there was a lot to cover.
01:23:22
Speaker
But I think overall, I'm very pleased with how everything went.
01:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was awesome.
01:23:27
Speaker
We had a good time.
01:23:29
Speaker
Well, if you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
01:23:34
Speaker
If you'd like to get a hold of us on the socials, we are at LoserKidPinball on Facebook, Twitch, and Twitter, and Instagram.
01:23:41
Speaker
So yeah, if you'd like to get a hold of us, that's the way to do it.
01:23:43
Speaker
I don't know if Scott has any merch left.
01:23:45
Speaker
I have very, very little.
01:23:47
Speaker
And we're having a heck of a time getting this stuff into stock and keeping an eye out and trying to get more in stock.
01:23:52
Speaker
But for the time being right now, if you didn't get a hat or a shirt at Expo, it's going to be a minute.
01:23:58
Speaker
So I actually do have a few more shirts pretty much out of baseball hats.
01:24:04
Speaker
But you have a few.
01:24:06
Speaker
But we're looking to get more.
01:24:07
Speaker
I have a few of the beanies, the striped beanies, which I think are a lot of fun to wear.
01:24:12
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:14
Speaker
But it's definitely a bold choice for a beanie if you want that.
01:24:17
Speaker
Other than that, I guess we'll talk to each other here in a couple weeks.
01:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, and we're planning on getting Scott from Legends of Valhalla on.
01:24:25
Speaker
And we were able to line up a lot of guests coming on.
01:24:28
Speaker
So we're really looking forward to the next six months as we're trying to run through them all.
01:24:33
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
01:24:34
Speaker
And we'll go from there.
01:24:37
Speaker
All right.
01:24:38
Speaker
Talk to you later.
01:24:39
Speaker
See you.
01:24:48
Speaker
Shut up and sit down.