Transcript
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
Speaker: It is episode 128.
Speaker: It is a new year.
Speaker: New stuff going on.
Speaker: Holy crap.
Speaker: It's like an explosion of news.
Speaker: I've got those notes that are just a mile long.
Speaker: If we get to all of them, awesome.
Speaker: If not, oh well.
Speaker: But with me, my co-captain, as always, Scott Larson.
Speaker: And I'm Josh Roop.
Speaker: A new game was revealed.
Speaker: If you want to get on that Jaws list, hit up Flippin' Out Pinball.
Speaker: Zach and Nicole Manny will take care of your every need.
Speaker: They're a little busy right now.
Speaker: It sounds like they've been hit up pretty hard.
Speaker: Everyone's loving what they see.
Speaker: And so it's great to see that a release so well received after this last year has been kind of a little staggering, if I can say.
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of a ghost town.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, but if you want, like I said, if you want that game, if you're looking for, it's not even just Jaws.
Speaker: If you, there's, they've got plenty of games in stock.
Speaker: Hit them up.
Speaker: Zach and Nicole, many flipping out pinball.com, or you can do it the way I do.
Speaker: I hit up Zach through messenger.
Speaker: So Scott, how you been doing?
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: It's like Christmas every time there's a new pinball release, right?
Speaker: You know it.
Speaker: And this is something that we have been anticipating for a few years.
Speaker: I'm not sure if this was the worst kept theme secret.
Speaker: Then maybe Guns N' Roses was like that had trailed out longer.
Speaker: Yeah, but we have been anticipating this.
Speaker: So it's finally here.
Speaker: I'm really excited to see and play this game.
Speaker: Yeah, same.
Speaker: What makes me laugh, too, is like, I don't know if you listen to the Stern Insider podcast.
Speaker: I didn't have a chance because it came out when I was I was working this week.
Speaker: So there was one point where, like, I guess Elwin was wearing a Jaws hat back at 2018 at Pinberg.
Speaker: And people are like, see, you were trolling us all the way back then.
Speaker: He's like, yeah, before I even worked for Stern or signed an agreement, I was totally trolling you guys that I was going to make Jaws for Stern five years later when I didn't even know I was going to be working for him.
Speaker: Actually, it's been six years now.
Speaker: Crazy.
Speaker: Hey, Steve Ritchie, you played with a Star Wars toy back in the 80s.
Speaker: You were totally trolling us.
Speaker: Before we get much deeper into this, though, I want to just do a quick dedication to this episode to a longtime listener, Brittany Staley.
Speaker: She w as a very great supporter of ours.
Speaker: Sadly, she lost her life back in September.
Speaker: But I just wanted to say, hey, like we want this.
Speaker: This episode's for you.
Speaker: This is our five year anniversary episode.
Speaker: We our first episode released January 11th in 2019.
Speaker: I almost said 18, which we're talking 18 with Ellen.
Speaker: But just a friendly reminder, we're coming out of the holidays.
Speaker: You know.
Speaker: Usually holidays can be a low time for for mental health and whatnot.
Speaker: So if you're feeling blue, talk to someone, get some help, just decompress a little bit, you know, very stressful time.
Speaker: So, yeah, I, I want to emphasize to the, you know, look out for your kids.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're good.
Speaker: So check on everybody in your family.
Speaker: I have,
Speaker: unfortunately had a conversation twice in my life that I'd never want to have again.
Speaker: But it was the first one was when my sister's husband took her life, took his life.
Speaker: And the second one was a few months ago when my cousin's son took his life.
Speaker: So I mean, mental health is a big deal.
Speaker: And it's, it's not just you, it's your extended family and reach out, find out how they're doing.
Speaker: If they need help,
Speaker: please reach out.
Speaker: We've said it before.
Speaker: Everything in your body can get sick, including your mind.
Speaker: And the best thing you can do is reach out and to get help that targets the organ that is hurting.
Speaker: And if it's your heart or your soul or your brain, please reach out and share that you're, that you're struggling because the world's better with you.
Speaker: Yes, definitely.
Speaker: We don't want you gone.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: We just wanted to bring that up.
Speaker: Sorry to bring it up and then down and then up.
Speaker: But that's okay.
Speaker: That's important.
Speaker: That's life.
Speaker: Pinball really is.
Speaker: It's an awesome hobby and we love it.
Speaker: But it does play...
Speaker: far down the list for, for your health, your happiness, your existence.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the interconnections that we make in pinball are very vital because people who can feel isolated in this world is very easy.
Speaker: This is something that is a positive influence that has been able to thrive through the internet age with the interconnections that we have, uh, with,
Speaker: You know, it's a small community, but it's a big one at the same time.
Speaker: Because when you add the online option, then it can bring a lot of positive things.
Speaker: Not always just the negative stuff that we hear about.
Speaker: So use that.
Speaker: Use that.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: Well, let's dedicate to those that we've lost.
Speaker: And let's talk about some pinball.
Speaker: Let's do this.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Jaws, worst kept secret, as you were saying.
Speaker: Ellen's been trolling us for six years already that he was going to make this game.
Speaker: Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun.
Speaker: What was... Okay, let's talk about leading up to this, because it was kind of kooky, right?
Speaker: We can talk about... The trailer was leaked over a month ago.
Speaker: It's so bad.
Speaker: It's always like a grainy trailer, and I had mentioned to you that this... If you're old enough to remember...
Speaker: toy commercials from the 80s.
Speaker: It has this grainy feel and this kid who opens up his Star Wars toe and he's like, oh boy.
Speaker: It just had that vibe.
Speaker: And it doesn't help.
Speaker: It doesn't help because it makes it feel immediately dated even though I get it that this is a theme that came out
Speaker: 50 years ago?
Speaker: 75.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so this is 48 years ago.
Speaker: But it doesn't help.
Speaker: The leaks, it is fun to talk about rumors, and I totally get that.
Speaker: There are things that can help and things that can hurt.
Speaker: And in many ways, some of these things ended up, I think,
Speaker: Raising questions more than excitement.
Speaker: How would you look at that, Josh?
Speaker: Oh, I totally agree.
Speaker: And it's funny because, like I said, the trailer leaked.
Speaker: We knew for sure it was out in the wild about a month and a half ago or something like that.
Speaker: Even though I didn't see it, actually.
Speaker: Yeah, and it was kind of goofy because it's like nothing happened.
Speaker: Nothing happened through Christmas.
Speaker: Yeah, we're getting a little drip feed of just a little bit of what's going on with the game.
Speaker: But it was like they do the teaser trailer on Tuesday, this last Tuesday, January 2nd.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, like, the floodgates open and pitchers, like you said, grainy pitchers.
Speaker: Like, there were some good ones, but then it was like people were progressively getting worse with the pitchers.
Speaker: I don't get it.
Speaker: In that weird fisheye lens from the bottom of the playfield, it's... Okay, that didn't do it any favors.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Because when I looked at that, and I even mentioned to you and the triple drain guys, I was like, does... Okay, does this feel empty?
Speaker: Is it just the camera?
Speaker: Like, how...
Speaker: you know, because that, that was one of the biggest take homes that we took with venom.
Speaker: And we can all agree that venom didn't sell as well as Stern would want.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So was this one of those things where like, wow, are they just going for more open play fields?
Speaker: And that's not necessarily bad, but we already had venom, which was pretty open.
Speaker: And so I was, I was concerned that we were going to get another super open play field.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: And so within about what it wasn't 24 hours, maybe about 12 hours of the trailer, the teaser trailer.
Speaker: we had the full trailer drop on on facebook and it was kind of goofy like within 48 hours of the teaser trailer to the actual trailer right people were taking this trailer and putting it on their personal content creators page yeah i mean it's it's kind of wild like it seems like it wasn't even a couple years ago where if you were even sharing photos stern was coming at you like throwing like
Speaker: where you need to take cease and desist essentially.
Speaker: And it was crazy to see that by time this actually had come out, it had already had 20,000 views combined over other content creators.
Speaker: I mean, that was just pulling the views and the strength of everything that should have been focused on Stern to other people.
Speaker: And it just was kind of wild.
Speaker: Like that 48 hours was just goofy, I heard.
Speaker: The excitement was really high with the teaser trailer and the one – the grainy photos started leaking out people.
Speaker: It was hard to get an idea of what was going on with the game.
Speaker: So people were kind of like out.
Speaker: And it wasn't until –
Speaker: like the Gomez Elwin trailer that's about five and a half minutes long.
Speaker: Which is great, by the way.
Speaker: If you haven't seen it, go see it because this is what Stern needs to do.
Speaker: Yes, 100%.
Speaker: Like this is what turned people around.
Speaker: I was talking to, I've talked to a handful of people across this industry, whether they're just the consumer, whether they're a distributor or whatever.
Speaker: They said that they saw an instant turnaround because Steam died really quick when those photos started to leak.
Speaker: And when that video came out, because the first trailer that showed was the one that already been leaked.
Speaker: So when they when they actually showed the Gomez L11, people understood what was going on with the game.
Speaker: And even I was like, oh, well, this makes a lot more sense.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: When I first saw Jaws from the photos, I was a little disappointed.
Speaker: Like I was like, what?
Speaker: This like Bruce, Bruce, like the Jaws, Jaws itself, the shark or the game.
Speaker: What do you mean?
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Well, okay.
Speaker: Are you talking to the sculpt or cause we're going to get to that too.
Speaker: Are you talking about just the game in general?
Speaker: Just kind of the game in general.
Speaker: I didn't fully understand what was going on.
Speaker: Like you said, it looked kind of empty because of the photos that had leaked.
Speaker: I'm like, but after they went through and they just said what they're doing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And when I explained everything, it was like, Oh, this is amazing.
Speaker: Like this is,
Speaker: This is next level.
Speaker: And I think the other problem, too, is we had been hearing from multiple sources that this had been internally called at Sterling Keith's masterpiece.
Speaker: So I was like, well, he has a really high bar to meet with Godzilla.
Speaker: I mean, right now, OK, I didn't think that we would see a game.
Speaker: I never saw when I got into the hobby that a game would actually surpass Medieval Madness.
Speaker: for number one on the, you know, the pin side rating that we've all looked at.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I know there's tons of problems with it, but it still gives you a litmus test on where things are.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The, however, because Godzilla came out and it was such a monster game, it actually, it, the theme, the playability, the connection that it had with new players and old players, it jumped up above that.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: Rightfully so.
Speaker: So to have that be your previous game, it is a little challenging to follow up with a different game.
Speaker: And this is a slightly different approach than Godzilla.
Speaker: Godzilla has a lot of movement and a lot of wire forms where the ball is continually flying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This seems to be a little different, but the vibe is different too, because you are, you're hunting a shark or you are the shark, which is kind of fun.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: That's really cool.
Speaker: And so, and then what the other funny part too is like, I think the first things kind of start flooding into, you saw the teaser trailer and you're, or the actual trailer and you're like,
Speaker: why is the shark not eating the ball?
Speaker: That's almost like a give me eats everything in the movie.
Speaker: Why does he not eating the ball?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you're like, why is that just a drop target?
Speaker: Why isn't that a shark fin?
Speaker: If you give the stirred insider podcast to listen, give it a, they explain all that.
Speaker: They had all those ideas at the beginning.
Speaker: That was the original shark.
Speaker: Mick was eating the ball and the,
Speaker: The drop target was originally a shark fin, but they found out very quickly, A, the ball-eating mech looks stupid, and it was hard because of the way that it came out of the play field.
Speaker: When it's top-down like the T-Rex, it's easy.
Speaker: Just a jaw opens up and it eats the ball, right?
Speaker: Yeah, but the magnet's hidden because you're looking on top of the T-Rex, so the visuals are actually not the mechanics that grab the ball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's opposite when it's coming up from the field.
Speaker: Well, not only that, the game was not designed to have a subway in it.
Speaker: So it's going to eat the ball and then spit it back out at you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It just doesn't spit things out.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And so it was like...
Speaker: Yeah, it just they said it looked really dumb.
Speaker: It wasn't working right.
Speaker: And then that shark fin.
Speaker: I'll go.
Speaker: Don't imagine a jaws like the mouth of jaws is not round.
Speaker: Okay, because there are some some blow up things that do have a round mouth that look very awkward.
Speaker: And you don't want that popping up out of the field.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like, what do you want?
Speaker: Another... Because you think of the T-Rex head on Jack Danger's game too.
Speaker: It just sets there and it opens.
Speaker: You've got like Gene Simmons kiss.
Speaker: Like you just got this big ugly head setting there that's just essentially a scoop.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like...
Speaker: With this, it's either you get the ball-eating shark, and you don't get that captive ball multidirectional, which I think is a first.
Speaker: The captive ball actually has multiple targets in it, so you've got to hit those.
Speaker: This mech is a lot cooler and more interesting to me than just a shark-eating the ball.
Speaker: Yeah, and I'm not a huge fan of scoops either.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Scoops, and Elwynn has been on record saying he doesn't really love scoops.
Speaker: It pauses the gameplay.
Speaker: It slows things down.
Speaker: There's always, man, if you have a scoop in roughly the middle of the play field, there's always going to be someone posting my, my scoop is shooting straight down the middle.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm totally fine with that.
Speaker: The only two scoops that I really like that I can think of is Godzilla's.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But that's also a mode starter and it's a hard shot.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then it, well, not only that, but it does your, your, what, your tears and stuff like that too, that you've got to,
Speaker: It is a hard shot.
Speaker: You're not aiming for it.
Speaker: And the way that it's positioned with the pop bumper, it doesn't really fall into there very much either.
Speaker: You kind of have to be aiming for it.
Speaker: You have to target it.
Speaker: And then the other one is World Cup Soccer's final draw.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: It's kind of a similar situation as it is with Jaws.
Speaker: It's kind of hard to hit.
Speaker: It doesn't always fall into there.
Speaker: and it's by the way the jaws advertisement just popped up on your avengers isn't that amazing too like that's it's kind of fun kind of fun i i so i i actually do have a quick update so i did finally do the big move okay and i brought godzilla rush iron maiden and beetles downstairs nice and i took up
Speaker: I took up pirates.
Speaker: I took up black Rose.
Speaker: I took up Simpsons.
Speaker: And by the way, I'm not selling any of these.
Speaker: These are all going into storage because I still love the games.
Speaker: And contrary to my friends voting, I actually did bring up Avengers.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I brought it up because I still love it, but I felt like I, I have, I'll have three Elwin games out of my 10 down.
Speaker: If I had, if I had another one before.
Speaker: And so I wanted to at least have some variety.
Speaker: I wanted,
Speaker: Beatles down there to give it more of a gameplay.
Speaker: But it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker: And the funny thing is I installed Godzilla and immediately it just popped up the code update.
Speaker: And so that was actually really nice that I didn't have to download.
Speaker: I didn't have to do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: And then Jurassic Park had an advertisement for Venom on it.
Speaker: So I think it's kind of fun, actually.
Speaker: I think it's cool.
Speaker: I don't leave my games on very often, so it doesn't bother me that when I do that they are advertising.
Speaker: It's like, oh.
Speaker: Like even this morning when I was turning them all on, it was cool to see all the Jaws trailers pop up.
Speaker: Actually, that brings up another thought, too.
Speaker: It makes me wonder, because we were talking about this.
Speaker: Does that mean that in your game's code, when it updates, so if people got thinking about this, data miners out there, take this into consideration.
Speaker: We know that most of the games roughly release in March or they release, you know, two to three a year.
Speaker: So it's either every six months or every four months.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So right now beginning like December, January, then March, April.
Speaker: And then, so if you know a game's coming out and a bunch of code updates go out to all the games, right?
Speaker: My thought is, is the new trailers are actually in the code.
Speaker: I don't know if they're that far out.
Speaker: I actually don't know if they're that far out.
Speaker: Do you think that they've already recorded the trailers?
Speaker: The trailer for Jaws was done six weeks before release.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So like, yeah, I would argue that the, that would have to be like a quick code update.
Speaker: So maybe that's something that you're thinking, or cause if you know, just be a grab, it could just be a grab that it's connected to the internet.
Speaker: And it's like a pop-up ad on your phone or something.
Speaker: So it had to be like a streaming thing then.
Speaker: It could be, yeah.
Speaker: So it's either one of two things.
Speaker: It either downloads to your code and then there's a timestamp of saying, hey, it's...
Speaker: january 2nd at past 10 a.m or past 11 yeah 10 a.m central standard time start you can start playing this on the pinball machines or it is a streaming thing that gets pulled from from stern i bet it's the before the you think we can i think it's time step the way that you could test this and we haven't heaven forbid the queen dies though you know yeah heaven forbid i think
Speaker: the thing is, is you would have to, um,
Speaker: One way that you could tell is... You'd have to disconnect.
Speaker: Yeah, you'd have to disconnect from the internet.
Speaker: And if it kept playing after you've disconnected, that means it's in the code and that timestamp.
Speaker: Anywho, just some thoughts, Stern, maybe, depending on how you're doing this.
Speaker: If it's via streaming, that's smart.
Speaker: But if it's downloaded into the code, people could easily pick apart the code and pull the trailer out.
Speaker: And then you'd... Six weeks.
Speaker: And that's how it happened six weeks before is people were able to data mine it out.
Speaker: Who knows?
Speaker: Anywho.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because, yeah, just some thoughts.
Speaker: Okay, back to the shark fin, though.
Speaker: So the drop target.
Speaker: So L1 and company originally had that shaped as a shark fin.
Speaker: I don't know if it was like a legit shark fin or if they just had what it was.
Speaker: They said that shark fins are nature's natural ramps.
Speaker: okay that's the that's the the kaboom ramp right in in i mean in toy story that's the kaboom ramp they said the ball was launching every like it was unpredictable right they had it go from the lower play field up onto the upper play field they had it you know it was just ricocheting everywhere that's where like we have to go to a drop target like as much as this would be cool to have a shark fin it's not happening so yeah
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I will just piggybacking on what you just said.
Speaker: Remember when we talked to Elwin and he said, look, before I joined Stern, I had all these questions too.
Speaker: And I said, why don't they do this?
Speaker: Why don't they do that?
Speaker: And he said, after I, you know, after I was hired by them,
Speaker: you see behind the scenes and you realize these are questions they have asked also.
Speaker: And there is a legitimate reason behind, oh, we can't do it that way because of X, Y, or Z. And we need to remember that this is, I'm not spending 40 to 50 hours a week trying to design a game.
Speaker: They are.
Speaker: Well, and I think it's interesting that the first, the very first iterations,
Speaker: all included this stuff that everyone's complaining about.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: They've already thought of it.
Speaker: Like it's go ahead and complain, but there's, you're not changing it because they've already done it and they found out it doesn't work.
Speaker: Like even Harrison Drake's like, we did it.
Speaker: It sucks.
Speaker: You don't want it.
Speaker: He said it multiple times.
Speaker: Like, it was like the, the Jaws eating blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: Anyhow.
Speaker: I like the, I like the Jaws sculpt.
Speaker: I like the Jaws bash toy.
Speaker: I think it's like, I like the look of it actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I think it looks legit.
Speaker: It's, and this is kind of the first like actual, not actual bash toy.
Speaker: Cause like you can consider the skyscrapers a bash toy.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But I feel like that's more of a standup target though.
Speaker: I kind of, I don't know.
Speaker: I just, I just, I find it interesting that this is like,
Speaker: Maybe like a Groot.
Speaker: Well, not a Groot.
Speaker: What's what I'm looking for?
Speaker: Sparky off of Metallica.
Speaker: I feel like this is.
Speaker: But you're not.
Speaker: The Well Walker.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But you're not getting 100% of that.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Because you've got the captive ball that sits on top of the shark.
Speaker: It also adds a little bit of unpredictability.
Speaker: Because you don't have a flat interface.
Speaker: And so it's less predictable.
Speaker: And, you know, hunting a shark should be a little unpredictable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The other interesting part too, I think about all this is they talked about the upper play field on the left.
Speaker: Owen is not a fan of upper play fields because a lot of times you can get up there and get there indefinitely.
Speaker: So his, his goal was to make an upper play field, but make it to where like you couldn't stay up there.
Speaker: And so there is, there's two shots to that.
Speaker: You've got the steering wheel that you can shoot into, which then sends it back to your upper flipper on the right side, or you can shoot it.
Speaker: It's kind of like a big horseshoe that goes around the top, around the steering wheel.
Speaker: And it drops into the in lane.
Speaker: I kind of, you can visualize Avengers, you know how when it comes back through that, but the pot belly ramp, I almost called the banana ramp, but they didn't like, anywho, you know how it kind of comes back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: As it kind of comes back up into the Avengers tower, similar concept coming off of that horseshoe on the upper play field.
Speaker: So it's, it's pretty cool and it doesn't dominate the play field.
Speaker: My only concern about upper play fields typically is when they take up so much space.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I feel like this one doesn't, I feel like this one's really, it doesn't feel like it's in the way.
Speaker: That's the thing I loved about white water.
Speaker: You're not up there all the time, but the problem is, is that mini play field?
Speaker: is half a play field.
Speaker: Like it's huge.
Speaker: It takes up at least 25%.
Speaker: It's like 40% of the game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's a lot.
Speaker: It's visually it's cool, but yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But you lose a lot of what you can do on the top right side of that play field.
Speaker: And I don't feel like that's the case with this one.
Speaker: So, right.
Speaker: Overall, really like it.
Speaker: Is it not Richard Dreyfuss?
Speaker: They got vocals from Richard Dreyfuss, which is awesome.
Speaker: Which, by the way, that picture was hilarious.
Speaker: Which one?
Speaker: The picture of Keith and Richard Dreyfuss.
Speaker: And, oh my gosh, who was the other guy in there?
Speaker: And they... Holding a donut, of all things.
Speaker: And the striven guys look super happy.
Speaker: And Richard Dreyfuss looks like he's in a mugshot.
Speaker: Yeah, that was great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which is probably part and parcel with what Richard Dreyfuss' reputation is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Seems like a sour bob.
Speaker: It was great to hear that they got – and granted, it's 50 years later, so obviously his vote was a little different.
Speaker: Jerry Thompson touched on that in the podcast.
Speaker: of, of, you know, he gets a lot of it spot on, but it's hard.
Speaker: Cause it's like, you can't do the screaming and yelling like he did 50 years ago.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: When he was 20.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so just working with that and whatnot, but chief Brody, I keep hearing, everyone's complaining like chief Brody.
Speaker: Why, why is he not on the game?
Speaker: Like, did you see the side of the premium artwork?
Speaker: It's him looking at the shark.
Speaker: And my understanding is he's in the clips.
Speaker: I don't know if they can show his face, but they said that they had access to all the movie clips, at least in the podcast they said.
Speaker: And even the final wizard mode is called Smile, you son of a... Yeah, which is Chief Brody.
Speaker: So obviously he's in the game, but I guess artistically...
Speaker: They didn't want him on the play field.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I would like to find out a little bit because there's obviously a backstory to that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because you have, Quint, you have Richard Reifus's character.
Speaker: I can't remember what it is.
Speaker: But there's a reason why they didn't put Brody on there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So maybe it was that.
Speaker: Now, is that necessary for the game?
Speaker: and he's a big part of the movie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But could you get, here's the question.
Speaker: Can you get away with doing the game without him and without him being prominent?
Speaker: Because aside from the clips, and do you feel like you're missing something?
Speaker: So go, what do you think, Josh?
Speaker: I think it depends.
Speaker: Obviously we haven't played the game yet.
Speaker: Let's play the game and see, but,
Speaker: It does feel like a little bit you're missing something if you don't have them front and center with the other three.
Speaker: Because let's be honest, I just watched Jaws again this last week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Fresh in my mind.
Speaker: It's been a couple years.
Speaker: And I was looking at it from like a, I'm going to make a pinball machine perspective, right?
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: A lot of the Chief Brody stuff is talking, which you wouldn't use in a pinball machine.
Speaker: Like that first hour of Jaws is a lot of like building suspense.
Speaker: And yeah, there's like him and his son in the pond and the shark going after him.
Speaker: But it seems like once you hit that last 45 minutes, it's Brody, Quint, and Hooper.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And it is mostly them.
Speaker: And then Quint almost becomes the star at that point because he's not really in the first hour, so they kind of showcase him more.
Speaker: So I think it was really smart for Elwyn to go from the perspective of Quint's a shark hunter.
Speaker: That's why they've went to him.
Speaker: So you get to play as Quint hunting sharks, which makes perfect sense.
Speaker: I think...
Speaker: Like I said, it gives me hope if they view some of the most classic lines of Brody's in this game and they've tailored around some of what he said.
Speaker: I think it adds to the ambiance of the game.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Do I really need Chiefs Brody's face on the playfield?
Speaker: I guess if this was my dream thing, I probably would be like, what the crap?
Speaker: It would be like having the Ninja Turtles without having Leonardo on the playfield.
Speaker: because Leonardo is your leader.
Speaker: And so I just, I don't know, I'm torn both ways.
Speaker: I can see it from both angles, but I feel like you do get Brody.
Speaker: I think you get more Brody in this game than you would in other iterations because they were given some gray area to work with.
Speaker: And it's hard because the lips are really tight on this one.
Speaker: I don't know what happened between the licensor, because you're kind of in a state, right?
Speaker: It's not really, Quint's,
Speaker: Quint's actor has passed away.
Speaker: Brody's actors passed away.
Speaker: And so it's like, you don't, it seems like when it comes to estates, they're a lot more tight knit on what they're saying because it's.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's hard, hard to figure out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Do I, do I wish Brody was on there?
Speaker: Yeah, I do.
Speaker: Brody.
Speaker: Brody is the story for me.
Speaker: Even though Shaw's character is great.
Speaker: He's that crazy hillbilly who happens to be a sailor who shows up.
Speaker: However, does it feel like we're radically missing something?
Speaker: Maybe a little, but not tons.
Speaker: It still feels like as long as we have the clips, he's still in the game.
Speaker: So is he in the game as much as I would like?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: but I think I, this is first impressions, right guys.
Speaker: I haven't played it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think, I think it's a disservice for people comparing this to Jurassic park.
Speaker: I've dressed a park had Nedry and that was it.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Even then it was very minimal on Nedry.
Speaker: I feel like you get a ton more with jaws and that's, that is totally fair.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: You don't get Jeff Goldblum like sprawling out with his shirt open, but you know, but overall, okay.
Speaker: We've brought it up once or twice, but we've got to talk about this art.
Speaker: Michael Bernard, I felt like knocked out of the park and that premium black back glass.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Quint getting eaten by the shark.
Speaker: Like you're, you're going into the, the gaping ma of death with a machete.
Speaker: Holy crap.
Speaker: I didn't think I'd see anything like that on Star.
Speaker: Isn't that like the most brutal metal thing you've ever seen?
Speaker: That is really... Well, if you look at all of the art on the premium, the shark looks terrifying.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, he's coming to eat you.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And that's... The funny thing is that one, it seems like Michael had a little more leeway.
Speaker: Because if you look at the pro flyer, you know, the back glass is the movie poster, right?
Speaker: It's basically that.
Speaker: And the same thing with, oh, I'm pulling up the LE.
Speaker: The LE is the movie poster and the pro is the movie poster.
Speaker: So that's obvious.
Speaker: Okay, there's a reason why you're going to do that.
Speaker: It's because that is the iconic visual that people associate with JAWS.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Even if you took away jaws, the lettering.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You saw that it's jaws.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: It's not shark NATO kids.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The, but the premium flyer, that was just fun.
Speaker: When I saw that, that he was able to do like the, the shark chewing the orca up.
Speaker: I mean, that was really fun.
Speaker: And I, that's, that's my favorite art package because it is hands down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's fun.
Speaker: However,
Speaker: I know people were concerned because Rush was, some people really liked it, some people didn't.
Speaker: And we always need to remember the artist is limited by what the licensor requests and wants.
Speaker: There were Rush people who said, ah, we don't like the middle of the play field with the heads of the band.
Speaker: I'm like, well, that's what they wanted.
Speaker: So what is he going to do?
Speaker: And they all look like that.
Speaker: Which maybe makes me laugh because he posted.
Speaker: He's like, I know you guys were complaining about the Rush heads.
Speaker: So here is a close up of Quentin Hooper.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Every stroke.
Speaker: And it's insane.
Speaker: He did a really amazing job.
Speaker: So he is a gifted artist.
Speaker: This is fun, too, because this is a different thing with Rush.
Speaker: Everything felt like it was kind of Easter eggs from their 19 albums.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like everywhere.
Speaker: This is.
Speaker: it is a feel that you are in the ocean and the, and the ship is breaking away and you see Brody and Hooper up there or not Brody, Quentin Hooper up there.
Speaker: And so it feels like, yeah, you are in the action and it is, it's really good.
Speaker: So hats off to Michael on this one.
Speaker: It's pinball art is hard.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: Especially when you're doing original line drawn art.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And when they released the LE art package, I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: I was a little underwhelmed.
Speaker: I got where they were coming from.
Speaker: I'm so used to jam-packed Jeremy Packard.
Speaker: Almost every little Easter egg and everything's in there.
Speaker: And so I was a little flustered with it.
Speaker: Even though that foil on top of it looks amazing.
Speaker: It felt underwhelming to me.
Speaker: So when I saw
Speaker: the premium art package i'm like this this is our package and i'm glad it's on the premium because i don't want to pay for the price for the le and i'm depending on the game it's you know i'm probably going to do a premium and so this is the best looking art package and it makes me happy to see that well there are different vibes from all the art packages right so if you look at the le everything is underwater from the shark's perspective yeah yeah
Speaker: And the premium is the one that's, that is the above the surface view of the shark attacking things.
Speaker: And so that's why, that's my preference, but they're all excellent.
Speaker: So thankfully, I know that people are nervous every time the art comes out because some people, they connect, some people, they don't.
Speaker: For this, the art, it connects with me.
Speaker: Overall, I feel like Michael has knocked it out of the park with this package.
Speaker: He's done an amazing job and I can't wait to get a premium.
Speaker: So I guess that brings us down to the last question.
Speaker: Are you getting one of these games, Scott?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And I am to the point where I do need to sell games if I buy one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But this looks like it's something I definitely want to get my hands on.
Speaker: I have all the elements except for the bond 60.
Speaker: So all the cornerstone bonds are all the cornerstone L wins.
Speaker: I would like to say, I definitely want to, to give this one a try.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: I'm, I'm stoked.
Speaker: And it's been interesting because the rumor has been, they're going to start producing these here pros here this month, Ellie's next month premiums in March.
Speaker: And, and all of like a limited run on most of these.
Speaker: And we'll probably be closer to summer.
Speaker: I'm guessing.
Speaker: Yeah, my guess is they said that the next premium round would probably be June.
Speaker: Ooh, maybe time for the 4th of July because we know Amity means friendship.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: So I think a lot of these people, like if you, if it's hard because a lot of people, a lot of pinball companies are taking like a non-refundable deposit right now.
Speaker: It's hard to say like, yes, I want in and then go play the game.
Speaker: You're like, eh, nevermind.
Speaker: I'm going to move on.
Speaker: So yeah.
Speaker: Definitely play it first.
Speaker: Find which arcade's getting Jaws for you.
Speaker: Play the Pro, and it'll give you an idea of how the premium's going to play.
Speaker: Or if you like the Pro more.
Speaker: Other interesting part, too.
Speaker: LEs went up on Stern's site Thursday morning around noon.
Speaker: Well, yeah, I guess it was not morning.
Speaker: Anywho, but they sold out in less than 10 minutes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: What does that mean for the market?
Speaker: Right now the question is, so they're, they're a thousand again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let me just do a thousand.
Speaker: How many do you think Stern sells on their website?
Speaker: And this is total speculation.
Speaker: We have no idea.
Speaker: Less than 10%.
Speaker: So we're talking a hundred or less.
Speaker: That's what I'm guessing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, but that's a good sign.
Speaker: That's a pretty big chunk considering most of shivers only get about, okay, let's say half goes cross these half stay here.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I bet, I bet you get five to 10 per distributor.
Speaker: So well, it depends on the size.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It depends.
Speaker: If you're a small distributor, you probably get two or three.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you're a bigger distributor, you probably, okay.
Speaker: At most, if you're a medium distributor, probably 10.
Speaker: If you're a volume distributor, you're pro I'm guessing you're probably looking at 25.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that, I mean, that, that would break down.
Speaker: That's actually pretty good that now,
Speaker: were we concerned that an Elwyn game was not going to sell out?
Speaker: And I know that that's a benchmark for LEs, but were you concerned at all?
Speaker: Did you have any question?
Speaker: Just a hair considering distributors are still sitting on Venom LEs, like a bunch of them.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And granted, like Venom is a different monster, right?
Speaker: Like Venom.
Speaker: I don't know what the heck happened there.
Speaker: We could all go into the deep dive and we have for the past six months on this game.
Speaker: We have.
Speaker: It's now Venom.
Speaker: They took some risks.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: We asked them to take risks.
Speaker: They did.
Speaker: So you have a game that is it's basically achieve or time based.
Speaker: I guess you spend enough time in the game and you're going to work through it.
Speaker: They had that.
Speaker: They had a different philosophy on.
Speaker: The play field.
Speaker: So the play field changes in the premium depending on which character you are, which is a pretty impressive engineering feat.
Speaker: If you think about it, you're basically making a four in one game.
Speaker: And then on top of that, you have a I'm sorry, a C-list title.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Venom is not a it's not something that a lot of people were clamoring for.
Speaker: May have been different if it were the movie assets, but we know that that would probably cost way more if you got right.
Speaker: If you got Tom Hardy Reynolds, Tom Hardy, Tom Hardy.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that took a lot of risks.
Speaker: This seems to be getting a little bit more back to basics, standard type play field.
Speaker: It is each game.
Speaker: I'm sure they're probably going to have some sort of elements of incorporating the insider connected to experience to maybe make the game a little easier as you
Speaker: pump more quarters into it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's pretty much all those button masher games that were in the nineties, you know, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, those types of games.
Speaker: If you plugged in enough quarters, you would win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that is certainly a way of driving people on site to say, Hey, you're a, you're at the bar.
Speaker: Why don't you go and put $5 in Venom?
Speaker: So my understanding too is the experience point system from Venom is going to be in Stern games going into the future.
Speaker: But when I talk to Owen about that specifically, he says it is in Jaws, but it doesn't progress you through the game.
Speaker: It's not like one of those ones where it checkpoints where you're at and then you can progress further.
Speaker: And honestly, I think that's a smart idea.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: The checkpoint...
Speaker: I think that's the only time we're ever going to see it's on Venom.
Speaker: I think, honestly, I think that's part of the problem why Venom didn't sell very well.
Speaker: Because it was like, well, why buy Venom when I can go to location?
Speaker: When I can play it online, yeah.
Speaker: Or on location and get the same, yeah.
Speaker: And so I think going forward, if they do keep the system, like they're planning on doing it, it's going to be implemented differently.
Speaker: So it sounded exciting with what they had planned for Jaws.
Speaker: in the experience system overall i'm i'm in on a premium i'm excited worst case scenario like i like i said i i i back out but i don't think that's happening i don't think i have june to decide that so there is enough there is enough history with elwyn games that you know it is at least going to be
Speaker: a quality experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It still may not be your favorite game, but it will be in your top half of your collection.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So I am totally willing to do this.
Speaker: And that is a fun, I, I, I loved when they showed the, the chum in the water.
Speaker: And that's a, that's a cool vibe where you put the chum in the water and the red lights start popping up around the shark area.
Speaker: That that's a, that's fun visually.
Speaker: It's cool.
Speaker: It's way cool.
Speaker: For me personally, Owen games are my jam.
Speaker: And so it's been two and a half years since Godzilla released, which is kind of crazy to say.
Speaker: But within that time, I've learned, because I've went through...
Speaker: I just not sat on the same collection, right?
Speaker: Like I've had multiple games in and out since, since Godzilla has released.
Speaker: I've learned more and more everything I'm looking in for in pinball.
Speaker: Everyone does in his games.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I'm, I've learned I'm getting older.
Speaker: I'm, I'm tired of moving games in and out.
Speaker: It's a pain in the butt.
Speaker: Even they're definitely not like your basement, Scott.
Speaker: I've, I've got a straight shots in my garage.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't have any stairs.
Speaker: It's pretty.
Speaker: I even have a pinball cart.
Speaker: So it's not terrible for me to move pinball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I just don't want to do it anymore.
Speaker: Like, it's just it's it's it's a pain.
Speaker: Moving pinball machines is not easy.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So less moving, the better.
Speaker: And I'm really happy with Foo Fighters.
Speaker: I took a chance on it.
Speaker: I bought it.
Speaker: I did play it before I bought it, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: But I feel like there's some diamonds in the rough.
Speaker: I feel like there's games outside of L1s that I really enjoy.
Speaker: But for the most part, I played Avengers for the first time in, I don't know, months.
Speaker: And it is such a great shooting game.
Speaker: I love the setup of it.
Speaker: I personally like the code.
Speaker: A lot of people say that's the downturn of it.
Speaker: But I think overall... It's complicated if you want it to be.
Speaker: It's straightforward if you want it to be.
Speaker: And so it's, it's like Jurassic park.
Speaker: You don't have to collect all the people.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: You could, you can blast through with your Jeep and never rescue someone.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: So Ellen's jaws is coming in.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: I've learned it's more about the gameplay for me than it is the theme itself.
Speaker: I love turtles.
Speaker: Turtles left for Godzilla.
Speaker: Like turtles is my dream thing.
Speaker: And it left for Godzilla.
Speaker: Other interesting thing that Stern announced that it's kind of, um, getting shuffled under all the jaws stuff.
Speaker: no more anniversary editions and they're planning on remastering DMD games.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: So did they tell me about, did they officially state that or did they, this was a press release from Stern.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Because I did hear it.
Speaker: I mean, I I've been working a lot the last two weeks, so I didn't see that.
Speaker: It's death.
Speaker: Davis was the one that released this press release.
Speaker: He's the one that stamped his name to it.
Speaker: So why did they do that?
Speaker: You have to ask that.
Speaker: If you're doing a press release, why would they say anything?
Speaker: So here's the thing.
Speaker: With pinball, a lot of pinball sales are slow burn, right?
Speaker: Like a lot of it's people getting into the hobby.
Speaker: They're like, the first thing you do was, what's my favorite theme?
Speaker: Like Ninja Turtles.
Speaker: So you go on Google Ninja Turtles pinball.
Speaker: That's what I did.
Speaker: And at that time, it was only data East Ninja Turtles.
Speaker: So I bought one for $1,000 and I got it.
Speaker: And I'm like, this game sucks.
Speaker: And then you start digging deeper and deeper.
Speaker: Well, a lot of distributors, that's how it works for a lot of distributors.
Speaker: They get a call for WWE or whatever.
Speaker: And like, well, we don't have that game, but we can direct you to some others.
Speaker: The thing about pinball, though, is you need money up front.
Speaker: That's the wonderful part about the LE system.
Speaker: It's pretty much your, it's your jump starting money, right?
Speaker: You're, you're helping fund that release.
Speaker: It's a fundraiser.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So the problem is, is people buying LEs are, they have the nice pockets and really the difference between the LE and the premium is the ha ha.
Speaker: I've got the shiny.
Speaker: It's limited.
Speaker: No one else can have it.
Speaker: Essentially.
Speaker: It's also upgraded.
Speaker: Like the things that I,
Speaker: do like about LA's is I like having some of the bells and whistles on my games and you can do them yourself with the premium, but it's some effort.
Speaker: For example, I, one of the guys that came over to help me move, he was looking at a new game and I was mentioning, you know, Godzilla is a great game and they were playing with my friend, Gary, who,
Speaker: He's the one who sold me Jurassic Park.
Speaker: He's my friend who's also in pinball.
Speaker: I mentioned, hey, I don't have the shaker motor installed in Godzilla yet.
Speaker: And he said, oh, the premiums don't come with shaker motors?
Speaker: I'm like, no, but you can do it.
Speaker: It just takes some effort.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the nice thing about the same thing with heart blades, right?
Speaker: The nice thing about the LE is it's out of the box.
Speaker: It is already customized.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So what we were starting to hear is that these anniversary editions were burning out those Ellie people, the ones that were always, I'm always in, doesn't matter what it is.
Speaker: You send me an Ellie within whatever you guys produce them.
Speaker: Here's your $13,000.
Speaker: Well, the problem is, is now you've got like Elvira is a great example.
Speaker: You've got three or four editions, four editions on Elvira.
Speaker: And so yeah,
Speaker: then the person's like, well, now you've got roughly, what is that, 2,000 to 3,000 games out there that this is no longer limited edition.
Speaker: It's got more editions out there than the premium and the pro combined, or probably not in Stern's case, but
Speaker: The point being is, all these LE buyers are like, we're not buying anymore.
Speaker: So even though the anniversary editions were doing good this past year, I think Stern's playing the long game of like, we can't lose our upfront money.
Speaker: We lose our LE buyers.
Speaker: We shoot ourselves in the foot because we can't.
Speaker: You can't have distributors sitting on a ton of stock, which is what they're doing right now.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so it's a short term gain, long term loss.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: And so I think they're doing this to make sure that the long term stays solid, which they need to do if we want to see pinball still thriving.
Speaker: And it reassures the LE buyer who, if that is a big deal to you to have something that's limited.
Speaker: And that's what the title is.
Speaker: It says limited edition.
Speaker: So if that's a big deal, then that reassures them that it truly is.
Speaker: Well, does this prevent them from doing future premium versions?
Speaker: No, they said that's what they're going to keep doing premium and pros.
Speaker: And I bet you if they do black and white alternate versions though.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think they'll still do because like with Catwoman edition, it was a premium.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I think they'll still navigate those waters.
Speaker: I think you still lose the edition for.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and so they did say they're still going to do difference of pros and premiums.
Speaker: But overall, the LEs, the thousands, what you get, we're shutting it down once that numbers hit.
Speaker: And we're not going to be pushing those boundaries anymore.
Speaker: So I think it was very smart of them to do that.
Speaker: It definitely placated some of the concerns that the high-end buyers have.
Speaker: I totally agree with that.
Speaker: Now, does that, it kind of brings up a lot of people have said, I would like the, I would like the bond 60, but I didn't want to pay the $15,000 it was.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But does that open the door for a premium version of that, but not a bond?
Speaker: Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker: They put, they put a lot of money into the, the score reel system.
Speaker: I really personally me, I really felt like bond 60 was an experiment.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was an experiment to see where the ceiling was.
Speaker: It was experiment to see how much power the L one name actually had.
Speaker: Even though I don't feel like you got the full L one experience because with L one,
Speaker: I know we call them game designers, but really they should be called the directors of these.
Speaker: Because, you know, they do design the play field, but with Elwin's case, every step of the way, he's the one that's doing the code.
Speaker: He's the one that's
Speaker: game testing over and over.
Speaker: You want to know why Owen's so sick of like, once the game actually releases, he takes a break for like a month or so or a month or longer from playing the game because he has played it every day looking for bugs.
Speaker: That's also why when his game comes out the gates, his games are so smooth playing.
Speaker: It's because he's constantly trying to find bugs.
Speaker: He's with the artist.
Speaker: He's with every aspect of the game.
Speaker: Like we even heard this from Jack Danger with Foo Fighters.
Speaker: It was a combination effort between Zombie Yeti, Danger,
Speaker: Raymond Davidson, it's, but they're really the director and how this is all getting put together.
Speaker: And so I think it's kind of short changing them as calling, like they are the game designer, but I feel like when you hear that, you only think of, well, they designed the play field and that's not the case.
Speaker: They're designing the whole game.
Speaker: So I don't know where I was going with that, but I think overall, I think that this is, this is going to be very well received.
Speaker: And I think that,
Speaker: When it comes to the anniversary editions and whatnot too, I think it's very smart for Stern to protect all this.
Speaker: I guess we're going back to the Bond 60th.
Speaker: We're getting back there.
Speaker: Sorry for the long walk around.
Speaker: But I just, I think really Bond 60 was an experiment.
Speaker: And I don't know if it gets revisited in much of any other sense because I think it was more of a litmus test than it was an actual game.
Speaker: Because you were really not getting the full level.
Speaker: Yeah, it was on the level.
Speaker: Yeah, I think we'll see the design maybe pop back up later as maybe a,
Speaker: these additions that they do like heavy metal and they do supreme and stuff like that i just don't see much more of of them revisiting that bond 60th well especially with how hard the licensor was this is the from my understanding the bond license is very jealous yeah they ever dealt with so it just it was what it was so okay
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: I am going to throw this in just FYI.
Speaker: We still have time left.
Speaker: If you want to do the Twippy voting, our friends over at this week in pinball, they are still doing the Twippy.
Speaker: And so go ahead, put it in.
Speaker: There's rank choices.
Speaker: It's very easy to do and just go support them.
Speaker: Go put in some, some votes.
Speaker: So they'd appreciate that.
Speaker: We'd appreciate it too.
Speaker: I was telling Scott before we started recording, I'm like, I'm already going to congratulate.
Speaker: I know who the, cause they've, what they've done, they've taken all the content creators and singled them down.
Speaker: They've consolidated them.
Speaker: Obviously we, we talked about unnecessary drama.
Speaker: And unfortunately I think it hurt the Twippies, not necessarily us talking about it, but just the situation hurt them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I want to make sure that they feel supported and they don't feel submarine.
Speaker: And it was a compromise.
Speaker: It was a compromise to be able to find, okay, how can we also reward people who are independently trying to produce pinball entertainment that aren't part of the companies?
Speaker: And it was definitely an acceptable compromise and I support them in it.
Speaker: but with them singling it or narrowing it down to one category, I'm already calling it right now.
Speaker: Nap Arcade, you are winning content creator.
Speaker: Jason puts a lot of effort.
Speaker: A lot of effort.
Speaker: If you don't go to his site, he does a good job.
Speaker: I would be shocked if it is anyone outside of NAP Arcade.
Speaker: Absolutely shocked because his numbers are insane.
Speaker: Like, I don't know how you compete with that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And Jason does a great job, but we always appreciate him covering
Speaker: He covers our content and it's a friend of the show.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: We'll have to have him on.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Let's do, you know, Nate Shivers used to do five fast things.
Speaker: We're kind of running out of time.
Speaker: I still have five, including the twippies.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's our first number one fast thing.
Speaker: The second fast thing, Pemberg's back.
Speaker: Woo.
Speaker: All thousand spots, right?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: 120.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: However, okay.
Speaker: There were some people who were super disappointed with this.
Speaker: So this is my fast take on it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You have to walk before you run.
Speaker: They sold every liquidated everything.
Speaker: And so you are, it, it would be impossible to do it at that level, the way it was at this time period.
Speaker: So it's a reboot.
Speaker: It's a pin Berg 2.0.
Speaker: I'm going to call it.
Speaker: And it's 120.
Speaker: Still high competition, still great players.
Speaker: So they're going to start this.
Speaker: I predict that this will grow soon.
Speaker: organically over time, which is exactly how you want to do it.
Speaker: So I'm excited.
Speaker: I am not a top one, one 20 player.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So this isn't for me, but I'm really excited for, you know, the Raymond Davidsons, the Travis Murry's out there, the Tom graphs, you know, the bone Cairns all, you know, see about all these guys, the Keith Elbans, the, the guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well,
Speaker: Yeah, everybody who who we know is a great player.
Speaker: We want to make sure that they have that ability to compete.
Speaker: And I'm really glad that it's coming back.
Speaker: Fast thought.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I can't wait to watch it.
Speaker: I hope it's very successful.
Speaker: I hope that it is only 120 spots.
Speaker: I hope they all sell out F5 day.
Speaker: So February 5th is the day that the tickets go on.
Speaker: So make sure, you know, you're poised.
Speaker: for those that have an apple, uh, just press refresh on your website, but F5 was to reset your refresh.
Speaker: Anyway, it's inside joke, but it's great to see this back after five years, you know, COVID really sadly did kill this off.
Speaker: Yeah, it did.
Speaker: But my guess is within the next five years, it'll probably take about five years to get to back to that thousand.
Speaker: If not, I don't even know if you get to that thousand that fast, but quality over quantity, right?
Speaker: If their goal is to double every year from here on out, then yeah, it's,
Speaker: you'd be hitting about a thousand.
Speaker: But quality over quantity.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm excited.
Speaker: Next fast thing.
Speaker: Spooky announced a new Scooby-Doo topper.
Speaker: Have you seen this?
Speaker: No, I haven't.
Speaker: It is insanely cool.
Speaker: It's got a, for those that haven't seen it, it's got Scooby up on there.
Speaker: I can't remember which villain is.
Speaker: There's one up there, but there's a bookcase on there.
Speaker: It looks like a bookcase, but then the bookcase slides open and there's a, there's a LCD in there.
Speaker: And it gives you more clips.
Speaker: It does a bunch of different stuff.
Speaker: I know one of the complaints is people are like, well, Scooby includes their toppers.
Speaker: And they're like, that's great and everything.
Speaker: But the toppers are just a bunch of flat pastics.
Speaker: And honestly, a free topper is not terrible.
Speaker: It's a Walmart display topper.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: I'm glad.
Speaker: But it is like one of those things that you see a cardboard cut out on top of the DVD display.
Speaker: But I think with this, they're taking the topper game to the next level.
Speaker: And I'm fine with paying for this one.
Speaker: This one's insanely cool.
Speaker: So if you haven't, give that a look on Spooky's YouTube page.
Speaker: Yeah, Scooby-Doo's your thing.
Speaker: Get it.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Our friend Donald Garrison with Don's Pinball Podcast received an exclusive from a mystery company.
Speaker: It was a picture of Princess Bride Pinball.
Speaker: What do you think of Princess Bride Pinball, Scott?
Speaker: Love the show.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Definitely top five all-time greatest films.
Speaker: Hands down.
Speaker: If you have not seen it, it is awesome.
Speaker: It's sweet.
Speaker: It's charming.
Speaker: Kids like it.
Speaker: Adults like it.
Speaker: It still holds up.
Speaker: It's everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pinball.
Speaker: It'd be fun.
Speaker: It really would be.
Speaker: It's a fun theme.
Speaker: I would much rather have this theme than Labyrinth.
Speaker: However, that's probably...
Speaker: I'm guessing that may be where it's coming from.
Speaker: You think it's coming from Barrels of Thon?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: But who else do you think would be doing it?
Speaker: Might be a brand new company.
Speaker: A new, new company?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: A new, new company.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it definitely is a theme that is worth exploring.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: So I would definitely be interested in getting it.
Speaker: I think it's a home run theme.
Speaker: Or at least seeing what it is.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a home run theme.
Speaker: It's an A-list theme.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: It's a classic theme.
Speaker: Everyone can quote it.
Speaker: It's one of those ones I'm going to have to watch again.
Speaker: I watched it probably in the last couple of years, but it's such a great movie.
Speaker: It's a great feel-good movie on so many levels.
Speaker: Pedretti Pinball.
Speaker: You know those guys that keep making the 2.0 kits?
Speaker: It's Whirlwind that has the Crapstorm and Funhouse 2.0.
Speaker: They're over and based in Europe, but they got the licensing agreement with Planetary Pinball to start reproducing
Speaker: remakes of bally williams games this is from the ground up this is cabinets and everything and or planetary pinball did release a press release after that saying they're not dropping their licensing agreement with with chicago right or with haggis and so this is just one more person producing games for them i've heard a very mixed bag with this because
Speaker: Pinball Brothers is the one that's going to be making these games, manufacturing these games.
Speaker: And so the quality is definitely not CGC quality.
Speaker: Okay, but nobody is.
Speaker: It's true.
Speaker: It's a very, very high bar.
Speaker: CGC is the bar.
Speaker: If you're searching for the bar, it's CGC.
Speaker: Yes, 100%.
Speaker: So there are some concerns with these games being built, but I think it's good for the industry overall because –
Speaker: This makes it easier for Europe to have access to these games.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I'm, I'm excited to see what they have up their sleeve.
Speaker: Uh, I wonder if it's kind of like starting with a re-imagined revisited DMDs.
Speaker: Maybe it's the, okay.
Speaker: The bottom line though is these games that they are targeting the 2.0 kits.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Kids, they are long in the tooth.
Speaker: They are, if you were built during this era, you need to schedule your colonoscopy because it is time.
Speaker: So these games, when they were built, they never were intended to go into homes.
Speaker: So it's impossible to find a home use only of these games.
Speaker: If you are trying to buy one and then put the money into it for a 2.0 kit, you
Speaker: then it's getting a little hard to find these things.
Speaker: And so that is the awesome thing is that you're going to have new options available.
Speaker: Now, this gets into other questions.
Speaker: Are they going to be able to play the original?
Speaker: Is it like the Fathom Mermaid edition where you can play the original or the updated?
Speaker: That's how it is with the current 2.0 kits where you have the original and the update.
Speaker: But the visuals are different, right?
Speaker: Because you do have a different back glass and stuff like that.
Speaker: So that's a more options for everybody's interest is good.
Speaker: And as long as the, as long as the, the flagship companies are still selling the games and producing and they're healthy, having these smaller options, that is a good option that tells you that there is life in an industry when a special interest manufacturer can find an itch.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Well, and the other interesting part to all this is, so this is our fifth fast thing.
Speaker: Nap Arcade had covered this months ago that Twilight Zone is being produced by a mystery company.
Speaker: And it's not CGC.
Speaker: And that they would be releasing these who knows when, but they were already manufacturing.
Speaker: They had a picture of them lined up or something like that.
Speaker: I've, I've can confirm that Pendretti is not the one that's remaking twilight zone.
Speaker: So does that mean we have another mystery company?
Speaker: That's, that's four companies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you do barrels of fun, if you do, if you now count Pendretti, you,
Speaker: Bride Pinball or not Bride, Princess Bride Pinball, if that's a new company.
Speaker: And then you have like Hexa Pinball, which just came out with the Space Hunt.
Speaker: Space Hunt.
Speaker: And now you've got someone making Twilight Zone.
Speaker: So does that mean Planetary's got another company they're working with with remakes?
Speaker: That'd be four companies doing remakes of Bally Williams games.
Speaker: It's interesting.
Speaker: I wonder if this is going to be tethered to one of the major companies.
Speaker: Because it's kind of hard to have all these independent companies building and maintaining quality, maintaining the feasibility.
Speaker: So is this, so some of the companies out there, do they have an extra line that they could rent out?
Speaker: I, my medieval madness was made by Stern actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there are things that you need to look at and say, well, it's been done before.
Speaker: So it makes sense that,
Speaker: someone like a stern with their big facility, can they throw another line in there?
Speaker: Jersey Jack pinball can, can they manufacture that stern and Jersey Jack pinball would be my top two as great options just because they have proved that they can do volume.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I do like that.
Speaker: I know other options you have spooky of American pinball and, uh,
Speaker: You know, they, they're smaller manufacturers.
Speaker: They produce less American pinball may be actually a good fit because they're able to, to produce things aside from their, they have more special interest games too.
Speaker: So that could be a good option for them.
Speaker: But yeah, I, I'm excited that they're able to resurrect some of these old themes that you can't play in
Speaker: in the state that they were designed.
Speaker: Because after they've been on location for a couple of years, you're not gonna get the same experience.
Speaker: This is why in many ways, it's a little hard for a home collector to go to a non-well-maintained location.
Speaker: And put money into it because you're, you know how the games are supposed to play it if they're not playing that way.
Speaker: So finding these games, these 30, 40 year old games, my oldest game is black Rose.
Speaker: You know, that's 1992, 93, that's 40 years.
Speaker: So it's nice to see new life into these games.
Speaker: Before we wrap this up, I want to talk some numbers.
Speaker: It has been five years.
Speaker: I know people are doing like this wrapped thing and, you know, they talk numbers.
Speaker: I just want to do some, I want to give a big thanks to back in November, we announced we had over half a million listens.
Speaker: As it stands this morning, I did the numbers right before we started recording.
Speaker: 546,344 combined listens across all of our platforms.
Speaker: That's YouTube, SoundCloud, Apple.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: This past year, so 2023, was the first year that every single month had five-digit listens every month.
Speaker: We had no less than 10,000 listens.
Speaker: Considering we put out two episodes a month, I feel like that's pretty impressive.
Speaker: March was our best month.
Speaker: I wonder why, considering there was seven releases that month.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But overall, it's insane to think that we started this five years ago.
Speaker: And I know it's not – I appreciate the support.
Speaker: I appreciate the listens.
Speaker: Obviously, we're saying stuff that you guys want to hear.
Speaker: It's crazy.
Speaker: If you would have told me when we started this that we'd be getting 20,000-plus listens a month on average, I would have said you're crazy.
Speaker: But it's great to see the support.
Speaker: We want to thank the fans that tune in, that message us, that we've met.
Speaker: And I mean, I don't know if I would have ever made friends with the Triple Drain guys outside of this.
Speaker: I don't know if I would have made friends with Tim Lean or Glenn Wechter.
Speaker: I really appreciate those guys as well.
Speaker: Pormans, Drew and Ian, I'm not going to lie, they're kind of opposite of the lifestyle I live.
Speaker: We're family men.
Speaker: So there is that.
Speaker: It makes me giggle.
Speaker: Like it's, it's, it's fun to see that we're different, but you have similar interests.
Speaker: And I love that.
Speaker: I've said it about pinball.
Speaker: So thank you.
Speaker: And thank you guys for all your support.
Speaker: Flipping the script on autism would have not been.
Speaker: even a pipe dream for something I could have done without pinball with people like Stern and Jersey Jack and American and, and pinball network and, and, and Michael Bernard from the, the jaws.
Speaker: He's the one who did the, did the art package for it.
Speaker: And that was, that was donated.
Speaker: It was amazing that he was able to, he was willing to do that and to contribute to.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: It just shows what a great guy he is too.
Speaker: People like Franchi giving us stuff to give away.
Speaker: Christopher Franchi.
Speaker: I mean, it's amazing that it did as well as it did.
Speaker: And I can't say anything more than thank you.
Speaker: Thank you to all of you that have made this possible.
Speaker: Last five years, we don't see a stop at any time soon.
Speaker: If anything, this last month, I did hear once or twice, like, good for Triple Drain, trying to help resurrect Loser Kids.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Career.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: And I'm like, yes, thank you, Triple Drain.
Speaker: That was really great of you to be generous enough to do a Merry Christmas episode with us, which did over 5,000 listens in less than 40 hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was a combined total between.
Speaker: And it was like Joel was saying, he's like, I hope the numbers come out even.
Speaker: It came out pretty even.
Speaker: Their YouTube numbers a little bit better, but honestly, they're better.
Speaker: You've seen our face.
Speaker: I'm like, yeah, you've seen our faces.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: They've got Tom on camera.
Speaker: So obviously they're going to have better numbers than us.
Speaker: But overall, the numbers were pretty dead even.
Speaker: And so it was it was pretty awesome to see that.
Speaker: I mean, 5000 listens in 48 hours.
Speaker: Insane.
Speaker: But yeah, December was our second best month behind March.
Speaker: And so it was just great.
Speaker: It's insane.
Speaker: Do you have anything to add to that, Scott?
Speaker: No, just I would also wish everybody thank you.
Speaker: Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your life, to be a part of your entertainment package.
Speaker: And I'm always grateful for people who have reached out.
Speaker: I have met some amazing friends over the last five years, and it would never have happened
Speaker: If Josh didn't decide he wanted to start a pinball podcast and including Josh, I mean, I, I messaged Josh daily.
Speaker: So it's, it's been a great friendship and getting to know him and his family.
Speaker: It's really helped me find something that is not just work.
Speaker: And so I'm thankful for being a part of this.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Same here.
Speaker: And, and truly you are my best friend, Scott.
Speaker: Like I'm, I'm glad that I have made this friendship with you and it's, it's been amazing.
Speaker: Like likewise, my friend.
Speaker: So the only thing I want to shout out is I got a freaking sweet John Stockton Jersey for Christmas.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's arguably the best point guard in all of NBA history.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: maybe second to my magic Johnson.
Speaker: Like I'll get Mavic Johnson.
Speaker: He has five rings.
Speaker: Stockton didn't have any.
Speaker: So I understand magic also played center one game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, but, but when you've got what three of the top records, he certainly will never be broken.
Speaker: All assists.
Speaker: Like he is the guy who made, made the magic happen for everyone else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And stills.
Speaker: And he, in his, what was 18 year career?
Speaker: Maybe it wasn't that long.
Speaker: I think it was 18 years.
Speaker: It was long.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They said he missed 29 games in 18 years.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: That's unheard of.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Especially when you hear about load management, all stuff.
Speaker: Anyhow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm very proud of John Stockton.
Speaker: I'm glad that he was on the jazz.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He started here and stayed here the whole time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: If you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
Speaker: Also, we're on all the socials.
Speaker: X, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, YouTube.
Speaker: Subscribe, like.
Speaker: whatever, all that stuff.
Speaker: I want to say thank you to the combined 5,000 listeners we have over all of our platforms.
Speaker: And it's 2024, baby.
Speaker: And we just had a brand new Keith Elwin release.
Speaker: Can this year get any better?
Speaker: Life's good.
Speaker: Send us off, Scott.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Go buy Jaws.
Speaker: Chomp.
Speaker: Thank you.
