Transcript
Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
Speaker: We are on episode 82.
Speaker: I am Josh Roop with me, my co-host as always.
Speaker: Scott Larson.
Speaker: And Scott, we have gotten back from a big adventure.
Speaker: We've got to hang out with Zach and Nicole Menny of Flippin' Out.
Speaker: That was pretty cool, right?
Speaker: That was pretty awesome.
Speaker: And I actually unboxed, I had a big unboxing on Saturday.
Speaker: I ended up taking part of my garage and I set up Godzilla.
Speaker: Also set up Mandalorian.
Speaker: And then I have Rush, Iron Maiden, and Beatles.
Speaker: So now those five are in my garage.
Speaker: And again, if you need that machine, contact Zach and Nicole at Flippin' Out Pinball and they will definitely get you set up.
Speaker: A little bit more things are coming out.
Speaker: Uh, they have, I forwarded, uh, their supply list on Facebook.
Speaker: Uh, but if you have that one machine you're looking for, just reach out to them and they can tell you when they can get it for you.
Speaker: So they're always easy to work with.
Speaker: And so, uh, reach out to them.
Speaker: Also, I unboxed Godzilla premium at my house and it has been quite the hit.
Speaker: The kids are fighting over it.
Speaker: I'm fighting to get time on it.
Speaker: I've played maybe a handful of games.
Speaker: It's quite the game.
Speaker: It's really impressive.
Speaker: Yeah, I was not interested really in it by theme, but man, that is a great game.
Speaker: And so if you're not interested in it because of theme, the rules, the artwork, the gameplay, it really does take you into the experience.
Speaker: And really, it makes you laugh because it is campy and it's hilarious.
Speaker: It's probably the closest I'll ever get to an Aquabats game.
Speaker: And you know what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: That probably is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it really is great.
Speaker: I thought the rules were really a lot more.
Speaker: They were very accessible, which I thought was really refreshing because there's a lot of games where I'm still trying to figure out the rules.
Speaker: And unless you have a lot of time to really...
Speaker: immerse yourselves in the the database it's pretty hard to figure out what what to hit but godzilla seems like it's actually pretty straightforward and it's just a lot of fun yep i totally agree so before we get into the tpf shenanigans i'm going to hurry and do a couple shout outs really quick greg paverilli and levy levy namen have asked us to tell you guys that pin fest is coming up next month
Speaker: May 6th and 7th, if I remember correctly, May 6th, 7th, 8th, right around that date,
Speaker: It's going to be in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Speaker: This is a Stern Pro Circuit Tour stop.
Speaker: So if you want to get some of those big whoppers, this is going to be the place you want to hit.
Speaker: I know District 82 is the hotness right now, and it's insane.
Speaker: But maybe you want to do some other places that you don't feel so intimidated.
Speaker: Go to Pinfest.
Speaker: So there is that.
Speaker: And then I also wanted to give a quick shout-out to Orbital Albert.
Speaker: Pinball Nerds is back.
Speaker: If you don't know what Pinball Nerds is, we would consider ourselves a pinball podcast with a side of random tangents.
Speaker: Pinball Nerds is random tangents with a side of pinball.
Speaker: So Orbital Albert definitely is a great guy.
Speaker: Go check him out.
Speaker: And we also want to give our congratulations to Jeff Parsons.
Speaker: Sounds like he has teamed up with Super Awesome Pinball Show.
Speaker: So Franchi and Christian Line will be having that third host.
Speaker: Join up for more of their shenanigans.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And one other thing we did talk about Pinbrew last year.
Speaker: Pinbrew is actually this weekend.
Speaker: If you're downloading it right now, it's April 7th through 9th in Ohio.
Speaker: So if you want to go check that out, it was a great show.
Speaker: And it was really one of the first ones to start when we were trying to come out of COVID and the pandemic.
Speaker: So go and check out Keith.
Speaker: Keith puts on a good show.
Speaker: And yeah, just tell him we sent you.
Speaker: Definitely.
Speaker: So let's get into the Texas pinball shenanigans.
Speaker: This is our first time.
Speaker: Yeah, this, well, this is actually a great, we can compare and contrast, right?
Speaker: You know, that high school essay contest where like we both went to Expo.
Speaker: It was our first Expo.
Speaker: We both went to Texas Pinball Festival.
Speaker: It was our first Texas Pinball Festival.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And so just offhand, Josh, we have talked about Expo before.
Speaker: What is the vibe difference between Texas Pinball Festival and Expo?
Speaker: Because I feel they're both valid.
Speaker: It feels like they're targeting a slightly different audience.
Speaker: So I felt like Expo is very seminar based during the day.
Speaker: Up until about 5, there still are seminars past that.
Speaker: But after 5, then the vendor hall opens.
Speaker: You get to go play some of the newer games from Stern, JJP, American that's there.
Speaker: And then around 10 o'clock, if I remember correctly, that's when they literally come through and shut the game off on you while you're playing it.
Speaker: I think each night was slightly different, but yeah, it was, they, they walk through and they are, they're shutting things down.
Speaker: Yeah, correct.
Speaker: And the free play, everything's really segregated.
Speaker: You've got the free play area.
Speaker: You've got the vendor area.
Speaker: You've got the seminars area.
Speaker: And, and that was expo.
Speaker: The food was fantastic.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: I really enjoyed the food in Chicago.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Texas, it felt like there was no walls.
Speaker: Vendors were mixed in with free play.
Speaker: There were shenanigans ensuing everywhere.
Speaker: The thing about Expo, it's like they're very cut and dry.
Speaker: They had security guards not letting you in until 5 o'clock on the dot.
Speaker: You've got people waiting to break down the barricade.
Speaker: Where I showed up a day early because of the flight shenanigans that had happened to me,
Speaker: And I was nervous because it said, you know, TPF to open till five o'clock on Friday.
Speaker: They were going at like 10 o'clock in the morning and they weren't like there was security there, but they really weren't stopping you.
Speaker: If you decided to go and start playing some of the games, um,
Speaker: So it was nice, especially that Friday morning, because I felt like I kind of had the area to myself.
Speaker: There were still people there.
Speaker: We were helping with TPN set up some of their booth stuff.
Speaker: And the vibes were just entirely different, I felt like.
Speaker: It felt you got to meet a lot of pinball enthusiasts and just had a blast.
Speaker: I think the first day I was there, Friday, we played a total of three pinball games, one game each.
Speaker: And we didn't even go to bed until, what, 1.32, right?
Speaker: Yeah, so I flew in.
Speaker: I got there, what, about two?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Two, and then I came and I met you.
Speaker: Really, if there's one thing that I could describe it, it felt... It's a festival, and there's a reason why they labeled it as a festival, because it feels like a party.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It feels like a...
Speaker: it feels a little bit more like, Hey, we are all here to have a good time there.
Speaker: There definitely were seminars, but if you weren't going for a seminar specific weekend, then you could totally find other ways of doing it.
Speaker: Um, and the, uh, the,
Speaker: The tournament area, it was, the funny thing is, I thought the festival floor was actually kind of cold.
Speaker: It seemed like they had the AC cranked up, which I totally understand because there's a lot of electronics there.
Speaker: The tournament area was actually pretty hot.
Speaker: And so I don't know if people who were into the tournament scene, that was a little different, but they did have a viewing area, which was nice.
Speaker: And so you could actually sit there and watch it in a separate room off.
Speaker: That was interesting.
Speaker: I actually went into the finals, the women's finals on Sunday because I had some time.
Speaker: And it was really impressive to be able to sit there and have the and see more of a tournament style pinball.
Speaker: But yeah, I would say this, this seemed like it was jam packed over 48 hours.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Plus, plus a little bit.
Speaker: It seemed like Expo was more geared toward, Hey,
Speaker: Um, I almost like a class.
Speaker: It was like a seminar.
Speaker: And then at the end of the seminars, if you want to go and play some pinball, you could.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it, it felt, uh, it felt a little bit regulated, I guess.
Speaker: Expo, even though I think it's really good at what it's doing.
Speaker: And the whole point of Expo is it's in Chicago.
Speaker: And so I thought it was excellent at that goal, right?
Speaker: The whole secret is knowing yourself.
Speaker: And Expo, that's where all the manufacturing is.
Speaker: So it seems like it is trying to draw a little bit more of the technical crowd.
Speaker: And Texas, it just seemed like, hey, we're here to have a good time.
Speaker: Yeah, and Texas was wall to wall.
Speaker: Everything was packed in there.
Speaker: I mean, there was still room to move.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: But it felt like Expo wasn't...
Speaker: using the whole area that they were given.
Speaker: But then again, that was a new area they had just moved into.
Speaker: So yeah, in fairness, that was their new area.
Speaker: And so they were, they're trying to, I have a feeling it will, it will pivot and you'll see a little bit more integration, but yeah, the I'll put it this way.
Speaker: If I were bringing my family to a show, I'm,
Speaker: I think I would take them to Texas because I think there's stuff that's a little more family centric that a lot of people could do as opposed to you and I would be great sitting in seminars because it would be interesting learning more about the nuances of pinball and what's going on.
Speaker: But if you are picking a show based on, hey, family's having a good time and a casual fan can easily have a great time with this festival.
Speaker: I'd highly recommend Texas pinball festival.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would definitely like to go next year.
Speaker: Uh, so that, that, that would be really good.
Speaker: Uh, it, it was definitely, uh, um, you know, congratulations to Ed, uh, for putting on a great show and the turnout was excellent.
Speaker: I mean, it didn't feel like a ghost town.
Speaker: It felt like there were so many, it, it didn't feel like there were too many people there.
Speaker: It felt like a critical mass of people because there is something about feeling the energy, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You don't want to go to a concert where it's like half full.
Speaker: It just feels a little awkward because you can't get that whole immersive experience.
Speaker: But in, in Texas, it felt like there was enough energy at any time you were going in there.
Speaker: It was great to meet new people.
Speaker: Uh, we had met Amanda Hamilton and her husband, Lord Helmut, but
Speaker: You know, we'd met them at Expo, but we got to meet them, like to get to know them down at TPF.
Speaker: And that was really cool.
Speaker: It was just like hanging out with friends the whole time.
Speaker: I mean, we hung out with Joel Ingerberth.
Speaker: Travis Murie was nice enough to let me crash in his hotel room Thursday night because we were having issues with the hotel that we had Friday through Sunday.
Speaker: You know, it was great to go see the tournament stuff.
Speaker: That was really packed in there, though, man.
Speaker: Yeah, that was really... I think that that would have been kind of hot and a little overwhelming if I were in the tournament.
Speaker: So I hope that they're able to find a way of increasing the comfort there.
Speaker: But it's hard.
Speaker: Obviously, these conventions...
Speaker: They're trying to fit a tournament into an area that's mainly built for seminars or people talking.
Speaker: And so you have all these electronics that are on all the time.
Speaker: And so in the expo hall, those ceilings are probably 50 feet tall.
Speaker: In the tournament area, those ceilings are probably 12 feet tall.
Speaker: It's a more intimate space, and so it's going to trap the heat a lot more.
Speaker: My recommendation, too, is if you're deciding to go to one of these shows,
Speaker: Go to TPF, go to Expo to enjoy the show.
Speaker: I know that you're whopper hungry.
Speaker: Some of you people win the tournaments.
Speaker: But go to more tournament-centric shows.
Speaker: Come enjoy the show that is TPF.
Speaker: Um, there's certainly a lot of show.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: However, they also put on an excellent tournament too.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: So if, if you are a whopper hunter, you can definitely, uh, you can get your whoppers there.
Speaker: And, uh, and again, congratulations to Raymond Davidson.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Uh, Raymond, uh, the, the absolute assassin, uh, he took, uh, first in classics and first in the main.
Speaker: So, I mean, that's really hard to be able to take out both of those things.
Speaker: Classics, there seems to be a little more randomness in it, but it still shows that the cream rises to the top, right?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: But my point being is, and granted, you can probably do both, but I found at Expo it was hard to do the tournament and the show.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Because of the way that they run the tournament there.
Speaker: And I noticed a lot of people that were in the tournament, I didn't see unless if I went up to the tournament area.
Speaker: And that's true.
Speaker: The tournament definitely takes over your, your weekend.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So, but at the same time, if you are a tournament player, you're, that's what you're going for.
Speaker: Not true.
Speaker: So there's a little bit for everything.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My friend, Tony went down for the tournament and you know, that's the whole point.
Speaker: That's what he does.
Speaker: He competes.
Speaker: So also a big shout out to Charles.
Speaker: Charles was able to get to a room down there.
Speaker: So Josh had a room.
Speaker: So we were able to find a way for a Jeff Rivera from the pinball podcast.
Speaker: And so all four of us were able to divide up.
Speaker: And so, and it was great being at the hotel, um,
Speaker: So if you needed to run upstairs, it was very easy.
Speaker: I highly recommend at least getting a hotel close by.
Speaker: Well, and the nice part, too, is with Expo, I felt like a hotel nearby was still a walk, right?
Speaker: It was still a little ways.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But a hotel nearby TPF was just across the street.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it was dense.
Speaker: Yeah, it felt more dense.
Speaker: That's the best way of describing Texas Pinball Festival.
Speaker: It was over fewer days.
Speaker: The landscape was tighter.
Speaker: You still probably did want to either Uber or take the shuttle if you were trying to go someplace.
Speaker: You and I walked to that Greek place the first day, and that was...
Speaker: Oh no, that was with Lee.
Speaker: Excuse me.
Speaker: Uh, we walked, we looked on the map and found a Greek, uh, uh, place, which was really good, but we ended up walking about a half, you know, half to three quarters of a mile.
Speaker: And I, I think I would just Uber it next time.
Speaker: Well, even you and I went to, uh, what is it?
Speaker: Chewy's Tex-Mex.
Speaker: You and Dennis Creasel walked there and Tony and I
Speaker: rode there with Zach many to the Nicole.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Zach and Nicole took it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we had started eating salsa and stuff and you were still a little behind.
Speaker: Like you guys, I think we were two thirds there, but Dennis and I were power walking.
Speaker: We were trying to get our steps in.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: So it, the nice part is the hotel has a shuttle.
Speaker: Take advantage of that.
Speaker: If you're down there as well.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Let's go through some of these games.
Speaker: I know a lot of these games are first time for us.
Speaker: Some of these are first time for the world, like Weird Al.
Speaker: Where do we want to start?
Speaker: We played quite a bit of these.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: I want to finish because I'm going to want to talk a lot more about Weird Al.
Speaker: Let's start with Cactus Canyon.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: In the seminar that Butch gave, and it's really impressive how he talks about what Chicago Gaming Company does for these games in that they go through and look and see.
Speaker: And really Stern does a very similar thing to some level when they release a vault edition.
Speaker: Because when they release a vault edition, the first thing they say is, okay, what do we need to fix on the original?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so they go through and figure things out.
Speaker: Now, Butch was talking about all the small things that they did on Cactus Canyon, because in Cactus Canyon is really the first one that they have released that it's and it's expensive because it's rare.
Speaker: And it's because it's also an unfinished game.
Speaker: They weren't able to do everything they wanted to in Cactus Canyon.
Speaker: And so there were a lot of things they really had to take to completion.
Speaker: But when it's talking about the mine shaft and the train and he was talking about the guns and the lower apron and everything, it was really impressive.
Speaker: everything they did.
Speaker: And I, I talked a little bit with, with Ryan.
Speaker: It was late at night and I was talking and he said, you know, they I hope Ryan's okay with me sharing this.
Speaker: He's like, you know, people haven't noticed.
Speaker: And so this is a, this is an Easter egg that they coded into cactus Canyon is that when they're doing the high scores, you know,
Speaker: the default, I believe the default grand champion score is Lyman sheets and the, the back box and the topper, the lights go down and Lyman's initials come up.
Speaker: And then, you know, it's basically a moment of remembrance for Lyman and what he's really meant to the community.
Speaker: And I thought that was a really cool, subtle touch.
Speaker: And so look for it when you're out.
Speaker: I thought that was a very on-point, respectful way to address his legacy.
Speaker: I even noticed in Godzilla that they've also put a, it's not the Grand Champion score, it just says Grand Champion LFS.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's how it is on Chicago Gamings.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I hadn't noticed until you pointed out after the Twippies, they had games set up in the room afterwards.
Speaker: And you just said, watch this.
Speaker: And seriously, just all the lights go out.
Speaker: And it just on the screen, it says Grand Champion LFS.
Speaker: That's a really cool way to honor him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I feel.
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: It's still a work in progress and they're getting there.
Speaker: Butch said that people will forgive delays, but they won't forgive quality errors.
Speaker: Forgive being late, they won't forgive being wrong.
Speaker: Yeah, basically.
Speaker: I think that's his exact quote.
Speaker: That was a really good way of putting that out.
Speaker: People are willing to wait for quality.
Speaker: And so I know it's a little frustrating because people want their games, but that will be a solid game when it comes out.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: And some of them are actually out in the wild now.
Speaker: They're starting to trickle out.
Speaker: Starting to trickle out, yes.
Speaker: Great game, definitely on the easier side of games.
Speaker: If you're looking for something that's a little more relaxed to play, this is definitely it.
Speaker: And it's going to be interesting to see what Josh Sharp and Lyman Sheets came up with.
Speaker: see if it kind of makes it a little more brutal or whatnot.
Speaker: But I think it'll probably make it a little more challenging.
Speaker: But just like any other rule set, a good rule set has a slow curve and then it goes up.
Speaker: You know, it has an inflection point where that's when you get everything all set up right and then your scores blow up.
Speaker: That's the perfect way of doing it.
Speaker: So Cactus Canyon, definitely a thumbs up for us.
Speaker: I love Chicago Gaming's quality.
Speaker: And it's funny because in the seminar, you can go back and watch the seminar.
Speaker: I actually recommend watching this one because there was a lot of details about Cactus Canyon.
Speaker: But it was funny because they brought it to Expo, and he just kind of went through all the stuff that they had tested.
Speaker: And stuff we weren't even seeing, or you wouldn't see unless you tore your game down.
Speaker: And they're like, yeah, we see this and this and this, and we decided to fix it.
Speaker: There was chipping in the play field in the back by Bubba or Butch, whatever his name is.
Speaker: But it's in a little hole that's not even really part of the... Isn't that Bad Barg or something like that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's in a place that you wouldn't even notice.
Speaker: So you don't see it, and it doesn't actually affect the gameplay.
Speaker: So it's really cool for them to bring up this kind of stuff.
Speaker: And then they showed how they've already fixed that.
Speaker: So it's a problem they didn't even really need to bring up because...
Speaker: No one was ever going to see it because they've already fixed the issue before it even came out.
Speaker: Let's talk Alien.
Speaker: Okay, I'll let you go first on that.
Speaker: It is a wide-body game that can be narrowed down to a standard body, in my opinion.
Speaker: The left side, you eliminate that scoop on the far left and just bring it in the couple inches or whatever it needs to be.
Speaker: And it would speed up that game.
Speaker: And I feel like it'd be a lot more fun.
Speaker: It's a fun game.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: It's just not what I'm looking for.
Speaker: It was a little frustrating because there's a scoop kind of top center, kind of to the left of the top center, just to the left of the alien.
Speaker: And I don't know why.
Speaker: And I know you can adjust this, but they had it so it would shoot it straight down the middle.
Speaker: And it's, there's a, there's a post in the middle.
Speaker: And so it shot right perfect between the post and your flipper.
Speaker: There was no way to get on it.
Speaker: And that was frustrating.
Speaker: So I was telling everyone that we were playing with, don't shoot the scoop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause your ball will be over.
Speaker: the challenge I had was a similar thing, but on the left side, there's like a little scoop area on the left side where there's a, there's kind of a hidden flipper there.
Speaker: And if it comes out of that and you don't hit the flipper, it does the same thing.
Speaker: It just dumps it right down the middle.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: And that could, that could probably be fixed with coding too.
Speaker: But yeah, I know some people who loved it.
Speaker: It just, it felt like,
Speaker: Wasn't quite there yet for me.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I felt like it was too slow and floaty, which is what you get with Y bodies.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: It's hard not to do that.
Speaker: It was still a great game.
Speaker: I enjoyed it.
Speaker: Yeah, I like the theme.
Speaker: I love the theme.
Speaker: It still just didn't connect with me, but that's the beauty of pinball.
Speaker: Not every game has to.
Speaker: It wouldn't go into my collection.
Speaker: That's what I'd say.
Speaker: But I do know some people who ordered it.
Speaker: Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker: And they really liked it.
Speaker: So I was like, well, okay, good for you.
Speaker: I'll come over and play it.
Speaker: That's one of those games.
Speaker: That's the perfect description.
Speaker: I love Illy enough to have a friend buy it so I can go play it.
Speaker: Well, I, okay.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: It's not like South park where I would just walk away.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, the, uh, alien it's, it was, it was okay.
Speaker: I love the theme.
Speaker: And maybe with more time on it, I would understand it a little more.
Speaker: And admittedly, at expos or at festivals or anything like that, it's a little hard because you have like 300 games drawing from the power.
Speaker: And so usually the flippers are a little weak and usually they have the games to
Speaker: angled down and so even a fast game can can play floaty under those conditions so it it can be a little hard to get a true test of what it's like and then next to alien was funhouse 2.0 i know this isn't a new game but it is one of the 2.0 kits that seem to be running rampant as of late um what were your thoughts on it scott it it's a it's a fun cosmetic upgrade
Speaker: So if you're looking and I would put the same thing as like the Flyland design stuff, what Brian's doing.
Speaker: I have the alternative Translight in Medieval Madness.
Speaker: And I think it's a fun way of modernizing an older game.
Speaker: giving it a facelift.
Speaker: It's if you are a huge fan of fun house and you want to, to make it a little more modern, a great voice work with Mark silk and being able to, to do that, then that's a lot of fun.
Speaker: But it really is catering for that crowd.
Speaker: Like you, you have to have a fun house and they seem to be getting kind of hard to find right now.
Speaker: Surprisingly.
Speaker: That's what I would say.
Speaker: If you own a fun house and you're looking to revitalize it a little bit, I would recommend this.
Speaker: I personally love fun house.
Speaker: It's one of the games that kind of got me into pinball when I was learning rules and stuff like that.
Speaker: It's definitely a good price for a 2.0 kit.
Speaker: I think 3,000 is not out of, no, it's not 3,000.
Speaker: I apologize.
Speaker: It is 2,000.
Speaker: I really don't think that's that bad for an upgrade kit.
Speaker: considering a topper's like 850.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So overall, I felt like it was good.
Speaker: I don't feel like the rules really were very much different from what you play in the original game, but it is cool that they've added a wizard mode and done some of that stuff as well.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Really, really good game.
Speaker: Well, it's, it's a subtle, subtle facelift for a game and that's the risk too, right?
Speaker: If you're developing a new rule set, like what, uh, like, uh,
Speaker: you may not be expert at developing the rule set.
Speaker: And so it is safer to stick with a facelift on an existing rule set.
Speaker: And I want to talk more about the 2.0 kits, but let's, let's wrap up.
Speaker: What else we got here?
Speaker: We got Halloween slash Ultraman.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So we play both.
Speaker: The, the challenge with Halloween is,
Speaker: is it still feels like the code, it doesn't flow as well as I would like it to.
Speaker: It still feels like there's some downtime.
Speaker: And I think there's still some bugs in the code.
Speaker: I had, of the two games I played, it did, it lost a ball.
Speaker: And so it was searching for the ball and I, I'm not even sure what eventually happened.
Speaker: I think it may have just ended the ball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, and so, and, and I will, I will take that up to coding issues.
Speaker: Uh, so after that, um,
Speaker: It's a beautiful game, in fairness, on the Pinball Industry Awards.
Speaker: I actually voted Halloween for the best art package solely on the impact that single art package had because the art package alone sold the game.
Speaker: And so that's what I thought was most impressive about it.
Speaker: I think it will get there.
Speaker: The coding will get there.
Speaker: The layout still is not my favorite.
Speaker: It still feels a little bit like it's like a different version of Whitewater.
Speaker: And then it seems like it has the multi-level thing on the right side.
Speaker: And there's something that's really odd and it would just be really, you would get used to it.
Speaker: But the balls come out above the flipper and they come out from like a hidden hole.
Speaker: Like a subway.
Speaker: They call it like an elevator.
Speaker: So it's just a little, it's literally what you would think an elevator pops up underneath the plastic.
Speaker: You can't see it.
Speaker: And so there is a flasher there that, that tells you it's there, but it's just, it's just odd just because your mind is programmed to follow a ball.
Speaker: And so it's a little different.
Speaker: Well, what was odd about that part of it, though, that really threw me for a loop is you'd shoot it in the scoop or whatever it was.
Speaker: You'd start your mode.
Speaker: You're watching this video.
Speaker: And I'd finish the video and all since counting my bonus.
Speaker: And I'm like, why is it counting my bonus?
Speaker: During me watching the video, it had brought the ball through the elevator and I wasn't paying attention because I was watching the video.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And again, I think that goes down to code, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But so compare or contrast.
Speaker: We actually, in fairness, we said, well, we need to go and play the Ultraman code.
Speaker: And it wasn't just us.
Speaker: We had eclectic gamers with us.
Speaker: We had Tony and Dennis with us.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they had a very similar experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So we went, we went to Ultraman and, uh,
Speaker: Ultraman's better code.
Speaker: Like it seems to be integrated a little better.
Speaker: And so I'm, I, which is why I'm willing to, I'm willing to expect that Halloween will get there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because Ultraman is actually the better option right now.
Speaker: It is, it is a little odd that if you look at the, the sixties sci-fi art thing, it does feel like a different version of like what Godzilla is.
Speaker: the vibe anyway.
Speaker: But it seemed to play a lot better than Halloween, which is why I at least have hope that Halloween will get there eventually.
Speaker: I really wasn't a fan of Halloween or Ultraman.
Speaker: It was all right.
Speaker: It was easy to figure out how to start the multiball because it's the three scoops on the left.
Speaker: And that's honestly what I just started doing because I, like we even got to play Halloween,
Speaker: uninterrupted after twippies for a while yeah and i was starting to figure it out i got i got the grand champion on it and i was i just by the end of it though i just i felt like i was playing it to under like to to do research i wasn't playing it because i was having fun it still doesn't have that one more game feel it doesn't to me and the weird part was is i got grand champion and i never went to the upper play fields i never went to the middle or the upper and so
Speaker: I didn't fully understand why they were even there if I was getting high scores without.
Speaker: And I get that it's integrated to the code and whatnot.
Speaker: But this is a big feature of the game are these upper play fields.
Speaker: And I never went to them once of all the games I played on Halloween and Ultraman.
Speaker: Yeah, it is for a target demographic.
Speaker: I guess I'll put it that way in that it wouldn't be my only game if I'm buying one game.
Speaker: However, if I had a big game room and I was looking for something to mix it up,
Speaker: I would at this point I would only consider the Ultraman but if you're a huge fan of the Halloween then I would wait until the code gets there and then you can probably pick it up last but not least on our list is weird Al yeah we only got to play this twice right
Speaker: Well, the lines were ridiculous.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The lines were ridiculous.
Speaker: And the, the challenge that, um, Oh, on, I went back on Sunday, like you had to fly a little earlier.
Speaker: So I was there on Sunday and I actually went and played it again, but the ball kept getting trapped under the left.
Speaker: Uh, it was like an, uh, ramp that went up.
Speaker: Oh yes.
Speaker: The right, right ramp.
Speaker: Um, but you know what?
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: Yes, it is a really cool game.
Speaker: It's a really cool game.
Speaker: And I, this would make me consider buy a P3.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So one question I have too, Josh, is when you swap these things out and we'll, we'll definitely talk with Jerry about this or, or someone, you know, we call him, we, we've reached out to call him.
Speaker: He's one of the coders on it.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: And we'd like to have him on to talk about it, but I'm wondering when you take that play field out, is there like a suitcase or something you put it in?
Speaker: Like how do you protect it?
Speaker: So Ian Harrower, Gamma Goat.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: He, you can get ahold of him.
Speaker: He has made a, just a little two by four rack.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Or a rack made out of two by fours that he actually has made that will slide underneath the P3.
Speaker: So he just slides out, has his modules in there, switch out to the one that he wants and slides it right back under the machine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it's an aftermarket thing, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's something he had to build.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I'm not aware of something that they offer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I've watched these.
Speaker: You can watch them replace these modules.
Speaker: I watched it on FlipTronic in less than five minutes.
Speaker: It's pretty impressive how quick these come out.
Speaker: The old one comes out, the new one comes in.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think it's super impressive.
Speaker: That's still one of my lingering concerns about it is that when you're playing, anytime you take off the glass, there's always a risk you can do something to the play field.
Speaker: And, okay, so for example, I was actually taking pictures of Gus for Steve Gouveia on Iron Maiden.
Speaker: And I realized two hours later that I locked my watch underneath the play field.
Speaker: So, or underneath the glass, it was actually on one of the habit trails.
Speaker: And it's just, it just goes to show all these small things that can happen.
Speaker: When I was unboxing Mandalorian, the one thing I heard is that you need to be careful because the razor crest has those gun turrets things on the side.
Speaker: And you need to be careful that you don't actually like snag those and break it off.
Speaker: And so that's, that's one minor thing.
Speaker: concern with this type of setup.
Speaker: And I would just like to know there is some sort of protective mechanism and maybe an aftermarket is the only way to go, the best way of doing it.
Speaker: But I would like to find a way of securing that.
Speaker: And so it's not just collecting dust underneath my system.
Speaker: Now, that being said,
Speaker: Weird Al's great.
Speaker: I think it's a fun game.
Speaker: It seems like there's a lot of depth.
Speaker: The music seemed fun, but not overwhelming.
Speaker: I think I... Now, Harvey the Wonder Hamster, I think I saw that on every person.
Speaker: That must be the easiest mode to get.
Speaker: So it's a lock ball mode.
Speaker: So you lock three and then you get the multi ball or whatever.
Speaker: So that must be the easy, easy one.
Speaker: Cause I saw almost everybody get that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But really it, it felt really cool.
Speaker: It's, it, it, it has taken P3 to a next level.
Speaker: And if you're a, it, I would absolutely consider having a P3 given seeing Weird Al and where they're going.
Speaker: And I thought the flippers felt great.
Speaker: The flippers felt great.
Speaker: I want to give my cons first.
Speaker: I did not like the upper flipper placement.
Speaker: You cannot see them.
Speaker: They are hidden, yes.
Speaker: And the only way that you could really figure out where they were at is on the screen on the play field, there's some arrows right in front of them.
Speaker: And so you've kind of got to mentally figure out, unless you tilt your head way to the side to see them.
Speaker: I wasn't a huge fan of that.
Speaker: I don't mind the two buttons for the flippers because like the lower flippers are one button and then the upper flippers are another button, right?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or you can tie them together, but you can't stage flip with them.
Speaker: Right, exactly.
Speaker: That was my biggest con was the upper flippers.
Speaker: It was driving me insane.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This really isn't a con, but like I can see it as like if I put it in a column, I'm going to put in the negative column.
Speaker: I felt like the animations were kind of childish.
Speaker: And when I say that, I mean like something you'd see on like a Nickelodeon cartoon.
Speaker: Well, okay.
Speaker: The funny thing is I was actually going to bring that up.
Speaker: I was like, it kind of felt like Captain Underpants.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker: But I felt like, I guess with the music pin, you kind of expect more assets of,
Speaker: the actual person you don't see like just an operating table, you know?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: I thought it was, I thought it was fun though.
Speaker: I like, I, I, I felt it was a, yeah, I guess that's the best way of describing it.
Speaker: It's a Nickelodeon cartoon, which is solid, but Hey, in my house, we watch them all the time.
Speaker: So it's fine with me.
Speaker: The pros, this game would be fantastic for my family.
Speaker: I think with the Nickelodeon-esque animations, I think it's a negative and a positive.
Speaker: It depends on your situation.
Speaker: I think it would be a major positive for my house.
Speaker: I think my kids would love it.
Speaker: The insanity of the upper portion of that play field, just trying to figure out where the ball goes and all the diverters and everything was pretty amazing.
Speaker: They had one of these just sitting on the side that you could play with.
Speaker: It was that you could just kind of play with the habit trails.
Speaker: And it was insane.
Speaker: They have like a three-way diverter.
Speaker: And depending on which way that was going, it would divert it, you know, this way or that way.
Speaker: And it was just way cool to see some of the innovation that was in this game.
Speaker: The sound system was amazing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: in the back box was really cool.
Speaker: Cause I had the speaker panel was really cool, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You could feel the music in your hands as you're playing the game.
Speaker: You could feel the vibrations and whatnot.
Speaker: Uh, and honestly, it was the only game that I started playing.
Speaker: I'd hit the start button and it got me hyped that UHF intro song and Scott Denise, he working everything together was amazing.
Speaker: It all felt really good.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Like you said, I totally agree.
Speaker: This would be a definite plus column for me to buy one of the P3 systems, the multimorphic systems.
Speaker: I'm not there yet.
Speaker: 11.3 is still... For a one game, but I think people who buy it will drop $20,000 and just get all the games.
Speaker: It's like buying a...
Speaker: if if you're buying a nintendo you're not just buying it for mario kart you're gonna buy you know you're gonna buy dr mario you're gonna buy metroid you're gonna buy zelt you know so all these extra ones so the the additional levels are actually pretty reasonable yep um so well and at the end of the day when i was done playing weird owl it definitely had that feeling of play just one more just one more yeah
Speaker: I started asking people, I'm not going to start naming names because I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus.
Speaker: But I started asking people, I said, at TPF, the games that you've seen, excluding Godzilla, because we know everyone loves Godzilla.
Speaker: Well, okay, but Godzilla was announced before, so.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: If you had to choose between Weird Al, or Halloween, or Cactus Canyon, or, you know, some of those other games that had just come out, Alien.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: nine times out of 10, the person would say weird Al.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which I think shows how, uh, how they have leveled up with this.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like this is a, they have taken it to the next step.
Speaker: And I, I would certainly love to get ahold of one of these in play for an extended period of time.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Like I said, I would still highly consider it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Getting one of these in my home.
Speaker: It just,
Speaker: Like I said, that barrier of entry, maybe I'll wait.
Speaker: You know, you can work with Jerry when they're going to these shows and you can get a package deal.
Speaker: That's usually hit up Jerry.
Speaker: If you're, if he's going to be, they're always at Texas pinball festival, but if they're going to expo, hit them up.
Speaker: And that's the other thing too.
Speaker: They've been so busy with these.
Speaker: They, they project that they will always have a year wait on the machines.
Speaker: So if you want to get in on them, get on them now, because it's probably gonna be another year.
Speaker: regardless because they're going to start releasing a game a year, which they've proven they've done with Heist and Lexi Lightspeed.
Speaker: I mean, they're making games.
Speaker: And it is a different demographic, legitimately, but this is the first one that feels less like a gimmick.
Speaker: Like some of the other ones, like Cannon Lagoon.
Speaker: It feels like, okay, this is kind of a... This is a Chuck E. Cheese type game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, that's what it felt like.
Speaker: Which was still fun, but it's not the same level as like... I think you could actually put this in a tournament.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Like, that's how...
Speaker: That's how much of a jump up this was.
Speaker: And it's narrowing that gap when there are a lot of people like, oh, that's not pinball.
Speaker: It's pretty hard to look at Weird Al and not call it pinball.
Speaker: The only other thing on the list is 2.0 kits.
Speaker: Really, the only one else that was there was Totan 2.0.
Speaker: But it was just there in talking about it.
Speaker: It wasn't really there to play.
Speaker: And honestly, the people that went to the Mirco
Speaker: interview seminar whatever it was was more interested about the play fields than they were about yeah about totem and uh i don't blame him but we're not going to get into that because yeah i think you can go watch the interview yeah you can go watch the interview you can listen to creasel um creasel on pinball show did a great job of covering it so yeah i'm going to direct you there because he was spot on
Speaker: Yeah, the it's but I would say so, Josh, which game do you think had the most wow factor at the show?
Speaker: Most wow.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: It really is because for me, I love Cactus Canyon.
Speaker: It's got a lot of bling to it.
Speaker: But I really think Weird Al had an amazing wow factor.
Speaker: Weird Al had the best showing.
Speaker: It did.
Speaker: For the first option of a game.
Speaker: Now, to be fair, I have played Godzilla before.
Speaker: I own a Rush.
Speaker: I have played Mandalorian before.
Speaker: And so that's why we're kind of discounting Stern out of this conversation.
Speaker: A little bit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm, I'm, I am removing Stern because I've had a lot of experience with everything.
Speaker: And so this is more of the, uh, it's the others.
Speaker: This is the time for the others to shine.
Speaker: And so of the best in show of the, the rest, I would, I, we're all felt like a professional game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: Well, and I think, honestly, if Jerry and company keep this up, they're going to be... A force.
Speaker: Yeah, they really are.
Speaker: Especially with the way some of the other companies are being ran right now.
Speaker: And so... Yeah, they... Again, it just felt professional.
Speaker: It felt a level up.
Speaker: It felt like it was really great.
Speaker: Well, it's funny because we played Cannon Lagoon.
Speaker: And you can tell why people would play Cannon Lagoon and be like...
Speaker: Yeah, this really isn't pinball.
Speaker: Okay, but it was fun.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: It was absolutely fun.
Speaker: But it felt like a carnival game.
Speaker: Yeah, it did.
Speaker: And you wouldn't sell me on a P3 system if I had Cannon Lagoon.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: However, it seems like you have Cannon Lagoon.
Speaker: Okay, that was fun, right?
Speaker: And then you have something like Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Speaker: Or you have, you know...
Speaker: you know, cart racing.
Speaker: And then you have, so it feels like every step, you know, you have heist with the, with the crane thing is, it seems like everything is, is going up.
Speaker: They haven't had a step down yet.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In a subsequent release and they're on a good, good trajectory.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Momentum has built and they just keep that train rolling.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: Next on the list, we went to the Twippies.
Speaker: We actually presented at the Twippies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We were able to present best artwork, which is, woo, that's one of the great ones.
Speaker: So let's pull back the curtain just a little bit because we did present.
Speaker: We received an email at the beginning of the week with a map of where to go backstage.
Speaker: A list of the order of everything was going to be presented.
Speaker: And what position we'd be presenting at.
Speaker: So I think that's why a lot of us were confused when the slideshow wasn't going in the order that us as presenters were told.
Speaker: Let's start with the challenges.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then we'll end on the high notes of what was going on.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And maybe suggestions.
Speaker: Challenges.
Speaker: The out of order video was definitely challenging because it became it was awkward for presenters who were up there because.
Speaker: Well, even affected us because we were supposed to do best artwork and then best rules popped up.
Speaker: Yeah, it popped up more.
Speaker: OK, well, it also, in fairness, it was it was a little bit of a down year in that.
Speaker: There were three Stern games that were competing against each other, and really, one of them really bubbled to the top.
Speaker: And so it was kind of a lack of diversity and opportunity on that.
Speaker: Um, also the, even though I think it's great to have a sizzle reel, there was, there was a lot of awards.
Speaker: And I think that every award having a sizzle reel, I think made it a little challenging just because it dragged it out longer than I think, um, the momentum of the show had.
Speaker: There was 25 award is awards.
Speaker: I counted out and only half of them actually went to pinball machines.
Speaker: So, yeah, I think that's challenging.
Speaker: So one way, ways of doing it, and I'm not devaluing any award.
Speaker: I think finding a way of streamlining it and figuring out a way of
Speaker: of having, you know, if you want media personalities, so, you know, if you want, if you want to have podcasts, if you want YouTubers, if you want streamers, you know, all that kind of stuff, and that's fine.
Speaker: But if you're focusing on the pinball things, instead of having a sizzle reel for all of those, I don't necessarily think, even though it adds some visual character, I think it dragged on.
Speaker: And so I, okay.
Speaker: If I were re-imagining the show, I would have a sizzle reel for the main pinball machines.
Speaker: And you say, these are the pinball machines that were released this year and are eligible for awards.
Speaker: And then you can do a quick sizzle reel and that could take,
Speaker: Three minutes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you do that once.
Speaker: And so you don't have to go through that every time there's a pinball specific award, because we've already seen the sizzle reel and, and anybody who's watching either in person or online, they all know what these games are.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And so if you can just do that once, I think that will streamline that and cut out some unnecessary transitions.
Speaker: um, streamlining some of the awards, maybe some awards are no longer relevant, um, or, or not as important, uh, but, uh, finding the best way of, of making it fast, but finding a way to target the awards for like an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that way it's done.
Speaker: And then the party can start.
Speaker: And it's just kind of a quick, fun thing.
Speaker: It just felt like it was about an hour too long.
Speaker: Jeff does a great job of getting it set up.
Speaker: And it obviously means something because you see Stern taking pictures of these.
Speaker: and sending them out, and Spooky was super happy with their Halloween topper.
Speaker: So that it matters in the cultural relevance.
Speaker: If we can find a way of streamlining it and making about 90 minutes max, I think that would keep it as a more fun show to watch.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: I wanted to give some more behind the scenes as, because we were there live, the audio quality wasn't
Speaker: great.
Speaker: And I don't blame that on Twippies themselves.
Speaker: It was the sound provided by TPF.
Speaker: And so I think they were having a really rough time trying to balance in the room without blowing out the sound on the stream.
Speaker: That's the problem.
Speaker: You need a professional sound guy to do that stuff.
Speaker: There should have been a monitor system in the room
Speaker: that was just for the room and then there was just for online and and that's that's just me guessing because the sound never got better during the show but the sound wasn't really great anyway during any of the seminars and felt like yeah that and that's what happens when you have things that are geared toward more of seminars i mean that's they're not geared toward award shows yeah and so they need to work on
Speaker: either bringing their own sound equipment or working with TPF or whoever it is, or if it was the convention center, if they were using their sound system, they got to figure something different there.
Speaker: Do a dry run.
Speaker: I think 90% of your issues would have been eliminated with a dry run.
Speaker: It is hard though, because you're getting all the presenters who, most of the presenters, we were there for pinball reasons, right?
Speaker: And so you're already committing things
Speaker: you know, two hours, two and a half hours to the show.
Speaker: And that if you do a dry run, I, that may be a big ask for the presenters who are usually occupied with other things.
Speaker: Uh, during that time.
Speaker: It might be, but you want a professional product and that's, that's one way to resolve a lot of, a lot of those issues could have been resolved that night with a dry run.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Uh, I don't know about the sound equipment.
Speaker: Like I said, I don't know exactly who provided that, but I know that it wasn't necessarily a Toby's fault.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And that was the other hard part too, is we in the live show didn't know that the stream sound was perfect.
Speaker: And so we couldn't hear the nominees and stuff.
Speaker: And so a moto and Jack were announcing the nominees and you can hear over the stream.
Speaker: You can hear them talking over Mark silk, who is then presenting the nominees as well.
Speaker: And so it, that was just, it was hard cause we don't know what's going on in the stream and, and the people watching the stream don't really know what's going on live.
Speaker: And so, uh, like I said, there,
Speaker: Jeff will do it again next year, I assume, and it'll be better.
Speaker: I wanted to talk some numbers really quick, though, about Twippy because the numbers always fascinate me.
Speaker: Every year they release a portion of the numbers or whatever it may be.
Speaker: And last year they gave us a really good chunk of the cumulative points.
Speaker: So they turned over to a new system.
Speaker: So you can get a first place, second place, or third place vote.
Speaker: or no vote at all.
Speaker: And so they have a point-based system depending on if you got first, second, or third in a ballot that goes towards points, and then your cumulative points put you somewhere in the standings.
Speaker: And so last year they gave the percentage of points total, and then they gave you a list of first-round votes.
Speaker: And with the first-tier votes, it gave us an idea of we're seeing roughly about, in 2020 we saw about 3,000 ballots.
Speaker: combined with votes.
Speaker: This year, they released the percentage of actual votes.
Speaker: So this is different from the points system last year.
Speaker: And what I found interesting is if you go up and add those percentages up,
Speaker: the categories at the very least equal 100%.
Speaker: So those categories that got 100% were the least amount of votes.
Speaker: So let's say for number's sake, it's 3,000 votes because that's what was last year's first tier.
Speaker: So every category at least received 1,000 votes.
Speaker: If you had more percentage over that,
Speaker: then you just take that percentage towards 3000.
Speaker: So a lot of them were like 100% or 101%.
Speaker: What intrigued me though, if you go up and add all these percentages, there's two categories that really stick out to me and you can single vote.
Speaker: And so that's why I think that that's not why this is too odd because you can just go out and single vote for these categories.
Speaker: The two categories were location, which was 13% higher, no, sorry, 15% higher than the base vote.
Speaker: So that's 450 extra votes just for location and podcast at 13%, which is an extra 400 votes if we go based off the 3,000.
Speaker: So I find it interesting that we have so much extra going to these categories.
Speaker: do these pinball podcasts really have that many followers that don't really care about the rest of the industry that they just want to visit family and friends?
Speaker: What are your thoughts, Scott?
Speaker: I think it's a little bit of family and friends.
Speaker: Uh, you're like, Hey, uh, and I, and all these, uh,
Speaker: This is the plus and minus of these things.
Speaker: And they are people's choice awards.
Speaker: And so if you want to win, you really have to put out there that, hey, you're nominated, please go vote.
Speaker: And so you will get a lot of people who want to support you and they'll vote.
Speaker: And they really don't have any idea about what other things are involved in.
Speaker: You know, they don't have a position on the best artwork, the best hopper, the best rules.
Speaker: And so they're trying to help you out.
Speaker: And so the one that we saw most interesting was the podcast.
Speaker: But again, I think it's just because there are people who will listen to podcasts and that's what they vote for.
Speaker: And they don't really have as much of a position on other things or just family and friends.
Speaker: But again, I don't really have a problem with it.
Speaker: It's it is.
Speaker: you know, this is the ultimate popularity contest, right?
Speaker: Just wanted to throw that out there because I just, I like numbers.
Speaker: I like going through these numbers.
Speaker: They always intrigue me because it gives me, I felt like a gauge of how much interest is in the hobby.
Speaker: And for something like a People's Choice Award show that's receiving 3,000 plus votes, full ballot submissions, that means people are taking good couple minutes of their day twice a year because they got to do the pre-vote and then the actual vote.
Speaker: And they're setting down going through these full ballots.
Speaker: And then you've got even more people that are doing more votes.
Speaker: And so it's really impressive to see these kind of numbers behind the Twippies.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I would actually say that...
Speaker: Like in fairness, that's actually a pretty solid voting population, being able to get 3000 people who who are willing to take five, 10 minutes and vote on their favorite issues.
Speaker: Because there was a lot of I put a lot of thought into my in my answers.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people did, too.
Speaker: So I think that's pretty much it.
Speaker: You know, there was a lot of great fun.
Speaker: I guess we didn't really talk about like going to JJ suite of Game Exchange in Colorado.
Speaker: JJ always throws on a crazy show and TPN had a great booth out there and there were a lot of them that had
Speaker: uh, great stuff.
Speaker: Silver ball swag was there.
Speaker: And, uh, you know, just able, we talked with Ken Cromwell a little bit.
Speaker: Uh, and we, uh, we also tried to do some, some quick, like one to five minute interviews.
Speaker: And we'll probably release that as a separate show, just being able to talk to a few people and just get a few ideas.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: So it, you know, sometimes you don't have time to do a full 30 minute interview on someone.
Speaker: So sometimes just doing a five minute one is all you get.
Speaker: I want to give a quick congratulations also to Kerry Hardy.
Speaker: He won Best in Show with his Getaway, the High Speed 2.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It was pretty.
Speaker: It is a pretty machine.
Speaker: You should have seen it in person.
Speaker: And he was brought to tears.
Speaker: He was so happy.
Speaker: And it was cool to see him there receiving that award.
Speaker: We got to hang out and talk to him at the Twippies as well.
Speaker: He sat next to us.
Speaker: And it was just cool to get to know him as well.
Speaker: There was a ton of people that just, it was insane.
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: It was fun to see everybody.
Speaker: I do want a special ironic shout out to Amanda Hamilton, who probably had the best surprise gift of the evening.
Speaker: And she gave me a deep root hat.
Speaker: This is true.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the original logo, the original logo, not even the one with the ball, not the cracked earth.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Not the cracked earth.
Speaker: The one that's, that's vaguely suggestive.
Speaker: Uh, yeah.
Speaker: So, uh, I thank you, Amanda.
Speaker: It's been awesome.
Speaker: Uh, also, uh, another shout out that I just, uh,
Speaker: I do want to thank James Bishop, who was a local guy here.
Speaker: He actually printed me a Captain Marvel ramp fix.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And so I'm going to install that.
Speaker: He also made me a set of pin like pin stadium lights.
Speaker: Oh, OK.
Speaker: Not pin stadium lights, but a similar type.
Speaker: His his version of it.
Speaker: An LED based light that helps illuminate your play field.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: But really appreciate that.
Speaker: It's amazing the connections you can make in this hobby.
Speaker: And I just really appreciate that
Speaker: you're going to find negative people everywhere.
Speaker: However, the vast majority of the people that I've met in pinball have been overwhelmingly positive and overwhelmingly nice.
Speaker: And so it does feel like a positive community.
Speaker: And so the experience has been great, which is why it was so much fun to see people that I've really been friends with for years, but
Speaker: really at Texas, I met them in person for the first time.
Speaker: And, you know, so that, that was, that was a great, uh, again, a few notable people, uh, Tony Murphy, I've talked to him a lot on the phone, uh, really great friend and, uh, we able to, to meet up at Texas.
Speaker: Um, uh, Charles, Charles was great, uh, uh, to be able to reach out to me and, uh, he brought me a sunshine laundromat shirt.
Speaker: So that was great.
Speaker: And, you know, we just,
Speaker: Again, it was just so much fun to see all these people.
Speaker: And I appreciate that people spend time listening to us.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: And this is fun for Josh and I. And we're grateful that it continues to be fun.
Speaker: But what makes it fun is when you, what makes it even more fun is when you get a message back that says, you know what, what you guys were talking about, that really meant a lot to me.
Speaker: We really enjoyed it.
Speaker: It gave us some entertainment.
Speaker: So we appreciate that.
Speaker: I want to end with this.
Speaker: I want to use our pinball power, podcasting power for this.
Speaker: You ready?
Speaker: After the Twippies, we're all standing around outside the Twippies.
Speaker: We're having a good time.
Speaker: We're talking with Zach Manny, Nicole Manny.
Speaker: Half of TPN's there.
Speaker: You got Travis and Joel.
Speaker: We got triple drain there.
Speaker: Triple drain besides Tom.
Speaker: We had double drain.
Speaker: We didn't have Tom there.
Speaker: And we're complaining about how hungry we are.
Speaker: And I opted to buy some pizza.
Speaker: And we got the pizza finally like 30 minutes later.
Speaker: I made sure the ladies that were there got slices first because they were all hungry and still hadn't left for food.
Speaker: And we all kind of started chowing down.
Speaker: I got like a meat lovers and some New York style pizza.
Speaker: It was delicious.
Speaker: And some random dude that no one knew who he was.
Speaker: walks over, grabs three slices, chows down right next to us, and then just walks off.
Speaker: And I'm like, dude.
Speaker: No, you didn't.
Speaker: You just got looked at and you're like, okay.
Speaker: So my suggestion is there was no free food at TPF.
Speaker: If there's pizza on a table, the water was free.
Speaker: There was plenty of free water.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Hey, the guy just felt like it was a, it was a festival atmosphere, but okay.
Speaker: By the way, no, no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So we had someone steal some slices of pizza.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Someone who's feeling a little full of themselves to steal our pizza, but you got to understand we were all hungry.
Speaker: We all went like 10 hours without food, especially the twippies had ran long,
Speaker: And it's like, I don't care who you think you are.
Speaker: Okay, maybe Keith Elwood could come over and steal some pizza.
Speaker: We wouldn't give a crap.
Speaker: But like, seriously, dude, come on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This isn't your pizza.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But however, did you see like 30 minutes later, another rando dude showed up and like opened the empty boxes of pizza and was like, oh, the pizza all gone?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And just walked away.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm like, oh.
Speaker: What is this?
Speaker: Apparently in Texas, it is customary to leave full boxes of pizza out in the festival.
Speaker: They're Easter eggs.
Speaker: Apparently so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And like at an expo, you remember expo, we were walking back to the convention and there was a couple there.
Speaker: They're like, we got too much pizza.
Speaker: We can't finish this.
Speaker: Do you want this pizza?
Speaker: In that case?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Chow down on the pizza.
Speaker: But if there is a group of people standing around the pizza that are all friends and
Speaker: You might want to ask if you can have the pizza.
Speaker: You know what, Josh?
Speaker: Next year, I want you to go and randomly walk up to someone with a plate of fries and just take a few fries and dip them in their dipping sauce and then walk away.
Speaker: You know Bill Murray does that, right?
Speaker: If you're at a fast food restaurant, you walk over.
Speaker: If you're Bill Murray, you can get away with it.
Speaker: He steals the fries, eats them, and goes, tell whoever you want they're not going to believe you and walks off.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'm ending on that note.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Hey, you know what?
Speaker: We're spreading the love one slice of pizza at a time.
Speaker: No, my pizza is my pizza.
Speaker: Gosh, dang it.
Speaker: You have an invitation for you.
Speaker: You can eat my pizza, but if you do not have an invitation, you stay away from my pizza.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Gosh, just throwing a diva, a diva fit right now.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Scott does deep brew.
Speaker: I do pizza.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We can, we can see where our passions lie.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: If you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com, at LoserKid on the socials, on the Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram.
Speaker: You want it.
Speaker: We got it.
Speaker: Except for TikTok.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I'm too old to shake my butt for pinball on TikTok.
Speaker: You can do it.
Speaker: I could, but no one wants to see that.
Speaker: Again, thanks.
Speaker: Thanks for everyone that has out there.
Speaker: I want to give a special shout out to, I forgot, sorry, Jen Rupert.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Got to hang out with her this weekend or that weekend.
Speaker: Wonderful woman.
Speaker: If you aren't checking her out on the socials, she's got some great content as well on TikTok and whatnot.
Speaker: I think it's seriously just at Jen Rupert, R-U-P-E-R.
Speaker: Not like mine, R-O-O-P.
Speaker: That is very different.
Speaker: And it was great.
Speaker: I wasn't going to announce this, but Jack announced it on his stream tonight as well.
Speaker: I ended up with his rookie of the year Twippy somehow.
Speaker: And he's like, keep it.
Speaker: He signed it and handed it over.
Speaker: So I walked away with a Twippy.
Speaker: And it was kind of funny because people kept saying as I was walking away, like, congratulations, what'd you win?
Speaker: I was like, nothing.
Speaker: I stole this.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But overall, it was great.
Speaker: There was some wonderful people there.
Speaker: And I highly recommend it.
Speaker: If you haven't been to a pinball show, this is probably the one I'd recommend going to.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So send us your thoughts.
Speaker: What stood out to you at TPS and what you're looking forward to at the next festivals.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: See you in two weeks.
Speaker: All right.
