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Ep 117: Building Bonfires with Zizzle and Don Garrison
48 Plays2 years ago
Don joins us to talk about his podcast, a new mystery pinball company, Stern's new move, and play some Flip, Bolt, Torch.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 117
00:00:08
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:10
Speaker
We are on episode 117.
00:00:12
Speaker
I am Josh Roop.
00:00:13
Speaker
With me, my co-captain, as always, Scott Larson.
00:00:16
Speaker
And Scott, it's another beautiful day in pinball land.
00:00:19
Speaker
If you're going to be buying yourself a new machine like Venom or what else has come out recently?
00:00:25
Speaker
Well, I, okay.
00:00:25
Speaker
So I, I actually just took down my cat.
00:00:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:28
Speaker
I finally brought my cactus Canyon inside.
00:00:30
Speaker
Nice.
00:00:31
Speaker
So that was, that was my big move.
00:00:33
Speaker
It's been sitting in my garage for a while.
00:00:35
Speaker
And I did buy that through Zach and Nicole at flipping out pinball and they are excellent.
00:00:39
Speaker
So if you ever need to contact or find that, uh, uh, scratch that pinball itch, uh, contact Zach and Nicole and they've always been easy to work with.
00:00:48
Speaker
Definitely.
Flipping Out Pinball's Expansion
00:00:49
Speaker
They are awesome.
00:00:50
Speaker
And like I said, the easiest way I contact them is through Facebook Messenger.
00:00:53
Speaker
But you do you, whatever works best for you.
00:00:56
Speaker
And they've got more employees there.
00:00:57
Speaker
So they're getting even more customer service oriented.
00:01:00
Speaker
And it sounds like they're shipping used games now, which they weren't doing before.
00:01:04
Speaker
They'll pallet them up and they got some sweet deals on that website.
00:01:07
Speaker
Check out their Facebook page is always up to date with the new pins.
Guest Introduction: Don from Don's Pinball Podcast
00:01:11
Speaker
Our guest this evening has kind of taken pinball by storm.
00:01:15
Speaker
This man is recording, I swear, like a couple times a week.
00:01:19
Speaker
He's about halfway to our episode count.
00:01:22
Speaker
I know he's number 66 last I checked.
00:01:25
Speaker
I mean, it took us like two years to get to 100.
00:01:28
Speaker
And so between that, he's like, eh, let's do a podcast.
00:01:32
Speaker
Let's do some streaming.
00:01:34
Speaker
uh let's let's let's hang out with spooky let's hang out with pinball adventures man this man's just slaying it right now he's doing great we want to introduce introduce don of don's pinball podcast how you doing donald i am doing fantastically fantastically fabulous thanks so much for the invite happy to be on and hanging out with you by donald or do you go by don i go by don donnie donald donarino if you're not into the home okay all right yeah
00:02:01
Speaker
Sounds like a bad symptom from like Miralax or something.
00:02:04
Speaker
Don Arena.
00:02:05
Speaker
We've all been there.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, but it's all good.
00:02:09
Speaker
Hey, trust me.
00:02:11
Speaker
I'm in the age where I got my colonoscopy and absolutely everybody gets some Don Rinos.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, but it's been fun.
00:02:20
Speaker
Thanks for coming on, Donald.
00:02:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just having fun in the pinball hobby.
Don's Pinball Journey and Collection
00:02:25
Speaker
I started a podcast this year in January and it's just been fun the whole time, man.
00:02:30
Speaker
Okay, tell us your story.
00:02:32
Speaker
You said it's been about two years.
00:02:35
Speaker
How did you get into pinball?
00:02:36
Speaker
So I always liked pinball.
00:02:38
Speaker
I remember being a kid, you know, playing in places and restaurants with my dad.
00:02:41
Speaker
You know, I remember playing fireball back in the day.
00:02:43
Speaker
And I distinctly remember him telling me, like, you know, wait for the ball to get to the end of the flipper, then hit it, and you'll usually get stuff.
00:02:50
Speaker
And then ever since then, you know, just growing up, going to arcades at the Family Entertainment Center, and I always go to the wall of pinball machines between that and Street Fighter II, right?
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:59
Speaker
And then, you know, my wife, we started dating.
00:03:02
Speaker
She enjoyed pinball, too.
00:03:03
Speaker
So we'd go and play on locations.
00:03:05
Speaker
And then we always used to dream about what would be great if we could rent a machine for a month or something, you know, and finally make it happen.
00:03:11
Speaker
So now just recently, about two and a half years ago, we got our first machine, a Stern Dark Knight.
00:03:16
Speaker
We happened to cross.
00:03:17
Speaker
We bought it used from a dealer.
00:03:18
Speaker
And then that was my first time, like lifting a play field, taking the glass off, you know, soldering something, you know, and so it was just a learning process.
00:03:26
Speaker
And then one begets more, right?
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:31
Speaker
So that just, you know, it's like I was just stumbling around and then I walked into this world of like conventions and new games and, you know, different manufacturers and speculation.
00:03:41
Speaker
And then, you know, started listening to podcasts and I was like, man, this is just super fun.
00:03:46
Speaker
How can I do more of this?
00:03:47
Speaker
You know?
00:03:48
Speaker
And you're just looking for a creative outlet, watching YouTube videos and saying, okay, well, let's buy some equipment and let's see what happens, right?
00:03:55
Speaker
And that's really how it started.
00:03:57
Speaker
So how many games do you have now?
00:03:59
Speaker
I'm up to 10, which is crazy to say out loud.
00:04:04
Speaker
But it's just been, you know, a small building off.
00:04:06
Speaker
There seems to be...
00:04:09
Speaker
There seems to be a year in every pinball, you know, collectors where they go from like one to two and then they immediately go to double digits.
00:04:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:04:18
Speaker
It's kind of crazy because it happens to almost every collector.
00:04:21
Speaker
What makes me chuckle is you've got the bug so bad, man.
00:04:25
Speaker
You travel for work.
00:04:27
Speaker
And for those that aren't watching YouTube right now with us, you've got a big Lebowski sitting behind you in your hotel room.
00:04:33
Speaker
This is this is accurate.
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:38
Speaker
That is awesome.
00:04:39
Speaker
It's like, I'm going to go do some work and and I'll bring, you know, Lebowski with me.
00:04:43
Speaker
Why not?
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:44
Speaker
This was a 10 hour drive one way.
00:04:46
Speaker
And I just happened to be passing a place that I occasionally pick up shifts of work at.
00:04:51
Speaker
And so I figured, hey, two birds, one stone.
00:04:53
Speaker
Let's make this trip pay for itself.
00:04:55
Speaker
But I didn't want to leave it out in the truck.
00:04:57
Speaker
So I snuck it in.
00:04:59
Speaker
So did you, do you choose which jobs you're going to take depending on which listings on Pinside you're buying?
00:05:07
Speaker
Basically, yeah.
00:05:08
Speaker
I mean, now I look at shifts and machines and, you know, if I see come across something I like, I'm like Stern Pro, okay.
00:05:14
Speaker
And I calculate how many shifts that would be and then talk to the wife and see if it makes sense.
00:05:19
Speaker
You know, somehow I've convinced myself that any kind of extra work from the side hustle doesn't come from family money.
00:05:25
Speaker
And so then it's free to play around with.
00:05:28
Speaker
I think we've all convinced ourselves of that.
00:05:30
Speaker
So you're not in, we're all in the same boat here.
00:05:32
Speaker
We know how you feel.
00:05:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:34
Speaker
So what's your line?
00:05:35
Speaker
What's your lineup right now?
00:05:36
Speaker
So currently a left to right.
00:05:38
Speaker
I got a Godzilla premium modded to the nth degree.
00:05:42
Speaker
I got myself a rush.
00:05:43
Speaker
Ellie star Wars premium with the hyperspace ramp.
00:05:46
Speaker
Rick and Morty just went out.
00:05:47
Speaker
Lebowski is coming in.
00:05:49
Speaker
What else I got?
00:05:49
Speaker
Scooby-Doo just came in with a buttery butter cabinet.
00:05:52
Speaker
I couldn't say no after touching one in person.
00:05:55
Speaker
Iron Maiden Premium is in there.
00:05:57
Speaker
Next to that, I got an Elvira Premium, which looks like a 40th anniversary edition, just with some upgrades that I've done to it.
00:06:03
Speaker
Cosmetically, Foo Premium.
00:06:06
Speaker
Halloween is still kicking around.
00:06:08
Speaker
And then I got a Ultra VP Virtual Cabinets.
00:06:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:12
Speaker
I think that's all of them.
Scott and Josh Reflect on Their Collections
00:06:13
Speaker
Jeez.
00:06:13
Speaker
That's a pretty solid lineup.
00:06:15
Speaker
Yes, it is.
00:06:16
Speaker
It's funny because you were talking about how you go like you just we hit double digits.
00:06:20
Speaker
I don't think I've actually ever owned double digits.
00:06:21
Speaker
I'm at the highest I've ever been in my collection, which is eight right now.
00:06:25
Speaker
Eight is enough.
00:06:26
Speaker
Let me tell you.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, I've been knocking on the second decade of owning pinball machines.
00:06:34
Speaker
Right now I'm pushing like 18 or 19.
00:06:36
Speaker
So we'll see if I if I
00:06:40
Speaker
if I size it down or if I size it up, I think my wife's voting for sizing it down.
00:06:46
Speaker
I, this labor day actually marks, I want to say this is the 10th year I've been in pinball now.
00:06:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:53
Speaker
And in that 10 years, I've only owned a total of 32 machines.
00:06:57
Speaker
Wow.
00:06:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:58
Speaker
That's actually more than I've owned.
00:07:02
Speaker
You buy and hold on.
00:07:03
Speaker
I do.
00:07:04
Speaker
I do.
00:07:04
Speaker
I'm a hoarder.
00:07:05
Speaker
I don't.
00:07:06
Speaker
And the whole business of buying and selling machines, like I'm totally fine with buying it, but I hate the game of selling games.
00:07:15
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:16
Speaker
And it's just it's totally annoying to me.
00:07:18
Speaker
So it's yeah, I totally get it.
00:07:20
Speaker
Let's be honest.
00:07:20
Speaker
So like this last couple of years, it was nice because it seemed like you bought something
Repairing Pinball Machines
00:07:25
Speaker
you didn't want.
00:07:25
Speaker
You pretty much flip it pretty quick and not worry about.
00:07:28
Speaker
I mean, now it's a slog.
00:07:29
Speaker
So I apologize.
00:07:30
Speaker
Next year's a decade.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'm at nine years this year.
00:07:32
Speaker
I apologize.
00:07:34
Speaker
Oh, my first game.
00:07:36
Speaker
That's what happens with pinflation.
00:07:37
Speaker
You just start exaggerating on the length.
00:07:41
Speaker
I know.
00:07:41
Speaker
I know.
00:07:42
Speaker
Amazing Spider-Man.
00:07:44
Speaker
September 2014.
00:07:44
Speaker
It was Labor Day weekend.
00:07:47
Speaker
Crazy, crazy.
00:07:48
Speaker
So.
00:07:50
Speaker
Anywho, down memory lane.
00:07:53
Speaker
You know, I don't think there's anything wrong with having, you know, whether you have room for two games or 30, you know, getting to that number and then only getting a new one when something really comes out that's better than your least favorite game and then swapping it out.
00:08:05
Speaker
That way you always maintain, you know, that high level of quality, or at least I'm just trying that to myself that way.
00:08:11
Speaker
The only ones that haven't been high-level quality in my collection are the ones that I got for either free or for a super sweet deal that I turn around and either fixed up and sold or just sold.
00:08:24
Speaker
The free ones usually extract about 100 hours worth of work from you.
00:08:30
Speaker
Or they're just the dumbest thing in the world, and I feel bad for getting it for free because the person's like, I'm
Don's Strategy for New Pinball Machines
00:08:35
Speaker
done with it.
00:08:35
Speaker
And you pick it up and it's like something like someone installed the flipper coil backwards and it was blowing the, the diode on the circuit board and at the flipper.
00:08:45
Speaker
And so I had to, I had to replace the flipper or the, the diode on the board as well as the flipper and flip the coil around.
00:08:52
Speaker
Boom.
00:08:54
Speaker
Got that one for free.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
It's kind of funny how that works.
00:08:57
Speaker
Anyhow.
00:08:59
Speaker
Don, what's on your hunt next?
00:09:01
Speaker
What are you looking for?
00:09:04
Speaker
have a great time at expo.
Starting a Pinball Podcast
00:09:05
Speaker
That's what I'm looking for.
00:09:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:07
Speaker
I do have a, a venom premium on order.
00:09:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:09:10
Speaker
You know, I, I decided about six months ago that I would just go ahead and try something.
00:09:15
Speaker
I was going to go in on the next four sterns kind of, no matter what they were, I just get them in, play them, sell them for what I could when the next one comes out and just maybe have like a rolling spot.
00:09:24
Speaker
Right.
00:09:24
Speaker
So then I could always just four or five months, just have the newest stern and see, and everybody told me that you're not going to do that.
00:09:30
Speaker
You're going to end up keeping them and you're going to have to have more room.
00:09:33
Speaker
And so, you know, Foo Fighters, you know, surprisingly came out.
00:09:35
Speaker
I thought Venom was going to be the one.
00:09:37
Speaker
And then Foo Fighters turned out to be amazing with a dead post and, you know, code that is going to get better.
00:09:42
Speaker
And so, you know, I've got that thing powder coated to look like an LE and I like, I love it.
00:09:47
Speaker
And Venom's coming and I'm not ready to get rid of my Foo.
00:09:49
Speaker
So I think people may have been right, you know, but I want to, I want to stick to, you know, getting a Venom in.
00:09:55
Speaker
I like, you know, modding them up, you know, adding the powder coat, the shaker motors, the knockers and things.
00:10:00
Speaker
And then I'll, I'll gift it to somebody, you know,
00:10:03
Speaker
for us for a song here when something else comes out yeah see this is this is what you should do you should get four deep and then that way the fourth one when you're getting rid of it you're like getting rid of the borg and you're getting a board coming in or you know you're getting rid of a eddie a brian eddie and from all the collectors yeah all the designers excuse me like always have an elwyn in the rotation yeah yeah
00:10:28
Speaker
Or you could be like us and just have almost nothing but all the ones.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:31
Speaker
I mean, that's yeah.
00:10:32
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with that.
00:10:36
Speaker
It's just something
Creating Pinball Mods
00:10:37
Speaker
about those games, man.
00:10:38
Speaker
I don't know if it's the code.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's the way it plays me.
00:10:40
Speaker
It's just, it's, it's all of it.
00:10:42
Speaker
It's like, it's your favorite cake.
00:10:44
Speaker
You know, did you spring for the rush top or two?
00:10:46
Speaker
uh yes sir yeah and in a moment of weakness i got the call from my distro that he had some and i it's fun and i wish it was a interacted more with the game or came with a mode like the godzilla one did um but it's it's fun watching gears flip around so yeah yeah i got it it makes me chuckle you say it like it's a drug deal like oh i was in a moment of weakness my dealer called me up and he knew exactly what i wanted and what's like dude
00:11:12
Speaker
I got the goods.
00:11:16
Speaker
You know, they tend to call me when I'm out of town, like on my side hustle.
00:11:19
Speaker
So I'm like, oh, good.
00:11:20
Speaker
You know, fresh money that I haven't allocated anything.
00:11:22
Speaker
And then, oh, hey, by the way, we have Godzilla toppers just got announced.
00:11:25
Speaker
You know?
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:26
Speaker
Sure.
00:11:26
Speaker
I'll take it.
00:11:28
Speaker
Unbeknownst to you, they actually have your Apple ID and they know when you're not home and they're like, oh, he's working right now.
00:11:34
Speaker
They have an air tag on you.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:36
Speaker
Would not surprise me.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:37
Speaker
At this point.
00:11:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:39
Speaker
So you branched out from collector to deciding to do your own pinball podcast.
00:11:46
Speaker
So talk about that.
00:11:47
Speaker
Talk about that.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:49
Speaker
So I like listening to the podcast.
00:11:51
Speaker
I love the speculation, like what game's coming out next, you know, who's the rumor developer who's doing the art.
00:11:57
Speaker
What do we think is going to be in it?
00:11:58
Speaker
Oh, I heard that, you know, Jaws is going to have, you know, a sixth flipper on the side or some new mechanism.
00:12:03
Speaker
So just, you know, listening to everybody, I just kind of fell into that cadence and, you know,
00:12:08
Speaker
I kicked it around back and forth.
00:12:10
Speaker
Like, Hey, you know, I wanted to be creative and get back into some kind of content creation.
00:12:14
Speaker
I used to do videos back in the day and like the theme park rollercoaster hobby.
00:12:18
Speaker
You can look that stuff up on YouTube.
00:12:19
Speaker
If you want to see some crazy stuff, you know, so I want to get back in.
00:12:23
Speaker
I don't know if video was right.
00:12:24
Speaker
And then, you know, I met a guy at work who podcasts about real estate and financial markets and,
00:12:31
Speaker
But just talk to him about the process.
00:12:32
Speaker
And it seemed like something fun to try to do.
00:12:34
Speaker
And then finally, I don't know if it was a New Year's resolution or whatever, but I decided, heck it, I'm going to go in and try it.
00:12:41
Speaker
And we'll just see what happens.
Pinball Toppers and Modding Culture
00:12:43
Speaker
If nothing else, I'll have some stickers and some t-shirts and I can walk around on my own merchandise or something.
00:12:48
Speaker
Nice.
00:12:48
Speaker
We never do that.
00:12:49
Speaker
We never do that.
00:12:51
Speaker
I am that guy.
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, but it's just kind of just been steamrolling, you know.
00:12:58
Speaker
I just put content out there and I had no idea if people were going to listen.
00:13:00
Speaker
If I'd have, you know, two people listen or five, I was going to be happy with that.
00:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, people started reaching out and they kind of liked what I did and they gave me suggestions and I just ran with it.
00:13:09
Speaker
And it's, you know, in this hobby, like every four or five days, there's little news nuggets and speculation that drops and then you can just jump on and talk about it.
00:13:17
Speaker
So, yeah, it's just been fun.
00:13:20
Speaker
I don't know.
00:13:20
Speaker
I put the headphones on, hear my own voice and it's like, let's go.
00:13:23
Speaker
Well, especially doing a solo podcast, you are super flexible to actually just jump on and do whatever you want.
00:13:32
Speaker
Josh and I have to coordinate schedules.
00:13:34
Speaker
Usually we're like, which day are you free?
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, and I also want to congratulate you too because you just hit 50 followers, correct?
00:13:43
Speaker
500.
00:13:43
Speaker
Sorry, 500.
00:13:44
Speaker
I didn't mean to truncate that at all.
00:13:48
Speaker
Five followers.
00:13:48
Speaker
Good job.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah, all five of them.
00:13:51
Speaker
Only four of them I'm related to.
00:13:55
Speaker
The other three are email addresses I came up with myself.
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's just been fun.
00:14:01
Speaker
I kind of designed my own take on the mod for Rush that holds the drumsticks, the Neil Peart edition.
00:14:08
Speaker
And then I decided something fun that I didn't see anybody doing.
00:14:10
Speaker
When I started the podcast, I would just advertise, hey, if anybody wants a set of these mods for free, just send me an address and I'll send them to you.
00:14:16
Speaker
And I sent out like 10 or 15 sets to people.
00:14:19
Speaker
You know, and I'm like, who's doing free mods?
00:14:20
Speaker
You know, why wouldn't people listen to that?
00:14:22
Speaker
And then it just kind of started.
00:14:24
Speaker
Wait, you have a drum mod for Neil?
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
Well, it's the, I got the 3D printer program going and the CAD or whatever.
00:14:34
Speaker
And I designed some mounts for the sticks that you can, the Neil Pert edition that you can get from Amazon.
00:14:40
Speaker
And so they screw in pretty easily.
00:14:42
Speaker
They're really little simple mod, but I 3D print them and send them out.
00:14:45
Speaker
Really?
00:14:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:47
Speaker
I want to find out more.
00:14:48
Speaker
Sure.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:49
Speaker
The games people, Hans out in Anaheim, he's selling them for me now.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I think they're on CoinTaker also.
00:14:54
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:55
Speaker
Nice.
00:14:56
Speaker
So that was fun.
Scooby-Doo Pinball Collectors Edition
00:14:58
Speaker
It's something I made for myself and I shared it with everybody else if they wanted it.
00:15:01
Speaker
But yeah, that was just something fun to do.
00:15:03
Speaker
Then I found out, you know, I got artists online to design graphics that I thought were cool.
00:15:07
Speaker
And I started putting them on stickers and sending them out to people if they wanted them, you know?
00:15:11
Speaker
And so, you know, I like getting stuff in the mail.
00:15:13
Speaker
So I figured other people would too.
00:15:15
Speaker
I'm just trying to put back out, you know, things that, you know, do things that I would like to enjoy, you know, or, or, you know, like to have on my water bottle, you know?
00:15:24
Speaker
Didn't you jokingly do like new zip ties for the Godzilla topper as a mod too?
00:15:29
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:15:30
Speaker
So the topic got released.
00:15:33
Speaker
Everybody saw like, oh, look, they took the sculpt from the game and then just zip.
00:15:37
Speaker
It was a black zip tie.
00:15:38
Speaker
And I'm like, OK, what I'll do is the Neo Atomic Edition zip tie upgrade mod for the Godzilla topper because I had a fluorescent green zip tie and I put it on there for $15 and put it on pinside.
00:15:49
Speaker
But I wrote that I would include a free T-shirt with it too, you know?
00:15:52
Speaker
Sure, yeah.
00:15:53
Speaker
They did take it down after a couple of days, but got a chuckle.
00:15:56
Speaker
Oh, that's too bad.
00:15:57
Speaker
On my topper, so it's there.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:16:01
Speaker
You have to have it, apparently.
00:16:03
Speaker
Yeah, so for listeners of this, if you want the Atomic Neon Green Godzilla Zipper Top Mod, just email me or someone to show it and they'll get it to me.
00:16:11
Speaker
I'll send it out for free.
00:16:14
Speaker
I do have the Godzilla topper.
00:16:18
Speaker
So that'd be awesome.
00:16:21
Speaker
I was going to say that.
00:16:22
Speaker
I don't know if you saw that Godzilla mod that Stumbler is backing.
00:16:26
Speaker
It's like the atomic breath Godzilla with the lighting up fins.
00:16:30
Speaker
Holy crap.
00:16:31
Speaker
If you could strap that to the top of your topper.
00:16:33
Speaker
I've got it.
00:16:33
Speaker
And I'm on a list for a second one to put on the topper to see if it actually works.
00:16:37
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:16:39
Speaker
Stumbler does some good stuff.
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah, I got the neon Tokyo sign.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, I need to get the second one.
00:16:44
Speaker
I got the first one.
00:16:45
Speaker
I still need to get the second one.
00:16:47
Speaker
I'm a little behind.
00:16:48
Speaker
I got the second one.
00:16:49
Speaker
It's sitting right over here.
00:16:50
Speaker
I just need to install it.
00:16:51
Speaker
I need to find time.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:53
Speaker
That's, that's a harder, one of the hardest commodities combined around nowadays, you know, I, I have to find an afternoon to commit
Troubleshooting Pinball Machines
00:17:00
Speaker
to something.
00:17:00
Speaker
If I'm going to either troubleshoot a game or move something, I have to block out about two or three hours because otherwise it just gets gobbled up.
00:17:09
Speaker
There's no way, no way you can do, Oh, I'm just going to do this quick pinball thing.
00:17:12
Speaker
It just never happens.
00:17:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:13
Speaker
Side tangent.
00:17:14
Speaker
He says that,
00:17:16
Speaker
and I don't mind that I'm in the text group, but he has me in the text group with Butch Peel and they're trying to trouble troubleshoot his Cactus Canyon.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:25
Speaker
Sorry about that.
00:17:26
Speaker
I decided not to transition.
00:17:28
Speaker
So yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll tell the story.
00:17:30
Speaker
So I finally got my Cactus Canyon downstairs and I, I couldn't, the mine shaft just seemed to be not working like it normally does.
00:17:41
Speaker
And so I, I texted Bush.
00:17:43
Speaker
I'm like, Butch.
00:17:44
Speaker
I'm like, Hey,
00:17:45
Speaker
what is this like?
00:17:47
Speaker
How do I troubleshoot this?
00:17:48
Speaker
I see like a check this switch, but it, there's three on the schematics.
00:17:55
Speaker
It shows the same location for three numbers.
00:17:57
Speaker
And so we were texting back and forth.
00:17:59
Speaker
And yes, sadly, I started on the text thread with Josh.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so probably for about two or three hours, Josh was getting texts back and forth between Butch and me.
00:18:09
Speaker
And okay, eventually we did figure out what's going on.
00:18:12
Speaker
And Chicago Game Company, they,
00:18:16
Speaker
They actually are sending out the parts that I need to fix it.
00:18:20
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:18:20
Speaker
That was really sweet of them.
00:18:22
Speaker
Just solid stand behind their stand behind their product.
00:18:26
Speaker
So, I mean, I think that's all I need to really ask for.
00:18:29
Speaker
You know, I had a problem
Cultural Aspects and Fan Interactions
00:18:31
Speaker
with my sensor on my Foo Fighters when I first got it for the Overlord shot.
00:18:35
Speaker
Raven Davidson jumped in the little thread on Facebook.
00:18:38
Speaker
Like, can you do the switch test?
00:18:39
Speaker
And he diagnosed it for me.
00:18:41
Speaker
And yeah, we got to fix that.
00:18:42
Speaker
It was great.
00:18:43
Speaker
Now, Raymond's great, especially when I have questions on games he's coding.
00:18:47
Speaker
I'm like, hey, Ray, how do you do this?
00:18:53
Speaker
Remind me what game you're coding next.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, we don't do that.
00:18:58
Speaker
Talk him into slipping up.
00:19:01
Speaker
So I got to tell a story, though.
00:19:02
Speaker
I think who was it that they work at Stern?
00:19:05
Speaker
I'm not going to say who they are, but they they work
Collaborating with Spooky Pinball
00:19:08
Speaker
on pinball machines like they're actually on the teams.
00:19:11
Speaker
And they said it was when they had received threats of not putting certain content into a machine that they were supposedly working on.
00:19:22
Speaker
And this person was at a wedding, like was like the best person, I guess the best man.
00:19:28
Speaker
Anywho, but they, uh, like, yeah, I'm done.
00:19:31
Speaker
That's what they like ended up jumping off of like pin side and stuff like that.
00:19:34
Speaker
Cause they're just, that's when you take fandom to a new level and probably a little over the top.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:40
Speaker
I know you're designing something.
00:19:41
Speaker
Can I give you some pointers?
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:44
Speaker
And by the way, yeah, put this in there or there'll be problems.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's not, it's never an okay thing.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, no.
00:19:52
Speaker
Ridiculous.
00:19:54
Speaker
Well, Don, you got to stream with Spooky.
00:19:58
Speaker
Did you just call it bug and was like, hey, I'm coming to your place?
00:20:00
Speaker
Like that was.
00:20:01
Speaker
So I went down to the Louisville Pinball Expo, I think March or February last year.
00:20:06
Speaker
And I just kind of spent the whole weekend either just kind of hanging out with them at their booth or at the flipping out booth and just going back and forth.
00:20:12
Speaker
And we were just, you know, hanging and talking.
00:20:14
Speaker
And we're both from Wisconsin, you know, and I'm only a couple hours north of them.
00:20:18
Speaker
And I was like, hey, you know, I'd really like to come down and see the factory sometime.
00:20:21
Speaker
You know, they talked about the new.
00:20:22
Speaker
Where in Wisconsin are you?
00:20:24
Speaker
I'm in near Stevens Point, Wisconsin is right there in the center along the river.
00:20:28
Speaker
About an hour and a half.
00:20:29
Speaker
By Appleton.
00:20:30
Speaker
Appleton's about an hour and a half.
00:20:32
Speaker
Madison's an hour and a half.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:33
Speaker
So you're in the center of everywhere.
00:20:36
Speaker
My sister lives in Appleton.
00:20:37
Speaker
So.
00:20:38
Speaker
Oh, awesome.
00:20:39
Speaker
I'll swing by and say hi.
00:20:40
Speaker
Next time I go.
00:20:41
Speaker
Well, next time I come out, I'll have to swing by and play your big old basket.
00:20:44
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:20:45
Speaker
Come by.
00:20:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:45
Speaker
The Don Cade is firing on all cylinders, man.
00:20:49
Speaker
It's a V10, man.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:52
Speaker
But, you know, I was just talking to him, you know, and said, hey, you know, I got this podcast.
00:20:56
Speaker
Maybe I can come down and get an interview or something.
00:20:58
Speaker
So they said, sure.
00:20:59
Speaker
So I had my Scooby on order.
00:21:00
Speaker
It was just recently available.
00:21:02
Speaker
So I went down there.
00:21:03
Speaker
They gave me a whole factory tour.
00:21:04
Speaker
They bought me lunch.
00:21:07
Speaker
Let me see their whole works and everything.
00:21:10
Speaker
And then we did what people thought was an awesome interview, too.
00:21:14
Speaker
And I was just asking the questions that I was curious about.
00:21:17
Speaker
And then they said, hey, we should come up and stream sometime because Spooky's just got into streaming on Twitch.
00:21:22
Speaker
And they were looking to stream a Rick and Morty.
00:21:23
Speaker
I had one with a Jerry ramp.
00:21:25
Speaker
And yeah, they came on up.
00:21:27
Speaker
And we had a blasty blast.
Scooby-Doo Machine Reception
00:21:29
Speaker
And they hadn't seen it before you streamed, right?
00:21:31
Speaker
Right, right.
00:21:33
Speaker
They actually hadn't seen the Jerry ramp.
00:21:35
Speaker
Correct.
00:21:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:35
Speaker
So it was fun watching them, you know, try it out and they really liked it, you know.
00:21:39
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:21:39
Speaker
Now they're gonna be hitting you up to like, yeah, make it if they ever redo Rick and Morty, they're gonna be like, by the way.
00:21:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:21:48
Speaker
That comes up all the time.
00:21:49
Speaker
People ask them, like, just do another run of Rick and Morty, you know, pull a JP 30th on it and just run them.
00:21:54
Speaker
And they're like, no, we're holding to our word.
00:21:55
Speaker
We're not making any more.
00:21:56
Speaker
But.
00:21:57
Speaker
They're in good with the licensing folks with Warner Brothers who owns Adult Swim and everything.
00:22:03
Speaker
And they said, if there's demand and we get a lot of people asking for it, they may just do another Rick and Morty game.
00:22:09
Speaker
They would read that license and do something completely new and different.
00:22:12
Speaker
So if people want that, let them know.
00:22:14
Speaker
Right.
00:22:16
Speaker
Interesting.
00:22:16
Speaker
I get that out there.
00:22:19
Speaker
You know, like a whole game based on blips and chips or something, you know?
00:22:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
The in-universe arcade.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:26
Speaker
With the Roy game, but like really expand on that.
00:22:28
Speaker
Man, I got so many ideas.
00:22:32
Speaker
Next thing you know, you're going to get hit for a job.
00:22:34
Speaker
You're going to be doing, that'll be your side-side hustle.
00:22:36
Speaker
You'll be working for Spooky while also doing all this stuff, too.
00:22:39
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:22:39
Speaker
I'd be down.
00:22:41
Speaker
Ben's an awesome.
00:22:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:43
Speaker
So you said that you have a, now, do you have a Scooby-Doo?
00:22:47
Speaker
Have you played it?
00:22:47
Speaker
Like, I know you've played it.
00:22:49
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:22:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:51
Speaker
I have it.
00:22:51
Speaker
Number 753, Butter Cabinet is, Collector's Edition is downstairs in the arcade right now.
00:22:57
Speaker
Okay.
Speculation on New Pinball Companies
00:22:58
Speaker
How is the reception on it?
00:22:59
Speaker
Because I still have yet to play it.
00:23:01
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:23:02
Speaker
So, yeah, I played it.
00:23:04
Speaker
I played one of the first ones that came out of the factory.
00:23:06
Speaker
It went on location in Madison, you know, because it's nearby.
00:23:09
Speaker
I actually live streamed that just on Facebook.
00:23:11
Speaker
That was fun.
00:23:13
Speaker
And it's great.
00:23:14
Speaker
I mean, you know, seeing it in location and at the expos is one thing, but like getting it in your house, that wide body with all the sculpts that are in there, not just flat plastics, you know, back alley creations, you know, created, you know, like whole castle sculpts and the portcullis and everything.
00:23:29
Speaker
The game plays like it's not a brutal game.
00:23:31
Speaker
Like it's a different type of game.
00:23:33
Speaker
It's not necessarily.
00:23:34
Speaker
It's an easy rider game.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's fun.
00:23:37
Speaker
If you're a tournament player, you could probably play it for hours at a time.
00:23:39
Speaker
But, you know, it's challenging.
00:23:41
Speaker
The theme is really integrated into it.
00:23:43
Speaker
And it's like the game that has my 12 year old daughter actually asking to play with me.
00:23:47
Speaker
So that was revolutionary.
00:23:49
Speaker
You know, she's typically like not really, you know, she's too cool for the Dawn's pinball arcade downstairs.
00:23:55
Speaker
or, you know, playing with dad.
00:23:56
Speaker
But that was one where she's like, come play with me, you know?
00:23:58
Speaker
And she starts screaming when she gets the Captain Cutler multiball.
00:24:01
Speaker
It's like, it was fun, you know?
00:24:03
Speaker
So it's a good game to have in my lineup.
00:24:05
Speaker
Like it fits perfectly.
00:24:07
Speaker
I love the theme.
00:24:07
Speaker
The art is on point.
00:24:09
Speaker
It's like, you know, someone took Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle and just expanded on that idea.
00:24:14
Speaker
Made the shots, you know, more, you know, more forgiving, more fun, less rejecty, but still kind of keep that aesthetic, but then make it family friendly.
00:24:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:24:23
Speaker
I bet it earns pretty well on location, actually.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yeah, I've heard that from some operators.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
You know, it's a fun game.
00:24:31
Speaker
I've got it dialed in now.
00:24:34
Speaker
You know, one of the only issues I would notice on location sometimes because it uses the auto launcher.
00:24:38
Speaker
Sometimes it wouldn't hit right and the ball would rattle and it would lose energy and it would take a couple shots to get up there.
00:24:43
Speaker
That happened to mine.
00:24:45
Speaker
All I had to do was make sure that the forks were aligned and now it's like the best launching one I've ever played.
00:24:49
Speaker
So...
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, and then the guys are aware of the issue.
00:24:52
Speaker
They're working on it.
00:24:54
Speaker
And so, yeah, that's really the only thing I've seen with it.
00:24:57
Speaker
Otherwise, it's been playing great out of the box.
00:24:59
Speaker
Like, we love
Stern Pinball's Factory Move
00:25:00
Speaker
it.
00:25:00
Speaker
Awesome.
00:25:02
Speaker
And just getting the Mystery Machine multiball and having the Scooby-Doo theme just come on, you know, through Spooky's sound system in your home is fantastic.
00:25:11
Speaker
Dom, I don't want to shortchange you on talking about you, but we do have a list of stuff we want to kind of go over.
00:25:17
Speaker
And I figured let's start at the top of this list and see what your thoughts along with ours.
00:25:23
Speaker
Sure.
00:25:24
Speaker
Did you see the new mystery company posting their, what was it, the LCD?
00:25:34
Speaker
They posted a lockdown bar, a powder-coated lockdown bar that looked like a kind of a copper color.
00:25:40
Speaker
And then they actually had a, an LCD in the back box that was being, that was updating.
00:25:46
Speaker
It said updating, but you could see a reflection down.
00:25:52
Speaker
Now it seemed like most of the play field was covered, which I'm sure was intentional.
00:25:56
Speaker
And you can
Market Trends and Economic Implications
00:25:57
Speaker
see a little bit of the wire forms.
00:26:00
Speaker
But I love wire forms.
00:26:02
Speaker
I know, Don, on your last podcast, you were talking about the wire forms.
00:26:06
Speaker
And so I'm excited to see the ball because I love just seeing the ball move.
00:26:10
Speaker
Seeing the ball move takes me back to when I first wanted a pinball machine.
00:26:16
Speaker
It was because I watched Sesame Street.
00:26:18
Speaker
And Sesame Street had the, you know, the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine, ten, nine, ten, nine, ten, nine, ten, nine, ten, nine, ten, nine, ten, ten, ten, ten
00:26:24
Speaker
11, 12.
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:24
Speaker
I had the pinball thing that went around and I thought that's the coolest thing ever.
00:26:28
Speaker
And yeah, that that's it's, it, it looks really cool.
00:26:34
Speaker
So I'm just curious to see what do you guys think?
00:26:38
Speaker
Do you guys think this is a remake or do you think it's an original concept?
00:26:45
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:26:47
Speaker
I didn't think of that take there.
00:26:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah, you know, seeing it, I saw the back box innards and I can't make heads or tails of that really.
00:26:54
Speaker
But yeah, I did go back and see that reflection.
00:26:56
Speaker
And, you know, for me, any kind of like vehicle on a track I'm into, whether it's a roller coaster, a monorail, a dark ride, log flume or pinball tracks.
00:27:03
Speaker
So I just I have no idea.
00:27:06
Speaker
I didn't even consider that it could be like an old remake of something from the exclamation point company because they don't have a name, but they have this exclamation point logo.
00:27:13
Speaker
Mystery company.
00:27:16
Speaker
Maybe they're just called mystery pinball.
00:27:19
Speaker
Maybe.
00:27:20
Speaker
That would be hilarious, actually.
00:27:21
Speaker
But you can see wire forms down by the right flip, because it's mirrored.
00:27:26
Speaker
You can see it down by the right flipper, and you can also see one by the upper, sorry, down by the left flipper
Pinball Expo Anticipations
00:27:35
Speaker
and in the upper right of the play field.
00:27:38
Speaker
So I'm trying to figure out if there's an existing game that would have those wire forms.
00:27:46
Speaker
Well, and the other point, the other reason it could be a remake, if you look at the circuit boards, they're fast pinball.
00:27:53
Speaker
So that's our friend Aaron over at Fast Pinball.
00:27:55
Speaker
That's true, yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
And then been using his boards in the Haggis games.
00:28:00
Speaker
So, you know, Centaur and Fathom.
00:28:03
Speaker
So...
00:28:05
Speaker
it's a good possibility.
00:28:06
Speaker
This could be a remake, whatever they're showing us.
00:28:08
Speaker
I do love that.
00:28:08
Speaker
It's an LCD.
00:28:10
Speaker
It looks very sternish.
00:28:12
Speaker
I feel like that's going to get some bonus points, uh, down the road.
00:28:17
Speaker
And, and I think it's going to be easier to accept.
00:28:19
Speaker
And, uh,
00:28:21
Speaker
Another thing to my understanding, there's more than one mystery company.
00:28:24
Speaker
So this is this is a mystery company.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yes, but there's there's another one that hasn't revealed themselves either.
00:28:32
Speaker
So which is interesting because we've had we had Tilt Bob reveal back around Pinball Expo or not Pinball Expo, Texas Pinball Festival.
00:28:41
Speaker
Road Trip.
00:28:43
Speaker
Who did Ninja Eclipse?
00:28:45
Speaker
Oh, Turner, right?
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, Turner.
00:28:47
Speaker
So they revealed themselves at Expo as well.
00:28:51
Speaker
At Texas Pinball Festival.
00:28:53
Speaker
TPF.
00:28:54
Speaker
TPF.
00:28:55
Speaker
So it's interesting, especially with the market.
00:28:57
Speaker
We can definitely see the market.
00:28:59
Speaker
The bubble may not have burst, but the market has deflated.
00:29:02
Speaker
It's softening.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's softening.
00:29:04
Speaker
And so it's going to be interesting to see...
00:29:08
Speaker
where this is all heading, especially that we know there is a Twilight remake coming to that's been kind of well, it's been rumored forever.
00:29:15
Speaker
So I could have swore someone saw it, sent some pictures of them.
00:29:19
Speaker
That's been like a long standing like, hey, they're going to make this.
00:29:23
Speaker
So, yeah, they keep changing.
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:26
Speaker
Who it's going to be.
00:29:28
Speaker
Maybe a pinball circus.
00:29:30
Speaker
Is that who it was?
00:29:31
Speaker
That was making mafia and then remaking the, Oh geez.
00:29:35
Speaker
Like the Capcom, the Kingpin that.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
And I, I haven't heard anything from that.
00:29:40
Speaker
So I, I think that one's dead.
00:29:42
Speaker
There's, well, what's funny is they originally were trying to make pinball circus.
00:29:45
Speaker
So if you've never seen a pinball circus, go to a,
00:29:48
Speaker
Well, IPDB or whatever.
00:29:50
Speaker
Maybe.
00:29:50
Speaker
There's only two or three in the world.
00:29:52
Speaker
One of them is in the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas, which wasn't working when I went a couple months ago.
00:29:57
Speaker
The last couple of times I've been to the Pinball Hall of Fame, it's been down.
00:30:01
Speaker
But they want to remake Pinball Circus for the mass.
00:30:04
Speaker
And then they decide they're going to make Pinball Mafia.
00:30:08
Speaker
What is it?
00:30:09
Speaker
It's Kenny Pin.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yes, they're going to make Kenny Pin to help raise funds so they could make Pinball Circus.
00:30:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:15
Speaker
And we haven't heard much since.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:18
Speaker
But yeah, it's good to see that pinball people are still making pinball.
00:30:21
Speaker
And I hope that when these launch, they do well.
00:30:23
Speaker
My understanding is these mystery companies are, I mean, as you can see from the photos, they're building them to pretty much have them ready.
00:30:29
Speaker
So when they actually do show, they're going to say, hey, these are shipping today, which I think is brilliant.
00:30:35
Speaker
I think that I think you have the only avenue you can take.
00:30:39
Speaker
So, yeah, there are.
00:30:42
Speaker
That's unless you have a game that people know about.
00:30:45
Speaker
So Cactus Canyon is actually finally it's coming out.
00:30:48
Speaker
It's a great game.
00:30:49
Speaker
It's a fun game.
00:30:50
Speaker
It's high quality.
00:30:52
Speaker
But it's surprising that people were willing to wait that long.
00:30:56
Speaker
Because pinball attention is very short and people move from game to game so quickly.
00:31:03
Speaker
And even, and we talked about this that, or Donna, sorry, Donna, I think you talked about this, that Foo Fighters, it's a great game and they made a ton of them.
00:31:13
Speaker
And now people are thinking, okay, well, we're going to move that game and get another one.
00:31:19
Speaker
And so there's a, there's a surplus of used games out there, which hasn't been, hasn't been the situation for three years.
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, I just cursually took a glance at Foo Fighter Premium the other day, and I saw there was like 14 of them just on Pinside, you know, and they were adding to every day.
00:31:34
Speaker
Not because it's a bad game and there's still code updates to come, but, you know, if Jaws is around the corner or, you know, Indiana Jones or any of these like AAA titles, like, you know, people want to make room.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm optimistic that by the time the Pulp Fiction LEs come out, people will actually be dumping their pre-order spots for whatever the new thing is, and I can scoop one up.
00:31:55
Speaker
Right, yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
Well, and it's just like, you know, we were part of that kind of it was a media blitz from P3 because they were doing another soft relaunch of Final Resistance because it kind of got weighed down with the seven other machines that was released at Texas Pinball Festival.
00:32:11
Speaker
That was nuts.
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:13
Speaker
Every couple of days, here's another game.
00:32:14
Speaker
Here's another game.
00:32:16
Speaker
So did you get your your GTFO?
00:32:20
Speaker
No, sir.
00:32:21
Speaker
No, no, I didn't go in on that.
00:32:24
Speaker
I was trying to work a deal to trade my Halloween for one, but then it ended up not going through and I'm okay on that for right now.
00:32:30
Speaker
I'm wondering how many, how many, like, uh, I, it frustrates me when a company I think has the best of intentions, but is not producing to the volume that we would hope they would.
00:32:42
Speaker
And, uh, American pinball seems to be falling into that category where it's, we just haven't heard anything from them.
00:32:49
Speaker
Where are the tanks?
00:32:50
Speaker
We, yeah.
00:32:51
Speaker
Where, where are they?
00:32:52
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's got to be less than 100 made because I can't think of many arcades that have one on location.
00:32:59
Speaker
I think it's a great location game, you know, because it's something, you know, maybe the home people aren't rushing out to buy them, but they would go out and play them on location.
00:33:07
Speaker
I'd play it on location.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah, I would totally get one.
00:33:10
Speaker
I think it would earn well.
00:33:12
Speaker
I don't think David Fix was wrong when he said some places it's out earning Foo Fighters on location, but that's probably because everybody has a Foo Fighters at home or a friend, but they don't have a GTF.
00:33:21
Speaker
So, you know, let's play the dang thing.
00:33:24
Speaker
I do like playing it.
00:33:25
Speaker
It frustrates me.
00:33:26
Speaker
But every time I step up, I'm like, all right, I'm really going to enjoy this.
00:33:30
Speaker
I love the lights.
00:33:30
Speaker
I like the music.
00:33:31
Speaker
The art is good.
00:33:32
Speaker
You know, Franchi did a great job on it.
00:33:34
Speaker
And then, you know, balls start jumping off the wire forms and rolling over the plastics.
00:33:38
Speaker
Oh, you have a strangle you game.
00:33:41
Speaker
Well, speaking of companies trying to move pinball machines.
00:33:44
Speaker
Sure.
00:33:44
Speaker
If that's not a great segue, I don't know what is.
00:33:46
Speaker
Dun, dun, dun.
00:33:48
Speaker
Stern Pinball moved into their new huge factory.
00:33:52
Speaker
And this, if you have known, watch the video on Facebook.
00:33:54
Speaker
This thing is massive.
00:33:57
Speaker
It is crazy to see that they're in a space this big.
00:34:00
Speaker
And I actually got some insider information on this as well.
00:34:03
Speaker
Let's hear it.
00:34:05
Speaker
So I guess it wasn't necessarily Stern idea to move to the bigger factory.
00:34:12
Speaker
The one that they just left, I guess there is a giant T1 internet line going right next to that building.
00:34:22
Speaker
And some software company that needs access to the fastest speeds of internet you can buy or rent or whatever you want to call it.
00:34:32
Speaker
They approached the landlord, said, hey, we want this building.
00:34:37
Speaker
landlord said hey the people moving in will pay to help move you and then schwanberg's like we'll help move you too because it's it's money for the city as well because that's a big elk grove elk grove oh elk grove sorry and so it just turned into this like it was a win win win for everyone and so i don't know how much stern actually paid going into this building but it seems like
00:35:00
Speaker
they were very well taken care of to move to this place.
00:35:03
Speaker
And not only that, like, yeah, they'll have a bigger overhead now.
00:35:06
Speaker
Cause obviously you've seen how big this place is.
00:35:09
Speaker
Cause there is that, there's that slight concern, but moving from building to building usually costs you a ton of money.
00:35:15
Speaker
That's why a lot of people don't like to move.
00:35:17
Speaker
It seemed like Stern got the better end of the deal on this move.
00:35:20
Speaker
So it's really great to see them getting up.
00:35:22
Speaker
This, this was just crazy random happenstance that happened to him.
00:35:26
Speaker
So.
00:35:27
Speaker
And it's, and I've been told it's only like three or four buildings down from their old building too.
00:35:31
Speaker
So, okay.
00:35:32
Speaker
So here's the, here's the question.
00:35:34
Speaker
Anytime something big happens, what are the possible downsides of moving?
00:35:41
Speaker
You've got to figure out how to get that line going again and get it efficiently.
00:35:45
Speaker
And I think things break in moving.
00:35:49
Speaker
I mean, you've got giant expensive equipment and there's just, you've got downtime.
00:35:55
Speaker
You're not producing machines.
00:35:57
Speaker
So I know the last time they moved, they said it'd only take a couple of weeks.
00:36:00
Speaker
Ended up taking about three full months before they were back to 100% capacity.
00:36:06
Speaker
right and and granted like i said i mean it's not three buildings man it's three blocks but still it's fairly close to their old building and so the move isn't as hard on that they're not moving clear across town yeah they're not moving from jersey yeah so yeah so i guess this has really helped to move as well so i mean i think like the banner year they've been having or banner year and a half has really helped too like they were struggling and had to move in the middle of a struggle
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah, the one challenge I can think of is anytime you scale up,
00:36:36
Speaker
So that's the big problem in business.
00:36:38
Speaker
You want to have some sort of flexibility to scale up and scale down.
00:36:43
Speaker
And as long as the new company and the new location, because the square footage is enormous, as long as that is a benefit, then great.
00:36:54
Speaker
But what happens when things turn is the increased footprint of their factory going to end up biting them.
00:37:02
Speaker
Because I'm wondering, I doubt they're getting it for the same price.
00:37:07
Speaker
So the rent has to go up, the heating has to go, everything has to go up with it.
00:37:12
Speaker
But I could be completely wrong on that, but that's my main concern with that.
00:37:16
Speaker
And also moving while you're still selling a lot of games.
00:37:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:22
Speaker
My understanding it's about one and a half times more than what they were paying.
00:37:26
Speaker
Right.
00:37:27
Speaker
I don't, that's just a number that was tossed out to me.
00:37:29
Speaker
I don't know how accurate that is, but that's a 50% increase in your overhead.
00:37:33
Speaker
And anybody who runs a business knows that that's, that's substantial.
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:38
Speaker
Yep.
00:37:39
Speaker
So they have to move more machines to pay for that.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yep.
00:37:43
Speaker
Either that or develop, you know, more product lines or something.
00:37:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:47
Speaker
Like, you know, I don't know, expression lights, maybe get those out.
00:37:49
Speaker
Maybe there's still some demand for those.
00:37:52
Speaker
More to more toppers.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
Or, you know, let out that space for storage to other companies or something.
00:37:58
Speaker
Have it as a. I don't understand why they're not producing more accessories.
00:38:02
Speaker
I mean, look at toppers.
00:38:03
Speaker
They're selling them for like a thousand bucks a pop in the markup on those has to be.
00:38:09
Speaker
OK, but the caveat is I don't know how much it costs them to build it.
00:38:14
Speaker
OK, but.
00:38:16
Speaker
there's no chance that they are not.
00:38:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:20
Speaker
There's little chance that they are not making a killing percentage wise on what the toppers cost to make versus what they, what they sell them for.
00:38:31
Speaker
But the shipping's a lot less.
00:38:33
Speaker
The overhead on is a lot less versus a pinball machine.
00:38:36
Speaker
Obviously you need to sell the pinball machine to have the accessory, but it just, it seems like quick may not easy money, but it seems like it could be quick.
00:38:46
Speaker
Well, easy money.
00:38:47
Speaker
It's certainly a good alternative revenue source.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:38:50
Speaker
Yes.
00:38:51
Speaker
Certainly.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
I don't think like the volume is, is quite there.
00:38:54
Speaker
Like, you know, uh, a little tykes play set or something that's about the same size that you can get, you know, injection molded from China and sell tens of thousands of them.
00:39:02
Speaker
Right.
00:39:03
Speaker
But, but still, yeah, something's got to be said for like, you know, the demand is there.
00:39:07
Speaker
There shouldn't be a reason that, you know, you know what you could build enough for, you know, enough, enough demand minus one or something, you know?
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:15
Speaker
Or even because expression lighting, it's across all music pins.
00:39:21
Speaker
Why don't they hit those hard?
00:39:23
Speaker
That seems crazy because that's such a focus on all of the music pins.
00:39:29
Speaker
If I could, I'd put it on my Foo Fighters, but it's a pro, so I don't have that option.
00:39:35
Speaker
Oh, that's right.
00:39:35
Speaker
They did away with the pros, yeah.
00:39:38
Speaker
I've got some Led Zeppelin lights in my premium.
00:39:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:43
Speaker
In your premium.
00:39:44
Speaker
Oh, in your Foo Fighters premium.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:47
Speaker
That's funny.
00:39:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:48
Speaker
So I got those early on.
00:39:49
Speaker
I saw them pop up on Pinside, so I snatched them.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
But Pins Stadium is coming out with their own version of it.
00:39:56
Speaker
I've got them on order, so I was going to try them out and then, you know, just kind of see.
00:40:00
Speaker
I have regular pin stadiums on right now, which, you know, I like the effect, but I don't like that.
00:40:04
Speaker
They kind of hang over into the play field.
00:40:06
Speaker
You have to remove them.
00:40:08
Speaker
I had some in, and that was my challenge with black Rose.
00:40:11
Speaker
Cause you kind of have to get under the play field a lot on black Rose.
00:40:15
Speaker
And so it became a little challenging just to, to take them on and off.
00:40:20
Speaker
And eventually I just put some invisible glass on there and that really helped out.
00:40:25
Speaker
So it's,
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah, I know that was a very old version.
00:40:31
Speaker
The newer profile, I think, is much better.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:40:34
Speaker
But still, I'm excited about the Penn Stadium type tech, but it fits into that groove, so you can't lift the play field, move it around without having to take them off every time.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:40:44
Speaker
So I'll try them out, and I'll let everybody know what I think.
00:40:47
Speaker
Sounds great.
00:40:48
Speaker
Well, I want to hurry and wish a happy birthday to Scott.
00:40:51
Speaker
He just had his birthday a couple days ago.
00:40:54
Speaker
I appreciate everyone reaching out on Facebook and hitting up our post with his twin, his doppelganger, Colin McAlpine.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:03
Speaker
Colin's a much better player than me.
00:41:06
Speaker
I'm like the troll version of Chimp Flippin'.
00:41:08
Speaker
All you've got to do is get him some platform shoes and some contacts, and he could enter as you into a tournament and just place Scott Larson.
00:41:19
Speaker
It's possible, but yeah.
00:41:20
Speaker
No, Colin is...
00:41:22
Speaker
Colin's also one of the nicest guys on the planet, just in case you've never ran into him.
00:41:27
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:41:29
Speaker
I don't know if you saw that picture of him, but he looked like Fabio before he started being the director over the Texas Pinball Festival tournament.
00:41:37
Speaker
But apparently he lost all of his hair and his height because of being a tournament director.
00:41:43
Speaker
And apparently being Italian, because isn't Fabio Italian?
00:41:46
Speaker
Something like that, too.
00:41:47
Speaker
We must have lost the Italian.
00:41:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:51
Speaker
Yeah, no, 49 now.
00:41:54
Speaker
I'm solidly in the dad rock demographic.
00:41:57
Speaker
So let's get Journey.
00:41:59
Speaker
Let's get Bon Jovi.
00:42:02
Speaker
Let's get Def Leppard.
00:42:04
Speaker
Probably be on board with the Motley Crue.
00:42:07
Speaker
That would be challenging, but...
00:42:09
Speaker
All those 80s glory bands.
00:42:11
Speaker
I thought we were skipping all that because they came out with Food Fighters and now we're hitting 90s.
00:42:14
Speaker
We're skipping all that.
00:42:15
Speaker
Yeah, they went back with Led Zeppelin.
00:42:17
Speaker
We're going to have Green Day.
00:42:18
Speaker
We're going to have some 41.
00:42:19
Speaker
We're going to have Linkin Park.
00:42:22
Speaker
Wu-Tang.
00:42:23
Speaker
Yeah, Wu-Tang, Beastie Boys.
00:42:27
Speaker
I have a perennial ask for Jimmy Buffett at some point.
00:42:29
Speaker
Margaritaville.
00:42:30
Speaker
I think it would slam.
00:42:32
Speaker
I don't know.
00:42:33
Speaker
Maybe that's just for me personally.
00:42:34
Speaker
Maybe that'll be my homebrew project.
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:36
Speaker
would love that absolutely i think with his passing i saw a ton of pinball people that are like we're gonna miss you and i was like maybe this is their sign yeah i mean i got that volcano at the end of the play field that ejects balls for the multi-ball down the wire form ramp you know margarita i think he would be more well received than prince and prince was more expensive than the beatles absolutely yeah but well i'm gonna move on expo expectations what we thinking
00:43:07
Speaker
I know that there has been speculation that Stern's going to announce a game.
00:43:12
Speaker
Possible.
00:43:13
Speaker
But I'm going to go on the line and say that there's no chance that it's a cornerstone.
00:43:19
Speaker
No.
00:43:19
Speaker
There's a possibility that it's a vault edition of some sort or just a run of an older thing.
00:43:26
Speaker
So maybe like a vault edition of Stranger Things or something like that.
00:43:30
Speaker
But...
00:43:31
Speaker
But it'll be small.
00:43:34
Speaker
Whatever.
00:43:36
Speaker
If there is an announcement, it will have a minimal impact on what their schedule is because there's no chance they're going to throw in a monster release right after...
00:43:48
Speaker
Venom because Venom was released in the soft spot of the lineup in that it's a summer release.
00:43:54
Speaker
Typically, they struggle more to sell volume.
00:43:59
Speaker
And Venom is a challenging game.
00:44:03
Speaker
It's a challenging sell because it's totally different than anything else in pinball because it's more of a video game version of pinball, which they needed to do at some point.
00:44:15
Speaker
But it's so hard to get people to adapt.
00:44:19
Speaker
As Marty has always said, people in pinball are always saying the same thing.
00:44:24
Speaker
We want new, but not that.
00:44:27
Speaker
And I think that the Foo Fighters are, sorry, that Venom is going through that a little bit in that it is a completely different approach to a game.
00:44:40
Speaker
And it's already struggling to sell as much as I would imagine to be considered a success.
00:44:50
Speaker
But maybe this was their...
00:44:51
Speaker
their test case, right?
00:44:53
Speaker
This is, this is patient zero.
00:44:54
Speaker
They're trying to see if there's something they can do possibly.
00:44:58
Speaker
And I concern about this, but I know what's gotta be coming like DLC content and kind of a, a micro transactions or whatever, because this is a new way.
00:45:09
Speaker
This is the wave of so many games in the future that if pinball keeps releasing the same things, eventually the dad rock population is going to get old and die.
00:45:21
Speaker
And then where are you going to be?
00:45:23
Speaker
So that's my take on Expo and at least Stern's part.
00:45:28
Speaker
You guys can run with that or you can run with whatever else you want on pinball predictions.
00:45:36
Speaker
Sure.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah, I'll take off on that.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:38
Speaker
So I see venom in the code of like this progressive play, you know, log in, go up levels.
00:45:43
Speaker
And then, you know, if you can't beat the boss with 10 shots at level 10, you get to level 20 and it's only five or something.
00:45:49
Speaker
But now take that concept of like creating a profile, building up levels and apply it to Pokemon, right?
00:45:55
Speaker
Where you can collect, you can unlock, you know, all 150 Pokemon characters, level up your squirtle, you know, evolve them.
00:46:02
Speaker
And then when you go to arcade to arcade, you can lock in and play your character at your level or whatever and
00:46:07
Speaker
Maybe the whole play field lighting changes to whatever type Pokemon you are.
00:46:11
Speaker
I don't think that's going to be, you know, this November, December release that's announced at Expo.
00:46:15
Speaker
I think there will be something announced.
00:46:17
Speaker
I think, you know, we've heard the rumors that the production schedule in November and into December has been opened up, but we don't know what's filling up in there.
00:46:24
Speaker
You know, the Star Wars and the Bond runs were pushed over to January, February or March.
00:46:29
Speaker
So I think we may see something, but I agree.
00:46:31
Speaker
I don't think it would be a cornerstone.
00:46:33
Speaker
But who knows?
00:46:34
Speaker
You know, it might be, you know, anyway, from a Kapow title to a vault, I think would be the two most likely things.
00:46:40
Speaker
I can guarantee it's not a cornerstone.
00:46:44
Speaker
I mean, you'd be cutting out the legs out from Venom at this point.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah, you'd kill Venom.
00:46:49
Speaker
And you just, you can't, especially if the rumor is Elwin is next.
00:46:53
Speaker
I'm curious, though, if he's going to be able to overcome the Winter Curse.
00:46:56
Speaker
If you don't know what the Winter Curse is about, check out our episode 55 when we talk about the Winter Curse on there.
00:47:01
Speaker
But,
00:47:02
Speaker
As far as Expo expectations, I'm intrigued to see Pinball Ventures.
00:47:06
Speaker
I know that they have stated that they're going to have elements there.
00:47:09
Speaker
So it's going to be interesting to see that game.
00:47:12
Speaker
And also Punny Factory.
00:47:13
Speaker
I haven't played that yet.
00:47:15
Speaker
I hope Ryan McQuade brings his Sonic Pinball because that game is awesome.
00:47:19
Speaker
It's fun.
00:47:20
Speaker
It always had a line and it was funny because I was playing it.
00:47:24
Speaker
Did you ever play it?
00:47:25
Speaker
I did play it.
00:47:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:27
Speaker
It's, it's actually, it's an awesome theme integration game.
00:47:31
Speaker
Yes, definitely.
00:47:33
Speaker
It, it was certainly on the easier side.
00:47:37
Speaker
Because it was, you know, it was a, it was a homebrew and the, the ramps were wide open because I could hit them easily without even modifying my shots.
00:47:47
Speaker
That just shows you how easy it was, but it was still like thematically.
00:47:51
Speaker
It was, it was awesome.
00:47:53
Speaker
Like it felt like a,
00:47:55
Speaker
It felt like a very high-end homebrew that could be modified in transition toward a production.
00:48:04
Speaker
You definitely have to tweak the play field to make it more challenging.
00:48:08
Speaker
What a great theme.
00:48:10
Speaker
Do you think Spooky will have something there?
00:48:12
Speaker
I know it's only been 10 months since Scooby-Doo and they're still producing them, but do you think we start getting some hype for their next game?
00:48:19
Speaker
I don't think so.
00:48:21
Speaker
Not at Expo.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah, no.
00:48:23
Speaker
TPF, more likely.
00:48:26
Speaker
Right.
00:48:26
Speaker
Talking to the guys, I don't know what their next theme is, and I didn't press them too hard on it.
00:48:30
Speaker
I want to be surprised, too.
00:48:32
Speaker
I don't know how many units of Scooby-Doo they've sold, only that it's not sold out.
00:48:36
Speaker
But, you know, speculating-wise, you know, they're in the 900s or so with the build.
00:48:40
Speaker
If they sold 1,500 or 1,600 games, they're over halfway.
00:48:42
Speaker
They did claim that.
00:48:45
Speaker
So with them making 26 games a week, I would expect them by March to maybe have something new for the line.
00:48:52
Speaker
I know their new production facility will be going online around that time.
00:48:55
Speaker
So there's potential for TPF or something for Spooky, but I don't think we're going to see anything new announced at Expo.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:02
Speaker
It's hard to say anything will be because, I mean, it was hit so hard in March for TPF.
00:49:09
Speaker
The only two I can think of is Stern, you know, might have an announcement there.
00:49:14
Speaker
I mean, for sure.
00:49:15
Speaker
We know Pinball Venture will because they have said we're going to have elements there at.
00:49:19
Speaker
They're taking deposits.
00:49:20
Speaker
That just went live.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, that just did go live.
00:49:23
Speaker
And actually, I'm impressed at their price points.
00:49:27
Speaker
Their high end 7000, their low ends, what, 662?
00:49:31
Speaker
Don't quote me.
00:49:34
Speaker
Unless it includes shipping.
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
And so that was kind of a shocker as well.
00:49:40
Speaker
I just was like, huh, it'll be interesting to see.
00:49:42
Speaker
And they're only making 125 of these games.
00:49:46
Speaker
$6,500 for the standard, $7,000 for the night edition.
00:49:51
Speaker
$500 non-refundable deposit is required to place order.
00:49:55
Speaker
I mean, that's what Spooky's doing.
00:49:57
Speaker
So I guess Spooky doesn't do that.
00:49:58
Speaker
I apologize.
00:49:59
Speaker
Some of the distributors for Spooky have been asking for non-refundable deposits.
00:50:04
Speaker
So, anywho, it's going to be an interesting expo.
00:50:08
Speaker
I'm glad to at least play Venom there.
00:50:09
Speaker
I haven't seen a Venom out in the wild yet.
00:50:11
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:50:13
Speaker
Are we going to see anything from JJP, do you think?
00:50:16
Speaker
No, good question.
00:50:18
Speaker
Here's my speculation, because if there's Ellie's of Godfather inbox, you know, looking for buyers, is there a need to run more of those?
00:50:26
Speaker
And then if they're running out of production for the CEs, are they going to have a line that needs to have something to go on it?
00:50:32
Speaker
Right.
00:50:34
Speaker
There's a question about distributors basically not picking up new allotments because you can always sell games as long as distributors are willing to stockpile them.
00:50:46
Speaker
But you had so many games that right now are readily available from multiple distributors, which tells me that distributors are stocked up at least right now.
00:50:59
Speaker
So if they're stocked up, then JJP doesn't want to sit on, you know, a hundred to 200 games because that's just stuff that they are not going to be moving anytime soon.
00:51:12
Speaker
So it makes sense for them to, to get Elton John out there and, and to see what the demand is on that.
00:51:20
Speaker
And then they could always run more of the Godfather as, as need demands.
00:51:25
Speaker
Yep.
00:51:25
Speaker
I agree.
00:51:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:27
Speaker
Well, I want to play a game.
00:51:29
Speaker
I know, Don, this is your first time on our podcast, but we occasionally do what's called Segment Steal, where we steal someone else's segment from a different show.
00:51:37
Speaker
It kind of is an homage and honor to them.
00:51:41
Speaker
If you haven't listened to Slap Save Pinball, I don't know if you can actually find them on Podcatchers anymore.
00:51:45
Speaker
Maybe.
00:51:46
Speaker
Jason Fowler.
00:51:47
Speaker
It was a wonderful show, pretty awesome takes.
00:51:51
Speaker
Anywho, they used to do what was called flip bolt torch.
00:51:54
Speaker
If you're not familiar with this game, what it is is we pick a year in pinball.
00:51:59
Speaker
We go through the list of the pinball machines that were made that year.
00:52:01
Speaker
We decide which one we would get just to specifically flip, which one we would bolt to the floor, and which one we'd torch or you could throw off the roof like Todd Tucky.
00:52:12
Speaker
which I got to say just two seconds.
00:52:14
Speaker
Weird tangent.
00:52:16
Speaker
I was looking at Todd Tucky's top videos.
00:52:18
Speaker
Do you know there's only like one video in his top 10 that actually has pinball in it?
00:52:22
Speaker
The rest are like arcades and like pachinko machines, like a pachinko machines is number one viewed video.
00:52:28
Speaker
It's really weird.
00:52:29
Speaker
But him throwing that pinball machine off the roof.
00:52:31
Speaker
It wasn't a street fighter.
00:52:32
Speaker
Like I recall it being something like that.
00:52:36
Speaker
I don't want to.
00:52:37
Speaker
Now that you say that, I'm going to have to look it up.
00:52:39
Speaker
I don't know which game it was.
00:52:40
Speaker
I don't want to say it was Street Fighter, though.
00:52:42
Speaker
But it just, it makes me chuckle.
00:52:45
Speaker
Like, that's really sad that, like,
00:52:47
Speaker
Todd Tucky is probably one of the most synonymous names of pinball that I know.
00:52:50
Speaker
Like whenever I was looking for a pinball machine, you type it in and I swear TNT amusements would come up and you would see whatever game and, you know, Todd's hollering at people.
00:53:01
Speaker
But it just, it's weird that his top 10 videos, pinball's in like one of them.
00:53:06
Speaker
And so it was kind of goofy.
00:53:08
Speaker
Anywho, so we're going to play Flip Bolt Torch.
00:53:11
Speaker
We decided on the year, we just picked a year at random.
00:53:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:53:16
Speaker
What year did we pick Scott?
00:53:17
Speaker
We picked a banner year for pinball.
00:53:19
Speaker
My friends, we picked the blockbuster of 2007.
00:53:27
Speaker
Yes.
00:53:28
Speaker
So this is basically the dark days, the wilderness, the lone and dreary wilderness, the, um, the wasteland of pinball where it was on life support.
00:53:41
Speaker
So that's where we are.
00:53:44
Speaker
So, um,
00:53:45
Speaker
I'm going to read off this list and we've decided that because there's some really obscure games in this year.
00:53:50
Speaker
And are you going to read off the list or are you going to let us choose?
00:53:55
Speaker
So let me read off the list and you can choose from the list.
00:53:58
Speaker
Obviously, the audience, if you want to play along, you can just we'll we'll make a post of this later or you can post it on this episode's link on our Facebook or Instagram where you want.
00:54:08
Speaker
Just remember, you're picking one to flip, one to bolt, one to torch.
00:54:11
Speaker
OK, these are the games.
00:54:13
Speaker
Big Bang Bar.
00:54:15
Speaker
This was the remake.
00:54:16
Speaker
This was Gene Cunningham making the last 191 of these games.
00:54:23
Speaker
By the way, great article if you ever.
00:54:25
Speaker
I think the article was written, When Pigs Fly.
00:54:27
Speaker
It was someone who went through the background on the remake of Big Bang Bar.
00:54:32
Speaker
Excellent read.
00:54:33
Speaker
You can find it.
00:54:33
Speaker
Just Google it.
00:54:35
Speaker
Also, Chris Bucci, if you haven't checked him out, he's on YouTube.
00:54:38
Speaker
He did an unboxing of Big Bang Bar when it came out in 2007.
00:54:42
Speaker
He bought one.
00:54:45
Speaker
And it's crazy because Gene Cunningham dumped... I guess it wasn't even a remake.
00:54:50
Speaker
Let me apologize.
00:54:50
Speaker
When Capcom went under, they only made like 10 Big Bang Bars, I want to say.
00:54:55
Speaker
Well, Gene Cunningham bought up the rights because there was 191...
00:55:02
Speaker
parts for full machines.
00:55:04
Speaker
And so he decided that he was going to make the last one 91 and sell them off.
00:55:10
Speaker
And supposedly the first of that one 91, it's like all gold plated underneath.
00:55:16
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:55:17
Speaker
And it's all signed by everyone that worked on it.
00:55:20
Speaker
If you ever find this thing, I want to see, if you have one of these, let us know.
00:55:23
Speaker
I'd love to see pictures or to play it.
00:55:25
Speaker
Definitely.
00:55:26
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:26
Speaker
So big bang bar.
00:55:27
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:29
Speaker
Dale Jr., which is NASCAR remade.
00:55:31
Speaker
That's Pat Lawler.
00:55:33
Speaker
Family Guy, which then Shrek came after that.
00:55:36
Speaker
We're including this even though there was only one made.
00:55:39
Speaker
Good morning, America.
00:55:42
Speaker
I want it.
00:55:42
Speaker
Thank you, Scott.
00:55:45
Speaker
We're going to include these, but we're not.
00:55:46
Speaker
I don't know.
00:55:47
Speaker
They're zizzles.
00:55:48
Speaker
You know what?
00:55:48
Speaker
We can get whatever we want.
00:55:50
Speaker
It's our year, right?
00:55:52
Speaker
Marvel superheroes and Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End.
00:55:57
Speaker
If you've never seen a Zizzle, you can pick one up for like 300 bucks off of eBay.
00:56:01
Speaker
Hey, by the way, you can have, when are you going to pick up the Turtles Zizzle that's in my place?
00:56:09
Speaker
Next time I'm out there.
00:56:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:10
Speaker
All right.
00:56:10
Speaker
All right.
00:56:12
Speaker
Spider-Man, Spider-Man Black Suit.
00:56:14
Speaker
Do we combine that as one?
00:56:15
Speaker
Let's just do Spider-Man Black Suit.
00:56:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:18
Speaker
And then Will of Fortunes.
00:56:21
Speaker
Not really a ton of pinball came out that year.
00:56:23
Speaker
Big Bang Bar, Dell Jr., Family Guy, Good Morning America.
00:56:26
Speaker
Ultimate golf ball frenzy.
00:56:29
Speaker
Whatever that is.
00:56:30
Speaker
It says it's a converted game.
00:56:34
Speaker
Solid state electronics.
00:56:35
Speaker
It must be like this conversion was done by high end pins of Indian Trail, North Carolina.
00:56:41
Speaker
Oh, so the game was used in a benefit.
00:56:45
Speaker
I didn't realize that was HEP.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah, his games are amazing.
00:56:51
Speaker
They are amazing.
00:56:52
Speaker
But the weird part is, is when you click on the flyer, mail will actually show it.
00:56:56
Speaker
I was going to say it was not showing.
00:56:58
Speaker
Was it Hap?
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, high-end pins.
00:57:01
Speaker
Is he in North Carolina?
00:57:02
Speaker
Yeah, he's in North Carolina.
00:57:03
Speaker
We've interviewed this man.
00:57:05
Speaker
I can't remember where he lives.
00:57:06
Speaker
Yeah, no, it was North Carolina.
00:57:08
Speaker
Anywho, I guess, yeah, we could put that one on the list if you want to, but I don't know exactly what.
00:57:13
Speaker
Well, it's a sports golfing motorcycles transportation.
00:57:17
Speaker
The flyer for some other reason on my end is not working whatsoever.
00:57:20
Speaker
Yeah, mine's taking a while too.
00:57:22
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:23
Speaker
All right.
00:57:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:24
Speaker
We're not going to include it just because we can't even see pictures of this thing.
00:57:27
Speaker
So, okay.
00:57:28
Speaker
Who wants to go first?
00:57:30
Speaker
Josh, Josh, you want to go first?
00:57:33
Speaker
I want to go first.
00:57:34
Speaker
I was going to say the guest goes first.
00:57:35
Speaker
They get the honor of doing it.
00:57:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:38
Speaker
Go ahead, Don.
00:57:38
Speaker
So from this entire list, I got to pick the three, right?
00:57:41
Speaker
And then what are my options again?
00:57:43
Speaker
Okay, let's start out.
00:57:45
Speaker
We'll start out with flip.
00:57:46
Speaker
So which one would you solely get to turn around and flip?
00:57:49
Speaker
Oh, big bang bar.
00:57:50
Speaker
If I was just looking for a flipping to make money.
00:57:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:57:54
Speaker
I don't know if I'd get much for a family guy.
00:57:59
Speaker
I I'm right there with you.
00:58:00
Speaker
I would have to, as much as big bang bar is, is,
00:58:04
Speaker
one of those grail pins for people.
00:58:07
Speaker
I just think that that's what you have to do.
00:58:10
Speaker
And I also, I don't think it's a very good game.
00:58:14
Speaker
I think it's rare.
00:58:14
Speaker
I think it's worth a lot.
00:58:15
Speaker
I think it's sought after, but I don't know that it's that engaging.
00:58:19
Speaker
I mean, I played it virtually, but yeah.
00:58:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:25
Speaker
So, okay.
00:58:26
Speaker
So the one I am going to buy to flip or pick up is,
00:58:31
Speaker
is ultimate golf frenzy because it's one of a kind.
00:58:36
Speaker
It's a hep game, which, you know, if you look at his, uh, at his blog, he is meticulous.
00:58:44
Speaker
And so that game has got to be amazing, better than, uh, than fresh off the line.
00:58:49
Speaker
And you will find a customer for that one.
00:58:52
Speaker
So I'm definitely buying that, picking that one up to flip.
00:58:56
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:58:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:57
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:58
Speaker
What game are you bolting to the floor there, Don?
00:59:02
Speaker
One of the zizzles for sure.
00:59:04
Speaker
Oh, here, no, this is an easy choice for me.
00:59:09
Speaker
Good Morning America is getting bolted to my floor because it's so weird.
00:59:13
Speaker
I've got to have that just to talk about.
00:59:15
Speaker
Oh, man.
00:59:16
Speaker
That backlash?
00:59:16
Speaker
You stole mine.
00:59:18
Speaker
Come on.
00:59:18
Speaker
You stole mine.
00:59:19
Speaker
You stole my good morning America.
00:59:21
Speaker
So you can't.
00:59:22
Speaker
Cause I, I, I'm already taking it.
00:59:24
Speaker
I, I actually text, I already texted Josh Sharp cause he's in the picture.
00:59:27
Speaker
And I said, where is the good morning America right now?
00:59:31
Speaker
Oh, I was assuming I told him too.
00:59:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:59:35
Speaker
No, Josh Sharp is the topper.
00:59:37
Speaker
He actually comes and he plays with you.
00:59:40
Speaker
The best part, if you have not seen the clip, it's like a minute and a half.
00:59:44
Speaker
And Josh is casually talking to Robin.
00:59:48
Speaker
I don't know her last name.
00:59:49
Speaker
I'm sorry, but she is the host and he's sitting there flipping and she keeps asking him questions and he just casually traps up and turns and talks to her during the interview.
01:00:00
Speaker
Like, you know, he just, yeah, he just traps up the ball because obviously you do not want to lose those points on good morning America.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:09
Speaker
You know, when you have a good game going.
01:00:11
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:00:12
Speaker
No, I'm GC it.
01:00:15
Speaker
If I'm bolting a game, I am doing Spider-Man.
01:00:18
Speaker
Okay.
01:00:19
Speaker
Black suit edition, obviously.
01:00:21
Speaker
Actually, I like the other back glass.
01:00:26
Speaker
I actually have the other one.
01:00:28
Speaker
I still love the game.
01:00:30
Speaker
It was time to move on, but I still love that game.
01:00:32
Speaker
But yes, the black suit is a more valuable version, but definitely fun.
01:00:40
Speaker
Well, you could go black suit with the original back.
01:00:46
Speaker
That's true.
01:00:48
Speaker
Chrome.
01:00:51
Speaker
All right, Scott, which one are you bolting?
01:00:53
Speaker
No, I'm bolting Good Morning America.
01:00:56
Speaker
I said Josh Sharp comes as the chopper, so I'm taking him.
01:00:59
Speaker
I thought you were joking.
01:01:00
Speaker
No, no, I'm totally loving that.
01:01:02
Speaker
All right.
01:01:03
Speaker
Which one are you going Todd Tucky style with and throwing off a roof or lighting on fire, Don?
01:01:07
Speaker
Let's go with between Wheel of Fortune and Family Guy.
01:01:11
Speaker
I think I would check Family Guy just because I don't like that upper pinball play field thing.
01:01:16
Speaker
And it'd probably make a funny noise when it fell.
01:01:18
Speaker
And Wheel of Fortune is weird enough that I might actually want to hang on to it.
01:01:23
Speaker
I'm going to group a few together.
01:01:27
Speaker
So...
01:01:28
Speaker
I'm going to chuck off every zizzle game because there's no chance any of us are playing that for longer than five minutes.
01:01:35
Speaker
And I think we could probably get those more airborne off the roof than actually a standard game.
01:01:44
Speaker
But yeah, man, it's, I really want like family.
01:01:49
Speaker
I, I have a sore spot with family guy just because I bought it because I love Shrek and I thought this would be a great theme and I bought it and I opened it up and I started playing it.
01:02:00
Speaker
I hadn't played it before.
01:02:01
Speaker
It was early in the hobby.
01:02:03
Speaker
And I knew after the first game that I had made a horrible mistake.
01:02:10
Speaker
It just was not a fun game.
01:02:11
Speaker
I, I, I realized I don't like upper play fields.
01:02:15
Speaker
So, so that's, yeah, I think I'm, I'm definitely launching a combination of family guy and Marvel superheroes and parts of the Caribbean at worlds and zizzles.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:29
Speaker
I think I'm right there with you.
01:02:30
Speaker
I think,
01:02:31
Speaker
My mom bought a Pirates of the Caribbean because it was like a hundred bucks.
01:02:38
Speaker
And she's like, we get a pinball machine.
01:02:40
Speaker
And I was like, that's not a pinball machine.
01:02:44
Speaker
It looks like something that should shoot out a gumball when you drain.
01:02:49
Speaker
Well, what's funny, too, is you could pick it up and shake it, and it had no tilt bob in it.
01:02:52
Speaker
So it was like, if you can hit something, you just pick it up, roll around until you get it in the spot, and boom, you're good to go.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, it was just rough.
01:03:01
Speaker
By the way, to answer your question, Scott, you were right.
01:03:04
Speaker
One, there was a ton of machines they threw off their roof, but TNT did throw off a Street Fighter II.
01:03:10
Speaker
They threw off Bad Girls.
01:03:13
Speaker
Bad Girls is awesome.
01:03:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:16
Speaker
Okay.
01:03:16
Speaker
Street Fighter 2 you can chuck off.
01:03:20
Speaker
A last action hero?
01:03:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:23
Speaker
Not much of a loss.
01:03:24
Speaker
What the heck is this one?
01:03:25
Speaker
It's a Gottlieb racing game.
01:03:28
Speaker
It's got like, what is this?
01:03:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:30
Speaker
Those are all turds.
01:03:31
Speaker
The later Gottliebs are all turds.
01:03:33
Speaker
Is it like a Mario Andretti?
01:03:37
Speaker
I can't tell what the heck it is.
01:03:38
Speaker
The problem is they're tossing these off the roof so quickly that.
01:03:41
Speaker
Right.
01:03:41
Speaker
And they're not really like showing pictures of them and whatnot.
01:03:44
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:45
Speaker
Okay.
01:03:46
Speaker
Don, you said you played street fighter too.
01:03:48
Speaker
Who was your character?
01:03:49
Speaker
Oh God.
01:03:50
Speaker
I was probably just right.
01:03:51
Speaker
You.
01:03:52
Speaker
Okay.
01:03:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:53
Speaker
Throwing fireballs.
01:03:54
Speaker
Classic.
01:03:55
Speaker
I mean, yeah.
01:03:56
Speaker
Or Blanca just cause he was off the wall.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:00
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:00
Speaker
You remind me of Jen and from samurai showdown.
01:04:02
Speaker
So.
01:04:02
Speaker
Okay.
01:04:03
Speaker
Okay.
01:04:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:05
Speaker
Street Fighter 2 was legit, but I was more Mortal Kombat if I was going to come down between them.
01:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was I was a Street Fighter 2 guy.
01:04:12
Speaker
So that that came out when I was in high school.
01:04:14
Speaker
I probably dumped hundreds of dollars into that game.
01:04:18
Speaker
And I was pretty good at Chun-Li.
01:04:20
Speaker
That was my.
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:22
Speaker
I I I stunk at every other one.
01:04:26
Speaker
Yeah, I was really good.
01:04:26
Speaker
I mean, bird kick.
01:04:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:29
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:30
Speaker
It was a Mario Andretti.
01:04:32
Speaker
Sorry.
01:04:33
Speaker
Josh is back.
01:04:34
Speaker
Back to the conversation.
01:04:36
Speaker
That's what he threw off.
01:04:40
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
01:04:41
Speaker
Well, what were your guys' takes?
01:04:43
Speaker
We want to definitely know in the comments, whether it be here on YouTube, whether it be on our Facebook, our Instagram.
01:04:50
Speaker
We want to know what you guys, I think collectively the pinball community is just going to say, torch all the zizzles.
01:04:57
Speaker
Just throw them in a bonfire.
01:04:59
Speaker
I think they should vault them.
01:05:00
Speaker
To be honest.
01:05:01
Speaker
Oh, good, good call.
01:05:03
Speaker
I bet Costco would be up for that.
01:05:05
Speaker
They'd be, they'd be dying to do that all over again.
01:05:09
Speaker
I think we could turn this into something.
01:05:10
Speaker
Absolutely.
Hat Distribution and Social Media Engagement
01:05:12
Speaker
I agree.
01:05:12
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:12
Speaker
Josh, talk about the hats.
01:05:14
Speaker
Cause you posted the link.
01:05:15
Speaker
I did.
01:05:17
Speaker
Don, for coming on, we're getting you a hat and I'm bringing it to you at Expo.
01:05:21
Speaker
But if you're not on our show, you know, you got to get the hat the other way.
01:05:26
Speaker
The way to do it right now is I've posted on all of our socials.
01:05:30
Speaker
I know on Facebook it's like our top post, but it takes you to a link of where you can enter
01:05:36
Speaker
Like it shows you all the new hats that we've done.
01:05:38
Speaker
I've got this one here.
01:05:39
Speaker
This is a black snapback with the loser kid logo.
01:05:43
Speaker
And then it's adjustable in the back.
01:05:44
Speaker
This one's not fitted.
01:05:46
Speaker
But then we have our, there's a white one.
01:05:49
Speaker
The weird part is on the pictures of the white one, the logo is center.
01:05:52
Speaker
It's not going to be center when you get it.
01:05:55
Speaker
It's actually going to be on the right side.
01:05:57
Speaker
Unless if you're, I'll ask the people that have, have ordered it, but that's,
01:06:02
Speaker
They messed up on the sample.
01:06:04
Speaker
We usually are off center.
01:06:05
Speaker
I mean, that's the whole point of being loser kid, right?
01:06:08
Speaker
Yep.
01:06:08
Speaker
And then the hat that Scott is wearing, our traditional 3930 new arrow that, you know, has been around since the beginning.
01:06:15
Speaker
This is the 2.0 green version?
01:06:18
Speaker
Yep.
01:06:18
Speaker
You can still get the 2.0s or we're doing a 3.0 where it's a white hat and then black stitching or a white hat with red stitching.
01:06:25
Speaker
I love the 3.0, the black stitching.
01:06:29
Speaker
It looks good.
01:06:31
Speaker
It's funny because everyone that has ordered, most of them have been the white or the grays.
01:06:38
Speaker
But everyone that has been on our show, because traditionally, if you come on our show, we usually give you a hat.
01:06:43
Speaker
And everyone's gone snapback on that.
01:06:48
Speaker
It's interesting.
01:06:49
Speaker
It's kind of weird.
01:06:50
Speaker
So I guess all the pinball people in the industry want snapbacks, and everyone that isn't in the industry wants.
01:06:55
Speaker
wants to fit it.
01:06:57
Speaker
But they're nice hats.
01:06:58
Speaker
Like we had Kerry Hardy on a couple episodes ago and he swears by it's the most comfortable hat he's ever owned.
01:07:04
Speaker
They're awesome hats.
01:07:05
Speaker
Yes.
01:07:06
Speaker
So if you want a hat, that's the way to get it.
01:07:08
Speaker
You can get all of our swag too on Silver Ball Swag slash Loser Kid.
01:07:12
Speaker
Get your shoes.
01:07:13
Speaker
Take pictures with Josh.
01:07:14
Speaker
Yep.
01:07:15
Speaker
And actually it sounds like we're getting a button up shirt as well.
01:07:18
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:19
Speaker
So keep an eye out for that.
01:07:21
Speaker
You know, like my Super Mario Sunset Sunset Sign shirt.
01:07:24
Speaker
So
01:07:26
Speaker
Anyhow.
01:07:27
Speaker
Well, Don, if you want people to get ahold of you or buy your mods or how, how do you do all that?
01:07:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:32
Speaker
Just email me.
01:07:33
Speaker
Don spin ball podcast at gmail.com or follow the Facebook page is a good way to get out to me.
01:07:37
Speaker
Throw you slide into my DMS.
01:07:39
Speaker
If you want, um, I've got a patron available for $5 a month.
01:07:41
Speaker
Also Don's pinball podcast.
01:07:43
Speaker
You want to get there.
01:07:44
Speaker
If you're a $5 a month subscriber, you get free stickers whenever you want.
01:07:47
Speaker
Otherwise I'll send them out to you for five bucks, a whole stack of stickers, uh, shirts I got for 25 shipped in the U S. So just holler at me.
01:07:54
Speaker
We'll work a deal.
01:07:56
Speaker
Nice.
01:07:57
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:07:58
Speaker
And if you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com at loser kid pinball pinball on all the socials.
01:08:05
Speaker
So Facebook, Instagram, X, uh, YouTube.
01:08:10
Speaker
Oh, what else is out there?
01:08:11
Speaker
Twitch, Twitter.
01:08:13
Speaker
I guess Twitter is X. I apologize.
01:08:15
Speaker
Anywho, if you'll do me a favor though, I know a lot of people, our content reaches a lot of people.
01:08:22
Speaker
I mean, we get anywhere from about 6,000 to 12,000 reaches.
01:08:27
Speaker
within about two week to four week period.
01:08:30
Speaker
And we only have like 900 people that have liked us on Facebook and a hundred people on YouTube.
01:08:35
Speaker
If you're, if you're enjoying our content, hit the light button, hit the follow button, uh, or the subscribe button, wherever it may be.
01:08:42
Speaker
We really appreciate it.
01:08:43
Speaker
It's kind of funny because like we had Martine Gonzalez on, which he's part of the 99% Invisible podcast.
01:08:50
Speaker
And we were talking about like they have like over a million followers on the podcast.
01:08:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's crazy.
01:08:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:56
Speaker
I went looking at ours and we were like 150.
01:09:00
Speaker
and i was like yes i'm reading thousands and thousands of listens per episode and we we don't even have like 100 we have barely have 150 subscribe we have more almost more youtube subscribers in the last nine months than we do as loser kid pinball over the last four years it's weird but it does help like the search algorithm so if you if you like and follow that'd be great and don't even just follow us follow don's pinball podcast absolutely
01:09:27
Speaker
Dude, it's great content.
01:09:28
Speaker
I know people are loving you.
01:09:30
Speaker
I mean, you're doing something right.
01:09:31
Speaker
So you keep popping up in my feed.
01:09:33
Speaker
I don't know if it's because I like your posts or whatnot, but it's good to be hanging around with everybody.
01:09:37
Speaker
A new
Episode Conclusion and Gratitude
01:09:38
Speaker
episode just dropped tonight, too.
01:09:39
Speaker
So it's hot, dripping hot new content.
01:09:42
Speaker
Nice.
01:09:42
Speaker
Stream Lebowski from the hotel room.
01:09:44
Speaker
Yes.
01:09:46
Speaker
The people in the room next to you are just going to love you all night long, aren't they?
01:09:50
Speaker
I mean, yeah.
01:09:50
Speaker
I'm thumping the bass, too.
01:09:51
Speaker
I'm not even being nice about it.
01:09:55
Speaker
Well, I appreciate you coming on, Don.
01:09:56
Speaker
And I guess, Scott, we will see everyone in two weeks, right?
01:10:00
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:10:01
Speaker
Talk to you later.
01:10:02
Speaker
Later.