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Ep 27: Scott's Return and Josh's Epistle
48 Plays6 years ago
It's February already?! Plenty of topics covered in this episode including Haggis Pinball Playfields, Scott's trip to Guatemala, Josh's reaction to the TPN drama 2 weeks ago and a honest review of the new product, PinShades! Enjoy!
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Transcript
Introduction and Host's Volunteer Experience
00:00:06
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
It is episode 27.
00:00:11
Speaker
My co-captain today is... Scott Larson.
00:00:14
Speaker
Dude, it's so good to have you back.
00:00:16
Speaker
Thanks, man.
00:00:17
Speaker
I feel like I've been out of the country for a while.
00:00:19
Speaker
You have been.
00:00:20
Speaker
You've got to tell us.
00:00:21
Speaker
Because last time we had Martin on, I told everyone that you're a superhero, contributing your awesome superpowers down there.
00:00:28
Speaker
You've got to tell us what it was like.
00:00:30
Speaker
You know, it's amazing...
00:00:34
Speaker
I feel very lucky that so many people, they want to do something and something for the community or something for some sort of charitable work.
00:00:47
Speaker
And sadly, so many of us get so jaded when you see all these charities out there where they do an expose on it and you find out, you know, one cent of your dollar goes toward actually doing something.
00:01:00
Speaker
And most of it's for overhead or publicity or whatever.
00:01:03
Speaker
or PR.
00:01:05
Speaker
And in many ways, we get very jaded with the charitable community.
00:01:10
Speaker
And those questions are good to ask.
00:01:14
Speaker
You have to ask those questions because there are unscrupulous people out there who will set up charities and leverage the good faith of people for their benefit.
00:01:25
Speaker
Thankfully, my job is one that is something that I can do.
00:01:32
Speaker
And so the organization that I work with, it's a local organization here in Utah.
00:01:37
Speaker
And we go down to Guatemala and we fix cleft lips and cleft palates.
00:01:42
Speaker
And everybody donates their time.
00:01:45
Speaker
Everybody pays their own way.
00:01:47
Speaker
And all the money that we actually raise, it goes toward the surgeries.
00:01:53
Speaker
It goes toward the supplies that we need to buy and all that.
00:01:57
Speaker
And so we don't make any money off it.
00:02:00
Speaker
Everything is volunteer time.
00:02:02
Speaker
We pay our own way.
00:02:03
Speaker
And the money that we take down is directly given to facilitate these surgeries.
00:02:10
Speaker
And I'm very lucky that my job allows me to do this type of thing.
00:02:16
Speaker
And I was also lucky to find the right organization.
00:02:20
Speaker
And hopefully I'll be doing it for years and years.
00:02:22
Speaker
But it's an amazing feeling that I'm not sure who gets more out of it is the team who goes down or the kids.
00:02:30
Speaker
Because it's this amazing fulfillment that you are doing something because you just want to give back somehow.
00:02:39
Speaker
And
00:02:40
Speaker
I feel, again, lucky that my talents, my skill set is being able to be used in this way.
00:02:46
Speaker
So that's what I did.
00:02:48
Speaker
And I've been doing it.
00:02:49
Speaker
This is my fourth trip down and we go every year and I will do it as long as they keep doing it.
00:02:55
Speaker
That is so totally awesome.
00:02:56
Speaker
Like I know we do this just for fun, the pinball podcast and whatnot.
00:03:02
Speaker
And we hope to help those like in the hobby, you may learn something or whatnot.
00:03:08
Speaker
But what you did down there is truly changing someone's life for the better for the rest of their lives.
00:03:14
Speaker
And it's just, it's amazing.
00:03:15
Speaker
It just, I don't know if you didn't see the pictures become friends with Scott on Facebook and
00:03:20
Speaker
They're just awesome seeing these children that – what are they, one and two?
00:03:26
Speaker
I think the oldest you said was three or four.
00:03:28
Speaker
We can operate anybody under 18.
00:03:30
Speaker
So the laws allow us to operate under 18.
00:03:33
Speaker
So we can do charitable work for pediatric populations.
00:03:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:03:39
Speaker
So it's, uh, yeah, with the cleft lips and palates, we try to do them as early as we can.
00:03:45
Speaker
Uh, lips you can do, uh, within, uh, a couple
Pinball Enthusiast Discussions
00:03:49
Speaker
months of being born palates.
00:03:51
Speaker
We typically fix the lip first and then do the palette later.
00:03:56
Speaker
Um, not all, not, not all lips have a broken palette.
00:03:58
Speaker
Not all palates have a cleft lip.
00:04:00
Speaker
It's, uh, there's, uh, there's just some overlap on either of them, but, um,
00:04:06
Speaker
It's pretty amazing that this hospital was set up by a concert promoter out of Nashville.
00:04:11
Speaker
It's called the Shalom Foundation.
00:04:14
Speaker
And we go and thankfully we go and we pay to use their facility.
00:04:18
Speaker
But all the money that we pay goes toward...
00:04:21
Speaker
full-time people who were there.
00:04:23
Speaker
And so we pay them about $10,000 a week, but it's a building there with people and that's their jobs and everything.
00:04:32
Speaker
And so I feel it's very well used.
00:04:36
Speaker
It really is.
00:04:38
Speaker
It makes my last couple of weeks look very boring, very selfish compared to your two.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:46
Speaker
Well, it's not – because, okay, I do that one week out of 52.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:04:51
Speaker
So the other 51, I'm doing what everybody else is doing.
00:04:57
Speaker
I have a job.
00:04:58
Speaker
I have a mortgage.
00:04:58
Speaker
I have – we pay for our kids' school.
00:05:03
Speaker
So it's –
00:05:05
Speaker
That is standard life.
00:05:07
Speaker
And you don't need to apologize for that.
00:05:08
Speaker
That's standard life.
00:05:09
Speaker
It's true, yeah.
00:05:11
Speaker
And so there are so many ways that you can reach out.
00:05:14
Speaker
And it doesn't have to be something like what I just did.
00:05:17
Speaker
There are local places.
00:05:18
Speaker
And do your due diligence.
00:05:20
Speaker
Find something, a way of actually being able to give back.
00:05:23
Speaker
And it helps you look beyond yourself.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:28
Speaker
It's so easy to be self-focused and to be jaded.
00:05:34
Speaker
And we'll get into this later, but it's so easy if you just get overwhelmed by social media or even the news cycle.
00:05:41
Speaker
And it doesn't matter which side you're on.
00:05:43
Speaker
If you're the right side, the left side, blue, green, yellow, whatever, you can find battlegrounds.
00:05:51
Speaker
Yep.
00:05:52
Speaker
And if you get sucked into those battlegrounds, you get really entrenched into an overwhelming feeling of sadness that there's like, are there good people out there?
00:06:03
Speaker
Cause sometimes you don't know.
00:06:04
Speaker
So yeah,
00:06:06
Speaker
I would encourage anybody to find something to be able to give back.
00:06:12
Speaker
And whether or not it's your church, whether or not it's a volunteer organization, whether or not it's something that you feel passionate about, I would just encourage you to do something and just figure out what to do because you'll notice your own personal experience.
00:06:27
Speaker
spiritual namaste will be so much better.
00:06:31
Speaker
Well, they've even proven, they've had scientists look into this and they say the families and the people that are the happiest are those that serve others.
00:06:39
Speaker
And it's just, you can teach your children selflessness and they'll grow up to hopefully promote that in their own lives.
00:06:49
Speaker
I mean, it's just serving others is a fantastic way to,
00:06:52
Speaker
to make yourself may realize you have it better than what some other people have it and that you can give back more than you think you can.
00:06:59
Speaker
So.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker
I would even put it in a different perspective is that it's easy to look in, in comparisons and we've all done this where we say, Oh, you're so lucky to be born X because if you compare yourself to Y and that is one way of looking at it, I guess the way I look at it is, um,
00:07:18
Speaker
You know, you can be happy and miserable regardless of where you are, socioeconomic status or political status or government status or anything.
00:07:26
Speaker
You can be happy or miserable.
00:07:27
Speaker
And it's, again, this sounds like a cat poster, like on Lego Movie where it talks about a trite thing.
00:07:36
Speaker
But, you know, it was like one of those memes that someone shared.
00:07:39
Speaker
And it's like, it's either like an old Indian proverb or a Cherokee proverb.
00:07:44
Speaker
I don't know.
00:07:44
Speaker
I don't really have a background in it, in that culture.
00:07:49
Speaker
But it basically said there are two animals inside you, and one of them is a caring wolf and all that kind of stuff, and one of them is a ravenous wolf and attacks.
00:08:01
Speaker
And they say, which one succeeds?
00:08:03
Speaker
And it says the one you feed.
00:08:06
Speaker
And so I feel that in life, it is the one you feed, which, which creature inside you are you feeding?
00:08:13
Speaker
Because that's really going to dictate what type of person you are.
00:08:17
Speaker
Well, you know, people tuned in for pinball and we just gave them like a life lesson.
00:08:21
Speaker
I know.
00:08:21
Speaker
I know.
00:08:21
Speaker
Sorry.
00:08:22
Speaker
Sorry.
00:08:22
Speaker
This is good.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:24
Speaker
Christopher Franchi's we, we broke one of Franchi's rules for pinball.
00:08:27
Speaker
So pinball podcast.
00:08:29
Speaker
So dude, have you listened to super awesome pinball show?
00:08:32
Speaker
Yeah, so ironically, one of our good friends here, Matt, Matt Shablone, he texted me and he said, okay, at Texas Pinball Festival, we need to have the anesthesiology throwdown.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:08:49
Speaker
And so I actually test, I messaged Christian, who's Dr. Pin, and Mrs. Pin, and I just said, okay,
00:08:58
Speaker
The crazy thing is we texted back and forth for like an hour.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:09:02
Speaker
It was pretty amazing just going back and forth.
00:09:04
Speaker
And then Mrs. Penn chimed in the next day.
00:09:09
Speaker
She's like, man, I was asleep, but you guys were talking all night.
00:09:14
Speaker
So, yeah, no.
00:09:15
Speaker
So I did listen and they, they've got a great show.
00:09:18
Speaker
If you haven't checked it out, it's fun.
00:09:19
Speaker
It's, it's a little bit more of a, think of a today's show for pinball.
00:09:25
Speaker
And I, I look at that as a positive thing.
00:09:28
Speaker
You know, the reason why they have things like the today show or good morning America or something like that, because it is a fun, upbeat, high energy show that is meant to entertain, but also inform, but it's, it's a discussion.
00:09:40
Speaker
It's,
00:09:41
Speaker
It's a little more of a lively experience than I think your standard pinball podcast, which Josh and I are part of the standard pinball podcast community where it's two guys who are enthusiasts who are bouncing ideas back and forth.
00:09:57
Speaker
Well, and let's just talk about for two seconds.
00:09:59
Speaker
So did you listen to the Joe Camencowin interview?
00:10:03
Speaker
You know what?
00:10:04
Speaker
So I was out of the country, so I didn't.
00:10:06
Speaker
But I did read the recap.
00:10:07
Speaker
I read the recap on this week in Pinball.
00:10:09
Speaker
So go ahead and take it.
00:10:11
Speaker
I just want to point out just two or three things.
00:10:14
Speaker
The first thing is, I bet Jeff Patterson is just freaking out, which we kind of do know, that Harry Potter was mentioned.
00:10:21
Speaker
I don't know if Joe does this to get people excited, to gauge interest.
00:10:25
Speaker
I don't know what it is.
00:10:27
Speaker
But he said that was going to be more expensive than The Beatles.
00:10:30
Speaker
which cool.
00:10:31
Speaker
I think it'll sell more than 1964 then.
00:10:35
Speaker
And another thing is I sent this quote directly to you and it, it makes me laugh.
00:10:40
Speaker
I've got to, I've got to pull this up really, really quick.
00:10:44
Speaker
This is Joe Kamikow talking about designing pinball machines with Gary Stern.
00:10:52
Speaker
It goes like this.
00:10:54
Speaker
You know, I love making a game.
00:10:57
Speaker
You know, I'm not going to be as good as Brian Eddy or that kid that made Jurassic Park or the King Steve Ritchie.
00:11:05
Speaker
And then he goes on later on to say, I also like that kid who made Atomic Meltdown or whatever that game was.
00:11:13
Speaker
So, Keith Elwin, you are now officially Keith Elwin, the kid, or the kid, Keith Elwin.
00:11:21
Speaker
And Scott Denisi is also known as the kid who made Atomic Meltdown.
00:11:28
Speaker
I love Atomic Meltdown.
00:11:29
Speaker
I actually want to – okay, I want Franchi to make me a back glass now that says Atomic Meltdown.
00:11:35
Speaker
Because that is awesome.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:37
Speaker
And I love that he calls Keith a kid because Keith has obviously been a legend.
00:11:44
Speaker
He's been in the field forever.
00:11:46
Speaker
And he has two of the best games that have made in the last two years.
00:11:50
Speaker
And yeah, so it's just funny.
00:11:53
Speaker
Anytime you talk to someone who's in their 60s and 70s, everybody's a kid to them.
00:11:57
Speaker
So it's hilarious.
00:11:59
Speaker
It was great.
00:12:00
Speaker
And so it was a really good interview.
00:12:02
Speaker
If you got the time, I highly recommend it.
00:12:04
Speaker
Check out Super Awesome Pinball Show.
00:12:06
Speaker
I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a little upset, Franchi, that you didn't put our intro in there.
00:12:10
Speaker
Come on.
00:12:10
Speaker
You got like everyone else.
00:12:12
Speaker
Even Orbital Albert got a shout out in your intro.
00:12:15
Speaker
Come on, dude.
00:12:15
Speaker
What's going on?
00:12:17
Speaker
What's going on?
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:17
Speaker
No, we're just, we're just not that important.
00:12:19
Speaker
I know.
00:12:20
Speaker
No biggie.
00:12:20
Speaker
We're not.
00:12:21
Speaker
Orbital Albert might be your fifth favorite podcast, but we're your what?
00:12:25
Speaker
21st.
00:12:26
Speaker
Hey, we're the 21st out of 22nd.
00:12:28
Speaker
So, um, you know, Kate, the take home message from the Joe Kamikau interview though, is you realize that to make a company, you, you rely on people who have different strengths.
00:12:40
Speaker
Correct.
00:12:41
Speaker
So Joe is not, he is not a legendary designer.
00:12:44
Speaker
Right.
00:12:46
Speaker
but he is a legendary businessman.
00:12:49
Speaker
And so he is very good about being able to work licenses and figuring out ways of converting one license to a marketable product that is a game.
00:13:02
Speaker
So for him to actually even bring up Harry Potter, obviously so many people have gone after the license, but of all the people who work in licenses,
00:13:14
Speaker
I would say that the two most likely people who would be able to get something done would be one, Joe Kamikow, or two, Roger Sharp, because that is what they have been doing.
00:13:24
Speaker
They have been working in licenses their entire life.
00:13:27
Speaker
Well, and the other thing they teased too, I don't know if you read this, but Back to the Future, does that tickle your fancy?
00:13:34
Speaker
I put Back to the Future as the Matrix because there are a lot of movies that came out with multiple, multiple sequels.
00:13:47
Speaker
And when you look at it, the first movie was an all-in-one great show.
00:13:54
Speaker
And when you go back and look at Back to the Future 2, Back to the Future 3, Back to the Future 3 is completely forgettable.
00:14:03
Speaker
Back to the Future 2, it has the fun, hey, way into the future, which by the way is in the past
Pinball Machine Quality Concerns
00:14:10
Speaker
right now, but they have the hover bikes and all that kind of stuff.
00:14:14
Speaker
And so that was fun.
00:14:16
Speaker
But when you look back on it, it doesn't hold up.
00:14:18
Speaker
It feels like a Saturday Night Live skit.
00:14:21
Speaker
And so having a back to the future game that is just the original movie.
00:14:27
Speaker
Sure.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
That, that would be fun because that is iconic.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:31
Speaker
If you look at it, I feel the same way about the matrix.
00:14:34
Speaker
The other two matrix films are complete garbage.
00:14:38
Speaker
They have no soul.
00:14:39
Speaker
They just have a lot of special effects.
00:14:41
Speaker
And you're thinking, yeah, okay.
00:14:43
Speaker
It was fun to watch, but there's nothing really memorable about it.
00:14:45
Speaker
I'd probably add the last three Star Wars movies to that too.
00:14:48
Speaker
Sorry, Jeff Parsons.
00:14:51
Speaker
Last three?
00:14:51
Speaker
What about the last six?
00:14:53
Speaker
Come on.
00:14:53
Speaker
Okay, Rogue One was awesome.
00:14:56
Speaker
I will take Rogue One.
00:14:57
Speaker
All the last six canon movies.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:15:02
Speaker
You can shoot them out of a canon for all I care.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, the...
00:15:06
Speaker
But if you had a Back to the Future game, just one, then yes.
00:15:11
Speaker
And this is the same thing that Stern hit on with Jurassic Park.
00:15:15
Speaker
They didn't do Jurassic Park, World, Lost World, Jurassic, whatever, insert, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
00:15:24
Speaker
They said Jurassic Park.
00:15:25
Speaker
That's the game.
00:15:27
Speaker
So if you're going to do Back to the Future, do Back to the Future.
00:15:31
Speaker
Don't do Back to the Future 3 for miscellaneous whatever.
00:15:35
Speaker
So would you get it back to the future pinball machine or is it one of those that you'd have to see and play first?
00:15:42
Speaker
Well, if they focus the theme on just the original movie and it plays like a Jurassic Park.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, I'd do it because that's a fun.
00:15:56
Speaker
That's a fun touchstone from the.
00:15:57
Speaker
It really is.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:59
Speaker
And that is my childhood.
00:16:01
Speaker
Like it came up when I was like 10 or 11, 1985.
00:16:07
Speaker
So it was the summer before I turned 11.
00:16:10
Speaker
So that's that wheelhouse.
00:16:13
Speaker
So –
00:16:15
Speaker
What I would say is maybe, but it would have to be done right.
00:16:19
Speaker
I'm not going to buy it just on license.
00:16:21
Speaker
I'm not a fanboy like you are for Teenage Mutant Ninja.
00:16:25
Speaker
But here's the thing, though.
00:16:25
Speaker
Okay, so I've been debating this the last couple of days.
00:16:30
Speaker
I know you just talked about Jurassic Park.
00:16:32
Speaker
I just love what they're doing with the beta right now.
00:16:34
Speaker
I love the concept of you've got a game, you've got your full-blown plinball machine, but then you have the speed run that Keith's doing, and you can either save people or just beeline it for the helipad and get out of there.
00:16:46
Speaker
And it actually records the fastest time.
00:16:48
Speaker
I love these concepts, like God Mode, or Are You a God, on Ghostbusters.
00:16:53
Speaker
And so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because I grew up on Jurassic Park.
00:16:56
Speaker
I love Jurassic Park.
00:16:58
Speaker
But the fact that Ninja Turtles is coming out, it puts me in a spot where I'm like, I'll just wait.
00:17:03
Speaker
Because if Ninja Turtles is fantastic, then, you know, and I've kind of just come to the point where I'm like, I'll just buy them both.
00:17:11
Speaker
But I've got to figure out when I'm going to do that.
00:17:13
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah, I get it.
00:17:17
Speaker
But what it comes down to, I really do want a Jurassic Park.
00:17:20
Speaker
It's fantastic.
00:17:21
Speaker
And I think it's not just because of the theme, but it's what Keith has done with that game.
00:17:25
Speaker
It's just, it's fantastic.
00:17:27
Speaker
If you've not played a Jurassic Park, I don't know where you've been living.
00:17:30
Speaker
And if you've been under a rock, then it's time to get out.
00:17:33
Speaker
Come to TPF.
00:17:34
Speaker
We'll play it with you.
00:17:35
Speaker
It just, it looks so good.
00:17:38
Speaker
That premium is just fantastic.
00:17:40
Speaker
My only letdown of all of this is the quality of the build right now.
00:17:46
Speaker
I know people say it's just dimples, but I own a monster bash and I have like no dimples on it.
00:17:54
Speaker
And my attack for Mars does have dimples, but the ball gets a lot more airborne on that game.
00:17:59
Speaker
And I guess it goes to this point.
00:18:00
Speaker
I mean, stranger things, the ball gets airborne obviously all the time, but yeah,
00:18:07
Speaker
There's got to be a point where the play field has to become a little bit more dent proof.
00:18:12
Speaker
I don't know exactly the word we're going for here, but, and we'll talk about this later because other companies are doing this.
00:18:17
Speaker
And this, I think that's what makes this so much worse is because other companies are already doing what the community is asking Stern to do.
00:18:26
Speaker
Sorry.
00:18:26
Speaker
I didn't
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pop Culture
00:18:27
Speaker
mean, I didn't mean to go off on three tangents, but there's three.
00:18:29
Speaker
So, so Jurassic Park beta code or play field or whatever you want, go for it or Ninja Turtles.
00:18:35
Speaker
All right.
00:18:35
Speaker
So many, many, so many games, your, your love of Ninja Turtles.
00:18:39
Speaker
You wish you were the fifth Ninja Turtle and a dimpling.
00:18:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:44
Speaker
You know, I'll take the dimpling first.
00:18:45
Speaker
So the random car ride I had with Steve Ritchie, where we took him to get highlighters and booze.
00:18:53
Speaker
He actually said dimpling.
00:18:55
Speaker
He's like, look, they all dimple.
00:18:57
Speaker
They've always all dimpled.
00:18:58
Speaker
It'll all even out.
00:18:59
Speaker
It's not a big deal.
00:19:00
Speaker
And so,
00:19:01
Speaker
Okay, I'll take Steve Richie.
00:19:04
Speaker
And yes, we'll talk about the other pinball options.
00:19:08
Speaker
So I'm not really that worried about it.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, it does look a little concerning, but I'm going to trust the king on this one.
00:19:17
Speaker
So I'll let that go.
00:19:19
Speaker
Second thing, mini games.
00:19:22
Speaker
You have to have this.
00:19:23
Speaker
If you want to have...
00:19:26
Speaker
Speed running is a thing.
00:19:28
Speaker
And with all the games I grew up with, the Nintendo, the NES games, which are perfect for that, the speed run is the way most people are playing them now.
00:19:39
Speaker
They're not really playing them to complete everything.
00:19:42
Speaker
And so...
00:19:43
Speaker
In order to compete with modern interest, you're going to have to speedrun.
00:19:47
Speaker
And really, you're going to have to figure out ways to make it marketable.
00:19:53
Speaker
So being able to stream or to have a competition for a speedrun competition, there's a reason why in billiards, they do nine ball.
00:20:04
Speaker
They do Nineball because it's television friendly.
00:20:08
Speaker
There are so many other billiard games out there.
00:20:10
Speaker
But Nineball is the one that's television friendly.
00:20:12
Speaker
And so that's why they do it.
00:20:14
Speaker
So finding out a way of doing a speed run, you're going to have to do that.
00:20:19
Speaker
The last one, what was the third one?
00:20:22
Speaker
Ninja Turtles.
00:20:22
Speaker
Oh, your love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yes.
00:20:25
Speaker
I'm going to get you a burgundy bandana.
00:20:30
Speaker
and a loincloth so you can dress up like the fifth ninja so can we talk about ninja turtles just for for five seconds i know people hear me every episode but i've got to say this so last episode martin and i were talking about it and he's like you're the only one in this room that can be disappointed about this i get that i want everyone out there to understand if you're not a ninja turtle fan the teenage mutant ninja turtles have went through so many iterations over the last 30 plus years and
00:20:55
Speaker
That it's okay if Stern doesn't hit the mark.
00:20:58
Speaker
Because there's been so many terrible things to come out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle universe.
00:21:04
Speaker
That I'm just excited that Zombie Yeti is doing the artwork.
00:21:08
Speaker
Like, I know that the artwork is going to be fantastic.
00:21:11
Speaker
So, I don't think you can make it any worse than the Michael Bay movies.
00:21:16
Speaker
Like, I don't know.
00:21:19
Speaker
I'm not too worried about disappointment on this one.
00:21:22
Speaker
Where, like, the Star Wars fans...
00:21:24
Speaker
They really love the original trilogy, and you can't blame them because it's a really good trilogy.
00:21:29
Speaker
But if you don't meet that standard, it kind of lets that fan down.
00:21:34
Speaker
Where me, I've seen Ninja Turtles that are four foot tall.
00:21:38
Speaker
I've seen Ninja Turtles that are nine foot tall that can throw down with the Hulk, which makes no sense if you're going to be small and silent and deadly.
00:21:46
Speaker
But anyways, you've got...
00:21:49
Speaker
I mean, I mean, the fifth Ninja Turtle, I know we're joking about the fifth Ninja Turtle.
00:21:55
Speaker
There's actually two of them.
00:21:56
Speaker
The first one's name was Venus de Milo.
00:21:58
Speaker
She was so terrible that it broke up the two creators of the Ninja Turtles.
00:22:04
Speaker
Like you can't make a pinball machine so bad that it forces the two Ninja Turtle creators to go away from each other.
00:22:11
Speaker
I just, there's just so much.
00:22:13
Speaker
That's why I'm saying like, it's such a interesting, if you really dig into the history of Ninja Turtles, there's a lot of really, really low points.
00:22:22
Speaker
So I'm not too worried when it comes to a pinball machine.
00:22:26
Speaker
And I get there's other diehards out there, but someone that says that they love everything of Ninja Turtles is,
00:22:33
Speaker
Like, congratulations.
00:22:34
Speaker
That's very awesome of you.
00:22:35
Speaker
But I think it's very Star Wars-esque in the fact that there's a lot of good and a lot of bad.
00:22:41
Speaker
And if you want to enjoy the Star Wars universe, you've got to go and take a grain of salt with some of it.
00:22:47
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker
So actually, I equate the Venus de Milo experiment with a little bit like Smurfette in the Smurfs.
00:22:58
Speaker
Okay, yeah.
00:22:59
Speaker
No, I'm serious.
00:23:00
Speaker
I still remember the episode when Gargamel made Smurfette as a...
00:23:05
Speaker
As she was supposed to be a plant to take down the Smurfs.
00:23:09
Speaker
And I still never figured out why he wanted to eat them.
00:23:12
Speaker
Or was it magical powers?
00:23:14
Speaker
I don't even understand.
00:23:15
Speaker
The Smurf berries, all the cartoons in the 80s where everybody got magical powers by eating some magical weird thing.
00:23:24
Speaker
And then at the same time on all the –
00:23:27
Speaker
uh, games out there in the eighties that said winners don't use drugs.
00:23:30
Speaker
So anyway, I thought that was interesting.
00:23:32
Speaker
Uh, but so yes, obviously the Venus de Milo experiment didn't work for the terminal turtles, but Smurf that did work for the Smurfs.
00:23:40
Speaker
So like, I don't fault him for that, but yeah, I actually do love that.
00:23:44
Speaker
They, uh, it's, it's, uh, as Josh referenced, if you haven't seen, uh, the games who made us or whatever on Netflix, yes.
00:23:54
Speaker
There you go.
00:23:55
Speaker
The toys that made us.
00:23:56
Speaker
It actually talked about the whole evolution of that, where that broke up.
00:23:59
Speaker
So one guy took off.
00:24:01
Speaker
The other guy bought him out and then ended up selling that to Nickelodeon for $60 million.
00:24:06
Speaker
It was $80 million.
00:24:10
Speaker
Okay, $80 million.
00:24:11
Speaker
But then Nickelodeon went and made like $460 million on this franchise that I thought was dead and gone forever.
00:24:19
Speaker
It would be the same as them reinventing Voltron or reinventing Power Rangers and still being able to make money off it.
00:24:26
Speaker
It's shocking to me the longevity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:24:32
Speaker
It's really, really impressive.
00:24:33
Speaker
And there is a new fifth Ninja Turtle.
00:24:36
Speaker
But you got to read the comics.
00:24:38
Speaker
It's fantastic.
00:24:39
Speaker
She's done right.
00:24:40
Speaker
Venus de Milo was not.
00:24:43
Speaker
And yeah.
00:24:44
Speaker
Who's the new girl?
00:24:45
Speaker
Her name is Jenica.
00:24:48
Speaker
And she, to boil it down, to make a long story short, she was dying and one of the turtles gave her a blood transfusion to save her and it mutated her into a turtle.
00:24:59
Speaker
So was she like a pocket box turtle?
00:25:01
Speaker
No, she was.
00:25:02
Speaker
Like what kind of turtle was she?
00:25:04
Speaker
Was she a sea turtle?
00:25:05
Speaker
No, she's the same as the ninja turtles.
00:25:08
Speaker
Okay, but they were like normal turtles that mutated into humanoid form.
00:25:13
Speaker
So she was humanoid without being mutated?
00:25:15
Speaker
Yes, so she was a human who got a blood transfusion who then turned turtle.
00:25:20
Speaker
Oh.
00:25:21
Speaker
So she was an assassin that worked with the turtles.
00:25:26
Speaker
It's very complex.
00:25:27
Speaker
It's very interesting.
00:25:28
Speaker
I don't know.
00:25:29
Speaker
Read the comic books.
00:25:29
Speaker
They're totally worth it.
00:25:31
Speaker
That sounds good.
00:25:33
Speaker
completely ridiculously stupid like all of the storyline which is why it probably fits this is the only problem i have i don't know if you've followed a lot of the origin stories but the ninja turtles no always had their origin intertwined with the foot clan it's like
00:25:48
Speaker
It's just it's the same like Superman always came from Krypton.
00:25:51
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:25:51
Speaker
Like you just don't mess with that.
00:25:54
Speaker
And for some odd reason in the Michael Bay movies, like they just happen to mutate from some science experiment.
00:26:00
Speaker
And when they were in the sewers, a book of martial arts fell through the grate and they decided, hey, let's just learn martial arts one day.
00:26:10
Speaker
That totally makes sense.
00:26:12
Speaker
It was really lame.
00:26:13
Speaker
Anywho, you've heard enough of my Ninja Turtles.
00:26:16
Speaker
We're moving on.
00:26:17
Speaker
Seriously, you are like King Fanboy on this one.
00:26:20
Speaker
Well, I, I, dude, I'm a product.
00:26:23
Speaker
I might've been born in 87, but I love the eighties.
00:26:26
Speaker
I I've read Batman, Superman, Deadpool, like, and granted Deadpool didn't come out until 1991, but Hey, I read a lot of the comic books, a lot of the cartoons.
00:26:38
Speaker
I'm just, I'm just a fan.
00:26:39
Speaker
Okay, so speaking of Deadpool, there was an ad that popped up on my Facebook feed that I really wanted to buy.
00:26:46
Speaker
It was a t-shirt that had Little
New Pinball Machines and Industry Innovations
00:26:47
Speaker
Deadpool, and it just had an I'm with Stupid arrow, and it pointed to you.
00:26:52
Speaker
Oh, nice.
00:26:52
Speaker
Like yourself, which I was like, that's perfect.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:55
Speaker
Did you see someone's little Deadpool head popped off the spring and went down into the drain hole during a game?
00:27:01
Speaker
No.
00:27:03
Speaker
That's kind of funny, actually.
00:27:05
Speaker
Anywho.
00:27:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:07
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:08
Speaker
All right.
00:27:08
Speaker
So let's talk about some of the news this week, and then I want to reverse back to two weeks ago.
00:27:15
Speaker
You'll rewind.
00:27:16
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:17
Speaker
So first off, Spooky just showed 15 minutes of gameplay of Rick and Morty, and this game looks fantastic.
00:27:24
Speaker
This is arguably... Oh, this is now the Simpsons of our time.
00:27:29
Speaker
It's got the voices.
00:27:30
Speaker
It's got the gameplay.
00:27:32
Speaker
It looks like fun.
00:27:33
Speaker
It looks brutal.
00:27:34
Speaker
The center kick-out hole spits it out so fast, it's ridiculous.
00:27:40
Speaker
I love...
00:27:41
Speaker
that they've done this.
00:27:43
Speaker
And I didn't buy one myself.
00:27:45
Speaker
I know plenty of people that have.
00:27:47
Speaker
I can't wait for them to get in their collections and get my hands on it because it just looks so fun to play.
00:27:52
Speaker
Brilliant move by Spooky.
00:27:54
Speaker
And the topper, absolutely fantastic.
00:27:57
Speaker
it's a couple of pieces of plastic and a motor, but it fits the theme so well.
00:28:00
Speaker
And it came for free for supporting them.
00:28:02
Speaker
Like you don't see any other companies out there doing that.
00:28:05
Speaker
Just like, good job, Spooky.
00:28:06
Speaker
You guys are doing fantastic.
00:28:07
Speaker
Like Charlie, Scott, we need to have you on and talk to you guys.
00:28:11
Speaker
Cause yeah, we just, we love what you're doing.
00:28:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:14
Speaker
It, it looks, it looks fun.
00:28:16
Speaker
Uh, it's not, I I've talked about this before.
00:28:19
Speaker
It's not for me, which I actually say is a plus because most pinball is actually geared toward me, my demographic.
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:26
Speaker
So I'm glad they're branching out.
00:28:28
Speaker
I'm glad they're looking at different things.
00:28:30
Speaker
I certainly want to play it.
00:28:32
Speaker
I still am of the mentality that before you buy a game, you have to play it because there are some fantastic games that just won't push your buttons.
00:28:43
Speaker
So it does look like a lot of fun.
00:28:45
Speaker
It certainly looks different.
00:28:47
Speaker
If you're looking for something different than what Stern, the Stern...
00:28:53
Speaker
Well, it sounds a little dismissive, but the Stern game plan and their play fields feel like a Stern play field, if you know what I mean.
00:29:05
Speaker
So if you're looking for alternative, it is a great alternative.
00:29:09
Speaker
It's this one's not for me, but I I'm with you.
00:29:12
Speaker
I want to I want to play someone's I we have a friend who has TNA and I love it.
00:29:17
Speaker
I think it's fun and I wouldn't mind having one of those at some point.
00:29:21
Speaker
This one, however, with especially with the adult mode, there's zero chance that will make it to my house.
00:29:25
Speaker
Well, you can turn off adult mode, but yeah, it'll just be solid.
00:29:30
Speaker
Exactly.
00:29:31
Speaker
But it looks great.
00:29:32
Speaker
If you haven't checked out the footage, go hit up Spooky's Facebook page.
00:29:35
Speaker
It's it's great.
00:29:38
Speaker
It certainly looks like a great game for this generation.
00:29:41
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:29:42
Speaker
I agree.
00:29:43
Speaker
Alrighty, let's also talk about Haggis Pinball.
00:29:47
Speaker
We got a message probably about an hour or two before we started recording.
00:29:51
Speaker
And Damien was nice enough to say, hey, you need to check out my video.
00:29:55
Speaker
And so I thought he was joking because he said that he sent us a video of them hitting a play field with a sledgehammer.
00:30:03
Speaker
And I'm like, haha, yeah, like you're doing the deep root thing.
00:30:06
Speaker
Like, I thought he was joking.
00:30:07
Speaker
He's like, no, seriously, go watch the video.
00:30:10
Speaker
Did you did you see this?
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's impressive.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:19
Speaker
So, okay, well, okay.
00:30:21
Speaker
This is, I'm always, I am not an early adopter for technology.
00:30:26
Speaker
So when things come out and they have done something different than what has previously done for the past 70 years, then I'm immediately skeptical because what I'm saying is that, okay,
00:30:43
Speaker
Don't you think that Stern has tried polycarbonate play fields?
00:30:48
Speaker
Or they've tried a different material, but for some reason, because that's what this is.
00:30:55
Speaker
It's a laminate with the screen printing on it with a laminate on top of it.
00:31:01
Speaker
So it's this plastic sandwich that they have.
00:31:05
Speaker
And I'm all for innovation and trying different things.
00:31:09
Speaker
I do have to beg the question, why has no one else done this?
00:31:13
Speaker
And does it affect the way the ball rolls?
00:31:15
Speaker
Because a ball on a playfield, it doesn't just roll.
00:31:21
Speaker
It also spins.
00:31:23
Speaker
It has different trajectories.
00:31:24
Speaker
And so that's why when you play games sometimes with a playfield protector that has like laminate on it or something, it feels differently.
00:31:34
Speaker
And really, if you look at the way TNA plays, the ball does feel like it rolls differently than other playfields.
00:31:41
Speaker
Possibly.
00:31:42
Speaker
And whether or not that's a good thing or bad thing, but you need to look at that and say, okay, great.
00:31:48
Speaker
But is it still as fun as your standard?
00:31:51
Speaker
Is there something that's going to make it different?
00:31:54
Speaker
So that's why I'm impressed because obviously people want a bulletproof play field.
00:32:02
Speaker
I also wonder about maintenance.
00:32:04
Speaker
I wonder about if it plays the same.
00:32:05
Speaker
I wonder about why other people haven't done it.
00:32:08
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:32:09
Speaker
What are your thoughts?
00:32:10
Speaker
So my thoughts are, I think the reason Stern's getting so much slack is we're seeing more and more people come out of the woodwork, pun intended, like Spooky.
00:32:21
Speaker
After the dimpling stuff all came out, you know, you got Spooky over in the corner like, woohoo, look at us.
00:32:25
Speaker
Like, our play fields don't do that.
00:32:28
Speaker
I mean, granted, Spooky does have different issues, but
00:32:31
Speaker
But their playfields don't do that.
00:32:33
Speaker
And then Deep Root's been saying for years now, we're still going to, well, we'll see here next month if their playfields really do hold up.
00:32:41
Speaker
And we don't know what they're going to be using as their playfield.
00:32:44
Speaker
But if theirs holds true, there's another company.
00:32:46
Speaker
And then you've got Haggis Pinball.
00:32:48
Speaker
who just on video showed us you could take the ball and drop it from like three feet off the play field.
00:32:56
Speaker
They took three different hammers and then a freaking sludge hammer to the thing.
00:33:01
Speaker
And granted, it wasn't a full swing, but it still...
00:33:04
Speaker
You're taking it.
00:33:06
Speaker
It's a sledgehammer.
00:33:07
Speaker
So I think it begs the question, because I know what Spooky is doing.
00:33:11
Speaker
What Spooky is doing is different than what Haggis is doing.
00:33:15
Speaker
And so I know there's been a certain way that it's been done over the years.
00:33:21
Speaker
But what's the old adage?
00:33:22
Speaker
There's more than one way to skin a cat.
00:33:24
Speaker
Why can't we invest in some different technology and see what's going on?
00:33:28
Speaker
And I think that's the only reason it could just be me that Stern and JJP is cutting slack because either bring it in house and figure it out or stop raising prices.
00:33:38
Speaker
I mean, stranger things just went up another 200 bucks from, from Jurassic park.
00:33:46
Speaker
And we're having these issues.
00:33:47
Speaker
And so I think that's why people are getting concerned about,
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
Hey, I am hope to mystic.
00:33:52
Speaker
Agreed.
00:33:53
Speaker
And so, yeah, the way the way I look at it is like, I'm not pessimistic.
00:33:58
Speaker
I'm not optimistic.
00:34:00
Speaker
I'm hope to mystic in that.
00:34:01
Speaker
I hope it's a better way and they've solved the problems.
00:34:06
Speaker
I am a little bit, I am hedging my bet a little bit just because when I play TNA, I feel that it, it wrote the ball rolls differently.
00:34:15
Speaker
It does.
00:34:16
Speaker
It feels different.
00:34:17
Speaker
And so is it going to provide the same pinball wow factor?
00:34:21
Speaker
Well, and I think the other point to what you had said though, the play fields being built the same for the last however many years they haven't though.
00:34:29
Speaker
Like if you look at a seventies play field, um,
00:34:33
Speaker
The paint's pretty much gone on any that have not been cleared.
00:34:36
Speaker
And then you look at 80s playfield, they were a little bit more roughed up, but it wasn't until Diamond Plate was then brought along.
00:34:45
Speaker
And Diamond Plate gave us a whole different thing.
00:34:47
Speaker
And then Stern 2000 series, we see an evolution and Mylar plays into that.
00:34:56
Speaker
And so I think that...
00:34:58
Speaker
No two games play alike when it does come to play fields because of that reason over the generations.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm grateful that the games I have are not roached.
00:35:11
Speaker
The play fields all look great, the ones that I bought.
00:35:14
Speaker
But I've also not bought any games that have been thrashed.
00:35:18
Speaker
So the oldest game I have in my basement right now is Black Rose.
00:35:23
Speaker
And that is a, you know, it's an early 90s game, but it still doesn't have paint that's gone.
00:35:31
Speaker
So, yeah, I guess that I'm...
00:35:35
Speaker
I I'm more welcoming of an evolution as opposed to a revolution just because, you know, it's okay.
00:35:41
Speaker
My friend has, I'll use the car example.
00:35:44
Speaker
My friend has a Tesla and by the way, that is a fun car to drive.
00:35:48
Speaker
It's a model three and it has the performance package and it's like, you're driving a roller coaster.
00:35:53
Speaker
You hit the gas and it's hitting warp speed on the millennium Falcon.
00:35:58
Speaker
It goes so fast.
00:36:00
Speaker
I also didn't buy one, even though it's, you know, it's still expensive.
00:36:05
Speaker
I know that, but I also looked at it and I was like, okay, so what's the maintenance on it?
00:36:10
Speaker
And do you have to ship it away to get it fixed?
00:36:12
Speaker
And so there's a, you know, there's like an Audi dealership that's right down the street from me.
00:36:18
Speaker
And I'd be like, I don't know, like, and I know Audi has their problems too, but I'm saying that there's a car, there's a dealer there that's been building cars for a long time.
00:36:27
Speaker
And so,
00:36:29
Speaker
Maybe their version of the electric car may be something I'd be more interested in.
00:36:33
Speaker
I'm not interested in a car for another 10 years or so.
00:36:36
Speaker
But do you see where I'm getting at?
00:36:39
Speaker
Is that an established brand doing something different?
00:36:43
Speaker
Now, usually I totally admit that it usually takes like a Tesla type car.
00:36:50
Speaker
A manufacturer that comes along and has a completely different approach to rock the industry to do something.
00:36:57
Speaker
And perhaps that's what spooky is.
00:36:59
Speaker
That's what Haggis is.
00:37:00
Speaker
That's what JJP was.
00:37:02
Speaker
JJP was the spark that pushed Stern into their game.
00:37:07
Speaker
So maybe this is something that will be a revolution in play fields.
00:37:12
Speaker
Well, and I encourage those that are going to Texas Pinball Festival, Damien will be there and he's going to have a kilts there.
00:37:20
Speaker
Play the game, like put your own opinion on it.
00:37:22
Speaker
And here's the cool part.
00:37:24
Speaker
This game, U.S. dollars is $5,250.
00:37:31
Speaker
That is amazing.
00:37:32
Speaker
So hopefully he brings some games with him over from Australia with like some extras because these games are really cool.
00:37:39
Speaker
And the customization on this is a cool idea too.
00:37:41
Speaker
Like you can have your name put in the game.
00:37:43
Speaker
You have trim different colors.
00:37:45
Speaker
There's like a toy add on and obviously you're going to have a price go up and whatnot.
00:37:49
Speaker
But this is a man that 18 months ago, I don't know.
00:37:54
Speaker
Had he taken off a glass to a pinball machine ever in his life.
00:37:58
Speaker
And now he's building them and showing him what, what we can, what he can do.
00:38:04
Speaker
So reserve your opinion for Haggis until you get to TPF and get your hands on it.
00:38:08
Speaker
And then I want to, I want to everyone to leave us like a memo on what their thoughts were.
00:38:12
Speaker
Cause I really think this is a passion project gentleman that could really do some cool stuff in the hobby if he supported.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, this could be a spooky 2.
00:38:26
Speaker
It really could be.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I'm looking forward to playing it because I'd be interested to see just how the gameplay feels.
00:38:34
Speaker
I agree.
00:38:36
Speaker
Speaking of Texas Pinball Festival, Scott, you are officially confirmed for the Deadpool party.
00:38:42
Speaker
Golly.
00:38:45
Speaker
The Deep Root party.
00:38:47
Speaker
And you're on the party bus.
00:38:49
Speaker
I am on the party bus.
00:38:52
Speaker
Okay, I'll put it this way.
00:38:55
Speaker
Do you remember when my big fat Greek wedding came out?
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:38:59
Speaker
And when like, I have no idea what her name is and I'm sorry, but she's the one who wrote it and she was the star and all that kind of stuff.
00:39:06
Speaker
And she says, I feel like the, like the new kid who's like going to all these cool parties and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do.
00:39:16
Speaker
I feel like we're the, like we're the new podcaster team.
00:39:20
Speaker
out there.
00:39:20
Speaker
I still feel like we're part of the new clan.
00:39:23
Speaker
And I'm like, I don't know.
00:39:26
Speaker
Are we established?
00:39:28
Speaker
What do I do going to these people like, hey, how you doing, man?
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's me.
00:39:34
Speaker
Okay, I'll just go over and hang out in the corner.
00:39:36
Speaker
I don't even know what to say.
00:39:38
Speaker
The fact that we were allowed to go to the Deep Root reveal, I'm really excited about and
00:39:46
Speaker
I will I'll tell you that Robert Mueller put up his own money to do this.
00:39:51
Speaker
He's hosting this big party for the media who got credentials.
00:39:56
Speaker
They're paying for a hotel.
00:39:57
Speaker
So he is doing a lot of stuff that is, again, still impressive for someone who's trying to launch his own company.
00:40:04
Speaker
I agree.
00:40:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:06
Speaker
And then afterwards, they even threw out there that, hey, we've got a bus that's going to be going from San Antonio to Frisco.
00:40:14
Speaker
If you want to ride, let us know.
00:40:16
Speaker
We have a few spaces.
00:40:17
Speaker
And so I got one of those spaces.
00:40:19
Speaker
So this will be really interesting.
00:40:21
Speaker
This will be an eye-opening experience.
00:40:23
Speaker
It's going to be awesome, dude.
00:40:27
Speaker
I'm excited to go and tour the factory, get my hands on games, talk to everybody.
00:40:32
Speaker
Talk to Dennis.
00:40:33
Speaker
Talk to Steve.
00:40:34
Speaker
Talk to Barry.
00:40:36
Speaker
Everybody who's going to be involved because these are all legends in the industry, and we have a whole day just with them.
00:40:43
Speaker
Well, that's what I think is cool, too, is they said right in our letter that it's not just Raza.
00:40:47
Speaker
There will be games with an S there to play.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:52
Speaker
So... Hey, he's going big.
00:40:55
Speaker
And so I... Okay, I... You know what?
00:40:58
Speaker
He's gotten a lot of criticism.
00:40:59
Speaker
And I would say justifiably so for some of the claims.
00:41:04
Speaker
But I'm really curious to see what they're going to come up with for this reveal.
00:41:09
Speaker
I'm really excited for it.
00:41:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:41:11
Speaker
So you talked about us still being the new kid on the block.
00:41:13
Speaker
But we've got to talk about... We talked about him two episodes ago.
00:41:17
Speaker
Macho Pinball.
00:41:18
Speaker
This dude is...
00:41:21
Speaker
Okay, I want to play pinball with Macho Pinball at Texas Pinball Fest.
00:41:26
Speaker
You know, you don't even have to tell me who you are.
00:41:28
Speaker
You can come in a Randy Savage mask and tassels and your Slim Jims, but we will play dollar games at some point.
00:41:36
Speaker
So I'm throwing it down there right now.
00:41:39
Speaker
Macho, you pick the game and we will take you.
00:41:41
Speaker
I agree.
00:41:42
Speaker
But Macho Pinball, if you are listening, I'm going to put out a challenge to you right now.
00:41:48
Speaker
If you, sir, are the real Macho Man Randy Savage.
00:41:52
Speaker
Why, by the way, he isn't because that man died back in 2011.
00:41:58
Speaker
But if you were the real Macho Man Randy Savage, the real Macho Man Randy Savage produced a rap album, you better rap as Macho Man Randy Savage.
00:42:10
Speaker
I got to hear this.
00:42:12
Speaker
Wait, wait, are you serious?
00:42:14
Speaker
I'm dead serious.
00:42:14
Speaker
He did a rap album.
00:42:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:16
Speaker
You can go on YouTube.
00:42:17
Speaker
Macho man, Randy Savage produced a rap album back in like 2003, if I remember correctly.
00:42:23
Speaker
Oh, so this was even like after.
00:42:25
Speaker
So in the eighties, it was like a big thing for like movie stars who wanted to be like music stars and music stars who wanted to be movie stars.
00:42:34
Speaker
So I bet you don't know this, but Eddie Murphy has a singing album out there and it's not a joke.
00:42:40
Speaker
He does.
00:42:42
Speaker
It's a song.
00:42:43
Speaker
The funny thing is you've probably heard the song.
00:42:45
Speaker
It's like, my girl wants to party all the time, party all the time.
00:42:49
Speaker
And it's him singing.
00:42:50
Speaker
So it's, yeah.
00:42:52
Speaker
And Don Johnson had an album and he sang with like,
00:42:56
Speaker
I think he sang with Barbra Streisand.
00:42:58
Speaker
Seriously, Don Johnson, dude from Die Hard.
00:43:01
Speaker
Bruce Willis had like all these random celebrities that made albums.
00:43:05
Speaker
So I thought you were going to say Macho made an album in the 80s.
00:43:07
Speaker
No, he made it in the 2000s.
00:43:10
Speaker
He actually made he made one.
00:43:12
Speaker
And then another one was released after his death.
00:43:15
Speaker
And I think it might have been like his estate took songs that he wrote afterwards and stuck him in.
00:43:20
Speaker
But seriously, it's like Macho Man Unchained or something like that.
00:43:25
Speaker
And it's pretty interesting.
00:43:28
Speaker
Is it like the Twisted Sister Christmas album?
00:43:31
Speaker
No, you've just got to go listen to it.
00:43:35
Speaker
Okay, it's an experience.
00:43:36
Speaker
It's a challenge.
00:43:37
Speaker
I got about two songs in.
00:43:38
Speaker
I was like, okay, I think I get the idea of the CD.
00:43:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:43:43
Speaker
That's usually how it goes.
00:43:43
Speaker
You're like, yeah.
00:43:45
Speaker
And Shaq did his rap album, too.
00:43:47
Speaker
And I've got to say, I really do appreciate Macho Man, episode number four.
00:43:52
Speaker
If you listen to our Lauren Gray episode, he pretty much took everything we said and put it in his episode number four.
00:43:58
Speaker
His breakfast shake, that was Scott.
00:44:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:03
Speaker
trademark yeah trademark yeah yeah hey you know what that's all you that's all you macho you make it your own seriously macho like you gotta tell us who you are and we gotta send you a hat you know no you know it's even okay yeah we can send you a hat but i you know i don't even want to know who you are because it's better not knowing but i want one of those sweet sweet pink t-shirts like come on dude yeah
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's fine.
00:44:27
Speaker
Like we can, yeah, we'll send you a hat and you can do a macho man thing.
00:44:31
Speaker
By the way, I have been wearing the beanie hat for the last week.
00:44:35
Speaker
Is it a thin warm?
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:44:40
Speaker
I am a frigid
Pinball Community Controversies and Debates
00:44:41
Speaker
guy.
00:44:41
Speaker
And so this keeps my cranium...
00:44:44
Speaker
toasty cozy so it's awesome well what's even funny is martin from head to head will formerly head to head uh he posted a picture him car shopping he had our hat on and then keith elwin said dude your hat's so 2019 and he had our new new beanie on and i was i was dying yeah so yeah yeah i felt a little bit like wayne's world but we're not worthy yeah
00:45:06
Speaker
Yeah, Keith, we're not worthy.
00:45:07
Speaker
But speaking of, we got to have him back on soon.
00:45:10
Speaker
Yeah, love to.
00:45:13
Speaker
Let's talk.
00:45:14
Speaker
I want to rewind two weeks.
00:45:15
Speaker
So you were in Guatemala, head-to-head, called it quits.
00:45:20
Speaker
Then this Zach and Dennis aside, they're walking away from this weekend pinball.
00:45:25
Speaker
And then special one lit said, Hey, we're hanging up the reins as well.
00:45:29
Speaker
And I think by the end of Monday night, people was already like kind of hadn't figured out.
00:45:36
Speaker
And it was, it was what it was.
00:45:39
Speaker
And you were kind of hearing some of this on Guatemala, right?
00:45:42
Speaker
But I want to recap what I was going through at that moment.
00:45:46
Speaker
So Monday, I didn't have a clue what was going on.
00:45:50
Speaker
I didn't know this was a thing.
00:45:52
Speaker
Someone sent me the video about the pinball network, which we put on our Facebook page.
00:45:56
Speaker
And at first, I'm not going to lie, I was a little upset.
00:46:00
Speaker
And the reason being is I consider myself good friends with a lot of these guys.
00:46:05
Speaker
And so I was kind of like, why didn't we get invited?
00:46:09
Speaker
I didn't understand the concepts and whatnot.
00:46:12
Speaker
And by Tuesday morning, I was over it.
00:46:14
Speaker
It wasn't a big deal.
00:46:15
Speaker
And then we had Martin on.
00:46:18
Speaker
And Martin kind of told me, hey, what I'm doing is Jeff and Teal and I are doing a show.
00:46:24
Speaker
That's all I know.
00:46:26
Speaker
So I was like, cool, not a big deal.
00:46:27
Speaker
And then he told me, but they are going to be telling everyone here on Wednesday.
00:46:31
Speaker
And so...
00:46:33
Speaker
I'm going to take it from there.
00:46:34
Speaker
I've written down my thoughts from Wednesday on.
00:46:38
Speaker
And then I guess you're going to give your perspective being an outside person, right, Scott?
00:46:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:43
Speaker
So I wrote down my thoughts.
00:46:45
Speaker
Granted, this was almost two weeks ago.
00:46:49
Speaker
So if it sounds very past tense that I'm reading, it's because I am reading and it is past tense.
00:46:55
Speaker
So here we go.
00:46:56
Speaker
I'm going to give outsiders looking in perspective.
00:47:00
Speaker
Scott and I were not made aware of the Pinball Network, and we weren't 100% for sure it was a real thing until the announcement on Wednesday the 22nd.
00:47:08
Speaker
It was fairly clear what was happening between the multiple podcasts quitting and then the teaser trailer that was posted on NAP Arcade a week before the podcast started calling it quits.
00:47:17
Speaker
So let's rewind to Wednesday afternoon when the official trailer was dropped.
00:47:21
Speaker
My initial reaction was cool.
00:47:23
Speaker
This is a way for some prominent personalities in pinball to give more content without...
00:47:28
Speaker
with causing less burnout.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yes, there will be more content, but between six hosts for one show, it should be easier to make schedules work.
00:47:35
Speaker
Even Martin, who went from a weekly show, now will do a bi-monthly show, which definitely helps with counteracting burnout.
00:47:43
Speaker
So the trailer drops, right?
00:47:44
Speaker
And within an hour or so, Dead Flip streaming posts that no girls allowed picture.
00:47:49
Speaker
I'm pretty for sure you've all seen it.
00:47:51
Speaker
If not, I know Dead Flip still has it up on his page.
00:47:55
Speaker
which who could deny, really, seriously.
00:47:57
Speaker
Looking on the surface of the trailer, it's a bunch of white dudes coming together to create content.
00:48:01
Speaker
But when I saw the trailer, I didn't see that.
00:48:03
Speaker
And maybe it's because I'm not a woman.
00:48:05
Speaker
I don't know.
00:48:06
Speaker
I have diversity in my family, but I didn't take offense to the fact that nobody in the pinball network isn't a representative of my specific background.
00:48:14
Speaker
But when I look at the gentlemen in the video, I saw the content of their character that I've known for the last...
00:48:20
Speaker
year or two?
00:48:22
Speaker
Dennis Creasel has stood up multiple times for women's rights in the pinball hobby and has thrown support behind multiple females in the hobby.
00:48:28
Speaker
Zach Many has talked very positive about women's rights when issues have come up within the hobby and has had female members of the community on the TWIT podcast.
00:48:37
Speaker
Greg Bones speaks very highly of women in the hobby and has even publicly talked about his daughters and his family and how he is teaching them to be empowered as young women.
00:48:45
Speaker
Jeff Teolis has had more female community members on his show, Pinball Profile, than probably all the male-driven podcasts and streamers put together.
00:48:54
Speaker
Jeff has been very open about talking about the Women's Advisory Board for EIFPA and how it is making positive strides in the hobby for women.
00:49:03
Speaker
Those are just some of the reasons that played out in my mind as things unfolded over the next 24 hours after the reveal.
00:49:09
Speaker
And let's not sugarcoat this either.
00:49:11
Speaker
This post came out and it was like someone had poured gasoline on the pinball portion of the internet and lit it on fire.
00:49:18
Speaker
I stepped back publicly in that moment because I considered everyone from the pinball network and Jack Danger to be either friends of mine or at very, very least good acquaintances.
00:49:28
Speaker
I could see the issue from what I felt like was every angle at that point.
00:49:31
Speaker
And with me, I never comment on one of those threads.
00:49:34
Speaker
There was multiple reasons that I didn't post on it, but I feel like people don't talk with each other, they talk at each other.
00:49:41
Speaker
And that's typically what happens on these threads.
00:49:44
Speaker
So depending on how the reader reads the comments determines on how the conversation would go.
00:49:48
Speaker
And a lot of these times in these comment thread situations, people end up explaining what their comments mean more than actually discussing the issue at hand.
00:49:56
Speaker
One of the main factors of what played into this whole situation for me was what had been happening publicly leading up to this reveal.
00:50:03
Speaker
I don't know if you'd notice it, but there was been an interesting amount of tension between Jack Danger and certain people of the pinball network.
00:50:10
Speaker
You can go back, you can read these posts on Facebook as long as they haven't been taken down or modified.
00:50:15
Speaker
But between both Jack and Zach being called trolls, Zach being called a racist, the drama of the Twippy Awards, and the exploitation of their qualifications of their specific categories, it felt like it was just another attempt at another fight.
00:50:30
Speaker
Again, this is, from my point of view, of my perspective.
00:50:33
Speaker
Others gave their perspective, and it seemed like some were genuine in their concern, while others just wanted to add fuel to the fire that was at a roar at this point.
00:50:42
Speaker
But by Thursday afternoon, Crystal Gimmick announced her joining the Pinball Network, which, by the way, I felt bad because right out of the gate, her post looked like she was already defending her decision to join, and the fire was put out.
00:50:55
Speaker
But this is what upsets me the most.
00:50:57
Speaker
Most everyone that demanded equality didn't give an apology.
00:51:00
Speaker
Heck, most didn't even give an acknowledgement that the diversity people were demanding had actually happened.
00:51:07
Speaker
But I take two things away from this, and again, this is all my perspective.
00:51:12
Speaker
First, between the arguments leading up to this and the argument itself, I feel like sides are being made and lines are being drawn.
00:51:20
Speaker
which I do not like at all.
00:51:22
Speaker
Pinball is a hobby about bringing people together and dropping the social diversity lines that have been made.
00:51:27
Speaker
So for the, I'm almost done.
00:51:28
Speaker
I'm almost done.
00:51:30
Speaker
So for this to happen felt like it literally split the hobby into two pieces for me.
00:51:34
Speaker
We need to figure out how to talk about these issues without what people have dubs as mudslinging.
00:51:41
Speaker
Second, the hobby is full of personalities and egos.
00:51:44
Speaker
What you see in the hobby doesn't necessarily reflect the person that goes home to their family at the end of the day.
00:51:50
Speaker
We as a hobby need to respect that.
00:51:52
Speaker
So don't bring people's families into the fight.
00:51:55
Speaker
I saw this going on in the comment thread and it really, really bothered me.
00:51:59
Speaker
Maybe it's because I'm a father and I have a wife that I very much love and respect.
00:52:04
Speaker
But please leave people's personal lives out of this.
00:52:07
Speaker
I appreciate open discussion in the hobby about these issues and encourage people to have a respectful conversation when it comes to these issues.
00:52:15
Speaker
For me personally, I'm not a woman if you couldn't tell, but I respect those in the hobby who are.
00:52:20
Speaker
I want for women in the hobby, what I would want for my wife or my daughter, a place where they are respected and feel safe.
00:52:28
Speaker
It's good.
00:52:29
Speaker
It's, it's your raw emotion that happened and you,
00:52:34
Speaker
Really, you were texting me about it and said, well, check this out.
00:52:37
Speaker
And I was very busy at the time, so I didn't have time to really get into it.
00:52:43
Speaker
you actually interact with a lot more with more of these personalities than I do.
00:52:48
Speaker
I have messaged a few of them back and forth and I've had a positive relationship with them.
00:52:53
Speaker
But I would say that you have interacted and gotten to know more of them than I have.
00:53:00
Speaker
And so in many ways, this felt a little bit like a family feud for you.
00:53:07
Speaker
When I see things like this, it...
00:53:12
Speaker
Every time I look at a reaction, and especially when you're examining things, I always try to start with the end goal in mind.
00:53:22
Speaker
And then I try to walk back from there.
00:53:26
Speaker
So I ask myself, when all these things happened, was the end goal to bring a more positive view on pinball and to be able to open up forums for many people to contribute?
00:53:42
Speaker
Or was it an attempt to attack a potential rival network?
00:53:49
Speaker
And you can take your own perspective on that.
00:53:55
Speaker
I felt that the mudslinging wasn't as genuine as it appeared to be.
00:54:04
Speaker
Dennis even went on and explained a big post, a very well thought out post,
00:54:12
Speaker
And it was completely ignored, just like you said.
00:54:14
Speaker
No one actually acknowledged it and said, oh, they have responded.
00:54:18
Speaker
It just seemed like we are going to ignore what they're saying and we're going to keep pushing our view of the narrative because it helps reinforce our stance.
00:54:31
Speaker
Sadly, you see it in the news right now, and it's always really been this way.
00:54:36
Speaker
But you see, if you turn to this news program, you're going to get this editorial slant.
00:54:41
Speaker
If you turn to this other one, you're going to get an editorial slant.
00:54:45
Speaker
And so that's where you need to start and say, what was the end goal with all this?
00:54:54
Speaker
I will also point out that sadly, the cynical part of me says, if you want to examine the motivation for a lot of people, you also need to consider the revenue streams.
00:55:06
Speaker
And if revenue is part of your pinball business, then what people do can affect you positively or negatively.
00:55:17
Speaker
And that will elicit some reactions, positive or negative.
00:55:21
Speaker
So that's the sad thing.
00:55:25
Speaker
I've said it before that I always cringe a little bit when people say pinball people are the best.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:55:34
Speaker
Because you see things like this too.
00:55:37
Speaker
And so are pinball people the best?
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah, they are.
00:55:40
Speaker
Are pinball people the worst?
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:42
Speaker
Yeah, they are.
00:55:43
Speaker
Hop on pin side and stay there for 10 minutes and then think, do I want to be part of this hobby when it just seems like a one-upsmanship of snide comments?
00:55:57
Speaker
When you have a network that's coming out, and this is the equivalent of judging an entire movie on a trailer.
00:56:03
Speaker
Right?
00:56:05
Speaker
You can look at this 30-second snippet and say, this is what everything's about.
00:56:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:11
Speaker
Well, I guess part of the question is, okay, have you done it?
00:56:15
Speaker
This is your snap reaction on a 30-second thing.
00:56:19
Speaker
Now, okay, are some of those feelings genuine?
00:56:22
Speaker
Yes.
00:56:23
Speaker
Are some of those things that are brought up, are they personal dog whistles that really makes you feel a strong emotion?
00:56:30
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:56:31
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:56:32
Speaker
But I get back to this story.
00:56:36
Speaker
I've heard it before.
00:56:36
Speaker
It could be apocryphal.
00:56:38
Speaker
But Walter Cronkite, when he was coming up and he was on the news and there was something that came through and they said, this is breaking news.
00:56:48
Speaker
And he said, okay.
00:56:50
Speaker
But instead of immediately reporting it, he went over and he started calling to verify things.
00:56:56
Speaker
And they said, well, if you don't get on and do this, you're fired.
00:56:59
Speaker
He's like, okay.
00:57:01
Speaker
And I can't, I can't remember if the apocalypse, if it's real story or apocryphal story, but you know, here's what we need to remember.
00:57:08
Speaker
Verify if you have questions, great.
00:57:11
Speaker
Ask them, but here's an easy tip.
00:57:14
Speaker
Ask the source.
00:57:16
Speaker
If you have a question, ask Dennis or ask Zach or whatever.
00:57:20
Speaker
And so now if they give you a feedback that you're like, oh, okay, well, that's exactly what I thought it was going to be.
00:57:26
Speaker
Okay, fine.
00:57:27
Speaker
If you want to draw a battle lines, that's fine.
00:57:29
Speaker
But a lot of times, you know, the greatest distance between two people is a misunderstanding.
00:57:36
Speaker
And unless you're willing to go to the effort to say, look, it's so easy just to pop off and say a reactionary comment.
00:57:47
Speaker
Is that really helping?
00:57:48
Speaker
Like, what's the end goal?
00:57:50
Speaker
Is your end goal to actually bridge lines and open up things?
00:57:55
Speaker
And I'm not really trying to relegate.
00:57:57
Speaker
I've said it before.
00:57:59
Speaker
I don't care what your religion is.
00:58:01
Speaker
I don't care what your race is.
00:58:02
Speaker
I don't care what your gender is.
00:58:04
Speaker
I don't care what your orientation is.
00:58:05
Speaker
The reason why I got into pinball is because, hey, you like pinball.
00:58:09
Speaker
I like pinball.
00:58:10
Speaker
Great.
00:58:11
Speaker
Let's play.
00:58:13
Speaker
And that's my escape.
00:58:15
Speaker
But once you insert the qualification of what type of pinball player you are before the pinball player, then that's when the battle lines start coming up.
00:58:26
Speaker
I agree.
00:58:27
Speaker
And if I'm a pinball player – okay, this is Scott Larson.
00:58:31
Speaker
I'm a pinball player who happens to be a white male Christian Mormon anesthesiologist who lives in Utah.
00:58:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:39
Speaker
Great.
00:58:40
Speaker
But the first thing that I am as a pinball player, when it comes to that group, obviously, pinball is not what defines me, but in that setting, it is.
00:58:49
Speaker
And I want to make sure that anybody who comes into my house and wants to play pinball with me, and if their qualification is...
00:58:57
Speaker
Hi, I'm insert name here, and I'm a pinball player who happens to be an LGBTQ player who feels relegated to the shadows and doesn't feel like I have a place in pinball.
00:59:11
Speaker
That's who I am.
00:59:12
Speaker
But guess what?
00:59:13
Speaker
We still want to play pinball together.
00:59:14
Speaker
Great.
00:59:15
Speaker
You're welcome in my house.
00:59:17
Speaker
And I want people to feel that way.
00:59:19
Speaker
And so,
00:59:20
Speaker
I want people to feed, you know, it's getting back to that wolf thing.
00:59:25
Speaker
What wolf's inside you?
00:59:27
Speaker
Feed the nice one.
00:59:28
Speaker
Feed the one who's trying to reach out and try to look beyond opening doors instead of slamming in people's faces.
00:59:37
Speaker
And like I said, I respect Jack Danger.
00:59:40
Speaker
I respect Zach Manny.
00:59:41
Speaker
I respect Ken Cromwell, Dennis Creasel.
00:59:43
Speaker
These people that are all involved in this.
00:59:46
Speaker
I respect a lot of people in this community.
00:59:49
Speaker
I respect Chris Kuluris.
00:59:53
Speaker
He does something different and brings something different to the pinball hobby.
00:59:56
Speaker
You may like it, you may not.
00:59:59
Speaker
And I reserve my opinion on that as well.
01:00:02
Speaker
But my point being is...
01:00:04
Speaker
There should be a certain amount of respect for people that are taking their free time to entertain you.
01:00:10
Speaker
If you don't like it, move on.
01:00:13
Speaker
I just said it in the epistle, as Scott put it.
01:00:18
Speaker
And I don't really think there needs to be much more said than what I've already said.
01:00:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:24
Speaker
It reminds me of the, if you haven't seen The Hunt for Out October, you should go see it.
01:00:30
Speaker
It's an amazing film.
01:00:32
Speaker
And there's one part where it is haunting, where Captain Ramius, or Remus, or Ramius, I think, he's talking to Sam Neill, who's his lieutenant.
01:00:45
Speaker
And he talks about it.
01:00:46
Speaker
He just says his life.
01:00:48
Speaker
And it's a submarine film.
01:00:50
Speaker
It's a submarine war film.
01:00:52
Speaker
He said, you know, it's a life at sea, I'm paraphrasing, a life at sea with no victories, no battle monuments, only casualties.
01:01:05
Speaker
And I feel that recently, especially in the pinball social network, there are no victories.
01:01:13
Speaker
There's only casualties.
01:01:14
Speaker
Like no one wins in these fights.
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:17
Speaker
And if you really want to look at expanding pinball, this isn't how to do it.
01:01:22
Speaker
I agree.
01:01:22
Speaker
Okay.
01:01:23
Speaker
Let's,
Review and Impact of Pinshades on Gameplay
01:01:24
Speaker
let's end this episode on not this note.
01:01:28
Speaker
I don't know if you call this a positive.
01:01:30
Speaker
So about a week ago, a gentleman reached out to us on pin side.
01:01:34
Speaker
His name's Jockton and Jockton has made this product called pin shades.
01:01:40
Speaker
And he asked if he,
01:01:42
Speaker
He sent us, Scott and I, a pair.
01:01:44
Speaker
If we'd honestly review them, no bars hold, however you say it, and just give our honest opinion about these things.
01:01:57
Speaker
I wanted to get your opinion about these, Scott.
01:02:01
Speaker
Okay, now...
01:02:03
Speaker
Let me point out that, so I got in town a week ago and I have been, I jumped right back into working.
01:02:10
Speaker
And so I have, I have not had time to play location pinball.
01:02:15
Speaker
So I wanted to hold off on using these because I actually splurged when I bought my collection and I have anti-reflective glass on every single one of my machines.
01:02:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:26
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:27
Speaker
So I was concerned that I would not be able to give an honest review because right now I already have like non-glare glass on my machine.
01:02:37
Speaker
So I'm hoping to get to our local pinball venue Kitos and try them out there or go to my friend's house who doesn't have AR glass and everything and to try them out.
01:02:49
Speaker
So it is on my to-do list and I swear I will give an honest review.
01:02:52
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:53
Speaker
Josh, but I know you don't have anti-reflective glass on your machines.
01:02:57
Speaker
So what did you think?
01:02:58
Speaker
So I'm going to give you a couple different angles.
01:03:01
Speaker
I'm going to give you when I first got the product, Jockton set it to us UPS.
01:03:06
Speaker
It was very nicely wrapped with bubble wrap inside of a box.
01:03:10
Speaker
The first thing you see when you pull it out is a glasses case.
01:03:13
Speaker
It's a
01:03:14
Speaker
leather it's not really like hard case it's a little flimsy which is it's fine it's a case i mean anyone that owns it's a glasses case yeah yeah so you unzip them uh they're wrapped in plastic you pull the plastic off my first initial thoughts when i pulled them out of the thing was um i i thought at first i thought they were cheap
01:03:40
Speaker
And I don't know why I thought that.
01:03:43
Speaker
Uh, cause now more than I've held them, I think it's honestly the lens itself.
01:03:47
Speaker
The lens is plastic, which my glasses are made out of plastic, but my glasses that I wear, my prescriptions are a heavier plastic that feel like glass where these, they feel very, very much like plastic, but it's a nice solid metal frame.
01:04:04
Speaker
Um, the rubber, um,
01:04:06
Speaker
That is on the earpieces.
01:04:09
Speaker
It's nice.
01:04:11
Speaker
It's what it needs to be.
01:04:12
Speaker
So that was my first impressions.
01:04:15
Speaker
And I was excited for these because of our closest location is a bowling alley.
01:04:21
Speaker
And it has that hospital lighting.
01:04:22
Speaker
You know, the fluorescent lights that I am very familiar with hospital lighting.
01:04:28
Speaker
So the fluorescent lights and the right directly over the pinball machines over there.
01:04:33
Speaker
There's a fun house.
01:04:34
Speaker
The worst.
01:04:35
Speaker
There's a fun house.
01:04:36
Speaker
You have to lean your head way to the left, way to the left.
01:04:39
Speaker
I'm doing this as I'm talking about it.
01:04:42
Speaker
So you can even see the play field.
01:04:44
Speaker
And so, uh, I didn't, it's, it's a 20 minute drive.
01:04:48
Speaker
So I slapped these on first night.
01:04:50
Speaker
I had them at home.
01:04:51
Speaker
I don't have anti-reflective glass, but my lighting in my house isn't too bad.
01:04:57
Speaker
So I've never really noticed the reflection until I put these glasses on.
01:05:02
Speaker
Uh, I've got attack for Mars, Ellie, I've got a monster bash Ellie, and I've got a world cup soccer.
01:05:08
Speaker
And, uh,
01:05:09
Speaker
There's a lot of reflection that comes off those sweet, sweet toppers.
01:05:12
Speaker
I've never noticed this.
01:05:14
Speaker
And I put these glasses on and between that and the LEDs, that glass was just beautiful.
01:05:20
Speaker
Like I had no issues with it.
01:05:24
Speaker
The day before I had the glasses, my warmup game on attack for Mars was 2 billion.
01:05:29
Speaker
My first warmup game with the glasses on was 5 billion.
01:05:32
Speaker
I don't know if it has anything to do with the glasses or,
01:05:36
Speaker
But we'll move on from that.
01:05:37
Speaker
But I've gotten so used to these glasses now that I actually have to wear them while I'm playing because of the anti-reflection.
01:05:46
Speaker
Same with Monster Bash.
01:05:47
Speaker
It has that really bright topper.
01:05:50
Speaker
I didn't have any groundbreaking scores on Monster Bash.
01:05:53
Speaker
But the other thing that I do like about these, they're big enough and wide enough.
01:05:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:22
Speaker
I did.
01:06:22
Speaker
I briefly tried it.
01:06:23
Speaker
And I will say that if you want glasses, though, you want them to be lightweight.
01:06:27
Speaker
I agree.
01:06:28
Speaker
And so I didn't really quibble about that.
01:06:30
Speaker
And really, most glasses are...
01:06:36
Speaker
You're paying a lot more than you probably should be.
01:06:39
Speaker
I actually used to work in an eyeglass shop.
01:06:43
Speaker
And most of those things are manufactured to look expensive when they really are probably the same type of – yeah, they're low cost because that's how they make money.
01:06:54
Speaker
Exactly.
01:06:54
Speaker
I will say there are games that are game changers.
01:06:58
Speaker
So being able to see the upper play field is huge.
01:07:03
Speaker
For example, when I put now, this is using an anti-reflective glass, but the principle is still the same.
01:07:09
Speaker
I put an anti-reflective glass in black rows and my wife came down and she looked up and she said,
01:07:14
Speaker
Wait, there's a painted ship on the back?
01:07:16
Speaker
Because if you look at the, like below the back box, I don't know what that part is called.
01:07:23
Speaker
But, you know, if there's like, you know, the pin blades are on the side and the very back panel, there's a ship painted there.
01:07:30
Speaker
You could never see it before because there was so much glare.
01:07:34
Speaker
And the upper third of the play field, you couldn't even see.
01:07:37
Speaker
But now I can see the whole play field.
01:07:39
Speaker
And so it does provide a huge advantage because most pinball machines, most of the shots are in the upper half to upper third of the play field.
01:07:49
Speaker
Yep.
01:07:50
Speaker
So, and you, you can certainly try them out and see, I am looking forward to try them out on a place that doesn't have anti-reflective glass and I will give you my report.
01:07:59
Speaker
So I want to mention two more things.
01:08:01
Speaker
So just like you said, that back box, everyone has a back box on their pinball machine.
01:08:06
Speaker
The bright LEDs reflect on the, that last one third.
01:08:09
Speaker
And I've never noticed that either.
01:08:11
Speaker
And it has made seeing the upper third of that play field so much easier.
01:08:18
Speaker
I did go to the bowling alley, the one with the hospital lighting.
01:08:22
Speaker
And the first game I ran to was Funhaus because I knew that Funhaus was the hardest one to play because you can only see the play field if you're leaning 45 degrees to the left.
01:08:34
Speaker
Pop these bad boys on.
01:08:36
Speaker
I did the, you know, put them on, take them off, put them on, take them off.
01:08:40
Speaker
And I,
01:08:41
Speaker
I will say it did not eliminate the fluorescent light that was directly above.
01:08:47
Speaker
It shines directly on the glass.
01:08:49
Speaker
But as I was playing Funhouse, I didn't even notice as I got into the game that the reflection of the fluorescent light was there.
01:08:59
Speaker
And I didn't have to keep my head cocked 45 degrees to the left.
01:09:02
Speaker
And I must have been playing better because I have played this fun house.
01:09:06
Speaker
This, this fun house is trashed by the way, the hot dog insert in the middle, like raised up instead of the operator actually fixing it.
01:09:14
Speaker
He like just sanded down one side of it.
01:09:16
Speaker
So it's turned into a ramp now that launches the ball into the back half of the game.
01:09:21
Speaker
It's wonderful.
01:09:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:22
Speaker
But any who, um, I could actually see all that.
01:09:27
Speaker
And the highest score I think it ever got on fun house was like four or 5 million.
01:09:30
Speaker
Um,
01:09:32
Speaker
first game with the glasses on 12 million i got the high score for that location so that must mean something only about my skills but everyone else's skills because no one else has taken the high score on this game no one's even got to put their name on the high score of this game um
01:09:48
Speaker
The other games I played, the light wasn't directly over it, but it was nice to have these on because with the lights being to the left and the right, they still shine off that glass pretty bad.
01:09:59
Speaker
Putting these glasses on, fantastic.
01:10:01
Speaker
Saw great.
01:10:02
Speaker
High scores all around.
01:10:04
Speaker
Honestly, my game has improved because of these.
01:10:07
Speaker
So I would recommend this product to anyone, especially for how much did you pay for your anti-reflective glass, if you don't mind telling us, Scott?
01:10:18
Speaker
Oh, it's a few hundred bucks each.
01:10:20
Speaker
Each sheet is a few hundred bucks.
01:10:22
Speaker
It was like 200 to 300 bucks.
01:10:25
Speaker
These pin shades are $80.
01:10:27
Speaker
And you can find Jockton.
01:10:30
Speaker
He's on Pinside.
01:10:32
Speaker
Just type in Pinshades, P-I-N-S-H-A-D-E-S.
01:10:34
Speaker
He's...
01:10:39
Speaker
He's there.
01:10:40
Speaker
Hit him up.
01:10:42
Speaker
He's also done a discount code for our listeners.
01:10:46
Speaker
So if you give him loser, loser kid 10, he'll take 10% off the purchase.
01:10:51
Speaker
It's 79, 99.
01:10:52
Speaker
I can't remember if that includes shipping or not.
01:10:54
Speaker
Don't quote me.
01:10:54
Speaker
But I mean, still eight bucks off of your, your total price.
01:10:59
Speaker
I mean, $70 for these glasses.
01:11:00
Speaker
I think that's still of a deal.
01:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's anytime you can have a, you know, it's basically a mod that fits on any game.
01:11:10
Speaker
And really, we're not getting anything for this.
01:11:13
Speaker
So this is just our honest opinion.
01:11:15
Speaker
So if you want to try to up your game on location, which is really one of the hardest things to do is is increase your advantage on location.
01:11:25
Speaker
It really does.
01:11:26
Speaker
And if you're looking at tournaments, tournaments usually have horrible lighting, too.
01:11:29
Speaker
Agreed.
01:11:30
Speaker
So that's just another place.
01:11:32
Speaker
If you're going to Texas or going to any of these pinball festivals, they all just set them up wherever they can.
01:11:39
Speaker
And the lights are
Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Events
01:11:40
Speaker
usually horrible.
01:11:40
Speaker
So if you can get an advantage in those things, you know what?
01:11:44
Speaker
That winnings that you're going to have are just going to offset what you paid.
01:11:47
Speaker
Well, and speaking of advantage, we got a message from Charles Bell and he wanted to thank us.
01:11:56
Speaker
He bought one of our hats a couple of weeks ago.
01:11:58
Speaker
And he wore the hat.
01:12:00
Speaker
It got him into finals for States and he ended up taking third overall.
01:12:05
Speaker
And he's like, I've already got my site set for first in the state next year.
01:12:08
Speaker
Exactly.
01:12:09
Speaker
You know, it's all the, it's the loser kid.
01:12:11
Speaker
Uh, it's the L one experience.
01:12:12
Speaker
That's what it is.
01:12:13
Speaker
You are, that's what it is.
01:12:14
Speaker
You are channeling the goat by wearing the hat.
01:12:17
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:12:17
Speaker
So if you want a hat, I do have a couple left.
01:12:20
Speaker
I've got some more beanies on order.
01:12:22
Speaker
Cause they went like hotcakes.
01:12:24
Speaker
Um,
01:12:25
Speaker
We'll have them at TPF.
01:12:26
Speaker
We won't have it.
01:12:27
Speaker
If you want a hat at TPF, please message us so we can keep a hat for you.
01:12:32
Speaker
We've already got one for Jeff Teolis and one for Lauren Gray.
01:12:37
Speaker
So there's already two spoken for, but if you want a hat, please let us know so we can get you one.
01:12:43
Speaker
So.
01:12:44
Speaker
We've been running an hour and 20, dude.
01:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I know.
01:12:47
Speaker
It's been a little bit more of a namaste episode to talk about the pinball karma.
01:12:53
Speaker
And, you know, we again, we try to keep it light.
01:12:57
Speaker
And I hate dealing with this stuff because it really detracts from what I'm trying to do in pinball and escape from whatever drama we're all dealing with.
01:13:07
Speaker
And so, you know, again, feed the right monster inside you.
01:13:12
Speaker
Feed the good monster.
01:13:14
Speaker
Speaking of feeding the good monster, I don't know why I'm relating this to Orbital Albert.
01:13:22
Speaker
Go check out his Truce episode.
01:13:26
Speaker
I don't know if you knew this, Scott.
01:13:28
Speaker
He did a top five podcast a year ago, or back in the summer, I think.
01:13:32
Speaker
We were an honorable mention.
01:13:33
Speaker
We weren't even near the top five.
01:13:36
Speaker
But guess what?
01:13:37
Speaker
We made it in his top five this time.
01:13:40
Speaker
Number four, baby.
01:13:42
Speaker
number four and thank you dude albert thank you those were very kind words uh loved what you said and congratulations on your tpn entry so then you need tpf tpn the pinball the pinball network yeah sorry okay all right got it so oh my goodness anyway all right so uh we're wrapping up now
01:14:08
Speaker
Any parting wisdom do you have to say, Josh?
01:14:12
Speaker
Treat each other nicely, dude.
01:14:14
Speaker
Play some pinball.
01:14:15
Speaker
Or I guess not dude.
01:14:16
Speaker
Treat each other nicely, people.
01:14:17
Speaker
Play some pinball.
01:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, let's be positive in the pinball community.
01:14:22
Speaker
And if you're looking for us, we're on all the major podcasting networks.
01:14:28
Speaker
And if you're an iTunes listener, please leave us a review.
01:14:31
Speaker
It actually helps boost our ratings and it helps more people find us.
01:14:36
Speaker
You know what?
01:14:36
Speaker
Also, if you want to contact us, we're at LoserkidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
01:14:41
Speaker
We're also on Facebook at LoserkidPinballPodcast and Instagram.
01:14:45
Speaker
If you want to hit us up, honestly, probably the best place is to hit us on Facebook.
01:14:49
Speaker
Um, yeah.
01:14:51
Speaker
Other than that, man, I'm excited for a TPS.
01:14:54
Speaker
I'm excited for the people coming on our show here in the next two weeks, hopefully.
01:14:58
Speaker
So yeah, it'll be great.
01:15:00
Speaker
Thanks, Josh.
01:15:01
Speaker
You guys have a great time.
01:15:02
Speaker
You too, man.