Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 3: Starting A Gameroom
92 Plays7 years ago
Episode 3 we talk about a bunch of different topics including:
- Monty Python pin
- Evil Dead Pin
- James Bond Pin
- Angry Birds pin
And how to start a game room, where to find pins, pros and cons for new, slightly used, and used pins, and our top 3 toys on a pin.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:03
Speaker
I am your host, Joshua Roop.
00:00:05
Speaker
I have got my co-host here with me.
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello, Scott Larson.
00:00:10
Speaker
And this is episode three.
00:00:11
Speaker
How are you doing today, Scott?
Weather Impact on Daily Life
00:00:14
Speaker
Well, we had about over a foot of snow, and so I've been barely... We have a big, long driveway, so I spent about an hour just trying to carve a
00:00:24
Speaker
small road so I can get to and from my garage.
00:00:27
Speaker
But other than that, it's pretty good.
00:00:29
Speaker
I know what you mean.
00:00:29
Speaker
I've been shoveling my driveway.
00:00:31
Speaker
I shoveled it this morning, then for lunch, and then for dinner.
00:00:34
Speaker
So it's been pretty crazy with the snowfall that we've been having lately.
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:40
Speaker
Well, we're in the middle of a drought, so that's probably good.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's probably good.
00:00:42
Speaker
Well,
Missed Events Due to Weather
00:00:43
Speaker
I was planning on being up there for the tournament on Saturday because they're doing the Munsters release party, and they're going to be giving away the stuff for the Stern Army, but with the weather the way it is, and
00:00:53
Speaker
them having avalanches on the highway up to there, I don't think I'll be making it.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be kind of awkward.
00:00:59
Speaker
I would love to go there, but I have my work party, so I can't make it.
00:01:05
Speaker
It's kind of a terrible time to do a party.
00:01:06
Speaker
I mean, but how could they have guessed that we were going to have like the polar vortex in the east and then, you know, 10 inches, 12 inches of snow in the west?
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah, well, someone will get a cool flashlight and maybe I'll buy it from them.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yeah.
Pinball Themes Discussion: Ben Heck's Insights
00:01:23
Speaker
Hey, so I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, and I've been listening to the Ben Heck stuff, but I wanted to talk about the two titles he was talking about.
00:01:35
Speaker
Monty Python, which I grew up with.
00:01:37
Speaker
I love Monty Python, the Holy Grail, and they also talked about an Evil Dead movie.
00:01:41
Speaker
What
Monty Python as a Pinball Theme
00:01:42
Speaker
are your thoughts?
00:01:43
Speaker
So, Monty Python came out in 1975, okay?
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:46
Speaker
And...
00:01:51
Speaker
In the 80s, it became this big cult thing.
00:01:54
Speaker
I grew up in 74, or I was born in 74, and so I've probably seen the Holy Grail over 100 times.
00:01:59
Speaker
I mean, that was the movie to watch in the 80s and 90s.
00:02:05
Speaker
The problem is I just don't see it being a viable theme for pinball.
00:02:11
Speaker
It feels like it's been done.
00:02:13
Speaker
The way I look at it is medieval madness is
00:02:16
Speaker
Monty Python.
00:02:18
Speaker
That's really the vibe that they're going for.
00:02:20
Speaker
So I really see no benefit for making a
00:02:25
Speaker
a Monty Python game when it feels like you almost already have one.
00:02:29
Speaker
I totally agree.
00:02:30
Speaker
Oh, I totally agree.
00:02:31
Speaker
I mean, looking
Medieval Madness & Monty Python Spirit
00:02:32
Speaker
at medieval madness, you got the French guy that's harassing you just like the French guy in the castle.
00:02:36
Speaker
You, you have the nice part is they had the freedom with medieval madness.
00:02:41
Speaker
And so like, you've got the kookiness of the princesses.
00:02:43
Speaker
You've got some other stuff there.
00:02:45
Speaker
I know they had mentioned a black night toy where he's,
00:02:49
Speaker
as you hit him, his limbs fall off.
00:02:50
Speaker
But really, I think the castle is like the best thing they've done so far for the, they could have done, you know?
00:02:58
Speaker
I don't know.
00:02:58
Speaker
I just, I don't know how big of, I don't feel Monty Python is relevant enough today to justify a pinball machine just for itself.
00:03:08
Speaker
It feels a little bit like a been there, done that.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:12
Speaker
It would be the same thing as if they, if they released a Caddyshack pinball machine, there's a, there's a huge following, but,
00:03:18
Speaker
Guess what?
00:03:19
Speaker
They already did the knockoff with no good gophers.
00:03:21
Speaker
Well, and teed off as well.
00:03:23
Speaker
And teed off.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so it seems like, oh, okay, great.
00:03:26
Speaker
And now you're going to release the official one.
00:03:29
Speaker
It seems like it's missed its window.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah.
Aging Comedy Themes
00:03:33
Speaker
I agree.
00:03:33
Speaker
Well, and I'll put this to point too.
00:03:36
Speaker
I am 31 now and I watched Caddyshack for the first time a couple years ago.
00:03:41
Speaker
Kind of painful.
00:03:43
Speaker
Well, it is kind of painful.
00:03:45
Speaker
I didn't grow up in that era.
00:03:46
Speaker
I kind of was scratching my head at the end of it like, what did I just watch?
00:03:50
Speaker
And then I was talking to some friends and like, well, you didn't grow up in that era.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yes.
00:03:56
Speaker
I think when you watch a comedy show, it kind of locks into when you watch it because
00:04:02
Speaker
unlike drama, comedy doesn't age very well because either the jokes either get politically incorrect or it's just the humor of the time doesn't match what it was back then.
00:04:18
Speaker
I grew up, again, the same era in the 80s and 90s, and Fletch is so funny to me, but I wonder what someone would think if they watched Fletch now and
00:04:28
Speaker
versus kind of the frame of reference.
00:04:30
Speaker
Because when I watch it, I'm still back in like 1983.
00:04:33
Speaker
You know, I'm a 10 year old kid.
00:04:35
Speaker
But if someone else watches it, they may say, yeah, this is not funny.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Evil Dead's Pinball Potential
00:04:43
Speaker
And the other theme he talked about was Evil Dead.
00:04:45
Speaker
Personally, me, I'm not a huge Evil Dead fan.
00:04:48
Speaker
I was actually in a band for 10 years, and I met with plenty of different types.
00:04:54
Speaker
I was in a pop punk band, and we had an authentic goth rock band come through.
00:05:01
Speaker
And every stop, they would watch Evil Dead.
00:05:04
Speaker
And so...
00:05:05
Speaker
When they stayed at my house, we watched Evil Dead.
00:05:07
Speaker
It was my first time.
00:05:08
Speaker
This was 10 plus years ago.
00:05:10
Speaker
And so watching it, I didn't get it.
00:05:13
Speaker
Like it just was too, it had the campy vibe and everything to it, but there was just some of it that I just was thought was a little much.
00:05:21
Speaker
I just, I don't see Evil Dead translating very well into a pinball.
00:05:25
Speaker
Like it could be fun, but then again, how relevant is Evil Dead?
00:05:30
Speaker
I know that they had the new TV series with Ash versus the Evil Dead.
00:05:34
Speaker
And it kind of got canceled after just two or three seasons, if I remember correctly.
00:05:38
Speaker
So I don't know if it would be, it wouldn't be good location pinball.
00:05:44
Speaker
I don't know.
00:05:45
Speaker
What do you think?
00:05:47
Speaker
I don't know.
00:05:47
Speaker
It's, again, I think people need to realize that their dream theme is not necessarily a marketable theme.
00:05:56
Speaker
And that I think there are a lot of people who are into that.
00:06:02
Speaker
But is it going to be worth making a game out of it?
00:06:06
Speaker
Now, that being said, Spooky has made an entire business model of kind of catering to those niche themes that other companies probably wouldn't be interested in.
00:06:19
Speaker
You have Stern doing ACDC, Metallica, all these bands that have sold over 100 million albums.
00:06:27
Speaker
And Spooky does Alice Cooper, and Spooky does Rob Zombie, and
00:06:32
Speaker
And so there is a little niche there.
00:06:34
Speaker
I can see it.
00:06:36
Speaker
However, it's one of those things that I have no interest in.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, true.
00:06:40
Speaker
But I'm also not the only demographic out there.
00:06:44
Speaker
So maybe there is something, but I would really want to do some market research before I did a pinball machine with all that effort and then find out no one wants it.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:55
Speaker
Well, and there could be some really cool stuff.
00:06:57
Speaker
I mean, one of the biggest themes of Evil Dead was kind of the basement and the book.
00:07:03
Speaker
And so it'd be kind of cool to see them do a basement theme with it.
00:07:06
Speaker
But I don't know if Spooky's in that place just yet to be
00:07:10
Speaker
I don't know, doing levels of that depth of a pinball machine.
00:07:14
Speaker
And I could be entirely wrong.
00:07:15
Speaker
Maybe making a lower play field isn't as that big of a deal.
00:07:20
Speaker
So I think making a fun lower play field is that big of a deal.
00:07:24
Speaker
Or if you're going to have a, if you're going to have Congo where you just have Amy like punching the, you know, the ball back and forth.
00:07:30
Speaker
Oh, come on.
00:07:31
Speaker
Button mashing is always fun.
00:07:33
Speaker
Hey, trust me.
00:07:33
Speaker
I grew up in the eighties.
00:07:34
Speaker
Button mashing is all the rage, but yes.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I just don't know if that's something that would really be marketable.
00:07:43
Speaker
However, I know that there's a huge cult following.
00:07:46
Speaker
And every time they do one of those fan conferences, he always comes and he has a big following.
00:07:54
Speaker
And so it could be just one of those things where I'm not the demographic, so I don't get it.
00:08:00
Speaker
There probably is a demographic out there that could get it.
00:08:03
Speaker
Well, I think Munsters is a good example because there's a lot of younger generation in pinball right now.
00:08:09
Speaker
Munsters as a theme doesn't speak to me, but after seeing the pinball machine, I wouldn't mind putting a couple plays on it.
00:08:14
Speaker
I don't know if I'd necessarily buy it out of the box, but I mean, it's definitely, you do it right, I think a theme doesn't become a hindrance.
The Importance of Pinball Theme Selection
00:08:23
Speaker
It becomes maybe just some side art for people that aren't necessarily into that theme.
00:08:29
Speaker
It seems interesting.
00:08:31
Speaker
Basically,
00:08:32
Speaker
There's a reason why certain games sell the way they do it, and it's because they have the right theme with the game.
00:08:39
Speaker
If you had Lord of the Rings, the pinball machine, but it was, I don't know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Hello Kitty Island Adventure or something, it probably wouldn't have that mesh of people being interested in buying it.
00:08:55
Speaker
I said on my last episode, I bought my first pinball machine based on theme alone.
00:08:59
Speaker
It was Simpsons.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I saw it and I said, yeah, it sounds fun.
00:09:02
Speaker
Well, that's why I bought my first pinball machine and it was a Gottlieb Spider-Man.
00:09:06
Speaker
I like Spider-Man.
00:09:10
Speaker
I would upgrade to the Stern one if I were you.
00:09:12
Speaker
I know, yeah.
00:09:13
Speaker
I think it's just challenging.
00:09:14
Speaker
And that's the magic in trying to find what works.
00:09:17
Speaker
So Evil Dead and Medieval Madness, they really wouldn't be
00:09:23
Speaker
big sellers for me.
Evaluating James Bond as a Pinball Theme
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah, I, I agree.
00:09:26
Speaker
Well, moving on, you've heard the new Stern, uh, this new Stern stuff, right?
00:09:31
Speaker
The James Bond pin coming out.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker
And I'm sorry, it feels the same thing for, from Dr. No all the way up.
00:09:42
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:42
Speaker
We, how, how long have we had this theme kicking around?
00:09:45
Speaker
And it feels like Jaws 55 at this point.
00:09:48
Speaker
Um, and they basically,
00:09:50
Speaker
They basically had to reinvent James Bond when the Bourne Identity movies came out because they made him look so unbelievably dated with the Roger Moore James Bond.
00:10:02
Speaker
And even the Pierce Brosnan one.
00:10:03
Speaker
It just feels like
00:10:05
Speaker
That's something of a different era.
00:10:07
Speaker
I just don't know if there's a market for it.
00:10:10
Speaker
Maybe there is.
00:10:10
Speaker
Well, and here's the interesting part.
00:10:13
Speaker
Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, actually blamed Mike Myers along with Austin Powers for ruining the James Bond franchise, for making fun of James Bond and making it too silly and that no one could take James Bond seriously anymore.
00:10:31
Speaker
He's right.
00:10:32
Speaker
It's true.
00:10:33
Speaker
The reason why Austin Powers is so funny is because it points out how ridiculous all these things are.
00:10:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:10:40
Speaker
But also, James Bond really was, it's such a dated theme.
00:10:46
Speaker
It's the, you have this playboy spy guy from the 60s, which, yeah, in 60s America, all those things he does may seem kind of cool.
00:10:58
Speaker
but it seems really dated and very tone deaf in today's America.
00:11:02
Speaker
True, yeah.
00:11:03
Speaker
Well, and the other concern that I had, I don't know if you played the N64 Goldeneye, but they remade that a decade later for the Wii, and then which subsequently went on to be ported to the Xbox and the PlayStation.
00:11:21
Speaker
But when they updated it, I mean, Pierce Brosnan was the James Bond of Goldeneye.
00:11:27
Speaker
Well, when they updated it, I don't know what kind of agreement they have, but Daniel Craig was put in place of Pierce Brosnan.
00:11:35
Speaker
So I don't know if you made a James Bond pin today, if it would then require that you have only Daniel Craig on there.
00:11:45
Speaker
I don't know if they'd
James Bond Fan Theories
00:11:46
Speaker
be able to have the back catalog of all the other Bonds per se, because Bond's technically one guy, and so the face of Bond is the current Bond.
00:11:55
Speaker
I don't know.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would be hard to do a retrospective.
00:11:58
Speaker
I think it would have to be kind of an era, like the Daniel Craig, James Bond movies.
00:12:05
Speaker
I don't think you could do all of the James Bond movies because it just doesn't work.
00:12:09
Speaker
Oh, come on.
00:12:10
Speaker
It could be like Doctor Who and you can collect all the James Bonds.
00:12:13
Speaker
That would be fantastic.
00:12:15
Speaker
And if I had like a teleporter in there that goes back in time.
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah, because that's in the James Bond movies.
00:12:21
Speaker
There was a really interesting thing
00:12:23
Speaker
fan about James Bond that I really liked.
00:12:26
Speaker
However, they kind of undermined it with, what was the one where M died?
00:12:32
Speaker
It was the last,
00:12:33
Speaker
Okay, this is my confession.
00:12:35
Speaker
I've honestly never seen a James Bond movie all the way through.
00:12:39
Speaker
I saw a little bit of GoldenEye and then I've seen I think all of Casino Royale and really the only thing I remember from Casino Royale is where they strip him naked and they're beating him with a ball and I'm like, what the crap is this?
00:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's cringeworthy.
00:12:55
Speaker
The Casino Royale was them trying to be the Bourne Identity movies.
00:12:59
Speaker
With the
00:13:01
Speaker
Actually, I think Goldeneye is a great James Bond movie because it still captures that.
00:13:08
Speaker
I'm a spy, but it's not too out of it.
00:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, but there's the one where they had James Bond go up to his home, and it was like, no, it's the Bond manor where, you know, whatever.
00:13:23
Speaker
And the fan theory that I thought was really interesting where they said James Bond is –
00:13:30
Speaker
It's an alias.
00:13:31
Speaker
It's not really the person.
00:13:32
Speaker
So that's why it can be different people as it goes through time.
00:13:36
Speaker
But they kind of shut that down, which I thought was kind of sad.
00:13:41
Speaker
It seems like a data theme.
00:13:42
Speaker
I just don't see – maybe there's enough people out there, but I think that they would have to do like a Sean Connery.
00:13:50
Speaker
If they did a Sean Connery, James Bond, then I think it would sell to the same people that bought Batman 66 that are buying Superman, whatever version they're doing.
00:14:00
Speaker
And the Beatles, it's that era of the guys who are like in their 60s and 70s.
00:14:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:14:06
Speaker
Well, the guys that grew up with it, it's that nostalgia that speaks to them.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I think there is a market for James Bond, but I think it's also the same market as, like you were saying, Munsters, Batman 66.
00:14:19
Speaker
And they'll probably sell decent, I mean, they're obviously going to sell decent numbers or they wouldn't be doing a theme like this.
00:14:24
Speaker
I think we're seeing a lot more of Stern gravitating towards those themes because they do sell for them.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yes.
00:14:31
Speaker
But it'd have to be the retro.
00:14:32
Speaker
I think it would have to be the retro.
00:14:34
Speaker
I think if they came out with the Daniel Craig one, I think that it wouldn't sell nearly as well as a Sean Connery one.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree.
00:14:41
Speaker
Well, even a Roger Moore would do well, I think, as well.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's a few of those titles that are cringeworthy.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:51
Speaker
I don't know which one it is, but I clicked on, it was just like a James Bond marathon.
00:14:56
Speaker
And there's one where he like, you know, waltzes into his hotel room and then someone like released a snake to kill him.
00:15:04
Speaker
And he flips around with hairspray and a lighter and, and fries it to death.
00:15:07
Speaker
And I'm like, what the heck am I watching?
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:10
Speaker
It's actually, I, yeah, the movie you're thinking of it's, it's yeah, it's actually a fun one.
00:15:15
Speaker
It's one of my favorites, but,
00:15:17
Speaker
I don't even know if I'd say it on this podcast because it just seems like when you say that, you're like, really?
00:15:21
Speaker
They named a movie that?
00:15:25
Speaker
So moving on, we're kind of telling you about different themes.
00:15:30
Speaker
So
Exploring Angry Birds as a Pinball Theme
00:15:31
Speaker
another theme that they mentioned that they were thinking of doing was Angry Birds.
00:15:38
Speaker
And I kind of want to get your take on this one.
00:15:40
Speaker
You know, I've had a week to think about this because just with everyone talking about it, I went through the flyer very, very thoroughly.
00:15:49
Speaker
At first glance, I thought, you know, for a game of this, I wouldn't say caliber, I would say,
00:15:57
Speaker
The presentation of it, I thought, you know, the towers are really cool.
00:16:01
Speaker
I love how they spin.
00:16:02
Speaker
I actually thought it was really cool that they had the shooter that popped up through the middle of the flippers.
00:16:08
Speaker
And it appeared that you would shoot a ceramic ball or an egg at the pigs or at the towers or whatever it may be.
00:16:16
Speaker
But for shots wise, there was like one ramp and that ramp had a diverter so it could divert back to the left or right flipper.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I didn't know what they had planned there.
00:16:25
Speaker
But really, I don't think shooting towers is what a lot of people would enjoy.
00:16:31
Speaker
it might be a good nickel arcade style pinball machine because kids are all about like fruit ninja and angry birds and all those, those titles.
00:16:44
Speaker
And so I could see if it was like a redemption machine, maybe doing really well inside of a nickel mania.
00:16:50
Speaker
But other than that, it just, I don't see it going anywhere.
00:16:54
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
And, and I think you hit, you hit the nail on the head is having the,
00:17:01
Speaker
five bash toys doesn't work for a pinball machine.
00:17:05
Speaker
Um, but it would work for a ticket redemption game.
00:17:08
Speaker
And so I think if you had, which is basically kitty gambling, right?
00:17:12
Speaker
Yep.
00:17:13
Speaker
Cause that's what the kids do.
00:17:14
Speaker
Um, I, here's my thing.
00:17:17
Speaker
When I hear something like angry birds, think of all the games that they have tried to repurpose into a pinball machine.
00:17:27
Speaker
And it always seems to not work.
00:17:30
Speaker
Just off the top of my head, they have even back in the day when they were, when the 80s and the arcade revolution, they tried like, oh, let's do Defender.
00:17:38
Speaker
Oh, you know, even before that, let's, you know, Space Invaders.
00:17:41
Speaker
Let's do Baby Pac-Man.
00:17:43
Speaker
Let's do, you know, let's do Monopoly.
00:17:46
Speaker
So you're doing all these games that are,
00:17:50
Speaker
games first and then they're trying to repurpose them into a pinball machine and the theme integration never works.
00:17:57
Speaker
It always feels like a knockoff.
00:17:59
Speaker
And when I saw the Angry Birds layout, it made me think of the kids game that I have downstairs, which is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Troll game that I got for five bucks.
00:18:10
Speaker
That is something you buy at Toys R Us or Walmart for 40 bucks.
00:18:16
Speaker
And that's kind of the vibe I got from it.
00:18:19
Speaker
I look at that and I say, I just don't see me ever really wanting to do this.
00:18:25
Speaker
Well, and the other interesting part too is Highway supposedly had planned that there would be a pro and a premium.
00:18:31
Speaker
And
Technological Integration in Pinball
00:18:32
Speaker
on the premium, the whole play field would be essentially like a P3 system where the whole play field is like the TV screen.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:40
Speaker
I just, I don't know.
00:18:42
Speaker
Maybe it was best.
00:18:43
Speaker
See, I think P3, if they did Angry Birds, I can actually see that because...
00:18:49
Speaker
they're kind of... It's kind of blurring the line a little bit with a traditional pinball machine and different options.
00:18:55
Speaker
I think P3 could really integrate it very well.
00:18:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:18:59
Speaker
But I think as a traditional pinball machine, I think it's a non-starter.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:04
Speaker
I just... Part of me was kind of... I would have liked to see it come to fruition and at least see a prototype out at a pinball show just to kind of see where it was going.
00:19:14
Speaker
But we'll never know.
00:19:16
Speaker
That was...
00:19:17
Speaker
What intrigues me is I want to know how Jeff gets this information because this has obviously been around for years now.
00:19:24
Speaker
When they pitched the idea, Angry Birds was big, what, five, ten years ago?
00:19:28
Speaker
Sure.
00:19:29
Speaker
So, I mean, Highway wasn't around that long, but even at five years ago, it makes you wonder, A, how he gets this information, and B, why it got kept quiet so long?
00:19:41
Speaker
Well, I don't know.
00:19:42
Speaker
I bet there's a lot of these.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:45
Speaker
these brainstorming sessions and maybe some, uh, you know, some arrested developments sessions that we probably never hear of.
00:19:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
Um, yeah, I, I don't know.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's, it's the same type of thing.
00:19:56
Speaker
Also, when you're trying to capitalize on a gimmick, are they going to do a flappy birds pinball machine next?
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:03
Speaker
Or, you know, the angry birds movie came out basically like two years too late because people had already stopped playing a angry bird.
00:20:12
Speaker
And so,
00:20:14
Speaker
This is the challenge of having video games from movies or something like that, where you're kind of trying to time that at the same time, but it just never really works because the movie's not done before the release.
00:20:29
Speaker
They have enough time to say, okay, here's the complete movie.
00:20:32
Speaker
Now take two years and make a pinball machine.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker
Well, and the other thing too is,
00:20:37
Speaker
We haven't made a video game or sorry, pinball hasn't made a video game pinball machine since the 90s with what's Street Fighter 2 or the Mario games.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:46
Speaker
And those were
Challenges with Video Game Themes in Pinball
00:20:47
Speaker
great.
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, they were.
00:20:48
Speaker
Okay.
00:20:48
Speaker
Again, just another thing that it's a it's a gaming theme that does not translate to pinball.
00:20:55
Speaker
True.
00:20:56
Speaker
I think there are some gaming themes out there that would translate well, but I don't think mobile games are even in that realm whatsoever.
00:21:04
Speaker
I don't see us doing a PUBG or a Candy Crush pinball machine.
00:21:10
Speaker
I know there's some people out there who would love a Candy Crush, but I just don't see.
00:21:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:16
Speaker
Those things would work well for Ticket Redemption and Slot Machine.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yep.
00:21:21
Speaker
That's it.
00:21:23
Speaker
It's the gambling side of things that I think those theme integrations would work really well for.
00:21:28
Speaker
Even Angry Birds, you could probably use something like that.
00:21:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:21:30
Speaker
But I just don't see it.
00:21:32
Speaker
Pinball, it translates more to movies in you're trying a theme, a story, chapters, end goals.
00:21:43
Speaker
It just doesn't seem to work with a lot of other games.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:46
Speaker
Well, and obviously, I mean, Angry Birds was licensing everything left and right.
00:21:51
Speaker
There
Licensing Strategies of Angry Birds
00:21:52
Speaker
was Angry Birds board games, and obviously there's a movie.
00:21:56
Speaker
These guys were probably pretty smart with their licensing.
00:21:59
Speaker
So whatever they saw in the pinball machine, probably was a good idea that they backed off.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, and the...
00:22:09
Speaker
and the person running highway.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:11
Speaker
Well, we don't know what point this was pitched at.
00:22:13
Speaker
We don't know if Alien was a disaster yet at this point.
00:22:17
Speaker
There's a lot of unanswered questions, but I don't know.
00:22:22
Speaker
It's cool to see these.
00:22:23
Speaker
There's the, oh, what's the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that they made the pinball machine that never came to fruition?
00:22:30
Speaker
Predator?
00:22:31
Speaker
You mean the guy that didn't have any licensing agreements?
00:22:33
Speaker
Well, not that.
00:22:34
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:22:36
Speaker
No, the Total Recall.
00:22:38
Speaker
The V-shaped cabinet.
00:22:40
Speaker
I mean, there's just stuff like that.
00:22:41
Speaker
It's cool to see.
00:22:43
Speaker
I mean, that's years ago, but it's cool to see this stuff come out.
00:22:46
Speaker
And yeah, but...
00:22:49
Speaker
Actually, a movie that I still want to see is the Kroll pinball machine.
00:22:53
Speaker
The Kroll?
Interest in Niche Pinball Machines
00:22:55
Speaker
So when I was like five to ten, Kroll was an awesome movie.
00:23:01
Speaker
I'm sure today it would be horrible to watch.
00:23:04
Speaker
But the pinball machine, it looks like a mini playfield, but actually underneath, it's an entire playfield.
00:23:11
Speaker
It's huge for a mini playfield.
00:23:13
Speaker
But the way they have it shrunk down in the viewing screen,
00:23:17
Speaker
I'm sure just that feature alone would have cost them way too much to mass produce.
00:23:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:23:22
Speaker
I have heard this before.
00:23:23
Speaker
That would have been interesting.
00:23:24
Speaker
I think Head to Head talked about it a couple episodes.
00:23:26
Speaker
It's probably been two or three months.
00:23:27
Speaker
But, yeah, they talked about it.
00:23:28
Speaker
It was like a magnifying glass.
00:23:30
Speaker
So that way you could see the whole play field.
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:33
Speaker
So, no, that would be cool.
00:23:35
Speaker
I would like to see that one.
00:23:38
Speaker
Well, I know that you and I have been talking for the last couple weeks about maybe theming our podcast, and so we wanted to talk about game rooms.
Theming Personal Game Rooms
00:23:46
Speaker
Where else to start but a home game room when you're talking about pinball machines, right?
00:23:51
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:23:52
Speaker
So how did you start your game room?
00:23:57
Speaker
You know what?
00:23:58
Speaker
My game room is still a work in progress.
00:24:01
Speaker
I have started picking...
00:24:06
Speaker
I have the games, but right now I don't have a theme.
00:24:10
Speaker
I would love to get my friend on though.
00:24:16
Speaker
And he has what looks like an amazing themed room downstairs.
00:24:22
Speaker
He painted his entire ceiling as a, as a Pac-Man and then on the walls, he has Mario.
00:24:28
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:28
Speaker
And so I look at that and,
00:24:32
Speaker
this is aspirational to me.
00:24:33
Speaker
Like, I don't even know what else I, what I could possibly do.
00:24:37
Speaker
But what I think though is you need to start with what do you want your room to be?
00:24:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
Because for me, a game room is kind of an escape in that, hey, there's so much stuff we're doing, we're dealing with in real life.
00:24:54
Speaker
And this is kind of a way of escaping and getting to, this is, this has nothing to do with
00:25:02
Speaker
with politics, religion, with anything else that's going on in life.
00:25:06
Speaker
This is just going back to being that 12-year-old kid and, hey, we're having fun.
00:25:14
Speaker
That's the main question I would ask is, what kind of vibe do you want your game room to have?
00:25:19
Speaker
What have you done for your game room?
00:25:21
Speaker
Honestly, my game room is my garage.
00:25:25
Speaker
It's unpainted walls.
00:25:26
Speaker
It's
00:25:27
Speaker
Band posters, there's not really much to it.
00:25:30
Speaker
I guess I really haven't thought much about having a game room, but again, we're trying to sell our home and buy a new home, and the new home we're looking at, I can turn into a game room.
00:25:41
Speaker
I think I would want to theme it around my favorite pinball machines.
00:25:45
Speaker
Maybe, because...
00:25:46
Speaker
Attack for Mars, Monster Bash, Medieval Madness.
00:25:49
Speaker
I really love the Ballet Williams stuff, which is funny for me to say because I didn't grow up in the 90s era with pinball machines.
00:25:57
Speaker
But that's kind of what I gravitate towards to.
00:25:59
Speaker
Maybe it's because of my level of gameplay that I can play towards.
00:26:03
Speaker
But I feel a satisfaction of completing the wizard modes on those ballets.
00:26:07
Speaker
I feel like they're obtainable for my level.
00:26:09
Speaker
And so I would like to do something like that.
00:26:12
Speaker
When I first got into pinball, I was trying to do like a soccer theme because my first pinball machine, well, my second pinball machine was World Cup soccer.
00:26:21
Speaker
I got kind of, it was World Cup soccer of 2014, if I remember correctly.
00:26:25
Speaker
And so I bought the World Cup soccer ball.
00:26:28
Speaker
I did some other stuff, but it didn't really mesh very well.
00:26:31
Speaker
And so I think the problem is, is
00:26:35
Speaker
how do you theme a game room when like stuff you were talking about, like Mario and Pac-Man don't necessarily mesh with pinball machines.
00:26:44
Speaker
Cause I, I, I don't strictly want just pinball machines, but I don't see, I'm one of those guys that would love to have an art, a four player arcade that had like a 60, a one or a thousand and one.
00:26:56
Speaker
And then that way I didn't have to fill up the whole game room with just arcade machines.
00:27:01
Speaker
Um,
00:27:02
Speaker
I don't know.
00:27:03
Speaker
I just think it'd be hard to theme unless a few themes were like superheroes.
00:27:06
Speaker
I mean, there's tons of superhero pinball machines.
00:27:08
Speaker
Sure.
00:27:09
Speaker
That'd be a good one.
00:27:10
Speaker
Bands.
00:27:11
Speaker
I mean, there's plenty of band ones.
00:27:14
Speaker
I guess you could even go retro at this point.
00:27:16
Speaker
You could kind of section them off if you wanted to.
00:27:20
Speaker
Um, did you, did you see on Facebook?
00:27:22
Speaker
I don't know if this is going around a couple of months ago, but there was a gentleman that when you press a certain button on his Tron arcade machine in the downstairs living room, the whole wall would move.
00:27:33
Speaker
And then when you, yeah, when you walked in there, it had like medieval madness.
00:27:37
Speaker
It had attack from.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah, I have seen that.
00:27:39
Speaker
And I look at that and say that has, that is a very motivated person to have a, a Disneyland style themed arcade.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I have seen stuff like that.
00:27:51
Speaker
And I think that, I think to start a game room, to start off, manage expectations.
00:28:00
Speaker
And so start off with a focus piece of, hey, this is a fun thing that it's not serious, but it has to do with gaming.
00:28:09
Speaker
So whether or not it's pinballs or arcade games or whatever your passion is, and have a way of just tying that in.
00:28:16
Speaker
Some good ways, like I bought a Mario, a life-size Mario that's about three feet tall that I bought from some guy who used to run a video game store, and he had it for the Nintendo 64 release party, and he's kept it around all these years.
00:28:36
Speaker
So I bought it used, and it just makes me smile every time I see it.
00:28:41
Speaker
That thing is pretty cool.
00:28:42
Speaker
Every time I go over there, whenever you have tournament nights at your home, we're like, how do we still hit that without him seeing?
00:28:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:49
Speaker
No, absolutely.
00:28:50
Speaker
Everybody says, even Jeff Rivera said that if I ever sell it, that he wants to buy it.
00:28:55
Speaker
And Jeff is the Nintendo guy.
00:28:58
Speaker
His basement is Nintendo.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah, I told him he gets first dibs.
00:29:03
Speaker
But another way of doing it is find some sort of art that goes along with it.
00:29:09
Speaker
So
00:29:10
Speaker
I think the tilt cycle, you know, that is great stuff, you know, repurposing old pinball parts and making them art somehow.
00:29:19
Speaker
I have another friend who he put lights, you know, those programmable lights in his ceiling.
00:29:26
Speaker
And so he can turn them on to whatever color.
00:29:29
Speaker
And he put back, he bought a whole bunch of,
00:29:33
Speaker
you know, trans lights or, or, uh, back glasses and he framed them and he put them on the wall.
00:29:38
Speaker
And so he has a new way of integrating, but my, my suggestion is start with a focal piece and then kind of work out from there.
00:29:46
Speaker
Just kind of figure out what vibe do you want people to have when you get into the room?
00:29:50
Speaker
Yep.
00:29:51
Speaker
Well, and the lighting you're talking about, it's like the led stripping all the way around the, the crown molding of his room, isn't it?
00:29:58
Speaker
Well, there's a few ways of doing it, but even like the Phillips Hue system, which is, it's kind of an expensive system.
00:30:06
Speaker
And so like, again, this is a baby steps here.
00:30:10
Speaker
But he has a small room that he put all his pinball machines in.
00:30:14
Speaker
It used to be a, an office and he rethemed it.
00:30:17
Speaker
So he has five on one side and five on the other side.
00:30:20
Speaker
And he has the, you know, the ultraviolet light and he has the, the carpet.
00:30:23
Speaker
He, he got a big carpet that, uh,
00:30:26
Speaker
Reminds them of the 80s and it's a really cool vibe and you go in there and it feels like you're in an arcade.
00:30:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:33
Speaker
Yeah, cool.
00:30:34
Speaker
But for mine, mine is more of a, Hey, this is a fun place to hang out.
00:30:38
Speaker
So I'm, I'm trying to, I'm still trying to integrate things.
00:30:41
Speaker
So you've got some looking for suggestions.
00:30:43
Speaker
You got like what?
00:30:45
Speaker
10, 12 pinball machines in your basement.
00:30:47
Speaker
It's a fun place to hang out.
00:30:48
Speaker
Trust me.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, it's fun.
00:30:51
Speaker
And I got a, I got a popcorn maker, which is always good.
00:30:56
Speaker
with the games down there.
00:30:57
Speaker
And so just something that's like, hey, people want to come in and hang out.
00:31:03
Speaker
Even if it's just
Advice on Buying Pinball Machines
00:31:04
Speaker
you.
00:31:05
Speaker
How did you start buying your pinball machines?
00:31:07
Speaker
I guess, where did you start looking for them?
00:31:11
Speaker
So mine was kind of haphazard.
00:31:14
Speaker
I really wasn't into pinball before I bought my first pinball machine.
00:31:19
Speaker
What I would recommend people do though, is to get tied into your local scene.
00:31:25
Speaker
Yes.
00:31:26
Speaker
So usually there's like a Facebook group or, you know, find out, find out kind of local areas that play pinball and you can start getting, you know, getting a toehold in the community.
00:31:38
Speaker
And the best way to buy games is really from other players, any local players, because you'll be able to say, this is what I'm looking for.
00:31:47
Speaker
And you'll get to know them well enough to say, well, if you trust their advice and if you think they're,
00:31:55
Speaker
They're upstanding and they'll say, well, okay, here's my budget.
00:31:58
Speaker
What would you recommend?
00:31:59
Speaker
They're like, well, here are the games in your budget.
00:32:03
Speaker
Here's some other games that you can look at.
00:32:05
Speaker
And that way you can avoid buying something purely on theme that really is a bad playing game.
00:32:10
Speaker
Well, and I think also you kind of hit it on the head is you need to go out.
00:32:14
Speaker
not only with your local scene, but find where the best places are for pinball machines and play the crap out of them.
00:32:22
Speaker
Don't be, it's easier to drop 50 bucks inside of, you know, four or five pinball machines and not have any heart or heartbreak over.
00:32:30
Speaker
Well, that's not my favorite.
00:32:32
Speaker
Instead of buying a pinball machine, even, you know, kind of used for 4,500, one of the newer Stearns and then being like, well, this wasn't what I thought it'd be.
00:32:42
Speaker
And then you have the headache of,
00:32:44
Speaker
Now I've got to sell it and all that jazz too.
00:32:48
Speaker
I would also point out, you do not want your first game to be a project game.
00:32:53
Speaker
Correct.
00:32:54
Speaker
Don't buy a $5,000 game that you got for $2,000 because it just needs a little bit of work.
00:33:00
Speaker
No, buy a game that works.
00:33:03
Speaker
And that way, because you're going to hate it.
00:33:06
Speaker
If you buy a game that always needs maintenance, you're going to hate it and it'll get you out of the hobby faster than you got it.
00:33:13
Speaker
Well, I think a lot of it too has to deal with budget.
00:33:16
Speaker
So if you're looking for budget pins, this would be my recommendation to you.
00:33:20
Speaker
This is what I've done.
00:33:21
Speaker
Make friends with local arcade owners.
00:33:25
Speaker
Nine times out of 10.
00:33:28
Speaker
Hopefully this isn't your first pinball machine, mate.
00:33:31
Speaker
You're looking for your second or your third.
00:33:33
Speaker
but hit up an arcade owner, say, hey, I'm looking for some pinball machines.
00:33:37
Speaker
Do you have anything?
00:33:38
Speaker
There was a gentleman, they'll either tell you one of two things.
00:33:42
Speaker
No, I'm not selling in my pinball machines.
00:33:44
Speaker
You can't buy them.
00:33:45
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:33:46
Speaker
You back off.
00:33:47
Speaker
Or the second one is, I've got three set in the back.
00:33:51
Speaker
None of them work.
00:33:52
Speaker
They turn on or they do whatever quirk it is.
00:33:55
Speaker
And honestly, some of those arcade owners don't know what they're doing.
00:33:59
Speaker
And so it could be something as simple as like my World Cup soccer.
00:34:03
Speaker
I'm not going to say how much I bought it for, but I got it for a really good price.
00:34:06
Speaker
And really one of the only things that was wrong with it was it was missing a soundboard.
00:34:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's a $300 fix.
00:34:12
Speaker
Well, and there was other stuff too, missing rollovers, missing this and that.
00:34:16
Speaker
But it was little easy stuff that I could fix myself.
00:34:19
Speaker
It wasn't like gouges in the play field to the point of the ball would get stuck somewhere.
00:34:26
Speaker
Or look for stuff that you feel comfortable in fixing as well, especially if you're going with budget pinball.
00:34:33
Speaker
And there's nothing wrong with owning a budget pinball machine.
00:34:36
Speaker
I do feel weird now having my World Cup soccer that has
00:34:40
Speaker
you know, one of the plastic ramps was broken in a spot, and so there's like a metal piece that's there, so it doesn't look fantastic, but it does the job, and it still plays smooth and flowy, it doesn't hang up there, but sitting next to Monster Bash, new out of the box, you know, you kind of look at your other one, you're like, oh, this doesn't look as great as what I have to the next of it, so it just depends on your budget, so.
00:35:07
Speaker
I agree.
00:35:08
Speaker
What I am saying, though, is that
00:35:09
Speaker
you should at least your first pin, you should get one that plays.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yes.
00:35:14
Speaker
Because you don't want to just have an expensive box of lights.
00:35:17
Speaker
Yep.
00:35:18
Speaker
I totally agree.
00:35:20
Speaker
So,
Location Used Pinball Machines Pros & Cons
00:35:22
Speaker
well, and I guess that brings us to the next thing we want to talk about.
00:35:24
Speaker
New versus slightly used versus location used.
00:35:29
Speaker
I guess, should we do pros and cons?
00:35:30
Speaker
What do you want to do?
00:35:32
Speaker
Yeah, let's do pros and cons.
00:35:33
Speaker
So why don't you go first?
00:35:36
Speaker
Let's start with the
00:35:39
Speaker
Let's start with cheap is too expensive.
00:35:40
Speaker
Sounds great to me.
00:35:41
Speaker
I feel more comfortable in the location used bin.
00:35:44
Speaker
Okay, so the pro is nine times out of ten, it's going to be fairly cheaper.
00:35:50
Speaker
You really got to keep an eye on them, though.
00:35:52
Speaker
In our area, there's a local arcade gentleman that thinks that his pins are worth a ridiculous amount of money.
00:36:01
Speaker
Sure.
00:36:01
Speaker
I went and looked at one of his Terminator 2s.
00:36:03
Speaker
It was missing inserts in the play field.
00:36:05
Speaker
The ball will get stuck in the hole where the insert was supposed to be.
00:36:08
Speaker
And he wanted three grand for the Terminator 2.
00:36:12
Speaker
Dang.
00:36:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:13
Speaker
Wow.
00:36:13
Speaker
So there are going to be those people out there.
00:36:16
Speaker
But there are going to be people that will sell you a pinball machine for less than $1,000.
00:36:20
Speaker
So there is that pro.
00:36:21
Speaker
You got that price.
00:36:24
Speaker
Location used, nine times out of 10, they're those pinball machines you grew up with.
00:36:29
Speaker
So they're themes that you want.
00:36:32
Speaker
They are the Terminator 2s.
00:36:33
Speaker
They're the...
00:36:34
Speaker
Well, not Adam's family because that's a little more desirable, but there's going to be games that were highly produced like the getaway.
00:36:41
Speaker
It's the volume market.
00:36:43
Speaker
Exactly.
00:36:43
Speaker
It's the volume market.
00:36:45
Speaker
And so you're going to find one of those pinball machines that you pumped quarters into and you wish you would have owned it when you were 12 and now you can own it now that you're 42.
00:36:55
Speaker
So cons, they're going to be beaten up.
00:37:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:01
Speaker
I've come to figure out that the outside doesn't really matter as much just because once you slide that pinball machine into place, it usually goes next to another one or it goes next to a wall.
00:37:12
Speaker
So you're not going to be seeing the sides of it.
00:37:15
Speaker
So long as it's not splintering, so long as it's not warped, so long as it's not dry rot, but you got water on it and so you know, swelling of the plywood or whatever.
00:37:25
Speaker
Just make sure those things are affecting it.
00:37:29
Speaker
And then just kind of go over, this is what I do when I go to buy a location pinball machine.
00:37:34
Speaker
I actually watch like Bo and Karen's tutorials for the PAPA videos and see how the game should play.
00:37:42
Speaker
Oh, you know, when I shoot this ball here, it should do this.
00:37:45
Speaker
And then that way, when you go to check out the pinball machine, you can kind of push buttons and say, oh, this isn't working or that isn't working.
00:37:54
Speaker
Um, and so, cause you don't want to get at home and then realize like there's parts of it that aren't working at all.
00:38:00
Speaker
And then you should have not bought it because it's going to cost you an extra five or $600 because of it.
00:38:07
Speaker
So, um, well that, that's kind of the lipstick on the pig, uh, scenario too, where it looks, it looks nice, but it's not working.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yep.
00:38:16
Speaker
Um, and, uh, there's a, there's a,
00:38:20
Speaker
a guide, actually a book guide that I recommend someone, everybody buying a copy of it and just having it as kind of a reference.
00:38:27
Speaker
It's a, it's Mr. Pinball.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yep.
00:38:30
Speaker
And there's a book guide that tells about, well, this is how roughly how many were produced and this is kind of what the going rate and if they think it's going up or down.
00:38:39
Speaker
Now you do need to take that with a grain of salt.
00:38:42
Speaker
Um, my attitude is if, if the market is sustaining 3,500 for a machine,
00:38:50
Speaker
If a machine is higher quality, say like a third, you know, something that someone's asking 3,800 and it's worth it, not just someone who's delusional, then I'm willing to pay the 3,800 because I'd rather just have a game that is a higher quality game.
00:39:04
Speaker
But if you can find a game that is, well, at least you need to know the going rate and then kind of guesstimate how much work you'd have to put into it.
00:39:17
Speaker
I think that lets you decide whether or not you want to buy the game.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:39:23
Speaker
Well, I think that pretty much covers it for location used.
00:39:26
Speaker
What are your thoughts on slightly used?
00:39:30
Speaker
I am a
Slightly Used Pinball Machines Pros & Cons
00:39:31
Speaker
huge fan of the home use only market.
00:39:35
Speaker
People who have bought them and have had them for a while and they're just ready to move on.
00:39:43
Speaker
My Simpsons is...
00:39:46
Speaker
I don't think you could find a nicer Simpsons.
00:39:48
Speaker
I think it was just a family who bought it and put it downstairs and probably had less than 50 plays on it.
00:39:53
Speaker
And so in my Spider-Man is basically the same way where it's, you know, I bought it from a family who they had moved on and they hadn't played it in years.
00:40:05
Speaker
And it still looks like it was new in box, able to get it for a decent price.
00:40:11
Speaker
The nice thing about it is you're saving on shipping, especially if you're buying it locally, you're saving on shipping, you're saving on tax, and you're probably getting maybe $1,000 to $1,500 off depending on what the market's going for.
00:40:28
Speaker
But you get that, it doesn't have the new car smell, but it still looks like a new car.
00:40:36
Speaker
So I think that's a great place.
00:40:38
Speaker
Now the caution is,
00:40:39
Speaker
you need to make sure that they at least have kept it in a place that's not, there's no warp in it or the batteries that they forgot to change 20 years ago.
00:40:50
Speaker
And so you have acid wear on it.
00:40:52
Speaker
But I'm a big fan of that market because that's where I buy most of my games.
00:40:56
Speaker
Well, the thing I like about this market is if you're looking for a new pinball machine, like say a Guardians of the Galaxy, it's been out for about a year now.
00:41:06
Speaker
This is what I love about it is
00:41:08
Speaker
You got people that then see Munsters that come out and go, hey, that's what I want.
00:41:13
Speaker
I got to get unload one because a lot of us can't.
00:41:15
Speaker
It's more of a room situation or it could be money.
00:41:19
Speaker
But they say, I got to get rid of one.
00:41:21
Speaker
And they usually get rid of the one that they've played for the last six months.
00:41:25
Speaker
Now they're just sick of even looking at it.
00:41:27
Speaker
And so you can find Guardians of the Galaxy for like $4,500 now versus new in boxes, what, $58?
00:41:32
Speaker
And so...
00:41:35
Speaker
Yeah, 53 if you talk them down.
00:41:37
Speaker
But yeah.
00:41:38
Speaker
No, absolutely.
00:41:39
Speaker
But you're not paying for shipping.
00:41:42
Speaker
You're getting it.
00:41:43
Speaker
And yes, that's the thing that people forget about, these limited markets.
00:41:47
Speaker
So even in like LEs, if you want LE, fine.
00:41:50
Speaker
And they're sold out, fine.
00:41:52
Speaker
I guarantee wait a year or wait six months and someone who bought it is going to say, oh, well, the next LE is coming out.
00:41:58
Speaker
I need to sell this one.
00:41:59
Speaker
Yep.
00:42:00
Speaker
Exactly.
00:42:00
Speaker
And there are some of us that hold on to them, but there are going to be a handful of people that will say, hey, it's time to let this Deadpool Pro go.
00:42:10
Speaker
And if you've been playing at your local barcade or your local arcade and you're loving it, it's worth the $4,500 or the $5,000 just to pick it up and take it home.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:42:21
Speaker
That's what I like about Slightly Used.
00:42:25
Speaker
I think that's the sweet spot as long as you find the right seller.
00:42:30
Speaker
and willing to kind of wait to find the right thing.
00:42:33
Speaker
And you also, you have to figure out availability though.
00:42:38
Speaker
So if you wanna go out and buy a Black Knight 2000 home use only, you're probably not gonna find one, at least very readily available.
00:42:46
Speaker
However, you can find something that is readily available.
00:42:50
Speaker
And if you're flexible and you don't have that one machine that you're hunting after, you can find something good.
00:42:58
Speaker
Well, I think also Slightly Used does fall into a kind of a specific category.
00:43:02
Speaker
Like you said, it's going to be hard to find like a Black Knight 2000.
00:43:06
Speaker
But I think those newer Stearns, anything in that last five years, Jersey Jacks, you know, Wizard Rods, stuff like that.
00:43:13
Speaker
And the nice part too is with buying Slightly Used, you get all that feedback of, hey, this is what typically breaks on this pinball machine.
00:43:22
Speaker
So take a look and see if this is what's broken.
00:43:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
Or this is a dog.
00:43:26
Speaker
You thought this was going to be a big seller and it turned out to be not so big of a seller.
00:43:30
Speaker
So if you're a wrestling fan, go and pick up that WrestleMania LE or whatever it is.
00:43:36
Speaker
Exactly.
00:43:38
Speaker
Well, let's move on to new.
00:43:41
Speaker
The only thing
New Pinball Machines Pros & Cons
00:43:42
Speaker
I can think of with new that it would be a con is price.
00:43:45
Speaker
And you're buying the car off the lot, so to speak.
00:43:48
Speaker
And you're going to have depreciation the second you drive it off the lot.
00:43:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:52
Speaker
There's no ifs, ands, or buts about that.
00:43:55
Speaker
But then again, you get the new car smell, right?
00:43:59
Speaker
You do.
00:44:00
Speaker
The challenge, too, is that not all new inboxes are created equal.
00:44:06
Speaker
And so they talked about it on Slam Tilt where they said, the irony of dialed in is that when you buy it, it's not dialed in.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yep.
00:44:15
Speaker
So you have to figure out how to
00:44:19
Speaker
basically how to make a machine work for you just right out of the box.
00:44:23
Speaker
Because sometimes it doesn't.
00:44:25
Speaker
And sometimes there's recalls.
00:44:27
Speaker
I had to replace a ramp in my Attack from Mars LE.
00:44:30
Speaker
And I bought that new in-box.
00:44:31
Speaker
Not a ramp, but an orbit thing.
00:44:35
Speaker
So there are little things like that where
00:44:44
Speaker
you are getting the new car.
00:44:46
Speaker
And you also don't know where the vulnerabilities are.
00:44:48
Speaker
Even if it's a brand new, a new game or a new old game, there's still gonna be things that they're fine tuning and that they are gonna fix with time.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yep.
00:45:00
Speaker
Well, I guess that's what you gotta outweigh is, is it worth it for me to buy brand new Unbox?
00:45:06
Speaker
And especially now that they've implemented the new tax code, so you can't buy over state lines without having to pay the tax for it.
00:45:14
Speaker
Which always seems kind of an end around to me.
00:45:18
Speaker
You can get out your pitchforks, but I'm going to be one of those guys to say it's actually a good thing for them to say, no, you really have to pay taxes just because you're crossing a state line.
00:45:31
Speaker
It doesn't matter because I think what it does is it brings people back home.
00:45:36
Speaker
because it was driving.
00:45:38
Speaker
We don't have a distributor in Utah anymore because it was driving the competition by saying, well, I can buy it from you, who's my local guy, or I can buy it from someone right outside the state lines and I'm getting a $300 credit.
00:45:53
Speaker
That always seemed like it didn't ring true for what was supposed to be going on.
00:46:00
Speaker
So I'm hoping that
00:46:02
Speaker
with closing that loophole that it kind of drives people back to their home market.
00:46:08
Speaker
I think it might, but I think there's also a lot of loyalty there.
00:46:12
Speaker
I don't know.
00:46:13
Speaker
But then again, $500 is $500.
00:46:14
Speaker
No, it is.
00:46:17
Speaker
And I think that that kind of drives you back to the second because you're not going to be able to, on the secondary market, even if it's, let's just say, $5,500 for a pro.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:29
Speaker
If you buy that and you pay sales tax on it, you're not going to be able to sell it for $5,600.
00:46:36
Speaker
People don't do that.
00:46:37
Speaker
No, they don't.
00:46:39
Speaker
Well, and I can't remember which podcast it was, but someone had mentioned it could even become a bargaining chip.
00:46:45
Speaker
Hey, you're not paying tax now on this when you're buying it used.
00:46:48
Speaker
You're saving yourself that extra money on top.
00:46:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:52
Speaker
So it'll be interesting to see how that works into everything.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:56
Speaker
No, I agree.
00:46:57
Speaker
So now you got your new pinball machine setting in your basement, whether you bought location, whether you bought slightly used or you're new.
Favorite Pinball Toys
00:47:04
Speaker
What are your three machines in your game room that you've gravitated towards based on toys?
00:47:11
Speaker
You want to do your one and I'll do one and then we'll just kind of move back and forth like that?
00:47:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:16
Speaker
So I'll say that the top three that kind of make me smile every time.
00:47:21
Speaker
So I'll go with my three.
00:47:23
Speaker
So I love the Canon and Black Rose.
00:47:28
Speaker
the Canon is such a cool feature that it goes down underneath the play field and it rotates and then you hit the button and it shoots out from underneath the play field.
00:47:39
Speaker
Every time it does that, I smile just because it's different.
00:47:45
Speaker
It's different than a lot of the games now have the same vibe where they have a bash toy here, a bash toy there, but it just doesn't have the same sort of
00:47:56
Speaker
ingenuity, I guess, the Canada.
00:47:58
Speaker
So I love that every time.
00:48:01
Speaker
I agree.
00:48:02
Speaker
I wasn't a huge fan of Black Rose until I came over to your house and actually got some playtime on it.
00:48:09
Speaker
And it is a fun pinball machine because of that.
00:48:12
Speaker
Now, I will say, I did fine tweak it, though.
00:48:14
Speaker
So when I first got the Black Rose, I didn't really like it as much.
00:48:19
Speaker
But I did a couple things that really changed things.
00:48:24
Speaker
I put Invisiglass on it because that field is super dark anyway.
00:48:29
Speaker
And so finally I was able to see all the way up.
00:48:32
Speaker
And then I got the Penn Stadium lights in it and it really changed the vibe of the game.
00:48:37
Speaker
So it felt like, oh, this is a modern game.
00:48:39
Speaker
It didn't feel like a game from the early 90s.
00:48:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:42
Speaker
So my first one I'm gonna talk about, my first toy, is Thing from Adam's Family.
00:48:48
Speaker
It's very satisfying once you get greed lit up, and then you do the short plunge right into the scoop, and Thing gets rang up by the telephone right next to his box, and he comes out and grabs that ball.
00:49:01
Speaker
It puts a smile on my face every time because
00:49:04
Speaker
It's such a cool idea that, I guess in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really add to the gameplay.
00:49:11
Speaker
I mean, it's really just a magnet grabbing a ball that diverts it somewhere else.
00:49:15
Speaker
But it's just really cool that that was one of the ideas that they had, that it adds to the actual world under glass, so to speak.
00:49:26
Speaker
It's just, it's awesome.
00:49:27
Speaker
Every time I have someone come over, I'm like, you've got to get it in that scoop so you can see thing grab the ball.
00:49:32
Speaker
And so it's what people remember.
00:49:34
Speaker
And that's one of why it's one of my favorite toys.
00:49:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
I think it's, it's part of the experience.
00:49:39
Speaker
It's part of something fun.
00:49:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:42
Speaker
So, so, so my second one would be the stern pirates of the Caribbean, the ship.
00:49:49
Speaker
Oh yes.
00:49:49
Speaker
I mean,
00:49:51
Speaker
The ship, you hit it, the sails go down, you hit it again, it starts rocking back and forth, and you hit it again, it sinks.
00:49:59
Speaker
And it's the only toy that I can think of that really has three different iterations of how you actually look at it.
00:50:07
Speaker
And since I have a home market and I got a different, I got an airball diverter that I put down so I was able to take the sneeze guard off it, it looks even better.
00:50:18
Speaker
Cool.
00:50:20
Speaker
I love that.
00:50:21
Speaker
And everyone likes it.
00:50:22
Speaker
You know, it's like, hey, hit that ship.
00:50:23
Speaker
You'll see something really cool.
00:50:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:50:26
Speaker
And I love how with that game that they integrate also kind of the safety on the first ship.
00:50:31
Speaker
So that way the ball is kind of caught and drifted back down towards you.
00:50:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:37
Speaker
As safe as it can do.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:40
Speaker
Well, my next toy that I was thinking of was, I don't know if this counts as a toy or not, but I'm going for it.
00:50:46
Speaker
The goalie and the goal on World Cup soccer.
00:50:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:50
Speaker
I love how responsive that system is.
00:50:53
Speaker
You shoot in the goal.
00:50:55
Speaker
It yells goal just like you would in a World Cup game.
00:50:59
Speaker
If the default, if the goalie ends up deflecting it, you know,
00:51:05
Speaker
The announcer's like, oh, that was a great shot, but he blocked it.
00:51:09
Speaker
It gives you a lot of feedback that way.
00:51:11
Speaker
And it's just satisfying.
00:51:12
Speaker
I know people that will come over and play that game, and that's all they do is just shoot for the goal.
00:51:17
Speaker
And it's not even lit, guys.
00:51:19
Speaker
Stop shooting for it.
00:51:21
Speaker
They're like, we love it, though.
00:51:22
Speaker
Just keep shooting.
00:51:23
Speaker
And it's more of a shot.
00:51:24
Speaker
But I mean, with the integration of the goalie moving back and forth,
00:51:27
Speaker
it just, it, it's one of those games that every time I go back to it, it puts a smile on my face just because that goalie, uh, getting it past him and just yelling goal, you know, it's just, it's perfect.
00:51:38
Speaker
I love it.
00:51:39
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's, it's a great feeling.
00:51:42
Speaker
Uh, my number one is, I think everybody's toy number one is the medieval madness castle.
00:51:48
Speaker
Um, I think it's genius.
00:51:50
Speaker
Uh, my kids, that's all they want to shoot for is they want to shoot for the castle.
00:51:56
Speaker
And I, I,
00:51:57
Speaker
I think that the ability they had to integrate that into a game is kind of mind-boggling.
00:52:04
Speaker
And so I love having that.
00:52:06
Speaker
And that is always my go-to.
00:52:09
Speaker
If someone says, hey, I have limited space, but I have excess budget, what's one game I'd get?
00:52:15
Speaker
And I said, I'd get this one because it caters to easy players, it caters to beginning guys, it caters to experienced guys.
00:52:26
Speaker
The only people it wouldn't really cater to is probably like the ultra tournament guys.
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:31
Speaker
But, you know, you can still make that really hard for that.
00:52:34
Speaker
But that's really such a small market of who's actually buying a game for the home market when you look at the grand scheme of things.
00:52:42
Speaker
So it's always my go to for people who are new to the game.
00:52:46
Speaker
Well, that's one of my favorites, too.
00:52:47
Speaker
I mean, that's what drew me into pinball.
00:52:49
Speaker
I remember after my first time playing pinball, I asked Sean what the best pinball game out there is, and he said Medieval Madness, and then he described the castle to me, and I had to play it.
00:53:01
Speaker
That's when the pinball arcade had Medieval Madness still on there, so I downloaded it and played the crap out of it.
00:53:06
Speaker
It's one of those toys that is one of those defining traits.
00:53:10
Speaker
So my number one right now in my collection would have to be the Frankenstein Bash toy on Monster Bash.
00:53:22
Speaker
It's a good one.
00:53:23
Speaker
It's fantastic because when it starts up...
00:53:27
Speaker
It starts with the whole, the scientist is flipping the switch and Igor's there pumping Frankenstein up.
00:53:33
Speaker
It yells it's alive and you just start wailing on him.
00:53:37
Speaker
And especially with Chicago gaming, the integration of the shaker motor along with the new visuals, it's just perfect.
00:53:46
Speaker
It's terrible to say, but it feels like you're obviously lighting him on fire just because you hit him, it shakes, he goes up in flames.
00:53:55
Speaker
It's funny because when I originally used to play Monster Bash, it was more for the strategy of starting the modes and then hitting Frankenstein last.
00:54:03
Speaker
But if I don't start a single mode and I start Frankenstein multiball on my third ball, I'm happy because I get to beat up Frankenstein.
00:54:11
Speaker
So that's honestly my favorite toy right now.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's good.
00:54:17
Speaker
And the way that they have done their LEs on their Monster Bashes, they have taken it and upgraded a classic.
00:54:26
Speaker
And so it's a perfect integration for someone who wants that old school feel.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yep.
00:54:32
Speaker
Well, and going back to us talking about new in box, I honestly haven't had
00:54:38
Speaker
any issues except for maybe adjusting coil strength on my pinball machine.
00:54:42
Speaker
Um, I was, I got it out of the box and I was so excited to start playing it.
00:54:46
Speaker
I had it like nine degree pitch and it got really frustrating because that left ramp is not very forgiving.
00:54:54
Speaker
If you don't get it even halfway up that ramp, it screams back at you.
00:54:57
Speaker
So I finally adjusted and everything, but
00:55:01
Speaker
Yeah, so that's our top three for our pinball machines.
00:55:04
Speaker
If anyone
Engaging with the Podcast Hosts
00:55:05
Speaker
wants to reach out to us and tell us why they have a favorite toy, you can definitely hit us up at LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
00:55:14
Speaker
We also have a Facebook of LoserKidPinballPodcast.
00:55:17
Speaker
Or you can find us on Facebook.
00:55:19
Speaker
That's probably the best place to find you, right, Scott?
00:55:22
Speaker
Probably.
00:55:23
Speaker
Probably.
00:55:24
Speaker
Well, and the cool part is, since we've started this up, just the people that have reached out, Dennis Creasel of Eclectic Gamers just shot the breeze with me a couple weeks ago.
00:55:35
Speaker
After our last episode, he wanted to talk about, he was intrigued by the idea of the Stern swappable play fields for the old classics.
00:55:45
Speaker
And we just talked about how it wasn't really viable, but it was cool.
00:55:48
Speaker
It's cool to get a conversation like that going.
00:55:52
Speaker
So we're just two dudes that like to BS about pinball.
00:55:55
Speaker
If you want to talk about it, we're available.
00:55:58
Speaker
So...
00:56:00
Speaker
Well, we're kind of getting close to our, our end mark.
00:56:02
Speaker
I didn't know if there's anything you want to talk about before we go or, um, uh, no, nothing, nothing so far.
00:56:10
Speaker
I need to think about the, uh, the other things that we're going to be talking about in upcoming shows.
00:56:15
Speaker
If people have suggestions, feel free to send in, uh,
00:56:17
Speaker
send in a suggestion to Josh.
00:56:19
Speaker
He, he reads all the emails.
00:56:20
Speaker
So I need to get Scott set up so he can read those emails as well.
00:56:23
Speaker
But I wanted to do a couple of shout outs, a special one lit.
00:56:27
Speaker
Thank you for giving us a shout out on not this last episode, but the episode before.
00:56:32
Speaker
I really appreciate that you guys sat down and actually listened to us and gave us some feedback.
00:56:36
Speaker
I thought that was really cool.
00:56:39
Speaker
And I want to give a shout out to the pinball nerd, Albert.
00:56:42
Speaker
I cannot pronounce your last name, so I'm not going to do it.
00:56:44
Speaker
But it's a different approach to podcasting right now.
00:56:47
Speaker
It's kind of cool because it's just like a chill vibe of listening to a dude and his pinball thoughts.
00:56:52
Speaker
So I thought that was pretty cool as well.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:56:57
Speaker
Everything else has been pretty kosher.
00:56:59
Speaker
I'm liking how this is going.
00:57:03
Speaker
All right.
00:57:03
Speaker
We'll go out and shovel some snow.
00:57:05
Speaker
We'll do.
00:57:05
Speaker
You too, sir.
00:57:07
Speaker
All right.
00:57:07
Speaker
We'll see you.
00:57:08
Speaker
All right.
00:57:08
Speaker
Later.