Ep 41: Turtles, 80's Bands, and Black Panther

Transcript

Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the loser kid pinball podcast.

Speaker: We are on episode 34.

Speaker: We're close.

Speaker: We are on episode 41.

Speaker: My co-captain is always Scott Larson.

Speaker: Let's start out first and foremost with Zach and Nicole.

Speaker: at Flippin' Out Pinball, a great resource to buy new in-box pinball machines and also toppers, a topper update in our discussion later today.

Speaker: Very nice.

Speaker: Yeah, give Zach a call.

Speaker: He's great to work with.

Speaker: Also, this week in pinball, if you want to get that itch to check out the All Things Pinball and get it distilled down into one easy page, just go ahead and check out

Speaker: this week in pinball, a great way to keep you up to date.

Speaker: Also, Rattle Up Frames, a great way to display all those trans lights that have been collecting dust underneath your pinball machines.

Speaker: Go ahead and light them up and put them around your pinball room to make it a little more arcade-like.

Speaker: Also, if you're interested in trying to spruce up those old titles, go ahead and check out Brian Allen at Flyland Designs, and he can give you the licensed update or his take on three classic themes, including Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, and Monster Bash.

Speaker: And I hear other ones are coming up.

Speaker: So classics are great, too.

Speaker: Sometimes it's fun to spice it up.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't know who would have told you what was coming because they didn't tell me anything.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But no, yeah, check all those people out.

Speaker: Fantastic people.

Speaker: Should we dive into the news or should we dive into our personal lives first?

Speaker: You know what?

Speaker: Let's kind of do a recap of what's been going on.

Speaker: So let's talk about updates to the game room.

Speaker: So we haven't done that in a while.

Speaker: I actually sold one of my favorite games.

Speaker: I sold Iron Man.

Speaker: I can't believe you sold that, by the way.

Speaker: That was a beautiful machine.

Speaker: I know.

Speaker: And really, it was one of those where it was my friend.

Speaker: I started taking tennis about four months ago, and I met him, this tennis coach.

Speaker: He's a local guy through another pinball friend, the guy who I bought my Jurassic Park through.

Speaker: And he has started collecting pinball machines.

Speaker: And he came over when we opened up Jurassic park down here and he helped me move it down.

Speaker: And he is really into superhero themes and he loved my X-Men and he loved Iron Man.

Speaker: And I, he said, would you ever be interested in selling it?

Speaker: And I thought about it for a while and I said, you know,

Speaker: Yeah, actually, I feel like I've played it enough.

Speaker: It's one of those games where I love it.

Speaker: It's a great go-to.

Speaker: But in some ways, you know how you have that album that you always go to because you just love listening to that album?

Speaker: And sometimes other albums can suffer because you really like that one album.

Speaker: Sometimes you have to just move on and say, I want to try different things.

Speaker: So it was a customized Iron Man.

Speaker: It was...

Speaker: It was a high end one.

Speaker: It was a it was a refinery edition.

Speaker: So they've done a lot of customization on it.

Speaker: And in some ways, those things are great.

Speaker: However, you have to find the right buyer for something like that because it is a little more expensive than your standard one.

Speaker: So but I gave him a great deal.

Speaker: It's in his basement and it's two blocks away from my house.

Speaker: Very nice.

Speaker: That's the way to go.

Speaker: So, you know, it's still great.

Speaker: And X-Men should be leaving sometime this month.

Speaker: I need to double check on that guy, the guy I bought it from.

Speaker: He wanted to buy it back.

Speaker: And it just helps me par down things a little bit.

Speaker: I'm still waiting to hear from Zach when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the premium edition, will be shipping.

Speaker: But I've been having fun and I've been kind of busy with getting ready for school.

Speaker: So that's what's been going on.

Speaker: Uh, I also ordered a few toppers, but we'll talk about that a little later.

Speaker: Go ahead, Josh.

Speaker: What have you been going on?

Speaker: As far as my collection goes, uh, we talked about, I got rid of monster bash in June.

Speaker: I was very sad to see it go went to a wonderful home.

Speaker: Uh, Steve Hill, uh, the gentleman that's over the professional disc golf association podcast.

Speaker: If you haven't checked that out.

Speaker: And you're into disc golf.

Speaker: Why haven't you checked it out yet?

Speaker: But he sends me updates every once in a while, like, you know, loving the game and, you know, got to Monsters of Rock or still trying to get to.

Speaker: It's really cool.

Speaker: It's kind of like watching a child go, but still be able to check up on it every once in a while.

Speaker: And then I got the text last Wednesday from Zach at Flippin' Out saying, hey, your game has shipped.

Speaker: It's a three-day shipping to Utah.

Speaker: You'll see it on Monday.

Speaker: And so I was like an anxious little kid on Monday debating whether I should call in sick to work so I could play it all day.

Speaker: But I knew if I called in sick...

Speaker: that I would be doing honey do's instead of working.

Speaker: So I just went to work anyway, but, but I got it home.

Speaker: Uh, when I got home, there was no one else home.

Speaker: So I hurry and wielded into the house, got it all set up and played a couple of games before the family even showed up.

Speaker: And man, it's, I love it.

Speaker: So, um,

Speaker: But maybe I won't talk about that right now.

Speaker: Maybe we'll talk about a review or we can talk about it now.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: So, you know, let's cycle it.

Speaker: Let's let's do a quick flyby and then we'll do a deep dive.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's brutal.

Speaker: I would not recommend this if it's your first game.

Speaker: The reason being is.

Speaker: I think when they built this game, they really took co-op into consideration because it's like it is brutal, but you can go into co-op and then you technically have 12 balls instead of just a three.

Speaker: So I've really enjoyed that.

Speaker: At first, I was very confused on some of the rules because the rule card doesn't really tell you stuff.

Speaker: And so I was very discombobulated the first evening I had it because I just I didn't know what I was doing.

Speaker: But overall, I love everything.

Speaker: The artwork is, as Christopher Franchi would say, knocked out of the park.

Speaker: Borg's design is fantastic.

Speaker: It's just a brutal version of Tron.

Speaker: Well, not just like, but just the filling of that left shot.

Speaker: And I've heard complaints about the code being unbalanced.

Speaker: Now that I further understand the game, I understand where a lot of the score is coming from.

Speaker: And so I don't feel like it's unbalanced.

Speaker: It's just if you get going in a multiball, you can really rack up some points if you're paying attention.

Speaker: So I think it's a very well-rounded game, especially right out of the gate.

Speaker: I mean, they started shipping these in what?

Speaker: May?

Speaker: End of May?

Speaker: June?

Speaker: Somewhere around that?

Speaker: No, sorry.

Speaker: We're in the three-month cycle.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, so, uh, they started shipping in June.

Speaker: That's what it was June, July.

Speaker: Um, because we put our orders in at the beginning of June and, uh, yeah, I, I, I really have no complaints.

Speaker: Uh, it does have the Dwight problem where it, it blinds you and some of the light stuff.

Speaker: Um, but other than that, man, like it's, it's really great game.

Speaker: So, yeah, cool.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: That will be interesting.

Speaker: I'm interested to try it out.

Speaker: Have you noticed that, man, I wish there were a diverter on there or the Raphael Flyer, or do you feel that it's a complete game?

Speaker: You don't feel like you're missing anything by not having that premium version?

Speaker: I feel like it's a very complete game without the diverter.

Speaker: I don't know if you listened to Slam Tilt last week or maybe it was this week, but Ron, I can't remember if it was Ron or Bruce.

Speaker: I apologize.

Speaker: But they went out and they played the premium and the pro.

Speaker: And the problem is that center button is too far away.

Speaker: The game's just too fast.

Speaker: They never even really noticed using the diverter.

Speaker: Me, myself, personally, if you could get used to using the diverter, I think it could be an advantage because when you're making a lot of shots, nothing comes safely back to the left flipper.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: One of the flippers.

Speaker: The left flipper.

Speaker: That's what it is.

Speaker: The only shot that comes back safely to the left flipper is the side ramp, which for some odd reason in the game they call the center ramp, but it's actually the side ramp.

Speaker: And so it's almost like, well, I would prefer not to shoot the side ramp because if I miss, then it's very dangerous.

Speaker: And so there's not really a safe return to the left flipper.

Speaker: So if you have that diverter, you could shoot the right ramp and divert it back to the left flipper, if that makes sense.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Well, and that's the whole point of having the diverter is you being able to select the shots and being able to guide it a little more.

Speaker: It's the same thing with having the Walking Dead where, you know, you have the walker bombs or you have the crossbow.

Speaker: It's just one more way of controlling the game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, I was talking to Jack danger tonight cause he's been playing it on stream for like a month and a half now.

Speaker: And he says it's, it's just as brutal as probably black night.

Speaker: And I, I would not disagree with him.

Speaker: It's, it's pretty brutal.

Speaker: It's, um, but it's really, really fun.

Speaker: That's the thing.

Speaker: Uh, out of all the turtles, uh,

Speaker: I found that Raphael's the best.

Speaker: Really none of the others give you perks that are super fantastic.

Speaker: Raphael all day.

Speaker: What do they say in Game of Thrones?

Speaker: Isn't it like a... Yeah, Martel all day.

Speaker: Yeah, Martel all day.

Speaker: It's Raphael all day on this one.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But no, seriously, it's a really fantastic game.

Speaker: I'm very happy with the end result.

Speaker: I've probably dropped every free moment I've gotten this week.

Speaker: I've put time in on it.

Speaker: I've dropped maybe 30, 40 games on it so far.

Speaker: Maybe more.

Speaker: There's little things that I'm loving.

Speaker: The one thing that it does not explain to you...

Speaker: is how to start an episode and it's just left ramp, right ramp or right ramp, left ramp.

Speaker: And then you shoot, shoot the pizza parlor, which is the shot right under the turtle van.

Speaker: Cause for the longest time, like how do I even start an episode?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And, and it just, it never said.

Speaker: So I was like, I'm reading the scorecard and the scorecards like to do an episode, shoot the start episode at the turtle van.

Speaker: I'm like, well, that's great.

Speaker: But how do I light the light it?

Speaker: You know?

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so,

Speaker: Um, there's some stuff too, like one, two, three foot just starts randomly.

Speaker: Well, not randomly.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: If it comes through the left end lane, uh, it just starts and in Dwight fashion, all the lights change.

Speaker: It's very cool.

Speaker: Uh, the, the music changes and whatnot, but it seems like once you get into that hurry up, everything else kind of stops.

Speaker: Um, and it happens a lot.

Speaker: And so have you tried the pin shades on it?

Speaker: I have not yet.

Speaker: You need to try the pin shades and a circle around.

Speaker: Good point.

Speaker: I've been waiting for the, uh, one of my games to not have a, or glass on it.

Speaker: And so I have still, uh, wanted to try the pin shades in a home environment and see what the difference is between that and the air glass.

Speaker: So I'm going to, I'll definitely do that the next couple of days and then we can report back.

Speaker: Cause I don't know why I've just, I've just, every time I've played, I've just played.

Speaker: And so, yeah.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: But the other cool part too is, so my son and I are just 11 co-op.

Speaker: It's really like Carter seriously wakes up and comes down and turns on the pinball machine and plays all day long.

Speaker: Like he'll play a handful of games and then go, go outside.

Speaker: And he comes back and he plays a handful of games and he goes upstairs.

Speaker: I mean, it's replaced his video game time and it, which never happens.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's what, that's what I want to happen.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so it's been really fun to say, like, he'll turn to me.

Speaker: He's like, dad, let's go play co-op mode.

Speaker: Boom.

Speaker: Let's do it.

Speaker: And it's really cool.

Speaker: Cause we'll choose our turtles.

Speaker: We'll do all four.

Speaker: And then our whole goal is to get to the mini wizard mode, which is if you complete four episodes, you start team up, which is just a two-ball, multi-ball.

Speaker: And then depending on what turtle you are, you team up with a... Like Raph is Casey Jones.

Speaker: That's how it's always been.

Speaker: Leo's Splinter, Mikey's the Neutrinos, and then Donatello's Metalhead.

Speaker: And so if you get to that, and if it's before...

Speaker: say the last person on ball three, obviously if they start, no one else is going to get it.

Speaker: But say you get it on the, like, even on ball three, the first person gets it, then everyone else gets it.

Speaker: Like they all, you all get the opportunity to start it.

Speaker: And so it's really fun because we'll get to it.

Speaker: And like, usually on ball two and, and, uh,

Speaker: Like, yeah, we're going to do this.

Speaker: And so, and then every time we start team up, we like, check it out.

Speaker: And it just, it's really cool.

Speaker: Everything's, it's very similar to monster bash in the way that everything is kind of color coordinated.

Speaker: Um, in the new monster bath CGC where, you know, if you shoot mummy, it turns orange.

Speaker: If you shoot Dracula, it turns red.

Speaker: Uh, this one, it's similar.

Speaker: Like when you're in one, two, three foot, everything kind of turns to like a red hue.

Speaker: Um, team ups kind of like a red hue.

Speaker: Uh, it's just, it's really cool how Dwight has coded in the lights with it.

Speaker: And it does fantastic.

Speaker: It really is.

Speaker: In my opinion, there's nothing to complain about because my collection is World Cup Soccer, which I feel like is a very beginner game.

Speaker: It draws people in.

Speaker: And then Attack for Mars, which is more of a novice game.

Speaker: People that are beginners can enjoy it, but if you understand shooting the ramps and stuff can get you annihilation, total annihilation, then people benefit being a novice from that.

Speaker: I feel like Ninja Turtles is my expert game, but it's not unfriendly to the point that my son, who's not...

Speaker: die hard into pinball still loves playing it.

Speaker: So it just, it's great.

Speaker: The music's great.

Speaker: Like artwork's great.

Speaker: I have really no complaints and that's not coming from, I mean, everyone knows I'm a massive Ninja Turtles fan, but

Speaker: I really feel like Borg got so much crap and Dwight got so much crap on Munsters about it being too easy.

Speaker: And, you know, it's more of a 90s game because of the code and da, da, da, da.

Speaker: So they're finally like, fine, then we'll do a hard game.

Speaker: Well, you know, so, but it's, it's, it's definitely a challenge.

Speaker: So how do you think this will fit into tournament play?

Speaker: I think it will fit very well with... I think it'll be like a Game of Thrones.

Speaker: And I don't think the premium will change much between... I mean, obviously you'll want the Pro because you have less problems of it breaking down.

Speaker: It is probably one of those games, though, if you know to do the thing, you know... Right.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: I'm learning that the April hurry-ups, so the right side, that one stand-up,

Speaker: it's not worth going for in a single ball mode.

Speaker: But you get a long enough ball saver in any multi-ball to start attacking the April hurry up and start April hurry up and then shoot the shot.

Speaker: Especially in multi-ball, it usually doubles or triples the score.

Speaker: So this is a very million point game.

Speaker: So end of the game, you should see anywhere from a million to five million points on just maybe a basic game.

Speaker: A really crappy game, like half a million.

Speaker: April Hurry Up, for some odd reason not in a multi-ball, like 200,000 points.

Speaker: I've gotten April Hurry Up to 2 million points.

Speaker: And, and that's like 12 times a jackpot.

Speaker: And so it just, it just depends.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I like it too, because it's called a little, Oh, you've completed.

Speaker: Cause it's got cowabunga wizard mode, which was like the Valhalla or the, the rule of the universe.

Speaker: And so it's got, I think eight different things you've got to complete.

Speaker: And I usually complete about four or five each, each game I'm playing.

Speaker: some of them aren't super hard, but some of them are kind of like the April hurry up.

Speaker: We were just talking about, you can only complete one of those and then you have to start an episode.

Speaker: It won't let you just keep completing April hurry ups because you're supposed to complete five as one of the end and things.

Speaker: Uh, so that's kind of, that kind of stinks, but I under, I understand where Dwight's coming from and he doesn't want you just go in April all day.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Uh, and just, just getting points after points after points in it.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: Yeah, I, yeah, he certainly doesn't want to have a, it'd be a one trick pony.

Speaker: I mean, you know, I'm like the monster fish or something like that.

Speaker: So that's all people do.

Speaker: Um, you want to force people to move around the, uh, around the play field, so to speak.

Speaker: And that's, uh, what Keith Ellewan talked about when he was starting with iron maiden where, you know, it starts off with easy shots up the middle and then he's pushing you to do the more challenging shots left or right.

Speaker: So, uh, it's a keeper for me.

Speaker: And I'm, I'm totally happy with the pro.

Speaker: Um, I personally, me, uh, I don't feel that there's much difference, you know, difference between the pro and the premium besides the diverter.

Speaker: And like I said, there's an eat pizza mode.

Speaker: Like all of a sudden, there's like a little pizza target up in between the pizza parlor and the pot bumpers.

Speaker: And I don't know how you start this.

Speaker: And I just seem to start it randomly.

Speaker: But you got to hit the button like 40 times to eat 40 slices of pizza.

Speaker: You got to do it under like six seconds.

Speaker: Okay, that makes me want to throw up right now.

Speaker: But I've learned if you're skilled enough, the layer shot on the left that's behind the flipper, which is super hard to hit.

Speaker: If you can make that shot, you can pound away on the button without having to worry about it.

Speaker: It will actually hold the ball for you during pizza eating mode.

Speaker: So you can pound away on that center button and it gives you like 1.5 million points.

Speaker: If you can do the 40 slices of pizza in like three seconds or whatever it is.

Speaker: So yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: There's some good strategy to it.

Speaker: Uh, I know people hate the button mashing thing.

Speaker: I know like pirates of the Caribbean got crap for that.

Speaker: Cause it's like the collect gold.

Speaker: You got to slap the button.

Speaker: Um, pizza eating doesn't happen enough.

Speaker: It actually catches you off guard, but because the whole game turns red and then the, the led LCD turns into a big pizza that says eat pizza.

Speaker: Now, uh, you know what to do instantly kind of thing.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, that's good.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: But yeah, like I said, I actually ended up, I played it for two or three days and then I finally went to watch one of the dead flip streams just to kind of get an idea of certain things that were going on in the game.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: there's the crane combos which is an inner loop and then the side ramp and i'm like how do you get a max crane combo and he's like you do three inner loops and then you do a side ramp and so if you get the timing down it's not too terribly hard to do i if i really concentrate i can do it uh i like it because it's it's forcing me to stage flip especially multi-ball and so

Speaker: I thought I would hate that and I found out I'm better at it than I, than I thought I knew.

Speaker: So, okay.

Speaker: So, uh, it's been pretty cool to, to stage flip and hit that side ramp.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: Weirdly enough, the left ramp is a pain in the butt to hit.

Speaker: I don't know what it is.

Speaker: It's just a little later on the right flipper than most left ramps.

Speaker: And so you're either too early or too late, it feels like.

Speaker: Like even Jack Danger talked about this.

Speaker: He's like, I hate shooting the left ramp.

Speaker: And the problem is, is you've got to shoot the left ramp to start an episode.

Speaker: You've got to shoot the left ramp to do team up.

Speaker: You've got to shoot the left ramp to complete one, two, three foot.

Speaker: Like you can't avoid it.

Speaker: So you have to learn to hit it kind of thing.

Speaker: It's not like,

Speaker: It's not like Jurassic Park where you can hit the left ramp with no problem because Elwin made it that way, right?

Speaker: He wanted you to shoot the T-Rex shot because he wanted at least one easy shot.

Speaker: And that's not it on Ninja Turtles.

Speaker: And the problem is, too, is you've got no safe shots to the right.

Speaker: Not safe shots, sorry.

Speaker: When you plunge, it's either into the pops or it comes all the way around the orbit to the left flipper.

Speaker: So it's not really safe to go to the right flipper to shoot the left ramp.

Speaker: either it's not a very safe game on a lot of shots so okay and then the right ramp so close that when you shoot it it just kind of if you don't hit it it sends it right back to your flipper right down the middle so you've got to you got to hit the right ramp so okay all right

Speaker: Well, it sounds like it's a brutal game, but a keeper game.

Speaker: And it sounds a little, well, a lot like Tron in that Tron, I feel, is a brutal game.

Speaker: That even if you have a good game, you're still probably five or ten minutes.

Speaker: It's rare that you'll actually have a longer game than that.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: Well, even like Iron Man, you just got rid of Iron Man.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Same thing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I think this will fit nicely where your Iron Man was because it's, it's very similar to that.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, that's good.

Speaker: It'll be my next game that I play all the time.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: So I don't think they actually need, uh, like with Jurassic park, they have the escape new law, new bar.

Speaker: I'm seriously getting maybe five, five minute, 10 minute games out of this.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So unless if I put it on four player co-op,

Speaker: So I actually feel that's good, though.

Speaker: In many ways, I like the game, the long player occasionally.

Speaker: But usually when I play a long player game, I play one game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, if I play Lord of the Rings, I'll play one game.

Speaker: And I thought, you know, that was fun.

Speaker: I did a lot of stuff and it took a lot of time.

Speaker: OK, what's the next game?

Speaker: Well, it's just, it doesn't, yeah, it doesn't feel like you can just rinse and repeat quickly.

Speaker: Well, it's just like we were talking about Hobbit the other day.

Speaker: So my cousin lives down the road and he's, he's now married into the family.

Speaker: It's nice to have someone in the family that does pinball.

Speaker: And he, he bought a Hobbit, like when it came out.

Speaker: The wonderful part about that game, it's very relaxing because you never feel like you're in danger in that game, in my opinion.

Speaker: Because it's a wide body, so it's already floaty.

Speaker: And then there's a center post.

Speaker: And so it's like, and all the shots are right up the middle.

Speaker: I mean, you can backhand almost every single shot on that game.

Speaker: And I played a game.

Speaker: Let's see, I played three games.

Speaker: It took me an hour and a half.

Speaker: 30-minute games per game is crazy, in my opinion.

Speaker: I don't have...

Speaker: None of my lineup is that way.

Speaker: Like even World Cup soccer, a 20 minute game usually gets you to the final tournament or whatever it is.

Speaker: The world championship.

Speaker: And so it's nice to have.

Speaker: I think it's nice to have fast games.

Speaker: I don't mind the long playing game, like you said, like a Wizard of Oz or a Hobbit or something like that.

Speaker: I just don't play them enough.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: And it's challenging because really you have to know a lot about all the different modes.

Speaker: And really it's, it's kind of like having that video game where I'm, you know, I'm cool with pulling up the old NES and doing the up, up, down, down, left, left, right, and getting 30 guys and playing through it and calling it good.

Speaker: But there are some people who want to collect every medallion.

Speaker: They want to collect every single thing.

Speaker: And I'm not really that guy.

Speaker: I like just getting through a game and enjoying it.

Speaker: And so, you know, it's unlikely that I will ever get to Valinor just because I it's unlikely that I will spend the time to learn the deep rule set like that.

Speaker: Well, can we can we talk about Valinor for a second?

Speaker: Because Lord of the Rings that got put into the bowling alley here and.

Speaker: I have honestly never spent a ton of time on Lord of the Rings.

Speaker: Everyone touts it as the best game ever made.

Speaker: And it's a good game.

Speaker: Don't get me wrong.

Speaker: It's a good game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, okay.

Speaker: It's a great game.

Speaker: It's a great game.

Speaker: It really is a great game.

Speaker: It's the perfect nexus of a great layout with great code and great theme.

Speaker: The thing about Valinor is the only way you're getting to it is if you actually complete modes.

Speaker: And it's the same with Ninja Turtles.

Speaker: um well i don't know if yeah actually ninja turtles i don't really think you have to complete the modes to actually get to the wizard mode i could be wrong but um i haven't been to final battle yet so but like in lord of the rings it punishes you if you do not finish the mode it's like if you want to get to valinor you have to finish the mode right and i feel like those maybe it's the one that's at the bowling alley those modes are a grind like i have a hard time playing those games because it's just like

Speaker: what's the mode where you have to shoot the tower up the middle because the trees are bashing, the tree folk are bashing the dam.

Speaker: Do you remember?

Speaker: I don't.

Speaker: I don't know the rules that well on Lord of the Rings since I haven't played it that much.

Speaker: I've never owned one.

Speaker: I swear you have to make that shot like eight or ten times and you've got to do it in 30 seconds and it doesn't slow down the timer.

Speaker: And it's just, if you don't complete that mode, you...

Speaker: it's kind of a letdown you know what i'm saying yeah so like i said i don't know if that's how it is with cowabunga i think you just have to start the modes and just don't drain but uh with team up for every mode that you complete it gives you a bonus so all right it's it's nice to complete the modes but yeah okay so i don't know you we were talking about hobbit this past week and it

Speaker: I think it's an all right game.

Speaker: Like, don't get me wrong.

Speaker: No, it's fine.

Speaker: It's one of those where it's, it's fine.

Speaker: I will say no other game has that immersive experience because you feel with the movie clips and the big screen, you're feeling like you're going through it.

Speaker: The, the one challenge, one of the main things is there's not much variety in the, in the play field.

Speaker: And a lot of the, even though there's a billion modes, they all feel kind of samey.

Speaker: And it's, and sadly, that just doesn't keep your attention over the time.

Speaker: But the thing about The Hobbit, though, when I was finished playing The Hobbit, I seriously looked at it and went, I have to get myself a JJP game.

Speaker: They are just on a whole different level when you're playing a pinball experience.

Speaker: And that's no slam against any of the other companies.

Speaker: But seriously, the sound system, the big screen compared to these other screens, the full screen TV, there's just something immersive.

Speaker: Even about The Hobbit.

Speaker: If you're looking for a first game and you want one, I would recommend The Hobbit.

Speaker: And the reason being is it's fairly nice to beginning players.

Speaker: It is long playing, so that does have against it.

Speaker: But the price tag, I've seen these easily around $6,000.

Speaker: A little less, a little more.

Speaker: What other game are you going to get that price with that much code that's that playable?

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Yeah, I get it.

Speaker: I wouldn't categorize it as a first game just because it doesn't have as much variety as some of the other ones that I would say fit better into it.

Speaker: But it certainly is.

Speaker: It's a lot of pin for your buck.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And and actually just transitioning.

Speaker: That's I saw it on Facebook today that Deep Root was selling playfields, the seconds, the non playable playfields, but you can buy them for art.

Speaker: And I jumped on it.

Speaker: I thought this is great.

Speaker: So I bought a Hobbit playfield for 300 bucks.

Speaker: You mean Jersey Jack.

Speaker: You said Deep Root.

Speaker: Oh, sorry.

Speaker: Yeah, sorry.

Speaker: I meant Jersey Jack.

Speaker: No, you're fine.

Speaker: Yeah, so Jersey Jack was selling off their seconds, which is brilliant because a lot of people want this type of art, even though you can't, there's something about the play field that wouldn't be functional, but what a great piece of art that you can have.

Speaker: And for, I would say, a very reasonable price to be able to buy that and put it on the wall.

Speaker: So I'm super excited about that.

Speaker: No, I don't blame you.

Speaker: I'm, I'm slightly jealous.

Speaker: I was, I have nowhere to hang it though at this point.

Speaker: So yeah, I don't either, but I'll figure it out.

Speaker: You should ship it over to tilt cycle and have him mounted for you with lights and everything.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I, I think I just want the basic, uh, just looking at it the way it is.

Speaker: I think that'd be really cool or just put a light behind there so you can see everything lit up.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I I'll, I'll tell you when I get it, but I'm very interested to see what happens.

Speaker: I always admire the Jersey Jack.

Speaker: I don't know if it's someone's office or just like their room, but whenever they do pictures and like when they were doing the streams of pirates, that whole room is just covered in play fields of all different companies.

Speaker: It's, it's really cool.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: And, and that's a great way of just seeing different things out there.

Speaker: So I, I'm, I'm excited for it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, so I'm excited for you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, so let's, let's talk about some other things.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: So, and Jersey Jackets, it's been a little while since Hobbit was released.

Speaker: So everybody's anticipating that the likely next, uh, next release is Guns N' Roses.

Speaker: You mean Wonka?

Speaker: Cause that was the last, that was the last release, not Hobbit.

Speaker: Oh, geez.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I, you know what?

Speaker: I, yeah, I'm a little tired tonight, so I may be, I don't blame you.

Speaker: I don't blame you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So Wonka was released and now we're just kind of waiting for, it's the worst kept secret in pinball is that Guns N' Roses will be the next game there.

Speaker: But what are you looking forward to?

Speaker: This is the thing about Guns N' Roses is it seems very un-Jersey Jack-like.

Speaker: I am excited to see Eric Meniere's second game.

Speaker: Dude, Eric, I know you listen every once in a while.

Speaker: Dude, seriously, love Parrots of the Caribbean.

Speaker: I'm stoked for this dude.

Speaker: Like, I don't know what it is.

Speaker: I don't know if it's because he was on head to head and he's just a really nice, genuine guy.

Speaker: I mean, it's because he was our very first like official in the industry interview.

Speaker: I cannot wait to see what this dude has.

Speaker: Like, I support Eric 100% because he just he's got new ideas that I don't think the industry...

Speaker: has seen yet.

Speaker: I mean, that upper play field with the rocking pirate ship.

Speaker: I can't wait to see what he's got for guns and roses or sorry, his next project.

Speaker: Like no one's told us.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, we can speculate.

Speaker: We don't have any inside information, so it's not like we're breaking an NDA.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: The obvious effects are Guns N' Roses would be an interesting thing.

Speaker: I find it interesting, though, in that it's you you run the risk of polarizing if you get a theme that won't go everywhere.

Speaker: Everything else they've had can go on location, go into a home, all audiences.

Speaker: Guns N' Roses.

Speaker: I grew up in the Guns N' Roses era.

Speaker: Happened to be the first concert that I saw was Guns N' Roses.

Speaker: But I don't know how...

Speaker: Okay, the lyrics of the bands in the 80s would certainly not pass muster on today's standards.

Speaker: We talk about Rocket Queen.

Speaker: Everyone should know Rocket Queen.

Speaker: Yeah, we're not going over the lyrics there.

Speaker: But there's a lot of those things where I'm just like, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they massage it.

Speaker: Because even the Data East one, there's a lot of art on there that just simply would never get into my house.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I think there's a lot of places like that, you know, and I would say that's the pinball culture is shifting.

Speaker: Some people are pushing against that.

Speaker: But the bottom line is there's a lot of stuff that just was considered at least acceptable or passable back then that just would not pass now.

Speaker: So I agree.

Speaker: The music can be questionable depending on which songs they choose.

Speaker: And the art certainly will be interesting to see how they try to thread that needle.

Speaker: Okay, let's, what's the biggest question in my mind, though, is which Axel Rose are we getting?

Speaker: Are we getting the 80s Axel Rose?

Speaker: Are we getting the Mama Fratelli from Goonies Axel Rose?

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: It'll be kind of appetite for destruction.

Speaker: Really, if you look at everything they've done,

Speaker: They have one great album.

Speaker: And yeah, OK, all the Guns N' Roses fanboys out there can pass the hate mail to Josh because he reads it anyway.

Speaker: But really, they had an amazing, groundbreaking first album.

Speaker: And everything else was everything else was meh.

Speaker: It really there was nothing else that you listen to is like, oh, that is an amazing song.

Speaker: If the first album did not exist, their their career would have been, I want to say forgettable, but passable.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You're not telling me Chinese democracy would put them back on the map?

Speaker: Oh, geez.

Speaker: No doubt.

Speaker: Well, that's been the longstanding joke of, you know, actually, do you know what's insulting about Chinese democracy is they spent over 10 years and millions upon millions of dollars making this absolutely forgettable album.

Speaker: And the Rolling Stones saw it and they and they rated it and they rated it a great album.

Speaker: And that just shows you how ridiculous, well, basically the editors at Rolling Stones are, where they actually don't have the stones to actually say, hey, this is a crap album.

Speaker: And Guns N' Roses, they're basically a cover band of their previous glory.

Speaker: They don't have anything else to offer other than playing their old hits.

Speaker: Well, I guess the biggest question, though, is too, if you were to do a playlist for Guns N' Roses Pinball Machine,

Speaker: what do you pick outside of appetite for destruction?

Speaker: Cause you got welcome to the jungle, which is a give me, you've got paradise city, which is a give me, you've got sweet child of mine, which is a give me, I mean, knock on heaven's door.

Speaker: What else do you do?

Speaker: You know what?

Speaker: You'll probably have a November rain in there.

Speaker: Probably.

Speaker: But are those songs too slow for pinball?

Speaker: Like knock on heaven, storm, November rain.

Speaker: Like you could be mine.

Speaker: Seriously.

Speaker: The other stuff that came out, you could be mine.

Speaker: It's okay.

Speaker: It came out with one of the Terminator movies.

Speaker: So great.

Speaker: Cool.

Speaker: Then they had civil war.

Speaker: Okay, great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's patience.

Speaker: Maybe they can do a ballad in there.

Speaker: That'd be great.

Speaker: Would it be wrong to have my Michelle in there?

Speaker: I love my Michelle.

Speaker: This lyrics are not appropriate at all.

Speaker: Do you remember?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Do you remember the lyrics?

Speaker: Cause there's zero chance they'll have that.

Speaker: Um, like it's so easy as a great song, but again, you'd have to have the, uh, the edited version on that.

Speaker: It'd be just bleeped out, but what's, uh, Mr. Brownstone.

Speaker: Why not that one?

Speaker: They may have, uh, yeah, they may have Mr. Boundstron, even though there's obvious drug connotations.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Should we come on?

Speaker: Seriously, rocket queen.

Speaker: You don't want to have a girl moaning inside your pinball room.

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: I swear that bridge goes on for two, three minutes and it's just that.

Speaker: But anyhow.

Speaker: Yeah, no, there are some of those songs where you're like, yeah, no.

Speaker: So anyway, it'll be interesting to see.

Speaker: I, I, I'm fascinated to see what Eric's come out.

Speaker: He certainly hit a grand slam the first time up and I'm interested to see the, uh, the sophomore effort.

Speaker: And it'll be interesting to see how it is.

Speaker: Again, just because the theme, no chance is coming to my house, but I hope they sell a billion of them.

Speaker: I might actually buy it.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: So it's going to have to come out.

Speaker: I'm going to have to take a look at it.

Speaker: I mean, it's not a first day purchase.

Speaker: It might be, you know, but I grew, problem is, okay, so my parents split when I was five and my father, my biological father is really into country music.

Speaker: Uh, he likes like collective soul and stuff like that.

Speaker: But when I step, I know, but he, Garth Brooks, stuff like that.

Speaker: I'm saying the furthest out of country he got was like collective soul and creed.

Speaker: Um, and when my stepfather showed up, we were just talking about like all the Nickelback haters, like Nickelback actually has some good songs.

Speaker: Do you know which band they should have been mocking to no end as creed?

Speaker: It's true.

Speaker: Like, like basically creed should get all the hate that Nickelback gets.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But when my stepdad showed up, he brought mega death.

Speaker: He brought, you know, Metallica, he brought guns and roses.

Speaker: I mean, so I grew up on that stuff.

Speaker: Like, so.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I think my dad thought the world was going to hell when we started playing all that stuff in the eighties.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We, we had, we had kiss, kiss posters on the wall and iron maiden posters on the wall.

Speaker: And I think my dad thought that we were just, uh, we were a lost generation.

Speaker: Dude, it's so funny.

Speaker: So I DJed the Sweet 16 birthday party when I was like 18 because I was a radio DJ at that point.

Speaker: And the father, we start playing like a Panic at the Disco song.

Speaker: And he's like, can you believe the lyrics in these songs nowadays?

Speaker: And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker: Hold on two seconds.

Speaker: You look like you're from the ZZ Top era, aren't you?

Speaker: And you love ZZ Top.

Speaker: Why do you even say that?

Speaker: And I said, Pearl Necklace, the lyrics there.

Speaker: And he's like, yeah, okay, we'll call it even.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, I think they were a little more creative back then.

Speaker: And you listen to all the ACBC songs.

Speaker: They are not hiding what they're singing about.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So so here's a question.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: say how many bands from the eighties that haven't had a pinball machine that you would consider great candidates?

Speaker: Like what?

Speaker: Like just eighties.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Just think about it.

Speaker: Cause we are in, we are in the eighties Renaissance, right?

Speaker: The new Renaissance of the eighties.

Speaker: Ooh.

Speaker: Um, I don't, I feel like all of them, not all of them, but,

Speaker: Would it be too far to go say Megadeth?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Megadeth had some really good stuff, but they'll always be considered a second-rate Metallica.

Speaker: Yeah, true.

Speaker: What about the Slayer?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Raid of Blood.

Speaker: Again, I'm surprised they made Iron Maiden, and I'm a fan of Iron Maiden.

Speaker: Actually, ironically, read Iron Maiden lyrics.

Speaker: They're actually pretty tame.

Speaker: Yeah, they really are.

Speaker: They are super tame compared to all the other stuff.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So here off the top of my head, these are the bands that I would love to see a pinball machine made of.

Speaker: I'd love to see Van Halen.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: That would be a great pinball machine.

Speaker: And you could go with what they would have to do is they'd have to go with classic Van Halen.

Speaker: However, you know, I'm one of those guys who actually thought they had some more complete stuff with Van Hagar.

Speaker: But, you know, it's it's fine.

Speaker: I would say one of maybe it's that teenage guy in me.

Speaker: But one of the most inspirational songs from that era, I would say, is right now from Van Halen.

Speaker: Another band again, this would be hard.

Speaker: But hey, if they're doing Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't see any, especially since they came out with the Motley Crue.

Speaker: biography movie or whatever on Netflix.

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's a, but I mean, that's, there are, there's a lot of issues that you would have to thread the needle, but if they can thread the needle with guns and roses, they could probably thread the needle with, uh, with Motley crew.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, another band though, that this is pre-packaged sell it.

Speaker: Art is already done and you would sell out of them journey.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Journey would.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I don't know why Journey is not made right now.

Speaker: It might be not metal enough.

Speaker: I don't know how else to put it.

Speaker: Well, I guess they did Aerosmith, but still.

Speaker: I don't think it has to be metal.

Speaker: I just think it has to be popular.

Speaker: And Journey would be pre-packaged and ready to sell.

Speaker: Another one, Def Leppard.

Speaker: Def Leppard should have a pinball machine.

Speaker: They absolutely should.

Speaker: And all these, all these bands are on a 401k tour right now.

Speaker: I mean, all they're doing is going and playing all their 80 stuff.

Speaker: So if they want, I guarantee they would take money for a license to do this stuff.

Speaker: And I, of those bands though, I think journey's the sure thing.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: Oh, come on.

Speaker: What about Pantera?

Speaker: Pantera?

Speaker: Huh?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Cowboys from hell.

Speaker: You know, K Penta, there are a lot of bands out there that I recognize there is talent.

Speaker: I totally get there's talent.

Speaker: It's just not for me.

Speaker: This metal band was big.

Speaker: They started before the eighties.

Speaker: They were seventies, eighties, but why haven't we done a black Sabbath one yet?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, it's the thing about Black Sabbath is it doesn't have those catchy tunes.

Speaker: Oh, come on.

Speaker: Can you really play?

Speaker: Can you really imagine Iron Man as a background of pinball?

Speaker: That thing sounds like it was played with molasses.

Speaker: Yeah, it's super slow.

Speaker: You could be paranoid, maybe.

Speaker: Crazy train.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: That's Ozzy Osbourne.

Speaker: Oh, sorry.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, let's do black Sabbath slash Ozzy Osbourne.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, let's do a Ronnie James Dio game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Why not?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: There's a, there's a lot of good, there's a lot of good eighties bands that deserve a pinball machine.

Speaker: There's actually 80 solo artists.

Speaker: I know that.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I know that, uh, this would be impossible to make given all of the baggage, uh,

Speaker: But a Michael Jackson thriller pinball machine would have been great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Why not choose priest?

Speaker: Huh?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yes, they were.

Speaker: They had like three major hits.

Speaker: They were they were great, but it's not the same.

Speaker: Like they are not this.

Speaker: You have to have that arena rock where you can sell like a stadium to to qualify to actually do this.

Speaker: OK, I've got the perfect band.

Speaker: And if you could tie the light show together with the music, it would be perfect.

Speaker: Because people pay for this light show.

Speaker: They don't even pay for the band anymore.

Speaker: They pay just to go see a light show of the band and the music.

Speaker: Okay, they're not doing Pat Benatar.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: I know you're an L.E., but... Pink Floyd.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Pink Floyd is in the same category as Rush, and I am a huge Rush fan.

Speaker: I cannot see them making a Rush pinball machine.

Speaker: I think Pink Floyd is more likely than Rush.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's just – I'm sorry.

Speaker: There's nothing that gets your adrenaline pumping.

Speaker: Like it's just, I don't think so.

Speaker: I think money's fantastic.

Speaker: Brick in the wall.

Speaker: I mean, there's so much good material across all their albums.

Speaker: I think there is.

Speaker: But if you look at every single music pin out there, it's, it's fast or catchy.

Speaker: And even the Beatles, like those are fast songs that they selected to put in there.

Speaker: You know, they and so all of those songs, they are the the the stand up out of your chair or out of your seat and enjoy the music.

Speaker: They they are are intended to get your adrenaline going.

Speaker: I still think Madonna would be a great one, like a classic Madonna one.

Speaker: All right, no, I'm very serious about that.

Speaker: And I think that she would really sell.

Speaker: Um, I think pink could be good, but now we're getting outside of, uh, where the discussion was going.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: But what about, what about spinal tap?

Speaker: That would be hilarious.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Big bottoms.

Speaker: That'd be great.

Speaker: That's, that's the one I'm going for from the eighties.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Spinal.

Speaker: This is spinal tap.

Speaker: Do you know what they could do?

Speaker: And I know they would never do it.

Speaker: A princess bride game.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: They might.

Speaker: I think there's enough.

Speaker: Oh, no, it's a huge fan base, but it's, you know, maybe would you, I would love to see inconceivable multi-ball.

Speaker: Or just start screaming inconceivable.

Speaker: That would be hilarious.

Speaker: Or inconceivable frenzy where just every switch hit yells inconceivable.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: That would be great.

Speaker: That would be great.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: We we've totally went off the rails.

Speaker: We've been talking about, you know, it's okay.

Speaker: This is, this is the free form catch up episode.

Speaker: So, so, okay.

Speaker: So I, I wrote down a few things and I just want to get your, uh, your thoughts on them just quickly and just give me a 10 second answer.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I'm just going to give you a topic.

Speaker: Um, Dutch pinball hiring.

Speaker: meh that's my 10 second answer yeah okay okay it's great to see big olabowski's going to the people that have already prepaid for him and people getting them um but i would be shocked if they can get it off the ground i'll leave it at that yeah there's no chance okay second topic deep root who

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Don't they seem dead?

Speaker: They have disappeared.

Speaker: What?

Speaker: And Texas is one of the most lenient COVID states in the nation.

Speaker: Like, I don't get like, I'm not saying you should be working right now.

Speaker: Like I'm not for or against what you should be doing with your company, but you kind of have the least amount of excuse out of

Speaker: Everyone in the nation, in my opinion, it's totally radio silence, especially where they were supposed to be ready for Texas.

Speaker: Like you were lined up for Texas.

Speaker: They shut down two weeks before Texas.

Speaker: Like if you had machines ready to go for Texas, you should have already been out the door.

Speaker: Do you know what it seems like?

Speaker: It feels like Robert Mueller has found the new toy.

Speaker: Maybe like he found something else because it just seems like the oxygen has burned.

Speaker: Like the fuel available for this oxygen fire is gone.

Speaker: There just doesn't seem to be anything going on.

Speaker: Well, and the most depressing part, the last amount of news I heard coming out from him was like Barry Alistair got COVID.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And it's, well, and also just that Dennis Nordman was no longer with him.

Speaker: And that was just like a, oh, by the way, yeah, he's gone.

Speaker: So.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Which, let's be honest, that's not, in my opinion, it's not a shocker.

Speaker: No, he seems, yeah, he seems to be a little more of a Rolling Stone, but still.

Speaker: Which is fine.

Speaker: There's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Next one.

Speaker: Hot Wheels.

Speaker: So American Pinball, Hot Wheels.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Because I actually have a take on this, but I want to hear what your take is.

Speaker: This is my disclaimer.

Speaker: We did have Josh Coogler on the show because they wanted to talk to Hot Wheels about us.

Speaker: There's still nothing in this game that catches my eye.

Speaker: I need to play it before I make a solid decision.

Speaker: I just don't feel like it's for me.

Speaker: But from every feedback I've heard, this is Americans' best game they've made so far, which is very promising.

Speaker: Okay, so I reached out to my friend, Tony Murphy, who lives up in, you know, in that area and the Minnesota area.

Speaker: And, you know, those Wisconsin, Minnesota, Chicago area, right.

Speaker: And he got a Hot Wheels.

Speaker: So I'm like, I want to find out what about this is.

Speaker: And so the local guy that I haven't met here because of COVID, Tom Walsh, he is friends with Tony.

Speaker: And so he went up there and I asked him about it and I said, how is Hot Wheels?

Speaker: And he said, this is a quote on another note, still loving Hot Wheels.

Speaker: I think American Pinball has a hit on their hands.

Speaker: Played last night for a couple hours.

Speaker: Redline Mania is a cool mini mode after you hit Redline on the tack.

Speaker: And he said, it's definitely the new and shiny right now.

Speaker: So that may affect my judgment.

Speaker: We'll see how it holds up after several months, especially after the turtles come out in late August or September.

Speaker: But he was just like, he's loving it.

Speaker: And that makes me happy.

Speaker: that American Pinball is delivering and they're giving you a legitimate alternative option if whatever Stern's offering is not up your alley or JJP or Chicago Game Company or even Spooky.

Speaker: This is like another legitimate option out there.

Speaker: So I'm happy for them.

Speaker: I'm happy that the people who bought it are like, yeah, this is awesome.

Speaker: So my only suggestion to American, and I don't know if this has changed because I played a Houdini.

Speaker: I got to put some serious time in on a Houdini three weeks ago.

Speaker: If you haven't done it yet, put end-of-stroke flippers on your games.

Speaker: Houdini, I think that would resolve the issues that people have with Houdini.

Speaker: I think, hands down, because the flippers feel so weak, they don't have that snap that you're used to, the snap that was on the Williams, the snap that's with the Stern, the snap...

Speaker: You have to have that snap, especially with these newer games.

Speaker: And I could be entirely wrong.

Speaker: They may have done this with Hot Wheels.

Speaker: They may have done this with Oktoberfest.

Speaker: I've honestly never played either one.

Speaker: But with Houdini, that is your problem.

Speaker: Yeah, the shots are tight.

Speaker: But I think if you would have had those flippers, you would have had less pushback on the game.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Next topic.

Speaker: This is like fast facts because a lot, really when we're interviewing people, we tend to wander.

Speaker: We don't tend to talk about the topic.

Speaker: So this has been a fun recap episode.

Speaker: You mean like how we go off about 20 minutes about 80s pinball machines?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, hey, that was fun though.

Speaker: People want to know.

Speaker: People want a journey pinball machine.

Speaker: Let's do it.

Speaker: Don't stop believing.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Pinball Hall of Fame.

Speaker: Awesome.

Speaker: I'm so excited to see this thing.

Speaker: If you haven't checked this out on Facebook or whatever social platform, uh, go check it out.

Speaker: Walls are going up.

Speaker: I am so excited for Tim Arnold and the hall of fame crew.

Speaker: Keep going.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Um, TPF suite selling out in three hours.

Speaker: Don't stop believing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: No, here's the thing.

Speaker: I was so busy.

Speaker: Like we, when we restarted at the hospital, I have been super busy and I totally missed this.

Speaker: I would have booked a suite.

Speaker: So if someone needs to, you know, maybe I'll have to pry my way into Big Spoon or Little Spoon someone, but I'll need to be able to find a way to get there for next year's because I just totally missed it.

Speaker: And of course, it's all booked out.

Speaker: So.

Speaker: Well, and hopefully, hopefully, I mean, we're still months out, but let's hope.

Speaker: No, absolutely.

Speaker: And really, I'm, I'm the Debbie Downer.

Speaker: I have a feeling that this whole thing will take four years and I don't, don't kill me.

Speaker: I think it's going to take a lot longer than just a season.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: With how the testing rates are going, man, I really think we hit herd immunity before we get a vaccine.

Speaker: And I bet that with watching these numbers, I bet we hit herd immunity in the next year or so.

Speaker: Yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker: That takes 70%, dude.

Speaker: Yeah, no, okay.

Speaker: My county alone has been tested.

Speaker: 20% of the county has been tested already.

Speaker: Okay, tested, but just because you get tested and it's zero doesn't mean you're immune.

Speaker: Oh, true.

Speaker: I guess you're right.

Speaker: Okay, so this is a Melancholy Happy Trails.

Speaker: The Silver Ball Saloon closed.

Speaker: Yeah, it sucks to hear these arcades closing, especially someone like Bruce and Cat Nightingale.

Speaker: Sorry to hear that, guys.

Speaker: It's absolutely terrible.

Speaker: Our hearts go out to you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: The people who are on the ground really fighting for this, really the margin of the profit margin on these places is surprisingly thin.

Speaker: And so when they get hit by a drastic drop in volume and they're, you know, and I, I don't know the entire situation there.

Speaker: I mean, a lot of times it's, you're still having to pay overhead, you're paying rent, you're paying all that kind of stuff.

Speaker: And eventually you just have to say, I can't do it anymore.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It surprises me.

Speaker: It's disheartening to me that there's not a collaborative effort to say, hey, it's in everybody's best interest to take a six month hiatus on this and then we'll be able to see what we can do.

Speaker: But it's, you know, sometimes it just kills you.

Speaker: Just there's not much else you can do.

Speaker: So, you know, Bruce, thinking about you, really sorry that we couldn't be there to dump quarters your way, but.

Speaker: Um, yeah, I'm sure your next project will be great.

Speaker: So we need to have them on, or maybe we should go on there.

Speaker: Now that we're podcast buddies since we teamed up against them.

Speaker: Oh, jeez.

Speaker: We did horrible.

Speaker: Yeah, dude.

Speaker: Oh, man.

Speaker: I should not second guess myself.

Speaker: I owned a Dr. Dude.

Speaker: And I was like, it's cool, dude.

Speaker: And then I was like, no, it's got to be super.

Speaker: Because you always remember when you hit Super Dude, it yelled, Super Dude.

Speaker: And so I went super for some stupid reason.

Speaker: And I knew it was cool.

Speaker: But yeah.

Speaker: Anyhow.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Legitimately.

Speaker: Ron knows way more about pinball.

Speaker: He's forgotten more about pinball than I will ever know.

Speaker: So that was the crazy part.

Speaker: By the time we got to the end of it, it was like, none of us had answered the questions, right?

Speaker: No, no.

Speaker: We all got smoked.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: All every last one of us.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But, and really the, I was so quickly in my head trying to catch up on, uh, how many people were on the back glass of, uh, Sopranos.

Speaker: And I'm like, I don't know.

Speaker: It's just a whole bunch.

Speaker: So just in case you guys don't know, this was, um, uh, this was, uh, uh, help me out here.

Speaker: I'm having a brain fart.

Speaker: Uh, final round pinball where they did the pinberg trivia challenge and we were a part of it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And who won?

Speaker: I can't remember.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Congratulations.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Congratulations.

Speaker: I posted.

Speaker: I was like, yeah, I didn't even make it past my round.

Speaker: So congratulations to you.

Speaker: Well, what's funny is like we get to the end of the round and he's like, you know, I got to take someone.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It was basically.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It was basically.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Everybody kind of sucked.

Speaker: So let's just flip a coin.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's pretty much how it was.

Speaker: But no, seriously, Bruce, Ron, you guys are awesome.

Speaker: We're rooting for you for Beavis and Butthead pinball machine.

Speaker: And they really should do the voices on that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, I'll skip that one.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Stern Vaults.

Speaker: What do you think will come out first?

Speaker: Tron or Lord of the Rings?

Speaker: I'm going to go with Star Trek again.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: They said it was the final one.

Speaker: So maybe, maybe Ghostbusters.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: I honestly don't see us getting a Tron or a Lord of the Rings anytime soon.

Speaker: Really?

Speaker: I see.

Speaker: I see a Tron.

Speaker: I see a Tron.

Speaker: So this is my theory on Tron.

Speaker: They might vault it, but they just signed up to do another Tron movie and like Jared Leto is going to be in it.

Speaker: So I think depending on the success of that, they might pull a Spider-Man and do a Spider-Man vault where they change the artwork or something like that.

Speaker: I could be entirely wrong.

Speaker: Disney might not give a crap about the license.

Speaker: There's so many variables.

Speaker: I just don't know.

Speaker: It's yeah, it's, it's interesting with the,

Speaker: With Leto going on, you know, he's just a weird dude.

Speaker: Like he's, he's, he looks like he was hatched in like a lab somewhere because he's my age and he looks like he's about 22.

Speaker: He's a really nice guy.

Speaker: Um, so I, I knew Jared before he was famous.

Speaker: Like, uh, wait, are you serious?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So he was in a band called 30 seconds to Mars.

Speaker: We still is in a band 30 seconds to Mars.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We, we played with them before there.

Speaker: So they've had their first album, uh,

Speaker: in my opinion, wasn't that great.

Speaker: Our basis was obsessed with it.

Speaker: Uh, we got to, we got to meet them cause we got to open for them.

Speaker: Um, but I had no idea about this.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, their second album, that's the one that really took off that had, uh, the kill and it had, uh, a lot of those, I think three or four hits off that album that really took off, but their, their live show is something else.

Speaker: Like when, when we used to, uh, either see them or play the, I mean,

Speaker: Jared's just awesome.

Speaker: He's just as genuine behind the scenes as he was in front of the scenes.

Speaker: No, I'm glad to hear that.

Speaker: There was actually a documentary that I saw.

Speaker: It was about them having a fight with their record company.

Speaker: And it was when they were recording This Is War.

Speaker: which I thought was a great album.

Speaker: So I listened to that a lot.

Speaker: So it's, hey, I have nothing against the guy.

Speaker: I just thought it was, he really looks like he's been in suspended animation because he still looks like he's 22.

Speaker: Well, I feel bad for the dude because I feel like his breakout movie was going to be Suicide Squad.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, and they murdered that.

Speaker: Yeah, well, not only that, they cut a lot of his parts out of there.

Speaker: I mean, they really...

Speaker: But, um, well, I guess he was in, what was the one with Matthew McConaughey?

Speaker: And, Oh, all right.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Uh, Dallas players club.

Speaker: Was it that one?

Speaker: The one where, uh, it was a drug addict.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It was a Dallas players club.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so he, he did really good in that one too, but, um, yeah, you know, it'll be interesting.

Speaker: I, I think that it would be the reason why I say Tron is because it would be an easy one to make.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Because it is, it's, um, the rules are set.

Speaker: Everybody likes the rules, the layout.

Speaker: It's difficult, but not horrible.

Speaker: And, um, yeah, if you, if you updated that a little bit, uh, put in an LCD screen, it would be great.

Speaker: Well, here's the real question though.

Speaker: With COVID and everything happening, we're into August now.

Speaker: Turtles were released in May.

Speaker: They're not doing a vault this year.

Speaker: Mike, do we even see anything besides one more cornerstone?

Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.

Speaker: And do we even see a cornerstone?

Speaker: I mean, it took me three months to get Turtles, which Stern's not known for that.

Speaker: I mean, that's... Yeah, they're still playing catch-up, which is great because, hey, that just means the demand's up, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, and even some games are... It's hard to find a used game, so I really need to get on listing my Shrek so someone can actually buy it and take it home since it's in my garage.

Speaker: I know you offered it to me and my cousin has a Shrek now.

Speaker: So it's like, well, if I really want to play one, it's, it's fine.

Speaker: I hate it's a solid game.

Speaker: It's a, it's a, it really is about, it's a decent game.

Speaker: I just feel like I've gone through it and it's time to move on.

Speaker: So, Hey, if you're looking for a Shrek, hit me up.

Speaker: Uh, okay.

Speaker: Uh, what about the total recall pinball machine?

Speaker: Did you see that?

Speaker: Yes, this floats around every so often.

Speaker: Yeah, it does.

Speaker: It pops up.

Speaker: Could you imagine routing this thing?

Speaker: Could you imagine trying to get this stupid thing through your front door?

Speaker: That's what I was just saying.

Speaker: Routing that thing, moving it in and out, that is a nightmare.

Speaker: Well, and how do you get the thing together?

Speaker: You'd have to... You'd have to take the back box off.

Speaker: Well, not only that, how would you bolt...

Speaker: Okay, so... How would you move it?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, like, well, but the two bodies come together at the head, but you'd have to secure those bodies together somehow, right?

Speaker: Like, I just... Yeah, I don't know how it would break apart.

Speaker: That would be the interesting thing.

Speaker: That's probably what killed it, to be entirely honest.

Speaker: It was like, people were like, this is great and all, but like, when we talked to Josh Sharp, you know, they take into account the money per real estate or whatever.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And they probably looked at this game and was like, this isn't just two games.

Speaker: This is like four because of the space and the angles and stuff.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I really wish we're at that point.

Speaker: I think someone could, could make this game, but not for like production.

Speaker: I think just make it to like a one-off.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I would, I wouldn't be opposed to that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I bet there's enough.

Speaker: Do the Papa Duke thing.

Speaker: Not, not don't,

Speaker: Don't promise someone not deliver.

Speaker: Take a lot of money and then not deliver.

Speaker: But Papa Duke, he was going to do 15 Magic Girls or 20 of them, whatever it was.

Speaker: Do that with Total Recall.

Speaker: I guarantee there would be people out there who would buy it.

Speaker: Yeah, probably.

Speaker: I doubt the licenses.

Speaker: They're probably not interested in the license at this point.

Speaker: You would charge so much per game just to get that license.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I would like to see it in a flippable condition because it's still...

Speaker: My head has a hard time wrapping around this project.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I'm just kind of wondering about the flippers up top.

Speaker: Like, does the right side control the right flipper and the left side control the left flipper?

Speaker: Don't know.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: So we're up to speculation on Stern.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So if you looked at this week in pinball this week, Jeff posted.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Deleted, right?

Speaker: Did it get deleted?

Speaker: Yeah, I looked at it and it said, because I was reviewing for the show.

Speaker: So this week in pinball, I pulled up and it was really funny because I was going through because I was trying to catch up.

Speaker: And it said, and Stern's next surprise.

Speaker: And so I scanned down and surprise, it's not on there.

Speaker: So I don't think it ever was.

Speaker: Oh, okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: So you can pay the five bucks or whatever it is to see the extra info.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: And what, what that then gives you access to is every rumored title.

Speaker: But the problem is, all these rumored titles have been, everyone's been talking about them.

Speaker: I don't.

Speaker: So, so, but I just thought that the fifth one was either was like he deleted it or it was a tease.

Speaker: So maybe it sounds like it was a tease.

Speaker: So it's, it's, don't get me wrong.

Speaker: I love Jeff.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But, um,

Speaker: Yeah, all the titles that are available that you can read.

Speaker: We've already... We talked about them on the show.

Speaker: They're kind of floating around.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Like James Bond, Godzilla.

Speaker: I mean, these are titles we've already heard.

Speaker: So the one that he said that is Stern's next is a Marvel title.

Speaker: And then he proceeded to list the last 23 Marvel movies that have been made.

Speaker: And then the next 15.

Speaker: Do you think they'd do Black Widow?

Speaker: Okay, here's the thing, though.

Speaker: If you read the article, it said that it's not going to be based off a movie, it's going to be based off the comic.

Speaker: Okay, but still.

Speaker: Are they going to do a comic version of a movie?

Speaker: I didn't fully understand where we were going with this.

Speaker: We're just saying it's the comic, but then put all the Marvel movies up there as potential titles.

Speaker: Okay, well, okay, this makes sense though, because it's cheaper to put a Deadpool comic out there than to pay for the licensing for Randall Reynolds, because you're just dealing with Marvel Comics.

Speaker: You're not dealing with Marvel Studios.

Speaker: And I get that.

Speaker: Like, I'm not, I'm not opposed to that, but I'm, I was confused on the next title from Stern is a Marvel title.

Speaker: And then it says it's going to be a comic, but then we list every stinking movie that's been made by Marvel in the last 12 years.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: But don't you think that makes sense though?

Speaker: Come on.

Speaker: They're not going to do Moby is the living vampire or cast for the friendly ghost.

Speaker: True.

Speaker: But, um,

Speaker: You tell me they're not going to do Howard the duck.

Speaker: Come on.

Speaker: Oh, geez.

Speaker: I remember watching that show as a kid thinking this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

Speaker: Oh my goodness.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Out of all the Marvel movies, let's go like this.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: The 23 Marvel movies that have been released.

Speaker: Let's say they're not going to be repeats.

Speaker: So we're not going to get an Avengers.

Speaker: We're not going to get a Deadpool.

Speaker: We're not going to get a guardians of the galaxy.

Speaker: Um, black Panther.

Speaker: It's black Panther.

Speaker: Seriously, that's the thing that came to my mind was Black Panther.

Speaker: It's Black Panther.

Speaker: Thinking of all those movies.

Speaker: And by the way, if I am right, I get a medallion because seriously, I have no insider information.

Speaker: So, okay, so...

Speaker: Black Panther is due to come out sometime soon.

Speaker: The first one was a huge success.

Speaker: They already have a Spider-Man one.

Speaker: I don't think they'll do a Doctor Strange one.

Speaker: Thor, they're not going to really do that again because they already released all three, four movies.

Speaker: Ant-Man, no.

Speaker: Guardians of the Galaxy already have it.

Speaker: Captain America kind of tied in with the limited edition.

Speaker: Okay, that's pretty much it, right?

Speaker: I could see Black Widow because her movie is supposed to be released in September.

Speaker: Yeah, but they usually don't come out with – the reason why Iron Man 2 came out is because they wanted to make sure it was a sure hit.

Speaker: They didn't want to have a Johnny Mnemonic again or a The Shadow again or something where a game is linked to a stinker title.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So let's set that aside.

Speaker: Captain Marvel, 1.2 billion dollars.

Speaker: You know what?

Speaker: Maybe.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: There's two landmark heroes out there that have, I guess, surpassed expectations of what they would hit.

Speaker: Black Panther is one of them.

Speaker: Captain Marvel is another.

Speaker: I mean, she is a...

Speaker: you know, in this age of women empowerment, she is a perfect example of that.

Speaker: So that would work really well.

Speaker: I, my money's all in on black Panther though.

Speaker: I don't go against you on it at all.

Speaker: I really think Black Panther is a smart move.

Speaker: I think it's a different demographic than what the pinball market's used to.

Speaker: I think it's something that's noticeable on location that someone's like, wait a minute, Black Panther, the pinball machine?

Speaker: I've got to go play this.

Speaker: Yeah, and you don't have to pay for a likeness because it's an outfit.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Here's the one that I...

Speaker: thought they might do but maybe it's too soon do the marvel studios version of spider-man

Speaker: Not the Sony one, but the newest one, like Far From Home and Homecoming.

Speaker: It's still Sony, actually.

Speaker: Well, correct, but in the Marvel Universe.

Speaker: Let's put that away.

Speaker: Okay, yeah.

Speaker: Because the Marvel – sorry, let me put it this way.

Speaker: The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Speaker: Okay, all right.

Speaker: Yeah, you're wrong, but that's fine.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You never know.

Speaker: I just, I, I'm like, is it too soon?

Speaker: Cause Spider-Man's already gotten, especially if we do a comic version.

Speaker: I mean, we just did a comic version.

Speaker: We just got Pirates of the Caribbean with JJP after we had a Pirates of the Caribbean with, uh, with Stern, which was roughly the same time.

Speaker: But let's be honest.

Speaker: Pirates of the Caribbean is not as relevant as Spider-Man.

Speaker: Like Tom Holland is a hot topic.

Speaker: He's, they still have a third one coming out.

Speaker: Did you buy a shirt of, of Tom Holland at hot topic?

Speaker: Is that what you're saying?

Speaker: You know?

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Key chain lanyard.

Speaker: No, I, I tattoo.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: My left butt cheek.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: That's, that's, uh, that's care.

Speaker: So when you're wearing that Borat swimsuit, you know it, um, seriously, that's what floated at the top.

Speaker: What exactly?

Speaker: I was thinking what you were thinking was either black Panther or captain.

Speaker: I, okay.

Speaker: I w I would put all my chips in on black Panther because again, captain Marvel, you probably have to pay Brie Larson for her likeness.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But black Panther, you do not.

Speaker: true i i have a hard time with captain marvel and the reason being is is um there has been a lot of animosity between brie larson and marvel studios and i'm even though she's supposed to be the main superhero going forward in the in the next phase of marvel i just if things keep up the way they're going i think they go with someone else they've got enough people in their repertoire they're going to be like well

Speaker: See ya.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And it's hard.

Speaker: It's yeah.

Speaker: I, I'm always a little disappointed.

Speaker: I understand there are relationships that change.

Speaker: Um, and really I, I'm disappointed with someone like, uh, um, Alec Guinness who basically hated everything he did with star Wars.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And my thoughts are okay.

Speaker: That's fine.

Speaker: But that meant a lot of things to a lot of people.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And it's a role and that's fine.

Speaker: If you don't like it, you can move on, but it's, you should at least respect that it meant something to them.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But, you know, it's fine.

Speaker: This is a weird time with entertainment and with entertainers speaking their mind for good and bad.

Speaker: This is the classic, this is that walking that fine line because you're still in the entertainment business and you're trying to sell to as broad of an audience as you can.

Speaker: And so there is a level of activism that I would say is acceptable and encouraged.

Speaker: There's also a level of activism that can be polarizing.

Speaker: And I don't know where that line is.

Speaker: And everybody has to make that decision for themselves.

Speaker: But I'm always a little nervous when they start either bashing roles or bashing studios that gave them their big break.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You you'll see, you see it a lot with the new star Wars movies too, where they, this is how big of a role it's played in my life.

Speaker: The guy who played Finn has been pretty dismissive of star Wars.

Speaker: And the guy who played Poe, he's like, I wouldn't do a star Wars movie unless I needed a new house.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: So yeah.

Speaker: I'm like, really guys?

Speaker: Like,

Speaker: At least that's one thing that Harrison Ford, uh, like re, uh, reiterate is like, you always respect your project.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Like it may, it may or may not be great, but you have to respect it.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: So Harrison Ford would know a lot about those.

Speaker: Well, I, okay.

Speaker: If you could have a career like Harrison Ford, uh, I'm not complaining.

Speaker: He's, he's done some great stuff.

Speaker: He's done some, done some stinkers.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's the, uh, yeah.

Speaker: Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull.

Speaker: That was a, yeah.

Speaker: I felt dumber for having watched that movie.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah.

Speaker: So, uh, so you heard it, heard it here first.

Speaker: Black Panther is the next turn and it's going to be, uh, yeah.

Speaker: So who's designing?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Is it a Steve Ritchie design?

Speaker: Is it, is Keith Elwin up?

Speaker: Is George Gomez going to hop in the seat?

Speaker: According to the article from this week in pinball, it would be Keith Elwin.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So, and Keith has not told us a word.

Speaker: No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker: Well, but we were discussing this the other day.

Speaker: How many designers does Stern have?

Speaker: Well, they have Steve Ritchie.

Speaker: They have John Borg.

Speaker: They have Keith Elwin.

Speaker: They have Gomez.

Speaker: But Gomez just came out and said on Super Awesome Pinball Show.

Speaker: He doesn't do it primarily because it's just too much.

Speaker: It's really too much.

Speaker: So really, it's between Steve Ritchie and Keith Elwin.

Speaker: So, yeah, because Eddie just did Stranger Things.

Speaker: Yeah, that's true.

Speaker: They have Brian Eddie, too.

Speaker: So it could be Brian Eddie.

Speaker: He could be coming up.

Speaker: Because I went through the list of pinball machines made in the last four years from Stern.

Speaker: And it really is.

Speaker: It's I mean, obviously, he who shall not be named got his scrap Deadpool scrapped.

Speaker: And so Gomez had to step in for that one.

Speaker: And then Gomez stepped in for Beatles.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then, well, okay.

Speaker: But that was, I know I'm not taking anything away from George on this.

Speaker: He refined a, an existing game, but that also took a lot of effort to re-engineer it.

Speaker: So it flows better.

Speaker: But what I'm saying is, is between Gomez, Richie and Borg till Keith Elwin came on and did Iron Maiden.

Speaker: It's been kind of those three Gomez, Borg and Richie.

Speaker: And now we've got Ellen and Eddie,

Speaker: And so that takes pressure off of Gomez, but it's crazy to think.

Speaker: Cause we, I know when we had Zach on, he didn't say that they aim for a certain amount of cornerstone stone titles a year.

Speaker: But if you look back, Gomez has said that or no, Gomez has said that he said, Oh, they do aim for so many.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, he said three, he said three cornerstone games a year and then put in vaults when you need to.

Speaker: And then,

Speaker: you know, you'll do contract games or special games or stuff like that.

Speaker: So absolutely.

Speaker: So if we were to go to the timeline, because Borg and Dwight did Munsters, the next one out was Black Knight.

Speaker: So it would...

Speaker: not have to be Steve Ritchie, but that would be the logical one.

Speaker: Right, but he's kind of up, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then after that would be Keith Allen because then Jurassic Park came out.

Speaker: Is it crazy to think Jurassic Park's already been out for a year?

Speaker: A little bit, yeah.

Speaker: Still a great game.

Speaker: I would be happy to see what's up.

Speaker: If it is Black Panther...

Speaker: I'm excited to see almost, I like Marvel movies.

Speaker: Uh, I, I would be excited to see whatever Keith Elwin could bring to that.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: So, you know, I would, Hey, I'm fine with a Richie game since, uh, I'm actually looking at possibly moving my Spider-Man too.

Speaker: So be interested to see.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I don't know.

Speaker: I'm just, I'm looking at mixing up my collection.

Speaker: So you might have to talk to me about that Spider-Man.

Speaker: It's a nice one, right?

Speaker: Anyway, you know, we'll talk about toppers next time.

Speaker: We're already passing 116 minute mark or the 76 minute mark.

Speaker: And I will emphasize that we had I had some interesting things happen to my toppers.

Speaker: I ordered two toppers and yeah, shenanigans ensued.

Speaker: However, Zach took care of me and I will talk about those two toppers next time.

Speaker: They are of games that I currently do not own.

Speaker: Nice.

Speaker: Oh, you got them both.

Speaker: I'm planning ahead.

Speaker: Nice.

Speaker: I want to leave everyone with this story.

Speaker: I know that everyone can probably relate to this story at one point in time in this hobby, unless you're fresh into this hobby.

Speaker: But I want to tell you my yard sale story.

Speaker: Oh, geez.

Speaker: Do we have time for this?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: I'll try to be quick.

Speaker: Wow.

Speaker: So was a couple of weeks ago was after we had Butch on.

Speaker: My wife texts me.

Speaker: She had to work that day.

Speaker: I'm watching the kiddos.

Speaker: She texts me this yard sale just posted on Facebook and there's a pinball machine in their driveway at the yard sale.

Speaker: And it's funny because I get all the kids loaded up.

Speaker: I'm in the car and I'm already heading there.

Speaker: And my wife's like, did you get my text?

Speaker: I'm like, honey, I'm driving there.

Speaker: Like I have Carter text that for me.

Speaker: Dad's on his way, you know?

Speaker: And, uh, we get there and it's a 1949 Maryland.

Speaker: It's a wood rail glasses missing.

Speaker: Uh, I'm looking at, I take a couple of pictures.

Speaker: I send in the butch.

Speaker: Cause I'm like, is this even fixable?

Speaker: Dude has $200 slapped on as the price tag.

Speaker: And I'm just looking at this.

Speaker: And the Playfield, I don't know how they made the newer Playfields, but apparently the older Playfields, it was a piece of wood.

Speaker: And then they did like a really thin, either laminate or a really thin piece of wood over the top that had the actual Playfield.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: water had somehow either dripped onto the play field or whatnot.

Speaker: And that thin layer on top had peeled back.

Speaker: Like you just pill the banana, you know, it just peeled off.

Speaker: It was still there.

Speaker: It could be glued down, but then it had a crack all the way from the head of the game down to the top and down to the buttons.

Speaker: I mean, it just play felt literally split in half, uh, probably about a quarter inch wide.

Speaker: I mean, it was not a small gap, um,

Speaker: And, uh, I'm looking at this and this guy's like, dude, 200 bucks.

Speaker: It's a still, they're rare.

Speaker: They give you everything, right?

Speaker: It's, Oh, no one owns one in the whole nation anymore.

Speaker: I'm like, dude, I'm not going to lie to you.

Speaker: This is 1949.

Speaker: The reason that no one owns it is because no one wants it.

Speaker: Like I'm not, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

Speaker: And he's like, what?

Speaker: He's like, I can go lower than 200.

Speaker: I'm like, you don't want to know how low I want to go.

Speaker: Like if I don't know if I want this pinball machine, I told him, let me go talk, talk to my friends really quick, send some pictures and see if it's even worth it.

Speaker: And so after talking to you and Butch and Butch is like, yeah, and you're really gonna have to love that game to bring it back to life.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I basically said hard pass.

Speaker: Yeah, and the only thing that would happen, you plug in the cord, lights would come on, no one's home.

Speaker: I mean, it's not doing anything.

Speaker: And so after sitting in the car for about 15 minutes talking to you guys, I get out, walk over to the guy.

Speaker: I'm about to tell him, hard pass.

Speaker: And he very smugly says, we sold it already.

Speaker: I was like, oh, congratulations.

Speaker: I hope you got the 200 bucks.

Speaker: And I get back in the car and I text you guys, and Butch is like, what?

Speaker: But it's win, win, win.

Speaker: You don't end up with the pinball machine.

Speaker: He gets his 200 bucks and some poor sap gets a pinball machine he thought he got for cheap.

Speaker: And so that was that.

Speaker: I didn't think twice about it.

Speaker: I was kind of happy someone else took it because I was afraid.

Speaker: Do you ever get in that mode where it's like, I have to take this.

Speaker: If it doesn't come to me, it's going to go to a trash pile.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, I guess I don't because I just don't have the time to resurrect games.

Speaker: I don't have the Jesus touch on games.

Speaker: I cannot bring them back to life.

Speaker: And that's all I could think was like, if, if I, if I get rid of this, if I pass on it, someone's going to take it and get ticked off and just trash it.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And so I was glad someone else took it and I didn't have the option.

Speaker: And so I get home weekends over and, uh, I get a call from my local dentist and he's like, Josh, you work on pinball machines, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I bought one this weekend.

Speaker: Hmm.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Where did you buy it from?

Speaker: A yard sale up an air village.

Speaker: I'm like, is it, was it for 200 bucks?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, the one I said, yeah.

Speaker: And he's like, yeah, how much do I have to pay you to bring this thing back to life?

Speaker: And I'm like, I'm not going to lie to you.

Speaker: Throw it away and get a different one.

Speaker: Like, yeah, I will help you get you any other pinball machine.

Speaker: You don't want this one.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So after I texted you guys on Monday that, guess what?

Speaker: Someone wants me to fix it.

Speaker: I got a couple of laughs in the text.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's just not worth it.

Speaker: You know, there's some that you're like, you know, it's a great game and it's a great museum piece.

Speaker: If you want to just put it in the corner and say it's cool looking, but it's beyond non-functional at this point.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so he's, he's trying to convince me to still work on it.

Speaker: I'm trying to convince him just buy an old working EM.

Speaker: If you don't want to drop the money on,

Speaker: You don't want to drop the money on this Maryland.

Speaker: You get something that actually is... And I think that's what he doesn't realize.

Speaker: He doesn't realize that it'll cost $1,000 to get it back.

Speaker: And it's sadly not worth it unless it's a labor of love.

Speaker: Call Nick Schell.

Speaker: Send it to the Roanoke Pinball Museum.

Speaker: Have him do it because he would love it.

Speaker: A split play field.

Speaker: I can't get one of those.

Speaker: I can't get a 1949 Maryland just...

Speaker: from Marco or call up CPR.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Like, yeah, it's not a game that's well sought after.

Speaker: So there's no demand for the parts on that, on that machine.

Speaker: So, and that's what he's having a hard time understanding.

Speaker: It's like, I, even if I wanted to resurrect it, it's going to be hard.

Speaker: It's not, it's not going to be like, Oh, I'll just buy the parts and we'll call it good.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, wait, now, did you even look this up?

Speaker: What, what,

Speaker: It was made in 1949, right?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Like, I don't even know if there's... Yeah.

Speaker: I'm looking at it just reminding myself in the play field.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's so goofy.

Speaker: The flippers are down in the dead center.

Speaker: And they're reversed.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so I'm just looking at this machine like, this wouldn't even be fun to play.

Speaker: It might be, but... This is a pinball museum game.

Speaker: If he wants to donate it to the Pinball Hall of Fame or something like that, they may take it.

Speaker: I don't even know if they'd take it.

Speaker: We just saw the underside of this play field.

Speaker: I mean, the leaf switches were all rusted.

Speaker: I mean, there was water damage to this game, and it's just...

Speaker: It keeps passing from person to person to person.

Speaker: Cause I think that's what happens.

Speaker: People buy it and then they realize, oh, this is just not work worth it.

Speaker: And then they sell it on.

Speaker: So I'm surprised they got 200 bucks from it.

Speaker: They found a sucker, but that's my story that I wanted to share with you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, okay.

Speaker: Well, so what's the take home message?

Speaker: Take home message.

Speaker: If you are not for sure on the, because I've been in this hobby for six years.

Speaker: If you're not for sure about a pinball machine, find someone that is, that knows more about it, that was willing to give you advice.

Speaker: Unless you have a crazy amount of time, do not buy a project.

Speaker: That's my advice.

Speaker: Like if you want to play pinball, great.

Speaker: If you want to learn how to rebuild stuff, fine.

Speaker: But that is different.

Speaker: Nine times out of 10, if you take a gamble in pinball, you're probably going to lose.

Speaker: My World Cup soccer I've had since I've pretty much gotten into the hobby is

Speaker: I bought from an arcade.

Speaker: It was missing buttons from the play field.

Speaker: I mean, it was missing the sound circuit board.

Speaker: I knew what I was getting into and the, I got it for 600 bucks and I figured the, the parts I had to put into it would just, you know, was still cheaper than buying one fully functioning.

Speaker: And, and I was right in the end, but it's because I did my research and I knew what I was looking for.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: That's, that's, that's, you just, I don't know.

Speaker: And obviously the people are listening to this podcast.

Speaker: You're obviously enthusiasts.

Speaker: Maybe you stand up upon us cause you want to learn more.

Speaker: That's awesome.

Speaker: But I'm pretty for sure.

Speaker: 99% of our people listening to our podcast knows what they're getting into.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So it's just, I don't know.

Speaker: I, you know, I just don't have that kind of time.

Speaker: So if people want to do it, you know, God bless.

Speaker: I hope you resurrect every single, um, uh,

Speaker: basically the equivalent of a car on cinder blocks in the garage somewhere.

Speaker: I just don't have time to do that.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Let's do a couple of wrap up notes before we wrap this all the way up in a tight, nice bow.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Thank you for all the amazing positive response with the Butch Pillar review.

Speaker: I did not realize that.

Speaker: When Scott got him on, I had heard of Butch Pill, but I didn't know the man.

Speaker: There's an amazing amount of stories from this community that have a love for Butch Pill, and it just dumbfounded me just how much positive response we got.

Speaker: It's the most positive response we've gotten to an episode so far.

Speaker: Which is saying something because we've had Keith Allen on.

Speaker: We've had Zach Sharp.

Speaker: We've had Josh Sharp.

Speaker: We've had, I mean, all these people have been on our show and, and I mean, people love Butch.

Speaker: I guess that's the final line.

Speaker: Um, one other one that we got a lot of positive review from was the Jeff Rivera episode.

Speaker: They did a new episode, Pinball Podcast.

Speaker: If you haven't checked it out, him and Jessica did a catch-up of the last year.

Speaker: They gave us a shout-out.

Speaker: Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker: Very awesome to hear you enjoy being on the show.

Speaker: And good luck to Jessica in Florida.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: And as always, if you listen to us on podcast, please give us a review.

Speaker: It does help us on the aggregate searching.

Speaker: And if you have a topic you want to talk about, send it our way.

Speaker: Or if you want us to try to reach out and get a certain guest on, I'd love to hear your input.

Speaker: We certainly appreciate that people spend their time

Speaker: precious time listening to us.

Speaker: And we're two enthusiasts who just want to spread the love on pinball, uh, love all the things that all the manufacturers are doing.

Speaker: And we really do try to be the, uh, more on the positive side.

Speaker: So, uh, keep it up and, uh, reach out to us.

Speaker: If you have any questions, we'd love to hear from you.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Speaker: Uh, also our email is loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.

Speaker: So if you want to send us an email, go for it.

Speaker: Honestly, the best way to get ahold of us is Facebook.

Speaker: Scott and I both have access to that.

Speaker: So we both reply pretty frequently to that.

Speaker: I do apologize to the people that leave messages to us on Pinside.

Speaker: And then two weeks later when I'm uploading the next episode, oh, sorry.

Speaker: I noticed you just left this comment.

Speaker: So I'll type in something.

Speaker: But if you want to get ahold of us, that's the way to Facebook.

Speaker: Other than that, dude, I want to tease it.

Speaker: Just a second.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Tease, tease.

Speaker: We're having a return guest come back for an interview, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Speaker: I'm excited to have this person on, and you will be too.

Speaker: That's what I'm going to leave it at.

Speaker: Dude, Scott, always a pleasure to chit-chat with you, whether we have a guest or not, man.

Speaker: Hey, it's always fun and catch up, go and play some good pinball.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Oh, oh, really quick, really quick.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: Before we wrap this up, we talked about giving away a swag bag.

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: We did not talk about this, but I had this idea.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Shoot me down if it's a bad idea.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: If you want to be entered for the swag bag, either hit us up on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Speaker: Heck, I don't give a crap if it's pin site.

Speaker: I want you to take a picture of yourself at your favorite local establishment playing pinball.

Speaker: We want to support those people.

Speaker: I know it's a scary time.

Speaker: I know, but just put on your mask.

Speaker: Make sure that you've got your six foot bubble on.

Speaker: and just take a picture with you and some pinball and support those local people because we're losing too many good companies.

Speaker: And that is my recommendation for the swag bag.

Speaker: If you take a picture and post it to any of our social media, you will automatically get entered in for a swag bag.

Speaker: Sound good?

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Sounds good.

Speaker: And if you're afraid to, then take it, I guess, at home and go from there.

Speaker: There you go.

Speaker: All right, man.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: We'll see you in about two weeks.

Speaker: Talk to you later.

Speaker: Shut up and sit down.