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Ep 91: Talking News
69 Plays3 years ago
Catching up with Flippin the Script and new pinball news that has happend in the last couple of weeks.
Disclaimer - Zencastr has made changes to their site and messed up how the ep is produced. There are more background noises in this ep than usual.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Milestone Celebration
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning into the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
This is Josh Roop.
00:00:10
Speaker
We are on episode 91.
00:00:11
Speaker
With me, my co-captain, as always.
00:00:13
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:14
Speaker
And Scott, I can't believe we're on episode 91.
00:00:17
Speaker
100 is just right around the corner.
00:00:19
Speaker
I know.
00:00:19
Speaker
It's crazy, right?
00:00:20
Speaker
But, you know, we've been doing this for almost four years now.
00:00:25
Speaker
Isn't 100 when you have to hang it up?
00:00:27
Speaker
That's right here.
00:00:28
Speaker
By law?
00:00:29
Speaker
You know, eclectic gamers have shattered that stigma.
00:00:34
Speaker
So maybe we can keep going.
00:00:36
Speaker
If we hold on to hope, may journeys don't stop believing.
00:00:40
Speaker
Just like flipping out has not stopped believing in us because they just like journey.
00:00:45
Speaker
Exactly.
00:00:46
Speaker
And no, that doesn't mean a journey pins coming.
00:00:48
Speaker
But if you need that new game, if you need some of that sweet swag, head over to flipping out.com or call Zach or Nicole many directly.
Pinball Lifestyle and Community
00:00:57
Speaker
If you did not listen to the pinball show this week, they were both on there.
00:00:59
Speaker
It was awesome to hear Nicole talk about the, the life of having to live with Zach.
00:01:06
Speaker
I will say Zach is genuinely a nice guy and he's motivated and he is certainly invested in trying to spread pinball.
00:01:19
Speaker
Everything he does, even aside from his business, is all about the pinball life.
00:01:25
Speaker
If you're talking about Stern saying that it's a global lifestyle brand, Flippin' Out is living the global lifestyle brand of living the pinball dream.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree.
00:01:36
Speaker
You know, you know, you're in deep when you're like, I just built a brand new barn outside the back of my house to house.
00:01:43
Speaker
How many machines was it like 30 or plus?
00:01:46
Speaker
Well, now that is part of their business to to be able to have a place for them.
00:01:50
Speaker
But it's that would be awesome.
00:01:51
Speaker
I totally am jealous.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, but you build it and then you turn around and go, we still don't have enough space.
00:01:56
Speaker
And so you put that house up for sale to find more.
00:01:59
Speaker
Bigger land to build on, which is awesome.
00:02:01
Speaker
I'm not jealous at all.
00:02:03
Speaker
Gosh, dang it.
00:02:04
Speaker
I'm totally jealous.
00:02:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:06
Speaker
Let's talk about service though.
00:02:08
Speaker
So I've talked long and hard about my frustrations with rush.
00:02:12
Speaker
Oh my.
00:02:13
Speaker
And the, the waiting on the opto.
00:02:17
Speaker
So Greg bone, who actually helps Zach as part of like the, the tech and the, the service issues.
00:02:26
Speaker
He actually pulled out the Opto from his personal machine and mailed it to me.
00:02:31
Speaker
Wow.
00:02:31
Speaker
And so even though we're waiting on parts delayed, I was able to get that and install it.
00:02:37
Speaker
And now my rush is up and running.
00:02:39
Speaker
So just think about that when you're looking for that pinball company that you're trying to buy from.
00:02:46
Speaker
It's not, are they able to sell you a game?
00:02:48
Speaker
It's like, what happens if there are any issues?
00:02:50
Speaker
Because pinball has issues.
00:02:53
Speaker
There's tons of moving parts and something will not work.
00:02:57
Speaker
I mean, man, that's awesome.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's like, I know it's not this intense, but it's like a doctor.
00:03:01
Speaker
I'm like, you need a kidney.
00:03:02
Speaker
I have one.
00:03:02
Speaker
Let's just get it.
00:03:03
Speaker
It's next level.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely is next level.
00:03:06
Speaker
I'll just get a new one when it comes down the line.
00:03:08
Speaker
Don't worry about it.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's all good.
00:03:10
Speaker
But no, that's awesome.
00:03:11
Speaker
If you need anything, get a hold of them.
00:03:13
Speaker
Flipping out fantastic people.
00:03:15
Speaker
Let's talk about our last couple of weeks.
Tournament Adventures and Family Involvement
00:03:17
Speaker
I don't actually, I can't remember the last time we talked about ourselves, Scott.
00:03:20
Speaker
Well, maybe I guess you did about Texas Roadhouse because we keep getting people.
00:03:25
Speaker
So if you went to Texas back, that's not very common that they're like that.
00:03:28
Speaker
Like, are you OK?
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:31
Speaker
It's OK.
00:03:32
Speaker
It's OK.
00:03:32
Speaker
I've let it go.
00:03:33
Speaker
Texas Roadhouse.
00:03:34
Speaker
My kids like it.
00:03:35
Speaker
I just prefer other places.
00:03:36
Speaker
So.
00:03:38
Speaker
I don't blame you.
00:03:39
Speaker
But the rattlesnake bites.
00:03:40
Speaker
Oh, so good.
00:03:41
Speaker
Stick around.
00:03:41
Speaker
Stick around.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:43
Speaker
There are other options.
00:03:45
Speaker
So what did you add going on?
00:03:46
Speaker
Obviously, you got Rush up and going.
00:03:47
Speaker
How's that been?
00:03:48
Speaker
You know what?
00:03:48
Speaker
It's been really fun.
00:03:50
Speaker
I was concerned because of the similarities to X-Men, which although X-Men, I think it's a beautiful game.
00:03:58
Speaker
I could just never get into it.
00:04:01
Speaker
It just never felt like, oh, I would play it and be like, oh, okay, and move on.
00:04:05
Speaker
Rush, the huge benefit now is there are explanations on Stern's website.
00:04:14
Speaker
It's a matrix that talks about, hey, these are the modes.
00:04:18
Speaker
This is how you light them.
00:04:20
Speaker
And it's a little outdated.
00:04:22
Speaker
It needs to be updated.
00:04:23
Speaker
However, reading through that and the depths of
00:04:26
Speaker
that Tim and Ray were able to go through on the code.
00:04:31
Speaker
It makes it a lot more fun because it's not a standard, hey, shoot left, shoot right, shoot up the middle or something like that.
00:04:39
Speaker
There are reasons why you're trying to hit certain shots.
00:04:42
Speaker
And so I've been trying to learn, okay, so I'm trying to collect these albums and you have to do three shot combos to pick up these albums and they're hard.
00:04:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:52
Speaker
Like they're hard for, for elite players, I'm sure they can knock them out.
00:04:56
Speaker
But for average players, it's, it's hard to get those.
00:05:02
Speaker
But it's been a lot of fun.
00:05:03
Speaker
I've really appreciated how well the game goes.
00:05:07
Speaker
The new scoop does, it does help.
00:05:10
Speaker
The new scoop protectors, it actually makes it less of a, I was finding the scoop probably more than I should have.
00:05:17
Speaker
And with the protectors on the side, it probably opens up other things and it doesn't fall into the scoop as often as it used to when you don't need to.
00:05:26
Speaker
You know, and this is a game I would like to get more time on.
00:05:29
Speaker
I originally got a bunch of time.
00:05:31
Speaker
I got two or three hours on it when it first came out.
00:05:33
Speaker
I mean, it hadn't been out two weeks yet.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:35
Speaker
And the code was still fresh.
00:05:39
Speaker
And it was on a pro.
00:05:41
Speaker
And I just think that...
00:05:43
Speaker
I wasn't enjoying the left side of the play field.
00:05:46
Speaker
It's hard.
00:05:47
Speaker
It's hard when you're on location, the music's turned down.
00:05:50
Speaker
I mean, that's, that's most of the experiences, the sound with the game.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker
We've talked about this before.
00:05:56
Speaker
Plea TNA without the sound on it.
00:05:57
Speaker
Just, it feels awkward, like a bad day.
00:06:00
Speaker
Not the same.
00:06:01
Speaker
Not the same.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:02
Speaker
It just isn't.
00:06:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:03
Speaker
And so,
00:06:04
Speaker
I would like, I need to come out to your house again.
00:06:06
Speaker
When you, my son is dying to get back on your iron maiden.
00:06:08
Speaker
He's like, dad, we need.
00:06:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:10
Speaker
I, okay.
00:06:11
Speaker
You actually stopped off.
00:06:12
Speaker
I, I was held up last week.
00:06:15
Speaker
So you actually came out and you dropped off.
00:06:17
Speaker
We ordered some hats.
00:06:18
Speaker
And so they came.
00:06:19
Speaker
Hats.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:21
Speaker
New hats.
00:06:22
Speaker
And I, uh,
00:06:24
Speaker
It's funny because I actually worked overnight on Friday and I usually get off right at seven o'clock and I'm able to, to get my day going.
00:06:32
Speaker
But then we actually had an emergency at the hospital.
00:06:36
Speaker
So I was held up for an hour and a half.
00:06:38
Speaker
And so I couldn't get going, but I also promised my son.
00:06:42
Speaker
to take him on activity.
00:06:43
Speaker
And so that pushed everything back.
00:06:45
Speaker
And so you had a timeline where you were stopping off in my house for like five minutes.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:51
Speaker
And I missed you by, I think 20 minutes.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker
I think my timeline was, is we could hang out your house for like 45 minutes.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:58
Speaker
We just, it was two ships passing in the night kind of situation.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a, but yeah, I've got the, I've got the hats and that's nice.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:06
Speaker
And so we'll be able to get some things going.
00:07:09
Speaker
I also got some magnets.
00:07:10
Speaker
I ordered some magnets.
00:07:11
Speaker
So I've loser magnets I'll bring to Chicago.
00:07:13
Speaker
And that's an update too.
00:07:15
Speaker
I actually got the time off.
00:07:17
Speaker
I was on the waiting list for Chicago and I did get the time off.
00:07:20
Speaker
So I'm flying in Wednesday and I'm flying out Sunday morning.
00:07:23
Speaker
Nice.
00:07:23
Speaker
Awesome.
00:07:24
Speaker
Glad you'll be there because it was very up in the air there for a second.
00:07:28
Speaker
I couldn't guarantee because unless I have vacation, I can't just, you know, my job, you're not really able to call in sick and squeeze that extra vacation day.
00:07:40
Speaker
It just doesn't work.
00:07:42
Speaker
I'm very sick.
00:07:42
Speaker
Why haven't you come to the hospital then, Scott?
00:07:44
Speaker
You should be checking what you got.
00:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm fine.
00:07:47
Speaker
You pulled the Paris Pillar.
00:07:49
Speaker
You have a fever.
00:07:51
Speaker
No big deal.
00:07:54
Speaker
No, that's awesome.
00:07:55
Speaker
Well, and to lead into what I was doing, I guess, this past week, my son's been bugging me for a while now to do a pinball tournament.
00:08:03
Speaker
And Nathan Smith of Lit Amusements, I traded my no fear to him for his Johnny Mnemonic.
00:08:09
Speaker
And while I was out there on my birthday, he said, hey,
00:08:12
Speaker
we have a tournament coming up at the end of August.
00:08:14
Speaker
Why don't you come out and join us?
00:08:15
Speaker
And I said, well, it is Ogden.
00:08:16
Speaker
It's only a four hour drive one way.
00:08:19
Speaker
So let me think about it.
00:08:20
Speaker
And so my wife's like, you haven't done it since forever.
00:08:22
Speaker
Let's go ahead and take Carter and Carter's dying, right?
00:08:25
Speaker
Like it's really funny because he beat his dad in a tournament we did at my house just for fun with the family.
00:08:30
Speaker
but I was stressed because we actually use match play and all that stuff.
00:08:34
Speaker
So I was more focused on like everyone's machines working fine and the match play working fine.
00:08:38
Speaker
And, and, uh, he, he beat his old man.
00:08:41
Speaker
So it was really funny.
00:08:42
Speaker
It wasn't by much, but he did, he did beat me.
00:08:45
Speaker
And so, uh, he's already asking, he's like, so we're going to Texas, right?
00:08:48
Speaker
And you're going to put me in the tournament there.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I go, uh,
00:08:50
Speaker
You do know like Ray Day is probably going to be in that tournament.
00:08:52
Speaker
He's like, I can take on Ray Day.
00:08:53
Speaker
And I'm like, I like that enthusiasm.
00:08:56
Speaker
Hold on to that.
00:08:59
Speaker
But yeah, we went to Nathan Smith's house.
00:09:02
Speaker
Wonderful house.
00:09:04
Speaker
Got to meet his wife, Christy.
00:09:05
Speaker
She was awesome and met his kids.
00:09:08
Speaker
They were great too.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it was cool because there was a brunch tournament.
00:09:13
Speaker
It was a flip frenzy that they only did for a couple hours.
00:09:16
Speaker
And then after the flip frenzy,
00:09:18
Speaker
They had this tournament at his house, and we couldn't get up there early enough for the Flip Frenzy.
00:09:23
Speaker
But between the Flip Frenzy, which almost had 45 people, and then Nathan's had 30, and there wasn't much crossover, that means there was roughly 60 people at both, 60 different people at the two tournaments combined on a Saturday in Utah.
00:09:41
Speaker
So the scene is growing here, and I didn't realize it's growing as much as it is.
00:09:46
Speaker
But it was great.
00:09:47
Speaker
It was just progressive strikes.
00:09:49
Speaker
So if you take first, you don't get any strikes.
00:09:52
Speaker
And then on your way down, you get one strike for every place you place low.
00:09:56
Speaker
So if you're in fourth place, you get three strikes.
00:09:58
Speaker
Ten strikes, you're out.
00:09:59
Speaker
Kind of an easy concept.
00:10:02
Speaker
My boy was out on the fifth round.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:06
Speaker
And he was upset about that because he went out on whitewater.
00:10:10
Speaker
And he's like, no, I should have had that.
00:10:12
Speaker
I was like, it's fine, dude.
00:10:14
Speaker
It's Steven Strom.
00:10:15
Speaker
I saw that Steve made it up.
00:10:18
Speaker
So Steve drove up.
00:10:19
Speaker
He drove up from Vegas.
00:10:21
Speaker
He flew in.
00:10:22
Speaker
So Steven used to live in Elko.
00:10:24
Speaker
So that's just on the other side of it's on the Utah, Nevada border.
00:10:28
Speaker
kind of straight across from Salt Lake.
00:10:29
Speaker
Just think of like where Vernal is to Salt Lake.
00:10:33
Speaker
Elko is the other way.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:35
Speaker
They're west.
00:10:35
Speaker
I'm east.
00:10:36
Speaker
Basically the same town.
00:10:37
Speaker
So Steve used to come up all the time.
00:10:39
Speaker
He was really good.
00:10:40
Speaker
He actually took...
00:10:41
Speaker
the championship in utah moved on to when it was in vegas uh what was that was that 2019 and uh he did pretty well he knocked out steve bowden so he's got some he's got some chops right yeah he's got skills so when he knocked my son out of the tournament i'm like dude don't feel bad like it's it's not a big deal
00:11:00
Speaker
And I was frustrated, though.
00:11:02
Speaker
I went out on round seven.
00:11:04
Speaker
I want to say it was.
00:11:06
Speaker
I messed up my first game.
00:11:09
Speaker
I did not sandbag.
00:11:10
Speaker
I just did not do well on my first game.
00:11:12
Speaker
But then I won every game after that, except for when we started getting towards the end.
00:11:16
Speaker
They put us on Houdini.
00:11:18
Speaker
Have you played Houdini, Scott?
00:11:19
Speaker
I have, and it's tight.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's tight?
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:23
Speaker
But the thing that I learned on Houdini that I've really never noticed because I've never been in a tournament setting is the hole that's behind the theater curtain rejects a lot.
00:11:36
Speaker
And considering that's where your modes are at and that's where a lot of your points are at, it gets super frustrating when you shoot the shot and it rims out.
00:11:43
Speaker
And you do that like six times in a row.
00:11:45
Speaker
And so I ended up, I needed to have third or higher.
00:11:51
Speaker
And Nate's son ended up rallying on his last ball and knocked two of us out of the tournament by bumping himself from fourth to second.
00:11:58
Speaker
So yeah, Nate's son's really good.
00:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, he is really good.
00:12:02
Speaker
And so that whole family is really good at pinball.
00:12:06
Speaker
It's pretty awesome.
00:12:07
Speaker
It was funny to overhear some of the people talking to him like, how did you get your sons into pinball so much?
00:12:12
Speaker
Like, do you have any pointers for us and our family?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
And it's, my kids will come and play when I'm playing.
00:12:19
Speaker
I think that's the key is they want to hang out with mom and dad.
00:12:22
Speaker
And so they're likely not going to sit down and flip out on their own.
00:12:28
Speaker
But if we're playing, they'll come over.
00:12:32
Speaker
So it was awesome.
00:12:33
Speaker
Steven's birthday was this weekend.
00:12:35
Speaker
Happy birthday, Steve.
00:12:36
Speaker
They brought two cakes because party.
00:12:39
Speaker
And then Nick Stone, who's also in the Salt Lake group, it's his birthday today.
00:12:44
Speaker
We're recording on August 24th.
00:12:45
Speaker
So happy birthday to you as well.
00:12:47
Speaker
But it was really cool because there was a lot of old school league players there.
00:12:51
Speaker
Dan Newman, we've had him on the show, episode four.
00:12:54
Speaker
I know a lot of people haven't listened to that episode because it's the least listened episode we have out of our whole.
00:12:58
Speaker
Well, and we were just barely cutting our teeth, so.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:00
Speaker
And so he talked about the local scene and what it took to run tournaments on that episode.
00:13:05
Speaker
So it's cool to talk to Dan.
00:13:07
Speaker
Matt Shablom.
00:13:08
Speaker
a wonderful friend of mine.
00:13:10
Speaker
If you don't know Matt, find him at he's, he's, he's secretly in the background at like all the, the big conventions and stuff like that.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
I love his stance.
00:13:20
Speaker
He plays like Frankenstein.
00:13:21
Speaker
Yes.
00:13:22
Speaker
He stands super straight upright with his head down and just flips the flippers.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yes.
00:13:28
Speaker
He's an awesome guy.
00:13:29
Speaker
Like Matt is, he's an awesome dude.
00:13:32
Speaker
Other than that, I don't know.
00:13:33
Speaker
It was cool meeting a lot of new people and hanging out with old friends.
00:13:36
Speaker
And so,
00:13:37
Speaker
I'm excited to do it again.
00:13:38
Speaker
I can't wait to do another tournament because it's been since 2019.
00:13:42
Speaker
My last one was in November 2019.
00:13:43
Speaker
It's been a while for me too.
00:13:46
Speaker
And just, I went to the rush party, but it's, it's hard.
00:13:53
Speaker
I really do have a very busy schedule.
00:13:54
Speaker
And so it's hard for me to budget that out because it does take away from family time, which will always take priority on my book.
00:14:02
Speaker
We need to have another ball Barry and tournament at your house.
00:14:05
Speaker
Cause yeah, if you guys haven't seen it, I think it is episode four.
00:14:10
Speaker
It's, it's our picture.
00:14:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker
Scott is Conan, the barbarian.
00:14:13
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:14:14
Speaker
It's hilarious.
00:14:15
Speaker
It's no Photoshop at all.
00:14:17
Speaker
That was just, that was him ripped.
00:14:18
Speaker
That was just him.
00:14:19
Speaker
They asked him to take off his shirt and he just ripped it right down the front middle and threw the shirt away.
00:14:23
Speaker
Exactly.
00:14:24
Speaker
So I guess that catches us up on our last month or two, I guess.
00:14:28
Speaker
I think so.
00:14:29
Speaker
Um,
00:14:29
Speaker
So yeah, let's move on.
00:14:31
Speaker
We got some news or I guess let's before we go into the news, let's talk a little bit about flipping the script on autism.
Upcoming Events and Expo Plans
00:14:37
Speaker
If you like Scott, he is now planned to go to Expo, so he'll be there with us.
00:14:42
Speaker
If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, Expo is October 19th through the 23rd.
00:14:47
Speaker
I know there's a little conflict between that and Rocky Mountain pinball show, but trust me, you're going to want to be at Expo.
00:14:54
Speaker
It's going to be at Chicago expo.
00:14:56
Speaker
Um, it's, if you can, obviously Rocky, we, uh, we have supported Rocky mountain too.
00:15:02
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:15:03
Speaker
That is a great local show that I've been to.
00:15:06
Speaker
Um, and if, if you, you know,
00:15:10
Speaker
go to either of them.
00:15:11
Speaker
But if you can come and hang out with us.
00:15:14
Speaker
Well, and you can still support us.
00:15:16
Speaker
That is Thursday.
00:15:16
Speaker
So I don't think Rocky Mountain Expo actually starts till Friday.
00:15:19
Speaker
Right.
00:15:20
Speaker
Tune in on the stream on Thursday.
00:15:22
Speaker
Let's start talking about, I can officially announce some of these guests.
00:15:24
Speaker
Now we've got Eric Meniere.
00:15:26
Speaker
He's going to be interviewed by poor men.
00:15:29
Speaker
It's Drew and Rachel right now.
00:15:30
Speaker
We also have Keith Elwin, Amanda Hamilton, and Bill Webb of Special When Lit slash Free Play Pinball is going to be there.
00:15:38
Speaker
They're going to be interviewing Keith.
00:15:40
Speaker
We've got an amazing lineup of people and auction items.
00:15:45
Speaker
I've got play fields.
00:15:47
Speaker
I've got translites, shirts, hats, koozies.
00:15:52
Speaker
There's accessories for your pinball machine.
00:15:53
Speaker
These are all going to be available online.
00:15:55
Speaker
either via the stream or there's going to be some items exclusive to Expo.
00:16:01
Speaker
And we've also talked to the pinball manufacturers, and a lot of these are going to be shipped out to you at no cost.
00:16:07
Speaker
So when you're doing the auction, don't worry about, oh, I should hold off because it's going to cost me $100 to ship the play field or whatever it is, whatever shipping costs are now.
00:16:16
Speaker
Don't worry about that.
00:16:18
Speaker
Stern, American, CGC, all those people that are donating product have agreed, we're going to ship it to you.
00:16:25
Speaker
So it's going to be awesome.
00:16:28
Speaker
Even Haggis, Haggis out of Australia contacted me and was like, hey, how can we help?
00:16:34
Speaker
And I appreciate that.
00:16:34
Speaker
There's been a lot of people that reached out.
00:16:36
Speaker
There's been a lot of people have reached out and asked how they could help.
00:16:39
Speaker
I feel bad that not everyone's been able to assist in one way or another because there's just so many people that are affected by autism and whether they know someone, whether they have a child with it.
00:16:50
Speaker
I wish there was more that we could do to include everyone that wants to help.
00:16:54
Speaker
There hasn't been anyone that we've turned away.
00:16:57
Speaker
We've given them their options of how they can help and they said yes or no.
00:17:01
Speaker
But no, seriously, like the flipping the scripts can be awesome.
00:17:04
Speaker
I'm, I'm super excited that I'm able to make it.
00:17:06
Speaker
Cause I was, I was concerned.
00:17:08
Speaker
I didn't know if I was going to be able to come to expo this year, as soon as Josh said, no, this is, and this is something that personally affects Josh.
00:17:16
Speaker
And so that is, that's a challenge.
00:17:20
Speaker
Raising kids with special needs is a challenge.
00:17:22
Speaker
And as soon as Josh said he was going to do, I'm like, I'm going to do everything I can to be there.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yep.
00:17:28
Speaker
Um,
00:17:28
Speaker
A couple others.
00:17:29
Speaker
Raymond Davidson's going to be there.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:31
Speaker
Along with Triple Drain.
00:17:32
Speaker
Travis.
00:17:33
Speaker
Possibly Tom.
00:17:34
Speaker
Tom's got a tight schedule, man.
00:17:35
Speaker
He is the king of tournament streaming.
00:17:38
Speaker
So I don't blame him if...
00:17:40
Speaker
He can't make it.
00:17:40
Speaker
But I'm excited for a lot of our hosts.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like I mentioned, poor man, free play, triple drain.
00:17:48
Speaker
No, no coin drop required with Jen Rupert.
00:17:50
Speaker
If you do not know this lady, you need to have her in your life.
00:17:54
Speaker
She is such a cool, positive influence in pinball.
00:17:57
Speaker
She is bettering the hobby and the tournament scene.
00:18:00
Speaker
And I know that's just my personal opinion.
00:18:03
Speaker
But after meeting her,
00:18:05
Speaker
at Expo last year at the tournament when I was like, I don't have anything to do on Thursday.
00:18:09
Speaker
I'll drop the money to do the tournament.
00:18:11
Speaker
And then I was like, maybe I should have not done this because, uh,
00:18:15
Speaker
I don't know if I have time for this now after everything picks up.
00:18:17
Speaker
Jen was there.
00:18:18
Speaker
She was very understanding.
00:18:19
Speaker
She was very helpful.
00:18:22
Speaker
I felt like she was walking a child through baby's first big tournament and she would do it with a smile and a get up on anything.
00:18:30
Speaker
So Jen's going to be there.
00:18:32
Speaker
I'm excited for that.
00:18:33
Speaker
Zach many were holding off on the guests that he is interviewing, not because they haven't agreed, but we're doing a special announcement for them.
00:18:41
Speaker
Um,
00:18:42
Speaker
We're also excited.
00:18:44
Speaker
We're going to have Justin Benson from Learning Solutions.
00:18:47
Speaker
He's going to be there kind of talking about the mission statement.
00:18:49
Speaker
And we're going to talk about some of the different things that Learning Solutions is doing for kids with autism.
00:18:55
Speaker
And Roger Sharp.
00:18:58
Speaker
He's not 100% yet.
00:19:00
Speaker
It must be a rough life, man, because he's got a movie premiere about his life.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, we'll talk about that too.
00:19:04
Speaker
But hey, I don't know of anybody who has anything negative to say about Roger.
00:19:10
Speaker
Yes.
00:19:11
Speaker
I agree.
00:19:12
Speaker
So that's where we're at.
00:19:13
Speaker
Flipping scripts looking great, man.
00:19:15
Speaker
It's full steam ahead.
00:19:16
Speaker
I'm getting nervous just as it's getting closer and I'm like trying to cross the T's and dot the I's kind of thing.
00:19:20
Speaker
So yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
And please join us.
00:19:22
Speaker
I am very grateful that my family is able to allow me to, to disappear even a little bit at a time to help support.
00:19:31
Speaker
Well, one, my, my weird hobby is,
00:19:34
Speaker
And pinball is odd and having your own pinball podcast is odd.
00:19:40
Speaker
But it's been great to know that I've had a lot of support from them too.
00:19:44
Speaker
So it's nice that they're allowing me to take a little time off.
00:19:47
Speaker
Initially, I was going to try to split time between Expo and a family vacation, but we just decided to take the family vacation the next weekend.
00:19:56
Speaker
And so I'm there.
00:19:59
Speaker
Awesome.
00:19:59
Speaker
That's great to hear.
00:20:00
Speaker
I'm excited you're going to be there.
00:20:02
Speaker
So it's going to be great.
Pinball Industry News and Speculations
00:20:04
Speaker
Speaking of Expo, American Pinball made an announcement this week, and it's pretty cool.
00:20:09
Speaker
They've got their hands on a Magic Girl.
00:20:11
Speaker
There's two gentlemen over from Europe that have completed the game to a playable state, and they've finished most of the code.
00:20:20
Speaker
I'm sorry, I didn't read the full article.
00:20:22
Speaker
I apologize.
00:20:23
Speaker
But they've done a really good job.
00:20:25
Speaker
I've watched the video.
00:20:25
Speaker
They've done a really good job to go ahead and finish this game.
00:20:28
Speaker
I know it's controversial because it's J-pop, and it was originally supposed to be...
00:20:33
Speaker
Sure.
00:20:34
Speaker
And all that stuff.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:20:35
Speaker
There's a lot of, there's a lot of challenges with that.
00:20:39
Speaker
However, I will argue that a, um, a product is not solely one person's contribution.
00:20:48
Speaker
I agree.
00:20:48
Speaker
And there were other people, I mean, zombie Yeti with his, uh, awesome art really made that game look amazing.
00:20:57
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:20:57
Speaker
And so there are, there are things where it's like, well, I'd love to see it and I'd love to see how it flips.
00:21:04
Speaker
And I'm glad that they're able to do it in a playable state.
00:21:07
Speaker
Yep.
00:21:08
Speaker
I agree.
00:21:09
Speaker
And, uh, I'm looking forward to this.
00:21:11
Speaker
This is one of my highlights going to expos.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:14
Speaker
Flipping the scripts, the top, and then I got to play magic girl.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yep.
00:21:17
Speaker
So, um, and also speaking of J pop,
00:21:22
Speaker
there was new Deep Root news.
00:21:25
Speaker
New, old-ish.
00:21:27
Speaker
If you haven't checked this out either, Blueberry Johnson was interviewed and he dropped a bomb that Deep Root had the licensing or was attempting to get the licensing for Men in Black.
00:21:40
Speaker
But they used...
00:21:42
Speaker
this really obscure video game from like the late early or mid 2000s that just tanked but it was just the artwork or we don't know really but they used for sure the artwork from it like on a scale of one to ten this game was rated like two and two and a half from the two reviewers that did it uh eclectic gamers did a better job of talking about this so if you want a more in-depth discussion on
00:22:07
Speaker
about the video game and whatnot, I would recommend going and checking out Dennis and Anthony, but it's weird to me because they did the 10 themes and this was nowhere near that.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't, but it just shows that the whole point of that company was a smoke screen.
00:22:25
Speaker
It was a total smoke screen.
00:22:27
Speaker
There was never any, any long-term plans to make anything, uh, at least from the, from the founder.
00:22:34
Speaker
And it just shows that there were just, there's different things that they can use to distract that they're never going to make a game.
00:22:43
Speaker
Well, what's funny to me is like, I felt like we've been pretty realistic with the expectations of Deep Root, right?
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker
We've had some people are like, you guys are a little harsh on them.
00:22:54
Speaker
And it was funny because we had a previous employee come up to us at one of the shows and said, honestly, it was what you guys were saying that got me through working there.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
And...
00:23:05
Speaker
If it wasn't for you guys, he's like, I don't know what I would have done.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
Now I will say it's easy for us because we're not personally affected.
00:23:12
Speaker
And I do feel bad for everybody who was personally affected and duped out of millions of dollars.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:19
Speaker
How much do you think of that was pinball people and how much of it was actually old people with their retirements?
00:23:24
Speaker
That's what I want to know.
00:23:25
Speaker
I think a lot of it was old people with their retirements.
00:23:28
Speaker
It stinks.
00:23:30
Speaker
It just seemed like pinball was kind of the cherry on top.
00:23:33
Speaker
It's weird to think that if things would have not happened sooner with the SEC, Robert could have been outed before he attempted to take money in that October.
00:23:42
Speaker
It stinks.
00:23:45
Speaker
It's what it is, I guess, right?
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:48
Speaker
But okay.
00:23:48
Speaker
So men in black though.
00:23:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:50
Speaker
Let's assume that he was able to get the men in black license.
00:23:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:23:55
Speaker
Men in black was a fun movie, right?
00:23:57
Speaker
It made, made a lot of money.
00:24:00
Speaker
I would say Will Smith star power has taken a significant hit this year.
00:24:07
Speaker
And yeah, I know weird, right?
00:24:09
Speaker
I think something happened.
00:24:11
Speaker
Something happened.
00:24:12
Speaker
Uh, but is that something that it, is he marketable right now?
00:24:16
Speaker
Or is he considered like, eh, I'm not really interested.
00:24:20
Speaker
We should do something else.
00:24:21
Speaker
Well, you'd have to split the pinball community into two different types of people, the anti Chris rock and the pro Chris rock.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:30
Speaker
I mean, well, no, I will say that you could, you could probably split it under the,
00:24:37
Speaker
Well, you could split it under how to react when something offensive happens.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
And if violence toward the offender is your solution, then again, this is the pin for you.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
That seems kind of dark.
00:24:57
Speaker
If there are other alternatives to say, you know, that really wasn't cool.
00:25:01
Speaker
But whatever.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:03
Speaker
I don't know.
00:25:05
Speaker
I think that it wouldn't sell.
00:25:08
Speaker
This year it would crater just because it's not the right time.
00:25:13
Speaker
I say yes and no.
00:25:16
Speaker
I think that people look at they're able to separate the person from the project.
00:25:20
Speaker
Sometimes.
00:25:22
Speaker
Sometimes.
00:25:23
Speaker
There are people who sold off all of John Trudeau's games.
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah, true.
00:25:28
Speaker
And he's not the only person who helped him out.
00:25:30
Speaker
And I totally understand that.
00:25:32
Speaker
But there are some people who are like, no, that's a line I'm unwilling to cross.
00:25:36
Speaker
I still have Black Rose and I like it.
00:25:39
Speaker
It's not going anytime soon.
00:25:41
Speaker
But I also understand there are people who have negative connotations with certain people and it's just not going to, you know, it's something they're not going to do.
00:25:51
Speaker
I think that Men in Black, that was a big enough franchise that you'd be fine without it.
00:25:56
Speaker
I guess it would be up to the manufacturer, though, whether they included Will Smith or not.
00:26:00
Speaker
that's, that's the problem is at least with Mandalorian, when they got rid of Gina, uh, she wasn't super integral in the show.
00:26:08
Speaker
Like she was there.
00:26:09
Speaker
You definitely felt that she was there, but they were able to work their way around her.
00:26:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:12
Speaker
They were able to pivot and I'm not going to get into the, the politics, the politics of that.
00:26:18
Speaker
Um, but my point being interesting that some people are allowed to say things, um, that are over the top on one side and other people,
00:26:30
Speaker
that I don't agree with.
00:26:31
Speaker
But the same level of comments, if they're said from a certain other side, then people's like, Oh, you can't say that.
00:26:41
Speaker
Yeah, really?
00:26:41
Speaker
Because maybe we should both play by the same rules.
00:26:46
Speaker
But my point being is it'd be a lot harder to pivot around Men in Black, which is the Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith show.
00:26:53
Speaker
Right.
00:26:53
Speaker
That is 95% of the reason you're watching the show is the dynamic and the relationship there.
00:26:59
Speaker
And it'd be hard to make a Men in Black machine.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:04
Speaker
However, the pinball thing that I'm looking at, it actually shows someone who obviously looks –
00:27:14
Speaker
looks like a silhouetted Will Smith.
00:27:17
Speaker
So, so this is alien crisis.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:21
Speaker
And so it's like, well, that's, you're definitely playing off that.
00:27:24
Speaker
That doesn't look like Tommy Lee Jones standing there.
00:27:26
Speaker
Well, an alien crisis was a video game for the mid two thousands.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:31
Speaker
And if, if, or if it were me, I think it'd be a smart approach to go the comic book route.
00:27:37
Speaker
Then you don't have to deal with it.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah, and then you can disconnect the association with the actor.
00:27:42
Speaker
Yeah, probably.
00:27:42
Speaker
But then you still get the boost from the theme.
00:27:45
Speaker
Right.
00:27:46
Speaker
You can disconnect the theme.
00:27:48
Speaker
It's like Deadpool.
00:27:50
Speaker
I still think Deadpool is an amazing game.
00:27:52
Speaker
I'm totally trying to come up for my home environment.
00:27:56
Speaker
If it were from the movie, I couldn't get it.
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:01
Speaker
Because I bet that it would be definitely have a very R rated soundtrack and it's not that way.
00:28:07
Speaker
It's totally like family friendly.
00:28:09
Speaker
I guess there is a setting where it's one or two words, but for the most part, it's not threatening in my collection.
00:28:16
Speaker
Actually, when Deadpool first came out, I had a gentleman message me and asked,
00:28:20
Speaker
could Deadpool go in your home home?
00:28:22
Speaker
And I said, yeah, I don't see why not.
00:28:24
Speaker
And he said, we've had a rough time with hell house.
00:28:28
Speaker
And I was like, okay, well, you know, that's, I understand from your perspective, but I just don't think that hell house goes for bad in my house.
00:28:36
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:28:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:38
Speaker
So hell house, is that like a theme on there or?
00:28:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's the scoop.
00:28:41
Speaker
So Deadpool's hanging out in the Hell House.
00:28:44
Speaker
Oh, gotcha.
00:28:44
Speaker
That's where you collect all the people.
00:28:46
Speaker
Okay, I didn't pay enough attention to figure that out.
00:28:49
Speaker
I just figured it was the lair or something.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like, you only see it briefly on the screen for a second saying shoot the Hell House scoop or whatever.
00:28:56
Speaker
Okay, yeah, I guess I haven't heard that call.
00:28:59
Speaker
I just...
00:29:01
Speaker
I just think of scoop.
00:29:02
Speaker
So, so for the most part, this is PG at most then, in my opinion, because you can, yeah, I get it.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:08
Speaker
Still a great game, but that's Iron Maiden.
00:29:11
Speaker
I was curious.
00:29:11
Speaker
I was wondering about Iron Maiden.
00:29:13
Speaker
I actually love the art and the, and the band, but I was curious and that actually hasn't been a big deal.
00:29:19
Speaker
But there are some where it's like, Ooh, maybe that's a little over the top.
00:29:23
Speaker
But going back to the comic book, I think that Deadpool still gets a good bump from the Deadpool movie without having the Deadpool movie.
00:29:31
Speaker
Right.
00:29:31
Speaker
And you can probably say, well, that was a fun theme and it disconnects from any negative stuff.
00:29:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:37
Speaker
There's a recognizability there, especially on location too.
00:29:39
Speaker
Right.
00:29:41
Speaker
It's kind of along the lines of Gold Wings.
00:29:43
Speaker
It's not Top Gun.
00:29:44
Speaker
It's Gold Wings.
00:29:45
Speaker
It's Gold Wings.
00:29:46
Speaker
Which is funny because I never thought of, I never think of Top Gun when I see that game.
00:29:50
Speaker
I think of Wings.
00:29:51
Speaker
You remember Wings on like a TV show?
00:29:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:55
Speaker
Like the, what was that, the 90s or whatever?
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, it was like the Flight Out of Nantucket or something.
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
All right.
00:30:03
Speaker
Spooky Q&A.
00:30:04
Speaker
Bug and Spooky Luke.
00:30:06
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:30:07
Speaker
Q&A.
00:30:08
Speaker
talking about the future of Spooky
Boutique Pinball Companies and Movie Excitement
00:30:11
Speaker
Pinball.
00:30:11
Speaker
They congratulated or welcomed Ben Heck back to the team and Lucas Prepkey and also confirmed that Phasma is still going to be doing code on some of their games.
00:30:21
Speaker
I don't know.
00:30:22
Speaker
What are your thoughts?
00:30:24
Speaker
Spooky's in a transition point.
00:30:27
Speaker
And I think they're just trying to define to find like what kind of company they want to be.
00:30:35
Speaker
And it seems that with these moves, they have decided they want to be a small boutique pinball company.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
Because if you are going to, and I know that there's only one Stern, but if you're going to say, I'm going to be a Stern type company, then they would have to change things.
00:31:02
Speaker
They would have to legitimately, they'd have to move.
00:31:05
Speaker
They would have to set up in Chicago.
00:31:07
Speaker
They are, or a major city, but Chicago is obviously the, uh, the best place for pinball talent.
00:31:14
Speaker
And they would have to start looking outside of their circle, but it seems like they're circling the wagons.
00:31:20
Speaker
They're trying to say, no, we are a small boutique company from a small town and that's what they're going to produce.
00:31:28
Speaker
there is a ceiling to what they can accomplish with that model.
00:31:32
Speaker
If that works and it's still marketable and you can still sell on that, then great.
00:31:37
Speaker
But that does work as long as your revenue selection and your dynamics are still maintaining a viable company.
00:31:47
Speaker
But if you can't maintain it on that sort of philosophy, then it's not going to work.
00:31:55
Speaker
So far it has worked.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:58
Speaker
I'm wondering how it's going to be.
00:32:00
Speaker
We saw a lot of the Halloween and Ultraman immediately sold out.
00:32:05
Speaker
But you definitely saw some buyer's remorse with some people.
00:32:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:09
Speaker
Where they were trying to dump their spot in line or sell it to someone or try to recoup some of the cost.
00:32:18
Speaker
And so I wonder if that will have a hangover effect for their next game or if you think that it's completely disconnected.
00:32:27
Speaker
I think the thing, though, is with Spooky that they have going for them that no other pinball company has is the fact that everything's pretty much pre-order.
00:32:38
Speaker
Whereas every other pinball company is we have to build it first, then sell the product.
00:32:45
Speaker
Right.
00:32:46
Speaker
Spooky.
00:32:48
Speaker
Now, there is a danger with that, too.
00:32:51
Speaker
Because there are people who will pre-order and then decide, I don't want to wait.
00:32:55
Speaker
I'm going to pull my money and I'm going to do somewhere else.
00:32:57
Speaker
So before it was a, I'm locking in a spot and I'm paying some money or it's either a verbal commitment or you don't really have any skin in the game.
00:33:06
Speaker
But when you pre-order and you put a thousand dollars down, that, that may affect how they go forward.
00:33:13
Speaker
And that's the thing too, I guess, worst case scenario, they back out and,
00:33:18
Speaker
they don't, you know, the person that pre-ordered backs out of the pre-order spot and just loses the thousand bucks.
00:33:23
Speaker
Right.
00:33:23
Speaker
Loses the earnest money.
00:33:25
Speaker
If you like walk away from a real estate deal, you lose earnest money.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:28
Speaker
So I still think that it's a pretty smart business model compared to a lot of the other startups.
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:35
Speaker
And they've certainly made good on, you know, they, they have made the machines.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yep.
00:33:42
Speaker
So it's not like they are taking money and then leaving you with nothing.
00:33:45
Speaker
They are giving you something.
00:33:47
Speaker
Definitely.
00:33:48
Speaker
Um, they did talk about doing another run of America's most haunted.
00:33:53
Speaker
I think it's a bad move.
00:33:54
Speaker
And the reason being is the, what sold those was the limited run, the 150.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
It's, it's not, it's not an, um, amazing game.
00:34:04
Speaker
It's a special interest game.
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:08
Speaker
And there's, there's nothing wrong with that.
00:34:11
Speaker
I would say, well, Nelly is also a special interest game or Pabst can crusher or prime or whatever.
00:34:18
Speaker
Like there, there is a mark, a Domino's pizza, a Jetsons.
00:34:22
Speaker
Like there is a market for a small run game.
00:34:26
Speaker
That's not going to be, um, I guess a, a pinball tournament quality game.
00:34:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:34
Speaker
But I don't even know if on American is most haunted, that seems more of a proof of concept.
00:34:40
Speaker
They were proving that, Hey, we can make a pinball machine outside of Stern.
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:46
Speaker
And that's really what they proved.
00:34:49
Speaker
Well, and me personally, I think that when I think of Spooky, their evergreen title to me is Total Nuclear Annihilation.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:57
Speaker
And I say go back to that well every time.
00:34:59
Speaker
If you need something to fill the space, hit TNA.
00:35:02
Speaker
I think they're going to sell.
00:35:04
Speaker
People love those games regardless.
00:35:07
Speaker
I just, I don't see America's Most Haunted.
00:35:09
Speaker
I felt like watching the documentary, and granted, this is years ago.
00:35:13
Speaker
This is what, seven plus years ago.
00:35:16
Speaker
They even kind of had
00:35:18
Speaker
a rough time getting those last few out the door.
00:35:21
Speaker
And the last one went up for auction or something like that as number 150 and was paid a lot more money for that one because it was number 150.
00:35:31
Speaker
Right.
00:35:32
Speaker
There's a collector's quality to it.
00:35:33
Speaker
Same thing as Elvira 40.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:35
Speaker
Like the 40th anniversary of it.
00:35:37
Speaker
It's not...
00:35:40
Speaker
There's some people that really matters to some people.
00:35:43
Speaker
It doesn't, it doesn't matter to me, but it really matters to some.
00:35:46
Speaker
So I certainly wish spooky, all the luck in the world.
00:35:51
Speaker
And I always say more pinball is better than less pinball.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yep.
00:35:56
Speaker
And you can't be, you can't cater to everybody, but you can cater to some.
00:36:02
Speaker
And that's really what they have decided.
00:36:04
Speaker
They are catering to some, which works with their demographic.
00:36:08
Speaker
Well, and it kind of reminds me too, a lot of people probably don't remember this.
00:36:13
Speaker
There's been so much turnover going into the hobby.
00:36:16
Speaker
I mean, it seems like there's a lot of new people in the last year and a half or two.
00:36:20
Speaker
JJP, when they originally came out with Hobbit,
00:36:23
Speaker
They kind of did the same situation.
00:36:25
Speaker
They had the basic edition and then they had like a smog edition.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:29
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:36:30
Speaker
The smog edition, they had a limited edition, standard edition.
00:36:33
Speaker
And then the smog edition was because people were not fans of the layout.
00:36:39
Speaker
Was it the black arrow?
00:36:41
Speaker
It was the artwork.
00:36:42
Speaker
No.
00:36:42
Speaker
And so the smog edition was even the next release where they said, Hey, we've changed the artwork.
00:36:49
Speaker
And so people liked it, liked the artwork more.
00:36:52
Speaker
Well, and didn't they do a black arrow edition?
00:36:54
Speaker
And then there was a black arrow edition too.
00:36:56
Speaker
There was people ticked that they did that because it like watered down their numbers on the limited edition and stuff.
00:37:02
Speaker
Well, and I guess that that's where I I'm, I'm speculating because this is not something that's that important to me.
00:37:09
Speaker
Like a, yes, I have a, a rush.
00:37:13
Speaker
That's a limited edition, but I didn't buy it because it was limited.
00:37:17
Speaker
I couldn't care less if they sold 12,000 of those games.
00:37:21
Speaker
I just wanted all the bells and whistles and I wanted the entire package.
00:37:25
Speaker
And I'm actually really glad because the expression lights are really great and they've had a hard time stocking those.
00:37:32
Speaker
And so premium owners, you know, some of them are considering buying the Led Zeppelin ones and putting them in there because you can still play the game.
00:37:40
Speaker
It's different art, but you can play the game.
00:37:42
Speaker
So that's what's important to me.
00:37:46
Speaker
But there are people who they don't want other games to be made if they have that limited quality edition, whatever.
00:37:57
Speaker
Because they don't want to devalue their game.
00:38:00
Speaker
It's like people having the original Medieval Madness when it was going for $17,000.
00:38:05
Speaker
And some people didn't want them to remake it at a lower price.
00:38:13
Speaker
Because it devalues their game, which it does.
00:38:15
Speaker
Just weird growing pains, different avenues.
00:38:19
Speaker
Obviously, Spooky knows what's best for them.
00:38:23
Speaker
They'll get it figured out.
00:38:24
Speaker
Just our two cents, I guess.
00:38:26
Speaker
Moving on, we alluded to this a little bit earlier, but Roger Sharp is having a movie made about it.
00:38:33
Speaker
I guess it's already been made.
00:38:34
Speaker
It's ready to go.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:36
Speaker
Here in October.
00:38:37
Speaker
Pinball, the man who saved the game.
00:38:41
Speaker
How crazy is that?
00:38:43
Speaker
How...
00:38:44
Speaker
You know, it's awesome that they were able to put something together because this is, it feels a little bit more like a made-for-TV movie, small budget, small shooting time.
00:38:59
Speaker
but it will definitely tell an interesting part of the story that a lot of people still don't understand.
00:39:05
Speaker
And it's even hard for me to wrap my mind around.
00:39:08
Speaker
Cause I know we've talked to Roger and he went through the whole story about how it happened.
00:39:13
Speaker
And it was just so funny that there were, um,
00:39:18
Speaker
there were cities out there, major cities that pinball was banned, but it was available in other places.
00:39:25
Speaker
So it was really kind of like a, you know, in, in some counties you can't sell alcohol.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:33
Speaker
It's the same type of thing where it's like it's banned here, but it's available here.
00:39:39
Speaker
And so this was, that was really where it was tipping.
00:39:42
Speaker
It's like, okay, so finally you can have it in, in New York, you can have it in Chicago and,
00:39:47
Speaker
when it was proven that it was not just a gambling machine.
00:39:51
Speaker
Now, obviously there's a history of gambling with pinball.
00:39:54
Speaker
It's like, there's a history of gambling with sports.
00:39:57
Speaker
We never play dollar games.
00:39:58
Speaker
No, never play dollar games.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:02
Speaker
I I'm actually bringing dollars to Chicago because a lot of times what happens is like anyone got changed for a 10.
00:40:10
Speaker
So I I'm excited to see it.
00:40:12
Speaker
Uh, what about you, Josh?
00:40:13
Speaker
I'm excited to see it as well.
00:40:15
Speaker
I think that this is a really cool way to honor Roger Sharp and his legacy in pinball.
00:40:21
Speaker
And it kind of cements that legacy, right?
00:40:24
Speaker
I'm excited to see it.
00:40:24
Speaker
I can't wait to see it.
00:40:25
Speaker
And it's really cool it's being unveiled at a film festival and whatnot too.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
Um, the main actor, Mike fast faced, he's been in plenty of movies.
00:40:36
Speaker
West side story, the Atlantic city story, uh, panic.
00:40:40
Speaker
I mean, there's some, there's some, uh, interesting movies here.
00:40:43
Speaker
He's a law and order.
00:40:44
Speaker
So obviously the guy has, uh, some good names under his belt and whatnot.
00:40:49
Speaker
He's been doing it for a while.
00:40:50
Speaker
So it's going to be cool to see what he comes up with.
00:40:53
Speaker
I guess he was a Tony nominated actor too.
00:40:56
Speaker
Um,
00:40:58
Speaker
Yeah, so it's important when you cast these things that you actually bring people to the table that have the talent.
00:41:06
Speaker
If you look at the success that Marvel has had,
00:41:10
Speaker
And they elevated what was really considered kind of a B-list genre.
00:41:16
Speaker
Think of all the movies that came out pre-Iron Man.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, there were a few standouts.
00:41:24
Speaker
There was, you know, Spider-Man was really good with Tobey Maguire, the first one, and X-Men came out that was really good.
00:41:29
Speaker
But before that, they were campy and kind of terrible.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yep.
00:41:34
Speaker
And with them, with Marvel saying, we're going to get some A-list actors who are able to bring more to it.
00:41:41
Speaker
It actually, it does bring more.
00:41:44
Speaker
I watched Thor the other day with my kids and I, I kept looking at the, the acting ability.
00:41:50
Speaker
I'm like, these are really good actors who they, they got to fill the role.
00:41:54
Speaker
And so having that, it makes it feel a little bit better than your standard lifetime original movie or Hallmark movie where,
00:42:04
Speaker
You have good looking people that probably could act in a soap opera, but they're really not, they wouldn't be considered A-list actors.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:15
Speaker
So I'm excited for this.
00:42:16
Speaker
I can't wait to see it.
00:42:18
Speaker
It's a cool, I guess, feather in the cap of pinball itself too.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:21
Speaker
Kind of legitimizes pinball as more than just a toy you bring home, an expensive toy.
00:42:28
Speaker
And it's pretty amazing they were able to film this during the pandemic.
00:42:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:34
Speaker
That blows me away.
00:42:37
Speaker
So good for them.
00:42:38
Speaker
Who do you think got to play?
00:42:39
Speaker
I love the art on it too.
00:42:40
Speaker
The art looks very 70s.
00:42:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:42:43
Speaker
I wonder if Josh Sharpe or Zach Sharpe is going to be in this movie if they got their own.
00:42:48
Speaker
I really hope.
00:42:49
Speaker
I hope Josh is actually, okay, you know that old photo where it has the bald dude who's looking down glaring at him?
00:42:56
Speaker
I hope they have Josh Sharpe standing there like shaved down, bald, and glaring at the Roger Sharpe actor while he's doing the shot.
00:43:06
Speaker
That's what I really want.
00:43:07
Speaker
That would be hilarious.
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:09
Speaker
I'd pay to see that.
00:43:10
Speaker
I would too.
00:43:12
Speaker
All right.
00:43:13
Speaker
We just have a couple more line items on our agenda here before we wrap it up.
00:43:18
Speaker
Stern's next game.
00:43:19
Speaker
We've.
00:43:21
Speaker
Geez.
00:43:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:22
Speaker
It's going to happen at some point.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:26
Speaker
We're here in next week with production starting up at the beginning of September.
00:43:31
Speaker
Is what I'm hearing.
00:43:32
Speaker
That's what you're hearing from all the other podcasts too.
00:43:34
Speaker
So I don't think that's any.
00:43:36
Speaker
Well, they announced that they were going to have, they were only going to do two cornerstones.
00:43:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
And that August was a target date that they said.
00:43:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:49
Speaker
So that, that means that, yeah, we're probably looking about that time.
00:43:53
Speaker
Yep.
00:43:54
Speaker
And they, they seem to have catched up, caught up on their back orders.
00:43:59
Speaker
I agree.
00:44:00
Speaker
Except for Godzilla.
00:44:00
Speaker
Apparently, they're still way too backordered on Godzilla.
00:44:03
Speaker
Sure.
00:44:04
Speaker
The original spring release, from my understanding, was supposed to be Venom with Brian Eddy.
00:44:11
Speaker
But that was actually pushed back.
00:44:13
Speaker
It wasn't pushed back just to the next spot.
00:44:16
Speaker
My understanding is they've pushed it back to next year.
00:44:19
Speaker
I could be wrong.
00:44:20
Speaker
Maybe.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:21
Speaker
But looking at the available designers with Borg coming out with Rush, which has been the most recent Stern release, which feels like forever ago.
00:44:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:30
Speaker
And then before that, Godzilla with Elwin.
00:44:33
Speaker
And then Mandalorian before that.
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
If Elwin's not next, does that leave Jack danger for his next game?
00:44:39
Speaker
Maybe.
00:44:40
Speaker
Jack came out with, I would say, a very well-received home version of Jurassic Park.
00:44:47
Speaker
I played it with low expectations, and I thought it was a blast to play.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:53
Speaker
It's, it's certainly something that I've recommended to people if they're looking for a cheaper option.
00:44:58
Speaker
I'm like, actually the star Wars home pin and the star and the Jurassic park home pin.
00:45:04
Speaker
It's still pretty fun.
00:45:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:07
Speaker
Like it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but it has most of them.
00:45:11
Speaker
Well, what's weird to me, though, is Jurassic Park came out after Godzilla.
00:45:16
Speaker
But I guess looking at... It is a home pin.
00:45:21
Speaker
It's a simpler game.
00:45:22
Speaker
It is.
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it takes as much time to design one of those as it would any other cornerstone game, to put it.
00:45:32
Speaker
So yeah, if Eddie's not next, then I guess Jack Danger is up to bat.
00:45:38
Speaker
Yeah, and that's what it seems like.
00:45:41
Speaker
It would be one of those.
00:45:43
Speaker
And I'm interested to see what they come up with.
00:45:47
Speaker
What I'm interested with, we're not hearing a single thing on theme.
00:45:50
Speaker
There's people shooting from the hip in the dark.
00:45:53
Speaker
It's so weird.
00:45:56
Speaker
I don't know.
00:45:57
Speaker
No one has any information on this next release, and it's supposed to be within a week.
00:46:01
Speaker
Okay, but isn't that fun?
00:46:03
Speaker
Like I will say it was fun.
00:46:05
Speaker
Like that was the thing that shocked me about Elwyn's, you know, infinity quest.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:13
Speaker
Where it was like that.
00:46:14
Speaker
I found out the night before basically.
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:17
Speaker
And I was like, that's like, and it was still a rumor.
00:46:20
Speaker
Well, actually we think it's that theme.
00:46:21
Speaker
I'm like, really?
00:46:23
Speaker
Cause they already did an Avengers.
00:46:26
Speaker
So maybe, but.
00:46:28
Speaker
Well, we did, we did have an inclination that would probably be Marvel, but then again, how much does that leave?
00:46:34
Speaker
They've had 23 movies in the last two decades.
00:46:36
Speaker
And they could do so many things.
00:46:38
Speaker
I'm still waiting for my black Panther pin.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:42
Speaker
Well, and the black Panther movie comes out here.
00:46:44
Speaker
Two months.
00:46:45
Speaker
I think people are pushing for a Muppets pinball machine.
00:46:49
Speaker
Do you see that happening?
00:46:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:51
Speaker
Give me the, give me your level of excitement on Muppets as a theme.
00:46:56
Speaker
I think it could be fun.
00:46:58
Speaker
I think Muppets is a great family theme.
00:47:02
Speaker
The problem is, I think I've went next level with my pinball playing because I need the game to be fun to play.
00:47:13
Speaker
I definitely want the theme to be good, but I think Godzilla's taught me that
00:47:18
Speaker
the gameplay is nice and the themes integrated great and the code is amazing I don't know if I really care what the theme is anymore so long as it's something I somewhat resonate with that can come into my house I mean
00:47:31
Speaker
Obviously, I'm not going to want a Playboy coming into my house.
00:47:35
Speaker
Right.
00:47:36
Speaker
I love Ninja Turtles.
00:47:37
Speaker
It was a good game, but it left for Godzilla.
00:47:39
Speaker
Godzilla took its place, and Ninja Turtles was my grail theme.
00:47:45
Speaker
And Zombie Yeti did the artwork, and it's amazing.
00:47:48
Speaker
I love the artwork.
00:47:49
Speaker
I actually...
00:47:50
Speaker
I still have some of the artwork in my house.
00:47:52
Speaker
I mean, that's another reason I got rid of turtles, but just the, the code I feel like was a little lacking on turtles.
00:48:01
Speaker
It was too hard for me.
00:48:02
Speaker
I, I really turtles.
00:48:04
Speaker
That's why it left.
00:48:06
Speaker
I, I never felt like I could play with my skill level.
00:48:11
Speaker
I didn't think I could play a good, a fun game with it.
00:48:14
Speaker
And I'm like, I would rather play different games.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:16
Speaker
Well, and I had gotten close to Cowabunga, and I know that I had it still when they did the code update that you could get Neutrino Pizza Party, and it would give you one of the last spots for Cowabunga.
00:48:30
Speaker
Because that Triple Mondo jackpot is just ridiculous to get.
00:48:34
Speaker
And, I mean, we had Colin McAlpine over, and he's playing it.
00:48:37
Speaker
And I'm like, I want to see Cowabunga.
00:48:38
Speaker
Go for it.
00:48:39
Speaker
And when he can't get it and he's hitting the shot consistently, he's not doing it fast enough.
00:48:46
Speaker
You know, you've got too hard of a game.
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:50
Speaker
And that's the balance too, right?
00:48:51
Speaker
Because people hated monsters because it was too easy.
00:48:54
Speaker
And, and I would say toy story has gotten some flack because high level players can get to the wizard mode in the first 10 games.
00:49:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:05
Speaker
I, I, I guarantee I would still have fun on the game.
00:49:09
Speaker
I think that's where I'm at right now.
00:49:10
Speaker
If it's Muppets, awesome.
00:49:12
Speaker
I want to see the layout.
00:49:13
Speaker
I want to flip it.
00:49:14
Speaker
I want to see where the code's at.
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:16
Speaker
Muppets, it feels, it's kind of the level of theme like Hot Wheels for me.
00:49:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:49:21
Speaker
I grew up with the Muppets.
00:49:23
Speaker
I remember the Muppets being on TV.
00:49:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:27
Speaker
And it was fun.
00:49:29
Speaker
And yes, we loved it.
00:49:30
Speaker
And then Jim Henson passed away.
00:49:31
Speaker
And it just seemed like culture had moved on.
00:49:38
Speaker
And yeah, they've had a few, a few other things.
00:49:41
Speaker
They had a few Muppets movies in, you know, in the eighties.
00:49:46
Speaker
And they even had like, my, my wife still loves the Muppets Christmas Carol.
00:49:49
Speaker
That's her favorite one.
00:49:51
Speaker
With Michael Caine.
00:49:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:52
Speaker
With Michael Caine.
00:49:53
Speaker
And then they had the Muppets with, with Jason, something.
00:49:59
Speaker
Jason Siegel.
00:50:00
Speaker
Siegel.
00:50:00
Speaker
Yep.
00:50:01
Speaker
Yep.
00:50:01
Speaker
From.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:02
Speaker
And so that, that had a big hit, but then it kind of like.
00:50:07
Speaker
It seems that they're not culturally relevant enough to get a game.
00:50:11
Speaker
The theme doesn't really do much for me.
00:50:15
Speaker
Well, I know that didn't Disney just buy Muppets 2 and part of their acquisitions they've been.
00:50:19
Speaker
Well, OK, they've actually had Muppets for a long time.
00:50:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:24
Speaker
They've actually had it for a long time and they haven't been able to, to replicate the magic that Jim Henson had.
00:50:32
Speaker
It's, it's the same type of thing as like the dark crystal.
00:50:36
Speaker
The, you know, I was even talking to Mark Silk about this because the dark crystal has an amazing visual presence.
00:50:45
Speaker
But it's the new series.
00:50:49
Speaker
While I thought it was interesting, it didn't capture the same magic.
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:53
Speaker
Which is why they only had one season of it.
00:50:56
Speaker
Cause it was super expensive.
00:50:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:59
Speaker
But it's a Muppets.
00:51:01
Speaker
Okay.
00:51:02
Speaker
I, it's kind of like Wu-Tang clan for me.
00:51:06
Speaker
It seems very niche.
00:51:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:51:10
Speaker
So speaking of rap rap,
00:51:12
Speaker
uh, pins, then you, you think that, uh, who do you think would be best to go with first then?
00:51:17
Speaker
Because there's this ice, ice, baby, multiple.
00:51:24
Speaker
I don't know.
00:51:25
Speaker
The challenge is with rock bands.
00:51:28
Speaker
There are some ways that you can do things that are, cause even, even rock bands that could be considered controversial, you can still dance around a little bit.
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:42
Speaker
Um, I, they made a guns and roses one, obviously, and they have an adult and a non-adult mode.
00:51:48
Speaker
Um, with Eminem, uh,
00:51:53
Speaker
How does his music translate to a non-adult mode?
00:51:58
Speaker
That's basically what you're getting at, right?
00:52:00
Speaker
You're asking about Eminem as a possibility for a rap.
00:52:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think Eminem, well, he is the biggest rap artist of all time.
00:52:09
Speaker
I mean, it's just, there's no other comparison.
00:52:12
Speaker
I had no idea how much he sold.
00:52:14
Speaker
It's not in my wheelhouse.
00:52:17
Speaker
And so I'm not, I don't listen to Eminem, but that would be a little challenging just because with music, if you blur out a word here and there, it still goes through it.
00:52:30
Speaker
But with rapping, your voice is the music.
00:52:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:34
Speaker
I mean, that is.
00:52:35
Speaker
And so it seems like there's a lot of stuff in there that's not going to be, not going to fly with a lot of audiences.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:42
Speaker
I guess you could just go the route of this is what it is and it's explicit regardless.
00:52:47
Speaker
It could be, it could be.
00:52:48
Speaker
I think at that point that you can't have Stern make it because it's not going to be commercially viable enough to, to sell enough units.
00:52:54
Speaker
Well, it could be a very niche market.
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:58
Speaker
I mean, it's a, it's the same thing with Primus.
00:53:00
Speaker
I mean, Primus has some really interesting songs, uh,
00:53:04
Speaker
that would be considered offensive to many.
00:53:09
Speaker
I would say Eminem.
00:53:11
Speaker
But Kay, how many rap artists have been able to have broad appeal that don't have adult language?
00:53:21
Speaker
I was going to say Beastie Boys, but they do have adult language.
00:53:24
Speaker
They do.
00:53:26
Speaker
Not as over the top.
00:53:28
Speaker
Integral to their music as other.
00:53:30
Speaker
Could you do a Snoop Dogg game?
00:53:32
Speaker
Probably not.
00:53:33
Speaker
Could you do a Dr. Dre game?
00:53:36
Speaker
Probably not.
00:53:37
Speaker
Probably not.
00:53:38
Speaker
Could you do, it's hard because it's like you're, I agree with you.
00:53:41
Speaker
It's a very niche.
00:53:43
Speaker
You can do MC hammer.
00:53:44
Speaker
It's a territory.
00:53:45
Speaker
It's a territory.
00:53:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:47
Speaker
I guess you do MC hammer.
00:53:48
Speaker
It's a territory that a lot of us have never, it's never been explored in pinball.
00:53:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:53
Speaker
If you go off of what Zach many said, you can't really count weird Al as rap because it's not, no, it, it's a,
00:54:00
Speaker
That's a Dave and Buster's game.
00:54:03
Speaker
It's a fun game for the location where you're like, hey, this is a fun theme.
00:54:09
Speaker
And it has some great shots.
00:54:11
Speaker
We like playing it.
00:54:13
Speaker
But yeah, Weird Al's not crap.
00:54:16
Speaker
But Weird Al's also super safe.
00:54:18
Speaker
I mean, come on.
00:54:20
Speaker
Like how many people out there don't like weird out?
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:23
Speaker
True.
00:54:24
Speaker
And they may think he's childish, but it's not like there, it's not like that's a no go theme.
00:54:29
Speaker
There's when you're, you know, Eminem's first album, there's a reason why it was explicit because a lot of the themes that he rapped about were pretty over the top.
00:54:39
Speaker
I think if you're going to go with a rap, uh,
00:54:42
Speaker
A rap pinball machine, I think your best bet's probably Jersey Jack pinball.
00:54:45
Speaker
And the reason I say that... Because they did Guns N' Roses already.
00:54:49
Speaker
Well, they're starting to seem to get this balance of one game's family-friendly, one game's not.
00:54:54
Speaker
Because the rumor is, is the next one's Godfather.
00:54:55
Speaker
That is not a family-friendly appropriate title.
00:54:58
Speaker
No.
00:54:59
Speaker
So, is Eric just going to do the explicit stuff now?
00:55:03
Speaker
And Richie's not?
00:55:07
Speaker
It makes you wonder...
00:55:09
Speaker
That's going to be their bounce back and forth now.
00:55:12
Speaker
Because it's starting to... I mean, we've got Wonka, and then we have GNR, and then we had Toy Story, and now we supposedly have Godfather.
00:55:21
Speaker
So it's like... I could see that being a bounce back and forth for those titles.
00:55:28
Speaker
It could be.
00:55:29
Speaker
And like I talked about with Spooky, finding that niche audience...
00:55:34
Speaker
That could be the niche audience that a smaller manufacturer and let's face it, Jersey Jack is a smaller manufacturer.
00:55:42
Speaker
Would that be a title that they would be interested in?
00:55:47
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:55:47
Speaker
Maybe, maybe when they, when they did guns and roses, I'm like, well, that's I know there are other factors that go into it.
00:55:56
Speaker
There was already guns, guns and roses, pinball machine and slashes, uh, likes pinball.
00:56:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:02
Speaker
Um,
00:56:03
Speaker
I don't know if Eminem likes pinball, but he certainly released his greatest hits, which has the pinball back glass.
00:56:10
Speaker
And it's also on the backside, add the flippers with the drain and everything too.
00:56:15
Speaker
Which is weird to me because if you've never looked at Eminem's stuff, like album cover art before.
00:56:21
Speaker
It doesn't scream pinball.
00:56:23
Speaker
It's very basic.
00:56:24
Speaker
Curtain call, it's him with a curtain slightly open with a spotlight on him.
00:56:28
Speaker
I'm trying to think what the other one is.
00:56:32
Speaker
There's a handful of them.
00:56:33
Speaker
They're all very basic.
00:56:35
Speaker
So for something like this, I feel like this was pushing out very far from the usual safe wheelhouse of the artwork that he's done before.
00:56:44
Speaker
But it's funny.
00:56:45
Speaker
It's funny.
00:56:45
Speaker
A rap artist, I guess it is Eminem, releases album artwork, and the next thing you know, all these speculations start flying.
00:56:54
Speaker
You got to love pinball, right?
00:56:56
Speaker
According to his Wikipedia page, there was 32 million in the US, but there was over 220 worldwide.
00:57:06
Speaker
That's getting up next to Beatles and Elvis Presley numbers.
00:57:10
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:57:10
Speaker
Well, I will say I found it interesting when I went to Africa.
00:57:15
Speaker
Nobody knew who the Beatles were, but everybody knew who Tupac was.
00:57:19
Speaker
That's weird.
00:57:20
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:57:21
Speaker
It was really interesting.
00:57:22
Speaker
That's funny.
00:57:25
Speaker
Well, moving on, our last topic is the CGC topper.
00:57:28
Speaker
If you didn't catch it, Flippin' Out did a live stream with Ryan White of CGC, and he brought over a Cactus Canyon LE with the topper, and they even showed the topper on screen.
00:57:44
Speaker
They did their own, just like, here's the mode.
00:57:46
Speaker
Zach was nice enough to clip it.
00:57:48
Speaker
If you don't want to watch the whole stream, you can just type in CGC topper into YouTube.
00:57:52
Speaker
and you can check it out.
00:57:53
Speaker
It reminds me very much of Hogan's Alley.
00:57:56
Speaker
Do you remember that game from the NES?
00:57:58
Speaker
Oh, absolutely.
00:58:00
Speaker
This looks like an analog version of that.
00:58:01
Speaker
And that's really, really cool, what they've done with LEDs and BART and all that stuff.
00:58:08
Speaker
Is this really what we're waiting on, though?
00:58:11
Speaker
for this game.
00:58:12
Speaker
Cause that's what's telling this is the topper.
00:58:16
Speaker
I have such mixed feelings about this game because it's not the same level as their other games.
Product Reviews and Social Media Engagement
00:58:24
Speaker
Like when it comes to the original product, the original attack from Mars was great.
00:58:30
Speaker
The original medieval madness was great.
00:58:33
Speaker
The original monster bash was great.
00:58:37
Speaker
The original cactus Canyon was unfinished.
00:58:41
Speaker
And so with the rarity of it, then it elevated the price probably out of proportion to the gameplay.
00:58:50
Speaker
Okay.
00:58:54
Speaker
And so my interest level in this game is to be determined.
00:59:00
Speaker
Yes.
00:59:00
Speaker
However, when they announced it at Chicago and they announced pricing, the LEs immediately, at least the spots, immediately sold out.
00:59:11
Speaker
However, how many LEs do you know that are out there?
00:59:15
Speaker
They haven't shipped yet.
00:59:16
Speaker
Exactly.
00:59:17
Speaker
That's my point.
00:59:19
Speaker
We're getting up on 10 months after people committed to buying this game.
00:59:25
Speaker
And Stern has released
00:59:29
Speaker
you know, they're a machine.
00:59:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:59:31
Speaker
Stern's a machine.
00:59:32
Speaker
Fine.
00:59:33
Speaker
But Toy Story has come out.
00:59:34
Speaker
There's, you know, I'm sure American pen, like all these other companies, they're still available out there.
00:59:39
Speaker
And people are like, well, maybe I want something now.
00:59:42
Speaker
And maybe this isn't as my interest level has waned.
00:59:47
Speaker
And, and that's the same thing that happens with a lot of games where it's,
00:59:53
Speaker
There's a reason why they don't announce things so early when they're waiting for availability to sell because it does get cold.
01:00:03
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:04
Speaker
Well, what's, what's your thought?
01:00:06
Speaker
How interested are you in buying this game?
01:00:08
Speaker
And I have two remakes and I would totally own monster bash.
01:00:14
Speaker
My thought process is I'm thinking this game, until the Lyman Sheets, Josh Sharp code comes out for it, it might be a little too simplistic for what people are looking for right now.
01:00:26
Speaker
A little too easy.
01:00:28
Speaker
I mean, look at Toy Story.
01:00:29
Speaker
I mean, that game's getting slammed right now because the price far outweighs the game.
01:00:35
Speaker
Well, yeah.
01:00:36
Speaker
And I think Toy Story is mainly a price issue.
01:00:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:41
Speaker
I actually think Toy Story would be a great game for in the seven, eight thousand range.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:46
Speaker
But I think they went too high.
01:00:49
Speaker
On a mass appeal game, I guess.
01:00:51
Speaker
If they're trying to sell limited quantities, then I think the price is right.
01:00:54
Speaker
But with Cactus Canyon, I think that some... I think we're just all starving for a new pinball machine right now.
01:01:02
Speaker
And interest has kind of dropped off on a lot of these games that have been revealed this last year.
01:01:08
Speaker
And I could be wrong.
01:01:09
Speaker
I'm not a distributor.
01:01:10
Speaker
I'm not a manufacturer.
01:01:11
Speaker
I mean, they could obviously tell you more.
01:01:14
Speaker
But with Cactus Canyon, I just...
01:01:18
Speaker
I've had an opportunity to buy one for months now because the SE, they're like, so long as you don't want the topper, it's in stock, you know?
01:01:24
Speaker
And I just, I don't know if that's where I'm at with my collection anymore.
01:01:29
Speaker
I don't know if I want to play Cactus Canyon and then be able to easily get to the wizard mode and then feel like I've seen everything in a month and then have to turn around and sell this expensive game.
01:01:39
Speaker
It's a great game.
01:01:40
Speaker
Don't get me wrong.
01:01:41
Speaker
I just, I think that,
01:01:43
Speaker
But there's less ability.
01:01:44
Speaker
When you buy a game, like I don't play my games as much as a lot of collectors.
01:01:52
Speaker
I'm lucky to get an hour here or there.
01:01:56
Speaker
And so...
01:01:58
Speaker
games can last in my collection a long time.
01:02:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:01
Speaker
But I was just talking to, you know, to my friend who's, who's local.
01:02:04
Speaker
He actually, he bought my Spider-Man.
01:02:07
Speaker
His name is Garrett.
01:02:07
Speaker
He's out here and he buys and sells games like every two or three months.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:15
Speaker
And he just, it's a revolving door for him.
01:02:17
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:18
Speaker
And I'm just like, I don't, I just don't have that kind of energy because I, a lot of times I don't feel I've really seen much of a game in that time.
01:02:27
Speaker
I'm running out of that energy.
01:02:29
Speaker
I'm actually looking to start moving some of my older Bally Williams.
01:02:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
Because I want more games that I look at and go, yeah, I want to turn that on and play it.
01:02:37
Speaker
Or even if it sets for a couple months and I haven't played it, I look at it and go, yeah, I still want to...
01:02:42
Speaker
explore that game some more where I don't look at it and go, yeah, I've already explained that, explore that game all the way to the end.
01:02:48
Speaker
I've got it.
01:02:48
Speaker
I can play good.
01:02:49
Speaker
And I have area 51 at my home, which I've got to the end a lot because it's, it's easy when you can just keep hitting the quarters.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yep.
01:02:57
Speaker
But it's been a long time since I played that unless someone's over.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yep.
01:03:01
Speaker
Same with me.
01:03:02
Speaker
My son, Grayson, my autistic three-year-old, we have the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade cabinet that has the arcade game and Turtles in Time.
01:03:14
Speaker
And that's his jam right now.
01:03:16
Speaker
He's three years old, though.
01:03:17
Speaker
But that arcade cabinet's three-quarters of the size of a regular one, and it was $400 or whatever it was versus a pinball machine that I'm in my heart shaker right now.
01:03:27
Speaker
$2,500 easily.
01:03:30
Speaker
I could have it sold tomorrow for $2,500.
01:03:31
Speaker
The Pinside average is $32.
01:03:34
Speaker
I mean, if I want to get rid of Johnny Monick, I could probably get rid of it in the next couple of hours.
01:03:40
Speaker
And that's $3,500 for that one.
01:03:42
Speaker
And that's being conservative considering the ads that are on Pinside right now.
01:03:47
Speaker
I just, it's hard when, I guess going back to your Cactus Canyon, it weirds me out that just the top are selling this game.
01:03:57
Speaker
Well, but that tells you that people are more interested in the entire package of the game with with those older games.
01:04:06
Speaker
We've seen them.
01:04:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:08
Speaker
And so if you want to pay that much money, you want to take it to the next level.
01:04:13
Speaker
Guess guess whose games aren't selling by their toppers.
01:04:18
Speaker
Stern's boogie.
01:04:20
Speaker
Oh, Stern, because I have four, uh, pinball machines from Stern that I'm waiting for toppers to be released on them.
01:04:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:28
Speaker
True.
01:04:29
Speaker
And so like, you know, and this is, you know, this is going back to, you know, Mandalorian rush Godzilla.
01:04:35
Speaker
None of those have toppers.
01:04:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:38
Speaker
And again, it's fine.
01:04:40
Speaker
Like the topper should be the extra.
01:04:42
Speaker
It shouldn't be paramount to the, to the marketability of the game, but it's obvious that this one is paramount to the marketability of the game.
01:04:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:52
Speaker
Well, and the weird, here's the weird part to me.
01:04:54
Speaker
Um, maybe it's cause I bought monster bash.
01:04:57
Speaker
So I remember the whole timeline of this, but they released in October with monster bash.
01:05:04
Speaker
Um,
01:05:05
Speaker
I'd got in on one of the last ones.
01:05:07
Speaker
And then because I had Attack for Mars, I wanted the matching number.
01:05:12
Speaker
And they were nice enough to say, OK, we'll do that.
01:05:15
Speaker
And so I was one of the ones that got the matching number.
01:05:19
Speaker
And it was like January, February rolled around.
01:05:23
Speaker
We might have been into March.
01:05:24
Speaker
And I called up the distributor and said, where is my game at?
01:05:27
Speaker
And he's like, it's shipping.
01:05:28
Speaker
And so I finally got it, and I was like, awesome.
01:05:32
Speaker
But as I started, I got it all set up and everything, and I called back the distributor.
01:05:36
Speaker
I'm like, I got it.
01:05:37
Speaker
He's like, you're one of the lucky few.
01:05:40
Speaker
They're only doing the number match for the LEs right now.
01:05:43
Speaker
And it was almost a year later until people that had bought LEs that weren't number match were actually getting their games.
01:05:50
Speaker
So this isn't uncommon to me that CGC or a year later
01:05:55
Speaker
is still the le still hasn't come out we're 10 months like you said yeah but they're they're rumoring it's it's going to start shipping the next two this is the same thing that happened with monster bash i don't remember with attack from mars i don't remember with with medieval madness attack from mars was was a delay my friend got it before i got mine okay um but yeah it's um yeah it certainly is different um i'm hoping that
01:06:20
Speaker
That the delays don't mean anything else other than just typical support and supply.
01:06:27
Speaker
Sorry, support.
01:06:28
Speaker
Did I really say that?
01:06:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:31
Speaker
A parts issue or a supply chain issue.
01:06:34
Speaker
So I'm hoping that it's not that it's just that it's not something else under the hood.
01:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:42
Speaker
I agree.
01:06:43
Speaker
I think CGC on a quality level is producing some of the best quality games.
01:06:49
Speaker
You look under the hood on those games and they are amazing.
01:06:54
Speaker
When I had my attack from Mars, I was a little nervous because that circuit board is huge underneath there.
01:06:58
Speaker
They just printed all the LEDs and was like, we're putting one massive circuit board underneath it.
01:07:03
Speaker
The few, the couple of years I had my attack from Mars, I loved it.
01:07:07
Speaker
I had one issue.
01:07:09
Speaker
Uh, the solder had broken on one of the pop, uh, pop bumpers, soldered it back on, had it done in nine and five minutes.
01:07:17
Speaker
Only issue I ever had.
01:07:19
Speaker
So, oh, and, and then I guess with monster bash, uh, the, the metal was not spread far enough for the creature shot.
01:07:27
Speaker
That's just an adjustment thing.
01:07:28
Speaker
You loosen the screw, you move the bracket, you tighten it up.
01:07:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:32
Speaker
I mean, those are not problems, in my opinion, because I'm doing that on my sterns.
01:07:36
Speaker
I had multiple adjustments on Avengers for the wire form, so the ball wouldn't fall off when it was coming across.
01:07:42
Speaker
I mean, so in my opinion, CGC is doing something right when it comes to the quality of product that they're building.
01:07:48
Speaker
Sure.
01:07:49
Speaker
I think they need to address the pace.
01:07:51
Speaker
Yep.
01:07:53
Speaker
I still think they could be a top contender in the pinball hierarchy.
01:08:00
Speaker
I don't know what you call it.
01:08:01
Speaker
Would you call it a hierarchy?
01:08:03
Speaker
Well, marketability.
01:08:05
Speaker
Maybe, yeah.
01:08:07
Speaker
The top manufacturers, let's put it that way.
01:08:08
Speaker
I think CGC is still, can easily be on the top.
01:08:13
Speaker
They have a good reputation for quality.
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:08:17
Speaker
But everyone else is suffering at pace right now, too.
01:08:19
Speaker
So.
01:08:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:08:21
Speaker
You got anything else for us, Scott?
01:08:23
Speaker
No, I think that's it.
01:08:24
Speaker
I'm just excited to see everybody in Chicago.
01:08:26
Speaker
And yeah, no, this will be a lot of fun.
01:08:29
Speaker
I'm really excited that we can support something that means something to you, even though you don't directly benefit because you're doing the fundraiser not for your therapy.
01:08:39
Speaker
You're actually doing it for the location, which is great.
01:08:45
Speaker
So I am super excited about that.
01:08:47
Speaker
And I, I love hearing, hearing the feedback from everybody.
01:08:51
Speaker
So that's a lot of fun.
01:08:52
Speaker
Me too.
01:08:52
Speaker
And I'm excited because this early intervention with autism is really taking off and there's, there's so many families that are having a positive influence in their life because of it.
01:09:04
Speaker
And so I just, I want to be a part of it.
01:09:05
Speaker
I, I firmly believe like,
01:09:08
Speaker
There is life skills that my son has learned that I could have never taught him.
01:09:13
Speaker
And other people should experience that.
01:09:15
Speaker
They should be able to feel like their child's life isn't stinted because of their diagnosis.
01:09:22
Speaker
So give them their best life, right?
01:09:24
Speaker
Yep.
01:09:25
Speaker
Other than that, I think that's it.
01:09:29
Speaker
I hope next time when we go to record, we'll have a new stern out.
01:09:32
Speaker
We'll be able to talk about the Muppets, apparently.
01:09:34
Speaker
Let's do the Muppets.
01:09:37
Speaker
Do you do your guess?
01:09:37
Speaker
Do you think it's Muppets or do you think it's something else?
01:09:39
Speaker
No, I, um, it's either, I think it's either 50, 50.
01:09:46
Speaker
I think they either decide to do venom with Todd McFarlane art or something else.
01:09:52
Speaker
And really I could go either way on it.
01:09:55
Speaker
This is going to sound really weird, but I actually think, uh, I don't know why I think this, but maybe it's a Batman pinball machine.
01:10:04
Speaker
Really?
01:10:05
Speaker
Another new Batman.
01:10:07
Speaker
Because of the recent movie.
01:10:10
Speaker
I could be wrong.
01:10:11
Speaker
I could be entirely wrong.
01:10:12
Speaker
Wow, that would be an interesting... I'm going off the left field.
01:10:17
Speaker
Why not?
01:10:17
Speaker
Because Muppets sound just as plausible as Batman right now.
01:10:21
Speaker
I don't know.
01:10:24
Speaker
I would say Batman maybe... I think they would time that with the next movie coming out.
01:10:29
Speaker
True.
01:10:30
Speaker
True.
01:10:30
Speaker
True.
01:10:31
Speaker
All right.
01:10:32
Speaker
Well, if you want to get a hold of us, we are LoserKidPinballPodcast at gmail.com.
Listener Appreciation and Conclusion
01:10:36
Speaker
We are also on all the socials at LoserKidPinball on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Instagram.
01:10:44
Speaker
You know you want to hit us up.
01:10:45
Speaker
We appreciate those that have reached out that are positive, massive influence.
01:10:52
Speaker
with helping with everything.
01:10:53
Speaker
If you do want to help with flipping the script and you feel like there's nothing you can do, at the very least, share the posts with your friends.
01:11:00
Speaker
Talk about it with your friends and family.
01:11:02
Speaker
Just even sharing that, sharing, flipping the script with others helps, helps flipping the script.
01:11:10
Speaker
So I guess that, that wraps us up for today, Scott.
01:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's great.
01:11:16
Speaker
We'll see you guys in two weeks.
01:11:17
Speaker
See you in two weeks.
01:11:50
Speaker
Shut up and sit down.