Transcript
Speaker: stop the hammering someone go upstairs and stop the hammering oh oh hey everyone thanks for tuning in this is the lose kid pinball podcast this is episode 134 i am josh roop with me my co-captain as always scott larson oh as always yes as always because you're supposed to do that part but apparently i had to kick in so yes hey we're already doing better than
Speaker: the American pinball interview where I had to restart.
Speaker: What was it?
Speaker: Four times?
Speaker: Four times.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's good.
Speaker: It's good.
Speaker: I showed up late anyway.
Speaker: So it's, you know, it's all good.
Speaker: Life happens, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: However, if you are going to be buying a game, Josh, who are you going to be contacting?
Speaker: You know, I actually just did buy a game.
Speaker: I sent my money over for my premium.
Speaker: It should be shipping from flipping out headquarters here this week or next.
Speaker: And so I'm pretty excited to get that.
Speaker: As you can see on this side, there's a little bit of a gap.
Speaker: So that's where my jaws.
Speaker: What'd you sell?
Speaker: Oh, I sold Avengers.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: So, but yeah, it's gone.
Speaker: The great, great customer service.
Speaker: Zach is good.
Speaker: Ben's over backwards.
Speaker: I know he's out for Scott.
Speaker: He's out for me.
Speaker: Uh, if you need any, bending over is not really the best option.
Speaker: He just goes the extra mile for me.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This is going so unhinged.
Speaker: We're not even to our guests yet.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But if you want like the ABBA pinball machine, give him a call.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Barry O's barbecue.
Speaker: Take a chance.
Speaker: Take a chance.
Speaker: Take a chance.
Speaker: All righty.
Speaker: We got tons of news.
Speaker: We got an awesome guest on.
Speaker: And if you're watching on YouTube, you just watch him like snort something.
Speaker: I'm.
Speaker: pretty sure it was afrin but you never know he's like i'm dealing with these guys tonight the good stuff carrie hardy joins us carrie how you doing what's going on guys yeah my sinuses the membranes every once in a while they just kind of go you know what uh you don't need oxygen anymore and they start to flame flame up so i gotta like put them in check with this stuff every once in a while i'm doing great not that you asked but but i'm not snorting anything illegal over here it's just
Speaker: start getting all jacked oh yeah oh yeah hey how was how was the eclipse did you go see it dude yeah it was great it was uh one of those things where i've only seen it in like movies and stuff like that just sort of sit there and lay back and just see it in person that was that was pretty amazing it's a lifetime experience right there okay i know it hit us what two three years ago
Speaker: It did.
Speaker: And I didn't go up north.
Speaker: I could have gone to Idaho, but we kind of found out late.
Speaker: And so we decided not to drive up because we thought it was going to be crazy.
Speaker: So we got like the 95% eclipser, but I did go to the ring eclipse that was, it came through Utah.
Speaker: So the ring eclipse, it's like, it, you know, it looks like the Lord of the Rings thing where the moon is,
Speaker: is a little farther away so it's not totally eclipsing the moon the sun so it actually has like a cool ring it got some cool pictures but yeah the temperature does drop yeah it's weird birds start freaking out like what's going on yeah the animals are like this is not right uh it is kind of weird i only remember one solar eclipse as a kid growing up and now we have them it seems like every other year so
Speaker: You know, I'm happy when the news is really mainly about eclipses as opposed to like, you know, wars and pestilence and famine and all that stuff.
Speaker: That is very true.
Speaker: So even though we have plenty, plenty of that too.
Speaker: Speaking of eclipses, Hey, this is a good segue.
Speaker: We have a new top listens episode of King of top who we clip on our podcast.
Speaker: So triple drain was the original holder at like a little over 65.
Speaker: I want to say it was like 6,700.
Speaker: Keith Owen blew through it.
Speaker: Like we're not shocked, right?
Speaker: Over 8,000 listens.
Speaker: I know that's not carry numbers, but man, we are happy to take that kind of, kind of listen.
Speaker: So we want to thank you guys for blowing that out of the water.
Speaker: That was insane.
Speaker: And it's still climbing every day.
Speaker: So I mean, I checked two weeks ago.
Speaker: I bet it's up another couple hundred, but.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If you want to check out that episode.
Speaker: I download at least 10 a day, so it does help out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's mostly Scott, so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think the triple drain is interesting to listen to or to watch because of, you know, Joel and Travis just kind of going back and forth against each other on certain things and jabbing at each other and
Speaker: And then if Tom lets them get a word in edgewise, then, you know, yeah, it's pretty, pretty interesting.
Speaker: Listen to everything.
Speaker: Tom doesn't really say a whole lot.
Speaker: That's the whole going on joke.
Speaker: Tom talks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, just to hear them jab back and forth with each other and stuff like that is always entertaining.
Speaker: But then you get, you know, Keith Elwin on there to talk pinball and everybody's all ears kind of thing.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Everyone wants to know what's going on with Alan, man.
Speaker: Did you hear the like the production schedule that's coming up?
Speaker: It's like Ellen, Ellen, Ellen, Elvira, Elwin.
Speaker: Literally.
Speaker: A new version of Elvira.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: The fishnet stockings edition.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But, you know, now someone's going to put fishnet stockings on the legs of their pinball machine.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Oh, that would be that would be sexy.
Speaker: Yeah, I think you should do that.
Speaker: Mm hmm.
Speaker: I carry you need to do a video like like oh baby.
Speaker: What was it the the stern.
Speaker: Oh the switch.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: We are family friendly.
Speaker: That's the after that video.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: It's funny.
Speaker: That is my most downvoted video.
Speaker: I think.
Speaker: Downvoted or downloaded down.
Speaker: downvoted i could confirm but i know a lot of people didn't like it but i was like i thought it was funny it's a lot of backdoor downloads for that one no one wants to say up front they actually like it it was one of those where incognito mode yeah i was looking for like pinball parts and i happened to arrive at this under the miscellaneous section i was like this can't be real this can't be real i'm like i can add it to my cart
Speaker: I'm buying it.
Speaker: I'm going to.
Speaker: It was one of those where I'm like, I hope I buy it.
Speaker: And they go, this is not meant to be purchased.
Speaker: This is a gag gift kind of thing.
Speaker: But it was real.
Speaker: It arrived.
Speaker: My only disappointment was that it didn't have the pink tassel like it did in the picture.
Speaker: Mine was like green or something.
Speaker: OK, wait, I thought you I thought you made that.
Speaker: No, it's from Pinball.
Speaker: You can buy it from Pinball.
Speaker: I put a link in the description.
Speaker: I was like, there you go.
Speaker: Get you one of these things.
Speaker: They even added my video to their product listing now.
Speaker: I am looking that up right now.
Speaker: Pinball Life.
Speaker: Go to Pinball Life.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then if you go to that miscellaneous or whatever page, I have to find the video myself.
Speaker: They even added my video to their product page.
Speaker: Pinball parts by category?
Speaker: Is it by category?
Speaker: It might be things you don't need or something like that or miscellaneous.
Speaker: Game specific parts.
Speaker: Frequently asked questions.
Speaker: Trinkets and novelties you don't need.
Speaker: That's probably what it's under.
Speaker: That's probably what it's under.
Speaker: Okay, that's got to be something.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: Okay, I guarantee Scott Denisi made that in his spare time.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, because he's the one that contacted me, let me know.
Speaker: He's like, hey, man, I just want to let you know I added your video to our product page.
Speaker: I was like, nice.
Speaker: That is, yeah.
Speaker: So now you got to go in cahoots with pinball life and make fishnet stockings for your Elvira pinball machines.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: Okay, I'm only getting like keychain stuff.
Speaker: Swearwear.
Speaker: Oh, maybe it's not on there anymore.
Speaker: They sold out.
Speaker: Oh, wait, wait.
Speaker: No, it is.
Speaker: The plug and play stimulator.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: Last page, fourth page.
Speaker: The fourth page.
Speaker: Like Scott said, the plug and play pinball.
Speaker: We'll just call it the light switch switcher.
Speaker: I would buy that, but I seriously think my kids would be running around with it and some random person would be like, what is that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay, seriously.
Speaker: I legit thought you made that.
Speaker: I put a link in the description.
Speaker: I was like, we want to get your own link in the description down below.
Speaker: Again, I thought it was a joke.
Speaker: I was like, there's no way they made this.
Speaker: And yet now you can buy, add it to your wishlist, baby.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: But look what it says.
Speaker: It even says, check out the testimony below from a satisfied customer.
Speaker: I love how your photo just looks so menacing.
Speaker: Like for your video, you're just like, there is nothing like it.
Speaker: It's all true.
Speaker: Tassels and jewel colors may vary.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I got a green one on mine.
Speaker: Oh, well.
Speaker: Packaged in a discreet black box.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So for those that are listening, like we said, we are family friendly.
Speaker: So if you do want to check this out, just go to pinball live.
Speaker: On a stick.
Speaker: That plugs something.
Speaker: On a stick.
Speaker: You use it to turn on.
Speaker: You know how it's a pain in the butt to turn on and off your spin ball, your spin ball machines because you got like lean over.
Speaker: This is to help aid that.
Speaker: That's to help.
Speaker: So you can reach those hard to flip places.
Speaker: Is it extendable?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: We got to do a giveaway for one of these.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I can't.
Speaker: I'm reaching out right now.
Speaker: Does anybody other than Gary own one of these?
Speaker: People said that they bought one.
Speaker: They're like, I didn't know this existed.
Speaker: I'm buying one right now.
Speaker: Oh my goodness.
Speaker: After this episode, the traffic's going to blow it up on Pinball.
Speaker: I sure hope so.
Speaker: Just type in code loser kid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: 10% off.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Not really.
Speaker: We don't have any.
Speaker: I tried to buy this thing.
Speaker: I couldn't get my $2 off because you guys.
Speaker: Promo code sucks.
Speaker: I've never listened to you guys again.
Speaker: Oh my goodness.
Speaker: Okay, where were we even at?
Speaker: Okay, I'm skipping to the next news item.
Speaker: Topic two.
Speaker: Topic number two.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: Topic number two.
Speaker: Pinball Brothers got a new division and it's called DPX.
Speaker: DPX.
Speaker: You mean the Dutch Pinball?
Speaker: You said Pinball Brothers.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: Okay, wait.
Speaker: Am I the only one when they keep saying Pinball Brothers and Dutch Pinball?
Speaker: I always have to ask
Speaker: Wait, aren't they the same company?
Speaker: Or who made what?
Speaker: Like, I really do.
Speaker: I get kind of confused.
Speaker: Dutch did Big Lebowski.
Speaker: Big Lebowski, yeah.
Speaker: And they also did the Bride of Pinbot 2.0 kits.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then Pinball Brothers did Alien and Queen.
Speaker: And now they- Okay, like for some reason in my mind, I just kind of lump them together.
Speaker: Maybe it's just because of the double Ds.
Speaker: I wonder if that's, I wonder if the Europeans do that to us.
Speaker: Like they're like, who is this?
Speaker: Like Stern versus JJP.
Speaker: I apologize if that's- Oh, you totally insulted so many people over there.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: We kid.
Speaker: We tease.
Speaker: We tease.
Speaker: You should have just added the no-ho-ho in there and make everybody mad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so legitimately, anytime someone says like Dutch, I, in my mind, I always think it's Denmark.
Speaker: And I know it's not, it's Amsterdam, but it's the Netherlands.
Speaker: But the funny thing is Dutch, I don't, I know it's a different country.
Speaker: I know, but it's just, it's kind of the same.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Dutch pinball brothers.
Speaker: I want to personally apologize to RB Flip France because I enjoy your guys' content.
Speaker: I was not trying to make fun of you guys.
Speaker: If you've never watched them, you should go check them out.
Speaker: RB Flip France.
Speaker: That's my plug for them.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So they have released a... Okay.
Speaker: Am I the only one who's just wondering why?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: What do you think, Kerry?
Speaker: What do you think of Dutch Pimalt exclusive?
Speaker: I know what's been speculated.
Speaker: Do you guys know what's been speculated?
Speaker: It's been speculated that... Alice in Wonderland?
Speaker: Yeah, Alice in Wonderland.
Speaker: Well, okay, but it's been speculated that this is kind of a, hey, someone who has some money and is investing, but they don't want to do the whole... I think they want to stay separate on some level because of, obviously, some challenging history, which would make sense.
Speaker: You mean in Papa Duke?
Speaker: Are you talking about the other investor that actually invested in Dutch pinball?
Speaker: But it kind of sounds like they want to keep shares separate from Dutch pinball in this company.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's what it seems like, is that there's going to be a division of maybe liability would be the best way of putting it.
Speaker: But, okay, is there anybody out there who actually wants to buy an Alice in Wonderland?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a John Papadou game.
Speaker: Did you play it?
Speaker: You can hate the individual and what he's done all you want to.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: But you can't deny that he makes beautiful games.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Separate the artist.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: He does not make beautiful games.
Speaker: He made beautiful games.
Speaker: That's like saying.
Speaker: He didn't even make them.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's like saying 25 years ago, I was super fit and ripped.
Speaker: I still say that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm turning 50 this year.
Speaker: And so let's just say I can't ride on that.
Speaker: By the way, I'd never have been, but it's okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Like legitimately it would be like ABBA releasing an album now.
Speaker: It's not going to sell the way it did.
Speaker: Abbott just sold an album.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You're going into different content now.
Speaker: I'm lumping them all together.
Speaker: Let's just piss off all the Europeans over there.
Speaker: Now you're going to start jabbing out their ass.
Speaker: Just go watch Eurovision.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: Abbott did win Eurovision, right?
Speaker: We're good.
Speaker: Yeah, Voyage.
Speaker: It literally just released two years ago.
Speaker: That's what this game is.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Back to Dutch though.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I want to get my two cents really quick.
Speaker: That is my two cents.
Speaker: It is not a fun game.
Speaker: I think, okay.
Speaker: I think if, if this is going to work, right?
Speaker: Like if, if Dutch pinball, we, I would say I'm going to consider them a legit company.
Speaker: I mean, they are, they produce big, big Lebowski.
Speaker: It took them a decade to do it, but I think the fact that they actually did it proves like shows that like they're willing to make their customers whole.
Speaker: It might take a bit.
Speaker: Um, I'm surprised by the way they did just because I thought they were going to, like, I totally lost that bet.
Speaker: I thought they were going to go bankrupt.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think if anyone is going to pull off doing a John Papaduke game at this point, it's going to have to be someone overseas.
Speaker: Someone that maybe the Papaduke news really isn't in their face.
Speaker: Because we're still here in America with the Deep Root and the SEC stuff.
Speaker: And it doesn't get reported as much over here anymore because it's kind of like it went on its voyage, right?
Speaker: And so I think if you're going to try to sell these Alice in Wonderland.
Speaker: I played Magic Girl last year at Expo.
Speaker: It's not a $15,000 game, guys.
Speaker: It really is not.
Speaker: But more power to them if they can sell them.
Speaker: I know there's a lot of hype around this.
Speaker: That was my first thought.
Speaker: If you're going to get away from the John Papaduke stuff, do it over there because you're not going to be successful here in America with that at all, in my opinion.
Speaker: And I think you're still going to have some rough times over there.
Speaker: The other thing, too, is if you have it in Europe, you don't have the people from America trying to go after litigation for you because it's different countries.
Speaker: And so the laws are different.
Speaker: I don't think...
Speaker: Someone in Texas is going to be able to then go after pinball or Dutch pinball for making these games and selling them because they're two different companies now and
Speaker: I don't, I'm not a lawyer.
Speaker: Don't quote me.
Speaker: So I just, I think it's, I don't know more power to them.
Speaker: If this is what they want to do.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: We saw this a mile coming, coming a mile away from last year when they're like, we're bringing magic girl to expo.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: No one wants, no one wants this game.
Speaker: This game's older than, than a big Lebowski.
Speaker: Cause these were being shown 15 years ago.
Speaker: trying to be sold and they're playable now with the updated code or refinish or whatever.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Saying they're playable.
Speaker: That is generous.
Speaker: Like they, it was not just trying to be generous here.
Speaker: I didn't say it was a great game, but you could at least play it where a lot of people just had never been able to play the game.
Speaker: It was merely just a myth.
Speaker: You only saw it.
Speaker: And it was like a damn unicorn crying out loud.
Speaker: So to have one there for you to play now, whether or not you enjoyed your time there in front of the machine.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I got you.
Speaker: I mean, there's a lot of parts in that play field.
Speaker: My ball never reached.
Speaker: I'm like, I don't know how to get up to where it looks like my ball can get up there.
Speaker: I don't know how to get up there.
Speaker: There was so much underneath that glass.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's like three levels and I could only get to the second level.
Speaker: It was, and I would try to nail that ball right on and it would not go up that ramp.
Speaker: Yeah, it's just I think when it comes to J-pop, it's like there's something about his games that speaks to a lot of people.
Speaker: And like my wife doesn't doesn't know this, but J-pop games speak to her.
Speaker: We go to these shows is when we first started getting into pinball.
Speaker: She loved Toten.
Speaker: She loved Theater of Magic.
Speaker: She loved World Cup soccer.
Speaker: Something about
Speaker: those games speaks to individuals and shows she doesn't know it, but she's a J pop fan.
Speaker: She likes for whatever reason, how his games shoot.
Speaker: And I think a lot of people feel that same way as well.
Speaker: And I think they were hoping to get that with Raza and, um,
Speaker: In my opinion, the time that I had on Raza, no, it was my least favorite of all of the J-pop games and everything.
Speaker: But and now you're getting Alice in Wonderland, which I don't think we've ever seen.
Speaker: Like, you know, I know you say it's bad, but I don't think we've ever seen an actually assembled game.
Speaker: It's merely just been like the crafting of what it would look like.
Speaker: But as far as how it's going to shoot and what it's going to be like, I mean, you look like you got implementation of what we know, like as Twilight Zone with the magnetic flippers.
Speaker: Wait, didn't they bring one, Josh?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Alice in Wonderland?
Speaker: Yeah, wasn't it Alice?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: What did they bring?
Speaker: They've never made Alice in Wonderland.
Speaker: It has been...
Speaker: Okay, what did they bring over to Expo?
Speaker: That was Magical.
Speaker: Oh, Magical.
Speaker: Oh, sorry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, so House of Wonderland has only been basically in a prototype phase of paper mache and what it would look like aesthetically.
Speaker: But as far as playability, no one's ever seen one shooter if it's going to be any good.
Speaker: Aesthetically,
Speaker: I mean, it looks like it could be kind of cool looking, but that's about as much as I got to go on at this point.
Speaker: It's like the artwork, and that was Zombie Yeti stuff.
Speaker: Okay, Zombie Yeti definitely sells.
Speaker: We know that.
Speaker: Zombie Yeti can make a great game, and obviously, if there is any
Speaker: Any nugget that comes out of the whole J-pop drama is the discovery of Zombie Yeti.
Speaker: But even Zombie Yeti, though, is like, I don't want to be associated with this.
Speaker: Yeah, he's like, I don't want this.
Speaker: This is junk.
Speaker: I moved on.
Speaker: So I sent you guys the foam core in our chat.
Speaker: Yeah, that's merely what we've seen as far as how it's going to shoot.
Speaker: who knows?
Speaker: But it makes no sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're looking at this foam core and like the ramps come out of nowhere.
Speaker: Like they come from behind the screen and yeah, it just, it makes no sense.
Speaker: It's got the circus Voltaire aspect with the screen underneath the glass.
Speaker: That's, that's kind of what I was thinking.
Speaker: I was thinking this looks like circus Voltaire 2.0.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it could shoot like total.
Speaker: I mean, it could.
Speaker: I mean, we don't know.
Speaker: Here's also the challenge, though.
Speaker: The one thing that we have to remember is he he released those four awesome games.
Speaker: OK, he released them all under the Williams banner with the Williams machine covering up for everything that he was deficient at.
Speaker: I don't think that the only, like the only company that could possibly replicate what Williams was doing in the nineties would be Stern.
Speaker: And I don't think Stern is going to take these on and, and put that like, you know, it's, I don't think that he can perform alone.
Speaker: He needs a support cast that is more stable than he is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I guess that's my point.
Speaker: I don't know if you guys remember this.
Speaker: I don't know if you had listened to it, but I did that interview with Larry DeMar.
Speaker: And, and Larry was talking about one of my favorite games, which is sitting over here at world cup soccer.
Speaker: And he talked about John Papa Duke's dad.
Speaker: I can't remember if he passed away or was having health issues or whatever.
Speaker: And he had to step away and they pretty much finished the game for him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I don't know if you consider World Cup soccer, John Papa Duke game because.
Speaker: Well, kind of is, but I would say that that's a team approach and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker: He has not produced a successful game outside of the home team that he played for in the nineties.
Speaker: So maybe this will work because it's a team effort.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you got to think, I think every game that he made is when actually pinball was becoming less and less popular because at 93 was whenever it was at its pinnacle.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And every year after that, it just got, yeah, it got declined every year after that kind of thing.
Speaker: So, you know, you had Circus Voltaire was like 97, 96.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And actually I played a Circus Voltaire.
Speaker: Like my friend had an awesome Circus Voltaire.
Speaker: I kind of wish I'd bought it now.
Speaker: It was, it was the prettiest Circus Voltaire you'll ever see.
Speaker: And it's just that it was really cool.
Speaker: Visually, it was awesome.
Speaker: But I still didn't sell one of my games to buy that game.
Speaker: But that's the thing, though.
Speaker: When we talk CGC and stuff like that, the top requested games are Tales of the Arabian Nights with an updated code and Theater of Magic with updated code.
Speaker: Because that's the problem with these games is they were held back by their code back in the 90s.
Speaker: I mean, anyone that's played Theater of Magic, you shoot the left orbit all day long.
Speaker: And it just gives you millions and millions of points.
Speaker: I mean, it's just not.
Speaker: Well, if you're going for points wise.
Speaker: And we talked, we talked to Josh Sharp and this is in our interview where he's planning on doing a cactus Canyon, you know, remake with the code.
Speaker: And he said, I have ideas for other codes too.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: In a, in a let's pretend world.
Speaker: He's like, I,
Speaker: hey, there are ways of updating some of these older games so they would actually compete on the level of a modern rule set.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But like that, that's the aspect of what you're talking about there, Josh, when it comes to J-Pop designing a game underneath, you know, the Williams, you know, control system and everything they had there versus what he was doing with Raza at Deep Root.
Speaker: And it's like, definitely, I can tell a difference between what we know shoots well and what was going to possibly be sent out to the public at that time.
Speaker: And Raza was not good.
Speaker: It just wasn't.
Speaker: I mean, and it sucks, but I mean, I can definitely see, you know, the J pop esque stuff sprinkled throughout there and stuff like that.
Speaker: But it definitely was my least favorite thing to shoot of his.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I just don't, I don't see why we bring this back and it's interesting.
Speaker: So we're talking Dutch pinball exclusive, right?
Speaker: So it sounds like they're going to do Alice in Wonderland plans for Raza and plans for magic girl.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And then on top of that, supposedly they've got the license to do Big Bang Bar.
Speaker: And what was the other one?
Speaker: Kingpin?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The amount of people on the planet who are asking for a Kingpin remake are less than five.
Speaker: That's why I was like, why?
Speaker: Big Bang Bar is mainly just the rarity of it.
Speaker: I've only played Big Bang Bar once or twice at a previous TPF that someone happened to bring, and it was at auction.
Speaker: And I don't really remember it that well.
Speaker: I know it looks cool.
Speaker: It's a Capcom game and everything, you know, and stuff.
Speaker: But it's just mainly the rarity of it that draws the, you know, the need for it or the obsession.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there's less than 200.
Speaker: I think there's one 90 of all total on those.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: With big bang bar, I will actually say though, there is an excellent article.
Speaker: We have referenced it before.
Speaker: It was a written, it's on polygon.
Speaker: It's when pigs flew the strange history of Capcom's big bang bar.
Speaker: And it was by Brian.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: Crescenti, C-R-E-C-E-N-T-E.
Speaker: Just look at it.
Speaker: It was six years ago.
Speaker: It is an excellent read.
Speaker: And it's interesting because in many ways you can look at Big Bang Bar and him making those very similar to taking forever for Big Lebowski to make.
Speaker: So maybe that's something that they're thinking, hey, we can continue that.
Speaker: But Big Bang Bar, it's...
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I haven't played it enough to say that it's an awesome game.
Speaker: I've only played electronic versions of it.
Speaker: With the Kingpin, I don't see any demand for that.
Speaker: So what are they planning on doing?
Speaker: Are they planning on selling these at a premium price with a limited quantity?
Speaker: Is that pretty much... Yeah, it's probably a low count number, one or 200, if I had to guess, 300 max.
Speaker: I thought they said they were going to do 500 at around 15,000.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: There are probably.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I know there are people out there who have that kind of money who are willing to pay for exclusivity.
Speaker: That is not something I'm interested in.
Speaker: I'm interested in if the game shoots well and has some awesome bells and whistles, I'm willing to pay for that.
Speaker: But I am not willing to pay just for exclusivity.
Speaker: Well, you got a lot of people out there that are... Now, whether or not that's 200 or 300, I don't know about that.
Speaker: There are people who are, and I don't want to make the mistake to think that I am the only pinball demographic that's out there.
Speaker: What I will say is that this is not my demographic they will be going for.
Speaker: So, hopefully, as long as it's a good faith effort and that this isn't some weird thing, then I say, go ahead.
Speaker: I'm not really looking forward to it other than it being a novelty item.
Speaker: Yeah, I see.
Speaker: I'm glad that Dutch pinball has basically corrected their reputation for what it was.
Speaker: And I think now that they're in everybody's good graces, they've seen what they can build with the Big Lebowski.
Speaker: So I think that the the.
Speaker: What's the, what's the word I'm looking for a confidence that the customer has in that particular manufacturer now is much greater than what it used to be.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: I wish that they could get the games out faster to people though, especially if they have, you know, rumored what they're building right now, then they need to get, you know, the ball rolling and get those games out faster, especially if I were one.
Speaker: And the rumor is back to the future.
Speaker: And I think it's more than a little bit of rumor.
Speaker: I, I,
Speaker: Anywho, someone, I felt like someone did spill the beans in a chat that works for Dutch, but we, I'm not going to cite that because if you didn't catch that, then it's a, you know, this is how rumors are spread.
Speaker: It's, I would say that the rumor is at least common knowledge enough to say it's public domain.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's do that.
Speaker: It's all but confirmed kind of thing.
Speaker: All but confirmed.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: Anywho, okay, let's move on.
Speaker: Dutch, I think we've ran the Dutch horse as far as it's going to go.
Speaker: But let's talk, now that we've confused the crap everybody because we keep saying Dutch and Pinball Brothers, why don't we talk about Pinball Brothers?
Speaker: Hey, we're not the only ones, I guarantee.
Speaker: They just released a new game.
Speaker: And I know that... Kerry was sending music to me.
Speaker: He's like, man, I haven't listened to these guys, but these are absolute bangers.
Speaker: And holy crap, I'm now an ABBA fan.
Speaker: What are they called?
Speaker: The ABBA-nauts or whatever it was?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I will say... I was literally listening to... This is actually...
Speaker: Believe it or not, this is the demographic that is relevant today with the kids out there.
Speaker: Because I was completely unaware of this, but my nephews...
Speaker: are interested in like eighties rock, like the dad rock stuff that we keep saying it's, it's to that demographic of the, uh, the 40 to 60 year olds.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: This eighties pop music is actually a hit with kids right now.
Speaker: He is a huge ABBA fan and he has nothing to do with this.
Speaker: And so people who are saying this is a bad idea.
Speaker: Actually, I think it's a really good idea to do an ABBA game.
Speaker: ABBA's mainly 70s, though.
Speaker: Sure, because 70s and 80s, but...
Speaker: Their last concert before 2022 was in 82.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So it was early 80s by the time that they had their last... Okay, that's fine.
Speaker: Yeah, early 80s.
Speaker: It's still in that wheelhouse, I guess.
Speaker: I'm not talking late 80s.
Speaker: I'm talking like pre-1985.
Speaker: Especially when you compare it to a lot of music that I hear these days or music quotes that I hear these days that I'm just like, this is a hit?
Speaker: I mean, this is horrible.
Speaker: So I would definitely rather listen to ABBA than to a lot of hits that I hear these days.
Speaker: I already sound like an old man.
Speaker: Oh my goodness.
Speaker: But like... Ah, my music.
Speaker: You know, the problem with...
Speaker: The problem with their music and my music is their music stinks.
Speaker: Like all the modern stuff.
Speaker: It's terrible.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: After I watch a sign languager do WAP, I feel like I got to take a cold shower.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: I haven't seen it, but now you got me curious.
Speaker: I'm going to watch that now.
Speaker: By the way, I'll find you the clip.
Speaker: I'll find you the clip.
Speaker: That can't be real.
Speaker: Just like the pinball turn on.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: When it comes to ABBA, it was one of those where I was like, okay, well, you know, this is a thing.
Speaker: I definitely need to kind of brush up on what's going on.
Speaker: Maybe I know more about these people than I actually do.
Speaker: Maybe there is something to this.
Speaker: And so I put on their greatest hit stuff at work.
Speaker: And it was one of those things where the song would start up.
Speaker: And I was like, this is ABBA.
Speaker: I was like, I know this.
Speaker: I've heard this before.
Speaker: I just didn't know it was them kind of thing.
Speaker: yeah and my wife sings their stuff at karaoke so it's like yeah she's all about abba well honestly so i i don't know if you know this but i actually dj dances and and different events like weddings and whatnot abba's still one of the top requested like dancing queen is one of the top requested songs and it's it's 50 years later like i don't know what to tell you like it's
Speaker: And here's the thing, too.
Speaker: So I was doing research on ABBA after I was kind of baffled that ABBA was really the thing that was coming out.
Speaker: They're bigger than the Beatles in some areas in Europe.
Speaker: If you're a European company like Pinball Brothers is, and you're aiming, in my opinion, it doesn't make sense to aim for the American market because you have tons of competition here.
Speaker: But in Europe, your competition is...
Speaker: It's not – you've got Dutch Pinball and you've got Pendretti at this point, right?
Speaker: And so if you're really wanting to disrupt and take over that market, you're going to go with titles that are known to European company or to Europe.
Speaker: Queen and ABBA are insanely popular over there.
Speaker: Like if you're beating out the Beatles in Sweden, wow, like that's impressive to me.
Speaker: So I don't know where I was going with this.
Speaker: Well, to your point, when it comes to the demographic, their choice of demographic, they chose Abba for a reason, because it's basically in their hometown of where they're currently at.
Speaker: So their demographic is where they're at.
Speaker: But wouldn't you think when it came to marketing this game that they would still...
Speaker: try to cast a large net, I mean, or do what a lot of the other successful manufacturers out there do when it comes to releasing a new title, proper videos and get the images out, higher quality of this and that versus whatever they want to call what they did.
Speaker: The potato cam.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The thing that I truly don't understand with, uh,
Speaker: most pinball companies is I have to remind myself, it's kind of like the NFL.
Speaker: The NFL is you would think for, uh, for as big of a business, the NFL is that they would be run more professionally on many levels.
Speaker: And there are so many things that are just amateur level.
Speaker: And when it comes to marketing, yeah, Stern has something that's very predictable.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You have like a tease and then you have like the, the, the, you know, the, the sizzle reel.
Speaker: And then you have like the, what is, so they have basically the set predictable thing when they're releasing games.
Speaker: Jersey Jack has the best sizzle reel thing, the best reveals that they've done.
Speaker: And everyone else, it just, it feels like a high school marketing class.
Speaker: put most of these together.
Speaker: It really does feel like, okay, so what's your term project?
Speaker: What are you doing?
Speaker: And how are you going to do it?
Speaker: And it doesn't seem like they are able to know anything about marketing whatsoever.
Speaker: And I, I truly don't think that any pinball company really outside of Stern and, uh, and, and, uh,
Speaker: Stern and Jersey Jack feel like they have any professional involvement.
Speaker: Now, I will say Spooky does a good job about working the pinball world, doing their thing.
Speaker: They have great options.
Speaker: It still feels very high-end amateurish on many levels, and that's how I feel this reveal is.
Speaker: I still think spooky is better though than I don't know.
Speaker: Spooky could be on that level of JJP and stern when it comes to getting their product out there.
Speaker: They certainly have some of the best looking games.
Speaker: Like they're like the art on Halloween sold the game itself before people even played it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, and looking at stern, like obviously you're going to have hiccups sometimes, like obviously you can't plan plan when the queen's going to die.
Speaker: And, and you have a, an English title in James Bond trying to release the same time.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Like, there's just certain things that it's going to be out of your control, but no, I agree.
Speaker: Like if you were to, uh, okay, let's, let's do this really quick.
Speaker: So I'm going to steal the bit from Dennis Creasel, right?
Speaker: Like, are you Josh here?
Speaker: Please tell me you're going to talk like a Batman.
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: Are you, are you the Nord man?
Speaker: But Josh here.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Your most important day on a release is the first week.
Speaker: You need to give us high quality photos.
Speaker: You need to give us high quality video.
Speaker: You need to give interviews behind the scenes about the product.
Speaker: Get people hyped.
Speaker: Your most marketing money should be going to day one release.
Speaker: Because six months later, when you try to revamp and reload, people just don't care.
Speaker: And if you're not taking advantage of the hype on week one, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: And that's the thing is that there's a lot of people, even today, like I posted a video talking about this release with ABBA and everything, and I got comments already that people didn't even know that this game...
Speaker: was it released?
Speaker: They didn't even know it existed.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, I know.
Speaker: They kind of just said, hey, we have a game, guys.
Speaker: Just thought we'd let you know.
Speaker: Just kind of nonchalantly throw that into a conversation.
Speaker: It's out there in the ether.
Speaker: But it wasn't like, you know, it's just poor marketing when it comes to at least trying to
Speaker: get as much attention and focus on it at one time.
Speaker: I don't know why they chose to do it this way.
Speaker: If it's their method.
Speaker: But like I said in my video, like previously, if you look at their trailers and announcement videos for the previous games, there was so much more effort into it versus whatever was put into this.
Speaker: It seems like it was very half ass.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Here's another marketing cue.
Speaker: I went to the pinball brothers website.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Just no, no, no.
Speaker: Just type it in.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It actually, you can go to the website.
Speaker: So, so type it in pinballbrothers.com.
Speaker: That's not a jab at any other pinball.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And just the splash screen that comes up, which game do you think of?
Speaker: Stranger Things.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Not your game at all.
Speaker: That's a Stern game.
Speaker: I had to question, was I on the Pinball Brothers website?
Speaker: Because it is in the vibe of a different game done by a different manufacturer.
Speaker: I had to scroll down for ABBA.
Speaker: If I were a marketing guy, I would look at that and say, hey, we have ABBA coming out, so we need to have the splash screen that emphasizes some late 70s, early 80s dance vibe.
Speaker: So what it seems like to me, because I've never seen it this close up before, it looks like they are leaning heavily towards AI art.
Speaker: That's what I was about to say, yep.
Speaker: This is... I wonder if their entire art package is AI.
Speaker: I wonder if they are saving so much money on art, which is the most expensive portion of a game, on just saying, hey, we need this.
Speaker: that's a really good question.
Speaker: I didn't really think about that, but it looks like fingers, count the fingers.
Speaker: That's what I'm looking at right now.
Speaker: I'm like, wait, one, two, that's because fingers, they always mess up on the hands.
Speaker: These computers do those hands on the guitarist on the right.
Speaker: Look a little rough.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Uh, yeah, no, but I, I do love the, uh, the all white spandex.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's, that's what popped out to me too.
Speaker: It was like, wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's, it's like they, they took the, uh,
Speaker: They took the artistic inspiration from Torpedo Alley.
Speaker: What makes me laugh, too, so I've never been to this website.
Speaker: Thanks for pointing this out, Scott.
Speaker: Please join us, because like Scott said, you come up and it does very much for what Strangers is.
Speaker: It looks like Stranger Things, yeah.
Speaker: But as you scroll down, you get ABBA, read more.
Speaker: And then the next thing is Revive the Thrill, rated R restricted.
Speaker: I know, right?
Speaker: And I was like, wait, is ABBA restricted?
Speaker: I guess Alien was, but like...
Speaker: I don't feel like the game was something I want to let my kids play.
Speaker: But then it says pinball could can be considered addictive and should be treated accordingly.
Speaker: Ask your parents permission before it leads to reckless behavior.
Speaker: That's kind of a weird.
Speaker: It's kind of a weird thing to put on your website.
Speaker: Like ABBA is ready to are like what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What kind of game is this?
Speaker: What's like?
Speaker: What am I going to see?
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: I'm actually really curious.
Speaker: We're doing something live right now.
Speaker: We are creating the image generator for this episode.
Speaker: Paint Carrie Hardy, Scott Larson, and Josh Roop podcasting about pinball.
Speaker: Put us in a watch spandex.
Speaker: Put us in a watch spandex.
Speaker: So while you're booking that out, did you read this ABBA, like this flyer?
Speaker: Like, have you read this?
Speaker: The winter takes it all.
Speaker: The winter takes it all.
Speaker: Buckle up for the ultimate ABBA adventure.
Speaker: Your mission is to make ABBA immortal by forging their avatars.
Speaker: I love, by the way, the avatar.
Speaker: That is genius.
Speaker: To succeed, you must gather their souls and travel through time and space.
Speaker: Also, you can open the portal to the voyage dimension where the ancient medallion of power hides.
Speaker: What the heck were they?
Speaker: Well, they also kind of messed up on the English right there.
Speaker: All so you can open the portal instead of also you can order.
Speaker: I don't know if that's even worded correctly that there as well, but it's like you can also open the portal to the voyage dimension.
Speaker: Okay, by the way, I just time and dimensions.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: I was trying to get like them to paint us a picture, but it actually wrote us a review.
Speaker: Oh my goodness.
Speaker: Carrie Hardy, Scott Larson and Josh Rupp are the dynamic trio.
Speaker: We're a trio now behind loser kid pinball podcast.
Speaker: This delightful podcast features these two pinball enthusiasts.
Speaker: Apparently someone died casually chatting about all things related to pinball.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: While I can't physically paint them or put anyone in white spandex, I can certainly imagine a whimsical scene where they're recording their podcast while decked out in snug, stretchy white outfits.
Speaker: So really what's going to happen, Carrie, you're coming to Expo, right?
Speaker: I should be, yeah.
Speaker: You should be.
Speaker: Spandex!
Speaker: All spandex!
Speaker: All spandex!
Speaker: The ABBA tribute band featuring us.
Speaker: The tripod.
Speaker: Like, I'm looking at the art, and it's like things that only ABBA fans would know, and this is something I just recently got a phone call from somebody explaining this to me, but the Voyage version, like the Bat Glass, where it has the four of them looking weird.
Speaker: yeah because this is basically the voyage concert is like a holographic version of them okay so yeah so they're not actually up on stage evidently during this particular voyage concert it's merely hologram versions of them playing music and stuff kind of like isn't that what kissed it on their last show they like came out as as maybe gorillas does that
Speaker: but it's weird.
Speaker: Like the heads look like almost like stone hedge, like wizard of Oz.
Speaker: Like, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's not good.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, but okay.
Speaker: Do you really think the artwork is AI generated?
Speaker: They had to pay someone, right?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: I think when it comes to... Because you have to get the proper placement for the inserts and everything like that.
Speaker: So I think at least on the cabinet...
Speaker: was probably assisted with AI.
Speaker: It would not surprise me.
Speaker: As far as the play field goes, I'm looking at it right now and everything.
Speaker: I mean, it looks like it's, you know, fine to an extent.
Speaker: I think the play field is more, is definitely better than the cabinet.
Speaker: Agreed.
Speaker: It almost reminds me Beatles-esque.
Speaker: And I know like Franchi did Beatles.
Speaker: And Beatles is, I'm going to admit, is a lot better than this.
Speaker: But when I say like Beatles-esque, it's got that like 60s, 70s vibe looking at this.
Speaker: I feel like this artwork is better than what Queen had.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely better than Queen.
Speaker: I'm getting closer to images on the play field right here.
Speaker: And honestly, that looks pretty good.
Speaker: Versions of them on the play field.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hell of a lot better than Rush.
Speaker: Hey, that was a comic book.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: In fairness.
Speaker: I give Mike all the time.
Speaker: Even when Joss came out, he was like, please be gentle.
Speaker: In fairness, legitimately, people were talking about like, that's not how they look.
Speaker: And he showed us the pictures that they sent him to illustrate.
Speaker: And I'm like, yeah, actually, that looks really close.
Speaker: Like, this is what the band sent him.
Speaker: It's...
Speaker: And if the band likes it, that's all that matters.
Speaker: No, I actually, I thought, I thought it was very fun.
Speaker: And actually, well, I do have, uh, I have 2112 and I have the comic that's with 2112 and it actually is in that style.
Speaker: So it's, uh, it was, it was thematically correct.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's weird.
Speaker: Cause there's like no information on this game.
Speaker: I can't find who's who did the design.
Speaker: I can't find artwork.
Speaker: This is weird.
Speaker: Anyhow, sorry to cut you off.
Speaker: No, that's the, but that's the whole point is that it seems that, you know, it's yeah.
Speaker: I don't understand the, yeah, the play field.
Speaker: I, I, you know, the play field kind of, I, I, I want to try to figure out what's going on here.
Speaker: Well, it's a little difficult whenever you don't have the, the appropriate media to help.
Speaker: Those of us out there that are in pinball and would be interested in this is something that we should add to our collection.
Speaker: We don't have any good gameplay footage or anything like that or anything that should.
Speaker: Persuade us that's giving us money, giving them money kind of thing.
Speaker: That's what was blowing my mind.
Speaker: So they've got they've got like five videos out.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they're all like potato cam.
Speaker: They're all.
Speaker: over someone's shoulder.
Speaker: Like pinball news just released two that actually look half decent, at least like the qualities.
Speaker: The camera is fine on it.
Speaker: But I'm getting frustrated because I'm watching these.
Speaker: I'm like, I want to see the helicopter.
Speaker: I want to see the balls lock into the helicopter.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I don't think any videos show that.
Speaker: The beginning of their 19 minute video, I'm guessing you guys haven't watched the actual video, the launch trailer, quote unquote trailer for this, because that was one of my complaints during my video today was that at least last night they did not have their trailer video available.
Speaker: And so it was like, what the hell, guys?
Speaker: I mean, it was at the beginning of their reveal for the game.
Speaker: wherever they revealed it over there, but it was not, uh, available online for anybody else to look at.
Speaker: I'm about to send it to you guys so you can see.
Speaker: So, but at the beginning of that 19 some odd minute video that was released by pinball news, they do have this video, but it's merely a recording of the video that's playing on a projector screen.
Speaker: So you're not getting like, you know, the full quality up close.
Speaker: I can pause it to figure out the shot, you know, layout and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And the video overall is pretty amateurish, but it's like, man, it just could have been done.
Speaker: It's like someone with a GoPro.
Speaker: What made me chuckle is like people the first day this came out were asking us like, where does this shot lead?
Speaker: Like, does the ramp just go up to the, I'm assuming that's a gold record or is that like a symbol from a drum set?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Anywho, but they couldn't see that it did a 180 flip and came back to the in lane because of the way the pitchers are taken.
Speaker: And then they were confused by the spinner right below the ramp.
Speaker: And, and honestly, it's funny.
Speaker: Cause when we first got these pictures, I'm like, it's really weird.
Speaker: They did a, a two flipper layout and Travis Murray's like, Josh, there's a third flipper.
Speaker: And he points it out.
Speaker: It's black.
Speaker: It's like, it's hard to see.
Speaker: It's in the left orbit.
Speaker: But yeah, it's has sounds like a piano shop in the Twilight Zone.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, that that right ramp feeds back to the right flipper via the wire form.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, as far as like even the hardware that they use for the record, the gold record, I'm guessing that's what they created as a gold record.
Speaker: I don't know if they ever went platinum or if the platinum was available back then.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I bet they went diamond.
Speaker: I kind of wish that they would have used some different hardware because, I mean, that kind of looks weird holding up that particular record right there.
Speaker: They could have done some recessed screws or something in there to make that look a little bit better.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That's nitpicking.
Speaker: I want to paint a smiley face underneath it.
Speaker: But you get a spinning disco ball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So there's something.
Speaker: I don't even have that in my Deadpool.
Speaker: I wish I did.
Speaker: I have it.
Speaker: So ABBA is one of the very few bands.
Speaker: So I don't know if you guys know this.
Speaker: So Gold is like, I want to say 50,000 albums.
Speaker: And then Platinum is either.
Speaker: Gold is half a million.
Speaker: Platinum is a million.
Speaker: That can be right, because Diamond's a million.
Speaker: No, Diamond's a million.
Speaker: I think diamonds because double platinum.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: But something that you don't get in the description of the game or even in the pictures, but you get it in that video for a moment is at the top of that left ramp towards the very back.
Speaker: There's a magnet and kind of like the telekinesis magnet for Stranger Things.
Speaker: Maybe that's why they use Stranger Things font.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: It just hit me.
Speaker: I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker: But at the back of that ramp, there's a magnet.
Speaker: I guess they can activate it instead of the ball sometimes leading back down the wire form to your left flipper.
Speaker: It can drop down the dropout hole of that particular ramp into the pops or the actually whatever's going on up underneath there.
Speaker: It looks like there's targets or something probably feeds to your left orbit.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It's hard to tell.
Speaker: All we got is images.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Just in case you're wondering, Scott, yeah.
Speaker: Gold is 500,000 platinum is 1 million.
Speaker: Multi-platinum is obviously more than one.
Speaker: So like 2 million diamond is 10 million, 10 million.
Speaker: So, sorry.
Speaker: So there's not very many diamond album albums out there.
Speaker: No, there's one of them actually is Alba.
Speaker: ABBA's greatest hits achieved diamond status back in May of 2000.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, ta-da.
Speaker: Okay, so I'm just trying to get an idea how this game shoots by looking at everything, and this looks like a cluster of non-flow up here at the top of the game.
Speaker: I mean, I've got my targets, I've got my pops, I've got some looks-like drops, another pop that's underneath the left ramp.
Speaker: I mean, the orbits may be smooth, but I think if you get it up there in that top region of the game, it's going to be a bunch of bouncing around kind of thing.
Speaker: Basically you have a ramp that feeds back to the flippers and then just, uh,
Speaker: It's like a center scoop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I hate standups around standups on the backside of the helicopter.
Speaker: You've got drops on the right side.
Speaker: So I was watching the video, the orbits.
Speaker: So if you hit the right over, it obviously comes around to the upper left flipper and then you can kind of repeat the, the center spinner shot from what I could tell.
Speaker: I didn't see anyone repeat it, but then again, it is what it is.
Speaker: But I noticed when people are hitting the left orbit,
Speaker: There is, if you look in the very back of the pinball machine, there is like a gate back there and it would stop it from going all the way around and drop it down into the pops.
Speaker: It may be a control gate because it looks like you've got a gate behind the disco ball and a gate above the right side and left side.
Speaker: So it looks like it would be, they may be controlled gates to keep it kind of like the old school solid state games where the ball would go up there and bounce back and forth for a little while and eventually drop down into it.
Speaker: And that's what it looks like.
Speaker: So I don't know if they're controlled gates, but that's what it looks like.
Speaker: We got a gate right now, but yeah,
Speaker: separated pops.
Speaker: That's interesting.
Speaker: You got one on one side and two on the other.
Speaker: And as far as that upper left flipper shot, I mean, I can't tell, but it looks like it may not be repeatable.
Speaker: It looks like it would go up and hit a target and then drop into the pops.
Speaker: It's yeah.
Speaker: It's hard to tell if, if that's like a, a warp ramp shot.
Speaker: but it's difficult for you guys listening or even watching on youtube to see what the hell we're talking about because we're seeing the images you're not but i'm telling you right now there's only certain images that are available because god forbid they want to release everything for us to see you're probably understanding website yeah it seems like they had a little bit more there under yeah so yeah there is a little bit actually i'm at nap arcade where are you
Speaker: I'm on their website.
Speaker: Things that I like.
Speaker: I don't want to seem like I'm just crapping all over this game.
Speaker: Things I like.
Speaker: I like the glowing targets on the ramps.
Speaker: They've had those on all their other games.
Speaker: I really like how those glow.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: The left ramp, I like how if you look at it from the above point of view, it looks like it's got the... Kind of like the...
Speaker: Whirlpool style, where if you launch it up there, it's going to do like a Cactus Canyon loop around when you first plunge a ball.
Speaker: And that's either going to basically get magnetized to drop down into your left orbit, or it's going to just continuously circle around that plastic to feed into the wire form.
Speaker: That looks interesting.
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: Disco ball, always cool.
Speaker: Art is tolerable on the play field as far as the mechanical nature of the helicopter.
Speaker: Don't know yet.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: the blade spin.
Speaker: So that's a perk, but how everything else goes inside.
Speaker: One ball drops on one side, one ball drops on the other side.
Speaker: Would have liked to have seen that in action.
Speaker: You get like a little glimpse of it in that 54 second video.
Speaker: I sent you guys.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now the, uh, I'm hoping the disco ball, I mean, you asked about, uh, you know, Deadpool and yeah, Deadpool,
Speaker: There is the disco ball in Deadpool that's in one mode, which you really don't get to that much.
Speaker: So I hope you don't feel like you're missing anything, Kerry.
Speaker: I get a little bit of it with my Penn Stadiums with the UV.
Speaker: I got it hooked up to where it would be giving me the flasher effect or the Dazzler multiball and stuff.
Speaker: So I still get a little bit of it, but just to be nice to kind of have it.
Speaker: I'm hoping – and I get it.
Speaker: You're not missing that much really.
Speaker: But I'm hoping they implement it more in this game because that is a cool disco ball is cool.
Speaker: Like it's, it's a cool effect from a certain era.
Speaker: I'm, I'm with you carry on this.
Speaker: Like why haven't they released this video before?
Speaker: So it's a, like you said, it's a 54 second video.
Speaker: It's, it's cool.
Speaker: Like, yeah, you got the spinners on it and whatnot.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't even notice that.
Speaker: So that what you're talking about, uh, that, that left ramp, there is a magnet in there that kind of drops the ball down in.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: That's cool.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, this was released 15 hours ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: 700 views.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's kind of weird for a brand new release of a game.
Speaker: Now, here's the next question I'm kind of curious about.
Speaker: Let me look up Pinball Brothers on Facebook to see if they shared this video on their Facebook page.
Speaker: I mean, just out of curiosity to see how up to par.
Speaker: Okay, they did release it 15 hours ago on their Facebook.
Speaker: Okay, so I'll give them there.
Speaker: They did that.
Speaker: Numbers aren't separate on YouTube from America to Europe, would they?
Speaker: I mean, it should be all combined.
Speaker: 540 subscribers?
Speaker: I'm one of those.
Speaker: It's like, I follow them.
Speaker: I look forward to what they bring out, but this one was a little bit of underwhelming.
Speaker: But as of last night, I literally recorded a video questioning to my patrons, like, you know, why had they not released the trailer that is on that 19 minute video to the public?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then it was there like today.
Speaker: So I'm like, I'm like, I wonder if word got out that I was curious about that or what.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now,
Speaker: Marketing aside, okay?
Speaker: Marketing, obviously there are issues with marketing that we think should be better.
Speaker: What are your thoughts on the game?
Speaker: Like, do you think that this is something you're interested in?
Speaker: Do you think it's going to compete with other games at a similar price point?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Oh, and the price point on this.
Speaker: That's when we didn't hit on yet, the price.
Speaker: Yeah, price.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Standard edition is what, 10K and the LE edition is 11?
Speaker: Or do I have that back?
Speaker: It was like 11.5, I thought.
Speaker: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker: Still, we're five digits.
Speaker: We're above 10K on both.
Speaker: We are.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which, what's Alien at?
Speaker: $7,500 still?
Speaker: Yeah, Ripley Edition.
Speaker: Get that topper with it.
Speaker: That's like one of the best values in pinball right now.
Speaker: If you get the damn Ripley Edition with the topper, that's a lot for what the price is.
Speaker: However, okay, compare this to Elton John.
Speaker: I'd rather have Elton John.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Shout out to him.
Speaker: It's also more...
Speaker: It'd be more, but I know that the game shoots well also because one, you had really good media to get out there and I played it.
Speaker: That helps dramatically.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But this is, this is, this is in that theme era of Elton John, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: At least it's visually, I think it's visually at least at the very minimum it's passable, but I would say it actually looks pretty good.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So if something, if someone is interested in ABBA, then I would be curious about this.
Speaker: Again, this is not my demographic who is buying this, but I bet you're going to get more people actually interested in this game than you will in some other options, even at a lower price than this.
Speaker: You're going to, you're going to move some games.
Speaker: I think definitely for the hardcore ABBA fans.
Speaker: I mean, if you're a hardcore Elton fan, I'm sure Elton spoke to you.
Speaker: But the bonus about it being an Elton fan is that it's also Jersey Jack's best shooter.
Speaker: I mean, so not only are you going to be happy with the fact that it's a great theme for what you're interested in Elton John, it's their best shooter to date.
Speaker: So now it's a matter of like, OK, are you an ABBA fan?
Speaker: They got a theme for you.
Speaker: Does it shoot good?
Speaker: We don't know yet.
Speaker: Yeah, it's unknown, but I would say that at least right now, it's promising.
Speaker: But you are right.
Speaker: From a marketing standpoint, they missed the biggest window, which is the first week.
Speaker: So I think, I know we don't know how it shoots because we haven't played it yet.
Speaker: I think just looking at the layout, the layout looks like it's safe.
Speaker: And that's good.
Speaker: I'd rather see a layout like this and be like,
Speaker: okay, like I can imagine myself playing this and it probably somewhat being enjoyable or whatnot.
Speaker: There's some, there's some play fields I look at and I'm just like, yeah, there's no way that's going to shoot good.
Speaker: For me, queen was hard.
Speaker: I mean, me and Zach, many were both playing like queen back and forth and we were both like, man, this thing is not nice to us.
Speaker: I mean, like we miss a shot, it would just go out lane, out lane, out lane.
Speaker: Just my God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Queen felt like a late eighties game.
Speaker: That's what queen felt like.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So back to your question, Scott.
Speaker: I want to hear from Carrie first.
Speaker: So Carrie, do you think this is a hit or a miss when it comes to, I guess, because then we got talking about price and whatnot, but what do you think of ABBA out the door?
Speaker: I think for an ABBA fan, because it's not my demographic, I don't want the game, but it may be fun to play.
Speaker: But I think definitely if you're an ABBA fan, and price is subjective, but I think this is their most expensive game to date.
Speaker: I don't see the value in it from my perspective for that price point, but I think what would really help me is if I knew how well it played.
Speaker: And I can't, I don't know for sure on this one.
Speaker: So I'm looking at it like it's a big if, maybe kind of thing.
Speaker: But I think for that price point, then it better be bringing something cool to the table.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What do you think, Scott?
Speaker: Oh, go ahead.
Speaker: Sorry, I didn't cut.
Speaker: I was just saying, because even aesthetically, it's a little bit hard when it comes to the cabinet, at least, and the back glass.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Yeah, it's not my demographic.
Speaker: But if you're an ABBA fan, and like I said, I've already got to find somebody that they put an order for one.
Speaker: They love it.
Speaker: They've already have another Pinball Brothers game, so they have confidence in what they can build.
Speaker: So they're all in on that because they even went to the Voyage concert and stuff like that.
Speaker: So I think definitely if you're an ABBA fan, this is probably like a dream come true for you.
Speaker: And I think that's part of what they were going for.
Speaker: But the guy that was on that 19-minute video stated that he was hoping that
Speaker: that this was going to be going towards the pinball community more than just ABBA fanatics.
Speaker: So if he's aiming towards the pinball community and not the ABBA fans, we need more footage.
Speaker: We need something.
Speaker: Give us a little more proof in the pudding kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause the next time the shows up, it probably will be an expo.
Speaker: I assume, but I don't know if anything in between there.
Speaker: So, okay, Scott, what are your thoughts?
Speaker: Success is company dependent.
Speaker: And so would this be a success for Stern?
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Would total nuclear annihilation have been a success for Stern?
Speaker: Probably not because they have to sell a huge amount of them.
Speaker: Could this be a success for Pinball Brothers?
Speaker: Yeah, actually, I think it could because you're dealing with smaller numbers.
Speaker: You're dealing with a target, target release, target audience.
Speaker: I don't know what their break even point on this would be, how many they have to sell to be a success.
Speaker: This certainly has the potential to meet whatever internal demographic goals they have.
Speaker: So that's my take.
Speaker: What's yours, Josh?
Speaker: So overall, I think it is a hit in the sense of I think they've pulled a great theme for what demographic they're aiming for.
Speaker: They might be a little high on the price point, but then again, we're aiming for, I mean, ABBA, like we've said, is 70s to 80s.
Speaker: So you're probably aiming for what, 50, 60, 70-year-olds?
Speaker: You're aiming at people who are establishing a game room in their house.
Speaker: And they're probably not going to balk too much about it.
Speaker: But if you're willing to, like, if this appeals to you, more than likely you probably have the money to drop on it.
Speaker: Because, I don't know, it's like one of the rumors is Cuphead.
Speaker: Like, that's mostly a kid's game.
Speaker: Like, I don't know how much that's going to appeal to a 60, 70-year-old Maya grandfather that wants to play against Arcade.
Speaker: Zero.
Speaker: That's how much it'll appeal.
Speaker: Zero.
Speaker: But if you're an empty nester and you're still working and you have some free money to burn and ABBA's your jam, I think this is a hit.
Speaker: I think that, yeah, the playfell artwork is passable.
Speaker: I'm not a huge fan of the cabinet, like Karius said.
Speaker: It's just kind of weird.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, lazy, almost AI-ish.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I, and layout feels safe.
Speaker: Like I said, I don't think safe is a bad thing in the pinball industry.
Speaker: I think code, I think if a good, if you can make a safe, fun shooting game, code can elevate, right?
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: And so I don't mind that it looks this way.
Speaker: And I agree.
Speaker: I'm going to have to get my hands to play on it.
Speaker: I,
Speaker: If I were to give it a grade right now, which I hate to do because we're doing first looks, not playing, I'd say average.
Speaker: I'd say 7 out of 10.
Speaker: So I think they've hit some high notes.
Speaker: I think they've hit some stuff that can be approved upon.
Speaker: But overall, I think ABBA is better than some of the games we've seen released this year and not as good as some of the other games released.
Speaker: So we're right in the middle of the pack, in my opinion, with this game.
Speaker: It has potential.
Speaker: But they they're going to have to work on it and develop it and market it better.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: But that is out.
Speaker: Congratulations to pinball brothers on the release.
Speaker: I mean, we're getting a game out in general is always a big challenge.
Speaker: So any company that can get a game out, I have major props to you.
Speaker: I think overall we are in agreement on a lot of things that we see.
Speaker: We want to see more and we hope it shoots great.
Speaker: I mean, that would be hilarious if we play this at expo guys.
Speaker: And we're just like, damn it.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: This game is fricking amazing.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I love ABBA.
Speaker: Goodness gracious.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I thought you loved ABBA after watching Mamma Mia this weekend, man.
Speaker: Evidently, I like a lot of their songs I didn't know I liked.
Speaker: Here you go.
Speaker: The other weird part about all this, so two founding members of Pinball Brothers also left this past year.
Speaker: So that's kind of goofy.
Speaker: They're Pinball Step Brothers now.
Speaker: I guess that's weird.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You know what, Kate, people leave companies all the time and, and not founding members though.
Speaker: Actually.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What can happen when you do businesses?
Speaker: It's, it's really interesting because my sister went through this when she started charter school.
Speaker: There are actually analysis that state that.
Speaker: The type of people who start businesses are not usually the type of people who keep businesses.
Speaker: They're usually in perpetual startup mode.
Speaker: They'll start up, they'll get something, and then they sell the company to someone who wants to run a company.
Speaker: So that's not, this is not as unusual as it sounds.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the next news.
Speaker: So we're running out of time.
Speaker: We got all the time in the world, man.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Let's do four hours.
Speaker: Can we call Roger Sharp on?
Speaker: We want to build some time.
Speaker: I mean, anytime you guys do a red episode with Roger Sharp, I am like on the edge of my seat.
Speaker: This is not sarcasm right here.
Speaker: I love listening to him.
Speaker: I have to buck two weeks out of my time.
Speaker: We need to have him back on.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So Pedretti.
Speaker: So we talked about this.
Speaker: Carrie, you were down at TPF.
Speaker: Were you hearing rumblings like we were that Funhouse is their first remake they're going to come out with?
Speaker: if you guys don't already know this, I am under NDA with Pedretti.
Speaker: Oh, so we're not going to ask you this question.
Speaker: I can't really give you a lot of commentary on this.
Speaker: Apparently we did not know that.
Speaker: Yeah, I put it out in the video.
Speaker: I don't blame you for not watching all my stuff, but I put it out in the video basically because I knew that people were going to hopefully see video content from me speculating on what their remakes are going to be and stuff like that.
Speaker: So I went ahead and just put it out there.
Speaker: Look, I'm in
Speaker: I'm under NDA.
Speaker: I know what games are doing, what the next game is, all that stuff and junk like that.
Speaker: I'm supposed to be creating content in the future in regards to these games.
Speaker: As far as like what all is going to be involved in that and all that stuff and junk, I don't know at this point.
Speaker: And there's a bunch of other stuff that's kind of going on behind the scenes that I can't like say out here and stuff.
Speaker: But yes, I did hear the rumblings and the alleged leaks and stuff like that.
Speaker: The only thing I'm going to comment on when it comes to that is that
Speaker: The information that was divulged to me months ago, not all of the information or a lot of information that was leaked, quote, doesn't match with what I was told.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So things could have changed.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, it's one of those things that they don't tell me everything, but it's one of those where I'm like, oh, interesting.
Speaker: That's not what I was told.
Speaker: This isn't your first NDA either.
Speaker: So blink twice if this is like Deep Root again.
Speaker: No, this is far from it so far.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: But as far as like speculating and stuff like that, I, I, sorry, I can't really contribute.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I have no worries.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Let's talk a stern pinball, possibly going public or being sold.
Speaker: It doesn't shock me if this is true.
Speaker: It does.
Speaker: There's a lot of moves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It doesn't shock me.
Speaker: The it's a double-edged sword, right?
Speaker: Is the challenge with going public though is,
Speaker: If you go public, then you are beholden to investors.
Speaker: And investors typically don't have long-term goals in a company in mind.
Speaker: They typically have short-term gains.
Speaker: What are you doing for me right now?
Speaker: We know the story of Williams and how Williams was shut down.
Speaker: Not because it was losing money.
Speaker: It just wasn't making as much money
Speaker: as their slot machine arm.
Speaker: So they made the business decision to maximize what their biggest revenue stream was.
Speaker: Now, will that be challenging if Stern gets bought into other companies and they become an arm of something?
Speaker: If they are an entity unto themselves, then they will be, okay, so we make pinballs, that's what we do.
Speaker: You can also have issues with the stock value.
Speaker: Is it good or bad?
Speaker: I would say it's a predictable next phase as Gary is basically a legacy member now of his own company.
Speaker: It makes me concerned if you...
Speaker: If you have a lot of people who are making the decisions like shareholders and stockholders, you know, all that kind of stuff versus just a very motivated individual who wants to keep pinball alive.
Speaker: I would argue, I don't think that Stern would have made it in the two thousands if they were a public company.
Speaker: I think at some point they would have cut their losses and shut down.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That is my concern right now.
Speaker: Pinball is hot.
Speaker: It's cooled down a little bit after the, uh, after, uh, the pandemic and people are getting out more and traveling more and they don't have $10,000 to spend on a machine they're putting in their house.
Speaker: But I'm just always cautious when it's moving to a different way of doing business because that is definitely going into the unknown.
Speaker: What are your thoughts, concerns, hopes?
Speaker: So, I mean, I think the, a large amount of pinball enthusiasts, I mean, they look at Stern as obviously the Titan of the industry and they have gotten that way through all the things that they've done in the past and what they plan to do in the future.
Speaker: When it comes to even insider connected, they didn't merely just, you know, on a whim go, Hey, let's just do this for some achievements.
Speaker: No, there's definitely plans that are in the making for, you know,
Speaker: whether it be DLC, it's always rumored and stuff like that.
Speaker: But it's like, it's like when people look at Stern, they always have that mindset of like, Oh, they're just greed.
Speaker: It's always after the bottom dollar.
Speaker: It's all that matters.
Speaker: Like a for a for profit company.
Speaker: What are the odds of that?
Speaker: It's like, can you, and do you feel like if they did go public, would,
Speaker: I guess the amount of greed or speculated greed rather be even worse though.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A hundred percent.
Speaker: So if you went, if you want public, what would happen is anytime you get like a code, you, now this is, I, I, I've seen the future.
Speaker: What's going to happen is, okay, you go, you go to an arcade and you play the 1.0 code.
Speaker: or you can buy personally the DLC option to play the 1.1 code.
Speaker: or the 1.2 code.
Speaker: And when you scan your Insider Connected, it's going to activate your unlocked rule set.
Speaker: It's the same thing as video games, right?
Speaker: I can see that happening.
Speaker: And I can see that people may talk about Stern about being all about the money.
Speaker: However, I will argue they are still by far the most over-delivering
Speaker: uh, lowest cost option for the best games out there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I, Godzilla, Godzilla is the best game on the market right now.
Speaker: I think that's what you can still in the market.
Speaker: What was that?
Speaker: I think that's what's disrupting the market.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: When, when everyone's doing something right now,
Speaker: You're like, why would I buy an ABBA for $10,000 or $11,000?
Speaker: I have a Godzilla premium.
Speaker: It's the new gold standard.
Speaker: So when you say, is Stern about the money?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: But Stern is also the, I don't want this to sound dismissive, but they're in Walmart business.
Speaker: They make their money through volume.
Speaker: They don't make it off two games.
Speaker: They make it off thousands of games.
Speaker: Or they don't have to sell in volume by increasing the price.
Speaker: Well, and that's, that's definitely, well, there are other companies who basically have that business model, right?
Speaker: That's kind of how they do their toppers and accessories.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And I have certainly talked about their toppers, but the toppers are, they're candy.
Speaker: They are not necessary to the game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I, it makes sense when I heard this, it makes sense looking at, I mean, I, I don't want it.
Speaker: I I'll say it makes me sad.
Speaker: I think it makes me sad.
Speaker: That's, that's the take home.
Speaker: I think it's a pivot.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think looking at how pricing has changed over the last four years, you can say it's all COVID, but an LA price going from 9,500 to $13,000.
Speaker: That's not all wood.
Speaker: And yeah,
Speaker: I mean, I feel like there's been a lot of positioning bringing in Seth Davis, who was at Disney, who helped launch some of these like online streaming for Disney and stuff like that.
Speaker: He knows big business.
Speaker: Gary stepping down and being more of a legacy figure.
Speaker: There's just a lot of things that make sense now.
Speaker: The testing of the waters of a bond 60th and seeing how much money they could actually get out of a limited edition like that.
Speaker: and seeing what the l1 name actually can can command um i i feel like granted like stern is obviously in unknown waters right like they're always pushing forward into areas that other companies aren't doing because they're they're the big boat in the water and so they are they are the giant cruise ship when everyone else is driving tugboats really that like they
Speaker: And so a lot of this can be viewed as just exploration and research and development.
Speaker: But I do looking at now that someone's saying that this being sold publicly or having more of a public whatever to it,
Speaker: It makes a little more sense.
Speaker: We'll see what happens over the next year or two if this is the case.
Speaker: And maybe we won't.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That's the thing.
Speaker: We don't really have a lot of information to go on with this.
Speaker: We don't.
Speaker: However, would it surprise you?
Speaker: I guess that's the real question.
Speaker: It wouldn't surprise me because, Gary, look at it this way, too.
Speaker: As far as I know, I don't think any of Gary's kids are really involved with Stern Pinball.
Speaker: And there's no like legacy, right?
Speaker: Like, I guess that'd be a driving factor, like a family business.
Speaker: Like obviously you want to give it to your kids and if the kids love it, then they want to move it on.
Speaker: But if you have no one in your family, if you're the end of the line, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Why, why not cash out and get as much money as you can?
Speaker: There's a reason why artists are selling their catalogs.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Bruce Springsteen stole, sold his catalog.
Speaker: Kiss just sold theirs too.
Speaker: Kiss just sold their catalog.
Speaker: Rush sold their catalog.
Speaker: You know, Twisted Sisters sold their cattle.
Speaker: Like, they're all doing it because they're like, okay, I'm done with this.
Speaker: Let's move on.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Alrighty, let's talk really briefly about, we did do an interview with American Pinball.
Speaker: I just want to say, we heard you.
Speaker: We heard that...
Speaker: that you couldn't hear David and Steven.
Speaker: I do apologize.
Speaker: If you watch the YouTube video, I know Carrie watched it before we started recording, but they were in a conference room and they were kind of far away from the computer.
Speaker: And the problem is when you're in that situation too, I can raise their levels, but then you get background ambient noises and stuff that become worse.
Speaker: And so it becomes a game of like,
Speaker: especially if it happens while they're talking, uh, it becomes, I don't know.
Speaker: I just, I released, I released it cause I didn't know what to do.
Speaker: There was only so much we could do.
Speaker: And to be fair, there were my, my Mike has been out of date.
Speaker: And so I ordered the same Mike Josh does.
Speaker: So now,
Speaker: He and I are recording on the same mic.
Speaker: So we, we should at least have the same Mike carry has.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You all have the same triple mic, triple mic, triple mic.
Speaker: That's why we sound amazing right now.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We should start singing.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Take a chance.
Speaker: Take a chance.
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: I do not sing.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I'm not the karaoke person.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: It was an interesting interview.
Speaker: It's still good to talk to them, right?
Speaker: It's good to get their point of view.
Speaker: And that's the whole point of us trying to get interviews with people is because they get to tell their side of the story and their perspective as opposed to podcasters.
Speaker: We do a lot of speculation.
Speaker: Well, and the weird part too, someone asked us about this.
Speaker: Like, so was someone trying to kill David fix?
Speaker: Like, were they trying to?
Speaker: What was going on there?
Speaker: I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker: Just listen to the interview.
Speaker: Do you remember that, Scott?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I think it was like the rumors that he had died.
Speaker: I don't think it's to kill them.
Speaker: It was, I don't know.
Speaker: It was different.
Speaker: It sounded a little bizarre, but I think it was just rumors that he was no longer among us.
Speaker: But if you go to American-pinball.com, we're on the front page.
Speaker: So you just go down to the bottom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Check out our interview there.
Speaker: Kerry's like, I gotta verify this.
Speaker: I don't believe it.
Speaker: We are right there.
Speaker: I'll be down next to Chad and Teddy get lit.
Speaker: What is, Oh my God.
Speaker: Did y'all not see this?
Speaker: No, we could talk about this if you want to.
Speaker: I thought the freaking launch for ABBA was cringe.
Speaker: No, this is the cringe.
Speaker: The look.
Speaker: Clure.
Speaker: I can't even pronounce it.
Speaker: Crème de la cringe.
Speaker: That's what I want to say.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: This is so bad where I'm just like, Oh no, guys.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: I'm going to have to.
Speaker: This is a three-hour live stream.
Speaker: Schedule that in.
Speaker: I'm telling you, it is.
Speaker: Three hours.
Speaker: Yeah, you're going to have to schedule that in.
Speaker: I couldn't watch it in its entirety.
Speaker: I had to, like, skip around.
Speaker: But every time I skipped to another portion, I was like, just, no, no, I can't watch.
Speaker: I can't look directly at it.
Speaker: It's like an eclipse.
Speaker: It's not three hours.
Speaker: It is four hours.
Speaker: It's three hours and 53 minutes.
Speaker: Holy crap.
Speaker: That is impressive.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Stamina, baby.
Speaker: We'll have to check that out later.
Speaker: Hey, it's got, yeah, okay, I'm not going to go into this.
Speaker: Let's stay on topic.
Speaker: Stay on topic.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Stay on topic.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But yeah, we do appreciate you guys listening.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: We just interview.
Speaker: You know what?
Speaker: We do our best.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But the one thing that kind of frustrated me though, because it's like we interviewed these guys two weeks ago and then you hear that Dennis Norman's no longer American pinball, but if they do decide to make the game he was working on, he'll come back as a consultant.
Speaker: And now McQuaid's up next.
Speaker: So Ryan McQuaid won American dream with Sonic the Hedgehog, right?
Speaker: But American pinball couldn't get Sonic the Hedgehog because another company had already snatched it up.
Speaker: And so the rumor is he's on cuphead.
Speaker: So if you've never played cuphead, it's,
Speaker: a Microsoft, it's like a tandem game.
Speaker: There was a indie developer that made this game.
Speaker: It's a beautiful game in the art style of like 1930s.
Speaker: rubber animations, whatever they call it.
Speaker: And the game is brutal.
Speaker: Like if this, if Ryan McQuaid doesn't kick you in the teeth with this pinball machine, I don't know if it does justice for Cuphead.
Speaker: Like that's the thing.
Speaker: The demographic for Cuphead is going to be relatively small.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I mean, okay.
Speaker: The awareness I own the awareness of that too.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cause, but look, coming from somebody who I own Cuphead, I have played it a lot in the past and it's one of those games where it is horrible.
Speaker: hard.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: This game is like, it's like the artistry and what they, the way they went about creating it is far none.
Speaker: Amazing.
Speaker: I love the old school retro aesthetics to this game, but it is one of those games where you are going to want to just break your damn controller because of frustration of how difficult some of these boss fights are.
Speaker: And that's essentially what a lot of the game is.
Speaker: You got these little levels here and there spread throughout, but it comes down to beating these bosses.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: that have different basically stages to them difficulty wise.
Speaker: And there's just things that are going around everywhere.
Speaker: You're constantly having to jump, duck, dodge, shoot your finger bullets at them and everything.
Speaker: It's not an easy game at all.
Speaker: So I'm kind of curious of how they're going to be able to implement that theme into pinball.
Speaker: Well, and I don't know.
Speaker: Have you watched the Netflix series?
Speaker: Cause they've got three seasons.
Speaker: I tried.
Speaker: I think I watched a few episodes and I was like, yeah, it wasn't enough to keep me going.
Speaker: The funny part is my family loves it.
Speaker: So we've watched all the seasons.
Speaker: And if you go that route, maybe you don't go so brutal.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: But I agree with you, Carrie.
Speaker: Like this game, if you've never played Cuphead, it's what?
Speaker: 15 bucks to download, if that?
Speaker: It's on the Switch.
Speaker: It's on Xbox.
Speaker: It says $20 for Switch, but yeah.
Speaker: Download it.
Speaker: Give it a try.
Speaker: It will kick your teeth.
Speaker: It's a couch co-op, so if you've got a buddy at the house, then y'all can play together.
Speaker: It makes it a little even funnier, but it is not an easy game.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay, I'll try it.
Speaker: I'll try it and let you know.
Speaker: I haven't tried it yet.
Speaker: To give you an idea of what the game is like, it's got two different styles.
Speaker: The first style is side-scrolling shooter.
Speaker: If you remember the old Contras.
Speaker: I'm trying to think what else.
Speaker: Actually, do you know what my favorite side-scrolling game is?
Speaker: It's actually like an old NES game.
Speaker: It's called life force.
Speaker: It's like the, it's, it's basically contra, but with ships like flying ships and it's the same type of, you can do the same code.
Speaker: You can do the same code and get 30 guys.
Speaker: Like it's awesome.
Speaker: They have a game called salamander.
Speaker: That's actually a, it's,
Speaker: kind of ported from and and changed but it's if you're ever looking for an nes game life force is a fun game but okay you guys are bearing the lead a little bit on this okay nordman is out at ap okay yeah here's my question does nordman ever stay at a job
Speaker: Not when he foresees bad things coming.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So, so that's kind of, okay.
Speaker: However, he also left stern.
Speaker: He did, uh, you know, he did Elvira at stern.
Speaker: So did he though?
Speaker: My understanding is most of that, most of what he had drawn in there was kind of torn out.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, maybe.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: The question I have is like, is at some point you have to ask,
Speaker: Is it all the companies that he's working for?
Speaker: Is he just not making good choices or is he just an unreliable designer that like, there are so many things he's picking bad projects, right?
Speaker: We know that he went with highway and then got out of highway before alien and then went to deep root and we got out there and then was with American pinball and got out there.
Speaker: There is a, there's a reason.
Speaker: There's a reason Dennis Creasel named him the Canary in the Coal Mine.
Speaker: Okay, but the Canary in the Coal Mine still should probably have produced a game.
Speaker: Like, I just released... He did.
Speaker: He glocked his tank for us.
Speaker: This is something that not a lot of people know about this, and it's kind of weird, is that he didn't really design that game.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah, he did a little bit of it, but most of that was with Reno.
Speaker: If you look on the credits for it.
Speaker: Sorry, I forgot his first name.
Speaker: I mean, I've got him in my phone and everything.
Speaker: Janet Reno?
Speaker: Who?
Speaker: Janet Reno?
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: She was the attorney general in the 90s.
Speaker: No, no, no, no.
Speaker: If you look on the credits of the game, it was, oh my goodness.
Speaker: If you listen to this, I feel so bad.
Speaker: I don't remember his name.
Speaker: But no, Norman did a good amount of work on it, but a lot of that was not his design.
Speaker: And that's what cracked me up is that I'm just like, wow.
Speaker: I mean, like basically Norman's getting all the credit for this and everything.
Speaker: I mean, he definitely helped out with the aesthetics of the cabinet.
Speaker: He really wanted a cabinet that turned into a tank.
Speaker: And I think that's one of the reasons also when someone asked him, I forgot who I was talking to about this.
Speaker: They were asking, what's your favorite thing about?
Speaker: Galactic Tank Force, and he commented the cabinet.
Speaker: That was his favorite portion of Galactic Tank Force, was the cabinet.
Speaker: Probably because that's what the main thing that he implemented.
Speaker: But as far as design goes, he didn't do much of that.
Speaker: I'm going to have to look up his damn name.
Speaker: This is going to drive me up the wall.
Speaker: Well, it's not on Pinside, because I'm looking at Pinside, and they have him as sole designer.
Speaker: Paul Reno.
Speaker: Paul Reno.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I totally forgot he worked... He did the design for...
Speaker: Lexi Lightspeed with Multimorphic.
Speaker: Okay, there is a lot of incomplete grades in his work since his William days.
Speaker: Dude, that's weird.
Speaker: I totally spaced that.
Speaker: Because I want to say, do you even look on the apron where they list off all the designers and everything and who's involved in the game, if you could find a picture of it somewhere.
Speaker: But they list them on there.
Speaker: Wasn't...
Speaker: Wasn't this his idea, though?
Speaker: Like the whole galactic tank force and the ice cream.
Speaker: Wasn't this an idea he wanted to do from the William days?
Speaker: Norman, mainly the tank portion of it.
Speaker: But as far as the layout, I don't think the layout.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: So here's my thought, because my understanding was that Norman really pushed this concept of tanks and ice cream, right?
Speaker: Didn't you guys have him on?
Speaker: No, we didn't have him on.
Speaker: Maybe we need to have him on.
Speaker: No, I thought he was part of it, because his power went out or something like that.
Speaker: I thought he was on with you guys during an interview, or is that somebody else that I'm thinking of?
Speaker: I don't think.
Speaker: Yeah, I think he had David Fix, Norman, and I thought you had Paul on there, but his power went out.
Speaker: We had Jack Hager and Fix.
Speaker: Because I remember messaging him like, man, I really wish he would have been able to join in on the thing with the Galactic Tank Force.
Speaker: And he said something about his electricity went out, so he was unable to.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: It's been a while.
Speaker: Terrible.
Speaker: By the way, so if you listen to us regularly, we're going up the rails quite a bit here, guys.
Speaker: If you remember our tenured past with our interviews, please write in and let us know if we had.
Speaker: I swear we never had Dennis.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I know that we've had a son.
Speaker: It does just make me wonder.
Speaker: And I hope I'm not speaking outside.
Speaker: I can only look at it from an outside person.
Speaker: But yeah, he has, it might've been triple drain that had him on then that I'm thinking of.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: It wasn't you guys and it was somebody else.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, so, so they had L went on and Travis's power went out for like 20 minutes and he had to like run to the bowling alley or something.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Where Travis is like walking around looking for signals.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm, I'm pretty sure that we have not had Dennis on, but the, yeah, the, it, it does just make me wonder.
Speaker: And again, this is just me looking for as an outside person.
Speaker: There's a lot of,
Speaker: like unfinished games that are in his wake and unfinished employment.
Speaker: It does make me question if I were an employer, would I, would I hire this guy?
Speaker: I, it, it seems like there's a lot of question marks more than product right now.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Just looking at even looking as recent games.
Speaker: So like Elvira is obviously a hit, like there's no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Speaker: But like I said, I don't know how much of other things.
Speaker: My understanding, there was a lot more ramps in it.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: That's something for behind the scenes.
Speaker: Go to Expo.
Speaker: See if you can milk some information on people.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: It was back in August of 2023, whatever podcast he was on.
Speaker: I even said, it sucks you didn't get many words in the latest podcast.
Speaker: And he's like, yeah, I had a huge storm come through and knock out the power.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: If it wasn't you guys, then like I said, it might have been triple drain.
Speaker: It was back in August, so I could be confused.
Speaker: But I know that he was supposed to be on the podcast talking about it because he is.
Speaker: co-designer, but he did a majority of the lifting on this one.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: But like looking at his games, he did the Zombie League concept slash game design, but that's a pitch and bat.
Speaker: That's not really straightforward pinball primus, but is that because he did Woe Nelly?
Speaker: And Woe Nelly is not really regarded as a great game.
Speaker: Lexi Lightspeed is probably one of the better multimorphic games.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie there.
Speaker: but even the stern stuff like pirates of the Caribbean was fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I actually have pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But no one remembers.
Speaker: Well, a fortune is an all astounding game.
Speaker: No, I mean, really?
Speaker: I mean, demo man's fun and everyone loves whitewater.
Speaker: And obviously the Elvira is everyone wants all three of them in their lineup.
Speaker: I just, I don't know.
Speaker: You can skip the party monsters.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Party Zone, Doctor Dude, Blackwater, White Hunter is a fun game.
Speaker: I just don't know.
Speaker: You're going back.
Speaker: This is my J-pop argument.
Speaker: You're going way back.
Speaker: I guess my point being is I think the thing is the facades come off.
Speaker: We're looking at these designers from the 90s and we held them up on such a pedestal.
Speaker: But I'm...
Speaker: I'm feeling pinball has progressed since the last 30 years.
Speaker: And we're realizing more and more that the games that are coming out from these designers, maybe not necessarily the games that we want.
Speaker: And I'm not saying like, is like, I guess my point being was, okay, sorry, I'm rewinding this.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: It took 10 minutes to get to this point.
Speaker: So galactic tank force was a concept that was supposedly that was,
Speaker: was explored back in the day, but it was never considered viable for pinball.
Speaker: So they never went forward with it.
Speaker: So American hires Dennis Norman and he pushes this concept, right?
Speaker: And it didn't do, I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know if they consider it a hit or whatnot.
Speaker: Sorry, it didn't sell.
Speaker: But it didn't sell as many numbers as other pinball machines, right?
Speaker: In the modern age.
Speaker: rewind back to american pinball's history with oktoberfest that was a joe balser like he was trying to get it done way back in the day back in the 90s passion project going on to do this passion project america went for it and it didn't sell i would say that's probably the most underperforming american pinball game pre shift of the company right
Speaker: And so I think people are starting to understand that these concepts that these designers have from years ago may not be the way to go.
Speaker: Maybe that's just me.
Speaker: Pinball is evolving.
Speaker: I mean, and it's arguably in a way de-evolving when it comes to more assets being on a screen for us to look at versus what they can put underneath the glass.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: There's certainly a, there's an expectation of content that,
Speaker: that is necessary.
Speaker: And I, I don't know exactly what level that is because I would be curious to see what happens if, and when Lord of the Rings is vaulted, because if you have to pay for all the assets of that to do, you know, more, uh, I guess even just more video stuff, I don't know if you could do it at, at a price point.
Speaker: So that, so that's the, I got thinking about this the other day.
Speaker: I want you guys to answer this question, and this is totally hypothetical.
Speaker: If, let's say Stern comes out tomorrow, and they say, hey, we're releasing John Wick by John Gorg, but we've decided that we're going back to DMDs, but because we're saving money on assets, because a lot of the assets is now put into video screens, we're able to drop
Speaker: 1500 bucks off the price, all models.
Speaker: Would you be happy?
Speaker: Or would you be ticked off?
Speaker: No, I think it depends on the theme.
Speaker: It's going back in time.
Speaker: And that's the problem.
Speaker: If you want, okay.
Speaker: Pulp fiction.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Like that, that you want that to feel like a seventies game.
Speaker: If you release a DMD now, it is immediately dated.
Speaker: And to be blunt, screens aren't that expensive now.
Speaker: Like the screen is actually – But the assets that they pay for those screens, that's what I'm trying to get to.
Speaker: You could do – okay.
Speaker: So how did Deadpool do it?
Speaker: How did Deadpool get around that?
Speaker: They drew it.
Speaker: They drew it.
Speaker: So they just – They didn't use the movie.
Speaker: They used a comic book version of it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They animated it.
Speaker: And so how you – Animated, yeah.
Speaker: how you'd get around it, it would be the same thing for like, Hey, we're doing John wick, but we're doing a cartoon version of him.
Speaker: Now I don't think that's working out for venom.
Speaker: Well, okay.
Speaker: Not, but venom has other issues, right?
Speaker: That venom has other issues is that it's well, okay.
Speaker: It's basically, and I've said this before, it's a P three game.
Speaker: The entire game is the back third play field.
Speaker: And it's just, it's not, it's not much of a game compared to what you're used to.
Speaker: And the, so it didn't work for Venom.
Speaker: It did work for Deadpool though, because Deadpool is a full game, right?
Speaker: Now, Lord of the Rings, if they released- But they still got Nolan North who does the voice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But, okay, but it's not Randall Reynolds.
Speaker: Not the same thing.
Speaker: Like people, when the people are a great voice actor though, I get it.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: But when people think that whole, they think of Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The, uh, if they did, um, Avengers like Avengers and infinity quest, they did, they did animated characters.
Speaker: They did not get a Bruce Banner, you know, and they didn't get Mark Ruffalo and they didn't get Chris Evans.
Speaker: They didn't do all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: If they did the same thing for Lord of the Rings and said, yes,
Speaker: We are doing a vault edition of Lord of the Rings.
Speaker: It's going to be the same call outs because those call outs are awesome.
Speaker: But we will do like an animated version of the DMD.
Speaker: I would be 100% fine with that.
Speaker: I don't want to spend $5,000 more just to get movie assets in there because I can buy The Hobbit.
Speaker: I think what kind of
Speaker: What gets for me, I enjoy audio content more than I do the video because the audio is going simultaneous while you're playing a game.
Speaker: And I can quote a movie line.
Speaker: And immediately, if you know the movie, you're going to picture that portion of the movie in your head while you're playing.
Speaker: If I hold up a card and said, multi-pass, you know what movie I'm talking about.
Speaker: You know what part of the movie it is.
Speaker: It's all visualized in your head kind of thing.
Speaker: It's the same thing when I believe, for me, I look at audio as more important than video because I'm getting that while I'm playing and it doesn't really get as old.
Speaker: In a home environment, you are right.
Speaker: In an arcade or bar environment, you're wrong because usually they have the volume turned down so low that you have a hard time hearing it.
Speaker: Yeah, but still, that's why music pins do so well at home.
Speaker: But that's the case in point though.
Speaker: Like the sound was made for the game.
Speaker: Like it doesn't matter if you're playing in a bar or if you're playing it.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I totally agree with you.
Speaker: I totally agree.
Speaker: The sound is the thing that transforms a game into something more than what you expect.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And which is why when they did Star Wars,
Speaker: They paid a butt ton of money so they could get the John Williams music because that is Star Wars.
Speaker: Have you ever watched Star Wars without like the soundtrack?
Speaker: It looks, it's horrible.
Speaker: It's worse than like comical.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, it's worse than flash Gordon.
Speaker: Like without the queen background music.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: But it's the same thing with like Jurassic Park, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They didn't have the movie assets, but they at least gave us the score of the movie, which is iconic.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: That's like my, immediately my daughter knew the movie when she heard that score, she's like Jurassic Park.
Speaker: She knows what it is due to audio alone.
Speaker: And then, and then you look into the game and then you see a T-Rex head moving around and the shaker motor, and you recognize certain things from that particular theme.
Speaker: That's what really draws people in is that it's not just audio alone.
Speaker: It's a combination of,
Speaker: to get all of those in there.
Speaker: But I'm thinking for me, it's like initially when you're first playing a game, you're going to be watching those assets.
Speaker: But like you said, home environment, because after a while you're like, I've seen the video before, skip through it.
Speaker: Let me get back to playing again.
Speaker: So initially, first experience in the game.
Speaker: I double flip all the time.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Trust me, I do it all the time on my game.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to get back to shooting kind of thing.
Speaker: So it's like, so like, yeah, initially when you're first playing it on location, yeah, you're going to be watching those screens because you've never seen it before.
Speaker: But after a while, you're like, yeah, I just want to get back to shooting again.
Speaker: So I think it's almost like in a way of waste of money going into video assets, not entirely, but if you're buying it for your house, it's like after a while, you're not just like, man, I almost wish that they would have put that money instead of video assets into other mechs or something with inside the game that I can constantly enjoy.
Speaker: Versus something that I'm going to just eventually just give up on watching because I want to get back to enjoying what could be more.
Speaker: But they put it into video essence.
Speaker: Okay, Josh, Carrie and I went full Thunderdome on that one, but we didn't hear your part.
Speaker: I would not be opposed to if we went back to DMD and we shaved some money off these games.
Speaker: I agree wholeheartedly with, I think you're actually not, I think the, I think you're going to spend more money on DMD, like actually pixelating that stuff.
Speaker: I don't, I think, I think, yeah, like the upfront cost of maybe pixelating, but you're not syncing up video to sound and you're not like, there's so much between the assets and,
Speaker: and syncing up the sound and, and making sure all the video works properly.
Speaker: And I mean, it's just so much.
Speaker: And now the coding, I mean, it, you could use a couple of guys to code a pinball machine, like maybe one, two,
Speaker: Now you've got full teams of coders that are trying to help each other just to make the DMD work or the LCD work.
Speaker: I just, I feel like there's a lot of sunk cost into a screen where a lot of people will admit they don't watch, they skip, or it's something that,
Speaker: You kind of notice when you're playing in a group of people and you're just kind of like, but even then, like, I feel like when I'm watching, like if I'm at a tournament, I'm not watching what the screen's doing.
Speaker: I'm watching what the guys are doing to see what they're doing to blow up their score to see if that's a viable option for me and my strategy.
Speaker: Like it just,
Speaker: I don't get me wrong.
Speaker: I think it's cool to see some of the, the, like I enjoy Godzilla scenes where Manila gets the crap kicked out of him because you lost the ball.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: That's just iconic and whatnot.
Speaker: But I just, I overall, if you told me tomorrow that you could save a thousand to $1,500 just by simply getting rid of video assets, I,
Speaker: I don't think it's that much.
Speaker: I really don't.
Speaker: I think that visually you are going back in time significantly and what pushed them to actually, it's cheaper to get, uh,
Speaker: You know, the yes, okay, I know what you're saying to do that, but I think it's cheaper just to put a screen there and to put the cartoon stand up guys like fighting each other.
Speaker: You look at Avengers Infinity Quest, it's basically like stop motion art.
Speaker: There's not much there.
Speaker: And I think for some of the games, they're already doing what we're talking about by not implementing the particular assets to save on cost.
Speaker: Otherwise, we would have what you're talking about.
Speaker: Yeah, we would have certain assets, but I think they're already trying to do what they can for as little a cost as they can by still giving us, you know, a lot of it there.
Speaker: I mean, we would like more.
Speaker: We would like the movie assets in Jurassic Park if you don't already have the altered code like mine do.
Speaker: But like the...
Speaker: movie assets in there do help.
Speaker: I greatly enjoy the movie assets on my Jurassic Park altered code versus what was given to us kind of thing.
Speaker: But we know that I'm sure the licensing for all the movie assets was going to be a much higher cost.
Speaker: When you pay $20,000 for Harry Potter, you'll let me know.
Speaker: Look at Pulp Fiction though.
Speaker: It has no video assets.
Speaker: I love that game.
Speaker: If you haven't played a Pulp Fiction yet, get your hands on one.
Speaker: It is a single level as per request from
Speaker: quentin tarantino himself like we've had this discussion special edition so this is a premium right like this is not even though it's their base level is technically a premium pinball machine eight grand that's 1700 less than a premium from stern look at their le the bad mother flipper nine five that's less than a premium okay but that's also the same thing we talked about that that
Speaker: that Cactus Canyon should have been an $11,500 Ellie.
Speaker: It should not have been a $9,500 Ellie, which they understand.
Speaker: I agree with you, but where is the money coming from on the bill of materials that they can get away with?
Speaker: you can't tell me the Chicago game gaming companies, profit margins are so little that you wouldn't want to make a pinball machine.
Speaker: If, if you're not making money off these games, I just, yeah.
Speaker: And, and they could have sold these games for more.
Speaker: I think Pulp Fiction could have sold for more easily.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that's also, you are selling a, it is a retro vibe thing.
Speaker: You can't go back to that well every time.
Speaker: You have an iconic theme that fits a retro vibe.
Speaker: So what would be your next retro vibe that you would do?
Speaker: You're going to remake Flash 4?
Speaker: This is the 90s.
Speaker: This is a 90s pinball machine.
Speaker: It's not a 90s pinball machine.
Speaker: What it does, the theme, the theme was released from the nineties.
Speaker: But if you looked at that without knowing anything about pinball and asked when you thought this was made, you would, you would say late seventies, early eighties, like just, just the vibe it's going for.
Speaker: I think also what sold the game and what people loved about it was the audio.
Speaker: If you didn't have the call-outs, R-rated call-outs at that, and the music to go along with it, I mean, definitely, if you would have had rinky-dink sound effects, the interest in this game would be much lower.
Speaker: But due to the fact that you're getting the R-ratedness of the audio, call-outs galore.
Speaker: I mean, it's got so many call-outs in there, it's just ridiculous.
Speaker: You also get Josh Sharpe's getting in trouble for his...
Speaker: his wife coming up and saying, Hey, uh, tell your dad what you just said.
Speaker: Does he look like, uh, but like I, and I get that you're, you're saying it's retro and whatnot, but I honestly, I want to play.
Speaker: I would, okay.
Speaker: Out of all the games released last year, Pulp Fiction's at the top.
Speaker: And it's not because it's missing video assets.
Speaker: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I just, I feel like there's ways to, to not cut corners, but to, to bring down your bill of materials.
Speaker: And I felt like Chicago gaming company did it right with Pulp Fiction.
Speaker: Was it also like a little bit of the,
Speaker: I guess a breath of fresh air or a change of pace than what we normally get.
Speaker: I think that was also what it was, is that they gave us something that was retro, but modern at the same time, something different, but also the same.
Speaker: And you know that the quality is there and it doesn't change anything.
Speaker: I mean, we could talk about like Turner pinball.
Speaker: They wanted to completely change the aesthetics of the cabinet and they wanted to change things and give us a breath of fresh air, but we do like things a certain way.
Speaker: So they gave us the breath of fresh air by still giving us what we are used to seeing kind of thing.
Speaker: I think that also helps.
Speaker: And maybe you're right there, too, because this does look like an 80s Williams game with the box and the cabinet the way it is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I don't know if that would translate if you released another game.
Speaker: So this is exactly what Bond 60 should have been.
Speaker: The huge mess with bond 60 is that they put it in a standard cabinet while trying to emulate that retro feel.
Speaker: And it didn't translate.
Speaker: If I wouldn't even said that on our episode too, he's like, I mean, people are like, why did you digitize the reels?
Speaker: And they did a video dropping the, right.
Speaker: It wasn't a digitize, but okay.
Speaker: But it looked like it, right?
Speaker: It did.
Speaker: Everybody assumed with the picture it looked like the digitized reels because that's what Beatles is.
Speaker: And Beatles actually is fine.
Speaker: I own Beatles.
Speaker: Like, Beatles is fine.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a good game.
Speaker: I'd like to have one.
Speaker: But if they made Bond 60 with this type of vibe...
Speaker: I think it would have done better.
Speaker: Obviously it would have done better if they dropped it by $10,000 too.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I was like, I'm waiting for you to mention something about that damn price tag.
Speaker: I'm like, that's the major killer of it.
Speaker: Getting there.
Speaker: But yeah, it's, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I see what you're saying, Josh.
Speaker: It would be an interesting experiment, but no, nobody's going to leave money on the table if they are selling at the current market.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: Just food for thought, I guess.
Speaker: I just had that thought this week.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: You had a Royale with cheese.
Speaker: I had a Royale with cheese, baby.
Speaker: Maybe I'm slightly jealous of Tim Lee because he sent me his pictures of his Pulp Fiction.
Speaker: He's got it set up next to his banner from CGC.
Speaker: And I'm like, why didn't I go with one of those?
Speaker: Oh, because I have small kids.
Speaker: And I don't want to have to explain to them what a gimp is.
Speaker: My local arcade got one.
Speaker: He got it in a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker: And he says, as of right now, it's his top game in this line up there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's like, man, I don't know for sure, but I'm going to talk to him.
Speaker: I'm like, Hey man, you want to do like a temporary trade with one of my games kind of thing.
Speaker: I'll let one of my games get the crap beat out of it while I enjoy Pulp Fiction kind of thing.
Speaker: You're like, I'll even maintain it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'll go in there and take care.
Speaker: I'll be taking care of my game when it's on that location.
Speaker: Oh, well, that wraps up for what I had on my notes.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: This has got to be well.
Speaker: Promote your stuff.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: Just find me on YouTube, guys.
Speaker: You can type in Carrie Hardy, pinball into Google, and I'm sure I will pop up on there like firmware.
Speaker: But I'll come up there and be right there.
Speaker: But yeah, I talk and do everything pinball anywhere between just common topics, talking about discussion stuff, how-to videos, product reviews, restorations.
Speaker: Like I said, talking to everything pinball.
Speaker: I've even got something in the works for my next So You're New to Pinball series.
Speaker: It's for a lot of you out there that are just now getting into it, know little to nothing.
Speaker: The ones that ask the questions that a lot of us kind of have to just shake our heads and go, you don't know this.
Speaker: So I do have content for you on the way as well.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And you don't be so modest, man.
Speaker: You've almost got 10,000 followers.
Speaker: Your top video has got 37,000 views.
Speaker: Man, you're killing it in the content creation world.
Speaker: a lot better than most of us.
Speaker: Legendary.
Speaker: Legendary.
Speaker: You won the Twippy for content creator.
Speaker: All 86 votes, yeah.
Speaker: 87, your mom voted.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It was spread a little thin.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cause you got loved in, you got, okay.
Speaker: We got to hurry and talk about this.
Speaker: We got a second.
Speaker: I called you up and I'm like, I'm like, Carrie, first off, we're doing the twippies.
Speaker: Do you want to submit something?
Speaker: And I'm not going to go into the full conversation.
Speaker: You essentially said it's hard.
Speaker: It's a hard year.
Speaker: You didn't have time to do it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so I'm like, well, Carrie, I've got another problem then.
Speaker: Cause you won content creator of the year and I need an acceptance speech.
Speaker: And you're like,
Speaker: You're joking me, right?
Speaker: I can't say exactly what you said because this is a family family.
Speaker: I was pissed.
Speaker: I was like, no.
Speaker: Okay, you earned that, buddy.
Speaker: You earned that.
Speaker: It's still my favorite.
Speaker: You're joking, man.
Speaker: You were crapping me, right?
Speaker: I am disappointed, though.
Speaker: You wear our hat on so many episodes.
Speaker: Where is it today?
Speaker: I had it just on one of my recent videos.
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: Like you come on.
Speaker: You lost it.
Speaker: You're like, screw it.
Speaker: I'm not wearing the loser kid pinball.
Speaker: I don't know where it's at, guys.
Speaker: It's usually like right here.
Speaker: It's a state.
Speaker: Now I feel bad.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I'll put on my spooky one.
Speaker: I got a spooky one right here.
Speaker: There you go.
Speaker: No, seriously, man, you're killing it.
Speaker: Congratulations.
Speaker: I still that that will forever be itched in my mind when you're like,
Speaker: really man okay how can they get a hold of you how can they buy your crap tell them oh no need like just go to my just go to my youtube channel and check out everything i have all information in the in the uh video description selling all that stuff and junk if you like g fuel i have a g fuel code for that there's a lot of products out there that i have promo codes for also titan rings if you type in
Speaker: Hardy as the promo code.
Speaker: I want to say you save 10 or 15% off your silicone rings.
Speaker: Same thing with Penn Stadium.
Speaker: Stuff like that.
Speaker: I have promo codes out there for a lot of stuff.
Speaker: So the real question is, how much can I get...
Speaker: money-wise off of your thing on a stick to turn on my pinball machine.
Speaker: Oh, I don't think I have anything for pinball life.
Speaker: Oh my goodness.
Speaker: Get you one of those and have it just hanging in the background off one of your machines and your videos and see if somebody's like, what is that on top of your Iron Maiden, Josh?
Speaker: That's how I turn my machines off and on.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Thank you again, Kerry, for coming on.
Speaker: It's always a pleasure having you on, man.
Speaker: Um, yeah.
Speaker: If you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com at loser kid pinball on all the socials, Facebook X, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube.
Speaker: If you're not watching us on YouTube, go there, hit subscribe, all the fun stuff.
Speaker: Also, we have silver ball swag.
Speaker: If you haven't checked out our new shirt, like shout out to Steven Strom.
Speaker: He was wearing our new loser kid attacks shirt and taking pictures with that.
Speaker: And so, um, maybe we need to do like some kind of giveaway to get these shirts out.
Speaker: We should.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: And congratulations.
Speaker: Like, why did we not talk about this on this episode?
Speaker: Congratulations to Neil Shelton, the man that owns PinQuest.
Speaker: He now officially owns Silverball Swag.
Speaker: As far as I know, Will Odding is completely out.
Speaker: He's done now.
Speaker: I guess it looks what it looks like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He sold This Week in Pinball to Colin.
Speaker: Hey, what did I say about business?
Speaker: Eventually it moves on.
Speaker: It just does.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So congratulations to them both.
Speaker: Neil, we're going to have to have Neil on.
Speaker: Neil's a great guy.
Speaker: We did a pin quest thing with him.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I'm not going to go off on that, but congrats again.
Speaker: And, uh, yeah, go hit up our silver ball swag.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: and and give us the last words and by the way congratulations to all your restores every like i i'm sad that i didn't get to see what you'd what you've been doing recently but oh earth shaker was my latest one yeah did that did that in two months oh that's a grind okay it's great stuff eat sleep restore that's all it was right yeah but pretty much it was made it not fun all right carrie give us a parting thought uh uh thanks for having me on guys i love all you long time
Speaker: Thank you.
