Ep 151: Pinball Expo 2024 Recap

Transcript

Speaker: Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.

Speaker: I am Josh Roop.

Speaker: With me, my co-captain, as always.

Speaker: Scott Larson.

Speaker: We are on episode 158.

Speaker: And Scott, we're back from Expo.

Speaker: We're kind of... Wait, wait, wait.

Speaker: We missed like seven episodes?

Speaker: What did I say?

Speaker: 158.

Speaker: Oh, we're on 151.

Speaker: I thought I said 151, but...

Speaker: You know what?

Speaker: Eights, ones, it's kind of all the same.

Speaker: Whatever works.

Speaker: We're over 150, so it doesn't really matter anymore, right?

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: They all blow together at this point.

Speaker: We're like two whatever.

Speaker: We're still way behind Ron and Bruce.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Hey, plenty of games.

Speaker: We saw at Expo.

Speaker: If you're going to buy any of these games, who are you buying them from?

Speaker: You know, Zach and Nicole, many, they, they were so busy at Expo.

Speaker: Actually.

Speaker: I don't, I don't even know if they got on the floor much because they were fielding a lot of requests and a lot of things.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: There are so many games.

Speaker: I'm not even going to specify which one you should get.

Speaker: because we're going to talk about them all, go ahead and reach out to them because they really are great to work with.

Speaker: And really, he gets so many messages in a day.

Speaker: Really, it is just efficient to text or message because he'll get back to you really quickly.

Speaker: And he's always got back to me really quickly.

Speaker: You too, Josh, right?

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Oh, definitely.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And also, if you want those accessories, I actually want to get some speaker lights for Rush.

Speaker: And I think I'm going to get the Godzilla ones too.

Speaker: Sounds good.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So let's kind of, so we did a day one recap and then we kind of, we kind of slacked.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, okay.

Speaker: We were so busy, so it's fine.

Speaker: So let's, let's do a quick recap.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: As soon as I cough.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So now you were there a little bit before me.

Speaker: So remind me what you did the day before.

Speaker: So on Wednesday we got in, uh, Julie was very nice to pick my father-in-law and I, the airport.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And I want to say we went straight to the hotel.

Speaker: Uh, yes.

Speaker: And then we went and got PF Chang's.

Speaker: I'm sorry.

Speaker: We have one in Utah.

Speaker: I don't fully understand why I went to PF Chang's, but Hey, okay.

Speaker: It was all right.

Speaker: I bought spicy chicken.

Speaker: I did not get spicy on my chicken.

Speaker: It was like sweet and sour chicken.

Speaker: I feel like P.F.

Speaker: Chang's was something that I liked doing 15 years ago.

Speaker: Am I wrong on that?

Speaker: It just feels like it's something I used to do in the past, but I am not interested in much anymore.

Speaker: Because Pei Wei was kind of like the cheap version of P.F.

Speaker: Chang's.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: I still enjoy Pei Wei.

Speaker: I don't like Pei Wei anymore.

Speaker: It's like so much salt.

Speaker: Really.

Speaker: It's like a salt lick.

Speaker: Yeah, it kind of is.

Speaker: Now you say that.

Speaker: So we did that, right?

Speaker: And it's attached to the mall where Interium's at.

Speaker: So after we're done with PF Chang's, we kind of went through the mall.

Speaker: And then the first night, so Wednesday is always kind of like their pre-party.

Speaker: And I guess, so we had been invited to Beattie's house, but every year it sounds like Beattie's house is packed.

Speaker: Yeah, we went there.

Speaker: There may or may not be a sticker underneath the podcasting table that I may or may not have put there a few years ago.

Speaker: But the thing is, is like, well, we're like, we'll go to Interium because it's part of the package deal, right?

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: We show up into Interium and we're actually early and it's packed.

Speaker: I was like, oh.

Speaker: And Interium's big.

Speaker: Interium's not small.

Speaker: Yeah, it's not a small arcade.

Speaker: It's huge.

Speaker: And it's already packed shoulder to shoulder getting in there.

Speaker: And I'm like, oh my.

Speaker: And so I kind of turned to Julie and Craig Bobby.

Speaker: Craig Bobby was with us as well.

Speaker: Hey, Craig Bobby.

Speaker: I told him we're just going to grab the shuttle and head back to the hotel.

Speaker: Cause all right.

Speaker: Been a long day.

Speaker: I'm tired because my son woke up at two o'clock and was having a rough time.

Speaker: So it was much like, and our flight left early.

Speaker: So it was like, anywho, it just, I hadn't had sleep from 2am my time.

Speaker: And now we're an hour ahead kind of thing.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And I was like, I gotta go get some rest.

Speaker: And so,

Speaker: we went back to the hotel, but as we're getting on the shuttle to leave for the hotel, two bus loads from expo show up with more people.

Speaker: I know interior, I'm sorry, any fun now, like you couldn't even get into the, so there's a tournament area where all the pinball machines are at.

Speaker: Well, I guess that's where all the pinball machines are now.

Speaker: They had more on the other side, but now they only have one area that place is packed.

Speaker: And I can't even imagine what it was like on after the two both busload showed up.

Speaker: So any who, we just went back and chilled.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: kind of got went to went to bed afterwards and and then got to stern on thursday and that's kind of where we pick up because you came in on thursday afternoon i i came in thursday afternoon and thankfully a lot of people had already left so that you got to see metallica and we we did talk about metallica recap metallica is awesome yes i am super excited if this is what they're going to do for older games that are legendary that really

Speaker: could be brought up to modern standards by, uh, you know, by basically leveling them up.

Speaker: Hey, I want to see them do this for Lord of the Rings.

Speaker: I want to see them do this for Tron.

Speaker: I,

Speaker: I mean, you could even argue ACDC, throw ACDC in there and give this treatment too.

Speaker: Well, what was amazing too is Borg was telling us like, it looks like the same Metallica, but there's little itty bitty differences to make the game play better.

Speaker: Like he was going down to like the millimeter of the Rams.

Speaker: Like the new one's just slightly shorter or something like that than the old one.

Speaker: I was just, I was, I was kind of baffled.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: but it's really cool to see how much detail goes into these games.

Speaker: And so it raised a ton of questions for me.

Speaker: I'm like, we have to have Gomez back on soon.

Speaker: We'll get Gomez back on.

Speaker: We actually did reach out to Borg.

Speaker: So we saw Borg.

Speaker: We want, we want to get them on.

Speaker: Cause I still want to talk about rush.

Speaker: I want to talk about rush.

Speaker: So what we, and we actually saw tons of people and we made a lot of contacts that we are hoping to bring on to the podcast.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: I, people obviously love the expo recaps and all that kind of stuff and the reveal.

Speaker: However, where we really stand out from a lot of people is because we do an in-depth analysis with people who are in the industry and it's really been a fun part of, of our gig.

Speaker: So I, I'm really excited to see all the people that we got on, even some kind of high level people.

Speaker: So that was nice.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: We talked about the media mixer.

Speaker: It was fantastic.

Speaker: I'm still gloating about the 21 people I knocked out on James Bond for a stall ball.

Speaker: Went a little cash there, and that was a blast.

Speaker: And by the way, so many people came up, and they came up to you too.

Speaker: Really, from the bottom of our hearts, we are so thankful for all the people who came up and said they enjoyed listening to us.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: for, for all of you who are in that third chair, that silent third chair that we consider part of the podcast, we really do appreciate you.

Speaker: And it's, it's so much fun to see that it makes a difference for you.

Speaker: And go ahead.

Speaker: I was gonna say, it just made me chuckle.

Speaker: Cause I, you listened to the pinball show this week and I did too.

Speaker: There's a moment where Zach talks about, he flips around and there was a kid that like realized this is Zach many and like kind of like fangirled out.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: we had that moment once or twice too.

Speaker: I remember it happening at the media mixer.

Speaker: I don't know who the gentleman was.

Speaker: He was very nice.

Speaker: He's like, Oh, you're Josh from loser kid.

Speaker: Super nice.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: He was super nice.

Speaker: Very, very friendly.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And it's, it's great.

Speaker: Like we love this by the way.

Speaker: Like if you see us at, at somewhere wearing our hats,

Speaker: we probably are exhausted.

Speaker: We are happy to talk with you though, because that, that really is what, why we go to these things because it's fun.

Speaker: It's fun interacting with people.

Speaker: We like talking pinball.

Speaker: That's the reason why we're doing this podcast.

Speaker: I didn't realize how much of a toll it was.

Speaker: Sorry.

Speaker: I'm kind of skipping ahead a little bit.

Speaker: I didn't realize how much of a toll it was till you and I were sitting in on Dwight's let's make a deal.

Speaker: And it just hit me.

Speaker: I was like powering down and I was like the weight of the whole week was on me.

Speaker: And I was just like, Oh,

Speaker: you know, I I've got to go to bed.

Speaker: Cause I just, yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: You, you missed some Epic dollar games that we're going to talk about.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So back to me, me, me, a mixer was fantastic.

Speaker: We got back.

Speaker: Did I can't remember what we record the podcast.

Speaker: I guess that's what we did.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So it was a quick recap.

Speaker: It was very Metallica, Metallica heavy.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Because it was the, it was the new thing that we,

Speaker: We had an inkling that Stern was thinking of doing something.

Speaker: So I'm ecstatic that they were able to show it to us.

Speaker: Really a big recap.

Speaker: The light show is better.

Speaker: The layout is tweaked to be better.

Speaker: The art is better.

Speaker: By the way, I'm still getting over my cough that I had six weeks ago.

Speaker: So I'm trying to not blow your ears out.

Speaker: The music, there's more music in this.

Speaker: And Raymond, who is the heir apparent, in my humble opinion, to Lyman's legacy of balanced, deep, complex rule sets, he is adding stuff to Metallica.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And this is not just a repolish, this isn't a lazy, hey, we want to sell a few hundred games thing.

Speaker: They really push this as if it were a cornerstone.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: A lot of love and care into it.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Amazing.

Speaker: So, and really, the good thing we talked about this, the best thing Stern does is they make the LE worth it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You can argue, okay, I can do some of that myself, which is true.

Speaker: However, you're going to get a complete package with the LE, right?

Speaker: But the good thing about Stern is even if you decide to go with a premium, you can get a good alternative to the LE.

Speaker: You can still get the speaker lights.

Speaker: You can still get the expression lights.

Speaker: You can still get a lot of stuff.

Speaker: It's not going to be an LE, but it still feels valuable.

Speaker: And that's huge to make sure people still are satisfied regardless of which tier they're going for.

Speaker: So if you have not had a Metallica, I'd buy it.

Speaker: I'd buy this version.

Speaker: It's so good.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Actually, two more things that we covered that day.

Speaker: Just kind of recap now that we've kind of stewed on it and sat on it.

Speaker: I almost said Magic Girl.

Speaker: Not Magic Girl.

Speaker: Alice in Wonderland.

Speaker: Alice, yeah.

Speaker: What did you think?

Speaker: Now that you've had some time to think about it.

Speaker: So, okay.

Speaker: We did find out.

Speaker: And I did talk to – it's Melvin, right?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I talked to Melvin.

Speaker: And I asked him about it.

Speaker: I was like, were the upper flippers like – were they disabled?

Speaker: He's like, well, you probably got a pass through.

Speaker: which means I was able to get up to the upper play field without earning it.

Speaker: And so, so when we, when we recorded earlier and I was like, I don't know what's going on.

Speaker: I got up there and I couldn't get it.

Speaker: So I, I, I had a, I had unearned accomplishments in the game by getting up there.

Speaker: So that, that made it, it still shoots.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: It is heavy on,

Speaker: on a presentation on art on vibe.

Speaker: It's, it's really heavy on that type of thing.

Speaker: It's going to look really pretty in your art room.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I would still argue that this is still, if you only have one game, this is not it.

Speaker: Yeah, I agree.

Speaker: The other thing too is, I can't remember who said it, but now that I've been thinking about it back, about back about it, I have played Raza.

Speaker: I have played magic girl.

Speaker: this alice in wonderland is probably the best shooting j pop game after valley williams i just i think that uh now that i stew on it and whatnot the shots felt good there was a couple shots i avoided um but overall they felt fine like i wanted to shoot stuff and what

Speaker: And it's hard to tell on the video because we posted a video and they're like, oh, you're shooting shots and they're rejecting.

Speaker: No, there's like stand-up targets.

Speaker: Not stand-up.

Speaker: There's drop targets up underneath that play field and stuff.

Speaker: So you're actually hitting stuff underneath that massive play field.

Speaker: The one thing I don't like, and I hope Melvin takes this thought process, really there should be a give me for the upper play field just so someone gets to play it for the first time.

Speaker: Because we both played for a while and you got the pass through.

Speaker: and I never got anything out of it either.

Speaker: It's kind of your main feature.

Speaker: I mean, it takes up like the upper third of the play field.

Speaker: There really should be, really be a moment where it says, Hey, shoot here.

Speaker: And you get to play it once.

Speaker: So that way you get the bug to, Hey, I want to get back up there.

Speaker: Um, that's really my only criticism outside of like, it just needs a little more polish overall, though.

Speaker: It feels like a great game.

Speaker: Well, okay.

Speaker: I wouldn't say great.

Speaker: Not for my, I wouldn't say great.

Speaker: It feels like a good game.

Speaker: Feels like a good game.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Uh,

Speaker: Now go with me on this.

Speaker: If you're old enough, you may, you may actually identify with this analogy.

Speaker: So when Def Leppard came up with hysteria, the idea was in Mutt Lang who produced it.

Speaker: He also did back in black.

Speaker: He also did Shania Twain stuff and was married to Shania Twain for a while.

Speaker: He wanted to have hysteria as like Michael Jackson's thriller where any song could be released as a single, which is why it took two years to make.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: He spent so much time on it.

Speaker: So, and they even did like almost like back to back tours with that because it was by far their biggest album.

Speaker: So they just did one tour, and I don't even know if they unpacked their bags.

Speaker: They just did it again, and they made so much money off that tour.

Speaker: So when their next release came out, everybody was anticipating, this is going to be Hysteria 2.0.

Speaker: And it was Adrenalize.

Speaker: The first single was Let's Get Rocked, and the second single was Making Love Like a Man, I'm a Man, That's What I Am.

Speaker: Not kidding.

Speaker: That's the extent of the song.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: We all know that they, they sing about, you know, sex and lifestyle and that kind of stuff.

Speaker: But when you listen to it, you felt like, okay, the magic's gone.

Speaker: Like it is not the same quality.

Speaker: It's not the same focus.

Speaker: It's not the same presentation they had before.

Speaker: And I would argue this is the let's get rocked version of J pop where it's not going to be theater of magic.

Speaker: it's not going to be Circus Voltaire.

Speaker: It's not going to be Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Speaker: So if you want a late version of a J-pop game, this is it.

Speaker: I would argue there are better games for your money.

Speaker: But again, you make the decision.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: And then the other thing I really want to point out

Speaker: I'm addicted to pre-war games now, man.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: That's because you won a medal.

Speaker: I did win a medal.

Speaker: And I was like one of only three people to get a high score on merry-go-round.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You also cheated.

Speaker: You brought a magnet and you just kind of moved the ball around.

Speaker: No, no.

Speaker: I actually, what it was is the plunger.

Speaker: I used the lines and was able to figure out if you went about three, three and a half down, it popped it right in every time.

Speaker: So I never actually played that game because the line was always so long.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But I've actually been looking at pre-war games.

Speaker: I know Jack Danger had posted a video years ago about some of those pre-war games.

Speaker: I've always been intrigued, right?

Speaker: Because they don't use electricity.

Speaker: They're all mechanical, like the weight of the ball.

Speaker: And so one I was really intrigued with was a baseball one where if you got right down the middle, you got a run or whatever it was.

Speaker: Actually, I played that one.

Speaker: That's the one I played.

Speaker: Yeah, that one's fun.

Speaker: It was like directly across from the tournament one.

Speaker: Yeah, I played that one.

Speaker: He actually had two of them and then they had a jigsaw was the other one I was looking at.

Speaker: Cause that one is like when you line up certain ones, you, you reveal the jigsaw puzzles and you're trying to actually piece the puzzle together based on where the balls drop fun.

Speaker: And really for the price of them, they're not terrible.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: Anywho, I don't know.

Speaker: I would like to have a pre-war game.

Speaker: I don't need to have a whole game room full.

Speaker: So we have a wish list, so we'll send it out to the listeners.

Speaker: So you want a pre-war game.

Speaker: And I'm assuming you can go around preferably if you got one out there.

Speaker: A functional one.

Speaker: You don't want a project, right?

Speaker: Correct.

Speaker: I'd be interested too.

Speaker: I don't mind cleaning up, but I don't want to rust.

Speaker: I don't want to repair it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: um next thing is we we're kind of on the hunt for like a stars or a meteor or something in the early solid state area yeah because you're addicted now to dollar games yeah yeah we'll we'll talk about my success there um anywho so that was day one yeah by the way if you do know like decent prices and you could bundle a few together we'd be interested so so let us know

Speaker: So day two, my father-in-law was with me.

Speaker: He's never been downtown in Chicago.

Speaker: He's an architect.

Speaker: So I took him to the architect tour, which I know you guys probably aren't interested about it since it's pinball.

Speaker: But I do want to give one quick little thing.

Speaker: So if you've ever been to the observation deck, they take you up to like the 96th floor on the skyscraper, right?

Speaker: And you overlook the whole lake.

Speaker: It's the old Sears building, right?

Speaker: Like whatever they're calling it now.

Speaker: No, it's not.

Speaker: It's not the Hancock building.

Speaker: I can't remember some insurance company, but so from there to get down to where the tours are, it's like a 20 minute walk.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: And so my father-in-law really wanted a Chicago dog.

Speaker: So I like devil dogs.

Speaker: That's downtown.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Cause they have this insanely good hot dog called.

Speaker: It's not a corn dog where they take Mexican alote, which is street corn and they put it on top of your hot dog.

Speaker: Delicious.

Speaker: But he did traditional, right?

Speaker: Like the sports peppers, the tomatoes, the mustard, all that stuff.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Anywho, so we get the hot dog and stuff, but we have about 15 minutes before we can get to the boat.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And my GPS is telling me it's about a 20-minute walk.

Speaker: So we start booking it.

Speaker: We're running the whole way, right?

Speaker: We finally, we barely make it to the boat with two minutes to spare.

Speaker: He whips out the tickets, hands it to the lady.

Speaker: She looks at us and she goes, this is for the wrong tour.

Speaker: You're on, this is the wrong boat line.

Speaker: You actually need the other boat company that's that away about 15 minutes.

Speaker: and we went for a 45 minute boat ride so we get there and I was hoping to time this perfectly so that we'd be like done and back to expo like two-ish if that yeah like one o'clock because you guys had lunch with Zach and Nicole Manny with Flippin' Out yep and I really wanted to be there for that and anywho so

Speaker: We walk back over to the other boat place and we're like, okay, when's the next 45 minute grad?

Speaker: This is 11 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: They're like, Oh, the next 45 minutes at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker: Oh, geez.

Speaker: Oh, and I don't want to let my father-in-law down.

Speaker: Cause I'm like, this is architecture.

Speaker: You're in Chicago.

Speaker: Like this is what he wanted to see.

Speaker: Yeah, this is.

Speaker: And so what's your next tour?

Speaker: Like it's the 90 minute tour.

Speaker: It starts in 30 minutes and you know, it's 90 minutes long.

Speaker: I'm like, well, sounds good.

Speaker: So we upgrade our tickets.

Speaker: It was what it was.

Speaker: And we, of course, had to do the beam.

Speaker: But yeah, by the time we got back to Expo, it was like 4 o'clock.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: However, I'll tell you my recap, though.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So we got up.

Speaker: We were kind of hungry.

Speaker: So we went to breakfast.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: It's a little later.

Speaker: We slept in a little bit.

Speaker: So we went and got breakfast.

Speaker: And then we were trying to get with Zach and Nicole a little later.

Speaker: But they had an appointment at 2 o'clock.

Speaker: So we're driving back from breakfast, mind you.

Speaker: And they're like, hey, do you want to go to lunch?

Speaker: So like, yeah, sure.

Speaker: So we basically went right back, picked up everybody, and we went from breakfast to lunch.

Speaker: Did you not know that?

Speaker: I did.

Speaker: It's funny to hear.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I didn't say no, I didn't load up.

Speaker: I didn't go crazy.

Speaker: I had like, I had like some eggs and maybe some toast.

Speaker: So it's not like I was crazy, but I, you know, I, I was, because we didn't realize we were going that early, but we definitely want to go with, with Zach and Nicole and Joel was there and John was there and Craig Bobby and Julie were there.

Speaker: And so that, that was, I think I got everybody.

Speaker: I, I was trying to buy lunch, but Zach and Nicole would not let me.

Speaker: They, they just picked up the lunch, which again,

Speaker: Just shows how great they are because they fed me.

Speaker: But I got a burger, and I ended up splitting it and handing it out.

Speaker: And it was really good, by the way.

Speaker: So is it Jolly's?

Speaker: Maybe it's Jolly's.

Speaker: So then we got back, and then you were coming back, so we went and picked you up.

Speaker: So that's, that's essentially, that's essentially my day.

Speaker: I have, that's what's funny is because we had the hot dog at 10 30.

Speaker: So I'm like, are you guys hungry?

Speaker: And you're like, no, no, no.

Speaker: We're, we're stuffed.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, so we, then we got to pick up Josh.

Speaker: We're sitting at the train station and we're waiting and the train comes in and I text him like, is this you?

Speaker: And he's like, no, we're going to Hamilton something.

Speaker: So it was Arlington Park.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: And you shopped at Arlington Heights.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And Arlington Heights was actually closer.

Speaker: It was like, okay, well, and you said, no, we got Arlington.

Speaker: I'm like, because I think I see.

Speaker: And then you saw us as you were driving away.

Speaker: You're like, oh, crap.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: So we ended up going, picking you up.

Speaker: And then we came back.

Speaker: And then we started Expo Night.

Speaker: That was pretty much that was that recap.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I ordered Giordano's, which I've decided I do like Giordano's more than Lou's.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I know people are going to be upset.

Speaker: Oh, well it is what it is.

Speaker: That's fine.

Speaker: But the thing I was frustrated with, we ordered the pizza.

Speaker: I know it takes, if you don't know about deep dish pizza, it takes 30 to 45 minutes to cook.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And so I knew this was happening.

Speaker: So I timed it.

Speaker: So when we got back to the hotel, we should be able to pretty much show up and the delivery guy will be giving us our pizzas.

Speaker: We're walking into the hotel.

Speaker: And I was right on my calculations, but I did not take into account that made the pizza guy was not going to be, uh,

Speaker: as on time as they had quoted.

Speaker: So they were supposed to be there by three 50 half hour later.

Speaker: It's four 20.

Speaker: I finally get the call.

Speaker: Hey, we're pulling up.

Speaker: I need you to come meet me down in the lobby.

Speaker: I'm like, you can't bring it up.

Speaker: He's like, no, I need you to bring it down to the lobby or I need you.

Speaker: So we're on the 16th floor.

Speaker: I get down there.

Speaker: I'm frustrated because I'm hungry.

Speaker: It's not the dude's fault, but I,

Speaker: he's like, I can tell you're obviously frustrated, but, and he tells me a story why they can't bring the pizzas up and I'm going to leave it off the podcast because it's not very family friendly.

Speaker: let's just say an employee was taken advantage of at a hotel.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Speaker: And I looked at him like, no, that's not why I'm upset that you didn't bring the pizza up to the room.

Speaker: I'm frustrated that 30 minutes later, you guys didn't say anything.

Speaker: And he's like, oh.

Speaker: And then it's really awkward because the story was the story.

Speaker: And so I'm like, here's a tip.

Speaker: I took my pizza and just went and ate.

Speaker: And just...

Speaker: You cried in your pizza.

Speaker: Yeah, a little bit.

Speaker: I will say, do you know how I know that Chicago pizzas take 45 minutes?

Speaker: How?

Speaker: Because when I was in Chicago with my brother 10, 15 years ago, we decided we have the architecture tour starting at one o'clock.

Speaker: Okay, let's go get pizza.

Speaker: We're in Chicago.

Speaker: So we sit down and we order pizza.

Speaker: We ordered it at 12.05.

Speaker: Didn't realize it took 45 minutes.

Speaker: So we got the pizza at not getting like 1247.

Speaker: We immediately tell them, get it to go.

Speaker: We run to the, we eat a piece I think, and then run to the L, which is their subway, but it's elevated.

Speaker: Then we, then we start down another piece of pizza.

Speaker: And then we sprinted like six blocks to get to the architecture tour and

Speaker: And we got it as basically the boat was pulling away.

Speaker: So we got on the boat and my brother and I sat there in like a food nausea coma for about 30 minutes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So I could have told you that it takes 45 minutes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, and I knew it took 45 minutes.

Speaker: At least we went to the right dock.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I didn't realize it was going to take an hour and a half to get my pizza.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Chicago pizza is not punctual.

Speaker: Oh my goodness.

Speaker: Anyhow.

Speaker: So then, so what did we do after that?

Speaker: Did we do...

Speaker: We went to the floor, right?

Speaker: And we started playing saw.

Speaker: We went to the home brews.

Speaker: That's where we went.

Speaker: It's nice.

Speaker: I took pictures as we went, right?

Speaker: Yeah, that's good.

Speaker: So I started out on greatest showman.

Speaker: Got separated a little bit.

Speaker: So we were kind of, okay.

Speaker: I actually never got to play greatest showman cause it was a big line.

Speaker: So you, you have to tell me about greatest showman.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Greatest showman.

Speaker: They're both whirlwind.

Speaker: So saw and greatest showman are both whirlwind re themes.

Speaker: the coolest part i'm showing it on youtube right now they had a banner there you can't really see anything but it's uh it's it's it's an faq right yeah it's an faq uh you know they used a whirlwind like you said yep um did they use unused whirlwind parts it was a project saved from another whirlwind that had been parted out um it talked about the system he's using interesting how much did this project cost

Speaker: About $16,000 in parts and material.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I would have guessed 17, but okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: How long did it take to complete over 800 hours, which they weren't done.

Speaker: They still had more coding to do.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Who did the art?

Speaker: Jay French was 90%.

Speaker: Alex caught 10%.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: How many people worked on this?

Speaker: So Jeffrey Jones worked with the artist, designed the basic rules, and built the physical machine.

Speaker: Lisa Sue Jones did the coding, light shows, and rule set.

Speaker: So,

Speaker: outside of contracting out the artwork, it's really just two people that made this one game, right?

Speaker: And the biggest challenge was doing coding.

Speaker: As far as it goes, it played like whirlwind.

Speaker: Like it was.

Speaker: I mean, it's whirlwind.

Speaker: What else?

Speaker: It's a professional play field.

Speaker: That's what's interesting.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's a developed play field.

Speaker: So because saw is a whirlwind as well.

Speaker: And the interesting part is, is the skill shot.

Speaker: If you know the skill shot on whirlwind, you have to like kind of short plunge into the drops.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: And that gives you your skill shot.

Speaker: That's what it has to be for any whirlwind, like re-theme or whatever, because that's how it was on Saw.

Speaker: That's how it was on this.

Speaker: I really enjoyed this game.

Speaker: I thought it was very well done.

Speaker: The art looked great.

Speaker: The whole game looked very professional.

Speaker: And I mean, obviously, I'm going to give it a little pass on the code, but it needs more meat on the bone.

Speaker: But other than that, you have one person coding and they didn't know how to code before doing this.

Speaker: So I applaud them.

Speaker: The whole game feels... Hey, didn't it also win Best of Show in the homebrew area?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: So it's doing something right.

Speaker: It really is fantastic.

Speaker: I'm like, if you have one critique, that's the only critique.

Speaker: It needs more code.

Speaker: But then again, it's like she knows that she's working on code and

Speaker: so i mean it's not really much of a critique because it's in a is this like a husband-wife team or yes okay so so obviously this seems like a passion project for them like they are a big fan of greatest showman yep yeah very much so and then the funny part was is like um because my father asked me like can they make these like aren't aren't like the the actors gonna like sue them for using likeness like

Speaker: As long as they're not selling the project.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: For, for nonprofit fan use, you can do it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: So anyhow, it just, it kind of made me chuckle.

Speaker: Cause it's something that we know inside the hobby as a community, but like someone standing outside, like how'd they make this without getting in trouble?

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: And then I played saw.

Speaker: Holy crap.

Speaker: So that's great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And our friend, our buddy, Glenn, Glenn Wecker did the sound on it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's, it's great.

Speaker: Like it's okay.

Speaker: Speaking of someone who's not a horror guy, I'm not, it does nothing for me.

Speaker: Same.

Speaker: However, I did watch Friday the 13th on TV the other day, the first one.

Speaker: And I are, I already knew who the killer was, but I watched it.

Speaker: I'm like,

Speaker: it is laughably not, not scary.

Speaker: Like it's like nothing about it is scary.

Speaker: You're just like, okay, here it's, I know it was, I know it was groundbreaking for 1981 or whenever it came out, but it is, it's really interesting.

Speaker: But anyway, keep going.

Speaker: So saw,

Speaker: So I guess this is the question, though, too.

Speaker: Saw had five people working on it.

Speaker: They had a dedicated artist.

Speaker: They had Glennon's the dedicated sound guy.

Speaker: It was a team of people that came together to make this game.

Speaker: And honestly, this game felt more professional than some manufactured games I played.

Speaker: And I'm not going to point anything out, but...

Speaker: Really, honestly, the concepts in this game, even with it being a redesigned whirlwind, the concepts in this game were pretty amazing.

Speaker: And it shot really great for a re-theme.

Speaker: The coding felt great.

Speaker: It felt like a full game.

Speaker: It almost felt like it was in the wrong section.

Speaker: Because as you went to go play other homebrews... If you didn't know, you would assume this was a cornerstone game.

Speaker: If you didn't know the difference.

Speaker: I will give the huge caveat, though, is homebrews have the ability to do whatever they want without licensing interference.

Speaker: Okay?

Speaker: So imagine what some of these games that have notoriously challenging licensing.

Speaker: Like, imagine a James Bond game.

Speaker: with being able to use all of the Bond assets.

Speaker: And even Ellen talked about some of the challenges with the Marvel themes.

Speaker: And AK, they do a great job.

Speaker: They do a great job.

Speaker: But with the Hulk, the only thing they had was the eye, which is why you have that hurry up thing with the eye getting angrier at you.

Speaker: And it works.

Speaker: They were able to work with the constraints.

Speaker: But that's always the challenge when you have a homebrew is that you don't have to deal with that.

Speaker: So you can do whatever.

Speaker: I imagine a Star Wars if you could use whatever clips you want.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, and granted, with it being a homebrew, there is some leniency on stuff is like.

Speaker: They have a giant bear trap.

Speaker: I've never seen the saw movies.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Like Scott said, it's not my thing.

Speaker: Not my thing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so they have this, it's called the reverse bear trap, I guess, in the movie.

Speaker: And this thing is on top of the pinball machine and they've got a pneumatic tube hooked up to it with pressured air.

Speaker: And the thing opens and closes during certain, certain things.

Speaker: And then I guess there's also, I never saw any of this.

Speaker: Like I didn't get deep enough in, I guess.

Speaker: But there's also like,

Speaker: smoke that comes billowing out of the top of the game too it's just it's very immersive and we were joking about like well if they decide to sell this game to like spooky or whoever how are they going to get those tanks on there it's also not okay it's also not cost effective these games like the bill of material that they have on these games is unlimited it's whatever you want to spend for it yeah so and there's a

Speaker: there are a lot of reasons why passion projects can look amazing.

Speaker: And it's, it's a combination of licensing and unlimited budget.

Speaker: And then the next game I played was,

Speaker: uh jake danzig his dude's of hazardry dude love jake it's awesome he is like the nicest dude yeah and love his dog his dog is super awesome yeah yes and it was great just having him chill with us yep um he had to zip off for a minute and he yeah he didn't come back i yeah i saw i saw him around the i always said hi to jake say it said hi to jesse they sat next to me yeah that dukes of hazard is pretty cool so they took he took an old paragon

Speaker: I'll turn it into Dukes of hazard and it's fun.

Speaker: Yeah, it's fun.

Speaker: And he grew up watching the Dukes of hazard like I did, you know, as a nine year old kid.

Speaker: I mean, it's, it's total nostalgia.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: But he also updated it too.

Speaker: So you can get multiball in it, which you can do with Paragon.

Speaker: And I got to multiball and it was, it was very rewarding.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: A little difficult just because if you've ever played Paragon, you have to spell Paragon to get some special abilities.

Speaker: And this is how you had to do it as well with Dukes of Hazzard.

Speaker: Next, did we play?

Speaker: I played Led Zeppelin.

Speaker: Did you play Led Zeppelin?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: So this is Duke Congress' game.

Speaker: Yeah, he's a Utah guy.

Speaker: And he actually had, I believe he's been working on this for a long time.

Speaker: And I don't know if he, was he working on this before Steve Ritchie did his Lids Up?

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Actually, yeah.

Speaker: So his actually has a stairway.

Speaker: And it's like a total cool ball.

Speaker: It's called something.

Speaker: It's called, I can't remember exactly what it's called.

Speaker: But it's a cool thing because the ladder is these, it's like a stepwise escalator.

Speaker: So you hit it, it drops the target, and then you shoot it again.

Speaker: And it locks the ball, which is impressive considering you're hitting it with velocity.

Speaker: And it moves up the ladder.

Speaker: And then you repeat that.

Speaker: So the coolest thing is loading up the shot with five balls.

Speaker: And then you start multi-ball.

Speaker: And the, you know, the escalator goes up, the stairway to heaven goes up to the upper play field.

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

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So it looks great.

Speaker: Steve, you did a great job.

Speaker: We, we did talk about having him on.

Speaker: He feels like the game is at least far enough along that he feels like he can talk about, you know, it with authority.

Speaker: So we will, we'd love to have, have Steve on here soon and be able to get more ideas about how he did that and,

Speaker: What is passion project?

Speaker: Ironically, it was another reclaimed monster bash cabinet, which, which we have, we have another guy here, Kelly Thompson, before they made the medieval madness remake, he actually got a monster bash play field and he built his own medieval madness.

Speaker: Did you know about that?

Speaker: Yep, I did.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: He like got all the parts and did all the wiring and all that stuff and made his own medieval madness.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: which is bananas, but impressive.

Speaker: And he's found some really weird gems.

Speaker: Like I think he ended up with a champion pub cabinet and he was peeling the sticker off of it.

Speaker: And there was a monster bash sticker underneath.

Speaker: Oh, that's funny.

Speaker: I mean, it was vice versa.

Speaker: You peeled the monster bash and there was champion pub.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Anywho.

Speaker: I'm trying to think what other games borderlands was really cool.

Speaker: Did you play borderlands?

Speaker: Cause I, the line was always too long.

Speaker: So I didn't get to play borderlands, but I watched it and the whole place built, it had a cool thing, like a labyrinth type thing where the play field moved on you and you could not, not labyrinth, the David Bowie thing, like the, the old wood game that with the dials where you're you're, you're, you're moving the play field to move the ball.

Speaker: And then trying to think what else was there.

Speaker: I played like a, there were a few others.

Speaker: There was Harry Potter, at least it had the diarrhea.

Speaker: He, it's still very early, but it looks cool.

Speaker: Nightmare before Christmas.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I played that.

Speaker: That was fun.

Speaker: I can't remember Mark's last name, but it's a, it's a good one.

Speaker: I'm trying to think what else there was some kind of like tattoo terror, like tarot reader card game.

Speaker: And it was good.

Speaker: The problem was that the bottom right flipper wasn't working.

Speaker: So it's hard to kind of figure that one out.

Speaker: They had Overwatch.

Speaker: I never had to play that one because it had a long line too.

Speaker: But it was pretty impressive from what I saw.

Speaker: And then the one that I absolutely just fell in love with, it's because it just hits the nostalgia button so hard that it broke the console, was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

Speaker: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater looked really good.

Speaker: The shots, they are good.

Speaker: They still need to be refined a little bit, mainly because on Tony Hawk's, when you're playing the video game, the cool thing about it is chaining shots together.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know, it's our tricks.

Speaker: And so if they're able to dial it in a little bit more so that shots are just a little smoother, you could chain them together.

Speaker: but it's, it was really good.

Speaker: Like a cool, a couple of cool concepts where you shot it and it went up to a vertical play field and there's a flipper there.

Speaker: And so it, it was, it was impressive.

Speaker: Um, and the other thing too, is Nick, we, we posted a video to our Facebook and whatnot.

Speaker: So go and check it out.

Speaker: But it was kind of a, from, from cog connections, uh, did a video on, um,

Speaker: on Tony Hawk's pro scatter.

Speaker: No, sorry.

Speaker: Cool toys.

Speaker: There were so many content creators.

Speaker: It was amazing.

Speaker: Cool toys.

Speaker: So check out their interview, but he was talking about how he wanted more of a Tony Hawk game first and then pinball second.

Speaker: So like, like the, obviously you're playing a pinball machine, but he wanted more thematically it to be Tony Hawk.

Speaker: Talk about the skateboard.

Speaker: the skateboard's amazing.

Speaker: You shot, it's like the Avengers spinner.

Speaker: If you can imagine that, the doctor strange thing, I had the way that he had a position and everything posts that rotated.

Speaker: What happened was, is at the skateboard and then, um,

Speaker: You could spin the disc one way, which if you know skateboarding terms, it was a front shove it.

Speaker: If you spin it the other way, it was a back shove it.

Speaker: If you shot it underneath the skateboard and spun the skateboard around, that was a kickflip.

Speaker: And then if you shot around it, there was a little loop like a 180 horseshoe that brought it through the backside middle of the skateboard and spin it the other way.

Speaker: That was a heel flip.

Speaker: And then you could do like variable flips and stuff like that if you could really get good at it.

Speaker: The really cool feature, as you were talking about, there was a vertical play field.

Speaker: If you could get up there and to the left, there was a ramp that it came down and jumped off that ramp like you were coming down a big skateboarding ramp and then jumping off into the out lane.

Speaker: And if you held up the flipper, it would shoot it back into play.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Kind of like the dead bounce from Foo Fighters.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And just the whole concept.

Speaker: If you've never played Tommy Hawk's Pro Skater, maybe this doesn't interest you.

Speaker: But all the objectives.

Speaker: Yeah, it was based around things you would do in the game, like collect tape.

Speaker: and uh you know collect the letter skate and score a certain amount of points it just it was all thematically so on point it just it felt fantastic like the reason the other thing he was saying too because he didn't want to look polished he wanted to look like the red rail in the game he wanted to look like

Speaker: the half pipes and stuff like that.

Speaker: So I, I applaud that creative choice because, um, it did, it did feel a little disjointed as a pinball machine, but as a Tony Hawk themes, like we're going this right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so I just, I really loved it.

Speaker: It was right next to our friends, the electric playground.

Speaker: So we sell you electric playground, Robin and Alex, Robin, Alex are there.

Speaker: Alec is there and we get to check out the topper.

Speaker: It's amazing.

Speaker: And I'm wearing their hat.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Cool hat.

Speaker: Amazing hat.

Speaker: And it was, it was just an awesome experience.

Speaker: Like they were very grateful for the episode we were able to do with them.

Speaker: And I, I really had fun doing that episode.

Speaker: It was, it was a fun episode to do any who, so it was cool to see that also Friday the 13th.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: That also, if you didn't know any better, you would assume that was a cornerstone game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: it shot well.

Speaker: It, I don't, I think it was original layout too.

Speaker: Yeah, it was.

Speaker: I remember correctly.

Speaker: So, I mean, great, great games all the way around.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so, uh, and then we went to the, by the way, the electric playground, like go and look at their top.

Speaker: Like they are really cool in person.

Speaker: If you want to get a special topper for your game, uh,

Speaker: They really did win.

Speaker: If you want to get the Twilight Zone one, it's really cool.

Speaker: There's like a wire form that takes a ball around.

Speaker: It's cool.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Then we went to the 40 Years of Pinball seminar.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Which was interesting because it felt like it was all either previous employees of Stern or there was, I think I counted, was it only two people there that didn't actually work for Stern at one point?

Speaker: Larry DeMar.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And

Speaker: I can't remember the other person that maybe Bill grew up.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Probably Bill, but, but it almost felt like, don't get me wrong.

Speaker: They gave credit due to Stern on keeping stuff alive, but it felt like it kind of focused on other games.

Speaker: Well, which is fine because like Gary Stern did a 40 years of pimp.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Pinball like right after that, which was, yeah, it was good.

Speaker: The, the challenge with it was it seemed to be, I wish they were a little more focused on that episode on that seminar because, um,

Speaker: it was a two hour seminar and they spent 90 minutes introducing people.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And you got eight people.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so it w it would have been great if they're like, okay, you have three minutes.

Speaker: Tell us why you're here.

Speaker: Like, what did you do for pinball?

Speaker: So that would have been a little nicer if it were streamlined.

Speaker: Um, that was, uh, it was still, still interesting seeing things.

Speaker: And, uh, and this is probably the last time Pat is on,

Speaker: is doing this, I'm betting.

Speaker: Here was the panel.

Speaker: It was Larry DeMar, Bill Grupp, Steve Ritchie, Chris Granner, which actually I think Chris is one that once Williams was done, I think he was done.

Speaker: No, no.

Speaker: Actually, he came back and he did Simpsons, if I remember correctly.

Speaker: Keith Johnson, Greg Ferraris, which was the head art guy at Stern.

Speaker: He just barely retired.

Speaker: Roger Sharp,

Speaker: And Jack Guarneri, which I don't think ever worked at Stern, but he sold a bunch of Stern products.

Speaker: He was actually the biggest dealer.

Speaker: And the host was Pat Lawler.

Speaker: And it just...

Speaker: It was like you said, I, it was too much preamble and not enough amble.

Speaker: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker: But overall it was good.

Speaker: The thing that made me chuckle and you and I tried to get a picture of this.

Speaker: I really wish we would have got a picture of this.

Speaker: I wanted to get a picture, but it was also our phones were in our pockets and we couldn't whip it.

Speaker: It was at the very end when he was wrapping up.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So they went, they went through games.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Landmark games.

Speaker: So they're going through like space shuttle from like 86.

Speaker: And the reason it's landmark game is because they were so close to closing door.

Speaker: That like they were putting all their chips in on space shuttle.

Speaker: The arcade industry collapsed in 83 because there was high volume, low quality.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And so when space shuttle turned everything around by selling thousands of units, like, oh, we can we can keep the lights on.

Speaker: And space shuttle is kind of what propelled them into the late 80s, early 90s and stuff.

Speaker: And then I'm never going to be able to look at this game the same ever again.

Speaker: But Monopoly, I guess, kept the lights on for Stern.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Which is funny because it's not revered as really much of a great game.

Speaker: But at that time, I guess it really flipped things around for Stern.

Speaker: Well, okay.

Speaker: I would say it kept the life support going.

Speaker: Life support going to come out with games like Simpsons Pinball Party and Lord of the Rings.

Speaker: Wait, when did Monopoly come out?

Speaker: I thought Monopoly was later.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: Was it 0-1?

Speaker: Oh, I will double check, but I didn't realize Monopoly was that early.

Speaker: I know it's kind of weird to think how we have always lump it in with some of the other ones that I thought it was like, like later.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Speaker: Yeah, it was 2001.

Speaker: That is crazy.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I would have lost that bet.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, I mean, we have a little, I've never played a Monopoly.

Speaker: Have you ever played Monopoly?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And they're kind of quirky.

Speaker: It's a Pat Lawler design.

Speaker: I think the thing that kind of throws it off is there's a spinning mini flipper at the upper right that just kind of spins like clockwise the whole time you're playing.

Speaker: And,

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But it's interesting because this is the game that supposedly kept the lights on at stern for them to keep on going.

Speaker: And so I know that we give it crap.

Speaker: Oh, Chris Granger did sound on this one.

Speaker: No, but it's yeah.

Speaker: We're always like, oh, we'll a fortune and monopoly.

Speaker: But it's seriously like it.

Speaker: It has a place.

Speaker: They sold.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: The only terrible game is Thunderbird.

Speaker: So it's all 3,600 over 3,600 for monopoly, which is impressive.

Speaker: It is impressive for, especially when things are dying.

Speaker: And maybe it's because too, they got a boost from Valley Williams going under shortly before 2000.

Speaker: It just, it is one of those things, but the funny part is we're getting, we're getting to it now.

Speaker: So landmark games, right?

Speaker: And you have all these games and then you get to 2021 Godzilla.

Speaker: And we're like, Oh, that's a landmark game.

Speaker: And the pictures they put in is a Sega Godzilla.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: It was hilarious.

Speaker: It was awesome.

Speaker: And I don't think that Pat, right.

Speaker: This is obviously Pat.

Speaker: Oh, also what about Jeff Borg?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Obviously the slideshow was not before.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: This is, this is Pat.

Speaker: Pat said, Hey, we, this is not professional.

Speaker: I don't have any, anybody.

Speaker: So, you know, this is Pat just doing it himself.

Speaker: So it's, I'm going to give him a pass.

Speaker: It's just me chuckling a little bit.

Speaker: And,

Speaker: and still respecting everything they brought to the game.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Just overall, it was funny.

Speaker: And then that night, I had kind of stepped out at that point.

Speaker: I had to go grab my kids.

Speaker: I had to give them a call and talk to them and whatnot.

Speaker: I can't remember.

Speaker: Did we really do anything after?

Speaker: I think we maybe went back to the floor for a little bit.

Speaker: Well, did we...

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Was that when we went up to JJ's and Gary and Seth were there?

Speaker: No, that was the next night.

Speaker: That was the next night.

Speaker: My pictures pretty much end at the 40th pinball.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I don't know if you stand on the floor for a little bit and play some more games.

Speaker: Yeah, I think I went and played some games.

Speaker: And then the next morning we went to Chappie's, which is a nice little restaurant there.

Speaker: They had like... Actually, that's where we went before too.

Speaker: The same restaurant.

Speaker: Delicious.

Speaker: I went lunch.

Speaker: We got up late enough.

Speaker: They have the cleanest... Actually, here's a pro tip.

Speaker: If you want to know how much...

Speaker: how clean a restaurant is one check out the menus.

Speaker: If the menus are sticky, that's a warning sign.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: To check out the bathrooms.

Speaker: If they haven't cleaned the bathrooms, that's a warning sign.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: This place was immaculate and it was really good.

Speaker: And they were super nice.

Speaker: Some nice Hispanic ladies that were running it.

Speaker: It was awesome.

Speaker: So day three started.

Speaker: Um, we went and hit breakfast after we had breakfast.

Speaker: I had been dying to play the new Funhaus.

Speaker: And the pinball company had brought it to Expo.

Speaker: And so you guys are like, what do you want to do?

Speaker: I'm like, Funhaus.

Speaker: And so I kept... Finally, we went over there.

Speaker: And Larry DeMar was there.

Speaker: Larry DeMar was... In a shirt that was Funhaus.

Speaker: It was hilarious.

Speaker: Because he was wearing the Funhaus shirt playing Funhaus.

Speaker: And it just...

Speaker: This game became the highlight of my expo.

Speaker: And it's funny because like I talked to a gentleman that's been in the arcade industry his whole life.

Speaker: And I asked him like, what are your thoughts?

Speaker: He's like, it plays like crap.

Speaker: And I was like, what do you mean?

Speaker: He's like, there's just something missing from it.

Speaker: I'm like, what do you mean there's something missing from it?

Speaker: And he just, he couldn't put his finger on it.

Speaker: And, and I think it's that same reaction is when CGC started coming out with the remakes when they're like, yeah.

Speaker: And people were like, the flippers are different.

Speaker: I'm like,

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Maybe, but really each game plays different.

Speaker: Like my medieval madness plays differently than my buddy Brock's Royal edition.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I actually like my, the way mine plays better.

Speaker: And that's the thing.

Speaker: I just had a smile on my face playing.

Speaker: It was so good.

Speaker: And I didn't even play the limited edition.

Speaker: I just played the classic edition and I'm sitting there looking at that price on this machine.

Speaker: Cause it's like the show deal.

Speaker: Hands down deal of the show.

Speaker: If you guys want a fun house remake, go, go get it.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: Zach and Nicole.

Speaker: Many have one.

Speaker: It is competitively priced.

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I just, I was so, I kept playing and playing.

Speaker: You guys ended up, we're just like talking to.

Speaker: I think, okay, we were talking to Dominique.

Speaker: We were talking to, to Carrie.

Speaker: We were talking to Travis.

Speaker: We were talking to Larry and you kept playing and the steel of the show, they had one there for $6,000 that had like a little defect in the, in the decal.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It was a crinkle in the decal by the leg.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: There was a crinkle in the decal and they had it there for $6,000.

Speaker: Oh my goodness.

Speaker: I was trying to figure out how I joked with them.

Speaker: I said, I'll do it shipped.

Speaker: And they're like, they're like, yes.

Speaker: And I was like, shipped.

Speaker: And they're like, no, they're already doing that.

Speaker: They're already basically doing that at cost.

Speaker: So I I'm guessing they didn't tell me, but yeah.

Speaker: Dominic was super nice, by the way.

Speaker: Carrie was super nice.

Speaker: At the end of the show, I asked Carrie, I'm like, who bought it?

Speaker: And it was a local guy who had a camera.

Speaker: And Carrie is so nice.

Speaker: She's not only an amazing player, an amazing tech.

Speaker: She also...

Speaker: she said she agreed to deliver this personally to the guy who bought it at the show nice and that's a class act yeah and she plays saxophone too so so finally you guys had to kind of pull me away from there you and i went and saw the pin snake guy yeah pepe pepe anthony pepe yep he's got these back in stock you want to buy one they're gonna get them yeah have you tried yours yet

Speaker: I've not tried my snake yet.

Speaker: What makes me laugh though is I bought mine specifically for World Cup soccer because World Cup soccer is like three layers of plastic ramps.

Speaker: And that's the game he had there for you to test out.

Speaker: And seriously...

Speaker: It makes it's so nice.

Speaker: I still haven't unwrapped my snake.

Speaker: It's still in my box upstairs.

Speaker: Don't make it weird.

Speaker: I'm not going to make it weird.

Speaker: I also bought like the extra micro fibers, which are great because they're cheap.

Speaker: It's like I can't remember how much we paid for it.

Speaker: It was like $20 or $30.

Speaker: Packet three was $10.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And I can't remember how much the snake was.

Speaker: I want to see you paid $30 or $40 for it.

Speaker: Yeah, something like that.

Speaker: So we got that.

Speaker: I think it was 40 plus 10.

Speaker: So it was a total of 50.

Speaker: And he's like, you can also just use a tube sock on there.

Speaker: I'm like, okay, that's actually smart too.

Speaker: I didn't really think about that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But super nice guy.

Speaker: Shout out to him.

Speaker: And it, it is, there are very few things where I'm like, you really should buy this.

Speaker: You should buy this.

Speaker: You should buy this.

Speaker: This is, you need it in your toolkit.

Speaker: I know people that hate taking glass off because they don't want to do anything under that glass.

Speaker: I'm one of those people, the less maintenance I have to do, the better.

Speaker: This makes maintenance a breeze.

Speaker: I had my kids doing it.

Speaker: Seriously, go check out pin stick.

Speaker: It is, it's life changing on the clean.

Speaker: We also saw Davey from Stumbler.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And he brought me a, okay.

Speaker: I don't know which one.

Speaker: It's the one, it's the building with the Chevron cut out of it.

Speaker: So that is the subway building.

Speaker: Okay, that's the subway.

Speaker: So now I have the subway building.

Speaker: Now I also have the Tokyo sign, and I'm so excited I can't wait to install them because I'm notoriously terrible about installing mods.

Speaker: But Davey was super nice, was around the show the whole time.

Speaker: And sh out out to David.

Speaker: That dude is just awesome.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: It's awesome that Dutch Pinball got him involved with doing the lighting on Alice in Wonderland.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Because that just, seriously, it takes that game to a more professional level.

Speaker: It's all about presentation.

Speaker: It's all about presentation.

Speaker: After we hit Pinsnake, we hit the JJP booth.

Speaker: And I played Godfather for the first time.

Speaker: You guys did, no, you did Elton John.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Were you able to get in on Avatar this go around?

Speaker: Okay, so I didn't, but because I spent so much time on it at the JJP invite thing, I felt like I had enough exposure to it to have a good experience with it.

Speaker: So I wanted to let the people who were there.

Speaker: I actually played Metallica at Stern today or on Wednesday or Thursday.

Speaker: And so I didn't play it when it came to the floor because there was a lot of people who hadn't played it and wanted to come play it.

Speaker: So I let them get their experience with that.

Speaker: Yeah, it's a really great game.

Speaker: And I enjoyed Godfather.

Speaker: It's very unique.

Speaker: The ball paths are very unique because they keep switching around and whatnot on you.

Speaker: After JJP, we ran into one I didn't even know that was going to be there.

Speaker: Space Hunt.

Speaker: Space, space, space hunt.

Speaker: Because Pinsound was there showcasing their games with Pinsound on it, and they had a space hunt there.

Speaker: What are your thoughts on this game?

Speaker: Why was this made?

Speaker: I'm serious.

Speaker: Why was it made?

Speaker: There's like a, okay, there's like a, there's like, it's super tight.

Speaker: The shots on the left are super tight.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I think Zach may have like just been having a good time when he played this game because I, I was like, okay, I, I played it.

Speaker: It feels competent.

Speaker: The ramp feels very tight.

Speaker: The thing that you want to do is there is a ramp on the left that goes up to a fireman's pole type thing, kind of like junkyard.

Speaker: And it was so tight, you had to hit it perfectly to get it to go up.

Speaker: I played with Joel.

Speaker: Joel got it to go up.

Speaker: I didn't.

Speaker: But really, at that point, I didn't care.

Speaker: It's, this is, it's, it's okay.

Speaker: It's a game.

Speaker: I don't know why anyone would want to buy it.

Speaker: There are other games in this category that would be great fits for an arcade.

Speaker: And I put Looney Tunes in that category.

Speaker: I put Ninja Eclipse in that category.

Speaker: And we already talked about Ninja Eclipse, right?

Speaker: No, we haven't.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So we're going to talk about Ninja Eclipse.

Speaker: Space Time was fine.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: It was okay.

Speaker: But of the three, which one would you rate a third?

Speaker: Wouldn't you?

Speaker: What three?

Speaker: So you're saying Looney Tunes?

Speaker: Looney Tunes, Ninja Eclipse, and Space Hunt.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Actually, I'd play it sit fourth behind Saw.

Speaker: I mean, I just... Okay, no.

Speaker: I'm just talking.

Speaker: I'm just talking.

Speaker: In that room.

Speaker: I may actually put it fourth anyway and leave three as a placeholder.

Speaker: It's all right.

Speaker: It did nothing for me.

Speaker: It did nothing.

Speaker: It was pretty.

Speaker: It was that pink color.

Speaker: It looked professional.

Speaker: I just didn't have a good time shooting it.

Speaker: Well, and I didn't mind shooting it.

Speaker: I got it in the modes.

Speaker: The modes were enjoyable-ish.

Speaker: It's very much shoot the thing we tell you to shoot.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It is a competent game.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: And I would go and play it on location.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But it's just not something that I don't know why it was.

Speaker: It seems unrefined.

Speaker: This seems like there's a few refinements away from making this a fun game.

Speaker: here's the thing.

Speaker: I think this game is all right.

Speaker: It's not my favorite game.

Speaker: Um, it's one of those games that, uh, it would not be the first on my list to buy, but you know, I wouldn't mind renting it for a month and just kind of getting some more time on it to understand it a little better.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: But overall it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: But it does intrigue me to see what Hexa Pinball does next.

Speaker: Okay, it wasn't a fail.

Speaker: The bottom line is, even if I'm not a fan of a game, I still think they did a decent job in making the game.

Speaker: It shot better than any home pin game they've ever played.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: It is a professional game.

Speaker: It just didn't connect with me.

Speaker: Zach, now, on the other hand, Zach Mini loved it.

Speaker: So, you know, taste is subjective.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Pinball is subjective.

Speaker: It really is 100%.

Speaker: We also played, um, princess bright.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Well, before you get onto that, let's try and talk about Ninja clips.

Speaker: Cause you brought that up.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, I just want to say that congrats to Chris Turner, man.

Speaker: This game has flipped one 80 from last time I played it.

Speaker: Uh, it feels great.

Speaker: Uh, I liked that they went from the zizzle cabinet to an actual pinball cabinet.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: He's, he's genuinely taken all the feedback from the community and it's paying off cause he's starting to sell these all, all the,

Speaker: the ones they were close to selling out a hundred stickers on all of them when I was done Saturday night.

Speaker: Um, yeah, like honestly, this is a really cool game and, um, I'm excited to kind of see where they go from here.

Speaker: I, I,

Speaker: also think it helps too that I feel like they've kind of proven themselves where they have games made.

Speaker: We've always said play the game before you buy it.

Speaker: Buy a game that's available.

Speaker: Don't buy promises.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: I think overall, the game felt great.

Speaker: The graphics look really good.

Speaker: It's a competent company.

Speaker: I actually thought

Speaker: they had done a lot better than some other companies that were there.

Speaker: So now I will say also the, so the guy who did the graphics for it is, is a, it's a Utah guy.

Speaker: And I, I'm trying to get ahold of him cause we'd love to have him on.

Speaker: He's, he's actually, I think he's the same guy who did the Looney Tunes stuff too.

Speaker: If I remember correctly, which is why they looked like visually, they looked very similar.

Speaker: But that now that's not a slight, I actually,

Speaker: Looney Tunes was a game like I had a blast with.

Speaker: So it, I, this is, it's probably the first spooky game that I'm like, actually, this is something that would fit just fine in my arcade.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And so the Ninja eclipse, I would say that was by far the most surprising game of the show.

Speaker: Whereas before the show, I, I would not have put it on my radar for games to buy.

Speaker: And afterwards, I recommend it.

Speaker: I do.

Speaker: If you want to support a small company that's starting up and legitimately doing it correctly, this is a company that you may want to look at.

Speaker: And I guarantee, Chris, they're from Texas.

Speaker: So if you're going to TPF, really get your hands on one.

Speaker: If you like it, take one home with you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And they really are getting close.

Speaker: If they're not sold out, because it did sound like, yeah, they're getting close to selling out.

Speaker: Yeah, he but he and I even asked him like, OK, so like, are you, you know, are you cost positive?

Speaker: He's like, no, but we're making progress.

Speaker: I'm like, good.

Speaker: That's legitimately... The secret to most small companies, by the way, is that most companies lose money for the first five years because it takes that long for a proof of concept before you start turning it around.

Speaker: We then played Princess Bride, like you said.

Speaker: I'll start off on this one.

Speaker: I really like the game.

Speaker: I felt like it's probably the best P3 so far, as in

Speaker: presentation.

Speaker: I love the theme.

Speaker: I would say it's tied with Weird Al for me.

Speaker: Yeah, I think you're right there.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It is solid.

Speaker: It's very solid.

Speaker: I really like the Cliffs in Insanity.

Speaker: That's really cool.

Speaker: It's a cool effect.

Speaker: They take the ball and they go up the cliff.

Speaker: They're dedicating like one mech to just one mode though.

Speaker: So it does intrigue me on that.

Speaker: Here, here's the thing with P three that I'm having a rough time.

Speaker: The Balrog is also one mode.

Speaker: Yeah, true.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: the thing with princess bride and with all P threes is there needs to be, I know that like the bottom two thirds, there's not really much you can do to change it because of the screen or whatever.

Speaker: But when we were talking to Jerry over these last couple of years, it made it sound like he, you could put floating stuff over the bottom third.

Speaker: Well, heist has a crane.

Speaker: True.

Speaker: But I'm talking like, if we could get a ramp that ties back in to, um,

Speaker: just a little more action on that lower half because the problem is is i know that these aren't the same games they're very very different in presentation wise but with everything being in that back third they feel like the same they visually feel like they're the same game right i know there's a way of incorporated like you know even if it's like rollover targets or something you know having some sort of

Speaker: it does feel like the middle third of the play or the lower two thirds yeah if it feels beautiful presentation wise but it still feels a little bit like a missed opportunity on some level yeah so overall i liked it josh kooloo was kind of mean though dude like he

Speaker: not mean as in like a jerk, but like, I couldn't finish cliffs in the sanity.

Speaker: Like I started twice and I choked.

Speaker: He's like, man, that's the easiest mode in the game.

Speaker: You can't pass that.

Speaker: And I'm like, thanks.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Well, he's right.

Speaker: It's, it's fine.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: He gave you a hard time.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Then you and I went to the JAWS seminar and got to see the potato match.

Speaker: It was still fun.

Speaker: I will say it was still fun.

Speaker: P3, it is one of those things where if that's your thing, it's a good option.

Speaker: The one huge suggestion I will make for P3 though, you need to develop a storage option.

Speaker: You cannot just have these people pull these things out because they are expensive things.

Speaker: and put them back in a cardboard box that they shipped in.

Speaker: Even Harrow actually have that as an option.

Speaker: He has a design for one that he made.

Speaker: So if you're willing to make your own, there is options out there.

Speaker: But I agree with you.

Speaker: Okay, so spend $200.

Speaker: The whole cabinet thing comes with... I would say that would take it to the next level where it feels more like a finished product.

Speaker: If you have...

Speaker: Apple doesn't send you ear pods and says, okay, now keep them in the cardboard box it's shipped in.

Speaker: It's shipped with a container.

Speaker: So charge a few hundred bucks, have some sort of shipping container and keep it as storage.

Speaker: So it still looks nice.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: One thing, and I know that May, this is asking too much.

Speaker: If you're, if you're a manufacturer and you feel like we're shortchanging on some of the stuff and tell us why, tell us where we're wrong.

Speaker: Not only that, maybe this is too much to ask, ship us a game.

Speaker: I wouldn't mind borrowing a game for a month or so and getting more hands-on because the problem is, yeah, we're expo, but there's usually lines at these things.

Speaker: So I get to be one, maybe two games on this.

Speaker: And we try not to be like the dude in front of me who played like Elvira for 30 minutes and my family walked away.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: See, like Stern and JTAP were smart.

Speaker: They got us out there for our for John Wick.

Speaker: We got our hands on the game.

Speaker: It's my opinion of it because I got to play four to six hours on a game where it's just, oh, I got a game pretty much dedicated myself.

Speaker: I just got to play.

Speaker: And once you get 20, 30 games on this, you get a better understanding.

Speaker: Okay, bring us out and show us the game then.

Speaker: That's another way of doing it.

Speaker: Yeah, bring us out to Chicago.

Speaker: It's cheaper than shipping me a game.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Yeah, you can ship me a game.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: Yeah, Pinball Company.

Speaker: Funhouse sucked.

Speaker: I need you to ship me a Funhouse.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Dominic?

Speaker: Yeah, we need... No, 100%.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay, we kid, but at the same time, this level, this year has been...

Speaker: great for them incorporating access to content creators because we can have a more informed opinion on the game with the right environment and the right time.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I agree.

Speaker: So we went to the JAWS seminar.

Speaker: Fantastic.

Speaker: Very in-depth.

Speaker: You can rewatch all these videos.

Speaker: Now you know why the shark doesn't need the ball.

Speaker: It looks like a giant.

Speaker: It looks like a potato that someone tried to make a potato lantern out of.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It looks pretty rough.

Speaker: The gentleman that offered the ridiculous amount of money for that Mac, I think Harrison Drake's still looking for you.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: If someone wants to buy that Mac.

Speaker: $15,000.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, something like 10 or 15.

Speaker: Somebody was like, yeah, Harrison Drake's looking for you.

Speaker: So just hit him up.

Speaker: He wants to sell you that mech.

Speaker: And then after that, you and I went to JJP's or JJ.

Speaker: JJ for the Game Exchange.

Speaker: And we ran into Gary Stern and Seth Dave.

Speaker: Oh, sorry.

Speaker: Before we went there, I do have a little blip.

Speaker: Before we went there, I had to step out of the JAWS seminar because I had a call.

Speaker: And my call wasn't like five minutes long, but as I was walking back in, I ran into Charlie Benante.

Speaker: Is that how you say his last name?

Speaker: The drummer of Anthrax.

Speaker: He was standing there along with Tim Sexton and Wason.

Speaker: And we all got talking.

Speaker: And really, really nice dude.

Speaker: It's just funny.

Speaker: It's funny like when you go to Pinball Expo, you run into these people like Todd McCullough.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: which i hope he's having safe travels he was supposed to join us tonight on tonight but he he was he was traveling being like the big star he is yeah he had more important with getting ash uh shout out to todd he's going to a game yeah yeah but it was funny because like i'm sitting there and we just get talking about the most random things and it's like he turned he has me listen to this band called clown core if you haven't listened to these guys it's very unique and strange okay i i think that the

Speaker: I would probably want to at least try an edible gummy before I listen to that again.

Speaker: It's these weird, it is the most bizarre thing I've seen in a long time.

Speaker: And I can't look at a port-a-potty the same.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: When you're recording your music videos in a port-a-potty, you know it's going to be unique, right?

Speaker: Anywho, really nice dude.

Speaker: It was funny to have some of the conversations that we had.

Speaker: Like, Charlie, thanks for just down-to-earth guy.

Speaker: That's what I love about these things.

Speaker: You just ran a Mark Tremonti from Creed last year, and it was just a casual conversation about guitars and stuff.

Speaker: Anywho, then we went to JJP's JJ from Game Exchange Suite.

Speaker: It doesn't help that one letter off.

Speaker: And Gary and Seth were there.

Speaker: And Gary was asking people, why are you spending this much money on a pinball machine?

Speaker: And it was kind of funny.

Speaker: Okay, I actually had a 20-minute conversation with him.

Speaker: It was interesting in talking to him and Seth and talking about how to grow stern army things in areas that don't have a stern army thing.

Speaker: So this is a brainstorming thing, but this is something that Seth is quite interested in.

Speaker: in finding ways of increasing access to pinball in areas that are low-density pinball.

Speaker: So now, we don't have any definitive answers, and we don't really want to give it away.

Speaker: We'll let Seth talk about it.

Speaker: But we did bounce some ideas off him, and it'll be interesting to see if any of those tick.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: And then we kind of wrapped up the night with dollar games.

Speaker: It was you.

Speaker: So we kind of had a core group this whole show.

Speaker: Me, my father-in-law, Jeff, you, we had Craig Bobby from the pinball show.

Speaker: If you haven't heard Craig Bobby or his rendition of the Bond theme, you need to go check that out.

Speaker: And then Julie Talbot had joined us.

Speaker: She's kind of become part of our friend group over the past couple of years.

Speaker: And then we kind of have people in out, but that was kind of the core group that went and played dollar games.

Speaker: And we went, the free play area was amazing.

Speaker: All the, I think like a lot of awesome.

Speaker: Awesome.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: To Rob's credit, they all worked.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I think there was only like five that weren't working.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: There were a few, but for the most part, they were all working and they, it looked nice.

Speaker: Um, I remember a couple of years ago when we went and the free play area looked like, like the land of like misfit toys.

Speaker: It looked like the pinball hall of fame.

Speaker: Oh, um, but no, these were all, these were all in working order and it was fun.

Speaker: It was so fun to actually see the games.

Speaker: Now, what Josh is, Josh, the next night, he actually missed.

Speaker: We were playing dollar games, but we actually made a, we made a modification to the rules.

Speaker: So you still got the, so you still got the four, the three or $4 or whatever for winning.

Speaker: But the penalty for losing was you actually had to pose like the back glass.

Speaker: And we got to take a picture.

Speaker: And so if you think of all the ridiculous backglasses out there, it totally changed the dynamic of dollar games in that it was nice to win.

Speaker: You liked it, but you really didn't want to lose because it was really, it was public shaming at that point.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: But it was kind of funny.

Speaker: It made me feel good about myself when you guys were like, I won the first three games.

Speaker: You guys like Josh, if you don't knock it off, we're kicking you out of the group.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Like, but it was very fun.

Speaker: It was the highlight probably had to be dragon.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: That game is so ridiculous and so random.

Speaker: Yeah, it's hilarious.

Speaker: There's like five like cobra targets that you have to hit and go down.

Speaker: And the back glass is awesome.

Speaker: If anyone has like a spare dragon back glass.

Speaker: Oh, okay.

Speaker: I didn't tell you about my story.

Speaker: So I did go to the Stern Tour.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So we went to the Stern tour.

Speaker: I actually didn't have a ticket, but apparently the tickets were only for the bus.

Speaker: So we just drove there.

Speaker: So we just drove there and hopped through.

Speaker: And at the very end of the tour, I bought a shirt and I bought, it was a neon, you know, the neon Godzilla thing.

Speaker: Just think of like the Godzilla 70, but with the neon thing.

Speaker: And I was super excited because like it only, they only had them at the factory there.

Speaker: They're going to be available later online, but they only had them in the factory for this thing.

Speaker: And I got at home and the next day I'm like, I'm going to wear this.

Speaker: I put it on and it felt like I was squeezing.

Speaker: Like, you know, I was being suffocated by like one of those shape wear things.

Speaker: I'm trying to, I put it on like, Oh my gosh, what is this?

Speaker: So I wear, I typically have a t-shirt underneath my t-shirt.

Speaker: So yeah,

Speaker: I typically try to buy some of the shirts bigger so it'll accommodate that.

Speaker: And so I usually buy like an XXL if I just want it to fit, but not too tight.

Speaker: And I put on, I looked down, it was a large.

Speaker: And I'm like, they gave me the wrong thing.

Speaker: I think it's like, in my thought process, it's like, oh, it's an XL and they just went to the bin over and got it.

Speaker: And so I was like, ah, crap.

Speaker: So I, you know, I texted Zach Sharp and I was like, Hey, just, is anyone coming over from the factory today?

Speaker: Cause they gave me the wrong thing.

Speaker: He's like, no, let me look at this thing.

Speaker: So we, uh, I just said, no, it's fine.

Speaker: I'll just go down to the floor and I'll swap for a different shirt.

Speaker: So we ended up, I swapped for a different shirt and it was, they were super nice about it.

Speaker: And they got that.

Speaker: And so I ended up getting a Jaws one.

Speaker: So it says Jaws on the back.

Speaker: It goes, start, start, start.

Speaker: So, you know, it's kind of fun.

Speaker: Unlike the Nana, but I found out Julie texted me today and she said, I figured out the mystery of the forgotten shirt.

Speaker: She bought the same shirt.

Speaker: Uh, hers was a large, mine was a double XL.

Speaker: So she ended up with yours, didn't she?

Speaker: So she ended up with mine.

Speaker: So I actually still have the, so I just paid her for the shirt.

Speaker: I'm like, okay, when it comes online, you can go, go ahead and buy it.

Speaker: But I ended up with two extra shirts from Stern, which was hilarious.

Speaker: But that was my, my, my Stern shirt story.

Speaker: Which is funny though, because I bought a hoodie for my son last year.

Speaker: We asked for extra large and we didn't realize it till after we got home, but it was a medium.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So when you go on the Stern tour and you buy stuff, make sure what you buy is the right size.

Speaker: That was my fault.

Speaker: I grabbed the wrong shirt.

Speaker: It just happened that Julie and I bought the same shirt because we were like, we were in the same bus carload.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: We didn't do pinball Olympics this year.

Speaker: Pinball Olympics are always a blast.

Speaker: They, I was pretty exhausted though, because I only had really two full days and I really stayed up late every night.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Uh, the, on Sunday, actually there, Saturday, I went to bed at like two in the morning and then we got up at like four in the morning.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So why did you, you like left without us?

Speaker: We, we, we were getting up and we thought we were taking you to the airport.

Speaker: What happened?

Speaker: Why'd you go early?

Speaker: So we, well, our flight was an hour before you guys.

Speaker: And yeah.

Speaker: So we were a little bit before seven.

Speaker: Oh, okay.

Speaker: So, so that's why, cause we got up and we're like, Hey, we're ready to go.

Speaker: And you're like, uh, we already left.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And you guys hadn't left yet.

Speaker: And, uh,

Speaker: You did actually get to the airport and through security, and we still had another 30 minutes before we started boarding.

Speaker: So it probably would have been fine.

Speaker: We could have, but you wanted to be safe.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, I wanted to be safe.

Speaker: So especially where I fly from Chicago into Phoenix, and then Phoenix flies into my home to Vernal.

Speaker: And on Sundays, there's only one flight from Phoenix into Vernal.

Speaker: So if I get stuck in Phoenix, I'm there for a full 24 hours.

Speaker: Yeah, you don't want to mess with that.

Speaker: And so, anywho, yeah, that's why I kind of, that's why we kind of bailed.

Speaker: Oh, quick shout out to Tony Scoots, Scoots Daros.

Speaker: Thanks for bringing me two dozen cannolis.

Speaker: I was like, I need some cannolis.

Speaker: If you bring them to me, can I buy them for me?

Speaker: He's like, yeah, don't worry about it.

Speaker: So he brought me two dozen cannolis.

Speaker: Dude was so nice.

Speaker: Hey, did you get them home?

Speaker: Because I totally like, like you went to bed and I totally forgot to come up and eat one.

Speaker: Yeah, I took them all home with me.

Speaker: I was so excited to surprise my wife with scoots cannolis.

Speaker: And she's like, do these have almond in them?

Speaker: And so I'm texting Tony.

Speaker: Is she allergic or she doesn't like the taste?

Speaker: She's allergic.

Speaker: Oh, they all have almond.

Speaker: And I'm like, do these have almond in them?

Speaker: And he's like, a little bit.

Speaker: And he's like, I wouldn't chance it, but you might be safe taking it.

Speaker: So she actually took a Benadryl.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: And ate the cannoli and thought it was delicious.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: And that was 24 hours later.

Speaker: They are delicious.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We went through 20 cannolis in three days or something like that.

Speaker: It was great.

Speaker: These were minis.

Speaker: These aren't the full size system.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, they were, they were fantastic, but okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Grand take.

Speaker: And so we're, we're at 80 minutes.

Speaker: So grand take home wraps.

Speaker: What, what are you thinking of expo?

Speaker: Actually, give me, just give me a one minute synopsis of let's make a deal.

Speaker: Oh, okay.

Speaker: Because I bailed out halfway through.

Speaker: Oh, you know, it's okay.

Speaker: It's fun.

Speaker: I was getting so tired toward the end.

Speaker: And Dwight really wanted people there.

Speaker: So it was like a let's make it.

Speaker: Do you want behind box one, box two, box three?

Speaker: But it was fun.

Speaker: He pulled people up and everybody had tickets.

Speaker: At the very end, when they were going for the final round, we didn't get...

Speaker: We knew it was the final round and I was tired.

Speaker: And so I actually left at that point, but I felt good.

Speaker: We supported Dwight.

Speaker: He was there.

Speaker: Actually, I came up at the very end because I needed to get a hat for someone.

Speaker: And it's Dave.

Speaker: He bought a hat like last year.

Speaker: Dave Hallgren.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We made a trade.

Speaker: He didn't necessarily buy.

Speaker: We made a trade.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: Trade.

Speaker: So I brought it back.

Speaker: And then Dwight's there's like, oh, I didn't call you.

Speaker: I'm like, Dwight, it's fine.

Speaker: You didn't get anything.

Speaker: I'm like, it's fine.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: I'm glad people got.

Speaker: Other people can get experiences.

Speaker: I don't need stuff.

Speaker: We're good.

Speaker: So that was fun.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: We do have a funny story about hats, though.

Speaker: So we met an awesome guy named George Gomez.

Speaker: Yes, there's another George Gomez out there.

Speaker: So Josh thought that it was George Gomez from Stern.

Speaker: And so Josh gave George Gomez from Stern two hats.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: No, here, but here's the thing.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: You tell the story.

Speaker: You tell the story.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So we did our form through Facebook, through Google docs, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And someone accidentally sent the same form twice.

Speaker: It was George Gomez.

Speaker: I looked at the email.

Speaker: I'm like, well, this isn't George's business email.

Speaker: Well, this is his personal email.

Speaker: And so I, I messaged George since we have his number and I'm like, George, I got your hat order.

Speaker: but it came through twice.

Speaker: Do you want one or two?

Speaker: And he said two.

Speaker: And I'm like, and the small medium is fine, right?

Speaker: And he's like, yeah, that works great.

Speaker: And it's funny because the whole time, because I'd messaged George Gomez with Stern.

Speaker: Oh, so you, you had even contacted George.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So he knew the hats were coming and everything.

Speaker: So I, I made specific, you know, made sure to set them aside and everything.

Speaker: We, we get to Stern on Thursday for the Metallica stuff.

Speaker: I give him his hats.

Speaker: He tries them on.

Speaker: They say they fit great.

Speaker: He's very happy with them.

Speaker: And he zips off because we've got people coming in and out.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's busy.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, was it Friday or was it Saturday?

Speaker: It was at the mixer.

Speaker: It was at the, was it at the mixer?

Speaker: Come at the mixer.

Speaker: He's like, where are my hats?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: He's like, Hey, I know it was when we're playing at J the JJP booth.

Speaker: That's where it was.

Speaker: Oh, okay.

Speaker: It was not the mixer.

Speaker: It was the JJP.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Cause I talked to him at the mixer.

Speaker: Like I can't, he can't even talk to me at the mixer.

Speaker: He's a, and by the way, George Gomez is also a cop from Reno.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: In law enforcement.

Speaker: And so he like,

Speaker: He's like talking to me at JJP's booth.

Speaker: And he's like, oh, Scott says you have the hats.

Speaker: And I'm like, yeah.

Speaker: And he's like, you have some for George Gomez.

Speaker: I'm like, yeah, I gave them to George Gomez at Stern.

Speaker: And he's like, no, no.

Speaker: I'm George Gomez.

Speaker: I'm George, yeah.

Speaker: And I'm laughing because I'm like, oh, you got like George Gomez's tag.

Speaker: Like, how'd you pull that off?

Speaker: I'm like, Gomez actually signed, Stern Gomez signed Cop Gomez's.

Speaker: And so I thought he was joking.

Speaker: He's like, no, I'm really George Gomez.

Speaker: I'm really George Gomez, yeah.

Speaker: Oh, well, this feels really awkward.

Speaker: Because small, medium is not a very common size.

Speaker: And so it didn't make any extra.

Speaker: And so, yeah, it just...

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: So George, we are getting, we're getting your ass to you.

Speaker: So I've already, I've already got an order.

Speaker: So I've been keeping in contact with him.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Overall thoughts.

Speaker: Expo was fantastic.

Speaker: I love that there's enough space to move.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Uh, yet, uh, it still feels very homey.

Speaker: Um, this is the biggest convention and it shows, right?

Speaker: Like this is the only place you're going to rub shoulders with, with, um,

Speaker: all these industry types along with celebrities and stuff like that.

Speaker: And I know that there's people going down to Texas Pinball Festival and whatnot, but seriously, if you're making a homebrew and you want to break into the industry, make your calling card and go to Expo.

Speaker: there are so many people that are willing just to sit down and listen to what you have to say.

Speaker: And it just, overall, I love going to the show because no other place would I be able to play Alice in Wonderland along with Space Hunt and Ninja Clips and Funhouse.

Speaker: And it just seems like, and the lines were relatively good so long as they had enough games there.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Like even, even the P threes, they only had like three games there, but it's still lines were only for the limited, like one or two versions of that game.

Speaker: For the most part, you could get on almost any game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Within about 15 minutes at the longest of a wait, but I overall fantastic show.

Speaker: I enjoy going every year.

Speaker: It's kind of one of my, that's what I'm going to do.

Speaker: As long as I can keep up momentum and whatnot, I feel like I'm always going to be there.

Speaker: And yeah, just overall, fantastic show, Rob Berg.

Speaker: Fantastic to all those that are involved in it.

Speaker: It's such a great show.

Speaker: What's your takeaway, Scott?

Speaker: Okay, I would say exhausting.

Speaker: I felt that it was a little bit like going to Disneyland and I didn't ride all the rides.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I felt really that, and I stayed up late most of the time.

Speaker: And you know what?

Speaker: It was kind of fun to check out a little bit and go and do...

Speaker: dollar games and just meet some people talk with friends.

Speaker: I feel, I feel bad that I couldn't make it to some of the seminars because I really was either just tired or I needed a break or I had some other obligations.

Speaker: So I didn't, you know, there, there were some behind the scenes on games that I didn't get to.

Speaker: And I feel bad about that.

Speaker: I'm hoping to go back and watch them if we can find them because it would be nice to get a little more behind the scenes on some of the games.

Speaker: But I felt like I was busy the entire time and I still didn't see everything.

Speaker: So it's great.

Speaker: I agree with Josh.

Speaker: If you're really interested in being in the industry, go and talk to them.

Speaker: Go and talk.

Speaker: Come and talk to industry people.

Speaker: They are very passionate about what they do.

Speaker: And they're very friendly, too.

Speaker: I still have been overwhelmed by, even in the short amount of time that we've been doing this podcast, how welcoming and willing people are to talk about their work, as long as it's released, obviously.

Speaker: Yep, exactly.

Speaker: So it's great.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Game of the Expo.

Speaker: For me?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Probably Funhaus.

Speaker: I'm not going to lie.

Speaker: I was shocked at how solid it was and how good it played.

Speaker: I'll put Metallica there.

Speaker: I know it's a little unfair because it's a $13,000 game and it's a proven game.

Speaker: But the way that they reinvented that game was impressive.

Speaker: Incredible.

Speaker: You're talking about the premiums, 9,700 or whatever.

Speaker: And I guarantee you can probably get one for 95.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I'm talking to the LA.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Um, however, I will say the steel of the show hands down is fun house.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, that is, that is a total value for like biggest bang for your buck game.

Speaker: And that is, that is coming from someone who's typically not a huge Lawler layout fan.

Speaker: We had so much fun on that game and it looks amazing.

Speaker: What the pinball company did with that game is amazing.

Speaker: And if they are taking the torch and doing the next version of the remakes, I say, I'll go, go all for it.

Speaker: No, I mean, no, it sucks.

Speaker: If you want to prove me wrong, pinball company.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Send me a game and let me evaluate it.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yes, exactly.

Speaker: Or Zach and Nicole, many at flipping out pinball.

Speaker: Cause they also sell it.

Speaker: So, okay.

Speaker: In all sincerity, this is, this is a great game.

Speaker: It's absolutely a great game.

Speaker: And it's,

Speaker: they were able to really do give Chicago gaming company a run for their money.

Speaker: Yeah, they really did.

Speaker: And that's, that's not easy considering the high bar that Chicago gaming company set with their four.

Speaker: Well, and one of the big concerns is it, cause it's funny.

Speaker: Cause like really quickly, like we played, uh,

Speaker: ABBA and we've played, um, queen.

Speaker: And it's just, it's funny.

Speaker: Cause like they're using planetary pinball parts.

Speaker: So these are William design parts.

Speaker: And so it's funny how much different a game that isn't William parts versus what is.

Speaker: And, and they, they both feel like solid games, but it just feels like the Williams recreation, they were solid.

Speaker: Like it was,

Speaker: I had to put a little extra effort and move in the cabinet around when I was trying to, to, to a nudge and stuff like that versus a stern.

Speaker: And so this, they are solid games and really, I, I'm, I'm tempted to get one put down here.

Speaker: I really, I would really, that's like, seriously, if I had the means to get that fun, that one that was for six, if I had the means, I would have brought it home with me.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But you know, they kind of frown on those on a carry on luggage.

Speaker: So yeah,

Speaker: Yeah, they don't really fit in an overhead compartment.

Speaker: I think if I checked it, they could have put it on underneath.

Speaker: Yeah, you can try.

Speaker: Oh, my goodness.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: We're wrapping it up.

Speaker: Yeah, seriously.

Speaker: I just went and just looked at their website and just seeing that, yeah, it's...

Speaker: That's crazy.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: The classic addiction, the classic addition, the MSRP is seven, four, nine, nine.

Speaker: And that's, that's a deal.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: So if, if you want, like I said, this contacts, I'm going to call many, tell them loser kids said, I sent it, sent you their way.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Maybe they'll even like throw on a shirt for you or whatever.

Speaker: So maybe,

Speaker: Maybe.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: If you want to get ahold of us, we are a loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.

Speaker: We're also on Facebook, Instagram, X threads, Twitch, YouTube, all at loser kid pinball silver ball swag.com slash loser kid.

Speaker: I know that some people want to support us.

Speaker: There was one gentleman that was very nice, came up, handed me a 50.

Speaker: I was like, I don't do social.

Speaker: I don't do this or that.

Speaker: He's like, I listen to your guys' podcasts because that's like his advanced technology I do, and I want to support you guys.

Speaker: Here's this.

Speaker: And I was like, oh, thanks.

Speaker: And I'm like, you don't have to do that.

Speaker: And he's like, no, I want to support you guys.

Speaker: If you do want to support us, one way you can do is through Silver Ball Swag.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: They're awesome shoes.

Speaker: I got so many comments on the Vans, which I didn't think I would, but they look great and they do look retro cool.

Speaker: I feel like you get something for supporting us as well.

Speaker: Not only do you support us, but you get shoes out of your shirt or jogging pants or whatever.

Speaker: You know what, Scott?

Speaker: I think that's all for us.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I want to hear your experience at Pinball Expo.

Speaker: So shoot us your experience and what you guys liked and what you didn't like.

Speaker: And we can certainly give that back to Rob and see how we can fix it.

Speaker: But huge thumbs up for the tournament for me.

Speaker: Sorry, for the event for me.

Speaker: And I didn't even play in the tournament again.

Speaker: And that was like a total side thing that was going on.

Speaker: Like the triple drain guys were all in that tournament.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Yeah, shout out to Joel, Travis, and Tom.

Speaker: It was fun to hang out with Travis late on Friday night, even though he had to work early in the morning.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Monica, it was great to see you again.

Speaker: It's just like going back to a family reunion.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: I mean, and some of those people I consider closer than my family, because some of my family's kind of weird.

Speaker: Anyhow.

Speaker: All of my family's weird.

Speaker: Anyway.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Love you guys.

Speaker: Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you in two weeks.

Speaker: Thank you.