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Ep 151: Pinball Expo 2024 Recap
17 Plays5 months ago
Homebrews, Space Hunt, Danger potato, and Clowncore?! We're talking about the rest of how or Expo went.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Catch-Up
00:00:07
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast.
00:00:09
Speaker
I am Josh Roop.
00:00:10
Speaker
With me, my co-captain, as always.
00:00:12
Speaker
Scott Larson.
00:00:13
Speaker
We are on episode 158.
00:00:15
Speaker
And Scott, we're back from Expo.
00:00:16
Speaker
We're kind of... Wait, wait, wait.
00:00:18
Speaker
We missed like seven episodes?
00:00:20
Speaker
What did I say?
00:00:21
Speaker
158.
00:00:21
Speaker
Oh, we're on 151.
00:00:21
Speaker
I thought I said 151, but...
00:00:27
Speaker
You know what?
00:00:28
Speaker
Eights, ones, it's kind of all the same.
00:00:30
Speaker
Whatever works.
00:00:31
Speaker
We're over 150, so it doesn't really matter anymore, right?
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:00:35
Speaker
They all blow together at this point.
00:00:36
Speaker
We're like two whatever.
00:00:39
Speaker
We're still way behind Ron and Bruce.
00:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey, plenty of games.
00:00:44
Speaker
We saw at Expo.
Expo Highlights and Game Purchases
00:00:45
Speaker
If you're going to buy any of these games, who are you buying them from?
00:00:47
Speaker
You know, Zach and Nicole, many, they, they were so busy at Expo.
00:00:50
Speaker
Actually.
00:00:51
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.
00:00:56
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:57
Speaker
There are so many games.
00:00:58
Speaker
I'm not even going to specify which one you should get.
00:01:01
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.
00:01:07
Speaker
And really, he gets so many messages in a day.
00:01:10
Speaker
Really, it is just efficient to text or message because he'll get back to you really quickly.
00:01:15
Speaker
And he's always got back to me really quickly.
00:01:18
Speaker
You too, Josh, right?
00:01:19
Speaker
Yep.
00:01:20
Speaker
Oh, definitely.
Day One Recap and Dining Experiences
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:21
Speaker
And also, if you want those accessories, I actually want to get some speaker lights for Rush.
00:01:26
Speaker
And I think I'm going to get the Godzilla ones too.
00:01:30
Speaker
Sounds good.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:33
Speaker
So let's kind of, so we did a day one recap and then we kind of, we kind of slacked.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:38
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:01:39
Speaker
We were so busy, so it's fine.
00:01:40
Speaker
So let's, let's do a quick recap.
00:01:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:43
Speaker
As soon as I cough.
00:01:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:47
Speaker
So now you were there a little bit before me.
00:01:49
Speaker
So remind me what you did the day before.
00:01:52
Speaker
So on Wednesday we got in, uh, Julie was very nice to pick my father-in-law and I, the airport.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yep.
00:02:00
Speaker
And I want to say we went straight to the hotel.
00:02:04
Speaker
Uh, yes.
00:02:05
Speaker
And then we went and got PF Chang's.
00:02:07
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:02:07
Speaker
We have one in Utah.
00:02:08
Speaker
I don't fully understand why I went to PF Chang's, but Hey, okay.
00:02:11
Speaker
It was all right.
00:02:12
Speaker
I bought spicy chicken.
00:02:13
Speaker
I did not get spicy on my chicken.
00:02:15
Speaker
It was like sweet and sour chicken.
00:02:17
Speaker
I feel like P.F.
00:02:18
Speaker
Chang's was something that I liked doing 15 years ago.
00:02:22
Speaker
Am I wrong on that?
00:02:23
Speaker
It just feels like it's something I used to do in the past, but I am not interested in much anymore.
00:02:29
Speaker
Because Pei Wei was kind of like the cheap version of P.F.
00:02:32
Speaker
Chang's.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:02:34
Speaker
I still enjoy Pei Wei.
00:02:35
Speaker
I don't like Pei Wei anymore.
00:02:36
Speaker
It's like so much salt.
00:02:39
Speaker
Really.
00:02:39
Speaker
It's like a salt lick.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of is.
00:02:41
Speaker
Now you say that.
00:02:42
Speaker
So we did
Interium Pre-party and Crowds
00:02:43
Speaker
that, right?
00:02:43
Speaker
And it's attached to the mall where Interium's at.
00:02:45
Speaker
So after we're done with PF Chang's, we kind of went through the mall.
00:02:48
Speaker
And then the first night, so Wednesday is always kind of like their pre-party.
00:02:52
Speaker
And I guess, so we had been invited to Beattie's house, but every year it sounds like Beattie's house is packed.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, we went there.
00:03:02
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.
00:03:10
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?
00:03:15
Speaker
Sure.
00:03:16
Speaker
We show up into Interium and we're actually early and it's packed.
00:03:21
Speaker
I was like, oh.
00:03:22
Speaker
And Interium's big.
00:03:23
Speaker
Interium's not small.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's not a small arcade.
00:03:27
Speaker
It's huge.
00:03:28
Speaker
And it's already packed shoulder to shoulder getting in there.
00:03:30
Speaker
And I'm like, oh my.
00:03:32
Speaker
And so I kind of turned to Julie and Craig Bobby.
00:03:35
Speaker
Craig Bobby was with us as well.
00:03:37
Speaker
Hey, Craig Bobby.
00:03:39
Speaker
I told him we're just going to grab the shuttle and head back to the hotel.
00:03:42
Speaker
Cause all right.
00:03:43
Speaker
Been a long day.
00:03:44
Speaker
I'm tired because my son woke up at two o'clock and was having a rough time.
00:03:49
Speaker
So it was much like, and our flight left early.
00:03:52
Speaker
So it was like, anywho, it just, I hadn't had sleep from 2am my time.
00:03:56
Speaker
And now we're an hour ahead kind of thing.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yep.
00:03:59
Speaker
And I was like, I gotta go get some rest.
00:04:01
Speaker
And so,
00:04:03
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.
00:04:11
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.
00:04:16
Speaker
Well, I guess that's where all the pinball machines are now.
00:04:18
Speaker
They had more on the other side, but now they only have one area that place is packed.
00:04:22
Speaker
And I can't even imagine what it was like on after the two both busload showed up.
00:04:27
Speaker
So any who, we just went back and chilled.
Stern's Metallica Pinball Update
00:04:30
Speaker
Um,
00:04:31
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
00:04:59
Speaker
could be brought up to modern standards by, uh, you know, by basically leveling them up.
00:05:05
Speaker
Hey, I want to see them do this for Lord of the Rings.
00:05:09
Speaker
I want to see them do this for Tron.
00:05:12
Speaker
I,
00:05:12
Speaker
I mean, you could even argue ACDC, throw ACDC in there and give this treatment too.
00:05:17
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.
00:05:24
Speaker
Like he was going down to like the millimeter of the Rams.
00:05:27
Speaker
Like the new one's just slightly shorter or something like that than the old one.
00:05:31
Speaker
I was just, I was, I was kind of baffled.
00:05:34
Speaker
Um,
00:05:34
Speaker
but it's really cool to see how much detail goes into these games.
00:05:39
Speaker
And so it raised a ton of questions for me.
00:05:41
Speaker
I'm like, we have to have Gomez back on soon.
00:05:44
Speaker
We'll get Gomez back on.
00:05:45
Speaker
We actually did reach out to Borg.
00:05:46
Speaker
So we saw Borg.
00:05:47
Speaker
We want, we want to get them on.
00:05:49
Speaker
Cause I still want to talk about rush.
00:05:50
Speaker
I want to talk about rush.
00:05:52
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.
00:06:01
Speaker
Um,
00:06:01
Speaker
I, people obviously love the expo recaps and all that kind of stuff and the reveal.
00:06:07
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.
Industry Networking and Media Mixer
00:06:21
Speaker
So I, I'm really excited to see all the people that we got on, even some kind of high level people.
00:06:26
Speaker
So that was nice.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yep.
00:06:27
Speaker
Uh,
00:06:28
Speaker
We talked about the media mixer.
00:06:30
Speaker
It was fantastic.
00:06:30
Speaker
I'm still gloating about the 21 people I knocked out on James Bond for a stall ball.
00:06:36
Speaker
Went a little cash there, and that was a blast.
00:06:39
Speaker
And by the way, so many people came up, and they came up to you too.
00:06:44
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.
00:06:51
Speaker
Yes.
00:06:52
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.
00:07:01
Speaker
And it's, it's so much fun to see that it makes a difference for you.
00:07:08
Speaker
And go ahead.
00:07:10
Speaker
I was gonna say, it just made me chuckle.
00:07:11
Speaker
Cause I, you listened to the pinball show this week and I did too.
00:07:14
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.
00:07:19
Speaker
Right.
00:07:20
Speaker
we had that moment once or twice too.
00:07:22
Speaker
I remember it happening at the media mixer.
00:07:25
Speaker
I don't know who the gentleman was.
00:07:26
Speaker
He was very nice.
00:07:27
Speaker
He's like, Oh, you're Josh from loser kid.
00:07:28
Speaker
Super nice.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
He was super nice.
00:07:30
Speaker
Very, very friendly.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:33
Speaker
And it's, it's great.
00:07:34
Speaker
Like we love this by the way.
00:07:35
Speaker
Like if you see us at, at somewhere wearing our hats,
00:07:39
Speaker
we probably are exhausted.
00:07:40
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.
00:07:46
Speaker
It's fun interacting with people.
00:07:47
Speaker
We like talking pinball.
00:07:48
Speaker
That's the reason why we're doing this podcast.
00:07:51
Speaker
I didn't realize how much of a toll it was.
00:07:53
Speaker
Sorry.
00:07:53
Speaker
I'm kind of skipping ahead a little bit.
00:07:54
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.
00:07:59
Speaker
And it just hit me.
00:08:01
Speaker
I was like powering down and I was like the weight of the whole week was on me.
00:08:05
Speaker
And I was just like, Oh,
00:08:08
Speaker
you know, I I've got to go to bed.
00:08:09
Speaker
Cause I just, yeah.
00:08:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:11
Speaker
You, you missed some Epic dollar games that we're going to talk about.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yes.
00:08:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:15
Speaker
So back to me, me, me, a mixer was fantastic.
00:08:18
Speaker
We got back.
00:08:19
Speaker
Did I can't remember what we record the podcast.
00:08:21
Speaker
I guess that's what we did.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker
So it was a quick recap.
00:08:24
Speaker
It was very Metallica, Metallica heavy.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yes.
00:08:27
Speaker
Because it was the, it was the new thing that we,
00:08:32
Speaker
We had an inkling that Stern was thinking of doing something.
00:08:35
Speaker
So I'm ecstatic that they were able to show it to us.
00:08:40
Speaker
Really a big recap.
00:08:41
Speaker
The light show is better.
00:08:43
Speaker
The layout is tweaked to be better.
00:08:47
Speaker
The art is better.
00:08:49
Speaker
By the way, I'm still getting over my cough that I had six weeks ago.
00:08:55
Speaker
So I'm trying to not blow your ears out.
00:09:00
Speaker
The music, there's more music in this.
00:09:04
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.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:20
Speaker
And this is not just a repolish, this isn't a lazy, hey, we want to sell a few hundred games thing.
00:09:29
Speaker
They really push this as if it were a cornerstone.
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:35
Speaker
A lot of love and care into it.
00:09:36
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:36
Speaker
Amazing.
00:09:38
Speaker
So, and really, the good thing we talked about this, the best thing Stern does is they make the LE worth it.
00:09:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:47
Speaker
You can argue, okay, I can do some of that myself, which is true.
00:09:51
Speaker
However, you're going to get a complete package with the LE, right?
00:09:56
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.
00:10:03
Speaker
You can still get the speaker lights.
00:10:05
Speaker
You can still get the expression lights.
00:10:06
Speaker
You can still get a lot of stuff.
00:10:08
Speaker
It's not going to be an LE, but it still feels valuable.
00:10:13
Speaker
And that's huge to make sure people still are satisfied regardless of which tier they're going for.
00:10:19
Speaker
So if you have not had a Metallica, I'd buy it.
00:10:22
Speaker
I'd buy this version.
00:10:23
Speaker
It's so good.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:25
Speaker
Actually, two more things that we covered that day.
00:10:27
Speaker
Just kind of recap now that we've kind of stewed on it and sat on it.
00:10:30
Speaker
I almost said Magic Girl.
00:10:32
Speaker
Not Magic Girl.
00:10:33
Speaker
Alice in Wonderland.
00:10:34
Speaker
Alice, yeah.
00:10:35
Speaker
What did you think?
00:10:36
Speaker
Now that you've had some time to think about it.
00:10:38
Speaker
So, okay.
00:10:39
Speaker
We did find out.
00:10:40
Speaker
And I did talk to – it's Melvin, right?
00:10:44
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:10:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:10:45
Speaker
I talked to Melvin.
00:10:46
Speaker
And I asked him about it.
00:10:47
Speaker
I was like, were the upper flippers like – were they disabled?
00:10:51
Speaker
He's like, well, you probably got a pass through.
00:10:54
Speaker
which means I was able to get up to the upper play field without earning it.
00:11:00
Speaker
And so, so when we, when we recorded earlier and I was like, I don't know what's going on.
00:11:04
Speaker
I got up there and I couldn't get it.
00:11:05
Speaker
So I, I, I had a, I had unearned accomplishments in the game by getting up there.
00:11:11
Speaker
So that, that made it, it still shoots.
00:11:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:16
Speaker
It is heavy on,
00:11:18
Speaker
on a presentation on art on vibe.
00:11:24
Speaker
It's, it's really heavy on that type of thing.
00:11:27
Speaker
It's going to look really pretty in your art room.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:31
Speaker
I would still argue that this is still, if you only have one game, this is not it.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:11:38
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.
00:11:46
Speaker
I
Pinball Game Comparisons: Alice in Wonderland and Others
00:11:47
Speaker
have played magic girl.
00:11:49
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
00:12:10
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.
00:12:14
Speaker
No, there's like stand-up targets.
00:12:17
Speaker
Not stand-up.
00:12:17
Speaker
There's drop targets up underneath that play field and stuff.
00:12:21
Speaker
So you're actually hitting stuff underneath that massive play field.
00:12:25
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.
00:12:35
Speaker
Because we both played for a while and you got the pass through.
00:12:40
Speaker
and I never got anything out of it either.
00:12:42
Speaker
It's kind of your main feature.
00:12:43
Speaker
I mean, it takes up like the upper third of the play field.
00:12:46
Speaker
There really should be, really be a moment where it says, Hey, shoot here.
00:12:51
Speaker
And you get to play it once.
00:12:52
Speaker
So that way you get the bug to, Hey, I want to get back up there.
00:12:55
Speaker
Um, that's really my only criticism outside of like, it just needs a little more polish overall, though.
00:13:02
Speaker
It feels like a great game.
00:13:04
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:13:04
Speaker
I wouldn't say great.
00:13:05
Speaker
Not for my, I wouldn't say great.
00:13:06
Speaker
It feels like a good game.
00:13:07
Speaker
Feels like a good game.
00:13:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:09
Speaker
Uh,
00:13:09
Speaker
Now go with me on this.
00:13:11
Speaker
If you're old enough, you may, you may actually identify with this analogy.
00:13:16
Speaker
So when Def Leppard came up with hysteria, the idea was in Mutt Lang who produced it.
00:13:24
Speaker
He also did back in black.
00:13:25
Speaker
He also did Shania Twain stuff and was married to Shania Twain for a while.
00:13:30
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.
00:13:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:42
Speaker
He spent so much time on it.
00:13:44
Speaker
So, and they even did like almost like back to back tours with that because it was by far their biggest album.
00:13:52
Speaker
So they just did one tour, and I don't even know if they unpacked their bags.
00:13:56
Speaker
They just did it again, and they made so much money off that tour.
00:13:59
Speaker
So when their next release came out, everybody was anticipating, this is going to be Hysteria 2.0.
00:14:08
Speaker
And it was Adrenalize.
00:14:11
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.
00:14:23
Speaker
Not kidding.
00:14:24
Speaker
That's the extent of the song.
00:14:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:14:25
Speaker
We all know that they, they sing about, you know, sex and lifestyle and that kind of stuff.
00:14:30
Speaker
But when you listen to it, you felt like, okay, the magic's gone.
00:14:34
Speaker
Like it is not the same quality.
00:14:36
Speaker
It's not the same focus.
00:14:37
Speaker
It's not the same presentation they had before.
00:14:40
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.
00:14:48
Speaker
it's not going to be Circus Voltaire.
00:14:53
Speaker
It's not going to be Tales of the Arabian Nights.
00:14:55
Speaker
So if you want a late version of a J-pop game, this is it.
00:15:01
Speaker
I would argue there are better games for your money.
00:15:05
Speaker
But again, you make the decision.
00:15:07
Speaker
I agree.
00:15:09
Speaker
And then the other thing I really want to point out
00:15:12
Speaker
I'm addicted to pre-war games now, man.
Exploring Pre-War Pinball and Personal Anecdotes
00:15:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:15:15
Speaker
That's because you won a medal.
00:15:17
Speaker
I did win a medal.
00:15:18
Speaker
And I was like one of only three people to get a high score on merry-go-round.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:22
Speaker
You also cheated.
00:15:23
Speaker
You brought a magnet and you just kind of moved the ball around.
00:15:26
Speaker
No, no.
00:15:27
Speaker
I actually, what it was is the plunger.
00:15:29
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.
00:15:37
Speaker
So I never actually played that game because the line was always so long.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:41
Speaker
But I've actually been looking at pre-war games.
00:15:45
Speaker
I know Jack Danger had posted a video years ago about some of those pre-war games.
00:15:50
Speaker
I've always been intrigued, right?
00:15:51
Speaker
Because they don't use electricity.
00:15:52
Speaker
They're all mechanical, like the weight of the ball.
00:15:55
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.
00:16:02
Speaker
Actually, I played that one.
00:16:04
Speaker
That's the one I played.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, that one's fun.
00:16:06
Speaker
It was like directly across from the tournament one.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, I played that one.
00:16:11
Speaker
He actually had two of them and then they had a jigsaw was the other one I was looking at.
00:16:15
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.
00:16:24
Speaker
And really for the price of them, they're not terrible.
00:16:27
Speaker
So,
00:16:28
Speaker
Anywho, I don't know.
00:16:30
Speaker
I would like to have a pre-war game.
00:16:32
Speaker
I don't need to have a whole game room full.
00:16:34
Speaker
So we have a wish list, so we'll send it out to the listeners.
00:16:37
Speaker
So you want a pre-war game.
00:16:39
Speaker
And I'm assuming you can go around preferably if you got one out there.
00:16:42
Speaker
A functional one.
00:16:44
Speaker
You don't want a project, right?
00:16:46
Speaker
Correct.
00:16:47
Speaker
I'd be interested too.
00:16:48
Speaker
I don't mind cleaning up, but I don't want to rust.
00:16:51
Speaker
I don't want to repair it.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:53
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
00:17:17
Speaker
So day two, my father-in-law was with me.
00:17:21
Speaker
He's never been downtown in Chicago.
00:17:22
Speaker
He's an architect.
00:17:23
Speaker
So I took him to the architect tour, which I know you guys probably aren't interested about it since it's pinball.
00:17:29
Speaker
But I do want to give one quick little thing.
00:17:32
Speaker
So if you've ever been to the observation deck, they take you up to like the 96th floor on the skyscraper, right?
00:17:36
Speaker
And you overlook the whole lake.
00:17:38
Speaker
It's the old Sears building, right?
00:17:39
Speaker
Like whatever they're calling it now.
00:17:41
Speaker
No, it's not.
00:17:42
Speaker
It's not the Hancock building.
00:17:45
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.
00:17:52
Speaker
Sure.
00:17:53
Speaker
And so my father-in-law really wanted a Chicago dog.
00:17:56
Speaker
So I like devil dogs.
00:17:57
Speaker
That's downtown.
00:17:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:17:59
Speaker
Cause they have this insanely good hot dog called.
00:18:00
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.
00:18:08
Speaker
Delicious.
00:18:09
Speaker
But he did traditional, right?
00:18:10
Speaker
Like the sports peppers, the tomatoes, the mustard, all that stuff.
00:18:13
Speaker
Right.
00:18:14
Speaker
Anywho, so we get the hot dog and stuff, but we have about 15 minutes before we can get to the boat.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:20
Speaker
And my GPS is telling me it's about a 20-minute walk.
00:18:23
Speaker
So we start booking it.
00:18:24
Speaker
We're running the whole way, right?
00:18:26
Speaker
We finally, we barely make it to the boat with two minutes to spare.
00:18:30
Speaker
He whips out the tickets, hands it to the lady.
00:18:32
Speaker
She looks at us and she goes, this is for the wrong tour.
00:18:36
Speaker
You're on, this is the wrong boat line.
00:18:40
Speaker
You actually need the other boat company that's that away about 15 minutes.
00:18:46
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
00:19:03
Speaker
We walk back over to the other boat place and we're like, okay, when's the next 45 minute grad?
00:19:07
Speaker
This is 11 o'clock in the morning.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yep.
00:19:08
Speaker
They're like, Oh, the next 45 minutes at four o'clock in the afternoon.
00:19:12
Speaker
Oh, geez.
00:19:13
Speaker
Oh, and I don't want to let my father-in-law down.
00:19:15
Speaker
Cause I'm like, this is architecture.
00:19:16
Speaker
You're in Chicago.
00:19:17
Speaker
Like this is what he wanted to see.
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, this is.
00:19:19
Speaker
And so what's your next tour?
00:19:21
Speaker
Like it's the 90 minute tour.
00:19:22
Speaker
It starts in 30 minutes and you know, it's 90 minutes long.
00:19:25
Speaker
I'm like, well, sounds good.
00:19:28
Speaker
So we upgrade our tickets.
00:19:30
Speaker
It was what it was.
00:19:31
Speaker
And we, of course, had to do the beam.
00:19:32
Speaker
But yeah, by the time we got back to Expo, it was like 4 o'clock.
00:19:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:37
Speaker
However, I'll tell you my recap, though.
00:19:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:40
Speaker
So we got up.
00:19:42
Speaker
We were kind of hungry.
00:19:44
Speaker
So we went to breakfast.
00:19:46
Speaker
Okay.
00:19:46
Speaker
It's a little later.
00:19:47
Speaker
We slept in a little bit.
00:19:49
Speaker
So we went and got breakfast.
00:19:51
Speaker
And then we were trying to get with Zach and Nicole a little later.
00:19:56
Speaker
But they had an appointment at 2 o'clock.
00:19:59
Speaker
So we're driving back from breakfast, mind you.
00:20:03
Speaker
And they're like, hey, do you want to go to lunch?
00:20:06
Speaker
So like, yeah, sure.
00:20:09
Speaker
So we basically went right back, picked up everybody, and we went from breakfast to lunch.
00:20:17
Speaker
Did you not know that?
00:20:19
Speaker
I did.
00:20:19
Speaker
It's funny to hear.
00:20:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:22
Speaker
I didn't say no, I didn't load up.
00:20:24
Speaker
I didn't go crazy.
00:20:25
Speaker
I had like, I had like some eggs and maybe some toast.
00:20:27
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.
00:20:41
Speaker
And so that, that was, I think I got everybody.
00:20:46
Speaker
I, I was trying to buy lunch, but Zach and Nicole would not let me.
00:20:49
Speaker
They, they just picked up the lunch, which again,
00:20:52
Speaker
Just shows how great they are because they fed me.
00:20:56
Speaker
But I got a burger, and I ended up splitting it and handing it out.
00:21:01
Speaker
And it was really good, by the way.
00:21:04
Speaker
So is it Jolly's?
00:21:06
Speaker
Maybe it's Jolly's.
00:21:08
Speaker
So then we got back, and then you were coming back, so we went and picked you up.
00:21:13
Speaker
So that's, that's essentially, that's essentially my day.
00:21:16
Speaker
I have, that's what's funny is because we had the hot dog at 10 30.
00:21:19
Speaker
So I'm like, are you guys hungry?
00:21:21
Speaker
And you're like, no, no, no.
00:21:23
Speaker
We're, we're stuffed.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:25
Speaker
So, so we, then we got to pick up Josh.
00:21:27
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?
00:21:37
Speaker
And he's like, no, we're going to Hamilton something.
00:21:41
Speaker
So it was Arlington Park.
00:21:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:21:43
Speaker
And you shopped at Arlington Heights.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:45
Speaker
And Arlington Heights was actually closer.
00:21:47
Speaker
It was like, okay, well, and you said, no, we got Arlington.
00:21:50
Speaker
I'm like, because I think I see.
00:21:52
Speaker
And then you saw us as you were driving away.
00:21:54
Speaker
You're like, oh, crap.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yep.
00:21:56
Speaker
So we ended up going, picking you up.
00:21:57
Speaker
And then we came back.
00:21:58
Speaker
And then we started Expo Night.
00:21:59
Speaker
That was pretty much that was that recap.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:03
Speaker
I ordered Giordano's, which I've decided I do like Giordano's more than Lou's.
00:22:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:09
Speaker
I know people are going to be upset.
00:22:10
Speaker
Oh, well it is what it is.
00:22:11
Speaker
That's fine.
00:22:12
Speaker
But the thing I was frustrated with, we ordered the pizza.
00:22:15
Speaker
I know it takes, if you don't know about deep dish pizza, it takes 30 to 45 minutes to cook.
00:22:21
Speaker
Right.
00:22:22
Speaker
And so I knew this was happening.
00:22:23
Speaker
So I timed it.
00:22:24
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.
00:22:30
Speaker
We're walking into the hotel.
00:22:32
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,
00:22:39
Speaker
as on time as they had quoted.
00:22:41
Speaker
So they were supposed to be there by three 50 half hour later.
00:22:46
Speaker
It's four 20.
00:22:47
Speaker
I finally get the call.
00:22:48
Speaker
Hey, we're pulling up.
00:22:49
Speaker
I need you to come meet me down in the lobby.
00:22:51
Speaker
I'm like, you can't bring it up.
00:22:53
Speaker
He's like, no, I need you to bring it down to the lobby or I need you.
00:22:56
Speaker
So we're on the 16th floor.
00:22:58
Speaker
I get down there.
00:22:59
Speaker
I'm frustrated because I'm hungry.
00:23:01
Speaker
It's not the dude's fault, but I,
00:23:04
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.
00:23:11
Speaker
let's just say an employee was taken advantage of at a hotel.
00:23:15
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:23:16
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.
00:23:20
Speaker
I'm frustrated that 30 minutes later, you guys didn't say anything.
00:23:24
Speaker
And he's like, oh.
00:23:26
Speaker
And then it's really awkward because the story was the story.
00:23:30
Speaker
And so I'm like, here's a tip.
00:23:32
Speaker
I took my pizza and just went and ate.
00:23:34
Speaker
And just...
00:23:36
Speaker
You cried in your pizza.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit.
00:23:39
Speaker
I will say, do you know how I know that Chicago pizzas take 45 minutes?
00:23:44
Speaker
How?
00:23:44
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.
00:23:55
Speaker
Okay, let's go get pizza.
00:23:56
Speaker
We're in Chicago.
00:23:57
Speaker
So we sit down and we order pizza.
00:24:00
Speaker
We ordered it at 12.05.
00:24:01
Speaker
Didn't realize it took 45 minutes.
00:24:05
Speaker
So we got the pizza at not getting like 1247.
00:24:08
Speaker
We immediately tell them, get it to go.
00:24:14
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.
00:24:24
Speaker
Then we, then we start down another piece of pizza.
00:24:28
Speaker
And then we sprinted like six blocks to get to the architecture tour and
00:24:33
Speaker
And we got it as basically the boat was pulling away.
00:24:35
Speaker
So we got on the boat and my brother and I sat there in like a food nausea coma for about 30 minutes.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:42
Speaker
So I could have told you that it takes 45 minutes.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:46
Speaker
Well, and I knew it took 45 minutes.
00:24:47
Speaker
At least we went to the right dock.
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:49
Speaker
I didn't realize it was going to take an hour and a half to get my pizza.
00:24:53
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:24:54
Speaker
Chicago pizza is not punctual.
00:24:57
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:24:58
Speaker
Anyhow.
00:24:59
Speaker
So then, so what did we
Homebrew Pinball Games Discussion
00:25:01
Speaker
do after that?
00:25:01
Speaker
Did we do...
00:25:02
Speaker
We went to the floor, right?
00:25:05
Speaker
And we started playing saw.
00:25:08
Speaker
We went to the home brews.
00:25:09
Speaker
That's where we went.
00:25:11
Speaker
It's nice.
00:25:11
Speaker
I took pictures as we went, right?
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's good.
00:25:13
Speaker
So I started out on greatest showman.
00:25:18
Speaker
Got separated a little bit.
00:25:19
Speaker
So we were kind of, okay.
00:25:20
Speaker
I actually never got to play greatest showman cause it was a big line.
00:25:23
Speaker
So you, you have to tell me about greatest showman.
00:25:25
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:26
Speaker
Greatest showman.
00:25:27
Speaker
They're both whirlwind.
00:25:29
Speaker
So saw and greatest showman are both whirlwind re themes.
00:25:32
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
00:25:57
Speaker
About $16,000 in parts and material.
00:26:00
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:01
Speaker
I would have guessed 17, but okay.
00:26:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:03
Speaker
How long did it take to complete over 800 hours, which they weren't done.
00:26:06
Speaker
They still had more coding to do.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yep.
00:26:09
Speaker
Who did the art?
00:26:10
Speaker
Jay French was 90%.
00:26:11
Speaker
Alex caught 10%.
00:26:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:13
Speaker
How many people worked on this?
00:26:16
Speaker
So Jeffrey Jones worked with the artist, designed the basic rules, and built the physical machine.
00:26:22
Speaker
Lisa Sue Jones did the coding, light shows, and rule set.
00:26:26
Speaker
So,
00:26:28
Speaker
outside of contracting out the artwork, it's really just two people that made this one game, right?
00:26:35
Speaker
And the biggest challenge was doing coding.
00:26:37
Speaker
As far as it goes, it played like whirlwind.
00:26:39
Speaker
Like it was.
00:26:40
Speaker
I mean, it's whirlwind.
00:26:41
Speaker
What else?
00:26:43
Speaker
It's a professional play field.
00:26:45
Speaker
That's what's interesting.
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
It's a developed play field.
00:26:48
Speaker
So because saw is a whirlwind as well.
00:26:50
Speaker
And the interesting part is, is the skill shot.
00:26:52
Speaker
If you know the skill shot on whirlwind, you have to like kind of short plunge into the drops.
00:26:57
Speaker
Sure.
00:26:57
Speaker
And that gives you your skill shot.
00:26:59
Speaker
That's what it has to be for any whirlwind, like re-theme or whatever, because that's how it was on Saw.
00:27:03
Speaker
That's how it was on this.
00:27:05
Speaker
I really enjoyed this game.
00:27:06
Speaker
I thought it was very well done.
00:27:07
Speaker
The art looked great.
00:27:09
Speaker
The whole game looked very professional.
00:27:11
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.
00:27:18
Speaker
But other than that, you have one person coding and they didn't know how to code before doing this.
00:27:23
Speaker
So I applaud them.
00:27:24
Speaker
The whole game feels... Hey, didn't it also win Best of Show in the homebrew area?
00:27:31
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:31
Speaker
So it's doing something right.
00:27:33
Speaker
It really is fantastic.
00:27:36
Speaker
I'm like, if you have one critique, that's the only critique.
00:27:38
Speaker
It needs more code.
00:27:40
Speaker
But then again, it's like she knows that she's working on code and
00:27:43
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
00:28:08
Speaker
As long as they're not selling the project.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:10
Speaker
For, for nonprofit fan use, you can do it.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:28:13
Speaker
So anyhow, it just, it kind of made me chuckle.
00:28:15
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?
00:28:22
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:28:23
Speaker
Um,
00:28:25
Speaker
And then I played saw.
00:28:26
Speaker
Holy crap.
00:28:27
Speaker
So that's great.
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:29
Speaker
And our friend, our buddy, Glenn, Glenn Wecker did the sound on it.
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:34
Speaker
It's, it's great.
00:28:36
Speaker
Like it's okay.
00:28:38
Speaker
Speaking of someone who's not a horror guy, I'm not, it does nothing for me.
00:28:43
Speaker
Same.
00:28:43
Speaker
However, I did watch Friday the 13th on TV the other day, the first one.
00:28:49
Speaker
And I are, I already knew who the killer was, but I watched it.
00:28:53
Speaker
I'm like,
00:28:55
Speaker
it is laughably not, not scary.
00:28:58
Speaker
Like it's like nothing about it is scary.
00:29:01
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.
00:29:09
Speaker
But anyway, keep going.
00:29:10
Speaker
So saw,
00:29:12
Speaker
So I guess this is the question, though, too.
00:29:15
Speaker
Saw had five people working on it.
00:29:17
Speaker
They had a dedicated artist.
00:29:18
Speaker
They had Glennon's the dedicated sound guy.
00:29:21
Speaker
It was a team of people that came together to make this game.
00:29:24
Speaker
And honestly, this game felt more professional than some manufactured games I played.
00:29:31
Speaker
And I'm not going to point anything out, but...
00:29:34
Speaker
Really, honestly, the concepts in this game, even with it being a redesigned whirlwind, the concepts in this game were pretty amazing.
00:29:43
Speaker
And it shot really great for a re-theme.
00:29:47
Speaker
The coding felt great.
00:29:48
Speaker
It felt like a full game.
00:29:51
Speaker
It almost felt like it was in the wrong section.
00:29:55
Speaker
Because as you went to go play other homebrews... If you didn't know, you would assume this was a cornerstone game.
00:30:03
Speaker
If you didn't know the difference.
00:30:05
Speaker
I will give the huge caveat, though, is homebrews have the ability to do whatever they want without licensing interference.
00:30:18
Speaker
Okay?
00:30:20
Speaker
So imagine what some of these games that have notoriously challenging licensing.
00:30:27
Speaker
Like, imagine a James Bond game.
00:30:30
Speaker
with being able to use all of the Bond assets.
00:30:34
Speaker
And even Ellen talked about some of the challenges with the Marvel themes.
00:30:40
Speaker
And AK, they do a great job.
00:30:42
Speaker
They do a great job.
00:30:44
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.
00:30:52
Speaker
And it works.
00:30:53
Speaker
They were able to work with the constraints.
00:30:56
Speaker
But that's always the challenge when you have a homebrew is that you don't have to deal with that.
00:31:01
Speaker
So you can do whatever.
00:31:03
Speaker
I imagine a Star Wars if you could use whatever clips you want.
00:31:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:08
Speaker
Well, and granted, with it being a homebrew, there is some leniency on stuff is like.
00:31:12
Speaker
They have a giant bear trap.
00:31:14
Speaker
I've never seen the saw movies.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:16
Speaker
Like Scott said, it's not my thing.
00:31:17
Speaker
Not my thing.
00:31:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
And so they have this, it's called the reverse bear trap, I guess, in the movie.
00:31:22
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.
00:31:29
Speaker
And the thing opens and closes during certain, certain things.
00:31:32
Speaker
And then I guess there's also, I never saw any of this.
00:31:34
Speaker
Like I didn't get deep enough in, I guess.
00:31:37
Speaker
But there's also like,
00:31:39
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
00:32:05
Speaker
there are a lot of reasons why passion projects can look amazing.
00:32:11
Speaker
And it's, it's a combination of licensing and unlimited budget.
00:32:17
Speaker
And then the next game I played was,
00:32:20
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
00:32:48
Speaker
I'll turn it into Dukes of hazard and it's fun.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's fun.
00:32:51
Speaker
And he grew up watching the Dukes of hazard like I did, you know, as a nine year old kid.
00:32:55
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's total nostalgia.
00:32:57
Speaker
It's great.
00:32:58
Speaker
But he also updated it too.
00:32:59
Speaker
So you can get multiball in it, which you can do with Paragon.
00:33:02
Speaker
And I got to multiball and it was, it was very rewarding.
00:33:05
Speaker
Um,
00:33:06
Speaker
A little difficult just because if you've ever played Paragon, you have to spell Paragon to get some special abilities.
00:33:11
Speaker
And this is how you had to do it as well with Dukes of Hazzard.
00:33:16
Speaker
Next, did we play?
00:33:17
Speaker
I played Led Zeppelin.
00:33:18
Speaker
Did you play Led Zeppelin?
00:33:20
Speaker
Yes.
00:33:20
Speaker
So this is Duke Congress' game.
00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah, he's a Utah guy.
00:33:24
Speaker
And he actually had, I believe he's been working on this for a long time.
00:33:30
Speaker
And I don't know if he, was he working on this before Steve Ritchie did his Lids Up?
00:33:35
Speaker
Yes.
00:33:36
Speaker
Actually, yeah.
00:33:37
Speaker
So his actually has a stairway.
00:33:40
Speaker
And it's like a total cool ball.
00:33:44
Speaker
It's called something.
00:33:45
Speaker
It's called, I can't remember exactly what it's called.
00:33:49
Speaker
But it's a cool thing because the ladder is these, it's like a stepwise escalator.
00:33:56
Speaker
So you hit it, it drops the target, and then you shoot it again.
00:34:00
Speaker
And it locks the ball, which is impressive considering you're hitting it with velocity.
00:34:05
Speaker
And it moves up the ladder.
00:34:07
Speaker
And then you repeat that.
00:34:09
Speaker
So the coolest thing is loading up the shot with five balls.
00:34:15
Speaker
And then you start multi-ball.
00:34:18
Speaker
And the, you know, the escalator goes up, the stairway to heaven goes up to the upper play field.
00:34:24
Speaker
And it's, it's really cool.
00:34:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:26
Speaker
So it looks great.
00:34:28
Speaker
Steve, you did a great job.
00:34:29
Speaker
We, we did talk about having him on.
00:34:31
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.
00:34:38
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,
00:34:46
Speaker
What is passion project?
00:34:47
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.
00:35:08
Speaker
Did you know about that?
00:35:09
Speaker
Yep, I did.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
He like got all the parts and did all the wiring and all that stuff and made his own medieval madness.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:14
Speaker
which is bananas, but impressive.
00:35:18
Speaker
And he's found some really weird gems.
00:35:20
Speaker
Like I think he ended up with a champion pub cabinet and he was peeling the sticker off of it.
00:35:25
Speaker
And there was a monster bash sticker underneath.
00:35:27
Speaker
Oh, that's funny.
00:35:28
Speaker
I mean, it was vice versa.
00:35:29
Speaker
You peeled the monster bash and there was champion pub.
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:31
Speaker
Anywho.
00:35:32
Speaker
I'm trying to think what other games borderlands was really cool.
00:35:36
Speaker
Did you play borderlands?
00:35:37
Speaker
Cause I, the line was always too long.
00:35:39
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.
00:36:01
Speaker
And then trying to think what else was there.
00:36:04
Speaker
I played like a, there were a few others.
00:36:06
Speaker
There was Harry Potter, at least it had the diarrhea.
00:36:10
Speaker
He, it's still very early, but it looks cool.
00:36:13
Speaker
Nightmare before Christmas.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yep.
00:36:15
Speaker
I played that.
00:36:15
Speaker
That was fun.
00:36:17
Speaker
I can't remember Mark's last name, but it's a, it's a good one.
00:36:20
Speaker
I'm trying to think what else there was some kind of like tattoo terror, like tarot reader card game.
00:36:28
Speaker
And it was good.
00:36:29
Speaker
The problem was that the bottom right flipper wasn't working.
00:36:31
Speaker
So it's hard to kind of figure that one out.
00:36:34
Speaker
They had Overwatch.
00:36:35
Speaker
I never had to play that one because it had a long line too.
00:36:37
Speaker
But it was pretty impressive from what I saw.
00:36:40
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.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Pinball Enthusiasm
00:36:50
Speaker
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater looked really good.
00:36:53
Speaker
The shots, they are good.
00:36:57
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.
00:37:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:09
Speaker
You know, it's our tricks.
00:37:11
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.
00:37:19
Speaker
but it's, it was really good.
00:37:21
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.
00:37:28
Speaker
And so it, it was, it was impressive.
00:37:31
Speaker
Um, and the other thing too, is Nick, we, we posted a video to our Facebook and whatnot.
00:37:36
Speaker
So go and check it out.
00:37:37
Speaker
But it was kind of a, from, from cog connections, uh, did a video on, um,
00:37:45
Speaker
on Tony Hawk's pro scatter.
00:37:46
Speaker
No, sorry.
00:37:47
Speaker
Cool toys.
00:37:48
Speaker
There were so many content creators.
00:37:49
Speaker
It was amazing.
00:37:50
Speaker
Cool toys.
00:37:51
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.
00:37:59
Speaker
So like, like the, obviously you're playing a pinball machine, but he wanted more thematically it to be Tony Hawk.
00:38:06
Speaker
Talk about the skateboard.
00:38:07
Speaker
the skateboard's amazing.
00:38:08
Speaker
You shot, it's like the Avengers spinner.
00:38:12
Speaker
If you can imagine that, the doctor strange thing, I had the way that he had a position and everything posts that rotated.
00:38:19
Speaker
What happened was, is at the skateboard and then, um,
00:38:24
Speaker
You could spin the disc one way, which if you know skateboarding terms, it was a front shove it.
00:38:28
Speaker
If you spin it the other way, it was a back shove it.
00:38:30
Speaker
If you shot it underneath the skateboard and spun the skateboard around, that was a kickflip.
00:38:36
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.
00:38:45
Speaker
That was a heel flip.
00:38:47
Speaker
And then you could do like variable flips and stuff like that if you could really get good at it.
00:38:50
Speaker
The really cool feature, as you were talking about, there was a vertical play field.
00:38:54
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.
00:39:10
Speaker
And if you held up the flipper, it would shoot it back into play.
00:39:13
Speaker
Right.
00:39:14
Speaker
Kind of like the dead bounce from Foo Fighters.
00:39:17
Speaker
Yes.
00:39:18
Speaker
And just the whole concept.
00:39:20
Speaker
If you've never played Tommy Hawk's Pro Skater, maybe this doesn't interest you.
00:39:23
Speaker
But all the objectives.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was based around things you would do in the game, like collect tape.
00:39:29
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
00:39:49
Speaker
the half pipes and stuff like that.
00:39:50
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.
00:40:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
And so I just, I really loved it.
00:40:05
Speaker
It was right next to our friends, the electric playground.
00:40:07
Speaker
So we sell you electric playground, Robin and Alex, Robin, Alex are there.
00:40:12
Speaker
Alec is there and we get to check out the topper.
00:40:15
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:40:16
Speaker
And I'm wearing their hat.
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:18
Speaker
Cool hat.
00:40:19
Speaker
Amazing hat.
00:40:20
Speaker
And it was, it was just an awesome experience.
00:40:22
Speaker
Like they were very grateful for the episode we were able to do with them.
00:40:25
Speaker
And I, I really had fun doing that episode.
00:40:27
Speaker
It was, it was a fun episode to do any who, so it was cool to see that also Friday the 13th.
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:33
Speaker
And you know what?
00:40:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:35
Speaker
That also, if you didn't know any better, you would assume that was a cornerstone game.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:43
Speaker
it shot well.
00:40:44
Speaker
It, I don't, I think it was original layout too.
00:40:46
Speaker
Yeah, it was.
00:40:47
Speaker
I remember correctly.
00:40:48
Speaker
So, I mean, great, great games all the way around.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:52
Speaker
And so, uh, and then we went to the, by the way, the electric playground, like go and look at their top.
00:40:58
Speaker
Like they are really cool in person.
00:41:00
Speaker
If you want to get a special topper for your game, uh,
00:41:06
Speaker
They really did win.
00:41:07
Speaker
If you want to get the Twilight Zone one, it's really cool.
00:41:11
Speaker
There's like a wire form that takes a ball around.
00:41:13
Speaker
It's cool.
00:41:15
Speaker
Yeah.
Seminar Reflections and Industry Insights
00:41:16
Speaker
Then we went to the 40 Years of Pinball seminar.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yep.
00:41:19
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?
00:41:30
Speaker
Larry DeMar.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:33
Speaker
And
00:41:35
Speaker
I can't remember the other person that maybe Bill grew up.
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:38
Speaker
Probably Bill, but, but it almost felt like, don't get me wrong.
00:41:43
Speaker
They gave credit due to Stern on keeping stuff alive, but it felt like it kind of focused on other games.
00:41:49
Speaker
Well, which is fine because like Gary Stern did a 40 years of pimp.
00:41:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:53
Speaker
Pinball like right after that, which was, yeah, it was good.
00:41:56
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,
00:42:05
Speaker
it was a two hour seminar and they spent 90 minutes introducing people.
00:42:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:11
Speaker
And you got eight people.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:13
Speaker
And so it w it would have been great if they're like, okay, you have three minutes.
00:42:17
Speaker
Tell us why you're here.
00:42:18
Speaker
Like, what did you do for pinball?
00:42:20
Speaker
So that would have been a little nicer if it were streamlined.
00:42:24
Speaker
Um, that was, uh, it was still, still interesting seeing things.
00:42:28
Speaker
And, uh, and this is probably the last time Pat is on,
00:42:35
Speaker
is doing this, I'm betting.
00:42:38
Speaker
Here was the panel.
00:42:40
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.
00:42:50
Speaker
No, no.
00:42:51
Speaker
Actually, he came back and he did Simpsons, if I remember correctly.
00:42:55
Speaker
Keith Johnson, Greg Ferraris, which was the head art guy at Stern.
00:43:02
Speaker
He just barely retired.
00:43:04
Speaker
Roger Sharp,
00:43:06
Speaker
And Jack Guarneri, which I don't think ever worked at Stern, but he sold a bunch of Stern products.
00:43:10
Speaker
He was actually the biggest dealer.
00:43:12
Speaker
And the host was Pat Lawler.
00:43:15
Speaker
And it just...
00:43:17
Speaker
It was like you said, I, it was too much preamble and not enough amble.
00:43:20
Speaker
You know what I'm saying?
00:43:22
Speaker
But overall it was good.
00:43:23
Speaker
The thing that made me chuckle and you and I tried to get a picture of this.
00:43:26
Speaker
I really wish we would have got a picture of this.
00:43:28
Speaker
I wanted to get a picture, but it was also our phones were in our pockets and we couldn't whip it.
00:43:31
Speaker
It was at the very end when he was wrapping up.
00:43:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:34
Speaker
So they went, they went through games.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:37
Speaker
Landmark games.
00:43:38
Speaker
So they're going through like space shuttle from like 86.
00:43:41
Speaker
And the reason it's landmark game is because they were so close to closing door.
00:43:46
Speaker
That like they were putting all their chips in on space shuttle.
00:43:50
Speaker
The arcade industry collapsed in 83 because there was high volume, low quality.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yep.
00:43:56
Speaker
And so when space shuttle turned everything around by selling thousands of units, like, oh, we can we can keep the lights on.
00:44:03
Speaker
And space shuttle is kind of what propelled them into the late 80s, early 90s and stuff.
00:44:08
Speaker
And then I'm never going to be able to look at this game the same ever again.
00:44:11
Speaker
But Monopoly, I guess, kept the lights on for Stern.
00:44:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:15
Speaker
Which is funny because it's not revered as really much of a great game.
00:44:18
Speaker
But at that time, I guess it really flipped things around for Stern.
00:44:22
Speaker
Well, okay.
00:44:23
Speaker
I would say it kept the life support going.
00:44:27
Speaker
Life support going to come out with games like Simpsons Pinball Party and Lord of the Rings.
00:44:31
Speaker
Wait, when did Monopoly come out?
00:44:33
Speaker
I thought Monopoly was later.
00:44:35
Speaker
No.
00:44:35
Speaker
Was it 0-1?
00:44:37
Speaker
Oh, I will double check, but I didn't realize Monopoly was that early.
00:44:42
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.
00:44:48
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:44:50
Speaker
Yeah, it was 2001.
00:44:51
Speaker
That is crazy.
00:44:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:44:52
Speaker
I would have lost that bet.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:54
Speaker
So, I mean, we have a little, I've never played a Monopoly.
00:44:57
Speaker
Have you ever played Monopoly?
00:44:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:58
Speaker
Yes.
00:44:59
Speaker
And they're kind of quirky.
00:45:00
Speaker
It's a Pat Lawler design.
00:45:03
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.
00:45:11
Speaker
And,
00:45:12
Speaker
I don't know.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:13
Speaker
But it's interesting because this is the game that supposedly kept the lights on at stern for them to keep on going.
00:45:20
Speaker
And so I know that we give it crap.
00:45:22
Speaker
Oh, Chris Granger did sound on this one.
00:45:23
Speaker
No, but it's yeah.
00:45:25
Speaker
We're always like, oh, we'll a fortune and monopoly.
00:45:27
Speaker
But it's seriously like it.
00:45:29
Speaker
It has a place.
00:45:29
Speaker
They sold.
00:45:31
Speaker
Okay.
00:45:33
Speaker
The only terrible game is Thunderbird.
00:45:36
Speaker
So it's all 3,600 over 3,600 for monopoly, which is impressive.
00:45:40
Speaker
It is impressive for, especially when things are dying.
00:45:44
Speaker
And maybe it's because too, they got a boost from Valley Williams going under shortly before 2000.
00:45:49
Speaker
It just, it is one of those things, but the funny part is we're getting, we're getting to it now.
00:45:56
Speaker
So landmark games, right?
00:45:57
Speaker
And you have all these games and then you get to 2021 Godzilla.
00:46:02
Speaker
And we're like, Oh, that's a landmark game.
00:46:05
Speaker
And the pictures they put in is a Sega Godzilla.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:10
Speaker
It was hilarious.
00:46:11
Speaker
It was awesome.
00:46:12
Speaker
And I don't think that Pat, right.
00:46:14
Speaker
This is obviously Pat.
00:46:16
Speaker
Oh, also what about Jeff Borg?
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:21
Speaker
Obviously the slideshow was not before.
00:46:24
Speaker
Okay.
00:46:24
Speaker
This is, this is Pat.
00:46:25
Speaker
Pat said, Hey, we, this is not professional.
00:46:28
Speaker
I don't have any, anybody.
00:46:29
Speaker
So, you know, this is Pat just doing it himself.
00:46:31
Speaker
So it's, I'm going to give him a pass.
00:46:34
Speaker
It's just me chuckling a little bit.
00:46:36
Speaker
And,
00:46:36
Speaker
and still respecting everything they brought to the game.
00:46:39
Speaker
Yes.
00:46:40
Speaker
Just overall, it was funny.
00:46:42
Speaker
And then that night, I had kind of stepped out at that point.
00:46:48
Speaker
I had to go grab my kids.
00:46:52
Speaker
I had to give them a call and talk to them and whatnot.
00:46:54
Speaker
I can't remember.
00:46:55
Speaker
Did we really do anything after?
00:46:56
Speaker
I think we maybe went back to the floor for a little bit.
00:47:00
Speaker
Well, did we...
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:05
Speaker
Was that when we went up to JJ's and Gary and Seth were there?
00:47:09
Speaker
No, that was the next night.
00:47:10
Speaker
That was the next night.
00:47:11
Speaker
My pictures pretty much end at the 40th pinball.
00:47:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:47:15
Speaker
I don't know if you stand on the floor for a little bit and play some more games.
00:47:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think I went and played some games.
00:47:21
Speaker
And then the next morning we went to Chappie's, which is a nice little restaurant there.
00:47:26
Speaker
They had like... Actually, that's where we went before too.
00:47:29
Speaker
The same restaurant.
00:47:31
Speaker
Delicious.
00:47:32
Speaker
I went lunch.
00:47:34
Speaker
We got up late enough.
00:47:35
Speaker
They have the cleanest... Actually, here's a pro tip.
00:47:39
Speaker
If you want to know how much...
00:47:42
Speaker
how clean a restaurant is one check out the menus.
00:47:46
Speaker
If the menus are sticky, that's a warning sign.
00:47:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:49
Speaker
To check out the bathrooms.
00:47:50
Speaker
If they haven't cleaned the bathrooms, that's a warning sign.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:53
Speaker
This place was immaculate and it was really good.
00:47:56
Speaker
And they were super nice.
00:47:59
Speaker
Some nice Hispanic ladies that were running it.
00:48:01
Speaker
It was awesome.
00:48:03
Speaker
So day three started.
00:48:05
Speaker
Um, we went and hit breakfast after we had breakfast.
00:48:09
Speaker
I had been dying to play the new Funhaus.
00:48:11
Speaker
And the pinball company had brought it to Expo.
00:48:14
Speaker
And so you guys are like, what do you want to do?
00:48:15
Speaker
I'm like, Funhaus.
00:48:17
Speaker
And so I kept... Finally, we went over there.
00:48:19
Speaker
And Larry DeMar was there.
00:48:21
Speaker
Larry DeMar was... In a shirt that was Funhaus.
00:48:23
Speaker
It was hilarious.
00:48:24
Speaker
Because he was wearing the Funhaus shirt playing Funhaus.
00:48:27
Speaker
And it just...
00:48:30
Speaker
This game became the highlight of my expo.
00:48:34
Speaker
And it's funny because like I talked to a gentleman that's been in the arcade industry his whole life.
00:48:40
Speaker
And I asked him like, what are your thoughts?
00:48:42
Speaker
He's like, it plays like crap.
00:48:43
Speaker
And I was like, what do you mean?
00:48:44
Speaker
He's like, there's just something missing from it.
00:48:46
Speaker
I'm like, what do you mean there's something missing from it?
00:48:49
Speaker
And he just, he couldn't put his finger on it.
00:48:51
Speaker
And, and I think it's that same reaction is when CGC started coming out with the remakes when they're like, yeah.
00:48:56
Speaker
And people were like, the flippers are different.
00:48:58
Speaker
I'm like,
00:48:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:48:59
Speaker
Maybe, but really each game plays different.
00:49:02
Speaker
Like my medieval madness plays differently than my buddy Brock's Royal edition.
00:49:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:09
Speaker
And I actually like my, the way mine plays better.
00:49:13
Speaker
And that's the thing.
00:49:14
Speaker
I just had a smile on my face playing.
00:49:16
Speaker
It was so good.
00:49:17
Speaker
And I didn't even play the limited edition.
00:49:19
Speaker
I just played the classic edition and I'm sitting there looking at that price on this machine.
00:49:24
Speaker
Cause it's like the show deal.
00:49:25
Speaker
Hands down deal of the show.
00:49:27
Speaker
If you guys want a fun house remake, go, go get it.
00:49:31
Speaker
It is.
00:49:32
Speaker
It is.
00:49:32
Speaker
Zach and Nicole.
00:49:33
Speaker
Many have one.
00:49:34
Speaker
It is competitively priced.
00:49:36
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:38
Speaker
And I just, I was so, I kept playing and playing.
00:49:41
Speaker
You guys ended up, we're just like talking to.
00:49:44
Speaker
I think, okay, we were talking to Dominique.
00:49:45
Speaker
We were talking to, to Carrie.
00:49:48
Speaker
We were talking to Travis.
00:49:49
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.
00:50:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:04
Speaker
It was a crinkle in the decal by the leg.
00:50:06
Speaker
That's it.
00:50:07
Speaker
There was a crinkle in the decal and they had it there for $6,000.
00:50:12
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:50:14
Speaker
I was trying to figure out how I joked with them.
00:50:17
Speaker
I said, I'll do it shipped.
00:50:19
Speaker
And they're like, they're like, yes.
00:50:22
Speaker
And I was like, shipped.
00:50:23
Speaker
And they're like, no, they're already doing that.
00:50:25
Speaker
They're already basically doing that at cost.
00:50:27
Speaker
So I I'm guessing they didn't tell me, but yeah.
00:50:31
Speaker
Dominic was super nice, by the way.
00:50:33
Speaker
Carrie was super nice.
00:50:35
Speaker
At the end of the show, I asked Carrie, I'm like, who bought it?
00:50:37
Speaker
And it was a local guy who had a camera.
00:50:41
Speaker
And Carrie is so nice.
00:50:45
Speaker
She's not only an amazing player, an amazing tech.
00:50:50
Speaker
She also...
00:50:53
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
00:51:19
Speaker
I've not tried my snake yet.
00:51:21
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.
00:51:28
Speaker
And that's the game he had there for you to test out.
00:51:31
Speaker
And seriously...
00:51:33
Speaker
It makes it's so nice.
00:51:35
Speaker
I still haven't unwrapped my snake.
00:51:36
Speaker
It's still in my box upstairs.
00:51:38
Speaker
Don't make it weird.
00:51:39
Speaker
I'm not going to make it weird.
00:51:40
Speaker
I also bought like the extra micro fibers, which are great because they're cheap.
00:51:45
Speaker
It's like I can't remember how much we paid for it.
00:51:47
Speaker
It was like $20 or $30.
00:51:48
Speaker
Packet three was $10.
00:51:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:50
Speaker
And I can't remember how much the snake was.
00:51:51
Speaker
I want to see you paid $30 or $40 for it.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yeah, something like that.
00:51:55
Speaker
So we got that.
00:51:56
Speaker
I think it was 40 plus 10.
00:51:57
Speaker
So it was a total of 50.
00:51:58
Speaker
And he's like, you can also just use a tube sock on there.
00:52:01
Speaker
I'm like, okay, that's actually smart too.
00:52:03
Speaker
I didn't really think about that.
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:05
Speaker
But super nice guy.
00:52:06
Speaker
Shout out to him.
00:52:08
Speaker
And it, it is, there are very few things where I'm like, you really should buy this.
00:52:13
Speaker
You should buy this.
00:52:14
Speaker
You should buy this.
00:52:15
Speaker
This is, you need it in your toolkit.
00:52:18
Speaker
I know people that hate taking glass off because they don't want to do anything under that glass.
00:52:21
Speaker
I'm one of those people, the less maintenance I have to do, the better.
00:52:24
Speaker
This makes maintenance a breeze.
00:52:25
Speaker
I had my kids doing it.
00:52:27
Speaker
Seriously, go check out pin stick.
00:52:29
Speaker
It is, it's life changing on the clean.
00:52:32
Speaker
We also saw Davey from Stumbler.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yes.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yep.
00:52:38
Speaker
And he brought me a, okay.
00:52:40
Speaker
I don't know which one.
00:52:42
Speaker
It's the one, it's the building with the Chevron cut out of it.
00:52:46
Speaker
So that is the subway building.
00:52:48
Speaker
Okay, that's the subway.
00:52:49
Speaker
So now I have the subway building.
00:52:51
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.
00:53:00
Speaker
But Davey was super nice, was around the show the whole time.
00:53:05
Speaker
And shout out to David.
00:53:06
Speaker
That dude is just awesome.
00:53:07
Speaker
And you know what?
00:53:08
Speaker
It's awesome that Dutch Pinball got him involved with doing the lighting on Alice in Wonderland.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:13
Speaker
Because that just, seriously, it takes that game to a more professional level.
00:53:18
Speaker
It's all about presentation.
00:53:20
Speaker
It's all about presentation.
00:53:22
Speaker
After we hit Pinsnake, we hit the JJP booth.
00:53:27
Speaker
And I played Godfather for the first time.
00:53:29
Speaker
You guys did, no, you did Elton John.
00:53:33
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:53:34
Speaker
Were you able to get in on Avatar this go around?
00:53:36
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.
00:53:48
Speaker
So I wanted to let the people who were there.
00:53:51
Speaker
I actually played Metallica at Stern today or on Wednesday or Thursday.
00:53:57
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.
00:54:01
Speaker
So I let them get their experience with that.
00:54:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really great game.
00:54:06
Speaker
And I enjoyed Godfather.
00:54:07
Speaker
It's very unique.
00:54:09
Speaker
The ball paths are very unique because they keep switching around and whatnot on you.
00:54:13
Speaker
After JJP, we ran into one I didn't even know that was going to be there.
00:54:18
Speaker
Space Hunt.
00:54:19
Speaker
Space, space, space hunt.
00:54:21
Speaker
Because Pinsound was there showcasing their games with Pinsound on it, and they had a space hunt there.
00:54:29
Speaker
What are your thoughts on this game?
00:54:31
Speaker
Why was this made?
00:54:34
Speaker
I'm serious.
00:54:35
Speaker
Why was it made?
00:54:35
Speaker
There's like a, okay, there's like a, there's like, it's super tight.
00:54:41
Speaker
The shots on the left are super tight.
00:54:43
Speaker
Okay.
00:54:43
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.
00:54:53
Speaker
It feels competent.
00:54:55
Speaker
The ramp feels very tight.
00:54:59
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.
00:55:08
Speaker
And it was so tight, you had to hit it perfectly to get it to go up.
00:55:13
Speaker
I played with Joel.
00:55:14
Speaker
Joel got it to go up.
00:55:15
Speaker
I didn't.
00:55:17
Speaker
But really, at that point, I didn't care.
00:55:20
Speaker
It's, this is, it's, it's okay.
00:55:23
Speaker
It's a game.
00:55:25
Speaker
I don't know why anyone would want to buy it.
00:55:28
Speaker
There are other games in this category that would be great fits for an arcade.
00:55:36
Speaker
And I put Looney Tunes in that category.
00:55:38
Speaker
I put Ninja Eclipse in that category.
00:55:41
Speaker
And we already talked about Ninja Eclipse, right?
00:55:45
Speaker
No, we haven't.
00:55:45
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:46
Speaker
So we're going to talk about Ninja Eclipse.
00:55:48
Speaker
Space Time was fine.
00:55:49
Speaker
Okay.
00:55:50
Speaker
It was okay.
00:55:50
Speaker
But of the three, which one would you rate a third?
00:55:54
Speaker
Wouldn't you?
00:55:55
Speaker
What three?
00:55:56
Speaker
So you're saying Looney Tunes?
00:55:57
Speaker
Looney Tunes, Ninja Eclipse, and Space Hunt.
00:56:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:01
Speaker
Actually, I'd play it sit fourth behind Saw.
00:56:03
Speaker
I mean, I just... Okay, no.
00:56:05
Speaker
I'm just talking.
00:56:06
Speaker
I'm just talking.
00:56:07
Speaker
In that room.
00:56:09
Speaker
I may actually put it fourth anyway and leave three as a placeholder.
00:56:12
Speaker
It's all right.
00:56:13
Speaker
It did nothing for me.
00:56:14
Speaker
It did nothing.
00:56:15
Speaker
It was pretty.
00:56:16
Speaker
It was that pink color.
00:56:18
Speaker
It looked professional.
00:56:19
Speaker
I just didn't have a good time shooting it.
00:56:24
Speaker
Well, and I didn't mind shooting it.
00:56:26
Speaker
I got it in the modes.
00:56:27
Speaker
The modes were enjoyable-ish.
00:56:29
Speaker
It's very much shoot the thing we tell you to shoot.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:34
Speaker
It is a competent game.
00:56:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:56:38
Speaker
And I would go and play it on location.
00:56:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:42
Speaker
But it's just not something that I don't know why it was.
00:56:46
Speaker
It seems unrefined.
00:56:47
Speaker
This seems like there's a few refinements away from making this a fun game.
00:56:53
Speaker
here's the thing.
00:56:54
Speaker
I think this game is all right.
00:56:56
Speaker
It's not my favorite game.
00:56:57
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.
00:57:10
Speaker
Okay.
00:57:10
Speaker
But overall it just wasn't my cup of tea.
00:57:13
Speaker
Um,
00:57:14
Speaker
But it does intrigue me to see what Hexa Pinball does next.
00:57:19
Speaker
Okay, it wasn't a fail.
00:57:21
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.
00:57:30
Speaker
It shot better than any home pin game they've ever played.
00:57:34
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:57:35
Speaker
It is a professional game.
00:57:37
Speaker
It just didn't connect with me.
00:57:39
Speaker
Zach, now, on the other hand, Zach Mini loved it.
00:57:42
Speaker
So, you know, taste is subjective.
00:57:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:46
Speaker
Pinball is subjective.
00:57:47
Speaker
It really is 100%.
00:57:48
Speaker
We also played, um, princess bright.
00:57:52
Speaker
Yes.
00:57:52
Speaker
Well, before you get onto that, let's try and talk about Ninja clips.
00:57:55
Speaker
Cause you brought that up.
00:57:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:57
Speaker
Um, I just want to say that congrats to Chris Turner, man.
00:57:59
Speaker
This game has flipped one 80 from last time I played it.
00:58:02
Speaker
Uh, it feels great.
00:58:03
Speaker
Uh, I liked that they went from the zizzle cabinet to an actual pinball cabinet.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yep.
00:58:08
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,
00:58:15
Speaker
the ones they were close to selling out a hundred stickers on all of them when I was done Saturday night.
00:58:22
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.
00:58:29
Speaker
I, I,
00:58:30
Speaker
also think it helps too that I feel like they've kind of proven themselves where they have games made.
00:58:37
Speaker
We've always said play the game before you buy it.
00:58:40
Speaker
Buy a game that's available.
00:58:41
Speaker
Don't buy promises.
00:58:43
Speaker
Exactly.
00:58:43
Speaker
I think overall, the game felt great.
00:58:46
Speaker
The graphics look really good.
00:58:48
Speaker
It's a competent company.
00:58:50
Speaker
I actually thought
00:58:52
Speaker
they had done a lot better than some other companies that were there.
00:58:54
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.
00:59:04
Speaker
And I, I'm trying to get ahold of him cause we'd love to have him on.
00:59:07
Speaker
He's, he's actually, I think he's the same guy who did the Looney Tunes stuff too.
00:59:11
Speaker
If I remember correctly, which is why they looked like visually, they looked very similar.
00:59:17
Speaker
But that now that's not a slight, I actually,
00:59:21
Speaker
Looney Tunes was a game like I had a blast with.
00:59:24
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.
00:59:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:35
Speaker
And so the Ninja eclipse, I would say that was by far the most surprising game of the show.
00:59:42
Speaker
Whereas before the show, I, I would not have put it on my radar for games to buy.
00:59:49
Speaker
And afterwards, I recommend it.
00:59:51
Speaker
I do.
00:59:52
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.
01:00:03
Speaker
And I guarantee, Chris, they're from Texas.
01:00:07
Speaker
So if you're going to TPF, really get your hands on one.
01:00:10
Speaker
If you like it, take one home with you.
01:00:11
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:12
Speaker
And they really are getting close.
01:00:13
Speaker
If they're not sold out, because it did sound like, yeah, they're getting close to selling out.
01:00:17
Speaker
Yeah, he but he and I even asked him like, OK, so like, are you, you know, are you cost positive?
01:00:24
Speaker
He's like, no, but we're making progress.
01:00:27
Speaker
I'm like, good.
01:00:29
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.
01:00:46
Speaker
We then played Princess Bride, like you said.
01:00:49
Speaker
I'll start off on this one.
01:00:50
Speaker
I really like the game.
01:00:53
Speaker
I felt like it's probably the best P3 so far, as in
01:00:57
Speaker
presentation.
01:00:58
Speaker
I love the theme.
01:01:00
Speaker
I would say it's tied with Weird Al for me.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right there.
01:01:05
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:06
Speaker
It is solid.
01:01:07
Speaker
It's very solid.
01:01:11
Speaker
I really like the Cliffs in Insanity.
01:01:12
Speaker
That's really cool.
01:01:14
Speaker
It's a cool effect.
01:01:15
Speaker
They take the ball and they go up the cliff.
01:01:17
Speaker
They're dedicating like one mech to just one mode though.
01:01:20
Speaker
So it does intrigue me on that.
01:01:22
Speaker
Here, here's the thing with P three that I'm having a rough time.
01:01:25
Speaker
The Balrog is also one mode.
01:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, true.
01:01:28
Speaker
Um,
01:01:29
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.
01:01:39
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.
01:01:49
Speaker
Well, heist has a crane.
01:01:51
Speaker
True.
01:01:52
Speaker
But I'm talking like, if we could get a ramp that ties back in to, um,
01:01:58
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
01:02:21
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
01:02:40
Speaker
not mean as in like a jerk, but like, I couldn't finish cliffs in the sanity.
01:02:45
Speaker
Like I started twice and I choked.
01:02:47
Speaker
He's like, man, that's the easiest mode in the game.
01:02:49
Speaker
You can't pass that.
01:02:50
Speaker
And I'm like, thanks.
01:02:52
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:52
Speaker
Well, he's right.
01:02:54
Speaker
It's, it's fine.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:56
Speaker
Okay.
01:02:57
Speaker
He gave you a hard time.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:59
Speaker
Then you and I went to the JAWS seminar and got to see the potato match.
01:03:05
Speaker
It was still fun.
01:03:06
Speaker
I will say it was still fun.
01:03:08
Speaker
P3, it is one of those things where if that's your thing, it's a good option.
01:03:15
Speaker
The one huge suggestion I will make for P3 though, you need to develop a storage option.
01:03:22
Speaker
You cannot just have these people pull these things out because they are expensive things.
01:03:27
Speaker
and put them back in a cardboard box that they shipped in.
01:03:30
Speaker
Even Harrow actually have that as an option.
01:03:34
Speaker
He has a design for one that he made.
01:03:36
Speaker
So if you're willing to make your own, there is options out there.
01:03:39
Speaker
But I agree with you.
01:03:40
Speaker
Okay, so spend $200.
01:03:42
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.
01:03:54
Speaker
If you have...
01:03:56
Speaker
Apple doesn't send you ear pods and says, okay, now keep them in the cardboard box it's shipped in.
01:04:02
Speaker
It's shipped with a container.
01:04:03
Speaker
So charge a few hundred bucks, have some sort of shipping container and keep it as storage.
01:04:09
Speaker
So it still looks nice.
01:04:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:11
Speaker
One thing, and I know that May, this is asking too much.
01:04:14
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.
01:04:20
Speaker
Not only that, maybe this is too much to ask, ship us a game.
01:04:23
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.
01:04:30
Speaker
So I get to be one, maybe two games on this.
01:04:33
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.
01:04:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:40
Speaker
See, like Stern and JTAP were smart.
01:04:42
Speaker
They got us out there for our for John Wick.
01:04:45
Speaker
We got our hands on the game.
01:04:47
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.
01:04:55
Speaker
I just got to play.
01:04:56
Speaker
And once you get 20, 30 games on this, you get a better understanding.
01:05:00
Speaker
Okay, bring us out and show us the game then.
01:05:03
Speaker
That's another way of doing it.
01:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, bring us out to Chicago.
01:05:06
Speaker
It's cheaper than shipping me a game.
01:05:08
Speaker
I don't know.
01:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, you can ship me a game.
01:05:09
Speaker
It's fine.
01:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, Pinball Company.
01:05:11
Speaker
Funhouse sucked.
01:05:12
Speaker
I need you to ship me a Funhouse.
01:05:15
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:16
Speaker
Dominic?
01:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, we need... No, 100%.
01:05:18
Speaker
Okay.
01:05:18
Speaker
Okay, we kid, but at the same time, this level, this year has been...
01:05:24
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.
01:05:35
Speaker
Yep.
01:05:36
Speaker
I agree.
01:05:38
Speaker
So we went to the JAWS seminar.
01:05:39
Speaker
Fantastic.
01:05:41
Speaker
Very in-depth.
01:05:41
Speaker
You can rewatch all these videos.
01:05:43
Speaker
Now you know why the shark doesn't need the ball.
01:05:45
Speaker
It looks like a giant.
01:05:47
Speaker
It looks like a potato that someone tried to make a potato lantern out of.
01:05:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:51
Speaker
It looks pretty rough.
01:05:53
Speaker
The gentleman that offered the ridiculous amount of money for that Mac, I think Harrison Drake's still looking for you.
01:06:00
Speaker
Yes.
01:06:00
Speaker
If someone wants to buy that Mac.
01:06:02
Speaker
$15,000.
01:06:02
Speaker
Yeah.
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah, something like 10 or 15.
01:06:05
Speaker
Somebody was like, yeah, Harrison Drake's looking for you.
01:06:08
Speaker
So just hit him up.
01:06:10
Speaker
He wants to sell you that mech.
01:06:12
Speaker
And then after that, you and I went to JJP's or JJ.
01:06:16
Speaker
JJ for the Game Exchange.
01:06:19
Speaker
And we ran into Gary Stern and Seth Dave.
01:06:21
Speaker
Oh, sorry.
01:06:22
Speaker
Before we went there, I do have
Celebrity Encounters at Pinball Expo
01:06:24
Speaker
a little blip.
01:06:24
Speaker
Before we went there, I had to step out of the JAWS seminar because I had a call.
01:06:28
Speaker
And my call wasn't like five minutes long, but as I was walking back in, I ran into Charlie Benante.
01:06:33
Speaker
Is that how you say his last name?
01:06:34
Speaker
The drummer of Anthrax.
01:06:37
Speaker
He was standing there along with Tim Sexton and Wason.
01:06:39
Speaker
And we all got talking.
01:06:41
Speaker
And really, really nice dude.
01:06:43
Speaker
It's just funny.
01:06:44
Speaker
It's funny like when you go to Pinball Expo, you run into these people like Todd McCullough.
01:06:48
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:06:49
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
01:07:15
Speaker
I would probably want to at least try an edible gummy before I listen to that again.
01:07:21
Speaker
It's these weird, it is the most bizarre thing I've seen in a long time.
01:07:25
Speaker
And I can't look at a port-a-potty the same.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:07:28
Speaker
When you're recording your music videos in a port-a-potty, you know it's going to be unique, right?
01:07:33
Speaker
Anywho, really nice dude.
01:07:34
Speaker
It was funny to have some of the conversations that we had.
01:07:36
Speaker
Like, Charlie, thanks for just down-to-earth guy.
01:07:39
Speaker
That's what I love about these things.
01:07:40
Speaker
You just ran a Mark Tremonti from Creed last year, and it was just a casual conversation about guitars and stuff.
01:07:46
Speaker
Anywho, then we went to JJP's JJ from Game Exchange Suite.
01:07:52
Speaker
It doesn't help that one letter off.
01:07:54
Speaker
And Gary and Seth were there.
Expanding Pinball Access and Fun Gaming Twists
01:07:56
Speaker
And Gary was asking people, why are you spending this much money on a pinball machine?
01:08:01
Speaker
And it was kind of funny.
01:08:02
Speaker
Okay, I actually had a 20-minute conversation with him.
01:08:08
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.
01:08:19
Speaker
So this is a brainstorming thing, but this is something that Seth is quite interested in.
01:08:26
Speaker
in finding ways of increasing access to pinball in areas that are low-density pinball.
01:08:33
Speaker
So now, we don't have any definitive answers, and we don't really want to give it away.
01:08:38
Speaker
We'll let Seth talk about it.
01:08:41
Speaker
But we did bounce some ideas off him, and it'll be interesting to see if any of those tick.
01:08:46
Speaker
Yep.
01:08:47
Speaker
And then we kind of wrapped up the night with dollar games.
01:08:49
Speaker
It was you.
01:08:51
Speaker
So we kind of had a core group this whole show.
01:08:54
Speaker
Me, my father-in-law, Jeff, you, we had Craig Bobby from the pinball show.
01:09:01
Speaker
If you haven't heard Craig Bobby or his rendition of the Bond theme, you need to go check that out.
01:09:06
Speaker
And then Julie Talbot had joined us.
01:09:08
Speaker
She's kind of become part of our friend group over the past couple of years.
01:09:13
Speaker
And then we kind of have people in out, but that was kind of the core group that went and played dollar games.
01:09:17
Speaker
And we went, the free play area was
Expo Free Play Area Success
01:09:20
Speaker
amazing.
01:09:20
Speaker
All the, I think like a lot of awesome.
01:09:24
Speaker
Awesome.
01:09:24
Speaker
And you know what?
01:09:25
Speaker
To Rob's credit, they all worked.
01:09:28
Speaker
Yep.
01:09:29
Speaker
I think there was only like five that weren't working.
01:09:32
Speaker
Okay.
01:09:32
Speaker
There were a few, but for the most part, they were all working and they, it looked nice.
01:09:37
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.
01:09:45
Speaker
It looked like the pinball hall of fame.
01:09:47
Speaker
Oh, um, but no, these were all, these were all in working order and it was fun.
01:09:53
Speaker
It was so fun to actually see the games.
01:09:57
Speaker
Now, what Josh is, Josh, the next night, he actually missed.
Stern Tour and Apparel Mix-up
01:10:02
Speaker
We were playing dollar games, but we actually made a, we made a modification to the rules.
01:10:11
Speaker
So you still got the, so you still got the four, the three or $4 or whatever for winning.
01:10:16
Speaker
But the penalty for losing was you actually had to pose like the back glass.
01:10:23
Speaker
And we got to take a picture.
01:10:24
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.
01:10:33
Speaker
You liked it, but you really didn't want to lose because it was really, it was public shaming at that point.
01:10:40
Speaker
Yes.
01:10:41
Speaker
But it was kind of funny.
01:10:43
Speaker
It made me feel good about myself when you guys were like, I won the first three games.
01:10:46
Speaker
You guys like Josh, if you don't knock it off, we're kicking you out of the group.
01:10:50
Speaker
Okay.
01:10:51
Speaker
Like, but it was very fun.
01:10:53
Speaker
It was the highlight probably had to be dragon.
01:10:56
Speaker
Okay.
01:10:56
Speaker
That game is so ridiculous and so random.
01:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's hilarious.
01:11:00
Speaker
There's like five like cobra targets that you have to hit and go down.
01:11:04
Speaker
And the back glass is awesome.
01:11:05
Speaker
If anyone has like a spare dragon back glass.
01:11:08
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:11:09
Speaker
I didn't tell you about my story.
01:11:12
Speaker
So I did go to the Stern Tour.
01:11:18
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:19
Speaker
Okay.
01:11:19
Speaker
So we went to the Stern tour.
01:11:22
Speaker
I actually didn't have a ticket, but apparently the tickets were only for the bus.
01:11:26
Speaker
So we just drove there.
01:11:28
Speaker
So we just drove there and hopped through.
01:11:29
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.
01:11:38
Speaker
Just think of like the Godzilla 70, but with the neon thing.
01:11:43
Speaker
And I was super excited because like it only, they only had them at the factory there.
01:11:47
Speaker
They're going to be available later online, but they only had them in the factory for this thing.
01:11:52
Speaker
And I got at home and the next day I'm like, I'm going to wear this.
01:11:56
Speaker
I put it on and it felt like I was squeezing.
01:11:59
Speaker
Like, you know, I was being suffocated by like one of those shape wear things.
01:12:05
Speaker
I'm trying to, I put it on like, Oh my gosh, what is this?
01:12:08
Speaker
So I wear, I typically have a t-shirt underneath my t-shirt.
01:12:12
Speaker
So yeah,
01:12:12
Speaker
I typically try to buy some of the shirts bigger so it'll accommodate that.
01:12:17
Speaker
And so I usually buy like an XXL if I just want it to fit, but not too tight.
01:12:23
Speaker
And I put on, I looked down, it was a large.
01:12:25
Speaker
And I'm like, they gave me the wrong thing.
01:12:29
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.
01:12:35
Speaker
And so I was like, ah, crap.
01:12:36
Speaker
So I, you know, I texted Zach Sharp and I was like, Hey, just, is anyone coming over from the factory today?
01:12:41
Speaker
Cause they gave me the wrong thing.
01:12:42
Speaker
He's like, no, let me look at this thing.
01:12:44
Speaker
So we, uh, I just said, no, it's fine.
01:12:49
Speaker
I'll just go down to the floor and I'll swap for a different shirt.
01:12:54
Speaker
So we ended up, I swapped for a different shirt and it was, they were super nice about it.
01:12:58
Speaker
And they got that.
01:13:00
Speaker
And so I ended up getting a Jaws one.
01:13:03
Speaker
So it says Jaws on the back.
01:13:04
Speaker
It goes, start, start, start.
01:13:06
Speaker
So, you know, it's kind of fun.
01:13:08
Speaker
Unlike the Nana, but I found out Julie texted me today and she said, I figured out the mystery of the forgotten shirt.
01:13:18
Speaker
She bought the same shirt.
01:13:21
Speaker
Uh, hers was a large, mine was a double XL.
01:13:24
Speaker
So she ended up with yours, didn't she?
01:13:26
Speaker
So she ended up with mine.
01:13:27
Speaker
So I actually still have the, so I just paid her for the shirt.
01:13:30
Speaker
I'm like, okay, when it comes online, you can go, go ahead and buy it.
01:13:32
Speaker
But I ended up with two extra shirts from Stern, which was hilarious.
01:13:36
Speaker
But that was my, my, my Stern shirt story.
01:13:41
Speaker
Which is funny though, because I bought a hoodie for my son last year.
01:13:44
Speaker
We asked for extra large and we didn't realize it till after we got home, but it was a medium.
01:13:48
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:49
Speaker
So when you go on the Stern tour and you buy stuff, make sure what you buy is the right size.
01:13:54
Speaker
That was my fault.
01:13:55
Speaker
I grabbed the wrong shirt.
01:13:56
Speaker
It just happened that Julie and I bought the same shirt because we were like, we were in the same bus carload.
01:14:01
Speaker
Yep.
01:14:02
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:03
Speaker
We didn't do pinball Olympics this year.
Humorous Stories and Networking Opportunities
01:14:06
Speaker
Pinball Olympics are always a blast.
01:14:07
Speaker
They, I was pretty exhausted though, because I only had really two full days and I really stayed up late every night.
01:14:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:17
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.
01:14:23
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:24
Speaker
So why did you, you like left without us?
01:14:27
Speaker
We, we, we were getting up and we thought we were taking you to the airport.
01:14:30
Speaker
What happened?
01:14:30
Speaker
Why'd you go early?
01:14:32
Speaker
So we, well, our flight was an hour before you guys.
01:14:35
Speaker
And yeah.
01:14:38
Speaker
So we were a little bit before seven.
01:14:40
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:14:41
Speaker
So, so that's why, cause we got up and we're like, Hey, we're ready to go.
01:14:43
Speaker
And you're like, uh, we already left.
01:14:45
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:46
Speaker
And you guys hadn't left yet.
01:14:47
Speaker
And, uh,
01:14:48
Speaker
You did actually get to the airport and through security, and we still had another 30 minutes before we started boarding.
01:14:55
Speaker
So it probably would have been fine.
01:14:57
Speaker
We could have, but you wanted to be safe.
01:14:58
Speaker
Okay.
01:14:59
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to be safe.
01:15:00
Speaker
So especially where I fly from Chicago into Phoenix, and then Phoenix flies into my home to Vernal.
01:15:07
Speaker
And on Sundays, there's only one flight from Phoenix into Vernal.
01:15:11
Speaker
So if I get stuck in Phoenix, I'm there for a full 24 hours.
01:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want to mess with that.
01:15:16
Speaker
And so, anywho, yeah, that's why I kind of, that's why we kind of bailed.
01:15:21
Speaker
Oh, quick shout out to Tony Scoots, Scoots Daros.
01:15:24
Speaker
Thanks for bringing me two dozen cannolis.
01:15:28
Speaker
I was like, I need some cannolis.
01:15:30
Speaker
If you bring them to me, can I buy them for me?
01:15:32
Speaker
He's like, yeah, don't worry about it.
01:15:33
Speaker
So he brought me two dozen cannolis.
01:15:35
Speaker
Dude was so nice.
01:15:36
Speaker
Hey, did you get them home?
01:15:37
Speaker
Because I totally like, like you went to bed and I totally forgot to come up and eat one.
01:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, I took them all home with me.
01:15:44
Speaker
I was so excited to surprise my wife with scoots cannolis.
01:15:50
Speaker
And she's like, do these have almond in them?
01:15:53
Speaker
And so I'm texting Tony.
01:15:56
Speaker
Is she allergic or she doesn't like the taste?
01:15:58
Speaker
She's allergic.
01:15:59
Speaker
Oh, they all have almond.
01:16:02
Speaker
And I'm like, do these have almond in them?
01:16:04
Speaker
And he's like, a little bit.
01:16:05
Speaker
And he's like, I wouldn't chance it, but you might be safe taking it.
01:16:09
Speaker
So she actually took a Benadryl.
01:16:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:16:13
Speaker
And ate the cannoli and thought it was delicious.
01:16:15
Speaker
Okay.
01:16:16
Speaker
And that was 24 hours later.
01:16:17
Speaker
They are delicious.
01:16:18
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:18
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:19
Speaker
We went through 20 cannolis in three days or something like that.
01:16:22
Speaker
It was great.
01:16:23
Speaker
These were minis.
01:16:24
Speaker
These aren't the full size system.
01:16:25
Speaker
Yeah.
01:16:26
Speaker
But yeah, they were, they were fantastic, but okay.
01:16:29
Speaker
Okay.
01:16:29
Speaker
Grand take.
01:16:30
Speaker
And so we're, we're at 80 minutes.
01:16:32
Speaker
So grand take home wraps.
01:16:34
Speaker
What, what are you thinking of expo?
01:16:35
Speaker
Actually, give me, just give me a one minute synopsis of let's make a deal.
01:16:41
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:16:43
Speaker
Because I bailed out halfway through.
01:16:45
Speaker
Oh, you know, it's okay.
01:16:48
Speaker
It's fun.
01:16:48
Speaker
I was getting so tired toward the end.
01:16:50
Speaker
And Dwight really wanted people there.
01:16:52
Speaker
So it was like a let's make it.
01:16:54
Speaker
Do you want behind box one, box two, box three?
01:16:58
Speaker
But it was fun.
01:16:59
Speaker
He pulled people up and everybody had tickets.
01:17:03
Speaker
At the very end, when they were going for the final round, we didn't get...
01:17:07
Speaker
We knew it was the final round and I was tired.
01:17:10
Speaker
And so I actually left at that point, but I felt good.
01:17:14
Speaker
We supported Dwight.
01:17:14
Speaker
He was there.
01:17:15
Speaker
Actually, I came up at the very end because I needed to get a hat for someone.
01:17:22
Speaker
And it's Dave.
01:17:24
Speaker
He bought a hat like last year.
01:17:26
Speaker
Dave Hallgren.
01:17:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:27
Speaker
We made a trade.
01:17:29
Speaker
He didn't necessarily buy.
01:17:30
Speaker
We made a trade.
01:17:31
Speaker
Okay.
01:17:31
Speaker
All right.
01:17:31
Speaker
Trade.
01:17:32
Speaker
So I brought it back.
01:17:33
Speaker
And then Dwight's there's like, oh, I didn't call you.
01:17:35
Speaker
I'm like, Dwight, it's fine.
01:17:37
Speaker
You didn't get anything.
01:17:39
Speaker
I'm like, it's fine.
01:17:39
Speaker
It's fine.
01:17:40
Speaker
I'm glad people got.
01:17:43
Speaker
Other people can get experiences.
01:17:44
Speaker
I don't need stuff.
01:17:46
Speaker
We're good.
01:17:47
Speaker
So that was fun.
01:17:49
Speaker
Okay.
01:17:51
Speaker
We do have a funny story about hats, though.
01:17:53
Speaker
So we met an awesome guy named George Gomez.
01:17:58
Speaker
Yes, there's another George Gomez out there.
01:18:01
Speaker
So Josh thought that it was George Gomez from Stern.
01:18:05
Speaker
And so Josh gave George Gomez from Stern two hats.
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:10
Speaker
Okay.
01:18:10
Speaker
No, here, but here's the thing.
01:18:11
Speaker
Okay.
01:18:11
Speaker
You tell the story.
01:18:12
Speaker
You tell the story.
01:18:13
Speaker
Okay.
01:18:13
Speaker
So we did our form through Facebook, through Google docs, right?
01:18:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:17
Speaker
And someone accidentally sent the same form twice.
01:18:20
Speaker
It was George Gomez.
01:18:21
Speaker
I looked at the email.
01:18:22
Speaker
I'm like, well, this isn't George's business email.
01:18:25
Speaker
Well, this is his personal email.
01:18:27
Speaker
And so I, I messaged George since we have his number and I'm like, George, I got your hat order.
01:18:35
Speaker
but it came through twice.
01:18:36
Speaker
Do you want one or two?
01:18:37
Speaker
And he said two.
01:18:38
Speaker
And I'm like, and the small medium is fine, right?
01:18:40
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, that works great.
01:18:42
Speaker
And it's funny because the whole time, because I'd messaged George Gomez with Stern.
01:18:47
Speaker
Oh, so you, you had even contacted George.
01:18:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:50
Speaker
So he knew the hats were coming and everything.
01:18:52
Speaker
So I, I made specific, you know, made sure to set them aside and everything.
01:18:56
Speaker
We, we get to Stern on Thursday for the Metallica stuff.
01:19:00
Speaker
I give him his hats.
01:19:00
Speaker
He tries them on.
01:19:01
Speaker
They say they fit great.
01:19:02
Speaker
He's very happy with them.
01:19:04
Speaker
And he zips off because we've got people coming in and out.
01:19:06
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:07
Speaker
It's busy.
01:19:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:08
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:09
Speaker
Well, was it Friday or was it Saturday?
01:19:11
Speaker
It was at the mixer.
01:19:12
Speaker
It was at the, was it at the mixer?
01:19:14
Speaker
Come at the mixer.
01:19:15
Speaker
He's like, where are my hats?
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:17
Speaker
He's like, Hey, I know it was when we're playing at J the JJP booth.
01:19:21
Speaker
That's where it was.
01:19:22
Speaker
Oh, okay.
01:19:22
Speaker
It was not the mixer.
01:19:23
Speaker
It was the JJP.
01:19:24
Speaker
Okay.
01:19:24
Speaker
Cause I talked to him at the mixer.
01:19:26
Speaker
Like I can't, he can't even talk to me at the mixer.
01:19:28
Speaker
He's a, and by the way, George Gomez is also a cop from Reno.
01:19:34
Speaker
Yes.
01:19:34
Speaker
In law enforcement.
01:19:36
Speaker
And so he like,
01:19:37
Speaker
He's like talking to me at JJP's booth.
01:19:40
Speaker
And he's like, oh, Scott says you have the hats.
01:19:42
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah.
01:19:43
Speaker
And he's like, you have some for George Gomez.
01:19:44
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, I gave them to George Gomez at Stern.
01:19:47
Speaker
And he's like, no, no.
01:19:48
Speaker
I'm George Gomez.
01:19:49
Speaker
I'm George, yeah.
01:19:50
Speaker
And I'm laughing because I'm like, oh, you got like George Gomez's tag.
01:19:53
Speaker
Like, how'd you pull that off?
01:19:54
Speaker
I'm like, Gomez actually signed, Stern Gomez signed Cop Gomez's.
01:19:59
Speaker
And so I thought he was joking.
01:20:01
Speaker
He's like, no, I'm really George Gomez.
01:20:02
Speaker
I'm really George Gomez, yeah.
01:20:04
Speaker
Oh, well, this feels really awkward.
01:20:06
Speaker
Because small, medium is not a very common size.
01:20:08
Speaker
And so it didn't make any extra.
01:20:10
Speaker
And so, yeah, it just...
01:20:12
Speaker
Okay.
01:20:13
Speaker
So George, we are getting, we're getting your ass to you.
01:20:15
Speaker
So I've already, I've already got an order.
01:20:17
Speaker
So I've been keeping in contact with him.
01:20:19
Speaker
Yeah.
01:20:20
Speaker
Okay.
01:20:20
Speaker
Overall thoughts.
01:20:21
Speaker
Expo was fantastic.
01:20:23
Speaker
I love that there's enough space to move.
01:20:25
Speaker
Yep.
01:20:26
Speaker
Uh, yet, uh, it still feels very homey.
01:20:29
Speaker
Um, this is the biggest convention and it shows, right?
01:20:35
Speaker
Like this is the only place you're going to rub shoulders with, with, um,
01:20:40
Speaker
all these industry types along with celebrities and stuff like that.
01:20:45
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.
01:20:56
Speaker
there are so many people that are willing just to sit down and listen to what you have to say.
01:21:00
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.
01:21:16
Speaker
And it just seems like, and the lines were relatively good so long as they had enough games there.
01:21:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:21:24
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.
01:21:32
Speaker
For the most part, you could get on almost any game.
01:21:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:35
Speaker
Within about 15 minutes at the longest of a wait, but I overall fantastic show.
01:21:42
Speaker
I enjoy going every year.
01:21:43
Speaker
It's kind of one of my, that's what I'm going to do.
01:21:47
Speaker
As long as I can keep up momentum and whatnot, I feel like I'm always going to be there.
01:21:54
Speaker
And yeah, just overall, fantastic show, Rob Berg.
01:21:59
Speaker
Fantastic to all those that are involved in it.
01:22:02
Speaker
It's such a great show.
01:22:06
Speaker
What's your takeaway, Scott?
01:22:08
Speaker
Okay, I would say exhausting.
01:22:11
Speaker
I felt that it was a little bit like going to Disneyland and I didn't ride all the rides.
01:22:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:18
Speaker
I felt really that, and I stayed up late most of the time.
01:22:20
Speaker
And you know what?
01:22:21
Speaker
It was kind of fun to check out a little bit and go and do...
01:22:25
Speaker
dollar games and just meet some people talk with friends.
01:22:29
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.
01:22:39
Speaker
So I didn't, you know, there, there were some behind the scenes on games that I didn't get to.
01:22:44
Speaker
And I feel bad about that.
01:22:46
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.
01:22:54
Speaker
But I felt like I was busy the entire time and I still didn't see everything.
01:23:02
Speaker
So it's great.
01:23:03
Speaker
I agree with Josh.
01:23:04
Speaker
If you're really interested in being in the industry, go and talk to them.
01:23:08
Speaker
Go and talk.
01:23:09
Speaker
Come and talk to industry people.
01:23:11
Speaker
They are very passionate about what they do.
01:23:15
Speaker
And they're very friendly, too.
01:23:17
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.
01:23:30
Speaker
Yep, exactly.
01:23:32
Speaker
So it's great.
01:23:33
Speaker
Okay.
01:23:35
Speaker
Game of the Expo.
01:23:38
Speaker
For me?
01:23:39
Speaker
Yeah.
Pinball Game Quality and Listener Support
01:23:40
Speaker
Probably Funhaus.
01:23:41
Speaker
I'm not going to lie.
01:23:42
Speaker
I was shocked at how solid it was and how good it played.
01:23:46
Speaker
I'll put Metallica there.
01:23:47
Speaker
I know it's a little unfair because it's a $13,000 game and it's a proven game.
01:23:53
Speaker
But the way that they reinvented that game was impressive.
01:23:59
Speaker
Incredible.
01:23:59
Speaker
You're talking about the premiums, 9,700 or whatever.
01:24:02
Speaker
And I guarantee you can probably get one for 95.
01:24:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:05
Speaker
Okay.
01:24:05
Speaker
I'm talking to the LA.
01:24:06
Speaker
Okay.
01:24:08
Speaker
Um, however, I will say the steel of the show hands down is fun house.
01:24:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:15
Speaker
Um, that is, that is a total value for like biggest bang for your buck game.
01:24:22
Speaker
And that is, that is coming from someone who's typically not a huge Lawler layout fan.
01:24:28
Speaker
We had so much fun on that game and it looks amazing.
01:24:32
Speaker
What the pinball company did with that game is amazing.
01:24:37
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.
01:24:46
Speaker
No, I mean, no, it sucks.
01:24:47
Speaker
If you want to prove me wrong, pinball company.
01:24:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:50
Speaker
Send me a game and let me evaluate it.
01:24:52
Speaker
Yes.
01:24:52
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
01:24:53
Speaker
Or Zach and Nicole, many at flipping out pinball.
01:24:55
Speaker
Cause they also sell it.
01:24:56
Speaker
So, okay.
01:24:58
Speaker
In all sincerity, this is, this is a great game.
01:25:01
Speaker
It's absolutely a great game.
01:25:03
Speaker
And it's,
01:25:05
Speaker
they were able to really do give Chicago gaming company a run for their money.
01:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, they really did.
01:25:12
Speaker
And that's, that's not easy considering the high bar that Chicago gaming company set with their four.
01:25:18
Speaker
Well, and one of the big concerns is it, cause it's funny.
01:25:20
Speaker
Cause like really quickly, like we played, uh,
01:25:23
Speaker
ABBA and we've played, um, queen.
01:25:29
Speaker
And it's just, it's funny.
01:25:30
Speaker
Cause like they're using planetary pinball parts.
01:25:33
Speaker
So these are William design parts.
01:25:37
Speaker
And so it's funny how much different a game that isn't William parts versus what is.
01:25:43
Speaker
And, and they, they both feel like solid games, but it just feels like the Williams recreation, they were solid.
01:25:48
Speaker
Like it was,
01:25:50
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.
01:25:57
Speaker
And so this, they are solid games and really, I, I'm, I'm tempted to get one put down here.
01:26:05
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.
01:26:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:14
Speaker
But you know, they kind of frown on those on a carry on luggage.
01:26:18
Speaker
So yeah,
01:26:18
Speaker
Yeah, they don't really fit in an overhead compartment.
01:26:22
Speaker
I think if I checked it, they could have put it on underneath.
01:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, you can try.
01:26:29
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
01:26:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:30
Speaker
All right.
01:26:32
Speaker
We're wrapping it up.
01:26:33
Speaker
Yeah, seriously.
01:26:34
Speaker
I just went and just looked at their website and just seeing that, yeah, it's...
01:26:39
Speaker
That's crazy.
01:26:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:40
Speaker
The classic addiction, the classic addition, the MSRP is seven, four, nine, nine.
01:26:47
Speaker
And that's, that's a deal.
01:26:50
Speaker
It is.
01:26:51
Speaker
Yep.
01:26:51
Speaker
It is.
01:26:52
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.
01:27:02
Speaker
Yep.
01:27:03
Speaker
Maybe they'll even like throw on a shirt for you or whatever.
01:27:06
Speaker
So maybe,
01:27:07
Speaker
Maybe.
01:27:07
Speaker
All right.
01:27:08
Speaker
If you want to get ahold of us, we are a loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com.
01:27:11
Speaker
We're also on Facebook, Instagram, X threads, Twitch, YouTube, all at loser kid pinball silver ball swag.com slash loser kid.
01:27:21
Speaker
I know that some people want to support us.
01:27:22
Speaker
There was one gentleman that was very nice, came up, handed me a 50.
01:27:25
Speaker
I was like, I don't do social.
01:27:27
Speaker
I don't do this or that.
01:27:29
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.
01:27:34
Speaker
Here's this.
01:27:34
Speaker
And I was like, oh, thanks.
01:27:37
Speaker
And I'm like, you don't have to do that.
01:27:39
Speaker
And he's like, no, I want to support you guys.
01:27:42
Speaker
If you do want to support us, one way you can do is through Silver Ball Swag.
01:27:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:27:47
Speaker
They're awesome shoes.
01:27:48
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.
01:27:56
Speaker
I feel like you get something for supporting us as well.
01:27:58
Speaker
Not only do you support us, but you get shoes out of your shirt or jogging pants or whatever.
01:28:05
Speaker
You know what, Scott?
01:28:05
Speaker
I think that's all for us.
01:28:06
Speaker
Yeah.
01:28:08
Speaker
I want to hear your experience at Pinball Expo.
01:28:11
Speaker
So shoot us your experience and what you guys liked and what you didn't like.
01:28:15
Speaker
And we can certainly give that back to Rob and see how we can fix it.
01:28:18
Speaker
But huge thumbs up for the tournament for me.
01:28:22
Speaker
Sorry, for the event for me.
01:28:23
Speaker
And I didn't even play in the tournament again.
01:28:25
Speaker
And that was like a total side thing that was going on.
01:28:27
Speaker
Like the triple drain guys were all in that tournament.
01:28:31
Speaker
Yep.
01:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, shout out to Joel, Travis, and Tom.
01:28:33
Speaker
It was fun to hang out with Travis late on Friday night, even though he had to work early in the morning.
01:28:37
Speaker
Yep.
Expo as a Family Reunion and Conclusion
01:28:38
Speaker
Monica, it was great to see you again.
01:28:40
Speaker
It's just like going back to a family reunion.
01:28:42
Speaker
It is.
01:28:42
Speaker
I mean, and some of those people I consider closer than my family, because some of my family's kind of weird.
01:28:47
Speaker
Anyhow.
01:28:48
Speaker
All of my family's weird.
01:28:49
Speaker
Anyway.
01:28:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:28:51
Speaker
Love you guys.
01:28:51
Speaker
Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you in two weeks.
01:28:56
Speaker
Thank you.