# Episode 11: “X-Men vs. Avatar - FIGHT!”

**Source:** The Flipside Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-09-16  
**Duration:** 26m 33s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** 8580da82-b2f7-4981-b03f-34841e2ab75e

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## Analysis

Retro Ralph compares the recently revealed Uncanny X-Men and Avatar pinball machines, criticizing X-Men's unpolished livestream presentation and incomplete code while praising Avatar's innovative theme integration and mechanical design. He discusses Stern's MVP (minimal viable product) development philosophy, Jersey Jack's premium positioning and quality, and his desire to own a non-Stern game if the theme appeals to him.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] George Gomez revealed that another Stern game was bumped from the release schedule because X-Men development progressed faster than expected — _Retro Ralph citing George Gomez interview on Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast, speculating the bumped game may be Metallica Remaster_
- [HIGH] Stern released X-Men LE early to private collectors before Pro versions went to locations, breaking their normal release pattern — _Ralph discussing the announcement of early LE access for X-Men_
- [HIGH] X-Men's livestream showed incomplete code and unpolished gameplay that was likely rushed due to Jersey Jack's Avatar announcement timing — _Ralph's analysis of livestream performance and speculation about competitive timing with JJP_
- [HIGH] Stern uses an MVP (minimal viable product) development model similar to video game industry, releasing incomplete code that improves over time — _Ralph's direct explanation of Stern's software release philosophy compared to Jersey Jack's complete-at-launch approach_
- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack games have more advanced lighting capability than Spike 2 system used by Stern — _Ralph citing Kaneda's observation and Tim Sexton's comments about Spike 2 pushing limitations_
- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack's games cost $12,000-$15,000+ with weaker flipper strength than Stern machines, though Elton John resolved this issue — _Ralph's personal observations from playing JJP games and discussing flipper strength improvements_
- [HIGH] Avatar features innovative gameplay mechanics including single-flipper challenges and dual underworld playfields with smaller pinballs — _Ralph's detailed breakdown of Avatar's 18-minute reveal trailer_
- [MEDIUM] John Wick lacks a jukebox/DJ mixer music mode, suggesting incomplete music track implementation — _Ralph's observation that missing music selection mode indicates unreleased music tracks_

### Notable Quotes

> "Stern tends to release things more like how the video game industry does. The code is very incomplete when you get it...It's minimal viable product."
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~21:30
> _Defines Stern's development philosophy and sets expectations for early adopters_

> "Jersey Jack will work on a game and the game that they release is it's not that the code is the final code, but it is a complete game. And they might add to it over time."
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~22:00
> _Contrasts JJP's approach with Stern's MVP model_

> "I didn't love the presentation of the live stream...I was underwhelmed with the presentation where it almost seemed like everyone there was just not playing the game well"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~4:00
> _Initial criticism of X-Men reveal quality and player performance_

> "holy crap did they really focus on theme integration...Their games just look beautiful...their system seems more advanced than the spike 2 system"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~32:00
> _Praise for Avatar's presentation and Jersey Jack's technical capabilities_

> "My biggest like Jersey Jack doesn't have an Insider Connected. I'm shocked by that."
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~48:00
> _Identifies major gap in Jersey Jack's platform compared to Stern's online integration capabilities_

> "You got to hit him with the thunder you gotta come with the thunder so that both your casual and your hardcore are happy. That's a hard frigging thing to do, man."
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~75:00
> _Summarizes the core design challenge for balancing accessibility with depth_

> "if a casual's first experience is brick fest with nothing, nothing exciting or interesting happening during that, you know, couple minutes they get to play, they may not come back"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~70:00
> _Explains concern about X-Men's difficult gameplay affecting casual adoption_

> "I have some pinball friends that are older than me and they still are not like big insider connected fans and i don't know why that is but i feel like my age group this like you know i'm 45"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~44:00
> _Notes demographic divide on Insider Connected adoption among pinball players_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Retro Ralph | person | Host of The Flipside Pinball Podcast, content creator with 70,000+ YouTube subscribers, pinball enthusiast and Stern fan who pre-ordered X-Men LE |
| Jack Danger | person | Stern Pinball designer, played in X-Men livestream, received respectful acknowledgment from Ralph despite livestream criticism |
| George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball creative lead, appeared on Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast and revealed X-Men bumped another game from release schedule |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Skilled pinball player who played in X-Men livestream, experienced performance concerns noted by Ralph |
| Kaneda | person | Pinball community figure who made observations comparing Jersey Jack's lighting capabilities to Spike 2 system |
| Tim Sexton | person | Code developer for John Wick, discussed Spike 2 system capabilities at Stern tour |
| Kale Hernandez | person | From Electric Bat Arcade, attended Jersey Jack media event for Avatar showcase, provided positive feedback on Avatar's shooting mechanics |
| Mark Seiden | person | Designer of Avatar pinball for Jersey Jack |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of X-Men, known for MVP development model and Insider Connected online platform, uses Spike 2 system |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Avatar, positioned as premium boutique manufacturer with elevated pricing ($12,000-$15,000+), complete-at-launch code approach |
| The Uncanny X-Men | game | Stern Pinball game with Marvel IP, designed by Jack Danger, recently revealed with livestream presentation criticized for incomplete code and poor player performance |
| Avatar | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game based on Avatar film, features innovative mechanics including single-flipper modes and dual underworld playfields, praised for theme integration and lighting |
| John Wick | game | Stern Pinball game with beautiful cabinet design but difficult shooting mechanics; lacks jukebox mode suggesting incomplete music implementation |
| Metallica Remaster | game | Rumored upcoming Stern release, speculated as the game bumped by X-Men acceleration |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's online integration platform, Ralph emphasizes its importance and future roadmap potential; absent from Jersey Jack games |
| Spike 2 | product | Stern's pinball system platform, has lighting limitations compared to Jersey Jack's system; Spike 3 expected to be next evolution |
| Godzilla | game | Stern game successfully balancing casual and advanced player appeal according to Ralph |
| Elton John | game | Jersey Jack game that Ralph played, resolved flipper strength issues compared to earlier JJP titles |
| Toy Story | game | Jersey Jack game played by Ralph at Southern Fried Gaming Expo, high quality but not appealing theme for purchase |
| Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast | organization | UK-based pinball podcast where George Gomez revealed X-Men schedule information |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major pinball event where Ralph plans to play Avatar for the first time |
| Electric Bat Arcade | organization | Arcade venue where Kale Hernandez is located, hosted Jersey Jack Avatar media event |

### Topics

- **Primary:** X-Men livestream presentation quality and code readiness, Stern's MVP (minimal viable product) development philosophy vs Jersey Jack's complete-at-launch approach, Avatar's innovative theme integration and mechanical design, Game difficulty and casual vs advanced player accessibility
- **Secondary:** Jersey Jack vs Stern premium pricing and value proposition, Insider Connected as competitive advantage for Stern, Pinball game release schedule competition and strategic timing
- **Mentioned:** Pinball machine price inflation over time

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Ralph is cautiously optimistic about X-Men's long-term potential despite disappointing livestream, genuinely impressed by Avatar's quality and innovation despite not being a fan of the theme, and conflicted about premium pricing from both manufacturers. He maintains enthusiasm for the industry while expressing legitimate concerns about accessibility and value.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Stern's MVP release model of incomplete code at launch becoming normalized expectation, with ongoing updates required for acceptable experience (confidence: high) — Ralph explains and accepts MVP as 'par for the course with Stern' but notes it's 'unfortunate that we've gotten used to that' compared to JJP's complete releases
- **[competitive_signal]** Stern may have accelerated X-Men announcement/reveal specifically to counter Jersey Jack's Avatar media campaign timing (confidence: medium) — Ralph speculates Stern rushed code work and livestream because JJP was about to drop Avatar trailer same week; gaming competitor announcement timing
- **[design_philosophy]** X-Men's difficult gameplay and high shot difficulty may alienate casual players similar to John Wick, creating accessibility issue (confidence: high) — Ralph worried about brick fest experience for casual players, concerned X-Men may have similar balance problem as John Wick despite skilled players struggling
- **[design_philosophy]** Fundamental design tension between casual accessibility and hardcore depth; X-Men's difficulty balance questioned as potentially alienating new players (confidence: high) — Ralph repeatedly emphasizes balancing casual/hardcore appeal as 'a hard frigging thing to do' and worries X-Men's brick fest experience will drive away casual players
- **[market_signal]** X-Men early LE release to private collectors instead of standard Pro-first approach signals possible production strategy shift (confidence: medium) — Ralph explains Stern reversed normal pattern of Pro to locations first, now LEs to collectors first
- **[personnel_signal]** Jack Danger designed X-Men which is showing quality/performance issues despite being a 'really good pinball player' (confidence: high) — Ralph notes Danger is skilled player but livestream showed poor performance, code incompleteness explains this gap
- **[market_signal]** Ralph questions sustainability of premium pricing model ($12,999 for Stern LE, $15,000+ for JJP) and whether inflation adjustments will occur (confidence: medium) — Ralph explicitly states $12,999 'seems like a crazy amount' and questions if prices adjust when inflation drops; cites 2012 Transformers home pin at $2k vs current $12k+
- **[product_strategy]** X-Men development accelerated to launch before another Stern game that wasn't progressing as well; game bumped from schedule (confidence: high) — George Gomez stated on Phantom Tilt Podcast that X-Men was rapidly accelerated and 'bumped' another game to put it ahead in queue; Ralph speculates it's Metallica Remaster
- **[product_strategy]** Jersey Jack's Avatar features innovative single-flipper challenge modes and dual underworld playfields with mini-pinballs, representing novel mechanic design (confidence: high) — Ralph detailed Avatar's one-flipper bonus challenge and dual underworld playfield mechanics as 'next level' innovation
- **[product_concern]** X-Men livestream showed extensive bricks and poor player performance suggesting incomplete code and unfinished mechanics (confidence: high) — Ralph witnessed livestream with multiple drains, players struggling, speculated incomplete code was reason for rough presentation
- **[sentiment_shift]** Ralph's hype for X-Men diminished by livestream presentation but not cancelled; maintained pre-order despite concerns (confidence: high) — Ralph states 'my hype lessened' but 'I didn't cancel my order' and Kale's positive feedback reassured him; cautious optimism with reservations
- **[technology_signal]** Stark lack of Insider Connected equivalent at Jersey Jack despite its competitive importance; Ralph notes shock at absence (confidence: high) — Ralph emphasizes Insider Connected's importance to his purchasing decision and is 'shocked' JJP lacks equivalent; identifies as major roadmap gap

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## Transcript

 Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Pinball Podcast. I'm your host Retro Ralph, and this is episode 11. Thank you so much for all your support. Definitely feels really good to see the kinds of people and the numbers that are going up and up and up on all the episodes I publish. So I really appreciate the support, especially knowing that I'm a little bit newer, you know, as far as Pinball podcast goes. And I know you have a lot of great ones to go out there and listen to. So I appreciate you giving me that consideration. Anyways, today we're going to talk a little bit about what we just saw this past week. It was an exciting week in Pinball because we had the Uncanny X-Men reveal. Then we had the actual Uncanny X-Men live stream. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. And then Jersey Jack finally showed, I say finally because it's been a long project, probably three years in the making, they finally showed Avatar. And I think I have some opinions on that, so I'd love to share that with you. So let's kind of get into it. So I, for disclaimer purposes, I did pre-order Sight Unseen, the Uncanny X-Men LE. So that should be coming in a couple weeks now. So I'm pretty excited about that. And Stern did something a little bit different with this release. they decided to give early access to the LEs, where normally they make the pro versions of the game first, and those pros are specifically destined for locations. So those would go to pinball locations, pinball bars, and things like that. So that didn't happen this go-round, so you're actually going to see private collectors get it, or private owners get them first. Anyways, that aside, the thing that kind of, you know, obviously the big elephant in the room is, what did I feel or how did I feel about the live stream? And there was a lot of chatter about this. I didn't love it. I didn't love it. Not the gameplay. I didn't say that. I didn't not love the gameplay, but I didn't love the presentation of the live stream. And I'll tell you why. And I have much respect for everyone at Stern, including Jack Danger. But what I felt like after I watched it or while I was watching it is I was underwhelmed with the presentation where it almost seemed like everyone there was just not playing the game well and that kind of did that did provide a little bit of caution on my end because those players like a zach sharp or jack danger they're really good pinball players you know far beyond my skill set when it comes to pinball so it was kind of concerning me because the beginning of that live stream everyone was really just it was throwing up a lot of bricks there was a lot of you know balls being drained and uh that concerned me quite a bit i was like man what's going on but when i took some more time to think about it i was like okay because i was really trying to analyze it and i'm thinking all right the music seems pretty rough in this in this uh in this version of code the just the animations seem light the uh the code itself as far as modes we weren't really getting a lot of exploration of that and then i started thinking well maybe the reason why they didn't make this more of an educational live stream about the game was because a lot of this stuff isn't ready that was my thought and then i listened to um and i'm gonna forget the name of it i'm so sorry i gotta take a drink really quick all right by the way if you go to starbucks these um these new like burst energy things dude it's crazy amount of caffeine in this so i'm like yeah let's go uh but so on the phantom tilt pinball podcast they had which i had never heard of before which is very good by the way i think they're over in um in the uk really really good podcast they had george gomez on their show and joy and they this was right after i believe the trailer it was either right after or right before i think it was after i believe it was after so they were asking him some questions and he sort of this was something that was not knowledge to any of us i don't think but he basically said look there was another game that got bumped to put this game ahead of it because the progress on x-men uncanny x-men was going better than whatever the game was that was supposed to be released so and i don't know what game he didn't say what game that is the only games i know that are like kind of slated from stern to come out or at least highly rumored and somewhat confirmed would be the metallica uh remastered or whatever they decide to call it so i don't know if that was the one i'm not really sure i don't know what they were planning on on doing, but whatever it was, they said it wasn't progressing. So they, they, they like rapidly accelerated uncanny X-Men. So he kind of alluded to the code, not really being quite ready. And so that kind of sort of confirmed for me that what we saw in that live stream was that the code just wasn't ready. They had to get the live stream out. They had to do it. You know, obviously because you announced it now, it would be kind of weird if they didn't. And maybe there's a little bit of, you know, you got to think they get into, they get into conference rooms and they discuss uh you know hey what should we do jersey jack is launching avatar they're undoubtedly going to show their game like it would be very weird if we don't stick to a schedule and show the game maybe they would have waited a little bit longer had uh had jersey jack not announced that avatar would be this week to kind of like maybe last minute do some code revision so they get it a little bit tighter but uh they didn't do that that's that's that's probably my guess is that they were in a room thinking about how they're going to plan the rollout right now all this stuff is scheduled, right? They have plans for all this stuff, but maybe they got into the room and went, oh crap, like guys, we're a little bit, we're a little bit behind as far as code goes. Uh, but we kind of have to show it because Jersey Jack's about to drop the avatar trailer. That was really long. I want to say it was like 18 minutes long, but it was, it was very in depth as far as like telling you about the game, how it plays the feature sets. So I think there was like a conscious effort to say, look, we got to do this and yeah, it's going to be a little rough, but we, but we have to. And so did that hurt it or help it? I don't really know. For me, I didn't, you know, I didn't cancel my order. I didn't stop my order. There are people that literally are saying, oh, they're, they're, they're moving their money from one game to the other. I don't know if that's true. Right. Who knows? Maybe there's like a couple. I don't think that's like a widespread thing. And I think the game is going to be really great. I just think in its infancy, there were some things I didn't like. I didn't really, um, I didn't really care for the music. It just seemed like the music was not really giving me this like superhero vibe. it was very like almost uh i don know people had had referred to it as like musac kind of style thing I don know if I would have said that but it just seemed too casual and too chill And it's like when I first plunged that ball, you want to get into the game right away, right? And I didn't feel like it did that. So I think there's definitely some work to do, but all the shot variety and everything is all there. There's some really cool features. So I think the game's going to be great. I just think it's going to take some time. And that's kind of the state of when Stern does a release, which is kind of unfortunate that we've gotten sort of used to that. Like Jersey Jack will work on a game and the game that they release is it's not that the code is the final code, but it is a complete game. And they might add to it over time. But Stern tends to release things more like how the video game industry does. Right. The code is very incomplete when you get it. It is it's what I would call in the software world. It's called MVP. It's minimal viable product. It's like the minimum version you can put out to a customer that you can say it's a game. But is it the complete game? No. And that's kind of what Stern does. It's minimal viable product, right? They give us MVP. And those early adopters need to know and understand that what you're getting is going to get better over time. As Stern does that, that is their workflow. They try to get it as good as it can for that early release, you know, those early adopters. And then it gets better over time. now sometimes it gets a lot better like we saw with james bond and sometimes it's slow like i kind of feel like john wick is slow i'm still enjoying it there are people that don't uh but even in the recent release they added some different music to it like there's some things that when when you trigger a mode the music is different where the music before was kind of it was kind of um really like one or two or three tracks as a matter of fact when you go in there is no jukebox mode this kind of tells you right here there is no or dj mixer mode whatever they call it, where you can listen to the music of the pinball machine. There is no mode for that in John Wick right now. And that leads me to believe it's because all the tracks are not there. Why they're not there, I don't know. So again, that is par for the course with Stern. I'm not saying it's bad. It's just the way they do it. So just know, I think that's why we saw what we saw. Not making excuses. I literally think that's actually what we saw. We saw incomplete code that's still being refined as minimal viable product. And that's why they didn't go through all the feature sets. so i know that might have been a turnoff for some uh it was a slightly i was disappointed i mean i was absolutely disappointed it it it lessened some of my hype for the game but then uh my buddy kale who's uh from from electric bat who's out there right now for the jersey jack media thing where they were showcasing avatar he went over and stopped at stern he's like dude the game shoots awesome you're gonna love it he's like just needs some code work but he didn't say that i'm saying that but uh but he did say he loved he's like man it shoots great you're gonna love it so anyway that's for what that's worth but this week we also got the avatar thing and i will tell you my instant reaction to that long video they posted was like holy crap did they really focus on theme integration now i have to throw out a disclaimer i am not a big avatar fan i watched the first movie when that came out i haven't seen the second one i liked it it was something i definitely talked about, but it wasn't like movies from my childhood where I was like, oh my gosh, I want to rewatch this a bunch of times. It wasn't that way for me. Now, maybe depending on when you grew up and how old you were when you saw the original, maybe that there's some nostalgia there. I just think it was a weird pick and we already had an Avatar game, although this one looks beautiful. I will say this about Jersey Jack. Their games just look beautiful. And I got to give some uh i was listening to a little bit of canada this week and he made some comments that i do agree with he's like look their system seems more advanced than the spike 2 system and what it can do capabilities around light shows and things and i think that i think that's true i mean elliot Elliot Eismin when um he's the um coder for or sorry not elliot Elliot Eismin no uh shoot i can't think of his name right now crap um the code developer for for john wick ah tim sexton when when we met tim sexton at the stern tour and he was talking about the capabilities of john wick with the expression lighting and some of that uh he said they were kind of pushing the spike 2 system quite a bit and i thought that was kind of interesting because um that was sort of what kaneda's comment was he didn't go to that degree talking about you know maybe the technical aspects of it but just if you were to visually compare the two you can tell Jersey Jack has a lot more capability and and we may see more of that like an enhanced lighting system capability when it comes to the Spike 3 system which should be whatever the next game is for Stern that will be their next platform it will be the evolution of Spike 2 so who knows what's going to come with that but anyways back to Avatar I was blown away by the trailer it's unfortunate that the game that the theme is avatar though because it's just not something i would want to buy and have in my home but i really want to play it i mean it looks awesome there were some things and i didn't have enough time to really deep dive it because we have family in town but i wanted to still get this podcast out to you there was this feature that i can't remember it's something where like for a period of time you're challenged to play with one flipper only and then you're kind of like hedging your bets on when you want to cash out your bonus i don't know how that works exactly but like as soon as you hit your right flipper i think you the pot like the the bonus pot goes away and i think you but you can build it back up again like that kind of stuff is really innovative and cool like i like that kind of stuff so so i'm like wow they're really thinking about some next level things there's that under play field with the smaller pinball where you're battling again not an don't know avatar enough to know what you're battling under the table or under the machine but under the pinball machine i can't believe i said table i like get so triggered when people call pinball machines tables i don't understand that that came from the virtual pinball world and it drives me nuts when people are like oh look at this cool pinball table like it just sounds weird like no part of me describes a pinball machine as a table so i can't believe i just said that but i don't know i'm weird though certain things trigger me that triggers me so bad i just don't get so i'm triggered myself now i'm triggered anyways so underneath the playfield there's that uh there's a couple of, there's two separate under, under like underworld playfields. And there's a smaller pinball under there. And you kind of have this little mini battle with someone, something in the game. That's the, something in the game. That's part of the movie. I don't, I don't actually know, but there like a lot of cool innovation There the eclipse thing with the lighting system Like there a lot of really cool stuff There some stuff to celebrate here And you know one thing that I say is you know and you guys know I'm like a really big Stern fanboy, is that the quality, like the overall quality aspect of like the amount of money you can tell they put into the feature sets and the toys and mechanisms of the game seem elevated. and and i kind of i guess my perspective of jersey jack has always been they're kind of like this boutique pinball player that our pinball company manufacturer that builds elevated products that have an elevated cost too and so their overall um their overall customer base is like a higher end customer base because i mean you think about it i think their their games it's like 12 grand and 15 grand for their most for their best one it's like i mean 12 999 for an le seems like a crazy amount and now you're talking their version of an le is 15 000 and then you add tax to that and everything so if you're buying that new in box it's a lot of money so but when you look at it you're kind of like wow i kind of see the value for the money now i've never really spent a considerable amount of time with any of the jersey jack games i spent a little bit of time with elton John I really liked that but some of the ones um like Toy Story I actually spent some time with at Southern Fried Gaming Expo and really kind of had a I had a good time with it I wouldn't want to buy it but I had a good time with it and it felt of high quality the only thing that I did notice a big and I know this comes up all the time is people always complain about Jersey Jack like the flippers and how they the the overall like strength of the flippers they feel weaker but that that was definitely resolved um on Elton John so I don't know if that was like a software thing or if there's actually different coils or what, I don't know what they're doing differently in their flippers. Uh, maybe it's just software. Maybe it's just software tuning. I don't know, but it felt more like a stern. I like this. I like the strength of the flippers in a stern. It's just how it, it's what I grew accustomed to. So when I jump over to a game that has like weak flippers, I have a hard time with it. It feels cheap to me. That's just my perception of it. Right. Just my perception. So, so am I excited about avatar? Yeah, I am, but I'm excited to play it. Not excited. I'm not a buyer for that game. And what, what it made me think about, it was like, wow, like I have not really, I have not really taken the time to like slow down and take a look at the quality of a Jersey Jack and it's really good. But my thing is, what if they did a theme I really wanted? I kind of hope they do because I'd like to own one despite the big, the big price tag my only thing that gets in my way is insider connected i put a lot of emphasis on insider connected because i freaking love it it's funny because i have some pinball friends that are older than me and they still are not like big insider connected fans and i don't know why that is but i feel like my age group this like you know i'm 45 by the way but my age group i think that like the 50 and under that are into pinball really like that i that the features of it and i think there's so many cool things they can do with insider connected in the future right and i think there's a big really involved roadmap around it too like one of the things that i would love to see is i'd love to see if me and a friend had a the same game like my buddy nick madsen he has a lot of the same games as me like it would be really cool to play a cooperative game or even a versus game over the internet, right? And if they incorporated like a camera in there, it'd be cool if it was almost like we were hanging out together playing the game, but we're doing that, you know, virtually. That would be so cool. Or even hold your own tournaments, right? Like I could host my own tournament on Insider Connected, do invites, and now all of a sudden we're doing tournaments, you know, virtually. Or even I could participate. Imagine if I could participate in a tournament virtually. Like that would be really cool. Anyways, lots of cool stuff, lots of cool ideas and things that we could do with Insider Connected. But that's my biggest like Jersey Jack doesn't have an Insider Connected. I'm shocked by that. I think there's got to be some roadmap for something like an Insider Connected because that seems like the future where you can enable a lot of cool features that that you can't do if you don't have something like that. So but, you know, kind of going back one more time on Jersey Jack games. I want them to make a theme that I really like, because I think even though if they don't have the online capabilities, I would love to have a Jersey Jack game in my collection and, and, and kind of, you know, feel that quality of that game. And do I feel like I would regret the purchase at that price? I don't think so. If as long as I felt like I was getting the quality out of it, I do think that, you know, maybe controversial to say, But I do think that an LE is really expensive by Stern, right? It seems like it should be somewhere a tick lower than $12,999. But hey, that's the market right now. That's what it is. And I want to play pinball and I want to own some of these games. So you got to pay the price. But I mean, the thing that never really comes up, and I'm not an economist by any stretch of the imagination, but you look at it and everything's inflated all over the place. But the thing is, when inflation goes down, do these prices get adjusted or do the companies decide to keep it where it's at? I guess we'll have to see. But, you know, it is a hard pill to swallow at $12,999 in my opinion. It's a lot of money for an LE. So it's a lot of money for a pro. I mean, so it would be great if we could get. Actually, the funny thing is, you know, what's really cool. I'm going to change the subjects a little bit. there's a video out there and this is from i want to say 2012 maybe i could be wrong on the date and it's uh it's the stern if you guys remember stern had partnered up with hasbro to make that home version of of uh transformers and that actually they have one at the pinball hall of fame in vegas so i've seen it before it was broken but i've seen it that was sort of um I don't know if that was Stern's second attempt at a home machine. I can't remember if the Jurassic Park and Star Wars is their third attempt or their second. I can't remember. I don't remember if that... Anyways, long story short, in that video, I want to say the home pin that Transformers was in the $2,000 range. And it looks... I mean, I've seen it in person. It has all the same mechanisms that a normal Stern pinball machine would have But just that just goes to show you like how much pinball prices have gone up over time and in that video it was interesting because they were talking about reliability for the home and uh Gary Stern pitch at the time was like look yeah everything in here is meant to be self-contained and uh basically maintenance free but i mean we know steel ball hitting other pieces of metal uh it's never going to be maintenance free but um but yeah so i don't know i don't really know the backstory of what happened to that thing i have seen it i've never played it because it was it's never been functional where i've seen it but uh but yeah so just just like i guess the reason why i bring that up is pinball prices have obviously gone up a lot and this is within like a 10 year period i'd love to see them come down a bit would i actually feel i'd get the value out of a jersey jack game if i paid that amount of money i don't know i guess it's to be determined but i just make a theme i want you know make a theme i want but i am excited to play it at pinball expo it looks really cool but looks aren't everything right i mean you can say that the playfield artwork is great and the backbox artwork is awesome and the lcd assets are amazing but if the game doesn't shoot well then what that what does any of that stuff matter it is part of the equation it's pieces of it right you need all the pieces i recently did a video on a pinwoofer and the power wave amplifier right music soundtrack call outs all that stuff is part of the experience you need all of it lighting you need all those things they all together make up the experience so you can't just you know a lot of people had said this about john wick yeah the cabinet looks beautiful everyone was talking about how beautiful it is but i i like the way it shoots but there's some people that don't and that's fine there's people that like games or people that don't like games and i'm not trying to justify my purchase i actually really like it i didn't like it at first though i'll tell you when i first got when i first got john wick home and i started playing it was brick fest it took me a while to get good at it but that's where when uh when you see people that have new in box games and they've got like 50 plays 25 plays 10 plays and they sell them i think it's because they've never they haven't given it a shot you gotta get good at some of these games some of these games right off the bat are not necessarily fun but that's a concern does the person that developed the game does the game designer want it to be more accessible to everyone with a slight learning curve or do they want it to have a tough learning curve or a much harder learning curve where you're kind of alienating the casual player i would argue godzilla did a good job it did an awesome job appealing to both the casual player and the advanced player that's probably that's a pretty hard feat i think to accomplish i have the utmost respect for these designers that design these mechanical things of magic that we all love but man it's a balance and i don't think john wick hit that balance very well because it's not an easy game it's a low scoring game in general and it's not easy to master those shots so i can see someone playing it for like one to five times and writing it off that's actually not good for the game though so i hope x-men even though i'm nervous though because after watching that trailer man it made me nervous these are really good players draining over and over and over again. That was super concerning to me. I'm hoping that, that that's just, I don't know, just, they were having a bad day. They weren't warmed up or whatever, because if I get at home and that's my experience, that's going to be a tough one, but I'm gonna, I'm I I've stay in the course. I'm confident that, uh, with a little bit of practice, that won't be the case. And that's kind of the thing. Like I keep repeating myself, but that's the thing. Like, how do you, how do you do that balance? You got to have a balance because you don't want to release a game. That's so difficult that if a casual's first experience is brick fest with nothing, nothing exciting or interesting happening during that, you know, couple minutes they get to play, they may not come back. And that's actually the toughest thing for these companies because you got to, you got to provide a balance. Anyways, guys, I know I was a little all over the place, but hopefully you enjoyed this. I have to do more research on Avatar, but what I'm seeing, I really like, and I am undoubtedly really excited to um i hit the wrong button i hit this button i do this at work all the time hit him with the hide hit him with the hide that's you gotta these companies need to release products that hit him with the hide you gotta hit him with the hide you gotta come with the thunder you know what i'm saying you gotta come with the thunder so that both your casual and your hardcore are happy. That's a hard frigging thing to do, man. But I'm very excited to see Avatar. Very excited to play it at Expo. I probably won't play it till Expo, but yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Maybe there have been several instances. Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent. There have been several instances where it's a theme I'm not interested in really, and I end up really loving the game. That could be this, but I got to think with that amount of money, it has to be a Jersey Jack theme that I really, really like. Bring out Matrix, dude. There's a million cool things you could do with the Matrix. Come on. If they have that license, I'd be a buyer for that game. So, and yeah, I mean, I just want to buy a non-Stern. I love Stern, but I want to buy a non-Stern. Give me a reason. Give me a reason, guys. Spooky. Dutch. Back to the future. That's a good reason. But, dude, Dutch. You take forever. You take a really long time. CGC. Pulp Fiction I almost bought. Pulp Fiction's a badass game. I need, what's going to be my first non-stern? Hmm. I don't know. What do you guys think? What's going to be your non-stern? Or maybe you have a non-stern. If you are all stern, what's going to be your non-stern? All right, guys. That's it. Thank you so much. You are the best. Your support is awesome. Can't thank you enough. The YouTube side of it, the Retro Ralph Live, you guys are killing it. there's so many views on it that I'm like, holy shit, it's doing, my podcast is outperforming videos on Retro Ralph with almost 70,000 subscribers. And that, that it's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. I am, I'm, I'm over the moon. It's really cool because it's something I'm really passionate about. And, uh, I was worried. I was worried that maybe people wouldn't come along on this journey with me and you have, and that means a lot. It really does. And I'm not paying for this. This is free content. And then that's, it's about the passion, man. That's, that's what it's all about. It's about me sharing it with you guys. That channel is not even a monetized channel, so I'm not even making any money, but it doesn't matter. It's about the passion. It's not about the money. Thank you guys. And we will see you on the flip side.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 15fd12e6-018b-4807-b05f-9522aee5ee79*