# Universal Soccer

**Source:** BlahCade Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2017-09-01  
**Duration:** 34m 28s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blahcade-pinball-podcast/episodes/Universal-Soccer-e1bkg5e

---

## Analysis

Chris and Jared discuss Farsight's release of World Champion Soccer (formerly World Cup Soccer) with minimal de-branding changes, improvements to Black Knight's graphics and audio, and upcoming Bally table Fathom. The main focus is Zen's announcement of three new Universal Classics tables (E.T., Back to the Future, Jaws) for Pinball FX, along with major Pinball FX3 updates including cross-platform play, dynamic lighting, and a comprehensive list of 65+ tables transferring from FX2. They note licensing losses (Plants vs. Zombies, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter, South Park) and speculate on reasons.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] World Champion Soccer (formerly World Cup Soccer) had minimal de-branding changes—mainly color of dog's outfit, World Cup trophies replaced with lights — _Chris directly played and analyzed the Farsight release, describing specific visual changes in detail_
- [HIGH] Back to the Future and Jaws pinball tables in Zen's Universal Classics pack do not have original voice acting or music — _Chris and Jared explicitly state 'they don't have original voices' and 'they don't get the Jaws music'_
- [MEDIUM] South Park licensing did not transfer to Pinball FX3 due to potential exclusivity conflicts with other South Park digital games and possible favored nation status pricing issues — _Jared speculates on licensing complexity: exclusivity clauses on competing titles and favored nation status escalation learned from Terminator 2 experience_
- [HIGH] Pinball FX3 will support cross-platform play between PlayStation/Steam, Xbox/Windows 10, with Steam users able to play with everyone — _Chris reads directly from Zen's official announcement_
- [HIGH] 65+ tables are being redone and transferred from Pinball FX2 to FX3, with five tables not transferring (Misses Explosion Man, Plants vs. Zombies, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter, South Park) — _Chris reviews and reads the official Zen list of transferring tables and confirmed removals_
- [HIGH] Black Knight's emulated version now has significantly improved graphics and audio cues compared to the original digital version — _Jared played the updated version and directly compares visual clarity and audio quality improvements_
- [HIGH] Fathom is a narrow-body pinball machine from the same era as Xenon, Centaur, and 8-Ball Deluxe — _Chris verifies playfield characteristics on IPDB and confirms narrow-body configuration_
- [MEDIUM] Farsight previously declined to create original pinball table designs and turned down South Park Studios' offer to make an exclusive original design — _Jared describes inside knowledge of Farsight's interaction with South Park Studios, noting Farsight's stated limitations: 'not what we do... not in the wheelhouse'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Removing all the USA livery from him, basically... little touches like that. But in terms of most of the DMD survived."
> — **Chris**, Early episode
> _Describes minimal de-branding changes to World Champion Soccer, confirming licensing handled lightly_

> "Why wouldn't you have the Jaws music? My God. It's basically not going to be Jaws. It's going to be Sharknado."
> — **Chris**, Mid-episode
> _Expresses frustration with missing iconic Jaws theme, criticizing Zen's licensing strategy_

> "Steam users, you get to play with everybody... Steam is the superior platform when it comes to games."
> — **Chris**, Mid-episode
> _Celebrates cross-platform play announcement and affirms Steam's platform dominance_

> "Farsight was like, well, that's not what we do. We don't do original designs... I just don't think it's in the wheelhouse."
> — **Jared**, Mid-episode discussion of South Park licensing
> _Reveals Farsight's self-imposed design limitations and why South Park went to Zen_

> "Favored nation status... Hey, we paid you this much for the license. Why are they paying less for the license? So Zen might have paid less for the license at the time, and now the price just skyrocketed."
> — **Jared**, Late episode licensing discussion
> _Explains complex licensing economics and why South Park may not have transferred to FX3_

> "E.T. pinball is a weird one for me. Nothing about E.T. screams pinball to me."
> — **Chris**, Mid-episode
> _Expresses skepticism about Universal's choice to license E.T. for pinball_

> "The Zen Classics Pack, also known as the Pull Your Hair Out Pack, because it's V12, Eldorado, Tesla, and Shaman... the peak of Zen not telling you what the hell to do to advance."
> — **Chris**, Late episode
> _Humorously critiques older Zen table design philosophy for poor rule clarity_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Zen Studios | company | Digital pinball developer announcing Pinball FX3 with Universal Classics tables (E.T., Back to the Future, Jaws) and cross-platform play features |
| Farsight Studios | company | Digital pinball developer who released World Champion Soccer (formerly World Cup Soccer) and is preparing Fathom as next Bally table release |
| World Champion Soccer | game | Farsight digital pinball release (formerly World Cup Soccer); minimal de-branding due to licensing changes; plays similarly to original with cosmetic updates |
| Pinball FX3 | product | Upcoming Zen digital pinball platform featuring 65+ transferred tables, cross-platform play, dynamic lighting, tournaments; five tables not transferring due to licensing |
| Universal Classics Pinball | game | Zen Studios pack featuring three tables: E.T., Back to the Future, and Jaws; missing original voice acting and music (notably Jaws theme) |
| Black Knight | game | Farsight-emulated pinball table with significant graphics and audio improvements in latest update; cleaner visuals reduce visual clutter |
| Fathom | game | Upcoming Bally pinball table from Farsight; narrow-body machine from 1980s era alongside Xenon, Centaur, and 8-Ball Deluxe |
| Chris Frebus | person | Co-host of Blockade Podcast (alias 'Shut Your Trap'); plays digital pinball titles and analyzes Zen/Farsight announcements |
| Jared Morgan | person | Co-host of Blockade Podcast (based in Australia); provides licensing industry insights and comparative platform analysis |
| South Park Pinball | game | Zen Studios table not transferring to FX3; licensing conflict due to exclusivity issues and favored nation status complications with PopCap/EA and South Park Studios |
| Plants vs. Zombies | game | Zen table not transferring to FX3 due to EA acquisition of PopCap Games; licensing agreement with PopCap became complicated |
| Ninja Gaiden Pinball | game | PS3 exclusive Zen table not transferring to FX3; described as visually uninteresting with difficult-to-focus red color scheme |
| Street Fighter Pinball | game | Zen table (likely PS3 exclusive) not transferring to FX3; described as visually uninteresting |
| Misses Explosion Man | game | Zen original table not transferring to FX3; copyright/licensing reasons; described as obscure with limited appeal |
| Pinball FX2 | product | Previous Zen digital pinball platform; 65+ tables eligible for free transfer to FX3 |
| Star Wars Pinball | game | Stern physical machine; discussed as desired Limited Edition version; Pro model not recommended |
| PopCap Games | company | Original publisher of Plants vs. Zombies pinball license; acquired by EA, complicating licensing transfer |
| EA (Electronic Arts) | company | Acquired PopCap Games; acquisition complicated licensing agreements for Plants vs. Zombies pinball table |
| Back to the Future | game | Zen Studios Universal Classics table; missing original voices and music; previously had Data East pinball adaptation |
| Jaws | game | Zen Studios Universal Classics table; missing iconic Jaws musical theme; hosts speculate on shark fin popup mechanics |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Digital pinball releases and updates, Licensing and IP challenges in pinball, Pinball FX3 cross-platform features and table transfers, Farsight Studios World Champion Soccer de-branding changes, Zen Studios Universal Classics pinball announcement (E.T., BTTF, Jaws)
- **Secondary:** Physical pinball machine availability (Star Wars LE), Digital pinball graphics and audio quality improvements, Favored nation licensing status and pricing complexity

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hosts are excited about Farsight's World Champion Soccer minimal changes and Pinball FX3 cross-platform play, but express disappointment and concern about missing iconic music/voices on Universal Classics (especially Jaws), South Park licensing loss, and E.T. as odd licensing choice. Some frustration with Zen's design decisions on licensing-restricted content. Overall positive toward technical improvements (Black Knight, FX3 features) but reserved on creative/licensing outcomes.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Five established digital pinball tables (South Park, Plants vs. Zombies, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter, Misses Explosion Man) not transferring to Pinball FX3 due to licensing complications including EA acquisition, exclusivity clauses, and favored nation status (confidence: high) — Chris and Jared detail each licensing loss; Jared explains South Park: 'Zen might have paid less for the license at the time, and now the price just skyrocketed' due to favored nation status complications
- **[community_signal]** Pinball FX3 designed as 'more of a communal experience' with cross-platform tournaments and competitions; team play not yet implemented but may follow based on community activity (confidence: high) — Chris notes: 'They want this to be more of a communal experience and playing with each other. So there's going to be tournaments and competitions... It doesn't look like I didn't see anything that was form a team and play.'
- **[design_philosophy]** E.T. perceived as odd/misaligned licensing choice by hosts; theme lacks natural pinball appeal; speculation that Universal Studios broadly licensed multiple IPs without strategic fit analysis (confidence: medium) — Chris: 'Nothing about E.T. screams pinball to me.' Jared speculates: 'It sounds a little bit like the license has been... They've gone, oh, we got universal license. Well, E.T. then?'
- **[licensing_signal]** Zen's Universal Classics tables (E.T., Back to the Future, Jaws) missing original voice acting and iconic music (notably Jaws theme); reflects negotiated licensing scope restrictions (confidence: high) — Chris and Jared explicitly confirm missing original voices and music; Chris criticizes: 'Why wouldn't you have the Jaws music? My God. It's basically not going to be Jaws. It's going to be Sharknado.'
- **[market_signal]** Pinball FX3 transferring 65+ tables from previous platform, indicating consolidation of digital pinball library and backward compatibility strategy; repositioning of table packs suggests rebranding/reorganization of content discovery (confidence: high) — Chris: '65 plus tables all redone, apparently.' Notes on pack renaming: 'They've renamed a lot of the packs, which I think is kind of interesting.'
- **[community_signal]** Zen Studios maintains design trademark of pop-up/moving cardboard cutout mechanics; hosts speculate shark fin popups for Jaws table consistent with Zen's established visual design language (confidence: medium) — Chris jokes: 'It's almost like a Zen trademark now, isn't it? The pop-up sort of things... the moving cardboard cutouts.' Speculates on Jaws: 'I'm guessing we're going to shark dorsal fins popping up.'
- **[announcement]** Zen Studios announces three new Universal Classics pinball tables: E.T., Back to the Future, and Jaws for Pinball FX; gameplay video released for E.T. (confidence: high) — Chris reads official announcement: 'Three new tables that they're going to be putting out... Universal Classics Pinball: E.T., Back to the Future, and Jaws.'
- **[product_strategy]** Black Knight emulated pinball table received significant visual and audio improvements; graphics clarity dramatically enhanced ('difference between having somebody taking a butane torch and seeing what it actually should look like'), audio cues restored to original specifications (confidence: high) — Jared: 'The biggest difference in the world on that table is the graphics... Being able to see everything—it not looking like somebody had taken a torch to it and smoked it.' Chris confirms improved audio: 'The audio cues are now exactly as they should be.'
- **[product_concern]** World Champion Soccer's plunger shot tuning differs from physical machine; first drop disproportionately difficult compared to middle/third drops, inverting expected difficulty curve (confidence: medium) — Chris notes: 'The middle one was the challenge... Here, I'm able to get the middle and the far one with no issue. That first one is just like even.' Android version shows different tuning from Steam version.
- **[business_signal]** Farsight Studios deliberately constrains itself to licensed pinball recreations and declines to develop original table designs; South Park Studios' proposal for exclusive original design was rejected, leading South Park to pursue Zen instead (confidence: medium) — Jared: 'Farsight was like, well, that's not what we do. We don't do original designs... I just don't think it's in the wheelhouse.' Explains licensing outcome: 'So they passed, and obviously South Park went to Zen.'
- **[technology_signal]** Pinball FX3 implementing cross-platform play with hierarchical access: PlayStation/Steam separate from Xbox/Windows 10, Steam users gaining universal access; represents platform ecosystem fragmentation resolution (confidence: high) — Chris reads official breakdown: 'PlayStation owners, you get to play amongst yourselves, amongst Steam players... Steam users, you get to play with everybody.'

---

## Transcript

 This is the Blockade Podcast with your hosts, Chris and Jared. You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Freeless, aka Shut Your Trap. Joining me as always, halfway across the world, Jared Morgan. Hello, Chris. How are you? I'm doing well. We've had a little gap in our air dates. Yeah, we have. See, life has got in the way, right? Life or more specifically, my production schedule. Should I say gainful employment? Yeah, which is always good. Yeah, you know, sometimes... Gainful employment always trumps podcasting. Always. Well, it'd be a little difficult to podcast when I'm working on that Saturday and then immediately being thrown to a shuttle bus and hopping on an airplane and not getting home until 10 o'clock at night. So, yeah. Yeah, makes it a little bit tricky. It's a teensy tiny bit. Yeah. Then we also had an issue with... I was just going to say, there was also just kind of an issue with, for a little bit, there wasn't much pinball news to even announce. It wasn't really. Kind of fortuitous. We could have probably done something last week, but that was travel involved. There was some news last week, which we held over to this week that we're going to talk about today. Right. But as always, we don't want to talk about that stuff first. Let's talk about what the heck's going on. Yeah, that's right. There's stuff going on. Medical issues are going on in my world. Zachary is in the hospital with pneumonia again, and that's been fun times. But I think he's on the mend now, so hopefully if he's done well overnight and hasn't required to go back onto the oxygen again, they might be able to release him, I'm thinking, by Sunday. Might be able to transfer him back to... He's at Lady Salenta, which is all the way in the city at the moment, so that means a good 40-minute drive for me to get there and parking that's astronomically expensive like all hospitals. Because they can't go enough ways. You know what? You're already sick. Let's kick you in the nuts with a nice big parking bill as well. Right, exactly. Because in the grand scheme of things, well, isn't your loved one worth it? Exactly. So yeah, I did find a little life hack that there's a parking garage sort of down the road a bit, which will do flat rate parking for $15 a day. So I just got on that because that's basically probably about one hour of parking at the hospital, about 15 bucks. So yeah, it's a bit of a walk involved. Like it's a little bit of a walk to the hospital from there, but I've got legs. So I'm fine with that. Just count the dollars you're saving as you step. probably it could actually always be counted every single step per dollar right divide that by time and then you can figure out how much each step you're saving there's another 25 cents there we go look I'm just picking up those quarters off the ground every time I walk so yeah so hopefully he'll be back on deck next week I think we're hoping. Yeah, so that'll be good. Medical issues with the kids are never a good time. We've gotten lucky with our son in not ever having to. Well, yeah, I mean, we have a neighbor who, guys, seems like they're doing an emergency room visit with their two kids at least two, maybe three times a year, and we've never had to rush to the emergency room. So they might also go because my kid won't even ride his bike off of a curb. Not much of a risk taker, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, so that's where we are at the moment. But that's hopefully going to be resolving itself at some point along the track. So we'll just roll with it. That's all you can really do, isn't it? the illness will take as long as it takes. Well, I could bore you with some of my BS, which involves me trying to hunt down a 3D copy of Guardians of the Galaxy 2. But instead, let's just dive in and maybe we'll save that for later. Ooh, teaser. The first being of which, Farsight released World Cup Soccer. Oh, excuse me, World Champion Soccer. Champion. World-fisted soccer. Which, I'm sorry, it's going to be World Cup soccer. For all of you that were scared to death of how much de-branding they were going to have to do and de-licensing and was there even going to be anything left of the game that people loved, yeah, you're all panicked for nothing. Yeah, it's fine. The changes are minor. I mean, literally, we're talking about changing the color of the outfit that Striker the dog wears. That's quite like removing all the USA livery from him, basically. Exactly. Removing that. Removing, of course, all the World Cup trophies that are around instead of having to light up lights saying World Cup in Aspel's Champion. So little touches like that. but in terms of most of the DMD survived, I was laughing because if you watch while the table's doing the flyby of the game and you can see the DMD, it's obviously programmed so that if this flashes up, whatever this is, then make it go black. But it's amazing how many times World Cup USA sneaks in there before it suddenly goes black. Yes. It's like, fuck. So they've obviously done a little bit like what they've done with Doctor Who Masters of Time, and they've done a DMD swap. Yeah, so I was watching the complete attract mode to see what happens. And, yeah, give it enough time, and you'll see the logo pop up and then quickly disappear. and beyond, so basically you'll never see it say World Champion Soccer on the DMD. They didn't reprogram in something else, which in some respects would have been nice if they had it, but then again, it comes back to how much time is anybody really spending staring at the DMD before actually playing. It's like, no, you're going to just, boom, it's up, let's push play, let's go. So that's one of those things where it would have been nice but totally unnecessary but beyond that somebody mentioned that there might have been a call out here or two where they dropped a name that was being called out but otherwise it's fine I can't remember any specific names that would be copyrighted there's just country names being called out that I can remember and there were no player references at all see I wasn't ever sure but other than that every other aspect of the game has been retained and it plays just the way it normally plays there were some people complaining that they thought that the flipper strength was a little weak and I don't know on Steam it feels really good because I've never thought that the ball should rocket all the way up to the top of the playfield off of a flip shooting that goal should be risky not necessarily risky but challenging getting your timing and whatever that's right it's in the beta there was a point at which they had a bit of incorrect tuning on the goalie and he was a wall that guy was just a wall You couldn get the ball past him at all especially from the corner shot It was just impossible, and it was good because it got us to test the case where if you're really bad at playing the game and you've constantly got goalie hits, it plays a different set of sound calls. So we got to hear that, this guy is a wall sound call. No, and other than that, I mean, I think my only gripe that I'm having is just actually with the plunger shot. And that is, for those of you who are not quite familiar with World Cup soccer, how the plunger shot works, it kind of sends the ball into an up-U-turn, if you will, and there's three potential drops that it can make. Obviously, if you go full strength, it's going to go all the way to the third drop. hitting that first drop very difficult and I don't recall it on the real machine it always seems like the middle drop was the difficult one to get the first and third one were easy the middle one was the challenge and here I'm able to get the middle and the far one with no issue with that first one is just like even and what I've noticed is I'll do a very soft plunge just enough for it to basically get up and it will roll all the way to the third slot so oh really i find a very different tuning on android well at least during the the beta when i was playing it i was finding that the when you say third you mean the one closest to the player right yes yes yeah so uh the third one is the one that i was having all sorts of problems getting whereas the first one no problem second no problem um so unless they put in late breaking tuning on that area, it was those ones I was having trouble getting. And at one point, which they fixed before they released it, it was if you did a soft plunge and the ball didn't fall through the first hole but sort of went in that area, I guess the virtual switch, the zone where that virtual switch is, was too big. So it would actually trigger it sort of underneath as the ball flopped back down again. so they did fix that which was good to see going out the other thing that I tested out in T-Pain I did finally load up Black Knight ah yes the emulated version yes and although I'm still not a fan of the table I will now play it it's better than it was though right I don't know if it necessarily plays tuning wise better although the upper play field seemed to be a little easier to handle but I mean the biggest difference in the world on that table is the graphics being able to see everything it not looking like somebody had taken a torch to it and smoked it it just that aspect alone makes it visually more fun to play and then you throw in the audio cues are now exactly as they should be, which wasn't the case prior. So it now feels, I mean, it's subtle. It certainly feels more like it definitely should have all along. So, yeah, now I'll be willing to now occasionally throw in a little time on it. Yeah, it's, I really, with that game now, I'm really appreciating the extra sound calls in it and definitely the cleaner-looking play field. It's looking much better now. They have cleaned away some of that nuking, haven't they? Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's the difference between having somebody taking a butane torch and just going, I'm going to wax it with fire and seeing what it actually should look like. Yeah. Well, yeah. Good on you, Farsight. You've done well with these tables. And maybe you're redeeming this season after all. Because after this, next month, we also get another Ballytale. We're going Bally heavy this round. And our next table is going to be Fathom. Yeah, Fathom, another Ballytable. we're talking again the same era as Xenon and Centaur and 8-Ball Deluxe so if you're at all a fan of those machines you're going to probably be enjoying them quite a lot yeah agreed it's going to be very very interesting I'm just bringing up the lower play field of it now on IPDB it looks like it's hmm okay it is a narrow body I could see the telltale return lane as the, sorry, the out lane as return lane and the return lane as the out lane sort of configuration. Yes. So yeah, it's definitely a narrow body pin or regular body pin. There you go. So yeah, that should be fun. Cool. Let's jump into the meat of what we need to talk about, and that is Xen and Pinball Facts 3. They dropped a... Yeah. announcements. So the first announcement that they dropped had to do with three new tables that they're going to be putting out. And these are called the Universal Classics Pinball, E.T., Back to the Future, and Jaws. Yeah. Which, yeah, I don't know about that. We've had a Back to the Future table, so uh you know daddy east did that so know that that can work and then actually there's all sorts of fun things that i can think of you know to do with shoot time travel and and whatnot you know having the car and racing and i don't know there's all sorts of fun things you can do with that the et pinball is a weird one for me nothing nothing about et screams pinball to me no it's sort of a really weird license to sort of get it sounds a little bit like the license has been... I don't know. They've gone, oh, we got universal license. Well, EET then? I don't know. Yeah, it's real. I mean, why not Fast and the Furious, guys? Why not... Oh, man. Imagine. You know, how about Animal House? There'd be a fun... There'd be a fun, crazy pinball machine, right? I don't know. EET. I've heard that on Back to the Future, they've not got original voices either. Well, that's the other thing that everybody is concerned about, is not only do they not have original voices, but they don't have the music as far as anybody can tell, which makes Jaws really bizarre, because the music to Jaws is almost as iconic as anything. Yeah, that's right. That's the other thing they don't get, the Jaws music. Why wouldn't you have the Jaws music? My God. It's basically not going to be Gort. It's going to be Sharknado. Well, I kind of find, again, water theme with pinball is odd. I mean, we haven't seen images of what the Jaws table looks like, but here's guessing there's a boat on there somewhere. And I'm guessing there'll be maybe large fish. if this was a physical machine, I guarantee there would be a large great white with its mouth open or Gene Simmons. You don't get your pick. I'm guessing if I had to get... Well, I don't have to guess what I'm going to because this is what we like to do, speculate. You know how Zen likes to do the little pops that go back and forth? I'm guessing we're going to shark dorsal fins popping up and going back and forth. That's just... It's a guinea. I reckon you could be right there. Definitely some shark fin target action happening At a minimum pop drop target fins for sure And let see what else they can do because we're not as smart as their design team in trying to integrate things. But that's certainly the... That's almost like a Zen trademark now, isn't it? The pop-up sort of things that come up. It looks like cardboard cutouts. Yeah, the moving cardboard cutouts is what I like to think of them as. so yeah it'll be I'm very curious I don't know when we'll actually see all three tables in action I know that they've done gameplay video on ET excuse me they did gameplay video on ET last week I didn't watch it yet so that's out there so there was that bit of that bit of announcement. And then they dropped the big news. So this is all about Pinball FX3. And let's just kind of go through their announcement here. First off, cross-platform play. Here's who gets to play with who. The words we love to hear when it comes to a pinball machine. Virtual pinball release. PlayStation owners, you get to play amongst yourselves, amongst Steam players, Xbox One users and Windows 10 users you get to play amongst yourselves and with Steam users Steam users you get to play with everybody yeah bring it on like Donkey Kong I'm quite excited about that that there's not going to be any platform left out to me of whom I can play against so that's pretty cool yet again Steam is the superior platform when it comes to games now right? It's consoles and their own little stovepipe ecosystems and sure they get some pretty neat releases very much franchise releases but you can't argue with the variety of games that you can get on Steam that aren't beholden to big publishers it really is the king platform if you're a gamer Yeah Other things that they mention with Pinball FX 3 is that there's dynamic lighting updates graphics have been updated there's new modes of play there is going to be let's see what do they say here I'm not saying it but like I said they want this to be more of a communal experience and playing with each other so there's going to be tournaments and competitions of that sort it doesn't look like I didn't see anything that was form a team and play. So I'm bummed about that, but oh well. Yeah. And then it might be one of those things where they just want to see how active the community is first. And if it's important more, then they can support more. But the other thing that they did was they finally came out with the list of all the tables that are going to be available as free imports from PinballFX 2 or ZenPinball 2 into PinballFX. They've renamed a lot of the packs, which I think is kind of interesting. But essentially, the short version is, if you owned every table that was out there on PinballFX 2, here's the tables that you will not be getting anymore. you will not have Missplosion Man pass over, which I think you were the one that predicted that. Yeah, definitely. Missplosion Man is always one that seems to get, I guess, removed when they do sort of a new platform or something like that. So there must be – Missplosion Man is actually a copyrighted title, isn't it? It's an oddball machine or table. I can't call it a machine because it doesn't actually physically exist. It's an audible table. So I don't want to say it's no big loss, but on the other hand, I kind of always just glance over it because I don't really have any connection to it. I'm not familiar with the source material, nothing. It's just kind of this pink weird thing. You also will not be able to play Plants vs. Zombies, which we all know that's because of the A. Which is fine. I never have. I never have. So that's fine. I'm not missing anything there. You know what? It's an interesting table, but I used to always say it's a visual mess, and I didn't understand it until I finally played it in 3D on the PS3, and then it made sense to me. But at first glance, it's really... let's just say that Zen didn't exercise restraint when it came to putting colors and detail and in a 2D environment. It's sort of like a big flat mess. It's a big flat mess in 2D. Yeah, you're just not sure what is a ramp, what is an elevated level, what is a tunnel, what is what. It's kind of just difficult to see. So anyway, that came about because they'd made that agreement with PopCap, and then PopCap got bought by EA. Kind of shit, basically. Which pretty much everything that goes to EA does. Then there were the two that I predicted, which was Ninja Gaiden Pinball and Street Fighter Pinball. Those were both, I think, PS3 exclusives. I know Ninja Gaiden for sure was, but I'm pretty sure Street Fighter 2 was. And you know what? Again, no big loss on those because they were visually uninteresting. And Ninja Gaiden is a sea of red, which is the hardest color to focus on. Yeah, you get original red in detail. Yeah, definite red in the planning. Yeah, so those I wasn't surprised. The one I am actually surprised it's not transferring over, and this is the last that isn't coming over, and that is South Park Pinball. Yeah, that was a real surprise to me. That's a recent table. You would think that they would have had some licensing in place to actually allow that to transfer over. Yeah, and the reason why I'm surprised at it, and here's a little bit of inside baseball for you. So a few years back, South Park, I don't know who it would be, South Park Studios or whatever, but it wasn't Comedy Central, let's put it to you that way, approached Farsight and said, hey, do you guys want to create an original table for us? And Farsight was like, well, that's not what we do. We don't do original designs. We would take the Sega South Park and recreate it. And they were not interested in that. I think it would have been one of those things of, well, if you'd be willing to make us an original design table, we would let you have the South Park license also for the other. But at that time, and I honestly don't think that even at this time, Farsight is prepared to create their own layout. I just don't think it's in the wheelhouse. So they passed, and obviously South Park went to Zen, and Zen was like, sure! So that's why I'm a bit surprised, because I would think that they would want to let that license continue. and I don't know if it's just one of those things. There's certainly no harm. Yeah. Like it seems a pretty complimentary thing because South Park is still running. Yeah. So it's basically free advertising for them or at least brand tie-in. The only thing that I can think of that might be an issue is because since that time South Park has put out The Stick of Truth and they're about to put out, I forget what the title is, but another game of theirs and a lot of times when somebody licenses a game they want exclusivity to the title and they don't want any competing title out there and products and the very idea that there is another virtual reality or you know I don want to say virtual reality but uh a digital creation of South Park available That might've been a sticking issue. Um, and maybe, and, and one, and one of these things I learned this with, uh, Terminator two, when the Farsight was putting it out. And that is, there becomes favored nation status. And it's, which means, Hey, we paid you this much for the license. Why are they paying less for the license? So Zen might have paid less for the license at the time, and now the price just skyrocketed because of this other studio. Venture. Exactly. I don't know, but on one hand, I'm bummed, but again, it was not a table that I necessarily played a lot. So I don't know. Yeah, it was a spelling bee. Yes, it was a spelling bee. But on the other hand, I could never get enough of Butters. Like the loo-loo-loo. I must admit, I really had no problem at all with South Park Table. Butters really grated on me a fair bit. But the actual South Park branded table, it was what the Sega table should have been without all the spelling, which basically, in a way, the Sega table did have spelling, but it was just stages. It was like complete three lights to get this thing. So that's the same as spelling. Yes. Really. Yeah. It was really, really good. I'll just run through what the table packs are here. Just cause I kind of found it interesting. Like I said, that they were repackaged as far as I was concerned. Um, the sorcerer's lair, obviously this is going to be free. Got your core collection pack, uh, Pasha, bio lab secrets of the leap deep, uh, iron and steel pack. That one's the road to the new, your medieval pack, the sci-fi pack, which is Mars Earth Defense and Paranormal. I've got to say, if there was one pack that I would be skipping right off the bat, that would be that one. Absolutely. Maybe with the exception of Paranormal because it's basically the only reason why you'd get... Yeah. It's basically probably the only way we're going to be getting Banzai Run in the digital form. Of those three, Earth Defense is the only one that I actually like. Oh, I can't get into that table at all. It confused me. I can't get into it because I can't figure out what the hell is going on. But I like the look of it, at least. Yeah, it's cool. You got the Zen Classics Pack, also known as the Pull Your Hair Out Pack because it's V12, Eldorado, Tesla, and Shaman. Yeah, we miss all those. The peak of Zen not telling you what the hell to do to advance. Yeah. You have the Aliens vs. Pinball pack, which I can't recommend enough. The Balls of Glory pinball, which is all the Fox tables. Bethesda pinball. The Universal Classics pinball. Marvel pinball original pack, which is Blade, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. Those are a tough batch of tables to play, let me tell you. They are not easy. The Marvel Vengeance and Virtue pack. The Marvel Avengers Chronicles. Women of Power. Marvel Heavy Hitters. This is a new pack to me because it's Deadpool, Civil War, and Venom. Deadpool and Civil War used to be standalone tables as far as I know. Then there's the Marvel Cinematic Pack. Which is Guardians, Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man. The Marvel Legends Pack. Portal Pinball, Star Wars Pinball, Star Wars Balance of the Force, Star Wars Heroes Within, Star Wars Force Awakens, and Star Wars Unsung Heroes, and then Walking Dead. So there you go. 65 plus tables all redone, apparently. That'll be good stuff. Yeah, that's going to be pretty interesting to see. So yeah, there's your pinball update, if you will, of everything that's been going on. Hey, did you get a chance to play Star Wars yet? I know that you were gunning to try and make it a trip. No, I've got nowhere near me that actually has it. And I, well, obviously haven't had a chance to go down to the Gold Coast. I think it might be down the Gold Coast. I'm not even sure if they've got it there yet. I did. One of our, the guy that's hosting our league this next time, he apparently is trying to get one on loan, a Star Wars LE. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get a chance to go to that or not. That's the only version you would want. Oh, yeah. For sure. For sure. Because the pro is like, just don't even bother. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But, yeah, we said we would have some pinball for you all. And there we go. We have some pinball for you all. Yeah. We sure did. Pinball. Yay! Okay, can I go ahead and rant about my efforts to get Guardians 2 in 3D now? Good. So, as I've said before, I have a 3D TV and I need 3D content. And I was all excited because Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was coming out this last week. And I was like, got to pick it up in 3D. Because I got to watch a little bit of it in the theater in 3D, and then the movie shut off and I had to go watch it in 2D. But the annoying aspect is that our local retailer, Best Buy, they signed an exclusive deal to be the only ones that got the movie in 4K. and that's what they decided to package the 3D version of the movie in. And they also put it in one of their steel cases, which get nabbed up, like each store will only get two, and they get nabbed up quite often in pre-sale. So on Tuesday I went ahead and I checked the website, and I didn't realize it was exclusive at that point. I go ahead and I check the website and I'm not finding the 3D, I'm not finding the 3D, it's not on Amazon. in 3D. I'm getting annoyed. Then finally I realized I find out the information that it is only at this retailer. I look it up on their website and I'm greeted with the message that says not available within 250 miles of you. It's like, oh dang. I guess I'm not getting this. Then I kept on checking every day just to see and sure enough, finally it looks like somebody probably didn't pick up their pre-order. and there was one semi-local to me, so I was able to order it, and then I had to go pick it up. So, yay, victory. All right, folks. Well, that is about all we have time for this week. Hey, why don't you go ahead and follow us on Twitter? You can follow us at Blockade. If you'd like to follow us individually, I am at ShutYourTraps. He is at JaredMorgz. You can also visit our website, which is BlockadePinball.com. Send us an email, blahblahblockade at gmail.com if you have any show ideas, notes, comments, things of that ilk. And we will be chatting with you again next week. Hopefully, by that time, we'll be able to see more of what Zet has to offer. I'd really love to know when Pinball FX3 is actually coming out, but I still don't know that either. So, until that time, see you later. The site to visit for custom pinball shooter modes. Easy to install, totally unique. Mention Blockade Podcast for 10% off your order. Wizardamusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization. Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some pinball. you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 28e9d700-000d-496d-a520-8473eb08e520*