# Fully Sicario, Bro!

**Source:** BlahCade Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2018-06-21  
**Duration:** 67m 18s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blahcade-pinball-podcast/episodes/Fully-Sicario--Bro-e1bkfug

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## Analysis

Chris and Jared discuss their recent viewing of the film Sicario and its director Denis Villeneuve, then pivot to pinball industry news. Chris announces an upcoming trip to Farsight Studios to hands-on test the Arcuda pinball cabinet before the June 30th Williams licensing deadline. Jared provides detailed pricing breakdowns for the three Arcuda cabinet tiers (Ultra, Pro, Standard), ranging from $5,499–$6,999 depending on specs and purchase timing. The hosts also discuss Farsight's silence on future projects, the Pinball Tournament app's real-money mechanics, and the importance of hands-on testing before purchasing premium cabinets.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Arcuda Ultra (top-tier cabinet) costs $6,499 before June 30th and $6,999 after — _Jared provides official pricing from Arcuda website breakdown_
- [HIGH] Arcuda Ultra comes with all 76 Williams/Bally tables being delisted after June 30th if purchased before that date — _Jared states as part of pre-June 30 promotional offer_
- [MEDIUM] Farsight has been working with Arcuda for approximately two years, with accelerated development over the past year — _Chris and Jared discuss partnership timeline; Chris says 'I believe it's been two years'_
- [HIGH] Williams/Bally digital pinball licensing expires June 30th, after which those titles cannot be sold — _Chris mentions this deadline multiple times as driving urgency for Arcuda release and Farsight Pinball Arcade delisting_
- [MEDIUM] Farsight has been unusually quiet on announcing future projects since Banzai Run release — _Chris states: 'we haven't had next since Banzai Run came out. And it's kind of this eerie silence'_
- [MEDIUM] Stern Pro machines have recently increased in price to around $5,500–$6,000; Premium models are approximately $8,000 — _Jared discusses Stern pricing as comparison point for Arcuda Ultra positioning_
- [HIGH] Arcuda Standard model is manufactured in China; Ultra and Pro are made in Chicago (Elksgrove, Illinois) — _Jared provides manufacturing location details for each tier_
- [HIGH] Chris experienced two app crashes in Farsight Pinball Tournament cash-money game during real-money matches — _Chris describes crash when hitting captured ball to trigger ion multiball during paid matches_
- [HIGH] Arcuda cabinets have universal features across all tiers: eight coils (Standard has five), shaker motors, USB 3.0 connectors, and PC gaming capability — _Jared provides detailed technical specifications for each model_
- [MEDIUM] Arcuda is planning to release apron swap-out accessories in December allowing joystick/button control panel for arcade games — _Chris mentions 'In December, they said they're releasing more accessories' for arcade game capability_

### Notable Quotes

> "The Blockade Podcast: Pinball, movies, snacks, but mostly pinball."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~16:00
> _Podcast slogan explaining the show format and structure_

> "Farsight is really, really quiet these days, which is really unusual because they're a product to sell. And you think they would be broadcasting that every single day until we could not stand it anymore."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~17:30
> _Key observation about Farsight's marketing silence and lack of future project announcements_

> "They paid for the licensing rights. They need to get some money out of it. Otherwise, if they just didn't get the software out there, it would be like they just basically threw money in the fire and never got any return for it."
> — **Jared Morgan**, ~22:00
> _Explains the business pressure on Arcuda to release software before June 30th licensing deadline_

> "I'm going to sit in on it this time... Yeah, I'm going to be on the air. So that'll be weird, me not hosting and being somebody else's guest."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~33:00
> _Announces appearance as guest on Farsight's Thursday Twitch stream_

> "So my goal is to get to $10 so that then I can start playing the $5 matches instead of the $1 matches, because then you earn even more."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~35:45
> _Describes the economics of Farsight's Pinball Tournament cash game and bankroll management strategy_

> "This is like playing craps. So the only way to make money in craps is you have a lot of money on the table, right? And the money is only collected if other people are playing."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~36:00
> _Draws analogy between real-money pinball tournament mechanics and gambling games_

> "It's driving me bonkers when I've got four matches ready to play and I see somebody else all of a sudden leapfrog over me in points without my games ever having been played."
> — **Chris Freebus**, ~37:30
> _Expresses frustration with tournament matching algorithm and fairness concerns_

> "Made in the good old US of A in Chicago, Elksgrove, Illinois."
> — **Jared Morgan**, ~44:00
> _Highlights manufacturing location advantage for Ultra and Pro models_

> "If you buy prior to June 30th, they throw in all the 76 tables that are going bye-bye."
> — **Jared Morgan**, ~48:30
> _Key promotional offer tied to Williams licensing expiration deadline_

> "It's all about how it feels, right? Exactly. And it's very hard to actually get that until you actually feel it."
> — **Chris Freebus / Jared Morgan**, ~57:00
> _Emphasizes importance of hands-on testing over specifications when evaluating hardware_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Chris Freebus | person | Host of Blockade Podcast (also known as 'Shut Your Trap'); visiting Farsight Studios this week to test Arcuda cabinet; plays Farsight Pinball Tournament real-money game |
| Jared Morgan | person | Co-host of Blockade Podcast; based in Australia; provides detailed technical and pricing breakdown of Arcuda cabinet models |
| Farsight Studios | company | Digital pinball software developer; licensing partnership with Arcuda; Pinball Arcade titles delisting June 30th; developing Stern Pinball app; Twitch streams Thursday 4 PM PST |
| Arcuda | company | Digital pinball cabinet manufacturer; three tiers (Ultra $6,499–$6,999; Pro $5,499–$5,599; Standard ~$3,500); partnership with Farsight for software; manufacturing in Chicago (Ultra/Pro) and China (Standard) |
| Blockade Podcast | organization | Pinball and entertainment podcast hosted by Chris Freebus and Jared Morgan; covers pinball news, reviews, and adjacent topics (movies, snacks) |
| Williams/Bally | company | Classic pinball manufacturer; digital licensing expires June 30th; 76 tables being delisted from Pinball Arcade and included free with pre-June 30 Arcuda purchases |
| Stern Pinball | company | Modern pinball manufacturer; Farsight developing Stern Pinball app conversion; Pro models ~$5,500–$6,000; Premium models ~$8,000 |
| Rob | person | Farsight Studios representative; Chris will consult with Rob during Arcuda cabinet testing at Farsight |
| Denis Villeneuve | person | Film director; directed Sicario, Blade Runner 2049, and The Arrival; discussed for neutral, detached directorial sensibility |
| Sicario | product | Film recently watched by Chris; followed by discussion of sequel and directorial style; used as extended non-pinball segment |
| Pinball Arcade | product | Farsight's digital pinball software; Williams/Bally tables delisting June 30th; included free with Arcuda Ultra pre-purchase |
| Pinball Tournament app | product | Farsight real-money pinball game; Chris playing cash matches with bankroll management concerns; two app crashes reported; tournament matching algorithm criticized |
| Yoku's Island Express | product | Pinball-adjacent video game; Chris recommends at $20 price; appeals to Metroidvania genre fans; contrasted with poorly-received Levels game |
| Pro Pinball | product | Time Shock pinball game; included with Arcuda Ultra pre-purchase before June 30 |
| Killian | person | Chris's young son; mentioned in family anecdotes about movie watching (watching Shawshank Redemption broadcast before he had children) |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Arcuda cabinet specifications and pricing, Farsight Studios partnership with Arcuda and software development pipeline, Williams/Bally licensing expiration June 30th and market impact, Chris's planned hands-on Arcuda cabinet testing and Farsight studio visit
- **Secondary:** Farsight Pinball Tournament real-money game mechanics and balance issues, Film discussion: Sicario and Denis Villeneuve directorial style, Pinball cabinet hardware lag, performance, and user experience considerations, Farsight's silence on future projects and need for product announcements

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Positive on Arcuda's value proposition and specifications; frustration with Farsight's lack of communication about future projects; frustration with Pinball Tournament app crashes and matching algorithm; cautiously optimistic about upcoming hands-on testing. Overall tone is engaged but with several critical observations.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Farsight Studios characterized as unusually silent on product announcements despite June 30th licensing deadline urgency; only confirmed future work is Stern Pinball app conversions (confidence: medium) — Chris: 'Farsight is really, really quiet these days, which is really unusual... we haven't had next since Banzai Run came out. And it's kind of this eerie silence where you're just like, give us something.'
- **[business_signal]** Williams/Bally digital licensing expires June 30th, forcing Pinball Arcade delisting and creating time-sensitive demand for Arcuda cabinets and included legacy table bundles (confidence: high) — Multiple references to June 30th deadline driving Arcuda release urgency and promotional timing; Chris emphasizes need to visit Farsight before deadline
- **[community_signal]** Chris planning to conduct hands-on Arcuda cabinet testing and provide detailed community feedback; visiting Farsight and appearing as guest on Thursday Twitch stream (confidence: high) — Chris: 'I'm heading up to Farsight this week. I will be going up there on Thursday... I'm going to put hands on the Arcuda cabinet... I'm going to sit in on it this time' (Farsight Twitch stream)
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts express frustration with Farsight Pinball Tournament matching algorithm fairness and app stability, suggesting potential user experience issues before broader adoption (confidence: medium) — Chris describes tournament algorithm as 'maddening' and 'very frustrating'; questions how matching determines opponent selection despite having locked matches waiting
- **[competitive_signal]** Arcuda cabinet explicitly designed to compete with Stern LE/Premium pricing while offering digital software licensing advantage and multi-game capability (confidence: medium) — Arcuda Ultra ($6,499–$6,999) positioned between Stern Pro ($5,500–$6,000) and Premium (~$8,000); Jared notes pricing is 'well below the nine grand that we thought it was going to cost'
- **[design_philosophy]** Arcuda positioned as multi-function gaming cabinet (pinball + arcade games via switchable aprons, console connectivity); universal features across tiers suggest inclusive design approach (confidence: medium) — Jared discusses USB 3.0 connectors, Xbox Kinect support, planned December apron accessories for joystick/button control; cabinet described as having 42-inch vertical playfield for vertical shoot-ups
- **[market_signal]** Arcuda manufacturing split creates pricing/shipping complexity: Ultra/Pro made in Chicago (lower shipping), Standard made in China (higher international shipping costs); Australia manufacturing planned for local distribution (confidence: high) — Jared details manufacturing locations; Chris notes UK customer inquiry about exorbitant China shipping; Jared confirms Australia will have local manufacturing supply
- **[market_signal]** Stern Pinball pricing positioned at $5,500–$6,000 (Pro) and ~$8,000 (Premium); Arcuda Ultra at $6,499–$6,999 represents competitive positioning in premium digital cabinet market (confidence: medium) — Jared compares Arcuda pricing to Stern tiers to contextualize value; states Arcuda Ultra 'is well below the nine grand that we thought it was going to cost'
- **[announcement]** Arcuda cabinet officially pricing three tiers with June 30th promotional cutoff; Ultra $6,499–$6,999, Pro $5,499–$5,599, Standard ~$3,500 with manufacturing/shipping implications (confidence: high) — Jared provides detailed official pricing from Arcuda website and promotional offer details (76 Williams tables included pre-June 30)
- **[product_concern]** Farsight Pinball Tournament real-money app experienced crashes during paid matches (specifically when triggering ion multiball), raising stability concerns before commercial launch (confidence: high) — Chris reports: 'the game crashed on me. Twice... when you have two balls locked and you hit the ion—or the captured ball that would make it ion multiball. And the second you hit that captured ball, the whole app crashes.'
- **[technology_signal]** Display lag on consumer electronics varies significantly by user perception and experience; hands-on testing critical before $6,000+ cabinet purchase to evaluate personal tolerance (confidence: medium) — Chris and Jared discuss how lag perception varies by user background and whether hands-on testing is essential to understand real performance impact

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## Transcript

 this is a blockade podcast with your hosts chris and jared i am your host chris freebus aka shut your trap and he joining me as usual from halfway across the world is jared morgan now don't you feel special i i do because i'm already talking to you and also snotty i'm a snotty jared today A snotty Jared. I have a cold. So I will be sounding snotty, and you might even hear extras in the show such as coughs and snorts. So it's going to be a value-add show today. Bonus content. And it's going to be a thrill to the senses. If we had a little ticker on the corner of the screen, It would be racking up drippy nose moments or coughs per second. Coughs per second, exactly. Actually, it was a little bit later last night because I finally got to watch Sicario. Uh-huh. Yeah, it was good, man. It was very good. I looked at the shorts. I was going, at the time, the shorts for the movie, it didn't grab me at all. I don't know what they were doing down here in Australia, or maybe it was different in the US, but it didn't actually look that good. It looked to me like the kind of movie that the trailer is selling as being really action-packed and intense, and instead it's going to be about 10 minutes of action and two hours of people just talking at each other. I found it to be I think they got the balance of action and intrigue right in this movie because it was sort of the plot unfolds and yeah it had it was a good story I'm curious because me living in Southern California which is on the border of Mexico as well so us Arizona and Texas we're all familiar with these border crossings and cartel kind of situations. You being in Australia and not having anybody hopping your borders because you're kind of an island. Yeah. Our border is the sea. Your border is the sea. How did that come across? It was, I've seen documentaries about border security and stuff over there in the U.S. So the concept of people trying to be smuggled over was kind of known to me. But the thing that really struck me is that when they were doing the flyovers of the border, the actual official border crossing into Mexico, it's like no one going in and all these people going out. Right. And it was just like it looked like gridlock. It's not so much that nobody's going in. It's just that there's no hassle getting in. It's a major hassle getting back out. Right. I see. Yeah. You know, Americans going into Mexico, they're not going to cause any hassles, but Mexicans coming into America, well, that's all sorts of bad news. Yeah, right. Yeah, so that's why the borders are like that. The opening scene in Sicario, wow. It was, you know, when they were invading the house. Yeah. And, wow, you definitely got the feeling from that opening scene that this was going to be a relatively violent movie. So, yeah, it was – it's been out for a while now. I'm still going to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it because it's like a very impactful scene. But, jeez. No, no. And the thing I noticed about it too is that whenever they were in Mexico, everything was really, it felt like it was really overexposed and really bright and really sort of gritty and bright at the same time. Yeah. And it just looked, the way they shot it to me felt like it, it was just, even the screen was dirty. Um, you know, it was, it was pretty cool how they did that. It really sort of conveyed, I guess, a sense of lost hope, in a way, about the life in Mexico for these people. Yeah, I'm very curious because I was really shocked when I first heard about it, and it comes out in, I believe, two weeks. There is a sequel. There is a sequel, yeah. I think that's why we saw it on free-to-air over here because they were advertising a sequel. Okay. And the sequel looks to be much more action-heavy. and so I'm very curious because I wasn't really blown away by the movie and part of that is the director Denis Villeneuve I forget how you pronounce it, anyway he's the guy that did Blade Runner 2049, also did The Arrival he's got a very neutral sensibility about him in that he just he doesn't try and steer your emotions one way or the other he just presents the movie and whatever baggage you bring into it is kind of the baggage that you attach to the movie that's what i found with with his uh stuff and so to me the movie had a very cool detached uh sensibility about it and i'm not saying it's not a i enjoyed the movie but i also wasn't just like wow that was fantastic the way the sequel the trailer is playing it makes it seem like the movie that I would be like, wow, that's fantastic. And that kind of worries me because then I'm also like, what if they just completely ignore everything that was good about the first movie and just try and make an action movie and then suddenly it becomes stupid, you know, because it's a pretty intelligent movie. Yeah, it is. That's the thing that struck me about it too. Like it, yes, it was very intelligent. Yeah. And I think that's why for me it was like, I stayed up until 12 o'clock last night watching it because it came on and because of its, because of its content, of course, they had to start screening it after nine o'clock here. Um, and yeah, I, I really wanted to go to bed last night cause I was feeling crook, but I thought, no, I want to see this cause this is like drawing me in. And it was on a channel where we have like multicast channels over here in free to air where you have the main station and then there's like three or four sub channels, digital. and it was one one of the sub channels that typically doesn't have as many ads as the um as the main main line i think that's part of the broadcasting standard over here that if you have multicast channels you're not allowed to put as many ads on them so this channel is like a pretty much exclusively movies channel and um yeah that's it was good because there was less ads because it would be a long movie otherwise we made the mistake one time I'm sure you've seen Shawshank Redemption that's one of those movies that if you're flipping channels it comes on it just pretty much sucks you in immediately and you can't help but just continue watching it but it's also an insanely long movie now throw in commercials it's like a four hour screening so we're flipping channels or I'm flipping channels one day I catch it, I just start watching it first set of commercials comes on I don't really think about anything other than And I'm kind of thinking I'm going to be changing the channel then, right? And then my wife sits down and starts watching. And this is before we had our kids, so this is many, many years ago, when this kind of activity could take place. So she just sits down, and she starts watching. I'm not even thinking about it. It's not until about an hour later, when we're groaning about the commercials coming on for the umpteenth, millionth time, that I go, why don't I just throw the DVD in? I'm sitting over there on the shelf. That's right. It's weird how that happens, hey, like you, because we have like, I mean, we don't, the problem is we don't actually have a DVD player anymore. But we do have a lot of DVDs. Like, for example, if The Matrix comes on TV, you know, well, we've got all three Matrix series there if we want to watch them without, you know. But, you know, I think when movies go on TV, even if they haven't been in your own collection, it's just like the barrier is I've got to get up and sort it out. Right. And that's what they prey on, the networks. They go, look, we probably know you've got this movie. You've seen this movie before or you've got this in your collection probably, but it's a mainstream movie. So we prey on the fact that you just won't be bothered. I do a thing where I'm interested in watching the third or fourth movie in a series. And I won't watch it because I'm like, but I really should watch the other three first. And I'll be like, I don't have the time to watch those. And so then I just won't watch them. Then you watch it. So anyway. Anyhow, that was how I spent my last night. For those of you new to our podcast, we used to have the slogan, which was the Blockade Podcast. Pinball, movies, snacks, but mostly pinball. So that was the movie portion of our typical podcast. That's right. So let's talk some pinball. There's not been a terribly lot of news still. Farsight is really, really quiet these days, which is really unusual because they're a product to sell. And you think they would be broadcasting that every single day until we could not stand it anymore. Well, and to a sense, that's where Arcuda is kind of picking up the mantle. But my thing with Farsight is, okay, we know that June 30th is rolling around and you're not going to be able to sell the Williams titles anymore. But what do you got next? Because we haven't had next since Banzai Run came out. And it's kind of this eerie silence where you're just like, give us something. You know, show us some life, please. So. Exactly. Just give us a heartbeat. On that front, I'm heading up to Farsight this week. I will be going up there on Thursday. Now, my main reason for going there is I'm going to put hands on the Arcuda cabinet that they have there. And I'm going to put that thing through its paces. I'm going to try and look at it from every angle that you, the future consumer, might want. And the reason for doing that is because, well, partly just because I wanted to get my hands on it. partly because it's hard for us to... We've been talking a lot about Arcuda recently. Yeah, we have. But we haven't... Some people actually say that we're getting sponsored comments from them. Yeah, I wish we were sponsored by them, but we're not. No, we're not. We'd love it, but we're not. But the fact of the matter is that they're the only conversation that we have right now of anything that's going on in pinball. So we kind of have to talk about it. We kind of have to talk about it. But the problem is that neither me nor Jared have a setup that allows us to play the software. Right. And neither one of us has touched the cabinet. No. Now, I don't think anybody's actually touched the cabinet. No. Unless you might have gone to a trade show about two or three years ago. Right. And that's the cabinet that Farsight has is exactly that. It's the, what you would call the beta version of their cabinet. Now, it's been being updated while Fireside has it with components and stuff. My main thing is that I want to go play it. I want to see what the build quality is. I want to see how they're running this thing, how they got the computer, you know, put it in. I want to play with the touchscreen. I want to see with the touchscreen how that works. I want to experience the Parallax 3D for myself. I want to see how the software runs on the Arcuta cabinet as opposed to the people trying to make it run on their VB cabs, the Vertigo cabinet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to see for myself what the back glass does. And while I'm standing there and going, hey, how come it's not doing that? I'm going to have Rob from Firesight standing right next to me, and I'll be able to actually address that kind of issue. and go, hey, look, this is the kind of thing that people are expecting and wanting and stuff. So essentially you're going to probably be, in a way, a second representative of a CUDA from the customer perspective. From the customer standpoint, yeah. Because they've been working in lockstep with Farsight, let's be honest, for months now. Oh, they've been working with Farsight for two years, I think. Two years, yeah. I believe it's been two years. But accelerated development. Yes, over the past year. Well, over the past year, it's been accelerated development just in terms of Darkuda has wanted to get this software out there. And this was prior to knowing about the license. Once the license got lost, it was imperative to get it out there. That's right. Because, I mean, their whole – I shouldn't say their whole business model, but a – A big chunk of what they're trying to do. A big chunk of why they were doing what they were doing. Lies in this unlock. Yeah. They paid for the licensing rights. They need to get some money out of it. Otherwise, if they just didn't get the software out there, it would be like they just basically threw money in the fire and never got any return for it. So, yeah, that's why I was really determined I need to get up there before June 30th. I need to put my hands on this thing. I need to look at it myself so that I can feel good about the things we've been saying. Now, unfortunately, there are certain components, new, like, new components, updated versions that are not yet shipped to the Farsight to install. So I'm not going to be able to test out every aspect that is going to be available in the new cabinets, but I'll still be able to get enough of a base knowledge to be able to really get a sense of where things are going from here. That being said, while I'm at Farsight, I'm also going to talk to them and find out what the hell's going on. Yeah. You know. Surely, surely someone's going to know what's going on there. Somebody's going to, you know, there's got to be something for me to see. Yeah. I would love to see what they're doing next for Stern Pimble app. Yeah. See where that's going. Really, that's the only thing I can see as what they will be dedicating cycles on now. Right. Right. Yeah. I want to see how far along they are with whatever new Stern table that they're converting. I mean, we all assume it's Big Buck Hunter and Woe Nelly, but maybe it's not. I don't know. I want to see. I want to although I probably won't be able to talk about it if they show it to me, I want to see what these new IPs are that they're developing hopefully it's something more along the lines of what we just have seen with Yoku's Island Express, which I think you've now gotten a chance to play, yeah? No, I haven't yet. Okay, I thought you were commenting, maybe I'm getting mixed up with other people. Everybody that's been playing it, and a lot of people picked it up based on my recommendation. And I've been going nuts over it because, again, I've never played Metroid. I've never played Castlevania. But I know that those have devoted followings. Yeah. And those people that have been dying for new versions of those are eating this thing up like candy. Oh, right. Because apparently it's hitting that sweet spot of everything they loved about those plus the pinball aspect. Very nice. Oh, that's good. Yeah, if you're a, I guess they're calling them Metroidvania fans. Metroidvania. Wow. That's okay. Know that Yoku's Island Express is a good purchase for $20, apparently. But hopefully whatever they developing is more along that line of fun and not some cheeseball half thing like levels We are never going to let them forget that, by the way. No, I don't think they probably want to forget it either because it's a reminder of exactly what they don't want to be doing as a studio. They need to remember the bad times of levels. The dark times. Yeah, Darktide's balls. Because as a studio, you've got to learn those lessons, eh? And Farsight's so different to any other developer. They'll do silly things. Yep. You know? I also want to kind of grill them a little bit more about the Pinball Tournament app, which I'd like to point out. So they opened up the cash money version of the game. Yeah, so you're rich. You're going to retire. Yeah. exactly um so when i started uh playing the game i wound up earning via uh trophies or whatever three dollars and i wasn't just playing the practice version of the game that was before they even introduced the real money three dollar reduce three dollar reduce right so then i introduced the real money game and I start playing and I real quickly dropped down to like, I don't know, $1.60 worth of money. I was like, oh no! And then I rebounded and got up to $5. I was like, sweet! And then I plummeted to the depths of $1 left. And that was painful. And then I've slowly inched my way back up to currently I have $5.40 worth of currency, but I've also got $3 worth already locked up in games that haven't been played by a competitor yet. Right. So my goal is to get to $10 so that then I can start playing the $5 matches instead of the $1 matches, because then you earn even more. But I got to have that cushion. And what I've realized, what I've realized this game is like playing, it's like playing craps. So the only way to make money in craps is you have a lot of money on the table. Right. And the money is only collected if other people are playing. Well, in this sense, if other people are playing against you. But in craps, if somebody just keeps on rolling the same thing, then your money just sits there. You need to collect that money eventually by having the dice land on your number so that you can scoop it up. Otherwise, it's just they're taunting you. And so you need money to win money, basically, is what I found out in craps. And that's what this is kind of the same thing. If you're only playing the dollar bets, you're not going anywhere fast at all because you play a dollar. If you win, you win 40 cents, I think, because it's 60 cent buy in. Right. Now, if you play the five dollar game, then it's three dollars for the play. so you would win $2. Okay. So it's much more significantly. Yeah, so the balance starts ticking up and the $10 is you'd win $4 with a $6 entry fee. Okay. But I can't do the $10. But my point is that if you had $3, you don't want to do your one play because then you might be completely out of money. You want to always make sure that you can go back and play to try and build back up. That's right. Got to have an exit strategy. But it's driving me bonkers when I've got four matches ready to play and I see somebody else all of a sudden leapfrog over me in points without my games ever having been played. And I really want to find out how that algorithm works. How is it determining who gets to play who? Because it is maddening where there's eight hours left to the tournament, and you're thinking, oh, I could totally place and get, because if you place in the top three, you earn money also. Okay. And you're thinking, oh, I could totally get there, or you're tied with somebody. But because they beat you previously, they have the tiebreaker. And so all you need is one win, one win, and then you'll pass over them. and nobody, you don't get a match for hours. And you're like, how are other people playing and skipping over me? I don't get this. It's frustrating. Oh, it's very frustrating. So I'm going to get down to the bottom of that too, as well as I had during a cash game that the game crashed on me, which twice. So when you finally actually got a matchup, the thing crashes on you. Well, it crashed, and I think I described it before, when you have two balls locked and you hit the ion, or the captured ball that would make it ion multiball. And the second you hit that captured ball, the whole app crashes. I'm just like, are you kidding me? Yeah. Jeez. Again, nothing when it was the free game. It hits you a lot harder when it's a cash game. Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's punishment when it's a cash game. It's like, wow, you can't do that. Yeah. No. No. So anyway, that's what my trip up to Farsight will be like. But I also wanted to point out, so Farsight does their Twitch streams every Thursday. Oh, yeah. And I'm going to sit in on it this time. Ah, you're going to be on the air. Yeah, I'm going to be on the air. So that'll be weird, me not hosting and being somebody else's slave. That's right. Yeah, it will be weird. So anyway, if you guys want to tune in and see how that'll go down, that'll be Thursday, 4 p.m. Pacific Standard on Twitch. and you can heckle Chris well don't heckle me too bad I know I'm like what games are we going to be playing because I need to practice so I can dominate so I can totally own you guys exactly otherwise I'm going to look like you know they're going to be playing they're going to be mocking me going I thought you were good yeah you better like actually start playing people like hate a little bit more mate yeah Yeah. Okay. Let's circle back around to, though, Arcuda and their pricing. Because I'm sure people are interested in this. Did you have a look at this, Jared? Yeah, their pricing. I actually went to their website. That's what I did. And I broke it down into digestible, meaningful information. Because there's a whole laundry list of features. and a lot of those features are shared across all three models of cabinet that they have. Yes. And so I wanted to separate what the differences are between them. So let's start off with the top of the line. It's called the Arcuda Ultra, and this is their steel beast, basically. This is the one that has a coin door, so you can actually charge quarters for it for playing. it's a little more beefy and industrial strength it's meant to take a beating this one also is arcade quality it also has 4k monitors for the playfield and for the back glass and it has 8 coils and 2 shaker motors so the table should be rocking and rolling plenty with that it says it has 2 blower fans which I can't help but think part of that's got to be for whirlwind right? Yeah, you'd think so. I would think so. I can't think of any other game that used a fan, so it's kind of interesting. It's really whirlwind only. Unless maybe you can kick them on you because you're getting hot and sweaty playing pinball and it's just a nice breeze on you. Yeah, maybe. Like me too. 80 amp power supply and the PC that it's running is an Intel i7 8700 chip, 16 gig DDR4 RAM, 256 gig solid state hard drive, an NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB model and a 1TB hard drive made in the good old US of A in Chicago Elksgrove, Illinois. Very nice. That one is going for, before June 30th, $6,499. After June 30th, $6,999. Which is well below the nine grand that we thought it was going to cost. Yeah. I mean, that's in the same range as a, what that will be a stern L E. Uh, no stern. What? Midway between a midway between a stern pro premium. Okay. Cause the premiums for stern are, I want to say eight grand. Yeah. And the pro is now, I think it's gone up to has it gone up to six grand I think? It's 55 or six grand, somewhere right around there. Yeah, I know they have raised their money recently. Yeah, price on it's gone up. Now, also if you buy prior to June 30th they throw in all the 76 tables that are being going bye-bye. So that's part of it. Also you'll get the Time Shock pinball game from pro pinball. Yeah. And I think those were the bells and whistles prior to that. So yeah, that's if you wanted you've got to remember too, this thing is just a Steam box as well. It's not just pinball you can play on it. Oh right, yeah. I mean you can plug in any console you want. Apparently there's shelves on the inside of these things so that you can make it look all internal. and not just cables outside. But there are, I believe they said, four USB connectors with USB 3.0. So this thing's ready to go. Ready to go on that front. In December, they said they're releasing more accessories, and I can only think that that's going to be the apron swap out that will allow you to put on the joystick and control panel buttons so that you can play regular actual arcade games, which is the other feature of this. Right now we're solely focusing on the pinball aspect of this, which is the same as other cabinets, but there's where it goes one beyond other cabinets in that it's set up to run a multitude of different types of gaming. In a multitude of ways. In a multitude of ways, yeah. You've got the big 42-inch vertical, which allows you to play things like vertical shoot-ups, which would just look amazing on this. But, you know, you can also play regular games on that screen as well. And I remember seeing a video demo of them playing like that driving game on it. And it looks surprisingly good. But, you know, there's also the back glass as well. You can throw the picture up on there too. Yeah, and it's not a small back glass either. I mean, I think it's pretty big. Yeah, it's pretty beefy. So, you know, there's a fairly big viewport up the back there you can actually use too. And if you think about it, with the control panel on the machine, it actually almost has the form factor of like a tall boy cabinet where, you know, you've actually got the monitor at eye height and the controls at pretty much a perfect standing height. Yeah. So, like, if you're a keen fighting game fan, this would actually be a pretty solid thing to be bashing around on as well as all the other things that you can have. I think there's a whole panel just above the coin door where you have all the different connectors, external connectors, so you can plug in corded controllers and all that sort of stuff too. Right. I imagine so if you were doing light gun kind of games that it would be just like plug it in, Ed Boon, there you go. And you're done. Yeah. So there's a lot that hasn't been announced feature-wise. What hasn't been focused on. What hasn't been focused on, yeah. Yeah, it's been announced because they have to keep on pushing the pinball thing at the moment. Right. At the moment, they can't really dilute the clear message that they're trying to do. It's like, buy the unlocks. So let's say, though, that that's just a wee bit of overkill for you, and you don't need all those bells and whistles. Well, then you get what's called the Arcuda Pro. So now your monitors are just 1080 monitors. They're not 4K. They're still touchscreen, or at least a playfield is still touchscreen. Instead of a steel cabinet, there's a wood cabinet. You still retain the eight coils, but now you're down to one shaker motor. Still has the 80 amp power supply. And as for the computer that's running it, it's now an Intel i5 series 6400, eight gigs of RAM with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 three gigabyte card and still one terabyte hard drive. And that is also made here in the good old US of A in Chicago. That's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, that's, oh, and price-wise, I've got to mention price-wise, is $5,499 before June 30th and $5,599 after. So it's a $100 price increase. What you won't after, you won't get the Pinball Arcade stuff, which is kind of a bummer. Yeah, it's a bummer. That's how that is. but anyway other than that it shares all the same features as the the ultra in terms of you can still plug in and this will be the the case for the next one we talk about also but you can still plug in your xbox connect and it's still going to have the usb control connectors on the front of it that's just not going to have a coin drop coin door anymore yeah that's right there's it's the home use. Yeah, it's totally intended for the home use. Yeah, that's right. And then last is the Arcuda Standard. And this one is, again, 1080 monitors, wood cabinet, only five coils, one shaker motor, 40 amp power supply. It's running the much older Intel 7 chip 2600, 8 gigs of RAM, NVIDIA 960, GTX 960, And this one is made in China. So when we say made in Chicago, made in China, here's the thing you've got to realize. That's where it's shipping from. So factor that into price. Somebody in the U.K. contacted Arcuda and was asking about shipping. And they were clearly, I believe, meaning from China, but I'm not sure. But anyway, they found out what the shipping price was. It was rather exorbitant. And Arcuda said, hey, if you can put together a group of people that are going to buy these, then we'll discount. Or then you can get the shipping discounted and be a little easier to spread amongst everybody. So, again, when thinking of the price, because you might be like going, oh, well, the China one is so much cheaper than the Arcuda Pro by $1,500. But what's that shipping going to be like? Yeah, exactly. it's going to be nasty is the answer. Well, it's going to be bad because, I mean, it sounds like they're not sea freighting these. It sounds like they're air freighting them. So, yeah. I really don't know. I really don't know. It's really expensive. You and Australia, I believe, are going to have none of those worries. No, because the manufacturer is in Australia for once. Exactly. So I think that they're going to just have a supply there. Yeah. from wherever they're manufacturing them. Yeah. And we will get them for probably the cost of it takes to get it from Newcastle to wherever you're going. Right. So yeah, it won't be that bad. Won't be that bad at all. Really. So anyway, those are, those are things to keep in mind in next week. Obviously I'll have a full report again about the feel of the cabinet. So if you're, if this is something that is legitimately intriguing to you, that you think that you might be in the market for doing the pinball cabinet, just hold out a week And then I can maybe reassure your uh doubts or enforce them i don know either or but uh like i said i have a much better grasp on on what all this uh specs are that they're dishing when i get my hands on it myself how it actually like specs of one thing but it's all about how it feels right exactly and it's very hard to actually get that until you actually feel it yeah you know some people are even going well what's the lag like? Is there any? It's hard to describe lag in milliseconds without actually seeing it for yourself and does it affect you? I can't play on my TV because there's just that slight millisecond lag and it's deadly. So I only play on my computer. Yeah, because lag to one person is different to another person too. It's all about how your brain perceives it. If you've been, for example, playing console games for ages on a TV with lag, it's normal to you. You don't even see it. You're almost able to process it ahead of time. You're able to think about your brain understands that and does that. It becomes muscle memory, essentially. Exactly. But, yeah, if you've got a brand-new $6,000 or $7,000 piece of lounge room furniture, you want this thing to knock your socks off, right? So that feeling is paramount. Paramount, we say. That's right. All right. Well, Guy, I feel like this show has been just being nothing so far but prepping for next week. Yeah, well. it's important it is it is so let's let's see if we can uh shift it to something that's relevant today um there's been discussions obviously on the pinball arcade fans forum regarding uh the potential future of williams uh some people just lamenting the fact that they're not going to get their favorite tables ever again um you know that they've been waiting for other people wondering what the shot of there ever was of, say, getting an Indiana Hilton Jones into the game. You know, things like that. But there's also been discussion of even if somebody does get the license, would you buy it? And that got us thinking about what would it take if somebody re-released, let's say, well, let's just pick a table. Let's just say medieval madness. Okay. All of a sudden, somebody has purchased the license, and they put out Medieval Madness. And you're going, well, I already have it on Pinball Arcade. Why do I possibly need to buy this again? Yeah. And the question is, what would it take to make you do that? That's an interesting proposition. It is. So is it strictly a matter of – I'll throw these out to you, Jared, and you can say yay or nay to them. the graphics are now completely high res crystal clear. You can read the graphics, but the, it's still not photorealistic in terms of the Chrome and some of the plastic toys or whatever. It still has retains that. You know what I mean? How far sites is video gaming look, but also not all of the textures are completely high res there. We still have certain aspects that are kind of low res in nature. So I'm throwing that out to you. It's high res graphics, but still retains the video gamey look. Is that enough? It all depends. It comes down to one key factor. It's price point. Let's say it's the exact same price. So five bucks. Five bucks. Five bucks. All right. So if it's graphics bumped, but for the things like I'm thinking a lot of the type we see in fast sites releases that the rails are like angular they're not like super smooth super curved right um i don't know if that would be a big enough thing for me to actually go ahead it sounds to me like it would certainly not be a day one for you you know it would be it would be more of a i've got some extra coin in my pocket why not maybe when the steam sale comes along. Right. Okay. Right? Yeah. So let's take it the next step. Okay. You've now got high-res graphics and it's photorealistic like, say, Time Shock is. That's essentially like to me that feels like a new game to me. Okay. So that would be for five bucks if it was a table that I really loved and Medieval Mandus, let's face it, it's a lot of fun. that would be starting to get... Maybe I'll wishlist that one. Okay. Still not enough to push you over the edge, but we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there. I'm starting to push my buttons now. I like crisp graphics. Okay. Let's say... Now we're starting to go off the checklist of things Farsight never got around to doing or doing well. let's say that it now had the ability to I guess I'm going to say different operator setups, but it's also difficulty level. Okay. So you could have a standard setup and then a hard setup, which means that the table is probably slightly raked a little bit more and the outlane posts have been adjusted like you could have done. Wide, like essentially arcade operator mode, where it's not really wide, so it gobbles your ball out real fast. Exactly, it's trying to gobble your coins. And then finally, the third option is it's tournament. Yeah, tournament mode. Yeah, where they take off all the rubbers from the outlanes and have to rake it maximum so you can't even breathe on the machine before it tilts. But also you've got certain scoring parameters that are set up. So it's a little tougher on the scoring. It takes more shots to light things. There's no extra balls anymore. So you have those three settings that are built into the game on top of the high-res graphics and photorealistic. Is that enough? Yeah, that would probably be enough for me to go, okay, here's your five bucks. Okay. Yeah. that's enough extra features on top of what was originally there to go yeah look it'd be fun to actually go and experience the game in a harder way um as well as being able to read everything really clearly on it so i'm going to tell you right now still not enough for me not really well here's the thing I want to know that it's not a one-off yeah because when I load up a program on my pc specifically it's different on your phone but when I load up a program of this nature I don't want to only load it up for that one game yeah that's fair enough I want to have more games It's honestly, it's why I don't play the Stern Pinball app that much on my PC. Yeah. Because there's only three games that I care about, and that's not enough. And it doesn't have nearly the install base as Pinball Arcade. Therefore, those other intangibles that kind of factor in, where you're talking about leaderboards or knowing that your friends have been playing it and stuff like that, those are just they're not there anymore so if it was only a one-off i'm pretty leery of it and it's why i haven't bought time shock okay we can guarantee that's a one-off like the i don't think bunstorm game is going to be doing another one of them no and even if they were there's only four tables total but if there was four games at 20 bucks which as it is right now they're charging I think that much just for the one. Really? Is that how much it is? I don't know. It's expensive. You know, that kind of just is a standalone pinball is all it is. There's nothing else to it. Yes. Now, if you could guarantee me that there was going to be 10, so like a season's worth of TPA, 10 tables, you could take off the photorealistic and leave it as arcade style graphics and then i'd be more interested okay okay so i'm saying you could take off one of these other factors so long as you have this factor that makes me go a little bit more okay i'm i'm more interested yeah and i say that because i think that's what attracted me to pinball arcade in the first place you had four it was four and the promise of more yeah yeah that's fair enough it is frustrating isn't it to open up like an app and go ah yeah well i'm done now now i have to open up another app right then go continue yeah i think that you're right it's different on mobile than is steam this is what i'm finding out being used to steam it's like when you set up games on steam it's like you're there for a session whereas if you're on a mobile app it's like yeah i'm here for a little bit i'm here for a good time in a long time. Yeah. Yeah. So you're right there. So what are some other factors that might come into play that people would be desirable of? I would say the thing that jumps into my mind is the ability to compete with other people. Oh, that'd be huge. Like, like that would just be shut up and take my money now. Like here it is. I could, I'll go look, leave it exactly the way it was if you want. And then just put that feature in and yeah, I want to play with people like in America, in Europe. And here I'm coming back around to this pinball tournaments app. It's, it's not great. It doesn't look great. It's only got the one table. It is not photorealistic in the least. It's a typical Farsight look, but because it's also their own artwork, it even has even more of an arcadey or video gamey feel to it. And it's bad. from what I've seen of the table, it feels themed well, but it's still very arcade-y. Right. But it's not like some graphical powerhouse. There's nothing about it that makes you go, wow, that's incredible. That's something I can't... Nothing of that factor. I play the stupid thing multiple times a day purely because of the competition aspect. Purely because I get a notification on my phone that says, so-and-so competed against you. See what the results are. Ed Boon. I'm on my phone. I'm looking at the results. I see what the results are. I immediately go, yes, I want, or I go, Oh, the bastard. They, they beat me. They're putting in a game or two just to, to get back at it. That is money right there. If you can get into that. And that's one of the things I'm going to impart on Firesight when I'm there. Guys, incorporate what you have going on in that app into pinball arcade. you will make the user base even if for whatever reason they can't do it from a pay to play perspective just put the matchmaking that you have in the skills app put it in because far out because more to the point the leaderboard resets well ever since they did the cash version of the game the leaderboard resets every two days oh wow okay every two days you're fighting for top spot and there's a prize and and all the prize is is even if you're playing the free game it's these tickets that essentially allow you to play that many more times right i'm now to the point where i mean i think you start off with like 250 tickets i've got over 4 000 tickets now well so i'm not even it's not even a concern of mine how many times i play the free version of the game because I've got multitudes of tickets. But if you place in and in a free game, the top three always get a really good prize, but sometimes it goes all the way down to like eighth place people that can win more ticket prizes. But that resets every two days. So if you didn't make the leaderboard, just wait and then you'll have a fresh crack at it again. And that's what it would be beautiful if they did that within Pimble Arcade. You know, the whole concept of tickets makes me think of something else as a side tangent in that why wouldn't you be able to take those tickets and use them like a family entertainment centre concept where you could go and for every 1,000 tickets you could get a $5 voucher to get merch or something like that from Pinball Arcade, right, or some other nominal value? because that would, again, that would be motivation enough for people to drive them back into the app and keep on chopping wood if they really want a t-shirt. They can actually go and get 10 bucks off it or free shipping or something like that. I don't even, because that kind of stuff is available in the app in terms of you can use, well there's two different types of tickets there's tickets and then there's Z Z tickets are what are your entry fee into the games Z is what you earn that can be used to purchase upgrades to the game so there's both upgrades to the game but there's also like if you get enough Z you can purchase cash to use in the game. Ah, right. So the Z is really hard to come by. The ticket's really easy to come by. But each time you play, you earn the Z. So whether you win or lose, you earn the Z. So, but that's not an aspect of the game I even care about. All I care about is the competition and being notified. So if you did that within Pinball Arcade, where you have a table that for two days, that's the only table that everybody can play and everybody's competing against and you earn a leaderboard on that. And then if, let's say, you're playing some other game in Pimble Arcade, all of a sudden you get a notification that somebody beat you. Well, Ed Boon, I guarantee you, you're going to stop playing whatever table you're in right then and go back into the tournament and try and beat somebody. For sure. they really need to implement that I think that would be brilliant and so circling back to what would it take to make you buy a new version of Medieval Madness you throw in that head to head model something where the competition is there it works you get the five bucks for sure yeah yeah what else would possibly be a motivating factor would new camera angles be a factor would cabinet mode be a factor I know to some people it certainly would be a factor if you offered cabinet mode which Farsight's not offering and you have to buy it through Arcuda if you supported cabinet mode free. Yeah, that would be, yeah, it would be a pretty good $5 investment right there. Right Um yeah You think about though even if it was like to unlock cabinet mode essentially if that was a pro version you had to pay like two bucks extra to do it you would particularly if the cabinet mode had it they should have attached to pro mode to begin with like I said pro mode never had value to me never it didn't like I've never used pro mode on even on the tables that I said wow we really need pro mode so we can get access to the like the risque language. I never put risque language on Scared Stiff because it's too much trouble. It is too much trouble. It's too much trouble. And I never go and stuff around in the operator settings in the game because, again, number one is too much trouble, and number two, they don't stick. No, it doesn't stick. So you just spend a half an hour mucking about making the ideal situation. You enjoy playing it for a couple of games, and then you've got to step away and turn off the program. You come back and poof, it's all gone. and you're like, oh, great. Now I've got to remember everything I did unless I had a piece of paper out that I was marking down what all my settings were that I enjoyed. Yeah, it's like, oh, let's go to A3 and turn on extra balls off. No, thank you. I've got better things to do. Just let me play the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what I think we've come to the conclusion of is there is, though, things that could be done with a title like Medieval Madness that would make us pony up again, a second time. Yeah. Yep. So, yeah. Make it happen. I was going to say, now the question is, will we ever get that opportunity? Yeah. And if we do get the opportunity, will somebody have actually, you know, thought about it like we just did, or will they go, no, let's just do exactly what Farsight did. let's hope not in which case I go well screw you I've already if you're not going to improve on it then there's no point I'm not buying it again because I love you or anything yeah exactly I'll just keep it at $5 yeah okay well I'm glad we got to at least address that yeah oh and for the record folks Indiana Hilton Jones was never going to happen in pinball arcade just no way never gonna happen sorry i know i know that it was one of their when they first guy when they i think when they first made pinball arcade before they'd done any of the licenses that they were seriously like okay how can we get indiana Hilton Jones in and i think real quickly it became apparent that that conversation isn't happening. Because as somebody pointed out, timeline-wise, when Pinball Arcade came out, that was around the same time that Disney acquired Lucasfilm. And so while they're in the midst of doing that, good luck trying to get a hold of them, trying to secure licensing. Yeah, because they're a little bit busy. And then you also have zero track record of showing what you can do with a license. So I think that's why Twilight Zone was a big test case for them, both to see if people would pony up for the Kickstarter purposes, but also could they handle all the various licensing issues and navigate that properly? And they did, but Twilight Zone's so much easier of a license to take care of than when they did, And they basically ran into issues when they went and did Star Trek right away after that. But the only reason why they did Star Trek right after that was they were already in talks with CBS, who owned the rights to Twilight Zone. So that's right. And it's like, well, while we're here. While we're here, we've already got you on the phone. How hard is it to secure actor likenesses and voices? And so that's why that happened so quickly afterwards. the real test came with Adam's family, obviously, and I think that's where all hopes of Indiana Hilton Jones went right out the window. Because that one was so difficult to track down, and that was with them having Paramount actually talking to them. In fact, they couldn't even get Disney on the phone. so i mean that half the half the battle is actually physically talking to the license holder yeah you know if you can't do that well unfortunately that's a lost cause which is which is what also is the problem with why we never got roller games well there's so many different like sub license things in there well no it would be easy because you could have you could have very easily festered out all the Pepsi and Slice and Thermos logos. That would have been a piece of cake. But it still comes down to the fact that Roller Games was a TV show. Yeah. And there was two entities that owned the rights and one of them they could never get a hold of and the other one couldn't care less to talk to them. Right. Couldn't be bothered. There was even the idea of, you know what? What the heck? Let's just make it and put it out there. Because if nobody's going to bother noticing us, why would they bother noticing this? If they can't even figure out who holds the license, then who's going to come after us? The downside is... Yeah, I was going to say, that's the downside. If somebody then goes, wait a second, I've got that. Oh, penalties? Yeah. Well, it's like how much would it cost? The interesting argument for those ones is how much would it cost to produce and release the table and, you know, get the approval from WMS to release it versus the potential problem with the table actually being released and then someone after the fact going, oh, yeah, by the way, licenses, what would you do? You just pull it. Yeah. You know, you pull it. Oh, look, no longer for sale. Very sorry about that. Yeah. We couldn't get hold of you. we figured that no one was interested in like discussing licensing for it. So we just went, no, we'll just do it. So yeah, we'll pull it from sale. No problems. Sorry about that. You know, I think that arguably could be cheaper unless of course they do go down the route. Well, you know, some people have it and it's like, you can't take the entire bit away from it. So we need to, you know, give it to your bank account for that. Right. Because now we're going to say that people were purchasing your game because our table was in it. And therefore, We want the cut of everything. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it could get very expensive very fast. Interestingly, I ran into this situation while filming a movie. So I was on this movie called, it was talking about micro-budget. It was a practically do-it-yourself movie called Pickin' and Grinnin'. And we were filming the road trip portion of the movie, which was us in Winnebago traveling from Central California all the way to Nashville. doing a lot of the trip on Route 66, which was pretty cool. But we came across the, we were going to cross the Hoover Dam, which is in Nevada. Yeah. And at that point, they still hadn't closed the dam itself from you being able to drive across it. Oh, yeah. Now they've built a bridge so that nobody can drive across it because that became a terrorist threat attack spot. Oh, right. up a dam. There goes all the water. You've seen it in disaster movies too. Bad situation. So they built a bridge. Now you, as you're driving over the bridge, you get this wonderful view of the dam, but you can't actually drive across the dam anymore. This is previous to that happening. But anyway, they stopped every car and peeked in and do the old mirror underneath it kind of thing before letting it go. and they look into our Winnebago and there we've got a camera set up looking out the front window. And they go, okay, we need everybody off. I'm like, okay. So we get off and they go, do you have a permit to film? And we go, no, we don't have a permit to film. They're like, well, you need a permit to film the bridge. We go, oh, well, we weren't planning on filming the bridge. we just have it set up because as soon as we're off the bridge we need to be fast because sun's going down and as soon as we're on the other side we're filming a scene and uh that's not looking at the bridge yeah but it has our characters in this beautiful background we just need to be able to you know to go right away and uh our director was uh he played uh was it uncle rico i think in Napoleon Dynamite. So he pulled out that card and the security people recognized him and were like, oh yeah, we like that movie. So he chatted them up enough that they finally were like, okay, fine, yeah, you can go ahead and drive over. So we hop in and the second we start driving, roll it! So we roll the camera and we film the scene driving across the dam. I kind of went, so they said you needed a permit. You don't have a permit. what's going to happen? They said, well, the problem is that a permit costs $5,000 to get to film. This movie didn't have $5,000 to spend on one shot. So I said, okay. I said, but what happens if they see the dam in the film? They go, oh, well, then they can come at us for $25,000. That's the penalty. I'm like, okay, that's wow. I go, how are you going to deal with that? And they go, well, it's not our problem. I go, what do you mean it's not your problem? They go, well, we haven't sold the movie for distribution. Whoever picks up the distribution rights, we're going to tell them, oh, by the way, you need to cut the Hoover Dam people a check for this amount before they find out that it's in the movie. Otherwise, there's going to be a penalty. And they're like, because whoever picks up the distribution rights, they're going to have a lot more money than we ever had. And it's going to be a drop in the bucket for them to be like, oh, yeah, there you go. So that was my introduction to sneaking it, hoping that nobody notices. And if anybody does notice, letting somebody else foot the bill. That's fantastic. But I don't think that that would work in Fireside's case because they don't have anybody else footing the bill. That's why they never got to get around to doing that. Not to mention that I don't know that they were necessarily hot on the game. No, you were. I was. Oh, man, I pitched that thing every time I went up there. That's right. All right, folks. Well, I think that's plenty for this week. You got the movie talk. You got the pinball talk. You didn't get the snacks talk. Sorry. No. You weren't hungry anyway. That's right. So next week, again, be sure to tune in. First, tune in on Thursday, 4 p.m. Pacific to Farsight's weekly Twitch broadcast. And you can watch me play some pinball and talk to the guys there. And then, of course, pay attention to the following week when we record that podcast, which I'll have a full breakdown then on my visit to Farsight. That's going to be cool. All righty then. Well, until then, hey, why don't you go ahead and follow the show on Twitter? It is at Blockade. If you follow the show, why don't you just do two more clicks, and you can follow Jared. He is at Jared Morgs. Or you can follow myself. I am at ShutYourTraps. Yeah. It's easy. It's so easy. It's so easy that while you're doing that and getting ready to sing our praises, you might be like, you know what? I have a personal message for these guys. I'm going to drop them an email. That's simple enough to do too. You could do that by sending it to blah, blah, blockade at gmail.com. And then we'll get that. We'll read that and we'll mock you. No, we won't. Um, and, and then the last thing to do, and this is, uh, something to go do and just plain bookmark, go visit our site. It is blockade pinball.com slash episodes. Yeah. make sure you don't type in HTTPS because then you won't get there just type in blockadepinball.com slash episodes that'll get you to our main site there you will be able to catch up on all of our shows, links to where you can listen to them, as well as show notes and the like lots of pictures, like the ones I lifted from the newsletter last week there you go I honestly stole it I even put it in the caption. I said, I honestly stole this from the 25 views letter from Farsight. Because it was cool. It was like an animated Arcuda logo. I thought, oh, I'll have that. Last but not least, I just want to throw this out there because I found it funny today. Spinball was 45B. He posted a... Anyway, I think he was just kind of commenting on how long Farsight's been doing some of this stuff, but he showed the E3 trailer, which E3 just happened here in Los Angeles this past week. He showed the E3 trailer for Pinball Hall of Fame Williams collection back from 2007. Wow. And so the trailer is going off and showing these real quick clips of the pinball tables, announcing what tables are in the collection. And then it goes into pricing. And this one just boggles my mind. So for the PlayStation 2, I think it was PlayStation 2. Maybe it was PlayStation 3. I don't remember which one it is. Anyway, $14.99 for the game. For PSP, $19.99. For the Wii, $29.99. What in the world is going on that you can't have universal pricing? Publishing, man. Every publisher has to take a hit. Well, this was when Crave was doing it. Oh, right. Okay. So it was the same publisher across the board, but I still can't figure out why in the world would you have different pricing for something that nobody has like do universal pricing discount them later I don't know I just it boggles my mind but at the same hand it it makes me kind of go yeah well that's farsight true yeah wow that's bizarre yeah I mean with the PSP it was like a cartridge or disk-based system, wasn't it? PSP was a small, we'll call it a mini-disk. Like a mini-disk, yeah, right. So there was a physical media charge with that, but I mean, the same with Wii as well. Wii was physical media. And same with PlayStation 2 at the time. PlayStation 2, disc, yeah. Because, yeah, you know what? This would have been PlayStation 2 because then when the PlayStation 3 came out, that's when they added in Medieval Madness and Tales of the Arabian Nights and one other DMD. I can't remember what the other DMD table was. But that was displaced also. These weren't downloads. These were physical media. Pretty crazy, eh? In the days when you couldn't patch anything. It had to be. It had to work. Yeah. All right. Things to think about as we leave you today. Yeah, that's right. All right. Until next time, folks. Bye-bye. See you later. wizardamusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter bugs, 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: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 36249baa-a773-4570-9cf1-46013bb6d27f*