# The Pinball Podcast Episode 219 – Divergent Concurrence

**Source:** The Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-07-09  
**Duration:** 55m 36s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pinballpodcast/episodes/The-Pinball-Podcast-Episode-219--Divergent-Concurrence-e2aokro

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## Analysis

Jeff and Jessica host episode 219 of The Pinball Podcast, discussing recent personal pinball acquisitions (Jessica's Target Alpha, Jeff's Party Animal rebuild), sharing their excitement for Brisbane Masters, announcing Kyle's hire at Stern in tech support, and reviewing several classic games in their "Hurry Up" segment with mostly agreement except for a notable divergence on Iron Man.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Kyle from Marco's was hired by Stern Pinball in tech support — _Jessica to Jeff, discussing recent news_
- [HIGH] Kyle has been producing YouTube Pintech Live videos and brings substantial technical knowledge — _Jessica explaining Kyle's background to Jeff_
- [MEDIUM] Stern is experiencing overwhelmed tech support channels due to increased home ownership over the last 4-5 years — _Jeff's opinion on why Stern needs additional support staff_
- [MEDIUM] Node board failures have become a significant problem affecting location machines — _Jeff discussing current technical issues in the field_
- [HIGH] Haggis Pinball has announced a Centaur remake — _Jessica mentioning recent announcement in news segment_
- [HIGH] Brisbane Masters is a 10-day pinball competition and arcade event — _Jessica describing the event she attends annually_
- [HIGH] Lyman's code work was instrumental in hiding design flaws in games like The Walking Dead and enabling the transition to home market — _Jeff's analysis of Lyman's impact on game design_
- [HIGH] Iron Man uses an EM layout with ramps but runs at breakneck speed — _Jeff explaining the game's design philosophy during divergence discussion_

### Notable Quotes

> "Lyman hiding the design sins of others"
> — **Jeff**, ~00:18:30
> _Captures the discussion theme about Lyman's legendary code masking underlying design issues_

> "Every time I go in to crank it up on Metallica and immediately lose my ball and get that ball save that he programmed in, I say out loud thank you Lyman. Every time never fails."
> — **Jessica**, ~00:16:45
> _Personal testament to Lyman's design impact and the community tribute trend_

> "Brisbane Masters is my favorite time of the year... the absolute best pinball event put on anywhere that I've ever been to with the greatest humans on the planet"
> — **Jessica**, ~00:28:00
> _Demonstrates deep engagement with competitive pinball community and event culture_

> "Without his code, I think The Walking Dead would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just older. With his code, it's a fantastic game."
> — **Jeff**, ~00:15:20
> _Direct example of how code quality can transform a mediocre layout into a masterpiece_

> "I'm trying to build a collection that's just non-standard... stuff that you wouldn't see every day if you walked into the average collector's home"
> — **Jessica**, ~00:06:15
> _Reveals collecting philosophy focused on unique/unusual machines rather than chase titles_

> "It's so divisive because it's basically an EM layout with ramps, but it runs at breakneck speed. So it's just weird."
> — **Jeff**, ~00:52:30
> _Core disagreement about Iron Man design philosophy between hosts_

> "We don't have to agree, but we do have to love each other. So are we related?"
> — **Jessica**, ~00:55:00
> _Humorous frame for host dynamic and handling design disagreement_

> "Stern definitely could use an upgrade in the tech support stuff... with all of the new home ownership over the last four or five years, that's just becoming a little bit of an overwhelmed channel"
> — **Jeff**, ~00:26:45
> _Industry observation about scaling challenges at Stern_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Jessica | person | Co-host of The Pinball Podcast, recently acquired Target Alpha, passionate about Brisbane Masters, competes in tournaments |
| Jeff | person | Co-host of The Pinball Podcast, acquired Party Animal restoration project, passionate about classic machines and code analysis |
| Kyle | person | Recently hired by Stern Pinball in tech support role, previously produced YouTube Pintech Live videos, has technical pinball expertise |
| Lyman | person | Legendary pinball code designer, recently passed away, known for complex code that masked design flaws and elevated games, tribute initiatives in modern games |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer, recently hired Kyle for tech support, experiencing overwhelmed support channels, nodes board failure issues reported |
| Haggis Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer that recently announced Centaur remake, previously released Fathom which was well-received |
| Brisbane Masters | event | Annual 10-day pinball competition and arcade event in Australia, held at Netherworld and BrewDog brewery, known for positive community atmosphere |
| Target Alpha | game | Papa Duke machine with El Dorado layout, 4-player EM game with spacey retro-future art, recently acquired by Jessica from Colorado |
| Party Animal | game | Game acquired in pieces by Jeff, missing hardware and plastics, ongoing restoration project |
| Bram Stoker's Dracula | game | Game previously owned by Jessica, sold to friend Josh, features Jermaine Clement art that could be re-themed as 'What We Do in the Shadows' |
| The Walking Dead | game | John Borg design recently acquired by Jeff, features brutal layout but exceptional code, replaced TMNT in his collection |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Game recently sold by Jeff, deemed unplayable for most players despite his mastery, replaced by The Walking Dead |
| John Borg | person | Pinball designer whose layouts are discussed as having flaws masked by strong code; The Walking Dead and other designs referenced |
| Metallica | game | Pinball machine featuring Lyman's ball save code, used by Jessica as example of Lyman's legacy influence |
| Iron Man | game | Stern solid state game with EM layout and ramps running at high speed, major point of disagreement between Jeff (loves) and Jessica (dislikes) |
| Doodlebug | game | Classic EM game discussed in Hurry Up segment, Jessica finds it close to 'nailed it' but often encounters non-working versions |
| Flip Flop | game | EM game rated 'nailed it' by both hosts with no disagreement |
| Blackout | game | Williams EM game, Jeff rates as not quite 'nailed it' despite Jessica wanting validation for loving it |
| World Poker Tour | game | Stern game rated as 'slop shot' by both hosts, has upper playfield and captive ball feature, held back by design oddities |
| AJ | person | Friend of both hosts, involved in Target Alpha transaction in Colorado |
| Josh | person | Friend from Savannah who purchased Bram Stoker's Dracula from Jessica |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Personal machine acquisitions and restoration projects, Lyman's legacy and code design influence, Brisbane Masters event and competitive community, Stern Pinball personnel hire (Kyle) and tech support improvements, Classic game design analysis (EM and early solid state), Host disagreements on game quality (Iron Man)
- **Secondary:** Haggis Pinball Centaur announcement, Non-pinball gaming and entertainment (video games, escape rooms, concerts)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Hosts are enthusiastic about acquisitions, supportive of industry personnel moves, excited about upcoming events, and engaged in friendly disagreement. The tone is warm and collegial despite the Iron Man divergence. Discussion of Lyman's passing carries respectful/nostalgic sadness but is framed positively as tribute and legacy.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Stern's tech support overwhelmed by increased home ownership (4-5 years); node board failures becoming systemic problem affecting location machines (confidence: medium) — Jeff: 'Stern definitely could use an upgrade in the tech support stuff... with all of the new home ownership over the last four or five years, that that's just becoming a little bit of an overwhelmed channel... node board failures, which has suddenly become a huge problem'
- **[event_signal]** Brisbane Masters positioned as pinnacle annual competitive pinball and arcade event with exceptional community culture and atmosphere (confidence: high) — Jessica: 'Brisbane Masters is coming up and it's my favorite time of the year... the absolute best pinball event put on anywhere that I've ever been Tee'd Off with the greatest humans on the planet'
- **[community_signal]** Widespread industry practice of adding Lyman's initials/name as code champion in games as tribute following his passing (confidence: high) — Jessica: 'I love seeing all the designers now and manufacturers all putting Lyman's initials and name into their games as code champion. Like it's just such a fitting and lovely tribute and it makes me smile whenever I see it pop up.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Iron Man's design is divisive: EM layout with ramps running at extreme speed creates weird, unintuitive gameplay experience despite mechanical competence (confidence: high) — Jeff: 'It's basically an EM layout with ramps, but it runs at breakneck speed. So it's just weird... I just don't, I don't find it fun.' vs Jessica: 'I have three solid state games that I absolutely adore from his Stern run and Iron Man's one of them'
- **[design_philosophy]** Lyman's code work was foundational to masking design flaws in difficult layouts and enabling the transition from location to home market through depth and replayability (confidence: high) — Jeff: 'Without his code, I think The Walking Dead would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just older. With his code, it's a fantastic game... he could just take a stinker and just elevate it... he was also doing it at a time in pinball when the games didn't need Tee'd Off be that deep or they didn't need Tee'd Off be that complex... meanwhile, he's putting stuff in the games that you're not going Tee'd Off discover fully until you've put 10 hours into that machine'
- **[personnel_signal]** Kyle hired by Stern Pinball in tech support role, transitioning from YouTube content creation (Pintech Live) to corporate position (confidence: high) — Jessica: 'Kyle from Marco's got hired um at Stern in tech support. Uh and he is going Tee'd Off be an amazing addition Tee'd Off the team. He has been doing those um YouTube Pintech Live videos for a while'
- **[announcement]** Haggis Pinball officially announces Centaur remake following speculation about whether they'd remake Centaur vs 8-Ball Deluxe (confidence: high) — Jessica: 'It was kind of bouncing around. Everybody was like are they gonna do Centaur? Are they gonna do 8-Ball Deluxe? And it finally got announced. So congratulations Tee'd Off Haggis Pinball on what I'm sure is going Tee'd Off be another amazing, amazing release.'
- **[technology_signal]** Node board failures emerging as systemic issue affecting location machines; Stern support struggles to handle volume of repair requests (confidence: medium) — Jeff: 'node board failures, which has suddenly become a huge problem... So I was like can we fix the node board problem? And then it's impossible Tee'd Off get a hold of them'

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## Transcript

 Welcome to the Pinball Podcast. This is episode 219. This is Jeff. I apologize for that, but I am here with Jessica. Jessica, how's it going? It's going great, Jeff. Thanks for asking. I was obligated to ask. Well, you didn't have to say it. We can at least pretend that we get along. We generally do. We generally do. So how you been? Like, you're doing fine now, but have you been fine? I've been fine. I've been very busy trying to get a lot of work in. I sold Bram Stoker's Dracula. Yay! To my friend Josh from Savannah. So he actually drove down to get it. So we got to hang out for a bit, which was lovely. And I know that it's gone to a good home. Yeah, but the drive sucks. I mean, I didn't have to do the drive, but I don't have the button on my side. Vampire humor is the greatest humor. Okay, so you sold the game. Yeah. You've seen, I'm going back to Bram Stoker's for a minute. So you've seen what we do in the shadows, the movie, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. If you look at the play field on Dracula, like on the right side, doesn't that look like it could easily turn into a What We Do in the Shadows, like re-theme? Which is what I had thought I would do with it eventually at some point before I had to sell it. That would be great. I would like a Swear Wolves LE edition or something. I would love a Swear Wolves, but we already have Jermaine on the play field. So like you just need to redo a little bit of the art and we can keep Tom Waits just for fun. But I think that it would be really cool to turn a Dracula into what we do in the shadows. So someone please do that. Yes, please do that. So I can play it and enjoy it. Cause I don't have time to do it. Okay. Sorry. I just, every time I look at it, I was like, well, that's clearly Jermaine. Yeah. yeah mr clement is well represented on that um art package i know exactly what you're talking about um okay so let's see what else have i been doing i mean lots of working um we traded some work like some game delivery stuff for a friend for a party animal that was literally in pieces like he handed us a bucket that had all of the parts and it was just like the playfields all the stuff from the back of the playfield was hanging off like someone started to take the wiring harness off and then just stopped oh wow so yeah so now it's like okay well do we have enough pieces to put it together and are slowly discovering like okay we don't have any of the hardware we're missing some plastics we're possibly missing an entire board. So, yeah, that's been fun and exciting. It's truly an adventure when you have a machine that you didn't take apart, but you have, you think, all of your parts. I don't think we have all the parts. We definitely don't have all the parts. So it's a challenge. How have you been? What's going on with you? um well i've been fine um it's been a pretty busy summer i've got you know i've been running around with my kids we've been out of town but just before they got here um i made a bit of a trip out to colorado um pueblo to be exact to visit um friend of the show and friend of our real lives AJ to purchase a machine, which I thought was his. And after I started making the deal, I come to find out that it was yours. Yeah. And so I am the owner after driving nine and a half hours each way to get a target alpha and I quite love it. I'm fairly obsessed with the El Dorado layout and everything they've done with it. I'm a shooter in pinball. That's what I like to do. I like to line up my shot, take it, and if it's a miss, hold on for dear life while I wrestle to get control. That's what I like. and so um you know so picking all those drop targets off has to be dreamy for you oh absolutely um it feels it feels good and it works perfectly and it's a pretty machine so um i love it i love the art on it yes yes it's very spacey retro future lovely and it's in nice shape and it plays really nice. So I'm glad that that one also went to a good home. I mean, it's, you're right. It's not in a, it's definitely not an abusive home. Um, so yeah, it's been, it's been great having it here already. Like I'm telling you, I, I adore the game. Um, I, uh, I was prepared to like do any sort of work or ever needed to be down on it because I'm trying to build like trying to explain like a kind of I guess oddball collection is not the right term for it but it's I'm trying to build a collection that's just non-standard right like I want to get um not like obscure ems or early solid states but just um maybe um stuff that you wouldn't see every day if you walked into the average collector's home or the average location so target alpha kind of fits that perfectly and i want games that are fun to compete on and i think that one's great it's four player which helps being in the em period so um one or two of the other games that i may bring up in a later segment of the show might tip my hand a little bit at some the other games that I think would be fun for the, for that type of collection. But yeah, it's, it's slots in perfectly. So I'm trying to do there and I set my eyes on something while I was out in Colorado that would also be perfect for that sort of a collection. And that's should I, I shouldn't say anything though, right? Okay. Don't say anything. Let it be a secret. Save it for next time. Yes. My dirty pinball secret. Tune in next time. I hate a cliffhanger, but yeah, part two. Jeff's sitting on a secret. Yeah. Other than that, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles left the home. Congratulations. No tears were shed. I got better at the game, but it just still was unplayable to anybody but me, essentially. It's just so frustrating. I replaced it with an almost equally frustrating game, but it's a much better game. And that is The Walking Dead. Oh, yeah. And it's got a lot of the same issues, just a lot of unfair, just brutal things where you can make a shot and the game just decides it's going to punish you for it. the prison magnet might just, Hey, throw the ball straight down the middle and, or just the plunge coming out of the pops. It might rocket straight out the middle and that game can drive you crazy, but the code is so fantastic on it that you can't help, just keep playing it and bashing your head against the unfair layout of the game. Um, but I think it really highlights, um, The issues I have with Borg designs, and I think obviously the greatest loss we had with Lyman's passing was the man himself and the personality and who he was. But boy, did he hide a lot of flaws in games with fantastic code. Without his code, I think The Walking Dead would be Ninja Turtles, just older. With his code, it's a fantastic game. it drives you nuts that the drop targets don't always fall when you hit them solid it's that era of stern where the drop targets are super unreliable it also drives you nuts that you have to hit those drop targets because if you don't you're just not going to get anywhere and shooting for them super dangerous and well any shot super dangerous unless it's a ramp that comes back to the flippers but I think it just really highlights just how big of a genius Lyman was. And he could just take a stinker and just elevate it. And he did it so many times. He did it so many times in his career. Or he could take a good layout and just make it an all-time great package as he Or he could take similar layouts and make them completely different games. Yes. Nobody thinks Spider-Man and Star Trek are the same game. they're very very similar i mean they're almost the same layout there's slight differences but they're slight yeah but they you play them completely differently it's yeah it's a genius thing and i still uh every time i go into crank it up on metallica and immediately lose my ball and get that ball save that he programmed in i say out loud thank you lineman every time never fails because again that's that's another one of those designs work that will screw you for doing the right thing at times yeah yeah no his work is i mean i don't i don't know that there's anyone who's as legendary as he is or will be as prolific as he was um doing code for machines i don't think there's anyone who can come close yeah well he was also doing it at a time in pinball when the games didn't need to be that deep or they didn't need to be that complex or connected because it was location play and you really needed to hold someone's attention for two to three minutes, get their quarter, show them one or two cool things so they drop another. Meanwhile, he's putting stuff in the games that you're not going to discover fully until you've put 10 hours into that machine and uh i think he's a very um pointing at what he did helped to make that transition into the home market so much smoother um it gave games staying power so the lyman effect was in is enormous it was massive i like that the lyman effects i love i love seeing all the designers now and manufacturers all putting Lyman's initials and name into their games as code champion. Like it's just such a fitting and lovely tribute and it makes me smile whenever I see it pop up. So it's, um, it is nice. It's a good thing. Positivity. So that's all I've been doing. That's my tangent with what I've been doing onto the Lyman hiding the, uh, design sins of others. But, um, I don't have a lot in the near future. for pinball that I know of. There's a possibility cooking, but I don't dare speak it out loud right now. It's different from the other one that I alluded to. You're sitting on two secrets. I know, but that's balanced because I don't tilt one or the other. But I will hopefully make one or both of those a reality soon-ish. So you tell me, what have you got coming up? Let's see. Oh, so I missed, it's not pinball related at all, but I went and saw Duran Duran since we talked last. So I have to mention, the show was totally bizarre. I felt young and old at the same time. Perfect. It's like, you know the crowd where you see a bunch of people and you were like, oh, a junior high vice principal conference just let out. That was what happened at the Duran Duran concert. It was really odd. Yeah. Or like a realtor's, you know, meet and greet something, something like that. It was just very, very strange. But yeah, it was odd, but it was fun. So I went and did that in non pinball news. But in pinball news, which is really what's been all consuming of my brain and all of my energy, is that Brisbane Masters is coming up and it's my favorite time of the year. I can't wait. I can't wait. Ten days of pinball comps and events. And then they also have arcade stuff going on But I this is the thing I look forward to every year I start the countdown on the day that I have to leave and come back to when I can go back again because it the best ever and anyone who has listened to me go on about it and has actually come out and experienced themselves will tell you that I am not lying and I'm not exaggerating when I say it is the absolute best pinball event put on anywhere that I've ever been to with the greatest humans on the planet. I will plan on coming to that at some point with you. it may you would say with some of the greatest right because i haven't been right right right right that's that's totally what i meant it was just uh just a little bit better now um yeah it's something i haven't wanted to do it's incredible so you have events at netherworld which is already amazing in its own right for the games and the food and drinks and everything that's going on there, just the whole atmosphere and vibe and it being like a very close community and everyone really like looking after each other and having fun when they're playing. It doesn't get as crazy, serious, like people yelling and cursing kind of thing that you see here. For the most part, like everybody's really wonderful and lovely to each other, which is great. And it just creates this environment where you feel so happy to be there. And regardless of how you're performing, you're still having a great time, which is something that I wasn't necessarily when I was doing a lot of more serious competition stuff here before I stopped doing that. I don't want to say all together because I've done some, but for the most part, stopped participating in that kind of thing. But the rest of the events, like the main portion of the events are at BrewDog and it's the same location as last year. So the games are all set up actually in their brewery, in their brew room. So you see all the big tanks and stuff are kind of in the background behind the machines. And we have a tech team, including me, that's going to be there going through everything for a few days before the event starts. And then afterwards helping to kind of break some stuff down but i am so so excited i'm not going to sleep hardly at all while i'm there which i never do but i'm too excited to sleep anyway and then i'll get home and i will just crash for like a week that sounds perfect yeah but i can't wait to see all of my friends i miss them so much you're supposed to say me mates right right I'm not gonna speaking of mates yes we don't do a lot of news on here but did you see the Haggis remake of Centaur I did very exciting announcement it was kind of bouncing everybody was like are they gonna do Centaur are they gonna do 8-Ball Deluxe and it finally got announced so congratulations to Haggis on what I'm sure is going to be in another amazing, amazing release. It's not going to be there for Masters, obviously, because it's too soon, but I can't wait to see it because, I mean, the fathom that they did is just gorgeous. Yeah. It's like a really beautiful game, so I'm excited to see what they do with Centaur. um also in mates news um did you see that our buddy kyle got hired by stern pinball i did not so kyle from marcos got hired um at stern in tech support uh and he is going to be an amazing addition to the team he has been doing those um youtube pentech live videos for a while and they're great. He's very knowledgeable and he's, you know, just great to talk to in general, rad guy and super, super happy for him in his new endeavor at Stern. That's cool. Stern definitely could use an upgrade in the tech support stuff. I think that with all of the new home ownership over the last four or five years, that that's just becoming a little bit of an overwhelmed channel. So hearing that they want to improve that is great. it's awesome news i mean especially seeing so many like just node board failures which has suddenly become a huge problem um fixing games that have uh you know that are on location that have all new games and all of a sudden it's like this node board is blown and this one's blown because then the game is just dead so i was like can we fix the node board problem and then it's impossible to get a hold of them. So the boards, not saying support, sometimes it's a challenge, but you know, if you're persistent, you will get through. Um, so yeah, they can definitely use, um, more hands on deck in that department. Cause I always feel bad. Like I know they're overwhelmed with calls and they're overwhelmed with trying to help people. So I'd never want to put anything else like major on their plate, but I appreciate everything that they do. And I I think adding Kyle to that team is going to be a fantastic addition for anyone who's calling in to get support from Stern and for everyone who's already in that department to have someone else there who comes in with such a wealth of knowledge. Yeah, and someone who enjoys doing it. So that's that's a big thing. It's not just like, well, I guess this is my gig now. it's someone who's been doing it and it's not that they're just good at it. They enjoy it, which is going to really help. So good news. And he's into weird games like me. So friends, sorry, mates. All right. I agree with that one then. Fun stuff. Do you, do you know of any other news? I, I feel really stupid, but I can't think of anything else. It's like really. I, I don't really stay on top of I know we're supposed to and we keep asking each other this question okay yes no no no no no new news words that was hard to say why is my mouth not working okay oh hey Jeff oh yeah you know what time it is I believe I do hurry up it's time for the hurry up time for the hurry up we said it right at the same time together that was so cool we're actually going to do this one as a hurry up this time as opposed to last time which turned to a hurry up and then wait let's go back Yeah, but you know what? It's our show. I know. I know. So this time, yeah, we'll do it quick. Next time, we will surprise them. Will we hurry or won't we? Listen, you don't get to 219 episodes of consistent quality without consistency in the product. And our consistency is by being consistently unpredictable. That's fair. See, now you're going to have three secrets you're sitting on. It's going to start getting uncomfortable. Anyway, let's do it then. Do you have three titles ready to go? I do. I'm ready to ask you about them. Okay, let's do it then. Okay, let's go. Since it came up earlier, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Okay. Oof. This one varies so much based on how it treated me the last time I played it. Okay. No explanations. I'm just going to say nailed it. Okay. Cool. Okay. I concur. Okay. Can we concur? Can we do it that way? We can express our concurrence or divergence. Excellent. Between. Okay, then. my first one is the classic EM Doodlebug oh Doodlebug I enjoy Doodlebug I'm not going nailed it but the last tournament that I played and I was supposed to play on Doodlebug and was excited to play it it stopped working consistently so I don't know that I've ever played a lot of a working doodle bug to be able to totally say nailed it. I know that other people don't like it, but it's weird, which is what I like. So I'm going to go like a, like a, it's, it started to get the nail and it just didn't hammer it all the way yet for me. So it's a slop shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rattled around a little bit. Okay. I'll concur with that. Um, I think, I think a big reason for that though is what you said is you just often run into not the greatest version of it, I guess you could say, or quality of it. Yeah. But yeah, it's one that is very close to nailed it, but can be very frustrating on the line. Okay. Concurrent. One second. Alright, also hearkening back to an EM time, let's talk about Flip Flop. okay for me i'm just going to say straight up nailed it um i enjoy it i like it i concur oh yay okay next nothing to fight about there no okay my next one um i'm looking for validation here so please agree with me and be a negative the or the positive because i do want to feel like we're on the same page. William's Blackout. Oh. I was not expecting that one to come from you. I guess that's what the hurry up is. We're supposed to surprise each other. Yeah, I feel like I feel kind of in the same realm as Doodlebug. I know that's bad to say, but it's just not a total home run for me. It's got a lot of amazing things going for it, but just not a hundred percent in the nailed it. Okay. You're not right. The correct answer was nailed it. I have no explanation why I love the game so much. Maybe it's because it's got spinners and I'm just a spinner sucker. But anyway, I just need to play more of it yeah maybe it's not a complex game but there's just something about it I just enjoy it I don't want to apologize for that well don't I won't alright fine I don't know why we're fighting I know why we're going to be fighting uh oh what do you think of Iron Man oh nailed it now we're gonna fight everyone ding ding everyone hates iron man there are three board games that I absolutely adore from his stern run and iron man's one of them oh I lost you for a second I said there are three board games from his stern run that I absolutely adore and iron man is one of them I diverge I knew you would it's like a you know full full divergence what's the most diverging I could possibly do bricked it I mean just 100% bricked it yeah 100% and it's not just because it's fast or it's mean I have played amazing games on Ironman like racked up lots of points won games in tournaments on it I do not like this game no a lot of people don't it's it's so divisive um because it's basically got an em layout with ramps but it runs at breakneck speed so it's just weird i don't know i just don't i don't find it fun is it i have a no it's not symmetrical but it's close to um so yeah i i adore it and i want mine back that I sold. So, all right, here's my number three. And this, this one has the same level of potential to just um cause a split here Um Stern World Poker Tour Oh that a that um a slop shot for me Okay I going to sit it right there It on the line Yeah, I don't mind playing it. I don't gravitate towards it. You know, it's just kind of middle for me. It's inoffensive. Yeah. I think for me it is the same as what you said. So we do concur. I will say it's a very good game it's held back by a few just oddities and I think some of those oddities were budget things but it's got a lot of fun stuff to do in a competition setting I like the upper playfield I like the little captive ball hidey area up at the top there are some fun things on it yeah it's held back by some lack of something, right? It didn't realize its full potential. Agree. Well, cool. All right. We were mostly in agreement. Mostly. Real hard diverge on Iron Man. Well, I knew you knew it was going to come up in one of these eventually. It's going to come up in many. I feel like it's been the elephant in the hurry up room for like weeks and weeks and I just finally had to clear the air. It's okay. We don't have to agree, but we do have to love each other. So are we related? That's how you deal with family, right? You don't have to agree. deep down in the I don't know, across time and place there was a crossing of our ancestors. I don't know. Alright. Or do you mean like is it like Fast and Furious family? It's definitely that always. Okay, cool. Yeah. In space. Okay. Solid acting. I love them I went and saw Fast X in the theater it's so great those movies are I love big dumb action movies they're the best I would love a Fast and Furious pinball machine my kids and I were talking about how they need to do a Fast and the Furious on golf carts in a retirement community because all the actors are getting so old I would participate in this it would be amazing as the furious golf cart I'd probably break a hip in it but I would 100% do it let's go I want writing credits if they end up doing that okay well that was fun and people you are fully welcome to write in and tell us why you disagree with Jessica's stances I could read some of those on the air see this is it even if people agreed with me you're the one who reads the email so you just wouldn't even talk about them so everyone just know jeff is hiding your real opinions from me i am the gatekeeper yeah it's true but i am the key master i will bring them into the light I am such a sucker for all things Ghostbusters that I won't even argue with you yay oh what else have you been playing on pinball have you been playing so I'm still playing a whole lot of Zelda I just opened up the very last quest of the game like what it's going to be I don't want to go do it I know that you could just keep playing the game play around in the open world but I'm the type that when I finally see like that final moment I I tend to give it a break and then when I give things a break a lot of times I just don't come back to them so I don't know like it's it's I'm gonna miss my Zelda when I'm not doing the Zelda anymore that's fair but you can still go back and you know revisit it I will um and I'm sure it'll come out with... Yeah, good DLC and all that stuff. It's been awesome. That and then Marvel Snap. I've just been playing that dumb little card game, but I do like Marvel Snap. I don't know what that is. It's a mobile card game with all of the expected predatory monetization. It's a competitive card game. And it's just really well done. But, yes, you got to like card games. Sure. So, anyway, that's it for me. I've got my kids convincing me to play Roblox with them. Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. Yeah, so that's the other one. but we're talking about things we're obsessed with. So yeah, kills me just play, play actual video games. There are a few of the games that are surprisingly good in there. Um, I just, I don't, I guess I just don't connect with it. So I get in, I just get dominated by people who've just poured so many hours in it and have a master on the goof and mechanics and, and stuff. So I, I am officially too old, I guess. I don't know. Welcome to the club. Yeah. But anyway, so that's it for me. Cool. How about you? So I played through a very adorable, what would fall under the category of cozy game. Cozy games, yes. Cozy games. Yep. It's called Lonesome Village. So I had backed it on Kickstarter a while ago. you know how you back a game and then you forget about it. And three years later, they're like, here's your game. Oh, that's a nice surprise. Cause sometimes they don't actually come to fruition. Um, but it's like this adorable little town and you're this adorable little coyote and you meet all of your animal neighbors and you help them kind of deal with different like trauma, like problems they had. The, the town got hit by like disaster kind of thing. And you're helping everyone to like put their lives back together. So it's very adorable. It's very relaxing. It's a quick playthrough, which is the only downside for me is because I want to keep playing the game. But once you finish all the things, it's not like open world where you can just keep doing that. The game is just kind of like, okay, you're done. Like, Oh, get out. All right. Those characters are real good though. So I hope you make another one. But yes, highly recommended if you want like some chill gaming time, really adorable animation. Definitely give Lonesome Village a shot. I played it on Switch. Lonesome Village? Lonesome Village. I played it on Switch. It's also on Steam and I think Xbox, maybe. Yeah, but very fun. I dig. I think I dig. The cozy game genre is actually so charming and it's such a good thing on the Switch because it's just grab, pick it up, play a few minutes and not get stressed out. Yeah. They're fun. It's a good calming effect. Is there anything else? I'm just doing one. I don't want to do all my games at the same time. Yeah, I'm the same now. I used to be playing five or six games. I would be juggling and going between, but it's just not the way I do anymore. Yeah. I've just started playing another one, so if I end up liking it or sticking with it, we'll talk about it next time. That's fair. But I am really excited because I get to go do some escape rooms when I'm in Australia. So my obsession will continue to another country because I've only done them here so far. since it's only been like a year since I've started doing them, but I'm fully, fully obsessed. So after Masters, there's a little side quest trip to Hobart. I've never been to Tasmania, and I've booked every escape room in Hobart and the surrounding areas, which is only four. If you're going to go for it, go for it. I'm going to do them all and then have some suggestions of places to check out like around Brisbane when and if I have extra time in between events and teching and helping out with stuff. So excited for that in terms of I mean, that's been my main game. Quote unquote gaming has been locking myself in a room for an hour. It's very relaxing. I just hope that when you want to get out that you possess the talents to do so I do, I always do well, so far so far I always have I believe in you thanks I mean, you sounded 100% convinced when you said that I am convinced alright Oh hey we did a quiz last week We did and we had a winner The answer The question was What Steve Ritchie game does not use pop bumpers And we got a fairly quick answer to that By listener Glenn And he went ahead And gave us the answer No fear Which is correct So Ding ding ding we, uh, yeah, we had a winner and, uh, that was actually fun. I think that, um, I'm, uh, I, I think that this week might be a little harder. Um, but congrats to Glenn. Yeah. I know. So, yeah, it's, um, I've been trying to figure out the, the way to word this. And I was going to go from one to the other, but now I'm going to go the other way. That's the same for a breakup. I'm not breaking up with this game. It's not happening. But I think that it'll be easier if I ask it in a different way. So I'm going to do it. Are we ready? Always have been. All right. The prototype Stern Electronics machine Laser Lord has the same exact playfield layout as another classic Stern. What is the classic Stern? Oh, people need to Google. um i just learned about the existence of this one prototype that ever uh came into being and i'm obsessed and then we can we can talk about it some more um next week i guess maybe the interesting features very interesting features that i it's like the first thing i saw and the person who showed it to me was like, no, you're crazy. And then when I showed it to you and then when I showed it to my friend Jen, you both immediately saw the same thing I saw. So I guess that's a follow up. If you also notice the feature that I noticed first on the game, then you get a bonus prize. So what is the game that it shares the same playfield layout as? And what is the feature that Jessica noticed first. The notable feature, yeah. Well then, to get that entered, just email us at pinballpodcast at gmail.com Not the pinballpodcast at gmail.com That's how you refer to us is the pinballpodcast, but the email is just pinballpodcast at gmail.com To make it as confusing as possible. Yeah, pinballpodcast at gmail.com is it? That's all you gotta do. Uh, answer it. And if you win, you get stuff. Yep. Uh, Glenn, there's an envelope of some soft plunge and double danger stickers headed your way. Congratulations. Um, thanks for playing along everyone as always. And if that doesn't make you happy, well, nothing will. Um, I know what'll make me happy. What's that? A pinball popcorn. Well, good because we have one coming up right now well we actually close out the show but yes we have one coming up in just a minute Thank you Joe Thanks Joe You the best So is everyone listening Everyone is equal best in Jeff's eyes. There's some better bests, but still all bests. So that's it for me. I don't know if you have any last things. Otherwise, I do hope you enjoy Australia. Thank you, Australia. I'm coming for you. I can't wait to see everybody and everyone who has never come out to Brisbane Masters, Brisbane Pinball and Arcade Collective Show down in Australia. Please, please, please come and check it out. There will be live streams for a lot of the events. So tune into those. It's, I believe, the Netherworld Twitch stream. And then they have another one that's just for BPAC. So I'll be posting those. we can share some of those on the Facebook page as well, but follow along, see what you're missing out on and then come next year or the year after, make a plan to make it happen. Australia is an amazing place to go visit anyway. So this is a great excuse for you to get there. And then we get to hang out for two weeks. I see. That's ideal. Yeah. Okay. Thank you everyone. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. And, uh, yes, I will say, I expect a full report. And, thank you for just coming on. Bye. And now, time for pinball popcorn. Sir? Hey! Sir? Sir? Excuse me. I know this is your Ellie pinball, and I was wondering if I could appeal to your good nature and ask you to let me have it. I don't have a good nature. Excuse me. Come on! Can I offer you $10,000 for it? Huh. $20,000. I'll give you $20,000 for it. I'll take $50,000. All right. All right. Anyone who'd pay $50,000 for a pinball would certainly pay $75,000. Not necessarily. All right, 75. You're a thief. Close. I'm an attorney. I also own an investment firm that stole millions from retirees and started a pinball company. Have a happy holiday. This will help. Hey, hey, hey, hey, that's my pinball. Come here. Pull over. Pull over. All right, pull over. Pull over, buddy. You're messing with the wrong guy. Alright, you son of a bitch! My pinball! Ow! I know you, don't I? I'm usually very good with names, but I'll be damned if I haven't forgotten yours. You stole my pinball. I've never stole anything in my life. I reserved an LE with a distributor this afternoon and before I could put my deposit down. You stole it. You're the guy who tried to get my pinball. I knew I knew you, yeah. You scared the bejesus out of me. Come to think of it, it was awful easy to get a pinball during rush hour. Forget it. I can't forget it. I am sorry. I had no idea that was your pinball. Let me make it up to you somehow, huh, please? How about a nice hot dog and a beer? No thanks. Just a hot dog then I'm kind of picky about what I eat Some coffee No Milk No Soda No Some tea No A pin gulp No Slurpee Sir, please Just let me know, I'm here This is something you should have discussed With your distributor I couldn't discuss it with Distributor Because I didn't know He reserved a premium Sorry, I can't help you Limited edition This is full Limited edition reservation You have a Premium pinball reservation. Save your receipt. And you'll get a refund on the difference. I don't want a refund. I want a limited edition I reserved over a month ago. Look, I have had just about enough of you. Now take your seat. Oh, you've had about enough of me. First you delay me, then you bump me. I can't wait to see what happens next. I never did introduce myself. Del Griffith. American pinball. Director of sales. Best in the world. And you are? Neil Page. Neil Page. Pleased to meet you, Neil Page. So what do you do for a living, Neil Page? Marketing. Marketing. Super. Super. Trouble on the home front. I really don't think that's any of your concern. I got a motto. Like your work. Love your wife. I'll remember that. What's the pre-order situation? Simple. There's no way on earth. We're getting a limited edition. We'd have more luck playing pick-up sticks with our butt cheeks than we will getting a belly pinball. Before daybreak. I guess we'll find out soon enough. Yeah, but by the time... The pinball company closes orders. Which they will sooner or later. You'd have more of a chance to find a three-legged ballerina than you would a... Pinball machine. You're saying I could be stuck... With a premium? I'm saying you are stuck... With a premium. Well, welcome to... Texas Pinball Festival. Did you book a room yet? I couldn't get in anywhere. As soon as we got off the plane, you called home. I called the Braidwood Inn. I missed that one. I got an idea. I know the manager pretty well. If you want to pick up the cab fare, I'll make sure you get a room for the night. Yeah, yeah, sure, great. All right, grab it into this thing, will you? Thanks, thanks a lot. Is this your... Yeah, you should try lugging this thing around New York City. Del. Why did you kiss my ear? Why are you holding my hand? Where's your other hand? Between two playfields. Those aren't playfields. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! See that Bears game last week? Yeah, hell of a game, hell of a game. Bears got a great team this year. They're gonna go all the way. What? You know goddamn well what. I'm sorry, I don't. I had over 700 quarters. I didn't touch your dough, Neil. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief. You went into my stuff last night, right? I didn't take your money, and I don't care for the accusation. Well, I had over 700 quarters in here, and you went into my wallet for pizza. Just maybe when you went into it, you had to take it. Count it. Oh, like you keep it in there if you stole it. There's $263 in there. If there's a dollar more, then you can call me a thief. Just count it. Count it. 263, right? Empty. What? We were robbed. Do you think so? You know, I've been thinking. What we're dealing with here is a small-time crook. He didn't take the credit cards, right? So we charge our way home. What kind of plastic you carry? We've got a visa and a gasoline card. Oh, and I got a Pinball Life gift card in case we want to buy some pinball parts for someone. What have you got? Chalmers Big and Tall Man Shop. It's a seven outlet chain in the Pacific Northwest. Great stuff. Unfortunately, it does us no good here. Just get me to the train station and I'll take care of everything else. Oh, I got that all covered. Janos Kiss's son's going to pick us up. This is not him, is it? Gee, I hope not. Are you Janos Kiss's son? I'm Owen. How are you? This is Neil Page from Chicago. Hi. I'm to drive you to catch a train? Yeah, we'd appreciate it. Leave it be. Get your lazy behind out here and put that pinball cup in the back. Oh, no, no, we've got it. It's very heavy. She don't mind. She's short and skinny, but she's strong. Her first baby? Come out sideways. She didn't scream or nothing. Isn't that something? You're a real trooper. We've got it! We've got it already! It's done! Alright! Alright, who knows a tune here? Who wants to sing a tune? Who's got a song? I got one. You got one! Neil Page has got one! You got the power, ha ha ha. You got the might, no way. Get ready for battle, give me your money, defeat the black Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the Maratonic family From the town of Bedrock, they're a page right out of history Hey! Hey! Hey! The pinball's not there! I need a right back! Oh, Jean Marie, you're a stitch. No, Mom's going to do the turkey. You know I can't cook. Yeah, well, I'll see you tomorrow then. Gobble, gobble. Boop, boop, boop. Oh, bye-bye. Welcome to Marco. May I help you? Yes. How may I help you? You can start by wiping that fucking dumbass smile off your rosy fucking cheeks. Then you can give me a fucking pinball machine. A freaking stern, a freaking spooky, a freaking Jersey Jack, four freaking legs, and a backbox. I really don't care for the way you're speaking to me. And I really don't care for the way your company left me in the middle of f***ing nowhere with f***ing keys to a f***ing pinball that isn't f***ing there. And I really didn't care to f***ing walk down a f***ing highway to get back here to have you smile at my f***ing face. I want a f***ing pinball right f***ing now. May I see your rental agreement? I threw it away. Oh, boy. Oh boy, what? You're a p***. Yeah, where are you going? Chicago. Chicago? Chicago. You know you're in Texas? Yes, I do. Why don't you try the airlines? It's a lot faster and you get a free meal. If I wanted a joke, I'd... Pre-order a Deep Root Pinball. Are you going to help me or are you going to stand there like a slab of meat with mitts? I can't reach my feet to get my shoes off. That's just fine. Leave your shoes on. I can't relax if I got my shoes on. I don't care to breathe your foot odor. Leave the shoes on. Gee, it must be swell to be so perfect and odor-free. You know, there's plenty of things about you that bother me, but I'm decent enough not to bring them up. Really? That's right. What do I do that bothers you? I'm just curious. Well, there's lots of things. Name one. Why don't you name one? Oh, there's quite a few things. You want me to name one? Yeah, fine, man. You shine your balls a lot. Do not shine my balls. Keith Elwin doesn't do as much ball handling all year as you do in an hour are you trying to start a fight no I'm simply stating a fact that's all you know what would make me happy got a couple balls and an extra set of fingers oh that's him oh that's that's that's real humor hi is there something I can help you with what the hell are you playing here we had a small fire last night but we caught it in the nick of time do you have any idea how much of a score you got well funnily enough I was just talking to my friend about that PMD display. Melted and as a result, it's very hard to say with any degree of accuracy exactly how high of a score we actually got. 78. Million points. 78, huh? Well, yeah, I could buy that, sure, I guess. You know, you would know better than us, especially since we got a melt. Display. Do you feel this pinball is safe to play? Yes, I do. Yes, I really do. I believe that. I know it's not pretty to look at, but it'll get you where you want to go. Now, you got no lockdown bar. No, we lost that. You have no functioning... Score displays. No, not a one. However, the soundboard still works. Funny as that may seem, with all this mess that... The sound... The only thing that's really working good, and it just clears the bell. Don't ask me how. I can't let you go ahead in this... Pinball. Can't what? No, it's not good. For the pinball show. Okay, officer, I admit it. I broke the law, and for that I'm really sorry. I am. It'll never happen again. You got me there, and I won't argue with you one iota, I swear. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 4606bbe8-7e54-4ce9-9727-03976d5d8d9c*