# Kickstart my Heart

**Source:** BlahCade Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2016-02-15  
**Duration:** 41m 25s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blahcade-pinball-podcast/episodes/Kickstart-my-Heart-e1bkg5v

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## Analysis

Chris and Jared discuss the Deadpool movie's box office success and implications for pinball licensing, FarSight's Doctor Who Kickstarter campaign exceeding its goal, the TAF Gold exclusivity controversy, and Zen Pinball's Indiegogo campaign for PC/cabinet support. They also do a deep dive into Space Shuttle as their Table of the Week, discussing gameplay mechanics and wizard goal frustrations.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Deadpool movie broke February opening record, President's Day weekend record, and R-rated movie opening record with ~$150M domestic opening — _Chris reported seeing the film and citing box office records; these are verifiable public facts_
- [HIGH] Doctor Who Kickstarter surged and went $15K over funding goal — _Chris and Jared directly state this; FarSight's official campaign would confirm_
- [MEDIUM] TAF Gold was made Kickstarter-exclusive due to promises made to original backers, not contractual constraints — _Jared speculates with 'wink wink, no' that exclusivity is about honoring original promise rather than licensing caveat; not confirmed_
- [HIGH] Zen Pinball Indiegogo campaign is only at $876 after two months — _Chris states this figure directly from checking the campaign during recording_
- [MEDIUM] Typical Kickstarter licensing costs for pinball machines range $50K-$65K — _Jared estimates based on historical FarSight campaigns (Addams Family, Doctor Who, Star Trek: TNG); reasonable inference but not official pricing_
- [MEDIUM] Space Shuttle was released during a pinball downturn and its accessible gameplay structure saved Williams — _Jared states this as historical fact; requires verification against Williams production history_
- [HIGH] Doctor Who Regenerated will be available for purchase after the Kickstarter, unlike TAF Gold — _Chris and Jared state this was explicitly promised by FarSight/Mike; directly quoted from campaign_
- [MEDIUM] Seven multinational conglomerates own all major entertainment companies — _Chris reports seeing an infographic about this; widely cited claim but not verified in conversation_

### Notable Quotes

> "I mean, huge numbers, which is good because it opens up the door for some of these other—and I'm going to say Marvel and DC properties, since they're the two main comic books—but to get into some of their maybe characters that are a little more offensive that they otherwise would have to tone down."
> — **Chris Frebus**, ~6:30
> _Discusses how Deadpool's R-rated success creates licensing opportunities for more adult-oriented IP in pinball_

> "I went for $20 because I wanted a cool wallpaper. I don't really have a lot of pinball wallpapers for my computer."
> — **Jared Morgan**, ~32:00
> _Shows consumer motivation for lower-tier Kickstarter backing_

> "Because like I said, if you're not using it to earn profit for the company and it's just sitting there collecting nothing, then put it out there and use it as your own internal Kickstarter."
> — **Chris Frebus**, ~40:30
> _Proposes alternative funding model for TAF Gold as hedge fund for future licensing_

> "They don't let you cheat that way... The Thing ball is from Addams Family, and it's a pinball that has Thing's hand on top of it. And so he like rolls the ball. It's ball control."
> — **Chris Frebus**, ~95:00
> _Explains special ball mechanic that bypasses wizard goal verification_

> "Everything about that game is meant for kind of quick play and just getting into it and having instant gratification. There's no buildup of modes. You just get in there, flip, hit some drop targets, and kind of just have a ball, really."
> — **Jared Morgan**, ~58:00
> _Describes Space Shuttle's design philosophy and accessibility focus_

> "So if you pay your 25 bucks or whatever for that level, you're guaranteed you're going to be—you're guaranteed to get a Steam key if the project doesn't fund."
> — **Chris Frebus**, ~52:00
> _Explains Zolt's consumer protection mechanism for Zen Pinball Indiegogo_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Chris Frebus | person | Co-host of Blockade Podcast, goes by alias 'Shut Your Trap'; based in US with DSL internet connection; attended Deadpool movie |
| Jared Morgan | person | Co-host of Blockade Podcast; based in Australia; handles podcast editing; actively plays Pinball Arcade wizard goals |
| Blockade Podcast | organization | Pinball podcast hosted by Chris Frebus and Jared Morgan; sponsored by Wizard Amusement.com; active in promoting Zen Pinball Indiegogo |
| Wizard Amusement.com | company | Custom pinball shooter rod manufacturer and retailer; sponsor of Blockade Podcast offering 10% discount |
| FarSight Studios | company | Developers of Pinball Arcade; running Kickstarter campaigns for digital pinball tables including Doctor Who |
| Zen Pinball | company | Mobile/digital pinball platform now operating under name 'Magic Pixel'; running Indiegogo campaign for PC and cabinet support; minimal web/social presence; ~$876 raised after 2 months |
| Deadpool | game | 2024 Marvel film breaking R-rated movie opening records; discussed in context of licensing opportunities for pinball |
| Doctor Who | game | FarSight Studios Kickstarter table campaign that exceeded funding goal by $15K; Doctor Who Regenerated confirmed as post-campaign available purchase (not exclusive) |
| Space Shuttle | game | Williams pinball machine from downturn era; Table of the Week; Jared engaged in wizard goal completion; known for accessibility and quick-play design |
| TAF Gold | product | FarSight's premium Pinball Arcade table; confirmed as Kickstarter-exclusive forever due to original backer promises; not available for post-campaign purchase |
| Addams Family | game | Licensed pinball table; referenced for Thing ball special mechanic; FarSight holds license; Sony/Columbia distributed property |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine | media | 2009 film where Deadpool first appeared (with mouth sewn shut); Deadpool 2024 film mocked this version |
| Pinball Arcade | game | FarSight's digital pinball platform; competitor to Zen Pinball; hosts fan forum with Zen Pinball subforum and Indiegogo link |
| Mike | person | FarSight representative (likely Mike Catania); was 'on the fence' about TAF Gold exclusivity; mentioned as potential podcast guest |
| Zolt | person | Zen Pinball/Magic Pixel lead developer; highly responsive to community; posted Indiegogo campaign on Pinball Arcade forums; promised Steam key delivery if Indiegogo doesn't fund at $25 tier |
| Star Trek: The Next Generation | game | FarSight Kickstarter table; licensing estimated at ~$60-65K; considered higher cost property |
| Verizon | company | Chris's current DSL provider selling service in 14 states to Frontier; motivating Chris's internet upgrade |
| Frontier | company | Telecom company acquiring Verizon service areas; described by Chris as company with 'scathing reports' |
| Time Warner Cable | company | Chris considering switching to for internet upgrade; will maintain same price first year after dropping POTS landline |
| Pinheads Pinball Podcast | organization | Referenced phrase 'Pinball and popular culture'; Chris and Jared familiar with this podcast |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Deadpool movie box office success and licensing implications, FarSight Kickstarter funding and exclusivity strategy, Zen Pinball Indiegogo campaign and platform future, Space Shuttle gameplay mechanics and wizard goals
- **Secondary:** Pinball licensing costs and industry economics, Digital pinball platform competition and graphics evolution, Entertainment industry consolidation (7 conglomerates)
- **Mentioned:** Podcast technical infrastructure and internet connectivity challenges

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.65) — Positive on Deadpool film success and FarSight campaign achievement; mixed on licensing/exclusivity strategy (concerns about TAF Gold); frustrated on Space Shuttle wizard goal difficulty; optimistic about Zen Pinball's potential despite low fundraising numbers

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Zen Pinball Indiegogo campaign severely underperforming at $876 after 2 months despite $10K PC goal and 38 tables at $25 tier (~$0.66/table) (confidence: high) — Chris: 'They're only at $876. Yeah, it's going to be a slog for them. So far two months in.' Campaign offers 38 tables for $25, making platform highly undervalued relative to comparable services
- **[community_signal]** Pinball Arcade provides streaming chat suggestions during Table of the Week gameplay helping players troubleshoot mechanics and discover hidden features (confidence: high) — Chris: 'The awesome suggestions are popping up here on Blab' providing drop target light values (1,000/2,000/4,000) and Thing ball information that players didn't initially know
- **[event_signal]** Pinball Arcade fan community actively hosting Zen Pinball discussion subforum and promoting Indiegogo campaign due to developer responsiveness (confidence: high) — Chris: 'People like fans host them on the forum as like a subforum...they are nothing but professional to deal with. Like, they are the most responsive devs I think I've probably ever worked with'
- **[licensing_signal]** Deadpool film's R-rated box office success ($150M opening) creates licensing opportunity window for adult-oriented Marvel/DC properties in pinball industry (confidence: high) — Chris: 'Huge opening...breaks the record for most money brought in by an R-rated movie on opening. Which is good because it opens up the door for some of these other Marvel and DC properties...to get into some of their maybe characters that are a little more offensive'
- **[community_signal]** Blockade Podcast hosts planning extended interview with Zen Pinball/Magic Pixel lead developer Zolt to promote Indiegogo campaign (confidence: medium) — Chris: 'I promised to follow up and see if I could get Zolt on. And I've broken that promise...after we've done this recording, I will send him an email'
- **[market_signal]** FarSight Kickstarter data suggests typical pinball licensing costs $50K-$65K, with older/non-syndicated properties requiring similar investment as modern licenses (confidence: medium) — Jared: 'Last four Kickstarters...around 50 to 55...Star Trek was around 60 or 65 from memory.' Discussion of whether older IP costs same as modern due to syndication status
- **[announcement]** Doctor Who Regenerated confirmed as post-Kickstarter purchasable product (not exclusive), representing policy shift from TAF Gold exclusivity (confidence: high) — Chris: 'They've explicitly stated that it will be available after' Kickstarter, unlike TAF Gold which is 'only ever going to be Kickstarter exclusive'
- **[product_concern]** Space Shuttle Season 2 graphics render inserts illegible on screen despite having instruction zoom feature; text-based multiplier values cannot be read during gameplay (confidence: high) — Chris: 'The inserts are blown out...the graphics on the table itself...you can't read the graphic underneath the light blazing through' and no Pro Mode available to preview inserts
- **[business_signal]** FarSight considering alternative funding model: releasing TAF Gold as premium-priced digital table ($15) on mobile 2-3 months/year as internal funding hedge rather than exclusive (confidence: medium) — Chris proposes: 'use it as an ongoing hedge fund. So release it like 2 months a year it's on sale...and any cut that would normally go straight into the profits...goes into funding whatever...next license you're trying to buy'
- **[technology_signal]** Zen Pinball rebranded from 'Ask Homework' to 'Magic Pixel' due to Google Play publishing requirements; minimal web/social presence suggests indie operations (confidence: medium) — Chris: 'They're no longer Ask Homework. They're now Magic Pixel...they had to change their name when they published to Google Play' and 'they also apparently don't really have a social media presence'

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## Transcript

 Thank you. This is a Blockade Podcast with your hosts, Chris and Jared. wizard amusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter rods easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10 off your order wizard amusement.com sales restoration customization You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I am your host, Chris Frebus, a.k.a. Shut Your Trap. Joining me as always, my co-host, Jared Morgan. G'day, Chris. How are you, mate? I'm doing well. It's okay. People listening to the podcast won't know. Only people in Blab. No, it's all right. So it's Valentine's Day here, and you've already passed the day. Yes. It was okay. We lost the kids for half a day and Kim and I went out for a nice lunch and then subsequently dessert at a Spanish chocolateria. And it was really nice. Very delicious. Yummy, yummy. Yes. You got any plans? No. Okay. Mr. Romantic here. me and my wife just kind of look at each other and go do we want to do anything for Valentine's Day too much work we went to the mall yesterday and had a lovely dinner in the food court so food court dinner very illustrious well we took the kid to maybe see if we could if there was something that he wanted while we were shopping around so we didn't find anything but so yeah that was the other day on Thursday evening I went and saw Deadpool which apparently everybody else has it's going to bring in something like 150 million here in the states huge opening number one it breaks the February record breaks the President's Day weekend record it breaks the record for most money brought in by an R-rated movie on opening. Wow. Yeah. I mean, huge numbers, which is good because it opens up the door for some of these other and I'm going to say Marvel and DC properties since they're the two main comic books. But to get into some of their maybe characters that are a little more offensive that they otherwise would have to tone down. So hopefully it opens the door wide. But yeah, it was fun. It was good. I cannot believe that I think you're making that a PG movie what were they thinking well this is where I was saying Zen now needs to update their table I wonder if they could do that theoretically go back through and do a I don't know whether it would be an art pass or a theming pass what would they need to do without spoiling anything what would they need to do just no I think their art package is fantastic and the theme is fantastic it's just throw in a little more of his harsher comments was it the same voice artist doing the voice over work for Xen or was it a Deadpool sort of copycat I don't even know there was a copycat because there wasn't any movie up until this point was there or no it was just a comic book but it was well technically he appeared in X-Men Origins Wolverine Ryan Reynolds played him there, but he wasn't the... They sewed his mouth shut before he could even talk like Deadpool normally would. So, yeah, and of course they mocked that in this movie. And so, no, the voice that they have in Zen is just like what they normally do. It's their own voice artist. It's not Ryan Reynolds doing it. But there's a couple of moments in the table where they bleep him, where he's like, oh, but I can't say, and then beep, beep, beep. Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things. They can throw in some... It's based on the whole movie. Right, right. And I wouldn't mind them if they went in and they really took a dig at some of the other... Shoot, take a dig at some pinball machines, you know? Yeah, that would be self-deprecating. Exactly. They do do... I know one joke where he says something to the effect of, ah, it's better than the Iron Man table. So... But yeah, I would love it if they did a little more through it. Just go back push in a little bit more. So that'd be funny. There was a pinball machine in the movie. I couldn't identify it because it was pretty much destroyed before I could. But then in the end credits, I saw that it was apparently a Gottlieb, so who knows what. Oh, right. There you go. Sometimes you've got to be quick with pinball. Pinball and modern... Pinball and popular culture, as they say on the Pinheads Pinball Podcast. Right. yeah you gotta be quick sometimes so hopefully also this podcast isn't plagued by the gremlins that attacked us viciously last week um so jared did a good job of editing but i'll tell you this folks my uh my computer first decided to crash um then i got it back up and then it kept on just completely freezing blab and then there was one point where i could hear jared and i could uh hear mike talking and i could see them and i was trying to talk and interject and i was like how come they're just talking right over me and you know getting back at me or something i don't understand and that you can you can hear it in the podcast where i'll like say something everybody's just running over me i'm like what the heck and i don't know what was going on i had to like back out and then come back in and then all of a sudden they're like oh hey i've been back for five minutes like trying to be yelling down my microphone at you guys you can't hear me yeah i know it's weird listening to that when i was doing the editing i was going what what's going oh right i see so yeah for the last five or so minutes chris has been talking into a void because there's no one Yeah. So hopefully we don't have any of those issues this week. I'm maybe biting the bullet, Jared. I might be getting a faster internet connection soon. Ooh. What are you currently on at the moment? So like DSL 1. Yeah, I'm on DSL. My top speed is three megabytes per second. Oh, right. Which is hideous. That's pretty slow. Yeah. It's really slow. Your upload must be right, though, because your video and audio quality is pretty good. Normally with DSL, it's pretty low upload, which is the one that they always get you on. My max upload is 0.7. 0.7. Wow, that's just okay for video and voice. It's amazing we can actually do these sessions at all with that sort of internet connection. It times the cable, man. Well, that's what I'm going to do because what happened is my local phone provider is Verizon. They have decided to sell their service in 14 states to some other company called Frontier. I've never heard of this company. Essentially, it's one of these companies that is trying to make a name for themselves. So they're like, oh, yeah, we'll buy up. But that to me means it's not like anything is going to be improved. It's more going to be status quo, if anything worse. Right. Right. And so I was like, It's terrible. Like as far as a company goes, I've heard pretty scathing reports. They're all terrible. Have you ever heard of a telecom communications company that everybody goes, Oh, they're wonderful. No. Well, no, some are better than others though. Yeah. But unfortunately they're the only one offered in my city. It's not like we have a choice. You know, some, some cities, you actually have a choice. It's kind of rare these days, but most people, you know, block it in. So yeah, I've looked into getting Time Warner cable for internet. I hate cable companies, but. Yeah. So I imagine that's going to be a big jump in price, but probably a huge jump in what you're able to do on the internet. Well, the jump in price actually for the first year will be exactly the same as what I'm paying now. But then what we're thinking about is just dropping our landline completely because we won't need it anymore. The only reason why we have the landline is basically for DSL, everything else on cell phones. Yeah, right. If you've got decent plans on your cell phone, then you don't really probably need it. We're limited where we are. We have to have a plain old telephone service or POTS service because we've got this thing called off-net where we have to buy resold lines in our area. to actually get onto the internet. The short version is we have a RIM system, which is provisioned throughout the suburb, and it was a terrible choice when they were provisioning the suburb for telecoms, and it's really limiting for people to actually be able to connect to the internet freely. So, yeah, we've pretty much only got a couple of options that we can use for internet, and we're on the better one. So, yeah. Yeah. Lovely, isn't it? Yeah So I went shopping for modems and routers just to see what it going to cost me because there no way in hell I leasing it from the cable company They want seven like seven or eight bucks a month For the modem Yeah So I mean you pay for it in a year if you bought it yourself And then of course you can get a better modem or a better router, I should say, is actually what you'd be looking for to Or modem router if you want them all in one. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm going to do the combo or I'm going to do the separate because everybody's kind of saying that that way if one goes down or needs to be upgraded. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be much cheaper that way. I've always bought modem routers just as an all-in-one solution. And generally speaking, they're going to die anyhow in about two years. So that's my history with them. So you just throw it out and then get a new one. By that time, both technologies have usually evolved more. So you get all the new things in one rather than sort of waiting for the other one to die and then going, ah, I've got this brand new like brand new connection to the internet, but all of my wifi and routing capabilities are really shit. So I can't do anything with it. So let's talk about the big news of the week. Doctor Who not only did it fund, it surged at the end. It went like 15 grand over. Yeah. I wonder what they're going to do with that. Put it on beer? Well, that's what I'm curious to know. Does Farsight collect all the money now? In the past, what they've been doing is they've just been like, okay, well, we'll reserve this amount that's over for whatever our next Kickstarter is. But if they don't want to run another Kickstarter, couldn't they technically just put it towards whatever license they feel like putting it towards? Yep, because it's the funding. How Kickstarter works is the funding raised is per that Kickstarter. So it's not like they have to hold it over in credit or anything. It's just, well, we went over, so we're going to keep that money as well. It all comes down to user entitlement. So a certain amount of users got their like pledge like levels. So they have to fulfill those. Otherwise what they'd have to do is they had to like, Oh no, because we got our target. So those people that came in the end, you don't get anything because, because, you know, we went over a target. So I'm going to do that. So yes, that money, that 15 grand is, is in the bank. They could put it towards anything. Yeah. Well, I really hope that they put it towards not needing more kickstarters. This one, man. I mean, it was like... Put it on the stock market and see if they can increase it for a little bit. Well, because I think the price point that really, or the tier that really put it over the top for them was the $85 tier, which got you two season passes. Pro version, which means that's $80 right there if you were buying them. I wish there was like a one season pass because I was going for that. I don't know why they didn't put a one level tier there. They could have snuck one of those in there somewhere between one of the $40 tiers. Because I would have totally gone for that. I actually did support them, and I went for $20. But I would have gone higher because I always buy a season pass. So I would have just totally gone for a single season pass. It's a bit weird why they didn't do that. Yeah, I don't know what the logic was. But it is interesting because, well, I guess they're technically breaking even on that particular tier with what they're offering. Maybe coming out a little under because you're also getting the ballpacks and you're getting the Doctor Who Regenerated. Yeah, you've got a real bargain if you bought that tier. Yeah, a big bargain. So, yeah, for those people who did get in on that tier, good on you for supporting it that tier. but also you're going to get a whole lot of loot delivered to you. Yeah. It's kind of cool. I went for $20. I went for $20 because I wanted a cool wallpaper. I don't really have a lot of pinball wallpapers for my computer. And I wanted a really cool Doctor Who pinball wallpaper. So I went, yeah, I'll pay the extra four bucks for that. I can safely say I don't have any wallpaper for a doctor or for a pinball. I got this really nice one. It's an old style EM wallpaper. that's all HDR and close up on pop bumpers. It looks really nice. So I've got that. Yeah, I mean, my desktop wallpaper is a very famous painting. I wish I knew what it was called. I think it's the Nighthawks or something like that. Anyways, it's an old diner in New York taken from outside the diner, and there's three people sitting inside of it drinking coffee. Well, yeah, except for this one has been modified. it's got cowboy bebop characters in it so that's what my current wallpaper is um no what i was going to say also though is the other thing that came out during this was it is now official taft gold is only ever going to be kickstarter exclusive yeah as we've found out i think right mike was on the fence he really wanted to try and get it um released as a more publicly available thing but yeah i think this interesting though because if you think about how they've done um doctor who regenerated this time around they've explicitly stated that it will be available after which is um i wonder if that's basically because of lessons learned with the taff gold thing i hope so or do you think it might have just been with this is something we can probably maybe confirm with mike if he's allowed to talk about it but i'm just wondering if um the taff gold deal actually had some um caveats that they really had to adhere to which is why they couldn't offer it for sale after the fact i have a feeling that could be the case i'm going to say wink wink no that it is more an issue of certain people wanting to honor the idea of having an exclusivity thing like was promised back in the day and they want to keep their promise basically which i think is horrible thing to do i guess but to their detriment um right it is to their detriment but you know promises a promise so i guess good on them for keeping the promise but yeah yeah stink for everyone else who who either couldn't back at that level or just didn't have access to the kickstarter when it was running so yeah i just i really hope that that that maybe they can use the idea that we had or somebody else had i don't know i know we were promoting it of, hey, rather than do a Kickstarter, what if you put out TAF gold and said all money earned from this purchase goes towards licensing a big title? Yeah. So use it as a funding method. Exactly. Yeah. Because like I said, if you're not using it to earn profit for the company and it's just sitting there collecting nothing, then put it out there and use it as your own internal Kickstarter. Yeah. The thing is that still earns money for the company. Like that's still, well, no, it earns money for the company. But what I'm saying is, is that it would earn enough money that you could pay whatever license you need to pay towards. I'm assuming to, you know, Paramount and everything else that went in with the, the Adams family license. Right. So you still get to pay them their cut of that, but any cut that would normally go straight into the profits of the company. Doesn't it goes into, funding, whatever. And that way you're also not, you're not tying its license into whatever new license you're trying to buy. It's just, this is raising money for whatever. So use it sort of like an ongoing hedge fund. So release it in like, you know, two months a year, it's on sale. If you want to get on it, get on it. That's actually a pretty cool idea. I like that. And my thing was, wouldn't that appease those people that bought it for the Kickstarter? that would say, hey... At a premium price, of course. We're talking maybe $15 for the table or something like that. If they've got to do it that way, they've got to do it that way. Probably would. I mean, if it's being used for a fundraiser and in place of a Kickstarter, then I think people who are really keen for it would pay the $15 and go, yep, thank you, and just move on. Because I'm just thinking, you've got such a massive audience that probably never even knew a Kickstarter was running, that never checked out the page, never bothered to look at it, never even gave it a second thought that they would fund it, right? But it's all of a sudden you offered Taft Gold on mobile. How many people are out there that would go, oh, yeah, sure, okay. Oh, yeah, Taft Gold. That was like a thing back then. Yeah, I'll have that. Particularly if they're fans of the franchise or table. and none of the stigma of doing a kickstarter would then follow with it at least it would it might actually mean that the kickstarter even if they did have to run a kickstarter it might become more achievable so oh yeah much quicker the tiers they could actually offer could actually be priced more economically and let more people have the the upper end tiers uh or the sorry the stuff that would normally be offered at $100 to you for perhaps $50. And it would make it, they could still do a Kickstarter, but it wouldn't have to be so like huge, like $50,000 or $60,000. Because it seems that $50,000 or $60,000 generally is the asking price for licenses for a pinball machine. Take a look back historically over the last four Kickstarters, we're talking about that sort of level, perhaps a little bit more for, I think it was Star Trek TNG. it was a little bit higher for that. I think it was around 60 or 65 for that, from memory. But the other ones, generally around 50 to 55, it seems to be the going rate. So, yeah. Interesting to see how licensing costs in the pinball world, I guess. Yeah. I just wonder if that's indicative of other licensing that, say, you know, people like Stern and stuff have to pay as well to get on board. I don't know. So it kind of would stand to reason that if around that amount, that might be the amount of money that any pinball manufacturer in the real world has to pay to secure licenses for stuff Yeah Good question Maybe more as well because if there you know if it a more modern license because a lot of the stuff they're going for here is like 20 years old or properties that are like 20 years old thereabouts. So, and not syndicated anymore, like, you know, Star Trek and Addams family to an extent. So I just wonder if that actually plays into the cost as well. I got to imagine that with anything modern, it's easier to bundle everything in one because it's all being marketed at the same time you might say yeah that's true and there might be i think you actually touched on this at one point i think when they were getting the what was it the paramount deal i think yeah yeah and they would have like you said they bundled all the sort of assets together in one sort of um big sale no Oh, that was the Sony deal. That was the Sony deal. The Sony deal, not the Paramount deal. Isn't Sony and Paramount the same company? I don't know. No. I don't know. I'm not in the industry. I have no idea. Sony have a number of umbrella companies, don't they? They have like Sony Pictures, Sony Computers, Sony everything. They've got lots of different pictures. Yes. But Sony is basically Columbia and TriStar. Columbia and TriStar, that's what I was thinking of. Yeah. Paramount is Paramount, but they're owned by Viacom, I believe. and then there's Fox, there's Disney, there's GE, which owns Universal. GE? Really? Uh-huh. I just saw an infographic. There's literally seven companies that own every single entertainment company out there. Wow. Yeah, it's scary. Seven companies only. That's pretty bad, isn't it? Yeah. Why do you think that everything is now a franchise temple movie because you're no longer dealing with a studio trying to make their bank you're dealing with a multinational conglomerate where the money from a movie is a drop in the pants i mean it's nothing wow yeah that's pretty bad isn't it seven seven to rule the whole so speaking of kickstarters in the uh e-related but it's not a kickstarter it's an indiegogo funding. The fine fellows that are making the Zachariah pinball are trying to fund the Indiegogo during a two-month campaign. Starting I think they're trying to collect just 10 grand to get to the PC. Pretty achievable. That's my topic. But then you get up into like 40 grand and that's in order to get cab support going. Oh, that's a jump. I know that's really important to some people. Like when we did the interview with Zolt, it was one of the most asked questions when we were fielding them from the community. So, you know, there's a couple, not couple, there's a lot of very passionate cab people that want to in on that. Yeah. That being said, one of their tiers, which is, I believe, the $25 tier, gets you 38 tables. So do the math. That's less than a buck a table. That's about the cost of the gold season pass. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. What's the URL? Indiegogo ask. I'll just do a search for that. Well, there's a thing. And Zolt posted it on our Pinball Arcade fan forum. And I didn't realize they're no longer Ask Homework. They're now, I believe, Pixel Magic or Magic Pixel. Magic Pixel. Magic Pixel. Yeah, I think they had to change their name when they published to Google Play for some reason. So they must have just stuck with that. They also apparently don't really have a social media presence. So it's hard to... No, they don't. It's very strange. Their website is bare bones at best. So, oh man, they're only at $876. Yeah, it's going to be a slog for them. So for two months. The two things to note about Indiegogo, money you pitch in is collected regardless of if it meets its goal or not. However, Zolt has come out and said that if you pitch in at the $25 level and the project does not fund, he will issue a Steam key for you because they did get the Steam green light, so the game will be on Steam. um so if you pay your 25 bucks or whatever for that level you're guaranteed you're going to be guaranteed oh that's good because i mean they're getting the money anyhow it'll be pretty rough if they took it and ran i don't think like these guys they're good guys we we host one we as the royal we um people like fans host them um on the forum as like a sub forum because they as you say They don't really have any sort of web presence whatsoever. So we give them a space on there. And they are nothing but professional to deal with. Like they are the most responsive devs I think I've probably ever worked with. And they just pump out the features with it. I promised to follow up and see if I could get Zolt on. And I've broken that promise because I haven't done it yet. It's been crazy. So I need to go after we've done this recording. I will send him an email and see if he wants to come on so we can get this promoted a bit more for them. And as always, if you're looking for what the, uh, where that project is, um, it's on, uh, pinball arcade fans. We've got a link under the ask homework section. Um, we'll make sure we tweet it out too, so that people can click on it. If they'd like, I don't have the web address in front of me though. So too bad. Yeah, but it will look, it looks Zechra, the Zachary a pinball product is the thing that I think made pinball arcade pretty scared when it came out because it graphically is superior to anything out there on the market. Well, it showed what can be done on a mobile. Yeah. And that's an interesting point in itself because, you know, moving forward, uh, mobile is in for some treats. Um, yeah, which is going to be very interesting. So yes, if you're on mobile, iOS or Android, there is rumor that there's going to be some pretty significant graphical increases to the platform. So stay tuned for that over the course of this year. In other news, let's talk about Table of the Week. So this week's table is going to be Space Shuttle. Ah, this is one of my sort of little favorites. Is it really? It does nothing for me. Really? It's all about, it's one of those games historically that was released at a time when pinball was in a downturn. It saved Williams. It did, yeah. Because of the way they structured the gameplay, They made it so accessible for new players to come in and just get multiball and shoot for the very score and then do it all again and build up the score. Everything about that game is meant for kind of quick play and just getting into it and having instant gratification. There's no buildup of modes. You just get in there, flip, hit some drop targets, and kind of just have a ball, really. Well, let's talk about those drop targets because that's currently what's frustrating me to no end. so there are three drop targets on the table the rest everything else will stand up targets but there's three drop targets technically oh yeah technically four technically four but um did that one i consider more as a gate than anything a roadblock um anyway those three drop targets they're on the right hand side and by knocking down all three guarantees that the airlock is closed or open i forget which is which anyway that'll save your ball if it goes out the uh yeah the gate is open but they call it airlock right closed or something like that yeah so i've been currently uh since i knew what the table was i've been playing it last couple of days and um i'm down to my final wizard goal now i know it's unkind to judge a table based off the wizard goals but there's been plenty of teams that have been enhanced by me having to do the wizard goals and it really taught me some things and made me love the table so i feel it's equally important that sometimes the wizard goals can make me hate a table but anyway the final goal that i have not been able to achieve is that you are to knock down the three drop targets seven times because that makes the spinner that is right near them spin for 7 000 points each revolution i for the life of me cannot get them knocked down seven times um and the part that it's tricky the part that irks me the most though is there's no indication telling you how many times you've knocked them down that's you gotta keep a mental count in your head there's been a couple of times where i could swear i've knocked them down seven times and that makes me go oh is this one of those tables that doesn't register all the time for the wizard goal? I don't know. Because apparently when you knock it down seven times, the little light goes on on the dead end ramp for an extra ball. Well, I've had that light flip on many times. So I'm just bashing my head against the wall trying to complete this wizard goal and I don't know. I don't know. Three lands in the lane are 1,000, 2,000, 4,000. So it's one of those tables when like on those earlier tables that had like um table multipliers or feature multipliers rather than having rather than having like a lens or an insert for every multiplier value like you see on tables today they got you to do a bit of basic math So if it was like four and one it was 5 or two and four was 6 So if they're basically all lit four, two and one, that's seven. So see, here's the problem with not having pro mode. I wasn't able to explore the table and get a good look at them. and from any viewing angle you can't read what the inserts are so i had no clue what was what was there so the other thing that i do bet uh yeah the awesome suggestions are popping up here on blab uh you know this is where we got this information about what the lane light indicators are and now i'm being told backhand it yeah i i do do the backhanding and it's not a uh near 100 thing at all i yeah i can get in the lane and then get the multipliers going but actually knocking down a drop target is probably about a 30 percent uh shot hit for me yeah the other thing you can do too is if you don't have pro mode you can always go and uh go into the instructions which zoom in on the feature which will give you a bit of a closer look at what you need to look at i did go to the instructions yeah i did go to the instructions but i think it's one of those cases where the this is season two table so um i think the inserts are blown out no it's not the instructions the problem it's the graphics on the table itself that you can't read the graphic underneath the light blazing through the bottom of it oh right okay yeah but i'm also not a fan of the uh sound on the table it's one of those tables that just kind of annoys me after a while oh okay i actually don't mind the sound there's some there's one sound that i love on that table that's when you complete the bonus rollovers um and it has that sort of ascending noise it's like when that happened for the first time i went that's cool that's like it actually sounds like it's really celebrating your achievement getting those rollover lanes um which is kind of cool yeah the other thing suggestion here was using the thing ball um i got news for you using the thing ball does not grant you wizard goals i've tried it on other tables it doesn't work yeah they don't let you cheat that way. Oh, you don't have the thing ball? Okay, the thing ball is from Adam's family, and it's a pinball that has Thing's hand on top of it, and so he, like, rolls the ball. It's ball control. So you can take complete control of the ball and move it to wherever you want on the table and knock down whatever you want on the table. Right. Turning off visit goals for that, for sure. Yeah. I forget which table it was. It was driving me absolute bonkers, and I was like, screw it. I'm cheating. I'm using the thing ball, and I did it and it didn't work, I was like, oh man, I've got to do it for real. It's kind of a bummer. Who would have thought that having a ball control mode would actually give you wizard goals? It would be nice if it did, but no dice. It would be very good for testing things, though. And that's exactly what it is. It's good for testing and seeing how to light up certain things or get certain combos. yeah um the other thing i was going to mention was there was a little bit of a discussion it was in the kickstarter thread because everybody started throwing around uh for taff gold just typing in tafg yeah dr who regenerated i was typing in dw colon r and somebody all of a sudden threw a little hissy about us using and there was a double hissy one it was using what they called codes because they said it was very difficult for a newbie to understand what tables you're talking about um to which yeah too bad that's the way it is because if you go to any pinball website they all do the same thing um it's all abbreviations but that's where the other thing was is is it an acronym is an abbreviation is it a code is it an initialism initialism Yeah. Most of the time it's initialisms. Um, yeah. Technically speaking. Um, but yeah, they're not really acronyms. Um, but yes, sometimes they, they sound like acronyms cause they have a flow to them. Usually acronyms do sound like a word kind of, but yeah, these are just purely coincidental that they do. Um, but the problem is that we're getting so many tables in the collection now that having something like um like two letter initialisms the tables sometimes they're overloaded now they actually mean two different things so you have to actually have some extra letters like whenever anybody types in bram stoker's dracula they always type in bsd i every single time i see that i go wait what table is what table yeah what would be really free time is it's on the forum when you use that it's almost like a macro so it you can type it bsd but then it expands it for you automatically. Now, that would be cool. Well, there is the – and it actually had gotten turned off for a long time and then Gordon turned it back on just this last week – was if you typed an acronym or one of these shortcuts, let's call it that, if you hovered your mouse over it, then it would all of a sudden tell you what everybody was referring to. So obviously he was creating a database of all that so that if it popped up, that would work for people. That's good. That would be on the desktop. So I use Tapper Talk to access the forum, and we wouldn't get that logic in there because that would be probably a website desktop hosted add-on. Yeah. That's good for desktop users. I think that's good because it is important. Like we do, you know, we've been doing this for four years now, like as far as TPA goes, and, you know, we intimately know what's going on and all the names and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, for a newcomer to both the Pimple Arcade fans and pinball in general, yeah, there is a barrier to entry there, I think. It's a fair comment to make. But at the same time, it's something that you can pick up pretty quickly if you invest any effort into it. The part that made me crack up about the whole thing, though, was that one of our moderators, goes by the name of PinWiz, not to be confused with PinballWiz45B. He's not a moderator. He's just a really good pinball player. That's right. but anyway pinwiz doesn't rear his head that often um and something about this conversation all of a sudden got him all riled up because he felt like it was hijacking the thread and all of a sudden he was deleting posts it was he just kind of cracks me up whenever uh whenever he all sudden deems something worthy of his banhammer kind of grind i think it's one of those things that just grinds his gears and he just can't stand it. You know, you get those things that grind your gears and you just go, you know, I had to do something about this. Because we have, in the Pinball Arcade fan forum, we have, what, five moderators? Yeah. I think. So us two. Essentially. Pinwiz and Gord and who's the other one? Sean. Though he's so busy at the moment that he can't really. Well, but that's the thing, though. it's gotten to the oh and jeff jeff yeah jeff is yeah so six six but the only two that really ever post anymore on myself and jared yeah so it's just kind of funny it's like sometimes when when so when i see people and it's kind of like you know dad coming in and be like hey you kids aren't keeping your friends in line no i appreciate what he does because like the moderation side of things i don't have a lot of time for anymore so if he wants to come in and watch threads and and do that that's that's good like well in truth be told if i'm in a thread and i see it going out of control i'll just go or you lot chill out i did that in the i think it was a taff that the addams family or the kickstarter thread when it started getting a little bit personal between some people said all right everyone just chill out go step away from the keyboard come back tomorrow and see how you feel then. But truth be told, our forum has gotten significantly more friendly to be in. If you looked at our forum the first year it was up, my god, did we need the moderators. It was a flame city. You needed your fire retardant suit to get in there sometimes. It was pretty hardcore. But yeah, things have died down quite nicely now and it's just like a slow burn. i'm gonna say jared why don't we move into the back room we've got uh i've got a topic i want to talk about and you've got a whole bunch of stuff to talk about with the australian pinball open yeah that's right that's um so since that's a real world yeah that's real world stuff uh i know we mentioned backroom last time but then we had a catastrophic failure and that's why it didn't work so hey we're gonna we're going to move that discussion over into the back room and uh anybody that's in the Blab session can pop on if they'd like to. But for now, I'm going to say thank you all for listening. I've been Shut Your Trap, a.k.a. Chris Frebus. That has been Jared Morgan. You have been listening to the Blog Hate Podcast. See you all next week. See you later. See you later. WizardAmusement.com, the West Coast leader in classic pinball. Makers of custom pinball shooter rods and buyer specifications. You can swap out your standard ball plunger with something themed to your specific table. It installs in less than five minutes with no custom tools. Even if you don't own a table, it looks great as a pinball memento to admire. Prices start at $39, but mention Blockade Podcast to receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization. Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes, or your favourite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't prove unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some Pinball.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 792f9cd4-4be7-4493-8790-f455d835f34a*