# The Pinball Show Ep 71: Dennis Blames YOU For Your Parents' Divorce

**Source:** The Pinball Show  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-08-16  
**Duration:** 98m 0s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.thepinballnetwork.net/e/the-pinball-show-ep-71-dennis-blames-you-for-your-parents-divorce/

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## Analysis

The Pinball Show episode 71 covers Jersey Jack Pinball's Willy Wonka 2.0 code update (making the game more accessible), Steve Ritchie's recent hire at JJP and potential recruitment of other Stern designers, controversial GNR playfield clear-coat chipping issues and warranty disputes, allegations of intimidation tactics by playfield creator Mirko against customers posting about defects, and industry speculation about upcoming announcements. The hosts also discuss their recent gameplay experiences with Stern and Elwin titles, expressing mixed reactions to GNR and Led Zeppelin.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Jersey Jack released Willy Wonka code version 2.0, a major update focused on making the game more accessible by lowering shot requirements and adjusting scoring upward — _Ken Rudberg's Jersey Jack update segment, official release information_
- [HIGH] Steve Ritchie has been hired at Jersey Jack Pinball and is recruiting a new design team — _Ken Cromwell interview with Steve Ritchie; direct quote from Ritchie: 'yes, but it's low-key right now because I have so much to do here to get started'_
- [HIGH] GNR playfield clear-coat chipping is occurring within the first 100 plays on some machines — _Multiple reports discussed; hosts confirm this is not typical wear and tear from EM era machines_
- [HIGH] Jersey Jack's warranty does not cover clear-coat chipping, classifying it as 'typical wear and tear' — _Host discussion of Jack Winery interview on Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast; warranty changed last year_
- [HIGH] Jack Winery suggested customers may be causing clear-coat issues through post removal or improper handling — _Direct quote from Winery: played 'like Columbo' with comment 'I don't know. Could be that the customers are causing some of these issues'_
- [HIGH] Mirko (JJP playfield creator) sent threatening private messages to customers posting about GNR clear-coat issues, threatening lawsuits — _PinSide forum thread; private message allegedly quoted as 'Do you know who I am? I have eaten pieces of shits like you for breakfast before'_
- [MEDIUM] Mirko allegedly previously threatened a Canadian playfield producer with false claims about exclusive Stern Electronics rights — _Host discussion; hosts note this is alleged and unverified; Canadian producer reportedly checked with Gary Stern who denied granting exclusive rights_
- [LOW] Kaneda's Pinball Podcast reported that Mirko may have helped bail out JJP and holds ownership stake in the company — _Host citation of Kaneda reporting; hosts explicitly state 'I have no clue if that's true or not'_
- [HIGH] Cactus Canyon remake from Chicago Gaming Company will be officially revealed at Southern Fried Gaming Convention on Friday, August 20th at 7 p.m. — _Matt Morrison Chicago Gaming update; Ryan White and Butch Peel scheduled to appear; seminar titled 'Chicago Gaming, Past and Present'_
- [HIGH] The host experienced disappointing gameplay with Stern's GNR (standard model, not LE) due to rule design favoring a single strategic approach and lengthy risk/reward jackpot building — _Direct host testimony; misreported as LE on prior Eclectic Gamers podcast episode; confirmed as standard model without upper playfield_

### Notable Quotes

> "yes, but it's low-key right now because I have so much to do here to get started"
> — **Steve Ritchie**, not specified
> _Confirms Ritchie is actively recruiting at JJP but keeping it quiet due to onboarding demands; suggests imminent personnel movements in the industry_

> "Don't carry that on you. Don't carry the play fields on you... I'll just also tell the listeners, it's not your fault if your folks got divorced either."
> — **Dennis**, late in episode
> _Dark humor addressing GNR warranty dispute blame-shifting; becomes episode title hook_

> "art actually chipping away from posts and stuff with less than 100 plays is not something we're used to that's certainly a problem the odd thing is that we're even talking about it"
> — **Host (Zach)**, GNR warranty segment
> _Contextualizes clear-coat issue as unprecedented quality concern; compares unfavorably to EM-era standards_

> "Do you know who I am? I have eaten pieces of shits like you for breakfast before."
> — **Mirko (via private message)**, quoted from PinSide forum
> _Demonstrates alleged intimidation tactics; directly quoted from threatening private message; hosts find it absurd_

> "I don't know. Could be that the customers are causing some of these issues."
> — **Jack Winery**, from Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast interview
> _Characterizes warranty defense as blame-shifting; hosts argue this contradicts company responsibility messaging_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer; recently hired by Jersey Jack Pinball as designer; actively recruiting new design team members; formerly at Stern; interview conducted by Ken Cromwell |
| Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; recently hired Steve Ritchie; released Willy Wonka 2.0 code update; embroiled in GNR clear-coat warranty disputes; playfields created by Mirko |
| Mirko | person | Playfield creator for Jersey Jack Pinball; allegedly sent threatening private messages to customers posting about GNR clear-coat defects; previously allegedly threatened Canadian playfield producer over Stern Electronics exclusivity claims |
| Jack Winery | person | Jersey Jack Pinball representative interviewed on Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast; discussed GNR playfield clear-coat issues and company warranty stance; blamed customer post removal for some defects |
| Ken Cromwell | person | Jersey Jack Pinball communication director; interviewed Steve Ritchie for company podcast; absence on vacation reportedly delayed Ritchie's interview availability to other podcasts |
| Joe Katz | person | Programmer at Jersey Jack Pinball; worked on Willy Wonka 2.0 code update featuring new gumball achievements and secret super skillshot |
| Stern Pinball | company | World's largest pinball manufacturer; lost designers Steve Ritchie and Lyman Sheets recently; produced GNR, Led Zeppelin, Avengers, and other titles discussed |
| Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; received major 2.0 code update focused on accessibility; previously had post removal moratorium due to clear-coat issues |
| Guns N' Roses (GNR) | game | Stern Pinball title; experiencing clear-coat playfield chipping within 100 plays; involved in warranty dispute; host played standard model (not LE) and found rules tedious |
| Led Zeppelin | game | Stern Pinball title (Pro model); host found it barren with limited features; criticized upper flipper shot mechanics |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Preparing to reveal Cactus Canyon remake on August 20th at Southern Fried Gaming Convention; distributor lists reportedly long for LE version |
| Cactus Canyon (remake) | game | Chicago Gaming Company title; long-rumored; expected official reveal August 20th at Southern Fried Gaming Convention with Ryan White and Butch Peel presenting |
| Jurassic Park | game | Elwin Entertainment title; host's preferred recent game acquisition; host ranks it above Avengers and Iron Maiden among Elwin titles played |
| Avengers | game | Elwin Entertainment title; host found fun despite not understanding full rule stacking mechanics; praised for shooter quality |
| Attack from Mars (remake) | game | Chicago Gaming Company remake; host's favorite 90s game; frequently available on location; host contemplates home ownership |
| Multimorphic | company | Pinball manufacturer; HEIST game not yet played by host; typically exhibits at TPF; host respects engineering but not interested in purchasing |
| The Pinball Show | media | This podcast; hosts are Zach and Dennis; releasing merchandise next week; won Twippy awards for streaming content |
| Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast | media | Podcast that interviewed Jack Winery about GNR clear-coat issues; also interviewed Jonathan the Juice about Steve Ritchie interview delays |
| Lyman Sheets | person | Stern Pinball designer/programmer who recently left the company; unclear current employment; potential candidate for JJP recruitment by Steve Ritchie |
| Nick Castle | person | Actor who played original Michael Myers in Halloween; appeared in YouTube video playing Spooky's Halloween pinball machine; video garnered 3,000+ views |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Halloween pinball machine (sold out); received publicity from Nick Castle YouTube video |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Jersey Jack Pinball personnel and strategy, GNR playfield quality and warranty disputes, Mirko intimidation allegations and legal threats, Chicago Gaming Cactus Canyon remake announcement
- **Secondary:** Host gameplay experiences with recent Stern and Elwin titles, Industry speculation about upcoming Stern announcements
- **Mentioned:** Spooky Halloween pinball publicity, Pinball merchandise launch for The Pinball Show

### Sentiment

**Negative** (-0.65) — Episode dominated by criticism of warranty disputes, quality issues, and alleged intimidation tactics. Host frustration evident regarding GNR clear-coat problems, Jack Winery's evasive communication, and Mirko's threatening behavior. Positive notes include enthusiasm for Jurassic Park, Cactus Canyon reveal, and Willy Wonka 2.0 accessibility improvements. Overall tone becomes increasingly sarcastic and darkly humorous as industry dysfunction is discussed.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball offering discounted replacement playfields rather than admitting systemic clear-coat defect; appears to be cost-containment strategy rather than customer-centric solution (confidence: high) — Jack Winery interview deflecting blame to customers; hosts criticize lack of transparency; Winery's Columbo-like dodging of responsibility
- **[community_signal]** Mirko (JJP playfield creator) allegedly threatening lawsuit against customers posting about playfield defects; intimidation tactic reportedly documented in private messages on PinSide (confidence: high) — PinSide forum thread with private message quotes; hosts note this mirrors alleged prior behavior toward Canadian playfield producer regarding Stern Electronics exclusivity claims
- **[sentiment_shift]** Growing frustration with industry transparency and accountability; hosts characterize Mirko behavior as symptomatic of broader pattern of poor business communication in pinball (confidence: high) — Extended discussion of intimidation tactics; hosts express shock at 'number of people in pinball that put really stupid things down in writing'; characterization as industry-wide dysfunction
- **[design_philosophy]** Hosts characterize Stern's recent output (GNR, Led Zeppelin) as mechanically uninspired and strategically monotonous; Led Zeppelin criticized for 'barren' playfield lacking signature mechs (confidence: high) — Extended gameplay critique; GNR: 'tedium' and single optimal strategy; Led Zeppelin: 'barren' and 'lacking a big mech'; contrast with enthusiasm for Jurassic Park's approachable design
- **[event_signal]** Chicago Gaming Company to officially reveal Cactus Canyon remake at Southern Fried Gaming Convention on August 20th; distributor lists reportedly long indicating strong pre-announcement demand (confidence: high) — Matt Morrison CGC update; Ryan White and Butch Peel confirmed to present; hosts note urgency for potential buyers to get on lists before announcement
- **[market_signal]** Competing podcasts frustrated by exclusivity of Steve Ritchie interview access; Jonathan the Juice commentary on Ken Cromwell vacation delaying Ritchie availability suggests tension over interview coordination (confidence: medium) — Host discussion of Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast coverage; hosts find the behind-the-scenes drama irrelevant to listeners; characterize as 'sausage-making'
- **[community_signal]** Potential industry consolidation signal: speculation that Mirko may hold ownership stake in Jersey Jack Pinball following alleged bailout, raising governance questions (confidence: low) — Kaneda's Pinball Podcast report (secondhand); hosts explicitly state they cannot verify; hosts note lack of information about JJP ownership structure
- **[personnel_signal]** Steve Ritchie hired at Jersey Jack Pinball and actively recruiting design team; potential indication of other Stern designers (including Lyman Sheets) potentially moving to JJP (confidence: high) — Ken Cromwell interview with Ritchie; Ritchie quote about being 'low-key' recruiting due to onboarding; hosts speculate on Sheets potentially joining
- **[market_signal]** Implicit concern that GNR clear-coat issues combined with high playfield replacement costs ($1,000+) and warranty exclusion creates unsustainable ownership experience for homeowner market (confidence: medium) — Host emphasis that homeowners are now target market and have different quality expectations than operators; discussion of reduced-cost replacement playfield solution being inadequate
- **[product_strategy]** Willy Wonka 2.0 code update focusing on accessibility rather than feature depth; strategy appears to be addressing owner complaints about difficulty and locked content (confidence: high) — Ken Rudberg's official Jersey Jack update; lowered shot requirements, adjusted scoring upward, new gumball achievements, secret super skillshot; explicitly framed as 'make the game more accessible'
- **[product_concern]** GNR playfield clear-coat chipping within 100 plays reported by multiple customers; clear-coat technology problematic despite being key durability feature for homeowner market (confidence: high) — Multiple customer reports; hosts confirm this is unprecedented compared to EM-era standards; warranty explicitly excludes this as 'typical wear and tear'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Host disenchantment with recent Stern titles (GNR, Led Zeppelin) due to rule design and lack of engaging mechanics; only positive recent experiences with Elwin (Jurassic Park) and abstract enjoyment of Avengers shooter (confidence: high) — Host gameplay reports; GNR criticized for lengthy risk/reward building and single optimal strategy; Led Zeppelin found 'barren'; contrast with enthusiasm for Jurassic Park accessibility

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## Transcript

 Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. Thanks for tuning into The Pinball Show. On Episode 71, Dennis and I discuss feeling the phone. A recent Jersey Jack interview. A recent interview on Jersey Jack. Mirko, Mirko, Mirko. What makes Steve Ritchie sad? What makes Steve Ritchie happy? New Wonka code and a creator speech for change. Stern Ocho and production delays. Spooky Pinball's Halloween and Ultraman stream reveal reactions. Chicago Gaming's launch of remake number four. Hardy Boy Deep Sleuth. Pinball market trends. and cash me outside how about that hopefully you're not squeamish because this week the pinball show is coming in hot crackling bacon pinball is a game of spill for some it's a passion and a lifestyle it's time for the pinball show it's pinball with personality Welcome back everybody to the pinball show. This is episode 71. We took a week off last week and I'm back. Dennis is back. How are you feeling, Den Den? I'm fine, but I was so worried when I only heard the correspondence last time. I was so worried. I wasn't worried. I didn't care. That is almost like the encapsulation of what I've always wanted, a pure news pinball podcast. Really? Yeah. It didn't feel that great. It felt fast and efficient, and I like those things. And the people, they like it too. No jazz hands. The feedback has been phenomenal. Has it? Phenomenal, Zach. Really? Actually, I had no feedback, so I don't know. No one reached out to other than, is there no episode? I was like, didn't you guys just download it? It's been out for like four hours. Oh, yeah. Well, it was five minutes, so I got through it and forgot. Well, full transparency to the listener, I'm not too proud to admit that last week, I was in a pretty bad funk, like an emotional mental health funk, and I'm not used to that, and I didn't feel like doing a podcast, nor did I feel like playing pinball or much of anything, so yeah, took the week off. Almost. You still put together the correspondence. It took everything. Well, but here you are. You're back now, ready to go, excited to cover this week's news. I'm in a better mood. It helped that I listened to the last Eclectic Gamers podcast, listener. I fixed my sound. I was so upset with the prior episode. You were pretty beat up about that. Oh, my God. It wasn't bad enough to just kill it, but it wasn't good. And it was such a rookie mistake, too. I was so annoyed. Anyway, but we're not here to talk about that. It happens. But I was listening to that, and I heard that you had finally gotten your hands on some of the newer titled pinball machines. I can't say I'm all caught up, but I'm mostly caught up. You're pretty caught up. I'm mostly caught up at night. You just can't take away the feeling you had playing GNR, unfortunately. Oh, my. I was so disappointed that I was disappointed. Does that make sense? Yeah, but was it that bad? You're pretty strong. I didn't enjoy it. Now, I misreported on EGP, and I'll have to put a correction on EGP. It was a standard. It was not the LE. Oh, okay. That changes some things. I missaid it. I missaid it on the episode, but it didn't have the guitar ramps and stuff. It didn't have the upper playfield. Yeah, it didn't have the upper playfield. And I just, yeah. Or the full light show, to be fair. But compared to most other games, like Sterns and stuff, that's still a really good light show. It holds up, yeah. Above. so yeah i was just i knew from watching footage that it didn't look like a gameplay style that suited me i just i thought i would like it at least a little more than i did i'm gonna be honest though if you didn't like the standard i i don't think you're gonna like the le ce it wasn't like shooting the left orbit was my big problem with it it was just the the way the rules were and the way the game felt just i just i just didn't care for it okay a bit Keith P. Johnson multiballie uh i mean there was that it was just the uh the i mean the biggest thing i have with it is you know it's a risk reward game which i like except you're running the risk for minutes it's like building the jackpot up for minutes and so like strategically i understand the value in in like competitive i knew i needed to do that at one i wasn't able to but i knew what i needed to do to catch up But that's just a really long time for pinball to run that level of risk. And just going back into the scoop and getting another addable, there was a tedium to it that I just didn't care for. I actually echo some of that same critique. The more that I own it, the more that I play it, the more that I compare my scores to others in the field, I see a reliance. Great chaser. It's a reliance upon that song jackpot. and getting the items to maximize multipliers and song jackpots, and that's not my style of play. It's like there's one currently, at least with the current code, it seems like there's one right way to play it. And that would be okay if I liked that one right way, but it just was not for me. But I do think I could see where in a homeowner environment it would probably fare better than it is a location game. Sure, sure. And it just stands out. It's got moments of plenty, even though I heard you guys say it doesn't. Plenty of moments. For me, I want to be rewarded for going through those. I like the lights and the sound. It's hard not to like that. Yeah, but I liked it. I liked those parts. Did you play Mando? No, they had it, but I never could get on it. I showed up early before the tournament, but there were always people on it. Then I never drew it in tournament. I did play Led Zeppelin, though. Oh, and? I did not care for that one either. Shit. I enjoyed it more than I did GNR, but that game – and again, this was a pro. Okay. And wow. You know, normally I love flow-based games and stuff, but wow is that game barren. It is lacking a big mech, yeah. And I didn't get enough time on it to figure out the rules to it. So, I mean, the shots, most of them felt good. I didn't care for the upper flipper shot and just hitting that stand up and it bouncing out. I didn't care for that the rest of the shots were but again it felt very much like a lot of Steve Richies I've played it's like oh yeah well I can backhand this shot I can do this and this and this so yeah the rule set to ACDC you know 2.0 okay well I mean I just went for my my flashy my flashy light shots and I I won it when I needed to win it so my my method was working but yeah it was I just it was too like I didn't I can't say I disliked it but I would never contemplate owning it i feel like yeah i'm fairly indifferent to it in general uh this kind of like my response to monsters i'm just kind of flat to it it's i don't mind playing it i i would never rank it as a bad game but i don't i don't feel anything for it i and despite me really liking the band anything else that you played that was new ish avengers maybe uh yes i and i didn't know at all what i was doing on that but that one was still fun i don't either but i still like playing it i was i I talked to one of our better players after I played it, and he owns it. And so he was explaining, like, what – because to me it was sort of like – I came up to him and I said, I enjoyed Avengers, but I like Jurassic Park more. Like, if I'm going to rank my Elwins, I would say that so far – and I've very limited Avengers time. It would be Jurassic Park, Avengers, then Iron Maiden. And he goes, yeah, I could see that. When you don't understand the rules, like, Jurassic Park is more approachable. approachable but knowing about this and stacking the gems and when you do you know do the particular modes in avengers it gets really really fun it was like okay i didn't i didn't understand enough to know that but the shots alone were fun and what i was doing was really working for me so that yeah phenomenal shooter just a phenomenal shooter yeah so i i really enjoyed that and i'm trying to think if i played any other new ones they had a hot wheels but it was the same situation i could not get on it and i did not draw it what about rick and morty have you got a hold on one of those no they didn't have it there and turtles uh my understanding is turtles isn't on location anywhere in kansas city right now oh wow that's surprising i mean maybe it's i only asked about the three main locations that the tournaments happen at so maybe it's somewhere else didn't didn't have a multi-morphic there on location no we've never had i still haven't played heist yeah i want to play heist i mean normally i would have gotten to play it at tpf because They have a big booth, and I have always – I think every year I've been at TPF, I've taken time to play the multi-morphic stuff in. Again, it's one of those systems which has never caught my interest to want to buy, but I always want to try all the new stuff, and I always respect all the engineering that goes into it. All right, money aside, if you were going to buy a pinball machine that was created in the last five years, what would you buy? I think I'd still probably lean towards the Jurassic Park. Okay. No argument there. This may be more than five years ago. Oh, gosh. Uh-oh. Would be, you know, I still find myself thinking, you know, Dennis, you should have gotten the Attack from Mars remake. It is your favorite game from the 90s. You do say that. The thing is, there's always an Attack from Mars on location. That's still true. It's just after having a year plus where I didn't have location play, I started to go, gosh, that sure would have been nice in this lineup. A lot of people would love them to rerun that. Come on, guys. Give up on your cactus. Give us Attack. We've got something new from CGC coming we'll talk about here today, also coming very soon. I think next week's the week, Dennis. I believe next Monday we will embark, if everything plays out, on the merchandise collection for these listeners to help support the show. Oh, you've been teasing this for months. It's been a lot of work. Months. It's been a lot of work. Years, some might say. It's been a lot of work, but it's finally coming to completion. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Does one of them say the pinball show along the side of an above-ground pool? Damn it. That's a really good idea. I know. See if we can squeeze that in. I know. That's what I'm here for. I'll call the artist. So be on the lookout. We're going to probably have a special next episode of the pinball show, and that's all I'll say, but it'll be fun. It'll be fun. So if you want to support the show, you can do so that way, and I believe we will put some smiles on people's faces and smiles on your chest, I guess. Can you put some? with a knife. Well, maybe some pants. I said too much. Let's see what the correspondents have. It's time for TPN Industry News. Hi, this is Ken Rudberg with your Jersey Jack update. Jersey Jack released a re-envisioning of the code for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory this week. The code version number reflects this huge change. It's moved all the way up to version 2.0. The overall focus of this code update appears to make the game more accessible for the average player. In other words, easier. This was done by lowering the number of shots that need to be hit to start certain modes and adjusting the scoring values upward. This change should make some owners happy, many of whom complained about the game being too difficult. and that much of its content remained extremely hard to get to. There are also some other interesting changes like new gumball achievements, updated display effects, and an added secret super skillshot. Programmer Joe Katz has been working on this version of the code for a while, and it's sure to add desirability to a game that's already trending up. For The Pinball Show, this has been Ken Rudberg. Hello and welcome to the pinball show's Stern News Update. I'm Craig Bobby. Well, now that the dust has settled after the bombshell news over at Stern that not one but two of their beloved designers and programmers have left in Steve, Richie, and Lyman Sheets, what else could be brewing over at the world's largest pinball company these days? Well, courtesy of Jersey Jack's communication director, Ken Cromwell, who in a recent interview with their newest employee, Steve Ritchie, this week, teed up a juicy Easter egg there could be more shake-ups on the horizon at Stern, and that old Steve may just have a few more tricks up his sleeve yet. Not only with new designs at JJP, but with the assembling of a new design team as well. In the interview, Ken asked, Going back to your design team concept, are you in a situation where, I mean, are you recruiting? Are you looking for anyone to join you? Do you have any idea what you're going to do with that? Steve's answer was, yes, but it's low-key right now because I have so much to do here to get started. Hmm. Could other former co-workers of Steve's soon be joining him on the Jersey Jack side of the pinball mountain? And specifically, could JJP be the future home of the now wandering and formerly co-designer at Stern in Lime and Sheets, who has yet to declare a new home? And could others from Stern also be getting ready to jump ship soon? Where there's smoke, there's usually a fire somewhere, so stay tuned as this reporter has a feeling this story ain't over yet. But beyond all that hullabaloo, let's get back to what's on the mind of most pinball fans, and that is, what's up next for Stern Pinball? Could it be the ever-present whisper of an industry-changing announcement of online connectivity that will herald in the next chapter in the modern age of pinball? Or will it be another cornerstone announcement of the much-rumored Godzilla title from Stern's design hero of Keith Owen? Or could the next announcement be a John Borg-designed Rush music pin? Or will it be something completely unexpected like a Joe Kamenkow Harry Potter announcement? Or possibly even a Back to the Future machine starring Michael J. Fox himself? Great Scott! Back to the future! Back to the future! Back to the future! Back to the future! Back to the future! Hold me, Zach and Dennis, hold me! So many questions to be answered in September, but for now, we sadly shall have to wait and see. For the Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Hi and welcome to this week's SHIT Update with Dr John on the Pinball Show. Not too much to report, but an interesting YouTube video came out featuring Nick Castle, who played the original Mike Myers in Halloween, having a go at playing the Halloween pinball machine from Spooky. If you search Halloween Pinball on YouTube and look for the one featuring Nick Castle you'll find the clip which goes for 10 minutes and shows a couple of interesting things Number one being generally people have no idea how to play pinball including how to start the game and then how to plunge the game let alone what a ball save is The second main thing is he doesn't really have ham hands But worth a look, good publicity it has already had over 3,000 views so all publicity is good publicity even though the game is sold out and you can't get it it's still good for pinball nothing too much from Haggis we're waiting for the lockdown to end in Melbourne so they can start the build in earnest and I'll keep you posted that's it for this week catch you all again soon Matt Morrison here with your Chicago Gaming Company update for the week Could Friday, August 20th, be the day we see the long-rumored Cactus Canyon remake? I'm hearing Ryan White and Butch Peel are going to be at the Southern Fried Gaming Convention in Atlanta. A quick peek at the schedule, 7 p.m. Friday, in the Chancellor Room, a seminar titled Chicago Gaming, Past and Present. Yours truly will be there with an update from the show floor. Could this be it? In five short days, we will find out. Talked with a few distributors, and the lists are long for an LE version of this long-rumored title. so if you're in the market for one I would probably try to get on a list before this thing is shown because I think it's going to be sold out pretty quick alright that's it for this week back to you guys alright Dennis that was the correspondence they did an impeccable job we always appreciate them Zach and everything they do especially when they have to carry an entire episode alone I feel like they're getting better they really do no not really I think they are but I've been trying to be more encouraging to make them feel better about themselves. Is it working? No. Am I the motivational speaker you've been looking for? You and motivational and encouraging just in the same sentence. Bit of an oxymoron there. It sounds inaccurate. I think I'm pretty motivational. The second nicest guy in pinball. When are those charts going to be updated, by the way? I'm pretty happy with the prior survey, so why would I do that? I'm going to look into it. No. I'm still not in the top 50. Well, you're a controversial bean. I'm on the pin side, page four. That's where I'm at. Maybe you're at the top in the EM section. Jersey Jack pinballs in the news in good and bad ways. Let's start with the good. Okay. You want me to shift our notes here? Start with the bad then, whatever you want. Jack Warnery was interviewed on the Pinball News Pinball Magazine Pinball Podcast this past week. Actually, only Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast, not Pinball podcast. Really? Yeah, I reconfirmed it. Okay. In my podcast. PNP. Yeah. I think they decided saying pinball twice was good enough. They didn't need it thrice. Jack Guarnieri spoke about the company offering customers a reduced rate for the GNR Playfields, information that we dropped two weeks ago. Yes. Mm-hmm. And I was not a big fan of that solution at the time. And you know what? I'm still not a big fan. Nor is a lot of people. Nor are a lot of people. Nor is a lot of people. Where do you go there? Nor is a lot of people. Nor are a lot of people. I like is. Nor is a lot of people. Feels better with are. A lot of people. Then change it up. Benside are arguing that I shouldn't have to, even if it is a reduced cost, I shouldn't have to pay that much if there is play field chipping or clear code issues. As you echoed two weeks ago. I mean, to me, obviously, at some point, a warranty does need to end. Sure, sure. But most of the reports I'm familiar with are these are very early situations. Is this not a warrantied item? If you look in their warranty, it is not. Wow. I believe this would fall under typical wear and tear. Within a certain number of plays, though? Really? I don't know if they do it based on plays. What's so typical about that? I believe you that that's what the warranty indicates. I'd have to go back and see what the actual wording is, but they put a disclaimer in there. They changed that warranty up last year, I believe. I thought I had heard about that. I get that strategically, but functionally, are we really at a position with pinball right now with a company saying that games are to be expected to have their art chip away immediately? there's no i clear them at all i can't argue against that there's no devil's advocate here believe me i'm just i mean it's the the snarky part of me wants to say way to stand behind your product to go with that approach because the whole point of the clear cut here you're catering to homeowners now this does not align with that and you can't hide behind a shield of well operators didn't care anymore because these games are way more expensive now and you're targeting homeowners specifically they're gonna have these expectations yes some of the people are getting whiny over pretty minute stuff but art actually chipping away from posts and stuff with less than 100 plays is not something we're used to that's certainly a problem the odd thing is that we're even talking about it i i always hear that there's only one person that talks about it but back in the em era you didn't have art wear away within 100 plays on an uncleared play field this is silly now this has gotten silly times have changed dennis clear coat solutions pepperidge farm remembers when they didn't chip away pepperidge farm remembers another controversial thing that came out of this interview was that Jack Guarnieri he knew he was going to be asked the question of play field clear coat issues so So PMP did ask about that. Right. But the result was him suggesting almost that the clear-code issues, he almost played like the Columbo, like, I don't know. It could be that the customers are causing some of these issues. I don't know. I don't know. That's where he went. oh that's adorable what are you you can have said anything i would rather him said my fucking dog ate it like what and why not just request that part edited out as a business i'm like you know what what i just said actually makes no sense i would like for you guys uh professionally to edit that out prior to upload. I guess if playing your game causes it, then it is kind of your fault. But, I mean, the way that sounded is kind of like, you know, they're coming, they're getting these games, and they're just like, let's open them up and let's take a chisel and just start chipping away. To be fair, what he was referring to, he didn't explain it very well. What he was referring to, because I've heard him talk about this before. Remember, he did come out publicly and said, whatever you do, don't take off the posts. Don't, until we figure this thing out, don't do anything to your game or you'll void the warranty kind of thing. Remember that? That was Willy Wonka. Yeah. So are we still under a post-torium? Is that what we say? A moratorium on post removal? Are we still officially on a post-torium? Because my rubbers might be snapping on some of these posts at this point. I think he's sticking with a lot of customers are taking off their posts, thus worsening the issue. I think that's what he was trying to say. Well, then why not say that? But it didn't come out as that. It came out as almost like there's just a couple people experiencing issues, and of those I can't be for sure that all of them didn't cause these problems themselves by doing so. Look, here's the truth. Customers that have play field issues. If you went messing around with them and trying to pull up that clear code, it is your fault. But for 99% of the people with this issue and chipping, listener, it is not your fault. It's not your fault at all. You the last person that should be blamed or caused fault to this issue that may be happening on your machine And I okay saying that Like that just that silliness From a business perspective, I'm putting myself in their shoes, Lister. I'm thinking, if there is a wider spread issue than I want there to be, and financially I can't afford, nor do I want to confront doing all of these play field reimbursements, I don't admit to there being an issue, right? It's felt like that for a while. But that's where you stop. You don't keep adding to it, in my personal hobbyist opinion. Is that fair? Well, I did hear this interview, and yes, I found that response odd. I'll just say odd. I'll just also tell the listeners, it's not your fault if your folks got divorced either. Don't carry that on you. Don't carry the playfields on you. Is it ever the kids' fault? Every now and then. I mean, sometimes it might be, but we don't want to tell them that because that could traumatize them. I know. Every now and then, it is kind of the case. It's like, well, you know, mommy and daddy had you to stand in line, and you didn't stand in line very well, so we're done. You just kind of pissed us off, kid. I'm not going to lie. I hate this woman because of you. Oh, what a show. What a show. And if that wasn't enough, then we have Jonathan the Juice's loose juice, and he's making some odd comments about not getting Steve Ritchie on the show. At that point, poor Jack was like the pinch hitter. They thought they had Steve Ritchie coming on, appearing on their show for an interview. As we all know, listener Steve Ritchie recently hired on to a designer role at Jersey Jack Pinball. Some odd stuff coming from the juice over there about why he wasn't able to obtain Steve Ritchie for a first interview. I found that strange about vacations and Ken Cromwell and really odd, really weird stuff. But maybe we'll touch on that a little bit later. I remember – in fact, I think I heard it twice. I think it was brought up before the interview with Jack and then brought up with Jack in the interview. And I just thought it was a strange thing to discuss on air. You could tell there was some stuff there. Yeah. It's just like, okay. I mean, because my nutshell understanding was that, hey, and again, as you noted, we'll touch on it later because Jersey Jack has an official podcast. They were going to interview Steve first, and it seemed like there was some annoyance because Ken, who does the show, was on vacation. So that interview didn't happen immediately, meaning that all other podcasts were going to have to wait. But we have to wait for stuff all the time anyway, so I don't get it. I don't get why it's a big deal. In fact, there are people that outright refuse to do interviews. Exactly. So, again, I thought it was a strange, like, sausage-making, behind-the-scenes thing that no listener really cares about. Why make that public, and why act as if, like, it felt to me like, you know who I am? And it sounded like it was a corporate decision, so what's Jack going to do about it? Do you know who I am? I am PMPMP. Did I get it right there? PMPMP. Yeah. Pum-pum. Yeah. I don't know. I remember when, I won't even get into it. I remember. I'll just say that. Do you remember? Do you have the member berries? Jeff Patterson remembers. I remember. Mirko. And can't get out of his own way over there, overseas. Now this is, oh, this is, of course I have notes from Zach here, listener, but this is new to me. I do not follow this thread. This is an interesting thread. But Mirco, who is the Playfield creator for Jersey Jack pinball machines, to my knowledge. Mine as well. Apparently, there's a big threat on this. Somebody's saying, hey, Mergo just private messaged me and sent me a threat over private message on Pennside, threatening a lawsuit if I do not remove all of the posts that I've publicly put out there with the problem Playfield clear coat shipping that I'm having on my GNR. So apparently, I don't know what this username is, but you can't miss it. It's always a burning thread on Pennside. I'll have to read up on it after we're done recording. It is a hot mess. And this aligns with – there was a time where Merko allegedly – note I'm saying allegedly, so don't come after me, Merko. I've adequately shielded myself from defamation. It would waste your time and your money doing it because while I am not an attorney, I do know what I am talking about. Allegedly, Merko did a similar threat to a Canadian playfield producer a while back who was doing a Stern Electronics game. I think it was Stargazer and claimed that Merko had sole exclusive rights to do Stern Electronics playfields. And then that Canadian producer checked with Gary Stern, who said, we haven't given the rights to anyone. We haven't been enforcing that trademark. Oh, OK. You know, it was allegedly it was a lie to scare someone. Scare tactics. That's what this felt like. Yes. Because if you read because he posted the private message and it was like bleeding. I was like, oh, why would anybody put this in written form? It was like, again, do you know who I am? I have eaten pieces of shits like you for breakfast before. You eat pieces of shit like me for breakfast? That's what it felt like. He's like, I've made people lose so much money just in the legal process of loan. Do you want that? It's like, wow. You see? And that alone in and of itself would be an intimidation tactic. Yes. Again, that's what most – I'd say, in my understanding, a majority of lawsuits would be described as not a plan to go to trial, but the cost, the fear, the stress that it causes people. It can be very cruel, actually, to threaten lawsuits to people. Absolutely. And you know what, though? As a brief aside, I'm sure this happens in all other industries and hobbies as well, Zach, but I am shocked at the number of people in pinball that put really stupid things down in writing, not thinking about how it could be used against them later. especially in the realm of false claims and such i am i'm just absolutely flabbergasted at it and you're privy to some of them behind the scenes yes it's it's amazing isn't it it's i mean guys yeah talk about digging your own grave uh be a little thoughtful before you start sending the threatening stuff holy shit this poor poor industry uh so yeah so we got that that's a whole shit show there and i just well again i only know what we've just discussed on this i'll have to read up on it and catch up on all my drama, but this is not the first time that this company has allegedly been involved in such tactics. The interesting thing that I found, I was listening to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. He is reporting that, and I don't know any truth of this, but he's reporting that Mirco actually helped with some of the bailout of JJP and has some ownership in that company. Again, I have no clue if that's true or not. I found it interesting because I typically won't report things, but it's relevant to this, and I found that interesting, if true. I'd never heard that before. I hadn't either. But, you know, actually, I haven't heard much of anything on the ownership setup with how JJP's carved up at this stage. Maybe. There's so much great stuff going on at JJP. I hate that this kind of, these clouds, if you will, storm the seas of what is a great team over there. So let's transition over to positive Jersey Jack news. Steve Ritchie. This is what I wanted to start with. Yeah, he appeared on the JJP podcast. It was great to hear Ken Cromwell host back at the helm there post-vacation. Glad Cromwell, poor Cromwell too, because I know he's a great friend. he hasn't had a vacation in like five years. One time. And he takes one. He even at the start of it addressed the whole thing about being on vacation. Surely people didn't think he planned to just go on vacation when Steve Ritchie was coming on board. Guys, come on. I haven't heard anyone in the general public be critical at all about it. When I have a vacation scheduled, I'll have stuff like public health stuff come up and they'll be like, hey, we want to have these meetings and it's really important talking. I'm like, I'm sorry I said this three months ago I'm not changing it it was a last minute kind of thing and he couldn't change he was like what the heck oh I can't get out of that so yeah and we kind of learned about that in the interview that how quickly this all seemed to happen with Steve it wasn't like something in years in the making yeah he talked about just giving Gary's resignation letter like the week before he started it was taped it to his two whitewoods some might say He did describe his working situation at Stern Pinball as, quote, sad in March 2021 when he and Jack Staple and Ernie started talking and just wanting a change in general. And as you said, Dennis, he has two Whitewoods completed at Stern Pinball, but he is not sure if they will release them in the future. Do you really think he's got two Whitewoods complete? Yeah, I believe him. I think he didn't even know that they were complete enough. Didn't he say that? Okay. Yeah. He said complete enough. That's just a white wood. He's done so many. Yeah. Well, we know that they were talking about how long it takes a turnaround time from start to finish for a design for Steve Ritchie. He said approximately 15 months. That's why I have a hard time believing that there are two. One, okay. Well, I don't think that most of that 15 months is the white wood. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, that's true. I mean, and especially if it's, you know, normally doesn't he do multiple iterations of a white wood? These are just like first-go Whitewoods, and it's like, yeah, it's good enough along if you guys want to turn a game out of these, but they're not finished state sort of Whitewoods. Do you think we see, Dennis, a Stern pinball release a Steve Ritchie-designed pinball machine in the future? No. Okay. At least not these two Whitewoods. like if something happened and he were to leave jjp and go back to stern i could see that happening but i don't see them running either of these and i don't see them uh probably contracting with him ever you don't think actually i think it's very unlikely i think that led zeppelin is his last stern forever you don't think george gomez step in clean it up a little bit call it a george gomez design i don't because i don't see why why bother going to that effort when with borg eddie and Elwynn, you've got your three cornerstones a year as is. So why would you need it? Depends on how far along. I'm assuming Steve was on salary, so he had a job to do. He was getting paid a flat amount. It's not like they're out any more money because of him having the Whitewoods ready. Yeah, that's true. And George is so busy running the design teams. No, I just don't think so. Steve Ritchie did have a lot of nice things to say about working at Stern Pinball. He said he had many friends as well as he called them family. at Stern, particularly the engineering department. He's got some great memories from the Williams days, from the Stern days. He has a lot of friends over there. So that was something that really rang whenever I listened to the podcast, JGP podcast. And I've heard from other people who have worked or do work for Stern that they really seem to like a lot of their colleagues. And a lot of people kind of see Stern, and as the big dog company, it's not surprising. They're sort of cold and corporate and not with a consumer's interest best at heart. But I do think that the staff that works there, by and large, actually do love pinball. Yes, they do. Yeah. And because they share that same love that they get along with each other, by and large. I'm sure there's some conflict. Which company can you not say that – every company I've worked with, there's always people I love and think the world of, and then there's always assholes. I've been – of course, most of my career has been in really small organizations. So I've actually – with like under 10 employees. So I've actually had instances where I actually liked every single one of my coworkers, but not every year. That wasn't always true. Do you think the feeling was mutual? It's so difficult to dislike me, yes. Who doesn't love a witty post-4 p.m. Dennis Creasel in a video conference meeting? Once you get used to it, it does take a little bit to adapt to. But I try and be fully transparent so people know what to expect. man you and i went back and forth uh with the loser kids in private messages last week about star wars y'all ruffled my feathers well better not listen to that uh silver ball chronicles about pinball 2000 if you really love star wars you're gonna get extra ruffled yeah you're gonna be a you're gonna be uh ruffles with ridges by the time of that tilt face over here yep and it was I think it was last week too, wasn't it? I was in the mood, so. For the record, Loser Kid, you're wrong. You are so wrong. And what did I say? You wouldn't know a great pinball machine if it bit you in the parsec. If it bit you in the parsec. You didn't even use the word parsec right. I know. That's what was clever and funny and irreverent. No, you didn't know what you were talking about, like usual. You say words and hope that they get strung together in a meaningful way. You're like a fire hydrant. We open you up and words pour out. Open spray. And your goal is not for quality of words, but rather to drown the victim. Who doesn't have fun playing in the city streets with a fire hydrant spraying into the streets? Everybody. That's very Godfather reminiscent of you. Just put up a good old fruit box up against it to get it to spray a bit. Homemade sprinkler. And then Robocop comes and turns it off. Yeah, you're going to wake up tomorrow with a horse head lying right next to you. Hope you don't have white sheets. I thought whenever Steve Ritchie joined JJP, it would be under the impression of a certain theme that he was able to design. I thought for sure the pitch would have been, here's some machines that you can work on themes-wise that we can get. If it interests you, that would be part of the draw to come over. He said a lot of themes have been presented to him, but he has not yet decided which title it will be first at JJP. That was surprising to me. Yeah, he really did emphasize something that you and I have repeatedly ad nauseum brought up, which is the value of license. Yeah, and host Ken Cromwell did ask him, like, what is motivating for you, Steve? What do you need to be in your games? He said, quote, I like a game to rock, to be fast, smooth. Went on to say, mechanical action, good music, good speech, great artwork, good code. Now, at that point, I'm like, Steve, you're just naming every category. He did say, quote, I don't do cute, end quote. Don't do cute. Don't do it. Golden Girl's not confirmed. He's not looking for cute. He likes adversarial games. He likes a good battle. Ken asked him about considering an original theme-ish or licensed property like a Black Knight or maybe a High Speed 3. Richie said he believes licensed properties that people know is just more appealing probably to more people. But he didn't rule them out in the future. just it's not going to be his first title he's going for a theme that everyone recognizes and knows sure but i mean here's here's the answer here's the answer for him so i'm sure he probably already knows it but he needs to do fast and furious and then it's just a spiritual successor to high speed that's very much a theme that goes well with him with his style yeah well he loves cars and it fits all of those uh things you know i want it to rock i want it to be fast i want it to be smooth. I want to live my life a quarter mile at a time. I mean, everything he said. I just, selfishly, I don't want that theme, but I think it's a good pinball theme. And then those that don't care for Fast and Furious can go, well, it's his high-speed three. I'd rather it be high-speed three, personally. No, we're not getting that. I don't think we should either, but I still think JJP is silly enough to think it will work. I don't know why. I just think they are. I think after Dialed In and the new investor owner team, no. I think they are not going to try that again. They shouldn't. And I know High Speed is not an original theme. It would be licensed. In fact, Steve's probably telling them about how his Black Knight sales were over at Stern, and they're probably like, yeah, let's not risk it. I thought the interview was going to be – it's JJP. I thought it was going to be a Powder Puff interview. It wasn't. It's Ken. He was asking some good questions that I think – Ken doesn't want to just ask the same old stuff all the time. He never did over with Special and Lit. He says it tactfully and respectfully. Well, you don't have to be mean to ask good questions. That's a good point. You weren't mean to Spooky when they were on. Spooky Loopy. But you asked good questions. That's true. Except for stuff about Mr. Squirrel. That was his weird. He asked questions that felt like an enthusiast was asking him. Like he truly wanted to know. Almost like he is an enthusiast. It's weird. He brought up Steve like getting along with people or their competitive nature when working with other designers or design teams. and Steve talked about it. He said competition inside or outside of a company is a good thing, if it's healthy, if it's friendly, but he likes that friendly competition. That's why he likes these adversarial games. That's where you get a lot of that stuff. And they went on to say him and Ousler and stuff would goof off, and he lit a bottle rocket or something. There's a bottle rocket incident with Orsler, Ousler, Tomato, Tomato in the Williams era. Well, you've always been sort of obsessed with fireworks, nearly maiming people. so. Aww. Love you Terry. Did you know that Steve loves drop targets? Yeah. Yes. Can you picture? I've never heard this before. Really? Yeah. He wanted drop targets into Firepower. Really? He loves drop targets. He said his first JGP game will have drop targets. Well that's good. I like drop targets too though. Personally I think Firepower is better without them. To make it just a ball buster or what? Yes. Yes. I mean people do a conversion to put in the drops as it was envisioned but oh they all report it to be playing easier with them that i've seen i think it would be it's going to slow the velocity down that ball and that's what firepower is it's a firing it's power power yeah the only thing i wish was different with firepower uh was the ability to actually get some like 2x 3x going on when you're in multiball because there's no points advantage to being in multiball but that chip set that board set was at the extent of its capabilities so Because people also will put in code to do it, but you have to upgrade the board set. You can't do it with that system. Yeah, it's too much work then. There's basically no space left on the chip. They maximized it. It's still firepower. I mean, come on. Firepower. Well, I have it on original code. I was thinking about it, though, and that's actually a change in mechanism use for JJP. Think about it, listener. When's the last time we've really seen drop targets? I think the public burned them on Hobbit with so many. Have we really had many drop targets in J.J.P. games since? Does Pirates? Pirates has a set, the map targets, but it's not a lot. Wonka doesn't have any, I don't think. Well, do we think Steve's will have a quote-unquote lot of drop targets or just like a bank? I mean, I don't know. GNR didn't have any. Right. I mean, what's a lot to you? When I think about Steve, he had a lot in World Poker Tour. I mean, that was a lot. Oh, that was a lot. But outside of themes like poker and billiards, I don't know if a lot makes sense. I think he wants a bank. A bank of three or a bank of five or one? Three minimum, but yeah. Can you have a bank of two? Yeah, I think so. I don't think so. But I can't think of a game that did it. I don't think you can have a bank of two. I mean, I would call it a bank. If it's more than one, I think it's okay to call it a bank. Do you think so? I think so. Minimum bank, three. It's like a representation of a quantity, like a baker's dozen, 13. Yeah, but two is more than one, so you're now in multiples as of two. Yeah, but I think bank implies more than two. Hmm. Well, I mean, most of them are, like in pinball. I can see dual drop targets. If you told me there was a bank of drops, I would immediately think at least three. Okay. But I don't know. I'm trying to think of any games that might have put two drops. Surely there are some, but I've... Steven Bowden, get it in the dictionary. A bank, minimum three. I don't know if we're ready to define that. Why not? Who else is going to define it? Well, I'm not saying that you don't have the right to define it, but I don't know if I like the definition. Well, you don't like what a fan layout is either. design teams are quote very important to Steve. Oh really? Yeah. No, no, you don't need it. You don't need a design team. Do it solo. He said initially all he needs is a mechanical engineer in the initial stages, but he talked about the importance of a design team and that's a style he likes to utilize and will be doing so in the future. Does that mean new people coming on board to join his design team? I think he's just talking about he likes how close-knit a familiar group is. I think he really liked working with Tim Sexton. Yeah, no, I didn't interpret this as a plan to necessarily expand the number of people at JJP to give him his own design team. It's just at some point he will need to be using it. In fact, I think JJP already used design teams because I'm not aware of anyone who doesn't. I guess Scott Danesi on TNA didn't have a design team. That's about it. The Pinball Adventures? They might have a design team. They may. I don't know. I mean, whatever Team Pinball does. Team Pinball. He also was really looking forward to the full RGB effects that he was able to have in Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Premium LA, that kind of stuff. He's looking forward to that again. The quote that he ended with or that caught my ear the most was this. He said, quote, I have the opportunity to make a better game here, and I will. End quote. Steve Ritchie. So he's blaming Stern for the acceptance of what we've been seeing lately out of him. He alluded to lower bomb. Okay. And restrictions and everything else. What's the expression? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. So I guess we will find out in 2025. You like pudding? It's fine. Why do some people have issues with pudding? Why are some people so foreign to the idea of what pudding is? Probably texture. Is that an American thing? well the terms are yeah i think like pudding like they're like hearty puddings in the uk and stuff i think that sounds chunky i don't like i don't like that i like the fake american stuff you know what's better than almost everything is good banana pudding just good old banana pudding fresh sliced bananas in there some graham crackers uh crust and then uh vanilla wafers on top Oh, nothing bad. Well, you could just eat a banana. It's not the same. I know. It's healthier. I love banana pudding. Speaking of yumminess, Willy Wonka got a code update, version 2.0. Joe Cass. Oh, wow. Everything's more approachable. Easier to get golden tickets. See the rest of the game. You guys got to listen to the Ken Cromwell interview at JJP Podcast. He talked to Joe Cass about that update. I still have an updated mine for two reasons. Dennis, can you guess one of the reasons? You never update properly, so you're scared. Oh, that's assuming that I do things wrong instead of just unknowing how to do it. Well, no, you'd blame the game, not you. I'm telling you that Rick and Morty bricked because I tried to code update. I don't care what anyone says. Motherboard went out when that happened. Yeah, that is one reason. I don't know how to do it. There's these things and zips and etchers. Send me the USB, please, somebody. And the other reason, I don't know if I want to change it. It's why Wonka has stuck around longer than any other JJP I've played. Didn't Joe say in the interview, you can go in though to the settings and then change it back to kind of how it is If you I love the push that he made He made a great argument and almost one coming from like an expert a creator in Pinball saying guys stop getting caught up on default settings Set them how you want to. This is supposed to be fun. I loved, loved, loved his interpretation and his presentation there. However, I still disagree with him. I don't want to change those default settings. It's a new default, so you're now out of defaultness if you don't update. I like the difficulty. The logic is undeniable. I like the difficulty. Nope, it was too hard. They've decided this is official. Official. I have only got three golden tickets once, and I'm okay with that. I don't have to get the Valinor every time. That's why it would stick in a collection. Yeah, sure. If you buy one just for the grandkids and every other weekend you put a couple games on, sure, play two more. This is the new vision. They wanted this game to be able to be gotten to the end of, and it was not currently set up that way. This is the new default. They have decided the new default. You are now in anti-default state. You have now chosen. I'm faulted? Is that what you're saying? You've now chosen to set the game harder, which, as Joe would say, is you're right. You're right not to do things the same way as everyone else. That's why I had an issue last week. I'm a moment maker, Dennis, listener. I am a moment maker. but can a moment maker still appreciate difficulty and appreciate being able to be a good shooter that's why i was arguing with you and loser kids on it too some players like that but no i think you could be a moment maker and like progressing through games in in such a manner stages so that's why we play video games people you're not you're not counting the coins in mario some of you are weirdos. But you can beat that, but also still be a skilled player, I think. Well, you're never beating Wonka until you do this update. That's what Joe meant to say. And if I do? It's like, I'm going to keep Lord of the Rings so I can go get to Valinor. Well, I hope you like taking the glass off, because you ain't. Would you get a tattoo with me if I beat Willy Wonka? Nope. No. Why not? Roy Orbison on your ass cheek. let's talk about stern wonderful beautiful little sexy company over there shupa shoopy shuppa shuppay i don't know stern heads up in but i think it was a stern heads up invitational that was featured on espn 8 ocho uh two weeks ago is that right that was a bold move cotton absolutely see got that reference i didn't watch this so i can't comment too much on it I watched the original feature of this. I didn't watch it either. Yeah. I think they just took the run and they compressed it down to 30 minutes. I don't even think they changed. I would have changed so much. But 30 minutes, I think it was a good showing for pinball. Hooray, hurrah. Thank everything for that happening. But production delays, more production delays due to park shortages over at Stern Pinball. This one's killing me. Yep. Kick right in the testicles, my friend. I hear all the producers of pinball are struggling in one way or another with production. So very quickly, I will explain to you guys what has happened in the recent week or two since we've been on last. I'm pulling this up right now. So basically, here's the skinny, as the cool kids say. You know what the cool kids say? The skinny. Sure. so tmnt i think pro premium guardians iron maiden pro premium even jurassic park premium avengers pro premium they were all supposed to run in july here we are in august so there was an initial delay from july to kind of august like we're waiting around parts sorry there's going to be a delay we're just we're pushing these things as limited as we can but we're trying to get them out there. Then, I think it was last week, we get an update to the update saying we continue to struggle trying to get some parts, but this time, instead of just pushing it back more and more, we're going to have to make a decision. So the decision that they have made, I don't know if anybody's talked about this, is that the allotments that were supposed to be given for July or August runs of some of these titles, they're going to run them in August instead of bumping them to such and such, but the allotments that us dealers were supposed to get Dennis have been drastically cut. So, for example, if I was supposed to get 15 Guardians of the Galaxy in July, they're now running them in August, but I get three. The remainder will then be squeezed in somewhere between now and Q4, end of the year kind of stuff. And they did that to Turtles Premium, Turtles Pro, Guardians Pro, Iron Maiden Pro Jurassic Park Premium Avengers Pro, Avengers Premium Star Wars The Pen and Batman, Batman they just bumped all of it back to Q4 now Iron Maiden Premium was the one that they said that scheduled first week of September-ish but still unclear whether they're going to have to do that allotment cut it's not getting rid of the allotment it's just saying we can only make so many So we're dispersing them out based on the ratio of what everybody's ordered and has allotted, but the other ones are going to have to come, likely Q4. That's hard. That's a tough one. Yeah, but I see why they did it that way to try and be fair to all their distributor network. Sure. That's what you've got to do. The other option would have been to keep a couple of these titles, run them in their entirety as they planned, and then bumping entire titles. Yeah, I don't know why they – I mean, that would be – in some ways, it would be a cleaner solution for the distributor, I think, to help you get your wait lists cleared, at least on some of the titles. And you're not having to cut people. Like, that's the tough part for me. And I agree ultimately with what they did do. I think that was the best decision because you're still getting flavors out there to everybody that has been waiting. But it's hard when I had to contact 20, 30 people and say, hey, you know how these updates have been delayed for the last couple months? Well, now you're going to have to wait to a Q4. This is why it's so difficult for me to get the first pro. And then people cancel, Dennis. They're tired of waiting. Well, yeah, I probably too. I know. That hurts a business. We don't get into this hobby to wait. Makes me realize why there are so many dealers that take deposits. But that's okay. Mm-hmm. It's okay. So as if I didn't have any games to sell before, I really don't now. So that's your update. That's what's going on. And we've also seen some of the accessories being pushed back as well. I think I discussed that last episode. Stern Pinball is still cranking them out. They can only work as fast as the parts they have. And they're still making more than everybody times whatever. There's been a rumor going around that there's going to be a price increase for the next title, as well as for every title going forward. That's the rumor. Have you heard that rumor? I have not. I've seen that approach done in other fields, though. They kind of did that, remember, with Elvira and Batman? And they said $500. Boom. Right, right. But those were one-time spikes. And typically, they'll do a price increase every once in a while. I believe last January, we got $100 increase to every other title besides Avengers, which was already increased $100 in the prior summer. But people are rumoring. I don't know if I believe it. People are saying plus $500 every title, if not up to $1,000 to $1,500 for LEs. It's not sustainable. I mean, if they were to do it, I can't imagine it would go for more than two years. I just don't see them jumping that high that fast. No, that's, I mean, if no one else is doing it, here's the, I mean, because we have to consider the entire market landscape of pinball. You cannot spike pros every pro run and do three cornerstones. So by the end of the year, you've gone up $1,500 and keep the pro price competitive with what the alternative companies are doing. Absolutely. You see what I mean? Like the whole incentive to the pro is that it's the buy, aside from a few things like, say, what Home Pin might put out. It's the most affordable commercial-grade pinball machine on the market. Absolutely. It would not take very long before all of a sudden you've priced yourself higher than American Pinball and CGC, and you've got the most stripped-down game. Well, they're close to it right now. We know that Hot Wheels comes in at $62.95. Right. Right there. That would put them over. But there wasn't – Stern is milking us at this point because they should have the best deals on everything. A company like Spooky, especially when like doing TNA, for example, in runs of 50, so you're ordering parts in groups of 50, you're not getting the same discounts that Stern would get on those parts. So it just – But isn't that a market thing? Like Stern could argue, well, wait a minute. Just because Spooky's not ordering as many parts doesn't mean they have the right to increase their price like they did on the recent run of Halloween and Ultraman. Why can they increase and we can't? I did misspeak about American Pinball, $62.95 Hot Wheels plus shipping. Actually, they had a recent $100 price increase because of chip shortage. So I don't know if that's a temporary increase, but they're having to pay more for chips right now. So $100 increase on that, so we're $63.95. Well, I mean, yeah. That's what I'm saying about the whole Stern thing. Yeah, I mean, they could raise it. But I mean, like, I always thought Stern was doing that when we were roughly seeing the price increase once a year. And it'd be like $100 per game. Yes. Do you remember, like, what we'd see with that? It went two years without a price increase. I do remember that. Sure, sure. NNU's doing an increase every year. That happens in other fields. So I wouldn't be so surprised to see that. But not every game and not $500 a game. I mean, you got to look at it and go, you're getting kind of goofy with those. I mean, I'm having trouble believing it quite frankly. I am as well. Because it's so – the economics are so pear-shaped on it. I mean, you could say, well, pinball is booming and people will pay what they got to pay. But at some point, people are going to look and go, okay, well, you're now more than Halloween. Halloween has got a lot more in it. and Halloween's price increase is going to be – I mean that game is going to be 18 months of the same game. So it's like – or however long it will take them to make it. So it's like it's not the same as when you're like every three months we need another $500. No one is going to believe that you needed it for expenses. So it's about profit at that point. And people can accept that except you got to consider what else can I get for the same amount of money. And if I can start getting GNRs for – well, maybe it wouldn't appeal to me. But if I can get GNRs for the same price as Stern Pros, come on. I see what you're saying. Well, at $500 a game, it's not going to take them that long to catch up. I think this is a one-time kind of global thing. But I will say that the source reporting that are spreading this news or rumors or whatever the shit that is, it's a shitty source. They're wrong more than they're right. And they indicated that dealers have already been told. And I can, as I always do, tell you the truth here. We have not been informed. as an official dealer, I have not been personally informed of any price increase at Stern Pinball. Not to say it won't happen. I think if we were given a price increase notification, it would likely come during their next release, the seminar that we attend for that next release, they would tell us. But I have not received anything even if people were rumored to say that we have. We have not. Or I have not. I could definitely see price increases. I just don't think it's going to be every game at that dollar amount. I just can't. I don't either. I know things have gotten kind of stupid in pinball lately, but not that stupid. We were talking about spooky pinball. Let's talk about them a little bit more. Jack Danger went and streamed for Dead Flip the Halloween and Ultraman games from spooky pinball. I have not. I've seen like 10 minutes. So my apologies. I haven't seen any minutes. Oh, well, shit. I didn't catch this stream. Well, they're sold out, and the code wasn't done. I didn't care. yeah i caught a little bit of it there was there was some negativity associated with that oh was that showing of halloween especially okay because i i did see i did read other people report that it seemed like the general consensus was ultraman presented a lot better than halloween did that's correct that was consensus yep do you think that's just horrors that unpopular or was it just like the assets in the way ultra because like code wise wouldn't they both be basically along the same length i don't know if it was a rules thing or a visual thing yeah it's basically the same it's more of a visual thing the feedback that people are getting because they've got to shoot the same they're saying that um the lighting is off the sound especially people were just really getting hammered by the sound lack of assets and movie clips from the film there was just a lot of stuff that people were kind of railing on they were really railing on and watching as much as I did. I watched a couple full games or a full game. I get partially where they're coming from. Some of the sound, they're going to have to add more sound pieces there. More scores. If you're on the upper play field, we'll switch up a sound a little bit. If you're on another upper play field, we'll switch sound. But when you have that piano playing over and over and over again, you're going to have to break it up. The sound effects that were in it that people were complaining about, I actually liked them. Because they were very true to the film. And I like the film. I came across not disliking it as much as everybody else. I'm not worried about the game. Well, I mean, Spooky can always take the feedback that they receive from the stream and then do whatever they want because they're already sold out. Yeah, they don't care. They don't have to care. I don't even know why they did it. I won't get into that. So, yeah, there were some hiccups all around, as there typically at this point is always to stream these reveals. And I walked away still preferring Halloween over Ultraman. I don't get Ultraman, I have to admit. There was some cool stuff in it. Everybody loved the music. Still felt a little Batman 66-ish to me. That's not my jam. But Halloween, I liked some of the animation. Some of the animation that they had to do themselves, I kind of liked it. There definitely, I would take ten times as much video clips, though. And call-outs. The call-outs thing was just, that was a stream issue. Jack said something about a ground isolator loop that was preventing the call outs from being heard I don't know what to believe I don't really know anything about ground isolators I don't either all I know is the music was set too loud which grated on people and the call outs were not loud enough which people said where in the hell is a call outs that's what happened it was a higher level than the vocals of the players playing so of course that it's going to get on your nerves. And the reeds. What do you call it? Reeds. Reeds. Yeah. I'm still excited about it. You know, it sounds a tricky thing. I'm still excited about it. Spooky did share recently on social media a picture showing 30-plus pinball machines with connected playfields. They're building them. They are building them quite well. And if you build it, they will come. That was pretty nostalgic this last week, wasn't it? Mm-hmm. I have to admit, I don't even like baseball, but seeing Kevin Costner come out of the cornfield gave me a hard cop. Chicago Gaming Company, the hell are they doing? CCR, CCR. That's right. Creed and Clearwater Revival, for those that don't know the acronym. Have you ever seen Marine? Down on the corner. All right. That's Willie and the Popolites. What? That's not CCR? No, no. No, it is. But you named a different song, and then you sang another song. Oh. Well, that's just typical to me. CGC, did you know this? Matt Morrison, we heard him in the correspondence segment. They're going to be at Southern Fried Gaming Expo I might have teased that a little bit A couple weeks ago Yeah there was a little tease There was a little bit So that's coming this weekend They're going to have I think they're going to have a booth But I know that they're going to have a seminar Covering the past and the present At Chicago Gaming Company And the future Future is now I think they have If I'm a guessing man I think they'd like to reveal this thing it southern fried that's what i'd be guessing do i think they should not if they're not so long why not just wait till expo no put them in make sure they're getting in boxes that's what my advice would be get them in boxes what's in the box do not show this thing the first time on a floor don't do it you gotta put it on the ceiling or bust don't do it you need edited video you need juiciness to get those wallets out come on companies no you just need to say it's pinball Well, and they all sell out. At this rate, kind of. Yep. Isn't it great to be in an industry where you don't even have to try? I believe if the rumored Cactus Canyon continued is ready, fully ready, then we may see it this weekend. I think their seminar is Friday. Matt was saying Friday at 7, 8, something like that. If it's not, I think you're going to have to wait. You're probably going to have to wait until next week. I don't like waiting. I won't be at Southern Fried, so I might as well wait. How long are you going to have to wait for Uraza from Deep Root? I don't know. I put this at the last because it's been covered. It was covered heavily last week. Go listen to Eclectic Gamers. Go listen to Loser Kid. Go watch the Kerry Hardy video and his investigative packing, question mark. It's been covered. The only thing I'll add for a discussion point is we know that they took down all their social media stuff. I don't know if that's indicative. A lot of people are pushing heavy towards this is the end. I'm still not sold that this is the end. I'm really not. Yeah, it's just odd. I mean, it's odd to me, and I think it's odd to a lot of people to go and take down the social media. And when people start pointing that out and asking, the decision is to remain silent instead of saying, oh, well, we're revamping the social media. What good is the social media doing, Dennis? It can't sell games. It's like a spooky thing. Sure, but it's a, I mean, I guess, but what harm is it if it's an archive? of what you've been discussing and shown off in the past, or it's also a place where the public or the pre-orderers can reach out. I mean, if they want to funnel it through email, okay. But, I mean, most organizations don't turn off their social media just because production is behind schedule. But it's a constant reminder of things that they're not doing as well as the consumer wants. So just erase it for now. Yeah, but that's, I mean, but that's, no one else does that. And I'm speaking hyperbolically. you know there's people that i'm sure have have turned to that it's it's an interesting step and given that they did it right after that message purportedly that went out to the pre-orderers telling them that there's a legal issue with raza yeah it's like what a bad piece of time like take the social media down a month before that message or or three weeks after that message i mean i don't know but if they were done why wouldn't they pull the videos from the website why wouldn't they pull the website what that's why it's so weird though but why you still have the youtube up yeah why take down linkedin no one goes to linkedin for reveal stuff i mean it's certainly doesn't make your company look stable i agree there no and it's and i think you could do it you could i could agree with you zach about taking it all down but there should have been an announcement on the website or something saying hey we've taken these down because they're they're not useful to us anymore or there's just a silence and i i believe i've seen on pin side some people claiming, they weren't screenshots, but they were claiming that they, as pre-orders, would write into DeepRoot, and they were hearing back saying, you know, don't believe what's going on on Pinside, or sort of like these terms of, yeah, things aren't what are being said on Pinside. But they're not actually putting out any counter-programming to it. There's always this thing that I find with people, and it seems almost instinctual for a lot of people, and it's like they think that being silent is smart. And sometimes it's the right thing to do. Like when we were talking about the Pinball News, Pinball Magazine podcast interview with Jack, it would have been better to have stayed silent on the play field issue or said we don't have a comment at this time than to blame the customers. But in a vacuum of your own information, especially if you feel that misinformation is running rampant, you have to measure where is it? Oh, I'm responding to every stupid rumor and I can't be going around doing that versus, well, but you're not saying anything. You need to at least let people know that, in my view, that things are okay, that we know that there's – you don't have to address every little rumor. But part of the problem is just the communication updates are not frequent enough at this point. Like they've been doing – they've been trying to do about once a month, and what they've been saying now doesn't line up with what was said in the past. Like remember back at the start of the year, it was UL certification was why the games weren't done. Latest update, there's nothing about UL certification. Now it's a legal issue. And it's like, you've been working on Rasa for years. Why is there a legal issue now? And they can't hang their hat on. People have more questions. They can't hang their hat on, Dennis, that they haven't taken anybody's money because they have at this point. No. And see, and there were a lot more passes given, as there should have been, in my view. Sure. People could complain about Deep Root missing all those deadlines. But when they hadn't taken people's money, what harm was it? Yeah, okay, it looks bad, but it wasn't damaging to the hobbyist. But now that money is in their possession, of course people have demanded a higher level. And I think Deep Roots felt that, well, we're trying to do that by directly communicating to the pre-order people. But those messages are all being leaked publicly. So we know they're not in constant communication. At this stage, as far behind as they are, I think people just need more updates than what they're getting. And when you start turning off other venues where updates could happen, even if they weren't using them, it looks sus. Yeah. I'm tired of talking about it. Sure. I understand. It's just I think I get it. They're in a really bad position just in terms of public relations, no matter what, because things are so far behind schedule on a company that has, by I'm sure its own admission, missed so many of their own self-imposed deadlines. All these deadlines were set by them and they've missed all of them. I just selfishly I they have fucking Goonies, a dream grail theme for me. and if that goes into this purgatory it's all i care about i was ready to buy even if it's the shittiest game i was ready to buy it because it was that's so sad to me it is what it is i'll find a way to make it fun i'll add ramps i'll hire somebody to add no you won't sure i would it's good you just own it it's you just own it and be like i have goonies please don't fuck this up deep root what if they don't ever do goonies eventually the license will be available to someone else yeah eventually i mean it'd be available to someone else eventually even if they do do goonies so why do you care because i think that somebody probably does this company probably feel so burned by pinball industry in general because this company fucked it up they won't give it out to anybody else i i mean okay i see where you're coming from on it i i wouldn't worry. I wouldn't fret so much about that. Pinball Adventures can take it For those of you who aren squeamish go watch that Cary Hardy video I not seen the video I only seen discussion of it And keep in mind listener Cary Hardy was one of the Magnificent Seven or Magnificent Eight What is it? The Hateful Eight? The Deep Six. Deep Six. Deep Six Nine. I always want to call him the Deep Star Six because of the movie. Why do I want to do Deep Six Nine? Deep Space Nine. Oh. Man, I'm a nerd. I hope the Cardassians don't come for him. But Kerry Hardy was one of those individuals who went there. He was behind closed doors. He seen what was going on. And he is very, very candid about some of the things that he'd seen or had not seen. And making assumptions based on what he had or had not seen on this recent video. I'm saying if you're squeamish, like it's pretty bold. It is pretty bold. And he does something that I don't necessarily agree with. but he found a way to, I don't know what the kids do nowadays, it's not a hacking, I don't think, he can find stuff on a website, and he found the entire buyer list for Raza. Everyone's name and information on what they purchased, etc. Well, if it's not true, I mean, yeah, I had read somewhere about hacking happening, I didn't know who had done it. Now, of course, the big question would be whether or not it was actual hacking. Yeah, that's what he's saying, he's like, no, it's not actual hacking. If it's a hidden page and you type in a URL and you get it, probably no issue. I just went to actually infiltrating websites. One needs to be careful to avoid going into the criminal realm. He said it was a major security risk on their website. He was able to info-mine this information. He said it wasn't hacking, but I still, if it's not intended to be by the public, it doesn't feel good. Oh, is the information shown? No. he mentioned one of the buyers one of the dealers that purchased it sounds like he did it relatively safe that's a touchy area a little risky there for me it wouldn't be a route I would go but I am risk adverse and I am risky if it calls for it like you'll see in the next segment Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for what you've been waiting for. Last week, it was lying on a couch with a bag of peas on its head. But this week, it's fresh, it's hot, it's ready. Just like Grammy's buttered buns. Not like that, sicko. It's Pimba Market Trends! Feels good, doesn't it, Dennis? Yes. I'm going to brush off the old dust here because training up this week is Guardians of the Galaxy by Stern Pinball both the pro and the premium models because they got pushed out again everybody's wanting this title yet again if I had 20 I could sell them if I had 50 I could sell them if I had 100 I could sell them because the pro right now is only about $200 on the secondary market below that of a new in box Guardians of the Galaxy that's pretty close I think that's going to get even worse as the year goes on. And think about it. How long have they been running that, Dennis? It's got to be close to just pulling the plug on that property. Yeah, I was surprised when you were telling me earlier that they were going to be on the line again. I thought, really, Guardians? Yeah. I mean, I know it got popular after the code got fleshed out, but it still surprises me just because it's so old. It's one of those rare once or twice a year kind of runs, kind of like an Iron Maiden. It's getting to the point. they're going to take her out to pasture. So, yeah, you're going to see that continue to go up, especially now that they're pushing and delaying some of those production runs. Same thing for the premium, listener. Same thing for the premium. Approximately, if you want a premium, they're pretty rare at this point. You've got to pay new in-box prices for a used Guardians premium. With Groot Arms, I might add. Go ahead and cry about the Groot Arms there, Dennis. I don't think I've ever played that version, actually. Also trending up this week, it continues to trend up. If I could do this each and every week, it will still trend up. It's Ghostbusters by Sir and Pinball. All models, every damn one of them, from the objectively best shooting pro model to the, in my opinion, overrated toys premium model to the beauty that is the LE model. You're going to see the same damn thing. People are paying silly, goofy, spooky, ooky prices for Ghostbusters. Who are you going to call? The guy on Pinside is selling them. I would not overpay on some of these things though. Dennis, would you pay $7,000 for a pro? No. Used. People don't care about splitting cabinet corners. People don't care about ghosted inserts. They don't care. Premiums, $9,000. This is silly. This is the example of the silliness that pinball pricing has become. See, Ghostbusters. Having said that, still wouldn't mind having another one in my collection. Pro, preferably. Do you have a lot of time on Ghostbusters? Yes, mostly on the Pro, but I have played the LE. You're a fan? I like Ghostbusters a lot. Okay. Only thing is I wish the gap was even bigger. Sorry. Mind went in the gutter there. It was a good joke, too, but I just went straight to the sexual. I'm sorry. You can't talk about gaps with me. No, I can't really talk about anything with you. It's a low-hanging parsec, if you know what I mean. trending up guardians trending up ghostbusters anything else trending up no that's it everything else is down trending up next week will be that merchandise line i hope people like it i don't know well now you have to be fair i have presented them to you at this point you have seen them yes i have first impressions well and to be fair you showed me some stuff that doesn't involve me sure sure you gave me like a dozen different things to look at so i was surprised it's just not prolific you're leaking all kinds of stuff okay i'm linking i'm linking enough but not all that is related like that's not all related to the pinball network sure so that's just a disclosure like you showed me a lot of stuff so um see my stuff there's one i hate and there are several that i'm fairly neutral on and there are there were like three that i really liked what really liked well i mean now one of the three wasn't a tpn thing so okay i don't know well then yeah i don't know how much of a tease how much more of a tea i don't normally tease that's really good training up is dennis liking something and not liking but really liking like there's there's one that i intend to get holy moly you've shown me if that is not i think it's I would love to see you endorse any other I've never seen you endorse a product but you are here but trending down is the hatred that you have for that one it's well done I just it's just I think I know which one you're talking about and that one comes with it's own caveat of purchasing so more info on that to come also trending down this week is Avengers Infinity Quest Premium damn it Dennis you just played Avengers And I made a trend down, even though I liked it. Touch it and trends down. No, Avengers Infinity Quest Premium. The only reason being that people are getting rid of them right now. Last week or two, we've seen a number of them fill up the secondary market for sale. Some of them sitting, but we're still... And the price isn't plummeting on them. The price isn't going down much. It's just this is a general popularity. We're seeing Avengers Quest Premiums coming down a little bit or filling up the marketplace. they're still around 7300 because my understanding is with avengers they've got it set up so you can kind of like see the end of the game relatively easy oh you're gonna you're gonna bait me huh well i'm wondering if you think that that if that's a factor i'm not gonna understand from from hearing from my like for example my understanding is is really really really challenging to get to the end of turtles on default absolutely but it's not so much like just to see the end with avengers is that accurate designers and coders will argue that They are different games entirely. They just share a simple structure and a name. I think it's bullshit, and I'm not going to take that bait. I'm going to say no, that's not the reason why, because people generally love that. Okay, well, I was just going to say because... Still wrong. Well, I do know some people, though, that are like, once I get to the wizard mode, I sell the game. I'm kind of like that sometimes. So, I mean, there is a group that falls into that, and they don't want to turn it up to... They don't care about getting better at the game. It's not about scoring points in the game. They don't want to change it. It's just like, I saw the stuff. I saw the clips, so I'm done with it now. And they move on. That's just a way they like to own. Welcome to my side. Slowly. You can't reach the wizard mode in a game if it doesn't have a wizard mode. Hashtag 80s games. Hashtag Halloween at this point. Hashtag we. Yeah, trending down is Halloween. I can't not. I mean, look. You could. You could have not. I can't not. And I'm getting the game. It's not that this isn't a biased thing. It's just after that stream, people were not as hot on it. And pre-order spots have shown. We've seen a number of pre-order spots. And unlike Rick and Morty that you've seen people making large amounts of money for, they're not for Halloween. They simply are not. There are some, Dennis. that are lucky to break even on their pre-order spot. Now, you're going to see 100, 250 tops markup for an earlier run in the first 200, but the market is dictating that a lot of spots went up post-stream. That's up for Ultraman as well, but I didn't trend down Ultraman because it at least got a nice reception from the audience. Fret not, this will trend back up once they fill out that code a little bit more and once people get their hands on it, I believe. Well, I mean, the thing with Halloween, I think also, besides how it presented on the stream, to bear in mind is they are making a lot of them. I mean, they are. I mean, it's still false scarcity in the sense that they did set a raw count, but isn't it 1,250 units? 1,250, yeah. I mean, as a comparison, because you, of course, had to – before we came on the air, we had to talk a little bit about the trading card thing. Sure. I'll bring in like with wrist watches, which is a much bigger hobby than pinball. A thousand of an LE, even in that field is ridiculously high. People go, that's not a real LE. I wouldn't have realized that. Yeah. No, they're like, not if you want, if you want true exclusivity with watches, some of them are like, it's got to be under 200 units. It's got to be under a hundred units. You got to like, you got to be like, yeah, me and the Sultan have this. You can't get it sort of stuff. But at a thousand, it's just too easy to get. How many? They're expensive. How many was the new Ryan Claytor? A hundred. A hundred? See, they did it right. You know, I was going to tell you, but I'm glad you got one of those, didn't you? I did. As soon as I seen it, I went up like, I'm a weird friend. If I see something that my friends, like my best friends, really love, I'll try to buy it. And I did that for Greg Bone recently. I haven't given him that gift. But I did that for you. So it was a thought that counts, but it was already sold out. And you already got one. Thank God. And I believe, oh, spoiler, spoiler. I believe it's already been announced. I saw on Instagram that Mr. Jones Watches, which is the company that produced the watch, has indicated there's already been enough interest that they will do another run at some point. What the hell? Didn't they limit it? You see? Ooh. Has my watch been devalued now? Have I been wronged? Man. I'm assuming the next version, they may do some change-ups on something. Probably won't have LE branding on the back of it. I don't give a shit, Claytor. What the hell? Well, I think on a lot of these, with the way that company works, is it just – it chooses to limit for special runs, and then it was already – I think it's known with them that they test those, and then if they're popular, they can become part of the permanent collection. What's the watchmaker's name? Mr. Jones Watches. Okay. Mr. Jones – it's not Mr. Jack Guarnieri Watches? No. No, but to my sadness, even though I was on the interest list, they never ended up doing another run of Ryan's first watch, Step Right Up, the one that was sort of EM shooter target, Carney-themed. That was a cool one. And finally, trending down this week is The Juice. Jonathan Juice is a bit too loose. Juiceton is trending down. Look, I don't do the media trending down. I got in trouble in the past for doing this. It sounds like the media trending now that you've got in trouble. Well, you know, it's rebranded. It's another edition, right? That's what this is. And I can't not. I can't not. I'm going to pull out a couple quotes from this piece that he did, a recent interview with Jack Guarnieri. They talked about the P and P and P, not two Ps. I'm going to read this quote to you. Quote, bad news. This is from Jonathan Joosten. And the bad news is that still has to wait a little bit because of Ken Cromwell, who is the media manager at Jersey Jack Pinball, also has a podcast, apparently. And he also has a podcast, apparently, like you didn't know. And he wants to be the first to have Steve Ritchie on, but he's on vacation this week. Mr. Juicy goes on to say that, quote, now I can respect that someone is on vacation. but if you know up front that Steve Ritchie is going to be jumping ship he could have recorded that podcast a week prior I suppose and not expect the world to have stopped turning because obviously everybody wants to talk to Steve Ritchie right now and basically they are telling everybody no end quote a lot of people Dennis accused me of looking up for my friends being biased right he's looking up for his friends that's why he's speaking out about this it sounds hashtag bias I get hashtag accused of that a lot and for the most part it's all bullshit however this week you're totally totally correct but the only difference being listener I'm not going to do that I don't need to look up for my buddy Ken Cromwell even though this is a pretty shitty and tacky way of publicly presenting for some reason you thinking you're so damn special to getting a Steve Ritchie thing besides the before the company's own podcast which is somewhat laughable but no you got a history here right got a history I just present what the history says the history says that back in the twippy days I remember setting up and producing the twippy show oh just like it was yesterday over over at TPF, and Jeff Patterson kindly asking Jonathan the Juice, Juiceton, and Martin Ayoub to present one of the categories, pulling them in, tall teams, all family. Their response, we'll only present if it's game of the year. Are you serious, Clark? Okay. Okay, fellas. We thought it was a joke. It was a pretty good joke. No, no, no, no. That's serious. Another instance I remember was them getting pissy because Jeff Patterson didn't quote them properly or something in the damn... Remember that one? Assume that you remember it because I want to keep you out of this one. And then we have this. I would never present this information if it wasn't more information I knew behind the scenes that made it so damn bad. And I'm not going to rail on these guys. I'm not going to stick up for my friend. But it doesn't mean somebody else won't. Dennis, I'm sure you want to stay out of this. That's fair, Zach. It sounds like you're a wuss. You want to stay out of it as well. Nobody sticks their chest out anymore. Calls it out for what it is. Hashtag bullies, assholes, and dicks. That's all this is. Look, my dad used to say, listener, he said you wouldn't worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did. Hashtag mic drop. Look, look, look, look, Juicy. This ain't my first rodeo. No, you can actually hear me as well. Also, also, my dad, my dad, my dad, my father used to tell me also, boy, don't ever miss a chance to just shut up. does anybody share this sentiment out there haven't heard Phil in a while haven't heard me in a while haven't you bullshit comes up so does Phil thanks Zach for the opportunity to talk about the juicy good guy I'm sure he's a good guy but who the hell are you am I right pinball boy Roll out the red carpet. Here comes P and the P and the P and the P and the P. P, P. Screw you, Pinball Magazine, Pinball News, Pinball Blog, White Webcast Podcast, Podcasting with Pinball Talk Guy. Your bullshit falls in tight on men. Start with getting a better mic. How about that? Catch me outside. Phil out. Okay. Dr. Phil. That is some good. Wow. It was no Gary Flowers, but damn. Damn, Phil's heated. Thanks, Phil. At least Phil's looking up for people. Nicely done. And because of that sauciness, because of that saltiness and juiciness right there, there's no deals of the week. There's no deals of the what the fuck. There's only and ever will be Bimba Monkey Trick Tricks. Yes. all right dennis hell of an episode hell of a show thanks for listening audience and listeners where can people catch you they can always email me over at eclectic gamers podcast at gmail.com also facebook.com slash eclectic gamers podcast if you are email adverse after that market trends definitely not email me about the market trend it's the pinball network at gmizzy.com you can Also, email me at sttmpinball at gmail.com, straight down the middle. Straight down the middle swag coming out next Monday as well. And if you're ready to buy a pinball machine, you're going to have to wait. Ding. Wait, wait, wait. It is what it is. That's right. Wait, wait, wait. Get that wrapped around the back of your van. Wait, wait, wait. Oh, I do need to show pictures of the new van ramp. We do have a new product showcased this week, though. Jurassic Park topper back in stock at Flip N Out Pinball. Hashtag bye-bye-bye on that. Bye-bye-bye! I just imagine stepping into your showroom, and it's just empty. Crickets. It's got lights. It's got, like, those spinning things, the 360 things for cars and stuff. The turntables. Like, it's nothing like you are about to become. There's cobwebs. Man. No, you'd keep it clean. I mean. No, we still have inventory here and there. but it's like a car lot right now. You've been to a car lot lately? Nope. Oh, trying to buy her 16-year-old son a, he's almost 16, buy him a vehicle. It's like, he's six. That's almost 16. We got to get him a car now. There's nothing there. Be waiting that long for chips otherwise. Nothing there. Yeah, I remember when my folks bought me a car. Buy, buy, buy! Look, I know we're guilty. I get it. We shouldn't. But honestly, I want to get something a little decent that I can drive as well and share with him because I'm tired of driving the billboard on wheels if I go to the bank and stuff. People are pointing. I wish it was as cheap as a Jurassic Park topper. See, it's all relative, listener. You think Jurassic Park toppers are expensive? Look at new cars. My first car was $500. Well, that's a little cheaper than a Jurassic Park topper, I suppose. Well, you've got to factor in inflation. Email us at Zach at FlippinOutPinball.com. That's Flipp, the letter N, OutPinball.com. people have been waiting for Jurassic Park toppers and I over ordered so that some of you guys who didn't want to wait who are just being reminded now that you don't have a topper on top of Jurassic Park need to pick one up believe it or not holy hell it's about time Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shooter rods have finally arrived at Flippin Out but we have a couple more left get yourself on the Escalera wait list I did order do I want to tell these I ordered maybe a couple extra for an expo special but now I'm going to have emails flooding in. Damn it. TPN last week, Silver Ball Chronicles. Dennis, you talked about it. We had that Pinball 2000 history lesson. Yes, it was very dramatic. I did like that one. Triple Drain Pinball Podcast. Numbers are huge. If Silver Ball Chronicles doesn't launch out, Triple Drain is going to pass them. Then we'll rename it Silver Triple Ball Drain. Silver Ball Drain Triple. Not a competition. did you see the announcement that silver ball stories is gone i know that one hurt me hashtag tombstone yeah hashtag too soon i see he's doing something else he's mysterious he's very tricky he's probably really looking forward to halloween oh i think he might have one in order just saying final round pinball podcast is either freshly up from yesterday or it's going to be up tomorrow I don't know. We never know in the world of TPN. That's right. That's how formatting and programming goes here. Keith Elwin is making an appearance on that, so I've got to hear that. TPN this week? I don't know what the hell the gang's doing. I think we'll get a pre-play, maybe. What about Just Another? When's that due? I don't know if Joel is. I think he's having fun with Triple Drain. No. That's Tom's show. Well, we all know that. But I think Marv's having a little bit more fun than he thought he would as well. I think they like that all these intro creators are coming out and fighting over who's going to do their intros and theme songs and stuff. It's kind of vicious. It was a little vicious, still clever, and still pretty talented. Sorry, Glenn. I really liked the submission that they had for their segment intros. So just give up, Glenn, is what Zach's saying. Just give up. It's no Jerry Thompson. Love you, Jerry. opening up the pinball show, but it was good. I don't know what streams are going on. They are the gold standard now, in my opinion. The gold standard in pinball streaming entertainment, those are TPN. For Dennis Creasel, I'm Zach Minney. And remember, don't do cute. You need to have good music, good speech, great artwork, good code, and always live your life a quarter ramp at a time. And always practice safe pinball, And remember that nothing protects the top of that pinball machine better than a brand new, officially licensed Stern pinball topper. Bye, bye, bye! Up. So long, everybody. I just can't stand audio shit. I know, that's why I told the Discord. I was like, Zach, don't like no bad microphones. I'm not too snobbish, but when it comes to just complete garbage, why do it? My name's Zach. I like cowboys. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a2c4b089-1a31-4350-9f9b-55a1dfa14095*