# PNP 589- 10 Fast (&DRUNK) Thoughts After Seeing The Uncanny X-Men Livestream

**Source:** Poor Man's Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-09-11  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://poormanspinballpodcast.libsyn.com/pnp-589-10-fast-drunk-thoughts-after-seeing-the-uncanny-x-men-livestream

---

## Analysis

Orbital Albert (Orby) from the Pinball Nerds podcast provides ten rapid-fire observations about the Uncanny X-Men pinball machine livestream featuring Jack Danger and Zach Sharp. While intoxicated, he discusses playfield features (the Danger Zone out lane, Sentinel kickback difficulty, Kirk post necessity), confirms the lack of a magnet in the habit trail, praises the mode design and animations, and expresses disappointment at not seeing the Sentinel mechs fire during the stream. He also criticizes Stern's decision to stream only on YouTube rather than DeadFlip, which he argues limited viewership.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Danger Zone (out lane area) is easier to escape from than initially thought, with balls sometimes bouncing out without assistance. — _Orbital Albert describing his observations of the livestream gameplay_
- [MEDIUM] The Sentinel kickback fires harder and faster than the Raccoon shot on Guardians of the Galaxy. — _Orbital Albert's direct comparison based on livestream viewing_
- [HIGH] There is no magnet in the habit trail; instead, there is a physical metal flap that pauses the ball above the left flipper. — _Jack Danger confirmed this during the livestream Q&A_
- [HIGH] The flipper gap is regular size (exact same measurements as other games) but appears larger due to the habit trail, the Kirk post, and off-center positioning. — _Jack Danger's explanation during the livestream chat Q&A_
- [HIGH] A mode featuring time travel to the future includes a dramatic lighting moment where all lights dim and Kitty Pryde animation plays before lights return in blue. — _Orbital Albert describing specific animation sequence observed during livestream_
- [HIGH] The livestream was approximately 55 minutes long and was streamed only on YouTube, not on DeadFlip platform. — _Orbital Albert's direct observation and criticism of marketing strategy_
- [HIGH] An eight-way combo shot exists in the game; current reward is just a high five callout with potential for future code additions. — _Jack Danger's response during livestream Q&A_
- [MEDIUM] The Uncanny X-Men livestream peaked at approximately 800-900 concurrent viewers, nearing 1,000 at one point. — _Orbital Albert's estimate based on viewing the livestream_
- [HIGH] Stern did not invite Orbital Albert to the X-Men livestream event, though he received a congratulations shout-out in chat for announcing he will purchase a Pro model. — _Orbital Albert's personal account of the livestream experience_
- [MEDIUM] The Sentinel mech flicks were not clearly visible from the overhead camera angle used for the livestream, or may not have been triggered during gameplay. — _Orbital Albert's observation and speculation about what he did or didn't see during the stream_

### Notable Quotes

> "The Danger Zone is easier to get out of there than we thought... it's just bouncing around, and just as pinballs do, sometimes it goes out there."
> — **Orbital Albert**, early
> _Key playfield mechanic observation that contradicts pre-stream expectations about difficulty_

> "The Sentinel is harder than we thought. That's right. The Sentinel, not actually hitting it, he's pretty wide, he's pretty big... The Sentinel is actually harder. The kickback is harder than we thought."
> — **Orbital Albert**, early-mid
> _Major gameplay difficulty assessment; important for operator and player expectations_

> "This is a moment. People talk about moments. This is a pinball moment... when the lights come back on, they're just blue. It looks incredible. It looks awesome."
> — **Orbital Albert**, mid
> _High praise for the Kitty Pryde/future mode moment; indicates strong design accomplishment_

> "It's probably not very sellable. I say what I want when I want and I have a lot of constructive criticism... I probably just never going to get an invite from any pinball company anywhere."
> — **Orbital Albert**, mid
> _Reveals industry dynamics and podcast editorial independence vs. manufacturer access_

> "If this was over on Deadflip you would have been guaranteed to have at least at least the option of getting the notification to 22,000 more people."
> — **Orbital Albert**, late
> _Critique of Stern's streaming platform strategy and marketing reach_

> "I legit want to get a part-time Christmas job over and above doing all of our coffee and collectible shows to help pay for this. I want to get a pro."
> — **Orbital Albert**, late
> _Strong personal buying signal and collector commitment to X-Men Pro model_

> "The flow is fast as frick... it feels like god is holding the pinball machine in his hand and whipping it around."
> — **Orbital Albert**, mid
> _Enthusiastic praise for playfield flow and shot sequence design_

> "I don't want everyone to say I'm too much of a stern tryhard, all right? But I do think it was a bit of a marketing fail."
> — **Orbital Albert**, mid
> _Balanced but critical assessment of Stern's timing against JJP announcements_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Orbital Albert | person | Host of Pinball Nerds podcast on Poor Man's Pinball Network; primary speaker providing livestream commentary |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer at Stern; played as Cyborg character during X-Men livestream; confirmed technical details about flipper gap and habit trail mechanics |
| Zach Sharp | person | Pinball player at X-Men livestream wearing Wolverine costume; noted for backhand play on Sentinel shot |
| Steve Kirk | person | Historic pinball designer; namesake for the Kirk post mechanic on X-Men; known for designing Meteor and other games with difficult playfield design |
| Uncanny X-Men | game | New Stern pinball machine; subject of livestream featuring Danger Zone out lane, Sentinel mech, time travel mode, Kitty Pryde animation, eight-way combo shots |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Uncanny X-Men; conducted livestream on YouTube; received criticism for not streaming on DeadFlip platform |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Pinball community member and chat participant during X-Men livestream; made jokes about Jack Danger's cyborg costume fit |
| Drop Target Dan | person | Pinball community figure mentioned as someone Orbital Albert was engaging with during the livestream |
| Nate Shivers | person | Pinball podcaster and content creator; formerly of Coast to Coast Pinball; now does Stern Insider podcast; lives in Amsterdam |
| Jamie Burchill | person | Associated with Wormhole venue; interviewed Nate Shivers recently |
| Mark Seiden | person | Designer of Avatar pinball (first pin); praised by Orbital Albert for design quality; appears to have worked with Steve Ritchie |
| Nick Wena | person | Pinball player who participated in X-Men livestream games |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer; appears to have provided guidance to Mark Seiden on Avatar design |
| Kitty Pryde | game | X-Men character featured in animation sequence during time travel mode of X-Men pinball |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | game | Stern pinball game; referenced for Raccoon shot difficulty comparison with X-Men Sentinel kickback |
| Jurassic Park | game | Referenced for four-way combo mechanic; Elowen used up post in design; mentioned for design philosophy comparison |
| Avatar | game | Upcoming pinball game designed by Mark Seiden; release date criticized as poor timing; compared to X-Men for flow and animation features |
| Poor Man's Pinball Network | organization | Podcast network hosting Pinball Nerds podcast |
| DeadFlip | company | Pinball streaming platform; criticized for not being used by Stern for X-Men livestream despite having 22,000 followers and better visibility potential |
| YouTube | company | Platform used by Stern for X-Men livestream; drew approximately 800-900 concurrent viewers |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Uncanny X-Men machine design and mechanics, Playfield difficulty and shot design, Code features and animations, Livestream event production and platform choice
- **Secondary:** Pinball industry marketing strategy, Community commentary on new releases, Pinball designer process and philosophy
- **Mentioned:** Collector purchasing decisions and FOMO

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.75) — Orbital Albert is enthusiastic about X-Men's design, animations, flow, and mode design. However, there is notable disappointment about not seeing the Sentinel mechs fire and criticism of Stern's marketing/streaming choices. The positive sentiment is tempered by frustration about industry access and some legitimate design concerns, though most criticism is delivered with humor and goodwill.

### Signals

- **[announcement]** Stern Pinball held a public livestream of Uncanny X-Men gameplay featuring designer Jack Danger and player Zach Sharp in costume (confidence: high) — Livestream approximately 55 minutes long, streamed on YouTube, peaked at 800-900 concurrent viewers
- **[design_innovation]** X-Men features a novel 'Danger Zone' out lane area with easier escape mechanics than traditional playfields, plus Kirk post post customization for difficulty adjustments (confidence: high) — Detailed description of ball behavior in Danger Zone; Kirk post mentioned as removable for tournament/operator settings
- **[design_innovation]** Sentinel mech with powerful kickback mechanism; harder and faster than comparable shots on other modern games (Guardians Raccoon shot) (confidence: high) — Multiple observations of kickback difficulty and speed; comparison to other published Stern games
- **[design_innovation]** Mode feature with dramatic lighting moment: all lights dim, Kitty Pryde animation plays, lights return in blue color for time-limited shots (confidence: high) — Detailed description of specific animation sequence; praised as major design moment comparable to Houdini
- **[code_update]** Eight-way combo shot mechanic confirmed in-game; currently awards high-five callout, potential for future code enhancements (confidence: high) — Jack Danger confirmed during livestream Q&A; comparison to Jurassic Park four-way combo
- **[gameplay_signal]** X-Men appears to be a brutally difficult playing game, possibly approaching Turtles difficulty level; Kirk post essential for keeping game playable (confidence: medium) — Orbital Albert's assessment based on livestream; comparison to Rush and Turtles difficulty; observation of player struggles during multiball
- **[market_signal]** Strong collector interest in X-Men Pro model; Orbital Albert announcing intent to purchase despite financial constraints; willing to take part-time work (confidence: high) — Orbital Albert's personal statement about obtaining Pro model; Stern acknowledged purchase announcement in livestream chat
- **[sentiment_shift]** X-Men generating high community enthusiasm post-livestream; positive reception of design, animation, and flow; raised collector expectations (confidence: high) — Orbital Albert's enthusiastic commentary; decision to prioritize X-Men over other planned purchases; comparison to Avatar game negatively impacted by timing
- **[industry_signal]** Tension between independent pinball media and manufacturer invitations; Orbital Albert expresses resignation about never receiving Stern/JJP invites despite podcast influence (confidence: high) — Orbital Albert's statement about not receiving invites despite constructive criticism; acknowledgment of editorial independence as barrier to access
- **[product_strategy]** Stern chose YouTube-only streaming for X-Men livestream, excluding DeadFlip platform, potentially limiting reach to 22,000+ DeadFlip followers (confidence: high) — Orbital Albert's criticism of marketing strategy; estimate of missed audience on DeadFlip platform; note about Jack Danger's typical front-page visibility
- **[design_philosophy]** Habit trail ball pause mechanism uses physical metal flap rather than magnet; Jack Danger confirmed this design choice (confidence: high) — Jack Danger's Q&A response confirming physical mechanism; addresses community speculation about magnetic hold
- **[product_concern]** Sentinel mech flicks not clearly visible from overhead livestream camera angle; may or may not have been triggered during gameplay (confidence: medium) — Orbital Albert's observation that he did not observe mech firing; acknowledgment that camera angle limitation prevented clear visibility; speculation about whether feature was coded/triggered

---

## Transcript

 All get around, he's on the rebound, hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby, pinball now to rejoice, he's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee, miffed with syrup and honey, hopes to laugh with his family in a random tangent, stories of his boys, he's on the poor man's pod network, We're going to get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast. Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back to Pinball Nerds, episode 589 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Albert, and on today's episode, I'm just going to give you ten fast thoughts. I know my boy, Nate Shivers, over there at Coast to Coast Pinball, of course, formerly of, I guess, because it's now retired and he does the Stern Connected or Stern Insider podcast, right? He was recently over there on Wormhole and that was an awesome interview. Congrats, Jamie and the other awesome person that was helping interview there. I forget your name. I'm sorry. But that was an awesome interview with Nate Shivers. He talked about how he does more travel vlogging and stuff like that now. Really cool. He lives over there in Amsterdam. I've had the wonderful pleasure of going to Amsterdam not once but twice and had a killer time there. Partied like a rock star. And I was young enough to party like a rock star more than one day in a row. Unfortunately now, hitting my mid-40s, you know, I can only do a couple days in a row. But today, for you pinball nerds, that's right, I'm doing it. I have been drinking alcohol. I'm like trying to make sure I don't stutter or, you know, slip up with my speech too much or say something dumb or stupid or freak out on JJP for not sending me an invite. That's okay. I get to chill here on the homestead, and I get to do stuff like this. Bring you pinball nerds 10 fast thoughts. And where I was going with that originally is Nate Shivers, the original pinball podcaster that really got me into doing pinball podcasting, really, and just making me think a solo pinball podcaster could just sit behind a microphone and give unedited thoughts about what they, you know, kind of like a water cooler show, like his show was for years. that was the void I wanted to fill in or the little space that I wanted to be in when I first got into pinball podcasting but that's it let's just get into it they're fast thoughts they're not slow ones so let's go number one the danger zone so in the far left some people are calling it an out lane I don't really think it's an out lane even though I get it I guess it can go out that lane so it is but you know what I mean I think of it as a cool little mini play field but the danger zone, okay, it is easier to get out of there than we thought. So we found out that sometimes the ball's just bouncing around in there and it just leaves. It just goes, yo, I'm headed home. I'm taking the rest of my 2-4. I'm gone. I'm grabbing my beer. See you later. I'm out. And it leaves and it doesn't go out, you know, via the pop bumper. It doesn't go out because you hit it with the flipper and it went up the ramp and it went back around and came back to your other flipper. No, it's just bouncing around, and just as pinballs do, sometimes it goes out there. So you will once in a while lose your ball there, but it's pretty easy to get it out of there most of the time. There is one exception to that, and I will mention that in a second. But number two is that the Sentinel is harder than we thought. That's right. The Sentinel, not actually hitting it, he's pretty wide, he's pretty big, so actually hitting it looks even maybe easier than we thought. I saw a lot of people, I know Zach Sharp, Zach Sharp was the one I noticed doing it the most. He was backhanding. Zach Sharp, by the way, let me just say this, Zach Sharp was wearing a Wolverine costume, which is really cool. And Jack Danger was Cyborg. Except for, you couldn't tell who he was sometimes. Like, he looked like one of these Halloween kids who's, like, had most of his costume on, but his mom made him take off the rest. Because he tried to play the first game with, like, the Cyborg glasses, you know, the, I don't know, kind of looks like Geordi from Star Trek, right? anyways he tried to do it like that and he couldn't really do it because he couldn't really see the ball obviously so he couldn't really play so he couldn't play most of the way so he had to play with just being cyborg but with two eyes instead of one long glasses but anyways that's kind of the main thing cyborg is known for anyways it doesn't matter the costumes were awesome it's so cool that Stern did that shout out to Jack Danger and Zach Sharp so thank you so much to the two of them for doing that I think this makes it a little more fun, a little more interesting, and it did help the game progress to other players quicker, because Jack Danger, for sure, with these big, thick gloves on, it was hard for him to play as well as we would normally see him playing, even though he still did terrific on many of his balls. but then Zach Sharp who's like just an incredible even better than Jack Danger certainly has ranked a lot higher and uh you know sorry Zach was wearing the full uh the full like what do you call them the knives the whatever the wolverine uh the the sharp pointy nails that he has the claws there you go the wolverine claws sorry I've been drinking alcohol uh for like four hours I get so excited the day of a new pinball release when we get to see the live stream that I can't help myself have just a little bit of the old schnickle fritz you know what I mean okay so the sentinel is harder than we all thought possible when that sentinel mouth when the jaw is dropped the jaw drops further than my jaw after the first time I saw the teaser video for x-men okay but when the jaw drops and the kicker's out and it kicks it oh my god I thought I saw it at least once where the ball coming from the kicker. And again, I've had a couple drinks, alright. I'm seeing a little double trouble here. But as far as I could tell, the ball coming out of the kicker actually went over the flippers at least once. And I had the slight thought, oh my god, do we have a GTF situation here where it shoots it back so hard we're going to be seeing air balls. I don't think I saw it again. Maybe Zach Sharper was playing one time and it just came back really fast and he missed it, I think. And it didn't go over his pin, but they could fix that. You could also make it so that the kickback doesn't fire as hard, I'm assuming. And I have full faith that Jack Danger and the entire team over there at Stern will fix it if it needs to be fixed. But the Sentinel is actually harder. The kickback is harder than we thought to save it from that hard, hard, fast kickback. It actually, I didn't think it could quite be this fast because of how far up on the play field the Sentinel is, but it actually kicks back faster than Rocky Raccoon, than the raccoon that we have from Guardians of the Galaxy. And that one is my least favorite shot on, on planet Earth, other than maybe the F-14 shot to the, I forget what it's called on the left. But, yeah, so the Danger Zone is easier and more fun than we possibly thought. The one time when it is not easy, the one time it's not easy, and I see here, I don't think it made the list. The danger zone is way more fun than I even thought possible when I suspected it might be, and that is during multiball. Many times you could see even Jack Danger himself struggling trying to keep, use the left flipper to keep a ball up in the danger zone while preventing a ball from either, you know, your brain is trying to like, oh, do I need to dead flip over here? Do I need to aim and shoot over here? Should I just scramble and get rid of the ball quite often with your left flipper you're just going to be scrambling and getting rid of the ball when you're playing multiball because there's almost always a ball somehow being directed or accidentally going towards the danger zone especially when you're a three ball never mind four ball or five if you were up to five or six ball multiball you can be almost guaranteed you've got a ball in the danger zone room at any given time maybe even two all those balls bouncing around there right So it like it makes the game more fun it makes it more interesting It's just something so new and wild and different that your brain thinks that you're always supposed to watch the two main flippers at the bottom, especially in multiball. And I do that a lot of times in multiball. I try to be watching the whole play field as much as I can. About a decade ago, maybe even 12 years ago, I used to be a driving instructor. And I would tell my students all the time, keep your chin up in the center of your lane and look further into the distance. This is a little tip for any of you parents out there that are teaching your kids to drive. I just had the pleasure of teaching Hayden a couple years ago. And unfortunately, he got to use a lot of his advice I gave him this morning. My guy, my dude, the Hay dude who helped drive with me out to Wisconsin there to go with a D82 and go to Nationals and play in Pinmasters. My dude hit a freaking deer this morning. I should say a deer hit the side of his car. He's doing like 80 kilometers an hour. I don't know, it's like probably 55-ish miles an hour. There was some blood around the wheel well. Unfortunately, the deer died. It was a good-sized deer, but it died. He said it just was like hitting the biggest speed bump he had ever hit at like 80. It kind of... Anyways, yeah, sorry, I've gone off topic here. I shouldn't have done that. But my son is fine. hopefully, hopefully a local, like a hunter or someone found it. I know that he tried his best to like move it to the side of the road and such, but like there's only so much you can do, right? He was also exhausted coming home from a 12-hour shift at 5.30 a.m. this morning when it was dark. And so just luckily the car wasn't wrecked more. He is bringing the car in tomorrow to get us safety. We're just going to make sure everything's okay on it because when you take a big hit like that, you know, he's got a 16 year old on to fit so like something could have gone in the suspension or the cv joints i don't know i don't know that much about cars let's get back to pinball here so uh my third thought was is that the kirk post is really really needed for the aforementioned reasons i just said especially with the sentinel kickback being so hard i caught at least one time the sentinel kickback or at least coming back down from the sentinel area that i believe it was jack danger did a really cool like just move the machine just slightly to the right and what that did is it allowed the ball which was going to go right dead like dead between like straight down the middle between the kirk post i'm calling it a kirk post after revolutionary designer steve kirk who designed well my very first game ever meteor uh bruce and ron showed out their favorite game stars there He designed tons of other ones, but his kind of claim to fame was putting in a Kirk post because a lot of his pins played super duper brutal and a way to keep the, having a tiny chance of keeping the game longer was having that post there. So I'm assuming Jack will allow you to, it looks like the post can come up and down, like so you can choose. If you don't want the post there, if you're an operator taking that post down or you're trying to run like a hard tournament, like taking that post out is probably the easiest, the simplest, quickest way to make the game play longer because I know on multiple balls, I saw people be saved, and on at least one ball. Now, they only played for 55 minutes. That would be one of my, and I do have another beef. I don't want you to just think I'm all shooting rainbows out my butt again or something. I do have a legitimate criticism here that, again, I could have been wrong about, but number three on this list. These are supposed to be fast, fast, fast thoughts, and so far, they're not. So that Steve Kirk post is just way... Sorry. It's really, really, really, really needed in this game. And Kerry Hardy asked a question I was curious about in chat. Thanks, Kerry, for doing that. He asked, is this a regular size flip or gap? And Jack had an interesting answer. And Jack said, it is a regular size flip or gap. In fact, it's the exact same, like down to the millimeter. Because some designers like to have it slightly bigger or smaller, depending on how they the angle they put the flippers at typically that sort of thing of course arguably the last pin that we had that had way too big of a gap was Ghostbusters and this one looked like I don't think it looked too big but Jack Danger said the reason you might be seeing that is threefold number one it's got that habit trail that goes down around the flippers so that could be making the gap look a bit bigger number two it's got the post and then number three and I think this is the one that does it for most people it did it for me the most I believe it's off center so something about that makes it look like the flipper gap is bigger and let's be honest if the flipper gap looks bigger you're still going to be slightly more intimidated playing it it just means like you should be able to save straight down the middlers as often as any other pin if not more often due to that awesome um Kirk post but I think it needs the Kirk post because I think this is a brutally hard playing game I don't think it's quite as hard as turtles but i think it might be close i think like i know rush to me is a hard playing game even though the top players can play it for a long time for me it's a really hard playing game but number four okay so number four is that there is no magnet like we all thought we all thought me myself included and i apologize for fake news if i did report this it looked like there was a magnet in the habit trail that paused the ball right above the left flipper. Similar to, like, I know Elowen used an up post in Jurassic Park, and had some spicy pad thai there for dinner. Yummy. It's not bad when your burp makes you hungry to go back for seconds for dinner. It's tasty. Let's see. Spicy beef. Tuma, TMI, or BOK. Let's get back into it. so basically we all thought that there like myself include that there was some type of magnet that paused the trail on the habit trail that holds it right above the left flipper jack confirmed this is not true it's just like a physical piece like a flap i think he he said like a piece of metal that just pauses the ball similar to how a physical stand-up post would uh and then it just releases it when it needs to. Now, this is good news, I think, overall. I think it's less likely to have... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if this really is news, but that was a thought that I had. A fast thought. All right, number five is this part was probably the biggest, coolest news that we were introduced to today. I know you're supposed to bury the lead and make it number 10, but I wrote these down in order that they came to me while watching it. So here it is, about halfway through the live stream. Go watch. It's only 55 minutes. Go watch the whole thing. Watch it on the biggest screen television you have at your house. Grab yourself a beer if you haven't. Grab yourself whatever it is. A little bit of wacky tobacco. Whatever you got to do. A little bit of the devil's lettuce himself. Okay, get whatever. Any gummies you need. Get yourself prepared. Grab some popcorn. You're going to need some popcorn. If you have any popcorn left from last night you're gonna need some for tonight when you go watch stern and they just killed it they made it fun it was quick i think maybe for like the first 30 seconds the the the sound of the game volume was like a little bit high but they figured that out very very very quickly um something that was just neat for me personally was i remember i think on the second game it was nick wena uh was playing with Jack Danger and then the engineer I believe and one other person maybe Wason or something and I was like man I've got to interview half the people I was just sitting there I was talking to drop target and I was like eating some rad pad Thai I was like this is just it such a cool little hobby that we have here yes there a thousand people watching on YouTube and thousands more will probably watch over the next couple days But I just thought it's neat that we're in this tiny little hobby. I've got to interview like half of the players we're playing right now, you know, at Stern. So say what you will, Stern invite, JJP invite or not, I still feel like I've really got to do a lot of cool stuff in this hobby, and none of that is changed or lessened by the fact that I'm probably just never going to get an invite from any pinball company anywhere. And I guess I'll just be okay with that. My show is a little bit, it's probably not very sellable. I say what I want when I want and I have a lot of constructive criticism. I'm not giving very much here tonight, but I will say that I do have to give, and I have more coming later. Watch out, Jack Danger. Okay, I don't want everyone to say I'm too much of a stern tryhard, all right? But I do think it was a bit of a marketing fail. I called JJP on it having the worst timing ever for one week, like the day after the live stream for this to be coming out. So, you know, I did call JJP out on that a little bit, even though what we've seen, I will say this, what we saw from the game last night looks pretty good. Not as good as they were making it sound. I'm excited to see a lot more. It's hard in 30 seconds when half of that is just like cut out video to tell what's going on. I tried to slow it down like everybody else. I do have some thoughts on that. But tonight is X-Men's night. It's Jack Danger's night. It's Stern's night. So let's get back to that. All right. We're sitting here watching it and about halfway through, all of the lights dim. The Janos Kiss go out. All the other lights go out. and when the lights come back, and there's a really cool animation, Kitty Pryde, like, shakes her head. She looks like she's, like, she looks like she's, like, on shrooms or something like that. Like, or she, like, just had, I don't know, like, she was hanging out with Snoop Dogg in an enclosed space for too long. And, like, she goes, ooh, and she goes all dizzy and, like, faints. And then all of a sudden, when she comes back, too, all the lights come back on. So the lights go off. This is a moment. People talk about moments. This is a pinball moment. And the code is early. We're already seeing moments like this. And the lights go off, and when they come back on, they're just blue. So I don't know if the Janos Kiss are just all turned off at this point, or the LEDs that they have are all just on blue. But it looks incredible. It looks awesome. It looks fun. And they announce, basically, there's this neat animation that tells you you're going to the 21st century. You're going to the future's past? No, you're going to the present. You're going to the future. And then you go back to the past, and you play this mode where you've got to do all this stuff. And I thought that was really cool. That was my second favorite mode that I actually saw being made, even though how the mode starts is one of the coolest I've seen in pinball, maybe ever, other than Houdini when it shoots that ball across the thing. Like, that's a moment, okay? I hope we see a moment like that from Avatar. I hope there is some crazy stuff going on under the... If there is some crazy, wacky stuff happening on that playfield that they haven't shown us yet, we could be Ood and Odd. If not, it's going to be Ava... Ava what? Ava-huh? I mean, the art is decent. The shots look really good. And Mark Seiden, that's another gentleman I've got to interview. That was such a fun interview. Mark Seiden, for his first pin, it looks really good. It looks like he got some help from Steve Ritchie with all that flow. I mean, it does look like it's going to be a flow monster. You can't tell until you've seen his shot, but it looks like it will be. Not in the way X-Men is, for God's sake. This thing has got more flow than Niagara Falls on speed. but I'm excited for what Avatar is going to do I think the release date is bad I also don't think it was smart to not invite Orby who basically was the only person saying Elton John looked like it shot incredible and that the artwork was incredible and that Franchi knocked it out of the park because I know he likes that term and was saying that the Elton John that turns is the coolest mech I've ever seen in pinball until I saw these giant arms come down and smash and flick the ball. But we'll get into that in a moment because we're going to have to and I'm going to. So when it travels to the future and the lights go dim and you only have limited shots that stuff can help, it reminds me of the moment in Jaws when all of a sudden you have to shoot for the shark fin, okay, and there's blood in the water and everything. It reminds me of that. It reminds me of Whitewater when you get to the final, whatever, the final raft and all the lights turn off and on and the flippers die. That's what it reminds me of. It's really cool. I love it. that is neat that's interesting that seems like a super duper fun mode okay number six the animations are even better than i could have imagined and i don't even think they showed the best animations in the trailer so far that being said they were limited there wasn't that many jack danger did was sure to uh i don't know if someone asked in chat or not but if someone did thank you chat but jack danger was sure to mention to people there's a lot more animations coming guys. So that is good to hear because they kind of were replaying like the same, it seemed like the same five to 10 kind of got replayed quite often, or even the same three to five. So I, but what I saw was incredible. I just want to see a lot more of it. The call-out seemed good. The music seemed incredible way. I'm going to go way past 10 thoughts. All right. Number seven on the list is the flow is fast as frick, especially that figure eight, that downtown ramp that goes up then down the back then up that it seems to be defying gravity it feels like god is holding the pinball machine in his hand and whipping it around to make it like do that like it's getting crazy centrifugal force that could come from nowhere else but a pinball god who had just got out of an elevator with snoop dogg all right number nine on the list is this is brand new information by the way as well give a shout out to orby i don't seem to get a lot of shout outs another pinball podcast and that's not true call calling it the kinetesis there uh did uh not only not only did i win brat summer hot boy summer whatever that is i won that come on we knew that whenever you get christopher franchi on your show and deborah tallman and you get glenn the skateboarder in the same month you're obviously going to win uh brat of the summer am i right but the summer is over alas. Who's going to win the fall? I don't know. Probably not going to be me because I'm a lot busier now with the, we're getting ready for our Christmas shows. The collectible shows are back, baby. Now the only thing is I did not sell. I'm a little disappointed y'all. I did not sell that X-Men 49. So I'm going to do something crazy. Just so crazy right now. I never thought I'd do it. I'm going rock bottom for 72 hours. What is the freaking date today? The date is, oh the date is September 11th. Shout out. And shout out to all the Americans who were affected by September 11th and all the families. And I read quite a few Facebook memorial posts and such this morning. I know it's been a long time, but our lives will never be the same since that day. At least we forget, I guess, right? Anyways, to go back into pinball here for a second. That wasn't a very good bridge. But Jack Danger did mention that you can actually do an eight-way combo by hitting one of each shots in a row. And someone said, well, what do you win for getting the eight-way combo? And he said, well, for right now, just a high five. So maybe that's something they will code into the game. I know in Jurassic Park, like, if you do the four-way combo, it's like the super-duper-uber-secret whatever, you know. And Franchi, oh my god. Okay, I love you, Franchi, but I did mention Franchi. Franchi got the giant shh as if he was in the library from Stern. I thought that was hilarious. I think they're about to ban him. They might have even given him a quick five-minute shadow ban because he didn talk for a while after that But Franchi would not shut up about Jack Danger This part is probably not super duper safe for work I been trying to be safe for work recently Jack Danger outfit, cyborg outfit, had a seemingly very large package area, and so Franchi kept saying, like, did you get that costume modded, Jack? And jokes about his large crotch area. look maybe he just has a large crotch Franchi I don't know probably not a good time to be pointing that out multiple times in chat but anyways Franchi was probably just having fun over there he's like me he's a little bit wild you never know what he's going to say that's part of what we love about Christopher Franchi isn't it but hey in what type of chat do I get a shout out from Stern I might not have gotten an invite from Stern but I got a shout out I announced something on the chat that gave me a shout out from Stern and they didn't say shh. Instead they said congratulations Orbiter Albert. That's right. I announced in chat that Jack Danger's X-Men I didn't say this here. This is the exclusive for the show. This part of it. I'm getting the pro. But I am getting my first new in box is going to be X-Men. I know I've said that before on this show. And you know what? I'm allowed to change my mind. But as of right now, I'm going to be begging and pleading Drop Target Danielle, Hayden, Owen, the pinball gods, the bank gods, the Christmas shows, the coffee gods. I'm going to be begging anyone I can. I'm going to be getting a part-time job. I legit want to get a part-time Christmas job over and above doing all of our coffee and collectible shows to help pay for this. I want to get a pro. I want to get a pro, especially after watching the stream tonight because of what I'm about to say in number 10. So let's bring it up to number 10. Okay. Number 10, and this is, I guess, the only disappointing thing, and I'm sorry if I've just, if I've been drinking alcohol for multiple hours before it started. It's not my fault 4 p.m. in Chicago is 6 p.m. here, okay? I may have started drinking at 4 p.m. River Hibbert time. So I had a couple hours of having some brew scots in me, but I didn't notice either of the Sentinel mechs go off. And if they did, I don't know, just because Jack Danger's cam is just like, you know, direct overhead, which it has to be to videotape it. It just, you couldn't see them happening from there. So it doesn't mean that it didn't happen. I would need to go over and watch it again and put it on the big screen. And, you know, I was half watching chat, half chatting with my wife, half enjoying some beautiful alcohol, having some pad thai, only half paying attention. but I kept waiting for that moment, that moment in time when you get to see that finger flick and, and, you know, uppercick the ball across the room, like, hi-yah, like karate kick it, give it a little bit of the old wax on, wax off. It never happened. I mean, maybe it did happen. I didn't see it happen, and there wasn't much to do about it, right? Like, and maybe the balls were just flying around so fast. It is fast. I don't know. I saw the ball down in the danger room a lot. I saw the ball going up the left ramp a lot. I saw the ball going in the Sentinel area and getting hit to the Sentinel a lot. I know the ball must have traveled by where the arms are. I don't know. Sometimes Jack would have put like a camera on that exact spot. Maybe those two things are not coded in. I mean, I know we weren't watching. He did say there's a pro stream coming. So we're watching either a premium or an LE. And of course, that's what I believe what they show first anyways. So that being said, they still look like they still look hella cool. I just, you know, on a live streaming thing from above, maybe you're not going to see that finger pressed down and break that habit trail in half. Right. So anyways, other than that, other than that and Jack Danger not using the 21,000 or 22,000. Like, I don't know if Stern, if Stern said to Jack, please don't use dead flip. We want to focus on getting people over here, over to. So for those of you who don't know, it was live streamed on YouTube, but not on Deadflip. And I think that that, I don't have the numbers, so I don't want to say I know for sure that's a huge mistake. But to me personally, looking from the outside, with what I know about marketing, what I know about advertising, is that you want the most eyeballs on there. and Stern was able to pull in you know, 8 or 900 people I think it almost got to 1,000 once in the live stream if this was over on Deadflip you would have been guaranteed to have at least at least the option of getting the notification to 22,000 more people you would have had probably just as many people on your Stern channel but way, way, way more I think, I'm guessing like I'm guessing you would have got and Jack Danger usually can even get front page uh typically right because he's been affiliate for so long so I don't know how my voice is cracked there but if Jack Danger could have got on the front page wow we wouldn't have done as well as Fox Cities did because it wasn't that long of a stream where you would have got like and shout out again to Fox Cities and Tom Graff over there getting 4,000 and I should have mentioned this when I was talking about this as a as a father who got to go to provincials with his son uh in New Brunswick last year. That was probably my most proud moment of pinball ever. This man, Tom, got to be the guy live streaming his son, Neil Graff, in finals. So shout out to Neil, who also went to finals as well, and all the other finalists. But, wow. There you go. That's about as quick as I can do a 10 countdown. I'm still under half an hour, just barely. Once you add in Glenn the Skateboarder's doodle-doodle-doodle-doodle-doot-doot. Once you add in Glenn the Skateboarder's awesome theme song. Thanks, Glenn. Just chatting with him today. Can't wait to see him and unfortunately I have bad news. Tim the Lion Man Lee is not coming to Expo so I'm going to have to try to make it to the 24 Hours at the Sanctum if I ever even get into that one. I'm still four away from getting into that one but 100% for sure I'm coming to Expo. I don't know if I'm going to make it to the 24 Hours at the Sanctum. I'm sorry Tim the Lion Man Lee but I still get to meet Glenn the Skateboarder. I'm going to give this man a hug for so long he's gonna he's gonna be like no more hugs no more hugs orby stop it okay no i i'll try not to make you feel too awkward glenn but it's gonna be fun i can't wait for expo i can't wait to meet many of you who have never met me in person and those of you who have met me in person i can't wait to see you again and be like yo what's up good to see you let's go play a game of pinball let's go have a beer let's go have fun let's take a selfie let's do i'm gonna be doing live streams. You guys think that like Dawn is doing lots of live streams? You just wait till you see Al. I'm going to be live streaming all the time. It's going to be great. It's going to be fun. Expo, make sure you got some fire Wi-Fi because that's a problem at a lot of these big events. They're, you know, these big giant buildings made from metal and concrete and such, which is, you know, great for hurricanes and tornadoes. Not great for WIFI. Not great for, you know, getting the five bars to do So anyways, I've gone off track. What else would you expect? I love you guys. I don't expect I have to have a show for quite a while. Of course, after we get to see the live stream, which I believe is Friday, of Avatar, I'm busy working Saturday and Friday night. Hopefully, maybe, if possible. Hey, JJP wasn't in a rush to invite me to go cover Avatar. so I'm not going to be in a rush to do my five rad or one bad for them. But for you pinball nerds, I'll make sure it gets done either way. I love you all. Have an awesome day. Have an awesome night. Can't wait to see you all at Expo. Until next time, pinball nerds, say it with me if you know it. Remember to eat, sleep, and breathe uncanny X-Men pinball.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-15 | Item ID: a694bde3-265a-4c8a-b0e2-0862acbffa94*