# The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 21

**Source:** The Great British Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-02-16  
**Duration:** 75m 18s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** Buzzsprout-16631263

---

## Analysis

Scott Rundell and Neil McRae discuss recent pinball acquisitions and experiences, including Scott's new Metallica LE and Indiana Jones machines. They dive into technical issues affecting recent Stern releases (John Wick, X-Men, Dungeons & Dragons code updates), hardware reliability concerns with Spike 2 boards, and practical tips on moving pinball machines safely. The conversation covers game mechanics, customizations like lightning flippers, and frustrations with code development cycles at Stern.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Metallica LE is the best Stern game Scott has played recently, with excellent mechs and lighting system — _Scott discusses his wife's Metallica LE extensively, praising the four node boards, enlarged magnets, UV lighting, and speaker system_
- [MEDIUM] Stern likely received a discounted Metallica license compared to John Wick, X-Men, or Venom — _Scott speculates that Metallica's quality suggests cheaper licensing compared to other recent releases_
- [MEDIUM] John Wick hasn't received a code update since September, frustrating the community — _Neil mentions John Wick code stagnation on Pinside forums; Scott corrects to note a pre-Christmas update but no new contracts_
- [MEDIUM] X-Men was rushed to production and started at similar code maturity to Jaws but hasn't progressed as quickly — _Scott played X-Men code in September noting immaturity similar to Jaws launch; suspects rush release and mechanical issues delayed progress_
- [HIGH] Dungeons & Dragons Premium LE dragon fire-breathing feature had a critical node board issue caused by overly tight cable ties — _Neil explains Stern's investigation found cable stress causing arcing and board failure; motor cable redesign and new tie-down procedures implemented_
- [HIGH] Spike 2 hardware (from 2016 Batman) is struggling under current game load after ~10 years, showing video slowdown on content-heavy games — _Scott and Neil observe video stuttering on Metallica, Jaws, Avengers, and especially Godzilla when too much is happening_
- [MEDIUM] Stern is using node boards from multiple manufacturers (green, blue, red versions) to address supply chain and reliability issues — _Neil discusses three node board types from different suppliers; Scott confirms observations of variant boards affecting game compatibility_
- [MEDIUM] Lightning flippers on Indiana Jones make the game harder but players adapt to them after initial difficulty — _Neil explains mechanics of lightning flippers used on Fishtails and other games; discusses adaptation and score consistency_

### Notable Quotes

> "Metallica as I said to you it's nice I am absolutely good game what hands down to stern they've nailed that yeah that is so good"
> — **Scott Rundell**, ~13:00
> _Strong endorsement of Stern's execution on the Metallica remaster despite cost concerns_

> "it's almost too good in my book because they've set the bar again it's like you're gonna have a game where you demonstrated you can put mechs... it's like you're never going to buy from them if they say oh we had to make cutbacks because of licensing"
> — **Scott Rundell**, ~15:30
> _Suggests Stern's Metallica quality raises expectations for future releases and licensing excuses_

> "the Metallica game's got four node boards which is literally unheard of... I've only seen a few games with three node boards"
> — **Scott Rundell**, ~17:00
> _Technical depth and complexity of Metallica's architecture compared to recent releases_

> "When you do a homebrew you really get a clue as to why pinball manufacturers have the challenges they have. It is not easy."
> — **Scott Rundell**, ~35:45
> _Reflects industry-wide wiring and harness complexity problems_

> "My message to Stern right now I'm a big fan of Stern's... Get some Wick, X-Men Definitely those two games Get the code out on it"
> — **Scott Rundell**, ~55:00
> _Direct criticism of Stern's code update pace for flagship recent releases_

> "they were just cable tying it too tight and it puts stress on the cable which would then cause a bit of arcing which would then go bang"
> — **Neil McRae**, ~39:30
> _Root cause analysis of Dungeons & Dragons dragon mechanism failure; manufacturing process issue_

> "Jaws still isn't even at version 1 and it's a year old now"
> — **Neil McRae**, ~53:00
> _Highlights prolonged code immaturity on a major Stern release_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Scott Rundell | person | Co-host of Great British Pinball Podcast; UK pinball collector and enthusiast; recently acquired Metallica LE and Indiana Jones |
| Neil McRae | person | Co-host of Great British Pinball Podcast; UK pinball operator and collector; runs Pinball Republic club |
| Metallica LE | game | Recent Stern remaster praised for four node boards, enlarged magnets, UV lighting, and speaker quality; Scott considers it the best modern Stern |
| Indiana Jones | game | Classic Williams wide-body game Scott recently acquired; planning full restoration with lightning flipper mod |
| John Wick | game | Recent Stern release; code stagnation frustrating community; no meaningful updates since December pre-Christmas release |
| X-Men | game | Recent Stern release; victim of rushed release; code maturity lagged behind Jaws; mechanical kicker issues on some units |
| Dungeons & Dragons | game | Recent Stern release; Premium LE dragon fire-breathing feature had critical node board failures caused by cable tie stress; now shipping with motor cable redesign |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; recent releases (Metallica, John Wick, X-Men, D&D) have experienced code delays and hardware reliability issues |
| Jaws | game | Recent Stern release; still not at version 1.0 code after one year; code baseline that X-Men was compared against |
| Foo Fighters | game | Recent Stern release; affected by CPU/node board slowdown issues; required node board swaps to resolve; recurring issues noted |
| Elvira | game | Recent Stern release; prone to crashing (previously unusable); received code improvements; recently added wizard mode |
| Pinball Republic | organization | UK pinball club owned/operated by Neil McRae; features multiple machines including Metallica original and remaster |
| Spike 2 | product |  |
| Ray | person | Lead programmer at Stern assigned to Metallica |
| Wason | person | Lead programmer at Stern assigned to X-Men |
| Rick | person | Lead programmer at Stern assigned to Jaws |
| George Gomez | person | Stern contact for D&D dragon issue troubleshooting; discussed with Scott about cable failure problems |
| Carlos | person | Content creator; produced large Twitch stream of Dungeons & Dragons gameplay |
| Kevin | person | UK pinball enthusiast; owns Foo Fighters with recurring slowdown issues; dislocated shoulder during previous game collection |
| Sturge | person | Competitive pinball player known for playing Indiana Jones on lightning flippers |
| Matt | person | Helped deliver Indiana Jones to tight three-story flat with Sarah; referenced Laurel and Hardy piano scene in moving story |
| Laser Loss | person | Twitch streamer; produced large Dungeons & Dragons gameplay stream |
| Holly | person | Scott's wife; owns the Metallica LE in their collection; concerned about expanding home collection during planned move |
| Di | person | Purchased Iron Maiden from Scott with upgraded coil mod for auto-launch |
| Davey Stumbler | person | Modder/enthusiast dealing with node board variant compatibility issues on Spike 2 games |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Metallica LE quality and design, Stern code update delays (John Wick, X-Men, D&D), Spike 2 hardware strain and performance degradation, Manufacturing reliability issues (D&D dragon, X-Men kicker)
- **Secondary:** Node board variants and supplier resilience, Indiana Jones restoration and lightning flipper modifications, Pinball machine moving safety and logistics
- **Mentioned:** Homebrew pinball complexity and wiring challenges

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Strong positive sentiment about Metallica LE execution and quality, but significant frustration with Stern's code update pace on John Wick, X-Men, and D&D. Hardware reliability concerns and Spike 2 aging temper enthusiasm. Practical, measured tone acknowledging manufacturing challenges while calling for improvements.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Stern's development bandwidth appears stretched; multiple simultaneous code paths (Metallica, John Wick, X-Men, Jaws, Elvira, D&D) with holiday tournament requirements creating bottleneck (confidence: medium) — Neil: 'Maybe they're just stretching themselves too thin'; notes holiday tournament updates required all-game releases; suggests programmer allocation per game insufficient
- **[code_update]** Stern delaying code updates on flagship recent releases (John Wick, X-Men, Dungeons & Dragons); community frustration rising on Pinside forums (confidence: high) — Scott explicitly states: 'Get some Wick, X-Men Definitely those two games Get the code out on it'; Neil notes John Wick stagnation since September; X-Men code maturity lagged Jaws
- **[competitive_signal]** Lightning flipper customizations becoming standard on challenging games (Indiana Jones, Fishtails); players adapting to restrictions rather than removing them (confidence: medium) — Neil explains adaptation curve; notes outer orbits most affected; Sturge legendary for playing IJ on lightning flippers; Neil plays Guardians of the Galaxy permanently with lightning flippers
- **[design_philosophy]** Scott's Metallica LE evaluation suggests Stern may have received discounted licensing for Metallica remaster compared to recent flagship releases (John Wick, X-Men, Venom), allowing for higher component count and feature parity (confidence: medium) — Scott speculates: 'I think they got it cheap, yeah'; notes four node boards on Metallica vs typical two on recent games; exceptional feature set implies favorable licensing terms
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Multiple mechanical reliability issues on recent Stern releases (D&D dragon fire-breathing, X-Men kicker, Foo Fighters slowdown); root causes range from cable design to supplier variance (confidence: high) — D&D dragon failure caused by cable ties; X-Men kicker unreliable on multiball; Foo Fighters has recurring CPU/node board slowdown issues requiring multiple board swaps
- **[product_strategy]** X-Men released in code state comparable to Jaws at launch but has regressed in update pace relative to Jaws, suggesting rushed production or deprioritization (confidence: medium) — Scott played X-Men in September and noted it was 'at a maturity level That Jaws was at When it came out'; observes X-Men 'hasn't progressed as quickly' since launch
- **[product_concern]** Spike 2 hardware (from 2016 Batman) showing observable performance degradation under current game software load; video stuttering on Metallica, Jaws, Avengers, Godzilla when system under heavy load (confidence: high) — Scott and Neil both observe video slowdown; Neil notes 'you can see the video start to slow a little bit'; game still plays but screen catches up late
- **[product_strategy]** Stern appears to have shifted development priorities away from mature code updates on recent releases toward supporting holiday tournament infrastructure and new game launches (confidence: medium) — Neil notes: 'they did this kind of holiday kind of tournament thing that required an update on all the games. And I personally think that's definitely been a massive impact'; suggests reallocation of programmer bandwidth
- **[product_concern]** Manufacturing tolerance variance causing intermittent failures on hand-assembled components (kickers, motors); some units reliable, others problematic (confidence: high) — Scott: 'It's all down to the fact that it's all built by hand... The variance is what causes the problem. So some will have issues, some won't'; X-Men kicker variance; D&D dragon node board selection variance
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community enthusiasm for recent Stern releases dampening due to code stagnation; earlier positive reception (John Wick, X-Men launch) turning to frustration (confidence: medium) — Scott: 'If they don't get more code out for that soon, that game is probably going to lose more money... than you did on your jukebox'; Neil cites Pinside forum frustration
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Stern using node boards from multiple manufacturers (green, blue, red versions) to address supplier resilience and reliability; indicates supply constraints and ongoing component sourcing challenges (confidence: high) — Neil describes three node board types from different manufacturers; Davey Stumbler dealing with variant compatibility issues; Stern changed node board on Foo Fighters to fix slowdown issue
- **[technology_signal]** Spike 2 platform aging visibly; game software feature bloat pushing hardware performance limits; suggests Stern may need to accelerate Spike 3 timeline or optimize existing code (confidence: medium) — Neil notes hardware 'is starting to struggle'; Scott sees video slowdown on multiple games; observation that games since 2016 are hitting performance ceiling

---

## Transcript

 Welcome to the Great British Pinball Podcast, and here are your hosts Scott Rundell and Neil McRae. Ah, the glorious tune of God Save the King. Yes, it must mean it's Great British Pinball podcast time and it's oh my god it's early o'clock um because scott and i are so useless at organizing but actually particularly me we're up at some god-awful hour good morning scott good morning neil how you doing i'm doing very well apart from we've had unusual freaking technical issues well to be fair i think it was just the test that was failing right yeah i was doing some tests it was like central and then all of a sudden we did a live test it was fine so i hope so I hope no one's going to hear this. Excuse me. Sorry, I should have coughed before we got going. Right, that's better. I'm fighting off another flu. Yeah, I mean, actually, I was just going to say that. So I was at Indisc, and loads of people come down with the flu. Fortunately, I have not, because that would have knocked me out. so those that have caught the flu eat more veg, be more healthy just like me the pinnacle of health brilliant so it's been a busy month in Scott Towers as my understanding busy week if anybody else ok the shutters of pinball ins and outs are wide open I think my neighbours probably curtains were twitching constantly with all the vans back and forth honestly tell us about it scott tell us about it so um i sold my jukebox yeah which you which you now agree with me was a terrible thing to buy mate i lost so much money on that i lost so much money on that i'm so upset about that still i got conned so hard but like he's ironically i don't know what's happened between it getting out of my house and into his house he can't get it to select a record so i've got i've somewhat agreed to go down to wales to fix it for him um i i've tried to walk him through it but he's unfortunately he's not technically savvy and it's just like okay i'm just going to figure this out but anyway so that's gone um i've got um it keeps on giving yeah yeah it really is it really is um but yeah i mean i've got metallica le or more accurately Holly has, as in my wife. So, yeah, that was cool. To be honest with you, it's my favourite Stern, I think, if not my favourite game at the moment. It really is fun. It's fantastic. I did a stream last night and got to the... completed the four multiballs, got to the first mini multiball wizard mode called Blackened. Actually discovered a bug which really is fixing. And not a major bug, just a display bug and it was a lot of fun. Literally one game I'd been playing pinball all night plus I'd played, I started with Pulp Fiction I couldn't hit shit on that game, it can be so brutal. Earlier on in the week at the club I put 82 million up which is just, it's a monster score on 5x playfield and then last night it's like I'd never seen the game, in fact it wasn't just like I'd never seen the game, it's like I'd literally walked off the street and hadn't played pinball in my life before. It was so bad. I then played a bit of Stranger Things, which was better. I then played a bit of John Wick, which if they don't get more code out for that soon, that game is probably going to lose more money on that game than you did on your jukebox. Yeah, probably. So yeah, I got Metallica, and then the day after that I got Indiana Jones, which I've been waiting for for a long time. I love that game. I was amused by the picture you sent me of of Matt well love story short except for the fact it get me banned on most regular family family channels so obviously you got me in contact with one of your good founding yes no he's just a member Sergio unfortunately he does live in a house that is not delivery or collection friendly. Meaning he's three floors up, I believe, is the... In this case, it was only one flight of stairs. It's very tight. And the picture I sent you, imagine if those who... You can't visualize this, but if you ever watch Friends where they're trying to pivot a sofa up and down a flight of stairs, it was like that. Actually, you know what came into my head? It wasn't Friends. Oh, okay. It was Laurel and Hardy with a piano. Oh, yeah. Now, I probably learned Harry is no longer in this world of madness that we call the 21st century. But I used to watch it as a kid and find it hilarious. So that was what sprung to mind. But well done to Matt. Yeah, good job, Matt, getting that out. And I should say, Sarah, because she was very adamant she was also helping on that. Yeah, she's probably the brains of the organisation, knowing Sarah. But, yeah, I mean, this is the thing. I've actually walked away from games that were upstairs. Yeah, I wouldn't. As you remember, I dislocated my shoulder. Yeah. Just taking one over a small threshold of a step. So I was not prepared to be picking that game up from a flight of stairs. So the last time I put any effort in collecting a pinball machine was down at my wife. She liked no fear. right one came up uh actually about 20 minutes from where we lived at the time oh wow um and i was like it's on the ground floor yeah oh okay great perfect um we go and see and it's a lovely it's a lovely condition the club right now it's beautiful and and it was cheap i mean under a grand uh cheap this is before covid obviously um and i'm like cool it's gonna easy to get this out. So I fold it up, blah, blah, blah. Then I wheel my sack truck in and notice that the kitchen, there's like a bit of the kitchen with the worktop and two opposing worktops have come together, but they haven't left a proper door size between them. So my truck couldn't fit through it. So we had to literally lift the game high enough and over that, and it was a brand new kitchen. and I'll be honest with you, I nearly walked away and if it wasn't for the fact Mandy was with me I probably would have walked away anyway we were sensible the other thing is when you're lifting pinball machines and someone's desperate to sell it the way that they behave in terms of ensuring that you can get it out is nuts I once bought a Star Trek next gen from a guy that was getting divorced yeah it's probably the same era as IJ and he was trying to help me we got it out, I was under control I was just going at a pace that was sensible so I had to go over grass and he's like, and he comes over and tries to pull the damn thing I'm like, fuck off in my head anyway we got it out in the end, it was fine but when you're moving games folks, be so careful It's so easy to injure yourself. I've pulled my arm a couple of times to the point where, you know, if it's a stern, I just won't touch it, basically. And you got Pulp Fiction, one of the last games I got, one of the heaviest games I've ever moved. Jersey Jack, if you ever move one of them, oh, my God. Because they use MDF. Guns and Roses is, like, basically max weight for my lifting truck. yeah it's scary how much damage you could do yourself so yeah if you're moving games be careful or pay someone else to move them for you which might be expensive but you'll probably save yourself on the medical bills just the inconvenience of it I mean I it was Kevin Kevlar first signalled to me that you could hurt yourself he pulled his arm, I think the same way you did it or Samoa and I was like, nah, I'm not doing that again anyway, so Indiana Jones I'm guessing it's going to get the full beans oh mate, it's so hard not to be buying this stuff straight away it really, really is Holly's like, she didn't really want me buying it in the first place because we're supposed to be supposed to be moving it's supposed to be lowering down the collection now it's at bloody, I'm at 15 I'm well over well over but it was in Indiana Jones and I always wanted one I'd done one up obviously for someone else and I always loved it when I had it when I was restoring it so I think I will do the full works on this one it won't be instant I'll probably wait till the summer have you seen the one that's in Disneyland in Florida yes yeah I've seen that it's pretty impressive yeah I was going to say it's been a bit mistreated which is a shame It's effectively been in a canteen for like 20 years. It looks lovely, but it plays like shit. This one's only a really good example, to be honest with you. The playfield's in Great Nick. There's a small, typical area. I always find this with indies. They have that right side near the sling. It starts to get a bit of wear mark around it where the ball's been going at it. Yeah, I mean, that typically, to me, usually signals that the kicker is bent. Oh, yeah? Yeah, so when I've seen that before, I've seen that in a couple of Williams games, and what's happening is the kicker's got bent, and it's not, unless you took it out, you probably would never see it. Yeah. But if you take it out and compare it, it's like just a few millimetres, it basically just starts pushing the ball down rather than kicking it out. So, yeah, I might do some just emergency maintenance on it, get some, you know, like I've already replaced the flipper bats. I know what it is with you pinball republic people ah the game's too easy I'll put lightning flippers on I cannot play that game with lightning flippers there are lightning flippers on it I was like why is this so hard and then I was like looking at it I was like well done Sturge Sturge has gone up in my estimations he's a legend for playing that game on lightning flippers I mean it is to be fair though it is a very easy game yeah I could do that but I mean like it's just that you go that captive ball at the top. You hit that and then because of the lightning flipper, you have to knock it. You have to nudge the game otherwise the ball just goes straight down the middle. For those of you who don't know, lightning flippers are off a game called Fishtails. And Dracula. And there's about a quarter of an inch shorter. And actually they get used on loads of games. So my Guardians of the Galaxy which is on loan to Pete, has got lightning flippers. But actually what happens is if you were to keep them on, Scott, you'd actually adapt to them because, yeah, okay, there's the bit in the middle where you've got to tilt a bit more aggressively. I had them always on fishtails, right, because I think anybody who puts standard flippers on fishtails is just cheating. Yeah, I know. That game's designed for it in my book. Yeah, so, I mean, basically you adapt to it. So when we first did it at the club, so the scores, you know, People get 100 million on it all the time. And then I did it for the UK Open. And the scores dropped to start with, but then are equally as high as they were. And anyone who then plays one without a line in the flippers, it's like a dream boat for them because the game is so easy. Sometimes a training wheel or something, I bet. Yeah, I mean, you just have to, like I say, if the ball is straight down the middle, you just have to watch for that. But in terms of actual shots, probably the outer orbits is where it has the biggest impact. But you adapt to it more than you might think. Actually, I find it hard to play Guardians without lightning flippers now. So it's probably not helped me as much as I would like. But if you don't put lightning flippers on that, actually, probably both those games are pretty tough. But actually Actually IJ is probably one of the Williams WMS games That I would probably buy I think it's a good game And it's got a lot of As a wide body it's got some decent shots on it Yeah it doesn't feel too much Like a wide body as well I hate these wide bodies where all you get is the ball crossing over And like Hobbit And whilst it's crossing over you could have Like gone for a quick curry and come back It's just so slow But yeah it's a good game. Matt had won the club for a while. But then after you've played it a few times it does get very samey. In a collection like yours... It's there for the collection, right? I'm running out of games that I was pining over now, which is getting kind of scary. Then I'll have to consider the new titles again. But at least I've got one modern Stern left back in my collection again and I don't think that will go anywhere to be honest with you I think Metallica as I said to you it's nice I am absolutely good game what hands down to stern they've nailed that yeah that is so good I mean I wonder if they realized how good a job that they've done on it it's almost too good in my book because they've set the bar again it's like to me it's like you're gonna have a game where you demonstrated you can put mechs and I know they had to because it was a remaster right it's a copy of the original design but to show that you can do that for that kind of money again. It's like, and it's a big license. I'm just, I'm never going to buy from them if they say, oh, we had to make cutbacks because of licensing. It's like... Yeah, but I think, I mean, have you watched the Making Of video? No. Okay, you should watch it because the reason the game, the reason they did it was because Metallica wanted them to do it. Oh, I knew that part, yeah. Okay, so my expectation is they got this license compared to, I don't know, John Wick or X-Men or Venom. Oh, you think they got it discounted? I think they got it cheap, yeah. But I mean, when you... So I had both games at the Pinball Republic. So I've got the original Ellie and I've got the remastered Ellie. When you flip up the game, the Metallica game's got four node boards, which is literally unheard of. I've only seen... I've only seen a few games with three no boards, but most of them recently I've only had two. Kiss has got three no boards, which I was surprised at, but it has. And, yeah, it's just packed, and the mechs, you know, the mechanisms are great, the snake. I love what they've done with the enlarged magnets as well. I mean, this is the thing for me. I think I would, as much as I think a lot of people say if I had an original, I don't see the reason to upgrade i would just because if you can afford it get the expression lights if you can only buy a premium something that's the case now right there's no more le's yeah that lighting system is just so good yeah i mean you can you can kind of if you're watching on youtube you'll see you can see the lights of my one in the background but the light yeah the way they've done the line the lights on it the way that they've done the uv the speaker systems really good as well i mean like jjb could learn a thing or two about how they've done the audio in this Yeah, I mean, it's kind of funny because I was having a debate with someone about upgrading the audio on it. And I've looked at a few audio upgrades on Stern games. The problem is you're pulling off the speaker outputs. True. And the cord is... You can get that pin sound upgrade for the amp, right? Yeah, but that just comes out of the... They're still pulling the sound out of the speaker outputs. There's no other way of getting the sound out of the game. That's the problem. and so you so you then end up amplifying so i'm a sound gimp basically you then end up amplifying the noise and i can so some people can't hear it right sure i can hear it it just even this bad crossover yeah i mean you can fiddle with i mean there's a lot of programmability in the stern um menu system where you can adjust the just stuff but you know just just to just to um there's just that amplifier that they've got in it is not it's not terrible but it's not brilliant either. It's the last of the Spike 2's right even like updating it I can see the hardware is starting to struggle. It's starting to like No question about it. I mean when you've got I mean I've seen it on a couple of other games, Jaws, Avengers actually Godzilla probably the most when you've got a lot going on you can see the video start to slow a little bit I mean the game still plays okay but then you see the screen kind of catching up and you know and you know that's something I tend it's not even a 720p screen but it's definitely you know you've got network running you've got you know internet running you've got the game running they've thrown so much at it now I think it's really at it yeah I mean and what the first Spike game came Spike 2 game came out 2016 Batman, so it's almost 10 years old so it's had a decent run I mean they've revised the board the motherboard a couple of times and the node boards a few times, actually I was talking to Davey Stumbler he had a couple of issues with his mod and it turns out it because Stern got got different manufacturer for node boards and he got this lolly board lollipop board kind of listens for the messages from the node boards to activate stuff and you're a customer i just couldn't figure it out and then he suddenly figured out there's this different load board so he's been spandering away um trying to make it work with the more yeah which you know i i think if he i mean if he said he was asking me He's like, you know, what's the story with note boards? I was like, there's actually three types, as I understand it. There's a green one, a blue one, and I believe now there's a red one, which are coming from different manufacturers. Do you think that's because to address the, is it maybe down to part availability, or is it down to maybe just addressing new revisions to make them more stable? I think it's all of the above, mate. I think it's supplier resilience. I think it's trying to make the boards more reliable, which they do seem to be more reliable. I mean, there's still some issues. Actually, I mentioned Kev earlier on. Kev last had this bizarre issue with his Foo Fighters, where the game, he's got a video of it, and the game just slows down. It's just weird. Not just the videos, but, like, everything slows down. And Stern changed Noteboard, I think it was Noteboard 9 or 8, I can't remember, one of the Noteboards, and it fixed it. And he was happy. It took a while to debug it, and, of course, you're dealing with Stern in the U.S., so it's not easy. You have graphics at play there. Yeah, but it's come back, the same issue. So I said to them. They're just giving you a CPU board. The first thing they did was to swap the CPU boards. I mean, apparently, Kevin said they pretty much swapped every board in the game that was a control board. and they unplugged the scanner for Insider, I went through this I mean, because I kind of pinged a few people to get them some help and it was it took a while to figure it out and then they changed that node board and bang, it was fine and then it started happening again, I asked them something on that node board must be cooking the node board or something you know, it's like, maybe there's a small leakage of something, I don't know, but Overvolting it somehow I've got two Foo Fighters, I've got Miley Appearing in the club and it's been bulletproof It's a game that's Not known for issues actually So anyway He's been working through that, Sterner's been helping him out And I mean he's a bit Knocked about it because it's It's a game he wants to play right? Yeah I mean this is the thing, it drives me mental It's the reason why I've got new games Because they tend to be a bit more reliable But yeah Yeah, it's a bit hard, isn't it? He's having to fettle with this one like it's a Williams-era game. Yeah, but I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of it and they'll figure it out. But, yeah, frustrating as hell. But, you know, that's the thing when you look at Metallica, you know, there's just so much on the game you think, my God. And you don't realize how much is on that game until you lift it. When you lift the playfield and it's like, Jesus, it weighs a ton. Yeah. And actually comparing the playfields, like, with the old SAM setup and the new the new Spike setup the Spike setup just looks so much cleaner there's not these big freaking cables giant harnesses unlike mine in the background there that looks like Spaghetti Junction Scott's homebrew that we're super excited about is the homebrew going to make it to Pinfest? I don't know mate it's too much work It will be probably the first and last time I do something like this. It's just so much effort that has to go in. Doing the harnesses took me the best part of like two days. It's just so much bloody wiring. I had to buy so much gauge of wire. It was insane. And I was running through it like so quickly. I mean, this is the thing. When you do a homebrew, you really get a clue as to why, you know, pinball manufacturers have the challenges they have. It is not easy. I used to be really crap at crimping But now after doing about 18, 19 connectors I've become pretty proficient at it Awesome, I've got a TNA that needs re-crimping You can come down I'm a dab hand at that now But yeah And then For me, the only game I bought I think I mentioned it last week I bought an Elvira for the club So there's an Elvira in the club now Just a standard premium? Premium, no, it was one that was there he put powder coating on the armour, but not the legs, which was a bit weird but anyway, it's actually quite a nice powder coat, it's quite a tough one quite often the glossy ones will get little micro scratches in them, but if you buy the prismatic stuff, normally it's pretty resilient because it's designed for car allies oh, ok, I'll, yeah, ok that's useful to know I've not had massive issues with it, just although actually there's a few, because one of my games I noticed that the clover had a big lockdown bar a big scratch and it pissed me off because I don't see how that happened without someone doing it deliberately and that was a bit irritating but the good news is if I want I can just get it repowered at some point in the future it's just a pain in the ass and yeah so that and then I'm waiting patiently for Dungeons and Dragons there's lots With a real fire-breathing dragon at the moment. Yeah, actually, for those that don't know what that is, so Stern told everyone to turn their dragons off on the Premium LE, and it's an old issue that's come back to kind of haunt them a little bit. It's an old issue, okay. Yeah, so on Rush, Rush Premium LE, there's a ramp at the time machine that goes up and down. On the Pro, it's up all the time, I think. Is that right? Yeah. And They were having It's got this node board that drives That mech And that node board was going bang a lot Actually it didn't happen to me I've got a premium that gets a lot of plays At the club I'm talking thousands But Steren sent out A pack To change the motor On the game So I fitted this I didn't have the issue about a failure just in case it happened. Yeah. But it turns out what was causing it, this is just nuts, is the guys who make the games in Stern, you know, if you look at your game from Stern, you'll see that they cable tie a lot of cables to keep them tight and not loose. And basically they were just that cable that runs from the motor board to the motor. They were just cable tying it too tight, and it puts stress on the cable, which would then cause a bit of arcing, which would then go bang. For those of you in the PC market, do you know anything about the new NVIDIA connectors? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You remember like in the 40 series, which was the previous generation, they built a new 12-pin connector. Yeah. And if you didn't seat it correctly, it would arc. Yeah. And that sounds just like that. It's similar, exactly the same. And anyway, the same thing happened. So they did make some changes. They couldn't figure out in the board. This probably went on for ages. Actually, I made with George Gomez about it because the last thing I wanted was this getting my game going bang and having to wait for it, especially in the club. But, you know, they were struggling to figure out, and then they figured out it was this cable. So what the motor thing did was give you a longer cable. And then, apparently, what's happened is they've tied down the cable in the Dragon. Well, I'm glad it's something as silly as just, like, wiring and harness length. That's all it is. But it's kind of one of those things where, in the lab, you know, they probably didn't tie the cables down. No, they probably didn't. And they're like, well, why is this happening? We're not seeing this in the lab. What the hell? And then, you know, someone is trying to make the game safe and easy, you know, adds a cable tie. This is the thing, I can imagine, like, if you're trying to, because I do this all the time when I'm wiring up my harness, I want it enough so that I've got enough slack so that when the playfield's up, it won't snag. Yeah. But I want it not too long that it starts wrapping itself around. Exactly. 100%. So, anyway, that's the D&D thing. So, apparently they're shipping again and they're moving. But there's lots of streams of the game. Actually, Carlos did a really big stream. And So Laser Los on Twitch I think the stream's still up there if you want to look at it It's a I think a lot of people are really liking this game But they're They're a bit frustrated with code And actually I'll just spend a minute on that So John Wick X-Men Metallica to a lesser extent Jaws I'm fairly satisfied with Metallica's code Yeah Metallica's code I've got no complaints And I think it's, you know, even, I mean, it's, you know, they had full code when the game came out and they've added to it. And it's, you know, really he's doing a few, I think, more like he's added some of the extra modes and the wizard modes and some bug fixes and stuff. But overall, I think it's great. But John Wick hasn't had an update in a while. It's September, I heard, I think. Yeah. And, no, there was one just before Christmas, I'm pretty sure. but they haven't done any of the contracts that they were doing. Maybe that's what I heard. I think they said there were no contracts. Yeah, so I think if you've been in the UK, I don't think they've done a contract since games got to the UK, so I don't know what that issue's about, but I think people are, you know, I was on the John Wick Pinside Forum, people were getting a bit frustrated about it. X-Men, there was massive frustration. I still think that was a victim Of rush release But there we go Yeah At least the game At least in the manufacturing Of the game I just don't think you can rush that I worked for two companies Where we build stuff I thought they were saying We're going to put another game It got shelved and this one got pushed up Yeah but it was already ready I think they'd already finished it Well, they obviously hadn't finished it The code I played this back in September And the code was at a maturity level That Jaws was at When it came out Do you think it's more like It started off around the same position as Jaws But it just hasn't progressed as quickly Yeah, no question about it And I think they've had some Mechanical issues with the playfield That they've been trying to address And I'm not I don't know I mean, so my game of the plunge works 100%. The kicker works probably... I think it's all down to the fact that it's all built by hand, right? Yeah, absolutely. The variance is what causes the problem. So some will have issues, some won't. Yeah, I mean, like I say, mine's just great. So the one thing I'm going to do, and this is the thing, Iron Maiden had this issue with the loop. Avengers had this issue with a big long kick. No one was whinging about it Again it's slightly different with this game Because of the nature of the game But in Iron Maiden I got fed up with it I spent so much time trying to get it To work reliably And then a mate of mine said Why don't you just stick a bigger coil in it And we did and it's been 100% And so There's three Iron Maidens out there That have got bigger launcher coils One I sold it to Di She's got that one My one here and the one in the club have got these bigger coils and the auto launch works 100% so I'm going to do that mod to my X-Men the only time my X-Men plays up is when it's multiball so you start a multiball and it kicks a lot of balls out and then I think by the time the third ball kicks out it's struggling a little bit for me it's not a massive issue but you know you want it to play well basically so anyway we'll say we're gone, but I do think of those games, I mean, Jaws still isn't even at version 1, and it's a year old now. I think the problem is they've obviously gone back to free cornerstones a year, free games a year, whatever you want to call it, and I think obviously they seem to also be upgrading the code for other games while they're doing it, like, you know, mass releases of new code for, like, even Elvira got a wizard mode, right? Maybe they're just stretching themselves too fit. I do, yeah. I mean, I do think, so they did this kind of holiday kind of tournament thing that required an update on all the games. And I personally think that's definitely been a massive impact on this. It's not the only impact, but it's definitely been one. Yeah. I think they'll probably be rethinking that. I mean, I don't think they're short of programmers because programmers are kind of assigned to each game. You know, Ray's on Metallica. Wason's on X-Men. Rick is on Jaws They've all got a lead programmer But I do think My message to Stern right now I'm a big fan of Stern's I think they do great stuff Get some Wick, X-Men Definitely those two games Get the code out on it And then Dungeons and Dragons Get the code out And also I was having a debate With a guy on Discord about, he's frustrated every time he plays a game, it crashes. Which one? Dungeons & Dragons? Well, Dungeons & Dragons and John Wick he was specifically frustrated about. I think maybe X-Men as well, but actually the game that I've only really seen regularly crash is Elvira. And it's got a lot better. I mean, at one stage it was just unusable, so UK Open, we took it out for finals because literally you get two games out of it and then it would just die and reboot. Anyway, it's a lot better now, so the latest code it's substantially better and I know talking to the guys at Stern who are, I mean, they don't like this any more than we do, but they've been working flat out to kill the bugs that are causing the games to crash. But, you know, when you're supporting, I don't know, what, 25 games now or something like that, it is challenging. I think it's less about games being rushed out, more about the size of the estate they now have to manage. And also, they're up against it. You know, we mentioned that you see the game feels like there's a lot of load on it as you're playing it and if you've got inefficient code that'll that'll kill you anyway um so look great on metallica um it's a phenomenal game actually and if you go on my youtube channel you'll see my i had a big game on it last night um i've just uploaded it to youtube if you want to have a look at it and it's um it's such a great game i know this sounds petty as well the only thing i don't like is i'm having to sign in every time okay so you need to set up home team So home team Basically allows you To store your credentials On the game And basically when you fire up When you hit the start button It will prompt you Who you are Oh so you can then select my profile Oh nice Yeah there's a I'm pretty sure There's a tutorial video Yeah so there is There's a tutorial video On The Stern's YouTube channel That I definitely recommend you install that Actually Annoyingly Because we're a certified venue Certified venues can't use Home Team which I wish they would fix Because I would love to be able To use it in the club I'd basically let all the members of their logins predetermined if they wanted to, of course. But, yeah, no, set up a home team. That'll make your life a lot easier on starting to connect it for sure. Right, let's move on. I've lost my little script. What the hell did I do? Do you want to talk about rumours? Rumours, that's it. How can we forget about juicy rumours? So you've got one. You've got one. so apparently um it won't be their next title but it is in their license repertoire um barrels of fun appears to have acquired gi joe now everyone in the uk we're thinking gi joe what's that just think just think action man it is action man yeah action man elise his hands can grip things it's a weird title to have I mean maybe it's massive and more popular in America but it is very popular in America it's I mean I could see it being interesting I just I would rather they choose more of a movie tie in than a TV show there is GI Joe movies and cartoons and stuff but they were terrible I haven't seen any of them but I can imagine That would be like any Action Man cartoon would be instantly terrible. But, yeah, I mean, I wonder. It would be great if they did a UK version that was Action Man. That would be awesome. Yeah obviously I think Bowser Fund will they announce their next title at TPF I hope so I have it on very good authority it will not be at tpf yeah unfortunately um it that means no announcement for jjp either yep so i have it on very good authority um that harry potter yeah specky bastard is is not going to be at tpf It's probably My spies Inside JGP Are telling me that That would really annoy JGP That I've said that I've told me that it is Probably going to be at MGC maybe Although there's some political issue there I don't know Anyway but It's definitely not going to be At TPF if it is you can come up to me at tpf and say mccray you're full of shit um but that kind of worries me then because then tpf what will be there then because last year so i will tell you what will be there there will be something from cgc there not a new game unfortunately but oh so it's gonna be medieval madness then uh so i don't know if medieval madness will be there but I think the update for Oh, the finished code for Cactus. Cactus Canyon might be there. I'm also hearing that the remake of Medieval Madness may have one or two surprises. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. It may have One or two surprises I just hope that If they're nice surprises that I can buy it And retrofit it to my Elite I've got an old Elite as well It is old It's 10 years old that game now mate 2016 it's scary And We can't have that Big board it'll blow up and go wrong All the freaking time 10 years in not a single issue not a single freaking issue I know somebody who had a dead board it only cost 350 that's only but it's considering the size of the board but okay it hasn't been like this massive cascade of failures that was predicted by the stupid thank god they put in good quality LEDs though on the SMDs yeah I mean I used to love being able to see CGC at the top but on Pulp Fiction they dropped the ball a little bit Doug fixed that I gave him some feedback on that and he's frustrated by it Doug is like an insane perfectionist it annoys him when stuff doesn't work it's not about money he tries himself on the quality yeah and it's great to see I mean all the pinball manufacturers don't want to put out bad games but you know it unfortunately happens But, yeah, so CGC, I'm hearing that either TPF or Expo, I can't unpick. But there might be something interesting from them. Let's, you know, again, if I'm wrong, you can come up to me and say, Neil, you're full of shit. I'm quite happy to be full of shit. That's cool. It's a rumor. Cuphead will not be there. Wow, really? No, it will not be there. It's not quite ready yet. But it is coming. so lots of parts being shipped will there be any new announcements then? other than obviously new pinball games well the one pinball that I won't have played that will be there that I've actually got an order is Evil Dead so it was at Pinball at the Beach which I was supposed to be at but I couldn't make it because of work it looked like a really nice event to be fair yeah so I was booked in we're definitely going next year it looks awesome my wife, when I showed her to manage I'm signed up, she'll just be out sunbathing for the whole week you don't have to just knock yourself out walking around playing pinball all day you can just go relax get some cocktails, put a Hawaiian shirt on shave, life is good yeah, and actually the guys who originally set up TPF that have done pinball at the beach I heard nothing but positive reviews and actually Evil Dead, there was a lot of play on it, I heard lots of positive reviews are starting to ship. There's actually quite an honest review posted on the Facebook group. I'm slightly biased in favour of Spooky, but a couple of little things that they're fixing on... They've given it to friendly customers. They've given games to friendly customers. They're giving them feedback. So hopefully by the time game 780 or whatever the hell my number is, arrives in nine months' time, all of this all these issues i'd be sorry but i'm excited to play that that's that'll be one of the games there um dungeons and dragons will be there obviously but most probably most people have played it by then yeah um i mean holly played at eag but unfortunately it spent its time mostly down yeah they had despair of this a few folks pinged me and said oh this premium isn't working so i Pinged Stern and said for god's sake guys Get someone to have a look at it Turns out it needed a code update They thought it had been done to it but it hadn't If you went back there later in the week it was playing fine But it's that sort of I mean that would just drive me mental If I worked there that stuff like that happened What other rumours So I think the other game That will be there will be And I hate to say this man But it feels like there's some sort of cartel That wants to cause me pain it is called Road Trip and show the reawakening I'm getting like kind of road show oh my god not more of this shit I don't know it feels very road showy like it looks like a fun game though I'm guessing that will be it TPF I hope so the only thing I was worried about when I watch people play it it seemed to have an issue trying to get the game to go up the ramps so basically up to the past yeah so past the second third of the play field it was basically like unless you did a really clean shot you struggled to make okay that's that's slightly alarming we'll see underneath it was like god the most packed game ever I mean he's put too much if I'm honest but did you see the oh the name of it's got it in my head there's another game another homebrew at Pinball on the Beach the movie with the nails in the end yeah that's it yeah man that was awesome the way he's done with that cube because he even spoke to the director of the original movie and he showed them and he goes we could even do that it had to be done by hand yeah I was quite impressed that he managed to make his own mech no he's done a great job and obviously had Brian Allen do the artwork it's funny actually because I put my my game up and then Brian Allen messaged me and he goes I'd love to do the artwork for your game and I said sorry I've got it's with my wife she's not going to appreciate And then I spent it afterwards to go, if it was my wife, I'd have just ditched her and got Brian Allen to do it. Well, Brian Allen did the UK Open t-shirts. He's a great guy. Great guy. Amazing artwork. Really good guy. It's amazing how quickly he works as well. It's staggering. The guy's a proper worker. He'll probably be at TPF, actually, if you want to buy his merch. Go and visit him. Yeah, he has really good details. Yeah, the other Rumour that was It was a rumour and then it was Smacked out of Rumoursville Motorhead So rumour that Motorhead was coming And then Spooky was like, it's not That was the game they showed at TPF last year Yeah, and it was awesome It was like an old Bally style game Dave Peck Brought it over, it was on the Spooky booth And it was lovely I actually think this I know Dave Peck He's a New Zealander which instantly makes him a criminal And Sorry Dave But I think this might have been a Dave That Dave generates Some momentum for my game By saying it But Spooky said it's not the next game They said It's They didn't say anything about it They looked at it but they didn't commit to it which probably would have upset Dave no end. I think Dave's daughter works for Spooky as well. So I hope Spooky do get it, and I hope they do a good job of it. It's a simpler game. They're working to around 16 games a week on Evil Dead, right? So they're going to be a while before they start. Yeah, I mean, it means I might still be alive when mine arrives. And then let's go to my favorite organization. Dutch Pinball Alice is delayed again saying that it won't be some parts issues or something that won't be ready to start building in anger until March which makes me chuckle. They're still building apparently the cabinets and stuff in the background but obviously I imagine they hit a brick wall without that specific part they haven't said what it is but I imagine it's pretty critical it's probably like the plunger or something. The playfield maybe we need these I wish them well Alice it's a lovely game looking game but it's a clunker when you play it it's a shame because I already did like my wife was like we need to get one of these I was like no it's that simple I'm kind of glad I'm actually asking now because it's like if I have to sell something now it would probably be Labyrinth that's the only one I'd say Wow, that's a big statement. It's because it's a big ticket item and then it would allow me to buy the next new inbox because for me, the only thing that would probably make me part of it immediately would be if Predetti announced Totan. Which they have done. Have they? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. It's still rumoured. Did you say rumour? Yeah, it's still rumoured. Oh, okay. I think it's more or less certain that that is going to be their next release after Funhaus, but for me it's either that or whatever Barrels of Fun make next, which I'm hoping is Fifth Element, but it might be Goonies, it might be Gremlins. We'll see. As I say, if it's not being announced at TPF, we're just going to have to wait. I was kind of hoping TPF would be the big rush of next games coming in. TPF kind of swings. Last year and the year before, it was Game Central. It's not looking like that But actually last year This time It wasn't looking like there was going to be a lot there But then a lot of stuff just suddenly happened Last minute Then Sorry The other thing I was going to mention That's just gone out of my head Which is So he tells about Harry Potter We don't think it's going to be there Alice being delayed So actually that's where I was going all those DeLorean fans. The Doc, Marty, Einstein. It's going to be a long wait, mate. It's going to be a long wait. You think they've got the IP then? They've definitely got the IP, there's no question about that. The challenge is... It's just, as you say, it's the wait. I don't want to wait five years. But they'll sell that game. I would sell Labyrinth in a heartbeat for that. Let's assume they do a decent job of it A good job They'll sell 5,000 of that game Right It will take them 10 years To build 5,000 games They've got no chance And the problem is To build this game To do this game justice They're going to have to invest I'm going to say a million euros To build a game Get all the artwork Get all the sounds Get the mechs It feels like when I talk to the big manufacturers, it's big money to invest to build a game, right? Sure. And then basically people will get fed up waiting. It's like Pulp Fiction. Just as CGC started to ship it two years on, people are trying to sell it. I don't want it anymore. I've noticed people have only just about got those in the UK, right? and I've been seeing them up for sale in the US. Yeah, and I don't know if it's true, but I heard more than 60 Pulp Fictions were sold in the UK. That's insane as well. It's a high number. Absolutely nuts. So, yeah. For those in the US listening, trust me, that's unheard of. Yeah, I mean, I think there's only two games that have really sold in that volume. Maybe three games. Godzilla is the other one. I think Phil sold a load of Guns N' Roses. I don't know why because it's a fucking term I got suckered into that I like Guns N' Roses and it does look like a nice light show but as you say the code is just it's a terrible game I don't know what they're thinking but what's interesting is I do this glass the low reflective glass I've got a crate and people collect it and I always ask them what are you sticking it in Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla. I don't think there was one person that said they didn't have a Godzilla to stick it in. I was blown away by that. I think there must be more Godzillas than any other pinball in the UK, which is staggering. A lot of Jaws as well. Yeah, to be fair, rightfully so, though. It's a good game. Yeah, it's a very good game. There's something else So Cuphead We mentioned that They're waiting on parts But it's going to come Apparently things look good American people are going to survive They're not out of business Like lots of people think And then The last rumour A couple of rumours from Stern Kong Pretty sure that's One of the next It'll be Godzilla, Kong Godzilla vs Kong I hope so No complaints from me on that And then The next remaster Which the last rumour From our good friend of the show Jason Knapp Is that it's Walking Dead So I have already Bought it If it is Walking Dead And they do a tenth of as good a job as they've done on Metallica, I will be buying that game. No question about it. I said to you, I know you disagree. I still think that game has geometry issues. Geometry issues. It does. Absolutely does. Hit the well walker. Drain. Hit the targets. Drain. Pop bumpers don't get hit. Go down the right lane. Exit into the flippers. Drain. It's got amazing... When you make the shots, oh my god it's satisfying and it's got the best ever wizard mode for me the horde mode horde yeah yeah and i love the animations they did on the dmd like that was probably their best ever dmd animations in my book yeah i mean i'd be more interested to see if they've got the tv show assets now that they'll get the remaster right yeah i'm a bit nervous about that though because i don't want to see clip art going across the screen in one frame a second i think if you I think if they've got, if they do a remaster, here's my guess. It will be based on the comic, not the TV show. Okay, that's fine. The artwork is still going to look better, though. Yeah. That would be my guess. I don't know. I might be wrong on that part. I mean, the Playfield artwork is crap. Yeah. I mean, art on Walking Dead isn't an award winner for sure. It's that kind of noughties era Photoshop dump. Yeah, you get away with it because of the kind of game it is, but it's not. It could be better. But it's just such a great game Oh tell me that there'll be toppers though Finally again I mean if there is that'd be glorious basically I actually saw someone fit a Stern Metallica remastered Topper to an old Metallica And figured out how to make it do something Which I thought was quite cool I'll tell you what I would like as well Just for those who usually know Walking Dead well It's got Avon Egan in it Yes It kind of stopped at season 2 didn't it Yeah, it was before you came into it Same with Game of Thrones There's a lot not in Game of Thrones I'm guessing they might face into that But The other rumour is it's Ghostbusters Let me tell you If Sturmey any more Ghostbusters I would be amazed Because of the history of the designer Yeah, the history of the designer Who was arrested and convicted of A heinous crime I just I think it's It's a shame because I think it would be nuts. The license is so adored by so many people, and it's still such an in-demand title. So, actually, let me rephrase what I said. I don't think they'll remake the current Ghostbusters. So you think it would be a reimagining? A reimagining? I think the game's big enough that they would do that. I'd certainly buy one. I definitely wouldn't buy a remaster of the current game because nothing fixes the mechanics of that game. There's so many mechanical issues. like coming out of the pops of the top straight down the middle that just became infuriating for me, it drove me nuts well yeah maybe then you're right maybe that would be nice though they just do a new Ghostbusters that be cool there lots of new Ghostbusters IP out there that they could potentially base it on They didn base it on the film they based it on the women version of it Can't stick that film. Yes, it's actually not because of the women. No, you're right. It's because of the shit script poor women had to stick with. Was it like Chris Pratt who plays the secretary or whatever? It was just terrible. I don't know what they were thinking. with that script. It's also another bad woman move was Doctor Who. Poor old... Was it Jodie? I can't remember her name, but she must have had the worst Doctor Who scripts. In the 50 years... I'm a big Who fan. Not so much the newer ones, more the older ones, but I'm a big Who fan. I tuned in to X because I wanted to be good, but it was... The guy who's currently Doctor Who The scripts Just terrible Absolutely terrible Anyway They're all dumbed down from there I've been watching a lot of the classic Doctor Who Recently And It's just There's just so much goodness in it Anyway moving on We've got a time challenge Any other rumours I don't think so I think there's a No I don't think there's anything That occurs to me off the top of my head And you know Rumours were just Shooting the shit They might be true they might not be If they're true We're geniuses If they're not true We're assholes I mean that's That's how it is right So let's move on So one other thing I wanted to... Actually, a big bunch of us from the UK go to the TPF, the TPF gang, and no doubt we'll get arrested and shoot each other in the gun shop. But all the good news is that Dave Bishop... Well, it's bad news that Dave's not coming. It's good news that none of us will be dead as Dave waves his Luger around in the... Shots at Dawn Dave is not going to be there. So... But I think TPF is always a good gig, even if there's not so many new pinball machines. There's still lots to do, lots to buy. Looking forward to Hangar Pinball. They have a great karaoke on the Friday night. Looking forward to that. Shout out to them. And actually, a quick shout out to Mr. Goose. So Paul Goose, one of our members at Pinball Republic, me and him bought lunch for everyone. I still owe him the money, sorry Paul I've been busy Paul won't lunch he's a friend of the show and I mean he's terrible at pinball he's just utterly shit he won't mind me saying that he's literally I literally have to put elastic bands around the outlanes 14 extra balls but thanks for all the help at the last event that we did just at Christmas, Paul brought this massive spread from Costco, a couple hundred quid, and it would feed an army of people, basically. And it was a change from pizza, a welcome change, actually. Anyway, let's move on. So the other thing I wanted to say a big thanks to, which is, and I hate to say this because he's such a nice, perfectionist, good guy. He's so nice and horrible that it pains me. It pains me. I'm so jealous of his skill and his ability. You know who I'm talking about, Dave Stumbler. And he has yet again smashed it with the Stumbler Jaws. Boy of death. I've got that in my game. It's awesome. My only feedback to Dave is, great mod, shit instructions again, mate. I'm sorry. No, I'm just kidding. Like a typical engineer, basically. then. Having now fitted it, I would definitely do it in a different way. I think sometimes it's nice when they reach out to content creators like Empire Pinball and he does a video on installing it. I tried to do a video of installing it. It's the most shittiest video ever for a couple of reasons. One, something got damaged in the post so Dave had to send me a new bit which arrived next day. Thank you for that, Dave. And then secondly, I had another mod in the game That was interfering with it Which kind of made it a bit What do I do? But it's in there, it's great He's got this new Wi-Fi app that allows you to control it The app's amazing It's mind-blowing What a great job he's done on that Manufacturers, talk to Dave Give him some more work today He wants to work with you guys And he's 100% capable So please engage with him Yeah, I mean, he's been working with Alice, although, you know, hopefully he got paid in advance. But, yes. And then, so, yeah, I was at INDISC. It was great. I missed pinball at the beach. I was annoyed about that. But hopefully that will be good next time I go. I've got a TPF. And then I wanted to have a slight tangent, Scott. and the way i'm going to position this is um i'm going to position this in the spider-man concept okay with great power comes great responsibility right so this is a message to all the lovely people out there that run events myself included because i'm not perfect either But when you're running events or you're given a power or an authority, you know what really matters, Scott? The players. The players. Well, yeah, you can't have a tournament without players. The players. That is the most important thing. And when the players ask you a question, the answer should be filled with joy. Positivity. Positivity. Absolutely, because the players are excited about what we're doing. They can't wait. They're foaming at the mouth. Yeah. And when you're a dick on the forum and treat them like shit, that's maybe not the best way. It's not the best way to come across, is it? No, I don't think so. And you might think you're funny and you're smart and that you can say whatever you like. No one cares. No one cares that it's you. They care about the thing that you're doing. And you've got a choice. You can either excel at that thing that you're doing and make people so excited that they tell all their friends for the next one. Or they can think, oh, I'm not going back to that. It was a shit show. And let me tell you Right now There is Unnecessary stupidity going on That Is making people Consider their options And I'm not It's not me People telling me Because everyone thinks You're so evil I don't give a shit I'm a player If I'm going to an event, I want the event to be good, which is why, and I can say this because I run the best pinball tournament in the UK. I can say it because 175 people, more than 60% of them, have told me that for years and years on end. And I have people traveling from fucking Australia to come to our tournament, right? So I think I can comment on this. and my encouragement to everyone who wants to run an event or be part of something, you know, you're working with the EPC, you're working with IFPA, you're working with this, it's about the players. And if you don't have the mentality, the time, or whatever it is it takes to give the players what they want, maybe it's time to move on. Right? I know that's... I think for me at least, if you're a spokesperson or you're a public figure, or in this case an event organiser, you have to put on a persona that may not be you. If you're not that kind of extrovert, you still have to be professional. You still have to be courteous. And even if someone's being, in your eyes, not courteous or not professional, you have to rise above it and say, we are doing this or we are organising this. and apologies if we haven't been cleared about it and yep we're working hard to make sure that everyone gets the information as soon as possible instead of saying something along the lines of I have personal issues which are bigger than you it's not to me the right attitude to take just don't say anything don't say anything if that's the case it's not that hard say nothing look it's communication is simple I for the last 32 years of my freaking life, I have been building this thing called the internet. And it's really easy. You can go on the internet and you can write something down and everyone knows. And it's not hard. It's not difficult. Even the people at JJP manage it. So look, here's the reality. Set yourself a target. Set yourself a bar. You know, When I wake up and I'm doing something For the UK Open I want this to be the best I can make And I talk to people, I get advice And then I make some tough decisions Sometimes, because you have to But The only thing that matters Is the players Nothing else matters And the players They're also the volunteers That help run it They're also the people that go away and tell them, oh man, we went to this thing it was amazing, right last year at UK Pinfest Claire and David did such a great job I was actually slightly worried because they did such a good job I'm thinking, how do I do a better job for the UK Open so it wasn't free of problems, let's say though there was a Slash with tournaments, wasn't there yeah, there was challenges, right I don't think it was driven by what they were doing specifically. But nonetheless, it was the best ever pin fest tournament. I can say that. In fact, everyone said that. High praise. So, you know, we've got a couple of big things coming up. We've got UKCS. I'm looking forward to Matt sharing lots more info about that and how it's going to work at the club. We've got British Pinball Masters. I've kind of been waiting for UKCS to get out of the way before I do anything on it. But I'm probably going to have to push stuff out early because I'm getting a lot of questions about it. UKCS is a lot later than I thought it would be, which is kind of annoying, but it is what it is. We got all the leagues that are going great right now. The London League is going great. Dives did a great job of that. Actually, what did she change from the previous guys that ran it? She just communicates. She's got a WhatsApp channel for everyone. She sends out an email, updates, just comms. It's simple, really easy. And then, obviously, we've got the UK Open at the end of September, which looks like it's going to be in the Hilton again. They've come. I've managed to talk to someone with some sense at Hilton. It looks like they're going to do us a deal. It's not signed yet, but I'm pretty confident about it. I'm super excited about it. And if you want to help run this event or any other events, volunteer, because people, without volunteers, these events just don't happen. And we need more volunteers because we want to do better and better and better events. So with that in mind, Scott, I'm conscious of time. I know you've got a hard stop, as do I. One other thing, just last thing, I'll say this again. there's three or four maybe five pinball venues in the UK use them or lose them I know tilt Kirk is on the edge partly because it's just a stretch of running a place like that in today's world where you can't get staff or if you get staff they're brainless idiots I'm not saying anyone at tilt is a brainless idiot by the way but it's hard to get good people. I haven't been to Tilton over a year, actually, so I need to get up there. But, you know, I hear Pimble office quite regularly that, you know, they might be closing. Pimble Republic, you know, we are on a nice edge in terms of finances. So, look, I think we'll be okay. And, you know, I could easily pump more money into it. But if I get hit by a bus, I want Pimble Republic to go on. And it's almost there But you know It's been slow There's a lot of people that are Pinball Here's my question There's a lot of people out there that love pinball So come down and spend 25 quid in Pinball Republic And help us keep the biggest collection of pinball machines In Europe going 72 games we've got there now And the games play amazing That's what we hear from everybody It's a lot of effort the team does a great job but it's tough and then there's a few other places they've got pinball retroids, go visit them special one there go visit them I always notice with retroids, is it always so damn dark in there, every time I see a picture it's like a dingy area I'm not a fan of dark places, I have to say probably because I'm blind as a bat relying on playfield GI to see what I'm doing, god that's hard work yeah I mean especially on I mean, luckily they're mostly modern games, so it's not as bad as if you had like an Indiana Jones. Yeah. Like, where's the ball? But yeah, look, you know, people who run events and people who participate in those events, you know, it's the players that count. And this last year, I mentioned this before, we have a, you know, the number of people playing competitive pinball in the UK has dropped. No question about it. and that is not all I can see is it growing everywhere else it's weird though isn't it because meanwhile Pinfest sells out instantly on the rooms and yet tournament players down yeah I mean you know Luke the world can't survive on big events the pinball world we need people to come we are a monthly tournament in a league we need people to come and join that as does Kirk at Tilt, as does Retroids, I'm sure, as does every place. If you don't get, you know, you're going to run the venue, so you've got rent, rates, electricity, all of which are at an all-time high and going higher thanks to Rachel's Chrome account. Do you want someone's other perspective on this, why I think people don't do it? Yeah. Because I speak to a lot of people who, like me, are not tournament players. Yeah. I think we'd be more interested in events that didn't focus on tournament play so if there was like a bit like what you did before the fun kind of ones where you did it with the trading card games and stuff like that I think more like that would bring more casual players in because if you're trying to bring your football up it might be less focused on the professional elements and more on the amateur elements. Yeah, absolutely. So we're kicking the tires on a few things at Pinball Republic that could appeal to that. Yeah. It's like that whole pinball at the beach thing, right? Yeah. That's great. I mean, okay, we don't have a beach like they do. Or a Carl Weathers climate. Or a good climate, yeah. And by the way, I'm not sure some of the pinball players out there I want to see in a mankini, mate. I just... But yeah, like that... Me, of course. My body's a temple and everyone... I'll see my pets. I don't know. Jesus, right. Okay, right, we're over time. I'm trying to think, is there anything else we wanted to say? I don't think so, other than we'll do a quick one of these probably in a month's time ahead of TPF. And then I'll be doing my usual potato cam. Hopefully with more solidified titles. Yeah, I mean, I'll be at TPF where there's been no new games. I'll be at TPF where there's so many new games there wasn't time to play them all so TBF always has a great homebrew section so I'm looking forward to that I'm going to try and go to TPF and not buy a game which would be the first time in five years so good luck with that Neil You never know you might come back with an Evil Dead because you don't want to wait Don't give me ideas Scott, that would fill off no end because I'd probably lose two grand deposit but yeah no, that is an idea mate but yeah Luke enjoy pinball and we'll see you soon yes take care bye bye

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: afa0b334-7f46-436d-b77c-14672e42a6ca*