# #008 National Pinball Day

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-08-06  
**Duration:** 31m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/a59ca379

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## Analysis

Stephanie and Mike of Punk Rock Pinball discuss National Pinball Day (August 1st), covering their tournament-filled week including a double-header event with 31 and 32 players respectively. They analyze the newly announced Stern Star Wars Home Edition available at Costco ($4,800), defending the pricing and value proposition against social media criticism. Finally, Mike pitches an ambitious dream theme: a Formula One racing pinball machine by Stern with innovative features including online head-to-head competitive play via camera and microphone.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern Star Wars Home Edition costs approximately $4,800 at Costco — _Stephanie and Mike discussing Costco Instagram comments about the machine price_
- [MEDIUM] Manufacturing a Stern home edition costs approximately $2,500-$3,000 in production, not including box and shipping — _Stephanie explaining production costs to counter social media criticism of pricing_
- [MEDIUM] Jurassic Park Home Edition sells for $3,200-$3,500 used on the secondary market — _Stephanie predicting Star Wars Home Edition depreciation based on JP precedent_
- [HIGH] The Stern Star Wars Home Edition includes Insider Connected functionality — _Stephanie noting the feature differentiates it from previous home editions_
- [HIGH] Jurassic Park Home Edition was released at Costco last year and sold well — _Stephanie and Mike discussing Stern's repeat retail strategy implying success_
- [HIGH] Pat Lawler designed the Stern Shrek machine circa 2012-2014 — _Mike identifying Lawler as designer of Shrek during 'you choose' game_
- [HIGH] Shrek and Family Guy pinball use the same playfield layout with different themes — _Mike explaining Stern's dual-theme strategy for both games_
- [HIGH] A 31-player five-strikes tournament and 32-player match play tournament were held at Stephanie's location on Saturday — _Stephanie describing the doubleheader event details and turnaround times_
- [HIGH] Joe Sharp won both the five-strikes and match play tournaments at the doubleheader event — _Stephanie announcing tournament results_
- [MEDIUM] Mike proposes that online head-to-head play would require Spike 3 or Spike 4 hardware at minimum — _Mike speculating on technical requirements for the F1 dream machine concept_

### Notable Quotes

> "It is a real pinball machine. And $4,800, it sounds a lot if you don't know what goes into a pinball machine. It's not cheap."
> — **Stephanie**, ~22:00
> _Directly addresses social media criticism and defends the value proposition of home editions to casual consumers_

> "Don't yuck someone else's yum. You should be happy that this thing, if you're a longtime collector, you should be happy these things are at Costco and you should hope it sells like gangbusters because that's more people in the hobby."
> — **Stephanie**, ~28:00
> _Core argument for industry growth and positive community attitude toward accessible entry-level machines_

> "I hate it. I am just bored and kind of hoping that my ball drains while I'm playing because I just don't care about my score."
> — **Mike**, ~39:00
> _Strong negative assessment of Shrek, chosen over Star Wars Home Edition in hypothetical choice scenario_

> "You're going to win the driver championship and the constructors. There's two. Ultimately, in your best season, you're going to win both."
> — **Mike**, ~52:00
> _Introduces dual-objective wizard mode concept for F1 machine dream theme_

> "It's going to take like probably 200 plays or 150 plays... maybe 50 plays if you're like a Joe Sharp. It's going to be a lot of replayability."
> — **Mike**, ~55:00
> _Illustrates scalable difficulty design philosophy for career progression in dream machine_

> "I can be in Bloomington and Joe's at his house in Peoria, and we can instantaneously connect on the line... Joe can see my face on his little picture-in-picture on the LCD."
> — **Mike**, ~62:00
> _Describes online competitive play feature concept as industry-changing innovation_

> "That kind of takes the best of like what you can do with your gaming consoles to be able to play with your friends online. If Stern can get to that or whoever can get to that, that's like a game over for the people that can't."
> — **Stephanie**, ~67:00
> _Frames online competitive play as potential industry disruption and competitive advantage_

> "Don't put that one in the tournament. Whoop-de-doo. End of story. Nobody should design a machine because it's good for tournaments. Is it fun? Yes, that's the mark."
> — **Stephanie**, ~75:00
> _Philosophy statement about design priorities and community discourse norms_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; drummer in Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio; pinball enthusiast and tournament organizer |
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; pinball enthusiast and collector; advocate for accessible entry-level machines |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Star Wars Home Edition and other pinball machines discussed; focus on retail expansion via Costco |
| Costco | company | Major retail partner selling Stern Star Wars Home Edition at $4,800; platform for introducing pinball to mainstream consumers |
| Joe Sharp | person | Tournament winner; swept both five-strikes and match play tournaments at the doubleheader event |
| Pat Lawler | person | Pinball designer; Mike's favorite designer; designed Stern Shrek (circa 2012-2014) |
| John Borg | person | Pinball designer; mentioned as potential designer for Mike's F1 dream theme; brought Stern promotional banners to event |
| Mike MXV | person | Stern representative who contributed promotional banners (John Wick and Uncanny X-Men) to tournament |
| Nitten Borj Raj | person | Fan artist who created and brought caricature of Stephanie featuring Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio imagery; attended tournament from Chicago suburbs with his 15-year-old son |
| Tilt Amusements | company | Used pinball machine dealer with excellent supply; trusted secondary market vendor |
| Flippin' Out Pinball | company | Used pinball machine dealer; Troy noted as operator; trusted secondary market vendor |
| Deanna | person | Lead of Sincere Engineer; potential guest performer at Punk Rock Pinball; touring September-October |
| Sincere Engineer | organization | Music group; album 'Cheap Grills' (2023) recommended on the podcast; touring band |
| Landmark | company | Venue hosting league play (season 2) and monthly tournament with Kong launch party |
| Tom Eaton | person | Tournament attendee from Champaign; allegedly podcast listener; knocked Vince Griff out of tournament |
| Vince Griff | person | Non-pinball player who attended tournament; gave strikes to multiple players including Stephanie and her son Jack |
| Jack | person | Stephanie's son; received strike from Vince Griff in five-strikes tournament |
| Ruben | person | Tournament player; received crash course instruction on Beatles and Pirates of the Caribbean from Stephanie |
| Pin Grounds | company | Coffee company in Roselle; provided coffee prizes for tournament |

### Topics

- **Primary:** National Pinball Day (August 1st) and community celebration, Stern Star Wars Home Edition pricing, value, and market positioning, Costco retail strategy and mainstream consumer market expansion, Tournament formats and community building (five-strikes, match play), Online/networked pinball competitive play as future innovation, Dream machine design: Formula One racing theme with career mode
- **Secondary:** Pat Lawler's Shrek machine design and reception, Used machine market and secondary market pricing, Community inclusivity vs. elitist gatekeeping in pinball culture

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Hosts are upbeat and celebratory about National Pinball Day events and tournament success. Positive toward Stern's retail strategy despite defending against criticism. However, notable negative sentiment toward Shrek machine design. Critical but constructive tone regarding community gatekeeping attitudes toward entry-level machines and tournament design philosophy.

### Signals

- **[market_signal]** Stern Star Wars Home Edition distributed through Costco at $4,800; second home edition retail push after Jurassic Park success (confidence: high) — Stephanie and Mike discuss Stern's strategic retail partnership with Costco as market expansion play targeting mainstream consumers unfamiliar with pinball community
- **[product_launch]** Stern Star Wars Home Edition now available at Costco (specific stores/regions unclear) (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Stern announced... available at Costco... they have a Star Wars home edition'
- **[collector_signal]** Jurassic Park Home Edition secondary market pricing established at $3,200-$3,500 used; Star Wars Home Edition predicted to follow similar depreciation curve (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Jurassic Park Home Edition sells for $3,200 to $3,500 used... A year from now, it's going to be worth at least $1,000 less'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts pushing back against collector gatekeeping regarding home editions; framing entry-level machines as positive for ecosystem growth (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Don't yuck someone else's yum... you should be happy that this thing... you should hope it sells like gangbusters because that's more people in the hobby'
- **[design_innovation]** Conceptual pinball design featuring online head-to-head competitive play with camera/microphone integration (not yet announced or confirmed by any manufacturer) (confidence: low) — Mike proposing F1 machine with 'online head-to-head play... I can be in Bloomington and Joe's at his house... instantaneously connect on the line'
- **[technology_signal]** Online competitive play for pinball would likely require Spike 3 or Spike 4 hardware platform (confidence: medium) — Mike: 'They're probably going to need spike three at least for that... it might be a spike four'
- **[event_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball hosts large-scale doubleheader tournament: 31-player five-strikes and 32-player match play on same day at residential location (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Saturday we had a tournament here, two tournaments, doubleheader... 31 players in the strikes. 32 players in the match play'
- **[community_signal]** Hosts actively promoting inclusive community culture and discouraging gatekeeping attitudes toward entry-level machines and casual players (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Don't put that one in the tournament. Whoop-de-doo. End of story. Nobody should design a machine because it's good for tournaments. Is it fun? Yes, that's the mark.'
- **[competitive_signal]** Five-strikes tournament format in use; referenced as established competitive structure (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'We had a five-strikes tournament and a match play tournament'
- **[content_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball requesting listener reviews on Apple Podcasts; notes low review count despite significant Apple platform listens (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'We have like no reviews on Apple... Most of the listens come on Apple outside of YouTube'
- **[product_concern]** 2012 Uncanny X-Men machine experiencing recurring ball-sticking issue in specific playfield location during tournament play (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'Our old X-Men keeps getting the ball stuck... I had to come down here like five or six times to get that ball out'
- **[rumor_hype]** Mike proposes ambitious Formula One racing pinball machine concept with innovative features including online head-to-head play, career mode progression, team selection mechanics (confidence: low) — Mike: 'This one's going to be made by Stern. Playfield layout by John Borg... Theme, Formula One racing'

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## Transcript

 Hi there. Hello. Welcome to Punk Rock Pinball. I'm Stephanie. And I'm Mike. This is episode eight, take three. Take three. We had a couple of technical difficulties, but we're back. I forgot to hit record on that camera last time. So we're doing it again. Yes. Even better. Yes. Bigger and better. All right. so what are we going to talk about today mike so we just had a big week of pinball we played in a league we played a kong launch tourney and then we had a double header here we're going to talk about that then we're going to talk about the stern star wars home edition i think that's what it's called yeah stern star wars home edition at costco cool costco's over there and then i'm gonna ask you you choose okay you're gonna ask me a dream theme it sounds like fun yeah all right yeah this is this was a huge week of pinball um august 1st is national pinball day and i don't think any of us really knew it but we had an action-packed week so yeah we had our second um night of league season two of league at landmark and that was super fun i did pretty good in that one i think you did you did better than me it's in like the top five or six yeah it was fun super fun and then a bunch of people who play in league we all got together with a lot more people back at landmark on friday for our monthly tournament and a kong launch party combo yep we Didn't do great? No, middle of the pack. Middle of the pack. You missed the finals by two points. I was actually totally okay with it because I didn't sleep really great the night before, and I wanted to make sure I got some sleep going into Saturday with having a ton of people coming over the house. So I was actually okay with it. Yeah, Saturday we had a tournament here, two tournaments, doubleheader, had a five-strikes tournament, started at 1 p.m. People showed up at noon. So we went like noon to almost 1 a.m. We had a five strikes tournament and a match play tournament. Hardcore. Hardcore pinball. 31 players in the strikes. 32 players in the match play. Yeah, we had some people only played in the first one and left. And then we had like more than half of the people stuck around, I would say for the second one. And we had new friends and old friends. One new friend who I've been Facebook friends with, I guess, for a while, Nitten. I don't know how to butcher his last name. Borj Raj, I think. He drew this picture of me and brought it. It's a little caricature of me. And he has a couple of smoking popes right here. And over here, this is an alkaline trio. because I've played drums in both of those bands. And it's really cute, him and his 15-year-old son. I can't remember his son's name. He was really cute, and he had fun. And they finished kind of middle of the pack, and they're not real big pinballers, so congratulations, guys. It's nice to have you over. Thank you for this lovely picture. I'm going to probably frame it and hang it up down here somewhere. For sure. Yeah, they came down from the Chicago suburbs. We had a number of other friends from Chicago, a couple of Milwaukee folks came down. It was a good time. Yeah, Vin and Heather from Milwaukee. Yeah. A bunch of Chicago people. Yeah, it was super fun, and our prizes were great. We had a fun trophy of a sharpshooter. We had some cool stuff. Yeah, Mike MXV from Stern, he brought us a couple of banners. He gave us a John Wick banner, and we had a John Wick banner. and what was the other one we gave away? Two banners. Uncanny X-Men. Uncanny X-Men banner. I'd actually like to have that one too. Well, maybe. Maybe Mikey could bring me another one. Or maybe John Borg. I was in a Facebook chat that included John Borg today. So maybe John Borg will come to the next one. Maybe he'll bring some stuff. He'll sign a, maybe a John Borg signed Translate from something. That'd be super cool. That'd be special. That'd be super. And then we also had coffee from Pin Grounds in Roselle. Coffee from pin grounds, good coffee. Really great coffee, so that was cool. Yeah. Yeah. And in our tournaments, let's see, Joe Sharp, our buddy Joe, won both of them. Swept it. CJ won the Friday night, the Kong Won Friday night. Joe swept the strikes and the match play. My friend Vince Griff, who's not a pinballer, he did give Joe one of his two strikes. Joe had two strikes in a five-strike tournament. One delivered by Vince Griff, who does not play pinball. Vince also delivered a strike to me and to my son, Jack. So he was dropping some bombs. Uh-huh. Just chopping heads. Oh, my God. It was really super fun. We had the hot dog steamer going and tons of desserts and tons of great food and even better people. So I can't wait till we do another one. And Vince did say today that there was a fellow, Tom Eaton. He came from Champaign. I think Tom listens to the podcast sometimes. I was talking to Vince today. He's like, I'm going to get that Tom Eaton next time, even though he's the nicest guy ever. Ha, ha, ha. I think Tom might have knocked Vince out of the tournament. So Vince is coming for you, Tom, next time. Well, it was really fun and just like every pinball thing that we've gone to, just filled with super nice people. And I think even the people who had never done a tournament before were really impressed with how just like welcoming everybody was and helping out and giving tips on, you know, what you should be trying to do on the games. It was cool. So I was happy to introduce the world of tournament to a few new people. Yeah, I gave Ruben a crash course on Beatles and he executed that. Flawlessly. Then I gave him a crash course on the Pirates and he executed that. And I know one of the last episodes I was talking about pirates is like, that's my machine and I'll beat anybody. And then I lost to my brother on Pirates of the Caribbean. Dang it. I was like, I shouldn't have been talking such a big talk about this game. I knew it was going to come back and bite me, and it did. We just got to play in the basement a little more. We don't play these games enough down here. We've got some in the family room, and we play those all the time. Although I did suck on Wick on one of the rounds, and I play Wick. every day well so what are you going to do oh one thing we didn't say at the top too we do have a music recommendation oh yeah what is it it's gonna be sincere engineer the album cheap grills i'm sure you can't read that from there uh you can listen to that anywhere apple music spotify band camp i'm sure they're on there you could get the album from hopeless records this one is a green Galaxy vinyl. Deanna from Sincere Engineer, I think, is going to come play some songs here maybe later this month, if it all works out. That'd be cool. I hope she can get down here because they're on tour all of September and October. They're going to be on the road. But check out Sincere Engineer. I think you're going to like it. If you enjoyed the Beths, I'm sure you'll enjoy Sincere Engineer. I would have to say this one came out in 2023 It was my favorite record of 2023 Same because I think the best one came out in 24 Let's say that. If it did, like this was the best record of 2023. It's so good. It's a ripper. Great. It is a ripper. All right. So the Stern. The Stern. Stern announced. Home edition Star Wars. Yeah. that, or yes, Stern announced that available at Costco, I'm not sure if it's all of them or just certain areas, they have a Star Wars home edition. And a home edition is a real pinball machine made from Stern. It's just a little bit smaller. And I think that it's a little bit smaller to keep the cost down and probably to introduce it to new markets. I know that we saw some home editions that were for sale when we first started looking for pinball machines at like the great escape yeah those kind of places that was like the jurassic park they had the jurassic park home edition i think this this star wars home edition is different than there was one out before i think this one the difference is this one has insider connected cool if you don't know insider connected if you play like modern stern machines there's an app you can download skin into the game tracks your scores and everything but i was i wanted to talk about this because there's this instagram page costco hype they have 186 000 followers they did a post about this machine and there were tons of comments along the lines of 4800 we could almost buy our own ship for that how about $1,500 and a hot dog? Where's another one? $4,800? Heck no. $5,000? Seriously? And other people are like, that's not even a real pinball machine. It is a real pinball machine. It is a real pinball machine. And $4,800, it sounds a lot if you don't know what goes into a pinball machine. It's not cheap. It's not cheap. That's a lot of money. I'm not trying to belittle the fact that that is a lot of money for a lot of people. It's a lot of money. But these machines are like made in America by hand, like people with like screwdrivers and drills and like assembling wire harnesses. Oh, I'm going to knock my mic over. But the machine probably costs well over, like somebody said, $1,500. How about $1,500? it's got to cost over $2,500 to make this thing. Probably a little more. Probably closer to $3,000 to just make it. Not including the box and the shipping. Just making the thing has got to be close to $3,000 to make it. Probably a little bit more. Probably more. I'm just going on the safe side. So it's never going to be $2,000. Now, is it what I would buy for $4,800 or is it what you would buy for $4,800 today? No. Maybe not. I mean, if someone gave me one, I would take it. Yeah. I think it would be fun. It's a fun game. It's a fun game. It's a nice layout. It's a real machine. It shoots good. It's going to be, as far as pinball machines go, it's going to be reliable. Mm-hmm. And I think for somebody that's, you know, a family that's not into pinball. It'd be fun for your game room. And they don't want to go searching around for used machines. Because we know it can be hard. It can be hard, even though Tilt Amusements has an excellent supply of used machines. Flippin' Out Pinball has an excellent supply of used machines. There's dealers you can get used machines from that are trustworthy. You're going to get a good machine. But we're talking about people that maybe didn't even know pinball still exists. They don't know about tilt amusements. They don't know about flipping out. They're not in the pinball community in any way, shape, or form. You're getting a pretty good machine for $4,800, and there's nothing else in the new in-box market that's close to that price. Not even close. Because is a Stern Pro better than this machine? Yes. But new, those are 7K. Yeah. Bang for your buck. It's a pretty good bang for your buck. And yeah, I mean, there are certainly, for as many people who were shocked at the cost on that Instagram post, there's just as many pinballers who are poo-pooing it that it's a home edition also. Yeah, like, oh, not real pinball. It is real pinball. It's totally real pinball. It's real pinball. It's made by Stern. It's real pinball. Yeah. It's a real pinball machine. You could use it in tournaments. It would be fine in a tournament. It would actually be really fun. Yeah. And I wouldn't rule out maybe having one someday, but I would buy it used because most of the time, unless it's like a Jaws 50th where you need it now, most of the time we're going to go with the used game. We've got to make our pinball dollars stretch as far as they can. we're trying to accumulate a lot of machines as many as possible that's why i have a lot of stern pros sometimes there's a freemium better yeah are the le's cool yeah sure of course we want like what more but but more that are not pieces of shit yeah like we want good games there are very few that are pieces of shit though like i like well she's looking at ripley's the ripley's is It's kind of a piece of shit. It's kind of a piece of shit. You know what? I think maybe we've talked about this, but I think it was made during a very dark time at Stern, where they were just scrapping and trying to keep the lights on, and they did the best they could. But you love it. I love it. She loves it. It's a weird game. It's so weird. And we film in front of it every time. Yeah. It's the feature. It's a crown jewel. Another jewel to add to my collection. That's what he says. Try a ramp shot. This is another jewel to add to my collection. But this, I think we paid less than what the Stern, the Star Wars Home thing. Yes, we did. This was less than that. Yes, it was. And it should be. It definitely should be. Because, like, should you buy, like, this Ripley's Believe It or Not or that Star Wars Home Edition? Home Edition. Get that Star Wars Home Edition. This thing's kind of a piece of crap. But it's fun. It's just old. It was definitely a routed game. It is seen – it's seen a lot. Yeah, its best days are behind it for sure. Yeah, but I just really like it. Its best days are behind it. For sure. And we've been working on it. We'll get it up to – we'll get it going. Yeah, it will. I mean it's not – yeah, it's – I love it. It played in a tournament. I never had to take the glass off in the tournament. It played just fine. Our old X-Men keeps getting the ball stuck in this one spot. Yeah, the 2012 X-Men. I had to come down here like five or six times to get that ball out, and people would try to tell me where it is. I'm like, I know where it is. I know exactly where it is. It's up in that. What is that shot? It's one of the ladies, and it goes around, and it just sits on that switch. Maybe it's a storm. Phoenix? It's one of those. It just sits up there, and I take the glass off, put it back. But they're like, yeah, it's up there somewhere. I know. I know exactly where it is. Yeah if you want to get the Stern Star Wars Home Edition if you a total new and you got to have a new inbox I say that is not a terrible way to go A year from now, it's going to be worth at least $1,000 less. Like the Jurassic Park Home Edition sells for $3,200 to $3,500 used. So if you wait, you want to get one used, it'll be probably $3,200 to $3,500. Or look for a Jurassic Park Home Edition. Or look for a Jurassic Park Home Edition. But if you're watching this show and you're into pinball, I could give you five or six Stern Pros. That would probably be a better choice. So if you're looking for a pinball machine around 5K. And you love Star Wars. You know Star Wars. Mando. Or get Mandalorian. Or Mandalorian. Like a Mandalorian Pro. You could probably get a Mando Pro used for 5K-ish. I don't know if Troy at Tilt or Zach at Flippin' Out have one right now, but they probably will soon. Lots of options, but definitely agree, don't rule out the home edition at Costco. It's pretty – like what a cool thing. I mean Stern is really, I feel like, trying to open – like bring more people, expose more people to pinball, And I don't think there's a bigger platform for consumers than Costco that are like go into the store looking to discover new things. It's just a really cool place for them to do that. And I hope it's super successful for them. It must be because it's the second time they did it. They did Jurassic Park last year. If the Jurassic Park flopped, they wouldn't be doing this Star Wars. Costco doesn't operate that way. If a product like flopped in there, it's not coming back. No. So they must have sold enough to be happy. And then if you're like an old schooler, like pin bro, you don't have to poo poo the thing just because it's not for you. Like you don't have to be that guy. Don't yuck someone else's yum. Is that what you're saying? You should be happy that people, if you're like a longtime collector and there's a lot of longtime collectors that are positive and nice. A lot of you are grumpy, but you should be happy that this thing, if you're a longtime collector, you should be happy. these things at Costco and you should hope it sells like gangbusters because that's more people in the hobby and that's more people to buy your used game when you want to go sell it. Yep. Because we know pinball is addictive. And if you, the biggest thing is to get one in someone's house and then if they like it, they multiply. Like a year ago we had one. Yeah. And now we have 15. yeah so like the old podcast grumpy guys and a podcast old head grumpy guy you should be cheering up cheering for this because it may make the value of your used games go up if there's more people buying them supply and demand yeah we want more people playing yeah it's fun so be happy it's a it's a brand new game under 5k good hope it sells like crazy case closed case closed with that we've got a you choose okay i'm asking you all right ask it based on the stern star wars home edition you can have one of two games you have to keep it forever you can't sell it you can have the star wars home edition or the older i don't know what it was the stern stern, Shrek, you choose? Well, this is a loaded question because you know exactly what I'm going to choose. So the stern, I don't know why I want to say it's like 2014, 2012. I don't know. It was designed by my favorite pinball designer, Pat Lawler. But he just really, this one does not connect with me. The Shrek does not connect with me. I find it boring. although looking at the play field you'd think oh there's this cute little upper play field pinball thing with the donkey i don't i hate it is i am just bored and kind of hoping that my ball drains while i'm playing playing it because i just i don't care about my score i don't care about anything i just don't like it i don't like it so i would gladly happily accept a star wars Home Edition to add to my collection, another jewel for my collection. I agree. I would take the Star Wars Home Pin or a Jurassic Park Home Pin over Shrek 100 out of 100 times. Yeah, and Family Guy is also the same layout. They did a cool thing where they did pinball layout, but then they skinned it with two different themes. They did Shrek and Family Guy, both pretty cool themes. Themes are great. Like awesome themes, but just – The layout sucks. Pat Lawler really just – I don't feel like his soul was in this one. No, he did a lot of machines. You can't be great every time. No. You can't be great every time. I mean, he's my favorite. He's your favorite. And this one – He's done some great ones. That's not it. Maybe he just was having some other things going on in his life during the time. Who knows? Don't know. But I don't feel like his heart was really in that one. There are very few pinball machines that I don't at least enjoy in some way. That's one of them. Yeah. Shrek. Nothing enjoyable about that game to me. Thumbs down. Oh, my gosh. All right. Have you thought about what your dream theme is going to be? I've thought about it. I've actually talked about it a couple times. Hopefully this one makes the cut. This one will make the cut because I see the red light on the camera. It's going. I hope I hit record on the audio. I think I did. I'm pretty sure you did. I can kind of hear it a little bit. This one's going to be made by Stern. All right. Playfield layout by John Borg. Your new messenger friend? My favorite. Theme, Formula One racing. Ooh. Formula One racing. And here's the deal. we're not going to license take notes stern you know they're not watching nobody from stern to watch and maybe mike take some notes don't license the drivers that's going to cost big money i think like max verstappen he's going to be expensive lewis hamilton yeah we don't need those guys not needed that's going to make the game dated you know even like five years from now hamilton's retired whatever license the teams there's 10 teams you probably could i don't know how it all works you probably license it through f1 and get like one shot deal it's gonna be some really cool features on this game oh tell me about it it's gonna be some cool features first of all you're gonna start you are the driver like you're like a you're an f2 driver just like a like a freelance race car driver and you start the game there's a certain number of combos you've got to hit to basically qualify as like your qualifying laps and based on the time you get you can choose which team you're going to join some teams every team has a perk that's going to carry with you throughout the game say like if you join red bull you get whenever there's a multi-ball you can hit your action button for an add a ball once per or if it's mclaren maybe you get a permanent like 3x bonus multiplier. If it's, you know, Ferrari, maybe you get a button that comes up during multi ball that activates like a two time scoring for five seconds you know every team has a perk somewhere better than others And you can only take the top ones if you qualify good So that one thing it going to do With Stern Insider Connected you going to be able to save your progress as a driver because your ultimate goal is to win the world championship. Of course it is. You want to win the driver championship and the constructors. There's two. Ultimately, in your best season, you're going to win both. and you can do multiple seasons in your career via the saved progress in insider connected so if you play enough long enough and grind enough even if you're not a great player you'll get to that world championship which is like the wizard mode just like on venom like i can get to null the big boss fight i can't get there in a three ball game but like you can't continue your progress i can get there but this is going to take you even longer than getting to null in Venom. It's going to take a long like even a good player to get to the World Championship via their saved progress. It's going to take them like probably 200 plays or 150 plays. Whoa, that's hard. Maybe 50 plays if you're like a Joe Sharp but it's going to take me like 200 plays. Okay. So there's like a lot of replayability and then if you win it as Ferrari, you still got to go back and like I'll choose McLaren next time. So think of the replayability in this game. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, where you kind of want to do it with different perks. And this game is going to have another brand new feature that I don't know if Stern is even technically able to do yet, but I'm sure they probably can at some point. Or mentally ready for. Or mentally ready for. The game is going to feature a camera and a microphone, and it's going to feature online head-to-head play. Like NBA Fastbreak? Well, NBA Fastbreak, that's two games together, connected together, which these can do if you want to get two. You can connect them together. This is going to be online. Oh. It's going to be on the line on the Internet. Oh. So I can be in Bloomington and Joe's at his house in Peoria, and we can instantaneously connect on the line. And Joe can see my face on his little picture-in-picture on the LCD. I can see his. there's going to be a special competition like head-to-head game mode where we're racing and it'd be like a set number of laps like maybe do a five lap race 10 lap race 20 lap race and each of them you know five lap race is going to be like a two minute game so you know what are you feeling like today joe you want to go 50 laps or do you want to go two laps i you know i got a meeting coming up let's go two lap or five laps so joe and i hook up on the line there i can see him he sees me and like he beats me at the five lap race and then we can start again so it's going to be online instantaneously head to head i'm here you're there if you want to get two you could just sync them up right together yeah but you could also do it on the line you can also do it on the line yeah that's awesome so they're gonna probably need spike three at least for that it might be a spike four i don't know i don't know any features of spike 3 maybe they're working on that that would be so so awesome like if me and you and joe and shelly could just play against each other like right now i mean if well it's i don't i feel like it's a matter of when they're able to do that really it that kind of takes the best of like what you can do with your gaming consoles like to be able to play with your friends online and i feel like if stern can get to that or whoever can get to that spooky can get to that that's like a game over for the people that can't. I mean, we like the classics, right? But that's like a game-changing feature. Oh, yeah. And if you have like a camera and a mic like built into the games, you don't need like a goofy headset. Yeah. And like, you know, you can hear their voice out of your speakers and they can hear you out of theirs. That would be something. Dream. So you ready, John Borg? You ready to make this F1 game? I feel like F1 would be the ultimate way to debut the online competitive play. Yeah. Because it only works in the special mode where you just pick your number of laps, hit it in, play. I love it. Yeah. I absolutely love it. It's going to be badass. I'm not into F1, but I would do this. So badass. So badass. Sick, bro. It's going to be so badass. Yes, and tournament players that are like, like career mode, you can disable the career carrier progress just like Venom. In WIC. A WIC doesn't even matter. It doesn't matter in WIC, but D&D. You just turn that off for your tournaments. It's going to be okay. You don't have to be huffy about it. Like tournaments will be fine. We're tournament players too, but I know tournament players had a big huff about like Harry Potter where you can scan the thing to make it easier, medium, or hard. And at first, like five comments, what about tournaments? Can you disable it for tournaments? Like, who cares? Yeah. Don't put that one in the tournament. Like, pin bros, like, chill out. Chill out. It's cool that someone can scan a thing and make Harry Potter easier. That's cool. It is cool. If you can't turn it off for your tournament, then don't put that game in your tournament. Whoop-de-doo. End of story. I assume you can. turn it off but who cares you guys take a chill those are mostly the online people nobody you've talked to in real life has said that no it's all online yeah people are so online like tournaments simmer down it's gonna be fine and if you can't turn it off leave it out of your tournament like you sure jersey jack doesn't really give a damn if it's a good tournament game like No. No. They don't care about that. No. Nobody does. Nobody should design a machine because it's good for tournaments. No. There's plenty. It should be fun. Is it fun? Is it fun? Yes, that's the mark. Is it fun? And is it more fun, like if I'm not going to own a Harry Potter for other reasons, but if I had one or for my avatar, if you did this for my avatar, if I have, like if my mom comes over or if a nephew comes over, I said my nephew is really good at pinballs. He doesn't need it. But if you could scan a thing to make Avatar easier, Owen doesn't need that. Yeah, I know. But some people's nephews do. Yeah. If you could scan and make Avatar easy, that would be better. It's just meant to be fun for everyone. It's more fun. Yeah. That's all I have for today. That's it? You feel better now? Yeah. Do you feel like you got it all out? I got it all out. All right. All right. Well, thank you for watching. Please. It would mean so much if you would leave us a review wherever you're listening to this, especially if you're on Apple. We have like no reviews on Apple. Can you help? Most of the listens come on Apple outside of YouTube. YouTube's the most, but someone's listening on an Apple podcast. And they're listening this far. And not reviewing it. Come on. Help us out. Put a review on there. Yeah. Just say, hey, I like these guys. that's all you need to say yeah or just five stars no comment yeah we'll take that that would just mean the world if you're on any of the other platforms that would be awesome if you're watching on youtubes please subscribe if you aren't already like subscribe hit the bell yeah smash that button all right cool see you next time bye toodaloo

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b341dcd3-c58e-4898-96b2-b50e4ad1c9e7*