# Episode 269 - Friends Are Optional

**Source:** Eclectic Gamers Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-04-12  
**Duration:** 51m 44s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://soundcloud.com/user-465086826/episode-269-friends-are

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## Analysis

The Eclectic Gamers Podcast episode covers personal updates (Comic-Con attendance, gaming progress, injuries), a major correction about Monster League Hockey's single-player capability, and pinball news including American Pinball's Circus Voltaire reimagining and community correspondence. The hosts discuss game design preferences, collector dynamics, and tangential topics including video game industry developments.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] American Pinball is doing a reimagined Circus Voltaire expected later this year — _Dennis cites NAP Arcade article covering the announcement at TPF; states this is in addition to current Houdini production and new Hot Wheels run_
- [HIGH] Monster League Hockey allows single-player games and has proximity sensors under flippers — _Dennis and Tony issue explicit correction after previously stating the game required friends; clarified after reading flyer and observing co-op play at TPF_
- [MEDIUM] Melvin from Deep Root Pinball is involved with American Pinball's Circus Voltaire remake — _Dennis notes 'Melvin from DPX who's constantly trying to do J-pop stuff is now they're doing a remake' - context suggests involvement but exact role unclear_
- [MEDIUM] Circus Voltaire is one of the most popular competitive J-pop Williams games alongside World Cup Soccer — _Tony states 'next to World Cup soccer, it might be the most popular competitive one of the J-Pop games from Williams'_
- [HIGH] Keith Elwin's Avengers Infinity Quest is Tony's least favorite Elwin game — _Tony provides detailed critique of shot design, particularly criticizing 'the banana ramp' and tower drop shot difficulty_

### Notable Quotes

> "Friends are Optional... You have to have no friends and still enjoy the game."
> — **Dennis (with Tony)**, ~13:00
> _Episode title theme; correction addressing earlier claim that Monster League Hockey required multiple players_

> "I am not surprised once we found out that was Melvin from DPX who's constantly trying to do J-pop stuff is now they're doing a remake and of course it's a J-pop game. So that part in no way surprised me."
> — **Dennis**, ~26:00
> _Identifies Melvin's involvement in American Pinball's Circus Voltaire project; reflects on predictable pattern_

> "If you're going to do a J-pop remake and you want to make money, starting with Circus is probably the best one."
> — **Tony**, ~29:00
> _Strategic assessment of which classic J-pop game merits reimagining; validates American Pinball's choice_

> "Avengers Infinity Quest... it's my least favorite Elwin game... I don't care for the shots on it. I don't like the banana ramp."
> — **Tony**, ~39:00
> _Clear gameplay preference statement distinguishing between well-designed and personally enjoyable machines_

> "Dune is definitely a game that you wouldn't want to be able to see and hear everything in a quiet environment."
> — **Dennis**, ~43:00
> _References Barrels of Fun's Dune Pinball; validates Jason's experience that audio/visual presentation is critical to game experience_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Dennis | person | Co-host of Eclectic Gamers Podcast; experienced pinball collector with opinions on game design; attends major events like Texas Pinball Festival and Comic-Con |
| Tony | person | Co-host of Eclectic Gamers Podcast; pinball enthusiast with strong opinions on Keith Elwin games; has played multiple recent releases |
| Jason C. | person | Kansas City-based pinball collector who attended TPF; owns Barrels of Fun games (Dune, Labyrinth, Winchester) and other machines including Total Nuclear Annihilation and Jurassic Park; offered Dennis and Tony home play experiences |
| Keith Elwin | person | Legendary Stern Pinball designer; Tony extensively discusses his game designs (Godzilla, Jaws, Iron Maiden, Avengers Infinity Quest, King Kong, Jurassic Park) |
| Melvin | person | Associated with Deep Root Pinball (DPX); apparently involved in American Pinball's Circus Voltaire remake; described as 'constantly trying to do J-pop stuff' |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Podcast host who has a 'pin barn' in his backyard; has done a podcast with Dennis; referenced regarding pinball facilities and storage solutions |
| Jake | person | Designer of Monster League Hockey; has visited Dennis's house to play pinball machines |
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer announcing Circus Voltaire reimagine; currently producing Houdini, working on new Hot Wheels run; planning release later in 2024/2025 |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; Jason C. is major enthusiast of their games (Dune, Labyrinth, Winchester); games noted for audio/visual presentation |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; hosts Keith Elwin and other designers; referenced for multiple recent game releases |
| Williams/Bally | company | Classic pinball manufacturer; created J-pop games including Circus Voltaire, Totan, World Cup Soccer, Theatre of Magic |
| Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) | event | Major annual pinball event where Dennis and Tony recently attended; saw Monster League Hockey, Houdini, and other games in playable state |
| Circus Voltaire | game | Classic J-pop Williams pinball game; American Pinball is creating a reimagined version; hosts debate about which J-pop game deserves remake treatment |
| Monster League Hockey | game | Recent pinball game; has single-player capability (corrected in this episode); supports competitive or co-op multiplayer modes; features proximity sensors under flippers |
| Dune Pinball | game | Barrels of Fun game; Jason C. describes as favorite machine; appreciated for immersive audio/video/lighting experience in home environment |
| Jurassic Park | game | Keith Elwin design; owned by Jason C.; Tony identifies as the one Elwin game he doesn't own but would like to acquire |
| Godzilla | game | Keith Elwin design for Stern; Tony lists as one of his preferred Elwin games along with Jaws and Iron Maiden |
| Avengers Infinity Quest | game | Keith Elwin design; Tony's least favorite Elwin game; criticized for shot difficulty and layout design |
| King Kong | game | Keith Elwin design; subject of earlier episode debate about memorability; Tony provides nuanced ranking below most Elwin titles but above Avengers Infinity Quest |
| Deep Root Pinball (DPX) | company | Company associated with Melvin; apparently involved in J-pop game revival efforts |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Monster League Hockey single-player capability correction, American Pinball Circus Voltaire reimagining announcement
- **Secondary:** Keith Elwin game design preferences and ranking, J-pop Williams pinball game remakes, Personal experiences at Texas Pinball Festival, Barrels of Fun game quality and home play experiences, Pinball collection management and game sales
- **Mentioned:** Comic-Con attendance and costume observations

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[announcement]** American Pinball officially announces Circus Voltaire reimagining with expected release later in 2024/2025 (confidence: high) — Dennis cites NAP Arcade article covering announcement; states American Pinball currently producing Houdini and working on Hot Wheels run alongside Circus Voltaire project
- **[personnel_signal]** Melvin from Deep Root Pinball appears to be involved in American Pinball's Circus Voltaire remake project (confidence: medium) — Dennis states 'I am not surprised once we found out that was Melvin from DPX who's constantly trying to do J-pop stuff is now they're doing a remake' - suggests Melvin's involvement but exact role remains unclear
- **[product_strategy]** American Pinball selecting Circus Voltaire as reimagined classic J-pop title for 2024/2025 release (confidence: high) — Hosts analyze strategic decision; Tony affirms 'If you're going to do a J-pop remake and you want to make money, starting with Circus is probably the best one'
- **[design_philosophy]** Debate between Circus Voltaire, Totan, and World Cup Soccer regarding which J-pop game has best design and art package (confidence: medium) — Hosts discuss relative merits: Totan has best art package and interesting ramps; Circus Voltaire objectively better overall rules; World Cup Soccer less popular
- **[design_innovation]** Monster League Hockey features proximity sensors under flippers enabling single-player gameplay capability (confidence: high) — Correction states 'It is capable of single-player games. And you said it was capable of playing itself. You can put it into an attract mode' and 'It does have proximity sensors under the flippers'
- **[community_signal]** Kansas City-based collector Jason C. reaches out to podcast hosts offering home play experiences with Barrels of Fun games (confidence: high) — Email to show offering local testing of Dune, Labyrinth, Winchester; hosts acknowledge 'That was really kind of you, Jason' and discuss collector culture of inviting players
- **[gameplay_signal]** Keith Elwin's Avengers Infinity Quest criticized for difficult tower drop shot and banana ramp design choices (confidence: high) — Tony: 'I don't care for the shots on it. I don't like the banana ramp. I don't like how hard it is to shoot that little tower drop shot. It's so gimmicky'
- **[product_concern]** Earlier episode claim that Monster League Hockey required multiple players was incorrect; game supports single-player mode (confidence: high) — Dennis and Tony issue explicit correction: 'The reason why it's an important correction is that I basically told everyone that you have to have friends... You have to have no friends and still enjoy the game'
- **[event_signal]** Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) served as primary venue for observing Monster League Hockey, American Pinball Houdini, and other new releases (confidence: high) — Multiple references to games seen at TPF; Dennis attended with daughter prior to podcast recording
- **[market_signal]** World Cup Soccer J-pop game noted as historically available/common with less collector demand than Circus Voltaire or Totan (confidence: medium) — Tony: 'It doesn't have a good art package, they were always readily available. You don't like the dog? It's fine. It's just not... people don't put it up on the wall'

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## Transcript

Welcome to the Collective Gamers Podcast. Today is Sunday, April 12th. This is episode 269. That's almost six. Oh, wait. No. It's back to the old fashioned 69, not the 67 stuff. Right. See, jokes that we get. Not like the whippersnappers today. Right. I don't get that modern stuff. No. I'm too old for that. My name is Dennis. I'm Tony. Hi, Tony. Tony, what's been going on? Oh, man. We recorded early last time. We did. Thank you for the glurp glurp. Yes, your glurp glurp. I got a glurp glurp vine like decal thing. Yeah. I don't know where. I've got a water bottle. I could probably glurp it. Actually, it would probably make the most sense on a water bottle. What, you don't want to put glurp glurp on your car? Glurp glurp! Probably not. I don't have a hybrid. I have a traditional ice engine. So in a way, I could say that's why it's glurp glurping. Yeah. It's glurp glurping all the petrol. Right. Yeah. So people who don't know are just like, okay. I've had a few glurp glurp events this last week. Nothing too bad, but I already gave Tony a breakdown of the truly most stupid things that people are arguing over. But you, of course, would never face such things. Oh, no. I've never faced stupid stuff. No. You all are highly trained professionals. Everything's wonderful. There's never stupid things. Any good gaming stuff going on? I've not played a lot of games. I mean, I got some for my birthday that I've been playing. I mean, I still like Star Realms and stuff and mobile game type stuff. But I got Domekeeper and 40K Inquisition or Inquisitor. I got Sandwich and I got Date Everything. Okay. And I've been playing Domekeeper and Sandwich and I've not started Date Everything yet and I've not even installed Inquisitor yet because it requires so much space I have to delete something. So I'm going to finish my other four. I'm still playing on Rogue Trader. Oh, okay. So once I finish Rogue Trader, I'll get rid of Rogue Trader because they're literally within like a gig of each other. Oh, yeah, that'll be a good swap. So it'll be a good swap. I'm very far along in Rogue Trader, so I've just not played a lot of anything for the last two weeks. It's that time of year where I've just been super busy. Yeah. Yeah, because we recorded early last time because I took my daughter to Comic-Con on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, and I bought a lot of Dungeon Crawler Carl stuff. Glarp, glarp. And I got a water bottle, a new achievement water bottle. It is pretty cool. So and I got just a bunch of some stickers and some other stuff. So but that was a lot of fun. She'd never been to a big con. Oh, that was her first time. That was her first time at a big con. We've been to some smaller stuff. Right. Yeah, but nothing that size. I hate what attending that con cost. Yes. You did share. I did share that. The tickets and the parking. Right. It was insane. But it was a lot of fun. Lots of good costumes, like an incredibly large number. I realized how far out of everything I've been because it used to be I'd go to a con, Comic-Con, Anime-Con, whatever, and I would recognize 90% of the costumes. Right. And at this point, I would say I recognized 50% of the costumes. That still might feel pretty good. If you took generic Star Wars costumes out, it'd be much lower. But we don't take them out because they're a huge presence. They are a huge presence. So that wouldn't be fair at all. I saw one gentleman who had the absolute greatest Stormtrooper costume I have ever seen. It was kind of based off of the – if you've seen Ahsoka, the Stormtrooper costumes with Thrawn. Oh. So the more – but it was big. It was dark. It had like the stuff all over it. And he had the voice change modulator in it. And like I was talking to him and he's like, oh, no, I've got like a full air conditioning unit in here. It's great. I was like, oh, my God. So, yeah, because he had like his pack. He had like battery packs in it and stuff. He had like a whole cooling thing running through everything. He's like, no, it's – That's nice. It's great. I'm like, okay, that's awesome. So there was a lot of stuff. I got – I would say the ones I recognized, but were – like it was insane to me how many mimes there were. Is that because of the – I'm thinking it's because of the Baget Game. Yeah, yeah. I just called it the Baget Game. The Baget Game. Yeah, I think it's because of Claire Obscura because I know there's an enemy in that game who's a mime. Mimes everywhere. There was a time that would have been very frowned upon. Right, yeah. And it was – but it's like, okay, whatever. Lots of mimes. I got overly excited because we were sitting there and I saw someone and I'm like, surely not. That anime is from the 90s and it's not that huge. Somebody was cosplayed as Chi from Chobits. Oh, I never even saw Chobits. I've heard of it. It's like, I'm like, okay. It's like, that's old school. Yeah. Oh, that's, yeah. Essentially, I remember someone, someone in Pinball actually once told me, messaged me on one of the Pinball forums. They're big into anime, and they said that a lot of people, they're not into the hand-drawn stuff. You got to get up into the, they can go back a ways, but once you go back, like, to what we would first see. Right. It's a little too dated for many of them. It is. And it's like, oh, okay. Well, things evolve. Right. And one thing, talking about like had to be uncomfortable because, you know, I mean, it wasn't like terribly hot outside, but it's hot everywhere. There was a there was a small group of of cosplayers that were dressed as members of the death core of Krieg from Warhammer 40K, which means like World War One German style wool great coats, fatigue pants. Combat boots, belts, backpacks, the whole nine yards, big peaked cap, full up, big snout, single thing, gas mask. Because the Death Corps always has a full rubber gas mask on. These guys are walking around Bartle Hall in this full wool and giant rubber gas mask. And I'm just like, that costume is really cool. And it's got to be the most uncomfortable thing because I'm in shorts and a t-shirt. I'm like, it's warm in here. And these guys are in wool and a rubber gas mask walking around. That's the dedication to the craft. You got to do what you got to do. That's right. Cosplay is sacrifice. It is. But, yeah, no, we did that. It was great. And then had a whole bunch of just random stuff the next weekend. And then yesterday was prom. So we were dealing with that kind of stuff. So it's been a very, very busy two weeks. And combined on top of all of that, I took a 3 a.m. two-mile walk my day of last week because I was awake because I was awake. I went for a walk. I stumbled. I twisted the crud out of my neck. Because it was dark out. It was dark out because I was walking at 3 a.m. like an idiot outside. Normally I would go to the gym and use a bike or a treadmill or whatever, but it's like the Carl Weathers is beautiful. I'm going for a while. I can still – my knee still hurts. I don't know what I did, but my knee still hurts. I'm just sitting here going, I'm old. This reminds me. I don't know if I ever shared this with you. This was a few years ago, but I went out walking on Mill Creek Trail. It was in the evening, and I don't normally go out quite that late, and I got to the first Mill Creek checkpoint, and normally I'm like, all right, I'll just cut up to the sidewalk, walk up Northgate, and then cut over onto Nelson and get back home that way rather than on the trails because it was getting dark enough and there were so many trees. I'm like, this way I'll still have some sunlight. There were roving dogs. Dog pack. I guess it was so dark I couldn't make out exactly. They looked like dogs to me. Coyotes. They moved like – I think they were too big. I think they were too big. But I didn't see any people. And there were multiple. And so I noped right – I turned around and I jogged. I thought – I thought they haven't seen me. You could have been the alpha. I could have. Found the biggest one. But I could have been – You could have taken over the pack. I could have also been the kibble. Maybe they were werewolves. Was it a full moon? They didn't seem quite that big, but I was just like, I can't make them out. They're just shadows moving on a floor. And I was just like, and I don't see any people on the area when calling for them. I'm like, not. And I'm like, the route I want to go means I have to go up past the ravine they went down. And I'm like, uh-uh. Did you smell brimstone? Were they hell hounds? Are we talking – are we looking like a hound of the Baskervilles here? I was just like, no way. One time when I was jogging where I would get ready for that 5K we did several years ago, I would jog out in the mornings and there was one time this dog ran right up on me. A big one like Doberman. It scared me. It wasn't mean, but then it proceeded to run with me for half a mile or something. And I was like, why don't you go home? You are at home now. I was like, nobody wants to run with me at 6.15 in the morning. I'm like, you need to go away. You're the dog whisperer, apparently. I don't know. Did you look at it and go, shh? Is that what he does? I haven't. I don't think I've seen that. Okay. But in more game-oriented news and a good segue regarding all the Star Wars that you saw, I have finally beaten Jedi Survivor. Congratulations. I did not kick the difficulty down. Even more congratulations. I had to go and find two more Stimpaks to get up to six Stimpaks to beat the final boss because he was annoying me. And I got really close with four, but I couldn't take him. And I was like, you know what? I looked at a little thing and said there were like ten Stimpaks in the game. I'm like, let me just go and get a couple of them. And then I was able to do it. So I've started Outer Worlds 2 now. You've played Outer Worlds. I've played the first one, yes. Yeah, so I'm not very far in. I'm past the tutorial planet, and I'm on the first real planet. I've heard the second one is a lot of fun. So far, the mechanics and stuff have been good. I haven't gotten quite into the story enough yet to really be able to say, like, how great is that? But anyway, that is what I am now working on. So I'm, you know, I'm pleased. I haven't played much this last week, though. I was actually playing a little bit before you arrived this morning, in fact. But I've just been like, ugh. I sometimes just want to sit and watch stuff. Oh, I watched – because I see The Boys has started again. Has it? I guess. I just saw it on Amazon Saturday, but I haven't watched it yet because Matt Damon. Matt Damon. And The Great Wall. Do you remember the trailers for The Great Wall? I remember the trailer. I remember seeing it one time and I never saw it. It's not bad, but I see why it failed. Most of the movie is in Chinese, so you have to read it. So I can recommend that you watch it if you going to play on your computer like you like to do because you will lose unless you learned Mandarin because you will just miss vast chunks of it But it also has Pedro Pascal in it Okay. I did not realize that. No, I didn't either because he has a really big beard at the start, so I didn't, and he wasn't the big highlight on the posters. But I will, I want to warn you. I want to warn everyone. That's why I'm bringing it up. I think Matt Damon is trying to do an Irish accent. Oh, no. So yes, oh no, indeed. Because Matt Damon doesn't have accents. Matt Damon. Except he did a decent Boston one in Good Will Hunting. Isn't that where he's from? Probably. So you probably knew that one. But I don't think he's from Ireland. Top of the morning to you. Like, anyway. Chowda, chowda, chowda, chowda. So if you thought that my voice stuff was bad, wait until you get a load of that. All right. But now let me go into the pinball. What did I get a load of me? Yeah. We have a correction. I have a correction. I made a huge, huge mistake. Huge, huge, very bad. Well, it was an assumption. And you know what happens when you make assumptions. So Monster League Hockey, it does allow single player games. We didn't read the flyer. And we didn't talk about that because everyone was playing it at TPF in co-op mode. Wait, not co-op, competitive mode. Co-op mode. I don't know if there's co-op mode. I'm not going to say one way or the other. I didn't ask and I read the flyer still. But it does have proximity sensors under the flippers. It is capable of single-player games. And you said it was capable of playing itself. You can put it into an attract mode. Right, but I'm going to say, but nobody plays like that. So that one, we don't – nobody's expecting that, right? Nobody's going to feel strongly that is or is the future. I would say that, except I will admit I have watched entire games where people have taken like a Civilization game or an Age of Empires or Crusader Kings, one of those type of games, and put a mod in that allows the entire game to be autonomous self-play so bots are every faction. And then the game plays out and people will sit there and just like put up on like YouTube the timeline of the factions fighting each other all as bots. And sometimes they will let them run for like months at a time. Oh, wow. Hmm. Because I watched one where they ran a thing in like a massive speed time lapse where it totaled like millions of turns until it like broke the game. Just letting the bots fight each other. Okay. I don't get it, but it's a thing. All right. So if you want your machine to break itself, you can just let it fight each other forever, I guess. We don't know that. We don't know. I'm talking about video games. Yes. But I'm trying to loop it in. But anyway, so be aware. You do not. The reason why it's an important correction is that I basically told everyone that you have to have friends. It wasn't just you. I said it too. You have to have friends. We were making funds about it. You have to have a friend. You don't. You can have no friends. Yeah. And still enjoy the game. And still enjoy it. So there you go. Speaking of games, American Pinball. I think this came out around when we recorded. It may have already been known, but we focused just on what happened at TPF. But all right. American Pinball is doing a reimagined Circus Voltaire. So I do have a link in the show notes to a NAP Arcade article. It covers more than just this, but it does talk about this, about that the plan is actually – he already had a different article that covers the announcement, but this is about – that this reimagined version is actually expected later this year. Currently, they are working on, obviously, the Houdinis, which were at TPF. They're going to do, I guess, a new run with Hot Wheels. They're doing a third thing also, but this is supposedly coming this year. I was going to ask you, what are your thoughts on doing Circus Voltaire reimagined? I'll just open with, I am not surprised once we found out that was Melvin from DPX who's constantly trying to do J-pop stuff is now they're doing a remake and of course it's a J-pop game. So that part in no way surprised me. No surprises. But that's my initial volley of opinion. Yeah. So, it's a popular enough game. I've never been a huge fan. It looks pretty, but I've never really cared that much. It is a game that falls firmly into my, I'll play it if it's there, but it's not like I hunt it out. I will admit, I don't recall seeing one at TPF in a while. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Personally, well, I do agree with you. I actually don't enjoy the gameplay on it, though I know a lot of people do. In fact, I would say it seems like next to World Cup soccer, it might be the most popular competitive one of the J-Pop games from Williams. Okay. I think this is the right one to do. Oh, no, I agree with that. Because there's no real, in my opinion, there's no real demand to remake World Cup soccer. It's been forever since I looked. I never wanted to own one. But whenever I had looked, because it doesn't have a good art package, they were always readily available. You don't like the dog? It's fine. It's just not. But people don't put it up on the wall. They do Totan or Theater or Circus. Theater is the safest layout, but I also think it's not particularly interesting. I personally prefer Totan to Circus Voltaire, but I think Circus Voltaire objectively is a better playing game overall with probably better rules. And again, it's a reimagining, so they'll probably have a secondary set of rules, is my understanding. So I think if you're going to do a J-pop remake and you want to make money, starting with Circus is probably the best one. Probably. I think you're not wrong on that. I do think Totan has the best art package. I do too. And personally, I like that if you're going to go full J-pop, it's got the more interesting ramps. And I like the genie grabbing the ball and stuff. But you've got that little pop-up pop bumper on Circus. You've got the juggler thing going on. And, of course, the ringmaster is a cool thing when the ball goes up on top and it falls off. And it's sort of a creative layout. So, yeah, I would say if I was of those specifically named games, if I was going if I saw all three of them put together, the first one I would probably go to would be Totan. OK, yeah, me too. I've always just like if I was to own a J-pop game, it would probably be World Cup soccer. But my next one would probably be Totan. So I just thought it was interesting. There's not been a lot of announcement stuff, obviously, since we're in the wake of TPF. We're not remotely near Expo yet. But, you know, I think the next time's going fast, but not that not that fast. I mean, honestly, I reckon we're going to hear the sequel, the next game to follow Pokemon here from from Stern soon. Probably maybe May. I'm going to I lean to June. I lean to June. Since it feels they've spread and thinned, I'm thinking June is more likely. Could be. So anyway, we don't we just don't have a lot of news. We did get one email, Tony, from Jason C., who lives in the area. A lot of this is stuff not to be for airing, so I'm going to do some edits and do some creative edits. But there's a little first part and a little secondary part. So Jason wrote the following. Thanks for the content, gentlemen. I enjoy your podcast. I, too, made the trek to TPF. I would have said hello if I had seen you or known what you looked like. Sorry, Tony. I have no clue what you look like. Fat with a mustache. Dennis, on the other hand, I have seen via his podcast with Zach. That didn't help me identify him anyway. Oh, well, because I am nondescript. So he does go on and talks a little bit about Barrels of Fun. He really likes Barrels of Fun games, but I want to go and skip through some stuff because there were some confidential aspects to it. And then he continues, I'm a fellow resident of KC. If you ever want to experience Dune, Labyrinth, or Winchester in a home environment, give me a shout. Dune is a whole new experience where you can enjoy the audio, video, and lighting. It took me a little while to find the shots and get good flow while playing, but now I feel Dune is my favorite game. Winchester is a few months out, but I have one on order. While it's a little odd sending an invite out to people I don't know, I enjoy the opportunity to share my pinball collection. So thank you very much, Jason. That was really kind of you. Actually, Jason gave us a link to his pin site collection. I looked at it. Big Barrel's a fun fan. He and I, setting that aside, have a lot of aligned taste. Like he has Total Nuclear Annihilation, which is a game I used to know. Good game. And I've actually emailed him back about this stuff. He has a – what is something? There was one or two games we both jointly owned. I'm trying to remember right now. Jaws. And he owns a Jurassic Park, which is like the one Elwin I don't own, which if I were to own another Elwin, it would be Jurassic Park. So our tastes definitely – I say this and I'm like – I'm naming a bunch of Elwins. Like everyone loves Elwin. So it's like – I did have someone message me on Facebook pointing out the hypocrisy, and I hate being a hypocrisy, but the aroma of hypocrisy was wafting down from the north. And my aroma was – apparently on the last episode, I at one point referred to as the King Kong game as not particularly memorable, and then later I said it was memorable. And I'd have to go back and play to know exactly what I was thinking. So here's how I'll try and tie it together in a non-hypocritical way, but it probably won't really work. And that is, in the wake of everything I played, I was not interested or impressed enough to really remember my TPF experience with King Kong. That said, it is an Elwin game, and the geometry was fine. His games play better than many other people's games. And the pantheon of overall games that have been in the existence of pinball is going to be near the top. But not everything he does really clicks with me well. I'll give you a really good case in point. Avengers Infinity Quest. I just don't care for it. We even played it again at TPS. We did play it again at TPS. But it's my least favorite Elwin game. And I know some other people, it's their favorite. They love the rules. They love the shots on it. I think the rules are fine, but I don't care for the shots on it. I don't like the banana ramp. I don't like how hard it is to shoot that little tower drop shot. It's so gimmicky I don't care for it. Like, just give me a Godzilla. Give me a Jaws. Give me an Iron Maiden over Avengers Infinity Quest. Right now, King Kong is probably above Avengers and below everything else for me. That's where I'm at. So that's why it's both memorable because it's still a good game, but not memorable because compared to other Elwin games, and that's what I'm going to compare it to, it's not in the top half for me. But I would need more time on it to be fair about them. So I'm being unfair right now. I will say I'm glad to hear from Jason that my thoughts and just the general thoughts that Dune is definitely a game that you wouldn't want to be able to see and hear everything in a quiet environment. Because that's what it makes sense. It seems like to me that's the perfect for that game just because of what the audio I could hear at TPF was. So that's awesome to hear that it does work out. And I totally get the awkwardness of inviting people over to your house. I have before. In fact, Jake, who does Monster League hockey, he's been to my house and played my games. And I've had people over in part also because I've sold so many games. And, I mean, that's how I almost always sell them locally. I hate getting things ready for shipping. I've made exceptions and shipped. And honestly, I need to sell at least three games. I need to get stuff out of here. But I both cannot motivate myself right now, Tony, to take the 30 photos that people are going to want. And then they're going to want more, but I'll do 30. And then I have to be here to deal with the tire kickers, much less the people I want to buy. Right. So it's not just like a watch I can just mail off. This, it's like it's a whole thing. Well, you don't want to get a crate and all of the – Oh, no, I'll ship STI. It's going to be shipped on its legs. I'm not going to crate it for you. Well, I guess if Zach were to send me a crate and do a trade-in thing, that'd be one thing. I'm not going to pallet it for you. Right. Though I honestly have a couple pallets I could get rid of too so maybe I would pallet one to get these pallets out of here But yeah no it such a hassle Most of the time people want to try it first which I totally understand It just again I work for a living so I not here all the time Have you considered setting up a camera hoisting one of them up on top of the roof of your house and then pushing it to the ground I don't know. Just for clicks. Yes, for the clicks. No, because our EGP YouTube channel doesn't have enough subs to be monetized, so we wouldn't make any money out of it. And I don't dislike any of the games I own, so I just don't want them enough to keep them. I've got ten right now. That's too many games. Yeah, well, you can hold like seven in your game room so everything else is sitting in the... That's right, and I ain't being in the hole. Why don't you just expand your garage into a game room and get it refinished? I'm like, oh, I'm just spending that money. I'm cheap. That's my other problem. Just one bay. Keep the other bay open. Yeah, it's a lot of work. I don't want to do it. Do it yourself. It's super cheap when you do it yourself. Yeah, it'll be a fun project. It'll be a fun project. It's a fun project. Quick, in and out, five minutes. That's all it is. I'll just put down those little puzzle piece foamy things there. Done. Those are terrible. I have a bag of them, though. I know. They don't really work that well. The foam breaks down. Yeah. I mean, that's a nice food. Complete tangent, because there's not a lot of pinball stuff going on. No, I'm done with pinball stuff. But complete tangent. One thing that I had a conversation with somebody about that works really well for weight rooms, workout rooms, game rooms, stuff like that where you really want strength but still softer than straight ground instead of those foamy things are apparently like horse stall mats. You just have to leave them outside for a while because they've got a real strong chemical odor at first. And then they're really good for that kind of thing. I was talking to somebody who had completely redone their garage in them because they had some games out there and they had like a weight bench and stuff out there. So they did all of that. So they had something soft to walk on instead of concrete. That's not a good thing. That's a decent idea. Maybe I should do like a pseudo pinballish. I could do just like a barn. That's what Zach has. He's got a pin barn. He's got a pin barn in the back. I'm sure you could. Code enforcement wouldn't care. I'm sure you pulled a permit. I mean, to be fair, your backyard is deep enough that you could put like a really narrow but long shed back there. Yeah, probably. I've got a shed guy. Do you want the contact information to my shed guy? Not right now. I have to noodle it for a little bit. I probably got to check a lot of the ins and the outs. Because I've got a shed guy that does good work at very reasonable prices. Because then it starts to get to the point where it's like maybe I should just connect it to the house then and just be like a tunnel, the pin tunnel. The tunnel. It's like, what is this really long tunnel? I need a little golf cart to take me back and forth. You have to have backwards stuff. So what you need to do is buy two golf carts, cut them in half, bolt them together so you can draw. No, the little like seat lift thing to let people get up and down stairs, but just do it horizontal. Just sit on the side of the wall. Gotta keep your fingers in. Don't lose your fingers. He's got a little chain, a little chain like the little kid swings. He just has that one little chain for your waist. What's going on in video games? Video games. There's been some interesting stuff. Nothing huge that I included. Lots of games have come out, obviously, but I'm not playing any of them, so I've got nothing really to talk about it. Warhorse Studios has reportedly replaced large sections of its translation team with AI to do the translations. So we'll see how that goes. Warhorse Studios is, oh, I had it memorized and now I don't remember. The War Ponies, very dangerous. Isn't there a play called War Horse? There's a movie called War Horse. I think it's based off a play. They did the Kingdom Come Deliverance and Kingdom Come Deliverance, too. But they replaced portions of their translation teams with AI because it's cheap. Okay. Well, we'll see how it goes. A few years ago when Power World had first come out, that's the Pokemon with guns thing. They had made an April Fool's joke about them making a Pal World dating sim called More Than Just Pals. That's pretty funny. That's clever. And then they came out the other day, and they're apparently actually in the middle of coding it because the call was so high. They are actually coding the April Fool's joke. Oh, no. No. One of the things we talked about very lightly last year because it failed so hard, but it had the beautiful drama was Mind's Eye. That was the game that it failed like out the gate where the CEO was complaining that they were sabotaged and the industry was out to get them. He did another big interview the other day because they're in the middle of their kind of relaunch as they try to continue after they laid off a whole bunch of people. They left parted ways with their distributor in a completely not weird way. Okay. Or their publisher. They parted ways with their publisher in a mutual decision that they're not the right places for each other. So he did a new interview because of their planned relaunch that he is saying there was an amplified negative narrative and sabotage that caused the game to fail, including from within the company. But now, now that time has gone by and those groups have been purged and they're working and there's no longer a finger on the scale to make it seem more negative than reality. They're building up to their big relaunch because they were sabotaged. He's still running with the sabotage. Oh, he's still running with the sabotage. Okay, interesting. He runs beyond this. In the interview, he said that they have evidence of the interference and have turned that information over to the U.S. and the U.K. authorities and are waiting for charges to be filed about it. They are also planning on using their upcoming multiplayer update for the relaunch to share evidence about the sabotage with the community. This guy is all in on the sabotage. I'm all in. He's all the way buried. He's like, we would have given him the biggest thing ever. Now, he did admit, he goes, we did have some launch day problems. There were some bugs and stuff like that, but it wasn't bad enough to tank the game like it did. Right. Okay. So he is all in on it. Super Mario Galaxy movie? I saw it. Did you? Yep. What did you think? No Donkey Kong upset. I think that just makes it a better movie. No, I'm kidding. I really love Donkey Kong. It's fine. I like the first one more. And I've heard that. I've heard it is a very – oh, how did they put it to me when I was talking to them this week? They said that it was very much a movie for fans of Mario, and outsiders would miss almost everything. I guess. Most of the games they reference in this one, I have not played. Right. So, I mean, I could tell the New Donk City. There actually was more from that one where he throws the hat. I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of that one. Odyssey? I think so. I think it was Odyssey. There's probably more from that even than Galaxy, even though Galaxy felt like the initial setup for it. So there were things where it's like, I don't know what that creature is or whatever sort of thing. But I mean, the story is still comprehensible regardless of if you've played Galaxy or Odyssey, and I've not played any of those. I have seen, of course, speedruns, though, so I do have some. That's basically no familiarity. Speedruns are not a way to understand. Yeah, definitely not. But no, okay, so yeah, overall I guess I could get it. There were some funny moments though that I thought were pretty clever. But yeah, it's definitely, there is a lot of just sort of, it reminds me of like the concept essentially of Ready Player One. Let's just cram in all the nostalgia that we can. And in this case, most of that cramming in will be Mario-stalgia. So they just crammed in. They just used a lot more newer stuff than they did in the first one where they had to set up with Mario and Luigi. And, you know, there's a whole plot line. Now they're already heroes. So they got that whole thing going on. Yeah. Last weekend, my kids were like, can we go see a movie? I figured that's what we were doing. But no, they want to go see Project Hail Mary. So I went and saw Project Hail Mary again. Yes. I like Project Hail Mary more. In an IMAX theater. Oh. It was still beautiful. And Haley. It was great. So I've seen it in theaters twice, and I don't regret it. Okay. It was great. I probably won't be seeing Super Mario Galaxy in theaters again. But they did make, for a Wednesday opening, they made solid, they made $34 million on a Wednesday opening. Oh, yeah, no. It looks great. And in their first five days, they hit $190 in the U.S. So last I read, they're slightly behind the first one in what it has made in the same time period. But not by much. So, yeah, we'll see how it goes. They took Yoshi in an interesting direction, too. That I wasn't a huge fan of. Like, he's too cool. No, she's not cool. He's fodder. He's cool in this. He's a clone fodder. You kill him like 90 times. You kill him constantly. Betrayal. Yeah. Poor Yoshi. Yoshi. All right. Big popular game last year, Ark Raiders. Very big. Very popular. They had a bunch of backlash. Hit the trail shooter. Because they had the – they'd done some AI voice work that they removed from the game and replaced with actual voice actors. Roger, roger. So there was a huge backlash about that over the winter. The CEO of Nexon, that's the owner of Embark, who makes Arc Raiders, was making a financial presentation. And he talked about how Arc Raiders is a Trojan horse because of the use of AI tools during development to assist in the content creation. He was talking about their new AI initiative and the AI support tools that help to allow the game developers to concentrate on making creative uses while the AI does the stuff in the background. He was trying to make AI developed stuff seem really good. Okay, so being Trojan Host is good. So Ark Raiders allowed AI to sneak in. That's the way he was talking about it. Yeah, now Carthage will fall and we want it to fall. Yes, apparently. Okay. Because they use a lot of AI tools in development. So we'll see how that bounces off seeing as how the AI backlash has been as of lately. Take-Two Interactive, on the other hand, is going the complete opposite way of Nexen or Crafton or a lot of these other companies. They laid off their entire AI team including their head of AI because they said there is no creativity that can exist in AI as all AI is data driven. So they completely wiped their AI team out. So we are definitely lining up to see a battle between the companies that are no AI, the companies that are all in on AI. And I think the reality is going to be the companies that are going to be in the middle where they use AI tools early on and then do finished work with other. Yeah, I've been hearing a few that it sounds like that's where they think that people will be okay with it. Because I read a fair number of places where they use like AI tools to like do early stage you know while characters are under design and for prototyping of character design type stuff just because the turnaround is faster and then they have actual creators finalize stuff So it'll probably end up somewhere in there between there and then the places where their employees are training the AI how to make new maps and stuff and then everybody gets laid off because the AI does all the work now. While we're still on the AI bit, we'll skip up here a little bit. Sony has continued to clear the PlayStation Store of AI slop shovelware games. They deleted like in January, they removed more than a thousand games from a single developer that was all just like shovelware AI slop crap. And that has now spread to more and more developers and they're removing hundreds and thousands of games from the Play Store that are just garbage. But if you really like garbage AI shovelware games, they're still all available on Steam. And I will add my correction. I had to double check. So I'm like, wait a minute, Trojan Horse. I got my stories mixed up. Obviously, the Trojan Horse is with Troy, not Carthage. Apologies for the fans of the two cities. They're not the same city. They're different. Well, I was thinking of Achilles. I mean, they're both gone anyway. I got to keep my Iliad and my Odyssey straight. Right. So there's a movie coming out this summer that will help you with that. Except the armor is all wrong. The armor is all wrong. Apparently. All right. Continuing. So we talked a little bit about that. Amazon had done the early green light for Mass Effect TV series. Yes. Amazon has brought in a new head of global TV. And part of that is he is requiring all the scripts and everything for all their new stuff to be gone over before they do the final green lights on shows. So Mass Effect is supposedly was supposedly ready to enter production. But after doing a check through of the scripts, he has sent them back to them and wants the scripts to be rewritten to make it more appealing to non gamers. Hmm. Because Fallout didn't do well. Apparently not. And a big chunk of the Mass Effect team were members of the Fallout team. Hmm. Also, they have the whole interesting thing where they put out they had already they have already put out a casting call for some of the stuff they're looking for. They're looking for a Colin Farrell type main character which has the internet up in arms because they just assume that that person is going to be Shepard. Right. And most of the internet probably wants FemShep. They do all want – everybody wants FemShep. And then they want a female wearing lots of prosthetics to be an alien female. And they're wanting a Doug Jones type, so Saru from Discovery. Garrick. Yeah. I saw a thing at one point where he had gone and he had done an audition for a part that was specifically asking for his type of person by name. He didn't get the role. You can't be coasting on that Discovery stuff, especially after the last three seasons. He has done a lot of stuff besides that. Everything he does is like heavy makeup work stuff. Sony has also started a nice player-based initiative, I guess, where people can apply, like fill out an application, send it in, And finalists will be chosen and be given video interviews. And the chosen winner will be brought in 3D scan to have their likeness appear in Gran Turismo 7 as a in-game character portrait. Okay. This is a lot of steps to be a portrait. But you get into the official part of Gran Turismo 7. Does anyone even care about Gran Turismo anymore? Does anybody care about it? I mean, enough people that they buy it, apparently. I mean, okay. They're up to Gran Turismo 7. That's true. And the Gran Turismo games are not AI shovelware games. I mean, they have a lot of work that go into them. I know there are people who will argue that they're better than Forza. Yeah, I could see that. I don't know if a lot of people still hold that view. I don't think so. Forza became more popular for its Horizon series than its mainline motorsport series anyway, though. That's very true. That's why the new Forza Horizon is having very good pre-sales from what I hear. Yeah, I've played a few of those. It's more arcade-y. Yeah, I think people prefer that. They like the burnout style. We don't want to actually be professional race car drivers. We're old. If I want to be a professional race car driver, I drive a race car. I'd do it. Yeah. If Reiki Muniz can do it, I can do it. It's like, you know what? I like playing Ace Combat. I don't like playing DCS because I don't like taking 20 minutes to do the full startup protocol on my airplane to take off. It's the same reason I've not really gotten huge into Microsoft Flight Simulator. Because it's a simulator. Because it's a simulator, and I'd much rather just fly around with infinite missiles. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, if I wanted to flight simulate, I would just learn how to fly a plane. Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing. It'd probably be kind of fun. It'd be fine. No big deal. Trench run. Yes. Flight instructors hate this one neat trick. Yeah. I will admit, back in the day, like Flight Simulator 97 type, I do remember doing runs through the Grand Canyon with airplanes. So I like Flight Center Air 7. You could, you know, people in mod, they put in like I was able to get new century added. And so it was super blocky. And so my favorite thing to do was I had the space shuttle. This is one of the planes. And I would try and fly the space shuttle at space flight speeds. And all I would do is enter a flak spin all the time and lose control. And I'd be like, I'm in a flak spin, I can't get control. And I always crash. Flan brick. Yep. Flan brick on approach. Like, there ain't no approach. As soon as I tried to turn, it would just be infinite barrel rolls. And then the whole thing would be going in a gyroscope. And I'd be like, why did I enter spaceflight in the atmosphere? Why did I turn? Why did I put the thrusters all the way on? Oh, man. I never landed it. Oh, I'm sure not. Never could land it. Well, the secret is you've got to land it in a drainage basin in L.A., just like in that hit movie, The Core. The Core. I think, yeah, it was The Core. Was it? I think so. Well, I mean, they went through the earth, though. Right, right, but this was like near the beginning when they – I can't recall. That's where the lady was on the pilot. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, who got to fly the – I forgot the name. The Nebuchadnezzar or whatever. Yeah. The tunneling ship. So, yeah, great movie. Space Cowboys and The Core, both much fun. I've rewatched Space Cowboys within the last year. It's been a bit for me. I've rewatched both within the last year, and they're both still fun in very different ways. Yes. Space Cowboys is a great movie. The Core is a great B movie. Yes. So the last thing I have, the very absolute most important gaming announcement of the year happened last week, and that is Brotato has announced their new DLC. Brotato. So coming later this year. The Spudling. Primal Dread. Now it's dinosaurs that you get to kill. Okay. All right. So it does make, I was like, Primal Dread seems like a weird name for something called Brotato, but with dinosaurs it doesn't fit. Right. So now the waves instead of – because the last one was Abyssal Terror, so it was like sea creatures. Right, right. This one's Primal Dread, so you can get to kill dinosaurs. I hope the ultimate boss is Yoshi. No, it's like a cyborg T-Rex, I'm guessing, based upon the trailer. Oh, wow. But the trailer isn't like gameplay. It's like a full-up animated, like Overwatch-style launch trailer. That's funny. So you'll be getting that. I'll be getting that when it drops. Sweet. It'll be worth it. Sweet. So yeah, no, that is, that's all I've really got. I know there's been some other stuff out there, but I've never, none of it really grabbed on. Other than one thing that I did notice, I saw that released in like 2017 or something like that was The Long Dark, which was one of those survivalist survival games. And after it had been out for a couple of years, they started like there was no story mode. It was just like a survival thing. Right. Well, they added a survival mode that had like episodes and the final episode dropped like two weeks ago. So that game got a story mode that's been almost a decade or something like that. That game has had a story mode rolling. It's finally done. So good luck for you. Speaking of long lead time stuff, there's a new update coming from No Man's Sky that adds Pokemon. No Man's Sky. I guess they're trying to win best long-term support again. I don't think anybody can come close to touching on the amount of work they've done on that game. We'll see. Overwatch seems to be taking a big stab at it this year. It has been taking a big stab. They did react to the character art drama with the one new character, and they're releasing the new art and everything. This whole reinvention of Overwatch this year, from all of the numbers I'm seeing, is going very well. So, and my daughter was watching competitive Overwatch. Oh, yeah, because there's OWCS now. Yeah, OWCS, and she was telling me about it, and she's like, apparently Dallas Fuel still exists? Oh. Maybe they're good now? Because all they were were a bunch of internet stars. It was an interesting strategy to get support. We're like, we're just going to take people who are famous from Twitch. Right. And that's our team. But, I mean, but apparently one of the teams was still the Dallas Fuel. Cool. That was her favorite team, wasn't it, in the past? Yes. Okay. No, she was Valiant. She was Valiant, but she liked Dallas Fuel, but Valiant was her favorite. Dallas was our closest one. Because that's where Agilities and I don't remember the other guy's name. Mickey? Something like that, yeah. Mickey from Thailand? Yeah, something like that. It's been a long time. 84 years. It has been. It's been, what, seven years since the first season? Yeah, it's been a lot. It's been almost like 10 years since the game came out. Right. I think it has been 10. I didn't play the first year. Yeah. And I've not played since Overwatch 2. Yeah. Years and years and years ago. Maybe it's time to reinstall. Maybe, but you can't pause it. I know. You've got to remember that. And I don't have any space because my hard drive is working. That's right. And that's the other problem. If I delete Battletech with all of the mods, that frees up like 140 gigs. Wow. That is a lot. It's got a lot of space. It's a lot of space. So, but that's all I got for us today. Okay. Well, thank you everyone for listening. If you want to reach out to us, you can email us at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com or go to facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast. If you want to support the show, we do greatly appreciate that. We have multiple tiers. The lowest is a dollar a month at patreon.com slash eclectic underscore gamers. We're available on Twitch and Instagram as eclectic underscore gamers. And we'll plan to be back in a couple of weeks, probably have a little bit more news, probably won't have a new pinball machine, well from Stern, maybe from someone else, but probably not. But there'll probably be some video game stuff. We might have some emails to get through. There might be some other news. Maybe we'll have a little bit of production update. I don't usually do that, though. We'll see what I feel like. But anyway, until then, my name is Dennis. I've been Tony. Goodbye. See you.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: b51a048b-6b9a-4b03-964b-98850f12cdc5*