# Episode 261 – Zip Lines and Moonshine **Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2025-12-28 **Duration:** 133m 45s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2025/12/27/episode-261-zip-lines-and-moonshine/ --- ## Analysis Ron and Bruce from Slam Tilt Podcast deliver their 2024 year-in-review episode, discussing Bruce's Tennessee vacation, Ron's recent foot surgery, and their experiences with new Stern releases including Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, King Kong, and Walking Dead Remastered. They cover manufacturing quality concerns, licensing limitations affecting future games like Matrix and Top Gun: Maverick at Jersey Jack, George Gomez's new cabinet design, and extensive accessory pricing for recent releases. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Star Wars: Fall of the Empire has significant playfield ergonomics issues, including clunky orbits and ball routing problems where balls jump into the back panel — _Ron and Bruce discuss their direct experience playing Fall of the Empire at RPC; Ron states 'It is super clunky to play. Even things like the orbits I had trouble hitting at first' and describes balls making 'the jump into the back panel, and it would rattle in there and then just pull out like a turd coming out of an ass.'_ - [HIGH] The Magna-save feature on Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Premium/LE is malfunctioning, exhibiting weak electromagnetic grip similar to weak power on original Black Knight — _Ron describes a save attempt: 'instead of just stopping it dead, it was just like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. And then it literally just died. Like there wasn't even a pulse. It just like, boom.' He credits Austin Code (Raymond Davidson) for ball saver compensation._ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball cannot afford Matrix or Top Gun: Maverick licensing due to asset/cost constraints ($15 million estimated for Maverick) — _From recent Jack Guarneri interview: 'Matrix, there were no assets. You basically get the name. You get the movie poster. That's it. And Maverick...it's like $15 million. And it's like, yeah, no. We can't afford that.'_ - [MEDIUM] Stern's new cabinet construction uses pressed 16-18 gauge steel rather than thicker gauge, which Bruce believes will cause flexing and 'twisty' problems over time — _Bruce argues about George Gomez's cabinet claims: 'These are probably 18 gauge. They're maybe 16 gauge...it's still going to flex and that's going to be the problem. Maybe I'll be wrong in two years, but I think we're going to see some of these cabinets get a little twisty-twisty.'_ - [HIGH] Stern's manufacturing QA process is inadequate; machines leave the factory with unresolved switch issues and playfield problems — _Bruce criticizes: 'the people who are testing them are just throwing balls through it to go through ball searches and make sure every switch works, which they don't even do right all the time.' He advocates: 'Don't push them out. Put games on location...Work out the bugs.'_ - [HIGH] Fall of the Empire's Death Star drop target rejected multiple times during tournament play before receiving a fixed unit on Christmas Eve — _Ron states: 'During the tournament, at least six times, I think I counted, six times I hit it rejected every time...We just got it Christmas Eve' and 'that's going to be my fun today.'_ - [HIGH] George Gomez confirmed the next Stern game is either Pokémon or Transformers (cartoon version) — _Ron describes Gomez interview: 'he pretty much confirmed the next game coming is either Pokemon or Transformers. Yeah. Great. He basically is like, yes. Transformers. It's a cartoon one.'_ - [HIGH] New Star Wars: Fall of the Empire accessory package costs $1,500 for C-3PO topper, $170 shooter rod, $270 side armor, $100 arc blades, plus $600 expression lighting for Pro models — _Detailed accessory pricing breakdown from Knapp Arcade listings discussed in episode_ ### Notable Quotes > "It is super clunky to play. Even things like the orbits I had trouble hitting at first." > — **Ron Hallett**, ~13:45 > _Initial assessment of Star Wars: Fall of the Empire's playfield design problems_ > "I had so many that actually made the jump into the back panel, and it would rattle in there and then just pull out like a turd coming out of an ass." > — **Ron Hallett**, ~14:10 > _Vivid description of ball routing failures on Fall of the Empire_ > "Don't push them out. Put games on location. Who cares if they see them a week or two before? Work out the bugs." > — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~21:30 > _Core manufacturing philosophy critique; argues for location testing before release_ > "Matrix, there were no assets. You basically get the name. You get the movie poster. That's it." > — **Ron Hallett (reporting Jack Guarneri)**, ~26:15 > _Reveals licensing constraints on Matrix game; indicates lack of visual assets from licensor_ > "These are probably 18 gauge...it's still going to flex and that's going to be the problem. I think we're going to see some of these cabinets get a little twisty-twisty." > — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~37:00 > _Skepticism about Stern's new cabinet durability despite George Gomez assurances_ > "I'm in the boot of shame." > — **Ron Hallett**, ~07:30 > _Personal context: Ron recovering from foot surgery, limiting pinball activity_ > "You're paying $100 for a border and a Jaws 50th plaque thing." > — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~50:45 > _Criticism of new Jaws 50th topper pricing ($1,100 vs $1,000 original) for minimal changes_ > "It's got the C-3PO topper. Have you seen this? Yes, I have. It's basically the Black Knight Sword of Rage topper, except with C-3PO's head." > — **Bruce Nightingale / Ron Hallett**, ~52:00 > _Discussion of Star Wars topper design; recycled Black Knight template with character swap_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; recovering from foot surgery (December 17); plays pinball competitively; third place finisher in Rochester Pinball Collective league | | Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; recently returned from Tennessee vacation visiting Jack Daniels and Gatlinsburg; critical of Stern manufacturing quality and cabinet design | | Slam Tilt Podcast | organization | Pinball-focused podcast from upstate New York hosted by Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale; episode 261 is year-in-review | | Star Wars: Fall of the Empire | game | Stern Pinball 2024 release; discussed extensively for manufacturing quality issues including clunky orbits, ball routing failures, malfunctioning Magna-save, and rejected Death Star drop target | | Rochester Pinball Collective | organization | Pinball venue in East Rochester, New York at 349 West Commercial Street; hosts tournaments and leagues; has 6-8 machines in various states of repair | | King Kong | game | Stern Pinball release; described as coming out 'really nice' with good build quality; has Magna-save feature but Ron reports it never functioned in regular play | | Walking Dead Remastered | game | Recent Stern release with new accessory package including $1,000 topper, $200 shooter knob, $100 arc blades, $270 side armor | | George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball design/management figure; recently conducted extended interview addressing new cabinet design, material specifications, and next game releases (Pokémon or Transformers) | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; cannot afford Matrix or Top Gun: Maverick licensing; Jack Guarneri recently addressed licensing limitations in interview | | Jack Guarneri | person | Jersey Jack Pinball leadership; recently gave interview confirming inability to license Matrix and Top Gun: Maverick due to costs/assets | | John Borg | person | Designer of Star Wars: Fall of the Empire; specified center orbit shot should be 'easy repeatable' per Ron/Bruce discussion | | Raymond Davidson | person | Austin Code (pinball code designer); credited with providing ball saver compensation for Fall of the Empire Magna-save failures | | Jaws 50th Anniversary | game | Stern release with new topper priced at $1,100; features minimal changes from original $1,000 topper (red trim and Jaws 50th plaque) | | Black Knight: Sword of Rage | game | Referenced as design template for new Star Wars C-3PO topper; topper recycled design with different character | | Knapp Arcade | organization | Arcade retailer/vendor mentioned for Star Wars accessory pricing information | | Mike Magoo | person | Runs Rochester Pinball Collective league; subject of good-natured ribbing from Ron/Bruce about machine restoration delays | | Woodford Reserve | organization | Bourbon distillery in Kentucky visited by Bruce during vacation | | Gatlinsburg, Tennessee | organization | Tourist destination visited by Bruce; described as 'like a Jersey Shore in a valley'; hosted zip line activity (1.1 miles, speeds up to 55 mph) | | Silver Ball Chronicles | organization | Pinball history podcast; latest episodes cover Jersey Jack Pinball games through Harry Potter; Ron and Bruce listened while traveling | | Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye | game | Stern 2024 release; noted as only current Stern game without accessories yet available; licensing unclear as potential factor | ### Topics - **Primary:** Manufacturing Quality & QA Issues, Star Wars: Fall of the Empire Problems, Stern Cabinet Design & Materials, Licensing Limitations & Future Games - **Secondary:** Accessory Pricing & Design, Tournament Play & Competitive Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball Business Strategy - **Mentioned:** Personal Updates (vacation, surgery) ### Sentiment **Negative** (-0.65) — Bruce expresses significant frustration with Stern manufacturing quality, QA processes, and cabinet durability concerns. Ron is more balanced but agrees on core quality issues. Positive sentiment only regarding specific accessories and George Gomez's transparency in interviews. Negative on pricing, playfield design, and cabinet materials. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball cannot afford major IP licenses; Matrix has no digital assets, Top Gun: Maverick licensing estimated at $15 million (confidence: high) — Jack Guarneri interview: 'Matrix, there were no assets. You basically get the name...Maverick...it's like $15 million...We can't afford that' - **[sentiment_shift]** Rochester Pinball Collective league reports seven to eight machines in active repair; suggests industry-wide reliability concerns affecting venue operators (confidence: medium) — Ron: 'there's seven or eight in the repair area right now...I'm still working on that Mike Magoo's game...games everywhere' - **[community_signal]** Pinball community widely experiencing manufacturing quality issues across multiple Stern releases; collectors/operators receiving 'ultimate clunkers' on X-Men and Fall of the Empire (confidence: high) — Bruce: 'You've gotten the ultimate clunkers with X-Men and everything else...We've gotten every clunker...I've seen streams with ones that play way better than yours' - **[design_philosophy]** Fall of the Empire's Magna-save feature design flawed; weak electromagnetic implementation compared to intended 'golden eye save' functionality; ball saver compensation required (confidence: high) — Ron describes failed save: 'But you know if you're at a show...Black Knight...power's weak...That's what this looked like...it just died. Like there wasn't even a pulse' - **[licensing_signal]** Top Gun: Maverick licensing costs ($15 million estimated) prohibitive for boutique manufacturers; Matrix lacks sufficient digital assets for game development (confidence: high) — Jack Guarneri on licensing decisions: 'Maverick...Steve Ritchie, Top Gun Maverick, baby...it's like $15 million...we can't afford that' - **[market_signal]** Rapid accessory releases post-launch (Walking Dead Remastered accessories already available at launch; Star Wars accessories quickly deployed) suggest post-release monetization strategy (confidence: medium) — Ron notes Walking Dead Remastered 'just came out, and it already has the accessories' with $1,570+ total pricing - **[market_signal]** Star Wars: Fall of the Empire accessory package totals $2,430+ for topper ($1,500), shooter rod ($170), side armor ($270), arc blades ($100), and Pro expression lighting ($600) (confidence: high) — Detailed pricing breakdown from Knapp Arcade discussed in episode; additional complaint about $100 increase on Jaws 50th topper - **[announcement]** George Gomez confirmed next Stern game is either Pokémon or Transformers (cartoon version) in recent extended interview (confidence: high) — Ron: 'he pretty much confirmed the next game coming is either Pokemon or Transformers...It's a cartoon one' - **[product_concern]** Death Star drop target on Fall of the Empire rejected multiple times during tournament play before fixed unit arrived Christmas Eve (confidence: high) — Ron: 'During the tournament, at least six times...six times I hit it rejected every time...We got it Christmas Eve' - **[product_concern]** Stern manufacturing process releases machines with inadequate switch testing and playfield configuration; QA personnel lack pinball knowledge (confidence: high) — Bruce criticizes: 'people who are testing them are just throwing balls through it...they don't even do right all the time...basically it's I think we need...maybe homebrew is the way' - **[product_concern]** Star Wars: Fall of the Empire exhibits systematic playfield ergonomics issues (clunky orbits, ball routing failures jumping into back panel) and Magna-save malfunction (weak electromagnetic grip) (confidence: high) — Ron's detailed experience at RPC: 'clunky orbits...balls...jump into the back panel...rattle in there...instead of just stopping it dead, it was just like, uh, uh, uh...boom.' - **[technology_signal]** Stern's new cabinet uses thin pressed steel (16-18 gauge) rather than thicker gauge; Bruce predicts flexing and 'twisty' problems despite George Gomez assurances (confidence: medium) — Bruce technical argument: 'These are probably 18 gauge...maybe 16 gauge...it's still going to flex...I think we're going to see some of these cabinets get a little twisty-twisty' --- ## Transcript The suspect in the Highland-Maximart robbery, Daryl Brittany Williamson, went free today after his trial ended in a hung jury. The decision... Whoa. Hung jury? She's talking about us, Beavis. Whoa. How'd they know? I didn't pull my swang out once. I mean, I don't think I did. Oh, wait, maybe I... Yeah. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Shell Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale. Vacation. Vacation. Are you on vacation or going on vacation? No, I just came back from vacation. Uh-huh. And this is episode 261. Yeah, baby. The year in review. Yes, we had to do one of these. Everyone else is doing it. Everyone else does, but we talked about it. Now we need to do a full year in review. Year in review. I.e. all the stuff Bruce shits on. Mostly, yes. So where was your vacation, Bruce? I was in Tennessee. I went down. He drove down to... What's with the accent? I was in Tennessee. That's right, because I got to do an accent. Do you do that anywhere else? Yes, I did. How y'all doing? I was like, I can't afford you, man. How y'all doing down here? How y'all doing? I'm sure they love you. They love me. First, we drove down. We went through Kentucky. We went to Woodford Reserve. My wife was very happy to go there. We didn't take the tour, but we just went to the gift shop, and she got to have a couple drinks. Got a Woody at the Reserve? Got a Woody at the Reserve. Okay. Then we drove down to the rest of the day and got to right outside of Lynchburg, Tennessee. You know it's in Lynchburg, don't you? No. No? People are going, come on, Ron. That's Jack Daniels. Yeah. We went to Jack Daniels in Lynchburg. Wow, the guy that doesn't drink alcohol at all doesn't know where an alcohol thing is. Exactly. What the hell is wrong with you? My dad would probably know it. Yeah, he probably would. know it because he used to work in a liquor distributor he was definitely over jack daniels is me so we took the tour there again uh we last time we took the tour was like three days before covid closed everything so oh we went down there it was your fault yes okay uh we went down there had a good time uh then we drove across the state and we went to gatlinsburg which is like It's like a Jersey Shore in a valley. Ah, so was Snooki there? No, no Snooki, thank God. But it was cool because, you know, there's shops, there's stores, there's places like Ripley's, believe it or not, that kind of stuff. And it's a nice place, really cool. I took a zip line. Me and my wife went on the zip line for the first time in probably 15 years. And I took the longest zip line in the world, 1.1 miles. and your speeds can go up to 55 miles an hour. Okay. That's pretty cool. And I got some booze down there. I got some moonshine and stuff like that. Got some sugar lambs, as everyone knows, down there. And I had a great time. Drove back Christmas Eve. I apologize to all our Southern listeners for this horrible accent. This horrible accent was great. I love this shit. And got back Christmas Eve late and vegged out and worked a couple days. And here we are. How about you, Ron? How was your holiday? How was that? I mean, my holiday, I set my ass at home. What the hell? Well, I had my foot surgery. I know you did. And how did it go? Well, we'll know. I didn't get to see you because. Well, no, in a month or two or something. I mean, whenever I'm supposed to fully recover. But I'm in the boot right now. Uh-oh. What? It's like the cone of shame. You're in the boot of shame. I'm in the boot of shame. No, so, yeah, I had the surgery. When did I have the surgery? Oh, the 17th. Yes. The December 17th. Yeah, they knocked me out. That was nice. I wake up and it's over. And then they put me in the, they wrap it up, put it in the boot. You know, I can't walk on it. I learned it's cool to be a little shit. You know, when you're 5'8 and a half and weigh like a buck 55 and you can easily lift your weight, it makes it a lot easier crawling around because that's basically what I did. Wow. Yeah, just crawling around or scooting on my ass. Scooting like a doggie. Yeah. So, like, you know, get on the toilet, get off the toilet. It was fun. It was great. then I went back this week or a week later and they put a new wrap on they took the one wrap off took the other wrap off and we want you to start walking on it with crutches so I got the crutches and I'm basically rehabbing at this point I have to learn how to walk again he's like the bionic man the bionic man it was weird it was weird looking at it in its non-screwed-up state. I've never not had hammer toes, like, in my adult life. So to see my toe kind of straight was weird. Yeah. My wife has hammer toes, but I'm no – must be those steel-toed shoes that keep that foot right in. Yeah. Yeah, so that's where I'm at. So I really can't do – and just we had the snowstorm here. Yes, we did. You had a couple snowstorms. Well, we really just have this one. And I'm like, yeah, I can't shovel snow or snowblow, so I'm going to have to get someone to do it for me. Lucky you. I think that's it. Oh, yeah, I was at the world-famous Rochester Pinball Collective. Yes, and who wasn't? You weren't. I know. Oh. Sorry, I missed you. Oh, the back is kind of full, man. You've got, like, games everywhere. I couldn't even sit on the couch back there because there's games in front of it. What the hell? That's all the games we have ready to go in that room. So many games, folks. We have six games ready to go, folded up, so it would take us, like, literally 30 minutes to unwrap and go. So we have, I think there's seven or eight in the repair area right now. I'm still working on that Mike Magoo's game. Mike actually messaged me. He's like, hey, man, are you upset? I'm like, no, we're busting your balls. So I'm telling everyone here, I was busting Mike's balls. We always bust Mike's balls. I like Mike. Mike is a good guy. So, Mike, we love you. But we still bust your balls. He runs our league. He runs the league. Which I finished third in this year. Third. You suck. Yeah, I was the top seed. You suck. I did good in the semifinals. You suck suck. I got to pick all the games. I mean, all four games, they're fine. I don't dislike any of the games, so it wasn't like I had any bad picks. It wasn't like when we used to have Wizard of Oz, and it was like, oh, God, I hate that. I like that game. Oh, it was so bad. I do. You're high. Pretty smart. Yeah. Yeah. But RPC, we had the Star Wars, was it Fall of the Empire launch? Fall of the Empire. Yeah, so I got to play lots of Fall of the Empire. And how was Fall of the Empire? Well. Let's talk about that before we go into the interview, since now you've played it. Well, I played it at Expo. But, yeah, I played it more. With better code. Here. Yes. Yeah, it's going to need code. help it. That is exactly the word I would use. It is super clunky to play. Even things like the orbits I had trouble hitting at first. You're better off with a pro I think. I think the premium makes that center shot harder. That's supposed to be the easy repeatable shot per John Borg himself. I'll tell you, clunk, clunk, clunk. I had so many that actually made the jump into the back panel, and it would rattle in there and then just pull out like a turd coming out of an ass. Plop. Yep, yep. It's like, what the hell, man? I watched this in streams, and people were just, like, shooting this thing, like, 30 times in a row. What the hell? Yep. I swear, we've gotten every clunker. Yeah. With X-Men? I've seen streams with ones that play way better than yours. You've gotten, like, the ultimate clunkers. We've gotten the ultimate clunkers with X-Men and everything else. King Kong's not our clunker. King Kong came out really nice, I will say that. Well, then you got the four save thing. So it worked once when we had the glass off at the beginning. Of course it does. Like, oh, that's what it's supposed to do. Cool. And then it never worked in regular play. I had an instance where I, to activate the four save, you've got to spell Jedi. Yes. Actually, if you spell the J and the E, you get the one save where it just throws it up into the shooter lane. But if you spell Jedi out, you get the golden eye save, basically, where it stops it dead and then pulses it up. Well, that's what I had. So I drain. I hit the button. It grabs it. But you know if you're at a show and you're playing Black Knight, like the original Black Knight, and the power's weak and you hit it and it's kind of just wavering. And you're like, oh, God, please don't fall in the out lane. Please don't fall in the out lane. That's what this looked like. Instead of just stopping it dead, it was just like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. And then it literally just died. Like there wasn't even a pulse. It just like, boom. But thanks to the Austin Code, Raymond Davidson, good job, it gave me a ball saver. But still, it's like that didn't even work right. I know. It's like all these features of the premium and they don't work. That's why I said you're probably better off with a pro. The pro, yes. The pro, I think, is the way to go. That right ramp is kind of narrow. Oh, the right ramp's narrow. The weird glowing Java the Hut. Oh, Java the Glowing Hut where he looks like he took a shit that was a pinball. No, it's like he took radioactive ice. I do like that they have the drop target in front of that ramp, and it's up a lot of the time, so you don't have to actually hit it up there and get forward. So I did like that. But the Death Star, I counted the first six times I hit the Death Star. Oh, reject. We got the fixed one. Yeah, the fixed one isn't installed yet. No, no, we just got it Christmas Eve. Yeah. So that's going to be my fun today. But here's the fun thing that makes no sense. So during the tournament, at least six times, I think I counted, six times I hit it rejected every time. So I play a game after a tournament's over, three in a row, right in there. And I started the Death Star multiball. Yay! I love the animations on the game. That's good. Lots of video assets. I mean, I don't like that they have the Jabba's Palace musical number is from the special edition, which I cannot look at that. It ruins it for me. I already stated that, but it is what it is. It's so bad. I forgot about that until I saw that. Like, oh, shit, that's right. They totally redid that, didn't they? Oh, God, it was so bad. So bad. You love it. I was just surprised how clunky it was. Oh, it's so clunky. You guys get the worst examples of every new game. I swear you guys do. at the wonderful Rochester Pinball Collective and 349 West Commercial Street, East Rochester, New York. The problem is I don't get into them and Zach doesn't get into them because it's Mark's game. So, Mark, you know, when we get, like, when we get Rush, you know, Zach's Rush or when we get, you know, Zach. Bill, it had flipper hop. Oh, no. And I went in there because I was a skimmy screwdriver. I went in there and the inlanes were, like, loose. Yeah. That's what it was. I just tighten them up and slow down, guys. Don't make 45, 50 games if they're all going to be shit games. People are spending, you know, $9,000 to sometimes $11,000 or $10,000 on these games. Get them right. Don't push them out. I feel like, you know, it's the same old story from Stern. Push out a game, then the Cove will come later, and hopefully it's good. You hope it's going to be good. It'll be good. Look at John Wick. Look at all these other games. It'll be good depending on who works on it. Exactly. I mean, it's the same as anything else. Oh, it's not. Yes, it is. I just hate the mode we're in now where it's like, hopefully you get a good game. Let's roll the dice. We're still working on code for Star Wars, you know, the 2017 one. No, they're not. They just put a code out. Yeah, but that was due to something that came out, which we will be talking about. Yes, I know. But, you know, it's just. Stop. Calm down, Bruce. Calm down. Fix. Make sure these games work better before trying to get them out the door. Okay. Ready to go through my list? No, because I'm still talking. You're still. I'm trying to stop it from vending, folks. I'm trying. Trying. It ain't going to happen. No. Guess what? Put games on location. Who cares if they see them a week or two before? Work out the bugs. That's when games worked. Even though they were shit and they had bad code, they worked. The thing is, everyone does this now. I know. And I don't have as big a problem with it as you do. I think it needs to be out in some kind of state where it works enough. Well, we've had those versions also. Well, yeah. Yeah, but, I mean, you've got to do basically the L1 level, where the game has the main multiballs in it. You feel like it's a complete game when you play it, even though it's like 20% done, if that. Exactly. And then they work on it from there. Like, okay, what are people going for? What do they like? Do three people play these games? Do three people play the – you know, they have one version. They have two versions. They have the pro. They have the LE. And they must play these games so much and get them tweaked in so much. Then they put them on the line, and the guys are going, put them together. Just get them out the door. And they don't get tweaked. People who are building them don't know what pinball is except for disassemblers. And then the people who are testing them are just throwing balls through it to go through ball searches and make sure every switch works, which they don't even do right all the time. Right, Ron? They don't make sure the right switches are in the right place. Exactly. So what does that tell you? I do think, yeah, when they're doing the switch test, I think if they hear a beep when they go over something, that's like, okay. We're good. We're good. I got a beep. So it's just I think we need, you know, maybe homebrew is the way in some ways. I don't remember this with early Stern when they had games on location. I feel like it's just gotten worse. Or they had more time to work on these games. I don't see it with Keith either Keith is dedicated I think I don't think he sees the issues as much on pros though I agree because there's nothing else because that's the whole point that's the pro version my year review is fucking get them better do better Bruce says do better and I guarantee people are agreeing with me and I want to hear people say that they need to do better If you want to agree with Bruce, you can email us at slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. Okay. You like that? I did. You got me off the subject. Uh-huh. Fucking God damn it. Did you see the latest episode of Silver Ball Chronicles? Nope. Nope? Nope. We were audio booking it for the way down and way back. So you were not in, you were not, I'm usually in a car and I'll usually listen. What's, what's Silver Ball Chronicles about this time? Jersey Jack. The latest and greatest games. Because we only went up to like half of their games the first time. So now we're – we went all the way through to Harry Potter. And I'm segueing into my first thing. There was a recent Jersey Jack – well, Jack Guarnieri interview where they were asking him about – The next two games are this. Well, no. Some of the licenses that have been rumored. Like Matrix. Yeah. And he just said flat out, Matrix, there were no assets. You basically get the name. You get the movie poster. That's it. So they're like, no. And Maverick, which we've been talking about, like, yeah, Steve Ritchie, Top Gun Maverick, baby. Supposedly it's like $15 million. And it's like, yeah, no. We can't afford that. So, yeah. Fucking Tom Antonio Cruz needs more money. Yeah. So, yeah, they're not going to be taking the highway to the danger zone. I'm sorry. Highway to the danger zone. I just love how they began Maverick the exact same way Top Gun starts. It's literally the same thing. So we're going to get Pinto instead instead of Maverick, and we're going to have the offshoot of F-14 Tomcat. We're going to get, instead of Top Gun, you got F-14. We're going to get Pinto instead of Maverick, and we're going to have a fighting game with all these fighters. Pinto Cars? Yes. I'm confused. Maverick. It's a Pinto, you know. It is? Is it? No, no. But it's the same kind of thing, like F14. Yeah, gosh. 747, man. That went way over my head. Yeah, wow. I'm thinking cars. Like, okay, yeah, Pintos. People make fun of that one. That's the car that blew up. Yeah, you know, Maverick was just before, you know. And, you know, Maverick's a good game, you know. That was like the three ships that came over to discover the world. The Nissan, the Pinto, and the Chrysler New Yorker. Yeah, wow. The Nissan ran out of gas. the Pinto blew up, but the Chrysler New Yorker had the airbags and the fine Corinthian leather. Corinthian leather. Yeah. Wow. Okay. On that note, let's go into the interview. And there was this epic George Gomez interview that Kerry Hardy did addressing the cabinet. Yeah. Did you see this, Bruce? I saw parts of it. He answered all your questions, Bruce. Yes. He answered all the questions. Actually, he just spent an hour talking about the cabinet, and in another hour just answering questions, people drilling him about every possible thing. Yep. And he pretty much confirmed the next game coming is either Pokemon or Transformers. Yeah. Great. He basically is like, yes. Transformers. It's a cartoon one. I mean, what guy does Optimus Prime is still alive, isn't he? Yes, he is. All right. I'm Optimus Prime. I am living on my deathbed while I'm trying to make this soundtrack. He is like 95 years old. Exactly. To keep my pump on my insulin working. All right. I'm optimistic. But I highly recommend that interview because he goes over pretty much everything with the new cabinet. The fact that it's made from the same materials as the old cabinets were going back to 2018, which, of course, Bruce disagrees with somehow. It is really. You can see it. Yeah, the old ones are painted over. The new ones aren't. No, they're not. Okay, so basically he's saying that George is lying and doesn't believe it. And they're offset a little bit. We've seen the pictures from them. I don't know. I was convinced. I saw ours. I wasn't. I was convinced by Mr. Gomez. Wow. You took the red pill. George has never lied to me. Guess what? Every CEO in every company. It's not a CEO. Okay. Design, you know, whatever. Management. He answers way more than anyone else does. Oh, totally. Except for Jack. And actually answers questions. And it's, yeah. I had no problem with that part of it, but I see it. I felt the cabinet. Oh, you felt it. I felt it when we moved it. Yeah. Because basically it's held together now by what, steel? Like steel beams or something? No, those are not steel beams. Those are pressed. No, no, no. Don't even go there with this one with me. Who works with metal? Who works with metal every day of their life? Me. That rock band? Because of metal? Yes. Yes. That's what I do. Yes, I do. Not at all. Well, explain to me, because he said there was something gauged steel or whatever. You're telling me it's not? Yes, it is steel, but it's not. It's formed steel. So that's where it gets its strength from, from the forming. Did he say pressed steel or something like that? It's pressed steel, yes. And it gets its strength from the forming of it, the curve, and the bends in it to get the strength. But it's not thick. It's not a straw. It's not a, like when I think of steel, everyone thinks like, you know, you get these beefy. These are very thin. These are probably 18 gauge. They're maybe 16 gauge. I think he said 16. It's not. Now think of a gauge wire that you see in a machine. Some are 20, some are 16. The power wires are going to, like, you know, a transformer on a Bally machine or a Stern machine. Those are 16-gauge wires. And you're going to go, wow, that's not that thick because it's .156 of an inch thickness. Not that thick. And they're going to keep it thin because they want to keep the weight down. But with that, it's still going to flex. and that's going to be the problem. Okay. We'll see. Maybe I'll be wrong in two years, but I think we're going to see some of these cabinets get a little twisty-twisty. Twisty-twisty? Twisty-twisty. But, yeah, I guess the main crux of it is they're doing it all in-house now. Oh, yeah, so it's cheaper. When this was done outside, they couldn't see how much glue was put on, so they might run into situations like they did wherever we had all the separating cabinets. Yeah. happen, all that, and they just don't want that to happen. No, the separating cabinets came up because they went with a smaller bracketry. I thought there was also glue issues there, too. Yeah, but I think they also went smaller on metal. They had the smaller brackets for the lake plates. Yeah. Yeah. But now it's all in-house, so it's going to be all better, right? Wait. Okay, Bruce is not convinced. No, I'm not. Somehow I'm not surprised. Yep. But, yes, we always got to have our dissenter. I don't know. I trust you, George. He did the Tron cabinet. He did the environmental Tron cabinet. Exactly. And you know what that's all done by? Wood. Yeah, wood. Solid wood. Well, what do you think when he had the Congo there and it's like it's all MDF? and look what happened to those cabinets yeah but he was saying everyone always have he was saying how everyone thinks those are the greatest cabinets no they're not what are the greatest cabinets Scott Lee oh god yeah those are tanks and actually Jersey Jack I do like they you feel the difference in a game you feel it in your back but you feel it I don't know if it was the next game or the one after that but they're gonna the speakers are going to be in enclosures, you know, for better sound. And I'm thinking, like, yeah, okay, we're going to go. I mean, Capcom did this. Yes, they did. They were ahead of the game. They did this in the 90s. And people made fun of them about it. Oh, look, you're changing the pinball. Look at all this stuff you're doing. Yeah. Yeah, but I would like to have the enclosures. That would make better sound. That would make better sound, definitely. It sounded like it was maybe something that was going to be in LEs, but then you could put it in the other models, which makes sense. Get more money. Get more money. And another accessory, like the speaker enclosure accessory. Improve your sound. And everything's more modular now. Like the expression lights, they're now just like part of the – you just slap them on. Yes, that I agree with. I like that part. I like that. I like that part. That's actually good. Yeah. I just don't know about that. Okay, I got to say one positive thing. Oh, yeah. No, there's a couple of good things about that. Move on to the other one. Bigger screen. Bigger screen. You know, with the Spike 3, bigger screen looks better. Yeah. When they use it. When they use it. And use it properly. And use it properly. All right. All right. We'll go to Bruce's favorite thing, toppers. Did you see the jaws? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Uh-oh. What is that? Me hitting my head against a speaker. against the microphone. Well, they came out with the new Jaws topper. The Jaws 50 topper. The ones for the Jaws 50. So it is like this. It's $1,100. The original one was a grand. So, okay, what's better about this one? Nothing. No, it's exactly the same as the original one, except it's got red trim around the billboard sign and an extra little thing about Bobby that says Jaws 50th on it. So you're paying $100 for a border and a Jaws 50th plaque thing. Sold! I'm expecting Ron to buy Spend Some Money for Christmas on himself. We'll talk about that, about toppers. They should have just had Jaws pop up. Like, they could have just done that. Yeah. They could have had the moving shark, but on the top. Yep. That would have been a lot better. Not a scene where you see the billboard. Although I do think it's kind of funny. Yeah. Does it change? Wait a minute. Does her face change to say help shark? Yeah, I think it does in a transition. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do kind of like that. Help shark. Help shark. Shark. Shark. Shark. Shark. But And only those guys here Star Wars All the Empire Already has accessories Of course How much is that topper? Which is funny because that leaves only one Stern game without the accessories Do you know what that is? That's the one that hasn't had accessories yet Came out at the beginning of this year Still no accessories King Kong? Dungeons and Dragons. Oh, Dungeons and Dragons. Probably came with the licensing all done. Really? Licensing won't be that much of a problem? Who knows? I can't see that. So they came out with the Star Wars accessories. Yep. Which... Star Wars! Star Wars! It has the C-3PO topper. Have you seen this? Yes, I have. It's basically the Black Knight Sword of Rage topper, except with C-3PO's head. and the background of the control room. And the background of the control room from the Death Star that they sneak into there when they first get out. Yeah. Beautiful. Looks great. I like that. Are you buying this now for your – what we should do. Well, you forgot. We should have stackable. Well, hold on. Stackable? So one on top of the other? Because you have CPVO taller than R2-D2. Right or wrong? It would be cooler if it was half and half. like you got secret on one side and two on the other side you keep going that way you'll be malfunctioning within a day yes exactly that would have been cool smaller but more interactive so that would have been awesome where the sort of rage topper was 500 bucks this is 1500 dollars yeah but it can be used on both games it can be used on the old Star Wars the 2017 Star Wars. Yep, so Ron's going to buy it. Well, I already updated my code to support this. But I'm like, what's it... Because the way it works in the new Star Wars is the main narrator of the game is D3PO. Yes, yes. So, he talks a lot, so you see him move a lot. He doesn't talk a lot in the old one. No, he's probably just going to move his head. So, what's going to happen there? Are they going to put any new speech in there? So, are they just going to have him move his head on the few quotes. Because he's not one of the main four characters you pick. The four characters you pick in that game, or was it Han Solo, Luke, Leia, and R2. You can give him Master Luke when he, you know. Yeah. Leia. I'm just wondering if they'll eventually put some more call-outs for him in there. Because otherwise, I don't... Because it's going to be weird if he's moving, but not like he's not talking, he's just moving. I don't know. But it looks super cool. Oh, those look awesome, $1,500. Although, like the shooter knob, it looks like the exact same Star Trooper head that's on the play field. It probably is. Mm-hmm. Yay. Yeah, I'm looking at that top. Yeah, I especially like the background, the control room background. It's a good little, you know, the true Star Wars fans will know what that is. Yes. And the progress bar. It's got a progress bar thing up front. Yeah, at the bottom of it. Yeah. Kind of reminds me, you know what they could have done? They could have made it look like the, you know when he turns off the tractor beam? Oh, yeah, broo. Yeah, that little graphic, dooo. They could have made that. Oh, that would have been nice. That would have been kick-ass. Yeah. But, yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. You haven't said your line yet, Bruce, a certain, you know, line about grabbing things. I love grabbing cash. Let me look at this again. Let me see some of the other pricing here. I'm at Knapp Arcade, by the way. Hi, Knapp. Hello, Mr. Knapp. So let's see. We got $1,500 for the topper, $170 for the shooter rod, $270 for the side armor, and $100 for the arc blades. Cheek, cheek, cheek. Expression. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. The director jackpot. Woo-hoo. Expression lighting for only the premium machines because for the pros is $600. There you go. There you go. It's like the game comes out. Everyone shits on the game and all that. And then it's like, oh, why did you have to come out with a topper that looks that cool now? Damn it. A good one, you know. But that's not the only game that had accessories. We got Walking Dead Remastered accessories, which basically look the same as the original one It got the three topper thing but the heads look better basically I'm looking at them right now. They got the shooter knob, which is some dude's head, which looks enormous. I hate shooter knobs. So do I. It's got the side armor. I'm looking at it. Yeah, all the usual. I wonder what the pricing is on this stuff. Let's see. Do we have pricing? Do I have pricing? I do not know. But either way, yeah. So, I mean, the game just came out, and it already has the accessories. Boom. There it is. Let's see. Oh, here we go. Preparedness. I will give them an A for being prepared. We got the topper. The topper is $1,000, which basically means it doesn't move. Yes. It's just lights. Let's see. The zombie head shooter knob. Oh, that does light up. It's $200. The inner art blades is $100. And the side armor is $270. And this one, I believe, you can have expression lights with, well, it only has the premium in LE, so never mind. Yay. But going forward with the next one, if it's all this modular design, you should be able to get expression lighting like on every pro now. I think it looks cool. The shooter knob looks cool, although I just hate having to use shooter knobs with the big freaking... I remember you had the scared stiff. Yeah. With the big, what was it, eight ball? Yeah. And it was huge. It was monstrous. It might even be... I'd say it was bigger than an eight ball. Yeah, it was so stupid. It was so stupid because you want to hit the skill shot in that game, and it made it really hard. Yeah. It was a freaking eyeball. Oh, it's an eyeball. Yeah, but it was like bigger than an actual eyeball. Yeah, an eyeball, yes. It was huge. Okay, we're not done with accessories. We got more. But wait, there's more accessories. Oh, wait, there's more. You're so excited. Dune. Dune. Basically, they're going to have a topper and a back glass, an actual back glass. Mm-hmm. so and what they're doing is the dune topper is 1675 whatever we'll say 1700 and it's going to be they're built to order between december 18th and january 9th so hurry up and they also have a new mirrored back glass which is 300 dollars Yeesh. Now, here's my issue. Here's my issue with this. The back glass, they have a picture of it. You can look at it. You can see the actual back glass you're getting. And it looks fine. It's got the sandworm. It's not like the cast members and stuff. It's just a big frigging sandworm coming at him. Like, okay. But for the topper, it literally – there is no actual picture of the physical, real topper. It's a conceptual drawing of what the topper will look like. I can't do it. I can't see how anyone would pay when it's not the actual topper. It's just like, it's going to look like this. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I know. Like, it literally says on it, it says, Dune Topper is subject to change, like, right on it. Like, okay, so what you're even showing me could change. And it's literally called animated topper concept. Like, no, I don't want the concept. I want to see what the actual topper looks like. So you're basically paying for something that is not built yet. Like, the actual design. Like, there wasn't a prototype or something they could have shown. Like an actual, I don't understand that. No comment? No comment. It just seems you want to show the actual, you know, the actual thing. Yes, I understand what you're saying. It's like if Stern had, like, coming the Star Wars topper and it just had a conceptual picture of what the C-3PO topper would look like. And, you know, and his head will move like this. and it's just some CGI animated thing of what his head will move like. People would be like, what? You can't actually just show us the topper? I mean, it does look cool if it works the way they say it does. It's got a sandworm. It actually has the, like it goes from day to night with moons like moving back and forth and stuff. Looks like it'll be cool. $1,700, though, that's pretty pricey. Oh, on my vacation? You saw a topper. I went to Buc-ee's. I don't know what that is. You don't know what Buc-ee's is? Nope. Get on the internet. No, just tell me what it is. It is the biggest gas station on the side of the road, on the side of the interstates. They have almost 200 pumps at some of these Buc-ee's. 200. 200 pumps? Inside it looks like a Walmart. It's so humongous. Okay. No, no, it's cool because you can clean bathrooms, very clean bathrooms, very nice place, good barbecue, good food, good everything. They got snacks. They got everything, Ron. Even fudge, chocolate fudge. Ooh. Okay. And cookies and everything fresh made. All kinds of stuff I can't eat anymore. Great. Yes, you can. You can. You got moderation. Okay. I'm still not done with accessories. Oh, great. I'm trying to get everything here. Let's see. We have the, and this just came out, which, of course, I missed it. So I guess Ronnie doesn't get anything. You get nothing. I'm trying to find the damn tab that I had this in. Ah, whatever. So Evil Dead, well, it's spooky. So on their latest game now, Beetlejuice, they've added lighting. You get the shotgun. They've added lighting to the back panel. Yes. Which Stern has had lighting on the back panel since, like, I think since they've been Stern. Like, every Stern I've ever seen has lighting in the back panel. I have my Spider-Man back here, 2008. It's got lighting in the back panel. But so Beetlejuice, they have this lighting in the back panel, So now they have it so you can have that strip of lights in your Evil Dead for $94, of course. But basically it's just a strip of LED lights. But it plugs into their system and will actually do – it will actually become part of the light show. So it's not just, you know, on all the time. It's actually part of the light show. And they put them out there, 150 of them. And by the time I saw them later that day, they were already sold out. Why are they only going at $150? Or are they going to keep on? No, they're going to keep making them. But that was an initial batch of $150. And they just sold out instantly. But they'll have more next year. So I'm going to have to keep my eye out because the next time they put them out there, they'll probably sell out instantly. Because I know I want it because it is kind of dark back there. I do remember that from playing the game. Yeah, I'd like to see some more light back there. So that was their accessory, if you will. but since we're on the subject of spooky and you were pestering me about this because you want me to go over my whole evil dead experience yes how was your evil dead experience because you you think i'm just gonna shit on everything and make fun and and because no you don't i'm the one that shit does that okay so one thing i didn't mention is uh my evil dead arrived ronnie got it yes which I'd like to thank to my boss who helped get it in the house. And by helped, I mean got it in the house for me because, again, foot. I figured it would come right after my operation, and, of course, I got the call the day after the operation from the shipper of that. Oh, we got your game here. I have to say it couldn't have worked out any better because we had unusually warm Carl Weathers that melted everything that we, any snow that was there. And then by the time Monday came around, when they brought it, it was just bone dry and nice out. It was perfect. Couldn't ask for a better day to get this game. Okay. It arrived. You know, no forklifts through it or anything. Yay. My boss got it in the house, so it's now sitting against the wall in my living room. Yes. So I started going over some of the stuff that came with it in preparation for this segment. Preparation H. Yes. And I found some things I thought you might find interesting. Of course I will. I can't wait. I have not heard this. I'm actually salivating a little bit. You just want me to shit over everything. You're so mean. No, I'm not being mean. I have no spooky quality. I've had these games. No, there's no issues with quality yet. I haven't actually. it's going to be months before this thing even gets set up I can tell you that but it's salivating the fact that I have material and I haven't even done that yet what the hell is Ron going to talk about let's all do a fun me for Ron so we can have somebody go to his house can you set up my pinball machine for me so the game and they changed the way they're if I can get some help from our listeners here At some point they changed the way their boxes are because I think from my TNA, I remember them. It used to be all contained in one box. Yes. So like Stern does it. And the box is strapped to the pallet and you take it off and et cetera. Now they do it where, and I think Jersey Jack does the same thing, where it's actually you have a pallet. You have a pallet and then you have some cardboard and then they put it on that. and then they slide the box over it. Yes. So it actually doesn't have a bottom per se. And then they strap that down. So you can't see what you're hitting. You can't see what you're hitting. So then they strap that down. And I think Jersey Jackets is the same thing. I think my Elton John is the same way. So when you unbox this, you don't, like, we had to, or my boss had to get it off. He had to actually take it out of the box so we could get it on the hand truck. Like, you can't hand truck it on the box because if you need to get off the pallet, then the box is off of it at that point. You got it. Yep. Does that make sense? Yes, I understand completely. It was that same way for, I think Rick and Morty had the same way. Okay, so they've been doing that a while then. Yes, yes. Okay. So. And I thought maybe it was because of securing the top, you know, the extra piece that, you know. And then it comes with, when you lift the thing up, it has the legs, a box with all the legs and all the keys and everything are in that box. And a little pamphlet. So I get the pamphlet. And I say pamphlet because it's like half a sheet of paper. Yeah. It's like eight and a half by 11. Yeah. But like one half of it. And it says, you know, thank you for, you know, getting this game from Spooky or the Littlest Company and blah, blah, blah, all their usual stuff that they. Yeah, they love touting. They love that stuff. You know, we're the littlest boutique company that could. No, you're not anymore. That's the problem. Here's, follow these steps. The first step is step eight. Let me repeat that. The first step listed is step eight. So what's one through seven? Exactly. I'm like, look at, was there another sheet of paper? Did I miss it? Did I turn it around? Is it double-sided? It literally is like eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. So where is one through seven? I don't know. You've got to take a picture of this. Please tell me. You've got to fucking take a picture of this. Where is one through seven? Where are they? Let's just another. I know what it is. I have it. It's like the 15. We have 15. No, 10. 10 commandments for all to obey. If anyone doesn't get that, go watch History of the World Part 1. They have another sheet that's on the top class, But I think that's meant to be taken off when you actually have the lights on. Yeah, when you're actually opening the glass up. It's not like the first thing. It's not like the one you get with Stern that says, you know, how to set it off and all that. How to set it up, which is a great one. Oh, I complimented Stern. Come on, Ron. You missed that. And it mentions on this, the step starting at eight, about latches because the – Excuse me. Latches? Yeah, it has latches like Stern. That's the first step? Well, no, it's not the first step. But hold on. Just let me. It mentions latches in these steps. So they know that the game has latches. And I'm curious also for our listeners, do you know what's the first spooky game that started using the stern latches instead of the lever? Because I'm pretty sure TNA had the lever. And I think at some point they stopped using it. I think Ring of Morty had the latches. Okay. So, wow. So they've used it for a while. All right. Either way. so before I even opened up that box to get these directions starting at 8 I downloaded the manual the latest and greatest manual and I know that the person who helps them or does their manuals listens to this show because remember he says how we had an awkward situation between us at Expo which I don't remember but I am socially awkward so I can totally see that so and I wish I had thought of this before as far as looking at the manual to get the dimensions. Because I was wondering, how tall is this thing with the topper? Like, it's right in there. It literally is on the first page. Set up with topper. So if you're wondering, Evil Dead with the topper is 90 inches tall. Oh, my. Yes. That's pretty tall. That's pretty tall. So without topper 75, which means, for those of us who are decent at math, that's 15-inch topper height. So are you ready? I'm going to go through the instructions here. Yeah. I'll do this quickly. Locate the coin door keys inside the leg box. Okay? All the pinballs, a power cord, legs, leg bolts, and head bolt, and washer are all in the same package. That is not true. The leg bolts are actually in the game already. And as far as I can tell from other unboxing videos I've seen of Evil Dead, it's like that on all the Evil Deads. Okay. So that's wrong. Yeah. Please take a minute to inspect and make sure all the parts are there. Open the flaps. Let me try that again. Open the flaps to the game box. Okay. Make sure you remove the staples from the flaps so you don't get scratched. Of course. There are no staples. It's taped. Because it's taped. Because it's not. It's assuming their old box where it was like stern. Yes. Where a staple, like a stir box, you've got to get the staples out to open it. Maybe they even copied and pasted. Well, they totally did, but I'm wondering, if you're saying Rick and Morty had the newer box that they're using now, that how, I assumed that they just started using this box with Evil Dead, and that's why this is from the previous game. With some assistance, lay the machine flat on the floor and slide, basically slide it out with the strap. which you can't do because it's not, again, it's a totally different box. That's not how you would do this. Or you can cut the box and then take it out that way, which, again, these are all fine if you have a stern where it has the self-contained box, but the way they box it now, that's not what you would do. You know, using your wire cutters, cut the final strap that runs the length of the game. there is no strap that runs the length of the game. They shrink wrap it now. And they have a note on the shrink wrap to not cut the shrink wrap or the backbox will fall down. Like Spider-Man knows all about that. But, yeah. Then it has the – I'm looking for it here. It has a direction where it reaches into the coin box and it mentions the lever, the lever. The lever. It doesn't have a lever. According to you, they haven't had one at least since Rick and Morty. Yeah, it's been a while. I remember because I was like, oh, they're using – maybe it was – I'm trying to remember now. Because I've had – we've had Halloween. Zach's had a couple. So basically my first experience with this is that my steps start at 8. Unless I'm missing – and I've looked through there. I cannot find another sheet of paper. My steps start at 8, and the manual where it says how to actually set the game up is wrong. It basically is assuming an older – the old box design. Their old box, like a stern box. All that stuff makes sense for a stern box. Taking the staples out, you know, you can set it down on the floor, you know, tip it, and then you pull the game out by the strap and all that. Like, yeah, that all makes perfect sense for that type of box. But that's not the kind of box they're using. Like, you can't tip, you wouldn't tip it down. I mean, there's no strap to hold on to. You don't have to tip it down. Like, the box literally just slides right off of it. Like you can get access to it super easy. That's all. Well, now we have – we'll get our counterpoint, I know, from our friend at us. Please give me a counterpoint. Well, obviously it's copy and pasted from previous manuals, but I didn't go back to see – I didn't look at the – what was their last game? Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I didn't go to look at that manual to see if that has the same stuff. You should right now while I'm talking. You should go check. You should. I'm not going to bother with that. I think I'm banned from their website too probably. You're banned. I love it. Like you literally can't get in their website. Somehow it knows it's from your IP. Wow. I'm trying to find the damn thing where it says to go into the. Okay. I like doing this. Now, as a team, pick up the rear. I like that. You cover yourself by saying, don't do it yourself. Don't do it yourself. Don't do it yourself. And I agree. Don't do it. Okay, so hold on. I'm waiting for the manual to download. Scrap is free. Lift the backbox. In position. It didn't really download. Let's see. Open the coin door and retrieve the backbox keys to unlock the backbox. Now, using the head bowl and watch the provider, secure the backbox. Make sense? with the coin door open, grasp the lever. Here it is. With the coin door open, grasp the lever located at the top right of the door frame and pull it to the left. No. I don't think that's in there. I'm pretty sure it uses the latches because that's what the other instructions that start at step eight tell me. Okay, so hold on. So here's assemble your game. Locate the coin door keys inside your leg box, right? All pen balls and power cords, leg bolts, and washers are in the same package. Please take a minute to inspect all the parts. They are not damaged. Open the flaps. Make sure you remove the staples from the flaps so they're just copy and pasting. Copy and pasting. I am right now in the Looney Tunes. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure that was boxed just like the Evil Dead is now, from what you're telling me. But those are my first experiences. But the rest of the day, I did read. the rest of the manual, and it looked cool. I mean, it actually had pictures from Evil Dead in it, so obviously this was not copy and paste it, because they're all custom. They're all definitely pictures of inside Evil Dead. So, and they have a, they call it the Warden Board, like a prison warden. I'm trying to figure out, it looks like it's, that's like their main board, and they call it the Warden Board. They've had like four different board sets in five different games. I don't know what the hell they're doing. Hey, as long as it's documented, man. Yeah, this is true. And it is documented. It's all in here, Bruce. You'll be happy to know. I'm looking at it myself. I'm looking at the... I mean, it's not Jersey Jack level, you know, 300-page manual, but... The Looney Tunes one is 68 pages. Yeah, it's about the same. Okay. It's funny. I'm looking at the coils, and it's like, wow, that doesn't seem to be enough coils. And then there's the expander bore. Oh, there we go. More coils. It is quite insane when you look at the amount of coils. I'll just do that quick. Excluding the flippers, you have left sling, lower playfield auto launcher, upper three drop bank, lower three drop bank, right front buck. Fuck you. Left auto launch, right auto launch, trough eject, upper drop knockdown, upper drop reset, lower drop reset. Everyone reset. Lower drop knockdown. Shaker. Back right fuck. Right middle fuck. Fuck you, man. Right, I like, this I love, though. You know how I always call them trolls, even though they're supposed to be deadites? They call them trolls in the manual. Nice. Right troll high. Magnet. Middle playfield fuck. Right troll, troll low. Upper pop. Left troll high. Left troll low. Shotgun reset. Right pop, left pop. Wow. There's a lot of fucking coils in this game. Holy shit. Damn it. So, yes. What I'm saying is you might want to update that part of the manual. Yeah. But that's, well, you need a name for the segment. The Evil Dead Chronicles. No, the bitch session. The bitch session from Ron. I'm not bitching. You're a bitch. No, you bitch. I heard it. Everyone comment. Ron did complain about something. This is the first. I just want the manual to be right. And the pamphlet that comes with it that starts at step eight. That's just so weird to me. And I'm looking all over in the box like I have to be missing. It has to be like a second page. I'm going to keep looking. I'll let you know if I find a second page. But I thought maybe he was just on the other side. but it's worded in a way that makes me believe that that is the beginning of it. Because it says, you know, thank you for putting your trust in Spooky, you know, the littlest company that could blah, blah, blah, blah, the whole thing. You know, follow his steps below, blah, blah, blah. And then the first step is eight. Well, in Wisconsin, we don't have one through Spooky. Okay, why do you have a southern accent in Wisconsin? Okay, we've got to go Canadian. Oh, yeah, you've got it right there. You know, he started step eight, you know. We always start at step eight here because, you know, one through seven, those are the Satan numbers. Hold on. I got to go right there to the, you know, the washroom, you know. These are the Satan numbers, one through seven. Eight, which is round on top. Yeah, maybe they don't want to have the number. It's like the hotel where it doesn't have a floor 13. Yeah. For all you people on floor 14, you know what floor you're really on. You're on 13. If you jump out the window, you will die quicker. Yikes. I'm sorry. I'm doing my Mitch Hedberg. I love that guy. That was so funny. Do you know what floor you're on? Lines like, an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. I love that stuff. Let's see. What else do I have? I got evil. Oh, I don't know. Did we mention Pinsonati last time? Yeah, a little bit. We went over to the tournament. That was it. Oh, we did? Yes. Okay. So, okay. Okay, so I can remember half the stuff we go over. What's your name? Uh-huh. What's your name, little girl? What's your name? All right, you ready for the year in view? I thought we were. Now we're going to go over all the games that came out this year. So what was the best popper? This year? Yeah, you said it. No, you just said it. It went over all the accessories. What was the best accessory? Oh! See, you just skipped over one thing. You went over all the accessories. No, no. You went, no, I went over the accessories that came out since the last time we recorded. Oh, I thought you were going. I know it seems insane, but that literally is the amount of accessories that came out since the last time we recorded. Insane. Okay, so we'll go to game. We'll leave game for last. We'll leave game for last. Well, game for, no, I'm going over the games now. Well, we leave that for last, because that's the big hoo-ha. The thing is, I'm going to include Evil Dead as this year's game, even though it came out. It was announced last year, but, I mean, no one had them yet. And I'm not going to include Beetlejuice just because I know they're supposedly making them, but have you seen any? No. I mean, they're going to – it'll be next year. Let's just say that's next year. Now, I'm going – this is on Pinside. Yes, I am actually on Pinside. Wow. And I believe this is in order. So they had the first game of the year was Dungeons & Dragons. Okay. So it's still waiting for its accessories. Yep. So what do you think about that overall as far as now with a whole year to look back? Like, are they on 1.0 code yet? No. No. No. So almost the entire year, and we are still not at 1.0. Almost there. It's away. Did it hit? Negative. Just impacted on the surface. Do you think it was a success for Sir? No. You don't think so? No. You don't think it sold? I think it was medium. It was medium. Yeah. Like, it sold, and we got a couple runs out of it, but yeah. So that's your view from what you've seen. How popular was it at the world-famous Rochester Pinball Collective? Not very popular? They didn't like the cool dragon toy, though? Problem was, I'm going to say it exactly, just like I said before. Okay. When the game first came out, it had a lot of issues. It had a lot of quirks with the dragon head and everything like that. People started playing it, oh, broke down, broke down, oh, does this. Guess what? People don't come back to the game sometimes when it's not working right. Oh, hey. Yeah. All right. I haven't played, let's just say, I have not played it in probably three months. Yeah, I haven't played it in probably longer than that. What did I tell you? Well, the theme isn't something I'm into at all. The shots are not fun. That stupid spinner, it's like the goalie on fucking World Cup soccer. No, it is. Oh, you mean blocking. Okay. Yes. Don't you install more club soccer in any way. We're going to have a problem. No, I'm saying it blocks the shots for the center. It's a great idea. What an amazing shot. Hire Tim for that one, guys. This spinner is a wall. How did that spinner make that wall? What a header. No, I'm sorry. Yes. God. All right. All right. But you say mediocre. So it wasn't a bomb, but it wasn't like you used it. I'll give it a 2.5. Okay. So that makes sense. In the middle. Right in the middle. Yeah, I wasn't really into it. Nope. I thought the dragon was cool when it worked. When it worked. But, yeah, shooting it didn't feel. And they did so many changes of rules, and it just. And going through these monsters, through these things, it's like, shoot this shot. Shoot this shot. Dude, shoot this shot. And some of the shots are really hard to hit on that game. I do like Owlbear. I like Owlbear. Owlbear. So, yeah. Yeah, it didn't pass the first. You remember my different levels of the things I have to like in order to, like, buy a game? The first one is the play field. How does it shoot? It didn't shoot particularly satisfying to me. That was me. No, I totally agree. All right. Next, we have Portal, which was at, I think, the first public appearance where you could play it was at TPF, Texas Pinball Festival, in March, but then they didn't actually start building it until September. Yeah. That's got to hurt, like a six-month delay. That's like old-school Jersey Jack type stuff where they show it, and then six months later or more, they finally start building it. Hey, look at this. I have not tried it, so I will not make a comment at all. I mean, I played one game. I sucked. So I can't really go by. I'd have to play it way more. The problem is I don't know anyone who has a P3 system. I know one person. Locally here. One person I only know. And he's the spokesman for P3 now. Yeah, he's in Buffalo. Yeah. No, he's on the outskirts. Oh. He's actually closer to Rochester. than other people in Buffalo. Okay. But, yeah, so I really don't feel like I've played this thing enough. Plus, I've never played the game Portal. I have no. Neither have I. Never played it in my life. We're old. We're old. I'm Zork, man. Give me Zork. Zork. Let's see. Then we have Merlin's Arcade by Turnip. Wow. Okay, so you played it? One. Yes, we had it at the thing. Remember? We had the prototype. Oh, you had it? You actually had it at? Yeah. So you played way more than I did. One. So what do you think? One. And? Singular sensation. Every fucking turn. Don't get me wrong. It was the prototype, so it didn't have all the expanded stuff, which was, you know, we were lucky enough to get it. It was great. It was free. Mad Pinball was nice enough to let us have it. There you go. But it shoots good. It just was, ugh, snoozer. See, I like Ninja Eclipse better as far as how it's shot, to be honest. Yeah, I think I would too. I was, to me it was a letdown just because of who designed it. My man, Mr. Norris. Yep. You know, who did my wonderful Surf and Safari downstairs. Mr. Jon Norris. I was really excited to see. Yep. And it was just like, eh. It was very snoozy. I mean, it has the 8-Ball Deluxe targets on the side, but their stand-ups. That just seemed totally wrong. That should be drops. So, yeah, I couldn't really get into it. Nope. Totally agree. That's a one. Now, one. One out of five. Wow. No, five being the best, one being the worst. Yeah, so you think that's just the worst? I didn't think it was that bad. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Okay. Don't get me wrong. I'm going by the prototype stuff, and I've only played one of the real ones. So are we going to use, that's like the home pin defense. Every game that we play is a prototype, according to the home pin. No. You know, we play the Stars. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Blues Brothers. And it's like, oh, that was one of the first prototypes. That's why it was broke the entire show. Like, stop it, bro. Like, every fucking game is a prototype. So the games I played, the, what is it, the Spinal Tap I played at Pentastic. Well, that was a prototype. The one where the stuff was dripping off of the topper onto the glass and shit, that was all – come on, man. Enough. Enough with this shit. All right. Next we had a release almost simultaneously. It was around the same week or two. It was Dune and then King Kong. Yep. So I like Dune. I like Dune too actually I liked it from the beginning It too beige It too sandy colored I think it was released too early I said that Way too early It was too beta. It was too alpha, too beta. It's a good example because King Kong was hardly any code in it either, but it felt, it didn't feel completely alpha the way that Dune did when it came out. Because I played probably one of the first public appearances of it that happened to be in Allentown for some reason. That was interesting. But, yeah, I love the sandworm thing. Just the different things they can do with one toy. Like, it does, like, three different things at least. And just the way it takes the ball in is different depending on what it is. You know, it can shit it out slowly or take it in slowly. Oh, my. You know, and, yeah. 3.5. Yeah, I'll give it. I love the light show. Yep. I think it's on three. I like the barrels upon their lighting system. they have implemented, especially with Dune, and I saw it in the Winchester game with the expression lighting, whatever you want to call them, that are to the side. I'll say it doesn't look good when you're looking at the game from the side or any angle because it reflects off the glass really bad. Do you know what I mean? When you're looking at it from the side, but when you're actually playing it, which is when it should look good, it looks great. So I really can't. And I love their track modes. I think I mentioned that in a previous episode. I'm a sucker for good at track modes. And Barrels of Fun has had some kick-ass track modes on their game. But, yeah, they're doing more code updates for it. They said that topper, like I said, that came out, which I really think they need a picture of the actual topper and not a conceptual drawing of it. I know. For me to, you know. This is one of those, if it was a theme I was into and I hadn't got Evil Dead already, I might have had a barrels of fun game. I'll say that. Ooh. Yeah. But, you know, I like Dune, but I'm not really into Dune. Like, I've seen all the movies. Yeah. Including the original one with Sting and his diaper thing and all that. Matt Patrick Stewart. That's right. A snow blade penetrates the shield. I always love that line for some reason. That stuck in my head to this day. I think they used that in the new movies, too. Yeah. A slow blade from Jason Steele. Just the way he said it. A slow blade from Jason Steele. Make it so, number one. Make it so, number one. And he looks exactly the same in that movie as he does in everything else. I know. I don't think he was ever young. It just isn't ever young. But, yeah. 3.5 for me. Yeah. I think it was. I don't. Do you think they sold as many of them as they wanted? I don't think so. No. No. I think coming out with King Kong hurt them. Oh, yeah. And the alphaness of the code. I think that killed it more, the alphaness. If they waited two months, they had a good beta code, everything worked, and you didn't go head-to-head against King Kong, you would have gotten the better of it. You could argue, though, they were at the end of the – there would have been too much dead time between Labyrinth and this. Guess what? I'd rather it be right than dead time. Who cares? People going, what's the next game from you guys? Who cares? If it's done right, it's done right. Then people can't complain. Here we go. For the year, is Barrelhead and Bunn the greatest secret keepers in pinball history? The what? Secret keepers. Oh. Think about it. The fact that company even existed. I know. Then the Winchester game comes out. Nobody knows what their games are. Do you know what the game is after Winchester? What is it? Nope. Not even close. Nobody knows. Nobody knew it was Dune. Nobody has any idea. All the other ones leak out. They don't. It's quite impressive. Their buttholes are tighter. Their buttholes are tighter. That'd be great, Mark. We have the tightest buttholes in the industry. Nothing leaks out of our plane. Nothing leaks out of our ass. Very good. The name, though. I'm still... Maybe I'm softening on the name over time. No, I'm not. But she can't even really abbreviate it. What do you call it? Boff? Yeah. B-O-F. Boff. It's Boff, baby. Manny Boffins died. Manny Boffins died. Manny Boffins died to keep the secret information. Can you imagine that? You redo that scene, and it comes up on the display, and it's the next title, like all the new licenses. Manny Boffins died to get us this information. Now, here, I'm going to go a little into Star Wars. Let's go off the topic for two seconds. Oh, God. Star Wars should make a movie about how the Bothan spies got the information about the next Death Star. No. They should stop making Star Wars movies and let it go. No. No. Okay. You're going to love the next one coming out. Okay. But, yes, like I said, I like Dune. King Kong. Yeah, 3.5. King Kong. King Kong. First turn that came out. Yeah. Right? No, no. Oh, that's right. It was Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons. So King Kong. But this is Elwynn. So this is different. This is different. This is actually a good game. Oh, man. How well do you think this sold? I don't know. I'm going to be honest because you don't hear much about it now. I don't think it sold as well as Jaws. No. Especially Jaws. Jaws 50 if they sold a ton of them. A ton. That was a really good decision. And they really did nothing. I mean, what did they do? They made it a different color, and they put a little, yeah, sparkly play field, and they put a hologram on it that says 50th. And boom, everyone had to have this game. It was brilliant. I'm going to have it. That's why you wait. Oh, that's right. We just ruined the plans for Star Wars 50th because nobody's going to buy this new game. Yeah, just wait two years for the Star Wars 50th. Yeah, but then the problem is nobody's going to buy the game because it's. Well, we haven't got to that yet. But we kind of already talked about it. But King Kong. 3.75. So far, again, is it at 1.0 yet? No. No. But no one's going to say it doesn't have enough stuff in it. No, it actually has a lot of stuff in it. It plays pretty good. It shoots really well. It shoots like bada. Like bada. It's like a typical Elwin game. You get in a groove where you hit like five, six shots in a row, you feel like God. Like you are the pinball wizard. Like every other game that Stern puts out besides an Elwin, And you're kind of like, is it really good? Is it going to be a theme I like? With an L1, you're going, it's L1. It's going to shoot well. It's going to shoot good. It's going to come out well. It's going to have a little more stuff, a little more oomph in it than all these others. And I would really like to get that. It might not be the theme you like. Like, who really wanted King Kong? I don't think I've seen many people going, oh, yeah, I need the second disaster movie, Godzilla and King Kong. But I think it's just so Elwynn where it works so well that you go – you almost give it like a half point better. If they wanted it to really go with the Godzilla, they should have made him look like King Kong does in King Kong vs. Godzilla, the original one. That would have been better. That would have been funny. So they probably can't do that. Yeah. You know, we haven't talked about the Godzilla in the room, have we? What Godzilla in the room? What Gomez says. It's getting close to being all-time. According to Gomez, Godzilla, yes, will eventually be the all-time. So it's going to beat the Addams Family. Which we heard at least a year and a half ago. We heard two years ago that it was. It was over 10,000 units. Yeah, it was the best-selling machine that they ever had. And we were like, wow, why wouldn't they advertise that? I know, like, wow, look, we've, you know. And now they're not even really advertising that. It's just like a throwaway line in a show. Here's the thing I would like to see. Would Godzilla get another run with gold? Oh, you mean like just another version? Yeah, honestly, that you would actually, I would feel that would sell like gangbusters. Oh, you mean like Adam's Family Gold? Yes. I got it, yeah. What was the other version of Godzilla they had? They had another one. Was it black and white? They had a black and white. A black and white. Okay. So think about that. If you hit the number, if you hit the magical 22,000 games, which would you put out a gold version? Yeah. Why not? Would you buy a gold version? No, I already have the regular one. Okay. Would you buy it if you did not have it? Maybe. I think I would. And I don't own a Godzilla. So I would say that would be. But you were the smart one. You waited. I waited. I waited. I knew it was going to become the all-time sales leader, and then they were going to make a gold version, and I'd get that one. No, because the problem is, here's the funny thing. Everyone I know has a Godzilla. So the way I looked at it was, I didn't need a Godzilla. To be like, mine is Spike 3, and it actually plays better. Yes, I have everything better. They've tweaked it even more. I got a bigger screen. I got a bigger screen. I got a bigger screen. I have better sound. Fuck all you people. You should have waited like me. Yes. But would you, now, think about it. I think it would be a great concept. And this, guess what? I will approve of this cash grab. Oh, wait a minute. An approved cash grab? Approved cash grab. Wow. Because the problem is you don't get every day where you have if you can beat the all-time sales list. You know. So way to promote your company and promote pinball and saying, hey. Yeah, people are going to say, well, it took you three years to sell this. Who cares? Monopoly was almost at $10K, I heard, eventually. And they had how many runs of it? Five? So I don't care how long it takes. If it's coming down the line and it's still selling, as Gary says, let's sell them. And this game, how many do you think they sold? 19,000 now? 18,000? If he's talked about it, he's... No, they've got to be close. And the thing is, if you don't do something, that's just stupid. It's stupid. This is where you do do the cash grab. You make a gold edition. You want to be more like Williams. You want to be more like, hey, look, here's our new Godzilla gold. GG. This is the new GG. And you do something different. and you're promoting that you've sold the most pinball machines ever, modern stuff. Do you know what color King Ghidorah is? Gold. Could you imagine a King Ghidorah topper with the three heads going, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Moving all three heads around, yeah. Oh. Oh. Ron just came. I did. I did. That would be fucking incredible. See? King Ghidorah edition, or Ghidorah, depending on how you say it. I've heard it said both ways. But so, if Stern's stupid enough not to, they're barely acknowledging, and I understand you don't want to. I don't understand. Why wouldn't you have said something like, it's our all-time leader? It's our all-time sales leader. Right now, it's our all-time sales leader. Yes. Because their previous one was? Star Wars. Star Wars, the original one. But, yeah. Or Teen K, they sold it out. So we already know they've gotten that much. And since they said now, we're getting so close, we're close to being there. I'm thinking $19,000 to $20,000 they're at right now. If they get to the $22,000 mark, you should be fucking yelling this and screaming this. Come on, marketing. It shouldn't just be a throwaway line in an interview. It was a throwaway line, and that would be the first thing I would be saying to Mr. Gomez. What are we going to do? He's their head of development. He's not their marketing manager. No, no, no, but the marketing team should be getting behind this. Well, the marketing should be getting behind this, and the development team should be saying, hey, we're getting close. Let's make plans now to make it, to promote this, to say, hey, we did this. We are now the kings of pinball. Williams was, now we are. Kings of pinball. The kings of pinball. And think about it. People thought that record would never get smashed. It's almost like Lou Gehrig now, you know, with the all-time... Lou Gehrig, no one's ever going to beat that. No one's ever going to beat that. And guess what? Many years later, Cal Ripken does. And, wow. This is almost like that at that point. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, the new king of pinball. Yes. The king of the monsters. The new king of pinball. Stir. Yes. And you put the development team and everyone to get a gold plate on it. Something like that. They need to do something like this. If you don't do anything like this, this is your marketing department. Just fire them. Just fire them. You want Zach Sharp fired. You're pretty mean. I'm being honest. You should be touting this. I mean, they sold all those Jaws 50th with basically a hologram that says 50th. Imagine what you could do with – you could have an argument, though, that anyone who wanted Godzilla already has one. You keep on saying that, and guess what? You're still – think about it. You have at least one more sale here in Bruce. Exactly. Here's the thing. When you walk up to Godzilla still, after – how many years has it been out now? Seven? Six? No, it came out during COVID. It's like five. I thought it came out before – No. Oh, that was Jurassic Park. Yeah, Jurassic Park was a year before COVID. Yeah. So imagine. Yeah, so almost six years now. Mm-hmm. And still, every time I walk up to the game, I know what I'm doing, I like what I'm doing, I do the thing, and I have fun. Do you shoot the WAMPs? I shoot the WAMPs. I do believe what I'm seeing. Seeing. Holy shit. It's a great game. So why not promote it? I know maybe you're like, oh, as you just said, No, we don't want to say anything until we do hit that magical mark. Guess what? But everyone thinks we're evil. It's like, well, they're going to keep thinking you're evil forever, so it doesn't matter. Just lean into it. We're number one, bitches. Yeah. We make 90% of the games in the world, bitches. We don't mention the other manufacturers because we don't have to. We don't have to. Even though they all mention us. Yes. So, 3.75 for King Kong. Next, we have... What's yours? What's your number? Do you agree? Three points. Oh, King Kong. Or are you going to go higher or lower? Yeah, 375. I'll go. It plays like a dream. It does. What do you think of that topper? I think the theme hurts it a little bit. What do you think of the topper, which is basically the same toy that's on the premium, but you put it on top? It's pretty cheesy. It's pretty cheesy. But I like that you can make it say what you want. Yeah. Although, some pretty rude shit is probably going to end up on there. Oh, yeah. Look at the size of that Kong. King Kong's flinging poo or something. I don't know. Look at that Kong's hairy nipples. Oh, God. All right, next. Man, there's a lot of games this year. Harry Potter. Okay. Yeah. Home run. Yeah, I think this is a 4.75. Home run. The second best. I actually think it's the second best game from Jersey Jack. Next to Elton John, of course. Of course. Elton John. I think it's underrated. Every time I play Elton John, I feel like it stars. I want to play another game. Yeah, Harry Potter doesn't have any Elton John in it, so it can't be. Yeah, that's the problem. That's the problem. But 4.75. yeah I think they came through here everyone had such huge expectations for this and they put everything in there you could fucking put in there like there's so much good in there like I can't even see the ball half the time when it's in the back there's so much crap now I have a question for you how do you think they're selling I think they're selling good I think they're selling okay I think they're selling good can they make them fast enough I don't know I don't know either will it beat Guns N' Roses for them Ooh. You would hope so? You would hope so. If it doesn't, I would consider it a failure. Yes, so would I. I think they should be their number one. But, I mean, you could say that the Guns N' Roses was an anomaly because of COVID, all that stuff. It's different now. There's arguments the other way. Yeah, it's still history. But this is, like, the biggest license. Yeah. The one that everyone wanted, and even Jack himself said, you know, this was all leading up to this. like this is the pinnacle, this is it. Don't buy another game, even though we're making one right now. Even if it's ours, do not buy that. Don't buy Avatar. I still don't get that. Just keep your money. It's coming. Harry Potter. And, yeah, I finally got a good game of it at Expo, and, yeah. It's fun. It's a lot of fun, a lot of shots. I mean, really, the only issue is the topper. Yeah, the topper is a disappointment. That's where I take it away from it. That's where I take away from it. That's where you don't get the 5.0. You don't get the full point. The 5.0 because of that topper, yeah. When you look at everything else in there, like, my God, this is amazing. And then you see the topper, like, well, it's not quite as amazing as all the other stuff that's in this game. But I will say, I feel like Elton John still shoots better. I mean, I'd put it third currently. Oh, God. You know, Elton John, Dialed In, and then Harry Potter. No, I would go Elton John, Willy Wonka. I like Willy Wonka, too. I think Willy Wonka plays so much better than everyone gives it credit for. Don't get me wrong. It's huge great. It's huge great. The animations while you're sitting there playing or starting the game up are just, that fake factory in the background and the scoring is really weird on that game, so I really don't like the scoring. You have to get into a mode before you get anything done. Yeah, again, that's like software. I'm more like, it shoots great. Oh, it shoots great. I actually prefer that shooting over it's like 1 and 1A. You know, Elton John just shoots so buttery. I see Elton John dialed in, Harry Harry Potter, Willy Wonka, and probably Toy Story. I actually don't. As long as the music is off and I don't have to listen to that. Okay, that's your top five. That's my top five. The other ones are really kind of like whatever. Me? It is Elton John. It's going to be Harry Potter. No, no. Elton John. I actually like Willy Wonka better. So you're changing within the same podcast. Literally, Harry Potter was two. Now you're saying it's five. No, I'm going to change because I like the way Willy Wonka shoots. I like Pat Lawler. Don't get me wrong. Pat Lawler is great. So you have one. Well, look at my choices. I'm the biggest Pat Lawler mark there is. I know, but I won't go dialed in. Dialed in is like a number four for me for shooting-wise. So it's definitely going to be Elton John, Willy Wonka, Harry Potter. Then you're dialed in. Oh. And then I'm going to throw a true ball at you. Number five, Wizard of Oz. I love the game. I still like the way it's – I like Joe Bowser. I like Joe. Joe Bowser. The Bowser man. Joe, I like – you know, lately, he looks like a flow master compared to some of these games that are coming out. Think about it. Yeah? Yeah. Like what? Tell me what's clunkier than, like, since the spinball party or something. The new Star Wars is pretty fucking clunky. And so is X-Men. I think they're unintentionally clunky. They're meant to have flow. It just doesn't happen. So Potter, though, we think it's hit. 4.75. Home run. It was a great home run. I hope it's selling for them. That's what I'm afraid of. I like that they brought the three versions back. I think they're going to sell it as long as possible. I think it's going to be a while before you see whatever the next title is. Exactly. supposedly is Sonic, but whatever. Yeah. I think the longer they keep selling it, the better. It'll look like it's... The longer they sell it, the better. The pricing is what hurts it. Not really. They have the arcade edition. That's under 10K. But it's still 10K. It's still 10K. It's under 10K. It's $9,999. Yeah, it's still 10K. Yeah, but it has everything on it. Anything that you would really want. You know, it's nothing stripped out. Just has less lights, less bling. But, yeah, I'd say that was a big success for Jersey Jack, the culmination of the company of, what, 14 years? God, it's been that long. 14 years. Yeah. All right. Here comes the missus. She's coming down. Uh-oh. I think she brought me food. Ooh. Breakfast. The breakfast of champions, eggs and bacon. Thank you, ma'am. Holy, how many eggs did you give me? Three. Three? I got three eggs. Three eggs and ham. Eggs and bacon. Then we have Predator. Never played it. Yeah, I played it once. 2.25. Even though you never played it. Never played it, but I watched a lot of video. The thing is, there was so much weirdness with this. with the whole, like, we can't show Arnold, but that wasn't there at the beginning. And then they had footage leak out, which clearly showed Arnold. And it's like, oh, well, this is what not showing Arnold means, that we're good. But now, like, no, you can't show Arnold. So his head's, like, cut off, and it's all, like, weird, like the video, stuff they have to do to edit him out. And we talked about this, whether they should have even done the game if you can't have Arnold. If you can't have Arnold, why even? Re-theme it to something else. Well, Predator is really the star. It's like, eh, not in this case, not to me. Not at all. But then they did the whole thing where they said we're only making this many and then we're only making them to the end of the year when they just announced it. Yeah. Oh, that means it's done. The run's going to be done this year. They announced it in the middle of this year, and they said, like, oh, yeah, we're making them to December, and that's it, and we can't make any. Like, what? I don't understand that. I don't know how many of these they sold. I don't think it was a lot. I don't think it was a lot. I think. A lot of misses in this game. Yeah. For Pinball Brothers, honestly, I think it's Alien, which is the one they got from Highway. That's where all their sales have been. I don't think any of the other stuff has really sold. I would think, though, do you think Predator sold better than Queen and Abbott? Oh, yes. Yeah, I'd say that. But I think by 50 or 100, I don't think it's like, wow, I got 10,000. But it's better. How many duds do you get before you can't make any more duds? You're on a four-game dud streak. I mean, I really like the apron. They did the Predators LED display thing he has on that's on the apron. I thought that was pretty damn cool. But am I right? They've had a lot of duds. I don't know if you consider this a dud. It all depends on how many they sold, and we'll never know that. Okay, but Queen before that. Queen, yeah, that sucked. What else you had before that? ABBA didn't sell here. No. What else? That's it. Alien. Alien's the only other one. And Alien, you know. And they've had a zillion different Alien, Alien LV, limited version. And then they had Alien Ripley. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see what they have next. I don't know. I don't know how many they sold. Yeah, but I don't think it was a – compared to the past two games, yes, they did better, but – Plus they made it a wide body after doing two regular sizes and – I don't know. I played it. There wasn't anything egregiously, like, terrible about it. I didn't understand. Everyone was saying – I think I mentioned this before. Like, it's whirlwind. Like, I'm not getting whirlwind vibes off of this at all. Okay, so we have – No, no whirlwind. vibes for me at all. Alright, one of Stern's big successes this year, Jaws 50th Anniversary. Stick a sticker on it and it'll sell like rocks! Yeah. They made a ton of these. This is the most popular version of Jaws. I think it's the most sold version, too. that sold the most. And they're still making these. And literally, it's just slightly different artwork and a hologram. Oh, and he said the sparkly playfield. I keep forgetting. Sparkly playfield. Sparkly playfield. Maybe that's the key to everything. You've got to have the playfield sparkle. Yikes. So what's your rating on that one? I'm saying 3.75. I like Jaws. I do like probably having Jaws. Man, it played long. Too long. Actually, that's probably being young also. Not when I play it. Well, you suck at him. But, yes, well, as long as I've been able to play some marathon games on. King Kong, no, I haven't been able to play any marathon games. Yeah, not much more. We talked about the accessories for that one, which was just a red border around the existing sign and a little thing that says 50-a-thon. But, yeah. Ta-da! But a big success for Stern. They were very happy with that, I'm sure. We also, and I forgot about this one. Star Wars, the home edition. Star Wars! They did another home edition version. Did it have a different play field? Or was it just they updated some things on it? It's Spike 3. I'm trying to remember. It's Spike 3. Yeah, it's Spike 3, but I'm trying to remember if the play field was any different. I'm looking at it now. Because I played, I actually liked the home game. I'm not going to lie. Every time I go to Costco, I play it. Oh, so this is, okay, yeah, Costco. Yeah, I think it's the same one. Gosh darn it, give me a picture. Yeah, it looks like it. So, yeah, and they said they got, that was another thing that came out in that two-hour Carrie Hardy interview, that Gomez said that was success as far as they're concerned. Costco wanted more, so there will be more of them going to Costco. More. More. More, Father, more. We're getting a Costco in this area. I guess it's a big deal. Oh, it's a humongous deal. That's what I'm hearing. It blows away BJ's. Yeah, I'm figuring BJ's warehouse probably won't be very happy. Did you get that? Yeah, it blows away BJ's because BJ means, yeah. You're pretty funny, butthead. Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, Medieval Madness, Merlin Edition. They made some more. Made some more. Another one. Pulled out of them. Yeah. They got the Merlin Edition, and you have the other game that's called Merlin. Yeah. Sold out of those, though, right away. Yeah. People cannot get enough of Medieval Madness. Medieval Madness. They love blowing up that castle, bro. See, then we have Star Wars. Star Wars. I'm talking Star Wars. Fall of the Empire. 2.25. I really, this game is just so clunky. It is clunky. The only thing that's saving it is the rules. And the problem I have, and I'm going to say this again, with newer games, that you don't know what to do except for only flashing lights help you. Give me some information on the screen, please. And the problem with that game is it's so fast. Like, this is the worst sturt I've seen in a while. As soon as it touches a slingshot, it is headed right towards those outlanes. Like, it's just saying, outlanes are going, feed me, Seymour, feed me. And boom, ding, bong. You're done. You're like, holy shit. I would say that's the one thing I liked about it, playing it in a tournament, was that it played fast. Oh, it plays very fast. Because it was a Star Wars launch party, so the Star Wars games that you guys have were in every round. Yes. So you'd have the Fall of the Empire game would go quick, the 2017 Star Wars game would go quick, and Mandalorian would play forever. Yeah. We were waiting for that game like almost every round. But, yeah. Yeah, we talked about Star Wars. Fall of the Empire. Do you think they sold a lot of them? I think they sold decent. I don't think so. You don't think the Star Wars name just equals cash? Not always. Look at Mandalorian. Look at Mandalorian. Mandalorian, when it came out, was hot. It was. And it didn't sell as much. Yeah, it did seem to die out eventually. And then they vaulted it. Yep. They vaulted it before the movie even came out, which I thought was weird. Exactly, they vaulted it, which is really weird. So, I don't see this one having long term, no legs. There's no legs on this thing. So, you don't think it's going to make it to two years to have the 50th anniversary? No. Well, they probably will bring it out and go, hey, look, we have a 50th anniversary. We slapped a hologram on it, and it's looking great. Yeah. Okay. We talked a lot about that. Yeah, we did already. What's your number? Do you agree with my number? As far as Star Wars? Yeah. Yeah, I don't really like the way it shoots. Yeah. So it fails my level one. Yep. We have Winchester Mystery House. The most secretive game ever that just came out of absolute nowhere. And sold out, boom. And sold out within a day. Yeah, they dropped the mic on that one. Yes. Good job, Barrels of Fun. Will they get them all out? They're starting to come out. Yeah, they're starting to come out. I bet you they're thinking, man, we probably should have did more than 525 games. But I don't know. I think you needed the FOMO to get that sellout. Yeah. If you made it like 800, I don't think it would have sold out in a day. No, but it might have sold out in a week. How are they shooting? I have not seen anything. I see people posting that they're getting, oh, I got number two, I got number 12, you know, and that kind of stuff. That's good. I haven't seen much videos from it. Oh, there's plenty of videos out there. No, no, I mean new people grabbing them and finding them. That's what I'm talking about. Yes, there's plenty of videos from Carl and that kind of stuff also. Totally agree. Yeah. Now that they're on the production floor, I have not seen many people posting videos like, hey, this is my game, except for pictures. I haven't seen gameplay. And I haven't seen if there's a new code update or anything for this either. It shot fine when I shot it. Would you buy it if you could have? No. After playing, it's not my bag, baby. It's not my bag, man. Just like I said I not crazy about the narrator voice they have that goes throughout the game It just it not my bag baby Yeah bye That all But total success for Barrels of Fun This will tie them over to the next release, whatever that may be. Whatever that may be. We don't know. We're the top secret keepers. What did you say? The tightest buttholes? Tightest buttholes in pinball. In pinball. Oh, then we had Walking Dead Remastered. That's where we'll end it because I said Beetlejuice we won't do. But Walking Dead Remastered. Now, I have not. And what about your game? You forgot about your game. What about my game? The one you just got. You just put it in this year. We didn't talk about it. Oh, that's right. We didn't talk about it. I'm sorry, but you're like, wait a second. Hold on. We'll go with Walking Dead. The one that was yours. Walking Dead. Walking Dead Remastered, which already has the accessories. Everyone hated the art. Yep. Or at least the colors of the art. I mean, I haven't played it. You're mine. That's all I can think of when I see the Clayville hat. It's got more color than Wizard of Oz. Oh, God. Am I right or wrong? You're welcome to hear the Wizard. You see Darcy skipping along trying to avoid walking dead like a zombie. Yes, I like it, yes. She's just dancing along with Toto following, you know, and zombies are like. From what I've seen on the screens, it does look like it plays a little easier. Yes. It's not as brutal. I like the interactive, what's it called, the zombie, the well walker. Yeah, and I like that you're going to have like 2014 mode, so if you don't want any of the new shit, you can just say like, no, I want classic, baby. I'm thinking three. Now, I thought I heard Gomez somewhere mention that. No, it wasn't Gomez. They'd be bored that they're going to have the full video, but I haven't seen any full video. All I've seen is the bar that is basically the old DMD display, and that's where they show all the graphics. I think I talked about this in the last show. Yeah, the comparison. And the top is just like has your ball count and some other stuff, and the bottom has the scores, and it's static. It doesn't really change. Yeah, I'm thinking 2.75 or 3, right around there. And they can't use any clips. I don't think they're using any clips from the show. Nope, still nothing. So, again, it's going to come down to software and the fact that it really was not ready. There's no way you can tell me this was ready when they're talking about all the cool features that are going to be in it that we're working on now. We're getting suggestions on now. It's like, what? It's fucking, you already got the machine out. You're already building the game. And selling it. Like, Metallica, they had all this shit. Like, boom, it was there. Like, look at all this new shit we have in the game. Yep. This is just totally different. I think it's just... Yeah, I'm going to go 2.75. 2.75 for this one. I think they're working poor Borg too hard. I mean, this guy's in Metallica. Then, okay, you're doing Star Wars. Okay, you're doing this. Does the guy get a vacation? Come on. Did he grow at 2.75? Sure. And then now your game. Evil Dead. Complete success in every way. Oh, I agree. They sold out. They're just finishing up. I know they're at the end because my number, guess what my number is, Bruce? Now they had 888 of these games they're making. So what number do you think I have? 7-7-7. No, 8-33. Oh, wow. I'm right at the end. I think they even said, because we're off right now, they're doing Christmas break. So they'll start next year, beginning of next year, they will finish up the Evil Dead. So they don't have many left. Mine was built, I think we looked at it when I got it. It was built on the 12th, December 12th. 12th, and I got it on the... When did I get it? I got it on the 22nd. Okay. So, what's your number? I haven't played it. I played only once. I'll say four until I play it, because it might go up. Okay, four. Because when I played it, it still had a lot of software left to go in. Yeah. Did you buy the shotgun? No. What the fuck? I did not buy a shotgun. Ron, I think this year I'm going to have to buy you the shotgun. You can give me as a late Christmas present. Yeah. But the thing is. Did I put it in my mouth when I played the game? Oh, I think one of the reasons I really like it, too, is just you constantly are getting insulted. Yeah. And I just like that. I like games that insult me. I just do. I did go to a place when we were in. Hold on. It was a little before my vacation when we were in Gatlinburg. I went to this place called Dick's. Dick's Bar. Oh. It is. And what it is there, they actually beat you up with sarcasm and jokes and everything like that. They tell you right in the beginning, this is how it is. They throw fucking napkins at you, throw straws at you. And that's how the whole premise is. So the girls start. We went to the bar because it was a lot easier to eat just me and Kathy. And we went to the bar. We're eating at the bar. And the girl's like, oh, you know, what the fuck are you doing here? And, you know, she goes, um, Kathy's like, you know, I'm like, this is the gimmick, Kat. She's like, oh, okay. And the food was good, you know. So I started, she goes, you guys are just wussies. You can't hold up. Ten minutes later, she actually was telling Kathy and me, stop. Can you stop? Can you stop? Can you stop, please? Can we stop? And she was nice as honey after that. Because I gave it right back as she gave it out, and she couldn't keep up. Kathy's like, you've got to stop her. We're going to get thrown out of here because you're just going all in. She's like, hold. And the guy came over and heard me, and he's like, you could work here. I'm like, oh, I know I could. This is just too easy. Did you just say, I'm from New Jersey, so this is natural. So easy. It's so fucking easy. The guy came over, and he's like, they make hats, and they put hats on you. and one was like future hooters girl and it scratched out the girl and it said uh dishwasher then the other one says my knees are hurting wonder why wow oh yeah they put them on their heads and then one said it one it was really good my future one scratch two scratch three, scratch four, scratch five, and I had nine kids in the future. Dicks. Oh, it was fucking awesome. The girl was like, oh, my God. I had her, so she tapped out. You tapped out your bartender. It was fucking awesome. Only Bruce, right? I mean, did you know the place was like that? Oh, yeah. Okay. So when you walked in, you were like, okay, you're ready. I'm ready. I'm always ready for sarcasm and fucking jokes. And then, you know, she came up with some good ones, and I just came back, and she was like, you know, she's like, you can't get up. You're so old. You're a freaking grandpa. And I was like, grandpa can do so many things, you know, just regarding going in. And she's like, oh, she didn't see your face. I'm like, I don't even know what to say. No, kookaburra. Walking dead. I know, walking dead. Yeah, Walking Dead. Evil Dead. Evil Dead's great. So you're giving it a four. I'll give it a 3.75. Still, the sculpts just bothered the shit out of me in that game. So those were the games for this year. So I think we picked the winner. What do you think about upcoming games for next year? What, the ones they keep on bragging about this year? Let's see, we've got Sonic the Hedgehog, supposedly. Pokemon. Pokemon. Back to the Future, I keep on hearing. Oh, God. Back to the Future. Oh, wait a minute. We forgot one. Oh. Is Alice in Wonderland? Oh, God. No, that was, remember, that was announced like not. Yeah, I know. But the games didn't come out until this year. They really didn't come out until this year. Okay. That's a two. It looks beautiful, but it's just not. Yeah, two. Two. and they're going to be doing Back to the Future. I wonder how much licensing they got for that. Yeah, I guarantee. You're going to get the scroll thing from the beginning, the intro. And then you're going to see Back to the Future. And then, okay, what do we have? You're going to be racing in your car. All your shots are going to try to leave at the 88 miles an hour. You're acting like you're Marty and you're driving that car. but you don't see anything on the assets. And then it's going to show you the wormhole effect when you're going through the time, and then you go to a different time. And now you've got to try different shots. So we got – I think our winner is – Pokemon and Transformers for Stern, as we heard, for, like, spooky, although it won't be until the end of the year, so who cares, but, like, Gremlins or Goonies, something like that. Both themes suck. And then, yeah, then for Dutch, Back to the Future, for Jersey Jack, what did I say, Sonic. Yep. Any of these interest you? None. Not even Goonies? Or Gremlins? No, I hate Goonies. I hate fucking Gremlins. How do you hate Gremlins? I hate them. Gremlins is awesome. The only Gremlin as good as an AMC Gremlin. Or the Gremlin from Bugs Bunny. Oh, God, stop. What's wrong with Gremlins? They fuck with people and kill people. I thought you'd like that. No. No? No. Didn't like that movie. Wow. Man, are you sure you're from the 80s? I am. I don't know. I didn't like E.T. either. I didn't like Poltergeist either. What? All early 80s. All early 80s. How do you not like Poltergeist? The house is clean. What the hell is wrong with you? They're here. No, I was more into, like, 1941, Stripes. Complete Bomb. Stripes did good. What else was it called? Animal House was 78. 78. 78. Okay, so. But that's where my theming goes. Airplane. Airplane. Okay, Airplane. Airplane. That's the fucking movies. Airplane 2? Even Airplane 2 is not bad. I didn't think it was bad. I know everyone hates Airplane 2. I actually like it. I thought Shatner was pretty damn funny. He fucking overkilled it so well. Of course, he's Shatner. He was full Shatner in that movie. And then, like, you know, what else do you have? The Naked Gun movies. Naked Gun movies, at least the first one was there. From the Files of the Police Squad. And then you get in the Back to the Future and that kind of stuff. And Spaceballs, of course. Spaceballs was 88, 89, right around there. I said across. I'm just saying, though, but, you know, that's the kind of movies I like. Say the crosser knows not up it. Sorry, sir, I'm doing my best. Who made that guy a gunner? Arden. He's my cousin. Yeah, he's got a cross thing for us. Who is that guy? He's an asshole, sir. I know that. What's his name? It is his name. Asshole. Major asshole. How many assholes do we have around here? No. Sir, yes, sir. I'm surrounded by assholes. You still have a chance to press the cancellation button. Cancellation button? That's what we need. Spaceballs 2, the pinball. Out of order? Fuck, even in the future nothing works. Right? Am I right or wrong? Spaceballs 2. I'm sure there's a homebrew. No, we need a real. You need a real one. If that came out, Spaceballs and Spaceballs 2, even though we don't know anything about Spaceballs 2 yet. Spaceballs would be fine. Exactly. I would buy that site. I would buy that from Spooky. I would buy that from Waze. I would buy that even from, what's it called, the freaking Dutchman. You would buy it from Dutch? I would. Wow. Okay, you've heard it here once. Would you buy it from Home 10? No. There is the point I will not go beyond. No, there's just – you only have certain steps before you just go, nope, I'm not going to walk this cliff. Jesus. Baseball. I'm relieved in news. I just got an email saying a delivery was attempted. Ooh. I don't understand. I had two things coming from eBay, both from, you know, USPS. And one says it was delivered. The other one says delivery attempted. So I'm kind of confused. Like how has one happened and the other didn't happen? Yeah. So we have a winner. We have a winner? We picked a winner. We picked a winner? Yes. Harry Potter. Oh, Harry Potter. Crushed it. That's our number one game? Yep, for this year. Okay. Until I play more of My Evil Dead, and I'm sure that we'll take it. Okay. Repairs. Repairs. No, no. Repairs. I didn't do much. I was away. Wow, no repairs. Nope. I worked yesterday, and I work today. I'm going to be putting the mod in for the ramp, so that will be my fun today. I got to work on a lot of shit. We got a lot. Yeah, I can't really traverse stairs, so I haven't been down to the game. So I haven't repaired anything either. Space balls. Watch out. What are those things coming out of her nose? Spaceballs? That's shit. Against the planet. There's so many great one-liners in that. It's like airplane. Even our Zach likes it, and he hates everything. What? Yes. Holy shit. Holy shit, yes. Yes, he's a big Spaceballs fan. Spaceballs! Yeah, he actually, he likes airplane. He likes naked guns. So, obviously, that type of humor. That type of humor seems to be acceptable in his world. Okay. We have to watch it together then. All three of us should watch Airplane next time we're together. Or Spaceballs. I like watching Airplane because no one remembers it actually has boobs in it. Oh, yeah. For a split second because everyone always is used to watching it on TV. And there's really no other stuff that's usually censored in it, so it just throws everyone like, whoa. Whoa. Have you ever been in a Turkish prison? You ever see a Roman naked? I know you. You're Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This is fucking awesome. No, my name is Roger. I'm the co-pilot. I think you're the best. My dad, on the other hand. My dad doesn't think you work hard enough on defense. He said, sometimes you don't even run to the other end of the court. And then you don't really try, except during the playoffs. Listen, you. I just like when they pull him out of the cockpit later on. He's got his full waker's gear on. He's like, listen, you. I'm busting my buns every night. You tell your dad to try to guard Lanier and Walton for 48 minutes. 48 fucking minutes. 48 friggin' minutes. Do you like movies about gladiators? It's like the kid's face was like, uh. Billy, we'd like to give you this plane. We'd like to give all our friends a little. We forgot the woman who's on there for a transplant. Oh, yeah, the girl. The girl from the love boat. Yeah, and the guitar knocks out her hose. And she's like, oh, oh, oh. And her cheek's all swollen. I'm sorry, folks. We're getting into it. Yes. I mean, if you haven't seen Airplane, what the fuck is wrong with you? If you haven't seen Airplane, go see it. Come on. Jesus Christ. Our show is based on probably Airplane. Oh, one fucking liners. What is it? You know, what's plane? Plane going to crash. Passenger certain to die. There's a sale at Penny's. Penny's. We've unplugged the cord. Roger. Roger. or the horse in bed with his wife okay ready for the ball bag? yes let's go ball bagging ball bag this is the famous I decorated my ball bag this year with Christmas ornaments uh huh the male ball bag which you can write to at slamtailpodcast.gmail.com this is from Greg hi Greg he says In an interview with Loser Kid on December 5th, John Borg stated he was put on Star Wars right after Metallica was released. He finished up being on the line for Metallica in November and said he was assigned to Star Wars in December. And he said when he found out about Walking Dead Remastered just after he started on Star Wars in December or early January. So that's the design to production timeline of nine months for Star Wars and ten months for Walking Dead. A short schedule along with two projects, Working two projects simultaneously, although impressive for John to do, may have compromised the quality. This could be why these games feel hastily coded and released. Yes. Yes, we've said this. They were definitely. Yeah. Yeah, they were rushed. Uh-oh. P.S. Fellow Italian-American. Yes. What the fuck it on? No, no, I need Italian, not you. What the fuck is Brady going to bring out some more shit? Shit. What the fuck? I say Zachariah wrong. Please don't forget the vowel shift. Zachariah has the E sound instead of the I sound at the end. So it rhymes with pizzeria. So Zachariah. Zachariah. And the first syllable is stressed. So Zachariah. Zachariah. There, is that better? Zachariah. Salud. Let's see. Thank you. Baseball. Watch out. Oh, we got a long one here. Okay. And it's not by the Pinball Princess. Oh, my. It's from Glenn, who does some of our music. Yes, hi, Glenn. The Fuck You song, or not Fuck You. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. It says, Ron and Bruce, thank you. Okay. Dear fearless trailblazers, most emails I send are generally goofy and not to be taken seriously. Uh-oh. So I better not do voices in this one. Yeah. This is not one of them. Thank you for discussing OBX. Oh, boy. Back to OBX again. We haven't brought up this. Oh, no. We are all adjusting to a changing world. Views and opinions will be rooted in core beliefs, personal life experiences, and political religious stances. I am terrified we are losing our ability in large numbers to be empathetic. Empathetic. Oh, I said that right. Yes. I thought I said it wrong. It's becoming less tolerant to have an opposing opinion in the world. That's true. But we need to listen to each other and understand where people are coming from. We all have to coexist in this hobby And if everyone listened and tried to be more Compassionate to opposing opinions And understand how and why they could be Different from their own We'd be able to relate without anger I don't think Bruce could ever relate Without anger He's just very angry Good, let the hate flow through you We all love this hobby and look forward To showing up at events where we can Forget about any hardships we have in our Everyday lives for a few hours Thank you, Ron and Bruce, for sharing your opinions. We can decide to look back at this as an opportunity to learn and be better. I hope. I hope. Everyone has the ability to love and be loved. And even though there are so many fragmented groups in this hobby, we all love pinball and can learn so much from each other. Yep. Thank you. Glenn. Thank you, Glenn. Thank you, Glenn. Watch out. I feel that way, except for the Dutch. We can't trust them. I'm just kidding. No, certain people in Dutch land. Yeah, how long do you think it'll take to get your back to the future? Two years. No less than ten years? Yeah. All right, this one's from Corey. Hey, Corey. He says, oh, it starts off, fuck those guys. Okay. Wow, excellent. Hi, Ron and Bruce. I just listened to your latest podcast. Just wanted to share that I was really impressed with your response to the OBX nonsense. Oh, boy. The loud voices are always the ones that suck ass, and the supportive ones tend not to say anything. Don't let the bastards bring you down. Keep up the great work. We're still here, Corey. Yeah, we're not going anywhere. We're like herpes. We never go away. Duh. Oh, yeah, baby. But, no, I'm not going to go talk. We talked about it the past two episodes. Let's just hope change happens. That's all. That's all. And everyone, you know, learn to live together. New year, new stuff. The next email is actually from Barrels of Fun. It's a press release about the topper and the back glass. The one that I said, we need an actual picture of the topper. I would have felt really bad if it actually had a picture of it in here after I said all that shit. But, no, it's just a PDF of what's already been released. Great. So, yeah, I just want, just give me a, just even if it's a prototype and it's the only one in existence right now, just. Give it to me, babe. Maybe just a picture. Actually, I kind of want to see it work, but, yeah. Give it to me, babe. Pump it up, pump it up, pump it up. Give it to me. Just two more. This next one's from Tim. Hi, Tim. Hello, Tim. Ron and Bruce, I wanted to ask your opinion on the future of the Stern Remastered series. They'll keep doing them as long as they make money. The Walking Dead is one of my top three favorite pinball machines of all time. I plan on upgrading to the remastered version for my original version. However, after playing the new version, I don't see the value in upgrading. Don't get me wrong. I like the new version, and it's a lot of fun. I just like the original version with the Cleveland code better. I assume Cleveland has the show stuff that they couldn't use. I think it's kind of like the Jurassic Park code that has the actual movie stuff in it. I actually found it odd when they announced Walking Dead as the next remastered game since nobody plays it in my basement arcade besides myself so my question to you guys is what are the top five games Stern should remaster and the top five games they should not remaster well remaster Tron Lord of the Rings which they won't do because it's this white star and it's too early yeah I mean Most of their best titles have been within the last five years. I mean, so many years. I don't know what you would read. Maybe Simpsons? That's three. Yeah. Can you think of anything else you'd like to see remastered? I know people are going to say Ghostbusters and stuff. Yeah, I'd say Ghostbusters just because they made a ton of them. Yeah. As much as we bash it. I own one. How about any of the music ones? Supposedly the rumor is ACDC is the next one. Yeah, maybe. I can say ACDC. Yeah. I'll go with that. The thing about that is I'll only be pissed because I own an ACDC. I'll only be pissed that they have like a Bon Scott edition. There you go. Because I remember when the original one came out, 2012, Stern had one of the LEs. they wanted like a Bon Scott edition, but the band nixed it. Yeah. So if they changed their minds and all of a sudden we have, you know, the Bon Scott edition, that would kind of annoy me because I like that. I mean, for ACDC, what would you have to do, really? Improve the art. Yeah. Like really improve the art, which they kind of did with the, you know, the TNA art that they did, the Hell one, or was it Helen, whatever it was called? Yeah. And they sold a ton of those, too. They sold a shitload of those. Yeah. Five games they should not remaster Anything they made Like a Striker Extreme Oh god Just think of all those games Oh god T3 World Poker Tour A Wheel of Fortune A Rollercoaster Tycoon No I want to see Rollercoaster Tycoon Damn it that's a great play field It's a great play field but Come on Wheel of Fortune instead Yum yum Yeah, just basically the five games they should not remaster would be that, like the shitty ones. And also Big Buck Hunter. Big Buck Hunter. Don't remaster that. Don't remaster Avatar. Nope. Iron Man? They already did. Yeah. So they'd be doing it again, but that doesn't seem to stop them. No, never stops them. No. Let's see. He says, I'm personally not feeling an ACDC remaster. All right. Okay. Thanks, Tim. Thank you, Tim. Everyone wants Lord of the Rings, but the issue with that is getting the rights for the shit, and especially with the LCD, you're going to want to see fucking clips. Yeah, you will. From the movie, and I'm thinking that's going to be expensive as fuck. But let's see. This is from Shane. Oh, this one's actually for you, Bruce. See, my mom read this one. It says, hi, guys. Love the podcast. Yes, this is something you brought up last time, Bruce, where you were looking for protectors and you can't get all the Cliffy. Bruce, possibly try these guys for Cliffy style protectors. I've heard they are a similar quality but have no firsthand experience. So you could try them out, Bruce. It's called pinballholeshop.com, as in hole. Hole. Not hole with a W, but hole as in, you know, yes, not W-H, But P-I-N-H-O-L-E-S-H-O-P.com. Okay, hold on, hold on. Say it again now, pinball? No, it's not pinball. Pin hole. Oh, pin hole. P-I-N-H-O-L-E, I figured you'd be able to remember that, shop.com. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever heard of them. Okay, let's see what we got here. It's coming up as pounds, so they might be in Europe. Pounds would be Robert Englunds. Or if I'm reading that right. It says since 2009 they've been around. Okay. Come on. Did you get the page that should come up? I got the page. It's slow. Okay. It's slow. Well, that's your internet. It came right up for me. Okay. Let's go start. Load more. But thank you, Shane. Thank you, Shane. He will check that out. It is the Euros. Euros. Not pounds. Euros. Euros. So you know more about Europe than me. Mm-hmm. I'm not a European. I'm not into Europe as you. They do not have what I need. You needed a Star Trek ramp protector. Yeah, and they don't even have them. Oh, are you sure? I'm looking right at the website. He wouldn't have mentioned it if they didn't have them. You're probably missing them. Wow, we've been out over two hours, Bruce. No, because slingshots they have. They have the shooter lane. and they have the out-hole. They don't have the ramps. Oh, damn it. Message them. Where's your ramp protectors? They don't have any ramp protectors. Oh. Yep. So, nope. No. All right. That's all I got. This has been a pretty long episode. Well, because it's a whole year. A whole year in review. I mean, everyone else did it, so I figure we had to do it. Got to do it. Got to do it. Otherwise, you know, we have to conform. These are podcast rules here. See, now I'm going to be bothered by my eBay package that didn't get delivered. Womp, womp. Could they not bring it to the front door? No. No, but they were able to do the other one. Does that mean it's in my mailbox, which I can't get to? Yes. That's all I can think of. and that's going to be a problem because the snow probably won't be cleared out by Monday either because I can't do anything. It will for us because we're supposed to get rain tomorrow in 45 minutes. Rain? 40 degrees? Yeah. Hmm. Maybe I can limp around and try to shovel. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunate. That's all I got, Bruce. That's all I got, too. So where do you contact us or try to get in touch with us, and what's our website? Our website. So we're going to do all the plugs. Silver Ball Chronicles. I already did that one. You already did. Done. So, yeah, I don't have to do it again because Bruce gets mad at me. Yes, I do. Our website is www.slamtailpodcast.com. That's www.slamtailpodcast.com. Our email, which I've already said several times throughout the episode, slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. If you go to our website, upper right-hand corner has all our links. Thanks, everybody. hopefully everybody has a happy new year yep and hopefully we have more new exciting pinball coming up ahead in the year of 2026 yay hello to everyone on our cluster buck everybody uh jeff teolis ryan say ryan say i love ryan say uh everyone on our cluster buck uh you know we We talk sometimes and, you know, just want to tell everyone have a safe rest of the year and a prosperous 2026. Live long and perspire. And, you know, don't forget, times are starting to get a little tough around here. So support your local pinball places, you know, that are saying they need help. You know, we need location pinball for everything else to happen. I'm not saying for us. I'm saying for other places I've heard are out in throughout the country, you know. so don't forget go to your local places play the new games, play the old games play all the games even the one Bruce says he hates even the ones I say hate because prove me wrong prove him wrong just play those games, hate play to prove Bruce wrong ok I think that's it so until next time folks see you later, say goodbye Bruce goodbye Chris Hopper Hold my mind, hold my mind, can you move me, can you fly? Hold my mind, hold my mind, you can do me if you try. Hold my mind, hold my mind, guarantee to keep you alive. We'll be right back. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Thank you. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: bea5a783-92f1-42c1-8068-9ad5ff45d3a5*