# Episode 51: Pinball at the Beach FOMO 🌊 Pokémon Is Almost Here?! + Major Pinball Buzz

**Source:** The Flipside Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-02-08  
**Duration:** 74m 8s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** 4532b1a9-ec44-4642-ab76-6f606c4fd5e0

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## Analysis

Retro Ralph and Jamie Burchill discuss major FOMO about Pinball at the Beach (Florida), call Rob from Electric Playground for live updates on Beetlejuice (praised as Stern's best shooter with great sculpts and layout), and speculate about the Pokemon pinball reveal. Ralph expresses frustration with the minimal Pokemon teaser trailer and plans to attend Stern Media Day and TPF to see the actual gameplay.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Beetlejuice has 10-15 units at Pinball at the Beach with short wait times, praised as Stern's best shooter — _Rob from Electric Playground reporting live from the event with specific gameplay details_
- [HIGH] Pokemon pinball teaser trailer was 13 seconds of nothing with no actual playfield images — _Ralph explicitly states 'waste of 13 seconds' and 'they gave us nothing'_
- [MEDIUM] All distributors report Pokemon LE allocations are spoken for with high demand — _Rob mentions 'all distributors are saying they're not getting as many as they wanted and they're all spoken for'_
- [MEDIUM] Stern is producing 750 Pokemon LE units — _Rob mentions '750 apparently it's hot man' regarding LE allocation numbers_
- [MEDIUM] Wormhole Pinball's Beatljuice playfield image posted online is AI-generated, not real — _Ralph states 'Nope AI' in reference to the fake playfield images circulating with George Gomez_

### Notable Quotes

> "It's got some cool things going on there's this like crazy thing with like on the launch if you hit the skill shot right the ball like goes down behind the flippers and gets grabbed by a magnet and then kicks itself out into the middle of the play field"
> — **Rob (Electric Playground)**, ~35:00
> _First detailed description of Beetlejuice mechanical features from someone who played it_

> "it shoots like fast to the stern it's definitely their best shooter in my opinion ever by a long shot"
> — **Rob (Electric Playground)**, ~34:00
> _Strong endorsement of Beetlejuice as Stern's best shooter design_

> "don't do research on Pokemon. And here's was his reason why he goes, don't do research, no, nothing going in because how you'll know that that game is good is if you who don't know anything about Pokemon has fun with it"
> — **Vic VP (referenced by Ralph)**, ~55:00
> _Strategy for evaluating Pokemon game appeal outside of IP enthusiasm_

> "They're good about it. They don't do leaks. There's no leaks going on there."
> — **Ralph/Jamie (discussing Stern)**, ~65:00
> _Confirms Stern's tight control over Pokemon information pre-reveal_

> "I was like, this is a waste of 13 seconds of my life. I mean, it was nothing that they gave us, nothing."
> — **Ralph**, ~50:00
> _Strong criticism of Pokemon teaser trailer strategy_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Jamie Burchill | person | Co-host of JBS Show, guest on Flipside Podcast, attending TPF |
| Retro Ralph | person | Host of Flipside Podcast, 46 years old, attending TPF and Stern Media Day |
| Rob | person | From Electric Playground, reporting live from Pinball at the Beach with hands-on Beetlejuice feedback |
| Pinball at the Beach | event | Event in St. Petersburg, Florida during Super Bowl weekend featuring multiple Stern machines including Beetlejuice |
| Pokemon Pinball | game | Unreleased Stern game, minimal teaser trailer released, scheduled for Stern Media Day reveal |
| Beetlejuice Pinball | game | Recently released Stern game, 10-15 units at Pinball at the Beach, praised as best shooter design |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Pokemon and Beetlejuice, conducting Media Day event (Tuesday dealer call, Wednesday media day) |
| Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) | event | Major show in March where Pokemon will first be available for public play, similar size to Expo |
| Stern Media Day | event | Tuesday dealer call and Wednesday media day event in Chicago where Pokemon will be revealed |
| Vic VP | person | Pinball content creator, spent hour discussing Pokemon teaser, advocates for going in without Pokemon knowledge |
| Don | person | Pinball community figure, nomadic, likely to be at Pinball at the Beach, known for persistence in getting information |
| George Gomez | person | Stern designer, worked on Pokemon pinball (Jack Danger collaboration), appeared in AI-generated fake playfield images |
| Jack Danger | person | Stern designer, involved with Pokemon pinball design alongside George Gomez, degree of involvement unknown |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Pinball manufacturer, shipped defective Labyrinth shaker to Travis without proper wiring |
| Electric Bat Arcade | company | Kale works here, not attending Stern Media Day due to weather and work conflicts |
| Wormhole Pinball | venue | Likely source of Beetlejuice playfield images that turned out to be AI-generated |
| Melissa Loomis | person | Ralph's friend, attending Pinball at the Beach |
| Erica | person | Attending Stern Media Day, first media event |
| Aaron Winnick-Anthony | person | Expected to attend Stern Media Day |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pokemon Pinball announcement and teaser strategy, Beetlejuice Pinball reception and design praise, Stern Media Day logistics and allocation
- **Secondary:** Pinball at the Beach event coverage, Texas Pinball Festival upcoming attendance, Community FOMO and event scheduling
- **Mentioned:** Pinball IP licensing and multi-property deals, Stern design collaboration (Jack Danger vs George Gomez)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Positive on Beetlejuice reception and excitement about Pokemon reveal, negative/frustrated on teaser strategy and FOMO about missing Pinball at the Beach. Ralph expresses frustration with minimal Pokemon teaser but optimistic about actual gameplay reveal.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Pinball at the Beach (St. Petersburg, FL) during Super Bowl weekend attracting major community figures despite scheduling conflict (confidence: high) — Ralph expressing FOMO, Don and Melissa Loomis attending, 10-15 Beetlejuice units available for play
- **[competitive_signal]** Beetlejuice positioned as premium title with multiple units at major show to accommodate player volume (10-15 units vs 2 Winchester units with long lines) (confidence: medium) — Rob: 'Winchester there's only two of them, but they're long as hell. The fact that they brought, like, 10 or 12 of them means everyone's able to get a game in within like a 15 minute wait'
- **[design_philosophy]** Community speculation on Jack Danger vs George Gomez credit/responsibility split for Pokemon design remains unresolved (confidence: medium) — Ralph and Jamie discuss unknown percentages of Jack vs George involvement, expect industry figures to disclose details at shows
- **[event_signal]** Stern Media Day scheduled for Tuesday (dealer call) and Wednesday (media day) in Chicago; Pokemon will be revealed (confidence: high) — Ralph mentions attending Media Day Wednesday and Jamie confirms dealer call Tuesday
- **[leak_detection]** AI-generated fake Beetlejuice playfield images with George Gomez circulated online, confirmed as fabrications (confidence: high) — Ralph: 'Nope AI' multiple times when discussing fake images; 'Someone animated that There's nothing in that that's real at all'
- **[market_signal]** Pokemon LE allocations heavily oversubscribed, 750 units spoken for across all distributors (confidence: medium) — Rob: 'all distributors are saying they're not getting as many as they wanted and they're all spoken for... 750 apparently it's hot'
- **[announcement]** Pokemon Pinball officially teased by Stern with minimal 13-second trailer showing only a rolling ball (confidence: high) — Ralph: 'That was dumb' and 'waste of 13 seconds of my life. I mean, it was nothing'
- **[product_concern]** Beetlejuice Pinball receiving strong first-hands-on praise as Stern's best shooter with impressive playfield mechanics (confidence: high) — Rob: 'it shoots like fast to the stern it's definitely their best shooter in my opinion ever by a long shot'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community enthusiasm building around Pokemon despite minimal teaser, driven by licensing announcement (three entities secured) (confidence: medium) — Ralph and Jamie note rumor of Pokemon card in game would appeal to Pokemon collectors, licensing deal significance acknowledged
- **[technology_signal]** Spike 2 back box visible in AI-generated fake Pokemon image, suggesting continued platform use (not Spike 3) (confidence: low) — Ralph notes 'Spike 2 back box' in fake image, Kaneda wanting it to be real

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## Transcript

 That was dumb. Okay, I'm going to bring you out. I'm going to have to edit it now. See, I don't edit the shit. Now I have to edit it. Start again. Bring the energy, Jimmy. Hey, hold on. My dad called me. Come on. All right. Okay. Jeez. This guy. Hey, is everything okay? I'm recording a podcast. About an hour. Two. Is everything okay? Oh, okay. Okay, I'll call you. Bye. All right, you know when your parents call you late? No, I know. I freak out every time my mom calls. I think, like, everybody's dead. So is that good? You know, I'm at that age, dude. That really sucks getting old, dude. All right, I'm putting you in the back. I don't want... I want my parents... When you were a kid, when you were a little kid, you think your parents are going to live forever. They don't. I don't want this. I don't want to be old, dude. We're the old guys now. All right, I'm putting you back. All right. Are we old? No, hey, real quick. In all seriousness, are we old now? Yeah. I'm 53, dude. But pinball... Like, are we the old guys in pinball? No, no, there's oldies. There's some older ones. Okay, I'm putting you in the back. Bye. Bye. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the flip side podcast. I'm your host retro Ralph. This is episode number 51. And I thought for this episode, I'm going to bring in my man, special guest, Jamie Burchill. You know him from the JBS show, from the Roundtable. He is the man. And I'm bringing him on right now. Jamie, what's up? Hey, buddy. I actually could hear you in the back room. It worked perfectly. You could. You could hear me. Yeah. It was nice. It was a nice little intro you gave me. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, the man. So off camera I was saying we're now the old guys of pinball So that's cool I know that sounds fun Right 53 I'm going to talk to you about something Right off the bat I'm going to vent about something I am so Aggravated My feed is just filled with pinball at the beach And I have a ridiculous amount of FOMO I'm having it a lot We've been talking a lot about this Because there's some good people At pinball at the beach that I would love to be hanging out with, right? Like Don's down there, and Melissa Loomis is a friend of mine. She's down there. Jamie, do you know what we're going to do? We're going to go to TPF is what we're going to do. Yeah, but at TPF, we're going to be obnoxious. We're going to upload so many pictures. I'm seeing Joel eating crab legs and all that stuff. No, we're going to be the obnoxious people to them because some of them are not going to be able to go. No, I know. I know Joel's down there too, right? Yeah I don't think he's going to make it to TPF though No, he said he wasn't That's a bummer That's a bummer, man People would want to see Joel, that's for sure But Don is a nomad He's everywhere Don goes to the mall Guy's everywhere Hey, can you put your mic up just a tiny, tiny bit? Just a little bit How's that? That's a little bit better A little better? Yeah, you're good No, I think you're good now So, alright So, Jamie, I'm aggravated about that. So what I thought we'd do to start the show, and I don't know if this is going to work. Just bear with me a second. We're going to see what's going on at the beach. How are you going to do this? I don't know. I don't know yet. We're going to figure it out. All right. Oh, come on. This is riveting. Okay, I got to find... I got it. Ready? No, it's going to be good. Okay. Let's see if it works. This is mystery. Mystery guy. Okay. He better pick up. This guy's not going to pick up. Hi, Uber. I was trying to get Franchi on the phone. Like he would have been good, right? You're going to call Franchi? Huh? Did you have it hooked up that you're going to call him, or you just decided I'm going to call him on a whim? I just decided. Well, he's not going to pick up unless you text him earlier and say, hey, can I talk to you in 10 minutes? I mean, you're in sales. You know this. No, but I kind of wanted to like just, here, we'll try one more person. Okay. I'm going to have a sip of diet. He's not going to pick up either, I bet. Someone from the beach. They're having too much fun at the beach. That's what's happening. I have a phone. Right? This guy's not picking up either. What the hell is it? See, that's it. When we're at TPF, we're not going to pick up shit. Hey, thanks for calling. Whatever. Yeah, whatever. But if you want to get a hold of me, you can shoot me a text or send me a voicemail via text. Yeah, hey, Rob at Electric Playground. You were supposed to be live on the flip side right now, but apparently you're having too much fun at Pinball at the Beach. You're having too much fun at Pinball at the Beach, buddy. Whatever. You were on. You had Jamie Burchill. You had the opportunity of a lifetime, and you blew it. I bet you had a good opportunity. Lifetime. You blew it. You blew it, Rob. That's it. You blew it. I know. You probably – I'm out. All right, Rob. If you want to call back, go for it, but I'm a little frustrated right now. I'll pick up. Who? Don. Do you have Don's phone number? No. You don't? No, I just – I am a – Do you think this will work? Do you think you could – see, just know it – here, I'm going to ask him real quick. We're going to ask him for his phone number. Wait, why does this say I'm live on Facebook? Why does this say I'm live on Facebook? Come on. This thing sucks. No, this Riverside shit sucks. That's why I don't use it. No, screw Riverside. Why am I live on Facebook? All the time. You do this all the time. Why is it going live? Very minor issues, ladies and gentlemen, that are seeing this live. Leave it up. I don't want to be live, though. Oh, that makes sense. There's a chat. What are they saying? I don't know. It's Vic saying, whoa, you're live on Facebook. I don't want to be live on Facebook. No, he has no idea. Oh, my gosh. Hey, Jim, what's going on? Are you at the beach, man? What's going down there? It's in St. Petersburg. Will someone from the goddamn beach call in? Yeah, text us your number. We'll call you right now. Yeah, put your number. Well, yeah, you can't put the number in the chat. I don't know how that's going to work. But anyways, all right. Well, I guess apparently some of you guys are going to get this live, so good for you. And then the rest of you will watch it and replay. All right, Jamie, we got to talk. So we got a lot coming up. We have a lot going on right now. We got the – let's start in the obvious place. We got this trailer for Pokemon. I mean, obviously – see, I got a little bit of a problem with these teaser trailers now. Right. You remember – I'm just trying to, like, get some history here. there was when they did the x-men trailer they showed the sentinel head everyone everyone went everyone everyone out about the sentinel head right and and it was yeah so that was cool so that we had the sentinel head we're all excited about dragons what didn't dungeons and dragons show the big dragon they showed the dragon okay give us something so to me a teaser of nothing is not a teaser it's not a teaser what are you teasing like we all knew it was pokemon so you're teasing nothing poor vick vp went live for an hour did you watch that huh who thinks that's a good idea i don't know the only thing that was really good about that teaser trailer was nothing what me and you missed and kale caught that they had all three licenses and that's great because that probably no i'm not trying to discount that so what that means is you got nintendo you got the What's the company that owns the whole thing? Or owns the game part of it? Is it Game Freak or something like that? I'm 53 years old. I've never seen a Pokemon card. Look at this. Look at this. Old people in technology. We're getting shit-talked right now. When we started the podcast, we had some issues. That's okay. We're not that old. Wait, so that means the whole conversation with your dad and everything is on this. I think. I don't know. I don't know. Who cares? Who cares? You know, you just get worried when your pop calls. Yeah, no, no. When my parents call, I'm immediate like someone died. That's the only thing. And I know I talk to my parents a lot, but what? That's what goes through my head. Yeah, and that's not good, but that's because we're old. No, it's terrible. It's not a good way to live. I'll work on that. Here, I'm going to put you up a little bit on my end because I feel like here, talk a little bit. How are you doing? Oh, that's so much better. Okay. Okay. All right, so let's get back to the Pokemon thing. We got to stay on course, Jamie. I'm looking for you to keep me on course. Oh, this is my phone. I saw that. Sure. Yeah, that's true. So we saw that they had all the licensing, which is good because there was a little bit of rumors, remember, early on. And I don't know what this means in licensing that they were going to. Oh, we're getting a call. Electric Playground, GZ70. Rob. Hey, Rob, you there? Hello. Rob, can you hear me? Hello. Oh, man, this shit doesn't even work. he can't hear me hold on here this is this is nonsense hey rob rob all right forget it okay forget it right which i had again i had again rob what's up jade hey you're live on my show right now oh yeah well i want to i want to report from you from the beach because jamie and i are having major FOMO and I'm like, I know Rob will pick up, which you didn't. So thank you. Oh, hey, what's up, guys? You're not going to be able to hear Jamie because I'm having a technical issue. But so, dude, what? Give me the. Caught me in the middle of a game on Beetlejuice. All right. Give me the skinny on Beetlejuice. That's what we want to hear. Everyone's all excited about Beetlejuice. Yeah. Give us the. All right. I got it. You put somebody in for me. Hey, will you play for me? All right. Yeah, man. So, first time they've had it on any floor, right? Yeah. About 10, 15 games. It's a blast. Oh, my God. The sculpts are amazing. I was talking with Luke, and I was like, I think this might be unmoddable. And he was like, well, no, it's definitely not unmoddable. But, like, the total package has got a lot going on, man. I mean, bang for your buck. Granted, there's none available, which sucks. But bang for your buck. It's pretty amazing. so kudos to everybody who's picked one up yeah um the uh it's okay so as much as people like evil dead at the end of the day it's a little clunky because it's a wide body right and uh this game is like shoots like fast to the stern it's definitely their best shooter in my opinion ever by a long shot okay so that's really fun uh it's got some cool things going on there's this like crazy thing with like on the launch if you hit the skill shot right the ball like goes down behind the flippers and gets grabbed by a magnet and then kicks itself out into the middle of the play field which is really fun i'm excited to see what they do with that the worm mech is sick like you basically knock down like a wall of three shots like you would do on a um like a tron but then this the the worm lifts up and then basically there's like a lower play field that the ball drops into and hits targets i mean i'm sure everyone's seen this stuff yeah in person is another level you know all the lights are addressable rgbs so like you've just got a lot of color going on you've got a ton of playfield lighting with like this light bar in the back and from the trough but there's nothing on the side so you're getting like full-on like playfield pin light level lighting but there's no like blaring lights coming from the side rails so it just really works on that level. Yeah. I mean, the art's amazing, of course. We all know that. But, yeah, man, I'm really impressed with it, and, like, everyone's loving it for sure. Okay, so it's, like, probably going to win the show then. Like, it's probably got long lines and everything. I mean, it's a little bit of a unique environment because they have so many of them. I mean, the Winchester lines, there's only two of them, but they're long as hell. The fact that they brought, like, 10 or 12 of them means everyone's able to get a game in within like a 15 minute wait, which is big. Yeah, that's cool. They've also got every single one of their games to date, except for except for Alice Cooper. And that's inclusive of Domino's and Jetson's. Matt Pinball shout out to them for bringing all those games. And that's just kind of fun. It's a bit of a it's just a cool thing, man. They got a cool setup and like they're all here. So it's fun. All right. Well, Rob, we appreciate the update. Anything else you want to tell us from the beach before we let you go? I got a game in on Winchester. Definitely their best, most interesting layout. I can't say it's their best game because I'm really, June's growing on me, but definitely looking really nice. And shout out to Marshall, who does the show. Like, what's great about this show is that, like, all the games on the floor, you don't have to wait that long, but they're all, like, really nice. Like, I played a WWE LE, and I was like, I hate that game. but I was like having fun with it just because I've never seen an alley and it's got like a screen in the back with like the wrestlers on the video I played a Harlem Globetrotters that was like the nicest one I've ever seen so it's a fun show all right well well Rob I knew thanks for calling back appreciate it man and are we going to see you at TPF for sure we'll have a booth there what's up Jamie sorry I can't hear you but looking forward all right man yeah man we'll see you you're not going to stern next week are you no i'm missing out on that one but i'm in on an le if i am lucky enough to pick one up 750 apparently it's hot man i mean i won't actually pull the trigger unless they deliver on it but hey real real quick though on that really fast did have has anybody because you know when everyone gets together people start talking they have they get liquored up did anybody disclose anything about pokemon at all uh well there's like rumors there may be a card in it And if it's a limited card, oh, boy. Oh, okay. Those Pokemon people are going to eat that shit up. Okay, all right. Sorry for the cussing. And what else? Whatever we're seeing online with those images, like, that's not the game. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Well, I created one of those, so I know that that's not real. You jerk. Yeah, I'm trying to mess with people. Well, I took the original one and edited it. Anyways, all right, Rob, I got to let you go, but I appreciate it, man. Just to build a hype, all the distributors are saying they're not getting as many as they wanted. and they're all spoken for. So we might be back with L.E.s, but we shall see. We're back, baby. All right, Rob, we'll see you in a couple weeks. Take care. All right, man. Later. Bye. All right, well, that's the report from the beach. Yeah, now I'm feeling worse about myself. I feel terrible now. Terrible. But it's Super Bowl weekend. Why are we not there? But it's Super Bowl weekend. You know what? Terry Hardy, rude. I leave a comment. I was being a little snarky. But I was like, hey, Pinball Beach sounds cool, but it's Super Bowl weekend. And he just responds, well, there's TVs in Florida. I'm like, no, no, don't be snarky back to Retro Ralph. Don't do that, Kerry Hardy. Just because you're the big dog doesn't mean you can be rude to people. You know, it's fun. I have like a party that I go to every year. It's like 30, 40 people, and it's a blast, man. I can't miss that. I know. I know. So, hey, maybe next time, next year, you decide to just bump it a week. Bump it a week. Let Jamie and Ralph come. Come on. Hey. You know, that was a great report, Robin. Thank you so much, dude. That was awesome. I was worried that people would play Beetlejuice and go, eh, right? Just a little worried? The only reason why I was thinking that is because, you know, it's hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice. And they did it with Evil Dead. And the reason why I like Evil Dead isn't necessarily, like, I don't know if this is the reason why you like it too. It's not necessarily because it's got, like, a unique layout. Like, the layout isn't ultra interesting. It's how they took the movie and implemented that theme into a pinball machine. It's just so good. Like going into the basement through the trap door and the clips, you know, you're seeing ash go down, fall down into the basement. Like that whole thing fits so well. And then you collect the shells. And I don't like, I usually do not like lower playfields, but I really like the lower play field in that game. Yeah, it's cool. And they just did everything right. So that's awesome. Like I'm glad because I have one coming. So I'm glad that Rob says everyone's loving it. So that's cool. And it's interesting. the rumor mill going around, you know, because you get all these industry guys together. That was a good question. Like, you know, what are they talking about? What are they saying? If there's a card in there, that's pretty wicked. That's pretty cool. That'd be cool. But hey, I want to ask you something really quick. So like Pokemon, I didn't, I'm going into this, I'm jumping around a little bit. So I'm going into the Stern Media Day, which you're not going to, which I'm really bummed at, or Kale, right? No, me and Kale are not going. First of all, it's too cold. I can't get off work. All right. Well, I was able to make it happen somehow, but – because I cover Chicago for work, so I'm kind of piggybacking a work trip on top of the media day thing. But I just want to let you know like I not and I don know if there are other people our age Like you a bit older than me but a little bit not that much but a little bit And I just Pokemon wasn anything that it wasn even on my radar You know I knew it existed but I don't know a whole lot about it. So I was talking to, let me, I want to give you Vic VP's logic. Cause I was talking to him a little bit. He goes, Ralph, he's like, don't do research on Pokemon. And here's was his reason why he goes, don't do research, no, nothing going in because how you'll know that that game is good is if you who don't know anything about Pokemon has fun with it. And I think that's a good point he made, right? Like, if my initial reaction is this is a really fun game outside of the theme, then maybe they can pull in even non-Pokemon fans or the older group of, you know, there's two ways to look at it. I think the older people might have kids that liked Pokemon, so they might be more inclined to bring it into their collection because of that. But for someone to want to bring it in That doesn't have experience with Pokemon If the game is really good You might be able to capture an audience That doesn't care about Pokemon And now all of a sudden they do Yeah I agree with you 100% We kind of went in that way with Dungeons and Dragons I never rolled the dice I never played D&D So I went into the D&D stern Going What are you going to do You were nerding out hard You wanted to do the Dragon Multiball. I really like it. Well, the code was all effed up. Do you remember? Yeah, I have $2 billion still on it. It's like $2.5 billion or something. On my Insider Connect, $2.4 billion. Yeah. My best score ever. So that's crazy. Oh, yeah. So Andrew, who you know, right? You know him as MNRetroGamer, Minnesota, not New Mexico. Andrew is a big Pokemon fan. And he was saying he's like, I don't want it to be a fan layout. It's Pokemon. It should be unique. And I'm thinking it's probably not a fan layout for the reasons that Jack Danger was. I know there's like all these rumors like how involved was Jack was Jack, you know, because, you know, George on various podcasts had said, well, I worked with him. So we don't know. Like, was it 80 percent of Jack Danger game and 20 percent of George Gomez game? I don't they'd never really said we're never going to get those percentages. We're just never going to get them. I know, but someone, you can't tell me that tonight people aren't going to get liquored up and someone from Stern, right? They're going to say something. They might say something. Donnie is persistent. He will get something. There's no way Don won't be able to get something because he'll ask. He's pretty good. Don will show up at your front door and just be like, hey, I'm Don. Yeah, I'm Don from Don. Right? He would, right? Hey, show me a picture of the play field. He will ask. See, I'm a little bit too shy to do that. Like, I wouldn't ask. I wouldn't be like, oh, hey, Georgie, what's going on? Can I see you? First of all, I don't think you would call him Georgie. So I think you'd be all right. I'm going to call him Georgie at the. No, I couldn't do that. That's disrespectful. Is it disrespectful or is it just funny or is it a little bit of both? All of the above. OK, so. So. All right. So. So we're done with the beach segment. I think we're done with Pokemon. But overall, wouldn't you say the trailer was pretty – I mean, they didn't give us anything. No, I'm sick of them. I don't even get that – I watched it six minutes after it came out, right? And I was like, this is a waste of 13 seconds of my life. I mean, it was nothing that they gave us, nothing. You know, I've never seen someone try so hard to squeeze something out of nothing. But Vic talked about that trailer for almost an hour on his show. And I listened to it because I was fascinated that Vic could take that little bit of absolutely nothing and come up with an idea of what he thought the game would be. I'm like, bro, they didn't give you anything. How could you? They gave us nothing. No, he was like pausing it. He's like, hey, if you look at the ball, you can see reflection. No way. No, he didn't do that. He didn't do that. Because I was wondering if someone would do that and really zoom in and use AI to get the images off of it. But Stern knows better They gave nothing It was a ball rolling down nothing And people are even saying it's rolling down a playfield I'm like no it's not It's a fake ball rolling down An animation Someone animated that There's nothing in that that's real at all And then me and you start getting the pictures Of the fake playfield with George Gomez Standing next to it And you realize Nope AI Nope AI Well, because they had the Spike 2 backbox. Right. That was a good cat. Kaneda wanted it to be real so bad. I'm like, dude, it's not real. He did. He wanted that so bad. I mean, he probably presented it as real because that's what he does. He's like, I have full confirmation. Nap Arcade gave me full confirmation. This is it. I'm like, no, it's not. That's not it. Nope. They're good about it. They don't do leaks. There's no leaks going on there. No. I don't think we'll get an image. So Jamie, I am so excited I'm bummed that you're not going to media day But we'll talk about that for a second Do you know anybody that is going? Other than I think Erica is going, right? Erica, I know Erin Winnick-Anthony is probably going Yeah, that's exciting I'm learning the flip So this is her first media event Oh, hold on Jamie, your buddies at Barrels of Fun did me wrong Sent me a shaker for Labyrinth without the actual motor being wired up or even sending wires so I could solder and pin it. Uh-oh. He directed, you're now the Barrels of Fun tech support guy. You better fix this dude's shaker. Travis needs his shaker fixed. All right, Travis, do me a favor. I don't know how to even help you here, but if you just contact Barrels of Fun and say, Jamie sent you, they'll take care of you immediately because I have nothing to do with that organization. All I do is live 18 minutes from their factory. that's it. So I'm sorry that happened to you though. That sucks. I know. So Tom, he's like, I'm 38 and Pokemon was huge when I was a kid. See 38, see I'm 46. So there's a good little Delta there. He said, now I have, God damn it went away. He said, now I have a 10 year old that is super into it. So it's a big win for my house. See that. I think there might be a lot of people like that, man, where they're going to get it because their kids are into it. And then hopefully the game is actually good. But, um, Travis did say they've been great with everything else. Okay, well, that's good. Media Day, my friend, it's Wednesday. Yeah, Wednesday. Tuesday, I think, is when they do the dealer call, which means all the distributors and dealers get on. They show them the game. And I think, at least if the system still works the way I believe it does, I think at that point they kind of have to have their allocation in order, like what they want to buy. And I think that's it. I think that's how they make their decision. They don't get to play it. I mean, unless they go to Stern, of course. But I think that's it. They might bring some people in. But, yeah, you have to make your decision. Does John ever give you any – does John know anything about that? Does he know how that all works? Yeah, he gets – he doesn't get on the – Does he go on that? He doesn't get on the call, no. But he probably knows people, right? Yeah. He knows people. He knows a guy. You got a guy? Sure. I don't got a guy. Oh, wait. Someone should have put a bug in Stern's ear and invite me to the next media day. Andrew, you should be there, man. You're like bros with Jack Danger now. Just shoot him a message. Be like, hey, can I go to media day? He'd be like, sure. Come on in. I'm sure. Dude, just give it a shot. As the young kids say, shoot your shot or shot. This turned into a live stream between me and you. Are you going to put it up as a podcast? Yeah. Well, because it was supposed to be a podcast. But yeah, do you think? No, you wouldn't. Is this the sucks? I'm just asking questions. I'm your guest. This is your show, sir. All right. So, Jamie, let's pivot a little bit because I want to talk about TPF because that'll be the show that Pokemons actually will be able to see, which I'm excited about. Media Day is cool and all, but it's a bunch of content creators, and we all get excited about anything new pinball. So it's not really the best environment to say, are you super into this game? Because you're probably going to play it ten times. If you're Vic VP, you literally stay until the doors close and they kick you out, which I might do that this time because I really want to play this a lot. But I love that we're going to be at TPF when it gets introduced. So we're going to see – you and I are going to be able to play the crap out of Pokemon. We're going to play the crap out of Beetlejuice because this will be – that will be like the big show, right? Like, I mean, this show in Florida is not that big, right, as far as I know? No, TPF is quite large. Um, the hall is, you know, very similar to Expo, how the hall, how the hotel is attached to the main hallway. It's just a longer walk. But is it is it close to the size of Expo? The the main hall is pretty damn big. OK, it's pretty big. It's pretty big. They used the, you know, when Elton John came out, it was really wicked cool because you could always tell where Jersey Jack was by just looking up and seeing the light show thing from the top and the C.E. So you could always kind of find where you were from Elton John, which is wicked cool. But what I'm excited about this year, this is the first year I'm not streaming a thing, dude, because I can just have fun. I can just go and have a blast. I don't have to. There's nothing I have to do. nothing i don't have to man a booth i don't have to do and i'm how are you going to deal with your newfound celebrity though oh yeah that's gonna be rough for me it's gonna be tough you love it though you love when someone comes up to you and says hey man i really love your stuff right i mean i'm extremely appreciative extreme but you know and i'll i'm not gonna sign an autograph it's ridiculous please all right if anybody is watching this and you're going to tpf please for the love of God, ask Jamie to sign. I want you to stop him and ask him to sign something. Bring a special pen and everything. I want you to bombard this guy. Do you need to bring a special pen? I have a special pen, but it's only because Todd Tucky told me I have to. Todd Tucky told me I have to have a special pen. I don't think I'm I don't think about that Todd Tucky status, but but he said you have a special pen. So I bought the Todd Tucky special pen. It makes he makes the shittiest signature look good. All right. Yeah. Do you have a signature, by the way? Like, do you have a way you draw it? Yeah. Oh, so you thought about this. Jay Burchill. Jamie. I don't know. No, I'm not signing a thing. I'll take a picture with you. But no, I'm not signing anything. That's absurd. He's asking if he can call you at TPF for a live report. Well, I'm going to be it. We're going to be at TPF, Scott. So you can just come right up to us and we can do a live report together. Yeah. So there you go. No, TPF is going to be great. You know, it is a really good show. And then Saturday night is really fun. And I was always streaming. But Saturday night for VIPs and for the dealers and the operators, they get special hours. It's pretty cool. Oh, Jack signed. He's already got – see, I tell you, you're going to – I love this. Please, if you listen to this or you watch this on Facebook, please ask Jamie for an autograph. Bombard this guy. I want to see him squirm a little bit Am I going to do it? No, it'll be awesome, man It'll be fun But I am excited, hopefully the Carl Weathers holds Because sometimes in March we get a cold spell down there You think I'm going to be into it? Yeah Dude, you're going to love it The Embassy Suites, it's alright It's Embassy Suites But it's a fun I'll tell you, the Stern Army Party That we got invited to Thanks, shout out to Zach oh wait hold on hold on because the audience doesn't know this so jamie you've somehow got us into the stern army party right yeah uh zach uh sharp invited us well we were actually officially invited yeah we're officially invited he invited me and then i told him hey you're coming and he's like bring him i love that this is that's going to be so oh he said sign things are hugs which is more uncomfortable i think you're kind of a hugger guy you probably yeah i'll hug you with a hug i'll hug you don't worry probably prefer a hug over the signature to be honest no question no all right well you just came from the tournament room because they smell up there oh okay if you just walked out of that tournament room and you come and try to give me a hug you can go away no sir i think they need to revamp the tournament room we talked about this on the round table like they should make the tournament a little bit more of an event like give draw more interest so that everyone wants to be in there. Cause I feel like it is true when you go into a tournament room, it's kind of not that fun in there. Right. Yeah. When you say, well, they're serious, you know, it's, it's, it's the wizards tournament. It's a big deal. It's a lot of whoppers and they're pumped up about it. So, yeah, you know, they sweat. Is there any like smaller tournament that you can join during TPF? That would be just, there's going to be a content creator tournament. Oh dude, we gotta do that, right? Oh, done deal I've talked to the organizers And Paul McKinney Asked me to be a part of that And I said, sure, I'll do that Well, David's gonna be there Mr. Craps I got invited to the media event too At Stern too, so there you go So there'll be multiple people there But I admit though, I'm a little bummed That you're not gonna be at the media day Next week Yeah, because when we go, I always have so much fun. And it's just for those that don't that obviously don't go or don't have the ability to go to the media day. It's really cool because they get all the content creators there. And the one thing that that that we had kind of all provided feedback on was that before, like they didn't do this during D&D when you went, Jamie. But D&D, they just shove us in a room. They give us a little bit of an overview. So it was Brian, Eddie and Dwight. and they tell us all about the game, like here's everything you need to know about D&D, and then they let you loose to just play, which is cool, but it's not cool if you're trying to capture footage for your channel or whatever because everyone's competing. Yeah, like everyone's all over the place, right? They're all over. They're all trying to get their content. Yeah, we're all a little slutty for the content. So what's cool about the way they do it now, and and jamie you weren't there for kong right oh no you weren't there for kong yes so calmly oh yeah that's right yeah yeah yeah we did the live which was great oh i had a blast with that yeah so so that was the first one i think where they actually gave us the room and they're going to do that again they have an allocation of time so what that means for everybody that's watching this is that a large majority of the content creators there will actually have good content because they'll have that private time with the game, which is really important to me. Because when you play a game like that at one of these events, you can't get a good handle on the game unless you have a good amount of time with it. And you'll have at least, I think it's like 45 minutes to an hour of dedicated time with it. So I think that's good. That was really awesome that just the three of us, me, you, Kale, went into a room and just played the hell out of it. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. Yeah, Russell is here, and he said Beetlejuice and Winchester are rocking pinball at the beach. So that seems to be the consensus is that those two games are rocking it there, which is cool. Stern's probably just the only thing they have there, I'm assuming, is The Walking Dead Remastered and Star Wars and whatever. Yeah. All right, well, you got me pumped up for TPF. I feel like it's going to be a good time. It's going to be fun. We're going to make it fun. Yeah, yeah. And I love that neither one of us has any. Like I didn't invite, you know, not that I don't want Mason to go, but I just felt like if Mason came, then it becomes a video that I have to make. And then it's work. But the fact that you and I don't have any obligations other than having fun, like I think that's why this is going to be. We do have to film a little bit like I want some filming with you, but nothing crazy. No, you want to do it. Do you want to do a podcast from it? Or is that too much work to do? I'll do a podcast from it. You got anybody before? Huh? You want to do it live from the floor? I mean, this is like your home turf, so you should be able to hook us up. It's not home turf. The Houston Arcade Expo is my own turf. I'm a visitor in Frisco. But I mean, you're Jamie Bertram. I'm not the mayor like Kerry Hardy. Oh, okay. Well, you know what I mean? I might be a state representative. Still pretty good. I'm coming in as an outsider, so I don't even – I've never been. So you're at least a state representative. I'm not. I'm just some guy. I'm definitely a state rep. Yeah. Oh, and it says, yeah, of course, David. Yeah. Plus Stern is doing more Pokemon at TPF. Yeah. So we'll definitely have that there. Good. I happen to open Facebook. Why is this happening? Sean, actually, that's a good point. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm a bonehead and I hit live. This was actually just supposed to be a podcast between Jamie and I that I was going to post. Do you think I should post this, though, as episode 51, right? Sure. All right. Well, what's on your mind? I want to know what you're thinking about right now because I just covered a couple topics. I want to know what's on your mind, Jamie. I know I'm putting you on the spot a little bit. I wonder how Star Wars can get a little bit better. I've played, and I'm not lying, this week I've played 30 games on Star Wars. All right. That's a considerable amount of games. Yeah. What's your overall take? now because you called it a brick fest before that's not a complimentary that's not complimentary i i don't think it's a brick fest as much okay okay because you found the shots i found the shots i still think the death star shot is just too tight um it is just too difficult Out of 30 games I started three three Death Star multiballs Have you destroyed it yet? What? No? No way. I think if you played it at my house, I think if you played it at my house, you would do it a lot faster probably. I think the one at Eureka is playing really great, And I've been able to find the backhand for Hoth. I've been able to find the backhand for Jabba's hut or for that. But can you backhand the right loot? The TIE fighter ramp? Yeah. You really can? You can, but it's like basically trap up, right? And it's a pretty quick – you don't want to do it ultra fast. If you do it ultra fast, you're going to miss it. but it's like a quick release and then you shoot it. I can't trap up at Eureka that shot. Really? Yeah, you look. Then post-pass. Post-pass and then do it. No, I know. It would be nice because it's easier when you hit the loop. What is this toilet bowl that goes forever and ever and ever? I just call it the toilet bowl. I don't know. It's a Java. Java. Not Java. You can backhand. Java. Backhand is just much safer Yeah I mean you can backhand both those shots The good thing about the game is once you start If you can get it under control which is tough Because if you miss you're out of control But if you can get it under control you can backhand tie fighter You can backhand toilet bowl You can backhand on the left flipper You can backhand the Jedi Hoth multiball thing Whatever that thing is The saucer thing over there I don't know what that shot's called I think it's called the Is it the Jedi shot? Luke shot? Luke shot It's Luke. Yeah, it's Luke. You can do that. So, yeah. So you're liking it more then now? I am liking it more. I'm consistently putting in the $200 to $300 million every, like, one or three games. I can get there. I know I could do well in a tournament. And I just can't. Somebody put up Taylor Buckley, who runs the Eureka Heights with Houston Pinball, John Spates. He put up $1.2 billion. 1.10 Yeah that's kind of crazy I didn't know anything he was doing So that bothers me So David says Definitely feel Star Wars Fall of the Empire Is getting a lot of plays for me And ever since they got the fix in for Stern For the Death Star I hit the Death Star multiball trigger Almost every game now I mean here's the thing It is rather difficult to complete it To destroy the Death Star But I told you about how my buddy came over. It really aggravates me when someone comes over. They don't consistently play traditional pinball. He plays a lot of virtual. And he came in and he did it before I did it on my own game. That's always frustrating for me if Rudy sets the GC on my game the day we unbox it. Because I'm like... He's not going to go to bed until you GC it, so it's not a big deal. No, I don't. I don't do it. I will literally stay up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. I know, you're crazy. I don't care. I don't even care if I have to work the next day. I mean, it sucks if I have to work the next day, but I will. Hey, I want to talk to you about that really quick. Jamie, do you ever feel like we both have corporate gigs? I mean, you kind of own your own company, but you work for, you do some consulting work too. Right. Have you ever thought, I mean, I know you and I have talked about this offline, but don't you wish, isn't there a part of you, like we have, and I want to talk through this though a little bit. Because isn't there a part of you that's like, man, I would love to work in this industry somehow? I mean, I guess we do contribute to the industry, but do you ever think about that? Like what could I do that could make me enough money in this hobby that I could just do this for work? I've thought about it all the time because, one, I make no money on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, right? What are you pulling in nowadays? You're monetized now, what, like a good $50 a month or something like that now? No, I think I can't. live off that i can get to 1250 wow you're big 1250 come on you have to be making more money than that uh if you combine all platforms maybe it's a 50 bucks yeah that's tough to live on that's tough to live on man that's not a good salary that's not a good salary i can't even get netflix what do you think you would do though that's the problem is like you start looking at pinball you know i think designers mechanically designed and i you know i'm a salesperson so i'd have to do something in sales i would have to be a distro i think i would have to be a distro that would be my only way of doing it because i think i could sell the hell out of games but uh and imagine if you had a hut if you had tech evangelist me like i could be your i could be the marketing evangelist guy and your sales like i think we kind of crush it you want to start a distro you need a distro in arizona start a distro well that is true so if you guys don't know in arizona and this and i I'm not trying to say I'm trying to capitalize on someone else's demise because I really love this guy. But Game Room Goodies, Aaron over at Game Room Goodies, had really the big Stern distro here in town, and he closed up shop. So I don't know if that's good. Would it be a good business to get into if he had to close up shop? I don't know. But I don't know, man. Would that be fun? I don't know if that's fun or not. It seems like your buddy who went from JJP to Flip N Out Pinball is having a lot of fun. Ken seems like he is having an absolute blast. He seems like he's having – and Greg Bone seems like they smile every day. I mean, these guys seem like they smile. I know. And then Zach does these, like, cool – so, guys, let me just – for those of you who don't know, so – well, I can't think of Zach's last name right now. I don't know why I can't think. Zach Minney. Zach Minney owns Flip N Out Pinball. And Greg Bone was like, Greg Bone was his right-hand man that was doing the support end of the business. And then Ken Cromwell worked at JJP. And he left JJP to come over and work for Zach Minney at Flip N Out Pinball. And if you ever listen to their podcast, it just sounds like they're having a great time. Zach Minney's doing these, like, they do these off-sites. Imagine going on an off-site. Like, my off-sites for my work is like, okay, Ralph, so we see the projections are down for customer calls. we want everyone averaging five customer calls a week can you let us know why the metrics say that and i'm like yeah guys uh so um no i don't know why no but anyway i like that's the kind of conversation i have but imagine being like all right guys winchester's hot we just sold them all out uh we're trying to we're trying to move into new markets so uh we want to try to get sell some buck hunters like it would be cool like i don't know because we're so into this stuff it'd fun it would be fun until you were responsible for sales you worked for pinball brothers and you were responsible for the way they launched that game that was your well it wouldn't have launched like that okay and i know and i'm saying could you imagine the stress on you or what if you worked for barrels and you were responsible for their dune and well that's why they need guys like us that's what i'm saying like we're good at building up excitement and i think you know and i love by the way i i love i've gotten to know the guys at pinball brothers they're freaking really cool guys they're super passionate about what they create it's obvious if you play predator like go play it they're super fans of the movie so look how important those launches were and how they affected the game and i'm not saying they were terrible you know what i mean it's just no it was pretty bad it was a bad launch that's hard to do and to pull it off excellent is uh the stress would be I'd be in a corner balled up in a ball praying people buy my machine. Forget it. Well, and think about it, right? So think about how that outcome of Predator could have been different, okay? So your primary audience to buy that is here in the United States. You have, and no offense to Jenga, Jenga, Jengas, you have Jengas in what? He's in the Netherlands, I think? He's sure. Yeah, so you've got him over there doing this like, you know, he's not a marketing guy, so he's doing like whatever he's doing. Then then the community has is forming an opinion of something that they've never played. So like imagine how different that launch would have been if they sent a game over to some content creator in the US that that created a like was kind of setting the narrative of the game. Right. So that no one could say it doesn't have this. It doesn't have this. The gameplay sucks, blah, blah, blah. None of that would happen because you would display it in its proper form. It wouldn't just be a trailer and that's it. And I think when you're a company like that that's smaller, you got to get like hands on the game so that people can be hyped about it. Because when they brought it to, and we talked about this on the round table, when they brought it to freaking Electric Bat, there was a giant lineup. People signed up. Everyone was so hyped because, and can you imagine if they brought it to Eureka? You can't tell me that all the people like your eat that wouldn't be that's the move that kale was was praying that they would do is instead of launching one piece every 14 days in the 14 days of predator who gives the rats okay send one to aaron from fast pinball who is vested in the product because his boards run it and send it across america and i think they would have had a much better launch but i don't want to be the guy responsible for that no no i don't know that's what we but jamie that's well that's what we would be signing up for if we want to work in the industry with if in this fictitious thing we're coming up with right here yeah that would be our responsibility so you don't want that so basically you don't want to work in pinball because we'd have to be responsible you just you've told me offline a million times you want to now you don't want to yeah i changed my mind live on you're so confusing the dress is just too brutal for me and I realized I would have to up my meds immediately. That's not what you tell me offline, though. Offline, you're all pumped up about this idea. I wish that we could make money off of this. It would be so fun. I love this hobby. What we're talking about is our nightly calls. We love this hobby. And me and him literally talk pinball four or five times a week. And, God, wouldn't it be great if this was our job? But it's not going to ever be. There's only one Don who can pull it off. No, Jamie, I don't think you should never say never, though, because you never know what could happen, right? Yeah. You never know. All right. All right. Maybe one day. So Sean says Predator launch was such a bummer. By the time it got to Expo, everyone thought it was awesome. But that's it for people who played it and Ralph. So that's the problem is Expo, although it's big. That was one show that that did turn the tide a little bit. Right. It did turn the tide a little bit. there was a newfound interest in it because people actually got to play it. And I think that getting back to your point about stress, if you were working at the manufacturer, that would be very stressful because you're like, this is our new game. It's not selling. What the hell are we going to do? And, you know, sometimes I think because our hobby is so small, when you have a company like Stern doing four games a year, well, now your game can get lost in the shuffle very quickly. Right. And I think that's the problem is once it's lost in the shuffle, it's probably hard to come back from it. And then the longer you wait, the more games come out, the more new stuff comes out. I know. And we're hearing bangers coming out, you know, from from Spooky to Stern to JJP. We're hearing some really great machines. I know this year is going to be pretty cool. Stringer said, but then, Jamie, you could wear a denim jacket every day. You look good in denim, Stringer. Yeah, I mean, you kind of stole my my vibe a little bit, but it's fine. Are we going to roll into TPF with both wearing jean jackets? Is that what's happening? Yeah, but mine only has Stern Army. Yeah, that's a good point. That was a cool jacket. John can't get me another one. No, we'd be tool bags if we both walk in with Stern Army jackets. What size are you? Are you a large? It depends on how it runs. Most of my jean jackets are mediums because they run big. Oh, look at you flexing. No, dude, I've gained so much, Jamie, from Christmas. I can get you a large. I gained 10 I gained 10 pounds from Christmas Yeah 10 And I haven't been able to take it off It's not good You and I gotta look lean and mean for TPS No I know I'm on a diet Are you? I'm cutting off carbs See this is the kind of stuff that the audience Wow these guys are so stupid But I really do I've had this conversation with you I gotta lose at least 15 OBs If people are gonna take pictures of me I gotta do it Because, you know, you don't want to be like, oh, yeah, I met Ralph. He looks so much different. Like, you know, they're trying to be nice. No, they look, Jamie and Ralph look so much different in real life. And it's not good. You know, like, we don't want that. We want to be like, wow, that guy's like an Adonis in real life. Like, wow. Definitely not. Have you ever had an abdominal muscle in your whole life, Jamie? Yeah, when I played soccer when I was a kid. You did? Did you have like a full six pack or no? Yeah, I was. Really? Yeah, it was money. Dude I graduated college At probably 150 pounds I was thin I was real Can I show you a picture Can I show you a picture of me that you're not going to believe is me It's really lame that I have this handy By the way but You can show it on the screen Yeah yeah hold on let me see if I can get it up Because you're going to be like that's not you but it is me Hold on let me see if I can share this I'm pretty sure I can Someone's at the front door Well do you need to get it or No all right why is it not letting me share the picture though okay uh i can share it but it's gonna share like my text messages too for some reason is that okay you think don't want to share my text message i don't know who i'm yeah all right let me try this one more time okay i got it ready this is me jamie no joke wow that's not you yes it is that's me in my bedroom in rhode island i was like 18 years old Jacked dude Jacked Yeah man He's got a tramp stamp and everything I got it still look at this thing Yeah baby Dude Sublime was so popular back then It was all about the tribal tattoos What's the band What do you got up there No it's the end of I was so into Arnold That was when Schwarzenegger made his comeback And did that movie where you know that movie end of days yeah it was supposed to be 666 but it's 999 it was came out in 1999 yeah yeah exactly i wanted i wanted arnold to come back in such a bad like i was such an arnold fan i'm like he's back baby he's back and that movie wasn't very good that was the problem terrible yeah the guy who played the devil was pretty money in that movie yeah no the movie wasn't a i mean it wasn't horrendous but it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't amazing you know Well, you know, it's tough for me because I grew up in New Robert Englunds. And so obviously growing up, I was a Patriots fan as a kid. And so, you know, I kind of and I know there's a lot of people that put the Patriots in like almost the Kansas City Chiefs category, like they're sick of seeing them win, but they haven't won for a really long time. Like they haven't been winners in a while. Cowboys. What? Hasn't been as long as my Cowboys. Well, yeah. I mean, well, it definitely hasn't been as long as the Cardinals have never, I don't think, been in a Super Bowl, right? No. So, yeah. So I'm going to go Patriots, I think. All right. I've got to be careful. I can't remember anything New Robert Englunds. You're the best thing that ever came out of New Robert Englunds, so I can't remember anything. Wait, so you are going to go New Robert Englunds or you're not? No, I can't. Just because I'm such a Yankee fan, I hate Boston so much that I have to go Seattle. I mean I like Sam Darnold Yeah it's a good story See that's why I can't go to Bash at the Beach Pimble at the Beach Because I gotta watch the game Dude Bash at the Beach That sounds like a wrestling Was there ever a Bash at the Beach wrestling thing? There had to be right? Oh yeah that's when Hulk Hogan turned heel And he came out with the Outsiders Who started the NWO If we want to get into wrestling for just one second That was so cool when it happened But it lasted too long Like they jumped the shark. They did it for too long and it ruined it. Like at first it was awesome. When he came in, he was a heel. You were like, it was cool at first, right? It was so good. That first Monday Night Nitro when he came out. It was amazing. And I worked with this guy, Jamie. I worked with this. Actually, he was also. No, you're not. You're Puerto. This is going to make embarrass me. Is Puerto Rican and Portuguese the same thing? Oh, no. I don't know. I don't know, dude. No, we're going to edit this out. I don't know. Sometimes I'm dumb. Puerto Rico is a small island that's owned by the United States. Oh, okay. Portuguese is a – Portugal is a country in Europe that have a lot of people that live in Brazil. So we should edit this out. I didn't know. All right. So anyways, why I'm bringing it up, I worked with this Portuguese guy. It didn't work. I wasn't working then. I went to school. After high school, I really wanted to get into tech. And this was – remember when all those – Shut it off. What? They're saying shut this off. Shut it off. Hey, look. You know what? I have skills and certain things I'm stupid in, and this – I'm stupid. I don't know. So anyway, so I worked – this was – like I stopped watching wrestling because I just was like – I know. I just stopped. And so then this guy, I was going to this tech school because I wanted to get my A-plus certification. Those of you that know what that is, it was like basically so you could work on a computer, like build computers and work on stuff. IT Tech Technical Institute No no it wasn like that It was no not really it was actually even smaller than that it was in um shoot uh i can remember the name of the town it like it like in massachusetts it in the water anyways i think it's anyway so i'm so i'm in there with this guy and he's like hey man do you watch wrestling i was like no i haven't really watched it since i was a kid and he's the one that got me back into wrestling and right around then was when all this stuff was happening like hogan was coming back the rock was being introduced like all that stuff and i got so into it because do you like the rock and we'll go move off wrestling in a second i like the rock i would go back from wwf or wwe raw to nitro i go back and forth nitro same nitro same and so i was all in dude like dude we used to be in we used to be in class so i'm in this tech class and we're all like these these guys that watch because then we all started watching it like also all of us are watching wrestling and we were like we would be we would literally be like in the class and the teacher be like okay so this is a pci slot we'd be like no you're rolling shut your mouth if you smell like we were crazy dude we were crazy like this teacher was probably who are these two belligerent people they're gonna be the next the next like generation of tech support because We were like, no, you're rolling. Shut your mouth. You were rocking Windows 2000 back in the day. Oh, yeah. No, and then I got my first gig out of that school where I'd go down to Boston. So I'd go down to Boston. I worked for this. We all got jobs out of this school. This was like a jabroni school, though. I mean, like the school doesn't even exist anymore. And sometimes even now when I apply for a job, they're like, where did you go to school? And I'm like, I can't even remember the name of the school. It was called something something business school. I can't remember. Oh, Kenyon Campbell Business School was the name of the school. That was the name of it. So I'll always get these things. And I have been at the same company for 11 years. But because that's a place that I went to school and it's on my resume, they're like, we can't find any record of Kenyon Campbell Business School existing. So there's this one woman who lives in New York who's an attorney who holds the records for this company. And at any time I change companies, it's like moving heaven and earth to find this lady. And like, I'm sorry, we can't hire you because you went to some school. And I'm like, the school's irrelevant now. Like, it doesn't even matter. I was like, I have experience. Like, no, we can't find this diploma. All the Gottlieb stuff. Yeah, they won't. He won't. They're like, she doesn't exist. I'm sorry, sir. You went to a fictitious school. I was like, no, I didn't. I was like, I was. So anyways, it's a big thing. She's Kale just texted us, said, what's up with all the like we have this side conversation going on. But Kale's like, dealers are saying they're selling out of Pokemon LEs. People seem super excited. They really do, though, right? This seems to be like. This seems to be like we woke up to that, right? We woke up to that news coming from the beach and coming from that this is going to be a hot commodity. Good for Stern. I hope it's a good machine. I hope people love it. I hope so, too. I hope it's not just. We'll get one at Eureka. Yeah, I'm not getting one, even though everyone thinks I'm getting one. I'm not getting one. Do you think I'm getting one? Do you think I'm going to get one? No, I don't No, do you think I will? Yes, but not right away I think you'll wait six months and you'll get a premium Because there's things in his collection, ladies and gentlemen That are going to be leaving And I think he's got six to eight months left of Avengers No, you're wrong on that You are so wrong about Avengers I don't know why you hit you. It is so good, dude. It's great. And then he's going to get rid of Jurassic Park again. I got rid of Jurassic Park already. You didn't know that? Oh, okay. You just, the one you just brought in? Yes. You didn't know? No. Really? No. That's great. You can't keep up, man. I can't keep up with your, I'm telling you, You need to constantly show those. So do you know that that video, that video where I asked, so I published this video. I know you know about it, but maybe the audience doesn't. So I do a lot on Facebook now. So if you're listening to this and you want to follow me doing things, like my day-to-day, go to join my Facebook page. It's just Retro Ralph LLC. You'll find it. And I posted this video, and I went through my whole game room, and I said, here are the games that I have. Help me pick a game that's going to have to leave in 2026 to bring a new game in. And it got 20,000 views. I know, dude. Your interaction on Facebook has just been out of control. Congratulations. No one's watching me on Facebook. I'll post the same video on Facebook that I will to YouTube, and I get 10 times more on YouTube. But you crush it on Instagram big time. Yeah, Instagram's done well. But, you know, I just started that new JBS page and no one's on it. Well, dude, if you want to like don't be discouraged by that. I've had that Facebook page for like almost eight years. So that's eight years of. Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Really, the the interaction with the with the audience, too, is really great. No, it's really good. But for those of you that did listen and did comment on that, number one, I appreciate you commenting. but there's almost so many comments that I'm going to have to take some time maybe before football on Sunday and respond. There's over like 200 comments now. So, and I do try, I try to respond to as many of them as I can. But so stringer said, I once saw Ralph have a pin delivered and it was shipped out three hours later. That's not true. No. Can I explain, um, why I got rid of Jurassic park? It's not because I don't like it. Yeah, please. Okay. So, so, so, um, so that was my first game. I ever bought was Jurassic Park. So the first game I bought was Jurassic Park. Now, the problem with that is that I didn't really appreciate it then because I didn't, at that point, I just didn't understand code and anything. And then once you start understanding that, like, wow, there's a lot more to pinball than just shooting stuff, you start to really enjoy it. And I'd say that about anybody that's brand new. Don't be discouraged if it's, like, your first pinball machine and you feel like you don't know what's going on. Like, we all at one point played a game, and any new game you play, you still don't really know what's going on. And then once you start playing a lot, your first instinct is to ask someone, well, how do I start a mode? And then how many modes are there? How do you progress through modes? What are the easiest multiballs? And then once you start, like, building upon that, you'll really appreciate the hobby more. Because I feel like – don't you feel like that's true? When you – there's games, if you don't understand how they play, your initial response might just be, I don't like this. And then once someone teaches you or you just discover it yourself, it becomes a lot more fun. Yeah. Every time, almost, there's very few games where someone teaches me and I go, ugh, I'm done with it. Like Pulp Fiction. Like, good care. Well, you and I both agree on that. So I know Kale always, like, violently disagrees with us on this. But I appreciate Pulp Fiction for the movie references that are in it. Sure, absolutely. I love that. But the game, for me, and you and I are the same on this, it's just not fun to me, and I think it's too hard. Like, that game is too hard. But good luck progressing through all the modes in that. There are games that you and I both know you can play and you can make a good amount of progress on. I don't make shit on that game. I can't either. But Jurassic Park, I could see that being – the issue with Jurassic Park is it is difficult to move through the paddock sometimes. But it is really difficult to get to escape to Nublar. I can't get it. I housed Jurassic Park LE for about six months. Never even sniffed Escape from New Block Never sniffed it unless I picked it in the beginning As I go Before you start the game No so that's hard But that's not why I got rid of it I didn't get rid of it because it was hard I got rid of it because it was interesting I really do gravitate toward Elwynn games Because I feel like he's just The layouts of his games are always really unique And we were in a tournament And if Hunter ends up watching this I met this guy Hunter at the tournament and I happened to get Avengers. And I've gotten Avengers in tournaments before, but it's usually short-lived because I had no idea what I was doing. And that is admittedly a pretty deep game. The rules are pretty complicated. So he told me how to do it. Yeah, I just started watching it. It's tremendously good so far, but I haven't gotten all the way through it. And Hunter's like giving me some tips. And I won that. I got first place on the game because he gave me a couple tips. He's like, hey, I can easily get you like 100 million if you just follow my instructions. So I did. And when I was playing it, I was like, man, these shots are so cool. Like I loved the Captain Marvel shot, which some people say doesn't play well. But the one at this arcade did. The one I bought did too. And I loved it so much that I was like, you know what? I bet. And I wasn't going to get rid of Jurassic Park. But I was like, man, I really want Avengers. But I couldn't bring in Avengers because the open spot is for Beetlejuice. So I happened to go on Pinside and there was a dude in Tucson, which is like a two and a half hour drive from here. And he's he had an Avengers and it said open for trades will come deliver it to you if you're within a reasonable area. And one of the games he wanted was Jurassic Park. And so I was like, I'm just going to message the dude. And I messaged him and he goes, hey, my wife and I were going to the ASU basketball game versus Arizona State. I'll bring the game up and I'll just after the game shoot up there and we'll do the exchange just game for game and so I was like okay so it kind of like I wasn't I don't think if that didn't happen I would have got rid of it so fast but I just fell in love with Avengers so I know you're saying it's gonna be gone in six months we'll see we'll see what happens but I think I'll hold on to it I think and then Sean has also helped me too so Sean is like um Sean I met Sean at the D&D thing, I think. Didn't we go to a tournament when we went to the D&D Media Day? Didn't we play in that tournament? Yeah. Right? No, we didn't play at the... No, it was a con that we didn't play. We just went and hung out. One of them we did play in the tournament, right? One of them we played. One of them we hung out. Yeah. So I met Sean through there. And the funny thing is, is Sean, I didn't know him at all. And we started talking and he was like talking up Avengers. He's like, I think you'd really like Avengers. So now he gives me crap because he's like, hey, I told you like literally a year ago that you'd like Avengers and I kind of ignored him but it's it's fun it's so fun so there you go um then Brandon says Kong is epic people are sleeping on it you like Kong right you're into Kong every time I go to Eureka I play I put a couple of bucks on the Kong yeah I like Kong too I I kind of the problem with my collection is I cycle things in so fast that sometimes certain games get neglected I was playing the crap out of Kong until Predator showed up and then um and then predator was getting like all the attention in the garage for a while because i don't want to bounce around too much you kind of want to get invested in the game and learn it yeah and so yeah so yeah so predator i've been been really into lately all right before we wrap this up what's so you have an empty spot for beetlejuice you don't and you're getting one fairly quickly aren't you the word on the street is that it should be i should have it before March, so I should have it this month. Wow. I'm excited about that, man. All right, so that goes in the empty spot. And now I'm full. Then you're full. And then so Transformers or Sonic or Fallout or Neverending Story. So something's going to have to go out. Something's going to have to leave. Yeah. Now, everybody was unanimous. I went through the comments. Everyone's decision, basically. It wasn't fully unanimous, but it was pretty close. Everyone said Star Wars. That's the one that has to go. Yeah, it's going to go. The second next one that showed up was Metallica, believe it or not. They were like Star Wars or Metallica. I'd have a hard time getting rid of Metallica because I think that's a fun – it's a brutal game, though. But I like jumping on it because it's – I had a tough time with Metallica. And then our local Surge, who just knows all the rules at Eureka Heights – shout out to Jack Schiffer. He walked up to me and he goes, you want to learn how to play Metallica? I was like, hell yeah, I do. Three bucks in, teach it. And he taught me all the multipliers, everything important, how to get the crank it up. And I'm enjoying it a lot more now. What do you want? What's your move then? Do you like go in and have a, if you get in a tournament, do you have a strategy that you go for with, like, do you try to do something in particular when you get? Well, I try not to do, you know, it depends. If I can do the multipliers and I can get my crank it up going and I could do the tombstone multiball, whatever the hell it is, on ball one, I'll try to save Sparky as much as I can and, you know, maybe just get my Sparky as I hit it occasionally. But if ball three is I'm in shit zone, Sparky all the way, I guess I got it. I'm with you. I don't go for Sparky. unless I'm in desperation, but I do try to, if I'm hitting it as I'm whatever, trying to execute a different strategy, then I'm cool. But I don't go for it because it can be kind of dangerous. It's super dangerous, and I don't want to tarp all on already in a hole. Yeah, no, I'm with you. I'm with you. Someone was saying Metallica LE is one of their favorite games to play. It's a fun game, but it is a little bit like people call it chopping wood because it is kind of very structured. So you kind of do snake. You do, I always forget what the hammer one is called. It's not called the hammer, but like you do snake, you do the hammer, you do tombstone, you know, you kind of. I'm probably saying it wrong. I don't know what they call the hammer one. I don't think it's called hammer. It might be. And then the original game, there is no hammer. It's just a captive ball, right? There's no. No, there's a hammer in the premium. No, but in the original game, there's no hammer there, right? Isn't it just a captive ball there? There's no hammer in the original game. Yeah, I think there is. Really? I didn't think there was a hammer in the original game. I don't know. Someone correct us in the chat if you got it. Anything you want to cover? Smaller hammer. Anything you want to cover before we go? Tomorrow. Are we going to go live with that tomorrow, or are we just going to do it ourselves? What are we doing tomorrow again? Oh, the game thing? Let's talk about it real quick. Let's talk about it. You present it to everybody. We're going Yolo box to Yolo box. As we wrap up, we're going Yolo box to Yolo box. I'm going to be at Eureka Heights. I'm going to set the rig up on a game. What game are we choosing? Oh, I don't know. We didn't even get that far. Whatever you want. You want to do Star Wars since it won't be there very long for you? It's messed up, man. Do they have the topper on Star Wars? Does John have the topper? No. That topper mode, I think you dig the topper mode, dude. The escape from Bespin. it's really freaking cool. No, they don't have the topper. They have a pro, though. Oh, so let's do a game that we have the same, that there's the same. Well, I guess it doesn't. I mean. Walking Dead Remastered or Harry Potter or. Actually, I think Walking Dead Remastered would be a good one because it's a hard game, and I think it would kind of be an even playing field. I'll put it on Walking Dead Remastered. Okay. Sorry, I interrupted. Lay it out. So I'm going to put my rig over Walking Dead Rematch. He's going to do the same over in Arizona and the Ralph's Retro Arcade. And then we're going to stream Yolo Box to Yolo Box and against each other a little series that we're going to do quarterly. Not all the time. We're not taking away from Rudy. And we're just going to stream against each other a little tournament series, Jamie versus Ralph. Yeah, it's going to be fun. And if it works, I think we got the technology part ironed out. We just got to try it. So maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow is a test. Test. See if it works before the Super Bowl. We're going to do it at probably 1230 my time, 1130 your time, maybe. Yeah, because the Super Bowl doesn't start till like 430, I think. 430, 530 my time, 430. Yeah, so we're good. We're good. Anything you want to plug before we go? You know give me a like on the JBS Show On Facebook I could use a couple more followers on YouTube And Instagram That's always nice I always try to interact So if you want to talk to me you can Yeah give this guy some love Alright well We're out of here Jamie That's a wrap Oh wow that was it Oh did you want to keep going We didn't mean to go live ladies and gentlemen Yeah, this was an accidental live. I hope you guys enjoy this. This wasn't – I mean, it worked out. It worked out great. Yeah, we bounced back. It's fine. But no, I appreciate you, man, and I'm wicked excited to go to TPF with you. I think we're going to have a blast. If you guys are looking for me, you can find me on YouTube, Retro Ralph, or where this podcast is held, which is Retro Ralph Live, and it's also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And apparently it's live on Facebook right now. I don't know if I'm going to keep it there. I might take that down and then just republish the completed upload. But that's it, Jamie. All right, man. All right, brother. You want to try to say it? You want to do my outro or is that lame? You don't even know it. I'll see you on the flip side. I don't know. I don't crank it. I don't go you. You don't crank it, dude. We will see you on the flip side. See you guys. All right, brother. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c5b1de7d-ea10-4679-a0b1-f94c341bc882*