# Episode 78 – News News News!!! **Source:** Head2Head Pinball **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2019-02-04 **Duration:** 91m 20s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.head2headpinball.com/2019/02/04/episode-78-news-news-news/ --- ## Analysis Head to Head Pinball Podcast Episode 78 covers major news including Jersey Jack Pinball's plans to reveal two machines this year (Pat Lawlor and Eric Meunier designs, speculation points to Willy Wonka and possibly Guns N' Roses), Bandai/Namco distribution expansion in Asia, a leaked Heighway Angry Birds pitch from years past, Dutch Pinball's ongoing legal dispute with ARA moving to mediation, and extensive discussion of recent code updates across multiple titles with focus on Munsters' simplified ruleset philosophy. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Jersey Jack Pinball will reveal two machines this year — _Jack Danger confirmed directly in Pinball News interview at EAG Expo; first will be Pat Lawlor machine, second will be Eric Meunier machine_ - [MEDIUM] First Jersey Jack machine is believed to be Willy Wonka based on Pat Lawlor's design preference — _Hosts speculate based on rumors and Lawlor's standard body preference; not officially confirmed_ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack has expanded distribution to Bandai/Namco for Asia/Japan — _Jack Danger stated this during Pinball News interview; clarified it covers Japan and broader Asia_ - [HIGH] Heighway pitched Angry Birds pinball machine years ago but licensing did not materialize — _Heighway released design documents/pitch publicly; hosts critique the design philosophy and pitch language_ - [HIGH] Dutch Pinball is in mediation with ARA after court hearing; both sides ordered by judge to attempt settlement before final verdict — _Dutch Pinball published detailed newsletter describing December 5th court hearing and mediation order_ - [HIGH] Yap's cancer treatment was successful and he is in recovery — _Dutch Pinball newsletter explicitly stated radiation and chemotherapy were successful_ - [MEDIUM] Munsters code at v0.91 includes new secret mode and Easter egg flipper codes — _Stacey Borg discusses code updates; mentions CF-series flipper codes (CF5 or CF3) related to designer Christopher Franchi_ - [HIGH] Munsters has a simplified ruleset designed to be more accessible than typical deep rule-set games — _Dwight Sullivan stated design intention; hosts confirm from community feedback that code is easier to complete_ ### Notable Quotes > "Indeed, there are going to be two machines revealed this year. The first one will be a Pat Lawlor machine. And the second one will be Eric." > — **Jersey Jack (Jack Danger), via Pinball News interview**, Early in episode during Jersey Jack discussion > _Official confirmation of two upcoming Jersey Jack releases; major industry news_ > "Money is on Willy Wonka." > — **Martin (host)**, During Jersey Jack speculation > _Hosts' primary speculation about first Pat Lawlor machine based on available rumors_ > "We never realised that we would end up in a courtroom when we started to design the most beautiful pinball machine, and we are sorry that we dragged you into this situation." > — **Barry and Yap (Dutch Pinball)**, From Dutch Pinball newsletter read on air > _Acknowledgment of legal dispute impact on community/customers; shows contrition_ > "If you're judging your happiness by getting to Valinor or not, you're going to be very sad." > — **Stacey Borg**, During Munsters code discussion > _Core philosophy argument: accessible intermediate goals vs. impossible endgame wizard modes matter more for player satisfaction_ > "Well, I'm not the world's biggest expert when it comes to courtroom dramas... but I have had experience in a courtroom. And we were ordered by the judge to mediate first." > — **Martin (host)**, Explaining Dutch Pinball legal process > _Contextualizes mediation as standard legal practice; reduces alarm about Dutch Pinball situation_ > "Pinball is still big in Japan. I don't know. Maybe it's a good thing." > — **Martin (host)**, Discussing Bandai/Namco distribution expansion > _Acknowledges Japanese/Asian pinball market as potential growth opportunity_ > "Just go for that. Feel good. Get that. Destroy the ring or even do There and Back Again, right? Get those two things and your life will be fulfilled." > — **Stacey Borg**, During Munsters philosophy discussion > _Articulates player-centric design philosophy: achievable intermediate goals create satisfaction_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium pinball manufacturer announcing two new machines this year; expanding distribution to Bandai/Namco for Asia | | Pat Lawlor | person | Legendary pinball designer confirmed to design first Jersey Jack machine of 2019; rumored to prefer standard body machines | | Eric Meunier | person | Pinball designer confirmed to design second Jersey Jack machine of 2019; speculation suggests Guns N' Roses as possible theme | | Bandai/Namco | company | Gaming company distribution partners for Jersey Jack in Asia/Japan; major Asian gaming entity (Tekken, Galaga, WonderSwan) | | Heighway Pinball | company | Manufacturer that released design documents for abandoned Angry Birds pinball pitch; faced criticism for design philosophy and marketing language | | Dutch Pinball | company | Manufacturer currently in mediation with ARA following court hearing; Yap recovering from successful cancer treatment | | ARA | company | Defendant/party in legal dispute with Dutch Pinball; court ordered both to mediate before final verdict | | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Munsters, Whoa Nellie, and other titles discussed; releasing code updates and Easter egg flipper codes | | Munsters | game | Stern release with simplified ruleset at v0.91 code; includes secret modes and Easter egg flipper codes; designed for accessibility over complexity | | Willy Wonka | game | Rumored Pat Lawlor-designed Jersey Jack machine; expected announcement at Texas Pinball Festival per community speculation | | Guns N' Roses | game | Speculated as possible Eric Meunier-designed Jersey Jack machine; hosts debate whether theme has current market viability | | Angry Birds | game | Heighway pitch from years past; included innovative mechanics but criticized for non-traditional pinball design and marketing language | | Martin Robbins | person | Host of Head to Head Pinball Podcast; conducting news analysis and commentary | | Stacey Borg | person | Guest co-host on Episode 78; pinball enthusiast with retro gaming expertise; conducts detailed code analysis and rules philosophy discussion | | Ryan C | person | Regular co-host of Head to Head Pinball Podcast; taking couple weeks off during this episode | | Christopher Franchi | person | Stern Pinball artist/designer; has Easter egg flipper codes in Munsters (CF5/CF3 references) | | Dwight Sullivan | person | Munsters designer; advocated for simplified ruleset approach; hint from hosts about potential level three addition | | Barry and Yap | person | Dutch Pinball founders involved in ARA legal dispute; Yap recovering from successful cancer treatment | | Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) | event | Upcoming event (approximately 6-8 weeks away) where Jersey Jack machines expected to be announced; Martin has booked flights to attend | | Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast | media | Podcast hosted by Martin and Jonathan; conducted interview with Jack Danger at EAG Expo in UK; primary source for Jersey Jack news | ### Topics - **Primary:** Jersey Jack Pinball product pipeline and announcements, Pinball code updates and ruleset philosophy, Heighway Pinball design and market positioning, Dutch Pinball legal dispute and mediation process - **Secondary:** Distribution expansion and international markets (Asia/Japan), Game design philosophy: accessibility vs. depth, Easter eggs and hidden content in pinball machines, Wizard mode design and achievable intermediate goals ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Positive excitement about Jersey Jack announcements and Bandai/Namco partnership; cautiously optimistic about Dutch Pinball mediation; critical of Heighway's Angry Birds pitch quality and marketing approach; supportive of Munsters' accessible design philosophy but some community pushback noted ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack expands distribution to Bandai/Namco for Asia/Japan market, signaling growth strategy in traditionally strong pinball region (confidence: high) — Jack Danger stated directly in Pinball News interview; initially said Japan, then clarified to broader Asia - **[community_signal]** Dutch Pinball legal dispute with ARA moved to mediation phase after court hearing; both parties ordered by judge to attempt settlement before final verdict (confidence: high) — Dutch Pinball published detailed newsletter describing December 5th court hearing and mediation order; Martin explains mediation as standard legal practice - **[event_signal]** Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) positioned as likely venue for Jersey Jack machine announcements; Martin has booked flights to attend (confidence: medium) — Jack Danger stated 'we will announce when ready' but TPF mentioned by 'other people'; hosts estimate announcement within 6-8 weeks - **[design_philosophy]** Heighway's Angry Birds pitch criticized for non-pinball design philosophy, poor marketing language, and innovations that don't align with traditional pinball gameplay (confidence: high) — Hosts detail specific critique of Angry Birds pitch: pop-up bumpers in sling positions, 46-inch playfield screen without ball tracking, marketing language disconnected from actual design - **[design_philosophy]** Munsters designed with simplified ruleset prioritizing accessibility over complexity; includes achievable intermediate wizard modes rather than impossible endgame (confidence: high) — Dwight Sullivan stated design intention; Stacey Borg provides detailed analysis comparing to Lord of the Rings, Iron Maiden, Star Trek philosophy; community feedback on ease of code discussed - **[leak_detection]** Heighway released design documents and pitch materials for abandoned Angry Birds machine publicly, providing rare insight into manufacturer thinking and licensing attempts (confidence: high) — Hosts reference specific pitch flyer details and whitewood layout images from Heighway archives - **[announcement]** Jersey Jack Pinball officially confirms two machine reveals this year: Pat Lawlor design (presumed Willy Wonka) and Eric Meunier design (possibly Guns N' Roses) (confidence: high) — Jack Danger direct confirmation in Pinball News interview at EAG Expo; both hosts cite this as confirmed information - **[product_strategy]** Munsters v0.91 code includes new secret modes, Easter egg flipper codes (CF-series), and continuing refinements based on player feedback from early release (confidence: medium) — Stacey Borg reviews code updates; mentions CF5/CF3 flipper codes and hints at Head to Head flipper code coming - **[rumor_hype]** Pat Lawlor Pat Lawlor designing first Jersey Jack machine; Willy Wonka is primary speculation based on theme licensing and designer preferences (confidence: high) — Official confirmation of Lawlor involvement; Willy Wonka is educated speculation based on community rumors and Lawlor's known preferences for standard bodies - **[licensing_signal]** Heighway attempted Angry Birds licensing but deal did not materialize; suggests Rovio (Angry Birds IP holder) was actively licensing to pinball manufacturers (confidence: medium) — Hosts speculate that Heighway may have pursued license at trade shows; no confirmation of why deal fell through --- ## Transcript you're listening to the head-to-head people podcast find us on facebook email us at head Welcome, everybody, to the Head to Head Pinball Podcast. This is Episode 78, and my name's Martin, and with me... Stacey B. How are you, Stacey? You're joining us again. I am joining you again. It's my second and a half appearance on the show. Yeah, it is indeed. Welcome back. And so, apologies to everyone. We obviously had a week off, and Ryan is going to be having a couple of weeks off. We've always said that other things will take priority over the podcast, including family. So he'll be back in a few weeks and in the meantime we're going to have some guest presenters and guest co-hosts each week and this week none other than Stacey Borg. Excellent. And Stacey we have a crap ton of news to get through because we've obviously got two weeks of news. We do indeed. And really the pinball world doesn't just stop because I mean we'd like it to but it doesn't stop just because we've had a week off. If they're going to stop for anyone, they'd probably stop for us. Well, it would be for us but not to me. Not this week. No. So the first news item we're going to go through, we're actually going to rip off somebody else's story. Do you mind if we do that? No, it's pretty much par for the course, isn't it? Pretty much. It's pretty much what this whole podcast has been based on. Anyway, so for those people that haven't listened, the Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast, give it a listen. They're great. So Martin and Jonathan put that out, and they've just had an episode that came out probably in the last 24 hours, I'd say. And they had Jersey Jack on. Now, he was at the, I think it's called the EAG Expo or something that's in the UK. And he was over there, and Martin and Jonathan managed to pull him aside and have a bit of a chat with him. and we got some really interesting information. So what we'd already heard was that, well, we'd heard this tip-off that there was going to be two Jersey Jack machines revealed this year. Two? Two. Now, which I thought might have been, I don't know, you just, we've said many times, we get so much information, it's hard to know what's real and what's not. We didn't extract this information out of Jack when we grilled him at a flip out. No, no. And in fact, I think with their interview of him, and honestly I do recommend, and we'll link it in the show notes, that, you know, some questions he was really cagey answering, others he just answered. So it was really interesting. It wasn't sort of like a formula where it worked or it didn't. It was just kind of random. But one of the things that he did say was, So, indeed, there are going to be two machines revealed this year. Wow. I know. And he said the first one will be a Pat Lawler machine. And the second one will be the second release from... Eric. It will be Eric. So, look, we don't know what machines they are, but money is on Willy Wonka. Now, would you be interested in a Willy Wonka pinball machine, Stacey? I think that would be a pretty damn fine theme for a pinball machine. Would you want it to be standard body or wide body? Oh, there's so much content. It would have to be wide body, wouldn't it? Well, the rumours are that it's going to be standard or narrow body. And I don't know whether it was actually said in exactly those words, but it was along the lines of Pat prefers standard bodies. So it was kind of inferred that it will be. Okay. And everyone has said Willy Wonka. Now, I remember a couple of years ago, I was tipped off by a very, very reliable source that Pat's next machine was going to be Toy Story. Hmm. Does that suggest that Toy Story is not the second machine? Ah, Stacey, that is exactly what I'm suggesting, is that if it's not Toy Story, because he could work on it in tandem. Could, but that's not normally how it's done, is it? Well, I don't... That we know of. Well, that we know of, because we're obviously not designers, right? But, I don't know. I mean, I would say that these designers would have maybe a couple of designs that they're sort of knocking around until they go, okay, this one's fleshed out enough. Let's go deeper into this one. So maybe that was the case. He did have a couple of layouts. Or, you know what, maybe he did have a layout for Toy Story and they've gone, okay, it's now Willy Wonka. I don't know. But if it's not Toy Story, the only other game that I've heard of that has got Jersey Jack's name associated with it is, Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses. So let's just ponder that for a moment. Eric Meunier doing Guns N' Roses. Could he do it? Have we confirmed something? Are we going to Oktoberfest again like we did last year where we revealed that just with a bit of speculation? Maybe. Do we need another Guns N' Roses machine, Stacey? Do we need? We don't need, no. But would we like? Yeah, that could work. I don't know has Guns N' Roses still got the same pool that they had back when the original Data Ace came out? No, they don't have the same brand cachet obviously is what you're going to say, right? Yeah it's a weird one It is a weird one however I don't know if you think about the ingredients that go into a lot of successful let's call them you know rock band or music pins right? The ingredients are okay, you ready? Rock music Yep, they've got that. Right. You know what? Okay, good. You're going with me on this. So that ticks that box. Great art. Definitely. Plenty of options. Yeah, right. You know what I mean? Then you've just got sort of layouts and rules, right? So that's the unknown, but, you know. It doesn't really matter what the band's currently doing, does it? I mean, we've had Aerosmith didn't have a revival when that machine came. No, that's exactly right. And people are still screaming for a Led Zeppelin machine. Right. Right? What was their last hit that they had? I don't know. It probably went for about 15 minutes. Yeah, it probably was. I don't know, obviously, that much about Led Zeppelin. But I don't know. I think that it's not for me. Like, I don't care that much about Guns N' Roses. But I still think it could make for a good machine. Absolutely. But, you know, is it just because it's a Guns N' Roses machine, all of a sudden it's going to instantly sell because there's rabid fans out there? I think that's kind of the point you were saying before. Yeah, I'm not sure that that market exists anymore. I don't know. But I don't, yeah. I really don't know. Okay. Well, anyway, we are purely speculating and we love that. Absolutely. So what we have heard, we believe that Willy Wonka will be announced at TPF. He didn't really say that. He sort of said, Jersey Jack said, we will announce it when it's ready. But other people have said TPF. Right. Well, that's pretty close. It is only, well. About six weeks, isn't it? Six weeks, something like that. Maybe eight weeks, seven or eight weeks. So I have booked my flights. I am definitely going. So I hope I get to meet people there. The other piece of news that he talked about, he sort of early on in the interview said that they've expanded their distributors and he then elaborated and said Bandai and Namco are going to be the distributor. First of all, he said in Japan, but then he said in Asia. Okay. Now, you would know Bandai and you would know Namco. Absolutely. So for those people that don't know Stacey Borg as well as I do, not only is he into pinball, but into retro gaming as well, right? Indeed. In the world of Tekken. Correct, right? So Namco, Tekken, all those other games. All those other games. Probably Galaga. Plenty of the older games too, yeah. When I saw Bandai, I don't know Bandai all that well, but do you remember the Bandai Wonderswan? Absolutely. Yeah, right? There was the Wonderborg attachment as well. We often display that at PAX. That's right. So Bandai is a gaming company and Namco is a gaming company. So they are big. They've been together for a fair number of years now too. Yeah, correct. So they're distributing in Asia. So, you know, he was asked the question, you know, would you, you know, make a Japanese or Asian sort of style or themed pinball machine? He was kind of like, you know, never say never kind of answer. Yeah. But, you know, pinball is still big in Japan. I don't know. Maybe it's a good thing. Big enough to take on its own theme? I don't know if that market business side makes sense. That's what we don't know. We don't know how big it is. That's what those guys are good at knowing. That's exactly right. All right, so that was Jersey Jack. What's our next news piece? It looks like something's... A bit of news came out about highway. We didn't really expect to see anything coming from the highway archives, did we? No. It's not even hovercraft related. It's kind of interesting. Hydrofoil? Hydrofoil, sorry, I apologise. The wrong sort of... It starts with H. Highway, hydrofoil, highway. Hoverboard? He probably did pitch the idea for a hoverboard. Probably did. He's probably... So what was the news that we got about Highway this week? Well, they seem to have released some information about an Angry Birds pitch that they'd gone for a few years back. that sadly didn't get up, it looks like. It really didn't. It did not. But, I mean, and the pitch. I'm not a marketing person myself. You're probably more into the marketing side of things, but it's not a great pitch, really. There's a lot of problems with the layout and the fonts. But they've got some ideas on there. They seem to have sort of a whitewood layout. I don't know if it's real or if it's a mock-up. It looks pretty real to me, with a bunch of sort of interesting bits and pieces on it. pop-up pig pop bumpers, a slingshot, sort of symmetrical two-way ramp, and some cool castles that spin up and down and go out into the playfield. So a lot of cool, innovative ideas on there. Could Highway pull that off? I really am not sure. Well, no, they couldn't pull off the two games that they had in production. This is true. And I mean, pop bumpers in the position of slings. Post-passing. Yeah, no. It's a big miss. When I first looked at it, I just went, it looks like a child's toy. Yeah. The more I looked at it, I thought, okay, it's interesting. I think that they've tried for some innovations on the play field. I think those castles look, or the towers look like the most innovative part of it. I mean, multi-level targets that sort of reveal themselves. It's similar to sort of Doctor Who mech, I suppose. Yeah. And it's got that spinning element like Theatre of Magic, I suppose. So not completely new, but interesting. Yeah. And then the other thing I noticed looking at it today, they talk about a deluxe model that would have had a 46-inch screen. P3, anyone? Oh, on the actual playfield? Yeah, they talk about a deluxe. So, yeah, normally the highways have that little LCD screen in there. But, yeah, they're talking about a deluxe model that would have had a 46-inch screen, so that actually would have been the whole playfield pretty much, right? Well, yeah, does it say that it was going to be in the actual playfield? Because what you've got to remember is early days with highway, they didn't have a screen in the back glass at all. Remember, they only had the small one, So maybe it was, you know, the Deluxe had the screen up on the back. No, I'll quote the flyer. On the Deluxe model, the graphics are superimposed right over the action by a 46-inch transparent screen. I can't see how that's anything other than on the play field. Okay, but sounds like it, I guess. So, I mean, again, doing that without having the interactions. I mean, P3's got ball tracking. I don't think they would have introduced that at Highway. They probably wouldn't have been able to, really. But that could have been interesting. I mean, you know, being able to integrate. They talk about integrating the digital and the physical, and it's not really clear how they were doing that from this pitch. So it's not that surprising that it got knocked back, really. Yeah. I don't think it's... You know, you mentioned P3. I don't think this is pinball-y enough. Yeah. You know what I mean? For sure. There's a different possible market for that, I think. And I don't think it's the traditional pinball market. The elements of that physical nature are great, but it's not going to be a tournament game. It's got that different... It sort of feels more at home in those arcade settings, possibly. Yeah. a ticket of redemption type situation. Yeah, okay. Well, look, I am not an expert marketer. I do work for a sales and marketing company, and I am in marketing. I will just never say that I'm an expert. But I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I just want to read the front pitch. Angry Birds, the franchise powerhouse of the current video gaming generation. Like, that's showing how old it is, right? Yep. the worldwide rovio trailblazer has steadily redefined casual gaming since late 2009 with over a billion downloads across numerous platforms and a multitude of time merchandising pinball the pop culture icon that's making a big comeback real mechanical pinball delivers a unique experience of player versus machine often mimicked but never beaten it's a challenge of skill coordination and flipper dexterity. I just... That is recognised universally. Let's not forget that. It is. With a huge dedicated following spanning the globe. And then when you put them together, Stacey... But yes, what happens? It creates a brand new kind of instant appeal challenge. A seamless integration of the physical and the digital. With the elements of both in a fresh new style and form not seen before. It's just all talk. There's none of the things they present after that. No, that's right. It's exactly right. So I think that why this is interesting is because people have sort of... There's been rumours about an Angry Birds pinball machine over the years. This is evidence to show that somebody was going for the licence and maybe Rovio or Rovio, I don't know how you pronounce their name. I think Rovio is correct. Rovio, cool. Maybe they went to one of those licence expo type things and put themselves out there to say, do an Angry Birds machine. But I think really the interesting thing here is this is a really interesting look at Highway and how they position them, not just how they position themselves as a company, but who they were as a company. Just amateurish. Yeah. Is that what you're getting from it? It misses the mark in a number of ways in terms of real pinball. It's just, yeah, the wrong ideas. They brought out, their first machine came out, and if any real pinball player had played that before it came out, I'd highly doubt that. There's just no way. They missed on so many fronts. I know. The only flip side to this, I'll say, is, you know, everybody, for years, we've been saying we've got to get the new generation, the next generation into pinball. If this was in an arcade, do you think this would attract more kids putting money into it than, let's say, Iron Maiden? Oh, it would have to, right? Right, right. Absolutely. That's not the point. It's not the best game to be bringing out now. We don't know when this pitch sort of came out, but there are much bigger sort of mobile games they could target now. But, yeah, for sure. Like, you know, parents aren't going to be giving their kids money to play Iron Maiden. No. That's for sure. Or, like, even Munsters, right? Like, a more family-friendly... Like, this would still earn more than Munsters. Yeah, for sure. There's not a lot of money to be made on sighted pinball machines unless you are a barcade, right? And you wouldn't put an Angry Birds machine in a barcade like this, no. So, swing and a miss, guys. Well done. Speaking of swinging and missing, Dutch pinball. Dutch pinball. I know. So, they have sent out another newsletter to everybody. Would you like to read this out, Stacey? Okay. Especially the Dutch bit. I actually want you to... Yeah, I thought you were going to... I'll try. I'll offend every single Dutch person. Okay. Here, whoever is concerned. We found out that lawsuits take a lot of time in the Netherlands. The story with ARA goes on and on and is still not finished. Here's a recap of what happened. we, Barry, Yap and our attorney were invited to a court hearing on December 5th and this week we met with ARA in the courtroom and we both could tell our side of the situation this week we received a temporary verdict it says that the court advises ARA and us to sit down and discuss to see if we can come to an agreement here we go, here we go okay, this is in Dutch so I apologise to anyone who is Dutch 13 is a man like a freckling van hen some working to come now I can't do any more than that I implore you not to do any more but I am going to tell you that that sounded way more authentic than I thought it was going to and far better than what I was going to say so I actually because when I got sent this it wasn't the email I got a screen grab. So I actually typed every single letter into Google Translate. And it says, to achieve a joint settlement of their cooperation, the court wishes to expressly request the parties to do so and provide the opportunity before a final decision is made. Okay, so now you can continue. Okay, our next steps will be to investigate if we can come to a settlement. We hope you understand that we can't give any more details As soon as we have a final verdict or a solution, we will let you know. We never realized that we would end up in a courtroom when we started to design the most beautiful pinball machine, and we are sorry that we dragged you into this situation. We are very, very grateful for your continuous support. If we have any news that we can share, we will let you know. Regards, Barry and Yap. So, and what's really interesting is that, like, sort of people just went, oh, that's a bit of a cop-out, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm not the world's biggest expert when it comes to courtroom dramas, and sure, I could probably watch more TV shows, but I have had experience in a courtroom. Yep. And it was a business-related problem. Okay. And we were ordered by the judge to mediate first. Right. because of a couple of reasons. The main one is because if you don't mediate and it's in the hands of the court, then it is out of your control You actually don have any control left and whatever the decision is that done So they sort of giving you an opportunity to say well you two talk whilst you are still in control If you cannot agree, then we take the control out, right? Yeah, which makes sense. Right. It's a very adult way to go about it, isn't it? It is, but if both sides are blaming each other and... If you're at that point, the likelihood of an outcome is pretty small, I guess. Correct. And maybe it was, I don't know, Barry and Yarp said, we'll see you in court. ARA's like, we'll see you in court. And there was lawyers letters going, we'll all see you in court, right? And the court said, guys, just fucking talk. just like actually talk to each other maybe you'll actually find something because I like to think it was Judge Judy that was probably because he's here's the part two of that once it's then in the court's hands they've got to then go through a really really messy process right they've got to go through you know evidence and paperwork and statements and the judge is probably sitting there going, for fucking pinball? Are you kidding me? Are they still even making those things? And probably for the amount of money, they're going, hang on. At two o'clock, I've got one where $50 billion are at stake and you guys are squabbling over a million dollars or whatever it is. And that's what it is because the process you've got to go through is very complicated, it's time-consuming, it's arduous, it's all that kind of stuff. And they're probably looking at going, for this amount of money, just fucking talk to each other first. Yeah, correct. And once you've spoken, if you can't agree, then come back. So that was interesting. In fact, they said that, you know, the court advises ARA and us to sit down and discuss this if we can come to an agreement. So that's not uncommon. happens a lot a lot normally you either don't hear about a court case because mediations happen and they've come to agreement or it then goes to court and you hear about the verdict so the problem here is they keep telling us what's going on just let it just sort it out just sort it out guys either give us the machines or not i don't know i like the part where they're thanking everybody for their continuous support is that they're getting support from anyone really i don't I don't know. I don't know. But I will say there is actually good side of this email, and that is that they've said that Jaap's cancer is gone. Radiation chemotherapy was successful, and Jaap's now working on his recovery. So that is actually, and that's what we've got to remember, you know, we are being a bit harsh towards Dutch because, you know, we both know Lucas, and we want him to get his machine right. So we're dirty on you guys. We're dirty on you guys for that. They're a company, and they're still people. Correct. So there you go. So also, in the last couple of weeks, there's been some code, Stacey. Code? Code. What? You know, hashtag. So much code. There's actually been quite a lot, hasn't there? Has. What can you tell me about the code? Tell you all about the code that I have pored over continuously for the last couple of weeks. No, so we'll just tell you the... First, we'll tell you the games that have had updates. So we'll go with Woe Nelly, Pabscan, Crusher and Primus. They've all got differently numbered code, but... They probably had the same sort of update. It's probably safe to say that they've all got similar changes. Yep. I have not gone through those, unfortunately, but... Well done. Yeah, there's always things you can improve on, even those sort of simple games. I'm sure they've nailed out a few bugs or added some features here and there, so that's good for those owners of those machines. Munsters is an interesting one so that's at .91 code now again, being from Australia we haven't really had much to do with Munsters yet, obviously we've seen a lot of interest a few streams and this and that about the game yeah, so what have they done in Munsters? I've said this before that I kind of like the update experience and I think some There's actually been some people that have agreed with me as well because I get sick of machines really quickly, hence why Iron Maiden's gone, right? I had my piece with it and it's gone. But if that was getting major revisions every three or four months, I would... It just keeps the magic going. It does. It does because it changes it and updates it and keeps it fresh. So there you go. There are a few things they've fixed. They've added a secret mode, it looks like. you need a code and you need to find that so it's something for people to play around with well I think there's a Christopher Franchi flipper code as well possibly he said it was CF 5 or maybe CF 3 something like that and yeah if you knew what that meant then you could get to his flipper code isn't it like flipper codes like you put the flippers together and then C would be 1, 2, 3 on the left and then F would be right and then 3 on the left ok maybe there you go try that out try that out I don't know how I don't know how these flipper codes work you'll probably see some hexagons we probably will and you'll probably see there'll be a head to head flipper code surely coming up soon absolutely so make it happen all my friends at Stern yeah but there's a few little changes you expect this in an early release you know they're starting to get information from people playing, so they're going to start adjusting bits and bobs, but from what I've seen, it looks like it's pretty well set up, and it's what Stern's doing now. They're getting pretty close to final code on release, which is great. So yeah, so really, I think we need to see the machine here before we can comment too much on what's going on with the code, really. Okay, well then, I know that we had this sort of later in the show notes, but let's stop on this one right now, then. Okay. Munster's Code. So, when it first came out, right? You poor thing. You really took one for the team this week. Yeah. So, when Munster's came out, you know, we had Dwight on the show. We've all seen, you know, the deadflip stream of it. And basically, what he said is, I want to go for a more simple rule set. And that's what he did. And everyone went, hooray. Did everybody go out? I don't think they did, unfortunately. I think everybody did at first. Right. And then I think people started playing it. And you did some such good investigative journalism for us. Absolutely. I went full out. You went really undercover here, right? Absolutely. All of my contacts. Google search mostly. Went to Pinside. You went to Pinside. It's really what happened. Yeah, look, I didn't read too much. But as you know, you don't really need to read too much to know what's going on. A lot of people complaining that it's really easy code. You can get through everything and the game's over. Okay. That's a very strange way of thinking about it. It's like, well done. You are an amazing pinball player. Right? you know congratulations congratulations well done you've finished it because that's that's why we get pinball machines to finish them and then get rid of them yep it's not how it works for me so I don't know if that's how it works for you no well it doesn't and I was saying this during I've said it the last couple of streams that I've had Lord of the Rings right because everyone says Lord of the Rings oh my god it's got this deep rule set Valinor Valinor Valinor no one ever got to Valinor. Right. So, no one gets to fucking Valinor, right? I mean, you can try for it. Was there a video once of someone playing for about two hours straight, got to Valinor, and then it was one shot of Valinor or something, and drained or something. Was that Carl D'Python Anghelo? Did he do that? Or was that... Oh, no, that was when he did, I think, Wizard of Oz and crashed on his summer of the rainbow. But no, that's exactly right. Or the cameras stopped or something like that. Oh, no. Okay. So, I then went through and this is when I had Iron Maiden in my collection. And I talked about all the four machines that I have. So you're talking Lord of the Rings, deep rule set, right? Iron Maiden, deep rule set. Star Trek, deep rule set, right? To get to five-year mission, right? And then Wizard of Oz, deep rule set to get somewhere over the rainbow. Well, fuck that. No. because not that many people can get to Valinor. No. I don't know that many people that can get to the end mega wizard mode in Iron Maiden. I don't know anyone that's gotten to five-year mission on Star Trek. I've not gotten to Enterprise and Mok, which is the second wizard mode. Yep. Now, Wizard of Oz, I will say it's probably the closest I've been to getting the wizard mode, but that's maybe one in 50 games if that at best. So my point is these intermediate wizard modes are really the wizard mode for us mere mortals. So destroying the ring on Lord of the Rings, there you go. Just go for that. Feel good. Get that. Destroy the ring or even do there and back again, right? Get those two things and your life will be fulfilled. If you're judging your happiness by getting to Valinor or not, you're going to be very sad. Very sad. Battle of the Beast on Iron Maiden. That's all you need to do, right? Be happy with that. Star Trek, get Kaiboshi Maru. That's all you need to do, right? Be happy with that. Just be happy playing pinball. Correct, right. Why do you need to get to any of these? Kill the witch. Get better at the game. No, but what I'm saying is that these machines really have these achievable mini wizard modes, right? Achievable. Not every game. In fact, not a lot of games. But you can still achieve them. When you've got these mega deep rule sets that only the few people can achieve, well, then you're making that rule set just for a couple of people. And that's coming back to monsters. is those steps without that final big long wizard mode that nobody can get to. Definitely. But, I mean, it's still got the potential for three levels of code, right? In a similar way to Star Trek. Sure, it could do. So that could be built in. We're at 0.91 code. I know. Not that it matters either way. I'd be happy playing it. regardless. But yeah, just, there's always a goal you can set for yourself. It doesn't have to be some special thing that someone's coded, you know. Code is just lines, right? It's just numbers, zeros and ones. Make up your own rules and have your own fun. I know, but it was like with The Hobbit, right? And everyone was saying, oh, you know, The Hobbit's not finished because there's no Final Wizard mode. They put a Final Wizard mode in it. Did it change the game? It did not change of the game. It didn't change the game. It surprisingly doesn't change the physical layout of the machine. It can improve the game. We've seen that a lot of times. It doesn't often make the game worse, though. No, that is actually true. But I just think that in the defense of people, they're sort of saying, okay, but if I can get to that, which is only achievable every once in a while, then the game ends. So, So I think we sort of talked and I sort of hinted it to Dwight Sullivan as well. It's like, well, you've got the framework to go to level three, maybe go to level three and make that exponentially harder. So people have got their easy monsters mode or whatever it's called. I can't remember. Yeah, Monster Madness. Monster Madness, that's right. And that's the one that everyone can get. Yeah, which is great for on-site, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. You want to be able to do that. And Munsters Madness Level 2 is the one that you can only do every once in a while, and Level 3 is the one that only the best of the best can do, and they can't do that all the time either. I'd be surprised if it didn't end up in that state. I'd be very surprised if it didn't end up in that state. Yeah. So anyway, certainly there has now been a significant amount of backlash on the code for Munsters, so I don't know. It could be the echo chamber or it could be real. Yeah. There's always got to be backlash. I mean, it got pretty positive. It's about the most positive release we've seen in a long time, right? Yeah. So, of course, people don't like that. It's all going to come crashing down. It's all going to come crashing down. I'm sure it won't have any effect on sales and future travellings at Stern, hopefully. So let's just see until we get to play it ourselves, right? Well, that's exactly right. And I may play it, finish level two Monster Madison, and go, oh, is that it? You might. It could happen. I'm reserving my rights until I actually get to play the game. So what other code was, back to code updates, what other code came out? So Deadpool code came out. Yes. So that's interesting. So, yeah, I'd only really played Deadpools late last year, and last time I played it, it was pretty heavy on modes, on battles, lots of points coming out of battles. that seems to have been balanced a bit I think we play, I played it during the week in a tournament and that seemed bad battles weren't giving, weren't the be all and end all so plenty of other things to do what does it say in the changes so it said, here we say added support for Topper, that's not very on terms of the game, Berserker Rage which is a grace period it seems bit of update to Disco Loops and Multiball, Mech Suit Multiball I'm not sure that was there before. Seems to be a collecting weapons multiball that happened, so similar to TIE Fighters, I guess. There's a increased timer on Mop Playfield Multiplier, a few different mystery awards. Bits and bobs. Not massive, but I think a lot of balance, which is probably what that game needed at the moment. From what I know from when I was playing it, It was basically finish battles or lose. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Now, so you also got to play the premium, is that correct? Is it the premium at Pixel? At Pixel, I think has a premium. Yeah, yeah, they do. So I haven't played the premium. I am going to be streaming the LE this Wednesday night. So I'm very keen to know how differently they play. you played it a bit late last year is that right yeah I've only played the pro right and I I streamed the pro I streamed James and Jackie's pro yep and after a while I I really enjoyed it yep um it's a fun game yeah it is a fun game but the feedback that I've had is that the pro is better than the premium in LE so I'm just keen to know why yeah I didn't I didn't feel too much different. I only played it once, to be fair. I didn't feel like it was too different. What other difference? Are there any... There's no shock differences, are there, really? There's the left ramp that's up and down, which then goes into the, sort of, the loop. Right. That's really it, and it's got a disco ball. Yeah, that's too much of a difference, really, isn't it? Yeah. Anyway. So, anyway, I'll be able to play it this weekend. Yeah. I think it's definitely... It's going towards where it needs to go in terms of balance, and that's what I think. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Anything else? Oh, TNA code. Okay, a little bit of TNA code. So it looks like a couple of bugs were fixed. There's lots of modes in that game, so there's sort of co-op fixes and things like that. Interestingly, this week I was actually, I checked out one of the streams, the Netherworld stream. They were playing some TNA. and just watching that I'd sort of noticed during multiball that balls didn't always seem to come back and I thought that's a bit weird. Sort of, you know, start a three-ball multiball and lose a ball or two and then they're not coming back and I was confused. So I took a clip and asked Scott about it. Basically, yeah, I'd never noticed this before but in TNA if you lose three balls in multiball, that's it. your ball save is gone. Hmm. It's completely different to most other multiball saves, right? So even if you've got a ball save... Let's say you've got a 12-second ball save, right? Yes, right. You lose three balls in the first three seconds. Yes. That time it stops. No way. And that's it, it's over. That time it goes back to zero, and you probably think it kicks back one ball. Yes, I do. So you get back to two balls. That's it, it's done. No, I believe I've got a ball save for 12 seconds, and it's infinite. No, not anymore, it ain't. Really? Not yet. He said, if you want me to quote... I do. The ball save will only save three balls before it is cancelled. So that prevents tournament players from dumping balls like we do. Ah, yes. I love a good ball dumping. It's one of our favourite things to do in a tournament, especially in the final rounds. Yes. I bring it back to full three balls. Okay, I get that. I looked at my clip and, lo and behold, I didn't notice it. Literally, I think the guy who's playing lost his third ball at about eight or seven seconds ago. The clock just stops. That's it. One ball came back, so it's back to two ball. No more save. That's right. It's a really good feature. Yeah, I get why he's done that because people do. They drain the balls and then do a soft plunge. Especially on something like TNA. Yeah, to get it up into the top section. Yeah, fair enough. You've got the, you know, during multiball, you'll have that three times multiplier, and it's such a hard game to shoot. See, damn. You really have to drop. Damn, bloody tournament players ruining it for the rest of us. Ruining it for everybody. I blame Steven Bowden. No, I don't. We would never blame you, Steve. And the last little update, Hobbit got a bit of spit and polish to 3.1 as well. People enjoying that with the full code? I don't know. I never got to. I had a pretty good game on it during a flip frenzy, but I played for far longer than I should have. I know. What a waste. I know. Look, I don't know. I don't know. It was one of those, as I said before, I get really sick of machines really quickly. So it moved on and I never look back. I have played it with new code. I didn't really notice that much of a difference, to be honest. The framework's still the same. It is the same. It's true. So there you go. Good. All right. Let's go. That was a lot of code, I told you. So another piece of news that came out, this is not necessarily all that news, but Suncoast Pinball, you would know all about Suncoast Pinball, wouldn't you, Stacey? One of my favourite new pinball companies. Yeah? What are they making? They've got the most symmetrical game in the world, Cosmic One. Very symmetrical. I'm laughing because we sort of messaged, we've got this chat group that we're all in from Melbourne Super Bowl. And I now remember you made some comment about the layout this week. This is coming back to me. You're not a big fan of the layout, is what I heard. No, I'm not, I have to admit. It's just, yeah, it doesn't seem like it has a lot of variety, let's say, to it. I mean, I'm looking at the play-through right now, and the only difference between the left side and the right side is that there's stand-up targets on the left, and there are drop targets on the right. That's literally the only difference. And that is not... Look, it might be the funnest game to shoot in the world, but it's probably not the funnest game to shoot in the world, to be honest. But who knows? Again, I'm not going to judge it before I play it. Well, you have. I have. No, I've made a comment. You were judgy with judges. It might have been a slightly judgy comment. It's true. But no, but this is great. They've got Donny Gillies (Dirty Donny) to do some artwork for it. I mean, the logo is wonderful. It's great. Yeah So we said this that you know any machine if it got nothing on it you get somebody that does intricate art it will make it appear a lot more populated than it is So, he could work magic on this, I don't know. No doubt, if he's doing the work on it, it'll be a beautiful machine to look at. That is absolutely true. So, and I think a lot of people did ask, you know, if he has now been hired by Suncoast Pinball, does that mean he can't work for any other companies? And a reliable source has told me that's not the case. He's actually... Often will just be on a retainer or... Yeah, they're contracted to do this. Yeah, that's correct. So, you know, it would be kind of weird if he was exclusive to a company that... It hasn't released to people. I know. It's not like Deep Read have done that. This is true, but... They have. Anyway, they have got fat stacks, is what they've got. Fat stacks. They do. But the first thing that he did, he actually... This was a logo that he did for Cosmic Carnival. It looks really good. It looks badass. He's just very good. He's just got a very good knack of making things look great. And I mean, some of the things I said, you know, combining that sort of roller coaster type game with a space theme, it's an interesting concept. Yeah. We've seen both of those sort of games, but not sort of combined really. And. Yeah. The only problem I have, I'll come back to it, is that, you know, if you go to a, let's say you go to a theme park, you go to Disneyland, you go on a ride. It's a wonderful, it's the best ride ever. You have the funnest time in your life. And then you line up for another two hours and you go on another ride. And that ride is just the same ride but mirror image. Are you going to be happy about that? I don't know. I'll say it. I'm not going to say anything more. That's it. Okay. Think about it. Just think about it. You've said plenty. Now, the P3 Multimorphic. Yes. Have you played it yet? have I played a P3? I feel like I've played I think I've only watched streams did I play it somewhere? I don't know I don't think I have so I think we've got to get in touch with my mate and stream it again because I would love to play it yeah well we played that Lexi Lightspeed and it was fun so the next and so what it's actually had is really Lexi Lightspeed is the first like what's meant to be a full pinball module. Yep. And then they've had a couple of add-ons, like that Canyon Lagoon or whatever it is. I don't even know what those things are called. The pirate ship one. Yeah, I think that's the one. Yep. I think there might have been two. So Cosmic Car Racing is meant to be the next big full game. So this comes with its own back section, is that right? Correct. Yeah, like the back. I want to say... The playfield. Yeah, I want to say probably back quarter. Quarter, man. They always talk about it as a third, but it could indeed be a quarter. It could indeed be a quarter. And the thing that's notable about this Cosmic Kart Racing is, I think visually it is so good to look at. The use of LEDs and magnets is amazing. Anyway, it got sort of revealed last year, and I believe they're just about ready to ship them. Yeah, great. And I think that's good. I mean, people are sort of very cool on the P3 platform, well, the multi-morphic platform, because once you've played Lessie Lightspeed, you need something more to justify the bigger outlay and the fact that it's got swappable playfields. The killer app, they call it, in terms of hardware. And it makes sense. I mean, it's pinball, but it's not the same as we're used to, so it's the sort of thing that needs something to give it traction. I think it would be great if it got traction. Correct. Yeah, I agree. The biggest problem I had when I played it was the flippers felt really different. Because they're different. No, because they're sitting on top of the blackboard. They're mechanically completely different. Correct. That's to be expected. I mean, we always talk about the remakes having a different feel as well. Yeah. and they're built on the same specs right yeah really um i mean here they can't go through the playfield so that sort of makes sense but um yeah i think again probably talking about it before but feels like the sort of machine that would do great in a redemption arcade like yeah yep you put a kit on it you put a ticket kit on it it's got that uh yeah this really is the combination of pinball and arcade correct the things it can do with that screen and the ball tracking, the possibilities for this platform are just really outstanding. Like, I could probably write five great games for it, but why would I? Because nobody's got the thing. So it's sort of like the chicken and the egg situation. Needs a killer app to get some traction, but who's going to write the killer app? Because it's got no traction, if that makes sense. No, I totally get that. Chicken and egg. You're absolutely right. We're at a bit of a stand still. I don't know. It needs just someone to love it for what it is and just design the heck out of a game for it. Yeah. I really want it to succeed. I think it's a good piece of kit and I think it's got plenty of potential. I don't think normal pinball can do a lot of things that this thing can do. Yeah, agreed. As I said about the flippers, what you've got to understand, those flipper where they are, that whole front section of the playfield slots out the front as well. Yep. Right? So my understanding, so Jerry, that's the person that does Multimorphic and P3. Yep. So apparently my understanding is he is, whilst he's doing all these machines and all that kind of stuff and in production, I believe, I'm led to believe that every spare second of his life is spent trying to improve the Flipper Max. Yeah, right. So, and I've heard that there's been a bit of a breakthrough and what that means is, right, okay, we've now got much better flipper mechs, just send them in the post. All you've got to do is slot them in and there you go, you've got new flippers. That's kind of what's cool. It's a genius piece of engineering. It really is. It actually really is. So, well done. Great. So speaking of TPF, which we haven't really spoken about, Well, all I just wanted to say was that the Munsters VIP experience sold out. Sold out? I told you about those tickets. Did you pick up a VIP ticket, Martin? No. Now, this is... I know I can give out mixed messages, right? Mm-hmm. Now, I'm just not that into the Munsters. Ha, ha, ha. Because everyone's sitting there going, well, fuck's sake, you just bought a Munsters LE sight unseen and you're not that into the Munsters? Well, I am, but not so much that I need to meet the actors. Sure. But, I don't know if I mentioned this before, So the kid actor, what's his name? Butch something? Yeah, probably Butch something. Butch something. I don't know. I think it is. I'm going to look it up as well. Butch Patrick. Butch Patrick, right. So I think it is, right? He was also, and I'm going to actually have to link this in the show notes. He was actually the lead in another, it was a kids' show called Lidsville. Lidsville? Lidsville. Oh, yeah. Right? Lidsville is the kooka-kookiest. Oh, psychedelic fan. Oh, sort of like along the lines of... H.R. Puff and stuff. H.R. Puff and stuff, yeah. So it's done by Sid and Marty Croft, right? That did Sigmund the Sea Monster. They did the Bugaloos. They did all that kind of stuff. So really, really trippy stuff. And also they're known for the theme song being almost as long as the entire episode. So I am going to link the theme song to Lidsville in the show notes. You've got to go and see it. So Butch Patrick was the lead in that show as well. So, like, you know, go to TPA, everyone's like, oh, hello, Mr. Patrick, you're amazing. I loved you in the Munsters. I'd be like, oh, fuck yeah, Lidsville is the kookiest. He'd be like, oh, shit, I was in that show too. I got my kids onto it. They love it. Yep. Great. I like it. There you go. Okay, so no VIP experience for you. That's okay, but it's sold out. No VIP. So it's sold out, so I'm glad everybody gets their $150 US, which is about $1,000 Australian at the moment. So that's what people get. I'm sure they'll have a great time. I'm sure they will. And, you know, I'll be there and I'll get to, maybe I'll get a David Hankin and Christopher Franchi can sign that for me. That'll be the same thing. That's a solid sign. So can we talk about some Stern stuff? We can. what's happened this week? Well, we have finally got our Munsters. What? No, we don't. I know. It's like the rest of the world's getting there. The rest of the world has got Munsters. The rest of the world has got Munsters. We're languishing across the seas. Correct. We literally got our Beatles on Friday and because they're in a different state, they were shipped to where we are, Victoria, Melbourne, today, Monday. Great. And instead of rushing home to do this podcast with you, Stacey, you know what happened because... I do. Ryan posted a picture of me. I just... I wanted to play it before I recorded the podcast. Right. It just couldn't happen. I just didn't want another week to go by without experiencing it. So, what do you want to know about Beatles? How does it play? Is it that much improved from the original design? Okay. So, is it like Sea Witch is what you're saying? Yeah, pretty much. Yes and no. There are some bits where you know where to shoot the ball because you are so familiar with the layout, right? so you know for example where the right top bank of targets are because that's where they were and you know where the middle set were right the left set well they weren't there but there's some now so you're kind of you kind of know the layout it doesn't feel the same as Sea Witch you can hit that orbit shot a lot better which is the first thing yeah correct it was opened up a bit and there's a spinner there as well. It's not as snappy as a new Stern, which is great. Yeah, they've sort of dulled down the flippers a bit. They have. They've dulled it down somewhat. And it's got a simple rule set. Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh, shit. Sorry, there should be a backlash on that. But what's there is all you need, right? Yeah, absolutely. I'll tell you the first thing I noticed stepping up to the machine. The artwork is so much better in person than it is from any photo I've seen. It really is. And you can look into it and you can see the detail that's there that you don't see in pictures, right? Yeah, sure. The other thing I noticed was the audio. The sound quality come from those speakers. It's like they've got a really premium sound system in it. So even though the volume wasn't turned up, it projects volume, if that makes sense. So it just had this presence. It was just great. It's a fun game. It's a simple game. Yep. That's what you want from the Beatles, right? Correct. That sound quality is important. That's exactly right. So it was better than what I thought, but I thought it was going to be good. And it really is good. It's a good game. Excellent. It's good. So there we go. And I will be streaming. Here we go again. I will be streaming The Beatles on Sunday night. So we will be able to deep dive onto it then. Great. What else is coming out of Stern? Well, there's a rumour. A rumour. A rumoured licence. What is that rumour, Stacey? Well, according to sources unknown... Yeah, they're completely unknown. Made up. Fabricated. Apparently, Stern has acquired... James Bond. James Bond. Wow. Okay. That's for a while. It's just a rumour. Now, it was rumoured... Oh, funny. It was rumoured... This is what I had heard was going to be Highway Pinball's third game. Oh, there you go. And that was, I love, like, do my air quotes, but you won't see them, but it was from a reliable source. A reliable source. A reliable source said that Highway's third pinball machine was going to be James Bond. Now, now, now, here we go. that could almost be exactly like saying the third highway machine was going to be Angry Birds yes in that all they did was they put a shitty little flyer together presentation and they're like yep we're going to do James Bond everybody invest your money in us James Bond we just landed a triple A title James Bond I got hydro files to buy people so so anyway that's really interesting i i could not care less about a james bond theme it's not yeah it's doesn't really spark a joy does it it just i just like you know we're talking about before about guns and roses like you know is it relevant but you can still picture the elements that go into a machine, you go, okay, I could see how it could kind of work. I will reserve judgment. The other thing is that there will be more James Bond movies. There will be a new Bond. So maybe they're looking to line up for the next incarnation of Bond. Sure. But Bond... Doesn't mean it's a popular thing, but... Bond as a pimble? Can you see it happening? It doesn't, yeah. it doesn't really yeah it doesn't really spark my interest it has to be said I don't know I don't know I'm very cool on that theme but you know people are cool on monsters people are cool on all these other things that I like so we are all different we are all we are all very different so cater for us all exactly right so James Bond if anyone knows any information about it send it through great so So have you seen Pinstadium before, Stacey? I have. It's a lovely product. It really is. Yeah. It really lit up a whole bunch. Like from old to new systems, it works on pretty much everything and just adds like a depth to the play that we just hadn't thought of before LEDs came out, right? Yeah, correct. So, I mean, obviously, the first Pinstadium kit that came out is just for GI and does some flashing. Then Orion's belt was then introduced, which is effectively just a whole set of customizable flashes. Yep. And so now they've released Pinsadium Fusion, which is effectively those two separate items combined in one. Yep. With the UV and glow flasher too. Yes, correct. So it's got all of them. So yeah, that's right. Because with the first Pinsadiums, you can get them as just your GI, but then you can add the flasher module. Yep, yep. Then you can add a whole separate flasher module with Orion's Belt. Now you get it all in at once. So we'll link it. Go to Penn Stadium. Fusion. Awesome. Coming soon, I'm sure. Absolutely. CGC. We've still got some more. We've got so much. I told you we had lots of news to get through. So CGC. What we've been hearing, we saw an interview. the LEs are to be done by Feb 1. Okay, so for Monster Bash? Yes. What did I say? Right. No, you didn't say anything. You just said the LEs. But yes, it was assumed that it was the Monster Bash. Yeah, of course. Of course. So that's for US and then the world to follow. Yeah. So, I mean, that's great. And this all comes down to I think we're talking about the play field, them not having as many as they thought in the first batch. So they're looking after the US first is what I'm saying. Right. So thank you. Does that mean, wait a minute, it's past the Fed. Does that mean that they're out there in the wild? They said that they were going to be done by Feb 1. So I haven't seen an update. So let's hope this happens. But, yeah, we've been told late March for Australia for our LEs. Okay. So, I don't know. I'd push that out a month if I was everybody waiting on that. Safe. It's not like it's a new theme or anything, so you can get your fix of it if you need to. Exactly. But, yeah, they'll be great machines. Exactly. That's the news. The news. It's done. That is the news. so did you listen to the last episode I know it was a couple of weeks ago where we talked about auteur I did indeed so we said and then Ryan put up a poll on Facebook saying which pinball designer is the bigger auteur so much so that their name is synonymous with the machine for example a Pat Lawler machine or a Steve Ritchie machine because I said Steve Ritchie and he's like oh no Pat Lawler and I'm like are you kidding me freaking Steve Ritchie I know that there are Pat Lawler games but I don't look at a machine and go oh that's a Pat Lawler game but I look at a Steve Ritchie and go it's a Steve Ritchie game so I knew I was right you were right but were you? no I wasn't no I wasn't well but I wasn't convincingly wrong it's pretty even and I think you've got two big names there so Pat Lawler and Steve Ritchie you had to pick one you have to pick one I voted for Pat Lawler right and yeah I sat there and thought about it for a bit you're going to be right or you're going to be wrong either way really they could both easily be thought of as that yeah this is why it was a very interesting poll to put out there because they're both incredibly known for their machines. And you know it's a Steve Ritchie game or it's a Pat Lawler game. I think the split came down to, oh, well, I like Pat Lawler games better. Yeah, that's right. That's not even what it is. There's no... How do you define... I don't think author is the sort of thing that can be ranked, really. Yeah, you either are or you're not. Who's the bigger genius sort of thing, you know? Yeah. If you're talking about science or something. You can't really do it. So, yeah. And the poll results reflect that. Well, it's exactly right. But, you know, the word really does talk to... It's for film. It's for film directors. And the parallel I'll give, right, is that you have got, you know, some direct... Like James Cameron, right? In fact, Avatar was called James Cameron's Avatar. Yes. Right? And wasn't it like James Cameron's Terminator or something? Wasn't it? Like that? Whereas you've also... So he is an auteur, right? Yes. He's on this. So is Woody Allen. Mm-hmm. they are both equally auteurs. Yeah recognisable Right You see their movie you go yeah that such and such That exactly right If you put them in a poll against each other who would be ranked as the more of an auteur James Cameron or Woody? Well, you'd probably get a fairly even mix. You'd probably get more James Cameron just because people are less likely to like Woody Allen for various reasons. That's exactly right. So the poll was asking who is more of an auteur. So it's really hard. It's such a hard poll. But I'm glad that people went out and voted for it. And Ryan got 53% of the vote and I got 47% of the vote, which was... If he's going to win one, it might as well be that one where there's no... Exactly. So well done, Ryan. Hope you're listening. So shall we do some social media watch? Go on. Thank you. Awesome. so the first one I want to talk about is Danielle Peck what do we know about Danielle Peck? Danielle Peck is a young woman from New Zealand in a family that has a very nice pinball collection they really do every System 11 machine I believe is in their parlour yeah they have them all an amazing player like one of our one of the fine teenage players in the world, really. Yeah, absolutely. Recently number one woman in the world. That's absolutely correct. But they also had the New Zealand National Pinball Championships. Yeah, indeed. I think it was... A couple of weekends ago. Yeah, maybe a weekend and a half ago. The weekend off that we had. Yep. And she won it. She did. I think her father qualified first, but she came through in the finals. Yeah, correct. And the reason why this is in Social Media Watch is because it's fucking everywhere. It is. It's got great, yeah, great pick-up from the local journalistic outlets over there. A couple of news stories and things like that. Yeah, like proper video interviews and primetime TV. and it's all over print media as well. So it's just... I'm sure we'll have that for the Australian Championships coming up in a couple of weeks. We will, yeah. Stories about Stacey Borg will be... They will be legends, yeah. Absolutely. Oh, that is soon, isn't it? Only a couple of weeks away. Yeah, two weeks away. There you go. And the other thing that happened in Social Media Watch was a very sad thing that I saw on Facebook. Yep. Not good at all. Not good at all. So this involves a great friend of the show, in fact, legendary friend of the show from our last episode where we woke him up at four o'clock in the morning and we didn't get any backlash from that on Pinside. None at all. People didn't care about that at all. So what happened to Christopher Franchi? his office where he keeps much of his memorabilia and indeed his new Beatles machine fortunately got flooded it got flooded absolutely flooded probably related to the cold snap the polar vortex is that what they're calling it? something like that so yeah there's a lot of issues with that in terms of frozen pipes and burst pipes and things like that Water is a son of a bitch. Yeah. Let's just put it that way. And, yeah. So my understanding is his Beatles machine is actually written off. Yep. It's been enough. I saw George Gamers talking about that. Now they're only 1963. That's right. So they're even more exclusive. Indeed. Not the best way for it to happen, but that's how it goes. No, that was just awful. So damn you, Polar Vortex. Now, I keep saying polar vortex because I didn't know what this thing was, but you know America's going through this massive cold spell at the moment, and they're calling it, apparently it's a polar vortex. And I don't know what that is, except I do know that, and I'm going to link this in the show notes, this is me going off tangent again, because it's somewhat related to you. Yeah, right. Because there's actually a song that was performed by Flula Borg. A Flula Borg. You know Flula? Third cousin Flula, yeah. Do you know Flula Borg? No, I don't know Flula. Oh, my God. Okay, Jennifer, she's a party pooper. Okay, I'm going to link the Polar Vortex song. And then you, John Borg, have now got another member of your Borg clan. Another member of the Borg Collective. Yep, Flula Borg. Great. So there we go. That was Social Media Watch. What's happened in your week, Stacey? My week is a pretty big week for me, to be honest. I don't have all the biggest weeks all the time. but yeah, there were a couple of pinball tournaments which we'll get onto but the most important part of my week was I got a new machine, Martin. So, I know. We've got to remember, you get machines less than I do and I don't get them that often. No. Yeah, I picked up a Last Action Hero a couple of years ago and that's been my one and only machine for a while and recently a good friend of mine from the board gaming world contacted me out of the blue and told me about his friend had a machine and asked me if I knew the best place to sell a pinball machine. Yeah, I know the best place to sell a pinball machine. To me. Get in my belly. Basically. Yeah. So, yeah, so he told me about, yeah, he had an EM machine. Jungle Princess is the machine. I thought, yeah, great. Send me some photos. That'll be fantastic. I didn't hear anything back for about a week. eventually sort of pinged my friend back and he remembered to send me the pictures and so it turned out that there were two machines that his friend had. The Jungle Princess and also a Space Odyssey. So, I mean, I don't have the means to move one machine, let alone two, but it's a good thing that I have friends in the pinball world and those friends also like to buy machines. So, yeah, I contacted a good friend of the show, Stu Thornton, he was up for a road trip so we set out early on Saturday morning yeah drove up a couple of hours from where we are sort of north into country Victoria and yeah how far was the drive how long about an hour and a half to two hours so sort of on the way went past Jews but did you know what quality these games were in what condition they were in literally just from the photos So, and, you know, the description given, basically, that they had been working. At some stage. At some stage. Since the 50s or 60s, whenever they were made, yeah. Yeah, so, well, they're both 70s. So, yeah, it's Jungle Princess 77 and the other one's 76. So, well, basically, the same vintage as me. So, yeah, so, they'd been, yeah, my friend Bruce had sort of grown up playing this game with his friend Carl. And yeah, so effectively just a sort of, effectively a home use only jungle princess, really, which is pretty good. And yeah, the photos looked pretty decent. Yeah, the working condition was likely not working. So that's fine. They're EM machines. So, you know, I'm willing to dip my hat into that ring. There are a few people around Melbourne that have some idea with that. So, yeah, we took the trek, got to the machines. They looked better than we could have hoped for. Carl was a great guy, helped us out, no end. He had a whole bunch of stuff, manuals, schematics, all that stuff was there with it. Reference materials and fixing guides and that sort of thing. So, yeah, we took them apart, loaded them up, brought them back. Easy as that. So it was a super hot day. Yeah, it was too. Stu's car didn't have air con, so luckily the air wasn't too hot. It wasn't a hot wind or anything, so we got out early. Yeah, made the trek. It was a pretty nice trip. Spent a bit of time at Stu's block out there. Checked out his bees. He does have bees. It was all right. It was good fun. So when you got these machines home, do you turn them on and see what happens? On the day, no. We were out from basically 8 to 4.30. So we were out of the house for like seven hours. So I didn't do anything. And then the next day was also a stinker of a day. So I didn't even think about looking at that. I had a look at them today. So I have powered up Jungle Princess. It powers up. It goes through some motions. the reels turn, all that sort of stuff so it's looking pretty good but it doesn't start a game properly but I mean it's not an uncommon thing for a few of the relays to be out and for those people that don't know, so Jungle Princess is the two player version of another EM called Jungle Queen and it is quite a beloved game a lot of tournament players say that that's their favourite game yeah right yeah it looks like it's got a fun layout I mean the back glass is immaculate so it looks just great so yeah I'm really really happy with it and Stu is pretty happy to pick up Space Odyssey as well he's got some interesting features on that one like the effectively when you trap up the ball it will fall into a little scoop and shoot out up the playfield so that's kind of cool yeah So we were both happy to get our first EMs, and we'll have fun trying to get them back to a good playing state. And look, I'm not going to ask you to reveal, but you got them for a pretty good price too, right? We did indeed, yeah. I'm not going to obviously reveal that. No, I'm not going to ask that. But we were pretty happy, both you and I were pretty happy, and Carl was happy to sell them to us, knowing that we're going to love them and keep them ourselves. So, yeah, really looking forward to getting that up and going. I had to spend the day before we took the road trip cleaning up my little space and making another slot for a machine. I haven't really got any other. Yeah, it's sitting nicely next to Life's Action Hero at the moment. Awesome. Good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, so that was the road trip. Yeah. And before that, during the week, we had a couple of tournaments. So my first tournaments for the week, for the year, sorry. So I went to Pinball Paradise and entertained myself at Ryan's Flip Frenzy. So I think this is the first of the new style Flip Frenzies that I've played in. Oh, no, probably at... Oh, no, I didn't play at the one at Flip Out. No, because you were helping me tournament direct it. That's right. But you pretty much ran it. So thank you for that. I didn't pretty much run it. But, yeah, I mean, the Match Play software lets you do that. So Ryan, yeah, ran it himself using the Match Play software. Didn't have too many issues. Probably had to walk away a couple of times just to sort out one or two stuck balls. But we had, yeah, 18 or so machines in the tournament at Pinball Paradise, both upstairs and downstairs. Again, it wasn't the coolest day, but no, I heard it was pretty hot. It was a bit of a stinker, but it wasn't too bad. Like the front section was great. Upstairs was a bit hotter and out the back was a bit of a sauna. but we got through it and, yeah, I was having a... I was playing pretty well. Like, flip frenzy, you never really know what's going on, but I was mostly winning, so I think I came out the end of the day with 17-4, which is pretty good numbers, really. I'm pretty happy with that. I had to play a lot of the crappy old games a number of times and it didn't help me very much, so I think I lost a game on Black Pyramid and Cubole Wizard that I could have done with winning. But yeah, but... No one wins on those games. I know. Well, I think I took a victory on... I take one victory on Black Pyramid by about 50,000 or something. I was pretty happy about that. Almost got caught. Yeah, so ended up... Count came out and I was second. So pretty happy with that. It was about 40 players or so. So yeah, really good result for me. That's fantastic. And yeah, Andre pulled that one out with, I think, 18 and 3 results. So I didn't see him the whole night. That's 18 wins and 3 losses. 18 wins and 3 losses. Yeah, that's right. Would have had to turn around two results to take over that. But we didn't play each other at any stage. So that's how flip frenzies work sometimes. You get into a bit of a rhythm and you see certain people and certain machines more than others. But yeah, everyone had a really good night, I think. And yeah, another good format to play in Melbourne. Awesome. Thanks to Ryan. Well done, Ryan. We miss you. We do. And you also went to Pixel Alley as well. Yes, for the next day. There were actually three tournaments in a row this week. I managed to go to the first two. Pixel Alley was the shit strikes format, as we like to call it. Where does that come from? Progressive strikes. So you have five strikes. You'll get no strikes for winning, two strikes for losing a round, and one for any other result. Again, I was playing alright. Got through the first four rounds, I think, with a few wins in a... The first three rounds with a couple of wins in a second place or so. And then caught a bad break on Twilight Zone. Just did not behave well for me at all. So I got a loss there and got down to three strikes. Pulled out a bonus time victory on Guardians of the Galaxy to keep me rolling. It was pretty great. I used my Hadron missiles to finish Quills after draining, which gave me a 20 million bonus, which was doubled, which is exactly what I needed to take first place there. Sorry, Simon, for taking you out on that one. But I was pretty happy about that. I might have fist-pumped for that one. And then, yeah, I think I got caught a bad break in the last game and got another last against you and Luke. Yeah, it was a good night. It's definitely a better format than normal strikes. Yeah, for sure. But it's still strikes, so it's still shit. But yeah, I'll take those two results as the first two results of the year and keep on trucking on. And now I've got to focus on ACS, really. I've got Argonauts coming up this week, but apart from that. Yeah, that's right. It is all about the Australian Championship Series in Canberra. so we're all looking forward to that. Yeah, indeed. How about you, Martin? What did you get up to this year? So, look, I had my first tournament of the year. I'm not going to talk about it because it was terrible. It was terrible because Avengers. Yes, I was watching the results and... Yeah, just woeful. Your comment into our stream was not very pleasant. It wasn't very pleasant, was it? No. But that's terrible. I would still want an Avengers machine for home because I would want to spend enough time to understand its layout and get comfortable with the shots and the rules. But in a tournament setting like this, it was like, do I go for Hulk, which is worth no points, or do I go for modes, which is worth points? And either way, my brain could work out, and so I just bombed out. Anyway. That's the problem. If you can't get that focus to focus on some sort of strategy, it always makes it a lot harder to play well. Exactly right. Exactly right. So that's what happened. But I've done my usual streaming, and I've actually streamed Lord of the Rings twice in the last week. In fact, the first week I planned on it. The second one, I planned on streaming Wizard of Oz. My Wizard of Oz. Oh, my Wizard of Oz. It's just getting worse. So some lights aren't working. The monkey mod's not working. The lock mechanism's not working. it's just falling to pieces so I think I caught the last few minutes of life of the Woz stream that's right I changed a setting so the monkey mod wasn't activated like you turn it off so therefore it just locks the ball and that's fine except the lock mechanism in the Emerald City around the house stopped working the house isn't spinning as well so I reckon there's just probably some cable that's just out and I need to fix it but so what happened was I I cut the stream, quickly moved back on to Lord of the Rings again, and it's just been really popular, getting nearly 100 people each stream. It's a great game. It's a fantastic game to watch. Yeah, I think it is. I think you're right. I guess that's what it is. It's a top five machine or top ten machine in a lot of people's eyes. I guess people like watching it. So that's good. But one thing I don't think we mentioned in the previous episode was that I had streamed Mafia. Ah, yes. I don't think we mentioned it. Probably not, no. Just that it's actually a really good layout. I mean, I think it was the first thing that we thought about was that it was really odd. You know, you've got the stand-up target with a pop bumper up on the top, and that's not weird. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the layout at all. I didn't mind flipping it. It'd flip out at all. I thought it was, yeah, didn't see why I was getting too much slack. But one thing I did sort of, I did watch your Mafia stream, and I didn't really understand what was going on in terms of code. Okay. That was the real problem. Okay. So, okay, there's a couple of things that's wrong with that. But what I will say, just because all the things that we said negatively negatively in the past about Mafia were the layout. The layout's actually good. The layout's good. It's very much like an EM. It feels really good to flip. Absolutely nothing wrong with the layout. The art is so much better in real life. Yeah. It really is. It's got that cartoony style. It sort of matches well. Correct. The integration of the newspaper works well. Correct. it's actually alright it's not bad the rules the rules are the problem in that there's not that many of them and you are effectively you're locked in what it tells you to do there's no So there's no more linear game than Mafia. It's like you are now sitting these shots. You've got these three shots, or you can go up the middle for another hurry up. It's got potential. It's got enough inserts there for it to have a lot more potential. I just think some more thinking around the rules framework needs to be done. If one of your three things is going to be bad, make it your code. Because the code can be fixed at any time. That's exactly right. Like, it can't be changed. Nope. And if you're listening, Team Pinball, because they actually watch the stream. Oh, do they? Yeah, well, I know that they watch that one. Yeah, great. So, first of all, I actually really think it's a good game. Yep. And as far as code goes, you know, when you first start, You've got to hit those three shots. I can't even remember what they are. I think right orbit, left orbit, and the captive ball. Something like that, yeah. Yeah, and then that starts a hurry up. Don't do it like that. No. Do it so you've got those three shots, but each one of those three times starts its own sort of hurry up. Yeah. You know, it just opens it more up to, you know, four different hurry ups that you can go for instead of two, One being the spinner up the middle and then those three shots. There's a lot of potential there to make it, to change the way it plays. Yep, I agree. In a very positive way. Yep. And ripping that spinner up the middle is so satisfying. It is. I've got to tell you. So, you know, all in all, I think it's a good effort. So much better than I thought it was going to be. That's good. There you go. And it's got gin. And it's got gin, right. So I love gin. I don't know if anyone knew about that. Iron Maiden's gone. Right. Got picked up. So, on its way to Brisbane. So, Daniel will really enjoy that game when it gets to him. Excellent. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v1)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: cec20030-048a-4734-b1e8-6a7a85fd3664*