# Triple Drain Pinball Podcast Episode 34 - TPF 2023 Recap with Colin MacAlpine! **Source:** The Pinball Network **Type:** video **Published:** 2023-04-01 **Duration:** 146m 50s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD26Twad6sw --- ## Analysis Triple Drain Pinball Podcast Episode 34 features Colin MacAlpine, tournament director and rules designer for P3, discussing the Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) 2023 tournament, its format and success, and initial impressions of six new games on display. The hosts cover tournament logistics, the Classics division, and relay notable moments including meeting fans and award recognition for Triple Drain's podcast. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Colin MacAlpine is a rules designer working with P3 on an unannounced game project — _Colin confirms to the hosts: 'I'm a rules designer that sounds great um yes that's a Consulting gig... the first time uh doing that actively for actually designing it from the the ground up' and notes he cannot discuss the project details._ - [HIGH] TPF 2023 Classics tournament finals featured Escher as winner with a triple roll on Old Chicago in the tiebreaker — _Colin recounts: 'Usher triple rolled it triple roll uh he he put up 300 000 on Old Chicago and just in very convincing fashion' in a tiebreaker against Preston._ - [MEDIUM] Laura Streeter from Arkansas, a competitive player for approximately two years, reached the Classics finals — _Colin states: 'Laura Streeter from Arkansas that uh has not been playing the only I think when I looked at her profile afterwards I think she's only been playing for about two years competitively' and notes 'she had a she had a chance there in that game of Flash.'_ - [HIGH] Travis Murie finished approximately 140th in Classics tournament due to early ball volatility on classic machines — _Travis describes poor Classics performance: 'I remember nine balls in a row three straight games only two actually got to a flipper' and states 'I think I finished like 140th or something like that.'_ - [HIGH] Triple Drain Podcast placed seventh out of ten in the 2023 Tippies awards — _Joel announces: 'third third little thing is twippies we actually ended up getting Seventh Place seventh out of ten for podcast which was awesome so thank you for anybody and everybody that nominated us.'_ - [HIGH] TPF has historically been voted as the best or one of the top two pinball shows — _Colin states: 'tpf is a world-class Premier show... I would argue it's the best show but I mean if it's if it's not the best it's one of the best you know two I mean the twippies it gets voted is the best.'_ - [HIGH] The TPF main tournament uses approximately 25 total plays with best scores required on 12 different machines — _Colin explains: 'you have right and you have it's it's it's actually ratio wise it's about the same you have you have 25 total plays and you have to put up your best score on 12 different machines.'_ ### Notable Quotes > "the more excited you get the quieter you actually get and you're you have these like kind of whisper like oh man he hit the lock" > — **Joel Engelberth**, ~early in episode > _Compliments Colin's commentary style during tournament finals, noting his unique approach of getting more emotionally invested while speaking more quietly to avoid disrupting players._ > "I had some input into that game at the very very beginning of it the very Inception of it um so you're Weird Al then I was very only at the tail end getting involved with that ones I'm involved with something that I can't talk about" > — **Colin MacAlpine**, ~mid-episode > _Reveals involvement in an unannounced P3 project while discussing his limited involvement in Final Resistance, indicating an active game design project in development._ > "striking that balance which by the way I really like uh kiefer's rules a lot because I like that kind of complexity I like board games too but it's cool having a team that we can all work together on it" > — **Colin MacAlpine**, ~mid-episode > _Expresses appreciation for complexity in rules design while acknowledging the need to balance novice and expert players, citing complexity designer Keith Elwin (Kiefer) as an influence._ > "anybody can armchair quarterback from their keyboard or from their podcast uh you know on on how rules should work but when you have to get get into the nitty-gritty of not just the rules design but how the how the rules integrate with choreography how to integrate with video how they integrate with Graphics the timing of things you know doing all the math of scoring yeah oh my gosh it's it's a lot of work" > — **Colin MacAlpine**, ~early-mid episode > _Articulates the complexity of game design beyond surface-level rules, emphasizing integration with multiple systems and real development challenges._ > "I was young and naive and said yes and and so yeah we um we took um that show and so the the overall Vision that I had you know from what six years ago now or seven years ago was to I you know tpf is a world-class Premier show" > — **Colin MacAlpine**, ~mid-episode > _Colin reflects on his seven-year involvement running TPF tournaments, establishing the vision of creating a world-class tournament experience aligned with the show's quality._ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Colin MacAlpine | person | Former World Pinball Champion, current rules designer for P3, tournament director for Texas Pinball Festival, competitive player and industry veteran | | Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) | event | Annual pinball show and tournament in Texas, consistently voted best pinball show, features multiple tournament divisions (Main, Classics, Women's) | | Travis Murie | person | Co-host of Triple Drain Pinball Podcast, elite competitive pinball player, participated in TPF 2023 tournaments (qualified for main finals, finished ~140th in Classics) | | Joel Engelberth | person | Co-host of Triple Drain Pinball Podcast, content creator, attended TPF 2023 and contributed commentary during tournament | | Tom | person | Co-host of Triple Drain Pinball Podcast, participated in TPF 2023 tournaments, father of Neil, competitive pinball player | | Triple Drain Pinball Podcast | organization | Pinball-focused podcast hosted by Joel Engelberth and Travis Murie, won 7th place in 2023 Tippies awards for podcasts | | Escher Lefkowitz | person | Elite competitive pinball player, ranked #1 in world, won TPF 2023 Classics tournament with triple roll on Old Chicago in finals tiebreaker | | Neil | person | Tom's son, competitive pinball player, placed fourth in TPF 2023 Classics tournament, qualified for main tournament finals | | Laura Streeter | person | Competitive player from Arkansas with ~2 years competitive play history, reached finals in TPF 2023 Classics tournament | | Preston | person | Competitive pinball player who placed second in TPF 2023 Classics finals tiebreaker, scored 230,000 on Old Chicago | | P3 | company | Multimorphic pinball manufacturer, Colin MacAlpine works as rules designer for unannounced project | | Ed Vanderveen | person | TPF organizer/operator, invited Colin to help run tournaments years ago | | Liz Drone | person | Tournament director for Texas Takedown women's tournament at TPF | | Monica | person | Female competitive pinball player, placed 12th in TPF 2023 Classics, practices on classic machines at home | | Jeff Tolis | person | Tournament commentator at TPF 2023, known for competitive pinball commentary | | Bond 60th | game | Recently released pinball machine not playable at TPF 2023, Tom Hanks praised its quality in previous episodes | | Final Resistance | game | P3 pinball game with Bo and Karen as lead designers, Colin MacAlpine provided early conceptual input | | Stern | company | Major pinball manufacturer, TPF main tournament is on Stern Pro Circuit | ### Topics - **Primary:** Texas Pinball Festival tournament format and design, Classics pinball tournament division and volatility, Rules design and game design complexity, TPF 2023 Classics finals results and player performance - **Secondary:** Triple Drain Podcast growth and community engagement, Pinball tournament commentary and play dynamics, P3 game development pipeline - **Mentioned:** New games at TPF 2023 ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.78) — Overall tone is upbeat and celebratory regarding TPF success, tournament design achievements, and community engagement. Minor frustration expressed about Classics tournament volatility and regret over brief fan interaction, but these are addressed with self-awareness and humor. Strong appreciation for Colin's work and accomplishments. ### Signals - **[event_signal]** Texas Pinball Festival 2023 tournament successfully executed with multiple divisions (Main, Classics, Women's), praised for format innovation and world-class execution (confidence: high) — Colin describes TPF tournament evolution from local to regional/national event with consistent top player attendance and positive feedback; tournament placed on Stern Pro Circuit - **[community_signal]** Triple Drain Podcast recognized with 7th place finish in 2023 Tippies awards, indicating growing community reach and fan engagement (confidence: high) — Joel announces award placement and describes multiple positive fan interactions at TPF, including autographs and photographs - **[design_philosophy]** Colin MacAlpine articulates design philosophy of balancing novice accessibility with expert competitive depth in rules design (confidence: high) — Colin discusses challenge of creating rules 'fun for a novice all the way up to an esher lefkov' while avoiding over-complexity and exploitability - **[gameplay_signal]** Classic pinball machines introduce significant variance in competitive play due to mechanical unpredictability, affecting tournament strategy and outcomes (confidence: high) — Travis reports 9 balls in a row as house balls despite proper technique on classics; multiple players discuss impact of machine variance on scoring - **[machine_intel]** P3 has unannounced game in active development with Colin MacAlpine as rules designer, details cannot be disclosed (confidence: high) — Colin states: 'I'm involved with something that I can't talk about' when asked about current projects beyond Final Resistance - **[competitive_signal]** TPF 2023 Classics finals demonstrated high-level competitive play with notable performances from established and emerging players (confidence: high) — Escher won with triple roll on Old Chicago; Laura Streeter reached finals after ~2 years competitive play; Preston scored 230k on Old Chicago - **[content_signal]** Colin MacAlpine's tournament commentary style emphasizes emotional investment through pacing, volume, and pitch modulation rather than loud/obvious reactions (confidence: medium) — Joel praises Colin's 'whisper-like' commentary style that conveys excitement while respecting player focus, noting intentional vocal delivery choices - **[design_innovation]** TPF tournament format designed to balance competitive integrity with player ability to enjoy show floor, using limited entry structure and multiple division tiers (confidence: high) — Colin explains original vision of allowing players to compete then enjoy show; evolved to include Classics and Women's divisions with consistent 100 TGP target - **[competitive_signal]** Classic machines increasingly featured in major tournament main events alongside modern machines, requiring players to demonstrate cross-era proficiency (confidence: high) — Colin notes 'pinberg obviously was a Pioneer in doing that um but it's cool that we have that I like having that you know people have to demonstrate their proficiency across all different eras' - **[community_signal]** Texas Takedown women's pinball tournament at TPF has grown significantly, now supported by dedicated tournament director (Liz Drone) (confidence: medium) — Colin mentions women's pinball scene 'has taken off' and notes dedicated TD Liz Drone running Texas Takedown tournament alongside main events - **[personnel_signal]** Colin MacAlpine expanded role from competitive player and tournament director to rules designer for P3, indicating emerging designer talent pipeline (confidence: high) — Colin describes transition from player feedback to tournament director to rules designer: 'I brought those up to uh to Ed vanderveen and he used that as an opportunity to say hey Colin you want to be part of the solution' --- ## Transcript foreign [Music] network is online launching triple drain pinball podcast Travis I know I'm just blowing I don't know what that is that is literally the intro that is before every tpn podcast every single one so if that's a surprise to you you've just admitted to your role you've never listened to it yes that is that is in front of every single TPS podcast well I've never listened to one of our podcasts Joel because I'm freaking on it I'm saying tpn podcasts like all of them yes and the same lady says yeah triple drain them up but it'll say the pinball show or oh yeah I forgot that my fault okay so with that taken care of Travis you good you ready you ready for this yeah it just threw me off I haven't heard that before so no I know I know I know what it's from all right let's roll uh Tom you good yeah except you know trap targets are mechanisms oh yeah we gotta we're gonna have to get into there hey extra Ball third person here yes Colin are you feeling good you ready to go I'm feeling great okay here we go Triple J all right I feel bad calling every single time they said triple he uh he healed at four fingers so so yes apparently we need to we need to edit our song when we have an extra ball just so you feel included no that's fine I was just foreshadowing to a topic Express later oh perfect oh okay all right um so we have three real quick housekeeping items uh first off hopefully everything sounds good and looks good we use zencaster for recording um cinecaster has always been a great program but we're trying something new because we actually want to start recording video through zincaster it could make things easier uh also it was a free program it's no longer a free program we have to pay for it so 20 bucks a month we're sending their way so thank you to all the patreon supporters that is it exact that's a great use of your money to pay for the program we need to make this show so it could turn into an absolute cluster though too it could we we are yeah we're just gonna have to wait and see how this pans out um yeah but hey there's sound boards here that's why I played that intro song Travis didn't know that so maybe maybe I don't have to put it in afterwards you know we're gonna see will this help Travis's camera the answer is no it will not it will go out and I told you before the podcast I attempted to fix it the record show I did attempt thank you it's just sticked let's just move it along time Thomas video is going to look great mine's gonna look great Collins is going to look great Tom right now he's a freaking Beauty but he looks like he's streaming from a potato right here I don't know what's going on I'm guessing though the the raw footage or whatever that it captures will be good I don't know we're mixing we're trying this all up so anyways patreon people thank you thank you for support if you're looking check us out triple drain you'll find us second line item Tom and I have we've we've really struggled with the last week sleeping we we have guilt we feel terrible there was a fan there was a guy that came up to us on Sunday we're in the hallway out outside the tournament room we were talking to Raymond and then Nielsen or Neil uh Tom's son Neil we were talking to them and it was kind of a small hallway and we were chatting it up about I don't know whatever and there was a guy that came up in a triple drain uh hat and he said hi to Tom and I you know he's like I am a big fan thanks for your content and we we basically said thank you you know really we it was a very short interaction that we had with him and um and then I felt bad because then there was kind of weird moment and we kept talking to Ray and the guy was like okay well see you later wait wait wait wait what do you what do you mean there was a weird moment Joel It's just talking we didn't no we didn't like there was no follow-up like oh hey you know like where you know what games do you have what are you into like isn't Travis an idiot thank God he's not here there was nothing we didn't like continue the conversation with him and I thought oh yeah you're saying the fans of triple drain have found out what Joel is really like yeah I'm a jerk he's a big celebrity yeah oh yeah now everybody knows what happens behind the scenes a triple drain now so I felt the guy started to walk away and he was pretty much at the end of the hall and I looked at Tom and I was like Tom we probably should talk to that guy and Tom's like yeah you're probably right and then I looked down and he had already turned the corner and it just that that stuck with me like I genuinely feel bad about that I have an excuse I don't talk so oh so Tom was consistent I was not so it's just me so whoever that was I hope you still listen I hope you're still a fan and I'm very sorry that we not did not give you uh the time of day you deserve um and and next time you see Joel you can kick him in the balls sure sure Travis said that was okay yeah exactly HomeAway probably has a picture of Joel in his bedroom right now just jumping darts at it yeah I wouldn't blame him one bit yeah it's uh it's his room looks like the the guy in um what is it um Waterboy now Waterboy uh Ace Ventura the like the Finkle yeah yeah laces yeah yeah yeah that's so anyways um sorry to that guy uh we do want to say though we we had a bunch of people come up to us at tpf with nothing but pleasantries they were super nice it was awesome getting to meet so many different people and talk to them took a few photos I signed a guy's shirt which I thought was cool I mean it was awesome it was incredibly cool to know that the three of us are literally sitting in our basements or you know Travis is upgraded from a closet and we we just talked about pinball that's all we do and the fact that there are people literally around the world that are enjoying this is ridiculous and it's awesome so thank you so much for anybody that said hi tpf we greatly greatly appreciate that um third third little thing is twippies we actually ended up getting Seventh Place seventh out of ten for podcast which was awesome so thank you for anybody and everybody that nominated us and voted Travis wasn't there so he's playing dumb he thinks we won you know because I know we were the first ones there was a list I'm going with that yeah it matters and Tom and I announced an award which was pretty cool so Tom was able to scream rush in front of a crowd of people that's like my wet dream oh God okay so enough of all that there's our there's all of our stuff out of the way time to dive in here Colin Colin MacAlpine uh former World Champ uh currently you do uh what is it like uh code you don't write the code but like code and rules suggestion or um Consulting with P3 I don't I mean what's your official do you have an official title what's your official title with P3 I'm a I'm a rules designer rules designer that sounds great um yes that's a Consulting gig so no it's not my day job it's just something to do on the side that's a lot of fun and um yeah first time uh doing that I've uh you know just on the sides contributed to other people's uh rules and just you know they'd bounce ideas off me or we just talk about them online or other stuff and so yeah the first time uh doing that actively for actually designing it from the the ground up and I must say it's um it's it's really cool it's also a lot more work than you'd expect anybody can armchair quarterback from their keyboard or from their podcast uh you know on on how rules should work but when you have to get get into the nitty-gritty of not just the rules design but how the how the rules integrate with choreography how to integrate with video how they integrate with Graphics the timing of things you know doing all the math of scoring yeah oh my gosh it's it's a lot of work it's cool and but it just it has given me a new sense of appreciation for all those other people that have worked on or currently working on games and doing rules design and doing just game design in general um it's so much more than anybody realizes until you've actually taken the plunge sure and and I know we talk about it a lot I mean I know at least between the three of us our skill sets um vary drastically so that's the one thing that I'm realizing the more that I get into pinball designing a game or designing a rule set that is fun for a novice all the way up to an esher lefkov you know like like in anywhere in between and how do you balance for that how do you balance for the guy that's going to find the one thing exploit it and just hit the same shot over and over again verse how do you make it fun with cool you know choreography and sound and just fun things to do very close to the start button for Joe Schmo that just walks up and hits the start button so I I have nothing but respect for you guys and taking that on um because it looks near impossible to be honest I mean is there do you have any so you're right now working on Final resistance which was Scott Danesi's game did you did you consult on any of the other games so I'm I'm very hardly involved at all on Final resistance oh okay yeah so that's that's uh that's Bo and Karen's on that I had some I had some input into that game at the very very beginning of it the very Inception of it um so you're Weird Al then I was very only at the tail end getting involved with that ones I'm involved with something that I can't talk about oh even better okay well so you're like yeah well good for you man um so this is like so this is your baby then or this is like this is all on you is that it's well yeah so it's it's really cool as far as collaborating and that actually helps a lot because when you have just like you talked about how you have different skill sets you have amongst team members you have different varying levels of skill and differing levels of uh just you know what what you think makes a good game okay and so it's it's really good to have those different perspectives so that way they they pull me back from the Cliff of going you know down like the the the the kefir path of having something where there's just way too many or you know just a over complexity stuff and so you know striking that balance which by the way I really like uh kiefer's rules a lot because I like that kind of complexity I like board games too but it's cool having a team that we can all work together on it and come up with like you said something that can be appealing to the novice and the person that's just stepping up for the first time and for the person that's going to break the game because they're so good at it cool yeah well that's awesome that's exciting I mean congrats to it sounds like you have a project that you're leading or a big you have a big role in so that's that's exciting and you know I look forward to that um one of the main reasons we did invite you on though is you were the main you're the tournament director the main TD at um the tpf tournament um that was last weekend um so you live in Texas correct correct I live in Austin Texas yeah so this is like you took ownership of this and you ran that tournament well I know I only popped in a handful of times but you were you were killing it I will say I really enjoy uh your commentating I enjoy it a lot because I feel like the more excited you get the quieter you actually get and you're you have these like kind of whisper like oh man he hit the lock It's like because I get it you're in the same room as the person playing so you don't want to be obnoxious or interrupt them but it's I loved it I loved it so it was cool being in the room at least during finals and semifinals and listening to you and listening to um Jeff and I don't I don't know the other guy that was announcing at that time but um the three of you guys did a fantastic job um I'm glad you enjoyed it yeah it's a it's kind of a nice uh you know fun way of spending your time in the tournament after you crash out and uh and since I and since I run that term and I get to kind of decide if I'm going to do the commentary it also makes for a great way of actually watching what's going on so you're trying to uh you know observe and still be you know tournament director uh at the same time but uh I you know I really enjoy doing you know commentary it's fun to do and it's fun to uh yeah it's fun to get excited and to you know get you know emotional about stuff I mean I think there's also a place a time and place for somebody who's you know just kind of more more deadpan in their delivery but I tend to get emotional about stuff I think it's exciting and I think I try to convey that with my with my voice whether that's through pacing or through volume or pitch or whatever and so I I I'm very intentional in trying to do that because I think it's I think it adds a lot to have somebody who is genuinely excited about what they're watching as opposed to just watching it and talking about it well so maybe that's an interesting question Travis you made it very far in the tournament did you when you're playing in that room whatever 15 feet away from the people do you hear them do you block that out uh I can hear it before but during no like I during the ball I'm just totally focused on what's on the Playfield and everything else is just kind of zoned out but before I can hear it but it's not a big deal at all I mean come from a baseball background I'm used to being yelled at no matter what so hearing somebody talking the background it doesn't really matter I mean it makes it more fun to be honest with you because I think even before I think we were on taxi and I could hear Jeff teolis behind me because he was talking about us plunging to a certain spot and all that just kind of ingest and I remember turning around be like no I'm not going to do that right now so like that type of interaction cracks me up I mean it's pinball at the end of the day it's fun and I mean until like the only other time that maybe like I may not acknowledge it at all might be if we happen to be an in-disk in a world championship is on the line or something like that and there's thousands upon thousands of dollars but other than that I mean at the end of the day it's pinball we're all friends you gotta have a good time well um where do you guys want to start the goal for today's episode is we want to we definitely want to highlight we haven't talked to we haven't really had a ton of tournament talk recently so we definitely want to highlight especially with Colin here we want to talk about the tournament that was at tpf um you know just overall thoughts how we thought that went all that stuff and then obviously at Texas pinball Festival there were six brand new games uh that were all there ready to play and I know the four of us we all played them and so we kind of want to give our initial Impressions they're not reviews they're not reviews initial impressions of those six games unfortunately there was no bond 60th that was the other game that I was hoping to play uh we'll just have to continue to rely on Tom to tell us how great that is um Colin and or Travis you guys haven't played Bond 60th yet right I've stared at the Box oh still staring at the Box yep yep I've only watched Tom stream of it so Tom since the last time we talked has have your feelings changed about Bond 60th at all no not at all still love it good good good okay so tournament wise tournament wise um I don't know maybe we'll start with Colin I mean you ran the whole thing what do you feel I don't know uh is there anything unique about the tpf or the Texas pinball Festival tournament uh maybe the format style or what is there did you feel there was something that went really well um is there anything you want to change yeah I mean overall thoughts I think you know first off overall I started I I got involved with running to tpf tournaments because I was a player in them at first and um and there were some things that I saw along with other players that could be done better and um and so I brought those up to uh to Ed vanderveen and he used that as an opportunity to say hey Colin you want to be part of the solution and I was young and naive and said yes and and so yeah we um we took um that show and so the the overall Vision that I had you know from what six years ago now or seven years ago was to I you know tpf is a world-class Premier show and anybody that's been there will will say that it's yeah that it is it is if it I would argue it's the best show but I mean if it's if it's not the best it's one of the best you know two I mean the twippies it gets voted is the best and for good reason and so we you know you guys have talked about that you know and everybody else has another reason why tpf is so good um and so I wanted to take and and create a tournament that would mirror a you know that world-class show and have a world-class tournament that took place at tpf and it kind of gone in the in the way in a direction of being more of a a local regional tournament and it wasn't run at the level that was attractive to people traveling from really outside of the region specifically to play at the tournament there's still some great players that were there but they you know they weren't necessarily always there just for the tournament they were there for the show and so we developed a format that when the idea behind the original format was to create a tournament tournament that allowed players to both play in the tournament and enjoy the show and so our original design of it was we just had the one tournament we didn't have a Classics tournament at that time there wasn't a women's tournament it was just the main tournament and we intentionally designed it as a limited entry so you can't just you know pump and dump all day you pay up front for a certain amount of entries and you once you've used those entries you're done with your qualifying you just hope that you made the cut line yeah and then then the idea was hey you can then you know break apart maybe take a break from doing entries for a while and go enjoy the show and then come back or do them all at once and then go enjoy the show the rest of the time or enjoy the show first and then do you get the idea sure now it was a victim of our own success that we had people showing up that were really in the tournaments they said hey we want more than just one tournament you know every other big tournament has an extra Classics tournament or a side tournament and then the women's pinball scene has taken off and thankfully we have a great tournament director based on the bells and shines Houston Liz drone that helps to to run the women's uh uh Texas takedown tournament and so you know we started in adding those other tournaments and so you can now if you really wanted to you could spend pretty much all your time in the tournament rooms or most of it there but the original intent was always to have a tournament that went along with this world-class show and so I think I think we as a team of people that helped to run that have been successful I think we've I think we've succeeded at uh at turning that tournament into a world-class tournament it's uh it's attended Now by people coming from across the country some even from across the world uh we now are consistently getting uh the top players in the world that travel there we're on on the sternpro circuit and uh and generally the the feedback that I get for the tournaments is very positive even with it being unique it is not like most other tournaments where you can just keep paying and paying and paying and playing uh yeah yeah or having a match play in a tournament it's not a match play tournament although the women's tournament is and so uh yeah I'm I'm really proud of where uh where we've come and where we were and that where it's where it's come to dude that's awesome that's awesome that you're getting positive feedback Travis what was your negative feedback that you wanted to share with Colin Classics that's the that's the one I'm actually most salty about my God so I was planning on not playing it at all and everybody kept coming up to me and being like well you signed up for you you're gonna play You're Gonna Play and I was just like you know I think I want to hold off and then somebody I forget who it was somebody came up to me and said well your wife is qualified I was just like okay my ego's taking over I'm gonna go over there and get a buy too so yeah it was like five games later I was like totally screwed so maybe this is question about like why why wouldn't you play like what's the what's the negative and well for me personally it would be just the volatility of it because there's only eight plays right okay so and it's classics classics is much more difficult to control than a modern machine you put me on a modern machine in eight plays I'll get a hold of it I'll figure out how to get four really good scores when it comes to Classics though you're at the mercy sometimes of just the fates of the pinball Gods no matter what you do so to put this in perspective my first or maybe not even my first three games but at one point I remember nine balls in a row three straight games only two actually got to a flipper like seven were like legitimate house balls I wish I could say hey it was my fault but I was focusing on my plunges and everything and I was just like cussing in my head I was just like what am I doing right now and I think literally I think I finished like 140th or something like that it was it was horrible it was so just that everything fell apart does that imp like so okay so that sucks right I agree with that but does that impact your like Global position or anything like it is it hurt you in a negative way not yet it might next just wait yeah so basically to put this in perspective if potential Whopper system that's going to be out next year which affects your efficiency percentage and we don't need to get into the Weeds about that let's just say you just don't want to f up a tournament like I did with the classics because if you finish that low it's going to torpedo this metric and it's very hard to dig your way out of it so you got to be a little bit more I guess intelligent about you know what you're going to do about it yeah so and I was severely lacking that Saturday so yeah it was uh it was pretty bad so yeah okay okay so Classics uh Tom do you have uh how did Classics go for you uh not bad I didn't make the cut but I was I think three spots off the cut nice um I had a really good score on gorgar I think I was like second on gorgar um but uh my Center Grade score bled out and I was I was I I was gonna save like a couple entries towards the end and then I decided to play them and I should have I should have saved one because if if I well I was playing catch up though too because I needed a good score on flash but uh that that's a hard part of it you know for your games count but you only have eight entries so you got to make the most of those opportunities and Colin did you play not in Classics no not close Okay I played in the main in the Wizards tournament yeah but with running it and everything yeah just not time and also I'm I I take over and actually the the you know Hands-On TD for the classics finals as far as sitting there and you know making sure that you know people are you know picking you know picking their games in their player order and all that fun stuff so yeah there's just not time to to do that I think I tried doing that the very first year that we added Classics and uh and I don't I think I didn't you have to ever explain it so yeah never yeah never again but yeah it's tough that's a you know it in it's because we designed that Classics tournament to be a a just a simple add-on it was not intended to be the the main draw and so and we we also kept it as a limited entry you know it's trying just it's just trying to manage the really it's just a it's a throughput Capacity Analysis you know we only have a certain amount of space so you can only have a certain amount of pins and you limit it to a certain amount of people and you estimate how many games how many minutes per game and you just you know you run that math and then add some buffer to it so you deal with the fact there's going to be pins that are gonna be down for a certain period of time and uh yeah there's a you know there's there's part of me now because of the the change in the Whopper rules where you can get more uh you can get more value for your tournament when you are adding on the the qualifying in the finals because that that Classics tournament at tpf is designed to hit exactly the 100 tgp Mark and you know if I were to change the format I could get more out of it like if I were to change it to an unlimited entry I could get more out of it and then I don't know we'll see it's something I'm toying with so maybe I'll I'll uh I'll talk to Travis offline and see if he if he agrees with my analysis on whether or not to whether or not to do it unlimited or not anything that helps me qualify I totally agree with it anything um so at the end of the day what was it who won was it Escher I thought I did it Escher win Usher Escher won that in a you know so spoiler alert sorry you know George was ruin it for you but um yeah he he won in a very convincing way at least on the on the tie Break um so I'm spoiling it again so if you if you don't if you want to watch the VOD spoil away then fast forward but it was a fascinating final four in that Escher was really in in position where he was probably going to take third and going into the last game and on flash and even going into the last ball on flash and then he was played with Neil yeah uh yeah they were they both had two points I think it was and the other people uh you know it was Preston and uh and from out of nowhere Laura Streeter from Arkansas that uh has not been playing the only I think when I looked at her profile afterwards I think she's only been playing for about two years competitively at least yes played phenomenal oh man she tore it up she was great and she had a she had a chance there in that game of Flash the game three of three that um you know if she she was playing great but Escher played really well and she could have uh you know caught him then she would have won it outright instead they went to a tie break on Old Chicago and it was the best like competitive game of Old Chicago I've ever seen before in my life you know if you know the second place Preston you know put up 230 000 on Old Chicago and took second and Usher triple rolled it triple roll uh he he put up 300 000 on Old Chicago and just in very convincing fashion so it's a really good watch even if you've been listening to this and got it spoiled it's still worth watching because you'll just you can appreciate the skill yep well there goes Travis handling handling both the kick out and going right back in for collecting over and over again on Chicago and then both he and Preston had some just amazing uh techniques and nudging the Machine and keeping the ball alive so really really good play awesome so I know what was it Neil Neil ended up what so this is Neil Freddie I feel like we do need to clarify sometimes because we just throw out names like we assume people know him Esther's a big deal he's like number one in the world Neil is Tom's son there we go there's her clarification Neil ended up what was it third or fourth fourth Fourth nice um so he bought dinner is what it sounds like and how'd Monica do Monica qualified yeah she took uh 12th I think she actually got a buy hey so yeah she played outstanding she's been practicing a lot at home on the classics and everything so I was happy for her at least at least somebody in this house can play classic skill so yeah that's good yeah um so awesome weren't we supposed to get Monica inside of Travis that's what we talked about that we're like if Monica place is higher than Travis we should get her we should upgrade to our Murray and she offered no but Tom theoretically then we should have got Neil too I'm just saying yeah yeah I'm just saying I'm retiring bye everybody um so Classic's awesome so then you had the main tournament and I know um yeah there was qualifying for that which was like a day and a half or whatever and then that started up on Saturday and it was cool because I've been to I've been to shows with these guys and normally the two of them are just in the tournament room the whole time like it's it's to get for them to get a break to ever leave the room is so rare and I felt like with these they actually had time um which was pretty cool Travis did qualify for finals Tom you didn't right but Neil did so nice where's the yeah I played like doggy doo in the uh in the main donkey too um awesome but it's also as as Travis was mentioning it's you know it's another limited entry you know you have right and you have it's it's it's actually ratio wise it's about the same you have you have 25 total plays and you have to put up your best score on 12 different machines so it's just a matter if you do have a little bit more flexibility than for those games that you can actually get a hold of on your first game to give you some more extra plays on something else and they're not all classics but there's a lot of Classics so there's a lot of Classics the tpf main was uh was one of the you know it was one of the first tournaments you know big tournaments that used the classics extensively in their main event and since then more and more tournaments have gone that way of using Classics and not just moderns you know pinberg obviously was a Pioneer in doing that um but it's cool that we have that I like having that you know people have to demonstrate their proficiency across all different eras and also have to do that in finals too because they're they're forced to pick up uh each each group is forced to play a pin from each one of the three eras so it's you can't just have you're not gonna just gonna see somebody pick all three moderns for their finals well I will say um I just kind of watched it from afar on Saturday because it was most a Saturday and then the twippies were Saturday night I um and Tom was like well I'll be free but Travis was still in so we're like okay we'll just announce it ourselves we held up a shirt and and Travis's honor I mean it's you know he was there ish um got through the twippies and they were like oh it's semifinals Travis is still in it so Tom me and Neil we went straight to the viewing room and watched the the projector whatever so we were watching The Stream in the Stream next door and um I remember seeing some cool taxi play taxi is such a fun game to watch like it's so easy to know what people are trying to do that there's no like what's he playing what's his plan what's he is he gonna no it's like you know what he's gonna do um which was pretty neat uh watching taxi and then I remember the last game of semifinals for Travis to make finals he had to go he had to go at it in in Godzilla so Godzilla was in and it was super cool sitting next to Tom and Neil because Neil like started geeking out he's like he needs 250 000 points so all he has to do is he has to do this this this this and this in this order and then he's got it and it's like to see his men his brain working and then all of a sudden watching Travis it's like boom he's got his 2x boom he's got his multiball all ready to go he's got his battle lit he gets into that he hits this shot and then I mean there's so many animations that like everybody in that room's like he did it he did it and nobody's you can't even see a score like Joe be over here Joe schmoe I had no idea and then sure enough boom as soon as it actually shows the score it's 280 000 or whatever it was and Crowd Goes Wild and it's just that type of complexity and to see the room I don't know all your brains were thinking that that's what he's gonna do and he did it and so that was really cool to see well done Travis it got you into the finals um yeah I don't know I mean Tom you're sitting there you were thinking that yes you were thinking the same thing I mean it was really that was pretty neat that was pretty neat to see Godzilla go that way um well that's one of the reasons that's one of the reasons why Godzilla is such a good game yeah is because it's not it's I mean like for instance talking about taxi taxi is like a straight execution game you just gotta execute and everybody's gonna be executing on the same thing there's very there's a little bit of variation you can try to pull off but there's really not much and with Godzilla because of you know elwin's incredible rules design and scoring design yes that you have the opportunity even stepping up as player four ball three with only what two million points Travis I think in the semi-finals game right around 15. I think okay down like 218. no it wasn't much at all yeah but you knew because you know the game and you you know how the scoring and how those modes work and you get rewarded by playing and just executing well on any given mode on any given multiple and you know you can do certain Stacks like the one you did and stacking uh you know Titanosaurus with the with the Godzilla multiball and with some other Ally stuff and yeah just the points come rolling in and not just by not just by starting you still have to do the thing you still have to execute during the multiball but I love games that allow you to you know you'd never feel out of it whereas like sometimes an older games or some Classics where like on Mars Trek if you're on Mars track you you kind of have this cap of every single ball of what a score you're going to get and you yes there actually is the potential where you can collect bonus and rebuild your bonus but you're generally not going to survive long enough a Mars direct to do that and so you kind of have this idea like man if I get behind by more than 200 000 on going into ball five there's very little chance that I'm Gonna Catch so it's really cool in games like Godzilla where you can step up and you can you know that hey if I do the right things I can catch yeah and it was that was just really cool to witness it was cool to witness the crowd like work like solving the puzzle in their head this is what he has to do and then to actually see it executed was very cool so it gave me a jumps of what's actually going on in your hits did you figure out what I had to do Joel because you have a Godzilla yes I do figure it out a little bit I did not realize that Titanosaurus was like I I always see everybody go gigant like everybody always goes Gigan for their first thing but then to see this it's like why are they going I asked Tom I was like why are they going Titanosaurus and it's like well if you do it quickly there's more points possible the quicker you you knock it out so if you do that plus the multiball and then I think you had the two times with Ronan uh Rodan rodent whatever going and it just like yeah so it's everything everything work you can get if you can get halfway through a mode or a Kaiju Battle it'll light one of your allies and so I knew that by stacking so when you're thinking about these different modern games it's kind of like thinking of it in terms of layers right so you're trying to get to your first level then you want to do your second thing then your third thing and it's almost like hitting the gas a little bit more a little bit more and then when finally everything's together that's when you really just take off so this is kind of like that to where you're holding off on your mode you're trying to get your multiball Juiced up and then you can bring in your mode then start your multiball right and then from there it's just getting halfway through that battle because once that battles halfway through then priority shifts to the scoop trying to figure out how to get a ball in there as soon as possible and then on top of that it's using the right flipper to make sure that you rotate your allies around to be the 2x because at that point an atom ball wouldn't really do me any good because I knew I still had the spinner left to go and then I also knew I didn't want Mothra because I needed points at that point it wasn't like I was trying to chase down 600 million I was just trying to chase down 220 million so that's well within the reach of a decent Godzilla multiball and a Titanosaurus and I knew also that Midway through that mode I would start focusing more if I couldn't get the Paul Mazur Target which would have been the fourth step to that I knew I could start spamming the wall up shot because I would reach at some point where I'd have a Super Jackpot lit and I'd be able to spot a shot at the same time so that was kind of my line of thinking of going after something like that and it kind of if you see it it all happens within about five seconds or so it's so quick it was really you know what the wallet we taught him that a couple episodes ago he's like a Godzilla expert now okay you know I've interviewed Keith about that I'm pretty sure Keith is going to start teaching me lots of stuff for rule set observations like how do I how do I fix this mode Joel what do you think I should do he's gonna break his contract with loser kid a Keith yeah no part of me wanted as a joke I mean I was joking around with Travis about like hey if you need any help on Taxi like I I know taxi pretty well I can teach you some rules there was one I didn't I didn't know how to relight your lock just get another passenger I was like oh good to know and I almost cracked that joke with Carl and I was like I don't know I'm Gonna Leave Carl alone you know like hey girl if you need Godzilla help I I got you man um no it was really cool to see and then finals roll around and um your final three games were once again taxi so it's like we've already seen a good bit on that so just seeing strategy unveil on that Godzilla and then the last game was volley was that right no yes yes um and yeah I don't know if before before we get into the games there's another layer of the onion here as far as tournament play and strategy that Travis utilized and that is he was the rules of this one and other tournaments as well there's constraints on not being able to pick the same pin again yeah so in this case you can't pick the same pin two rounds in a row and Travis being he was a he was a bus driver at least he was guaranteed to be a bus driver in round one because I think you were the fourth qualified fourth Travis uh yeah third or fourth I think I was right behind Raymond so I think third yeah so he he was driving the bus in his first round then depending on who was left in the tournament he's he could have been driving the bus in semi-finals and he did and but in semi-finals Travis chose to defer so he deferred and chose to go fourth in player order and just let somebody else pick and so he felt confident enough in the games or he knew who the next seat up was and figured that they were going to pick games that he liked to play and that left him in a position when it came time for the finals Travis was the highest seed remaining because esher got knocked out Raymond got knocked out and who was of uh I forget who the second scene was but anyway so Travis was was you know he views the office just those two then he was fine so then at that point Travis now finally picks games during finals it was the first time that Travis picked games the whole time if I'm not mistaken correct Travis uh I got to pick in the first round and I think I went with uh Fu taxi and volleys oh you did take them in okay yeah so it's kind of the same way I ended up so in finals I ended up going with Godzilla paxi and volley and of course a lot of people watching her like well why would you go Godzilla against uh Carl and all that so my line of thinking is is that I I always want to play yeah I want to play games and have fun and at the same time it's not saying Foo Fighters isn't fun but I also want to challenge myself and just get after it and play against the best people against the games that they can play really well and I know it sounds psychotic because I did the same thing at indisk a lot of people don't realize that the reason why I pick Flash Gordon was because it kicked my ass in free play Florida and I was still like I was still fuming about that and so it's almost like I want to prove it to myself that I can beat this game and I can do it against you know the best players in the world that are really good at the game so you know maybe it bites me in the ass maybe it doesn't there might be an alternate reality here to where I come up on top of Godzilla but I mean at the same time I'm still confident in playing Godzilla because I have one here at home and I have it set up basically on Death Mode with the zuzo hat rubbers with the outlanes completely gone tilt tight everything set on hard so I definitely had trained up multiball Max that don't work all kinds of stuff so yeah I mean I I don't mind my picks at all I was happy to do it and I knew that if I would have again because Carl was in my group and he's the one that picked in semifinals well he probably doesn't pick the games that I necessarily want to play so at the same time it's kind of like like I was telling Carl I was like well we played these games last round pretty much I mean just trading out volley and Marsh track so at least we're ready to go but I knew it was going to be an uphill battle against Carl on Godzilla and then I knew taxi was going to be an uphill battle against Bowen because he had just blown it up earlier in the tournament so but it's just one of those things that you get to a certain level you're playing players that they're gonna play great on the pens no matter what and it just comes down to execution at that time so two things I want to kind of well one so one comment um taxi normally when I see taxi played or at least in a tournament um those sleeper the flippers get weak and so all of a sudden it's like can you hit the left ramp can you actually start multiball and just watching the ball just like oh well it goes up and down up and down uh this tax was awesome I mean people were drilling that left ramp and so I I think I had heard during your somebody switched something out somebody switched uh one of the coils or something out and made it more I'm more powerful which was pretty cool and then they also made the spring on the plunger more powerful so instead of this wimpy little plunge it was like rocketing around that funnel two three times so it kind of brought in a I don't know a little bit of mystery of like are they going to be able to plunge where they want to plunge on this so taxi ended up being a very interest interesting or entertaining game to watch um so well done on that um but yes we should probably we should probably just get into it Travis uh you're you're game of Godzilla in semifinals was awesome your game in finals though went in a very different direction and um I don't remember was it both I think it was ball three or ball two I don't remember what ball it happened on uh ball three ball three so you got everything lined up ready to go again you locked your third ball so this was a premium the tower comes down you locked your third Ball but what's odd the word lock is subjective so usually I hit the third one and it shot it up so it was on top of the roof but yet the game didn't realize that so you were in a weird State um the balls are up there you're waiting for the the multiball to start typically when the multiball starts so the balls are let go and a ball save comes on um it didn't know what was going on so it starts going into ball search and here's Travis looking like an idiot standing in front of the game trying to figure out what to do so yeah you can take it from there well here's here's the big there's a lot of things about this situation that people don't realize so one I've seen this before oh really yeah I have it's happened on mine at home and eventually the software caught up and gave me the lock I've seen it twice at my house that's why I sat there for a second I'm like okay it might happen it might happen but then as soon as I saw the building start to move when it did its first ball search I was like oh crap you know this is because I because I knew within like seconds I'm like okay here it goes it could go either way it's going to be 50 50. it's either gonna read it or it's not and so from there once I realized it wasn't going to read it then I was stuck in between okay do I stop it from moving or do I just sit here and wait so I was like totally stuck in between and if you watch back on the replay you'll notice that I forget the exact time stamp but by the third time it starts to do a ball search I actually put my right flipper up because I decided I was going to stop the ball search and then finally just like figure it out from there but I literally put up my right flipper at the exact same time the final ball search like started so I didn't block it what would putting up the right flipper do it would indicate to the software that I have a game on or a ball on flipper is what it would do oh so it would stop it from going okay so yeah so that was my plan and then of course when I realized oh [ __ ] I missed that too then I knew I was gonna exactly happen so and it was just mass chaos from there and my mistake was is that I decided to try to trap right when all the balls were coming down instead of like flipping away and then waiting to see if I could get under control like a hundred percent so it was just like total mass chaos women and children were screaming for the exits well it was just it was horrible it was a uh it was a triple drain and and all at all it was actually a quad drain where was the fourth cell so here's what happened there was a ball that immediately went out to the left out lane it consumed my mom and I heard the Mothra go off but I was so preoccupied with the other ball right that I did not see the ball launch and come to my flipper so if you watch the replay I don't even flip at it because I'm trying to watch the other ball which hilariously I lose in the glare at the same time so I don't even know where that ball is because if you watch I don't even make a shake because I think it's still on top of the sling and about to come back down to my right flipper I'm just like looking in that area and then next thing I know I see it in the outlay and I'm like oh crap like it just all happened it all happened so fast yeah we're everything that could go wrong went wrong we were watching it and I think Colin you had even started to stand up when he was waiting like because I think you were about to like something's I don't know I don't know if you had stood up yet until after it happened or what but all of a sudden it just everything happens and everybody in the room and everybody was like what just happened like that just ball search happened and everything's gone everything he had is gone but now what now it's time yeah I didn't see the quad drain so I was I'm sitting there watching it and you know I'm we're you know we see the the you see Travis shoot the locker like all right it's party time Travis is going to do the thing now and then we're just we're sitting there like we thought that we lost the score cam so we thought the score came in Frozen because it was frozen on whatever I forget it was Titanosaurus you know mode screen and so we were like oh crap because we they've he'd had some issues with OBS previously in the Stream and you guys know this when you stream you'll always go wrong and so that was the initial thought and then we realized that oh no because you we weren't getting the normal light show from the inserts in the play field that you get during the Prelude to Godzilla multiball so like oh no something's not right and so then we're just waiting and thinking I had never actually seen it before so I don't own a Godzilla I've played it a lot on location and tournaments I'd never seen this before so I'm thinking hey the software it's just like taking its sweet time to register and so I'm thinking okay it's going to start the multiball eventually but then I I same thing I saw it start doing ball searches like oh no that's not good yeah so by the time it started its second ball surge I'm taking off my my headphones and getting up from the booth and in just the it was this is how fast those four balls drain from me standing up from the booth and walking not 10 feet over to Travis and standing at Godzilla his balls were gone gone yeah so I get over there and I'm gonna dump on it because and Travis is looking over me with just this you know this the heart puppy dog looking yeah please help me they're gone and I'm like what happened so I go back over to the booth to ask him like what happened because I didn't see anything like how did it I thought that it had killed your flippers that was my first time because I didn't think that it was possible to drain that many balls that quickly so you haven't watched my stream here's what I'm hearing yeah so I go back and then people confirm they're like like all of them all of them drained it was a it was you know it was a complete every every ball drained and and after the fact I went back and watched and saw that actually there's a moth run so the fourth one drained too um and so yeah then then going back over there and conferring with one of my fellow TDS dick and then you know also confirmed it with Zach sharp who was in the crowd as far as getting another resource from another you know you know TD that wasn't involved in the game and somebody's on the ifba board he knows his he knows his rules he knows his rulings and you know and Zach was like yeah as I can tell you right now what the ruling is and that it's sorry Travis here yeah you're out you're screwed well I saw Zach stand up and um because I've heard that like if if TDS are struggling to make a ruling you can basically call Zach sharp at any time and he he like well it's usually Josh it's usually oh Josh okay I thought it was like that's right because he's a president that got it um but it's like somebody will make a ruling from afar which I think is cool but yeah I see Zach just stand up and he's like well if you need a second opinion unfortunately Travis you're screwed like it was just like I said yeah he's like I'm sorry but thank you Zach and it was just sitting there and I was just like oh no and it yeah what a I mean so it was mostly my fault as in like 100 because here's where I made the Strategic mistake is that that Mech is designed to put balls right down the middle I mean elwyn's been on record tip of the left flipper is so I knew that that was coming yep and where I made a tactical air outside of just holding up the flipper and preventing all that from happening is making the decision to try to trap up immediately like I it didn't even cross my mind to one time to start flipping away because in my head I'm thinking okay I'm gonna get a bunch of balls at me and I have Titanosaurus going I can't just flip away at this and then hit like two or three shots and a multiball that's not a multiball so it put me in this weird spot that I was like I can't do that and so automatically I legitimately just handcuffed myself trying to get under control in that situation and in hindsight maybe the right thing to do because I I think from people I've talked with they said yeah you would have been perfectly within reason to do something like that would have been just to kind of chimp flip away for a temporary time being right to know for sure that I can get a ball and a flipper because at one point when I did my little micro flip it briefly crossed my mind that I was just going to put it to the right ramp and then let it come over and then ski jump back over but in my head I was just like well I can't flip away at this because I know I'm supposed to get trapped up as soon as possible because I have multiple balls out there and it's not a multiball but unfortunately it's like now that I know that was probably the wrong decision to make but again I'm not advocating for anybody out there if you're in a multiball you're not supposed to be in the multiball you need to get trapped up you need to get under control I think just in that situation I'm made a crazy tactical error deciding to try to immediately get trapped up with all those all those balls coming at the same time because the moment I did that I was pretty much just done four are you familiar with this rule that's what I'm asking about so you're not allowed to be in a multiple okay so in that so what the goal so if you would have just flipped to get the balls up and out of the way and then trapped up one ball you would what then let the rest of them drain purposely yeah that's the plan okay and then I don't even know what the ruling would be from there I guess Colin what what are you trap yeah that's what it's what Tom just mentioned so you can kind of view this rule on a on a on a Continuum or a spectrum on the one end you're not allowed to play in a physical multiball state when the game state is in a single Ball State sure because it never registered Travis's third lock he is in a single ball game state but he's in a physical multiball state so he's not allowed to take advantage of that by continuing to play this multiball on the other end of the spectrum Travis can't lose all his balls or else his ball is over and that's what took place and so in the middle there is is some is some gray area and the gray area is how is really kind of how long you take to get trapped up so that gets down then to in player intent some people talk about like it's not actually in the rule some people like oh well you have 30 seconds it's actually not in the rules if there's any time limit as far as oh you have the you get this free time of 30 seconds of of flailing away you're not you actually don't get that you are supposed to actively try to trap up so Travis did the right thing in terms of trying to trap up it's just that you have this risk side on the other end of the spectrum that if you happen to lose all three balls you're done interesting so okay so yeah if you would have just been flailing away for 30 seconds it it's very true go ahead Tom here's what I don't understand about Godzilla there is no virtual lock in that game correct for the premium there I don't think there is there is not so the question is why isn't there because they came up with a cool way to you know handle it where the the [ __ ] behind the building they adjust the building height to a mid position so that it goes back on a habit Trail for anybody that locks the ball when there's two in there it's still not I understand that but there's still no like optos on top to read which balls are up there so my thing oh that's true yeah there's no option probably got confused because I remember Carl was in um he was working his way towards multiball and the game was actually doing what you were saying the ball was in the VOC it lifted the building up shot the ball out back to him to his flipper but you know I think the problem is somewhat software related because you know had the game known what was going on this wouldn't have happened is it and a lot of times in tournaments you turn on Virtual locks so that crap doesn't happen well so let's just let's clarify though so even let's say in a hype in this alternate universe that it had virtual locks and so every time you shot that buck it's then going to I guess if it had virtual locks it would kick the ball through the building as opposed to on top of it because it would you never want it to attempt to go on top because then it's going to have to take an extra few seconds and dump it right down the middle on you which is no fun for anybody um so yeah I guess if you had virtual locks if they if they were able to tweak that code you would have every player get a virtual lock and so every time you lock the ball it would just kick up by the [ __ ] and go through the building and go down one of the Habit trails to your flipper yeah well what I was saying is if if you were saying the game was still confused then because everything was gone I'm assuming there's some sort of logic to see oh I have five balls in the trough or I have whatever in the trough so two ball or you know there's six balls so if there's only three in the or three in the trough there's two have to be somewhere besides the ball that's just ejected out like there's got to be some logic there I don't know maybe not but it's so if Travis would have trapped up and he had his ball would you at that point be able to give him balls back or is it no no so that is what it is and you're down to one ball well yeah he'd be down to one ball but the the lock was still lit oh so he could have locked it again it would have still been there yeah yeah and then okay okay yeah but when you try to kickback out yeah yeah yeah so the good news about Stern games is that when when stuff like that happens and the player traps up and let's say you trap up and you end up with two balls still on on flipper whether it's one flipper or two flippers doesn't matter if you have two then the TD comes over opens it up takes one of the balls and puts it in the drain and thankfully Stern logic is built in so that way you when you drain those extra physical balls on the play field it does it doesn't kill your ball kill your game yeah it doesn't kill you yeah just like how Travis's camera just died yep software glitch yeah yeah yeah it's interesting yeah that's like that all that happened so quick and to know now what actually is going on is really cool what are we saying Tom so let's say you know the ball or the game did you know three ball searches and call it or Travis had uh you know called you over what would be the call them would it be to take the ball off of the one of the balls out of that out of the block mechanism put it on his flipper and let him shoot the ball back in there to to lock his third lock then yeah I would have I would have taken one off a building which thankfully that it's very easy to do that with the glass off because it's yeah it's not there's some other physical ball lock mix out there in different games where those are really difficult to get out of the brute's mouth yeah yeah so yeah I would have just taken I would have taken that the the uppermost one that had just been kicked up there put it on one of his flippers and then you know Travis would have you know promptly you know nailed it or you know bricked and drained because you know it happens when you get a tech pass a tech pass is when you've trapped up and waiting for the the TD to do something and you get the ball back you can usually count to five in your ball drains so as as soon as you saw it start to do the ball search Travis you could have just held up the right flipper and at that point waved calling over and said do something is that correct or I don't I don't think at that time while it's doing his ball search I couldn't really do anything because I knew that one of the TDS was just off to my side his name's uh dick Curtis so I knew he was there you could have asked you can always ask for a ruling like even during a ball search sure could have like you take the risk of if if that ball search does empty the three balls while you're turning your head and asking for a ruling if those three balls drain it's on you right exactly and so that was part of it too is that I knew that there was a TD right there but I also knew I was not going to take my eyes or my hands off whatever was going on because obviously the TD wouldn't be there everybody knew something was going on but from there it was just kind of like my focus was on the game waiting if a TD comes over and says hey do this I'll do it but it didn't even cross my mind at that point to even say like hey are you going to do anything here because I just figured I'm focusing on the game I'm just going to do what's necessary to to get under control at that point that was kind of my line of thinking and then you know it's just the the bad part is about it is just not flipping away I I just I had it in my mind because I knew if I flipped away honestly I probably get two three maybe even to the fourth shot of titanosaurs because I already grazed the first one in there yeah and so it was basically it was almost all but a guarantee I would get two or three done while in a multiball that's not a multiball and so obviously that's not very fair but then same time you know I back myself into a corner to where if I lose all the balls that's it yeah then you're screwed either way yeah so I mean there's a there's a several different realities that this could have gone and they're probably somewhere out in the Multiverse they went completely different and I whipped Carl's ass somewhere out there so yeah you know I I do think I've seen a clip of Tom actually demonstrating what you should have done I think there's a clip of Tom with both hands on the game screaming help during I forget it was like Star Trek or something it's like help help I don't remember what it was but thanks for reminding me so apparently that's what you should have done Travis yeah and that still didn't yell out well so that was game right that was game one okay so that's literally when I realized I was screwed and I've lost another Stern pro circuit literally right after that because I remember taxi was like he'd have to win that and I think he I forget what you got but they were good games of Taxi and then I just remember by the time we got to volley you were the first player in volley and you put up a killer score like you were like holy cow he's like crushing what Tom's camera I just wanted to make sure I was like what is going on it was like I knew I was gonna have to put up monsters monster scores all finals long but I knew after the Godzilla game I was so Sol the only chance I had to win is if one if Donovan decided just to go downstairs and drink beer with everybody down there and just quit playing in the tournament dude if Bowen did a tutorial somewhere else in the building and just dropped out and Carl found out that he had to like go fix something for pin Slash that was literally the only way that I had any chance to win at that point so it was I was just a long-term ride the tax again was good but then I remember going into game three volley that you just went up there and crushed it like you put up a killer score um and then I think 149 000. yeah Donovan got really close to you but I don't think he'd be Oh no just by a tiny bit he beat me that's why I took fourth yeah 150 000. yeah so it was like wow okay those were two Killer games and he only and Joel he only had like 2500 after two balls too yeah yeah he had to score like 50 000 points on his ball five which is just insane which was awesome and then Bowen had like he was at like 50 000 or 49 000 so I remember when Carl went up there there was a point where it's like if Carl places last then I think there would have been a three-way tie like six six three-way tie that could have been interesting but Carl's Carl Carl went up there and I think he did it on his ball too or something just like yeah he didn't get to his final ball he just went up and just blew it up and boom Carl won I mean he got the volley party started on on ball two and then cashed it in a ball three he got the complete reset I think he had all three of the banks lit and then when you have that the five thousands come raining down and so he was just yeah it was just like cheese Carl I mean it was the most ridiculous volley game that I've ever been a part of it just yeah his final score was 154 000 because he walked off on ball three I know so 150 000 to 149 000 and Bowen had didn't have a good game at 49. it's a five ball game right correct yeah he walked in Ball three yeah um it was awesome but I want to say yeah the the that was awesome on volley you know and the the malfunction notwithstanding I just want to highlight that this this finals if you haven't watched it go back and watch it because the level of play across all three games I mean so in game one Donovan didn't have a good game on Godzilla game three Bowen didn't have a good game at volley but even with Travis's malfunction you know he had 314 million points at that point on a tough playing Godzilla that thing was not playing easy yeah and then Bowen had 536 million and Carl had you know 598 million that he finished on he had to catch yeah I think he had to catch Bowen honest ball three so just ridiculously good and taxi You Know Travis took fourth with 2.7 million on a tough playing taxi with a Max jackpot a 1.5 million then you had 4.6 million 4.7 and 8.3 that's stupidly competitive yeah yeah that's just it was it was a ridiculously very good very fun to watch finals yeah and this is all happening at 1 30 in the morning like that's the that's what was interesting Tom and Neil are going to bed I think you guys finished watching uh I was literally falling asleep while Bowen was playing taxi I mean he was playing it awesome yeah but like it was like yeah oh my God yeah it was awesome it was 1 30 in the morning yeah exactly and I was watching in the other room and then I ended up in the finals it was really cool to see just as like to be there so I enjoyed it I Know Travis a fourth was not what you wanted but still I mean top four pretty impressive Pinball's still fun it was the most fun fourth place I've ever had yeah so it was really cool um uh what about that uh trophy behind you Travis oh this thing yeah it's just for the uh the TPL the Texas pinball League yeah drape it in Oklahoma state flags and all that before I bring it back it is approaching obnoxiously big like it is that is a big everything's bigger than in Texas yeah and uh if you didn't notice somebody commented on our on our last uh uh video that that you can like that or it turns out that was just joking we were like oh it's broke because it doesn't light up yeah yeah which makes it funny but yeah well um I mean that's a solid hour of tournament talk right there I mean if there's any if if there's any tournament player listeners that have been you know itching for some tournament talk I think we gave it to you I think we gave it to you this episode is there anything left yeah big question is Joel are you playing next year at least in Classics well this was cool I will I will say like I said earlier the other shows that I've been to at you guys with you guys like you guys are in the tournament room the all the whole time and to me it's like I wanna I wanna be at the show I want to see the show so where's the balance where's the balance to be playing in the tournament and also getting to experience the show and what I will say is it looks like this is the show to do that there is a with the limited entries you're not grinding away all day and you're not feeling guilty for not grinding away all day you just you put in your you put in your games they are what they are if you qualify you qualify so it's like okay I can I I respect that that's that's right up my alley um so yes I think next year uh depending on travel if I travel in early enough or even no even if I got in like I'd normally do Friday afternoon I can still knock out Classics or something or places you could do it all Saturday night just like I did let your ego take over just machine gun through them 140 yeah okay there you go all right well awesome awesome so well done Travis way to perform Tom way to support and Colin way to run a way to run I'm gonna run always there for you Travis yeah and Neil and FM Beauty Tom yeah that's fine that's fine okay so there was way more than just the tournament at Texas pinball Festival uh way more there was there were a lot of people there were a lot of people and there were a lot of games so um there was game do you want to start with there were six new titles that were out there and to be honest it was almost like you had to be strategic like where do you want to queue up where are you going to wait um so we'll just Pulp Fiction well sure we'll start with Pulp Fiction why not if you're gonna I just said not Pulp Fiction why would you not start with a Pulp Fiction there's actually almost seven if you really consider like the the queen game it never really been at a sure maybe even eight if you count ninja apocalypse apocalypse was there um and Joel played that with us I did a real short story about that so this is Turner pinball uh these are the guys that bought all the deep root stuff um they're making their own game I will say it is very it's very much a home brew like it's a white wood at this point it there's very very little in the game game but what I thought was interesting was uh Ray played first and Ray he's like a kid in a candy store he's like oh what's that shot I want to hit this I want to do that he's like determined and he's just exploring his way around the Playfield um and there were there was a mode so it's like oh that's lit Green Let's see what happens well nothing happens but he's still just hitting the shots and um at the end of his game his third ball I see one of the kids they were very young they were very young everybody there he like slowly pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and he takes a picture of of the score and then put his phone back in his pocket and the way he did it I was like are they recording every score just like is this a score balancing thing is this of that I don't know so then Travis goes up and starts to play well that guy pulls out his phone and shows the main guy the main Turner pinball guy the score and the guy's eyes light up he's like who did this and he pointed to Rey and the guy turns and goes that's the highest score we've ever seen on this game the highest score we've ever seen on this game is like 740 uh thousand and Ray put up like two points so Ray's like oh yeah I mean you know like that's cool what you're doing here and they're having a conversation well Travis plays the ball and then I played a ball and then Travis played a ball and we ended up at like two point or one point something million yeah it was like one eight one nine something so the guy's like looking at us and just like what is happening kind of like what is going on it's like shoulders out like chests and we said some pleasantries you know like hey keep going keep doing what you're doing we know getting into pinball is hard like you know hey you got some unique stuff here and and whatever and Ray actually was like I like this shot and he had talked to them more well we start to walk off and I stop and I walk back to him and I was like hey just a heads up like Travis is a top 25 player and Rey is currently number three in the world and they're like oh okay that makes sense and I was like and raise the mate like one of the lead coders for Stern Pinball he's doing Foo Fighters and they're like wait what like they just they had no idea they had no idea who Raymond was and he just blew up their game and uh so I don't I thought that was kind of cool for I don't know I think they could they they were excited so good on them um the animations looks cool there's very little in the game I mean this is very very early are they trying to use the the pin bar that they've purchased no I did hear I think Rey was the one somebody said he asked that right it's like cheese no it did have a cool sequence though to where it would go it there's like two scoops right it's the only time I enjoy Scoops in the game where one was at the side and they're both at the sides right well there was one on the right side one on the left side and then at somehow I forgot how it happened but there would be a ball that would end up I think in the right side yeah if you shoot the right one she would shoot into the left to the left yeah and then the shooter cross shooter so it was weird but it was unique um they had a ramp I mean it's they they fabricated everything in that thing so it was like one of them I did though that you could do that if there was a magnet kind of like World Cup soccer or something like that by a flipper where you could stop it get a ball trapped up and then there's a timer that goes down and imagine like timing your shot to hit a ball that's flying across flying across if you hit it it's like Dracula Mist you get a multiball shooting it back and forth yeah they have such a great opportunity there but I don't know if they'll do it it's like a ninja flying through you know the sky hey maybe yeah we we played that you did mention Queen I played Queen with Tom and Neil and um we'll just keep it real short uh we had very little fun it was I I don't know Joel beat me so that it sucks I did yep I beat him in that game I actually beat Tom in four games oh I was drunk [Laughter] Queen I don't know I mean it looks it's a pretty looking game but just I I we still have the bugs though and I played we couldn't hear most of this like it just seemed maybe uh maybe it needed a reboot I don't know but it was odd and the the all the scoring was in bonus like Neil doubled his score and bonus I mean it was it was odd um I met Marty and uh over with haggis and played fathom that was the first time I played it it played beautifully that game's gorgeous it looked great it flipped great um it was awesome nothing but positive saying things to say about that um how'd the flippers feel on this you know brand new fathom versus like your traditional Bally you know old school fathom has a certain flipper feel to it do you do you know what I'm talking about it didn't feel like a Stern flipper that's for sure it definitely felt like an older game but it didn't feel like a beat up game like it felt it felt like a like a hep restored pristine perfect brand new out of the box but yeah it's felt old what is interesting though is they had the new code going so it was weird having to look down in the apron for the L for the LCD screen like that's unique but it would definitely be something you could get used to and um I enjoyed it I only had time to play one game on it but I was I was really impressed like beautiful beautiful game um but okay so the big six the big six that we played we'll start with Pulp Fiction I'm gonna let Tom talk first because I know Tom is buying one um Tom are you excited about your purchase what were your thoughts I'm very excited I thought the game was spectacular um I the the bad thing was in the hall you couldn't really hear a lot of stuff and not just with everything going on the Hall's packed everybody's talking yada yada yada but um the shot the the shots on the game were great um I like how they you know are taking the kind of the early solid state layout and making it a modern yeah and you know the the multi-balls and everything I I actually saw a lot of the game I I put up about I think I I played it twice I put up about a million points each time and it was just fun to shoot I I really enjoyed it yeah so Tom one thing I want to ask your opinion on because you're one of the few people on this Earth that can give this opinion so having played Pulp Fiction and having played Bond 60th compare and contrast okay um I Pulp Fiction seems a little the the rules seem a little more fleshed out and deeper than it does on bond okay um and I mean that's just my opinion of course but um I they're they're both hard games they're both um um I I mean there's so many differences to them but I you this feels more like uh the bond 60th feels more of a unique game where Pulp Fiction you know there's there's little bits and pieces of Mark Ritchie's games in it you know you got the you got the drop targets and the hole in the middle it feels like Indiana Jones and then you got you got the saucer up top that that collects all the characters and that feels a little bit like Taxi um they both have the inline drops which I absolutely love I love the the early solid states that have have inline drops I just but but it's cool how he did the inline drops and then it goes into a ball lock um but yeah I I love it is differing in Pulp Fiction than James Bond yeah yeah I'm sure there is I I literally couldn't hear a lot yeah of what was going on that's a that's the unfortunate thing I would say about all the games we're going to talk about tonight like we really don't have a good feel of the audio like it's just it's so loud it's so loud or or if they have like gtf was they had that thing so cranked up the audio was like painful and yeah the gtf audio Yeah I couldn't I couldn't hear the speech in gtf but I could hear everything else and I don't know but so Pulp Fiction though I will reiterate everything uh Tom said that game looks gorgeous I'm super impressed like I'm borrowing a Cactus Canyon right now I'm so impressed with the build quality of that game and you could feel that on Pulp Fiction as well they had four of them there they were played Non-Stop and I don't think I ever saw them take the glass off I mean that game was which makes it there's no Mech in there there's no unique Mech that's like it's not like a building going up and down or anything it's just it's everything that's in there is a reliable consistent Mech um I know Tom has opinions on what he qualifies as mechs or not but they're I mean reliable drop targets reliable flippers I mean the game was built like a tank it looked gorgeous and it just I mean it was awesome it was it it was the surprise for me it was I thought it would be good but I was really impressed with it one of the light shows were like really cool I you know um there were I talked to multiple people that were like kicking themselves like why did I not get on the Le like why did I not do that um so I don't know Travis is because you have young kids and you can't have uh I mean I'm not I'm fine yeah it's not gonna fit in mine but it's just the I was super impressed with the game Colin did you play it did you have a chance to play it I did not have a chance to play Pulp Fiction I you know I really didn't get down to the floor to do anything other than Sunday after I had uh slept in a little bit after being up late for the tournament so I played other games that I walked around the hall but unfortunately Pulp Fiction was the tail end by the time I got over there and there was a pretty deep line still and so I watched some other people play it and I was impressed with what I saw uh but I didn't I did not get a chance to play that one I did I do find it funny that you said it was built like a tank though oh good point I should I need a new motto because yeah I built like that cheese built like a tank Queen something totally different in pinball um I will say there's no LCD screen and then on top of that you couldn't hear the audio but yet I was impressed that just through the alphanumeric display and the lights changing it's still actually communicated rather well what you need to do so for a simple game it's there's actually looks to be some complexity there in in modes and rules and yet it did a really good job like I was just overall very impressed um Travis you played it do you have any any thoughts to add I have not played it oh what Travis I just well I didn't want to stay in the line the line was so long because they only had four pins there for those that weren't at tpf they had four yeah so it was guaranteed to have long lines and I I talked to a lot of people that played it and they said that they waited in line for 40 minutes I heard one person say for over an hour and I just I wasn't willing to wait that long but that being said I watched the game off to the side and it looked fun and the vast majority of people that played it all came away impressed I probably I could count on one hand how many people that I heard from that played it that didn't like it and that's like after 30 40 people so I mean the game's overwhelmingly people people are enjoying it I isn't counting on one hand like that's typically what you do that's kind of where you max out is that a normal yes okay just check okay so um Pulp Fiction I don't know we can wrap it up I would just say a plus like that I was just super stunned with how it's impressive the sad thing is it's gonna be a long time before we see those uh or customers see that I mean they're talking what Q3 Q4 before they start making them um so the end of Q3 yeah I think mgc coming up this weekend's gonna probably have a few and I don't know I don't know what they're gonna do with these four that they have built uh going around maybe I think I think it was Josh Sharpe has one in his basement so try to get invited into there I know I don't know I don't know who's gonna be able to play it but it's it was awesome it was awesome it was awesome and if you are in on one you made a good choice you made a good choice um yeah uh speaking of long lines uh the other long line I stood in was Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo had a constant long line um they had like eight games there I mean they had a Bunch they had a bunch of games but at least what I was seeing and what I experienced was it's just a long playing game it's just a long playing game I will tell you by the time I finally got up to it the game is gorgeous the game is beautiful if you're a Scooby-Doo fan it's all the Scooby-Doo you'd want it looks amazing the light shows great the sculpts the presentation of the game is great um the animations are really good um the Audio I could hear it a little bit the audio sounds good um but I will say I definitely you know shots Wise It's a lot of horseshoes uh it's all the Horseshoes where you lose the ball I mean you'd learn you'd learn where it goes um and once you get to that upper play field you can you can spend some time up there you can definitely spend some time up there so I don't know spend a lot of time up there yeah I don't know exactly exactly the whole time up there if you really wanted to yeah and the reality is if you if you drain off the upper play field it just feeds directly to a flipper and you can just hit right back up to it I mean it's it is a super safe um I don't know I I just my main takeaway was um there were two parts to it one uh the game crashed on me game ball two so so I unfortunately had to walk away on my second ball um but did you put your hand up and asked for a CD I I tried to trap up and everything went away you know that's what no um and it just I don't know I it was like I felt like I'd experienced the game in a ball and a half and then the ball and then the game crashed and that was it um air enough of it I would say as a homeowner if you are a big Scooby-Doo fan uh you're kind of a novice player or intermediate player you'll probably love it you'll probably love it if if that's your thing but if you're really looking for like kinetic satisfaction and a super unique layout that like oh that shot's all I want to feel that shot again or whatnot I just I didn't have that there was when I woke up in the morning at tpf there were two games that like in my mind I want to experience like I want to go play that again because I want to experience those shots unfortunately Scooby wasn't one of them um I don't know did any of you guys have a chance you guys Tom you've played before uh Travis did did any of you play it while you were there Travis is shaking his head yes well I played it before okay at the tpf I got to play on location and my first game the game froze up okay you're talking about yeah and then and then it came back to so that was I I have no idea what happened there but um yeah it's just pretty much what you mentioned just a lot of repeatable shots long ball times and this is even with the adjustments of trying to make the game play as difficult as possible and I think a lot of it is just based off the design alone there's not really anything on there that's necessarily A Dangerous shot so that's going to make it awfully hard to to I guess code the game to guide the player to make dangerous decisions because as of right now it just doesn't seem like that that's there and so I mean for what it is the the theme's great I think people will gravitate to the theme and I think if you are anywhere from a casual to an average player it's probably going to be the PIN for you but if you play a lot of tournaments and you pride yourself on very skillful play you know you might just play this a handful of times and then from there you might be good because then it just becomes repeating the same things over and over again until your hands fall off and that that sometimes I don't know some games it can be fun to do that if you're just racking up a massive score like we've all been there before where you're trying to catch something in yeah maybe on GNR or whatever you know what I mean when you just try to do something massive but I I don't know with with the way Scooby-Doo is running with that uh with the song that kept playing over and over again with the what was it like the captain Custer multiball yeah something like that yeah yeah so I mean it's just I don't know I mean I'm sure the the game has some elements of fun to it I I do like the theme to it and I do like a couple of the shots that are on there sure so but I mean in terms of owning it but if it's you know on location I see it I might draw it drop coins in there yeah every now and again I won't take a zero on purpose in a tournament so that's good well yeah so I mean I I just think there were definitely people that you know loved it like there are definitely people that played that and those all the games they bought were sold before the show even opened so there will be plenty of Scooby-Doo owners that will love that game and preach you know sing about it and and seeing its Praises forever and that's fine that's fine yeah um it's just that's what's cool about pinball is you know every different different there's plenty of different pins out there um that you can enjoy uh a good transition from so like Scooby if it's a long playing game the most brutal game that I played was actually the final resistance the P3 game and um there are some people saying this is TNA 2.0 I don't agree with that I it is in the same world-ish like it's it's um cyberpunk obviously it's got an easy music the music's very similar the color palettes very similar um but it's not like he just took TNA and added stuff like that's not I guess it's totally different absolutely and what I will say is one thing that Scott is known for is brutal like a brutal fast game and the scoop on TNA that ball goes in and it's out so fast and comes back at you like the scoop is out just like Travis's camera yeah yeah yep yep um there oh that's kind of time yeah solidarity don't don't you're better than that Tom oh sorry there we go yeah so the scoop of course on this is brutal it goes in and it comes back and I will say the in this game there's an alien ship in the upper right and you can lock three balls and the whole thing is it'll shoot those balls back at you everybody said I even talked to Scott on one of the flipping out streams everybody said Scott even was like just heads up it shoots those balls fast so in my mind I was like okay these are gonna come out fast it came out so much faster than I thought they would come out those balls fly back at you you will laugh your ass off at this so the first time I got into that multiball I was expecting it to be fast but not that fast yeah and some somehow the pinball gods were just laughing because all three balls got to my flippers like instantaneously to a trap and I just stood there just laughing like a maniac I'm like yeah of course yeah now it works yeah this was on Sunday so yeah but those balls come out fast so fast it was crazy it's crazy and then on top of that the right orbit he has it set up where there's certain times or certain modes that the right orbit actually takes your ball and then spits it back at you so there is a shocker yeah 14. yep exactly and the um there's like a barrier in front of the ship that's just rubber so that screwed me because I forgot I had completed a ship and then the the thing came back down so now two shots that used to be a ramp and a lock are no longer a ramp and lock it's a wall of rubber so you hit that expecting the ball to do something and boom that ball is coming right back at you um and what's cool about that wall of rubber is it you maybe you probably didn't have a chance to notice and I don't know if I think it's fully coated but maybe partially code in the game but that wall of rubber also has switches in it oh so it detects it so it detects so when you've when you've when you've hit it and also not just detect it but there's two of them so it'll even detect on which side you hit it on nice um I will say I mean one of the things Scott uh from a design standpoint he took this idea of he wanted this to be a P3 like use the P3 stuff as in all the all the the IR sensing and the the um the the display changing in the animations but yet he wanted this to really feel like a pinball machine so the backbox the only thing that's moving are the scores and in the lower play field there's actually like arrows that would be like an insert and I will say it it definitely felt like this game really does bridge the gap between a standard pinball machine and then like a P3 game with all the bells and whistles and and all in on animations and graphics and it just it felt more familiar like it felt more like okay this is a game that let's figure this out and um I had a blast I had a blast on that game um Colin you've probably I'm assuming has put the most time on that game compared to us I'm I'm yeah I've probably put more time on it than most other I mean there's certain people within multi-morphic that have put more time on it but I I did have the chance uh with the weekend or maybe two or three weekends prior to tpf uh as part of what I was doing for the team there was I went up and I just play tested it for a couple hours nice so yeah I have I've had a chance to I did play one game there with my son uh just because I wanted to play it there and also show my son the the game and show them how cool it was but I'm curious to know from your guys's perspective you know what so yeah the The Shield I will I was I was I'm glad to hear that it killed somebody besides me because when I was when I was play testing that and recording it so I they were you know my my voiceover was sent to the rest of the team and I was cussing out Scott you know because that Shield killed me so many times yeah you know the Canon I mean the can the ship Cannon you know would also kill me sometimes but I think I got killed more by The Shield than by the ship Cannon and part of it I I'm a taller individual so my perspective of that like I'm not saying much compared to me well I could not really see the wall very clearly and I actually mentioned it to Scott and he said there's like three rubbers and I think they're planning on alternating like a black yellow black or something like they're gonna try to potentially to make that Shield more visible um because it's like yeah it's almost like a shadowed area under the ship so whether or not it's a wall of black rubber or just a shadowed area under the ship at least from my angle I couldn't really tell so it's either you have to pay attention on what's going on or they'd have to do something with lights or animations or I don't but it burned me it definitely burned me on what I thought was a safe shot and boom that Ball's coming right back I love your logic here Joel oh that I have to pay attention you have to pay attention yeah I don't know what's going on I wanted to hold my hand okay you know I'm okay we got first place right there guys I'm glad if I get screwed by the yag off Target or the the the scoop just blowing the ball back at me but you know hitting a rubber and then not be realizing I just hit a rubber I mean how'd you like the uh the left ramp I found the left ramp to actually be a very satisfying shot I really liked how it shot every every I mean we played I know we played more than just that we played Weird Al uh Tom and Neil and I played drained that was an interesting module to play and just to be honest spending more time on the system like you can absolutely control those flippers like the flippers you know I felt like the flippers in on Queen felt more like more different or the flippers on the Turner pinball game I felt like those felt more different than the P3 flippers like I get it the way the linkages and everything work you can do some weird the P3 pass and one like there's some stuff you can do with it that you obviously can't do with a standard game but I felt like you can adapt to that really quickly and I just felt like the flipper control is there um so I just I'm getting more and more comfortable with the system every time I play it and it's it's really impressive how different the game feel like that game feels so different than Weird Al yes so I don't know I had a lot of fun on it um but there was a long line um all I could really hear was the bass and boy could you hear the bass um and big old thumbs up for me I'm I'm looking forward to playing that more and um I'll tell you the the P3 system is just getting more and more um like the it's just getting more and more impressive uh yeah I think that's and that's what we're I think what people what we're also seeing you know at multi-morphic and what we're seeing as well from the feedback from the community both from comments as well as for people's wallets is people are now they're getting they're getting it yeah like they're getting the the value of the concept because now that you have this critical mass of of enough high quality titles that have come out for it now that appeal now and now with final resistance appealing maybe even to an even broader audience than what some of the other titles had appealed to and so it the the the value of the concept is there you know you realize that oh yeah I can spend this you know 11 000 whatever for the the system plus one module but now there's other modules I'm interested in more than just one module oh yeah I'm interested in two or three and then we got more in the pipeline so then those modules only being like you know roughly thirty five hundred dollars or whatever it's like oh that was and now if you're running out of space in your in your home so I think it's a it's a cool concept I have two questions for you guys that played Final resistance so did Tom and Travis you played it as well did you actually use the power-ups I didn't understand like the weapons and things like that okay that's just going for multiball the whole time because I just wanted to see that Mech yeah okay go off over and over again I used them did you understand that one of those power-ups would help you get to the multiball no the hack yes you really played it the one times Joel knew apart before we did Tom because I pay attention you know it has frozen over no I watched I mean I I love Scott Danesi what a genuinely amazing nice guy no I watched I watched the Buffalo stream I watched the Buffalo stream when they did the reveal and they they talked about that that oh okay roll over you studied got it get it on the right um I didn't make no cards like you do with your games you know I just just remembered it so I remembered I mean there's there's multiple uh Joel doesn't play in tournaments we'd all be screwed yeah just watch just watch out watch this apparently I mean I know some other Taxi rules I know some Godzilla rules you know just just watch yourself um no I know so yeah I mean I figured it out the white buttons you can scroll between your power ups and then to actually use one you have to hit the launch button so yeah flipper but it was cool I mean that is cool um where do you get the power up at while we're on the subject well yeah you get with spelling it yes spell it h a c k thank you I don't know I'm gonna come to Indiana just slap that hat off your head and then play Godzilla what okay yeah all right uh but the other power-ups I did not have a chance to earn or use because I know there's like a shotgun there's a chance to like slow time there's a whole bunch of stuff yeah you qualify and then you get them at the scoop yeah which but it's but anyway there's there's some communication improvements coming on that front because that was something that that I identified when I was doing the play testing in the you know in the lead up to tpf they were fixing on the major things and making sure all the major things are working but we want players to understand because that's a you know that's a really cool feature of the game and you're battling this you know this ship and the fighting against it it's cool to have those power ups so that's question number one question number two is did any of you get to play the trapped mode so I didn't but I saw the guy in front of me did and watching him play it was it was really cool um did either of you play it it's where the Wall comes up I think I had that I just went for multiball the entire time without any power-ups yeah so the walls you never played a mode Travis um this is where you just repeat it again I think I literally just went for a multiball the whole entire time I was just backhanding it and forehanding it and then when it came out to me so fast I literally just restarted my game and wanted to do that again yeah it was just too much fun the the trapped mode the Wall comes up uh so the scoop the wall Scoops comes up with the individual walls and one is open and so you have one ball you have to hit it in and then it'll go to a different one and it spits out another ball so now you have to hit two balls into that and then it'll go down and up and now you have to hit three balls into that and it's just I don't know I watched the guy get all the way I think to like four balls and then he then something happened I don't know but it was but do you know do you know the unique thing about that multiball if you lose one ball you're done oh it's just one and done so yeah it's pretty cool that's my one that's my one claim to fame on that game so that was that was my concept that I came up with at the very beginning of the Inception of the game now the implementation that they did actually is much better than what I came up with but that my whole concept was to do a what I call a survivor multiball and so it's a you know and the idea is that you know you have this you know multiball that you can keep adding balls to that you know but you you risk by by putting more balls out you risk losing a ball and if you lose even one ball you're done so that's what they do flippers yep yeah yeah yeah it was it looked awesome I didn't have a chance to experience it um but it I I don't know there's there's clearly some things that you can do with a P3 that you can't do on a standard pinball machine and it's cool to see how um all the different designers with the different modules use them in a completely different so Bowen and Scott took it to a different level and they put it with the wall and stuff and they did it with the ship and I didn't have you know that's not what I came up but it was cool to see that finally get implemented because it was an idea I came up with a long time ago and I think it's a neat it's a neat little kind of a Twist on a on how multiballs work so I I actually spoke with uh Dwight Sullivan I I spoke with about the P3 yeah afterwards and I when I was in line unfortunately we didn't have a good conversation but I spoke with him afterwards uh like because he I saw he was busy but when I was waiting in line it had a shitty conversation we didn't have a face-to-face conversation we had one uh afterwards uh online and oh no did you like ignore him too no I did not yes so Dwight was talking to Bowen which was cool to see like their because you know their brains are just all all the brain so to hear like Bowen geeking out about rules and Dwight loving every second of it I when I talked to Dwight later Dwight like I think I think final resistance was his favorite game of the show like it and I think seeing the strategy there and the additional Like rules and way to attack it and I know Colin you had mentioned board games like that logic like it seems like this game sure there may be some very direct you can be Travis and just go multiple all day but there's also it looks like there's way more there um from a strategy standpoint which is yeah and that's cool so next time you play it and for anybody else is listening to the podcast you know the next time you play a final resistance which will be maybe it you know I don't know when the next show it's going to be at but uh there's the modes kind of just happen to you because the concept is you're being attacked and so the modes you'll see a timer in the middle of the screen and when you get down to the end of the timer as soon as you shoot in orbit your your mode starts then so it's not you don't have to qualify your modes your modes happen to you and you hit the orbits now you can then do what's called a preemptive strike which is a better mode in terms of scoring and in terms of the mode logic by completing the ramp sequences so there's the two ramps with the pink the pink uh inserts that are in the the screen like you guys are talking about and so if you do that prior to the mode attacking you then you get to do a preemptive strike and you get to have a better mode oh cool well yeah it was awesome it was awesome um yeah big old thumbs up for me I don't know do you guys have anything else to to say oh two thumbs up from Top and Travis yeah oh four on screen game you're gonna buy a P3 Tom uh there's always a possibility nice yeah um I thought Tom's just goal clearly from your recent purchases is just no ramps you're done with ramps from here on out you know between Pulp Fiction and bond 60. I go crazy Joel yeah so because Foo Fighter says three ramps in let's go to Foo Fighters um I will tell you right now this was this was the game that when I got out of bed Saturday morning I'm like I want to go play more Foo Fighters I love the way that game shoots I love agreed the way that game shoots so Colin you played that go go ahead and let's hear your thoughts on Foo Fighters uh yeah I mean your first comment is the probably the most noticeable and the most memorable thing from a way the game shoots the the kinetic satisfaction you get from hitting those shots and it's not just ramp combos yeah so the ramp combos are cool but it is Jack has done a very very cool thing with that game in terms of it's a couple other shot paths that he's got in terms of that left you know jump ramp that kind of snakes around and ends up feeding your upper flipper and then the right orbit that then does a figure eight through that little mid right side lane and then combined with how those ramps all just you know flow so smoothly and it's just you know it's just it's so it's as a pinball player I think that's why you know and so many of us love flow to varying extents but when you when you feel that flow and you just you hit three ramps in a row or four ramps in or whatever you feel like a god yep and and this game is very accessible in terms of hitting those combos that is one of the easiest side ramps to hit that I've ever ever played before and one thing I noticed about that I was I was going to bed one night after the after the uh this past weekend and I can't think of another modern game or any game that has a side ramp from an upper flipper where the side ramp is above the inner loop every other game out there that I'm thinking think of it has a side rampant inner loop the side the side ramp is below the inner loop this one's above it and yet it flows like butter because he's done a remarkable job of keeping it shallow whereas most other side ramps are very steep well I that's a really good point and um when you talked about combos I have two Thoughts with that one there's a whole thing there's a whole system on the screen of like you can link combos together and you start doing like a I don't know like some sort of pattern glyph kind of thing and it's tracking your combos I was playing next to Tom and I look over and he had a a 11 Point combo going so we had combo 11 shots I mean the thing was going nuts so I was like okay this thing's a combo Beast like it was like Tom you have 11 combos going you're like what like I mean it's just you're just I mean you can just combo everything um well Joel introduced me to the six-way combo skill shot and I was like he's like oh there's this and I'm like oh do you do it like this and I'm like yeah and it it was just awesome yes just doing this did you do the thing where you were like okay if Joel can do it I mean well Joel didn't do it but oh not fair not true okay so first off I mean Tom's talking trash okay the first game Tom and I played on Foo Fighters I beat him just it's true he does the he did though the I was like oh there's another here so you hit the left you hit the left the far left shot it scored goes across feeds the upper flipper and then you can hit either of the loops or the ring it feeds it back down and then you can do that again and so here's Tom getting achievements it's like skill shot one times two times three times four it goes all the way up to six I was like dang Tom the next day I got it you can check my thing I have got the six times so carry Hardy took the glass off of his game before no no no no no no so I but that says like if me Joel division right if if this guy can hit a six times combo on that game it says I mean I that game shoots it shoots so well so good my to be honest the last time that I had this type of kinetic satisfaction playing a game was the first few times I played Godzilla like it it just it's I love the way it shoots and we can't hear the game you can't hear the game it's a Band theme like we can't hear the game so all of the Foo Fighter stuff like you know we didn't experience any of it um and the animations look incredible but truthfully this was another situation where the light show did an incredibly good job communicating what you need to hit so when you're in a mode we're not relying on a call out we're not relying on the screen telling us what to do the light show was telling us what to do and I was able to get through two and a half cities which I was pretty pumped with because I was approaching a mini wizard mode um but Travis I know you've played a lot of Foo Fighters because you were grinding away trying to figure out the the exploits before before um Expo I mean your thoughts on that and we found them well you were playing they all got patch though yeah you're playing mostly a pro so that's there's a big difference between the pro and premium with the upper Playfield I did get to play the premium some and I gotta admit I much prefer the pro after playing both so I I am the opposite just so for me personally I just feel like the pro plays faster I like the idea of seeing the ball whip around the right ramp uh even the the side ramp just like Colin talked about just being able to see that all the way through and everything it just visually for me I just much prefer that look yeah Phil I didn't think the mini Playfield covered the side ramp that much where you couldn't see it I I thought it was discovered that that much but like Scooby-Doo just right no no no no no yeah no but I mean it just for me I'm not really an upper Playfield fan to begin with but I gave it a little bit of a try you know I gave it the college try just to see how it'd work and I you know just for me I just prefer the pro but I know I'm gonna be in the minority I think the vast majority of people are going to prefer the premium version of it I was absolutely fine I I think the dead post is pretty cool oh well when that when that happens you know that's a kind of like an exciting event to happen once you remember it's there and yep I think it's not necessarily the coolest part of that for me Isn't using that it's making the decision afterwards when the ball gets on the flipper you can't trap up most of the time you just gotta send it and then just get right back on your way so that's what I like that you're instantly just put right back into action and it's not necessarily the uniqueness of it is that unlike a kickback where you're spending that time getting back under control you're basically just hitting the gas all over again as soon as that ball gets back to your flipper yeah that's the unique part that I think is pretty cool about it the dead post is definitely like it's your fault if you don't save that ball it's your fault and that's that's what I love about it is it's not a gimme it's just not an automatic ball save like you have to pay attention and you have to see oh the ball's going out there I have to hold up my left flipper and I may even have to nudge the game a little bit depending on speed to save that ball so it feels earned like it's an earned ball safe and I like I know there are certain games like TNA where you can flip and and potentially line up the right light to save your ball and it's like okay I did that like I saved my ball because I was paying attention this is that to a whole new level and um I thought it would be a novelty but I really enjoyed the dead post and then also the on the premium the UFO Mech the overlord Mech there's a bunch of Lights under that so when the ball's under him it lights up really really cool and there's a magnet down there so it does some really cool things just visually so I definitely think for for novice players they will enjoy that Mech in the interaction with that game so overall fantastic fantastic game um big big thumbs up for me I don't know any other thoughts on on food oh the kicker the kicker two man that ball hits that thing and just sends the ball back up I don't know so many good things big old thumbs up any any other thoughts there no okay um two more games two more games um Godfather Godfather Godfather we talked about um we talked about earlier about just strategy and whatnot and um I don't know initial impressions of Godfather um anybody want to go go first on that who's anybody so I played I played God so far and as it was my audio okay because yeah you're good okay so it is uh a lot better in person than it was on stream when I watched Carl stream it yep and I was very very impressed and satisfied with the shot layout and how uh just the getting to shoot different shots the the the problem persisted for me that it was the it plagues a number of jjp pins where just where everything's lit and so and also you have any like three multi balls going at the same time that it just started by feeling like happenstance it's like I'm playing a multi I'm like oh there's another multiball stacked there's another multiball stacked and so it's just multiball frenzy that I've got as far as five six balls flying around the play field I have no idea what I'm shooting at sure but the but I will say that and also I was very impressed the flippers felt much better than most of the time when I've played jjp flippers at a convention I agree so I don't know if they fixed something with their power in terms of the number of pins they put on a circuit or if they've actually done something different with their flippers but the flippers felt better the shot layout the layout of the pin was very cool I see a lot of potential in that pin is if I can ever figure out the rules I well said well said Colin um I don't know Travis go yeah it is to me I think it's I I was very surprised by uh the last podcast that we had with Carl I was kind of talking to you guys about at the end that I had a feeling that once I play it that I might be hooked because I was able just to to look at the pen I look at the design and think of it in terms of like a white wood just strip away everything else and see the shots and after flipping it to me it shoots really fun like I had a great time on it probably by far it was I I would say out of all the pins there is probably the most fun I had on shooting in general so that part I enjoyed I think the outside the cabinet looks gorgeous yep the artwork and all that looks fantastic I'm still when I look at the play field itself it's I'm still kind of taking it back because it just looks I I don't know what it is it just looks off to me in general but in person the lights really weren't that big of a deal as in like seeing a bunch of rainbows or anything like that I'm sure they might have still been there but it wasn't really that noticeable to me and yeah just the game shot very well I thoroughly enjoyed that part and I did get a chance to talk to Eric a little while and he was walking me through the game so I got a general idea of what to shoot when to shoot it and so that was really helpful as well but my only if I had like one critique over it it would probably be the same thing calling kind of alluded to earlier it's just that it does still seem like it's multiball heavy because I did find that there was it just felt like there was a lot of multiballs close to the start button almost like all like it's almost like there's four or five Bozo multiballs right there to where it's just it's really easy to get to and I think what's going to end up happening with that is that if this pen for whatever reason ends up in tournaments it's ultimately whoever knows the rule set at least in terms of how to get to one or two multiballs stack it up and just keep revving up your job and just keep trying to get that score boosted up and take that risk to get the reward I think they're gonna trounce players that are lost on it more times than not because it's it's definitely set up to be one of those pins that you could get rewarded if you stay and play long enough but of course in tournament settings it's not necessarily going to be that so I could see something like that happening I don't know if they're going to choose to code around that at all who knows but I will say comparing this to a Toy Story which I do still have by the way I would say godfather is just light years ahead of it I mean it's almost like when I was playing it I was talking to somebody else next to me I think it might have been Monica I was just like this doesn't even feel like this was made by the same company it just it feels like a totally different experience that's highly positive it was I feel like that there's enough Nuance in the code probably if you tone down the multiball a little bit it would allow you to explore more of that and so I'm kind of curious to see how that would be in a home setting being able to do that but yeah the shots they felt great and I was very impressed by it probably for me it was probably the best shooting Jersey Jack game that I've played before out of all of them I thoroughly enjoyed it yeah yeah like it was even better than dialed in and yeah yeah I agree I was a really good job kudos to Eric on that shot layout and design and how the different shots do different things and it kept me on my toes yeah Tom I played a game with you and Neil um your thoughts on it I I you know it was the it was the first game I played out of all the new games and you know I didn't have quite the best thoughts going into it you know I'm like uh Godfather theme and you know it's a it's a drama movie I I don't know you know kind of thing and and after playing it kind of like Travis I did a 180 on it I'm like this is really cool um I thought the shots were awesome I love how that ball comes down back at your ramp and like just shoots on a Target and goes flying yeah um it's really cool um there's a lot of mechanisms in the game uh there's a lot of there's a lot of diverters and but what is a mechanism Tom I mean there's parts that work together to drop targets are mixed yeah flippers aren't mixed apparently but um but uh yeah I mean I I really enjoyed it I I decided to get one oh I I didn't know that do have reservations now Joel jeez I do have reservations like Colin and Travis alluded to about it being very multiball heavy yeah um but I but I like how they it's kind of a a mesh between uh Pirates rules and Guns and Roses rules Travis is gone see you Travis again so it's every 30 minutes so it's almost a good like we're hitting the two hour mark you know so it's just like yeah instead of paying for the software can we just buy me a new camera no you're a big boy you're a big boy you can figure you can figure out how to keep that camera on yeah but keep going Tom yeah where was I the rules don't let Travis ruin the show you know no I I really like I mean I like I like how there are a bunch of multiballs you can go go for but also I like that aspect of you know you can play these modes and and build up your score and try to cash it out like like Guns and Roses was um yeah but you know I I think it's done in a a very good way this time around whereas with Guns and Roses it was like you're in this multiball and all or no you got to keep the balls going and you can't trap up and you know all these all these different things and you gotta keep the ball alive during uh November Rain and then it's like 20 minutes on you know yeah I I agree with everything you all three of you said I I was super blown away without shot it shot incredibly well I enjoyed that a lot the diverters though keep you on your toes you don't necessarily know I mean this is going to be a game you're gonna have to learn because you're hitting a shot like the kind of the right ramp oh that'll feed this nope it's coming back at you this way or no it's going that way so uh you got to pay attention um I watch Neil Neil blew it up Neil blew it up when we were there remember remember the lady behind us she was I feel bad for her because he she was pissed yeah she ended up going to another I mean it's a weird thing when you're at a show it's like okay he's killing it but yet there is a line like should he drain and he even asked he's like should I drain and no we're like no like we're about to see like he was too Stables away from me he was deep in the game which is interesting that the the first or second time he played it he's blowing through the game but then again every job he started he as soon as he could cash out he just did like he wanted to get through the game game he kept getting into multiballs and I know from a scoring standpoint there's a whole weapon thing there that we weren't using so like you know you're gonna cash out you can do a weapon there's a multiplier associated with that is that like a 2X and a 5x to hit the spinner to rev It Up kind of thing your weapons I don't know well you you need to start listening to the loser Kindle oh did he talk about it there yeah need to pay attention see the way that I learned pins is I watch Carl Joel told us it was all in his Noggin he knows I watch a stream I watch a stream and then I and then I I really it doesn't stick until I play the game it doesn't stick until I play it but anyways uh it was awesome it was awesome to shoot the the art on it's gorgeous um but I agree with everything you're saying it it seems it is very much a jjp thing all the lights all the time so like I said earlier there were games like Pulp Fiction and there were games like Foo Fighters that you couldn't hear the game but yet the lights still choreographed well what to do and this it's just like I had no idea all the lights are on and I don't know like it's not there and this is the first ggp game that I've played that doesn't have that secondary monitor that's telling you exactly what to do uh like in Toy Story and GNR so it's it's gonna be a game that I think if you own it if it's in your basement you really dive in and learn the rules there's so much there and luckily the game shoots you really really well um so really another game that I was like pleasantly surprised at how well um I enjoyed the game yeah I'm gonna have to stay at Tom's Place next time I go to da2 so I can play on 60. I can play Godfather I can play Pulp Fiction yeah yeah so or another one I just have event number one at Tom's house at this rate we got to do a pen skins here there we go uh yeah it was awesome so another big thumbs up for me um so we saved the best for last right we saved the game we all just yeah so first off uh so many people asked did I get a lunch box no I did not unfortunately I did not get my lunch box um they I saw them they looked great this was a sad day they weren't for sale apparently the those were just like samples and their their main shipment of lunch boxes didn't come in in time so whenever those go up online I will be buying a lunchbox I did get a poster from Francie Francie was awesome uh talked to him he hooked me up with a poster super nice guy was great talking to him and the art okay I mean I think we can all agree the art on gtf is fantastic very good um it looks incredible like it Chris killed that package if you've ever wanted uh one of your pinball machines to look like a tank they did it they did it really well like it it looks like a freaking tank I mean it's it's absurd and I went to the AP um seminar and Dennis Dorman said he's like if you're just gonna put this in a row don't buy the tank like buy just buy the normal the standard one but if you if you have room a corner or you want to put it at the end and you want something to look kind of cool buy the tank I mean it's it's nobody I don't think anybody's requested it but there are definitely people that are like all right I'm in on that um they actually explain the application of did they show like how to turn it into a tank yeah it's it's a it's an instantly but what is interesting it's an automatic latch but they did say we do recommend putting the screws in the backbox though so like nobody's gonna do that they're gonna have to like unscrew the backbox well that's what they're they're suggesting you put those in probably to cover themselves if somebody shakes too hard the whole head comes down but it is just an automatic latch or there's a button you put and lay it back down I mean it's pretty cool it's possible for that to happen because one of the versions I played on it the backbox we literally stopped playing because we were like is this going to shake off like every time we barely nudged it it was um the backbox is a totally different design not only the tank one but also it's a thinner backbox and they kind of have the panel like the speakers set back a little bit so there is a cool light that they put there I mean cosmetically the game looks insane it's it's really a great game to look at um audio uh I couldn't hear any call outs the only thing I heard was dubstep so um Dennis Nordman said this is my universe that I'm creating if you want to know the storyline the storyline is you're on a moon that the atmosphere of this Moon just happens to be a good atmosphere for livestock to live on so cows and chickens live on that so if there's cows they get there you know I'm not going you know you're gonna have to use your imagination here Travis I want you to know the lore how did the cows ice cream so the whole Lab is all about ice cream and then that's why they're these tanks and are invading they're trying to steal your ice cream so they're trying to steal this cows they're trying to steal your ice cream that's the whole thing this is this is his name is so the tanks yeah no we are fighting we are fighting Galactic the invading tanks with our tanks we got a big old tank battle over so saving the game for whatever reason we brought so we got a moon base yeah yeah let me get this straight and you got to bring a tank we brought cows chickens and tanks yeah to protect the ice cream three things that go together it's just science man I mean he said very clearly in the seminar like this is his universe so anything goes he's like I like dubstep I he understands it's a 1950s aesthetic but he doesn't want 1950s music this is his Universe he wanted dubstep so he put dubstep in it um I mean so if you hate dubstep sorry I mean but if if you're into that you're into it um so that's the only audio I could hear that there's a ton of cheesy I mean they went all in on the cheese on on uh there's a lot of cheesy lines there's a lot of like one other you know get your um like what the fudge happened there you know there's a lot of dairy jokes a lot of puns um and then the video assets they were very proud they said it during the seminar that they have two animators so everything that you see was done with two people you know a lot of other places have big animation teams um I think the animations are good they're but it kind of looks like two people did it you know like it doesn't look like a huge team um so I don't know it's just I was okay with that I was okay with the animations I was okay with the audio and I was okay with the art package anybody have anything else in terms of the Aesthetics and the sound thoughts on how it looked I thought the light show was pretty cool with the uh you know you have the light strip coming down the middle and kind of built in pin stadiums basically yeah yeah and kind of almost like backlit kind of thing but sure um gameplay wise yeah let's go so yeah that's all good big old thumbs up on all that that's what I would say big old thumbs up for all that so we have one thumb up so far gameplay if you are a thumbs up for ice cream if the goal with owning a pinball machine to you is just like you just like looking at them or you like having a tank in your lips just like you want just something that looks cool nailed it like nailed it it's a good looking Game Colin did you play the game I think you're gonna be did you play it I played it at the yeah tail end of this Festival let's go on Sunday yeah I know you've you've spoken positively of all these games so I'm gonna let you go first because I think you're gonna you're gonna say this in a very kind or as kind as you can what were your thoughts on the gameplay of Galactic thing force uh it wasn't my favorite okay yeah it's just the I don't know if it was a function of the the being at the tail end of the festival and therefore maybe things have gotten tired but the the flippers just didn't they didn't feel good it was it was very very difficult to make the ramp um so like I said it could just be a function of the the coils getting tired over the course of the weekend and the tail end of Sunday even and uh yeah it just it didn't you know that it kind of just on the opposite end of the spectrum of something like uh Foo Fighters yeah in terms of in terms of the kinetic satisfaction I did not get much kinetic satisfaction from gtf I I got no kinetic satisfaction from gtf personally that was something yeah there was not I can't think of a shot that felt like ooh that was like it just I don't know Travis he's raising his hand what shot I can tell you oh shot the one that goes right up the middle oh yeah and then goes over your flippers into the ball trough Connecticut satisfaction so multiple times the tank has five small stand-up Targets in front of it and there are different points where you have to hit very specific ones other ones you just have to bash that and there's actually a little robot dude that pops out at certain points which is kind of cool it's a it's it's a Mech dead center of the game you can't miss it um the problem though I experienced it I watched Travis experience it if you hit that those stand-ups I mean this is not new like I know on like sparky on Metallica there's problems where if you hit those Targets in front of them the ball can fly back so there's like entire like plastic protectors to like keep the ball all down well what happens here is you drill that stand up and the ball literally flies in the air over top of your flippers and they put an actual like ball save post big old rubber posts between the flippers to try to help you with that that only master ball stays on the place it's just the game honey [ __ ] you the ball goes like right over it into the ball trough I mean it happened oh my gosh two or three times I watched the podcast I watched it happen to Travis and um arcade Hollywood actually has some he had access to a game and he has like a seven minute like kind of cool stream clip and he has a clip of it like it happened to him like this is this is a this is a problem I tested this Joel I played three different games on three different pins for gtf to see maybe it just happened to be that one yeah it was all three of them yeah I had air balls every single time and so I the very first time I stepped up to it I was remarking to who was with me there that I was kind of shocked to see that there was no airball deflector in here in that area because we were just running under the assumption that it was probably going to happen because we hadn't seen any gameplay then sure [ __ ] very first shot we took you could hear just hit off the glass and go flying it's like okay this is fun yeah and it's another thing I saw is because even if it doesn't even if you're lucky and it doesn't fly over your flippers it still is getting Airborne the play field I'm timing it yeah the Playfield though in that area in front of the flippers is cratered it is taking a beating and that's something I've I've I had Hot Wheels here and the Playfield was gorgeous like I think it's not like it's I think it's just it's brutal on and I get it that that pins those pins were basically being played non-stop for three days but it's just to see that I don't know how you address that when it's a mechanical so you have that beam that goes through and the ball goes through it's like a million points you gotta put some kind of plastic over those five targets but I remember when I had uh Transformers Le there was a drop Target that that you had to hit and yeah it was a massive massive airball thing and they had a they had to come out with a fix for that so well I mean I think it's definitely possible that that could be yeah I think we gotta see that there has to be an airball deflector there otherwise I mean it just or somebody makes the game yeah it doesn't make the game unplayable because you can still do other shots but if you want to just yeah yeah it's like you have to just avoid it completely and that's I mean you don't want you don't want to produce a game in which somebody has to actively avoid something that is so prominent in the game or so I I think that that's the fix for something like that or if you're a novice you know and you put your dollar in and you go up there and second time you drill that tank the balls what was that yeah I agree with all that and there's there's really there's just some stand-ups on the left there's some stand-ups on the right you have an orbit shot on the left an orbit shot on the right your your ramp is on the left and then on the right there's a kind of a shot to go into a buck and then you have the tank and that's it I mean you forgot about the movable mechanism oh the movable UFO cow Target which is a hurry up gotta say the cows there is a cool light show with that that uh oh yeah it has lights it definitely definitely has a light show it's got lights it's got art it's got sound so my problem with the game because I was very hyped for this game with yeah my problem with how the layout is is it's just after you avoid the tank it's just kind of like I don't know it just feels very milk toast-like it's just the shots are what they are yeah if the flippers aren't powerful like good luck with the left ramp we had multiple times to where the magnet was failing Us in the backside to where the ball was just like going right past it we weren't getting our locks or anything and that could be a result of the show in general too just the coils getting hot sure you know who knows so it's kind of hard to judge off that but I will say because I owned a hot wheels for a while I much preferred that layout over gtf but I like the idea of tanks and ice cream and cows and chickens like we just got to figure out how to put this all together yeah it's I I've spoken to a few different people and I think there's a lot of us that were like really hoping to be just wowed by gtf like just to this be this you know unlicensed crazy darling of a pin that's just insane you know and um unfort like I had High Hopes even though I didn't know what to and I I was I'm sorry but I was really let down like really let down with my experience with gtf and I hope I hope they can make some mechanical changes and uh you know they they talked about it though in the in the AP seminar they've had this play field a long time like in in the way they talk about it is they're like yeah even when it was just a white wood we found ourselves playing it for like 30 or 40 minutes just having a blast and that's the only thing that's like if you've had this long to work on this Playfield they said it was a lot more simple too they said when they got to American pinball American pinball actually added stuff into the game their their initial goal was a more simplistic game um so I don't know I don't know but I do think there will need to be some sort of adjustment mechanically and um and then when it comes to the audio package or the video I until we until we start seeing people stream it I don't know if that'll be good annoying don't really know um so part of me wonders too with the front with those targets right there because I notice on some of the pins they were kind of not perfectly lined either like some of them were a little bit offset too okay so I wonder if they come offset maybe that causes the air balls a little bit more dramatically than others that might be aligned properly or I don't know because I don't see how this is missed in the white wood stage that's the thing maybe move them back actually a little more under the tank if you can so that the tank could potentially the same designer I have no idea I just play the game I'm not either I just go for multiple um go for multiple I don't know so that was it those were the six games those were six games any other thoughts on uh gtf or any of the games we talked about or any other games you played there that that you wanna we gotta what was the game of the show um can you pick one when I walked away my final thoughts my game of the show is like Foo Fighters if I was gonna add a game right now Foo Fighters is the game like I can't wait to play it more and I think Zach is gonna let me borrow one maybe even as early as next week to start streaming so like Foo Fighters is absolutely the game that I'm most excited to play um my other thought was if you're in on a Pulp Fiction Le you made a brilliant choice you made an amazing choice that name is looks incredible well done Tom and then the P3 the P3 just as a system in general is becoming more and more fun and I'm I really enjoyed my time on Final resistance so those were kind of my main my main takeaways personally um let's go around Colin what were your thoughts walking away from tpf or your main exhausted that's fair that's fair yeah yeah I think as far as takeaways um you know I I've you know I knew a lot about final resistance because I you know got to play test it and stuff like that but the one that the thing that the the my biggest surprise at the show was how much I enjoyed playing Godfather because I knew I was going to enjoy playing Foo Fighters after watching the stream that's why I put it in the tournament because I saw how well it shot I knew I could after talking to Ray day I knew I could trust that the the rules were going to be good and it was gonna and I was I was happy with my decision people a lot of people were questioning me about whether I should put Foo Fighters in a tournament um and I think it worked out well but I was really the my biggest surprise of the show was how much I enjoyed playing Godfather nice nice Travis yeah I would just Echo the same thing I went into the show thinking okay Godfather might be a solid three just because just playing it just seeing the the design the layout but I would probably put it right up there with Foo Fighters right now I'd have those tied wow right now and I just need more time on Godfather to kind of see how the code shakes out and just probably because I played Foo Fighters enough now just in a an enclosed area to where I could hear the sounds and everything and it's a lot of fun shots are great songs great animation's great everything on it's fantastic and I just think with Godfather I want to give it a little bit more time to kind of see where it's at exactly but I would definitely put it up there close to Foo Fighters at this point just based off my experience on it in general okay and uh I would actually put final resistance way up there as well I was very impressed with how that played with the speed of the game the sound of the game and no I didn't play any of the modes but no so those uh those three I probably really enjoyed and just I don't know I I hope to see something out of gtf like the fix that we just talked about I think that that could help it out a lot they can figure that part out um I mean Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo we've discussed that yep you know plenty of times and then Pulp Fiction I didn't get a chance to play it but it looks fun so just based based off looks alone I'd probably put it like mid-pack at this point until I actually get a chance to play it but I do like the theme though I've probably seen the movie at least 10 times so the theme really draws me in to something like that and I think even like I I like the idea of a single level game but if Pulp Fiction happened to be what Godfather is I I would probably like be all in interesting then okay thank you I think you will be after you actually play it I hope so I like I still hold on to the thought that if that game was Sopranos instead of Godfather it it would have gone over like gangbusters because there's a lot of people in pinball pinball collectors that love Sopranos more than what people realize interesting very interesting Joel Tom yes yeah uh final thoughts Tom overall tpf was fun oh man it was yes um no game wise what stood out or yeah you're uh yeah it it's hard to choose I I would say probably Foo Fighters at the top um and then kind of like tied for a second for me would be Pulp Fiction and and Godfather yeah and lucky for you all three of those pins are coming your way yeah yeah and then I would say you know right there behind them would be final resistance and then probably uh you know a little kind of in the distance gtf and Scooby-Doo yeah yeah no I agree I totally agree but it was awesome uh tpf was great um between just all these awesome new games to play the tournament what you know even as a as a fan viewing it watching it was awesome uh there were so many people there uh having being able to meet people and talk to people and see friends and everything um tpf is definitely if if you are listening to this and you've never been to a pinball show it's worth it like tpf really is worth the trip um if you can only make one if you can only make one it is a fantastic and there are dates already for tpf next year oh cool yeah I don't know I don't know what they are but I know it yeah it'll be March it'll be March something so in case anybody looks it up it's over uh Saint Patty's day isn't it I think yeah it might be like the early March weekend I think it's a little earlier yeah it's just the one thing is remarkable at the show with tpf is if you buy the early bird special price it's so ridiculously underpriced like what you for what you get to be able to go to that show for you know Friday evening Saturday and then half day Sunday yeah for like what is it 65 bucks that's cheap I bought my tickets at the door and I paid 85 bucks I mean it's just yeah yeah it's awesome it's awesome yeah I I really uh I was gonna tell Colin this I really like how the tournament ends Saturday yes and you have your time to enjoy Sunday and uh you know it's a little lighter on Sunday too um but it it's uh I mean it's still packed but it wasn't quite as packed but um yeah it was that was nice you know just to enjoy the show and everything it was really cool it's a great show great show but anything else anything else the three of you guys want to discuss um or should we just go ahead and wrap her up we crushed it Joel cool and this is why we're number one right here well what I will say is um I think the audio sounded good this whole time the video has has been in and out of potato cam all so I have no idea what's coming if if you're watching this video and it looks great well done Zen Caster uh if it looks terrible we will go back to the old method next week so we will see um but yeah let's uh we'll go ahead and plug it up um plug away Colin whatever you wanna whatever you want to plug it's all you uh yeah just come to uh tpf next year if you uh ever were on the fence about to come into it if you did go to it come back it's the it's the best show awesome and uh good luck with your endeavors at P3 for sure thanks for being on here thanks for running a good tournament and can't wait to see what you uh yeah I will say one last thing about P3 if you're on the fence about P3 get in line now like get your get your deposit in now because it's a it's a pretty long lead time you know people you know multi-morphic's not a big company so yeah um you you're gonna you're gonna get the value out of it and the one interesting thing is you don't see um I don't think you see p3s on the mar on the on the second hand market and that should tell you something right there yeah it's it's rare because I've looked a few times it's rare it's rare to see them but yeah it's a year it's a year leeway um for sure if you already have one then the modules are a lot less but um lead time but yeah it's a pretty awesome system but yeah well thank you yeah absolutely thanks for being on here uh Travis plug away man I know you got a long list yeah you guys can find me on the triple drain pinball podcast right here on YouTube and on whatever podcatcher well done thank you way to crush that list thank you I'm all over it uh thanks for wearing the merch man appreciate that look at you oh yeah you guys can find me on only fans also oh God okay uh Tom plug away man uh you can find me here or on Fox Cities Pinball that's awesome twitch and YouTube yes um and yeah and uh you can find me on The Flipping Out uh YouTube stream every Wednesday night from 10 to midnight eastern daylight time or on this wonderful podcast yeah okay well I think that's it I think we'll wrap it up once again Colin thanks for being on here really appreciate that and um like always Tom you get the last words good night time for bed _(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 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