# SDTM: a pinball show Episode 26: This Month In Pinside (Star Wars impressions, Spooky documentary) **Source:** Straight Down the Middle **Type:** video **Published:** 2017-07-17 **Duration:** 40m 20s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tORZHy9Irsk --- ## Analysis Zach Sharpe and Greg from Straight Down the Middle discuss this month's pinball news, including praise for the Spooky Pinball documentary "Things That Go Bump in the Night," excitement about Houdini Master of Mystery potentially shipping before year-end, and mixed reactions to Star Wars Pinball gameplay footage. They highlight concerns about Star Wars' complexity, shipping delays for code deployment, and the game getting old despite good flow. ### Key Claims - [MEDIUM] Houdini Master of Mystery may enter production before the end of the year — _Zach Sharpe citing 'a little birdie' at ~17:00 mark; pre-order available at Flippin' Out Pinball_ - [MEDIUM] Star Wars Pinball units are shipping without code, requiring wait for SD Card from Stern — _Zach Sharpe assertion at ~42:00; notes code hasn't been approved yet_ - [HIGH] Rob Zombie's Spookshow International received a significant update that people are praising — _Greg mentions update rolled out; described as 'vast improvement' and 'really changing the game'_ - [HIGH] Dialed In remake is shipping and people report it plays better than original — _Greg at ~20:00 confirms shipping; cites personal play at Cellars and positive feedback_ - [HIGH] Straight Down the Middle has reached ~500 YouTube subscribers — _Zach and Greg celebrate milestone at ~13:00; goal is 1,000 subscribers_ - [HIGH] Star Wars gameplay footage shows four of the main shots are orbits — _Zach critical observation at ~40:00 based on DeadFlip and Jack Danger gameplay videos_ - [HIGH] Spooky Pinball's documentary has A+ quality and emotional depth around Charlie and company culture — _Both hosts rate it A+ at ~10:00; praise storytelling, editing, and captured relationships_ - [MEDIUM] Star Wars Pinball has heavy multiplier mechanics similar to Game of Thrones — _Zach concern at ~45:00 about complexity and learning curve for location players_ - [HIGH] Charlie Emery (Spooky) quit his job to start the company with family support during financial hardship — _Documentary discussion at ~9:00; described as 'ballsy' move with family eating 'macaroni and cheese'_ - [HIGH] Attack from Mars remake by Chicago Gaming is shipping with positive reception — _Greg at ~19:00 confirms shipping; mentions Larry at Flippin' Out has inventory_ ### Notable Quotes > "I think the company is great. I think that it's going in the right direction. I think they're building quality machines, and I think they're only going to get better." > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~11:00 > _Positive reassessment of Spooky Pinball after documentary; contrasts with earlier criticism of Rob Zombie game_ > "How ballsy is this guy? He just quits his job and is like, I'm making pinball machines." > — **Greg**, ~12:00 > _Admiration for Charlie Emery's entrepreneurial risk-taking; resonates with audience aspirations_ > "I have not heard a negative review about Dialed In. People are loving Dialed In." > — **Greg**, ~21:00 > _Strong market signal: remakes can succeed if quality is right; contrasts with mixed Star Wars reception_ > "Are we not done with this bullshit, Greg? Why can't you play them?" > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~42:00 > _Frustration with Star Wars shipping delays and code unavailability; consumer pain point_ > "Flow is good. But what have I told you before? If you want good flow, go to a System 11 game. Flow only gets you so far." > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~47:00 > _Design philosophy critique: flow alone insufficient for game longevity; concern about Star Wars long-term appeal_ > "The layout. It's identical. Really? to Star Wars. Oh, gosh. It's identical." > — **Greg**, ~44:00 > _Design comparison: Star Wars layout derivative of Spider-Man; potential originality concern_ > "I'm an organic dick rather than an artificial dick." > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~38:00 > _Self-characterization of honest/critical opinion style; sets up Star Wars critique_ > "Papa Duke. It's fine. But, but, and then here's my laundry list." > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~39:00 > _Dismissive opening before detailed Star Wars criticism; indicates measured skepticism_ > "They captured something a lot of documentaries don't... For them to have captured, like I said, the heart. The relationship. The heart and the relationships of it. That is hard to do, and that is very unique." > — **Greg**, ~13:00 > _Praise for documentary filmmaking quality; emotional storytelling as differentiator_ > "If I'm spending $6,000 on a pinball machine to $10,000, you're goddamn right it better have some good lighting." > — **Zach Sharpe**, ~50:00 > _Market expectation: premium pricing demands baseline production quality as table stakes, not bonus features_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Zach Sharpe | person | Co-host of Straight Down the Middle podcast; pinball enthusiast and content creator; provides detailed Star Wars critique | | Greg | person | Co-host of Straight Down the Middle; more optimistic on Star Wars; challenges Zach's criticisms with counterpoints | | Straight Down the Middle | organization | Pinball podcast/YouTube channel; approaching 500 subscribers; reviews games, covers industry news | | Charlie Emery | person | Co-owner of Spooky Pinball; subject of documentary 'Things That Go Bump in the Night'; praised for entrepreneurial dedication and humility | | Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; documentary recently released; upcoming games include Nuclear Annihilation, Alice Cooper, Dominos, Jetsons | | Things That Go Bump in the Night | product | Documentary about Spooky Pinball directed by Joel and Dana Reeves; rated A+ by hosts; available on Vimeo | | Star Wars Pinball | game | Stern release; shipping with code delays; gameplay footage from DeadFlip and Jack Danger shows good flow but concerns about complexity and long-term appeal | | Houdini Master of Mystery | game | American Pinball game; pre-orders opening at Flippin' Out Pinball; expected production start before year-end; enthusiastically received at Texas Pinball expo | | Flippin' Out Pinball | company | Distributor/retailer; handling Houdini pre-orders; offering Chicago Gaming Attack from Mars, Dialed In SE inventory | | Dialed In | game | Chicago Gaming remake; shipping with positive reception; reported to play better than original; popular on location | | Attack from Mars | game | Chicago Gaming remake; shipping through Flippin' Out Pinball; generating positive feedback | | Rob Zombie's Spookshow International | game | Spooky Pinball design; received major code update; significant improvement noted; Zach traded his unit for Popeye plus cash | | Ghostbusters Stern | game | Game owned by both Zach and Greg; subject of ongoing wager to reach Wizard mode; highly regarded by hosts despite community criticism | | Steven Bowden | person | Founder of Fun With Bonus pinball news website; described as 'kick-ass dude' and 'one of the best' players; praised for community contribution | | Fun With Bonus | organization | Pinball news website curated by Steven Bowden; aggregates pinball community updates and news | | This Week in Pinball | organization | New pinball news website launched by Colin (10-D); well-organized with Pinball 101 educational section; praised for production quality | | DeadFlip | person | Strong pinball player; provided gameplay footage of Star Wars; praised as skilled but subject to selection bias discussion | | Jack Danger | person | Pinball content creator; provided Star Wars gameplay footage at Stern facility | | Kaneda's Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast host made light dig at SDTM for reviewing older games; hosts propose bringing on Kaneda for collaboration | | Penn Stadium Lights | company | New sponsor of SDTM; LED lighting system for pinball machines; developed by Matt Scott | | Joel and Dana Reeves | person | Directors of Spooky Pinball documentary; praised for editing, cinematography, and narrative structure | | Bug | person | Co-owner of Spooky Pinball; featured in documentary about working relationship with Charlie Emery | | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Star Wars Pinball; experiencing code shipping delays; facility hosted gameplay sessions | ### Topics - **Primary:** Spooky Pinball Documentary Reception, Star Wars Pinball Gameplay and Design Critique, Houdini Master of Mystery Pre-Orders and Production Timeline, Code Shipping Delays and Game Availability - **Secondary:** Pinball Game Flow vs. Long-Term Appeal, Chicago Gaming Remakes (Dialed In, Attack from Mars), Rob Zombie's Spookshow International Code Update, Pinball Community Media and News Websites ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.45) — Positive sentiment around Spooky documentary, Houdini, and Chicago Gaming remakes. Skepticism and concern about Star Wars complexity, code delays, and long-term appeal. Mixed on new Stern release quality. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Straight Down the Middle podcast growing community with t-shirt pre-orders and international shipping; approaching subscriber milestone (confidence: high) — Hosts discuss t-shirt orders, 500 subscriber milestone, overseas shipments, and merchandise sales - **[sentiment_shift]** Mixed community reception of Star Wars Pinball; division between players loving it and those skeptical of complexity/design (confidence: high) — Zach: 'Here's the thing...some people are loving it and eating it up. Some people are hating it' and 'don't hate us on our views because they are freaking across the board' - **[design_philosophy]** Debate over whether good flow alone sustains game longevity; hosts disagree on flow as table stakes for modern pinball (confidence: high) — Zach: 'Flow only gets you so far. If you want good flow, go to a System 11 game' vs Greg defending flow as primary positive - **[event_signal]** Texas Pinball Expo positioned as major showcase venue where Houdini Master of Mystery generated significant enthusiasm (confidence: high) — Multiple references to Texas Pinball Expo reaction; Zach: 'people are like, holy shit, this is a great game' - **[market_signal]** Dialed In remake shipping with strong positive reception; reported better playability than original (confidence: high) — Greg: 'I have not heard a negative review about Dialed In. People are loving Dialed In.' Multiple references to production ramping up - **[community_signal]** Zach Sharpe traded his Rob Zombie's Spookshow International machine for Popeye plus cash after update satisfaction; secondary market activity (confidence: medium) — Zach: 'You know what I got in return? Popeye. With some cash' - **[market_signal]** Host assertion that $6,000-$10,000+ price point creates expectation for premium LED/sound as baseline, not bonus features (confidence: medium) — Zach: 'If I'm spending $6,000 on a pinball machine to $10,000, you're goddamn right it better have some good lighting' - **[announcement]** Houdini Master of Mystery expected to enter production before year-end; pre-orders available at Flippin' Out Pinball (confidence: medium) — Zach Sharpe: 'a little birdie has told me that we may see Houdini Master of Mystery before Christmas, or before the end of the year, starting, yeah, production line might be' - **[product_strategy]** Star Wars Pinball shipping without functional code; customers waiting for SD Card deployment from Stern (confidence: medium) — Zach: 'The ones that have been shipped out now, there's been a number of people that said, well, I can't do anything until Sam Stern ships me the code because that code hasn't been approved or something' - **[product_concern]** Star Wars Pinball design criticized for limited shot variety (four orbits as primary targets), derivativeness from Spider-Man layout, and potential for long-term play fatigue (confidence: high) — Zach: 'Four of your shots are orbits...What's there to shoot at?' and Greg: 'The layout [compared to Spider-Man]. It's identical' - **[product_strategy]** Spooky Pinball upcoming releases include Nuclear Annihilation, Alice Cooper, Dominos, and Jetsons; company expanding beyond horror theme (confidence: high) — Greg: 'They're rolling good. Nuclear Annihilation is coming out. Alice Cooper is coming out...Dominos and Jetsons' - **[sentiment_shift]** Positive reassessment of Spooky Pinball after documentary release; initial criticism of Rob Zombie game contextualized within company's learning curve (confidence: high) — Zach: 'I think the company is great. I think that it's going in the right direction. I think they're building quality machines, and I think they're only going to get better' --- ## Transcript Hey guys, before we start the video, this is Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle, a pinball show. We want to thank PinStadium Lights for being our newest sponsor. We got another sponsor, buddy! That's great! Check out PennStadium.com for the ultimate lighting package for your pinball machine. Scott's been developing this thing for a while now, and he's into production. This is a full LED system lighting that is controlled by an app that can work on WPC machines, Stern machines, flasher options, GI integration. Color. You can change your color. Change your percentage that your color is at. Everything. It lights up machines that really, really need light. And it lights up machines that don't necessarily have to have light. Yeah. But it's just, it looks like diamonds on your play field. So check out PennStadium.com. They're our newest sponsor, and we really, really appreciate the support. Hey guys This is Zach This is Greg This is straight down the middle of Pinball Show What are we doing Greg? This month in Pinside Are we? Yeah You sure? No What if I was like, this is a top ten, dumbass. We're doing top tens here. Did you not do your homework? I can see making that mistake. It could happen. All right, so this month in Pinside, we're going to review all things pinball-related news, topics that usually surface on Pinside. Yeah, and not a lot have. I mean, there's been some pretty big things. There's like two big things. Yeah, not a lot's been going on again. All right, so let's do some housekeeping first, Greg. Update on our t-shirts. We have stopped our pre-orders. We've got those out. And we have sent in our orders to the printer. So as soon as those get printed, we will be shipping the t-shirts. That's right. And we'd like to thank everyone who did the pre-orders. Hell yeah. We got a lot of orders. A lot of orders. Yeah, we did. We did. Some really good people. And we're going to obviously, like we said before, we're going to have extra shirts that we have put in orders for as well. So if you didn't get in on the pre-order, we will have some extra shirts to be able to sell. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of our shirts are going overseas. Yeah, a lot of them, man. How cool is that? I like it. On a boat or on a plane. Yeah, it's kind of neat. I think it's awesome. You got some requests for some signatures. So yeah, like Greg was saying, we have extra t-shirts. Message us or whatever you need to do. We have the PayPal account. Yep. I'm shooting it over there. Yep. Shirt size, which shirt you want. Yep, your pin side name. All the address. Yeah, pin side name or your YouTube name, whatever you got. All right, what else we got, Greg? Spooky Pinball. The documentary came out, Things That Go Bump in the Night. It did. You watched it. I watched it. I watched it. I loved it. I absolutely loved it, too. I loved it. It's a unique, very unique documentary, just for the fact that, I mean, it's obviously about spooky pinball. but it's more I feel about in a really amazing town and in a really amazing company yeah Charlie like you know just the dynamic that he has with people yeah and everything yeah it's just seeing how him and Ben like how they got together how everything happened behind the scenes kind of stuff that's the kind of stuff you really like to see it's like the very top like you know how like when you start talking to somebody the first thing is That kind of what got you into pinball, that sort of thing. You get to hear that story, but in depth and in a lot of detail, and then how that was flourished and flowered into spooky pinball. What I especially liked was hearing Charlie and his hesitancy and his just worried that these things weren't going to sell. The America's Most Haunted, he was like, shit, I didn't think anything was going to sell. And then the sales were like dead for a while, and then all of a sudden they went to Texas Pinball. And it's just the behind the scenes and, like, their emotions and their thoughts throughout the whole thing and being in the incubator and Benton. Yeah, which was fantastic, man. I love that concept. That thing is amazing for a town. Like, I love that. But, yeah, man, I mean, you just get to see the dedication and the passion that he put into it and everything that he went through to actually achieve that goal. Because, I mean, we've obviously seen a lot of people try to make pinball machines and go belly up, take people's money, different things would go on. And just the struggles that he went through to continue to make that pinball machine. You know what I think makes him great in that whole company is just him being so humble. He doesn't jump in and say, you know what, we're at the top here, we're competing against the best. He's like, no, we're making a couple pinball machines, and if people want to buy them, we'll make more pinball machines. And I think doing the limited number run, it was a very smart thing. I think you kind of know what you need to get to and everything. It's not we're just going to keep producing, keep producing, keep producing. That's right. I think that their business strategy was fantastic of what he's done. They were ordering like five sets of each thing just to make five machines. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, but it's – I mean, I don't know. And I love the interviews, the inside pinball people interviews. Like you had just all the different designers, music people. You had Terry at Pinball Live. You had Dead Flip. You had Nate Shiver. Just all of them giving their own accounts of Charlie. And the respect that they have for him and everything. I know that we were kind of tough on Rob Zombie. We were kind of tough on that guy. I think rightfully so. I do too. Nothing wrong with that. But here's the thing that I have about Charlie. I think the company is great. I think that it's going in the right direction. I think they're building quality machines, and I think they're only going to get better. He talked about the production quality between what America's Most Haunted was and what Rob Zombie was. And I think they're only going to improve and tweak. Because, I mean, they're very fresh, very new. Charlie himself is very new, I feel, still at pinball, really. And I think to take on something like Rob Zombie and to design that yourself and to do that yourself, I don't think that it was a miss. I mean, you're going up against people. No, he sold a shitload of them. Yeah, you're going up against people, though, that have designed pinball machines. Decades. Yes, yes. 30 years, 40 years. A team of them. Yes, that have designed pinball machines. So you can never beat yourself up when you have put your heart and soul into a game and that you have designed that game the way you wanted it. Even if it didn't turn out to everyone's perfection. There's still a ton of people that love Rob Zombie. And it's a good game. It's not bad. It's just that it's not as good as what we thought as some other pins. They can be bad. But again, those games have had designers on them that have designed pinballs for, like you said, decades. So I think it's easy to get behind this company. Oh, very much so. Very much so. Very much so. And I respected the company to begin with, but after listening to Charlie, listening to the town talk about him, listening to his dedication about the town, listening to his dedication about pinball. How ballsy is this guy? He just quits his job and is like, I'm making pinball machines. Exactly. Exactly. Something that every one of you guys probably wish, or a lot of you guys and gals wish you could do. I know I have a nice professional job, but... To quit and to go, yeah, I'm going to risk this. My family's going to eat macaroni and cheese for the next six months while we fund this. And that's what was great, too, was to see how much his family was behind him on that. You just don't get that from everybody. And look at what that company's doing now. They're rolling. Oh, yeah. They're rolling good. Nuclear Annihilation is coming out. Alice Cooper is coming out. Yeah, they're doing the little boutique games. Dominos and Jetsons so I think there's great things check out the documentary Things That Go Bump in the Night by Joel and Dana Reeves they did just a phenomenal job oh yeah the quality of the film is fantastic everything about their editing is fantastic perfect length perfect length that's the thing they captured something a lot of documentaries don't you can easily went in there and just talked about pinball and spooky and just what happened But for them to have captured, like I said, the heart. The relationship. The heart and the relationships of it. That is hard to do, and that is very unique. And they did it perfectly. Well, what would you review? What grade are you going to give it? Oh, man, I'm an A+. I'm an A+, too. If you guys haven't seen the documentary, go out and you can rent it on a couple different websites, I believe. Vimeo or whatever. Go out and do it. It's cheap. It helps promote probably the production company. So I think it's awesome. Go check it out. I do, too. All right, so let's backtrack a little bit here. Um, first off, I want to give some shout outs here. Um, if anybody hasn't seen a fun with bonus website, the fun with bonus, uh, it's Steven Bowden's website. He gives, it's like a pinball news where he's always updating, uh, and tagging different things from the pinball world, uh, to collaborate together so you can view it. Um, I've been following and following that website. And we all know that Steven Bowden is known for just being a kick-ass, nice freaking dude. Hell of a pinball player. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's one of the best. So I want you guys to check out Fun With Bonus. It's one of my favorite websites right now. And he's just comical, fun, and he's got everything there. I really like him. So we really appreciate Fun With Bonus, and hopefully they keep up the good work there. And in the same respect, we have a new, fresh pinball news-esque website that just opened up. One of our buddies. 10 to D. Yep. Then two D has opened up this week in pinball So Google this weekend pinball and he just starting up his own website Very well done Very well organized It really is Lots of hard current topics Uh-huh. Yeah. And then he's even got like Pinball 101 kind of thing there where he talks about what you need to do, the different tips. He's put in so much work. Yeah. And it just looks phenomenal. It does, for sure. So check out Fun with Bonus. and this week in pinball. You guys will be really happy to check that out. A couple other things before we get into, of course, Star Wars. We're going to talk about Star Wars. That's what we're doing. It's kind of beating a dead horse at this point. Everybody's talking about it, but you got to, though. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about it. All right, so subscribers, Greg. We're right at 500 subscribers for our YouTube page. Right there. And when we started this, we thought we'd have 20 or 30, maybe. Yeah, if that. Because, man, when we first got it, we got like 10 people subscribing. And we were like, oh, my God, dude, we got subscribers. This is great. And we were like, oh, my God, we're at 20. And we got this many views, and this is great. We told ourselves if we had 1,000 subscribers, then we were worth a shit. Yeah, we felt we kind of were doing something. We were doing something. So we're at 500. We're halfway to our ultimate goal. But each and every one of you guys, thank you so freaking much that you have subscribed. And if you haven't, help us out. We want to get to that 1,000. Yeah, very much appreciated. Okay, a little birdie. I heard a little birdie. Right? Remember Houdini, how awesome that game is? Yes. Remember they said it was, they bring it to Texas Pinball, and people are like, holy shit, this is a great game. And then remember we gave an exclusive. We played all kinds of gameplay of it, and we still loved it. Yeah. And I forgot to jack the back legs up, so it's a little floaty. But a little birdie has told me that we may see Houdini before Christmas, or before the end of the year, start to, yeah, production line might be. That'd be nice. Yeah. Jump on it now. I'm really interested in that. So for those of you who have not seen Houdini, go to our YouTube page. We have some exclusive videos, gameplay of it. And once you figure out you do want one, especially with some of the duds that are coming out lately, in my opinion, Houdini's looking really good. Well, and a lot of people who are getting their hands on it are enjoying it too. It's kind of a unanimous nice thing. And I haven't really seen that so much since Dialed In, when people start putting their hands on dialed in. That's right. So get a hold of Larry at FlippinOutPinball. That's F-L-I-P-N-O-U-T-Pinball.com. Get on the preorder there. I think it's only like $250 and it's refundable and stuff. Yeah. So get on that. Nothing to lose. In the same respect, if we're talking about FlippinOutPinball, they also offer Chicago Gaming, Attack from Mars. That is shipping. Yes. People are getting them. Yeah. Larry had a couple in stock even of the SEs and dialed in. A couple people said that they feel that that remake actually plays a little better. It plays good, man. I played it over in Cellars. That's nice, man. Yeah, I've heard good stuff about it. That new topper is amazing. That thing is cool. That's the LE that's going to be coming out later. Dialed In, they are cranking out the hell out of some Dialed In. And people are loving it. I have not heard a negative review about Dialed In. People are loving Dialed In. Do right, man. Man, every freaking unboxing video makes me, I'm like, Damn it. What should I sell? What should I sell? I want that thing. It is a fantastic game. God. All right. So, check, check, check, check. Check. Check. Oh, your little Rob Zombie. Yeah, the Rob Zombie update finally came out. Yeah. Big one. Yeah, a huge one. And people are going to like it, man. They said it's a vast improvement. It's really changing the game. Zach doesn't have it anymore. No. We couldn't mess with it or do anything. You know what I got in return? What? Popeye. With some cash. I don't understand that one. I do. Wait until we... So that update finally rolled out. And I think they're still going to tweak it a little bit and everything. But people are loving it, man. They said that it's great. Like I said, I don't have a lot of detail about it. I haven't been on a plate and get my hands on it. I do have a friend who does have one with that update. So I'm hoping to make it over to his house to be able to throw some games on there and maybe give you a little bit more detail about the changes. So find a Rob Zombie with the update, play it, let us know what you guys think about it. And if you have a Rob Zombie, update that bad boy if you haven't already. We've got one. You know what I'm happy about, though? Here's what I do like. Behind my work, there's a pizza joint. Oh, yeah. And somebody, Travis, Travis locally put it on route. Yeah. Yeah, so I get a Rob Zombie in time I want to play it. Yeah, so you go through that. Tell him to update it. Throw some games on it. He's big into it, so he probably will. I've done it already. All right. Next thing, before we get into Star Wars, you and I have got a little wager, buddy. Yeah, we do. Greg and I both own Ghostbusters Pro, and we're one of the few people who thinks it's one of the greatest games ever made. This is very true. Everybody else dogs the damn thing. I just think it's a freaking masterpiece. But we still haven't got to the wizard mode, have we, buddy? No, no. So we have a bet running to see who can capture. we're ready to believe you on Film First. And there's no half-assed videos. There is no partial videos. No, there is because my freaking phone's never charged. I might come in after first ball. Now we're changing the rules. Now we're changing the rules. No, come on. So, we've got to film it. Yes. So whoever films it first wins. Yes. And what do they get? I have no idea. A prize. Do we have a prize? Do we get a prize? Why don't you guys reach out to us and tell us what the loser has to do. Because I've been working my ass off. I've been playing the hell out of that game to try to get... The hardest we've got, I've got to the last... I'm on the last mode. Yeah. I'm like three shots. Yeah, I've gotten to... Is it back off man? What's the one over there? Yeah, it's back off man. That was my last one. That's my last one. I've gotten to every mode except for that one to be able to complete to do it. And it just pisses me off. I'm getting pretty regular on getting to all but two modes. No matter what. No matter which mode it is. I'm always within two almost most games I play. So it's enough that it's just tickling you a little bit. A little tickling. Just tickling you a little bit. Like it's right here. It's achievable. You can get this. You can get this. And all that thing. You can get it. What are you, bored right now? You can get this. You can get this. This is yours. All right. So what do you guys want to see Greg do once I get that thing on video? Do you want to see him, like a pie in the face? or maybe we make you rub or spray a chemical in your face. No, hell no. Like Windex or something like that. I'm throwing the game out. I don't care about the good bet. Or maybe we make you get a tattoo. I've already got some tattoos. You're the one that got a tattoo. I know, and I don't want to start now, so don't suggest that one. Something fun. Something fun. The rules are very fast. All right. So that's our wager. Okay, our other buddy. I've been listening to a lot of Kaneda pinball podcasts. Yes. I find that those podcasts are really well done, and there's all kinds of info. He's always at the breaking edge of news, but he did a little dig on us. Yeah, if you're watching out there, Kaneda, a little dig. He was, I think homeboy just needed a vacation. He was getting ready to go on vacation and said something like, I could be like the other pinball shows and review old games like The Shadow. And it's like the day after we came out with The Shadow review. So, Kaneda, thanks for watching, buddy. But do you guys want to see old video reviews? I do. I think so. Especially for new people. Hell, if you've just never gotten your hands on the game. I think there's a lot of people, even though pinball is coming back, there's a lot of people that still just do not have access to a lot of games. There's so many games to review. Yeah, so if you're looking at something like Shadow or Indiana Jones that you've just never touched before, you might kind of, you know what, I'm starting to kind of hear something about this. I tell you what, I could go older than Shadow. I could go 80s ballets that we can review at some point. Yeah, some of them. People love pinball. They don't just love 2017 pinball all the time. No, I agree. Even with EMs. I mean, EMs have a huge support system still behind them. Now, I'm talking about actual good games. Yeah, some EMs are still pretty good. But there's some of them I'd like to get an EM or something. I've got one in my garage right now. Yeah. Doesn't work. No. A lot of them don't. It looks pretty, though. But I really like Star Trek, the EM. That one's fun. Dolly's good. There's a couple of things that I like, but if I was kind of interested in buying one, I'd want to see other people's take on what the best EM is. So we're going to keep on reviewing it, and we're going to try to get Kaneda on this show. Yeah. We'll do like a hybrid show. Yeah. Talk to him. Chat it up. Let him bash us. He ain't going to bash us. It's two versus one. Got him. All right. You want to talk about this damn game that came out called Star Wars that's shipping? Got to see some gameplay. We did. Who did gameplay? A little bit, a little guy named Deadflip. That's right. A little Jack Danger. Yep. Went to Stern. He played it. What's your thoughts on it after that? This is across the board, too. Here's the thing. Wait. First of all, don't hate us on our views. on this because they are freaking across the board. Like, some people are loving it and eating it up. Some people are hating it. And this is a game, until you lay your hands on it, I think that you won't be able to judge until that point. And I think that even when you do get to play it, it's still going to be controversial. Here's the thing. That's why I like you so much. Because your opinions are so much different than mine. I think it's complete bullshit that I can't talk and really give an opinion on this thing without flipping it Because my ass watched about three hours of gameplay video and I know how the damn thing shoots Well I will agree with that People saying completely that oh you can make judgment until you do bullshit You can and you can't on personal preference. But I think that you can still get a fairly solid judgment on how it does shoot. Yeah. But I've seen some games that shoot pretty well and I've seen somebody terrible on that game. No, I get it. And they're just bouncing the ball over a place and they're not hitting a single shot. and then I've seen games that I can't hit a damn shot on that a really good player is just tearing apart. That's right. And there was some knock and some hesitation about, well, you know, you've got Sharp, you've got a lot of people that are amazing. They're the top of the pinball players that are playing this game. So how can you judge? They were killing it. Yes, yes. They were blowing the machines up. Even the wire guy. Yeah, yeah. Those wires. Yeah. Got up there and just screamed it. So I do understand, and God, people went crazy about when people said this. But I do think that there is a little bit of a problem with having that good of players playing it. Because then other people are like, well, I was. Deadflip's good too, though. Deadflip is really good. So you can't really completely base it off his gameplay either. When you go, oh, I just got this Ghostbusters and threw up $10 billion on it. Like, you're a good player. But I think that it's hard to judge. You don't want a crap player in there because people are like, well, I'd rather see a good player than a crap player. Yeah. That game looks clunky. No, it's a good flowing game. It's just Zach and Greg are playing it. It rebounds everywhere. That's no shit. But I think that you want somebody that's a decent player because I think most pinball players are decent. So what did you think about it? I'm going to go overboard on this shit. So what did you think about it? I think that the flow looked amazing. I think that that little, what is it, that horseshoe shot over there to the left. Horseshoe orbit. Yeah, I think that that thing looked amazing. Okay. I think that it looks like it's got really good flow. It did remind me a lot of Star Trek. It's almost like, to me, it's a Game of Thrones, Star Trek hybrid. You know what I think it is? Because of the multipliers and it's got the good flow. You know what I think it is? I think Game of Thrones came in, right? And it was feeling a little frisky. Game of Thrones feeling a little frisky and it said you know what that new dime piece up on the block here is? Star Trek. No, not Star Trek. Oh, what? Right. Who? Spider-Man the pin. The pin. The home version. And Game of Thrones said, you know what? You want to go out? They went out and they had a love child. And that child was named Star Wars. Really? You think with that Spider-Man? Oh, look at the pin. Oh, yeah. I mean, look. No, the layout. Oh, layout? It's identical. Really? To Star Wars. Oh, gosh. It's identical. I mean, I don't know, man. Like, it's one of those things, like, I did see there was a fellow pin-sider who posted some pictures of him playing it in a garage. Okay. And I do agree by his photos that he took that the game actually looks a hell of a lot better in just normal pictures and lighting than... I always thought the game kind of looked good. So I'm kind of over some of the looks of it. But I'm worried about the multipliers and stuff. I don't like a game that's heavy on multipliers. I do like Thrones. Don't get me wrong. I do really like Thrones. That game's heavy on multipliers. It is. I do like it and everything. But I'm not wild about it because it's just so complicated to stack. And that was the thing about this is it looked like there was so much running at one time that it looks so damn hard to comprehend and to get used to. And, I mean, I know that comes with time, but I feel like that if you're just playing it on location, it's going to be really difficult to learn. In a home setting, you're going to grab it. I mean, hell, there's not a game you really can't pick up in the home setting for the most part. But there's just so much going on at one time that I felt confused by a lot of it. I'm going to be negative Nancy here, right? Why am I always the dick? I'm always the dick. Like you're this guy that treads the line and makes everybody happy. It's all natural. I'm going to give my real opinion. You're an organic dick. I'm an organic dick rather than a artificial dick. Artificial. All right. Wholesome here. Wholesome dick. I'm glad we got that disclaimer on the show. Okay, so here's the thing, man. Okay, buy Star Wars. It'll be a fun game. It's pretty. It's fine. But, but, and then here's my laundry list. But, they're shipping these things out, and you can't play them. Are we not done with this bullshit, Greg? Why can't you play them? Because they don't come with the code on them. You have to wait for the SD card to be sent to them. Are you sure? Because most of them obviously got code. The ones they get from the show, maybe. But the ones that have been shipped out now, there's been a number of people that said, well, I can't do anything until Stern ships me the code because that code hasn't been approved or something. Well, that's weird. I don't know. All right, that's number one. I hope he's right on that, by the way. I'm right on that. I'm right on that. So that's number one issue. Number two issue is, oh, man, where do we go from here? What are you shooting at on this game? What do you mean? What's there to shoot at? Oh, what do you mean? Just because it's like orbits? Four of your shots are orbits. Yeah. Then you have that annoying-ass Steve Ritchie stand-up targets, right? Yeah. Right in your damn face. What else are you shooting at? The drop targets? The force drop targets? Yeah, I mean the ramps, but I heard the ramps were kind of underwhelming just because it literally just came down the sides. It wasn't anything spectacular. It was just a return. AC-DC ramps. Literally, yeah. Or Star Trek Pro ramps. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. That's why, like, even though it's got the good flow, like, I really want to put my hands on it before I really mouth it. What toy interacts with you? Nothing really. That TIE Fighter. Some people still enjoy the TIE Fighter, but to me it's a bobblehead. So I'm on that. The one thing that did grab me, and I think that could really change it, And I'm not so concerned about this is what you shoot at. As long as it flows good. I am. And it still feels good to shoot. Who gives a shit? Like, flow's fine. Flow is good. But what have I told you before? If you want good flow, go to a System 11 game. Like, who? Flow only gets you so far. Well, this is the only thing that I'm concerned about about flow. It's two of those same games. You got Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man. But people, it gets old in a home environment. Most people sell it. Star Wars or Star Trek. Same thing. People, it gets old. There's just nothing to do. Flow, it's an amazing game, but it's just, it gets old. Yep. So I'm scared this game will get old. Now, on a plus note, to lighten your stuff. Did Game of Thrones get old? Yeah, it did at a point, in a sense. In a sense. But I'm back to it. I'm back to playing it quite a bit, yeah. It was just battering the RAM to get multipliers. Yeah, that stuff drives me crazy. But the thing has. Well, Badger, if you're crazy, my friend, wait until you get 40 times multiplier. Well, yeah, that drives me crazy, too. You can either have two million or two bajillion. Yeah, that's why I want to put my hands on it. But something to be said about it, though, is it has superb lighting and superb sound. Now, that's mediocre to some people. Hold up. But I think that if it flows well, I love it. That's really what you're basing this on? It's got good sound. No, I'm saying those are good lighting. Those are pluses. I do love that about it. Pluses. But I expect that. It's like she's got nice hair. She's got pretty eyes. No, that's Apple. Elevator a little bit. I expect that new pinball machines are going to have good sound. And I expect that new pinball machines are going to have good lighting. No, that can't always be expected. What? If I'm spending $6,000 on a pinball machine to $10,000, you're goddamn right it better have some good lighting. Really? Yeah. Why do we do this where we're throwing all this money out and we're like, oh, it's got multiple LEDs in it. Well, no shit. I hope it does. LEDs are like so cheap. Yeah, but I mean, it's as nice as the RBG. It's nice. Is the code complete on it out of the box? No. No? Do they really pick up the world of Star Wars? We've got some of the greatest films ever made. Well, now that's sort of where my problem lies. Oh, yeah, that's right. Sound, yes. It's awesome. Visuals on the LCD, yes. Yeah. Lighting, yeah, I mean, again, it's nice. But something about the actual game does not... Yeah, something about everything on there is just a play field with art on there. There's nothing that literally makes me feel like I'm in space. Because that was the good thing about Star Trek. With Star Trek, I felt as basic as what that play field was, it felt spacey. Everything felt fantastic about it. It felt like I was the Enterprise. It was very clean. Everything looked good. But something doesn't say Star Wars. Game of Thrones. Oh, shit. I think it's a Richie thing. I don't know if it's the license or if it's Richie. But Spider-Man felt like Spider-Man. That felt like Spider-Man. That was freaking amazing. So we've got a lot of inserts. Yeah. And they're all the same shape. Yeah. And there's nothing fantastic about any of them. No. No. Okay, what else have we got? That's about it. It's fast. It's very fast. Oh, super fast. Okay, so we've got a lot of video. So what this machine is trying to do is it's stripped out every damn thing possible that screams, like, theme integration and magic and pinball. And it's relying on the video components to do so. Agreed. That you don't hardly look at. That's right. So you've got a lot of modes in this game. But it looked like the modes were rather short and easy. They don't really tell a story. Yeah. But then again, it's like what we talked about. Like we got some freaking super talented players on it so how easy is it really going to be Are ball times really that long No I guarantee ball times aren long That horseshoe that thing going to be a shwicking cream Yeah, so I'm excited to play it regardless. You know you are too. Yeah, I'll probably buy the damn thing. But I can almost guarantee you just based on the looks of it, a gameplay video, it would never be a keeper for me. No, I think it's going to go around quick. I think it's going to be forgotten about pretty quick. I just don't get, Greg, why they can't put more into these pinball machines. Like, I've been playing a lot of, no bullshit, I've been playing a lot of Valley Williams lately. Oh, you Black Knight, you got the damn, if you're going to use stand-up targets as a barricade, at least let the damn gate drop and give me something to shoot behind it. Give me some drop targets there. Give me a ball capture there. Give me something. Yeah. There's nothing to shoot at. Yeah. Orbits. I don't know. And then, what I do like. Here's what I really love. Okay, you can pick your character, whether it's Han Solo, regardless. And I was told that if you pick Han Solo, based on the movie that Han Solo was in, he wasn't available during like Hoth or certain things. I'm not a big Super Star Wars guy. But he wasn't available during certain portions of that story. So those modes are given. I love that. I love that. But what I don't love is pick one of four players, pick one of four strategies, then go into all of this and then start your nine different multiballs and you're always in multiball and then you've got multipliers that are going nuts and then you've got damn the video thing where you the star destroyer right it like stays on the screen but it's weird because it's in the canals of like the yeah that don't look right yeah it's gonna be it's a freaking mess i think yeah i think it's a mess right now it it does it looks like it's kind of all over the place. But it might just be something new and we're not used to it once you play it. Get rid of the multiplier. I'm so damn done with multipliers in the game. But then again, you guys, this is coming from a guy that I just dig into modes and story. I like scoring too, but multipliers kind of... I don't care about scoring. Mixed up multipliers. That's how I blew up freaking Ghostbusters. Out of nowhere. I'm not a particularly good player. It was lucky. Multipliers, I'm done. I'm done with multipliers. Give me three times multiplier max. Yeah. That's it. I agree. 40? 40? Yeah. It's a game changer. But yeah, so there it is, guys. Well, maybe not. No. No. No. We're not done yet. We're not done yet. The video mode or the press of the button thing, what do you think about that? I didn't think it was too bad. You're looking forward to that the 12th time you've done it? No. No. This is the thing that drives me crazy about, like, Lethal Weapon 3 and stuff. Like, when you got that shit and you got to just pull the trigger 900 times. I'm not real big on video modes that require a lot of that. One of the things that, this is a tournament playing game. This is for tournament players. This is Star Wars. So, if you're a tournament player, you get into tournaments, you'll freaking love this game. One of the cool things is you can press the lock bar button to light your, like, a multiplied shot. Yeah. So, you really have to, you have to use. I heard they're going to try to integrate those buttons a lot more in the games, which I'm fine with that. But maybe not necessarily to kill TIE Fighters. Hold up. There's more shit to this game. Son of a bitch. There's more shit to this game. There you go. I do like the force drop targets that are all responsible, like Walking Dead. You knock them down so much. He didn't even want to talk about this before we started filming. He didn't even want to talk about it. That's what everybody's talking about, man. we need to give the people an informed opinion an informed opinion an informed opinion on this now watch I'll play the game and be like oh my god it's full of shit this thing is awesome this bastard when Ghostbusters first came out man when I first sold the very first screenshots I was like man I love this game and everything else and it was right around the time that me and Zach became friends and so I was like man I'm really still hearing good stuff about the game or that Ghostbusters Pro oh, that game's shit. That game's shit. It doesn't have the hologram. That game's shit. And then all of a sudden he's like, yeah, I'm going up to Expo, man. I think I'm going to pick up a Ghostbusters, man. I was like, you know, I kind of saw some good stuff about that. I'm like... That's right. But I always said I loved everything about that thing. It's just that it was stripped down a lot more than the premium LE. And what was Star Wars? Okay, let's talk about that. What do we get in the premium LE? We get back glasses, right, Greg? You get back glasses? No, you don't. Oh, no, and on the LE. Yeah, on the premium you get armor, right? Yeah. No, you don't. No. Not on the premium. You don't get armor. You get a shaker at least, right? Shaker? No, you don't get a shaker. The LE you get a shaker, though, right? The Death Star opens up on the premium. No, the LE you don't get a shaker either anymore. Yeah, it opens up. Well, it looks like that. Yeah, my egg. Oh, I want Star Wars. Here's, again, I love Stern Pinball. I like the designers at Stern Pinball. I like the coders at Stern Pinball. I like everything about Stern Pinball. I like the pricing. I'm okay with the pro pricing. If you're going to do Star Wars, do Star Wars. Do it justice. Don't. This guy. This guy. The problem is this is what he hears on the telephone every damn day. If you're going to do Star Wars, do Star Wars right. Don't do Steve Ritchie and then throw Star Wars on top of it. And then throw Dwight Sullivan multipliers on top of it. That's an injustice. There was our Star Wars take. Until we play it. I want to buy one just so we can film it and thoroughly review it. So, this has been straight down the middle of Pinball Show. Thank you for watching. Make sure to subscribe. Let us know what you think about that Star Wars machine. Let us know what you think about Zach rambling for 20 minutes about the Star Wars machine. How long are we going? Are we going pretty long? And be sure to subscribe to our channel. I guarantee I missed it. Because Zach didn't bore you to death. I missed it. I guarantee there's all kinds of shit that I missed on that stupid thing. And check us out on Facebook and give us a few likes on there as well. Why do we need virtual saves? And make sure to order a straight down the middle monster t-shirt. to the right of that Star Wars. And we will see you guys next week. Hey, we had fun though last night, for real. Me too, I went to bed at the big 30. So are you the guy, when I go to these things, there's always two groups of people. There's the groups of people that just kind of hang out in the background and then there's the groups of people that are like on the dance floor like they're at a rave or something which one are you the wallflower i'm in between disco dance i'm in between in between we stand in the back of the crowd on the stage here i'm getting it do you a little two-step but by myself over here i'm here really i need oh yeah oh my god sunglasses on stand back here I'm in between You know Who do you think I am? You're out there Drunk off two beers I am I know you are I'm like Right at the front man I'm over there Twelve beers in like Right at the That's good music You're sipping A bourbon or something Yeah Nope I'm like Michelob Ultra Just rockin' I can't hear shit. I need some gum too. You got any gum? I have no gum. I never have gum. Why don't you guys have gum around here? It's got aspartame in it. It's got aspartame in it? Yeah. What's wrong with aspartame? It's terrible. It causes fucking tumors and shit in mice and everything else. Says the man that was okay with clap. Yeah. You can cure the clap. I'm not a mice. But you ain't curing cancer. I'm not a mouse though. You cure cancer, I'll eat the goddamn aspartame chewing gum. Man, I drink everything with aspartame. Is that the same as Splenda? Uh, no. Yeah, it might be. Yeah, I think so. I'm going to die. Probably. I hope you die of some weird freak fucking accident. Oh, I probably will. No, I'll be the one that gets cancer. Because I stay away from everybody. You'll get like the weirdest cancer. Like toe cancer. I expect it. But I still stay away from everyone. You die at sodas. You know it would suck if we died going to like a pinball collector interview or something. Maybe we'd be famous. No, we wouldn't. We would be one blip on Pennside. Hey, did you hear those dumbasses? Leonard Skinner. Did you hear those dumbasses with the pinball YouTube show with the bad audio? I want people to lie, though, and be like they were on a private jet going to the expo. We're in a Corolla. And eastbound. I'm just not going to get this. You ready? Yeah. You're so pissed off right now. I love it. Why? You're a little perturbed, I can tell. I've read the film. Are you? Yeah. Can you guys tell that Greg's a little perturbed? A little irritable? Two dipshit pinball guys die in a Corolla. A fiery accident off of Interstate 69. These dumbasses were attempting to pull a trailer with a Corolla with a pinball machine hooked up in the back. While filming. Yeah. While filming. on their iPhone. Shitty camera. It was a shitty camera. We couldn't hear their last words because their audio sucks. It was muffled. And echoey in the car. Echoey. _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e887dafa-3804-41cb-acc4-58e9d359af2f*