# #32 - Stern Pinball Trophies?, Alien, PinClash, TWIPYs

**Source:** A Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2020-12-03  
**Duration:** 28m 18s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://apinballpodcast.podbean.com/e/32-stern-pinball-trophies-alien-twipys/

---

## Analysis

Host discusses his collection changes (selling Star Wars, considering Ninja Turtles and Iron Maiden LE sales), reviews Avengers Infinity Quest including a viral combo exploit by Raymond Davidson, hints at Stern's plans for trophy/achievement systems in future games, covers the return of Alien Pinball under new Pinball Brothers company (formerly Highway Pinball), previews Pin Clash tournament on Jurassic Park this Saturday, and critiques the Twippy Awards voting structure as vulnerable to manipulation by large manufacturers.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Keith Elwin hinted that trophies/achievements in Avengers are related to upcoming online play features in pinball machines — _Direct quote from Loser Kid Pinball Podcast episode 49 where Elwin says 'You're warm' regarding PlayStation trophy inspiration and mentions 'something to do with something else someday maybe'_
- [HIGH] Pinball Brothers Limited took over Alien Pinball from Highway Pinball — _Host states 'Pinball Brothers Limited that took over for, I believe it was Highway Pinball' and references Facebook post from November 30th_
- [MEDIUM] Pinball Brothers/Alien told backers seeking refunds to 'go pound sand in the nicest way possible' — _Host paraphrasing community exchange on Facebook where someone asked about refunds; host characterizes the response as dismissive_
- [HIGH] Raymond Davidson scored 7 billion points on Avengers Infinity Quest using a time gem/reality gem combo exploit — _Host describes watching Raymond's YouTube video of the exploit and explains the mechanical interaction_
- [HIGH] Pin Clash tournament uses Jurassic Park and features head-to-head competition with specific objectives beyond just score — _Host details tournament format: 'best out of three' with 'scoring objectives' and 'certain objectives' tied to 'Escaping from Nublar'_
- [HIGH] Twippy Awards voting system is vulnerable to organized vote-trading and manipulation by large manufacturers — _Host discusses existence of 'websites' and 'Facebook groups' for vote trading and argues that Jersey Jack or Stern could win most categories if motivated_
- [HIGH] Host owns more Gottlieb machines than Stern machines, with additional projects in garage and at friends' houses — _Direct statement: 'I actually own more Gottlieb than I do Stern' with description of visible and hidden machines_

### Notable Quotes

> "You're warm. Yeah, I know. I see a lot of feedback. What does that have to do with Avengers? It's like, you're right. It has nothing to do with Avengers. It has something to do with something else someday maybe."
> — **Keith Elwin (via Loser Kid Pinball Podcast clip)**, ~11:15
> _Cryptic hint about trophy/achievement systems being tied to future online pinball features beyond Avengers_

> "I think if I really tried hard at it, I could maybe get around two. But there's some people, like if you look at this, Raymond got 126, which is insane."
> — **Host**, ~18:45
> _Contextualizes difficulty of Pin Clash qualifier times; Raymond Davidson's qualifying time demonstrates elite-level play_

> "Jersey Jack could win nearly all the other categories if they really wanted to... all that matters is, is who is motivated the most to drum up the most votes for them."
> — **Host**, ~23:30
> _Critique of Twippy Awards system's vulnerability to corporate influence and vote organization_

> "I feel like that they are referring to possible achievements within games or within pinball machines. Now, obviously, if you've played on Xbox or you've played on a PlayStation, you know that Xbox has achievements."
> — **Host**, ~10:45
> _Analysis of what trophies mean for pinball's future game design, referencing gaming industry precedent_

> "If you want to see awesome pinball be played, check this out this weekend. Definitely check it out."
> — **Host**, ~17:30
> _Enthusiastic endorsement of Pin Clash tournament featuring top-tier players_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Keith Elwin | person | Top pinball player who appeared on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast episode 49 and cryptically hinted at Stern's trophy/achievement system plans |
| Raymond Davidson | person | Elite pinball player who discovered and executed 7 billion point combo exploit on Avengers Infinity Quest; qualified for Pin Clash with top times |
| Carl D'Angelo | person | Pinball player known as 'IE Pinballer' who organized Pin Clash tournament on Jurassic Park this Saturday (December 5th) |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer planning trophy/achievement systems; discussed as potential competitor in Twippy Awards voting manipulation |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer discussed as having capacity to dominate Twippy Awards categories if motivated to organize votes |
| Pinball Brothers Limited | company | New company that took over Alien Pinball from Highway Pinball; revealed at Super Awesome Pinball Show exclusive mid-December premiere |
| Highway Pinball | company | Original developer of Alien Pinball; company status unclear after Pinball Brothers takeover, left backers without resolution |
| Avengers Infinity Quest | game | Stern Pinball game featuring trophy/achievement system hinting at broader online platform plans; subject of host's upcoming review |
| Alien Pinball | game | Long-delayed pinball project returning under Pinball Brothers; has multi-year backing issue with Highway Pinball |
| Pin Clash | event | Online tournament December 5th on Jurassic Park with 24 top players competing via head-to-head matches with specific objectives |
| Twippy Awards | event | Annual pinball industry awards with pre-voting December 1-10; host critiques voting system as vulnerable to manipulation and corporate influence |
| Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | media | Podcast that featured Keith Elwin discussing Avengers trophies; episode 49 quoted by host |
| Super Awesome Pinball Show | media | Media outlet announcing exclusive premiere of Alien Pinball information mid-December |
| Jurassic Park | game | Pinball machine used for Pin Clash tournament competition |
| Stranger Things | game | Stern pinball game host considering purchasing in Pro version after Christmas |
| Ninja Turtles LE | game | Host's machine with servo board issues (failed twice); considering selling |
| Iron Maiden LE | game | Host's machine being considered for sale due to familiarity and desire for new challenges |
| Star Wars | game | Stern pinball game recently sold by host, leaving gap in collection |
| Tom Graff | person | Pinball tournament streamer/commentator participating in Pin Clash with qualifying time of 301 |
| Deep Root Pinball | company | Manufacturer referenced as previously discussing achievements system in their game development |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Trophy/Achievement Systems in Pinball, Avengers Infinity Quest Gameplay & Meta, Alien Pinball Revival & Highway Pinball Refund Issues, Pin Clash Tournament, Twippy Awards Voting Structure & Manipulation Risk
- **Secondary:** Host's Collection Changes, Online Pinball Features (Leaderboards, Profiles)

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Host is enthusiastic about upcoming tournaments and Avengers gameplay but expresses skepticism about Twippy Awards legitimacy and concerns about Alien refund issues. Positive about pinball community events but critical of systemic vulnerabilities.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Pinball Brothers acquisition of Alien Pinball leaves Highway Pinball backers without resolution; new company disclaiming responsibility for prior refunds (confidence: high) — Host's account of Facebook exchange where Pinball Brothers essentially refused refunds; 6-year 550+ page Pinside thread documenting backing history
- **[community_signal]** Twippy Awards voting system vulnerable to vote-trading, corporate coordination, and organized manipulation due to public voting mechanism (confidence: high) — Host details existence of vote-trading websites and Facebook groups; argues large manufacturers (Jersey Jack, Stern) could dominate categories if motivated
- **[competitive_signal]** New combo exploit discovered on Avengers (time gem + reality gem stacking) generating 7B points; likely to be patched (confidence: high) — Raymond Davidson video execution; host explicitly notes 'I imagine it will [get patched]' and explains mechanical interaction
- **[event_signal]** Pin Clash tournament features innovative objective-based competition format beyond simple score, with elite player field (confidence: high) — Tournament structure includes 'certain objectives' tied to Jurassic Park modes; top 24 qualified by 'Escaping from Nublar' times; includes Raymond Davidson, Tom Graff, and other named elite players
- **[market_signal]** Host reducing home collection and considering shift toward solid-state/early DMD era machines rather than modern Stern titles (confidence: medium) — Selling Star Wars, considering Ninja Turtles/Iron Maiden sales; planning Stranger Things purchase but 'after Christmastime'; interested in 'solid states' and 'early DMD'
- **[product_strategy]** Stern Pinball adding trophy/achievement system to Avengers Infinity Quest, with hints of broader online platform integration for future games (confidence: high) — Keith Elwin cryptic quote 'has something to do with something else someday maybe' regarding trophy inspiration; host's interpretation of achievements as online play feature
- **[product_strategy]** Stern implementing trophy/achievement mechanics tied to online leaderboards and player profiles for future games (confidence: medium) — Keith Elwin reference to 'something else someday' and Deep Root's prior achievement system announcements cited as precedent
- **[sentiment_shift]** Host expressing fatigue with servo board reliability issues on Ninja Turtles, considering selling despite liking the game (confidence: medium) — Direct statement: servo board failed twice; 'I just kind of gotten to the point that I'm just like you know what I don't want to mess with it anymore'

---

## Transcript

 Welcome back, guys, to another episode of A Pinball Podcast. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today, and I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. I got to spend it with my wife, my kids, and my mom, who does live with us, so that's an immediate family member, but we had a lot of fun. Just ate a lot. I actually got to drink some beer. I haven't got to do that in a while, so I guess that was a lot of fun, doing some adult stuff inside the house, but other than that, it was actually a whole lot of fun. Now, in case you guys are watching this on YouTube, you might notice immediately behind me, I have a gap right there. And the reason why I have a gap is because I ended up selling off my Stern Star Wars pinball game. And I don't plan on, for the time being, getting anything else to replace it. I'm thinking about a Stranger Things Pro, but if I do that, it'll probably be after Christmastime. Because, quite frankly, I think I'm on the verge. I'm thinking about also putting up my Ninja Turtles LE for sale, and I'm thinking about putting up my Iron Maiden LE for sale. Now, it's not because I don't like anything on those games, just quite frankly, it's just I've played them enough that I feel like I know them enough that I'm just, I don't know, I'm kind of just ready for a different, I guess a different challenge. And also, I mean, because Iron Maiden plays great. Now, Ninja Turtles, I will freely admit, my servo board went out again. second time second time so i just kind of gotten to the point that i'm just like you know what i don't want to mess with it anymore if i get a ninja turtles again it'll just be a pro and plus i can play it on location just right down the road so i don't mind that at all but anyhow i still got avengers that is off camera that you guys can't see though i might bring that in i don't know i gotta fill in this space i gotta figure out exactly what's going on there i'm like in the middle of this whole breakdown of my upstairs room of trying to figure out where i want to put my computer at, where I want to put all my pinball machines at, and where I want to put my gaming station slash little home theater set up at with our couch and all that. You guys can't see that, but it's literally over this direction. Anyhow, it's one of those funny things, too. I don't even know, outside of Stranger Things, I might end up trying to pick up some solid states as well. I'm kind of wanting to get back into, whether it's like early DMD, but definitely the solid state region. In terms of these Gottliebs you see behind me, EM machines, got plenty of those. I don't think I'm going to pick up any more for the time being. A lot of people think that I am all about Sterns. And the honest truth is, is that I actually own more Gottlieb than I do Stern. I probably have, you guys see three right here. What you don't see is all the projects in our garage that my wife Monica works on. And also a couple of projects that are actually over at Friend's houses that they're working on. So I feel like I just got these things just all over the place right now. But, you know, outside of that, my Avengers Infinity Quest review is coming up. I was planning on doing that a lot sooner than what I have now. And lo and behold, my middle child, my son who turned 10 years old, he really digs that machine and he really wants to be involved in the overall review process. So I'm going to go ahead and just hold off until he actually has time to do that, which we're basically going to make time within a day or two. So he's got virtual school and all that. And so I got to work around his schedule. And plus, too, he's stuck playing Fortnite. I mean, yeah, it's first world problems. Apparently, they had some big event that just happened. We had to sit there and watch Galactus take over the Fortnite universe or something like that. and then a new season started, it makes my head spin. I don't know. I play video games, but I don't play Fortnite. I've never been able to get into it at all. But anyways, enough of that. I'm sure all of y'all listening, if you have sons or maybe even daughters, you fully hear where I'm coming from when it comes to Fortnite and all that. We definitely got all of our Christmas stuff put up finally. The elf is here. Everything is good to go. Now it's just a matter of just hoping my cats don't tear the tree up because they've been just raging psychos climbing up the tree. We have like a 12-foot tree in our entryway, and they make sure every single night they get to the top. There's two of them, and it drives me nuts. There's no way to get them down either. I've resorted to a handheld vacuum cleaner just clicking it on by the tree, and it's so damn loud that it freaks them out that they finally get out of the tree. That's the only way. And so these are my internal battles I'm having within this household right now. So at least I got this podcast and I got pinball up here to kind of take me away from the issues of freaking cats in my Christmas tree. But anyhow, so besides that, this podcast is going to be heavy on some B-roll footage finally or a little bit of article talk. So we're going to go over a little bit of Avengers, a little nugget that I picked up on the other day that I thought was interesting. And then we'll discuss, let's see, what do we got? Alien that's coming up. I find that kind of intriguing, kind of not intriguing. It just really depends. Then we'll discuss Pin Slash briefly, and we'll talk about the Twippies. But Pin Slash is definitely going to be interesting coming up, and that's this week. And we'll talk more about that anyways. So, you know, with Avengers Infinity Quest, I'm probably about 150 games into it right now, and it's a lot of fun. I've pretty much been able to do everything that you can do in that game up to this point, except for what Raymond Davidson was able to do just the other day. And it was quite nuts. And I don't know if you guys have seen this yet, but I'll go ahead and play it for you guys, give you guys an idea. He legitimately just went nuts. Just watch this for a second. If you're listening on the podcast, all you're hearing is just the combos hitting. and so what was very interesting about that very fascinating about that is he legitimately put up seven billion points on infinity quest and he figured out a super combo combo stack dealing with the time gem and reality gem and it was one of those things that you know i'd been discussing with a couple other people outside of raymond actually that i felt like the meta would really work out well with those two gems put together and i was curious to see if it would happen because i I haven't personally been able to do it yet, but then seeing Raymond put it all together, I was like, that's what I had in mind, but he did it to such a degree that it was just insane to watch. So I highly recommend checking out that video. He has it up on YouTube, and I be sure and link it down below in the show notes But yeah check that out before it gets patched because I imagine it will And the only thing I could really think of going back and forth in terms of what they could do about this exactly is I mean, obviously put on some type of cap, but it seemed like the super combos, the, like, how can I explain this? That sounds, it sounds like it makes sense to you guys if you guys don't know the rule set that well. Essentially, if you complete your right orbit with Black Panther, And I can't remember this off the top of my head. It's either if you get to level one or you complete level one. It adds extra time to your ability to keep combos going. And then there's also a combo jackpot that's there after you complete so many different combos. And so once you put the reality gem over there, that's basically a 2x on that shot too. And then with the time gem on the Black Widow ramp, you're essentially restarting your timer to any of your super modes going on. I guess they're called super modes, but they're tied to the targets on the left. And so one of the modes he was running was super combos. And so you put those things together, which is actually, it's kind of difficult to do. Like I said, I haven't been able to do it yet. I've tried it for maybe like 15 games, haven't put it together, but he makes it look super easy. So if you want to see a way to absolutely just annihilate your game and you happen to have an Avengers, check out that video. It's highly entertaining. But other than that, you know, I was able to play it a little bit yesterday, and I finally made it to Trophy Mania, and that is a lot of fun. There's just, I mean, Avengers, it does have some of its drawbacks. It does. They're there, and I will talk about that during my initial impressions and hands-on review and all that. But overall, the game is a lot of fun. And so that being said, I was listening to Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, episode 49, and Keith Elwin was on there discussing, you know, obviously different parts of Avengers. And there was something that was said on here that caught my eye, or caught my ear, basically. And it was something that I have been thinking was coming soon, especially with the idea of online play with internet play. And I was actually really happy to hear this. and I was thinking that this was a high-end possibility, and now it's obvious that they're going this direction. So just listen to this clip right here, and you guys will know exactly what I'm talking about. I just got thinking about this. Where did the idea from the trophies come from? Because I don't know why, but every time I think of trophies, I think of PlayStation. When you unlock something, you get a trophy for it for your case. Was that kind of similar to this, or was it just Iron Man has a lot of hardware in his tower, So we're putting trophies as a thing you can obtain. Yeah, I can't answer that, but you're warm. Okay, okay. Yeah, I know. I see a lot of feedback. What does that have to do with Avengers? It's like, you're right. It has nothing to do with Avengers. It has something to do with something else someday maybe. Hey, it's still fun. I like it. All right, there you go. Trophies. Now, I don't know exactly what this means, but I feel like that they are referring to possible achievements. within games or within pinball machines. Now, obviously, if you've played on Xbox or you've played on a PlayStation, you know that Xbox has achievements. You know that Sony PlayStations have trophies. And that's exactly what it reminded me of when I saw trophies in Avengers, that it gave you things to do within the game. And I've alluded to this before in previous podcasts, and especially when Deep Root finally released some of their information behind the, I guess behind the scenes or whatever you'd want to call it, but some of their information with the pinball, they would also have achievements linked up to it. And to me, this is something that pinball really needs. I know a lot of people were wanting online play and head-to-head stuff, but honestly, I think one of the biggest things pinball can do moving forward to really pull in casual players as well is to add in trophies or achievements And it's to add in some type of player profile too, along with that, just so that way you can keep track of it. And the big reason for that is, is it gives you a reason to do a lot of things in the game besides just doing score. You know, and there are a lot of people that play pinball that they don't rely on just getting a big score. I know whenever I play pinball here at my house, I like to do different things. I like to try different tactics. I like to try out different modes. I like to figure out the easiest way to beat modes. That's what I like to do. It's not so much just because I play tournaments means that I just stand here by a pinball machine for an hour a day just trying to get a high score. That only takes you so far. And so adding in trophies to a game and tying it into the game to me is a really intelligent move. And I really dig the fact that there's still there's a wizard mode tied to that. So imagine if they were able to do that in any other game that comes out. If they could go back and add those in into old games, I mean, that would be huge. Now, I don't know from a coding standpoint if that's even possible. I don't know how difficult that is. But I just hope that trophies become the norm moving forward. Because that would be fan-freaking-tastic. All right. So moving ahead, it was hinted by, I believe, I always screw up their name. And I kick myself every time. but it was hinted by the Super Awesome Pinball Show that Alien Pinball is coming back. And if you're watching on my screen right now, you're seeing exactly what I'm seeing from their Facebook post that was made on November 30th, that basically they have another Super Awesome exclusive. Yeah, it's the exclusive war between Canada and Super Awesome Pinball Show. It seems like they're both going at it for that. But it says their premiere is in mid-December, so I'm very interested in this. And the reason being is because the saga of Alien Pinball has been here for several years. And I had the opportunity to play it a couple of times. Once at TPF, I believe it was 2017. And then another time earlier this year, last January at InDisc out in California. And, you know, it was okay. I know the movie. I'm not a huge Alien fan, but I enjoy pinball in general. So, I mean, it was an all right game. I still, you know, there was one thing I didn't like about it. It was the fact that it didn't have Sigourney Weaver to it. So you didn't have the main character, and it felt like it was missing something with that. But at the same time, I didn't spend a lot of time playing it. I just flipped it for a couple of games, and I was like, okay, yeah, it's fun. Moving on. But I could understand how some people are really, really heavy-duty into it, whether it the theme whether it just having something that not too many other people have themselves but I curious to see what happens here because the main reason that this story is really fascinating is the fact that there basically a new I use that in quotation marks, a new company called the Pinball Brothers Limited that took over for, I believe it was Highway Pinball. Now, if anything I say here might be out of line, this is just like a wide range of coverage. Like, I would almost guarantee, I would bet my house right now that Canada is probably going to put out a podcast on this within the end of the week because i saw this uh pop up on my facebook timeline and it really kind of shocked me that and it didn't shock me at the same time but i was like how are they saying this public that somebody asked if they would basically be able to get their money back that they were already out for on the original alien and basically the pinball brothers all but said go pound sand in the nicest way possible that's that is pretty much what happened. And so really it boils down to them not being the original LLC company is what I'm assuming. Cause obviously the way that the way that these companies work without getting into it too much legally, if they weren't a part of highway outside of being an investor, I don't know how much that they would actually be on the hook or any monies owed by anybody else. especially if they basically liquidated the company and started a whole new company. It's like that big workaround. The question is, though, is how is the pinball community going to respond to that? And I have to think they're going to respond basically in anger. That's what I have to assume because there's still a lot of people that are out of money from the original Alien by Highway Pinball. So I don't know how that's going to work out. I'm very curious. if you don't know any of this and you want to basically see the history and the lore of all this the thread is still up on Pennside it's legitimately about 6 years old I think it was like 550 or 560 pages long last time I checked I'm sure it's going to start growing now that this is coming back so I'm keeping my eye on this just because what else am I going to keep my eye on with pinball right now so we're going to check that out and that should be I think yeah it says from super awesome pinball show that'll be premiering in mid-December so that will be interesting to hear all right we're just chugging along right here and I don't even have this website up and I told myself I'd have it up type in here all right we got it up we got it up all right so pin Slash guys in case you guys don't know what I'm talking about pin Slash is going to be this Saturday December 5th at 3 p.m Eastern Time. And it's going to be put on by IE Pinballer Carl D'Python Anghelo, who is a tremendous pinball player. Tremendous. And he has an awesome stream as well. I mean, he wizard modes everything. He's just an exceptional pinball player. But he is putting on an online tournament called Pin Slash. And it's really cool. It's really cool. The game is based off Jurassic Park. Or I say based off Jurassic Park. The only game that they're using is Jurassic Park. And I've been telling anybody that listens, the only reason why they're doing that is because yours truly doesn't have a Jurassic Park. So Carl just wanted to make it easier for the rest of the contestants there, obviously. Gosh, no, seriously. There is some heavyweights in this. I'm telling you. If you guys want to see awesome pinball be played, check this out this weekend. Definitely check it out. I mean, if you're up on YouTube right now, you're seeing the names. I mean, Raymond Davidson's in it, Escher Lefkoff, Andy Rosso, Luke Nahorniak, Carlos is in it, Phil, Brian O'Neill, Robert Byers, and that's just the top eight. That's just the top eight. You still got Derek Price, Adam Becker, Tom Graff's going to be there, Kerry Wing, former women's champion. I mean, there's a ton of people. I'm just naming off all the names I see. Everybody in the top 24 there are going to be outstanding players. So I would highly recommend to check it out. The tournament literally is just off Jurassic Park, and it's just two people battling heads up, basically best out of three. But it's based on their performance doing certain objectives, which is awesome. It's not just straight score. There are some scoring objectives, but it's not just play three balls and whoever has the highest score then. There's actual stuff that they have to do. And everybody qualified by getting basically the best, the top 24 times of escaping from Nublar. And that's not the easiest thing to do. I've tried it maybe three times, and the best time I've ever got was probably three and a half minutes or maybe four. But that was back when it was just all over the place. I think if I really tried hard at it, I could maybe get around two. But there's some people, like if you look at this, Raymond got 126, which is insane. 135, 145, basically anything right there is insane. It's insane. That's just, that's just really tough to do. And look at this. Maybe I said two, I mean three, there's no way I can't hit two. There's no way three. I'll give myself three. I think I can get around Tom graphs. I think I can beat Tom 301. I can do that. Tom, if you're listening, I can beat that. Even though I tried it once at your house and I did not beat it at all, but no, so it's going to be, um, it's going to be an exciting thing. And if you're looking at this, the main tournament challenges, they got four different tiers to it. And, you know, it's something like that I think is really cool because one, it's going to give people the opportunity to see different parts of the game that they haven't necessarily seen before or thought about. And so it's a teaching moment as well. You're going to understand how to play this game a lot better. And on top of that, on top of that, you're going to see great players doing this. And so it's all going to make a lot of sense, and I highly recommend check that out, especially if you've got time this Saturday, peek in there. I think everybody's going to be on Twitch doing it, basically, because everybody has to be live at the same time. So the whole pinball part of Twitch is going to be nothing but the pin Slash. That is really, really exciting. All right, finally, we're moving on to the Twippy Awards. Those announcements have just started. I think it was just yesterday on December 1st, I believe, to where they basically came out and they said, let's see, pre-voting. It was pre-voting. So pre-voting started yesterday, and it runs through December 10th. And, you know, I'll be perfectly honest with you guys. I have legitimately never paid attention to the Twippies. I think I did, for the first time ever, even watch anything about it probably earlier this year for maybe like the last 15 minutes And that just just because I was at my house it was virtual And some of my friends were watching they like, Hey, the twippies are on. I'm like, Oh, totally forgot. I guess I'll flip it on and check it out. But I just, I've never paid attention to it. I've never voted in it, never done any of that stuff, but I can understand why it's pretty popular. Like I get it. It's, it's good for the industry to have something like this it definitely is good but you know overall when i look at this though and i'm looking at the different categories like i'll be honest with you guys i don't necessarily care about the right end categories like the favorite stuff i really i'm just like you know it's whatever what i do care about i'm looking at this i care about all the game specific categories. I care about seeing what's going to be game of the year. I care about hearing what's going to be the best music and sound effects, like who's voting on that, you know, or how do people vote? That's what I'm very curious of when it comes to favorites. You know, it doesn't, I mean, it is what it is. I think what it boils down to is obviously it becomes who has the biggest following in regardless of how the votes are. Cause they kind of changed the voting structure a little bit, it becomes who has the biggest following. And so that being said, realistically looking at this, the whole system itself could be broke down simply when a big manufacturer decides, hey, we want to win as many Twippies as possible. So we're either going to get our PR firm on it, or we're just going to just put it out there and just keep blasting it out to everybody. I mean, legitimately, Jersey Jack could win nearly all the other categories if they really wanted to. If they really wanted to, favorite pinball streamer could be in the bag. Favorite pinball podcast could be in the bag. Favorite YouTube channel, in the bag. Favorite mod, in the bag. I mean, all those things could be. Favorite pinball website, in the bag. Virtual event, in the bag. Topper, in the bag. Rookie of the year, hello, slash designer, there you go. I mean, that's what we're looking at right now. They could easily do that because all it really amounts to, especially when you're dealing with the public voting and you're relying on that. It just, all that matters is, is who is motivated the most to drum up the most votes for them, right? So obviously outside of Kaneda and Franchi, you know, going for the favorite pinball podcast, if Jersey Jack decides, hey, we want our podcast on there, they could do it. If Stern decided they wanted to get any of their podcasts, Raymond Files or the other one that they have, I think with Nate Shivers, they could do that too. I don't see why they couldn't. And so that's, I mean, that's something to really look at and just really consider, you know, when doing that. And they could do that even with favorite pinball website and all that. And so looking through this, let me see if I saw it here. Cause I was looking at this just earlier of seeing what the possibilities could be. And obviously what's good is that the Twippies there are definitely showing that the committee is showing their call minutes and they're kind of pulling back the curtain a little bit and showing some different stuff. And obviously before, the voting process one is most interesting to me, that they were talking about that they're going to check for any fishy voting activity. And so what I'm curious of, if they're thinking about checking that, was there any fishy activity before? I don't know. Probably not. I've told other people in the past because I asked exactly how it was, and it was just like a straight vote that it was just so exposed. And a lot of people don't realize this, but legitimately there's websites out there to where you just trade vote for vote. There is so many different Facebook groups to where you could trade for votes. and with an industry as small as pinball to where i don't know if if anybody here is getting less than 2 000 votes or maybe even less than 3 000 votes you could easily if somebody was motivated enough they would win their category anybody would the anybody would just simply because there's so many different ways to go out and campaign for votes you don't have to just campaign for votes inside of pinball. And that's the, you know, that's the big reason why when I see this, I think, okay, the system has an extreme potential to be broke inadvertently. And I'm not saying that that's the right thing to do. I'm not encouraging anybody to do that. I'm just making everybody aware that that's what it exists in right now. And that's why I don't put much into this part right here into the favorites. That's why I put more into this, into the best of. Now, that being said, somebody else could easily, that's from a big company, could just get their PR firm on it and say, hey, we want to win Twippies. Hey, this is what people care about. We want to be able to say we had game of the year. And they could push for it. It's simple as that. And I don't mind that at all. I mean, I guess if the industry is going to put these on a pedestal and say, okay, this actually matters, which I think to a certain degree, talking to different people, it's funny. It goes 50-50. There's half the people really care about the Twippies. They're all about it. It drives their decision-making, right? I've talked to some people that legitimately are like that in that half, not the whole half, but some of the people are. and then I've talked to other people that care less about the Twippies like people that are in pinball and they just they either don't know about it or they don't care about it and then even if you explain it to them they're just kind of like you know it's whatever and that's fine it goes both ways but for me I'm most excited about seeing the games I can't even talk right now I'm losing my voice again it's getting so dry the game specific I'm not even script I'm not going to pronounce it the game categories. I cannot talk. I swear it's driving me crazy. The one time I do not bring up any green tea, my mouth is just getting super dry from talking nonstop. I don't know. I don't know how anybody else can do this. Anyways, we're going to wrap it up right there. I'm nearing the 30 minute mark. Hopefully within by Friday, today's Wednesday. So by Friday, I should have my Avengers Infinity Quest review fully out, my hands-on review, so I'm excited to do that. But other than that though, guys, before I forget, be sure and check out Raymond's video. Be sure and check out Pin Slash. If you're on internet or on Twitch this weekend, check into that. And of course, if you're into the Twippies, get your votes in. Get your nominations in, and then all the excitement of December and January shall commence. All right, guys, I will talk to you guys later.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: f80ae0d6-e2e1-4ce9-ab21-0d6189672f34*