# Some News is Good News **Source:** BlahCade Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2019-09-23 **Duration:** 30m 23s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blahcade-pinball-podcast/episodes/Some-News-is-Good-News-e1bkfr0 --- ## Analysis Chris Freibis and Jared Morgan discuss Stern's new Elvira pinball table reveal with comic-style artwork and premium-only pricing, share limited details about Zen's upcoming pinball pack (beta available since July with phenomenal animations), and cover Jared's ongoing Force 2 Gottlieb restoration project. The episode is intentionally kept short due to hosts' scheduling conflicts. ### Key Claims - [MEDIUM] Elvira pinball is being handled by Greg Ferez and another designer, associated with Kapow pricing model — _Chris attempting to find canonical information, uncertain about Stern's official designation; no Pro version offered, only Premium and LE tiers_ - [HIGH] Zen has had the beta for their next pinball pack since end of July, featuring phenomenal animations as their best work — _Chris and Jared directly stating they've been under NDA constraint about this since July; both confirm animations are exceptional_ - [HIGH] Volume 4 flipper physics will be applied to the next Zen pack but NOT to volumes 1-3 yet — _Chris explicitly clarifies this distinction to manage community expectations about retroactive implementation_ - [HIGH] Star Wars physical Switch release is one of only two Star Wars retail games shipped in the last eight years — _Direct quote from Mel at Zen Studios via Chris; positioned as point of pride for the studio_ - [MEDIUM] Elvira playfield features an upkicker eject (Circus Voltaire-style) on middle right that wasn't seen since that game — _Jared observes this from video footage; based on video analysis rather than hands-on play_ ### Notable Quotes > "It's that premium pricing. Yeah, they've got no Pro. It's done by Kapow, isn't it?" > — **Jared Morgan**, ~5:30 > _Establishes unusual pricing strategy for Elvira with no base Pro model, limiting market accessibility_ > "There are only two companies in the world shipping Star Wars retail games in the last eight years, and one of them is Zen." > — **Mel (Zen Studios, via Chris)**, ~25:00 > _Demonstrates Zen's competitive positioning in licensed gaming market and pride in physical retail presence_ > "It's the curse of the NDA. But um, like I said, the animations are hands down phenomenal. I don't think you guys will be disappointed in the least when it comes to those." > — **Chris Freibis**, ~28:00 > _Emphasizes confidence in upcoming pack quality while respecting confidentiality constraints_ > "There's a lot of homage played to Scared Stiff in here. So as long as they vary up the way it works, I don't think it looks like the same sort of linear play that Scared Stiff was" > — **Jared Morgan**, ~12:00 > _Identifies design parallels to classic Elvira game while expressing hope for differentiated gameplay_ > "I don't want to look like junk, but I also don't want it to look mirror-finished perfect. It's got to have a bit of character to it." > — **Jared Morgan**, ~52:00 > _Articulates restoration philosophy balancing preservation with improvement_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Chris Freibis | person | Host of Blockade Pinball Podcast (aka 'Shut Your Trap'); employed by Disney as weekend photographer; provides news commentary and pinball analysis | | Jared Morgan | person | Co-host of Blockade Pinball Podcast, based in Australia; active in pinball restoration projects including Force 2 Gottlieb; manages medical appointments (CGMS sensor changes) | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; producing Elvira table through Kapow partnership with premium-only pricing strategy | | Zen Studios | company | Digital pinball developer with upcoming pinball pack in beta since July; recently released Star Wars tables on Nintendo Switch; emphasized as one of only two companies shipping Star Wars retail games in 8 years | | Elvira | game | Upcoming Stern pinball table with comic-style artwork, premium-only pricing (no Pro model), designed by Greg Ferez and another designer, features Circus Voltaire-style upkicker and interactive mansion/crypt elements | | Mel | person | Creative director at Zen Studios; busy with multiple game show appearances, Castle Storm 2 release, and Star Wars Switch marketing; unavailable for announcement podcast | | Greg Ferez | person | Designer of Elvira pinball table in partnership with another unnamed designer; associated with Kapow pricing model | | Force 2 | game | Gottlieb System 80 Generation 2 two-ball multiball machine being restored by Jared; features stencil artwork restoration and cabinet work | | Star Race | game | Gottlieb System 80 Generation 1 machine previously restored by Jared; used as reference for techniques applicable to Force 2 restoration | | Blockade Pinball Podcast | organization | Pinball discussion podcast hosted by Chris Freibis and Jared Morgan; covers news, restorations, and community content; operates Twitch and YouTube channels | | Kapow | company | Stern subsidiary or partnership entity handling premium-tier licensed games with non-standard pricing (e.g., Elvira with no Pro model) | | Scared Stiff | game | Classic Williams WPC-95 pinball game; design reference point for Elvira with similar features (crates, deadheads) and simplified rule set philosophy | | Circus Voltaire | game | Classic pinball game featuring distinctive upkicker eject mechanic; design element referenced in Elvira playfield layout | | Netherworld | organization | Australian venue operated by Jimmy; positioned as ideal location for Elvira machine placement due to theme fit | ### Topics - **Primary:** Elvira pinball reveal and design, Zen Studios upcoming pinball pack (under NDA), Jared's Force 2 Gottlieb restoration project - **Secondary:** Stern pricing strategy and Kapow model, Star Wars Nintendo Switch release performance, Pinball restoration techniques and philosophy - **Mentioned:** Playfield mechanics and design homages ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.72) — Hosts express genuine enthusiasm about Elvira's design quality and Zen's upcoming work, though tempered by concerns about Elvira's premium-only pricing limiting accessibility. Positive about restoration work and community engagement. Constrained NDA prevents fuller expression of excitement about Zen pack. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Elvira premium-only pricing strategy (no Pro model) may limit market penetration and operator adoption (confidence: high) — Jared explicitly states: 'I mean, it's kind of a shame because that's going to limit how many of these things make it out into the wild because I think essentially the Premium is the Pro' - **[community_signal]** Blockade Podcast maintaining content schedule flexibility and community interaction through Twitch/YouTube despite hosts' competing obligations (confidence: medium) — Chris discusses schedule unpredictability due to Disney employment; podcast shortened this episode but maintaining regular content commitment - **[design_philosophy]** Elvira playfield design includes strategic visual censoring with Elvira's arm placement covering cleavage in response to family-friendly content environment (confidence: medium) — Chris observes: 'It's interesting how often Elvira's arm is basically covering the cleavage line... strategically placed arm action' and compares to Zen's censoring approach - **[market_signal]** Star Wars Nintendo Switch physical release receiving renewed attention and positive reception from media outlets, attributed partly to physical retail presence vs. digital-only distribution (confidence: medium) — Chris notes game sites reviewing Star Wars tables 'as if they are brand new' following Switch release; discussion of physical media advantage in retail environments - **[announcement]** Zen Studios upcoming pinball pack available in beta since July with confirmed flipper physics from Volume 4 applied, though Volume 1-3 retroactive implementation still pending (confidence: high) — Chris and Jared directly confirm NDA coverage since end of July; explicit statement on flipper physics application timeline provided to manage expectations - **[announcement]** Stern Elvira pinball officially revealed with visual design showing comic-style artwork and mechanical details including Circus Voltaire-style upkicker and interactive mansion/crypt elements (confidence: high) — Chris and Jared analyze promotional photos and video footage; specific playfield mechanics identified and compared to classic designs - **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts express caution about Elvira replicating Scared Stiff's oversimplified linear gameplay model, hoping for more complex rule design despite visual/mechanical homages (confidence: medium) — Jared states: 'I hope that this doesn't take that approach and go back just, oh, just complete the things and then you get the whatever' indicating concern about gameplay depth - **[technology_signal]** Zen pinball pack flipper physics will not be retroactively applied to volumes 1-3 despite being finalized for volume 4, indicating potential technical or resource constraints (confidence: high) — Chris explicitly clarifies: 'No, it has not been implemented yet into the first three packs. It is on their list of things to do, but has not been tackled this go-around' --- ## Transcript BlahCade Pinball Podcast this is the BlahCade Pinball Podcast i'm your host chris freebiss aka shut your trap joining me as always halfway across the world jerry morgan g'day everyone how you going today it's gonna be a short one isn't it it's going to be a short one So we go two weeks without having a podcast, and now we need to crank one out quick because both me and Jared have things to do. Yes. So, yes, we need to pump it out. Pump it out. But that's okay, right? I mean, we don't need to stretch and fluff this, do we? Sure we do. Why not? Oh, okay. Well, we can. We can, but we don't have to. Let's see if we can actually keep this podcast to 30 minutes today. That's our challenge. I've got a timer running. I've got a timer running on my screen. Didn't we try this at one time? Yeah, we did. We promised that we were going to keep it to 30 minutes, and we failed abysmally. But today we have a reason to do so. Well, I do. I've got medical appointments and sensor changes to do for CNSA. Let's crack on. Crack on. Okay. So that's the order of the day. So first things first, because, you know, things have actually happened, mainly in terms of the Elvira table. It's actually real. We've actually seen what it looks like. Yeah, and it actually looks pretty good. They've gone for a bit of a comic style, haven't they? Yeah, they've gone for a comic style this time. Well, I mean, the good news is that it isn't just a reskin of Wonelli. Because that was the rumor. That was a scare. Yeah, there was yet another Wonelli redo. So that's the good news. The bad news is it still is like, well not so much like Wonelli, but like Beatles. It's that premium pricing. Yeah, they've got no pro. It's done by Kapow, isn't it? I don't know if it's the table itself being done by Kapow? I think it was worked on by Greg Ferez and the other dude who are part of Kapow. I'm just trying to find canonical information on the internets about it but stern doesn't seem to have any sort of uh information on their website about it i was gonna say in other words jared is uh furiously uh scrolling over to pin side and seeing what's uh what's inside no i've got i've got the photos here that you're blurry as hell um because i don't know like this site is loading all the ads first and not the actual content so yeah yay uh yeah so i think there is yeah i think that's the case it's actually it's the greg ferrez and and the other guy who who um who designed it and that's why it's got the weird pricing the non-standard stern pricing all right i mean it's kind of a shame because that's going to limit how many of these things make it out into the wild um because i think i think essentially the premium is the pro so they're going to be doing a large run of premiums um then they got ellie and then they got like your bonkers ellie you know which is just extra shiny stuff that no one really cares about on it, like signed Elvira stuff and etc. Or some people I know care about it but honestly who cares? As a player you don't care. As an owner of the machine you do. The things that I kind of noticed about it was that there's lots of little tiny Elviras all over the place. And of course there's a big Elvira on the back, but kind of akin to what Zen was having to do with their censoring. It's interesting how often Elvira's arm is basically covering the cleavage line. Ah, yes, yes. It's a strategically placed arm action. Yes. So I just kind of found that funny that I guess in today's friendly environment, or family-friendly environment, that's what we're doing. The other thing that I noticed in that whole video that they posted was we only heard one line of dialogue from Elvira. Yeah, I didn't see the video. I've only been looking at the screenshots. Okay. And look, I didn't see the video. I saw the teaser video of Alvaro, you know. Yeah, boy, that told us a lot, didn't it? Yeah, not a lot. No, that was probably just the animation from the game. Actually, it was very Tales from the Crypt, actually. If you ever played Tales from the Crypt Pinball, how it animates its way through. So, yeah, I thought, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, no, there's a longer, minute-long video that actually shows the ball in action on the playfield. A couple of people have already broken down that footage on YouTube. It's amazing that you can take one minute of footage and stretch it out to 20 minutes. People, you know, speculation, people love it. Yes, that's right. One thing I noticed, though, that was interesting is that there's a playfield element that I haven't seen since Circus Voltaire. Oh, what's that? And that is the eject from the crypt on the middle right side of the playfield. There is an upkicker that just throws the ball back onto the playfield again. Yes, lands on a spot that you're probably going to want to put Mylar down or something, right? I think so, yeah. So it looks very much like the eject from the ringmaster on Circus Voltaire. I thought, oh, look, it's a Circus Voltaire upkicker. There we go. But everything else looks interesting, like the mansion is interactive, the crypt's interactive. Well, the mansion also, on top of the middle spire, it spins. It spins, yeah. And it totally reminded me of Sorcerer's Lair. Oh, yes. Yeah, you're right. Except for it actually has little symbols that probably tell you what the heck is going on much better than what Sorcerer's Lair does. Yeah, from what I can see, there's an eyeball and a viral head and something on there. I don't really know what the hell's going on there. Yeah. But, but, there's an old virus back door. Yeah, yeah. There's definitely entendres, double entendres on the field. Oh, yes, everywhere. I would love to hear the deadheads have kind of a, kind of like a wheel that spins. So it's a smash, a bash toy that spins until it finally opens up into a hole that you can shoot. Yeah, yeah. But I'm curious to know what the deadhead jokes are going to be this time. I think they're going to be pretty good. I would hope. Oh, so it's almost like the Deadhead's on a rototarget or something. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. It looks very much like that, actually. Which is cool. It's good to see some mechanisms like that making an appearance back in. And I noticed that they've got the gargoyle hoppers instead of the leapers. Which is a truly mechanical effect. It's basically just a piece of metal that has a slight angle out to it, so when the ball hits it, it flicks, and that's what flicks the gargoyle up. yeah there's no solenoid involved in that no which is very smart yeah I mean they had that on Scared Stiff for the Leapers and it worked really well until the Leapers sheer off let you know with thousands and thousands of hits but yeah it looks like an interesting title I've got a feeling based on what Jimmy from Netherworld was very excited about I have a feeling that we're going to probably see this game when it gets available down here in Australia because Alvira is a perfect fit for Netherworld Oh for Netherworld it perfect I would really like to see what going on on the LCD screen though because obviously that where it going to shine Yeah, oh, exactly right. I mean, you've got to imagine they're probably going to show maybe old, old movie clips because those are public domain, so you can just use them. Probably, yeah. I mean, they even have a film, there's even a plastic piece on the playfield that has a film strip with various film images on there. Yes, I see that. That's on the ramp. I mean, it might be able to capture Elvira in a way that the other two tables never quite were in terms of capturing what her show used to be like. Yeah, in action. Exactly right. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. At least with this way, the funny thing is that when I was reading the feature descriptions on it. It was like I was just reading Scared Stiff's feature descriptions. Like, oh, look, there's a crate. It looks quite a lot like the crate, except instead of shooting the door, it lifts up the lid and it traps the balls. Then you've got the Deadheads. They were introduced in Scared Stiff, right? Yeah. I'm just going, well, there's a lot of, let's just say there's a lot of homage played to Scared Stiff in here. So as long as they vary up the way it works, I don't think it looks like the same sort of linear play that Scared Stiff was, because Scared Stiff really was a Williams WPC-95 game that was emulating a System 11. Let's be serious. It was very, very simplistic gameplay, which was, for that particular era, what they were sort of angling for. They were going with Jackpot and Scared Stiff to try and get pinball players back into a simplified rule set. So I hope that this doesn't take that approach and go back just, oh, just complete the things and then you get the, whatever that thing is in the middle, the freak flyer. The fryer, I don't know. It looks very much like, I'm looking at the freak flyer in the middle, the thing right between the flippers, I'm going, oh, look, it's the stiffer meter, you know. Yeah, I mean, there's not exactly, like you said, and it's paying serious homage, but at least it's not the same layout. No, it's an interesting fan. It's got a very interesting fan layout. There's stuff to do on it for sure. So, look, I can't wait to play it, put it that way. It looks interesting enough that it's like, yep, looks pretty fun. It looks like on this perspective shot that I've got here, that's the Circus Voltaire up kick. It looks like it kicks the ball over to the Crypt targets. Yes, it does. And if you watch the video, you can actually see that happen. Yeah. So, interesting. Yep. Looks good. Yeah, it looks real good. All right. So, anyway, there was one bit of news that happened while we were absent. And in case you're wondering what some of this absentia is, uh-oh, dropping frames. There we go. Who needs those frames? Right. I got a job working for the mouse as a photographer, and that's going to be on weekends. So that's why we're doing this on Friday and not on Saturday. That's right. Well, I'm doing it on Saturday. Well, yeah. I'm from the future, so go figure. The fun part is I get to go into the park whenever I want now for free. Yeah, for free. That's right. Which is pretty cool. Which, of course, I then did for research. Of course. Well, I had to go check out the new Star Wars land. and people are going to ask about it and I need to have seen it for myself. And like I say, pretty dang cool. Yeah, right. I bet. Like in terms of integration, if you want to think about the Hogwarts at Universal Studios, I know this is all foreign to you, Jared, but whereas that is a really immersive environment, this is almost even more so because they literally sell nothing in there that says Disneyland on it. Oh, wow. It's all themed. It's all Star Wars. All Star Wars, and even to the point when you're walking around the land, and normally there's arrows that point, go this way for this and this way for that. There's no mention of anything else in the park, and there's no mention of rides. It's just like, spaceport, that direction. It doesn't say restrooms. You've got to keep your eyes open and spot these things. So it's kind of cool, just really immersive in that manner. Wow, okay. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Okay, but enough of that, because we're on a time budget here. Let's talk about something that everybody has been dying to know as related to Zen and as related to their next release. Here's what I can tell you, folks. We've actually had the beta since the end of July. Yep. Yeah. So is about that. so you can imagine how much biting of our tongue there has been going on particularly with the forum conversations that have been raging on digital pinball fans yeah exactly so we've had the beta since then the beta looks phenomenal it's probably some of their finest work actually and when we say that we mean the zen enhancements are hands down, in my opinion, the best yet that they have done. Oh, yeah. Yeah, by far. It's almost like the previous releases have been working up to this point for them to actually get accustomed to the workflows, to how they present the Zen enhancements. Everything is very, very good. so officially set your hype meter to pretty hype pretty high now what else am i allowed to say about what's coming up in this next release yeah i know not much um in this next release the flipper physics that were applied to uh the last pack uh yes they will be obviously applied to this next pack. No, they have not been implemented yet into the first three packs. It is on their list of things to do, but it has not been tackled this go-around. So, hype up here. Now lower your hype a little bit, because just get that in your head. It's not going to be there so that you don't face the disappointment and the anticipation. You can, you know, kill that little buzz right now. That's right. That's right. Um, what else can I say? So, um, regarding the Star Wars release... Yes. Um, I just wanted to read this. So we're not going to be able to have Mel on when this pack is announced, basically. And if you followed Mel on Twitter, you'd realize the guy is insanely busy right now. So, like, they've been to two or three different game shows. They've got Castle Storm 2 releasing. They just released Switch Star Wars which I keep on now seeing It the funniest thing I don know if you experienced it Jared but I keep on seeing game sites reviewing it as if the Star Wars tables are brand new Yes, yeah, it's like, wow, these Star Wars tables, where'd they come from? I'm like, where have you been, like, three, four years ago? Yeah, yep, well, you know, that's the thing, if you're not on a platform, if you're not on Steam, you don't know. Or, you know, you're not on a Steam console, or Android, or... Right, so basically all these people are living in their little Switch bubble. That being said, universally everybody's loving it. Yes, which is great. Zen's getting a lot of the attention that they well deserve with this, and I also kind of almost wonder if this has anything to do with it being a physical release and not just a digital. You're quite possibly correct there. People like to have, I know that the Switch, the actual cartridges for Switch are grossly underwhelming. They're like a little SD card. but yeah giant case ridiculous it is ridiculous like having seen the little cartridges for it's like why do you ship them in such a big case but we could go down the reasons why they do that for retail but let's not right um but you know it is crazy to see that you know they have a little physical thing you can see that mel was getting very excited about that that it was actually a physical like master essentially right and i think it i mean it's one of the things where it's hard to stand out in a digital store. But then if you go to an actual Best Buy or GameStop or whatever, and there it is sitting on the shelf. This is where physical media has to connect. Oh yeah. If you can pick it up and hold it, you've basically got the sale, right? That's how it works. So anyway, here's what I wanted to read that Mel said that we could say, and he said this. There are only two companies in the world shipping Star Wars retail games in the last eight years, and one of them is Zen. They're kind of proud about it. They're just a touch proud about that fact. The other one was for Tor, wasn't it? It's like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I think that was the other one. I think that one was pretty popular on PC a while ago. Wait, Knights of the Old Republic? Yeah, Star Wars. That's ancient. Yeah. I mean, EA is probably the one that has it with Battlefield. Oh, is that the other one? Yeah, that would be the only other. That's the only other Star Wars game that I'm aware of. Yeah. That's, you know. I think you're behind the times here, Jared. More than likely. If it comes to Star Wars games and PC, yes, absolutely, 100% behind the times. Curmudgeony, even. Curmudgeony, yeah. So anyway, I know it's not much Zen news, but you guys have been in an absolute utter drought for anything Zen. It wasn't Star Wars related, so there's a tiny little drip of water. that's right and like i said it's been killing us because we've had it since the end of july yeah we've been so wanting to talk about it we so wanted to talk about we just can't it's the curse of the nda curse of the nda but um like i said the the animations are hands down phenomenal i don't think you guys will be disappointed in the least when it comes to those we're definitely really excited for more than us to see it because it's gonna be like I think you're going to be pretty impressed. Okay, so now that that's out of the way, in this rather shortened podcast, this go-round, Jared, you've been posting furiously pictures of your latest restoration. Why don't you talk a little bit about what's been going on with that? Yes, I have. I've been fiercely restoring Force 2, which is I've decided to make the first character off the rank. I've got Pink Panther sitting there as well, but I think there's something about Force 2 that made me want to actually go and get this thing ready first Force 2 is a two ball multiball Gottlieb System 80 Generation 2 game so Star Race was a Generation 1 System 80 which is different to System 80 A and B, it's just like the second slight revision to what they've done, essentially they've enabled multiball on System 80 like first releases is essentially what it does You should have done that because I felt like I just read the fine print of a lawyer speak. Yeah. So I'm just doing the cabinet first because you need to get the cabinet done before you can, you know, you need to be able to put legs on the thing so that you can then get the play field out and start doing stuff with that. So I've been focusing on the backbox first because it was probably the worst. so if you've been following me along on instagram you'll see that i've had to um pretty much sand back the um all the stenciling on the side of the cabinet go over it with black spray fill lots of holes rebuilds chunks of stuff that have been you know out of the cabinet you know typical african pinball machine quality stuff um and it really makes you wonder what the heck is going on over there that uh these cabinets are well i mean i know that your star race is water damage but this you didn't say was water damage did you no this one's in this one's like polar opposite like the cabinet i don't think i'm gonna have to do much booking at all on the actual cabinet itself it was just the head box that was missing a bit of wood so yeah there has been i think water has got on the bits of the backbox at some point because there's a bit of um planking on some of the apply but i've decided not to worry about that too much i've kept that patina and just gone over the top of it with paint and stencils. So basically the backbox, the interesting thing about the backbox is I had to cut and make my own stencils for it because Force 2 doesn't have the stencil pack that you can buy. So I did that. I traced the image on the good image before I started sanding it. I used just wax paper for it. It's pretty easy. Then cut it out with a scalpel, exacto knife and sprayed it. But the yellow I decided to brush on because the yellow particularly on the side that it planked you need the paint a little bit thicker than what you can get with the spray so you can sort of cover up a bit of that planking a bit. So I did that first to sort of give it the base it needed and then I went over the top with green and the planet looks good it's actually got that good sort of feathered edge look that you get with stencils as well because that imperfect look as we would say. It's funny when I was doing my research on how to cut stencils, people go, oh, geez, you know, I'm using proper stencil material like polycarbonate or something, I'm cutting it, but I'm just not getting that feathered look. Or like I'm using Frisket and I'm not getting that feathered look on the stencils. And people go, oh, what I do is I put the stencil up on some coins and then I spray it over, okay. Or you could just do the cheap way like me and go and get some Ikea furniture, keep a big bit of cardboard from the Ikea furniture and use the cardboard to cut out the stencils on. And it's perfect height. so you get that feathering good solutions this is why jared i wish that you were uh uh you know not halfway across the world and instead you know live next door to me because you come up with good solutions that i get stymied by yeah oh i do it out of convenience it's like right what i need to do to get this done all right that'll do and it's funny the the imperfect solutions are often the best when you're doing restorations like this and like unless you want to be that there's some people who take restorations very seriously. I'm not one of those people. You're a get it done so I can play it. Well I mean get it done but also make it look better than it was but still keep some of that original patina Like there were some people that will restore it like i seen um like what you can do to a pinball machine to get it restored amazingly well and that that great and everything but for me i kind of like to see a little bit of battle battle hardness on the machine yeah um because it's it says volumes about what it's what history is so i don't want to look like junk but i also don't want it to look mirror finished perfect it's got to have a bit of character to it yeah i mean i I think there's a time and a place for some of that stuff because I, like I said, I saw a, I mean, talk about mirror perfect, somebody that had restored Firepower, which is a black cabinet, and it was piano black. I mean, that high gloss, shiny. The table looked absolutely gorgeous, and it was amazing to look at, but it does make it seem more like a museum piece and not something that had a life. yeah it makes it look like something that's literally just come out of the box and that's not correct like everyone knows that like there was one at um b-pack it was a uh i forget what it was it was a stern electronics um forget the name of the game but we covered it in the last podcast and it was absolutely amazing as a restoration and it felt the same like it felt a little bit too clean like it was like yeah i'm not sure about that so yeah um yeah i'm in two miles anyhow so that's what i was doing um i was doing the the backbox i did the light board as well i found a tip that i um didn't find out last time when i was doing star race what i decided was star race was to just roller the the light board in the backbox and i had to do a lot of um cutting out of paint of the light sockets last time because of that decision so what i did this time is i decided to to spray and just using i'm just using spray bombs like you know just the spray rattle cans yeah yeah and honestly it's fine um you don't need a full spray thing to do you just use rattle cans it's fine anyhow so the the backboard or the light board it was uh pretty rough it was gross there's photos up on instagram if you want to look at it um and i got it back to i just decided to go with flat white on it because i believe that's what they use on all the back boards is it's flat rather than gloss um and i used earplugs to plug up all the light holes so yeah that's really good it works so well too and um yeah i had no problems with light sockets getting grubby and full of paint. So yeah, I'd recommend that trick. So yeah, the backbox is done. My focus now is on the cabinet, but I've got a bit of a challenge. I've got to find some legs that aren't shop legs for it. And in Australia, they're easy enough to find over in the US because that's where they make them. But in Australia, they cost a fortune to import. And people have got Belly Williams legs and Stern legs, but no Gottlieb legs. There's three legs. They are a different shape. Well, it's not so much that they're a different shape. they're a different height so they're 26 inches high is the shortest length and the shortest length is a gut leave length then you go to 28 so i'm just going will two inches really make a difference probably not i don't think you can make the adjustment well although the holes are already drilled i was going to say you just move where the leg is drilled into the cabinet but now you don't want to drill new holes because that's a pain no that's a pain yes pain in the butt no I think I might have to, based on what I can get, I might have to actually go with the slightly longer legs on these because I've dealt with shop legs before with Star Race and you can restore them, but pain in the ass. I'd rather just spend $130 and get beautiful chrome shiny legs that I can put on the machine and not have to worry about it. Right. Yeah, so that's sort of where I'm at with Force 2. So it's moving along. At the moment, I'm in the process of sanding the underside of it and bogging up the bottom because somebody, classic African, somebody decided to gain access to the coin box through the bottom of the machine. And to fix the problem, all they did is they got a big bit of ply and they whacked it over where the coin box goes. So it was like this extra bit of ply on the bottom of the machine. That, I think, was my favorite picture was the hole in the bottom from somebody trying to create a use of trying to steal, except for the fact that there's usually a metal coin box there. but not everybody does that there's plenty times when i know that people just have the coins fall in the bottom yeah yep yep yeah i've seen it uh okay so if you want to follow along follow along on uh gerard's progress and uh i don't have any progress so too bad but uh right there in the corner there's my uh there's my twitter and there's gerard's twitter so go ahead and uh hop on those and then you can follow along and see what's going on with that. And then, as usual, you should probably, hey, look at that, follow along the BlahCade Pinball Podcast also because that's where any and all news that we can share, we do share. So just to summarize for those of you that came late into the Twitch stream, the Elvira table looks pretty good. It's going to be costly. Hopefully it will be on locations, but we'll have to see. regarding the Zen announcement that we have. Basically, all we were announcing was that, yes, we have played beta of the next pack. The animations are wonderful, but we can't really say anything beyond that, other than the fact that the Volume 4 Flipper Physics, yes, they are applied to this next pack. No, they are not going to be applied to Volumes 1 through 3 yet. That's still something that's on their list of things to do. and then we just covered Jared's fun with Force 2 restoration follow me on Instagram to see pics of that I'm hitting buttons randomly just all the buttons all the buttons, I got my fingers on the wrong thing sorry about that like we said, short podcast because we've got things that have to do, but at least there's something and keep your eyes and ears open because I'll still do gameplay throughout the week, but my schedule's all jumpy and messy, so ignore the schedule that Twitch says that I have. That's right. Anything else to add, Jared? Nothing else to add, Your Honor. Nothing else to add. Nothing further, Your Honor. Okay, so, and tell you what, folks, we're going to end this stream, but I'll pop into the chat and I can chat with you folks because Jared's got a buzz, so that's what will happen there. for you listening at home. Well, why don't you go over to twitch.tv slash blockade underscore pinball. And I'm like, what is it again? Yeah. And follow the Twitch stream. That way you can find it and watch live and see comments that way. Otherwise, it just appears as usual on YouTube with no interaction. So see, we're trying to be with you guys and you guys can interact. Normally we get engaged a little bit more with our chatters, but we've got no time for that. So, all right, I'm going to say bye-bye. And, Jared? I'll say bye-bye, too. Bye-bye. But you're forgetting. What are we talking about next time? It's most likely going to be some stuff and things. Stuff and things, folks. All right, we'll catch you all later. See you. Bye. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: fc073452-5cae-4827-8560-ec81a7b3a651*