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The Spinner Is Lit - Episode 63 Finally Resisting (1)

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 24m·analyzed·Mar 26, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Spinner Is Lit anniversary episode covers regional competitive growth and Dan's enthusiastic Final Resistance P3 review.

Summary

Spencer hosts episode 63 of The Spinner Is Lit podcast, marking the show's seventh anniversary. He shares personal milestones (grandson's birth, upcoming Golden State Pinball Festival), then the hosts discuss competitive pinball scene updates from Reno and Northern California, with extensive focus on Dan's new Multimorphic P3 Final Resistance module, which he praises as the best P3 game available—highlighting its aggressive ball-return mechanics, traditional playfield-focused design, and strong shooter-friendly gameplay compared to Weird Al.

Key Claims

  • Golden State Pinball Festival campsites sold out within four hours of launch on March 23, 2024

    high confidence · Spencer reports directly observing both RV sites and tent sites becoming unavailable very quickly

  • Final Resistance shoots balls back at the player in 0.7 seconds from a kicker in the spaceship

    high confidence · Dan confirms this is 'absolutely true' after Will asks if it's accurate; described as 'brutally fast'

  • The Reno/Sparks pinball tournament scene has grown from 1-2 weekly tournaments five years ago to 3-4 per week currently

    high confidence · Mark describes tournament proliferation across multiple venues and formats (IFPA and non-IFPA)

  • Final Resistance uses a traditional two-flipper design but allows button-based weapon selection and deployment

    high confidence · Dan explains players use white buttons for weapon selection and launch button for deployment instead of five flippers

  • Scott Denise designed Final Resistance to be 'the most traditional style game that he can make using the P3 technology'

    high confidence · Dan paraphrases designer intent, noting minimal screen interactivity and persistent playfield inserts mimicking classic machines

  • Jerry Carty (Multimorphic) responded to Dan's inquiry and delivered Final Resistance within 10 days of saying it would ship in '4-6 weeks'

    high confidence · Dan describes email exchange and quick turnaround after Princess Bride announcement

  • Final Resistance went from deposit to delivery after 'somewhat over two years' of waiting

    high confidence · Dan references 'the Weird Al Final Resistance saga' spanning two years of anticipation

  • Dan took 1st place B trophy in Lodi CCPL playoffs with 6-1 record in round-robin format

    high confidence · Dan reports winning with 20 total players (12 A-division, 8 B-division) at Lodi championship

Notable Quotes

  • “Final Resistance kicks ass.”

    Dan @ ~14:30 — Strong endorsement of the game after receiving it; sets tone for detailed positive review

  • “It's like... it's got like an attack from mars kind of vibe... it fights back a lot more... it's like three or four times [that it fires balls back at you]”

    Dan @ ~16:00 — Key mechanic description comparing playfield behavior to classic Attack from Mars but more aggressive

  • “You can definitely feel that Scott Denise DNA... if you were one of those people who's like man I'd really love total nuclear annihilation if it had some ramps, you got to play this.”

    Dan @ ~20:15 — Designer attribution and comparison positioning Final Resistance as improvement over Weird Al for certain player types

  • “It's absolutely true. It is absolutely true? Wow. It's brutally fast.”

    Dan @ ~22:00 — Confirms the 0.7-second ball-return speed claim; emphasizes the extreme difficulty of managing three simultaneous balls

  • “It goes to the adversarial nature of the game. You know, the game is actively, finally resisting you.”

    Dan @ ~26:30 — Thematic explanation of game mechanics aligning with title; highlights intentional difficulty philosophy

  • “If you have a P3, you know, and you're looking for another game, Final Resistance is fantastic. It's the best thing I've played on it.”

    Dan @ ~48:00 — Direct recommendation and ranking of Final Resistance above all other P3 modules tested by host

  • “You are never very far from the people in charge of that company. You've talked to Jerry. I've interacted with Scott on the message boards. I've interacted with the coder.”

    Dan @ ~32:00 — Highlights unique community accessibility at Multimorphic vs larger manufacturers; shows direct creator engagement

  • “This feels very traditional, like it feels like a pinball machine, but it does stuff that you said... up until now you were only doing on virtual machines.”

Entities

SpencerpersonDanpersonMarkpersonWillpersonScott DenisepersonJerry CartypersonRick DemmelpersonAdamperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Dan receives Multimorphic Final Resistance P3 module after ~2+ years of pre-order waiting; installed and tested within days of delivery

    high · Dan states 'we finally got to spend that deposit' and received game Wednesday before Thursday tournament use; documents full installation and gameplay testing

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Scott Denise positioned Final Resistance as 'most traditional style game' using P3 tech; minimizes screen interactivity in favor of persistent playfield inserts and physical toy design

    high · Dan explains design intent: uses screen as playfield, persistent inserts (like Attack from Mars), traditional nine-digit scoring, no virtual targets, minimal dynamic back glass changes

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Final Resistance features multiple ball-return mechanisms that fire balls at player within ~0.7 seconds from spaceship kicker; creates fast-paced, adversarial gameplay requiring quick reflexes

    high · Dan confirms 0.7-second kicker speed is 'absolutely true'; describes scoop launch, cannon kicks, up-kicker feeds, and multiple ramp-fed return paths; notes multiball can end quickly if player loses control

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Final Resistance incorporates classic mechanical features: spinner with counter, drop target lock (Denise-y lock), scoop, cannon, multiple diverters; balanced between upper playfield complexity and two-flipper simplicity

    high · Dan details spinner counter used in Power Down mode, drop target acting as add-a-ball in multiball, multiple ball-feed mechanisms from trough

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Dan placed Final Resistance into CCPL league competition immediately after delivery; top competitive score ~14 million (Adam); competitive code settings exist but not yet released to public

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.252

0:00
Hey, welcome to the Spinners Lit Pinball Podcast, tonight's episode, episode 63, Finally Resisting. I'm your host Spencer with me are my brothers at the round table we have Dan hey what's up guys Mark hey everyone and back from a long hiatus uh Will Killing hello everybody welcome back to the show guys Will welcome back it's been a while since we've had John thank you yeah it has been a little while right about this time maybe a little bit later last year. Yeah. Yeah, about the same time. Welcome to the show, Will. Thanks for being on.
0:59
What have you been up to lately? Oh, just exploring the Southwest, riding my motorcycle around. Visiting a family up in the Northwest. I just flew back on Wednesday, back into Sacramento. know and uh yeah i'm about to be taken off again actually sometime this next week very cool a whole bunch of road trips that's fun yeah yeah well before it gets too hot you know yeah good plan yeah well we're traveling on two wheels weather is paramount absolutely right on yeah i know it is so right on so before i get to the rest of the guys i have a couple things. This month is the seventh anniversary of the show. Started the show in March, seven years ago.
1:55
Oh, wow. Yeah, this is our seventh anniversary month show. And I started it the first episode literally two days before this event happened. It was seven years ago this month that we lost Steve Charlotte. Oh, wow, that's right. So not to bring it on too much of a down, though, but – so it's an up, it's a down, it's an up.
2:23
So he passed away on March 14th, seven years ago. The day after that, March 15th, this year, 2024, my grandson, Leo, was born.

Rick Demmel won Folsom CCPL playoffs and Juan took B trophy in his first season

high confidence · Dan congratulates both players on their recent championship results

  • Alex won Lodi playoffs for his second consecutive season, beating Rick in a final game on Fireball 2

    high confidence · Dan describes Alex's convincing victory in 'a barn burner of a game'

    • Dan @ ~50:00 — Describes successful balance between classic pinball feel and modern digital enhancements

  • “As soon as he beats me at this game, this game sucks, this game is crap.”

    Dan @ ~53:00 — Humorous commentary on competitive dynamics; reveals ongoing rivalry motivation

  • “The RV sites are all sold out. There were yesterday still some tent sites available. Now I can't still speak on that. Four hours after they launched, I couldn't find anything available at all.”

    Spencer @ ~8:00 — Documents rapid sell-out of Golden State Pinball Festival campsites; signals high event demand

    • Alex
    person
    Juanperson
    Christina Nanjoperson
    Eric Neffperson
    Jim Swainperson
    Tedperson
    Codyperson
    Boperson
    Karenperson
    Steve Charlotteperson
    Leoperson
    Multimorphiccompany
    The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcastorganization
    Final Resistancegame
    Golden State Pinball Festivalevent
    Weird Algame
    Princess Bridegame

    high · Dan hosted Thursday night event with Final Resistance; reports asking coder about competitive settings; mentions future 'lighting enhancements' in next code version; notes game plays fast but manageable at competitive level

  • ?

    community_signal: Multimorphic leadership (Jerry Carty, Scott Denise, unnamed coder) actively engage with community on message boards and via direct email; responsive to player feedback and requests

    high · Dan recounts email exchange with Jerry Carty; discusses interactions with Scott Denise on forums; notes coder revealed unreleased competitive menu and lighting features during discussion

  • ?

    venue_signal: Reno/Sparks region experienced major tournament scene expansion: from 1-2 weekly events five years ago to 3-4 per week across multiple venues (Elbow Room, Comic Kingdom, league locations); includes both IFPA-approved and experimental formats

    high · Mark reports multiple weekly tournaments (Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Sunday) at different venues; Jim Swain runs IFPA and non-IFPA experimental formats; Ted's Elbow Room draws 20-24 players; growing women's participation noted

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Northern California CCPL playoffs held with strong turnout; Folsom won by Rick Demmel (Juan took B); Lodi won by Alex (second consecutive year); Dan placed B trophy with 6-1 record

    high · Dan reports both playoff results from consecutive weekends; notes Lodi turnout was 20 players (12 A-division minimum threshold exceeded with 8 B-division), best in recent history

  • ?

    event_signal: Golden State Pinball Festival campsite registration completely sold out within 4 hours of launch on March 23, 2024; both RV and tent sites depleted; high event demand signal

    high · Spencer reports checking availability 4 hours post-launch and finding nothing available; notes earlier that RV sites sold out, then tent sites followed

  • ?

    product_concern: P3 module art swap installation (specifically ramp graphics) requires significant screw-turning and manual labor; lacks quick-release mechanisms like snaps or magnets despite modular design philosophy

    high · Dan notes art swap 'took more than 10 minutes' and is 'tedious... especially for something that was meant to be modular'; suggests designers should implement snaps or magnets

  • ?

    machine_intel: Multimorphic planning lighting enhancements for Final Resistance in next code version; competitive settings menu currently only available on developer builds, not yet released to public

    medium · Dan reports coder revealed unreleased features during forum discussion; coder asked if he should mention lighting enhancements; Denise joked about keeping secrets

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Final Resistance appears to shift community perception of P3 platform away from 'overly complex' (Weird Al) toward 'excellent showcase of platform strengths'; demonstrates P3's viability for traditional pinball fans

    high · Dan states Final Resistance 'does a really good job of showing you what the strengths of the P3 are and masking a lot of what some people would consider weaknesses'; contrasts with Weird Al being 'almost a little too complex'

    • 2:36
    Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, congratulations, Spencer. So I actually heard his voice for the first time yesterday. we've just been messaging back and forth and my daughter and son-in-law have been sending lots of pictures and yesterday he turned eight days old and so my daughter called and my son-in-law was feeding him and he was crying so I got to hear my grandson's little voice for the first time that was exciting I can't wait for his first words are going to be pinball papa pinball and yeah so mom and baby and dad are all doing great so that's so we're about 50 days till I get to see him you know in person and we're 54 days because it's Sunday the 24th today okay 24th Yeah, March 24th today. So we're recording. So it's 54 days until the Golden State Pinball Festival. And it was yesterday, Saturday the 23rd, that campsites went on sale.
    3:56
    And now they're sold out. So if you don't have one, it's too long. Oh, they're sold out? Well, the RV sites are all sold out. There were yesterday still some tent sites available. Now I can't still speak on that. Four hours after they launched, I couldn't find anything available at all, tent or RV. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Okay. It's low-dive. They could always just sleep at the park across the street. Yeah, that's true, huh? And so we'll squeeze you in, Will. We'll find a room for you. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. As always, man, we always got a place for you. He's just going to curl up under a pinball machine. Actually, because we're going to pitch tents next to our RV because kids aren't staying in the RV. Fuck them. They can stay out on the grass. They're young. so um so just you know just squeeze in your tent there and or mickey will share a tent with you so but anyway so that's what i got going on um i can imagine that mickey and will in the same tent would be an experience for both get any sleep unless you can sleep through my snoring there you go it's an earthquake So that's everything that's been going on in my world And Dan we'll go to you What's been going on with you Or we want to go to Mark Yeah sure I'll just talk real quick About Reno Is just It is really interesting how many pinball tournaments We have a week It used to be just one or two And now it's ending up to be three to four We got pinball tournaments happening In Incline Village we have women's tournaments that happen monthly we have our league which is on sunday nights in fact that's going to be a couple hours and that's going strong really having a great time doing the team format and we of course have our tuesday night tournaments and it's kind of nice because jim has ifpa type of tournaments and then the following week he has just for fun tournaments So he tries different kinds of formats that IFPA would not approve, such as split flipper. We did we did a team competition. He's doing other stuff. So he's allowing his creativity to try out different things and see which ones work and which ones don't. And it's really a great time for everybody. And then we have Ted over on Friday nights over at the Elbow Room, which is becoming a hot spot here in Reno Sparks area. and it is a lot of fun to have. We usually have about 20 to 24 people that participate in the tournament and it's the same night as the Incline Tournament on Friday. So we have a lot going on. We also have a Wednesday tournament. So for those people who can't make it on Tuesday nights or on the Friday night, there's a Wednesday night as well. So we try to open it up to everybody who can make it during that schedule. But it's going strong. We constantly have new players. We have a great ratio of women to men. So it's definitely a nice experience to have a lot of women involved. And it's just a wonderful, fun time. And it just keeps growing. And hoping that we continue the way we're doing it because everybody is always looking forward to those nights when they can go play in competition. Yeah, the scene up there is unbelievable. Every time I turn around, I'm seeing a post from the Reno League, or I'm seeing a post from the Elbow Room, or I'm seeing a post from the Comic Kingdom guys. Oh, yeah, Comic Kingdom. I forgot about that. Sunday, every Sunday, every month, Cody tries to do like a classics tournament. Yeah, your guys' scene up there is just unbelievably good. Yeah, it's really many opportunities. If you want to play competitive pinball, come to Reno. That's awesome, man. That's great to hear. Because I remember like five, six years ago, there really wasn't much of anything.
    8:04
    Right. Maybe one a week, like I said, was pretty much that was it. And now with all these locations that opened, it's really opened up a variety of games to play and a variety of locations. and a variety of people.
    8:20
    That's awesome, man. Well, you know, all over, I mean, pinballs continue to grow, which is nice. Dan, you just had like a big league thing too, didn't you? Yeah, so last week we had the Folsom, CCPL Folsom playoffs, which were won by Rick, you know, a good friend of the show, Rick Demmel. So congratulations to Rick on being the Folsom champion. And then yesterday we had the CCPL Lodi Championships. Oh, before I move on to that. And congratulations to Juan, who took the B trophy in Folsom. It was his first. So he was super excited.
    9:02
    And then yesterday we had the Lodi playoffs, which were won by huge surprise for his second season in a row. Alex, who outlasted Rick in just a barn burner of a game on Fireball 2. Like, Alex made that game regret ever being built.
    9:27
    He won it in convincing fashion. And speaking of convincing fashion, I went 6-1 to take the B trophy in a round robin. So it felt super good to actually bring home some hardware for the first time in a couple of seasons. Great job, Dan. Great job. We went in B division. That's awesome. You know what? It was weird to not be playing in A, but it was a combination of my play hadn't been the best and I missed a week.
    9:59
    Missing a week just is devastating unless you play at a really high level. So it just pushed me right outside the level, right outside the cutoff line. And the turnout, you know, especially for Lodi, where our playoff turnouts had been typically a little on the light side, was incredibly good. We had 20 people show up. All 12 of the A people showed up. And then we had eight extra people show up, and those make up our B. As long as you're a registered player, you play the required amount of weeks, you get to play in B. And it was – usually it's like a round-robin format. And, yeah, it was really, really fun. It was great to win one. You know, thank you very much to all my competitors. I didn't go unopposed.
    10:49
    Christina Nanjo had to put a black mark on my record, but I did well enough that I got to win. So, and, you know, as always, a big thanks to our hosts in the CCPL, especially Adam, who takes a lot on himself to make this happen for us. And to our new lead coordinator out there in Lodi, Eric Neff, Cheddar, who just did a fantastic job. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't faultless, but trust me, I've been doing it for a year and I know how hard it is to get perfect. He did a great job. He kept a great sense of humor and he learned a lot. You learn a lot that day.
    11:27
    So it was really fun. But, you know, before that, I hosted. So we actually had hosted what? Thursday night, Will? Thursday night. Yeah, over here playing Final Resistance and Dracula. Yeah, we played Final Resistance. Whitewater.
    11:43
    And Black Knight 2000. A little bit of a line-up. Wait, wait. Did I hear Final Resistance? Yes. I'm sorry. I brought that up. No way. That was a perfect segue. No, that's perfect. Yeah, you read my mind. That's what I was going for. See, this is why we're professionals. It's our preparation.
    12:04
    But, yes, I was going to say, and just a couple days before that, I had received Final Resistance from Multimorphic. So everybody who listens to the show knows by now about the Weird Al Final Resistance saga. So that's been somewhat over two years in the making, and we finally got to spend that deposit and we got the game. And so was it Wednesday we popped it out of the box and threw it in? Yep. Yep, I think Wednesday. And it went in just seamlessly.
    12:37
    I learned more incredibly cool, valuable lessons about being a P3 owner because I finally swapped to a new module. I'd taken Weird Al in and out several times, but I never put in a different module. and before anybody asks why not it's because I didn't buy Heist and I was busy playing Weird Al but we finally dropped in Final Resistance, it worked faultlessly we actually did the art swap for the top side which is a little sketchy you gotta take out the wire forms and you gotta put these little standoffs on it's not quite as plug and play as it could be but it looks good and I'm just incredibly happy to report that Final Resistance kicks ass. Yep. I was probably going to hear you say that.
    13:30
    That's a lot of fun. I like it a lot more than when I was playing Weird Al, for sure. It's hard for me to admit because as far as theme goes, and we'll touch on this more later, but Weird Al is a winning theme for me. And it is a good game. It's a complicated game. with five flippers and sideways shots and, you know, just all kinds of crazy things going on in upper play field. But in terms of just like hit the start button and hit some balls and have a lot of fun, Final Resistance is definitely the best thing going on the P3. It looks great. It sounds awesome. And it shoots like an absolute madman. it's it's like uh it's got like an attack from mars kind of vibe you know it's very very far at the end of the play field but it fights back a lot more like there's a lot of different uh ways that it actually fires balls back at you which you don't really expect um almost like uh god what was the game that had the uh well like last action hero has a laser kicker Next Generation has the board shift the fires back at you. Right at the flippers. Yeah. Star Trek Stern. Yeah, it's got that but like three or four times.
    14:58
    Oh, wow. So like you'll launch the ball into the scoop like Total Nuclear Annihilation and it'll launch the ball right back at you. You'll hit a lane and because of the way that the P3's trough works it'll just automatically feed a ball back up from another spot and it'll fly at you immediately. Like it's It's really fast, and it's always throwing something at you. And this is just the scoop you're talking about. Well, there's the scoop. There's the cannon, which is fed by an up kicker. There's an up kicker that goes to a ramp. There's another up kicker behind the ramp. I think there's four different ways it'll dispense a ball out of the trough onto the play field.
    15:40
    That is cool. And two of them will fire a ball at you. Wow. And then there's a lot of little U-turns. There's diverters back there. Like, I still don't have any. I've only been playing it for a few days, so I don't have my hands completely around it. But I'm starting to get a feel for it. And really, I just can't even tell you enough, like, just how good of an experience that this game is. Just because it plays really, really nice. You can definitely feel that Scott Denise DNA because it definitely has, like, if you were one of those people who's like man i'd really love total nuclear annihilation if it had some ramps you got to play this it's it's right up your alley how well is the screen utilized to know where you hit your shots so i think what's cool about this is like unlike most of the other p3 stuff which i think almost over tries to use the screen this uses the screen largely as a playfield. So it's got persistent inserts that show, you know, you've hit this one, two, you know, as you hit it, you know, the inserts will light up just like on attack from Mars, or they'll light up when there's a shot lit rather than having like a little floating word bubble or a message or something. But at the same time, if you're just like, oh, there's no interactivity, it shows like missiles flying around on it. It shows giant beams shooting down from space. It has all the little modes are represented by hotspots on the planet. And it's got the little boxes where you choose your tools, your weapons that you can use and deploy to help you out. Wow. Sounds like it's got a lot going on. Is the kicker out of the spaceship or whatever that is, Is that really intense? Because I remember when he said it comes out in 0.7 seconds or something like that, like three balls. Is that true? Is that exaggerated? Or what are your thoughts on that? That is absolutely true. It is absolutely true? Wow. It's brutally fast.
    17:54
    Wow. So if you stack three locks, because it'll shoot the ball at you at different times. it's not just in multi-ball but like various modes will launch a ball at you however if you have three balls stacked in there and it fires all three simultaneously you know it's it is definitely challenging to uh to juggle those and to get control cool but it usually gives you a little ball saver when it's kicking out towards the flippers it gives you like a second or second to have to get control. A real short ball saver. I was complaining about that earlier. I'm like, man, it'd be nice if after going through all the trouble to raise the shield. Actually, the funny thing is you get the shield to lower, but it raises into the ship.
    18:45
    So you're not bringing up a shield, and the shield raises. It's actually going down. And then lock the ball, and you go through that, and you lock three balls to start your multi-ball, and then it fires them all at you. You spend three or four seconds trying to get control. Two of them slip away and it's like, well, multiball over. Oh, wow. And you're like, I'm a son of a bitch.
    19:07
    Yeah, the ball saver only helps you if they go straight down between the flippers. Yeah, exactly. Like basically by the time that you had a couple like flips to try to get control, if you haven't achieved control, yeah, you're just, you're done. your multi-ball ends, which sucks, but it goes to the adversarial nature of the game. You know, the game is actively, finally resisting you.
    19:33
    And then the other cool thing that it does for TNA fans is that it has a Denise-y lock. Oh, it does? When you light the Denise-y lock and you shoot the ball up in there, the drop target pops up to block it. And then if you hit that drop target again during gameplay, it doesn't go down. But when you start a mode or multiball, that drop target will light up. And then you can hit that. And in a multiball, it acts like an add-a-ball.
    20:05
    And in a mode, it sends you reinforcement. So if you use a second ball, you know, which, I mean, sometimes doesn't make the mode easier because now you're trying to also balance two balls. But some of the modes, it really helps to have a second ball in play because the modes are fairly tightly timed, although you can use your time freeze, and I believe you can use your time slow down to get yourself more time to complete the mode. And so it'll give you another ball to make shots with so you don't run out of time. Now, is the spinner really fun to hit? The spinner's great. Uh-huh. First of all, you know, on this show, we're big spinner fans. Yes. That was the first thing I asked him before we went on the air. Was the spinner? Yeah, he asked me about the spinner. It got a nice juicy spinner and it got a counter underneath the spinner which counts how many spins that you get Oh that cool And there are modes where it start off with a certain number on the counter and you need to hit the counter to bring it down. It's a mode called Power Down, like a battle called Power Down. The rules sound really awesome, too. Yeah, I think that Bo and Karen's helped with the rules. And I forget the guy's name, but I've actually talked with him on the Pennside boards, but one of the other guys did the actual coding. And the nice thing, you know, I will say about a P3 is like you are never very far from the people in charge of that company. You know, I've talked to Jerry. I've interacted with Scott on the message boards. I've interacted with the coder. Like you go on the message boards and I was just basically saying, hey, I just got this final resistance. I got some questions about things that happen in it. And I was wondering about the competitive settings because, you know, we are going to put it in league. And I was a little bit afraid because, you know, it can play long if you're making your shots and we got some killers in league. But no, I did a good job shutting most everybody down. I think that Adam took the top spot on it. He blew my he blew my top score away. He put up very close to 14 million.
    22:13
    And I think so. So it's a low scoring game. But well, I mean, depends on your definition of low scoring. I mean, it's not, you know, one million like Pirates of the Caribbean. but it's not $50 billion like Attack from Mars. Okay. $14 million felt pretty good. Remember, it also tries to do, like, more retro-style scoring. It doesn't use, like – it uses, you know, not real plasma displays, but it uses, like, virtual – you know, I think they're, what, one, two, three, four, five. It uses basically nine-digit displays. Okay. And it uses between the flippers also. So right there below the flippers, you've got all the score information too, which is super neat. Yeah, it puts the score on the play field as well. That is great. Oh, yeah. At most, you're going to get $999 million. So I guess it could be. Sure.
    23:05
    But that would be a long, long game. Yeah. Wow. And are there any shots you make on the play field on the screen using the technology with the infrared? that they use? There's no interactivity with the screen on this game besides the screen acting like a playfield. Okay. So it's mostly things in the back of the playfield, but that gets it really going, flowing really well. Man, I'm jealous.
    23:37
    Well, yeah, there's the side targets. You know how on germs, you hit the germs with the ball? Oh, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, there's nothing like there's no virtual targets, nothing wrong. Right. That's right. That's what I meant to say. Virtual targets. Yes. Because I think that Denise basically said his whole goal was to make the most traditional style game that he can make using the P3 technology. Well, from the video that you sent, I really like how he utilized that. And yet he still has the animations go. It kind of reminds me of like like Zen pinball, where it has animations that are added in when you make certain shots, but then it keeps everything else static. And that's what I was going to say is it's like a lot of people sort of read that statement as, oh, so he doesn't use the screen to do anything. And it's like, no, no, the screen is very busy and there's a lot to use the screen for. Like Will was saying, you got your status down there by the flippers if you don't want to look up at the back glass display. The back glass, you know, doesn't change. You know, it doesn't change like Weird Al. It's always like the Translight image. You can customize it to an extent. You can tell it how you want it to display the scores. You can tell it if you want it to have the logo or not. But they're all in a line, and it's not alphanumeric style. It's just numeric like the old Valleys were. Right. And so that's cool. You know, you can kind of see what he was going for. It's very similar to, again, total nuclear annihilation. But I did hear folks at Leak saying, oh, well, why don't they use that screen back there to do anything? That's like, I don't think that that was really his goal. I think that his goal was that he wanted it to be, you know, very much like a real pinball machine. Like, that's a back glass. He wanted the play field to have persistent inserts. But, you know, at the same time, you would be crazy not to use the ability of the P3 platform to, you know, bump that up a notch. So when you get into, you know, the mode where like the ship's going to shoot a giant planetary, you know, planet killer being at you, it shoots down off of the screen, you know, right at you. But there's nothing physical about it. It's just video.
    25:53
    Oh, man, I feel jealous. I want to play this thing. Sounds really cool. I'm really happy for you, Dan. I know I really was going to bet that it was going to be here in the summer, but I'm pleasantly surprised it got here a lot earlier and you can enjoy it. Well, it was interesting because I had a lot of people, including you guys, sort of, you know, asking me, hey, what's going on with your final resistance pre-order? Have you followed up? And I don't know. It just wasn't really on my mind. So I was just sort of like, you know, I'm sure Jerry's on top of it. And, but it was, it was after, it was, I think it was right before they announced Princess Bride that I sort of just shot an email over there. No, it was right after I announced, they announced Princess Bride. I shot him an email and I just sort of said, hey man, congratulations. New game looks great. I'm sure it's going to be wonderful.
    26:50
    You know, how are we looking on the Final Resistance pre-order? and he sent me a really nice email back. He mentioned that he listened to the show and he appreciated our kind words and our honesty. And I said, well, you know, I think that as probably one of the few guys doing a podcast who actually owns a P3 and doesn't just talk shit about it, you know, I want to advocate for it. You know, I think I've been honest about the P3 and the stuff that I think that it does well and the stuff that I think kind of frustrates me about it. so I really appreciated the fact that he listened to the show and appreciated what we had to say and he said yeah man it should be four to six weeks and then like a couple days later he jumps on the thread and says well four to six weeks went by real real fast we're ready to ship and you want to buy any additional any additional art elements to go with it so I picked up the apron magnet. I picked up the slingshot covers and I picked up the play field under ramp art. I didn't pick up the side art for the cabinet or the speaker marquee, which I kind of wish I did pick up the speaker marquee because it looks a little weird with the Weird Al one on there. I probably will pick up either a System Core one or a Final Resistance one eventually because I think Final Resistance is going to spend a, it's going to definitely spend a commensurate amount of time to weird Al inside the machine.
    28:22
    But yeah, so, you know, yeah, 10 days after that, you know, they were ready to go. So just, just good timing.
    28:29
    And, you know, I, I was at work, actually, no, I was home. I was home and it showed up and I brought it in the garage and I didn't open it straight away because I knew Will was coming back. And I said, I'll wait for Will to get here because Will had gone through the, you know, let's take the module in and out of Weird Al five or six times to get it all tuned up, obviously. And I figured he'd want to be part of the process. But then Will wandered off and I got bored, so I just dropped the module in and started playing it.
    29:01
    To distract someone around your house? I'm like, yeah, well, you know, he was here. He got to see us open the box. Let's throw this sucker in. And the one thing I will say, like, the module went in, and it's a lot easier to install than Weird Al. Weird Al is a chonker.
    29:20
    And, of course, putting the slingshot plastics on is no problem. You know, it's just a couple screws. But the ramp graphics, they really could have come up with an easier way to do that. Like, there should be some snaps or some magnets or something. It's a lot more screw turning than I think that it needs to be just to be able to swap some art.
    29:43
    It's a little tedious, honestly, especially for something that was meant to be modular. But, you know, I mean, it took less than 10 minutes.
    29:57
    Oh, I think it took more than 10 minutes. Final Resistance is only a two-flipper game, right? Yeah. So does that make it easier? Yeah, I think that's a strength, to be honest. Like, you don't have to do anything. Once the flippers are installed in the P3, they stay in there all the time. and only having two flippers, you still use the other buttons, but what you do is you use the white buttons on the left and the right to sort through your weapons, and then you use the launch button to deploy them, which I think is kind of a waste that you didn't use the yellow button to deploy them since it's a three-button game. And I know that somebody at Multiwarfare is going to listen to this and be like, bro, that's an option.
    30:37
    Les is going to ask about the – You can customize that. about the ball save isn't that a customizable option in the menu settings as well yeah but i'm not gonna wuss out my game in fact we made it harder we cut the uh we cut the initial ball save in half we cut it from like 10 seconds to five seconds oh wow oh wow well because we put it in the league although we didn't have extra ball somebody did score an extra ball i still can't figure out how they did it though um but yeah i actually had asked i said hey you know tell me about the competitive settings. And he puts up this menu and I'm like, uh, the coder, gosh, I wish I remembered his name. I feel so bad. Uh, and I go like, oh, well, you know, I couldn't find that menu. And he's like, oh yeah, sorry. That's in my, that's on my game. Uh, that's that, that code's not out yet. And it's like, oh, thanks bro.
    31:33
    But we're going to have some really cool lighting enhancements. He's like, I don't know. should I mention that there's going to be really cool lighting enhancements in the next version of the code too? Nah, I'm not going to bring it up. I'm just like, you guys are bastards. Denise jumped in there and he was just like, yeah, way to keep it under your hat, bro.
    31:53
    So, yeah, I mean, I'll just put it out there, you know, just to kind of sum up, this wasn't really a review, but if it was a review, it's a good review. If you have a P3, uh, you know, and you're looking for another game, um, Final Resistance is fantastic. It's the best thing I've played on it. I love Weird Al. I'm not trying to bury Weird Al at all. Weird Al will go back in the machine. I bought the machine to be Weird Al. To me, the machine will always be Weird Al, but the option to be able to put in something like Final Resistance and hopefully something like Princess Bride. One of these days I'll get bored and I'll throw in Heist and spend some time on that at home is really wonderful. But I think resistance does a really good job of showing you what the strengths of the P3 are and masking a lot of what some people would consider weaknesses.
    32:49
    You know, it does a good job of making you kind of look at this platform and go like, oh, this is what this is all about. You know, it's not overly complex. Like I think Weird Al ends up being almost a little too complex for people to really kind of get their heads around. This feels very traditional, like it feels like a pinball machine, but it does stuff like you said. Up until now, you were only doing on virtual machines. You were only doing on like your Zen pinballs, you know, graphically and the lights and the gameplay experience. It's like the multi-ball start in this is, you know, super cool. Like your Adams family or any of your super epic, you know, build up to a big explosion. Yes. I saw that when I played it at Golden State last year. It had that that feeling of Adams family where it like rubbed up. Yeah. It's kind of like you hit it the third time and the lights all go out and everything starts coming up and everything's flickering and flashing. and there's like lightning flashes and like you know that it's about to pop off so cool and i can't wait until you guys get down here and get a chance to play it it's a super good multiplayer game especially because i don't think will's beat me at it yet which makes it great as soon as he beats me out this game sucks this game is crap i'll have to beat him and then we can put in heist you're feeling heist no i just said we haven't played no no i know I've played Heist, it's just not my Heist Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, because we all went to Rad's and played it that time Yeah, I've played Heist a couple times Well, if you haven't played Heist, it's a really good game too I mean, you know, gotta play them all Heist is cool, like, I'm not saying anything bad about Heist just to me, the presentation of a game like Heist isn't as good as this is its module is great. Like, I think its module is one of the coolest looking modules that they've done. Although, like, again, it's pretty hard for me to not look at the progression from Heist to Weird Al to Final Resistance and to Princess Bride and not say, like, oh, man, look at the strides that these guys have made in four modules. Right. You know, like you can just really tell that like they understand the technology, they understand the mission.
    35:28
    Hello. Yeah, exactly. Well, you got to serve. They understand the mission and they understand what I think that their users want to see. You know, and I think that, you know, it goes back to kind of last week's topic or last month's topic where we talked about experience. But I think that they know that they want to make each of these modules like the best experience that it can be, because that's what a P3 owner expects. Sure, absolutely. And obviously the music helps because I know the music is awesome. It's great. And the energy. There's a huge, exorbitant amount of energy playing that game, where the other games are more melancholy, right? More, you know, mellow kind of thing. But, man, I'll tell you, Final Resistance, when I played it, I wanted to keep playing it over and over again, but unfortunately it wasn't as solid as it sounds like yours is. They've taken care of a lot of the issues that they had with some of the mechanical issues that people have been facing. and really tidied it up. I'll say this for P3.
    36:40
    They don't seem to be ideal for locations. They don't seem to be ideal for shows, at least not at this point.
    36:51
    Even my P3 by the end of league night was being a little fiddly, and we shut it down. And the next day, Will and I dove into it to fix it, which I finally got to experience taking out the flipper module, which is impossibly easy. Like, you don't even need a screwdriver. You literally pop the game open, you unsnap two, like, quick releases, you unplug a plug, and then you pull the entire flipper assembly out and you put it on your bench. It's a module of its own. Yeah. and I was sure with as hard as we played it and and the and the beating that it took that night and then one of the flippers decided to stop working I'm like there's going to be a melted flipper coil uh you know there's going to be a melted sleeve it felt like it was all seized up I had just gone through the same thing two days before with Black Knight 2000 we didn't gap the uh the EOS correctly and I melted a brand new coil and a brand new, uh, coil sleeve. And luckily I had another one in my, in my tool bag. So I was able to fix it, but everything was moving freely. We sort of looked at each other, shrugged, put it back together, slid it back in the game. And we've been playing the heck out of it ever since. So maybe it was some sort of thermal protection that's built into the game. Maybe it was just one of those weird pinball things, But, you know, that game had been getting about six hours of just pretty much constant play because it was a game that got played in league. And then as soon as league was over, you know, we dove into four player game. So when the flippers on the P3 are not weak, the flippers are quite strong to be able to get the ball all the way up to the top of the play field and make it up a ramp. Yeah, they pound. That's not even that's not even top level either. Like, I don't have them cranked. Yeah, you could turn the power up. uh-huh yeah and they have their own feel but i think that you know one of the one of the things about p3 is like once you put a few games on it which is hard to do like you're playing that game on location it's a buck a play you don't want to play a half dozen games to get used to it but once you have the the feeling down you know you're doing you know you're doing dead flips you're doing you know uh post passes you know you're you feel confident about you know juggling the ball around like it's not too bad but yeah i mean you know the module itself didn't give us any trouble at all uh but the uh the flipper module itself it was a little tired at the end of the night so i can see how the one at the show which was probably super early release too uh you know was was probably having some trouble but yeah man just it's a pinball machine at the end of the day Like it does pinball machine things in a pinball machine way. And one of those things is, you know, making you wonder what the hell's wrong with it.
    39:53
    Yeah. But it sounds like you've had a good experience with it so far. And I bet a lot of the people from League were excited to play it as well and probably had a second thought about P3 now, huh? I think that when you play Final Resistance like when you play Weird Al I think that people you know a couple people actually were disappointed they were just like oh we're not playing Weird Al tonight and I was like no we're going to play Final Resistance it's brand new and they were like ah I was looking forward to Weird Al and I was like hey look me too Weird Al is great but I think that when you play Weird Al because of the fact that again you're using four flipper buttons and there are very difficult to make shots you know that spiral shot is very exact any of the shots from the uh right to the left are are you know pretty pretty tough to make you can make pretty much anything from the bottom flippers but like the the little flop down ramp that's all the way over on the right like you have to hit it very very specifically and well for it to reach the magnet and get flung up to the top of the play field and then once it's on the upper play field you got to be johnny on the spot to keep it going or to get it into the camera lock like there's a lot of super hard shots on weird al where i don't think final resistance runs into that problem you know pretty much every shot on final resistance is straight you know it's it's a fan layout love them or hate them it is a straight out fan layout, a straight out, no pop bumpers fan layout, even like you're no fear or you're judge dread or something, except for you don't have the two upper flippers. And, uh, you know, it's, it's super cool and it's super basic. So it's super easy to understand. That's the best part. You don't have to have a whole book to figure out the rules. You can just play it, figure it out, and go for what you want to go for without getting so confused Well and I not sure I mean the rules are more complex than that but the gameplay itself is just right there It just dirt simple It's right in front of your face. And it tells you what to do. It tells you what shots to make, right? Right on the screen. Right. And it counts how many shots you've made when you have to make multiple shots also. So it lets you know if you have one shot left or if you've only made one shot or whatever.
    42:25
    Awesome. Yeah. Well, we all have to play it for sure. Yeah, I'm excited to get some more time on it. I played it last year at the show, but, again, it was having some issues, and I only got to play a couple games, and I couldn't hear it. So with all that said, are you going to buy – I mean, Darren, are you thinking you might buy Princess Bride? So I'll tell you what, man. There is a lot of pressure on me to buy the Princess Bride.
    43:04
    Lunchbox over here just can't stop telling me that I need to buy the Princess Bride. I mean, I don't know. I guess there's better movie themes out there possibly, but I've been a fan of Princess Bride since I was a kid. I think it's a great game theme to be on the P3 because there's a big screen on the playfield or for the playfield, and there's a big screen in the back. So there'll be lots of opportunities for great clips from the movie and all that sort of stuff. And having all the assets definitely helps. Definitely helps. And it's my wife's favorite movie. Right. So you know she's going to want to see it. And it looks really good. Like, I watched the, I don't know if you guys indulged in the stream of it. I know I was probably texting you guys a little bit too late at night, especially considering the time difference. Sorry, Spencer, because I was pretty excited about it. No, it's okay. I watched it. It looks fantastic. You know, the play field, the play field looks really, really well-themed. the cabinet is actually really gorgeous for a P3 I love the fact that they added in the front graphic on it because I've always thought that just the plain black front graphic, it's not the first time it's been done I'm sure Spencer will remember some of the mid-80s valleys like Dungeons and Dragons have just a weird black front cabinet but I always thought that was a little ugly so I like that they're putting art on there now and I really hope that like they they release an upgrade kit for the existing p3 and maybe go back and do some art for like weird out or do some art for like final resistance or even just generic system core art because I think that that would really you know finish the game out in your lineup and uh you know it's gonna be it's gonna be super heavy duty so I can't say for sure it is a more expensive module it is like $3,700 once a time by the time you put a couple pieces of art on there you're looking at $4,000 and I've bought games recently for less than $4,000 but who knows maybe if somebody wants to buy Heist from me I can put that towards a Princess Bride but you can install it on the castle you know I do There you go. I'll just install it on the back of the KLR. Hey, put it on your motorcycle. There you go, man. Everyone's like, what's that little crane for you? I'm like, oh, it's amazing.
    45:45
    But that's it. Do you guys have anything else that you want to know about final resistance, finally resisting? Finally resisting. Well, you know what I like? No, you covered it. What I like about it is we're getting a nice mix now from Multimorphic. We're getting some really interesting, fun, original IPs and designs.
    46:06
    that people have nothing but positive things to say. We're starting to get some real blockbuster licensed IPs like the Princess Bride, like Weird Al that people have been asking for for a long time. I think, like you said, Dan, they're hitting their stride.
    46:26
    It's nice to see them progress as a company from their first game to what they're doing now. Oh, yeah. I think if you compare, I mean, I remember playing Lexi Lightspeed at California Extreme back in the day when it was fresh new.
    46:42
    And I swear to God, I'm not even kidding. Jamie played it with me. And she said, oh, yeah, that's kind of cool. What do you think? And I said, it's neat. I'd never buy one.
    46:57
    Shameless last words. And, you know, fast forward to, you know, they've been making, you know, a lot of people kind of, you know, oh, it's new, it's untested. Hey, you know, P3 is like 10 years old. Like he's been doing like he's been making this platform for a while. And while it's in its current form, it's definitely far more advanced and far more capable than it was when it first came out. They've added in the extra flippers. They've added in, you know, the improvement of the scoops. They've added in the back box display.
    47:32
    It's, you know, the really great speaker lighting, the lit marquee, the whole works. At its core, it's still the same P3. You know, the way that things work in it are very, very similar to how it worked when it started. You know, the big ball trough, you know, which is way more complicated than I ever gave it credit for once I sat down and started learning how to use it. It's got like seven different positions, I think, that it can launch balls from, which gives the games tons of flexibility.
    48:03
    And like I said, the really cool setup with the flippers and the dual upper flippers and all the stuff that they can do with it. I think that you just kind of end up in a situation with this where they have tons and tons of options. like you know there's no reason why as long as they keep satisfying the customers that they have and they keep growing their customer base slowly but surely there's no reason why the sky isn't really the limit for P3 and who knows man you know maybe someday they'll come up with a P4 although don't do it now I'm really happy for you Dan I can't wait to play it. I can't wait for everybody else who hasn't had a chance to play it. It's really awesome that you invested in a P3. And now look at two great titles that one yard you just got and one to look forward to if you decide to get it. But overall, sounds like it's a good choice. I'm not unhappy with my decision. Anyone who wants to talk more about P3, you know where to find us, and I will be happy to talk your ear off about it. I'm a fan of the platform.
    49:28
    I've said before, and I'll say again, it's not perfect. There's a lot of things that I think that they could have done better. There's a lot of things that I think are a little bit ridiculous from a system that's supposed to be swappable, that it's quite as difficult as it is. But also, I'm realistic enough to know that it's like, hey, you know, this guy invented this thing. And I think that, you know, if there ever was a guy who's going to push to push a platform like this to its maximum potential, it's probably Jerry. Yeah. Yeah. He's definitely a visionary and he's definitely had his vision come true because I remember meeting him talking about it. And I remember at the time it was like $8,000. I'm like, oh, I don't know. I can't afford this. And that was when pinball prices were what? $6,000 for a pro from Stern. And now look at it. It felt incredibly expensive. And, you know, that kind of brings me to something else. And I know he's probably listening. So, you know, there's a lot of guys out there who I talk to and they always come back to, you know, man, for something this expensive, I have higher expectations. Right. And it's like, bro, you're investing, you know, you're not just buying a machine, you know, you're buying a platform. And, you know, you have to kind of keep in mind that, you know, I and I'll be honest, I am the prototypical guy who I bought my P3 for one game. You know, if Weird Al was going to cost me what, you know, the P3 would have cost and that was the only game I ever had, I would have been happy. But once you have it, it's almost ridiculous not to take advantage of the platform, not to take advantage of the ability of the platform to let you play more than one game. And the lucky thing, I think, for me, and I feel real fortunate, is that Final Resistance is a game that I would have wanted anyway. You know, I love Total Nuclear. I love the setting of it. Going back to what you're saying about the music, I love the very Tron-style Scott D'Anesi music. Like, if you watch that little clip that I sent you, and I'll post it, the Game Over music is awesome. Yeah, yeah. And it uses sound especially well. And, dude, the sound system in the cabinet bumps, by the way. That's true. You do not have to upgrade the sound system in a P3. It's got speakers in the back box. It's got a big old subwoofer. Um, you know, it just really, it just really, you know, brings the experience home in a way that I think that you want it, that you want to bring it home. So, you know, don't, don't lose yourself in the fact that it's like, oh, well, if I bought a P3, it's $11,000. It's like, okay, great. But if you buy a second module and you spend $3,500 or let's say $4,000 and that pushes you up to an even $15,000, you're into two games at that point for $7,500 a piece. True. You know, and they're both, you know, they're both great games. You know, if you decide that, you know, Princess Bride is your second game and you have Princess Bride and Final Resistance or Princess Bride and Final Resistance and Weird Al. At that point, you know, you're going to add another another four thousand in. So what you're at, nineteen thousand, you divide by three.
    53:03
    Sixty sixty three hundred bucks. Right. Sixty three and some change, you know, and it's just it ends up being it ends up being cost effective. if you're not the person who just goes, well, I just wanted Princess Bride or I just wanted Weird Al or I just wanted Final Resistance. Right. And you don't have to worry about adding additional space aside from the modules so you can keep them under the machine or come on a shelf. You can fit two under the machine pretty comfortably. If I get a third module, I'm going to have to start getting creative. Okay. hey dan what's what's the multi-ball count on final resistance oh yeah good question it's 15 but i mean what's is there like a four ball five ball what so my understanding is the crop on the p3 will hold 100 balls but no game has called for you to put in more than 15 and what it does is when you load up the game it puts all of the balls on a rail where the kickers can get to them and i think that that rail holds 13 balls so like if you don't have 13 balls on the rail uh kicker seven doesn't have a ball to use okay so you never have less than i think 15 balls in the p3 i've only seen a four ball multi-ball which would be the standard multi-ball which i then brought in the reinforcement multi-ball i wouldn't be surprised at all if there's not a mode later in the game where it's going to throw more at you. Right. And with that open play field, it does make it a lot more feasible to have that many balls going at once. Yeah, I don't know, man. Four balls is pretty damn busy.
    54:48
    And you know, the other thing is like, it'll like, there's a mode called, what's it called? Captured, I think, where it brings up the scoops and then one of the scoops, like they're all blue and they all have the barrier up. But like one of them is white and it doesn't have the barrier up. and so you hit it and then it spits two balls into play. And then you get those two into a different one and then it spits three balls into play. So honestly, you might get more, if you're really good at that, I think I've seen more balls in play, maybe only four in that, but you can probably get more balls in play through that mode. I would say like, if you look at how the platform works, if you have the minimum amount of balls, and it probably comes off of up kick four.
    55:36
    That would potentially be eight balls in that mode but I've never seen I think more than four. Wow. Like I said, I can finally speak to quite a bit more about how the P3 works because I've taken it apart so many times now. i have to figure out how to adjust it so oh man we probably huffed that weird out module in and out like six times at least six times just just getting it just getting it as dialed in as we wanted it to be but my entire goal with that was like it had an up kicker that had never quite been in alignment so we wanted to finally get it into alignment and i just was like let's do it so that when final resistance comes we're super comfortable with like the swapping process we're not like trying to teach ourselves right good idea yeah it ended up working out real real well plus it's always easier for me to do a project like that with some backup because then i have a second set of eyes that when i think something's stupid they usually go like no that's not the way that works at all moron oh yeah that makes sense when you put it that way or sometimes it goes the other way where it's like, I think this is the problem. And I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure that you're right, but it turns out we were both wrong.
    56:55
    I can at least commiserate with having had someone be wrong with me. Well, if you're not swapping any of the art, just swapping from module to module only takes a few minutes. Yeah, yeah. That's what they say. If you're playing a game with Final Resistance right now, swap it over to Weird Al and should be playing Weird Al within five minutes. I would say that being realistic with pulling the original glass, dragging off the play field, dragging out the module it's probably 10 minutes if you're fine just swapping the module and you don't feel the need to change the art a lot easier than hauling a game around yeah no for sure right and yeah i think that's one of the things where it's like i can kind of understand the guys who go with like a more generic art set like the p3 core art is like sort of a generic sort of techno sort of art thing. But I do, honestly, and this is just me, I can't see playing, like Final Resistance would look fine with the P3 core art. But, like, I can't see playing Weird Al without the Weird Al art. Sure, that makes sense. Yeah, because it's got, like, hot dogs and slinkies and all sorts of Weird Ali stuff on it. It matches the color scheme.
    58:05
    And I don't know how Heist would look like. I've got the Heist art. I said, I'll know more about it when I finally install Heist. And then, yeah, just swapping the magnetic apron on takes a second.
    58:16
    But, yeah, I think that, you know, if you if you weren't like, OK, I'm going to buy, you know, like a weird out limited edition like I did with the topper and everything, you know, and you bought just, hey, I'm going to buy the final resistance cabinet with the final resistance art and the final resistance marquee. And I think that, you know, yeah, you can easily just kind of flop games in and out of that. And the Weird Al art, I think, really kind of does its own thing. Of course, the Princess Bride art is gorgeous, and I suppose we're probably only going to look right with the Princess Bride. Sure. I don't know. You can't be all semantic like me. Right, right.
    58:56
    I know. I would be the same way. I have to have it matched. I'm so into the art form of the pinball. like we were talking the other day you know kind of off the final resistance subject but will and i were talking the other day about pirates of the caribbean and will just said something that you know not the kind of words i usually expect to hear out of his mouth but he's just like you know something that game is art and i'm like it is like you know and a lot of these pinball machines are and i think that with the p3 because of it being a platform i think that a lot of people have sort of been like, well, you know, P3 is cool and does some weird things, but you know, it's kind of funky looking. But, you know, I think that with what they've accomplished with Weird Al and then Final Resistance and now Princess Bride is showing that like, P3 games can look great. They can look fantastic and that front cabinet art is going to do a lot to help it out. Well, and if one of these was out on location, it would be just fine with the generic P3 marquee and plastics and no side art, who cares? And then you just swap in the module, you know, and the whole flipper module too. So you could rebuild the flippers at home. That's true. I think it's almost the opposite. I think if you're on location, you especially want, I mean, if you're going to change, like if you're going to change modules daily, yeah, go generic. But if you're going to change like once every six or eight months or whatever, it's just sort of like have the yard that's going to match the module. I'm a little bit less concerned about the side art, but like definitely the play field, the play field art and the apron and the marquee, you know, that shows the name of the game. Right. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, operators are just there to make money. I mean, I'm not trying to talk shit or anything, but I mean, that's their whole goal is to put something out on route and not necessarily have to spend that extra four or five hundred dollars in art for every module. Yeah. Oh, no, for sure. Like I said, side art is crazy. But like spending the 75 bucks on the right marquee, like just do it. Yeah. That's the lesson that I learned with this one. I'm like, next time I order the marquee. When he orders his Princess Bride, he's also going to order a final resistance marquee and a P3 core.
    61:10
    There you go. That was a great review. Yeah, I would say that's a review, but really solid. Dan, you really explained it well. and I know we've heard it from other podcasts about it, but you really, you really focused on the experience of playing the game and not just the typical stuff that we usually talk about. So I think it's just me and Kevin from Buffalo pinball, man. Kevin loves it too. I think we're not the only ones who actually have the P3. And so we're just not going to talk crap about it because we don't want to, we don't want to put ourselves out on the line. Just, you know, if you're having doubts about the platform, you know, there's great videos. it is confusing it is a lot to learn uh if i can do it anyone can do it and if you know you guys want to reach out to us that was a spinnerslet at gmail.com and and have any questions spencer will put you in touch with me oh absolutely yeah yeah please please do it on the facebook we've started 111 people we need more facebook people yes i mean i know we ain't gonna catch up with don and like his 1300 but seriously By the way, I was talking about that other podcast where I was talking about Don. But we're not giving out golden tickets at TPF either. So, you know, there's no wish. Show off. Because even I'm like, motherfucker, I want a golden ticket. I'm glad that we inspired him to be a batter at his game.
    62:33
    He's doing great, man. He's doing awesome. He's doing awesome, you know. And he still promotes. I get thumbs up and he still promotes our show too. So God bless him. That's great. No, TPF sounded like it was a lot of fun this year. Yeah. All right. So, Mark, you had said something that you forgot to mention earlier in the beginning. So speaking of experience I had a chance to play Elton John and I been dying to play this game ever since it was announced And obviously it takes a while for them to get out here out west but I was fortunate to get to play Jason and wow
    63:12
    A lot of people hyped up the game when they played it, when they said, wow, this is really a good game. And when I played, I was like, it feels like a Richie and it does not feel like a typical Jersey Jack at all. the flippers, how it played felt like it felt unique to what it was, but it had the snappiness of a stern with the power that we love in that type of pinball. It was really done well as far as the right flipper strength to make the different shots, but the flow was incredible. And as much as Jersey Jack loves to put thousands and thousands of LEDs, it works it works in this game it is unbelievable to see it in person there's there's no way to describe it when you see the artwork and this is not even the franchi artwork this is the other one this is the the ce that i got to play so he didn't do the ce artwork no he did not do the ce artwork i don't know that i don't know who did the play field dan you could correct me if i'm wrong but is it's the same play field. Was that done by Christopher Franchi? And then the side art was different artists?
    64:26
    So as far as I know, it was a collaborative effort. So Franchi worked on some elements of it. And gosh, who was the other artist? It was another well-known artist. And then they did, so they all did different elements of it. So I don't think that- It's phenomenal. It is. I'll tell you, I'm jealous. I'm dying to play this game. It's a combination of Jersey Jack who just, I absolutely love their games. You know, I own a couple of them now. And I would love to justify a third, but I don't have very many $10,000 plus pinball purchases in me. And Steve Ritchie. And I mean, I don't know about you guys, but, you know, I love Pat Lawler. I love Keith Elwin. You know, I love Barry Osler. Rest in peace. There were other designers that I also love. Nordman is fantastic. But, like, if there was one designer that just always comes into my life and I always want his games, it's the king. It's Steve Ritchie, man. You know, whether it's the Getaway, whether it's Black Knight, you know, F-14 Tomcat. my many, many trips up and down the road with Star Trek The Next Generation and Stern Trek. Sure. I've had two different Black Knight 2000s and I've got my Sword of Rage.
    65:59
    ACDC, just the guy's a legend and just I want to feel the experience of what that dude can do with the Jersey Jack platform and And, you know, I think I said when we were talking about it, it came out like it just looks bonkers. Richie is just look. I'll tell you this. Richie is back. That game is so fun to shoot. The targets in the middle are dangerous, but you just can't resist hitting them. It is just so cool. The side ramp is really fun with the upper flipper. It feels a lot like Star Trek. So the best way I can describe it is the flow is like Star Trek and ACDC combined. It's that good. And the mechs in it are magical. Sounding like Steve Jobs there, but it is. It's magical how the ball shoots up into that piano and how he turns his head and looks at you while he's playing the piano and the hands are going with the music. It's just so cool. And the piano, I'll tell you something. I know it's a bunch of LED lights, but it works. It just works seeing the LEDs along the side of the piano tell you what progress you're making in the game. And just the glitz and glamour and the flamboyance of the game, it's Elton John all the way. And they nailed it. They nailed it. It's fun to shoot. The rules are not that hard to understand. It is multi-ball heavy, but that's the way they do that. and that's not a problem, but it is fun trying to earn those, and some are harder than others, and it's just an awesome game. It really is. I'm hoping that they – I really couldn't figure out if there were any modes per se. You collect certain objects and things like that, but I didn't really see if there were specific modes. But, wow, talk about a fun game to shoot. It's great. I hope it's at GSPF and people get to play it because, wow, seeing it in person is leaps is just completely different than seeing it on video or in pictures. There's no comparison. And the topper, as much as it's gimmicky, it is super cool having lasers shoot on top of your ceiling while you're playing the game. That's part of the charm. So with the lighting and with the lasers and all that, it's kind of gimmicky. But, and that's the thing, a lot of, well, guys my age especially, you go back, and that was, you know, part of the shtick, the over-the-top, the lights and the sequins, and that, you know, that's rock and roll. Yep. You know, that's, and you come to expect that. It's like, you know, that's why Guns N' Roses, the Jersey, I mean, I'm not taking it with the data. East game's a great game, and it's all right. But with the Jersey Jack, Guns N' Roses, I mean, it's universally agreed upon that it's the show. It's their live show in a box that you can play. You know, with the lighting and everything, you get the experience of being at a live show. And that seemed just from the video and stuff I watched with Elton John, seems to be some kind of thing. And that's why I really love the little mechanical toy of him playing the piano, because it takes me back. And it takes me back to when Jack first announced, oh, gosh, what was it, 11, 12, 13 years ago, somewhere in that area, probably about 12 years ago when he announced, hey, he was going to start manufacturing pinball games. This is the one I'm bringing back to good old-fashioned mechanical action pinball. And I see a lot of that in Elton John. and to Steve's credit, you know, where you have the Crocodile Rock, you have the Little Rocket Ship, you have the Tiny Dancer, you've got Elton at the piano, and it's just – there's a lot going on in that game. And the video assets, how they do it, and I like how – and then the topper is really cool where it has the screens on both sides, just like you're at a live concert.
    70:11
    It is cool. It is really cool. And then the superstar thing that goes across. I still don't know how to light the individual letters. I'm sure there's something in the code or the gameplay to do that. But it's just the whole package. Jersey Jack just knows how to make a game be an experience. That's all I can say. Yeah. And you know what's funny? Incredible.
    70:33
    You know what's funny is that like a lot of people, I think, you know, they go back to Hobbit and they go back to Pirates and to Dialed In and Wizard. and they're like, oh, this is when Jersey Jack games were Jersey Jack games. They were full of mechanisms and they were full of craziness. And I don't know, man. I look at the last three Jersey Jack games, you know, your Toy Story, your Godfather, and now Elton John, and I'm just like, man, I don't care what people say. JJP's on the top of their game. it's yeah maybe the games don't have overwhelming amounts of mechanisms like pirates did but like their presentation has gotten unbelievable and yeah nobody nobody does the visuals better nobody does the light show better uh and the games themselves like they're a little less overwhelming it's kind of going back to what we were saying about weird island and resistance is like Weird Al's a little on the complex side.
    71:43
    Final Resistance is easier to understand. Pirates is a great game, even though it's not as complex as people make it out to be. A lot of folks are intimidated by it. But, you know, Elton John looks like it shoots like glass. Like it just looks so easy to play. It does. It shoots. And it's not like a long playing game. I mean, it drains pretty quickly, but you just feel the satisfaction. It's Richie. Exactly. It's Richie. That dude loves to kill you and then tell you to play better. Exactly.
    72:21
    That's so true, Dan. And it's that one more game feeling. It's like, oh, I got to hit the start button again. That's the kind of game it is. And I see why this game kills it on location. I see why. because it's just a perfect game to just step up to and just play it. And you don't have to study it. You just shoot the lit shots, and you get to experience being at an Elton John concert. It's cool. It follows the three tenets of a good pinball game. It's easy to learn, easy to play, and hard to beat.
    72:54
    Absolutely. Yep. All the best games follow that formula. It shoots so good, I just can't get over how butter it is. It's like take dialed in, right, and have it kind of like the coasting feel, but have it just zipping that smooth.
    73:08
    Oh, it's so good. I can't wait until you guys get to play it. Yeah. Well, I'm sure there's going to be at least one. Oh, sure there will. There might be even two. You never know. I mean, I know. Doesn't Pillball Pirate bring Jersey Jack games? He does. Yeah, he'll bring a couple. He better because people are going to be having a long line playing that game. You're in a private collection, right? I did. Well, make sure he brings it, dude. There you go. Yeah. Make sure he brings Q. Make sure. Does Jason still have Q? He does. I guess. I would just walk around all night Saturday to the late night from like 8 to midnight, and I would just grab friends and go, Mark, did you play a game of that with me? I think I did. Yes. I would just grab anybody and go, come play Q with me. Come play Q with me. And playing by yourself, it's like, okay, this is okay. But playing against friends, the way that game, that game, that game is one of those games where, okay, it's okay. It's not really anything great. But then when you play with a friend or two and you're playing for, you know, a high score, it's like, okay, this is really fun. Yep. So if you don't know what Q is, it's a very, very rare.
    74:21
    Stern game. Stern electronics game from their heyday in the 70s and early 80s. And it's got one pop bumper. It's got a spinner.
    74:34
    And then it's got like, what, nine just – Not bumpers, but what would you call it, mushroom bumpers? Yeah, like mushroom bumpers. I don't even know. They're passive bumpers where – Passive bumpers. It's not like a pop bumper. You don't get a mechanical thing. It's just a rubber ring and the ball bounce off it. And the first, it's like a billiard table. So the one ball's lit first, and you've got to hit it. Or at the very top, if you hit either side as you launch the ball, it'll rotate to the, it'll take you to the next ball. What you want to try to do is get through all nine balls, and you start getting double bonus and triple bonus and like that. And it's got a, it's just a really interesting, unique game. There's some videos, so it's called Q. And they only made, I think, like six prototypes or something. It never even went into production. But it's just a really neat, unique, fun game. So if it does show up, grab a friend or three or four or whatever and go play several games of that because it's a hoot.
    75:44
    Awesome. I just want to throw that out there because I had such a good time playing it last year. And the dog's going, that's one of them. No, that's Daisy. I don't know what she's doing. She wants Daisy. She thinks I have food, which I don't. I ate all my snacks earlier. So Rusty was at Walmart yesterday. The Girl Scouts were out. So, you know, so our dealer's out again. So we got that. So anyway, so no, good, good, good review on Elton John because it's still new and a lot of people haven't played it yet.
    76:16
    Yep. You'll be in for a real treat. I'm dying to play it. I'm dying to play it too. Okay. Because his last game, Led Zeppelin, there was a lot of haters on that. And I'm not like – I like their music, but I'm not a huge Led Zeppelin fan only because when I was in high school, it was like, everybody was like, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin. I was like, okay, let it go. But Dan and I have talked about this a lot. That game is a vastly underrated and underappreciated game. I think it's totally underrated. Did you guys see that premium here in NorCal? seven grand with the topper and the factory side rails and the expression lighting yep and and that topper is pretty cool dude that game like that jersey jack guns and roses like those are like the best deals right now in pinball yeah i just thought i saw guns and roses le for like 7600 the other day and somebody's got a standard edition for sale and I'm like I really want to play the standard edition yeah I do too yeah alright guys I think I'm reading some garbled message garbled got it okay sorry I think that's everything you know what I like about you Spencer you're captain professional I'm captain professional sorry guys. I was doing pretty good tonight. My segues were good. Will, beautiful job on the segue tonight. That was perfect. Thank you. Will was like, oh, I'm sorry. No, no, you did great. You let us in perfect. It was like, Will's like, let me grab the wheel for a minute. You open a beer. Well, somebody's got to. Somebody's got to. That's right. No, no, it was good. So,
    78:02
    well, since Will is our special guest, I'm going to let you do any shout outs or thank yous you got first. Thank you for Dan, or thank you to Dan for letting me sleep on your couch. Hey. You know, bro homie.
    78:16
    No, I mean, shout out to everybody that's going to volunteer at the Golden State Pinball Show this year. See you all at Camp Silver Ball. You got to bake some more, dude.
    78:28
    We got to get you full baked, so you can speak. He just gets sleepy. A little bit. Right on, man. It was good to have you on again. Well, thank you. Well, I'll jump in and I'll say a big thanks to Will for being here and for helping me out with my league prep and just kind of my, my, my usual projects. He's always a great motivator, you know, motivator, motivator.
    78:56
    Big thanks to you guys. Obviously, you know, another, another episode. Thanks to everybody who's signed up on the Facebook and everyone who listens and interacts. We really, really appreciate you guys. and always always big thanks to the CCPL team we appreciate everything you do under the GSPF crew yes I know it's super overtime now but you know time's short we're going to be getting together soon yup yup Mark? Big shout out to the pinball scene in Reno the work and dedication that everybody's putting together Ted Anthony or Tony um Jim, Eric, all these people that are constantly giving people an opportunity to play competition pinball and really get into it. Thank you so much, because it is just an awesome time to look forward to those nights, to get away from the everyday bustle of work and go and hang out with friends and play pinball. Thank you. So much pinball.
    80:06
    Absolutely. So much pinball. Yeah, you know, just shout out to my beautiful daughter and son-in-law, my brand new little grandbaby.
    80:16
    Everybody's doing well. I'm just so happy. Shout out to the gang that puts on the Northern California Pinball Association and all their hard work and dedication.
    80:28
    I mean, it's not like a thing where they're just like, oh, okay, it's a month for the show. We got to do something. But, you know, literally the second the show ends on Sunday, they all walk away and they're all in a meeting already getting everything planned for the next show. They start immediately. And it may work all year long. So, you know, big shout out to them and thank you. And thanks to all our listeners. And thanks to you guys for making this show happen. Jerry for listening from P3 Multimortem. Yeah, man. Thanks. And shout out to Don at Don's Pinball Podcast. Yes. Every time we post anything on Facebook, he's always there giving us thumbs up and being a great supporter. He's the man. He is the man. So this has been Episode 63, Finally Resisting, and the March of – well, we should have get it out by March. March, the beginning of April. You already gave out the name like an hour ago, bro. We're going to get it edited right away. I promise. We're going to get this.
    81:36
    Because there's nothing to edit. We had a pretty good episode tonight. You guys are getting it raw and wriggling this month. There you go. Yep. You can find us on our flagship home at SoundCloud. You can find us on iTunes. I've even seen our episodes pop up on Spotify from time to time. I got to actually get with them eventually, but I'm just super lazy. You know, springtime has been busy too. So you can email us at thespinnerislit at gmail.com. You can like us and friend us and give us thoughts and ideas over on our Facebook page, The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast, or just The Spinner Is Lit.
    82:22
    I don't know if I have anything else tonight. So I'm just so excited about this show and everything that's going on. and hearing about all the new stuff that's coming out. It's just a real exciting time in pinball. Well, speaking of the show, if anybody is going to go to the Golden State Pinball Festival in Lodi this year, come and volunteer for at least one shift. Thank you. Yes. Keep an eye on their Facebook page, Golden State Pinball Festival. or you can also, there's a Facebook page, their Instagram, their website at goldenstatepinball.org.
    82:59
    You can also just search for that at gspf.org. I think we'll take you to it. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, volunteer, help out. There's all kinds of ways you can volunteer. You can watch the door. You can check wristbands. You can help with setup. You can help with takedown. You can help work and sell sandwiches and sodas and beer and all. There's a thousand ways you can help out. So please do that.
    83:25
    That's it, guys. So from all of us to all of you in pinball land, you guys ready for it? We're ready. Play pinball.
    83:35
    Keep America strong. Have a good week.