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Episode 38: Do Pinball Leaks Suck? What I Learned Working Behind the Scenes

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·36m 9s·analyzed·Aug 3, 2025
a3cc0544-b27e-4c5c-b8ec-f8eff5a22dba
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Retro Ralph examines pinball leaks' impact on developers vs. community after working behind-the-scenes on Harry Potter.

Summary

Retro Ralph reflects on pinball leaks and their impact, drawing from his recent experience working on the Harry Potter pinball project at Jersey Jack Pinball. He explores the tension between community excitement for leaks (60-70% interested) and the emotional/professional impact on developers, ultimately concluding leaks probably hurt manufacturers more than the community, while sharing specific feedback on Harry Potter's code and praising recent updates to Uncanny X-Men.

Key Claims

  • 60-70% of the pinball community is interested or excited about leaks; 20-30% are indifferent or mildly annoyed; 5-10% outright dislike leaks

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph, based on analysis of Reddit, Kineticis, and Pinside forums (self-conducted, not official poll)

  • Game development from concept to market takes 24-48 months

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph, citing George Gomez's presentation when John Wick was announced

  • The Harry Potter playfield leaked just one day before official launch

    high confidence · Retro Ralph, personal experience on the project

  • Stern Pinball is expected to announce Star Wars next, followed by a Walking Dead remaster, repeating their pattern from previous years

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph, based on community speculation and pattern analysis (not confirmed)

  • Jack Danger now holds a liaison role to the community at Stern Pinball

    high confidence · Retro Ralph, direct statement

  • The new Uncanny X-Men code includes 8-9 X-Men battle modes followed by a future-mode sentinel destruction sequence

    high confidence · Retro Ralph, personal gameplay experience

  • Barrels of Fun's Dune may have launched prematurely due to external pressure or an unspecified event

    low confidence · Retro Ralph, speculation ('I don't know the story, so I'm making some assumptions')

  • Leaks hurt manufacturers more than they help the community

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph, conclusion based on his behind-the-scenes experience and emotional investment

Notable Quotes

  • “I think the wonder and excitement that we had in our childhood for everything... I think this wonder and excitement might have been because we had to wait we didn't know”

    Retro Ralph @ early episode — Sets up the generational analysis of leaks and anticipation

  • “How would I feel if we're a day away from launch and then someone launches the crappiest Vaseline all over the lens picture of my play field or my cabinet art? Like it would be so deflating to me”

    Retro Ralph @ mid-episode — Expresses empathy for developers after Harry Potter experience; core argument for why leaks hurt manufacturers

  • “Leaks are something that the community really likes... 60 to 70% of the community is interested or excited about leaks”

    Retro Ralph @ mid-episode — Presents data on community sentiment toward leaks

  • “I fit in both categories. And I think I was more annoyed with Harry Potter because I was a part of the project, right? I worked on it, too.”

    Retro Ralph @ mid-episode — Personal turning point: emotional investment changes perspective on leaks

  • “Leaks probably suck for the manufacturer... I don't think they suck for us because it gives us more to speculate on”

    Retro Ralph @ late episode — Concluding thesis on leak impact asymmetry

  • “The music they paired with that mode... builds tension and stress and I love that because it's an evoking an emotion out of me... Those are the best pinball moments”

    Retro Ralph @ mid-episode — Example of what Retro Ralph values in pinball design (emotional/narrative moments)

  • “When you start death eater multiball the game kind of does go dark but it could go completely black or maybe like a pulsing green or something like that and then there's a tone that sounds like it's trying to be a bass drop”

    Retro Ralph @ mid-episode — Specific design feedback to Jersey Jack Pinball on Harry Potter

Entities

Retro RalphpersonZachpersonEric MinierpersonGeorge GomezpersonJack DangerpersonJohn BorgpersonDirty Pool PinballpersonRetro Jangoperson

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Retro Ralph uses personal anecdote (Harry Potter work) as narrative anchor to explore larger industry topic (leaks), signaling shift toward more substantive, experience-based content analysis rather than pure speculation

    high · Extended discussion of behind-the-scenes Harry Potter experience used to frame entire leak discussion; repeated returns to personal emotional response

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Retro Ralph indicates personal commitment to change leak-sharing behavior after working on licensed IP project; signals growing awareness of manufacturer pressures and developer emotional investment

    high · 'I will definitely... if i do have a leak... i probably won't share it... i don't want to ruin it for a designer'

  • ?

    community_signal: Self-conducted community sentiment analysis across Reddit, Kineticis, and Pinside shows 60-70% community interest in leaks, suggesting leak culture is normalized despite manufacturer concerns

    medium · Retro Ralph's informal polling across three major platforms; acknowledged as non-scientific but representative

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Retro Ralph articulates preference for pinball design that creates emotional/narrative moments through music, lighting, and timing; uses Uncanny X-Men sentinel future-mode as exemplar of good design

    high · Extended discussion of music pairing with modes, darkness effects, bass drops, and pressure mechanics as best pinball design principles

  • ?

    code_update: Uncanny X-Men received recent code updates that Retro Ralph praises highly; new sentinel future-mode and timed challenge mechanics with music scoring are emphasized as improvements

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.108

0:00
🎵 guys welcome back to another episode of the flip side podcast i'm your host retro ralph thanks so much for joining this is episode i think 38 which is crazy to think we're nearing 40 and the podcast has now officially over a year old it's actually a year and a couple months i think i don't know if i did that math correctly but i think it's something like that so thank you guys for making this a successful podcast i really appreciate that and uh i'm glad that you enjoy hearing me geek out and talk about pinball. But before we get started on that, before we talk all about pinball, I did want to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of this show, Flippin' Out Pinball.
1:15
Are you looking for a new pinball machine, a used pinball machine, or to trade in your old pinball machine for something new? Look no further than Flippin' Out Pinball. They can handle all your pinball needs. They ship anywhere in the United States and they will give you the best experience in the business. Check out the link to Flippin' Out Pinball in the video description for more information. Now, back to the video. All right, many of you guys are probably thinking about recycling your collection as new games come in, so definitely go check out Zach, Nicole, and Greg and Ken over at Flippin' Out Pinball. They can definitely help you out with trades or new inbox machines. They get really great used machines coming through there, so definitely check that out. I've sent many of my used machines to Zach, and he's helped me figure out a deal that works for both of us so I can bring in new machines. We've talked about that many times before on the podcast. Yes, I absolutely cycle through my collection really quickly, but there's some things that have been staying around for longer this time, so that's good. So that means there's some games I just can't get out of my hands. I can't let that go of them, but we'll see. We'll see what happens and what's coming. So this is good that we're talking about this because what we're about to talk about is leaks and the leaks suck. I don't know. I have a mixed feeling about leaks and I feel like it's really a generational thing because what is a leak now used to be or what is a leak now ends up causing major speculation where people didn't do that as much in the past. Like if I think about when we grew up, there wasn't a lot of like forums to share information like this. So if something got announced, you just kind of waited and you waited with anticipation. Sometimes it sucked because waiting sometimes sucks, too, because we want to know. We're like so curious, especially if it's like some kind of movie early into or television series. The thing that comes to mind to me that's kind of interesting.

“I will definitely... if i do have a leak i if it's a leak of like a gameplay or whatever i probably won't share it... i don't want to ruin it for a designer or whatever”

Retro Ralph @ late episode — Personal commitment to change behavior based on behind-the-scenes experience

Jersey Jack Pinball
company
Stern Pinballcompany
Spooky Pinballcompany
Barrels of Funcompany
Turner Pinballcompany
Pinball Brotherscompany
The Flip Side Podcastorganization
Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
Harry Pottergame
Uncanny X-Mengame
Evil Deadgame
Dunegame
Star Warsgame
Walking Dead (remaster)game
Electric Batvenue

high · Retro Ralph spent significant time analyzing Uncanny X-Men mechanics, praising new code maturation and specific mode design

  • ?

    product_concern: Barrels of Fun's Dune machine suspected to have launched before reaching final development state; unspecified external pressure or event forced earlier launch than intended

    low · 'I think Dune came out a little too fast... they were feeling some pressure... Some event happened that forced them or felt like they had to accelerate the launch... something that forced them or felt like, or they felt, I don't know the story, so I'm making some assumptions'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jack Danger appointed to new liaison role at Stern Pinball connecting company to community; Retro Ralph congratulates him and expresses confidence in his fit for the position

    high · Direct confirmation and congratulations from Retro Ralph; described as 'really cool gig' that aligns with Jack Danger's strengths

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Community consensus around Stern's next releases: Star Wars (from John Borg, expected 'very quickly or soon'), followed by Walking Dead remaster and potentially Evil Dead remaster, repeating previous year's pattern

    medium · 'everyone knows', 'everyone's certain Star Wars of some kind is coming', pattern analysis from previous two years

  • ?

    leak_detection: Harry Potter playfield image leaked approximately 24 hours before official launch; described as 'crappiest Vaseline all over the lens picture' quality; Retro Ralph chose not to share despite having access

    high · 'that playfield leaked that that fuzzy image of harry potter... it happened just the day before the launch, I think... I didn't want to share it... I felt bad'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Jersey Jack Pinball criticized for underutilizing emotional moment-building in Harry Potter; specific feedback on Death Eater Multiball: needs complete darkness, bass drop, and synchronized backbox visuals to create impact

    high · Detailed design feedback: 'When you start death eater multiball the game kind of does go dark but it could go completely black... bass drop... that giant lcd... boom bass drop i think it would be really cool'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: George Gomez presentation indicated game development spans 24-48 months from concept to final product, involving numerous specialized roles (producer, designer, audio, mechanical engineering)

    medium · George Gomez presentation when John Wick was announced, cited as authoritative source on development timeline

    • 3:04
    Is like movie premieres, like movie premieres when we were kids and like an 80s movie premiere or an early 90s movie premiere, whatever, whatever you're you're thinking it. you saw a trailer, potentially, it could be like a year from when you saw the trailer and you didn't see anything else a lot of times. You might have saw like maybe an alternative trailer here and there, but that's it. Like you waited. You're like, hey, T2 is coming out. All right, we'll see you back in a year. You know what I mean? Or you'd see a tease and just be like, I don't know. Now we get like multiple trailers, things leading up to it. But let's talk about it as it pertains to pinball because I do feel like I'm mixed on the topic. Do I think they suck? Well, I must not think they suck because when I, when there's a leak, I'm, I always want to see it. I don't always report on it, but I sometimes want to see it. So I'll tell you, so I fall in between both. So I'm like, I straddle the fence on whether I think it's good or bad, but I want to bring you back in time a little bit because I think one of the things that I think is missing from this generation of, of kids and it, and it stinks. And if I'm wrong, if you, and you could think of something that brings back the magic and excitement of things like this, like major events or technology, new technology, then tell me. But I feel like as a kid, it was like we lived through a lot of these things as they were like, as the technology was getting better, we lived through these major events, whether it be like the Atari was your first video game system, and then you went from an Atari to like a Sega Master System, and from a Sega Master System to like a Nintendo Entertainment System, and to a Sega Genesis and to like an N64 or a PlayStation, whatever. Whatever, that whole thing, there were always launches. And sure, there was like trade magazines for video games, but it was exciting on that launch day. There was so much excitement. You didn't even know, like you didn't really even see a lot of what this new console that you're about to take home was going to be capable of. So there was just a lot of excitement. Same with movies. Movies were the very same way. You'd see an initial trailer and you wouldn't see anything for a long period of time. And we didn't have leaks back then because there wasn't any avenues to like get the data out. Right. So the leaks like didn't exist. If they did, it was like very, very small. Right. And as a kid, you weren't going to you didn't even have the means to go seek it out. Right. So so I think I think this wonder and excitement that we had in our childhood for everything. I mean, and I know technology has sort of really affected this because now it's like your cell phone is everything, right? Like it's a camera. It can take videos. It can give you access to all the information you want. And so like we had computers, and it was like modems, and then you had like DSL and like more internet that never was like dial-up. It wasn't dial-up internet. It was connected in a way that we were always connected. but even then it was it was the it was the new it was the beginnings of that so we didn't know or realize it was going to blow up to this thing that's just basically like part of it's like water we turn on a faucet and expect water to be there we turn on a light and expect electricity to be there so we're the kids these days are kind of spoiled because they get everything at their fingertips where we i don't know like the wonder and excitement some of that wonder excitement anticipation might have been because we had to wait we didn't know like we didn't know what was going to, what that movie was going to be like, or I'm trying to think of like a movie that I went to, like probably back to the future, back to the future. I don't know. Like it was just, I didn't have a lot of data. I didn't even really know what I was going into as a kid, but it was so exciting. Cause I'm like, this guy's going to be time traveling. Like what the heck? And it's going to be in a, is it going to be in the car? I don't know. That's what it shows on the movie poster. It was like really exciting. The Goonies movie came out, like all these movies came out and they were just, we were excited for them and they were events. And now I feel like with spoilers or these things where like, let's say I want to watch a Netflix show, I need to make a conscious effort to not go to any social media if I'm like a month behind, because I'm going to find out. Like, I'll give you an example. I really was into Squid Game, even though it was a little disturbing for me. Like, I'm not really into the, and it's funny because one of my favorite pinball machines now has become Evil Dead. But if you and I did a whole podcast on it. So if you guys haven't watched it, you can go back and look at look at that because it's kind of funny. I'd share a childhood story that was kind of traumatizing, but that had to do with Evil Dead. But I'm not a horror movie guy, so I'm not really into like scary things, really. Right. So that's just not it's just not something I'm really, really into. But where was I going with that? Why was I talking about... Why the hell was I talking about scary things? Oh my god, I just totally lost my train of thought. This is bad.
    7:47
    What was I talking about? Okay, okay, I remember what I was talking about. I had to literally go back and listen to the beginning of this podcast to figure it out. I was talking about Squid Game, and I was really excited for that. All these Netflix shows or whatever streaming service the show is that you like, they have these release schedules, and then they release it, but then sometimes they'll release seasons and chunks. And if you haven't seen it, you're like, oh, man, I need to stay off the internet because I do not want to find out what happened because that would suck. Like if I knew the end of the next Stranger Things, you know, the season finale before it ended, I would be bummed. I want to be surprised. I love the element of surprise. So that's where part of me and where I was weaving in Evil Dead is it's funny that I was into Squid Game because it's also pretty violent and gory like Evil Dead is in part in time so i don't know but anyways i evil dead it's it's a lot tamer than i thought as a kid as a kid obviously it was like traumatizing to me and if you go back and listen to the episode you'll know why but but uh but no as an adult it's not bad but the game the game man they just nailed it they nailed the game spooky nailed it so thinking about all this it made me wonder about like i wonder how the community really feels about leaks like do they like leaks do they not like leaks and the thing that came to mind to me was this latest Harry Potter release And this is why because I was a part of that project for those of you that don know I filmed the featurette video And yes as part of payment for doing my video, I was able to take my payment in several ways. And the way I wanted to do it is get paid with a game. So that was how I got paid, which I'm super excited about, because I really do like the Harry Potter game. I'm really enjoying it. I think they did a good job. I have obviously some criticism about it, but this podcast isn't supposed to be about Harry Potter. So, but I am going to use some of my experience on that project when I'm talking about this leaks thing. So one thing we have to remember in pinball is there's all these people behind the scenes. You have sometimes a game producer, you have the game designer, you have the audio engineer, you have the mechanical engineer, and so on and so on. You have so many people that make that take a product or take the project from an idea to a whitewood to a working game to you know what i mean to what we buy and i didn't ever i mean i've seen glimpses of the behind the scenes of that before the harry potter project because i've worked a little bit with you know um i i had a i built a relationship with with zach over at stern and um you know so i you know He doesn't give me a lot of behind the scenes, but I get a little bit here and there. And so I got friendly with people there. I got friendly with some distributors. And so they give me a little bit of behind the scenes there, how they interact with the companies. And so I get a little bit of that. But working on this project made me realize how many... And actually, you know what? George Gomez did a really good presentation to us when John Wick came out. He took most of the media content creators in a room and just wanted to give us a glimpse behind like what makes up the bomb of a game and how long does it take from start to finish and sometimes it could be 24 months to 48 months like it can be around that time frame so it takes a lot of time and there's a lot of people put in hard work and effort into these projects i work for a technology company so we do product launches a couple times a year too so i know at least from we we we deal with data i we basically sell data storage devices right so think about um cloud-like storage, but on-premises, right? So we also have, I'm not going to do the pitch about my company, but anyways, you get the point. So we do product launches. I was in marketing for my department or my company for a short period of time. I'm back out in the field. So I have an idea of what that's like, like all the people that are involved and then all the marketing people that have to plan the launch and all of that stuff. So it's just a lot of work. And sometimes, this is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I'm good at like, I wasn't always good at this, by the way, but sometimes I'm good at like slowing things down for a minute and being like, let me put myself in this person's shoes or these people's shoes and go, all right, if I worked at Jersey Jack, if I worked at Stern Pinball, if I worked at Spooky, wherever, name your, if I worked at Barrels of Fun, if I worked at Turner Pinball, wherever, How would I feel if we're a day away from launch and then someone launches the crappiest Vaseline all over the lens picture of my play field or my cabinet art? Like it would be so deflating to me because you want to see your product in the best light because you've worked on it all of this time. And so I'm thinking more about that now after this experience with Harry Potter because that's actually what happened with that one. Like I was working to get my video approved with them. Right. So I had the video. Mason and I kept going back and forth with different edits and stuff like that. And they were having things they wanted either removed or changed or fixed or whatever, which we knew it wasn't going to be perfect in draft form. Right. So that was cool. We did some back and forth. and I just I got a chance to realize like how much scrutiny at all levels these projects go under and how much pressure there is for timelines and deadlines and making sure that what you're doing is approved by the license holder and all these things and the pressure is on everybody to say to say the pressure is on one person more than the other is tough right because oftentimes the designer probably is the one that's propped up the most like as the one that that has the most pressure like if the game goes bad they just automatically look at the designer and unless it's artwork related you're looking at the person that created the design i don't like the play field whatever it is like they're looking at i don't like the layout you know you're looking at the designer if if that kind of feedback comes but but it just made me more aware of man leaks really do kind of suck but may suck more for the manufacturer than i think they do for the community because for the community it just builds more curiosity and if anything you're like you look at that fuzzy you try to you try to overanalyze the the fuzzy picture we see or whatever uh but it but it does still now now it makes me think about the people behind the projects way more than it ever did before because i worked on one so that so you know when when that playfield leaked that that fuzzy image of harry potter i immediately thought about oh man like poor eric Like Eric Minier, this is his, you know, even though I think the good thing about it, or if you want to have any like silver lining to it, is it happened just the day before the launch, I think. So it wasn't like that bad. But like it sucks. You're at the finish line, man. You're right there. Everyone's about to see your creation, the thing that you are so passionate about, whatever game it is, whatever game it is from whatever company. I'm just using Harry Potter as an example because this was, I have a story of my own to relate to it. but I'm like man that just sucks it just suck and I and I can feel for those people everyone involved in a in a project but no I'm I'm a content creator I've got other content creator friends leaks mean like leaks are something that the community really likes I think I did some analysis to try to see and it I went out and combed like reddit uh kineticis uh pin side to see what the overall feeling is about leaks. And so there's no like official poll data, but 60 to 70% of the community is interested or excited about leaks. 20 to 30% are indifferent or they're mildly annoyed by leaks. And then five to 10 just outright, they just outright hate leaks or they dislike leaks because they're people that really genuinely want to be surprised. Like I want to see John Borg's next Super, or next Star Wars, the second it comes out, right? If that's what's coming out, right? That's the big rumor.
    15:42
    And so it sounds like everyone kind of feels the same way, but I think deep down, I think deep down how everyone really feels is they enjoy the excitement. It's just they can't help themselves because culturally leaks are a thing now. There's no, because we're all so connected. We weren't connected like we were, like we are now, we were not connected like that before. So these leaks just like, it's inevitable that they're gonna happen. And it's like part of our culture, no matter what it is, what product launch, movie, TV show, whatever, we're going to get leaks. And I still stand in that point where I'll be completely frank, right? I get excited, but I'm still mildly annoyed. I fit in both categories. And I think I was more annoyed with Harry Potter because I was a part of the project, right? I worked on it, too. Not to the extent of any of the rest of the team, but I was like emotionally invested in it because I felt like, I don't know, it was a big honor for me to be a part of that project. I really, truly, still, everyone there was so fun to work with. They were so kind and, you know, definitely open with their time. You know, it's hard because I was asking them to, hey, come talk to me for like three hours. I hope we can get something good out of it. You know, it was a lot. you know and i had a series of questions that i drew up or had prepared and all that stuff so there was you know there so there was a lot of work on on everybody's part but nothing compared to the designers and artwork and music engineers and audio and everything you know like all of that is way way more involved but uh but because of that i kind of felt for them i think more you know like seeing that that that oh man we're we're like 24 hours to launch and this picture comes out and i don't think i even shared it i don't think because i felt bad i didn't want to share it so i didn't share it but like you know then like i kind of come kind of contradicted myself a little bit because i did share some of the pinball brothers stuff but a lot of that stuff was sent to me uh and it was sent to other creators obviously uh and then you know uh retro jango was leaking stuff for a while uh which which he had had built a relationship with them so but I also think that one was kind of weird because they it was like this constant stream it was almost it was almost like all right I had enough like show it to me already because I so I do think there a way you can kind of do overdo it too But I don know I was listening to I think it was Dirty Pool Pinball He had someone on his show and I can't remember. So shout out to him. If you haven't checked him out, go check him out. But his interviews are excellent. He's a newer creator. I think he's been a pinball fan for a really long time. It's very clear because he's got the knowledge. But I think he's newer to creating pinball-related content. But very, very talented guy. And his interviews are really good. Like I enjoy his interviews. I'm less of a watching other people stream pinball, but which is weird because I stream pinball from time to time. But I love the interviews because that's something I don't really do. I'm not really an interview guy. I just it just never really been that great at that, I feel like. So so anyways, I never really dove in too much. I have a couple, but I generally don't do it. And so he has this interview, and I don't remember who he was talking about, but he was saying, like, what if – like, what could these companies do differently to launch their products? And would it be okay to just say we have this IP and this is the next game?
    19:05
    And I don't know. Like, there's part of me that would be like, well, what if I just knew? Would that be like what I would I but what I prefer to speculate all the way up until the point because I'm part of that crew that's doing some potential speculation or what I want to just know about it. I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't know. So if Pinball completely flipped the script and said, hey, we're Stern Pinball, our next games are Star Wars. Then we're going to do Pokemon. We're going to do our, you know, what's it called? walking dead remaster by the way i don't think that's the order they would come i think it would be star wars uh very quickly or soon after followed by uh evil dead remaster and then um i don't know when pokemon would come out but anyways that's kind of what i was thinking like those are the so what i want to know or not know because most of the time especially with stern i feel like we already know like it's going to be star wars like we already know everyone knows it was like king kong we all knew like everyone was almost 100 certain king kong was coming i think everyone's certain Star Wars of some kind is coming from John Borg next, and then they're going to follow the pattern they did last year, and I think the year before, where they pair it with a remaster. So at Expo, we'll probably be playing John Borg's Star Wars, and then the Walking Dead remaster. Now, me personally, I really wish, and by the way, I want to say congratulations to Jack Danger, who's got this really cool gig now at Stern, where he's kind of like the liaison to the community. I think that's awesome. I'm really happy for him because I know he enjoys being in front of the camera. And all I can say is I appreciate the games that he made. I think I did play his Jurassic Park home. I thought he did a good job on that. I've I really liked I learned to like Foo Fighters. I didn't at first. But I also I think the code matured to a point that I really appreciated that. And I love Uncanny X-Men. So Uncanny X-Men boomeranged its way back into my house and it's staying there. I'm loving the new code. I especially like, I'm going on a little tangent right now, I especially love after you complete a mode, you're in the future and you're trying to save someone by basically destroying sentinels. It's really cool. That idea is really cool. So now it gives me something to do in the future where I'm like, this makes sense. The story makes sense. But it's fun. The music they paired with that mode. So keep in mind, if you haven't played it, the new code on Kenny X-Men. It's like two shots or something. I think it's two shots, and then it'll hold your ball, and then it'll start the mode. And the modes are those battles or whatever, and you have like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, I think. Is it 9? I think so. I think it's 9, or maybe it's 8. I think the middle doesn't have anything. But anyways, when you've successfully completed one, you get sent to the future to save someone, and you're how you do that is by destroying all the sentinels then you hit one last shot i think it's like a blinking blue shot but i love the music they dude this is what like this is what pinball is like it's pairing the music with something and that's like you're timed you know just like all modes you're timed and they did the music track if you guys have played it and you have it in your house like really listen that music track builds tension and stress and i love that because it's an evoking an emotion out of me as I'm doing this thing. Those are the best pinball moments. That's the kind of stuff where this, this pinball moment is more of like, I feel this pressure because it's up to me to save this person, but I got to hit my shots. So there's like this pressure to hit those shots and do it accurately. And I love that another, you know, but I, but I also feel like when I'm thinking about, I know I'm going a little bit off topic a tiny bit when i go to like things like the current harry potter i really enjoy that game because the shots are are very very fun and satisfying but i do think they could do a better job in that game creating more moments around the things that they have they have all of the assets around that game i think it was zach minnie that said it and maybe even joel joel and the crew over at triple j and said it too is uh they were talking about moments like they need more moments in that game and I think man you could have a game that's great and make it amazing by just tweaking a couple things so guys at Jersey Jack I don't want you to think that I believe you didn't do a good job I think you did but I know you're working on the code put some emphasis on moments create more moments I'll give you one and then I gotta go get off the Harry Potter because I feel like I've been talking too much about it to be honest but it's it's it's still very fresh in my mind when you start i'm giving you one death eater multiball when you start death eater multiball the the game kind of does go dark but it could go completely black or maybe like a pulsing green or something like that and then there's a there's a tone that sounds like it's trying to be a bass drop emphasize like a giant bass drop because to me if the game goes dark like the bass drop and then you guys have those visuals of the two um death eaters on the on the back box it'll create a really cool moment but like hang on that you know hang on the on the darkness of the game real quick because i think those when when so when the game goes dark you're like what the heck just happened right but then if it goes dark and all of a sudden i met with something at that and that giant lcd and it's like boom bass drop i think it would be really cool that's just one thing. They kind of do it, but not really. It's sort of a moment, but it's not enough. That's just one I can think of. But anyways, getting back to the topic at hand. So this leak thing, I don't know, man. I think this is just the world we live in now. So I know the topic was, do leaks suck? I think they probably suck for the manufacturer. I don't think they suck for us because it gives us more to speculate on. Where it also does suck for them, if I'm thinking about of who it sucks for most is that sometimes the stuff that leaks is like a really bad quality, you know, it's a bad representation of the product. And what's so crazy is our pinball community talks so quick. Stuff gets out there. It's like, it's on Reddit. It's on Pinside. It's on Facebook. Like it's everywhere. People are doing videos on it. Like people are like, boom, boom. And I think some of that is that we're so starved for content that everyone's like, oh, we need more stuff. We need more stuff. And so anything, anything big or small in pinball is exciting. So it's new news that we want to talk about. So whatever. I mean, we're all like that. We all crave the information. But I think for the manufacturer, it sucks the most. Because if the thing that does leak is just a poor representation, and it happens well before the launch date, that kind of stinks. It makes me think of Barrels of Fun. I don't know exactly what happened with Barrels of Fun. I don't know exactly what happened with Dune. I think the one thing I think we all in the community could say, I think Dune came out a little too fast, but I also think they were feeling some pressure, and I don't know. There was something that happened that caused them to launch it prematurely, right, or maybe before they were ready. So that's unfortunate because now something happened. I don't know what that event was. Some event happened that forced them or felt like, or they felt, I don't know the story, so I'm making some assumptions, but they felt they had to accelerate the launch. but that's not good either because now the game might not be in the in the in the space or in the final stages that they thought it would be so now they're like oh crap we're gonna maybe put for forward something that isn't ready and that was a lot of the that was a lot of initial reaction so with dune it kind of bums me out because while i'm not the biggest dune fan i did play it two I've played it a few times at Electric Bat, unfortunately it's no longer there, but when I was playing it, I was like, this could be really cool. The shots were cool and different. So I don know Again I always point back to the manufacturer I think it fun for us because we get to speculate we get to talk about blah blah but i think the the manufacturers is the one that it really sucks for and the data kind of speaks to that really only 70 of the community is excited or interested in leaks in general and it's only a small percentage that really outright dislikes it which is like five to ten percent so uh but i will tell you from my perspective especially after working on this project i will definitely and it won't matter because maybe i can't control what everybody else does but from my perspective i think what i would like to do is if i do have a leak i if it's a leak of like a gameplay or whatever i probably won't share it i just don't after doing this jjp project i really feel different i don't want to ruin it for a designer or whatever speculation i'm all about that's fun like we can speculate all day long what's going to be the next title blah blah blah and and and uh and i don't know maybe from that dirty pool pinball interview uh i don't remember who he was talking to it was someone that that in marketing or something like maybe these companies will change but i don't know i kind of think some of the whole don't talk about it thing is some of the contractual agreements with the license holder i can't say that for sure but some of the projects i did in the arcade space back in the day like they couldn't talk about their project until a certain point with in that project and that was that was kind of information from the license holder now that was the arcade space i don't know like i've seen situations where license a company holds a license for something and they talked about it really early or someone leaked it and the company pulled out of the deal they're like we're not we're not working with you so so also i think about that because like if we go to if we have some leaks and it's like oh my gosh i shouldn't have went out there and then we give it out and all of a sudden you know warner brothers or whoever it is was or universals like yeah you know what like we're we we can't we can't do business like this we got to keep it quiet so i don't know i don't know if there's anything that contractually obligates someone to not share the information or whatever i don't i don't really know but um but none of the companies seem to want to talk about their games until the release date so i think sometimes with the world we live in today leaks happen if stern's stern's pretty good about containing pictures and images though At least in modern times, you don't see that a lot. So they're pretty good about doing that. And I think that's because they control it. I'm sure all their employees are under NDAs that say, I mean, I'm sure all these companies because their manufacturers are probably under NDAs. But I don't know, it makes me wonder where the leaks come from when they do come out. I think a lot of times they come from someone at the company.
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    And like companies like Stern try their best to, and I think JJP does the same thing. they try to not give the media assets to any of the distributors till it's time you know for launch or maybe they do it just shortly before which is smart because if they gave it to him early it's gonna happen i mean look at what happened with pinball brothers i'm pretty sure the guy that leaked that gameplay that had the arnold clips that weren't authorized to be there i think that was a distributor if i remember right i gotta go back and fact check that but i'm pretty sure that is that's that hey before we end up i hopefully you guys enjoyed this i just want to do a quick talk about this because I was like, hey, what's a thing I've been thinking about lately? And I've been thinking about this. I was like, maybe I can make a short podcast about it. I think it's kind of fun. I want to ask you guys a question, though. So in the comments, like, tell me, like, where do you stand on this? Are you upset because you really anticipate that date and you want to be surprised? Or are you like that mixture of both like me where you're excited to see the leak but bummed because you enjoy the feeling you get from being excited? Or are you just indifferent? There's a percentage that came up as like, eh, I don't really care. It was kind of like 10% were indifferent or just mildly annoyed, and then another 10% was basically like, yeah, we outright dislike it. I can't stand it. It makes me feel disgusting, and it spoils the experience. So I don't know. It's a fun topic. I just like to know where you guys stand on it. By the way, I don't. I kind of said how I kind of said throughout the episode how I am on it. I think I think I'm both right. I'm excited and then mildly annoyed by it at the same time. But but yeah, that is it is what it is, man. It is what it is. So before we end, I wanted to give a quick shout out to the Pinball Studio. So I didn't remember everything, but I did talk about, I don't know if you guys remember, but Sterling over the Pinball Studio had left a really cool voicemail for us talking about tournament play. And that's when I shared my meltdown, my tournament meltdown episode. If you haven't watched that, it's really uplifting. You'll feel great about your pinball skills after you listen to it. But this was cool. So he wrote me something, says, I truly appreciate your support of the Pinball Studio. We hope you wear this shirt with pride. And you're now a part of part of the growing community that's helping us keep the silver ball alive. So really cool. I really appreciate him sending the shirt. But they basically are a tournament location in Richmond Hill, Georgia. It's just south of Savannah. They host multiple pinball tournaments each month. And they say the atmosphere they've created there is a laid back atmosphere. So if you want to join, if you're in the, you know, Georgia or Richmond Hill or Georgia area or around Savannah and you want to join, like definitely go check them out. Sterling's a really good dude. So head over to the pinball studio.com and then you can RSVP for upcoming events and stuff like that. So really cool. And I guess their first podcast episode is up now. I didn't get a chance to listen to it yet, but I definitely have him on my Spotify. So I'll, I'll, I'll put links in there, but it's the pinball studio Sterling, really nice guy. And, and he's running tournaments out there. So, oh, by the way, I want you guys to know, I'm going to give you a little quick tournament update. Okay. I, uh, I went back to electric bat it was fine and no one was there like scared to be around me it was i obviously sensationalized the story a bit uh for the comedic value of it but it was funny because some people actually reached out and they're like hey bro you okay and i'm like yeah i'm fine i'm good and i want to also clarify one other thing when i said there was a kid i was talking to he was like in his 20s so it wasn't like i was uh complaining about my skills to some like young kid who's never going to come back to the electric pad so i want to make that clear i'm like oh my gosh i said kid i call like it's funny because i'm 46 i call young people in their 20s kids now which makes me feel old oh man it sucks because even at work i kind of always have thought myself i thought of myself as the youngest there and it's like holy crap i'm not at all the youngest anymore i've worked at the same company for 10 years so i've seen like the new blood come in and now i feel i feel a little bit like the old blood sucks to feel like the old blood man but uh but yeah we're hanging in there going strong um you know trying to keep my energy up drinking red bull actually i don't i don't i don't know i don't recommend the red bull it's probably not too good for you but that said my friends it's another episode in the books i'm excited i'm excited because we got we are months away from pinball expo so real quick i'll give you a quick tease i am going to have a panel with myself and the Loser Kid guys, which I'm super excited about because Josh and Scott are cool, cool dudes, really cool dudes, good guys. And that's going to be fun. The other thing, the other thing is Rob Burke is going to be on the show to talk a little bit about Expo. I'm going to try to come up with a unique angle for Rob because Rob's an interesting guy. He has one of the most, the largest, most interesting collections of pinball machines there are. So I think, of course, we could talk about Expo a little bit, but I think there'd be some really cool things. And I have to get back to someone because there's another thing I'll be doing at Expo. So I have a couple of commitments, but I'm very excited. If you go to Expo, come up to me. Let's talk. Let's play some games. And I have a couple of obligations during that time, but it's not crazy this year. So I should have plenty of time. That's where I have the most fun, hanging out, talking to everybody, playing. Whatever new game it is that came out, hopefully. I mean since this was a show about leaks I think a leak that came out there a long time ago was that spooky pinball is going to have beetlejuice so I don't know is it beetlejuice is it goonies I don't know but whatever it is we will probably experience it and hopefully we can experience it together at pinball expo that's it for now guys thank you so much comment like subscribe if you like it whether it be on spotify apple podcast or the flip side which would be the youtube channel Retro Ralph Live and we will see you on the flip side. Thanks guys.
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