one welcome to the spinners lit pinball podcast i'm your host spencer with me tonight from the round table are Brian and Alex. What's up? Dan couldn't make it tonight. He's been just really on the gas all week. He's just home taking it easy. We love you, brother, and we wish you well. And with us via satellite phone technology stuff from Reno, Nevada, our own Mark Scoff. Glad to be here. This is awesome. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, man. It's good. Glad to have you, man. Yeah. It's great to have you back on the show. So we're live at the Kitchen Table Studios in beautiful, sunny Rancho Cordoba, California. So, yeah, man. So give us an update on the Reno scene. So, yeah, there's a lot of places to go as far as people's houses. There's some great collections. I had a chance to play Guns N' Roses LE. What an experience playing that game. Fantastic game. as far as local places to play there's not many um as you know press start had to close their doors because of covid and also because they are done paying the rent and the building is now paid for where they had to move out but the good news is that press start is opening in a new location closer to downtown that's going to be twice as big they're also going to be serving food and they're going to hopefully have at least minimum of 30 pens nice nice pretty awesome it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be awesome um as far as league goes no league no tournaments really everything is at a standstill i'm sure the same in sacramento yep yep oh yeah we're just waiting we're just waiting until we get the green light we got uh jim martin has an awesome place uh near downtown also, and it's a great place to hang out. He's got like 12 games there, good variety of solid states, even an EM and he's got Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings. So a really good variety of games, and that will be our headquarters for league and tournaments once that starts up. But we have not been given the green light yet. Okay, so good stuff's on the horizon, and just like here in California, everything's just kind of at a standstill right now. So anyway, well, you know, hey, 2020, what are you going to do? So that's what I actually titled this episode, 2020. Yeah, man. Well, so you were talking about playing Guns N' Roses. I think you're the only one in the group that's played it this far. We have one local guy that's got one, but we just, you know. We haven't gone to his place because of COVID. Yeah, because of COVID. He's not having people over. Actually, two. Mike Hozier and John Robeson have one. Okay. But, yeah, right now because of the COVID, we're not. I know Mike Hozier does for sure. Yeah, I know. He was one of the first people to get one. Yeah, John's got one. He put up a video of his daughter playing it. Yeah. And then Jeff has one. He's on the list for one. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to Jeff and Courtney two weeks ago. So we've got them in the area or getting them. but until things iron out you know so yeah so um i got to play in le first thing when i first saw the cabinet the artwork is just amazing to look at with all the posters it is something else i mean the pictures are great when you see it online but man when you see that person it just pops all of the different posters all on the cabinet both sides just i really like the le a lot. The play feel was absolutely gorgeous. I mean, it's a work of art in itself, and the way that they incorporated the guitar neck and the bass ramp and all those things combined, it was just a sight to behold. Then when the game was turned on, that's when I was really blown away, because it had that light show with those hot rails. Unbelievable. Of course, the first one I wanted to play when I was selecting the song was uh live and let die yeah and oh my gosh it is incredible because it it you know it does the little way and you know young you know and it goes through that whole verse and then when it goes live and let die it goes and it totally like vibrates the machine in sync with the music and the lights flash oh it's so cool um yeah the gameplay it's really fun um i i like how you can do the risk reward and it's always tempting to try to lock all the balls if you can i could only lock like three at the most but it's really fun to just try to get like six balls in that guitar lock uh and then be able to um try to play it out through the whole song um i like the uh the shots are really neat um It's not as fast as a Stern game, of course. It has a lot more slower pace to it, like a Jersey Jack. But it definitely has a good variety of shots. I like the inner loop. That's a neat shot. And then, of course, the upper play field is rewarding when you get over that base ramp and then it goes down the habit trail right down straight down like the strings of a base. And then how it was random, how it hits the different things where you have it go either left or right on that rail is pretty neat how it can switch between which in lane it goes in so it just adds a little variety to it um the rules are simple i mean you just have to collect all the band members and then once you're ready you shoot the middle scoop for the song and uh off it goes but as far as the experience goes you are at a concert especially when i got to play it with a sub woofer hooked up to it and it blasting you know it 75 volume it was intense it was really cool and it's neat because when you play it the volume is really low until you start a song and then once you shoot it into the middle it totally like turns up like about like two or three notches and you're like full concert it's it's an experience like everybody says it is something to see in person and play it now unfortunately the le was sold the good news is he's getting a ce and that's coming uh hopefully in a month or two so we're excited when he gets that right on that's awesome man cool right no that's good to hear we're actually talking about you've kind of reviewed it pretty good so but we're gonna go through it in the games of you know this year's games in a little bit let's jump into sorry about that no no it's okay you know what man you know we fly loose around here man we you know kitchen table studios i mean we're eating pizza alex is having a coke and then uh brian and i are uh enjoying some uh now 15 year old uh glenn fittick single malt scotch how is yours it's good i made it real light just because yeah two they're light and then i gotta drive what do you think of the flavoring on that it's fine it's good yeah it's good i like glenn fittick it's yeah yeah fine scotch i'm more of a rum guy you know but yeah it might just change all the time yeah so yeah i really find this very very smooth and and with a really good oak kind of flavor so sorry man we're getting sidetracked so let's talk about the latest and the greatest let's get into the new stuff because that's what we all want to hear about right um led zeppelin okay so uh i'll i'll start on this one um i'm going to preface this by i'm not a real big led zeppelin fan i'm not a fan of the band someone grew this man so immigrant song well no i'll tell you why i i like some of their music i really do because when i was in high school i graduated in 84 and it was this thing where there was just this this whole thing where like if you didn't like put led zeppelin before every other band on the planet you were some kind of social pariah and it just you know it was just everybody Zeppelin, Zeppelin, Zeppelin, Hammer of the Gods. I'm more of a Van Halen guy. But, you know, I certainly enjoy their music. And, you know, I don't hate Led Zeppelin. I'm just, you know, I've owned a few of their records. So, you know, with that said, it's like, it's not even like, you know, in the top 20 of my, ooh, I got to own this list. But I haven't played it either. So, and that could change drastically. But I think the artwork's fine for what it is. We all know that they had very strict requirements of we want this, and they had to go with that. That happens at Stern all the time. It happened with Game of Thrones. It happened with The Sopranos. It happened with Star Wars. It happened with Star Trek. These license holders tell you, you're going to do this. This is what we want. Here's what we'll let you do. And they've got to do it. People should realize that by now. Watched about 15 minutes of the gameplay video today. um it's a Steve Ritchie man it's fast and furious it looks a lot of fun i i like the video assets because it really what i saw paints a picture of that era of the 70s you know just like aerosmith's artwork does and even their animations with the great 70s saturday morning cartoon style animation It really frames the time frame of that license well. So those are my first impressions. I like it, man. It's got, look, it doesn't have the stupid BS1 stand-up target for four letters. It's got some drops. It's got, in the premium LE, I like the little raising spinner with the magnet gizmo. It's simple but cool and fun looking. um you know again four ramps three uh three flippers and it it looks like it'll be a lot of fun to shoot that's just my first take on it brian i haven't paid as much attention to you on the game um i've seen pictures of the layout the layout reminds me a lot of acdc very very much so um cabin art looks cool uh i want to play it i'm withholding judgment until then uh i think there's going to be a lot of disappointment with this title as there always is and some of the i've read a little bit of the stuff online about it and i think some people don't you know they're upset people are either they like it or they're upset and there's no gray area it seems um i love the fact that they use the artwork from led zeppelin three on one of them i thought that was awesome i know a lot of people got very upset about that but it looks good it's colorful it's flashy. Most people think Led Zeppelin. They think of Four or Houses of the Holy in terms of, excuse me, in terms of album covers. I know a lot of people were upset that there's no Stairway to Heaven on it, but that is a song I just, I can understand why they didn't use it. I know it's their, you know, it's their, it's their Magmocus song, but it makes sense why they didn't use it. The song is just, it's long, it's slow for most of it, and it's drawn out, and that wouldn't really transfer over well to pinball. Right. It'd be like if they put Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner in Iron Maiden. It's a 12-minute song that at one point slows down drastically, and it just wouldn't fit. Maybe they couldn't get the license for it. Led Zeppelin is, well, for a very long time was very tight-lipped. No, that's not the right term. Tight-fisted with their license, and that changed about, I think it was like 10 years ago. Maybe it's 15 now. For a long time, they wouldn't license their stuff out to anybody. And all of a sudden, they appeared in car commercials. The Hard Rock Park somewhere in the Midwest. It lasted for like two years before it went bankrupt. Had a Led Zeppelin coaster. So I'm looking forward to playing it. I don't think it's the be-all, end-all title, but it looks like it's going to be fun. I like ACDC. It's a richer game. How bad could it possibly be? Right. Alex? Sorry, munch on pizza there. Led Zeppelin was broken up before you were even born, huh, son? It's a 70s band, so, you know, kind of go figure, yeah. I watched the gameplay trailer of it, both pro-Premium LE. My opinion, I think the Premium LE looked a little better just because it has the electromagnet spinner thing, you know, that you hit, and you hit it enough times the multi-baller frenzy begins. Like Brian said, it definitely does look a lot like ACDC. I'm not a huge fan of the artwork I thought the artwork could be better I do want to play one though Just to see if I get a feel of it or not It is a Richie game you know I might like it after all There have been a bunch of games that I've not liked But then ended up liking after playing them quite a bit Take NBA Fastbreak for example obviously But yeah I think I'm going to give Led Zeppelin a chance I know I kind of foo-fooed it when I first saw it Like oh this is a piece of shit Like, you know, Guns N' Roses looks so much better because it's got all the features and light shows. And like, yeah. But yeah, I just need to I need to play it first. Right. All right, Mark, thoughts? So my impressions as far as just looking at it at first, the artwork is true to the album covers. So I can't really knock them on what kind of art they're using on there. Yes, they could have been more original and maybe took a more creative approach. But I know that Zeppelin is a really tough license, and they really didn't have many choices as far as at least the outside work goes. It does look kind of overdone, like with the Premium, where it has the Led Zeppelin on sides, it has it on the back glass, and it even has it on the topper. So seeing all that at once is kind of overkill in a way. Of course, it also has a big Led Zeppelin toy right on the left side of the playfield. right um so that is kind of overdone a little bit where they didn't go and keep it variety on each side of the cabinet but honestly speaking i mean getting over the art uh i have to say that i really like the play field i think the play field definitely represents psychedelic 70s look it's got the oranges it's got the reds and the blues and it jives really well and uh i think it It looks pretty cool how they have the band members on there and the symbols. I thought it was tastefully done. And it definitely has a nice layout as far as a typical Steve Ritchie. I know a lot of people complain, oh, there's nothing on the lower part of the play field. But in reality, if it's a fast shooter, you can't have anything in the play field because it's going to slow it down. And I did get a chance to watch the stream. I actually subscribed to the Stern Insider Basic, the free version. Yeah, me too. And they have the video posted on Stern. And I watched the gameplay, and I'll tell you something. That game looks like a lot of fun to shoot. It's fast. And it's the trademark Steve Ritchie. So it moves really fast, but it seems like it flows like crazy. I mean, you've got the orbits, and it goes up the ramp and down right to the flipper again and up and over, and it seems like it's a lot of fun to shoot. And the music fit really well with the ball because I'm a musician, so hearing some of the awkward beats and seeing the ball bounce between the flippers and the slingshots of the bumpers, it fit really well with the music, and I thought it was neat. And you could tell that people were having a really good time dancing to music and headbanging and having a good time as far as the gameplay goes. The rules are really nice. I like the animations. They're simplified so you see what you're scoring and they don't have to go overboard with all the animations and cutesy stuff that we see in other games. And it did it really well. I like the tilt spinning record. When they tilt, then all of a sudden the record just falls down. I thought that was kind of cool. So it definitely has that 70s vibe. I really like that. and yeah there's not much in it but really like I said there's really not when you shoot it if you have stuff in the middle it's going to slow the ball down or it's going to be more like a stop and go so having that open and play field gives it a lot of time or gives it a way for the ball to really accelerate and go zipping over those ramps and everything and then the other thing I really like is definitely the mech with the spinner I know people say oh that's not really innovative i think it is i'll tell you something i think it's cool to shoot a spinner that's on top of that it's an optical spinner so you see that thing just go and the sound effect is i like the sound of it some people are calling it can play on pin side i think it's cool how it goes up and pitch as as the speed you spin it and then it goes and kind of lowers the pitch so you know when you're charging up that uh that uh is that electric magic is that what it's called yeah yeah i agree with you that's one of my favorite features it's cool because the ball shoots and then it sticks on the magnet and the spinner is still going and then it lowers in the play field i i don't know i think that's worth it pro not so much i think it's a little too barren for the pro it's too much like like acdc pro like acdc yeah it's like an acdc pro exactly the way that those shots operators are definitely going to buy the pro though i feel like yeah yeah because of that They don't want to rely on that electric magnet pack. Right. Yeah, that could cause problems. But I really like how you can shoot it up a ramp, and then the spinner comes up and it changes the game a little bit. But ripping that center spinner is like a Viking. Right, yeah. It's like a Viking, right? Yeah, that's what it reminds me of. So it's cool having a spinner in the middle. That's not what you see mostly in modern DMD or, in this case, LCD games. games. You don't see that. No, I agree. I'm excited to play it. I hope somebody in Reno gets it. I know one friend of mine who is a big Zeppelin fan, but he's still on the fence. He doesn't know if he's going to get it or not. He's got to see more gameplay. Darn it, if we can get him out in the open, we can try him out. But right now, of course, we don't have any shows to go to. But I like it. I think it's great. Yeah, the artwork is, like I said before, the artwork is, I'd get over it. It's an expensive license. Yeah. I actually think the LE looks great. I think the Zeppelin 3 Pro model looks good because I like the album artwork. I remember in high school having fun playing with that album cover because you could spin it around and change the pictures. I do agree the premium, it's a little much, but I mean – The pro artwork's all right. You know what, man? It's Led Zeppelin. What do you expect, right? Okay. Yeah. I mean, I do like the black and white, though. that's kind of neat because then obviously you got the colorful playthrough and it got that contrast yeah so i don't know we don't see we didn't see it in person when you see it in person it can change you know your your your outlook games always look better in person you know and you brought up the topper and i forgot to bring that up the topper which they pretty much i guess already have done that looks really cool it's it's it's just lights so it's it's it's static but it's not static. It does move. They have the spotlights that move. And, you know, of course, the topper itself lights up with the Zeppelin. It fits the theme. It looks great. It's a cool-looking topper. And the other thing I forgot to bring up is that on the Premium and LE model, that new stadium-type lighting they're doing. Yes, the lighting. I forgot about to say about the lighting, too. Yeah. It looks really good. It reminds me of, like, you know, when you watch a graphic equalizer, you know, and it moves to the beat of the music. That's what kind of reminds me of. It's cool. I think they did a nice job overall of tying in the theming with art and lighting and video display that captures the essence of the time that Zeppelin was at the top of their game. And they were producing music and releasing music and touring the world. I think it captures that time in history very well. It does. And the other thing is the selection of songs are all hits that we all know from Zeppelin. So they picked a great arrangement of songs from the different albums. And if you notice, Baby Stairway to Heaven is a hidden wizard mode. I'd rather have Over the Hills and Far Away myself, but that's just me. It's a faster song. Yeah. That's true. I like Immigrant Song. Yeah, Immigrant Song's great. Oh, yeah. I'm kind of disappointed there's no Starship on there or a Mud Shark. but I know that's not family friendly but god that would have been funny some hidden artwork somewhere Alex is looking like I don't know what you're talking about but anyway anybody else got anything to add to Led Zeppelin not really I mean I need to play it first I mean it's probably just now starting to get loaded onto trucks and get shipped next one I'm really excited for the next one we're talking about Alien Alien Returns Alien Returns. Oh, yeah. Boy, what a long, strange trip that's been. Jeez. Highway Pinball Can we all like scoff at them for a while Well it not Highway anymore It game coming out We don need to go and rip into Highway Pinball They made a few changes And when the original designer designed it, he designed it to fit in a standard Bally Williams super pin. Wide body. Like Twilight Zone, Red Ted. Judge Dredd. All those. Demo Man. So that's pretty much what it's going to be going into is a more standardized Val and Williams type super pin cabinet. I like to see that. Oh, so it is white body? It is going to be a white body, then. Yeah, it's the same game, okay, with all the same mechs. Basically, they've made a couple of alterations. It's not going to have the screen available in the play field any longer. It's just going to have the Everything's going to go on the screen Up at the regular screen At the backbox They've only made one or two minor changes I think they added a magnet Did they pull a magnet? Maybe they pulled a magnet I'm trying to read through the list It's basically the same game As the original Highway It's modified They've made The alien that reaches out and grabs the ball. They've made some changes to that, made it more robust, more reliable. More of the stuff they did is just re-engineered some things so they're more reliable. Which is always good. Price point for the standard model is going to be $7,777 U.S. They're going to be made at a factory in Italy, and they're talking about a limited edition. I don't know the differences. I know the standard I think is sold out already. Oh, I don't know. But, you know, so, and they're taking pre-orders and it sounds like these guys are trying to make a good faith effort. If you were in on an original Alien and you didn't get one, they're offering a minimum of 50% credit towards the game if you still want one. So they're trying to do right by the people that got, you know, the short end of the stick and the limited is supposed to be at 9,999 they're gonna add some toys and stuff it's not really worth the limit you know just get the standard and get the stand you know i i mean i'm not in the market for one if i had the the money to throw away on it hell yes because i really like that game i like the theme i like the way it shoots um down the road you know i'm gonna wait and see about reliability you know and maybe then but you know i'm happy and I'm happy because I'd like to see more of those get out in the world, and I'd like to see the people that were the early adopters in highway pinball get their games, you know? Yeah, exactly. And they're also going to be taking care of all the design team because they didn't get paid either. So they're going to get a share of the profits of the game, so they finally get – they get taken care of as well. And that's – I really applaud the pinball brothers for that and wish them the best of luck. I like the airlock the airlock display that's pretty neat how they have it instead of in the play field they have it raised up vertically that's kind of neat I like that have you played it? we played it I had a chance to play it at Golden State they had it I think that's where we all played it probably played it at Golden State and at Flipper Room too I also had a chance to play it at Banning too and it was breaking down a lot but they did keep fixing it and I did get to play it finally. Okay. Yeah. It is a fun shooter. It is a fun shooter. Yeah. I do like the different ramps and the third flipper. It's fun to try to get it up that the loop or whatever. I'm trying to look in there. Is it a ramp that you can get to? I'm trying to see it on my computer. I think there's a loop and a ramp, isn't there? You know what? It's been so long I can't remember. I just remember the alien mouth block which I thought was cool. Yeah. Yeah. The Mouthlock is cool. That was probably the thing I remember about the Zeno or something. Zeno, yeah. I just, I don't know. I'll play it. If someone gets one, I'll play it. There's a local collector that lives about three miles from me that has a logger. Dan and I were over there one night. We got to go over there and play it. So he has one. Oh, does he still have it? That's like more than a year ago, man. Like a year and a half ago. I have no idea. Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean, you know, I wish nothing but the best of luck for the Pinball Brothers crew because it sounds like they're trying really to do right by everyone and just make a good pinball machine. So I wish them best of luck. Up next, you know, we're talking about Avengers again because all of you have played it, finally. I haven't yet, but Dan, who's not here tonight, Alex has played it. I don't think Dan's played it yet. I don't think Dan has. Oh, I thought Dan was with you. No, just me and Garcia. Oh, my mistake. Dan's kind of an animal. Okay, so me and Dan haven't played it yet, I guess. Okay. Who's this guy you played it at again? Dan Costas. Oh, nice. Anyway, so let's talk about Avengers. Have you played the Pro, the LE? What have you played, Mark? I played the Premium. Okay. And I really enjoyed it. I love Keith Elwin's designs. There's just no question about it. The way that those balls just go all over the place and have trails and the ramps is just phenomenal. I really like the ball lock with the vertical lock. Even though it's such a simple mech, it's just magical how it goes up and then just stops. And then it just comes back down after it releases or just something about that. It's a neat mech. I really like that. I do like the circus Voltaire type thing, you know, where it raises up and then you have to lock the ball inside of there. It does add a little more gameplay to it, which makes it fun beyond just trying to spin it. And I do like the subway underneath, how it has the balls go through, kind of like a time warp kind of thing. But it's a beautiful game. It looks great in person, of course. artwork is amazing on it just tons to see and the flow is just phenomenal it's just elma just knows how to make games there's just no question about it it's super fun to shoot the rules are good i wish the assets were a little better but i see what they were trying to do trying to do more like a stop motion type of uh i don't know how to describe it but more like a yeah it was more like a comic you know feel to it which fit with the game but i really enjoyed playing it and it is fun where you can have so many different ways to approach it the best rule in there no doubt is the amount of flips you can make in one of the modes i can't remember what it's called but it's funny that is so cool yes so much fun better than a timer Brian and I were just talking about that before you came on the line and you know I heard about it and then Brian was describing it in better detail and it's not too often Brian's face really lights up at a game anymore but this has made his face light up so I know he loves it it's so cool because it's like instead of trying to flail like crazy you're like okay how can I do this in the most in the minimal amount of flips as possible to get all these shots. And there's some people out there on the internet can get it like at five shots. It's like, how the heck do they do that? But it's really good. Yeah, I really like that. Like I said, the rule set's very deep, and as the code even progresses more, it is fun trying to get the gems. Each gem has a different objective. It gels really well. It's a great game. It's a great game. Nice. Brian? I will agree. I played at the premium last night for the first time. And as always, approach it with an open mind or whatever. And I was blown away. Keith Elwin makes great games. And being a huge Iron Maiden fan of their music and the game in general, it's my favorite Stern by far. And this gives it a serious run for its money. Just like Jurassic Park and Iron Maiden, this game is going to make you a better player. especially the um i think it's the power gem if i remember it but i could be wrong um we're giving a limited amount of flips like you said because it may you have to plan it with what are you going to do you know okay i gotta put it's the space i gotta i don't remember which one i honestly don't but you know i gotta let it bounce off the flipper over here so i can get it to this flipper to hit the shot you know if it drains you lose five shots but depending on which shot you have to make that might be the wise play that's going to go up and feed the ramp and feed your left flipper or something and that anti-gravity ramp oh that is yeah that is awesome um i just i really really enjoyed it uh i love the lock underneath the play field the colors are great you know i i get why people were upset about the gaunt about the infinity gauntlet but that's how it looked in the comics it wasn't this ornate it's a soul gem okay it wasn't this ornate like you know glove that he wore in the comics and they stuck with that which was awesome it's just a lot of fun and like you mentioned i love the ball lock and when it releases it comes down a heck of a lot faster than what you think it's going to come down at yes and it's it's just a really fun game and i'm you know i i like pinball i don't play nearly as much as i used to i'm in a different phase of it right now but this game definitely yeah i would like to own one someday it's it's fun and it's it's definitely for me personally i like it a heck of a lot more than jurassic park and i like jurassic park a lot but for me avengers blows jurassic park out of the water yeah it's a good game i i really like uh i like the rule set like i like where you and it's tough to shoot it when it's like when it counts down three two oh yeah and then when it goes down and you try to make that loop. That Hawkeye loop, yeah. Sorry, not the loop, the ramp. And that's the other thing is that design of that ramp is so clever how you could shoot it with any flipper. It's just so good. It's so good. I understand. Well, I guess I don't want to say I don't understand, but that came hot in the tails after Ninja Turtles, which is also a great game. them but i can get um why people were kind of upset that avengers came out right after ninja turtles they're both great games but you know most places try not to release games like that so they can sell a little bit of both and i i would guess and this is just pure conjecture that avengers probably cut into the sales for stern of ninja turtles because it's far and away a better game and i i see a bunch of ninja turtles for sale too as a result of that like well it's not that's the only reason people say it's too hard it has a bunch of there's a litany complaints but i love ninjas i thought it was great there's a lot of people complain about it but that's part of the hobby now you know if you're not complaining about something then i don't know right and there's no doubt about it ninja turtles is extremely fast oh yeah no question about it it is a fast game and that left out lane is brutal and it's we term the phrase right you got bored and it is you get bored a lot on that game but it is fun it is a fun fun game to shoot and it's very fast it is that upper flipper is really hard when you zip it around that loop and try to fire it up that ramp is not easy well and you know way, instead of getting bored, you know, people tend to forget that first and foremost, pinballs are designed to make money and take your money. You know, there, there's going to be sucker shots and there's going to be stuff where you're going to feel like maybe it's a little unfair. This ball goes down the out lane all the time or whatever, but that's what they're supposed to do. You know, this isn't something where you're supposed to put your money and you get infinite replays or anything like that. You put in your 50 cents or a buck or whatever, someplace to charge them and you do the best you can. It's a good route game. I agree with you, Brian. It's a good route game. Great. And it does have that replayability feature. It's like, oh, I need to play another game. Exactly. And then you play co-op. Co-op is awesome. That's how pinball is supposed to be. Oh, I got really close to getting to this, but if I put another dollar, I can do it this time. Exactly. You know, fun to play, easy to learn, and difficult to master. I did like the co-op on Turtles, though. I thought that was really neat. It was so much fun. Yeah, we played that at Press Start, remember? Yes. That was cool. So much fun. Yeah, it's like having a party, you know, with four people playing. When Alex was there, we had, like, a good group of people. And it was fun trying to get further through the game collaboratively. It was neat. Right on. All right, because we're going to talk about all the games of this year a little more. So I like Ninja Turtles a lot, too. me, Brian, Alex, Dan. My boys went. We all went. They had a blast. I'll go ahead and say this now because we'll breeze through it later for this year's games. There was another young lady there where we were playing. It was one of the friend's daughters. Yeah. She was about 10 or 11. Same age as Mickey. She was really digging it. I was watching her play. and having a big smile on her face and doing fairly well and enjoying it and understanding it. I was watching the video, you know, display. And I thought, wow, this should do really well on location because it's really attractive to younger people. So, yeah, man, I dig Ninja Turtles. And I didn't think it was too brutal, but, you know, we played a half dozen games on it. So we're going to move up to Raza. And we're talking about it basically. We've talked about it a lot lately, but they're, you know, they're taking orders. to what, the end of the year? I'll have to see how that goes. Yeah, so they're taking pre-order money now, so they've got something to prove now. There's something on the line. Yeah, if they back out with the pre-order money, then they're done. That's the way I look at it. They're done. They're not going to make it. I've got to see a pinball ship before I can have faith in them. I was a You-Know-Me sponsor. I was very optimistic about them and rooting for them the whole time. Yeah. But if we have a chance to talk about a homebrew game, I'll bring it up. But I'll tell you, for the amount of time that they spent just to do one game. That's pretty disappointing. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous how long it's taken. And I understand they're trying to be innovative. I think the pin bars, if we're talking about a review of it, like I said, nobody's had a chance to shoot it, so we don't know. Right. From my first impressions, when I saw that, it looked like it was a lot of clunking, a lot of clunk fest, in my opinion. It was like a circus Voltaire. It didn't seem like it was real smooth as far as the shots. But then again, in that stream, you couldn't really tell what they were shooting for as far as the stand-up targets and the other things on the play field. So it was kind of a difficult angle to see because, as we all know, Papaduke's games have that appeal as far as high ramps and more of a height to it, I guess you could say. And with it being just an overhead view on the stream, you couldn't really get the depth. So I don't know what to say about that, but I think the artwork is cool. I think it's colorful. I like the pin bar is neat, and I see that being used quite frequently when you have to choose a mode and you just tap it on the pin bar. I think that's clever, and they obviously fixed the rough edge on both sides. They just hammered it down like you see on all the other pinball machines. Right. instead of that because I played one of the games or not not that one but I played uh another game that had it where it was just that square lock bar and it does hurt your hands yeah it hurts you for me I'm where you're at and where everybody else is you know it's like okay you're taking free order money now you're at the finish line deliver a game and let's move forward let's see a game let's see people have it in their homes and scream it and then we'll go from there there you go but right now i just can't i can't make i can't be a judge of it right now except it looks cool um it looks fun to shoot for the most part but i really don't know until i could see it more in detail and shoot it myself there's just no right to judge it so up next in the news is tpf has been canceled for uh 2021 if you haven't heard it right yeah i'm not heard actually Oh, okay. Yeah, 20. This is news to me now. A couple of days ago, they posted it on Pinside. Very disappointing. You know what? It is. It is. And my heart goes out to those guys, and I hope they can Carl Weathers this storm. So, hey, you know, if you're out there, listeners, if you want to support these guys and, you know, send them five bucks, you know, just out of the goodness of your heart. It's the holiday season. You know, write them an email, you know, or, you know, post on Pinside just with support. You know, hey, man, you know, understand, you know, hope good things for you for the future. You know, buy some swag off their website, whatever. Support how you can, when you can. And everybody, and I'll go ahead and throw that out to all your local ops and shows and vendors and everybody else, man. If there's a way you can support, even if it's just sending a friendly email, hey, you know, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. you know thinking of you guys hope the best for you for 2021 man just a kind word we'll do a lot in the world right now um you know locally here in you know norcal um support your local route ops any way you can if you can go on if they have a website or something you can buy swag uh you know a t-shirt you know a coffee mug whatever and you know hey they make a swell stocking stuffer right and god i just use swell with a sentence okay you won't get part i'm getting old um uh pacific pinball museum i haven't heard anything from them but go to their website if there's a way you can support them again even if it's just a a friendly greeting hey man can't wait till you guys are open again and i can come and you know play games and support you just a word of kindness so at least so they're still open they're still open as far as wanting to reopen they're just not yeah they're still on top of it man they're still hanging tough for now the last i heard so um but wherever Wherever you are in the pinball world, you know, reach out to your locals and, you know, give them a hug via email or whatever you can do, man. They will flip a room and all those places, man. All of them. You know, any local. I have to say, TPF was a great show. I actually attended TPF. And it had the same feeling tone as GSPF. It was just an awesome time to hang out with people. get to meet all the podcasters and all the pinball media and stuff that we always hear really a fun show great selection of games and it's definitely something I want to go to again and it is a bummer that they're closed for the two years that are canceling the show but it's going to be better than ever for 2021 so or I should say 2022 there you go that's the spirit that's the spirit but it's a great show Yeah. So here we go at 42 minutes and 39 seconds into the show. We're cracking open the time capsule. And it's going to be a good one tonight. It's going to be 1986. So I'm going to run down the companies and I'm just keeping the main ones. You know, there was a few other odd games from foreign companies. I mean, that should be noted, but I'm just keeping it with, you know, Valley, William, Scott Lee, Premier. Data East actually started up in 86, but they didn't actually release the game until 87. Laser Wars. Laser Wars. That's a fun game. Yeah, it is. So we're not going to talk about them tonight, but I wanted to note that they did actually start up in 86. I don't know. Laser Wars. We're going to start out with the Valley games. We have Black Belt, which was a karate fighter in Europe. Mm-hmm. Yes. So it's the same game. Lady Luck, Motor Dome, Special Force, and Strange Science. So, Brian, pick and go through. Out of all those 6,800 games, the only one I see on this list I've never played is Lady Luck. I've never even seen it. I played Black Belt a couple times years ago at California Stream. It was fun. I liked it. It's got a goofy theme. It's cool. Yeah. MotorDome is not the greatest game. I like the backless and I love the upper flipper shot or the lower flipper shot Cross the ramp if I remember right Yeah It pretty cool Special Force looks great It got the jungle stuff going on which I a sucker for Yeah Strange Science. I love that game. You and me both, brother. It's goofy. It's weird. It's got the cool ball lock. It's one of those games that suffers if the flippers on it are not rebuilt and crisp. It's damn near impossible to play. Yeah. Yep. But I absolutely, absolutely love it. Out of all the 6,800 games, 6,800 games is probably my favorite. But everyone else out there, it's awful you don't want it. So we can keep the price low, please. The neon thing is really neat that they added on top of it. It's just a cool topper. You're right. That's a good topper. It is. It's plain, goofy fun. And, you know, those 6,800 games are all built on the ultra cheap. like people who complain about stern games being cheap have never touched one of these games because they are the cheapest of the cheap the heat seals are literally aluminum foil yeah well i'm sure you have you ever worked on any of those like the grounding plate with the boards mount to is like cardboard with tin foil over it yeah like you know there's there's no carriers on the header pins it's composite wood for the cabs like my heavy metal meltdown actually as part of another heavy metal meltdown inside of the game. So obviously a cat broke and they reused it, which is common. That's my one. I like Strange Science. Yeah. You and me both. The sound effects are so bizarre. Yeah. It makes it so good. It's so original. It's so quirky and weird and fun. And it's a terrible tournament game because of the imbalance of scoring. Yes. That's the only problem with it. But you know what? I'm not a tournament player, so I don't care. That's that game that you and I, if we owned one, we'd sit around on a rainy Sunday afternoon or Saturday afternoon, order food out, and play it until our hearts can tell. I'd probably be that one idiot who would decide to send out the playfield and have it restored. And the cab, who cares? It's got boring artwork. You know, you can build that cab for like $25 and change probably, but it's just one of those games, and it's set up right. It's just a blast to play. Absolutely. You and I both love that game. It's fun, and back then, you know, Bally, they were kind of throwing shit at the wall to see what would stick. you don't see that kind of weird innovation like that anymore just because you can't do it back in 86 that was what that was after Space Shuttle so pinball was kind of on the rebound and then high speed came out that year so they were trying to figure out something that would work to get some of that market back and at that point if you have the money to do it you are going to do innovation to see if it's going to sell or not and none of those 6800 games are especially large sellers they all have Pretty – as far as it goes, you know, pretty low numbers. Yeah. So how many balls – how many balls were in multiball for that game? I can't remember. Five. Five. Yeah. And then, of course, if you hit it right into that locker, you could knock a ball out and start a two-ball multiball if you hit it hard enough with the Newton effect going through. And you could do that even with a meltdown, which is just – Right. It's cool, man. Yeah. You can do it on – you know, they brought that back and made it on the Freeman Alley. where you lock the one, you can knock it out. You can start a multiball. That's neat. It's simple and fun and it's very rewarding. I think all those pinheads are just kind of like that. I haven't played Strange Science, believe it or not. It was always at Canola, wasn't it? Yeah, Brad Grant had one. Brad Grant sold his and then another guy bought it. He wants my Heavy Metal Meltdown, but he won't trade me for the strange science so he doesn't get my heavy metal meltdown that's how it is there you go yeah you gotta so you've actually never played a strange science i have not but i've definitely heard of it oh yeah i have heard of it i do want to play one yeah i gotta get you some time on a strange science i want to play because it's just so goofy and quirky yeah i like those kinds of games so um definitely i've heard of it yeah um you got anything to add to any of these? I want to play A Strange Science, definitely. You know, I mean, I've definitely heard of the game. I mean, I must not have gotten a chance to play it at Pinnacogo. I mean, I saw it, but just didn't play it. Like I said, it's one of those games where if you don't have the flippers built right or upgraded, it plays like crap. And it has those really, really crappy 68. Those kind of like crappy 68 flippers like the hard body and whatnot. Yes, it does. And you either have to go back to the prior generation to make it work. And if you order from Steve Young for one of those games, don't tell me you're doing that because he gets really pissed off. Yeah, I know. Or you have to upgrade to what I'm going to do to the WPC style. Right. And that's the WPC on those valleys. It'll fit. I've already figured it out. Yeah. All right. Well, let's go ahead and move on to Premier and Gottlieb. For 1986, they had four releases. Genesis, Hollywood Heat, Raven. Hollywood Heat. and Rock Encore. Oh, wow. Yeah. Really horny games. Yeah. Especially Hollywood Heat. Well, I'll go back to the ballot for one second. I'll just say I've played them all except for Lady Luck, just like Brian. I can't recall if I've ever even seen one. I've seen Zach Rowlands play Lady Luck on the stream before. That's actually a pretty sick game. The art works pretty well. The object is to try and get that spinner up to 10x, basically. Oh, Jesus. You want to hit the drops, you know, get a pair. Get a pair. There we go. Now I want to play it really bad. Yeah. I'm a sucker for a good spinner. You could really damage that game. I know you love spinners. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right? I'll start. Genesis, Hollywood Heat, Raven, and Rock Encore. I think I've played Rock a couple times. I think I've played Rock Encore once or twice in a show. There's no difference other than art, right? I've never played a Rock Encore. I don't think there is. No, I haven't played one. Yeah. Never played a Rock Encore. I'm a huge fan of Genesis and would love to have one. like strange science it's such a quirky weird theme you know building the lady robot and it's so fun when you i love that and the curly q weird rams it's just it's good it's it's good quirky pinball fun um and it's the best cheesy 80s back glass oh god i'll give you that one it's yeah the mad scientist the sexy scientist helper lady and and the little person you know um you know So classic. Yeah. Hollywood Heat has really started to gain momentum in the last couple years and earn respect, and it's a fun game. It's a fun shooter. I like both of those games. Yeah, me too. They're fun games. God leave in that era, just like with Valley, they weren't afraid to try something different and experimental and just have fun with it on the cheap. Well, God leave at that point was also recovering from their early System 80 bullshit fiascos where just they were getting returned right so many problems with them and you're right they are starting to have a little bit of a comeback uh hollywood heat and genesis two of those are great examples of games that yeah are having a resurgence or not even resurgence a come up i guess in popularity people are figuring out how fun they are and they're still relatively affordable yeah the exception on that list is raven because that's probably one of the worst games ever built yeah that game is awful i remember years ago it's so bad it's terrible there was years ago this had to be 15 years ago now where the only alphanumeric that's sub 1k we were we were at pinnagogo one year said be like 15 years ago and a friend of ours rolled up with the raven in the back of his truck that he bought at auction as a joke yeah like only a pinball nerd would find that funny it's just it's an awful game it's got the worst back probably one of the worst back glasses ever put on a game oh no it's got one of the best no it doesn't i'm being totally sarcastic i hope so yeah it's just a guy holding a thing that's a girl by the way yeah i know a tranny no okay i thought i thought it looked like a tranny after looking at it you need to go down to some sacramento nightclubs and oh i've been to plenty yeah some lessons anyways it's just I like Genesis, I like Hollywood Heat and the River of Rock Encourse now I want to play one but Raven, yeah, there's I can't think of anything remotely redeemable about it but I feel like that about a lot of games but yeah, that one's that one's pretty bad it gets boring really fast shooting that game it does I've seen gameplay video of it not really a game I'd want to play It's one of the few games where I've walked away from it, where it's just been like, all right, I've had my fill. Like WrestleMania. I will add, yeah, not to Ray. Ravens was one of those ones you could drop off the top of a crane and, yeah. No one would care. No, someone on pin side would bitch and moan about it. Yeah, they would. Todd Tucky won it. Todd Tucky dropped out of the game all the time. Hollywood Heat, if you haven't seen it, our own Practical Steve. Shout out to Practical Steve. We love you, brother. We miss you. Except Hollywood Heat. That game is awful, Steve. He did a – because he's got a background in graphic design. And he did a – he has one of the games. And he did an alternate trans light for it. It looks great. Yeah, it's in the Nagel style. Yeah, it's definitely 80s flavor. Oh, it is beautiful, man. What was the joke? It was like just missing a straw and a line of Coke on there, and it'd be like the perfect 80s. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful. and it fits the theme perfectly. So if you happen to find yourself a Hollywood Heat in the near future, hit up Practical Steve and see if he can get you one of those translates. I had the chance to play a Hollywood Heat in Milwaukee, in Menominee Falls at a place called The Garcade. Awesome place, by the way. And they did a rehash of it with Miami Vice. Right. Yeah. Really, really cool how they changed it. And, yeah, it's not a bad game. It's pretty fun to play. But having that different theme to it made it a little more cooler to look at, I guess, instead of just a generic artwork. Yeah, absolutely. So we're on to Williams. In 1986, Williams just, I mean, it was. Dominated. Oh, it was murderer's row. It was murderer's row. The System 11, the venerable, the workhorse of the pinball industry, man. The System 11. Oh, yeah. You know, what can be said about that? More than the system won. Yeah, I mean, it's just what a great system and so many great games. And it debuted with High Speed. And then after that, they had Pinbot. And I'm actually going out in numerical order here in months of release, but they released four games that year, High Speed, Pinbot, Road Kings, and Grand Lizard. And, side note, of those four games, Grand Lizard had the lowest production run. And all those games will catch on fire if your bridge rectifier burns out because they forgot to fuse them. Uh-oh. So, all right, so hear that, Pinheads? Fuse your bridge rectifier on those games. It's a well-known issue. It's on the wiki. High Speed. I mean, Steve Ritchie, what can be said about it? It's a landmark game in the fact that it tells a story. It tells a story. Exactly. That's the first thing I was thinking. Yeah, more than just, you know, it's like, oh, it's a theme about cars. Steve Ritchie going 128 in his Porsche in Lodi. Right, right, at 530 in the morning. Yeah, exactly. He's a CHP officer. Several. Several, yeah. You know, like how about five or six or something. Yeah, exactly. Some crazy number. Some reckless driving. Yeah, yeah. So, but, you know, it was a landmark game for many reasons, the System 11, and the theme told a story. and it integrated that story into what you're supposed to do in the game. One of my favorite pinballs of all time, too, by the way. And the speech. And the speech. Yeah. And the spinning, you know, the siren light. Yeah, yeah. It just was so. Spencer has one. He's borrowing a friend of his. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got Moe's high speed. Yeah, Moe's. Shout out to Moe's. Yep. So I'm babysitting it. Yeah, man. I mean, we could go on for days about high speed. if you know pinball at all um if you're listening to this show you got to know something about it's like the 80s adams family yeah great great point yeah exactly that's a good way of putting it it is um pinbot uh formerly owned one which unfortunately uh was uh i sold my boss that was his first game and it was uh that particular one was destroyed in the paradise fire but another a fantastic game, which so much cool stuff in that game, so much innovation. Road Kings, not as innovative, but you know what? I like Road Kings. I like playing Huntsman. Everybody likes that game. Remember we played Huntsman together? Boy. Road Kings is a bitch. Road Kings is probably the ugliest System 11 they ever built. Even uglier than Bugs Bunny? Yes. Oh, wow. Bugs Bunny is not an ugly game. It just sucks to play. oh yeah no kings is just ugly like it's dr no i think it's because it has that orange gritty like la smog in my eyes like la smog you look to it which just isn't pretty to look at no matter how you know how you put it it's a it's a decently okay fun game but i will pass it over just because it's just ugly for us it's just yeah i don't need that post fallout orange thing going on well High Speed sold like $17,000 and change. Kenbot sold $12,000 and change. Road King's Life was like $5,000 and change. I was looking it up today. And Grand Lizard is around $2,500. And I love Grand Lizard. Love, love, love that game. Grand Lizard is great because it has – both back glasses for that game are beautiful. But it's got that really – just like Space Shuttle, it's got that cool molded lizard head with the tongue that the ball comes out to for the upper play field. And that's just – it's cool. It draws you in And you know when I was a kid And at this point I was 10 and going out to the arcades But they had that And I would play that game because of that stupid lizard head Yeah And the soundtrack The monkeys and all that The monkeys and the jungle sounds Oh man What a great year for Williams If you guys are going to pick We'll pick one For each company For that year for the top game Brian, I'll let you start. I already know what your ballet is going to be. A ballet is a strange sign. Premier Gottlieb, probably a Hollywood hit. Williams, it's going to have to be high speed. You know, it's just, I had one. I loved it. I loved playing it when I was a kid. The siren was awesome. You could get it to go. And the cool thing is, in my local arcade, they had it, but they had it set up to the European siren instead of the American siren. It's a little bit different sounding. um it's they're all they're all fun and you know these all these games listed for the williams at least are still with exception maybe pinbot reasonably cheap like you can find high speeds now that's gonna be a well-loved high speed yeah you can find over 1500 bucks if you want one oh yeah you know now you don't have to own the world's best restored game if you're looking for a pinball you just want something to play right yeah almost like introductory game high speed is a great first time pinball affordable game it really is and you know the the system 11 boards yeah they're old now so you're gonna have stuff you know failing due to time and stuff like that but they're not hard to work on right you know i'm like it's board work still but it's not the most difficult thing and parts are right now with high speed you can get anything you want for that game all this stuff that used to be on optanium is now optanium uh when i got mine uh this is again a long time ago at pinnagogo one of the vendors had a nos high speed ramp and this is before there's any reproductions and it was 40 bucks and they were going for two or three hundred online and i post hey i found this ramp it's going into my game i was happy and then some guy in new york city offered me three hundred dollars plus he would overnight me new york city bagels for the ramp like you got new york city bagels for that ramp i was offered i was offered but i don't know if it's going into my game because i don't know man the bagels well that ramp that ramp because the plastic was so brittle one hit it breaks yeah uh but again i'm not obtaining you couldn't find it just like the stoplight right you those stoplights man when i got my game it was missing i got these guys sent me free parts i like cobbled this thing together with hot glue and all sorts of shit just to have a stoplight in the game because there was no reproductions. It just didn't happen. That's how it was. There was no plastics or any of that stuff. So you did the best you could with what you had. But still, it's a fun game. With a reproduction play field in there, they play like a rocket. Oh, yeah. No, great game. Mark, you go ahead and pick your favorites. Alright, so my favorite for Shore Valley, I would agree with Brian, was uh strange science i think it's just so quirky a lot to shoot at the ball lock is unique so i definitely like that one uh for uh gottlieb i would have to say genesis i i like trying to build a robot and it kind of when you look at it it's kind of like uh like it reminds you a little bit of like the precursor to bride of pinball where you have to build the arms the legs and stuff like that and then the the wow factor was when the robot was revealed because when you look what does that piece of sheet metal spiral thing do when you look at it in glass what does that do but then all of a sudden it reveals the little robot and then it flashes and stuff like that so I thought that was kind of magical as a kid because as we all know with pinball that's the best part is what we're lacking in a lot of new games now is that magic appeal of what it does on the playfield or whatever it interacts with the ball so I like that one and then of course yeah I would have to agree again that high speed, although I did like pinball because it kind of reminded me of like breakout with pinball to open up the visor. So I thought that was cool. But as far as just fast flow theme, the wildness of hearing speech and feeling like you're getting chased by the cops, I would have to say definitely high speed for Williams, for sure. What about you? Oh, me, man. Well, you know, for Valley, it's strange science. You know, you and I both go on about that game endlessly. I love it. Absolutely love it and really want one. And I had my hands on one once, and it slipped through my fingers. The deal fell through, and, you know, that's pinball. In Premierland, I'm going to agree with Mark. I do really like Hollywood Heat, but I've got a lot more time on Genesis, and I just love that game, the quirkiness of it. quirky sci-fi, build a lady, build a monster lady. That Genesis game has an invisible touch. It does. And, Williams, I'm going to break ranks here with you guys. I'm going with Pinbot. I thoroughly enjoy high speed and have nothing but great appreciation for it and all for it it is in the history of pinball. And I do enjoy playing it. But there's something about Pinbot. But I don't know, the theme, the art, the integration, the music, the sound effects, and not to take anything away from Grand Lizard because that's a favorite too. But yeah, for Williams, Pinbot's my choice. How about you, Alex? Pick your favorite from each of the manufacturers and maybe six. Okay, well, Bally, unfortunately, I didn't play a lot of those Bally games. So I would definitely say Strange Science, though. even though I have not played Strange Science, and I want to play one badly. I forget which one Brian has. It's that or Heavy Metal Meltdown. I have Heavy Metal Meltdown. Either one. That's a super fun game. I'd be alright playing either one. Mine is nowhere near being ready to play. Oh, yeah. In the near future, you know. Once this COVID stuff expires. Once they've got time to work on it. Yeah. Alright, so how about your favorite Premier Gottlieb of 86? Premier Gottlieb? yeah Hollywood Heat I do like the shot I played it at Free Gold Watch and I do like the shots on it I played Sean's at Free Gold Watch yes I like it a lot um and obviously for Williams I'd have to say High Speed I was the one to center High Speed and Pinbot was kind of for me as much as they all I liked all of the Williams games actually we all do but uh for me yeah everybody else in the group picked High Speed I picked Pinbot but they're all great games yeah that's a hard one for Williams All those games are great. I think the reason I put high speed above Pinbot is because Pinbot, for me, back when I was playing these when they came out, was infinitely harder to do well on compared to high speed. Exactly. No question. Even now that game is so damn difficult. Oh, my gosh. Progressing through the planets is genius because you either have that sucker shot target up there right above the right outline inline, or you have to get the drop targets down in that set amount of time, which I love doing because it's a challenge, but it's hard. And then the biggest negative factor for me for PinBot was and everybody knows this one is that high speed exit out of the pop bumpers that goes right to the left outline yeah and the funny thing was yeah that even got copied over in jackpot yeah yeah yeah and it's it's great because you know when it's coming you know it's coming oh yeah and then you got to learn how to deal with that but you know when you're 10 years old right shaking the machine is a little difficult because you're a skinny little twerp Right. It's a little hard. Right. Now you make a great point, and you can see it coming from a mile out, and you have plenty of time to react. Sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah, it's not easy. Sometimes. So that's our time capsule, man. That's our time capsule. We're going to close the door on the time capsule. That's a great time capsule, too. That's a good time capsule. We need to do 85 next time. Okay. Or whatever year. We'll get a random year. I think next week we're going to do another decade or next show. Now we're down to the year in review. So the games that came out this year, Stranger Things, Avengers, Ninja Turtles, Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, Hot Wheels, and Rick and Morty. I'm going to start. Out of all these, I've only played Stranger Things and Ninja Turtles. I went to play Rick and Morty. It was the day after they had a tournament. It was broke, and then COVID hit. It was down, and then COVID hit. Yeah, not a good, not a positive turnaround, sadly. I'm sorry, man. I have not got to play Hot Wheels yet, and I'm dying to play it because everybody who owns it that we know in our local area absolutely loves it. They love it. Yeah. I hear so many good things about it. I have another friend of mine that wants a Hot Wheels. Yeah, I'm hearing nothing but good things about it. Guns N' Roses, same thing. Look forward to playing it. Led Zeppelin, look forward to playing it. Avengers, I'm dying to play it because I'm a huge comic book guy. Stranger Things, I want another shot at playing one, and I want to play a premium or an LE. So I'm going to tell you, for Game of the Year, just from what I've played, or, well, not even what I've played, what I've seen, and just because of a personal, you know, again, I'm a big comic book guy, and I like Guns N' Roses music well enough, but I'm not a diehard fan, mostly because Axl Rose has been such a, just a fucking jack wagon over the years. That really does a lot to dissuade me. Slash seems like such a righteous dude. But anyway, I would say probably as of right now. Slash helped design Guns N' Roses too. Yeah, yeah. Everybody speaks highly of him as just a down-to-earth, really groovy dude. But I would say probably Avengers for Game of the Year. Best theme, I would say Rick and Morty. And best theme, integration. I'm going to have to play Guns N' Roses with Rick and Morty because it's going to be one of them. Or it could even be Hot Wheels. I don't know. Brian. um well we all went to play stranger things uh brought the boys yeah and when your five-year-old son who lives every pinball on the planet says that stranger things stinks you kind of listen but i also agree with them like the game we played just had too many problems like it broke several times the the lock shot out of the ramp that was that was classic you know what the hell is that that's that's the lock honey it does put a bad taste in your mouth when a brand new game as parts that have been used for 20 years break. Like, that shouldn't happen. Yeah. Pretty unacceptable. Well, I get it that they're trying to save money on parts, but, dude, come on. Like, just with the coil stops. But anyways, Love Avengers, Ninja Turtles was fun. I haven't played Led Zeppelin, Guns, or Hot Wheels. I want to play them all, and I have played Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty's fun. The theme integration's great. We didn't get too much time on it, because when we played it, we'd been on box that night and we were running the prototype code. Yeah, you were there. And it kept on freezing up. And that was a problem. It was prototype code, though. We were obviously, you're bug hunting. Right. I would like to get more time on it. They just did another code update. Yeah. Scary Jerry. Scary Jerry. Really want to play Hot Wheels. That game just looks amazing. It looks super fun. I like that it's still pretty affordable. it's not you're not looking at 10 grand to get one you know that's a big thing yeah i want to play guns are always really bad you know i i sold my day to east version after owning it for 17 years because i had to um i don't really miss it for some reason but it's local in the collection group you have your fun with it yeah but i want to play it and yeah i want to try led zeppelin and i'd love to get more time on ninja turtles and more basically all those games on that list i'd like get more time on except for stranger things stranger things i hated that it broke the place sucked and the back glass art was terrible i don't need to see a girl with a bloody nose who looked like she just maybe od'd or something like that yeah back glass was that a pro you played yeah yeah and literally it had been in the pizza place like three days when we got to it actually it was just unboxed i think actually that day oh was it that day? Yeah. Well, they unboxed it earlier, but then they brought it in. Okay. I want to go back to the pizza place with the pizza and the fries. I don't care about the fries. I don't want to go eat there again. That food was amazing. The buffalo wing fries are off the charts. Oh, man. That food is out. I miss that place. Yeah. So that's... What's the pizza place called? Uncle Vito's. Uncle Vito's on R. Not on 16th. It's on R and 15th. 15th and R. Not 16th. Yeah, it's on R. It's right across from Burgers and Brew. Yeah. It's good. Anyways. And the, what's the... Ace of Spades. Ace of Spades. It's a cross from Ace of Spades. So, yeah. What you thinking, Alex? I did like Stranger Things with the new code, though. Premium LE. Holy cow. So if you're going to say game of the year, best theme and best theme integration. Okay, best theme, Rick and Morty. Okay. That's without question. Now, best theme integration, Guns N' Roses. Okay. Just because of the, you know, it's a Jersey Jack and all the cool toys and the innovative stuff, you know, with all the expensive. Yeah, I would definitely say Guns N' Roses. Game of the Year? Game of the Year would have to be Rick and Morty. Really? I think Rick and Morty. I've been playing that the most out of everything. I love the shots on it. The theme is great. The call outs are hilarious. It's Justin Rowland himself. there's just there's lots of good things about that mode i love get schwifty i'm a huge fan of the show obviously yeah you and malcolm love the show dude he has rick and morty everything now oh man you know like to from slut dragons to all of that you know love it so mark uh go ahead man talk to us oh man okay so i had a chance to play a lot of those games. When I was in Milwaukee, I finally got a chance to play Rick and Morty at something's house. I have to admit, that is a really fun game. I wanted to have more time on it, but he had such a huge collection that I was playing all the ones that you can never see around Reno or Sacramento. The way they did the video assets with the modes was really done well. The custom call-outs from the actual person who did the voiceover of the actual show justin roland yeah yeah was huge justin roland yeah just just really has that good personal feel where you're like man this is awesome how it's like it like literally is like talking to you instead of just hearing clips from the show it's like you know it's pestering you and and uh yeah i like that so um oh man it's a tough one uh as far as stranger things go, I really like the premium. I thought the projector is definitely innovative. It's cool how it shines on the drop targets and how it changes as you shoot it. The rules are much better now. Theme integration, I think the play field is gorgeous with how it looks, especially with the black light, with the UV kit. That's pretty neat. But as far as, let's see, for theme, I would have to say oh man i would have to say guns and roses just because i got to play one and i played it for a long time um the way that they took that theme they used every bit of assets as they could because they were allowed to so they would have a total free reign thanks to slash so i thought uh it was done really well and and i would also say for theme integration i thought uh the way the design was made with the guitar deck and how they had the drums on top of the pop bumpers. They just went all out with it. The light show in itself is amazing. The video assets with the concert footage, the lights that went with the music and how they're choreographed, just like what you see at a concert, is breathtaking. Just amazing. I would have to say Guns N' Roses for theme integration, too. Okay. What was the third one again? Oh, Game of the Year. Oh, gosh, Game of the Year. I know, right? Pretty heavy hitters this year, huh? Yeah. It's tough because Avengers is awesome because it's fun to shoot. Oh, yeah. It's the best shooting game, for sure. But, man, for the experience of having fun like a kid again, I would have to say Guns and Roses. Okay. Game of the Year just because so much love went into that game. And it is a gorgeous machine. Like you say, you're looking at a Ford compared to a Ferrari. There's a huge difference. There's a huge difference. Yeah, the Ford's going to work most of the time and not be in the show. Well, there you go. There's that. Ford versus Ferrari. Ferrari spend a lot more time in a shop than a Ford does. There's no wrong answers on this show. I agree. Yes, there is. No, you're right about that. Everybody knows that Raven sucks. Anybody who says it's different, that's a wrong answer. I'm hoping for a Tesla pinball next year, a re-theme out of Mustang. you know but it runs on gas instead of electricity exactly yeah so century mode multiball yeah being being able to play it i was like man is this good and it does have that one more game appeal it's like oh man i want to try to get further through the star i gotta get keep the balls alive and it's not like a game that lasts forever like hobbit you know you definitely have shorter ball times, but it's just cool. Jersey Jacks, Lord of the Rings. It's good. It's a really good game, and when you play it, and most of you have not had a chance to play it, when you play it, you'll see what I'm talking about. Right. He has a good point. Hobbit is like the COVID of games. It just goes on for fucking ever. You know, I don't have enough time on one. The Banisters have one. I've played it a bit, and I really enjoy it. It's fun. Yeah, I like it. I think it's a good game. Yeah, it does feel like it. It's a good game, but it's chopping. Well, you know, I owned the Lord of the Rings for a couple years. Once in a while I'll miss it. It's a fantastic game. But, yeah, it's like it's a weeknight and I've got to get up. Oh, I'll play a quick game of pinball before bed. An hour and 47 minutes later. Yeah. And I'm on ball two with the extra ball lit, you know. And you can't walk away. This is like, yeah, it's Lord of the Rings. You've got to get to Valinor. Never have. That's exactly right. You're trying to get to there and back. Malinor. Yeah, there and back. I'd rather play NASCAR like one million times than just play Lord of the Rings. There and back, you know, got to quite a few times. Never got to Malinor. So that's basically what we got tonight in show land other than – Alex, do you have any news, any – Support Out of Order Arcade. There you go. Give them a shout out. They're actually open every Friday, Saturday. and they have five pinballs. Baby Pac-Man does count. We talked about that. Baby Pac-Man definitely does count as a pinball. I actually played that the most out of the five because you rarely see a Baby Pac-Man. That's true. You rarely see him working. This one was working. What else they got? No sound, though. I mean, the sound was so beautiful. It does the sound. What else they got? They got that and four Stern Perots. They have Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park, Turtles, and Deadpool. That's a good lineup. Outstanding Stern lineup. It's very tough. Where are they located? They are located on 13320 Lincoln Way, Auburn, California. And they have, what, about 35, 40 classic video games? Yeah, something like that. It's $8 an hour or $15 an entire day. But, I mean, $8 an hour. Now, that doesn't include the new pins, though. That does not include the new pins, no. The new pins you need to pay. But they have Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat 2. Street Fighter. They got Asteroids. Yeah, they got all that. They got Pac-Man. They got all the classics. Hydro Thunder, Antonio Cruz and Exotica. There you go. All the classics. Dance Dance Revolution is there. Oh, they put one in? Yeah, they did. How far away is it from I-80? It's right off 80. It's right off 80 on Lincoln Highway. Yeah, Lincoln Highway. It is? Yeah. It's right off 80. You need to, yeah. Yeah. They're open every Friday, Saturday 2 to 10pm Nice Support your local roundup Support your local arcade Brian, you got anything? Any repair logs? Anything you want to talk about? Normal stuff Yeah, that's what I mean, man With the holidays and just grinding Getting the work schedule done so I can go on vacation Next Friday's Christmas Yeah, man My last day of the year is the 23rd I'm off until, I don't go back until June or January 4th. I'm taking a few days off. I'm going to give a couple quick shout-outs then. I'm going to give a shout-out to the super awesome Pinball Show. Those guys do a great show, Dr. Pin and Christopher Franchi. Not only do they do a great podcast, I don't know if you listened to the last episode, well, okay, last episode they announced it. The new one just came out yesterday, yeah, yesterday morning. But the last episode, December 2nd or 3rd came out, I think it's December 2nd. They had a contest and you could win that Stern Pinball Coffee Table book and I won the contest. So, yeah, man. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. So they gave me a shout out on the latest episode. And, yeah, man, great guys, great show, and I won something cool. So, because I was the first person to correctly email in the answer. I guess several people before me emailed in an answer, just not the correct one. Yeah. See, it pays sometimes. It does. To actually, you know. To tie in, you know, I told, you know, how I got those free games. I wasn't the first person to email the guy. Right. I was the first person to say, I will take all three and I will pick them up now. Right. What? 1.30 at night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that was the reason I got them. I said, I'd take them all and I'll be there whenever. And you called in a favor to a couple of buddies and. Adam brought the rain. Yeah. Yeah. It's too bad it's not raining. I know, right? Could be worse. Could be raining. Could be raining. But that's cool you won a book, man. That's awesome. I look forward to seeing it considering. Yeah. How long it's taken to do anything. Yeah, it's getting shipped directly from the guys that are publishing it, so that could be a while. Yeah. That might be, yeah. Well, they were on the show that week talking about it, that it was actually – that they were done and printed and they were getting them shipped. So, hey, who knows? Hey, you know what? Man, I won something. Yay, cool. That's awesome, man. I didn't even know about this. That's awesome. Yeah. You gotta get back on the Sonic group, man I know, I can't even log on It's drama Yeah, it's so much drama I wanna get back on that Before we go, I just wanted to say Has anyone had a chance to see the Sonic Spinball homebrew machine? I've seen a couple pictures of it I saw the video of them getting the loop to work Which I thought was awesome, it's gonna be cool to see a loop in the pinball again Yeah I'm sure this one will be a lot better to play than Goldlings But Yeah. It's interesting to see what they're doing. I'm looking – I need to pay more attention to it, but I just – I think I missed Gold Wings on our list. I think it was on there. I don't remember what year that one came out. I think it was – That was 86, yeah. I think it was. Okay, Gold Wings. Right here, right, Siren. There you go. Yeah. I just – I'm not on the online stuff too much anymore. I've gotten tired of all the just the useless drama and all the other crap that seems to pop up. I'm sorry. I'm on my pinball. Yeah. Well, it's just there's been – I'm out of the $10,000 LE because the artwork makes me sad. Yeah. You're a cuck bitch. Well, it's not just that. Yeah, right? You know, everyone and their mother now has a home use only WPC when there wasn't that many out. Right. It's like the guys who claim their Kit Cobra is a real one. It's like, no, it's not. But anyways, I'll check into that a little bit more. I've been trying to find groups. There's a video online that I saw. I forgot where I found the link to it, but I'll send it to Spencer. He can just share it with everybody else. But that game looks really good. It looks really good. So I know we're talking about games and stuff, but check that out. Sonic Spinball Pinball. Yeah, yeah, I did look at it, but, yeah, we'll share it. Send me the link, and we'll talk about it and share it. Hey, man. I know it's off the topic, but I just wanted to make sure we – No, no, that's – you know what? I feel – Shout-outs and thank-yous is wide open, man. No, no, no. Us going off topic is unacceptable. We don't do that on this show ever. That's all. Yeah, right? That's all. I've never followed home to pinball for some – Well, literally, this show should be called The Spinner is Off Topic. Yeah. The Spinner is Unlit. We're the 15th best pinball podcast on the market today. 15 out of 16, baby. There you go. 15 out of 16. Can only go up. Sorry, can I sit down? We'll have to check it out. I guess for me, I just hope everyone out there has a good holiday period, no matter what you're doing. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy hopefully the end of this year and make the best of it. Find the little things that give you happiness and hug somebody that you care about. Let them know you're thinking about them. Yeah, my shout-out is to all my pinball buddies. I miss you, yeah. We can all see everybody again and hang out. and I hope GSP happens because that is such a great show and man I hope it works out this next year so we'll see what happens but it'll be great to see everybody and shout out to all my friends here in Reno that are willing to have us come over even with the COVID stuff and take the risk and show us their new games that they got proud to share their collection so it's awesome right on man Anybody else got anything? Not really, no Alright man, let's Shut this pizza joint down for the night Gotta get the floor swept Before mom gets home Yeah man, it's so good to have you on the show again Glad you can make it And shout out to Dan Hope you're getting rested bud, we miss you And to everybody man I say this every time and it's not a platitude I mean it Um, cause believe me, I can make time for you. If, uh, anybody out there listening is just going, you know, after this year, trust me, man, you're well within your rights to feel tired, stressed out, depressed, whatever. And you just need somebody to vent to, or just somebody to bullshit with or whatever, man. Hit me up at, uh, the spinner is lit at gmail.com. I'll PM you my, uh, my phone number. We can talk, we can, you know, chat online, whatever you want to do. Um, you know, you're not alone out there, man. There are people out there that are listening and care. And I want you to be able to lean on us if you need a little help to get through the day and get through the rest of 2020. Because God knows, man, it has been a cosmic shit show. No doubt. Are they going to make a COVID pinball? Yeah, no, no. With Gavin Newsom's face in the middle, you know? Yeah, no. No, pass. All right, guys, we're going to wrap it up. Mark from Reno, Mark Scoff, composer of the Spinners Lit Pinball Podcast theme song. Thank you for coming out. Hey, thank you so much for having me, and I'd love to do this again. I'm glad it worked out that we were just having to go to the speakerphone, and hopefully it picks up on the mic. It was great talking with you, Brian, too, and thanks for having me on the show. Absolutely, man. So, guys, bring us out. Okay, everybody have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a Festivus for the rest of us, and play pinball. Play pinball. Keep America strong. Keep America strong. So you see Rusty here that they're saying that. And we're going to talk through the ending theme song. All right, everybody. If we don't talk to you again, you all have a happy and safe New Year, too. Don't do anything stupid. Yep. Yep. McClunky. Thank you.