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Welcome! Gofers and Pirates and Keanu oh my!

Bash Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·41m 40s·analyzed·Apr 16, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Bash Pinball Podcast launches with hosts sharing personal pinball origin stories and playing No Good Gophers.

Summary

Bash Pinball Podcast premiere episode features hosts Donald and Matt introducing themselves and their show format, discussing their personal pinball journeys. Donald discovered pinball at age 15/16 through his father's Giant and Manic machine and has played for ~20 years; Matt was introduced to pinball recently through Donald's Hook machine at their workplace and quickly became hooked, acquiring Dracula and now No Good Gophers. The episode includes live first-time gameplay of No Good Gophers with commentary on its design and accessibility.

Key Claims

  • No Good Gophers was produced in 1700 units and released in December 1997

    high confidence · Matt states production numbers and release date during Gophers gameplay discussion

  • No Good Gophers was originally designed as 'Backyard Mayhem' before Pat Lawler pitched it to Stern, who adapted it to golf because backyards don't exist in Japan

    medium confidence · Matt explains: 'it was going to be a backyard mayhem...Pat Lawler took his design up to mr Stern he said I can sell that design in Japan because they don't have backyards'

  • No Good Gophers is 'one of the last couple Williams games ever' and represents the pinnacle of WPC era technology (1990-1998)

    high confidence · Matt: 'one of the last couple Williams games ever...the pinnacle technologically of what Williams did with the WPC era'

  • Donald has been playing pinball since age 15/16 (~20 years); Matt started playing pinball within the last 3 years

    high confidence · Donald: 'I'm a 35-year-old man, and um i've been playing pinball since i was 16 15'; Matt: 'within like three months you already had two games'

  • No Good Gophers is an original theme game with unique design compared to other pinball machines

    medium confidence · Matt: 'It's completely original. Cool. But it's Pat Lawler, and it's like if you've ever played a Pat Lawler game...it's familiar'

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm a 35-year-old man, and um i've been playing pinball since i was 16 15 and uh so i i didn't grow up with my dad when i was a kid”

    Donald @ ~8:30 — Donald's origin story establishing his emotional connection to pinball through bonding with his estranged father

  • “I beat him...I think the machine beat him kind of thing...it definitely opened up the door for us to have this kind of friendly and competitive while I was learning how the game worked”

    Donald @ ~15:00 — Key moment in Donald's pinball journey: competitive play as bonding with his father

  • “I want her to see me get all the multiballs And she's like oh I didn't know They could have three balls At the playfield at one time We'll make a nice little family The pinball machine, us”

    Donald @ ~24:00 — Humorous and touching reflection on pinball as a life path and potential family legacy

  • “Within like three months you already had two games and we were here in the pinball shed right now yeah just like playing you know what like nine to one nine to midnight or something”

    Matt @ ~42:00 — Describes the rapid escalation of Matt's pinball hobby from exposure to acquisition

  • “I think it's going to be really fun. I think it's going to be really cool, and I think I'm going to feel like I missed out every time I just looked at it and walked away”

    Matt @ ~58:00 — Matt's anticipation before playing No Good Gophers for the first time

  • “You don't have to think that hard to know what's going on and to figure it out and to know where you've got to go and where you've got to hit. You just kind of know where to go.”

    Matt @ ~65:00 — Design praise for No Good Gophers' intuitive playfield layout and accessibility

  • “It's like a great beginner game, right? you could have more experienced players kind of go”

    Matt @ ~67:00 — Assessment of No Good Gophers' appeal across skill levels

Entities

DonaldpersonMattpersonPat LawlerpersonBash Pinball PodcastorganizationHookgameDraculagameNo Good GophersgameGiant and Manicgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Bash Pinball Podcast launch represents new entrant to pinball content creation space with emphasis on personal storytelling and live gameplay

    high · Entire premise of pilot episode: hosts introducing themselves, sharing origin stories, and performing live gameplay

  • ?

    design_philosophy: No Good Gophers original design intent: 'Backyard Mayhem' adapted to golf theme due to perceived lack of global appeal (backyard culture in Japan)

    medium · Matt: 'Pat Lawler took his design up to mr Stern he said I can sell that design in Japan because they don't have backyards'

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts conceptualize podcast format as similar to band collaboration and creative music-making, emphasizing group creative effort and enjoyment of collaborative audio production

    high · Matt: 'it's kind of like being in a band...after we recorded the last time...it kind of feels like when you're writing a song...You're riffing off of each other'

  • ?

    announcement: No Good Gophers gameplay showcase with design analysis by hosts; Matt's first-time playing described as positive and accessible

    high · Live first gameplay with commentary on design accessibility and Pat Lawler's creative choices

  • ?

    technology_signal: No Good Gophers represents technological pinnacle of Williams WPC era (1990-1998) with intuitive, accessible playfield design

    high · Matt: 'pinnacle technologically of what Williams did with the WPC era of games from roughly 1990 to 1998'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.125

0:00
Welcome to the Bash Pinball Podcast. Extravaganza! Oh, we should do the Dracula welcome. There's also a theater of magic welcome Which I love Oh how does that one go I'm trying to remember Welcome to the It kind of sounds like Dracula I think I'm conflating them too It is sort of that same voice Welcome We should find the clip and put it in there Dracula has the Welcome to the Carpathian We should do that Is that what he says And he also says welcome to my home Yeah there you go Welcome to my home We should use them both. I feel like I did an alright Gary Oldman just now.
1:06
Oh, man. Well, yes. So, welcome to the Bash Pinball Podcast. Welcome. Welcome to my home. Welcome to the theater of magic. Welcome to the party zone. Welcome to the billionaire's club. Welcome aboard. Welcome to the Bash.
1:28
Welcome to the Bash Pinball Podcast. We are your hosts, Donald and Matt. Wait, you're Donald now? Well, I felt like with that voice... Yeah, you kind of had to do the full... I probably should have said Matthew, but I just can't do that. Donald and Matteo. And Matteo. Yeah. It doesn't sound the same if I say Don.
1:56
It could. It's like Juan It's like the account Juan Yeah so Donald Don My friend Don Yeah Don Donald Whatever you guys at home Want to call me Don You can call me Matt And if you're mad at me You can call me Matthew Cool Like the women in my life do So Donald Don Sir I gotta get used to calling you Don I guess I'm not used to it Matthew You can call me Matt. Every time I call you Donald, just call me Matthew back in a sort of passive-aggressive way, and then it'll sink in that way. I respond well to passive-aggressive behavior. Sounds good, Matthew.
Last Action Hero
game
Williamscompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Keanu Reevesperson
WPC eraproduct
2:41
Yeah, so we'll be covering a lot of topics. Pinball news? Yeah, we're going to cover some pinball news You know, lately there's been a lot of it Because everybody is making pinball games now And some of them are actually pretty good Are we going to take it there? John-um It sounds like you're saying John-um I am John-um, John-um, John-um, John-um, John-um Okay, we don't have to go there, but that's maybe a teaser for something that's coming up.
3:22
Are we going to have guests? Oh, that's a great question, Donald. Don. Yes, we are going to have guests. And we're going to have all kinds of guests. We've got game reviews, pinball news, tech talk, arcade chat, streaming, other stuff. You know, the other thing that I thought the other day that maybe you would feel this way too, but you used to play in bands, right? Yeah. We both did. Yeah. And I miss the band days ever since, you know, probably for the last 10 years I haven't played live music. Yeah, those were fun times for me. Yeah, and it's like, you know, after we recorded the last time. Yeah. I was just like, oh, it's kind of like being in a band. It kind of feels like when you're writing a song. Yeah. Or like working on music. Yeah, it kind of does. It's like you're riffing off of each other. Yeah. And you're kind of like making something together in a different way. Yeah, it's a group creative effort. And yeah, it's... In a different way. In a different way, yeah. It's a different tool. Different tool, but similar thing happening. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. It's interesting. I've never... It's the first time I've experienced it as well, man. It was cool. So, yeah, that wasn't on my mind at all in terms of like doing a podcast. But as soon as we started working on it, I was like, oh, this is kind of like being in a band. I kind of miss this.
4:57
Yeah, totally, man. Totally. I get it. Yeah. So you can think of us as the rock band of podcasts, the co-heat of podcasts. Ooh. Check out our new single Oh, but for real You will be able to check out The single Of our intro I don't know that it'll be out At the time of this Posting It needs to be It may be A song hits Yeah, yeah So that Our opening track Is a full song although it's not technically about pinball, it is a cool song. It was written for this podcast. And I think it's called Venus. I don't know yet. I think it's called Venus. That seems to be the name of the opening and probably ending track. I like that name. Yeah, it's cool. It goes. And yeah, anyway, check it out. Check it out.
6:05
but yeah i think we'll we'll uh we we will strive for high quality audio at all times although right now you might hear a heater that's running in my shed hopefully not maybe you do i don't know but um but yeah we we kind of know how to do audio so we're gonna make make this thing sound as good as we can and have as much fun with the audio side of things. Audio, audio, audio. Do, you know, creative fun stuff. That's kind of the plan. Audio, audio, audio. Maybe we'll even write some songs. Ooh.
6:47
And now, a word from our sponsor. Some people make fun of others for wearing glasses. Well, I pity the fools who do that. Because there's nothing wrong with wearing glasses. if you need them, right? Right! Things start looking fuzzy and blurred, you get your eyes taken from me, Mr. T.
7:07
And now, back to the show. Yeah, so we would like to introduce ourselves. I guess we did that already, kind of, sort of.
7:16
You know, you got our names, Matt and Don, I think, that's what we're going with. Yep, yep, let's go with it, let's roll. Let's roll with it. And, yeah, it might be fun to talk about how each of us came into this um hobby i almost said sport yeah i mean it could be a sport it should be a sport it should be a sport in my mind it's like pinball is billiards and ping pong and music yeah and fun and slight uh there's like a gambling element that's not real it's not real but it's also part of billiards yeah yeah but if you have enough skill you could probably win at billiards you know what i'm saying there's not that's true there's not as much of the table's not gonna randomly just like reject your yeah i mean that but that's part of the fun of it right right i think it would be a sport if it looked if it still looked like billiards like the table if the if a pinball machine still basically looked like billiards and it hadn't changed in the last hundred years interesting but it was just like a fixed set play field and you know there was no no major changes to the game right because it's hard to keep uh a sport going if the game is constantly changing right right right right right right So there should be just like a regulation standard pinball game Yeah Right, like the theme is pinball champion Yeah And that's the only game that you play when pinball is a sport Yeah, yeah And then the really good players can like go to the Olympics and play that And play pinball champion And then they can go keep playing like, you know, Dirty Harry or whatever Yeah, so Donald, why don't you go first because you have been playing pinball much longer than me, and it's a better story than mine. I wouldn't say better. I mean, it's a real story. Mine's just like... Okay, so yeah, I guess everybody get ready to cry because I'm going to get real here for a second.
9:27
We'll edit this down to 20 seconds. Don't worry. Yeah, better, better, better. Yeah, so I'm a 35-year-old man, and um i've been playing pinball since i was 16 15 16 and uh so i i didn't grow up with my dad when i was a kid and i ended up going out to his house in the summer one year and we were kind of having a hard time getting along not not getting along like just it was just awkward you know and you don't really know someone that well and you're living with them they're cooking for you and Yeah. This man is your father, right? But it's could be like a man from
10:06
down the street or someone you saw a footlocker or, you know, what? Doesn't matter, right? Yeah. So anyways, he had a pinball machine in the house and that was like the first thing as soon as we got there, I was like, what is that? Yeah And how old were you again Did you say already I think I was like I can remember I think I was like 15 13 it was somewhere between 13 and 15 and um but your did your mom just drop you off so she dropped me off at the airport and here she's just like so yeah yeah yeah so i've been flying for a long time because you know i i didn't grow up here in the u.s uh right um so i kind of have i have a lot of experience traveling and you know i would go see my family in panama and so there's no no biggie No, man. But it's still kind of funny that she like – so she dropped you off at the airport and then you flew over there. Yeah, yeah. And met him for the first time?
10:56
No, no, no, no. This was like the first time that I was going to be with him kind of for longer than – Yeah, longer than just like a couple days or a week or something. Gotcha, gotcha. I didn't grow up with him. I met him when I was 11. Okay, all right. That's what I'm mixing up with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I met him when you were 11. So a couple years later, I flew out to his place. anyways so yeah man so like he fired this thing up and instantly I was like what is this and you know I've only ever seen these things kind of you know like a random little right they weren't really arcades back then and so I mean there were a couple they were more like kiddie games you know like kid games skee-ball stuff like that anyways so we're talking like mid 2000 early 2000 yeah like 2003 no 2001 2002 too maybe something like that so arcades are kind of on their way out already kind of yeah yeah they weren't really like a thing that you did especially as a kid you were like more video games like you would stay at home and play silent hill you know whatever yeah metal gear solid cool stuff but anyways um so yeah man it was kind of this bonding experience and um he he kind of showed me how the games played and how it worked and that kind of blew my mind because i this whole time i'm like yeah this ball it's fun you keep the ball up and you hit stuff and lights and sounds and um you know watch watch out the ball's gonna go down the middle oh no but then he he actually showed me you know there's combos and you can do you hit this and then that and the game will tell you yeah shoot the go to crazy box you mean it's not totally random it's not totally random what and and i think the part that got me was um i think it was probably like the second or third game and I beat him. Wow, nice. I was like, man, this is actually kind of fun because I could tell he was maybe a little miffed, like a little peeved. So you don't think he let you win? No, no, no, no. I think the machine beat him kind of thing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. And so it definitely opened up the door for us to have this kind of friendly and competitive while I was learning how the game worked. And ever since then, man, I was like 15, 16. I'm 35 now. So you've been playing pinball for 64 years? 65 years, okay Yeah That's a lot longer than me So what's this How's your dad doing now? He's doing great He got rid of that game And what game was that that you learned on? It was Giant and Monic Okay, okay Mr. Keanu and Ice-T So And they had that dolphin with the headgear And you had to loop it through Jones Oh man, there's so many The Yakuza. Such great stuff in that game. Yeah.
13:35
Always have a place in my heart. So didn't he have a checkpoint at some time? I almost said at some point, but then it seems ridiculous. Yeah, a checkpoint at some point. Yeah, he had a checkpoint I think up until a couple years ago. I was just over there.
13:51
Man, time's going really fast. It was about, at this point, it's been almost a year. And he got Last Action Hero. Another great theme, man. I think it's so fun. We actually got the movie too. We watched it. Oh, nice. We downloaded it. I've never actually seen it. It is so good. And when you play the game, you watch the movie, you play the game, man, it's unreal. Love it. It's a great theme.
14:15
I downloaded the virtual one, but I haven't played a real one yet. That's one of the few of those that I haven't played yet. It's super fun, man. Super fun. What happened after that in your pinball life? Did you keep playing, you know, how did your pinball skills develop? So we're getting, okay, okay. Yeah, what happened? So they never really fully developed.
14:40
Yeah, me either. Because, you know, like I don't really take it seriously. I actually don't, I don't even really play, I don't play, I've never played a tournament. Right, right. I play, I have friends and, you know, you and other people locally that I've met and stuff. And I'm probably good enough. Oh, yeah. But it's been kind of like a personal thing. and I kind of just enjoy just the whole experience and kind of learning it and things like that. And I feel like it kind of takes away a little bit of the magic if I know the game too much.
15:10
Yeah, I get it. So yeah, no, ever since I left, that whole experience with him and getting to know him and how pinball worked, it's been with me forever, man. And anytime I see a game, just ever since then, right? Anytime I would see a game, we'd be like a restaurant, like an Applebee's or a CC's pizza. I think I mentioned that one before, you know, like they had South Park at CC's and I was like, sorry, mom, I'm going to stop eating this free dinner that you're paying for us because I want to go play this game. And she's like, what is that? You know? And, uh, no, man. And yeah, that's, that's how it was until I got a little bit older of, of drinking age and barcades became a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, from there, that's actually when I, I got a little bit better because I would go out a little bit more often and you know yeah i was single and i was hoping to meet the ladies wrong wrong place to meet the lady well i realized that later did you ever meet a single lady at an arcade you know yes in a in a romantic context obviously we've met ladies at our case you know it it never starts off that way right right it never starts off that way um but but it's but that happened that got it got you know one day i think one day i secretly hope every single time i play yeah that there's gonna be this you know beautiful lady that watches me and is mesmerized by how mediocre but how much fun i'm having on my face and falls in love that's that's like that's what i want you want that you want that girl who's like sees you get that multi-ball I want her to see me get all the multiballs And she's like oh I didn't know They could have three balls At the playfield at one time We'll make a nice little family The pinball machine, us You know then I can Pass down the skill To the kid and that'll complete the full Pinball life cycle for me Literally because it's got like this whole Parental Emotional Arc It'll complete the arc It'll be a full circle So then, yeah, so eventually, you know, I started, you know, evolving as an adult and making a little bit more money. And, you know, I saved enough to buy my first game, which was actually only a couple of years ago. I think it was like 2018. Okay. Maybe. Yeah. So as you can tell, I'm a 35-year-old man. I'm kind of late, but I'm having fun. And it was Hook. Hook? Did you say hook? Hook. Like the pinball game hook? Hook, yes. You mean like that Robin Williams movie hook? Yes, yes. Julia Roberts, Peter Pan. Dustin Hoffman. Yeah, the pirate stuff, the banger rings, the Rufio's. I hear that most people think the banger ring call outs are the best part of that game. So the first time I got multiball, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. because I played it with all the lights off. Yeah, as you do. Yes, and that hit. When it said Bangarang! And the game pops and it had a replay and the game pops and everything's flashing. There's like these fairies flying on the screen. You see Bangarang hinge on the little baby screen and man, it was cool. It was exciting. And then I lost in like 10 seconds. yeah yeah balls is drained one two three done yeah the ball save on that is like negative one yeah that's on extra easy yeah yeah on extra easy there's some negative literally i have it on extra easy yeah yeah that's funny um so yeah and then i i brought it to work yeah and uh you know one of my buddies who's kind of like a tech guy and uh you know he's cool and He likes competitive things. And I was like, hey, man, I see you brought some little arcade games in here at the break room. Can I bring my pinball machine in? Because I had also broken up with my girlfriend. So I also needed a place to put the machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I was that like, no, you can't. I don't care about pinball. That's for weird, weird people. I didn't see it that way. What you presented to me was much more, oh, interesting, cool.
19:43
No, it was like, well, it's a free game that will put more stuff in there. Actually, what spawned it, it was like Black Friday, and it was like some ridiculous prices on some of those arcade one-up games. And it was like a Street Fighter for like $150, and there was a Mortal Kombat for $150. And I was just like, all right, that's just too stupidly cheap. It cost me more to buy the materials to build it. So I just bought those two games and stuck them in there. and then we had some more room and you were like, I got this hook pinball machine. I was like, sure. Bring it over. Let's check it out. Not realizing it was going to take up like two-thirds of the room. Took up a whole lot of space. Yeah, I mean, you warned me. You warned me. It was big and bulky. Of course, I grew up playing in arcades because I'm a tiny, tiny bit older than you. How old are you like 73?
20:43
Late 60s but we don't have to get into that You were born in 19 My kids are older than me That not true Yeah I forget how old I am but it starts with a four I forget too. And, yeah, so I played, my favorite thing to do growing up was, like, playing in an arcade in the 80s, in the, you know, late 80s, I guess. Neon. Yeah.
21:10
So there was two arcades I played at a lot. one was putt putt golf and games putt putt in greensboro north carolina putt putt putt pop pop i'm familiar oh you know pop i'm familiar with pop but yeah yeah so you know we had a we had a pop put in fayetteville you can you can figure out what kind of place it was um from the name man that's cool um but yeah putt putt golf and games they had a few locations in the in North Carolina. And one was on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro.
21:41
And every time, I guess four times a year, at least I would go there because if you took your report card in, they would give you tokens for every, I think it was like four or five tokens for an A and like three tokens for a B and two tokens for a C. I bet you cleaned up. I bet they changed the policy. This was the only reason I got decent grades. because I wanted those tokens. That's brilliant. In 1989 or whatever, $5 worth of tokens was a big deal for me. Dude, how smart.
22:21
Legitimately, I probably got 20 tokens or something for my pretty good grades that I finagled because I wanted to play some more Mortal Kombat. um but yeah those were the like slap your token on the cabinet and like you know challenge the guy who's cleaning up on street fighter oh man or whatever oh man and it was a ton of fun and actually got halfway decent at at street fighter um after i got the super nintendo version ah and then i could then i was like secret weapon now i can go back to the arcade and clean up you learn the combos yeah you learn yeah you put the time some at home yeah and and in those days the arcade versions were better and a little better graphics and sound and everything was a little better i think i think i'm a little bit younger than you because i never played an arcade i only ever my first street fighter experience was street fighter 2 well i am talking on intent on intent on nintendo so the first the other arcade that i went to was at myrtle beach um but that same arcade uh got destroyed by a hurricane hurricane hugo in the late 80s i think and so they ended up rebuilding a new arcade and they got rid of all of the games wow so the new the old arcade was like your classic awesome just games everywhere wall to wall and just like smoky disgusting it was amazing It was wonderful. And the new one, they were like, we're going to clean this up. Like family fun. Make it family fun center. So it basically like they moved it to a different spot because this was like, anyway, a place that we stayed a lot. And kind of sold out is what you're saying. Yeah. And it was like they literally had two games after that. And then they had a ton of like redemption stuff and. Oh, yeah. Game games and the basketball game tickets and ticket nonsense redemption and stuff. It's for Childs So that's not where Street Fighter would go No but they had They kept a Street Fighter 2 And a Final Fight Oh Final Fight So credit to them For keeping two amazing games And I continued to just play Those two games Nice In the arcade Which was awesome But Yeah so anyway That's kind of my My Gaming background I guess But the You know Pinball of it all was to Donald bringing what most people consider to be one of the top 10 games of all time, I think. I haven't checked Pinside in a while. I think it was number two last time I checked. It's up there. It's really... 100 worldwide. Yeah, so I never played pinball in my life until you brought that machine to work. and i was like i don't give it a try i guess it was all about and every other time i'd ever played in an arcade was like you know the machines didn't work yeah and i was like you know 10 sure and it was like i might get a free game on something i was like well that was neat and seemed completely random and i'm not gonna put more money in that because i can go play street fighter right right you don't really get as much out of it when you're when you're super young yeah yeah i wasn't I didn't get it. I didn't appreciate it at that age. Then it just kind of disappeared from the world as far as I knew.
25:53
I never got the time to just put in some hours with it. Once I did that, I was like, that's pretty good.
26:05
Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. good um but yeah so you as soon as you had that i probably played that machine like 20 hours or something and then i started looking for machines to buy so it was like one month later i was like i'm gonna buy it so i think within like three months you already had two games and we were here in the pinball shed right now yeah just like playing you know what like nine to one nine to midnight or something yeah yeah so well the the clincher for me was when i realized that my dream theme or at least one of them already existed which was which was bram stoker's dracula the movie that we all know and love um for whatever reason i actually do love that movie and most people don't care for it as much you know i i don't get it i don't get it you don't get it no I don't get why people don't like it. It's classic. It's beautiful.
27:13
I think it's just not what people are expecting nowadays. So if you haven't seen it and you watch it, you're just like, what the – It's got Keanu. Yeah, and then it does have Keanu, and that is – that's somebody's fault. But I think it works despite Keanu. You have to get past Keanu, actually. But other than some questionable casting. I mean, I don't find it that hard to believe that in an alternate reality with vampires and stuff, there is a man that acts just like Keanu is acting. I mean, he may be channeled like a little weirdo from way back in Transylvania. Yeah, I don't know.
27:54
He can't not sound like a surfer, no matter what. And that's a problem. Shout out to Keanu Reeves. but it's an amazing game and also an amazing movie but yeah I found that game and I bought it a couple months after you brought Hook to the office heck yeah and I was just hooked you were hooked by Hook somehow and now for an important message If you're pregnant, do you want your baby to have your eyes, your smile, your crack habit? It could happen. When a woman does crack during pregnancy, so does her unborn baby. And that can cause addiction, brain damage, and birth defects if the baby lives.
28:52
And now back to the show. Segway, I traded that game for the polar opposite vibe game. No good gophers.
29:12
Yeah, it's awesome. I love it. It's amazing. I want both. I need Dracula back, but gophers is awesome too. So now instead of fighting Dracula, I have to fight some gophers? yeah and they talk just as much oh wait they talk to you they talk to you and i uh yeah i think you're gonna love it so yeah you haven't you've never played it i know i i think i'm gonna you know what man i don't i don't have like a clear memory i mean i might have played one game or something yeah i don't remember it's uh it's not everywhere you know i can't think of anybody local that has it currently oh unless you drive a couple hours so i think i think i remember seeing it at a bar i don't remember if i actually played it it's very vaguely golf golf themed but yeah um it always felt like that to me i think like even just like the style right like the animation right the caricature it looks like like a sports bar like i would see it like a i don't know grown up like uh applebee's or like a sports red robin or something i don't know like yeah yeah it's it's it's fun and sporty and you know uh fun fact it's not it wasn't intended to be a golf game upon its original inception it was going to be a backyard mayhem oh i think i i think i would have see i think if that game would have been marketed to me i would have played that over before yeah golf or before gophers yeah i'm not a i'm not a golf fan or anything but i think the gophers were still part of it it was just um or yeah i think the gophers were still part of it but they were just part of the chaos of backyard may have there one of the elements of the yeah like on the playfield now you have a spinning wheel that shaped like a golf ball but the original design was that it was going to be a long lawn mower yeah and so I guess when Pat Lawler took his design up to mr Stern he said I can sell that design in Japan because they don have backyards Generalization there I think
31:21
Is that what happened? Yeah. Well, that's the story anyway. So it didn't have global appeal. Yeah. I think it didn't have enough of a global appeal, so they adapted it to golf.
31:34
But it works great for that. so yeah okay okay but yeah i kind of i think i kind of like that theme like the backyard mayhem almost like a like a junkyard or something like a kind of random stuff that happens or just like a it's like its own original yeah uh fun like you know yeah maybe you have like a neighbor's dog that's like there i don't know you know yeah so as it turns out it's more of like a caddyshack kind of thing with the mean gophers you know smack talking the whole time gotcha Well, I mean, I'm excited to check it out and actually get a little bit of time on it and hear it, you know, be able to understand, you know, kind of get a better feel. So, I mean, are you ready to play the game for the first time ever? I'm ready.
32:22
In my pinball shed? I was born ready. My shedcade? Yes. Are you sure? Yes. What do you think you're going to think about this game? Oh, pre-preemptive. This is a 1997 Valley Williams No Good Gophers designed by Pat Lawler. I think I'm going to fuck those gophers up.
32:48
Hey now. I think I'm going to make those gophers eat shit. No. You know what, man? I think it's going to be really fun. I think it's going to be really cool, and I think I'm going to feel like I missed out every time I just looked at it and walked away. Yeah. Or maybe just didn't even realize it existed. We'll see. I'm curious to see your first impressions because it's very unique among pinball games, I think. I can't think of another game like it. It's an original theme, right? Yeah, it's completely original. Cool. But it's Pat Lawler, and it's like if you've ever played a Pat Lawler game, which you definitely have, then it's familiar in that way. because it has some of the same kinds of shots and layout and cool silliness and fun so i think cool i think it's gonna be up your alley all right man let's do it give me your best shot I like the wacky music. I feel like I'm in Louisiana. The gopher head pops out, that's cool. That was cool. This is a great game. That was awesome. Oh, I have not lost. No, no. What are we talking about? First impressions. First impressions of Gophers. Was it the first time? You know, I'm going to go ahead and say it is. It's the first meeting full time. It looks familiar.
34:40
I'm sure I've seen it. I don't remember specifically playing it. What you just showed me in that game with the hole-in-one, I've never seen that before. A little ramp. I didn't recall it having a ramp that comes down. I didn't recall. I think the ramp coming down is something you remember That's pretty unique That's something I would remember I'm going to go with this This is the first time I've played it Yeah, Gophers 1700 produced That's a fairly rare game actually, I didn't realize it was that few December 97's when it came out So, yeah, one of the last couple Williams games ever. In some ways, it's like the pinnacle technologically of what Williams did with the WPC era of games from roughly 1990 to 1998. It feels good. You don't have to think that hard to know what's going on and to figure it out and to know where you've got to go and where you've got to hit.
35:46
You just kind of know where to go. And you can see everything pretty easily. Like, oh, look, there's a ramp. There's a little gopher that pops up. Maybe hit that guy. Yeah, and none of the shots are super difficult. The hardest one is the jackpot shot and obviously the hole-in-one shot. But it's like those shots can exist because the rest of the shots are fairly easy, which creates a fun contrast. You know, how I feel about this game is it's like a great beginner game, right? you could have more experienced players kind of go for a different goal and have fun with people that are just hitting stuff for the first time so it's kind of like a fun challenge for it might be that my only thing about gophers as far as like being a beginner game i don't know if i completely agree with that really the spinner like the spinning wheel creates so much just randomness that like being a seasoned player like yourself like you're not really phased by that because you know how to handle the ball but like it can also for somebody who's never played pinball they're just like that can be frustrating you know it's like just threw the ball right down the middle I had no control like it feels cheap because like I've seen that with like unfair it feels Yeah, it feels unfair. You know, I feel like the gopher heads popping up and you having to hit those guys kind of makes up for – But a lot of people get mad at the gophers because they're like – they block your shots sometimes. Which is fun. I think half the fun of pinball is the chaos element. And so games that don't have that, I think, get boring too fast.
37:33
Yeah, anyway. in the pantheon of Williams' 90s games, in your opinion, how do you rate your first impression?
37:46
I would say it ranks pretty high. Yeah, because you're like a 90s Williams guy in general, right? Yeah, yeah. That's your jam. Yeah, I love him. They feel hefty and they feel almost like, I don't know, just solid. You know, and they do weigh a lot.
38:08
The shots also feel easier. I don't know. Maybe you can tell me that. Like the ramps seem a little wider. The shots seem a little bit more, the openings seem a little more spaced. Yeah. I mean, for the most part, I think that's true. I'm trying to think of any Williams games that had any just like super tight shots. It's, when I think about it, it's hard. I mean, I don't, I don't know if that's a part of the reason why I like those games so much. Yeah. They seem a little bit easier to understand. I mean, they're obviously more basic. They're a little bit easier to understand, and you can just pick them up as you go, which this game, I think, does a great job. It's very easy to see exactly where you've got to go and kind of figure it out. Yeah, and it's talking to you and telling you what to do a lot. Yeah, yeah.
38:51
Yeah, anyway, I'm glad you like the game. I do, I do. It's a fun one. what you're about to hear is a strange love story set in a barcade somewhere in north carolina our protagonist donald but he prefers to go by don lately is portrayed by none other than dracula and he's just starting what will be a life-changing game of attack from mars reports are coming in from all over the world the earth is under attack hi there do not fear me wow you look good do you believe in destiny Yes! You are the love of my life. Jackpot! Ooh! All right! Yes! Super Jackpot! Ooh! Jackpot! I feel strange. It's a match! Well, you made it through our first episode. Hope you enjoyed it. We've already posted episode two, so go on and check that one out. We have a bunch of stuff in the works for future episodes. We're going to introduce you to our collection of pinball machines. We've got our first impressions of the newest games that have come out, Jaws, Pulp Fiction, Labyrinth, among others. Also, we would just love to hear from you. Send your queries to pod at bashpinball.com. And finally, no matter what, always remember, you rule the universe!
40:53
Leave this territory now. Return to your homes. evacuate all personnel