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ゴジラ

This Flippin' Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 57m·analyzed·Dec 3, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Deep dive on Stern Godzilla pinball with community spotlight on pinball-adjacent creative projects.

Summary

Tommy Skinner and Taylor Reese discuss Stern's Godzilla pinball machine, designed by Keith Elwin with art by Zombie Yeti. They explore the game's theme, mechanical design, operator experience with Insider Connect, and gameplay depth. The episode also heavily promotes several community projects: Ryan Claytor's Kickstarter for 'A Hunter's Tale' comic book, John Chad's upcoming pinball history graphic novel, and a 12-hour charity pinball stream benefiting Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Key Claims

  • Godzilla is backordered until late 2022 due to supply chain issues and high demand

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner mentions backorders extending to late 2022

  • Godzilla's pro and premium versions are already shipping to homeowners and locations

    high confidence · Both Tommy and Taylor confirm they have received pro models; Taylor says his shipped within first week

  • Insider Connect was difficult to set up as an operator, with Wi-Fi connectivity issues

    high confidence · Taylor Reese states it's 'a total pain in the ass to set up as an operator' and reports offline issues at his venue

  • Ninja Turtles and Beatles are out-earning Godzilla at Taylor's location despite high initial excitement

    high confidence · Taylor reports both games are 'out-earning Godzilla by a pretty solid amount'

  • Keith Elwin designs cater toward higher skill-level players, which may limit casual appeal

    medium confidence · Taylor Reese observes that Elwin's designs 'tend to cater towards a higher skill level player'

  • Spooky Pinball was originally interested in developing a Godzilla machine before Stern acquired the license

    medium confidence · Tommy mentions 'the story is that Godzilla was swiped from Spooky Pinball when they were like in the middle of having a meeting'

  • John Chad's pinball history book is a 200-page graphic novel published by First Second Books/Macmillan, releasing February 8, 2022

    high confidence · Tommy confirms he has reviewed early copies and holds a physical copy in hand

  • The charity stream raised $2,800 last year, building seven bunk bed sets instead of the $400 goal

    high confidence · Tommy provides specific fundraising numbers from the 2021 event

Notable Quotes

  • “It shoots incredibly well, and it is incredibly flowy compared to some of his other games... the ball can be in non-stop motion as long as you want it to be. You can just keep shooting ramps and orbits and loops and spinners and the ball just keeps moving and moving and moving.”

    Taylor Reese @ late in gameplay discussion — Key assessment of Godzilla's mechanical flow and design philosophy compared to Keith Elwin's other titles

  • “Total pain in the ass to set up as an operator. Yeah. It was interesting, and then we've actually had some issues with the Wi-Fi at the bar.”

    Taylor Reese @ Insider Connect discussion — Candid operator feedback on Stern's new connectivity feature, revealing practical implementation challenges

  • “I think his designs tend to cater towards a higher skill level player. And I mean Godzilla's just not the most relevant of themes compared to like Ninja Turtles.”

    Taylor Reese @ theme discussion — Analysis of why Godzilla underperforms at location compared to more mainstream IP despite strong game design

  • “The level of detail in the drawings is just amazing. You know, and John is a, you know, he's very he's passionate about pinball.”

    Tommy Skinner @ John Chad book discussion — Recognition of John Chad's contribution to pinball culture and artistry

  • “It's a 200-page graphic novel about the history of pinball, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it.”

    Tommy Skinner @ John Chad book discussion — Confirms scope and significance of upcoming official pinball history publication

  • “And even though I'm able to connect like every other Wi-Fi device I have down there to the guest Internet, I cannot connect the Godzilla machine to the guest Internet. So I believe it has to be connected to a secure network for it to work.”

    Taylor Reese @ Insider Connect issues — Specific technical problem with Insider Connect requiring secure network, limiting accessibility at some venues

  • “I don't know how I didn't realize this. I'd turn down the back box lighting on all my games... if you basically dim the back box when the game is being played... the difference is night and day.”

Entities

Tommy SkinnerpersonTaylor ReesepersonKeith ElwinpersonZombie YetipersonRyan ClaytorpersonJohn ChadpersonZach SharpepersonRobertperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Godzilla pro and premium models are shipping to early adopters; backorders extend to late 2022 due to supply chain constraints and high demand

    high · Tommy: 'these games started shipping six weeks ago they are from what I heard they are backordered... until like sometime in late 2022'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern Insider Connect Wi-Fi platform debuted with Godzilla; designed for remote diagnostics and updates but has operator setup and network compatibility issues limiting venue deployment

    high · Taylor: 'love it as a concept... Total pain in the ass to set up as an operator... cannot connect the Godzilla machine to the guest Internet'

  • $

    market_signal: Godzilla underperforming at location vs. newer licensed IP (Ninja Turtles, Beatles, Mandalorian) despite strong game design; suggests theme relevance and contemporary media tie-ins drive operator earnings more than game mechanics alone

    high · Taylor: 'both those games are out-earning Godzilla by a pretty solid amount... It's not as attention grabbing as some of those other titles that you walk by when you've got like Ninja Turtles and Mandalorian'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin's design approach consistently targets skilled/competitive players through complex rule sets and mechanical challenges; may limit casual/location appeal despite mechanical excellence

    medium · Taylor: 'I do think his designs tend to cater towards a higher skill level player... Godzilla's just not the most relevant of themes compared to like Ninja Turtles'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Godzilla features significantly improved ball flow compared to Elwin's previous designs through ramp combos, orbit sequences, and MagnaGrab mechanism; reduces dead-ball time and enables continuous play sequences

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.352

0:00
The episode you are about to hear contains explicit words. Your opinions within all those of the hosts and in no way imply that anyone listening to this podcast agrees with anything you say. Please send complaints to thispodcast at gmail.com.
0:30
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, to this flippin' podcast, I am Tommy Skinner with my co-host, partner, friend, etc., Taylor Reese. This is episode 115. We are going to talk Godzilla and, you know, we're going to show for a few of our friends who are doing some really cool stuff. It's a good day, man. Taylor, how are you doing? I am doing pretty well. It's Thursday.
1:26
It's December. We're into December, man. December 2nd. It's December 2nd. It's the daytime. So Tommy and I are recording at midday, 1117, which is kind of nice because we're both not exhausted.
1:45
We're not. I'm sipping some coffee because I want to, not because I need to. And I'm excited to talk about Godzilla. Yes. Because we've both, we're going to be able to give you two perspectives. I've got a pro and Taylor's had his premium I'm sure he's got about 10 times as many games played as I do now possibly but it's you know we've sang its praises briefly here and there from initial impressions but we'll be able to give you a little bit of a deeper dive into our experiences with the game at this point and yeah man I'm just for reasons we'll discuss at a future date I'm in a good mood I'm going to be talking with my friend and sharing the pinball love. Pinball love. That's the, yeah, that's something, yeah, pinball love. Let's share some pinball love. We're going to plug heavily a couple, several projects that are being done by friends of ours.

Tommy Skinner @ Godzilla lighting settings — Practical operator tip affecting visual gameplay experience, demonstrates Godzilla's feature-rich settings

  • “It's not as attention grabbing as some of those other titles that you walk by when you've got like Ninja Turtles and Mandalorian right there that are very current.”

    Taylor Reese @ theme relevance discussion — Explains location earning disparity: modern IP and ongoing media relevance drive foot traffic more than vintage themes

    • Jessperson
    Charlie (Spooky Pinball founder)person
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Godzillagame
    Jurassic Parkgame
    Iron Maidengame
    The Avengersgame
    Ninja Turtlesgame
    The Beatlesgame
    Mandaloriangame
    North End Pubvenue
    Sleep in Heavenly Peaceorganization
    This Flippin' Podcastmedia
    First Second Bookscompany
    Insider Connecttechnology

    high · Taylor: 'it shoots incredibly well, and it is incredibly flowy... the ball can be in non-stop motion... it has the scoop which he tends to try to avoid'

  • ?

    code_update: Recent code update improved clarity and light show guidance for kaiju battle modes (Gigan, Titanosaurus, Eberra, Megalon), making rules more accessible to players unfamiliar with deep rule complexity

    high · Taylor: 'With the most recent code update, the monster battles themselves... have become much more clear with their instructions and their light shows'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Venue operators using back box dimming feature (settable down to 4% during gameplay) significantly reduces glare and improves playfield visibility on modern brightly-lit machines like Godzilla

    high · Tommy: 'I dim mine down to 4%... it looks... like no glare glass on the game... the difference is night and day'

  • ?

    content_signal: This Flippin' Podcast heavily promoting multiple community/adjacent market projects (comic book Kickstarter, pinball history graphic novel, merchandise brands, charity events) indicating strong integration with broader pinball creator economy

    high · Extended segments promoting Ryan Claytor's Kickstarter, John Chad's book deal, Tilt Hammer merch, Soft Plunge apparel, and North End Pub charity stream

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Spooky Pinball was reportedly pursuing Godzilla license before Stern acquired it; Charlie from Spooky has custom rethemed Firepower 2 into Godzilla; suggests IP licensing competition among manufacturers and fan-builder enthusiasm

    medium · Tommy: 'the story is that Godzilla was swiped from Spooky Pinball when they were like in the middle of having a meeting... Charlie do like a custom Godzilla... rethemed a Firepower 2 into Godzilla'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Godzilla contains at least seven kaiju battles (Gigan, Titanosaurus, Eberra, Megalon, and three unspecified), Monster Rampage mode, city-based progression system, and team-up battle mechanics; rule complexity remains deep despite code update improvements

    high · Taylor describing uncertainty about city mechanics and Monster Rampage mode despite code updates; lists four named kaiju battles plus reference to others

  • ?

    product_strategy: Godzilla represents classic/vintage IP approach by Stern; competing against contemporary licensed properties (Marvel, Star Wars, TMNT) for location foot traffic; suggests potential demographic/venue-type segmentation in theme selection strategy

    medium · Taylor's analysis that Godzilla lacks contemporary relevance compared to current media tie-ins; discussion of age cohort differences in theme appreciation

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball community expanding into adjacent creative media with graphic novels (John Chad's pinball history via major publisher), indie comics (Ryan Claytor), and branded merchandise (Tilt Hammer, Soft Plunge) indicating mature, diversifying fan economy

    high · Extended discussion of John Chad's 200-page pinball history graphic novel with Macmillan/First Second Books, Ryan Claytor's Kickstarter for indie comic, established merch brands

    • 2:46
    The first one is our friend Ryan Claytor of Elephant Eater Comics, Coin Op Carnival, fame with Nick Baldridge.
    3:01
    Yeah. Ryan is a friend of both of ours. I think you guys vacation together. Is that correct? Yeah. Well, my lake house is not far from Ryan, so him and his son Owen have come over to visit up there a couple times in the summers when I'm enjoying the lake house. So it's been nice. Yeah, I've got to hang out with him. I've got to take his son fishing. And, you know, we see each other when we can. Yeah, so we actually have an upcoming episode with Ryan that will drop on January the 7th, which is kind of crazy that we actually have an episode in the can. That's not something that we really do. But we have an episode with Ryan talking about this project, But he has a Kickstarter starting on January 1, 2022 to get his self-published book, A Hunter's Tale, published.
    3:59
    Super excellent Kickstarter. You can check it out at www.ahunterstale.com. And, yeah, it's a really good way. We talked to Ryan about it, like it's a way that comic artists, independent comic artists, they use, it seems like it's a really successful platform for independent comic makers to be able to publish small run work. So super excited about that. Super, yeah, we were sent some preview copies or pages, and it looks great.
    4:37
    Yeah, so it's a good story. and yeah so hopefully that gets I can't imagine it's not going to get funded so but yeah definitely check it out it's going to be like I said real cool project uh I'm excited about it and it's not even pinball related it's just a friend who we have within the pinball community and he does a lot within the pinball community uh and it's always great to support you know all of our friends endeavors like that absolutely um and then the other one coming up that we've talked about before, is on February the 8th, the day before my 50th birthday.
    5:16
    Really? You're going to be 50? Dude, let that sink in. It is, man. Let that sink in. You got your AARP card yet, or is that later? I don't know. I can't. I don't know. They may have sent it to me. My wife may have signed me up for it, but I turned 50 on February 9th. That's fucking crazy.
    5:38
    That is crazy. But what's also crazy is the day before my birthday, an early birthday present, John Chad's pinball book will be dropping.
    5:49
    It's being published through, I believe it's Macmillan Publishing, and the company is First Second Books. And John has done several projects with them.
    6:02
    But this one is amazing. I was fortunate to – John sent me some copies when he was working on it that he – I went over to, you know, check out. I gave him, you know, my opinion on a couple things. So it's been a really cool project because I've been part of – like, even in, like, my minuscule way, like, I've been a part of the project. And I actually have a physical copy in hand. And it's really great.
    6:35
    I'm staring at my digital copy right now, and I just saw the email that, at least, I think we were both sent. We do need to reach out to Morgan in some detail about this. But, yeah, I was blown away. I'm about 40 pages in. It's a 200-page graphic novel about the history of pinball, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it. So, yeah, I've read it. I've gone through the whole thing. I mean, I've gone through the whole thing several times now because I, you know, I had like an early copy. My daughter, Ella, Ella stole it and read most of it.
    7:15
    But it covers the history of pinball. I mean, it's the level of detail in the drawings is just amazing.
    7:23
    You know, and John is a, you know, he's very he's passionate about pinball. I mean, you know, I know him, and we've had him on the show talking about his drop target scene. And, you know, he's just – as an artist, like, I collect some drawings. I have some original John Chad stuff. He's done posters for Replay, Pinberg.
    7:47
    He's just done a ton of stuff in the pinball community. And this is, like, you can tell it's a passion project. And I really do like to publish her. Like, we have, I think, all the books that John has done because they do – it's, like, a lot of the stuff that John works on is more of a science and educational kind of – I don't know what the term – the genre. and so it's cool that it's being published by a publisher like that because it's almost like, I don't know, it becomes almost like a more substantial feeling. Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. It's just crazy that it's a pinball book.
    8:35
    I don't know. It's very cool. But, yeah, so you can preorder. So here's the thing is I know that John is trying to work with a bookstore to do a preorder special.
    8:49
    I'm waiting to hear from him, like, who he's doing that through so we can really push to go through them. But you can preorder anywhere. I would suggest you preorder not through Amazon because I try to avoid Amazon whenever humanly possible.
    9:05
    But you can go to a local bookstore should be able to preorder it for you. So, but check that out. It's Pinball by John Chad, and it will be, it drops on February 8th, but you can pre-order. So, those two projects we are super excited about.
    9:25
    Yeah, and it's funny that they're both in, like, similar fields, releasing books at similar times, but they actually cover, like, drastically different things. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to, I definitely want to get a hard copy of the John Chad one as well, because, like you said, man, I just look at this, and I'm just incredibly unsalvented at drawing, and I've tried to teach some basic drawings, and I know how long it took me. I can't imagine the amount of time that went into creating this.
    9:54
    It's crazy. It's really mind-boggling. Like some of the play field, like some of the artwork where it's like you're looking across a row of pinball machines, that is just, that's the stuff I did. It's just crazy.
    10:08
    Yeah, and they're not just made up pinball machines. They're like machines that exist, and have been converted to his art style. It's insane. Yeah, it's really insane. Yeah, I'm super excited for that. But, yeah, I'm super excited for that. And then who else? Let's plug Tilt Hammer. I know Zach is – I think Zach had some hats. He had his Slap – I think Slap Save and Destroy hats were available again. so go to I think it's just tilt underscore hammer dot com tilt dash hammer dot com so go check him out version 3 of the Slap, Save and Destroy for $15 right now $15 that's a steal this is where you should be buying people Christmas presents soft plunge, double danger check them out Robert and Jess the yeah buy stuff from them I have several soft plunge t-shirts that I rock all the time so and my kids do as well because they brought us some t-shirts when they visited this past summer so yeah that is softplungepinball.com they have several items on sale right now as well as some new designs up too so Go shopping, people. I personally recommend the, I call them booty shorts. I don't know what they are, but I wear them for bed very frequently. Do you really? Soft plunge logo shorts. Oh, yeah. I love short shorts. You work. They're very comfortable.
    11:46
    Oh, this is a very lucky lady. You don't have to say it out loud. Oh, wow. That laughing, that low-level laughing, that was not, I wasn't actually, that was, oh, my God, dude. I just don't know. Yeah, say it. They look good on me. So if you have not met Tommy in real life, Tommy is the guy who is wearing the, like, flip-flops that have a fanny pack on the top of the flip-flop so he can, like, keep his stuff in there. I've got to carry it around my quarters, man. I never know when you're going to find a pinball machine. So, yes. But that's, yeah, that's Tommy. So I'm not, I mean, I'm not knocking your, yeah. I don't know. Okay, let's move on.
    12:34
    You ready? Let's move on. I want to plug one more thing. Oh, yeah, plug away, man. Coming up on December 19th, it is a Sunday over at my location, North End Pub. We will be having our second annual 12-hour charity pinball stream for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. We did this last year. Our goal was to raise $400. For those of you unfamiliar with Sleep and Heavenly Peace, they are a charity organization. And what they do is they provide beds to children from low-income families that do not have a bed, no place to sleep. They are sleeping frequently on floors or couches.
    13:17
    And what they do is for every – the reason we had a goal of $400 last year was that would build one complete bunk bed set, including mattresses and bedding for two children. and that was our initial goal. We ended up raising a little over $2,800 last year. So we were able to build seven complete bunk bed sets for people. That's awesome. Our goal this year, because of the rising cost of everything, as I'm sure everyone is aware, the bunk bed sets now cost roughly $500 to build a set, again, including all the bedding and mattresses. So our goal this year, we're going to set at $1,000. We would like to at least still donate two.
    13:58
    But for that day, we are opening up North End Pub at noon. We are closing at midnight. All the games will be on FreePlay for the entire day. So there's 20-plus pinball machines that are going to be on FreePlay. You come and you donate whatever you can, and you can play pinball and hang out with us. We're going to have a stream running, and we're going to keep a tally going throughout the day. But, you know, bare minimum goal, we'd really like to hit 1,000 and make sure we're providing four kids with a place to sleep this Christmas. and if we do more than that, it's just, it'd be great. So if you can't make it in person, as we do realize it's the holiday season and not everyone lives that close to us, from the stream, we're going to have ways that you can donate via PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, whatever you want, and we'll be collecting funds that way too, which we did last year as well. So mark your calendars, December 19th. we're going to be streaming a whole lot of pinball for 12 hours straight for a good cause. So I just wanted to make sure I got that mentioned before I forgot. That's awesome, man. Yeah, that was great last year. I think the pinball community tried to give back, and this is our way of doing it. It went so well last year, and we felt really good about it that we wanted to do it again. So we've been planning this for a while now, and we've got quite a few new games down at North End Pub, which we'll talk about as we're going through the new stuff here today. but we should be able to provide you some games on stream that you don't see that often. So that's the plan.
    15:27
    Yeah, it's awesome. I can't – yeah, the price of lumber is a little crazy. It's settled down a little bit, but, yeah, that's a great cause. I think that, yeah, what you guys are doing is excellent. And, yeah, the amount you were able to raise last time was crazy. yeah we did not expect that at all and you know we don't anticipate or necessarily expect to repeat that but we aren't going to be mad if we do we're just going to do the best we can and hopefully hit that thousand dollar mark yeah man what else is going on I'm trying to think like what other you know holidays are coming up I don't know there's probably go over our Christmas wish list of pinball gifts like we typically do in case we don't record another one. We'll do that at the end. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. We'll do that at the end. You want to dive into what we're here to talk about, which is the newest Stern offering designed by Keith Elwin,
    16:39
    art by Zombie Yeti, rules by whom? Who are the rules by? Keith Elwin Keith has the rules, I can't remember the name of his he actually has a coder but yeah the rules are by and large Elwin, that's what I think makes his games a little bit unique compared to some of the other designers as he's doing the layout and the rules in coordination yeah this is Keith's fourth game and I mean Really, it would be his eighth game because each game that he's designed, he's had a pro and a premium LE version. So you're actually designing two games for each title, right?
    17:28
    Every one of his games has been a quote-unquote cornerstone game. Is that correct? Right? That's like a unique game unto its own. It's not like a – right?
    17:41
    Is that what they call it, a cornerstone game? What do they call it? Yeah, of course, like their main releases, they're not through kind of like a third-party licensing with Kapow or the Beatles type thing. They released whatever their standard pricing tier is at the time.
    17:58
    You know, they have an LE, but the production's not limited in general. Yeah. So this is his fourth game. I start off with, obviously, what was his first one? Jurassic Park. I know Iron Maiden. I still know I've got to have them all. I'm not in the I'm actually in my shop today recording I'm not in the game room I'm in the kitchen we're both recording from different spots hopefully this will work we got new wifi so hopefully it doesn't drop I'm using a new microphone so hopefully we're okay on both sides yeah so his fourth game Iron Maiden, Jurassic Park The Avengers and then Godzilla so let's go let's jump into Godzilla I think let's talk about I don't know what do you I don't know you have a pro you've had your pro for a while when did you get your pro it's pretty early right yeah it was you know within the first week of them shipping games out to locations so six or seven weeks at least I'd say okay so these games started shipping six weeks ago they are, from what I've heard, they are backordered. They have enough orders to be backordered until like sometime in late 2022, which is crazy, which is showing how well received this game has been, but also just the difficulties people are having with the supply chain. But I do think a lot of these games have gotten out onto location, especially the pros. Like, we know several operators ourselves who have them.
    19:50
    So I think it's going to be good that the game is out there, you know. So it's, you know, even if you – I think it's kind of cool because of that, maybe I'll get more people back out on location because they'll want to play it, and it's not one of the situations where it's like all of a sudden it's available to be played in the home by a lot of people, where it's like if you have the option of playing new, you know, you may not go to the location. You may just stay at a friend's house.
    20:19
    But they are out there. I mean, pros and premiums have shipped to, like, homeowners, including myself.
    20:26
    So they are out there and being played. Okay, so the pro. Tell me about, as an operator, your experience with getting a pro, the first game released with the Insider Connect.
    20:45
    Yeah. So, starting with the Insider Connect, love it as a concept. Yeah. Total pain in the ass to set it up as an operator. Do you have a pro account?
    20:58
    I do now. Okay. Yeah. It was interesting, and then we've actually had some issues with the Wi-Fi at the bar, which I'm definitely not stern's fault. But currently, for whatever reason, the secure Internet connection there is not working.
    21:20
    And even though I'm able to connect, like, every other Wi-Fi device I have down there to the guest Internet, I cannot connect the Godzilla machine to the guest Internet. So I believe it has to be connected to a secure network for it to work. So for the last, well, since Sunday, our Godzilla has been offline, which is frustrating because I know there is functioning internet there, and I just simply can't get it to connect. So not fun.
    21:48
    As far as that goes, zero step balls anywhere on the game, zero issues with the machine. Like, it has been super rock solid. but I haven't had to do anything to it at all.
    22:04
    I did slightly increase the flipper strength of my upper left flipper at one point. I think with the code update, I did not redo that. So I don't know if it stayed there, if it reset to default. I haven't touched anything since that code update.
    22:21
    But, yeah, I've been very happy with it. We did immediately, almost after getting Godzilla, also get Ninja Turtles and Beatles. And I will say both those games are out-earning Godzilla by a pretty solid amount, which is kind of surprising to me. But then I also realized, like, while I really like Keith Allen designs, I do think his designs tend to cater towards a higher skill level player. and I mean Godzilla's just not the most relevant of themes compared to like Ninja Turtles although I think Godzilla's like iconic maybe not as mainstream I don't know how the yeah that sounds maybe right it's not as attention grabbing as some of those other titles that you walk by when you've got like Ninja Turtles and Mandalorian right there that are very current yeah it's an overall impressed yeah it's an interesting theme like I you know we've talked about it a couple times I mean in the limited number of podcasts we release I feel like we've talked about it in a couple episodes and I don't know I think for me so I I was really excited about the theme but I think a lot of that was because I knowing a little bit about Keith because of like the videos and stuff he's done with his brother and you know I mean we've spoken to him before I mean he has a sense of humor and he has a um you know like the what was the game that they talk about well I mean think about going back to Archer, right? So, like, the way that he approaches a game's theme, like, I don't know, I can relate to him in, you know, like, what he, you know, we're basically around the same age, right? So, I mean, it's like, the stuff that he grew up is probably the stuff I grew up with, and Godzilla was definitely something that I grew up with. So, knowing that he was taking on this game, and the campiness of the Godzilla. I mean, that was one of the things, like, was it going to be Godzilla from old-school Godzilla, or was it going to be the newer one? It definitely went old-school to where you got all those campy clips and stuff like that, which I really love. It's one of the reasons I really like it. Yeah, I think the animation and the clips from the old movies was awesome. Yeah, it's great, and it reminds me of Elvira. Elvira has a ton of video assets, It's obviously because Elvira is the person who licensed it. So it's like they, you know, and she's a pinball lover. So she basically gave them, from what I can tell, free reign. Because the clips in there are great. And I love the humor in Elvira, the new one. It's probably one of my favorite games of the last couple years. I think it's just an amazing pin. And I think that Godzilla is, it's, the theme is there. for me especially. So I don't know. It's hearing that people aren't kind of gravitating towards it. I guess the question would be, like, what's the age group of people? It's a younger, right? It doesn't – you guys kind of – it's a younger crowd you have there?
    25:50
    Yeah, I'd say, you know, roughly my age, mid-30s-ish. Yeah. Probably a little younger on some side of things. So, yeah, I have never seen an old school Godzilla movie. Yeah.
    26:01
    I'm just aware of it as part of like pop culture more than anything else. But yeah, I can definitely say that I have never sat down and watched one of those old films. Um, I did watch when spooky announced they were doing Ultraman, uh, old Ultraman episodes are on YouTube. So I went and watched some of that just to kind of get an idea of what it was. And I was, I thought it very entertaining. I enjoyed it, but it's just nothing that I grew up with. Yeah. I mean, Ultraman and Godzilla are kind of both in that kind of very similar. I mean, like, I kind of think about them together. Like, I almost feel like you could, you know, I think you could take an Ultraman and stick it in a Godzilla game and be fine, you know, because it's just the whole, like, kaiju, monsters battling kind of thing. It's, you know, there's aspects. Yeah, so it's very similar. I mean, I think that if you can appreciate the campiness that Ultraman now has, I think it's the exact same thing you would get with Godzilla. I did grow up, I don't know. Yeah, I imagine it's kind of similar to, like, being a Marvel or a DC guy. I'm sure there's some people that were very much like Godzilla, some were very much Ultraman, but they're very similar in the end.
    27:19
    Yeah, so the, yeah, so theme, I mean, obviously, like, in Spooky, you know, the story is that Godzilla was swiped from Spooky Pinball when they were, like, in the middle of having a meeting or something like that. Now, that's the story. I wasn't there. Yeah. But obviously, you know, Spooky Pinball was very interested in doing Godzilla. I mean, didn't Charlie do, like, a custom Godzilla, right? Yeah, right? I mean, he goes to, like, the Godzilla. That was kind of what got them started. Yeah. Yeah, they rethemed, him and his son rethemed a Firepower 2 into Godzilla. That's right. And they go to, like, Godzilla, Koran, and stuff like that. I mean, they're definitely, yeah, they're definitely hot on it. So, yeah, so it's definitely, it's a theme that resonates with a certain age group. But, obviously, like, there's a cutoff to where, like, you are, like, I don't really, I don't, doesn't resonate with you. Really resonates with me more so just in the fact, like, I know, like, it's just the idea of, like, monsters battling is just very perfect, right? so that's the theme and then Zombie Yeti on the art he kills it all the time I know that he busts his stuff out really fast he can turn over an art package I feel like he's talked about how he just gets the call and he just jams it out and it's And, yeah, it's, yeah, I mean, I don't know what to say. Like, I like the color scheme. I like the back glass is good. I mean, it fits in with the other titles I have by him.
    29:01
    So, you know, I think it's, I like the fact that Stern is really gone with this, like, really bright and vibrant, you know, color packages. They've gotten away from, like, I feel like Game of Thrones was kind of, I'm trying to think, was Game of Thrones, like, it was kind of like they finally finished with all the beige paint and they like hey let move on Because what was the game before Ghostbusters
    29:27
    Because, I mean, Zombie Yeti, obviously, that was his first game. And I feel like that, like, the color palette just changed. Like, all of a sudden it was just like, I don't know, the colors have just gotten really vibrant.
    29:39
    Yeah, I mean, it makes the game stand out, and I think it makes the games look newer on location when you see those bright colors. It looks modern to me. So I think it's a good thing for sure. Do you mess with, as an operator,
    29:55
    do you mess at all with the lighting and stuff like that? Because I found that if you, I don't know how I didn't realize this. I'd turn down the back box lighting on all my games that have that as a setting for when the game's getting played. I had no idea that was a thing. Yeah, I do that much more as a lady.
    30:16
    To me, that's not an operator mindset, because an operator mindset says, fuck these people, blind them.
    30:21
    Don't let them see the ball. To me, that's very much a tournament player mindset. Yeah. Trent showed that to me seven or eight years ago at some tournament, that you can turn that down for the tournament, so you're not getting the glare. So that's why I've always done that when I could. and even on the old Williams Valley Williams stuff in the 90s I would dim that stuff or remove some bulbs I know I had quite a few bulbs pulled out of my fish tails and my shadow over the years just to keep the back glass glare down as much as I could I feel so stupid that I have it that I just figured that out like I don't know how I have no idea how I didn't know that I mean because I turned down so there's a setting where you can, if you're stupid like me, there's a setting where you can basically dim the back box when the game is being played. So in a track, it's 100%. I dim mine down to 4%, and it looks, it almost looks like it has, like, no glare glass on the game. Like, crazy. Like, the difference is night and day, and somebody had mentioned on Pinside Thread about the glare. And so that's when I was like, and I don't know, maybe I saw a post on there. Somebody was talking about like turning down the back box illumination. Yeah. And I went in and I was like, oh my God, like it is, yeah, it's night and day. So if you don't do that because Tommy hasn't told you to do that, definitely go and turn down your back box illumination during gameplay. Because like in on Godzilla there's so many important shots back there that it makes it because basically like without doing that the entire building area is covered with um a glare from the back glass so um I actually I posted a picture somewhere I don't know where of like before and after and it's massive. Um, so there's that. Um, and then let's talk about the game. Um, Godzilla, you're playing as Godzilla. You're battling, I believe it's four cities right now. I think there's seven different battle kaiju battles you can, uh, partake in, um, the, um, yeah. So on the pro, what were your first impressions when you – had you played it prior to getting one?
    32:55
    No, I had not. We got ours – well, I picked mine up from my distributor. He had one already set up there, so I played like one game on it real quick before I loaded mine into the car.
    33:08
    To me, it shoots incredibly well, and it is incredibly flowy compared to some of his other games even though it has the scoop which he tends to try to avoid.
    33:27
    Jurassic Park has like the Metropit up post and the in lane up post and Avengers has the magnet grab and if you have the premium it's got the subway and Iron Maiden it's got the up post for the orbit. And to me, all those games really have a place where the ball stops quite a bit in my mind. And this one, it just feels like the ball can be in non-stop motion as long as you want it to be.
    33:53
    You can just keep shooting ramps and orbits and loops and spinners and the ball just keeps moving and moving and moving. That was my general impression. I thought that the ball has some very unique ball paths that it can take. Yeah. Just from, like, where you're plunging, you know, it can go around to that upper flipper. It can go behind that flipper for the skill shot. It can hit the MagnaGrab thing. It can do the soft plunge, and it can come back down to your right flipper, or it can go all the way to your left flipper, depending on how far up you plunge it.
    34:26
    I found all that very unique. I really enjoyed that. I think the MagnaGrab mechanism itself is amazing for something, like, as simple as it is. I think it's just used in very unique and fun ways. And the ability to just combo ramps back and forth, like, that is always super fun. It's not easy. Like, I wouldn't say those ramps are hard to hit, but they're not easy to hit either. Yeah. Because you do have to hit them, you know, accurately for them to actually travel the entire length of the ramp because the entrances are kind of a little bit steep and they're very far back, too. So, to me, it's a very good balance of, you know, difficulty. those. All of that was very, very fun to me. With the most recent code update, the monster battles themselves, the Kaiji battles have become much more clear with their instructions and their light shows on what it is you are to do during those modes.
    35:27
    So I've got Gigan and Titanosaurus and Eberra. I understand all of those completely now. I feel confident if I were to start any of those, I could beat them.
    35:41
    And what's the last one? Megalon, right? Megalon, yes, that one. That one I think I've figured out it's a roaming shot, essentially. Yeah.
    35:53
    But I suck at it, so I try to avoid that mode right now. It seems like the toughest out of them, for sure.
    36:00
    And then I still don't fully understand what is allowing me to sometimes select one of the team-up battles, and I had no clue how the cities work at all. And I also started a mode called Monster Rampage at our launch party, and I have no idea how I did that or what I did. So I have not played the game. Literally since the code update came out, I've probably played five games on it. I've been wrestling season started a month ago, and I've been incredibly busy with both school, the bar, maintaining the machines down there, coaching wrestling and trying to do some home projects as well. So, unfortunately, I have not got a lot of time to spend on it. I'm looking very forward to Christmas vacation and that $12 train because I plan to kind of, like, camp out on Godzilla for a while there. Nice. And actually, like, truly learn the game. But, you know, in general, concern-wise, on the pro at least, the right spinner for Mechagodzilla has two posts in front of it. and I feel like those posts are just going to get bashed to shit over time because, like, I brick that shot a lot. So my concern is those posts snapping off, which happens, and I have spare posts on hand, so it's not going to be, like, a major deal. I just see that happening because I feel like they're so close to the flipper, and I don't know. That shot is somewhat tough.
    37:24
    And then I know some people had magnet issues, and they changed how the magnet was used on the Pro from the initial code to the updated code versions that have released. So you're only shooting in there and the magnet's only grabbing it when you start the multiball instead of grabbing it for each lock now. But I'm curious to see how they handle that as the code continues to develop if they're able to figure out what was causing those magnet cores to heat up so much. But yeah, man, my basic impression is that I personally fucking love it. I wish it was earning a little better, but I understand why it's not. It's not an easy game. I can absolutely have games in there where I blow it up, and then I can follow it up with, like, a 13 million point game. Yeah. There's some dangerous shots on there.
    38:11
    But, man, I love the way it flows. Like you were saying, the art stands out to me. Maybe because I'm, like I said, I didn't grow up with these movies. To me, the art was much less of a big deal than some people made it out online. to me it looks like pinball art and I love it I don't need it to match the old movies so I think it looks great and I love the way that they've included these animations, the animations make me want to see some of the old movies quite honestly makes me want to spend a day watching them when I'm on the couch or something and I think for sound packages like you said, he clearly is a guy who has a sense of humor so do the call outs they make me laugh, so I've enjoyed that but yeah man, my impressions basically all positive. Like, I don't have much negative to say about the game. I just want to know it some more, and I have a feeling you spent a little more time on it. I know in one of our group chats, you mentioned some sort of a train exploit. A friend did explain to me that that's not possible on the pro version. So whatever is allowing you guys to do it on your fancy premiums over there, I can't even possibly, because I didn't look into it when I saw you post it, But once I was told it's impossible on the pro, I didn't really worry about it either. Do you have a – have you played a premium?
    39:32
    I played one game on it at the expo, and I have one here in town at a friend's house. I just haven't got a chance to go over and play because, like I said, I've been pretty busy. so the so I got a premium and you know I got my premium it would be the Monday before Thanksgiving it is the Thursday after Thanksgiving so almost two weeks yeah I mean I was gone I went out of town for Thanksgiving so I'll say a week just to, because that's how much experience I have on it. I've played it a lot. Like I have over 300 games, I think.
    40:22
    I probably restarted games a couple times, but I am, I find, man, let me think. So I got my game. First thing I did, I did put a shaker motor in from Pinball Life. they have them in stock because I think that there is a back order maybe on Stern shakers from some distributors, but Pinball Life does have them in stock and they are cheap and they are worth it in my opinion. So I did install a shaker. I removed the factory flipper rubbers and I removed the factory slingshots. So I put the slingshot, I put clear slingshot rubbers from Titan pinball and flipper rubbers from Titan pinball.
    41:12
    Yeah, I designed and ordered an entire pinball, Titan rubber pinball set for mine. I still haven't installed it, but it's sitting in the cabinet, so I've got it ready to go. Yeah, so, yeah, I like to do that with the slingshots just to allow for more light. But, I mean, just to say, like, that's what I've done out of the gate. I was in a – I was actually – I've been on pin side a little bit recently, and I was in the Godzilla thread, or maybe it was another thread. and somebody was asking me about like I think it was a Godzilla thread and they were asking like hey I'm getting one this is going to be my first new in box like what would you recommend getting and my suggestions were get a shaker motor the things that I've done also I have a Cliff Cliffy shooter lane protector on its way like Cliffy shipped that to me you can get those from Cliffy at a passion for pinball I think it's passionforpinball.com, but that's ordering directly through Cliffy. The game did come with a Cliffy on the scoop, so that's there, but I don't think it's an official Cliffy. But the fact that we called a Cliffy means that he should definitely probably be getting money for every game sold.
    42:26
    So, yeah, my impression, I turned it on. It's the first time I played it. It was the one in my basement. I honestly did not watch a lot of footage on the game being played. I reached out to some people that I know who have played it, and they spoke really highly of it.
    42:46
    And I respect their opinion enough to not fully cast it aside. I don't know how to say it. But, you know, so I'm trying to think. Also, I replaced the balls. I have balls from Pinball Life. No, I've got a giant bag of balls from, I think it's Marco Specialties over there that I drop in new games. Okay, so my first impression of seeing the game like in person is it looks packed. It's super vibrant. you know a criticism I would make is that I think that the Godzilla and the Mechagodzilla the scale is kind of weird like I know that you know Godzilla is back further and like he's in front of a bridge so to that bridge like he might be in scale but between the two of them the Mechagodzilla is just really big and it seems like Godzilla should be bigger than it is on the game. I'm working on remedying that myself for my own personal game by trying to do some sort of modification. And I'll share that if that actually works. But I have something coming that I'm going to see if I can make it look halfway decent.
    44:17
    But other than that, it just looks really packed. My game is sitting next to my Avengers. and actually I have all four of the Elwins lined up. And the thing that, you know, I immediately noticed, it just seems like the evolution of his game design is just really apparent. And it's really cool to have all four of his games. I'm not going to lie. Like, it's, I mean, I'm obviously a fan of his games. I just I think that Godzilla I think the Godzilla layout is really really good the like you were saying like the flow is just like there's shots that flow that don't like it's almost like you're like oh that's never good I'm never going to make that shot and then it's like you shoot the loop to the tail whip it goes down and it feeds the right flipper and then you shoot the spinner or, or no, there's another shot where it's like loop to tail whip and then you end up shooting the upper spinner. Like, it's just like, how are the, how am I making these combo shots? Um, yeah, it's really good. Um, the, you know, so one thing on the, the premium, one of the things that the premium, the differences in the premium and the pro really are the premium has a moving building that works as the lock mechanism, and it's also a diverter. So it has – I think it can be in three different levels. So in its uppermost level, which is the state that the game starts at, when you shoot the right ramp, it's going to – if you shoot the right ramp, it's going to feed your left flipper. If you shoot the left ramp, it's going to – no, it's the opposite, right? You shoot the left ramp with the right flipper, and it will feed the left flipper. So you can combo the ramps. Now, after you make enough and you lower the building, it will then do the opposite. So the ball will be fed back to the flipper that shot the ramp. So you no longer have a crossover.
    46:31
    And then the third stage is when the – so basically, like, so you're shooting – So the ball is basically like you're a Godzilla, and a ball is bashing the building, right? So you are – the ball is Godzilla smashing up this building. You smash it up enough, and the building drops so that you can lock balls for multi-ball. And then it's going to – and then once you lock the three balls for multi-ball, it lowers, and that's like it's collapsing, and that releases the balls.
    47:06
    So that's one of the differences on the premium versus pro. And then I guess the other one is the spinning spinner target bank that is for the Mechagodzilla toy. Oh, actually, there's also the bridge, right? Because the bridge on the Pro is static. Yeah.
    47:25
    Yep, and the Mechagodzilla's got a magnet in it on the Pro, just a piece of flat plastic. There's quite a few differences between the models on this one. Okay. Yeah, and the Mechagodzilla thing is just really cool. Now, I had – so when I first – the first day I had it, I had a couple stuck balls on the Mechagodzilla. Like, it was weird. Like, one wedged in his – between his arm and the cabinet, and then there was another, like, one of his arms is bent, and the ball actually, like, got stuck in the crook of his arm. but after the first day like i had a couple i had a couple i had a couple like play issues where one of the complaints people have is with the center building is that when the balls are released they all go straight down the middle just like a straight drain i don't have that like my i really focused on leveling the game left or right like mid play field like right in front of the right in front of the tower, the building and mine feed the left flipper. Like they come down. I mean, they're all like right behind one another. So it's not like you're really getting it under control, but it's still like none of them go straight down the middle. So I don't have that issue, but that is a complaint people have. I think people are trying to like work with like leveling the building.
    48:47
    I know there, there are mods that are being created to where it kind of kicks the balls one way or another. There's a, the Godzilla owner straight on Pennside has a lot of people talking about that.
    49:02
    And then so that's been an issue. But, yeah, the Mechagodzilla turn thing, so, yeah, I had a couple of stuck balls. There's a position that the spinner can be in as well that I think is causing a stuck ball. And I've seen that people are using, like, a little rubber tab like you would have on the back of a picture frame, which I have and which is what I would use. and you can kind of put that on the turntable, and that will stop this stuck ball spot. So that's – I'm just trying to think of, like, stuck ball issues. Those are the only ones that I can really think of that people have been talking about. I really haven't had much of an issue. I did – like I said, I really spent some time making sure that my game was level side to side, and that really fixed a lot of things that I felt like were an issue when I first got my game. So rule-wise, I mean, so the flow, I think, is great. I mean, I think that, you know, the combos or the fact that, like, you know, you really have to think about, like, one of the things with the turn style and the spinner for Mechagodzilla, like, because that turns, like, there are modes that you will go in. So, like, if you are going into a multiball, like, you might be battling a kaiju that requires that spinner. well if you go into a multi-ball it's going to actually turn it so it's so it takes it so that it's the uh the stand-up bank so it makes it impossible to shoot that spinner while you are in the mode so you know you have to think about that like hey what what what monster am i battling what um you know what am i going to like um uh roadblock myself from playing if i go into this mode. So there's definitely like that type of strategy that you're starting to see with the code because the code is only 0.81. And so I do have some, I have some complaints about the code, but I also am aware that the code is what it is right now. It's 0.81, which means it's only like just over three quarters done. And there's a lot in the game. There's a lot. So let's like, if you want to go like left to right, like, I know that we did this before we talked about it, But, like, I'm just going to do that because that's just – Now we know what we're talking about. Now that we know what we're talking about. So, like, on the left-hand side, you have, like, your lower left spinner. Actually, you have the Mazer Cannon. Is that right?
    51:28
    Yep. You have the Mazer Cannon. And that's, like, your mystery shot. And I believe that you actually – there are modes that you have to finish the mode. Yes, there is.
    51:38
    Definitely. That target gets used several times. It gets used several times. I don't know exactly when, but I know I had to shoot it, and it's not, again, a very good balance of difficult but possible.
    51:51
    But, yeah, good job. It's a tough shot. It's definitely a tough shot because I feel like a lot of tank multiball uses it, so after you collect a certain amount of tanks, that's your super jackpot shot. That sounds great, but when you're in a multiball and you have to, like, it's such a late shot on the flipper, like you really have to focus on it and it makes it difficult, which I, which I appreciate. And I think that if you shoot it, I think if you shoot that target over and over again, I think that actually does like, I think that lights your mystery, which you would then collect again. So you're basically like, you're basically powering it up. Right. I could be wrong, but suggestion that's not what's doing it. That's what I think is happening. So that's one of the things I will say, like, I've played this game a lot and I just don't really understand some of the stuff. Like I've had stuff happen, but I'm not exactly sure how I got there.
    52:48
    But that's also what I, I really enjoy figuring that out as I play it. And I, and I have been going to tilt forums and looking at the rule sheet a little bit just to see like, Hey, I'm not really sure I understand this correctly. And then I'll, I'll go and I'll see one either it's not in there or it is, And or maybe like there can be a lot of stuff running concurrently, which I think can make things confusing.
    53:14
    So up from the Mazer Cannon, you have the lower left spinner. And that is that's a collect shot for jet fighters. And it's also, you know, it's used for tanks. It's used for different battles like the Eberra.
    53:31
    The Eberra Kaiju battle is all spinners. So you have to hit each three of the spinners like a certain amount of times.
    53:38
    Yeah, it's 15 on the left, 40 on the center, and 15 on the right. Yeah, and that's one of my go-tos. I will say like either Ebra is generally the one I will go to first because usually the building isn't dropped by then. So it's like if it's my first battle, I go Ebra. But the other Kaiju battle, so, okay, let's keep going around. So there's that spinner shot. Then you've got your upper flipper. or it feeds the loop shot. But then you have your left-hand orbit slash ramp shot, which is a turnaround. What's that called? What's that called when it, like, scoops like that? I like the term turnaround ramp, but I don't know exactly if that's correct. But that's definitely how I describe it as a turnaround ramp. It feeds like a U-turn into a wire form. Yeah, and that is really like, it's interesting because it's, it doesn't, I don't know, it's like when you hit it, it's super smooth. And then sometimes like I just feel like I'm chunking it and it doesn't feed. And the way like if you look at the layout of the play field, the way that they separated the orbit from that ramp feed is really nice. Like, the design of, hey, if this kicks up, like, and rides his ball guide, it's going to scoop up into this and turn around. It's just very smooth.
    55:04
    But that is also, that shot is very important because not only is it used for ramps and, like, jet fighters, but it is used for the train shot. And the train shot is, like, super important in this game if you have a premium or an alley. As the code sits right now.
    55:23
    So to talk about the trains just for a minute. Okay, so right now it's like viewed as an exploit on the premium and the LE that after you collect, I want to say it's five or six trains.
    55:39
    And the way you collect trains at that shot, you have to qualify them. You can qualify them by shooting the scoop. You can qualify them by attacking the bridge. So qualifying the bridge by spinner hits will qualify that magnet grab shot, and that is your bridge attack. So it's basically like a column of a bridge. So you're shooting the bridge, and that's going to break apart.
    56:04
    But if you – so if you break the bridge, you qualify the train shot. And then there's also, to the immediate left of the building, there is, like, a real quick turnaround, which can be a deadly, like, straight down the middle shot. that if you make that shot that will also qualify a train the trains don't stack those so if you qualify you have to collect it um if you call you know so if you qualify several trains you you will only get one but if you collect five or six trains it lights the left ramp and the right ramp for train shots if you can loop which just means repeat if you can repeat the ramp shot and so what will happen is when you go into that mode, I'm pretty sure that the building goes to a position that feeds back to the flipper that you make the ramp off of, right? You can loop that shot over and over and over again. And your bat, the value of that shot will increase every time. So I, I saw somebody had like billions in a game because they were making 500 million a shot. they looped like they looped the ramp 70 times holy cow yeah mine was 21 and i was up to like 50 million a shot on a game i think i had like a 400 million point uh train like massive points reminds me of um ghostbusters the super jackpot loop or super loops it's like yeah the the you know, I think the rules are going to change. Um, I also think it's really hard. I think it's really, I think it's difficult. I think it's really difficult to collect those trains. Um, it's like, I actually focus, I actually started focusing on that more because of knowing of the exploit, but then I'm like, I don't want to do it. Cause I don't think that's going to be there for very long. So I'm like, okay, I don't want to like, I don't want to like blow up my game and then like, go, well, I'm never going to catch like a 4 billion point score because the exploit's not there anymore. Um, but that's the train shot. Um, very lucrative. And yeah, right now, if you, if I was in a tournament and a premium or Ellie was, I was on it, that is what I would go for. Like, if you can blow that up, you, you will, you'll kill the game. Um, but then, um, to the right of that is the MagnaGrab right And how is how is it used on the pro Um that different than the premium if you know And I guess how is it I don know all the rules to that like why it grabs or like I don know
    58:54
    Yeah, I don't know the rules either. I know originally you would light your locks for Godzilla multiball, and then you had to shoot the building, and the magnet would grab the ball, and it would hold it while a lock animation played. Now, on the code, you simply do enough damage to the building that your Godzilla multiball is ready. You shoot the building, and it does grab and hold the ball, but it only does it one time as the multiball starts. Oh, gotcha.
    59:25
    It's used on destruction jackpots. Yep. And then there's also times where it's lit for magna grab. and when it lights it for that, it seems to rock the ball back and forth from left to right on the magnet and it allows you to double flipper press for a skilled release where you're trying to drop it to that flipper and you get 2x value for the loops at that point.
    59:54
    So I've seen all of those. And then there are other times where if you shoot the building, which damages the building and it goes through and it feeds out that little, I don't know, inner orbit just to the left of the building, the magnet seems to grab the ball and kind of toss it a little bit, almost backwards up the left orbit so it better feeds the upper flipper again.
    60:17
    But, yeah, it does not hold the ball all that often. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's pretty much similar to what I've seen other than the, you know, obviously the locks are different. I'm trying to think when you bash a bridge it does not grab it yeah it grabs it a couple times I'm trying to think I don't really understand the magnet grab because sometimes I feel like I light it and it doesn't grab it even though I'm hitting it so that magnet there's actually a captive ball behind it And so I'm probably not hitting it hard enough to get that captive ball to register, so I'm not actually triggering the magnet.
    61:05
    Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, that would make sense. But it's really interesting because it's – so it's used as a captive ball, but it also can just do magnet shit. and yeah like so if you have the destruction jackpot lit and I think destruction jackpot lit is if you beat a like a feature in a city right so like if you play similar to the tomb awards like I think if you beat modes it lights if you collect certain jackpots and multi balls I think it lights that's the impression I'm getting without any just off of when I'm playing. Yeah. But, yeah, see, you have to be successful in some sort of a mode. That's why I kind of view it like a TUMO award in my brain is the destruction jackpot. No, that would make sense. I mean, I think the TUMO awards are – I mean, the TUMO awards are different, though, because they're like a specific award. Like this is just a – right now it's just a point value, right? So you – It is, and it gets multiplied. It gets multiplied by the cities you've been in, I believe, right?
    62:20
    Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, I thought it was for the number of destruction jackpots you had already collected. It might be, but I think it might be the cities. And so I'll have to look. Interesting, so that would give you motivation to change cities. I'd say I have not at all looked at the Tilt forums, so I'm going to check that while we keep talking. I'm curious now. So I think it might be the cities. So if you go to another city, then you will multiply your destruction jackpot. But I could be wrong.
    62:50
    Yeah, the magnet is really interesting. There's a really satisfying shot when you hit the lower left spinner, and I think it's after you are collecting your last jet fighter. You shoot it through the spinner really fast, and I feel like it grabs the magnet, or maybe it's a combo or something, and the magnet grabs it, and it's just like this satisfying moment of like, okay, I can take a breath. And I'm not only taking a breath, but I now set up for a shot.
    63:23
    And, yeah, the magnet is just really slick. The fact it's a captive ball and just like a basically exposed magnet core, it's pretty slick. People have been having issues with the plastic above the magnet. This I've seen on some premium owners.
    63:42
    The plastic above that magnet is actually breaking. So Stern has replied, and they're sending people new plastics to replace those. And I think the theory is that the bridge – so on the premium and the LE, the bridge, there's these, like, a bridge mechanism up there. On the pro, it's just, like, a static, like, basically it's just part of the ramp. on the premium and LE there's a bridge attack multi-ball and when that multi-ball starts the mechanism is actually like two parts and it is a bridge and it basically like pops back and forth up and down like it's breaking and then it the side that the ball will feed down goes down and the other side is up And so that when you shoot one of the ramps, it depends on what state the building is, the ball will travel and go through the bridge. So basically the bridge is broken and that starts your bridge multi-ball. So somebody suggested that what's happening is actually that when that bridge mechanism drops and it hits the top of the plastic, that it's breaking the plastic.
    64:53
    That makes sense. It makes sense, kind of. But it also – so people are putting, like, a little piece of foam on top of the plastic to stop that, like, that force, right? Now, personally, I'm going to look at mine and what I might do. Now, I will say, like, from what I read is the person – and I'm just not looking at the thread, so I'm not giving them credit. But they took a piece of, like, just regular, like, foam target, like, from Pinball Life, and they shaved it down. So it's not as thick, right? Because one of the issues is if the bridge can't travel all the way down, it's not going to allow the ball to go through.
    65:35
    So I think that they shaved it down a little bit. So it just gives a little cushion. Now, I might suggest that you actually put it on the bottom of the ramp, like on the bottom of the bridge, just for aesthetics. Now, I don't know if that's going to, like, because that mech is, like, real kind of, like, when it starts going, doing its multi-ball thing, like, the bridge, like, really, like, not violently, but, like, really jarringly, like, goes up and down. So, I don't know if that would, like, loosen the foam or whatever, but just from an aesthetic point of view, like, I might not put it on top of the plastic, but I don't know if that's going to work. I wonder if just putting a piece of Mylar on top of it that was clear would help, too. I don't know. I mean, like, because if the bridge is coming down so hard that it's actually busting that plastic, I don't think that Mylar is going to do anything other than, like, just keep the plastic together.
    66:27
    Yeah. So I don't know. Like, you know, the foam thing seems like it works. I mean, but I don't know. I mean, people have only had the game for, like, a week, and the plastic broke. You know, the other thing would be if it's a ball strike. If it's a ball strike, there is a plastic protector set. The only one that I know of that has this as a plastic protector is out of Europe, I think Germany. But I know that – so the question there is, like, if you put a plastic protector underneath the plastic, does that make it so tall that the bridge won't lower properly? Now, what I'm thinking about doing is making my own protector similar to the Cliffies that you see on Whitewater, the boulders. So Cliffy did, like, a great protector set, but it's metal. So it's not a plastic, and it just, like, extends out beyond the edge of the boulder plastics on Whitewater by, like, an eighth of an inch. But it's enough that it's going to take the power of the ball. so you're not going to get a broken mountain.
    67:39
    I think I did something similar on my Doctor Who, when I was doing my Doctor Who restoration. Like the time expander where the cover for the time expander, that plastic, like that always gets broken because where the tabs are held into place, like it's just the ball bashes it. And so I made like a little cliffy that would,
    68:01
    I call it a cliffy because cliffy is the person who invented this shit. So everybody should give him credit. I've made my own cliffy to protect that center part of the plastic, and it's worked well. And what I ended up using to make that is an old, like, cabinet rail. Like, so it's stainless. You can cut it with a Dremel, file it, and it'll look pretty factory.
    68:30
    So, and it's also thin. So if you have an old cabinet rail sitting around that you yanked off of a cabinet restoration, you can cut it down and make protectors out of it. So just a DIY.
    68:46
    So I'll probably do that. But, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that shot between there and the building is just straight down the middle. That's a sucker shot. If you take the shot, I will take it early on. Like if I still have a ball safe going just to like try to qualify one of those trains.
    69:06
    And then you have the building, which we talked about. But, you know, I have no issues with my building. The way the ball feeds to the top of the building, everything works fine. I love it. I think it's like finally like a really proper. Now, I will say like AIQ, the tower is pretty, is a pretty cool toy. in a game.
    69:32
    I don't know. I mean, like, I have a pro. I have a Jurassic Park pro. I mean, one of the coolest toys that has come out in the last, like, I mean, that dinosaur is just pretty awesome, right, on Jurassic Park Premium. I don't think about it because I have a pro. But, I mean, the toys that Keith has on his games are pretty amazing. the tower in AIQ is pretty cool the way that works I love that it uses the jackpot shot that's great, you have a ball up there and you have to shoot it with another ball but yeah, the building just it's great, I've seen some cool mods people have done where they put lights on the inside of the building so it looks like it's fire I would love to do that on my premium, but I don't know need to figure out because the way that it works and all that like adding wires to something like that can end up being like a pain in the ass or like a ball trap or something like that but i think it would be really cool when the when the building was dropping like it would just light up red um but yeah i've had no problems with mine and i it's yeah shooting shooting that building to like start multi-ball like you get like a really satisfying like click sound when you make the shot because it's pretty tight because you have to go through a pretty tight opening.
    70:54
    There's rubbers on either side of that opening, so it can, you know, it can feel kind of clunky. But, yeah, it's a satisfying shot.
    71:03
    And then to the right of that is your spinner, which builds your heat ray. And the heat ray I don't quite understand because the, so basically it's like the idea is like Godzilla is, like you're charging Godzilla's heat ray. and eventually, so that is, like, the lockdown bar button, the action button. Like, that's really the big, the action button is used for several things, like choosing your battles, but the biggest integration in the game is that you can charge it up and you can use it as a heat ray. And the idea is, like, Godzilla is wiping out, like, all the lit inserts on the play field. I don't really get that right now because it seems to me like it should wipe out all the play field inserts, but it doesn't do that. Like, it seems like it only chooses some things to award.
    72:05
    So I don't know what's going on with that right now. Do you understand that rule at all? like uh i i've used it i thought it took out whatever was lit on the play field but i also thought that like i typically use it in a multi-ball yeah for jackpots so if i were yeah so if you do that like depending on what multi-ball you're in it might take them all out but immediately light the next jackpot yeah so like guys don't multi-ball they go up by level and Mecha, you know, it's only going to take out whatever the two are lit, that immediately licks another one. Right.
    72:47
    And the tank multiball, I guess it would take out everything and then light mazer cannon, hypothetically. Well, but tank multiball, like, not all the tanks are going to be lit at once. Like, you have to, like, clear them, right? Yeah, it's like, yeah, that's right. There's three lit and you have to clear five and then shoot the mazer. Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah. So, yeah, so it's not going to get you all that, but we're like jet fighters, right? So jet fighters, jet fighters who qualify by hitting the ramps, but it's really about, like, the in-lane switch, and then you shoot the ramp. But jet fighters, they'll clear all the jet fighters. But sometimes I feel like, like I kind of just want it to, like, I don't know, like I feel like it needs, I don't know, because the ball can be in play when it happens. So it does have to happen pretty quick. But it seems like there should be like a sweeping pattern of lights across the play field or something. And maybe there are. I'm just like I'm so engaged with playing I'm not paying attention. But like I don't feel like it's wiping out.
    73:54
    I feel like it's not awarding me everything that's available on the play field. But I could be wrong. But it is one of those things where it's like, I don't know, the value I'm getting off of it is just not as big as I think it should be. but that just, I don't know. Um, but you can charge it and you use it and then you can charge it up again. It gets incrementally more difficult the more times you use it, but especially like with jackpot shots or super jackpot shot, like, yeah, super satisfying. Um, there is somebody who's made a mod that is a foot pedal. So if you are incapable of trapping up or incapable of like making ramp shots where you're like, I have time to charge it up. So basically it's like you hold that, you have to hold down the button to charge up the heat ray. And then finally like it fires.
    74:43
    That's what chins are for, man. That's what chins are for. Get down on that lock bar. Yeah. I'll definitely chin that button for the heat ray. I do like that you have to hold it to use it and not just tap it. I don't know why, but I enjoy that. It does not take that long to charge it up. But if you. Probably like three seconds. But that's a lot of time with the way the balls are moving on that game. If I'm going to use it, one, use it like if you're in a ball save.
    75:10
    Or, you know, you make a shot that's going to trap the ball. Like hit the ramp. Like hit your ramps. It will give you enough time to charge it.
    75:20
    I don't know. I haven't had that much of a problem with it. I do think that if you try to use it, like if you false alarm it a couple times, Like, I think you might lose it. So, like, once you hit it, I think you've got to commit or pull out. But if you, like, go, oh, maybe, nope, nope, maybe, nope, I think you might lose it. Because I feel like I've done that a bunch of times.
    75:47
    But it's really cool. I mean, I love the idea behind it. I think using a lockdown bar like that, also, like, you know, the fact you have to hold it down for some time to make it happen, It makes it, like, less of an exploit or, I don't know, you feel like you're earning it.
    76:06
    Lockdown button also is used for add-a-ball. It's used for choosing your kaiju. I'm trying to think what else.
    76:20
    I don't know. That might be it right now. Um, but yeah, so you have that upper spinner and then you have your, your right ramp, which is used for bashing, bashing the, um, bashing the building. Um, it's used for jet fighters. And then to the right of that is the loop shot. Now the loop shot is important because after shooting, after shooting, making three consecutive loop shots, and it's kind of like a, it's almost a, it's a little Dr. Who is the loopy style, but I think it's not as easy to loop it like Doctor Who.
    76:56
    But if you shoot it three times, it's going to light a Godzilla power-up. Right now, those power-ups, I do not believe are in the code.
    77:08
    I wondered when I would see those on the screen, like two more per power-up. I didn't know what or how I was powering anything up, but now it makes sense. yeah so like the power up and I think the power up is supposed to light up the scoop um but I think all I think yeah so I think the Godzilla power up should light up the scoop but right now it might but it might just be like a point value I feel like I saw the I feel like I saw the scoop light up for it at some point but it was actually it was almost like I feel like the light was flickering, so I don't know. Maybe I have something wrong, but it should be a Godzilla power-up, but yeah, I don't think it's there yet. But the loops are really satisfying, and then to the right of that is the tail whip, and the tail whip is a loop that goes down behind the Mechagodzilla turntable,
    78:09
    and it kind of feeds out to the left flipper. So it's a really fascinating shot. That's the tail whip. I'm not 100% sure on the rules with that, other than the fact that it's super satisfying to shoot it.
    78:24
    The tail whip is the hippo shot from Congo. It's super similar. Oh, really? Yeah, I mean, on Congo, you actually have, like, three pop bumpers there. There's not necessarily a direct entrance from the side. But as far as, like, how it feeds out and the geometry on that, it's very similar to how the Hippo lane feeds on Congo. Okay, okay. It's, I think it was, I don't think it's, like, a copy or a clone of it by any means, but I definitely think that ballpark was inspired by Congo. I'd be surprised if it wasn't. Yeah. Yeah, he likes Congo, man. Like, there's some – It's a good game. Like, Maiden. Isn't there – like, one of the Maiden shots is similar to Congo? Like, maybe the left ramp. Maybe through the – yeah, through the ramp. Kind of like the volcano shot, right? The cup volcano. Yep.
    79:17
    I think it's just a good layout to take some inspiration from. Yeah. And, I mean, I think, you know, that's just the reality. When there's been good games designed in the past, it's a good thing for designers to use those ideas and reformulate them slightly into more modern machines. Well, I mean, I think one of the things that's, I mean, Elwin has played a lot of pinball. Like, that guy can draw on a lot of knowledge, deep, deep knowledge. And also, the muscle memory he has from playing so much to be able to, like, go, Oh, yeah, this, like, my biggest takeaway on Godzilla, and I mentioned it before, is that there are combos in there that you just don't feel like you should be comboing. And it's like you almost combo them accidentally. Like, the loop to tail whip to upper spinner is so satisfying. And I've made it, I mean, I've made it enough times that I feel like I'm actually trying to make that combo. But I don't feel like I am. I'm like, I feel like it just is happening. And I'm like, oh, that feels like that's maybe magic. Like, I don't know what's happening right now. Like, yeah. I did look up the destruction jackpot. Okay. It's a base value of 5 million. Okay. It increases by 1 million points per insert collected, 5% of points from modes associated with the monster monitor inserts. So Monster Rampage, Jet Fighter Attack, and 3% of the totals from your Godzilla multiball and Mechagodzilla multiball are added as well. The jackpot value resets after changing cities, but your cities then do multiply it. So it starts at 1 and it can go all the way up to 4x. Yeah, there you go. So that explains that.
    81:10
    Now, something I saw, I played a game on it. oh, whatever day, two, three days ago, you were talking, a bunch of you in the group chat were talking about it. So I got antsy and drove down to my location and played. I got a city combo. Do you have any idea what a city combo is? Okay. A dot popped up on the screen, and I was like, I don't know what I just did. Okay. So the city combo, my understanding is that each city that you're in has a specific combo that collects the combo.
    81:40
    Okay. And so you start in Tokyo. So it's kind of like the dinosaur ones on Jurassic Park then, the DNA combos, that makes sense. Yes, yes. Now, I don't know if, like, I don't know if the city combos, like, I don't know if certain cities will have more combos.
    81:58
    I don't, like, in Tokyo, Tokyo is the only place that I know, because that's where you start, that's where I spend most of my time. I don't know how many combos there are but I am getting this to be a combo and I'm trying to think like I was trying to think off my head like what that combo is but I think it might only be like a two shot combo but that's after we go around the play field we can talk a little bit about code because I think that that's something that we could talk about there.
    82:35
    So you have Tail Whip, and then you have the Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla is a multi-ball starting. That's a multi-ball associated feature. Like we said, on the Premium and LE, there's the turntable that is the spinner where you have to shoot the targets. I love that. I love when Mechagodzilla starts. I love the voiceover of like, oh, wow, look, a Godzilla or whatever. It's a metal Godzilla. It looks just like Godzilla or whatever that is. Like I just crack up every time.
    83:10
    It's one of my favorite animations in the game is the startup of that. So, yeah, I don't really – so Mechagodzilla is like you shoot a couple jackpots and you have to shoot like the force field again to requalify jackpots. jackpots and then at some point you qualify the super i'm not is that is the super at is it the super at the mecha godzilla like the turntable turns and you shoot it or is it somewhere else well so yeah i guess on yours it would be on mine it's the super in mecca is the tail whip like the pack oh that's what it is that's what it is yeah so you have if you were to shoot it through the spinner, I'm assuming on yours, yeah, it probably rotates back to seeing a spinner since mine's always there. Yeah. I think it's interesting because that mech really changes how those modes play because for me, to hit those stand-up targets, it's pretty tough. They're very much, like, on the side. Yeah. You don't really have a good direct shot at it. I've started shooting that center spinner and just holding up my upper flipper so it kind of bounces over and hits them. Oh, okay. But I did notice the one game I played on a premium, it did seem like the Mecha was a little bit easier to start compared to how we would start on the Pro.
    84:30
    But then the Super Jackpot is roughly going to be the same. You're just waiting for that thing to turn. I'm trying to shoot back through that spinner, and that's essentially what you're doing too. But, yeah, it has to feed back behind through that Mecha Godzilla lane.
    84:44
    Yeah, that's it. It's the tail whip. The tail whip is what it's your super jackpot because I forgot that it does have that insert back there that lights up.
    84:54
    So that, oh, and then below Mechagodzilla, you have the pop bumper, which is the saucer. There's also a scoop. I'll talk about the scoop real fast. Scoop starts your, that's where your kaiju battles start. You qualify kaiju battles by shooting the ramps when they're lit to qualify a kaiju.
    85:13
    That is where you, like, that can light for a tank. That is where you start tank multi-ball. That is where you go to change cities.
    85:23
    There's a lot of stuff going on with the scoop. Mine shoots pretty cleanly to the left flipper, and it dead bounces over to the right flipper, which usually doesn't moonwalk out the in lane, but it has. you can also like just do a what's it called when you just like stop the ball when it shoots your flipper a dead what is that live catch so you can also you can live catch on the left flipper like if you're shooting a shot or something like that you start Geigen and you want to start on the ramps but I usually bounce it over it's pretty safe yeah same here I actually I did turn that scoop power down slightly from at least the original code as well. Okay. Because it was flying out of there on the initial code. I don't know if they, by default, altered it in the later code or not. But, yeah, initially that ball freaking rocketed out of there. I have not messed with any of my settings other than the back box illumination. So all of my flippers and everything are factory.
    86:27
    Just an FYI. Can you make the right ramp from your upper left flipper? yes okay not is it consistent or is it just like possible it happens i mean it's not it's not i don't really aim for the upper right ramp from the upper left flipper because it's so makeable from the lower left flipper um but i definitely i mean i definitely made it um but it's not like a clean, it's not like AIQ or something.
    87:02
    Like, it just doesn't feel like it's the, it doesn't feel like the layout really wants you to shoot it like that.
    87:12
    Yeah, I'm not sure. I try to shoot it a lot from that upper flipper, and I shouldn't because it doesn't make it very often, and the feedback is super deadly. Yes, the feedback is really super deadly, which I really appreciate. I feel like a lot of the, um, I feel like a lot of his earlier games, I feel like if you didn't make a shot, a lot of times you weren't going to get really punished. I feel like there's a lot of punishment for missing shots now. Um, which I think is something that I really appreciate about Dennis Norman's designs. I feel like Dennis Norman's designs, It's like he has really satisfying ramps, but if you don't make the ramp, you should drain.
    87:59
    You know like I feel that way with Whitewater I feel that way with I said I played Elvira and the Party Monsters the other night and it was just killing me Yeah I do get a good bit of that from Godzilla So I do like to be punished if I'm flailing.
    88:17
    Oh, saucers. So I do want to talk about saucers because this is something I do not understand. There's a single pop bumper in the game. It's lower right Scott Denisey location from TNA. Maybe not as – I mean, it's more exposed, but – It's more like Viking to me, but yeah. More like Viking, but yeah, you know what I mean. It's like, I don't know, if I think about modern pinball with the single pop bumper. Oh, yeah. The single pop bumper definitely was a TNA trend for sure. Not just Scott Denisey. I mean, it's on Rick and Morty, too. It seems to be a Scott Dinesy staple. But I will say, like, I think the most active single pop bumper game is probably Pinball Magic. Like, if you get the ball in there or not.
    89:07
    Yeah, Pinball Magic, right? Yeah. That's the one where it's got the stage area. Yeah. If you get the ball in there, man, it's just like, just starts machine gunning.
    89:17
    But, yeah, so do you understand saucer attacks? Do you understand? And I got to saucer attack multi-ball. Okay. No clue how I did it. I know there's an insert that is pointed at the saucer that occasionally lights with the word saucer attack. Right. And if you shoot the pop bumper, you attack a saucer or you defeat a saucer. And there's pretty good value in it. I have no idea what's qualifying it or anything like that. I know that my friend Brandon Pennington, Gov, G-O-V on Pinside, has designed a really cool mod for that pop bumper that I'm waiting to arrive. I'm excited to install that. But, no, I don't fully understand the software attack rules. So if you do, please go on. I do not.
    90:07
    Damn it. All right. Tell forums. So my understanding, this is my understanding, but I don't really understand it. My understanding is, like, you have to shoot the pop-up a certain amount of times. Once you do that, you can then kill the saucer. And then if you do that, if you defeat three saucers, you will earn an extra ball. I think if you do five, you start the saucer multi-ball, saucer attack multi-ball, which I have done. I've started that, but I don't – I'm not 100% sure. And so to say, okay, so that is the later. Oh, okay. So sorry, I'm reading the rule here. Okay. So what's the rule say?
    90:53
    What's known of it, it says, light saucer attack at the pop bumper by shooting the switch under the pop bumper? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Enough times, question mark.
    91:04
    To destroy the saucer, though, when it is lit, you shoot the pop bumper. It's a minimum of 2 million points. plus 20,000 points per bumper. Okay. And the value of saucer attack is multiplied by 1X every time one is collected on a ball, and it's further doubled if the player shoots the bumper by making an alley pass or shrapneling to the right return lane.
    91:28
    Awards, three saucers, extra ball, which I got that the other day. Previously, like, extra balls were pretty stingy, and then when I was playing the other night on the speed code, I was like, oh, I actually got a couple extra balls. Yeah. So that explains why I got one of them. And five saucers will start your saucer attack multi-ball, which I have seen one time.
    91:48
    And then the rules for saucer attack multi-ball are right now TBA. So they will come later. So to cover extra balls really quick, the two extra balls that I'm really aware of are the one from saucer that you mentioned. And then the other one, which I think is a lot easier to get, is to collect 10 jet fighters.
    92:12
    And so like what we were saying before, like you start jet fighters by the ball will travel to the in-lane. If you look at the in-lane plastic, if you look at the in-lane, the in-lane, both in-lanes have inserts that say jet fighter. Red, they light up red. when they are red and you make a ramp shot off of that flipper, you will collect a missile. So the in-lane plastic that's underneath that insert has three missiles. So the lights that are underneath the in-lane plastic are actually feature lamps, which I think is awesome.
    92:51
    Yeah, it's basically six more inserts on a play field without having to cut the wood. Exactly. So once you collect all six, like your first one, you will start your first jet fighter by collecting six. So you do that, and then you will light different shots. They'll be lit red.
    93:10
    If you make those shots, you can— And they're all hurry-ups, right? They're all hurry-ups. They roam a little bit, but generally speaking, they will be generally on the upper spinner, the right ramp, and the right loop. So then after you make five, the lower left spinner lights for your sixth jet fighter. Now, here's a situation where you can use your heat ray, and I believe it will collect all the jet fighters that are available at the time.
    93:43
    So that's how you collect your first six. Then you want to requalify jet fighter. Pay attention to the insert lit on the in lane and the missiles to know how many you have. I think you have to collect, maybe it's just another six, but it's like it'll alternate. So the first time you do it, like both in lanes are lit, and then the next time it's like only one in lane is lit. So you have to collect all three off of one ramp, and then you have to switch over and collect all three off the other ramp. You start it again.
    94:13
    I didn't realize that. Yeah, you collect four jet fighters, and then you don't qualify an extra ball. One of the things I think is really interesting about this game is that there is no extra ball insert. If you earn an extra ball, you just earn it. Like, your 10th jet fighter, you get your extra ball. Your third saucer, you get your extra ball. There's no, like, you're not qualifying some shot somewhere. And another thing I've talked about it before, like, it's always been a pet peeve of mine, like, that you have an insert on a game, like, an extra ball. Like, an extra ball is something that you are awarded an extra ball. Like, that's a huge award. Like the fact that extra balls are always taken out of games, like for tournaments and stuff like that, even though there's an extra ball insert, like has always driven me nuts. And so the fact that there's no insert for extra ball, I kind of like it because I'm like, well, if you're playing in a tournament, it's not like you've now negated a part of the rules.
    95:12
    So that I like. But those are the two extra balls that I know of. I'm sure that there's other ones. I've seen people are really frustrated with it, with earning an extra ball. but jet fighters is the way to go. And then the third jet, I can't remember the third jet fighter, how to qualify that one because I actually asked on Tilt Forums.
    95:34
    But, yeah, do your jet fighters, collect your 10, get an extra ball. So that's basically the layout.
    95:44
    So I love the layout. Like we talked about, like the combos and everything, like I find them super satisfying. I think I like the music I think the music is I think it's like kind of a heavy rock underlay of music it changes up though so it's not too repetitive I think the call outs are really fun I really like the campy humor I've read some people don't love that they wish it were more serious I don't want to get overly serious when I'm playing pinball so I enjoy it But my, like I said, the code is at .81.
    96:23
    The one thing that just drives me nuts about the game is it's just so, like, right now, right now, the back box screen, the LCD is, like, it just doesn't really give you a lot of information. Like, the video that's playing, like, you get video clips and stuff like that. But I really like the way that Keith has integrated the back box for really telling the player, like, your status. Like, Iron Maiden, it's like, this is how many spinner shots you need. It's like it's all, like, very clear to me, like, what I need to do.
    97:05
    I just don't have that in this game at all. Like, even, like, you know, so the main screen that you're going to see most of the time is, like, Godzilla is in a city. And it, like, it has, like, these little images and, like, this little font that's, like, you need four out of ten tanks. Which is, like, okay, so, okay, it's giving me the information, but it's, one, it's really hard to read. I want to say that those are just placeholders.
    97:34
    I just don't know. so there's a lot like like the saucers like i don't know what my status is on like the saucers unless i shoot it and i'm looking up and as i'm getting awarded that like i really want to be able to look up at any point of play and be able to see my status on different things that is that right now, I mean, other than the fact that, like, there's obviously just, like, stuff not in the code, like, combo Ray or Rage combo, which is, uh, insert on the left in lane, I don't think that's in the game right now, um, I could be wrong about that, but I have not seen that lit up, um, so the code's not complete, we know that, but that, I mean, so I'm just going by what I'm playing, and, you know, I've, I've had a pretty solid game, like, I've broken a billion, um, and I definitely, there are a lot of times where I'm like, I don't know what I need to do next, like where I'm at with this stuff, and that I wish was made clear. That's my big complaint right now, but it's also tough because the code is obviously not done.
    98:50
    Yeah, that's where, you know, I don't think there's any point in going too deep on code discussion until we know it's just over. which I don't expect to be for quite some time based on how certain those things now but I anticipate it will be awesome because I already really enjoy what's there I've definitely while I appreciate the depth I finally defeated Thanos with all the gems a month or two ago it was awesome Rubbing it in. But I realize, like, but I just, I look at it now and I, on one, I'm glad that is there and that's there for me to pursue as, like, a long-term goal on a game. Yeah. I am recognizing, like, the ridiculousness of Stern to dedicate so many resources to adding that sort of depth so quickly to these games when, like, a tiny fraction of players will ever see that anyway. so I want it to be there eventually but I am not as bothered by the long term coding efforts as I have been in the past to a certain extent I really appreciate the new additions of the things like Escape Noobler Battle of the Black Order what is that Ninja Turtles has one called Half Shell Challenge I think it is those little mini games I know Mandalorian's got a couple different ways to play I think those things are very cool to add in now don't get me wrong I do still like for there to be this final wizard mode this ultimate goal something to get to but for the most part with what's already there I'm having fun I'm happy I'm impressed and yeah I do like when I get code updates now because it's like cool I get to explore the game again and find what's changed let's see I'm looking forward to that Yeah, like I said, like I want to reiterate time and time again that, like, I'm well aware that it's .81. So I'm not like – this is not like, oh, the code is awful, whatever, where's the code? I get it. Like, I know that it's really early still in the production.
    101:05
    I think – all I'm going to say is this. I think Jurassic Park is one of the best rule sets of any game I've ever played. I really think from start to finish, from the first paddock you enter to getting to Escape Nublar, I just think the progression is so good. Now, once you get to Escape Nublar, there's definitely points in the progression of Jurassic Park because it's somewhat linear, like you have to do this, you have to do this, that you can kind of like jail yourself.
    101:47
    But I just think it works really well. One of my favorite rule things in a game is during Visitor Center. Well, Visitor Center mini wizard mode is great. But the way that the inserts are used for where the dinosaurs are, like when you're in a paddock, so basically your inserts are moving around and they're trying to, like, get to your workers. I think that is one of the best uses of inserts ever.
    102:26
    Like, it just makes sense to me. Like, it's just like, oh, those are dinosaurs, you know? And that's the thing, like, that's what I want to see, like, going back to, like, the heat ray thing. Now, I don't know if they can do this because I don't know if, like, the LEDs in Godzilla can function like this.
    102:44
    But, like, LED usage, I still go back to Wizard of Oz as being, like, a – I know that some people don't like it because they feel like inserts are used a lot. But when the inserts in Wizard of Oz are used in certain modes, like sepia tone for there's no place like home, or Fireball Frenzy, like, the inserts look like they're on fire. Like, that is, that's the type of stuff, like, I wish the game had. Like, so when you do the heat ray, like, I really want, like, all the inserts to, like, go blue, right? So it's almost like the heat ray. Yeah, yeah. So, like, the heat ray, you know, so I think Godzilla, like, at least in the art, like, the heat ray is blue. so I want it to be like this blue just like going across the playfield and just like everything just like getting wiped out I really like the nuance stuff I mean I'm not I'm a pretty decent player like I get deep into games like I have gotten to escape Nublar in game several times you know like I play but I also play my games a lot so I feel like I really start to understand the rules and it's the nuances that I really like kind of just get really excited about. And that right now, it's like really hard for me, even though like I'm going to tilt for him. I'm like trying to study what the rules are. I'm still like really confused with some stuff like while I'm playing. I'm like I just don't know where I'm at. So it's a complaint, but I don't think it's not going to get resolved because I just think that with the popularity of the game, you know, they're going to be working on it for a while. It's only at .81. So it's just like I'm just super excited about the polish that we're going to see. And, yeah, it's going to be really interesting. And I think a lot of people are really excited about it, which means they're playing it, which means they're sharing feedback. and they're sharing feedback with arguably one of the greatest players ever in the history of pinball, if not the best player, and he is going to be able to use that to make, I mean, I think it's got to be one of the best rule sets ever when it's done. I think it has to be because I think the flow and everything, I don't know. I just want it to be like the perfect package of pinball. But maybe that's too much. But they said it's the king, right? I mean, that's a big statement for CERN to come out and go, the king is here or whatever.
    105:24
    So, I don't know. Yeah. So, again, as we've just stressed, code is early. Code is early. So, you know, let's reserve final judgment until the appropriate time. but if you had to look right now at your lineup that's not directly behind you like usual but in your home yeah of your l wings has godzilla jumped to the top yet i think so i or is it still trailing i think that godzilla and jurassic park are really close um i was actually i was having this conversation with somebody today um i think jurassic park right now because of code is probably my favorite.
    106:13
    I think that the layout and really interesting flow of Godzilla, I think the toys, I think that it's going to be my favorite Elwynn easily. But right now, I just think the code of Jurassic Park, as far as making it a complete game, which game would be better, I would say Jurassic Park. but Godzilla is pretty amazing. I mean, it's pretty amazing. It's just the code stuff, you know. My expectations are high because he's done really well with the code.
    106:54
    You know, all of his games, I just think that there's a clarity to them that is, yeah, I just think it makes the games, like, fun without having to, like, really, I don't know. I've heard about people, I think that people think that the code is too deep and it's a little confusing, but honestly, like, I don't really have a problem with the complexity of it. I think it's like you can get mired in the nuances, which I enjoy, but I don't think you have to know those things to enjoy the game. You know what I mean?
    107:25
    Yeah, that's definitely one of the things I like on a lot of L1 games is there is a certain basic level to the rules and to the shots where people find enjoyment in it, and then for those who like to dive deeper, there's, like, this amazing depth and nuance.
    107:45
    I still think Iron Maiden is my favorite. Wow. Which is ironic because, like, that is the theme that does the absolute least for me out of the Elwynn games. Yeah.
    107:58
    But there's just something about that game to me that is, it's got, it's so perfect in my mind. I also love Jurassic Park. And that one's a theme that really appeals to me. Like, one of the employees down at my location actually bought me this awesome Jurassic Park sweatshirt for Christmas and already gave it to me. Nice. So I, of course, had to order the matching sweatpants, and I've got this whole Jurassic Park outfit that I'm ready to go play Jurassic Park in now. Oh, my God. Please send me a picture. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to send you a picture. It's a sweet outfit. It looks like one of the vehicles from Jurassic Park. It's got, like, neon green with, like, the zebra stripes on it. It's fucking awesome. That's amazing. Anyway, yes, it's sweet.
    108:40
    But similarly to you, I can see Godzilla rising to the top because the layout is just so interesting. It's so unique.
    108:51
    And, you know, it makes me super excited to see what Elwin continues to do as we move forward. As, you know, he's mentioned he's already working on other games. And I give Stern a ton of credit. even though they're way behind on building. I think that's just the reality of the world currently for many things.
    109:11
    The designs of these games that they've been pumping out, like, man, they're on a hell of a hot streak.
    109:19
    And while all pinball machines can have issues to some extent, they seem to really, you know, maybe not the best with communication, but they seem to get everyone taken care of eventually. I am currently waiting on a part for my Beatles which we haven't even really discussed but I did pick up a Beatles and a Ninja Turtles right after Pinball Expo for my location and I am so happy to finally own a Beatles machine loving playing that game as well totally different gameplay style than Godzilla obviously but again very very fun and yeah man I have to go rake leaves and I really don't want to go play Godzilla now. I have to go pick up my daughter. I'm going to try to do this quickly. Yeah, I got to go. We got responsibilities and chores, man. But on that note, I think general, obviously if you didn't catch the general impressions, I think we're both super fucking impressed with Godzilla. And I'm just excited that it's going to continue to grow as the time comes and keep going. Thank you for these amazing games and designs. And I mean, that's all I really got. Hopefully, I think, I don't know, I can't remember when we actually started recording and what we were talking about before, but I am going to be changing jobs very soon that will allow me to work from home and have far more free time. And hopefully we'll be able to bring you guys some more frequent and potentially shorter episodes.
    110:51
    Because I think Taylor and I enjoy talking about pinball. And if we can record it and some of you want to listen to it, that's cool too. But I'm looking forward to that change. tomorrow could potentially be my last day at my current school, or it could be like two weeks from now. I don't know. That's all up in the air. But, yeah, coming, and hopefully a little bit more time for fun things like pinball.
    111:13
    All right, man. Well, yeah, hopefully that all works out. And speaking of school, I have to go and pick up my daughter.
    111:23
    Yeah, and we'll have to before Christmas because we ran out of time for our Christmas list, but that's okay. We have to do a Christmas special. Yeah. We will do a Christmas special. We'll get that.
    111:35
    Well, Tommy, look, man, it was good to talk to you. I'm definitely going to put in more time on Jurassic Park. Well, I am going to put more time on Jurassic Park. I'm going to add to my 5,000 plays.
    111:47
    5,000 plays? I think I have 5,000 plays. Yeah, I think I'm going to go to my Insider Connect right now. I'm going to look up my plays on Godzilla. I am on if you want to Insider Connect is kind of a mess right now but I'm going to I'm not now currently my high score on Godzilla is 1,425,181,470 my player experience is 350, I have 33 achievements and I've played 380 times definitely played more than me because I think my game on location has about 400 plays on it my latest achievement is Mega Destruction yeah so there you go alright man well look until next time I will yeah we'll continue to do what we're doing we'll continue to play and do things Pinsonati is this weekend so So, yeah, I will be going down on Sunday specifically and picking up some of their kits. So we should have the insider kits installed on, I think we got one from Maiden, Jurassic Park, and Ninja Turtles are coming. That way I'll be able to get set up sometime next week. Nice, man. Well, look, safe travels. I will get this out soon, and it was good to talk to you, Tommy. Remember, go and buy, get ready for Ryan Claytor's Kickstarter, pre-order John Chad's book, shop at Tilt Hammer, Soft Plunge, Double Danger.
    113:33
    Brandon Pennington has got some mods coming. Gov on Pinside, GOV. They're in the Godzilla owner's thread. And I posted a picture of them to our Facebook page. And if you want his contact info, just reach out. I know I've got those coming so I can make my pro game look more like a premium because of the sculpt that he did. It looks really good, too. So I am excited. All right, man. Tommy, it was good to talk to you. Oh. YouTube charity, North End Pub, December 19th. We'll be streaming it. .cd slash the podcast. Get ready to make some good calls. All right, Tommy. Until next time.
    114:13
    Later. Later, man. Later. Let's go. I think I wanna see a better girl Yeah the girl, yeah the girl Yeah the girl you have to be on my heart Yeah the girl, yeah the girl I think I wanna see a better girl Yeah the girl, yeah the girl
    115:16
    Thank you. The End