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The Spinner Is Lit - Episode 41 - High Prices And Destroying Tokyo

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 23m·analyzed·Oct 7, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Mark unboxes and reviews American Pinball's Hot Wheels, praising build quality, accessibility, and game design.

Summary

Spencer hosts Dan and Mark Scott from the Roundtable crew discussing Mark's unboxing and initial gameplay experience with American Pinball's Hot Wheels machine. The conversation covers build quality, packaging, lighting design, playfield geometry, and gameplay mechanics, with praise for the game's approachability, theme appeal across age groups, and operator reliability. They also discuss flipper adjustments, display quality, and compare the game's design philosophy to other classic titles.

Key Claims

  • Hot Wheels from American Pinball has powder-coated legs and uses a common Allen wrench key for assembly, reducing need for additional tools

    high confidence · Mark Scott describing the unboxing experience in detail

  • Hot Wheels has RGB lighting throughout with strobing arrow effects on shots to guide players, similar to Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz

    high confidence · Mark and Dan discussing the lighting design and visual effects

  • Out of all American Pinball games, Hot Wheels has had the least amount of problems for operators

    medium confidence · Mark citing Joe from Pinball Star's feedback

  • Hot Wheels uses printed back glass rather than a translite, which is thicker than typical Stern glass

    high confidence · Mark describing the cabinet construction details

  • American Pinball successfully converted Houdini from a non-functional prototype to a presentable game in approximately 6-7 months

    high confidence · Dan discussing the Houdini development timeline

  • Hot Wheels appeals to multiple age groups and would be suitable for family fun centers but is not currently widely placed there

    high confidence · Spencer and Mark discussing placement potential and target demographics

  • The Hot Wheels unboxed unit weighed approximately 300 pounds

    high confidence · Mark describing the delivery and transport challenges

  • Hot Wheels includes a virtual lock system using a single ball on a saucer for multiball activation, not traditional multi-ball locks

    high confidence · Mark explaining the track multiball mechanics

  • Mark adjusted the game's pitch from recommended 6 degrees to 6.5 degrees and flipper power from 25 to 26 to address floatiness and shot rejection

    high confidence · Mark detailing his tweaking process after unboxing

Notable Quotes

  • “The artwork on that game really pops. I really like the use of the different colors... when you see that game from across the room, it really catches your attention.”

    Mark Scott @ early in unboxing discussion — Emphasizes the visual appeal and accessibility of Hot Wheels' design

  • “This is like a Jersey Jack game like Wizard of Oz... the light show is pretty awesome”

    Mark Scott @ discussing light effects — Compares Hot Wheels' lighting quality to a highly regarded JJP title

  • “It's pure adrenaline and super fun to shoot... It's not a frustrating game. It's not like a Steve Ritchie game where you just want to throw the machine across the room.”

    Mark Scott @ gameplay discussion — Contrasts Hot Wheels' accessible difficulty with other designers' harder titles

  • “Everyone's like, oh my God, it's not deep enough. It's not hardcore enough. It's not grown up enough. And it's just like, man, difficulty and depth and sometimes that shit just it's overrated.”

    Mark Scott @ defending game design philosophy — Addresses community criticism about depth vs. accessibility in pinball design

  • “Hot Wheels appeals to all ages. It appeals to my age group. It appeals to my son. It appeals to kids that are 9, 10 years old. It's just a great theme.”

    Mark Scott @ discussing theme appeal — Highlights multigenerational appeal as a strength

  • “If I was an owner, I would get one because I'm sure you would get a lot of quarter drops with kids wanting to play that game.”

    Spencer (implied) @ operator placement discussion — Suggests strong commercial potential for location operators

  • “American pinball games are well built... they're not just going for that same old 40-something white guy theme.”

    Mark Scott @ discussing manufacturer differentiation — Praises American Pinball's theme diversity strategy

  • “It's like a compilation of the greatest games... So many different games within this one game.”

Entities

Mark ScottpersonSpencerpersonDanpersonAmerican PinballcompanyHot WheelsgameStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJoeperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Mark Scott provides detailed unboxing review of Hot Wheels from American Pinball, highlighting packaging quality, build construction, and initial gameplay experience

    high · Extended segment covering box contents, protective packaging, leg assembly, cabinet construction, and power-on testing

  • ?

    design_innovation: Hot Wheels features full RGB lighting with strobing arrow sequences to guide shot selection, compared favorably to Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz

    high · Detailed discussion of RGB inserts, pulsing effects on blue arrows, and color cycling sequences during power-up

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Hot Wheels deliberately balances approachable, casual-friendly design with sufficient depth for engaged players, contrasting with harder designer (Steve Ritchie) style

    high · Mark emphasizes non-frustrating experience, broad age appeal, and theme integration without sacrifice to core gameplay

  • ?

    design_innovation: Hot Wheels incorporates inline drop targets, virtual lock system (single ball saucer lock for multiball), battle modes, and track pieces—synthesizing classic pinball mechanics into modern game

    high · Detailed explanation of drop target→saucer→lock flow, track multiball activation, battle modes, and add-a-ball mechanics

  • ?

    operational_signal: Hot Wheels reported by Pinball Star operator (Joe) to have the lowest failure rate among American Pinball games tested in location play

    medium · Mark citing Joe from Pinball Star: 'out of all the games, Hot Wheels had the least amount of problems for the operators'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.431

0:00
Hi, welcome to the Skinner's Lit Pinball Podcast, I'm your host Spencer on a new laptop. Episode 41, High Prices and Destroying Tokyo With us tonight is, from the Roundtable crew, Dan and our special guest Who comes on the show and welcome back, Mark Scott Hey guys Hey, how's it going? Hey Spencer We're going good, man, here in the Dungeon Recording Studio in Casper, Wyoming where it's still beautiful and sunny, and we're still hitting high 70s in, it's supposed to be like 78 or something tomorrow, in October. So, you know, yay. Well, that sounds pleasant. It's still warm here, but not, you know, ridiculous. It's October, so, you know, we're probably hitting the 90s.
1:15
Yeah. Well, that's Sacramento weather. How's Reno doing? Oh, man. The weather was really beautiful today. We took a nice walk at 70 degrees. It was just very pleasant and, for once, no smoke in the air. So that was really nice. Yeah, that's nice to hear, man. Really nice. Dan and I were talking about that off the air before you jumped in.
1:39
That's really good to hear that the fires are getting out and the smoke is going away. All right, guys, it's been too long, and it's time for another episode. Mark, you just unboxed again this week. I did. On Thursday, I unboxed Hot Wheels from American Pinball.
2:04
And, wow, the thing that I found that was really interesting is the build quality. Just opening the box, normally, you know, you get worried, like, there's going to be damage or something like that. But when I opened it up, I felt pretty confident because it was wrapped in cardboard on the head, on the front and the back of the machine. So you could lift it up and put the legs on it without having to worry about scratching anything or those kinds of things, because it was much easier to put it together without worrying about breaking it. Because I'm always freaking out with it being the first game that I ever got. my first new in box, which I'm really excited about. Um, it w it went without a hitch. I was kind of worried because when I looked at the box, there were forks that went right through the bottom of the box. And all I was thinking is, Oh, this is not good. This is not good. So I, I obviously, as soon as I got the delivery, I kind of ripped that hole a little bit just to look and peer inside. And fortunately there was a lot of space and there was a cardboard that was blocking it. It was kind of in the inside of the box, and that was untouched. So I felt pretty confident that nothing happened to the cabinet or any part of the machine. The good news is I unboxed it, and there was not a scratch on it. So you just kind of took it on faith that everything, or at least you used your eyes and just sort of hoped for the best. Pretty much, yeah. I would have a hard time taking it on faith. Yes. Yes. Well, here's the thing. When I received it, I did cut the side of the box and open it and shine a light through it. And I didn't have to unbox the whole thing because I knew that the top was fine. It was the bottom that I was worried about. But it didn't look like it was crushed or like an accordion style kind of thing. And I felt confident. But the good news is, yes, I did kind of take the risk, but at the same time, I did inspect it. And, yeah, I went for it, and I had my friend Doug and Ted come over and help me unbox the game and set it up. And it was pretty easy to do. It's the same unboxing as any other manufacturer, but I liked how it was packaged. It had a lot more protection in it than the other, like, a stern. Box was a little more sturdier, and the cardboard they used fit perfectly with the contours of the machine, and the directions were clear as day of what to do, even though I've unboxed many games. Not my own, but this one.

  • Hot Wheels display has better resolution than typical Stern displays

    medium confidence · Mark reporting Doug's observation during setup

    • Mark Scott @ gameplay design discussion — Describes Hot Wheels' design as synthesizing classic pinball mechanics

  • “Indiana Jones and Shannon's Stairway of Doom... It's an adventure man”

    Dan (joking) @ discussing difficult house locations — Humorous aside about collector accessibility challenges with steep driveways

  • “If it weren't for Deadpool being the theme... I seriously consider going with the Hot Wheels.”

    Spencer @ discussing personal game preferences — High praise for Hot Wheels mechanics; only Deadpool theme kept him from choosing it

    • Doug
    person
    Davidperson
    Eric Neffperson
    Shannonperson
    Houdinigame
    Deadpoolgame
    Attack from Marsgame
    Wizard of Ozgame
    Stranger Thingsgame
    Oktoberfestgame
    Getawaygame
  • ?

    product_concern: Mark's unit shipped with slightly misaligned left flipper (2mm lower than right) requiring post-delivery adjustment; common but not critical issue

    high · Mark noticing flipper power difference, diagnosing alignment issue, and correcting with manual adjustment from 25 to 26 power setting

  • ?

    design_philosophy: American Pinball deliberately targets non-traditional demographics (Oktoberfest for bars, Hot Wheels for families/children, Houdini for hardcore players) to differentiate from competitor themes

    high · Mark and Spencer discussing strategic theme choices, multigenerational appeal, and venue-specific positioning

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community initially 'pissed on' American Pinball themes (Houdini, Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels) but hosts argue all three are 'genius' with lasting appeal

    medium · Mark: 'they've just been so brutal to Houdini and so brutal to Oktoberfest and so brutal to Hot Wheels. And I think all of those themes are genius.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Hot Wheels cabinet uses solid construction (not particle board), printed back glass instead of translite, thicker glass than Stern, and powder-coated hardware

    high · Mark noting cabinet weight (300 lbs), glass thickness, printed graphics, and hardware quality throughout unboxing

  • ?

    product_strategy: Hot Wheels positioned as affordable entry-level new game with premium build quality and broad appeal, contrasting with higher-priced complex games

    medium · Mark and Spencer praising 'amount that you get as far as for the price, you can't beat it' and suitability for family venues

  • ?

    collector_signal: Collectors with multi-story homes report escalator equipment (Escalera brand) essential for game transport; Eric Neff sources affordable units in Reno area

    medium · Extended discussion of Shannon's steep driveway and three-flight stairs, Eric Neff as 'Escalera whisperer', and post-move escalator purchase by Mark

  • ?

    content_signal: Mark Scott's detailed technical review and gameplay analysis of Hot Wheels serves as endorsement and educational content for podcast audience

    high · Entire episode centered on unboxing, gameplay mechanics, build quality details, and post-purchase adjustments

    • 4:56
    And it went without a hitch. I was impressed when I opened it up. First thing I saw, the legs were powder-coated. So it wasn't cheap stuff that you had to go and get powder-coated yourself. So that was awesome. The other thing that was interesting is there was a, there's an Allen wrench key that's very similar to what you use to lock the back box, but it also can be used to put on the legs. So that was neat. The only problem is if you lose the Allen wrench key, then you're kind of screwed because then you don't have, you know, you don't have a key with you. But the good news is it's a pretty common size. and I just leave it on the back, you know, once it's all put together and, you know, just put it in that opening in the back, you know, where you lock it on the back box. And that was pretty neat. So it was, you know, you can't use a wrench, but you can use the Allen wrench and put in the legs. So that was cool. I've never actually looked that close at the legs on an American game. I didn't realize that they were held in place with an Allen bolt. No, I didn't. Yeah, the reason they did that is because they didn't want you to have to go and run and get tools. They wanted you to just be able to unbox the game anywhere where you are and use the tools that are provided, in this case the Allen Wrench key. And it worked perfectly. And I do like the lock, the thing with the Allen Wrench to lock the back box. I always liked that, even on the sterns. I thought that was much easier than having to put bolts in there and then hold the cabinet up. You know, just turn it clockwise and boom, it locks. I always liked that as well. Yeah. Back to the old Data East. Like, that was the Data East method of locking your back box, and it continued right through the Segas and into the early Sterns. And Jersey Jack still uses that. Jersey Jack does. That's correct. And the other thing is it's solid. It's a solid connection because it's got that clasp, and that thing is not going anywhere. So now, when I unboxed it, it was all plastic-wrapped. So that was different because I know CERN, it's kind of just out in the open, right, in the box. And we saw that, as we'll talk about later. And this was all shrink wrap. So there was wrap all the way around the game. So if something happened to touch it, at least there was a little protection around it. So, of course, I unwrapped all the plastic and everything like that. And then I was pretty amazed by the artwork. The artwork on that game really pops. I really like the use of the different colors. It's got a lot of warm colors in it, a lot of orange, light brown. But what totally came to mind when I opened it up was I felt like I was a kid who got that new Hot Wheels set track looking at the box. You know, for the people who haven't seen the Hot Wheels yet, that game is super good. Like, the visuals and the presentation of it, like, when you see that game from across the room, it really catches your attention. And when you get up close, the artwork for all stuff that I'm sure is, you know, pretty corporate, corporate mandated, corporate approved, it just really looks, I mean, it looks like a product, but it looks great. And I do like that analogy. It does remind you of like a giant hot wheelset. You feel like Orange Rock should be shooting out of the side. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what I felt. And then I looked at the play field. Very nice quality for the clear coat. Seemed like it was pretty solid. I looked to see there was Mylar put in there automatically, and I didn't have to put any Mylar anywhere. It was all in the game where it needed to be, around the pop bumpers, of course, around the slingshots, and then some places where the ball was coming in from the return from the ramps. So that was a wow experience. And we all said it when we opened it. It's like, wow, this looks pretty sharp. And, of course, once we got all the plastic off, wow, then we were like, this is pretty amazing. So then, once we got it all set up, then we flipped that switch on after we, of course, you know, put the balls in and all that other stuff that we have to do. And, of course, when you get excited, you don't think real straight. So we're, like, looking to make sure everything's good, you know, remove the packaging or anything that's in the playfield glass. I mean, sorry, on the playfield. And then, of course, we close it up and, like, oh, we forgot to put the balls in. Oops. So we have to take the glass all off again. you know, typical when you get excited. And what was amazing is that the balls were actually pretty good quality. I was expecting, you know, typical Stern balls where they're, you know, they have little scratches on them, they don't look real shiny. These were nice stock pinballs. So, and there were no oil on them. I was wiping them down and there was no oil. So I was like, well, this is pretty nice. So anyway, put it in the game. And when we fired it on, wow, the light show. Just how it does that cycle through all the lights turning red as it lights each one individually going around. And then when it starts doing all the different RGB effects of the different colors, I was like, this is like a Jersey Jack game like Wizard of Oz. That reminded me of it where it had all the different colors. And I was like, whoa, this is pretty awesome light show. I'm not recalling for sure, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it has RGB inserts and RGBGI, right? That is correct. It's all RGB lighting. Yeah, that's dope. It's really dope. And especially for the amount that you get as far as for the price, you can't beat it. And it's not the typical, you know, when you get an LED kit. They're like little boards that are all around the inserts, and it really looks like the light is shining up through the inserts but not like getting masked by the plastic. It's like it's pure color. I don't know how to describe it, but it really pops and looks beautiful when you play the game. I was mentioning this to you earlier, but I was over at Mike's house, and I was checking out his Hot Wheels the other day, and I noticed that, like, the big blue arrows, not only do they light up, but they actually do kind of a sequence, like a pulse lighting, so that it looks like it's strobing in the direction that you're supposed to shoot the ball. And, I mean, it's just, you know, it's obviously it's just a few LEDs in there doing it, but it's just like it's such a great touch. It reminds me kind of of, like, Big Bang Bar, you know, when you first see that ramp with the arrows telling you, hey, hit the ball up here. and it's just it's such a great touch and it's just so much better than just a light bulb blinking american pinball i totally agree those guys make some cool stuff man i i was really impressed with yeah with the lighting and like you said the strobing effect that you get or uh the i guess marquee effect where you said that the arrow it kind of like pulses and fills up the arrow with those lights it really helps you when you're playing the game to know which shot to go for when they pulse instead of just flashing and blinking. So, yeah, I totally agree with you. And it's neat because it does that when it applies to the mode that you start. Because one thing that's cool about Hot Wheels, and we'll talk about the gameplay in a second, is how you can stack several modes together. And it's just a joy to play when you go through the different things as far as the different multiballs and the battles and all that stuff.
    12:58
    It's so much fun. I can't describe it. It's a fun game. It's not a frustrating game. It's not like a Steve Ritchie game where you just want to throw the machine across the room when it drains out the left outline.
    13:13
    You don't get mad at it. You're like, oh, well, I drained. But you get excited to just keep going. It's a frumbly game. It's approachable.
    13:24
    Like you see it, and even if you're not a pinball aficionado, So, like, you want to go over and find out what this is about and punch the start button and have a good time. You know, there's a lot of pinballs, and we had alluded to this earlier. You know, everyone's like, oh, my God, it's not deep enough. It's not, you know, hardcore enough. It's not grown up enough. It's not mean enough. And it's just like, man, difficulty and depth and sometimes that shit just it's overrated. and don't get me wrong, you know, I would love to say that game is going to last forever in a home environment. Maybe it will and maybe it won't but at least right now, everybody that you know wants to play it and wants to have fun and wants to enjoy it and it's such a friendly, approachable, inviting game. You know, I think it's a genius theme and I really hope that it has long legs and that American Pinball keeps making them. I think that those guys have had a few themes now that people have just pissed on. You know, they've just been so brutal to Houdini and so brutal to Oktoberfest and so brutal to Hot Wheels. And I think all of those themes are genius. I think so, too. And Hot Wheels appeals to all ages. It appeals to my age group. It appeals to my son. It appeals to kids that are, you know, 9, 10 years old. It's just a great theme. I'm surprised they don't have this at family fun centers. I mean, if I was an owner, I would get one because I'm sure you would get a lot of quarter drops with kids wanting to, you know, play that game. Yeah, every KPP should have a Hot Wheels. Exactly. Like, I'm sorry. Exactly. And it's reliable. When I talked to Joe from Pinball Star, he was saying that out of all the games, Hot Wheels had the least amount of problems for the operators. So that was pretty impressive to hear that.
    15:31
    Admittedly, there's not much to break. Right. But, you know, again, and I think that we talked about this, Guns N' Roses doesn't have anything on it to really break, and those things are breaking all the time.
    15:45
    So it's just one of those things where Hot Wheels is, you know, American pinball games are well built. And, you know, again, they're not just going for that same old, you know, 40-something white guy theme. They're trying to do things that, you know, other people can go around. And, again, I think with the themes that they've chosen, you know, you've got your Oktoberfest, which is perfect for a bar or a bar and grill or something like that. You've got your Hot Wheels, which is great for a family fun center. and if you want something frustrating and evil, that's why they made Houdini. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And the thing that – yeah, go ahead, Spencer. Yeah, the amount of time – I'm going to go backwards to Houdini. The amount of time that they were able to take that, you know, where it was just, you know, a box of lights with nothing that worked and working into a fully functioning, presentable game was, what, six, seven months, which, I mean, and we've all talked about it, all agreed, it should be applauded. And, you know, I've played, I've only played, I know a couple of people who bought Hot Wheels because of COVID. I've only played Hot Wheels on location.
    16:53
    And that game was just, I mean, it checks all the boxes. It just does. Light show, theme, theme integration, gameplay, sound. I mean, it just, it checks all the boxes really nicely. The sound is very good, and it has even a built-in amplifier that you can adjust the levels. So you can put more bass on it. It has a subwoofer built in. And the other thing that I really like, the way that they incorporated the screen. They did this with Houdini, too, but I like how it's like the scoreboard, because you have the scaffolding around it, or the catwalks, whatever you call that, that are around that screen to go with the artwork. And what I love about it is it's okay to be off center. It didn't bother me one bit. Everybody was always complaining on pin side, oh, that should be in the center. No, it doesn't have to be at all. It's kind of cool to have it a little off to the left to give it some variety. Yeah, it's different. And on top of that, it's back glass. It's not a trans light. This is printed back glass. Oh, really? So I was impressed with that too. and even when I took the glass off the glass is way thicker than what you get on a CERN game way thicker so it's just like and on top of that also the build quality of the cabinet is fine it's not particle board it's way better and that machine by the way was really heavy trying to get that down my stairs 300 pounds that thing was not light luckily we cut the box from tipping over and had it on a hand truck and slowly went one step at a time on the side of my house. And we rolled it in without any problems. But I was out of breath when we got down to the end, to the last stair. I was like, oh, wow. That's as soon as I moved here. I was in my new house literally a week and I ordered an Escalera.
    18:51
    Yeah, I know. I would order one too if I had more games. But only one. It's like, well, I don't have to invest in that. You should talk to Jetter, man. And I swear he keeps buying cheap Escaleras from someone in Reno.
    19:04
    Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, he's like, hey, are you going to Reno? Can you pick up an Escalera for me? I'm like, yes, I'm going to Reno, but I'm going in a Ford Fusion, so no, I can't pick up an Escalera. But, yeah, you know, he just picked one up, and we used it to get my creature out of his house, which, you know, he has a house, which I don't know if you've been to Eric's house, but, you know, there's steps going in, there's steps coming out, There's no easy ingress and egress from that place. And he has a Sescalera now. And I was all like, man, this thing is definitely worth what they cost. If you live in a house that's that, man, genius. Shannon has one. He loves it. And he needs it for his house. That dude, you have to go up like three flights of stairs that are all old and decrepit and evil. When I first went over to his house, I'm like, how do you get the pinballs in? He's like, oh, I just take them up the steps. I'm like, you are out of your mind. You are out of your mind It's Indiana Jones and Shannon's Stairway of Doom Oh my gosh If you want to play pinball at Mount Shannon Get climbing It's an adventure man You're going like up a mountain Going up those stairs And then all of a sudden it's like Oh it's worth the adventure Because then you walk in and it's like There's some good pins to play The first part of that adventure Is just unloading the game It's just backing your truck up that driveway. Oh, yeah. Because that driveway is crazy steep, so you don't see anything. You just see the sky. And you're just like, where am I about to back into the garage? Am I about to back into the steps? Where am I at? And then once you get to the top of the driveway, then it's like, all right, you get the game off, and it's like now it's time for the stairs. And I'm just like, well, this is your part of the battle, man. I did mine. Yeah. So, yeah, when he said he just did it by himself with the Escalera, he's like, I should have got this a long time ago. But he got a good deal on it, and he loves it. So, yeah. He got hooked up through chatter. So, yeah. Talk to Eric Neff. That guy seems to be the Escalera whisperer these days. That's nice. Yeah. So, anyway, yeah, so we got it down. And so now I guess we could talk about gameplay. The light show is awesome, of course. It's, you know, all full RGB.
    21:24
    It even has the kind of effect that we saw in Rick and Morty, where it does the spotlight, you know, going back and forth. It does that, too, but with different colors.
    21:34
    Yeah, it's a blast as far as the light show goes. I always loved that spotlight, like in attract mode. I remember that really specifically from Last Action Hero.
    21:46
    And I always thought that was just the coolest. Maybe it was like, I mean, I guess it's all the purview of who designed the light show, but I always thought that was one of the neater ones, better than just having the lights blink. Right, exactly. Yeah, so the sound was good. I didn't have the sound adjusted on the first night just because I was just like, I got to play this game, so I just hit the start button, and it was so funny. The first ball, it went up the ramp, no problem, And when it got to the return where the hole was, it just stopped.
    22:22
    I was like, uh-oh, what's going on here? Suppose there's a little metal tab that just needed to be broken in as you played it, but it just, like, stuck there and the ball was sitting, and I was like, okay, let's shake the machine, and then it fell down. Once we started hitting that ramp over and over again, it started having no problem. Yeah, you've got to put 500 games on that thing, honestly, before you even start really, like, you know, it's still stiff and brand new out of the box. So I was going to ask you, like, so how was the, you know, beyond just getting it out of the box, getting the legs set up, like when you turned it on, so everything worked great. How about the gameplay-wise? Have you had to go in and do a lot of tweaking and adjusting? No, I didn't have to do any adjusting when we unboxed it. There were some things I noticed that I just put off. the left flipper was slightly lower than it was supposed to be, like literally by two millimeters. But I saw it because you could see with the dots, you know, with the place where you can put your toothpicks. Right. It was slightly lower. And it was funny because when I was playing, I'm like, this is weird. This left flipper feels a little different than the right one just because it seems like it's just not shooting fast enough. So I was thinking, well, maybe I'm getting some flipper fade. But it happened like immediately when I started playing it. So, today, I was playing around with it, and I adjusted it, and now, whoa, now it really shoots good, especially going up that right ramp. It was kind of struggling with the way it was set up before, so I, of course, loosened it up, tightened it, and, of course, the first time I did it, I didn't tighten it hard enough, and it immediately just went, you know, and went out of alignment. Well, and you know what? You got to be careful not to go too tight. You know, one of the things that you might have done when you adjusted it is you might have given it a little up and down play, which is going to free up your, it's going to free up some of the power, you know. If you have those things like super torqued down, you know, and they're on there too tight, yeah, it's just, you know, you're losing power because it's trying to move the flipper rather than it moving freely. Correct. And that's what I was careful of. That's why I didn't tighten it as hard, but it wasn't tight enough. As soon as the ball hit it, yeah, it was like out of whack. Yeah, you just want like a credit card worth of up and down. Yes. Right above the bushing and under the bat. Yes, exactly. So I'm going to check it again. But, yeah, it plays really well now, and now I got that adjusted. But, no, as far as any things that stopped the play, like the experience with Stranger Things when the post flew out, nothing like that at all. It was seamless. It didn't have any issues whatsoever. And we played, I don't know, probably like 10, 15 games just playing it and having a great time. And it wasn't real difficult with the rules, which we can talk about now, the gameplay.
    25:25
    It's pure adrenaline and super fun to shoot. The most satisfying shot on that game, and you might agree with me, Dan and Spencer, is the left orbit that goes through the ramp. and it reminds me of Stranger Things, but it's smoother. It just flies up that left orbit, and then all of a sudden it comes around that, you know, the blue return ramp, and then it's just got that nice, smooth feel to it. The other thing that's neat about the geometry, I guess we'll talk about geometry instead, is if you shoot the orbit, the inner orbit, it sometimes is a perfect shot where it just smooth as glass goes around. But if you don't hit it right, sometimes it rattles in that left orbit, and other times it doesn't go far enough that it almost seems like there's a diverter up there causing it, but all it's doing is hitting the little bumpers that are on the edge of the opening before it goes past the pop bumpers. And I like that random play. It's like, is there something wrong with this game? And then I was thinking, no, it's just random and it happens. And it happens if you go to left orbit or you go to right orbit. It's interesting. I noticed that as well. Did you notice that? Yeah. Again, I like it. I mean, those shots in that inner orbit are a little tighter. They're not impossible, nothing like Houdini. Not like Houdini at all, no. But they're a little tighter and you've got to be a little more precise. But once you get your shot down, you can make it with pretty good regularity. And then, you know, like I said, I find it to be a very nice, evenly balanced play field. Left and right flipper shots, some real easy, some require a little more, you know, precise shooting, but well balanced. Like I said, just out of the box, it seems like it's just a good overall total experience game. In all ways. The other thing, when Doug was helping me after we unpacked it, Doug noticed and he said, wow, that display really has good resolution. And I was looking at it carefully. I'm like, I know with small screens you can't really tell a difference. For some reason, that display has a really nice picture, better than I've seen like on a Stern. The resolution is really good on it. You know, if it weren't for Deadpool being the theme, I mean, Rusty and I both love the gameplay itself and the theme being the fact that we're such big Deadpool fans. You know, I seriously consider going with the Hot Wheels. But Deadpool won. Wow, that says a lot. That says a lot. You know, Rusty hadn't had a chance to play it yet because, you know, she hadn't been, you know, before we left California, she really hadn't been going out much. Yeah. But, yeah, man, that's how much I like that game. and it's high on my list. Like, you know, Deadpool, Attack from Mars, if I could get one, and then Hot Wheels would be right after that, you know. And what's so great is, okay, the ramps are great. Those are fun to shoot. The orbits are awesome. But then they thought of something that we all love from solid-state games, our in-line drop targets. And they did that. They did that. They have an inline drop target that you have to hit to add your track pieces, which will qualify a multiball called track multiball. And when you shoot it, you can get it into the saucer behind it. So you hit it, and it immediately pops back up. So what a great way. Like Spider-Man, Web Slinger. Yes. It's so cool. It's just such a cool idea. It's so cool. And it's like split-second timing. It's like it goes down, it goes right back up. It's like, you're like, oh, I can add another track piece. And then finally it goes down, and you lock the ball. And what's unique is you're not locking one and then two and three balls. You just lock one ball, and all of a sudden, multi-ball starts. So it's almost like a virtual lock, but at the same time, it just locks one ball on that saucer, and then it has the block that just pops it right out, and it loops fine. Now, I had it a little low on the power because I wanted to have the machine a little more higher than 6 degrees. It was a little too floaty. They recommend 6 degrees, but when I talked to, oh, who was it? David, I think it is, over at American Pinball. He was telling me that he has it at 6.3. I put mine at 6'5", just because I like to have it a little more steeper and not so floaty when it hits the slingshots and when you're trying to trap the ball on the flippers. So I had it at 6'5". What happened, though, is once it got to that point where it was a little steeper, it didn't make it all the way around that loop. I guess a U-turn, if you want to call it that, where it shoots up and then it kind of twists around and goes onto the ramp.
    30:41
    I was kind of like, that's kind of interesting that it's not always doing it correctly. So I just upped it just by one tick to increase the power of the block, and it works perfectly now. There's not one reject, but I had a lot of rejects at first until I upped the power a little bit. and as far as flippers go, I up the power by one notch too. So instead of 25, which is the factory setting, I upped it to 26. But honestly, that's plenty of power. I know some other people have it like up to 40, which is, that's like stern, snappy flippers, but I didn't, yeah. That's the breaking plastic thing. That's breaking plastic, yeah. I don't want to have it up to that level. So I was happy with 26.
    31:29
    So anyway, that's great. They've got the inline targets, and they have an inline target on the right-hand side that you have to shoot into a saucer to start a battle mode maybe, and the other thing is it will let you do an add-a-ball. And it's not an easy shot because it's really far off to the right. So when I'm seeing all these things, it made me think of how there's so many different games within this one game. It's like a compilation of the greatest games. Did you notice that, Dan?
    32:06
    You know what? It always reminds me, even though it's not really similar, and it could be thematically that it reminds me, and just maybe some of the plastics and the basic design and the car theme, it always really reminds me of Getaway.
    32:20
    Yes. But it has, just again, it's a really, I mean, I don't want to say basic in a bad way, so don't read it as bad. It's just a really wonderful example of good theming and very, very efficient play field design.
    32:37
    Like is more. Yeah. More is more, but it has a lot of stuff in it that, you know, feels good. Like, you know, it has up kickers and it has inline drops and it has big ramps and it has spinners and it has pop up. Right, with red-line wheels on top of it. And it has, you know, it has everything that, you know, a good game needs to have. And it does it at a, you know, super affordable, especially in this day and age, price with a crowd-friendly theme. And really good use of the material, you know. Like I said, I think that game is an absolute winner, and I'm really happy that you brought one home. Yeah, I'm really happy, too, and it's the only one in Reno. There's a lot of people I know that are getting Cactus Canyons. They're getting the, obviously, Godzilla, which we'll talk about later today.
    33:35
    But I wanted to get something that nobody else had, and I really wanted to see an honest opinion on what they thought.
    33:43
    So gameplay, let's talk about gameplay. There's some really fun modes in it, and it's really neat how you can stack all these different things, and they're all going at once, but you still know what you're doing. It's very clear on what you have to do. Number one, because it says it right on the LCD, of course you usually don't look at that when you're playing, but you hear the call-outs, and it will say, you know, shoot the left ramp, shoot the right ramp, shoot the spinner, all those kinds of things. the way that they incorporated the assets really makes the game fun and campy. But it's perfect for just the artwork and just the whole package. You gotta have something that's cheesy. And I love it. You know, because people think Hot Wheels is a kid's thing, but it doesn't talk down to you as an adult. No, it doesn't. No. It definitely appeals to all ages. And who doesn't like stop animation? Come on. I mean, what do we do? We watch all the Tim Burton movies and everything. That stop animation is really perfect for that theme, and it makes it so much fun with all the story. You feel like you're in a story, and you have to defeat, I think it's Dragon, right? Isn't that the main villain? I always forget what his name is. I honestly don't remember. I guess one of my mania ones. I'll look it up. But, yeah, I think it's Dragan is the villain, the main villain. And he unleashes monsters that you have to qualify by hitting the battle target. So what does that sound like? Sounds like Deadpool, right? You've got to spell Deadpool to start a battle. Okay. But what's cool is the targets are not straight across. They're curved. so it makes it a little more challenging to hit those. Now, most of the time, I don't really go for them because they're deadly when you go for them deliberately, but it just hits it accidentally, and all of a sudden, you know, you get a monster battle qualified But the way that they did each battle really makes it fun One of the things is the T and what you have to do is you have to shoot the spinners to charge up the amount of power you have to throw a car at them.
    36:10
    So you have to shoot the spinner, charge it up, and then you have to hit the ramp and launch the car at them. And it has the same kind of indicator, health meter. so you can see exactly how close you are to defeating the monster.
    36:28
    And what's interesting is it's not easy to beat the monster every time. I don't know if you feel that too, Dan, when you played it, but I rarely can just defeat the T-Rex, definitely not the Cobra Snakes. That one you have to shoot all the different shots that are lit. But the monkey one or the gorilla is fun where you have to hit the stand-up targets. And those targets then allow you to defeat it. And then it might throw in another shot just to make it a little more exciting. And then there's the Triceratops, and that one's fun too. the use of the shaker motor makes it even more fun because it choreographs with the video so when you're when you're playing it when the t-rex is stomping or the triceratops is smashing the buildings as it's going left and right wait wait wait hold on you feel that it comes with a shaker motor too it that it used to when it was the first 500 but i bought it and fortunately it got there the same day the game was delivered. Okay, so you added. I was like, dude, that thing, that's disgusting. Okay. Yeah, I added it. No, it wasn't included. When they first announced it, when they started producing them, they did have the first 500 include a shaker motor, which is pretty awesome. Now, it does have a topper. Now, a topper is nothing to brag about. That topper's cool. But it's cool. It looks cool, and it adds just a little bit to the game, having it on top of the back box. I mean, it beats the $200 one for Guns N' Roses. I mean, it probably doesn't beat it, but it's free, and that's always the right price. Right, right, exactly. So anyway, the monster battles are great. If you can play Hot Wheels, those are great. But they add more things to it. Another one is the race, and that one is super fun because you have to shoot the left orbit to start it, and on the very top, there's a magnet. Now, it's pretty interesting what we're talking about. It has all the elements that we love to have in a game, right? We wanted magnets. We want a block. We want spinners. We want targets. We want drop targets. It's got all of that. That's what I like. It has all those things that we love in pinball in one game. So you don't have to go, oh, man, I wish it had pop bombers, or, oh, I wish it had more spinners. It's just got the nice balance of everything. But with the race, it keeps track of how long it takes for you to get to the finish line. And it's not easy because you have 12 shots that you have to make on the orbits and on the ramps. And they switch around. But the inserts are pretty obvious what you have to hit as you go in sequence from 12 all the way to first place and hit the checker flag.
    39:28
    Really fun. And it's not easy to get to it because you might have other modes going on or you might have multiball going on, which might throw off your progress to get all those shots. So that's really awesome. And then it keeps track of the time that it took you to get to the finish line, which then starts the victory multiball, which is another fun thing to do, where you're, like, racing, but you have multiballs trying to get all the different inserts and be able to hit the super jackpot. So that's fun. Then there's loop crash multiball. So when you start that, it grabs the ball, it launches another ball, hits it to deflect it, and then while you're playing the multiball, if you shoot back up that left orbit, it will grab the ball, and then you have to shoot it to hit the ball off of the magnet again to get like a super jackpot.
    40:26
    Super clever. Just love that. The other thing is the track multiball. That's the easy one. That would be the one for beginners who don't know what the heck they're doing. I think that's the one I've played. Right? Right? The track multi-ball. It's so easy. Right? You just hit the drop, the inline drop target where it is to the right of that left orbit. And it will then go into the saucer and it will say, you know, track multi-ball. And then it will start multi-ball. And that's pretty neat. and you have the add a ball, which you can shoot on the right-hand side. That will capture the ball after you hit the inline drop target to get past that, and then it adds a ball, so you get a three-ball multi-ball. So that's fun. So you have all of these things going on at once, and it's just a pure rush. But here's what's even better. We talked about getaway, and we love Redline Mania, right? So for this game, they have a Redline Mania as well. but it's so addictive because what you have to do is you have to see you can't hear me?
    41:39
    he's shouting oh that's weird it still says we're recording but he disappeared and reappeared okay are we still recording then? should we just wait until he comes back on? I mean it still says there's still a red dot and it still says it's recording, but hey, Spencer, can you hear us?
    42:04
    I don't think you can hear us. I don't see any indication on there. Everything just went dead. He lost my feed. Okay. Oops.
    42:27
    Well, this might have to be edited after all. Or we could play a little elevator music while we're waiting. No, I'm just kidding. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
    42:44
    I'm not even registering. Uh-oh. I didn't lose a connection. I have... No, he dropped. He dropped. Okay, okay.
    42:57
    Yeah, guys, I'm not getting anything here at all. Well, I guess I can keep talking until he gets back online. Well, he's online. I don't know what you see. You see the three bars. Yeah, I see three bars, and I don't see them.
    43:21
    Three, two, one, and go. so if you think that's really cool about hearing the different multi-ball challenges there's even a greater mode which is called redline mania so if you're familiar with getaway that's one of our favorite things to do is get that gear shift all the way up to i think it's six if i'm not mistaken and then you get redline mania and which is one more than you have to get in the getaway That's right. That's exactly right.
    43:51
    So the way it works is, and this is like a totally, I guess you could say that this is something that is very addictive to try to get every time because it's such a rush when it starts. But anyway, you have RPM targets that are in the center of your play field. And what's nice is they thought of something a little different. I've never seen this before. The targets are staggered like steps. So you got the R, the P, and the M, but they're not in line all the way across together. They're staggered. So you really have to shoot for that individual target to qualify it. So what happens is when you're shooting the RPM targets, the tachometer increases the more you hit it. It also increases when you make shots that are in different modes or the different multiballs. Once you get to 10, what happens is kind of freaked me out at first. I'm like, uh-oh, I just broke the machine. But it's so trippy because what happens is as soon as you hit 10,
    44:59
    the flippers go dead, the balls drain, and all of a sudden the lights start turning red and you get this energetic music about to start and it says Red Line Mania. And it's really cool because then you have a 45-second multiball, similar to like Cherry Bomb, like in Guardians of the Galaxy, where you have to make all the shots. And to this day, I've only had the game a couple of days now, but I have not been able to make all the shots in that 45 seconds. Because, of course, with multiball, you can't, I mean, I could trap it and then try to make the shots. but that's where the RPM comes in because once you get the red line mania, then the flippers go dead and you continue where you left off. So if you're battling a monster and you are halfway through it, it just continues where you left off. Now, multi-ball of course does not, uh, that obviously would be more difficult to have it continue from where it left off. But if you're in a different mode, it will continue from that progress.
    46:06
    Now, what's neat is once you get the Redline Mania, then you have two times play field. So we're all familiar with Star Wars. When you hit the targets, you can get 40 times, right? Well, it's not that ridiculous. It's one time in the game when you first start it. When you get to Redline Mania, then it's two. And it matches with the gears. So you get up to fifth gear. It's five times play field. So if you want to get billions in your score, that's how you do it. How easy is it? Not easy at all because not only do you have to hit the targets and you have to hit the targets that are the shots that are required in the modes, you also have to keep hitting it because if you just trap your balls and do the L1 style where you're just cradling balls, that tachometer goes down. and you have to rev it up to get it back to that spot so that you can get closer to the second Redline Mania in second gear. And I have not at all got to second gear Redline Mania. So there's a game with any game. Isn't that clever? Yeah, that's actually a pretty cool feature because, you know, you're getting a lot more of the designers are trying to figure out ways to keep players from just cradling up and sharpshooting targets. You know, Guns N' Roses does that with their multi-balls, and now you have this and Hot Wheels. Yeah, that's actually pretty cool because I think that, you know, the guys who are designing the rule sets have sort of said, okay, you know, we know what the pro players are doing. We know what the exploits are on the old games. Let's fuck them.
    47:50
    Who did the rule set on that? Oh, gosh. Who did the rule set? I should know that. I will have to look it up. I've heard the name, but I don't know who it was. I'll look it up real quick while you go. Balster did the design, is that correct? Joe Balster? Yeah, that's what he did.
    48:14
    I can't remember the person who did the coding. But anyway, that's neat. Another thing as far as timed goes is instead of having a timer, you have a gas gauge when you're battling the monsters. And if you run out of gas, you don't beat the monster. And what's so cool about it is in order to rev it up, or I'm sorry, not rev it up, but add more gas to your car, you have to hit the battle targets. And that will increase your time or your gas, and you'll then be able to have a better chance of defeating whoever you're battling against. Hey, Rick, Mick, Game Design's balser software is Joe Schober and Josh Kugler. That's Kugler, yeah. Kugler, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Thanks for checking that. Appreciate it. Yeah, so look at all the rules. I mean, and that's what's great about the game. You can go and say, all right, I'm just going to play this to get Redline Mania, and that's it. Or I'm just going to battle the monsters. But they throw in another thing. They throw in this thing called Epic Challenges. And we're all familiar with Keith Allen, where you have to hit so many ramps and so many spinners. It's the same concept. But what's clever is you have to hit the stand-up targets. And what am I thinking of here? Game of Thrones. Because Game of Thrones has those two targets where you have to hit it to lock a ball. It's in that same area where you have to hit it to qualify the epic challenge. and that will be so many ramps, so many orbits. I think, let's see, what was the other one? Of course, targets, the car targets. So you have all these things that you can do, and then that starts a wizard mode. So you have dragon, you have to defeat, you have a wizard mode for the epic challenges. You have a wizard mode for, let's see, what else is it? Well, I guess you could say it's a mini wizard mode for Redline Mania.
    50:17
    That's like three satisfying accomplishments in the game. So it's like you have that one more game feel. I want to go back and try this, or I'm going to try this strategy. Or you want to go for a high score, you try to rip that RPM up to a higher level and get to third gear and then see what happens to your score. So you got the objectives if you want to go that route, and then you have the scoring if you want to go with multipliers. But it's not multipliers that you get right away. You have to really earn it, and of course, it gets progressively harder. So what I was saying before, there's a lot of variety and a compilation of the best games we've played in the past 10 years. So it's awesome. I'm like Jurassic Park, it reminded me. When you run out of gas, you have to hit the raptor pit, right, to get the gas up so that you can be able to capture the dinosaurs in that escape from Nublar. So it's the same concept, just with a mode. So you really have to keep those balls going and shoot the targets and shoot the places where it tells you to, and you can get further in the game. But I've talked to many people on Pinside through the Hot Wheels Challenge Accepted thread, and there's not many people that have gotten to the wizard mode. Now, Alex, he did. He did get to the wizard mode. Well, there's the surprise. Yeah, there's no surprise there. And kudos to Alex. I've got to give him credit because he was raving about this game. And I'm like, is it really that good? So when I went to Banning and tried it out, I was like, this is pretty fun. And after I played a whole bunch of games, I came back to it. I was like, I kind of like this game. This is actually very engaging. And then I got to play it at Out of Order in Auburn. And I was like, maybe I'll get a Hot Wheels instead of a Godzilla. Because I was really set on a Godzilla until the price hike of, you know, $1,200. plus the difference of the cost when I sold Game of Thrones, I would have been spending about $3,000, and that's not including shipping and all the other extra costs. It wasn't feasible for my budget. So I thought maybe let's go with Hot Wheels, and I couldn't be more satisfied. So if you have a chance to play Hot Wheels, anyone who's listening right now, make sure you either find somebody who has one. If you're in the Reno area, you can come to my house and play it. And it's just a blast. And here's the thing that's really interesting. When I invited people over on Thursday night, two of those people I invited again on Saturday, they came again. And when they played the game, I only have one game. So I was thinking, all right, people are going to get bored and they're going to leave early. We played that game from 7 o'clock to 10 nonstop and had the best time. So there you go. That's proof right there.
    53:30
    You know what's interesting? And I feel like this might even be just a misconception or maybe it's just a knee-jerk reaction. Because I've played Hot Wheels, you know, not nearly as much as you have now, but probably half a dozen times. And, you know, I didn't really grasp the depth of the rule set. You know, there's probably a lot more going on there than I was giving the game credit for. You know, as far as I've seen, there hasn't been one person yet who's, you know, played Hot Wheels and walked away with it, you know, walked away from it with a negative opinion. But, you know, it's a fun game. It has a lot going on. It's definitely the best bang for your buck pinball machine going right now. And, yeah, I completely agree with Mark. If you have your opportunity to get your hands on one, or if you feel like you don't have an opportunity, you know, make an opportunity because it's well worth playing. And we all played Whitewater, right? And you love it how Whitewater progresses in the music as you get to more of the rafts? Same concept. When you're in the race, every time you get into like from 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, the music ramps up and changes as you get closer to the finish line. Just awesome coding. Awesome coding. It's a great game, and it's the most affordable. Thanks to Zach Maney from Flippin' Out. He got me the game for $67.45 shipped. So you can't beat it. under $7,000 for a game that felt like a premium. Even though it doesn't have the gadgets and it doesn't have all the mechs, it doesn't matter. It does have the spinning car, and it's not annoying because it goes faster as you get your RPM up. So that fits with the game instead of just a toy on the play field. They really thought this out well, and I just love everything about it, the artwork, everything. It's a great game. And when I was on the pin side thread, I was doing my research before I decided to shell out under $7,000 for a game. And I was blown away by how many positive response. Now, granted, you're going to get that in a club thread. It makes sense. But one of the comments on there, and I don't remember who it was, said that they have a huge collection, and they kept going to Hot Wheels as their favorite game out of their collection. So, yeah, pretty amazing I feel like if I got a Hot Wheels I would swap the spinning car out For like the Starship Enterprise Well, there you go There you go So, yeah, I can That's a beautiful segue, Dan That's a good segue, yeah It just looked like it was whizzing around above the game Yeah I thought that was going to All ended off on Hot Wheels with this I thought that might bother me, but no, it didn't And I thought it was a really cool feature Yeah, and the sound effects are great. The mix of the audio is wonderful, and with the new code, you can adjust the volume of the music. You can adjust the call-outs, and you can adjust the sound effects, which can you do that in a CERN game? I don't know. You can go in on a CERN game and change the voice attenuation or the effects versus the music. But it's really weird the way it works. Like it kind of works the opposite of how you think it would. And it's just one of those things that you're probably better off leaving it alone and let you know what the hell you're doing. Yeah, I just left it alone. It's conceivably possible.
    57:06
    Okay. Cool. Anyway, that's all I can say about Hot Wheels. Play it and you'll see how much it is. An hour later. Yeah, I know. It was a long time. You're excited and that's what matters. You know, hopefully we'll all be that excited every time that we get a new game. Yeah, yeah. So, anyway, it was a great experience, and I can't wait to play it more and more.
    57:30
    And, Dan, you got a new game, too. I did. I picked up another Star Trek. This is a pro. It was used, but it's nice. It was from one of the guys in the group. So really, really nice to have a Star Trek pro back in my life. it's got a shaker motor so you know it'll rumble when you hit the vengeance and it's got the tilt topper which is really cool, mirror blades a lot of the other kind of mods that you would expect that game to have and you know I still always kind of was kicking myself for selling my premium because I do think that Star Trek is, I mean I'm not going to say it's Steve Ritchie's best stern I mean, I know you can make an argument for ACDC, although I think that game is ugly. I know you can make an argument for Spider-Man, although that game is pretty awesome. It's just a little bit older. But, I mean, I did think that Star Trek was a lot of fun, and, of course, thematically for me it works. I think it's the best shooting game. That and then very, very close, like just barely behind is Spider-Man for me personally. Yeah, I agree 100%. Star Trek is a fantastic game. It's as smooth as it gets. Fantastic game. I love the flow. I mean, it's the classic Steve Ritchie flow. You've got to love that warp ramp. When you can get that thing going, oh, it's such a trip. It's awesome. I always love the fact that the Stern Star Trek feels like a narrow, faster version of the next generation. Like it's definitely an evolution of that play field design. Oh, exactly. Yes. I totally agree. Yes. And I love having the big central toy that you fight. You know, I've always thought that that was a cool feature. And it's not just a bash toy because it has the drop target, it has the magnet, it has the laser kicker. So really excited to have Star Trek back in my life. I'll think twice before getting rid of it again.
    59:33
    And mostly besides that, I've been picking up mods for Mandalorian. Nice. So I don't know if when you were here I had the steel ramps yet, but I have the steel ramps in it now, which is a humongous, humongous improvement if you have a Mandalorian Pro. It's almost insane to not spend a couple hundred dollars that Logan Pinball wants. And because they mount at the top and the bottom, it just feels so much more solid. but it actually gives the game a premium feeling that it was really lacking.
    60:10
    Because I don't know if – I know you played a Mandalorian Pro because you played the one that I have, Mark. I don't know if Spencer's had a chance to spend much time on one. I played about eight games on the one over at that brewery last time. Oh, that movement in Rancho. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the big failing of that game is that it has those multi-piece plastic ramps. That's right. And just, you know, the ball would go across the ramps, and the ramps would kind of wiggle. And then, you know, you'd shake the game, and the ramps would kind of wobble. And it just, it really felt kind of low rent. I mean, not zizzle bad, but, you know, certainly not like, hey, man, I just spent, you know, $6,000, $7,000 on this. Where's my quality? And it's ridiculous that Stern couldn't, you know, spend a couple hundred more bucks and throw some wire forms on those ramps, you know, and do them as a more one-piece design. Although, you know, I'm sure it makes sense from a cost and a production standpoint. I mean, hey, I'm sure if I broke a ramp, I would appreciate only needing to pick up, you know, a couple foot of the ramp rather than a $400, you know, gigantic ramp assembly. But, yeah, it was really ruining that game for me, you know. It played. I'm sure it played fine, but it just felt very, very low rent. and I, you know, the other side of it is, you know, just aesthetically, it just gives the game a premium look. It gives the game the kind of look that you expect a newer pinball machine to have. That's great. And I'm not a plastic ramp hater. I love plastic ramps. Yeah. But just having it crisscross to block the play field just doesn't look aesthetically pleasing, right? Yeah. It just, you know, again, it just looked a little cheesy. Yeah. And, you know, that really cleans it up. You know, Cliffy's made some better protectors for the main ramp that I'm sure are going to, you know, stiffen up that experience, so I'm going to have to pick those up. I haven't got those in there yet. And I did get the Ace Jedi Grogu Does Something mod. Oh, you did? I do have one of those. It's ready to install. I just need to put it in the game. But yeah, you know, I got to spend some time on his limited edition, which he's already got just modded to the nines. They've got these detonator covers that look really, really cool for the flasher lights. They've got dark trooper covers for the flashers, and I mean, they look really, really cool. The Cara Dune decal, which I think is being sold through, I don't know who's selling it. But, you know, that looked kind of neat. But, of course, you know, when it comes to Mandalorian, I think that the big mod is going to be a Grogu mod. And while, from what I'm hearing, Joe might be finished with his run of those mods, if you don't have one ordered, you can't get one from him, he did post the instructions how to do it on Pinside and on Facebook for free. You can pick yourself up a Grogu toy and mod it yourself. I'm pretty sure he sells the pieces to help you do that. or there are some other people who are selling the mod, although, you know, having bought one from the originator, I mean, I can't say if theirs are going to be better or worse, but they're going to have a lot of living up to do because his is insanely detailed and really, really well done. Where can we see that video of it in action? I wish I could have saw it in person when I was up in Sacramento, So there are several videos of the Grogu mods on the Internet. Okay. And, you know, for the most part, basically, the way that it works is pretty genius.
    64:04
    Essentially, you remove the existing plastic figurine, and you put the new figure in place. You run the wires underneath the play field. You pick up power down by your coin door. It plugs into the bill acceptor. and the actual mod itself is triggered by light.
    64:27
    So what you do is you run it to the child lamp or if you want it to work more, you can put it on a more active lamp. If you want it to work less, you can put it on a less active lamp. That's clever.
    64:40
    Yeah, so you have some tunability to it. You know, you can do several things, you know, depending on the version of the mod that you buy and the options that you choose, you know, to make it more adjustable. You can change, you know, the speed that he reacts and whatnot. But just usually I think the way it seems to look real good is if you hook it to the child light, when the child is lit, you know, the child animates. His mouth moves. His eyes move. He has an arm that moves. And, you know, it doesn't like – it doesn't change anything about the game gameplay-wise, but it adds that magic in, which I think a lot of people feel like, you know, one of the things about pinball and, you know, one of the things that, you know, your Hot Wheels does real well with its spinning Hot Wheel, even if, you know, it's the dumbest feature ever and people feel like it doesn't do anything, it adds life to the play field. It adds movement and motion, and it's exciting. And so that's kind of what this does. It's like the dinosaur on Jurassic Park or, you know, the building on Godzilla, you know, which we're going to talk about, but, you know, it inserts the mechanical magic. And I think a lot of people, the Canadians of the world, like, you know, not to put too fine a point on it, you know, to them, they might not be looking for gameplay as much as they're looking for magic. You know, they're looking for that moment where a thing pops out of the play field and grabs the ball, which, you know, I got to have a very special moment with that the other day. I was hanging out with Brian and our buddy Mike Garcia, and Brian's little boy, who's four years old, was playing Addams Family, and a thing popped out to grab the ball, and he flipped his shit.
    66:31
    Dad, Dad, Dad, did you see the hand? Comes out of the play field and grabs the ball. Like, in that moment, like, he was just completely and totally in that world. and it took me back to when I first saw that. I mean, shoot, man, I was a teenager when I saw that, and I was just enchanted by the hand coming out. So was I. Right, you know, and that's, I think, right. You know, the first time you blow up a castle on Medieval Madness or you load three balls in the supercharger, you know, and you get that mechanical goodness. So, you know, is it that drastic? No. but it does give you a feeling of motion that I feel like that game otherwise lacked. Yeah, that's great that Joe was able to make that work. I really want to see that. You know, the funny thing about that, too, was when that game came out, he fucking straight up told me, hey, I'm going to do this. And I was like, yeah, man, I can't wait to see it. And then the next thing I know, he's like, I did this. And I was like, god damn, man, you weren't screwing around, were you? And he's like, nope, I was not, you know. And he did it in like, what, like a week? He did it in a week, yeah. And I'm like, all right, he's like, fucking done, you know. Exactly. You know, he went from I'm going to do this to I have a working prototype to here's how you do it inside of two weeks. The clue is, if you know Joe, you know, his moniker on Penn's side is Ace Jedi. I mean, he's, you know, he's a hardcore Star Wars fan. So, you know, this, you know, it's like peanut butter and jelly, man. Star Wars and pinball, you know? Right. How can you not get behind that? And in a theme where, you know, like Mandalorian is kind of, for a lot of us, kids that, and I'll say kids even though I'm almost 56, that grew up with the original trilogy, saw it original run in the theaters. Mandalorian's like the closest thing to that you know the prequels the sequels there's still some goodness in all those but you know just it didn't hit the mark for me personally like the original trilogy Mandalorian did that like for every episode we sat down as a family and watched it together and I can't tell you another TV show that's been on the air for any length of time where you know me Rusty and all the kids and my dad would all sit down and watch that together. Yeah, when Mandalorian bust onto the scene, like, it reignited, like, the hope that Star Wars could still be cool.
    69:14
    Yes. You know, like, it took the bad taste of, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to shit on something that people love, but, like, you know, it kind of took the rise of Skywalkers and the Last Jedis and the Phantom Menaces and just sort of said, yeah, you know, all that stuff exists, but, you know, this is what you want. This is the space western, gun-slinging badasses, you know, evil bad guys doing evil bad guy things and, you know, cool-looking aliens.
    69:50
    It's just, yeah. And so, you know, the pinball machine for me was, you know, again, as a theme, it was just something that, like, I knew I was going to want. and as a game, it's really grown on me. Like, I was initially, like, I started playing it, and I said, hey, I see the genius here. You know, I see why this game is cool, and I'm into it. It's got a real smart rule set. It's got really nice art. It's got really, really good sound. Like, I want one of these. Like, this is worth getting. And the mods that they've done for this game are really, like, making it into the game that it probably always should have been. And, I mean, it's pretty cool. I would say that what you get now is that, you know, you can get into the game and, you know, make it your own, you know, add the mods that you want. You know, like I'm going to add, you know, mine's got a shaker.
    70:44
    It's got the Grogu. It's got the metal ramps. I'm going to put side art in. And that's pretty much what I'll do, you know. And other people, you know, they're adding in the Star Wars action figures and, you know, stickers and all sorts of other cool mods are being made out there. Many, many of them by Ace Jedi. So look them up if you want them. And, you know, you can definitely make that game into the Star Wars play set of your dreams. Much like your Hot Wheels play set. Right. And with Hot Wheels, it's very similar. You can exchange it with your own cars. just with Velcro. I'm going to bring that up. They did just make a whole shitload of, like, retro, retro spec 1970, like, late 1970s style Star Wars action figures. Oh, that's cool. All the Mandalorian characters. Oh, that's really cool. That's cool. That's what's great. If you can customize your game and really make it your own, like you said, adding your own action figures or adding your own Hot Wheels cars, it just gives that personalized feeling you know that you know you have something that you can relate to in your childhood and that nostalgia So yeah Yeah, plus now I have Star Trek and I have Star Wars.
    72:05
    Yeah. Maybe if they make like a Battlestar Galactica pinball machine. There you go. Like, there you go, man. It's all good. I'll have all the space franchises. What else do I need? That's right. Well, and you got your completely redone creature, which is done now. Done? No? In process? Yes. Playfield's in? Playfield looks really good. Mark, help me put some games on that bad boy. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, it was fun. It humbled us. It is not kind or friendly. It still needs some tweaking, but everything seemed to be working really, really nicely. Back glass looks great. color DMD in it now, which is just fantastic. I even forgot I actually added color DMDs to both Shadow and World Cup Soccer.
    72:57
    So, yeah, I have been kind of active. But, yeah, man, Creature is going to be just – when I get that cabinet done, I've got the art, I've got the rails, I've got the black legs. I need to get that project finished, and that game is going to be gorgeous. Beautiful. Well, Dan, thanks again for letting me be over at your house. I love seeing your collection. Oh, no, for sure, man. Very impressive. It's a little more accessible now. I did a bunch of cleaning after you left. I was so ashamed of my horde of junk blocking off Medieval Madness and theater magic and Black Knight 2000. I got all motivated and cleaned house and put a bunch of stuff away and got rid of things. So now I can actually get to my games. Of course, I quickly filled some of that space up with Star Trek. So that's the problem. I make room and I have to fill it with a pinball machine. Yeah. It's a sickness.
    73:57
    Yeah. So what about you, Spencer? How's the project? Get a Deadpool going. Okay. Yeah. So I'm glad you brought that up, man. And mods and all that cool stuff, because I'm looking at mods for it. It's not got it yet. You know, they had December run. So then, you know, I'm like Fucking cool, man, because you and I talked about it A lot, I'm like, yeah, man I already paid cash for it I mean, ATM card, you know, bank card So, but I mean, you know, pay here, cash Money, no, I want to, it's like, well, you can Pay us in December, and I don't know, let me Pay you now, man, I want the Game, I'm all in So I'm like, uh-oh, this doesn't Look good, because like they're raising the prices Right, and I'm like, well, I ordered it then, but they didn't, like, you know, they didn't have the connectivity, you know, install. So, I'm like, so I contact my distributor. I'm like, hey, man, what's the word? It's like, well, they said the December run. So, you know, if they still run in December, which they're looking like they're supposed to, it's going to be 300 bucks more because of the connectivity, you know, hardware. Doesn't turn insider. Now, weren't we expecting it sooner?
    75:16
    Deadpool? Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. Even when I ordered in June, when I reached out to him, because I reached out to, you know, all the main players that I know, you know, personally that I, you know, have experienced relationships with, you know, through, you know, Pinnagogo and Golden State Toneball Festival and all like that. So, and Zach ended up being the first one that could get me one. Because the Pirate, he's like, I'm not getting any pros on this next run. They've already been allotted. I'm only getting premium. So I'm like, okay. And I said, yeah, premium is kind of out of more than I wanted to spend.
    75:59
    Because Russ and I had actually talked about getting a premium. And we're like, for the price point, it's like, you know, because we both want the disco ball. It's like, we can buy the mod for $100, you know, instead of paying $1,000 more for just the disco ball mod. So, but, you know, I reached out to JJ, same kind of thing. It's like, yeah, I'm not getting it until December. And then Zach ended up winning out because, you know, you know how cheap I am. And he just went lower on the price on free shipping. And so it was always going to be December. And this was, you know, mid end of June. And this was literally within a week of me moving out here.
    76:35
    Because I had the money in my hand, I pulled the trigger. And so, you know, I was looking at $300 more, and I'm like, well, you know what? Fuck it. I'm in. I'm all in. I don't care. And if it comes after January 1st, it's a build date for my particular game, it ends up being delayed. This could end up being like $800 more. And at this point, I'm just feeling like Jim Carrey, a liar, liar, where he's going to pick up his Mercedes and he's screaming, you know what I'm going to do about the big scratch on my car? Nothing. I'm just going to scream and yell like an impotent jerk and then, you know, take it up the tailpipe. That's where I'm at. You know, look at the bright side.
    77:17
    Yeah. The connected features are really cool. They are. And I was watching a couple streams now where they've played the connected games, And I've got to admit that I do feel like that's worth a few hundred extra dollars. 300 bucks, yeah. I didn't realize that you were waiting until December. Yeah, yeah, man. And I ordered in June. That's just because there are, I mean, there's a couple of distributors that had, like, they had one or two. And it was guys that we don't normally, you know, hear from online. And they wanted a premium. Kind of like one of the guys also had an attack from Mars, which, you know, is like top two of my games I won. me and Rusty both and they had those marked up two grand and then a month later I was looking I'd already ordered Deadpool and I'm like you know just for grins I'm like look at this it's up another grand so a standard version you know that a distributor that still has a standard version of the Attack of the Mars remake has them marked up to like 9500 now. Wow. Well especially because it turns out that I guess that they probably won't be doing any more remakes of Medieval Attack and Monster Bash until 2023. That's correct. So, yeah, you know, I can see why all of a sudden all of those games have bumped back up in price. Now, had I known that, I probably wouldn't have sold my Monster Bash, but I did, so it's over.
    78:48
    I also sold my Attack from Mars, so that's over, too. But I still have my Medieval, and it's staying. But, yeah, that's pretty crazy. And Monster Bash went to Huntsman, right? Yeah, it was part of the Mando trade.
    79:03
    And he's apparently, I mean, I haven't talked to him. I've not talked to him. He messaged me the other day about some Mando parts, but I went up there and I played it, and yeah, he's definitely, you know, he started tricking it out and putting his parts on it, and he has the Brian Allen art on it, which looks really, really nice. And yeah, he's definitely given that game the love it deserves. Yeah, he loves that. He loves that game. It's a bit an important part of his lineup. I was shocked when he dealt off his AFM because his AFM went to Pressler and that thing's just gorgeous. Oh, I know. But he had to have that Stargazer.
    79:46
    He had to have the Stargazer. He had to have the Stargazer. Which is a fun yam. It is a fun game. Yeah, it is. It's overrated as hell, but it's, you know, it is what it is. It's just one of those games that it's taken on a value of its own. Right. You know, so do I think it's as much fun as it costs? No. Do I see why people like it? Yeah.
    80:14
    Have I had good games on it? Sure. Have I had bad games on it? Yeah. It's a fun league game Oh yeah it's a bastard at league Because you never know what you're going to get Like sometimes that game Will decide to be kind And just the feeds will be gorgeous And everything will be where you want it to be And then sometimes that game will just You know Just kill you for free Yeah It's a very dependent setup game though Like honestly Like, the flippers need to be a very specific way on that game. Like, it's just for that game to play right and be as hard as it's supposed to be, though, it's very setup dependent. And that was something that I learned the hard way.
    81:02
    And Mike has it dialed in perfectly. Oh, yeah. Mike, you know, Mike has a gift when it comes to his games. One of the weird things about going to Mike's place and playing his games is he has weird games from back in the day, and he just wants you to know how to play them. Like, it's not enough to him that you're just going to sit there and flip the ball around and hit stuff. He wants you to know, like, what you're hitting and why what you're hitting is going to cause to happen what happens and what the chain reaction is. And, you know, most of the games, like, I'll sit there, I'll play with him, I'll get the rules set. But that Catacomb, he must have spent 45 minutes explaining that game to me, and I still don't know how to fucking play it. Me neither.
    81:49
    I think the only person in the world who knows how to play that game is Mike. That back box one where you have to, you know, light the A, B, C, D in those columns. I have no idea. That's Catacomb, right? I have no idea what he's doing. I'm just like, what? He's just like, oh, then you've got to hit this, and then when that happens, you hit this. I'm just like, what are you even talking about? Yeah, and he explains it totally clear as a bell, but I don't get it. I just can't figure it out. Can't figure it out. You know, that's the thing with Charlie Emery, you know, Spooky Pinball.
    82:22
    Him and Bug used to talk about that when they had their podcast. Like, Charlie would explain the rules to that game 20 times, and Bug would still be like, I still don't get it.
    82:33
    You know, I played it years ago at a show. I mean and I had fun playing it But you know I was just batting the ball around And I had no idea what I was doing But yeah man Yeah it's got that rule That's like 80s complex Right right yeah Like well you know And that's one of the things beyond the artwork And the sound call outs And the layout and everything else Centaur You know, for the time, it has a really pretty complex deep rule set. Oh, for sure. And everything going on in that game, which is one of the reasons I still, you know, love today. You know, and it's one of my, you know, of that era of Bally's, it's one of my favorites still.
    83:23
    Not to get off, you know, topic or anything. We have a topic? We have a topic. You know what, man? We're just free flowing tonight, but it's good. It's good stuff. There's a lot of stuff to talk about, and there's still more stuff coming. That's what's really exciting. Yeah, I'm going to kind of segue off two things. The one, and you briefly kind of segued to it, Dan, sort of, kind of, but not really just because it's a pop culture reference, Spinal Tap from Home Pin. Okay, I talked nothing about Spinal Tap or Home Pin. I thought you were going to take us to Godzilla. You're just sitting there hallucinating. I'm really tired.
    84:08
    I didn't even make it take it to 11 joke. I was like, that's a curveball. I was like, fine. Okay. You made a reference that made me go, oh, Spine Tap. I forgot about that. What do you guys think about that? Let's just do it real quick. Okay, I'm going to say something. If they redesign the flipper buttons, I'll give it a chance.
    84:30
    I've never played a Thunderbirds, so I don't know if this is... I know it's supposed to really, really suck, and I know the flipper buttons are supposed to be really, really uncomfortable.
    84:40
    It's one of those things where it's all like... I mean, here's the thing. I know I'm supposed to like Spinal Tap, and I don't know enough about Spinal Tap to tell you, like, you know, I've seen parts of This Is Spinal Tap, the mockumentary, but, like, it was probably a little tiny bit before my time.
    85:05
    So, you know, I don't know. Like I said, I can't speak to – I mean, it's an awesome idea for a theme, and, you know, it's sort of like heavy metal where it's, like, one of those themes that I think that if somebody real was making it, it would probably kick a lot more ass. but, you know, maybe it'll be cool. I mean, Home Pin, you know, love him or hate him, you know, for all of Home Pin's follies and foibles and stuff. The dude made a game. He shipped it. He makes parts. He ships them. He's making another game with a bigger license. You know, he has a proven track record of quote-unquote success. So, you know He's shipped a shitload more games Than Deep Root has Let's just put it this way We'll give him a chance I'm a massive Spinal Tap fan I know you are I know you are, that's for sure I still have my ticket stub, a t-shirt And a backstage pass from when I saw him 30 years ago So, yeah man I'm a Tap fan That would be a perfect theme for you, Spencer. So we'll have to see how they manufacture it, what are the features. There's really nothing out there, right? It's just they talked about the theme and that's it. Is that correct? There's a fairly funny poster.
    86:39
    Okay. And then you guys are reminding me of something else because I'm really badly segwaying here. Segway to another music, Tim, real quick, and then we'll move forward. the Queen pin. That kind of came out of nowhere too. Yeah, we have seen that. I don't think it looks that bad, really. I mean, is it going to change the landscape of pinball forever? No, it's not. But it could be a good game. It looks fun. I love to be Captain Positivity, and I think it looks kind of like garbage.
    87:11
    But you know the music will be great, and if you're a Queen fan, you know, it might be a dream come true.
    87:21
    So I hope it's good. Yeah. But I think the art's terrible, and I think that the play field looks like it wants to be Guns N' Roses when it grows up. And just, yeah, there's not much to impress me so far, but the music's going to be great because it's fucking Queen, man. And who is manufacturing that one again? Is it Pinball Brothers? Pinball Brothers. So it's another, like, Highway left over. So how did they, yeah, I mean, they were just releasing Alien, and then all of a sudden they talk about another game. That was a shocker, right? Because Pinball Brothers did Alien, or is doing Alien. So that's all stuff that Highway was working on. Okay. So Highway had done Alien, and of course Pinball Brothers' version of Alien is a streamlining or a perfectioning of highways. And I mean, you know, I think that the whole Pinball Brothers thing is kind of a scam. You know, I think that those guys kind of swept in, you know, picked up assets, picked up rights, picked up materials, and left creditors and people who were owed games holding the bag. and so I don't want to speak to the, you know, I don't want to be the moral outrage here, so I'm just going to move past that and just say their version of Alien looks cool. It looks way better in a standard cabinet. I know the price has gone up, but, like, you know, for $8,000, it seems like, you know, one of the best deals going, right?
    88:57
    $8,000 for that? Because it was $77.77. Yeah. And now I guess it's gone up to like 81 or 8,200. And that's for the, is that like, is there two models? There's a pro kind of? I guess there is some sort of limited edition, but this is just for like their standard.
    89:20
    And I would assume they're taking the same thing for Queen, and Queen doesn't look quite as good as Alien. because I think we've, I mean, you've played Alien, right? I played the one from Highway. Right. And it was a lot. And that's the one that I know that Spencer's played. And I think we were all really impressed by that game. Yeah, I played it at Golden State and never played it in my life. And I just had a really good game and got GC on it my first play, which was pretty wild. Oh, yeah, just stepped up to it and kicked its ass. Because I'm Mark Scroft. I'm great at everything. No. It was fun. It was fun to shoot. No, it's a hell of a game. It's dark and moody, and it has molded toys and an alien that eats the ball. And, I mean, everything that you'd want it to have, and the display work on it was really, really good. Like, you play that game, and it's got enough assets, and it's really well done. So it's like I would love to see that game be successful. I would love it even more if, you know, people hadn't been left, you know, holding the bag from Highway, but I guess that's neither here nor there. And so I guess Queen was, like, going to be the next, next Highway. Yeah. The next, next Pinball Brothers. I know with Alien, David Thiel's music is amazing on that game. Yeah. Really good. A gangster, though. He's so good. Yeah. So, you know, like I said, I think Queen is great. Like, you know, all-time number one super, super classic band, you know, who just, you know, they deserve a great game. They deserve a music game as good as Guns N' Roses. And I don't think that's what they're going to get. But hopefully, you know, this game will end up being more of a pleasant surprise. But, yeah, I don't think that play field aged well. Yeah. We'll have to see. We'll have to see how it plays. Yeah. That's, of course, the big thing is, you know, pictures are pictures, you know. Let's see what that thing looks like in person and lit up and, you know, in a real-world environment. You know, I'm sure a lot of things that, you know, the first, the knee-jerk reaction is, ooh, that doesn't look good, you know, when you actually see it in front of you. You're like, ooh, that ain't so bad. Mm-hmm. Spencer, are you with us? I'm right here, bro. All right. What's the next game?
    91:52
    Well, Godzilla. Okay. Are you going to get Queen or Spinal Tap? Probably neither. But, you know, man, I really like the looks of Godzilla. And that was another one where, you know, I grew up watching the movies and, you know, I dug them and all, but I just kind of, you know, I grew up and kind of just, you know, put that stuff on the back burner because, you know, life, you know, marriage and kids and a real day job and all that stuff. and then, you know, it's L1, so it's just like, okay, boom, L1, good. Ding, which I'm kind of like really scratching my head at first that Mark didn't buy the Godzilla because we had talked months ago, and you're like, I'm selling Game of Thrones. Yeah, I'm taking it. I'm buying my first new box, and I'm buying Godzilla. And then, of course, the price increases, and you're like, Hot Wheels. And I'm like, because I was told that he had talked to you and convinced you to buy Hot Wheels. I was totally, yeah. I mean, even after seeing that, I was like, oh, I'm definitely going to get a Godzilla. And then when they announced the $1,200 price hike, I was like, that's not going to work for me. I was like, dang it.
    92:55
    But then I was thinking, well, there's like seven or eight people getting it in Reno. So it's like, why do I need to get a Godzilla? There's no point. You can play it whenever you want. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And like you said, you've got the only Hot Wheels that you know of in Reno. Yeah. So, like, you know, he's like, okay, I got the Hot Wheels. Come over and then I'll come over and play your Godzilla. Exactly, yeah. Instead of going, oh, you got a Godzilla too? That's all right. I got mine. You know, yeah, it's just nice to build a community and, you know, have a different game that nobody else has. And even though I went that route, I'm not disappointed. So with Godzilla, though, when you watch it, this is the first time I watched a stream where I got excited about it. Did you feel that way? Because when I watched the one from Deadflip, this game looks so much fun to play. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, man. Oh, my gosh. And, you know, even with the prize hike, you know, and there have been, you know, conjecture and, you know, rumors. They're like, oh, you're going to, you know, it's coming, you know. And you hear about Godzilla, but you just hear it in general like, look, man, there's a game coming out. It's going to be the new L1 game, and it's going to blow your fucking mind. You know, it's going to have like it's going to have ramps that have never done what these ramps are going to do. And, you know, it's and, you know, it's like, OK, well, it's going to be cool. But like, you know, and of course, I'm talking mostly about the premium. Even the pro looks pretty good. Yeah. Because they just didn't stream for that. But it blew me away. I was you know, when you get the wow. And every time there's a hype because I was fortunate to see the the Stern Web webinar. because we were part of the CERN Army. So we had over at Jim Martin's place, got to watch it. And unfortunately, it was already revealed, so it kind of took steam out of it a little bit before we watched it. But anyway, when they showed that Mac of how it's designed and it's just the shot geometry is genius. The building and the Mechagodzilla. Okay. Yeah, it just was amazing how – because when I saw that, I don't know if it made you remind you a little bit of Willy Wonka, but you know how you had the thing where you had to hit it to lock the ball? That carousel looked very similar with the banana-shaped insert in front of it and how it rotated. And I was like, that's pretty similar. Not saying that they copied it or anything. But then what he did is he had a spinner added to it. He had stand-up targets and a ramp on one mech. Genius. And then, of course, the building. Hello. Dan, I'm sure you can elaborate on that. But just wow. And then on top of that, it doesn't just collapse. It has diverters on each floor. I mean, as far as the direction of where the ball goes. And it's a ball lock. Like, how great is it that the ball pops up and rests on top of the building, and then to start the multi-ball, the building falls down, the guardrail pops up, and the balls come shooting right down the middle. Thank God for ball saves. Such an awesome, awesome thing. And, I mean, you see that. And here's the thing. I don't care one lick about Godzilla. I mean, I didn't, I mean, obviously it was around when I grew up and I liked some of the rubber monster stuff, but just like, I was never a Godzilla fan. I tried to watch all the new movies. They never really hooked me. So, you know, all the furor about Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla. I was always like, Hey, you know, it could be cool. You know, Godzilla's King Kong, stuff like that. I'm sure it's great. People like it. so when I sat down and I watched the stream you know I was just basically looking at the game and I was probably thinking pretty critical thoughts because I think you know I think Elwynn is a great designer you know I love love love Iron Maiden which is why I have one I think Jurassic's a darn fun game I think Avengers is a darn fun game and I was like you know he's due for a clunker like he's due for he's due to kind of go a little far. And then everybody started talking about, well, there's a price increase and Stern's throwing more money at this one. And I'm just like, whatever. It ain't going to happen. Like, you guys are like, you guys are just hoping against hope. It's just going to be another Stern. And then I saw it and I was all like, it really does look like, you know, they opened up the checkbook. They pulled out all the stops. I think it was the first thing that he really wanted.
    97:51
    And it shows. And And, you know, even though I still don't care about Godzilla as the theme, the art, the sound, none of that does anything for me, that play field is freaking outrageous. It's incredible. And every time, like, when I was watching this film, like, whoa, did you see that? The ball went looping around the pop bumper. How the heck did he do that? And then it did it on the other side, too. I was like, that's genius. That's a really nice, like, roundiness, right? Like, I think that you're getting to the point where it's like games have, you know, angles, right? They're geometry and they're angular and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But this game isn't afraid that, you know, the ball goes around things and comes out. And, you know, the way that the shots work, you know, it's, you kind of mentioned earlier, whitewater. Some of it feels very whitewaterish where the ball goes in someplace and then comes out someplace you don't really expect it.
    98:47
    And it's got that Nordman sort of style where it's like, you know, and I guess it's the Elwin style too, because he's done this on all of his games so far, where the wire forms are very animated. You know, you have a lot of loops and angles and stuff like that. You get a lot of exciting looking ball movement.
    99:08
    It's kinetically satisfying when you hit a ramp and you get a couple seconds with the ball going, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, before it comes back to the flipper.
    99:18
    Yeah, just really cool looking game. And I'm excited that so goddamn many people are buying it because I really can't wait to check it out. And I'll be honest, man, watching, I mean, I watched the pro stream all the way through, and I was pretty impressed by the pro. Even without the building, even without the bridge or the Mechagodzilla, you know. In fact, in a way, watching the pro stream did good things for me because, you know, it really comes down to what's the geometry looking like. And while you are going to lose a little bit of that because you lose the diverter aspect of the building, you know, you do get to see, you know, what the ball is doing and why it's doing it. And it's really cool. I mean, I don't know if I'd be like, yeah, you don't need the premium on this one. I think the premium, it's going to bring the magic.
    100:10
    But I think that the pro, you know, if you do go for the pro as a compromise, you know, I don't think that, you know, you've thrown away your life. I just think that, you know, it's one of those things where it's kind of like Avengers, where it's like the extra stuff that the premium brings to the table is shit that you want.
    100:30
    You know, it's good, good stuff. I just wish it wasn't so goddamn ugly. Yeah, yeah. Like, the art is not blowing any wind up my skirt. Not a Godzilla fan, probably missing the point, but I just think that the art's not the best. It's fine. It's zombie yeti. He does good art. I'm not saying that it's bad quality. It just doesn't work for me. And I think the display work on it looks pretty shady, although it's still early. Some of the screens look really, really cool, and some of the screens look very, very generic, like rubber monsters with words on top of it. So I don't think it's aesthetically pleasing. I'll reserve judgment until I see it in person because that's how I felt the same way until I saw it in person. And I was like, whoa, this pops of color, but it works. And the other thing that was interesting is when you watch the promo video or the trailer from CERN, it had a washed-out look to it that gave it kind of an orangish tint to it. But when I saw the stream from Jack, it had much more vivid colors with the purples and the blues that I didn't see in the trailer. So I don't know. I mean, as far as color, I like it. I'm not a huge Godzilla fan myself. So when I looked at it, I was like, yeah, this is great as far as how they did the theme. But like I said, I'm not the kind of person that watched every Godzilla episode when I was a kid. But what really amazed me and I loved it was the call-outs of how they made it sound like from the 50s of how a person was narrating. That really engaged me when I watched that. I was like, this is really cool how it was like. And it had that cheesy factor, you know. Shoot, the left ramp. But it just sounded like you were having this announcer, you know, talking about the next episode, you know, kind of like the same bat channels, same bat time kind of thing, you know. It had that really, really exciting and motivating speech call-outs that made it just so much fun. I don't know if you felt the same way, Spencer or Dan, but I love it. Yeah. I love that. It affects the boxes. Yeah. There's a lot of talk about the work. I'm not a diehard Godzilla guy either. I'm completely lukewarm. I think it fits the theme fine. And, you know, games always look better in person, so. Yep.
    103:00
    I'm probably missing the point because the narration didn't do anything for me. The old school Godzilla theme doesn't sound like good pinball music to me. The freaking classic rock song doesn't sound like good multi-volume music to me. Again, I just don't care. That would drive me nuts. About Godzilla, you know, go, go, Godzilla. I just don't. But, you know, I, and again, the art's not, you know, I'm not trying to say the art's terrible. What I'm trying to say is just to me, I wanted it to look like old movies. Yeah. And it looks like comic books. And, again, that's Zombie Yeti. That's why John Zombie Eddie's Deadpool package is so brilliant, you know. And, you know, his Ghostbusters, it's a cartoon take on the Ghostbusters. And, you know, Iron Maiden, Legacy of the Beast, you know, that actually worked surprisingly well. And I'm not an Iron Maiden fan, but, you know, Brian is. And he's like, oh, if it's not Derek Riggs, it's junk. And then he saw Zombie Eddie's and he goes, oh, that's not too bad. You know, and, of course, it worked great for Avengers. you know I just think that this was a bridge too far the game that I think of when I think of Godzilla honestly is I think of the black and white monsters I think if they'd given that treatment to Godzilla and I know they'll never do a black and white game again because of all the bullshit from monsters but I think that that treatment would have worked really nicely for Godzilla yeah we lost Sam hold on I'm going to pause Two, one, and go. Yeah, I'm not trying to say that Zombietti's not a great artist. I mean, you know, he does wonderful, wonderful comic style art, you know. His takes on Ghostbusters and Iron Maiden were fantastic.
    104:44
    Obviously, Avengers and Deadpool look great. I just didn't think that it was the right choice for Godzilla. I was looking for much more of an old movie poster kind of feel. Darker colors, right? You know, the game that I think of when I think of a game that would look great as Godzilla is that black and white monsters. And I know Stern will never make that mistake again. I know they caught a lot of hell for making that black and white game. But, oh, God, I think it's gorgeous. I think it's one of the best looking Sterns. And I think that if they'd given Franchi, you know, the opportunity to do Godzilla, I think it would be, you know, a way cooler looking game. But, again, I'm not the right guy, for someone who's talking about it so much, I'm not the right guy to judge the aesthetic of Godzilla because I really probably don't understand it. Right. And when we start playing it, and here's the thing, once we start playing it, we're not going to care about the art. We're going to be looking at the balls flying all over the place and be wowed by the mechs and the shot geometry and all that stuff. Right. It's a fantastic game. It's got crappy audio. I think ACDC is the ugliest game ever. But here's the deal, right? Like, I don't own an ACDC anymore. You know, and one of the big reasons I got rid of it was because I didn't like to look at it. And I had a Lucy, which, you know, people would argue is the coolest looking ACDC. And I'm still just like, God, that is just not a good looking game. You know, I think that the art's important. And I think it's what's more important about the art is that the people who are fans, they understand it. And the guy who I know who's the hardest core Godzilla fan has already said to me, like, yeah, the art's not really what I wanted it to be, but I love Godzilla and the game looks cool. Yeah. Oh, Henry? Yeah.
    106:40
    Henry is. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, Henry, yeah. He's got an LE on the way. Oh, yeah. So, you know, we're going to be hopefully seeing that. You know, that'll probably be the first one that we see in this part of the world. That's exciting. Yeah, I agree with you in a way, Dan, that it was similar style as Avengers. And that kind of put me off a little bit. But like I said, I'm going to reserve judgment until I see it in person. Then I'll really know how it looks, you know, and if the artwork is what it's cracked up to be, I guess you could say. For people who like it. Just like with Queen, it might look better in three dimensions.
    107:25
    Yeah, exactly. But the mechs, did you watch the section on Deadflip when Keith was holding the mech and how solid it was with, like, actual steel?
    107:41
    And the bridge, I was like, I felt very confident when I saw that these are not cheap parts they putting in those games and could be a reason why they had the bomb a lot higher But they seem like they pretty reliable Like I saw it was like... They're stepping up their game.
    108:01
    They're stepping up their game. But there was no plastic. It was all metal. I will believe it when I see it. Yeah.
    108:10
    Well, it's like we talked about earlier. I've never heard anybody say anything negative about the build quality of an American pinball game. That's one of the bigger selling points. These things are really pretty much trouble-free and they're built like tanks. Spurn seems to be up in their game. They're up in their game. The playfulness you've seen to have slowed down, but I haven't really been keeping up.
    108:36
    Spooky is up in their game. The fuck is going on over at Jersey Jack? I have no idea. I love guys as soon as I played down, I said, I want one of and as soon as they start having all the problems with the playcodes, like, fuck you, I'm not giving you my money. You're like, whoops, you're gonna don't have one of those. Yeah. I love that game. I love Wonka. Wonka is a dream team for me. Only $11,000, buddy.
    109:09
    Yeah, $11,000. I got $12,000 in fucking furniture in my living room. You can get one brand new. 11k limited edition 11k and after 21 games the entire clerica is going to oh that is not what's happening at all it's going to land close enough here's the thing with the playfields and I'll tell you this because I'm the only one of you motherfuckers who's going through it yes it's a drag you know but to an extent when you get a game you know do you expect to be perfect forever no I'm willing to accept that games wear out did I want it to wear out this quickly no you know have I gone through all the steps to address the damage yes you know am I happy and satisfied yes but you know it's not like I ever went into this like a lot of these guys where it's like look I spent $10,000 it should be perfect forever that ain't fucking pinball son that just isn't how it works. No, that's a great point. You have a great point, Gary. Here's the thing with your mech on Godzilla. It looks heavy.
    110:23
    It's going to be driven by a small electric motor powered by Stern's super reliable spike board set. So, you know, is there room for concern? Sure. But we're not going to know until that sucker's out in the field and the first people are opening their games and they're unboxing it and they're playing with it and we know how well that thing works in the really real world. You know, here's the thing. You know, maybe, you know, I will fully admit that it looks like Stern spent some money on this game and, you know, with any luck, yeah, they've come up with a way to make this mech bulletproof. The only other game I can think of, though, with an arguably similar mech on it, that thing sucks.
    111:11
    And that's Doctor Who. It's awesome when it works. Yeah, exactly. Another point to make is... But I also don't think this works the same way. It seems to use kind of a worm drive. Yeah, that's what I was saying. That big cam lock thing. And, you know, the thing with the worm drive is, you know, they do require some maintenance. you know you will know what you have to go in and do to keep it working but you know as long as it's reliable enough you know to where like for the ones that find their way on the location you know they'll survive for a while you know that's that's stern's achievement right because they've made a version that doesn't have the collapsing building that's designed to be the quarter drop right that's Well, do you remember Keith Elwin, okay, beyond him being an amazing competitive player, he's also a route operator for many years and ran a ton of games. Right, but he's not a mechanical engineer. No, he's not, but you probably tell. He thinks about things and talks with the engineers and says, I want to do this, but can we do it to where it's going to be really reliable out on location? I'm working in a little tiny corner space because my room's still not done. So I have all my shit jammed into one corner Plus a bunch of stored boxes And like I still I'm about two thirds unpacked And we've been here three months So we literally just got the rest of our furniture on Wednesday So Yeah no worries We ordered it in June So that gives you an idea So yay COVID But yeah we ain't gonna know how good Godzilla is Until they start landing And that should be Sometime in the second half of this month. It's very soon. In fact, when I was talking to Zach, he was telling me that Godzilla is going to be on the line this week for LE. Yep. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it's going to be coming. They're already running pros, right? I mean, they always start with the pros. Yeah, they always start with the pros for the operators, and then they go LE, and then they go premium. That's how they usually run. Some export pros. Right. And then the LEs, and then back to the pros, and then the premiums. Right. And then back to the pros. We have a lot of LEs coming to Reno, a lot. And the premiums.
    113:42
    Which is, you know, and, you know, with the COVID or whatever, you know, whatever. Nope. Whatever else is going on in the world, this causing things to slow down. Like, you know, me paying for furniture and having to wait three months to get it.
    114:00
    Or paying for a dead phone and having to wait six months. A lot of waiting. Well, there's people waiting over a year for like an Elvira, man. Like, you know, they keep pushing those back, and they're not due until sometime in 2022 now. Yeah, my friend Ted was so excited to order one, and, yeah, it's so backlogged. It's crazy. Like, I don't get that at all. Yeah. You know, yeah, and I mean, so, and they got, you know, they just keep pumping out two new games. So, you know, God wants them now. They're selling pinballs, but, you know, so. To be honest, man, now that Sheets is stepping out at Stern, I wouldn't be that excited about getting an Elvira.
    114:42
    Like, the game that it is is good. Like, he did a lot of work on it, but it's just like, it's never going to reach, like, its maximum potential because he's not going to spend the next, like, eight years fucking with it like he did with, you know, ACDC and Metallica. That's true. You know, everybody's on the jock of the cult of Lyman. And don't get me wrong, Lyman made some great games, but it almost always took him a shitload of a long time to do it.
    115:10
    Right. Yeah, he's meticulous in his coding. There's no doubt about it. And he's a genius in the way that he can design code and rule sets that are easy to understand, but then he can have so much depth as you get more into the game. And that's what I'm excited about, which is a great segue. We can probably talk about the next game that's coming out real soon. It's Cactus Canyon remake. But his strength isn't that, again, you know, he makes a great rule set, right? Going back to the day to East and the Bally Williams days. And, you know, he makes a great rule set. And he makes games work, right? But I think that his big strength has always been that it's like he'll make a game, and it'll be out there for a while, and people will play it, and he'll play it, and he'll see how it works, and then he'll go in and he'll change it.
    116:05
    You're right? Right. You know, so when somebody's like, oh, my God, man, fucking Walking Dead is frustrating and stupid, then he'll go in and say, well, how about this? And everybody will be like, fuck, no, it's great. And then he's like, ha-ha, Lyman wins again. Yeah. And that's what he probably will do with the Chicago Gaming Games. Well, hopefully. But you're going to lose that with some of those sterns. And, I mean, especially, again, Elvira. You know, Batman 66 was a great example. That game came out. And it had, you know, it had an abbreviated run. It had an abbreviated cycle. They had to get it out quick. They were reworking another game, you know. And there was a year where Batman 66 kind of sucked. It was awful. And then Lightning was like, ha-ha. And everyone was like, fuck, it's great. You know, we added in the villain modes, and we added in this, we added in that. It's wonderful. You know, Walking Dead, Metallica, another great example. Terrible at first. You know, Lyman fixed it. You know, even Elvira was pretty shady at first, and then Lyman fixed it, made it work. So, you know, I think it's a shame because I do think he could have basically, like, went forever on that game, making it better and better and better, and now it's going to be stuck in, like, this spot. Yeah, there's not going to be any updates coming at any time soon. He did an update for ACDC, like, what, two years ago? Yeah. ACDC came out in, like, 2010.
    117:24
    So, like, you know, that dude works on games forever. He might even still do updates. You never know. You'll be on this website, and it'll be like, by the way, we got a Metallica update. Ha-ha.
    117:37
    You never know. And what's really interesting with CGC is he has the right to have different code for those remakes. So not just Cactus Canyon, but any game that was a remake. So here's what's funny, right? Because we talked about this the other day, right? And you were like, oh, my God, Lyman's going to be working on Cactus Canyon, to which I was. And I wasn't trying to be flip about it, but I'm like, who cares? Lyman didn't design this offer for Cactus Canyon. But Lyman did design the software for Medieval Madness, for Attack from Mars, and for Monster Patch.
    118:20
    That's interesting. So I'm just like, I wouldn't be heartbroken. I wouldn't be heartbroken at all to see, you know, an enhanced Medieval Madness software.
    118:34
    Yeah. Like, that would be incredible. I never made it to production. Huh? Yeah, there's an old George Gomez interview. If you go way back to Clay Harrell's podcast, Top Cast, there's a great interview with George Gomez. You ask about it. Apparently, Lyman has the prototype or the parts to it to make it one of the two. So Monster Bash was a ramp, like a lift ramp, that you could, like, launch the ball and hit Frankenstein with it. Oh, I do know what you're talking about. Yeah. I didn't know anything about that. Yeah. So, and because you wrote the code for it. I couldn't. Having owned a Monster Bash and worked on a Monster Bash and shopped a Monster Bash, I cannot fucking fathom putting another assembly in that game. Yeah, it's already pretty tight, man And drag takes up a lot of room Like, taking that drag mechanism in and out sucks And so it's like, yeah, I couldn't imagine It's just like, yeah, we're going to put a ramp right here You know, and it's just like, what the fuck is your problem? Like, stop But I mean, Monster Bash really was one of those games Where it was like, you know, it does a lot of stuff and, you know, the mechanical magic is there. You know, it's a great example of, like, it could use a little more depth because the problem is, is, like, once you've seen Monsters of Rock three or four times in a game, you're done. It's just like, all right, it's cool. But, you know, I went over to Mike's, you know, we played it, Mike, you know, knocked out three Monsters of Rock in a game. You know, I've only done two, so I was like, fuck, you're the good man. I was like, you know, you're going to hit the wall that I hit real quick, which is just like, I can pretty much do what I want on this game, but it's really fun to watch it happen. And so, yeah, if the solution is, hey, we're going to get you, you know, enhanced remakes, that'd be great. Now, the question is, and CGC, or not CGC, but, yeah, CGC has been good about this so far, you know, do the existing owners get this?
    120:56
    Yep. You know, because that's the question. And, you know, if they come out and they say, okay, well, you know, we're going to do Monster Bash 2.0, and we're going to do Medieval Madness 2.0 and Attack from Mars 2.0, and everyone's like, yay, and they go, but it won't work on the original games. It's like, you guys are fucking assholes. Like.
    121:21
    What? Because here's the irony, right? I mean, it might not be free, you know, think of it this way, but, you know, Medieval comes out, right? They do Medieval Madness remake, and they make two models. They make the collector's edition or the limited edition, which is really just kind of the first thousand, and then they make the standard edition, right? and then they come up with Attack from Mars. In Attack from Mars they do a super cheap classic edition then they do a special edition then they do a limited edition, right? And then they do the same thing with Monster Bash. And so that's their model. And they never really said, hey, you know, we're not going to do this with Medieval Madness. They just sort of said Medieval Madness is what it is. We're doing these other games now. So when they decided to go back and do a limited edition of Medieval Madness, you know, all the people who own Medieval Madness LEs were sort of like, hey, well, fuck, that's kind of bullshit. And I was like, look, all I have to say is this. If they give us a cost effective way to have the extra goodies on our game, how mad can we be? Like, yes, we kind of got dicked out of having the limited edition, but if we can have the color changing lighting and the big display and the topper, and I didn't even think the color changing lighting would be a thing if they did I'm like, I can't complain too much. And they did that. To their credit, they did that. They made kits so that we could upgrade our games. So it doesn't feel to me like they're a company that would be like, sorry, guys, you can't have this. You know, now here's the thing. It cost me a couple thousand dollars. So, you know, it might not be free, but, you know, as long as they don't leave us behind, you know, I can't be too upset if they decide to do new software. And with any luck, it's just going to be, hey, plug in a USB stick, do an install, and off to the races.
    123:22
    And it's possible if they can somehow utilize the system that's in the older games from the remakes and use their proprietary software to run it. Well, yeah. And again, the trick, I guess, with what they did on Cactus and why Cactus has taken so long is because they basically rewrote their operating system. So the current Chicago Gaming operating system is basically a shell, and you run an emulation of the Valley Williams software in it. Okay. So what happens is, like, if you were, I don't know how much experience you have playing with the Remix, but, like, on mine, if you go in and you turn the game on, it brings up a boot screen, you know, and then the boot screen does its thing, and then the boot screen disappears, and then it acts like a WPC is starting because it runs the shell and then it runs the software. Well, apparently, this new system is going to be integrated. So when you make adjustments, you know, all the CGC adjustments, it'll be like you're doing it in the Bally Williams menu. You won't have a CGC menu. Oh, and then I guess I didn't say this. You can go back into a different CGC menu and you can change things. You can change the lighting, you can change the flipper power, you can change things you couldn't change, but then if you want to put it on free play and stuff, you go into the shell and you go to free play and you turn it on. So apparently it's all going to be integrated. So they rewrote, and maybe that's one of the big things about Lyman going over there is nobody probably knows how the Valley Williams operating system worked better than Lyman Sheets at this point. And so, you know, he's probably the exact guy to go in there and overhaul this. And I would love, love, love, love to see them bring that to the earlier games because the solution that they have now works great. It's elegant in a way, but it doesn't sound nearly as cool and integrated as this new shit's supposed to be. Yeah, and I'm excited to see what they do. I know we're going to Expo, and maybe they'll be revealing that. When is that, bro? It's the end of October. It's during Halloween weekend. Oh, wow. Okay, so the weekend before that, as of right now, I plan on going to Rocky Mountain. show, and then next weekend's Pinnagogo, and then Pinnagogo, the weekend after is California Extreme.
    125:47
    Yeah, and then XO. Right now, everything's open. Fuck you. We're getting the show going. Yeah, I was worried they'd cancel it again in Chicago, but Chicago is fine. I mean, obviously, maybe not the numbers and COVID and all that, but they're fine to keep it going.
    126:03
    Everything's open enough. Yeah, and they're doing this factory tour. I was worried they were going to cancel that, But, no, that's on because I just got an email about it. So I was like, yes, because that I'm excited about. I'm really excited about. That was a dream of mine to go and check out the factory in person and get to do it. It's cool. No, that's awesome. Yeah. We haven't even got to connectivity yet, really, but, you know what, we'll do it on another episode.
    126:34
    We kind of did like, we'll do another episode in a few weeks. Well, we talked about the connectivity when we talked about your dead bull.
    126:43
    We've talked about the price changes. We've kind of covered a lot. Did we want to do a rundown of Playfield 76 and then call it a day? Yeah, we did. Most people are working out with their playfields and stuff. That's the other thing I was going to bring up with CGC. I've never heard of any of them having a playfield issue.
    127:02
    And I know, like, you and I, we talked earlier in the week. I'm like, I was like, yeah, man, I'm looking at picking up a bunch of mods for my Deadpool already. I'm going to pick up the Clippy kit. You know, I'm going to be proactive because, you know, you got a steel ball on a wooden play field. But, I mean, there's just some stuff where you're looking at going, no, not cool, man. Not with a game that's got less than 100 plays, you know? Well, and it's inexcusable that you need to put Cliffies on a home use only game. I mean, I believe that with all my heart. And unless you're like, you know, the world's heaviest user, like it just seems like it's overkill. But, hey, man, they're not cheap and Cliffies aren't expensive and Cliffies are righteous dude who deserves our support. So I put Cliffies on everything that I can, you know, like just it's it's, you know, and the Guns N' Roses was a rough lesson for me because, you know, I bought my Guns N' Roses. I bought it from a friend of a friend. I bought it from a friend who bought it from a friend. and nobody noticed problems, or if they did notice, didn't disclose them. I'm looking at you, Jeff and Mike.
    128:12
    But I don't think that they ever noticed if there were problems. And, you know, I was just like, wow, this is a real drag that I'm the one who caught these in the face. But it just came down to it where it's just like, look, man, you know, every game, you know, you're going to get a chip, you're going to get a ding, you're going to get a nick, it's going to happen. And Mark's Hot Wheels is not going to be perfect forever. Your Deadpool will not be perfect forever if you play it. And, you know, again, you know, it's a drag when it happens quickly, and it's a drag when it happens to something as expensive and gorgeous as Guns N' Roses. Well, and the thing about it is, and then, you know, because that's going to keep you alive. And it's a drag when the company doesn't take care of you. There you go. Well, that's it. It's like, and, you know, Mirko with their flippant attitude, like, you know, we're not talking about it. It's like, motherfucker, people are spending a lot of money with you. You better be talking. Because I've seen a few guys buy Mirko reproduction playbills. Like Adam has one, and he's had it in his funhouse for a couple, three years, and it looks great. He also let that thing set in age for over a year. He's got one in funhouse. He's got one in spirit. I've got one in creature. Yeah, yeah. And I've always been a big proponent, a big supporter of the guys, Mirko, and what they're doing because they do some beautiful work that, you know, on their aftermarket reproduction play fields. But now, now with all their production play fields, there's problem after problem. And just the attitude of like, you know, well, we got your money, fuck you. It's like, you know, I'm the wrong guy to say fuck you too, pal, when I just gave you $8,000. Yeah, I don't, number one, I don't feel like, I don't feel like that's what's happening. But I think that you've also got to, you know, be realistic that like you live in a world where, you know, when this happened and it was a one-off, they were like, yeah, fuck, here's a populated play field, we'll fix it. And then everybody decided, oh, well, you know, as soon as my game gets a ding, I'm going to get a populated play field. And, you know, the Sterns and the Jersey Jacks of the world had to say, look, if we want to stay in business and we want to continue to sell these fucking games, we can't afford to be sending out populated play fields every time somebody cracks a plastic. And when it comes to customer service, you know, there's two things you can do. You can bend it over, just like you said, you can bend over and take it, or, you know, you can put on your big boy pants and say, yeah, sorry, I'm not going to do that. Oh, you don't want to spend your money with me? Well, hey, that's your choice. But in pinball, convictions are weak, because as soon as somebody sees their next title, they're going to be like, well, you know, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, you know. And it'll be right back to normal. And it'll be right, exactly. Nobody was going to buy whatever came out after Wonka. And then they dropped Guns N' Roses, and everybody said, fuck, I want that. Now no one's going to buy what's coming out after Guns N' Roses. Well, they're going to drop Toy Story or whatever's next on their docket, and everyone's going to be like, fuck, I want one of those. Yeah, it's not going to matter. It's not going to matter. That's the thing. I wanted Deadpool, so, you know, Rusty and I have wanted Deadpool for so long. It's our first and probably maybe only new in box. Who knows? But we're like, you know what, man, I'm all in. Because what am I going to do? But, no, it's like, okay, because, you know, they're selling out quick, in, you know, the December run was selling out quick in June, okay? I got one of the last two spots, so I'm told, and which I don't doubt at all, especially the way things have been selling. But, you know, it's like, yeah, if I don't, there's going to be 100 other people online and I do want the game. It's like, well, I'll pay. And I know, you know, for the most part I'm going to get taken care of. That's why I'm going to get to Cliffies and do the extra protection and like that. But, you know, beyond that, and I mean, yeah, it's like, you know, it's like the next game is going to come out and people will still buy it. But it's going to, I mean, there's got to be a point but I want to bring this up and we'll move on. I was just going for continuing education hours and for another license. I was just doing, I was for branch three termite, wood destroying organisms and I was reading up on wood, on raw wood, you know, trees, when they fall the trees and they, you know, most of the trees today aren't aging enough. They're not old-growth wood. They're new-growth. So old-growth wood was primarily hardwood. Okay, that's when you were getting all that good hardwood. And the wood you're getting today is almost all sapwood. Okay, you're not getting the hardwood like you do from the mature growth. Here you go, it's softer wood, okay? Even hardwood is still softer today because you're not getting old growth. you're getting 30-year-old, 35-year-old trees, not 150-year-old trees. That does make a difference. It makes a difference in the hardware. Yeah, but that's more about dimpling. You know, the problem now is all digital printing. Right. Yeah, that too. So, you know. But that's what you want to do. And, you know, none of us are experts, you know. No, no, I'm not. As enthusiasts, you know, we're all in a situation where, like, we have to deal with this. You know, when you get your Deadpool, you know, you've got to own the fact that, you know. It's going to dimple. It's going to crack. It's going to chip. You know, plastics are going to break. Bad shit's going to happen. As an owner, you have to deal with that, you know. Stern is no longer going to bend over and take it, you know. And while I'm not saying that that's right, you know, I think that Guns N' Roses, and I'm going to say this flat out for the whole world to hear, Guns N' Roses were manufactured wrong screws were torqued into the playfield, they didn't use you know, the right material when they assembled it and that's why at least a humongous percentage of those games are damaged, you know, hardware got loose the hardware started moving around and it caused the playfields to chip, that's what happened, you know if Jersey Jack could absolutely prove that somebody at their fucking, you know, factory wasn't, you know, torquing screws down too hard, great, you know, more power to you. But they can't. And so they really should say, hey, look, we're sorry. You know, at the very least, we're going to provide you a new play field, which to 99% of the owners, that does them no good at all because they're never going to do that play field swap. But, you know, it would have been better than just like, well, we think you might have caused it yourself. It's like, all right, you know, you can just fuck right the fuck off, you know. please tell me how I tore the screw down into my play field and I got that picture I don't know if you saw it I got that picture of just like there is no possible way that I could have done that damage to this play field you know that happened when this thing was wet and being assembled so hey if I was going to be in Reno in a couple weeks Mark where should I go to play pinball there you go so the place you can play right now is Playfield 76. And it opened just a couple weeks ago. It is now obviously open to the public. And you had the opportunity to come to a soft opening. I did, and it was awesome. It was awesome. It's an awesome place. I really enjoy it. They have a good selection of games. I wish they had some older games, but that might come in the future. We'll see. But right now they have 10 games that are working pretty well. There's a couple of things they've got to fix, hopefully in time before we have our tournament, which is on Thursday this week. Well, let's talk about the lineup that they had, right? Yeah, so the lineup they had is a beautiful original Medieval Madness,
    135:56
    a beautiful original Attack from Mars, a kind of shady Indiana Jones the Pinball Adventure, Lord of the Rings South Park really nice family guy shoot I'm losing it they had a Whitewater the Whitewater's a little weird what am I missing? Deadpool premium a really nice yeah Deadpool premium that's where I was playing the Deadpool premium I was telling you about Spencer and Mandalorian and I wasn't going to touch on the new games quite yet but and while we were there we unboxed a Mandalorian Premium.
    136:36
    Or was it a Limited? It was a Premium. A Premium. And a Jurassic Park Premium. That's right. We had a new unbox, an unboxing party. Yeah. Which was fun. As well as just tons of just beautiful video games, skee-balls, just... And here's the thing, like, we start talking about this, and I mean, I'm sure the first thing that comes to your mind is like Barcade, and it is, but it isn't. Like, it's a little bit classier than that. Like, it's like an arcade lounge. Like, very comfortable, very laid back. I haven't been there during the full open yet, so I can't speak to the vibe while you're there, but, like, the ambiance is awesome. It looks very upscale, and, you know, it looks old but new. it just you know if you can play if you compare to like press start or coin up you know like it's there's no comparison between what playfield 76 is and those places are and those places are both great right but they didn't have like that like laid back sitting down with your buddy uh and and eating some actually really good bar food and and having some good conversation sort of vibe, right? Like when you're in those places, you know, they're a little bit more divey, a little bit more game oriented. Yeah, this place was like a cool arcade hangout. Yeah, almost like a lodge. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, that's a great way to describe it is it is a lounge. Yeah. Right. It's very laid back. It's very spacious as far as, you know, the ceilings are not, you know, not low. It's bright. It's clean. It's comfortable. It's classy. Yeah, it's classy. I mean, that's the nicest way to say it. It's actually pretty classy. It's really, you know, again, that's not trying to make these other places sound shady. You know, I love CoinOp Game Room here in Sacramento. I know the guys who own it and run it, and they're wonderful dudes. Same with Press Start, super solid dudes. You know, they wanted nothing more than to bring us games and booze, and hopefully they're going to be doing it again soon. Press start is going to be incredible when it opens up. But we have a new player in Reno. And, you know, Mark, you're part of the promotional crew. Is that what you're doing? Pretty much. I had a chance to meet Haas, and he is, of course, the owner of the place. And I really felt like he wanted to bring that pinball community together and broaden the horizons to invite as many people as you can to love the game, and it shows. Bob is the tech over there, and Roger is the other person, Roger Brown, who is providing some of the games. And it's just nice to see that they support pinball 100%, but the games are clean.
    139:45
    For the most part, they work really well. and there's not many issues. And I'm hoping, like I said, that they will fix all those issues so that they're in great condition. But like I said, there's some delays, and that's why it's not happening. But they're in great shape. It's great shape. Being frank about the games wasn't trying to diss on these guys, because, like, let's be honest, right? What other location can you go to where you're going to play an original medieval madness, especially the one like they had, you know, an original attack for Mars? And, again, those games were definitely someone's babies at home that ended up getting, you know, these guys probably paid really good money for to bring them to us. And in Indiana Jones, the pinball adventure.
    140:31
    And a Whitewater. You know. Where do you play a Whitewater? And a Whitewater, right. You know, and, you know, well, I mean, hey, you can play Whitewater, you know, at the coin-op game room here in Sacramento. Sometimes. I don't know if he has it there now, but, you know, Whitewater is like, what, like a $5,000, $6,000 game these days. You know, Medieval Madness, like, you know, a halfway decent Medieval Madness is $10,000. You know, a halfway decent Indiana Jones, the Pinball Adventure is $9,000, $10,000. Like, these guys are bringing you games that you cannot just go to any arcade and play anymore. You know, and again, they're giving it to you in an environment that, like, you know, you'll never see. And it would be cool to see some classic games there, especially with the name Playfield 76. There's some room for some 70s stuff, I would say. But I think these guys are going to be bringing us The hottest, newest shit And you know Hopefully And you're going to have a lot of surprises coming Hey and that's our show for tonight We got kind of cut off a little bit early We were having some technical difficulties Big thanks to And shout out to Mark Scott Creator of the Spinner's Lit Theme music And big shout out to Dan For being part of the round table crew as usual But anyway for Mark man He did a bunch of really great engineering and editing on this episode, doing everything remotely like so many people are nowadays. We had the Internet kind of falter and go down on us a couple of times. Anyway, hey, thanks for a shout-out, and thanks to all you wonderful listeners. Our listener base is going up, and we're getting more and more people coming in all the time and picking up our show. It's free entertainment. Hopefully we're entertaining you. And don't take it all too seriously Pinball is supposed to be fun I know prices have been on the rise lately And there's a lot of craziness going on in the world But you know pinball is supposed to be fun You know So you know if you can Get out to locations and play great If you have a game Or two or five play them Invite people over and share that with them And you know Don't worry about having the newest game And the big shiny and all that You know, if you've got a couple of old EMs or early solid state or a couple of DMDs or one DMD or one modern game or one EM or whatever, man, if you've got a pinball machine or you have a location nearby that you frequent, you know, you're doing great. So play that and enjoy it and share that. If you know the location and it's not on pinball map, it's not out there where people know about it, share that, man. And every time you go somewhere and there's a location with a pinball machine or more, you know, get that out on the Internet. Share it with people so they know, too. Operators, I'm sure, appreciate that. Anyway, this is it. Episode 41 of The Spinner is lit. I'm going to take us out, folks. You all be safe. Have a great day. And play pinball. Keep America strong.
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    you