Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host Retro Ralph. This episode was actually recorded as a live stream on Retro Ralph Live. So if you want to get the full experience, you can go over there and watch it and please subscribe to that YouTube channel. That's where the video version of this podcast is hosted. But if you want to just listen to the audio, that's fine. You just not might not get the whole effect. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the podcast and let me know what you think in the comments below. I'm your host Retro Ralph, this is episode frickin' 46, I think, but this one's live, so I can see you all in the chat and we can talk. I have a little bit of an agenda, maybe a couple things I want to talk about, but for the most part, I'm just ready to hang out with you guys. I'm drinking, I got a whole cooler of beer, but you guys know that like, hey, you guys know from the other thing the other night, It only takes one beer, let's be honest, right? It's not... it's... it's... the whole case is not... it's here though, it's here, so it's right here next to me. I found a good use for this work cooler that they gave me. Still... still trying to recover from that Korean fried chicken. And I swear... I don't know what differentiates a Korean old-fashioned from an American old-fashioned. Let's see who we've got here. All right, I'll show you how I wanted to start the show. This is how I was gonna start the show. I'll be honest. The reason why I was late was because I did update the Rodecaster. That was stupid. But I had to update the Rodecaster because this is how I wanted to start the show. Just imagine that the show didn't start yet, right? I was gonna go live, Living with Albert. Hey, I wanna see if this, my two chats are actually a little bit behind. I wanna see if I can actually show your chats. I should be able to. There we go. Living with Albert, what's up buddy? Are you in this chat as like 500 different people? I feel like you're in here as like Angry Alpaca, Living with Albert, like you're in here, or I'm just imagining that. I'm probably just imagining that. Anyway, so this is how I was going to start the stream. So pretend like this didn't start yet, even though we're two minutes in. This is how it was going to start. I was going to be serious face. Okay, ready? Oh, actually, hold on. I got a burp. Give me one sec. Oh, that one didn't have any noise to it. But okay, this is how it was going to go. I don't know this part. Okay, that's how I was supposed to start, but that's not how I started. Oh, wait. Oh, no, you can't hear it? Oh, shit. All right. Hold on. Okay, that's how it was gonna go. Anyways, I don't even know if I'm in, it's probably way off, but whatever. I don't even know if that's a copyrighted song. That song was released in like forever frickin' ago. So there's no way that that song, I don't know if they had to license that song. I have no clue. I mean, maybe they did. I don't know. No, I didn't spend very much time. I spent five seconds rehearsing that. Actually, I didn't rehearse it at all, but. Charlie Chuck, would you have it any other way, man? I mean, hold on, where's my Charlie, where's that Charlie Chuck comment? Charlie. I mean, that's the whole point. I mean, we have to be goofy because this is the only shit keeping us sane. Pinball is keeping us sane, man. Alright, so I want to talk a little bit about this. So keep in mind, you guys can ask things in the chat, but the chat's moving kind of quickly right now, so I'm not going to be able to get to all of it. I will say also, and I'm not, this isn't something where I'm asking you to do it, but I had a problem with this channel where, um, this channel was really primarily for during COVID I had started a live channel because it was wicked long stupid YouTube explanation but basically YouTube was sort of, uh, it was like penalizing you for having a live channel and a produced video channel and you all know I like doing the produced videos so I started the second channel. hyperbolic youtube channel then they kinda like got their shit together and then it didn't matter anymore so for some reason because this channel had been dormant for so long and I brought it back as the Flipside Podcast monetization was turned off I didn't realize that it was but it was so it's turned back on so if you like what you're seeing and you feel like throwing me a bone on a Super Chat, you can kindly do so but by all means that is not a requirement but I'm just letting you know it's on now okay so here's the thing so I was thinking about this week Because this week's gonna be a big week in pinball. And I know, it's like exciting, but not exciting at the same time. And here's why. Because everyone is so, so, the hype level is at like 11 for Beetlejuice, right? But why is that? Like, why are people so hyped over this? Because I don't think it's just the theme itself. I don't think it's just the theme itself. I think a lot of it has to do with the holy shit moment we got when people finally saw and played Evil Dead. They just packed so much into a game at a price point that we're used to paying for, you know, premium Stern machines. So of course that kind of caught everyone's attention. They're like, holy crap, look at what they packed into this game. But not only that, there's one thing that I think doesn't, uh, this was the Coffee Talk channel, Chris. Yes, yes, I'm losing my train of thought, but that's what this was at one point. That was the Coffee Talk Podcast. Very good, very good. Thank you, Chris. Nice to see you here, and I'm glad that you got into the pinball hobby, because it's pretty freaking awesome. But anyway, so people saw Evil Dead, and they loved it, but here's the one thing that people don't talk about a lot. Why did Evil Dead do so well? Because if you think about it, if you really think about it at the basic level, I don't think that Evil Dead as a theme is like this theme that appeals to the major mass audience, but there's probably a lot of horror movie fans that also like pinball. But that's not what it... they just did such a good job with the theme integration that it's hard to ignore. And there's one thing about that game that I go back to a lot, and they did it so exceptionally well that this is like major props to Spooky. The callouts on that game that they did are so good and the way that they simplified, they didn't say, I don't know, simplify is maybe not a good word to use. The code is so understandable and then they also added really good callouts and I feel like that's a little bit absent from pinball. So the theme integration was awesome. It had great callouts, right? And the code was easy to understand but not easy to master. So like, you know, it's challenging enough so that if you're a really good player, you're still going to be challenged. And if you're someone brand new, you're going to be excited to playing it. So it was like Spooky had this best of everything, lightning in a bottle moment. And so I think that's the reason why people are so excited for Beetlejuice. Yes, Beetlejuice is a good theme, but I think they're really excited about like, they fucking nailed it. Sorry for the language on Evil Dead. So what could they do now? Now, it also puts a lot of pressure on Spooky because this week has to be good. Like this thing that we're gonna all see in, I dunno, less than 48 hours better be awesome because we all have these ultra high expectations. So that's a lot of stress on Spooky and the team. So, I don't know, I am very, very excited as I think a lot of you guys are as well about what's to come with Spooky. And it's hard to ignore that I'm already hearing people that have seen it say that Christopher Franchi destroyed it with the artwork. Like, it's so good, like he captured the theme so well and he did that with Evil Dead too. So you bring all these things together and you have this this amazing product right and so I can't wait to see what we're gonna end up seeing I think we're all gonna freak out the negative to all this it's a positive and a negative the good thing is a spooky is probably gonna they already do they have a day one sellout right the game is unavailable but that's also the negative because the game is unavailable like there's gonna be a lot of people that are gonna want this game and can't get it the The positive to that on the people that buy one is that it should hold and retain value and that's something that's really has been absent from pinball in a while. So, I don't know, it's an interesting turning point because I can't have this conversation without bringing up Stern because I think, you know, I started the hobby with a Stern game. I bought a Jurassic Park, that was my first game. And I really, I really do enjoy Stern games. I think they make really good games. I think their reputation for reliability is really good, especially on location. That's really important when you're running a barcade and things like that. But I think they usually do a pretty good job understanding what makes a good game. They also have the advantage of they can pump out the games really fast. So while people are going to be waiting for Beetlejuice for a really long time, probably a full year, they can get games to you within 90 days easily. You know, so it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. I'm going to get to the chat here in a second. When you're a big company, sometimes you don't want to acknowledge the small guy because then it makes people feel like you're threatened by the small guy. So why I thought this was kind of interesting is I don't know if I worked at Stern if the in the marketing department if if they asked me should we do the Walking Dead remaster gameplay the same day that Spooky's launching their game I would say don't only because only from a strategic move it would be a strategic move to say hey if we do that then it kind of looks like we might we're maybe threatened by what Spooky's doing and it might be right it might be that they are I'm not a special like my buddy Kerry Hardy over there who got to see it early. Bug, if you listen to this man, I mean, should Kerry be the only one with the special treatment? I mean, maybe I shouldn't be saying this out loud in front of everybody, but should Kerry be the only one? I'm Retro Ralph! I'm Retro Ralph, Bug! Do it! Send it over. Send me the trailer. I'm not that way, but I had a beer. So when I have a beer, everything goes off the rails. I think people like that, actually. I would never do that normally. I would never do it. So anyways, getting back to my talk track there. I do, I gotta think that if this is exactly what people have said, right? A lot of people have said some crazy things over the last 24 hours in a positive way around this game. I feel like if you're Stern, you gotta kind of take notice because you got the Winchester thing. I mean, you look at Winchester, the pricing's really good. What you're getting is really good. They're giving you more for the money. And normally I don't talk about this money conversation. It's usually not where I go. I usually just talk about gameplay and the things that we, you know, that I normally care about. But I also really am a big supporter of Stern. So I want to make sure that like, hey, am I, if I'm going to, we only have so much money to go around, right? I'm trading games which are gonna get to that in a little while. Like, you know what I mean? Like, are you gonna, are you gonna kind of step up your game? I think you almost have to. I think you almost have to. I think you almost have to. Anyway, so, what is this on? So Pat's, are you getting a Rad Ralph edition? I don't know, what is that? What's the Rad Ralph edition? I'm not sure, maybe. I don't know, that sounds like something that Angry Alpaca would do. So guys, if you have questions, put them in the chat now. Now if you asked things before, it's already scrolling quite a bit. We got 86 of you guys in here, so I'm not gonna be able to catch up with everybody. But yeah, if you see it, just throw it in there. So if someone said, have I played... Oh, oh, here he is. Oh, Ralph, a supporter of Stern? No one thought that. Ha ha ha ha, Gary! Oh, Gary, you're so funny. No, but seriously, yeah. I like Stern, you know? I mean, I like Stern, but I also like... You know, I have a I have an Evil Dead. I have a Harry Potter. I like these other manufacturers, too. I didn't have the best first go-round with Barrels of Fun. My Labyrinth was kind of a little bit of a lemon, but but I'm willing to go back there. I would have totally got a Winchester, but you can't get them. No one got the harder to get into than a Pearl Jam concert thing joke. It was a little inappropriate, especially if there's younger kids in the car, but they're not gonna understand it. Coll scattered Auburn, I'll give you a frickin' hug if I saw you right now. You know what I mean? Like, I'm all about the love. Albert understands me. Albert knows that this is the love zone. You're in the love zone right now, Pat. There's no reason to have any kind, even an inkling of hate. Why? Why? If you ever met me in real life, I'm like this. This is me. I'm a loving guy. Like, there's no hate over here. Pat, I mean, I don't even know, maybe it's not hate, but anyways. All right, hold on, hold on, hold on. We got a Kerry Hardy message. We got to bring it up. It's Kerry Hardy. It's a big deal. Kind of the president. I support all manufacturers. I just don't agree with all their decisions. That's good. I agree with you, Kerry. I just think we both have different ways of articulating our satisfaction or dissatisfaction. And that's okay. That's okay. See, I, I, Kerry Hardy, can't sleep at night. If I say something too brutal, I will sit in bed and be like, Oh, my God. Oh man, I can't believe it. That guy's gonna sit, that guy works over at Stern's gonna be laying in bed tonight and he's gonna be like, I can't believe that guy said that about me. So I tend to keep my criticism maybe a little less harsh. But, but, but, but I'm different. I'm built different. Kerry, I wish I was built. Well, you're usually pretty good about it. But like, you know, there's some that get really brutal with their feedback. I wouldn't be able to sleep. I wouldn't sleep. I'd have to. I could take a hundred melatonin gummies. Wouldn't do shit. I need to sleep at night, Carrie. I need to sleep. All right. Let's see what Nikki has to say. You wanna know why? Because Nikki's been with me for a really long time. Same with her husband. Shots are important and I feel, I feel like this could be a downfall as previous spooky games are brick fests. So there's a couple of spooky games that I would definitely put into the brick fest category. All right, hold on. But Nikki, thank you for the comment. All right, hold on. Carrie says, I sleep like a baby, I wake up crying every couple of hours. I knew it! I knew it about you! I knew it, Kerry. The way you snuggled me, I was like, this man is a sensitive man. He's a sensitive man, but he acts like he's maybe a little less sensitive than he really is. I knew that about you, Kerry. I knew it. See? See, Kerry's a softy. He gives good hugs, too. Alright, Albert says, I know I was a bit rough on Spooky last week and I feel bad now. See, Albert, you were crying. It happens, man. I just I just you know, I'm just I'm just like that. Maybe it's a flaw of mine, right? I'm just a kind guy. That's how I am. It's just how I was built. It's how I was raised. I don't know. It just is what it is. So I tend to when my criticism, I have it. I tend to be a little bit mild with it, but I can have it. I can do it. I can tell you, ask me to say something bad about Stern and I'll try to come up I can say bad things about Stern. I can say bad things about all of them. There's definitely something. But when I say bad, it's always like things they could improve, right? But I also really love pinball so I can find the good in a lot of games. Like I don't hate games really. There's hardly many games that I hate. I'm only on one beer guys. This one's a little bit high alcohol volume though. This is a 12.2! Dude, it's a 12.2! That's a high alcohol volume. That's high. That's high. He snuggles. Here's the thing, Rudy. See, he makes you feel special. He snuggles everybody. That's the problem. That's the problem. He snuggles everybody. Oh, hold on. I got a question here. All right. Why do you think Beetlejuice is the only game in history to sell out before title was even officially announced? Do you think people will drop their spot once the trailer is out? Okay, that's a really good question. And I don't think they will because I think Spooky's really going to deliver. I think Spooky, I don't know, like I've obviously talked to Bug. We have had some communication, but I don't talk to them that much. I tend to kind of be a little bit of a lone wolf. Like I do talk to people, you know, I do talk to, I talk to people from time to time. But Bug is one that we talk in passing, we text every now and then, but we've never really, I don't think we've actually officially ever talked on the phone, but we definitely text each other. I think after Evil Dead, that just fired them up. And this is my impression of it. I don't have any insider knowledge. I really think it fired them up because they're like, holy shit, like we did it. And I think that made them go, we're going to do it again. And I think that's that's the kind of motivation when they see the success. You know what I mean? It's motivation to keep going. And I think that's in everyday life. That's that's very much the same way. Right. All right. So everybody chip in $2, Ralph, and he can order his favorite I'm a fan of Double Doze. Okay. You know, Double Doze, okay. You know, should I tell the Double Doze story? Most of you guys already know the Double Doze story. It's like, I can't believe we have 100 people on. That's really good for me on a, I wish you guys, 100 of you would come on Rudy and I Play, our terrible live streams. They're terrible in the sense that the gameplay is not great, but it's a lot of fun. So if you're here and you haven't indulged in that, definitely do it because Rudy and I have a lot of fun. It's very competitive. I say mean things to Rudy that I regret the next day and cry myself to sleep, but I'm pretty sure Rudy knows I'm just kidding. So, what was the question again? Oh crap, there was a question in there and I totally forgot what it was. Oh, Double Dough Pizza. So, all right, I'll give you the quick, I have to do this really quick. So I accidentally, we were in Chicago for Pinball Expo two years ago, right? Everyone ended up in my room. I don't know why we were all in my room and everyone's like, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. And it's like herding frickin' cats at Expo. See, I roll with a lot of people, but no one can make a frickin' decision about anything. And I'm like, I'm hungry, I'm hungry. I'm like, we're all grown men. Can we not make decisions? Like, we're hungry. Like, if I'm hungry, I'm going to go eat something. And if a bunch of people decide to come, that's great. But I am hungry. So I know how to take care of my essential needs of hunger. Now, most of my group can't. They're like, they like malfunction. They malfunction. So anyways, so they're all malfunctioning in the room. I'm like, I'm going to order a pizza. Now the way the version of Kerry's story is different than my version. With my version, I just ordered the damn pizza because I was like, I want these guys to shut up. I want to feed them. I want to make everyone happy so we can go down and back on the show floor and have a good time. Well, accidentally, I guess, in Chicago, there's some option to get a double dough pizza. I don't know who orders double dough pizza. I didn't even know that a double dough pizza existed. But imagine, like, a pizza with a second layer of dough. Not, by the way, not a deep dish pizza. A regular pizza that has like a doughy, soft, almost uncooked layer. Well, that's a double dough pizza. Now everyone's eating it. What's wrong with this? Seems weird. So not only they're ungrateful, totally ungrateful, totally ungrateful of the fact that I ordered the pizza and everyone's complaining, this tastes weird, this tastes weird. So then of course my friend Stringer picks up the receipt and he's the worst person to have read this because if he finds something that you did that's messed up, he's going to ride that joke for five years. We're going on three years? Yeah, we're going on three years and the double dough thing is still a joke. Double Dough everyone was just kind of eating it maybe being like it a little weird But then so so we bring so we bring the dub I like screw this No one wants to eat this Let go back and play some games So as we walking our way back to Expo show floor two years ago we can't give away the pizza because stringers in the back feel like, I'm like, hey, do you want a pizza, piece of pizza? And they're all and he's like, hey, man, it's double dough. Just so you know, it's double dough. And then everyone's like, no, man, I don't mess with double dough. So anyways, that's the double dough story. So, I don't know. Anybody else have any questions? I did have other things I wanted to talk about, but so if you guys don't have questions we can roll into other topics, right? We're 22 minutes in, we're having a good time. I'm not even a quarter. Well, no, I'm I got a quarter of the way through this. It's just really breaded, man. Like it's too much bread. Like you can't... a double dough is not, is not good. I-I-IT'S NOT GOOD. Oh look, Scott Parisi's in the house. He says, I'm still grateful for the coke. See? thank you. Thank you, Scott. See? Scott is a friend. That's grateful. I-I-I'm grateful for my contributions. Scott's like, hey man, I really need some coke. I got not, not coke, coke zero. I was like, I got you. I got you. And I did. I did. See? Like that's kind of the generosity that you get. Alright, let's see what else we got here. Horrible pizza. So, uh... I think that's actually my buddy Ryan. He's like, it's horrible. So, I mean, it's an acquired taste. Not everyone's gonna like double dough, you know? Say hello to Mason. Mason's in the house. I guess Jamie's here, but I might have missed the chat. But Jamie's here somewhere. No, yeah, no, Rudy. It was, it was chewy. It was chewy. Like, it wasn't crispy at all. It was definitely chewy. It was a bit undercooked. Brandon, I can't help you there, man. I can't help. If it's Coke Zero, yes. If it's the other thing, no. Yeah, I don't want anybody getting the wrong idea clipping anything that I'm giving people Coke. Coke Zero, okay? I want to make that very clear. Yes, that's a good way to say Stringer's defining it well. Well, it's bread with a tiny hint of cheese. Tiny, very, very tiny hint of cheese. Not very much cheese. Uh, okay, so hold on. Nikki has a good, Nikki has a good, you guys need to chime in on this. She said, am I the only person that doesn't buy pinball machines off of the theme and just on the shots, layouts, and modes? Nikki, you know what? I think it's very valid. I do think that a lot of people do evaluate that, but some people really are hung up on theme and it has to speak to them or else they're not gonna purchase it, you know? You know, but but theme doesn't necessarily mean the game is good to your point, right? You had to make sure it's a good game. Buy what you like. No sense, no sense in talking about things that far that far ahead. I don't know what he's talking about. Kerry's getting crazy. Oh, God, I got. Oh, God. Oh, boy. I got a little gassy. I'm good. Hey, Enzo, Enzo is in the house. We have Australia in the house. Enzo, we're gonna do that video on Avatar. You know, I don't care that everyone, you know what, I don't think everyone hates Avatar. I think certain people just, you gotta, God, they killed it on the theme integration on Avatar. Like, I don't know, I mean, yeah, maybe so the underplay fields are a little weird, but man, did they kill it on the theme of that game. I don't, Enzo and I might be the only people on earth that like Avatar, but I really like it. I did sell it so like now you could be like oh you sold it you sold it you sold it you sold it but you know what I did but I do but I need space I talked about this before you guys know this I only have so much space like I maybe carry can relate to this I can't really truly be a collector because a collector will collect everything and then space a true collector finds ways to find space even when there is none and i did that in the arcade hobby and i had arcade games everywhere everywhere so when that got out of control i said when i you know as it organically happened that i did the conversion i like mutated into this pinball person out of just sheer love for how awesome it is I had to make some tough choices and that tough choice is I can have games I really love that stay in the collection, but I have to have rotation because number one, I enjoy making new content on it and I really enjoy playing the games in my home because as much as I love going to electric bat and they're a great arcade, it's not the same experience playing on location as it is in your house. So I find I can have a better conversation with you guys if I play it at home. I can hear the music, I can hear the callouts, I can see the lighting the best that I possibly can. So it just gives me a better perspective. Now I know there's like a little bit of a diminishing return there because eventually I can't just, I can't do that forever. There's going to be a tipping point at some point, but so far there really hasn't been. All right. Someone asked, Ralph, do you think you'll get back into the arcade scene? I keep my toe in the water. So every year I have an event that I go to called Amusement Expo International in Vegas. That's where I go and check out all the latest arcade games. I schedule that every year. Mason comes with me. We have a great time. I mean, you can ask Mason. He's usually trying to pry me off of games because we have stuff to do. That's my that's my toe in the water where I keep it, you know, keep myself on understanding what's the latest and greatest in arcades. I don't think I'll ever get back into unless I had a house that had the adequate space to restore them. That became the biggest issue is that I just don't have that kind of like if I wanted my garage to be at sea with pinball, my garage is a studio and a pinball arcade. So it's both. I could never do that with arcade games because I was always you know, they're old. I'm buying old, you know, retro I'm just talking about how my son just applied to like four different colleges or five different colleges. It would be impossible for me to do that. Like I just, I just wouldn't be able to have the money. Believe me, I would love to figure out how to find a job in pinball that would make sense for me. It wouldn't be a designer. At work, I'm more of an evangelist, like someone that talks about technology and gets people excited about technology. I just don't know that that... I guess Jack Danger has that job at Stern Pinball. Like he's kind of their face of the thing. That's kind of what I... I do a lot of that for the company I work for. So that's kind of... if I had any main skill set, they would be that. I'm good at evangelizing things. I mean, that's kind of that's kind of my main skill set at this point. And I manage people. So anyways, Ralph, what is the theme that would make you buy on theme alone? Oh, Back to the Future. 100,000%. If a good Back to the Future game came out, that would be instant, instant. I would even buy it sight unseen. Hoping that it would be good. Yeah, I have kids, man. Good question, Carrie. Son, retro Ralph Scott kids. Yes, I have a son and a daughter. My daughter is That gives away all these matches that are going to get ruimiest numbers at this point. We have one more question here, thanks for the chat clez. I'm going to end it tonight because after the Harry Potter feature featurette where I got to work on that with Mason, it gave me definitely a different respect level for the people over at JJP. And it's not that I didn't have a respect for them at all before. It's just it brought it to a different level. And I just really I really liked what they did with Harry Potter. I think that's their breakout game. I think they're having their own spooky moment where they're breaking out. And I do think their next game they're going to bring it again. The thing I like about JJP is it's definitely a premium brand. They don't cut corners, and if they do, it's very rarely. And so I think they've hit their stride now with Harry Potter, and I think they're going to see... I think they kind of hit it with Elton John, although the theme... For someone in my demographic, I don't... I can't imagine... Kerry is younger than me. So I gotta think if I'm not really into Elton John, then I can't imagine someone like Kerry is into Elton John. I'm 46 years old. There's nothing, you know what I mean? Like even though it shoots well, and it's Steve Ritchie, right? Like I like Elton John, but I just the music, sure, like I have an appreciation for the Elton John music, but it's that's not really what I'm into. But I think with Harry Potter, they dropped a game that a lot of generations could be into, and if the next one really is is Sonic the Hedgehog, I I think that's going to be huge because that hits my demographic. It hits, you know, someone that's about Carrie's age. I think Carrie's a little bit younger than I am. I have no idea how old orbital Albert is. I'm just throwing people out because I see him in the in the chat. But yeah, man, like if it's Sonic the Hedgehog and it's Steve Ritchie, no known for making faster games, I don't see how that wouldn't be a hit. Like, I don't see how that wouldn't be it. Like that would be for me, that's going to be a game that I'm gonna definitely want to get in on for sure and it will definitely make me question Mason's demographic yeah really truly I was gonna say f yeah no Mason could even be in it that's what I mean like Mason would be when I told him that like because he he you know he's with me on all these trips and then I start talking about stuff and sometimes he's like la la la don't care uh but I was like, hey, you know, Jersey Jack, the rumored game is is Sonic the Hedgehog. He's like, dude, what? Like he got excited. So. So, yeah, I know, man, right? Right. Modern retrocade Sonic would be pretty awesome. And that's that's that that's what the rumor is. And I think if that's the case, I'm trying to think. You know, they're going to be making Harry Potter's for a long time, and I'm I'm happy for them that Harry Potter was really successful. But if you think about it, it would be the next expo game because it would probably come out, I'm thinking like probably May, like April, May, maybe it could be like April, May, June ish or April, May, June, July, somewhere in that somewhere in that cluster. August, September, October, like, yeah, so it would definitely be the next expo game. So I love that idea that it's Sonic. What else you guys got? What else you guys got for questions? Because I had a couple things I wanted to talk about real quick. I wanted to show you guys this. Did you guys, have any of you guys, you know, I'm switching gears for a minute, unless I see a bunch of questions, then I'll flip back over to that. But I'm having a blast with this, let me see if I can show it real quick. I'm having a blast with this new leaderboard thing. Like, I'm kind of digging this. Hold on, let me see if I can, hold on, I gotta see if I can fix my layout here. Like, so this is the leaderboard that Stern launched. You gotta pay some money for it, right? I was able to grandfather in. Now keep in mind, these aren't my all-time high scores. These are my high scores as I've deployed the leaderboard. So when you, when you go and install the leaderboard or you set it up, it's gonna be from that moment. So it doesn't go back and find all your high scores. It's whatever high scores you post after that. So I got, I had a good game on Metallica. I had a frickin stellar game on Star Wars. I didn't show this because Rudy has a low score, but in Rudy's defense, that was one game. But man, my score... wait, what's Mason? Wait, there's a Mason question? Where is it? I don't see it. He said live answer Mason. I don't see it. Uh, where's Mason's question? I don't see it. No, that's not a Stern promo, Kerry. Whatever, dude. Dude, I'm not, you need another hug. No, I'm just saying, this is something I'm digging at home. It's not a problem, you guys can decide to buy, I mean, it's 80 bucks, or it's 80 bucks if you're grandfathered in or whatever the hell it is. I like it, I think it's cool, I just need to have more of my friends over to actually play, because it's just me on the leaderboard, and then one Rudy. But I wanna have Rudy over and we just go at it, like we go at it at a bunch of games and see, I think it'd be fun. But anyways, I have mine set up for a year timeframe. And you know what it made me realize, I went and gone... should we ban lights in tournaments? Yes. Yes, we should. I'm so pissed off about lights. I need to get rid of those damn things. When is the next chasing? Oh, that's dead. Yeah, chasing's dead. I'm sorry. Yeah, there's no there's no chasing. I don't think. Maybe one day. I don't know. I work is too busy. I can't do that. But anyways, if you guys, I was going to make a video of how to use this thing. I will say it's not the most intuitive thing in the world. They definitely, they have a, they have a, uh, how do I stop share on this crap? Oh, stop sharing. That would work. Okay. Let me get myself out of this box. There we go. Ban, ban them. Yeah. Lights. It's, it's, hey, Captain Retro's here. No, no, we're not banning fingerless gloves. No, no. Fingerless gloves are great. So anyways, uh, oh, you want to help set it? It's actually not that bad to set up, but it's a little bit of a pain in the ass because depending on, there's so many variables. This is what sucks about technology. It's like, what TV do you have? Does your TV have a web browser? You know what I mean? Or do you have a fire stick? Uh, if you're, if your TV is an older smart, if your TV is an older TV, that's not a smart TV, then you got like, you, you gotta figure out, do I do it via the fire stick or whatever it is? So, um, all right, hold on. Let me see, Retro Jeff has a question. Ralph, does your son play pinball with you? Is he engaged as much as he looks like dad's, or does he look to it as that dad's thing? Honestly, Retro Jeff, that's a really good question. No, man, he, when I got divorced, I'm remarried obviously, I've been remarried for a while now, But when I got divorced and I was a single dad, I had an arcade in the kitchen. And he was little then. And he would play with his friends like he would play like TMNT and Sunset Riders. And I'm trying to think what the other game was that he used to like. What's the one? Hey, Stringer, if you're still in here, what's the one with the guy that shows up and he shows his butt crack everywhere? What game is that? He likes that game. Stringer will come back in with it in a second. Yeah, no, he used to really like it back then. Doesn't give a crap. Couldn't care less. And it's kind of makes me sad. I don't know. He just doesn't. He just doesn't care. It bums me out. You know, it's interesting because my sister, who just recently moved to the state I'm in, right, she moved to Arizona not that long ago, which was really cool because I don't really have any. I'm trying to see if stringers say anything. I don't even know where I was going with that. Where was I going with that? My wife, my family, back in Rhode Island. Oh, no, my sister really enjoys it and my brother-in-law really enjoys playing. Oh, Bucky O'Hare. Yeah, my son would play Bucky O'Hare. I don't know how to explain that story. It's deep tracks and it's it's probably you won't understand. Anyways, there's a dude that goes to a gaming show and he always brings a Bucky O'Hare and his he doesn't wear a belt. His Bucky O'Hare is in great condition, but he doesn't wear a belt and his butt is hanging out all over the place. I mean, for everyone to see, it sucks. um all right hold on trashcan ninja has a question ralph feel free to adopt me i can send you a resume okay um do you want to live in the house like with me and my wife or what's going on what's going on with that uh oh hold on uh so that sucks him my son is 11 he plays arcades but doesn't think pinball is that cool yeah so so yeah my son probably when he was still 11 was still into it i want to say when he had his teenage years that's when it all stopped and it really did I don't know, life was a lot simpler I think when I was, when we were younger. My stepfather would always want to wax the car on the weekend and I thought that was the coolest thing and I just, I would go outside and wax the car with him, you know what I mean? Like that's what I would do and it's just, I don't know, they don't, I think with all the tech and stuff they just kind of, you'd think it would have the opposite effect and And they'd appreciate it more. Although I do see a lot of people at like bar arcades being attracted to pinball because their life is so digital that they really do enjoy pinball because it's something so different. There's, you know, there's some digital aspects to it, but it's still a very like mechanical thing. So I do see a lot of people at like barcades like, and if you look at, um, I was talking to Zach Sharp and, uh, that tournament that he played at, um, Expo, I think he came in third and like the two people that won were like, oh, I'm going to win. So that's encouraging that young people are getting into pinball, you know, especially competitive pinball. So these kids said the youngest person watching your stream. Oh, funny, Mason. Just give these kids an iPad and they'll be happy. Yeah, I know. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. All right. Jose has something to say. I was also born in 1980 and have a 17 year old son and loves Spinball, see like you can go yeah I was born in 79 um I wish my son was into it this is I don't know some kids just pick different things right so yeah let me know your questions I might crack into one more beer because this one this one was really strong this one was a 12 a 12 is gonna mess me up man I'm gonna do one more beer though that's all I can handle and then then we gotta shut it down like we'll shut it down around I was thinking this would be like maybe an hour and 20 minutes maybe it just depends on how active you guys are in the stream I had one more topic I wanted to talk about though. But I'm gonna crack into another beer. So you guys think about questions and uh, and I'll uh, I'm gonna get this next beer. Actually, if you guys want to select, now see if I ask you to poll for what beer, it'll take like 10 hours and then it'll, yeah, I'm just gonna grab one. I'll let you know what my options are, but I'm not gonna let you guys choose because if I do that, it's gonna be a complete disaster and I just feel like it's gonna take forever. But I am gonna go and I'll tell you what I got. So I got the Sweetwater Hazy IPA. That's this guy. Shoot. Sweetwater Hazy IPA. I don't know. I don't think that's one Rudy brought. I know what one I want. I got the Desert Daydream Hazy IPA. I think Rudy brought this one. Now I don't have the pumpkin, Pat. I would go with the pumpkin. I don't have it. You can't get it. Rudy brought me, he brought me like gold. Rudy gave me a gold bar and was like, hey man, I don't, there's no more gold bars. You have the only gold bar. It was amazing. Ralph once, open mouth, kissed a horse once. What? What? What? What are you talking about? Alright, I got a kilt lifter. Kilt lifter is good. These are all about the same alcohol content, so they're not crazy. And then I got the Hop Knot. So Hop Knot is going to be, there's mostly Four Peaks. It's a local brewery that got bought out by InBev, which is Budweiser, which people don't, most people don't know, but I feel like would be. So I'll go with the highest alcohol content. How about that? I'm going to go with the Hop Knot. Let me just verify that that is the highest alcohol content. I like Hop Knot a lot. Yeah, Kilt Lifter's kind of a wussy beer. Yeah, we'll do, we'll do Hop Knot. I like hoppy beers. You guys have any more questions? I mean, I was kind of hoping that... I feel like you guys... when I do these... even when I used to do these back in the day, I used to do a lot of live streaming. It's like pulling teeth to get questions. Uh, yeah, no, yeah, man, I love IPAs. IPAs are my thing. I wasn't really, really into craft beers, and then I got... I gained a shitload of weight from it. So I was like, maybe I should scale that back a bit. But, uh, yeah, I don't really drink much anymore. I'm not a fan of pinball anymore, and that's why if I have a couple beers, it goes off the rails pretty quick. It can't really hold my liquor. So, um, so pinball, pin, pinballaden? Pinballaden. Whatever. My adult son likes pinball, not like me, but prefers, oh shit, I lost the comment. But prefers Steam games and watching streamers Yeah yeah I hear that Uh what going on Oh what accessories are you getting with Beetlejuice I don know I don know I don know what accessories are going to be available I mean I know I gonna I ordered I pre-ordered mine with the topper, so I definitely want the topper. And you know, Carrie was teasing, I think, that the topper is like pretty freaking epic. I obviously haven't seen it because I'm not cool like that, but. Uh, when I first met you, you were more chunky. Oh, awesome. Thanks, Kerry. Always look for those, uh, you know, when you want to feel good, I just call up Kerry and like, Kerry, tell me something good. He's like, man, you were really fat back in the day. So cool. Thanks, man. Uh, all right. Trashcan Ninja Ralph, I'm guessing you had talks with Stern. Why won't they release a star? I got something hair in my, what the hell? I had like a hair in my mouth. Wait, what was that comment? That was good. Uh, it talks to Stern, why won't they release a Stars remake or a hard tournament game? I don't know, you could, I don't, like, honestly, the thing is, like, everyone thinks that I have these, like, when I talk to Zach, he doesn't tell me shit. Like, he doesn't tell me anything. He just, like, it's like more of a friendly conversation. He doesn't tell me anything. It's not good right now Jamie, why would you ask that question, it's terrible right now, I've been playing tournaments, why would you do that to me. It's bad right now. I haven't been playing in a really long time so I'm sure it's terrible because I'll search because Jamie asked. Jamie asked. Alright, Retro, okay, awesome. I dropped 2 of the biggest loser. Alright this is I'm at right now if you wanna see. Thanks Jamie. Another one. Making me feel good about myself Jamie. Thanks bud. Uh, let's see, uh, IFPA share. Um, I am ranked... Am I really that low? Is it really that bad? How the hell did I get the... is it 78,000? No. No, 7,894. But I was like, getting up there. 1 I'm a really nice guy, but he just doesn't give me anything. Yeah, Stern's like the freaking, the fortune, the chamber of secrets. Alright, this is from Jason, he says, Ralph, what is your thoughts on Jaws 50th? I put a deposit down for one of the December runs for my first new in box game. Dude, Jaws, dude, Jaws is, is money. Jaws is a really, really good game. I don't think you can go wrong with that. And actually, I played the Jaws... this is gonna sound like a promo, but it's not. I played... they had a Jaws 50th at the Flip N Out Pinball booth in... excuse me, at Expo. I think it played a bit better than mine, to be honest. I had one of the first run Jaws premiums. And I felt like they might have tweaked a couple things. Now, they didn't obviously say that they did. But I felt like it played a little bit better than mine. So, so that's I think you're getting a you're probably getting the best version of it that you could possibly get. Alright, let's see. Yeah, people are just saying Jaws is a fantastic game. It really is like Jaws is great. Like whether you have the pro the premium and the pro, I made a case for my buddy, Ryan, I was like, dude, get a pro you'll really like it. I'm a fan of the pro, I like it. I mean, if you were going to have it in a home setting and you care about the extra features, then maybe get the premium. But the pro is great. I had a good time on the pro. So, yeah, I like Jaws a lot. Jaws is a great game. I think it is underrated. It is. It's so fun to shoot. So fun to shoot and they really did a good job with the theme integration. Like if you haven't watched Jaws in a while, like go watch Jaws and then you'll really appreciate the theme integration. I went and watched the Beetlejuice movie again and then I watched the new one. So new one was okay. I wasn't like the, the, the, the original one is way better than the new one in my opinion. So the only reason why I watched the new one is because my wife went to visit her sister in Vegas and they watched the new one. And she's like, Hey, have you ever seen the new Beetlejuice movie? And I'm like, no, I haven't seen it. I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not a fan of the original Beetlejuice movies. I was like, okay, I'll watch number two with you and then we'll watch the original one. And so it's fresh in my mind right now. So I'm excited to see what Spooky does with this because it's all like fresh. Because I haven't seen Beetlejuice in a really long time. But, you know, I know Kerry's here. I was listening to one of his, I am a Patreon member, by the way. But I was watching one of his, I don't know, maybe it was like a private video, I don't know. But he was talking about how Beetlejuice was meaningful to him as a kid, like he watched it and stuff. And it was definitely a movie I watched a lot as a kid, but I didn't really watch it again. I mean, it's probably been, it's been very long time since I watched it, but I can totally see where you can do some really cool things with pinball, with Beetlejuice. Uh, what game do you think Stern will vault next? I don't know, man. That's a tough one. I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to see. That one I don't really have much of an opinion on. So, let's see. What else you got? There's a question in here. Are there any plans to make XXL flipside clubs for the Canadian? No, I don't know. Those things were so expensive to make. I really couldn't find someone that could like make them affordably. That was my problem. And uh, there was a, damn my beard. My beard always like catches liquid. That's the one thing bad about having a beard. But if I didn't have a beard, I'd look like I was like five years old. I would look so young without a beard. There was another question here that looked pretty good and I totally missed it. There was one other thing I did want to talk about if you guys are a little shy right now. I did get rid of two games more recently and you guys are going to rip me a new butthole for this. You're going to definitely rip me a new butthole. So I don't know if you will or not. So here's the thing. I have to preface this with this. I only have so much space and I don't want to have a cluttered space. I had that before. I had this like cluttered cluttered cluttered space and I don't want that to happen again. Here I'm gonna show that comment on the screen. I just I made it so you can't it won't time out. I don't want to forget about that one. I see your comments stringer again. I can't do that again. I don't want to have a space that's cluttered with shit. I don't want that. Like, I don't want that again. So I have, I think people get mad at me sometimes when I get rid of games. He's only getting them to make. It's like, dude, I'm getting them because I want to play them. But then if there's a game that I like less, doesn't mean I hate it, but I'm like, I have to have something that's dispensable. Like something has to go sometimes. And that's the problem with limited space. You know, I can't have every and keep everything. So I was looking at it and I'm like, what do I want to get rid of? And because I know there's gonna be new games coming out next year that I'm gonna want. So I'm kind of trying to like. But then I was like, could I get rid of two games and bring in a game that I really wished I never got rid of? So I know it's going to be a big deal. I know you just got it back. Everyone's always so judgy. But. I don't even want to say it's the reaction or alone. I'm already anticipating the reaction. You guys are stressing me out. No, see, Carrie's being a bad influence. She's like, well wait, if you reconfigure your room, no, no, I don't have infinite money either. So, uh, basically, games in the kitchen are acceptable. No, Johnny Button, they're not acceptable. No, no, see, you guys are bad influences. The fact that I'm speaking to other people that would do crazy shit doesn't help. That doesn't help my cause. So anyways, you all know I had Uncanny X-Men and then I got rid of Uncanny X-Men and then I got Uncanny X-Men again because I was excited about the new code update which is interesting but they still have more to do. James Bond is a game I had the pro of, I got rid of, and then I got the premium. I really like James Bond but I had to make some tough choices. So I called up Zach. Hey, Zach, what's going on? I'd want to trade in some games. Now, keep in mind, before you guys say it, everyone's going to say he loses all this money, blah, blah, blah. Yes, there is a trade off for the convenience of me trading in a game to Zach, because if many of you have dealt with selling on the private as a private party, sometimes that's difficult. Sometimes it's annoying. Sometimes people flake on you. So I do realize that I am probably losing money. But I'm okay because why I am okay with that is my justification for that is that Zach's providing me with a service that makes it freaking simple. Some people don't want to do that, I get it. And I do understand that I'm burning some money away to do that, but it's a convenience factor and the trade in value was good enough for me to be happy with it. So anyways, so I'm trading in Bond even though I love it so let's not talk let's not start like rumors that I don't like these games I really like Bond it's like one of my favorites. Uncanny X-Men I like but I feel like it it could just have been so much better if the code was different and I think maybe they'll get there with it but I'm just impatient and I don't want to wait anymore. So, for those of you that have it, I'm not suggesting you get rid of it. I think there might be some things happening around this month time frame, which will probably happen the day this thing gets sent off. But I decided to pick up another Jurassic Park, but I'm going to get a Jurassic Park Premium. Because I didn't appreciate Jurassic Park when I had it, because I wasn't as into pinball when I bought it. That was the first pinball machine I ever bought. And I did not truly appreciate how damn good that game is, so I am getting Jurassic Park back, and then I'm taking some of that money and putting it towards credit for whatever, so I'm freeing up a little bit of space in my game room, I'm going to move some stuff around, and then hopefully if something comes next year that I'm interested in, no matter what manufacturer it is, it will make its way into the lineup. I don't know. And then the and then my I hope that I don't love too many games because if you start loving too many of them, then the decisions become really hard to make. But anyway, so this question was, have the uncanny X-Men accessories been sucked into the black hole? Brandon, this is a good question. It feels like it. It feels like it. It's like, what the hell? Where are they? All right. If there is a game you wish could be made, what would it be and by which company? Okay, Ty, my boy Ty over at Electric Bat Arcade. This guy's a freaking beast at pinball, by the way. He does this thing, he like kicks his leg out and he's like, he does this like magical thing. It's very magical. And yeah, I mean, Ty was funny because I played Ty in Playboy during a competition. I had a couple good balls and one bad ball and he had like one bad ball. I'm like, I know Ty, he's not gonna, like you just know. You know the people that are really good. I'm like, Ty's not gonna have two bad balls. He's not. Like, there's no possible way he's gonna have two bad balls. And he just destroyed it. I did think I still took second on the game, which I still respectable, especially playing against someone that's as good as him. But I knew it. I was like, he's gonna come back and he did his whole thing. He has like this thing he does. I don't even know how to explain it. It's like a pose. It's a little intimidating, but not much, just a little bit. You're like, he's in the zone now. And then it was done. It was done from there. But anyways. To me, my answer is Back to the Future. I want a good Back to the Future, but my problem is if I chose a company to make Back to the Future, there's probably two companies right now that I would say would do that game justice and get it out in a reasonable amount of time. And that would be Jersey Jack or Spooky. I wouldn't want Stern to make Back to the Future for the simple reason is that I don't think they would put the money into the sculpts and the other things that that game would I'm not very happy that Dutch is making it because Dutch's track record is it takes a million years to make a game. And so like they have one of the most iconic licenses ever in my opinion for this demographic and they're just not going to be able to produce enough of them. So that's a bummer. It's like it kind of sucks. Like it kind of sucks. So I'm telling you right now that I don't want Stern to make that game. I would want someone like Jersey Jack or Spooky to make it. And unfortunately that's not going to happen. Like I don't know what, I don't know... No, really, I mean, this wouldn't be one for Stern. I don't think they'd do it. They'd probably make it good code-wise and everything, but just to put the attention to detail in it that you need, I'd almost say Jersey Jack would be the best candidate to make it back to the future. It sucks. It sucks. Like, no disrespect to Dutch Pinball. I just don't feel like they're gonna make enough of these. And so sure, the collectors will love it because it will be this rare, unique thing, but I just, I don't know, wait like five years to get the game. It just sucks. It just really sucks. I don't know. Anyway, thanks for bumming me out, Ty. Just kidding. Oh, dude, totally, I'm with you on that too. Goonies would be a dream theme for me too. And there's always been rumors I don't know what to believe anymore on who has or potentially has Goonies, but man, that would be a killer too. Like, that would be a killer too. But I'm excited. I think Spooky's really on a roll and it's gonna be cool for them, I think. You know, they're a small company, they'll bang out these Beetlejuices in a year and then come out with the next thing. So, pretty cool. Alright, hold on, there's a comment from Pat. I think that's what I meant from Pat. For such a big theme, it shouldn't be limited run in my opinion. That's what's good about Stern. No, that's very true. That's very true. And that's kind of what I was saying earlier, is like there's, there's a positive to Stern is that they can just pump these games out like crazy. You know, the negative to Stern, you know, current Stern is it just seems like there's, you know, maybe they're cutting a bit more corners on things. I still have fun with the games. Like, I will sit here and tell you, I really like Star Wars. There's people that hate it. They like literally hate it. Some that haven't even played it and hate it. Now it's not blazing new trails from a design standpoint. It's a very simplistic design really. But I also really enjoy games that are really difficult and that game is very brutal if you miss a shot. Like it's like, oh you gotta be on your guard, which I think makes you a better pinball player. But I can see where certain people would be like, this isn't fun to me. And it is an interesting choice to make Star Wars really hard. I'm not gonna say it's hard, it's unforgiving. Because if you miss a shot and you get caught up in the, like, it's hitting the slings and then in the pops, like, you're fucked. I mean, it's like, you are, it's like, and then you're like, totally screwed. Um, so, you know, there's not much you can do at that point. Is Christopher Tranchi here? Is this Tranchi? Oh, it's Tranchi! What's up, Tranchi? I wish we knew who Tranchi was. I don't know, who is Tranchy? Like, he will not give up who he is. And I think Franchy now is aware of Tranchy. So like, Franchy and Tranchy have shown up in the same places sometimes. I wish we knew who Tranchy was. It would be really cool if you just never tell us. Right, Stringer? It is. It's very addictive. It has that one more game. Oh, shit, I missed the comment. It has that one more game thing, but I get that it's not everybody. It's not a game for everybody. I totally get that. I don't 100% get that. Okay, so, hey Ralph, I asked this before and it was missed. If you could get another pin from the 2000s, 90s, 80s, what would it be? Um, hmm. Well, I had a Terminator, but that was only because there's a backstory to that. I don't want to get into it right now. But this is a backstory as to why Terminator. Uh, Probably Theater of Magic. Yeah, probably Theater of Magic, if I could. Or or Tales of the Arabian Nights, like I really like both. I was initially going to say Medieval Madness, but I feel like Medieval Madness gets a little redundant for me. Medieval Madness gets a little redundant for me. So, yeah. All right. So hold on, we got a thing here. So it says, I think Franchi was in the stream the first or second time. Tranchi was on Joel's and Jared's. It was fun. So they have been in the same place at the same time. All right, Tranchy says, I will meet you next year at Expo. All right. But I won't know that it's you. But he's saying I give you my word. All right. Find your answer at past times. There we go. All right, hold on. There's actually a video. There is a video, right? I think there is a video. Yeah. So there's a whole backstory on T2. It had to do with my sister going to college in New York. I could tell it for two seconds, it's not long, but basically I was going up to college, or going up to my sister's college to visit her in Syracuse, she went to Syracuse University, and in the break room they had a T2. And at the time, this was like around the time the arcade game was really popular, and I was like, holy shit, like this is amazing. And as a kid, but I wasn't really, the local arcade I had by me called Dream Machine didn't have a ton of pinball machines, I'm pretty sure they didn't have this one. I just remember playing it the whole time because it was boring. I didn't want to be up at my sister's college. I was probably 12 or something. I don't know how old I was, but I definitely didn't want to be there. You're selfish at that age. So I just played the Terminator the whole time and I just remember it being so ingrained in my mind. I need to have this game at some point. I'm sure I'll regret... I'm sure I'll regret getting rid of it at some point though. I really do. Just because it's not a deep game, but it's kind of fun. Like it is fun. And it's especially fun when you put the pin sound updates in it. Like you put the pin sound audio on it. It's pretty damn cool. Kerry said, talk to your people at JJP. Tell me to make their Harry Potter ready. I know man. That's a crazy thing. The Man, they are like It makes me wonder like he brings up a good point. It makes you wonder like when are they gonna actually? Announce and be able to start production on this next game because they're gonna be making Harry Potter's for a long time I think but rightfully so like the game is really good I was so bummed being someone that you know, obviously when you work on a project You get a little bit more emotionally connected to it, right? And so doing being a part of the you know The feature ad and filming it with Mason, we got a chance to meet everybody, it became more personal. And I really liked the game and it was weird because the art thing just like threw everything into this tizzy where now that was the focus. And I'm like, this sucks because Eric really created a great game. I'd argue probably one of the best games that they've made, right, to date. So it definitely bummed me out. But that luckily that news cycle shifted and then people started playing it at shows and were like, holy crap, this game's pretty awesome. So if you've never played it, play it. I don't know how if you're into pinball, you couldn't play that game and have a great time. It's it's it's so frickin fun. And I'm very grateful that I got a chance to participate in that. Doing that feature, it was so fun and it was something that I had never done before. So so it's a little bit of a challenge and I like challenging things. So that was pretty cool. Alex Manning, what's up my boy? He's like, T2 is what got me into pinball. Randomly played it at a putt-putt and I was hooked. Yeah, T2 is pretty fun, man. And the fact that they got, you know, the call outs in there and stuff. Right, Albert? They do. Like, I don't know anybody. I've had naysayers be like, dude, no, Harry Potter. And then they play it like, bro, that game is pretty awesome. Like, they switch tune really quick. Like, hey, man, like, that game is pretty fun. I'm like, I know. It's fun. Eric Meunier had a moment where he's like putting the stake in the ground like I'm here and I can make a badass pinball machine like that was Eric Meunier's moment. No TPF for me Jake. Hey, say what's up to Jake Danzig. How you doing buddy? Yeah, no TPF for me. I gotta limit how many of these things I go to unfortunately. I really wanted to be out in Houston for Houston Arcade Expo, but I think that's what it's called. I just, guys, I've been working so much now in, you know, I think this year was the first year that like, it was very obvious to me that, you know, not, I know COVID's been forever ago now, but it was the first year where it's like, hey guys, get back out in the field, start traveling. And so I'm traveling all the time. And so you know I don want to be away from family that long And so it just becomes kind of hard But Carrie brings up a good question It says what about pinball at the beach So that is one who got the last to grab it and the first elm Frontiera moribund What's up, everybody? Like Rudy and I want to do more live streams. It's just hard because my work schedule and it's like, sure. I could probably say Rudy, I just got home and want to come over and stream, but I try to be, you know, I really want to be with my family. So it's like, I try to, I try to, you know, it's a balance, man. It's a balance. And my job wasn't always like that. So there was a time where it was a lot less travel and now there's a lot more travel. So, um, all right, hold on. There was something. Yeah. The Superbowl weekend thing. And so pinball at the beach is during Super Bowl weekend. That's kind of a bummer. I don't know why they decided to do that. I'm a big football fan, so like Super Bowl is a big deal. All right, hold on. Pat has a good comment here. He said, JGP has a level of polish that no other manufacturer has achieved so far, especially in the UI and animations. 1000%. 1000%. I mean, you play Harry Potter, it's like, I mean, any of their games, their user interface is really good. My only real thing with sometimes Jersey Jack can get into this mode where there's a lot of things going on and it's harder for people to focus on what the objectives are. I think they're getting better as they refine the code with Harry Potter, but yeah, their games are just they feel different. Like when you're playing one of their games, it feels like a different level. I mean, the screen is so big and they really do focus on the quality of the sculpts and how to bring that world to life. It's really good. Like, I love it. Oh, no, no, no. All right. VC, you know I love you, buddy. You know I do. And we always bump into each other. But, dude, we hate the Chiefs. I love you, though. I love you, but we hate the Chiefs. We don't hate anybody, but we hate the Chiefs. Sorry, man. I love you, though. Dude, right, Albert? If Jersey Jackets Insider connected, they will take off. I know they got to get some kind of connected capabilities. I'm telling you, man. Uh, Carrie's getting a little feisty. He's like, look, man, I'd love to, I'd love to comment on the quality if they build my freaking game. Uh, that's funny. Last time I told you that you shouldn't be using the Pinball Podcast. just probably not going to talk all the way around it's a pretty true story. I love interacting with you guys and it's just a good time. So I'll probably do more of these. You know, it's easy to do them too. You just pop on and just talk about some things. I want to look at my list of things. I had some things I wanted to talk about but now my eyesight is kind of getting weird because I drank a little too much. See, I'm not even a beer and a half in and I'm having problems. I told you about getting rid of some games. You guys didn't seem to care about that, which is good because I thought you were going to give me shit. Me justifying, I literally have a note that says me justifying my decisions on the live with the live audience. I think I achieved that. What's going on at Stern? I have a thing that says what's going on at Stern? Is it really as bad as people are making it out to be? Do you guys want to talk about that for a minute? Because I have an opinion on that. Definitely have an opinion on that. I think, I think it's being over exaggerated, I'm not exaggerating, but I do think there's some merit to the fact that Stern's been kind of playing it safe. There's a little bit of merit to that. So I will say I agree with that sentiment that maybe they need to up their game. And I think with Beetlejuice coming out and some of the other things, Harry Potter and these games where they're pushing the limits, I do think Stern should reconsider what it means to build a world under glass. Now, I still really enjoy their games, though. But everyone's different. Like some people really want that, like the sculpts and the things and the fish flat plastics, like they feel like they're not getting the value out of it. And I understand that though. Like I understand that when you're, especially if you're an LE buyer, if you're an LE buyer, if you're an LE buyer and you're spending $13,000, and again, I don't usually talk about this, but if you're spending that much money and then you in turn look at something that's like $10, $5 or $11 and you're getting more, If you're a fan of Star Wars, you're gonna question that, right? And if that game also has good gameplay, has good layout, it shoots well, now you're like concerned about where I'm gonna spend my money. But I do think Stern historically makes really good games and they make them fast, which is also a benefit. But yeah, we'll see. I really do hope this is a little bit of a, I don't want to say wake up call because it sounds doom and gloom. I don't think it's doom and gloom over there. But I think they gotta, they gotta like take notice of what's going on. and be like look granted they probably don't want to admit that spooky's a competitor because they can't even come close to the volume but i mean you start gaining more momentum it will start taking mind share away i mean this is a small hobby so i mean they do they should be concerned about this whether they want to openly admit that or not most companies aren't going to do that because it shows weakness like oh i'm you know i used to work in competitive intelligence kind of something that natt natt arcade and i both have done in our career i think he currently still does that and when you're doing that you don't want to pet you don't want to draw attention to your competitor even if you've view them as a little bit of a threat you don't want to do that because you want to come from a place of power i do think that internally there's no possible way they have it had conversations being like look how can we maybe put more into our games and gives someone a little bit more value bama that day but but but again i'd use I just think when you start thinking about what these other companies are bringing to the table for that price point, it's definitely something that people should be should be concerned about, you know? So, yeah, I mean, they got to be concerned about it. It's Gary on the phone. He's like, Ralphie, what are you doing guy? Yeah, I said all of a sudden Gary's Italian. All right. Stern needs to make. That's not a that's not a bad take. Nerd Stern needs to make fewer games and invest more. King Kong's layout is so good but cheapening out on the sculpts, a rushed art package and see I really like I love playing Kong though. See like this is where like where I would somewhat disagree because I love that game. It's one of my it's it's quickly becoming one of my favorite games like the unique shot layout and I I don't want to say I don't care about art because that's not where I'm what I'm saying. But I can look past it sometimes if I'm having a great time in the game. But I also don't think that art was terrible. I just think that art was an interesting, creative direction they went with it to kind of pay respect to the game that really never came out. I think it was a Data East game or whatever. I've seen the original art. But the thing is, that's really niche. Like, a lot of people probably don't even know that, like know that there was a throwback to the original. So it may be lost. It's that's where sometimes I think you get you get caught in your own like bubble, right? Like, also, I think sometimes Stern needs to realize that not everyone's a tournament player. Some of their games are really difficult. And I think sometimes that that's fine if if it's a competition and your game is on location, but someone at home might never see really interesting parts of the game because The game is too difficult. So that's a that's a fine line, right? Because you got to walk that line of like, who is your buyer? Is your buyer? Do you want the home buyer to have this fun experience? Or do you want the competition or the competitive player to feel challenged by your game? I don't know how you ride that line the right way. I think Jersey Jack never really cared about or doesn't care as much about tournament play with their games. So their games are really probably very close to 100% geared toward the home buyer. Sure, they have some Out with all your壓 Goth brown I'm with you, Kong is the shit. I don't know why people hate on Kong. I think Kong is freaking awesome. So I see Albert's with you too. Albert's like Kong is insane flow, incredible shots, great code, cool mechs. Dude, I'm with you, man. Like I think Kong got, I don't know how Kong, I think Kong will end up being that game that Bubbles back up later and people like shit man especially when it gets closer to 1.0 they're like this game's actually really good like the people that dismissed it for stupid reasons like I don't like the art meh they're gonna come back and be like oh shit this game's freaking good like it's a good game and it's not even at 1.0 it's a good play it pterodactyl attack is so effing fun like you're the you got the I know I say this a lot but you got your like rotating drop targets you got I'm gonna hit the lit one and then you gotta get it back to your left flipper to hit the the concave it's so fun it's so satisfying like I don't know man I just kind sucks that Kong got beat up so much here's the one thing I'm gonna say this this is drinking Ralph who the F is nostalgic for 1933 Kong you know what I mean like we're all I'm 46 years old sure I know Kong but I'm not a Kong fan. I wasn't like, oh man, like I remember watching all this 1933 Kong, like it's 1933! We weren't even born! We weren't even born! So the fact that they reimagined Kong, I'm like, who gives a shit? I don't know, I just don't care. Like I think it's really fun the way it is. I don't know, I just think it's funny. I don't know, I just, I don't get that. If it had the clips from 1933, I don't think I'd like it anymore. You know what I mean? It's just weird. I don't get that. If it was something where we all grew up with it, I could see it. But no one's gonna want like the Jack Black Kong clips, you know what I mean? So it's like no one, you know what I mean? So like what, what are we nostalgic for? I don't, I don't understand. It makes no sense. Godzilla pulled it off somehow, but even then, like I saw Godzilla stuff as a kid, but I don't, I wasn't nostalgic for it. And I think a lot of people were like, eh, as a theme, but then they realized, King, Freakin' Elwin makes badass games. So I don't know. I mean, hey, Pat, I mean, it is what it is, right? He said I can't stand the animations. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm fine with it. I don't know. I don't I'm not like. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have a lot to say on it. I guess the animations don't bother me. They could have been better, I guess. But the game is so fun to me that I guess I don't care that much. So anyways, any rumors on Elwin's next game? I don't know. So I'm so confused right now what Stern's next move is, because sometimes people will message me stuff. And so I thought that in January, this was what everyone thought or everyone has thought for a while now that January, the games that their release date is going to be in line with CES and at CES, They're gonna announce their next cornerstone. And for a while, the main rumor was that was gonna be Transformers. But now it seems to have flip flopped that there's maybe more of a, there's more confidence in the fact that it might be Pokemon over Transformers. And then the other game that's always been in the mix is Fallout. So it's always been Fallout, Pokemon, Transformers. You know, with Transformers, my only issue is, As much as I like the original Generation 1 cartoons and everything, the music wouldn't amp me up. I like the music from the movies. And I like the voices that they used from the movies. So if you were to like weave those two together, that might be cool. I can't see them doing a movie, the movie version, because like what movie do you pick and then... I don't know. So like I have this big thing with pinball where I the soundtrack and the music draw me in. Like I love that. That makes me pumped up. Like when like going back to Godzilla for a minute, when the building is dropping, Blue Oyster Cult kicks in. I'm fucking pumped. Like I am pumped up when that happens. Even though I've seen it a million times, that gets me amped up and I'm like, yeah, baby. And I'm like thinking I'm in the zone. I'm in some zone. I'm sorry for the swearing. That's the alcohol. I'm sorry. I try not to swear and I apologize for that. I really do. Now I feel bad about it. See? Now I feel bad. Uh, hmm. Where do we go from here? Okay, so let's see what Sean has to say. So what you're saying is Stern is more than meets the eye. Yeah, nice. Am I as nostalgic for Linkin Park? Oh, because of the music? No, they had like the though the theme music that was awesome. There's really but hey, if you made a Linkin Park theme, Linkin Park pinball machine, I would buy that. I'd buy that in a second. Yeah. I hope you lose sleep tonight. No! No! I'm very sensitive, dude. And if I say something that I feel like is gonna hurt someone's feelings, I get upset about it. It's just how I am. I try, but I'm not, I don't... It's very rare that I say something that's gonna upset someone. Like, I try to, I'm usually pretty, like, even Steven, or whatever the hell the term is. Oh, God, it's beers. I got to control. I got to end this soon. I appreciate it. There's 107 of you guys. That's amazing. I really do appreciate that. That's that's big deal for this channel that doesn't have quite as many subscribers as as the other channel. What are we talking about? He loses sleep. He finishes the IPA. Yes, I'm only milking the shit out of this IPA. Oh, Franchi, I wanna give him a big snuggle. I love this guy. I love this guy. Dude, Franchi, so I've heard through the grapevine, I heard through grapevine, no pressure, that you completely and utterly annihilated the artwork on this art package. Like I heard you were just like, you dropped the biggest mic you could possibly drop. That's just what I heard from maybe a couple of people that might, may or may not have seen it, uh, because I'm, but I have not seen it myself with my own eyes, but supposedly you dropped the freaking mic. And so that makes me, and I was talking about that earlier, we are very excited to see this. I, I do feel like, you know, and I'm not trying to hype it up, but I feel like from everything I've heard, this is like, if you thought they brought it with Evil Dead and, and that's It's an amazing package from all respects. Everything. Music, callouts, artwork, the whole thing. It has it all. The layout, shots, it's all there. I'm hearing that this is like next level. That this is like Spooky's major drop the bomb. So I'm very proud of you guys and everything that you guys have accomplished. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool to see. Like I came into the hobby obviously much later. I had very minimal experience with Spooky, but when I bought my Evil Dead I was like, wow. I had some experience with some of the games, but that game really wowed me in a lot of ways. And it's cool. It's cool to see a company that's really, you know, a very smaller, a much smaller operation, like kicking ass. It's pretty cool. I think the only thing that everyone would, the shared sentiment on this, you know, across the community is probably that they wish that more would be made, but I do understand why that that wouldn't be the case, right? Like you want to keep it collectible and also you want to make sure that you can make a game, you know, You know, that Spooky in general can make another game in the year. So they give themselves a year to produce the ones that they, they, the game they release and they go on to the next one. I think it's cool. So anyway, great job, even though I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure it's amazing. Call me handsome. Between him and Kerry Hardy, they butter you up. They say these nice things and I'm like, hmm. But I think he's, I think they're both being genuine. Yeah, I think they're both being genuine. Now, Kerry, Kerry will like reach into inappropriate places, but I don't want to talk about that here. Sometimes I'm like Kerry's get, Kerry gets a little handsy sometimes. Franchi's always respectful of my personal space, but Kerry, you never know where he's going to put his hands. So you have to be careful with that guy. All right. I think we're nearing the end, guys. I think this is it. I wanted to go about an hour and a half. I feel like we had a fun stream. Everyone was having a good time. I appreciate that. Let me see. Is there anything, anything else that's pending that you guys are just burning, It's burning a hole in your mind that you want to talk about. I really hit on all the things I want to talk about. I really want to talk about why I think people are so excited about Beetlejuice. I want to talk a little bit about Insider Connected, which I did. I talked about the games I'm getting rid of and I justified them to you, even if that justification is completely ridiculous and you don't buy it and you think it's complete bullshit. I did justify it. I talked about what's going on with Stern, what my take is there. And then, yeah, that was it. And I have something that says 32, but I have no idea I'm going to go ahead and put 32 on the screen. I don't want to interrupt Joel. Joel will be streaming in 30 minutes. I knew that if I went before Joel... My buddy Stringer thinks I don't wear shorts. Guess what? Guess what? I got shorts on! What's up, I got you. He says I don't wear shorts. No, no six seven. That's so dumb. My wife for talking about stupid the six seven thing That's awesome. Oh Man, hey, hey, man. Thanks for coming along man. I appreciate you. I appreciate man. All right. I I don't even know what's going on anymore. All right, let me see if I got the chill vibe music. Let's see. All right, I do. All right, guys, we're about wrapped up. I appreciate every single one of you for joining. We have a very fun week in pinball. We've got Spooky dropping the bomb. We're going to see Franchi's amazing art package. I'm gonna see if Spooky can produce lightning in a bottle twice and I think they can. They're bold, they're badass, and they're from Benton, Wisconsin and they're like we're gonna drop the motherfucking bomb. That's right, I swore because of the alcohol but I don't care. That's what they're gonna do. They're ready to do this shit. They're like boom! I can't wait, I can't wait to see it. And then also not to, uh, you know, eh, I don't know how I feel about this. Let Spooky have their moment. I don't know how I feel about this, but then, uh, I can't believe I've been swearing a lot. I gotta stop that. You guys know normal, normal stuff is kid friendly. I'm gonna have to post this as adult only. But, uh, yeah, man, I just think, uh, we got the Walking Dead remastered gameplay. I'm a big fan of that game in general. I think that'll be fun. Eh, a little distasteful to do it on the same day as Spooky. But hey, that's what they chose to do. Spooky should just have their moment, and then they could do that next week on a Tuesday. That's not what they chose to do. It's fine. It's fine, it's fine, everything's fine. But that's it guys. Thank you so much for joining. I appreciate you. Earmuffs, Earmuffs, uh, it's Kerry. He's a bad influence. I watch his Patreon stuff and he's like, MFB, da da da da da, ba da da da da da. He's like, he's like, hey, how you doing? Shit, in the thing, in the thing. So yeah, Kerry became like an Italian Texan. Alright guys, that's it for now and we will see you on the flip side. Thank you guys, I appreciate you. And don't clip any of this, I will get in trouble, I don't want to get in trouble, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get in trouble. Damn it. It's the alcohol. It's a bad thing. Don't do it. Alright guys, thanks so much for joining everybody, I appreciate you. We'll see you next time.