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Pinball Life Lessons, Episode 12: Sometimes the Bar Eats You

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Apr 18, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Pinball Life Lessons episode on fatigue, machine moving disasters, and Pin Brew/Playtime venue reviews.

Summary

Tim Dan Lee hosts Eric (CEO/professor) discussing pinball fatigue, a harrowing incident where Eric dropped his $14K Big Lebowski pinball machine down basement stairs via Escalera, and their experiences at Pin Brew show in Girard, Ohio and Rob Burks Playtime venue. The episode covers machine moving safety lessons, show reviews, and initial impressions of newly released games including Galactic Tank Force.

Key Claims

  • Eric's Big Lebowski pinball machine ($13.5-14K MSRP) survived three complete flips down basement stairs with only cosmetic damage and remains fully playable

    high confidence · Eric directly recounted the incident; confirmed playable after repairs

  • Escalera movers have a bolt-on attachment with hydraulic feet (~$550-600) designed to prevent accidents on stairs with heavy machines like Multimorphic P3

    high confidence · Eric recalls optional attachment from purchase; Tim confirms from separate experience

  • Multimorphic P3 machines are among the heaviest pinball machines in production (estimated 400+ lbs)

    medium confidence · Tim mentions P3 weight class during Escalera safety discussion; not explicitly confirmed

  • Pin Brew had six new games available for play (all except Scooby-Doo from recent releases)

    high confidence · Eric directly states availability at Pin Brew

  • Rob Burks Playtime venue has more working games in better condition than Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas

    medium confidence · Tim's subjective comparison based on multiple visits to both venues

  • Galactic Tank Force both machines at Pin Brew experienced shooter malfunction across multiple play attempts

    high confidence · Tim explicitly states 'I didn't have one game where it worked on either machine. Both shooters' (content cuts off mid-sentence)

  • Steve Ritchie was present at Pin Brew show

    high confidence · Tim mentions 'Mark Steve Ritchie was there'

  • Christopher Franchi created artwork for Galactic Tank Force

    high confidence · Eric explicitly praises 'Christopher Franchi's art' on the machine

Notable Quotes

  • “The whole thing, it ripped right out of my hands. And did three full flips, somersaults, down, two somersaults going down the stairs.”

    Eric @ ~11:30 — Vivid description of the catastrophic machine drop incident that prompted the episode

  • “Because in my head, I'm going, you know, this, the Big Lebowski pinball machine is literally the most expensive thing that I own. It's not a house or a vehicle.”

    Eric @ ~15:00 — Context of financial stakes; reveals how costly individual machines are relative to life assets

  • “This is really a testament to the crew over there at Dutch Pinball. I mean it survived shockingly well.”

    Eric @ ~19:30 — Positive attribution of durability to Jersey Jack's manufacturing quality despite severe impact

  • “I thought it was great. Every new game was there. I think it's six new games have come out all at once, everything except for Scooby-Doo.”

    Eric @ ~50:00 — Confirms availability of recently released games at Pin Brew venue

  • “Pinbrew is probably my favorite show to go and enjoy pinball. There's not a lot for sale. There's not a ton of pin famous people there, but just generally the free play area has the best quality of machines of any of those shows.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~58:00 — Shows preference for community-focused smaller shows over major industry expos

  • “The actual machine, looking from, you know, the top inside the glass, is really nice. And that planet in the back was spectacular.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~75:00 — Positive initial aesthetic impression of Galactic Tank Force playfield

  • “I didn't have one game where it worked on either machine. Both shooters”

    Tim Dan Lee @ ~85:00 — Critical technical issue with Galactic Tank Force units at Pin Brew; content cuts off

Entities

Tim Dan LeepersonEricpersonAmypersonChristopher FranchipersonSteve RitchiepersonNickpersonRachelperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Galactic Tank Force experienced shooter failures on both machines available at Pin Brew; Tim states 'I didn't have one game where it worked'

    high · Direct statement from Tim about experiencing shooter malfunctions on both GTF units

  • ?

    operational_signal: Escalera stair descent incidents appear to be recurring issue; Eric's Big Lebowski drop and Tim's Multimorphic P3 near-miss suggest design gap; optional safety attachment exists but not widely purchased due to cost

    high · Eric reports forum posts about similar incidents; both speakers experienced or nearly experienced failures on stairs

  • ?

    venue_signal: Rob Burks Playtime museum shows superior machine maintenance and preservation compared to Pinball Hall of Fame, with higher functional rate and better cosmetic condition

    medium · Tim's direct comparison: 'significantly better shape and there was way more of them working' than PHOF

  • ?

    event_signal: Pin Brew ranked as top show experience by Tim despite being smallest; attributed to low wait times, better beer selection (5 breweries), and free play focus over vendor/celebrity aspects

    high · Tim explicitly states 'Pinbrew is probably my favorite show' and lists it alongside MGC, Pinball Expo, York, Allentown, Pinsonati with preference explanation

  • ?

    community_signal: Both Tim and Eric experienced significant pinball fatigue/depression after heavy tournament play in January-February; Tim had 6-7 week break; Eric struggled for ~2 months and describes as 'pinball depression'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.239

0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to Pinball Life Lessons. I am the host Tim Lee and I'm here for another exciting episode. Before I get into the episode, I just wanted to apologize to everyone. I've been off for a while. I had about six or seven weeks where I was extremely busy outside of pinball, probably the busiest I've been in ten years. So I took a little break and then I also had a little pinball fatigue. So now I'm back at it. I did have two guests lined up, and two weeks ago, instead of being on Life Lessons, we all got together with Rachel and we recorded Try Multiball episode 37. Now that hasn't been released yet, and you'll see why when we release it, but I had those guests over on that show. So I was trying to come up with who could I have on as a guest. and then it happened my good buddy eric did something very unfortunate we will say uh that's putting it nicely so welcome to the show again eric how you doing i'm great i i'm uh i'm starting to to feel i don't know how i should feel about being on so many times on a show called life lessons where I am the example of what not to do. But, you know, that's fine. It's nice to be invited to the dance, I guess. Well, you are a CEO and a professor. And how are you doing all these things wrong in pinball?
2:03
Well, sometimes when it's on purpose, it's one thing. Sometimes, you know, accidents happen, right? Yep. Well, I am glad you're still my friend. And I thought Amy and you were both going to get rid of me after I've talked to you about a certain movie that's probably 30 years old after the last couple of weeks. So I'm glad we're still friends. I appreciate it. And we'll get into that when we do the Pin Brew review. Now, have you ever had pinball fatigue? Yeah. Yeah, it's funny when you were talking about you going through your pinball fatigue because I think we kind of synced up in pinball fatigue. And I really have, I think pinball fatigue is a good way to say it. I was calling it like pinball depression. But I went through almost about two months, and I'm still kind of shaking it off a little bit. But, yeah, I'm kind of in the dumps with it as well. Although going to pin brew, I feel reinvigorated with pinball right now. I agree with you. It's just fatigue. You play it so much. I was in all those tournaments. I played like crazy through January, and then it just hit me, and then life got busy. But before we get into what I want to talk about, I want to tell you a story. This literally just happened before we got on the recording. So I'm playing Rush, and the ball got stuck in that little inner orbit on the switch. And I had like 1.2 billion, and it was the third ball, and I'm like, oh, man, I got to save this. So I'm shaking the machine, and the ball wouldn't come down. So I go up to the side of the machine. Like I didn't open up the coin door or any of that fancy stuff. I thought I'll just go to the side of the machine and smack it. So I smacked it, and it quickly fell off the switch and started to come down. Well, since I slid between the machines, my pants got caught on the machine beside it on the shooter in the back near my butt, you know, the belt loop. And I got stuck and I was like up in the air and I was kind of sideways trying to trap up the ball. And I'm screaming, Amy, Amy, help me, because I couldn't get off the machine. And meanwhile, I'd slid rush like four, five inches over by accident. So I just kind of ripped my pants off of the machine. It was the shooter knob, and I finished my ball, but I managed to get it trapped up. So that was kind of a weird moment. It's the second time it's happened in my life. I think I talked about it on Tribe Multi-Ball in the past. So, yeah, I'm not having a good night, but it was funny. I laughed at myself. And Amy never came to help me. I'm like, what if something really bad was happening? Yeah, I was really hoping you were going to end that story with Amy Lee rushing in to see your pants getting ripped off by the pinball machine right in mid-act. Because that would be a great picture for her to have of you, I think. No, the same thing happens to me. I always seem to catch my belt loop usually on the armor or something when I'm sliding in between games or moving them around. But that's a common thing. Maybe we need to make some kind of product for pinheads to get their belt loops not caught on games. Yeah, I think you're supposed to open the coin door when you're in the middle of the game so you can grab the ball. Yeah, there's that too.
Dutch Pinball
company
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
American Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Multimorphiccompany
Big Lebowskigame
Galactic Tank Forcegame
High Speedgame
Rushgame
Halloweengame
Bond 60game
Pulp Fictiongame
Pin Brewevent
Rob Burks Playtimevenue
Pinball Hall of Famevenue
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Escaleraproduct

high · Both speakers explicitly discuss fatigue episodes and recovery; synchronized timing suggests seasonal or post-tournament pattern

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Jersey Jack/Dutch Pinball Big Lebowski demonstrated exceptional durability, surviving three complete flips down concrete stairs with only cosmetic damage and full mechanical functionality preserved

    high · Eric's detailed account of drop and successful repair; machines still playable after impact

  • ?

    product_concern: Tim prefaces Galactic Tank Force criticism by noting expectation of 'at least one thing' needing adjustment in new games, but describes GTF experience as exceptionally problematic

    medium · Tim's statement: 'I'm not someone that expects everything to work perfectly right out of the box' but GTF was 'a bit of a special experience' (negative context)

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Tim shows clear preference shift toward smaller, community-focused shows (Pin Brew) over major industry expos (Texas Pinball Festival) due to accessibility and experience quality despite smaller scale

    high · Tim's direct comparison and statement of return intention to Pin Brew over larger shows

  • ?

    design_innovation: Galactic Tank Force features several noted aesthetic innovations: LED gauges on head, backlit translite artwork, built-in pin stadiums, and illuminated planet centerpiece

    high · Both speakers detail specific visual and lighting features; Tim and Eric discuss aesthetic execution separately

  • ?

    content_signal: Try Multiball episode 37 recorded with Tim and guests two weeks prior; not yet released at time of this recording

    high · Tim references recording with Rachel and guests; states episode hasn't released 'yet' and hints at reason

    • 5:25
    Anyway, so Eric, now I don't even know how to say this. The reason you're on the show, I have two life lessons. One is for you and one is once we get to Pinbrew. so you had an unfortunate event in your life and i felt really bad about it but then two days later i'm like can we talk about this on the show because it's really good content before we get to the life lesson why don't you go ahead and tell our listeners kind of what happened yeah i and i don't even know if it's so much of a of a life life lesson is more i i'm happy to share it To give just kind of as an example others may learn from. I guess that's what a life lesson is. So my place out in Pennsylvania, I have six pinball machines at. Okay. And it's a small house. You've been here. And it's a one-story house and has a basement.
    6:24
    And I've been keeping all of my games just in the living spaces. I'm a bachelor. I have my son that's 14, and he spends time out here too. But outside of that, I don't really have to hide them all away in the basement. But my games were starting to take over all of the living space in my house. So it went from the living room to the living room, and I guess you'd call it the dining room. And then I got another game, and I was putting it in another bedroom, and it's only a two-bedroom house. So I went, you know what? These need to go to the basement. I need to finally reclaim the upper floor as living space and be a normal functioning adult. Sure. And move my games downstairs. So lucky for me, I have an Escalera, which I've used before. Yep, I have one as well. Yeah, and should help me make quick work of it. So one Sunday, I start the task and get my Escalera out, start breaking my games down and moving them downstairs. And most of them are stern. So I have five spike two stern games and one big Lebowski. Okay. So I'm moving my games downstairs, and I get about halfway through, move three sterns downstairs, and then I go to move big Lebowski. and the moment I take the back legs off and set it on the ground, I really notice, I'm like, wow, this game is a lot heavier than the others. Sure. Which I think I had noticed when I got it and set it up initially a few months back. But I just really kind of noticed it as I was taking the back legs off and didn't think much of it. So got it all set up, got it on the Escalera, and I get it over to the basement to start going down the stairs. And I take it down the first step and I immediately feel a strong difference in the weight than I felt with the sterns going down. Now, I know it's heavier, but it's not like, at least in my mind, I think it's like 40 pounds heavier maybe. Yeah. But I wasn't expecting it to make that big of a difference. And it kind of gave me a moment of pause and I stopped for a second. And then I went down for it to go on the next step. And boy, did it go. The whole thing, it ripped right out of my hands. And did three full flips, somersaults, down, two somersaults going down the stairs.
    9:01
    Hit the base of the stairs. Did, you know, finished another pretty much complete roll. Landed on its top, I think. and as it was going the whole thing happened in slow motion it really did, people talk about that but it really happened in slow motion so it starts rolling and I expected the whole time that it was going to hit the base of the stairs which is just concrete and explode into a million pieces like a Lego house or something which it didn't do and I didn't even get mad It just sort of went and I just sort of looked at it and went, huh, like that happened. Because in my head, I'm going, you know, this, the Big Lebowski pinball machine is literally the most expensive thing that I own. It's not a house or a vehicle.
    10:00
    Aren't they 13,000 MSRP? Yeah, I think it's, I think the one I have, because I have the one with like the upgraded apron. and I think they're, yeah, it's like 14K with, I think it's 13.5, and then I have like the $500 upgraded laser-cut apron or whatever it is. And the whole time it's going, I said, you know, of course, A, of course it's this game. Yeah. Wow. But I didn't, I expected to be more emotional about it, but when it didn't just shatter everywhere, I think the fact that it didn't do that, I was like, oh, well, maybe this is salvageable. Okay.
    10:43
    So, all right, so I'll stop you there. So I dropped a pin bot one time that cost me $1,200, and I was devastated. So you text me this, and I just felt awful. I'm like, what? You dropped the Lebowski? Now, so it didn't end up looking like the Torino on the Lebowski all beat up? No. Well, it's surprisingly – and you know what? This is really a testament to the crew over there at Dutch Pinball. I mean it survived shockingly well. Now, it didn't survive unscathed. Sure. And I was so kind of in shock with it. I sort of got it, put the legs on, got it set up, and I noticed there was – the cabinet took a hit. But the head really, in one part, was kind of separated a little bit. And I've taken my time over the past couple weeks sort of surveying the damage and addressing little things. Or not so much little, but sort of the bigger problems that I saw with it. But with just kind of hammering some stuff back into shape and bending some pieces and doing some obvious things, I got it set up for the first time on Sunday just a couple days ago. And it's playable. It works. Everything works right. It booted up for the first time just fine. I had the armor where the head, you know, rested down on the rail for the glass slides in. That took some beating. Sure.
    12:30
    But inside, everything was in good shape. And there's a couple of things that I need to replace and repair. But it is a 100% playable game with just a little bit of TLC. and I'm completely shocked that it survived. So a couple of things there. One is I think the first thing I said to you when you showed me, you showed me the pictures and I was stunned that it wasn't, you know, it didn't look like the, I think it was a Torino. Was it a Torino? I forget what in the Lebowski they throw. Yeah, but I was stunned and I think I said to you, hey, it just looks like my Halloween. So the wood on my Halloween is splitting, and I didn't drop it down the steps. Now, the other thing is the glass didn't break. That simply amazed me that your glass didn't break. I was just stunned by it. I couldn't. The things that didn't break really shocked me. The glass didn't break. Nothing in the play field broke. And it's a complicated game. It has that whole under play field, bowling alley. Bowling alley. It was funny. the only and I had the balls out of it when I moved it but the only thing when it finally crashed and hit the ground there was a moment of silence and then I heard a single pinball just fall out into the cabinet and it was the ball that is that stays in the bowl and that was kind of like the cherry on top of the entire crash which was hilarious and it went down it took the escalator with it so it was because it was strapped to it. So the Escalera and the machine did all those rotations, and they both came out of it shockingly well. I mean, they build those Escaleras pretty good, I guess. Okay. Well, thank you for dropping that down the steps so we had something to talk about because I was running out of content, so you did it for the show. The things I do for the show. Yeah. Now, hey, as a good friend, the next week I offered you a trade, to take the broken Lebowski off your hands. So tell everybody what I offered you. Wait, what did you offer me? You offered me a – I offered you a high speed. Oh, high speed. That's right. Yeah, I said I'll give it to you straight up. Rusty legs and all on my high speed. I'm like, hey, I'll take it off your hands. No. But that's actually – that's pretty awesome that you got it working again. I had to bend the lockdown bar. I needed to bend back into shape. It had sort of the play field shifted inside and bent the hooks where it goes into the lockdown bar receiver. So I had to bend those back into shape and used a rubber mallet to get the head cabinet back into the right orientation. But other than that, I was really shocked. And, you know, I told my other buddy Nick about it, and he said that he'd seen in some forums about escaleras, and he'd said he'd seen many posts of people reporting similar issues. and I know you have a story too, right? Where although yours didn't end in as much disaster as mine, but it kind of highlights maybe a point of caution and maybe this can be the life lesson or one of them we talk about with the Escalator, which I think is a great machine, but obviously there are things to watch out for. So what happened with yours? Well, real quick, my life lesson to you is Just give me a call. Give one of the guys in the area a call. I would have gladly come up and helped you as long as we rearranged it. So Tim Lee's life lesson is just take the time and give us a call. I've moved sterns myself, but I had the same exact thing happen with my P3. But I had my wife, and she always goes down in front of it. And a stern, she just rests her hands on the back so it doesn't kick out. but we decided the same thing that we would take the P3 down. And after I only have eight steps and after four steps, I could feel it pulling and I was losing it. And I told Amy, I said, stop. I said, just, I said, hurry up, go, go down in the basement and go inside. So she went inside and I pulled it back as hard as I could. I yelled for her to come out. I said, leave the door open. I said, if I yell, get out of the way. I said, just run into the basement and we're about to make a $12,000 mistake. because it would have hurt her. With a stern, she can easily steady it. She's just there to kind of make sure it doesn't kick out, doesn't put any pressure. But on the P3, she was pushing as hard as she could. None of the neighbors were home, but we got it down. It took about 20 minutes after that. We did one tiny step at a time with her pushing on it as hard as she could. And at that point, I couldn't leave it go because it would have went. So, yeah, those escaleras, man, And they're very, I feel like, you know, we struggled with the JJP, but we did it. I had my boys there. But anything heavier than a stern, you probably need a second person. I know some people do it themselves. Yeah, and I think they're great at going up. You know, I have a lot more confidence going upstairs than downstairs with it. And I remember, too, when I bought mine, there's an attachment that they make that goes on the wheels. And I think it's meant to address exactly this problem.
    18:19
    And it's kind of like there's two little feet and I think a little hydraulic actuator arm. and it senses when you get to the edge of a stair and it drops these two rubber feet down and provides a ton more stability and i think that's meant to help take heavy loads down the stairs and i remember when i bought my escalera it was an option and the thing i could have clicked to get it and but it was like a 600 or 550 add-on and at the time i was like i don't i don't need this because I think it was more for people that move things like real big gun safes and sure yeah and super heavy things I'm like I don't think I need this now in hindsight a $550 attachment uh when I move in my lab out that would have been money well spent and I may I think I might still spring to to put it on there and see if it it helps but um yeah that it you know you and your experience with the P3, which the P3s, those have to be the heaviest pinball machine that is in production, I imagine. Yeah. I don't know how much it weighs, but it was, I think it was in the fours. It was really heavy. And I don't know why. I still had it in the box. I don't know why I even tried it. Like, I got two steps in and I'm like, oh, this was a bad idea. I have two adult boys that could have been there to help. But we did it. You know we were fortunate it yours hey I glad you have it back together you have to send me that attachment because it something I should probably buy as well Yeah I send you the link for it But, yeah, it was super scary. I really am appreciative, even though it happened and it kind of sucked. I was shocked of how I really didn't lose my cool in the whole situation and was happy that I didn't go down with it. Yeah. Because I definitely would not have survived three flips with an Escalera and a Big Lebowski. Yeah.
    20:27
    And didn't really mess myself up that bad. So all in all, I think it was great. It made some good content, hopefully. Yeah. A. B.
    20:37
    Also, too, if anyone's listening and is thinking about getting an Escalera and moving stuff around solo, you know, maybe check. I think it's a great product. I'm still happy that I have it. But maybe take a second look at those feet that come with it. I forget the name of it, but they're like an upgrade you can bolt on. That was definitely an adventure, for sure. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Look for the attachments. All right, buddy. Sorry about that. Glad you're okay. Glad Lebowski's playing okay. But let's get to the fun stuff. So we actually had a little fun this weekend. We went to Pin Brew in Girard, Ohio. Yes, Youngstown. First, let's talk about Pin Brew as a show. What did you think of Pin Brew as a show?
    21:30
    This was my second pinball show ever. My first one, I went to Texas Pinball Festival. Not this most recent one, but the one before. I think that was the first post-COVID TPF. and I had an amazing time. But really, that was my only frame of reference. That was my only pinball show. I guess that's not true. I've been to the – in Arizona, some local things there. But any one that I've, like, traveled to outside of that. Okay. But I thought it was really cool. I had a great time. I think, you know, pinball and beer are natural.
    22:09
    That's like peanut butter and jelly, right? They just go together. I thought it was great every new game was there I think it's six new games have come out all at once everything except for Scooby Doo so it was fantastic because I got to play everything that had just recently come out and have a great time and a bunch of pinheads were there and it was great connecting with them always a good mix of vendors and a huge, I thought the game, you know, the, I don't know what you call it, the free play area, everyone bringing the games. That was awesome. One of the coolest things I saw there was the homebrew, the Nightmare Before Christmas homebrew games. Those were amazing. Yeah, yeah, they did a really good job on those two machines. There's two gentlemen now.
    23:06
    Steve, who I know, he was working on the second homebrew, and I forget the gentleman's name that was the original homebrew creator. They're kind of working together now, and they had both machines there. Those were really neat. Overall, I would say I've gone to MGC, Expo, York, Allentown, Pinbrew, and Pinsonati.
    23:28
    Pinbrew was the smallest, but Pinbrew is probably my favorite show to go and enjoy pinball. There's not a lot for sale. there's not a ton of pin famous people there you know there's some there's a few but just generally the free play area has the best quality of machines of any of those shows the beer is better than any of those shows because they had five micro breweries there serving beer i think that sounds right yeah they had two or three from five different breweries it was fantastic and here's the thing i like the most and we'll get into the new games you didn't have to wait to play the games yeah when i was at expo you had to wait to play the games there besides pulp fiction which i did have to wait for two rounds in front of me a couple of times but i bought the vip and i got to go in there early and just get right back in line but for the most part i either walked right up to one of the newer games or i waited for one or two people in front of me to play there was no wait times i would say i got at least 20 games on every new machine except for one and we'll talk about that one except for one i'm right there with you i mean i got to play everything is as much as i wanted um you know getting there being able to get in early and stay late a couple of times. You know, I had a great experience and doing it when it wasn't so busy so that you could actually really hear the call outs and the music and and all that stuff, which I think for shows is a pretty rare experience. And so, yeah, I thought it was a great show. And for for us, it was a two and a half hour drive for me. and I brought my Razor Crest my camper van so I was able to stay the night in that and I had a great time I definitely would go back to that show so TPF I loved and that was a great experience but it's a big trip it's a lot of travel and a commitment but Pin Brew I will definitely be back it was a fantastic show yeah a couple hundred dollars and you got to experience everything you know i saw nick and um kevin from buffalo pinball and butch peel was there and uh mark ritchie was there so there were some people from you know the manufacturers and so forth but it was a good show now the other thing i wanted to discuss before we get into the games we got to go to was it rob burks playtime yeah yeah that was that was amazing yeah and it was a preview right so and i I think they really wanted to stress that, that this is the special sneak peek. Yep. And they mentioned it a few times, like, please bear with us. Not everything's working. And I got there. I've been to the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas probably three or four times. Sure.
    26:34
    Which is the only place where I've ever seen more games. but the games at playtime were in, I thought, significantly better shape and there was way more of them working and it was just a sneak preview day. They were just open a couple hours. I thought it was a fantastic thing and had so many games running through the entire history of pinball. They had the pre-war games and those were display only. Sure. But they had wedge heads and everything up to the most modern games. I thought it was a fantastic experience. And they had the giant – what was that called? Is that Hercules? Yeah, Hercules. Yep, that was in the back. Yeah, I'd only ever heard of that game before. Yeah, yeah. I played that at PA Pinball in Pittsburgh. They have one as well. they had a um at at um rob's place they had a working magic girl yeah yeah i played a few games on it that was a fun game you could tell the code's a little incomplete but it was working they had all those i think they were brazilian and spanish games in that last row i had never even seen they had a don quixote pinball machine i was like because i i love that old movie i know it's a book but i like the movie from the 70s and uh they had i was playing a donkey hote pinball machine just just all kinds of different flavors they had a few new games but games that i don't know they were they were just different i've never heard of them you know each game from europe seemed to have a half naked woman or man on it there was a stretch of like 20 games where somebody was like naked or something on the machine but it was it was quite interesting just just got to play did you play orbiter one was it orbiter i think orbiter i did yeah yeah they definitely didn't spend a lot of time uh painting clothes onto the the characters back in the day right yeah but that orbiter one was like a crazy game i've never seen anything like it like there must have been a thousand magnets in that thing pulling the ball around Yeah, the one thing that I'll say is not all the games were on, but everything that was on that I played was working perfectly. I didn't play a single game that had, you know, a mech or something misbehaving, which is a rare thing, even playing in an arcade with all brand new machines. Yeah, there's something broken. Yeah, my hat's really, really off to them over there. They're doing a fantastic job and it was so great for them to, you know, invite us over to experience that. Yeah, I'm very appreciative and grateful. I didn't have to turn off any games. I they played well, enjoyed it. I saw the nicest high speed getaway I've ever seen. Did you see that one? It looked like a modern machine. I was like, wow, that thing looks amazing. But no, you know, hats off to to those folks. We appreciate you letting us in. glad I splurged for the VIP pass because you know that made it worthwhile and before that I don't know if people didn't realize this but you could go in at nine o'clock at Pinbrew and between nine and ten if you had a VIP pass you got to go in and play any game you'd like and then at ten you went over to play time from ten to noon I think only like ten people came over to pin brew so i played bond 60 and pulp fiction for an hour straight just kept getting on them both i was like oh there's like 10 people here maybe i wasn't supposed to be there and i just walked in thinking i could get in there at nine but okay yeah i think it's definitely if if you're thinking about going to pin brew if anyone out there is listening splurging for the vip pass i think is definitely a good investment plus you got a goodie bag with i think some other stuff too but yeah i got a beer mug right we always need one of those but i think just getting the access to the games um when it's not crowded it definitely made the made the early bird experience to me and i think you very much worthwhile yeah and in the tournament i didn't play in the tournament this time i actually never played there but i didn't just i just skipped the tournament but i saw there were some heavy hitters over there that came from out of town to play so i think they had a decent tournament they had a really good turnout it was pretty crowded over there but no good show i i enjoyed it i will be back that was my my second show but let's get into the really fun part of the show playing all the new games oh yeah i'm gonna start in no particular order except i'm gonna start with galactic tank force now we walked in let's Rip off the Band-Aid. Woo!
    31:33
    Woo! That's... I walk in, and Galactic Tank Force was in the free play area. It was not in the vendor area. And I know that there was a Pittsburgh location that had let them borrow it. And it hadn't showed up to the Pittsburgh location. I think they sent it to Pinbrew, and then it was going to go to the Pittsburgh location. So that's why it was in the free play area, I asked. now I saw it and I walked over and I said to myself this thing is beautiful I appreciate the marketing that they did on the machine but they should have showed more of the machine and less of the tank because the actual machine looking from you know the top inside the glass is really nice and that planet in the back was spectacular and I hadn't seen that you know I saw it in some videos but man that it was a beautiful machine don't you agree yeah the art i thought the art was amazing i'm a fan of you christopher franchi's art just sort of anyway you know i've yeah i've had the pleasure of you know being able to meet him i think last year tpf and at the coin taker tailgate party um and uh and he's a super cool guy and i love his art anyway but the game the game is is beautiful and all the little touches like the uh on the on the head those green lights that shine down that make it look like there's gauges uh you know where the speakers are and all that stuff i mean they really did a lot of aesthetic you know it's not just it's not just art and you know backlit through the the trans light they really addressed a whole lot of things in the game i loved how they did the the like built-in pin stadiums yes um i thought that was a super cool feature. I looked at that and I was like, oh, I want to do something like that with all of my games that have pin stadiums anyways. Move them off the magnet sticker wall thing and sort of put them on those posts.
    33:36
    There was a lot of stuff that immediately visually was very stunning. And just the light coming off of it was such a cool feature.
    33:47
    That was about the extent of my excitement though. And, and I know I will preface and I know it's the game's been getting some lumps with some other things, but you know, I'm definitely usually one, one of those people that, um, you know, I'm like, I don't know if I'd call myself like a spooky apologist, but you know, even I can take a lot and, and handle a lot of little imperfections. And every time I unbox a new game, uh, whether it's Stern or anybody else, I do it with an expectation that there's probably at least one thing in here that I'm going to have to adjust. And I just kind of know that going in. So I just want, before we start talking about GTF, or at least my thoughts on it, I just want to preface with, you know, I'm not someone that expects everything to work perfectly right out of the box. I know pinball is hard and there's things that you got to accept, but this was a bit of a special experience. Yeah. After the beauty of the machine was bestowed upon me, that's kind of where it ended. I didn't have one game where it worked, either machine. Both shooters were practically falling off. The UFO didn't work on the one. I got the locks up top lit, and it took me nine tries. maybe that's code to actually lock them but i could tell the post wasn't grabbing it and then i started a multi ball i had a huge machine i would have gc'd it so i hit the ball during the multi ball back up into the lock and it never came out and it just stuck there after i drained my balls and the ball search didn't clear it the targets were broke the shooter by the time i was done it was barely hanging on The ball bounced over my flippers ten times, at least, when it hit the tank.
    35:48
    There was something else wrong. Something on the left side. But it just didn't work. I don't know what else to say. I didn't have fun playing it. I'll give it another chance if I find a working version of the machine. But it was just bad. I don't know how else to say it. And there were two games. It's not like there was just one and, you know, something went wonky with one game. There were two brand new machines sitting next to each other, and they both had problems, and they had shared problems, and they had non-shared problems. Like the shooter rod on one was essentially, you know, just not working at all, and the other one worked a little bit better. Yeah, they tightened it up eventually. I saw there was a tech there. He kept, I mean, it was on and off, on and off all day. Oh, I know what the other thing was that the balls, not the ball save, but it's like the glorified center post. Oh, the puck. Yeah, the puck. Yeah, it didn't work on the one, but it worked on the other. Yeah, and it would work intermittently.
    36:53
    On one of them, it would sort of come up and down, but not when it was supposed to. You could tell it would like light up like it was supposed to be up and kind of go half up and then just drop and give up. But yeah, they were just, they were broken. They were broken games, and there were obvious code issues on, especially the ball. You'd hit it up in the lock shot, and then the game either couldn't sense it, and then the ball search, that wasn't part of its cycle to clear either. So you knew that, okay, this part of the game's not working, and then you'd wait for the ball search, and then the ball search was skipping over that part of the game too. So, yeah, they were really unplayable.
    37:43
    And besides the issue with the, which I know has been covered a lot in other podcasts, but those stand-up targets in front of the tank getting bent back, and then it just turned into, if you, so the whole point of the game became being avoiding the main bash target in the middle, because if you hit it, it was just instant death by, you know, like catapult. Balls were flying over your flippers directly into the drain, which almost was impressive in a way. Yeah, my other buddy kept doing it. Yeah, even if you take that out of it, which I hear they have a fix for, and that's great, but the game was majorly broken outside of that. And it wasn't like it was just dropped off and no one, like you said, there was a tech working on it on and off the whole time I was there. So, yeah, it's just, it's a, it is a broken game. Now I'm, I'm excited to see it get developed. I'm sure they're going to address it. It's not like it's, you know, these are the first few off the line and things like that. So I'm not saying the things I loved about it. I really loved, I think that the art is amazing. The, And how they did all those, the lighting was fantastic. Probably one of the best lit pinball machines that I can remember. But, you know, they got some stuff to work through. To work on. Yeah, I'll give them a second chance. And I did it with Spooky, and I came on my other show and said I now like Halloween. It's much more fun now that it's working. So we'll loop back around. I'll play it again, and we'll give them a second chance. Now, the good news is that's the only game I was disappointed in. Yeah. Let's talk about now you didn't get a chance to play Scooby. That's the one you didn't get to play. I did drive down to Helicon Brewery and I played Scooby and Godfather. The only thing I'm going to say about Scooby is I was playing it and I was laughing. And my buddy Justin looked over and said, you really like that game, don't you? And I said, yes, I really like it. This isn an insult I will say it long playing especially up top It was very floaty But anybody that ever said it didn feel like a wide body is totally wrong and Tim Lee is totally right. It feels like a wide body. It's a wide body. But that's okay because I didn't mind that. I liked it. I liked the game. It was fun. It shot well. The upper play field a little bit too slow for me, but I would own it. You know, we can talk about it again when you play it. I know you bought one. I would say if I had one on order after playing about 10 games on it, I wouldn't be upset. I'd be excited to get the game. It's just longer playing. It does feel like a wide body. But fun game. Great theme integration. I smiled the entire time. Yeah. And for me, I've heard the long playing comments a few times. But everyone I hear it from, I'm okay.
    40:44
    Yeah. No. you're a great player and I've known you a while, so you play a lot. You're a much better player than I am.
    40:53
    And you having an experience saying, yeah, it's a long playing game, but it was fun for you. You know, if it's a long playing game for you, the good news for me is it's just going to be, you know, a normal playing game. You don't give yourself enough credit. I've seen you play. You're a pretty good player yourself. But no, I don't mind long playing games. My Godzilla is very long playing because I have it set up at the manufacturer's recommended setting of the bubble between the lines. But yet everybody thinks I should set it up. So no, you'll enjoy it. I'm excited to get to play it. Now, I'm just going to go, like I said, in no particular order. So we played Pulp Fiction. Have you ever seen the movie? So Pulp Fiction, A, one of my favorite movies of all time. If I say I've seen it 50 times, I am way undercutting the actual number. It's not even close to exaggerating. Okay. So, yes, one of my favorite themes or my favorite movies of all time. Okay. So I saw it for the second time in 30 years. I hadn't seen it since it came out, and I didn't remember it at all. And I ordered one because Amy loves Pulp Fiction, and it's only the second game I've ever ordered without playing. Now, we won't dive into the movie analysis, but was I annoying when it came to my movie review? Because my wife clearly stated that I was super annoying. I wasn't crapping on the movie. There was just holes. And I'll just give one example for the listeners.
    42:33
    Uma Thurman's on the cover, but she was only in like the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game, or the movie not the game i'm like where did she go so i'm asking you all these questions i think you said you were going to turn me off and my wife turned me off as well she actually told me to quit talking about pulp fiction because we were driving and i'm like asking her all these different kinds of questions and i don't know i i guess it i can see why people like it it's just got some holes in the plot yeah i definitely had to shut off my brain after a little while Because, A, it's, you know, I think one of the greatest movies of all time. And beyond my own opinion, is objectively one of the greatest movies. You know, if you look at the list of greatest movies of all time, I'm sure Pulp Fiction is in the top 20, if not top 10. Sure. And so it was just the things that you, which is a very classic Tim Lee type of observation, the things that you found to pick apart in the movie were things like that. I'm getting all these text messages about the DVD case having Uma Thurman featured in it, but she's not in the whole – I'm going, what are you – she's the most attractive person in the whole movie, and the DVD case is there to solicit people interested. Would you want it to be like Samuel L. Jackson? I don't know. Well, in better news, going into Pin Brew, I got a tooth infection and I have to get a root canal. But I spent the ride down asking Amy why in The Walking Dead nobody ever had a toothache. I'm like, come on, Amy. They didn't have a toothache? Nobody ever got a tooth pulled in The Walking Dead? Like I said, the things that you're choosing to focus on here, I think you're missing the greater point of what the art form is meant to convey. But outside of your critique of the DVD cover art of Pulp Fiction, what did you think of the game?
    44:37
    One, I am glad I watched the movie before I played the game because I did like the movie. I was just messing with you and Amy, and I'm trying not to end relationships, marriages, and stuff over the movie review. I'm very self-aware, and I can be very overbearing. But the game was fantastic, and the theme integration was fantastic. And I honestly, you know, the movie, it's slow building up. So the video clips not being there didn't bother me because I really enjoyed just the sounds. Like, the theme integration was spot on and perfect. And I wouldn't have known that had I not watched the movie. So the theme integration was fantastic.
    45:20
    Yeah, I didn't miss, and I'm a huge fan of the movie. I didn't miss the video you know a lack of video clips I thought the integration was amazing the call outs how that was synchronized up and this is the earliest the codes ever going to touch it I thought the game it played great it shot great the mechs were impressive the theme integration was great the music was super good the sound quality was good which is you know a thing for me that you know I have We've talked about it all the time, about how I'm always having to buy new speakers for all my games.
    45:57
    It looked nice. It was great. I know they went for a more standard 80s style of art, but it fit and it was beautiful. The shots, like you said, it flowed really well, really well. The locks on the machine were fantastic. Even the lock on the right, it wasn't a multi-ball lock. It was just that long bowling alley, narrow lock. It was great. The spinner sounded pretty cool. I know some people complained about it. I liked the spinner. Just overall, it was my favorite game there. Yeah, I have no complaints. I can't find a single thing that I didn't enjoy about playing that game. And I probably got to play it. And this was the great thing about Pinbrew. I'm sure I played that game close to 20 times throughout the two days I was there. Yeah, it was a great game. I think I was at about 25. because I went back and forth between that and Bond. Amy was probably 50. Every time I looked, Amy was standing in line to play Bond. And it wasn't a long line. Like I said, that one probably had two or three people deep. The rest had zero to one. Just a phenomenal game. I didn't talk to Mark Ritchie. He was there. I didn't get a chance to talk to him. I told Butch Peel, I was like, this thing is perfect. I didn't think I would ever like a single-level game, but man, it is a great game. I am so glad I bought it. It's a winner. I was talking with Chris and Melissa over at Cointaker, and Chris just kind of looked at me, sort of shocked that I haven't already ordered it. Yeah. And he looked at me and said, oh, what did you think of Pulp Fiction? And I went, you know I'm going to end up getting one. It's like, just let me get it. I have a few other games on order. I'll start feeling a little bit too nervous if I have, you know, They'd probably all show up on the same day knowing my luck and blow up my credit card. But, yeah, I'm pretty positive that I will be ordering a Pulp Fiction here this year. I will give you four grand for your Gran Torino Lebowski version to put towards that Pulp Fiction.
    48:09
    No way. That big Lebowski, A, it's holding up like a champ, and B, now that it's been on this podcast, it's famous. The good thing is now that that's happened to it, I'll probably never be able to sell it just because I'll always have to list that I dropped it down. I mean, I would never try and sell a game like that and not fully disclose. And those games are so much. So, you know, and the good news is I love that game and so glad I ended up with it. And if it's the game that I'm going to have to stick with forever, then that's just fine with me.
    48:45
    And I'd buy it from you anyways. I don't care that you dropped it down the steps as long as it works the other thing I want to point out on Pulp Fiction is the coin door was a thing of beauty I kept staring at it looking at a beautiful woman I'm like wow this thing is amazing looking so I really just liked the look of it A plus I think it was the best game there best in show in my opinion I give it an A plus I would give it best in show, except for I really loved the Foo Fighters Premium. Okay. I thought that game was, and maybe that's the next one we talk about. Yeah, let's jump right into that one. But definitely Pulp Fiction A+, and for me also, Foo Fighters, also A+. I mean, my two favorite games recently or that have come out in the past however many years is Deadpool and Godzilla. And I feel like Foo Fighters is a weird love child of those two games in a way. I'm sure people are listening to this going like, yeah, I don't see it. But for me, that's what I kind of felt, just the flow and the shots. And I also love the music and the theme. And I have one on order, full disclosure.
    50:10
    But for me, that game, it was one when I was playing it at the show, I knew, I'm like, oh, I'm really, really going to love playing this game for a very, very long time. So, yeah, that one for me was also a big hit. Yeah, that S ramp, I don't know what you call it, the skill shot all the way on the left where it kind of does the S up into the it goes left and then right and then comes back down and feeds that top flipper i don't know what that shot's called but it was phenomenal i kept comboing the game i had like a a seven way combo and i never combo anything more than two or three times the flow on the game is spectacular you can get a feel for the shots i think that the upper play field is is a really worth it now Now, I think anybody that bought the Pro is going to be super, super happy, and I'll probably end up buying the Pro. But the upper playfields are hit or miss for me. Now, Amy got up there and did like the inner and outer loop like six times in a row. I don't know if there's a combo in the top, but I couldn't hit the inside shot. There was like an inside shot that goes through the back. I couldn't hit it, but she just kept ripping that. I'm like, holy cow. It's fun. you can leave it go and you can you know you could just use it like the pro where it just loops around you can hit the shot the upper play field was fun what i kept messing up is the dead post i forgot about that thing 50 of the time and by the time i realized it was there the post had come up and the ball was sitting on it i think that's something you'll have to get used to once it's in the house but the game another a plus i really i really like that one as well there now this is classic tim lee not i can't make decisions when i buy a pinball machine i think about it for weeks which is crazy that i bought a pulp fiction but i bought it for amy like so somebody wheeled in a pro a foo fighters pro it wasn't a vendor some dude just wheeled in his pro in a box said call dan 7200 and i'm thinking msrp is like seven you know you can get it street price it's 66 67 so i'm like i might buy this so i walk around and i'm thinking well if i buy it from this guy would his uh would his distributor you know help me out if something happened so i took a walk and i came back 15 minutes later and they were wheeling it out somebody bought it so i i wish i would have bought it i'm working on one i'm working on a pro i'm trying to trade my stranger things towards a pro or a maiden pro but back to foo fighters and the video i loved like that you picked the city and there's like a little adventure i like that that's probably better than any music pin out there just because it's doing something besides just playing music yeah yeah i'm i'm a i like the band a lot um yeah they're good big yeah foo fighters phase uh you a few years back and when the game when it was sort of rumored to come out and that it was going to be jack danger's game i remember thinking and talking to my my son and my buddy nick about it and and saying you know i bet that there it's not going to be a standard band code like you're on a tour you're in a concert you're assembling the you know instruments and all that stuff and and i've never really wanted to own a music pin i i've never never bought one all the games i've ever got um nothing's really kind of piqued my interest enough to do it and i said you know i bet i bet there's a chance that it's going to be like an adventure and and it's just you know foo fighters is like the soundtrack to it it's not you know the the reason isn't the music it's just the music is playing and you're doing something else and that turned out to be what it is yeah There's nothing I don't like about that game. I think the code, the shots, I can almost taste the dopamine because of the flow. It just goes from ramp to ramp, and it's just that kinetic feeling. It just feels so good to play, and that's just a few games in. I'm sure once you get dialed in on it and learn all the timing and everything, it's going to be a winner. You know, like, and for me, the way that Deadpool, I feel when I play that and Godzilla, the way I feel when I play that. And for me too, stranger things is like that too, you know, hitting those shots and it's just, it feels so good when you play it. Like there's games I have that I play and they're a challenge and it's, you know, like a Mandalorian. It's a lot of stop, you know, trapping up, you know, taking my shots. And then there's games like Deadpool I play where I'm just, I'm never trapping the ball. It's just always going, and the feeling I get from playing those types of games is, you know, I think why I'm into the hobby as much as I am, and I think Foo Fighters fits in that category. Yeah, yeah. Very well done, Jack and the Stern team. Just, I don't know. There's not a thing I didn't like about it. The only thing I didn't like about it was my own fault because I kept forgetting to use the dead post. You could have had one. Oh, I wanted to say real quick. on the dead post thing i know why uh for me i have i've had no trouble with the dead post and i know why you do have trouble with it it's because i death save on my games okay i don't all the time and so for me it's an active i have to think about not doing it so okay when i'm you know i'm not like tempted to but if i'm playing on location or a tournament or things i have an instinct to try and just make that move, even though the ball's coming from the other way in this thing. And I know you don't. So I guarantee that's part of the psychology. And for me, I think from the first time I did it, I was like, oh, yeah, this is just a natural extension.
    56:21
    But, yeah, I think I'm very happy I ordered the premium. But I totally do agree with you that if you got the pro,
    56:29
    it's still a fantastic way to go. Yeah, I probably put 25 games on the pro and the premium each individually. The last game I played on the premium, it went down the left out lane, and I saw it hit the light, and I still thought the ball was going to kick out the trough and shoot up like it was a ball save. And I'm like, oh, you idiot, Tim. But no, no, phenomenal game. But here comes the next life lesson. This is going to be a short one. This is not for Eric. If you are at a show and you're a good player, congratulations. You're a good player. There is no need to play a half-hour game on a machine where people who may not be good players are waiting in line behind you to play.
    57:15
    And there's just – I don't know how to say it, but there's no need. I watched a guy play like a 40-minute game on Pulp Fiction, and the line kept growing behind him. And I knew two people that were just dying to play the game. And I'm like, congrats, maybe you'll get a pinball trophy. And, you know, hey, I'm good at pinball. Everybody look at me. And I'm better than the guy. I could have blown the guy out of the water. But when I was on Foo Fighters, I played one really long ball. And I peeked behind me and I got like seventh on the board. I knew I was at seventh. And I peeked behind me and there was four or five people that walked up or waiting to play. I drained the ball and walked away. Amy's like, why did you do that? I was like, because they want to play. You know, I'm just like, I'm going to go give stickers to these folks. I'm like, put a, pat them on the back. It says, I'm good at pinball. Come watch me. I was like, oh, I just stopped people. But, so that's Tim Lee's life lesson. That's my rant. If you're good, go play in the tournament and try to beat somebody that's as good as you. And don't hold up every, I'm not saying 30 seconds and walk away. get a feel for the game but 40 minutes was quite ridiculous so ran over um right so let's go on to godfather i'll give you my assessment of godfather i thought that godfather shot closer to his stern than any machine i've played from jjp the flippers were great i kind of like the shots i like the feel it had a couple of issues nothing like galactic tank force but it had a couple of issues they had to work on. It played well. It flowed well. It shot well. I thought this theme integration was very poor. It felt like a kiddie version of Godfather with their Jersey Jack sound. It didn't bother me. I'm all about gameplay. I know you like the theme integration and the sound more than me. It didn't sound bad. I just didn't like the sounds it was making. I think if I were a Godfather fan, which I'm not, I would have been disappointed. in the theme integration, but I thought it shot well. It was probably not one I'll ever own just for the price. I feel the same way I did about Toy Story. Fun game. I think it's going to come down in the market. It did not have a long line like the other games. My buddy Justin getting one and I excited to play it I enjoyed it The only game I was really disappointed in was GTF but I think it another Jersey Jack where I expected a Wonka I expected a Wizard of Oz, and I just got, I don't know, something that was slightly overpriced. Yeah, I think the theme integration was... I mean, I don't think there... other than the art on the play field, there really wasn't any that I could tell. you know it seemed like it was like Mafia the pinball machine and then they you know kind of plastered some you know the sculpts didn't connect with any of the characters in the movie which I think is fine but I think they could have just they could have saved a bunch of money on licensing and just called it you know Mafia the pinball machine but yeah I 100% agree with your assessment of the play I think it was the most the flippers felt the best of ever it was the most stern feeling JJP I've ever played which I consider that to be a compliment and an improvement but this is the thing and this is kind of my take on it and we've talked about this too is you know JJPs were so special when the difference the gap between you know the world under glass and everything that they provided when they first came out their first few games was so different. They were so far advanced of what Stern or anyone else was doing, and that was magical and exciting, right? Well, that gap has really closed. And, you know, playing, you know, Foo Fighters Premium and then walking over to Godfather and playing that, I thought Godfather, I really, it was the best JJP game I think I've ever played from you personally. Very fun. And walking over, but, you know, playing these other great games and then playing that, I was like, yeah, you know, this is good. But it's definitely, you know, I don't think I would value it more than, you know, definitely a Stern premium. And I don't even know if I would go that far. So just like where it's priced to what it is, is kind of like something that I'm not even close to being in the market for anyway. But that being said, I did like it. I think the art was impressive when I sort of separate it from what the theme is. I think it's a challenging theme to make a pinball machine just out of anyway. Yeah. Just because there's really no humor in that movie. I think the best games incorporate humor. Even Pulp Fiction, it's a serious, dramatic movie, and there's a lot of serious stuff that happens in it. But there's a lot of humor in that movie, too, and there's a lot of little funny parts and scenes and clips. But Godfather's got none of that. Yeah. So, yeah, I thought it was a really good game, best JJP game I think I played, but it wasn't in the sort of top echelon or the new class of games that came out this year. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I like you're right. I just after, you know, I played Foo Fighters. You can get one for ninety five hundred if you look or or less. And I just, you know, compared to that, if it were nine thousand, I'd be talking about how I might want one. But a really good friend of mine bought one. I'm excited. My wife didn't really like it at all, but I liked it. I just again, Toy Story, I really enjoyed. It's just I think they're in that eight, nine thousand dollar range. So let's hop over to a game that's a real bargain. If you have the P3 system, that's Final Resistance. Now, I got to play this before Justin left for Pimbro. I went over and I spent a good hour and a half on it. I will say that I really enjoyed it. I love the music. I love the lights. I love that non-transformers robot or spaceship, whatever that was, shooting the ball out.
    63:59
    Let me ask you, is it TNA 2.0? You had a TNA. I have a TNA. I have a TNA CE that I love. I love Scott Denise's designs. I love the music. I love the – but it's like obviously it's the same, which I think is great. And, you know, maybe they can't call it TNA because, you know, Spooky makes the first one. Yeah. I think it's fine. I mean, to me, it feels so much like a sequel. And that's not a negative at all. But I mean, I played it. I mean, I probably played it 10 times. Mostly Justin's daughter and I played who destroyed me. I think if I played her 10 times, I think she'd beat me nine out of the 10. She's pretty good. Yeah, she was really good. But I thought it was a great game. And really, the first time a serious thought of owning a P3 has ever entered my mind was playing Final Resistance at Pinbrook. Yeah, and that locked Drew in from the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. He played Final Resistance, and he purchased a P3 from our buddy Justin. I will say that Weird Al has flow, but Weird Al is a mech game. It's got the cool toys. It's got the hamster wheel and that magnet ramp on the side and the shot up top with the figure eight. And it's got all kinds of diverters and magnets. Final Resistance is a flow monster. It's mean. It is meant to be that way. That's how they designed it. It's the complete opposite of Weird Al and it's perfect for the platform because you can pull Weird Al out and you can put Final Resistance in. And it's like driving down the highway in a motorcycle listening to loud music with no helmet and your hair flying back. It was just – it was fun. I really, really, really enjoyed it. I'll tell a story. Steven Silver is a good friend of mine from Multimorphic. And that guy is like a fortress. He gives no information to me whatsoever, and we're really good friends because he takes his job serious. and I said to him one day I said man you guys should bring Scott Denise on board like serious and he's like what I'm like yeah you need to just him marketing his game and what he brings to the table and he's not spooky anymore and this is I think was after you and I talked about your TNA I'm like man that's a that's a guy that people will be drawn to for games he makes and like two weeks later uh they announced the Scott Denise partnership which was well in the works Stephen never mentioned it nothing and as he should because you know in my company i don't tell anybody anything and so it's funny i sent him a text i said hey glad you listened to my advice and he's like hey butthead he's like that's like the game you know it's been in the word like they've been working on it forever my idea to hire scott denisi so i'm just i'm going with it yeah but your idea time traveled you know 18 months yeah yeah glad you went back in time so no Just a fun game.
    67:11
    Multimorphic and Scott, great game. It was towards the top, and I'm going to buy that one. I've told Justin I'm going to get that one.
    67:20
    I got all these games in flight. I just got to figure out when I'm going to order it. Now, I'm going to save one game for last. So let's jump over to Bond 60. Now, you and I had the luxury of playing Bond 60 at a private residence. I invited you as my date The best date I've ever been on Yes, yes, I would do I felt weird, a guy invited me over A friend, he's a friend He invited me over for the first time It was a big step in our relationship But I'm like, can I bring a friend? And he's like, yeah, sure He's a nice guy So, I won't say names But the guy had a phenomenal game room Every game was modded They were great games And around the games, he had kind of like a shrine of like Funko Pops or Pop Funkos or like different paraphernalia for the games. But he had a Bond 60. So I got to play it there and I played it with the VIP pass. I didn't play it much during the show unless it was open and it was rarely open. But man, I found myself on the way home from Pinbrew thinking, I wonder if I could find somebody to sell me one of these for $15,000 because I liked it that much. Yeah, that left shot that goes that like long figure eight and that right orbit that comes back down through the middle and trying to get all those spinners going like it was phenomenal. I think Justin was a skeptic. And when I showed up to Pimbrew, he's like, man, you're right. That game's not worth twenty thousand dollars. But it's so fun. Keith Elwin hats off. Another A plus plus stern. shame on you if the rumor you know for charging that much i don't know the details but if the rumors are true that we're going to see that play field again someday i don't care if it's the golden girls bugs bunny like pulp fiction 2 like i don't care what the play field is if it's under 10 grand i'm buying it yeah it was that fun i've told you what why what i hope it is i hope it gets rerun the same playfield as Archer. That is my dream. I know it's not going to happen. But that is my dream is that that playfield gets rerun. I'm with you. If it gets rerun as just like Crayola, it's just colors and inserts. I don't really care what the theme is. I love that game. And hopefully it comes out in a way that's going to be more accessible. Because the realities of the economics of it and stuff like that. I thought it was pretty amazing that we even saw it at that show.
    70:05
    And I don't think you're just going to find many out in the wild. And if anyone can get a chance to play it, try and do it. But yeah, it's definitely a winner. Yeah, that was Troy from Tilt Amusements. I actually walked over and thanked him for bringing it because after we played it at the private residence, I thought nobody's ever going to get to experience this. And that's like the second or third show he's brought it to. And I know Zach brought one to the Louisville show. So thank you to those distributors for just bringing it out because it really was fantastic. I really was trying to figure out, I could sell this, I could sell that. I just got to find one. If there's a distributor that's willing to sell me one at like $15,500, rumor is that's kind of the lowest you're going to get one. Let me know because I rather enjoyed it. And guess what I did? I was playing it, and I had an 11,000 – on one ball, I flipped it. I had an 11,000-point ball, and then it tilted because I was doing that shake thing like I did at Helicon. And it just tilted out of the blue, and I'm like, ah! In my head, I was going to get the number one score on the leaderboard, but I don't think it's the nicest-looking cabinet. it it's not ugly it looks better in person but the lights when that spinner goes and that back right bond goes it's just i enjoyed it i don't i enjoyed every part of it except for those screws i kept looking at those screws those ugly screws in the lcd screen that's the only thing wrong with it everything else it's funny because perfect ever since you mentioned that now it's all icy And I just want to – and it's not that – I mean, you can buy black screws, but you can anodize. It's really not – you can get some 9-volt batteries and some baking soda and distilled water, and you can make those a multitude of colors, really. But that's all I keep thinking when I see it now. Damn screw. Is your hatred for the silver screws, and they should be just black. Yeah, but the gameplay made up for it. Yeah, it's a great game. Okay, one last game before we wrap it up. I saved this one for last because this is the game I didn't expect to like.
    72:24
    I don't think it was better than Bond 60. I don't think it was better than Foo Fighters or Pulp Fiction. But it's a game I liked that a lot of people have been crapping on. And my wife absolutely loved it. She went between Pulp Fiction and this game. And that is Queen. I rather enjoyed Queen the sound was good I actually liked the very basic cabinet art we'll discuss the back glass I thought the game itself and the play field was beautiful the lit back box and the lit art plates were phenomenal I thought the game, one had a little bit of a weak flipper but the other one, and they must have fixed that because the next day it wasn't weak so but the the one that was all you know lit up and the the music was roaring it sounded great it played really well i really liked it do i think it was worth twelve thousand dollars no do i think my wife the lovely amy lee is going to force me into buying one probably the full court press is on but i just rather enjoyed it like i said those other games were more fun, but that was the surprise of the show to me. Now, did you like Queen? I did. You know what? I agree with you. It was a game that I did not have high expectations of at all. And consider it, you know, before I played it, as kind of like an also-ran in this class of new games that came out. But I 100% agree with your assessment of it. I would not put it above Bond 60 or Foo Fighters or Pulp Fiction but I would put it it's so different than Final Resistance it's almost like it's a different kind of category but I if I had to pick a game I would definitely place it above Godfather and I would place it way above Galactic Tank Force I think even if they fix the issues from a gameplay standpoint I was shocked of how well it played and the little surprises in it when I looked at the pictures and videos online when it first was released I remember looking at it and going like okay good this is a game I'm never really going to have to think about and it's not one that I'm really in the market for I like Queen music but I'm not a big enough fan I think to jump in on it but you're saying $12,000 that seems like a lot hey you can get one for cheaper than that You don't have to get the glory flush. And B, how much is Amy Lee's happiness worth? Damn late, $12,000. That's a bargain for you, my friend, to secure. You're lucky enough to have a supportive wife that also enjoys pinball. I think you need to do whatever you can. So if she's listening to this, she needs to know I'm 110% in support of you getting that game for her. Yeah, and she loves Queen. She always has. We listen to Queen a lot. I don't dislike them. It's kind of like Rush. I don't mind when they come on. I listen to them. Yeah, but maybe, man. Her eyes lit up, and I could just tell. I just knew. I haven't seen her react to a game like that since Halloween, and she still plays Halloween like crazy. We'll probably have to get it for her, but that's all I'm going to say with that. Queen was a winner. I don't care what anybody said. That was the surprise of the show for me. And we're out of time, but I've got to bring up one last quick thing.
    76:03
    Ben Affleck is not a good Batman. Oh, my gosh. So that might be the only thing you've ever said to me that bothered me since I've known you for these couple of years, that you said Ben Affleck was a good Batman. I was – I don't know.
    76:23
    We called him fat. You said he was a fat Batman. I'm telling you, that one – I'm going to have to go look at the picture. The first time I ever saw him, he just looked like it was me in a Batsuit. But he made a good Bruce Wayne. He looked in much better shape, obviously, without the Batsuit on. Maybe it was a body double. But I'm not going to argue with it because I do appreciate you as a friend. And my life lesson to you – this is a rip on myself. Do what all my other good friends do. When I get off on these Pulp Fiction rants and so forth, just turn me off. they all tell me, all my good friends, you've come to this point where you're a good enough friend where you can just say, Tim, stop talking. Amy does it on a weekly basis. She told me on the way down to Pimber, she's like, would you shut up? Like, so just turn me off. But I don't think we're ever, I will agree that Pulp Fiction was a good movie.
    77:15
    I enjoyed it. But I will never agree that Ben Affleck is a good Batman. I tell my kids, friends don't let friends watch Ben Affleck as Batman. so yeah this is this is well we don't need to belabor because this has nothing to do with pinball yet anyway um now i do i i don't think ben affleck's batman were in good movies although the the like the recuts the director cut i i liked a lot better than the original of like justice league and stuff but ben affleck as batman irrespective of the movie that he's in I thought he was great and was huge and was like a brawler and very believable kick and butt. You know, the Robert Pattinson, the Twilight Batman, you know, that guy weighs like 120 pounds soaking wet. And he's out there taking on, you know, six gang members at a time, which I love. I really did enjoy the movie, but he was completely unbelievable as Batman. That's all I got to say about that. Ben Affleck, he was a good Batman, but was not in good Batman movies. I'll say that. Yeah. Well, Christian Bell is my favorite. But anyways, we're going to end the show, man. I appreciate you. I really do.
    78:30
    Thanks for coming on. We'll have you on again next time something unfortunate happens to you. Glad you got the Lebowski back together. Can we please not have it be me drop the most expensive, precious things that I have?
    78:46
    Let me just – if we can make my life lessons about bad decisions instead of accidents, I'm fine with that. We'll try and keep it in that vein next time. All right. Well, hey, man. Thanks for exposing me yet again to the public for ridicule. It's been fun. All right, dude. Well, happy flipping. Happy flipping. Who wants beer? We want beer. Who wants beer? We want beer.
    79:14
    Let's go beer drinking, beer drinking. All night beer drinking, beer drinking. We'll have lots of fun, drinking beer with everyone.
    79:29
    Let's go beer, drinking beer again. All night beer, drinking beer again. We'll have lots of fun, drinking beer with everyone.