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Bobby King Interview

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·32m 7s·held·Sep 11, 2014
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Bobby King details The The Addams Family licensing saga and Farsight's upcoming Kickstarter, product roadmap.

Summary

Bobby King from Farsight Studios discusses the lengthy licensing process for bringing The The The Addams Family to Pinball Arcade, detailing five-to-six years of negotiations with Paramount, the Addams Foundation, and Raul Julia's estate. The Kickstarter is planned for September 12, 2014, with a 30-day campaign, and the table is expected in early 2015 as part of Season 4. King also reveals progress on Data East and Sega emulation, upcoming individual app releases with online multiplayer, and hints at additional Sony-licensed tables beyond Dracula.

Key Claims

  • The The The Addams Family licensing process has been in research phase for five to six years, beginning during the Williams Collection era before Pinball Arcade existed.

    high confidence · Bobby King stated this directly when asked how long The The Addams Family had been on Farsight's radar.

  • Paramount's uncertainty about ownership of Addams Foundation rights was the primary blocker, requiring legal department review of when rights reverted.

    high confidence · Bobby King explained Paramount went to higher-ups in legal department due to ambiguity about Addams Foundation rights ownership.

  • Farsight negotiated a bulk licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment for multiple properties including Dracula and an unannounced licensed table that has never been done as a pinball table.

    high confidence · Bobby King stated: 'they were basically getting a bulk deal, I guess you could say, from Sony Pictures Entertainment for several properties.'

  • The Addams Family Kickstarter will launch September 12, 2014, run for 30 days until October 12, with the table expected to release in early 2015 as part of Season 4.

    high confidence · Bobby King gave specific dates: 'our plan is to launch it on the date that Dracula is released on mobile, and that is September 12th, a Friday.'

  • Farsight is actively working on Data East and Sega table emulation with licenses still being negotiated, and emulation is already in progress.

    high confidence · Bobby King stated: 'we are still negotiating some licenses. Sure. But we are actively looking to get more Data East and Sega tables' and 'the emulation for that already in the works.'

  • Black Knight and Gorgar emulation has been completed but there are technical issues preventing release; Gorgar is working well but Black Knight has unresolved issues.

    high confidence · Bobby King acknowledged emulation was finished a year ago but technical issues remain, particularly with Black Knight.

  • Farsight will release individual free-to-play apps for Twilight Zone Pinball and Star Trek: The Next Generation Pinball with online head-to-head multiplayer arriving before year-end 2014.

Notable Quotes

  • “this goes back, oh, I don't know, five years? Maybe six years of looking into what the licenses would be and hearing all the horror stories of the other people who tried to get all the licenses that they needed.”

    Bobby King @ ~5:30 — Establishes the extraordinary length and complexity of Addams Family licensing process.

  • “The person at Paramount who controlled licensing this before, he went to the higher-ups of the legal department, and there was a lot of ambiguity as to when and how the rights reverted in licensing terms.”

    Bobby King @ ~8:00 — Reveals the core technical/legal obstacle that delayed Addams Family acquisition.

  • “they were basically getting a bulk deal, I guess you could say, from Sony Pictures Entertainment for several properties. And actually, one of the licenses we got in this bulk deal is a table, is a license that hasn't been done at the pinball table.”

    Bobby King @ ~35:00 — Teases an unannounced Sony-licensed pinball table never made before, creating speculation opportunity.

  • “our plan is to launch it on the date that Dracula is released on mobile, and that is September 12th, a Friday... and so it would end right around October 12th, which is a Sunday, I think.”

    Bobby King @ ~15:00 — Provides specific Kickstarter launch and duration details.

  • “I want the Simpsons. The Simpsons pinball party?... I think that's what, like, that or Lord of the Rings. One of those two is what everybody always is going to. Indiana Jones, too.”

    Bobby King @ ~65:00 — Reveals Farsight's top licensing priorities and aspirations for future tables.

  • “pretty shortly here we're going to release some individual apps Twilight Zone Pinball, Star Star Trek: The Next Generation Pinball that are just that one table, and it's going to be free-to-play with tokens in it.”

    Bobby King @ ~40:00 — Announces new standalone app strategy with free-to-play model for individual tables.

  • “It's still on the list of things I want to do. And I don't know. I'll get to it eventually. It's just whenever I do get to it, we work on it for a little bit, and then we come into some sort of roadblock.”

Entities

Bobby KingpersonFarsight StudioscompanyPinball ArcadeproductThe Addams FamilygameParamount PicturescompanyAddams FoundationorganizationSony Pictures EntertainmentcompanyDraculagame

Signals

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Addams Family licensing required coordination of Paramount, Addams Foundation, and Raul Julia's estate, with primary blocker being Paramount's legal uncertainty over rights reversion timelines.

    high · Bobby King detailed how Paramount needed to consult legal department about when rights reverted and what they actually owned, causing multi-year delays despite Foundation cooperation since day one.

  • ?

    business_signal: Farsight negotiated bulk licensing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment covering multiple properties at once, indicating shift toward package deals rather than per-title negotiations.

    high · Bobby King stated Sony provided 'bulk deal' covering Dracula and multiple unannounced properties; he noted this is logistically superior but licensors hesitant; mentions Sony deal includes 'a license that hasn't been done at the pinball table.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Addams Family Kickstarter planned for September 12, 2014, 30-day campaign, with table release targeted for early 2015 as part of Season 4.

    high · Bobby King: 'our plan is to launch it on the date that Dracula is released on mobile, and that is September 12th, a Friday' with end date 'right around October 12th.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Farsight considering making Addams Family Gold Edition a Kickstarter-exclusive limited reward, with public release delayed by one year or potentially indefinite.

    medium · Bobby King: 'making it a limited edition, like the real gold edition is, and having it be a Kickstarter reward' with 'only so many of them out there' and 'a question mark' on eventual public release.

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.096

0:00
Look everyone, we have guests! Welcome back! Show time! Spanning the globe, this is the Blockade Podcast. Or at least I should say a miniature version of it. We've got a special podcast here today. It's just myself, Shuckertrap, and Jeff with us today. Hello. We are going to be speaking to Bobby King about all things The Atomos Family Kickstarter related, plus maybe a few other things if we get the time to squeeze it in. Before we get there, though, I wanted to say that we have a new friend of the blockade, and that is Wizard Amusement. You're like, who is Wizard Amusement? Wizard Amusement, they have over 50 specific custom ball shooter rod mods. So, if you have a pinball machine, and instead of just having that boring silver knob that you can pull, say, on Scared Stiff, he'll make a custom eyeball that looks really cool and creepy on the actual machine, and that becomes your new rod pull. He's got over 50 of them for various pinball machines. Just go to wizardamusement.com. If you mention the blockade, you'll get 10% off. And just to tease it, We're going to be running a contest in the next podcast or two where we will actually be giving away a custom Ball Rod shooter. So stay tuned for those. Just wanted to tease that. Anyway, on with the show. We're going to be welcoming to the podcast right now Bobby King. Hey, how's it going? We're doing well. How about yourself? We been busy? Yeah, we're always busy over here.
1:49
Not just pinball, but we've got a couple other games we're working on. It's been really busy. A couple.
1:56
Yep, a couple. Wow. Expanding. Wonderful. Hey, we specifically wanted to talk to you today because, as we all know, the announcement was made that Adam's Family will be your next Kickstarter. And as we've been hearing about this or wanting it for probably since the inception of Pinball Arcade, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to find out all the pure hell or shenanigans that it took to finally bring this to the masses.

high confidence · Bobby King stated: 'we're going to release some individual apps Twilight Zone Pinball, Star Star Trek: The Next Generation Pinball that are just that one table, and it's going to be free-to-play with tokens in it.'

  • Farsight is considering making the The The Addams Family Gold a limited Kickstarter exclusive reward, with eventual public release either after a year or potentially never.

    medium confidence · Bobby King said: 'right now we're kicking around the idea of making it a limited edition, like the real gold edition is, and having it be a Kickstarter reward.'

  • Flipper physics improvements including tap passes remain on the development roadmap but face technical constraints with the current 60Hz physics update rate.

    high confidence · Bobby King acknowledged: 'It's still on the list of things I want to do' but explained roadblocks related to physics update rates limiting implementation.

  • Farsight plans to improve Season 1 and 2 tables with updated camera technology and selective gameplay tuning, with plans to train additional staff for efficiency.

    high confidence · Bobby King stated: 'we are going to be updating. I know that just yesterday we were talking about updating some of the camera technology in some of the older tables.'

    • Bobby King @ ~50:00 — Candidly acknowledges technical constraints limiting flipper physics improvements.

  • “I thought we took care of the sound issue, and I didn't know the leaderboards were down at all.”

    Bobby King @ ~58:00 — Reveals Farsight was unaware of persistent PS4 sound quality and leaderboard issues, resulting in live bug reports.

    • Twilight Zone
    game
    Star Trek: The Next Generationgame
    Josh Sharpeperson
    Orblesproduct
    Normanperson
    Williamscompany
    Ballycompany
    Raul Julia's estateentity
    BlahCade Podcastorganization
    Wizard Amusementcompany
    The Simpsons Pinball Partygame
    Lord of the Ringsgame

    product_concern: PS4 version of Pinball Arcade experiencing persistent sound quality issues and friend leaderboard outage lasting multiple months, despite claimed fixes.

    high · Interview revealed PS4 sound samples still lower quality than other platforms even after patch, and friend leaderboards completely non-functional for months; Bobby King was unaware of both issues.

  • ?

    machine_intel: Data East and Sega table emulation actively in development with licensing negotiations ongoing; Black Knight and Gorgar emulation completed but facing technical release blockers.

    high · Bobby King: 'we are actively looking to get more Data East and Sega tables' with 'emulation for that already in the works' but acknowledged technical issue preventing Black Knight release.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Farsight shifting to individual standalone free-to-play apps for single tables (Twilight Zone, Star Trek TNG) as testbed for online multiplayer before integrating into main Pinball Arcade.

    high · Bobby King: 'we're going to release some individual apps Twilight Zone Pinball, Star Trek Next Generation Pinball' with 'free-to-play with tokens' and online multiplayer 'before the end of the year.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Farsight testing artificial difficulty system through Orbles cross-promotion, adjusting gravity/table slope rather than changing individual table settings or outlane configurations.

    high · Bobby King explained Orbles crossover provides custom pinball with 'different gravity' that 'tilts the table up more' and 'give you different slopes of the table' without tweaking other settings.

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Flipper physics improvements including tap passes remain roadblocked by 60Hz physics update rate constraint; techniques either become too common or impossible, requiring physics engine upgrade.

    high · Bobby King: 'whenever I do get to it, we work on it for a little bit, and then we come into some sort of roadblock... only so much you can do in a 60th of a second.'

  • ?

    product_improvement: Farsight committing to updating Season 1 and 2 tables with improved camera technology and selective gameplay tuning, learning from Season 3 refinements.

    high · Bobby King: 'we are going to be updating... updating some of the camera technology in some of the older tables' and 'when it comes to tuning it's kind of tricky' but committed to incremental improvements.

  • ?

    content_signal: Farsight increasing Kickstarter campaign communication and post-campaign transparency following criticism of limited updates during T2 campaign.

    high · Bobby King acknowledged 'we're very aware that that happened' regarding sparse T2 updates and committed to 'more updates during the Kickstarter campaign itself, but afterwards we'll keep you guys in the loop.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Farsight expanding development team post-T2 campaign and training additional gameplay tuning staff to increase production efficiency.

    medium · Bobby King stated 'we've got a little bit bigger staff now' and 'the plan is to train up a couple more people moving forward to help me... be more efficient.'

    • 2:27
    So let me, I'll just start off by asking, how long has Adam's family been on Farsight's radar for actually wanting to get it in the game? Has this been a day one thing, or did it take a little while, you know, once you got the game up and running? No, this was long before Pinball Arcade, actually. So back when we had the Williams Collection, we were looking at a Bally Collection. Yeah. And so we started doing the research into all the different license tables that it would take to do the collection that we wanted to do. So this goes back, oh, I don't know, five years? Oh, wow. Maybe six years of looking into what the licenses would be and hearing all the horror stories of the other people who tried to get all the licenses that they needed.
    3:08
    So, yeah, and I haven't been actively working on this probably for three years. I know when I talked to you probably a year and a half ago the main obstacle you had mentioned was just plain getting anybody to talk to you guys about what the license involves I think this was around the same time as Twilight Zone was about to be kickstarted what was different about this particular license as opposed to a Twilight Zone or a Star Trek I think the big difference is that The person at Paramount who controlled licensing this before, he went to the higher-ups of the legal department, and there was a lot of ambiguity as to when and how the rights reverted in licensing terms. They own the rights to the movie itself, but they weren't comfortable licensing the table to us because they didn't think they owned the Adams Foundation rights, which was true. So then they had to go back and figure out, so when did the rights reverted? What do they own? What's in this table? Are we actually licensing anything that is useful? So they kept backburnering it, their paramount, and it took forever to get an answer of what they would license. So basically all we're licensing from them is what we think is being used from the movie.
    4:34
    So was your entire dealing with the licensing, Did it wind up being exclusive with Paramount, or did you wind up having to also approach other parties like the Adams Foundation? Well, yeah, I had a good relationship with the Adams Foundation from when I started talking originally. This was like five years ago. Oh, okay. So they were willing to, you know, they heard what we were trying to do, and they were all on board with it. And then it was just a matter of, you know, well, then I heard how hard it was. You know, I need all these actors, I need the movies, so it was back-burned. But the foundation, they've been on board since way before, you know, I guess somebody at Paramount to actually agree to something. Interesting, because that's always been one of the things that, well, apart from Adam's foundation and Raul Julia's estate, those were always the two what everybody thought was the sticking points, not Paramount. Right.
    5:30
    Yeah, when we knew that, you know, from our dealing with WMS, that they had used enough of the stuff from Paramount in the movie itself that we needed that right license. And it was just really difficult trying to get somebody at Paramount to think this was a big enough project to even talk to us and get our contracts written up. Did it help doing Star Trek and Terminator and Twilight Zone, did that help kind of grease the wheels to show that, hey, look, this is what we do, this is how we move a product forward, and this is the success that it can bring? Yeah, I think so. In licensing in general, having other properties that you've licensed helps a lot. It's actually in a lot of the term agreement things that you send to a licensor, it's like what else have you licensed with your company.
    6:24
    So, yeah, that certainly helps. I honestly don't know if it was that or just basically telling me to go away finally by getting me what I was asking for. Pure persistence. Yeah, I think it was.
    6:39
    Well, that's good to hear. I mean, like I said, it's been, obviously you guys have probably seen the rumor mill that we're on the fan page. I know people on the Facebook page have generated in terms of putting out there.
    6:53
    So I definitely wanted to hear what the true backstory would be involved with this. in terms of Abnus Family there's also obviously apart from the success of it being the number one selling pinball table ever how do you feel that's going to translate with Pinball Arcade being that we're now just about to complete the third season going into season four do you feel this is going to help bring in even more new players or is it more now this point into the game just kind of a courtesy to the current core?
    7:33
    I think it's a little of both. I mean, the amount of requests that we've had for this table, it was our duty, I think, to keep pushing to get this table done.
    7:43
    But I think even though the Adams family as a property isn't a huge license, it's possible it can regain some momentum. I know the Adams Foundation has some projects that got planned that might in the future you know pick up the momentum there But I think you know we going to market this pretty heavily and we got some more plans on how to bring in more customers
    8:10
    So, you know, I think it's going to keep the momentum going for the Pinball Arcade. So I don't know. I think it's going to be a good thing for the game. I recently saw that you guys had posted that the table, actually you only just recently got it up there at Farsight, which kind of surprised me. I thought that you guys had that thing stored away for years.
    8:32
    Was it terribly difficult to get a hold of a table? No, you've seen it here. We have almost no room for more tables, so we wait as long as we can before we put another one in here.
    8:45
    So was it hard to find? Well, I guess more to the point I should say, Was it one of those things where I wouldn't think finding it is difficult, but finding it at the right price, as opposed to if you've had a long time knowing that you're wanting to get it, was it one of those things that finally it raised its hand and you're like, yep, that's the one that we need to get, or was it, hey guys, it's time to roll on this, let's just get whatever we can get at the current moment? No, we're not too hasty. Norman does a really good job of shopping around, so he had a good month to look around and find a really nice condition table at a good price so we're pretty happy with the one we got now Adams is famous also for having two versions which would be the regular standard and then the gold edition and I know there's been a lot of people asking about the gold because it's a different set of ROMs and a little bit different look, not terribly much but obviously the gold makes sense that a possibility of us having both versions in the game yeah right now we're kicking around the idea of making it a limited edition, like the real gold edition is, and having it be a Kickstarter reward. So there's only so many of them out there.
    9:56
    Oh, wow. At least for maybe forever, maybe for an entire year, that we don't release the gold edition, except for the people who back us at a certain level. So it would be kind of a limited exclusivity, and then eventually the masses would be able to at some point. Maybe. But maybe it would be a question mark there. Well, let's go ahead and get into the Kickstarter.
    10:22
    When are you officially launching this? So our plan is to launch it on the date that Dracula is released on mobile, and that is September 12th, a Friday. And we'll announce it on a newsletter, and we'll post about it on Facebook and Twitter. and then have it a 30-day Kickstarter campaign like we've done in the past, and so it would end right around October 12th, which is a Sunday, I think.
    10:52
    And then should the campaign be successful, which we're kind of thinking, how could it not? But anyway, got to put the if in there.
    10:59
    When would we then be looking at a release of the actual table in Fiddle Arcade? We're still looking at that.
    11:08
    my feeling is that it might be in the beginning of 2015 would it a few months after it finishes would this be part of season four or would it be its own separate entity so it would be just like what the other ones were part of the seasons correct, it would be season four how is this kickstarter going to be any different as opposed to the other three in terms of tier structures or rewards? Is there anything new you guys have planned for it?
    11:46
    Well, the gold edition is going to be a little bit different. Right. We're going to have, we're looking into getting different, you know, physical rewards, you know, from the Adams Foundation, you know, stuff that they license out to collectors and to fans of the Adams family. but other than that it should be pretty much structured the same as like T2 was are you guys planning on doing a lower entry level say just the $5 entry level make it more like a pre-order you might say we weren't thinking about that we kicked around the idea but I think we're going to keep it the same And then what, who knows? I would recommend it personally, but no, it's just me.
    12:38
    The last time I believe it was then more like a 10, 20, 50 and up kind of structure, correct? I think we had some numbers in between there. Dropping in later or earlier, I should say.
    12:53
    Do you guys have any stretch goals in mind? Because I know that was one of the things with the T2 Kickstarter where there was kind of just a nebulous, it'll go towards another one kind of thing, but not really an actual stretch goal. Like, obviously, Twilight Zone had the stretch goal for getting Star Trek. Yeah, we do have some thoughts about that, but I can't, I don't want to announce it yet.
    13:17
    Yeah, we are, of course, going to be still licensing more tables. Right. And, you know, Dracula's coming out. That's a licensed table that we're actually, we didn't kickstart. Which I was going to ask you, how did you swing that? What was different about that particular license as opposed to Adam's? The difference is that they were basically getting a bulk deal, I guess you could say, from Sony Pictures Entertainment for several properties. Oh, very good. That we haven't announced yet, but you can probably figure out what they are.
    13:49
    Dracula is one of them. And actually, one of the licenses we got in this bulk deal is a table, is a license that hasn't been done. at the pinball table.
    13:59
    So we will be announcing that in the upcoming months of an original table that we're going to be making. The TPA itself is making? Yes.
    14:08
    Okay, very good. With the way you guys have been burning through all the unlicensed tables, obviously we're getting to a point where a lot of the tables that people now are looking at wind up being these licensed tables. Is doing a bulk deal with Sony, is that something that you're looking to do with various other properties? Does that seem like more of a tangible way of going forward? Yeah, we've been trying to do it in the past.
    14:38
    It's better for us as far as just logistically getting a contract agreed to and signed to and having as many properties in there as possible is usually a good deal.
    14:50
    But there aren't too many big ones out there that come in bulk. There might be some properties that we could pair together with one other one.
    15:02
    So we'll be trying to do that. But I can't say some of those properties are pretty expensive. Yeah. And the deals will be so different that the licensors are pretty hesitant to do that. Uh-huh. Can we expect more updates, I should say, throughout the kickstart, maybe on a weekly basis or at least halfway through, giving more hints or updates itself on just the table itself? I don't know. It seemed like on T2 it was kind of like there was the kickstarter and then that was the end of it until probably week three.
    15:42
    I know that those that did kickstart or were on the fence We're kind of looking forward for a little more information or something, some kind of back and forth, I should say. Right, yeah, we're very aware that that happened. And we've got a little bit bigger staff now. I think there a bit of a transition we going through there after T2 is completed So this time around I think we be a lot more
    16:08
    not just reaction, we'll have more updates during the Kickstarter campaign itself, but afterwards we'll keep you guys in the loop as to when we're getting ready to beta test and that kind of thing. Okay.
    16:24
    While we have you here, mind if we ask you a few other things that aren't Kickstarter related? Sure. Okay.
    16:31
    One of the things that, again, as we start narrowing down what tables are available, everybody's wondering about Sega and Data East. Are we going to be seeing those anytime soon?
    16:44
    The short answer is yes. Okay. I can't say for sure just because we are still negotiating some licenses. Sure. But we are actively looking to get more Data East and Sega tables and a little sum into the game. Is the emulation of that already in the works?
    17:10
    Yes. Okay. Okay, so we're actively doing that. How are we, because I know that a year ago when we talked,
    17:22
    the emulation for Black Knight and Gorgor and Firepower, I believe, were actually finished, but we still haven't seen those put into the game itself.
    17:32
    Is there any hang-up that is going on with that, or can we expect to see that sometime, say, by Christmas? I don't know. Yeah. I followed up right after we talked last time about what the hold-up was, and there was a technical issue that I'm drawing a blank on. I've got to get back to you on that one.
    17:57
    I do know it's working pretty well. At least I do know that Gorgar is working well. I think the Black Knight emulation might have had something tricky going on, and I'm not sure why. But, yeah, let me answer that so you guys can follow up with the fans. Okay.
    18:18
    We've also seen a very noticeable improvement in the tables for Season 3 just in terms of look and how they play, what would you attribute that to? Huh. I don't know. So just experience or?
    18:33
    Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of experience. The process of getting comments during the tuning phase, I've got more of a structured, I guess, procedure now that I'm getting comments from like three other people of just more specifics about what feels right, what doesn't feel right.
    18:53
    So I think that and the experience of knowing, you know, what works and what doesn't work in our physics engine.
    19:01
    And on the art side, it's similar. You know, Josh Sharp, he still continues to consult with us. And he has to give approval for the table before we get, like, license or approval in most cases. but the fact that we have people in here now who know specifics of what he's always looking for art-wise, it's really helped, I think. So I think that in general and I think that we learn a lot when we did the dynamic lighting on the PS4 and Xbox One.
    19:37
    So just little lessons that we learned from that help us with our baked-in lighting technology. Do you feel that, I know you already revisited the earlier tables once with the PS3 doing the Mega Patch, but do you feel at some point you'll wind up kind of going back and doing a re-legacing the Seasons 1 and 2 with everything you've learned from Season 3 and going forward, or is it kind of these are now what they are and they're pretty much going to stay that way? No, we are going to be updating. I know that just yesterday we were talking about updating some of the camera technology in some of the older tables that weren't quite done as well as some of the tables that we've done recently so we'll be putting that in and when it comes to tuning it's kind of tricky because people are getting kind of used to the way some things played but I went back and played one table what was it oh Sorry, I'm drawing a blank on what table it was. Maybe it was like taxi. And there was something that really bugged the crap out of me, and I was like, how did I land the ship like this?
    20:48
    So, yeah, we'll go back and we'll do that. I also want to be... I'm the one who does the gameplay tuning for now still. Right. So the plan is to train up a couple more people moving forward to help me, I don't know, be more efficient in moving forward with other tables and going back into other tables and improving them, I guess. Okay.
    21:16
    Another question that's been kind of being asked is with regards to the PC, giving it the love of DX11 tech. Yeah. Are we looking at DX11 happening to the PC before seeing a new user interface with the game? Yes. I guess we talked about that yesterday. and right now my programmer who's finishing the Xbox One version is going to be moving on and getting the DirectX 11 lighting working. Okay. Pretty much while it's in submission, so I would expect the PC lighting to be in there within a month or two. Okay, great. That's great news. With regards to the new UI, how many, I know you guys have some ideas for places you'd like to take the game, you might say, one of them being multiplayer how contingent upon the user interface is some of these things?
    22:18
    Another good thing that I was just talking about so pretty shortly here we're going to release some individual apps Twilight Zone Pinball, Star Trek Next Generation Pinball that are just that one table, and it's going to be free-to-play with tokens in it. And so the first time that we release head-to-head, we don't have to worry about there being all these different tables out there, and we can just focus on online head-to-head on iOS and on Android for just one table each.
    22:52
    So using that kind of as your test bed to make sure everything's functioning properly. Correct, and so that should be coming before the end of the year, the online head-to-head being added to those individual apps. Okay. When you're dealing with head-to-head, are you talking about one person plays a ball and the next person plays a ball, or is it simultaneously scoring, as you might say, so you're kind of in a race? Yeah, simultaneous scoring. We had it working on Android like two months ago, but we backburned putting that into the game until we have these new apps that are just one table at a time. It's pretty cool. It sounds pretty cool. I know that we ourselves have made makeshift versions of playing head-to-head with our little five-minute challenges and stuff like that. I know that's definitely something everybody's been wanting.
    23:45
    Since the beginning, and me and you have had this conversation too about difficulty levels, is that something that has basically been tabled, or are you still actively pursuing putting different difficulties within the game? we are still pursuing it and actually kind of a test for that is going to be a cross promotion that we doing with one of the games that we be releasing next month Okay The game called Orbles. I don't know if you're familiar with it.
    24:14
    So it's an action puzzle game and there's three different characters in that game. And so once you own those characters, then you get access to a custom pinball in Pinball Arcade. And that custom pinball has different physics associated with it that it doesn't make the entire table more difficult. It doesn't tweak any of the settings, but it does increase the gravity. So it tilts the table up more. So essentially we're talking about more or less an artificial difficulty, not a changing of the slope and moving of the outlanes kind of thing. Oh, no, it is the slope, actually. Yeah, so when I say gravity, in our physics engine I can play with that different ways, but what the different balls are actually going to do is give you different slopes of the table. Okay, I understand. Hey, Jeff, didn't you have a question about flipper physics? Yeah, I was just kind of curious if we were still going to see improvements there, some of the different techniques that you can do on a real-time machine, like tap passes and stuff like that, if we were still going to see stuff like that incorporated, just more accurate, I guess you could say, if that's still an area of improvement that you guys are working on? It's still on the list of things I want to do. And I don't know. I'll get to it eventually.
    25:49
    It's just whenever I do get to it, we work on it for a little bit, and then we come into some sort of roadblock. and usually it has to do with the update rate of the physics.
    26:02
    There's just only so much you can do in a 60th of a second when you want to do some of those techniques.
    26:09
    So the techniques either become like they're too common or too impossible, and it actually makes the entire physics look wrong, for lack of a better way to describe it.
    26:20
    So, I mean, if there's a way to update the physics twice as fast, in some cases, then we might be able to do that. But right now, it's not looking like something that we're going to be implementing, you know, in the short term. I also had a couple of PS4-specific questions. Sure.
    26:41
    There's been a lot of discussion about the PS4 sound quality just not being up to the same level as, you know, even the PS3 and some of the older consoles and even the PC. It just seems like the sample rate is lower. Yeah, it was, but I thought we updated that with a patch. Yeah, it seems like there's still a lot of debate as to whether it's actually fixed or not. It seems like it's improved in some ways, but it almost seems like the actual quality of the actual sound samples still isn't quite up to the same level. It seems like there's a filter applied or something like that, possibly.
    27:23
    No, I'm not familiar with that controversy. I know that the sample rate was accidentally cut down when we first released, but since then we went back to the higher sampled files, and they should be at the same rate as the other platforms or higher. So I'm not sure what's going on. Yeah, maybe we could forward you the threads. Because I know my brother actually just downloaded the free tables. You guys have the core tables are free now, and he's like, why does this sound so bad? You know, he's not a regular player. And I was like, yeah, that's one of the things a lot of people have been commenting on is the sound quality. And also the friend leaderboards on the PS4 have been down for like half a year now, it seems like. I was just kind of curious if that's going to be fixed soon. The friend leaderboards? Yeah, if you go into a table and you go to your friends list, it doesn't even show any... It just doesn't show anything. That's been down for like months. Okay, I'll get back to you on that one. Didn't know you were going to get bug reports, did you? Yeah, I didn't.
    28:29
    I'm really surprised to hear about both of those on PS4. I thought we took care of the sound issue, and I didn't know the leaderboards were down at all. Well, leave it to us to keep you up to date.
    28:39
    Hey, I know it's about time we let you go, but I want to throw one last question at you that is semi-Adams Family related. Basically, since Adam's family has been you guys' Moby Dick, what is the next table that you just would salivate at but know it's going to be an uphill battle to get?
    29:00
    I want the Simpsons. The Simpsons pinball party? That's a good answer. Yeah, I think that's what, like, that or Lord of the Rings. One of those two is what everybody always is going to.
    29:12
    Indiana Jones, too. but I think The Simpsons is more feasible with does that mean you guys are still actually attempting to talk to Disney yeah oh yeah we're not giving up okay well that's good we like the fighting attitude well hey thanks so much for talking about us I think you've straightened some of the rumors out that we had about Adam's family and it'll be interesting to see what everyone's discussion is about and we all look forward to actually playing the table finally. Yeah, well, thanks, you guys, for having me on and giving me this bug report that I'm going to go walk around right now and see what's going on. And thanks a lot for all your support you guys give us. All right, thanks, Bobby. All right, thanks. See you. All right, bye. Bye.
    30:06
    Well, as usual, it's always awesome for Farsight to play along with us and the blockade and on the forums too, don't you think, Jeff? Yeah, I think it's cool that they take the time out of their busy schedule of cranking out these pinball tables. I know everybody wants the tables and stuff, but hey, it's nice for them to take the time. Yeah, exactly. We come knocking and beg them for information, and now and then they actually are willing to spill the beans, which I actually think that we got a few more beans spilled this time around than I expected. I'm very curious to see what the forums explode with, mainly trying to guess what that other Sony licensed tables might be.
    30:46
    Oh, mysteries. I know, mysteries. But like I said, I know our forum. They'll figure this crap out within minutes. Oh, yeah. Nothing gets by them.
    30:59
    So anyways, good stuff all around. Thank you once again. and just so you guys know, obviously this was a much shorter podcast. We're going to be doing a full regular normal broadcasting podcast of its usual insane length probably in just a few weeks from now. We'll be incorporating your comments on how the Kickstarter's going, what you thought of the Bobby interview and things that were mentioned in it. So stay tuned for all of that. As usual, you can get a hold of the Blockade on Twitter at Blockade.
    31:35
    And you can get a hold of myself at ShutYourTraps. And if you want to get a hold of the rest of the gang, there's also at JaredMorgz. There's at DrexClown. And I'm probably forgetting one or two of the other guys, but too bad they're not here. Don't even bother trying to get a hold of me, man. Yeah, don't even bother. I can't even get a hold of Jeff usually. All right, gang. We will see you next time. thanks for listening this has been the blockade podcast smiley later