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056: Wizard Mode Anyone?

Punk Rock Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·47m 13s·analyzed·Jul 15, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.020

TL;DR

Podcast hosts explain wizard modes in pinball and share strategies for accessing them.

Summary

Stephanie and Mike from Punk Rock Pinball Podcast discuss wizard modes in pinball—what they are, how to access them, and their favorites across modern games. They explain the difference between main wizard modes (final endgame modes) and mini wizard modes (intermediate achievable modes), highlighting examples from Jaws, Mandalorian, James Bond, Godzilla, and Foo Fighters. They also recommend practical tips like using 10-ball settings and co-op modes to experience deeper game content.

Key Claims

  • CJ (a tournament player) has four gold pins and is customizing a Stern Army denim jacket with Punk Rock Pinball patches and dayglow paint for blacklight effect

    high confidence · Stephanie and Mike discussing tournament community at their Bloomington, Illinois location

  • Stephanie won a tournament at 8-Bit Arcade in Bloomington on Friday, her second tournament victory overall; her first was a smaller 12-player tournament

    high confidence · Stephanie recounting her recent tournament win directly to Mike

  • James Bond 007 mini wizard mode on Stern's James Bond pinball is one of the best-designed wizard modes, requiring players to complete one instance each of henchman mode, villain mode, bird one multiball, and jetpack multiball

    high confidence · Mike explaining the mode in detail, describing the specific requirements and flow

  • Modern Spike 3 2/3 machines with co-op mode include: Star Wars Fall of the Empire, Venom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jaws, Mandalorian, and Dungeons & Dragons

    high confidence · Stephanie listing confirmed games with co-op capability

  • Godzilla (Keith Elwin design) has a final wizard mode that ends the game—player wins immediately upon completion

    high confidence · Mike discussing Godzilla's endgame structure in comparison to other modern Sterns

  • Players can adjust ball-per-game settings to 10-ball (instead of standard 3-ball) in modern Stern games to more easily access wizard modes and deeper game content

    high confidence · Stephanie and Mike recommending this as a feature-rich accessibility method found in game menus

  • Foo Fighters pinball has a mini wizard mode called Combo-Tron that features synth music and requires players to hit combos into a UFO scoop to build jackpots

    high confidence · Mike describing Combo-Tron mechanics in detail

  • John Wick pinball has a mini wizard mode (referenced but name forgotten) that was designed similarly to the James Bond 007 mode by Mike Vinikour (MXV)

Notable Quotes

  • “I've had at least three [newer players], like these are players that are newer, but they're getting pretty serious into it... people keep talking, I keep hearing people talk about wizard modes. What the hell is a wizard mode?”

    Stephanie @ ~8:00 — Sets up the podcast's educational purpose—answering community questions about core pinball mechanics

  • “The mini wizards are all the other wizard modes that are not the final.”

    Mike @ ~12:30 — Concise definition of mini wizard mode vs. main wizard mode distinction

  • “James Bond 007 is a moment. And then it starts this mode where it is a ball save for like 75 seconds... And it's just an epic moment in the game.”

    Mike @ ~25:00 — Describes the emotional/theatrical impact of a well-designed wizard mode moment

  • “It's in the menu. It's an option. Take advantage of that option. Have fun with it.”

    Stephanie @ ~32:00 — Encourages players to use manufacturer-provided accessibility features without shame

  • “I do declare it's one of the best things in every game should have it [co-op mode]. There are several that don't.”

    Stephanie @ ~40:00 — Makes a strong industry opinion—co-op should be standard on modern Stern games

  • “Stern Pinball machine, the modern ones, should have a co-op mode... The standard for a Spike 3 3 pinball machine in Spike 2 should be that it has co-op. I do declare.”

    Stephanie @ ~40:30 — Direct product/design opinion framed as community declaration

  • “You gotta walk up with a plan. Gotta walk up with a plan. I'm sure there are better plans, tournament strategies than to like just try to get to the mini wizard mode.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~58:00 — Connects wizard modes to tournament strategy—establishing a clear goal guides play

  • “If you're dialed in with the ramps then pick Rescue... If you're not making the ramps, Search is better.”

Entities

Punk Rock Pinball PodcastorganizationStephaniepersonMikepersonCJperson8-Bit ArcadevenueJames BondgameJawsgameMandaloriangame

Signals

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Mini wizard modes increasingly designed as achievable endgame moments for intermediate-to-advanced players; examples: Bond James Bond, Search/Rescue (Jaws), Combo-Tron (Foo Fighters); these serve as mid-tier progression goals between casual play and full-game completion

    high · Mike and Stephanie praise mini wizard modes as 'the coolest thing' in modern pinball code; describe them as achievable for 'decent players' and emotionally rewarding moments

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Modern Stern Spike-based games intentionally include menu-accessible game settings (10-ball mode, secret modes menu) to allow players to experience deeper content without designer gatekeeping; interpreted as manufacturer intent to showcase full game design

    high · Stephanie explicitly states: 'It's in the menu. It's an option. Take advantage of that option.' Both hosts recommend 10-ball as accessibility feature, not cheating; no conflict mentioned with designers

  • ?

    design_innovation: Co-op mode emerging as expected feature in modern Stern games (Spike 2/3 era); hosts declare it should be standard; six confirmed games have it; some notable absences (John Wick) noted as missed opportunities

    high · Stephanie: 'Every modern Stern Spike 3 pinball machine... should have co-op. I do declare.' Lists six games with co-op; expresses frustration that some lack it

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Mini wizard modes serve as viable tournament strategy targets; allows players to set clear, achievable goals (e.g., 'get to Bond James Bond') rather than playing reactively; connected to Joe Sharp's advice to 'walk up with a plan'

    high · Mike describes using Jaws Search/Rescue as a primary strategy in tournaments; explains that hitting mini wizard mode automatically generates good scores even without secondary objectives

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.031

0:00
Hello. Hello. Welcome to the Punk Rock Pinball podcast episode number 56. Five six. Five six. Coming to you live from PRPHQ. In Bloomington, Illinois. I'm Stephanie. I'm Mike. We're the hosts of the show. This is a show where we talk about pinball. We talk about once in a while some music. Not a ton. No, but this channel started as a music channel. So it's a music channel. If you are into music and that kind of stuff, go check out our YouTube. Whoa, I don't know what game does that. I don't know if you can hear that on the podcast. I think it might be no fear. Might be no fear. If you guys know, um, put in the He comments what game for the attract mode goes mooooooooooooooooooooooo. It's a Steve Ritchie game. Yeah, it's one of them. Or Rocky and Bullwinkle, but I don't think so. I don't think that, that'd be pretty ominous for Rocky and Bullwinkle. I think it's, I think it's no fear. Could be no fear.
1:21
You know, we have a tournament here, next Saturday. Yeah, this coming up Saturday. July the 18th. It's gonna be fun. I know not everybody that listens and watches is within range to come visit, but if you are, July 18th, I'm opening it up at 5pm for warm-ups. Just a regular kind of match play tournament. I might come open up early that day. If I do, I'll make a post in our Facebook group. Oh yeah? I don't know, maybe at like 2 or 3 o'clock or something. Come flip. Just get some warm-ups in. Okay. Because I think I've decided That before the tournaments that I want to win, I need to play more. Okay. Because we had a tournament just this Friday and I won it, not here, at the 8-Bit Arcade. It was your first major win. In Bloomington. It was my second victory of a tournament, but the last one was a very small tournament, 12 players. Still counts. And like Joe wasn't there, CJ wasn't there. Mike Vinsen wasn't there. Doesn't matter. There were still good players there. Mike D., Dan Scott, Bob O'Day, none of them were there. Shelly wasn't there. Or Dennis O'Day. Yeah, did I just say Bob? Bob wasn't at this one either. Dennis was. Took them all then. Either of the O'Days. They're both good. But I beat them all. Mike took number one. I beat them all. And the last round was on Attack from Mars, which is not one I would choose. Would you take that win, the overall win over winning a gold pin for the qualifying, being number one in qualifying? Yeah, I have a gold pin already. Okay. So, I almost feel like maybe we should do a gold pin for the overall winner and the qualifying winner too. No, just one. Okay. All right, just one. Just the qualifying winners get the gold pins. That's the rule. But our friend CJ now has four of these gold pins. He's making a cool jacket. He's taking his Stern Army denim jacket and he's tricking it out. He's putting a Punk Rock Pinball patch on it. He sent me a picture of what he's doing with the pins. He's putting some kind of dayglow paint over it so it shines under a blacklight differently. It looks normal until you put a blacklight on it. CJ loves a good blacklight.

medium confidence · Stephanie mentioning Mike's design work and noting she forgot the John Wick mode name

Mike @ ~64:00 — Tactical gameplay advice for Jaws Search vs. Rescue mini wizard mode selection

Godzilla
game
Foo Fightersgame
John Wickgame
Metallicagame
[name withheld pending review]person
Keith Elwinperson
Star Wars Fall of the Empiregame
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
Venomgame
Dungeons and Dragonsgame
Cactus Canyongame
[name withheld pending review]person
Pour Brosvenue
  • ?

    community_signal: Local tournament activity in Bloomington growing; multiple regular tournaments (weekly at 8-Bit Arcade, upcoming Saturday event at PRPHQ); new players entering competitive pipeline and asking fundamental questions about mechanics

    high · Stephanie mentions 'a number of newer players' asking about wizard modes; hosts hosting tournaments at multiple venues; discussing tournament structure (gold pins, qualifying rounds)

  • ?

    community_signal: Tournament collectibles (gold pins) being repurposed as fashion/customization objects; CJ's Stern Army jacket project with dayglow paint for blacklight display suggests merging collector mindset with personal expression

    medium · CJ accumulating four gold pins; customizing jacket with pins and dayglow paint; hosts celebrate this as cultural expression of tournament achievements

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Godzilla (despite being Stern's best-selling title) receiving mixed sentiment from knowledgeable players; hosts acknowledge quality but state 'we don't love it' and would prefer other Keith Elwin designs; possibly reflects saturation or gameplay preference divergence

    medium · Mike: 'we like Godzilla, but we don't love it. There are other games I'd rather play.' Omitted from their Keith Elwin wishlist discussion; unpopular opinion framing suggests awareness of Godzilla's mainstream success

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Jaws Search vs. Rescue mini wizard mode choice demonstrates conditional strategy: Rescue for ramp-heavy players, Search for non-ramp players; suggests mini wizard modes are designed with player skill variability in mind

    high · Mike explains: 'If you're dialed in with ramps pick Rescue... If you're not making ramps, Search is better'; Stephanie repeatedly choosing wrong option based on her ramp success

  • ?

    design_innovation: Modern games using playfield design elements (colored circles, star points) to visually communicate wizard mode progression paths; Mandalorian and Cactus Canyon examples show explicit, non-textual communication of endgame structure

    high · Stephanie describes Mandalorian playfield with 'three green circles' for Precious Cargo, 'three yellow ones,' 'three orange ones'; explains Cactus Canyon star points light as objectives complete

  • ?

    operational_signal: PRPHQ (Punk Rock Pinball HQ) in Bloomington operating as multi-function venue: tournament host, streaming studio, pinball club meeting space; considering expanding dog-friendly amenities for regular hangout; suggests maturation of location beyond single-purpose arcade

    high · Hosts mention tournament hosting, podcast recording, office space, plans to accommodate Marshall (likely a dog) in future sessions; treating space as cultural hub

  • ?

    content_signal: Podcast episode designed as educational explainer on core mechanic (wizard modes); driven by community questions from newer players; suggests audience growth includes novices alongside experienced players

    high · Stephanie: 'I've had at least three [newer players]... asking what the hell is a wizard mode'; episode structured as systematic explanation with examples and practical tips

    • 3:51
    Black lights are spooky. Today, what are we going to talk about? We're going to talk about WTF is a wizard mode. Yes, people have been asking you this, I hear. I've had a number of people, we have a lot of newer players that play here at our pinball club in Bloomington. And I've had at least three, like these are players that are newer, but they're getting pretty serious into it. And I was explaining to somebody about how to get to one of the wizard modes in Mandalorian. And they said, and I can't remember who it was, it might have been Lucas. Like, people keep talking, I keep hearing people talk about wizard modes. What the hell is a wizard mode? What is it? Well, you wear a hat. Yeah, it's a mode. You have a wand. You do certain things in the game and then you magically have a hat and a wand. Uh-huh. And a cape. And a beard. No, but the wizard modes, and like what are some good ones? A wizard mode on a pinball machine, there's usually a main wizard mode where if you essentially do everything there is to do in the game, you unlock this kind of a final mode. Go ahead. Most of those are damn near impossible to get to for a regular player. But there are other wizard modes that are considered like mini wizard modes. And for me, especially with the modern pinball machines, that's like one of the most exciting things about the code in the pinball are these mini wizard modes. Such as, you know, on Jaws. What are those? You have search. Search and rescue. Or rescue. You can choose on Jaws. You can choose. Yeah, those are fun when you close all the beaches. Mm-hmm. On Mandalorian, there's three of them. The one I usually get to is called Precious Cargo. It's when you've done all of the Razorcrest multiballs. I don't even know how to do that. It's just the up the middle shot. Oh. When they're green, you're working towards a multiball. Yep. And then you have to get through the ones, it'll go green one, blue, green, blue, green. And the blue ones, like you hit it enough times, it's like a hurry up shot. You got to get through that and then do three of the green multi-balls. Then you unlock a fourth one called Precious Cargo. And that's the mini wizard mode? That's a mini wizard mode. And that one typically, any wizard mode or mini wizard mode usually will include a much longer ball save than a traditional multi-ball. What's the difference between a mini wizard mode and a wizard mode? The mini wizards are all the other wizard modes that are not the final. Got it. Because I can't, I should know this because it's a hugely popular game, but like the Godzilla one, If you do the last one, I think your game is over. Oh. Like, it ends the game, game over. Whoa. You did it. You've won. You are the winner. And forgive me, I don't know what that mode is called in Godzilla. Because if you listen to us very much, you know that we like Godzilla, but we don't love it. No, we don't love it. But it is fun. There are other games I'd rather play. Unpopular opinion. Come at me. I can't believe the last episode, our one year anniversary one, didn't get quite watched as much on the YouTube. Well, you know what? It wasn't our best work. No, it was not our best work. We were real low energy people, which I think is a t-shirt on anxious and angry. Low energy person? Yeah, I think so. I don't know if it's still up there, but it was pretty funny. We did have one, yeah. We were low energy people last week. I think it was because it was real hot up here. It was very hot up here. It was a very hot day. You had a touch of some kind of stomach bug probably because I kept talking about nervous diarrhea. Yeah, I had a really bad stomach. But it wasn't, you didn't have diarrhea. No. It was just explosive farts. It was explosive farts and intense cramping. Yeah. Very uncomfortable for three days. Yeah, it was terrible. I felt bad for you. And so when we were recording last week, your stomach was like, I don't even know if it was loud. Was it loud? It was loud. It's painful. Well, so anyways, I think maybe our energy was low. The energy was low, but I had realized after we recorded the episode, we were talking about, we're taking an aside from the wizard modes, we'll go back there. We were talking about which, we need a Keith Elwin game in here, and I was listing which ones I would want, which ones you would want. Yeah. We didn't mention Godzilla on the list at all. We didn't? No. Oh. Didn't even name it. Did anybody even catch that? No, nobody's like, you talked about Elens and didn't mention Godzilla. Maybe they know. Because we did. And because I said the one I would want the least is Avengers Infinity Quest. And I would want Godzilla more than Avengers. Oh, for sure.
    9:05
    But I would want Godzilla less than all of the other ones. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Maybe tied with Iron Maiden.
    9:14
    I just hate the Iron Maiden music. You know, to me, Iron Maiden, and it wasn't until we had that one in the house for a little bit. I feel like I am not really super familiar with their music catalog at all. That one song that was in Guitar Hero is probably the one I know the best. I don't even know which one that is. I couldn't even tell you, but they just sound like really bad light rock. It's weird. It's like light rock, but played in a metal way. Yeah, like metal light rock. Mm-hmm. It's bizarre music. I just...it's not for me. I know people love it and I appreciate that they love it. Not for me. If you're a big fan of the band Iron Maiden, we apologize. Everybody has their opinions. That's okay. We don't love it. We don't love Rush either. No. I like that game too, but I like Iron Maiden music more than Rush. Totally. Because like Rush, I just can't. I wouldn't. I mean, if somebody wanted to bring a Rush machine in here, I would allow it. I'd allow it. As long as there's a volume knob on the front. Uh huh, yeah. I do love that game, it's very fun to play, but the music makes me want to punch someone in the face. Yeah. But back to wizard modes. Okay. Especially, I think the mini wizard mode is the coolest thing. There are older games that have these, but in the modern pinball there are some amazing ones. And I think they all have a different path to get there. And one of the best of the best was designed by our friend MXV, Mike Vinnacore, Bond James Bond.
    11:00
    It's the coolest damn mode BJB. It's such a cool mode and the path to get there is so cool and he basically replicated it on John Wick and I just checked the name of that mode and I forget it already. So Mike if you're watching put in the comments the name of it. It's Wick John Wick. It should have been called Wick John Wick, it is not. Well that's a miss. That was a miss, should have been called Wick John Wick but the path to get to Bond James Bond is amazing and it sets a very good goal. That's a very good goal. If you know as a player what you need to do, when I start the game, I'm going for that. It's your path. What do you have to do to get to Bond James Bond You don know do you No I told you this at home I don know When I get it I pleasantly surprised Well now that you know maybe your scores on James Bond are going to go way up Probably. Explain it to me like I'm five. Okay. You're going to need to know a little bit about the game to know what I'm saying here. So if you have not played James Bond pinball, this might not make sense. If you've played it, it's been a very popular Stern game, you may know. So you basically have to do one of every main thing in the game to light Bond James Bond. So for starters, there is the hardest one for me to get is on the right side, there's like a little kind of U-shaped ramp. You can hit it from the upper flipper on the left. To get the henchman? For the henchman mode. So you need to do a henchman mode. I like it when I can get that one first because to me that's the hardest shot to hit. Because it's off the upper flipper, it's that side ramp, you have to make it all the way, so you need to do a henchman mode. On that U-ramp the right side of it, there are the villain modes. So you have to do the henchman mode, you have to do a villain mode. Up the middle, there are drop targets. You drop those, you light the lock, and you lock three balls, you get bird one multiball. You got to do bird one multiball. You have to do bird one multiball. You have to do a henchman, you have to do a villain. And then over on the far left, there's a little scoop. You hit it down there. That gets your jetpack ready. Mm-hmm. Okay? And to start the jetpack multiball after you've been down on the scoop, you hit what's called the back ramp. It's like through the spinner all the way around. It's a fun shot. One of the best shots in pinball. Mm-hmm. One of my favorite shots because it's such a long path and you feel so good when you make it. It's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Such a good shot. So once you've done a henchman mode, a villain mode, the bird one multiball and the jetpack multiball, once you've accomplished doing it, you don't have to beat any of these. You just have to do them. Just start them. Just have to start them. Once you've accomplished that, after your last mode is completed or whatever, it's timed out, over at the far left scoop and then at the right ramp, there'll be flashing purple. Mm-hmm. You hit the shot.
    14:20
    Then the flippers die and the game goes dark and goes... And you're like, what just happened? And then a cool animation comes on the screen and it's like Bond, James Bond. It's a moment. And then it starts this mode where it is a ball save for like 75 seconds, 75 or 100 seconds you have in the timers up on the screen. Mm-hmm. And it's a ball save that entire time. And it's, I think it's a two ball, it's a two or three ball, multiple, I can't remember. But you've got a ball save for the entire time of the mode. And every shot is lit as a jackpot, every main shot in the game. And then once you clear those all, you can get like super jackpots and stuff. So fun. But the mode is timed and it will count down when that mode goes to zero, like your flippers die again. The mode's over, kicks you another ball. You get to resume regular play. Can you do it again? You cannot do it again. You can do it one time. And it's just an epic moment in the game. And like when you start it and like the game goes dead and this cool thing happens and now you've got this big multiball for a period of time and then it goes dead again and it's in that modes over it tell you what you scored for the mode. All right, I'm playing it after this because it's right down there right below right below us. One of the best mini wizard modes. It's one of the things that makes the James Bond pinball machine one of the best. It is so fun. There are other wizard modes in that game. They are very difficult. Because there's one if you do all of the villains, there's like seven or eight of those guys. Like, good luck doing that in one playthrough at three ball. And then there's one if you do all the henchmen, and I can't remember how many of those are. Five or six? There's a bunch of them. There's another wizard mode if you do all of all of those. So here's the thing about the bigger wizard modes. A tip for you if you have a pinball machine at home or if you have a friend that does. And we've done this. Yeah, we've done this. And we've done it here. Yeah. Just two tips on how you can get to these modes if you're not a great player. First tip... Well, this is not in competition. Not in competition. This is just for funsies. This is for funsies. Yeah, you don't do this. No, we're breaking, we're going outside the main rules of pinball. No, these are the main rules of fun. These are the rules of fun. How to see different modes, these wizard modes in the games if you're not great.
    17:02
    Yeah. So one way is if you sign into your Insider Connected, you can go in into the menu to, and you can do this on location too. If you're signed in and it's connected and all that good stuff. And you like on Bond, you can select the different modes. You can play the wizard mode. Oh, yeah. You can choose them and play them on most of the... On a lot of them, not all of them, but on a lot of them, they're like on Jaws. You there's kind of I forgot what they call them, but they're like I call them the secret modes. Yeah, you hold both flippers and then you flip through to select standard competition and then it'll name the wizard modes. You can select those to start and just play that. Yeah, so you can do it on like Jaws, you can do it on Godzilla, Bond, I think Metallica I did one on there. Metallica has it, Wick has it. Yeah, it's super fun. So that's one way you can do it whether or not, like if you're just on location. That's if you just want to see the modes right away. Yeah, it's fun. There's more fun ways to get there. But there's more fun ways to get there.
    18:07
    One way. Open up the coin door. If it's your game or your friend's game. Put it on a ten ball. Open up the coin door, go to the settings, think it's in standard adjustments, balls per game. Go all in. Make it 10. Go all in. All in. Make it a 10 ball game. All in. Then if you get some extra balls along the way, it might be a 13 or 14 ball game. Have fun. And you'll get to some stuff you haven't gotten to. And here's what I say to the people who are going to poo poo this, like, oh, you shouldn't do that. It's in the menu. Yeah, it's an option. It's an option. Take advantage of that option. Have fun with it. However, if you are going to get like a five billion game on something, disclose if it was like not a three, like a standard setting. Yeah. Like if you're going to go bragging about the score, be like, well, I shot five billion on Bond and don't leave out like, but I was playing on 10 ball. And I got three extra balls. So it was 13 balls. It's still exciting to get a high score like that, but let's all be real. That doesn't count if you're playing a 10-ball. No. And I think even more fun than 10-ball, but I encourage you, if you own a game or a friend owns a game and you haven't gotten really deep into the rules, if you're not world-class players, put it on 10-ball. You'll get to things you haven't seen. It's very much fun. And it's fun because you learn the game even more then because it's hard to get through a lot of stuff on three balls. And so this gives you a little bit of breathing room and you'll probably have a great three ball game and then you'll get a fourth ball and you'll be like, that was so good. I don't know. It takes some pressure off in a weird way knowing you've got these extra balls. But it's yeah, it's just a great way to learn the rules and to experience like go deeper into the experience that was created. So I think that like on these modern games where you have, they make it very easy to make that adjustment. Yeah. I think they want people to experience the whole game. Yeah. And for the big wizard modes are the ones that's like you've got to do everything. You have to be so elite to get to one of those in a three ball format. Yeah. Because we got to it on Jaws, like the smile, you son of a bitch one. And what we did was, and here's another thing. Jaws is awesome. A lot of the modern Sterns have a co-op mode where you and the other player could be two, three, four players. You all share progress towards getting through those modes. So you can go into co-op and you can do 10-ball co-op. You can also do a three-ball co-op. You could do a three ball co-op or you could do a ten ball co-op, five ball, whatever. But I'm just saying like a three ball co-op you could do on location. Yeah, like me and Kevin did three ball co-op here, Foll of the Empire shot two point something billion. It was a regular three ball game, two player co-op. So fun. Very much fun. We saw tons of stuff we didn't see because now you basically have six balls to get there. But also over here we did 10 ball co-op for player. Yeah, we did. And we didn't score as much as me and Kevin did on the two player three ball. On FALL of the Empire. But we saw more stuff. It was fun. We saw, because FALL of the Empire has so much in there to do. It's also fun because you and your friends that you're playing with, you're kind of, you're helping each other. And calling out the shots and asking each other in a different way than you would normally when you're just kind of screwing around. Yeah. It's my opinion, and our friend MXP is probably listening. He's always listening. Every Stern Pinball machine, the modern ones, should have a co-op mode. And I know I've been told, like, some teams put it in, some don't. The standard for a Stern Spike 3 pinball machine in Spike 2 should be that it has co-op. I do declare. I do declare it's one of the best things in every game should have it. There are several that don't. The ones that do have it, Star Wars Fall of the Empire has co-op. Venom has co-op. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has co-op. Jaws has co-op. Mandalorian has co-op. Dungeons and Dragons. Now, there may be more. I know those six for sure have it. It would be cool if John Wick had it. It'd be cool when Stern just did that big update of stuff. If they put co-op on everything. It should just be a standard feature of Stern. We do declare. I declare Punk Rock Pinball podcast declares every modern Stern should have co mode Hear ye hear ye That was my gavel on my knee I think that fun Yeah So that how you can get to a wizard mode And usually if you looking at a playfield of a pinball machine the playfield often will a lot of them will kind of show you what the wizard modes are called If you look at the Mandalorian playfield, there's like three green circles and then one big one and it says precious cargo. Oh. And then above that there's like three yellow ones and I can't remember what the yellow one is called. And then there's three little kind of orange ones over here and a big one because there's three mini wizard modes for in Mando. And if you do all those there's like a main bigger one.
    24:17
    Cactus Canyon has like a main wizard mode. It's like high noon at the OK Corral or whatever. And it has, if you look at the Cactus Canyon playfield, there's all those points of the star. If you do every one of those things, it'll be lit once you've done it.
    24:35
    Like, you have to get a certain number of combos, you have to get the mother load, you have to do a showdown. Once you've done all those things, then the High Noon at OK Corral is lit, and you do that. And that's like the main wizard mode for Cactus Canyon.
    24:51
    Yeah, the playfield will tell you. So most often there's, if there are like wizard modes, and they're, on John Wick they're kind of up in the middle of the playfield and there's like the staircase and the other one, special assignment I think is one of them is called. So look at the playfield, it'll kind of tell you, we're not going to go into detail on how you get to each one, but if you're playing modern games, if you have a modern game, like learn the path to these mini wizard modes. It's really fun to...and it's a...even in competition it's a good thing to...say for instance Jaws, right? Jaws has two kind of main mini wizard modes. There's Fourth of July and then there's Search or Rescue. And if I'm playing Jaws in a tournament I'm usually trying to get to one or...I'm picking which one of those I want to try to get to. And then I'm playing the game to get there and then I don't have to think of other things along the way because if I'm playing to get to these wizard modes I'm going to have a good score. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like what our friend Joe Sharp said. You gotta walk up with a plan. Gotta walk up with a plan. I'm sure there are better plans, tournament strategies than to like just try to get to the mini wizard mode. Probably. But for me on certain games that I know really well, like if I'm playing Jaws, if I don't want to worry about like trying to start modes and like hitting the boat, because it can be sketchy on some games the way it comes back, well you can get to search and rescue just by collecting the beach goers. And you hit the stand-up targets enough times it lights the beachgoers. You can collect gear, the binoculars, it lights more of them. And then as you collect three beachgoers per beach, you close the beach, close all the beaches, flippers die. Moment. You get to pick search or rescue. And then you have the mini wizard mode, ball save for like a minute or a minute and a half. I feel like I always pick Rescue and whenever I pick Search I'm like oh I think I like that one better. I think it depends. So Search, if you're not making the ramps, Search is better. Right. Because Search is like you hit anything that's not a ramp basically and it pops the fin up and you hit that. Yeah. If you're dialed in with the ramps then pick Rescue. Totally. Because that one is the ramps. Foo Fighters has a really cool one. Mm-hmm. Combo-Tron. Combo-Tron's really cool. It's another one where, like, game goes dark, flippers die, and then it starts this, like, synth kind of music thing. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. And you're hitting combos to increase these jackpots. And on that one, it's just, every time you hit a combo of, like, two shots or more, then you hit it up into the little UFO, Faux, and that collects the combo. Collect six combos, that main upper left ramp lights up, you can hit that on the plunge, which is awesome. So if you get Combo-Tron lit and you drain, you can plunge right into it. There you go. Boom. Bang. Combo-Tron. So yeah, look into how to get to some of these wizard modes and set out to get to them. Because if you're a decent player, you can get to the mini ones. That's what I love about them. It's like a big moment that is achievable for like a decent player. Totally. And it's fun when you just kind of stumble into them too. Yeah. Like, oh, what's this? Oh, whoa. What just happened? Uh-huh. Bond James Bond? Yeah. I had no idea the first time. Well, now I know how to do it. Mm-hmm. Now you know, so you'll probably be getting there all the time. Look out on Saturday. Uh-huh. You don't want to play me on... Don't play stuff on Bond, so be cracking at Bond James Bond mode all day. I'm planning on it. Then there's a strategy that you can do on the Bond James Bond. What is it? So on the upper flipper, there's a loop. Yeah. And there's that row of the Bond women. Yeah. And if they're blinking, you can... Multiply. Everyone that's blinking is one you can basically claim. And you can claim as many as they are lit before you hit the button. So you have this ball save going for a long time. So you let it drain, which the plunge feeds the upper flipper, and just the first 25-30 seconds of that mode, you're just trying to collect the ladies. Once you have as many as you think, you want to leave yourself time to hit shots. So I usually go maybe the first 10, 20 seconds or something. I'm just trying to collect ladies, hoping to get five or six, but if I get three and then there's 35 seconds left, I'll hit. When the button's flashing pink, you hit that, and now your play field is multiplied by however many ladies you've got. Cash in on the ladies. On the women. I guess they're women. I call them ladies. The Bond ladies. It's called the Bond women. They are? Yeah. I think that's how they're referred to like in the rules. Oh. The Bond women. I mean. The ladies. Same thing. Mm-hmm. What's a def? I was explaining this. I was talking with Mark the Knife outside at the Silver Ball about lighting the Bond ladies and collecting them. And it was a weird conversation. I think Penny Epstein was there and she's like, if somebody didn't know what you were talking about, this would be the best. That would be the funniest conversation I've ever heard. Because you were talking about collecting ladies? Collecting the Bond ladies. You just keep hitting it? Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, but a lot of people ask what are wizard modes. I think hopefully we explained what is a wizard mode and what is a mini wizard mode. Do you feel as though you know now? And what's your favorite one? Let us know in the comments below. What is your favorite one? Probably Jaws. The Search? Rescue? Rescue. Ramps. Rescue. Right? Yeah, I've been doing Search lately and I keep regretting it because usually on games when I get there, it's because I'm hitting the ramps well. I know. And I'm like, damn it. Yeah, and whenever I do the Search, I'm like, oh, this isn't the one I like. No, Rescue. But it is fun because the fin pops up and you get to like hit that. It is cool. I think it's just harder. I think it's harder. For me, it's harder. Yeah, like the rescue. Yeah. That's my jam. I think my favorite is Bond James Bond because it's one of the first that I, I mean, I think it got to the Jaws ones before Bond James Bond, but the way that whole thing starts where it's like the screen goes black. And it starts to bond music and it's the animations into it are so cool. I'm like, what did I do? I've done something really special here. Yeah.
    32:24
    I think next week when we record, we should bring Marshall. We could bring Marshall. Yeah. Yeah, because he's not in the show now. He's not in the show. And like, I feel like if we bring him here enough and he hangs out up here, maybe he could just hang out up here when we're hanging. Yeah, we could put a little gate up there. Yeah, or just shut the door. Oh, there's a door right there. Hello. Yeah. And if he just gets comfy up here. Yeah. Like this is a hangout up here. Yeah. Then he could be the HQ dog. Then like when we have tournaments and stuff, we don't have to freak out about like our dog. There's a lot of space up here. What you can't see is there's a whole big office, like nice room behind us. So we could bring a dog bed. Yeah. Bring a water dish, some food. You maybe even could put him in his crate up here if he was weird because these doors close. Just let him bark his head off. And maybe he wouldn't bark. But he would have to be comfy up here first. Yeah, he'll need to have some sessions over here. Yeah, he's gonna have to like be familiar. Okay, well today we couldn't bring him because we're about to go to Poor Bros and host a tournament. Poor Bros? Poor Bros. P-O-U-R. I like to call it Poor Brothers. But it's Bros. But it's B-R-O-S period, which is an abbreviation. What is Dutch Bros? Does it have a period? I call it Dutch Brothers. Dutch Brothers? I don't know. I'd have to ask the, you could email the founder of Poor Bros and say is Poor Brothers acceptable? Yeah. Or it's like, no, it's bros. I mean, I think it's poor brothers. Because Kevin doesn't like KJ's auctions. KJ Auction Service, if we've ever said KJ's auctions on the show, I apologize. We apologize. We didn't realize it. You know, we spent a lot of our formative years in the Chicago suburbs where S's just get added to things. Aldi's, the Jules, Meyers. Yeah. Uh, Veterans Acres. There was a park in my town called Veteran Acres. And I always would make fun of people that would add the S's. And I don't know if I've talked about that on the show. Like 30 years I called this park Veterans Acres until I saw the sign and said Veteran Acres. I'm like, what the hell is that? Well, you know. Soldiers Field. I did the same thing with Soldier Field. I was in college going to Columbia College driving downtown and I was passing by Soldier Field and I was like stopped and I was like looking at the building sitting in traffic and I saw the sign and I was like wait it's Soldier Field? I literally had no idea. Yeah Soldier singular Veteran Acres not Veterans Acres But you still go to the Aldi Still go to the Jewels go to the Jewels you go to the Meyers So it still might slip out KJ auction service even though it KJ auction service The S might just slip out. Yeah, it's because we love you, Kevin. Uh-huh.
    35:43
    But let us know in the comments below, yeah, what is your favorite mini wizard mode or wizard mode? Have you gotten to some? Yeah. Which one did you like? Which one are you trying to get to? Yeah, so the one you're trying to get to, I'm trying to get to the staircase on John Wick and I can't remember exactly how you do it, but it's a lot. Oh, the staircase you have to do one of everything, I think? Or is that, I can't remember. That's not, that's not John Wick. I think it's the new one. I don't know. The Wick ones I need to learn. I've gotten to what should be called Wick John Wick. I've gotten to that one. But there's a couple others. There's one we have to, I think, do all of the main modes. Man, that's a lot. Hard to do. I'll get there. Hey, you know what we're going to try to do this week? What? Go to the Backstore. Oh yeah, we're going to try to go to the back store. We're going to try to play Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball this week. So we can report back. It's an objective. I hope we get to do it. I was hoping we were going to get to do it yesterday. They don't have it yet.
    36:59
    So today's episode was going to be about our thoughts about Sonic had we played it. We haven't played it yet. We want to. So we're not trying to just show for Sterns. We want to play this new Jersey Jack. Clearly we love a Steve Ritchie. We've got five right there. We have eight Steve Ritchie games in this facility. Yeah, we've got all three of the Black Knights and Joey's House of Pain. Joey's House of Pain has the Black Knights. Would love to play Sonic. And he's got an Elton John over there. I like to play that. We don't get to play that a lot. I wouldn't mind playing that a couple more times. So hopefully by next week, we'll be able to report back on about Sonic. In a couple, two, three weeks, we can give you the data for, we have 12 Insider Connected games here and we can see all the play counts now. Yeah. So we can kind of give you our version of the electric bats like earnings reports. Yeah, but ours are like- For our top earners, even though they're all free play. They're like the top played. Yeah. But yeah, inspired by the electric bat. That is always so interesting when they do that. Yeah, I think everybody loves watching that podcast for that. I love to watch their earnings report. So this can be the HQ greatest hits of July. So once July is over, like the first episode, like in August, we can...it might be second episode of August because we're going to be traveling. I don't know. I haven't looked at the calendar. One of the episodes in August will give you the greatest hits for July by the numbers. By the numbers. Mm-hmm. I have an idea of what game that's going to be. Me too. Curious for me is like which game is going to be the least played? I have a couple ideas on that, but we'll save them. Okay, I'm not going to tell you any more numbers. And then I guess the question is... Does that mean it has to go if it's the lowest played? If it's the lowest played, let's say over a quarter of the modern strings, does it need to leave? Well, probably. Taking up space? I have an idea what machine that's going to be and I'm going to not want to get rid of that one, but I would. I'd be kind of sad. I would be kind of sad.
    39:23
    I'd be kind of sad. Just, I won't make you wait if you're the listener. No. I can say which one I think will be the lowest played. All right, you can do a prediction. Because this is a prediction. It's not the real number because we don't know the data yet. July is like halfway done, not even. I think it's going to be Led Zeppelin Pro. Yeah, that's what it's looking like. I think Led Zeppelin Pro is going to be the lowest played game and I don't want to get rid of it.
    39:53
    But if it is the lowest played game for three quarters, for three months, a quarter of the year straight, I'll get rid of it. Okay. I don't want to. You better start playing it. But, you know, people at the HQ, they speak with their plays. Well, Mike, you can also contribute if we see you just only playing Zeppelin. Like, why is Mike only playing Zeppelin? Well, he doesn't want to get rid of it. So it's way behind on the numbers. Yep. Mm-hmm. There's something I love about that game. It's fun. I don't know what it is. Like, if you've made it this far into the show, you'll get mad at me for what I'm about to say. This will make a lot of you mad. What? I like Led Zeppelin Pro better than Godzilla. Whoa! Yeah. I like it better than Avengers Infinity Quest. I like it better than Iron Maiden. I have more fun playing Led Zeppelin Pro than I have playing Godzilla. I don't want to get rid of it, so I'm going to go play it like 15 times if we have time. We don't. I'm not trying to tell you, the viewer and the listener that Ledesopin Pro is better than Godzilla. Just for you. It's not better than Godzilla, okay? Okay. I didn't say it's better. I'm saying I like it better. That's okay. Steve Ritchie would be really happy to hear that, I bet. I think you like it better. I do. Yeah. So whatever that says about us, I don't care. I just, you know, I feel like on Godzilla, like, I feel like I gave it a shot. We had one in the house for a little bit. I played it, but I didn't even want to play it then. Nope. I don't know. I don't know what, I don't know what it is about it. Is it because everybody loves it and then I feel like I can't love it? No. I, I, cause I tried really hard. When we rented it, I played it, I think at least 400 times, but I never once looked forward to playing it. I played it because I'm like, I need to try to play this more.
    42:06
    I made myself play it so that I'm not horrific at the game. But I just, I don't get enjoyment out of it.
    42:16
    I like it a little bit. Like if it was the last pinball machine in the world, I would play it like crazy.
    42:23
    I like it a little bit. It's, every pinball machine is fun. Yeah, for sure. Every, almost every pinball machine is fun. Except for Spinal Chap. That one is even a little bit fun. They're all kind of fun. Even Shrek.
    42:37
    Even Guns N' Roses. Jersey Jack. They're all fun. But man, I just have, I really love playing Led Zeppelin Pro. And I like it better than the Premium. And I'm not just saying that because that's the one we have. I don't like the big thing coming up out of the middle and getting in my way.
    42:58
    Okay. It ruins what I love about the game with the openness. And people are, it's got nothing in it, it's open, that's why it's great.
    43:07
    Hot take. That's why it's great. Well? It's like, it reminds me of some of the early 80s ones, like some of the first games with ramps, where there wasn't a lot in there. And there's not a bunch of shit right in your face that's gonna break it right back at you. A couple things on the left, if you miss that long Zeppelin ramp, that can be, Shoot it right back at you. Well, maybe that's what the pop-up was supposed to be like. All right, this is like an 80s open layout, but wait a second. You want something to hit you back in the face a la Black Knight? Get it out. Let me raise this up. Get it out. And let it raise it up on the eagle's wings. Proponents of the premium would be like, you can score so much in that thing. Like, you can do this mode and you score so much in that spinner. I don't care. It's not why I play Led Zeppelin. I play Led Zeppelin for like, it's like a breath of fresh air playing Led Zeppelin Pro. Look at that ball go, like so far back up, especially on the right, everything's far back there and just wing it back there. Yeah. And you don't really have to think because there's not like modes really, like you start the thing to do the tour multiball, you hit the, get the multiballs and you jam. It's true. And I love that game, so I better get play in it so it doesn't have to leave. It's all warmed up, ready for you. Uh huh. Mm-hmm. Ha ha ha ha. Mike's just gonna start games and then like reset it. Start games, reset it. Start games. Or maybe play one ball. I don't know if you have to play a ball for it to count as a play. Mike doesn't care if he's putting more plays on the game and not really playing them. He doesn't care. I don't give a shit about play counts on my games. No, I know. No. I don't know how we went to that path, but yeah. I'm not trying to say Led Zeppelin is not better than Avengers or Godzilla or Iron Maiden. It's not better than those, okay? Those are better pinball machines with better code and better layouts. But I like Zep Pro better. You know what? Just say what you feel. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's 45 minutes. Steph's got to try to play James Bond before we go host this tournament. I got to BJB. You gotta get a BJB. Yep. Uh huh. And it's nice and quiet here at the AHQ. Happy to report. It's not hot as balls up here. Just a little hot. No, it's not like last week. I got the fan on. I think that makes a big difference. Alright, next week we're gonna bring Marsh. Marshall next week. Yeah, that'll be fun. Because even if people are down playing, we close that door. Yeah. And he doesn't care about pinball noise. No. It makes him sleepy. Yeah, this is exciting. This is an exciting adventure for Marshall. Yeah, he needs more of them. If he could get to a point where he's okay being here for the tournaments, it's like a game changer. Yeah. If he can just be up here and be cool. Game changer for him. His enjoyment. Because when we leave him at home, we have to put him in the crate because he gets real stressed out if he's not. So he gets a delicious Kong, but I just don't really like doing that. I'd rather him come here. He's our buddy. Yeah. All right. So yeah, we'll get this all Marshall ready. All we need is a dog bed and some peanut butter. Peanut butter Kong. All right. Well, thank you for listening if you've made it this far. Have a wonderful week, even though this comes out on Wednesday. Yeah. And we'll see you next week. If you are anywhere near within a few several hours of Bloomington, come out and see us on Saturday. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. Super fun. Plenty of room for everybody to spread out. Lots of room. It's not gonna be nuts to butts. No. Come hang. Come on out. That's all we got. Okay. Toodaloo. Bye.