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The Pinball Show Ep 122 Part 1: Colder Than A...

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 18m·analyzed·Feb 7, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Bond shipping, Stern production timeline, Borg interview insights on Rush design iterations.

Summary

The Pinball Show episode 122 features hosts discussing recent Pinball Awards results, Stern Pinball production updates, and an interview recap with legendary designer John Borg. Key news includes James Bond 007 60th Anniversary shipping this week, Elvira Premium production scheduled for late February, and Godzilla Premium priority bumping back Bond Pro production. Borg discussed original Rush design concepts that were ultimately cut, and confirmed he's working on two simultaneous games.

Key Claims

  • James Bond 007 60th Anniversary by Keith Elwin should begin shipping this week

    high confidence · Craig Bobby in Top Stories segment citing official Stern Pinball shipping timeline

  • Elvira Premium production scheduled to begin late February 2024

    high confidence · Craig Bobby citing George Gomez confirmation on Marco stream and Stern official statement

  • Godzilla Premium production likely starting next week into following week

    high confidence · Craig Bobby in Top Stories segment with production schedule details

  • Bond Pro production originally scheduled for June is being bumped to end of year

    medium confidence · Dennis/Craig Bobby referencing production schedule changes; replaced by additional Godzilla Premium run

  • John Borg is currently working on his next two games simultaneously

    high confidence · Craig Bobby citing Borg's statement in Free Play Pinball Podcast interview with Amanda Hamilton

  • Original Rush design featured an additional scoop on far left where drop targets now are, with subway entrance

    high confidence · Craig Bobby recounting John Borg interview details from Free Play Pinball Podcast

  • John Borg and Keith Elwin swapped titles: Borg moved to Guardians of the Galaxy, Elwin to Iron Maiden

    medium confidence · Dennis discussing behind-the-scenes information about designer title assignments

  • James Bond 60th Anniversary costs $20,000 USD, equivalent to roughly $30,000 CAD with currency conversion and taxes

    high confidence · Dave Dennis calculating Canadian pricing with currency and HST considerations

Notable Quotes

  • “It's as cold as a witch's titty”

    Dave Dennis (referencing his mother's regional saying) @ early episode — Running joke throughout episode about Northeast cold weather; becomes recurring motif

  • “He's such a nice guy. This was a stellar interview.”

    Craig Bobby @ John Borg interview recap section — Establishes positive reception of Borg interview and his personality in industry

  • “When I listen to this, I'm like, you know what? He made the right call.”

    Zach (host) @ Rush design discussion — Validates Borg's design decisions to cut original mechanics as improvements

  • “It's interesting to know that it happened, but I don't think it was what he has and what that team has put together I think is much better”

    Zach (host) @ Rush design iteration discussion — Support for final Rush design choices over abandoned concepts

  • “I'm hoping to open this thing up this week as well as the rest of the country”

    Dave Dennis (discussing Bond 60th opening) @ Bond shipping news section — Indicates excitement and anticipation for Bond machine arrival in market

  • “Despite all the sloppy speculation out there, Elvira Premium is still on schedule to begin production this month”

    Craig Bobby @ Production updates section — Clarifies production timeline and addresses community rumors about delays

  • “Think about how many they must have down there, how many orders they must have for that machine down there”

    Zach @ Godzilla Premium demand discussion — Indicates strong market demand for Godzilla requiring production priority shifts

Entities

The Pinball ShoworganizationDave DennispersonCraig BobbypersonJohn BorgpersonKeith ElwinpersonGeorge GomezpersonJames Bond 007 60th AnniversarygameElvira Premiumgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Awards ceremony successfully executed as live production with multiple camera angles, transitions, and video clips

    high · Dave Dennis praise for production quality and surprise at technical execution despite live format challenges

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Awards production quality and methodology improvements received positive reception from community and industry

    high · Dave Dennis's role in rules/bylaws improvements, judge recruitment for diversity, and overall positive commentary on awards execution

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Borg cut original Rush mechanics (left scoop, subway) in favor of simpler design, which hosts validate as correct decision

    high · Craig Bobby interview recap and host agreement that final design is superior to abandoned concepts

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball faces significant design pipeline backlog with designers working 2-3 titles deep simultaneously

    medium · Discussion of Borg working two games simultaneously, Keith Elwin having nothing since Godzilla three years ago, implying deep queue

  • $

    market_signal: Godzilla Premium demand so strong it's displacing Bond Pro production schedule

    high · Craig Bobby and Zach discussion of back order volume requiring production priority shifts

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.234

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:12
The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. This week on the Pinball Show, we chat the latest pinball news with Silver Ball Chronicles' David Dennis. Top Stories with Craig Bobby becomes way too real. We've got some Stern Pinball production updates, details on a recent John Borg interview, analysis of Stern Pinball's new chief technology officer hire, James Bond getting some major upcoming polish, our impressions of the Scooby-Doo Pinball gameplay video, we go over the Pinball Awards and some behind-the-scenes details, as well as chat about Scott Denise's upcoming P3 game, And, of course, David Dennis is here, so he defiles the award-winning pinball podcast segment, the beloved Pinball Market Trends. Gooch. Let's have some fun in episode 122. That would be episode 189 in Canadian currency.
1:09
Go, go, go! Man, I got all the favorite bitches saying I'm delicious. All you motherfuckers laying in ditches. Pinball is a game of skill. They was rocking with your wives till they made a decision. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle.
1:25
It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pinball Show. All these bitches do say I'm delicious. I wonder if that's a good descriptor for myself or for the Pinball Show. Episode 122, baby, we got more glass. Woo, tapping some glass. We've got the pinball awards that we were awarded, the best podcast. So to celebrate, did I bring on Dennis Creasel? Hell no, I didn't. I thought, why not bring on number two? And number two is the runner-up for the best pinball podcast. He's the host of Everything You Love and Silver Bowl Chronicles with Ron Hallett. It's none other than Dave Dennis. How's it going, Dave? I'm doing fantastic You've got backup Dennis This week So when you can't get the real one You go with the one that's slightly chubbier And it only makes sense because Last year around this time I think after the award ceremony You did come on to do a recap with Dennis So I thought, yeah, this would be great If Double D is willing to come on And hang out with me It was Dennis versus Dennis I'm kind of sad that you didn't Show your ass at the pinball awards that occurred last week. Yes, I wanted to attend. Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. But I did watch online, and I was there in spirit, although much more sober than some of the folk in the room that night. You were as spirited. I certainly wasn't, no, but I'll tell you what, I certainly missed out on that. My wife was traveling. She went to Dallas this week. Oh, nice. And the previous week I was in Toronto for work, so it was just an absolute mess to get any time away. More so than we could. And, man, my January has been a train wreck. You guys have to shovel tunnels right now to get out of your driveways and stuff, right? It is crazy here. This is, I think, the coldest I have ever experienced on the East Coast in my area. It's been minus 28 Celsius, which I think is like minus 26 Fahrenheit. So when Celsius and Fahrenheit come into line, it is like insane. That shit is cold. But the worst part is we've had like this wind chill, right? So I don't know if you guys get that in the Midwest. Yeah, yeah. Wind chill is a lot lower. It feels like kind of thing, yeah. Yeah, so it feels like colder. But the thing is here we are so close to the ocean in the upper sort of Midwest or Mideast. In the northeast.
Godzilla Premium
game
Rush Pinballgame
Stern Pinballcompany
Pinball Awardsevent
Free Play Pinball Podcastorganization
Silver Ball Chroniclesorganization
Ron Hallettperson
Bruce Nightingaleperson
Amanda Hamiltonperson
Guardians of the Galaxygame
Iron Maidengame
Jurassic Parkgame
Metallicagame
X-Mengame

personnel_signal: John Borg currently managing two simultaneous game designs, indicating design capacity and workload at Stern

high · Craig Bobby citing Borg interview statement: 'He's currently working on his next two games simultaneously'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: John Borg and Keith Elwin swapped title assignments; Borg moved to Guardians, Elwin to Iron Maiden

    medium · Dennis discussing behind-scenes information about designer title exchanges and Eddie/Groot head mechanic implications

  • $

    market_signal: Bond 60th Anniversary pricing $20k USD creates significant Canadian market friction at ~$30k CAD with tax/currency

    high · Dave Dennis calculation showing 50% cost increase due to currency conversion and HST, noting could buy 1987 BMW for similar price

  • ?

    announcement: James Bond 007 60th Anniversary shipping this week with Keith Elwin as designer

    high · Craig Bobby: 'James Bond 007 60th anniversary by Keith Elwin and Stern Pinball should begin shipping this week.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Bond Pro production bumped from June to end of year, replaced by additional Godzilla Premium run

    medium · Craig Bobby: 'The Bond Pro production that was planned for June is being bumped back to the end of the year'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball February production: Elvira Premium late month, Godzilla Premium early month

    high · Craig Bobby detailed production schedule with confirmation from George Gomez and Stern

  • ?

    product_concern: Bond 60th Anniversary experiencing production run completion this week after quick turnaround from announcement to manufacturing

    high · Craig Bobby noting faster turnaround than previous Bond iteration and competing excitement despite lack of gameplay video

    • 4:08
    The Canadian Middle East. Balloons and stuff. Yeah, spy balloons. I get you. Totally. So it gets so much water in the air that it gets really cold when the wind chill takes off. So it felt like minus 43 Celsius. Eric Stone, I think last time you came on this show, you bored people with weather too, didn't you? The hell? I think I probably did. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I did. Because I shook my head to that? Was it something about a snowblower? Wasn't there like a snow... Crackers were eating too in the microphone? Shit. Yeah, they were saltines, so then I had to take a drink of water after. I'm starting to think Joel might be right. Yeah, it's Joel.
    4:55
    Sorry. I'll edit my laugh out. You're fucking making me laugh. That was great. You know what? You were talking about how cold it was, boring everybody.
    5:06
    How about this? Is this a regional saying? My mother used to say, it's as cold as a witch's titty. Now, is that something that you've heard before? Is that like a Midwestern Southern thing? What is it? So do you measure the cold by the length? By the teat? I don't know. It's as cold as a witch's titty. And I thought, you know, witches have cold, I don't know. Cold hearts, maybe. No, we don't say that here. You don't? We don't say that here. I think they can't go around these parts. Something cold as a witch's titty. Okay. Maybe that's a thing. Oh, I got to say, though, Dave, that you had the entire room of the Pinball Awards after the ceremony because you have been integral.
    5:58
    Integral. How do you say that word? Integral? That is five-word score for somebody from Indiana, so I'll give you that one. Integral. That's like Travis Meary saying, Integral. No, but we at the Pinball Awards, we had a great ceremony. We'll talk about that later on. But at the conclusion of it, you have been integral in the production of the Pinball Awards. Whether you were there or not, you've helped do social media. You've helped secure voting. You've helped create all of the voting measures. You've helped tell people a little bit about all you have done, not only for TPM, but the Pinball Awards.
    6:43
    Yeah, I thank you for that. That's maybe a little more credit than I probably deserve. That's not true. You're being humble. It's done a crap load. So I write a lot of the rules and bylaws in the ways, the methodologies of we do things. So this year we went through a big change with the pinball awards, not only just a name change, but we also changed the methodology of how we count it. So I kind of got to write that in a way that people will understand. Recruiting judges is really tough. So one thing that we struggle with in pinball in general is ethnic diversity, gender diversity, because we're a very like we're like a stereotype when it comes to the hobby. And you can speak to the socioeconomics of the pinball hobby and North Americans and Americans in general as to why we look the way we look in this hobby, but that's another story. So what we do is we actively try to manage that, and the new methodology helps us with that. So we're always reaching out to individuals that we want to be a judge to help spread the judging pool, to help spread the ethnic and gender diversity, all of that stuff. But it's really difficult. So I work with a lot of that stuff, creating the ballot and survey monkey as well as double checking things like triple checking things. So Amanda, Amanda was huge this year when it came to crunching the numbers of the ballots and helping us look through the people who requested ballots, both the public and the judging side. So then we spent a lot of time, you know, confirming IP addresses and reaching out to those individuals and asking for extra information if we wanted to confirm who they were. So I do a lot of that stuff. So it's like all the numbers and behind the scenes. And then you and Greg, George killed it. All you guys sort of do the other end. Yeah, we get all the good stuff.
    8:32
    Yeah, but you also get all the bad stuff. Oh, Lord knows that. So the arrows don't make it through you because people can't see the puppet master being myself and Dennis Creasel. I know. I'll take them, though. I'll take them just like that big old Chinese spy balloon. I'm big. That's right. And I cover a lot of area. But when the missiles come, baby, it's me that gets hit. Hopefully one day they'll get, like, satellites like the rest of the world.
    9:03
    So the reason I brought that up is at the conclusion of the pinball awards, we were all elated. We nailed this thing for the most part. A couple hiccups here and there. But we nailed it. It was wonderful. And we felt great about it. So it was time to party. we did we call you or did you call uh how did that work so what happened so i was um i watched from home uh my wife and i we watched we we chrome cast it from youtube onto my tv and we were watching it and i was i it went so much better than i expected it legitimate like when we said well you said you're going to go live right but it's so hard to to do things live when uh you had such good pre-production before and production of an actual video you can control everything i didn't expect the transitions i didn't expect the video clips i didn't expect multiple cameras oh i i did expect more lights though i was a bit disappointed in the amount of lights that george fisher brought i thought there could be more i had to supply some that's okay okay well so it was just audio so that was on me yeah i i thought it was uh i thought i was i was shocked at how well a live production went. Did you call in? I did. So what I did is after the show, I was like, I had to call everybody and tell them how like a great job they were. So I called like Amanda on video and she didn't answer. And then I called, you know, you and you didn't answer. And I'm pretty sure I called Greg, which is like the lowest of the, of the total. That's surprising. And then, and then I called Joel because I figured Joel's got nothing better to do than answer the phone. He was just waiting for your call. And he didn't answer either. So I said, well, you know, screw you guys. I'm going to bed because I'm two hours different than you guys. It was late, late then. It was late, yeah. So I was like, okay, I'm going to bed. So I went upstairs, and I was brushing my teeth, and I took my shirt off. Who cares? Fuck, what are these details? I was in my Iron Man undies. Brushing my teeth. What kind of toothpaste do you use there, Chris? I use Sensodyne, obviously, because I got sensitive teeth. I go pro-namal. Maybe it is a Sensodyne product. Keep going. It is. Pronamel is the one that creates the better enamel. See, there you go. I drink too many Pepsi's. Not a sponsor of the show. A witch's titty. So it's cold as a witch's titty. Witch's breast. Okay, go ahead. So what I did is I just put my phone on the counter of the bathroom, and then it rang. And I was like, oh, Joel is calling me. So I answered it, but I didn't realize he answered it on – he was calling on video. so when i was talking on the phone holding it up to my head it was really loud and i'm like what the hell and then i looked at the phone and he was looking at me and you were all standing in the background and you were naked and i was no i had my iron man undies on we didn't see that we just saw you naked well that's because because after about two seconds i was like Oh, my God. Right? So then I moved the camera so you could only see my nips up. You're holding your bosoms. Just above the nips.
    12:13
    Because you've got to pay more for that over on Silverball Chronicles Patreon if you want to see the nips. So I was like, oh, my God. And then I was like, oh, God. And then I panicked and I didn't know what to do. You had a whole crowd. And then he was like, are you naked? And I was like, oh, no. Well, I mean, I have to know what to do. You're like, shit. What am I supposed to do now? Right now I've already dug the hole. Oh, man. That was great. But it was like I didn't think it was video, and then it wasn't. I was like, oh, no. I like that you kind of puffed your chest up and raised your chin and had a Superman stance the rest of the call. I did, and I put one leg up on a chair. Great job, team. Good job, everybody. I was pleasantly surprised at everybody except for Joel. Do you think your co-host Ron Hallett watched the show at all? I think he did because I got some messages with some of his favorite quotes from the show. Oh, our announcer lady gave him a call out when it came to... It was a podcast and it was like the one without Bruce Nightingale. I know. I heard their last slam tilt and he was not happy about that call out. Don't blame me. Blame the paid voiceover actor lady. Not that I wrote all of her stuff, but... Sorry, Bruce. stars made it into the pinball machine hall of fame he had to have loved that oh my oh did they ever the official uh pinball machine of slam tilt podcast yeah so you know did you know what the official song of the slam tilt podcast is i don't know so they have official pinball machine but they also have an official i heard some talk about that but i don't it's the pina colada song okay if you like pina i didn't know if that was like a really dry Canadian joke?
    14:01
    Well, they don't all land. They don't all land. Did you not see my performance at the pinball awards? Somewhere of the 4,000 people that are listening, somebody crashed their car. They were laughing. You'll get that too because Dennis Creasel does that on the regular here on the pinball show with all his movie references. Him and George were talking about how hilarious it is that everything flies over my head. That's okay though. gotta have a heel. Guts to have a heel. Well, I'm glad you're here, Dave. I'm glad the Pinball Awards is over, believe me. And we've got a lot of news this week. So we need to jump into it with none other than our favorite person in the world. Somebody that's been really busy doing podcasts and video streams and stuff lately. It's the one, it's the only, it's the award-winning Top Stories with Craig Bobby.
    14:55
    Hello and welcome back to the Pinball Show's Top Stories. I'm Craig Bobby. So much going on in the pinball world this week, starting with the broadcasting of the annual Pinball Awards this past Saturday night and hosted with our own Zach Menne and the always charismatic Craig Bone. The show was extremely well done with special guest appearances, incredible video introductions and transitions, tons of giveaways, and of course, the Crystal Awards themselves. With the pinball show in stern pinball winning, well, pretty much everything. Proving once again that Rush is the greatest game ever created. And that Craig Bobby, I mean, what can you say about this crazy gentleman? Wait, hold up, Dave. I'm pausing that. What is Craig talking about? Rush won. Rush did well. Rush did kind of clean up, but they didn't... He didn't... Rush didn't win everything. I am the resident Canadian, and I seem to recall that, yes, Rush did actually win everything. No, it didn't. See, it did win everything. I'm with Dave. Wait a minute. My notes say everything. Craig, is that you? This isn't a recording. Ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only, coming to join the show is the man himself, Mr. Top Stories Award-winning Craig Bobby. Dude, I thought... Nicely done. You fooled me. Hello. Well, I am everywhere. I don't know how he could have done that. He's been on video. How did he fool you? It's a fucking bit, Dave. It's a bit. Oh, I'm sorry. It's a... Oh, jeez. I'm so bad at this. I am everywhere. I'm under your desk right now.
    16:37
    Why do you have your shirt on? You thought that tickling was the dog. No. Craig. It was my desk. Now I know you have a desk. Craig Morf'd. Wow. Craig Bobby, what's happening? It's good to have you here. Oh, it's great to be on. Great to be on. While we thought we needed a little more Canada in with the pinball show, you can never have enough. Right, Dave? Absolutely. We are filled with all the wit, charm, and maple that you can cram into your pants. Right now, I'm just thinking of making it rain maple syrup drizzle all over Witch's titties. You have no idea. How did we win an award, Craig? What is going on? I have no clue. I mean, what a fluke that was, honestly. I think it's time to also recognize that, yes, Craig Bobby was not at the Pin Barn. I'm sorry, the Flippin' Out Theater. Thank you. And he is very much an integral part of this podcast. I see how that is, yeah. And so much so that I do have to publicly speak on behalf of Dennis, I think, unless he corrects me next week. we couldn't have done it without Craig Bobby and Craig's top story, so much so that I've had several people, one within the last month, they were sending me hate mail. It was the nastiest email, nastiest message from Messenger that I've ever received as a human being. Just atrocious, disgusting, and despicable. But they did highlight in that rant that the only thing good about the pinball show, as you already know, is Craig Bobby and his top stories and Dennis Creasel. you're a piece of shit zach so and i agree that took me a long time to edit that uh that letter to you by the way that took me a long time i gotta point out though that that that craig did that entire intro thing in one go yes he didn't like he didn't he doesn't freak around with that man that was one go and i'm like i'm like jeez if that were ron and i that would have taken friggin' four hours worth of editing.
    18:46
    Well, I am the first graduate of the Mark Silk Voice Acting College. Oh. You know, so thank you, Mark Silk.
    18:56
    Well, the pinball show, you know, we represent gold here. We weave gold, and we couldn't do it without you, Craig. Congratulations on the award, and thank you again for everything that you've provided to this pinball community.
    19:10
    You're too kind, And thank you to everybody for voting us too. As I say to everybody, you guys have been so good to me to allow me to roll with what I want to do and you give me lots of creative freedom to do it But honestly we couldn without you and dennis and uh you know you guys are obviously the backbone of the show and um you know i guess that why people keep tuning that why you the front bone it'll be backbone you get the front bone i think it's the more preferred bone if you ask me uh well i'm just glad that you didn't open up with 15 minutes worth of putting people to sleep with canadian weather so i appreciate that thank you you got anything you're nibbling on there too, Craig? No? You good?
    19:59
    It is cold. I'm done eating. I've ate all my food. I was so excited. What do you guys say we jump into some news for these people? Yeah, let's do it. James Bond 007 60th anniversary by Keith Elwin and Stern Pinball should begin shipping this week. That's huge news. That's big news. Big, big, big news. The turnaround to start that was much quicker from announcement to actual manufacture and deliver than the last one. I feel like it's taken them longer to get to this stage than it did for them to make the original Doctor No.
    20:32
    That's kind of how long I think it's taken right now. I find it somewhat odd that we haven't seen any video of this yet. We haven't seen a stream of it. It's not news to anybody how weird this has all been. Hashtag Eon. That being said, I am super excited for this pin. Super excited for this pin. I am exclusively excited. Dave, have you been talking with Zach about how much he's going to sell you his 60th for? Yeah, so I have had some back and forth but I have not been able to whittle him down to free I think we have two left I'm the master manipulator here in pinball I'll have you mortgage your house again It's all in my voice For that price, honest to God So in the States, it's 20 grand, which is a lot of money. You get that to Canada. You've got to convert that into Canadian dollars. So that's an extra 30 percent. OK, so you add 30 percent extra based on currency alone. Then you've got to pay the harmonized sales tax of the province of which you live. Harmonized sales tax. So we have a harmonized sales tax or an HST on pretty much everything except for like food.
    21:49
    That is another 15. It's a harmonized sales tax. I gave you guys the options. Let's do it together. 15.
    22:01
    Percent. That's harmonized. You see what we did there, Dave? That was nice. Keep going. Very well. So then you add another 15% for your HST. Now, if you live in Alberta, which is basically Canada's Texas, sort of like how Ontario is Canada's Michigan. Okay. And New Brunswick is Canada's Maine. All right. they only have, I think it's 7% of their GST. Oh, God. So if you live in Alberta, it gets a little bit better. But anywho, in a nutshell, if I were to buy that, it's 30 grand Canadian. And for 30 grand Canadian, I can buy a 1987 BMW like one – Studebaker. I can buy a 1987 BMW 325i Cabriolet for like $33,000. Aren't those the funky ones that have the roof that comes off and stuff? Yeah, yeah. They call it a convertible where you're from. Do they want the roofs to come off of it? Yeah. No roll bar in this, baby. You get your head crushed. We're just getting a new shipment of late 1980s model BMWs up in Canada these days. The supply chain has been brutal up here, so this is what we're down to now. So we've got Bond 60s coming your way. In a nutshell, they're expensive. You could have went with that, Dave, up in Canada. And they're expensive down here as well. I'm ready to get my flippers on and open up one of those bad boys. I haven't opened up my regular, I'm going to call it the Gomez LE yet because I've been wanting to open the Elwin LE. I've actually passed on the Gomez LE. I was shocked that I got the call from my distro. and I think some distros here still have them in stock, if you wanted to call it a pass. Wow, that's so pretty. It is, and trust me, if the price were the same as a Godzilla, it'd be in my house right now.
    24:00
    I got the pass from the spouse. I got the spouse pass, and then when the price came out, I still have the spouse pass. Okay. I still have the spouse pass. But I know I'm going to have to cash in my points from elsewhere. and I don't know if I want to cash in those points in frequent flyer miles once you screw up you lose all your points I'm hoping to open this thing up this week as well as the rest of the country Canada usually has to wait a little bit longer, Australia by the summer they should have it sorry guys and then also production wise in Stern Pinball News right now on the production line I think they're finishing off some James Bond Pro and Premiums Bond 60th on the line this week because they're going to be shipping this week as well. What's going to happen after that? We're in February. Production-wise, we are going to, despite all the sloppy speculation out there, Elvira Premium is still on schedule to begin production this month. Likely, though, towards the end of the month. So we get a couple more weeks. But there was something that came up, and George Gomez was talking on the Marco stream, and people were like, he said indefinitely it was going to be delayed. No, he didn't say that. And then we got confirmation from Stern that, no, it's still indeed scheduled for this month alongside Godzilla Premium production likely to start next week into the following. So Godzilla Premium likely to come before the Elvira Premium, but both Godzilla Premium and Elvira Premium in the production rounds for February. Now, have I heard that the Bond Pro has been bumped to June the next one? Who in the hell are you? What is going on? You're getting sources now. That's Craig's job. I'm sorry. Stick to your lane there, Dennis. The report is, yes, that the Bond Pro production that was planned for June is being bumped back to the end of the year. Now, keep in mind, listener, that the Bond Pro is also being made again still in April. So we're still going to get an April run of the Pro and Premium Bond. But yeah, it was scheduled for a June run for the Pro that has been bumped to the end of the year and being replaced by none other than, thank you, God, Stern, Godzilla Premium. Another additional run of Godzilla Premium. Yes. That is something else. And we still won't have our back orders filled. Think about how many they must have down there, how many orders they must have for that machine down there. A lot. Jeez. A lot. I could fill an arc. If you're talking about bumping back one of your newest games in order to fulfill a game that's three titles before that. So that's your production update from Stern Pinball. And wait and see when it comes to toppers and everything else.
    26:54
    Let's see. Does this episode get that juicy nugget? Maybe. Maybe Pinball Market Trends. We've got to wait and see there. We've got to wait and see. We didn't have to wait very long to hear a very nice interview with John Borg this last week on the Free Play Pinball Podcast with Amanda Hamilton and Craig Bobby.
    27:14
    Jeez. You're everywhere. You had to give up a liver and an arm to get on that podcast. I had to push to the front of the line on that one. But you and Borg had nice chemistry there. Oh, he's such a nice guy. This was a stellar interview. Oh, thanks. He's such an easygoing guy, and Amanda, of course, is such a gracious host, and it was so much fun to talk with him and just to hear his mindset in terms of how he created that game. He's such a huge fan of Rush, as you guys probably knew already. So, yeah, what a treat it was to pick his brain a little bit. He said a few little things there, too. Yeah, some gold nuggets there. You guys dove down deep into just his designing mindset as well as some of the design elements and choices and behind-the-scenes stuff for the design and production of Rush Pinball by Stern Pinball. For instance, he said, like, originally, on the design of Rush, to the far left, there was another scoop to the far left on Rush where the drop targets are. So where the drop targets are now in that little physical ball lock, there was another scoop there. and the entrance to that or like there was a subway entrance where the Vuck shot is now. On the Pro, it's that dead end shot, I believe. On the Premium, it's that Vuck shot that hops it up on a wire form and it comes back to the flipper. But imagine there being a hole there, a little gobbly, and I know Dennis is not a fucking gobble hole, but it's a hole and gobble is a funny word. So it drops down in there, goes through a subway and then jumps out of the additional scoop over onto the left. I'll tell you, When it comes to these interviews, Zach, you listen to these interviews and there's always times – and I listen to a lot of these things because I've got nothing better to do. And you hear these things and you're like, oh, man, that would have been so good if they left that in. Or, oh, I can't believe they took that mech out or changed that mech. When I listen to this, I'm like, you know what? He made the right call. I think so. I agree. I think these things actually don't improve the gameplay. It's interesting to know that it happened. but I don't think it was what he has and what that team has put together I think is much better I do not think that if they did do that Dave I think that the pro would still have that dead end shot I don't think we would have had a subway on that pro you would have had a dead end shot there and then you'd still have maybe your scoop from the left but it would be an idle station scoop so you'd hit it in there and it'd come back out rather than being a vuck scoop shot from a subway. So I completely agree with you. And I like on the premium LE of Rush, that lock feature with the forks back there. I think it's really clever. Anytime something is behind a set of bank of drop targets, I'm a huge fan of that. Everybody loves physical captive balls. Yeah. He also said during this interview with CB and Hammy that he's currently working on, that's John Borg, currently working on his next two games simultaneously. How the hell does that even work? Isn't that interesting? Yeah. he's a veteran they can he can juggle uh plenty of pinballs but they have a they have a serious glut at the moment right if you think about all of the games that they're working on or had been working on or play fields and things like they're you know they're a good two years stacked up now so it's interesting to hear that i remember listening to keith ellen when jurassic park came out and he was and he said during i think the stream with jack danger that he has the next whitewood completed during that stream which was which would to be uh avengers right and he's working on the next one which was godzilla he didn't say the names but that's what he said at that time and that was like three years ago and he has always he's had nothing since godzilla So he must be like three deep. Yeah, he's got to be. And now you've got Borg who says he's too deep.
    31:14
    I've heard from behind the scenes Borg is very efficient at design elements. And we've seen that with some of his designs. They have very similar features. He very much has a style in pinball now, especially at Stern Pinball. Even Rush. Rush felt similar, akin to a Turtles or an X-Men. And we've seen that we've seen him do things like Guardians of the Galaxy that somewhat looks familiar to an Iron Man and a Metallica and an Aerosmith and a Kiss. I'll stop. So he has a style. But working on the next two games simultaneously, it's pretty impressive. Now, I did know that him and Keith Elwin flopped titles. He was working on Iron Maiden, I thought. And Keith Elwin was working on Guardians of the Galaxy. and then for whatever reason those swapped because he talked about the Groot head. That was going to be the Eddie, big Eddie head from the Iron Maiden license. I thought that was interesting too, just thinking that wasn't always going to be a Groot head. That was going to be Eddie. I think that would have worked as well. Can you imagine what the sales of Iron Maiden would have been if that was Guardians of the Galaxy?
    32:32
    I love Guardians. oh this got this got really really weird man that would have been good i i look i they're both good designs they're both good layouts so at the end of the day i'm not angry but that would have been an interesting layout for guardians and so so the reason the reason i bring that up is is i'm at like a slightly above pinball muggle player like i would say i'm a maybe average player okay and And I can't get – You're a tournament player, though, so you can say whatever you want. Yeah, but I'm not very good at the tournament play. I mostly finish well because I show up.
    33:14
    It's really – the current Guardians of the Galaxy is – those shots of those ramps are really tight. There's a lot of dangerous sort of shots in there if you try to get the flow going. When I play Iron Maiden, I feel like a god because I can keep the ball going. And that would be why I brought up the fact that, oh, man, if that was – because I would have an Iron Maiden. It just isn't for my household. It's a bit – zombies and stuff in my living room with my wingback chairs and my scotch. Cognac. With my black lab sitting in front of my stove. Your hairy chest. Yeah, not really for me. I don't know. I will say that I think that Stern made the right decision. I don't know why they made this decision, but ultimately I think it was the right one because if you ask me, coming out of the gate with Keith Elwin, you're going to get sales no matter what that theme is. So why not lump it with Iron Maiden, which in my opinion is a lesser than license when compared to Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah, I think you're right on that. Did you hear that, Dennis? I hate saying that. I know. Since Creasel out there is rolling his eyes right now, you guys are too easy on him. That was a good interview. Go listen to it. on demand at the pinball network it's the free play pinball podcast nicely done craig bobby well what do you know a recent pinball talk show episode of flipping out with friends featuring joel ingleberth and mr craig bobby as well as frisco pinball's ahadi and the pinballers mike they covered last week's big news items in pinball so go watch that video on demand at flipping out pinball but they included discussion on the pinball awards which we'll talk about as well as a new Stern Pinball hire. That is Erica Fromm, designated as Stern Pinball's Chief Technology Officer, CTO, coming from, I think, 01 or 01 Insights. That company worked closely with Stern Pinball in the development of Stern Pinball's Insider Connected platform. Ms. Fromm also served as Director of Systems Development at WMS Gaming in the past. So she is a Wiley veteran. You guys discussed on that show a lot of implications this may lead to, what we may see in the future. Stern Pinball going all in on Insider Connected, this being further evidence, as well as what you also discussed in the show. Stern holding another new patent that they filed two years ago, but recently confirmed in discussion regarding connectivity, patents on connectivity. and Stern Pinball being able to maybe some gameplay features and connectivity and what that may lead. Now, Craig, I know you're well-versed in Stern Pinball stuff. You were the correspondent for the pinball show directly to cover Stern Pinball in the past, so you keep up with them very well. What do you see in the future when it comes to these additions? We have the new CEO that comes from Disney, DLC. Are we going to see DLC? We've got Miss Fromm being added that helped create the whole Insider Connected platform.
    36:20
    What's going on here? Is there something, or are we looking too deep into it? Oh, I definitely think there's something.
    36:26
    There's no doubt that Stern is all in on Insider Connected. I think the frustration has been not only with the community but with myself personally. It's just the length of time that it's taken for them to roll their program out fully. I think they're being incredibly meticulous about it. And I also think they are trying to be mindful that the development of this type of a platform is extremely cost prohibitive, I think, to develop this type of a platform. And as with most things they do, they want to do it the right way. So I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt of all that and just know that it is going to continue to develop and continue to get better as they go. But, you know, as a player and as a fan of Stern, it is frustrating that it's – I'm even surprised it's taken them this long to get to where they are today. But they're getting there. They're getting there. The app is coming. Yeah, what scares the crap out of me is that Miz from the CTO. now comes from a gambling background that scares the crap out of me oh why because that that to me says that we are coming into a dlc pay-to-play strategy not that i'm against it um it makes me uncomfortable like if we think about loot boxes and mobile gambling and gems and all this other crap that's that terrifies me to think that that would come to to my living room especially following seth davis joining the company after having worked with disney plus like i mean maybe not the thing that people don't understand is that technology the the t and cto is really difficult to code and program and do correctly like it's very easy to say oh a coil is x amount of dollars and you put it into your machine and it does these things it's very easy to do technology takes a longer time because you've got to have all this programming and testing and is it fun or not? Did I waste all this time? That's why designers are sitting on a backlog of designs. That's why coders are sweating trying to catch up. It's because technology and coding is what takes forever. Yeah, and we can see that with the latest release, right? But what concerns me here is that I feel like we're working down a path of a pay-to-play service which I mean it depends on what it looks like and what the cost is And are we going to look is it going to be the Netflix of pinball Like give me a break right I like Netflix I wait and see what it looks like But, you know, you can have a concern without being like an asshole about it. I sort of see them too almost like, you know, a lot of people when they get their games, they like to mod their games and add things to it. And I sort of see this as a digital mod in a lot of ways, that the mod will be there. It will not take away from the original product that you purchased, and you can participate in further enhancing and modding that game for a fee, I think, which will, knock on wood, hopefully be reasonable and affordable for most people. So, like, let's just say the average mod is, I don't know, $100.
    39:52
    That's hilarious. and maybe i'm low there depending on the mod that you're getting right so you know uh if you had to spend another i don't know 25 50 60 bucks on a amazing you know let's say for rush like a whole new catalog of songs that would integrate perfectly with your game would you do that i'd be like yes i would do that heads up here come the tomatoes virtual tomatoes they're gonna buy the dlc to throw them at you craig yeah and i know people with that craig because you're in you're in with stern click the buttons by a basket of vegetables you're a puppet throw it craig bobby you know i would love to sit down and talk with seth davis the ceo the president of the company i wonder if he would come on the pinball show oh the award-winning pinball show podcast to talk about, I'll have to reach out to Mr. Davis, because I think that Stern Pinball is very cognizant of what pinball enthusiasts want and don't want. I think that you've seen them focus on a lot of achievements, a lot of competition-based stuff, and so I think they're leaning more towards, instead of jumping into DLC and just throwing it in our face, they're jumping into, let's jam-pack this entire platform so that at the end of the day, people are going to get all kinds of stuff for free. It's already built into their systems. They're going to get all of that to get them into this program. And then in the future, maybe there are some perks and stuff that don't change. I think of it physically like the UV lighting kit. Everybody threw a fit whenever that came out. But essentially, you don't need that to enjoy Stranger Things. That game is great. but if you want that little extra, a little razzle dazzle, a little flair, then you can either pony up or not. I think if we do see DLC, it will be something like that. I don't think they're going to take really, really parts of a game totally and, and make it DLC or, you know, subscription based games. I don't see it, but I've been around before. Maybe they will make a gambling device out of this thing. That went so well in the, in the past.
    42:09
    well we do know that code is enhancing code is improving James Bond 007 code update happened last week version .84 that's quite a bit of jump there were like 7 something .84 and it comes with a lot of hefty additions thank you Stern Pinball and we've learned a lot about those you can go to sternpinball.com and find all of the little details on what this code update entails but quite a bit of stuff we're still I'm being honest here We're still a bit away from having this game function like any other game in your lineup. We need some more code. So much so that courtesy of Marco Pinball, their stream, and compiled from Nap Arcade, that's where I seen it, George Gomez, is reporting that this week we're going to see another James Bond update. This time, finally, including the ability to stack modes and multiballs. Oh, but Zach, I heard that they couldn't stack modes and multiballs because the licensor wouldn't allow them to do that because they're different movies and different clips. Well, you get clicks if you say anything. So, yeah. You want clicks? Sorry, I was waving my arms. People couldn't see that. Yeah, well, that was... Like Kermit the Frog. It was better that they didn't, to be quite honest. Yeah, Nap Arcade also indicating that George Gomez shared on the stream that the next update, there's going to be... It's going to get us up to about 20 modes available on this game and even more game polish. I'm so excited. It's finally getting there. It's not the licensor thing. It's just a coding approval thing probably. Yeah, because the coder, the approvals person for the code over at Dijak who owns the license, they have epilepsy. This is getting deep. I did hear this. Apparently they have epilepsy and they can't approve those clips. The details of rumors in pinball never cease to amaze. It may be true. This is my favorite. This has been my favorite group of rumors because they're so silly. There's that's that's why I love rumors. And they're very specific, very specific. And for those listeners who do not know, Dave, you are one of the biggest James Bond general and general fans in pinball. This is a dream theme for you. This is this is it. So I heard the rumors that Steve Ritchie was working on it. And I'm like, oh, yeah, my favorite designer, my favorite pinball machine. And then he left. I'm out of here. Steve Ritchie left. And I said, I think this is a good thing. I'm so excited. And then it was like, oh, George Gomez is on it. I'm like, oh, George Gomez is on it. This is even better. He's now my new favorite designer.
    44:45
    And then it came out, and I was like, it's so expensive. Why did they do this to me? It's so expensive.
    44:52
    Why? The layout looks good, though. Why do you hate me? The layout is nice. Oh, I played it when I was in Toronto at, or as we call it here in Canada, Toronto. And I played it at Cabin Fever up on Ballure Street. We say in Canada, Cabin Fever. Yes. And it is a great pin. Unfortunately, the drop targets weren't working. Wow. So I couldn't get into the actual multiball. Really? But I did shoot it, and it shoots really well. And I know that's a cop-out. Everybody says that. They're like, oh, it shoots really well. We'll see if the code gets there. Yay. And it actually does shoot really well. Okay. It's like you're saying it's like buying a Tesla but not having the automatic driver feature. Yeah, well, they don't have that either. They just tell you it's there.
    45:36
    You're just dumb enough to buy it. Why didn't you call me when you were in town? What the hell? It's because I don't like you, Craig. I get that.
    45:46
    I can see you guys just walking down the street going to Cabin Fever and different arcades together with just all merged out in pinball. Or I can see you, actually, I can see you both dancing, speaking of 007, like Daniel Craig. Dancing like Daniel Craig in that Belvedere vodka commercial. Yeah. Yeah, strutting your stuff and scooting your way into Cabin Fever to play the latest code update on Stern Pimble's James Bond.
    46:14
    Are you guys fully connected? Oh, I'm connected. Oh. Oh, he's connected. I'm deep. I'm deep and down the well of connectivity. Dave, what about your Tron? Is that fully connected? like connected like like like i have a subwoofer connected to it insider connected 2022 year in review this thing is damn cool who i love yeah so this is like the thing they do on like spotify or instagram right yeah or like youtube or for media member yeah cool like you did well here and here's who did this and here's here's how you suck you suck on ball too give up now we didn't even know it's going to creep we didn't even know that they were compiling some of this data but then they give it to us in a nice little package kind of like the iphone does for your photos like here's a memory of you and grammy sally last year and they put the little music behind it and you're like oh shit here's an update when grammy sally unfortunately died of a heart attack here's how many times you were bored last year good turnout but they did that in lane right into the outline. Here's when you drain as you're about to roll over to a billion points. You seem to be getting worse at pinball. But the 2022 year in review, it was really cool because it gave you all kinds of stats on how many games you played, how many achievements that you achieved, like specifics on your play style, and I liked it. For some reason, I'm a ball one kind of guy. I do best during my ball once. That's because you reset your game all the time. Exactly right. That was the point I was going to bring up. Yep. That's right. Ball two drain, the hell with that.
    47:54
    So, yeah, that was really cool. I think a lot of people liked that. And it's just another little creative tool to see where Insider Connected is going. I still think if I'm another manufacturer, I'm worried because I'm like, shit, the train not only has left the station, it's in a different country. There is no catching up to the connectivity that Stern Pinball is bringing because like you guys have both said publicly and here during this episode, they are all in on Insider Connected. And thus far, it has shown to be a very great thing for the entire industry. Yeah. So when I was a cabin fever, I walked in there and I'm like, oh, I took up my phone. I brought up my Google Wallet and I scanned my thing. And I was there with Joe Chiravino from Pinball Degenerates. He was there because I liked him, so I called and told him that we could get a package. Oh, so you met Joe, but you didn't make it. Geez. No wonder Joe never returns my call either. Sorry, CB. So he went over. He scanned his gimmick, and we had a great time. It was just automatic, right? It was like, oh, there we go. Do you think any – this is crazy talk. Do you think any manufacturer would ever wave the white flag and say, you know what? let's see if we can't partner up with Stern Pinball, even if it's called the Stern Pinball Insider Connected, and see if we can start utilizing this platform on our own games. Do you think that would ever happen, or do you think Stern would ever even be interested? I think more people are going to pick up, like, Scorbit. That's the low-hanging fruit. Scorbit is probably going to try to tilt as much as they can to basically do the same thing, which they've kind of been ahead of the game so far. They have. They really beat Stern to it, and there's a lot more operator and connectivity stuff, which is much better on Scorpion. But I think when it comes to, you know, they can sit back and see what works on IC connected with Stern and be like, okay, well, we can just add that, and they'll do their code and add that. That would assume that other manufacturers could actually produce and manufacture a game, because that would have to happen too. I just I don't see this ever happening but I think like if I was a manufacturer and I know people wanted connectivity if I could strike up a deal to pay Stern Pinball to allow us to use you know that feature the proof is in the pudding and that's all people talk about when it comes to connectivity is insider connected unless I'm just not paying attention to the the entirety of the community but that's all I hear I think honestly the boat has been missed by these other manufacturers personally in not hiring companies like, say, an American Pinball or a Stern Pinball to actually manufacture their own games. So they come up with the design, they come up with all of the stuff, and then they contract out one of the big dogs being, or somebody that has capacity, like an American Pinball. Or like, I actually think the Pinball Brothers did it perfectly with Progetti Gaming. That is the way to go. To free themselves of that manufacturing burden that is, for some reason these guys hang on to this like somehow this is the you know the chalice that must not be released it's like dude it happens in every other product you make you don't own your own t-shirt factory if you want to produce t-shirts you go to china or you go to wherever and get someone else to make it for you so i don't know to me that's just like a no-brainer but i think that's why outsourcing your online connectivity to a score bit as opposed to trying to do it yourself, that's the way to go. Yeah. That is the way to go. But, I mean, we see Stern Pinball here. They went to 01 Insights, had them help develop this whole thing, and damned if they didn't pull the leader there into their own company to work. Like, you know how important this Miss Fromm has got to be to Stern Pinball, and how big of a pitch they probably had to make to her to stop what she was doing for years and come over as part of the group of the project that she was working on as a commissioned gig from. Well, in business in general, the three things you want to do are outsource, systemize, and delegate. So, you know, identify what you're very good at and then outsource the things you're not good at. Delegate the things within your organization that you are not good at. And systemize or create processes to make sure that everything is easily repeatable. And that's basically what Stern did is they outsourced the creation of IC. You said the second one was delegate? Yeah.
    52:37
    Systemize. Well, I mean, it could be either. Delegate, systemize, and fuck. that's my favorite step outsource systemize and delegate Dave Fix are you listening are you taking notes I'm taking notes I'm not very good at those things do you think they offered her ok let's think about the perks free coffee surely they had some free coffee over there any microwave you would want to use all you can play pinball ok check think she has to share an office with anybody over there no Tim Sexton is he sharing an office George, well, there might be a new office in town once Gary, you know, Gary left. Hey, there you go. One of Gary's offices open. I know Seth Davis is off. Last time I was up there, I saw the office of Seth Davis. I was like, oh, my gosh, it's intimidating. He's not in there, is he? Oh, God. No, I don't want to meet him yet. I'm not. I haven't even done my hair. Have you seen Lonnie Robb's office? I've not. I don't think anybody who's been in Lonnie Robb's office has seen Lonnie Robb's office. It's such a mess. Oh, really? Well, I know I've never been behind the closed doors, the creative door, so I've not been in the engineer's office or anything. Yeah, there's no way in hell they would let you in there. Well, you know, there's discussions. Do they let you pee? Do they let you pee in Stern? They're like, you know what? You have to go down the street to the A&W. I have peed in Stern. I've peed at Stern. I've peed at American Pinball. I've peed at Jersey Jack. Everybody pees at American Pinball. That's why it smells. I've not been to, I think American People had a custodian in there.
    54:16
    Custodial representative, whatever you call it. Like living in there? Hey! I'm in here. And then I've not been to Spooky. CGC, I've not peed in, I've been in CGC, but I've not peed there. It's the janitor from Deep Root. They brought him in.
    54:35
    Where were we at? Oh, speaking of. Spooky Pinball doesn't have connectivity quite yet, but they've got a new game. Gameplay video of Scooby-Doo Pinball was released this last week, right leading up to the Pinball Awards. Overall, really, really good. I'd say great feedback thus far. Surprising thus far to a lot of people. And objectively, it has been able, their stream and gameplay has been able to sell games. Flippin' Out Pinball is now sold out of Scooby-Doo. We're out. We don't have any more. wow did you guys watch this gameplay video i did yeah i watched it i thought it was i thought it was really good uh much better than i thought it was going to be which i think was much needed over at uh spooky these days coming off of um their mixed release of uh halloween and ultra man it's very diplomatic of you craig i'll let zach field all the hate mail for that playing it safe I thought it looked great I thought they kept it simple I thought the animations looked great yeah it'll be interesting to see how it plays in real life but I think when you see a game that appears to be streaming well and playing well on camera I think that's a first great step that you're in for some fun when you actually get up to it and stand over it Mm-hmm. That's a good take. Dave, what do you think? Well, I'll tell you what.
    56:09
    You know, keep it safe. You know when in Dumb and Dumber, okay, when Harry and what's the other guy's name? Lloyd. Lloyd Christmas. So you know when Harry and Lloyd are out there and Harry sells the car and he shows up on that little motorcycle and he pulls up behind Lloyd and he says, hey, Lloyd, you know. Still want to go to Aspen?
    56:41
    Just when you thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go ahead and do something like this and totally redeem yourself. You know what I mean? And, like, they really drug their ass on the carpet with Halloween and Ultraman. And then they've gone and completely done the 180. And everybody's back on the bandwagon. We've all forgotten the days have passed. That's what's happening here. And even for me, I'm like, man, that looks pretty good. I don't know why. You're like, eh. So you're saying the spooky pinball sold their dead bird to a blind kid. Is that what you're reporting here? they could have added more scoops a little disappointed in the amount of scoops Petey didn't even have a head and more hedges too, I wanted a few more hedges but I gotta say for a wide, quote unquote, wide body wherever they want to pretend that it's not seems to shoot fairly quick seems to have a lot of really fun back and forth at upper playfield I mean, it looks great yeah, and I think that that is not only the best rhyme that we could have come up with It was also the best design choice. Which also rhymes. Design and rhyme. Not really. It was hot today, though. Dave is flying. Yeah, he's trying. God, I am weaving gold here.
    58:04
    You're weaving something. The witch's titty. It's because it's cold. My take on this gameplay, as expected, because I sell for this company, so... B-plus. I've given all of my original thoughts to the wayside. I no longer have a soul, and I am only speaking to manipulate you, listener, and that the only reason I spending time and effort to produce and edit this podcast Basically my voice doesn matter So who the fuck cares So Zach in my industry in the financial industry what we call you doing right now is disclosing a conflict of interest. Oh, okay. Okay, so here's the thing. I've been doing this for four years. Was that not already understood? But okay, go ahead. No, but so I don't know if people understand this. So people know you're a distributor. People know where you come from. You frequently disclose that. And it's up to the listener to actually make that decision if they believe you or not, as opposed to crapping on you for being a shill. I heard this was unethical. I was told this is unethical. I've got to close down shop now. No, you have made it ethical because you've disclosed it. Is there any possibility that anything I say may be true? But that's exactly it, right? Because I know what your motivation is, so now I can make that decision. Do I believe Zach or not? My argument would be, how does one know what my motivation is?
    59:36
    But that's exactly it. Is there like electrodes to my brain and everybody's like, hi, you see? That's his intentions. But there's podcasters out there that have motivation that haven't disclosed their motivations. They haven't given their disclosure.
    59:52
    That's what steams my clams. My motivation is just to tell you what I think as a pinball nerd. Can I do that? Perfect. Do you think people will believe me now that that is my motivation? Absolutely not. Oh, absolutely not. That's right.
    60:12
    I always wonder, like, once I sell all of a said product, am I then allowed to be believed? Because I have no more perceived motivation. I'll call it perceived motivation. No, but you can always point out strangers. You can have more in the back room that you're not telling. Nope, non-refundable deposits. Nobody can back out. No. If you do, you're going to lose $2,000. Always bring up Stranger Things. That is, you're always proof positive forever. Yeah. And my shitting on Batman 66. I go with that one, too.
    60:40
    That's not right. I think fucking Scooby-Doo looks great. You all saw it. I seen it. Everybody said the same thing. And for all the people that were hating beforehand that didn't see the gameplay video, here, listen real close to the radio, everybody. Listen. crickets fucking crickets where are you guys at that was all bashing i'm not gonna have any fun going this thing is gonna be so bare-boned you gotta wait and see wait and see where are you guys at now maybe a simple apology to spooky pinball would suffice but no no no no you got to watch for the pivot now zach because now now the argument is going to be that when the game arrives you're going to have to spend three days fixing it they're going to be like yeah but i'm going to have to bend all the rails again yeah it goes in waves we see when games come out craig knows this when games come out everybody's hot and heavy and then they go cold on it cold almost like a witch's titty they get so they go cold and then they get hot again then they get cold again so it's it's a an ebb and flow a waxing and and a waning i think right now what that video did is it shot us back up that roller coaster so yes it looks good you want to know why everybody thinks it looked good because it fucking looked good uh there was a lot of code in it it was pretty it did look to shoot wonderfully it did look to have a lot of toys there wasn't everybody in there playing it was not a top 10 player they were all just like regular players and it still looked like fun looked like a lot of modes look there was a lot of stuff of video assets we got audio assets we there was everything that we wanted to be in a scooby-doo pinball machine in beta form is already there. No scrappy-do, I'm out, though. It hushed a lot of critics up, and for that I'm thankful, because I'm looking forward to this game like no other. I will say some of the... Oh, shit. See, now, am I allowed to say bad things? Or is that part of the motivation, or does that just not fit the argument well? What if I say bad things now? Depends if you want to sell more. You're going to really confuse me. Okay.
    62:46
    Sometimes sales isn't as important as having fucking integrity. Okay, so the things I didn't like as much, because everybody is just him hauling over how wonderful this game is, and I'm with you, but there are some things that do concern me. The penis locks.
    63:01
    That one, honestly, my head is always in the gutter. And I just don't see it. I don't get it. But to each their own on dicks there. I see boobs. Here they are. Any two circles close to each other, I'm giggling. But I didn't see the penis locks. No, didn't see it. What I did see is long gameplay.
    63:20
    Those are long ball times. People love long ball times. Speaking of penis and long. That's right. Long, long ball times. People, every game in the top ten is like a long ball player. Everybody loves that. You know, it's a really good point. They don't. They try to pretend they don't, but they love it. That's a really good point because I've always argued if a game is released and it's too hard, it is going to be just killed in reviews until people get into that code. or until code develops. But long ball times is one of the concerns I'm having because they aren't top 100 players, generally speaking. And you know what? Maybe because of the theme, that was a smart move to make it a longer shooter because it is more family-friendly, more individuals maybe not inside a pinball. See Scooby-Doo? Holy crap, I want a Scooby-Doo pinball machine.
    64:11
    But for me, I think I'm going to have to adjust some stuff. And code can adjust that too. Like that middle pop-up drop target that saves the ball. That can be coded differently where it's not popping up saving the ball as much. That was one of my concerns. She's a long shooter there. Long shooter. Craig, you're older than Zach and I. You were more in the zeitgeist of Scooby-Doo, right? He doesn't see wieners everywhere, Dave. I mean, I'm only 75, so I guess maybe I am a little higher. 75 is pretty fucking old, Greg. You wear it well.
    64:49
    It's because he has a hoodie on. Makes him look younger. When I was a youngster back in the day, and I Scooby-Doo came on the television, we'd gather around and said, Jesus, the dogs are talking. Bill Cosby. That was a jowl pudding.
    65:08
    Yeah, we don't talk about that anymore. I thought we were talking about dicks. Yeah, but we don't. I think it's... I'm going to go out on a limb here, Zach, and you only paid me a modest amount of money to say it. Oh, that's right. I think that this could be, could be, Spooky's best all-around game they've ever produced. Whoa. I'm going to say it. It's no hot glue. Man. it'll burn you a little bit when the statement gets released but i'm telling you coming up next we're going to talk about multimorphics new creative directors that may have a different thing to say about uh the best game so you're saying better than tna i think overall i think overall because the the theme is licensed and um you know beloved in the in the in the community i I think, for the most part.
    66:08
    And so that right at the gate, they have going for it. And I think the layout, while not, I think it's a very safe and player-friendly layout. So I think that's going to go a long way, like you said, in the community to having it more liked, say. I don't think it's going to be as brutally playing as Rick and Morty was, which was also a great theme for them. and you're right because objectively numbers don't lie we only report the facts and so does spooky pinball they're going to be selling a lot more scooby-doo than any other machine they've made so yeah it will be the most successful game they've ever made now the perceptions of the enthusiast we'll have to wait and see on that one but yeah i it it's going to be one of their top ones and they know that i was impressed with how much is uh how much is already coded in another negative why am I doing this another negative that I have is the animations while fantastic you can tell they're going to need polish because some of the tracking of the text was bugging me because they just it needs more precision in the text or visual tracking system that they have built in so you'll see things like when Fred finds a clue and a door slams and the clue follows the scene the text follows the scene it's laggy and it just needs cleaned up. So there are some animation cleanups that do kind of remind me, not even close as bad as Halloween or Ultraman, but there are quite a few animation pieces that I'd love to see worked. And they haven't even shipped yet, so I'm good with that. So a couple pretty big negatives for me, but I can't wait to get my hands on this thing because it is screaming the theme that I do love. Good for you.
    67:58
    balance. Speaking of something good for all of us. That was a terrible, terrible segment. I'm trying. Exclusive. The Pinball Awards had something very exclusive. The announcement during the broadcast, the Pinball Awards, given by Spooky Pinball, they allowed us to announce that all buyers of the Scooby-Doo CE model are going to be receiving even more stuff. that is a custom pin gulp as a thank you to the customers and for the community for making this game a certified hit and a success first off that's freaking awesome that they're giving all of the buyers just something else like what was it a couple of releases ago they're like yeah everybody gets a free topper now they're like not only to get the free topper but now yeah everybody gets a free custom pin gulp that was really nice and number two nicely done spooky pinball for having the amount of support, not even having a game in line or eligible for the pinball awards, they still said, you know what? We still want to give you some reveal information because we do believe in what you're doing at the pinball awards and how you're making it kind of like the game awards, doing some reveals and stuff, and we want to be the first to offer that to you guys to build each and every year for manufacturers. I cannot say thank you enough to Spooky Pinball for doing that. They really stepped up. We'll get into it in the end. Is that like giving car mats when you buy a car and they give you to throw in free car mats? Is that kind of like what that's like? Yeah, but that true coat.
    69:32
    Like what? I have to pay for car mats? What are you guys doing? Yeah, well, you have to have that clear coat, that undercarriage protection package. Now, here's something more negative. I do appreciate the sentiment that they are giving out pin gulps. I don't like pin gulps. It won't go on my game. I just don't understand them. I don't like them. Are you scared of bumping it with your leg? I just don't like visually the looks of them, and I don't put drinks there. I don't know. I just don't like them. What?
    70:05
    Where do you put your drinks? Because I'm shaking, and then I have a really full drink, and then it sloshes. I'm like, oh, man. All over my alley. What the? Yeah. I get you. I totally get you there. I don't know. I just never done it for me. But you could sell it on Pinside as the exclusive CE. I wonder if Multimorphic is giving out custom pin gulps for their next release because I hear that they have a new creative director for their next module. That segue wasn't too bad, right, Dave? That was much better. Yeah, it was good. Scott Denisey, speaking of spooky pinball, is going to be the next creative director for the next physical module of Multimorphic's P3 gaming system. What do you guys think about Scott D'Anici producing and essentially designing another game? I'm happy for Scott. I really think he is an awesome part of the community. What a strong take. What are you going to say? You're not happy for the guy?
    70:59
    No, but his – Damn that, Scott. He's accessible. He doesn't have a whole lot of BS when he talks. Like you feel like you're actually talking to the individual. There's no spin. um but i gotta say let's let's take a wait and see approach and see like what level of creative directing he can get because i was incredibly disappointed in in rick and morty incredibly disappointed wow why i love that it just it's it's like nobody at spooky said no right like That whole left side of that pinball machine, nobody said, no, no, no, no. We've got to open that shot up. Or, no, no, we've got to lower that ramp down a little bit. Like nobody said no. They're just like, yeah, let's get her. Hell yeah. Let's give her. That's a great idea. And all of those parts, as the creator of that game, Scott's got to take some responsibility for that. It's a good game. It's just after Total Nuclear Annihilation, it's just, wow, it's a little disappointing. Okay. So he has a lot to prove in your eyes. I think so. And I don't mean that as a negative thing. You can't be an amazing designer at everything you do all the time.
    72:14
    And I don't know if all the details as to what happened and why things ended up the way they were and what his motivation was. And if he's disappointed in the game, but people still bring him on podcasts and talk about TNA and not Rick and Morty. I think that he has less that he has to work with. Less real estate.
    72:37
    Design it back. And interestingly enough, in his interview with Jason from the Pinball Party podcast on TPN,
    72:50
    he actually spoke about the fact that the biggest difference is that he's going to have a dedicated engineer to work with at Multimorphic, where he didn't at Spooky. So I think there's a big significant difference as to maybe why Rick and Morty was a little disappointing. And he did sound excited about that. Yeah, legitimately. And I think, like I said, great access, candid, straight up, and I think that that's the exciting part. The other thing is I think it's exciting that somebody who's had some experience in both extreme success and lukewarm success is now working with somebody and a team behind him that's going to give him, I think, the tools that he needs to go even better in the next round. Well, he's Mr. Technology too. He likes that stuff. So what better way than the platform that the P3 offers? The award-winning P3 platform. That is very true. on the Pinball Party podcast, exclusively on the Pinball Network. Keep rolling your eyes, people.
    73:53
    Figure it out. Jason talked with Scott Denise about a lot of things. You guys have to go listen to that. That was good because those two became like uber audio nerds, and they were just like sitting crisscross applesauce and just like, oh, my God, oh, my God, check out this. Check out this word that I don't know. Have you done compression? Have you done compression on the higher level? They were having compression gathers. They were talking about all the beats for minutes. That's right. Sometimes I'll tap, and then I'll slow the beats per minute down on the tapping, and I'm like, what the hell are they talking about? But I couldn't turn it off. They were like, four to five centimeters dilated. Compression is coming. Hold tight. Hold my hand. I don't think that's how that works. Over-compressed. Oh, I don't care. I still love it.
    74:36
    More drugs. Give him more drugs. They also talked about Scott Denise on this next game for P3. He created all the audio for the game as well. oh kind of everywhere how could you not he's amazing he's absolutely amazing at that and you could tell he has the passion for it i think that uh i don't know my my my uh i'm i'm licking my lips here about a p3 because i love i love tna and i own rick and morty i prefer rick and morty over tna call me crazy you're crazy hashtag theme matters code matters i like the code better too but maybe this is what gives me over the edge. It's going to have to have a theme that I like. Do you think it'll have a license thing? I think they said that they're licensing this next one. Yeah, I'm really interested. Boy, if they don't, I think they've really missed it, unfortunately. But I'd be surprised if they didn't. Will it finally be enough for me to overlook the feel of that game?
    75:35
    I like that I was listening to the pinball party, And I got to say, shout out to Jason as he and Scott created like, or I guess he created this remix. Scott was okay with it. Like this collaboration of a total nuclear annihilation, the score of the song. And Jason put his own rock elements into it. And it was phenomenal. It has an electric guitar in it now. I couldn't, I've listened to it at least 10 times. It left me stimulated. I am so not talented. in any way. It is absolutely amazing when you get those individuals like that together and they can just sort of do that stuff and you're like, man, I'm never going to do that eating chips on my couch. It was so good. What do you mean you're not talented? Wait a minute. During this year's Pinball Awards, you guys were honored with a top three podcast designation. That's a lot of talent. All I have to do is beat Joel.
    76:36
    That's how I measure all success in my life. I'm just happy to finish Vikings Valhalla on Netflix. And I think that's an accomplishment. You got through it. Was there a struggle midway through the season there? It was a little. Drug a little bit? Yeah. Yeah, I've really gone deep on the Viking world. I've seen too much now, I think. I've gone too much Vikings. Has it made you Nordic? Too much. Are you feeling Nordy? Yeah. Salt water flying through your face? I've got this craving for like pickled fish and just seaweed I don't know just watch The Witcher I'm so sad to hear that they're getting rid of what's his name for The Witcher Henry Cavill you can't replace him he is The Witcher first screwed over by DC now this what's going on I think he was actually screwed over first by Witcher then by DC but whatever can we pee can we take a pee break yeah let's do it okay all right see you in two well that's it for part one of the pinball show episode 122 make sure to check out part two as we dive into the pinball awards the behind the scenes actions and what really went on off stage celebrity feedback from the event and yeah your favorite part pinball market trends yeah it's a doozy this week it's a gold one this week it's good it's good stuff check it out click on it