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BONUS X!! Who is the Rizzler of Pinball??

Bash Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·22m 38s·analyzed·Jun 13, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Bash Pinball bonus episode with game reviews, Gen Z slang comedy, and personal stories.

Summary

A casual bonus episode of Bash Pinball Podcast featuring hosts Matt and Don discussing recent game impressions from PinFest (Ripley's Believe It or Not, Last Action Hero, Popeye, Pulp Fiction), a disappointing demo of Cardona Pinball's 2.0 upgrade kits, an extended comedic segment about Gen Z slang terms (particularly 'Rizzler'), and personal stories about Don's childhood film exposure and Ferngully fandom.

Key Claims

  • Ripley's Believe It or Not seems to represent when Stern started cutting costs, with an average playfield lacking interesting mechanical features despite Pat Lawlor's design and fast shooting action

    medium confidence · Speaker played physical machine at PinFest for first time and compared to VPX experience; opinion relative to other Pat Lawlor/era games

  • Cardona Pinball's 2.0 kits (for No Good Gophers and Black Rose) feature entirely new code, display, backglass, sound, and audio while reusing the existing playfield

    high confidence · Direct description of product specifications seen at PinFest vendor booth

  • Cardona Pinball 2.0 kits cost approximately $2,000

    medium confidence · Speaker's estimation; says 'I think they're about $2,000 or something'

  • The Popeye machines at Super Abari in Charlotte and PinFest have different playfield layouts, particularly affecting the right-side shot to the upper playfield

    medium confidence · Direct hands-on comparison; speaker notes posts in different places, making shot easier at PinFest location

  • Don grew up with delayed media exposure (1-10 years behind) due to Spanish dubbing in Panama, effectively experiencing 1970s-1980s content during the 1990s

    high confidence · Direct personal account with specific details about cable TV channels, Spanish dubbing timelines, and bilingual schooling

Notable Quotes

  • “If I could get this game for $4,000 and I could get Fire for $2,500, I would say get Ripley's. Come up with the extra $1,500 and get yourself a Ripley's because it's way, way, way better than Fire”

    Matt or Don (unclear) @ ~5:00 — Value comparison positioning Ripley's as better investment than Fire despite average rating

  • “I'm interested. I'm the target audience for this 2.0 kit. It didn't... I couldn't even tell if it would have been fun because the game played so poorly and was so dirty. If they want to show off their product, that was not the way to do it.”

    Speaker (owns No Good Gophers) @ ~15:00 — Critical assessment of product demo quality and vendor presentation failure

  • “The Rizzler. In my head now, that's what he's called. The Rizzler.”

    Matt or Don @ ~28:00 — Adopting Gen Z slang to rename Circus Voltaire's ringmaster character

  • “Ferngully, man. That's animated, right? ... That was actually my favorite movie for a long time... a huge movie in Panama. Yeah. I came here and no one had ever seen it.”

    Don @ ~45:00 — Personal revelation of childhood media experience shaped by geographic/cultural context

  • “I kind of grew up in the 80s... And also the 70s for cartoons. So I think I grew up in the 80s.”

    Don @ ~42:00 — Summary of delayed media consumption creating anachronistic childhood experience despite 1990s birth

Entities

MattpersonDonpersonBash Pinball PodcastorganizationRipley's Believe It or NotgameLast Action HerogamePopeyegamePulp FictiongameCardona Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Bash Pinball Podcast bonus episodes intentionally created as free-form content space separate from main episode format, allowing hosts to goof off and explore tangential topics

    high · Episode intro explicitly describes bonus X format as allowing more freedom to 'basically goof off and do whatever we want'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Ripley's Believe It or Not appears to represent cost-cutting phase for Stern; playfield lacks interesting mechanical features despite Pat Lawlor design; felt average compared to other Lawlor games from that era

    medium · First physical play experience; described as 'just fine,' with only couple ramps and magnet-under-head mechanic; comparable critique in VPX

  • ?

    product_strategy: Cardona Pinball's 2.0 kits represent significant aftermarket upgrade path for classic games, featuring complete code, display, backglass, and audio overhaul while reusing playfield

    high · Vendor booth demo with detailed product specifications; ~$2,000 price point for complete renovation

  • ?

    product_concern: Cardona Pinball 2.0 upgrade kit demo units were in 'real rough shape,' super dirty, broken for parts of the time, providing poor product showcase that failed to demonstrate kit value

    high · Speaker who owns No Good Gophers (target audience) could not evaluate if product was worthwhile due to poor game condition and presentation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.068

0:00
This Bonus X was brought to you by Bonus X from Bash Pinball. Bonus X!
0:16
Bonus X! It's like my bonus X. Yeah. Do you like bonus X? Listen up, bonus X. Just take a bunch of bonus X, and I'm brought to you by bonus X. It's time for bonus. Bonus X is happening in 3, 2, 1. Welcome to episode 10. We've hit double digits.
0:41
This is our second glorious bonus X episode, and it's guaranteed to be a banger. Not a guarantee. Dearest listener, Don and I record a whole bunch of stuff, and sometimes we can't fit all that good stuff into the regular episode format. So with the bonus X episodes, we allow ourselves a little more freedom to basically goof off and do whatever we want. This one starts off with a few updated game impressions and a bit more pinfest talk. After that, it pretty much goes off the rails. Enjoy.
1:13
Okay, so Ripley's, believe it or not, believe it or not, I almost bought one. Yeah, so this was on your short list of games to buy. But both of us had, I think, only ever played the VPX one, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, I played it before, but it was like a one-time thing in one place. I don't remember where. I think I was much younger. Yeah, so this was the first time I had played a real Ripley's. And I don't know. It's fine, but it seems like maybe this is when Stern started cutting costs a little bit. It started to kind of go down a little bit. I know a lot of people like the game, and maybe the code is really deep, and there's a lot to do, and maybe the sound package is great. There's probably a lot of elements that I didn't get to experience in that situation. But there's not that much interesting stuff to do in the game. There's a couple ramps, there's a head that you can shoot, but it just has a magnet under it. It just all seems kind of... I don't know. I felt that way playing it in the VPX. It shoots good, and for a Pat Lawler game, it's pretty fast. And that's fun. It's fun to shoot, but there's just nothing really that interesting or special about the play field, in my opinion. It just didn't really do anything for me. I think it's a fun game, but it came across very average. Yeah, I would have to agree from my experience, but that's kind of how I felt. And when I say average, I mean relative to other good Pat Lawler games or goods from that era. If I could get this game for $4,000 and I could get Fire for $2,500, I would say get Ripley's. Come up with the extra $1,500 and get yourself a Ripley's because it's way, way, way better than Fire or some of those other games from that era. Is it better than Adada East? Yes. Yeah. I'm mid on it, but only relatively speaking. I would take this game over. To other sterns. Any Sega or Data East game that I can think of. Including Simpsons? Including Simpsons, yeah.
No Good Gophers
game
Black Rosegame
Circus Voltairegame
Ferngully: The Last Rainforestmovie
PinFestevent
Super Abarivenue
Pat Lawlorperson
Don's wifeperson
3:24
Yeah, Data East Simpsons, 10-second review. It's sort of like Turtles. It's just kind of phoned in. Simpsons is cool. It's like in the same way that I'd like it'd be cool to just look at. It's just not that great of a shooter. It'd be cool to have in your house, though. Yeah. uh no so last action hero i did get to play which you have played this a lot more than me yeah but it seemed like an above average last action hero data east game from that era like it has a cool mech but at the same time like all those games have the same kind of rotating thing jurassic park last action hero mary shell's frankenstein it's like they all just had the same basic elements that were very just slightly moved around and so in that way they don't interest me that much they're just all a little samey sure sure i can see that okay so i have to they had a popeye there that was down most of the time but i did get to play it for like the five minutes that it was working and we mentioned on a previous episode where we played popeye at Super Abari in Charlotte, how that shot on the right is impossible. It goes to the upper play field. On the one that I played at Pinfest, not impossible. Really? It's like it was different. The layout of the play field was slightly different and that shot was more open. I don't know which one is the right one. I haven't studied photographs of it or anything, but the one at Pinfest, way more open and easier to hit that shot. Wow. So yeah, I don't know if that was like made to be easier or if the one at Super Bari was made to be harder. But yeah, that was a different shot. Like the little, the posts were in different places or something. So it was much easier to hit. Wow. Still not like super easy, but it was more of just a typical end of the flipper shot. Did you still think it was fun? Yeah. I still had fun with it, but it also like barely worked. So sadly. But yeah, it's a bummer. Love to play that game somewhere. Bummer. Popeye 10 second review is let's play some more Popeye. Let's play some more Popeye. That's a good one. That's like a five-second review. Yeah, a five-second review. Maybe even three. Oh and then a slight update on Pulp Fiction because we also talked about that on the Super Bari one I played one that was set up well and I had a lot of fun with it I had a good game. It seemed to just, it played better, it felt better. I was hitting stuff, and it was fun. And so I still couldn't hear it, but it did feel a little better than the one we played at Super Bari. I don't know if that one was just too steep or something. Yeah. But that game was like 10 second review. Pulp Fiction, 10 second review. I still think Lethal Weapon is just as good of a game.
6:09
But I had fun playing it. So there's a company called Cardona Pinball or something that makes these 2.0 kits. And they have a kit for Gophers and Black Rose. But it's like new code, a new display, a new back glass. Oh, a new code for the game. Yeah, it's brand new code. Oh, wow. It's a full new... It doesn't tap into existing games. New sound, new audio, new everything. It just reuses the existing play field. And they had like a vendor booth, right? And so they had their 2.0 kits for both those games. Unfortunately, the games that they had them on were in real rough shape. They're super dirty. They didn't work that well, and they were broken for part of the time. It was just a very poor showing for this upgrade kit. And I own a No Good Gophers. I'm interested. I'm the target audience for this 2.0 kit.
7:06
It didn't... I couldn't even tell if it would have been fun because the game played so poorly and was so dirty. If they want to show off their product, that was not the way to do it. I couldn't even tell if the product was worthwhile or not because the game's played so bad. That's unfortunate. Yeah, it was a big disappointment there because I wanted to try those. That's a cool idea, but they're showing at Pinfest. Big fail. How much was the kit? I think they're about $2,000 or something. Wow.
7:34
The following is from a National Instructional Television series. The series and related materials were developed and supported by 32 educational agencies, with additional support from Exxon Corporation.
7:54
It's time for Education Hour with Matt and Don. In this edition, we'll be learning about Generation Alpha, or Gen A slang terms. First up is the popular new word, Rizzler.
8:06
A Rizzler is defined as an extremely confident and charismatic person. See also, Riz. Sticking out my gut for the Rizzler. That's a song. You're so phantom tax. Yeah, that's like a weird, horrible song. That's a real song going around on YouTube. That's a real song? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sticking at your gut for the Rizzler. It's just like all of the current slang crammed into four verses that are amusical and arhythmic. What in the hell is happening? You gotta have Rizz, Donald. The Rizzler? The person with Rizz. Like the Riddler. I mean, I actually think that one's kind of funny. The Rizzler. Like the Riddler. The Rizzler. Can there be one? Or how does that work? Are there multiple Rizzlers? Is it one per conversation, per state? Depending on the context. In a given group of people, you could have maybe multiple Rizzlers. I'm actually not sure. If you had a lot of charismatic people in a room, can you designate multiple Rizzlers? Who's the Rizzler? I'm not sure. Because it does, just the nature of it, the Rizzler is singular. But clearly, there's more than one Rizzler. When I've heard it used, it's in the context of whoever you're talking about. You know, that's math that I don't understand. Yeah.
9:37
What's the other line? Oh, yeah. You've heard of skibbity, right? No. No? No. You're so skibbity. Yeah, skibbity toilet. You never heard that? No, dude. No idea. Skibbity, I think, literally doesn't mean anything. It's just nonsense. No clue. Yeah, so Skibbity, Giat, Rizzler, a couple other ones. Giat is an exclamation used to express excitement or shock, especially in reaction to seeing large buttocks. See also, damn, that's a chunky butt. Sticking out your Giat for the Rizzler. You're so Skibbity. You're so Phantom Tax. I just want to be your Sigma. Freaking come here. What is that? It's all the rage, Donald. How many times has that played in your head today? I don't know. It's not even catchy. Dude, I hate it so much. You're so Phantom Tax. Phantom Tax is... Phantom Tax. By the way, not Phantom, but Phantom. So like one Twitch streamer and another Twitch streamer were like in the same house. And one of them would name Phantom something. and the other one would come steal his snacks in the middle of the stream. And that became known as the Phantom Tax. Oh.
11:01
And so somehow Phantom Tax became like a thing that children are saying now and saying you're so Phantom Tax, which makes absolutely no sense at all. You so Phantom Tax What does that even mean What could it mean How many children are saying this I don know I don know I saw Do both of your children know about this My reality is not as complicated
11:27
Yeah, I mean... I don't have... I don't know, man. Like, what's how... What? I mean, that's just like a thing that I would do for fun with my bandmates. Like, we would just steal each other's snacks. We're like, this is just what you do as a human. You're so phantom taxed. did you know that also the one of the other lines is give me your ohio but for for childs ohio is the crazy state for some reason like if you could pick which state you think is like florida crazy yeah florida florida everybody knows it's florida but for eight-year-olds it's ohio and so they what yeah and you know what the crazy thing is i saw uh snl like their weekend update sketch recently and they made some ohio joke about how crazy people are are in ohio i'm like we're just all gonna get on board with this now this ohio thing now ohio's the new florida for some reason what happened so strange it's so weird it's so weird but it makes you wonder like how much of this stuff is gonna stick that's what i'm wondering right it's gonna be like a month and then there's just this is gone forever or i don't know six months i feel like rizzler is not going anywhere. Rizzler's going to stay. I feel like that one's pretty strong. I'm actually considering adopting that one.
12:48
I don't mind that one. Am I going to be embarrassed if I say it in the wrong context and there's the right audience and they hear me say it wrong and they're like, look at that old ass guy. Maybe. I don't know. If you ask an eight year old what any of these things mean, they will give you all different answers. No one really knows what any of this stuff means anyway the Rizzler it's all nonsense the Rizzler it's kind of funny but like 50 years from now are people going to be talking about you're so phantom no hell no I don't think so hell no not even a year from now but something something is going to stick and maybe it's Rizzler I don't know you know who the Rizzler is in my head yeah the guy from uh Circus Voltaire oh that's the Rizzler so okay we're talking about pinball now this is the guy on the right side of Circus Voltaire who pops up out of the play field. What's he actually called? The Rizzler.
13:43
In my head now, that's what he's called. The Rizzler. Isn't he called something? I am the Ringmaster.
13:51
I believe I remember seeing that he had a name when I was reading about that game. I do not recall. I am the Ringmaster. I remember he has a Raz Mode. That's probably why I'm thinking Rizz, maybe. That's the only thing I can think of specifically related. Yeah, no, I think that guy does have a name, though. No more! Not again! Like, I can hear the voice.
14:19
What is it? The head. Do we need to Google it or no? The head pops up. No, I don't want to know. You wish to challenge me? I don't either. The Rizzler. Yeah, he's the Rizzler. The Rizzler. Henceforth, that's the Rizzler. You make me weep. Not really.
14:36
That guy is really cool. Charismatic. He's the standard bearer for all Rizzlers. We should make a shirt, The Rizzler, and put his face on it. No one would know what the fuck that is. That would be funny. I bet you kids would buy it. They wouldn't even know what the dude is or where he's from. Dude, I could. Just because it says The Rizzler on it. It's funny. They would wear it. Okay, that's going to be a t-shirt. Bashpinball.com. Check it out. The Rizzler. I'll be back.
15:06
So this next bit might require a tiny bit of setup. It's about Don's all-time favorite movie, and I'm pretty sure his number one pinball dream theme. And it's also about how Don kind of low-key grew up in the 70s and 80s, despite actually growing up in the 90s. So we'll start off with a bit of the movie trailer. It's raining like magic. deep in the heart of the forest there is a magical world where wondrous creatures play the day away red light red light again and where an unusual girl named krista dreamt of far away places i think when you were when you grew up like the tv and the shows and stuff you watched was just different it was different yeah and like had a different i don't know it's just it's interesting We used to watch, when I was a kid, what we could get on the TV. We had cable, but the channels were also different. I didn't really know English. You'd watch the major films, but they were dubbed in Spanish.
16:13
So then, I don't know if it presumably takes 10 years to translate and dub, but basically like 88, 87, during 1998. So you were behind on stuff. You know how they have TV movies on basic cable? So did you kind of grow up in the 80s? I kind of did in a way. In a way? I kind of did in a way. And also the 70s for cartoons. So I think I grew up in the 80s. Yeah. That's funny. Yeah, you kind of were a little behind. There were a lot of movies that I missed because I wasn't seeing them as they were coming out. And then by the time I was a teenager here, I just moved to whatever was relevant there. So there was like a little bit of a gap in the 90s. You had a gap, yeah. But the really really famous things like Michael Jackson famous films Ferngully Ferngully All these things that made it to other countries Yeah You know, I experienced those things. That was actually my favorite movie for a long time. Ferngully? Ferngully, man. That's animated, right? Or was it? Yeah. And what's funny is it was a huge movie in Panama. Yeah. I came here and no one had ever seen it. Yeah. I remember it, but I don't remember it being popular.
17:20
My whole life, I thought it was. That's funny. But it kind of wasn't. It was just in Panama. It's like a fairy or something, right? Yeah, it's like a deforestation hardcore PSA. But I loved it. It was beautiful. It was like a beautiful story of these fairy creature things with this goofy fruit bat that was running around.
17:43
I don't even know if I ever saw it. It's beautiful. It had a good message, and it was beautiful. I think it was definitely marketed towards girls in the U.S. well in panel it was marketed towards everyone and i remember you had the choice you could watch the overdub or the english with subtitles so when you when you went to go watch the movies you had to pick which theater you wanted to go to and my mom my mom trying to get me to learn english we always went to the english movies so she you know that's probably better though because you didn't get like the horrible dub that they probably did yeah yeah i mean eventually that was later right like of course before i before i knew english i had to listen in spanish but as i could learn to read and i could do the subtitle thing so um i don't know it got easier and then eventually i could just you know watch movies and shows and i just knew what they were saying because i basically spoke english and is that how you learn english mainly just watching shows and movies uh and in school because i went to a school that was bilingual so I was learning English simultaneously as I was learning basic math and, um, things like that. So it made it a lot easier. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, which, you know, like I'm very fortunate that my mom, you know, had the foresight to pretty much from childhood, just have me exposed to English, you know, and she would read things to me. And like, before I was even in school, like I would get letters from my, from my family, like my dad's side for my birthday and cards and things. And, she would read them to me in English and then translate. She was very deliberate and intentional about me learning English. I feel like that has a whole lot to do with why you can hear me speaking English to you now and I can hear you respond to me in English. And it sounds pretty normal, right? You would never know. Yeah, no, you don't sound like you have an accent or anything. Not really. Pero español es mi primer idioma.
19:37
Dream theme, Fern Gully. It's like if I watch Parasite, it's maybe like the last Korean movie or something or subtitled movie that I watched. But I was like, I had to watch it with the subtitles because that's the way to do it because I'm hardcore, right? But you're hardcore about Ferngully.
19:56
That cracks me up. So lastly, you might have been wondering in the previous two PinFest episodes, what's with all this craw talk? So the following conversation is briefly what led to all of that nonsense.
20:38
found a place to stay next year right which we discussed yeah on the previous episode five or so and then you ended up going uh i guess your family right is that how you yeah plans well it is oddly yeah my wife brought it up she was the one that brought it to your attention yeah she actually brought it up it was it was kind of how funny funny yeah because like i kind of spaced on i've just had we both had a lot going on yeah but it's in pennsylvania and That's where her family is. And I don't know how she remembered it because we discussed it last year. But anyway, she was like, do you want to go to Pinfest this year? I was like, what? Do you mean both of us?
21:19
I'm going to go ahead and say that women have such an amazing concept of time. Yeah, I don't know. I should have asked her, how did she even think of that? I don't know. Because I've never been before, and this was just something we discussed last year. but it must have just stuck in her craw yeah she cares I mean she has ulterior motives but I mean that's pretty awesome come on yeah no it was cool that's all for now but stay tuned for an epic new episode from Don interviews with the pinball elite new arcade trips, game reviews, and more.
22:32
you