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PNP 632- Costco Connected Is Coming+ Seth Is A Ren Faire Guy+ Pinburgh Predictions!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 6m·analyzed·Jul 26, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Orby discusses Seth's Ren Faire hobby, Costco Connected launch, and Pinburgh predictions.

Summary

Orbital Albert discusses Seth Akin's (Stern CEO) recent San Diego Comic-Con appearance where he revealed he's a Renaissance Faire enthusiast, coversStern's announcement of Costco Connected arriving at Costco for $4,799 MSRP, and provides Pinburgh tournament predictions while emphasizing the marketing importance of repeated pinball exposure to drive mainstream adoption.

Key Claims

  • Seth Akin, CEO of Stern Pinball, disclosed at San Diego Comic-Con that he is a Renaissance Faire enthusiast

    high confidence · KongsRUs conducted the interview at Comic-Con; Orby reviewed and referenced it positively

  • Stern's Connected pinball machine is coming to Costco for $4,799 MSRP with expected discounts of $300-500 by Christmas

    high confidence · Stern official announcement; Orby confirmed via marketing knowledge

  • Previous Costco pinball displays sold out in less than a month at some locations

    medium confidence · Orby's personal observation and knowledge of past Costco sales

  • Consumers need to hear about a product at least three times within a specific period before considering purchase

    high confidence · Marketing principle from Orby's Fanshawe College education and economics classes

  • Star Wars Pinball (Stern home version) is fun but inferior to Steve Ritchie's arcade Star Wars

    medium confidence · Orby's direct play experience

  • Tim (Lion Man Lee) did not make A-Finals at Pinburgh but was acknowledged by Michael Bradley

    high confidence · Tim's direct statement to Orby on air; Michael Bradley's shout-out

  • Pinburgh 2024 games are set up less difficult than last year, and finals may be 10-14 hours long

    medium confidence · Orby's pre-show speculation based on community feedback from previous year

Notable Quotes

  • “He's a Renfair guy. That's kind of neat. I'm just going to talk about that briefly just because of how funny that is.”

    Orbital Albert @ Early in episode — Reference to Seth Akin's Ren Faire hobby revealed in KongsRUs Comic-Con interview

  • “For less than five grand, for $4,799 MSRP... you will see it $300, even $400, maybe $500 off.”

    Orbital Albert @ Mid-episode — Announcement of Stern Connected Costco pricing and expected discounts

  • “I had one beer too many. I think I had six beers, and they were all gorgeous. They were beautiful.”

    Orbital Albert @ Craft beer segment — Humorous aside on Orby's hangover state and craft beer enthusiasm

  • “Well, I was ecstatic to get into A and play all those top players... However, there was nowhere to hide on Friday.”

    Tim the Lion Man Lee @ Live read of Tim's statement — Tim's reaction to making A-Finals and competing against top players at Pinburgh

  • “I had the most fun hanging out and talking with lots of amazing people... Will I do it again? Not sure. I'm exhausted.”

    Tim the Lion Man Lee @ Conclusion of Tim's statement — Tim's overall positive Pinburgh experience despite physical and competitive exhaustion

  • “You need to hear about a product at least three times before you'll even consider buying it. And those three times need to be in a certain period of time.”

    Orbital Albert @ Marketing education segment — Explains Orby's rationale for why Costco distribution is strategically important for mainstream pinball adoption

  • “Now we have a future pinball customer. Now we're bringing more people in because now this person has the opportunity.”

    Orbital Albert @ Costco strategic discussion — Orby's core argument for grassroots market expansion through retail distribution

  • “I am a serial entrepreneur... the first thing they will say to you at Dragon's Den is, do you have distribution?”

Entities

Orbital AlbertpersonSeth AkinpersonKongsRUspersonJack DangerpersonTim the Lion Man LeepersonMichael BradleypersonStern PinballcompanyCostcocompanySteve Ritchieperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern expanding distribution beyond specialty pinball retailers into mass-market retail channels (Costco); major shift in go-to-market strategy

    high · Costco Connected announcement; $4,799 MSRP targeting middle-class consumer segment; Orby's emphasis on this being 'big news for multiple reasons'

  • ?

    community_signal: Tournament streaming quality improved; Orby compliments sound and visuals; some viewer friction in chat regarding pacing and entertainment value

    medium · Orby's praise for stream quality; negative comments in chat about downtime between rounds; Tom Graff managing streaming responsibilities alongside tournament play

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinburgh 2024 maintains strong competitive and casual player engagement; game difficulty reduced from previous year based on community feedback

    medium · Tim the Lion Man Lee's positive tournament experience; Orby's confirmation that games are less difficult than 2023; tournament streaming continuing

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball community is organizing towards nonprofit/grassroots distribution model to restore arcade presence in casual venues beyond specialty locations

    low · Orby mentions recent podcast discussion of launching nonprofit for placing pinball 'everywhere again'; critique of specialty distributors only reaching existing enthusiasts

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinburgh 2024 finals occurring same day as episode recording (very early morning, 6-7 AM start); large player base (240+ players across divisions)

    high · Orby's time-stamped commentary on broadcast timing; reference to 'maybe they've streamlined it'; finals airing on Fox Cities at approximately 11 AM EST

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.201

0:00
All get around, he's on the rebound Hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby Pinball nuts rejoice He's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee Miffed syrup and honey, hopes to laugh with his family And the random tangents, stories of his boys He's on the poor man's pod network We're gonna get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast.
0:32
Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert's, Nova Scotia. Remember that guy who used to just lay down on his couch and play pinball? That guy on Buffalo Pinball? Is it only me? Am I the only one who remembers him? What happened to that guy? Where is he? And which couch is he lying on and playing pinball now?
1:01
Welcome back pinball nerds to episode 632 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name's Orbital Elbert and on today's show we're going to be talking about Seth. That's right, the CEO of Stern Pinball. He comes out on a recent interview and says, hey, I'm a Renfair guy. That's kind of neat. I'm just going to talk about that briefly just because of how funny that is. That's probably the story we're going to open on. But most importantly today, and I know it's only relevant for like, what is it, 7.59 Atlantic Standard Time, which means it's 6 a.m. something somewhere in Chicago or in Pittsburgh, sorry. It's not even 7 a.m. so far in Pittsburgh. So I have about four hours for people to listen to this. Now, remember, this is going to go on for about probably, I'm not going to lie, guys, this could go on 10, 12, 14 hours, these finals. Maybe they've streamlined it. There is some quicker playing games, but also the games are not set up as hard as they were last year at Pemberg, which a lot of people complained about, and I did agree they were set up pretty rough last year. So I'm going to be doing Pemberg predictions. So I do want to make this kind of a short, compact episode. Plus, you all just heard from yesterday, first of all, I want to apologize. guys, I got this beautiful, wonderful, crisp mic donated to me. And then yesterday when I went to record with my old mic when I was recording, it pre-chose it when I opened Audacity to record. And now with the new mic, I have to be sure to go down and go to the, I have to be sure, dad joke of the day there. I have to go to the Shure MV6 and then I also have to press the button to unmute myself. It is nice to be able to have a mute button here. Let's see here. I'm going to try to mute a swear word.

Orbital Albert @ Entrepreneurship discussion — Validates importance of mainstream retail channels like Costco vs. specialty distributors

Tom Graff
person
Glenn the Skateboarderperson
Tony Hawkperson
Jack Blackperson
Kevin Smithperson
Zach Sharpperson
Josh Sharpperson
Neil McCraeperson
Elowenperson
Haydenperson
Pennyworthperson
Pinburghevent
San Diego Comic-Conevent
Poor Man's Pinball Networkorganization
Fanshawe Collegeorganization
Canada Postcompany
  • $

    market_signal: Orby advocates for grassroots pinball placement strategy (laundromats, bowling alleys, pizza joints) similar to 1990s-2000s arcade ubiquity as essential to mainstream revival

    medium · Extended discussion of early 2000s arcade prevalence vs. current scarcity; emphasis on seeing pinball at multiple locations driving purchase intent

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's Costco Connected launch represents deliberate mainstream market penetration strategy using high-visibility retail location to drive 'three-touch' consumer awareness cycle

    high · Orby's extensive analysis of marketing principles emphasizing repeat exposure; previous Costco pinball sales success; strategic placement at major consumer touchpoint

  • ?

    community_signal: Seth Akin (Stern CEO) has unexpected personal hobby (Renaissance Faires) humanizing corporate leadership; revealed through external media interview

    high · KongsRUs Comic-Con interview; Orby's reaction of novelty and amusement at revelation

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern's Connected game (home version of Star Wars) positioned as mass-market accessible but admits to quality gap vs. arcade versions; price-sensitive marketing to middle-class buyers

    medium · Orby acknowledging Connected is 'fun and awesome' but 'Steve Ritchie's Star Wars is still better'; $4,799 MSRP targeting consumers with 'extra money' or Christmas bonuses

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Tournament community sentiment positive overall; players report strong social experiences and competitive joy despite exhaustion; complaint levels minimal compared to content quality

    medium · Tim's enthusiastic statement about playing top players and meeting amazing people; Orby defending stream quality to detractors

    • 2:57
    What's something I could pretend to be mad about? I'll pretend to be mad about Franchi laying on the ground there.
    3:06
    What the hell, Franchi? why are you just laying on the ground? Why don't you get outside and like, uh,
    3:17
    okay. I think I muted the wrong word. I muted the wrong word, but you get the point. You get the point. Um, uh, now who, who was at San Diego comic-con interviewing Seth, the CEO of Stern? it would have been none other than KongsRUs. So shout out to KongsRUs on YouTube. I'm going to put a link there for everyone to go check it out. Really good interview. I especially enjoyed, there was a dude from marketing at the end. He was decent and everything. But I really enjoyed mostly the Jack Danger part. There was a short interview with Seth at the start. But if you're going to go watch it, really pay attention to the, Kong does a really, really good job. I know in the past, you know, a couple people were critical because he kind of knew where to pinball or something. This is going back years ago. He's been in pinball now for quite a long, long time, especially non-digital pinball, right? But he actually did ask Jack Danger the tough question. So we're going to be talking about that a little bit as well. I know I've talked a lot about Jack Danger recently. You're probably Jack Danger-ed out. Well, at least from an Orby talking about him perspective.
    4:24
    We're going to be talking about Tim the Lion Man Lee. Did he get into the A-Finals? well no he didn't but he did get a shout out from michael bradley who came up to him and said wait are you like tim the lion man lee from pinball nerds podcast he probably didn't sound at say it that dorky but he's just probably not as nerdy as me so but how could he be i am the nerdiest of all the pinball nerds on the entire planet am i right am i right am i right so i did ask tim the lion manly a couple of quick questions as follow-ups i feel bad like i said it's not even 7 a.m there hey he wrote me first this morning oh no maybe i wrote him first but he did write back already so i said i'm about to record my pemberg predictions tim do you have an official state official that's so funny official statement about getting to a division your performance and the general pinball vibes. So guys, no one wrote me to be a pin turn at Pemberg, but I got one anyways out of Tim the Lion Man Lee. Now, I've always known Lion Man is something important. It's in like a solid state. They were playing it at Pemberg. I should be able to remember it by now. I've played it in tournaments before, but there's a certain thing that you can get in this one solid state where it says Lion Man. And everyone's like, is that why you called him Tim the Lion Man Lee? no glenn has always been glenn the skateboarder to me for like eight or nine years because the very first time that glenn ever reached out to me he just sent me picture after picture after picture of him shirtless doing these wild incredible like he was doing like skateboarding tricks uh in like pools wild stuff that like even in skate or die or even in radical or even in skateball, I'm not sure if I could do tricks as good as Glenn the Skateboarder does in just your average pool, okay? He is by far the best skateboarder turned pinball nerd. He just is. But, okay, wait, maybe that's not true. Tony Hawk is a bit of a pinball nerd, and we know that not only because in his MTV Cribs tour, you saw in his office that he had a skateball, but also because in the newest Tony Hawk, there's an entire level that's pinball. Like, that's not accidental. Come on. You know he loves pinball. You know he talked them to incorporate it somehow. Jack Black also loves pinball. I would love to get a pinball machine in his hands, the same thing that Kevin Smith is kind of doing, reinvigorating, you know, pinball for all his fans. It would be really nice to see Jack Black do that. And screw canceling, Rover canceling people. Jack Black, you're not canceled. I uncancel D. But I will be doing predictions, not just for A, but also B and C. I'm not going to lie. When it gets down to C division, I'm kind of going by people I know by name because I'm not going to look up IFPA numbers for everybody. I only had a few short hours to do this.
    7:17
    I did successfully get drop target, Danielle, from the airport yesterday. We had a wonderful night. I perhaps, I always say this, and it is usually true. I had one beer too many. I think I had six beers, and they were all gorgeous. They were beautiful. My son Hayden brought quite a few of the beers back last weekend from not just London, Ontario, but all over Ontario. He brought me a Goza, which is kind of like a salty, soury kind of beer. He brought me back another really good sour, a Sherbert sour. He brought me back my favorite style of beer, which is actually called a Berliner Weiss.
    7:59
    This is more of a salty beer, but it's also got a little bit more wheat to it. To most people, a Goza or Berliner Weiss would be very, very similar, even to myself, to my trained palates. Okay, but this wonderful Berliner Weiss is from an award-winning brewery called Nickelbrook. And as good as their brewmaster is, Nickelbrook, especially with the sours, will bring over an IPA and sour master brewer from Collective Arts Brewing, which is where the other six-pack we had that we split came from. so shout out I miss I miss being in the craft beer world when I lived in Ontario one of my favorite things was every single solitary time a brand new craft beer came out I get to try it do a review on it put it on rate beer tell all my friends tell all my family members shout about it from the rooftops when I would go to Gambrenas back in the day or Gambrenas was like the first craft beer bar in London Ontario but then became Milos's craft beer emporium when I would go to places like that you know we would all talk oh my god did you try this new offering this new brewery in fact believe it or not i was within i would say probably probably within i don't know maybe a month of when the very first ipa ever came out uh what it would have been mill street tank house and it would have been a world-renowned brewmaster there who actually said I think the Ontario market is ready for a real craft beer now, and he made Tank House. And, I mean, nowadays it wouldn't even be considered a hoppy beer whatsoever with all the pale ales and the IPAs and the triple IPAs and the Niapas, northeast Ohio. I've gone off topic. Guys, what else would you – I can see the little dots, Tim the Lion Manly. Just hit the enter button by now. Okay, sorry. I've gone off topic. Let's go back to the easiest, simplest part of the show, okay? Oh, and the other thing I really wanted to talk about today was Stern has just announced yesterday. Can you believe I record a show less than 24 hours ago and there's this much news? I can't. But here you go. Your daily dose of pinball. I guess it's back for at least today, nerds. There you go. I used to be for years and years and years. I was your daily. Welcome back to Pinball Nerds podcast with Orbital Albert and your daily dose of pinball. But then I started doing it like once a month and, you know, I wasn't the daily dose anymore. But we are going to be talking about Connected comes to Costco. That's right. For less than four, sorry, for less than five grand, for $4,799. MSRP, that is only the MSRP. You will see it $300, even $400, maybe $500 off. Make sure you share it to Pinball Enthusiasts if you ever see it for like that much off. You know, honestly, between now and Christmas, I'd say any that are left at Costco's between now and Christmas, they'll probably be down at least a couple hundred bucks by then. But some of the Costco's they'll sell out long before they ever get discounted because these were hot sellers the last time they got to Costco. And some of the Costco's sold out from what I understand in less than a month. Like people saw them on display there and less than a month later they went back and they were just gone all off the floor. So if you've ever wanted to spend less than five grand, get a really cool Star Wars game. I have played this game. It is fun. It is awesome. um it's i mean let's be honest even i don't love the other star wars game and the steve richie star wars is still better than this home one i'm sorry it doesn't have a real coin thing on the front and everything else but stern stern's connected coming to costco is big news for multiple reasons and i've said this is someone uh you know who has got honors in marketing at one of the largest business schools, or perhaps I would say from a non-university standpoint, that's going to screw over all my American friends. But basically in Canada, we have college university. College is like a local, usually it's considered a lesser degree. It's usually two years, not three, four, five, or six. Anyways, I went to Fanshawe College for marketing. And the number one thing that not just like my economics professor, we literally had a whole class just on doing promotions, right? When you're talking about promotions, when you're talking about advertising, we did advertising, of course.
    12:18
    Micro, no one wants to know. No one wants to know. But what I'm getting into is every single professor nailed home to me there that you need to hear about a product at least three times before you'll even consider buying it. And those three times need to be in a certain period of time. So just because you were born in the 70s and you played pinball in the 80s, but if you haven't seen or heard of pinball in 15 or 20 years, it's just out of sight, out of mind, right? So here you have a dude and he hears one guy at his work or something over, you know, talking about, oh, this new arcade has pinball at it and has this new arcade game. And, okay, so now he's, okay, yeah, okay, whatever. Buddy at work, he's always, he's like orbital Albert. He never shuts up. He's talking about something or other, right? And then all of a sudden, maybe you're at Dave and Buster's a couple weeks later and you're playing with your kids there. You're out with your buddies or whatever. And you walk by that pinball machine like you did the other 20 times you were there. but you kind of went, oh yeah, okay, yeah, no, they do still make newer pinball. That's right. And then four or five months later, the seed has now been set and maybe got a little Christmas bonus. You got a little extra money. Okay. And I know this is silly to say you have extra money because a lot of people times are tight for them. So I don't want to forget about that. But this is someone that maybe might've spent 15 or 20,000 on like a side-by-side or a quad runner, or maybe like Joel, four or five grand on like a brand new golf cart, right? So these are not huge expenditures for, I would say, you know, a good chunk of at least middle class, if not upper middle class. Four grand is still four grand. I'm just saying for a brand new in box thing, for you to have seen it there, do I necessarily think immediately that person buys it? No, but I think if there's one on display and they play it and they like it, now, now we have a future pinball customer. Now we're bringing more people in because now this person has the opportunity. Do you think the next time, if they almost considered, even for a second, buying a $4,000 pinball machine, do you think the next time they're out at a bowling alley or a laundromat, well, they're probably not going to a laundromat if they're buying a $5,000 pin, but who knows, maybe in a big city, I don't know. And again, this isn't an expensive one, But the next time that you are at Costco and you're walking down that aisle and you see it, you're obviously going to contemplate buying it because in between now and then you probably went to Dave and Buster's or you went to a bowling alley or you went to somewhere with pinball and now you've played a couple games.
    14:56
    And I'm not kidding. Like eight or ten people. Excuse me. I should have got a drink first. I'm a little bit hungover. I'm not going to lie. eight out of ten people that i've ever had at my house whether they knew anything about pinball or had not played it in 10 or 15 years once they play it they're kind of addicted nobody wants to just it's like lays okay you can't bet you can't just have one wait was that pringles i think it's lays uh even my mother-in-law who was like oh i don't know you're spending all this money on pinball sorry michelle i love you michelle i did get a birthday gift from michelle to go to jack asters They have really good craft beer here in Canada.
    15:32
    I mean, you know, it's not as good as a Gambrinus or a Milos's Craft Beer Emporium or any of these really good craft beer bars. But they are local, and I can bring the whole family there. And thank you so much for that. So, all right. I can't wait for this to come to Costco. Whether or not you listening to this show, the 300 to 400 people that are going to listen to this show, most likely you are not the audience. But just remember, whether they walk by it at Costco, whether they play the demo, they see it at a bowling alley, they see it at a barcade. There's so many more barcades nowadays. They're out at a Dave & Buster's. It's got to happen. The third time has to happen. Look, for some people, they're going to see pinball once and just be like, wow, I forgot how rad this was from the 80s or 90s or whenever I played it last. And they'll get back into it. For some younger people, they'll just see it and go, well, this looks way cooler than those dumb lottery games where you try to win tickets to go get like some free Tencent candy. Oh, you bought a $30 card at a kiddie casino and you won like $2 worth of penny candy. You could have bought it at the dollar store for half that price a quarter of that price a tenth of that price But anyways I don I really don like kiddie casinos I not a fan of gambling even though I love gambling which is it ironic I like gambling when there not very much luck involved So I'd like to do – I love playing poker. I hate playing slots, I guess, if that makes sense. I like playing blackjack. I don't like playing, I don't know, war. Can you even play – can you play Uno? Did never get – say, oh, you can play Uno. See, Uno I would not – okay, Uno I would play just for shats and gaggles. But I have known some friends and even family who have spent way too much money on gambling one way or another. So I am I'm kind of I know I'm a little square. I'm going to do a little square there like Pulp Fiction. OK, I'm a little square when it comes to gambling. It says the guy who last Saturday played a one hundred dollar. Oh, to be fair, a fifty dollar game plus fifty dollars of Pokemon cards with his son. who I'm going to let you guess was it the son that's of age or not. I don't know. We'll see here, though. But it was a home game. I think it's very legal at this point. And the good news is both sons are working 40 hours a week.
    17:48
    My oldest son is now working for Canada Post. He just did his first delivery route yesterday in Amherst, which is really cool. So shout out to Hayden and congratulations on getting hired there. Now that you've got the government's nipple, hopefully you can stay there for life, son. that's what you do you get in there i i would never tell him not to work hard but i would also tell him that uh look a mailman's job is never easy whether you're behind the counter and you're dealing with uh stressed out business owners or karen's i'm sorry coming in and being grumpy and rude and mean to you or whether you're in the back and you're sorting mail or you're loading up the van with parcels or you're out there delivering like hayden said uh to me dad it was pretty easy It wasn't that bad. And I said, yeah, son, it wasn't super hot. It wasn't super cold. It wasn't raining. It wasn't snowing. There was no tornado. There was, you know, it was nice weather. So being like a mailman in nice weather is probably usually most days that you don't get attacked by a dog or I don't know. You know what I mean? Like it's probably decent most of the time. He did say he walked like 17 kilometers or something. And that was just like they gave him an easy ride, which is only 150 plays. It's like 17K. You're telling me you did almost a half marathon, but instead of doing a half marathon on like flat ground like you typically attempt to do, unless it's the Boston Marathon, you're doing Heartbreak Hill. But that's eight miles of heartbreak. Let's not talk about that. uh poor hayden was doing this while going up you know multiple like 20 30 flights of stairs while going you know constantly in around and up and down and left and right and you know through stairwells and up uh onto patios and so this is like you do a half marathon a day so shout the frick out not to just every single solitary mailman but every single person listening to this show that's blue collar and like that works for a living i don't care even if you're just working in an office, but I'm giving an extra special shout out to someone who worked in an office a lot, who was very indoorsy, who's now very outdoorsy. You know, I give a shout out to each and every person who's out there working with their hands. I know one of the awesome dudes who donated to me was like, is a steel worker, right? And so a lot of these, whether you're a landscaper, whether you're a trades person, my best friend, Melvis Megaphone is a plumber. I think there's a nicer term for that, but I was trying to think like board certified plumber. I don't think it's board certified is it all right let's dial it back here good luck with Costco great job Stern and other pinball companies look for a way when you watch I have seen every single episode of Dragon's Den Canada up until like four years ago when we stopped getting cable I still watch highlights I've seen almost every episode of Shark Tank over the years I've seen almost every episode of Dragon's Den out of the UK. I am an entrepreneurial nerd. I've helped start and launch tons of small little companies. I've sat in with even more on marketing, communications, promotions, helped them launch one of the largest lifestyle brands you'll see here in Canada, which is called Ilberine Goose. I helped Dan and Megan back in the day with so much stuff, whether it be making custom products for them or just ideas, that kind of thing. So I am a serial entrepreneur. And what I'm telling you is the first thing they will say to you at Dragon's Den is, do you have distribution? So listen, I'm not saying to ignore all the awesome distributors out there because there is tons of awesome distributors out there. but also those awesome distributors, they have a showroom or they have an office. And do you know who goes into their showrooms? People who want to buy pinball or arcade machines and that's it. Oh, I'm sorry. Someone who might want a pool table in some cases or a ping pong table, right? But if you're not going into it, and a lot of these guys only do pinball. So it's kind of like you're preaching to the choir, okay? It's not Sunday morning. I don't want to get, I'm going to get off my pulpit here in a second, but I love you distros. I do, but you don't bring pinball to the new masses. We've got to put pinball everywhere. Like I said on my last show, I've been thinking about and working on starting a not-for-profit where we're putting pinball everywhere again. In the early 90s and the aughts, as they called them, the early 2000s, pinball was in every laundromat, every bowling alley, every just lobby, every pizza. Every pizza joint would have a Pac-Man or a Galaga and one or two pinball machines, every pizza joint. Even where I grew up playing, Tony's Pizzeria showed up to Tony and Kim, my parents' friends. They owned a little pizzeria in Lambeth, which has now been annexed as part of London, Ontario. and they always had two or three rotating pins at their house and he would keep the ones he really liked for a while until he got sick of them at his house and then he would rotate them in. And now I've all told you guys the secret of how I got so good at pinball. For years and years and years, on Friday and Saturday nights when my parents would go party at their friend's house, I would go, yeah, sure, I'll come. I would just go in the basement. I would just play pinball for hours and hours and hours. No, I'm not even that good. So that doesn't even make sense. But that is a true story that I maybe have not – maybe once, maybe once have told, like episode 12 or something on here. So there you go. I didn't know this show would go that way. Oh, my God. Guys, breaking news. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Okay, wrong show. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I don't want to cop anyone. I don't want to get copyright infringement like the Slam Tilt Pinball Podcast with the final round. I don't want to – I don't want – no, there is no – there is no – This is not the news ball bag, okay, guys? This is not. This is just a statement from Tim the Lion Man Lee. Here it is. Wow, it's a long one, guys. Can I do my best, Tim voice? Tim, you haven't been on the show in so long. I forget what you sound like. Okay, here he is.
    23:52
    Well, can I do that voice for you, Tim? Is that okay? I don't know. Maybe he's not deeper. He is a little deeper than my voice. I have a pretty high voice.
    24:02
    Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. No dead air, no dead air. Here we go.
    24:11
    Well, I was ecstatic to get into A and play all those top players. That was my goal. I played really well on Thursday and was really happy with my performance. However, guys, sorry, I've got to scroll down here.
    24:30
    Oh, oh, oh. so unprofessional. However, there was nowhere to hide on Friday. I didn't play badly Friday. I just played some amazing talent. I had a rad time getting tossed around by them. And then he put four ha ha emojis. Although I did sneak out a couple of wins. Dude, you got a couple of dubs inside a division? That's awesome. Okay, I did sneak out a couple of wins versus some top players. and that felt great but they did really beat up on me and they did really beat up on me and i loved it uh so this is more about the vibes i'm assuming here lots of great pinball vibes at the tournament i met a couple of people that might take it a little too serious um is eric stone there no i'm just kidding i'm just kidding eric i love you but most of the people were super rad i had the most fun hanging out and talking with lots of amazing people. Will I do it again? Not sure. I'm exhausted. Ask me in two months. Wow. Tim within, let's see what time he wrote this to me, at 7.19 a.m. and it was read three and a half minutes later at 7.22 a.m. So that was live on the air. Congratulations, Tim. I don't know if I haven't even, okay, he gave me the heart sign. So I'm going to, in my head, I'm going to imagine that Tim, oh, and Tim did get on the live stream. I think he was playing with Zach Sharp.
    26:03
    No, I think it was with Josh Sharp. I can't remember. He was with one of the Sharp brothers. And I can tell them apart. I'm not like that. I can tell them apart. They definitely look different enough. They do sound kind of, I can tell the difference on their voices too. But that's only because I've heard so many podcasts with them between Pinball Profile and everything else. But anyways, we've talked about the Tim situation. Congratulations, Tim. Did you fly a little too close to the sun?
    26:31
    Sizzle, sizzle. Did you get burnt? Maybe a little, but he had a hell of a time. And everybody else you're going to hear about me talking about, like multiple, everyone that I assume is going to win B or even C. Like, for instance, I know Tom Graff is in C division, and I think Tim would be okay with me saying this. Tim's rating is significantly lower than Tom Graff. So Tom Graff just didn't have a great Pemberg. To be fair, Tom Graff is trying to juggle two balls at once. That kind of sounds bad. He's trying to juggle two bowling pins at once. He's juggling chainsaws. He's juggling something, okay? D's nuts. No, no, I'm trying to be good today. Okay, no, he's juggling all these things. And what he's most preoccupied by is not just that his son's there and playing so well. Neil, congratulations. Shout out to Neil. He's playing very well. But he's considering the streaming. And that's probably sucking up most of his bandwidth. Sorry for the pun. Do you know what I mean? So that's really probably what he's mostly considering. And I will tell you this. The stream looks great, sounds great. I had an awesome time watching it yesterday. To some of the negative Nancys and Debbie Downers in chat, okay, including the one guy, I had a little many.
    27:47
    It's been three or four months. I haven't even had the tiniest, littlest bit of beef. I haven't visited Arby's once this summer, okay? but this dude in chat was kind of getting under my skin because he kept saying like yeah we all came here to watch this hot pinball action but it's like it was first of all it was very early in the morning second of all it's like it's the first day dude and then like it might have been the second day but they were complaining because there was nothing happening between the rounds and i felt like explaining have you seen pinberg that's just how it is a group comes together and they go play four games together and what are the chances that all 20 of these are i guess there's 240 players so now there's way less groups it should go faster for you my guy i don't even remember their name or it could have been a girl i don't know but i don't want to judge i don't want to guesstimate because then i'm usually wrong but this particular person was like wow like they're complaining and it's like first of all i can see you're not subbed up So this is free for you. Second of all, if you got here 30 seconds ago, you would have seen the hottest pinball action. So freaking hot it hurts. Okay.
    28:57
    Anyways, go watch Pembroke. Go enjoy it. It's going to be on Fox Cities. It's going to be at, I believe, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, so 10 a.m.
    29:07
    Go over to Fox Cities. You'll see what time it's at. I had it up on Facebook earlier. I should have double-checked. But I will be there watching finals all day long. And you'll see me under there as Orbital Albert. I like to fly low. That way no one knows who I am. They don't think Pinball Nerds Podcast. They just go, well, Orbital Albert, I don't know who that is. A lot of people might know me as Orbiter Albert. Or they might, the manly Orbiter Albert. And then other people might know me as Orby or Orbs.
    29:38
    But it's funny because 90% of the pinball people back in my hometown either knew me as Al or Albert. and and then my really good friends all call me Bert so I like to be called lots of different things because uh you know I'm not very good at anything that's kind of my secret I'm not a very good podcaster I'm not a very good pinball player um I'm I will say I'm I'm a decent dad I'll give myself mid-dad credit mid-dog owner credit as both I have at my feet here I have Draco Franchi and uh just sitting here to my right I'm petting her head right now Luna Tuna Elowen Agar let's go hey why was there no Ray Day no Elowen like I just want to know like does Elowen or I'm just even curious did Ray Day even try to get into Pimberg and then they didn't get in I don't think Elowen travels that much and plays that much I just watched a video last night it came into my feed with Elowen from 11 years ago on CNN and like he just was surrounded by pinball machines and he's like yeah I just sleep here on the couch surrounded by all these pinball machines it was so funny I don't know why I've never seen that before okay we've got to move on because we've got predictions and things to talk about uh let's this is really quick let's do kong's r us so kong's r us uh has a really cool youtube channel he's got uh 14 and a half thousand subs um he used to do a lot of like one-up arcade content and stuff like that he still has arcade content of course but it it from the only stuff that comes in my feed and that's maybe because I'm a hardcore pinball nerd is the specific Kongs R Us stern.
    31:13
    It's not just stern. He does a lot of stern stuff, but he was invited back in the day famously to the one that I did not get invited to, which is totes fine. It's okay. Nobody has to invite me anywhere. No one has to put up my link for any of my shows anywhere. You know why? Because I got this beautiful new microphone. okay i don't know what happens when i just i just i touched the microphone i know you're not supposed to but guys i wanted to because i want to do it because you told me i shouldn't all right so seth is being interviewed at the very start of with kongs r us and i i wish i knew the gentleman's name i'm sorry i don't want to keep can i just call you kong is that okay message me at pinball nerds at gmail.com and i probably won't read it read your email no i will read your email i I might even write you back. I maybe write back like one in five people who write me, but I'll probably read it. It just might take a couple weeks until I get to it. I only open it every couple weeks because it's so disappointing because I get so little mail. But I get so little mail because no one could actually get through an episode because I can't stay on topic. So let's go back to Seth. So Seth was asked, and I mean he looked at him straight in the face. Kong looked at Seth straight in the face and said, are you into cosplaying? and I could see the wheels of spinning in Seth's head. Oh my God. And he just, he gave a very nervous laugh and he was like, uh, not really. Um, uh,
    32:41
    he said, I'm more of a Ren Faire guy. So I was like, I think he was trying to say I'm more of a Ren Faire guy. So, because no matter what you say, if you say, oh yeah, I love cosplay. I'm sorry, Kong, but to probably nine out of 10 Americans, especially Americans, Especially, yes, this is a bit sexist, but guess what? There's some differences between the sexes.
    33:05
    Most men, when are asked, are you into cosplay? They don't think about Comic-Cons and they don't think about getting dressed up like a furry or that, you know, they think about like cosplaying with their partner. their wonderful ever patient wife right or partner husband whomever their partner in crime or they think about just their love life without their partner Just who knows they just having you know just rampant you know cosplaying So anyways I don't know. I don't think Kong did this on purpose. So this is nothing against him. I think he was just thinking, okay, we're at Comic-Con. He's not going to assume I'm speaking of it in the other way. Uh, but, and I think he did even say like, you know, if you were at an event, event like this but it was just so funny seeing seth going this is a moment where i could get clipped if i state the wrong answer and the cool part is like this is the neat part like i'm a very very small content creator only like i didn't even i didn't even check i know yesterday it was like a like less than 200 there was less than 200 listens yesterday on my show i might end up getting 300 maybe 350 if i'm lucky probably not because i'm doing another show today and honestly The sound yesterday was horrible, but my intentions yesterday were really pure. And I think when it comes down to it, the episode, okay, the episode was mostly unlistenable. But there's probably part of it. There's probably a little nuggy of truth in there. So go back and listen to that one. It's probably much better than today's. Today's I'm just goofing around. I'm a little bit hungover. I'm having fun. I got my, I never actually get to have like shows where I have a little bit of news. so I have like my man on the street there in Pimberg which is really cool this is fun this is why I do the show because I just like being like feeling like I'm kind of part of it my own little small way so Kong put this up um only only 10 hours ago and it's got 516 views so am I probably the first person in pinball reporting on it yes will anyone even make mention of this the Ren Faire thing if I if I didn't bring it up probably not so I'm sorry Seth but it's cutesy and it's funny and it's interesting. So great recovery, Seth. Cheers to you. You did a fantastic job because that was an awkward question that could have gone many different ways. And thankfully he worded out. And the cool part was Kong, and this is something neat I want to do when I start getting into doing more video content, especially when I can get myself a good camera. I know I have a crappy camera somewhere in the back of the arcade there, which I have to dig up and go through and find. but I want to get like a legit real camera to start doing because where cameras were seven years ago when I started live streaming are different than where cameras are now and even back then like back then I got the web cameras that Jack Danger explained on his dead flip uh I think it's just deadflip.com but probably just google it but he has a whole guide for people getting into streaming and like he said on his live stream the other day that particular like all those cameras and everything from back then are no longer really that relevant his stuff is because his was so good back then but like the stuff he was saying for like entry level that's not really entry level anymore so i literally had two webcams i had like a 65 webcam for my um for my like seeing the lcd screen or seeing my scores and then i had maybe like 120 webcam for my excuse me for my playfield and i know nowadays like that playfield webcam would barely be acceptable even as just like a score cam you know what i mean so that's just so i need i need to get a better camera a so i can make more youtube content b so i can make cool looking content like kong's here obviously this is not shot on a cell phone or obviously you can't walk around with a webcam but you know what i mean um and then i also want this so like i'm looking at getting like a type of sony handycam or something like that entry level used and that way I could also start live streaming pinball again because Orby's only putting one thing on his Christmas list this year and it's gonna be pinball and Orby's arcade oh shit oh I swore I'm trying not to swear poor Owen is sleeping I'm sorry Owen oh my god it's his one day off of the week to sleep in you know what that man he sleeps like a log he just he you can't wake him up. When you've had a dad as loud and wild as me for 17 years, you kind of, you know, he had to go to bed last night during karaoke. I'll just say that. And if you think I sing a lot when I'm completely sober on this show, you should see me six or seven beers in and a lot of gummy bears because I eat my vitamins, especially when I'm having the beers. I like the vitamins to go with it. I'm a little Hulkamaniac. I eat my vitamins. vitamins the only prayers i say are to pat lawler steve ritchie and steve kirk but besides that you know you know and i'm sorry i'm sorry i don't pray yet to jack danger i get you you are a pinball god jack to me anyways um that being said i've never even played x-men but something else let's bring it back to jack because jack is a pinball god for many reasons and none none of them the least of which is being a rad designer. Okay. But did I say that backwards? Maybe it sounds to me, I feel like this is what happened. I feel like this is just me convoluting. I've talked to no one at Stern about this, this I've read nothing on pin side. I rarely go on pin side. I go on pin side once in a while to look at pinball prices and definitely like usually within a week or two of a new pinball machine coming out, I'll go read what people are saying. I know when AI gate came out and scoop gate with Harry Potter, excuse me I went and read a bit about it but I don't spend a lot of time on there I'm already an argumentative person and that's a bad place for an argumentative person because you know I think I've only like done like 10 comments on there ever and I've been banned twice already so like it's I don't have a good I don't have a good percentage on pin side so in an attempt to not get banned from pin side I'm just I don't go into pin side a lot and honestly like this is my pin side This is me telling you how I think about everything in pinball. So Jack Danger looked happier than I've seen him in years there. Jack Danger sounded less stressed until Jack Danger was asked about, and Kong did it in the nicest, most professional way. I don't even know if I could do it this good. But Kong said, oh, let me plug in the laptop here. sorry kong said some people are saying they don't really like the code very much and he said it even better than that but he said it really kind really gentle really nice and right away jack danger if you watch it now i i was i literally i literally have taken the most winningest pinball player on planet earth phil helmuth the poker brat out of a world poker tour aruba event and this man and stocked me down, and we ended up playing heads up Omaha 8B for weeks, yelling and screaming at each other until we became buddies. Okay, so I'm only saying this, yes, partially to brag, but mostly I'm saying I can tell, I can read people's every move. I'm not that good at pinball, but I am that good at poker. And Jack, for the record, is not, because he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and that's part of what makes him great. but you watch this man shrug he does not just a single but almost a double shrug like literally like that's like if i asked one of my kids like hey who ate my last who ate daddy's last ice cream where's my drumstick from the freezer and they do a shrug like that i'm like yeah that was you that was you that literally was you by the way i lost i here i am bragging about beating phil hellmuth i mean he did take quite a bit of money after off me after that i don't think as much as the 500 bucks i got from him but you know not the point uh let's go back here to jack danger after hearing jack now speak about how he had started his new he's very deliberate in his words to say he started his third cornerstone he started it and now because of his new role he's passing on the baton and the baton that's getting passed come on up here draco what a good boy franchi come here come lay down we don't just call him Franchi because I was thinking about Mr. Wilbur and Christopher Franchi, my buddy there. I don't talk to as much as I used to. Hit me up, Franchi. We got to chat with you, bud. We haven't talked for a while. We should actually talk on the phone. You still have my phone number, bud. Call me up sometime. We'll chat. But we called him Franchi because we got him from New Brunswick from some French people. So his first, what, eight weeks when he was at home with his mom, He was only spoke to in French. And now the only one in our home who speaks French very well is Danielle. And the only thing she says to him is, fermez la bouche. No, I'm just kidding. I think that means close your mouth. I just remember because a French teacher said that to me a lot in school. But anyways, let's get back to Jack Danger. What I've been able to suss out has happened. This is just me guessing. I'm guessing he was partway through his third cornerstone, and he couldn't even concentrate or enjoy that because there was so much gosh darn tootin' kickback and so much pushback on the code on X-Men. So he kept getting torn away from his job and that has got to be one of the toughest things as a designer. Remember, he's probably not thinking about the code on his very first pin that he did before his first Cornerstone, which was the home edition that we just talked about that's going to be going out to Costco. He did the Jurassic Park one, not the Star Wars one. But he probably doesn't worry about code on that anymore. I think it's code complete and it's done. But I'm sure even Foo Fighters to this day, he probably has a list of a couple things that he would like to get fixed on it. And from time to time, his brain's got to go there. But then he wants his brain to mostly be thinking about, I'm guessing Pokemon, but I have no proof of this. But that's just my – that's the word on the street is the kids say, okay. All right. That's a hot new thing. So is it Pokemon? I don't know. And I do care because I would love for it to be Pokemon, but I wish it would have been cool if Jack could have stayed on it. Now, was Jack a pulled off of it or did he choose to go off of it or was it a bit of column A and a column B? My best guess, and again, I've not spoken to anyone. And my best guess is he was, A, a little bit stressed, B, a little bit overwhelmed with one, two, three, four, what, is it four years, five years in a row of designing pinball. And once you get into that fourth pinball machine, you're now thinking about the code at least on your last two cornerstones and especially on X-Men. Because nonstop, every time you're trying to think about designing and rules and code for your new pin that's supposed to be your new baby that you're supposed to work on all the time, the stupid internet and this you know that every the chatter of everybody else never shutting up about x-men not being code complete and blah blah blah oh it's a failure and nobody likes it everyone complaining about x-men all the time it probably just it would do it to me it would do it to me in a day i don't know how jack danger could put up with it for years but my best guess is i suspect he probably said you know what at this point live streaming's a lot less stressful it's not easy it's still a very tough job and and he probably just thought either he thought or someone at stern came up with and i think it's a genius idea for him to still be involved in the designing and the design teams in some way shape or form and i would assume between design play testing code play testing on live stream dealing with the community he's got more than a full-time job like he will be busy busy busy busy but as i said on my last show still go listen to my last show because i deep dive in it more but i just think it's possible as good of a designer as he is he might be even that much better as a live streamer and maybe stern saw that it doesn't mean that he can't help with design there's a whole team on every design every designer there at stern i'm sure would say wow jack danger if we you know if you get to come on the team and we can take your ideas for maybe like how cool the flowing ramps would be and stuff see when keith ellen comes in and that's what keith ellen brings that's super refreshing as as a designer is he has thoughts and ideas on rules and code because he's such a high level tournament player and i would say that if there was that tiny little differential that jack would probably perhaps have never maybe got to ellen's tier would have been because he isn't you know he's not as good of a tournament player who has, you know, a tournament player who thinks about how, has to think about how to basically manipulate the rules to be able to break the game, to be able to get the highest possible score at any given time. A competition player is specifically thinking about that. And the poor competition players who are waiting to hear me give my Pinberg predictions, I'll have to timestamp that. And I am going to try to remember to put Kong's interview in there, but Jack Danger looks happier he sounds more calm until that very second when Kong asked him because he was interviewed in front of I think he was live streaming Jaws was it Jaws? no he was on King Kong he was live streaming King Kong so I watched that and I'll tell you this as a pinball nerd who really misses Jack Danger but also loves tournament pinball I was torn apart I was watching Jack Danger for five minutes and back at Pembroke for five minutes and as soon as they were on a really old game I didn't necessarily love or players I didn't know that well, I would go back over there. And what are the chances out of like 30 some odd groups that Tim the Lion Man Lee gets his whole session recorded? So I will be going back and watching that. Tim, I had to rush to the airport to get my wife. I didn't get to see the whole thing. Did you do the smoking gun thing? I hope so. Gun smoke, bro. Gun smoke, among other smoke. But here we go. Okay.
    47:15
    It is Saturday morning. I hope you're all doing well. I hope at least one or two of you is listening to me over breakfast having little eggs and bacon. The thing is like I've been trying to cut back on bacon because I know there's like nitrates and a whole bunch of other like ridiculously high sodium levels. But I just love bacon. I just – I don't – I don't know. Can I be like – can I like not eat meat except for bacon? No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm not giving up meat. I'm not – but I might – bacon is like the one that I – when I first met my wife, I used to make – this is no joke. We would make a full pound of bacon every Saturday morning for breakfast and I would usually have like three-quarters of it, like seven to nine pieces. I would have like a month's worth of saturated fat in like one meal and that's why I'm so healthy. No, I've been trying to cut back. Man, when you get over 40, your metabolism is so slow. Glenn the Skateboarder, how are you doing with your weight loss? Okay, I'm not going to update everybody but he's beating me. He's beating me. I'm kind of sort of depending on when I do my weigh-in down two or three pounds maybe, which is, you know, we're what, about a month in, three weeks in? It's pretty realistically a good amount, but I'm not going to get to 30 pounds. But will I get to Expo? That is the question. I hope so. I want to. It's all going to depend on how much my car costs to get fixed this month. It's all going to depend on really honestly the weather, if Americans finally start coming back. Like I used to sell probably half my large bags of coffee on Saturdays were to Americans. I haven't even heard of a single person from America yet. Like half my customers in line used to be from the United States. Most of them upper New York state or Maine. Nobody. There's other Canadians there. So thankfully, Drop Target Danielle is doing the market today for multiple reasons, but mostly because I'm working like a 12-hour shift tomorrow, and I have about the collectibles market, the Moncton collectibles market, the maritime collectibles market, sorry, in Moncton. I'm going to be at that tomorrow there is a small fee to enter so Rod and any of my other Moncton buddies if you come to go in I think it's $3 or $4 so I'm sorry it is actually the big convention tomorrow the collectibles convention so we will actually have instead just mostly people from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia there will be tons of people from even probably as far away as like well the other end of Nova Scotia Halifax, Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown we might even get a couple Newfoundlanders. The Newfies could come. Okay, it could happen. Isn't it really cool? It's really strange. Newfoundland is off by half an hour. So when you're hearing the radio, they're like, and it's 5 p.m. in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and it's 5.30 in Newfoundland. How can you be off by half an hour, guys? Just pick an hour. Either go an hour ahead or an hour behind. Come on. All right. Now let's get into my predictions. Let's just exit that. We've talked about connected coming to Costco And this is the point that I want to make earlier which I probably got sidetracked on The fact that Connected is now going to be there that is a game changer because every person over there whether it be Seth is at a Ren Fair thinking about it, whether it's Jack Danger over there now live streaming, whether it's George Gomez, okay, it doesn't matter who it is over there. What their thought is, how can we get more people into pinball and every single person who bought a every single person i will say this right here marketing fail and stern i love you okay i love you you do lots of wicked awesome marketing stuff but this is a bit of a marketing fail every single solitary person who bought a costco pinball machine that was not connected that that is a lost opportunity big time because if it was connected they start doing the bleep bloops they get addicted and guess what they go well, I don't just want bleep bloops from my machine, and that's going to cause them to go into Pinball Map or go into Pinside or to reach out to other pinball nerds or to at least go to a local barcade one time once and talk to another pinball nerd there and say, hey, where can I go to get more of these bleep bloops, right? And where can I go get more? That's what Craft Beer Sally, of course, of Foghorn Leghorn and Craft Beer Sally of the Pinball Junk Drawerator on the Poor Man's Pinball Network, the only pinball network left on planet Earth. that's kind of cool right you know there was like five shows on here at one point uh shout out to rach tilt you'll see her uh rachel risto of course of the ray ray show formerly here on the poor man's bimble network you'll see her in chat lots she's always so generous not just with like bitties and stuff those two but like just with her her compliments and her kindness and she really like rachel's like what i what i would maybe i can get there maybe by the time you know i'm going to be 45 in what's the date today the 25th i'm gonna be 45 in five days oh i've got to open my legs i can't sit like cross-legged that long oh my god i gotta open my leg there we go okay so in five days i'm gonna be 45 and my whole goal is maybe by 50 to be even half as nice as rachel risto because she's like kind loving generous and i'm just my brain just judges everybody which i wish it didn't do that i wish i could just be a little bit more a little bit more like Rachel. So maybe I'll try to do that. All right. And speaking of like kind, humble and rad Jack danger, everything he said there, he was being so careful with his words. So he's going to, I guess it's going to go down as being co-designed. So I wonder if maybe he was in the middle of doing Pokemon and he just got a little bit like stressed out and kind of either someone at Stern or even himself, maybe, maybe who knows, maybe his wife, if she's like a really rad partner would say like, Hey, you know what? I think, you know what? you like designing you're good at designing but i think with two young children plus you know having to deal with like jack danger even if he's not designing 40 hours a week anymore he will still be dealing with the code on those well i mean he's still dealing with designing the pokemon or whatever game that is and then he's still going to be dealing with of course all of the uh he's going to be dealing with he's he's going to be dealing with really figuring out how to fix x-men probably for a year and a half to two years i i doubt x-men code will be code complete for at least two years so if x-men code came if x-men came out last year it won't be code complete for two years that begs the question when will the next one be code complete so jack danger will even at the very least if he never goes on to another design team or anything his whole life he'll still be doing design slash topper slash accessories slash code slash rules help he'll still be doing all of that for until like the year 2031 so during that time yeah like right now it might be like 30 hours a week of designing 10 hours a week of live streaming and so on and such forth but as he moves more into his community role it doesn't mean he's just going to be live streaming like that that community I think we're all going to be blown away I've seen this man innovate before we've seen him innovate in live streaming we've seen him innovate well building pinball machines and his pinball design we're now going to see him innovate how can i get pinball everywhere he's going to play nice on dead flip with all the other pinball companies and one of his main goals is being a community outreach isn't to say stern is the best and all other pinball companies suck no his goal is to say how can i grow the pinball community in a positive way that's open and inviting and not toxic and not rude and not mean. Pinball has always been kind of dark and dirty and wank and weird. It was always the weird, crazy rock stars. And it was always, it's never been like a jock thing. So that's why I think when sometimes, you know, there's, I've been in chats recently or Saturday morning spectaculars where people were talking about toxic masculinity. Like it's, it's so great. And it's back baby. And it's so awesome. And that's what pinball is. And it's like, no, it's really not. When you go watch, especially tournament pinball, when you look at a company like Stern and see how diverse their employees are and see how open and welcoming they are. Pinball is pinball is about how do we bring more people in? Not, not about how do we be divisive, not about, and that's why the time, like when I crashed out earlier this year and I was being mean and rude and got called out rightfully so by Joe Cherovino, the dote himself, And was like, dude, you know, you're usually rad, but you've been pretty divisive lately. And that's when I crashed out. And that's when I wasn't helping pinball. And that's when I lost the cause of like, that's what being a pinball promoter is. And if you're going to be on the pinball promoter page, make sure you're promoting pinball. That doesn't mean you can't have a critical eye. And you can't tell companies like I did just now with Stern when they have a marketing fail. But what it does mean is that your end goal of every single podcast, of every single pin site comment, of every single share, if you're going to be a pinball promoter, every single YouTube channel, every single Twitch post, every single Twitch live stream, your goal is to overall promote pinball. Do just that. Surprise, surprise. So, guys, I've ran long. I've talked too long. I haven't even made coffee yet. Can you believe that?
    56:22
    I'm on the pinberg right now. I'm going to wrap this up nice and quick for you guys. Let's start with C and move forward. Okay, Tom Graff is going to win C. There you go. I said that. That's who I think is going to win. He by far had the best record, 70 and 50. So by three wins, he was better than everybody else. I think Tom is the most experienced. Tom will probably win it. Now, here I'm kind of just guessing, but next going down this list, I would guess that probably Holly Koskin. I know she won. It wasn't whipped or intergalactic or women's. She won a big, a really big, like, women's tournament a couple years ago. She's also, she's just always in the mix up there. She's a really consistent, really good, really experienced player. I think she will probably get second.
    57:05
    This is harder to say here because I don't know that many of these particular players down at sea. So I don't want to just pull, like, names out of a hat. But you know what? I'm going to say, okay, just for fun here, just because these are the only two people here I know, I'm going to say, and it doesn't mean just because they have name recognition there's not other great players. Wait, Dori Zielinski's in there, but I don't think she's gone to a lot of finals. Dori is like the female counterpart of me in that she's just like pinball's biggest superfan. I know she does pinball t-shirts or pinball tournament t-shirts or something like that as well. But shout out to Dori. She's a very passionate person about pinball. So is Holly. And so is Elisa Parks. So I'm going to say there, Elisa Parks, I think you're going to get third. And I'm going to throw fourth over to Penny Epstein because I don't know anyone else on this list. So Penny Epstein, Lyman Sheets' long-term partner. Penny Epstein, obviously very experienced, has played in lots of tournaments, but playing in tournaments probably, you know, since long before I even knew pinball was still a thing again. So shout out. There you go. Those are my predictions. Those are really the only four names that I knew. This one we're going to go through a bit quicker. This is the B division. Wesley Johnson. I'm sorry you played well, but I got to give it to Todd McCullough. Okay. It probably, I'm going to say Todd McCullough is going to get first. Former NBA star, by the way. He's been in pressure moments where I believe he's gone to finals in the NBA like multiple times. I don't know if he has a ring. I'm sorry, Todd. I'm sure you mentioned it on BIMO Profile. But Todd has been in such high-risk, high-reward situations being paid big bucks that I think for him this is small beans. I mean, I'm sure he would love to get a top four at Pembroke. But shout out to Todd McCullough. I didn't get to actually meet him and talk to him at Pembroke, but I did see him because you can see him from anywhere on the floor. I think he's like 7'2 or something. He's very tall. I forget how tall he is. 6'9, very tall. I'm going to say Gene X. Wong. I actually think Gene will get second. I think Wesley Johnson. Gene X. Wong, the man who Elon Musk stole his ex-account handle without even asking. In Minecraft, I'll say. In Minecraft so I don't get sued. Sorry, Elon. I know you're a big listener of the Pinball Nerds podcast, so don't come at me, brah. I have no beefs. Go to Arby's. All right. And then number four, Robert Byers. There you go. The wrestling man himself. Let's get into A Division. Let's get it quick. Let's get it dirty because I have chickens to feed, dogs to walk, a pool to clean, and I have Saskatoon berries, also known in the United States in the upper northeast as service berries and known as June berries often in Alaska and certain parts of Canada. I have a lot of them to pick. you only have a week to get them before the birds get them, and I don't want the birds to beat me to my special berries so I can have super healthy smoothies for the next year. So first place, I'm just going to say it. This is controversial. I think first place in A, even though he had what they kept calling rudely, rude. Okay, I'm 45 almost. I'm going to be having old man flips and flops soon. Old man losses, okay, because the ball kept going down the middle and he accidentally flipped when he should have flopped. But Z-Mac, I think he's going to pull it out today when it matters to get first. I think Jason Zoller will get second. Jared August is going to get third. And I'm going to round it out with a European here. No, not Dan. Paul Englert could have easily been him. He's incredible. He's one of the top in Europe, if not the top. But I think Arvid. I think Arvid could do it. I'm sorry, Colin McAlpine. I'm sorry, Kerry Wing. Jim Belsito, congrats even winning that tiebreaker. Chris Stevens could do it. David Rial's there, obviously. Gregory Kennedy, Greg. I think he goes by Greg. Greg's been really impressive recently. So I wouldn't be shocked if any of these people did it. Andy Rosa's in there. Luke Nahorniak. Alexander Kazmarchek. I usually can't say her name. Jared Schmitz in there. Matthew Richardson. There's so many talented players in here. They all could do it. John DelZoppo. Brian Shepard. Sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, John. Just haven't seen you in the finals in a while. Oh, my God. I hit an hour. Certain people won't listen because I hit an hour. Sammy Bacon. Almost. Congrats, Sammy. She almost went to finals. Chad Patz almost went to finals. Chad, I haven't really heard of him much. Congratulations getting 24th. He looked a little bit nervous in finals, but we're in the tiebreaker. But who wouldn't be nervous? You're planning to go to finals in Pimberg. It's like the fourth major of the year and originally was the largest pinball tournament in the world for many, many, many years. But anyways, shout out to Jim Balcido and Carrie Wing. I often call her Carrie Zen Wing because she is so Zen. And I've even called her that before when she was on my Twitch channel commenting. Is it Bird? No, wait, is there something Bird on Twitch? Wait, is that her? Maybe that's not her. I think it's her. Anyways, I've never been told not to call her that. But if, Carrie, you don't like being called that, I'm sorry. Shout out to a friend of the show there, Mike Dimas. He didn't play as well as he wanted, but I'm sure he still had lots of fun. and he played really well, I believe, in the three strikes. Sean Russell played really well. I think he was an A, so shout out to him. Shane Jackson. Shane Jackson's in here somewhere. Okay, I take it back. Shane Jackson's getting fourth. The owner, proprietor of Maple Pinball, he's been playing very hot. Whatever category Shane Jackson's in, I think it's B. Now I take it back. I think he's going to get fourth. All right, there. I have it on the record. Those are my picks. If you see me in chat as Orville Albert, don't, like, obviously don't like leave a link for my podcast or anything, but I'm pretty sure Tom's not going to ban you or get you kicked out. If you just say, Hey, I liked your show today, buddy. Cause that would be cool for me to hear. Cause they're Tim, the lion man Lee is at Pembroke and people are saying to him, Hey, I like your show. And I believe, uh, Freighton, Sean Freighton, I should check yesterday sent me a really kind message. I did not get permission from him to read it. So I'm not going to read said message, but you know what? there is some people who have been big fans of my show for a couple of years and they're just so happy that I'm back, baby. I'm back. Orby's back. Cause sometimes, yeah, sometimes I run a bit hot. I become a grumpy grouch. I'm never a negative Nancy or Debbie Downer. Come on. Of course not. But, uh, Sean Frayden. So it's, is he a tribe member? I think he's a tribe member, but anyways, him and I were just, he really enjoyed my show. I think he'd be okay with me saying that. So shout out. And if you really enjoyed my show, send me a quick Facebook message and just say, rad show, dude, I enjoyed it. Or I like the new microphone. Or thank you for, because everybody will write me if I'm rude to one person. I'll hear about it from 30 people. But if I do 10 good episodes in a row, well, now I'm at 12 episodes where I'm not mean or rude to anyone. I might get one message. So if you want to encourage me to be more kind, calm, positive, well, not calm, come on, I wasn't calm. But if you want me to be, I guess, a little more chill and you want me to be a little more measured and make sure that I'm always a positive pinball promoter, then just, I'm not asking for any donations. Yes, if you want to tell a friend or family member, not family member probably, but a friend or a pinball, another pinball nerd, hey, Orby's back. He's doing good shows again. I'm enjoying it. That would just, that would touch my heart. That would make my day. That would make my weekend. That would make my week. That would make my summer. But more importantly, just send me a message and say, hey, I enjoyed the show, bud. It doesn't have to be a long convoluted like, wow, oh, wow, you're so good, man. But like that just really fires me up. And that's, I mean, you guys can say thanks to your show today, not just for Tim the Lion Man Lee for that awesome response, but also to Sean. Because I read that last night coming back from Halifax and it really, it lit a fire under my butt. And I thought, wow, how many other pinball nerds out there have listened to every show over the last, say, six months or even six years? and they know that I had some not rad shows for a little bit there. And I'm making my way back home. Dow, bow, bow. Dow, dow. Doo, doo, doo. Doo, doo, doo, doo. Okay, I don't even know the words to that song. All right, Pinball Nerds, I've gone way too long. Until next time. I'm doing a very, very interesting, unique food eating challenge. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with McDonald's, kids. But I will be doing that challenge starting August 1st. So unless there's any big news, because it's been very, very, very quiet on the pinball front. Unless there's some big news, I came back to do today's show, not just because Sean inspired me and Tim, but also because I've been doing Pimberg predictions on the show, like, before I moved to the East Coast five years ago. So it's something I've done many times before, and I'll do it again, baby. This is your morning live from Pimberg. I put all the Pimberg prediction stuff at the end. So therefore, if people wanted to listen to everything else they could, because I still think today's show was probably better than average. And if you think it was better than average, you don't have to donate. You don't have to join my Patreon. You don't have to buy my T-shirt. But it would be really rad if you fired me off just a nice message. Or you could send me a pinball email at pinballnerds at gmail.com, and I might read it someday. Please don't message Pinball Nerds Podcast on Facebook. I hardly rarely ever go there. When I do live streams, either zero or, like, one person comes in, So it's almost not worth it. I might have to do live streams right from my Albert Agar things. I think that's where most of my pinball nerds are. But anyways, have yourself a wonderful day. I'm in love with you. And I love you. And thank you for listening. Let's keep this positive train going, not just for 2025, not just 2026. But you heard the man that dote himself said two years of positivity straight. so if one person says oh you're too much of a shell and you're being too positive blame it on the dote because until next time pimple nerds remember to eat sleep and breathe pinball degenerates