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Ep 95: Pinball Expo 2022 Recap

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 24m·analyzed·Nov 3, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball Expo 2022 recap: charity stream hits $27k goal amid security lapses and infrastructure complaints.

Summary

Josh Roop and Scott Larson recap Pinball Expo 2022, detailing their charity event "Flipping the Script on Autism" which raised $26,900 (exceeding their $25,000 goal), and discussing both the convention's successes and operational failures including security vulnerabilities, inadequate internet infrastructure ($2,500 for 5 Mbps), poor seminar visibility, and theft of donated items during teardown.

Key Claims

  • Flipping the Script on Autism raised $26,900, surpassing the $25,000 goal to help 31 families get autism diagnoses

    high confidence · Josh and Scott discussing final fundraising totals; breakdown: auction items ~$14,000, straight donations ~$2,000, angel donor $10,500

  • Convention center charged $2,500 for internet (5 Mbps), inadequate for streaming

    high confidence · Josh explaining his call to convention center 4 months prior; noted this was the 'charity rate' vs $2,800 for non-charities

  • Items were stolen from booths during Saturday night teardown, including Hot Wheels banner, t-shirt, speaker light kit, and hat signed by Joe Balcer

    high confidence · Josh describing 10-15 minute window when items disappeared from Flip N Out booth; Brian Kosner noticed the theft

  • Convention center has no interior security cameras, only at entry points

    high confidence · Josh speaking with security after the theft; Brian Allen also lost ~$2,500 in art

  • JJP's Ken Cromwell previously raised $25,012 in 24 hours but noted they didn't achieve $25k in half the time

    medium confidence · Ken comparing his 24-hour event to Flipping the Script, mentioning JJP did a 24-hour event 3 years prior

  • George Fisher's computer hotspot auto-disabled, causing temporary stream crash; connection reverted to his phone's hotspot

    high confidence · Josh detailing troubleshooting of a ~30 minute stream outage on Thursday during opening

  • Seminars at Expo were free and attendance was ~30-40 for the Mark Silk/Josh seminar, with poor visibility due to QR code vs. banner scheduling

    high confidence · Josh and Scott discussing seminar logistics and comparing to Texas Pinball Festival

  • American Pinball and Pinshades stepped in to replace stolen donated items without being obligated to do so

    high confidence · Josh explaining vendor generosity in covering Hot Wheels banner and speaker light kit replacements after theft

Notable Quotes

  • “Zach will get you hooked up. The shipping is insanely fast.”

    Josh Roop @ early segment — Endorsement of Flip N Out Pinball's service quality and speed

  • “For us, it'd be $2,500 for internet for the day. And I said, but we're a charity. And they said, that's our charity rate.”

    Josh Roop @ internet cost discussion — Illustrates the convention center's inflexible pricing structure despite charity status

  • “It was almost like someone was waiting. I think they were looking for stuff they could disguise as their own stuff.”

    Josh Roop @ theft discussion — Suggests the theft was planned and opportunistic during chaotic teardown

  • “I think you shut down Expo at midnight instead of 2 in the morning because there was no reason to keep it past midnight in my opinion.”

    Scott Larson @ security discussion — Proposes operational change to reduce theft vulnerability

  • “Don't worry about it, we'll cover it.”

    Vendor representatives from American Pinball/Pinshades @ theft recovery — Demonstrates community solidarity in supporting the charity event

  • “Our goal was $25,000. If we could do $25,000, we could pay for 31 families to get over that hump and get their diagnosis.”

    Josh Roop @ fundraising goal discussion — Explains the concrete impact of the fundraising target

  • “Everything's upside on this. I just thought it was funny. But yeah, I mean, $26,900, essentially $27,000, right? We're off by 11 bucks.”

    Scott Larson @ final totals — Closing sentiment on exceeding goal by such a narrow margin

  • “If your sound is clipping out, either get a better guy to run your mixer or get more powerful equipment.”

    Josh Roop @ seminar quality discussion — Critique of audio infrastructure at the convention

Entities

Josh RooppersonScott LarsonpersonZach ManeypersonKeith ElwinpersonGeorge FisherpersonMark SilkpersonAmanda HamiltonpersonBrian KosnerpersonKen Cromwellperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2022 organizational issues identified: inadequate internet infrastructure ($2,500 for 5 Mbps), no interior security cameras, poor seminar visibility via QR code instead of printed schedule, weak audio equipment causing clipping during presentations

    high · Multiple detailed complaints from Josh and Scott about convention center failures; internet pricing call documented; security verification with venue staff; audio quality issues during Twippies and seminars

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball and Pinshades demonstrated community support by replacing stolen donations at Flipping the Script without obligation, reflecting strong vendor solidarity in pinball community

    high · Josh describing vendor responses: 'don't worry about it, we'll cover it' from both American Pinball and Pinshades representatives

  • ?

    operational_signal: Organized theft occurred during Saturday night teardown at Expo when booths were closing; items stolen from Flip N Out booth and Brian Allen lost ~$2,500 in art; no security cameras inside convention center

    high · Josh's detailed account of 10-15 minute window when items disappeared; multiple vendors hit simultaneously; confirmation that convention center only has cameras at entry doors

  • $

    market_signal: Flipping the Script on Autism exceeded $25,000 goal, raising $26,900 to help 31 families with autism diagnoses; auction items alone generated ~$14,000, with angel donor contributing $10,500

    high · Final fundraising breakdown provided by Josh; angel donor pledge mentioned as emotional moment during stream; comparison to JJP's previous 24-hour event ($25,012)

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.253

0:00
Thanks for tuning in to Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. We are on episode 95. I am Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain, as always, Scott Larson. And Scott, it's been a crazy couple weeks. It's been a fun, adventurous time. It's been really busy. It's been super busy. And we got back from Expo. And you know who held our hands through the whole thing? Keith Elwin. Well, Keith Elwin too, but Flippin'. Oh, okay. Flippin' Out Pinball. Yeah, Flippin' Out Pinball. They helped us out with our booth. We got to tag team with them for our Flippin' the Script on autism. And his sweet Deadpool LE, which now he's hesitant on selling because he's like, I'm not usually a nostalgic kind of person or like believe in physical things, right? Right. Zach's like, you didn't, you realize like, Elwin, Eric, Roger Sharp, Josh Sharp, Dwight Sullivan. Yeah. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Raydaypinball, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams, Straight Out the Middle, Knapp Arcade, It's all on video too. Yep. So, but if you want that pinball, I don't think he's selling Deadpool now, but if you want a pinball machine, get a hold of him. He does have stuff in stock though. He does. So he did have Russian stock, I know, and he had like Mandos in stock and I think some other things. So if you want to check out his update list, he tries to update, he has a post pinned to the top of his Facebook page and he updates that, I want to say every other week. All of these are great pinball machines. You know Christmas is right around the corner. Zach will get you hooked up. The shipping is insanely fast. Yeah, he is very on the spot with that. Yeah, and he does great with it. So next pinball machine you buy, Zach and Nicole Meny, Flip N Out Pinball. All right, Josh. So what's new? Anything happened in the last two weeks? Besides Expo? Oh, okay, so there's Expo, yeah. Or us trying to recover from Expo. Probably a little of both.
2:10
So Expo happened. When did we record? Was it like Monday before Expo? It was right before Expo, yeah. Yeah, it was right before Expo.
2:19
We then hopped on a plane. I hopped on a plane. Let's see. I guess in the last two weeks, sorry, I got Guardians of the Galaxy from Flippin' Out. Put it in my lineup, and it's funny, I got it on Tuesday. So, I put one game on it, then we went to Expo the next day. Ah. I would like to talk about Guardians after the fact, because Guardians is a good game I've played on location, but now that I have it in a home environment, my opinion has changed a little bit. Really? We'll tease that for later. Okay. So, um, then, do you want to go through your Expo? Should we just do it by- day by day? Yeah, let's do it day by day. Okay, what was your Wednesday like? So Wednesday we flew in, got in about two o'clock or so.

“It felt like the fun of Texas, not as packed, so you could get on pinball machines quicker.”

Scott Larson @ Expo comparison — Positive characterization of Expo as 'Texas lite'

  • “I'm not opposed to doing another Flipping the Script. I'm open to it. I'm open to consider it.”

    Scott Larson @ closing remarks — Signals willingness to repeat the charity event despite the effort required

    • Roger Sharpperson
    Jen Ruperperson
    Eric Meunierperson
    Craig Bobbyperson
    Brian Allenperson
    Joe Balcerperson
    Learning Solutionsorganization
    Flip N Out Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Pinshadescompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Pinball Expo 2022event
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Loser Kid Pinball Podcastorganization
    Flipping the Script on Autismevent

    content_signal: Streaming setup experienced technical issue when George Fisher's phone hotspot auto-disabled due to inactivity, causing temporary connection failure; connection reverted to secondary phone without immediate notice

    high · Josh's detailed explanation of hotspot dropout and subsequent troubleshooting; stream crash and recovery happened within 30 minutes of opening

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2022 characterized as 'Texas lite' - maintaining Texas Pinball Festival's fun atmosphere with better machine availability (less crowded) but similar seminar visibility and audio infrastructure issues

    medium · Scott's comparison: 'It felt like the fun of Texas, not as packed, so you could get on pinball machines quicker'; both conventions noted as having poor sound systems in seminar areas

  • ?

    operational_signal: Seminars at Expo had poor visibility despite being free; scheduled via QR code on passes rather than printed schedule; attendance moderate (30-40 for Josh/Mark seminar); clipping audio during presentations hindered content delivery

    high · Josh noting sound guy critique as experienced audio professional; discussion of QR code vs printed schedule; comparison to better-organized Texas Pinball Festival

  • ?

    industry_signal: Pinball convention infrastructure (security, internet, audio, booth setup) significantly lags industry standards; booths are open tables with drapes offering no physical security; interior surveillance absent

    high · Josh's broader critique: 'having a security system that has like cameras everywhere in a big convention center, that should be a requirement'; comparison to Texas Pinball Festival offering optional booth curtains (though expensive due to union requirements)

  • ?

    business_signal: Flipping the Script received immediate interest for continuation despite significant organizational effort; both Josh and Scott expressed openness to future events, though acknowledging the workload

    medium · Scott: 'I'm not opposed to doing another Flipping the Script. I'm open to it'; Josh noting he's been 'nonstop for the last week' managing fulfillment and logistics post-event

  • ?

    venue_signal: Expo location in Schaumburg with convention center creates operational challenges; everything noted as '45 minutes away'; booth teardown extends to Sunday morning for major manufacturers (Stern, CGC) requiring semi-trailer access

    medium · Josh and Scott's frustration with distance: 'Everything's 45 minutes away'; discussion of how major vendors need Sunday morning for trailer pullout creating extended chaos

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: Convention center uses union labor for booth setup/teardown; optional booth curtains cost ~$10,000 due to union requirements, making them economically infeasible for most vendors

    medium · Josh explaining Texas Pinball Festival's curtain option: 'but that would have been $10,000 anyway. Yeah, exactly. It's union.'

    • 3:00
    Amanda Hamilton was there at the same time and she had offered her and Mike to drive me from the airport.
    3:09
    So we hopped in, went and checked them in, I checked in, and then we went down to help set up the Flip N Out booth because they were just looking for help. And he's like, oh, we're around. We should, we'll be able to help out. Yeah.
    3:28
    Um, and that basically that was, that was the evening. I, I think we may have grabbed a bite to eat, but I can't really remember what we did. When I ran into you guys. So we got in, I thought you got in around noon or 1230. Cause we, maybe I did. Yeah. Cause originally we were supposed to get in, uh, my wife, my mother-in-law and I were supposed to get in around like five o'clock, five 30. Tim Kitzrow, Steve Kitzrow, and some other people. And somehow we lucked out and got on an earlier flight. They had some, they had like 13 on standby and apparently 13 people didn't show up. So we were the last three on that list and it was snug in that plane. It was tight. It's like a 20 person plane. Yeah. And you find some of the nicest people on an airplane and you find some of the biggest jerks on an airplane. Yeah. I guess kind of like pinball, right? Yeah. Anyhow, we got in around 2.30. Mark Silk had gotten in around the same time. So we grabbed an Uber after trying to figure out the airport, which was funny to me because Mark had it more figured out than me and my family did. So Mark travels more. Yeah. And he does this stuff all the time. It's like his job or something. Something like that. Yeah. So we got back to the hotel.
    4:42
    It was still like four or five before we even got to the hotel because all the shenanigans going on at the airport. Yeah. And then I came down, tried to catch up with you guys, and then we went and grabbed a bite to eat. And then, yeah, it was just kind of helping out around down there. I think someone went to the tailgate party. Yeah, I went to the tailgate party. How was the tailgate party? You know, it was cold. I mean, it was super nice. I mean, Steve Beaty was there. It's at his house. And Dwight Sullivan was there. Jerry Thompson was there. And there were a lot of other people, Bill Webb, Amanda Hamilton. So all these people showed up. Eric was there, Manure. And I'm trying to go through and figure out, oh, and Keith Johnson was there. So I it was it was a big deal they they streamed for about two and a half hours I think I hopped on for like 45 minutes okay but Scott Danesi was there too so yeah it was fun and it was it was nice in the garage outside it was a little cold but it was still you know super nice of them to host that yeah I've also realized that everything is 45 minutes away in Chicago for some reason yeah for some odd reason where the The convention center is located. It's just... Everything's 45 minutes away. Yeah. Thursday. So we finally get to... Everyone goes to bed, wake up Thursday. I had a hard time sleeping, so I can't... I think I was up by six that morning, which is like five our time. I was ready to go. I was... I think everything had been accumulating for the last six months to this Thursday, right? Yeah. So I finally get up, we get everything put into place. We finally flipped the switch at what? A little bit before 10?
    6:36
    Yeah, it was. We had like a countdown for like 10 minutes and then we started about 10, 10 or something like that. And you and I started off with well, you started. We started with Justin Benson. Justin. Yeah. From Learning Solutions. Yeah. And he's the one who introduced basically learning solutions and how it's It's a new company that they're trying to establish, but they have a big waiting list of all these people who are trying to get into the system. But as we've talked about multiple times, there's a hump to get started. And so that was the driving force of doing the fundraiser was to help these families get over that hump. James Bowen, ll. Lenny Hale, John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.
    8:18
    The biological warfare and the chemical warfare. Yeah, those were pretty awesome. So that was great. After us, it was Amanda and Keith Elwin. Yes. And they had a blast. I heard there was some interesting tidbits out about, I think he said something about his next cornerstone, and then also a little bit of information on Bond 60th. You're going to have to go back and watch John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Okay, let's go back to it because it's been mentioned on other podcasts. Okay. And there's a lot of confusion going on. Okay. With like electricity and stuff like that. I can't speak to electricity. I'm still thrown for a loop that it was an extra like 300 bucks on top of your booth. Right. As far as the internet goes, so the convention center itself is like we're a convention center. You can rent our open warehouse essentially. Yeah. But if you want internet, you must go through the third party company that runs internet for us. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Ballywin, This is not a dirty laundry situation. This is actually part of the fee schedule for renting a booth. And so this is the challenge, by the way, of any convention. They they're going to find ways of raising money and and making the making the event pay for itself and possibly make some money. So this is not bad. I mean, possibly make some money. Okay, I called them four months before, because George Fisher and I were talking like, what are we going to do about the internet situation? He's like, I heard rumors about the price. And I said, I'll just give him a call. I'll just flat out tell them who we are. I call up the convention center. I say, okay, we're doing a charity event. What is our price on this? Because I'm not gonna lie, people are very generous towards charities. Yeah, and I would say we've been, we have tried our best to make this as simple and transparent as possible. Yes. Like we made sure that the finances were directly going to Learning Solutions. We weren't benefiting in any way. In fact, we donated some stuff along with a lot of people. Yeah. And so, yes, we, it was, it was a very clean fundraiser. Yeah. So they said, for us, it'd be $2,500 for internet for the day. And I said, but we're a charity. And they said, that's our charity. That's our charity rate. Yes, if you were not a charity, it would be $2,800 for five megabits upload. For those that don't So understand this, five megabits is nothing. You can't run a stream off of five megabits. You can't even download like an app off that. It's so bad. No. We were talking about, we were lucky to be running the, not lucky, but we're doing pretty good with the stream at 20 megabits. And the only reason we had a snafu for a second is because for some odd reason, George Fisher's computer was hooked up to my phone. I know everyone wants to know this, but it was hooked up to my hotspot and we were doing I'm like 20, 25 output and like 20 upload. And all of a sudden the stream crashed and then we couldn't figure out why it crashed. But we restarted the stream and it was perfectly fine. So we're just like, oh, that's weird. We'll just chalk it up to like solar flare or something, right? Sure. And then it wasn't until a couple hours later that I went to go to my phone. I hadn't been touching my phone because I thought it's a hotspot. I don't want to be moving it. Usually if you pick it up, it comes with me, right? Yeah. So a couple hours later, just to check my phone and messages and stuff, I pick it up And I'm like, hotspot turned off due to inactivity. I look at George and I'm like, George, is the stream still going? And he's like, yeah, why? And I'm like, dude, my hotspot's off. What are you running off of? And we panicked really quick. We're like, well, it shows it's still running. What's it running off of? Somehow it reverted from my phone back to George's phone. Oh, okay. And so that's what happened. That was the only drop we had, and that was the first 30 minutes of the stream, somewhere around there, right? Yeah. Anywho, so yeah. I don't know. I will put this in perspective too. I went to Great Wolf Lodge last week with my family. Okay. It was the, hey, you let me go to Expo, we're going to celebrate as a family doing our own thing. Yeah. Okay. And the guest internet that was totally free at Great Wolf Lodge, guess how much the download speed was? 45. 121. And the upload speed was 205. The Holy crap. So Could you only imagine? Super fat. So, okay, if there's one, one thing that I thought was kind of ridiculous was the, the internet situation there. Yeah. Now, that being said, the, uh, like the convention was very supportive of our stream and they were very supportive of like helping us out with the charity. And so I, this is not on them. This is more of a Schomburg Marriott situation.
    14:26
    Yeah. That's probably just what they have to do. And at some point they have to fix that because that's not, seriously, are we gonna do like a fax machine stream next time? I guess. I mean, it's like 19-AOL, it's like 1995. Well, and the whole thing's goofy too. So let's start and talk about security because- Okay, so we're going to air grievances first, and then we'll talk about the positivity. Okay, let's do that. I don't want to say it's necessarily grievances because we... Situations. Three weeks before flipping the script on autism, we had like a sudden, we should switch this all to online. Right. We had, I'm not saying like we knew someone was going to steal from us, but it kind of hit me like three weeks before, what happens if we do get hit? We have all these things here, yeah. Yes, we have some pretty nice items that a lot of people want and I would hate for us to auction these off and then then disappear. Yep. And when I when I explained it all to the sponsors that way, they were totally fine with it. And so a lot of them didn't bring the items except for the two play fields. And then we had, you know, we had the banner, we had the T-shirt, we had the speaker light kit, the stuff that like people had donated That necessarily wasn't a manufacturer. Like we have the Franchi Plexiglas as well. Sorry, I'm going totally off into left field at the moment. So when I talked to, because our concern was security, we called up the security at the hotel and said, okay, what do you guys provide? We're just trying to figure out what we need to do. And they're like, oh, we don't provide security. And I was like, but you're a convention center. And they're like, well, we provide security for the hotel inside the convention centers up to the person All those people, as soon as you go through the front door, was Pinball Expo. And that gets more interesting because they patrol, the hotel security patrols the grounds, but it's like as soon as you go through those double doors or whatever you want to call them... It's like you're entering the Matrix. Yeah. It's like this box within a box that they have no control over. They were really good about checking your wristbands to make sure you weren't going in. Yeah. But nothing else. It was so goofy. And what gets even goofier is after, so for those that didn't see the Facebook post, we were packing up. It's Sunday night, sorry, it's Saturday night around 1130. People are just playing pinball machines. They're not checking out booths. They don't care. Like if, if... Most booths were closing up. Yes. They basically had to get out Sunday morning like ASAP. And so most of the booths just tore down Saturday night. But people that have major booths like CGC, Stern, those ones that had to bring a trailer, like a truck, a semi trailer, they actually didn't tear down until Sunday because they need everyone else's booths all the way so they could pull the trailer actually into the convention center. So there's a lot of chaos. It's tearing Down and Running it Out the Back Door. And I, Brian Cosner, who was very nice to donate some items comes over, and he's like, have you seen the Hot Wheels banner signed by Joe Balcer? This t shirt and a Speakerlight kit, plus his hat and sunglasses, he'd made a pile because I was trying to get all the items back to the people. In the time that I picked up the Frenchy Jaws plexiglass from our booth and took it to Frenchy, We talked for maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes, because he was packing up and trying to get out as well, and came back. That stuff was taken. Yeah. It was almost like someone was waiting. And luckily, during all that too, I'd moved the playfields back behind. I think they were looking for stuff they could disguise as their own stuff. Yes. It's pretty hard to walk out with a playfield. But a box, a non-descript box. One of a kind, black and white, Attack for Mars playfield, and a Jersey Jack test playfield that was only like four or five of them made. Right. Yeah, it's kind of hard to hide this. So, Kaws is like, I can't find this stuff. He made a pile. He looked, I looked, you looked. Yeah. We did everything. Our first thought was, is like, well, it must have got packed up. Right. Because seriously, we have six, seven people just in the Flip N Out booth taking stuff back and forth to the dock, right? So, we didn't even think we got hit. It was just like, oh, and of course, with small, like a t-shirt, really? Anyhow. Yeah, it just it was really weird. But so I'm talking to security after the fact, right? Because Brian Allen had talked to us because he got hit pretty hard. Yeah, he got $2,500 worth of his art stolen. Yes. Come to find out there's not security cameras in the convention center. They're at the doors. So they can look at the doors. But they can't look inside the convention center at anyone's booths. Again, a total failure on their part. Like, unless they are trying to disavow themselves from anything that they, but I'm sorry, in today's day and age, having a security system that has like cameras everywhere in a big convention center, that should be a requirement. It should be. So I'm kind of to the point where it's like, this convention is ridiculous in my opinion, because it's essentially have your event here, but we're not going to do anything for you besides have Mason So, there's some heating and air conditioning in this space and that's about it. Yeah. I well I think that they I would say the location probably needs to step up their, like what they're doing. Yeah. But maybe that's like I would say Expo was much better this year than last year. But maybe that's something that Expo needs to address themselves. Yes. So is there we are hiring people but at the minimum. I'm sorry as a convention senator, you should have close circuit TV. Here's my opinion on this because all of us got hit at the same time. We got hit in that everyone's packing up, people aren't noticing because things are going out the door. I think you shut down Expo at midnight instead of 2 in the morning because there was no reason to keep it past midnight in my opinion. We went back at 1 and there was barely anyone in there playing. There were some people on machines. It still is what it is. Shut it down at midnight and then at midnight push the whole public out. That when people can start packing up Now you also making assumptions that it was we have no idea who the Sticky Fingers person was True But it was obviously a planned hit Yes It was planned. I feel like someone had been scoping out Expo all weekend long and then they struck when they knew they could strike. Yes. So, this was planned. So, that means that they... this has happened before at Expos, at any conventions, but That says that what was done this time needs to be changed. Yep. So that's, there's probably other ways you can improve upon it. That was just my top, off the top of my head. I think that's some way that you could help prevent and then just, you know, it's kind of on you at that point of like have someone in your booth while you're cleaning up. Anyhow. Yeah. Or at least, you know, maybe have an awareness. Hey, we don't have active security and so you should have someone on stand, you know, And you can stand by to make sure that your stuff's not messed with. There should be some sort of disclaimer. But I think the thing is, is there isn't active security at most of these conventions. There's seriously enough security to check your wristbands and make sure you're not sneaking in the back exit. There really isn't much from stealing. These conventions are open. These booths, you can attack from all sides. Yeah, and the booths, they're just, they're cardboard tables. Card tables, excuse me, not cardboard. All of these are hard tables that have a drape, a tablecloth that's covering all these assets. See, and like the only difference I can think of with like Texas Pinball Festival and this is they do offer the curtain that can go around your booth. Yeah. They don't offer that here at Expo. Yeah, but that would have been $10,000 anyway. Yeah, exactly. It's union. So, okay, let's get back to flipping the script. Okay. Okay, so. We'll talk about the stolen items later. Well, I think we just covered it. I don't want to dwell too much on a negative thing because the whole experience, the flip in the script was such a positive experience. And thankfully, we contacted the people who supplied the stuff that was stolen and they said they would make it up. Actually, it wasn't even the people that supplied it. This is why I'm so impressed with American Stern and with Pinshades. So, when we found out about the stolen items, they were all donated by Brian Kosner, which is, it was his own personal collection. Right. It's not like he can replace them. Right. I called up American, or I ran to Dayfix, I told him the situation, and he's like, don't worry about it, we'll cover it. I ran to Zach Sharp, and he's like, don't worry about it, we'll cover it. And then the Speakerlight kit, there wasn't a sponsor for that, but Jockton stepped up and he said, I'll take care of it. Don't worry about it. Yeah. So I was flat out impressed. It's not even their deal. No. And they're like, no, just don't worry about it. Yeah, and that was super nice, because we certainly would have felt obligated to find, well, we did feel obligated to make sure that things were taken care of and people were made whole. So that was a big solid.
    24:08
    So the rest of the script, so we had, let's see where... After that, so it was Eric Meunier and Craig Bobby, and this is Craig Bobby's first time. Killed it, man. Yeah. Besides him doing the spots on Pinball Show for your five minute update, it was great. Everyone loved it. After that, it was Roger Sharp and Jen Ruper from No Coin Drop Required. Also, she was there helping with the tournament. It was an amazing conversation. It was really cool to see a different side of Roger on that point. Roger always gets asked the same questions right? Of course. Yeah. Or questions. And he's pretty good at answering them. Yes. Yes he is. Plus or minus 45 minutes. And then after them, Roger and Mark Silk. Or not Roger, sorry, Zach Meny and Mark Silk. Yup. And that was fantastic as well. And during all that, sorry, between the Craig Bobby and the Roger Sharp with Jen, Mark Silk and I did a seminar. Yep. And you were there for that. Yeah, I was up there. I was surprised actually the numbers in that seminar. There was about 30, 40, which is actually pretty good for a seminar on a Thursday afternoon. Yeah, it's, well, and this was the challenge. They did a lot of really good things at this expo, okay? Yes. And the thing that really should be fixed is they didn't have a giant banner that had when all the seminars were. They basically had a QR code that you scan on your pass, which every other conventions I've gone to have been like you flip it over and it's, oh, so and so is speaking right now. And it was a little bit of a walk. It was upstairs, so it wasn't terrible, but it didn't feel like they were funneling people to the seminars. So I would say that was the downside too. And the seminars were free this year, so you had no excuse to not go. Yeah, and that was a huge bonus of, well, that was a better organizational decision, I guess I'll put it that way. But I'll put it this way too. I think seminars don't get as much love as they should at pinball conventions. It was the same thing with Texas Pinball Festival. And what's scary is, it's funny because everyone's, you know, I hear a lot of people like, well, Texas is the ultimate. And I agree, like Texas was, it's quite a party. It's like almost like a family reunion for pinball people, right? And I agree with Zach Meny that this expo felt like Texas lite. It felt like the fun of Texas, not as packed, so you could get on pinball machines quicker. Just that Texas as you do have an expo the X the seminars are for some odd reason off in the back corner they have a terrible sound system for both well and they should also have like an announcement over there like hey in the seminar room now is Mark Silk you know yeah you know so you should have some sort of way of cluing people in hey there's there's something going on yeah but like maybe it's just me because I'm a sound guy and I do sound for a living, well, as a side gig, side hustle. But if your sound is clipping out, this was Texas and this is Pinball Expo, either get a better guy to run your mixer or get more powerful equipment. It was clipping out during the Twippies, it was clipping out during Mark and my seminar, and it's hard. It's hard to convey to an audience what you're trying to say when half of what you're being said cuts out. And I get you don't want to pay a professional sound guy, and maybe the people running the sound are professional. I don't know. But there's obviously some disconnect of the quality of sound equipment versus what's going on in the seminar. I'm not going to say what their qualifications were. However, I will say there is room for improvement. Well, it was Martin from Pinball News. What is his qualification? I don't know. So, and I'm not volunteering me. Right. But there needs to be some better sound. You get some JBLs, some 12, you know, 12 eons. Rob, trust me, that's in your budget. You buying yourself? I know that the convention, you know, probably provided these. There's a reason people don't want to use them. Yeah. I just, anywho. Sorry. Okay. Seminar was fun though. Okay. So that, yeah. We're, let's wrap up at least flipping the script. All right. We keep deviating. So flipping the script, we finished off again with Learning Solutions and we ended up raising how much money, Josh? Okay. So our goal was $25,000. Right. Which by the way, I thought was a pretty aggressive goal. I thought so too. We're a small charity stream. I had no idea what we would actually get. Well, and originally our goal was 15,000, right? We'd all kind of agreed, maybe that's a pretty conservative goal. Well, not even conservative. We felt that was a stretch. Right. But we had all agreed that was probably a decent number to go after, right? Yeah. And then when I talked to Sarah Foster at Learning Solutions, she said, if we could do $25,000 and get it, we could pay for 31 families to get over that hump and get their diagnosis. Yeah. It was a no-brainer for us. Yeah. So, hey, shoot for it. Yeah. Yeah, let's shoot for it. Because that was a goal. All this faces, well, at least it puts a number, 31 families who need help. When we started flipping the script on Thursday, because we opened up the auction early, we were already setting about $8,300. That was between donations and items that had already been bid on. At the end of the stream, we, well, if you're watching the stream, Scott, I, and Justin all got pretty emotional. We had an angel donor come in at the very end and pledge to make up the difference of what we didn't make for our goal. Yeah, but how much did we make? I'm still impressed by how much we made. Both things impressed me, by the way. How much do we make by selling the charity auction items? Okay, so for the charity auction, do you want me to break this all down in auction? Just rough things. Okay. Wasn't it about $18,000? So auction items alone were about $14,000. Okay, all right. Straight donations was about two grand. Okay. The angel donor was 10,500. And then we had another person come in during our stream in Vernal, so where Learning Solutions is based out of. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, I guess that there's some transaction fees that came off. Sure. It's fine. Which is funny because a week later I get a notification from 32 Auctions like, by the way, now winners can actually pay for the transaction fees instead of coming out of your charity. I'm like, a week later, whatever. But we hit our goal. We did and it was, hey, I'm not looking at the downside. Everything's upside on this. I just thought it was funny. I thought it was really funny. But yeah, I mean, $26,900, essentially $27,000, right? We're off by 11 bucks. Yeah, but still, that's easily twice to three times what I thought we'd make. Yeah. Well, and it was funny, Ken Cromwell came over and congratulated us from JJP. They'd originally done their first, the 24 hour, three years earlier, and he's like, 25,012 hours. He's like, man, that's amazing. I'm like, come on, Ken, you did 50 in 24 hours, but he's like, we didn't do 25 half the time though. Yeah. It just, it blew my mind. It's funny though, like we were already discussing, and you'll probably hear on Pinball Profile as soon as Jeff releases it, but it's like seriously, the next day people are asking, are you ready to do the next one? Are you ready to do another Flip N Out script? Yeah, woo woo. And I will say that I love doing it, and I give all the credit to Josh. Josh was the founder of this, and he's the one who spearheaded it. all the other people who were involved in the umbrella that came together that was flipping the script. Tim Kitzrow, I could have not done it without. Josh Maunas- Well, George. John Popadiuk, George Fisher. Tim Kitzrow, Big shout out for George. Josh Maunas- Holy crap. Josh Maunas- Amazing player. Josh Maunas- The dope panic flip. Josh Maunas- His set up was amazing. Josh Maunas- His professionalism was amazing. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Joe, dances in C buying like the new grimace. Steve Lez использовать Share the Law I'm shipping them out of box and I have some swag in there. I had a shirt that I'm sending them out. And so there's a box that's waiting to go out, but I have been nonstop for the last week. I haven't been able to go to UPS. Well, I'll tell the audience what I've been telling other people. I'm not opposed to doing another Flipping the Script. Right. Yes. I'm open to it. I'm open to consider it. We don't want to plan anything right now. Well, and here's the thing. There were so many people involved, and I felt like I used a lot of my favors, quote unquote. Yes. Uh-huh. I need to build those back up, I feel like, if I'm going to do this ever again. Well, sure. And to be fair, and we've talked about all the – I mean, go look at the stream. We talked about all the major players who helped out, including Pinball Expo for what they were able to do. All these things came together. And so I know I'm missing some. I'm just trying to spitball a little bit. But yeah, I would like to let things cool down a little bit and then we'll start figuring things out when it starts coming up for next year. Yeah, I'm definitely not making any promises right now though. It was definitely worth it. It was amazing. We'll keep updating you guys as this goes along. But it's just been fantastic. It went further than my wildest dreams. It's been amazing. So thank you to those that helped support all the way around. Yeah. And you can go and look at the replay if you want to catch up on those interviews. Yes. So Flip in the Script was done around 10. That still gave us a couple of hours John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.
    36:28
    I kind of went and did that and then we all went along with Justin from Learning Solutions to Chicago itself. I've never actually been downtown. We went and explored. We went and I don't know what the building's called. You go to the very top and it's called 360 Tilt is the attraction. It used to be the Sears Tower. I don't know what it's, since names change all the time. This isn't the Sears Tower, because Sears Tower's further west. This is like right on the beach line. This is- Is it a Hancock Tower? Maybe. Okay. There's a Cheesecake Factory at it. I don't know. The famous Cheesecake Factory. The famous. But they have this attraction where you pretty much lay on the glass and then they tilt the whole glass. It's 94 floors up. They tilt you almost flat so you're laying on top of the Chicago skyline. Did that, walked around downtown, had the Devil Dogs. I've never had those before. And the funny part is a lot of the Chicago locals I talked to had never even heard of them. They're like the stereotypical Chicago hot dog, like they've got the Chicago dog. But we found this one that was called It's Not a Corn Dog. If any of you are familiar with street corn, I love street corn. Have you had street corn, Scott? No. So street corn is famous down in Mexico. They take corn on the cob, they stick it on stick, they roll it in like mayonnaise and sour cream. They sprinkle some spice on it, squirt it with a little squirt of lime juice. Okay. You eat it that way. That concept on a hot dog with pico de gallo. Okay. It was amazing. Okay. All right. Cause I'm not, I'm not feeling it right now, but okay. All right. Okay. You, you, you had to been there. Okay. It's true. And then we went to the bean. I know, I know the guy that made it doesn't like it being called the bean, but we went to the bean. Yeah. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. And then I pretty much just caught up. I think we stayed at the convention center after that. It was... Yeah, I think we just went around and played games. Did you guys do anything Friday without me? I just went and played games. So we tried out all the different games, did some seminars. But that was pretty much floating around. All right, let's talk about the games really quick, which... Okay. Let's talk Bond. That's the hot one from Stern. Let's talk Bond. Okay. Now, I'm going to credit Ron and Bruce from Slam Tilt. Ron picked this up that I didn't really pick up on Bond. But apparently, there's two pop bumpers and on the premium, they're tied together. So they don't activate individually. The pro does activate individually. So that was an interesting thing. I'm not saying that's a huge deal, but I'm a little confused as to why they made that decision. I was told they didn't have enough space on node boards. Right. And that makes sense. So I thought that was an interesting tidbit. I don't think that's going to push you from the premium to the pro. No. Um, I liked playing the layout. Uh, the code was really, um, primitive. Well, it's 0.54. It's yes. I know it's maybe stage. Yeah, it is. It is definitely in the pre-release stage. Yeah. Um, the, there were a lot of modes that weren't even programmed. Uh, I, I liked the flow of the game. I wasn't a huge fan of the underwater shot on the left side because it stopped the flow a lot. Yeah. You know, the scoop. I'm sure with code they can coach that up. But to be fair, this is a George Gomez game, and he also designed Batman 66. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. I think you could go with either the premium or the pro. Yeah. And be totally fine. I personally like the pro better than I like the premium. Okay. I feel like the only thing to shoot on the left side was that left orbit to left ramp. It's like a Popaduke or an L1 where you shoot the orbit but it turns into a ramp, right? Right. But the only reason you're hitting that is because of the multiball and the jetpack multiball is like one of the big ones in there. Tim Kitzrow as the lead at 50 years old Justin Triebman Um, the right, right side was very fun to shoot. There's a lot of tight shots on that right side though. Mm-hmm. Uh, and it's definitely you miss, you die. Yeah. But I think overall it's hard to, it's hard to base anything off the code that they have right now, cuz it's point, point five four. I think they had one whopping villain mode in there. It was Goldfinger, Antoine Bonds on the table getting the laser shot at him. And then you could do bird one multiball, which is up the middle. Yeah. I never started a henchman mode because I could not hit that side ramp to save my life. It would either go- I can't remember if I started one. I will say early, early, I found it interesting that this was Thursday, I think, so before they, before other people came in there, because we were there early for flipping the script, I went over and played the pro. I don't know if I was the first person on it, but I GC'd it. Yeah. And this was my first game that I hadn't really played. So they had that set up where I could find all the shots. So I was, you know, I was impressed with that. But I would leave this as I'm betting this will be a hit once the code is done. Right now, the code is still in the early stages. So you are, you're a beta tester. Yep. When I played Bond on the premium, I had dropped a score of 600 million and I felt like I explored everything that was in the game up to that point. And it was fun. I enjoyed it. So I at least enjoyed the shots. I don't, I can't say anything about the code or whatnot. If they can fine tune the code, I think the game will be fun. There was some other stuff that was pointed out like, it's not very into the Bond universe yet. I said the code so early it's hard to judge how far we're... And it's Lonnie who's doing the code, right? So Lonnie did a great job with Star Trek. And Guardians, and yeah, people love Stranger Things. I'm not too terribly worried about it. Here's my thing. We're two months after the reveal. We still have the Keith Elwin 60th, which Gomez and Elwin have both confirmed. It still hasn't been shown. Even if we go to two, we've done two reveals this year. Let's say for some other reason Stern next year is like we're doing two more reveals. We're not doing the three cornerstones. Even if that happens again, let's say they reveal anywhere from January to April. If that's the case, Bond might get passed up by that point because these games aren't getting really released. Like some are shipping out this month. They're making a lot. To be fair, they are making more games now than they ever have, but it's still not keeping up with demand. Yes. But the second run, so most of the first run doesn't go to homeowners. Right. It goes to location. Yeah. And even with LEs and premiums getting out there, it's still going to be a handful of people that are more dedicated to the companies, I guess, than your regular, just I decided to randomly buy a pinball machine. So a lot of these aren't going to get into homes till April. If there's any other reveal that, heaven forbids, like an L1 cornerstone, I feel like... It may suffer. It's going to suffer. It may suffer if they can't sell while the interest is high. And I would say the interest from when we've talked to a few distributors, they haven't said it's low interest, The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. I'm not sure that, and to be fair, the code was very, very rudimentary too. Yeah. So I thought it was fun enough. It's a game that I would play on location. I am not a diehard Queen fan. And so I wouldn't plan on buying this for my house unless it had like an Iron Maiden feel to it where the layout blows me away. And how many Iron Maiden fans are out there versus how many people love Keith Elwin's design? And I could say Metallica too. There are a lot of people who buy Metallica who just love Borg's layout. Yeah. I think the other thing too, both you and I are family men and we have young children. Yeah. There's some naked booty on there. Yeah. There's the Fat Bottom Girls orbit where you're like, wow, there's a naked girl riding a bike. I don't know if you got to this part in the code, but I actually got her to pop up on the screen and she they shake her across the screen with all the glory. Oh, yeah. No, I yeah, I I I didn't I played two balls and it was it was OK. I would say that it felt better than I thought it was going to. Yeah, it shoots really well. You could tell Barry Ousler, a well-known designer that has done multiple pinball machines, was involved with it. I think my only real complaint, unless if they code in a skill shot on the left side, so there's two drop targets. There's one on the left and one on the right. And obviously, drop targets are kind of gatekeepers, right? For some odd reason, the one on the left that's gatekeeping the shot is like an inch or two up from the shot. So if you if you pull the plunger just right, you can actually plunge it up into behind the drop target, up into the hole. But it wasn't giving a skill shot. I really think they need to turn that into a skill shot. And then you'll you'll really feel like, oh, yeah, that was awesome. You know, shots flowed really well. I enjoyed it. I mean, there was still some like clunk to it. I don't know what the there's like a lion shot on the kind of the right side. I don't know if there's something that's like you have to open up that shot for the ball to go further in. It's like you shoot that shot and then it would just kind of dribble back out. Yeah, I don't I don't know if that shot actually goes anywhere. Tim Kitzrow, Spoken, and David Van Es, Bally Williams, Spoken, and Justin Kitzrow, Spoken, and K. K. K. The sound could be a little bit better, but you're taking live footage from the 80s, right? Yeah, so I thought it felt theme appropriate. And this is the same thing I said about the people complaining about the Bond artwork. I'm thinking this feels like a Queen pinball machine that would have been made in 1988. Yep. Again, the clips are from that era. The art is from that era and the layout felt like it was too. I felt like the band members were not enthused to be playing, telling you what to do in the pinball machine. Yeah, but how many? I mean, they try. I know, yeah. But there's a reason why having band members do call-outs, it's a mixed blessing. Sometimes they nail it, and other times... Like Metallica, the only guy who's into it is James Hatfield, but he's also the lead singer. Yeah. He is the voice of Metallica anyway. True. As opposed to Kurt Cobain, not Kurt Cobain, Kurt Hammett. That's Nirvana, buddy. Yeah. Kurt Hammett, who's just like, shoot that. Okay. I'm not a voice actor either. There's a reason why you hire voice actors for stuff like that. True. Magic Girl. What did you think of Magic Girl? It felt like a beta Circus Voltaire. I'll give you that. Yeah, it's a pretty machine, but it still felt like a homebrew in that, yeah, it looks pretty, it had ramps. When I was playing it, I couldn't actually get it to go all the way up to the top of the playfield, even on a solid hit. Which is funny to me because multiple people had said that. Yeah, and you got it. Oh, I got it all the time. I had no issues picking it up there. Yeah, so I have a feeling there were times when there was more power draw that, because I was hitting it cleanly and it wasn't going up there. I don't know, but that's the other hard part too is in Magic Girl, I learned that the multiball is kind of hard to get to because you're trying to shoot those ramps. You have to light lock via the in and out lanes. So you got to shift through those. Once you've lit all four, then you shoot the ramp and then it diverts it to the left side. You do the four lights, it diverts it to the right side, you do the four lights. So you got to do this 12 times with the rollovers and then three shots to the ramps. And then it was, it was a fun, it was a fun multiball, but I felt like multiball shouldn't be that hard to get to. Yeah. Multiball should be more accessible. It's a fun game. It's definitely not up to modern standards. I'll put it that way. No. Again, it felt like a, hey, this is a trial run and Circus Voltaire is a better game. Yeah. Yeah. But it does have that same Popaduke feel to everything. The code feels the same. Oh yeah. It feels very poppy. You know, shoot the shot multiple times to spell, They're an amazing team. David Van Es. Oh, yeah. Jordan Adler, spaceman writing on僕일양.�지.com. And that's Supreme. That's buying Supreme for $80,000. I mean, it's not... that's someone who wants it for the novelty of having it. As a production game in the current state, it would be panned.
    54:04
    So, still it was a fun game. I'm glad we were able to play it. It was fun. It was fun to see it, I guess. Yeah, it was really fun to see it and see kind of that part of history, right? Yeah. Am I missing any games? The Mando Topper was there. Yeah, Mandalorian. So I still feel like that's, I'm glad they're trying different things for toppers. When you're getting to like 33% of the cost of a game, that's a steep thing. I don't think I'm going to get the Mando Topper. It's just, it's a little too steep for me. The... yeah, it looks cool, and they certainly put a lot of code into it. I still, when I compare what Stern's doing versus what CGC has done with their toppers, I wish Stern would do something more high quality like CGC toppers. And the Attack from Mars topper is unbelievable. Even the Medieval Madness topper is static, but it looks beautiful. When you look at Stern toppers, they still look like Walmart displays selling candy. I agree. So that's the downside. There is some things about Mando toppers that were about playability, but again, some people like that. Some people don't like that, oh, there's part of a game I can't get to if I'm not spending the two grand. Yeah. I don't mind it. But to be fair, there's a lot of wizard modes I never get to anyway. Yeah. So, so, That is true. Why are you complaining about an extra mode for $2,000 when you came and get past the, even the mini wizard mode for some people, you know? Exactly. Yeah. So, uh, so that's my pick. Hold on. We got one more game. Yes. I was about to. I think this was, this was the best one. Yeah. Hands down. But the problem is, is it also is a tried and true layout. But. Yes. Yeah, so we were able to play Fathom and my gosh, that is an amazing looking game. Holy crap. Haggis, talk about really nailing it. That is a beautiful game. It feels like it has the old feel. So even, you know, the flippers from that era, like the 70s flippers, they're not like It's really like the quick flip flippers that Stern has now. They're a little slower, they were able to emulate those really well, or replicate them I guess, it's not emulating. They were able to replicate that feel. So it felt like I was playing a game that was resurrected from 1978. The lights were beautiful and the production was beautiful. I had the most fun playing that game over all of the games there. Yep. It was definitely the one that when I finished the game, it was the, I've got to play another game. I've got to keep getting further in this mermaid battle stuff. I've got to figure this out. It was awesome. It was a take my money. That's how I felt. I'm jealous my friend Tony has one on order. I want to thank Aaron from Fast Pinball. That is the actual name of his company. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And we want to have him on. That was super nice. I talked with him for about an hour. So not only did he donate product, he donated a color DMD, essentially. It's an RGB DMD that they make. They're the ones that brought Fathom and then they brought all their own games emulated on the fast pinball system. So if you're into building your own homebrews and stuff like that, check out Fast Pinball because you can go through there and make your own games. They like read on like Whitewater and Funhouse and that this sounds like that's a lot what the Progetti games are running off of. This is what it is. Yeah, they're so haggis times. Yeah, haggis games are all running off of fast. So these are good quality boards that seem to be holding up. I don't see anything dropping out. We didn't have any issues of it like seizing up or anything like that. There was an addictive little thing in Fathom that I kept doing and someone's like, what is that causing it to do? I'm like, no, it's just fun. When the ball's drained, you know how usually when you hit the, get it to go faster, you hit the flippers together, right? Yeah. For some odd reason, I don't know who coded this in, if it was Martin, I'm gonna laugh, but when you do it, it gives like a big bass boom. So you kept hitting it like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. It was hilarious, but it was so satisfying to do. I don't know what it was about it. It was just, yeah, your ball drains and you're like, I'm gonna like rage flip really quick and just make it sound like the game's trying to blow up. I wish there were, the one layout thing that I love about Fathom is, I love that the out lane and the in lane are reversed. And so it's non-intuitive. Like the out lane, what you think is the out lane, It actually like goes through a one-way gate and it doesn't drain. And you can, if you time it right, you can actually hit it when you're going through the out lane and bring it over through that gate. If you can time it right. But it was, that was such a beautiful game that I would rank that best in show. Just the way it looked and the way it played. I was the one if I were to pack one up and
    59:57
    And take it out that day it would it would have been fathom. Yep, I agree Home brews. Did you dig into these at all? Yes, so A little bit. I I kept trying to make my way back there and I kept getting distracted
    60:14
    Because it was sadly there. They're always in the back. I I played Sonic again The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Tim Kitzrow, I think that's one of those that are always kind of downright John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. If you're going for the American dream, none of those games can fit in that category, right? Right. And the two that I found very fun to play were actually from... I'm sorry, I wish I remember the guy's name. I talked with Joe Lemire about him, and he's the one who did Frozen, and he also did the... I think it was like Haunted Cruise or Ghost Ship or something like that. But it was definitely a Pinball 2000 vibe. Yeah. It had that type of integration, and it was really cool. Yeah. But you're right. I'm not sure. These are hobby games. I'm not sure how they would translate to a manufactured option. Well, you kind of hit the nail on the head. Like you have these frozen in the other game where like pinball 2000 they had the monitors built in Americans are gonna make those are not gonna revamp the system just for those trash land that's akin to like pinball circus if you don't know about pinball circus it's a pinball machine essentially an arcade cabinet goes up instead of you're they're not gonna make a custom build like that. It's a gimmick game and pinball circus is a gimmick game like last time I was at the pinball hall of fame they were actually cleaning it or something so I didn't get to play it but. And then the games that were even near normal, well not normal, sorry, manufacturer ready were rethemed. Yeah Like someone brought a Deadpool Right and incorporated the well they yeah and they the movie clips I recognized it was a different code because you could change the skill shot Oh, okay. Because on Deadpool you can't. But from the looks of it, it looked like the only difference, if you didn't play it, like, the only difference was just the back glass. And you're like, someone's trolling us, right? Like, they brought a Deadpool and was like, I made a homebrew. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but he basically chopped movie themes and put it in there. But like, congratulations to Jake Danzig. He won best in show and it was a rethemed, he did Dukes of Hazzard. Oh, yeah. They're not, they're not gonna make that because it's, it's a solid state from the 80s. Yeah. And that's a beautiful game too. Yes. Very beautiful game. Amazing game. Jake, thanks for sharing that one with us. But, all right, let's move on. We're past the hour mark. We are. Let's, let's do a quick summary on pinball Olympics. Okay. Really enjoyed it. Yeah, it was fun. I, I was, I actually did the I did the the running challenge this time. Yeah, I am not a runner. So this is fat boy running on a treadmill that's going way too fast. 10 miles an hour. Yeah. Yeah. So that I that's a sprint. And I was playing junkyard. And actually, I probably could have made it to the finals. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry Kizrow, Pinball Machine, I drained right when I started it, and I was exhausted. So I'm like, you know what? Okay. So I drained and I stopped and then started spitting up balls. Oh. But I'm like, I don't think I had enough in the tank to keep running at 10 miles an hour and playing a multiball. I was just dog tired. Oh, yeah. So that took a lot out of me. I didn't get to play some of the games. I didn't get a medal. I wanted to get a medal, but I only really had the chance to play I've played probably about half of the games once. And I did maybe not even half the games, probably a third of the games. And the one that I had the most chance of actually winning on was the one where you're looking through a glass, you're looking straight ahead, but it has a 45 degree mirror. And so you can see. And so that was the one that I had. I probably had like five shots on that one. But always fun. Lyman Pinball Olympics. Tacos were amazing. Tacos were great. Everybody had a good time. And it's a carnival atmosphere. Yeah. If you're going to Expo, if you plan on going to Expo next year, you have to do yourself a favor and get yourself a ticket for Pinball Live. Do the Pinball Olympics. The shuttle was a great idea too. So people who rode the shuttle were able to, they were also able to drink adult beverages and as much as they wanted and then they didn't have to worry about driving home unsafe. So yep, they were able to drink responsibly. That was a nice option too. The first game that we played was Vortex, which is black hole inside of, if you've ever been to one of those carnivals, you walk across the catwalk in the spinning tunnel and it totally throws you off. I don't know what it was. The tunnel was not bothering me at all. I had my head down. Yeah, you were zoned in. I was zoned in. I know what to do on black hole. I don't know why. I've practiced it a handful of times. Mm-hmm. I almost rolled the machine. I got up over 900,000. Yeah. No, it was a little under 900,000. Yeah, didn't you get gold on that? Yeah. No one even came close. One guy walks up to me and he's like, dude, that's a good score normally. Yeah. I'm not inside of a... I just... I kept going. I got in the groove. It was like our first game, so I was like, I'm done. But we did really well on Metallica, and it was Julie that was giving us crap, right? So your co-worker Julie came to the same convention. She went to Pinball Olympics with us, and we did... If you're not familiar with Metallica, there's two of them side by side. It's hilarious. And that far left, that far left target, the one that you kind of shoot up into that channel and hit the target, is hooked up to the other tilt bob on the other machine. So the strategy here is, because you got to play four on four, you've got to tilt out the other team before they tilt you out. And if you're going for it, you keep hitting that tilt over and over.
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    We had tilted out the whole team and I was on ball two. Yeah. And I'm like, yes, I'm going for the high score now. I want to get metal on Metallica because this is like an epic game, right? Yeah. Julie was not having it. She kept getting back on just to mess with us. I tilted her out nine times in a row. I kept tilting her out too. It was hilarious. And the only reason I didn't tilt her out anymore is because I drained because I wasn't paying attention. Yeah. And yeah, it was pretty awesome. So yeah. No, I loved it. That's such a creative way of doing it. So Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Pinball Olympics was amazing. Got back on Saturday night. I don't even remember what we did Saturday night. I guess we cleaned up. Saturday night we just kinda cleaned up. We had pizza and... Yeah, we went to Lou Malnati's. Lou Malnati's, yeah.
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    I, personally me, I like Giordano's more. I actually thought they were both fine, but I like Mark Silk got a thin crust And I had a bite of his, you know, a slice of his little small pizza and I'm like, I think I like that thing crust. Really? Shh, don't tell anyone. I won't tell anyone. Yeah. So that's pretty much our expo. You came home on Sunday. I hung around, because my flight wasn't leaving until four. Yeah, I flew out Sunday morning at 7.30. I was home at 10 o'clock. So. Tournament was still going. It was fun to go over there, sit and chit chat with that group, because the groups kind of separate, right? Like you're either there for the convention or you're there for the tournament. It was nice hanging out with Josh and Zach Sharp, giving them grief over the tournament and whatnot, hanging out with Jen Rupert. She was in there as well. It was just fun. It was kind of a nice, chill way to finish out Expo and see everything, I feel like. Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I actually prefer Pinball Expo more than I like Texas. And the reason being is I feel like... You didn't have to wait in line. I'm going to have to wait in line. It is still kind of that pinball reunion, right? You get a little different group of people there. But yeah, like I didn't feel pressured to play the games because you could kind of get on any game you wanted at that point. And at Texas, I swore the shortest line was like two, three people deep. Yeah, it took a long time to get on the games at Texas. Yeah. I agree with you. If you want to play Reedus Nightmare, just waddle right up to it. You might have one person in front of you. So I think it's a better experience. I actually like the food better in Chicago. Maybe it's because I can't get a dish. You know what? I think you have to have a car. I really do. I feel like we did Uber it a little bit, but there's nothing within walking distance. So you're either going to Uber it or drive a car. Yeah, but people didn't know about this either. And maybe I shouldn't announce this because it's easy. There's a shuttle from the hotel and they'll take you three miles in any direction you John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Ballywin, Straight Down the Middle, Ballywin, It wasn't that big of a deal and I felt like I only sat for maybe 10 minutes at most for the shuttle. Yeah, they don't run it on weekends though. Oh, that's true. So Saturday you're SOL. But if you're doing pinball Olympics, it doesn't matter anyway. So, but yeah, take advantage of that. Take advantage of the shuttle and they'll pick you up from locations as well. So we did have some questions on the... We sent out a thing that's talking about questions. Do you want to do these questions now or do you want to push them off for two weeks? No, let's let's do them really quick because last time I looked there was only like three, wasn't there? Okay, so Julie asks, What do you think of Bond Pro or Premium?
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    Pro. I would probably save the money and go with Pro. The however, I think that if you want the bells and whistles, I don't think you're going to be penalized for getting the premium. I just don't think it's worth $2,500 more. Yeah. If CGC moved away from the remakes, what titles would you want them to make? There used to be a list of five or six remakes they mentioned of making, including Theater Magic, Toten, I believe. I still hope they make those. I think CGC is trying to find that middle ground because they make excellent remakes. Yeah. The four remakes they have made are solid. Yeah. And they're coveted, so you can sell them. They're proven commodities. Other games that I would definitely make if I were them, I would do my best to figure out if I can do Adam Sandley Yeah, like figure out something and the bottom line is the answer to all your questions is money. Yep. And there will be a fee that people will be willing to accept to remake that game. I think CGC moves away from me remakes and the reason being we're seeing more and more of these 2.0 kits. Yeah, I think they're cheaper to produce. I think soon enough the market's going to be saturated with those. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry K. Sheats Jr., John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Hey, it's hard, you know, Twilight Zone is a wide body, so it's out of the realm. I can't attest to this for CGC, but we did talk about this with Jersey Jack Pinball. Yeah, so thanks to Ken Cromwell, he gave us a tour
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    and we talked a little bit about the designs. And yeah, he had a rotisserie and specifically it I mean, they were all making standard bodies. Yeah, but and they've they've made wide bodies, too. So he's like, it's, you know, you can scale up and down depending on what you want to make. Yeah, he says it's not impossible. It's not like they have to retool the whole line in or anything like that. Those rotisseries are a size for wide bodies. They just use them for their standard bodies right now. So it would not be hard, wink wink, to go back to some of their old stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean. They weren't promising they'd do that. He didn't say that, but he said they could make wide bodies if they wanted to. Okay, but what I'm saying is it's, okay, that is not JJP endorsed. What I'm saying is it's not hard. Right. When you hear on a podcast, oh, they probably won't do pirates because it's a wide body. Mm hmm. That's not the case. Yeah. So yeah, the wide body is not the issue. Um, yeah. Theater magic. I think Whitewater, uh, their version of Whitewater would be amazing. Yeah. Um, and so there's still at least five or six games. However, eventually if they keep going down that, that road, you're going to run out of titles. So you have to transition if you want to be not just a like a tribute band company. Will there be a Back to the Future pinball machine? If so, which manufacturer and when? I want to say more than likely. If there is one made, it's going to be Stern because when we talked to Joe Kaminkow last year, John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Yeah, and I would say it's certainly on the list of things that people would like to see, but I would add to that Lord of the Rings vault, Tron vault, like other things, Harry Potter, obviously. Yeah. There's a lot of wish list stuff on there too. True. I just feel like Back to the Future because of the sway that Joe has at Stern is more than likely than those other three. Yeah. All right. Ethan Smith asked most underrated Bally Williams titles. That could be like a whole discussion. Really. What's your number one underrated? You know, I think No Fear is fun. I do. I think No Fear is fun is just shooting ramps. And so it's when I say, is it the best game? No, but I had fun playing it. I feel like there's one that's more underrated than that. I feel like Flintstones is very underrated. Oh, geez, that's a turd. Sorry. It's not a turd. It shoots good. It's got some really good and interesting modes. Is it fantastic? No. But I feel like it is underrated for what it is. One of my, I think that's underrated, Revenge for Mars. I feel like it does not love its shit. I agree. I actually like Revenge for Mars. My friend has a beautiful one and I love playing it because it's just fun. It's funny. Yeah. Great game. If you can find a Revenge From Mars, get your hands on one because they are a blast. If you wear a size XL shirt in America, what size do you wear in Australia? Okay, I'll tell my experience about U2. We went to U2 in Ireland, Humble Bragg, to watch the Joshua Tree tour like five years ago, you know, 2017. And I wanted a shirt, so I bought an XL shirt and it was a Smedium.
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    I looked like a stuffed sausage in it and not in an attractive way. So I took it back and I'm like, I need something different. This is not gonna work. So I ended up with a jacket. So I would say that an XL in American size,
    78:04
    I don't know if they make that in Australian size. You may have to ask like Marty or- I've got to tell you the back story behind this because you don't know this. I don't. So Doug won some items from Flipping the Script on Autism. Okay. Thank you for supporting, Doug. We really appreciate it. So Doug messages me. He's like, I'm a husky man, so I at least need like an extra large, maybe a double XL. Okay. And I'm like, okay, dude. Well Haggis had sent us all the stuff beforehand because they tried to package it in as many, you know, as least amount of packages as they could. I pull out the shirt and I'm like, Doug, this thing is 5XL. Oh. And he's like, yeah, I'm not that big. Give it to someone else. But I'm like, Doug, hold on, I have a Haggis shirt, so I bought like the like club, you know how big Spooky has their thing? Club Haggis, right? Yeah. To support them and I asked for an extra large and it was like a Smedium, right? Like I felt like a stuffed sausage in it. So it sits on the rack in my closet, just smiling at me. I told him, like, dude, this is the situation. He's like, actually, 5XL might actually fit me. Right, yeah, so I'd send that. Okay, all right, that makes sense. Okay, I was like, that's a totally random comment. So Doug will have to tell us when he gets the shirt if 5XL is the way to go if you're an American in Australia. There you go. I think that does it for our questions. Oh, sorry, one last question. Let's end on this one. In this lineup, what would be the sixth machine? So if you had a Star Wars, a Metallica, Stranger Things, a Rush, and a Godzilla. And there's a big medieval madness banner behind it. Are you keeping the theme of Stern? If you're doing Stern, maybe a Deadpool? Jurassic Park? In this lineup. Okay, let me see. Well, okay. So you have an Elwin, you have a Borg, you have an Eddie, you have another Borg, and you have a Richie. So you have two Borgs, and so I would... I'd say go with the Gomez, go with the Deadpool. Deadpool, I think I'd get Deadpool. Or get the Medieval Madness, because that's apparently what you enjoy on the back wall there. And that's even the Brian Eddy banner. That's the- You mean the Brian Allen? Yeah, sorry, Brian Allen translate. That's what I have in my game, so. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I'd probably get Deadpool if you're sticking with Stern, but obviously Medieval Madness is my family's favorite, so I'm moving. Yeah, I don't blame you there. Speaking of which, I'm actually kind of updating all my stuff. I sold my, my giant mnemonic and my earth shaker and picked up a guardians pro. Yup. I'm going to go over this really quickly. Really enjoying it.
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    I didn't realize how easy the game is though. I don't know if it's my skill level. I don't know if it's just, I'm getting in the groove with it. The rubber bands on the outlands. That's what it is. Uh, my 10th game, I dropped 1.9 billion on the game. Uh, I finished the game. I have not been to Zandar, save Zandar yet. Sorry. I haven't completed all the way, but I did do the Emulsion Initiative, I think is what it's called, and completed that. Apparently when you complete that, if you haven't gotten all the modes 100%, so you gotta get the double supers, an orb, and a root multiball. If you don't do those things, when you finish Emulsion, it drains you and says game over and congratulates you. So at 1.9 billion, I was like, oh, I'll finish up this mode and then I'll go save Xandar. And the one that drained out and was like, you're done. I was like, oh, okay. I am really enjoying it. Uh, but just to let you know, for those that are maybe of a less skill level, I think you really love this game in your lineup. So you're going to say, I'm going to like it. I think you're going to love it. It's a really fun game. It definitely is a Borg. The shots feel like the ramps don't feel like they come right back at your face really quickly. Yeah. I don't know why it is about Borg and putting ramps in the weirdest spots, but they just don't feel like they should be where they're at. You know what I'm saying? I think we should wrap it up. Yep. If you want to get a hold of us, we are Loserkidpinballpodcast at gmail.com. You can get a hold of us on the socials at Loserkidpinball on Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram. The easiest way to get a hold of us is through Facebook Messenger or through the Gmail. I'm finding out that it's a lot easier to get a hold of us on that as well. If you did get items from Flipping the Script on Autism and you have not received them yet, everyone is either shipped or is preparing to ship. So I'm getting a lot of emails, people have received their stuff. I'm getting emails of, I haven't heard anything. I promise you your items are leaving their areas. I know Stern's still working on getting, they donated a lot of stuff, guys. It was ridiculous. Thank you again to Stern and to all those that donated a whole lot of amazing stuff. Yeah. Once again, we'll see you in two weeks, right? See you in two weeks. All right. And if you guys went to Expo, let us know what you thought.
    83:47
    Shut up and sit down. 'm道 cover plot