Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. This week on The Pinball Show, love is in the air as Dennis and I discuss how to celebrate Valentine's Day. We also chat about Stern Pinball production updates, the next four-flipper Elwin, slam-tilting some Pinacho, 2.0 games in the future, NAP Arcade investigating the USPTO database for clues to upcoming pinball titles, a big change of tides in this week's pinball market trends, the death of a loon, more idioms, and trending down my wife? all of that and more for episode 123 of the one, the only, the undisputed Pinball Show. I've heard people say that too much of anything is not good for you, baby. Pinball is a game of skill. I don't know about that. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. We love and we've shared love and made love. It's time for the Pinball Show. It doesn't seem to me like it's enough. It's pinball with personality. It's just not enough. Oh, baby. Oh, baby. My darling, I can't get enough of your loving. Hey, everybody. How's it going? This is the Pinball Show, episode 123. My name is Zach Minney, alongside my valentine for this week, Dennis Creasel. Oh, that's very sweet of you. Hi. It is almost Valentine's Day. It is. We got tomorrow, I believe. Tomorrow? Who puts valentines on a Tuesday? Cupid. He really blew that one. He should do like the Easter Sunday thing. Always make it like a Friday or Saturday. Valentine's Day observed. That's right. it's true though i think nicole was a little prickly with me this last week dennis because why i think she was maybe you know expecting a valentine's celebration maybe an out-of-town event or a Antonio Cruz something i think she was thinking we were going to observe weekend before and i wait to last minute for everything so i thought a tuesday that buys me five more days until the following weekend. Yeah, I understand the logic. And she's probably like, I did this stupid awards thing, I hosted all these people, like, I bent over backwards for this guy. That's true, she catered in the Qdoba. Yes. I mean, heavy burden. Right. A woman is a saint. So, maybe I really need to go all in on Valentine's Day this year. Hmm. You have to get, like, the Lindor chocolates, huh? Oh, my gosh. Are those not the greatest? They're very good. I like the ones with the big balls with the goo in the middle. Yep. Yeah! The goo balls are the best. Oh, the white chocolate. I know you don't like white. No, white chocolate's my favorite. Oh, is it? Yeah. Oh, I get made fun of. Because it's not real chocolate. Yeah, it's not real chocolate. It's got the cocoa butter. That's what gives it that chocolatey texture. It's so good. It's so delicate. Delicate? Gentle. Decadent. Decadent. Like a summer breeze contained in a candied shell. And you are a romantic, aren't you? I don't know. I describe myself quite that way. Do you have any big plans for Valentine's Day? On a Tuesday? No. No. What about the celebration in general? Do you have a special someone, or are you still playing the field there? Yeah. No one's special. And it's always been one of those holidays where I've got, and don't tell my mom this, like Mother's Day, like these sort of corporate holidays that they kind of made up. A Hallmark holiday. Guilt us into buying cards. Yeah, it's like that. What about for yourself? Because there's probably a lot of listeners out here in both of our situations. Like mine. Probably a lot of listeners who have a spouse and they feel like it's up to them to really provide a good celebration of love. And then there's probably listeners like you that don't have to worry about that, but that they still want to maybe observe a little love. If it was me in your situation, I would Valentine's the shit out of myself. I would treat myself. Maybe go a little mani-pedi. A little massage. I mean, I've never really considered it. So, no. I would just do nothing. I just picture you, Dennis, like saying either one of two things. Either really sad, sitting in a corner, listening to who's going to tell you when. Yes. Like listening to the cars. So you've got depressed Dennis in the corner is one iteration. Almost like you with the marker above your head, like the music video of the girl. Yeah. I don't know what she's doing. What a weird video. So either that one or the angry iteration of Dennis on Valentine's Day that is just screaming out of your Corolla this song. Fuck you and your mom And your sister and your job And your broke ass car And that shit you call art Fuck you and your friends That I'll never see again Everybody but your dog You can all fuck off Yes, that song's really channeling like that angry Alanis Morissette style. Yeah, a lot of teen angst there. I thought maybe that's you. You got sad corner Dennis and angsty rage Dennis. Yeah, so which one is it? Why not neither? What? Why not neither? Why not neither? The girl has now rejected the cake and the meme. Oh. Or, you can be like me. I plan on strutting into the room on Valentine's Day and giving my wife a little berry wine. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. That makes sense. One of those. I would Valentine's Day out of myself. So for you listeners out there, just because you don't have someone right now doesn't mean that you can't Valentine's Day yourself. Like, treat yourself. And what was I going to say? Go fuck yourself? Well, I'm not sure what you're searching for. Yeah, possibly. I was going to say romance yourself, Valentine's yourself, you know. But, yeah, I mean, psychologically, treat yourself. wine and dine yourself I mean I could see it if people do get depressed around this holiday and I guess you know physically you could fuck yourself but when I'm not going out with someone and it's Valentine's Day I just don't really think about the holiday I don't know I don't get depressed about Valentine's Day I guess I could see people yeah I guess I could see that a lot of people out there are just getting over a relationship and this is like a vacation they're like whew thank god thank god I don't have to mess with that But like you said, fuck yourself. I could see that. Like, yeah. Well, I'm just trying to figure out what you're trying to come up with because listening you bumble around for words is like watching Seahorse or something trying to open a jar of honey. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. I could see myself just lathering myself with rose petals and cranking one off on Valentine's Day. Why not? Yeah. Why not? That's very. What was that weird Kevin Spacey American Beauty? Was that that fun? Yeah. I've never seen it. Wonderful, wonderful film. I would recommend it. It sounds dark the way you told it. It's like mainstream artsy. Mainstream art. It is. It's like Nickelback. What are you saying? I was sorry you didn't say art, so I apologize. It's like indie Nickelback. Indie Nickelback. all of you listeners out there uh i guess what this and i are saying is uh go fuck yourself wonder how craig bobby's gonna spend his valentine's day cold Hello and welcome back to the Pinball Show's Top Stories. I'm Craig Bobby. Good golly, Miss Molly, the Super Bowl weekend has come and gone already. And what a show it was with great plays, amazing commercial breaks, the famous halftime show, and of course, tons of great food. So let the pinball show now cradle you in our loving arms as my somewhat annoying but informative voice washes over your sodium-laden body as we try and purge all that pizza, chicken wings, chili nachos, and smoked meat goodness from your tired and worn-out bodies. First up, the rumor mill is heating up here in early 2023 as the annual Texas Pinball Festival in late April is fast approaching where we could see the debut of any number of new machines from a variety of manufacturers that may be announced likely before or possibly during one of the larger Pinball Exposition events of the year. Interesting news coming out of NAP Arcade during a recent review of pinball-related trademarks that have recently been filed for themes such as Jaws, The Godfather, Pink Floyd, Wednesday Addams, Avatar Way of the Water and the soon-to-be-released Netflix sci-fi movie by Zack Taylor Snyder, Rebel Moon. Say what? Now, these trademark applications aren't in themselves proof that anything is definitely being developed by any of the pinball manufacturers, but it can be an indication that certain talks are underway and events are being hedged in case deals are ultimately struck. These themes could also be used in theory for other digital or virtual pinball platforms that may be in various stages of talk or production as well. So stay tuned. GGF! Next up, courtesy of the Loser Kids Pinball Podcast this past week, who interviewed their most popular guest once again in Stern Pinball Designer Keith Elwin, who shared some interesting tidbits about what he's been working on in a few of the upcoming code updates coming, hopefully, later this year for Godzilla. During the interview, Keith stated that his Godzilla pinball machine is going to receive two of those special hold-in-the-flipper buttons to start modes that everybody loves on Stern's Jurassic Park and Avengers Infinity Quest. The first special mode, which will likely be implemented soon, will be the ability to go straight to the game's Terra of Mechagodzilla flip-counting multiball. A second special mode for Godzilla has been planned since the beginning of the game, but likely won't be implemented in the game's code until later in the year. Elwin also shared some design news that his next Stern Cornerstone game, due out in 2024, will have two full-size flippers and two other flippers, so four in total, with three of the flippers being on the same side of the game. What are you, just crazy? Speaking of Godzilla, we have some new code this week from Stern, most of which is pretty minor, but if one was to open the README file for this new code found on the support page of the Stern website, you would note that there at the bottom of the code notes are a single line spreading hope amongst all Godzilla fans, which reads, Light shows, adding more topper light shows. Hold on! Okay. Holy Spirit, activate! Oh no! Holy Spirit, activate! Holy Spirit, activate! Activate! Activate! All right, let's go. Which is the first time I can remember of learning of a code for a topper that hasn't been released yet for an existing game. Based on this evidence, plus some words of hope we mentioned last week on the pinball show and from John Borg himself during an interview a few weeks ago on the Freeplay Pinball Podcast with Amanda Hamilton and Bill Webb, where John hinted that the topper for both Godzilla and Rush were complete and waiting for an open production window at the factory for them to be assembled. My prediction is that these units will be ready just prior to TPF and will be on display at the show, but we shall have to wait and see. And speaking of seeing, it appears that the North American tour of the Roger Sharp biopic, The Man Who Saved the Game, is premiering right here in my hometown of Toronto, Canada, on Wednesday, February 22nd at 7 p.m. The event, which is being organized by Jeff Teolis, which you all know from hosting of the Pinball Profile and Final Round Pinball Podcast, not to mention his very popular Played in America Roaming Pinball Tournament, the movie premiere, which has been getting very good reviews, even from viewers outside of the pinball hobby, is being shown in one of Canada's largest indoor malls at the Yorkdale Cinemas with a meet and greet afterwards with the man that saved pinball himself, Mr. Roger Sharp. Hope to see you there. Well, that's all for this week for the award-winning pinball show. I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Well, thanks, Craig, for basically nothing significant. Oh, poor Craig. He made an entertainment piece out of that. I like that. He did the best he could. How did you think you did last week if you were to rate the two Canadians? David Dennis and Craig Bobby. People liked it. They really liked it. It was a good show. I feel like David tended to dominate the conversation over Craig, though. Surprise, surprise. I know I'm shocking you, but to the listeners, yeah, it felt like Craig. Craig follows that Canadian politeness and yields a lot more to David. And David follows that more – there's that segment of Canada that they all think they're comedians. He falls into that. He thinks he's funny. There's a Jeff Teelis joke there somewhere. Well, probably. There's probably – and to be fair, there are a lot of funny Canadians. We have poached a great many of them to entertain us here in the States. Jeff is funny. I don't know about Dave, though. Yeah. Well, he tries. That's the thing. Every once in a while, he's got a good – And then, of course, you were talking about the pinball awards. And Craig, though, went like full on, like rush for everything. Rush for best flipper button. Rush for best leg leveler. Best flipper button. I mean, he laid it on a little thick is all I'm saying. I had a blast with him, and we've got wonderful feedback. A lot of people talking about the sayings, the idioms that I brought up, that being cold as a witch's tit. They had never heard of that. They were almost embarrassed that I said that out loud. I added titty, but it's tit. I had a lot of people reach out. You've heard of that, right, Dennis? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know. I know that. So I think maybe it's a U.S. thing or a Midwest thing or something. But I had a lot of people reach out and said, yeah, absolutely, we've heard that. I've used that in the past as well. They said, but most of them said they've heard cold as a witch's tit wearing a brass brawl or a bronze brawl or some type of metal brawl, which would, of course, make it even colder. So I never I've never heard it like enhanced out like that. Yeah, that's a little extended version with like Pierce Nips and stuff. I know I've not I've not heard that version. That must be like the California version. Now I'm really picturing you up against that wall with the markers above your head. Just for anybody to know the right. You've got to go back and watch the music video drive by the cars. You know, it's really depressing, actually. So sorry, but yes, please, please go and watch the super depressing, super sad. I just heard Gorillaz has a new song out I really like, Silent Running. They're still around? Gorillaz, yeah, he's still doing it. Wow, how about that? They're going to play until Clint Eastwood dies, I guess. That's the only song I know. Oh, that's a good reference there. That's a more obscure one for a lot of people, too. That's about it, all I know there. But, yeah, so thanks for all of you. You've got to know Feel Good, Inc. I mean, that's their most famous. Feel good. That still wouldn't make a good pinball. See, I'm sorry. So thank you for all of you who've reached out to the pinball network at gmail.com or meet privately and said, hey, I know that idiom. That's a funny one. I even had Jake Wood reach out, and he said his mom, when she becomes frustrated, I don't know why this one stuck out, but it was hilarious to me. He said, when my mom gets aggravated or something or something, peeves her off, she says, boy, that makes my ass crave cauliflower. Makes my ass crave cauliflower. I think it's made up. I think he made that up, or his mom made it up. I want to have Miss Wood on and speak with her because I want to see what other ones she has. So if you guys have really good idioms like that that are appropriate to air, email us at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. Maybe I'll run one or 12 by Dennis Creasel to see if we can get a chuckle out of him. Let me say din-din. I don't think I'll laugh at any of them. Does that make your ass crave cauliflower? Yeah, cauliflower is all right, but it's not. Well, it does need like ranch on it. It's one of those vegetables that cannot stand naked. Yes. Hear ye, hear ye. Yeah, I agree. All right, Stern Pinball. What do we got, Stern? How do you think Gary Stern going to spend his Valentine's Day? Counting his money. Yes. Scrooge McDuck it, won't he? I don't think he swims in it. I think he rides his motorcycle through it. Like a wind tunnel, just like Benjamins flying in his face. There's a whole section off on the side. He opens it up like a little vault, and it's all the savings from all of those coil stops. Oh, you had to do that. I was waiting for the dig there. I just picture him at the steakhouse having a vodka on the rocks with ear pods in, listening to this. Who's going to tell me? I don't know why I have this. Okay. Bond 60th. Everybody's like, Zach, you son of a bitch. You told me that Bond 60th was shipping last week, and it didn't. What happened? Well, I do have an update to the update. So Bond 60th got bumped back from last week to hopefully this week. It was a part delay. Last second part delay. What part? That little odd job hat? I don't know. I think it was just a part delay. So it was bumped back, and as a result, they pushed Godzilla Premium, which we thought we were going to get mid-month here. Godzilla Premium was then bumped in its place. So that's why you've seen the video on social media from Stern Pinball having Godzilla Premiums on the line. Those should start shipping this week then. A lot of people are still waiting. A lot of people are still waiting. It's getting better, but a lot of people are still waiting. So I would anticipate Bond 60th on the line maybe at the end of this week and possibly shipping the following. I wish it would ship this week. I was up in Chicago, and I don't think I didn't message Stern and say, Hey, you know, if you had a 60th ready, maybe I'd swing by and pick it up along with the Godzilla topper and Rush Expression lighting kits. And I don't know. And speaking of Bond 60th, the Slam Tilt podcast had on this last week on episode 200, Mark Panaccio. I have this downloaded to listen when I drive into work tomorrow, but I've not heard it yet. You're going to love it. And Mark Panaccio is the coder for Bond 60th. They were saying that he has arguably set a record in the longest time between coding two titles. His last game, I believe, being Fishtails back in the early 90s. It was like 30 years or something. Yeah, that's quite a ways out. Because Ron even brought up, he was like, I wonder if Harry Williams. And he's like, no, you've got Harry Williams, too. I think his was like 20-something years. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but Panaccio was on there. And I got to say, first off, congratulations to Slam Tilt Podcast. 200 episodes. They've been around a long time. They've entertained the hell out of a lot of people, informed a lot of people. And regardless of how much Bruce wants to fornicate with me, or at least he tells me to fuck off a lot, I've listened probably to all 200, if not the majority of them. They're great. They're great. And they're my favorite podcast to disagree with. So congratulations. So, yes, they've been at this. They're one of the longest-running podcasts in pinball. So congratulations. But they had on Panacho, and he was talking about it. It was such a fantastic interview. You have to go listen to it, listener, because it was just really good. Some of the things they touched on, Mark was talking about he and Steve Ritchie getting into fights often, talked in detail about that, talked about the sinking building on Earthshaker and the first 200 units, having that but then cost cutting it out later on and then changing the cabinet color mark was so transparent even he said like he wants everybody to forget that he did hurricane because even he said it was just bad and forgettable but everybody's everybody's got a bad title out there but that's the one he wishes everybody would forget talked a lot but people don't always believe them i mean i still remember when barry told you popeye was not a good game and you still insists that he's wrong, even though he made it. Look, Fane and GoPride didn't like all his work either, but they're all masterpieces. Oh, see, that actually works. You're real proud of yourself right now, aren't you? On that one, I was, because usually I stumble and bumble for that. Popeye's a good game. What can I say? Did you play it when you were at my house? Not yours, no. Did you play any of my games? Yeah, I played your Rick and Morty. I played your James Bond, because I'd never played either of those games before. I played your Godzilla. It's floaty. You need to fix that. You know what? I was waiting for you to bring that up. Joel said the same thing, and I'm calling bullshit. I'm going to get in a kilometer out there, and I'm going to test them all. I think you all just jack up your games too much. I don't think mine's very far up. I don't put the back legs all the way back. In fact, I started them all the way down, and I only adjusted up to make sure that when shots weren't feeding well. I don't know. Yours, though. Maybe it's a play field issue. I don't know. I think that you're just bad at this. No, I put up a good inch in the back. I mean, do you have like a two-by-four under the front legs maybe? Could that be it that you forgot about? Like part of the pallet broke off when you were moving the forklift and you never realized you still had this huge slab of wood underneath it? All the mods in the front I mean I think Slick Chicks is less floaty than your Godzilla That ridiculous I going to get one Follow us on social media I going to get this resolved because I heard that a couple times and I was like you all are full of it Steve Ritchie even said you all jack up your games too much and you make them easy. And people do. And he's right. And people do. If it was way too vertical, I would have complained as well. But that's not your problem. Oh, those games all have problems. I don't have time to fix any of them or set them up. They're all – you have all these – you're always – I just don't – it doesn't – see, this is where – and again, kind of like in the intro, we just think about things differently. This is where I struggle trying to sympathize with your approach because you're all about like, I want a minty dolly and I want a minty radical. And I'm like, yeah, but you don't even have them set up right. So why do you care? Those aren't minty. Why can't you have a bunch of beaters? Those two aren't minty. Those two are – they're not beaters, but they're in the other room. I did that with quotation. I don't know if you felt that physically with my fingers, but in the other room, they've not risen to the level of being afforded the opportunity. I played your Wizard of Oz. Was that the Yellow Brick Road version? Was that what you had? It's Yellow Brick gone now. I sold that thing. But I played it before you sold it. Man. I played that. Did you enjoy the two shots? The two I could make. Getting how floaty it was? Yes, I loved it. That's a wide body. And I played your comic Star Wars. Oh. I hadn't played a comic one before. Played pretty similar to the original art. It was shockingly similar to the regular version. Now, that thing was fast, right? Yeah, I didn't notice that being floaty. Okay. Damn. Yeah, George, on his first game on that, came over and, I think, GC'd it. Destroyed the Death Star, first game of life. Well, it's a good thing none of them are on the current code. so you can just swap them. Okay, let's move on. And that's Scorza Viga. Okay. I don't have internet out there. You did for the ceremony. I know. It was a prime opportunity. I should have updated them all then. Dang it. All right, where was I? I'm making fun of my game. We were talking about Hurricane. Thank you. Okay, Hurricane. Poor Hurricane. Poor Popeye. Don't listen to these people. It was a wonderful interview. Go listen to it. Another interview this last week was from Stern Pinball's Keith Elwin. the goat i guess that was more of a sheep kind of plenty of those in this industry as well you're actually pretty good today i have to admit normally it takes you time to think of this stuff but wow this is what happens when you actually get up early i know i'm extra salty because of valentine's day this is the second pepsi kicking in it is man for breakfast breakfast of champions and those that wake up at 4.50 in the morning. Loser Kids interviewed Keith Elwin for the 12th time. And he indicated. I did listen to this one. That was a good interview. I like that he dropped a couple little goat nuggets. Nuggies. One of them being that we're not going to see a game from him cornerstone-wise this year. So maybe 2024? But he also said that his next game, I was surprised he gave this information to the community already. Anybody says his next game is four flippers. He just had to wash all of that two flipper out of his system from Bond 60th. Well, he couldn't fit a third flipper on there with all those spinners. That's true. That is true. Four flippers on his next game. Two of them regular size. Two of them not regular size, of course, I guess. I think he said additional, not regular. So he wouldn't commit to what size they were going to be. Yeah, but what person's like, two are regular and two are TBA? Well, my guess would be it's possible that the third one might be regular and the fourth one might be a mini. Oh, see, I got it. Okay. I heard that wrong then. To me, it was two regular size, two non-regular. You're making me second guess myself a little bit. I did only hear it less than a week ago. I thought he just said that, yeah, two regular-sized flippers and two additional flippers. I think that's what he said. So given that we all know that they're two regular-sized ones, or we think we know, the two regular-sized ones are going to be the Italian bottom format. But the other two, I'm guessing they're not the same size, but maybe one of them is regular. We don't know. And you know what? I'm hoping you're right. He did say that three of the four flippers are going to be on the same side of the game. Okay, so they're all on the same side of the game except for the opposite one down at the bottom. I hope so. Oh, they're not going to spy hunter this or something. I know. That's what I'm saying. I really hope so. Keith would know better than that. If anybody's going to take a... Yeah, everybody. Yeah. What do you feel about this? Because we had a little flipper in Iron Maiden. Then in Jurassic Park, we had three regular flippers. Then in Avengers, we had three regular flippers. In Godzilla... Godzilla was three regular, yeah. Three regular. and then in Bond 60th, two regular. He indicated on Bond 60th, he wanted to almost Harlem Globetrotter it, like scissor for it, which I'm glad. Yeah, no, I can see that. It'd make it very interesting for trapping. I'm glad he didn't. Of course you're glad. Don't mess with the Italian. No, I'll take it back because you've educated me. No, if you can't trap up, you would be able to argue that's not. The whole point of the Italian bottom is to let you trap up. I thought it was sling replacement as well it's a whole mix of the stuff with the inlines and the outlines and then the feed to be able to trap them so it depends on how you set up the flippers though so like if you're doing you could maybe I guess you could say you could double stack and maybe try and still argue it's an Italian if you could successfully trap on the first set but of course if there's the gap there which a lot of times there might be it just depends on how they set it up it depends on how they set it up But I'm glad. I don't like that. I want them to leave some things to the feel good. Like Elwin's placement of his slings and his flippers, in my opinion, they're unique. They're not like the other designers, and I do think they play well and they feel good. Same with John Borg's got his own kind of style. Gomez has his own type of flipper placement. EOS, like how far the flippers go up, the placement of them. Richie's got his own style. I just I like to leave that alone personally. What about you? Yeah, I'm not I'm not a huge advocate to going back to like non-Italian bottoms in particular. I don't know if I necessarily subscribe to Steve Ritchie's approach, which is he's been pretty public in a couple of interviews about he never changes the lower section. Like it's always exactly placed exactly. You can feel it every time. And I get that for the consistency. And obviously there are a lot of people that are very enamored with how his games feel because there's that consistency. I'm willing to see a little bit of variance on that. Like I don't mind you getting a little cute and saying, okay, well, maybe we'll do a pop bumper instead of a sling, for example. But you've still got the control down there. I think a lot of people really want that control and the ability to trap. And I don't get hung up on how many inlanes and outlanes you've got, obviously. You know, like Pat Lawler likes to do a few more inlanes than the two, too. That's still an Italian. And Borg. You get Borg'd a lot. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, yeah, overall, I do think there's a reason why we see a lot of consistency in the lower section, and that's because there's a lot of popularity with that. In fact, I think that was probably a big driving factor for why the P3 system is the way it is. And now there's a lot of talk about being able to extend mechs and stuff down doing things. But the whole thought was, well, if the lower sections don't change much, then why don't you have the screen there and just have the two slings there? Because that's the usual format. So in terms of this with the flippers, my general rule of thumb, my personal preference is that three flippers is the sweet spot. I did think the four flippers worked pretty well in Iron Maiden. So I'm sure he can implement four flippers very well. my normal order of preferences I prefer three flipper followed by two followed by four I think me too hmm well I don't know about that two inch flipper it's the thing with when you add more and more flippers that gets interesting especially if they're in different spots so you're not like doing that Harlem style or Sinbad or whatever double stacks at the bottom and stuff is you have to consider all this uh impact on reaction time and stuff and when you've got a lot of flippers all over the place like how are you are you able to see all these feeds clean are you are they just giving you one additional shot i mean the more flippers you stick in the fewer shots they're actually going to probably be able to access so it's all that stuff coming coming into play that that makes you wonder and i i enjoy more like playing say elwyn's jurassic park and being like okay there are like two really good shots good feeling shots that you have access to with that third flipper. So there's variety to it. Whereas, while I love the game a lot, Stern Star Trek with Richie, that upper flipper's really only for the warp ramp. Now, I botch that all the time and end up shooting the left ramp instead, but it's designed for one explicit purpose, really. It also has some stand-ups it tries to access. It's more flexible than I'm implying. I think Richie's Led Zeppelin had that same shot, but it was advertised as that left ramp being a makeable shot from the uh from the upper flipper i believe yeah i mean honestly my all my time with led zeppelin was on the pro and it just killed me that there was that dead end shot for that flipper it just i think it wrecked the whole thing i hated it as john borg whistles away i you said it's interesting putting those two inch flippers of the four I think it, moreover, I think it gets in the way. When you get a multiball going on Iron Maiden, it's just not as satisfying to me as if you get a multiball going in Godzilla. It's just their shots get in the way. You're flipping because it's not like you're in action and stage flipping. Like if you're stage flipping, you're holding balls, right? So I like to, you know, especially while the ball save is on, you know, I'm rapid firing. And a lot of my shots are blocked because of those little flippers. What about this, Dennis and listener? What if I'm thinking three on the same side, three flippers or four flippers on the same side? I'm now thinking upper play field. What are your thoughts? Do we ever see Keith Elwin go into the upper play field? I guess or lower play field, but lower play field suck. Right, right, right, right. Upper playfields aren't the best. You know what? I had never really thought about it. But, I mean, if it's this flipper configuration, are you asking do I think it's this one or do I think he ever does it? What do you think the odds are that we use a third flipper on the one side to be on an upper play field more so than three flippers on a level playing field? I'm going to guess no. But definitely, I mean, it would meet that. You could pull that off like an Aerosmith where you have an upper play field with one flipper on it, for example, or a World Poker Tour. Did it just have one up there to try and get the little ball locked for the ace in the hole or whatever? Why was I thinking there's two? I don't know. I've never owned a World Poker Tour. I don't remember. It's been years since I played one. Yeah, no, it could be done. I don't – I kind of feel, though, that – I mean, now that we've seen five games from Elwin and none of them have had upper playfields, that if he was an upper play field guy, that he'd have done it by now. Yeah, he's more of a loops, no scoops guy. And I don't know what all his preferences are versus my preferences, but some of the games where you had the upper playfields and then you don't have the upper playfields, like Game of Thrones is my case in point. I like them better when they're faster and not having the upper play field. I don't think Game of Thrones has a bad upper play field, but I like the pro more. I just think it's more fun to not have to be up there because it slows things up so much. And Elwin's games don't normally seem like – well, I think a lot of his layout configurations are relatively safe. I don't feel like he likes to have the ball be slow all the time, which is why he seems to – this is my theory, why he does not gravitate towards scoops unless he needs them because those all just slow the ball. I mean what's a scoop that doesn't feel slow? The only one I can name for you is TNAs. Sure. Yeah, I mean, it's not even really a scoop whenever it reacts as fast as it does. It's more of a kickback. But what if he's just thinking to himself, oh, all these knuckleheads, I'm not going to have a cornerstone in a while. I've got to give them something to chew on. Let's throw them off our scent. Let's tell them there's two regular-sized flippers. and stretching the truth and saying that a regular-sized flipper with a shark fin on it is not really a regular flipper. Okay, so you're Baywatching it up. Yeah, but Baywatch was, I think, a small flipper, wasn't it? Yes, it was. It was like a mini flipper with a dorsal fin or something. Yeah, so if you put a fin on a flipper, does it make it a non-regular? I don't know. Maybe there's a fin on it. We'll have to wait and see. We're not going to have to wait very long for code updates, though, because James Bond code updates just keep on coming out. No one cares. Yeah. Did you just growl at me? And a Rottweiler coming out. Listen, Cujo, put that shit back in the cage where it belongs. Neuter me. James Bond owner sure as hell care about code updates. snip snip that game is finally coming coming to be each and every week now that we can stack stuff and uh i i still have a lot of people that are saying man i love the way this game shoots i'm i'm waiting i'm waiting so we got that and godzilla got a code update and the topper it said topper updating topper light shows so maybe that's coming sooner than later it's weird that We potentially could get the James Bond topper before Godzilla or Rush toppers, but I don't know. Did you ever see the Rudy's Nightmare topper that they were selling? Yes, I did. Not in person, only online. I wasn't too wild about it. It didn't look that good. That's okay. But, you know, I don't think much about toppers. Yeah, I know you don't. It was a molding. Rudy didn't look. The reason I bring that up is Pedretti Gaming, creators of Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare, courtesy of Nap Arcade reporting that Pedretti Gaming appears to be close to announcing their next 2.0 game kit. Said that maybe by TPF we'll be able to play it there or see it. Oh, very close then. On social media, Pedretti did indicate that we're less than six weeks away from reveal. So, number one, we don't know numbers or anything like that. I don't know if Funhaus 2.0 Rudy's Nightmare was considered a success or not. I suppose so if they're going to continue making these 2.0 kits. A lot of people have talked about it, but I don't know if it was a success. There's a lot of mixed reactions to that released game enhancement. Okay. I've not really researched it to know how people have been responding to it. I know they put a lot of effort into promoting its existence. There are a lot of fun houses out there, so there's a good potential audience to it. But all that being said, they They would have had to, especially if they're going to be ready possibly by TPF to drop this new 2.0 kit. They would have had to have moved along on this upcoming 2.0 before they would have really known, in my opinion, how well the Rudy's Nightmare had done. So they may have already been committed on the next kit regardless of how the Funhaus kit went. That's a really good point. The only reason I don't know is because when it came out, people – the call-outs by Mark Sagan, they were like, you don't know about that. and they liked the premise and the idea of it, but then you had to install it and everything. And then even on the forums, I went and checked the forums. There's a lot of people kind of upset with the bugginess of code and the way it, you know, interactions and code updates, and it's a mixed bag. So I'll be interested to see if the next 2.0 kit goes anywhere or not. It still interests me because I love the premise of updating some of these older games. some of the choices are what kind of worries me looking at how they did rudy's nightmare so uh as well as like there's other people doing 2.0 kits i know that no good gophers there was a team doing that that was on that uh paradigm tilt we haven't really talked about that paradigm tilts doing a swords of vengeance uh concept they get a video out for an update there that's rather interesting but i i don't know if it was a success or not go read in the forums and determine for yourself but dennis i'll ask you this what is your guess as to what they might be revealing for their next 2.0 game what do you think they'll stick with alphanumeric stuff well or i mean and i was gonna ask you do you what did you think that do you think they're gonna like take an alphanumeric and DMD it up? I guess they're going to stick with that. Because it's... It makes the most sense to me. Though, going with a DMD kit solves some of the installation problems, arguably. If you could still use the same old display. Here's the main thing. So, Funhaus and, of course, we know Dutch back before Big Lebowski did their Bride of Pinbot 2.0. Those both were WPC board set games that were alphanumeric before the DMDs. There's only one other game that used that board set that was alphanumeric, and it won't be one they do. It's Harley Davidson. If you've never played a Harley Davidson, a midway Harley Davidson, actually, I think it's a really fun game. It's very much in the street-level philosophy of Silver Slugger. In fact, it was Williams' response to Silver Slugger. But they only made under 2,200 units for it. So it's not an ideal candidate. Most people don't have access to the game. I always forget that Bride of Pinbot was WPC. I have it ingrained in my head. It's an alphanumeric. It feels like a System 11 because it's still alphanumeric, but it had a more powerful board set. So I do agree with where you were leaning, though. I think you stick alphanumeric. I think if we're talking about what deserves to be redone in terms of rules and how games play, the System 11 era is ripe with bad rules on otherwise good games. All right, they may not have been Premier Gottlieb bad, but almost all of them have bad rules and they're too easy to exploit. Today, these would have been things that our rules makers would have caught right off the bat and stopped. So based off of that, I think it would be a System 11 because, you know, there are a lot of options. There are 30 different System 11 games. There are so many good ones, too. Yes. And then that's the other thing is volume. So remember I mentioned Funhaus. Funhaus, they made almost 11,000 units of Funhaus. Bride for Dutch, that was over 8,000 units. I don't think you want to turn to like a Harley of, what's the count, 2,187. So if it's System 11, it can't be a scant one. Like Grand Lizard, which was under 3,000. You can't be doing Grand Lizard. Diner I don't think makes sense because that wasn't even 4,000. So I'm thinking things like High Speed, Pinbot, F-14 Tomcat. Those all were over 10,000 units. And you don't think that there's an issue with it not being a WPC game? I think the kit would require a new board. And they're using fast boards, fast board systems. Shout out to Fast. They make a fantastic product. And I did a little research. So Fast makes these retro boards, and they're capable of doing System 11, WPC 89 stuff. They're capable of doing all of that stuff. Because I thought maybe that's the hang-up there, but no, that's not the hang-up. Right. Since they're not going in and just replacing ROM chips and making a 2.0 version using the old hardware, that, no, I don't think they can do it. a pin sound XL board, so they're fine there. So yeah, you're gutting it. You're going to put in a whole new board system, but you'll still be able to use the alphanumeric displays. Yeah. No, you could do any of them. So it's a question of what's high volume. You know one you didn't list that I think that I would put my guess would be another Pat Lawler game. It's Whirlwind. I thought about naming Whirlwind, but Whirlwind wasn't even 7,500 units. So is it enough to want to do a 2.0 kit? Because again, Looking at these other 2.0 kits, and I don't know all these other – but again, my floor currently of the WPC ones was pinbot at 8,100 units. So you're giving up over 500 more units. Is it close enough? Maybe. Possibly. But then again, somebody else was working. Whirlwind's rules aren't particularly bad. No, they're good rules. That's why they're using competitions a lot. It was one of the last System 11s. Somebody's working on a Whirlwind. And remember they got in trouble for calling it something and they had to change the name. I think it was, I think it's apple juice or is it orange juice? One of the juices was working on that whirlwind 2.0, I believe. So maybe, maybe that leads credence to it. Maybe that suggests that no, somebody else working on it. We're not going to touch that. I don't know. What about an Elvira and the party monsters? We know how love that is, you know, contemporarily speaking, contemporarily. I don't even know if that's a word. with Stern's Elvira's House of Horrors and even Scared Stiff. Do we see an update to Elvira and the Party Monsters? No, because it's the Ugly Valley cabinet. I think they stay away from that You think just because of the cabinet I truly do yeah And they going to have the same display I don know if the same trim and display and everything on the Bally is the same as the Williams Again, there were only 4,000 Elviras, so do you do it? So, I mean, the Bally-branded System 11 games, like, that was where they dumped all of the ones that weren't popular. Sure. So, no, like, there's not a single one. That's the most produced one, to my knowledge, is Elvira at 4,000. I think every single one of them is under 4,000 other than that. Poor Mouse and Around. Yeah, Mouse and Around was just under 3,000. I really like that game. And you know another game I like that's beautiful? Bad Cats. Meow, meow, meow, meow. Bad Cats could use a new rule, so that's for sure. Seafood. Yeah. But yeah, Bad Cats on, I'm not sure how many Bad Cats. Let me see if I can look it up here. 2,500. Yeah, that's not happening. There's not enough kits to sell is the thing. Like you got to – that's part of what I'm doing is I have to think about how many games potentially could be converted because we don't know how many have survived in the first place back then. And they started to stick around more around this time period in terms of the modern era. But so when you think about something like a Road Kings, which could really use a new rule set at 5,500 units, is it worth doing? Or would you rather go ahead and do high speed, which had over 17,000? I still think there's a difference between the number of units produced versus popularity today. Sure, but you can't – if you don't have access to the game. Yeah, they're not going to do Radical. I get that. But, you know, high-speed sure. Well, it's about – they're doing it to make money. So why would you – that's why I could possibly – Whirlwind is not a bad guess. Yeah, it's lower than Bride of Pinball, but it's not 1,000 units lower. Taxis in that same range, like 7,300. I can see Taxi happening. I can see Black Knight 2000 happening. But so in the cases of – yeah, I mean it's like – I mean that's where – it's still – I just don't know where the floor is. So Black Knight, 2,000, Earthshaker, Jokers, those are under 6,000 units, but they're over 5,000 units. Is that enough? Big Guns is still over 5,000. Millionaire, which could use a whole new everything, is 3,500 units were made. I just – but compared to what they've already done, if you want – you need to maximize how many people might buy it. And unfortunately, your ceiling on sales is, this is not like toppers. Well, it's kind of, I guess, where some people will buy toppers without having the gains. But that's because they're assuming they're going to get the game eventually. You know the maximum number of Whirlwind kits you'd ever be able to sell is 7,304. But realistically, you know there are not 7,304 Whirlwinds still out there. You're right. So when you're looking at that stuff and you say Bad Cats at 2,500 initially built, how many are left? And how many of those people who have it want a kit? because it's not going to be everyone. No. A lot of these are just not going to be worth the time. They also might be thinking to themselves, with the cost of these kits, it's probably going to go to somebody, a collector, willing to spend that extra amount of money, which would then be titles that lend themselves to more collectability. I don't know about Pembot. I just don't know what they would do with that. Now, if they were going to go into the DMD era, Oh, that opens up so many things. Yeah, you'd really open. So like on the Bally side of WMS, obviously you've got Addams Family. Why hasn't anyone kidded Addams Family? Addams Family could use some new rules. Oh, absolutely. Twilight Zone, that's a double-digit sale. All of them. I mean, I can't think of one off the top of my head that wouldn't be. Everybody loves WPCs. Yeah, on the Williams side, again, just thinking volume. If we're talking like they did Funhaus, which was over 10,000 units. T2, Getaway Getaway could use bug fixes Fishtails, Indiana Jones Star Trek TNG Those are all over 10,000 made Creature from the Black Lagoon Whitewater, all of them I could see all of those A lot of those are still way up there on Even Red and Ted's Roadshow Had over 6,200 units So it's, I mean, there's some I think the volume is going to make A big difference and there are some games that don't need to be touched though like shadow does not need to be touched i think i don't think the shadow needs to be touched uh when i'm looking through this any others i don't know if world cup soccer needs to be touched scared stiff believe it or not i don't think it needs to be touched even though that has one of the least uh depth rule sets i don't know i'm mixed on some of these because i like them how they are yeah i mean i i guess if i were what i would like to see as someone not in the market for any of these kits because i don't have any of these games uh would would be more on the system 11 front i just think a 14 tomcat there's a lot yeah there's just a lot there that could really be improved i think you could see some significant improvements not to mention that when you go the dmd era um you're going to be compared to a lot of the decisions you're always going to be compared to a lot of the decisions but i there's just a lot more that people i think i've sort of fallen in love with with the dmd era and, you know, like how there were complaints about the funhouse and the voicing because it's different, I think, is where the complaints come from. When you start getting compared to the old DMD set and everything else, I don't know if you want to compete with that. Maybe. And we've got to think that there are some licenses that are System of Living games that, frankly, they couldn't, maybe they could, they probably wouldn't want to afford the licensing rights to make them into DMD because my thought is out of all of those, if you gave me an option, my choice would probably be Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball. That's a game that I think could be really fun, and it's a theme that is just so damn great that nobody's attempted again. Think about DMDing that thing and the quirky layout that it has. For the most part, I think a lot of people's complaints about Bugs Bunny is more rule set than it is layout, right? I mean, the layout is a weird one, I will say that. But they made so few of them. I mean, they made less than 2,300 of them. I've only ever seen it once. Looney Tunes, I mean. I just don't think they made, saying it's not a license, I just think the potential number of kit sales is too low to risk it. Oh, absolutely. There's not enough people own it. A hundred percent, absolutely. Yeah, it's the same thing why Bally Game Show and Pool Sharks and all the rest, Transporter, why you won't see those done. I would hate to see how much that would cost as well. And I don't even know if they'd be the worst. I mean I'd really worry about where we know the Pinball Arcade, the video game company, where they struggled. They had to do fundraisers to be able to do T2. Oh, the D&D stuff. Yeah, the D&D stuff. Adams was a big issue. Indiana Jones. Yeah, all of those are – that's where I think more reasons why to stick more with System 11 because there were very few licenses with System 11. And speaking of upcoming games, we've got that 2.0 that's coming out. But NAP Arcade also investigated the USPTO database, the Patents and Trademark Office database. I think that's what it is. and found that, not to say that these are going to be made as pinball machines, but a lot of licenses do have pinball, or the term pinball machine, listed as an official possibility for future product production kind of stuff, including The Godfather, Jaws, Wednesday Addams, a character from the Addams Family, Pink Floyd, Rebel Moon. Netflix just picked up a, I think it's a Zack Taylor Snyder thing, Rebel Moon from the anime. Avatar. All these licenses have been, from the USPTO office, been approved licensing for a pinball machine. Doesn't mean it's going to happen, but as we go through these, The Godfather has been a rumor. Do we see that happening? Do you think that's a, we've already voiced that we don't think it's a great license, but that's the rumor that that will happen. Jaws. that's been the rumor by Stern Pinball. We can both agree that's a pretty great license, right? I think Jaws is a strong license, Zach, but only if there's actual character asset usage. I don't want to see it as like the Jurassic Park. So if it's just the shark, and maybe you have like a few call-outs by one of the guys who played one of the sons in the movie. I just don't think, I don't know. I mean, it'll still probably sell well because it's Stern and it's a popular license, but I think it'll be seen as a miss if it's really just the shark in the boat. Even if it is Keith Elwin? Okay, well, maybe not a miss then. See, yeah, I agree with you. I want all of the assets. I want the Richard Richard Dreyfuss. I want all of it. A miss for the theme collectors. Yeah, but sales would be nuts. What about Wednesday Addams? I've not seen this. I've heard the show. I saw a lot of the ads for the show. The show's been doing very well on Netflix. It sounded like it was doing well. So given all of that, this is one of those, I think, bold picks based off of very early reaction that could pan out very well. I'd almost think it's a spooky wheelhouse game, obviously. But as early as this feels, it seems more like a stern grab to me. If it's happened. To me, it feels like somebody's just locking it up. Because of the history that this industry has with the Addams Family, one would think, well, this is a no-brainer. I actually think, no, it makes it worse. I don't know. Unless this just turns out to be a huge, huge hit. I know it was a big hit thus far, but to my knowledge, we haven't seen subsequent seasons yet. We'll see if this is a flash in the pan or this has legs. What about Pink Floyd? Oh, yeah. No, that one. It's almost surprising to me that Pink Floyd has not yet been done as a pinball machine. Completely agree. I don't think now, granted, if it gets the Led Zeppelin treatment, that makes me sad because Led Zeppelin is fantastic music. Yeah, but I kind of wonder if maybe – you know, this seems like the sort of theme that Pinball Brothers would go for. Oh. I think that they know there's been a lot of excitement on Queen, which they brought in from the old highway days. So if they're thinking, you know what, we know band pins have a built-in audience. We know Pink Floyd is a very respected band. Let's go ahead and go for that. That's not bad. I think it's a good idea. I like Pink Floyd. I think it would make a good seller. My ignorance here, I don't know much about Rebel Moon. I've never heard of it. Let's move on. No. There you go. What about Avatar? horror yeah i think it would be stern since they did it before and they have such a i mean obviously jjp's worked with disney as well but it's only been to my knowledge jjp and stern working with disney and stern seems to get whatever it wants from disney so and i've not seen the new movie i meant to see it and then i decided i had so much work three and a half hours elsewhere yeah yes i just well i was just like i had a friend of mine who wanted to see it also and i was thinking about doing it and then with my work schedule i'm like uh regardless uh i've heard very good things about it uh obviously there's been a lot of people eagerly awaiting avatar uh it's a game that was old enough that it's not super weird for stern to revisit it it's still a little weird but i mean i mean come on they revisited avengers with no ill effects so why not revisit avatar if it's hot it's hot yeah you can do one every year if they wanted to do a harry potter every three years they could. Maybe this one we won't be able to coffin lock the ball and then shake the machine in order to get our credits. What's wrong with striking it? Leave alone Jake Sully. I love the film. I love the theme. I think I'm kind of in the minority for it being a theme for pinball. I think you get the hard time in the pinball world, the Stern edition of it, iteration of it, because of the theme. I don't think it's all that different to Iron Man. I know it is. I get that it is, and I know the reasons why Iron Man is. I'm just saying the gap between the two, I think, is overblown. I think the backlash, I never assumed it was due to the theme. I've always assumed the lower popularity of Avatar, I felt, stemmed from, one, it's noted, especially that one of the multiballs was somewhat easy to exploit, and it's also a one-ramp game. So you split the difference. You didn't do at least two ramps, but you didn't do a single level. You did one ramp. And people just, it looks, when they look at that, they think it looks cheap. Yeah, I get that. Side note, you know how many freaking emails and messages we're going to have to field this week for you poo-pooing Rebel Moon? Oh, they're going to come out of the woodworks, aren't you, listener? You've already submitted a bit. I didn't poo-poo it. I said I don't know what it is, so let's move on because there's nothing to be said if you don't know anything about it. There was no poop. There was tone. There's no flaming bag of poop. There was tone. Someone ding-dong-dashed my house the other day. What did they do? Ding-dong-dash. You know when you ring the bell and run off? They do know the ring cameras record them, right? Uh-oh. Sorry, little girl. Enjoy jail. It was Tony, wasn't it? Yes, he drove all the way up here. As he giggled away. As he giggled. And then he whines about having to do another 5K. A shitty little girl, huh? Britain. Yeah, it was a whole gaggle of kids, but there was a little girl, the shortest one of them all. She was the brave one. She was the brave one. Was it a knock or a ring? It was a double ring. Ding, ding, ding, like a double push. Like push the button twice so you hear ding, ding, dong. And then I just hear the screaming and laughing as they're running. And I heard one of the other ones on the little ring recording go, you're weird, to the one who rang, I guess. oh poor little girl you're so weird she was peer pressured into it i don't know there was someone yesterday went by and was opening all the mailboxes i think it was the same little girl we might have a little hooligan what the hell opening mailboxes ringing doorbells i can see you just blowing through a screen door like a cartoon character sprinting and just tackling her ass to the ground Oh, yeah. Road rash on her elbows and everything. You have all these odd iterations of me in your mind's eye. Hey, I'll drop a kid. Well, yeah, but everyone knows you're like the mean one, and I'm the nice one. Yeah. I'd fuck up an eagle, too. I'm not scared of these animals. I'm not scared of kids, either. Oh, can we change the market trends to a loon? No, we're not. That was bullshit, and how dare they. How dare they infiltrate. It sounds like so much friendlier. It was so stupid in the snowblower on stereo. So dumb. I noticed it was stereo, and I was like, yeah, I'm going to keep it that way. So stupid. You keep your loons up north. I think there are a lot more. I don't know how to search the USPTO, but I bet there's a lot more that are designated having pinball machines approved thus far. We'll have to wait and see because I don't feel like searching it. Remember Sonic the Hedgehog? Oh, yeah. Someone stole Sonic from American Pinball, but it wasn't Stern. That's what we were told. Well, that's what we were told. I went to USPTO, and I was trying to search it and stuff. I found all the Sonic stuff. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see pinball. I don't know. I don't know how these things work. I did go search back to the future as well well it's back to the browser that's all we need is another Marty McButterface no Goonies I did I spent a little too much time on it I couldn't figure something out I'm not as smart as Nap or any of them so just let me know what's coming out email me at the pinball network at gmail.com I think that about sums up the news I mean we had Chicago Gaming Company people are still wondering where their Cactus Canyons are Joel Engelbert did stream the new Cactus Canyon remake LE He did, showing some TopperCam action, that integration mode from the Topper. So go check that out. I'm flipping out Pinball, the VOD. I'm going to throw Joel out there. This guy, he's sweating. I didn't think this would be difficult for him. Dennis, he is contemplating whether or not he wants to buy a Cactus Canyon. of all the games that he has borrowed and stuff he i mean he's messaging me about pricing availability wow like he's and and he's asking about the se plus because he likes the topper and i'm like joel for are you for real because he's getting very much into rule sets and stuff like and we know that cactus canyon isn't known for being deep deep yeah he's he's like man i'm really just damn there's something about this game i'm so i told him i said well just play the hell out of it while you got it and then and then see so he might wait for medieval madness but yeah so listen to the latest triple dream pinball podcast see what he has to say for yourself well dennis it's that time again where we get to submit to everybody a performance of an industry one that has been designated award-winning i know that they don't have segments that but we all know that there is one segment that stands out amongst the field of plebe segments in pinball podcasting, right? Rumor Corner? No. Look, Rumor Corner is trending. I hear the cry. I hear the cry of the animals. No, no loons. We're not looning it. I'd say that even Drain It or Save It, not as hot as the segment over here at the pinball show. games you like games you hate more like segments that are trending down you know there's no hotness here where are you guys at pinball podcasting tom talks doesn't mean he doesn't trend down a lot of things are just sitting idle the poor man's i think the poor men pinball podcast are too poor to even have a segment i don't even know what segment they've got there's uh would you buy that would you buy that man what a great idea for audio podcast and the one segment that people love was too controversial and it's gone i'm talking about final rounds would marty kill this person well that one was very violent i mean i mean murder scenarios you know that's gone what about meth on pinball party is he a segment man meth is kind of trending though just because it's meth but the dog chewing the chips i don't know how far that's gonna go yeah i don't i'm not sure that asmr stuff flies even people are getting tired of figuring it out i read that yes i'm like how dare you they've been over figured how dare all of you it's bullshit over figured and i'll say it even this or that oh so no that's what that's the best thing on straight down the middle? I don't know if it holds candle flame to the one, the only, the only pinball podcast segment that's too good to fuck itself on Valentine's Day. Ladies and gentlemen, it's PINBALL MARKET TRENDS! COME ON! This is so bad. It's like a five minute lead in. Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Can we have an owl instead? Oh, my gosh. I'm kind of bringing out my inner Tootsie Roll. I'm thinking something like, how many licks does it take to get to the center of the Deadpool Pro sales? It takes three. Oh, that's good. Yes, the roll bar. Yes. Very good. I like it. Oh, my God. trending up this week like i know that people who make money saying negative shit are not going to want to hear this but it's the market dennis listener the market is trending up does that go against everything no it doesn't look at the stock market i don't follow so i don't know what it's doing but i can tell you when it comes to pinball for some reason or another the last two weeks have kind of been on fire and this is me as a dealer telling you i don't know what like We're running out of some machines, machines that have been sitting. I think our sales have been up 40%, at least 40% over the last couple weeks. It's coming out of nowhere. We've sold a lot of pinball machines just in the last week alone. And stuff that I wouldn't have thought is going to just be flying off the shelves is flying off the shelves. Have you noticed any of that lately? We see even numbers no longer are dropping, dropping in the secondary market for pinball machines. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the tax – are people getting tax returns right now? It's a little early. I mean most people can't really start to submit until the start of February just because many places – pretty much every place is allowed to wait until January 31st to get you there, 1099s and all of that. That being said, like I know the NASDAQ market has been trending upwards here over the last month-ish. I mean not every day is up. Some truth. It's a little bit down now than it was at the start of February, but the start of February is quite a bit up from the start of January. Everybody thought it was going to take this nosedive, this recession, right? And it still may. But for some reason right now, it's waxing and waning, and it ain't tanking. It is not tanking. It's market prediction stuff, and this is why you have all these people who are professionals on it, and it's so different. There's a reason why – Like me, right? Pinball professional? Well, there's a reason why index funds often end up beating the predictions of analysts. And this is because it's so hard to predict because there's so many factors. And we have a global economy. So all of that stuff coming into play. You know, there might be something. I mean we were on a I don know what I would chalk it up to in terms of these market sales Saying aside just something unique about pinball It could be as simple as people got Christmas presents that they didn want and they returned them and got cash and now we buying things they wanted I could throw that out there as a hypothetical. It could be Carl Weathers-based as well. Sure, sure. That's a good point. People aren't usually doing a lot on the vacation game at the start of the new year. It's usually time to start refilling the vacation piggy bank. You know what else it could be? It doesn't mean the actual piggy bank is empty. That's right. It also could be a listener, could be a market that you thought was saturated. And a lot of us dealers do have healthy inventories that we are not crazy about having. But there's also something to say, Dennis, about Stern Pinball not really having a lot of production lately of older titles or brand new titles or anything. It just seems like there's a lull of here's James Bond, here's James Bond, here's James Bond. We're not seeing a lot of stuff new. There's a cornerstone cut last year. So people are craving those older titles that aren't being made as quick. We've got games being discontinued from Stern Pinball a lot quicker than they have in yesteryears. We've got Jersey Jack Pinball, who, you know, Toy Story is kind of at its, it was at its peak long ago, and those were sitting. So people are eager to get the new JJP, eager to get the new American Pinball. We haven't seen that. Eager to get Chicago Gaming because those cactuses are trickling out. So they're making use of what is there, which is inventory. So trending up this week, for example, is the Mandalorian. The Mandalorian Pro. We've had plenty of inventory. I felt healthy with inventory on Mandalorian. They're not going to build that again until schedules right now are saying November for the Mandalorian. I thought, you know what? I'm going to ride through this year. We're going to have a handful of Mandalorian Pros and Prevents. We're going to be fine. And damn if I didn't just sell out of Mandalorian Pros at Flip N Out Pinball. Like in the last week, we sold three. Just Mandalorian Pros. People had to have them. I even pushed somebody to another dealer because I ran out. The Mandalorian did this? What the hell is up with that? Well, I mean, it does have that bazillion dollar topper. But the markets are fluctuating. They're changing. They're seeing Pedro Pascal. Maybe because they're seeing him on The Last of Us. or isn't the new Season 3 of Mandalorian coming up here next month? It's coming, so it's warming up. Some hype. So we still have Mandalorian previews, but the Mandalorian pros are gone. I trinned it up last week. We're going to do it again this week because numbers don't lie. I only report the facts. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Rush Pinball by Stern Pinball. Trinning up. It recently won Best of Show Award at the Pinball Awards. People continue to talk about it. It's climbing up the charts on the Pinside Top 100. And everything is like number 12 of all time. Wow. I haven't checked that chart in a long time. To the point, same thing as Mandalorian Pro. And it's Pro. It's Pro sales right now are really going quick. Rush, I thought, I knew I'd sell out of them because they're not on schedule this year. We've been out of the Rush premiums for a long time. But Rush Pro sold three of those. Those are gone. I don't have any more Rush Pros to sell. Now I'm sitting here like, uh-oh. Shit. All this inventory I was worried about, it's all gone. What am I going to do? Rush pros and Rush premiums gone from flipping out pinball. I don't know what to do. People are buying them. Buy, buy, buy! I'd hate to see what happens when the expression lights come out. Whoa. And that thing is just, I think it's code and it's media talking it up, competition players talking it up, forums, enthusiasts. People are just loving Rush and it is showing in sales. Also turning out this week, hell, even signs, game room signs, the ultimate topper, the Stern Pinball Alley sign. Have you ever seen this thing? I've got one myself, but they sold them to dealers in the past and family entertainment centers. It's like this ginormous six-foot vacuum-molded plastic light show spectacle. It says Pinball Alley on it real big. Have you seen that? No, I've not. It is a spectacle. It's awesome. This thing is sexy as all get out. And you couldn't just buy them. The public can't buy them. Kind of like banners. You couldn't buy them. But now everybody wants this. I call it the ultimate topper. It's the topper that sits above all the other games. Like a topper in itself. One sold recently on Pennside. A guy listed it for $8,000. $8,000 and people said, smoking crack, bro? And he said, no, I'm not smoking crack. Just hold my beer. And while the Pennside people held this gentleman's beer, I knew for sure $8,000 was actually too low. Too low for a big old sign like that. and damned if he didn't sell it really quickly and said there was about 20 people lined up that would have bought it if he would have been willing to ship it. $8,000. That confuses me. It went for $10,000 easy. That confuses me. You can get giant custom signs made for well under that. It would have probably cost, just because if it was metal, yes, but because it was vacuformed plastic and stuff, I don't see it. Yeah, I mean, okay. I don't know. Listeners, if you're wanting, and I'm talking like six foot by six foot neon signs, contact me, and I can hook you up with people that will be able to do that for half that price. Oh, buy, buy, buy? Buy, buy, buy! And we're talking like custom. You'll pay a certain amount for the design, and you'll pay a certain amount for the neon bender, but it's not going to run you $8,000, and it will be feet with flashing effects and all of that. It can be done. I'm just saying there's a whole world out there of neon benders waiting to bend neon for you speaking of Pedro Pesca yes you could probably get someone to shape him in neon I would love it do you prefer if you've been watching The Last of Us no no I don't have Netflix we've talked about this I don't have HBO either Game of Thrones went away isn't that the HBO yeah I'm not currently subscribed to HBO HBO. I can't be paying for all these services, Zach. Some of us are trying to save money so we can afford $8,000, almost $10,000 signs. Turning down this week, Nicole Manning. She signed up to fucking Peacock this last week. It's a Peacock. You gotta let it fly. Peacock, Dennis? I'm spending $6 a month on Peacock? What the fuck, Nicole? I think that's what I asked her. I was like, sweetie, what the fuck? Peacock? She's like, wow. Maybe that should be your Valentine's gift. Another year's gift. Maybe get her the mountain also, Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus. So the peacock has some place to nest. She can watch Yellowstone. Man, sometimes you got to let them fly, Dennis, but not peacock. Nicole, you're killing me. Peacock. I don't even know where we're at. But yes, The Last of Us. Do you think that'd make a good pinball machine? I've not played the video game. It was extremely well-reviewed. It was a PlayStation exclusive. That's why I didn't play it. But it was seen by some, by many, I should say, as the greatest game of the PS4 generation on the console. I think we could find some that would argue even higher than that. The game of a generation, maybe. It's like, it's ours. No, I'm too old. It's the current generation Star Wars. Remember that? Do you remember when people told us the fifth element was supposed to be my generation Star Wars? I remember. I don't. Pepperidge Farm remembers. I don't think Pepperidge Farm. I don't remember. Pepperidge Farm was wrong. Gosh, I don't. Corbin Dallas. No, I don't. Monty Pass. What was that? She knows it's a multi-pass. Oh, my gosh. I've watched that movie so many times. First movie I remember Mia Jovovich in. She's somewhat unforgettable. Yes, she is. I preferred her in Resident Evil, though. I just want to see you wear that outfit this Valentine's Day. The bandage outfit? Of course I know exactly which outfit. You didn't mean Gary Oldman's weird plastic helmet outfit. We've already got a podcast with a haircut. I can see you dyeing your hair orange with the bandage outfit. What's she say? What's the fucking term that she used? Lilo Dallas multi-pass. Multi-pass. Me, fifth element, supreme being, me protect you. Oh, bada boom. Big bada boom. Big bada boom. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Thinking bada boom. Big bada boom. Bada boom. Big. Big. Big bada boom. Big. by the bag boom. That would make a good pinball machine. Let's go with that. I could buy that. I think it still holds up. That's good. But the multiball can come out of the opera singer's tummy just like that stone. Oh, that's so sad. So sad. We should have like blue blood or something. Yeah. Oh, I love that song too. I don't know where we came from and where we went, but the pinball alley sign is here to keep trending. Balls trending up this week is Lucas Pepke. Congratulations to Lucas Pepke for unmasking Macho Pinball and the Puppet Pals. You do podcast watch. Do, do, do, do, do. Hey there, guys. I don't really remember what the Puppet Pals sound like because I haven't been on the air for not two years. Special and lit pinball podcast, Lucas Pepke does the retro roundup. He's the narrator for that and the host. and he came out with the bombshell that he is the one who created Macho Pinball and the Puppet Pals, exclusively on the Pinball Network. I've got to turn him up because I still miss the Puppet Pals. Macho is just lovely. You loved the Puppet Pals. It was probably your favorite show. It was probably your favorite show. It honestly was my favorite thing produced in pinball media ever of all time. But they're on intermission now. I know. Does this ruin it? I don't know if it ruins it. I kind of like the... I mean, it was an interesting idea to do it anonymous. I don't think it has to ruin it. Well, I mean, it doesn't ruin it for me just because I was behind the scenes kind of brainstorming with Lucas. But he let the cat out of the bag. I don't know how to feel about this. Trending mixed. It's about the same way I feel about the loon. Trending down this week is, believe it or not, Spawn House. Why? There's a kit. A 2.0 kit. It's too soon. No, it's not really too soon for the game. Funhaus. There's a lot of games that have still maintained a good value on the secondary market. Funhaus we saw rise up over the last five years, especially during that pandemic. That was such an iconic. It's kind of like a Twilight Zone. Oh, you've seen that pinball machine with that talking dummy? Right. It's Funhaus. Pat Lawler. Extraordinaire. But I was trying to sell a funhouse a couple weeks ago. Woo, it was tough. I had a fully restored one, and it was tough. I looked at it. I thought, is this just my game? No. I looked at the numbers, and they didn't lie. Comps were lower than usual on those as well. I don't know if it's just creeping everybody out. I think maybe the market is being adjusted. These higher-end funhouses are being adjusted because people see this 2.0 as a comparable to a restored funhouse. So they're like, why would I spend that much on a restored Funhaus when I can have a 2.0 that's even more of a game than Funhaus was? So I think the Funhaus 2.0 kit actually may have hurt. This is just more of a hypothesis. I haven't looked into it. It may have hurt the sales of Funhaus in general. It may have. Believe it or not, I wonder if that's going to happen on the next 2.0. We see that it comes out. The game comes out, and you see that influx in sales of said title as we did Funhaus. But then over time, it makes it more or less impressive, and the number's going to come down to balance itself out with that kit. I think there might be something there. And Rudy's creepy as shit, so... Yeah, I won't own a funhouse. I think it's too creepy. Well, you know why I won't own a funhouse again for my collection? I'll never own it for my collection. Because it shoots like shit. There's... it is not a good layout. The shots, they feel very weird, where all of they... You know, it's my same reaction to Judge Dredd. I feel like all the shots aren't where they should be on the flipper. Judge Dredd's tough because I think that's a good shooter. A lot of people do, but some people agree with me. I won't say most, though. I think I might be in the minority on that one. For Funhaus, it's just I feel like he pulled the pops just way too out in the middle, and you just get a lot of mid-playfield clunk. The only shot to your right really is through the pops if you want to try that, or that scoop. That's not really that fun. and then you've got the Wizard of Oz effect when you're shooting at either the mirror or the up. No, no. The one ramp thing. Left side of the play field is fine. Right side, no thanks. Same with Earthshaker. Don't get me on a Pat Lawler thing here. I love that man's designs, but Funhaus does not do it for me. Whirlwind is a superior layout and rules there for that. But Funhaus is trending down. Also trending down this week, A topper? No, that can't be true, Zach. What the hell? Why are you turning down a topper? Well, because one was recently released that we've been waiting for for years. And it wasn't from a manufacturer. It was from the art of pinball. Lior, the handcrafted genius behind some of our favorite mods. Man, he's made some greatness. Then he made this mod. $2,400 for a static skeleton head of Axl Rose with a bunch of RGB strips on it that are tapped into the pot rails. $2,400 for that? Sell, sell, sell! That's a fucking swing and a miss. No thanks. I would have bought that thing for $1,500. He once prototyped a smelt top for the blue smoke. And this is what we get now? No, so it's the lack of smoke that bothers you. It's the lack of smoke that bothers me. It just felt uninspired. Now, if he would have came out with this thing at the crux of this game coming out, okay. We had to wait two years, three years for this? And then $2,400? Not to mention, for some reason, I don't know if this is a controversy, it comes out, boom, people start ordering it, giving them money, and all of a sudden, no longer for sale. off websites. Comments adjusted on Pinside. No longer are we able to sell this. We're going to make some tweaks, modifications. You might see it in the future. Maybe this was an IP thing. You said it's, I haven't looked at it. So it's got Axel on it. Is he using his likeness? It depends on what we're calling likeness. Band-Aid on the head, you know, hair stuff. Does it say guns and roses anywhere on it? It doesn't say guns and roses. But it screams guns and roses. Right, right. But you know how it, you know, you can do things that are... Yes, I don't. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. All I know is it's training down because objectively, not as good as his work in the past, but more money than a lot of his stuff in the past. And I buy all kinds of mods. Leors are probably the highest crafted, some of the highest crafted with medicinal mods. There's some, this upper epsilon. Leors is there. but there are some choices that he does make that are head scratchers to me at times. And almost like you want a creative director in there with him. Like the in-lane and the sling plastics for Toy Story. Oh, craftsmanship is off the charts, but the choices of moldings? No, look bad. And then the price, like $500 for sling plastic? No, this is the only art that he creates that even I'm like, shit, that's too expensive. So unfortunately for right now, I have to train down a topper. And that is the GNR or the faux GNR, close to GNR, art of pinball topper. I want that smalg topper. Smaug. Don't shoot the messenger. Don't buy downloadable crates of veggies to throw at me. I'm just here to report the facts whether they're topper based, market based fifth element based bird based or not it's all real, it's all me and numbers don't lie, on pinball market trends Dennis where can people catch you? they can email me over at eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com that's the easiest way to reach out to me because I check those emails pretty regularly what if they want to support you? they're like damn it I can't get enough I want to find a way to actually, instead of just consuming all of this stuff from Dennis and Eclectic Gamers podcast, is there any way that, I don't know, the least I can do is throw a couple bones, $5 a month financially to help this guy out, $10 a month if I'm a baller. How can they do that? Can they do that? Well, they can't do it here because we don't got nothing. Yet. Yet. So, yeah, there's patreon.com slash eclectic underscore gamers for those that like to listen to that show. Go do that now, people. Press pause on this. We got a big closer, but go do that now. Okay. They went and did it. Welcome back to part two. You can reach me at... It'd be funny if you do that break. Part two is the closer. Making fun of myself. You can reach me at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. Go watch Straight Down the Middle video series. Go watch the VOD on the Pinball Network of the Pinball Awards. That was awesome. Straight Down the Middle, I can guarantee you, you're going to want to follow that as well as flipping out because here in March, we've got the goods coming and you're not going to want to miss it. You're not going to want to miss it. You're not going to want to see the bootleg version from somebody overseas videotaping their thing just to get some YouTube clicks from our content. You're not going to want that. I promise you. Follow us. Like us. Subscribe to us. Flip N Out Pinball wants to support you by you supporting us. That doesn't make any sense. I know. The product showcase this week is Alien, Alien, limited version from Pinball Brothers. And the only reason I made it to the product showcase, not because I still have some in stock, it's because I was waiting to hear that Dennis call-out that I didn't get. You've got to sign up to the Pinball Show Patreon to get those call-outs. We have James Bond, 007 Pro in stock. The Louisville Show, we have pros and premiums, still show specials available. Alien, LV, and SV, still have those. 60th anniversary edition to James Bond. I've got two left without homes. Jurassic Park Home Edition, Star Wars Home Edition. See, the damn Home Editions have been selling too. Woo-hoo. Oktoberfest Deluxe. We've got them. I think I'm getting in some Hot Wheels. If you want to put your name on one of those, let's get you down for one of those. Toy Story 4, Ellie and C, Ultraman new in box. Did you hear last week I sold all my Halloweens? They're gone, Dennis. Yeah, I think I, I don't know. I might have fast-forwarded through the end. They're gone. The Hot Ellie is pre-owned. It's still here. sold all my rest of my pre-owned stuff. I did just, if you follow us on Facebook, did just upload four new freshly arrived pre-owned games, including a little Batman Forever. Yeah, I saw that one. Brush Pro, a Mando LE, and a dialed-in LE that honestly wouldn't mind if it sits for a little bit because I've been having a lot of fun with that. Tony Pepperoni. Cactus Canyon Remake. I don't think we have any SEs. Cole, I might have one extra sitting around here. SE Plus spots. We still have spots open for that. TMNT Pro. Mando. Oh, I've got to get rid of that now. Mando Pro is gone. But Mando Premiums we still have in stock. Rush Pros. Oh, I've got to get rid of that too. Shart. We do have a Rush Pro pre-owned. Star Wars Pro in premium. Getting low on those. Led Zeppelin Pro in premium. Guns and Roses. Queen pre-orders. Insider Connected kits. Get connected, people! Wait until you guys see the next Insider Connected. I've got word on what the next thing is that's coming out for Insider Connected. Oh, shit. PGA, Golden Tees, and Stock Shooter Rods, Armors, Toppers. Oh, banners? Hmm, that's sad. I think of Stern Banners, Dennis. You know what occurs? Don't tell me when. Oh, my God. And brand new to the Flip N Out Pinball Sponsorship Club is Pinball Party. Here on TPN. Yeah. Pinball Party. That's right. Man, Jason figured it out. Flip N Out Pinball is now a proud sponsor of Pinball Party. You thought it couldn't get any better over there. Hell yeah I can When I buy my pinball shit I buy from Flip N Out Pinball From Toppers or Brainserios I've got it figured out Flip N Out Pinball Figured out When I make a pinball I think Flip N Out Pinball Flip N Out Pinball Figured out When I buy buy buy I buy from Flip N Out Pinball Buy buy buy TPN last week was a pinball party Episode 19 With Electric Bat Arcade That was a really enjoyable episode I love that. Love listening to Rachel and Kale. I need to get down to Arizona. Go follow and like them, too. As well as the Triple Drain Pinball Podcast. I know y'all are listening to that. Numbers don't lie. TPN This Week is a final round pinball podcast. Can't wait to hear what they have to say about all the stuff going on right now. I think that's about it. For Dennis Creasel, for Valentine's Day, I'm Zach Manning. And designers, remember, when love is in the air and you're thinking about how many flippers you want to put on your game, I'm pretty flexible I'm pretty accepting I believe in all different types of flippers but just make sure that the configuration works I don't want my ass craving cauliflower it is and always practice safe pinball and for Valentine's Day if there's not a loved one by you you can always love the one you're with oh no no Spotify's gonna cancel us no Bye.