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The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 27 - UK Pinfest Pinfest 25 Special!

The Great British Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 0m·analyzed·Aug 21, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

UK Pinfest special covering collections, Progetti remakes, board issues, and community tournament updates.

Summary

Scott Rundell and Neil McRae host a UK Pinfest 25 special episode covering personal collection updates, venue management, code quality discussions around third-party boards (Pinsound, Rottendog), the Progetti 9 Million Games announcement (Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, Theatre of Magic remakes), and UK Open tournament logistics. The hosts discuss collector sentiment shifts following remake announcements, manufacturing quality issues, and the tight-knit UK pinball community dynamics.

Key Claims

  • Progetti announced 9 million games—remakes of Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and Theatre of Magic

    high confidence · Neil McRae citing Mr. Pinball's post from Australia with visual evidence of the Ringmaster from Cirqus Voltaire

  • UK Open 2025 is oversold at 178 tickets, with 160 sold in first two hours

    high confidence · Neil McRae reporting on UK Open pre-sales and event planning

  • Barrels of Fun is shipping Dune orders to operators first, prioritizing commercial route machines over home collectors

    high confidence · Scott Rundell discussing his Dune shipment delay compared to Pinfest delivery date

  • Dune Pinball code has improved significantly with voice acting (including Harley Quinn actress) and lighting enhancements

    medium confidence · Scott Rundell referencing Dirty Pinball (content creator) demonstrating the game and code improvements

  • Carl D'Anghelo is among the world's top pinball players (top 5 ranking potential) despite reduced tournament participation due to post-COVID health issues

    high confidence · Neil McRae discussing Carl's playing ability and tournament absence

  • Pinsound boards have audio volume potentiometer drift issues in vibration environments, causing unexpected loudness spikes

    medium confidence · Scott Rundell detailing technical issues with Pinsound boards at the club, specifically Judge Dredd volume problems

  • Spike 2 board audio is heavily compressed, degrading sound quality on games like X-Men and Elvis

    medium confidence · Neil McRae discussing audio compression trade-offs on Spike 2 architecture

  • Blackpool Pinball Club opening in October 2025

    high confidence · Neil McRae citing recent club announcement

  • Medieval Madness remake has caused price parity between originals and remakes at ~10k GBP secondary market

Notable Quotes

  • “The baby's still really big, so you should have had this date. Here's your date... and the date is tomorrow.”

    Holly (Scott Rundell's wife, via speakerphone) @ Opening segment — Personal context: Scott's child induction scheduled imminently, adding humor to the episode opening

  • “The code has come a long way. If you ever watch Dirty Pinball on Twitch, he's done a great job demonstrating the product. They've got proper voice actors in as well, they've got the voice actor of Harley Quinn on it.”

    Scott Rundell @ ~10:00 — Assessment of Dune Pinball code improvements and casting decisions by Barrels of Fun

  • “If I was in the pinball business as a seller, I would send my first game to Carl every single time. Carl does an amazing job of playing, but also the presentation of pinball—his stream is beautiful.”

    Neil McRae @ ~20:00 — Praise for Carl D'Anghelo as a content creator and influence on game perception

  • “They run potentiometers on the card and then what I've found is that they can move around in the vibration. That's what it is.”

    Scott Rundell @ ~55:00 — Technical explanation of Pinsound board reliability issues in venue environments

  • “In the world of IT, it's minus one, mate... Minus one everywhere in IT is minus one.”

    Neil McRae @ ~70:00 — Software versioning joke referencing Progetti firmware updates and IT culture

  • “The word limited definitely doesn't mean much in this hobby of ours. I'd be interested to see what they do with Theatre of Magic.”

    Neil McRae @ ~100:00 — Skepticism about 'limited run' marketing language in pinball remake announcements

  • “It's nice, it shoots easy. It's really friendly. It's simple. PapaDude was good at getting that easier to play, hard to master sort of approach to it.”

    Neil McRae @ ~115:00 — Analysis of John Popadiuk's design philosophy balancing accessibility and depth

Entities

Scott RundellpersonNeil McRaepersonBarrels of FuncompanyDavid Van NesspersonDirty PinballpersonCarl D'AnghelopersonDune PinballgameProgetticompanyJanosperson

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Progetti officially announced 9 million games lineup featuring remakes of Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and Theatre of Magic with 'very limited run' production strategy

    high · Mr. Pinball (Australian distributor) posted pre-order availability and design mockups including Ringmaster imagery from Circus Voltaire

  • ?

    product_concern: Pinsound boards exhibit potentiometer drift in venue vibration environments causing unpredictable audio volume spikes; multiple instances documented across club machines

    high · Scott Rundell detailed Judge Dredd audio spike issue mid-tournament; earlier board revisions show sound jump artifacts; Lord of the Rings firmware bug reset entire game

  • ?

    product_concern: Mirko's remix playfield manufacturing has quality control and design documentation issues (missing silk-screen text); history of alleged IP disputes with code modders

    medium · Neil McRae's Twilight Zone prototype playfield missing informative door text; general reputation for taking shortcuts; public confrontation at TPF by Chris Kaneda

  • $

    market_signal: Medieval Madness remake announcement caused price parity between original (~10k GBP) and planned remake in secondary market; Monster Bash less affected; Theatre of Magic remake will command premium due to parts scarcity

    medium · Neil McRae observing equilibrium pricing between original and remake; discussion of juggler/ringmaster unobtainium requiring custom manufacturing

  • ?

    venue_signal: Blackpool Pinball Club new venue opening October 2025; signals market expansion in North England region

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.362

0:00
Welcome to the Great British Pinball Podcast, and here are your hosts, Scott Rundell and Neil McRae.
0:18
Well, yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the one you've been waiting for. Many folks think the exciting thing about this week is UK Pinfest, when actually, Scott, It's the UK Pinfest special Of UK Pinfest Exactly The great pinball I even forgot what we're called The great British pinball podcast Episode 27 We're almost at the age where we're having kids Speaking of having kids Yes Where are we? What's the latest on the pregnancy? Literally just before we started Didn't I say to you I had the wife on speakerphone She's like I just got back from the conversation with the midwife and I said, okay. She goes, she just brings up something mid-conversation. She goes, have they booked your appointment yet for your early inducing? And I'm like, she's like, sorry, what? And she goes, oh yeah, the baby's still really big, so you should have had this date. Here's your date. I'm like, what? And the date is tomorrow. Yeah, that's the part I was worried about, when the date was going to come next, but no, thankfully it's not just yet. But it's definitely earlier than planned. Yeah, so guys, ladies and gentlemen, right, when you're playing pinball this weekend, right? You can't get a replay or a free game because that could induce the knocker.
1:40
And we could have the first ever born at UK Pincess. So beware and all the best to Holly, we love her. So look, yeah, it is the Pincess special. We've got some housekeeping to do. Then we're going to do our usual trawl of what we're excited about and what we're excited about and what we're excited about. Nothing but positivity I want to hear from you today, Neil. You've got to be positive. I'm always positive.
2:13
Just like me. But look, it's been a hell of a week for both of us. What's going on in our worlds. And we're We're looking forward to a weekend of not giving a shit about anything except the lure of the silver ball. And on that, you know, ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, put your trays to upright position, stick your heads between your legs because this is the brace position for the UK Pinfest special. We're really looking forward to Pinfest. It's hard to believe that it's been over a year because last year, Scott, if you remember, Pinfest was a week earlier. Oh, yeah. So I've had all my Facebook memories from it, including an unfortunate incident with a camera and a banana.

medium confidence · Neil McRae discussing collector market reactions to Progetti announcement

  • Keith Elwin is traveling to UK Open September 2025; Carlos Los de la Serna also attending

    high confidence · Neil McRae listing confirmed international competitor attendance

    • “He never... he does do it a lot though doesn't he, takes people's... I remember when I had an issue with my Twilight Zone. He goes, that's by design. I'm like, no, it's not. I've just forgotten to do it.”

    Neil McRae @ ~140:00 — Critical commentary on Mirko (remix/aftermarket manufacturer) and quality control issues

  • “We sold 160 tickets in two hours. So I was super pleased about that. And actually less folk from the US this year. Much more from Europe which I think is good overall for the event.”

    Neil McRae @ ~60:00 — UK Open 2025 demand metrics and geographic shift in tournament participant base

  • “It's interesting. I need to get mine's currently in storage. I need to get it out because whenever I have a family event, Theatre of Magic the game everybody goes to.”

    Neil McRae @ ~110:00 — Validation of Theatre of Magic as family-friendly / casual accessibility game

    • Godzilla
    game
    Keith Elwinperson
    Carlos Los de la Sernaperson
    UK Openevent
    UK Pinfest 25event
    Pinball Maporganization
    Medieval Madnessgame
    Monster Bashgame
    Theatre of Magicgame
    Mirkoperson
    Blackpool Pinball Clubvenue

    high · Official club announcement cited; Neil McRae planning travel logistics

  • ?

    event_signal: UK Open 2025 oversold with 178 tickets (160 sold in 2 hours); geographic shift toward European players rather than transatlantic US competitors

    high · Neil McRae reporting sales velocity and participant origin data; confirmed international attendance (Keith Elwin, Carlos Los de la Serna)

  • ?

    product_strategy: Barrels of Fun prioritizing operator/commercial route shipments over home collector orders; Dune deliveries delayed 1 month for home buyers relative to venue placement

    high · Scott Rundell attempted to coordinate home shipment with Pinfest operator delivery; Barrels of Fun declined optimization

  • ?

    code_update: Dune Pinball received significant code improvements post-launch including professional voice acting (Harley Quinn actress), lighting overhauls, and rule depth enhancements

    high · Scott Rundell citing Dirty Pinball stream demonstrations and visual/audio improvements; acknowledged initial launch was false start

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Popadiuk's design methodology balances 'easier to play, hard to master' accessibility with shot design elegance (Theatre of Magic left ramp orbit); influences collector perception and family venue appeal

    medium · Neil McRae noting Theatre of Magic draws family play at events; discussion of Popadiuk's design legacy across Monster Bash, Medieval Madness, Theatre of Magic

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spike 2 board audio architecture applies heavy compression reducing sound fidelity on modern games (X-Men, Elvis); trade-off for cost/space constraints; community dissatisfaction with audio quality

    medium · Neil McRae describing compression artifacts and comparing original Spike 2 mixes unfavorably; some players migrating to Pinsound replacements despite board reliability issues

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Map community submissions create maintenance burden; venue operators frustrated with simultaneous game removal/re-listing causing stale data; platform acknowledges 'evil citizens' vs. 'good citizens' contribution divide

    medium · Scott Rundell complaining about incorrect venue lineups; Pinball Map team response acknowledging curatorial asymmetry; venue operators manually correcting submissions

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Carl D'Anghelo world-class competitive player (top 5 potential) significantly reduced tournament participation due to post-COVID health complications; missing major events (World Championships, reduced UK attendance)

    medium · Neil McRae discussing Carl's skill level, health struggles, and tournament absence patterns; noting he would rank top 5 if active schedule matched other elite players

    • 3:11
    Put it on a scale. But, yes, it's interesting. So we're going to talk personal collections for a minute, ins and outs, as we always do. Scott we haven't spoken so I'm assuming it's been a quiet time for you ins and outs Labyrinth is gone, Dune is on its way I did try and persuade the Battles of Fun to ship my Dune with the Dune that will be at Pinfest which is a shame it's only going to be a month after, I thought logically it would make sense to ship everybody's Dune's with the orders, but they didn't see it that way, so that's fine. They're prioritizing operators still. Clearly, I need to have a word with David Van Esk when I'm in Pimble Lake. I am very much more excited about Dune. I'll be honest with you, the code has come a long way. I feel like when it first came out, it was... If you ever watch Jeff Dirty Pimble on Twitch, so he's done a great job of demonstrating the product to be honest with you and he's quite honest about the fact that he thinks it was a misstep on their part from launching it, it was a bit of like a false start I think we wondered that right and I think it's clear that they should have weighed. They've got all the assets now and they've got proper voice actors in as well, they've got the voice actor of Harley Quinn on it which she does a really good job of playing and the weird thing is it's like you'd think logically in your head you're like okay what actors are they going to bring in to do the voices from the film but they didn't take that route at all they actually just got actual known voice actors in the industry and said I need you to do these voices based on the context of this theme and they did it and they've delivered it and the lines are good it feels like you're in the world now and the lighting is just something else so I mean I haven't seen what was it, Dirty Pete or Dirty Dave? Dirty Pinball. Dirty Pinball, sorry.
    5:24
    Dirty Pete's a different guy. Dirty Pete's definitely a different guy. Actually, there will be a comment on etiquette later on. But, so I've been watching Carl D'Angelo's play of June. Oh, he's good. Yeah. If there's anybody you want to demonstrate a game and make it look easy, he's the guy to do it. If I was in the pinball business as a seller, I would send my first game to Carl every single time.
    5:58
    Carl does an amazing job of playing, but also the presentation of i.e. pinball, his stream is beautiful.
    6:09
    He's an amazing guy. I love him to bits. He's helped me out on many, many, many things. UK Open and pinball related so if anything else though it gives you a false impression about how easy the game is because he's I think this is the right term isn't it when you complete the game you roll the game is that right? so he rolled it twice and I was like yeah that's nowhere near what anyone else does I mean Kyle is a once in a lifetime sort of player he's very good do you have an understanding on Kong, the difficulty levels are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Cull.
    6:51
    They have a special difficulty level on, it's in Jaws and in Avengers as well, at Godzilla actually,
    7:01
    where they push up the whole hard level because Cull is just such a great player. I've always wondered that. Sorry, say again? Where does he rank? Oh, he's in the top. Well, so Carl used to play a lot more than he currently does in events. He still plays a lot.
    7:29
    And if he played like the other players play, he would be a top 10, probably top 5 player. Wow. He has won some bigger events. But he's He's had a few health issues Coming out of Covid And it's just He just He picks up You know things And he gets unwell a lot So he kind of doesn't travel As much as he used to Which is a good thing I've been trying to get him to come over to the UK Open I'd love for him to come over And some other bigger events Like he wasn't at the World Championships this year He was there last year But last year he wasn't 100% Didn't play great But I wish Carl the best In this world of pinball He's a wonderful guy So You're waiting for June Nothing else moving that's... Well, I'm sure, yeah, you're trying to tap into that scared stiff scenario, aren't you? I know you.
    8:49
    Scared stiff? No, not you. Surely not. For those that aren't aware in the UK versus the US, there's definitely, I would say, a difference of opinion when games come out that are of a higher standard versus those that aren't. I think there's market in the US to easily sell a game that's seen as an excellent condition game, not so much in this country unfortunately, since the people just, if it's covered in rust and it's immaculate they're one and the same, basically so have fun with that I mean, I am, yeah, it's kind of ridiculous, frankly and also, it's you know if something is what it is, then you know there's a knack to you know, craft and certain people will tell me, hey Neil shut up. I'm like, well, why don't you preach your own freaking medicine, mate?
    9:45
    Because it's kind of laughable in my mind. But, Luke, I am have you managed to move it on? At the moment, I had like, it's weird, I've had like some really eclectic offers. Like I had an offer of cash which wasn't actually far off my offering price, asking price I should say. And then Holly was putting her foot down saying absolutely no. and I was like, well, she goes, well, you're already selling it for less than what you bought it at and I was like, yeah, but I'm willing to let it go for this and she was like, no. And then by the time I managed to swing her to change her mind, he'd already bought something else so it was like, well, that's fine. And then the other thing I was offered was a Mercedes G-Wagon.
    10:24
    Which, I'm not even joking, he was proud at me, I was like, oh, okay. I don't really want that and he was like, yeah, you know, you just have to put a bit more cash my way and you can buy it. Yeah, like 30 grand or something. Yeah, and I'm just like, no, you're right. I get the fact that obviously Pimble and Eclectic Car Collections probably have some sort of, like, you know, synergy. Yeah, I mean, G-Wagons have been on fire except until the last three months where the bottom of the market's dropped out of them entirely. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm not a car guy. I'm not going to say that. It didn't really do anything for me. I'm not really a Mercedes car guy, but I was talking to a friend of mine who's a big car nut in the US, And he had two, one for him, one for his wife. Yeah. And his wife, I mean, he didn't want to buy it because he knew that it wouldn't last. His wife hates it and he's trying to get rid of it. And to say that he's taking, he's basically taking a spank on it that would probably pay for half of the pinballs in this room.
    11:27
    He said, not long ago, a G-Wagon you could sell for more than you got it for. now, the market's just falling out the ass of them. It's similar to pinball, isn't it? Let's face it. Yeah. Oh, I was offered as well a Black Knight Sword of Race Premium, which ironically, I think that was my first stern, thinking back on it. That's right, yes. Yeah, and I did miss that game, but I was concerned about selling it on, because I know what would happen. I would get bored of it. The whole idea behind getting rid of the game wasn't to free up money. I'm not... I don't need cash. It's like... It was more like I'm at maximum space. I'm being offered games from people where I'm like, oh, I really could get that. And Holly's like, no.
    12:09
    There's no more space. And I was like, okay, I'll get rid of something. That's the reason as to why. It was just to free up space. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I get shot because pinballs randomly turn up. Yeah.
    12:24
    And I was gunned down. What was the game that gunned me down this week or last week? can't remember some game turned up and I literally got shot to death by my why are you buying another pinball machine you've already got 500's of them you don't need any more I get my family came over on the weekend and they were like they were carrying up all the house and they said you've got 14 in the house plus there's one in my study and she was like why do you need that many trust me when I say it there's people who I'm friends with in the hobby that have way more than I do. Yeah. It is kind of... It's a horrible hobby because you round it all up and you're like, that's a serious amount of money I'm sat on here. Yeah, I mean, I kind of, I remember like some of the other hobbies I've been into, you know, PCs, games. I was into radio-controlled cars. Yeah. Even photography, you know, you're buying a foreground lens, that's peanuts in the pinball world. Yeah, yeah. It's just nuts. So when you buy a C-Gran camera, that's a lot of money for a camera. Yeah, it's only a third of the price of a fucking pinball machine, no? Exactly, exactly. I try not to even bother telling people the price of games anymore. No, I don't get it. They don't get it. It's, you know, maybe one day we'll be shown to be the idiots and they will be the smart people. Yeah. Don't buy pinball.
    13:56
    So, yeah. Oh, we should also, I forget, right? discuss Spike 3 Ah yes, definitely, let's cover that because I think everyone's overly excited about that but yeah, so me I've had a kind of a whirlwind of moving games around, so I swapped in 8 games at the club so you know a couple of Star Trek Next Gen Time Warps, an old game Kong We got a Kong Premium at the club Epic Game What else did I put in? Black Jack Have you sold out your internet there now?
    14:44
    No, I've made Okay, I've opened a can of worms We'll go and skip by that I was just reading an email In the saga of never ending emails About this shit show They're getting close I've kind of just let them roll on with it But it's infuriating What else do we put in We put in Sopranos We put in Elvis Derry Harry It's all on the club If you go to Pinball Map it's up to date It's good that you're keeping it up to date as well Or do people submit it and they're keeping it up to date No I keep it up to date People who submit it drive me mental because we'll take a game out for like a day and they'll update something and then we put the game back in and we have to fix it. I did have a moan at the pinball map guys and said, please stop people changing our freaking lineup.
    15:42
    And they're good guys. They came back to me and I've been a supporter of them. They came back and said, look, you're one of the good citizens that makes plenty of updates, But there are too many evil citizens That don't make any updates People travel like You know, you imagine like right now Evil Dead is not at the club So I took it out Sacrilege Imagine if I didn't take it out of Pinball Map and people came Specifically to play it Because it's the only one in the country You should have brought it to Pinfest I should have brought it to Pinfest I should have brought Kong to Pinfest And I should have brought Many surprises to Pinfest Oh okay Okay Stay tuned is what I'm saying to that Yes But look Yeah so loads of games Actually I feel like I need to file a complaint Because we had a couple of issues with World Cup Soccer Two screws Fell out And I want my money back for your shoddy workmanship. What did I miss? What fell out? I don't know. I think it was something to do with... God, what was it? Oh, it was the lock thing with the magnet. Oh, the mini playfield magnet? Yeah, the mini playfield magnet. But anyway, it wasn't a big deal. It was just kind of... I blame the fact you had the old wood there. That's why. I put a new bracket in with new screws. It probably had a thinner thread. That's probably what it was. Yeah, anyway, The game's playing There is still a weird It was done on a rush, I'm not going to lie There was a great time against me on that one I remember, wasn't it Actually, that was it, wasn't it? It was the bracket and the coil arrived the day before you showed up Yeah, absolutely, mate I mean, look, the play is great now But there is a weird issue with that I'm going to swap that board That driver board, yeah Yeah, it's got, what is it, a Rotten Dog one, is it? It's an Alltech, I think Is it? Well, whoever it is It's definitely another third party You know I think it's working right I've got the original board I need to get off my lazy ass And send it off I often find that's the case I had the same issue with Rotten Dog Board In BSD I had a year on issue with the skill shot You remember like when you launch the ball And it has the three targets Not three targets but three rollovers At the top and where the ball lands You get the skill shot right or something like that. No, it's not that. People go, that's incorrect. You're right, it is because it's when you hit the drop target at the top, it's on a timer and the lights go left to right and whatever one it lands on is what bonus you'll get. For whatever reason on my power driver board for the Rotten Dog, it was providing insufficient voltage to the launch so what would happen is the ball would fall short and drop into the rollovers rather than hit the drop target. As soon as I switched out to an original Power driver board, bang Every time I mean I've used Rotten Dog CPU cards On the MQ boards It was fine For the CPU cards It's easier when it's like the smaller parts Like Pinsound do the DMD Lux That's good And even Pinsound's own Pinsound boards Are fine, not everybody likes them I know, but I like them But I think the power driver boards I try and stay clear of anything off the market if I'm honest with you Pinsound if it was up to me every Pinsound board I would have my big yellow glove on and I would click them out of fucking existence how come you don't like them I never understood that they're just buggy as hell they can be buggy I'm not going to lie so we have a lot at one point we had a lot of them in the club Mike Kindler put them all in his games there's a couple other ones And we've still got a couple And like last week we had a tournament We turned Judge Dredd on And it's Judge Your eardrums have blown up because it's so loud Oh because the volume What do you call it Balance has gone up I've had that No one touched it Yeah it does that And I went to the audio We're in the middle of a game I just had to turn the audio off You know what it is though They run potentiometers on the card and then what I've found is that they can move around in the vibration. That's what it is. Anyway, the only issue I've ever had that was a real bug on mine was Lord of the Rings. I remember because Cole got to destroy the ring. Yeah. And I'm crap. I couldn't. When I put the board in, I hadn't tested it because I never got that far. Yeah. And he destroyed the ring during Pinfest when it was at the show and the game reset. Oh, wow. I logged a ticket, and then they went, oh, yeah, it's a firmware bug. And then I updated the firmware, and then it stopped the program. On Pinsound? Yeah. It reset the whole game? It reset the game. Wow.
    20:52
    That's the only major issue I've ever hit. But otherwise, no. It's the earlier board revisions, I think, where you've had that issue with the sound jumps. I've definitely had that. Yeah, I think the one that stands is easy to judge. But I've seen it on, like, we had a Twilight Zone with her. We've got Batman with it I mean I had One in my Theatre Magic for a while And I ended up backing it out because When I don't get improved The sound, I wanted the original sounds And it doesn't do a lot for the original sounds I think Pinside You're supposed to remix it into stereo but I know you're saying Yeah, sorry Pinside Comes into its own You know when you've got, there's a couple of games like Doctor Who where they've done a really amazing Mix for it But on normal Sight games I'm like no I want original sound I get that I mean some people rave on about the The Spike 2 Board that they brought out They say it's great but unfortunately The problem with the Spike 2 boards Isn't the board it's the fact that the audio Coming out of Spike 2 Sounds like it was mixed by someone Who'd had his head shot It's just It's not the mix, the mix is fine It's just they're so short of space They compress the hell out of everything And if you're A weird geek like me You can hear it and it boils my blood Basically, it's even worse on Sam Like if you listen to X-Men The original X-Men, Sam's audio And even actually Elvis I can see why People swapped to Pinsound for those sort of games Because coming out of the Original game it's awful Yeah, so lots of swaps New games, I say Kong, it's amazing Actually, our good friend Gonzo Did a He took a Mando from you as well, didn't he? Yeah, he came around So you can't even give it away, or can you?
    22:46
    He came around And we did a Quick video of Kong Yeah, actually he's going to come back And do more of a video of the room Which we've been trying to organise for ages And then he was bringing So the Kong that we've put in the club was the one that I let them use it To do the comparison video that he's done On it, Pro vs Premium, which actually Is quite a useful video, he's done a couple of them Quite good And he brought it around here And he actually dropped it off to my My lock-up My D3's, Tony And He was talking about a game I said, well mate, if you ever want to borrow a game, just let me know So they're all sitting in And he said, oh, Mendo. I was like, yeah, okay. So we just loaded his van and off he went. He's loving it. So he'll be at Pinterest and looking forward to catching up with him. But, yeah, his, you know, the Kong video. The thing that the Kong video did here is I think the one thing he, and I should have pointed it out to him, this room is actually quite dark.
    24:01
    and when you're doing videos here, you know, it takes a bit of time to get the light right. So at the moment I've got this freaking floodlight. You can see it in my glasses, the round thing. The halo, yeah. Yeah, to make me slightly less Herman Munster-like.
    24:21
    And you just need a lot of light, so probably the video looks a bit dark. but yeah it was good to have him around and good to catch up with him at Pinterest I think he missed was it last year he missed I can't remember but he missed one of the years because he was I think his he was on holiday and he had transport issues getting back it might have been because of last year because let's face it he had moved the dates around yes I have a feeling it might be related to the bank holiday actually a lot of people well actually yeah let's come to that later on Let's just finish off on, yeah, I mean, on kind of what's going on locally.
    25:01
    I was at Pinbarg. It was awesome. Really great event. Those guys just know how to put on an amazing event. Saw a lot of folks on the scene.
    25:12
    UK Open is sold out. In fact, it's oversold. I've sold more tickets than I normally would sell. We're at 178.
    25:22
    That's about right. This time last year we were struggling to sell tickets And I was very nervous about it Going into this year because of that I mean we sold 160 tickets in two hours So I was Super pleased about that And actually less folk from the US this year Much more from Europe which I think is good Overall for the event because Coming from the US is a big investment You know we still got A good few players coming from the US Keith Elwin, Carlos Los de la Serna, and a few others that are coming over. So I'm looking forward to a good event in September.
    26:03
    Actually, if you're out there listening and you haven't already volunteered, we're all looking for volunteers, particularly on set-up and teardown days, so Thursday and the Monday.
    26:14
    And the club goes from strength to strength. We've had a good month. Actually, I thought it was going to be an awful month because the previous month wasn't great. But August so far has been excellent We've definitely seen a pick up Which is great to see And I noticed Sam at Chief Coffee Posted that he's bought a couple of new games He's bucking the trend right It's good His play seems to be doing well And given that we've kind of lost a few venues recently It's great to see Last thing Blackpool Pinball Club I think they posted yesterday It's going to open in October So A winter ship to Blackpool Might be in order And I understand it's grim up north So We'll need to figure that one out Yeah So what else What else going on in the news Let's start with You just mentioned this to me Predretti Yes Apparently have announced 9 million games Wow Basically the latest post came from Is it Mr. Pinball in Australia, who's a disney? Yeah. He obviously has a great relationship selling, let's say, Bally remakes and stuff like that. What was Mr. Bally remake at one point, I think? He was, wasn't he? So, yeah, he's obviously got first dibs, I think, one on this bit of news and two on the fact that he's more willing to say, hey, pre-orders are open now. He said there was a free John Papadude games, and they were going to be on a magic theme. So I suspect it will probably be Either Totan or Theatre of Magic First and then He also showed in his post a picture of the Ringmaster from Circus Voltaire So I suspect it might be all those three titles Yeah I think you're right I think those are the titles To go for basically They're the desirable ones right Yeah I mean when you said I was By almost default automatic I kind of pinged, I kind of said to you, oh, I'll need to buy a Tom. Because just by default, I had the originals, but I agree. Just because, well, from a CGC perspective, they've been great. And actually, you know, Funhaus, we borrowed Funhaus from Philip Pimbleheaven, which actually I'm not a Funhaus fan as a game, but I actually really enjoyed playing it. We were at the club for a bit and then we were at the UK Open and it was bulletproof. It worked.
    28:50
    It worked well. Actually, fair play to Progetti, the guys writing the code, who are the old, I think, was it Team Pinball? I can't remember the name of them. They were the remnants of Highway. Oh, are they? Okay. Is it Anos? Panos? Anos? I can't remember the guy's name, which is embarrassing. I've got Andrea Prozetti on my Facebook. Yeah, no, that's Janos. That's what it is. It's Janos. He actually came over and gave the game a once-over, which I was really, really happy to see.
    29:28
    There was one bug we hit, which turned out was fixing a new bit of code, but at the time we decided not to upgrade the code because we played it and it was working fine. Right. But we did hit a bug, but you said, no, it's fixed. That bug we hit was fixed in the next version, but it wasn't a critical bug, but he said, no, you've got to update for it. So, you know, in the world of IT, mate, I don't know if you know this, but in the world of IT, it's minus one, mate. Yeah, and minus one. Minus one. Everywhere in IT is minus one.
    30:03
    That did make me laugh But yeah so well look fans of Papa Duke Are happy Fans who own the current Papa Duke games Are probably slitting their wrists right now I don't know I mean like I don't think Monster Bash got affected too much by The announcement of the remake right No it definitely did At least for a while I mean Medieval Madness definitely got affected But actually an interesting thing's happened whereby what I see in the market is people want a Medieval Madness and it's 8 grand for or whether, actually let's say it's not 8 grand because it's not, it's 10 let's say it's 10 grand for original one or 10 grand for a remake so it's kind of equalised out yeah, that's why I've seen a bit of price parity between... I think the same is true for Monster Bash, although I have seen... The interesting thing they did say, and I think they've done this to try and protect probably existing collectors, they said it would be a very limited run. Now, I don't know what that means in Pinball World. That could mean 500, that could mean 1,000, let's face it. But, if it's like 300... It could be 850. Yeah, exactly. The word limited definitely doesn't mean much in this hobby of ours.
    31:27
    I'd be interested to see what they do with Fear of Magic, Because it's like, if it's a code update, that'd be quite interesting, right? Because let's face it, Fear of Magic is just hit the trunk, hit the trunk again. Here's a new mode, hit the trunk. Here's the wizard mode, hit the trunk. It is very repetitive in that respect. I love the game. I think it shoots as one of the best games ever. I love that left shot orbit that goes up the ramp and across. It's probably one of the longest shots in Bimble, right? It's massive. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I need to get, mine's currently in storage. I need to get it out Because whenever I have a family event Terra Magic's the game Everybody goes to It's nice, it shoots easy It's really friendly It's simple PapaDude was good at getting that You know Easier to play, hard to master Sort of approach to it But yeah I love the game So Terra would be hard I think, bit of materials wise Because that's going to carry a bit of a premium Because of the screen and everything And also there's still a lot of parts For it that aren't made So The juggler The juggler, the clown, the thing that pops up and down The ringmaster The ringmaster, that's it There's a lot of his parts that are Unobtainium, so they're going to have to get Them made And that will definitely put a premium On it And what was the third game? So, Totan yeah I pity the fools that buy that But It always makes me laugh because games I desire You absolutely hate we are so on the opposite It is quite funny sometimes Totan is Total I know they say the code is dire right It's ok I mean And then that Bozo Mirko tried to remake Totan and failed He had a 2.0 kit didn't he Well I don't know the full story but Someone played it to me that he ripped some guy off who'd done his own recoding of it. All right.
    33:31
    Well, something happened where there was drama, let's say, right? Him and drama? Who would have thought? I don't know who would have thought. I remember, though, TPF, Kaneda, he's such an asshole. Oh, yes, he called him out in the show, didn't he? He called him out. It was great. He was at TPF, and Chris was sitting in front of me. I love Chris. I mean, it's Canada, he's a freaking idiot, but I like him.
    34:01
    And he went after him. And it was kind of funny because Chris was talking, and I think Merck was German. Yes. And I don't think what he was saying translated at all. So it was almost like Spanish waiter, can I have a large beer? You know, you say, a large beer, you know. I couldn't stop laughing at this Because it was immediately It was immediately a complete farce I was just waiting for What's he say Some Fawlty Towers to swing in It was just an absolute farce But And the whole thing Descended into a bit of a farce But frankly Mirko deserved it He never He does do it a lot though doesn't he takes people's... I remember when I had an issue with my Twilight Zone, so I bought the prototype run that he does where it's the free magnet version. Do you see what I'm saying? When they used to do that, they call it the prototype playfield. And it has an issue where it's supposed to say some text along the top of the doors where it says piano lights when lit or something like that. Informative text that sits on the front of the door at the top. That is absent on his print. It's just not there. And when I raised it with him, he goes, that's by design. I'm like, no, it's not. I've just forgotten to do it, and you've got to go on to fix it. He did a scan of nine ball play field, and it was awful. I mean, literally, I could have taken a photo drunk with my iPhone, and it would have turned out better. And actually, fair play, Pin Monk, Vic had a bit of a dig at him. And he actually and he improved it but it's still not 100% and I don't get it right if you, I mean he must have spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds building the solution to do these playfields and then to cheap out on the last colours or the text or whatever it is it's an error, yeah why? I don't know, it can't be that hard man, you just have to open up in whatever he's got AI Illustrator, Photoshop, whatever he's doing it in to edit the graphics and the texting. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Nonetheless, it's his business. I mean, I kind of buy play-throughs. Has he got back to doing JGPs now? What's Harry Potter's play-through from? Harry Potter is Miracle.
    36:34
    He's making money anyway. I will never buy it. Based on the fact that it's a Miracle? Yeah, 100%. I mean, that was the big issue with my GNR my GNR wasn't just little bits of clear coat that came off, big chunks of it came off, it was absolutely awful and I was like and then Jack's like well and then actually I challenged Jack at Phil's thing about Mirko and Jack's response was better the devil you know and I was like wow say that again I genuinely thought did he really say that so I allegedly by the way. I know you're saying that, but until it's proven otherwise, it's allegedly. Just being your legal speaker. Well, allegedly or not, that's what he said. And if he wants to sue me, I'll happily send him my address.
    37:33
    Because my lawyer would love it. But anyway, I get where Jack's coming from on that to some extent, because One thing I've learned in the last two years About pinball Is the hardest part of pinball is the playfield Manufacturing playfields Is super hard Wasn't there some rumour around There was an issue with Some playfields were warping the Dungeons and Dragons And they'd reduce the amount of ply On the wood And that's what was causing them to warp I don't know about I haven't heard that about Dungeons and Dragons But I know in the past CERN have had warping issues my Avengers had a problem it doesn't surprise me you know because if you get variances in the wood supply even down to the thickness as the layers apply and it could be one day your supply just goes well that worked for this guy so it's going to work for you but then you put a little bit of materials on and the weight starts shifting it well this is it how do you measure wood quality and actually It's difficult I bet It's impossible Actually the way they measure it Is how hard it is So Doug Dubai at CGC Actually gave a really good discussion on this During the tour that we had A couple of years ago And basically what he said is The reason that playfields are There's two reasons why playfields are having so many issues Recently The first is not being able to use solvent-based clear coats. Well, actually, you can still use them, but the kind of factory setup you need to use... No restrictions in place. Yeah, exactly. It's just super difficult and it's expensive. The second is, this isn't... By the way, if you look at your car and you wonder why the paintwork looks like orange peel, it's the same issue. They don't use solvents in the clear coat for cars anymore. And then the second issue is the wood's got soft. So they used exclusively, and they've been making playfields for longer than most of us have been playing pinball.
    39:45
    They are basically using Russian birch. And basically the big issue with it is the age of the wood. So back, you know, 20 years ago, you'd get very old wood. It was super hard. And, you know, when the ball hit, there wasn't a mark. the wood that's available today and again this is related to the price of materials, the price of timber the wood that you can buy today for more money than the old wood cost is much softer and that's why the appearance of dimples initially looks more brutal than it did in the past so you know it's really Doug spends most when he's working on buying parts, the thing he told me was I spent more time trying to find mature wood.
    40:39
    Good quality product, yeah. Yeah, well, it's not the quality, it's just that if you want... I had the same sort of thing, I think I had it with you, I told you this, when you got me the screw posts, so I say that, I think that's the right term, like the wood screw posts, the ones where they've got, on one end, rather than being a machine end, they've got a standard, like, number six screw on the thread. I had one of those literally snap as I was turning it on the playfield and that's probably because they're using parts from China we're using the steel which is obviously a lesser quality and then it's going to snap easier and I feel like I put the old playfield well if you put the old part that you had from your original game on, it went in absolutely fine I'm telling you there's a strength difference between the new ones and old ones I agree, but I mean, so a lot of people say, oh, this is Chinese junk, right? Actually, here's what it is. It's the guy who's, whoever asked China to manufacture it, asked them to manufacture it at a price. Right. And that means it's weaker. Yeah. And it's, so, you know, China makes these things.
    41:50
    They are not low-quality items, right? As you say, it sounds, but it doesn't, What I'm trying to get at here is regardless of where it's come from, is that it's the material. Absolutely, they have. And because the price of everything is 10 times what it was in the 80s. I mean, that's the stark reality of it. And, you know, and getting more expensive with tariffs and all sorts of other shenanigans that are going on. It's unfortunate, but it is the way it is. Okay, let's move on. More news.
    42:26
    Predator. I was going to say, speaking of tariffs Yes The ongoing shitshow saga Of Predator Get to the shitshow I don't know what to say About this, but All I can say, Neil, is you need to buy now There's only 150 left No, I am 149 now 149 By the end of next month's podcast, there'll be 148.
    42:59
    I am... I don't know what to say about this. First of all, you know what makes me cry? There was a moment, I don't know, I think it was a day long, Scott, where Predator was perfect. It was definitely looking exciting. Yeah, absolutely. I was thinking, have Pinball Brothers finally pulled it off? Yeah, they put that lightning in the bowl. We had this whole pre-hype Bullshit. Terrible. Then we had the game came out and the code release and then we had the leaked video. Yes. And for those listening, I was doing the inverted commas sarcastic action. The leaked video. It was leaked for a week with Arnie and everyone else on it making it look like this game had all the assets and was going to blow the doors off the world and everyone was like wow this is amazing in fact Scott you were suckered in I was I was excited I'm a massive like 80s like adrenaline pumping action movie kind of guy I love all of that stuff like I loved all the Arnold stuff like Total Recall, Terminator you name it it's like I love it right and then you watch that and you think okay they say they haven't got all of his assets I think they kind of, in their defence, did say oh we haven't really got full sign off on Arnie but he will appear in it and it has got him in the shot so you think okay well they've probably got his voice then but they haven't got him doing new lines so you think well okay it's probably not a far stretch from what they were doing that would be fine it's like Pulp Fiction, there's no new cause in Pulp Fiction they've just used the lines from the movie it can be done but to say that You know, that video being out there and people seeing it and thinking, oh, I'm going to get one of these on a non-refundable deposit,
    45:01
    that to me was like, oh. And I honestly never, ever believed that they had Arnie. No, I should have either, to be honest with you. I think they built some goodwill when they got Sigourney Weaver in the code on AEL, and I thought, okay, look, they're doing a really good relationship with Disney. With Fox and Disney, yeah. Yeah, and I thought, okay, they've obviously done something here that in the past wasn't possible, but they've proved themselves as aliens, they've kind of built some bridges, and they've managed to swing something that people didn't think would be possible. So I was like, do you know what? If it's got him in it, that's enough for me to buy it. Yeah. I mean, this will make people have a heart attack. I was super close to buying it because I am a massive Arnie fan. Yeah. I'm a massive Predator fan and for one moment the cube was gleaming you know I was like this is awesome they finally not fucked up and then reality came and it quite quickly went from the gleaming cube to the gleaming or the not so gleaming pile of shit and it's depressing because it's depressing because now there won't be another Predator pinball machine with the full assets that's what I'm upset about I mean what's going to end up happening is someone's going to get the code and hack it illegal stolen copyright theft like you know like we have in Jurassic Park the movie clips etc that is what I predict will happen and you know I just I can't help but think I think what I'm confused about is going back on their latest announcement where they say they've sold out other than 150 and the original number and again they've been dancing around this number I swear they did say they were making about 800 it was on a podcast somewhere. It was on a podcast that they were making 850 of them. That's it.
    47:19
    And now it says that they're going to finish production by the end of the year and there's only 150 left to buy. Yeah, and everyone's supposed to believe that they've sold. There's no way they've made that 850 games in six months. I mean, like, even when Barrels of Fun are running at full pelt, they're not. Takes them a year to make a thousand games. Yeah. And it's not, I mean, and even as long to sell them. I mean, they haven't sold out of Labyrinth. I think they have like about 30, 40 left Yeah, well I don't I mean, don't be wrong, I think Predator's a better IP than Labyrinth Absolutely But, you know, I kind of feel like on this they've shot themselves so much in the foot, they've got no tools left, I mean I'm trying to understand how this works with the disties in the US as well, because they've now said you can buy the game from PB USA sales direct with the all-inclusive tariff price. So what happens to the disties that have signed up for games and now have to, what, pay for the import fee from when they get their, you know, five games or eight games or whatever they want? I mean, my assumption is they've been shafted, mate.
    48:32
    I mean, I don't know. I kind of feel for the distributors that have put up with a lot of shit from Pinball Brothers and Highway and the whole Alien through to now saga you know and you know they've stuck by them and it feels like the rug to be fair to Pinball Brothers they didn't bring the tariffs in they're a victim of political circumstances but look when they announced Predator the tariffs were in the news this wasn't so the news It was really a rumbling issue. Exactly. So I kind of, you know, this was the whole thing. I mean, just the whole timeline of this just makes me cry with missed opportunity, mate. That's what makes me upset. It doesn't help as well, is it? They've been in the posts recently over quality of their products, like Queen. Yeah, so I was going to mention that. There's this post on Pinside about two queens that have rusted badly. And actually, I think the reason for it might, there's some guys posted what might be the reason for it, which is. Did you ever see it? No, he thinks it might be an antidote where it might be in a pub where the carpet's wet from alcohol being spilled. Right. And effectively, that generates a charge. So it's like a, what's the word?
    50:11
    What do they call it when they coat with zinc? Oxidizing? No. Well, the end is oxidized, but it's something to do with anodizing. Right.
    50:26
    I think they've been unanodized. I'm not an expert on this, so please feel free to correct me, Wald. but effectively they've done a kind of reverse electrolysis and taken the zinc off of it which then allows it to rust that is my kind of even I've had a bit of rust, it seems another person on their post, they said oh I've had rust on the ramp on the alien, I've had that I treated it, as long as you're on top of it stops it from being a problem I've seen it on things like coin box or coin boxes, you know, the lid. I've never seen it on anything else, really.
    51:08
    I've never seen it to that extent, because, I mean, for those that aren't aware, it was everywhere. All the mechs were wrecked. Everything was, like, it had been at a seaside resort and let these... Yeah. I think it's called Galvanic, which is, it needs a new anode. So low-level voltage is getting set up. This was posted by Phil Lee on the forum on Pinside, saying that it drives a low-level voltage up the leg, and effectively the metals end up oxidizing. So is that then accurate to say that it could happen to just that game, or is it happening to any game then? Well, I would have thought this guy would have posted more about other games, but it seems that these two are definitely susceptible. These are two queens by Pimble Brothers But the great thing that came out of this fiasco Or this disaster Was many people rewording queen songs To include Rust Right I'm going to give you a moment of this Okay Is this the real steel Or just some fairy tea Don't sing.
    52:28
    No escape from the rust I see. Open the glass. Look up at the place you didn't see. It's just a pinball. I need some sympathy. Cause it's flaked paint. Anyway, you can go see it. Yeah, please stop. You can save it for karaoke. There's one thing I am going to do.
    52:50
    So you think you can patch me and make me look fine. And then there's another bit which is Where is it Easy come Easy go Will you send it down No we will not send it down Send it down So there's a whole lot of Queen songs Being adjusted You could likely put it through AI as well It would be quite funny So I did one of them and it's through AI Gilly's job There's a few that weren't. Another one, Rust to Dust.
    53:28
    We are the Rust Buckets, my friend. That one made me laugh. And basically, there's just a friend, and that's what I love about Pinside. The absolutely epic post is from Matt Elder, who runs the Alvin G Museum in Muscatine, Indianapolis, posts, this thread has probably provided more entertainment than the game has. Rough.
    54:04
    Rough. And that made me laugh. Anyway, so, yes, so not great, but I mean, I don't think it's Pinball Brothers' fault necessarily that what's happened there. Yeah, it does sound like it might be a victim of circumstance, right? That it's just in the environment. Two of them, basically.
    54:22
    Anyway, it's... All I can say is don't buy a game from there. The thread's called Queen After Two Years. Go check it out. It's one of the classic Pinside threads, the reason I love Pinside great job to Robin and all the mods there that run it did you ever watch that post about CPR with the guy who got a oh yes I mean my god when you I've been in 3 or 4 what I call Pinside moments where you're so happy to be part of what's going on because it's just legendary The funny part is when I read that post And for those that don't know Basically in a really nutshell kind of format This guy complained about A Adams family playfield that he got From CPR, asked for a refund They said no The true story was he bought a second So a known faulty playfield From CPR Had it for donkey's years We're talking like 5-6 years Then decided to complain about it They said well no there's nothing we can do about it and didn't bother to tell people the truth until the truth really got out and then he ended up looking like a fool. I'm not going to defend CPI entirely after experiencing the newest World Cup soccer, which was abysmal in terms of its clear coat. It was the equivalent of a five-year-old making a cake. They were just slapping clear coat everywhere. It was just like, look at it, it's the icing. The other thing is their clear coat is pretty decent. So you kind of need a diamond. And, I mean, I think there's, in your back garden. One of my bits went blunt after trying to get your tech down to a little bit of satisfactory. You had a funeral for the drill as well. Oh, yeah, my drill died. You're right, it did die. Drilling it. So, you know, it's clearly made of... The brushless mowers were no longer brushless. Yeah, the spokes coming out of the brush. Moving on. So, Luke. Yeah, Predator, Luke. I mean I said this on the podcast before I kind of wish Pinball Brothers would stop making games because ABBA Queen and now this you know what's awful about this is no one's played the game yet Scott I know that's what I mean, how can you turn around and tell people there's like 150 left to buy and there's not a single video of someone playing it other than them. I was almost going to email Daniel and say, hey Daniel, let me fly over to Sweden. I'll come and see you. I'll bring my streaming rig. And we'll do a proper... I'll tell you what is a sin as well, and it's for those unfortunately looking maybe potentially forward to having it at Pinfest. Unfortunately, it won't arrive at Pinfest because they haven't got the game ready.
    57:22
    It's so frustrating. David at Venture Arcade was trying his hardest to get that game here in time. He managed to get Dune. They didn't manage to get Predator. I actually wonder if it'll even be ready for Expo. I kind of wonder. You have to wonder, right? With tariffs, with just Doomsday, and I could just, I don't know. Speaking of Doomsday, should we move on to American Pinball? Yes. Well, we go from bad to worse. Cuphead cancelled. There's a rumour bouncing around. I don't think it's been officially The thing is it was never officially announced anyway so there's no official denounce It's kind of like it's been de-rumoured Nothing to see here, this is not the pinball machine you're looking for And they've cancelled the trademark on their name? Well, actually no Oh no, you're right it was something along the lines of the person who had Hold control of the trademark renewal Didn't get left the business The mail buying system I've actually had that on a business of mine It happens And look They're still pushing their games In fact there's a holiday special This weekend I don't know if that applies here in the UK But there's some bargains to be had I mean Hot Wheels is a pretty fun game I like it You can pick up for 5,000 US It's insane You know that's mad money If I was in the US I'd definitely buy one In fact I am tempted To try and pick one up and ship it over I'm still tempted to get a Galactic Tank Force But Holly won't let me She was like this company's dead But it looks good I've played it I think it's a great game I think Norman always does good games Actually there'll be One at Pinfest Although I'm slightly nervous as to how well it'll play.
    59:26
    Oh, under duress? No, well, no, because, well, partly, but also where, you know, the origin of it might mean it's not as in tip-top shape as we would hope.
    59:39
    So, yeah, so the Cup, I don't know, I mean, American Pinball just... I have a feeling about it that, actually, everyone's fine, but they're just not communicating. They're trying to get, you know, American people, version 3, up and running. They want to close off version 2. You know, we had version 1, which ended it, I guess, with Hot Wheels. Yeah. We've had version 2 with David Fix. Yeah. We've now got version 3 coming. And I think this is ultimately the final version Well I hoping this I hoping this Maybe it not true I mean everyone always says their build quality cannot be forward I mean, that's the thing, right? I mean, I went to their factory. I played Barrios, the prototype of it. It shot really well. I was excited about it. I still went out thinking it's not going to be about barbecue. That's just a code name. Yeah.
    60:39
    I think that's the thing. They need somebody at the helm. that goes, this license, this theme, go. And that's it. It just needs the right license, the right choice of theme. I know they've kind of been the purveyors or pushers of original titles, right? Because they had Oktoberfest, Houdini,
    60:59
    I can't remember, no, Hot Wheels is licensed, Galactic Tank Force, and I just thought, my legs are just, shut up.
    61:09
    They're basically, she even knows I don't know how to help you I think the thing right no one knows how to help American people I feel like for me they need to get a license that speaks to everybody that isn't too expensive that isn't going to break the bank comes in at the right number to make people go this is the game to buy and then hopefully they can come back from this my worry is that their credibility is just going down that is exactly the bit I was going to focus on even if they come out with a monster pin tomorrow, who's buying it? Who's going to risk it?
    61:42
    It's a big risk. And actually I feel Ryan, the guy that works at American Pinball, he did the Sonic the Hedgehog homebrew, gets his dream job being a pinball designer at American Pinball, just as the wheels fall off of it. And I feel really bad for him.
    62:03
    He's done the design for Cuphead. If it really has been canned, I really feel for the guy because it's like part of his life. He's probably spent a year working on that. Or more. Yeah, probably more. Just for then to not materialise. So one, I hope the rumour's wrong. Two, American Pinball, get your shit back together quickly otherwise you're going to wake... You're in a decent business. You're going to wake up with no business.
    62:32
    It's not good for the industry. It's not good for the We got the Pimble Brothers in Doomsday. We got American Pimble not exactly firing all thrusters.
    62:48
    It's not good to have that in the industry. And Pimble is very... UPX have got their own issues, right? Yeah, UPX have got their own issues. Having a bunch of challenges.
    62:59
    And Pimble is definitely... The tide rises and sinks. So if some people are having a bad day, It affects all of them People say that's not the case But it 100% is And I really hope that all of them come good Because again I've seen the potential of what they can do Gladiator Tank Force was awesome Predator For that moment Cube was gleaming And they're not far away from it That's what infuriates me I would have just gone Because apparently they're going to lose their license by the end of the year right? So that's what I think they've probably had some choice to say, you have this much money left, with the money that you've spent, this gives you this opportunity to make this many units. They probably then thought, okay, we can renew the license as long as we sell 500 units. But who in their right mind agrees to something like that? And then the right mind says, we're going to do Predator without Arnie. It's just like, no. And look, you wonder,
    64:02
    I reflect on John Wick as it's right in front of me. You know, Stern, the whole guns on the cabinet thing,
    64:11
    I genuinely believe, having spoke to George about this, that had Stern known about this limitation, they would never have done it. They'd never have pulled the last... By the time this happened, I think they were like six or seven months into the design effort. and you know that's probably two million bucks of investment at least because it's not just the money they spend it's the money that they need to spend to do something different Lionsgate right? Lionsgate yeah because they did it in June as well and they had delays let's face it getting the assets done and approved maybe they're a bit difficult to work with well I don't think so I think they were just genuinely surprised that they couldn't do it. I mean, actually, my John Wick does have a gun on it, because I've got a WizMod panel on it, where he's got a gun holding it, and actually it makes all the difference.
    65:14
    So if you do want guns on it, go... So you're saying with Predator, what they need to do is stick an Arnold sticker on him, and then he's good to go?
    65:23
    And also fire the guy that they've got pretending to be Chewbacca, that would help as well. Oh, God, that personally is terrible, honestly.
    65:32
    Right, moving on. So let's cover Stern for a minute. So let's quickly deal with Keith Elwood leaving Stern. I don't believe it. I think it's utter bullshit. I think Keith is an amazing guy. I got huge time from him. And You know I think Everyone I think of You know football players When they go Manchester United they win 10 European Cup medals Then they go to another club And don't win anything It's more than Just about one person Clearly Keith is an exceptional Designer Well the rumor wasn't just Keith leaving though wasn't it It was Keith and his team. Yeah, but realistically, you know. I still don't think it would happen because for that to happen, I imagine would mean relocation for them. They probably wouldn't be able to work remotely, let's face it. And then on top of that, I think they've got a good thing going at Stern. Jersey Jacks just ran the corner from Stern. Oh, I see. Okay, my bad. No, there's no issue with relocation or anything like that. I just, you know, Stern, George and Gary and the rest of the team, they've created an environment at Stern that generates great games. And, you know, and they've got strong leadership. George in particular provides strong leadership. At JGP that just doesn't exist. Now, I don't think Keith needs a lot of management or leadership. I think he's already doing that And I think Jack Danger moving away from doing Pinball development is because He doesn't want to manage a team I'm 99% convinced that's what it's about He looks very drained A lot of the time He looked knackered About a month ago I pinged him And said hey Jack I hope you're ok mate You know So I went as you know And podcast listeners know I got a preview of X-Men And I was blown away by it And then you know The challenges where the game came in And I still say Mine here plays Perfect the one we've got in the club Plays perfect So you know And I think Jack just took that He's a heart and ears Yeah he takes it It's great that he's going to be doing what he's doing But you know I think if Keith said to me, hey, Neil, what should I do, right? Not that he would and not that he needs to because I think he's a very intelligent guy.
    68:29
    But obviously, well, Keith, why don't you play both sides of the coin? Why don't you set up Keith Elwin Pinball Designs? Elance, right. Elance and sell designs to the highest bidder. Could do. So if this whole thing's about money, right, and, you know, people say, oh, money, money, money, right? Don't get me wrong. We love money. It buys pinball machines, cars, cigars, and that can go to Las Vegas.
    68:57
    So, look, you know, but if it's about money, going to JGP isn't a guarantee of exceedingly rich futures. and also you're going to, you know, I suppose you did turn up at JGP and they're paying them twice what everyone else is getting paid that causes an issue as well, you know, it's just not, you can't take it in isolation so anyway I think it's BS and I don't think he'll go to JGP next, so he might leave soon, one day I'm sure he will, but I do think that if I was him I would go hey, why don't we go and set up our own Our own little boutique And they can sell Designs to American Pinball To whoever he wants really Stern To Pinball Brothers You know But I think there's something Very special about the set up At Stern With Keith's team that I think They'd be crazy to upset that I think you've probably got to your point in life the same thing as me, it's not always about the money it's about the satisfaction environment, it's being able to do what you want to do etc etc, so let's move on so Stern's next game is Star Wars the Death Star eats the ball I've said this on the podcast for a long time it sounds like to me that it's just the remake of the 1992 Data Reist it's not it's definitely not And I think everyone's going to be Plentifully surprised by how good This game is going to be It might be the Star Wars game That I buy and have at home Finally So excited about that And you know as I said Here on the Great British Pinball Podcast For months We've been saying it's episodes 4 and 6 And we've been saying that the best star eats the ball We are in the know How Might you ask I am close with the force So Yeah so I'm excited about that It should be out The momentum for this should start in about Two weeks is my guess We'll see the little trailer First maybe second Week of September And then the game will be out at the end of the week And It so happens I'm in Chicago Then How convenient It so happens Right, moving on Overall marketplace, Scott No, wait, go back Spike 3 Spike 3, yes, indeed Spike, can I give you my take on Spike 3? Go on Spike 3 is like the difference between An iPhone 14 and an iPhone 15 Okay I'm not an iPhone guy, so that sounds incremental But go on Yeah, exactly, it is incremental so people are like Spike T is going to do this will it have better sound? yes will it have a bigger screen? probably is the power supply quieter? well we know that already because we've got it and it is, hallelujah right I mean actually those so Metallica is definitely the new PSU and it's silent it's great so has Kong so has D&D. That's normal, right, for pinball. I've noticed that when they were doing like WPC 89 to 95 you sort of saw or even T2. T2 was like the first D&D, wasn't it? It was like half System 11-ish, half sort of like WPC 89. They do stuff in places because I imagine it's going to be like, okay, look, we can do the PSU now, but we can't do this bit because to get rid of the old chain of inventory and stuff like that. It's a lot of effort. I mean, it happened with Game of Thrones Which is the Sorry not Game of Thrones The wrestling game which I think was the first Spike 1 game And of course Spike 1 wasn't where they were headed Spike 2 with the LCD was where they were headed Yeah So you can almost count Spike 1 As part of the transition To Spike 2 But ultimately You know It's ball and flippers You know The sound might be better, the light shows Might be better, there might be more of them I think it would be a better processor I think I'd be interested in it Because I don't know if you've noticed it on your Metallica Sometimes they have issues where the sound is out of sync With the video I get the feeling a lot of that is down to the amount of Information it's having to process And probably that processor is really getting Maxed out now, especially with the Expression That processor is 10 years old Yeah.
    73:57
    Right? Name me anything else using a 10-year-old processor. So, you know, but ultimately, you know, the operating system, the way the game works, much in the same way.
    74:12
    I remember George Gomez said that the operating system was running on an end-of-life version of Linux. Yeah. So it's not even supported.
    74:19
    Actually, it's the scary version of Linux. Is it? Because it's got Let's just say it's got More What's the problem with that then of making these games Online because then you could get hacked right Yeah but the way Stern does that Kind of Cocoons it so it's If anything gets hacked It's Impossible to do anything with it Just by the way that they've built it But yeah I mean it's running Ancient Everything on it's ancient Also the drivers for Wi-Fi are ancient I think as well Thanks to poor Wi-Fi I think They are definitely the networking Code on it and other stuff is not That's good though We should see improvements in the quality of life Of the product is what I'm going to get out of it Well I definitely think that We've all seen it on some of the bigger games Like Godzilla where the videos Kind of catch up I think that'll be fixed Which is great I think yeah there'll be more They'll be able to do more In terms of flashing and stuff like that That'll be great I'm hoping that the pace of just downloading stuff Is faster Maybe they'll fix your amp issues as well Yeah I've got one Well yeah I've got one game connected to Ethernet And it's just as slow as using WiFi To download stuff which is bizarre But I think ultimately That's a limitation on the I.O. of that board Yes I would love to hear I would love to see them to be able to use Lossless sound rather than the compressed sound That I think they're using I don't know for sure if that's the case But it would be good for them to do that The thing I'd like to see though is I'd like to see the bass speaker In the cabinet be banished And a proper set of 2.1 be put in the back box Because The setup that they've got If you've got a Spike 2 game right go disconnect your bass speaker and adjust the back box speakers to include the bass and you'll send me money for saying holy shit Neil why didn't I do that before you will get an immensely better output if you do that is that because of the acoustics of the wood being around the sub inside the cabinet or something else? I think it's the separation which causes a slight delay I think it's crap also a crap subwoofer I think the way it's bolted to the cabinet is pretty much awful. But also the Kenwood speakers that they use on LEs, so this is only actually a caveat to this, you'll get a slightly better sound with the Pro Premium, but with the LE, you'll get a significantly better sound because although they're not Kenwood's best set of speakers, they're actually not as bad as the cost of them may lead you to believe.
    77:13
    And you will get a much better sound out of it, just by doing that. Yeah, you can upgrade the speakers. That definitely helps as well. But ultimately, the stuff coming out of the processor just isn't a high enough quality for, well, at least for weirdos like me to really appreciate it as much as I would like to. I'm hoping it's also got HDMI out so I can plug it straight into the streaming rig. That'd be nice, right? Again, I'd like to see some improvements to like accessibility I'd say yeah definitely did you see the post by Jack where he's obviously still in a sling at the moment made his own foot pedal yeah that wouldn't be a bad idea for people with disabilities anyway to have just an option to plug in a foot pedal for the right foot pedal yeah so look there's a bunch of guys I forget the name who've created an accessible pinball controller that plugs in and if you can't stand you can sit down and use this controller actually it's quite hard to get used to in terms of how it works but actually there's some companies out there that are working on stuff like that, I agree, if someone can make it easier for them then absolutely I know they mentioned like bluetooth headsets that you're going to be able to listen to connect your audio to your headset without having to physically connect it, why not just have a Bluetooth device then? Or something like that that allows for input output for the flippers. Yeah, I mean that's what Xbox and PlayStation use, so it works for that. It should be easy. These sort of things, these accessibility options, again, quality of life improvements, I'm all for it. That would be interesting to see from Spike 3, for me at least, but we'll see what happens I suppose. The one thing that George said that's making me nervous is cabinet changes.
    79:15
    Okay. So he did talk about the cabinet changes will come later. That makes me nervous because I actually like the Spike 2 cabinet.
    79:26
    Yeah. And I hope they don't go down the JJP route and do like a giant screen. I like my whole screen in Translight. Yeah, I like the back glass for sure, 100%. Yeah. I mean, I do think it would be nice, I think, if that screen was bigger.
    79:45
    So the only way that's going to happen is if it sacrifices space of the translator, right? Yeah, look, I think that's inevitable.
    79:53
    But I don't mind it sacrificing... Well, I mean, I'm looking at it right now. There are ways that they could get a bigger screen in without sacrificing. I'd move the lock, kind of realign the speakers a little bit. It's doable. Also, widen the backbox, which I really don't want them to do. Please, Karen, if anything, Do not put them in the back box Well yeah you won't get them through the door Yeah, stern games are thinner than everything else And honestly when you're moving them around Or you're doing events It's a godsend It is just so useful To be able to Squeeze games in and out I mean actually It's not just the stern thing Since the early days of Data East They've always had a slightly thinner Back box But yeah look I like to say Spike C is going to help with The environment Of the game but I don't think it's going to make Games that like If Godzilla was made on Spike C Versus Spike 2 Is it going to make it any more playable Or any more demanding Is the play going to get any better No I don't think it would I don't think they ever hit driver limitations In terms of number of coils It was not lighting limitations Yeah but even then I look at Metallica Look how many node boards it's got Holy shit It's rammed So look Obviously though Innovation and development in pinball is great So let's You know the power supply I'm more interested to see if they do more advances of Insider Connect That'd be cool Yeah I My take on that is I don't think we'll see many more dramatic play I still would love for you to be able to have a situation where you could remote play against a friend who also has a John Wick as an example and do a competitive game and you've got to choose your ugly mug on the screen or something like that it's not really necessary for the webcam being like JJP do but it's more like you can see their score in live time you can take turns whatever it needs to be They can even code a game that has competitive play against each other. Like an NBA fast break. Yeah, almost like a head-to-head.
    82:16
    Yeah, look, I think that would be cool. But I think it's harder to do that than people realize. I'm sure it is, but I definitely think it would be a limiting spike too at the moment. Yeah, I think so for sure. Well, the fact that they haven't even tried would suggest. But I mean the other thing is I mean it impresses me How much they've got out of Spike 2 You look at Jaws with the different games The 3D mode And then the different Code versions And the broken They just rammed it man You almost get 5 games with Jaws It's crazy It's a big guy isn't it It's almost a total finish now And it's asset complete It's insanely good I mean if you haven't If you're listening and haven't played Jaws Holy moly go out and find the Jaws Is there one going to be at Pinfest? I can't remember There's one in the tournament I don't know if there's one On the floor From what I understand there's no King Kong going to be At Pinfest And actually why don't we move into Pinfest Yes we should finish up with that right That's what people are probably keen to listen for So look I'm going to I don't know I'm not going to First of all Phil and the team at Pinfest Put a huge amount of effort in To bring this show And I always Appreciate the effort that they put in You know no one And it seems true with stuff I do You know everything Phil And the team tried to do is to make the event great. And, you know, they do... I appreciate when they brought David Fix in last year. That was nice. Yeah, I mean... I know it was David Fix who's gone now, but it was still nice to have a speaker there, and I don't know if they're doing it again this year. Absolutely. I mean, it would be great to have more speakers.
    84:17
    They've done that in the past, but I don't think we're going to see that, sadly. But, look, I just want to signal something, right, which is, and it's a Star Trek quote, which is, you can do nothing wrong and still not win.
    84:39
    And it's kind of like, okay, I've done everything I should have done, but it didn't turn out the way I expected, right? And it's really hard because you're saying to yourself, what more could I do? But I look at the kind of metrics of PINFEST You know, the thing of not last year but the year before It was rammed I think I was the one after COVID, I can't remember But it was so packed Last year, it was packed at a couple of points in time But I didn't feel it was quite as busy And you know this year What surprised me Is So many people saying no I'm not going I've had a few people tell me They've changed their mind they're not going now Yeah you know So you know James From Majestic Ian Waring Just A lot of folks saying that they're not Going to go and I kind of Was thinking crikey Is this, I mean Another thing we need to remember is the pinball community Isn't the pinball Audience for UK Pinfest, it's bigger than the pinball community So it might just be in the community But the other thing that I looked at Was the pin donations And I noticed that The year before This year versus last year There was about 50 different people Donating games last year This year It's 30 For a long time The list was quite small right I mean you're not taking a game are you No I can't my wife is Obviously I can imagine we lift the pinball machine something else might pop out So yeah It's a very good point I normally would have I normally bring two I'm not taking any games It was just the effort of it Last year I just thought you know what I just I took Pulp Fiction It was easily the most played game At the event And you know One thing I've noticed is that I don't want to rain on anyone's parade But for me like Pinball Heaven's line up of games Was probably more desirable for me Than Pinfest is Quality over quantity Is probably what I would say there And it's just coming from somebody here Who's like, you know, I've got my games at home Do I want to be on a plane of a Bally Williams game at Pinfest? No I want to play A latest gen Like, you know, pinball machine Whether that's like X-Men, stuff like that Yeah, and right now, you know The last few releases, Harry Potter Is he going to be there? No Predator? No June, yes. Okay, we've got one. I'm looking forward to play. Also, David's got Princess Bride, but actually that's a two-year-old game now. Yeah, I was hoping for Portal over Princess Bride. Yeah, I knew it wouldn't arrive because they're still building them, but... That's the problem, isn't it? I feel like because the UK's a small scene, we're not really seen as a place where people bother to actually put their latest titles there.
    88:07
    It's a real shame, because it's like there are people here I still feel like this is the biggest event of the UK. There are people in the UK that have money, and they're not going to be able to... I don't know, I've got a lot of people I know, at least, that say, I'm not going to buy a game now until I've played it, and now we can't play it at Pinfest because it's not going to be there. But then I look at the flip side of, you know, there's almost, I think, 36 Brits going to Pinball Expo. Sure.
    88:37
    Those are 36 pinball buyers. And then you look at Phil Palmer's event He had all the new games There He didn't have Kong because it had literally just come out But There's no Kong There's no X-Men Uncanny X-Men There's no Metallica remastered I think in the event there is an X-Men But it's going to be in the foyer Under the charity things I think Electrocoin Are submitting an X-Men are they? that's something but I would have preferred it to be in the event because the purpose of going to Pinfest for me at least is that you pay your submission you can get access to these games on free play and whilst I realise it is for charity it's still frustrating to think well the only time I'm going to be able to play it is if I may as well just go to Funland and go play X-Men then do you see what I'm saying? that's my argument if I'm going to go to Pinfest it should be in the line up not in the foyer So Electrica I didn't notice this before actually They must have added this X-Men, Uncanny X-Men Venom Pro and Led Zeppelin Premium I mean Led Zeppelin We had there three years ago Venom Pro was Venom there I don't think it was The Pro's awful man It's great there's an X-Men LE there I predict that's the same one that Matt borrowed For the event He had an event at, what was it, what do they call it, Comic-Con in London. Oh, yeah, okay. Basically. I will play it. I definitely will put some money down. I mean, that's definitely good news from the point of view that, one there a charity event because Chris B I mean so you know people who aren going and aren taking games Chris B Phil not sending Any games out at all And You know It's definitely You know There's definitely a gap of people Willing to carry games And what's kind of weird about that is Phil put a lot of effort into making sure that those Who donated games got a room first So it's kind of weird But look, it's great to see that there will be at least one. No, it's new. It actually came out actually a year ago, X-Men LE. So it's good. And then there is a Jaws, but it is in the tournament, which is a bit of a shame, really, because it's such a good game. It would be great for people to be able to play it more. uh gonzo's bringing his jaws yeah i mean for me at least pinfest i say i'm i'm hopeful i still think it will be rammed this year because the hotel bookings i think sold out within the first hours of the release of them um and on top of that i think there's still a wait list that's like 50 or 60 strong of people trying to get a room which probably begs the question it's does the event need to be relocated to a place that has better accommodation? Probably. But I realise it's a balance of cost versus location versus I suppose availability of venues and stuff like that in this country. But I would personally like it more if the bigger players like Stern, JJP,
    92:07
    even Barrels of Fun, just gave this venue a bit more credence and said, actually, it's worth putting some money down here. end, bringing in the speaker, bringing in some games, and then putting a bit of promotion on. I think where it is, I think there's no chance of that happening until it moves to a bigger location. Because it has to go to London, really, doesn't it, at that point? Well, yeah, and the chances of running the show in London are zero. Just the cost of a venue. I mean, the ticket price would have to be...
    92:37
    I don't know, to rent the same sort of space, the ticket price would probably have to be 300 quid, And people just aren't going to pay that And don't even think about What the hotel room costs would have to be So what games am I looking forward to play So Moose Man's bringing his Pulp Fiction That'll be good And Then Metallica Pro maybe Kings and Queens EM I always like a good EM What else Super Hoop I mean yeah I mean it's just I'll be honest with you there's not Robocop's probably one of the games I just love playing it's weird and I don't get it it's weird every year I swear for me like the ones that I'm looking forward to are Dune and X-Men those are the ones I'm looking out for Evil Dead if you bring it hint hint would be great that to me is something I absolutely you regret not getting that game? I really do. Yeah, well, I've got two of them. Yeah, I know. It's a great game.
    93:49
    Yeah, it's a shame. But, yeah, I think Kong, I mean, Barrio's BBQ is going to be there, which will probably last about 20 minutes, unfortunately.
    94:03
    Sorry, no one's going to play it anyway. Blues Brothers! That's going to be hilarious I'll tell you what we should do We should take a picture in front of it Maybe I'll bring a fedora hat or something like that So there's already a picture of me On Facebook Playing Blues Brothers just before I ripped that apart Because it was so fucking awful But yeah so actually here we go Retro Arcade Specialist I mean he's probably the only dealer Making an effort so well done Dave Dune, P3 Prince's Bride I'd be interested to see how that lasts I've heard a lot of It'd be a real test for a multi-morphic right To be on location like this Blues Brothers If that lasts it'd be a miracle Ninja Eclipse, actually Ninja Eclipse Is a great game I will try Ninja Eclipse It is a great game, it's tough But it's such a good game ABBA Discuss that Maybe we need to do a rust thing for ABBA Houdini is a great game I like Houdini, it's tough, but it's great Hot Wheels, another good game Funhouse, I'm assuming that's Hold up Presetti one There's now two dealers for Presetti So Phil can sell The back box And Dave can sell The cabinet A polycade Whatever the hell that is I think that's being distributed through American Pimble It's like a Meme cabinet Ah yes yeah yeah yeah I saw that Modular like IO panel on the front Really weird stuff Yeah I saw a picture of it Ad Yonkers bringing Big Ben, Jungle Queen and Phantom of the Rock Three decent games And he's bringing them all the way from Holland Which is mental I wonder how he declares them When he brings them into the country The Pinball Amigos will be there I have to say If I had a wish It would be Nah don't bring the Pinball Amigos anymore I've seen Nah I've seen Despicable Me And actually Mario Brothers It was awful mate I'm sorry It was utterly awful And if they were to be sued By Nintendo I wouldn't have a lot of I don't often speak positively when Nintendo act like an idiot. They really are harsh on copyright, aren't they? Yeah, they're ridiculous on it. I get why, but it sometimes shows over the top. Actually, the guys at Medway are bringing a bunch of games. AIQ Pro,
    96:51
    Guns N' Roses, Dirty Harry. I think there'll be three Dirty Harry. I would have liked to try Avatar. I would have loved to try it. I don't think I'd ever buy the game, but I'd love to try it. Yeah, again, I don't know Phil doesn't feel it's worth The effort of putting it in So it's not there Avatar and Harry Potter would have been the ones I would want to I think that, does that mean that there's Three Dirty Harry's going to be there That's mad, holy shit Avatar is coming, but not the one That you want to play The one that's even worse than the one That's bad Actually Matt, Vince is bringing a couple of cool games you should play. Aztec, Surf Champ and Hit the Deck.
    97:39
    Aerobics, sorry. They're good EM games. I kind of like EM games every now and again. Swords of Fury,
    97:49
    Strobeys Bringing, Tough Champ, Mel from One Stop has brought that every year. It was great once. I don't know if it's worth the effort. And then the tournament games, Wonka, Actually quite a good tournament game. Space Shuttle, a great tournament game if it's the Williams one. No Fear, yeah, it's an okay tournament game, but kind of quite an easy game. The Bomb Blade Jaws, an epic tournament game. Star Trek, I'm assuming that's Stern Star Trek, which is a good tournament game. NASCAR, I would torch that. It's freaking awful. Here are the two that I'm I have to say Why Jetsons In a tournament Wait the spooky Jetsons right? Yes yeah it's in the tournament I didn't realise that was code complete I don't know It's years old And it's I mean I'll be honest I've played it it's awful I mean I hope people enjoy the tournament But then Valhalla Is the other game in the tournament Literally That game I had to play it In the World Cup of Pinball And We were actually doing pretty well as Great Britain Until I Said I am not playing this Fucking shit game anymore It is awful. It's so bad. I don't know why American Pinball made it, and I don't know why Tony bought one. It's terrible. There's a TVA from Retro Arcade Specialists, and a TVC from Steve Brum, Beatles Goals from... There could be Predator in that TVA, if I'm honest with you, but I just don't know what's happening. I doubt it. I would definitely play it, right? Yeah, but they're not going to put Predator in a tournament. I'm sorry if it's a tournament game I don't know what that could be But hopefully it's good Creature, Guardians of the Galaxy And also actually One thing to watch out for Valhalla has got It was pulled out of Pinball because it's got so many Exploits on it The Pinball guy pulled it out Creature, Guardians of the Galaxy John Wick and Metallica And yeah I mean So if I was playing in a tournament which I'm not I would try and do I would probably go Wonka, Space Shuttle Star Trek Beatles And ILR John Wick or Metallica That would be my card Basically I mean it's kind of I kind of find it frustrating that there's still TVAs Two days before the event If I was In their position I would just put a game in And say I'll make it up Attack from Mars Oh I had a problem so we put another game in I just think having TBAs looks awful Classics Barry Lost World Oops It's awful Dolly or 8 Ball Deluxe From Gonzo That would be great Both of them are great games Black Eyed it's okay it's a little bit boring Space Team so last year Zachary O'Keefe really good guy he had that last year this year and last year at Swavesay and I kind of liked it initially but playing it again it's just not a fun game I just it's like one shot where you've got to lock the balls and then that's it Knight Rider, Bally it's okay Joker Poker It's okay Harlem Globetrotters Stan's game, if it is Stan's game It plays okay And then Matt O'Hare which is not going to be there It's going to be Aztec Instead of Matt O'Hare Again a great EM And then they've got another competition Jack Rabbit Slim with Pulp Fiction That Gonzo's bringing I must have a big van He's got a big van I don't know if he's got a Luton though No it's a Unless he's hiring a van No he's got a Transit with a cab You know the back cab in it I don't know How many games has he got then I thought you could have needed three in a Transit Yeah I know but it feels like he's bringing more Let me just check You said Dolly or 8 Ball Jaws 2 Pulp Fiction It's free Ah okay that's it Sorry I'm talking rubbish Oh no Star Trek So he's got Someone else must be bringing games on his behalf then Maybe David or something Or he's hired a van He's got Star Trek Next Gen Jaws Dahlia 8 Ball Deluxe And Pulp Fiction That's four There's no way four games fit into his van And he's taking his son So I don't know Unless he's putting him on the chairs or something Which would be I hope he isn't Ladies Comp, Demoman Batman Dark Knight Metallica Lady Luck That's a tough game that ladies Jungle Lord Another tough game The original Jurassic Park Rick and Morty That survives Star Trek And Jackpot And then we've got the NBA stuff We've got Labyrinth for Starball Which will be great The Barrel Ball Yeah that Barrel Ball is great I played that Actually I didn't play it I kind of commentated on it at Pinburg It makes it so easy for people to identify When they've drained and who's next And stuff like that And then Led Zet Premium Venom Pro and X-Men LE From Electrocoin Which is glorious for them But yeah I mean I kind of What can I say There's maybe two or three games that look interesting The rest of them I mean actually I might do this I might go and diff Mike Parkins bringing his alien That's a staple game really I know The August Dice bringing Star Troopers Actually it's quite a fun game that TNA The challenge we've got right is that the desirable tiles will probably get huge queues behind them, and the least desirable ones will be left empty. That's what I'm always a bit concerned about. If there's a lot of good tiles around, it disperses the crowd a bit. That's where you're going to have problems, because everybody's going to be queuing up to play Dune. Everybody's going to be queuing up to play X-Men. It's going to be hard. I mean, Ninja Eclipse may even get rammed, to be honest with you, because, again, it's new. It will get rammed, no question about it. It's a good game. I'd recommend everyone try and play it. No, it's awful. Don't play it.
    105:17
    But I do think, hold on, let me just, it's a really three Dirty Harrys. That's freaking hilarious. So Take the Plunge is bringing one. Nick is bringing one.
    105:27
    Oh, no, there's just two. Two Dirty Harrys. We can live with two. Some duplications are going to be, you know. We should get them together and do a head-to-head, a heads-up. That would be cool.
    105:42
    Yeah, there's Twister. That's a fun game, actually. yeah so are you going to be there for all three days? yeah I'm driving up on Thursday and kind of arranging a special activity for someone and Friday actually I don't know What I'll do on Friday because I'm not I might see if Strowbie needs a commentator In the booth because I'm not playing in the tournament This year And I might see if Matt He might need a hand setting some games up So I might do that And then Yeah so Friday night VIPs Then Saturday Play some pinball Chill out Have some beers Need to figure out what game I'm beating Alan on this year Because I've beaten him twice Once on Godzilla Once on Yeah actually that's it X-Men I better start practising Alexa turn on X-Men So Yeah hopefully They'll put the new code on it as well Yes indeed Actually where's Alan I thought Alan was bringing games Let me see Is he bringing games He said he was bringing games Oh no that's a different Alan No I wonder if It's Alan that's actually bringing the Electrocoin games I suspect it might be Because he works for Electrocoin He's a distributor That would make sense then if he orchestrates that Yes indeed Indeed it would I can't find Alan on the list so I'm assuming Oh what's his name I can't remember his username I wish people would use their real names On the forum Alright yeah so look Have fun at Pinfest Everyone's challenge At Pinfest is to play a game They've never played And write a review of it on the forum That's your homework, folks. And tell us what you thought of the games.
    108:19
    Remember and thank all the volunteers there. It's hard running an event like this. It requires volunteers to do it.
    108:29
    And filling the gang work round the clock to make sure everyone's happy. So we're looking forward to seeing you. Scott and I will be doing autographs If you want one If you don't That's okay too We're happy If you want us to sign a pinball machine My fee is 50 quid, Scott's is a fiver No, I should get Scott to sign it Because he knows what he's doing He's taught how to build them now Exactly I'm just a player man And I'm just building my life. It's like, actually, you kind of remind me when I said, I can't remember which game, it was Blues Brothers, when I had a go at it. And Mike, is it Mike, the guy who runs Home Pin? Yeah, Mike from Home Pin. His reply for my kind of four paragraphs of why it's so shit, and boy is it shit, was, well, why don't you make a pinball machine and make it better? to which my response is, Mike, I'm not in the pinball making business. I am in the pinball buying business. That means I'm a potential customer. And as a potential customer, you need to do better, especially with Blues Brothers, which is such a great IP.
    109:52
    Anyway, yes, it's great. And, you know, keep your ears to the ground. I'll look forward to seeing you all and having a well of a time and here it is the great British pinball special show announcement ladies but mostly gentlemen in the shops you'll find this section called cleaning products at the shop with the cleaning products you'll find this thing called deodorant.
    110:34
    You can buy it. It's about £1.79, right? That deodorant will bring your pinball colleagues much happiness. Spray it all over your body.
    110:49
    Spray it in places that you've never seen for 10 years. spray it so liberally that you might need to buy two cans and for everyone else get smelling salts yeah and then in your room pinball fans as you go into the room you will see some things that you're familiar with and some things that you're not you will see the floor where you hang your clothes You will see a bed Where you flop After drinking way too much You may even see a fan I recommend turning it on Because it's going to be toasty this weekend Ladies and gentlemen There's a TV there Don't bother turning that on That will lead to no good But there is something else You'll notice this thing There's a toilet there You know how that works, I hope There's also a sink next to the toilet for washing your hands And by the way, that sink's also present in the toilets downstairs And some of you know who I'm talking about But there's this thing And it might look like a bath It's like a long thing that looks like it could take a person It might look like a square cubicle And when you turn the things on the wall, water comes out Every morning the pinball process is to stand under that water in all seriousness I know you're bleeding this out why do people not feel it's necessary to keep themselves clean I don't know I struggle with this and actually it came up at Texas Pinball Festival there was a discussion on pinball locations and the thing why do we have smelly pinball players, right?
    112:51
    It is. And look, here's the problem, folks. And people say, oh, Neil, you're such a bully. No, I'm not.
    112:59
    My wife's heightened sense of smell since she's been pregnant. It's driving up the wall because I have to be shit hot on cat litter. It cannot be there for more than five seconds, put it that way. I won't go into details because we're in this PG-13 for this podcast. but I'm saying to you people please for the sake of my wife just keep yourselves in a nice clean state I don't want to hear my wife gagging it's not nice she won't hide it if you smell and she starts to gag she'll make it out it's all you you'll be pinned out you won't be able to do anything because she's 8 months pregnant we're having an emergency delivery caused by metal. Exactly. And also, guys, bring... So, look, you're there all day from, like, 10 in the morning until 12 at night. It is very hot and sweaty in there. Very hot and sweaty. So, just before you go to dinner, nip back to your room, maybe have another shower, put on a clean shirt. And a bit more... You know?
    114:03
    It's not going to kill you, honestly. In fact, Phil's... I think Phil's selling shirts. So, if you haven't brought a shirt, go buy one from Phil. This goes for a good cause. I think girls should sell deodorant at the door. Didn't he do that last year? I think he did. That's amazing.
    114:19
    Look, if you haven't got any deodorant, come and see me, and I will give you a blast of my Chanel blue deodorant. I thought you were going to say Axe. Which will have two effects. One, you will smell great, and two, women all over the event will come and smell you. It's a glorious thing to have. Trust me on this. so look with that public service announcement no doubt it's going to get me in so much we can have people coming up asking you for deals all weekend I don't give a shit look just think of you if you've got a friend that whiffs a bit you think not telling him is helping him it's not it is not tell him say mate you sound you're a bit ripe there just use those words a bit ripe right and they'll get it and you know i have in a previous life i had an employee that had this challenge they didn't know about it they had no idea and every time i see this guy i see him regularly he works in the industry and you know he'll say he mentions that he says honestly just telling me what you told me changed my life and it's you know the other thing I think about is if they're not having a shower what else are they not doing and on that bombshell we wish you a glorious pin fest Tony Malloy I'm told is buying drinks for everybody so when you see Tony asking for a beer I am not bringing any funny t-shirts I've done that, everyone's saying Neil what's your t-shirt going to be I've done that gag so there's no gag from me funny hats instead and I have a few cans of deodorant in my pocket but I do it folks have a great pin fest a big thanks to everyone who runs it and has dealt with organising it up to this point and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody and having a great time And remember folks it's only pinball It's like you know Think as this weekend Think where you could be Versus where you are And you know I got friends out in Israel I got friends in Ukraine You know It is We're lucky We're very lucky To have Phil and his team put on a show To entertain us And remember I'll be doing the bohemian rustify at the karaoke amazing, can't wait is this a real battle anyway I'll stop there thanks everybody for tuning in if there's a thing you want us to talk about the podcast let us know Scott and I will be there all weekend we might do an impromptu Saturday night podcast if we're If we're up for it, maybe a quick 20 minutes Standing next to the noise And trying to get through If you want to join us for that, let us know Safe driving everybody And also actually a more serious point A couple of pincests Well people have been moving games They've hurt themselves Be careful guys These games They're 150 kilos, you know that You might say, why is this asshole reminding us that honestly um take your time take it easy do not you know ask for help if you if you're bringing games in and you need help i'll be around i'm happy to help anyone that needs these games unloaded and set up um i don't forget as well try not to leave anything of value in the cars we did have some thefts last year yeah really good point hide all your valuables including your spare tire Which I didn't even know was a valuable But yes I don't know if Phil's doing anything about that I hope he is but yeah that was a bit of a shitter Last year Actually the tyre in our van got stolen But the hire car screwed up and didn't charge us for it Which I was amazed by But And all those bringing games Thank you very much we appreciate it We shall see you On Friday night If not before Have a great week enjoy the weather Scott and I will be back Probably roughly this time September For the big new announcements Including the fact that Scott will have had his little one and called him Neil After the astronaut, not me of course Of course But no, yeah Actually we might We'll see how we feel If we think we need to do a pinfest wrap up we might do one of them but the thing is Scott and I actually have to record 14 podcasts and assume that we guess the future because Scott is about to go into the busiest most tired moments of his life I look tired now, I'm going to look exhausted later mate, your beard's going to be down your knees you are going to be running around but I'll be honest with you mate you'll look back on it and think it was worth every minute so good luck with that Scott from everybody in the community I'm sure and mine is the wateriest beer that they've got and a black cotton lemonade adios it's goodbye from my great friend Scott and it's goodbye from my other friend in my head, Neil. Goodbye. We will see you on Friday. And with that, we're out. Adios. See you, folks. Safe journeys.