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Pinball Party Podcast Ep 19: A Nullbeeds & Chess

The Pinball Network·video·1h 20m·analyzed·Feb 10, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Pinball Party discusses sponsorships, community tournaments, and Jurassic Park fandom with Keith Elwin game updates.

Summary

Pinball Party Podcast Episode 19 features hosts discussing sponsorships (Flippin' Out Pinball), community engagement (Pin Clash tournament), and an extended personal narrative about discovering the appeal of Stern's Jurassic Park pinball machine. The host shares his journey from initial dislike to becoming a devoted fan, attributing the shift to flipper power differences between Pro and Premium models and visual/mechanical improvements. News includes updates on upcoming games (Bond 60th from JJP, Scooby-Doo from Spooky) and Keith Elwin's next cornerstone title.

Key Claims

  • Keith Elwin's next cornerstone game will NOT release in 2023, soonest 2024

    high confidence · Loser Kid Pinball Podcast interview mentioned; host directly states 'it will not be in 2023, as he mentioned, it will be 2024 at the soonest'

  • Keith Elwin's next game will launch at version 1.0 (essentially finished) due to extended development time

    medium confidence · Host infers from Elwin's comments about schedule pushes and time 'in the oven'; compares to Godzilla launching at 0.8

  • Next Keith Elwin game will have more than two flippers: two full-size and two other-sized, with three flippers on one side of playfield

    high confidence · Host directly references Elwin's response in Loser Kid interview: 'he didn't dance around this question...it will be more than two flippers'

  • Keith Elwin's next game will feature ramps with design improvements over current implementation

    high confidence · Host cites Elwin discussing redone ramp designs due to extra development time in Loser Kid interview

  • Jurassic Park Premium has right flipper set to 235 power, Pro models have both flippers at 255 power

    high confidence · Host confirmed with George Fisher; directly measured difference when troubleshooting 'flipper gate' issue

  • Scooby-Doo from Spooky features a drop target and center drain spot design that can function as a ball lock

    medium confidence · Host discussing gameplay footage: 'they talked about how you can load it almost like a ball lock so it can have a few'

  • Bond 60th from JJP is 'supposed to be on the line pretty soon'

    medium confidence · Host speculating on release timeline: 'Bond is supposed to be on the line pretty soon, right? It's coming very soon'

  • Pinball Party Podcast has launched a Patreon with three tiers (Pro, Premium, LE model) including quarterly Q&A calls with the host

    high confidence · Host announces: 'There's three tiers. Pro, premium, LE...The pro is really just to support...The middle level premium, you get access to the private pinball party discord...and the LE model of Patreon is you can join me once a quarter'

Notable Quotes

  • “When I buy my pinball, shit, I buy from Flippin' Out. The toppers are for the aliens, I've got it figured out.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~0:05:00 — Sponsor jingle spontaneously created on-air demonstrating host's genuine enthusiasm for Flippin' Out Pinball

  • “I would actually, yes, say it is my favorite pinball game to play of all time...Jurassic Park really, truly is my favorite game to play.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~0:28:00 — Host's definitive statement about Jurassic Park ranking above Iron Maiden after years of skepticism

  • “When it was released...Stern's Jurassic Park was released in 2019 by famed game designer Keith Elwin...I completely hated it.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~0:30:00 — Captures the initial negative impression that drove the narrative arc of discovery and reconsideration

  • “The Jurassic Park Pro flippers are both stock at 255 power, where the premium on the right flipper is 235.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~1:05:00 — Key mechanical discovery explaining performance differences between Pro and Premium models; directly impacts gameplay feel

  • “It got turned that shit back up to 255 in the premium but so i got this pro and i could see everything it felt really good...I could not get enough.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~1:10:00 — Turning point where Pro model's superior flipper response converted host to devoted fan

  • “The shots all are hard enough for someone who likes to...the kinetic satisfaction in that game, oh my God...when you're in the zone in that game, there's nothing that plays better than that.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~1:25:00 — Articulates core appeal of Jurassic Park: shot difficulty, combo potential, and mechanical feel satisfaction

  • “Hey, good morning. Is it on the first floor? Would you be available for me to see?...I immediately respond, yes, I would...They immediately respond. Sounds like it won't be an issue...I wait a few hours and just reply back...'should I mark it sale pending?'...Oh, not at this time. Sorry. What?”

Entities

Flippin' Out PinballcompanyPinball Party PodcastorganizationJasonpersonKeith ElwinpersonCarl D'AngelopersonPin ClasheventStern Godzillagame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Australian pinball market pricing inflation and online harassment of sellers; community members publicly discouraging listings

    medium · Traveling Foxes email describing Australian Rescue 911 Gottlieb priced at $6,250 (vs $5,500 market) with public negative messaging about listing frequency

  • ?

    event_signal: Pin Clash tournament establishing streamer-focused competitive format with community bonus bounty sponsorships

    high · Host documenting: 'Pinball Party Podcast donated for a bounty...if you get the highest unmultiplied Tokyo tank carnage bonus, you will get $100' and Triple Drain Podcast match

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception to Stern's Jurassic Park among casual/home players after initial skepticism; flipper power variance impacting player satisfaction

    medium · Host's extended narrative of discovering Jurassic Park appeal: 'I could not get enough...I'm learning these shots they're tight in the best way...I was changing my mind the first day'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jurassic Park's initial playfield visibility/lighting concerns in arcade settings; right flipper power reduction on Premium models potentially limiting shot execution

    medium · Host noting: 'the playfield seemed really dark' at Tilt Pinball; 'the right flipper felt fucked' on Premium vs Pro models until flipper power was identified as issue

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin demonstrates confidence in improving upon Godzilla (previous best-in-class design); extended development time enabling code maturity at launch

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.240

0:00
The Pinball Network is online. Launching. Pinball Party. sexual invitation. However, an invitation to this awesome, awesome episode, but we're going to need a few more fucks to get us going.
0:43
And that should about do it. I think we're probably good. Mef. Mef. Hey, Mef. Fuck. Dude, we're fucking good. We are good to go. Thanks, everyone, for joining. Sorry, Mef. Eat shit. This is a very special episode. Why is that? Oh, I'll tell you. Thanks for asking. We are now officially sponsored by Flippin' Out Pinball. Buy, buy, buy! Awesome, Jason. Yeah, I think so. And you know, joke's on them. I'd be promoting them anyways because they're a fantastic place to buy pinball machines from. Right. Machines, art blades, toppers, you name it. I mean, all of it. They're fantastic to work with. Great people from Zach to Greg Bowen and support and Nicole. It's a great operation. So anyone out there, if you're looking for new machines or anything pinball related, use Flippin' Out. Buy, buy, buy! I'm very happy to be sponsored by them Prove it Huh? Prove it What do you mean? Sing about it I'm not going to sing about it Make them a fucking jingle There's way too many Do it No, no Do it Alright, alright, alright Give me a second I'll figure it out Figure, fucking figure it I know that's already fucking Oh, let's see I know, okay I'll figure it Okay.
2:01
Okay. I think I got it. Play it. Okay. This is your fault. Do it. That's awesome, Jason. Aw, thanks, man. Yeah, I guess. Put me on the fucking spot like that. I love it. Ah, thank you. Play it again. Aw, come on, man. Do it. Aw, man. Do it. Do it. Play it again, you fucker. All right, all right. When I buy my pinball, shit, I buy from Flippin' Out. The toppers are for the aliens, I've got it figured out. Flippin' Out, figured out. When I take a pinball, I think Flippin' Out. Flippin' Out, figured out. Figured out. When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from Flippin' Out. Buy, buy, buy. fuck yeah all right that's enough away you go if promoting that wasn't enough i'd like to promote myself yeah actually joking aside i just set up a patreon a pinball party podcast patreon a lot of people had encouraged it and you know honestly it was about time for myself but why well as hopefully a lot of listeners can tell i do put in a lot of time and effort into this podcast both from a quality and editing standpoint and i would like to continue doing that But I only have a finite number of minutes, hours on this earth, and my time is spent doing many things, including work and honestly a lot of audio things outside of this.

  • Pin Clash tournament qualifying runs February 17 through April 2, with final tournament May 13 on Godzilla at IE Pinball

    high confidence · Host citing pinclash tourney.com: 'There's a qualifying part of this between February 17th through April 2nd...The tournament actually being May 13th on IE Pinball'

  • Flippin' Out Pinball is a major pinball distribution/retail operation with staff including Zach, Greg Bowen, and Nicole

    high confidence · Host praising sponsor: 'Great people from Zach to Greg Bowen and support and Nicole. It's a great operation'

    • Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~0:14:00 — Illustrates frustrating buyer communication; commitment reversal from 'I'll be there today' to 'not at this time'

  • “Trade you my tron. Trade you my tron...All lowercase. No punctuation. What? Dude, I don't know what you want.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~0:17:00 — Examples of poor communication/unclear intent from potential traders in collector community

  • “Please stop listing this so much because of yada yada, all these reasons...Don't shoot the messenger, but I guess figure it out.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) referencing Traveling Foxes email @ ~0:23:00 — Documents community harassment behavior toward sellers in Australian market; normalization of complaints about legitimate listings

  • “The smart missile is fucking phenomenal...when you get the smart missile, you can change the awards. I don't know. It's just not intuitive.”

    Pinball Party Podcast Host (Jason) @ ~1:35:00 — Identifies underutilized game feature in Jurassic Park; suggests discoverability/tutorial gap in rule documentation

    • Stern Jurassic Park
    game
    Loser Kid Pinball Podcastorganization
    Spooky Scooby-Doogame
    JJP Bond 60thgame
    Tilt Pinballorganization
    George Fisherperson
    Rick Nagelperson
    Chuck Ernstperson
    Ken Cromwellperson
    Zach Minneyperson
    Greg Bowenperson
    IE Pinballorganization
    Iron Maiden (pinball)game
    Star Trek Progame
    Lord of the Rings Limited Editiongame
    Traveling Foxesperson
    Triple Drain Podcastorganization
    Scott Deniseperson

    medium · Host reading between lines of Elwin's Loser Kid interview response: 'yeah he is always trying to better his last game...he has confidence...sounds like just a great designer would do improves upon reiterates'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pin Clash tournament streaming competition launching with $100+ bounty prizes; first edition uses Godzilla as qualifying machine

    high · Host announcing official details: 'qualifying part of this between February 17th through April 2nd...The tournament actually being May 13th on IE Pinball' with documented bounty prizes

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball Party Podcast launched Patreon with three-tier pricing model (Pro/Premium/LE) mirroring pinball game pricing structure

    high · Host announcing: 'There's three tiers. Pro, premium, LE, as you would...The premium...you get access to the private pinball party discord...and the LE model of Patreon is you can join me once a quarter'

  • ?

    community_signal: Keith Elwin interview with Loser Kid Pinball Podcast provided detailed roadmap for upcoming cornerstone title development

    high · Host referencing Loser Kid interview multiple times with specific quotes about game features, schedule, and confidence level

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market pricing volatility for Jurassic Park during post-COVID period; host able to acquire machine at near-break-even cost

    medium · Host describing acquisition: 'one popped up around me that was a price that if you bought it, even if you hate it, you won't lose money...you'll probably make like $100'

  • ?

    announcement: Spooky Scooby-Doo features drop target and center drain design with multi-ball lock mechanic; gameplay footage available

    medium · Host discussing footage: 'they talked about how you can load it almost like a ball lock so it can have a few...That was this done in the past i don't know if it was i haven't seen it'

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern Jurassic Park Premium model right flipper power set to 235 vs Pro's 255, creating noticeable gameplay feel difference; appears intentional but reason undocumented

    high · Host confirming with George Fisher and documenting 'flipper gate' troubleshooting: 'The Jurassic Park Pro flippers are both stock at 255 power, where the premium on the right flipper is 235'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Keith Elwin's next cornerstone game will include multiple flipper configurations (2 full-size + 2 other-sized with 3 on one side) and redesigned ramps, launching 2024 at likely v1.0

    high · Host citing Loser Kid Pinball interview: 'it will be more than two flippers...two full-size flippers and two other sized flippers' and 'he's redone some of the way that the current ramps work'

    • 3:37
    First and foremost, Neon Dale and recording and actually going back to the studio in a couple of weeks and songwriting. I'm busy and I love it and I really love making this podcast. But honestly, it would really help if some people join the Patreon and help me decide what to actually do with some of that money. I'm not trying to do Patreon to like, let me make a bunch of money. No, I mean, I want to put it back into the pinball community. Yeah, a little bit to pay for some of the stuff I use. But, you know, frankly, there's three tiers. Pro, premium, LE, as you would. The pro is really just to support and say thank you and all that. The middle level premium, you get access to the private pinball party discord where you can help decide what we do with some of this money. and the LE model of Patreon is you can join me once a quarter. Let's talk pinball. You pick the topic and join me. And, of course, a couple other perks here or there. And there may be some bonus content, but you have to figure it out with the pinball network and all that. But, again, there's a Patreon now for Pinball Party. I'm super excited. Let's just start with one Patreon. Right now we're at zero, so let's start with one. That would be great. and let's do stuff with this pinball money. Oh, what's an idea? I'm glad you asked because I'm ahead of you. Let's start with one. Have you heard of the pin clash tournament coming up? I have. If you haven't, it's hosted by Carl D'Angelo and IE Pinball. Again, all that. In the past, there was that Avengers. I think it was the Doctor Strange mode. What is that? With the X number of flippers. That was the qualifying. Now the game is Godzilla. So what exactly is a pin clash? Well, according to their website, it's an open qualifying single elimination head-to-head pinball tournament for pinball streamers. Machine, again, as I said, is Stern's Godzilla. And you can find all this on pinclash tourney.com or just Google pinclash. You can get more information. But there's a qualifying part of this between February 17th through April 2nd. You have to actually stream to have this qualifying be legit to qualify for the tournament. The tournament actually being May 13th on IE Pinball. So the format of this is two competitors battle heads up. I'm just going to read this from the same title from separate locations over a total of three matches. Each player will receive a point value based upon their performance in each match. The player with the higher point value at the end of the round advances. The player with the lower point value is eliminated. And, you know, welcome to a tournament. So what is this one specifically? This pin clash is based on the best one ball Tokyo carnage bonus. More details are on the actual website itself. But when I mentioned earlier in the premium level and the discord can help me decide what to do with some of this money. Why not start off with one of the awesome, very successful, you know, previous tournaments, if you will, challenges this pin clash tournament. And with, you know, the momentum of Indisc being so popular on Twitch and the partner and all that, let's keep this going. So the pinball party podcast donated for a bounty. A bounty is part of this actual tournament, you know, kind of a side prize pool. There is prizes for obviously what aforementioned the rules and what we're doing with the carnage bonus, but there is also bounties, smaller bits. So for the pinball party podcasts role in this, it is the highest unmultiplied Tokyo tank carnage bonus. If you get the highest unmultiplied Tokyo tank carnage bonus, you will get $100 courtesy of the pinball party podcast. and actually as i say this a new update is there is a this is pretty sweet for those who listen to the triple drain podcast out there fantastic podcast uh their theme song is shit and all that but it's a great podcast they donate as well and what you get from them is a hundred dollars plus a comfy yeah travis's patented if you will comfy and the qualifying for this prize is pretty sweet It's awarded to the person whose score is exactly in the middle of all submitted score. So the average, man, that's awesome. For the commoner out there, for the common man, your average prize is $100 plus to comfy. So better prize than mine. But yeah, Triple Drain, thanks for sponsoring Pin Clash. And Pinball Party is doing that as well. So everyone get your Godzilla streaming on and qualify for Pin Clash. I would say that going in reverse order, Carl has things figured out when it comes to streaming and getting all these things organized and the Indus, the Pinklash. And frankly, he's a fantastic player himself. Can he qualify for his own? I hope he does. I hope you do, man. I hope you meme the shit out of it and you win all this stuff. But no, really, Carl D'Angelo, awesome streamer. awesome voice and face of all this recently. Anyway, there's plenty out there, plenty more out there that do as well, but just to shine a little spotlight on Mr. Figure It Out himself, Carl D'Angelo. Figure it out. Well, Jason, if we started with the positive, there must be another side of this. Is there anyone out there? Don't worry. Yeah, there's some people out there that need to figure it out. Figure it out. Now, for those who don't know, I go through games quickly, and recently I had Lord of the Rings Limited Edition, which, oh, it was so awesome. Eh, for its time. And when I posted it finally for sale and trade, there was, as you can imagine, a ton of interest. But there was a couple doozers. One, you know, the person reached out very kindly. Hey, good morning. Is it on the first floor? Would you be available for me to see? You know, all these standard questions. And I said immediately, yes, I would. It's really easy to get. I can help, you know, load it out. Don't worry about it. They immediately respond. Sounds like it won't be an issue. Great. I'll let you know when I can be there today. Thanks. I wait a few hours and just reply back like, hey, I got a few others interested, but you were the first one messaged. So I just wanted to – should I mark it sale pending? What time are you going to be here? Oh, not at this time. Sorry.
    9:33
    What? Two things. That's not the answer to my question, which was like, hey, do you want me to mark it sale pending? Just say no, I guess. And two, you just said literally I'll be there later today, and then you said not at this time. Yeah, figure it out. Figure it out. Nothing against him. Just a very quick turnaround of very interested to be there today and then not at this time. Okay. Well, I thought I made decisions and indecisions quickly, but this guy's got me beat. Now, within the same day, I got another one that puzzled me a bit. It had one sentence, no capitalization, no punctuation, and here's what it said.
    10:14
    Trade you my tron. Lowercase, just trade you one statement. Okay. Is that – do you want to trade me your Tron for this Lord of the Rings? Maybe some more details? Is this a question? Is this a statement? I didn't know. I didn't know how to respond, and I had plenty of interest, so I go on responding to others. Apparently, I didn't respond to this person fast enough, so they messaged me again within an hour. Here's what the next message said. I'll read it. I'll pull it up here. trade you my Tron? All lowercase. No punctuation. What? Dude, I don't know what you want. Is Tron one of the games I want badly? You bet. And I'm really always in the market for it because I've never had it. It's a great game and I want to get it. But a lowercase statement does not really indicate to me that you're very motivated for this thing. Or as they say in Always Sunny, you have a tenuous grasp on the English language in general. So as a surprise to no one, That deal did not end up happening. Figure it out. Tried to do my Tron. Now, as a first for the pinball party, this is from an email submission, actually. A third party. Figure it out, if you will. From Ken and Jules, a.k.a. Traveling Foxes. They sent in an email. Hey, we are Ken and Jules from Australia, and we absolutely love your podcast. Straight to the point. No fluffy and happy to call shit out when appropriate. Awesome listening. Your last interview with Scott Denise was brilliant. We are very fortunate to have a shit ton of machines and as a trauma slash ICU nurse for over 30 years, man, shit, utilize pinball to try and calm the head as I believe you understand fully, which I totally do. More power to you. Your job is more important than mine. So without fucking around any further, let us tell us what you reckon. We have an older Rescue 911 Gottlieb on our market over here. Our market is really fucking expensive compared to the US. So on average, they sell for around $5,000 to $5,500, which is about $2 US. This is in really good condition, so we have it put on $6,200, expecting the good old haggle to occur. Then he goes on about the posting and all that. I'm not going to say some of it just for the sake of privacy for some, but essentially they put this on Gumtree at $6,250, expecting to be haggled down to the appropriate $5,500 as you do. However, they had someone who did not like seeing that post, and they basically messaged them publicly saying, please stop listing this so much because of yada yada, all these reasons. So on behalf of the traveling foxes, here is a pinball party podcast honorary. Figure it out. Don't shoot the messenger, but I guess figure it out. Figure it out. So what's happening currently in the news of pinball? Well, we are playing the waiting game again. We're Craig Bobby-ing all this. Bond is supposed to be on the line pretty soon, right? It's coming very soon. Scooby-Doo. We saw the gameplay. It looks family-friendly. I'll say that. Not bad. Maybe long ball times. The shots look, I don't want to say easy because I'm, I don't know, from this bird's eye view, from every, the gameplay I saw, it looks fun. It looks like if you'd walk up to a kid's game, like, hell yeah, I'm going to play this. the drop target and the center you know the drain spot in between the two flippers is interesting um does it make the ball times longer yes but i like that they talked about how you can load it almost like a ball lock so it can have a few uh i that was this done in the past i don't know if it was i haven't seen it or heard of it that's kind of a cool innovation but beyond Spooky's Scooby-Doo and the Bond 60th between JJP probably having something soon maybe CGC as well and American Pinball what else is going on? for those who don't listen to pinball podcasts outside of the pinball network Loser Kid recently had Keith Elwin on which was awesome to hear from him again for those who don't listen to the Loser Kid pinball podcast it's awesome I would go check it out. Lots more information from the man himself, Keith, out of his mouth into that microphone. But a few highlights I took note of when talking about his next game, I think in order of kind of, ah, is one, because some of the schedules got pushed around. And well, I guess the long story short on this is that they had more time for the game. What does that mean? Well, when Keith's game does inevitably come out, which will not be in 2023, as he mentioned, it will be 2024 at the soonest. When it does come out, it should be basically done because they had so much time in the oven, you know, to with a code come out at 1.0. I mean, he didn't confirm, but from what he was saying, again, go listen to Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. it uh sounds like yeah it's basically going to be done when he made mention to when godzilla came out it was like 0.8 something when even though that was pretty fucking great this one's going to be even better when asked you know hey this is a tall order to best the best game of all time yours previously godzilla you know are you up for the task and basically yeah he is always trying to better his last game so you know he wasn't going into like oh that's a tall order That's never going to happen, which to me, if I'm reading between the lines, he has confidence. You know, he learns from his previous games, the positives and the negatives. And like, you know, it sounds like just a great designer would do improves upon reiterates as one should. So beyond knowing it's not going to come out this year in 2023, when it does come out, it should be pretty much good to go and maybe even better than Godzilla. another nugget when they asked how many flippers are going to be in the game did he dance around this question not really it seems like he's trying to be very forthcoming it will be more than two flippers sounds like two full-size flippers and two other sized flippers and another little nugget is on one side of the play field there will be three flippers not you know two on one side two on the other but at least on one side three flippers another question that came up. This was more on the Bond talk about ramps. This game will have ramps. Keith Elwin's next cornerstone will have ramps. Yeah. Surprise, surprise. But he had mentioned that they even, because of all the time they've had for designing it more than normal, he's redone some of the way that the current ramps work. So, you know, sounds like he's trying to innovate again. And that just, you know, awesome. Still innovating, improving, more time to make the game. a couple of tees on the flippers and I guess the only negative if this is a negative is that we have to wait a little longer. So while we wait on that and our fantastic upcoming guests can I just talk about my love for Jurassic Park the pinball machine?
    17:17
    And I want to give my kind of history with that game. I hesitate to say it's an important thing. It's not important. To me it's interesting how that game came to be, I'll just say one of my favorites. If not, I would actually, yes, say it is my favorite pinball game to play of all time. I say that kind of slow and deliberately because Lord of the Rings is my favorite theme, but that's kind of in and outside of pinball. So as far as, you know, I guess who am I defending this to? It doesn't matter.
    17:59
    Jurassic Park has just become kind of the game that I'm quite certain from having to play it so much and even dealt with a lot of problems. Honestly, on my current machine that I bought new, truly, I have a lot of new in-box problems with it that I'm working through Stern with. All those things aside, I've... Wow, I don't know. That game is just... it's the game. I would say for me, you know, if I thought that bolting Lord of the Rings was kind of the thing. Yeah. From a theme and just kind of like a gem standpoint, you know, a nice piece of furniture that is. But Jurassic Park really, truly is my favorite game to play. But when I said my kind of story with it, here's how it goes. When it was released, you know, if somehow anyone doesn't know out there, let me just start by saying Stern's Jurassic Park was released in 2019 by famed game designer. Keith Elwin, software by Rick Nagel, animation Chuck Ernst, who I've actually met. Maybe a story for another time. So the game came out, you know, with a lot of hype online because a lot of people like the theme. And like everyone else, I saw it first online and like, oh, OK, this looks promising. And the theme in the beginning was fine. I'll talk more about the theme later. But, you know, it's like, OK, it's Jurassic Park. You know, it's Jurassic Park. Who doesn't? It's not like I hate it. So like, cool, it's Jurassic Park. I grew up, you know, I was born in 82, for those who want to know. So when Jurassic Park came out, I'm not even going to Google it. You know, I was at an age where like, yeah, dinosaurs are fucking kick ass. In this movie, the CGI was, you know, second to none at that point. So, you know, I don't have this overwhelming love for the Triceratops or anything, which actually, I guess, is my favorite dinosaur. But I digress. It gets announced, you know, and you start reading. This game's fantastic. It's from Keith Elwin. you know Iron Maiden was top and this is even better and all that and just like oh my god across the board so When I first played it it was at tilt pinball in minneapolis a lot of my first pinball plays are there i go there and uh again everything i read online is oh it amazing the t-rex had and all this and a couple things like oh tight shots and okay whatever i don't care about tight shots whatever get good you know scrub but i go there and i i play it and i completely hated it nothing didn't like anything about it i i found like all i did was i kept hitting the truck you know the the the the truck nuts if you will the you know the two balls uh on the playfield that spin the trucker i kept hitting it and then yeah like i got multi-ball and like okay but every other shot i tried to hit like i agree tight shots and okay like the first game left one of the worst impressions no joke of any pinball machine i've ever played maybe because of the hype and i was expecting so much more whatever but yeah like okay in my mind like i'd rather go play iron man or star trek pro games at that point i was so used to hitting the ramps and felt good and easy and all this and like i had no love plus the playfield seemed really dark because uh for those who don't know tote pinball bars it's a very dark and gloomy atmosphere gloomy like it should be like a nice you know punk rock atmosphere it's great kind of like you know what we're gonna talk about soon with some of these electric bat folk, but it just wasn't a great experience. You know, I get home, I Google some more stuff and, you know, just like, oh, what am I missing? And then whatever, time goes on. I never thought about that game for ever. I was like, okay, well, I don't like that game. I don't, whatever. I don't like anything about Jurassic Park.
    21:41
    Then I took a break from pinball. For those who have followed this podcast, there was like a year or so. I was just so busy with recording. I just had no time or funds to put towards pinball. I didn't have anything. I was out of the game for a while. When I came back in, Godzilla was all the hype and all this. Again, Keith Allen. Okay, great. I get Godzilla. I play it. I can see it. I get what it is. Then I'm introduced. This was at the end of COVID. Right when the prices were insane of every pinball machine. Just off the wall crazy. and you couldn't get anything for less than the price of a house. But I still had this nagging feeling of, I'm missing something with Jurassic Park. I don't know what it is. But I say all the price thing because one popped up around me that was a price that if you bought it, even if you hate it, you won't lose money. In fact, you'll probably make like $100. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose. So it was kind of a no-brainer. And I was like, all right, YOLO, let's go get this thing. I'm an idiot, right? I played this game once and I don't like it. But I'm going to go spend, at that time, like nine and a half grand on this game. Fuck me, right? I go pick it up. Story for another time, but somewhat interesting. I get it back home. And I play it as a premium.
    22:58
    And what were my thoughts this time? This time I realized that T-Rex ramp was very easy to hit. And the lights were still kind of dim-ish for what I thought. And this time I took the time to learn the rules a little more. okay, so it convinced me that, all right, it's not dog shit. At this point, I thought, all right, it's not dog shit. It's average. So I'm playing it. I'm like, okay, I can kind of see, get the paddocks and this and that. And again, it wasn't wowing me. It was just, it was fine. It felt honestly a little hard from the right flipper to hit the T-Rex ramp. I don't know. I just, it felt a little, I dare say floaty in a way, but I could still tell some of these shots are hard, But I'm starting to think like, well, okay, that helicopter or helipad shot is really cool from the left flipper. The third flipper shot to that tower. Okay. I see a couple things here. Then another opportunity came up. I don't remember the game. I could look in Pinside or whatever. Long story short, I sold it or traded it or whatever. I got rid of it because it just, okay, cool, whatever.
    24:05
    But when it left, I realized, you know, one thing I did like. That game was really good about not a lot of hurry-ups, which I don't love in pinball. I don't like hurry-ups for some reason. I do like important hurry-ups, like the missile in Jurassic Park. That is, to me, my favorite hurry-up of all time. Smart missile, for those wondering what I'm talking about. The smart missile is fucking phenomenal. know and at that time all i thought was okay you get a smart missile and then like whatever it shows that's what maybe you might get like okay so you know i get rid of it and retroactively think like okay okay i could see this game coming to my collection via a trade or something but it's not something i'm going to scoff at but i'm also not going to like actively look for it fast forward to i don't know six months a year later i had a trade for something i don't remember but I got a Jurassic Park Pro as part of the trade.
    25:02
    It was more so, okay, I'll try this game a little more and it's one of those games that's easy to get rid of again. But this was a turning point. I got one that was super modded out in the right way. They put like five additional spotlights in the game, very soldered spotlights, not just alligator clamps. It was really well done. the play field was lit up like a basketball court it was fantastic it had you know all those um yellow and black striped i think it's tilt graphics um that kind of package was like whoa this like when you get that whole package it really makes that game look nice so first visuals like holy shit this game looks a lot better than i remember um and i played it and i also thought holy shit this game shoots so good it feels like faster than the last one i had none None of that floaty, none of that. Long story short, again, for those who have listened to a previous, you know, flipper gate, as I called it, Jurassic Park. The Jurassic Park Pro flippers are both stock at 255 power, where the premium on the right flipper is 235. So there is a difference in power. And please, PSA, I want to either get Keith on here or find out why, why, why. why i know there's a reason why is it that the right flipper on the premium is 235 and not 255 why i just want to know is it for the t-rex so that the mouth doesn't you know bash it is it for the raptor gate is i just want to know i want to know the reason because i had turned that shit back up to 255 in the premium but so i got this pro and i could see everything it felt really good and there was kind of no monetary burden to me so i was like i'll just play the hell out of this thing for a while because why not it's you know compared to the other ones it's cheaper it's easier to get rid of it's it's it's just something different you know when it when it's almost feels like it's not yours you don't have to worry about it you enjoy it more because instead of a piece of furniture it's a game and i could not get enough i i shit you not i could not get enough like oh my god i'm learning these shots they're tight in the best way um i okay whoa i was changing my mind the first day I had it. I'm like, oh no, I got to get a premium back. So I fucking did. And for three days I had a pro and a premium sitting next to each other. And that's when I was doing the whole flipper gate thing. Because when I got the premium, my heart sunk. I was like, this is the game I want now. I love this. But the right flipper felt fucked. I did a whole, you know, mech swap. I did a whole flipper swap between the two games. And it was, I never had checked the power. You know, I did a whole, oh fuck, the premium still sucks. what the hell so then i sold the premium right away like something's wrong with me i ended up getting rid of the pro um via trade and um you know like okay i'm gonna i i gotta figure this out i'm gonna figure it out so while that game was gone i just wanted to get a premium back i thought maybe the premium i had just gotten was a lemon like the flippers were fucked so okay and i didn't you know those listening to podcasts i was like all right trying to find one again and those prices are high finally found a premium again got it home flippers felt weird here's what happened asked george fisher check your pro what's the flipper power i found out flipper gate yada yada premium there we go perfect all right here's the game i like so it took a shitty first experience at tilt to where i nothing wanted nothing to do with it to me taking a break to thinking there's got to be something about this game to then getting it and seeing a little more and then like okay you know not enough and then getting a pro it was the pro that sold me on the game because it had a snappier feel there's no t-rex to worry about slowing it down but the raptor gate not being there was really like that's the thing and take or leave the the t-rex you know it gets old after a while but the raptor gate man that's just oof that that kind of does it for me um so the plan was all right i'll get i'll finally find a premium that plays well and now i did and Now I have one. Well, does it play well? No, because there's a lot of things wrong with it out of the box, which sucks. They're getting fixed, but yeah. But here's why I really, really love the game. And yeah, I think it's my favorite game. And it's the most confident I've felt in a long time on any pinball machine to really say like, yeah, it is. Iron Maiden was my previous Keith favorite, and this just is kind of trumping everything. if I take all the times I've owned Jurassic Park and combine them it's the game I've owned the longest next to Lord of the Rings which I just consider a different thing entirely but here's why I love it the shots all are hard enough for someone who likes to I consider myself I guess above average player you know I'm not a tournament player by any means but you know I do this enough to where I play enough to where I can hang you know what I mean so they're hard enough for someone that's above average to make it a challenge. There's also a couple easy enough shots. But the kinetic satisfaction in that game, oh my God, from the helipad and the tower shot from the third flipper, forgive me if that's not what it's called, to when you do actually get it in the T-Rex mouth, even though it's not a big deal, sometimes it's really cool how it's right in there. The way you can combo the shots from the spitter orbit, the center, to the upper right flipper, then to the tower shot back to the left flipper, then to the extra ball ramp, the right ramp, all the way back. You can just, oh my God, when you're in the zone in that game, there's nothing that plays better than that. And then there's enough clunk to keep you on your toes, right? I mean, those shots are tough. So the shots alone feel incredible.
    30:42
    The hurry up that I mentioned earlier, the smart missile that I love it even more now, is that I was unaware that when you get the smart missile, you can change the awards. I don't know. It's just not intuitive. I don't know if I was watching a tutorial or what. That once the smart missile starts counting down, you hit that action button. You can change between clear the paddock, plus five rescues. And the more you learn about the code, you realize which parts you want at what time. And the first two times I had that game, I could never hit the smart missile. I don't know. But now I can hit it at a pretty good rate. I mean, 20% or 30%. even when the ball, you know, the truck is in the incorrect way that you would want. For those who know the game, you know what I'm talking about. You can hit it enough to where when you hit it, oh my god, it feels so good. It feels so good. It's like Warp Ramp 9 level feel good. And yes, there are other hurry-ups in the game as far as, you know, you want to get rescues before a dinosaur kills it. And there's time, the modes on the left are timed. The virus attack and power and all that but they're not like uh for example star wars where like everything is like oh my god beep beep get it oh beep beep beep beep okay you know it's like oh my god frantic like i like a game that if you want you can play it fast and furious or if you want you can just kind of hang out and like all right let me take my time hit these shots do what i want to do and that game and its rules lends itself so well to i guess my style of yeah if i want to play something hard and fast and all that kind of stuff. Iron Man, Black Knight, all that. I'll do that. Tron, whatever. But this game is like, you can do that or, okay, let me hit these shots. Alright, line it up. Post pass. Set this up. Get this going. Stack some stuff. Get Chaos almost there. Get T-Rex almost there. Get the Raptor pin down. Alright, I'm going to line that up. I'm going to get Paddox and this time I'm going to go for the T-Rex because I just need that extra ball or maybe I'm going to take a straight shot to the visitor center you can kind of play it different every time or like hey i'm gonna just try to get scores so when the t-rex multi-ball comes up i'm gonna hit the red shots first and then you can play that game in so many different ways so the rules are just for me oh it's like a it's a warm blanket now the shots are hard enough and good enough and when i said i was going to come back to the theme while it might not be my favorite theme it's the right theme for a game where it's like right in the middle when it's something you're so emotionally attached to at least in my experience like lord of the rings you expect so much you expect it to like no shit i guess i don't even know how to explain like oh it's going to change the way i feel about things when i own it i'm just things will be better you know i'm building myself up for just a reality that doesn't exist it's it's a thing i get it and i'm like my life has now improved right no it's it's not and it's like i put my expectations of this life-changing theme to elevate everything and okay it's not or the opposite is themes that are just terrible um black knight sword of rage for me the theme isn't terrible don't get me wrong but it's a it's not like a tv show or something you grew up with and that was a game too i was like oh this is gonna suck and then you play it Like, okay, I love this game. But Jurassic Park is right in the middle to where it's a theme that, like, yeah, I like the theme. You know, do I have a Jurassic Park shirt? No. Do I like the movies? Sure. I mean, maybe not the latest couple, but I have a soft spot for the original. And it's not a bad theme. It's a theme that kind of anyone is like, oh, yeah, dinosaurs are badass. So, like, whatever. It's a theme that doesn't get old because it's not shitty. and it's a theme that doesn't like you don't have too much too much expectations for because you're so like oh i revolve around this theme you're like you know lord of the rings i've made some maps and i got statues of it and it's just a very you know a sentimental story to me for other reasons and so sometimes it can't live up to that expectations in a pinball or i expect it to be more than what it is and it can't ever do that so the theme almost gets in the way of enjoyment for me for me personally it's just it's just a thing and what a first world fucking problem jesus this game isn't great because i can my god i i feel stupid even saying it but yeah um so jurassic park has gone from for me absolute terrible don't get it too this is my favorite game for so many reasons and oh yeah the one thing i mentioned was the lights i have to add spotlights to it It's not a make it or break it, but I just think it really elevates it to light it up. The only thing I don't like personally is a super, super first world problem is the stern art blades. A lot of art blades I like in games, stern makes, but Jurassic Park, I like the third party ones better. The ones that look like the LE art blades with the blue and how the hanging leaves in the back really line up with the back. so you can get them from like retro refurbs or wizard mods. Those ones, to me, look better than the stern ones. The stern is just two big eyeballs. It seems like they kind of just, hey, let's just do this and be done with it. Didn't put a lot of thought into it. And it sucks when you have a game so high quality like that. You want to do all the stern stuff, you know, when you list it or you just feel like it's complete because it's stern, all the stern accessories. That one, I don't know, Art Plays just don't do it for me. So again, you know, just wanted to really go off a little bit on Jurassic Park. And it's kind of just been top of mind, top of play and interesting back from it being shit to it being kind of my favorite game. And it took a very strange path to get there. Well, thanks, Jason, for talking our fucking ears off about Jurassic Park. Let's talk to our amazing friends and, well, one of them, a newcomer from Electric Bat Arcade. and some of this was too good to not keep in so we are going to join the three of us mid-conversation anal beads anal beads and chess i didn't even know that was a thing yeah yeah uh yeah you might want to record that oh it's regarding baby yeah you say you haven't heard about this thing where the the chess uh some famous chess guy took on like the champion the Magnus or whatever his name is and he won by putting vibrating anal beads in and it had people were sending him messages via the anal beads. Incredible. Yeah, we just learned about this. It's a rat hole. So like the chess game itself wasn't stimulated enough. He needed people to buzz me. Buzz my colon. Fucking keep me going. Oh man. See, if someone had told me that, I'd be like, oh, that's crazy. I wish that would happen. Morse code. I think they should all do it. Like, we control the beads. Right, right. Or Twitch does. Yeah.
    37:55
    There we go. Well, I'm pretty sure that's how all the cam sites work. They're just combining. Same thing.
    38:03
    So, pin clash, which I talked about earlier in the episode. Okay, Carl, get on that. We've got some remote beads in people's asses when people are playing Godzilla. Let's go. Not it.
    38:16
    Yeah, well, hey, welcome, Kale and Rachel, to the Pinball Party Podcast. Thanks for joining me. Thank you for having us. Yeah, of course. Well, Kale, this is, what, your fifth time? Is it? Man. I think. You're a regular. Thank you. I'm getting a lot of accolades. A lot of people are coming into the arcade who I've never met before saying, I love listening to you on Jason's Pinball Party Podcast. No joke. Fucking, that is honestly, that's weirder than the anal beads thing. Yeah, it's super weird. In my opinion. And Rachel Best, thank you. This is your first time. I've been asking for you to come on. Thanks for joining. First time. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I finally got over all the coughing, so I can talk for more than two consecutive minutes without coughing.
    39:08
    Was it, I forget, was it COVID or you got like everything over Christmas, right? Or the holidays? Yeah, I don't think it was COVID. we got just kind of the general i was working i worked for 90 days straight um on the expansion and those were mostly 12 plus hour days so i think i got you know my body was like keeping everything out until i um till i got it done the the expansion done and then everything just came all at once so so for those who don't know rachel and kale are i mean right co-owners of electric bat arcade in Arizona which previous listeners know all about it and for those who don't that's what we want to talk about okay ask this I don't remember where I heard it maybe it was doc in our text or something when it comes to like social media presence in the pinball world there like Jack Danger and then you guys As far as like popularity and followers and all that Is that true? I mean. No, I don't think. We're above Jack.
    40:11
    Yeah. All right. I love Jack. But he's just doing different things. I mean, with Twitch, he's the king when it comes to pinball.
    40:22
    But people love your shit. I mean, if they're listening enough to come in and say it's nice to meet – that's crazy to me. It's awesome. Yeah, I'm blown away, yeah. We see people wearing electric bat shirts like at the farmer's market and places you wouldn't – it's weird, right?
    40:42
    It's awesome. I don't think – I think it's a testament to what you guys are doing. And I mean it's busy enough to where you had this, as you mentioned, this expansion. And Rachel, tell me a little bit about like what did you we went from how many games to now, how many games and what was that? So just pinball machines. We went from about 30 to about 60 pinball machines on the floor in Tempe. So there's also a bunch of other like rhythm games and stand up arcades, all of that stuff. But this is the pinball podcast. So the pinball machines doubled. we doubled in size and this was the original arcade was a really really skinny little galley arcade just kind of uh there was only i think 13 pinball machines in the very original incarnation of electric bat and then that doubled and then we doubled again so like now if we want to add any more room we've got to uh tear down a block wall and take over a circle k next door so When you went from 30 to 60 machines, did you have, oh, I have 30 more in my spare bedroom? Yes. Did you have some? Not in a spare bedroom. We had them in storage at the house. Our buddy Mark has some of those machines, and so he brought some in. But, yeah, we buy, we don't sell.
    42:08
    Ah, yeah, I do both in a habitual manner, and it sucks. so I okay so give me a you know a brief history of electric bat like from you know I'm very new to this thing relatively in the last five years of being deep in this hobby but from you know the Marco background and all that tell the listeners like you guys come from pinball blood yeah we so I started electric bat in october of 2018 um march of 2018 the guys that own yucca taproom the bar the dive bar we're attached to is um they they came to zapcon which was pinball and arcade convention that i uh co-founded and we're talking to some people saying hey we really want to have an arcade in our bar and uh how do we do it and just everybody just kept pointing them to me they asked me to meet with them um i you know i think i was elbows deep in a machine at the time like working on something said like not now um and i kept kind of putting it off but i eventually met with them and i said listen i don't have time to like do your arcade but i would love to help you out with like, here's how I think it should go. Here's what you need to do. Here's some games I would have and just the outline of what it would mean to have an arcade in a bar. And then their eyes really, you could tell they were overwhelmed and were not interested in doing all that. And so they just asked, they kept asking me and I eventually said, Yeah, okay, what the hell, I'll do it. So that's how it started.
    43:58
    At the time, I think I was working for Marco at the time. I must have been, yeah. And then I met Cale basically six weeks after I opened the arcade.
    44:10
    At Marco as well? At Marco, yeah. Over Skype or Zoom or something? Some kind of intra-office. Yeah, I was living in South Carolina working at Marco, and she was working remotely.
    44:29
    And so we met over the computer. And for those who don't know Marco, what is Marco? Marco Specialties is one of the largest pinball parts distributors and manufacturers in the world based in a little tiny town in South Carolina, Lexington, South Carolina.
    44:53
    And I started working there as a graphic designer, and I would help people on the phone, like, find parts and fix their machines. And at this point, I had never opened a machine. I learned how to fix machines by helping people on the phone, just by going through manuals, reading books. And we had a great database of information at Marco. Most fun part of the job was really recreating old parts. You know, they'd find old plastics and decals that were no longer in production. And I would redraw them and then recreate them at work. And then, you know, we'd sell them to people. You know, these are parts that, you know, you could no longer find. And the company was started by Mark Mandeltort, who is no longer with us. And it was it was great to to work with him and learn about the history of, you know, deep history of pinball from him while we were on the road together and doing all the Marco slash Stern pinball booths. And that's where Rachel and I first met in person. She was managing me. They hired her to keep me under control on the road. That didn't work. Me and Steve and Marco and the whole crew. Yeah, so I was working in Arizona at the time. I was just working remotely, and it was my job. Basically, the bulk of my job was the shows. So I would travel to, I think it was like 16 different pinball and arcade shows around the country and Canada and do that. So, yeah, they hired me to corral and kale was part of it. You corralled the shit out of them apparently. Married them.
    46:50
    So did we like knew each other for like two weeks before we got married? Hell yeah. I might be exaggerating. I don't know. But it was close to that. No, so it was two weeks that we had from when we met in person to when we were going to get married, but you got the flu. That's right. So it ended up being like four or five weeks. But yeah, between when we saw each other and got married, it was basically just enough time to get the rings off of Etsy. I actually asked her to marry me on Slack and then she kind of blew me off and so wait a minute what did you say like hey so you're like Slack like hey what's up emoji like quick like just quick question for you will you marry me like see you later it was super sincere but I mean nobody does this I was like listen we have to get married. This will work. Just her organizational skills are second to none. And I needed that help.
    48:04
    The romance abounds. And I was just a huge fan of her art. And I knew people who could paint like that just look at things differently. They look at the world differently. And I needed this in my life. and also she's sweet and beautiful and kind all those other things and i just you you have to come with me on this journey you know i need you and uh she eventually said yes yeah it seemed it seemed like a good idea he's funny he was in paragraphs paragraphs of slap like convincing her like what you just said like oh yeah but wait here's a bunch of that's the thing it was short It was like there wasn't even full sentences.
    48:45
    Like, ah, cool. No, and I did not agree to marry you on Slack because that would be. Correct. That would be correct is what exactly. The correct thing is to not accept a proposal on Slack. Right. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, clearly you needed someone with brains. No offense. But then he tricked me. So I had to fly in to South Carolina. We had some work stuff to do.
    49:14
    There was a few of us flying in. Before, I had stayed at the Mandeltort house. Mark and Nancy, I mean, Marco, you have to understand, especially at this time, it was a very tight-knit, small family of people. Whenever I flew in, I would stay in what used to be their daughter's bedroom. I mean, she's still their daughter. She doesn't live there anymore.
    49:37
    Sure. This time, there was more of us flying in. And Kale realized, like, well, I've got some extra beds. Maybe I could put these women up. And I'm like, I'm not going to stay with this dude. I don't know him. Like, that's creepy. I'm not doing this. This is pre-Slack proposal or is this post? God, I don't know. Probably it was post, but I didn't take it seriously. Right. Yeah. And I wasn't going to be staying with him. But Kale got Mark to give him like 500 bucks or something Because that was going to save Mark money from having to put us in a hotel So Kale knew the angles Like, well, here, I can do it And then Kale had a massage chair Yeah, and he was sending me pictures of this massage chair Like, listen, you get your own bed You know, you don't, you're not going to be, I'm not going to be weird or whatever and it's going to be a bunch of us. You'll be fine. I'm not going to be weird to have to say that. I don't think he said it like that, right? But yeah.
    50:43
    But he did. He's like, I've got a massage chair. And he did not know, but I love massage chairs. That sounds real, real weird. But I was so excited about this massage chair. I'm like, what could happen? I'll marry you. What could happen? You got a massage chair. I will. You should tell him, Kale, where that massage chair came from. That's kind of an interesting story right now. I didn't have the kind of money to afford something like that. I got it from a guy I used to work for, Dick Harpootlian, who is the an attorney in South Carolina who is defending Alex Murdaugh right now in the in the in the trial that's going on right now. So he's a good buddy of mine, and he hooked me up with a chair, which landed me Rachel. So thanks, Dick Harpootlian, for the roundabout way of us getting married. Cale's worked for a lot of weird – he's got a strange past. So you got this chair from Daredevil is kind of what I'm hearing. Right. That's basically it, yeah. All right. You two pinball lovebirds. you mentioned before, Kale, a few episodes ago like Bond was out outpacing even Godzilla or all this because it's just so hot how is it doing now? not dollar amounts, but is Bond still hot? well now we have two of them in the arcade, we have the pro and the premium and Rachel will tell us how things are doing because she keeps track of all the spreadsheets because Kale didn't know yeah, so right now we're waiting for the ice to thaw up in Flagstaff and we're taking the pro up there, the two of them together are the highest earner right now, by a good bit. Each on their own, they're still in the top five or six earners. So Bond is doing very well right now. And is that something that often happens with new games, regardless of theme or gameplay? Yeah, anytime you put something new in the arcade, it's going to do well. Okay. I mean, almost always. what are you know the top three earners um right now so bond for sure is up there uh godzilla still reigning reigning champion godzilla has been either the top earner or there might have been one month where it was second but i can't think of what that would be uh dialed in no shit good friends at jersey jack would love to hear that uh dialed in is a top earner this month.
    53:20
    What the fuck? Are you guys... I guess maybe I shouldn't say that, like, what the fuck, but Dialed In, to me, I think Dialed In's probably their best, you know, playing game. Do you charge different for, like, let's say an EM versus a JJP, or is it all, like, 50 cents, or what's your... Dialed In is straight dollar play. The Sterns right now are dollar or three for two, although that may start to change soon because our parts bill is getting pretty extreme. um all of the when you say parts bill are you saying like rubbers lights broken ramps or yep all the stuff we have to buy i put in an order probably about three orders a month for parts we order a lot from marco yep from marco um nice they're it's a hefty order uh every month we're spending you know you could buy a new pinball machine with what we spend in six weeks or something in part. I mean, not like a premium or whatever, but we're spending thousands of dollars in parts. And they cost different. So the numbers that I'm giving you for earnings are like the straight earnings. That doesn't necessarily reflect highest play because the DMD era games are all 75 cents. And the classics like Classic Valley, those are all 50 cents.
    54:39
    So I guess maybe I'm asking the wrong question and forgive me if it's okay if you don't have this information but do you know what is like the highest playing game like it's still got it's still gonna be like godzilla and bond stuff right now it's it really it people love that game uh including pro or premium it doesn't matter um this is the premium that we have in tempe the pro is up in flagstaff that's a whole different kind of set of numbers that's a smaller town smaller smaller arcades, you know, that those numbers are smaller across the board at the second location.
    55:13
    And do you have like bottom of the barrel, you know, not to rag on games? I mean, I guess it's probably what some old EMs that no one's heard of, or is there anything like popular people would be like, oh, I can't believe that doesn't do so well. Yeah, so a lot of the solid states, they'll go through phases where they will earn less than the other games, but they're always pretty well played. People really enjoy playing like Dolly and paragon those those types of games so the ones that are kind of more of the modern era games that are not doing so well right now star trek hot wheels led zeppelin those are hot wheels i was just texting someone about like it's it's one of my favorite games to not own but go play because like i don't want to own it but like i like like shooting it i like it because it doesn't break down that game is a tank really we have had almost no problems with that game is that standard with american or that's the only american that we own i have not heard uh such rave reviews about valhalla i've heard that game's got some more issues but for whatever reason hot wheels tank yeah the biggest problem we've had with hot wheels is connectors coming off with you know just a little hot glue fixes that when you mentioned earlier the parts thing um and how big of a bill it is i know it's not a it's probably a testament to stern like it's getting played so much that you have to fix stuff which is probably great is there like a very common thing that like you expect like okay i'm gonna have to replace bulbs every month or rubbers or is there like yes you know is there flipper parts you have to replace and kale is he does most of our flipper repair but coil stops any the the link the linkage there that snaps any any part relating to a flipper breaks often that that little bearing in the flipper link just will turn to dust all the time so it's way more i guess you know the moving parts that are really yeah there's always like one or two more esoteric parts that all have to put it in order but that may be on a like a 40-year-old game or something. So that's kind of expected. And the flipper parts, I just always order.
    57:31
    Our parts room now kind of looks like we're Tiny Marco West or something. We have a lot of parts. Because I don't want to game down, so we have everything that is likely to go wrong and then a few things that may go wrong. try not to get yourself in a pickle we're super lucky to have a bunch of regular players they can feel when the game is getting a little weird and rachel has a a clipboard on the wall with a pen attached to it and and they'll write down check left flipper on godzilla this and that and and it really helps us keep it in check to where we we you know we don't really have to have a regular schedule of checking things out. All right. I want to ask more about Electric Bat Arcade, and I think a lot of people are interested in kind of how the on-premise or the location play is going. But first, before we do that, I would... Cale, you've done this before, but since Rachel is new, I want to get to know, I guess, her balls. Good deal. Yeah, I'm excited. Oh, my. We are getting to know her balls. This is the first time that we've gotten to know a female's balls, but it's still a place.
    58:50
    First, what is your favorite current game? And I guess I should preface with, I guess it could be your top earner because awesome. Do you get to play a lot of games? If so, what is your favorite current game? The game that I always go back to is Joker Poker. And that's partially because I don't usually let myself play games until I'm done working. And it's usually a pretty long workday. And at the end of a workday, I don't want to think about rule sets and complicated stuff. So Joker poker is, there's just something about that, like ball one, do this ball to do this ball three, you know, it's so simple and so challenging. So that's my all-time kind of go-to. Although I will say we just put one of the most beautiful meteors you've ever seen. Our buddy Mark brought that in. Cale and I have not played it yet. We just put it in last night, and I think we're probably going to play that for a good couple hours today. So those two. Joker poker Okay I never played it Now I want to Oh God so good well to take a very dark turn uh what what is one of your biggest fears in life burning down the arcade i guess that's a that's a lot to go down um yeah big old fire like a random fire yeah i wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and i'll check the cameras just to be sure that like nothing's on fire we're in an old building very old building lots of uh lots of electronics uh yeah so yeah big old fire don't want it yeah that's that very acceptable awesome answer um what is your favorite era of pinball they're they are really really good now like they have really got the all the sound all of all of the different parts the technology now has gotten so much better that i i would i would say now either now or classic bally classic you know classic system on galib era so essentially anything from like 2000 or 1995 to 2015 fuck that shit but not not not quite but yeah my like those games are great i mean adam's family is what got me into pinball um but those games are all wonderful they're all great right but that's nobody wants that answer you're seeing new things with games now like new surprises that i i haven't seen in you know since magnets i wonder i wonder how many people adam's family is the game that got him in it's got to be i'm guessing like most of them because the production numbers and the popularity at that time i think that just that was the sweet spot you know the the peak where people who didn't play pinball played pinball do you know like a rough how many were made what yeah 23 000 or something yeah 23 24 000 something like that and nowadays a good run is well we have no idea they won't disclose of numbers figure it out but i guarantee it's nowhere close to that because we would hear it if it was yeah right yeah we've surpassed right so this is a necessity for you owning a pinball arcade but do you like love or hate fixing those games i love fixing them whenever it's like a weird mystery and i solve it quickly yeah okay emphasis on solving quickly right i hate fixing it if it's something i will give you an example of a fix that i hated mandalorian has a diverter coil that you know once you shoot it up that ramp to put it in the the upper playfield area the bracket that holds that coil on is made special for that game you can't just order it's not an off-the-shelf part coil brackets specifically coil stops this all-in-one thing There's no way that part's going to hold up, especially with the crappy steel that is available these days. So when that broke, I can't just put it in a Marco order and get that part.
    63:09
    They didn't have it at the time. So we had to take this whole thing apart and then take it to a welder to weld this piece back together. There's no reason for that. though all all heavy wear parts that are likely to break should be off the shelf parts so that's just like a pet peeve of not just myself i'm sure like every operator in the world um because that game has to be down for however long it takes me to get a part that i shouldn't have to and you can't get it from stern huh they don't in short no there's no there there's not a quick way to get that part and certainly not for just like the casual, you know, if you happen to have it in your home sort of thing, you would have a hard time getting that. Speaking of hard times getting that, do you have any horror stories from the secondary market? I'm not sure how much of your games you guys buy new or you have to buy them from Joe Schmo in a dungeon somewhere or... We buy games from people we know 98% of the time, and we've had just mostly great experiences buying them. The bad stories are the common stories.
    64:25
    So maybe like eight years ago, I was selling – this was back when I did not have an arcade and so had to sell games to make room for new games. I had a Freddy, Nightmare on Elm Street, everyone's favorite game. um so i was selling that game and i think at the time i was selling it for let's say it was like twelve hundred dollars dude came over and i kind of knew this guy in passing we had we had met before uh didn't know him well came over looking at it looking all over yes this is great i want it you know okay and we'd agreed upon the price and then oh well you know actually this is for my cousin and I only brought $900 with me. That's weird because that's not the price we agreed on. Right? Right. Don't do that. There's no reason to do that. Either agree on a price and pay the price. Don't show up and do the, I only had this much with me. And you hear about this from everybody has experienced this, that has sold a game. I have. So don't do that. It's not an exciting horse. It's not like me finding, you know dog shit on a play field you're saying don't accept that and on the other end don't you know come with all your money yeah come with your money yeah did you was it under the premise of like oh i'll send you 300 bucks in the mail later in coins no it was oh you know i only have this much with me don't be that guy yeah thanks guy what the fuck i'm gonna give him a figure it out So here's a recent purchase that Kayla and I made that was kind of a hilarious, like, open it up, what have they done sort of thing. We bought this medieval. It was actually a remake, so this was not the medieval I grew up playing. It was beautiful, like, not a scratch on it. We go to pick it up and notice that in place of the button to shoot the ball, there is a shooter rod.
    66:29
    That doesn't work on Medieval. That's not how the game works. So we took it apart, and what they had done, the bracket that holds that coil on on the remake games, for whatever reason, tends to break a lot. we found out that the techs that had been working on these pinball machines in the past few years are the same mechanics that fix their go-karts so they they only know you know if can you pinball is not their skill set so what they had done is i think that bracket had broken the coil was just dangling in the cabinet my fear was that they had taken it out because there were some board issues and on those remakes you know that's all on that one big board so that's that's a harder uh fix um they they put in a standard shooter rod and then to keep the balls from rolling back down into the cabinet they used a uh the the plumb bob tilt ring like this so they just have the shooter rod going through a tilt ring and so you couldn't i mean that multi-ball i guess is on your honor uh yeah um like the whole thing that was i mean there were some other issues with that game but that one we definitely had to take it apart and all it was it just ended up being putting it back together getting putting a bracket in and making it work they drilled some weird holes in the cabinet but luckily those got you know covered up and fixed but that was a weird one moral of the story is don't have go-kart guys fix your yeah get it i mean techs are are hard to find but if you're gonna have an arcade you need to find one there's not there's not an option b so aside from good techs what's something in life that you are grateful for i I actually am super grateful for Cale for a couple of reasons. One of them, he has learned to fix things. I think, so Cale, the first time you ever fixed a machine, was that at Electric Bat? Was that me pointing to stuff and saying, do this? This is what's wrong? 100%. Yep. Right now, between both arcades, we have 75 or so pinball machines on the floor, and Kale and I do almost all that work, 90-something percent of the work. That's great. Also, he's real, real funny, so I don't get angry. Yeah. Also, I'm really grateful for our bed jet. Do you know what a bed jet is? I don't. What? Okay. It's a heater slash air conditioner for your bed. It's like a unit that goes underneath the bed. It's quiet. It doesn't, you know, it's not like, like an air conditioner or something. And you can set it to heat or cold. Like there's a remote for temperatures and it comes on and there's like a little duct that comes up and attaches to your mattress and like a little, very small duct. And it just gently blows either hot or cold air at whatever temperature you decide. The cooling part of it is a must if you live in Phoenix. all right what is your least favorite game right now or is there one that just pisses you off or you don't get why people like it oh this is i know this is gonna surprise you it's gonna blow you away all right i'm ready halloween any game that you turn it on and it starts smoking um there's no i'm not gonna go down like you've heard the halloween complaints ah i have the game doesn't work today no no it's a it's a boat anchor we we're actually we're trying to get it out of our workshop to make more room um i mean we're on the verge of literally giving it to somebody just to get it out uh get it away from us it's it's such a disappointment in ways that i find unforgivable that like we have tna i love tna we have it's not like it's not that they weren't capable of making a machine. It's that maybe the people who were capable didn't work there. I don't know, but there's a lot of laziness in our particular Halloween, just the build of it, build quality, just weird screws in weird places, stuff that if you would have just said, hey, Rachel, will you just quickly look over this machine and tell me if you see something that you think might be a problem in the very near future for anyone trying to own this machine i could have pointed out 10 things that that are really like just rookie mistakes like plastics that are a quarter inch like where the pressure is put on them are like there's only like a quarter inch of plastic there of course that's gonna snap the upper flipper to get to the upper playfield flipper you have to take off like two two other play fields to get to it so anytime that i that i open up a pinball machine that is um designed by somebody who has never worked on a pinball machine or has no empathy for somebody who's gonna have to work on it down the line i'm just thank you keith elwynn for never making machines that uh that are hard to work on he's speaking of keith i talked about him a little earlier did you guys listen to the loser kid podcast with him on it if not you should check it out i haven't yet no genuine dude but um he mentioned that his game probably won't be coming out well not probably it won't be coming out this year um but on that note what is something i guess is a question for both you but i want to start with rachel um what's something you're looking forward to in 2023 pinball related our tournaments are are blown up and we're meeting all kinds of new people i'm really looking forward just seeing who rolls through the arcade this year. It's been a blast just meeting the people that play pinball. Our new buddy, Walt Wood, if anybody who is not familiar with him, look him up. Any of his videos of him playing, he is the most delightful person to watch play. He's hilarious. We're going to be streaming some more with him later this year. I'm really looking forward to that he's awesome how about you Kale a couple things I'm looking forward even after what we've said I'm looking forward to Scooby-Doo I'm gonna get behind him if it's great you're gonna hear it from me first so I'm looking forward to getting that I'm looking forward to taking our tournaments to 100 people a week right now we're getting 70 to 80 people at our league. I'm looking forward to taking that to at least 100. Third, I'm looking forward to streaming more. We used to stream a lot during COVID shutdowns because we didn't have anything else to do. But I'm looking forward into getting more equipment, getting a wireless rig so we can stream some big tournaments. And I have some ideas for some really cool like invitational type tournaments with some uh with some skilled players that would be really entertaining how much so when i mentioned earlier i want to come back to a couple electric bat things how much has insider connected helped everything do you use it for i mean i assume you have big tvs up on scoreboards and all that stuff are you are you full in on insider connected love it yeah we have a we have a tv that scrolls through the top 10 on all of the insider connected games. We do like a monthly challenge on Insider Connected. I mean, just the further gamifying of pinball. That's awesome. I mean, anything that's going to like get that little dopamine reward system going, all of the achievements, all of the just being able to compare with your friends or your enemies. It's I love it. Yeah, I'm all in on Insider Connected. is there a missing feature that I mean maybe either will be made or something that you're like that should really be there yeah I'd like to have um have it so that I could input a specific tournament parameters and it does let you it does the ones that we have it starts at this time ends at this time and these are the games that are in it but what we do is every month you get like if you have first place on the game you get 10 points second place nine points third place so on so but i have to like manually add all that up i would love to have something in the software that would allow for different types of tournaments so that it would it would do all that math for me i want push notifications and that's coming i want an app with push notifications so you know hey jim bob Just beat your score so that'll make people run and want to beat it. Get on it. Yeah, go beat it. Do you guys have any big upcoming events or tournaments you want people to know about? Yeah, we have weekly, every Tuesday night at 6.30. If you're in the Phoenix area and you like pinball, you need to be at Electric Bat Tuesday night at 6.30. We have a monthly bounty knockout tournament that our friend Chewy does. and that is the last Sunday of every month at noon. And it's cool because the buy-in is $6. You get a $5 poker chip, and whenever you knock somebody out four strikes, you get their poker chip. So you get to win money off your friends. And the way that it works, you can win a bunch of money and not necessarily win the tournament. So you have two goals, winning money and winning the tournament. Where's the best place to find you guys on the World Wide Web? Where should people find you? Probably Instagram, at ElectricBatArcade on Instagram. We're also on Facebook, and we have a website where you can – I'm still updating all the games that Rachel has added to the arcade, so give me some time for that. And you're on Twitch. I mean, I've seen some of your streams, which are awesome. And TikTok.
    77:11
    Yeah, we're experimenting with TikTok. But the Twitch thing is super important because right now we have two videos of Walt Wood completing Jurassic Park and then rolling Dracula. I didn't even know you could. Oh, BSD.
    77:29
    Bram Stoker's Dracula. I didn't even know you could roll it, but apparently after $10 billion, there was nothing built into the software, so your score resets. So, yeah, he actually rolled Dracula, which was cool. I've never seen that in person. And you can, too, if you head to our Twitch channel. That's Twitch.tv slash ElectricBatArcade. Well, hey, Rachel Kale, thanks for joining me. Thanks for being so honest and open about all that information about your arcade and your balls, et cetera. Anytime. See you guys later. Thank you for having us, man. You bet.
    78:08
    And as always, it was awesome to talk to Cale, and thanks for bringing your better half. And I think it's pretty apparent that holds true here.
    78:17
    Lots of information about a very, very popular and well-established arcade, which I have no experience doing, so thank you for sharing all that. A reminder to those out there to visit the Pinball Party podcast Patreon. Help support the show. Let's give some of this back. Let's do what we can.
    78:35
    Pin Clash coming up. That's going to be badass as shit. Go get my bounty. Go get your $100. Get an awesome tank bonus. And not to make light of it, I didn't even talk about the Pinball Awards, but go check out the video of the Pinball Awards. You'll see me giving away one of them. awesome to meet a lot of those people in person george fisher it was awesome doing some of that behind the scenes stuff with you uh it was great to meet joel and zach and greg and a couple people i didn't want to meet and you know uh pretty awesome well until next time go give me money on patreon keep listening to the show send me emails at pinball party podcast at gmail.com if you need music to listen to you could do a lot worse than listening to Neon Dale Spotify, Apple going back into the studio next week do another EP can't fucking wait, it's gonna be awesome so maybe I'll take a week off, who knows maybe I'll do a podcast from there, we'll see I don't know, I'll figure it out, see you later figure it out
    79:43
    I've got it figured out When I think of pinball, I think flipping out Flipping out When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from flipping out Buy, buy, buy