The Pinball Show Ep 99: Pinball Manifesto & The Amazing Andrew Moskos

The Pinball Network·video·1h 25m·analyzed·May 3, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Boom Chicago founder Andrew Moskos joins Pinball Show EP99 to discuss pinball history, comedy, and industry accessibility gaps.

Summary

Zach Sharpe hosts Episode 99 of The Pinball Show with special guest Andrew Moskos, co-founder of Boom Chicago comedy group. The episode covers Moskos' 50-year pinball history spanning Germany, Amsterdam, and Chicago; his work providing voices for Stern's Dialed In; an unreleased comedic 'roast poem' about Steve Richie that Richie rejected; connections to Ted Lasso cast members (Jason Sedakis, Brendan Hunt) who are pinball fans; and discussion of pinball's accessibility problem—casual players don't understand basic mechanics like turns, credits, or multiplayer gameplay.

Key Claims

Andrew Moskos provided comedy voices for Stern's Dialed In pinball machine, including character 'Tony Pepperoni'
high confidence · Andrew Moskos speaking directly; confirmed he auditioned and got the job, mentions character names and being in credits
Jason Sedakis' character in Ted Lasso Season 2 references a pinball game high score named 'ACM' (Andrew C. Moskos) without Moskos' prior knowledge
high confidence · Andrew Moskos describing the scene and line: 'i don't know who you are acm but i'm coming for your ass'
Steve Richie was upset by a comedic roast poem Moskos wrote about him and asked him not to read it publicly
high confidence · Moskos describing the interaction at a Dutch pinball event; poem was read privately to community members afterward
Boom Chicago was founded in Amsterdam in 1993 after the Dutch tourism office initially rejected the business plan
high confidence · Moskos explaining the founding story: received fax rejection, came anyway
Moskos used a fake ID to play pinball in German gaming halls at age 16 to access 18+ venues
high confidence · Moskos recounting personal anecdote about German game room operator's reaction
There is a fundamental accessibility problem in modern pinball: casual players don't understand basic mechanics like turns, credits, multiplayer gameplay, or how to start games
high confidence · Moskos and Sharpe discussing industry-wide problem; Moskos proposes UI/mode solutions
One of Boom Chicago's actors (Sue Gillen) was a voice talent for Medieval Madness and worked with Tina Fey on that game
medium confidence · Moskos recounting Sue's story; Sharpe confirms Medieval Madness existed in their cafe
Jersey Jack Pinball's Pat Lawlor came out of retirement specifically to design Dialed In after being approached with the pitch 'if you could have any theme with no IP'
high confidence · Moskos describing how Dialed In came about; verified by industry context

Notable Quotes

“Laughter is life—life is better when you laugh, and comedians are the bridge to happiness.”
Andrew Moskos@ 4:12 — Core philosophy statement about comedy's role in society; sets tone for discussion of his work
“We had the best stoner idea ever: quit our jobs, move to Amsterdam, start a Second City-style comedy show.”
Andrew Moskos@ 4:54 — Founding origin story of Boom Chicago; characterizes the group's early audacity
“I remembered my hands being stretched around the game to reach the flippers and could barely do it... and I've played every game I believe since then.”
Andrew Moskos@ 6:51 — Personal origin story of 50-year pinball fandom; connects childhood memory to lifelong passion
“I really don't want you to read that poem... It's not funny.”
Steve Richie (paraphrased)@ 14:59 — Shows Richie's rejection of the roast poem and his more serious personality; unexpected given the comedic community context
“I was a drug dealer taking people outside and giving them a little dose... the good stuff Steve Richie ode.”
Andrew Moskos@ 15:33 — Humorous description of secretly sharing the poem with community members after Richie's rejection
“The best way to get a new pinball fan is to bring them in because there's so much more going on than people discover themselves.”
Andrew Moskos@ 24:13 — Industry insight about onboarding new players through social exposure and mentorship

Entities

Andrew MoskospersonZach Sharpe MenypersonSteve RichiepersonJason SedakispersonBrendan HuntpersonPat LawlorpersonBoom ChicagoorganizationJersey Jack PinballcompanyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

?
community_signal: Major entertainment industry figures (Jason Sedakis, Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso cast) are active pinball fans and have integrated pinball into their lives and creative work (Ted Lasso Season 2 reference, home game rooms)
high · Moskos confirming Sedakis and Hunt are serious pinball players with home games; Ted Lasso Season 2 features Wizard of Oz pinball game with 'ACM' high score easter egg
?
content_signal: Pinball machines appearing in mainstream TV shows (Ted Lasso) as props and thematic elements; reaching broader entertainment audiences beyond niche enthusiasts
high · Jason Sedakis (Ted Lasso creator) intentionally placed Wizard of Oz pinball game in Season 2 with Moskos' high score as easter egg; Ted Lasso cast performing with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam
?
design_philosophy: Industry-wide failure in onboarding casual players to pinball; modern machines lack intuitive UI for basic mechanics (turns, credits, multiplayer, how to start). Accessibility gap exists despite business growth.
high · Moskos detailed critique: 'nobody understands how to play pinball now... they don't understand two people play against each other, what a ball is or a credit, or that there's a plot'; proposes UI/mode solutions like on-screen player count selection
?
industry_signal: Steve Richie demonstrated humorless, serious attitude toward his career legacy; rejected comedic roast poem despite community appreciation; contrasts with Moskos' collaborative, fun-loving approach and pinball industry culture
high · Richie told Moskos directly 'I really don't want you to read that poem... It's not funny'; community members secretly read poem to each other afterward as underground 'good stuff'

Topics

Andrew Moskos' pinball history and fandomprimaryBoom Chicago comedy group founding and alumniprimaryVoice work and comedy in Dialed In pinball machineprimarySteve Richie roast poem incident and rejectionprimaryTed Lasso cast members as pinball fans (Sedakis, Hunt)primaryPinball accessibility and UI/onboarding problemsprimaryJersey Jack Pinball and Wizard of Oz impact on industry revivalsecondaryPinball in European venues and culture (Germany, Netherlands)secondaryCelebrity and pop culture connections to pinballsecondaryMultiplayer gameplay and game mechanics educationsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Episode tone is celebratory and nostalgic with affection for pinball history, comedic banter, and enthusiasm for the guest. Single negative sentiment around Steve Richie's humorless rejection of the poem and underlying industry accessibility crisis. Dominant mood is joyful connection-making between comedy, pop culture, and pinball communities.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

warning the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats listener discretion is advised [Music] the pinball network is online launching the pinball show episode 99 is here and she's coming in as hot as an amber heard steamer we've got a huge special guest co-host this week that i know you all will enjoy as we discuss pinball celebrities improvisational comedy fake gym and ids tony pepperoni and ode to Steve Ritchie getting the best of ted lasso the glory days of pinball being among us now people let's make controversy as we fix competitive pinball ap hiring the sonic pinball designer but did they forget to hire the hedgehog you think you want a sonic pinball machine but you don't haggis bringing sexy back pinball market trends and much much more now this is how an episode 99 should go early warning network alert rising tides in the marina district be on the lookout for high waves and flooding pinball is a game of skill for some it's a passion and a lifestyle it's time for the pinball show it's pinball with personality [Music] ladies and gentlemen it's the pinball show episode 99 lord we're close to a hundred what are we gonna do this special i don't know but episode 99 may be more special than anything i've ever done as a pinball podcaster i'm going to tell you why i have a juicy little nugget a juicy little treat for you today introducing a first-time guest co-host to the pinball show he's a fan of the pimple show which i love and he's an avid pinball hobbyist our guest today is a comedy entertainment writing and performing genius co-founding the renowned boom chicago an iconic sketch and improvisational comedy production group boom chicago alumni include i don't know seth meyers from late night with seth meyers saturday night live you got the oscar-winning director actor comedian jordan peele get out of here you see what i did there get out key and peel creators writers directors performers jason sedakis brendan hunt and joe kelly from the award-winning ted lasso series i know you're watching that comedienne and writer amber ruffin writer producer comedian ike berenholtz one of my favorites from such works as the mini project suicide squad bad neighbors and list goes on and on with the boom chicago alumni he's here to chat about pinball about life and i don't know hopefully a couple of tips to help me blossom into the natural entertainer that you all know me to be don't laugh people ladies and gentlemen the one the only andrew moscos fantastic thank you zach wow that is uh the best uh introduction i've ever gotten uh it makes me it makes me blush mosky you're here to hang out with me what are you doing here uh i'm a fan i have to be honest i approached zach and i said i i all the good people have been interviewed uh that was my pitch basically so you gotta go to the b team and uh and zach was nice enough to make me co-host on this very important penultimate 99th episode it is very important you're very important uh and i love your work i'm not gonna i'm not i'm i do good with celebrities i don't get you know i don't fanboy out too much so don't take offense to that but i really respect your work andrew because you know that comedy is near and dear to me not that i'm good at it but it is near and dear to me i've seen so much comedy throughout my lifetime and i look up to not typically politicians or actors or even psychologists or scientific i look up to comedians i fear that comedy is dying and people like you are continuing to keep it alive and well so for that thank you so much well comedians are important laughter is life is better when you laugh and and comedians are the bridge to happiness i love it so for those of you who are familiar aren't familiar boom chicago amsterdam i thought you grew up in chicago what are you doing in amsterdam yeah i grew up in chicago after i graduated i uh was on a a tour through uh through europe and we always flew into amsterdam first uh and we just fell in love with the city and we wanted to move there and uh no it's not for the reason you're thinking it was for the drugs so yeah we uh we had the best stoner idea ever which was quit our jobs move to amsterdam start a sort of a second city style comedy show and uh we wrote the city and said here's our idea what the tourism office uh we want a show that's good enough that you will be reviewed in the papers but it's fun enough that you go with your friends and you can drink what do you think and uh they wrote us back immediately very very impressed uh they faxed us because it was 1993 and we used faxes back then and they said your idea will not work oh and we thought that was a pretty pessimistic beginning from the tourism office we might have expected to go everything's possible in amsterdam the damn dutch yeah they said uh no uh dutch people don't want to see a show in english tourists don't want to see a show at all uh you need subsidy uh to do theater in the netherlands you won't get any subsidies so think twice about your plans and uh we framed the facts and uh came anyway the rest is kind of history so what you grew up in the chicago area what got you into improv what got you into production comedy et cetera you grew up in chicago i grew up in evanston just next to chicago born in chicago and moved back to chicago after i after i graduated i went to northwestern also in evanston i like many people i had a friend who took improv classes in chicago i come and see the show uh it was great i had this like wow moment how much fun uh you know that would be the director uh they had me i was on stage they interviewed me for a scene and and the person who ran the program said you know we give classes here you'd be really good uh i realized that uh she was selling classes to anybody but uh i i took him anyway and i i i had a great time doing it doing improv i had risen to the middle of the improv community in chicago where i would have stayed so luckily i went to amsterdam and started my own place wow pinball how the hell is pinball fit into this picture pinball my grandfather when i was too short to see over the game so that must have made me five i guess knee high to a grasshopper is what we say yeah really and and he held me up over the game and i remember my my hands being stretched around the game to reach the flippers and could barely do it i and i remember this game that had a a a bumper in the middle of four like a boxing ring of of of rubbers oh elastic bands and um i i can't remember what that game is but i researched it going like i remember this feature in the middle of one lone bumper in the middle of these four rubber band things and uh and ever since then i just loved it i've played every game i believe since then and uh and yeah now i'm in my 50s so 50 years of pinball wow i should you know i bet dennis creasel is listening right now be like i know exactly and precisely what game he was playing it wasn't italian bottom i look forward to episode 100 and hearing that report oh or so you're are you a fan of the creasel oh yeah oh it's great uh you know he's uh i think he needs he needs a zac to bring out the best in him and i think you guys do he's got a encyclopedia you know knowledge of things and uh and an opinion on everything i love it when i feel like the only time we don't hear his opinion is when he doesn't tell us but there's always one there he's cut for comedy that's that's for sure so playing pinball throughout uh throughout your life what about as a young adult uh you have yeah no so i and that was a nice era this is like in the uh in the 80s i guess in that nice valley era oh perfect 80s pinball and then the early 90s is the glory days i my mother is german and we would travel to germany and you had to be 18 to go into these uh gambling places where they had pinball so i was 16 at the time and i got a fake id that said i was 18 and when i went to the place the guy said you know this only makes you 18 years old right i go yeah that's all i needed for and uh i said i'm going to use it to play pinball in germany and he shook his head rolled his eyes and slid it across the table for me and i was the first customer of his that said that i was 18 years old and then i could go and present that and these it was like a fake idea that wouldn't get past american bouncers but uh german game room operators uh did not have any questions for me so i could play two more years of pinball in germany before the law would allow that is fast how long were you in germany then i was just like summer trips we had relatives and family so but they were pin but jeremy's a pinball country i mean back in that time germany had a great scene paris france every every cafe had a pinball machine so it was really that it was a nice time to be that age because you know you didn't have to know anyone with pinball machines in their house and just everywhere what about a hamster damn does is amsterdam i can't imagine too much pinball in the name well we have of course we've got in our marijuana coffee shops uh and a lot of those places have a pinball machine so that's a nice little extra extra sociological detail but amsterdam also had a lot of pinball machines now it you know shrunk back like it did everywhere and there's a there's still one coffee shop it's got eight or so games which is nice but but there's a renaissance happening now and more and more places have them in public as well well very interesting and then we know that there was a a manufacturing company dutch pimple that was it's still are you familiar with them they're still kind of yeah absolutely yeah they're still going they're slowly making making their lebowskis uh which is a great game it kind of has that 90s williams feel yeah okay one more set of code sure but um it plays great that upper play field is is wonderful and um and yeah it's our local that's our we're very proud of dutch pinball oh that's terrific and it sounds to me like you know quite a bit about pinball you took a a low run uh very niche themed pinball machine in the big lebowski and you knew about the upper play field so do you own pinball machines well i i was in a pinball machine actually what chicago we did the voices for the comedy voices for dialed in pinball okay one of our actors uh sue gillen we were she was driving a bar once and she was telling yeah oh i was in a pinball machine once i'm like what and she goes yeah i was in with a tina fey and uh some pinball machine medieval something you were a damsel in medieval madness she's like yeah i'm like i know you for years and this story only comes up now i mean we had medieval madness in in our in our cafe back in the day too and um so that got me thinking wow voices in a pinball machine and then uh when they they got uh pat lala out of retirement and jersey jack and said you know if you could have any theme and no ip uh would you come out of retirement and make a game and then he said yes and they dialed in and then i uh know one of the dutch guys uh jp to win jp to win yeah exactly jp for to win love yeah he's great uh so he was of course the video guy at jersey jack pinball so i call him and i say hey who's doing the voices for dialed in and he goes funny uh we're just talking about that so he puts me in touch with uh ted estes and then i make my story i go hey you know we have a history one of our actors is a damsel i learned very late i thought to myself and we are comedians and pinball uh fans and great pinball machines are funny and you should use comedians and he said okay send a send in an audition tape so we actually auditioned for a pinball machine and then got the job and uh all the voices from the phone in the modes uh those are for boom chicago actors i did not i didn't even know that about you much less that okay so the character actors were comedians yes so yeah so the uh the wonderful two-dimensional characters my my characters uh rusty spade the uh the hick i can't believe there's aliens yeah then there's uh the french guy uh jacques flood i think you see that who's the water things it's a wonderful one-dimensional two stereotypes very superior voices tony pepperoni tony pepperoni that's me hey no tip i can't believe it the building doesn't exist anymore and then uh did you really do tony pepperoni i'm tony pepperoni oh my gosh this is crazy because we've we've spoke before i i knew none of this wow okay so that makes me you know what i'm going to go out and buy that game now that makes it's hey it's a great underappreciated game it plays wonderfully do you hear me talk crap about the theme a little bit on here i guess it's funny i i wouldn't have thought that i thought that the game and and and uh pat lawler would overcome the lack of theme but um it turned out uh you were right ip is key it's such a damn great game though it really is a good game uh and i have more appreciation as our listeners do now knowing that uh they had some some big voices there cast to do some of that stuff i like it i'm in the credits if you run the game you can see boom chicago is uh do the comedy voices in the game now i do know you have credits elsewhere that we'll get to but you you were talking to me before and i wanted i wanted to see if you would uh discuss with the listeners is great about your story on steve ritchie Steve Ritchie so he came to holland for the dutch pinball opener or one of our events and uh the guys uh brought him to boom chicago our comedy club and then and we had two steve ritchie games the only we had two we had a terminator 2 classic and then we had star trek in there so it was nice to go hey you know steve look what we got yeah this was a this was fantastic and it was nice to meet him and you know play pinball with steve ritchie he's fantastic and uh he was they were looking for someone to interview him at the pinball event so i'm like of course interviewing steve ritchie that'd be great when i knew he was coming i had written a sort of a roasty poem for him an ode a tongue-in-cheek but obviously loving poem about the great Steve Ritchie and we went we had lunch across the street and i i read it at the table and everyone was like a bit a group of dutch pinball people and a journalist was with us a small group of eight people i even printed it out for steve because i knew he had hearing issues and i read it and everyone at the table thought it was funny i mean again it's like a very specific group of people that are going to enjoy a steve ritchie uh roast poem but that this was them and then i said i was gonna i was gonna read it on uh on stage when i was interviewing the next and the next morning i approach and he comes up to me and goes i really don't want you to read that poem well what he's i i i don't i don't i don't like it um i was like oh geez it's not funny i i thought he would appreciate the attention and the writing but he he did not want it and it was a bit more serious about himself and his career so i of course i didn't read it on stage but then there was like a dinner afterwards where a lot of the guests in the pinball community in holland were there and one by one they would take me outside to give them like a secret read of the poem that that could not be read in public so it was like it was like i was a drug dealer and taking people outside and giving a little dose i got the good stuff Steve Ritchie owed so what do you think it was that what what uh i have it here you know i found it uh in my files you want me to read you the steven breaking news Steve Ritchie has no sense of humor what the hell i want to hear this absolutely okay uh this is from 2014. uh so uh it ends with star trek the new star trek game although zach for you i i wrote a couple more stanzas afterwards to bring it up to to the president because i thought you would deserve it here you know how to excite me i love it i'm gonna read the whole thing apologies if it's a little too inside pinball but i think i think your audience people are listening to a pinball podcast andrew come on at atari steve's interest in games began soaring he made airborne avenger it was like pinball only boring superman was better and steve developed his golden globe he said yes to williams and moved to chicago then came flash the game drawn on a cocktail David Hankin speed flashers background music steve was the first to make that happen it sold 20 000 units a huge number way back then but steve peaked a little early could not sell that many again when you have a super hit why would you change the course then steve made a worse flash and called it stellar wars richie found his rhythm a style you can't dispute let others do the soft themes because steve would not do cute firepower brought us multiball the game was not mundane with another richie trademark balls that like to drain then black knight know thee black knight goodbye to your ball you wave then steve himself will laugh at you as you missed the magnus save then came hyperball something we had not seen prior and if you've never ever played one it's just like rapid fire you shot tiny balls real fast it was loud and went berserk it's hard to describe it well because it didn't really work then high speed had a plot music a jackpot hooray based on a true story but steve did not get away 504 this is dispatch he what Steve Ritchie did not get away f4 team tomcat increased the speed and gave some epilepsy roller games said don't flip then try to sell us pepsi black knight 2000 the first wizard mode no doubt now wives could hear more pinball stories that they don't care about high speed 2 and t2 more games for the boys with superchargers guns and cannons filled with richie toys then star trek next generation steve is the king of flow and if you played that game steve's also king of the outhou with missions modes and ramps quadrants alpha gamma beta and if you collect the artifacts for the final frontier then thank you mr data no fear and t3 were fun for experts and beginners then came poker tour and elvis well they can't all be winners ac dc for aging rockers past their day's hotel room trashing good music good shots good fun let's stop the lights from flashing let's skip to now and end this pinball love letter steve made a second star trek game software update made it even better klingon multiball vengeance ship koyabashu maoru keeps you pumping the skill shot is really skill and the blue targets now do something oh the poor blue target star trek's the best pinball in years wizard of oz gets a salute it's hard to beat Steve Ritchie the man does not do cute wow so that was the poem i wrote for him absolutely fantastic how what in the hell is wrong with Steve Ritchie that was i would have been flattered to have a pornography described in verse i thought he would be too and i thought i mean come on you're steve ritchie you don't have to worry about a zing on on uh selling pepsi and roller games who knows oh yeah he was no he was really serious he did not wanted to so it's funny all right let me bring it up to speed here this is uh this is the zac edit release release the sax cut love it it just seems i couldn't end it 2014 here i'm only gonna be on this podcast once game of thrones played well ellie's a feather in his bonnet sure the flow on pro was good shame with no toys on it star wars had that death star ball smashed and it went around shame when you hit that inner loop the ramp slowly goes down now that that's a super inside joke black knight 3 was fun and hard the ball flew as we fought it the night the mace his voice again shame that no one bought it then zeppelin came and gnr and richie's seemed more whack then he surprised most everyone and moved to jersey jack now we are all excited for a game like those of your look for steve's big budget game sometime in 24. you said at best which is like how they they must have games you know brewing when do we get that steve ritchie game i don't know when we get it sadly probably not even in 2024 but who knows oh that was beautiful well thank you uh so Steve Ritchie still a fan uh even if he's not a fan of mine that's okay do you like the jersey jack games you you referenced wizard of oz there yeah i thought wizard of oz was groundbreaking like uh the uh the savior ball us you know game for losing the ball was just perfectly hard enough but you know doable uh that was great that upper play field was wonderful two upper playfields i mean you know we take them for granted now but it was amazing people still hate on those screens i i love the big old 27 inch display there yeah absolutely what's not to love and i think it you know it attracts new players too so it has that role as well that's what got me andrew that's what got me into pinball again it's uh i loved pimo growing up but went to grad school you know it started a family started life and it wasn't until wizard of oz slapped him in the nuts and it was like look this is pinball and this you could own in your home and that's what yeah that's what really got me i was like wait a minute this isn't just some nostalgic [ __ ] anymore like this is cool and then i played it and i thought oh well this isn't just starting a multiball like back in the late 80s early 90s i actually have uh i have levels to get to like a video game so that that game even though you know i'm torn i'm i'm mixed on whether i love love that game but that one i attribute to getting me back in full blown on on the pinball industry oh i mean and it's it charged the pinball industry itself i mean now that raise the stakes for everyone once you see that it just i think everyone sort of had like a tucker in their shirts boys let's get going you know something here uh-huh yeah oh i love that now speaking of wizard of oz you have a really cool story about uh wizard of oz and pop culture uh recently yes oh right i have another connection to wizard of oz uh the ted lasso guys i got there started boom chicago you said that in your introduction and uh so ted lasso in season two plays a wizard of oz game in in the bar in richmond and uh the high score on the game that he has cannot beat is acm and he's got a line in there where he goes i don't know who you are acm but i'm coming for your ass and he launches the ball with the challenge and acm is me and i had no idea they did not tell me uh that that was going to be in there but uh jason is a is a jason sedakis is a big pinball fan yeah comes from from from his boom chicago days where we had medieval madness in his era and i explained i mean the best way to get a new pinball fan is of course to bring them in because there's so much more going on than people discover themselves and once you get the strategy and the shots and how it works so that was jason's introduction to pinball and now he's uh you know a game room have her in the basement with his own games well he doesn't he's got his own games and everything oh he does absolutely perfect yeah he's got his own game room um he gave brendan hunt who's coach beard in the show oh just so well played brendan hunt he's brendan he's fantastic he's uh he's in amsterdam right now they just they're filming a week of uh ted lassos in amsterdam and we had the big wrap party parties with him last night didn't you yeah oh it was great uh brendan and jason were on stage uh with us and uh you know they still got it because you know when you don't improvise five days a week anymore you know you can get rusty but they they're such pros and they were so good the audience so into it the the current cast happy to play with them uh me and the old g and the ogs uh were were there as well also did well on stage so uh it was really a nice night and then yeah we went to 4am downstairs uh i didn't know if you were going to make the podcast today because of it i did have to warn zach i said listen i'm happy to tape today but it is possible that things get so crazy that i will be no condition and they did get so crazy but luckily we're we're recording uh six in the evening boom chicago time so it got a bit easier for us i was thinking to myself i'm about to get [ __ ] bumped by sedakis like what the hell i'll tell you the story if you're gonna if you're gonna get bumped yeah that's right so yes i had two i think because i'm yeah speaker head as well oh i was gonna say uh as a as a gift for finishing season two he got brendan who is the soccer fan that got him into soccer way back at boom chicago in the early 2000s so as a thank you to brendan for turning jason into the into the soccer fan that he is now he bought brendan a world cup soccer game also a great game yeah so i when i visit him in la i he he said i got a surprise he takes me up to his his attic and this game is in there and uh uh it took me two games to uh to beat his high score but uh i uh sorry brendan but acm acms on your game at home up his game a little bit there that's a challenge gauntlet throne brandon no like he's listening brandon's listening sedacus is listening they're yeah oh absolutely literally zach you're you're famous you're world famous in pinball yeah not even in pinball have you not talked to people sedega's brother [ __ ] a coin taker customer oh hey listen once he hears this podcast he's gonna be he's gonna be flipping out for life oh i love you know what i would uh i would give jason sedakis a brand new pinball machine i would if he allowed me to film myself in like a greg bone driving to his place to deliver it yeah hey so that would be a great episode would it not sedaticus needs no money and he needs he has no time for me but hey celebrities even like free [ __ ] i've seen him at the oscars celebrities love free [ __ ] hey listen jason listen i can i can vouch for zach i think he should do it i know he's listening so let's just talk right to him oh yeah mustache rides all day hey you and greg that's the real comedy duo uh if you want my if you want my respect uh that's so much fun to watch you guys you've got this energy and this pop culture reference and yeah of course it's about pinball but it's also about you guys and no one else does that like you do and i know greg it's all the you know the love yeah okay but that's the easy that's the easy job you've got the hard job you're making that thing go and and your opinion sorry greg in his data east games and things like that weird but listen the right the right ratio is three times zack plus one times greg divide by four that's the right score oh you hear that boney you hear that and you know what while we're at it i'm gonna pile on everybody acts like he's just so superior he has such superior attraction and looks to oh you know what i'm no [ __ ] quasimodo like you know he's not leaps and bounds above me come on he's bet he's better looking no absolutely not there's the brains of the operation zach i'm sorry i'm i'm attracted to that yeah thank you very much and how here i got the wives that we have is beyond both of us so we let's probably a lot of us in the audience are lucky to have the wives we have why why can't our wives love pinball can you just help me with that zach i don't you know what i'm actually okay with that yeah because i think it'd be kind of weird i know a lot of a lot of listeners out there your spouses or your partners significant others love pinball with you and while that almost seems to be uh something that i would be jealous of i'm actually not i'm not it gives me my thing that i just love and and i get to hang out with like-minded people to do and i don't want my wife kicking my ass on pinball like that that would that would be tough i wouldn't like that at all oh i'm not so competitive i would love i would i'd be nice if you know i would i travel for to go to like good game rooms and stuff and i guess it is nice it is i guess it is a solo thing i i think it's only a solo thing not by choice despite necessity i wonder or do you think it's nice to have it separate it's interesting i think it's nice to have it all right so you know sedakis has got uh brendan they're pinball people now any anybody else that you know from uh boom chicago stuff that that fancies the pinball do you guys have a machine or something at the theater there we used to have games uh but they were not they weren't played enough and we had we had a great collection and it was the pinball people came in and that's nice oh that's that's funny there's a guy uh rvg and um he would rvg would have the high scores in our games and um i i'm not like i'm not like i'm saying i'm not so competitive but um on my own game and rpg who's this guy unfortunately regular bar players don't play enough pinball and you know that is a problem too you know there's the glory that you know the business is going so well for pinball right now but there is a second problem that is being hidden underneath that which is that nobody understands how to play pinball now i don't mean like they don't understand how to get modes and jackpots i'm saying is they don't understand that two people play against each other they don't understand what a ball is or a credit or that there's a plot you know that there it's i mean think of how hard we make it we in the industry zach you know uh you know when you want to play a game how do you play it how do you even know that two people play against each other you know it talks about adding credits okay what's a credit yeah you don't press press start okay starts easy it's flashing oh press start twice for two players you'll never know why is that yeah why but why is it that way i mean how about this how about you press start and it says how many players and then with the flippers you scroll through a number and it goes one two three four and then it says that yes there's a free one there's a free one for guys but that that's the first question is we i here's another we should make a mode in each pinball you start to see these like cooperative modes and things like that happening that's all step in the right direction but again you know you have to be a pinball nerd to understand down there yeah i mean you have to you know watch you know pinball shows to know that you know it's not like it's like such a carryover from the old days you know where you could explain the plot of a pinball machine on a card and now you just can't none of those words make any sense yeah i mean i can't even understand how to play games and i've played every game for for 50 years you know and you have you have to watch videos to really understand them but okay that's that's for pro level play we have youtube we watch videos no problem but there should be a simple mode for a beginner called beginner mode you know and that it just starts automatically and that simple mode is almost like hit everything to light up every light you know just like not light all lights that's that's the level of play that people should be having just ignore all the brilliant rules that we love and just make a game for first timers or just like hit the ball up a ramp you know and then give us a light show and call it a million you know like it's think about what how simple gambling games are slot machines are so something like that where it almost plays itself and just and then if you if you like it because people need to get pinball and most people they are attracted to it they play it once and they walk away if i'm there to explain it i can i can explain it to him and i can teach him how to make shots because that's even easier than people think you know like the sweet spot on the flipper and the butt of the flipper so that's my thing a simple mode that has nothing to do with the regular rules which is basically just like lock a ball hit targets no i like that i like that andrew because think about it just like you were saying have all the lights lit on the game especially the path lights have all of them lit and as they're flailing around if they hit a ramp of said light that light goes out then then it teaches them hey there is some skill and aiming here i've got these other lights that i need to knock out the lights to and then maybe that's that's your introductory uh course to you know pinball is more about just keeping the balls alive it's about identifying what the machine wants you to shoot and here's how it communicates how it wants you to do so right and designers think that by saying shoot flashing shots that they're doing it but it actually doesn't work you you can't shoot flashing shots with a big game of everything is flashing yeah everything's [ __ ] flashing like everything's flashing and you know yeah you almost have to turn everything else off but that but that's what but then they go like oh but the plot is so great we want people to play the plot let them graduate to regular mode or x or whatever you're going to call the plot mode but first just every game the same thing turn off all the lights it doesn't matter what it is turn off all the lights and just get them to play again and get them to want to learn more and then you hook them then then we've got them dead we got it what do you think hooks people like you were talking about getting sedakiss into pinball getting other people into pinball uh from your experience with it what do you think it is that that just switches that on for them than the like the the aha moment or the oh [ __ ] this isn't this isn't just the 70s you know a wood rail where i'm flipping around here yeah i don't it's first of all like the reason pinball continues is because it is mechanical like it's like billiard you can't play billiard on the computer i mean you can but it sucks you can't play all these pinball games even i mean of course the the the good ones are better but it's different you know the flipper mechanics and the stuff it really has to be that connection and i think that we as humans like the idea of like like a like a bat hitting a ball you know in baseball it's kind of that's that's what the flipper sort of shot kind of is so that is the core and that's why it competes against playstation 5 for attention but i think the thing that that connects people that really everyone you know starts swatting at balls and tries to keep the ball in play and there's like a nervousness that you have and then when it drains people always are like embarrassed even it's intimidating yes it's intimidating it's scary and it sucks like i hate playing i hate playing with novices who think like i'm just it's for me i'm not a competitive pinball i'm not a tournament pinball player at all that's a whole level of player that's better than me but i am i'm the best at pro amateur you know or whatever whatever we call us so they go they think that oh i'm playing badly and i'm and i'm embarrassed about it uh so when they can control the ball that is when that's when they work and you can do that in the first lesson and i almost say is the first when i teach people i go if you hit on the tip of the flipper it goes here almost to the side the sweet spot it goes right up that ramp here's the middle here's the butt of the flipper and then i'd say you know try to catch the ball and hit it up the ramp and if you catch the ball and don't of course everyone thinks that if it goes in the in hole and then it goes up the flipper and then drains in the middle that's the one you can't catch that's right yeah check that out but catch a ball and get it up the ramp and that the the joy that people have of hitting a shot and uh and i kind of i think that you need to have that fan or friend to sort of like give you mini goals unrelated to what the game is telling you to do and that's that satisfaction be able to control the ball that's when people start to open up to it yeah i completely agree i feel like there are stages uh andrew where the first is people kind of know what pinball is they know it's a physical type of mechanism a game a yumminess if you will that's what gets them there i think that another step uh you're right it's figuring out that instead of just batting it around like a chimp like you have aim you have goals you can shoot here if you look at where your ball is on your flipper just like a baseball bat just like a hockey stick you can control that it becomes more sport-like i think that next step then falls into the invention of multiball and the experience of what a multiball is holy crap this now i'm as a player i'm on another level here i've got all kinds of it's that immediate reinforcement right back to you that i've done something right because now i've got multiple balls on the playing field like a basketball court with five basketball right so you know it's a joy yeah i'm scared you get more points you get more exciting it's it's it's harder i mean it's it's a clear achievement that you just understand you know you know chimpanzees would understand he's put three balls in three balls at the same time wow yeah and then that next step is the one that i think we as an industry have the most difficult time bridging from that multi bowl to ownership to repeated playing which would be understanding that there are complex rules there's a story line here there is a finish if you will there are levels just like a video game that gets you to this final battle once they click into that there's no going back that's exactly right that's why you know you are a hobbyist that's why a lot of the people that play and talk about pinball that's what gets them there i i strongly feel like that you you talked to me before about you feeling like uh you talked about the 90s kind of being the glory days of pinball but you said honestly the glory days of pinball are among us right now they are it's you know so i agree you get you get grief for like oh zach loves every game [ __ ] yeah yeah but but every game is good i mean what what an era we live in i mean every new game and and and maybe getting better like how exciting is that like how about the joy you felt when you first played godzilla you know how how can there be with that the same measurements you know and the same you know flippers how could it be a game that seems so fresh and different but there it was right the building falling down there's just so much in that game that is perfect it's really perfect that magnet grab thing you know and how many different ways it grabs your ball and drops it on that top flipper wow it's it is it's so it's and every time a game there's there's no bad game i mean no because there are so many things going for modern pinball that's the thing and you're right it can and will continue to grow continue to get better but a lot of people ask andrew like what what's contributed to my thoughts as to why the glory days of pinball are right now and it's not a recency effect i think there's a couple things just a little pinball 101 here for you listeners let's see if you agree with me andrew i want to see if you agree with me with this i'm going to just give you some quick aspects of 101 on why i think the glory days of pinball you are correct they are among us now number one generational pinball machines are nostalgic they were created kind of at the birth of video gaming thus individuals who grew up during the arcade boom they have nostalgia ingrained into their neurological circuitry and now they have the means to purchase that for themselves to take them back to yesteryears of how they felt being innocent as a child i think generational i think you're absolutely right because when we were young and that is why so many people are in this age group not your your you've got some time zach but nothing i'm getting there but but it is because in in when you in the era of arcades you know for 25 cents you play the game and at some point as a kid you were out of money um and i think that that is something because lives were not unlimited and and balls you know ran out so when you had you know you had two quarters left in your pocket you know you it was you know six balls and then you got to go home fighting for that extra game extra ball yeah yeah an extra ball right that was more time you know so like that was that was really exciting so the uh the the limited number of guys ships and balls in the arcade is an important part of growing up of of my era and i think that is also part of it wasn't everyone loves the games of their childhood but there was something a different way of consuming it when you couldn't just restart a game when you had a bad first ball perfectly set number two another reason why we are in the glory days right now listeners that people don't go out as much and americans you know not not to stereotype americans kind of love collecting stuff social interactions relationships have become more and more virtual and online it's hard to take a pinball machine to your buddy's house that like you can a video game cartridge right right it's it's you take it down the stairs once and it stays there and it stays there that's that's uh that's kind of why you know you get them into the home these are the glory days because uh you couldn't do that in the past even one thing about that is dice too is it's something to collect that actually is fun to collect because you play it you know it's not just it's not just a a rare item or something you look at right right exactly this is rare i mean where the rareness is the value of course rare pinball machines and you know customization is a part of that too but at the end of the day you get to play your collectible yes and that is uh what else is as much fun to play what other collectible is as much fun to play as pitch collectible toy that you can play that goes up in value it's awesome yeah yeah another reason that the glory days of pinball are among us listener is the media look hate all you want but you know what happened as we started seeing pinball collecting and ownership take a sharp upward trend bingo come on remember everybody stern toppers they used to sit on dealer shelves they wouldn't even sell for 300 to 500 in hell that wasn't even but five six years ago it was also before flipping out pinball and straight down the middle sorry media is responsible for also creating a built-in relationship in my opinion with the creators never before in this industry andrew and listener have people cared about the designers the artists the programmers it wasn't even a thing media has painted the color into these stories and marketing and sales experts will tell you time and time again it's not always about the product it's about possessing something that makes you feel included and intrigued that's what media has done i don't care who says otherwise you know you're absolutely right i mean so to two interesting points there one is yeah that think how far down we go into the team to appreciate their work you know of course people always appreciated what the art is but did we know the names of the artists and you know code i mean code is obviously super key but i mean people didn't talk about code you know back in the day and who makes good code but i mean yeah we know the difference between good and bad code you know you can't tell the game without a scorecard you know that old thing is now you can appreciate the different people's different skills and then the second thing is is that customization isn't that funny to think that you used to just of course a pinball machine was a pinball machine and now toppers and uh and custom and mods and all these things that i want my game you know to be different and have some personality to it so it's the tinkering part of pinball and making new code and putting in you know new rules and all this stuff here like who would have thought that pinball is a mod thing but it is already and it's going to get even more obvious it correlates with our society's uh individual approaches to like social media right facebook twitter everybody is their own individual that's why so many people are not going into trades they're going into the showbiz they're going into entertainment because everybody has their own story and we get to broadcast it to everybody which is why we see some of these things like toppers or customizations really hit home and there's nobody that's going to tell you what you know i hate to say this listener but we need media to kind of tell us what we want and what we don't want what's in what's out that's what media does and that's why showbiz works and has worked decade upon decade upon decade it's the media that's funny like you you used to buy a magazine about movies because you wanted to know the story and that's how you got closer because it's not just the movie it's the story behind the movie and the actors behind the movie and that media that you're talking about allows us to be part of a conversation about something where we talk about oh you know what's what's you know keith's next game gonna be like and we know the backstory we talk to these people like that that is feeling cool that allows if you feel included absolutely we couldn't have that back in the newspaper days yeah another well there was no pinball newspaper maybe we could have but uh yeah another reason the glory days of pinball are among us listeners because of licensed intellectual property this is like i'm a broken record here but i'm piggybacking off just the point that before we were making about nostalgia in general it's just obvious now that known intellectual properties do sell same with like rules code depth enhancement these things have the depth of mimicking video games now remember when like arcade video games made this transition arcade machines are still stuck with lack of depth where pinball kind of evolved that's funny we we have these big honkin arcade machines you go into an fec or family entertainment center listener and you play these games they may only have 20 to 40 minutes of storyline you will beat them very quick and they they evolved because now they're home consoles but the arcade is very much the same whereas pinball has to be the same thing in both places so it has evolved with rules depth and code and if done correctly they can pull in that that first time player as well yeah yeah hey with the intellectual property question that's interesting so you know obviously you know the bands that picks you know are those that appeal to the you know 40 and 50 something like purchasers do we get a rap theme pinball machine ever because hip hop has gone from you know a niche feel of niche thing where you know white people did not know what rap music was i remember explaining it to people i had a rap music show in college and uh it was kind of an early adapter there and i remember joking once about you know imagine someday there's going to be rap music in a mcdonald's commercial and that seems so ridiculous to us in the 90s and one day we watched it i said well look at this here it is wrap music and mcdonald's commercial but as you know as rap music becomes the music of america of all america do we get a run dmc game you know sort of like a dad rap game a beastie boys game yes would that be funny we will get that we will get that and that's because of the 90s yeah the generation of pinheads before us that was the ac dc's that was the 70s the 80s guys growing up now that us 80s and 90s guys are getting older and we have means to do so yes we're going to see stuff like a dre we're going to see a snoop dogg those things are coming and they're going to hit you see this new dog the pinball machine that might be it i was wondering what is the first one but that that has he's got broad appeal out the way oh my god wasn't that fantastic it's coming it's coming we're right now we're still we're still giving uh given some of the guys you know their 70s and 80s stuff but the 90s is coming and i think over the next decade especially over the next maybe five years even we may see some sprinkle into pinball as well as everything else societally it has eminem another candidate oh eminem might be the bridge game yeah how about that huh i would love that other things that that really hit home for the glory days of pinball technology i mean lcd integration improved lighting is a huge huge thing we talked about just the physicality of what pinball it is as a society listener we've become numb to the experience of what audio video can do it's in our entertainment it's in our movies it's in our songs that you can't it's everywhere everything's digital everything's programmed results in physics everything is in the [ __ ] cloud pinball on the other hand still relies on physics it still relies on mechanical engineering you cannot program a ball bearing and what events can take place on that play field you can't program magnet reactivity ensures a health camp program the feeling in your fingertips or of a flipper as the ball hits it or the subtle sounds of hundreds of lights and coils working in unison as a symphony playing a piece that makes you simply want to cry you cannot program randomness no how about that shaking a ball out of an out hole and sometimes it magically climbs up and sometimes it doesn't why oh my veteran sex yeah oh shaking it out oh good oh hello oh almost done here listen this is my thesis for uh this week the glory days of pinball are among us i can tell you why because of collectibility in general humans want what they can't have part shortages have injected even more fuel into this feverish equation look add additional elements such as limited runs hand-drawn artwork aesthetics on high-end models additional features that are limited to only a few around the entire globe people want it and you can play it you could scarce and the last reason that we are in the heyday in the glory days of pinball is more recent it's a pandemic sure pinball was on the rise even prior to this but this global setback really sprinkled the seasoning into this equation people now stay at home more and the money that they would have spent on things outside the home are now going into things that can entertain them and can keep their minds off of bad things in the world they're at home and why not do something andrew like you were saying that they can not only complain but holds value it's not consumable as if uh you know it's it's fruit you can keep these things and these things have been running for decades absolutely and with deeper and deeper uh code that keeps you you know playing deeper and deeper and not getting bored of it i mean that's a nice thing too because you can just play it longer and play it more the same investment or okay inflation higher but but you get so much more out of your pinball machine today than than in the old days yeah so listener you heard it from andrew moscos and zac minnie the glory days of pinball are among us now now and we just proved why man you and i are a good team here i'm gonna lie all right we just waxed poetic on these fools andrew i feel pretty good uh you know people gotta be schooled sometimes people guts to learn here's where they're going to maybe turn on us though i i want to bring up to the audience you were so kind uh and complimentary and you reached out to me to discuss my takes on competitive pinball and production and and presenting this as a nice little spoon to the masses i was a long time fan but that the the criticism you were getting there caused me to reach out because you are a visionary ahead of your time exactly this is absolutely right at this point oh and you guys this is so funny right now as people roll their eyes they have nothing to say because if anyone understands how to entertain and how to engage people you are proof you are proof objective proof and they can't hate anymore they can and they will look i i i don't know i don't know if i'm that qualified to say that but obviously it would be in our interests if pinball think how many funny sports are sports you know if you watch if you watch i don't know what's the highest espn these days you know i don't know cornhole how is cornhole a sport you know like but but i've seen people watch it and and two people in a booth comment on it and talk about strategy and players you know so why not pinball now okay the one problem is of course is that there's the shape of pinball it doesn't feel pretty well yeah no let me just give that out that's true is this true you know the the live stream thing with a small you know game on the right side and two i don't quite have the perfect answer to that so let me just say that i i hear that the traditionalists on that one but why not make something that is consumable for people that aren't just the participants of the contest doesn't that make sense it needs the equivalent of cricket is i don't know anything about qriket but apparently it takes many days to watch a match and they invented something oh a good good preparation here andrew they invented something called like 30 30 or 70 70 and it was like a faster cricket that the purists of course hated but now that is the popular form of cricket and what used to take days now takes three hours or something like that and it introduces it to the masses and we need to find some way i'm talking about big production i'm talking about story lines that you see in other professional sports pinball i don't think she's going to be taken seriously who are we kidding we need loud players we need commentators that actually are more entertaining than the play itself that is the that's the key right there is and that's again comedy is at the center of this whole thing like darts why is darts a thing and it's partially because of what you're talking about we have people cheering and drinking uh in these competitions you have commentators explaining the finer points you know a player who's calling the action and then a color person who brings a little bit of experience let's start with that and people that have a bit of charisma and you know wipe out the show you heard another show i'm talking about yeah okay so obviously it's fun to see people bounce on balls into the water but the the the two hosts of wipeout make that show and the writers you don't think that there's writers in the show but you know they're setting up dynamics they're naming people they're giving us things that are going to come back later exactly so you just need to put put two comedians who like pinball uh maybe from an amsterdam based comedy show uh maybe in the booth and then have a competition happen around it but yeah you know one of the things you were complaining about is that the cop the finals don't happen on a modern game yeah uh mystery has a feedback to that yeah you know what here's what happens whenever i take strong takes that are correct that people don't want to admit i get a flood of emails the majority of them are pretty nasty and they're like you're completely wrong you're an idiot you haven't been in this long enough you don't even play in competitive pinball until you can play in a tournament once then you can't say it which is complete [ __ ] and then there are people i almost read the emails andrews and whispers they're like so i i mean i totally agree with you actually because that doesn't make any sense why people wouldn't or why they would not have new modern games to get more people hooked in nobody cares about these non-light so i get a lot of feedback but it's almost as if people that agree with me don't want to be behind me but they just want to let me know hey you're fighting a good fight there and then the people support you silently people that disagree are very loud in it here's with you first of all we do not attach concurrent competitive pinball that continues exactly how it is because why why make people mad okay but i never thought we start a new league we start this cricket 2020 league where it is maybe short challenges uh that people have to knock out quickly in time you know so it's uh it's 30 second moments that pinball you know pinball kind of goes on too long for a layman and then if you make it so hard it then it's it's kind of random if it drains or not so it's got to be a new i'm watching winning time the uh the lakers that's a very yeah so so but the idea of the pizzazz and the sexiness and the and and the the celebrities component but just like the the energy of it well and what i think andrew tell me if you agree with me for this idea that you're having here i think commentary is of crucial importance as well as production editing i don't think any of this stuff is live i think no not live it's too long this is all pre-recorded you take that snippets like that sportscenter you know here's here's the recap of the game and then in post you do commentary because then you can poke you can create humor in this you can have transitions that go to another screenshot that's how you pull people in and get them to want to keep watching the sport that's great you have to introduce them to the things that are going to come up and just like wipeout they do it afterwards because you have to know who's going to win so you can set that person up as the underdog yes to create the story so it's not live that's the that's the key right there the key to competitive pinball is you need to tell the story like it's sports so you need to have characters that have a backstory so we care about them coming in and we know about their past performance and how it affects what's happening here then you need to explain uh the plot and the table and what is going to happen and what you should be looking out for amen then you have to make the story of how it whole thing builds because that's the key you need good commentary comedians maybe in the in the studio comedians will be great and and then uh and then i think you know don't do it live no yeah doing it live nothing nothing good is going gonna happen live unless you have a sport that's established that's why people watch baseball and basketball live that's why it's exciting live we're not there yet we've got we've got mountains of [ __ ] mordor to get to before we get to that point we gotta feed you first and by you i mean the general audience that's not even listening to the show no but you're exactly right and and do it in post because once you see how the game goes then you do the commentary on it that's the way to do it but if you just wanted to do a better version of tournament pinball i mean explaining a strategy like the just like every sport there is a strategy they have a plan we can watch that plan being either executed successfully we can see sometimes a switch happening in strategy these are all things that if you had someone explaining it maybe the characters are just in the booth i can see so that i agree the characters in the booth and then you and then or you treat it straight up like a real sport where you actually explain it to people because people seem to like it when they get it it only has to be espn 7. we don't have to be anything higher than that also this new system can attract sponsors and sponsors can mean cash payouts and you know viewership so if you think about it as a as a as a show as a as a tv show as a business as a as a league that makes money as opposed to a league that crowns champions that's what this new pinball tournament thing could be yeah i think big tournament payouts via sponsorships is kind of where it's at there there's got to be a reason for competitors to be there to do all of this to really give it their all and for the viewer to watch like holy [ __ ] there's a hundred thousand dollars on the line here and these players really want to win this and coaching some of these players or maybe choosing some players that do have a little flare yeah that do hit the lock down bar or throw a little tantrum like a child i'm not talking about you eric stone jalon but some you know a meteorologist by day really pissed off pinball player by night like that that is what sells that you know i i hate to say it but keith elwin in this format only sells because he's this stoic cannot be beaten doesn't say a word type of person one of the greatest pinball designers ever otherwise you throw keith that one out because he's a boar like i need people with and dress them up and dress them up to support their game i think a little bit too brendan hunt when he was at the emmys he wore a british like a top hat and had a cane and had a ridiculous suit on because that's brendan because he's this character who has who has costume changes in his life you know that's that's fantastic but you want those kinds of people because it is a you're kind of being cast and also in this new league maybe you you leave the the actual competition of the the actual top rating people that can come along later but it's almost like a comp test among interesting next level people and and that and those next level people with stories and characters and names and personalities can that's the reality show part of it and i can hear people shaking their heads and why would you have a competition that wasn't about the best but there are always different levels of play the general public doesn't know who's great or who's not great for the most part anybody playing in competitive pinball for the most part knows what they're doing and they can achieve things that would be exciting if explained by a commentator to the audience pinball like many things in life are just kind of boring unless you're super into them i think we gotta package it a different way well see i'm not crazy people ahead of your time ahead of your time oh my gosh speaking of being ahead of my time and just people you know because there are some fans out there i love you guys and uh i'll take pictures and you know five by sevens colossians 8 but whatever you guys need but autograph them uh you know i've been known but what about when it comes to performance when it comes to you didn't say pioneer but i feel like that's what you're thinking about me are there any tips that you can give me or any improvisational techniques that what am i doing right what am i not doing right what do i need to work on i want to get i'm a man of the stage come on zach first of all that's the right question is actors always need notes what's going on but most of my notes are positive with your with you because you have do you do the preparation which is key you know you know what you're going to say it can't just be shooting off shooting from the hip okay but you are in the moment you have you know it feels like you've got bullet points so you get through you got a couple of jokes you're funny that's nice yes and yeah yes and abs absolutely the core of improvisation so someone says something and then you build on it so you have to be in the moment which which you are so that's great i think you see this as more than just the pinball content and that's nice too because the show that is what what an actor and a comedian does as well too so tries to take a step back and think about the bigger picture and i see that a lot with what you're doing you are gracious as an improviser that's always nice to make your partner look good you've been wonderful with me and you make your guests feel at home and you're very respectful and nice and those are those are fantastic people are getting grossed out cut me down cut me down but you've got a little bit of an edge okay you get mean you get dirty uh that's always when you and greg get like a little vulgar in there it's always like whoa this is it's a little does it go a little too edgy i love it i think it's great i i i think it's i think it's good i i think that uh yeah you that the showmanship is what attracts me and that's why uh you are uh the biggest pinball podcast in the universe huge of the pinball world that we are saying shivers even he's in amsterdam and i got an amsterdam in praising me thank you but yeah move over nate shivers um moscos has got to another flame here and it's me so what do i need to do different what doesn't work uh you know i know some people will go market trends is what doesn't work but i gotta respect i like it and i like that you double down on it even in the face of adversity all right so it's not my report card's okay yeah your poor cards uh i'd i'd give it a give it a correct bone b man there's plus comic timing right there uh well yeah i mean you said it and i think it's time to jump in you ready to get your hands dirty and your feet wet do it ladies and gentlemen we got a hard cut in five minutes so we're going to get the celebrity out here but until then we get a five minute session of pinball you didn't think i was gonna yell did you mock your trends come on baby i did think you were gonna yell here we go training up this week we've gotta do it he's here and somewhere over there this non-us is what we call it we call it the us and everything but and over there in haggis pinball it's everything but somebody's bringing sexy bag because training up this week is fathom revisited mermaid edition man now did you ever uh do you have any interest in the old the old classic valleys i love it the 80s valley stuff are so good uh including uh including uh that one fathom but uh centaur also turning up this week is champion pub there you go dwight asking the glory of this being trending up because it's only going to happen this month i'm here doing the research and reporting the facts for you and champion pub went from this niche gimmicky game that was only you know it still held a secondary value higher than a lot of the other comparable games of its time it was selling a year or two ago for mid 5 000 but no no no this little trophy piece now is in the eight thousands it's a specialty piece that a lot of new pinball people want to get their hands on or those collectors that want to make a trophy out of champion pub training up in a big way over the last couple of months also turning up this week is flipping out pinball hiring entertainer and producer greg bone to the team welcome aboard greg what's he gonna do [Laughter] what a charitable hiring here no uh he's running his lead on tech on tech repairs submitting warranty claims i i told the guy that i would hire him for media i would hire him to do videos and he's so damn humble and friendly andrew that he's like i can't i couldn't take your money doing that like i have fun doing that as a friend so what else do you have for me because i want to be into pinball i want to want to do something in this industry so i said i'm tired of doing tech calls so he's like yeah absolutely so he's been training fantastic it'll be great to have him nearby it's that's that's going to be a good hire i predict it's going to be so awesome he's working on some of our media stuff as well but uh but i got you training up there boney man the bone is trining up that's nice and dirty unfortunately this week training down is led zeppelin premium oh poor led zeppelin is that damn stairway now do you guys see on pin side 7 100 something dropped on one of these led zeppelin dropped to that's ridiculous it's led zeppelin premium is going down that's crazy i don't know yeah i don't know i don't know particularly why but maybe it's the the influx of rush as a new banned pen i don't i don't get it poor ray is crying in chicago right now it's okay you're a young buck you got plenty of years you'll figure it out but yeah led zeppelin premium one just sold for seventy one hundred dollars not that i have one used that i have listed for eighty six hundred dollars is certainly never gonna sell but that's okay maybe we'll get a little trend later on for that game but right now you can buy low on led zeppelin premium also training down this week is farting in your sleep sorry look i was in trouble this last week my my wonderful beautiful wife nicole she was angered in the middle of the night by me and she acted as if listener everybody farts in their sleep i think usually not loud enough to wake yourself up but she awoke me and she said look like stop and i'm like stop what she's like well number one you're snoring but number two like you keep farting and it's it's horrendous and i don't know how she can blame me for that andrew i'm not controlling my farts in my sleep but i'm awake you can control that but not not when you're sleeping you're a passive aggressive farter let's be honest you're sending her messages we i get we get you hey look listener it's not like i'm dropping a [ __ ] deuce next to captain jack sparrow while i'm sleeping i mean isn't that relevant right now all right i can't tell you how gracious you have been doing this show uh how much i look up to you and how kind you are as a human being and because of you so many great things happened in media for me and helped this is this sounds bs but i promise you i'm i'm cliche and i'm hokey at times but it is genuine you have made me enjoy a lot of things in life indirectly and directly so for that thank you much less coming on this joke of a show thank you so so much andrew right back at you i've been a big fan and i'm glad that i had the the just i decided to reach out and i get to do this show and then i get to listen to it and the sad thing is people are going to enjoy this so much they're going to beg for you to come back so maybe in the future at some point would you be willing to come back absolutely absolutely to combine pinball and comedy and uh being treated well what's what's not to like see what celebrities do they'll lie to you and just you'll love them but i want to be back before episode 199 though that's that's what i want absolutely deal and can you tell people where they can catch some of your work or any events you guys have coming up at boom chicago come to amsterdam that's that's really the way to come we've got a theater uh in the center called boom chicago where and the comedy group is boom chicago as well we've got a show right now about the metaverse called metalluck next time we like to do shows about current things and that's exciting so uh amsterdam great city to visit and boom chicago great thing to visit in amsterdam and a boom chicago i've seen your i've seen your list of performers you have some big up and comers right now really big up and comers brandon hunt said the current cast of boom chicago is the best he's seen in 15 years so there you go coach beard he doesn't say much but when he does it's smart yeah and you know who loves boom chicago because they always fill up their uh they always fill up their cast with us snl yeah we it's it's it's nice it's uh we we looked at our our cast and most of them as in more than half are you know doing really big exciting things so it makes makes us proud that the boom chicago experience is helps people find their feet and and helps them uh you know have some part in in their success and that makes us happy absolutely and you guys can check out more about boom chicago at www.boomchicago.nl i believe that's correct that's correct for the netherlands yes oh yes you can get tickets there uh like andrew saying into the metaverse as well as looking at the calendar the schedule and all things boom chicago thank you so much for coming on to the show uh and for being a new friend thanks thanks moscow so i appreciate it yay i i will be back if if the listeners will have me i will be back no you think that was a hard take that we took today wait until you hear what he thinks about john borg oh he's overrated that's next time ladies and gentlemen andrew moscos thank you so much that was awesome oh i respect that guy so much i can die now and feel good about everything that i've done in pitbull media but the show must go on and there's plenty of news this week that we did not get to cover in the main body of the show so i'm going to run you through it right now american pinball coming out big in the news this week because ap hires Ryan McQuaid of the hashtag trendy sonic spinball homebrew pinball machine you guys have seen that many of you have played it and everybody was yearning for that [Music] sonic pinball machine is it going to happen was it designer now at american pinball wait a minute wait i'm not gonna try to make this controversial for controversial sake but i gotta say it do you guys think we're excited about ryan's abilities that's a that's a great layout by the way so i know or are we more excited about the sonic the hedgehog is a pinball theme i would argue both actually but i love your quaalude but we're probably five times more excited about a potential sonic pinball machine than we are about ryan mcquaid's layout or coding or anything he developed in that home but i'm just keeping it real people i'm just keeping it real and you guys all are thinking it too now the bigger question here's the bigger question are we excited about the possibility of a sonic the hedgehog theme for pinball or i would argue we are excited not about that but we are excited about the sonic the hedgehog one two and three sega genesis video games the excitement is for the video games not for the theme itself we want those assets we want those sounds we want those music tracks we want those graphics we don't want the 90s cartoon series we sure as a hell don't want the new films we don't want sonic 3d blast or sonic adventure or remember mario and sonic at the sochi 2014 olympic winter games decent game that's not what we're looking for so i'm arguing that we do not in fact want sonic the hedgehog as a theme no no no we want the video games we want 1991 through 1994. and in a future episode i'm going to explain to all of you listeners why the 1990s will become very relevant in the near future for the pinball industry and some of the intellectual properties that you've come to love and now can afford and collect in the pinball hobby yourself and what we're about to see mr moscos and i talked about it and the intellectual property that we still hug dear and close to our bosom at night is in the 90s and it's coming it's breathing it's in living color it smells like teen spirit it's nothing but a g thing baby it's killing me smalls it's go go power rangers it's a flawless victory it's california love but it's also under the bridge it's funny it's a blockbuster it's when the things that you love turned mainstream the 90s are coming and my pinball door is wide open for it speaking of sonic the hedgehog and back to the relevance of american pinball picking up ryan mcquaid a pinball convention happened this last week the midwest gaming classic up in wisconsin and like ace ventura come to me my jungle friends i've got plenty of birdies plenty of birdies ah plenty of birdies around and i'm feeding them seed as they chirp in my ear the rumblings of mgc this last weekend now i will tell you i'm not here reporting these as facts these are conjectures they're rumors these are just what these little birdies are telling me don't kill the messenger you can blast these little pigeons and sparrows from the sky i'm hearing that there's something up with american pinballs coder Josh Kugler maybe not being at ap anymore have we seen him lately there was a stream recently on the dead flip streaming channel and see him there has josh coogler moved on from american pinball that's what i'm hearing from the mgc rumblings i'm also hearing that while ryan mcquaid was hired on at american pinball american pinball does not yet have the sonic the hedgehog license and not only that we're gonna double down in the little wisconsin beer birdies told me they're drunk birds at this point they talking too much told me that not only did they not have the license but a different manufacturer has attained the sonic the hedgehog license potentially rendering it a moot point for ryan mcquaid's homebrew to ever become a thing for that license wow that's extra sunflower seeds for you little birdie ah again i don't know if this is true or not that's just the rumblings that i am hearing nothing but rumors but we'll see if they come true but i can tell you it's no rumor that haggis pinball is bringing sexy back did you guys see the video that was recently released by haggis pinball we talked about it in pinball market trends but last week they showed off some fathom revisited merman editions being tested and going into boxes and the looks of that game from that video is the definition of pinball porn [Music] oh yeah [Music] grab ahold of my shooter all baby i'm about to light up your world like those blue and green and aqua led light shows in attract mode um check out my slippery shiny cabinet wanna know why it's so glossy ah and the little boom boom in the bedroom ain't the only thing bouncing around with those subwoofers in the cabinet of my father let's mix it up baby i've got new rules for our little game oh don't tell me ah yes surface surface help me don't tell if the waters get too rough in this water bed baby our safe word can be warped okay hopefully over the next month or so we will see numerous haggis pinball fathom revisited games on location and in your homes stern pinball in the news because loser kid pinball podcast interviewed the main artist for rush pinball that's michael Michael Barnard new to the pinball game michael talked about the process of getting into stern pinball working with the team there and about some of the highlights working with this intellectual property you need to go listen to this podcast it was very well done and a lot of credit to the loser kids because not only did they conduct a very clean and good interview but they actually brought up some of the uh public criticism toward the portraits of the center of the playfield that Michael Barnard received and he was very gracious discussing this and his initial reactions and bigger picture kind of stuff it was really great to hear those guys talk about what it is like creating art in the pinball industry today recommended speaking of pinball podcast saps is back the super awesome pinball show is back again this time with another host last year they interviewed lyman sheets and Josh Sharpe but with the untimely passing and lyman sheets they delayed that interview they have released that now and overall good listen not a ton of new information but there were some hitting points that i wanted to discuss here lyman talked about cgc kind of being a one-time thing there were no written in stone plans to continue future games or going back to the older games that he had done to to revitalize them code wise he said quote kind of a one-time thing found interesting lyman also iterated that he was a contractor he wasn't a full-time employee of any anybody after stern he was a contractor and he had one client which was chicago gaming company i found it interesting because there were rumors swirling around and some of the stuff that i had heard was that after stern pinball lyman sheets was or was planning on working at raw thrills for whatever that's worth but he said no he was a contractor he had one client that was cgc also it sounds odd but lyman was allocated he indicated the least amount of resources of all the programmers at stern now is that because of the the genius that he was is that uh maybe difficulty working within a team was that because he a lot of times he was working at home was that because he took longer to complete his masterpieces and they didn't want to bring a whole group into delays like i don't know but it perked my ears up hearing him discuss having the least amount of resources of the programmers and i didn't know this batman 66 was put into the place of what was supposed to be at expo in 2016 elvira in house of horrors ah didn't know that makes sense why batman code wasn't even close to being playable at the expo 2016. and hell i didn't know Josh Sharpe had been working on this cactus canyon remake project since like the walking dead times 2000 what 16 2014 Josh Sharpe has been on this consultation team for a long time and then then came lyman sheets a good friend of his and interesting how things are so much different behind the curtain and how did cactus canyon even happen lyman sheets said it himself on the super awesome pinball show he said that bally williams needed to be a fill-in game between monster bash and revenge from mars so they allowed three pitches from some of the creators at the manufacturing company of course ultimately it became cactus canyon but the other two pitches included a runaway train and a godzilla game that was pitched by Mark Weyna so if those three cactus kenny made it reach out you guys can catch me at the pinball network at gmail.com like follow subscribe to all those things tpm babies it's coming to an end get your submissions in make sure you're following at least two forms of social medias for the pinball network you got some good guesses um dennis crease i made an appearance some of you missed it little baby baby if there was a baby dennis creasel i'd bite him and i hate transitioning to the sponsor plug after that reminder but i want to remind you all of flipping out pinball distribution company for pinball arcade entertainment whatever you want product showcase this week is led zeppelin accessories i've got the toppers i've got the armor i've got the the shooter rods damn near have it all think i've got the banners too bye bye bye bye bye get it while the getting is good baby we also have guns and roses le still with the art blades toppers banners of those we've got insider connected pro kits premium led kits oh still waiting on stern you are killing me with these premium kits and the weight in the back order for them they're sitting on shelves a dealer look i if you guys have an order for the premium led kit at this point ask for a refund from us you can get if somebody else got in stock just get i give up i freaking give up or maybe we need to make a deal with clint over there making the coin door accessories i don't know i feel defeated with the whole insider kits but we've got a slew of games that just came in we've got batman 66 eliot's been here a little bit but we have the star wars premium comic pre-owned i've got pictures up on our facebook now and for all of you side note all of you that want to know what's in stock currently used pinball wise or even new pinball wise one of the most recent posts on our flipping out facebook page will always have a list there of what's available accessories pinball machines go follow like that right now so you can stay up to date with that and you never have to wonder what is available like a monsters pro pinball machine pre-owned boom it's right there deadpool le led zeppelin premium with mods a tmnt premium star wars leds a corvette godzilla accessories i think i may have one more elite pinball i j topper we're out of shakers right now for stern pinball machines we've got a lot ordered but merchandise you can get it all there flipping out pinball.com and remember if there's a rumored title that you want or an accessory an upcoming topper that you want you need to email or text me and let me know so that i can get you in queue for that so you don't have to go chasing around whenever it's announced this episode has been a blast it's been a highlight for me personally thank you again andrew and thank you again for coming on mr moscos thank you so much for following listening and continuing to support not only what i do here on the pinball show or for supporting the pinball network for supporting straight down the middle for supporting flipping out pinball and everything else i got my hands in thank you so so freaking much for andrew moscos i'm zach minnie always practice safe pinball and boom chicago up i will catch you all soon for the pinball show episode 100 okay acm i don't know who you are but i'm coming after your asmr [Music] [Applause] it kind of inspired me with that whole little glory days pinball so i was like oh [ __ ] let me think about this really great no it's a great point i mean it's i think it played well too absolutely love it