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The Pinball Show Ep 93: Keepin’ It Real With P3, JJP 7 Release, CCr Updates, & Cornerstoned By Stern

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·2h 7m·analyzed·Feb 28, 2022
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TL;DR

Barry Osler memorial, Stern production cuts, Weird Al P3 module announced, JJP mystery game rumors.

Summary

The Pinball Show discusses the death of legendary designer Barry Osler, Stern's production slowdown (reducing Cornerstones from 3 to 2 per year, delaying Venom to August), Multimorphic's new Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity P3 module release, and Jersey Jack's upcoming unannounced title (likely Toy Story). Hosts debate theme tier rankings and explore the implications of Stern's strategy shift on the overheated pinball market.

Key Claims

  • Barry Osler, legendary pinball designer, passed away at age 70 from cancer complications

    high confidence · Opening segment; confirmed by multiple correspondent reports

  • Stern CEO Gary Stern issued a memorandum reducing Cornerstone games from 3 to 2 per year, with Venom delayed from April to August

    high confidence · Craig Bobby news segment citing Canadian's Pinball Podcast; official letter from Stern

  • Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity P3 module base price is $3,000 standard, $4,800 for 227 limited edition units; P3 platform base is $8,300

    high confidence · Glenn Wechter correspondent report; pre-orders open February 28 at 9 AM

  • Jersey Jack Pinball will not reveal their next title at Texas Pinball Festival in April; Toy Story is 'strongly favored' theme

    medium confidence · Ken Rudberg correspondent report; Toy Story noted as speculation

  • Barry Osler's Space Shuttle (1980) credited with saving Williams Pinball with 7,000 units sold

    high confidence · Zach and Dennis discussion of Osler's catalog and industry impact

  • Stern's production slowdown decision triggered a buying frenzy in secondary market, trending up aftermarket prices

    high confidence · Craig Bobby analysis of market reaction to Cornerstone reduction

  • Weird Al's Museum features over 2,000 original Weird Al call-outs and 17 classic Weird Al songs

    high confidence · Glenn Wechter correspondent citing Stephen Silver, creative director

  • Rush Pinball (John Borg) counting as Stern's first Cornerstone of the year; next Cornerstone (Venom/Brian Eddy) delayed to August

    high confidence · Craig Bobby news segment referencing official Stern distributor memo

Notable Quotes

  • “the industry and the hobbyists within this community have so much that we owe and thanks to Barry Osler”

    Zach Minney @ early segment — Tribute to Osler's legacy and industry importance

  • “one of my biggest regrets I promise you, listener, one of the biggest regrets I will have in this entire industry and the time I have in it is not finding the time to do that”

    Zach Minney @ Barry Osler tribute — Personal reflection on missed opportunity to collaborate with Osler on Popeye retrospective

  • “there is no mention of any vault or studio titles that might be delayed or cancelled...Lord of the Rings Vault or the rumored Keith Elwin Back to the Future Super LE are still very much on the table”

    Craig Bobby @ Stern news segment — Identifies potential future releases not affected by Cornerstone reduction

  • “Do not try and deny a crazed pinball buyer of their ability to buy a new machine”

    Craig Bobby @ market analysis — Commentary on demand-driven secondary market surge following Stern announcement

  • “Dare to be stupid multiball is the dumbest multiball in pinball, and he loves it”

    Stephen Silver (via Glenn Wechter) @ Weird Al game details — Designer perspective on thematic multiball design philosophy

  • “C, C minus...people know who Weird Al is. I just don't think he's as hot as he was back in the early 90s”

    Dennis Creasel @ theme tier discussion — Critical evaluation of Weird Al as IP/theme for pinball market relevance

Entities

Barry OslerpersonStern PinballcompanyGary SternpersonMultimorphiccompanyWeird Al's Museum of Natural HilaritygameJersey Jack PinballcompanyVenomgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's memo signals supply chain constraints and production capacity limits forcing strategic prioritization; suggests industry-wide demand exceeds manufacturing capacity

    high · Craig Bobby: 'everyone that has been following the pinball market knew this was coming...no way Stern could continue announcing new titles every 3-4 months while battling growing mountain of backorders'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern CEO Gary Stern issued official memo reducing Cornerstone games from 3 to 2 per year, delaying Venom from April to August

    high · Craig Bobby correspondent segment citing Canadian's Pinball Podcast breaking news; memo directly from Stern distributor letter

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts debate theme IP tier rankings with detailed classification system (A/B/C/D/F), indicating community concern about licensing relevance and market viability

    medium · Extended segment where Dennis and Zach discuss theme tiers; Weird Al rated C/C-minus tier due to declining cultural relevance

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Weird Al's Museum features 2,000+ custom call-outs and 17 classic songs; Stephen Silver noted recording session as career highlight

    high · Glenn Wechter: 'over 2,000 original Weird Al call-outs...17 classic Weird Al songs...was the highlight of his professional career to date'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern production slowdown triggered buying frenzy in secondary market, with aftermarket prices trending up as collectors rush to secure machines before supply dries up

    high · Craig Bobby analysis: 'throwing the pinball world into an absolute buying frenzy...trending up this week again, aftermarket pinball prices'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.382

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. What an interesting show we have planned for you listeners. Thanks for coming by. This week Dennis and I discuss the loss of another pinball giant. We also deep dive Multimorphic's new P3 game module, Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. The new Multimorphic system release. Multi-confusions with pricing and marketing and release of these products. Zach's offer to early P3 adopters. Dennis getting real, real quick. Pinball profile interview with Josh Sharp and Cactus Canyon remake updates. Gary Stern making significant modifications to the production schedule of their next Cornerstone title. Jersey Jack Pinball's new title release info. Carl D'Angelo brilliantly trolling myself, and Luke Skywalker being a dick. All of that and more on this very modular episode of the Pinball Show.
1:17
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.
1:32
Hey, guess what, everybody? It's episode 93, and this is The Pinball Show. We are your hosts, Zach Minney and Dennis Creasel, and we've got a lot to cover today. Wow, zers. What a week, Dennis. Right, oh, right, oh, right.
1:44
I'm tired. Matthew McConaughey. I'm working on new impressions because people didn't like my Arnold Schwarzenegger. They didn't like that, did they? No. It was hard to tell. I mean. No. They emailed me and said, I don't like it. So it was pretty easy to tell. Maybe try Get to the Choppa. Yeah, Get to the Choppa!
Rush
game
Dwight Sullivanperson
Jack Dangerperson
Stephen Silverperson
Bowen Cairnsperson
Colin McAlpineperson
Scott Deniseperson
Jerry Stellenbergperson
Zach Minneyperson
Dennis Creaselperson
Ken Rudbergperson
Craig Bobbyperson
Glenn Wechterperson
John Borgperson
Brian Eddyperson
P3 (Multimorphic platform)product
  • ?

    personnel_signal: Jerry Stellenberg (Multimorphic owner) credited as coder on Weird Al alongside Michael Ocean and Greg Goldie

    high · Glenn Wechter: 'Michael Ocean, was in charge of the software coding along with Greg Goldie and Jerry Stellenberg'

  • $

    market_signal: Weird Al P3 module priced at $3,000 standard / $4,800 LE; base P3 platform $8,300; represents Multimorphic's pricing structure for new releases

    high · Glenn Wechter citing official Multimorphic pricing: 'base P3 platform will be $8,300...module Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity is $3,000 for standard...additional $1,800 for 227th limited edition'

  • ?

    announcement: Multimorphic announces Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity P3 module with major development team including Bowen Cairns and Colin McAlpine on rules

    high · Glenn Wechter correspondent report with full production details, creative team breakdown, and pre-order information (Feb 28 at 9 AM)

  • ?

    product_concern: Hosts express cautious optimism about Weird Al game quality given star-studded development team (Bowen Cairns, Colin McAlpine on rules; Scott Denise on sound)

    medium · Zach notes 'one can only assume maybe this is going to be a tourney darling'; hosts speculate on tournament adoption based on rules team

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Jersey Jack Pinball's next title rumored to be Toy Story; official announcement delayed beyond Texas Pinball Festival in April

    medium · Ken Rudberg correspondent: 'Toy Story strongly favored' but 'still unknown at this point'; will not reveal at TPF

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Dennis expresses skepticism about Weird Al's contemporary cultural relevance, rating it C/C-minus tier theme with declining market appeal vs. peak 1990s popularity

    high · Dennis: 'I don't think he's as hot as he was back in the early 90s. I don't see it as being a huge, huge license'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern appears to be using production slowdown strategically to manage backlog and cool overheated market, but announcement had opposite effect, fueling secondary market surge

    high · Craig Bobby: 'news meant to try and tamper everyone's expectations...has so far had the opposite effect, throwing the pinball world into an absolute buying frenzy'

    • 2:03
    I like the dad jokes of Mr. Freeze. Yes, I do like them. But you're the dinosaurs, the Ice Age! I like that you all listeners out there should be envious because Dennis Creasel, and you may or may not know, he is a meme creation master. And we get little tidbits behind the scenes of Dennis' memes. and you're a genius when it comes to name creation. I give you a lot of credit there. I mean, some are better than others, of course, but some of it really just writes itself. Oh, but it's so good. There's a line about reality being stranger than fiction. Who wrote that? Gandhi. Walt Whitman.
    2:43
    Emerson. No, didn't Emerson write something about the hunting of nothing is as entertaining as the hunting of man? Some real creepy stuff. Oh. That Emerson. I thought it might have been Tolkien's Tom Bombadil. Tom Bombadil, one of the most powerful characters in the Tolkien universe.
    3:01
    Terribly short-changed in the feature films. Speaking of, I was going to trend it up later on, but the new video game. How about that? Oh, Elden Ring. Yeah, Elden Ring. I'm still playing Yakuza. Elden Ring. Is that exclusive to the PS5, or is that multi-platform? I don't know what it's all. I actually haven't looked to buy it. That's the go-to right now everybody's talking about. But this is a pinball podcast. That's right. Know your place. Yes. If you want to hear about video games, I would suggest going over to the Eclectic Gamers podcast, which should be a doozy next week as well. Yes, but not the prior week because we didn't talk about Elden Ring then either. So don't go back. Only go forward. It's been a long week. I had all kinds of interesting things happening this week, some that my NDAs won't allow me to discuss. but it's been a fatiguing week. I have decided that the worst investment one could make is in Discord. Feels like it. We were a big old happy conflicting family over at TPN, and we're very passionate about pinball and the ins and outs of that. I'm telling you, it's worth the price of admission starting a podcast just being part of that. I think that's probably my favorite part of TPN is the camaraderie and the debates and arguments between all of us. And we'll discuss some of that here soon. Big long week. Do you have any big plans this week? Anything going on in your neck of the woods, Dennis? Nothing too much this week, thankfully. And for the listeners, because they don't know, they don't understand the sausage making, we're recording a day early. We are. So we're extra behind schedule or ahead of schedule. There's something involving the schedule that this does. I'm not quite sure why. Yeah, my apologies. It just worked better on a day before. Well, I might be a little saltier than usual because I don't normally do microphone stuff on Saturdays. Oh, salty Saturdays. But it's worked out. I don't have a pinball tournament that, you know, what you're an expert at, pinball tournaments. I don't have one of those. No nub pub today. No nubby, no pizza Z's, and no 403 Z's. No big plans tonight? Not yet, at least. My wife got me hanging out with friends, like group friends, couples friends. You don't have any friends, Pashley. Nobody likes you. Well, depends on who you ask. See, my Schwarzenegger is getting better.
    5:25
    Schmeagolnader. Before we get into the correspondence and the news of the week, we did want to take a second to recognize that this past week we lost another pinball giant. Yes. Way too soon, at the age of 70, passing away from cancer, Barry Osler. Yes, yes. My understanding is he'd been undergoing treatment for cancer for, I think, quite a while. I was not aware of that myself, but since then, you know, understanding that, yes, he succumbed to complications related to that. And, of course, it's a huge loss. Not only has Barry done so much in terms of design for pinball over his career, He had just recently been picked up by American Pinball to continue. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure he had big things going there. He was unfortunately kind of stuck with the whole Deep Root situation prior to that. But just looking over his catalog of game design, Dennis, he created Space Shuttle, arguably the game that kept it going. Yep, it's the game that's credited with keeping Williams Pinball going. and at the time, Williams was the strongest of a pretty weak lineup. And as the story goes, he was told that this next game had to be a hit for Williams to continue to go ahead and operate in the pinball space. And he did Space Shuttle and 7,000 units. It was a huge success. And Williams then solidified its dominance of pinball for the next 15 years. Yeah, the industry and the hobbyists within this community have so much that we owe and thanks to Barry Osler. He, I mean, he made Pinbot. How iconic and classic is that title? Space Station. Even the fun, quirky stuff that we get, late 80s, Jokers, Police Force, Bad Cats. Yeah, I mean, a lot of us have their fans. There's Gorgar, the first talking pinball machine, was his. What's your favorite Osler title? You know the answer to that. I don't want it to be what I'm going to guess, so. It is that. One of the most deepest rule sets in all of 90s pinball. It's almost a contradiction to say deep rule set in 90s pinball, but it still holds up today as one of the deepest, most complex rule sets, is Popeye Saved the Earth, 1994, Bally. That was greatness. I will say, though, that that would be my favorite. I will say that when it comes to Barry, he was known amongst everyone as just a sweetheart. Again, you don't hear bad things coming about a Barry Owsler. Sadly, when I pass, there will be plenty of negative things to say, but not with Barry. I can't remember if it was one or multiple interviews or pieces. I think it was from Silver Ball Chronicles, which has a couple of episodes about Barry. On one of them, I think it was really emphasized, and it stuck with me since, about how there are a lot of collaborations. Pinbot's a good case in point. A lot of collaborations with Barry Osler and Python Angelo. And it was because Barry was one of the few people who could get along with everyone, and so he got stuck having to help Python with Python's projects because no one else could stand the guy. But Barry could tolerate even the intolerable. On Pinside, it's showing in his penography, Junkyard in 96, going to be in the last game design, an underrated game in my opinion. It is actually pretty fun, yeah. He brought so much to this industry. One of my favorite things that he brought were his ramp stylings. You can pick out an Ousler ramp, very indicative of like an Orbit. You get that wide, old, gray-feeling ramp shots. He's just a sweet man. The one thing that I am saddened by and I'll never forgive myself for, I did reach out to Barry, I think it was last year, when he was working over at Deep Root. And I was trying to put a piece together on Popeye Saves the Earth. And I asked him, hey, is there any interest in kind of joining me and doing a media piece over the neglected and underappreciated Popeye Saves the Earth? And it was so sweet, fast response, very humble. And he was happy to do it and to work with me doing that. He did make me chuckle because he was like, Zach, of all games that I've done, we really have to spend time on Popeye. But I said, oh, I genuinely love this game.
    9:56
    I like how you were so politely telling you, but, Zach, it is bad. Yeah, like he wasn't even acknowledging that. But one of my biggest regrets, I promise you, listener, one of the biggest regrets I will have in this entire industry and the time I have in it is not finding the time to do that, not taking the time to do that. And it's things like that that kind of remind you that take advantage of the time that you do have with people you appreciate, you respect, you love, because in an instant it could very well be gone. And I can't take it back, that invaluable time that would have been granted because of his willingness and his passion for this industry. So Barry Osler, to you and to your family and friends, just a moment of silence. We will very, very much miss you, and pinball will never be the same. It's time for TPN Industry News Hi, this is Ken Rodberth with your Jersey Jack update There's a lot of buzz going on around Jersey Jack Pinball's next title With questions about what the theme will be With Toy Story strongly favored As well as the date for announcement and reveal of this new game A lot of this is still unknown at this point, but one thing that I do know is that Jersey Jack Pinball will not be revealing this new game at the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival in April. This means we'll have to wait a little bit longer to hear what's next. But it won't be too much longer, as Jersey Jack is finally wrapping up its highly successful run of Guns N' Roses. And speaking of Guns N' Roses, this past week, Jersey Jack has released a number of factory second GNR playfields that can't be used in games. These make great wall hangers and are available for $299 on the Jersey Jack site. There's even an option to have game designer Eric Menier sign your playfield if you so choose. For the Pinball Show, this has been Ken Rudberg. Hello and welcome to the Pinball Show's Stern News Update. I'm Craig Bobby. And just when you think all is quiet in the pinball world, courtesy of four-time Twippy winner Canadian's Pinball Podcast, rocked the pinball world earlier this week with this breaking news. A letter penned by Stern's CEO, Gary Stern, to their distributors, telling them that Stern would only be producing two Cornerstone games this year, reducing the number of Cornerstones from their usual three. In addition, one of those Cornerstone games, John Borg's highly acclaimed Rush Pinball, is counting as their first one this year, with the next rumored to be Brian Eddy's Venom, which has now been delayed from April to August. The letter goes on to say that the move will allow Stern to focus their production efforts over the coming months to deal with the absolutely massive backlog of orders and to get past some of the supply chain issues to focus especially on the production of Godzilla, The Mandalorian, Deadpool, and the Rush music pin. Now, frankly, everyone that has been following the pinball market knew this was coming, as there was no way Stern could continue announcing new titles every three to four months while battling a growing mountain of backwaters. And while the thrill of the news of yet another new Stern title was music to any pinball fan's ears, every release also seemed to be fueling a growing buyer frustration of learning from their friendly neighborhood pinball distributor that all but the luckiest of limited edition buyers or pro-location owners wouldn't be getting their precious machines for five to six months. at the earliest. Say what? The news meant to try and tamper everyone's expectations and attempt to somewhat cool the scorching hot pinball market has so far had the opposite effect, throwing the pinball world into an absolute buying frenzy yet again as collectors and hobbyists that are eager to get their hands on new machines are now forced to go to another manufacturer whose announcements and deliveries have been fumed far between or turn once again to the used market to fulfill their silver ball addictions. What has this done? Well, you guessed it. Trending up this week again, aftermarket pinball prices as buyers know there is now no new cornerstone announcements coming until early August. Do not try and deny a crazed pinball buyer of their ability to buy a new machine. Holy Spirit, activate. Oh no. Holy Spirit, activate. Activate! Activate! Activate! But hold on, true believers in pinball content creators. All is not yet lost. Just when it's darkest before the pinball dawn, comes a glimmer of hope buried deep between the letters of the Stern Memorandum. What's interesting to note is in reading between the carefully typed words of the crafty veteran Gary Stern is that there is no mention of any vault or studio titles that might be delayed or cancelled. Hmm. So those scheduled releases are still very much in play, which means that Lord of the Rings Vault or the rumored Keith Elwin Back to the Future Super LE are still very much on the table for this year. Say what? Or at the very least next year after you get more supply chain delays. I know, I know. It's truly an embarrassment of riches these days at Stern Pinball. But know what's not embarrassing? more code updates this week as Star Wars makes its debut on the Stern Insider Connected Network and gets some additional code tweaks as well. The Force is definitely with Dwight Sullivan as the veteran codemaster at Stern Pinball has posted new Star Wars code, V1.20. And following in his Jedi Master's footsteps, Padawan designer Jack Danger posted new Jurassic Park Home Pin Edition code, V1.03. And not to be outdone, Jim Sexton and Raymond Davidson have been working men, posting new Rush Code V.89 for the Pro Premium and Limited Edition models. Well, that's all for this week for the Pinball Show. I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side.
    16:25
    Hey, this is Kaz with an update on American Pinball. We'll start news report last week as Barry Osler passed away at 70 years old. He had been battling cancer. And Jeff Teolis on the Pinball Profile episode 337 had a great interview with Barry that was recorded only a few days before he passed away. Talked about a lot of his work at Williams and Deep Root and Highway Pinball and how that he was working on Goonies for Deep Root, that he even had an upper play field and a lower play field. He was also working on two titles at American Pinball. The first was a simple retro-themed game, and the second was a game with everything. So I hope that these games will be completed to honor Barry. There's also a GoFundMe if you'd like to help out with the family with the medical bills. Just go on GoFundMe and search for the Barry Osler Memorial Fund. And also, Stephen Bowden joined TurboGrafx-7 on the Buffalo Pinball Twitch stream this past weekend. You can go back and watch that stream to see Stephen put up a huge score on Hot Wheels. So I hope everybody has a great week and has fun playing pinball. For the Pinball Show, this is Brian Kuzner. Hey, y'all, this is Glenn Wechter reporting as the temporary Multimorphic correspondent. As I'm sure most have heard by now, the new release will be Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. Pre-orders start as of 9 a.m. Monday, February 28th, and info can be found through the Multimorphic website. The cost of the base P3 platform will be $8,300. Your cabinet includes your choice of any of the art packages, past or present. The module Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity is $3,000 for the standard edition and an additional $1,800 if you want to upgrade to one of the 227th limited edition packages. I've spoken with the project's creative director, Stephen Silver, to get some facts and nuggets about the game. Starting with Stephen himself, he is an animator for Multimorphic, and this is his second game as the creative director. Heist was his first. Artwork has all been hand-drawn by Matt Andrews. His work can also be seen on Scott Denise's Total Nuclear Annihilation. Speaking of Scott Dinesi, he's been tasked with the sound package. All the sounds of the game that are not Weird Al songs were designed, performed, recorded, and mixed by Scott Dinesi. For example, if you start a new song, Weird Al will pop up on the screen, and it's Scott's music you will hear while Weird Al is explaining the rules. Graphics and animations are done by Rory Senduda and Steven Silver. T.J. Weaver is the mechanical designer and has been the company's lead engineer since the early days. TJ is coming up with an award-winning crane mech from Heist and has several ball-interacting mechs in Weird Al's museum. Weird Al's superfan, Michael Ocean, was in charge of the software coding along with Greg Goldie and Jerry Stellenberg. Greg previously did all the heavy lifting coding for Heist and did all of the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Jerry programmed the light shows, but I'm told every phase of this game is a collaboration of sorts. All three programs and other members of the team got together to workshop the general rules and structure of the game. Bowen Cairns and Colin McAlpine were hired mid-project as rules advisors. Both have made solid contributions to the general framework of the rules.
    19:24
    Frank Spears III and Will Beals are also Weird Al superfans and are credited as content advisors. I am told that their knowledge and fandom of Weird Al has helped this game become what it is. Now, on to a few features of the game itself. Weird Al's museum has five flippers, one being a mini-flipper on the upper playfield. Now, the P3 does not have a traditional ball launch, but there are seven different launch destinations for the ball to start from. The main toys in this game are all ball-interacting mechs. There is a physical ball-locking hamster wheel, a three-ball physical lock on the swiveling UHF camera, and the right ramp that utilizes diverters and magnets that hold or accelerate the ball to lead to six unique ball backs. There are also two lift ramps and an upper spiral ramp from which the mini-flipper on the top playfield feeds the camera. The left ramp is a makeable shot from all four lower flippers. The crossing wire form features a tool-less removal for easy play module swaps. The game features over 2,000 original Weird Al call-outs. Steven Silver says he had just as much energy and enthusiasm for the project throughout the whole recording session and was the highlight of his professional career to date. There are 17 classic Weird Al songs, 10 of them remotes, or exhibits in the museum. Each song has its own world, created and brought to life by the P3's display under the playfield. Add on two main multiballs, one mini-wizard mode, and a final wizard mode, this game comes out of the box as a complete package. Any updates download straight through the internet connection, included with the purchase.
    20:51
    For those seeking more on the release, Steven Silver will be on an upcoming episode of the Pinball News and Pinball Magazine podcast with Jonathan and Martin. You could also read the entire deep dive found on This Week in Pinball. One last nugget from Steven. Dare to be stupid multiball is the dumbest multiball in pinball, and he loves it. Well, till next time, this has been Glenn Wichter reporting for the Pinball Show. Back to you, Dennis and Zach.
    21:20
    Always good, Zach, as I often, but not always say, to hear from our correspondents. Yes. Very good to hear from fellows over there corresponding for us. And Ken Redbird with a little news there. Nice job. Yeah, we'll be talking about that in a little bit. But first, we will go to the topic that led our discussion last week. It's going to follow into this week because we have additional news from the company Multimorphic.
    21:44
    We know that this last week, Dennis and listener, that we were able to finally see the reveal, the sizzle ad, all the information about Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. Are you a big Weird Al fan? I'm not a huge Weird Al fan, but I would describe myself as a fan. You know, something I liked more when I was younger. But there have still been times where I've loaded up a video of his on YouTube. The first song I ever really remember was Eat It. I feel you're all a special fussy young man. Don't want no Captain Chris, don't want no Raisin' Brands. Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in the pans. Oh, eat it. Just eat it. Yep. If we're listening and we're hearing that now, that's a good one. Yeah, that's where he went and did that. Now, I have a story that I'll share. This is going to tie into watches. I do apologize, but I've never shared it on my watch. A Weird Al watch, okay. Yeah, or on my watch channel. I've never shared this, but Weird Al is why I own a Rolex. What? Okay. It wasn't to have Bond or... Right, right. No, no. I don't know if you've ever seen Weird Al's movie, UHF. And it's been so long, I don't know any reference to it. In the movie, spoilers for those of us who haven't seen the movie. Spoiler alert. All right. There is this public access station that he's running, trying to save. And there is an evil network executive that wants to take it over. I can relate. And one of the tiny subplots is the evil network exec is, he wants a Rolex. He's, like, really angry that no one ever gives him a Rolex as a gift or whatever. As the story progresses, though, at some point, there's a homeless man who is given a rare coin. It's not known to be rare at the time, but he's given a rare coin. He's the deus ex machina of the movie. Oh, okay. He sells that coin, and he buys enough shares to save the UHF station. Oh. So, saving Weird Al's station, the network was going to try and buy it. I remember that. And it fell apart. The deal didn't happen. And at the end, the network executive evil guy is all sad and just devastated. And the homeless guy comes up because the network execs who gave him the coin, he thought it was just a penny, a regular penny. And the homeless man's like, no, it actually was super rare. Thank you so much for doing that. I bought all these shares in this stock. Oh, and I had enough leftover money for this Rolex. As a kid, for whatever reason, it was sort of my fuck the rich sort of thing. And when I had the opportunity, I bought one. And then I go up to the legislature or whatever, and I see all these people in $1,000 suits, and I'm sitting there, and I don't belong. But sometimes the little guy wins, too. So it's weird, but it's a very nice story. That was why. I was like, you know what? It shouldn't be for rich executives. Yeah, so Weird Al will always have a special place in your heart. I like that. Weird Al, we know that is a fantastic performer, fantastic talent. This game was released, what, Tuesday? Do they show us stuff on Tuesday, I think? You know, I don't remember the exact day because they were, you know, they're doing the drip feed hype thing. Yeah, yeah. Did you listen to that podcast, The Flippin' Imagine? No, I didn't. I only read a summary of it. Okay. I only read a summary. So we have some details about this release. We know that this is a module. So this is a module that is Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity that goes into the P3 system by Multimorphic, the company. Incorporated. trademark. Multimorphic Incorporated's P3 platform, Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity module. Yep. So for any of you guys out there that are confused about, was it the P3 the company or the Multimorphic the company, the Preach 3 system? What about P-Rock? Is there a P3 Rock? There is a P3 Rock. It shouldn't be confusing. It's right there on the website. I learned all about it and we'll see if I can mess this whole thing up. We know that this game module was designed by Steven Silver, art by Matt Andrews. It's good to see Matt Andrews. Yeah, Matt Andrews is freaking fantastic. And I knew when I seen that art, like the little teaser before we saw the full trailer, I was like, okay, the art package is going to be good. I like those renders. We've got software by Michael Ocean, Greg Goldie, and Jerry Stellenberg. Jerry Stellenberg is the owner of the company. Graphics by Rory Cernuta and Steven Silver. Engineering by T.J. Weaver. Sound by Scott Denisey, the Scott Denisey. rules by the Colin McAlpine and the Bowen Cairns. That's a pretty star-studded lineup there. That's right. They're going all in. So we've got Colin McAlpine and Bowen Cairns at the helm on rules. One can only assume maybe this is going to be a tourney darling. Might see more P3 in tournaments in the future. Possibly. Yeah, I did ask a tournament player about that once we knew about this, about like Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, because Bowen really worked on the rules on that game, but I'd never really seen it a lot in tournaments. And I was told, yeah, it was good, but it wasn't a darling. Well, neither have I seen really Rick and Morty, to be fair. Yeah, I still haven't played that. I'm embarrassed almost to say that, but it's just not been anywhere I've been at. I don't want to assume. I hope it's a TPF. I don't want to assume your preferences, but I know you well enough. I don't think that'll be a game you enjoy. Well, but I like TNA, and Scott Denisey did the layout for that. Yeah, but it's apples and oranges, really. I do hate oranges. That's fair. I love Rick and Morty. I think it's an underrated, underappreciated game, but only time will prove that. Where would you tier Rick and Morty's theme, and where would you tier Weird Al as a theme? Oh, you're going to get me in trouble again. Okay. Well, would you like me to go first? No, Rick and Morty as a theme I'd put at an A-. Oh, we do minuses and pluses. Interesting. I don't. I do raw letter grades. A minus. It's not as dynamite as a big blockbuster, but then again, it's got enough quirk and fit into pinball and enough relevance today in 2022 that it ever had. So A minus. Whereas Weird Al, I still have said it, and I'll stand by it. C, C minus. People know who Weird Al is. I just don't think he's as hot as he was back in the early 90s. I don't see it as being a huge, huge license. Similar to like Elvira. I see Elvira kind of has a worse name for that thing. I actually agree. Well, not with your Rick and Morty. I'd put Rick and Morty as a B tier, and I would put Weird Al as a C, but that's good. Basically, for me, the way I do theming is I tier it A, B, C, D, F. And anything that's original, truly original, isn't even in that grading because I'm talking about things that people would know. Makes sense. So for me, A's are, they have to be like total cultural touchstones that remain relevant today. So things like Jurassic Park, Star Wars. So Mandalorian's an A theme, not because the show is hot, but that it's Star Wars and the show is hot. Okay? Then B themes are things that still have really, really broad fan bases or are really, really relevant currently, but they might not have legs to carry on. So Walking Dead would be a B theme. Stranger Things? Stranger Things would be a B theme. Then a C tier is, to me, it's really well-known, but not broad-based. Like, people don't collect lots of that stuff, but there's a cult following. So back with B tier, you might end up with things where there are a lot of people that like to collect the memorabilia, like WWE, for example. Whereas with a C tier, it would be more along the lines of it's really well-known, and then there's a cult following that's really into it. Hot Wheels could be considered. Princess Bride? Right, Princess Bride, possibly. I think it's more of a cultural touchstone, but not A-tier cultural touchstone necessarily. That might be more B-tier. Obviously, there's a fluidity where you have room to interpret. And so Weird Al's got some really hardcore fans that would probably go to lots of his shows and stuff. He's really well-known regardless. Iron Maiden. So it's good. Yeah, yeah, Iron Maiden would be a D-tier. D-tier is like, in my view, it's got a cult following, but you don't even know if there's broad, really, you know, knowledge beyond maybe a name. Big Trouble in Little China is a D-tier. Rob Zombie? Rob Zombie, I would probably say is C, but potentially. Just really stuff where people might be aware of it, but there's only a really, like Rocky Horror might be D tier. It's really well known.
    30:16
    It might be. Again, that's fluidity. I would probably say it's C because I think it's got cultural touchstone relevance, but it's cult following aspect is what I'm emphasizing. I like this classification system. And then F tier is the theme might actually hurt your sales. Oh, okay. A ridiculous example would be Hitler the pin.
    30:36
    You want a real life one? Oktoberfest. And the reason is while you may have people that are really into Oktoberfest and want to buy that game, there are others that have a perception of Oktoberfest as a celebration of alcoholism and for that reason would not allow it. You just put Oktoberfest with the same category as Hitler. I hope you realize that, but okay. Well, I said that one was a really extreme example. I don't think anyone's going to be making Hitler the pen anytime soon, unless Mel Brooks sticks it into the background scene of a movie he's working on. But anyway, so that's my – That makes sense. That's how I do it, so people understand. So really, A, B, and C themes are very, very good ideas. And I think the reason I was let down a little bit, Dennis, was because with what we were hearing from the people who've seen and the people in the know and the people at the NDAs, they were pitching this thing as an A tier, but if it's not your jam of jelly, than maybe a B-level, but certainly not a C.
    31:33
    I've already had people reach an out to me regarding the Eclectic Gamers podcast episode I did last, because in rumor corner, I said I was, and it was because of all of this, I had heard Beetlejuice. Yeah you got all of our hopes up And people analyzing like there was the star from the Walk of Fame and it was like you know a number of those top tier cast members who were in Beetlejuice all have a star Like it was a good like the logic was solid It was a hell of a lot. The clues made no sense. Can we all establish that? As I think about it, I don't think Beetlejuice is a good theme for P3 because I think they would really struggle on the production side to meet the demand that would bring. At this point, I love Beetlejuice so much, I hope you're right.
    32:15
    Weirdow? I mean, This is going to be huge for them. Absolutely. They are going to sell. I'm saying it now. This is not a hard take, though, because I know you agree with me. They're going to sell more P3s with this Weird Al module than everything else they've sold to date. Yeah, combined. Yep, yep. Yeah. Completely agree. We do know that features-wise, they came out with a standard, and they are having a limited edition, limited to 227 units. The limited edition does have an interactive topper, a signed translight, unique playfield plastics, an alternate apron detail, and you get some different cabinet artwork package as well. So that's the limited edition model, 227 units. Then you have your standard model as well. You identify which one you want through sales that are coming up we'll talk about. So two editions. This is new for Multimorphic. Yes. Did you like the topper? Now, when it comes to the topper, it does look really nice. I like that it moves. Any topper that moves is always a plus to me. Yes, that's what caught my eye. It moves. Yeah, and it looks like Matt Andrews' artwork, so that's always a plus when you can get the original artist as part of that. I really love it. Now, I do hear some people just proclaiming this is the greatest topper. Slow down. There ain't no Black Knight topper. Let's not get silly here. It's spooky. It's just 2D plastics moving with a servo motor. Let's not get crazy. Visually, I like it better than what I've seen out of Spooky. Price-wise, it's going to cost you $1,200 plus, whereas Spooky's are free. That would be the argument. That's a fair point, as Joel Ingerbroth would like to say. That's fair. That's fair, Zach. But I think they did a really good job on that topper, and I don't see putting much time. Given this theme, I don't see putting much more time into a topper. This is like the first multimorphic topper, so I think it's cool. Yeah, I think it's awesome. 17 full-length Weird Al tracks. That's a lot of tracks. It is a lot of tracks. Do we get everything that we're supposed to get in those tracks, or the big hits? I think... You get some good ones. You get some couple good ones. All right. So, because you might recall at one point, I made a comment about sales and Iron Maiden and Rush, and we had a listener write in critiquing my lack of research on this. So, I have done my research. I have listened to you. I've done the research so the answer exercise the research in terms of for a Weird Al fan this is probably great okay good he's got so many songs though there's always going to be stuff that's missing how many albums do you have? I think any Weird Al fan is going to be disappointed on something that wasn't in there I don't know how many total I didn't count like true Rush fans right right right so there's some what I would call a lot of these are what I would call deeper cuts and the reason I will do that is my metric. This is what I did. So, I went and pulled the numbers that they had listed under his discography on Wikipedia sourcing the Billboard Hot 100. Okay. He has had 11 songs that have charted in the top 100. Okay? I'll go through them real quick, too. There was Ricky, which is not in this. It was it topped out at 63. Eat It, which I mentioned was the first song I knew. That topped out at 12. It's his second highest topping song. That's a big one. And it also was an RIAA gold single. Oh, fine. King of Suede at 62. Anita's not in here. King of Suede's not in here. I Lost on Jeopardy, 81. It's not in here. Like a Surgeon is in here, and that one was at 47th. Okay. So that's a chart topper. Fat at 99. That was a big one. It's not in here. I remember that one. Smells Like Nirvana at 35. That's not in here. Amish Paradise at 53. That is in here. Okay. White and Nerdy at nine. It's his best rated song ever, and it is in here. And that one was platinum with R.I.A.A. A hip-hop song. So they did put in his number one song. Canadian Idiot at 82nd. It's not in here. And then while this wasn't released as an official single, Word Crimes was 39th on the Billboard Hot 100, and it is in here. I did like Word Crimes. So a lot of it's not in there. Right. So in addition, I went and pulled, he had five more songs on Billboard's bubbling under Hot 100. Another one rides the bus. I love Rocky Road, Headline News, Gump, and whatever you like. And none of those five, those are all like 102 to 106. The bubbling is like an extension to the top 100. But none of those are in here. So my point is that they took 17 songs, but only four of these charted in the U.S. So based off of that analytic, I will say no. If you're trying to appeal to a general Weird Al fan, you are missing a lot of the stuff that the general public would know. You proved it. That is true. I'm going to take back a little bit. I thought there was a lot of stuff. But, again, I don't know a lot. Now, to a fan, to a hardcore Weird Al fan, that probably know all these. But if the goal was to appeal as broadly as possible to people who know of Weird Al, you are missing what most of them would have ever encountered. We just don't know if it was just cost prohibitive. Well, that's the thing. This isn't a vacuum. So I've already heard, I think I read part of an article that someone had linked on, I believe, Pinside noting that Weird Al hasn't been performing any of his Michael Jackson parodies for a while now, so those may have been off the table just period, even though they are very popular. And then pricing, of course, in terms of how much are you going to pay to get the song package put together.
    37:53
    And I think they made some really smart strategic decisions. Getting in White and Nerdy was huge because it is the most known song that he has. And they do have another three chart-topping songs. So, okay. So, I mean, they try. My point is they tried. But if you look at it objectively as I am, no, they did not get remotely the popular songs overall. What will frustrate me is if they come back and say, no, it's not that they were cost prohibitive. It's just that those particular songs just didn't really fit to what we were doing for the pinball machine. I hate that damn argument. Why would they come back and say why they chose the songs at all? Well, they won't. I'm just saying, you know, if they get some grief for it. I mean, the songs are the songs. It is. It is what it is. Because this is, the reason I'm bringing that up is because you can't really say that because this is kind of a chaotic mess of an amygdalation of all of his different creations and songs and video. Everything is kind of just, it's like a kitchen sink in there. This game is packed. The back one-third, the module, it's really, really packed. If we're talking about layout, we know that this is, I was going to say a four-flipper game, but it's dependent. It's kind of confusing. It's either a two-flipper game, a three-flipper game, or a four-flipper game. I thought it was a five-flipper game. Shit, sorry. It is a five-flipper game because of the upper flipper. It is a five-flipper game. But if you have the older model, I think you can buy this, and if you don't upgrade the additional flippers that you have to buy a la carte, then it's only a three-flipper game. Does it work as a – I don't think it does. I didn't understand that. This is the first time I'm hearing that. Okay. See, that's where I get confused because I don't know what comes in the package. I thought you had to have it as a five-flipper to work, and then if you have the parts that make it a five-flipper, like the right flipper from Heist, and then there's the fourth before the module flipper, that you can leave those in and they just won't work on the other games. Like, you don't have to swap them back out. Those are, because they're tucked away to the side, they don't hurt the geometry, is the idea. But that you have to have them, you have to have all five for the game to work. See, I don't think so. I think, and I could be wrong. How do you play it? What's the point of flippers that, I don't, that doesn't make sense to me, Zach. It wouldn't make, there's no point in having a five flipper game that can also be a three flipper game. It's like, are there not shots that those flippers have to be there for to hit? Why would you have them? There are a lot of very educated, whether they're consultants or fans of the multi-morphic games, shit, the P3 games. I think they did say it comes with top left flipper for this module. So you will get the upper upper flipper, the middle left upper flipper, the bottom two flippers. But I don't know if that upper right flipper comes. And I don't know if there's any geometry that makes it where you have to have the upper right flipper. Again, it's not clear on the website, so my apologies here. Maybe we'll get some clarification. Now I wish I had done more research on flippers. It's my fault. That was my thing. Sorry, I don't know the answer. But he's a five flipper game. That's what I'm looking at Pinball News right now, and it's being promoted there as a five flipper game. So that's the way I've been addressing it mentally. And let's jump into other layout stuff. Okay. We have a very packed back and forth. I'm looking at the pictures now. I'm referencing Pinball News. They had a big deep dive on this. Okay, that's what I have loaded. So we have Wireforms and Metal Everywhere, which we all love seeing as pinball enthusiasts. We have an upper play field, which mixed amongst the enthusiast crowd. Everybody thinks they want an upper play field and an additional place to play, whether it's lower or upper. But oftentimes they just pan out to be just kind of gimmicky and novelty-like. This one looks pretty fun, though. the upper play field on this. You have the butt pretzel shot. Better think spooky for that one because that's what that is. And you have a spinning hamster wheel that the balls lock into. Physical ball locks, us enthusiasts generally love. I think that's a cool little gimmick, don't you? Yeah, yeah. I like the hamster a lot. It looks real fun. I always have liked multi-morphics twice for their P3 watches. I was waiting for you to say, I always have liked hamsters. I've had so many I've never had a pet hamster Really? Nope I've had a gerbil when I was little Hmm Gerbil Are you more of a hamster guy A gerbil guy A guinea pig No I um I'm not really into rodents I could see you being a guinea pig owner And like walking it on a leash and stuff Oh my god Just put it in its wheel I wonder if it could actually work this wheel Like if you were just like I don't want to buy a guinea pig cage Can I just put them in the module? Now, some of this layout-wise, I get confused on because I don't know where things are going. Like, when the ball does go into the wheel, like, where does it exit? How does it exit? I don't know. I don't know that. But I did see on the sizzle the ball in that hamster wheel. Yeah, yeah.
    42:54
    With sizzles, I found it's often kind of hard to know exactly where staging or things involving subways and scoops can be a little confusing. And so until we see a gameplay, it's hard for me to know exactly where everything is going to, you know, in terms of the whole flow overall, it's sort of difficult. And we know that the P3 system oftentimes has these little loops, I've noticed, design-wise. So they have some of those here, get little loops here and there. We've got, I think, two places for physical balls being locked, if I'm correct. They've got main ramps, one, two, three. But then some of these ramps have motorized servos that make the ramp go up for a shot underneath. Yeah, the sizzle, it's tough to know. We need to see a gameplay. But there looks like a lot of shots here. Yeah, no, that's the thing. I was trying to count them earlier. And, yeah, there are a lot of shots. Your word, packed, is a good one. I like the camera, too. I think that's cool. Yeah, from kind of a nod to the UHF. And by kind of, you mean a nod to UHF. I didn't know if it was a nod to the song or to the film kind of thing. It's a nod to all of it. A nod to all of it. Okay. We do have a cross-playfield wire form. That's a first for the P3. Yeah, it extends down into the screen area, the non-modular area. So you at least get some difference of just screen back third. That's what some of the earlier P3 games felt like. And that's why people say, well, I don't know if it's really pinball. because you've got most of the play field just being like a virtual play field, like a screen, and then you get the back third that is mechanical. So they're still limited to that, but we do have wire forms that do come down to the flippers. We also have, this is new, so we'll talk about this without trying to confuse people, the banks that Multimorphic is known for in their P3 system. See, now I'm like overanalyzing how to say that. And the scoops that do come up, that is one of the cool, most innovative features in all of pinball. I've said that, and I'll continue to say that. But now they're motorized, Dennis, for this new 2.0 system release.
    45:02
    So there's a system release along with the module. Yeah, that's why I didn't want to confuse people. So they're coming out simultaneously with a new game module plus a new system. That's the thing. It's the new 2.0 thing is what people referenced about how it auto-levels them now. Yes. So they're not coil-based. They're servo-based. Servo-based, which kind of worries me because servos can be a pain in the ass. They really can be. They're auto-levels. Isn't it worth it? Servos can be a pain in the ass. I don't like leveling stuff. I don't either. But they have new, it looks like LED. It just looks a little bit different there. We know that the new 2.0 system has a different head, too. This isn't weird Al, per se, but the new 2.0 system has a different head, and you can get a speaker panel that is illuminated. it looks good. Looks sharp. The big old display back there. But back to the game here. Which art package did you like more? Ellie or... You know, I like them both, honestly. I like... Oh, you think they're both good? Yeah. I'm just kind of curious. I would think that I kind of like the regular standard. That was what I was thinking. I really like orange normally, but I just like what was done with Weird Al for whatever reason. Yeah, with the... The museum and the exploding colors on the side cab. I think that's really what it is. I thought that was really great, too. Now, the LE is still nice with the oranges and stuff. The only thing that I've always said when it comes to these art packages is, just like the magnet on the side cabinet, that's fine. That's cool. I would like it to illuminate, and I think they have done that. It's just, again, I don't have the detail. I can't find the details anywhere. But the front, the front of that damn cabinet is what always is going to make people think is a virtual pinball machine. It's just black. The flat black. Yes. That is what my virtual pen I made. Exactly. I put art in front of mine. I can get some artwork right there. They still are going to no trim powder coating with each particular package or module that you buy. So the LE trim-wise is going to feel very much like I'm talking about the trim work lockdown bar, rails, legs, hinges, et cetera. They're still going to feel very similar because they're just a black, like a gloss black. I'd love to see some color on those. I'm trying to think what else we need to know about this layout. Oh, they kept heralding this, you know, the podcasters and different people in media saying they have the first of, like, the greatest shot in pinball of all time, history era ever. I don't know which one they're referring to. I was told, and I believe that came up on the Flippin' and Mashin' podcast, and as I noted, I did not listen to the podcast. I was told by someone else, though, who was familiar with it, that the shot that they meant is that spiral staircase shot. The spiral where it goes up. Between the hamster wheel and the camera. And that is a first, I think, where it goes up a spiral rather than down. Right, that's an incline? Mm-hmm. I wonder how easy that is. So if that's what they're referring to. I mean, I wonder if it rejects a lot. Yeah, I don't know. It is curious. It does look cool. You're going to need that upper flipper for that one. That's for sure. And then they got the dual direction ramp. I love that. I knew you would like that. He's going to like that more than me. To me, it reminds me of the play field of Batman the Dark Knight. Okay, I can see that. To me, it reminds me of the Ghostbusters Pro, where you go up and it's like, not enough. And you go back down every time. But I like that because I think it's just unique and it's really smart to use that space for that. Because it's visually very stunning. It's a good use. Yeah, no, it does look visually cool. I was more interested in some of the other stuff on the module than that for whatever reason. Yeah, see, for me, like, the camera lock is kind of, you know, not really a moment there because it kind of just triples out. I just like the camera because it's just, like, it's a really nice-looking toy. Really? To me, it is. Well, it's kind of like, you know, we want an extra wheel. Like, they put a little coating over the coil so it doesn't look just like a silly coil from Wicco sitting there. Yeah, but that's the one thing about the servo motor. You see the acid in it, so it exposes all the wires and stuff. But I guess that goes to the gearing. Yeah, but that's part of the, I think they're going with the science, like science and, you know, they're embracing it, which I think is smart with that. What I will say, though, is compared to the other modules, like I'm thinking specifically Cosmic Kart Racing and Heist, none of these toys wow me like those toys did, like from an engineering perspective. Great point, yeah. I am more impressed by those modules. They don't have a big old mech that you're like, holy crap. Visually, this module looks better than those to me, though. Yes, I agree with that. I don't know what the one shot is where it looks like it's just a scoop with a drop target in front of it. It feels like a throwaway shot there. I don't like clear drops like that. Do you not? No. I get it because they show off the RGB underneath. I'm sure that's the purpose. That's sort of translucent clear targets. but I always think that they look weird without having a sticker. Oh, I see. And we've been told by those who have played that this thing shoots phenomenally. It shoots better than everything else on the market. It's God's creation of a layout. Of course, I'm exaggerating here. That's what we've been told. I won't know until I play. I will say, just as a general rule, I, to date, have not played a five-flipper game I thought was a great shooter. Okay. But exceptions can prove the rule. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. This is a standard body. That goes without saying. It does not look to me like it shoots bad. I'm wondering how tight these shots are, though, because there's so many in the back. Yeah. Like, is this going to be a shooter's, like, you have to be really, I don't know yet. Typically, those quick turnaround ramps I'm always not crazy about. It just feels kind of, eh. Like that left ramp, I just, kind of like a Steve Ritchie, but up in your face kind of thing. Yeah, it'd be okay. This looks like fun. So all of you guys that are going to Texas Pinball Festival will have a chance to play. I've been told that there's going to be several there. Oh, that's good. That's awesome. Yeah, we talked about mechs and toys, but I'm with you. No big central, holy shit, do you see that crane and what it can do? None of that going on. Their distinction is license and just packing this thing down. And the thing is, as cool and as impressive as engineering, and remember in the first year of the Pinball Industry Awards, Heist won because of that crane for Best Toy. But license is so much more powerful than quality engineering. I think that's what this will – I'm not saying that this isn't quality, by the way. People don't write in and complain. What I'm saying is, like, staging ball – magnetic ball locks of Cosmic Cart Racing and that fully mobile crane, those were just incredible – to me, at least – incredible feats of pinball engineering. I don't see the same thing here. But I see Weird Al, and Weird Al's going to move you way more units than all the effort to come up with an ultra-clever toy. I completely agree. Even Lexi Lightspeed with that 10-ball physical lock carousel, that thing was just visually pretty stunning as well. Artwork, we talked about Matt Andrews. I hope he continues on games in the future. I'm really a big fan of his. We just don't get to see his stuff enough. Music and sound, we didn't get to hear much of this. We know that Scott Denise was responsible for the sound package. Music, of course, by Weird Al. but they did get tons of call outs from Weird Al himself that's huge what did you think about because there was some mixed reactions on the sizzle when you heard some of his call outs what was your impression I thought it was fine I liked them yeah I like the people like okay enough with the woo hoos I like the woo hoos yeah I didn't hear it in actual game again because it's a sizzle I don't like to judge how call outs are working for example I remember early sizzle stuff. Well, actually, no, I don't remember early sizzle stuff, but I remember when Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, when I first started seeing the gameplay and the tinkling glass every time the sling hits were happening, I was like, that is nailed to the chalkboard. And that was a problem for me. I didn't mind the screams, but the glass. Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. Oh my gosh. No tinkling. I do love that when I watch the sizzle reel, it really did pull me in initially whenever you hear Weird Al's voice and you get the logo here, and then he gives that screechy I hope you enjoy it. I freaking love that. I hope we get a lot of that in this game. Welcome to Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. I hope you enjoy it.
    53:30
    What did you think of the animations? Eh. That's about all I can say. Like, okay. Whenever I heard the, again, referring back to Flippin' the Mask, and they were like, this is the perfect theme. I'm trying not to beat up on these guys, but it's just all the information I have. They're like, this is the perfect theme for this platform, for this type of game.
    53:54
    I'm sorry, I don't get that. What makes Weird Al really fit Multimorphic? The only thing I can think of is Weird Al is kind of goofy, and Multimorphic in this industry is kind of known as just being kind of goofy. they're not making use of a lot of the animation in a dynamic way that I see in pictures or sizzle reel maybe I'm completely off, maybe I'm completely wrong that I don't get at all what am I missing Dennis? I don't know I need to see the actual gameplay to get a better feel yeah the animations were not a standout to me my initial reaction is I like heists better but I need to see more than a sizzle It's just clipping around too much to get a good feel. Yeah, like the heists, at least you're going through the city and stuff. That kind of makes sense because you've got the crane overhead. Like it's all integrated into a world under glass. My thing with screens is you have an advantage and you have a disadvantage. And the advantage, of course, is all of the technological stuff that P3 is able to do because you know they have all that ball detection. And so they're able to use the screen as a dynamic play field to change and clearly explain what you're doing. And that's like a highlight there. Like they have the wheel of fish moment, I think is one of the shots in the pinball news, where you can kind of see it's like, yeah, they're throwing that in someone's face. You don't have to stick it like on a little cell phone-sized screen on a JJP or on the back box like a Stern. And so that's an advantage. The disadvantage is if you're not doing something static and just having like an artist come in and work around inserts and put in an art package, if you're making stuff move around, how good is it going to work? Animation's harder than doing one beautiful still. Absolutely. And that's where it's, I think, because the cost it would take to animate to, like, AAA video game level or whatever you're after. There's no way. Yeah, it's just it would cost way too much. And that's the issue I've always kind of had and voiced when it comes to Multimorphics P3, is that you're never going to be able to integrate the animation well enough to keep up with that being the dynamic part. Now, Stern has probably more resources than anybody when it comes to animation, and we've even heard George Gomez say, Listener, you know, that holds a lot of stuff up because of this LCD screen instead of a DMD dot display. So that's what I've always kind of been critical about when it comes to the P3 system, which is, like, don't even try to compete. Find a different novel way of doing it. I'm a broken record when it comes to that. So the animations look nice. Nothing crazy dynamic That may change if we play it I do like that there's categories of the modes Let me give them credit there I haven't looked into all of the modes And the way they're formatted yet But I do like that it's not just your Here's six modes It's like well here's a couple songs That fit into this type of category Like a sports category That Weird Al had a song about So you go to different categories of these modes I think that's going to be pretty dynamic With reference to the rules and the code So that's cool. Yeah, the tying it together in this museum concept, I think, was pretty clever. Yeah, thank you. You said it a lot better than I did. Let's talk about the pricing. How much does this thing cost? Well, you go to the website, and it says $8,300. It's got a picture of the Weird Al Ellie machine. That's when you go and you click the Buy Now button. I'm doing it right now to be sure everything's correct, because I know the first time I went, they weren't really announcing yet. right after the first fizzle came, and then they put in more information later. So I go in. And you can follow us, everybody. This is multimorphic.com. Yes. So I'm there, and I see one machine, minigames, and what's fun, and you see this sort of backdrop of Weird Al, and you see a learn more button kind of shaded out and a buy now button, which is much shaded in orange, and I'm clicking buy now. Gotcha. And, okay, yes, I see. All right, now I'm at where you're talking about. So it says P3 machine, $8,300. You've got Weird Al, Ellie, Topper, and all. But then it says base P3 only. Click here to browse the game kits. So it's not 83. You've got to click here. Well, it says price has shown 13.1. That's new. That is new. So they did correct that. Before that wasn't there, and I was like, wait a minute. You have, let's see, click here for ordering instructions. We voiced it last time on the podcast, we as in I, myself, and Lane Bray, that I didn't understand the concept of announcing a game and there not be any way to order it or pre-order it or anything like that. Since that last podcast a week ago and the announcement of this game, there's still not a way to order it. There are instructions on how to order it. You can begin accepting orders at 9 a.m. Central Time on Monday, the 28th, 2022. Here's where it gets a little weird for me, Dennis. Tell me if I'm crazy. It says, in the interest of fairness, order requests received prior to the 28th are going to be ignored. It then says below, email sales at multimorphic.com and identify which of the following you'd like to order. Up to one of each per order, unless otherwise discussed with a multimorphic representative. But you pick either a P3 machine or the Weird Al game kit or the limited edition package. All your requested orders prior to are going to be ignored. But you can email sales at multimorphic.com and identify which one you'd like. I'm confused.
    59:18
    Am I not saying something clearly? I don't know what to do as a consumer here. Well, I mean, my guess is that those notations are ultimately that are in bold. We will begin accepting the orders on the 28th and then the whole interest of fairness. But that's going to ultimately be removed because then the rest of it is just what the normal ordering process would be. You're going to email them and you're going to say what you want to order. And then there are these listings. So I guess it's confusing now, and I think it will be less confusing when it goes live on the 28th. However, what's confusing to me is on this page, it doesn't show the pricing of any of those. No, we know that if you look and ask questions and dive deeper, we know that $3,000 is the cost for that Weird Al module. Right. We also know that the LE module in the package that goes with the LE, that's an additional $1,800. So if you add up $8,300, $3,000, $1,800, that's what gets you to that price of $13,100, which I think is the most expensive LE model of a game in the industry, is it not? I do not price LEs because I never am in the market for them, Zach. You know that. I mean, CERN LEs come in at $11,100. JJP LEs come in at $11,000. 8,000. Hell, the CEs, I think the last CEs were $12,500. And then CGC, they were $9,500, $9,250, underpriced a bit. And then we have Spooky's. Those are sub $10,000 for their biggest edition. So this is the most expensive, and that is similar to what they've been doing since they first started the company. They always have kind of the most expensive game, which is a hard sell. I used to always, when I would cover, it would always be $10,000. We'd always say $10,000. And that would be with a game kit. I didn't know people bought base systems without game kits, though. Yeah, who in the hell would buy a system without a game kit? Maybe someone who somehow found game kits. Like, I got my cartridges. I need my player, I guess. So we know those are the prices of that. But I still don't know, I'm sorry, if they come with an upper. I think they come with an upper left if you buy the Weird Al module. But I don't know if the upper right comes with it. If it doesn't, it's $150 for the additional flipper. But if you have the older system, if you guys already have a system, then you can still upgrade, like, the head. You can upgrade the speaker package, the lit. You can upgrade the flipper mechs. The flipper mechs. You can upgrade all of that. But the pricing is not available yet for the upgrading, like, the bank. I said, don't worry if you'd like the motorized new bank of scoops. The old owners can upgrade that. But they don't have that pricing anywhere. They don't have a timetable for that. When it comes to upgrading the head, you can upgrade it, but they don't have a timetable. They don't have any pricing for that. If the early, early adopters, to get it looking like this, like I said on the website, you need to spend another $900 for the LCD screen. If you have the old ones, you still need to upgrade. You don't need to. You can upgrade the flipper upgrade kit to make it feel better for $40. All the 2.0 systems are going to have this. I'm reading through this. I'm a little confused. And you're not the only one that has been.
    62:38
    And so, again, doing my research, because I've got to be prepared, Zach. Thank you. You expect me to be prepared. Somebody's got to be. Thank you. So the following are items I just pulled, just one page worth, from Weird Al's Twitter and Instagram, where he shared the video of the game, the sizzle. Okay? So on Twitter, one person posted, Damn, need to cut into my weekly burrito allowance. And then they had screen grabbed the original version of the P3 pinball machine, $8,300. Didn't say the price was shown, just said the click here for ordering instructions and then the category, thus conveying that he thought it would be $8,300 for him to own Weird Al. Another person on Twitter posted. Sure, but I'm not judging that part. I'm just saying he thought it was. I'm like, he don't know. He doesn't know it's five figures. He thinks it's $8,300. another person posted on Twitter to Weird Al and said I'm overjoyed at this news and on an unrelated note can I borrow $8,300 well that not going to get you in he why It not going to get you it You can play that He thinks it is my point You can play a pinball machine for Another Twitter person posted only I assume he rounded down, but he rounded way down because that's not right. That's not shipping either, people. Then on Instagram, can I borrow $8,500? It's for a good cause. I think he was factoring in that he needed shipping money, but I'm not sure. It's still not right. And taxes.
    64:04
    And another person, not paying $8,300 for it. Fuck that. Maybe if it was $500 to $600 or maybe $1,000. Okay. That person doesn't know anything about pinball, clearly. But he doesn't know. He's not identified the right price, is my point. And then finally, the last one I pulled from Instagram was, I really wish I didn't know this exists, but I desperately want it. But for $10,000, there's no way I'll ever be able to have it devastated. I don't know why they said $10,000 because that's in between everything. It's not right. Now, my point is, in regards to your discussion and where you're coming from on it, here's where I'm coming from on it. Because Weird Al is a theme with broad appeal because of Weird Al to non-pinball people, there are a lot of individuals who have looked very, very lightly, I'm sure, not diving into details on the website, But the pricing is unclear.
    64:57
    And this is not a statement from anyone directly working for Multimorphic. But when you have someone, and I saw this, who said that, well, it's a modular system, and it was like, you'll have to add some numbers together, that's not consumer-friendly. No, not at all.
    65:17
    And here's Dennis as a non-business, non-profit, governmental background, take it for whatever you want, just to the listeners. In my opinion, given that this license, because it's a license, was going to be known to be popular with people who do not typically buy pinball, if your goal is to bring those people in, in an ideal world, I would have liked to have seen the website have a link, like when you click buy now, that would have just been like to get a P3 with Weird Al as the number one thing. Here's the price, the $11,300. and you could click that, have the LE one to the side, and then perhaps below that, start showing the stuff for people who already are invested in the platform. People who are into the platform understand the modularity. To me, your current goal for the outsiders should be, just my opinion, bring in and get them to buy Weird Al, and then if they love the system, they're going to explore and want to understand the modularity. And I get that they're really proud of the P3's capabilities, but it should be as easy as possible to buy the game. And this is not particularly easy to understand. If people are looking and they're coming up $3,000 short on the math, there's an issue. And it wasn't everyone. It wasn't everyone. There were people who shared that did understand the right price. And you know what? Maybe they're stupid, but it doesn't matter if the customer's stupid or not. You want them as a customer. That's what I was going to say. You know, we heard a lot these last couple days after this announcement, Dennis, and for the pricing, it's confusing. And not only that, I will add this, that makes it a little bit more confusing. When they show that sizzle reel and that beautiful backlit speaker panel, there's a disclaimer that says that, sorry, that's not included either. That will be an additional fee. But when you go to the website to see what the fucking additional fee is, it's not on there.
    67:13
    So does it come with it? Does it not come with it? Do I have to wait until Monday to see if it comes with it? Am I adding it? Like, it's freaking confusing. If I'm wanting a P3, I'm not. If I did, I don't know what I'm getting myself into on Monday when I go to order this. That's a problem. And I am a pimble-crazed fan. I can only imagine what it would be like for anybody else interested in this product. That's all. Again, I don't want to browbeat it. It's just, who's the target? Is the target to sell modules to people who already own P3s, or is the target to sell P3 platforms with Weird Al modules to new people that are not pinheads? Why are they releasing this at the same time? The whole new thing, and I don't know why you've released it. Well, and I, you know, this morning before, well, I don't know exactly when they updated the website, but I saw a video that my co-host Tony did on, I put it up on an Instagram. I saw that. Now, well, you've seen this come up before. We've actually had a couple of EGP episodes, for those that listen, on the topic related to truth in advertising. And it is, I mean, he is hardcore about people and deception. He absolutely, you've seen it before. It's actually, I think Tony, Tony doesn't listen to the show. I don't think he would feel I'm being unfair if I were to say that that was a trigger for him. He absolutely despises it. and he went to this site and it did not say what the price, like you go and you saw $8,300 and you see a picture of Weird Al L.E., you're going to think, or at least he did, that you're going to get Weird Al, not only are you going to get a fully functional Weird Al, you're going to get the L.E. So now they've clarified that the image is a 13100. So they addressed his concern from what I heard in his video. That's good. But I wish it was easier. So I'm not, at this point, I think they've demarcated that in terms of the image. I just think it's really strange that it doesn't, it seems a little more, a little more complicated to just, like, to just get it. I don't have a P3. I just want to buy it with Weird Al. I don't want to think about... Well, why are you showing me a speaker panel and not telling me how much a speaker panel costs? That's all. Well, I get that, but those are add-ons. So... Well, when can I buy it? It's not that I disagree with your point, Zach, but for me, it's more fundamental. It's, if your goal is to sell games to people that have never owned the system and maybe don't even know anything about pinball, they don't want to add more than one thing to the cart. Sure, sure. And the other thing I would say is, so if I'm a buyer, does P3 have distributors? That's a retort. I know they have distributors. I've seen them mention it on the, I thought on their socials, but I can't find them on the website. Yeah, it's not on the website. And again, Zach, I'm doing my research today. I did my research. CERN, Chicago Gaming Company, American Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball. I have tabs open right now to their distributors on their websites. Spooky was the only other one I didn't see. I'd have to check Spooky. I didn't check this morning, but I checked earlier in the week, and if it was there, I struggled to find it. Okay. So I'm just letting you know. Out of fairness, I'm letting you know. Sure. So, yeah, I was struggling because I thought, well, they say the action point. And what action – Could you be through the distributors? Even if I – setting aside the issues with the website, if you can go to the distributors, I could see the distributors solving this problem for the buyer and being like – Absolutely. If someone were to call – well, I know you don't distribute for Multimorphic, but if you did, for example, and someone were to call you and say, hey, Zach, I want to get Weird Al, and you'd be like, oh, okay. Unless you already own a platform, it's going to be $11,300 or $13,100 in the LE. Yeah, if I'm distributing multimorphic, the first thing I'm doing is I'm getting a video out there for the masses that would be widely viewed that says, let me break this down for you. Here's how it kind of works. You would help that consumer so they'd better understand. It is a lot of money. They're giving a lot of money. You don't want them to be confused in any way, shape, or form. But the action assignment here is if somebody goes to this website as they're prompted to do through advertisements of this game, There are no other options to purchase this game, Dennis and listener, besides email sales at Multimorphic.com. Or we will be accepting orders at this time. There is no indication of where else they could purchase this. I would have a problem with that if I was a dealer. Wait a minute. Maybe this is an oversight. It could be an oversight. Hard to say that this is an oversight. I would assume this is more to drive direct sales, which gets us into that whole direct sales versus dealership kind of thing. I think that if you have a dealership network, they could have done a really good job of opening up information because that's kind of our job as dealers is to provide information and education to that potential buyer base. It's just simply not here. Yeah, I mean, you're an MMO distributor more than me. And all I know is Multimarket, excuse me, Multimarket has indicated that they have multiple distributors. The only one I know of is Cointaker because Cointaker made an announcement, and I saw that announcement. Okay. So that does help. Well, that's probably because I think I follow Cointaker. If I didn't, I don't know if a non-pinhead would have found that. Whenever you do submit for sale of this product or the products that you want to buy, first off, why the hell can't I buy this game? They're making P3 machines. Why can't I buy one? I get the fairness thing is what they said, right? Just the game? I'm not talking about Weird Al. I just want to buy a P3. Oh, you can't put in the order for the P3, the platform. No, I can't. Oh. I don't understand that. And then it indicates that on Monday, you're going to be able to, they'll reply back to you via email for an order or an invoice for a $2,000 deposit. So there's a $2,000 pre-order deposit. No other payments are going to be due until your machine enters production. You're then going to have 24 hours to pay this deposit. it. Otherwise, after the 24 hours, it's going to be canceled. But then it gets a little weird here. After receiving your deposit, they're going to provide you with an estimated ship date. As of this point in time, we don't know if it's machines are rolling out in a week or five years. We have no clue. But after receiving your deposit, you will be provided with an estimated ship date. Odd. You will then have an additional 24 hours to cancel your order and have your deposit returned. Okay, so that's fair. That is fair. Minus any fees incurred. Interesting. What fees would there be? I mean, normally, isn't a credit card cancellation fully refunded at that short notice? I don't. Like with PayPal, I think as long as I cancel within 30, you know, when I take registrations for my work, I think if I cancel within 30 days, no one has to eat the credit card fee. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how the credit cards work. So, I mean, I think this is, go ahead, you can finish. I was just going to say, it says non-canceled orders are then only refundable if we miss your estimated ship date by six months, at which time you'll once again be permitted to cancel your order and have your deposit returned. So they come back to you and they say it's going to be a year, two years, whatever they say. You have 24 hours to decide if that is too long for you. You're like, no, I'm good. That's a little bit longer than I wanted to wait. You cancel your order. If you stick with it, if they have five months, if there were five months delayed on their estimation, you still, their deposit's yours if you want to cancel. But if it falls outside of six months window, then you'll be permitted to cancel your order and have your deposit refunded. It's kind of, isn't that odd? It's kind of an odd way of doing things. I've not seen any other companies doing that. This could be a good thing. Maybe. I don't think it's particularly onerous. I mean, I think in an ideal world, when I read this, I would say I would prefer as a consumer if I actually got the estimated ship date before I paid the deposit. But maybe what they mean is they'll get that. I would hope that and I don't know if it's true or not, but I would hope that when someone emails in, they would give a loose estimation date. But I get I think they probably did it this way because they're like, until we actually have the money and put people in the queue, we won't know for sure. Because what if you're like on the fence and then you deposit two days after we gave you the initial estimate, but we got 40 other people who came in? Yeah, that's true. So I get that. I don't know the language with the fees thing. If it's within 24 hours, I would recommend that you pull that. I mean, if I were advising the company, simply because it sounds like you have to give them $2,000. and is there a handling fee or whatever is my non-credit card fee, like a restocking fee just to find out that, oh, I'll have to wait eight months, so now I don't want it. You should be able to back away once you know what the time is. Yeah. I've asked you before about if I were to buy this game, when would I possibly get it? And I'm not asking you to tell me, oh, it will be April 20th, Dennis, but I do expect to actually have an estimate before I paid anything. Yes. Other than that, though, yeah, the six-month thing, I just assume, is as delayed as everything has been. Look at how many times Stern has pushed on things. Sure. Yeah, that happens. I actually think that's okay. And it feels like they're setting up – it feels like a spooky here where they're like, hey, guys, it's going to take us 18 to 24 months to make these things. Yeah, actually, of the whole statement, the only thing I really don't care for is saying that there's a potential loss of fees if you cancel within 24 hours. Just eat the cost at that point. If you've scared them off because of your super long shipping, just eat that coffee. And if you want to sell your spot, you can. It says order transfers requests are subject to a $100 transfer fee. So you've got to pay $100. That's payable by the original purchaser if you want to transfer. I mean, I've never done transfer. I think that sounded fair to me. What do they do? What do you transfer? I've never been a big fan of the companies having to keep track of all this. Well, I was the buyer, but now I'm giving the buyership to this new purchaser. where it's like no other business does that. It's weird. So the game looks cool. That's the thing where it's like, have a distro do that. But if you're the company, I wouldn't want to be stuck. I'd charge them $100. I'd charge them $200. Other things that are interesting to me, I'm just going to dive into some of these things, Dennis. You can tell me if you agree or disagree. So the pricing is kind of confusing. Borderline, some false advertising. They fixed some of that. That's good. The website information is confusing. You can't really find the distributors to where to buy it from. I am having a big issue with them. I feel like Multimorphic's leaving their early adopters high and dry here. How so? I'll tell you what. These early adopters, the people that Jerry and company kind of were banking on to get this system off the ground. I mean, this system's been in essence, what, almost 10 years? This system's really old. I thought it was like four years. Four years. It's been 10 years. It's been four years. It's been 84 years. Well, I think they opened the, I don't know. It was on the Titanic. It let Leo go. Why are you defending the Leo driver? I think the Facebook website opened 10 years ago. Whatever. Okay. Well, but he used to do boards and stuff. I'm talking about, I thought they've been spending like four and a half years selling the P3 platform. Feels longer, but I don't know. But these early adopters, God bless them, they're in here. Now it just feels like they have an old, unwanted, outdated-ass machine. Not only do we have a brand-new game module, but we've got a brand-new 2.0 system, and this brand-new 2.0 system makes the head look a hell of a lot better. You also get an LCD screen free of charge. You also get all this stuff, and they're like, no, we're not leaving you guys out. If you want it, you're going to have to pay. You're going to need an LCD screen. You're going to need two additional flippers. Not only that, you're going to need that scoop bank. How much it is, I don't know. When it's available, not sure. You're going to need a new head, also available. When? I don't know how much. I'm not sure. And the thorn in my side and the candle in the cake, listener, is the flipper upgrade kit.
    79:31
    Dennis, you know I've gotten hung up on this in our private conversations. You will have to pay $40. You've been riding this company since the early days. But if you want your flippers to feel enhanced, you have to pay $40.
    79:45
    $40, Dennis. But you don't need the enhancements. That's what I'm telling you. You're not in necessity. That's what I'm telling you. You don't. You don't need it. Then why did you make an enhanced flipper system if you don't need them? Why let the... It makes no sense. Well, here's the thing. Are the flippers better? To me, it does. Yes. Look, it's technology. Okay. Are they supposed to just keep it static forever, or are they supposed to make improvements where improvements are warranted? I am totally fine with that. What I'm not fine with is it's $40.
    80:21
    What did Jerry sell? He sold maybe 10 to 20 machines over the last 10. Jerry, don't be stingy. Eat the damn cost. Upgrade the flippers for these people. It's $40. That's probably not even a cost. I'll tell you what it reminds me of. This is nickel-diny like no other. But remember that thing with the whole power supply with American Pinball? I remember. Didn't they charge? Power supplies typically are more expensive, I would guess, than upgraded. I'm just saying. Slipper EOS switches. That was an upgrade, and they ended up charging. I know people were mad about it, too. And I love, I've been hit with all these P3 apologists. They're like, well, no, it's not needed. I've heard that. It's not needed. It's not. But, you know, it does make it feel a lot better. Sure. But before, it was fine. I just want to put that out there. There was no issue before. But it's a little bit better now. And that's fine. But just, I'm almost, you know, I almost feel so bad for these early adopters that are getting neglected here. I want to be like, you know what? Flippin' Out doesn't sell multi-morphic, but damn it, I almost want to buy these poor early adopters. It can't be many of them. Buy them the $40 upgrade kit so yours can feel a little better than normal.
    81:34
    That's frustrating to me because it's just so small. It's so minute. And it's just another figure you've got to put in your spreadsheet to add up to get this game the way it's supposed to be. I think upgraded flipper kits should go out to every machine that they've ever sold, period.
    81:50
    Or charge everybody else buying a new game, charge them that $40 too. I think it's fair. Sorry, I get hung up on that $40. Okay. Well, yeah, I don't agree. I would say I'd split the difference. I would say. I'm going to be diplomatic. I'll split the difference, Zach. Anyone who originally bought a P3 and still owns it should get the flipper upgrade for free. Okay. But if they sold it along, no. Warranty is not extended on. You know what? That's how I do it. I'm good with that. Listener, Flippin' Out Pinball will be happy to buy you your better flipper feel for the Multimorphic if you message us and say, hey, I've got proof. I don't have this upgrade kit yet. I haven't purchased it, but I have proof that I am the original owner of this machine. Flippin' Out Pinball will be happy to pay for that upgrade kit. Email me at Zach, Z-A-C-H, at FlippTheLetterInOutPinball.com. I give away banners that cost more than that. Well, they are big banners. They're nice banners. I get that. New Overhaul System 2.0. Why not a, I've talked about this before, why not a 4K TV? Oh, my God, no, don't, don't. No, 4K is a false chalice to go after for something like this. If you're going to be the most innovative machine in the marketplace, that's your thing you're staying behind. It's not the tech. It's the asset generation. We were just discussing the animations and the quality compared to looking at a Halo or an Elden Ring or whatever. And it's like they don't have the money to do that sort of animation level. They can't even fully take advantage of 1080p, and you want them to go to 4K. There's no value to it. They won't take advantage of it, so it's just a waste of money. What about the overlay sticker on the play field? Can we not get a regular play field? One third. We're still dealing with a sticker. It's like a decal.
    83:38
    Sure. You got one piece of wood on the same thing. You know, I don't know what material and stuff they're using, but I thought it looked okay. Are you worried, like, the ball will chew it up? Yeah, just like I'm worried about any overlay on any older machine. It's just not as nice. You print on wood, it's nice. I mean, I don't know, like, if they mylar over all of that or what. I don't know if there's, like, a veneer that protects it. Yeah, I just remembered the early game I had. The Lexi was like the sticker was peeling up, and I was like, oh, that looks like crap. My other worry, Dennis, is right now it's so big. Pinball is so big about value and holding current values, right? You buy a Stern LE, and damn things continue to go up. A JJPC, they continue to go up. Frickin' Chicago Gaming Company. If you'd bought an LE on that thing, you're sitting at $4,000, $5,000, $6,000 more than you put into it. I am legitimately concerned that if you pay $13,000 plus, because you've got $13,000 plus the enhancements at some point in time once they're announced, plus the shipping, plus the tax, if you go in $14,000 plus on this game, listener, I don't think you're going to get it out of it in six months. Now, maybe you bolt it to your floor and you keep it for the rest of your life. Terrific. Maybe you're not in this to hold value and you're like, look, this isn't an investment. We hear that argument. So if I lose money, I lose money. Totally fine. but for those of you who do care, I do worry about that. I do not see this thing. I think you drive this thing off a lot. You're $3,000 in the hole, personally. You don't think that the, with the, because my concern, much like, well, essentially every other manufacturer out there, the lead times on getting games, getting platforms at least, has grown over, I remember a time where I was hearing people who were interested in the P3 platform being quoted approximately a three-month build, and now I'm hearing more like five months. I know someone who ordered at Expo, you know, played Heist, loved it, ordered at Expo and they're still waiting for the platform. They're five months now, yeah. So my story is, and again, these sort of lead time issues exist from all the manufacturers that I'm aware of. You know, we could go on at Nauseam or Fathom and they're... Not JGP right now. Give them credit. You can buy JGP. Given all that though, do you not think that with the popularity of Weird Al and just how slow these will probably trickle out that it won't hold the value at least for a while? I think immediately. I really think immediately because... Okay, I don't. I don't, but... But how long are you thinking? Yeah, I just... Here's my big concern. I don't know. You move into a subdivision and you've got the most expensive house by $50,000. That's never a good sign in real estate. You don't want the most expensive. You don't want the least expensive. They tell you that all the time. Oh, did Greg Bone tell you that? Well, you know. Bringing him into this. But you're already at the top there. You've got a theme that's eh, right? You already have the dedicated people that are just so damn gung-ho about multimorphic products. You've already got them in. You've got a system that is modular, which is great. So you don't really need the machine. Let's say you just buy the machine later. Then you can buy Weird Al. So it kind of eats its own sails in a way, too. You get enough platforms out there, and it's still a niche product. It's going to be, unless you get a big dynamite theme, unless manufacturing can figure things out. But based on what I've been told by Multimorphic, manufacturing is going to have to bump up too. They're going to be ready for this. So, no, I see this almost like kind of the spooky Halloween thing that we're dealing with right now.
    87:18
    And I think the longer it takes to build these things, the more you're going to kind of see those prices continue to come down. The only way that that changes, the only way, because it doesn't have a collector feel to it like a stern does. You row your sterns out, that is a collector-based feel. I don't think these things are having number badges or anything like that. It doesn't feel like a collector because you can't collect anything. How do you display your modules right now? You stuff them under the machine. there's nothing really collector about this I like their LA package and how they're going to do that but I don't think this holds I think you buy it for $13 it's worth $10 if you can resell it I think it's going to come down to the gameplay your spooky analysis is the problem is Halloween and Ultraman are not well liked players the point that I was going to get to I was spaced out there was it will I'm with you it comes down to the rules if this game is just a freaking banger and the rules are unbelievable and this is a must have game regardless of the theme, i.e. Walking Dead, i.e. Elvirus House of Horse. If it's that that's the saving grace of this game. But I don't think the theme does it. I don't think the platform itself is going to hold the value by itself independently. I don't think even the artwork is going to make it hold the value. I think it all has to come down, not to put pressure on McAlpine and Bo and Cairns, but that's where it's at. And regardless of how great this layout is, visually, I have to play it. But visually, when I look down there, there's nothing that says, holy shit, I've got to show everybody that walks into my game room this. This is so different in pinball that they are going to fall in love with what pinball is. I don't see anything in there. I had to ask what the greatest shot in pinball history was on this play field. I don't see it. Just my take. I guessed wrong. I thought it was the lift ramp, the two-way ramp. That's my favorite. So as a closing analysis here, listener, Dennis, I think this game is going to sell. You said it's going to sell. It's going to sell a hell of a lot better than any other products at Multimorphic, minus the P3 Rock and the P Rock, right? But as a pinball machine, the P3, this is going to sell better than it ever has, I believe. We can agree on that. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think they'll sell more platforms with this than they have to date. Now, I think that 227 is a low limited edition number, and I said initially, listeners, they'll sell 200 of these units. I didn't know that they were going to have LEs or standards in there. I do kind of worry that this thing, I'm not sold that it's going to sell 227 immediately. I don't think it will. I don't know. Without them just selling through to dealers, I don't think it sells 227. Hmm. I don't think it will immediately. Maybe it will. I'm sure they'll say if the LE is all sold out at least immediately and we'll know if the theme moved it or not. And the reason I say that is just that the biggest thing I've seen on people commenting who are really interested, but they've never played a P3 before. And there are a lot of people, I know you don't always know they exist, Zach, but there are people like me that when it comes to new in-box, we have to play it first. And a lot of them just, they want to know how the P3 system feels because it's so different or it looks so different. So they want to know how it feels first. So there may be some people that aren't at, you know, you noted at launch. They might not at launch, but I could definitely, in fact, I will say they will see an uptick after TPF. Regardless, they will see an uptick. Okay, thank you. But whether or not they're already at the 227 by TPF, I don't know. You may be right. It may be a bit steep for them to make. But given the production timelines, that's maybe not a bad thing. I mean, think about it. What's the turnaround time for production? If you want a standard or anything, are they making LEs first? Are they making standards first? Are they making the modules first for the people of existing games? I don't know how any of that's going to work. And it's a question if they have any already built. I mean, I know they have some because there's stuff going to be at TPS, but, like, do they have any ready for customers? Well, and the Pinball News article said that they've already got some of the kits sold or some of the kits made and going out because their Discord channel or wherever, they were kind of taking orders before the game was even announced. I then heard someone indicate that that was wrong. Yes. I don't know. I think the moral of the story here looks like a cool product. I think it's going to sell. It's got a license thing that Jerry and MultimarketFick have got to be thrilled about. It looks like a designed well game. It's got a lot going for it, and it's going to do them well. It's going to keep them into the next couple chapters of their company. But there are some just really crucial things that have deterred and will deter in the future if they don't change. They will deter their sales and their overall ability to push this game and to get it out there and to get it accepted. Because let's not joke ourselves, this product is not widely accepted by the community as of yet. It's just not. And I think it's going to take more than this game in particular to get it there. I anticipate over the next couple of weeks we'll hear individuals from the Multimorphic team talk on different media programs, podcasts, or interviews. I think we'll get that here soon, so stay tuned for that. And if you're going to TPF, play that game. And, you know, if you see me, we'll play a game together and see how it is. Yay. And I will say that I did join the Multimorphic Discord channel. And for the most part, everybody in there was freaking awesome. And they were really welcoming and really kind and nice. So thank you. They're a lot of nice people with P3. Absolutely. You know, I don't know if I have a rep with P3 or not. Most of the games haven't really appealed to me. I did have a pretty favorable review of Heist over on Eclectic Gamers back when I finally got to play it at Expo. But, you know, I like a lot of people who work on P3. I mean, there are a lot of people that do the third-party development, which is really cool. And a lot of them aren't really making traditional pinball, but from just a creativity perspective. It's a medium. It's like a paint that you can work with. And so there's stuff from like a homebrew angle. And it's beyond homebrew because they actually make things that end up being able to be sold. No, there's a lot about that that's just really, really cool. Yeah. I liked a lot of the people over there. Nick Boulter is a genius. Yeah, Nick is super smart. He's not right about everything, though, Nick. If you're listening, you're not always right. You're just mostly right. I get to be right sometimes. Buffalo Kevin over there, love that guy. Yeah, yeah. Everybody's cool. And overall, you know, I think like the lead up and stuff and the teaser and the sizzle. Oh, cool. I think P3 got a lot. I just want to, I'll emphasize it because I know people are, and I was kind of a downer earlier, I'm sure. But it's like a lot of stuff about Weird Al specifically, I think they did really, really well. Really well. We even got to see stuff on the ordering. Yeah, but we even got to see Fliptronics Becca in the sizzle reel. So she made a cameo in there. So very, very cool. Can't wait to play it. But speaking of interviews and people being on interviews, Pinball Profile, Jeff Siolis interviewed Josh Sharp, the IFPA president. He does that every year. Yeah, he had a lot of little nuggets in there. Josh is a I think he's a 10 pack 10 piece I don't think he's a 20 he's a lot of good nuggets over there with that Sharp brother he was talking about working on the Cactus Canyon revisited enhanced code that's due out and working with Lyman Sheets in general before his passing he talked about Lyman teasing that he believed, Lyman Sheets believed per Josh Sharp that the Cactus Canyon code is actually now better than Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars. Too bad the layout isn't.
    95:04
    But code's a big thing now, and if you hear Lyman Shee saying, hey, I think we made Cactus Canyon code better than Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars, that says a lot. It does. Actually, I'm not huge on Medieval Madness' code, but I thought Attack from Mars was really clever because there are three essential ways you could attack it, but I couldn't see. I think we see modern code surpassing what AFM's code was. And so I can definitely believe that Lyman and Josh were able to take CCR code beyond that And I love that Josh Sharp really focused You guys will have to listen to this podcast Pinball Profile at pinballprofile Lyman he was talking about Lyman being he like don forget Lyman wasn't just a programmer or a coder. He's very much a conductor or a director. He worked with artists. He worked with the designers. He's seen the bigger picture, and that was so of focus and important to him, listener, that let's not think of him just as an exquisite and terrific programmer. He was just that, but he was very much bigger picture ideas kind of person. He coded because he saw the bigger picture, and that's why he worked with some of the artists and different things. And at the point of his passing, Josh said that Lyman was kind of storyboarding that wizard mode with an artist and a sound engineer. So it's not Lyman creates code, gives it to somebody, and then they have to work around that. Lyman worked with those individuals to make one cohesive package, which I think really helped why his code sets and rules stuck out from a bunch of the crowd. Where do we go from here? Now, Lyman's not there to be there to support and help. He said Josh's task is to make a list of what's complete and what's not complete. With reference to what's complete and what's not, he did say that Lyman already laid out all of the rules. All the rules are already laid out. The storyboards are laid out. Everything is there. but some of those details I'm coding it not yet complete, which I'm very thankful for. I'm thankful we're still going to get that full Lyman experience and vision. It's just going back to the CGC programmers and saying, hey, you've been working with Lyman for a long time. Now let's take all of his notes and outlines and what he wanted you guys to do that you haven't been able to get done yet because you think about it, Lyman's not going to code the color animations and stuff like that. It's the artist. The artist does that. So now it's just that work has to be grinded out and complete. But I was so thankful to hear that we're still getting all of what Lyman was going to bring. So that's cool. Yeah. And I think a lot of people who were in on that game will be excited about that. Absolutely. Lyman was once a Stern pinball. We have a lot of Stern pinball news. The big, big old drop. Oh, you guys, your segues are actually more on point than I thought they'd be today. I know. Stern pinball's Gary Stern, the big chief over there, dropped a bombshell on everybody this last week. announcing that this year, 2022, they're eliminating or delaying one of their Cornerstone titles. Typically, listener, they have three releases of Cornerstones each and every year. This year, they are only coming out with two, and one of them has already been released in rush. So we're only going to get one more Cornerstone game for the year of 2022, and that will come around August. Yes, thank you. Gary, you may not be the hero we deserve, but you're the hero we needed. Is he one of us yet? No.
    98:28
    Jerry, good choice. Elvira's have been waiting. You've got to give the people what they want, and what they want are perfectly formed ramps.
    98:40
    They don't want any rumored venom. They don't want any more Marvel. They want to marvel at the wonder. That is Elvira. She is the greatest of all time. I did two other games with her. This made game number three. No shaking or stirred yet. Okay. So that's the word. Now, I have heard from some sources that were reporting that going forward, Stern's only going to have two cornerstones each and every year. That is not what they said. They said for the year of 2022. They were anticipating another release around April and shipping in May. that's the one that they're, I don't know if they're delaying it, or I don't know what's coming out in August, because it was that April title, but rolling in. I mean, I was up until this week still hearing reports about, yeah, it was, you know, April, May was going to be a game. Yeah. My last EGP rumor quarter has been totally awful. I would feel bad, but people don't care if the rumors are true. They just want them. They're feverish for them. Yes, they are. You know, I could see them doing only two in the future, Only if they're still totally backlogged. But from a PR perspective, that backlog was being a problem. This is the right move. And I don't want to be a Denny Downer. Sorry, I'm still using that term. That was a reference to me. No one calls me Denny, though. I heard you say Debbie Downer in EGP, and I was like, you know what you were thinking.
    100:02
    But I don't want you turning on me. You were feisty. I turn on everyone because I'm the fairest one of all in pinball. Man. I'm the Snow White of pinball. People really pissed you off. He don't say anything. I was like, it's kind of like when you never see your dad lose his temper, and then you see him just blast off. You're, like, more terrified than if you met the Incredible Hulk on a bad day. So, yeah, don't want to make you mad there, Dennis. Sorry, Dennis Creasel, not Dennis.
    100:30
    But the one thing that I will say is, as a reminder, I'm sure we might get a Cornerstone in August. They didn't say they're not going to do a studio release. Or a vault. Just, you know, just throwing that out there. Just as a reminder. They didn't say anything about studios. Or vaults. Just a cornerstone. I like it. Well, and the other thing here is this. A lot of people are like, Zach, you must be thrilled. As a dealer, you have so many hundreds of games back ordered. And I told you about cake. A mix on this one. Why? It's a bittersweet thing. Why bitter? Why not just like sugary chocolate? because, you know, keeping it real here, and it does help. Absolutely helps. And some of our customers will get games that they might have had to wait longer on. Overall, it is a great, great move.
    101:27
    Bittersweet, because, number one, personally, I like new games. I like the news and shiny stuff. I like being able to talk about it. I like the competition that it brings to the other manufacturers. And it's a big upswing when we get a new release. There's a lot of orders. but you're not paid until the gains actually get made and they weren't getting made. And ultimately, I will say this, it helps a lot, but there's still a big old back order even with it filling these spots. I always think for myself as a dealer, but if I'm looking at 10%, 15%, if I'm being friendly and I want to make everybody look good, you know. So would your perception change as a dealer, Dennis, if you said, hey, we're going to delay an entire new release, and it's going to help 10% of your back orders. I would have hoped the number would have been a lot higher. Well, they can only do so much if they're only taking the space of one cornerstone. Look, Jerry's trying to give you a hand up, not a handout. That's right. Watch those hands. Don't get accused of anything. And, you know, regarding the hype in promotional stuff, and I know you may not distribute for all the companies that will have releases this year, But my hope is we – 2021 was kind of like the Stern Show, and then there were P3 games, and that was it. That was it. Remember? I mean, going back over my Pinball Industry Awards ballot, it was Stern and Multimorphic, and that's it. Yeah. So this year, though, if we've got JJP, we've got American Pinball, and we've got Chicago Gaming, maybe a little bit of your joy can be filled by the other manufacturers. Very true. That doesn't solve your 10%, though. So, yeah, we'll get probably maybe another Chicago Gaming release. We'll get the JJP release this year. Yeah, you're right. Okay, we'll get plenty of stuff. I like my sterns, but, eh. Now, we are still waiting on, a lot of people are waiting on, dealers-wise, the bulk of those Insider Connected Premium Alley kits to ship. They were supposed to ship last week, I was told. They didn't ship, so still waiting on those. Apologies, apologies. If you mount it to the door, you can get a pro. Blah-biddy-blah-biddy-blah. Did you know Star Wars is now connected? I did not. Mm-hmm. Now Insider Connected. We're still waiting on Star Wars and Mandalorian. Those are the last two titles that have not been eligible for connectivity. Those are both the white titles. And they're both Lucasfilm's Disney properties, too. Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if there are other connections. Remember, correlation does not prove causation. That's true. Learned that. Got that beating over my head so many times in grad school and undergrad and high school. Star Wars is now connected, but I had a little snafu, Dennis. I don't know how this happens God I love them but I can just see them Flustered over there so they Say hey it's now insider connected you guys can Buy those retrofit kits right What whoa so we sent out retrofit kits And I started getting hammered with People saying Zach the Cat5 cable that's supposed to plug Into an open port on one of these node boards There's no open node board Cat5 plug so what do I do now Just unplug the hyperloop I think it's the little LCD monitor was occupying one of the spaces. I don't think they thought about it. So the tech department over at CERN is like, shit, they didn't think about it. So they're getting flooded with people saying, I can't hook up my insider connected kit because there's no open spot. So I can tell you guys they are looking for a fix as quickly as possible. And I can tell you it was an oversight, very much an oversight.
    105:01
    Who does that? I'm just a hazard. I'm tired of being out of the tech support. I'm going to fix you, Jerry. Hey, George, they're ready. Go ahead. Hey, George, this is what I think of your Deadpool 2.0. I love working. Sally does, and I want to torture her and make her work over and over. I want the microwave bank back.
    105:24
    Stupid COVID. They did reduce that, too. I wonder if they overcooked Ray Day's Hot Pockets. I hate Hot Pockets so much. I just loved his follow-up.
    105:41
    Yes, I did. The listeners were like, what is this? We did not subscribe to the Hot Pocket podcast. You joined CPM as a provider and you just learned about Radio Hot Pockets.
    105:52
    No, so we had, I do know a fix, though. Thankful to a customer out there that did message me and said, hey, he initially had the problem. I was like, hang tight. Let me see what they say. He came back and he said, hey, a typical splitter works. I thought you were going to say, you've got an old router lying around. Put it in the switch.
    106:11
    Throw it in there. Press the button. Channel 3, channel 4. That gear. So a typical router or a typical splitter.
    106:26
    Typical splitter works. It works fine. I anticipate that's probably what it will do. All right, in other news, we have Bob Baffey. Do you know anything about Bob Baffey? I actually do not. Oh, yeah, Bob Baffey. He's a sound designer and engineer. Most recently worked on the Stern Rush pinball machine as well as Led Zeppelin. He was doing video game like coding and music and software and stuff. So, yeah, Bob Baffey was interviewed on the Pinball Show Interviews podcast with Matt Morrison this last week. Really technical, deep. I love Matt Morrison interviews. I can't say it enough. I got, most people seem to, we get a lot of praise, at least I see it, about Matt. And the big thing about it is, it's just that calm southern drawl. No, I'm kidding. Matt knows his stuff. It's, the thing about Matt, Matt's technique, and all of a sudden we're the interview analyzing podcast. The thing with Matt that I see cited most of all is, when he interviews, people don't get the perception that he's reading down a list of questions, but that he's actually listening to who he's interviewing and the questions flow dynamically based off of that. Much like dynamic mixing in videos. That's right, and he does his homework. And speaking of dynamic mixing, thank you for that layup there. Bob Baffey was talking about, you know, if he had a magic wand and he could do anything he wanted in pinball with sound design and engineering, he said a dream project of his listener is to introduce dynamic mixing into pinball machines similar to what they do in video games. and not to get too technical, but what he's talking about is the term ducking. Ducking would be based on frequencies, not just the volume. And he said it's really CPU intensive, which is likely to hang up, but he said dynamic mixing that we get in video games, everything is contingent algorithmically. You would get a lot more, in layman's terms, you get a lot more synced reaction to what you're doing in the game and that music flowing better with that. Does that make sense? hopefully I don't know. Not really. I'm ignorant. I'll have to listen to the interview. I haven't played it yet. No you just want all these processors to be dedicated to your 4K dreams. No I think what he's referring to right now you can do things in processing on pinball machines like changing the volume when certain things happen to make that dynamic but dynamic mixing is taking different elements during that process based on switch hits or moments in the game that you can kind of tweak those more than just volume. I think. Oh, okay. I get it conceptually. I wish I could hear an example, though, to truly know. The one thing you will not hear at TPF this year is the new Jersey Jack pinball game. What? Yeah, it's in Redbird. I know a lot of people are saying, oh, we're going to see the new rumored toy story at TPF. My spies say they have like two billion of them built. It's not happening. Nope. Many boffins died to bring me that information. What are you telling us? You heard it here. the TPS correspondent, Ken Rudberg, himself, saying that he can confirm we are not going to see the new JJP game at Texas Pinball Festival this year. Sorry. What happened? Ken, you've got to pull a Craig Bobby. You've got to become the conference room table and tell us. Right now, Ken Cronin's like, son of a bitch. I was part of creating that thing over there. Now they're reporting it. Like, what? Sorry, Ken. Like an email or text from Ken. What the hell? Good job, Ken. In both cans. But, hey, if anybody wants a factory second GNR play field, you can buy them right now at pinballwizard.com, $2.99. A wall hanger is what they call it. Or a replacement? No, not a replacement. It's factory second, so no. I don't know what that means. That means it's probably not fit for a production. It didn't make that production cut. It's not intended to be used. It's a loser play field. Yeah. Losers. It's a loser play field. But at the price of $2.99, it makes a hell of a nice accent in the game room. Yeah, go and send it to Tilt Cycle. Do it up for you. It's a hell of a lot better than having an ugly-ass mystery castle play field in a game room.
    110:33
    Oh, Carl D'Angelo's perfect game. Shot fired, Carl. Well, look, Carl D'Angelo is in the news again this week. A couple things. Number one, I love that guy. He's the consummate professional when it comes to being a troll. He's a respectable troll. He shared this last week. His crystal, his Pinball Industry Award crystal. so I thought that was awesome. Oh, yeah, for streaming. Yeah, but if you take a look, where was that crystal sitting, Dennis? I'm trying to think back. I think he had it on one of his games. Oh, I like how nonchalant. Man, I think I'm going to make an exchange of this. Well, it was sitting atop a Mystery Castle pinball machine. That's so funny, Carl. Hilarious. Maybe that was just coincidence, though. Maybe that was the game that was in front in his lineup from the last tournament. And the response from everybody. Oh, everybody just loved it. They did? Oh, so funny. They noticed that? Everybody was like, oh, that's great. Oh, my gosh. I hope they didn't tag you. Yeah, they might have even tagged me and said, get the fuck out of here, Zach. Thanks, Robert Byers. Funny. Hilarious. And if Carl D'Angelo wasn't funny enough, he just teased this Monday night, February 28th, you can watch a high-stakes streaming event on Twitch, i.e. Pinball. Go check it out. $2,000 are up for the grabs. Four games, four competitors. What are the games? High production fashion is going to be good. What are the games? He's had to ask. Well, we did a Godzilla.
    112:00
    Pearl, baby, that's what I'm talking about. Showcase those new games that people can buy. Pirates of the Caribbean from Jersey Jack. So he can't really buy that. And they didn't show the fourth game, but the third game was none other than Mystery Castle by Alvin T.
    112:16
    Thank you for reading that game list, Zach. That was the response that a lot of people have taken. So, he's witty. Tournament Darling Mystery Castle is its new official title. This is going to be a thing now. It's the new doodle bug. This is going to be a thing. Everybody rub it in. Just rub it in. The wounds aren't healed yet, but that's okay. Keep rubbing. Self-inflicted wounds, Zach. Well.
    112:43
    Self-inflicted wounds. Yeah, but you all are helping heal it. Well. Salt's kind of like a sterilizing agent I feel like Carl D'Angelo's like Oh, I'm so sorry your left leg is broken Crunch, there's your right leg Good luck crawling You look like a dancing skeleton before it's all said and done Oh!
    113:06
    The reference to the D&D of it You know, you get that from the Mystery Castle That's a pretty deep cut Well, I know a lot about pinball and competitive pinball So what can I say? Yes, you do. It's not fun. Brilliant.
    113:25
    All right, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for your favorite pinball podcasting segment of all time and all that ever will be. It goes by the little name of... Unfortunately, I'm going to do a little caveat here this week. I've been told a couple times over this last week that if I were to report anything negative about Multimorphic and their new module on the P3 system, Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity, that it would probably be because I have beef with the company or because I don't sell the games as a dealer. There's like this contingency. If you crap on it, it's because you already have issues and it's not objectively how you feel about the system. I've been told that from a handful of people this last week. And to that, I will say, hey, I've got a contingency of my own. If this episode, Dennis, doesn't do great, it's because this week we didn't have a pinball market trance.
    114:24
    You see, I'm kind of hedging my bet as well. If we don't get listener-wise what we're typically used to getting in the 5000s, then it's because there's no pinball market trends this week. Sorry, everybody. But as always, I'm here not to report based on any agendas. I'm here to report the facts. Because numbers will never lie on not only pinball market trends, but the pinball show exclusively on the pinball network. Ding! All right, Jeff, let's close down this show. Woo-hoo. Yeah. That was different. It was long. It feels long. I think to commemorate how different the P3 system is in the world of pinball, this episode was kind of different. Feels good. I like it. I am looking forward to shooting some Weird Al, though. I'm kind of pumped, actually. Not going to lie. It looks nice. It looks fun. Yeah. I'm jamming on. I'm going to start listening to some Weird Al music, too. Every time we get a release of something that I'm not familiar with or it's been so long since I know the reference, I like to go back. Like if I buy a Shadow pinball machine, I'm like, yeah, I'll go back and watch the film and remind myself why that theme is so much better as a pinball theme and not a movie. Or, you know, Game of Thrones. No, no, actually, yeah. I'm kind of similar. Actually, before we started, before we connected to start doing the recording, I watched the old music video for, not Weird Al, but Adele's Rolling in the Deep. Because it reminded me of how when I was younger, I too wished I had been a cocaine ninja. What the fuck?
    116:01
    So, Dennis, between now and the next time, where can people catch you? Well, they can email eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com. They could go to Facebook.com slash Eclectic Gamers Podcast and use the Messenger tool and send me messages. Those are the easiest ways to reach out. Yeah, this is the way. And you can reach me at the Pimble Network at gmail.com. And a little announcement here. A little change in scheduling a hair. I, personally, am taking a podcast break. Good timing after this episode. Holy cow.
    116:35
    I'm going into hiding. Yeah, we've discussed it. Yeah, there's been some things that are coming up in March that make my schedule super hectic. Take the Spinball Festival. We're headlining the show at Louisville, Louisville Arcade Expo, which is March 11th through 13th. We're going to bring like 20 to 30 different machines. We've got spring break with my kids. I just, I'm like, you know what, I've got to catch up on work. I've got to take a break. So alerted Dennis about that. And, yeah, I'm taking at least a month, but we'll see. Yeah, and my current intention is I'm going to – I'm planning to try, and I don't know if I'll have – probably not every week filled, but the weeks I would do. I may bring on a couple of guests. Oh, that would be cool. Do not write in. I pick my own guests. That's right. So I'm just saying – I mean, let's not be honest. Yeah, if anybody asks, then you don't want to. No, I already have names in mind. I don't need people volunteering. Well, that's awesome. That would be really cool. So that's my current thing. And I do the editing and stuff, Zach. So I might ask you just for the intro and some stuff so I can throw it together. It won't be as good as what you do, but if people want to listen, then they might at least have a couple of things. So that's the plan. That'd be really cool. Yeah, I know that I need to take a break. I just know what happens. Usually by week two of any breaks that I take, I'm like, oh, my God, I'm ready to get back in. I'm ready. But we'll see. I don't know. But I don't intend on it. I need, I definitely need a break. I'm getting a little, well, I'm not burnt. Oh, you're so burnt. I'm past burnt. I'm just like crispy, but I'm at the point where like, some people like their bacon crispy. Yes. I don't. I like it chewy. Some people like it crispy, but I'm past the point of even the crispy lovers.
    118:21
    Like, I don't think it's bacon. It's beef jerky now. Bacon jerky. Not bacon anymore. So, but everything is fine. I want listeners to know that. Everything is all good. This is one of the warning signs, listeners. Be aware. the show could collapse at any moment. You know what? After this last week, I was ready to burn it all down.
    118:39
    You know what? I kind of thought, yeah, why not? Maybe we should have a white and match and just throw it and watch it all burn. Podcasts don't make us money. Except maybe the shirt sales. You know what does make me money? Flipping out pinball. What's in the product showcase, Zach? I'm going to tell you right now, the product showcase this week is the Stranger Things Topper. You guys thought they were gone forever. I did. I got some. There's still people on Pinside trying to sell them for more than MSRP. I saw that. I'm like, what is this all about? No. Nope. MSRP here. Stranger Things Topper. You can email me to get that, or you can just order off our website, I believe. We have some Insider Connected kits, a couple of the Pro kits left. We're already getting down low on that, waiting for more. We still have more orders. No freaking out there. We have the GNRLEs available. That's like one of the most impactful games probably ever made visually speaking and audio. That is a dynamic game, and they're in stock. We can't say that about a lot of titles out there right now. J.J.P. seems to be the one that's actually producing lately. Ken Redberg said they're finishing up the entire run of GNRs. That's right. He did say that. So that's cool. He might be correspondent of the episode. I'm going to give him a gold star. Hear that, Craig Bobby?
    119:49
    Yeah, Craig. Why don't you go back to the forest? Craig's like, I sit here and create gold week after week. I always just imagine him out in the forest picking mushrooms. I sadly think of him painstakingly recording and spending like five hours just on that little segment. That's why he quit doing the podcast he had. It was too much. We broke him. Sorry, Craig. Now, the Alien by Pinball Brothers, the Alien games are rolling out. We did get the rest of our initial order of SVs. And the LVs, they are slated, or Pinball Brothers slated at the end of the month to start rolling out. So that's exciting. It is. Star Wars the Pink Comic Edition new in box as well as pre-orders for Cactus Canyon SE and SE Pluses. I suppose that when we did initial orders as dealers, that was kind of what dealers were going to get, I guess. So I'm hearing a lot of dealers no longer having open spots, but I overordered in anticipation for you all loving this game, so we still actually have SE and SE Plus spots available. Remember that SE Plus comes with that beautiful interactive topper. Elvira 40th Anniversary, don't you make any jokes, Dennis Greasel. It is available. It's my greatest creation. Elvira 40. She's got even better details than the regular version. Why haven't you bought? Why do you hate her? You've never seen a purple seat up?
    121:11
    Oh, man. Elvira 40th anniversary is the Blackwater 100 of Elvira games. Ew. Star Wars Premium Comic pre-owned is available, as well as the limited edition topper pre-owned. Why is Luke so mean to Baby Yoda? Exactly. It's a great point. Godzilla pre-orders and accessories.
    121:32
    I'm supposed to get the shooter rods. Shooter rods, they told me were on the boat yesterday, on the truck last week, but I didn't get any. So they should be rolling in hopefully this week for Godzilla shooter rods. What about your Rush accessories? Rush accessories, you can get on the list right now for those. We know the shooter rod, the armor, the top, all of it's going to be announced very, very soon. So we're taking it. And the expression, like it. must have. Must have. Elite Pinball, Indiana Jones Topper. For some reason, I don't know why those have been trending, but we sold like four or five on this last week. So we got a couple of those left still. Banners. Babies. Hey, you gave away three banners recently. I saw it. I was going to bring that up on last week. But, yeah, you were so kind. You, like the all-star cast over at Joel's recent stream of Rush, it was Dennis Creasel, Jeff Teolis, the number one pinball player in the world, Raymond Davidson. and you all were there commentating. It was like a podcast, but with somebody game playing. It was so cool. And, yeah, we gave away not one, not two, but three Rush banners. But Joel had to complete a certain task. Yeah. And he failed miserably many times. He messaged me afterwards.
    122:44
    And he just goes, you know, he's like, you know, thanks for stopping. And I was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. That's fine. And then he goes, I'm so jacked up right now. It's like, go to sleep. It's like 1230, almost 1 a.m. his time. Go to bed, Joe. He's like, I can't. I'm too excited. He thought he was going to fail the people. But he didn't. So he should be happy and he should pass out from exhaustion. Yeah, so listener, if you want free stuff like that, like banners that cost more than a flipper upgrade system, all you've got to do is follow, like, and subscribe to Flippin' Out Streaming Channel and all of that. And while you're at it, remember to follow, like, and subscribe to the Pinball Network TPN. Go to the YouTube, baby. We've been throwing some of the podcasts on YouTube to see what happens because some people were requesting it. We'll see. Last I looked, they weren't doing that great. Yeah, you know, it is what it does. We're a grower, not a shower.
    123:37
    YouTube has been pretty cold lately. And remember, go to the Louisville show. Come hang out with me March 11th, 13th. And if you want to help, you can help as well. Show specials coming soon this week. You're going to hear from show specials this week. So get in on that. And TPN last week, Dennis, final round, episode 51, Dumb and Dumber. That was a good episode. I like that. Thanks for the kind words over there, Martin and Jeff, as well as the Bob Baffey interview on the Pinball Show interviews. We had some great streams this last week. Next week, we're going to have a daily cornucopia of streams and exclusives, probably. So follow us there, as well as we might get a free play. Maybe we get a free play. I know we'll get a triple dream. So, as always, I won't see you guys in a month, or you might see me at the Louisville show or the Texas show. For Dennis Creasel, for now, I'm Zach Minney. And I'll just say that thanks to the kindness that Zach has shown for No Pinball Market Trends, I won't upstage him with an outro. And always practice safe pinball. And Weird Al who, bro? I'd rather have an affliction pin. Up. So long, dudes. Like a virgin. Have you been watching the book about Buffett? I did, but... Did you watch all of it so far? Yes, yes, yes. I had an issue with... Was it about the pick this lightsaber? Yeah! What the fuck, man? Like, this poor kid. He's like, well, you could fuck up the rest of your life if you want to. Like, I mean... I was more hung up with the fucking Vespa gang. Oh, that was horrible. Oh, my God.
    125:10
    180 or... I didn't want to agree that Mando saved that whole season, but he so did. He did, he did. I mean, I'm glad he did, but it's like, oh, Boba Fett was so cool, and now he's just like, secretary general of the UN. That's my issue. Like, Luke Skywalker coming in, just being like a jealous, insecure stepdad. Like, look, just give him the shirt. Like, damn. I saw someone post a meme, and it was like, it was showing Baby Yoda choices of take the lightsaber, take the chainmail, or force choke Luke and take the lightsaber and chainmail for fucking with you. Yes. Like, don't put that on me. Like a little baby Yoda. But just know, if you don't choose this lightsaber, you are dead to me, and you'll never be a Jedi ever again. Yeah, I know what you mean about it. I don't get it. I don't know. It just made me mad. I'm like, your rendering was so much better than it was on the Mandalorian series of Luke Skywalker. It was beautiful. But then you're going to make Luke Skywalker, since he's so pretty and natural looking, a dick? No. You're wrong. Ah. I'm Dennis, and I just want to say...
    126:23
    No! You can't... No. I mean it as a metaphor. Zach, it's a metaphor. I don't know that metaphor, man. Zach, it's a metaphor. I'm not saying my metaphors. You want me to go with that? No. Well, I thought you could just beep it, but maybe that's still too blatant. I'm sorry. Yeah. I don't know if that's going to work. Man, you made me blush. I'm like, God, what are you doing?
    127:01
    I think it's a lot tamer than saying, I'm never saying just anything you said on here. But that one, I'm, yeah.
    127:14
    Very worried about not having a closer for you. Wow. I'm sorry. I'm sweating now.