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The Super Awesome Pinball Show - S1-E1

The Super Awesome Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 23m·analyzed·Nov 30, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.039

TL;DR

New pinball podcast launches with Franchi, Vanderveen, and Dr. Pin discussing community events and recent show experiences.

Summary

The Super Awesome Pinball Show debuts as a new entertainment-focused pinball podcast hosted by artist Christopher Franchi, Texas Pinball Festival organizer Ed Vanderveen, and Dr. Pin (Christian Line). The episode introduces the show format, discusses recent pinball community activities including charity work and the Pinside Secret Santa program, and covers impressions from the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo where Deep Root's Raza prototype was displayed.

Key Claims

  • Christopher Franchi is responsible for artwork on Batman 66, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Munsters, and The Beatles pinball machines

    high confidence · Direct self-identification by Franchi in show introduction

  • Ed Vanderveen is one of three organizers of the Texas Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Direct self-identification by Vanderveen

  • The show was teased almost a year prior but delayed; Ed was running for mayor and didn't want negative podcast content affecting his campaign

    high confidence · Franchi's explanation of production delay

  • Ed Vanderveen ran for mayor of Midlothian, Texas and planned to offer tax incentives to pinball companies; he did not win

    high confidence · Ed's own discussion of mayor campaign

  • Deep Root's Raza game was displayed at the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo as an early prototype for data collection purposes

    high confidence · Ed's firsthand account of playing the game at Houston show; Robert (Deep Root representative) confirmed data collection focus

  • Raza features a spinning lamp feature (called a 'dipsy-doodle') similar to Avengers' spinning cube

    high confidence · Ed's gameplay description with reference to TLS's terminology

  • One of the two Raza prototype machines at Houston show appeared darker/had lighting issues compared to the other

    medium confidence · Ed's observation that one machine seemed darker and was packed up early for work

  • Pinside Secret Santa program has grown to 150-200 participants in its third year

    medium confidence · Christian's participation report; specific numbers given but not independently verified

  • Ken Cromwell from Flippin' Out Pinball (Special Unlit) sent Sarah a Yeti microphone as her Secret Santa gift last year

    high confidence · Christian's direct account of receiving the gift

Notable Quotes

  • “I did podcasting for four years, and it was sort of a morning show on the weekends in the afternoon. So it's kind of like a morning show for slackers is basically what we called it”

    Christopher Franchi @ early show introduction — Explains the entertainment-focused philosophy behind the new show format

  • “I'm going to try and bring the hobbyist and just the general enthusiast vibe and viewpoint to the podcast. And hopefully I'll balance out some of Chris's cynicism and have a healthy and positive outlook on the hobby.”

    Christian Line (Dr. Pin) @ host introduction segment — Establishes the balance of perspectives between the three hosts

  • “there's a whole segment devoted to a little bit of toxicity at Pinside. But there's one thing at Pinside that I have to say is the best part of Pinside. And it is once a year. It's the Pinside Secret Santa program.”

    Christian Line @ Days of Our Pinball Lives segment — Highlights positive community aspects despite toxicity concerns

  • “I was told – I'm going to name drop here, but I talked to Robert... he made it pretty clear that this you know they were just there to collect data”

    Ed Vanderveen @ Raza discussion — Explains Deep Root's low-key approach to the Houston prototype display

  • “My whole goal is to shoot the blinking lights and keep the ball on the play field.”

    Ed Vanderveen @ Raza discussion — Articulates the casual player perspective distinct from tournament players

  • “I decided to leave it in so you could see what a dick Jack Danger really is. Seriously. Love you, Jack.”

    Christopher Franchi @ Spinnergate setup — Humorous call-out that Jack Danger didn't provide recorded content for a planned bit

  • “If one podcaster buys another podcaster a Yeti microphone, isn't that like a polite way of saying, your podcast sounds like crap, so here's a nice Yeti.”

    Ed Vanderveen @ Secret Santa discussion — Humorous commentary on the gift interpretation

Entities

Christopher FranchipersonEd VanderveenpersonChristian LinepersonThe Super Awesome Pinball ShoweventDeep RootcompanyRazagameTexas Pinball Festivalevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Multiple pinball manufacturers (Stern, Chicago Gaming, American Pinball, Jersey Jack) increasing presence at large-scale industry trade shows (IAAPA) beyond traditional pinball-specific venues

    medium · Ed: 'IAAPA... truly a trade show where the manufacturers from anything to do with the entertainment industry... Stern was there... Chicago Gaming and American Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball'

  • ?

    community_signal: Toxicity present on Pinside forum acknowledged by hosts; context suggests interpersonal conflicts and negative discourse mixed with positive community initiatives

    medium · Christian: 'There's a whole segment devoted to a little bit of toxicity at Pinside.'

  • ?

    community_signal: 'Spinnergate' dispute between Jack Danger and Scott Denise caused Scott defensiveness at Houston show; Jack failed to provide recorded bit for show despite promising contribution

    medium · Franchi: 'The funny joke was set up between me and Jack Danger about, of course, Spinnergate between Jack and Scott Denise. However, Jack couldn't manage to sit down and record a two-minute bit that he asked us to put into our show himself... I decided to leave it in so you could see what a dick Jack Danger really is.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinside Secret Santa program demonstrates strong community cohesion with 150-200 participants, described as 'the best part of Pinside' despite toxicity concerns elsewhere on forum

    high · Christian: 'there's a whole segment devoted to a little bit of toxicity at Pinside. But there's one thing at Pinside that I have to say is the best part of Pinside. And it is once a year. It's the Pinside Secret Santa program... it's kind of blown up since then. This is the third year that I've done it, and I think there's 150 to 200 people that are participating this year.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.250

0:00
Think about the art. I'm at a B+. I know I'm drunk. The following is an ad-hoc radio production. And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for the show.
0:30
Sit down, kick your feet up, grab a cold one, get ready for... The Super Awesome Pinball Show! That's right, it's time for everybody's favorite pinball show! With your hosts, pinball artist Christopher Franchi, Texas Pinball Festival's Ed Vanderbeen, and Dr. Pin himself, Christian Lyne. Sponsored by Chicago Gaming Company, makers of Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and Attack from Mars remakes, chicago-gaming.com and by Cointaker.com, distributors of great pinball machines, mods, accessories, and Frenchie pinball wear. Yeah, yeah, all right, all right, get it going, get the show rolling. That's just bloody rude.
1:21
Hello, everybody. This is Christopher French, and I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you on behalf of Christian, Ed, and myself for stopping by to listen to our show, and also to explain that through a little bit of growing pains, our first episode does not sound the best. The recording between Christian, Ed, and myself lacks a little bit of luster, but the pre-recorded bits and everything else sound great. So if you could just bear with us this time, we promise it'll be much better next time, and we hope you enjoy the show.
1:46
Alright, hello Pinball World. My name is Christopher Franchi, and this is the Super Awesome Pinball Show, episode number one. We're going to introduce ourselves and tell you what this show is all about. First off, like I said, my name is Christopher Franchi. I'm a pinball artist. I'm responsible for Batman 66, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Munsters, and The Beatles. Not necessarily in that order. And also we have Mr. Ed Vanderveen. Ed? I'm Ed Vanderveen. I am one of the three organizers of the Texas Pinball Festival. And that's pretty much all I do. That'd annoy your wife because you're retired. And I annoy my wife, Kim. Everybody knows Kim. All right. And the third wheel to our group, Mr. Christian... Mr. Christian Olsen. See, there we go. There you go. Take that again. Start over. And the third wheel to our group, Dr. Penn, Christian Line. Christian, how are you? Hey, I'm great. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. I'm Dr. Penn from the Mrs. Penn's Pinball Podcast, led by my incredible wife, Sarah. She's kind of brought me into the hobby, and I'm loving it. I'm ready to talk some pinball with you guys. Does she know that she can't have you anymore because you're under contract with us? I think I can still cameo on her show from time to time, but yeah, I mean, I think I'm committed to you guys officially. Yeah, you are going to have to ask for written permission, and there will be fees given to me and Ed if you appear on another show. Yes. Oh, shit, I didn't read the fine print. Well, there you go.

  • Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo is considered 'the party show' with a more relaxed atmosphere compared to TPF

    high confidence · Ed's characterization based on his attendance

  • “Sarah does her entire podcast on her phone. So there's no microphones at all. It's not like – there's not even like a cheapo Microsoft Win 95 microphone that comes with your operating system.”

    Christian Line @ Secret Santa discussion — Explains why the Yeti microphone was a meaningful gift

  • “It's just me. I have an amazing collection of pinball machines, and I love working on them, and I do like to play... I'm just personally not a tournament player.”

    Ed Vanderbeen @ Raza evaluation — Establishes Ed's casual collector/player identity versus competitive focus

  • “IAAPA, it is truly a trade show. It's not like a pinball show... Stern Pinball was there. Stern Pinball was there. So was Chicago Gaming and American Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball”

    Ed Vanderveen @ IAAPA discussion — Contrasts industry trade show scale with dedicated pinball venues

    • Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo
    event
    Pinside Secret Santaevent
    Jack Dangerperson
    Scott Deniseperson
    Sarah Lineperson
    Ken Cromwellperson
    Zombie Yetiperson
    Melissaperson
    Emotoperson
    Jeff Teolisperson
    Joe Balserperson
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Cointaker.comcompany
    IAAPA Showevent
    Free Play Floridaevent
    Stern Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception of Raza prototype at Houston show with no negative feedback reported; community excitement about Deep Root's entry into market despite early stage presentation

    medium · Ed: 'I didn't talk to anybody that thought it was a bad game. Everybody had a good time. People were very excited about it.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball community demonstrated strong charitable support for Make-A-Wish campaign with multiple donations (machine, art, mods, lighting) from industry figures

    high · Christian: 'I reached out to a lot of people in the industry and it just kind of underscores how great people are in pinball... Melissa from Cointaker... Joe Fox, Jeremy Packer, Zombie Yeti... Zach Sharp and Stern to donate some translights and some mods'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Casual collector/player perspective (represented by Ed) values visual appeal and simple shot satisfaction over tournament complexity; recognized as majority player type despite minority tournament player focus

    high · Christian: 'Ed, your viewpoint is really important, though, because a lot of people are like you, that they don't want to know how to get to play field multiplier or figure out how to hit max bonus X. They just want to know, is the game pretty and is it fun to shoot? And that's what most people actually are looking for. I would say that the tournament players, the hardcore players, are kind of the minority'

  • ?

    event_signal: Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo positioning itself as 'party show' alternative to traditional serious TPF; attracts different demographic with music, relaxed atmosphere, celebrity appearances (When in Rome singer)

    high · Ed: 'Houston show... it's relatively close to me, and I don't have to work it... It's kind of considered the party show... music... very different atmosphere... Hakuna Matata type of show... When in Rome, the lead singer for When in Rome... Clive Farrington... He sang, and that was a lot of fun.'

  • ?

    community_signal: New podcast launch with established industry figures (Franchi, Vanderveen) plus growing personality (Christian Line) represents talent consolidation and cross-pollination of media platforms

    high · Show introduction details three hosts from different pinball community segments: artist, festival organizer, and emerging podcast personality

  • ?

    announcement: Deep Root's Raza prototype displayed at Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo in early stage with rough 3D-printed toys and unfinished lighting; represents early public reveal for data collection

    high · Ed: 'I did get to play Raza... I got to hang out with a bunch of cool people... Raza, it's a good game... These were very early. The play fields were finished with the artwork and stuff. I think a lot of the toys were just the first 3D printed. They were pretty rough looking.'

  • ?

    product_concern: One Raza prototype machine at Houston show exhibited lighting issues compared to other unit, requiring early shutdown for repairs; potential quality control concern for Deep Root

    medium · Ed: 'one game did seem much brighter than the other... One of the games did have some issues. I know they packed it up a little bit early, right before the show closed. and I know they worked on it more than the other one.'

    • 3:06
    It's all about the fine print. All right, so what are we planning on doing with this super awesome pinball show? It's not the pinball podcast. It's a pinball show. I know what I wanted to do with the podcast and kind of know where you guys fall in. I can tell a short story, and you guys can add to that. I did podcasting for four years, and it was sort of a morning show on the weekends in the afternoon. So it's kind of like a morning show for slackers is basically what we called it, people who didn't want to get up at 8 a.m. to listen to jokes. And I did that for about four or five years. And ever since I got into pinball, I've always wanted to take the next step with pinball and bring that into the podcast world. Of course, there's plenty to choose from, but my take on podcasting is, I'm not even going to say it's a little different than everybody else's. it's a lot different than everybody else's so hoping to uh to bring that to the pinball people and uh do sort of a different show that's got a lot you know it's more entertainment based certainly there's going to be conversation and whatnot but what was funny was around the time that i was thinking about doing a pinball podcast ed comes to me and says let's do a podcast well that's true because i said hey wouldn't it be great if someone did a pinball podcast and you said well there's like 400 of them already and i said what and then you said well i was only wanting to get the best of the best but they're not available so nice you want you want to do this podcast with me ed did i say that i probably did yeah yeah well ed and i are very similar in our styles and so i thought well we're going to need some balance here like dark humor yeah you know sarcastic you know sarcastic sarcasm and edgy sarcastic stunning in the nude um so we need Listen, I mean, hopefully we all bring a little bit of a different perspective on the hobby to the podcast. I mean, Ed and Chris, you guys are both directly involved in the industry, you know, both with TPF and with art. And I'm going to try and bring the hobbyist and just the general enthusiast vibe and viewpoint to the podcast. And hopefully I'll balance out some of Chris's cynicism and have a healthy and positive outlook on the hobby. Well, see, this is the benefit of, you know, everybody bitching about why it's taken a year to get to the show. because we sort of teased it almost a year ago, and it never came to fruition. But, of course, I was real busy at the time. Ed was running for mayor. I'm sure he doesn't want to get online and have his competition going, I heard this on a podcast. That pinball machine sucks dick. He didn't need that, so we kind of put it on hold. I didn't win the mayor, by the way. Yeah, well, they don't know what they're missing. I was going to offer huge tax incentives to pinball companies to come to Midlothian, Texas.
    5:40
    No sales tax. No sales tax on pinball machines. That's right. But see, the good thing, the blessing in disguise was that I realized that we were missing something. So it was a good thing that we didn't start. And the thing that we were missing was what Christian has to bring to the table. Yeah, talent, funny jokes.
    5:58
    We can come off abrasive at times, but Christian's like the nice guy. In addition to what he said that he feels he brings to the table, which he does, I feel he also brings the nice guy, you know, the balance out between the two cranky old men. Wait a minute. I think I'm a nice guy. I'm not a bad guy. I'm not saying you're a happy medium. I'm trying to be a positive, happy-go-lucky kind of guy on this podcast. I mean, I'll speak my mind and I'll be truthful. I'm not in the pocket of any company, but I definitely have a very I love pinball, everything in pinball is awesome kind of viewpoint on the hobby. Sure, man. Whereas I don't think you guys necessarily have that all the time. At least I know, Chris, you definitely don't.
    6:40
    And I don't know you well enough. What do you mean? There's no drama in pinball. I'm still trying to figure out why Ed said, wait a minute, I'm a nice guy, and he didn't say, wait a minute, we're nice guys. How come I got just left out in the cold there? Because you're not a nice guy. We love you, Chris. We love you. That's why we're excited to do this with you, man. Brian, he's a nice guy. He is a nice guy. He is, and I tell him all the time. He's like a teddy bear, and nobody really knows that because I think he's a very sensitive guy. When he feels strongly about something, he feels very strongly about it. And I think some people read that as being maybe angry, and he's not. He's a sweet dude and, you know, a good friend. I have unofficially been voted the most generous guy in pinball, too. I have to say that that's true. I mean, you've sent us, I'm looking right now at two amazing pieces of art that you've sent us. In fact, I think you've sent us more than just two. A few hanging on my ball down here in the man cave. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm not here to brag about that. I'm just saying, as far as people thinking that I'm a dick or whatever, you know, I do a lot of charity work and all that. And actually, we're going to be doing some charity work that we're going to talk about later on, too. So, excited about that. But anyway, so, yeah, I think it's really cool that we were all able to get together and put the show on. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to have a lot of different things. Basically, we can go over the features right now, what we plan on doing. And, of course, it's going to expand from there as we do it and we bring in new ideas. But we're, of course, going to do our take on pinball in the news, what's going on. It's going to be our version, so hopefully it will be a different version. And then we have art lessons with me. People always ask how I do what I do. So every show we're going to have a little bit about that. But go to the Facebook page, which is Super Awesome Pinball Show. And if you have any questions for me on how I do what I do, ask it there. And the boys will ask me in a future show. So we've got that. Speaking of Super Awesome Pinball Show, how come we changed the name from the Super Duper Extra Awesome? Because everybody got it wrong. Everybody would just, when they would mention it, they'd be like, Super Awesome, Extra Cool, whatever. And I just thought, you know, if we just went Super Awesome, that'll eventually soak in. Plus now our email can be saps at gmail.com, which is great. There you go. Yeah, the acronym is SAPS, which I think sums us up well. That's right.
    8:45
    And then coming up after that, we've got conversations with TPF Ed from the Houston Pinball Expo. Yeah. Ed, I don't think you knew this, but you talked to Jeff Teolas. Did you know Jeff was the guy who did the call-outs for Raza? Because the way you sounded when he kept saying, I hear that guy who did the call-outs is really good, your responses were like, yeah, I didn't really hear him, and you sounded like you didn't know. Were you aware of that? Well, no, and because he's not the only person that did call-outs because I know another person that did call-outs, and I thought he was referring to that other person, not himself. I did not know until you just said that just now that he was one of the voices on Raza. You're going to drop some exclusive information here? Who was the other voice?
    9:29
    So I didn't know Jeff was the other voice. Crickets again. Fucking crickets, dude. I mean, you can't – this guy is like a freaking rock. I'm telling you, it's going to come. It's going to come out. I'm not going to blow it all on this one first episode. So we've got to have stuff. Yeah, I'm thinking like we snagged Insider Ed. Bullshit. You're fucking nothing. Nothing. It's not me. I have a smart much. It's not me. Nothing. All right, so anyway, you talked to Jeff Teolas. You also talked to Emoto Harney. Everybody knows Emoto. All I have to do is say Emoto. She's the nicest person. I mean, she just really is. She's so enthusiastic and excited to talk to people at pinball. I think she's one of the coolest people in pinball, hands down. I mean, she showcases arcades around the world. She is at every single show doing a video of the convention hall. I mean, for those of us who can't be here, she's awesome. And the video she did with Raza was probably the best one. It just showcased the game, and Teolis was there playing with it, and he kind of showed all the shots off. Teolis was there playing with it.
    10:31
    I can't speak to that. All right, so moving on, you also talked to Joe Balser, and let's just say he really likes your name, Ed. And then, of course, we're going to talk about our upcoming, what we're calling the Super Awesome Pin Pets charity, Pin Pets Trademark Super Awesome Pinball Show. Nobody can take that. That's ours. So now we've got pin pets. We can do anything we want with that, but the first thing we're going to do is a charity, and we'll talk about that later. And then, of course, we're going to end the show with Ed telling us what's going on because we all want to know with TPF coming up. You know, that's really not why I did the show. I mean, I'll talk about what guests are coming and stuff, and I'll answer questions, and I'm sure I'll do more ranting about things running a pinball show. That's good. We want to hear that. I mean, we want to hear the details. We've got some stories, all the insides of some of the celebrities we've had. That's kind of some funny stories, and we've had some divas. Yeah, Chris has created that awesome sound bite that we have to use multiple times during the show. That's right. Let's hear it now. Ready, go. And that was just another shameless plug for Texas Pinball Festival by Ed. All right, there we go. I figured that's what you were going to do, so.
    11:39
    Okay, are you guys ready to get this show on the road? All right, so here's something that is kind of puzzling me. What is all this fuss about this outlaying Spinnergate thing between Jack Danger and Scott Denisey? I didn't really know much about it, but I just saw Scott Denise at the Houston Pinball Show, and some other people were talking about this, and he got really upset and somewhat defensive about it and didn't say a whole lot of nice things about Mr. Danger. So do you all know more about this? Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call a setup, where we lay down the foundation for a funny joke. The funny joke was set up between me and Jack Danger about, of course, Spinnergate between Jack and Scott Denise. However, Jack couldn't manage to sit down and record a two-minute bit that he asked us to put into our show himself. Therefore, we don't have the rest of the bit. We couldn't finish it, and I decided to leave it in so you could see what a dick Jack Danger really is.
    12:35
    Seriously. Love you, Jack. God, what a dick. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our pinball lives. days of our pinball lives where the three of us discuss what we have done in the past few weeks leading up to today i've had two things nothing probably as exciting as you guys but some really cool stuff like there was a make-a-wish in this area for a kiddo who has a life-threatening issue and i was contacted through my mom who's a volunteer at make-a-wish foundation and she uh she said this kid wants some ghostbusters pinball machine what can you tell me about it how can i find it? What would make this wish really special? So I reached out to a lot of people in the industry and it just kind of underscores how great people are in pinball. We had a machine that was offered by Melissa from Cointaker, who's in Pennsylvania, and she gave it to us at a significant discount. She offered to bring it to this child's house, set it up, and then we got a ton of additional donations from other people. So we had pin stadium lights from a friend of mine, Joe Fox, Jeremy Packer, Zombie Yeti, drew an original Ghostbusters piece of art of Bill Murray that is freaking awesome. Very cool. Yeah, a framed pencil drawing of him. And he obviously personalized it and everything. He sent along a video of him drawing it. We got Zach Sharp and Stern to donate some translights and some mods and a bunch of different mods. I mean, I could go on forever about all the people who donated to it. So the gift-giving is this Friday. I'm unfortunately on call, but my wife, Sarah, is going to go to the wish granting and be there to see it and take some pictures that hopefully we can share. So that would be really cool to show off to the pinball community because everyone kind of came together to make this kid's wish a reality and make it really special. So I thought that was really cool. That's cool. Yeah, if you want to share, we can put those pictures on our Facebook page. Yeah, for sure. Obviously as well as whatever you're going to do yourself. Yeah, I'm going to check with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to make sure that's kosher. But absolutely, if I'm given the green light, we'll have that up on Facebook. And then the other thing I did was I know we're going to probably talk a little bit about there's a whole segment devoted to a little bit of toxicity at Pinside. But there's one thing at Pinside that I have to say is the best part of Pinside. And it is once a year. It's the Pinside Secret Santa program. And essentially what it is is this one guy started a thread and said, hey, everyone at Pinball is a good dude or a good woman. Let's get together and let's do a Secret Santa at Pinside. This was a few years ago, and it's kind of blown up since then. This is the third year that I've done it, and I think there's 150 to 200 people that are participating this year. Essentially, you send in your name, you send in your shirt size, that sort of thing, and he hooks you up with someone else totally anonymously who's in the program.
    15:25
    There's no money limit. You just buy a bunch of shit for them, and you send it out. It's really cool. It's cool to kind of Facebook stalk them, see what they are into, see what games they have, and get something that's really special for them for the holidays. And every year we get different people, obviously, but this year we got two really good people. There's a lot of people in the industry that do this. And without saying any names or giving any two major hints, we got some really good names. So we're having a lot of fun, my wife, Sarah, and I, coming up with gift ideas for them. And she's very crafty. So she's making some really cool stuff. You got our people in the industry. Yes, but I probably shouldn't say that because you're not supposed to say that, but I'm going to anyway. We got some industry people. Well, but the industry can, that's anything from, you know, define industry. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean, it's not just your average pensider, one of them that we got. So we're excited for that. We're looking into gifts and buying those, and we're going to ship them out. So that's it, man. That's my week. That microphone that you're speaking into, where'd you get that? Oh, yeah. So that's a great point, man. And this is from Ken Cromwell from Special Unlit. He was Sarah's Secret Santa last year. He's in it again this year, but he did it last year, and he sent her a freaking Yeti microphone, which is not cheap, and then a pop filter and a bunch of other swag, like some Special Unlit stuff, a T-shirt, the movie Special Unlit, a few other things. So it's fun. Okay. If one podcaster buys another podcaster a Yeti microphone, isn't that like a polite way of saying, your podcast sounds like crap, so here's a nice Yeti. It was more than a pop filter, actually. It's like buying someone deodorant or soap for Christmas. Yeah, but there's no offense taken, man, because Sarah is – we've talked about this offline, but Sarah does her entire podcast on her phone. So there's no microphones at all. It's not like – there's not even like a cheapo Microsoft Win 95 microphone that comes with your operating system. It's just a phone that she walks around with. Sometimes it sounds good. Sometimes it doesn't, but that's kind of her thing. She just rolls with it. And the Houston interviews that I did, I'd use that just with my iPhone 11. I walked around and just used my phone, and I think they turned out fairly well. Sounded great, man. Did you hear that? iPhone 11.
    17:41
    It's not like the 11 Plus. Yeah, my daughter went to go get a new iPhone, and we walked out with three of them. Oh, man. So that sounds pretty good on the phone now. Yeah, man. So if anyone is interested in getting into the Pinside thing, I think it's the Secret Santa thing. I think it's done for the year. But you can definitely stalk the thread and see what people get and just be part of it vicariously and sign up next year because it's very fun. Very cool. I got in on that. Somebody probably sent me a box of shit.
    18:10
    Well, they are now. Why is there a flaming box of dog shit on my porch right now? How come I got a bag of Skittles? What does this mean? That's right. Fuckers!
    18:22
    And, Ed, you and I had an action-packed week, but before that, you went to Houston and you got to play Raza. I did. I went to the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo in Houston, Texas. I did get to play Raza. I got to hang out with a bunch of cool people. My favorite part about the Houston show, it's relatively close to me, and I don't have to work it. Keith and them, they put on a really good show. It's kind of considered the party show. They have music, and it's a very different atmosphere. Yeah, it is. Exactly. It's very different than TPF. It's more relaxed and Hakuna Matata type of show. And they've got good games and stuff. And some fun people came down. Scott Denise was there. And When in Rome, the lead singer for When in Rome. Remember that group? It's an 80s group, isn't it? Yeah, they sing that song, The Promise. Oh, yeah, the Napoleon Dynamite song. Clive Farrington. There you go. Man, you're fast on the Googles. That's the Google, my friend. So, yeah, he was there. He sang, and that was a lot of fun. I mean, it's just a good show. But, yeah, I got to talk to Emoto and the people from Deep Root were there, some of their techs and stuff. I got to talk with them. But Raza, it's a good game. I'm going to go ahead and say that. It's got a lot of neat features on it. Now, of course, I'm not a tournament player, so when people start asking me, like, very specific rule-type questions, I kind of go, I don't know. I just like shooting shots and pretty lights and all that. I got one question, Ed. Did you make the ramp all the way? I did. You did? Yes. Nice. Good job. It's doable, people. I do think that these are just prototype games, and everyone's like, oh, where's all the innovation stuff? And I don't think – I think that stuff's coming. These were very early. The play fields were finished with the artwork and stuff. I think a lot of the toys were just the first 3D printed. They were pretty rough looking. I think it's going to be much more polished. But the ramp is a very cool shot. But I did make the ramp a few times. I also didn't make the ramp a few times where it just didn't seem like it had enough. I know flipper power is adjustable, so I'm confident they're going to get all that worked out. But overall, it was a fun game. I didn't talk to anybody that thought it was a bad game. Everybody had a good time. People were very excited about it. The display is awesome, that super wide display. Did you see it out of the green light? Because I heard people were saying that there was that big green light washing everything out and they said that without that green light though the bottom half of the play field was completely dark Was that true Did you see it Well there were two games and they had two games there and one game did seem much brighter than the other, and I did say something to my wife, Kim, about that. I asked her. I said, well, it almost seemed like some of the lighting was out on the one game. And one of the games did have some issues. I know they packed it up a little bit early, right before the show closed. and I know they worked on it more than the other one. One of them ran, seemed to run pretty rock solid all weekend. The other one ran solid too, but it did seem darker than the other one. It looks like the game looks so packed. I mean, did you, just from playing it over that weekend, did you feel like you got a good feeling for the game, or was there still a lot to discover? No, there were some good shots on it. Again, I'm not a tournament player, so it's hard for me to, when people ask me, well, what about this? So I didn't pay attention to the scoring and stuff. I thought the ramp was really cool. TLS called it a dipsy-doodle. It's that spinning lamp feature. There's one on Avengers, the cube that spins. I don't really like that. I'm not a big fan of that because it blocks a couple of shots, and I'm sure that's the purpose of it. But just as a player, to me, it's kind of in the way. But some of the other shots are pretty cool. There's one shot where you shoot into this little ramp, and it hits a target, and then it spits it back out on the play field. It's a motorcycle ramp that kind of jumps off the ramp. Exactly. That's kind of a neat shot. But, again, that's right behind that spinning thing. So unless you've got that lined up just right, it's kind of hard to hit. But the rest of it seemed pretty fun. I mean, there's a million videos out there already of it. And I had people texting me the whole time I was there, can you get a video? Can you get some audio? So I tried my best. I took a video as best I could for Kerry Hardy, and he posted it online, of course.
    22:36
    Everybody's shit on it. Yeah, the nice people are like, that's an awful video. Like, I'm sorry, man. I'm sitting here with my iPhone. I'm trying to get the information out to you, but, you know. Yeah, that's why next time when they ask you, you can go, can you fuck off? Yeah.
    22:50
    I'm kind of surprised, though. Aren't you guys surprised that they didn't have something formal there, someone streaming it, someone, you know, taking really good video of it? You know, I was told – I'm going to name drop here, but I talked to Robert. Ooh.
    23:03
    Well, you know, I got to – We've been down to pick up these names you're dropping here. I got another show coming up here that, you know, I'm kind of trying to figure out what's going to happen. but he made it pretty clear that this you know they were just there to collect data i don't know what kind of data you know i don't know if they were trying to see how the mechs held up or how many people played or how many you know maybe they were trying to see how many people actually made that ramp shot and how many times it was successful or not so that makes sense you know it makes sense they were just there to collect that it wasn't a company you know here we are it wasn't unveiling it wasn't uh it wasn't any part of their five days of deep root or it was just they were just there to collect data and to, you know, I guess, reassure people that, hey, you know, this is going to happen. I mean, on one hand, I understand that they don't want to show it off per se because, you know, they want to save that for the big reveal. And when all of the, you know, innovations are in there and they have the real cabinet and the real play field art and the real toys to show off the right way. But on the other hand, they have to know that people are going to stream it on their iPhones. And, you know, it's not going to come off like a professionally done shot video. And they were super cool about all that. They were letting people take whatever pictures they wanted in video, and they're answering questions, and I guess whatever they're allowed to answer. But they certainly help people with the shots and explain rules. Of course, I didn't listen to any of that. Moving on, because, again, I just – pinball machines. I just collect them. It's shiny. Kim plays them, and that's what I always tell people. They say, well, what do you think about this? I always say, well, let me get the wife. She knows the rules. Yeah, but Ed, your viewpoint is really important, though, because a lot of people are like you, that they don't want to know how to get to play field multiplier or figure out how to hit max bonus X. They just want to know, is the game pretty and is it fun to shoot? And that's what most people actually are looking for. I would say that the tournament players, the hardcore players, are kind of the minority, even in the small niche hobby of pinball. They are, and I understand the need for that. It's just me. I have an amazing collection of pinball machines, and I love working on them, and I do like to play. I will play with my friends. We'll do the little mini tournaments and stuff. We've even hosted tournaments at our house. I get it. I'm just personally not a tournament player. My whole goal is to shoot the blinking lights and keep the ball on the play field. I think both viewpoints are very valid, and I kind of look at the machine in both ways. How much fun will this be in a tournament versus could I own this in my house and just like to shoot on it? Right, but getting back on topic, it's a lot of fun. Marco Specialties was there with their big stern display. They had lots of Elviras, lots of Jurassic Parks, a really cool display. Emoto did a great job, so that took up a big chunk of the floor. Multimorphic was there with all their games. American Pinball Head, there was a Houdini and an Oktoberfest. You know, I won't say I was completely sober walking around all weekend, so it's hard for me to remember a lot of the show.
    25:53
    That's awesome. Anyway, so that's the Houston show. It was a good time. If you're ever in Texas in November, I would recommend stopping by. It's a fun show. The party show. It is the party show. And then, Ed, you and I had a pretty interesting weekend last weekend. We did.
    26:11
    All right, Chris, so you and I attended the Free Play Florida show in Orlando, Florida. Yeah, we did. But prior to that, I arrived early and I went to the IAAPA show. Are you trying to make me feel bad because I wasn't a part of that? No, I'm not trying to make you feel bad. Because I was a special guest here and you weren't. You're right. I was not a special guest here. And I wasn't a special guest at IAAPA either. I just bought a ticket and I went because I could. All right, then. So for those of you that have never been to IAAPA, it is truly a trade show. It's not like a pinball show. It's nothing like TPF or any of these other arcade and pinball shows that you've attended. It is truly a trade show where the manufacturers from anything to do with the entertainment industry, from inflatable bounce houses, VR, arcade games, popcorn machines, plastic furniture, you name it, carpet. I mean, there's carpet vendors. There's anything you can imagine. Roller coasters. I saw full-size roller coasters set up in the convention center. Stern was there. Stern Pinball was there. So was Chicago Gaming and American Pinball and Jersey Jack Pinball were all in attendance. And so I did get to walk around and visit with all those manufacturers. There was a VR pinball company there that the name escapes me at the moment, but it wasn't VP Cabs. It was the other one. Multimorphic? No, no, no, no. Multimorphic's not digital. Oh, virtual. Okay, yeah. Virtual. I was thinking of the pinball and whatever. But I did get to walk around and visit with all the manufacturers, and I got to see a lot of cool stuff, a lot of the new cool arcade games. It's huge. It's larger than anything I've ever seen before. That's what she said. I won't talk too much about it, but my point is if you ever get a chance to go, it's worth going to. I mean, it's expensive. It's $250 for a pass to go. But I think that's for all week. It's a Monday through Friday type thing. And they have seminars and stuff. I didn't attend any of that. I just went into the trade show and walked around. It's expensive, but it's really neat. But it butted up to Freeplay Florida. So I went to IHOP on Thursday, and then we bounced right over here, and you arrived on Friday at Freeplay Florida. Yes, I did. See, I think somebody pushed off that show on me. How do I say this? When I was talking about being a guest at this show, they described that one. They're like, oh, there's Ferris wheels indoors. And I'm like, oh, really? That wasn't me when I talked about that show. No, no, I don't know who it was, but somebody did pass it off as that. And so when I got here, I was a little surprised that there were no roller coasters and stuff. So Freeplay Florida is a, it's more of an arcade home console show. I mean, it does have pinball, don't get me wrong, it has, but it's probably 40% pinball, maybe even that much. You know, 40% is kind of accurate, but actually there was more than I thought. Right, well, unfortunately for them, one nice thing they got going for them. Now, Friday, it was a little scarcer on the game, the pinball machines. That's because all the manufacturers were still over at IAPA. And then once Friday, once that show wrapped up, Stern, Chicago Gaming, Jersey Jack Pinball, they all brought their games to this show, and they set up nice little areas. So on Saturday, when I got up, it was nice and full. That was actually the first time that I've ever seen all the major, the big three, all crammed in the same area. Right, they were all in the same corner. They were kind of mixed up together, but they were kind of across the aisles from each other. Yeah, yeah. That was kind of good to see. I was happy to see that they all showed up and supported the show. And you had your own little booth, and you were set up right next to Butch Patrick. I was, but there was a pinball machine in between us. I mean, it was the Munsters, so it made sense, but it made socializing difficult. Oh, yeah, you couldn't see each other. Yeah, because we were both bored. Right. And, yeah, you couldn't talk to each other. So we were going back and forth. But you did pretty well at the show? I did. I did, yeah. I met a lot of people. You know, seen a lot of people that I've seen before. But I'm so bad with names. Not even, I'm bad with faces, too. Like, it's getting to be, like, I've met the guy from Double Danger. I've literally talked to this guy at every show I've ever been to, I think. Again, I don't remember his name. He introduced himself to me, again, for probably the sixth or seventh time. and when he came up to me, I recognized him visually. I'm like, I know that I met this guy before, but I've had that feeling for several people at this show. I'm that way too. I meet a lot of people, and I'm not trying to say that I'm Chris Franchi famous or anything like that, but just from people that have been to the show, they recognize me, they know me, and I meet a lot of people too, and everybody comes up, and they're so nice, and, hi, Ed, how are you, and they'll introduce themselves, and the next year rolls around, and I know I've met him but I just don't remember anybody. Yeah. But I feel so bad, you know, especially this guy from Double Danger. I mean, he's given me cool stuff and all that and I gave him cool stuff too but... You said Butch bought a lot of your stuff though this year too. Butch bought my Munster stuff. Right. Well, I figured. I didn't think he'd buy it. Because he's going to flip it, the vulture. Well, you know what? Good for him. He's the Kaneda vintage TV star. Well, we're very... So he scooped up my remainder from this show. Yeah. So that was cool. No, I had a great show. I did better than I thought I was going to do. The guys from the pin lounge. What? Oh, VECA. I don't know. Damn it. See, I should know this, too. Anyway, somewhere around the university campus. Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they were your sponsor. USF or whatever. University of Southern California. Is that what it is? Yeah, they sponsored my appearance, so I should definitely know all this stuff. Hey, when you're in Florida, look up the pinball lounge. It's somewhere in Florida, and you'll have a good time. It's close to Orlando, we think. But super nice guys. I mean, these guys went out of their way. He texted me when I was in my room. He was like, I'm going to the store. Do you want me to pick anything up for you? I'm like, no. And then I was like, I was roasting yesterday. I'd not adjusted well. That was just wherever I went, I was on fire. I'm like, I don't know. This probably sounds a little bit diva-ish, but could I get a fan down by my table tomorrow? That is diva-ish. They brought me a fan. There you go. Yeah, so I had a fan there. It was the only fan that I had the whole time. Ha ha. See what I did there? Oh, I did it. Oh, yeah. Pinball fan. But no, they were super nice, super gracious. I had a great time.
    32:49
    Saw a lot of friends. And then we went out to dinner tonight with some of your friends. One of the Brazilian steakhouses. Yeah. Hey, listeners. Have you ever been to a place where the Brazilian beef carvers come to your table with a spick of meat? They'll give you a lot of meat, for sure. Yeah, they're like pirates. They're like meat pirates. And they come to your table with these fancy belts and I cut you beef off. It was delicious. It was really good. Yeah, it was good. And JJ picked up the tab. JJ Babbage from Game Exchange joined us and he was nice enough to buy our dinner. So we appreciate that, JJ, very much. Yep, from Game Exchange in Colorado. I remembered that. Well, you just said it. And that's pretty much it. We're going to ramble on about the show. But it was a good show. Like I said, it's arcade heavy, home consoles. They do have some great stuff if you're into the classic arcades. They got a lot of that. Did you see the big giant Star Wars and the big giant Donkey Kong? Yeah. I think a big nine foot tall. Yeah, it makes you feel like Dr. Shrinker. Like you stand up next to something and look up. It's like, damn. So anyway, so that's our report for Freeplay Florida. Well, you forgot one other thing we saw, an added attraction. The man who always looks like he's wearing a hoodie. the Donkey Kong cheater was there oh okay what he was proven to be a cheater I'm like I wasn't there I don't know either but I've heard what's his name? Billy Mitchell you know and I saw all those stories too I'm not much of the arcade guy I know he's a somebody in the arcade gaming community and he held the Donkey Kong world record and all that kind of stuff but they took it all away They took it away, but he's here, and so I've only talked to him a couple times probably in the last many, many years. I've said hello. I've never really talked to him, so. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know him personally. I've heard all the, you know, the talk. Ed will never say anything shitty about anybody like I would. He absolutely will. You just haven't brought anybody up yet. Well, I don't know. Cheating on a video game is not too cool. Well. Especially when you're an older dude. You're taking that title away from some kid. Okay, so you know, and I can tell you why, because, you know, you are going off of what you read on. I'm going off Guinness Book of World Records saying, you do not get this record anymore. That's pretty official. Is it? Yeah. When they take it away, they have to have a reason. If Guinness takes it away, then I guess it was deemed so. Yeah. It was because he had some, I don't know how video games work, but it was some kind of. Emulator. Yeah. It wasn't real Donkey Kong, so somehow there's a way to cheat or whatever. Hey, I played hockey for 30 years. I cheated a lot. But you know, you're poking fun and saying, I'll never. I'll never talk bad about anything. But that's not necessarily true. But, you know, I just don't like the drama. You're just innocent until proven guilty. And I don't like, you know, you see all the Facebook attorneys and stuff. And, you know, they read one little half-written article or somebody says something on Pinside somewhere. But you know what? He was proven guilty. But why talk shit? Why talk shit? It's just negative. We're shining a negative light on a hobby that we don't care about because we're more pinballed. Yeah.
    36:02
    That's what it is. we're at war with the video game people. Fuck that cheater. No. I'm just kidding. All right. Is that it? Yeah, I guess so. My pants kept falling down today. I mean, not down down, but I'm going to keep pulling back up. That's news. Rooms are nice. Oh, the venue, though. We didn't even talk about that. It's an amazing venue. It's a city of its own. For people who don't like to walk like me, it's murder, but beautiful. But yeah, they got a nice pool.
    36:31
    It's a gorgeous property. with the bar and the restaurants and everything, and it's really top-notch. I mean, I'm really, really impressed with the hotel and the convention center. Yeah, you walk into a big building, and that's the lobby, and then you walk out the back of that into this massive pool area, and surrounding that at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, and 9 o'clock are three towers, and then you walk out, you know, you're outdoors, and you walk to one of those towers, and then you walk in, and so I'm in the 12 o'clock tower. And then the convention center is another walk past that. I do a lot of walking. It's a big property. But it's all beautiful. You know, you're in Orlando and there's palm trees and Miley Cyrus apparently was here. There was a girl that looked like Miley. I don't really think it was Miley Cyrus. But Ed took a picture of her. I did. No, I sent it to my wife and my daughter. I said, look, Miley Cyrus is here. Of course, my daughter immediately said, that's not Miley Cyrus. And why? Because what? I guess. The proportions were not accurate. Something about the boob size? You know, I guess girls pay attention to that. Girls pay attention to that, but Ed doesn't with his zoomed in. Creep photo. Nope. It was not creepy, jerk. Okay, yeah, so that's it. That's it from, what is this show? Free Play Florida. We had a great time. So, hey, back to you guys in the studio.
    37:47
    Okay, so that was Days of Our Lives, the super awesome pinball show version. And next up we have Pinball in the News. And now, Pinball in the News with your super awesome eyewitness news crew. Pinball in the News. Okay, well, I guess the biggest news is Raza, but, Ed, you kind of went over that. Does anybody have anything else they want to add? Well, yeah, there was one more thing I didn't mention. It was just a comment that stuck with me after the show. During the show, I heard one industry-type person say, well, you know, there's nothing innovating about that game. It plays just like any other 90s Williams game. And I thought about that for a minute, and I thought, well, isn't that what everybody wants? Yeah, I mean, I couldn't agree more. I mean, the innovation didn't smack me in the face either. But I feel like a lot of the people were waiting for that wow factor and the newness to hit them. And it really wasn't there. But ironically, it almost felt like the most innovative thing was just the return to form of Bally Williams days and bringing that packed playfield and J-pop fun kind of back to the modern age. Robert already said in, I think, one of the This Week in Pinball interviews, or he did kind of a follow-up and said, well, the innovation that he was referring to wasn't at the Houston show in those games, and that was yet to be seen. And again, I was thinking, well, maybe the innovation is partly in the awesome display that's up there because the display is pretty rock and awesome. Yeah, man. I mean, but we saw a bit of the display, right? What we didn't see was the cabinet. We didn't see the art on the outside of the machine. We didn't see the guts. I think that's where a lot of the innovation that Robert has talked about in the past is going to fall. He said that a lot of these machines are going to be much easier to repair, to maintain. Who knows what they're going to do with Internet connectivity and with downloading content and that sort of stuff. I mean, that could all be innovation that we would never see with that prototype. And I don't think he wanted to display the innovation. He wanted to just test the game. Yeah, that screen, the way the screen's presented, he said, is not even how it's going to be in the cabinet. Robert was calling that the Cylon screen because it had that long look. Oh, really? Because he's a Battlestar Galactica fan, and that slit looked like a Cylon helmet. So apparently that's not even how it's going to be represented in the final game. But, I mean, as far as innovation and people saying this is what we want, you know, like the Williams games and whatnot, if pinball has taught us anything over the years, it's that people want things until they get them, and then when they get them, they don't want them. For example, generic titles. They'll dial in, hello, why can't we get a generic title? Why does it have to be licensed property? Here's Dialed In. I don't like that. Here's Black Knight. Yeah, but I think that's not necessarily true. Of course, we're going to go back to the 90s Williams, but you look at Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars. Those were all non-licensed themes. You look at Total Nuclear Annihilation. It's not a licensed theme, but it's an awesome game. I think it's an awesome game. You're my awesome favorite. I'm on board completely. That's funny that you say that because a lot of people ask me what I like to draw, and I've always said, like, oh, I want to do, like, Pee-Wee and Beetlejuice. and like all these different things, Betty Page. But the one thing that I would really like to do, and I never seem to give it as an answer, is the opportunity for a pinball designer to come to me and say, I've designed a game. I don't care what it's called. Come up with a name. Come up with the art. And I get to do like an old school, you know, art package, like, you know, Fathom or anything like that, like whatever, like some kind of cool underwater theme or, you know, space theme, whatever. I would love the opportunity to do that, to create something from the ground up. So I'm totally on board for non-licensed stuff. But again, to your question, I don't believe that people really care if it's a licensed theme or a non-licensed theme if the game is really good. I can name several licensed themes that people will talk, you know, they'll say they're just turds, you know, and I can name several non-licensed games that are awesome. But what about people routing games? That the problem Yeah No you have to have it all right You can have a great theme A great theme sucks right i mean that you have a like a thunderbirds and this is a horrible theme right here in the states but in other parts of the world it not a bad a bad theme um people really like that they grew up with thunderbirds and the game itself is not good quite frankly you need to go back to the drawing board because your game absolutely sucks So I don't think that will ever do well no matter where it is in the world. But the theme alone isn't going to sell a game, but I do think it's the most important thing to get people to come up and put a quarter in the machine. And then if you make the game good on top of that, then you're going to have a really good pinball machine. To attract people in an arcade or on location. And then, of course, now we're going to lead into the whole conversation of, well, who buys more pinball machines, the operators or the collectors? I've never seen any numbers, but I just feel like there's more collectors buying new pinball machines than operators. No, I think you're right. I think you nailed it. I think Stern is the one that's going to sell it mostly to the distributors, and then you're going to get the Jersey Jack end of things that are going to be much more collector-based. But I'm going to be the one to put the Batmobile back on the road here. We're getting way off track. Closing thoughts on Raza? I mean, I think the game looks awesome. It still seems like an enigma to me. I haven't played it, but it's so freaking packed.
    42:53
    It's going to be fun to see what all the different little features are. And then from an innovation standpoint, what DeepRoot brings to the table beyond what we've seen, like Robert has talked about kind of indirectly that there might be a chance you could buy different art packages. Well, they were talking about that you'd be able to pick. You'd be able to select your own art package rather than just, you know, I want the premium and this is what you get. Yeah, that would be a real innovation in and of itself, right? Yeah. So there's a lot more that could come to the table, you know, even just with Raza and then games beyond that. It seems like he's going to approach every game differently, and there's going to be new innovations and new things with each game. So it's going to be an exciting year to see what they come out with. Yeah, I think so. All right, next up, Jurassic Park has topped the Pinside Top 100, which just goes to show you that Elwin has beat the sophomore Jinx. And on top of that, Iron Maiden sits at number six. What do you guys think about Keith Elwin? It's number one, man. It's number one. Oh, it's number one. I mean, usually when a game first comes out, it jumps quickly into, like, the top ten. But I think this one's going to have staying power. I mean, it's a good game, but that whole, it's going to even out. I mean, how many votes does it actually have? Because if you look at the other games, there's thousands of votes compared to. The point I'm trying to make is that, like, there's always that sophomore jinx because he came out with Iron Maiden and it was a big success. And then, well, what's the next game going to be? You know, it's just like, you know, the Knack comes out with their first album, but like the second album kind of tanked, you know. But he's got a success, probably I would think even a stronger success with his second game. Oh, no questions. Just because of the theme. People love Jurassic Park. I mean, they love the game Iron Maiden, but the theme and the gameplay mesh in this new game. And, you know, he's shown that he can design a really good game. And I think that being number one is well-deserved. It's almost unheard of how little criticism Jurassic Park has gotten. But they made the game feel like, you know, you feel like you're in the movie without actually having the clips. I mean, the way that they pulled it off is impressive. No, I heard everybody say it's a good game. It's kind of like you're in the world of Jurassic Park. You know, not a particular movie or anything. You're just in that world. I mean, his first two games now are number one and number six on the list. So the dude knows how to design a pinball machine for sure. Hey, kids, it's time for Pinball Art Tips with master artist Christopher Franchi.
    45:11
    Well, that was quite the introduction. Hello, class. My name is Christopher Franchi, and I'm a pinball artist. for such games as Batman 66, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Beatles, and The Munsters. Today I'm going to share with you some of my best secrets for how I created a successful art package for Guardians of the Galaxy. First, I re-watched the movies, then I got ready to create. I still like to draw my characters by hand using pencil, airbrush, acrylics, Prismacolor pencils, and gouache. For my computer system, I prefer a Windows system, and I use a 32-inch Wacom Cintiq digital screen tablet. Then, I go outside.
    45:48
    Here's the studio door. My, what a lovely day out here. Now, what I need to do is find myself a unicorn.
    46:00
    There's one over there. Shh. We gotta run. I gotta hurry up and catch it. There, boy. There, there, there, there, there, boy, boy. Alright. We got ourselves a unicorn. Okay, let's walk back to the studio now. Come on, boy.
    46:17
    That's a good boy. Okay, here's the studio. We just got to try and get him in. Come on in. All right. Good. Right there. Stay right there. All right. I got a big family-sized bag of Skittles for you. Doesn't that look good? All right. Start munching, boy. There you go. All right. Now we're going to grab you around the stomach, and we're going to start squishing you and squishing you.
    46:40
    Come on. Throw up. Yeah. See, that's how you gotta do, boys and girls. You gotta let a unicorn vomit everywhere. Does that sound about right, Mr. Pinsider? Nah, that shit, it looks like unicorn vomit.
    46:58
    Well, it is, you talentless, fat, freelo-munching fuck. I like to see you do better. Just sit back in your chair, barking up critiques like some fucking Roger Ebert asshole. You're so funny. Like I've got no clue what I'm doing. I've been doing this for 30 fucking years, you dickhead. God damn it!
    47:15
    Well, those lessons took a left turn pretty fast. Yeah. I mean, Franchi, that was hilarious, dude. But I will say that you would be better off not letting the trolls get it to you, my friend. I mean, I think you know your art is great. You don't need to beat up unicorns to defend yourself. I just made them vomit. That's how I do my work. I know it was a goof, man. I think in future episodes, we should pick your brain about your art, both the creative process side, the stories from your past, your games and your band projects and future dream titles, et cetera. Get an idea truly and not just as a joke of what your art is all about and let you speak to it because you're going to have haters, man. But most people love what you do. That's true. For every negative comment that you show me, I bet I can show you five comments of someone saying how great your artwork is, and they wish you would do this game or that title or whatever, so you just can't let those haters get to you. Yeah, I just wish people had better things to do than talk shit about stuff. But anyway, you guys are absolutely right. I have endless stories to tell, and we can definitely cover a little bit of that. I don't want to show all me, me, me, but for what's interesting, what you guys want to know about or whatever, You guys, my co-hosts, as well as people out there listening, if they have any questions, I will certainly try to answer them in the most entertaining way possible. We know that. That was very entertaining.
    48:52
    We'll be right back. Oh, blow it out your ass. Stick around for more super awesome pinball show right after this.
    49:07
    Welcome to the world of Penn Stadium. Hey, this is Scott from Penn Stadium Lights, and I'm here for the holidays with a special offer just for you. For the next 24 hours, we're offering Penn Stadium Lights at over $40. Shut up! Oh my God, I don't care! What? First Pennside, and now this? I can't even advertise here. Come on, guys. This is getting ridiculous. Unbelievable. Oh, that's not fair. That's not fair at all. God damn it. Okay, Pop, now it's my turn.
    49:44
    Sears has a home version of the pinball game you find in arcades and bowling alleys. So now you can have your own pinball machine right at home. New arcade pinball games from Sears. Not toy pinball, their real pinball machine. All right, Jimmy, you're almost up to 18,000 now. Okay.
    50:02
    New arcade pinball. It's what you always wished you had at home. Sold only at Sears. And now, on with the show.
    50:11
    I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you... The Super Awesome Pinball Show. Come on, man, on with it. We haven't got all day to wait. Yeah, so anyway, Ed, you were in Houston. You managed to snag a couple of interesting interviews, so we're going to go into our People in Your Neighborhood segment right about now.
    50:40
    Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood? Well, they're the people that you meet when you're walking down the street. They're the people that you meet. I'm here at the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo. I'm here with Jeff Teolis. Oh, no. Not again. Jeff, what did you think about the Raza reveal? You got to play it. What did you think? It's pretty amazing. It's certainly the talk of the show. A lot of people getting a lot of play on it. It's very unique. It's got that definite J-pop feel to it with all kind of shots that remind you of, well, I don't know, Circus Voltaire with the little rollovers. It's got like the almost, you think of Toten and the lamp, and I think it's called a dipsy doozle or something like that, so you've got a spinning lamp like that. And then, I mean, there's just so many great shots. I think of World Cup soccer with the goalie. Well, you're trying to avoid the goalie in that game, but in this you're trying to hit it to spell zombie. The game's fun. The cream of the crop! It actually, it is very fun, and I was very surprised with it. I don't think the, obviously the artwork is not the final artwork that's going to go on the cabinet and the trans light and stuff, but I do think the game itself, the play field is beautiful. Yeah, isn't that something? And I'll tell you what, that screen, I said to Steve Bowden, I said, it's like you hired Warner Brothers Animaniacs or whatever the heck that was called. It reminded me of a cartoon I'm watching on a Saturday morning, but better. That's a great display. And they're not even done. That's a prototype. I know, and I think we're all very excited about it. The game plays very well. We were having a great time with it. My wife and I, we were like, this is actually a pretty good shooting game. I mean, we were really enjoying it. And my God, the voice and the call-outs. I mean, I don't know where they found the guy, but obviously a professional. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Pretty incredible. The call-out, yeah. Well, we couldn't really hear the call-out so much because it's pretty loud in the game room. Oh, I demand that they turn it up. Yeah, so we need to get the volume up a little bit, but I'm hoping to get some better video and audio tomorrow to really hear what the call-outs are. What do you think about the show? The show's pretty fun. Pretty cool. I mean, I don't know everybody involved. I certainly know Phil Grimaldi. I've met David Pollack, and I'm forgetting some of the other people that are involved. The Bells and Chimes chapter. Everybody in Space City does a great job. People in Texas know how to do your shows. I mean, with TPF, obviously, in March, I'm looking forward to. And this is my first time here at Space City Open. It's great. I'm so glad I came, too. Neat tournament as well. Great showroom. A lot of video game stuff. Good setup by Marco. It's good. Absolutely. One of my favorite things about this show is I don't have to do anything. I actually get to enjoy myself. That's a good point. And Houston is kind of considered the party show, and Keith does a great job with the band and everything. And if you're into that, they have a great band and music and everything. Scott Denise is here. Spinning the wheels of steel.
    53:30
    Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah. So, thank you, sir. Thanks, sir. I'm here with the star of Marco TV. She's an amazing woman. You all know her as Emoto. How are you doing? I'm pretty good. I'm not the star of Marco TV. All of y'all are the stars of Marco TV. I'm just the host here to represent you guys. You're the star. Everybody knows who you are. If you don't know, look up Marco TV. She also runs Emoto Arcade on Facebook. She's got all kinds of great videos. Your actual profession is a... I run a multimedia production company and I'm a videographer and cinematographer by trade. So I think you've been helping Marco out a lot with their marketing. But more recently, though, you've taken on a bigger role. I saw you at Chicago Expo kind of setting up the whole, what even Marco calls it, the circus. And I saw you here when we arrived. You were kind of like the head person in charge setting up everything. What happened with that? How did that all get started? It just spiraled out of control. I started creating content for Marco's specialties. And then they were like, hey, we need some extra help on our social media. So I was like, okay, I do that. So I started doing their social media. And then they're like, oh, we need another marketing director. Do you want to run our show circuit with Rachel Bess, who's awesome and has trained me to be as good as I am now? But, yeah, so I run the shows, help with all logistics. And then my favorite part is building the layouts. So I sit on a computer program and I design the truss and how the games are going to go and, you know, which games are next to which one and the type of merch we're going to bring. And then each show is different. So they tell me, like Keith Christensen was like, you have a 20-foot by 40-foot space. Right. Go nuts. And our highlight games this year is Elvira House of Horrors and Jurassic Park. So, like, I designed kind of a jungle theme and then that huge Elvira backdrop that we had for Pinball Expo and just try to create a cool atmosphere for people to play in. It's definitely a neat-looking space, and you did a really good job with it even this year. And I can't wait to see what you all do for TPF. Yeah, we're excited. I know you've done several podcasts before, and this is not new to you, but tell me a little bit. I mean, do you have games at home, or how did you get into this crazy hobby? I've been a gamer my whole life. Noodle it! Mostly on the video game side, console, and arcade. And in the past five years, I've kind of fallen into the pinball craze. Right. I was creating a lot of content for the Museum of Pinball, which is out in Banning, California. They run Arcade Expo and Indisc Pinball Festival. and they have like 500 pinball machines right it's an amazing collection have you been i've never been and i've seen pictures oh my gosh ed what are you doing with your life right i know i just retired and you think i'm gonna start making out to more shows so i do need to come check it out more but that one is a week or two right before tpf so it's tough very hard for me because yeah you know you know it's true we're in crazy mode you know it's yeah hands on deck so it's hard for me to get away right before the show. I understand. They have a couple other, like January, they do It Never Drains in Southern California. It's a big pinball tournament show, but they open the whole facility for people to play pinball as well. And that's in January. So what better time to go to California than in January, you know, near Palm Springs. Absolutely. So, but anyways, that got me into pinball, just being around it and starting to play, doing my first real good game and starting to understand the rules and everything. Do you have games of your own at home? I have one game so far. Which is what? The best pinball machine ever made. That's my ongoing joke. I tell everyone. But guess. I'll never, you know. No one ever guesses. Genesis. Oh my gosh. I have no idea. I would get Genesis just for the back cost. I have no idea. Hard Body. Wait, what? Hard Body. Hard Body is awesome. This game is about as deep as a kiddie pool. It's my favorite game. And everybody, Hardbody's not a bad game, and everybody has their favorite. It's if you talk to one person that just absolutely hates a title, I can find two more that think it's the best game ever. Yeah, most people hate the title, but they hate the theme. Right. And a lot of people that don't appreciate Hardbody have never really played it before. They've seen it in passing and just didn't want to play it, but there's that third and fourth flipper with the flex saves, and if you don't hit those flex saves, which are like, I don't even know, it creates the in lane for you, otherwise you drain. Right. it's really intense i i get like a nice ab workout playing that game so we're we're uh nearing the end of the pinball show season if you will i mean i know there's a couple other shows coming up but then we're going to go into the holidays so you're going to get a little bit of a break and uh it's all going to start back up again here in uh february march i'm excited and nervous we're gonna be doing it's almost like five shows back to back in march including yours like every weekend is another show. There's a pinball show everywhere, somewhere, if you want to go to a pinball show. So the shipping logistics of moving around our traveling circus has been a fun challenge. And next year we want to make it even bigger and better. I hope so. So we'll see how it goes. Well, you're doing a great job. I mean, really, the setup here is really nice. Expo was great. So we saw you walking around with your big dinosaur head on, and that was a lot of fun. So, all right, well, what do you think of the Houston show? It's a pretty good show. Yeah, Houston Show's awesome. I love Texas Pinball Festival because that's the industry show.
    58:57
    But Keith puts on a... This is the party show. Yeah, believe it or not, it's the party show. There was lightsaber battles last night.
    59:05
    Scott Denise, he was DJing. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. There's confetti thrown in the air. Yeah, it's a good show. We all love this show. It's a smaller show, but everyone here is so nice. I love this community. Everybody's nice in Texas. Yeah, we like the Texas shows. The stars at night are big and bright. We're in the heart of Texas. There needs to be a show in Austin. Austin would be a neat place to have a show. Come on. All right, Austin, you heard her. Let's put something together. All right, well, thank you so much for taking the time out. We'll see you in March. Yeah, see you. See you. Joe Balser with American Pinball. How are you doing today? I'm good. I'm real good, Ed. So what do you think about the show so far? It's a good show, Ed. I'm enjoying myself. It's a lot of fun. So everyone knows you're working on game number three. You've got Houdini and Oktoberfest under your belt, and game number three is coming soon. Are you excited about it? Absolutely excited, Ed. So any idea when that game is going to come out? We're going to debut that game at your show, TPF 2020. Well, we're excited about that. So anything else you want to tell us about that? I can't talk about it, Ed. You know that. That's fine, Ed. Well, thank you, but that information is absolutely useless. All right, cool. Well, I tried. I tried to get some information out of him. He's not budging, but you heard it. So game number three is going to be coming up at TPF 2020. And that was just another shameless plug for Texas Pinball Festival by Ed. And Joe. Ed. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you, Ed. We'll see you in March. All right. Thank you very much. Very good. Ed. They're the people that you meet each day. Ed. Damn, Ed. Now I'm pretty jealous that I didn't go to Houston. Sounds like you had a good time. It was fun. You know, I actually had one more. I got to speak to Jerry Stellenberg at Multimorphic, but Jerry's got some stuff coming. He didn't have anything to tell me. So I'm sorry, Jerry. We cut your little interview out because it was pretty short, and I didn't want to put you on the spot. So, yeah, Joe was cool. Moto was cool. And Jeff was cool. So we had a lot of fun. Anybody else tell Joe that he sounds like Krusty the Clown?
    61:09
    I think you just did. I'm glad you got to talk to Jeff Teolis because he's a hard guy to find or interview in the pinball world. You've got to get in your grandstand and you're hot-dogging, don't you? Yeah. And that's definitely not true. He's freaking everywhere. But that's a good thing, man. Jeff is a quintessential pinball ambassador. He's always at every single event, and he always has interesting stuff to say. Are you incapable of restraining yourself, or do you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all? So that was a good interview. And Emoto's awesome. As I said earlier, she's the best. I wish you had more from Balser, but it sounds like he's going to reveal the next game at TPF. So that's a win for you, man. You know, that's what he said. And that was just another shameless plug for Texas Pinball Festival by Ed. I love reveals. I mean, you know, it's always fun when someone announces a game at the TPF or at any show. I know that's exciting. I personally would much prefer the announcement ahead of time, you know, a few months or a month or two out. So that way the game can actually be at the show that people can play it and be excited about it at the show. So I know that's true. Well, kind of. He said that's what he's going to do. So we already know. But Ed, don't you think that, I mean, most people these days are revealing their games at the announcement I mean I guess Stern does it differently but jersey jack it all the timing they do if they can you know some it all depends on their schedule and their timing you know this last tpf you know stern announced black knight literally three days after tpf so i think they just didn't want to you know overshadow the they felt like they might interfere with the monsters thing but oh you think that what is well that's a great question for you ed because that was a bit of a you know it was a bit of a drama on pin side anyway and in in the uh the pinball world that that we just had a major show probably the biggest show in the world and they could have easily announced it there and had all of the pinballers who are so into that game see it i mean black knight is not a theme that that the general public would know about but it's a definitely a theme that's near and dear to the pinball people's hearts so what did you think about that timing my first thought was man did i do something to piss turn off because it kind of did seem a little bit like a slap in the face but uh you know they had a big monsters display and butch and pat priest were there and so i don't know if they felt that you know announcing another game they didn't want you know they were would take away from monster sales because monsters was pretty hot and you know marco was there and the other and fun the other distributors coin taker they were taking orders so maybe they felt that if they announced black knight people would not place that Munsters order.
    63:44
    But the other part of me was like, well, you know, Munsters was already bought and paid for as far as the show was concerned, so why not have an announcement Saturday night or Sunday, on a special Sunday, or at the awards ceremony at the very end of the show. I could have, you know, Steve could have come on stage and done something. I know he probably would have, or he would have done that. So I don't know. When you think about, we literally have people from all over the world at the show from Australia and France and Germany and England and you name it. They're from all over the United States. They're all in one place. You would think that they would want to have that collective audience. Yes. That one time with Black Knight was not the only time for Stern because they boned me twice. They did Guardians of the Galaxy a week after Expo, and then the following year they did the same thing with The Beatles, like right after Expo. And you were in Stern at that point. I mean, did you ask them why they made that decision? Well, the benefit of hindsight, probably just to screw me.
    64:42
    It feels that way, but I choose to believe that's not the case. No, no, no. I do not feel that way. They're doing that for a reason. I couldn't tell you what it is. There's a lot of speculation, and don't remember it, so I can't bring it up. But that's not the reason why. That's absolutely not the reason why. They've been doing a good job with their marketing. I mean, they've released most new games on IGN, which is a much larger base in terms of the people who visit that site than TPF does, I'm sure, I mean, on a daily basis. So maybe they feel like actually seeing it in person and the niche hobby that pinball is is not as much of a bang for your buck as announcing it on IGN and having thousands of people see it. If you remember their last show reveal, it was Batman 66. And the fiasco of that was because people couldn't even play it. They couldn't flip it. And that's what I'm saying. And that's kind of what I'm saying is I would – well, reveals are great, and it all depends on their timing. But – and I'm going to use the Munsters as an example. They announced Munsters in, what, December, January, something like that. By the time TPF rolled around, I had 30 Munsters pinball machines on the floor. So as a show organizer and I think as people coming to the show, they would rather have 30 of the newest, greatest game on the floor than fighting over the one or two that the manufacturer brought. And I'm not saying don't bring your one or two manufacturers. If that's the way your schedule works, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot. If that's the way the scheduling works, then that's what it is, and people are still excited. But it's just nice as a show to have more games. Of course, we always want more games. Yeah, I mean, every company is in a different development stage for each game. So if they're at the development stage where they can actually produce a game in mass quantities like Stern can relatively quickly, you'd think that they would be the most likely to have multiple games there at the reveal. But, you know, like the Spookys and some of the smaller companies may not have that capability. So I certainly get that. And I think since we're talking about Stern, they kind of think of Expo as their show since they're right there. So obviously those of you that went to this past Chicago Expo, you know, Stern had, I don't know, how many games were in that room? 50, 60, you know, 80 brand-new Stern pinball machines. So it is what it is. Right. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about the super awesome Pinpets charity auction. Is it super awesome? It is super awesome because pets are super awesome. Animals are super awesome. I like animals more than I like most people, present company included. I mean excluded, sorry.
    67:10
    No, I love pets. I love my dog. Everybody knows Barlow is the official pinball pup, and everybody loves Barlow, though most of them have never met him. He's just that awesome that through photos and through all the swag that I give away, people just love Barlow.
    67:26
    You've got a mug. You've got stickers. You've got pins of Barlow. I mean, he is by far the most marketed pinball pet out there. He's my merch pup because he's awesome. He's got that face. He's just got the face with the googly eyes, the puppy. Well, I'm going to start marketing my Basset Hound because she is a cutie pie. Yeah, whatever. Whatever. The animals aren't awesome.
    67:53
    My pet's awesome. Only your pet's awesome. We're going to have a charity for Barlow. that's one dog that does not need any charity trust me this is true so anyway we really don't i mean you guys are probably like deer in headlights like i don't know what to say because i don't know what to say either all i'm trying to do is introduce us like we want to do something i want to do something and these guys are kind enough to follow in behind me to do something for shelter dogs i don't think we should we should restrict it to just dogs right i mean these These cats are involved? Cats are ungrateful.
    68:27
    Yeah, but cats and pinball machines go hand in hand, man. You see those videos of the cat just knocking shit off the shelf? That would be all the toys we got with our money. Anyway, okay, but fair enough. And plus, most shelters are dog and cat. They're not just dog or just cat. So it's good shit. I think it's a great idea, man. We should come up with some really good prizes. And then in order to be eligible for those, maybe we can have people donate to the animal shelters near them and do good things for the pets there. And if you donate and you can show us some proof of that, then maybe you can be put in the running for... Well, maybe once a podcast or once every other podcast or once a month, we select somebody who has sent in a picture of something, something great they've done or whatever. That's a great idea. So once every podcast, we will pull a name from the people who have donated to an animal shelter and send us an image of that, and we'll send them swag. I think it's a great idea. That way it keeps us completely out of trouble. I can get a hold of a lot of cool stuff. So we're going to do this twofold. What we want people to do is we want people to donate toys and blankets and stuff. Like just put a load of stuff together and bring it to a shelter and take a picture of yourself with the stuff that you're dropping off at the shelter. You know, maybe posing with your favorite dog that's in the shelter or whatever. Send us a picture and then you're entered into the drawing. What we're also going to do is I'm going to come up with a cool prize for that basically. And maybe we'll do a couple. I think it'd be better to do a couple. And it's going to be random. It's not like whoever shows up with like 8,000 different things is automatically the winner. It's just going to be random. If you bring something in, and hopefully you're not just going to drop off a tennis ball. We're not looking for that. Show the doggies and the kitties some love. Food, too. It's not just toys. They need food. Yeah, so however you can help, just take a picture and send it in to us, and you'll be entered into the drawing. More details on this are actually obviously going to come. and what I said about being two-fold, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to personally auction off something of my own. Just one item I'm going to put up for auction and whatever that gets, I'm going to go to a store and spend all of that money on dog and cat supplies. I will show the receipt. I'll probably buy more because I'm that kind of guy. I want to contribute myself and then go drop off a bunch of stuff just because I want to go see the puppies and the kitties. So I've got to get myself in there somehow. So I'll donate something, you know, whatever the top price that gets will be spent on stuff for our pin pets, as we call them. And then you guys do your job out there and drop off stuff at the shelters and help out the animals, give them a good holiday. And we will reward you, and we'll find out. We've got a lot of stuff coming in. As you guys know, our sponsor is Chicago Gaming. And let me tell you, they promised some pretty nifty stuff in exchange. We told them we didn't want any money. we just want stuff to give away once so yeah and they were mentioning some pretty cool stuff so awesome you're going to want to go out to those pet stores and stock up right now and then sit on it and wait to find out what you're going to win that's all we have now but i wanted to pass that on well i can tell you that i won't be going to the the shelters i have two rescue dogs as it is and i know if kim and i went to a shelter we'd end up with three four five i told my daughter I'm going to retire and become a French bulldog breeder because I see these videos of houses with 10 little puppy French bulldogs running around. I'm like, oh my God, I want to quit work right now and go roll around on all those little doggies. So if anyone doesn't think that Chris is a big softie, this is the perfect proof. Yeah, there you go. He is a big softie. Why did you have to say big? Is that a fat joke? No, not like fucking fat, man. Like big, as in emotionally sensitive and a good dude. You call me fat? I did. No.
    72:12
    Maybe Ed did. I made myself laugh again. Okay. All right. To wrap up the show here, Ed, TPF Ed, the man, the man who puts together the most awesome pinball show all year. I don't know why I'm saying that because you're my friend. Because you're not. You're an asshole.
    72:33
    He got me back. Hey, is something burning? Oh, wait. It's you because you just got burned. So is this my opportunity for my shameless plug? Oh, you know you're getting that in there. This is your opportunity for your shameless plug. Just another shameless plug for Texas Pinball Festival by Ed. All right, so TPF 2020, pre-registration is open. Exhibitors, get your games registered. You can buy tickets. You can buy discounted tickets right now. Guests, let's see, Sylvester McCoy, who was Doctor Who number seven, and he played a lot of guests in The Hobbit and featured on those pinball machines. And that's one thing I'll talk about that. People always say, well, how do you come up with these celebrity guests and stuff? It started out with Cassandra Peterson, and obviously it's just kind of something that we've decided to do. But I try to connect them to pinball somehow. I don't just pick somebody and have them come to the show. I'm not going to get the Red Power Ranger or anybody like that. I don't know. Believe me, I get emails. I get emails from, hey, I played a zombie on Walking Dead, and I'd come sign autographs if you'll have me.
    73:36
    I'm telling you. And we'll save all this for other conversations when we talk about the trials of running a pinball show, all the crazy stuff that goes on behind the scenes. But Sebastian McCoy is coming. That's our big celebrity guest that we've got so far. You know, pinball celebrity type people. I know we've announced Dennis Nordman, KT, and Charlie Emery of Spooky Pinball. They're coming. Steve Ritchie, we've announced him. Steve Ritchie is kind of like the show mascot. We'll have a whole bunch more coming up. Ed, is there any pinball personality that you haven't announced yet that's going to be here? Oh, you want an exclusive? episode one exclusive if I say Chris Franchi does that count that's what I was trolling for Chris would you like to come to the Texas Pinball Festival 2020 I would love to I think that the spotlight should go on top of me yeah we're going to have Christopher Franchi Texas Pinball Festival 2020 famed pinball artist why don't you say the real reason that we're coming out who else is coming with me that people want to meet more than me Now, see, you get all weird when I say that kind of stuff. Go ahead and say it. Oh, because your daughter Presley's coming? Yeah. Yes, Presley's coming also. She's really the reason that people... See, everybody loves Presley, and everybody loves my dog. Am I just a big dick that they just look awesome in comparison or something? I mean, I just think they're pretty freaking awesome. Presley is awesome. We've gone out to lunch, and she's great. I raised her. I know. She gets her awesomeness from me, and so does my dog, damn it. Well, speaking of you, though, who did the art for the 2020 Texas Pinball Festival? Well, I did the armadillo art, and I know that Blake is helping you out as usual. Did anybody else do anything, or is it just the armadillo art? Well, it's your main art, and then, of course, Blake and Kim, they manipulate it depending on what we need for advertising and Facebook and that kind of stuff. But for the most part, it's pretty much just Bumper the Armadillo. So it looks awesome. You know why Bumper the Armadillo was my idea? Bumper wasn't. You named him, but the armadillo is my idea because three reasons. Number one, I love armadillos. Number two, Texas is known for armadillos. And number three, the armadillo's defense mechanism as it literally rolls up into a little round ball and kind of rolls away from danger. Genius, man. You put a lot of thought into this. I did. You did. And the artwork is awesome if you haven't seen it. But, of course, probably the biggest announcement for TPF that is going to be here, if you all don't already know. Christopher Feranchi, famed pinball artist. You know, the Twippies are going to return to TPF 2020. So that was a very nice show that Mr. Patterson put on. And, of course, Zach and Greg. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Straight down the middle. They did a fantastic job. So it's going to come back bigger and better than ever. And so you're not going to want to miss it. Have you guys seen the new logo for the Twippies for this year? I have not. I'm sure some washed-up artist probably did. Well, let me put it this way. When I showed – I'm washed up.
    76:34
    Some guy at Stern didn't even want. When I showed Jeff the logo, he came back to me later on and said, hey, do you have any problem with us selling shirts with this logo on it? He likes it so much he wants to make shirts. And it's just the award show. It's not for his podcast or his website or anything, just T-shirts for the Twippies awards because he loves the logo. The first two were kind of like, you know, can you do a logo for – Yeah, free job here. You guys have no idea how many free things I do. I just did a free t-shirt design for the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. Why? Because they're poor. But, yeah, so I did this logo, and I told myself when I sat down to do it, I'm like, this has to be the end-all, be-all. I don't know if I'm going to do it next year. I don't know where I'll be next year. So it's really pretty fucking cool. I can't wait to see it, man. Send it my way. I want to see it. Yeah, I'll send it to you guys. But if it's good enough that you can just keep it forever, then, you know, That's a great call that you just got it done and don't have to revisit it. You've got to do a new one every year, whether I do it or not. I think it's kind of time to start maybe. As much as I love to do it, and it's been three years in a row and it's been awesome, it's not that I don't want to do the fourth one. I just think it's time to give somebody else a chance, see what else is out there. We're a very creative community, so see what people come up with. I don't know. I mean, unless Jeff says, oh, we really want to do it, I'll of course do it. But I think we should give other people a chance. But anyway, Ed, as far as TPF goes, what's the story with the hotel? Are they booked up yet? The Embassy Suites is sold out. It sold out months and months and months ago as soon as the room block opened. But fear not, we have several hotels like right across the street within walking distance. If you go to the TPF webpage, you can click on the hotel link, and we'll have all the overflow hotels, great rates. There are places for you to stay. And like I always tell people, if you keep checking with the Embassy, You know, people's plans change, and they get a room because they're not really sure if they can make it or not, and then they release the room. So you can probably end up with a room at the embassy. I think they've got a waiting list going or something. Yeah. Now, they probably don't have, like, a show discount because they've got, you know, everybody by the nuts right there. But if they call one of the surrounding hotels, do they say they're coming for TPF and there's a discount or something? Yes, and that's on the web. The various codes are on the TPF website. So, yeah, depending on the hotel. But, yeah, the city of Frisco is very happy with it. We sell out all the hotels. By the time the show rolls around, pretty much it'll be tough to find a room close by. So get one now. And I figure, you know, hopefully we'll do a few more of these podcasts. We'll talk a little bit about TPF, every show. I got other stuff. I got stories about everybody that just putting on a show and just dealing with the celebrities. I've learned a lot dealing with celebrities. Not that you're not a celebrity, Chris, but, you know. No, I'm not. I'm a real one. Hollywood-type celebrities. Some of them are very cool. They've all been pretty cool. Nobody's been just an outright jerk, but some of them are kind of diva-ish, and some of them are just, you know. All right, all right, so that's it. That wraps up the first episode of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Did you guys have fun? I did have fun. Did you have fun chitting on me, assholes? Please. I'm tired. That's been great, including you, Chris. It was fun. I had a good time. I'm glad we finally got this thing under our belt. It'll get better. Give us time to let this thing kind of take on its luster. It's going to take some time, but we're really happy to be here and bringing you guys something hopefully completely different than everyone else. And you had a good time listening. Thanks, guys. I don't think I could have picked a better twosome to join me and become the super awesome threesome. Thanks, buddy. It's been really fun. I feel completely honored considering you guys are legends in the industry. Oh, stop. Stop. Go on. Thanks for bringing me into the fold. I appreciate it. Well, we're happy to have you. Like I said at the beginning of the show, you're definitely a counterpart that was needed. So you're just as important as the rest of us, buddy. Thanks, man. Just be Chris and I yelling at each other. That's right. So stick around after the outro because we'll probably throw some little goodies in there for you guys. And I can't really promise we're going to be back in two weeks. We've got some pretty busy holidays coming up. We'll certainly do our best, but by no means we're not going away. Don't think that, like, oh, we did one show and that's it. Yeah, I don't think we can win a Twippy for best podcast if we only do one show. That's right. That would really singe Canada, wouldn't it, if we did one show? So good. Everyone vote for us, please. It would be so amazing. Let me just throw out there that I think it's really tough to have a podcast that has a set schedule. So we should do a podcast when the mood hits and try and stick to every two weeks. Yeah, I don't think we even said that. But, yeah, the goal is to do every two weeks. We can't say biweekly because I looked it up. and bi-weekly means twice a week or once every two weeks. How can that be? How can it mean two different things? Like, oh, bi-weekly. Oh, really? Twice a week? No, the other one. Like, that doesn't make sense. Stupid. Anyway, all right, we'll see you guys next time. Good night, guys. Good night.
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    The commentary and opinions shared by the cast and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsors, Chicago Gaming Company and Cointaker. Their sponsorships of this show only serve to add to their continuing support of the pinball community. Cause we're gonna be legends Gonna get their attention What we're doing here ain't just scary It's about to be legendary Well, underdue to you fair Spanish ladies. It's the Bat-Pulse. Okay, bye-bye now. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Later, Diz. Goodbye, goodbye, good friends, goodbye. This isn't over until I say it's over! Bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye. Bye, bye, bye. Goodbye, you. Good day, sir. Get the fuck out of here. I gotta go. I'll see you later. Well, yeah. Okay, okay, show's over, folks. Bye-bye. Hasta la vista. baby hey your fucking chalupa sucks dude right let me let me throw out there i don't care if you edit anything that i say so if you feel like i'm running too long just cut it all right yeah i haven't heard anything that was boring except for stuff that ed said um you're such a nice okay cut no dude i'm gonna get so shit on for that from kaneda if you air that shit by the time the by the time that by the time show the by the time the show rolls around that's all folks