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BDYETP 60: Mandalorian, IFPA Returns, Led Zeppelin and Avengers Impressions

Bro, Do you Even Talk Pinball·podcast_episode·1h 21m·analyzed·Jun 13, 2021
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Mandalorian reveal + manufacturer teasers; concerns about Dwight Sullivan rules; dream themes pitched.

Summary

Kevin and Nick discuss the Mandalorian pinball reveal from Stern (three-tier pricing from $6,199–$9,199), praise Randy Martinez's artwork and the swinging playfield feature, but express concerns about Dwight Sullivan's rules design track record. They analyze community engagement gaps (Facebook enthusiasts struggling with stacking concepts), teases from Multimorphic (licensed playfield module with Scott Denise audio) and Spooky (improved build quality, better power supplies), and share dream theme pitches (Mortal Kombat, Doom, Back to the Future). Brief mentions of Haggis selling 250 Mermaid Fathom upgrades and Pinball Adventures' Elements game announcement.

Key Claims

  • Mandalorian MSRP: Pro $6,199, Premium $7,799, LE $9,199 (same as Led Zeppelin)

    high confidence · Kevin states official MSRP prices directly; notes street value may be lower

  • Brian Eddy designed Mandalorian; Dwight Sullivan did rules; Randy Martinez art; Jerry Thompson sound; Carl Weathers voiceover with Bill Burr clips

    high confidence · Kevin provides full credits for the game design team

  • Upper playfield on Premium/LE swings back-and-forth; on Pro it's flat with one flipper

    high confidence · Kevin explains playfield differences across tiers while analyzing photos

  • Back-left playfield area (Grogu/Baby Yoda lanes) goes unused most of the time during gameplay observation

    medium confidence · Kevin cites observations from watching Tommy's Pro model stream on Flipping Pinball; notes Premium/LE has magnet to drop ball into lanes, Pro lacks this

  • Mandalorian has a misspelling on screen: 'flamethrower' instead of 'flamethrower'

    high confidence · Kevin and Nick identify spelling error in LCD display; similar to Deadpool's 'multiplier' error

  • Multimorphic's next playfield module will be licensed (not original theme) and feature Scott Denise on audio

    high confidence · Kevin cites official Multimorphic announcement teasing next module

  • Multimorphic expanded manufacturing by 5,000 square feet

    high confidence · Kevin references photos of expansion facility

  • Haggis sold out of 250 Mermaid edition Fathom upgrades at $9,000

    high confidence · Kevin reports Haggis sold-out news from previous discussion

  • Spooky Pinball implemented Molex connectors and improved power supplies (quieter fans) in next game

    high confidence · Kevin cites Spooky's video tour announcement of build quality improvements

Notable Quotes

  • “They need a professional proofreader. Pay somebody on Fiverr. You're not even professional. My skills are available for hire.”

    Kevin — Critical commentary on Stern's quality control failures (spelling errors on Mandalorian and Deadpool); reflects community frustration

  • “Theme is the name of the game. You can have a game that's not that good, but people will look at it and say, I want to play The Mandalorian, and it will make money.”

    Nick — Operator perspective: theme licensing drives location revenue more than rules depth; explains purchase decision for Mandalorian

  • “I think he just kind of took what was there and blew it all up for the final update to make people feel better with multipliers and higher scores and ball saves.”

    Kevin — Criticism of Dwight Sullivan's approach to rules updates; suggests retroactive fixes rather than thoughtful original design

  • “It's like on Deadpool, it says multiplier instead of multiplier. I did not know that, but I'm not... Now you're going to see it and never be able to unsee it.”

    Nick — Repeat spelling error across multiple recent Stern releases signals systematic QA failure

  • “It almost never went back there. So it's almost like you're playing half a pinball machine.”

    Kevin — Playfield design criticism: back-left area underutilized due to shot selection structure; wasted real estate

  • “Just fucking make Goonies so we can stop saying make Goonies. I just want to get this shit over with.”

    Kevin — Frustration with long-delayed Deep Root Pinball/Barrels of Fun games; community expectation vs. execution gap

  • “I live in the goddamn future. That's why you need Ready Player One.”

    Kevin — Self-deprecating humor about future-oriented mindset; plays into dream theme discussion

Entities

MandaloriangameBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonRandy MartinezpersonCarl WeatherspersonMultimorphiccompanySpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Haggis Pinball sold out 250 units of $9,000 Mermaid Fathom upgrade; demonstrates premium re-release market demand

    high · Kevin reports sold-out status; notes 250 unit production; contextualizes as luxury segment buyer behavior

  • ?

    community_signal: Gap between casual and competitive pinball understanding: Facebook enthusiast groups lack grasp of basic rules concepts (stacking multiballs with modes)

    medium · Kevin references Facebook thread where enthusiasts questioned stacking; reflects owner vs player skill gap; connects to broader topic of game accessibility

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Back-left playfield area (Grogu/baby Yoda lanes) underutilized during gameplay; design creates half-playfield experience

    medium · Kevin: 'It almost never went back there. So it's almost like you're playing half a pinball machine.' Observation from watching Tommy's Pro stream.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dwight Sullivan's rules approach critiqued as retroactive fix-based rather than original design; post-release updates overhaul scoring/multipliers (Ghostbusters, Star Wars)

    medium · Kevin: 'He just kind of took what was there and blew it all up for the final update.' Cites Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones, Star Wars as examples; contrasts with approval of Game of Thrones house selection mechanic

  • ?

    leak_detection: Multimorphic teased licensed playfield module with partial photo visible on manufacturing facility; community (Flipping and Mashing podcast) analyzing shot placement speculatively

    high · Kevin describes teaser image showing pop bumper and arrow; notes speculation community; encourages podcast for detailed breakdown

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.243

0:00
Coming up on this episode of Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball, we've got the Mandalorian reveal, along with teases from Multimorphic and Spooky for their new games. And Nick and I finally played Avengers and Led Zeppelin, so we're going to tell you what we thought of them, like a year later. Whether you like it or not. Exactly. Here we go. Let's do this. Double Super Jackpot!
0:30
I need a ramp. I need a loop. I want targets I can hit. I need the scoop. I need a double super jetpack in my life. That's right!
0:52
And now, the Hall & Oates of pinball podcasting, Nick Lane and Kevin Manning of Buffalo Pinball. That's us Live and in person We're in the same freaking room What's going on? It's weird now You're supposed to be in a little window In your gamer chair in your room And I'm supposed to be here by myself I feel like Rip Van Winkle, older Last time we were together I wasn't in my 40s I was in an old man Now I'm a couple years past that and I have back issues And here we are, there we go One year closer to dying That's right, one month at a time Here we go. Covering the pinball news on our way out.
1:30
But the coronavirus didn't get us, so we got that going. I vow to ruin pinball for the rest of my life. There you go. You guys got this coming for you.
1:39
All right, so let's get into it. Let's do some news. Here's the tip. It's the latest pinball news. So hot, it's on fire. All right. Nick looks like he's 12. You're not wrong. You're not wrong, RLM. I can't, you know. what are you gonna do yeah all right uh let's talk about the mandalorian we got some pinball news to talk about very exciting the new pinball machine came out uh the mandalorian from stern pinball we got uh three levels as you come to know with stern you get a pro you get a premium you get an le uh the pro is 6199 the premium 77.99 and le 9199 those are msrps you can probably get street value a little bit less than that. But that's the same price as Led Zeppelin, which was their last release. Designed by Brian Eddy. Rules by Dwight Sullivan. Art by Randy Martinez. Sound by Jerry Thompson. And voiceover from the one and only Carl Weathers. Yeah. And he got some Bill Burr in there. He didn't do voiceovers, but there's clips of him in there, which is, like, beautiful. Yeah. I love that. That's good. You finally got Bill Burr in a pinball machine. Never thought that would happen, but you never know what to expect in life. Thanks, Cara Dune, for doing something stupid, so we got Bill Burr instead. There you go. All right, Mandalorian, what do you think? So you guys, and we'll talk a little bit more about this later, but you guys ordered one for location because pinball is starting to come back a little bit more.

  • Facebook pinball enthusiast groups lack understanding of basic rules concepts like stacking multiballs with modes

    medium confidence · Kevin references Facebook thread where group members questioned stacking; reflects broader casual vs. competitive skill gap

    • Scott Deniseperson
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    Pinball Adventurescompany
    Elementsgame
    Nick Laneperson
    Kevin Manningperson
    Community Beer Workscompany
    Flipping Pinballcompany
    Deep Root Pinball / Barrels of Funcompany
  • $

    market_signal: Operator prioritizes theme over rules depth for location revenue; Nick purchased Mandalorian for Community Beer Works despite Dwight Sullivan concerns because Star Wars/Mandalorian theme drives play

    high · Nick: 'Theme is the name of the game... people will look at it and say, I want to play The Mandalorian, and it will make money.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Randy Martinez art credited for Mandalorian; described as significant upgrade over previous Star Wars game artwork quality

    high · Kevin: 'The artwork is really good... Much better than the Star Wars game which was like crap. Thank you, Randy.'

  • ?

    announcement: Pinball Adventures announced Elements game with octagonal Infinity Mirror playfield feature; stretch LCD topper; improved from Pony Factory design language

    high · Kevin analyzes Elements teaser photos; compares favorably to Pony Factory; describes art as 'pretty cool', gameplay mechanics unclear

  • ?

    product_strategy: Mandalorian three-tier pricing model replicates Led Zeppelin; Premium/LE feature swinging upper playfield and magnet, Pro has flat layout with one flipper

    high · Kevin explains mechanical and gameplay differences between tiers; Pro/Premium/LE MSRP differentiation ($6,199/$7,799/$9,199)

  • ?

    product_concern: Recurring spelling errors across Stern releases (Mandalorian 'flamethrower', Deadpool 'multiplier') indicate systematic QA failure

    high · Kevin and Nick identify and discuss misspellings on LCD displays; incredulous tone reflects community frustration with quality control

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community frustration with long-delayed licensed games from Deep Root/Barrels (Back to the Future, Goonies); Kevin expresses exasperation at 'make Goonies' conversations

    high · Kevin: 'Just fucking make Goonies so we can stop saying make Goonies.' Reflects repeated execution delays and community impatience

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spooky Pinball implementing Molex connectors and improved power supplies (quieter fans) as manufacturing quality improvement

    high · Kevin cites Spooky's video tour announcement; positions as competitive advantage vs previous reliability issues

    • 3:01
    I guess, what drove you guys to purchase one of these? Well, that's a good question, Kevin. Well, as a business, we always were getting new sterns, as is. But we've had to basically consolidate our business. We lost almost all locations. So less locations now, less games. But Star Wars is a great theme, even though I think the Star Wars game that came out a couple years ago is kind of trash. It did well because of the theme alone. So Mandalorian is a really loved kind of theme. It seems to be well-received in the Star Wars universe.
    3:35
    And on location, theme is the name of the game. You can have a game that's not that good, but people will look at it and say, I want to play The Mandalorian, and it will make money. So that's a no-brainer as an operator. I haven't spent really any time watching gameplay, only that Bill Burr's in the multi-ball pirate mode, which is fantastic. But we get our game, I think, on Monday now. Oh, shoot. Yeah, so it's going to be dropped at Community Beer Works. And I'm not sure when they open. They might not even open until Thursday or something. But, yeah, it's going to get dropped there. Looking forward to playing it. So, obviously, next time we talk, we'll have played it. and don't be surprised if you see a bro stream on it. Yeah, it's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it. So for me, the theme is really good. I got a, let's go back here. I got my, I wore my Mando shirt. This is my COVID meme Mando shirt. Keep your mask on. This is the way.
    4:29
    I'm a Star Wars fan. I think Mandalorian is one of the best things Star Wars has done in years. Really cool show. The artwork is really good. So it's got a lot of positives going for it. I love the art. They're Andy Martinez art. I love the theme. I think the layout's interesting from Brian Eddy. It's not, you know, I feel like Stranger Things was like, all right, Brian Eddy's coming back. We're going to go to, like, his old favorites, familiar territory, so everybody who wanted a new, like, Attack from Mars-style layout from him, that's what they got. Now this is him getting a little more creative with the layout.
    5:01
    The big red flag for me is the Dwight Sullivan on rules. It's like, I think, I was trying to think of, like, what's a Dwight game that I like? and Ghostbusters before the final update. I think he just kind of took what was there and blew it all up for the final update to make people feel better with multipliers and higher scores and ball saves.
    5:23
    But other than that, I don't love Game of Thrones. I don't love Star Wars. I haven't played Ninja Turtles yet, but I've heard mixed things about that. That's a Dwight game? Yep.
    5:38
    That was the last one he did. I don't know. I don't know what it is. Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely hate Ghostbusters with the ridiculous scoring on it now, and the bonus is just asinine.
    5:50
    And he also – he did Star Wars, right, as well? I don't like – I mean, we've made fun of that. I mean, it's just like – I don't know. It's not intuitive. It's really weird.
    6:01
    I applaud him because he does, I think, have a degree of creativity, and I know he's a board game guy.
    6:10
    And then Munsters was sort of like this reversal of just overly simplified, basic. I don't know. Yeah, so I'm with you. I'm sure he's a great guy. I just can't. His rules are not for me and not for you, Kev. Right. But look, he's made rules on the games that have sold very well. I think Game of Thrones is not bad. I don't really think there's anything inherently bad about the rules. I like the choosing the houses. So he did that before JGP Pirates did, so he kind of kicked that off, and I think that was a cool move. That's who did it first. Right, that's who did it first. But, I mean, he brought that back, so credit to him. Yep. You know, I like kind of the shot multipliers, the way they work in Game of Thrones, where it's risk-reward versus holding on and trapping the ball versus being kind of quicker. So that's pretty interesting. But, yeah, the other games that we mentioned, it doesn't work for me. Yeah. So it's to be determined. Like I said, we haven't played it yet. Why don't we take a look at some of the photos? Well, this is the reason why people are going to come by and drop money in it, right? They're going to go, oh, my God, it's Baby Yoda. And he doesn't do anything, though. It's just a plastic sculpt in the back of the machine. Looks kind of stupid, to be honest. Pretty huge. Yeah. The fact that you just stuck a doll in there that doesn't do anything is like, I get it. It's going to be good for me as an operator. Yeah. Like, people are going to look at it, and maybe they're disappointed when it does nothing. But whatever, it's going to make me some money. So that's fine. I think it looks pretty bad. Yeah. If, like, as... I don't... Look, I have no inclination to having this in my home. I don't like Star Wars because I'm a monster.
    7:41
    But, yeah. Yeah, so we got Baby Yoda. What else we got? We got... You said there's a dong in the game. The dong. This is the dong shot. Show me. I never really... Right there. So this is the... If you're looking at the screen to the far right, I forget what the name of the ship is, but it's, like, part of that ship. And you hit it three times and you start a multiball. So that's like the super obvious thing to do, which I feel is good. Like, it's funny. There was a thread on pinball enthusiasts on Facebook the other day, and it was a meme about stacking multiballs with modes. And I couldn't tell if people were being serious or sarcastic, but people in an enthusiast group on Facebook do not understand the concept of like stacking things. What? Yeah. I missed this. This is new to me. Explain what's going on. I know stacking. That's not new to me. Right, so I just wanted to share, like, so to me, that shows that there's this, like, you and I, we like really complicated things, deep rule sets, lots to do in these pinball machines. But even people who go on Facebook and go, like, I like pinball, I'm going to join these pinball enthusiast groups, have, like, the rules understanding is just not there. It made me think of, like, watching people at Masuda try to play the game with the coin returns and things like that. Do you think it's a flood of new people in the hobby just kind of coming, trying to understand pinball, coming to terms? Or is it just these people who are like, cool, I want a pinball machine in my home and it looks cool and I can show it off? Hard to say. I feel like it's older pinball players that are just very casual. I feel like the newer players get it more. How did this discussion come up, though? There was a meme about stacking multiballs with modes. Okay. Like they didn't like it or something? They were talking, dude, just the comments were all about like, what's this? What's stacking? Oh, shit, dude. Yeah. So that gives you like the frame of mind of like the common pinball enthusiast, I guess. Well, it's weird, though, because I'm guessing a lot of those people on those Facebook things are people who own a pinball machine. So when you own a pinball machine, I feel like you just kind of will figure this out over time. Or, you know, you'll have the time to invest in there where you can dig down and understand what the fuck you own. Mm-hmm. Whoops.
    9:49
    Chalk it up. So it's a little weird. I understand, like, somebody who doesn't own a pinball machine, maybe just like, yeah, I like pinball. I'm an enthusiast. You know, like, whatever. We can debate the word enthusiast. But, yeah, I like pinball. Like, I go and play here and there. I don't want to nerd out and get into stacking. But it's kind of a basic thing. Right. So to my point is, like, pinball machines need something dumb and obvious to do for people like that. Sure. I like pinball. I just want to start a multiball. And so that's that. You hit the swinging target three times, you start a multiball, woohoo, off to the races. No, that's good, though. You need that. Like, if you don't put that in the pinball machine that you're making, you're making a mistake. Because you need to have, like, an easy multiball that feels good for the casual person. Like, Black Knight sort of rage. I was just kind of bewildered how difficult. Like, I'm just like, dude, the average person, casual person will never get a multiball in this game. Yeah. It's way too, the game's way too brutal, way too hard. Mm-hmm. It's not happening. So, yeah, it's good to have that, like, you know, low level, like, not worth a lot. Maybe two ball, multi ball. Yeah. Something cool. I get it. Like, in three balls, you should be able to start one. Yeah, for sure. So, if you can't hit that thing that's right there three times, then maybe try a different hobby. But, oh, there you go. So, the big, like, oh, my God, there's a cool thing on this game. It's the upper play field on the premium in LE. It swings. So they're like, cool, pirates is the ship. It swings back and forth. Oh, it moves back and forth? Yeah. In the premium in LE? It moves up and down. So like this. Back and forth? So it goes from flat to vertical. Interesting. Okay. And what is the 1, 2, 3? Is it like you're crushing bonus multiplier or something? So there's modes and stuff that are associated with this. I think there's three modes associated. You've got to get it up there and bash the stand-up targets to qualify the modes. Okay. I believe that's how it works. And then on the Pro, it's not even elevated, right? Right. Or is it elevated? There it is on the Pro. It's just a flat thing with one flipper and a little bouncy rubber on the other side to move it. Huh. Yeah. Okay. Interesting.
    11:56
    So what's weird about – let me see if I got a – the back half of this game, I was watching this flipping podcast stream it. Tommy got one for his location.
    12:06
    And he had the Pro. We're looking at the premium. Yeah, this is the premium right here. The back half of the game didn't get used much. So you got the whole far back left section with Grogu and the lanes and the five child lanes. And then you got the back right with the area where you've got the Mandalorian helmet. And it almost never goes back there. So it's almost like you're playing half a pinball machine. Why does it not go back there? Because you have to qualify it. And then you shoot the ramp to send it up there. So it's like only certain times are you going to get it to the area with the helmet. So wait, what's in the back left area? The baby Yoda? And you're saying the ball doesn't go back there much? Yeah, it almost never went back there. But if you want to shoot baby Yoda, aren't you going for him? So maybe that could be one of the differences between, because on the LE and the premium, there's a magnet there to stop the ball and drop it into the lanes. On the pro, I just seem to either just whiz by there never go back there much to begin with so okay um it just you know it felt like all the shots you were shooting were all these these quick um shots closer to the flippers that ended up coming back uh coming back and he didn't end up going back there that much so so it seemed seemed like i don't know maybe he's a missed opportunity with some of that real estate in the back but it's hard to say again we haven't played this but it's just observations from watching skip daddy's blowing up the chat so i think if you don't address some of his comments um it's just not going to stop. Okay, so last one. He wants us to mention the flamethrower, which I don't know what it is. No, he wants to mention the flamethrower. I should have put that screenshot in here. Oh, it's misspelling? We were looking for the misspelling on his third. That's always a fun thing. There's always one, right? So on the screen, it says flamethrower instead of flamethrower. Dude, come on. Come on. There's not even that much, like, I mean... I know, there's not that much. Come on. Yeah. Come on, that's bad. Flamethrower. It's like on Deadpool, it says multiplier instead of multiplier. I did not know that, but I'm not... Now you're going to see it and never be able to unsee it. Holy shiza.
    14:12
    It's for the German fans. Negative reinforcement on the Ghostbusters playfields. Guys. Are you oozy loose on Spider-Man? Guys. There's so many. How does this happen? You work on a game for like a year, right? The game cycle is forever. How is this happening? They need a professional proofreader. Pay somebody on Fiverr. You're not even professional. My skills are available for hire. It's not hard. I've got my red pen over here. It's not a manual. It's not a book. We can red pen you. Yeah, exactly. Come on. Well, the thing is like – That says it all, though, doesn't it? It does. Right? That just says it. Like, we talk about quality control. Like, that says it all. Come on. That's embarrassing. And if it's in code, it's easy to – like, I don't know why they haven't fixed Multiplier in Deadpool in a code update. Oh, it's a code thing? Yeah, it's on the screen. Maybe they're trademarking it. Maybe it's like Tribal or something. They changed it.
    15:06
    Williams came back from the dead and was like, you can't use multiplier. You have to say multiplier. The multiplier. Okay. Good to know. Good job derailing the stream. That was a good rant, Skip. He also wanted to know why the podcast was late. Why was the podcast late?
    15:21
    I mean, ultimately, I was late getting here. I blamed Martha a little bit because I was out washing my car or whatever, and she took off. And I had left the door unlocked to get back in, but she locked the doors because, you know, I don't know. It was impulsive door locking. Although, honestly, we learned our lesson about not, like, keeping our doors locked. Because I always be like, why do you got to lock it? You're, like, right out here. But a week ago, Martha's like, oh, my God. So there's an autistic kid next door, and he burst through our house. Oh, shit. So he just made a beeline. I wasn't there. he's like 20 years old and he was doing laps around the house and then his mom was like go tell him to come out so mother's like okay and she yeah and then she tried and he just like saw her and bolted upstairs into our bedroom so yeah it's you know there you go you ask there's your answer good job um so mandalorian i'm looking forward to playing it um i think it's got a lot going for it. I'm interested in it.
    16:26
    It seems like a good location game. Hopefully it makes a good move for it. You got a good story out of that one.
    16:35
    What's your final take on your first look at Mando? I think the art looks good. It's visually appealing. Much better than the Star Wars game which was like crap. Thank you, Randy.
    16:48
    We're getting something that looks like an original playfield design right so that's good so i look forward to playing it yeah you know like the thing with the stand-up targets and the flippers i don't know how exactly fun that looks but again at least it's something different so yeah we'll check it out we'll see how it is i haven't watched the series i don't have disney plus i don't like star wars but maybe i would even like mandalorian yeah it's a cool like i don't know it's like a bounty hunter kind of show You know what I mean? I do like Empire Strikes Back. I'll put that. If you like Empire, I feel like you'll like this. Yeah, because the bad guy is kind of crushing it. It's got Boba Fett in it, so it's got some of the good stuff. Yeah. All right. If you could deal with a baby Yoda doll, I feel like you would see the baby Yoda and be like, I'm not watching this kid stuff.
    17:36
    Yeah, I don't know. I get it. Star Wars has always been about these cute, cute toys to sell shit. And that's really not. That's why I'm a Star Trek nerd, more or less. but whatever yeah yeah screaming we're back we're back together hanging out uh thank you science we did wildcat hey star wars what a kindred spirit yeah there you go you guys would get along well in person i think yeah all right let's see what do we got next uh we got teasers so a couple teasers from uh multimorphic and spooky we'll start with multimorphic um they said two they dropped two big pieces of wisdom on their next game. So their next play field module is going to be licensed. So it's not going to be an original theme. They're going to go out and get a movie theme, you know, music theme, TV show theme, something like that. And it's going to feature Scott Denisey on the audio package. Well, sounds good. I mean, I'm going to get it because I have a P3 and it's like in the grand scheme of pinball that buying a new playfield module is cheap you know yeah it's why not why not get it and play the game so uh i'm looking forward to that it sounds like hopefully it's right around the corner um the so the other thing they said that they're they've expanded their manufacturing so there's they added an additional 5 000 square feet of space in their manufacturing facility which is what we're looking at here and uh the next picture you can actually see a little bit of the little bit of the the new playfield module there so if you want to hear a ridiculous breakdown and analysis of this playfield i encourage you to check out the flipping and mashing podcast the guys those guys are big p3 uh enthusiasts and they analyzed all of this and where the shots could be and everything so uh if that's your thing go for it people love that shit yeah yeah not not me no but like like we'll wait wait till you see the spooky tease the same thing happened with that um but you gotta talk about something yeah exactly if you're really hyped for whatever game is coming next for a manufacturer i can understand it but there you go i'd rather just wait and see the final product i can wait yeah i can wait but like that looks like a pop bumper there probably and there is an arrow right right there pointing sideways so that's probably an upper flipper shot just no just let's go it's gonna it's gonna do the it's gonna do the uh the upper flipper which is a good shout out that's the podcast to go to there you go there you go um so i so i i wanted to i started thinking about what would be some of my dream themes on the p3 so uh let me share those with you uh i got them in a in a in a message here so um see see if you agree with this Actually these are great pinball themes no matter what But these are some of my dream themes People ask about dream themes all the time and put some thought into it. So I think there's a missed opportunity, and we've talked about it with video game themes. Yeah. There's a lot of really big video game themes that hit the generational area where people are in the pinball buying community now. So first one, Mortal Kombat. Sure. It's never a Mortal Kombat game. And that's a good, like, select your character perks. I mean, they don't really do, well, whatever. You could do something like that. Yeah. But you've got to have a select the character thing. I think of, like, Deadpool when you, like, finish your mode. You could have, like, fatalities and stuff in there when you finish the character. That would be a no-brainer for Stern to do. They got Steve Ritchie so they can get him to do the finish him, like, legit. Yeah. That's a cool voice. Yeah. Yep. So, Mortal Kombat. Doom, I feel like is, you know. Doom, 100%. These games keep on persisting, right? All generations know these games now. They're not going to stop making Immortal Kombat or Doom. That license is going forever. Right, so it hits that nostalgia, but they're also current. They're still making games. You're doing good, Kevin.
    21:24
    The third video game theme I thought of was Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Okay, this is a little out there, but we're due for maybe a skateboard game or something like that. Think about how well skateboard themes work for pinball. And if it could get some of that music, sign me up. Sure. I'm all in.
    21:44
    You want some Ska music, right? Punk and Ska, yeah. Do you think Ska music is today's polka? Probably. Okay. I mean, there's Ska and Deadpool. I'm fine with Ska. I had that thought the other day. It's an original thought from me. There you go. I mean, it goes back to the 60s, so they've been building up for a while. Okay. Yeah, but 90s Ska probably would be a big weight to that, I would guess. Okay. Radical 2, there you go. Radical 2. So movie theme, The Matrix Why isn't there a Matrix theme? And I think on the P3 that'd be really cool 100% we got a new movie coming out So that's a no-brainer theme There's people who are nuts over The Matrix That would sell well And I'm sure they could do a lot of fun things with it That'd be a good one for Jersey Jack to do I think That'd be a good license for them Somebody in one of my streams mentioned Ready Player One and I feel like that'd be a really good Theme too Not bad yeah it doesn't have that it's got like throwbacks to old movies like it's got kind of that feel but it doesn't have that nostalgic pull yeah i think yeah and i think there's um more commercially accessible titles to make and the ones like the games we're hitting on and matrix are way above ready player one right right uh and then finally finally yes oh no two two more back to a good back to the future we need a good back to yeah no again no brainer no brainer and then monty playtime and the holy grail all-time favorite movie for me uh i know we got uh medieval madness which a lot of people would just say oh we got medieval madness it's like the greatest game of all time why do we need that but i i feel like you could take some of the the content from holy grail and do that okay so there there's my dream themes hopefully um jerry was taking notes and uh is working on all those for the p3 or or any of you guys let's let's go let's go um i thought deep was gonna do Back to the Future.
    23:33
    That's allegedly, yeah. And Goonies. And Goonies, yeah. What can't they do? If those guys have those licenses. Goddamn. I mean, Goonies would be a good one too, but I didn't say it because I assume Deep Root has it locked up. Just fucking make Goonies so we can stop saying make Goonies. I just want to get this shit over with. All right? Can we just move past that? Well, Goonies is good because a lot of people like it. I think people would hear the theme and drop money. Get your 80s-themed nostalgia bullshit. Do that. I'm not an nostalgia person whatsoever. I'm really weird. I'm like future oriented. Yeah, you are. You are. I live in the goddamn future. That's why you need Ready Player One. Put on your VR helmet and play some pinball. Here we go. Yeah. All right. Next teaser is from Spooky. Look at this picture. Oh my God. Wow. Thank you. Pinside went nuts analyzing this. Of course they did. Give it a fucking like.
    24:23
    So this is a picture of the side art, I believe. or the side of the cabinet or something. They also did a video tour to show what they said was improved build quality of their next game, which is the, quote, the most stacked and loaded game we've ever made. Okay, cool. It's cool. And I think of their games, I think they're pretty packed. Like Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. There's a lot going on in there. Yeah, there is. Rick and Morty looks awesome.
    24:50
    So they're doing Molex connectors in their machines. They're really stepping it up. What game are we playing next week, by the way? I think we're doing Rick and Morty. Alright, sounds good And they have improved Power supply, so no more noisy fans In their power supply That's a nice step up You don't have to replace their fans I'm rooting for them I'm really looking forward to playing Rick and Morty So that should be fun Let's see Haggis, we talked about them last time They sold out of their Mermaid edition So they sold 250 Nice, congratulations Of the Mermaid, the upgrade like $9,000 version of Fathom, which is crazy and, I mean, good for them, but we haven't seen what the new rules show. The rich kids are throwing that money around. Well, there's so much money in the economies. Why not? Buy a couple. Buy some. Be 20K next year by Christmas, actually, at this point. Maybe September. Get some stonks. They go up. Then you cash them out and you get a pinball machine. That's how it works. Exactly. Easy. GG easy. Yeah.
    25:55
    So congrats to Haggis. uh let's go over here where where's oh here hey did you see this one well i'm really really regretting not watching the full video of that um i know he put out another video yeah and i'm sorry that i can't talk about it with you but did you watch it i didn't and now it's gone you can't watch it no i was gonna play it why because i was very excited that pinball adventures He could have gotten free publicity on one of the most listened to podcasts in pinball. There you go. But no, we have a webpage instead, but I was saving it. I was like, I'll watch this during the podcast.
    26:38
    But makers of the one and only Pony Factory, which has not been manufactured. It is one and only. Literally one and only. They announced their next game, and it's Elements.
    26:48
    Not a great name, but I do like the picture that they have there. Yeah, the art's pretty cool. But let me give you the concept. Please. The world has been plagued by five of the deadliest element monsters, and the Infinity Mirror is glowing bright red. What the fuck does that mean? They need help with their writing. The Infinity Mirror? Yeah. Three warriors, a deadly Valkyrie, a stealth ninja, and Mighty Knight need to combat and conquer these element monsters. You need to bring back the Infinity Mirror to pure white that it once was before it's too late. All right. Well, you know, you just had an Infinity Quest, so maybe just not do the Infinity Mirror. Okay. But anyways, I don't give too much about that. I do like the art. It's kind of crazy and creative.
    27:28
    Oh, look, the knight looks pretty cool. He looks like a Fallout guy. Yeah. But that's fine. He looks cool. I like that. Playfield infused octagonal infinity mirror. Oh, there's the infinity mirror. So that's cool. That's on the playfield. Okay. That's neat. I like that. All right. This is Wissus. First of all, what the fuck? That's Groot.
    27:46
    Groot with a sword. Dude. All right. Anyways, this is much better than Pony Factory. All right, so always give credit where credit's due. We're going in the right direction, dude. All right. There's a stretch LCD topper. Okay. All right, maybe. Or LDC, depending on. So they're doing pinball right. There's some typos here. Yeah, they're good. They're going to do great. They're going to be football manufacturers soon.
    28:11
    Oh, there's the flyer. Look at that. You can't really see it. In the video, they showed the play field, which I'm sad we can't really see. Yeah, that's weird. I wonder if there's some copyright issues that they ran into or something. I don't know.
    28:26
    The back box reminds me of, like, was it 80s Gottlieb? Yeah, quadraphonic sound, dual monitor display, full retro back glass. I don't know what that means. It means we didn't put a monitor in it. That's what it means. Oh, shit, there's no LCD monitor.
    28:41
    So it's just, yeah, okay. The back, that's not something to brag about, that you don't have a monitor back there. It's all about how you position it, Nick, you know? No, I know.
    28:53
    I know. Is that all we got? That's all we got. Damn it. Missed opportunity with the play. They taught us. I was like, I'll watch this one day. But no, no. You snooze, you lose. Sorry, suckers. You lose.
    29:06
    All right, well, listen. Again, credit where credit's due. You still haven't did Pony Factory. No one's buying it or it's not available. But your next game is better. Like, better. Theme looks better. Yep. Okay, so, okay. More to come. Yep.
    29:23
    Start actually building some machines. So there you go. What do we got? Oh, JJP. They got a... Not to steal the thunder from Goran later, but they got a topper coming soon. Well, I wrote on JJP's Enthusiast that Goran could do the topper reveal. We'll make him available. You could. You could do it on this podcast. Stick around for the end of the show. Goran is doing a deep dive into Guns N' Roses pinball topper. Are you listening here? Come on, make it happen. Yeah. This is where you want to reveal it on this podcast. Yeah. So, coming soon. They're also doing, like, an accessory store, and it's, like, pinballwizard.com or something like that. I signed up to be told when it's officially launched, so we'll let you guys know. You'll hear it here first. Wow. They don't have a club where you pay $30 a year or whatever to be told when? They don't. They market it to you a day early? You give them your email address for free, and then they market it to you. It's weird. Almost like your email address has value in itself. Oh. Let me take some notes. Hold on. Crazy talk.
    30:26
    They also added Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Scorbit to the Hobbit and Woz, so they're working their way back through the catalog. So dialed in. And Pirates are the only two left to go on that? Oh, for toppers? No, for the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Scorbit connectivity. Oh, dialed in and was. Dialed in and pirates are still left to go. Everything else has pirates. Okay. Any news on the final wizard mode for pirates? I assume that's why they're doing pirates last. All right. I don't have any inside info on that. Give me, give me. That would make sense, right? Yes. The logics behind it would make sense, yeah. So I don't have score, but I made games because those are my two games that I got from JGP. Yep. All right. other awesome code update news from JJP go so if you haven't yet connect your Wonka if you got a Wonka connect it with either Ethernet cable or there's a USB dongle you can get go to the JJP website they'll tell you which one to get connect it to the internet you have to be on the latest ISO that you download from their website go to the update to the latest version that you can download connect your machine to the internet and opt into the beta program. So there's an open beta program now on JJP. You can just download right to your machine once you're connected to the internet.
    31:48
    And JoeCat's totally reworked the rules for Willy Wonka. It moves a lot faster. It scores a lot higher. It just takes everything that was in there and amps it up. So it's not like Dwight Ghostbuster's update where we just threw multipliers all over the place just to make you feel better. It takes what was in there and just elevates it more, right? He didn't millennialize it. He didn't, no. He didn't add five ball saves or anything like that. Jesus.
    32:16
    But I only owned the game for a couple months before the update. You like my non-stapler stapler? Hmm. This is what you get when Nick's in person. He starts analyzing things.
    32:31
    So what was I saying? I'm sorry. Now I'm all distracted. I held out for 20 minutes picking that up and looking at it. So this is a stapler that doesn't use staples. It just takes the paper and folds it over. I thought it was like a circle cutter like that for like Mylar and shit. Okay. Yeah. I thought it was that.
    32:50
    So go update your Willy Wonka. Oh, like I was saying, so I can't compare great. I can't do a great job comparing to the old rules because I didn't play them that much. But all I know is I've progressed through the game more. It feels more satisfying now. I've gotten to four of the five golden tickets, where I'd only gotten, I think, two in the past. So it's cool to be able to play the mini wizard modes, like the Gobstopper Mania one and the Wonka's Office. Those are all really cool. So the fact that you get to see these more often are good. And there's more video clips. Oh, my God, video clips. And you can skip the video clips now if you don't want video clips. So it's great. Best of both worlds. So highly recommend it. Go in there, get the beta, and jump in the telegram so you can offer feedback, too, because Joe's looking for feedback from players. So if there's something in the rules that you don't particularly like to change, he's open to that as well. Or if you find something you love, tell him that, too. Tell him good work because he did this in his spare time, labor of love kind of thing. Joe Cass is a boss, dude.
    33:57
    Weekends, evenings. So Skip, myself, NS Pinball, and Goran were the beta testers for this. so we've been playing it for at least a month now so if you don't like it, it's our fault mostly our fault but we also have candy codes in the game now some of my pictures in the game that's pretty hype I didn't know it was going to happen he's just like, you guys are all getting candy codes well the thing is, when you take the time to polish the code and make it exactly what you know it can be which is sometimes doing this on your own right now in the company time I mean, these games live for decades, right? And, you know, we talk about the code. Like, when we reviewed Doctor Who, we were talking about the code. Like, you get recognition for quite some time. So, you know, these guys are like artists, right? And their name's attached to it, and they want it to be good. And I have a ton of respect for that. That's awesome. Yeah, and, you know, this is his first game that he did the lead on it. So I feel like it's got, like, a special place in his heart, and he really wants to make it the best it can be. He wants people to love it. So even though the game's out of production, there's all this work that went in on it. So kudos to them for stepping it up and taking it to the next level. But we lost 14 viewers when I was fucking around with your stapler. See, that'll teach you. Maybe it was me. I was talking too much. They're like, I'm out of here.
    35:19
    What else? American Pinball. All right, here's a Dave Fix piece of news for you. Oh, wow. Okay. All right.
    35:25
    So this came from Pinball News, and they announced that they will have deluxe and classic models now. Okay. So like premium LE or pro premium. So the classic is going to be like the operator version machine. Classic is a weird term because when you think classic and pinball, you think an old game. Right. Right? So it's a weird term to use, but okay. Yeah. And then deluxe is like... Deluxe is fine. Yeah.
    35:48
    We're going to charge you more for fancy stuff from the model. Yeah. Apparently they're going to play very similar between the two models. They didn't say they would be exactly the same. and they also said this was a real head scratcher to me so they've done they did houdini they did octoberfest and they did hot wheels right yeah and hot wheels seems to be well received like people seem to like that game and that's kind of the game that maybe turned the corner for them yeah so they're kind of like building their building up like houdini was like people know who houdini was people know magic but it's not really a licensed theme so much Like, Oktoberfest is just, like, this generic thing that people kind of understand. And then they got Hot Wheels, which is their real license. Right. There's Hot Wheels fans. You know, everybody knows Hot Wheels. But their next few games are going to be unlicensed. See, that's weird. Yeah. That's, like, again, as an operator, we will never buy, okay, ever, ever, ever buy an unlicensed game. So you might say, well, that's fine. We're not interested in selling to operators. And maybe that's true. But your business model should be, like, yeah, we want all the market, right? So why do an unlicensed game? I don't get that. That makes no sense. That's like a death kiss. Yeah, we've seen it over and over again where enthusiasts say, oh, when can we go back to the awesome themes of the 90s, like Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness, and, you know, JJP is made, dialed in, and Multimorbic made Heist, and people don't buy them. You're going to find a little niche of the market that's like, cool, original theme, I like this enough, based on the gameplay and the theme around it or whatever, doesn't matter as much. I'm going to buy it. So Skip says, brings up, didn't Nick buy Black Knight Sword of Rage for the business? So we buy every stern. Black Knight Sword of Rage is licensed on the Black Knight license, but it's based on an original theme. And guess what? That game did the worst of any stern we've ever put on location. So again, it's 100%. And that was sort of like, okay, this is a game that's known by some people. It's cool. I swear, if we had a topper on it, it probably would have done better. I don't doubt it. But, yeah, people – I mean, the game's hard. But if the game was called Star Wars and it was the same game, it would have made it at least two or three times as much. Put a guy with a lightsaber in the middle instead of the Black Knight and boom. Yeah. It would be pretty great. I mean, look, here's the games we could have gotten because we could have gotten Mandalorian, which we did. We could have gotten Turtles and all that. Like, okay, well, what do you think is the best license? Mandalorian out of that. So it's always, I don't care how the, as a business, I don't care if the game is good or bad. I care about the license. 100% as the operator. Now that's different for me as a collector, right? But as an operator, it's 100% theme. Yep.
    38:32
    So, but they will be returning to license themes after that. So, all right. Maybe they're trying not to overdo it at this point too. Because you also don't want to like over promise, under deliver. Because they come out with this amazing theme and you can't deliver on manufacturing. I don't know what their manufacturing capacity is. It's a weird time for any. I mean, pinball uses so many damn parts, right? And all I hear about, I talk to people from businesses and work and supply chain issues every which way. So, yeah, I don't know what it's like making a pinball machine, but it can't be easy right now. Right. And if you're missing one part, you can't build the machine. 100%. That's all it takes. Yeah. I mean, how many parts go into an average pinball machine? It's ridiculous. Ridiculous. It's crazy.
    39:20
    Oh, the IFPA is coming back. We can go over to that. So that's exciting for our friends who are into competitive pinball.
    39:29
    They're officially resuming sanctioning events for Wobber Points starting August 1st, 2021. Tournament and League Directors are welcome to begin submitting events to the IFPA calendar using their Tournament Manager accounts. The 30-day advance notice rule is still in effect, so any event held on August 1st must be submitted by July 2nd. until further notice, not in U.S. events with fewer than 16 participants. At private locations will be sanctioned, provided that registration for those events is public.
    39:55
    Any leagues that were unable to complete their 2020 seasons, that's us, can pick up where they left off, but the IFPA will not retroactively sanction events, leagues or tournaments held between March 17th and July 31st, 2021.
    40:10
    So you can't like, oh, I had a huge tournament in my house during a pandemic. I want Whopper points for it. they're going to say, no, you shouldn't have done that, and you're not getting points.
    40:21
    Specifically with respect to leagues, none of the activity of that league season is allowed to have taken place during this period if that league wishes to be sanctioned for one-upper points, which totally cool if I agree with that I like that they waiting until August because you got to give people time to get their stuff back in order and it going to be fun So I think that we were talking about when we were going to start up League again and how we're going to do it, and I was like, well, they haven't started sanctioning pinball events yet, so we can pick up our league that had...
    40:57
    Is my Discord going off? Yeah, you guys don't want to hear that. Yeah, so we'll be able to pick up where we left off and move on to the next event, too. Yeah, I think we'll talk about over tacos, but I'm thinking we go straight to the finals at this point because we have to make up like three league nights, which ain't happening. So maybe we'll do the finals before league starts or something like that. And we'll figure it out. It'll be interesting. Yeah. It'll be interesting. So hopefully we're through this. Hopefully there's no kind of crazy variant and we're back into this garbage again. Yeah. Because people lose their minds during a pandemic, which we saw. So I'm both ends of the debate, I guess. Apologies if you're listening to this and freaking out that your Discord is going off. Because mine was and I turned it off. So they're off now. All right. That's why everybody left. We're back up. We're going back up. There you go. Don't touch the stapler. We'll be good. I don't know. They didn't want to hear about Blunk the Donk or something. Yeah. Oh, finally, Deep Roots still hasn't shipped the game. So there you go. That just doesn't, Kevin Davis doesn't update that. That's just like a bullet point that remains on every of our show notes. Yeah. It's going to stay there now. Like, remember when everybody was pushing for the Ghostbusters code update for so long, and every month the update would come out from CERN and be like, we're working on Ghostbusters code. I wish they didn't work on it. I know. Well, whatever. If I never play that game again, I'm okay. Yeah.
    42:25
    So there you go. Buffalo updates. Location pinball is returning. I thought that would be something interesting to talk to you about. So we talked about during the pandemic, things definitely – things, like, totally died for you guys. But it's starting to come back a little bit now, right?
    42:42
    It is slowly. I think, like, we have games at Masuda Chow still, which Kevin's representing with his hat. I think they're only opening up their arcade like certain days of the week or something. I don't know if they've gotten full. They're still being cautious.
    42:58
    We just brought games back to CBW last week, I think. Yep, last week. And only two games right now. We're going to have a maximum of three games, which at one point in time we had a couple. Then we had like ten. Then we went back down to three. So I guess we're back down to three. So, yeah, I think, you know, we're going into a dark period of, like, location pinball tournaments. And we're going back old school to leagues in the house and maybe a house tournament here and there, something like that. I mean, those are always fun. I like doing those. And I'm okay with that. So we had a hell of a run. We did. And it took a pandemic to stop us and slow us down. But, yeah, I'm okay with that. Yeah, so we won't be doing Team League anymore because so many of the locations are just gone now. Yeah. And the joy of that was getting to go around and go to all these different locations and play different teams. So we'll keep doing our league at home.
    43:53
    Do we have at least three, maybe four hosts now? I think we picked up potentially two new ones. Nice. So that would put us at five, which is cool if Mark still wants to do it. You, me, Mark. Yeah. Plus the two more. Dean, yeah. Oh, yeah, Dean. Cool. Yeah, so we'll be in good shape for that. Mark Nagy, everybody. Yeah. I know you guys miss him. We'll have to go to his house and do a stream soon. Yeah. I miss hanging out with Mark. He's a good dude. For sure.
    44:18
    And so location pinball is slowly coming back. Nick and I were talking about what shows we should go to now that Pembroke isn't around either. So I think Pin Brew is going to be probably the one that a bunch of us go to. That was a no-brainer. That's easy to go to based on location. And it looks like a fun time. And we've heard good things from our friends that went. Yeah. Jeff and Nick went. Nick Kaiser. And they said it was a good time. So next year, definitely looking forward to that. Maybe Pintastic. Maybe, I know Nick and I are thinking about doing Indisc on the West Coast for our big tournament. Wait, let me ask you this, Gep. Adeline says, what was my reaction to the last press release from Deeper? Was there one that we didn't do? There was a press release that we didn't cover? God, yeah, I gave up. It was just more like... It's more nonsense. Yeah, like, I'm done. You're right. You filtered it. Yeah. I think that's right. Yeah. We'll have a cool down period. Unless like there's something significant. We'll, we'll have a cool down. Don't listen. This is not the end of the saga, right? Like I was just, I mean, I said before, but this deep root pinball saga would make a great documentary. I wish he was so vain that he had like a documentary start from years ago about building up a pinball company. Yeah. Cause it'd be amazing to watch. Yeah. Let's try a new event. That was a good one. Um, um, yeah. Okay. So where are we going to go? In disc. Yeah. Fantastic.
    45:37
    What else is in the area? relatively in the area. The Cleveland show. Cleveland show? The Cleveland show was good. Maybe I'll do that.
    45:49
    We're still like, you and I were talking about going to indoor concerts and stuff like that. Sort of like, I don't need to do that. Do I run back into that? Even though, I don't know. Pinball, at least you can sort of keep your distance from people. Yeah, but Pinball has so many smells So you can just imagine You know what you're breathing in from people I'll be wearing my mask That can stay as far as I'm concerned I was telling you last week when I was traveling Let's keep Wearing masks into a public bathroom Let's keep that as common practice Right? Who's willing to object to that? That's great, common practice, masks in all restrooms Sounds good to me They're not required, but perfectly acceptable to wear You're not a weirdo You're actually pretty smart. Houston Arcade Expo. Yeah, I've heard that one's cool. I know the multimorphic guys go to that. I would like to go to Texas again sometime because I watched the – I think it was the Not For Resale video game documentary, and they showed the National Video Game Museum that's right near there. That looks really cool, so I'd like to go to that, which would be a draw to go back to Texas Pinball Fest. So it would be like a two-for-one kind of thing. But I've been to Texas, so it's like lower priority. Right, we're trying to hit up other shows, so we're knowledgeable. There's the Northwest Pinball thing, right? Yeah, yeah.
    47:11
    Southern Frank Game Room Expo is supposed to be really good, too, in Atlanta. Oh, yeah, we'll go see Brian.
    47:18
    There's a couple in Florida, like Free Play Florida and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll do that. We'll try to mix it up, right? We'll try to rotate it around. Yeah, that was the one we were going to do, and then it was right when the pandemic hit. Yeah. I don't think I got my money back from that. Oh, really? I haven't tried, but I didn't get it. I forgot we even bought tickets. I don't think Clay is going to fucking give money back. Maybe we'll see. Maybe you just end up selling the ticket to somebody else probably because they always sell out.
    47:42
    Well, did they reschedule that? I'm not paying attention because it's like, well, what's going to happen? Joe Cherubino asked about the Battle of the Border. Well, I mean, what's it, the North American Battle or whatever we call it against City Pinball. Well, listen, you guys can't get your shit together up in Canada. So we're ready to go. We could do it this summer, but you guys can't get your act together. So I guess we win two years in a row. I'll take it to the trophy store and I'll put by default. I'll put 2021 default retaining champions. We win because we got vaccinated. Bubble pinball. Parentheses by default. That's right.
    48:18
    That's right. But, yeah, you got to get over 4% vaccinated, and then we'll come hang out with you guys. But in the meantime, we're going to keep going to see Blue Jays games in Buffalo because that's fun. I heard Toronto's good. I heard Toronto's like 70% vaccinated, right? You were telling me that. Right, yeah. That's a Kevin Manning stat. Joe told me that. Okay. So, yeah. Toronto is getting it together. The rest of the country. Yeah. It's a big place. You've got to send vaccines out. You've got to go to Saskatoon. A whole lot of areas. Yeah, exactly. So, that's it. You got any game room updates? I have broken games that need to be fixed, and now that I'm vaccinated. So, who wants to come over and help me fix my games? I'll pay you.
    48:56
    Looking for a pinball repair person. Yeah. So, hit me up. Buffalo, New York, pinball repair person. Come visit, Nick. Help an adult man in need. His toys are broken, and so is his spirit. Exactly.
    49:10
    I didn't really have much. I was trying to think. I don't think I – it's finally a month where I didn't have to really fix much. I didn't buy anything of significance.
    49:19
    The room's looking good. Somebody in my chat the other day was like, what pinball machine do you want that you don't have? I was like – I looked around my room. And I was like, I kind of like all my games. I can't think of one that I would rather have than what I already have. Well, you were asked if you had to get rid of one? Or is there any game that you'd really want that you don't have? And I was like, not really. It's a good place to be, right? Pretty happy with my lineup. Yeah, it's a good place to be. So you don't see yourself.
    49:45
    I'm going to have to sell something if I want to get something. I have a hard time now selling. I almost rather buy a storage place. It's weird to put games in storage. It's kind of a selfish thing. Like, why own it then? I know. But here's the thing. So prices are only going up, right? Yeah. And you want it back. I don't know. It's hard to sell games.
    50:06
    I've got to move. Oh, by the way, I'm buying that Black Knight Sword of Rage. I don't know if I said last time. So I'm buying it. It's going to be a keeper. I'm really excited, really happy about that. I've got to get in my basement. And my basement's full because we already have Countdown in the side room, kind of non-operational. So I told Matt Taylor he can borrow Harlem. Nice. He's going to be my pinball babysitter. There you go. He's a great guy. But that's where I'm at. I'm talking to Martha. Martha's the one that sells games, especially the classics. They're hard to get back and blah, blah, blah. So now I'm at that point. And it's such a headache now to even think to get a game because I'm like, how the fuck am I going to get my basement? I hate my basement. It's like all these moves have to happen. I'm just like, yeah, I don't know. I'm good. Yeah. I'm good. I had to really, really, really, really, really want a game. There's no casual, like, I'm going to buy a game, which is kind of awesome. Yeah. Like, it saves me from being wasteful with my money and stuff like that. But I'm kind of in the same boat that you are. Yeah. I mean, you go through phases of the hobby, I feel like. You first get into it, and you're like, give me anything. I just want a pinball machine. And it's like, now I want to fill up a whole room full of pinball machines, because they're awesome. Rucko says just shove it in the closet. They have a pinball in the closet. That's what they do with theirs. I love it. That's hilarious. They have to pull it out when they want to stream it. You got to do what you got to do. We all know that. You're in the hobby long enough. You know what happens. Small Town just moved and had to haul 15 pinball machines. Dude, that's the thing. Yeah. You start thinking of this. I'm like, am I going to live in this house forever? What if I move? And then you think about moving the pinball machines. And it's not that my enthusiasm is down in the hobby, but I had this limitless passion and energy. I can do anything, move any game. Oh, it's like a new game. And, you know, it's like, you know, with any kind of drug, you just need more of it. And, like, I don't know. Now it's different. And you get older, you start moving games around. This is really dumb. I need an easier house. And the JJP games, too. I got to take, like, the head off. And just talking about it, I feel my heart rate going up. I should put the monitor on. It's really stressful. So you got to be smart and strategic. But, yeah, you know, 10 years ago, it was like I've moved a lot of games in my life. I really have. I think about when I went and got those Rush the Rock racers I was like what the hell was I thinking Why do I have these, these things are ridiculous But now they're in here, it's like just leave them there Yeah, that's what happens Between the Rush the Rocks My JJPs and my P3 I'm like I'm never leaving Logan's going to have to deal with that at some point You're a headache now buddy You've inherited a Rush the Rock Sorry I sold the No Fear that you really like But you got all these other boomer machines There you go Um, there you go. That is the game we're up against. All right. Why does Game Time Television get a... It says, hi, Kevin, but no love for me. What the fuck, Game Time? Ah, Rod. That hurts. You gotta stream more. That hurts. People will love you more. You gonna bring back the Friday streams? God, if only I could get some strangers to love me in my life. That's the secret to happiness. Exactly. We need the Friday streams, Nick. Well, listen, I was telling Kev before we started streaming, I'll give back updates. There you go. It's part of the game room update. I will start streaming again. I think, I hope. I went to the back specialist or whatever. They gave me some anti-inflammation thing. I'm going to get an MRI. I'm going to go to PT. I got like a slipped disc. So I'm feeling a little better on those meds. So I think I can stream. I played pinball with Kevin. We're getting to that yesterday. And I was okay. So, yeah, we'll get back to the streaming. That should happen. So, yeah, you did great playing. We went out. So we went to the baseball game last Saturday. We were hanging there and we were like, you hadn't played Led Zeppelin and Avengers yet. I was like, we should do that for the podcast so we can talk about it. And then it got to be yesterday, end of the day, and I was like, we never did that. Why don't we go do it tonight? Yeah. So we did it. So thanks for bringing that up. Because I would have been sitting here today and be like, oh, yeah. All right.
    54:04
    So let's talk about Avengers and Led Zeppelin. This is hopefully the first of a series of catching up after COVID with all the pinball machines. Catching up after COVID. We didn't get to play. Two of them are Avengers and Led Zeppelin. Those are two available locally for us to play on location. We went out and played those. First game we played was Led Zeppelin. We went to a stinky old pizzeria. It was terrible. Man, it was just like, like Kevin said, stinky pizzeria. There's like smoke in the air. Our eyes were literally burning. And it was a hot day in Buffalo, and they had like clearly no fans or AC. So I don't know if we incurred some permanent damage. This is what we go through for you guys to bring you guys the content. So you better appreciate it. It was a miserable experience. Not only was the environment miserable, so was the pinball machine. Yeah, thanks for picking that up. Thank you. I was going to say the environment was also miserable.
    55:02
    Yeah, we played Les Edelman. So, Nick, I have to say, you were pretty positive on this game when it was announced. You're like, it's a Steve Ritchie game. It's going to be great. Did it live up to your expectations? I don't think I said that. I wasn't overtly negative like everybody else. I was sort of like the this could be fun category. So not super positive. But everyone was shitting on it. And sometimes when you have an extreme one-sided opinion, I like to say, okay, let's play devil's advocate.
    55:33
    Steve Ritchie historically has put out games where every time his games are shown, they're kind of a bare play field. There's usually no toy. it's a recycled layout in many ways and yet the games end up being really fun to shoot and play people love them, ACDC huge seller for Stern Game of Thrones, again big seller, did very well, Star Wars I hate the game but I'm sure it sold well, a lot of people love Star Wars what am I missing? Game of Thrones, Black Knight oh, Star Trek again, Star Trek, people shit all over it nothing in the game right it's fun game to shoot okay yep so i i was pointing out kind of that that counter argument that look this could be fun it's a music pin blah blah blah um so i went in there with i think reasonable expectations okay not like this is going to be terrible not this is going to be great but this this steve richie game it could be fun okay um and i think the game is pretty terrible now let me put some caveats uh the environment we're playing in wasn't great. The game was dirty. It wasn't set by to the right pitch. It was more floaty. It was floaty and flat, although it wasn't like it was too high so you couldn't hit shots. Usually, it's more okay to be floaty. It wasn't super slow, but it wasn't right. Other than that, everything on the game worked. Here's my thing with playing the game. It just wasn't And fun.
    57:06
    And I think in my mind when I looked at this layout, it's like, oh, it's going to be fast. It's going to be Steve Ritchie. It's going to have a nice flow. But the shots are pretty tight on that game. And when I think you're making this rock rhythm game, I think you wanted to be this fast game that flows. And you get into the rhythm, literally. You're going along with the music, kind of lose yourself in this game. I could not hit shots to save my life. I was just struggling. It was just like bricking things. Remember that video that somebody posted on Facebook, like making fun of Led Zeppelin, where it was just like this blank play field and the ball would go to the end and come back? I'm not kidding. It felt like that. Like the shots are so far back. And again, usually like open play field shots far back are fun. I would hit a shot and it might rattle around on like a ramp and then come back down. It wasn't because it was steep. I don't know, man. It's just like you really got to be precise with your shots. So forget sort of getting into a rhythm and flow. It was very rare that I got into a rhythm and flow of it. I just felt like bricking shots all over. Look, I'm a good player, and I know that. And after probably playing, we probably played like eight games. Yeah, we played an hour. Yeah. I wasn't hitting them any better. Everything just felt like kind of a clunk fest.
    58:23
    You know, and I give a caveat about it not being perfectly pitched right, but I don't think changing the pitch would have fixed that. and I also don't think that the addition of the thing that comes up from the center would even remotely save the game. I don't think it's going to make it worse, but there's inherent problems with that game. I was just really surprised by it. It should have been easier to get into a groove, like you can on ACDC, where you're just flying around hitting ramps, and you're bobbing your head and just getting lost in it.
    58:52
    Really weird. Really weird tightness to the shots. I don't know, man. This game needed that, right, because the art's not great. It's only got 10 songs. Nothing seemed impressive in the rules. Now, granted, I didn't overly analyze the rules, so put an asterisk there. It didn't have any moments either in the game, right? No. And the pro, like, why not have, when you hit the Zeppelin, a stand-up thing to lock it, right? Why not hold it so at least you pause it for a second or something? I'm just going off, Kevin. Do it. And then the other weird choice is you pick a song, the song just plays through the end, and then another song comes on. And again, the song and music is not incorporated into the game whatsoever. Yeah, you pick a song and it changes some lit shots on it, but it's just a very basic, like, it seems, I'm sorry to insult the team, I feel like a dick when I say this, but it just comes off as like, no effort is put into this. It's just not a good game. Now, if I had it in my collection, I spent more time with it, maybe I would see the light, and maybe it's one of those games, it's like, Nick, listen, listen, listen. You play it more, you fall in love and like it, but I don't know. It did not leave a good impression, and I wanted this game to be fun and good, and I wanted to say to everybody, see, Steve Ritchie strikes again.
    60:14
    I don't know what happened with this game, but it's not good from the eight games I played, and it's kind of a joke when you think about Led Zeppelin. I mean, I'm sorry, Guns N' Roses. I mean, granted, you know, these Guns N' Roses is more. It's always going to be more with Jersey Jack. I get that. But usually where Stern can win, a point in their column is being fast and fun and fun to shoot, right? And it failed miserably, I think. I don't know. Am I crazy, Chad? I have not looked at reviews. I have not looked at any discussion of this game at all. So I have just kind of come in and cleaned to it and being very disappointed Yeah well I don see a lot of people talking about it so i don think it sold a lot um for whatever reason uh i just think in general it's just kind of like it it had bad timing too because it came out after gnr had this amazing reveal and everybody was like i'm buying that and then they're like here's another rock theme with half the songs and people are asking this is the pro model i thought i made that clear i didn't play the premium or le but this is the pro model so it didn't have the thing that came up. Yeah, we played the... And again, I can't see in my mind how that would save the fundamental problems that I saw in that game. Yeah. So it's weird, like, the... I said this to Nick yesterday. They took four shots and jammed them on the left, and then there's, like, just a big wide-open area on the right. It's so weird. And the shots on the left are all very tight. Well, I see three shots. So you've got, like, the Star Trek lock shot. Then you have the orbit, and then you have this really tight lock ramp, and, like... I was including the center-right. You include the side one. Okay. The center-right and then the side one if you want to include five. Like, it's really hard to say this is a flow game because the shots are really tight.
    61:57
    So a lot of just bricking going on. A lot of kind of ball goes back up, bricks, rattles around, comes back down, and you're like, okay. Or you just hit post. And people are saying maybe it wasn't set up right. And that's true. I don't think the pitch was anything crazy. I'm sorry. I don't think the side-to-side was anything crazy. It seemed fine enough. like a little more floaty pitch. Yeah, maybe, but I should have been able to hit the ramp shots easy. If anything, a floaty pitch makes the game faster sometimes, and hitting the ramps are even easier, right? Right. It's just not the case here. Yeah, the upper flipper shot to the dead end does nothing for me. It's so very obvious that, like, oh, there should be a ramp here, but there's not because we took it out from the LE. The only flow was the center ramp shot. Yeah. And it was kind of cool how it kind of goes, I think, behind the thing and comes out. So, okay. It's a neat shot. It was very reminiscent of Avengers, actually. Yeah, that was the only shot where I was like, this is not a bad shot and it's fun to hit. Yeah.
    62:52
    And the other thing is it's got a plunge like Star Wars. So sometimes you'll plunge and it'll just go right to the out lane.
    62:58
    Yeah, another kind of annoying plunge. You know. Nobody likes that. It's better than Star Wars, for sure. Because it's further back. It's further back, yeah. And it doesn't angle it right towards. But most of the time, if you did it and it went out, it would go out on the right side. Yeah, I think this game just seems to have, like, nothing going for it. It's kind of sad. The best part of it is the music. Like, the music's good. I was, like, singing along to some of the songs. Like, this is cool. Led Zeppelin songs are fun. You have a game that has ten songs, and it's just not cool at this point. Right, yeah.
    63:29
    Yeah, so there's – I got nothing else to say about Zeppelin. I played it – so I've played it twice now. I went out with Nick Kaiser and played it. and after a couple games I was like, that's enough Led Zeppelin. And then after we played a couple games I was like, that's enough Led Zeppelin. It doesn't leave you wanting more. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll give a proper review. This is just impressions. We haven't really delved into it. Maybe I'll see the light. Maybe there's code. I don't know. Maybe something. Maybe I'll just get some real time to spend. I'm never going to go back to that pizza place again because I don't know if I have cancer now. I have no idea. We're going to get glaucoma or something from all the smoking eyes. Yeah, it's just like a cool jukebox with flippers on it. It's very much your bog-standard Stern. It's like, here's the modes, here's the multiballs. Apparently there's some ridiculous multipliers in there that you can get up to like 3400x or something like that. It seems like they did the bare minimum of that game. That's what it felt like. I hate saying that. That's what it felt like. There's the impression and feeling of the game, and that's it. There's nothing outstanding about it. And then we went to Pulp 716, where Nick Kaiser owns the Avengers there, and it's like a breath of fresh air. You see what I did there, Kevin? You did it. Both the game and the place.
    64:44
    That's like Pulp 716 is like a comic book store, and they have bubble tea, so it's pretty cool. And just walking in and walking up to Avengers, I'm like, wow, this game looks great. The art's popping on the cabinet. The cabinet looks awesome. He does a good job of maintaining the game. Art looks really good. I mean, obviously I've seen pictures of the Avengers. I saw a little bit of streams, not much, you know, maybe like five minutes worth. The game looks really good in person. Like any pictures or camera overview, camera head, does not even remotely do justice to how good this game looks. I was really impressed by that, first and foremost. What do you think? Yeah, and just looking at it from the top of the play field is like, I want to shoot all of these shots. It looks really cool. Yes, exactly. I want to see where this goes, how I can combo these shots. Look at this shot. Where does this go? I haven't seen it. Like, wow. And then we were playing for a while. I'm like, oh, my God, there's this shot here. I didn't even see that before. And then it's like the little sneaky shot up the middle, and you can get the Hawkeye combo ramps going. It was the pro model. And, again, I'm glad you asked what model because I'm like, God damn, this looks like the LE model. compared to Led Zeppelin. I'm like, this is the pro? Oh, wow. Oh, my God. Okay. They had a bill of materials for this one. What did they give Steve Ritchie a fourth of the budget? It was like, good luck. I don't understand. We spent all the money on the music. You got nothing left. Yeah. It's really bizarre, man. They're just radically different games. Yeah. So it's funny, too, because they're not, what, probably not even a year apart in release, and the difference is outstanding. And so, you know, art's great. Music and callouts is probably the weak point of this game, right? It's like the callouts are weak. Unimpressive. Yeah. Totally forgettable. Like I wasn't – so I wasn't really paying a ton of attention to like from a review perspective. But it's nice when you don't because you're like, okay, what do I remember from that?
    66:43
    Not really distinct. Like none of the characters sound distinct. Did you hear any of the bad guys have voices or anything like that? His voice is cool, I feel like. He's like, oh, I'm angry. Sure, yeah, that's cool. And then he got a jackpot call. He's just like, jackpot. Yeah, it wasn't bad like X-Men was, but did any of the bad guys were antagonistic? I can't even remember. He had Thanos in there when he would take the gems. He'd say some stuff, but it's not like Black Knight where he's taunting the crap out of you. That's what you want from a big bad guy. That's a missed opportunity, dude. I mean, the superhero theme and, like, the voices and being antagonistic, this is a fail, I think, in the sound department on this game. It's just, like, I feel like it just barely crosses the line where you're not like it's bad, but you're just like, all right, well, I guess you check the box. You have some generic superhero music.
    67:38
    You know, I don't know what to expect, but it's not great. The voices are just like, okay, they're not X-Men terrible. but you know in playing black knight when you have a villain you're fighting something it's like black knight sort of rage is how you make a game where you're fighting somebody like you're fighting a bad guy or bad guys yeah and i don't know it's just it's just very bland yeah i wonder if anybody's done a replacement sound package on that like folks did for jurassic park so um uh what else uh the rules so i think you and i were both like like the rules are not very approachable there's not i guess the the tower is probably the obvious thing to do like the easy multi-ball that and the thor multi-ball bash the bash the captive ball to start a multi-ball but starting modes was not overly um obvious yeah it's not an intuitive game you know non-intuitive game yeah but playing it like you start to figure it out and you can tell there's a lot there and it's going to keep you interested in the long run in your house right so there's like we didn't even get into all the there's the the drop targets on the left and there's all these rules integrated with that um you know the the quests the gem quests are not easy so you know it's not just like hit four shots and you're done like there's a lot to do you can get into stacking multi balls into those if you understand what stacking multi balls and modes are you can do that um so like i was like oh this thor multiballs right here why don't i uh do that with one of my gem quests and that'll help me progress through the gem quest so um and there's like little stuff like the hawkeye like shot when you lock the shot oh my god that like blew my mind yeah it's like it releases it you gotta fire it off to try to nail it yeah the hawkeye shot so i didn't know this was in the game um you you hit this like lock shot and it's like a little tower and the ball holds it with a magnet and then it like has almost like a countdown releases it super fast, and you've got to hit it with the thing. I couldn't do it. But I was like, my God, what night and day between these games. You've got this phoned-in Led Zeppelin, and then you have Keith actually busting his ass and thinking, okay, how can I make a unique pinball machine? This is Keith's best design, and I'm blown away by what he's doing. It shoots great. All the shots I hit felt fantastic. I was discovering new shots. I don't know how he packed it all in the play field. I can't say enough. It's so refreshing that he's in the hobby doing what he's doing, and Eric Minier. These guys are a much-needed injection of new talent into pinball, and thank God. Because the two games I'm thinking about getting now, it's like, okay, I think maybe I need Adventure's Infinity Quest at one point. I honestly kind of hate the superhero themes. It doesn't do anything for me. It's almost a negative at this point. Deadpool's cool.
    70:22
    And then Guns N' Roses. you know and i didn't talk about guns and roses from playing it on on the stream but i had a lot of fun people asked me about that i think it's a great game so those are the two games i kind of want now but these are again these these these designers are crushing it and i also never got into jurassic park yeah um even the first time i played it i was like i can look at it and analytically and and like oh these shots are cool they're unique but like i never had a lot of fun i don't know why i i just didn't get excited or that much into it anytime i've ever played it from the first time i played it to the last time i played played at your house but avengers affinity quest just love from the first flip and i'm you know thinking today woke up today i was like i want to play more of that game i really want to dive in and understand what's going on here um other than the theme and the we call it to music which is too bad i i just keith fucking crushed it man thank god dude thank you so much thank you so much i hope i hope these games sell out a lot so people stop fucking phoning it in and being safe like i i don't know what his design philosophy is, but I appreciate all the work that he's done because, you know, you look at some of these games getting released over the last 10 years, and it's just like, are these all the pinball designs? There are only like four pinball design layouts, and that's it? And they're like, no, look, we can still do a new pinball design. There's still more things to come, which is awesome. Yeah. I remember, I don't know, it must have been like when I first got into the hobby, there was a discussion. I forgot what game came out, and there was, oh, it's a fan layout. Well, there's only so many shots you can put on a pinball machine, right? And when you think about pinball, you're like, yeah, that's true. You've got two flippers, and they kind of go. You can only put it so many places. But then you look at something like Avengers, it's like, this is a freaking roller coaster on a pinball machine. There's, like, all these shots, all these wire forms. Which you should. It's a superhero thing, so a lot of elevated things, right? Yep, yep. And the turnarounds from, like, the ramp shots were so cool, man. It's like magic, like you said. It's like a roller coaster. Like, talk about just thinking, like, what can I do, right? What can I do differently? And that's on a ramp that you could just combo all over, either from the upper flip or the lower ones. Oh, my God. That was so cool, man. Yeah, yeah. You just think about it. Like, that's awesome. I want to do that again. And we didn't even play the premium, which has, like, the straight-up shot that goes up and around. Holy shit. It's crazy. I was just blown away. And it's kind of funny that we played Led Zeppelin first and then played that. I'm glad we ended on that note. I guess maybe any game is impressive after Led Zeppelin, but I think that I'm legit impressed with that game. Chris the Pinter, probably because I'm shitting on themes left and right, asked what my dream themes are. I'll give a couple. Do it. So I would love to – this theme's been done. I want to see Jersey Jack do Indiana Jones. We need a – just like the last movie, the Stearns-Indiana Jones is garbage, right? So we can't really count it. So, you know, the Williams-Indiana Jones from 93, fantastic game, but we need one for this century, especially with a new movie coming out. You know, it's the kind of thing where they can make an epic game like Pirates was, I'd love to see. Only Jersey Jack do it. Don't fucking touch it, Stern. You fucked up. You lost your right. Let Jersey Jack make it. Okay? Please make it. That is a no-brainer theme. That is a classic no-brainer. Jersey Jack, you guys like the themes. You've got to save it. You've got to do it. You've got to do it right. We need it. We deserve it. Okay? Like, I didn't like Star Wars as a kid. Indiana Jones is my guy. All right? I want that. Okay? Let's do that. So number one dream theme. I'll also take a curb of your enthusiasm for the humor theme. I would love a Curb Your Enthusiasm for humor. Yeah, see Larry David's bald head all over that goddamn game. Best cabinet art ever.
    73:53
    Would play. Yeah. That's it? Well, those are the easy to come up. Top of the mind. But Indiana Jones, number one, a new one. Only a Jersey Jack does it. Don't fucking touch it, anybody else. You're not touching it. Don't ruin this for us. Hands off. Make goonies. Everybody else. Make goonies. Yeah. All right, Nick. I think it's about taco time. Did we say enough about the two games? I think we did. I think we covered the bases for first impressions. I think we did a good job. So we got topper talk and then taco time. Taco time is for us. We got all the alliteration for you guys.
    74:25
    Before we go, be sure to follow us on social media. It's at the bottom of your screen down there. If you're listening, it's Buffalo Pinball on Twitter, Instagram. We've got a group on Facebook. We're on YouTube if you want to watch past broadcasts of this show and our live streams. And I put up one thing I didn't talk about. I was going to be talking about P3 earlier. I did a in-depth look at the P3 video Because inevitably anytime I stream that game People are like, what is this? How does it work? How does a game possibly have 15 balls in it Do 15 ball multi-balls And I always talk about it But showing it is so much better than just talking about it I got to play that game by the way We'll play it after this So check that out on our YouTube channel The P3 in-depth look You can email us TalkPainball at gmail.com Appreciate any subscriptions you want to throw our way on Twitch. If you've got Amazon Prime, you get a free one. You can use that to support the show. We also have a PayPal. It's buffalopinball at gmail.com. Don't be stingy. There you go. Also, some people were nice, and they reached out when I was talking on my back and shared that they had problems. It's funny. Everybody had a different solution that ended up working for them, but it seemed like they had to go through a lot of rigmarole. That's nice of you guys. Thank you. You've got a good audience. I like that you worked rigmarole into the podcast, though, too. That's good. Yep. If you want another way you can support the stream. Oh, my God. Look at that. Boom. Freedom with the supplements. Thank you. Appreciate that.
    75:50
    If you want to just show your support in another way, you can review us on your favorite podcatcher of choice. Leave us a five-star review. We really appreciate it.
    75:59
    Until next month, we've been in person. This has been good to get the in-person gang back together. Amen. We've got another bro show coming up next Saturday. We're going to play Rick and Morty at our friend James' house. God bless him. He's our benefactor, basically. He is. So until next time, have a good month, and we'll see you then. All right. Bye.
    76:23
    It's Topper Talk with Goran right now. Let's all have some fun. This is about plastic on top of your pin. Go and buy one now. There's a topper here and a topper there. Here a topper, there a topper, everywhere a topper. It's critical to the gameplay experience. You must buy one now. It's your monthly fill of toppers right now. Topper Talk with Gorin.
    76:50
    Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Topper Talk with Gorin, the part of the podcast where Kevin and Nick give me about three to five minutes to talk about everything happening in the very active and profitable topper community. Now, today we'll be talking about the official and unofficial toppers that are currently available for Guns N' Roses by Jersey Jack Pinball. So let's head into the other room and talk about that now.
    77:13
    Okay, so here we are over at the computer, and we're going to take a deep dive into all the official and unofficial toppers that are currently available for Jersey Jack's Guns N' Roses pinball. So I want to first start off with the included topper with the collector's edition version of Guns N' Roses. And now this is the collector's edition is the only edition that includes a topper. It's pretty simple, but it's neat looking. If we zoom in here, we got a piece of, I believe, cut plexiglass that is lit, nothing too crazy, but it's lit, with a soundbar behind it. And, you know, I think the most attractive feature here is the soundbar getting that extra sound boost. Although I will say that the Jersey Jack speakers are so good, it probably doesn't need this extra soundbar boost. And other people have been modding soundbars and using Bluetooth and I believe even some of the existing wiring to add their own soundbars. So it's not that unique of a topper like the ship-in-the-bottle topper for Eric's first game, Pirates of the Caribbean, but it's a nice-looking topper that goes with the artwork. So let's now move on to some unofficial toppers here that may be for sale at some point. So first I want to point out Brian Allen from Flyland Designs, as well as some other people are working on their own Guns N' Roses topper from Pinball Bazaar.
    78:27
    It clearly has some electronics involved. There's not much revealed from this actual image, but I'm excited to see what they come up with. I'm always a big fan of Brian Allen's art. In fact, he created my favorite mascot, Gritty.
    78:41
    Coming up next is Lior from The Art of Pinball. He has been working on this very nice hand-sculpted painted topper, and I imagine we'll see more soon. But it's a fully sculpted painted topper that apparently has its own computer that comes with it. It looks like we have some LEDs on the guitar here. the only issue that I see is it's probably going to cost a lot of money. And to some people it's going to be worth it, and I'm sure, and Lior's time and art is worth it, but it is going to be a barrier to entry to some people. There's not an official price for Least, but I just imagine from hearing what's included and the tech involved behind it, it's probably going to be at least one to two grand.
    79:22
    Moving on next, here was an interesting thing that I found in the Guns N' Roses pinball group on Facebook. someone has this topper that seems to have the motion activated or the motion spotlights as well as RGBs that sync with the game. And the thing that I found interesting was that someone in the comments said contact Pinball Sales Australia for more info. And Pinball Sales in the U.S. is actually owned by Jack Granieri, so it'll be interesting to see if this is something that's officially released by Jersey Jack or what the deal is with it. You know, the motors are a bit loud when you listen to the sound. The lights are blinding. I'm always a big fan of lights and the hot rails, though, so I think it'll be neat and cool. If it's ever released for sale, the price point will definitely be the most important thing here. Now, finally, Jersey Jack has announced that they are going to put out a topper for sale for the other versions of Guns N' Roses that did not come with the topper. if we look at the silhouette here it looks very close but not exact to the collector's edition version it looks like though it's just going to be a soundbar with another piece of cut plastic and something close to the guns and roses logo that's seen back here but actually pointed out by good authority in the buffalo pinball discord it was pointed out that this could very well be a shrek topper so tune into a future episode of topper talk to find out a bit more about this topper once it's announced. Let's head back out to the arcade. Thank you all so much for tuning into this week's Topper Talk with Goran. Tune into the next podcast for another episode. And as always, get out there, buy a topper. Thank you so much for coming to my Topper Talk.