#41 - What Was My Pinball Industry Awards Ballot?

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·31m 30s·analyzed·Feb 2, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Host reviews personal pinball industry awards ballot, prioritizes layout/code over sound/lights.

Summary

The host of A Pinball Podcast walks through their personal ballot for the pinball industry awards, explaining their methodology and reasoning for each category vote. They emphasize taking the voting seriously over a 5-day period, attempting to remain unbiased while evaluating machines across art, layout, code, theme, toys, and other criteria. The host ultimately voted for Avengers Infinity Quest as Best in Show over Guns N' Roses, weighing layout and code more heavily than sound and lights in their personal priority ranking.

Key Claims

Avengers Infinity Quest has over 20 characters on the playfield with comic book fonts matching each character's original comics
high confidence · Host's detailed analysis of Avengers artwork and design elements
Guns N' Roses light show synchronization represents 'concert in a box' and is a must-play experience in person, far superior to YouTube
high confidence · Host's firsthand experience and emphasis on in-person quality
Rick and Morty animation uses vector-based puppet show technique with approximately 50 artists and animators, and has won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program
high confidence · Host cites research from Rick and Morty creators' behind-the-scenes video
Stranger Things UV kit is the first pinball machine to successfully create a 'completely different game' experience when entering the upside down mode
medium confidence · Host's personal assessment and emphasis on uniqueness of the feature
The host's priority ranking for evaluating pinball machines is: Layout > Code/Rules > Theme > Toys > Sound > Lights > Call-outs > Animation/Display
high confidence · Host explicitly states this ranking was established at the beginning of their voting process

Notable Quotes

“even the things that I am critical of, I am very respectful...I highly respect what it is that you guys do, because I recognize this is totally the way that 2020 went...the bottom line is all these machines, regardless of where they're from, they are fun.”
Host @ Opening section — Shows host's respectful approach to manufacturers despite being critical; frames 2020-2021 context for hobby appreciation
“Seeing Thanos sit on the throne, right? Seeing him do that with a fully powered gauntlet and his conquered foes or the skulls are making up part of the throne visually in person, that has to be my favorite back glass and trans light of all time.”
Host @ Best Art - Cabinet/Backglass section — Explains visual design decision that nearly won Best Art category; highlights importance of in-person experience
“YouTube really does not do it justice [Guns N' Roses lighting effects]. They've done something outstanding with that pen.”
Host @ Best Lighting Effects section — Emphasizes experiential quality of Guns N' Roses that translates poorly to video media
“If it would have said best original pinball music, I would have voted for Rick and Morty hands down. But because of the category saying best music, it had to be Guns N' Roses.”
Host @ Best Music section — Shows how category wording influenced voting; predicts future category refinement
“I think that that is the biggest miss overall at these awards, not voting for Rick and Morty for best animation, display, and effects.”
Host @ Best Animation, Display, and Effects section — Host expresses strong disagreement with awards outcome; indicates animation as most important subcomponent of category
“layout and code trump sound and lights for me...my priority is layout and code. That's what I look at first in a pinball machine, and that's what draws me in personally.”
Host @ Best in Show justification section — Core philosophy explaining why Avengers was voted over Guns N' Roses for Best in Show
“If I can look at a pin, even if it's turned off, and I know the layout looks solid, even looking at pictures, I'll know if I like that layout or not. I don't even have to see it flipped.”

Entities

Avengers Infinity Questgame Guns N' Rosesgame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame Rick and Mortygame Stranger Thingsgame Heistgame Keith Elwinperson

Signals

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community_signal: Host invested significant research effort in award voting (5 days, took notes, watched videos, studied photos, sought unbiased expert opinions on rule sets) suggesting awards process taken seriously by content creators and community
high · Host states 'I took this very seriously' and spent 'solid two straight days debating back and forth' on Best in Show; notes process involved watching videos, listening to interviews, pouring over photos, and getting informed opinions from multiple sources
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sentiment_shift: Host perceives significant category definition ambiguity in awards voting system, predicts 'Best Music' category will need refinement to 'Best Original Pinball Music' to prevent licensed music games from dominating
high · Host argues category wording 'best music' vs 'best original pinball music' fundamentally changed voting; predicts future Guns N' Roses vs Led Zeppelin competition scenarios and inevitable category refinement
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design_philosophy: Avengers Infinity Quest demonstrates advanced code/rules integration where gem placement and mode sequencing create strategic depth allowing multiple viable playstyles (grid stacking, mode hunting, 'world breaker' spinner strategy) rather than linear forced progression
high · Host describes multiple independent strategies including 'grid stacking multiball', mode hunting, and custom 'world breaker strategy' of spinning hulk spinner for gamma spins; emphasizes player agency: 'you're not locked into anything you can pivot at any time'
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design_philosophy: Host's personal evaluation priority reveals that playfield layout and code/rules are weighted significantly higher than audio-visual elements (sound/lights) - suggests segment of enthusiast community prioritizes mechanical/logical design over sensory spectacle
high · Host explicitly ranks layout #1 and code #2, while sound is #5 and lights #6; uses this ranking to justify Avengers over Guns N' Roses despite acknowledging GNR's superior sound/lights

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.095

0:00

All right, welcome back, guys, to another episode of A Pinball Podcast. Thank you guys so much once again for being here. I really do appreciate it. I know I always say that, but I really do. Thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day. Now, this is episode 41, and we are going to be talking about the pinball industry awards, but I'm not just going to talk about the awards in general. I'm going to go over my personal ballot today. So if you're watching this or if you're listening to this on a podcatcher, if you go over to YouTube, you'll actually see me going through my ballot. If you're on YouTube right now, that's what you're about to see right here. We'll get down to the nitty gritty on all this. I'm not going to necessarily go out of my way to justify everything of why, but I'll explain what my methodology was of how I came to my picks. So I guess technically that would be like justifying. I don't know, but I stand by all my picks that I did. And, you know, overall, I really did enjoy the show. I'll probably make another video discussing the aspects of it and everything about that. So we'll save that for the next time. I do want to say, and I do want to recognize that I am, and I want to, anybody that's out there that's from a manufacturer that's out there right now, if you're a designer, if you're a coder, if you're one of the artists, one of the line workers, whoever you could be, because I know I talked to a few of you guys and gals out there that are part of that. I really do want to tell you guys that I appreciate everything that you do for this industry. And I know even on this channel, I could come off critical on some things, but the main thing is, is even the things that I am critical of, I am very respectful or not very respectful. I'm going to say I highly respect what it is that you guys do, because I recognize this is totally the way that 2020 went. I'm so blessed to be here in 2021 and be able to be in a spot in my life with my family to where we can purchase a pinball machine, bring it into our home, play it and decide whether we like it or not. I can upload stuff to YouTube and tell you guys what I like, what I don't like about it. But the bottom line is all these machines, regardless of where they're from, they are fun. That is the bottom line. And I really do want to say, I appreciate everybody out there that is putting in their blood, sweat, and tears into this and their hard work. I know it's not easy, especially when you see people that are out here either on message boards that could be critical, could be tearing something down. Everybody has their opinions, But overall, I think it is great where the hobby's going. I am glad to see all these manufacturers starting to produce pens at a higher rate. I'm glad to see what American Pinball is going towards. I'm happy to see where Jersey Jack is going to. I'm happy to see where Stern's going to. And again, all the others too, Spooky doing excellent. And hopefully Deep Root can get their stuff together and they can start getting out pens as well. But without further ado, let's go ahead and get into this. Let me switch over. And as you guys can see, let me make sure this is right. Okay, this is right. So as you guys can see, I did start my ballot on Thursday, December 31st, and I didn't finish it until January 4th on a Monday. Now, the reason for that is I took this very seriously. I did. I didn't want to rush any of my judgments or any of my picks. I the way that I operated with this is I took notes on everything. I watched videos. I listened to interviews. I poured over photos. If I had the machine here, I definitely looked over it and I played them for a little while, just kind of going back and forth. And I wanted to basically give every game out there a fair shake. And I wanted to make sure that I was going into this as unbiased as possible, because I know a lot of people obviously are going to have their biases and I can't speak for everybody. I can just tell you guys that I tried to go in the best I could, being unbiased, and hopefully that you guys seeing how long this actually took me just to fill out this ballot, that'll kind of show you that I did give everything an honest look, and I didn't just fill it out real quick and just say, okay, I'm completely done. That's that. It's just guessing. I tried to make the most informed decision that I could with the information that I had in front of me. so without further ado once again let's get right into it looking at the best art as you can tell on cabinet and back glass i did vote avengers infinity quest now on this obviously teenage mutant ninja turtles won and i was very torn in this category and to be honest with you guys i like the cabinet better on ninja turtles but i absolutely loved the back glass on avengers Infinity Quest. I mean, seeing Thanos sit on the throne, right? Seeing him do that with a fully powered gauntlet and his conquered foes or the skulls are making up part of the throne visually in person, that has to be my favorite back glass and trans light of all time. And because of that, my decision weighted heavily towards Avengers. Now, again, I nearly still went with Teenage me at Ninja Turtles because their cabinet is very strong. I prefer the cabinet for Ninja Turtles. And on that cabinet, the front part, it depicts the turtles wearing their disguise, which is really cool. The right side, it shows the turtles and April in the pizza van. And I believe on the left side, it's where they depict Dimension X all the way up and down the cabinet. And I like that there was two different focal points for the way that Zombie Yeti went towards. Whereas with Avengers, it's the same thing on both sides. So I took some points off for that, but overall on Avengers, I like the color scheme and usually I don't like yellow, but it actually went pretty well together. But again, points were taken off for that just because it was the same, the same visual on both sides, whereas Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had differences in them. And I could really appreciate that. So again, if there was a separate category for cabinet, I would have voted Ninja Turtles, but cabinet and back glass, they kind of go together. So there you go right there. Next thing we got here is Best Art. So on Best Art, I voted for Avengers once again. And again, reasons for this. Now, Ninja Turtles did win on this, but just speaking about Avengers, for me, this ended up being a no-brainer. It really wasn't close for my vote. And the reasons for this is because Avengers, it has over 20 characters actually on that play field. And one thing I really appreciated about this artwork as well is that comic book font was used for specifically for each character. And if you look at their comics or if you're aware of how their comics are, you'll notice that those fonts really do match up according to each character. So I thought that was a nice little touch on it. and there's all these little details on it too that if you really sit there and look at them all, I still find stuff today that's very, I mean, it just looks great. If you look at the left-hand side on the grid, you'll notice you'll have Bruce Banner there, but then when you go to the spinner, you'll notice that Bruce Banner eventually becomes Hulk. I like that touch, and I like the touch that the disc is basically representing the portal, and you can tell in the play field that it has some artwork around that disc that's kind of showing that, But at the same time, they have an area to where they're depicting where the sanctum is. Because on the play field itself, they're showing traffic. They're showing that there's buildings around. And what's really cool about it, if you look closely leading up to the Avengers Tower, you'll notice that not only is that street leading to the Avengers Tower, but you'll see that there's broken concrete and the cars are kind of wrecked on both sides, indicating that a battle has taken place. and that little touch right there that little detail it could easily be missed by somebody that just playing the game but if you have an Avengers look in that area and you see some little cool details with that And then I liked how Captain America was throwing his shield through the pops And Wakanda, of course, on the right orbit, that was depicted. And then Pym Tech was shown too around that little scoop or eject, whatever you want to call it. That was the mystery shot for the limited edition. So those are the reasons why I chose that for best art on the play field. But again, Ninja Turtles ended up winning that. You can't go wrong either way. Obviously, Zombie Yeti's going to win because he did both. But I really do think Avengers should have taken that. So let's see here. The next one was best lighting effects. Guns N' Roses, I don't think I need to go into any more detail than that. If you guys have played Guns N' Roses, you know exactly what it's bringing to the table. Even if you've watched it on YouTube, you get an idea. But I'll tell you what, if you haven't played it in person, YouTube really does not do it justice. They've done something outstanding with that pen. And I believe, what was the nominees for best lighting effects? I think the other one happened to be Stranger Things, I'm pretty sure. Let me find it on, yep, Stranger Things. So, Stranger Things, I personally do like the lighting effects on there. Now, of course, it's not on the level of Guns N' Roses, but having it upside down is pretty cool. but the other one that i think has really come through especially with the latest code update if you guys again haven't played avengers on the newest code their lighting effects are nuts for stern pinball machine it's really really cool and i highly recommend doing that but sticking to the podcast at hand because i know i'm getting a little off beat there guns and roses best lighting effects hands down that's why i chose and that's who ended up winning best theme integration i ended up going with Guns N' Roses on this, and Guns N' Roses did win, and I believe the nominees for that was Rick and Morty and Stranger Things. I actually didn't really consider Stranger Things too much. I do have some time on it, but they were fourth place overall in my vote, and Guns N' Roses, Rick and Morty, and Avengers, I was going back and forth on there. Avengers, the main reason why I was considering them for theme integration is because of the code. The code actually makes up a lot of the overall theme integration when you're talking about moving around the power gems, capturing the gems, and that actually ties directly into power ups that you're getting within the game that can help you along in the progressing through the game. And something like that is very unique to me when you can tie in the theme and the code that well. And I feel like without seeing Avengers nominated, I don't, I'm not too sure that a lot of people are thinking in terms of that. Whereas Rick and Morty, they do the same thing, essentially. When you go to different dimensions and it changes the way that the gameplay is, they tied that in nicely to the code overall, and I imagine that that's one of the main reasons why they did get nominated. So to me, that's kind of the same thing and kind of the same way that these two pins are working. I was happy to see that they were nominated, but overall with Guns N' Roses, when you look at everything, you look at the music that comes together with the lights, you look at the bandstick, I mean, you look at the guitar, there is plenty of theme integration in there, whether it's through the way that the hardware is. I'm not so sure software-wise with the code outside of the concert in the box when I'm talking just rule set. Obviously, I'm not too sure what the theme integration would be on there, but the code in terms of light show and how it synchronizes together. Again, concert in a box, that's theme integration to me, and that's ultimately why it ended up winning out. Best toys, I went with Heist from Multimorphic, and I thought it was hands down the best thing that's out in pinball right now. Now, obviously, not too many people have been able to experience it. I personally have not gotten to play this, but I am familiar with P3 as I have gotten to play on that platform before at tournaments and on location down in Texas but I did watch a lot of video on heists and I believe it was Buffalo Pinball showed it so if you guys want to check it out you guys can go over to their channel and they have a video up there somewhere I'm pretty sure it's Buffalo Pinball and I watched plenty of video on it and I really did like how the crane was I liked just the the different just the way that everything moved. It's hard to explain unless you actually see this for yourself. And it's something that if you guys are sleeping on it and you're not well aware of it or you're not aware of it at all, I recommend that you at least check it out and you'll get an idea of why this won Best Toy. And it did, if I haven't said it already, it did win Best Toy. So that's one of the ones, I think the only thing I voted on so far that hasn't won is just the art out of all things. And again, that's why I'm terrible at art, apparently. All right. Best innovation.

13:00

I voted for Guns and Roses. I believe who were the nominees for this? Of course, my notes are all over the place. And somehow I don't even have the notes in there. So I'm going to hope that Guns and Roses won on this because now I'm not even sure. For some reason, I skipped over that in my show notes and I'm not going to edit this and go back. I'm going to own the mistake. That's what I'm going to do. But the reason why I voted for this, I'm going to assume that they did win Best Innovation. It's just because of how the light show really comes together and it makes you feel like that you are playing pinball while in a concert. Now, the competitive side of me, I didn't really enjoy that part too much just because obviously I'm thinking about points and stuff like that. But if I get that out of my head and I'm just well in a way and having fun, which I did do while I played it, and I will get a chance to play it here in a couple more weeks, and I'm going to do the same thing. The pen is a lot of fun, and you can tell why it really changes the industry standard in terms of how these super expensive toys, I mean, there's no other way to put it, in terms of how these super expensive toys are able to come out at the price points that they are and get sold the way they are. I mean, it's an outstanding pen all around. all right moving forward best play field layout this was a slam dunk for me i picked avengers infinity quest i believe guns and roses and ninja turtles were also the nominees you know i honestly didn't really have to think about this too much just because i have extended time on all three especially with avengers and ninja turtles and i felt like the way infinity quest the way elwyn was able to piece together combo shots the way that he was able to piece together with you know the different elwynn elements to it whether we're talking about a spinner a loop shot the uh i don't know if you'd call it a newton ball but basically the thor ball to where you can hit what basically is a newton ball and bash another pinball into a target and i really did like how they had that that uh banana ramp to where you could hit it from all three flippers and you can Absolutely you can. And also you can repeat that shot, the banana ramp shot, over and over and over again with your upper flipper as well. I love that touch, and I love the touch of being able to go up into the Avengers Tower and then it releases back down to where you have that Hawkeye challenge where you can hit it again around a loop, back around a ramp return all the way to the right flipper. So it makes for very much satisfying shots, and I think it is far and away the best play field layout to come out this year And that why I voted for it and it did end up winning that overall all right so best rules is the next one and i voted for avengers infinity quest once again the three games that were here was or the three games that were nominated were avengers guns and roses and stranger things again i i have more time on avengers obviously than guns and roses and stranger things, but I am familiar with the rule sets of those just from mulling over videos, from watching it, from talking to a lot of people that were not on the judging panels at all, but talking to them over about the rule sets and seeing what they think about it and getting their opinions on it good and bad and asking around, what should I look for? Why is this happening? Or why did this part happen? Or what do you think about this? And I tried to get as many unbiased, informed opinions as I could to kind of formulate my general thoughts on it overall. But Avengers ended up winning out on this. And the main reason for it is just because the way that the gems work with the code, the fact that you can hunt these gems down and you play through the modes and then you have to capture the gem. And then on top of that, you have to place it somewhere and you have to actively think, why do you want to do this? And at what point do you want to do this and it gives you a very much huge variety of options to do in your beginning game and in your mid game and oftentimes your early game in pinball especially if it's highly linear you end up doing the same thing over and over again whereas you know with avengers you don't have to necessarily do that you're not locked into anything you can pivot at any time if you need to and the rule set really allows for that if you want to go grid all day you can stack in multi balls and go grid all day work your way to computer frenzy eventually you want to work in modes you can do that if you want to do something like i love to do that i call the world breaker strategy to where i just put a reality gem on the hulk spinner and i just rip gamma spins all day long just rip that to shreds and you can get some massive points doing that and that in itself is a lot of fun without even doing anything else in the game so there's so much that you can do in it and that's why it ended up winning Best Rules for me. All right, so Best Accessory. I went with Stranger Things on this, and they did win the three, or I believe there was actually more than three nominations for this one. Let me find it real quick. I'm pretty sure that they had, let's see, where is it in my notes? Oh, there it is. Yeah, they had four different ones. So Medieval Madness, the XL display, also Medieval Madness RGB lighting system, and the Turtles topper, along with Stranger Things UV kit. And I thought Slam Dunk, it was the UV kit. I mean, it's in-person, it really is cool, and it's almost a must-have for your machine. If you have a Stranger Things, just because once you do go into the upside down and that UV kit kicks in, it feels like you're in a completely different game at that point, which doesn't happen too often. I cannot think of any other pinball machine that has successfully done this before. And Stranger Things does this in spades. It is excellent to see in person, and it's a lot of fun. It adds an element of fun to it, and that's another reason why it got my vote.

22:24

And here's the reasons why. I ended up voting for Rick and Morty. And this does kind of, it's kind of the same with Best Music. All right? It's kind of the same thing. Except, I did do some research on Rick and Morty on the animation. because I wanted to know how difficult it was to actually do this because I think a lot of people, again, there was no weighted system in this to where how much weight or priority do we put towards animation? How much do we put towards display? How much towards effects? Obviously, I didn't know whether or not we think about these things together, as in 33.3%, or do we weight either direction according to what our own personal priority is? Now, my priority was animation. I thought that that was more important than just the display or the effects on there. Now, of course, Guns N' Roses does have a cool display, does have cool effects. But if I'm looking at the overall package, I have to now think, is the Rick and Morty animation better overall than those things combined from Guns N' Roses? And I felt like it was And the reasons being Rick and Morty now from my research it a vector puppet show and this is direct from the rick and morty creators on this video that they did showing the behind the scenes and i know nothing about animation so keep that in mind with what i'm describing here but it's a vector-based puppet show which from their words they said each character is broken up into a million little pieces with each individual piece of a character that you see is something that is hand drawn and has been animated to where you're basically popping it from symbol to symbol instead of little pixels, right? You're taking individual parts and moving them around and looking into this even more. They have approximately 50 artists and animators that work on this show to create this. And it was clear that these are very difficult shows to animate, especially with all the moving pieces on it. So difficult, in fact, that they've won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program with Pickle Rick and Vat of Acid. And I believe that was a season three and a season four episode. And, you know, knowing that, knowing that this is an animated show that has won Emmys, knowing that how difficult it is to actually animate the show and knowing how many people actually come together to animate it. I had a very difficult time putting my vote in for anybody else under a category of best animation, and that's why I voted for Rick and Morty. And honestly, I think it's a huge miss overall. I think that that is the biggest miss overall at these awards, not voting for Rick and Morty for best animation, display, and effects. Because again, the animation far outweighs display and effects in this instance, in my opinion. All right, best in show, the big one that I'm sure you guys were looking at. I ended up going with Avengers Infinity Quest over Guns N' Roses. Now, this particular one, Ninja Turtles was in this category as well, nominated, but let's be real. This was all about Guns N' Roses and Infinity Quest this whole time. And I legitimately, this was not an easy decision for me. I ended up spending a solid two straight days debating back and forth. And at times, Guns N' Roses went above for a little while. Then at other times, Avengers would pop ahead. This was neck and neck the entire time. It was almost like flip a coin, and I think you can't go wrong either way. And I know, of course, a lot of people will look at Guns N' Roses and say, well, that is just, it seems obvious that that should be the better overall pin just because of the entire package. Like, I get that. here's how I came to this decision for best in show again it's all about methodology and it's all about what is required out of the category how do we weight our picks and what I what I ended up doing was is I put out my top eight reasons for why I like a pinball machine and I had to list what's my priority out of a machine and I did this at the very beginning when I was thinking back and forth about this. And that ultimately ended up making up my decision upon what I love in a machine and what is my priority in looking at a machine and determining its value to me or my utility for it. And just going in order, here's what it is for me. And again, this may be different for you. Totally cool. This is not like in stone. This is just my opinion for me and how I judge games. This is from most important to least important. All right, number one, layout. Number two, code and rules. Number three, theme. Number four, toys. Number five, sound. Number six, lights. Number seven is call outs. And number eight is animation and display. so now that we know that we know where i'm at in place and again i didn't know if layout or we didn't know because of course it wasn't listed layout code theme toy sound lights call outs you couldn't judge these equal to each other so i ended up going with my priority and for me when i see the layout and i see the code with avengers which they did win both of those categories for the industry awards for me those far outweigh sound and lights which is number five and number six on my list and theme is number three i'm not a guns and roses fan i am an avengers fan but even after i removed the theme out of the way i said okay i'm not going to think that way i'm going to take my bias away that i'm a huge marvel fan i'm throwing that out and i did and i looked at it just from a layout, code, sound and lights perspective. And ultimately what it boiled down to, I had to decide, was the sound and lights strong enough to exceed layout and code? Sound and lights for Guns N' Roses, was that strong enough to exceed layout and code?