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Episode 61: The Golden Age of Pinball: Is It Happening RIGHT NOW?

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·54m 15s·analyzed·Jun 15, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Retro Ralph argues modern pinball's software depth matters more than mechanical load, dividing the community generationally.

Summary

Retro Ralph explores whether modern pinball is experiencing a golden age, arguing that generational differences in entry point shape what players value. He contends modern pinball is software-heavy and thematically integrated rather than mechanically loaded, defends games like John Wick and Transformers despite sparse mechanics, and questions why some in the community resist this evolution. Ralph reflects on his own entry into the hobby ~5 years ago during the LCD era and contrasts his preferences with older players who may feel mechs were removed.

Key Claims

  • Ralph entered the pinball hobby approximately 5 years ago during the Godzilla Expo (first post-COVID), immersed in the LCD/code-heavy era

    high confidence · Ralph (host): 'I got into the hobby about I think I think it's about five years ago now... when Godzilla was at Expo. So it was the first Expo back from COVID.'

  • Modern pinball shifted to software-heavy design around 2005 onward, not as a conscious removal of mechs but as modernization with more CPU/memory from LCD screens

    high confidence · Ralph: 'I think it really changed in like the 20, you know, the 2000s, maybe like 2005 onward. And I don't think it was a conscious effort to rip mechanisms out of games or make them less loaded. I think it was because they were trying to bring it into a modern era.'

  • Transformers Optimus Prime transformer mechanism didn't make it to production due to reliability issues, confirmed by George Gomez and Stern at Northwest gaming show

    high confidence · Ralph: 'George Gomez made a statement that he said it wasn't reliable. And then at that Northwest gaming and pinball show within the seminar, they said it wasn't reliable, so they couldn't get a production-ready version of it.'

  • John Wick received complete code overhaul, making it a vastly different experience than original release despite same physical playfield

    high confidence · Ralph: 'I know the code has been completely overhauled, so I don't want to take that for granted... I like it so much more.'

  • Dune's popularity stems from deep code, layout uniqueness, and thematic integration (soundtrack, video assets, callouts) rather than mechanical complexity

    high confidence · Ralph: 'People love Dune... it's got all of the thematic stuff, right? Like Jeff from Dirty Pool did a great job bringing it all together and giving you like a really awesome soundtrack to go along with the game.'

  • Transformers game sales appear to be struggling, with Ralph expressing concern about launch momentum and downstream sales impact

    medium confidence · Ralph: 'I don't know, I'm not hearing good things about the sales of the game. And that's unfortunate... if you're not hitting all cylinders, it's like, I don't know what happens after that.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I entered the hobby about I think it's about five years ago now... when Godzilla was at Expo. So it was the first Expo back from COVID... I was entering the era of LCD based games... it was very code heavy, very shot and code heavy, progression, deep rule sets.”

    Retro Ralph @ early — Establishes Ralph's generational entry point and explains why he values software depth over mechanics.

  • “The progression part of it is what keeps me coming back to the game, not necessarily the one mech... I spend a considerable amount of time in my life playing pinball. So I kind of crave that deeper rule set, the progression.”

    Retro Ralph @ mid — Core thesis: home ownership and time investment drive preference for code depth over mechanical novelty.

  • “I don't really view the non-loaded game argument... Of course I like mechanisms... But at the same time, there's a lot of code in that game too... Modern pinball is more software heavy. That's kind of how I feel what modern pinball is.”

    Retro Ralph @ mid — Directly challenges the 'loaded game' discourse dominating parts of the community.

  • “I think when people like, I don't know, like fight against modern pinball, I mean, look at Dune. People love Dune. What's really the only mech in Dune? It's the worm... But people love that game because the layout's unique. The code has become really awesome.”

    Retro Ralph @ mid — Uses Dune as proof that software + theme beats mechanical load in modern era.

  • “I think a mech can make a game more interesting, but I don't think it has to be packed with a ton of stuff, at least for me and what I like... the flow of John Wick is pretty awesome... Elliot Eismin first game. I really do enjoy that game.”

    Retro Ralph @ mid — Defends sparsely-loaded games by highlighting flow and designer pedigree.

  • “I feel like I embraced what pinball was at the time I entered the market... when I don't have like this different reaction to something like, oh my gosh, just one thing doesn't do this thing, it doesn't mean as much to me because shots flow and all the thematic stuff, the soundtrack, the callout, that's – like that whole package all together is what makes me enjoy pinball.”

Entities

Retro RalphpersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyJohn Wick (game)gameTransformers (game)gameDune (game)game

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Ralph documents growing schism between modern entry players (software/theme-focused) and legacy players (mechanics/physicality-focused). He explicitly defends modern design philosophy against 'loaded game' criticism.

    high · Ralph: 'There's like a split in the community... what people like about pinball, you know, it's always different... I find that sometimes what people like about pinball is maybe because of when I came into it... Some people that haven't evolved with the hobby, and they get really frustrated about games that don't have a lot of things in the game that interact with the ball.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Modern pinball (post-2005, especially post-LCD) shifted from mechanical novelty to software-driven progression, multiball stacking, achievements, code updates. Ralph argues this is industry-wide evolution, not Stern conspiracy or regression.

    high · Ralph: 'Modern pinball is more software heavy... the 2010 era and beyond... really deep code, code updates, right? The game isn't a static game anymore... more things to do and stacking multiballs on modes and achievements... Modern pinball had pivoted away from that when they got an LCD.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Transformers machine experiencing weak sales launch due to missing Optimus Prime transformer mechanism. Mechanical imbalance (Decepticons heavily featured, Autobots absent) created PR damage and community disappointment. Reliability issues cited as cause.

    high · Ralph: 'I don't know, I'm not hearing good things about the sales of the game... they ended up in this PR nightmare... The Autobots don't do anything in the game... George Gomez made a statement that he said it wasn't reliable.'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's 4-5 annual releases create market saturation where failed launches cannot recover before next title dominates attention. Fast cadence may punish imperfect games.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.163

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host, Retro Ralph, and we are here for another action-packed episode. And today we're going to break it down a little bit different. Are we currently in the golden age of pinball? I don't know. We're going to talk about it because where I entered the hobby is a little bit different. Like, I entered the hobby, you could argue, late in the progression of pinball, but I'm in the, like, new wave of pinball players. And so what I find interesting in a game may not be what someone that's been in the hobby for a long time thinks is interesting in a game. And I find that fascinating. And I want to talk about that because I do think there's a separation. There are people that, I don't know, maybe have not come along for the modern pinball ride. And then there's people that resist the modern pinball ride as if there's something wrong with it. But I don't really think there is.
1:16
And I'm going to explain why I think that is. So anyways, we're going to get started. I'm going to kill the music.
1:23
Okay, guys, let's really start thinking about this. So I've been really, really busy this weekend. I am extremely tired, but I'm still going to try to bring the energy the best I possibly can. So this weekend, this room you're in that you see me in right now has been my podcast studio for a really long time. Actually, the desk on the other side is where I started, and I still have that desk, and I kind of have a desk for work and a desk for podcasting. But I'm going to break it all down. I'm going to totally put a big, giant – I'm going to blow it all up. And there's a couple reasons why I want to move my studio downstairs. Number one, it is hotter than the depths of hell in this room. It gets really, really hot in here. It's like the one room in the house where just the air conditioning does not flow really well. So I got to figure that out. And then so that's like the main motivator. But I also kind of want to just like freshen up the space. I want to be downstairs because the dogs are downstairs. And I think it'd be cool if I had a little dog bed in the corner and the dogs can just hang out with me while I'm working all day or if I'm doing a podcast or a live stream or whatever. So I'm going to move it down there. This room probably looks a lot cooler on camera than it really is in real life. It's not a very big room. The room downstairs is a lot larger. And my daughter has graduated college and she's off to her started her career for a couple of years now. And then my son's about to leave for college. So our house is going to be and he's going to Hawaii. So everyone's going to be out of the house. It's just me, myself and my wife, Kim. And this house is pretty big. There's a lot of bedrooms in this house. So I figured, hey, this might be kind of cool opportunity and we kind of need a storage room. These houses in the Southwest don't have a lot of storage. They don't have basements here in Arizona. Some of the older houses did, but most of the modern houses don't have basements. So there really isn't a lot of storage space. And I've done the storage locker thing for years when I was doing arcade collecting. I had multiple storage lockers with tons of arcade games. I've pretty much eliminated all of that. So I don't have all that stuff. But anyways, so I'm really excited for this new room. I'm going to get a nice new spacious desk so I have plenty of room like this. I'm crammed in here. You guys have no idea. It's very, very tight. So I'm excited to kind of have some new environment that I'm going to be in and I'm going to set it up really nice. It's going to be cool. I'll show you a little picture of sort of my concept. This isn't exactly this is a conceptual picture, but this is what I hope it looks like when when it's all said and done. I am going to keep the carpet that's in the room because I think it will help with deadening the sound. And I'm going to put some acoustical panels behind me, which are kind of like decorative acoustical panels. So it should look really cool and it should be a great environment to both record voiceovers because I record voiceovers for videos all the time. When I do projects for companies or just my own stuff for work, I'm constantly doing voice work and video content. So I don't just do this for a hobby. I do it for my day job, too. Or at least there's an element of my day job where I do some video content. So I thought it'd be a good good idea. So let's get into the main topic really quick. Before we do, I just want to let you know word from our sponsor, Flippin Out Pinball. If you're looking for a new pinball machine or a used pinball machine, go check out Flippin Out Pinball. And all the details are in the video description, whether you're listening on Apple or Spotify or you're watching here on YouTube. So anyways, that is it. So I've been thinking a lot about pinball and when I entered the hobby and what I like with pinball because I sometimes go to Pinside and I see like a split. There's like a split in the community. And I find that sometimes what people like about pinball, you know, it's always different, right? There's different things for different people. Like some people really like mech heavy games. Some people like Shots and Flow. Some people are more interested in deep rule sets and code with a cool layout. And you got to remember, I got into the hobby about I think I think it's about five years ago now. I'm trying to think because really when I when I really started going full speed is when Godzilla was at Expo. So it was the first Expo back from COVID. So when I entered the hobby, I was entering the era of LCD based games. Right. I mean, they were no longer using DMDs. I mean, they had they had they hadn't they hadn't been using DMDs for a while. But when I entered the hobby, it was very code heavy, very shot and code heavy, progression, deep rule sets, maybe less things on the play field. So that's what I got used to. So I never really, you know, until I really started playing on location and playing more tournaments and things like that, I wasn't really getting exposed to like the big history of pinball, right? Like older games like Firepower or Gogar or, you know, from that 77 to 80 era or maybe High Speed or Black Knight 2000. And then, you know, you start getting into like the 90s games like T2, Addams Family, The Getaway. Right. And as you kind of progress through those games, you'll find all sorts of things like you'll find the 90s was really heavy with lots of different mechanisms and things that interact with the ball. But maybe in that era, it was just then starting to get really heavy on mode-based play or multiple objectives and the complexity within the code. But you have to remember where I kind of get frustrated sometimes is I see maybe like some people that haven't evolved with the hobby, and they get really frustrated about games that don't have a lot of things in the game that interact with the ball. I feel like most of these companies put a couple of mechs in nowadays, but it's really about the shots and the flow and then all the things you can do within the code, mode-based play, progression. You think things like D&D, I mean they're really starting to bring a lot of video game elements and really getting complex with the rule sets. And I find that I gravitate toward that because as someone that buys this for my home, I want to have something that's got longevity. So to me, this is where it'll become a little controversial is I'm not always about the one mech because to me, the mechs are cool. Like I love that mechs can interact with the ball and do certain things. I really do. But at the end of the day, if I'm spending all this money for a game I have at home and the mech just does that one thing all the time continually, the progression part of it is what keeps me coming back to the game, not necessarily the one mech. Now, not everyone is going to be that way. I understand that. Some people just they don't really spend a lot of time playing. They kind of want to just have the whiz bang thing happen and then they walk away and they go about their day. But I spend a considerable amount of time in my life playing pinball. So I kind of crave that deeper rule set, the progression, the see, you know, how far can I get in the game? And that's what keeps me personally coming back. But I was trying to figure out why I get frustrated sometimes when people laser focus on like a single thing within a game. And I was listening to the Triple Drain guys and they were talking about it a little bit. And it was funny because Joel was like, I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. But I think what he was trying to say, or at least what he was trying to get at, is like what he enjoys in pinball might be different than what other people enjoy in pinball. And I kind of feel like that's where I'm at because I kind of find myself getting increasingly frustrated when I hear people fixated on, you know, this thing isn't, you know, people use the term loaded. Like this game isn't loaded, so therefore it's not a good game. And I just feel like pinball is so much more than that in the modern era because I think in the 90s, maybe a little bit before that, probably the 90s, it was like the code sets were starting to get more complex at that time. But I think the gimmicks were exciting and they were mostly location games. So like that kept people putting money into it. Oh, look at what the ball does when I do this or that. And and then when I think you get the games at home, it starts to change, right? You start to look at like the 2010 era and beyond. And now you're talking about really deep code, code updates, right? The game isn't a static game anymore. It can't rely on just the mechanism doing the cool thing because now we're getting like deeper code. And more things to do and stacking multiballs on modes and achievements and insider connected if you're talking about Stern.

  • Spooky games Evil Dead and TNA represent different design philosophies—Evil Dead code-heavy with selective mechs, TNA simplistic layout with strong shot flow

    high confidence · Ralph: 'Evil Dead has less in it... I much prefer Evil Dead... TNA is so simplistic, really. It's simplistic in its layout. There isn't a lot on that playfield, but yet that's a really fun game.'

  • Stern releases 4-5 games per year, creating market saturation where launch momentum is critical to success

    medium confidence · Ralph: 'Stern with four, sometimes five a year... if it doesn't work out, if your launch isn't pristine and perfect... if you're not hitting all cylinders, it's like, I don't know what happens after that.'

    • Retro Ralph @ mid-late — Explains generational framing: newer players see integrated package; older players feel things were taken away.

  • “George Gomez made a statement that he said it wasn't reliable. And then at that Northwest gaming and pinball show within the seminar, they said it wasn't reliable, so they couldn't get a production-ready version of it. That's what they're saying.”

    Retro Ralph @ late — Official explanation for Transformers Optimus missing—reliability, not cost-cutting.

  • “I'm not hearing good things about the sales of the game. And that's unfortunate because maybe it'll pick up steam later... Stern with four, sometimes five a year. It's just, it's just there's so much that I think there's another game coming right around the corner.”

    Retro Ralph @ late — Market saturation concern: fast release cadence means failures can't recover before next title launches.

  • “If I press the start button and it said Autobots roll out and he went from truck to standing or whatever, even if he just did that, I would be amped on that because that was a childhood thing for me... But it's not in the game. It didn't make it for whatever reason.”

    Retro Ralph @ late — Shows Ralph's own nostalgia-driven desire for the transformer, tempering his software-first argument.

  • “The shot it not like a super super unique layout but it is pretty unique so I like that... The shots are satisfying... but it is lacking on the Autobot side. The Autobots don't do anything in the game.”

    Retro Ralph @ late — Nuanced Transformers critique: acknowledges real imbalance between Decepticon/Autobot mechanical coverage.

    • Evil Dead (game)
    game
    Godzilla (game)game
    Jaws (game)game
    TNA (game)game
    Beetlejuice (game)game
    D&D (game)game
    Metallica (game)game
    Pokemon (game)game
    Pinsideorganization
    Electric Batvenue
    Triple Drainorganization
    George Gomezperson
    Elliot Eisminperson
    Jeff (Dirty Pool)person
    Flippin Out Pinballcompany
    Kimperson
    Northwest Gaming and Pinball Showevent

    high · Ralph: 'Stern with four, sometimes five a year. It's just, it's just there's so much that I think there's another game coming right around the corner. And so if it doesn't work out, if your launch isn't pristine and perfect, and none of them are, but if you're not hitting all cylinders, it's like, I don't know what happens after that.'

  • ?

    code_update: John Wick received complete code overhaul post-launch, fundamentally changing player experience despite unchanged playfield. Ralph's enjoyment dramatically increased after code fix and personal skill improvement in understanding rules.

    high · Ralph: 'I know the code has been completely overhauled, so I don't want to take that for granted. The game makes more sense to me now code-wise... I like it so much more... my first experience with John Wick, I've gotten so much better at pinball that I'm enjoying that.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ralph observes stark difference between Pinside/Reddit discourse (focused on mechanical load arguments) and location/tournament player preferences (focused on complete package: flow, theme, code). Suggests online forums may not represent broader player base.

    high · Ralph: 'The things I hear from my location friends are so different than some of the stuff I hear when I go to Pinside or if I'm on Reddit... I'm very curious if you do answer in the comments. Let me know when you got into the hobby because I'm wondering if your journey would be similar to mine.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Modern pinball emphasizes integrated theme through video assets, dynamic callouts, movie/game clips, and soundtrack synchronization (e.g., Dune's Jeff/Dirty Pool soundtrack integration). Creates immersive package beyond playfield mechanics alone.

    high · Ralph: 'the theme, it's the tie-ins, it's the call-outs, it's the use of the mechanisms... the layout, shots, and code... good code, a game where the shots are satisfying and different, then you start pulling in the theme of that pinball machine. So now you've got like video clips and assets and audio and cool call outs like now that's more interesting to me.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Different manufacturers target different mechanical philosophies: Stern software-centric with minimal mechs; Spooky recently pivoted to heavier mechanics (Beetlejuice) but also maintains code-focused titles (Evil Dead, TNA). Reflects market segment divergence.

    medium · Ralph: 'It was only really until recently that we started seeing Spooky get really heavy on mechanisms and toys and things like that... I much prefer Evil Dead, and Evil Dead has less in it... TNA is so simplistic, really... but yet that's a really fun game.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Ralph expanding podcast studio capacity (moving from upstairs to larger downstairs space with acoustic treatment). Indicates growing production demands and professionalization of content creation work beyond hobby.

    high · Ralph: 'I'm going to break it all down... I'm going to move my studio downstairs... I'm going to get a nice new spacious desk... I'm going to put some acoustical panels behind me, which are kind of like decorative acoustical panels... I record voiceovers for videos all the time. When I do projects for companies or just my own stuff for work, I'm constantly doing voice work and video content.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Transformers Optimus Prime transformer mechanism removed from production due to reliability issues. Confirms that mechanical complexity can exceed manufacturing capability despite designer intent.

    high · Ralph: 'I don't know if it worked and they pulled it because of cost cutting... The only thing I know is that George Gomez made a statement that he said it wasn't reliable. And then at that Northwest gaming and pinball show within the seminar, they said it wasn't reliable, so they couldn't get a production-ready version of it.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Ralph participates in tournament play at Electric Bat and other venues. Observes tournament players' game preferences align more with thematic/code-centric design than online forum discourse, suggesting tournament meta differs from internet perception.

    medium · Ralph: 'I go and I and I look at what games they like and what games they gravitate towards... I go and play in tournaments all the time... The things I hear from my location friends are so different than some of the stuff I hear when I go to Pinside or if I'm on Reddit.'

    • 9:47
    And so I don't really view the non-loaded game argument. Like I don't really get that. Of course I like mechanisms. And I started buying some spooky games more recently and I got Evil Dead. And Evil Dead, they put a lot of stuff in that game. But at the same time, there's a lot of code in that game too. So there's some gimmicky things that I like, like the going down into the cellar for the boomstick multiball. There's other reasons why they use the cellar a lot for different things in Evil Dead. But outside of that, there's not really that many mechanisms that interact with the ball in that game. You have the two things, the deadites that pop up, which is kind of similar to Medieval Madness, the trolls mode in Medieval Madness. But I mean, you have that in the basement and then you have like the boomstick, you know, you can kind of hit the shells and stuff. So some cool stuff, right? But I mean, the shells are nothing more than I mean, you could argue the shell, you know, kind of is something that you hit in it and it kind of registers. But you could you could argue that could be like a drop target or something, too. And I love that kind of thing. I really I really dig drop targets and and things like that. You know, it makes me think of Metallica, like Metallica actually has quite a bit of things that you interact with the ball. You've got Sparky. You've got the gravestone thing that I always forget the name out of. You have the snake. So I dig all that. But at the end of the day, what I really ends up making me happy as a pinball player is the fact that I can get a game, own it at my house, and feel like exploring the code is going to take me a long time. And maybe I never get to the end, which is another thing you could talk about is like, are we supposed to get to the end? Because I'm an okay pinball player. I think I've definitely gotten better over the years. I just recently brought John Wick back into my house, and it was funny because when I got John Wick, that was the first LE I ever bought because I'm a wicked John Wick fan. I love the movies. The movies are awesome to me. The soundtrack is great in those movies. I just feel like that whole character is just a character that resonates with me. He's trying to right the wrongs of the things that happened to him, and it kind of reminds me of a lot of the movies from the 80s where it's like a main character. He's been wronged or something, and he has to go and make it right at all costs. It's just fun because it's fantasy. It's not reality, but that's why I like it, and I felt like, oh, wow, this would be a good game for me to get. And I can tell you that my experience with John Wick, another game that doesn't really have a lot in it, right? It doesn't have a lot. You have it on the premium. You have the gun or the gun case, which I like because it kind of blocks that little Vuck shot to start modes. And then what else do you really have? Like there isn't really a whole lot in that game. There's the car. The car is like a bash toy, which is cool, but there's not a ton of things in it. But I will say my first experience with John Wick, I've gotten so much better at pinball that I'm enjoying that. And I know the code has been completely overhauled, so I don't want to take that for granted. The game makes more sense to me now code-wise, but it still has the same stuff in it, but yet I like it so much more. But I kind of say there's two reasons for that. One is I've gotten a lot better at pinball. You know, still not great, but a lot better than I was. And I started understanding the complexities of the rules better. There was a live stream we did where Surge from, well, he's not from Electric Bat, but I kind of view him as being associated with Electric Bat. Him and Kale do that Pin Pals show where they kind of deep dive code and dissect code and dissect new games and things like that. Well like he someone that I know I could talk to and he knows code you know to a ridiculous level right I don know how he absorbs everything and remembers it all but I feel like for me it takes me a little while So again, that kind of keeps me going back to a game I have. If I get a game and the code, you know, because modern code is complex, it gives me something to look forward to as I progress through the game. And I think I just couldn't really appreciate John Wick, even though I don't think the code was very good in the initial release. So it wasn't. But now it's like a completely different experience for me. And I'm not trying to pitch you on John Wick. I think John Wick, if you were to strip everything away, the flow of John Wick is pretty awesome, though. Like it's got a it's got it's got a cool layout is Elliot Eisman's first game. I really do enjoy that game. So what I'm saying is and where I'm trying to go with this is I think what I like about pinball is sometimes different than a portion of the community. Now, I don't know. I want to know from you. Like, are you the person that the layout, shots, and code is more important to you? Or would you prefer a game that has more mechanisms and maybe it's not as deep on the code side? Or do you want all of it? Like, do you want great code and like a ton of mechs? Because I think, you know, it is cool. I'm not trying to deny the fact that it is very cool when you have tons of things to interact with the ball. But I also kind of feel like Modern Pinball had pivoted away from that when they got an LCD. You know, you had the LCD. You had other things you could do. Now you had more memory, more CPU. You had way more stuff that you could go way deeper when it comes to, like, what that game could do via the software of the game. So I kind of think, like, the whole kind of market moved that way. You know what I mean? And there were some people that resisted it. And when they resisted it, I don't know that the companies were trying to pull out mechs. I think the companies thought, well, we'll have like one or two mechs in the game, but that's not what modern pinball is now. Modern pinball is more software heavy. That's kind of how I feel what modern pinball is. So I think when people like, I don't know, like fight against modern pinball, I mean, look at Dune. People love Dune. What's really the only mech in Dune? It's the worm, the sandworm. Like that's kind of it. But people love that game. And I think they love that game because the layout's unique. The code has become really awesome. It's got all of the thematic stuff, right? Like Jeff from Dirty Pool did a great job bringing it all together and giving you like a really awesome soundtrack to go along with the game. And that's what I love about pinball. It's all of those elements put together. If you can give me good code, a game where the shots are satisfying and different, then you start pulling in the theme of that pinball machine. So now you've got like video clips and assets and audio and cool call outs like now that's more interesting to me because if you were to strip it all away, sure, a game can be fun to shoot. But I think when it's just the basic whitewood, you know, with no art in anything like it's probably like most games you wouldn't want to play for that long. Right. They wouldn't be that exciting to you. So I kind of view modern pinball very differently, maybe because of when I came into it. But I do think that it really changed in like the 20, you know, the 2000s, maybe like 2005 onward. And I don't think it was a conscious effort to rip mechanisms out of games or make them less loaded. I think it was because they were trying to bring it into a modern era. And it's not just Stern. It's really all of them. It was only really until recently that we started seeing Spooky get really heavy on mechanisms and toys and things like that. I mean, Beetlejuice has a ton of it, but I find myself like Beetlejuice isn't my favorite spooky game, really. I like it, but I don't love it. I much prefer Evil Dead, and Evil Dead has less in it. But see what I mean? Like, it's the theme, it's the tie-ins, it's the call-outs, it's the use of the mechanisms. You don't need to have a ton of them. It just is the one that's in there really impactful and really something that I can keep watching happen over and over and over again and still stay interesting. Godzilla kind of was one that maybe goes a little bit against that because you have Mechagodzilla and that's a mech. You got the magnet on Mechagodzilla, holds the ball in his chest. You have the bridge, you have the building. So there's a lot in there that interacts with the ball. But at the end of the day, the code is also really deep and interesting. So that one kind of is the last. But then I go to then as I kind of think about, you know, another game that I really love, Jaws. There really isn't a lot interacting with the ball in Jaws. You have the shark fin, you have the shark, and that's kind of it. And then it's all regular pinball stuff, right? You've got an upper play field that you don't stay in very long on the premium. You know, it's kind of more of like you're up there and down from there really quickly. You have a captive ball, you know, for chumming up the water. But again, the software is so good, and that's kind of where I think the market or the industry was headed. It was how do we make these more intricate games, like kind of almost taking some of the depth that you'd get from a video game and putting it into pinball. Now, do we not – I don't know. Like when I see people arguing about or discussing or saying they don't like a certain game, I kind of question whether they've played it sometimes. I'm like because if you played this, I think you would think differently of it. Unless your only joy you get out of pinball is just mech heavy games, which I just have never really subscribed to the mechs make the game. I think a mech can make a game more interesting, but I don't think it has to be packed with a ton of stuff, at least for me and what I like. And I know there's going to be people that are going to listen to this, and it's unfortunate because I can't control how people perceive the things that I say. People say all sorts of crazy things about me and my motivations and blah, blah, blah, blah. But it's all kind of cuckoo tinfoil hat stuff. But I really – if you know me and you've interacted with me at a show anywhere, you know I love pinball. And I can't help it that when I got into the hobby, the hobby was different. The hobby had changed. So what I gravitate towards might be different from someone that's been in the hobby for a long time. I think sometimes the people that have been in the hobby for a really long time, they feel like things were constantly being taken away from them. And I feel like I embraced what pinball was at the time I entered the market. So when things – when I don't have like this different reaction to something like, oh my gosh, just one thing doesn't do this thing, it doesn't mean as much to me because shots flow and all the thematic stuff, the soundtrack, the callout, that's – like that whole package all together is what makes me enjoy pinball. So I was just trying to figure out, I didn't really know where I was going to go with this episode because I don't even know that I really said that well. Hopefully you kind of understand where I'm coming from. But here's the thing, I don't not appreciate games from the earlier eras. I do because I play them all the time when I'm in tournaments. Electric Bat has a very diverse collection of games and I enjoy those games, but I feel like I really gravitate still toward the newer pinball machines by all manufacturers. I've really grown to love Dune, but more because the code got so cool. It does cool things. You know what I mean? Like the video assets, the callouts, all the things I just talked about, they went so heavy and they put it all together and it made it exciting and interesting. So I want to know from you guys, like what is it that you enjoy about pinball? Is it like do you think it's crazy that I would that what how what I enjoy about pinball? Because I don't know. It makes me wonder sometimes. I know I can't be the odd man out because I have a lot of my friends. We go we go and play in tournaments all the time. I haven't gone lately because I've been so busy with things. But I go I go and I and I look at what games they like and what games they gravitate towards. And it's just interesting because I never hear – the things I hear from my location friends are so different than some of the stuff I hear when I go to Pinside or if I'm on Reddit and things like that. And then I kind of think maybe – I'm very curious if you do answer in the comments. Let me know when you got into the hobby because I'm wondering if your journey would be similar to mine where these other things don't seem as important to you because you're looking for some kind of complete package. And you value the software tremendously because that's kind of where I'm at. I really value the software. And if I were to think about a game that right now is really suffering for me, it's Pokemon. And I'm very well aware I buy a lot of new in box Stern machines. So I know sometimes you get those things new in box and the code is not at all. It's like it's just in its beginning. It's in its infancy. So I'd say for new in-box buyers, if that's what you do, you got to just know that, you know, and there are other manufacturers that do a better job of that, right? I think, I don't know about Spooky. I've only had two experiences with Spooky, but when I got Evil Dead, I felt like it was pretty well on its way. And then they really did a good job continuing to update Evil Dead. I'm just talking about games that I've experienced from Spooky. Prior to games like Evil Dead, I really didn't pay much attention to Spooky. The games didn't resonate with me, and I'm not really much of a horror guy, but I really loved TNA, but I realized TNA isn't really like a spooky developed game. It's more of a spooky manufactured game, but I loved TNA, and TNA is so simplistic, really. It's simplistic in its layout. There isn't a lot on that playfield, but yet that's a really fun game, and I bet a lot of you would view TNA as one of the games. You really enjoy playing and you look at it and you're not standing above it going, look at all the stuff in here. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite of that. There really isn't that much stuff in there, but yet the game is so enjoyable.
    23:23
    And I don't want you to take this. There's going to be people that are going to take it and think that I don't care. You know, I want a stripped out game. I don't want a stripped out game. But if you are going to put a mech in there, put something in there that after it's repeated a bunch of times, I still find it interesting. You know, the sandworm on Beetlejuice, I think it's interesting because I got to sort of battle it, right? Like I'm battling it. It's got the hole in its mouth or whatever. And the ball goes in. There's even targets behind it. So I find that really cool. I don't love all the times how it's implemented in the code, but I think they're constantly refining that. But if you look at Beetlejuice and outside of the sandworm, you know, you have the couch, which locks balls. So it's a physical ball lock. That isn't like some, you know, there's physical ball locks and all sorts of different forms. I think it was cool how they use the couch because it's the couch from the waiting room in Beetlejuice. I think that's pretty neat. But outside of that, like what else is really in there? You know what I mean? That's not like they have a bunch. It's not like they're blazing new trails with some kind of crazy mechanism. I mean, the dragon from D&D is just as cool, if not maybe even a little bit cooler than the sandworm. So, you know, I don't know. I just sometimes I see these arguments and I don't get it. Now, the one I'm going to revisit a little bit real quick, and I'm really bummed out that this game is not really doing well. It really does bum me out because a lot the majority of you haven't played it. And again, I hate that I'm even going to do this, but I'm in my own head right now. I'm not saying this so that you go and buy the game. I don't care what you buy. I want you to buy what you like. In no part of my podcast or anything I do do I tell you to go buy a game. You're going to buy what you're going to like. I'll share my goal with this channel, and it always has been this since I've been doing this, is I'm sharing my excitement for pinball. Some games I really like, some games I don't like as much, but it's always like a fair and balanced perspective of it. But I will say I'm trying to like over the weeks as they tick tick away, I'm trying to figure out like, OK, am I?
    25:28
    Like, can I see the perspective of someone that's just so overly, you know, fixated on the fact that Optimus doesn't transform? And I'll say like, hey, if I press the start button and it said Autobots roll out and he went from truck to standing or whatever, even if he just did that, I would be amped on that because that was a childhood thing for me. I was so into Transformers, watched it all the time on Saturday morning cartoons. So that is really cool to me. But and again, people will view this as me trying to trying to sort of like be an apologist for for Stern. But it's not in the game. It didn't make it for whatever reason. I don't know that we'll ever know the real story. I don't know if it worked and they pulled it because of cost cutting. I don't know. The only thing I know is that George Gomez made a statement that he said it wasn't reliable. And then at that Northwest gaming and pinball show within the seminar, they said it wasn't reliable, so they couldn't get a production-ready version of it. That's what they're saying. And I can only take their word, and I don't work at Stern, so I don't know what's happening behind closed doors. But yeah, it's a bummer that it's not there, but I'm excited for people to play it once it gets on location. Because I can tell you that outside of the disappointment of that, I think they put together a really awesome package. So if I rewind back to what I was talking about earlier, theme, they nailed it. Audio, callouts, music, all there.
    26:58
    The shot it not like a super super unique layout but it is pretty unique so I like that So the shots are satisfying You have some cool mechs that are on there that did make the game right I really think that Megatron is cool I think Soundwave is cool
    27:17
    But it is lacking on the Autobot side. It is. The Autobots don't do anything in the game, you know? And I can see that perspective. Like, now that I've had some time to settle in, I can see where if there was, you know, if I could imagine a world where Where that other side of the game had a little bit more mechanical things to it or something I interacted with. I think it would have been like they nailed it out of the park. But unfortunately what happened is I think they ended up in this PR nightmare because when we talked about it on the last episode. And I don't know, I'm not hearing good things about the sales of the game. And that's unfortunate because maybe it'll pick up steam later. I don't know, but it seems to me like there's so many releases, you know, Stern with four, sometimes five a year. It's just, it's just there's so much that I think there's another game coming right around the corner. And so if it doesn't work out, if your launch isn't pristine and perfect, and none of them are, but if you're not hitting all cylinders, it's like, I don't know what happens after that. I mean, I look at my John Wick I just got, and I looked at the date in the back, and mine was an original run game. I think they only ran it once, but I think they just reran some John Wicks more recently. But that means that that game has been sitting in a box somewhere. Actually, I was sitting at Flippin' Out. So that means he didn't sell through his, unless I'm wrong. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I don't think so. But that means that that game has been sitting there since he got it. And I don't know when he got it, but I got to think he got it close to the date, and the date is like May of 2024.
    28:55
    So that – and John Wick kind of had the same thing where people got all up in arms about the guns not being on the playfield. I mean I did talk to many other people within the industry, and I know there are people that don't want to believe this, but the guns on the artwork was not a stern thing. And I've talked to multiple people that have been involved in the project. It was 1,000% not Stern saying we don't want guns in the playfield. That was 100% Lionsgate. And the reason why is because – think about it. Lionsgate has no problem with guns, clearly, because there's guns all over the movie posters, blah, blah, blah. But I think what they – at least what I heard, what was the issue with that game was that, okay, it's going to be in an arcade. It's going to be in a family entertainment center. It's going to be in a place where kids are at. So even though we all know that a kid could easily put a quarter into a game and start playing it, they didn't want that to be what people saw when they walked up to the game. They wanted them to have to put the money in, which means I'm putting the responsibility on the parents of that kid. But you can't control that. That's what the license holder wants to do.
    30:04
    But again, that game, I think, suffered because of something like that. And, you know, people grab onto it and it all of a sudden turns into a lot of bad press. And I don't know how quickly games recover when they get bad press like that. So I personally hope that Transformers, at least fans of G1, go and play it on location once they start shipping. So you can see, I want to hear that feedback. We haven't heard a lot of that. I want it to go beyond the optimist thing, and I want to hear what people really think about the gameplay. Because like I said, that's kind of what I'm interested in. So and then talking about more games coming, Sonic is right around the corner. And I don't know, makes me wonder, did Sonic being right around the corner, it's Steve Ritchie? I mean, not to say Elliot doesn't make great games, but Steve Ritchie has a deep, rich history of making amazing games that people love and adore, and they love Steve. So did that have something to do with it? Because pinball is expensive. Did people say, I'm going to hold off on Transformers. I want to see what Sonic looks like. Or maybe they like Sonic. You know, Sonic is more iconic to them than Transformers. I don't really know. But I'm very excited to be able to share my feelings on Sonic. I think the community is really going to love the game. I will be shocked if they don't. I just think it's one of those games where they captured the Sonic universe very well. And so I'm excited for that to come out and for people to see the community reaction. I get just as excited as you guys do when that kind of stuff happens. And I love seeing some of the things that I do sometimes when I publish a video. I sometimes just like reading through the comments just to see the things like and also to see like how different your perspective is than mine. Because I realize like like like cars or like anything else, like people are going to like some models of cars and then I like others. And I kind of feel like pinball is the same way. I think it's it's theme, it's code, it's it's all the stuff we talked about. And I think that modern pinball brings with the new technologies that we have available to us, brings so much more things that you can do to a game. And when it's not all there, I think people don't, people aren't interested or they move on, you know, and so, and knowing that there's another game right around the corner and then another game right around the corner. But I do think there's a little bit of an interesting difference with Stern and Jersey Jack because Jersey Jack, your anticipation is a whole entire year. You have a year to wait for what they're going to do next. And I do think that's a little bit better in some cases than constantly pumping them out because if we look at what Stern does, and I've lived it. My first games were all Sterns, and I stayed Stern for a while before I brought in other games to the garage. I brought in a CGC. I brought in Pulp Fiction. I brought in a couple of different spooky games. I brought in an older Williams, T2, Steve Ritchie game. And so I'll admit I haven't had the most diverse collection. Like I haven't brought in a lot of like – I didn't bring anything before the 90s into the collection, and I definitely have never had – I've never had a Turner pinball game. I did have a Barrels of Fun game. I had Labyrinth for a period of time.
    33:16
    Labyrinth, I grew up with that watching it, but I didn't – the game I feel like they didn't really start hitting their stride with the geometry stuff until later. I just, for me personally, I didn't like the way Labyrinth shot. I felt like it was really clunky. At least my copy of Labyrinth was really clunky. I don't feel that way about Dune. I don't feel that way about Winchester.
    33:40
    Winchester is another game. Man, if they had more of those available, you know what it is that just totally gets me so hyped and interested in Winchester? It's the theme integration is so good. And the thing is, like, I know that house. I know Winchester Mystery House because my corporate office used to be in San Jose. So I've been there before. So I was very well aware of the house. I thought it was kind of weird that they were going to do a pinball machine about it. But then I thought, ah, haunted house, haunted theme, like that kind of stuff. If they take that angle with it, it's going to be really cool. And that game to me is not only about the unique layout. And there's a couple of cool, you know, the turntable mech is really cool. Kind of reminds me of the moving staircase in Harry Potter. Like, how can I take a single mech and make it really cool because it does so many different things? You know, it diverts the balls in different ways. It kind of changes the play field. It reminds me of a game that I played with Jamie at his old place. I want to say it was Time Machine by, who the hell made Time Machine?
    34:45
    Shoot, I can't think right now. It's an Italian company. I can't think of the name of the company right now. That game has a playfield that lifts up and moves. Like, that's kind of cool, you know? Like, things like that are really neat. But again, that's just, it's the utilization of the mech. I don't think it's having tons of them. It's, can you put some in there that really are interesting time and time and time again? Not just gimmicky, but really interesting. Like, I think the building in Godzilla is really interesting because it's a diverter, it's a ball lock, it does cool stuff. And it looks awesome. You know, it looks awesome when it just, you know, falls, you know, it's crumbling. And then the way they integrated the theme, like I'm seeing Godzilla tearing down the building as the building is falling. Like that is cool stuff. So I think it's more about not about how many mechs and stuff you can pack in the game. It's how you utilize the mechs that you put into the game. You don't need to have a ton of them. You just have ones that are impactful to the gameplay. And so that's kind of where I'm at. That's kind of how I feel about pinball, and I just wanted to share that. I didn't know where I was going to go with this, honestly. I'm so tired from just doing tons of physical labor all weekend. All I did was move heavy things from upstairs in my house to downstairs. I donated things to Goodwill, and I'm tired. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to turn it on. I told Kim. I was like, I'm just going to go upstairs. I'm going to turn it on. I'm going to talk, and the podcast is going to be whatever it's going to be. But the reason why I labeled it as the Golden Era is because to me this is the Golden Era. But I don't know if it is for you because if you've been in the hobby for a long time, you might have thought of the history, the historical games as the Golden Era. And this is not what you want Pinball to be. But I kind of feel like I enjoy the direction these companies are going. I like Arctic Yeti or whatever it's called. What's that game called? I always called it Arctic Yeti. What's it called? Anyway, I don't even know. See, I'm so tired, I don't even know. Turner Pinball's latest game, Arctic Beaver, whatever it's called. That game's really cool. There's not a lot in that either. Like, there's not a lot. But the Avalanche mech is cool. You know, there's just put something cool that does something neat. And I think that's what you need to do. But then you got to bring it with the code and you got to bring it with the theme integration. And the thing I don't like about that game, which they are correcting, is the audio package. I felt like it didn't drive. It didn't draw me in. It wasn't enough to keep me coming back. So I hope what they do with that is they realize you've got some cool stuff there, but you don't have the whole package yet. Like give me give me more at via software and music and sound effects and call outs. And it just amplifies the overall impact of the game.
    37:32
    So, you know, I could go on and on of games I like that don't have a ton of stuff in them, but but I could name them from every manufacturer. And the thing is, I just I do think there's there's a really strong argument to be made that if you can. And, you know, you don't want to strip the game. That's not what I'm saying. But if you can really, in a well-thought-out manner, put a mechanism in a game and then you write really great software rules, code, and thematic integration via sound and music and everything, you can have a winning game without it looking crowded. I definitely don't like crowded games because I feel like crowded – I like to see what I'm shooting at. And I feel like the more crowded it gets, like, I don't know, I didn't really like Mandalorian because I kind of felt like there was too much shit all over the place. I just didn't like it.
    38:26
    I tend to like games where I can kind of see a little bit more of what I'm shooting at. Now you can go the other way with it, like Star Wars Fall of the Empire.
    38:34
    Where do we start with that? I don't even know if I want to talk about it. I bought it. I got rid of it. But I love the code. What Ray Day did with the code on that was so good.
    38:46
    And this is what sucks about, this is where I gotta be careful sometimes when I'm doing a video. Because the problem with doing a first impression is sometimes what you feel about a game initially is that excitement of the new game. And it takes time. Like you bring the game into your house, you really start playing it, you put 50, 60, 70 plays on it, you get to 100 plays. Your perspective on it changes, especially as the code evolves. And sometimes it changes for the better, and sometimes it changes for the worse. It was like a weird mind, like a mind F with Fall of the Empire because I was like, the design, I'm not loving. Like I didn't love the layout because I felt like the shots were too tight. And even though I got decent at it over time, the code was making me more interested and made me want to keep coming back. But the code wasn't making the layout change, obviously, right? It didn't make so that it's like it wasn't my favorite layout. And I think initially I was all like enamored with Star Wars. And then I kind of and Ray Day did such a good job with the code. But I think at the end of the day, I just didn't really like that layout. Like that was a true, true, tried and true fan layout. But the shots were just too tight, in my opinion. And then I really didn't like how they implemented the Jedi ball save. I felt like, you know, Ray Days beat me, not beat me up, but Ray Days basically told me like, look, this is how it works and I get it and it does work the way he explained it. He did simplify it a little bit, but it just didn't like to me. I just didn't like the way they implemented it. The game was hard enough. And when the ball save became like something I had to think about, like whether I was doing a pulse or a tap or whatever, I kind of felt like, man, this game's already brutal. I a fan of the game and I a fan of the game So that how I felt about that That what I loved about Beetlejuice though because with Beetlejuice that ball save is very simple When it on you hit it the magnet sucks it in and it pops it right back up and that great I love that I love that It doesn need to be overly complex
    40:53
    Like the shield in D&D. You put the shield up, it's up. Like, that's it. You press the button, the shield's up. And of course you have a timer and the shield will go down, but it's like when you know that's orange, I think it was, unless they changed the color, it was orange, you hit it, boom, shield's up. I'm good. I got my shield up. I'm going to go attack the dragon. I'm going to work this in. I'm going to be strategic about my usage of the shield. I enjoyed that, but I just couldn't with Fall of the Empire. So, yeah, I don't know where I'm going with this now. It's 42 minutes. We're 42 minutes in. I know this was a little bit of a rambling podcast, and hopefully you guys enjoyed it, though. But I wanted, I just, I felt like sometimes I get frustrated, and I think my frustration is just because it's not a who's right and who's wrong, but I do think based on, just like nostalgia, nostalgia has a time scale. Like when I was at Transformers, there are people there that did not grow up with Transformers. So they're going into this not knowing what it meant to me as a kid. And so that obviously influenced me. No matter who makes the game, if you make a theme that's from my childhood or something, and maybe it wasn't from yours, I'm going to have a very different reaction to that. Especially if I'm very well in tune with all the assets from that, whatever that IP is, and I see it being thrown all over the screen or the music is recognizable to me or the sound effects or the call outs. Like that's going to pull me into that. I get it. It's not going to pull someone else as far into it. It's like Pokemon. Like I don't have any nostalgia for Pokemon because that wasn't my era. Like it wasn't popular when I was a kid. And if it was, it just wasn't like it was it was maybe on the fringe of being like mainstream popularity. So I just never it just wasn't something I was never into. So, like, I got rid of my Pokemon. I was like the code is. And again, this is what you get sometimes with a new in box game. They're clearly having major problems with that code when it comes to the license holder. And that's unfortunate because I think there are people that really love that. They're nostalgic for Pokemon and they want more. And, you know, we're already at our next game. And normally you have a couple of code updates by now that are really like starting to build the momentum of that game when it comes to software. And you start to really be able to see where they're going to go with it. With Pokemon, I didn't see a direction, but also that was one if I really think about it. I didn't need to get that game.
    43:16
    Do I think it's kind of fun? It is kind of fun because it's very satisfying because it's kind of an, I don't want to say an easy game, but the shots are kind of easy to hit. They're all right in front of you. You know, you have the Bozo Zone. It's a cool game, but it just doesn't have enough for me, and I'm not nostalgic for it. So if I had to rewind back, I went to the media day. I should have just stopped there, enjoyed it on location, and I didn't really have a reason to bring that in. But then with Transformers, that's something I'm really nostalgic for. With Goonies coming out from Spooky in November, hopefully we get that announcement. That's one I would almost consider because I think Spooky is starting to get hit astride to me. Their code is pretty good. I think they do cool things, and they are really good at integrating themes. So I feel like I'm very excited for what a Spooky Goonies game could be like. But that's one where nostalgia for me right now is so high because I watched that with my sister time and time and time again. And we practically wore out the VHS tape. I remember we taped it on HBO or something when we finally got that. And I don't know, was it HBO? No, I think it was on regular TV because I remember cutting out the commercials.
    44:39
    So that's one where I mean, that's what I'm saying. Nostalgia has time periods. Some people are even more interested than others. But I also think in the same way, pinball has that too. You have people that entered the era of pinball in the 70s or in the 80s or in the 90s or in the 2000s even, and maybe what speaks to them is very different. But I don't view them as being wrong, by the way. Like I think there are people that want a hard line, like you don't know what a good pinball machine should be.
    45:08
    But I feel like if you're into modern pinball, then you're probably think of it similar to me, you know, where you want a mech or two or a toy or two, but you just – you really want the progression. You really want to feel like you can dig into a game because the code is so good and you're seeing new things and it's constantly firing at your senses because all the thematic stuff is there. And that's kind of what I like about pinball. And I think even these companies that pack their games with a bunch of stuff, they're also doing interesting things with code. So I'm very excited to see, you know, what Jersey Jack does. And because Steve Ritchie is such a beloved designer, I think that alone is going to have a lot of interest in the game. And then Sonic being something that people are definitely nostalgic for. And the thing about Sonic that's even more interesting is sometimes nostalgia transcends generations. And Sonic, I played Sega Genesis Sonic. I didn't really play much Sonic past that, you know, Sonic 1, 2, and 3, and then maybe some of the other outlier games. But there are people that grew up with it in the Sonic Generations era and those types of games, like the more modern Sonic. But Sonic throughout the years is still Sonic. He's still about going fast. He's still about collecting rings. So there's still like a lot of commonality in the Sonic universe. But that's what's kind of cool about it is because people are nostalgic for it throughout different decades.
    46:35
    Now, what will that result in? Will certain people be disappointed if it's not one or the other? Like, which generation did they decide to take? And it sounds like Jack has talked about it being more of a modern Sonic game. He said that. So is that going to make people disappointed? I don't know, because in this hobby, people love to get disappointed. And so I just have to say, though, if you listen to this, and especially if you've met me in person, I'm an extremely optimistic person in general. I don't look at the world in a lens that's negative. I look at the world in an optimistic way. And I feel like that's how I like to live my life. I feel like I would be miserable if the hobby that I loved, I nitpicked it so aggressively that I ended up being not happy with anything. I just don't think I would just stop doing this. I'd be like, maybe this hobby doesn't bring me joy, but it does. It brings me so much joy. I have so much fun with it. It's such a cool escape from, you know, we all have jobs that help us, you know, feed our families and contribute to, you know, mostly our families. We work to support our family and to give them a great life, our kids and stuff like that. Sometimes people love their work. Sometimes work is just work. But I do think that work tends to be, especially nowadays, it's tiresome. It's gruesome. It's a grind. Economy is tough, stuff like that. So the things going on in the world aren't great sometimes depending on what day of the week it is. And so that escape or that fun you have through pinball, if I looked at it through a negative lens, it wouldn't be the escape that it is for me. And sure, there are things that I don't like about certain games, but I kind of just move on then. You know what I mean? I just go, that game's not for me. I don't just fixate on it forever.
    48:33
    That I don't get. But, you know, everyone's built differently, but I just feel like if I lived in that headspace, I don't think I'd have as much fun as I am in this hobby. So I have to – I'm going to give you critiques on games, but I'm going to do it in a level-headed way, and that's kind of always how I've delivered content. And that's how I'm going to continue to level – to cover this hobby. And sometimes I like to joke and poke fun, and lately it's weird. I've had some posts on my Facebook where people are getting mad at weird things. Like I have a sense of humor. I can joke about stuff, and I think we should be able to joke about stuff. And laugh, you know. I posted this thing about the Pinball Hall of Fame. I've gone to the Pinball Hall of Fame a bunch of times. I went to the old building, then I went to the new building, and I happened to be in Vegas for a thing called Amusement Expo International. It's like an arcade show that happens every year. Stern comes, Jersi Jack used to, but they've kind of pulled out of it in recent years. But Replay Magazine promotes Amusement Expo, so Jack is kind of involved with Replay Magazine, so he tends to talk about the event and stuff. And they cover Jersey Jack games and things like that. It's just the last couple of years, I think it was the last three years, Jersey Jack hasn't been there. American Pinball was there, I think the first year I was there. It's a smaller show. It's a smaller show than IAPA, and it happens after IAPA, so it doesn't have all the whiz-bang stuff that IAPA has. But at that show, where was I even going with that? Oh, at that show, I took a break from the show, and we went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. And the we just I just didn't have a fun experience. It was like all the games that I wanted to play were broken. I felt like the staff was really angry at everybody, the kids coming in like it was just a weird vibe. It wasn't a fun vibe to me at all. And maybe it was like that before, but maybe that day I went, everyone was kind of doing other things or fixing games. But it was just a really weird, not great feeling and experience. And then going there to play some cool rare games and they're broken, it just didn't – it felt like more of a museum to me than it did a playable arcade. And so I made a joke video about all the rules they have because they have this long list of rules, like no running, no skipping, no waving your arms. It's like crazy. It's basically – it's like kryptonite to a kid. Like don't do – don't be a kid. If you're a kid, like don't come in here is what it should actually say because it seems like they're not welcoming to kids. So then maybe just put it's an adult only place. I don't know. But so I poked fun at it a little bit and I don't want the place to not be successful. I want people to go and check it out. And I realize when you have a collection that big, it's going to ebb and flow. You're going to have weeks where everything's running and you're going to have weeks where a bunch of stuff is down. Like, I get that. I do think it seems like they're very short staffed when it comes to techs. So it doesn't seem like they can keep up with the games that they have there. But anyways, so I made this video and there was like there was there was like some comments where I was like to just laugh like it's just supposed to be funny. Like I don't hate the place. I don't hate anybody that works there. You know, I don't I don't really know them personally, so I can't I don't I don't have that kind of like that's not me. You know, it's just funny where I post something that's like a little bit different or I'm joking around a little bit and it's like, oh, my gosh, you're so negative. Why is it's like what? It's like, what do you do? You watch my content like you even watch me because I would say I'd be I'm the most least negative person. And I mean, I'm in a category of a very optimistic pinball content creator. So it's just weird. Anyways, we got to be able to laugh at ourselves. You got to have fun, man. And sometimes you have to poke fun at yourself. I'm very I love making fun of myself. I do stupid stuff all the time and I laugh at myself for it. So it's you got to you got to do that. Life is too short to not be able to laugh and have some fun sometimes. So anyways, that's all I got.
    52:16
    I'm going to close you guys out. I hope you enjoyed this episode. It wasn't exactly where I wanted to go with it, you know, but I want to really, really, really want to hear your comments. So let me know what you think. Like what what is the golden era of pinball for you? And do you prefer the modern era? Do you enjoy these deep rule sets and code and progression that they're putting into the game? Or do you wish pinball was more simple and just, you know, you know, packed with stuff, but maybe simplistic in the way that you play it and progress it? Because I think with the amount of people that buy these for homes now with the home buyer taking up more than 80 percent of the market, it feels to me like modern pinball needs to be deep with rules and code in order for you to feel good about the investment. Anyways, guys, I always appreciate you coming, listening here, commenting. I try to comment. I try to write back to all the comments. Lately, my day job has been absolutely insane, and sometimes I'm not as good about that. But I promise I will try to get back to everybody. I always try to do that or set aside time each week to respond to comments and stuff. But anyways guys, that's it for now. We will see you on the flip side. Thanks guys, appreciate you. And we got Sonic right around the corner, so you're gonna definitely see some content from me on that. And I'm excited to, yeah, I'm just excited to see what the community reaction is to that game because, man, Richie, the King of Flow, man. The King of Flow is back. What's he gonna do? We'll find out in really short order. Alright guys, we'll see you next time. Thank you.