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Episode 59: Doo Do Doo Do Topper Gate!!!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Jun 10, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Poor Man's discusses Stern's $600 JP topper, Oktoberfest ownership, and pricing concerns.

Summary

In this casual episode of Poor Man's Pinball Podcast, hosts Drew and Ian discuss their recent pinball acquisitions and engage in extended commentary about Stern's new $600 Jurassic Park topper, which includes a 'goat mode' DLC feature. While initially skeptical of the price, both hosts soften their stance after reviewing video content, though they express broader concerns about escalating machine and accessory prices potentially pricing out casual collectors. They also cover American Pinball's Oktoberfest machine, upcoming TMNT Premium pre-orders, and Jack Danger's upcoming Hot Wheels stream.

Key Claims

  • Stern's Jurassic Park topper sold out completely on the day of release

    high confidence · Drew and Ian both confirmed the immediate sellout during discussion of topper release

  • Stern has been making toppers priced around $400 since the spike system launch in 2016, approximately 5 years prior

    high confidence · Drew stated: 'Stern has been making toppers that sell for roughly $400. Okay. So, you know, it got up to... for five years now.'

  • American Pinball dropped Oktoberfest's price by approximately $1,000 about two weeks after release

    medium confidence · Ian mentioned: 'it was like two weeks later they dropped it a thousand bucks'

  • Oktoberfest has 14 modes plus wizard modes

    high confidence · Ian stated: 'that's cool that's and then once you get all 14 tents then you go into the wizard modes' and confirmed '14 modes'

  • A coil stop modification for the third flipper on Oktoberfest costs $8 and requires only two screws to install

    high confidence · Ian described the modification in detail: 'it's literally eight dollars super cheap... just two screws'

  • Stern Pro machines have increased from approximately $4,000 to $5,000+ over the past few years

    medium confidence · Drew stated: 'when I started in this hobby a few years ago, Stern Pros were... like $4,000. And now most Stern Pros are in that $5,000 range.'

  • The Jurassic Park topper includes a 'goat mode' as DLC that is not included with LE or Premium owners

    high confidence · Ian explained: 'it also includes or unlocks a goat mode which is basically a bunch of goats... it's not even including it for the le owners they're not including it for the premium'

  • Jack Danger will be streaming Hot Wheels gameplay on Saturday, the 13th at 5 p.m. central time

    high confidence · Ian stated: 'jack danger's stream is actually going to be um this saturday 5 p.m central so that would be doing quick math the 13th of this month so check out dead flip for the hot wheels reveal'

Notable Quotes

  • “Topper gate... we did not plan that topper gate i was thinking about that all day today topper gate so fucking ridiculous”

    Ian @ approx. 51:00 — Establishes the playful framing of the Stern topper controversy as 'topper gate,' setting the tone for extended discussion

  • “I might put stars on the chopping block just because I like it. I enjoy it. I didn't put a ton of work into it.”

    Drew @ approx. 23:00 — Reveals Drew's intention to sell his Stars machine to make room for TMNT Premium, indicating collection management priorities

  • “If you bought one, these people who are shaming people, like, whatever. You know, I'm not going to even say shame on you. You're entitled to your opinion and say what you want. But, you know, good for you.”

    Ian @ approx. 65:00 — Reflects Ian's pragmatic stance on topper pricing and consumer choice despite his earlier price concerns

  • “If they just gave this to the LE owners, if it was included with the LEs on Jurassic Park, and then they say, hey. And then people are like, oh, can I get that? And Stern says, sure, but it costs $600. Then I'd be like, okay, cool.”

    Drew @ approx. 68:00 — Drew proposes an alternative pricing/bundling strategy for the topper that he views as more equitable

  • “my dad he's like i'm drinking way too much beer... he goes it's just it's too much and he almost looked ashamed... he's like i drink a case a day 24 beers a day”

    Ian @ approx. 34:00 — Personal anecdote about Ian's father that humanizes the casual discussion and reveals family dynamics

  • “I'm just worried that if this keeps going on, though, that I might get priced out of this hobby. Because, like, I'm kind of at the tip top now of what I can kind of shell out for games and stuff.”

    Drew @ approx. 61:00 — Core concern about long-term affordability and market accessibility for mid-tier collectors

  • “Ha ha, fuck Spider-Man. Ha ha ha ha ha”

    Drew (quoting Zach Maniette response) — Humorous reference to Drew's abandoned quest for Spider-Man machine, now replaced by TMNT Premium pre-order

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyJack DangerpersonChristopher FranchipersonKanedapersonEric PripkepersonOrbital AlbertpersonZach ManiettepersonChris Koulerisperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern released Jurassic Park topper at $600 with DLC goat mode not bundled with LE/Premium versions, raising questions about future DLC monetization strategy

    high · Ian: 'if they just gave this to the LE owners... then they say, sure, but it costs $600. Then I'd be like, okay, cool.' Drew expresses concern about separate DLC pricing model establishing precedent.

  • $

    market_signal: Stern machine pricing has increased from ~$4,000 to $5,000+ in Pro tier over recent years; topper accessories also following upward trajectory ($400 to $600+)

    high · Drew: 'when I started... Stern Pros were... like $4,000. And now most Stern Pros are in that $5,000 range.' Star Wars topper $750, Jurassic Park $600.

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern Jurassic Park topper sold out same day of release despite $600 price point and community debate

    high · Ian: 'They sold out obviously stern's okay with it too' and 'They're gone poof Gone magic all right'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Both hosts initially skeptical of $600 topper price, but after viewing Straight Down The Middle video demonstrating build quality and lighting effects, opinions softened significantly

    high · Ian: 'i watched it straight down the middle video uh i've softened up on it i think it actually looks beefy' and Drew agrees after seeing visual content.

  • ?

    collector_signal: Drew actively managing collection by pre-ordering TMNT Premium and planning to sell Stars machine to make physical space, indicating strategic portfolio management

    high · Drew: 'I can't keep them all. If I kept them all, I would have 15 machines... My wife would be divorcing me.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.260

0:00
Hey everybody, the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast is brought to you by Pinstadiums. Drew. Ian. How do you love Pinstadiums? You know I love them. I talk about them every week. What can we talk about them this week? What's cool? Hey, hovers. I have my second pair of hovers in Jurassic Park Premium. I've been thinking about them. What do you think about them? You know, in the pinball world, they're pretty cheap. They're less than 50 bucks. I suggest you just add them on when you get your pin stadiums and, you know, use poor man at checkout, save your 10%. But super cool because, you know, I like to tinker with my machines. So even my newer machines, granted, I don't lift up the play field as much. But what the hovers do is they're little mounts on the side. So you mount them actually to the play field. So when you raise your play field, you don't need to remove your pin stadium lights. Is there still magnet strips or did they get rid of them? So the hovers take care of all of that. Yes. Cool. You mount these. Generally, there's three. It comes with six mounts.
1:04
Some games, you only need two. Some games, you need three, depending on how the play field's set up. But three is ideal. One towards the front, one in the middle, one in the back on each light bar. And then you set them up. You can lift up the play field. It comes right along with it, and you're good to go. All right. You heard it here first, folks. If you don't have hovers, get them. God damn it, get them. Yeah, they're awesome. And then our other sponsor is Pinshades. Of course, our buddy Jockton over there working magic with sunglasses, basically taking sunglasses and adding some UV layers to them to cut down on glare. Now, it's not going to affect the lighting of your machine. It literally eliminates any glare or potential glare that you're going to see off that glass, right? Yes. I mean, it is crystal clear. that glass disappears and anything that that light reflects off of say plastics or whatever or the metal ramps it cuts those down so the play field is nice and crisp and that's what makes the ball so much easier to track so um you can enter poor man's with an s at checkout you can get those at pin side in the marketplace or just google pin shades and boom track those balls baby track those balls. Tracking them. Tracking them. Alright, well, let's start her up.
@ approx. 28:00
Chris
person
Drewperson
Ianperson
Martinperson
Carrie Hardyperson
Dave Bernardperson
Kuiperperson
Straight Down The Middlemedia
One Well Brewingcompany
Pinstadiumscompany
Pinshadescompany
Jurassic Parkgame
Oktoberfestgame
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Premiumgame
Hot Wheelsgame
Meteorgame
Starsgame
  • ?

    content_signal: Straight Down The Middle's video content about Jurassic Park topper demonstrably shifted community perception from negative to positive, influencing host opinions despite static online photos looking cheap

    high · Ian contrasts static photos ('looks like just a cheap shitty topper') with video experience ('i watched it... i've softened up on it')

  • ?

    product_concern: Community concern that DLC-style monetization (goat mode locked behind $600 topper purchase) may become standard practice for future Stern releases

    medium · Drew expresses concern: 'And how it might, the future might be DLC. That. And... goes back to my point too, what I was just talking about.'

  • $

    market_signal: Used market pricing following new machine price increases, creating potential barrier to entry for budget-conscious collectors even in secondary market

    medium · Drew: 'the used market is following the the new market to some degree... if they just keep doing this every year though... i i think if they're going to have a three-tier model'

  • ?

    product_strategy: American Pinball Oktoberfest underperformed in units sold; hosts speculate theme was primary barrier, proposing hypothetical Goonies reskin would have sold 4x units with identical gameplay/code

    medium · Ian: 'the layout is so good and the rules are so good... if you would have kept everything the way it is... but instead of octoberfest they put goonies in there... they would have sold a ton more.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: American Pinball reduced Oktoberfest price by approximately $1,000 roughly two weeks after launch, suggesting demand/sales velocity concern

    medium · Ian: 'he got it when it was spanking brand new like 7500 or whatever and then it was like two weeks later you know they dropped it you know and the price... it went down like a thousand dollars'

  • ?

    announcement: Jack Danger streaming Hot Wheels machine reveal on upcoming Saturday (13th) at 5 p.m. central time on Deadflip platform

    high · Ian: 'jack danger's stream is actually going to be um this saturday 5 p.m central so that would be doing quick math the 13th of this month so check out dead flip'

  • ?

    content_signal: Poor Man's Pinball Podcast reached record download numbers in past two weeks; attributed to high-profile guest appearances; podcast establishing itself as industry media outlet

    high · Ian: 'The last two weeks, we had the most downloaded weeks that we've ever seen' and 'we have, like I said, a record number of subscribers over the last couple of weeks.'

    • 2:36
    Oh yeah, it's time. You've waited a week or more, and now it's finally here. The time has come for the sloppiest show on the internet. This week's episode of Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. Starring Drew and Ian That's it man Game over man Game over I'm gonna need Someone to help me I'm gonna need Somebody's help Son of a bitch Give me a drink One other night But it's definitely me I'm a little bitch And I'm drinking free I'm gonna drink my way Welcome to the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast, episode number 59, your favorite pinball podcast, the sloppiest show on the internet, brought to you by all those wonderful sponsors. Today in studio is just Drew and I. Drew, how you doing, buddy? Am I the special guest this week? No special guest. you know zach sharp has been bugging us hey can i get on can i get on can i get on we said fuck off no we just want to hang out just want to hang out today drew and i just want to be buds we just want to drink today it's our favorite thing to do and that's what we're gonna do and maybe both i don't know depends on the day yeah sometimes all we drink then we're like okay now we're buds we'll stand each other it's like my wife i'll tolerate you tolerate you this time But welcome, Drew. How are you, brother? Oh, I'm good, man. You know, the last four weeks, we had four amazing guests. We had Orbital Albert. Yep. Then we had Mr. Eric Pripke. Yep. Then we had Mr. Christopher Franchi. Yep. And then we had Kaneda. Chris, Mr. Chris Kouleris. Too cool for socks. Too cool for socks, Kouleris. Yep. So anyways, the last four weeks, we hit some more poor man's milestones. The last two weeks, we had the most downloaded weeks that we've ever seen. Yeah. And this is total downloads for the week, so this is attributed to all four of those amazing guests that people wanted to listen to. Absolutely. But fuck you guys, because that was a lot of work. That was four weeks of, you guys know I'm just joking. Yeah, Drew didn't do any work. Yeah.
    5:09
    That's the joke. Drew had to spend 20 minutes a week doing show notes. No. He belly ached the whole time. Oh, whatever. So anyways, it's good to get back in studio. Just have some fun. This is going to be a light episode. We've got some fun stuff to talk about. But I just wanted to thank those guys because they were awesome. I mean, all four of them were super cool. Absolutely. And thank you to all the listeners. We have, like I said, a record number of subscribers over the last couple of weeks. and um the one guy in alaska who are you i look i look at our stats we have one person in alaska that that checks us out all right so if you're out there email us poor man's pinball at gmail.com let us know who you are we'll give you a special shout out on the show you'll be our only alaskan uh listener come on alaskan dude we need to know who you are there's like three in russia yeah come on alaskan dude you can send us an email at poor man's pinball gmail.com let's have an alaskan dude episode you know who you are it's just cool looking at the map and you see like oh you know new york has this many you know downloads for this episode in texas and then you go to like idaho and there's like two people and you go to wyoming and there's a couple of people and then you know some of these countries you know in the middle of nowhere so just kind of fun so yeah maybe just email us let us know where you're from let us know you're listening fourmanspinball at gmail.com absolutely drew what you drinking buddy uh i am drinking ian's wife bought this stuff called high west whiskey american prairie bourbon it's pretty good yeah my wife buys uh when she goes to the grocery store she always pretty ruses the liquor aisle and that's whiskey with the key by the way yes that's a that's good old kentucky um but no she she just buys them from the pretty bottles so it's in a pretty cool bottle It is. It's a neat bottle. It's interesting. It doesn't have the screw top, so it's fancier than what I'm used to.
    7:13
    It's got the old cork top. That's awesome. All right, so let's get into this show a little bit, huh, buddy? Oh, what am I drinking? I almost forgot. What are you drinking? What am I drinking? So I went and picked up a Oktoberfest last week, and I bought it from... Can we just cue some Oktoberfest music? Absolutely.
    7:36
    So I bought it from a guy named Chris. He's a super cool dude, by the way. He owns One Well Brewing, so a brewery over there. Super chill dude. Big pinball head. Just incredible. Loves pinball so much.
    7:52
    So American Pinball, I guess, went up to him and said, Hey, you need to have this Oktoberfest in your brewery. It's going to make you a ton of money. and he agreed and got a brand new uh this is like he got it when it was spanking brand new like 7500 or whatever and then it was like two months later you know they dropped it you know and the price you remember that oh yeah it went down like a thousand dollars yeah he's like it was like yeah it was like two weeks later they dropped it a thousand bucks and bastards but wasn't an earner for him poor bastard the kids they love deadpool they love star wars you know so uh so We had to get rid of it and make room for some new fun stuff, probably getting the TMNT, I'm assuming. But he loaded my car up full of beer, which was awesome. So I'm going to have a one-well brewing. Oh, he's out of Kalamazoo, Michigan. So kind of on the border there. You know, it's Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, that whole trifecta there. The Bermuda Triangle. Yeah. So this is called Sweet Water Street, and it's a coffee donut porter I'm drinking. Is that the one we had last week? No, we had... What was that one? That was good. Yeah, it was like a dragon on it. It was their cloche or whatever. Their blonde... Yeah, it was a blonde ale. Yeah. That was what it was. Yeah, we set up Oktoberfest, and we were playing a few games, and Ian's like, I don't drink much beer anymore. And I had that, and I was like, wow, this is really good. Yeah. Hey, guys. Ian here. I just wanted to get it right. So from One Well Brewing, it's called Opener, and it is a blonde ale. It's phenomenal. So if you're near Kalamazoo, Michigan, check out One Well Brewing. It is delicious.
    9:37
    So let me take a sip here. I haven't taken a sip yet. I'll tell you what. It smells like breakfast. It does.
    9:43
    Breakfast at night. Love it. Oh, that's fucking good. Here, take a sip. You're going to like that. That's really fucking good. oh yeah yeah that's dangerous kids all right wow what is that one well brewing one well brewing so thank you very much again chris you are a scholar and a gentleman and this beer is fucking phenomenal so if you haven't checked out their brewery please do in kalamazoo all right so let's go into some poor man's personal pinball news right let's do it poor man's podcast personal pinball news there we go i said it and now the moment you've all been waiting for of course i'm talking about the poor man's pinball podcast personal pinball news i'll just keep going so picked up the oktoberfest dragged it down here couldn't set it up right away because i had to pick up my daughter. I had to be a dad. It's one of the harder things I've had to do.
    10:54
    And then the second hardest thing is when I got it all set up, it was literally like that night, and that was also the time I usually edit the podcast. That's why, part of the reason why the episode with Kaneda wasn't edited, because I got a new pinball machine. I had to play Octoberfest. Played Octoberfest all night.
    11:15
    Do you think, hang on, about the editing. We always kind of talk about it. Do you think if it weren't for the actual clips and music we put in, would people know if we were edited?
    11:26
    I don't know. It's not like I'm a great editor. No, you're an awesome editor. But my point is that you and I are sometimes so off the wall, there's no editing that. No.
    11:38
    You know what's really hard is when we're off the wall and we're in a role and we're all excited and we're yelling into the mics, and then we make a mistake and you go edit, edit, edit. it's a little hard to piece all that together you know oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah then it's and then it's like yeah so anyway deadpool's pretty cool game and then i'm like okay delete all that okay now i got crickets and then deadpool's good game anyway let's move on we get so excited it's a ridiculous podcast all right so oktoberfest um i am loving it i am absolutely loving it actually no it's always really really cool when your wife can go downstairs play pinball and say holy shit this is a cool game so wife loves it i had some family over this weekend because we don't believe in the rona anymore so whatever rona's officially canceled yeah we just summer's here baby we're we're meeting up we're having fun so um every time my dad came down here to get a beer uh he played a game of octoberfest every single goddamn time he comes up from the first beer and he's like oh man i juggled my balls and i'm like the fuck are you talking about that you know and uh so he uh he ended up uh then he told me yeah i played your octoberfest that game's awesome oh yeah hell yeah it is my dad's a big german though he's a big german fan so that's right up my dad's alley so getting to learn the rules it's been a lot of fun i'm pretty decent at about three modes right now out of the 14 like you just have to pick up a mode and just play it a few times to kind of get the the hang of it how many modes are in there 14 modes 14 tents other other companies are you listening yeah so that's uh that's cool that's and then once you get all 14 tents then you go into the wizard modes so yep you're almost there so we're at three out of 14 so um i did order the shaker motor the knocker and the coil stop so the coil stop is for that third flipper if you have an october fest and don't have the coil stop i'd highly recommend talking to your distributor or just ordering it directly from the american pinball website it's literally eight dollars super cheap um all it does is shortens the stroke of the flipper sure there's a ways you can actually adjust the flipper physically sure but this is something that's two screws so just eight bucks two screws anyone can do it um but basically it's going to shorten that third flipper and uh they did a bunch of tests over there at american pinball and the success rate of that third flipper into the beer barrel is about 60 percent so yeah my only after playing like several more games now on it my only like slight i'll just call it a knock but it's really not is yeah that that right ramp with that flipper and then the long corkscrew ramp from the bottom right flipper it gets pretty tough to get all the way up there for drew for drew but what's amazing with what about that is the rest of the game is so much fun you know that you can get into all the modes and do almost everything without that anyways so um i saw drew's face he was not happy oh well i get frustrated when i you know me because i'm always so competitive when i'm playing so i was talking to kuiper his he was even able to backhand it with his left flipper see and i heard people and yeah i tried that a few times ian's like there's no way you're gonna look back i i didn't know and uh no i i assumed you couldn't just by yeah i'm gonna try behind it but anyways uh you know we'll crank up the power a little bit more let's do it no you know get it dialed in i'm sure it's gonna be awesome but the game is just it's fun i mean for all the naysayers out there fun fun fun pinball drew and i were having a very detailed conversation about just the layout and all the stuff in there and if you and and the reason and they didn't sell a lot and it's 100 theme we all agree on that um i love the theme so this is a great pin for me but i understand i'm way in the minority so with that being said drew and i were talking about it and we came up with an idea of if someone if they would have kept everything the way it is in there right but instead of octoberfest they put goonies in there right so you know your corkscrew ramp is actually the waterfall the kids fall down the beer barrel lock is actually where the pirate ship would be instead of the bartender dude that's one-eye willie you know spinning around um and then just have a pirate theme with the call outs from the show or the movie i mean sure you got the lcd artwork oh yeah i mean they guess how many more units they would have sold All it would have been would have been a cosmetic change and then the code.
    16:23
    What you just described, I'm going to go out on a limb here, because the layout is so good and the rules are so good in this thing, that that might have been a contender for Game of the Year. Yeah. It probably wouldn't have beat out Jurassic Park. No. But it still would have been. They would have sold a lot more. Yes, they would have sold a ton. Instead of 14 tents, they could have done 14 different Goonie. Not episodes. was but like yeah parts of the movie adventures yeah adventures yeah 14 different adventures they did a bunch well you wouldn't even need 14 you could do well i'm i'm just trying to make it easy like i'm just saying a purely cosmetic conversion strip that down so we got to figure out 14 different things on there because it's already there but i'm just thinking purely cosmetic super easy and that would have sold four times as much pinball modders out there are you listening yeah it's up to you guys man get something going i think it would be i think it would be a great project um but anyway i i love it as october fest so i would never do that but um i american pinball you were close you were so goddamn close so speaking of american pinball i don't know this isn't really personal news but do you hear jack danger is going to be streaming hot wheels yes and by the time i think you're hearing this he had already done it i'm pretty sure it's going to be in the next couple days do they announce a day in time yet i don't know but jack did go over there and play it he said it was pretty damn good so he uh he released some teaser pictures and some different things and jack danger's stream is actually going to be um this saturday 5 p.m central so that would be doing quick math the 13th of this month so check out dead flip for the hot wheels reveal um well yeah it it looks fun like we like what we were talking about with canada though i mean that's one of those things where it's it's going up against that family friendly teenage mutant ninja turtles you know it's a hot property versus hot wheels you know it's tough stuff man so anyway that's my oktoberfest stuff drew what's going on with you brother um there's really no change on my projects other than i finished ripping apart meteor and i'm getting ready to i'm waiting on some paints and i'm gonna finish painting and clear coating that beast before I put her back together. But I did contact Mr. Zach Maniette, Flippin' Out Pinball, and I said, Hey, Zach. And he said, What? And I said, I can't believe I'm saying this. Put me on the list for a TMNT premium. There you go. And you know what he said back to me? Yeah. Ha ha, fuck Spider-Man. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh. So anyways, I am officially on the list. They're not shipping until like July. Well played, Zach. Well played. So, you know, my quest for Spider-Man has officially ended for now, at least. For now. And, you know, premium's coming out in about a month, month and a half. So I'll be patient. I'm still trying to make room and finish these projects and stuff. So it's actually really good timing. So I'll get the projects done. I might sell a pin or two. And the other thing, this might be sacrilege, but I don't have any real connection to it. I might put stars on the chopping block just because I like it. I enjoy it. I didn't put a ton of work into it. I played it. You know what I mean. It's just one of those things. I can't keep them all. If I kept them all, I would have 15 machines in my house right now. My wife would be divorcing me. You got to do what you got to do. That's more room for pinball though. I think about that often. Kathleen, you know how many pinball machines you're taking up? Yeah.
    20:07
    Who needs a living room and a kitchen table? I mean, what are we doing here? Yeah, exactly. So anyways, I think it's a good choice. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just looks freaking amazing. And I just can't pass up the opportunity to at least own it and play it and see if it's one to be bolted. So there you go. Boom. Poor man. See how things just move when it's just you and I? Move and groove, man. we don't have to listen to people's opinions so news news news should we do some news yes let's do some news i have lots of opinions speaking of opinions i got lots of opinions yeah opinions yeah opinions all right so we'll go to the the hot topic this this is me cracking my knuckles i have to say this is the most ridiculous hot topic we've had in a while it is but uh i think it's uh not just because it's topical and everyone's talking about it i think it's really interesting and i think there's i think there's a lot of takes on it and i learned so much more about it today so go ahead get us started yeah we're talking obviously about uh jersey jack's releasing the guns and roses machine stupid jokes god that's like a drew joke that you've scripted and it didn't go anywhere speaking yeah speaking of jokes real quick out of out of left field my dad was so hammered and this happens all the time that's not what funny what funny was some of his jokes were so fucking funny i had to get a piece of paper and start writing them down for dad jokes They rated R Oh no doubt But they are great So I'm saving them for the next dad joke, so get excited, folks. He is one of the happiest, loudest drunks you've ever met. Oh my god. And he doesn't drink booze, it's just beer. He just pounds beer like he would. Yeah, he's retired this year. so he is uh he goes to me he's like son i was like yeah he's like i'm drinking way too much beer i'm like well what's what's too much because my dad no doubt drinks six to ten beers a night has always since i was a little kid and he goes it's just it's too much and he almost looked ashamed i was like all right dude how much is too much beer for you he's like i drink a case a day 24 beers a day and he's not exaggerating and i looked at him i was like that's a lot of fucking beer dad i was like you need to cut that top who drinks that much beer oh my god that's crazy you gotta go do something man get another hobby than drinking beer yeah that man anyway so we're talking about the stern topper okay let's talk about the stern topper this is the top for jurassic park everyone knows about it topper gate oh my god we did not plan that topper gate i was thinking about that all day today topper gate so fucking ridiculous so start releases a jurassic park topper uh six hundred dollars it's a multi-level plastics led lighting interactive uh to the game and it also includes or unlocks a goat mode which is basically a bunch of goats it just sounds like goats and there's a screen of a goat and that's that's that's it man 600 bucks so um you know when i first saw it i was like oh my god is that a cash grab because it looks like a really really that photo looked like just a cheap shitty topper for for you guys who don't know it's it's a flat plastic topper it's multi-level plastic but from a picture point of view it looks like just one flat plastic yeah a thicker flat but uh but then i watched it straight down the middle video uh i've softened up on it i think it actually looks beefy actually there's some some some umph to it there's a it's thick it's very thick and because of its multiple layers it's got a big black case on the back of it i mean there's some guts to this thing which is kind of cool yeah but do you think i mean and it looked cool when it was lit up did you see that video by well of course it looks cool no i haven't seen the video i probably i probably should have it's actually it's actually pretty goddamn cool i've listened to all the commentary i checked it out online statically you know i like i said there were some some youtube videos a lot of podcasts and and like i said i checked it out on the website and so i kind of formed my own opinion and to your point about it being like seems beefy i mean does that matter if it's just a rectangle piece with yeah okay it does okay most toppers are a rectangle piece no i understood but just the the cost of it yeah i'm okay with it you're okay with it yeah because they sold out obviously stern's okay with it too yes no and and there's a lot of people out there that are okay with it and and i kind of struggled with this because everyone knows i'm a capitalist at heart and i'm like hey if you can get the money get the money so drew why don't you give me your take sure so because i'm like at first i was pissed but now i'm like totally over it i'm like oh well whatever yes i don't i don't give a shit i've i've rolled it sold out it doesn't matter anymore yes it's they're gone i've i've rolled back and forth a couple of times woof they're gone poof um woof poof gone magic all right at first i at first i thought it was a little too expensive for what it was um but then i looked at some other toppers and stuff and You know, Stern's toppers for the last, ever since they've been doing the spike system, you know, which is since like 2016. So we're going on about five years now. So for five years, Stern has been making toppers that sell for roughly $400. Okay.
    26:02
    So, you know, it got up to, I don't know, the Ghostbusters topper was, you know, sought after and was a little more, I think it was $500 or something. um so with with that in mind six hundred dollars to me isn't crazy what was the last topper release that would have been deadpool no what was the one god damn it they did an iron maiden topper they did beetles oh star wars how much was star wars 750 but that was different that was articulated that star wars star wars you'd have a black knight black knight was the one last year what was that how much 350 450 okay so you got 450 700 something and then you have it take take star wars out of there jurassic park all right so all three of them license included yeah yeah all right that's why archie detos is it's so expensive right yeah yeah that one no one's shocked about that you know that's i thought they were pretty shocked but well they were ridiculous but it's it's star wars and you know whatever and the beatles wasn't that much i guess i don't know how that works but But here's the thing. Rick and Morty's was free.
    27:10
    Yeah, you know, not many people in town. Plastic, maybe. And it articulates. Yeah, that was kind of a different scenario, though. Just saying. They didn't expect to sell out every single one that day.
    27:22
    Woof. Sorry, Charlie. He's doing okay. Oh, poor Charlie. Yeah, poor Charlie. 750 games that he has to make. Anyway, sorry. So, you know, it's not crazy. I am just worried. Not worried. Worried is the wrong word. I just think that if this keeps going on, though, that I might get priced out of this hobby.
    27:49
    Because, like, I'm kind of at the tip top now of what I can kind of shell out for games and stuff. And I can sell stuff. I get that. but if i want to continue to build a collection and you know have fun and pinball and keep doing what i'm doing if these prices keep going up every year you know it's just going to become something that comes out of reach for i think a large majority of the people well that's why they use markets so wonderful right you don't have to get new in box i mean that's kind of a that's for a certain type of person yeah and the guys that get multiple new in boxes they're it's not like they're holding on to them very long because the used market always tends to get flooded when new games are coming out right no but okay go ahead you know and i i'll say this um with with this hobby being as expensive as it is and dave bernard will be the first one to admit there is a price point for everyone in this hobby but yes new in box you could get priced out but but here's To rebut that point, no, you're right. I don't have to buy new in box. I get that. But even when I started in this hobby a few years ago, Stern Pros were, you could get some Stern Pros for like $4,000.
    29:04
    And now most Stern Pros are in that $5,000 range. And that's in a relatively short amount of time. Right. so so the used market is following the the new market to some degree and you know obviously there's older games you could buy sure and there's you know stuff for two thousand dollars twenty five hundred but um but you get what i'm saying no i totally understand so if they if they priced out yeah like i know i'm priced out yeah if they just if they just keep doing this every year though and and they'll have buyers and that's fine you know good for them i'm not begrudging them for that but i i think if they're going to have a three-tier model though you know they should make it where this one is affordable for joe blow this one's for you know joe blow super collector and then this that you know the le is for yeah the people if they if you want to buy every le and you want to spend nine thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars cool yeah you know if you if you yeah if you have millions of dollars and you want to spend you know fifty thousand dollars on pinball in a year sure you know that's cool um um so that that's that's my only are you know i'm not like oh people people should fight the man and whatever and and the people who said it uh i think it was carrie hardy and stuff that you know you have to vote with your wallet yeah the only way this would happen would be if you voted with your wallet and they sold out so obviously that's not going to happen the whole wallet argument's already gone because That lasted all of one day. Good wallet argument. They put it out there, and people got really upset. But guess what? They still sold every single one. Distributors are happy. Stern is happy. You know, me, I'm not unhappy. I'm not pissed off. If you bought one, these people who are shaming people, like, whatever. You know, I'm not going to even say shame on you. You're entitled to your opinion and say what you want. But, you know, good for you. If you bought a topper and you enjoy it, fine, you know. Well, there's options, too. If you don't think you could afford a $600 topper, there are options out there for $200. Yeah. Look at our tribe member number two, Martin. He made his own. He makes his own. Yeah. It was beautiful. Super cool.
    31:16
    How do you feel about the downloadable content, the DLC portion of this? Because it does come in a mode and people are pretty pissed off that they think it's a test. That. And how it might, the future might be DLC. That kind of goes back to my point, too, what I was just talking about. If you're going to spend this much money, you should be getting that stuff. You know what? I told everyone a couple days ago when this topper was released, if they just gave this to the LE owners, if it was included with the LEs on Jurassic Park, and then they say, hey. And then people are like, oh, can I get that? And Stern says, sure, but it costs $600. Then I'd be like, okay, cool. right but they're not even including it for the le owners they're not including it for the premium you know what i mean it's just like where does it end and is this going to be a thing i don't know and can i still enjoy a game of pinball without buying downloadable content that's all i'm concerned about and i had an idea which this is the only way i would feel like downloadable content would actually make sense in pinball that would work for me like i would understand why it is what it is and and i think it would be a smart business decision on stern's end but make downloadable content this is my idea you guys can shoot me if you want but a dlc might be it might be the future i'm just saying it it's not like i want it but maybe if we had enough it's highly likely yeah let's let's let's just talk about it like let's see if we can steer this in a positive direction how can dlc actually be a good thing for pinball and the only really thing i could think of today was um your limited edition has everything it's fully featured there's no dlc for limited edition your premium should probably be a full game too um it just doesn't have the armor and some of those extra bells and whistles at the LES. The pro, however, I feel like if Stern wanted to keep the pro at $5,000-ish.
    33:26
    $6,000-ish. No, this is what I'm saying, though. If they want to keep their pros, let's say if they get their pros, they lower their pros. Okay, so they're like, hey, they're $5,000-ish. $5,000, $5,500, whatever. Okay.
    33:41
    And it's a bare-bones game. like it has a few modes probably the equivalent to williams games you know how some williams games just aren't very deep yeah they're just like a couple there are a few modes you know and there's it's enough to keep anyone happy that's all the novices will be perfectly happy with that game well i was thinking about operators you're putting it on location yeah well the novices play it yeah yeah and i was thinking okay so operators then are able to get a cheaper pro it's not as fully functioning but that's okay um but it's something they can go on location they can buy more machines to put on location yeah people walking up to it don't know shit yeah so why wouldn't they want to just throw a quarter in there oh cool star wars yeah i gotta blow up the death star that's my mode you know i gotta be a jedi that's another mode you know what i'm saying yep and if you as a homeowner want to buy a pro um at that price well then there would be some things you could download to kind of beef up your pro a bit and what do you think would be a fair market price like let's just say that that comes to fruition tomorrow okay okay so what would be a fair market price to bring that pro so you could add you know four or five modes to make it into the premium i think to get yeah to get it close to the premium and if we're talking about a 5500 price tag so it's still missing the max obviously but it just well the max might do something else yeah it might well you know pros are usually missing yeah that's my point yeah yeah like this one wouldn't have the hyper loop in your example and but now you can get five more jedi modes or something right so i would probably expect if if let's just say a let's go around number five thousand dollars for a pro let's just to make the math easy because it's stupid um i had to have no problem with it being fifteen hundred dollars worth of downloaded couple content Now, you don't have to spend all $1,500, but that would be the max. So each mode might be like $200? Yeah. So $6,500 for a pro that's fully featured pro. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but then don't you think you'd have people... And then the premiums, what are premiums at? They're about $2,000 more, give or take, roughly. Let's just say $7,500 for a premium. Yeah, $7,500. But for $1,500, now you're in it for $6,500. You have all the modes, but you're missing... You're missing some of the fun mechs. You're missing set of six with multi-ball. You're getting eight ball, multi-ball. That would be the same as what they have now. Kind of, yeah. It would bring it back to that. But here's the caveat. If you are a collector or whatever, you like to have these games in your home, and you don't need all those modes, you'll never see those modes, why not be able to purchase the modes you might likely see and you can buy one mode at a time like hey i got this far i'm getting better now maybe i should dish out i follow your logic except you know that's kind of what they already have now because you you get you get the pro that's stripped down for 15 18 2000 less and then if you were to spend 1500 1800 you could get the premium anyways but the pro has the full code in it right now because you're not yes but i'm what i'm saying is you can save fifteen hundred dollars you don't have to upgrade your pro if you don't want to so you would everybody would have a pro cheaper much cheaper well and okay and not everybody with a pro sees all the code i largely disagree with you except if they could bring it down to such a price to make that worthwhile but it would have to be less than five thousand then well you'd get a pro and you'd probably put everything in it correct not everybody would do that no understood but i'm just that way it's cheaper but i'm just saying that you give the people the option what they want in their game and how much they want and i think i think the average majority of people that would be wanting to buy that that game would have to be sub five thousand dollars and then they won't do that why would they do that well no why would it be sub five thousand well because kind of what you're describing is there's williams games with less code that are going for 10 grand i understand but that's apples to oranges i'm just saying though if we're talking about that much level of code because what i'm saying is is that um you know the the people that are gonna buy that it would just have to be less than five thousand dollars to make it worth it in my opinion well your opinion's bullshit did we say we don't we don't listen to opinions on this show Hey, man, it was just my one idea. No, and like I said, I see some merit to it, and I think it could be fleshed out a little bit more and something could be done. That's the only way I'd want downloadable content. That would be it. Everything else would be unacceptable in my eyes. If you buy a premium and it's not – if there's downloadable content to that, I'd be pissed. So since that's probably not going to happen that way, you're not for downloadable content. Absolutely not. If it's going to be – If it's the same price structure we have now, which it's going to stay, and then they say, okay you just bought this pro for 5800 but now for 400 you can get a few extra modes it doesn't no something about that just you know it's almost six grand and then you're still not complete here's a great example of fun ready you want to hear a good example of fun um i found on steam today that command and conquer the original command and conquer and the sequel, Red Alert, are remastered for 4K. Everything is the same. They redid all the graphics from scratch. Sure. And they remastered all the music. They found the people that did the original music. They added new tracks. They did a hell of a job. They did a ton of work onto this game, right?
    39:39
    $20. You know how many hours I'm going to spend on this stupid game? I bought it instantly. I'm going to spend hundreds of hours on this game. It's all relative for the amount of money you spend.
    39:50
    I mean, these are $6,000 toys. You should have everything. Well, that's the thing. And they just keep raising the prices. And like I said, the used prices seem to be going up, like I mentioned before. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, like I said, as long as I can play a full game, I'm fine. If I have to pay to get a complete game after I've already spent all this money, then I think people are just going to be upset.
    40:26
    At least I would be, and I think a lot of other people would be. And once again, if they want to keep raising their prices and people keep buying them, that's fine. But, you know, people kept talking. Remember, for the last couple of years, people have been talking about, like, the breaking point and the bubble. And then we had COVID and all this other stuff. And, like, you know, the bubble's not coming. I mean, it's still ramping up. And, you know, and that's awesome. I mean, there's going to be some good pinball. So, I don't know. You know, I guess we just have to wait and see, but, you know, pinball is still that analog game, and hopefully they just keep making that where it's still fun, and, you know, we don't have to worry so much about content, but who knows.
    41:09
    Well, I know they have teams of coders now, something they probably didn't have as much when it was back in the day. Oh, the giant team. Yeah, it was one person working on it. Now they're, yeah, like you said, 10, 12. I mean, who knows. So if these companies can squeak out another million dollars every release, they're going to. Sure, absolutely. It's going to happen, kids. Absolutely. Prepare yourselves. How would you feel about two of the same games? Okay, physically they're the same, right? So it would be one game. You buy a game, and then it's done. It's complete.
    41:43
    But yeah, you can spend an unlimited amount of money, and there's 100 modes. You know what I mean? Like, you spend six grand, you get a nice pinball machine, and it's got eight modes. But then every month, they're just releasing another mode, another mode, and they're like 50 bucks a piece. Maybe they're not very expensive. Oh, that's what it would be. Yeah. So then, like, you know, this guy spent, you know, $7,000, and he has, you know, 20 more modes in his machine. You know, but I can still play my game. Man, that would just make that whole used market just nutty. Yeah, that's the other thing. Yeah. What about that? I mean, no one's discussed the secondary market with that. I mean, it's like, okay, I got this game. How many modes does it have? This fucker said there was 100 modes and not got anything, and there's only 25. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's a whole other thing. So here's what I really want Stern to do, and I was actually thinking about this the last couple of days, and I'm like, I still don't understand why they can't do this. And this would cater to me specifically. So this is why it's important.
    42:52
    Stern, are you listening? Stern, are you listening for the one guy you're going to sell a couple machines to?
    42:59
    We've touched on it briefly a couple of times. So, okay, Stern has this great spike system, right? So why can't Stern sell you the game the way it is today for $7,000, whatever, buy a premium and then you can buy the next populated play field a la p3 multimorphic right the whole populated play field for three thousand dollars thirty five hundred bucks right you know a decent amount and you know comes with a nice case or something so you can you know put it in there you slide it under your machine you know you're not using it now i can play my jurassic park for you know six months and then i say oh now i want to play this deadpool right so i just you know that there's just a couple of plugs now it's all computers so that's pretty easy i know they can do that and then you pop that one out you pop in your deadpool and you're on your way there you go folks i have nothing to say i don't know i just i just i just think that you know it's it would be more convenient easier than ever and then guys like me i would buy three or four titles a year so i'd be giving stern you know whatever 12 000 you know i'd be giving him a good chunk of money and uh you know i could own four or five six cool games you just want a universal multi-game well sure absolutely but i might have but i might have two of them i might have three of them because you know i might want to have a couple set up because you're not going to swap them out all the time you know so i don't know well kids this is it you just heard tech talk with Ian and Drew. Wasn't that amazing, folks? Are you guys still with us? Are you sleeping? I know. Good Lord. This Toppergate went off on a shoot. Shitty-ass opinions of two dumbasses Donald's a fucker talking about. And engineering ideas that are probably impossible. All you got to do is shoot it up, down into the subway, right back up. That's all we needed. Drew and I just getting mad at each other. Like, no, your idea's dumb. Let's move on. What the fuck is next? Oh, Facebook. I'm having fun, but what's next? Facebook killing people. Why don't you set this one up? Because you know a little bit more about it than I do, and I'm interested in this one, actually. All right, so the first little hint we got was Kaneda's Facebook page.
    45:26
    He's not allowed to share links anymore. He can't promote his own podcast now. Do we know if that's indefinite? I don't want to ruin your story. No idea. Okay, go ahead. We don't know. Nobody knows. So I find that very interesting, right? and it was right on the heels of when he posted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles leaked photos. Okay?
    45:46
    I think Chris actually was able to get a hold of Facebook or he found out that it was Stern that complained three times. That was confirmed? According to Chris.
    45:57
    I don't know. Was that the poor man's fact checker? So, you know, a few days goes by, and on Pinside there's a thread out there that says, Has anyone else gotten banned on Facebook for leaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pictures? Which we did briefly, by the way. They're down now.
    46:18
    Stern, are you listening? Stern, don't listen to that. But no, I guess the Flippin' and Mashin' podcast, it's a podcast I've listened to a few times. They're pretty decent.
    46:28
    Yeah, their page disappeared. and their personal pages also got blocked so kaneda's didn't pages didn't disappear yes he just couldn't post the links and stuff yeah but they're flipping and mashing guys think something was going on because of them as the kids say well i guess just within a day or two ago they were able to regain their personal facebook pages but the flipping and mashing facebook page is still blocked. Blocked! And they said they only used it literally the last couple months just to post links to their show and the Stern leaked images.
    47:14
    So they're just connecting dots. They're like, well, we don't use it for anything else. We didn't get any warnings. Nobody talked to us. Boom. Poof. Didn't somebody say they got a letter? Nobody got a letter. TWiP got a letter, I think. there's a few people that's right i i heard some i thought there was uh i thought there was just an overall statement released by stern like sure hey if you share these turtles which we never did um yeah i was just joking i think i was drunk yeah totally drunk uh you can listen again yes stern you can listen starting now george sorry buddy sorry buddy um won't happen again sir uh i don't even know where i was going with that pretty crazy though right it is and i just you think that's really what's happening it's really how they're treating little podcasts why why now though like right we're fan podcasts sure we're the community we're just fans we are the right you're the community i'm the community kaneda's the controversial guy yeah he's outside the community but he yells loud enough yeah he's he's he's a big voice in the It's a big voice in community. Flippin' and Mashin', I'm sure they're in a community. I've got to meet up with those guys and send them a message because I want to meet these guys now. But anyways, but why now? Like every time Stern has done a release since I've been in this hobby, this happens, right? Every single time. Without fail. Deadpool, remember? Yep. Oh, is this the John Trudeau, you know, redesign by George Gomez? And they had the sketch. It wasn't even a white wood. It was just a pencil sketch or something. Yeah, wasn't Jurassic Park's video leaked? And then, yeah, Jurassic Park video. And then what else has come out? There was a leak on everything. Iron Maiden. Heavy Metal. Yeah. All got leaked. Yeah, every single one. And this wasn't even a leak that happened a month before. It was a day before. One day before. If that's really the case. Yeah, which that's what really boggles my mind. It's not like, oh, we spoiled it a week or a month. it was like one day they they were releasing at 12 hours from the time that most people i mean here's the thing this is not us we didn't do it this is a podcast there's two guys in the microphone this flipping and mashing guys and you think they're gonna speak so highly of stern after this like i can't wait to listen to their other episode yeah no i'm really intrigued and uh i'd love to see what they say and facebook isn't getting back to them because facebook's just you know and now it's just a monster fire in general and now i have more questions about facebook which we're not going to get into, but I'm just like, what the hell, Facebook? So somebody says, hey, they probably said intellectual property, I'm sure. Yeah. And then Facebook said, okay.
    50:03
    I don't know. How do you feel about that in general? Well, it makes me worried about shit that we post.
    50:09
    We're kind of off the cuff. We are. We're also off the grid. We are. Nobody listens to us. We only have three listeners. Yeah, that's true. It's kind of nice. It is. High one, two, and three. We love you. Hi, guy in Alaska and two people in Idaho. We love you. Russia.
    50:27
    Oi. I don't know. How do they say hi in Russia? Yavo. I don't know. Anyway, fuck it. Don't know. Nyet. There you go. That's no. Nyet. Yes, nyet. Nyet. Anyway, regardless, it's scary. It is. It's, you know. I don't want to live in a PC universe. I want to be able to be an American and talk about fun stuff like leaked images. I just do. oh god i'm gonna sound like canada himself now what what is this how does this hurt stern it doesn't hurt and that's a real question i i would love it just gets people excited i would love george gomez to um answer that question george gomez you know you have my number give me a call text me you know text me let me know but um like what harm does it do to their company or their brand because i understand that you know if if you're doing something that might potentially harm or the brand or the company that's one thing leaking images a day before even a couple days before you're not harming anything like you said you're just causing more hype which actually helps their sales so i should message george gomez and see if that's actually what happened do you think that he's not gonna he's gonna probably say we didn't do that yeah do that yeah i i would highly doubt that they would just from a business standpoint it wouldn't be good to talk about it but yeah good point um what is he gonna say yeah i did it yeah totally yeah good point drew all right let's move on yeah it's ugly it is it is feel dirty talking about it we'll report some more as we get some more facts and uh uh flipping and mashing do we know those what's their names flipping and mashing okay flipping and mashing actually not just a clever name that's really their name that's first name if you guys want to email us at poor man's pinball gmail.com let us know what happened if you want to talk for us a couple minutes on our show in a future show coming up we'd love to hear what what happened because it's interesting come on on baby send us some audio you know whatever you want to do flipping out pinball you want a new stern boom we have you covered you want a new chicago gaming company remake boom we have you covered you want a brand new shiny from jjp guess what boom we have you covered again p3 multimorphic we can do that too We got mods, shaker motors, even some used pinball inventory. Flippin' Out Pinball also sells the Stair Climbing Escalera Hand Truck. Email Zach at Flippin' Out Pinball or call or text 812-457-9711. Zach at Flippin' Out Pinball. Flip, letter N, Out Pinball.
    53:00
    Should we do a pinball history lesson? We shall. Cue that music! and now it's time for a history lesson brought to you by poor man's pinball podcast if you're not careful you may learn something before it's done i am pretty excited all right what do we got here pinball history lesson drew why don't you just take the spot yep so a month ago ian gave me a homework assignment that much like when i was in high school i started yesterday you have one month to complete this you prick the day before i'm like son of a bitch i better get this shit going uh so ian gave me the awesome title of future spa now future spa is this month's history lesson but before i go into my little diatribe about future spa we would like to play this little bit of audio that explains a little bit about how to play the game with our buddy neil neil's back all right let's play that right now hey there poor man tribe and other listeners neil and bob here from fish tips here at the tavern i'm surrounded by all my wall hangers i got properties my wall eyes and my large mouth trophy bass i've got a whole stringer of them anyhow i've got my rod and reel with me to bring some good luck while I duke it out with some weary travelers. You see, Neil and Bob have been getting a lot of attention lately around these parts with all the drunken pinball tips I've been given. Still waiting for my first groupie though, just a matter of time, you know. Anyway, with the times as they are, people have been sitting on the couch watching Joe Exotic and such. I feel like it's a good time to teach everyone about my favorite erotic theme turned into a pinball machine and inspire a little bit of exercise, because today we're talking about the future spot. Holy gripes there guy, taking soak in all its glory. There's more abs on this beauty than the Mardi Gras for you. It even has Zorro in the hot tub. Anyways there guys, I can't wait for the future. We'll have laser beams, elevated running trails, and I'll finally be able to wear my V-neck unitard that's deeper than the waters of Lake Winnemagash. Anyhow there guys, from the layout perspective it's got six top lanes, left and right orbit spinners that feed the top lanes. We got some inline drops like in Paragon and another notable design of this game is the flipper gap which is a little tighter than my own thigh gap so you should have no problem making slack saves down the middle. If you drain down the middle you're worse than Bob he's the worst. Okay there guy let's talk some strategy. In a competition you'll be schnookered so let's face it less is more. Focus on plunging and nudging the ball to the one of the top two lanes in the center. The T or the U lane. This will open up the out lane gate. It's pretty critical since these out lanes don't have any rubbers on them to nudge the ball around safely. So the main objective to future spot is to spell future spot. So you want to light all the inserts on the playfield. Future letters are collected at the top and the spot letters are collected at the front of the U. That's the lower center stand up like that. You don't want to shoot that. Good thing you can get it with some other targets So, the next objective after you spell Future Spa is to try to beast your balls on the four inline drops on the left. The first one lights your spinner, the second one lights your 2x bonus, then 4x bonus, then 6x bonus, and then if you can stand a target behind all of them, eh, who cares? If you make it that far, you probably won.
    56:31
    Once you've knocked down a bunch of your bonus multiplier drops, you're gonna want to start ripping the spinner. The left one's a lot easier than the right. Future Spa also lets you spot some letters within other shots, like the saucers and the kickbacks, back and drop targets and such. So if you're getting pretty close to spelling Future Spa, you don't have to hit that shot. You can just hit one of the other ones.
    56:50
    Each letter in Future Spa will award 2,000 points in bonus. If you can spell Future Spa, letters reset and carry over 18,000 and then a 36,000 super bonus for subsequent points. Several shots in this game progress in value, but only during that fall. If you can build them up, great! Use your best judgment on shot priority. Shots include the far left kickback, the rollover inner loop and the saucer just inside of it. Don't forget this game will give you 1,000 points per lower right pop-upper hit, but you'll have to do some fancy nudging for them to mind the gap below. The gap is a little bit more like the ones between Bob's missing front teeth. God damn it, Neil, you fucking asshole. Quit playing with your rod and get over here on Batman 66 and take your turn. Holy cravescare, Franchi. You'd think after winning at Quippy you'd be a little less... Yeah! Alright, I'm sorry, darling. Darling, Get Frenchie a blast on me. Put that, no, put that lard. No, no, not my trophy, bass. No, why?
    57:47
    Damn it. Oh, I'm going to have to go back to the lake and get a new trophy, bass. Beating you, Frenchie, is going to be so satisfying.
    57:55
    So, guys, go grab a pen and play some Future Spot. And remember to tell your friends about the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. God, what's a guy got to do to get into the tribe, sons of bitches? I bet you're drinking a bunch of wine, clippers. So, uh, Franchi made an appearance with Neil. No shit, that was cool, that was funny. That's good, Franchi. Chris, you're a crazy bastard. You just love it. I love that you're so interactive with the tribe. I love it. Yeah, he's been good the last couple of weeks, for sure. Neil, thank you so much again, sir. that is without a doubt the funniest stuff i just i find it so hilarious oh that's great if you're not from minnesota wisconsin yeah you might not get it it's a northern midwest thing if you guys now yeah that's how the bars are yeah check out um uh real quickly the the guy it's called the man to walk minute yeah that guy he's this guy on twitter youtube he's got he's a charlie barron's is his name but yeah man to walk minute he kind of has that same accent yeah it's just a northern Midwest thing. Oh, my God. We love it. It's awesome. So thank you again, Neil. We really appreciate it. And maybe someday Neil will make the tribe. Who knows? Yeah, I doubt it. Yeah. He's a little turd sometimes.
    59:19
    He's really needy. But he did do my entire job for me, so I think I'm done. Well, no. I'm just kidding. He didn't give you any history. He just gave you how to play it, brother. All right. No. I'll sit back. Yep. So I was going to read this whole thing, but I'm just going to give you the highlights. a quick little summary before I give my thoughts on it and some of the history. So 1979, Bally Machine.
    59:43
    It was the first machine with continuous background noise. I'm sorry. It was the first Bally Machine with continuous background noise. I found out that Flash from a year or two earlier was the first game, and that was, of course, a Williams title from, I think, the year prior. um we have two flippers five pop bumpers this is this is we're going to get to this in a second five pop bumpers one slingshot spinning targets uh two there's one kick out hole one star rollover four inline drops which i love that's freaking cool and uh well that that gives you all the hardware you know it's it's a wide body game this thing is it's wide it's like space invaders wide times two nice it's a big old big old beast um they made this uh back glass it's like this holographic kind of effect and you know it was expensive but you know it was very cool because it's future spots it's supposed to be futuristic absolutely so yeah i call it the wide body with skinny fit bodies on it because the art is just like these fit people space future like working out you know doing all kinds of crazy stuff a couple there's a woman in a bikini then there's a woman in like a astronaut jumpsuit or nipples are popping out on the back glass um a very cool art for the time very you know stylistic for for that for that time period very cool you had me at nipples yep um so one of the cool things i learned though in pre-production they wanted to call this game a bon vivant which means yeah it doesn't roll off the tongue like future spa it'd be Jesus. Bon Vivant. That means a person who enjoys a sociable and luxurious lifestyle. So that's not us. No. We're sociable, though. Yes. So we might be Bon, but not Vivant.
    61:33
    Mm-hmm. But I just thought that was neat, and I'm like, why would... Could you imagine? That thing wouldn't have sold any games. Mm-hmm. You know, Future Spa, at least you can kind of... Well, it's in English to start, so... Anyways.
    61:46
    But yeah, so these pop bumpers. Sorry, Scott Denisey and the Rick and Morty team, but they put two pop bumpers on the right side for the right sling. Cool. Yeah, they're kind of like they're staggered. And, you know, what would be the in lane coming down to the flipper? There's two pop bumpers there. How cool is that? Yes. So very neat. And with the wide body, there's a lot of side-to-side action with that. And then, you know, just a cool game. I actually, there was a guy selling one. I never told you this, here in Milwaukee, and he only wanted $1,900 for it.
    62:24
    And it was working. He had it for years. He's just this old-time collector, so he was just looking for something new. So, yeah, cool game. I think top of the mark, they're like $2,000, $2,500 if you have one that's all restored and really nice.
    62:40
    But, you know, it's just one of those games. 6,400 units, so it was, you know, at the time it was middle of the road. You know, they made quite a few of them, but, you know, not a ton. So just that, you know, late 70s, early 80s ballet magic. But that back glass, you know, it's just super cool.
    63:00
    No, it's... Yeah, if you guys haven't seen it, I mean, really check it out. It's a beautiful machine.
    63:07
    Got curl and laser beams, or is that on the play field? Nope, that's on the back glass. Oh, nice. I think they got the... I can't remember. I don't have pictures in front of me. It's okay.
    63:17
    Let me look it up. Yeah, why don't you look that up? So what else? Yep. Well, that's all I got. I mean, everyone, you know, it's one of those. How many were made? 6,400. Nice. Yeah, it's one of those games that, you know, everyone kind of knows about it. It has this, you know, nostalgia to it because, you know, 6,400, there probably were quite a few out there.
    63:39
    Oh, yeah, he's on the back glass. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. curling freaking lasers yeah that girl's straight up naked yep yep that tight suit on tight little leotard or whatever it is which one the one on the yeah I can't tell she looks like she's naked I mean not the one that's front and center but the one to the left she's laying oh yeah yep I'm pretty sure she's naked Well, remember that one day we were looking at all those back glasses or those translights they were selling? Yes. All the naked translights. People like that. Yeah. Us being all pervy. Yeah. You fuckers are weird. Get you a naked translight. What can I say?
    64:27
    Oh, whatever, man. Should we plug that company? What company was that? I can't remember. It was one of the, it was Pinball something, and they just sell all kinds of alternative translights. And they had like naked Baywatch. All right, guys.
    64:39
    That's Future Spot. That's a history lesson, kids. I hope you learned something. Yeah. Thanks for helping me. Do you have homework assignment for me? So you have approximately one month now. I'll get it done this week. To get everything you know about William stellar war Stellar war Yes God damn it It not on the old radar all right i have to learn more about stellar war yep i wanted to give you something that was a little off the beaten path all right stellar war it is kids i'll try to come up with some fun stuff it was a toss-up between that and hercules oh i'd rather stellar war so thank you um all right so what's up next well we have Rodden, our Australian correspondent, and he is going to share with us his little bit of news from down under. So this clip's like six minutes long. It's like three times longer than last week. So I'm interested to hear what he has to say. Do we even know what it is? I have no idea. I haven't listened to it. So we're going to listen to it, and we'll respond after, all right? Roll away.
    65:55
    Live and forget Now that the day is over I've got a new sensation Perfect moments That's all impossible to refuse Got the intro sorted, mate? Excellent. What have you got? Something fitting, I hope. Okay, a surprise. Some old mates of mine, eh? I suppose they'll want a name drop or two on the segment. You've redlined last week's candidates, I hope. Okay, insert the intro here, mate.
    66:41
    G'day, poor men. Ian and Drew, grab some of your finest local and imported neck oil whilst I take you through my week. But first, some feedback I received from my maiden segment and a little later a strident reply to a comment directed at me regarding my mental capacity. Firstly, I was informed I sounded like I was in the bog house down the backyard in the middle of the night. Constructive criticism. Hopefully we've rectified this with an advance on my meagre monthly stipend and invested in a better quality podcast microphone. it seems Trevor's gaming headset just doesn't cut the mustard so hopefully this is coming through loud and clear and Trevor make sure you take the invoice down to Petty Cash as soon as we've finished and see old Misery Guts for reimbursement and make sure he gives you cash if I have any chance with Mr Ingramall 1991 this Friday night I can't do it with an IOU note secondly I need to give a spray and let a bit of steam off, as this got the blood pressure up around 180. It had me reaching for the Prozac. I'd heard during the week that yours truly is, and I'll quote, there's a bit of strong language involved, that I'm a fucking moron. I haven't been called that since school. I rolled the tape back a few times, and fuck me, I can't spin it any other way. I'm a fucking moron. Well, poor man, let me start by asking you two Harvard graduates just so we can get a handle on the IQ of this galah. Who bought a magic girl? A box of fucking blinking lights. Who's the fucking moron? Trevor, can you send shoebox Sam a little love note? Let him know that I'm none too happy with him. And when I see him at TPF next year, he'll be collecting his next twippy for the biggest arsehole with one of his Italian man sandals firmly inserted where the sun don't shine. And no, I don't think I'm being excessive on the motor mouth. If you're going to insult people, expect a bit of blowback. Trevor, we're not at school now. I can't exactly tell him to meet me behind the school dunnies at 4pm and put a couple on his chin. and secondly, he couldn't knock the top off a schooner of Foster's. I understand he's been locked away for three months in his apartment, which, by the way, is about the same size as my wardrobe, but by making sweeping statements in regards to my choice of purchase, he's not the fucking Pope. He may think he is. I don't need his blessing on every pinball purchase I've make. I've been in this caper over 30 years. I've forgotten more than this carnival attraction knows He should stick to flogging fruit and veg down at the Manhattan Exchange And leave intelligence testing to Alfred Binet And while we're on the note To have a crack at my mate John Borg And doesn't pass the pub test There isn't a nicer bloke I've met in pinball Right, now I've got that off my chest I hope I wasn't too melodramatic It's Poor Man's Pinball Podcast not the Kardashians.
    70:03
    Cheers Ian and Drew, grab another round of the good stuff and we'll find out what's happening locally in the great southern land. So, what else has been happening in the world of Australian pinball? I spoke earlier to Bluey, the retired turf cutter. Bluey's one of the biggest operators north of Sydney with over 40 machines on site. He informs me, not fucking much mate. At the moment he's just sniffing the air to gauge the local market post-coronavirus. I also had the pleasure of running into Fatty Wilson at the pie shop during the week, and he informs me that pinball tournaments could be up and running by as early as July. So poor men, Ian and Drew, that's my week, upgraded the sound quality I hope, and was called a fucking moron. Nothing special really. keeping a low profile as usual signing off as the poor man down under that's all from me and Trevor the trainee producer we'll do it all again next week now Trevor put the new surprise intro in the top of the show remember old mate you've got the timing of a one-legged tap dancer slice splice save and send all right so that was unexpected so for those of you taking notes at home trying to figure out what the hell happened drew and i i think we came to the conclusion that somewhere along the lines canada must have called him a moron and this is his retort it sounds like there was some facebook back and forth or something i drama i honestly have no idea goddamn drama beef i just like listening to say well get back in the bog and other words i don't understand true ian have a sip in your favorite nectar like it all like oh that's nice and then he goes into this thing and i'm like huh all right and he called like socks like slugs and oh i gotta learn me some australian oh man it is it is it is it is interesting to say the least marty please email us at poormanspinballgmail.com. What the hell is Rodin saying? Can you translate for us?
    72:24
    We can, Rodin. We can, brother. We love you. We have Dr. John in the tribe. Yeah, Dr. John will help us. Dr. John will translate for us. So anyway, Rodin, that was awesome. Rodin, I feel like you need a hug, but I think you should just take a shot and you'll feel a lot better. I think he already feels better. But anyway, the Australian news part of that was very interesting. You know, the things are starting to Maybe see the light at the end of the tunnel. Things are starting to kind of loosen up a bit over there, it sounds, and they're ready to kind of get this shit going again, which I don't blame them. That's how it is kind of around here, too. Certain people are kind of poking their heads out and sniffing around, seeing if it's okay to do a tourney or not.
    73:08
    Impromptu ad here, our local The Garcade, run by Gar Nelson. he's opened up and seems to be doing okay so that's awesome Rodden we loved it, thank you so much the views expressed by Rodden are not necessarily those of the poor man's pinball podcast how about that Kaneda, I think we know who got you banned from Facebook oh shit Eddie Malcolm
    73:44
    Mailbag. Fuck it. Mailbag. Let's just say mailbag. We have a special hit you in the feels mailbag today. Aww.
    73:51
    So our newest tribe member. Ari. Ari Jones. He was also. Won the Shaker Motor. He was our Shaker Motor, our first official giveaway winner. So that's awesome.
    74:05
    He owns a couple of machines. He already has shakers in his machine. So he. Ari, that's bullshit, brother. I'm joking. He graciously gave away his prize to our second place winner.
    74:19
    And who was that? That was Danny. So Danny was the guy who gave the submission about running like a million miles a week. And he has four kids. He's everything we're not. Yeah. He's a man's man. He has four kids. They have a Ghostbusters Pro. He loves us. He doesn't drink, and he's fit, and he exercises and does the right things, and he loves us. Don't know, but Danny. God bless you, man. Yeah, you're awesome. So anyways, he listened to us talk about it, and then we sent him a message and told him that this was going to happen, and he was super excited. He just said, hey, good morning. That's awesome and a great way to start the day. I was up at 4.30 a.m. Ugh.
    75:04
    Went for a run. I was just getting ready to head into work and saw your email. That was the one about giving him the shaker motor. I couldn't wait to listen to the episode Friday and had to wait for my run Saturday morning as I already started almost a 15-hour. So, wait, he runs like 100 miles and then works 15 hours. Dude, you're awesome, man.
    75:21
    Better him than me. Yeah. Better him than me. I work 15 hours a day, but I haven't run 15 miles in my life. So, here we are. Masturbate for 15. Wait. Sorry. Keep going. The submissions were great, and it was cool to hear everyone's take and how they approached it. The guy that won had an amazing story, and I almost wonder if it's true. Broken dick, Ari. If so, and even partly, he definitely deserved to win. So just one more thing, so I need some inside help to get into the tribe. I talk about you guys all the time to my friends and coworkers. Yeah, I'm sure they love to hear that. Hey, check out these idiots that talk about pinball all day. They talk about pinball and Drew's dick.
    75:58
    Sometimes Batman's dick. Yeah, Batman's dick. Oh, no. I'm a diehard listener and find myself listening to your back catalog over again thanks man well cutting the grass running you name it there you go again with all that running man you're so cool I think being in the tribe would be a life changing experience I need to like frame that and put that up on my wall for my wife to read hey Danny guess what it is yeah just ask Steve Johnson it's not banana so just let me know what I need to do and let's make this happen okay And, oh, yeah, thanks for the shaker. We're super stoked. And tell Mr. Ari Jones, thank you. Ari Jones, you're a superhuman man. That's for me. It was totally a bro move to pass along as he could. Just kept it and sold it. Yep, he sure could have. But, nope, he didn't and couldn't be more excited. Just another reason for him to get inducted. You know, that was my point. That's why I wanted to read that because we constantly talk about it. And, you know, we talk about these people and how, you know, special they are in the community and how much fun we have with them. and that truly sums up what you need to be to be a tribe member. Yeah. So, you know, nothing too sappy and over the top, but, you know, just nice people, great pinball enthusiasts who love the hobby, love their fellow man, and, you know, we need a lot more of that human interaction, that human being being human. Human beings being human. That's weird. With that being said, we won't be doing a tribe member this week, but we will next week. Yeah, we're actually going to slow down just a touch on it because we do.
    77:32
    Not that we didn't put a lot of thought into our current tribe members. I mean, Franchie bagged and bagged, so we said, fine, Franchie, you're in. They kept showing us pictures of him with less and less clothes, and I was like, I can't do it anymore. We've got to get him out. You're in, dude. You're in. Yeah, it's in. Stop already. But we really want to put a little bit of thought and effort into it. The problem is it's getting tougher because everyone's meeting the criteria. Yeah, that too. There's a lot of them. Instead of inducting 10 guys, we figured let's just slow it down. Yep. Give each of you a proper introduction into the tribe. Yeah. Make it a little bit more special. So we're going to probably be doing it every other week now. Sure, sure. And we always break our own rules, so who knows. It might change next week. We don't know. But, you know, we're 28 strong now. And how do people become a tribe member, Ian? I always forget. It's the five pillars of excellence, Drew. Five? There's five of them? Well, really, technically no, but there's five. Sounds like one of our commercials. There's five pillars. Five pillars of excellence. What's number one? Number one, like us on Facebook. Super easy. Super, super easy. Number two. Number two is to email us, communicate with us, talk to us, tell us how we're doing. Email number, or sorry. and then uh pillar number three thank you pillar number three is help us grow our podcast whatever it is that you want to do whether it's talking to people sharing our links um we're on twitter now so retweeting us would help um all that good stuff man so yeah we're done with the jokes about twitter because now we're on twitter we don't really joke that much about it pillar four is it was secret but then it fell over and toppled that was just a media member thing uh pillar number five top secret still top that's still hiding in ian's pants yes that is the pillar um so those are the five pillars of excellence so um other than that we're good man we are good what'd you learn today ian what i learned i learned today that um jerusalem capitalists at heart but in like name only and he doesn't want to get priced out a pinball and i think he's scared he's really scared i want i want my money and my pinball i can't have both and i also learned that after about a month of of potential prep for a uh a pinball machine history lesson he just gave us how many flippers and bumpers there were so thank you drew that that was awesome i'm glad i gave you a whole month for that one uh i knew you're gonna give me shit i just uh whatever drew what have you learned uh i learned that i need to learn more australian yeah i thought it was english but it's not all jokes aside there were at least 20 words i did not understand in there and uh i'm i'm now determined you know i'm actually semi i don't want to say fluent in spanish but you know i know quite a bit of spanish i can talk to people in spanish now I want to be able to talk to people in Australian because I'm not quite there yet so Rodden when I meet you for the second time for the first time I want to be able to talk about your bog and your whatever other words you used so thanks for that Rodden see Rodden's forcing me to learn stuff I love it I love him he's awesome you got anything else? no let's wrap her up So let's just give a shout-out quick to our sponsors.
    81:10
    Pins Stadium Lights, get your pins stadiums now. Enter Poor Man at checkout, get 10% off. Pinshades, always got to love a good pair of pinshades. Enter Poor Man's at checkout. You can get those on Pinside. Flippin' Out Pinball, Zach Manning himself, the goat man, goat boy, if you will. Goat boy. um so yeah we'll uh get your new shinies over at flipping out pinball you know he takes good care of his customers we love him and he's a good dude overall and and uh don't hesitate to do business with mr zach manny good shit um and last but not least the uh silver ball swag please uh don't hesitate to buy our shit we we uh we went down a little bit but i think everyone was just being a little cautious but guess what maybe guess what you should buy some more shit yeah we are it's time to buy some t-shirts kids we have a record number of listeners and a record low of t-shirts yeah so let's we got the franchi t-shirt let's go through them ranchi t-shirt franchi mug we got a franchi franchi mug is that's my favorite it's just the coolest it is cool and the skull hoodie sorry the skull hoodie is my favorite yeah i love wearing the skull hoodie all the shirts are very very soft once again guys it's that thin hoodie so you can wear it like pretty much like march through like october depending on where you live yeah you can wear it almost all year it's fall it's spring yes it doesn't matter it's awesome um but we also have the skull and crossbone shirts we have the the traditional poor man yeah we have the og which also has a nice beanie hat which is a winter hat which is awesome um trucker hat we have a trucker hat we do and we also have the what do you call that the uh indonesian old school poor man's pinball podcast redone by franchi fixed by fran yeah we still get every once in a while people wanting to us to post a podcast shirt. We might do that for a week or so. Maybe that'll be our 4th of July week or something. Something fun.
    83:24
    So that's it. Silver Ball Swag. Under the Promoter tab, click on the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast and get your shirt today.
    83:35
    That was good. Good episode. Feeling strong about that? 59. We're almost at 60. 60 of these episodes. We are still here. Yeah, yeah, it makes it easier every time, right? So easy. Yep. This is so much fun. I have so much fun with you guys. Thank you for listening to our stupidness.
    83:54
    Drew, I love you, brother. Love you, man. All right, well, thank you, guys. Enjoy the Butthole Girl song again. It's my new favorite. Everyone seems to love the Butthole Girl song, so we're just going to keep rolling with it, man. And Zach Manning, if you're still listening, I listened to those Adam Sandler CDs on repeat forever when I was a kid you know you were talking about them on the pinball network and Dennis Creasel was like what the fuck are you talking about and I was laughing my ass off yes goat boy the goat in the car they're all gonna laugh at you and all that good stuff so yes Adam Sandler I wore those CDs out alright well peace out guys alright see ya
    85:08
    I wonder what's inside your buckle Maybe there are questions, not to be heard And you're all inside your buckle I wonder what's inside your buckle What's inside your buckle I always wanna know I wonder what's inside your buckle What's inside your buckle I always want to know what's inside your butthole. What's inside your butthole? I always want to know what's inside your butthole. What's inside your butthole? I always want to know what's inside your butthole. The views expressed on this podcast don't necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors.
    86:03
    Obviously, they don't really care as much as we do about buttholes and what's inside them. So thanks for listening, guys. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
    86:15
    Ladies and gentlemen, the Poor Man's Pinball Pod... Shit. Ladies and gentlemen, the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast is sponsored by Pinchadium. Pinchadiums? Pinchadiums.
    86:31
    All right. Three, two, one. Yeah, Pinch. Sorry. Get those Pinchades. brain fart. Edit, edit, edit.