you're listening to the head-to-head pinball podcast find us on facebook email us at head-to-head pinball at gmail.com or go to our website head-to-head pinball.com Welcome everybody to the Head to Head Pinball Podcast. This is episode 74 and my name's Martin and with me... It's Ryan C. And our next guest, Marty, he's a return guest. And this guy is one of the only people in the world that gets paid to read Pinside and listen to Pinball Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, Head of PR at Stern, Zach Schaaf. How are you going, Zach? Hi, Zach. You know, that was part of the job description that sold me into, you know, joining Stern. It's like, we will pay you to read Pinside, listen to podcasts. Done. Where do I sign? Because I know that there's, I don't know whether it's in the contract there, but, you know, everybody at Stern needs to play pinball a certain amount of time. Do you have an additional KPI that says a minimum of two hours of Pinside per day? Yes. It's kind of like, you know, there's eating your vegetables, which is playing pinball. I would say reading Pinside is kind of like flossing your teeth. It's not as fun, but you should do it because you don't want your feet to fall out. But it's kind of like candy in a way, too. So it's like, it tastes good, but it's bad for you. Do you get performance bonuses when shit hits the fan? Yes. It's like, oh, I get the green icon status. Zach, that's an extra bonus for you. well you guys have had a very very big year in fact that machines have been released codes been released um how was stern feeling about 2018 oh i mean it was the biggest year yet i mean i i know it was my first full year as an employee but i mean you know just being around the company so to speak throughout the years i mean it's incredible not only you know the number of machines that got out but just the sheer press and publicity of pinball to the masses i mean you can point to supreme which i'm sure you'll you'll you'll bring up but i mean just the exposure of that machine alone i mean i get private messages from old college buddies and like oh my god you know i just saw the supreme pinball machine can i get one like and they're not even a pinball fan i'm like yeah get in line there buddy but um no i mean it's been incredible and i if you uh go on and this is actually kind of late breaking news um but if you go on the stern pinball website depending on your uh computer or phone um a huge initiative that was kind of being worked on behind the scenes and it was kind of one of my uh key rocks as an employee was uh updating the website so you might still see the old website but we just launched today so it'll take 48 hours for the full propagation and i can't really speak to the technical side but um that's been a huge initiative and launch so very proud of that well yeah i literally went to the website before we had this call because i wanted to you know refresh myself on really the game code that was released. The first thing I noticed was that it was different. And your mind was blown. It was completely blown. Gosh, this is very different. I don't know where to click. Where do I get my codes? It's there. And, yeah, it's intuitive. It's better looking. Well done. Thank you. So some of the machines that we've had this year, obviously, your Cornerstone games, you've got, like, Deadpool and Iron Maiden. Yep. But you've also then sort of branched out into some other, whatever you call them, studio games of Beatles, Primus, Supreme. Was that, I guess, what you set out to do this year? You know, we talked before about, you know, Stern wanting to be all things pinball. Do you think you've achieved that or are we on the way? Oh, no, I think we definitely achieved it. And one thing that you forgot to mention is the Stern Pinball Arcade. You know, we had new games launched for that. we finally released the full version of the Oculus Rift version. So, I mean, it's not just the physical terrestrial versions, but also the digital versions. Okay. You sound so excited by that. Well, I'm not. We're both on the website just scrolling through the beautiful pictures. It's not just that. That's good. You're going to help the analytics. You're going to be on there for like five minutes, and I appreciate that. No, I'm not excited because you said Oculus Rift, which I don't have. I'm dying for it to come out on PSVR, but that's obviously, you know, something that's going to happen with Farsight, not necessarily your doing. Yeah. I mean, that I don't know what the future holds, but, yeah, you never know. So let's talk for a sec about the Beatles. I'm not sure if this is being kind of advertised or listed or mentioned anywhere, but who is the coding team behind the Beatles? Because it seems to kind of be like code complete on release, but I guess because it isn't one of those cornerstone games with not necessarily the deepest rule set, people kind of aren't asking as much, but I'm curious to know who did it. Yeah, so, I mean, there's never just one person doing any one thing. So for like code, I mean, I would say, you know, like Dean Grover, who's done a lot of support programming, helped a lot and tremendously with the Beatles. So if you're looking for the lineman, like the one name of a person for Beatles, I would say Dean Grover. Cool. And so we heard Gary Stern talk about a month ago that I think it was half the Beatles, or roughly half, were going to be made this year and then the rest next year. Is there a reason for that? Is that because you still need to make all the other machines on the line to fulfill demand for Deadpool, et cetera? Yep. So, I mean, I can't speak to our production and cadence for what do we have in inventory and what do we need to fulfill open orders both commercially and export to fill containers to be able to send overseas. So take AMD, for instance. It would be great. It's like, oh, let's just keep building beetles. But, you know, if AMD is saying like, hey, in addition to our beetles order, we need 20 Deadpools, you know, 20 Iron Maidens and, you know, 10 Guardians. We need to kind of balance that and, you know, alter the schedule from a production perspective to fulfill orders, especially before, you know, the end of the year hits. Okay. what's the feedback been like from distributors based off that um like the three different models because we i've seen the beetle store who seem to be selling them all for the same price but obviously all distributors are tiering them in a different way yeah i mean what is your question in terms of the distributors well no i mean do they do they i guess the distributor is selling some models and some models more expensive whereas the you know the beetle store just said okay well let's just all sell them for, I think it's like $10,000 or something. Have you been getting feedback from distributors saying they like this model and would it be something that you guys would do moving forward for future LA titles, kind of having the price a little bit more flexible from a distributor end, or is this just a once-off for the Beatles? You never say never. It's never to say that we wouldn't do something similar in the future. but the feedback from sales and distributors have been fantastic with this game. And I know from a consumer perspective, I'm sure there are a couple of lucky people that scooped up those platinums and diamonds for $10,000, and kudos to them for hawking the Beatles store. Yeah, and then selling them for twice the price, probably. Oh, I'm sure. But I guess, so for me, and the reason I was sort of saying, you know, you're Cornerstone and you're studio games, so you've really got, you know, you're Deadpool and you're Iron Maiden, which they, the way I said, Iron Maiden was a slam dunk. It was always going to be. Everybody had been calling out for that theme. You then had Keith come along with his archer design, then got a great rule set. It was just, it was everything. And I think that the response you got was what was expected. Deadpool I think was a bit of a surprise people weren't necessarily sure how Deadpool was going to go over as having its own pinball theme and surprised everybody once they started seeing it and playing it but then you've got the Beatles, Primus and Supreme which sort of divided people because it wasn't necessarily going to the traditional pinball market for you that sort of manages the PR and the message, how's that been for you? You know I've always taken constructive criticism. I never get discouraged or overly happy if it's only roses, like the Iron Maiden reception. So, I mean, I get people's feedback. And if something is truly not targeted to a certain segment, they might have a visceral reaction to it. I think Supreme was probably the most extreme to that feedback. And you know what? I mean, it means they care. I think that's one thing that Josh and I always kind of live by, especially when it comes to the IFPA, just in terms of formula changes to the Whopper system. And I think it's worse when it's crickets, because that means that people just really don't care. So I take the feedback, both the positive and the negative. Well, I think the interesting thing, because obviously we talk about these machines a lot, I think that the main thing about Supreme was people just really shook their head because they didn't know who Supreme was, right? I think that was the big disconnect. People just didn't know the brand at all. Those people that know it love it, right? But people that didn't know it... Yeah, I mean, we had to educate people in the building. They're like, why are we doing this? And, you know, Jody, myself and John Buscaglia, you know, definitely wanted to, you know, push that project forward because it's like, you guys don't understand how massive the exposure for this game could and would be. And it's like, huh, what? They sell a brick? I don't get it. I'm like, I don't get it either. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, I'm like, I don't get it. But, but it's a thing. It would be a missed opportunity. Yeah, if it works. and you know it's a test it's like let's go for it and i mean it exceeded all of our expectations i mean i think you know that video that they released upon release or that teaser you know had two million views in a day or two and it's just like oh my gosh did you did you guys try and like kind of replicate that that video um with the the beatles video that you did and uh i think the Primus video? Like, are you trying to maybe launch pinballs that way that maybe the first thing that people see is that video instead of maybe just static pictures and an article? Yeah, I mean, you know what? Every game release and launch is going to be different, and that could be, you know, due to the licensor input and just the status of, you know, how the game's going to be in terms of launching and what's available assets wise so um there's i wouldn't say that every launch is going to have that same exact cadence but okay do you think the reaction like you know in your opinion if you were sitting down waiting for a new pinball machine um you know what do you think excites people the most you know i i guess you said it depends on the on the game if the game is has this like beautiful art you probably want more static pictures but if you want to focus on gameplay the video might be better right you know what i don't know for me personally i really what gets me jazz would be like grainy pictures that you really can't make out anything and no video no i mean obviously like having a nice polished video um before launch is awesome and then being able to ship said product you know within days, if not weeks, is a slam dunk in terms of launching a game. I think more pictures of cell phones from European meetings might be pretty good. I know. But this is the thing. We have talked about this in that part two of the question is, do you think Sturm will ever be able to release a machine that nobody knows about? But the problem is that stuff gets leaked. people know about these themes years before they're coming out they form a picture in their mind it's really hard for you to be able to then be able to give everybody what they want because they've already formed this opinion so do you think there'll ever be a time when stone can release a machine that no one knows about oh i mean i would like to hope so you know it's not gonna happen i take as i say i'm like i take ndas very extreme but you know it's it's tough because there's so many tentacles involved and not only from a stern side like think of it from the licensor end you know if iron maiden you know the lead singer and we're trying to keep this under wraps and he's on his tour he's like yeah mate you know our new machine's coming out next year it's like oh that's out there it's not like we can slap his hand it's just you know sometimes it's just the nature of the beast. And that was a terrible accent. What's that? Yeah, that was a viral accent. So what is the difference between the Primus pinball deal and Supreme? Because from my understanding, I might be wrong, but the Supreme pinball machine was kind of like wholly advertised through all of Supreme's marketing. And I don't think it was ever mentioned on, or, you know, there's even any production photos on like a certain Facebook page or any press release. but Primus on the other hand was kind of like this collaboration so was that the choice or was that Supreme saying let us handle this? It was again, each contract was different and each rollout of those games were different so for Supreme, they wanted to do it their way and that's how that was unveiled and then Primus was different And I don't want to say more collaborative because both entities were extremely collaborative. But, you know, I think with Supreme specifically, you know, that brand and what they do to generate hype and excitement is different. You know, they're on a whole nother level of, you know, control, which I mean, kudos to them with how they, you know, launch their their catalog. And, you know, they don't even they don't even say when it's going to happen. right like exactly it's not like they say at 5 p.m it's just like it'll it'll happen and then people are like wow for you then as pr that's the best situation for you to be in you can actually just sit back and say you know what i'll let you market this because you've got two million followers whatever it is my job is done effectively right yeah i mean i i think i mean a perfect world with every game and every launch is really leaning on you know the licensor uh support because I love the pinball community and I think our little hub or bubble kind of gets boiled down and myopic in terms of saying why can't we release that information here now to our tens of thousands of people without taking a step back and be like what's a stronger impact releasing this information take the Beatles for instance it was fantastic that we were able to get on their official Facebook page which has 40 million followers. No offense to the Stern Facebook page, which has 185,000. I mean, do the math. I think the reach of hitting a larger audience of people who probably don't know what pinball's about is much more substantial. Well, so then, again, talking about Beatles, and we talked about, obviously, Supreme, people scratched their head when it came to the theme. When it then came to Beatles, I think that people were scratching their head around, if we can be honest, it's the price versus features, right? Because, you know, it was a see-which re-thing which people have been screaming for Stern Electronics re-things for at least remakes anyway. And so I think that was kind of the disconnect. People were saying, huh, I get it. I like it. But the price. Sure. And, you know, I can't speak to what goes behind the scenes in terms of the pricing model, but obviously with this being a limited product and the cost of the license itself, I mean, I know Joe Kaminkow mentioned, you know, it's like a million dollar license and however many years that they tried to secure it. I mean, was I still in diapers when they were trying to get this license back in the day? But that all gets tied into, you know, the cost. But I mean, in terms of, and I guess this is where maybe I'm naive. To me, a fun pinball machine is a fun pinball machine. And regardless of price, you know, if somebody wants to buy it or not, the whole connotation of value, to me, fun is value. So for me personally, when I buy or play a pinball machine, you know, I'm looking to get enjoyment out of playing the machine, not as an investment opportunity. which I know some people like to have their cake and eat it too. They want to buy something for fun, but if they sell it, they want to exponentially make more money off of that purchase. Yeah, it's something that a lot of people ignore. I think in the collective community, it's like a background fear that you don't want to buy something that's going to lose you a certain amount of money because it doesn't hold value. and the Stern LE models, especially for me, have, I guess, gone up in value since I've bought them versus other titles. But you mentioned before Stern being all things pinball, and you've got your higher-end models, your pros, your LEs, premiums. When are you guys going to regress into something even more simpler like Zizzle titles? Is that something that Stern has on their radar? Well, I wouldn't quite say Zizzle, but no, I mean, we still have our entry-level game. I don't know if you've seen the Spider-Man Home Edition. Where can you buy that? I don't know which, I mean, contact your dealer or distributor. I mean, obviously, we don't sell direct, so I don't know who might still have those available. But there's still plans for future releases on that platform. So to your point, that's another all things pinball, another target segment versus the cornerstone segment. There is that entry level still on the horizon. And would there still be the position where you are contract manufacturing? Because I know that you did, but you don't. But would you? Never say never. I mean, it's definitely, you know, making our own products is paramount. And if there's a need to do contract manufacturing, I wouldn't say that it's not necessarily available. But again, you know, I think from a business perspective, you know, it doesn't make sense. And sometimes you can quote unquote say building a Supreme or a Primus as a private label game that is technically contract manufacturing. You know it not necessarily a game that you know that one of our cornerstone or studio titles if that makes sense Yeah How about okay so this week you guys released four updates which is maybe a record I not sure Aerosmith, Guardians, Kiss, and Batman. With Stern, are you guys like holding that back as a PR movement, like, pow, one a day, here's all your codes? Or do they just all happen to line up? You know what? They typically all kind of line up the way they line up because what a lot of people don't understand behind the scenes, just because a code release is quote-unquote ready, there's still a lot of internal testing that is done, and then something might be found, and they have to have another build is what it's kind of called behind the scenes, and then a new version gets associated with that new build, and it has to go through the whole entire process again. so it's not necessarily well let's just sit on this and wait for Thursday at 8pm when people want to get home for dinner but we want to release it Thursday before launch party so no we just wanted to get these code updates out. Well you actually obviously this year had some very high profile I went to the website beforehand and that's when I was surprised with the new design but we're talking ACDC got a big code update Star Trek, Ghostbusters, and obviously Batman 66 got to 1.0. Metallica got a massive update. Aerosmith got a massive update. Guardians got the transformation that it needed. And then KISS got its update as well. So this isn't something that, you know, all of a sudden you hire somebody a month later, the code's out. You've obviously had this planned for some time. Do we expect to see that same level of output in 2019? you know new games getting their the later uh revisions but also looking at some of the back catalog and refreshing it yeah i mean you never know what the future has in store and um in terms of code updates i mean we you know want to constantly address you know previous games um you know ghostbusters will be updated i know everyone's claiming for that but um yeah and then you know making sure all of our newest games are you know working great So, I mean, are we going to see the same sheer level of code updates? It's kind of tough to say because with, you know, Aerosmith, KISS, Guardians, Batman, everything that you kind of listed out, it's going to be tough to kind of top that. But the whole point of doing that. Once the game is done, it's kind of done, yeah. Well, exactly. You know, once the game's done, then there's not going to be a transformative update to Batman again because, you know, the game is incredible and it's 1.0. No, I understand. But Metallica did. Metallica got a big update, right? And that game's been considered done for a long time. Yeah. You never know. And also, speaking of Metallica, so this was, I believe, the year that Metallica officially stopped production. Is that right? Yeah. End of the line for the music trio pins. Yeah, okay. Well, so Metallica is an interesting story because it's been on the line for a long time. would you consider it one of your most successful pins you do the math if a game is on the line for seven years i would say that's pretty damn successful you know what i mean but i i guess what i'm trying to really hear is whether there's other machines as well that you say are sort of in that kind of realm of being as successful as metallica um i mean it's definitely up there how about i'll leave it at that well then so why do you why do you think that metallica of all the machines has had that last ability um i think again just the code on that machine you know helped transform it i mean i i know it was already popular you know it's a popular band um but then you know lyman updated the crank it up modes and it transformed that game from its initial release and then uh just built from that you know built on from there i mean borg had an incredible design and the artwork from Dirty Donnie is, you know, incredible. That it kind of just hit all of those perfect buttons and meshed extremely well. Yeah, well, I've always said that I think it's Stern's best machine ever made. Obviously, Star Trek's my favorite machine, but I still think from each of the different things that you're looking at, it's perfect. It's everything that the pinball needs to be. And that's my thoughts on why I think that it's had its last ability, because it is everything to everybody. I would agree. Is that a question, Matty? I was just asking how you want me to respond. I just want you to go, yeah, you're right, Matty, you're awesome. Well, you know what? Everyone has their favorites, and that's what's the beauty of pinball. Your favorite game is Metallica. Mine is Cyclops. Ryan? Yeah, Cyclone. Mine's Ghostbusters. There you go. Supreme. Hey, Zach, three Cornerstone games a year. That's what Gary Stern says all the time. So there's only been two this year. Is there going to be another Cornerstone game released before the year's end? I can't confirm or deny. But if you want to call the website launch a Cornerstone, then yes. All right. Okay, let's be logical here. So four Cornerstone games this year is what we're hearing. so can't confirm or deny well who uploaded that picture today come on we want to know on Facebook someone uploaded a picture we saw the title okay we're ignoring it we're giving you the opportunity to say it but you know I have no idea what you're talking about well luckily we've got the picture there's lots of pictures out there There are, and it's one of those things where as soon as you put a picture up, you know everybody's going to blow up that picture to see what's in the background. Is that a question? No, I'm just saying it's a statement of fact that that's what we're going to do, and it's what we've found. But I guess, do you need to release another game this year? I mean, as I said, we've five games already. Sure, we've only seen two Cornerstone. Are you happy to say done and dusted 2018? It's on the line, Marty. It's on the line. I was going to say, if you want to call me January 1st, I can answer your question. How about that? Or December 31st at midnight. Okay. Okay, that's nice. Okay, I get it. We get it now. Okay. All right, well, if you can't tell us what's coming out next year, can you let us know the entire release schedule of 2019? Don't worry, we'll bleep it out. So what's the first title? Yes! Oh, that's great. I've been waiting for that for a long time. Second title? Oh! That's going to be popular with the younger generation. Yeah, a lot of people have been asking for that one. And how will you finish off the year in 2019? I'd push for this, but... Not the first one, the second one. Not the first one, but the sequel. Well, it was one of those movies, I guess, where the sequel was more popular than the first movie. So I guess that makes sense. You know, Michael J. Fox, with that original Back to the Future stuff, you were like, you know what, let's go with... It'd be much easier. You guys are probably like, I have never seen... I have. I have. And I knew exactly what you were saying, because, yeah, it was. It did the follow-up, and it was just... It was an absolute stinker. Awesome. Do you have any more questions, Marty? No, that's it. I think Stern's had a great year. You know you've had a great year. Your first year at Stern, your website's done. Jase, you can rest over the holiday season. I wish. Speaking of getting pinball out to the masses, I leave for the Bahama Sunday to help run a pinball event down at the Bahama Bowl, which is a college football ball game. That is a holiday in disguise. You are not going there for pinball. who's approving that but then after that I can yeah then I'll get to rest a little bit but no the baby will keep me up yeah no thank you guys thanks for letting us know the next three games really appreciate it and we'll talk to you next time sounds good I'm reaching like Josh's territory usually I don't go back you know I don't get callbacks so I appreciate it awesome thanks man see you mate alright so Ryan that was Zach Sharp from Stern Pinball what did we learn he takes non-disclosure agreements very seriously very seriously except for the last three minutes where he told us the next couple of games yeah I know head to head he fucked up yeah well we censored them so at least you know he gets to keep his job because he's doing a pretty good job he is doing a pretty good job so talking about interviews Marty I listened today to the Brian Eddy interview on Special N Lit. And even though Brian Eddy's been in the pinball industry, you know, in and out a couple of times for 20 plus years, I think it is. I don't know. A long time. It's his first podcast ever. So we'll link it in the show notes. I haven't listened to all of it, I'll be honest, yet. I've been pretty busy, but the parts that I have listened to, some good information. Hey, you know the Shadow Marty? You know those little figurines that sit up on the, like they're just little playfield toys. They don't do anything. They're little Mongol guys. Apparently, they were meant to kind of like pop out sideways or something. They were like meant to be bash toys, but like the Medieval Madness trolls, but instead of coming from under the playfield, they were meant to kind of pop out the side. Okay. I guess they kind of like block your shot or something, but it had to be priced out. And there was something else about an attack from Mars source, but I'll listen to it again. Anyway, listen to the Brian Eddy interview on Special When Lit and we'll link it in the show notes. Awesome. Do you know what radcows are, Marty? well yes they are for the the external art on your pinball machine and they're a high resolution high version high quality what am i what am i saying yeah something like that and you can pretty much apply them yourself it's not like you like a normal decal where it's thin and you have to smooth it out and apply them wet and you're gonna mess it up anyway um they're available for just like the jgp machines i believe the hobbit and dialed in i'm not sure about pirates of the caribbean um the guys down at uh meco the guy that guys that do the playfields they're now doing it for newer games like medieval madness and i think it's about 400 shipped and it basically looks like you've got new cabinet decals and it's like clear-coated but this is something that i'm pretty sure you can just whack on top of your art and do yourself um so i'll link that in the show notes i think it's just interesting because it's a big hurdle to restore a pinball machine like i would never attempt to do a decal i think it's just way beyond wasn't it wasn't this way i was reading this week where um someone had said that they're doing the rad cows possibly for creature from the black lagoon and they're like oh therefore it's going to be the next remake Yeah, I'm not sure Possibly I don't know People just jump at things Because we all just want to know What the next one's going to be Yeah Call of DMD, Marty Yes Just literally five minutes Before we started recording They said that they're game number 83 Can you believe they've done 83 games? Frankenstein You love that game, don't you, Marty? I think you had that in the Some of the top 100 I don't I don't mind it I don't mind it It's alright It's okay Well now you get Now you get to look at the dots in colour So there you go Yeah Awesome Great Is that one of the ones That's got the larger DMDs? Yeah the X What's it called? X LED Yeah sure Something like that Anyway it'll probably look good 83 games buddy You know how they do it right? You know it's not like Some computer program That's They might have to animate it By hand or something Don't they? Like recolour the dots Yeah but basically The ROM is just like A mapping tool It's a trick Because Yes because of copyright stuff. I'm pretty sure they're not paying any royalties because they're just saying, hey, when this image appears, this dot is this color, this dot is this color, this dot is this color, and that's for every single frame on there. Yeah. So it's pretty insane they're up to 83. So well done to the Color DMD team. Well done, guys. Ghosts. Who are Ghosts, Marty? Apparently they won at Pinwall Machine. Okay. Is it a band or something? I know nothing about this. You know more about music than I do. There's a band called Ghost, is what you're trying to tell me, and they won a pinball machine? Yeah, my biggest... This is the article by Tobias Forge. My biggest wish right now is to make a Ghost-branded pinball machine. No. I think we should have talked about this before we recorded. No, I don't know. They're not going to get one, okay? If I don't know who they are and you don't know who they are, Marty, surely they're not going to get a pinball machine, okay? Yeah, okay. So, Tobias Forge. Yeah, there you go. I'm reading it now. This is good. We're getting through the news pretty quickly if we just don't know what we're talking about. We need to get through the news really quickly because we've got a lot of news coming up later. Yeah. Brisbane Masters, Marty. Yes. The biggest three-day event in Australia, tournament-wise, is now part of the Stern Pro Circuit. Yeah, I saw that. That's massive news for us. Really. What does it mean? I don't know what it means. It means it's worth... People are going to fly down for it, I guess. Well, I think don't the Stern Pro Circuit also get bonus points? And, you know, maybe it will attract people from overseas coming here. Because I think, you know, what was it, like 130, maybe 140 people last time. And it could only be bigger. And I think that raises its publicity internationally. And so maybe people will fly over to be, you know, one of the Pro Circuit tournaments. So good on them. It's massive news. Well done. yeah you can pretty much go there and i guess the difference between this and say like pinberg for example is pinberg is i guess pinberg is two events right intergalactic and and the pinberg event this is four events i think it was two flip frenzies with like over 100 people a three strikes tournament and the main event that runs for for two days so over three days you're getting like well last year well sorry this year 100 people in four events so the points are huge. This year, sorry, next year, they're holding it at some bigger venue, so who knows, there might be 200 people there for four events. It's huge. It's definitely Australia's biggest event. It's grown year on year, and this year's one was just absolutely massive. We talked about it. We had Jimmy and Lambo on talking about it, and yeah, again, congratulations for getting on the Stern Pro Circuit. That's great. That's it for the news. I've got nothing else, Manny. No, I've got nothing really this week pinball related news so shall we move to the main event yes the moment you've all been waiting for you have all been waiting for this so this is the twerpies and I think we should really get the formal introduction underway what do you think go for it money roll the tape here it is only one man has the knowledge the charisma the personality and the expertise to deliver the most important award of all time the 2018 twelvies and without further introduction I give you Roger. No, we couldn't do it. Here's Keith. Huh? Didn't want to be a part of it? I present to you Gary. What? He's hammered on vodka? Not surprised. Well, that leaves us no choice. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Petey! That's right, fuckers. Let's do this, bitch. I think that really sets the scene for this event, the twerpies, because it did get some negative press on a particular forum, and it's not meant to be taken seriously, so that's why we do this. So the way it's going to work is that we're going to talk about each of the categories very briefly, because we've got, I think, like 17 of them to get through. And we'll call it some highlights. And then the winner will be announced by our very special guest presenter. So the first two categories really are related. So you've got worst theme and worst theme integration. So I guess the anti, so the best was Houdini only got one vote. So well done, Houdini. Obviously people like that theme. but in third place with 8% of the vote we have Beatles sure yeah people were expecting more stuff on there I don't know more mess more toys it was pretty fresh as well yeah fair enough the runner up with 32% of the vote was Thunderbirds okay yeah well and that's one of the ones people just don't understand that theme but for me I love that theme so I think it's a great theme Anyway, but the winner of Worst Theme, Ryan, was? Let's head over to Petey. And the loser is... Well, it's no wonder. Where's the $50 brick or the $400 crowbar or the thousands of assholes waiting to get in? It's Supreme! Supreme! And Supreme did also win Worst Theme Integration as well. So, and Thunderbirds was runner-up and Beatles was third. Yeah, so worst theme in theme integration, almost matching, right? Yeah, very similar. Although, theme integration for Iron Maiden rated just a little bit higher than it did for theme. Alright, what's next, Marty? Next is call-outs. Okay. So, people think the best call-outs are Iron Maiden. only got six votes. That is correct. The call-out's absolutely amazing on that. I don't know who those 2% of people are, but anyway. Anyway, they're crazy. So in third place, we have Alice Cooper. Okay. Yeah, I get that. People were sort of cool on his sort of attitude. They reckon he wasn't a bit upbeat. In second place, we have Houdini, which I find that personally offensive. I think it's more about the instructions I don't think it's the actual callouts I think it's more about They are being critical of my callouts in the game I can't help but take it personally You're pretty deep in the game though aren't you You don't hear your voice straight away right So I'm the Sydney jailer And I've seen on some machines I'm the first jailer that comes up On others I'm the third jailer that comes up So I don't know how that works But anyway It's probably an operator adjustment that you can code Marty out of the game. It's probably. But, yeah, so the winner of worst call-outs in a pinball machine is... Okay, let's see who's the worst call-out. Someone to choose from. We just hit the bed again. Thunderbirds. You know what the worst call-out is? Player one, you're up. Oh, no. It's so true. I haven't played it yet, but I've heard so many people say they've walked away from it. It's actually split my side. Just so people know, we've not heard these announcers yet. Oh, my God. Hilarious. Okay. What's next, buddy? Next one is... Hey, does Thunderbirds actually have like... He just says, Thunderbirds 5, Thunderbirds 2. They don't actually say what you're meant to do, right? Like hit the ramp a thousand times and spell international rescue. Yeah I don know Yeah okay Anyway So next category is worst music and or sounds So who got the least amount of votes Marty Pirates of the Caribbean David Thiel. Yes, he's your man. In third position, we have Supreme. Houdini. Sorry, yeah, Houdini. He's the 11% of the vote. Supreme. I thought the sounds were pretty cool. Okay, I've only really watched the trailer. I've never I just don't think there's a lot of them The trailer made it sound really cool Three minutes of trailer But the worst music and sounds In a pinball machine Over to you Petey Worst music and sounds Here we go Soccer Thunderbirds I'd rather hear the marionette Fuck on Team America Oh my gosh You've seen Teen America haven't you Marty I have It's an awesome film That scene was so ridiculous Oh yes Thunderbirds got 43% of the votes I feel That's probably not going to be the last time We hear from Thunderbirds Yeah I almost feel like some people are unnecessarily hating uh on thunderbirds i mean is the sound that bad i know the call outs are bad okay so i've said okay you know what it's christmas time so here's my christmas gift to everybody thunderbirds is a steaming turd of a game it is awful to play however this is my opinion i think the sound and the music is really good really good i love the sound i love the atmosphere i think it's very cool i actually really like the artwork as well it's just the gameplay i don't like okay there you go yeah you heard it here first all right so for those people have been wanting us to talk about it there it is it's a shitter what's the next one nutty next one is artwork and there were actually three machines with the least amount of votes ultimately saying that the best. So you've got Deadpool, Iron Maiden and Pirates of the Caribbean. And Alice Cooper is close behind as well. So those four machines, people are pretty much saying that they like the artwork. But in third place for artwork is Houdini. Still only 7% of the vote though. That's not that much. No, that's not much at all. And second, right? Thunderbirds by Homepin with 31% of the vote. Who is our fortunate winner this time For artwork Alright let's cross over to Petey again Worst artwork Looks like a fucking tube at Colgate Supreme I love how we Sent him the answers To read in an envelope And he hasn't actually been cheating He's ripping them open one by one Thank you Petey for not peeking so Supreme with 50% of the vote and you know it was never going to be that because you know Supreme has its art style it has to be very plain it has to be very simple it worked for those people that like Supreme I guess I guess we probably should have put Mafia in here as well since even though it's not out to the masses I guess it is the final version that's out there to buy but it's been a good year for art right like the artwork the level the bar that you must hit to make your game a desired product has been raised every year in the last couple of years so well exactly make or break right yep absolutely so the next category is worst rules and or code people are saying Iron Maiden's the best yep Iron Maiden the best yep you know Deadpool, Beatles they're all saying it's good in third place really third place with only 5% of the vote is Pirates of the Caribbean but 5% is nothing so the runner up for rules and or code is Supreme ok I wonder what our winner could be Ryan here we go worst rules Thunderbirds fucking Evel Knievel didn't hit that many ramps. Oh, poor Thunderbirds. I wonder how many more jokes Petey has of his sleep about Thunderbirds. Oh my god. Next is Toys and Gimmicks, Marty. Correct. Look, we'll go to the top three, so in third place, we've got Beatles. Well, yeah. It doesn't have that many toys, I guess. Thunderbirds was second for 31% of the vote. And the winner of worst toys and or gimmicks. After you, Petey. Worst toys and gimmicks? Holy shit! It's not like he couldn't afford it! Supreme! Supreme! Oh, guys. funny alright the next category is worst layout so the ones that people like obviously Iron Maiden, Deadpool, Pirates of the Caribbean Alice Cooper they're all down low they're sort of like 1's and 2%'s of the vote so well done in 3rd place with 11% of the vote Houdini now I guess I can get that because, you know, tight but findable. People are sort of saying that they've sort of bricked their shots. But it's just one of those games. You've got to give it time. In second place, with 14% of the vote, we have Supreme. Yeah. I don't think many people have... This is loud and gameplay, so I guess it's like how you feel when you're playing the game. I'm not sure how many people have actually played this machine. I know. So if second place is 14% of the vote... Wow. How much percent did the first one get, Mahi? Well, let's hear from Petey first and then reveal. Here we go. Worst layout in gameplay. No shit. Thunderbirds. He's run out of jokes. So, yes, Thunderbirds, 59% of the vote. Well done. Congratulations. a twerpy statue will be coming your way a uh a bag of glitter dicks um didn't didn't home pin say that when they were taking pre-orders that like a famous past designer is going to be working on it like you know we won't reveal it yet but we'll reveal it soon and then they just never revealed it because it was probably it was probably just mike um fucking around in cats anyway what's the next money worst display or animations okay top three yeah what are the best what's the best what's the one that received the least amount of votes well Alice Cooper and Pirates of the Caribbean both received one vote each that was a misclick because those those animations are both amazing especially yeah David David Van Es we had him on the show and we haven't actually we've had it both on the show jump all the way to win yeah so So, in third place we have Houdini. It's only 12% of the vote. Don't count. Second. Supreme. Yeah, that's a hard one because it's a DMD, so DMD is automatically going to get voted down. Are they? Yeah. Well, okay, let's find out. Let's find out. Off to you, Petey. Where's display animations? Oh, you still fucking suck. Thunderbirds. Ah, poor Thunderbirds Poor Thunderbirds And people haven't even received it yet No, no Just waiting But certainly that would have to be the last one that it would win So let's go to the next category, Ryan What's that? Worst game of the year This is almost the big one, right? This is the An all-encompassing award This is the gold logie People look it up Gold logie of worst awards, I guess so let's do this in order shall we? sure so 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 well there's 8 machines right in 8th place Iron Maiden 1% of the vote yeah 2 votes everyone loves Iron Maiden correct by the way there was about 300 people that voted on each of these but we made sure that you don't have to vote on each one so some people didn't seem to have an opinion on certain things so they didn't answer, which is good. And you can still submit. So, yeah. In second last position, as in like the second best game of the year, was actually Alice Cooper by Spooky. And Houdini. They both got four votes each. So, well done. So people don't hate those games. Correct. They also don't hate Deadpool or Pirates of the Caribbean because they both got six votes each. So, another 2%. Now, this is where it starts to ramp up a little bit. A little bit, yeah. So, Beatles got 6% of the vote. Yeah. Supreme got 22% of the vote. Well, we fucked up because everyone knows what it's going to be. Okay, Petey. I don't know. Petey will have to tell us. All right, Petey. Go for it. And now the biggie. Worst game of the year. And just remember, even though there's only one winner, you're all losers. Well, let's be fair. the makers of this game said it's not for you well it's not for fucking anyone slander birds that's a popular saying this year it's not for you it's not for you person that wants to buy a pinball machine alright now that's pretty much all the ones to do with the games so let's head to the funny ones the extra random ones that we put in there. Yeah, like, that was all shits and giggles. This is shits and shits and giggles giggles. Yeah, this is double shits. So this is bang for buck is the next one. So, really, with one vote each, you had Alice Cooper, Deadpool and Houdini. So, you know, obviously what people are saying is well-priced for what you get. And, by the way, I put the lowest version of the game. I mean, I didn't want to put Beatles there for $25,000 because you can get one for $8,000, I think it is, for the gold version. And it's the same game, just with different decals. So I'm not going to... You know, it's still bang for buck if you can get it for that price. Yeah, exactly. So in third place, we had Beatles. Yep. 18% of the vote. Mafia was second. 24% of the vote. And the winner is over to you, Petey. Worst bang for the buck. I kind of hate shitting on them. I get all my clothes from them. Supreme! There's no way that Petey wears Supreme. No way he can afford that. Yeah, knock off. He wears knock offs, surely. Absolutely. I don't think it's Supreme at all. I think that's... Oh, man, the hate for Supreme is just insane. It's Mafia, because Supreme has a chance of holding its value, whereas Mafia, maybe now at 20 units only, it has a chance, but at 100 units, when this vote was available, surely had no chance of holding value. Oh, well, you know, Supreme at 10K is pretty up there, but, you know, Supreme at 70K is an absolute joke. And I think that's, people weren't sort of saying, you know, oh, it cost people 10 grand. People were looking at, you know, we know that it probably didn't go for 70 grand, but people were looking at the prices that were people putting on eBay, and that was just flaming it even more. Yeah. What's next, Marty? Next is Worst Reveal. Yeah. So, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, Oktoberfest receive the smallest amount of votes. Yep. In third position is Monster Bash, and that just dragged on forever, the remake. And in second position was The Beatles by Stern. How was that? I can't even remember. It's been such a long year. I don't remember how it was revealed. Well, wasn't it because it was revealed at the Beatles store on a Beatles site and it had that video that had to be redone? Ah, that's right. Yeah, that video was pretty average. Okay. Yeah. The winner, over to you, Petey. Worst new pinball reveal. Oh, fuck. I got a paper cut. The blood will fit in with the game, though. Mafia. Oh, gosh. How did they reveal it? Was it a pinball news article? I can't remember. Anyway. I just remember waking up in the morning and people were messaging me because the top in-lane spelled gin, and I thought I'd like it because of that. Well, I prefer drinking it than playing it. But as you know, I played it at Flip Out, and I actually quite enjoyed it. So there you go. It only received 28% of the vote, so that was probably the one that people were the most split on. That's the lowest percentage that won was for that one. Yeah, correct. and the next one my favorite category is the worst book deal so this was just a two-choice option between the todtaki book deal that recently uh you know went down the toilet and the stern's 30 seconds sorry 30 seconds 30th anniversary book so let's just go straight to the winner right Correct. Up to you, Petey. The worst pinball book deal. Stern's 30th anniversary book. I don't see what the big deal is. It's going to come out on the 30th anniversary of when the Kickstarter began. 28 more years. 28 more years. I know. This was really close, though, wasn't it? Yeah, it was 52% to 48%. So either way, it was a shit deal for either of them. We just had the Stern PR guy on We should have asked him I keep on forgetting What the hell is going on I don't think they know what's going on Out of their deal Out of their control I would imagine So the next one was The worst pinball drama Yes What's the least The least is actually Todd Ducky's book deal Oh really I mean that was closely followed by John Popadook going ongoing Zidware legal case. People just didn't care about that. And people apparently don't care also about the Stern getting the Godzilla license. People seemed to care, though, when that was happening. That was like... Maybe it was just us because it was like a back and forward thing a couple of times. Shall I call out the vocal minority, the echo chamber, whatever you want to call it. It really doesn't affect that many people maybe. Yeah. Let's go over the top. Three. So, in third place, we have Dutch pinball contract issues. Yeah, I guess this should hit the fan the most this year, even though it's been coming. I guess this year is the first year that people are like, okay, it's definitely not happening. So, apparently they are due, their next court appearance is in January. Okay. It's a while. It is a while. in second is Voldemort being banned from the New York City Pinball Championships for throwing a drink in someone's face apparently that was more of an issue than Dutch Pinball losing like a million dollars worth of people's money or the October ass grabbing thing and in first position off to you Petey and the biggest clusterfuck do I even have to open this looks like the voters heat hydrofoils. Highway pinball! Yeah. That was to be expected. 33% of the vote, you know, it was just a drama that was unfolding in front of everybody's eyes. Yeah. What's next, Marty? The worst rumour. This is the one with the most answers, and funny enough, the least amount of votes was for Big Bang Bar. Yeah. Yeah. And Steve Ritchie's apparently his rumoured original themes, so people really want to see that. Oh, and Alice in Wonderland. These are very small. You know, people do know. Not bothered. Yeah. Let's go the top three. So, in third place we have Deep Root with Fire and Brimstone. Okay. 10% of the vote. Sure. Yeah. I guess a lot of people wouldn't get it. Yeah, religion. also a very debatable subject. Yeah, it can be divisive. Yeah. In second place, we've got Stern Primus. This was done before Primus was revealed. So, yeah, that shouldn't be there anymore. It was the worst rumour because, you know, it was there. And in first position... Over to you, Petey. Worst rumoured upcoming tale. So imagine how great you'd feel if Harry Potter was announced this would be the opposite well what the fuck did he do the whole pin original non-licensed sign me up I think it was in a seminar that Mike said his second game was going to be an original non-licensed game aimed towards the Chinese market and of course that's the least exciting thing because he's saying again this machine is not for you it's for 1 billion people that are not interested in pinball. But let's see how that goes, I guess. The next category is worst company image. Yes. Well, let's say the winners of this, being with the least amount of votes, we've got Spooky Pinball and Team Pinball, both got one vote each. Pretty much zero percent. Well, I guess Team Pinball hasn't done anything wrong because they probably have only sold a couple of machines. I don't know. And do you know what? they're probably just a couple of good guys just trying to make their world in the pinball industry and, you know, they haven't done anything wrong. You're right. And they've taken a lot of money. Yeah, that's exactly right. You know, the results really for like the first, you know, six of these are like 0% to 1% and then 5%. But in third place, it jumps up from 5% to 22%. And in third place, we have Dutch pinball. Yeah. Not much of a company image when there really isn't really a company there at the moment. Just a shell of a company ready to close soon. Correct, and they still have taken everybody's money. Sure. Now, I'm just remembering now, I totally forgot about all that crap, the Amigos or whoever it was, like saving them, the Seven. Yeah, I forgot about that. There's been so much crap this year. I know. Jeez. In second position, Marty? In second position, Pinball Brothers slash Highway Pinball with 30% of the vote. How can that not be the winner, Marty? If those two companies didn't win, then I'm scared to go to pity. Here we go. Before we reveal the first one, think about company image. Like, who are these people? Who are Pimple Brothers? No one knows who they are. Andrew Highway is, you know, tainted and, you know, he did the wrong thing because, you know, let's face it, he's a bad businessman. But, you know, he's a nice person. he just ripped a lot of people off. He's not a bad person. Is he a nice person? I don't know. I don't know. You're just guessing that. I'm just guessing from people that I've spoken to that have met him that he's very personable. Yeah. I'm leading us to the winner of worst company image over to you, Petey. Worst company image in public relations. Home pin. And to you we give the big golden fuck off. I was it actually depressing that he has His company and his image now has a more negative connotation than two companies that have basically collapsed. Because, you know, like, who's going to want to buy a pinball machine? The next pinball machine? I don't know. I guess Chinese people don't jump on pin sign. Well, I also think those other two companies at some stage have said, sorry, we fucked up, we're human. instead of, well, if you don't like it, fuck off. Yeah. All right, last two, Marty. Round us off. Well, everybody is fucking off. So here we go. So the last two, we've got worst argument on Slam the Top 100. And that's between myself and Ryan. No, I don't want to know the results. Do you know the result? No, let's just go to PD. Let's go to PD. what are his arguments on slam the top 100 will it be martin reading off a flyer or ryan having no clue because he's never played it he's got to rely on some porno gifs to get the votes pervert the loser is ryan porno gifs i've only ever done one i always uh uh pretend i'm gonna do one but i can never pull the trigger after the monkey ass grabbing thing in your defense which really isn't a defense but i'm going to try and defend you with your 62 of the vote yes it all went downhill when we went into the 100 to 200 territory because there's so many games in that list there that you haven't played but the cool thing is that now that we've been doing it i've been learning a lot more about the games i know and now your collection seems to be growing with older machines. But none of those, because I only buy top 100 games, Marty, because I would never touch anything in the one. No, I wouldn't. Fair enough. It's stupid. No. Anyway, the last one, Marty. Thank you for surviving this long. It's the worst pinball podcast. Now, this is just to prove that we would put ourselves out there, Marty, that we are not shielded from any negative criticism. I know. And so this one, this one, unlike the other categories where it's either a drop-down or a ticker box. This was you had to put text in. So I genuinely haven't tabulated the results on this. We've just sent the whole list off to Pinside Petey, and he's going to tell us who is the worst podcast. After you, Petey. And the winner of the trophy for the worst podcast, I wish you all could get it. Better not be Mrs. Penner or I'll fucking lose it. Head to head pinball. Fuck it. We are the worst. We have the worst podcast ever. Thank you, Petey. We suck. Thank you very much, Petey. You're amazing. Easy, Marty. Easy. No. See, look. There was a vote and it's done. And no one has to wait to TPF for the results, Marty. It's that simple. It's done. I feel we need to have a gala event, though. Should we? Should we invite everyone? No. Should we have a whole month? Actually, we did do a month worth of voting. That was because Pete was busy. Literally, like, 95% of the votes were in the first, like, two or three days. So there you go. So there you go. They were all the results. Let's go back and summarise. Worst theme. Supreme. Theme integration. Supreme. Callouts. Thunderbirds. Music and sounds, Thunderbirds. Artwork, Supreme. Rules and code, Thunderbirds. Toys, Supreme. Layout, Thunderbirds. Display animations, Thunderbirds. Worst game, Thunderbirds. Bang for buck was Supreme. Worst reveal was Mafia. Worst book deal was Stern's 30th anniversary book. Well, either of them. No one's going to get anything exciting out of that. Worst drama was Highway Pinball Collapse. Worst Rumour was Homepin's Chinese Unlicensed Theme, whatever it is Worst Company Image was Homepin, Worst Slam The Top 100 Arguer was Ryan McStumbles on his words And we are the Worst Podcast Ever, so Thank you so much to everybody for making us The worst I wonder if the opposite, that the Twippies will have, no Surely it'd be more diverse than that, I mean that's two pinball machines that got pretty much all the votes except for the the worst reveal um so i wonder i wonder if the two peas will be one side because last year i think dialed in one almost everything um and you know dialed in plus tna was possibly every single one so we'll see this year if uh maybe iron maiden cleans up or jup parts of the caribbean could be i mean it's certainly pointing that way stay tuned we'll know in about a hundred days yeah we will but uh yeah so the trippies will be like the actual real awards um will i think nominations start is it july 1st i'm sorry june january 1st yeah it's one of the one of the j's money yeah um yeah january january to february and uh we're giving jeff and um zach some hard time over but it's it's fine it's silly It's just some awards. I think it should be taken as seriously as the twerpies. I know. Well, I may be over there at TPF this year, next year, whenever it is. Cool, yeah. That's the plan at this stage, guys, so we'll see how we go. So, is it time for This Week in Pinball? It is, Marnie. What did you get up to? I've had a relatively pinball free week except for the streaming that I did but I do have a special stream coming up this Wednesday, Ryan Is it something at Mr Pinball? It is Pirates of the Caribbean? No Mafia? No Monster Bash Remake? No Magic Girl for the last time? No. What has he got that's rare? Alien? Nope. No? I've run out of... Oh, Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest. Yes. Okay. Well, there you go. So I will be streaming Oktoberfest this Wednesday. So check out the Melbourne Silver Ball League Twitch page. I will be checking it out on reruns because that's when the tournament's on. Is that all this week, Marnie? that is all my week okay this week my week's been a lot busier prepare for a half an hour segment and now um i'll keep it pretty short but i mean i just want to say before i i start if whoever's listening now if if you don't find tournament stuff interesting that's usually what i've done during my week so don't listen so let's just skip forward five ten minutes to the end i I mean, I read a lot of comments on that pin-side thread about, yeah, head-to-head's good, the interview is like the news, but when they talk about tournaments, it's horrible because I don't like tournaments. It's kind of like walking into a buffet that has all these different types of foods and saying, yeah, the meat was really good, but man, they had so much salad and I don't like the place because it has salad. It's optional, right? So I'm going to be talking about tournaments. So this week, I ran four tournaments and I'm running one on Wednesday. so the first one was a flip frenzy at pinball paradise and we had 39 people it sold out at 36 marty but we had um three people rock up on the day and pretty much guilt tripped me into interling them in um it was pretty chaotic at the start because i arrived an hour and a half early and i thought that was enough time to get all the machines up and running but just as it is in pinball, the best way to find out if your machine works is to put it in a competition and 800 plays or so in three hours and some of the machines weren't surviving, some of them couldn't be included. I put games like Cubeball Wizard Money, a great game, somewhere in the 300 to 400 range on the Pinside's top list. It was good, man. It was probably the most fun I've ever had running a tournament and someone new that played in their second tournament ever won. The software, Marty, that you used last week, absolutely amazing. It's great, isn't it? It is so good. It's just one click. Andreas has made this into the – it's got to be. In 2019, it's got to be one of the most run tournament formats, I'm guessing, it will happen in the U.S. because if you want the tournament to run for three hours, it's going to last exactly three hours. and said with the software you don't have to use a spreadsheet. You don't even need to know. Everyone's like, how do you run Flip Frenzy? Literally go into Match Play, open an account, make a dummy tournament and just click the buttons. It's so intuitive. Then I spent the rest of my week, Marty, trying to fix and get ready all my machines for my great opportunity three tournaments in one day event. And how did that go? Yeah, the modern games were pretty easy to get tweaked up and ready to go. I did fix some teething issues on games that I've had for like a year and a half. For example, My Demolition Man, when you use the normal flippers, you get combo points for using the triggers, all right? That's a rule. If you use the triggers, you get double combo points because it's kind of like a bit harder, have the same feel as flipper buttons. And it's cooler, right, to be grabbing those handles. Mine was like obviously wide wrong, and I just never looked at it because I'm like, it's not stopping the game from playing incorrectly. It's just giving a little bit more points. I finally fixed it and it was just, yeah, two wires kind of soldered together. I don't know why the person ever did it. It's fixed now. And the last modern game that I fixed was The Shadow. Do you know those really steep ramps on The Shadow, Marty? Yeah. And they're a bit clunky, right? Like sometimes, I don't know, you have to hit the shot really good. basically there's a plastic protector over the ramp because the ramps are so steep when you hit it and because the flippers are pretty strong as well it kind of like jumps up the ball a little bit and there's these little plastic see-through deflectors that stop the ball from jumping up too high and hitting the perver diverter in the wrong spot basically my by left ramp the one that's closest to your flipper it never had that and i always thought it's not gonna make that much of a big deal i made one myself and i put it on and it changes the entire fucking game because every time you hit that ramp it's like butter smooth now that brings me to the older games the stone games oh my god just i mean two two of them worked sea witch and and stars and uh and quicksaur i didn't touch because it needed a bit of tweaking but meteor which i really wanted to include in the in the tournament since it's just such a ridiculously awesome game with the high pitch sound in the background. Just issue upon issue, it's wide wrong. I had heaps of people helping me out, you know, Bruce, Dave Peck just helped me out for hours trying to diagnose because I almost like don't know where to start with these old games, but after a week, I know a lot more about them than I did last week. You know, Rob Miller. And in the end, I just kind of like, I just have to give up because I was spending four or five hours a day trying to fix this thing. But yeah, then on the day, Magic had some issues. Sea Witch kind of blew a fuse, but Luke Donato, our friend, dropped off a Paragon. So at least we had four machines, which doesn't sound like a lot, but these are classics, Marty. Classics have no ball save, Stars is ridiculously hard, Paragon's hard, my Quicksilver was insanely hard, took out the Outlanes Marty and um we got through 10 22 people in classics we got through 10 rounds in three hours and that includes uh two two groups not having a game to start with so if I had six games to work with it probably would have been done in two um so that that tournament was won by by wall and I was in the top group my the entire time Swiss match play um but on the last of the very last round I dropped out. But yeah, I came fifth in that one. Where were you, Marty, by the way? How come you didn't come? I just... Tired, didn't give a fuck. I'm a bit comped out at the moment. When was the last comp you played? It was the one that I ran for two days that nearly fucking killed me. That one. Do you remember that one? You didn't play in it. Okay, running. It's easy to play, though. No, look, it's end of year. I just want to sort of just ease into a nice break and not have to worry about such things. Yeah. The second one was the big one. It was the main Swiss match play. It was on all the modern machines, well, half Bally Williams, half Stern. And that was also Swiss match play. I managed to just sneak in the top four because basically the top four finals, top four playing off in the finals. On the last game, I had to come first on Metallica and Emily Cosson and John Cosson flew down for the event. Emily managed to absolutely blitz the last round. She even beat RGR and stuff on two games in a row, got two sevens. She was in the final four as long as I came second or third or fourth on Metallica. I managed to scrape out a win, so I feel really bad because she flew all the way down and I threw out the finals to just bomb out. and it was down to the last game on Demolition Man and if I won the game, I won the entire tournament. If I came second on the game, Marty, it would have been a playoff for first with Luke Marburg. If I came third, then he won this, this and that. The window to be an outright win was ridiculous because on Demolition Man, the scoring is quite high. One combo was worth like six million or something. The window for me to come third was like 9 million points. It was like 240 million to 233 million. And believe it or not, I managed to land myself right between that window. So it was a playoff for second, so I came third in that one. But that was won by Luke Marburg. The last event of the day, it was going to be a Fair Strikes final, Marty. and I didn't know how the TGP was going to work so I didn't know if I was going to do 8 strikes or 9 strikes because of the numbers and the machines I had available and the success of Flip Frenzy on Tuesday I said let's just do a Flip Frenzy but I already had the medals printed out and I had fair strikes on there and I'm like okay let's do a Flip Frenzy to qualify for the finals and then a fair strike based on your position So the top two qualifiers in Flip Frenzy, we get zero strikes to start off with. So third and fourth, one strike, then two strikes and three strikes. And it was a six-strike tournament. Two and a half hours of Flip Frenzy, Marty, usually on a three-hour Flip Frenzy, you can get about 18 to 20 games. The average was 24 games in two and a half hours. And that was simply because, I guess, all the machines were right there. He didn't have to go upstairs and downstairs, and the machines had no ball saves. So that was really good. I managed to qualify first, and then I shat the beds again in the finals, and I came fourth, and Luke Marburg took out that win as well. So that was my tournament. It was like 15 hours, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, I woke up at like 6 or something to prepare for the event and went to bed at 2, but people were over my house from 8.30 in the morning till 11 at night and um it was good it was it was really good i was i almost i was at the back of my head didn't want it to go so well so that i would never want to run it again i just wanted to be this ridiculous like long event with like you know three tournaments the max you can do in in one day um but it went really well um i don't think i will ever do one again because it's it's not fair on my my family to have that many people in my house for that long of a period of time but i don't know it was just everyone seemed to have fun um i don't know it's a good good way to end the year awesome well there you go good though i've spoken to people that went and they said they had a fantastic time so it's a bow and kieran's thing that always sticks in the back of your head as well where he said you know that the person who won has to have as much fun as the person who who came last So I had fun and I placed really well in all of them. I did talk to a couple of people that didn't perform as well, but no one's going to tell me to my face, you're just one of my sites, right? So I'll have to hear through the grapevine, but from all accounts, it was pretty good. Awesome. Is this stuff? Yeah, last event for the year is this Wednesday. This Wednesday I will be, while you're streaming, Oktoberfest. That's not fair, Marty. I want to play Oktoberfest. why don't you stream it on Sunday? No. Because Sunday is like practically Christmas. Well, 23rd. Anyway, I'm going to try a new format out this week at Pinwall Paradise. So if that's a success, I will do a different format instead of Fair Strikes, or as you call them, Shit Strikes, at Pinwall Paradise. Hey, Marvie, let's cross over to our friends in New Zealand. they've got a special message about their tournament next year. So every year they do a tournament in New Zealand, the Pincade, and it's all over New Zealand. They attract people from all around the world. And we forgot to include this the last two episodes. So let's cross to one of the Pecs, I'm pretty sure it's Danny, to tell us all about Pincade. Hi, Head to Head listeners. Danny Pec here inviting you, yes you, to come to New Zealand's biggest pinball event, Pincade. March 7th to 10th 2019. This year Pincade will start March 7th in Christchurch then fly to Auckland Friday 8th and end on Sunday the 10th at our own house for the World System 11 Pinball Championship. Last year we had 120 people attend Pincade from New Zealand, Australia, Europe and USA so come along play some pinball and you can take time to travel around the country while you're here. You never know, you might run into a few hobbits. So, those pincade dates again. March 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, 2019. We look forward to seeing you here. Back to you, boys. Are we doing emails, Marnie? Have we got emails? Yeah, it's all about Chanel pretty much being awesome and us not being as awesome as her. I've already read all of the emails and feedback out to Chanel who now has... The first couple, she was like, oh, wow, I thought I bombed and I thought people were going to like me because I know nothing about pinball. And it then turned into, well, I can never go on again because people like it that much that I cannot possibly top what I've done. So, I don't know, more emails about Chanel than Lime and Cheese. Yeah, exactly. All right. Thank you very much, everyone, for emailing in anyway. It did put a smile on Chanel's face. She was amazing and thank you very much, Chanel, for being able to step in when, unfortunately, I just couldn't make it. First time you'd make it. Well, yeah, kind of. The last time, you know. But it's the first time, yeah, it's been the show's recorded. Admittedly, you know, we did the interview together, so I thought, you know what, you've got it. I didn't realise that you were going to do the show with Chanel. And when I heard it, it was hilarious. Like, I didn't know. I was literally listening to that podcast the same time as everybody. And I was thinking, I wonder what he's going to do after the interview. Is he just going to end the show? Or I thought you might have got Stacey back on. And all of a sudden, Chanel's on. And I'm like, oh my God, this is going to be hilarious because I've met her many times and she is fucking hilarious. I want one day for you to do an episode with her without me because... Okay, next week. You do... And the week after, sure. Yeah. Yeah, she's funny. I'm also a bit sorry about the audio quality because you took