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Touch My Glow Balls

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·48m 23s·analyzed·Jun 25, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Blockade discusses Wipeout beta, digital pinball sales, and custom Transporter pin gameplay.

Summary

Blockade Podcast hosts Chris Freebus and Jared Morgan discuss digital pinball developments, including detailed impressions of the Wipeout beta and glow ball cosmetics in Farsight's Pinball Arcade, Steam summer sale pricing on digital pinball platforms, and Jared's experience playing a custom Transporter pin at a Brisbane Pinball Club event. The episode is largely free of industry news, with hosts focusing on casual gameplay commentary and tangential beach vacation discussion.

Key Claims

  • Farsight has introduced glow balls in multiple fluorescent colors in the Pinball Arcade beta, which improve visibility on dark tables but make balls appear larger due to drop shadow effects

    high confidence · Jared describing glow ball pack features in beta 2 of Wipeout; Chris noting the apparent size increase due to shading vs. silver balls

  • Black Knight emulation (rather than scripted) is expected to come to Pinball Arcade after Wipeout, followed by Gorgar emulation, with Firepower remaining scripted

    medium confidence · Jared referencing forum thread by Flippy Floppy indicating emulation timeline; Farsight developers indicating Firepower will remain scripted

  • New soundboard technology exists that can handle multi-channel audio without interruption and supports custom music drops, potentially enabling re-theming of classic tables

    low confidence · Jared speculating about newer soundboard capabilities; mentions 'pin soundboard' with uncertainty about exact name/manufacturer

  • Steam Summer Sale (through July 5th) is offering Pinball Arcade Season 4 Pro Pack at 75% off ($10) and Zen tables at up to 75% off

    high confidence · Chris and Jared providing specific pricing and timeframes for active Steam sale

  • Zen Pinball tweeted that 2017 will be a huge year, suggesting unreleased titles being held back for late-year release

    medium confidence · Chris citing tweet from Zen; speculation that major releases are planned for end of 2017

Notable Quotes

  • “The ski lift is such a huge mechanism and it blocks pretty much two-thirds of the playfield, there's not really a lot going on in this game because of that, and it's a shame because they could have done a lot more things with this.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~7:30 — Critical assessment of Wipeout table design efficiency and feature placement

  • “I mean, for the amount of enjoyment you'll get out of your 75 cents, you'll be pretty happy.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~35:00 — Value proposition recommendation for heavily discounted Zen tables

  • “My wife often is in the other room while we're recording these, and so she only hears one side of the conversation... whenever you start talking about glowing balls or balls went straight down the middle or balls draining—it becomes a very double entendre-filled one-sided conversation.”

    Chris Freebus @ ~20:00 — Humorous meta-commentary on show recording dynamics; no substantive content

  • “I've never seen that table... And I've got to say that for the era of table that it is, it's a lot of fun. It is brutal as anything.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~42:00 — Initial impression of custom Transporter pin at Brisbane Pinball Club event

  • “The flashes are right near the flippers, and they're in inserts in the playfield... all of a sudden you just get blinded by these flashes of doom.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~44:30 — Critique of custom LED implementation on Transporter pin; design feedback on brightness placement

Entities

Chris FreebuspersonJared MorganpersonBlockade PodcastorganizationWipeoutgameFarsight StudioscompanyZen PinballcompanyPinball ArcadeproductSteam Summer SaleeventTransporter: The RescuegameBrisbane Pinball Cluborganization

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Bally-era ramps criticized for plastic construction and yellowing degradation affecting visual presentation vs. metal alternatives used by Williams

    medium · Chris: 'The really long, tall ramps...There's no metal ramps. There's no hair trails that Williams would have done... all the plastic has yellowed... it's not as nice looking as if you're just looking through wire'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Digital pinball developers prioritizing artistic recreation accuracy over functional improvements; scripting limitations constraining authentic mechanical/audio simulation

    medium · Jared criticizing Firepower script: 'it's never going to be as good as the real deal...the HUD, the heads-up display, is completely different...you're missing a whole lot of the game's feature'

  • $

    market_signal: Zen Pinball marketing claim of 2017 being 'huge year' suggests major unreleased titles being held for late-year release to generate momentum

    medium · Chris: 'Zen...said: 2017 is going to be a huge year for pinball from the Zen Pinball team...suggests to me that they're going to be finishing with a big bang this year with some titles that they're holding out'

  • $

    market_signal: Steam Summer Sale pricing on digital pinball platforms; Pinball Arcade Season 4 at 75% discount ($10) and Zen tables at up to 75% off, creating aggressive pricing environment

    high · Chris: 'Season 4...is at 75% off right now for $10' and 'Zen is blowing out tables left and right... tables are only 75% off, which means you're getting tables for 75 cents'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Glow ball cosmetics in Pinball Arcade improve visibility on dark tables but create optical illusion of larger ball size through drop shadow effects

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.145

0:00
this is the blockade podcast with your hosts chris and jared hey you yeah you person listening to the podcast are you aware of what you're listening to are you positive that you want to listen to the blockade podcast i'm your host chris freebus aka shut your Trap. Joining me as always, Jared Morgan. Black A podcast may contain traces of stuff.
0:36
Side effects include, oh no. Things. Things. Side effects, things, and unusual behaviors. Yes. But no bodily fluids, so that's all good. No body fluids, no topical cream required to listen to the Black Cave Podcast.
0:56
So, we are doing the podcast today, and strangely enough, although I'm sure I'll fix this during the course of it, I have nothing new to talk about this week, Jared. This is very surprising, because you always have something new to talk about. I've had one of those weeks where the week just passed, and I went,
1:15
okay, I've had nothing happen. there's like just life and very minimal of that it was like you know okay sure I went to the beach with the family but when I go to the beach my brain just completely turns off which is what's supposed to happen when you're at the beach exactly perfectly fine exactly I always said if I told my son I go when you grow up and you get exceedingly wealthy off of whatever job is that you do and you feel the need to buy mom and dad a house like a lot of really rich kids that grow up do, then buy us a beach house. That's what we want. Beach house, yeah, exactly. Then we will go to the beach house and effectively just veg. All day, every day. Veg off the profits that you make from whatever very high paying job that you have. Yeah, exactly. That would be pretty good.
Flippy Floppyperson
Wipeout (physical table)game
Black Knightgame
Firepowergame
Gorgargame
8-Ball Deluxegame
Flight 2000game
Moon Knightgame
Taxigame
Netherworldvenue

high · Jared: 'they do have a drop shadow...They do appear to be larger, but physically there's no change to them' and 'I'm really tending towards these glow balls now on practically all the tables because it just makes the ball so much more prominent'

  • ?

    product_concern: Wipeout table design criticized for inefficient use of playfield space; large ski lift mechanism blocks two-thirds of playfield, limiting additional features and gameplay variety

    medium · Jared: 'the ski lift is such a huge mechanism and it blocks pretty much two-thirds of the playfield, there's not really a lot going on in this game because of that, and it's a shame because they could have done a lot more things with this'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Farsight's Pinball Arcade development roadmap indicates emulation of Black Knight and Gorgar following Wipeout release, with Firepower remaining scripted

    medium · Jared citing forum thread: 'Flippy Floppy seemed to indicate that we were going to be getting Black Knight in relation to this go-around, and then the next one they'd be working on would be Gorgar' with confirmation Firepower remains scripted

  • ?

    technology_signal: New multi-channel soundboard technology enabling simultaneous audio playback without interruption, supporting custom music drops for table re-theming applications

    low · Jared speculating: 'there is a new soundboard out there that can process all those sounds at once... And more memory and all of the above, yes. The same soundboard also has the ability for you to drop in your own music'

    • 2:18
    Me and my wife have discussed it. It is absolutely impossible, no matter what is going on in our life, to not just let it all go when you're at the beach. To just clear your brain and you're sitting there listening to the waves or going in the water and just, it's this just calm serenity that overtakes you and you just, it's, oh, I haven't checked my phone in three hours. oh well oh yeah that's so good isn't it yeah it's like the something about the salt water air that just disconnects you from all the other stuff that's going on in your life all the white noise and the waves crashing and the feel of sand between your toes and the warmth of the sun just beating down and yet you've got the wind so you're not like broiling hot yeah it's just everything it's the best ever It really is. I really feel sad when I hear about people that have never seen the ocean.
    3:20
    Like if they're landlocked. Those folks that are landlocked in the middle of America or something like that. And it's a real problem for them. And then I also think about, okay, fine, maybe you've seen the ocean, but maybe you're not at one of these beach.
    3:36
    There's a difference between coastlines, obviously. Some coastlines, you might as well be at a lake for the amount of wave activity that's happening. As shallow as anything. Yeah.
    3:50
    And other cities, it's not a beach at all. It's just up against the ocean. And that's where I just go, I think that would suck.
    4:02
    Yeah. Yeah, well, it's actually my son is going to be going up for a little mini holiday with his grandparents for next week because we're in school holiday period at the moment. There's a two-week school holiday break before they go back and do the fourth term or third term. Yeah, third term of school.
    4:22
    And he will be going up to a place called Maloolaba and Maloolaba is basically a coastal town. That's where his grandparents live. And it's one of those beaches, you know how we're talking about the surf beaches versus the sheltered beach? Well, it's definitely a sheltered beach.
    4:38
    It's got a big headland. And the way the waves and the prevailing winds normally blow, it is always a nice, safe, sheltered beach for families. And you can just float around in the ocean. There's something to be said for that. Like, you basically just get in there and you just float. And you just let the waves carry you around. Because there's no danger of you being washed out to sea or anything. It's like you would know if you're being washed out to sea. There's basically no rips or anything there. And it's really nice. And occasionally you'll get like a bit of a wave that will push you into sea, into the shore, but they're pretty rare.
    5:15
    And it's really lovely. I guess the big difference that I know of between Australia beaches and the beaches here in California are we don't have to worry about jellyfish.
    5:25
    No, no, you don't because, you know, we're near the tropics. Yes. So, yeah, you're lucky. We will get infestations of blue bottles and things like that just sweep into the beach, and there's nothing you can do about them. They just get carried by the wind, and they just come in, and you're wrecked. If you go down that one day to the beach and you haven't read the forecast, and they say, oh, your blue bottles are around, don't bother coming, it's like, oh, well, okay, that's a wasted trip because you can't swim anywhere.
    5:57
    Yeah, it's a real bummer. and the jellyfish are good down here too. We have the usual sort of blue blobby jellyfish that you see.
    6:06
    But then you have the little, not so much down where we are in Brisbane, but up north you get the box jellyfish or the Irukandji, and they're quite bad.
    6:17
    You don't want to be stung by them because they'll kill you. It's not particularly in Australia, but they will. we'd gone to the aquarium of the Pacific and they had you know they always have these little touch pools so you can touch various animals or whatever and they had jellyfish you could touch and that was really cool to be able to I can't remember if they're the is that the moon jellyfish I don't know but they have a big dome on top and you push on it and it's much firmer than I really expected it to feel. And they said that it is actually stinging you, but it's such a low sting to us that it doesn't... We can't even feel it. Also, the whole surface of the jellyfish is actually stinging. Yes. Like, oh. So they could, if it was a fish, they would probably get done by it.
    7:12
    Or something of that. Or a very small fish, probably, yeah. Wow. I had no idea. I thought it was only the tentacles that were the dangerous part. but yeah, there you go. I don't know. I mean, maybe it was the tentacles, but they said no matter what, you're not going to notice if it stings you because it's so mild to the human touch. Oh, there you go. Yeah, so that was really cool to be able to touch a jellyfish. Never thought I'd do that. That is pretty cool. I know of this place on Earth that has jellyfish that don't sting, and you can just swim with them.
    7:47
    There's this sort of a landlocked saltwater lake or something, and these jellyfish were in there and they've been there for centuries and they haven't required any defense mechanism.
    8:01
    So they don't sting. And you can swim with them, you can brush up against them and you don't get stung at all. It's crazy.
    8:11
    That is kind of crazy. Yeah, it is. All right, enough talk about beach. Yeah. What have you got for us this week, Jared? because it's going to be a lot on you. What are you bringing to the table?
    8:25
    Well, I could talk about first, we'll have a bit of a chat about digital pinball first because I've been having a play with the Wipeout beta.
    8:33
    Ah, yeah, that doesn't come to PC. Oh, okay, yeah. Well, it's actually, it's okay. The beta one was pretty early, as betas normally are, but we're on beta 2 now, and the table's starting to take shape quite nicely. there were a lot more art assets added in in beta 2 and you can actually start seeing a lot more of the cool stuff on the table and I've got to say that of those parts of the table that are plastic moulded and stuff like that, they've really done quite a good job of capturing the trees and the scenery that they've actually put onto these plastic things and it actually looks surprisingly realistic versus the other one and you know how last episode we were talking about, no, a couple of episodes ago, we were talking about your thoughts about a table when you played it originally versus now.
    9:29
    Well, I was playing, as soon as I loaded up the table, I thought, oh, the ski lift is in a completely different place than I thought.
    9:38
    I actually remember the ski lift being sort of over to the left of the, over to the right of the playfield where the actual the ski the downhill sort of mechanism is that juggles the balls around but it's not so it's on the left hand side of the playfield and I think I'm actually getting confused with Popeye actually because I think Popeye had a similar sort of mechanism that raised the ball up to the upper boat playfield and I think that's what I'm getting confused with but yeah the it's funny, like, got to leave with one of the manufacturers that used the approach, let's have one big feature in the play field, and then that's kind of it. Yeah, one big feature. One big feature. This one, it's a big enough feature that it kind of dominates the entire thing, and it means that for that table,
    10:36
    because the ski lift is such a huge mechanism and it blocks pretty much two-thirds of the play field, there's not really a lot going on in this game because of that and it's a shame because they could have done a lot more things with this I think they could have put extra ramps in that area that would have made a better go of it and used another mechanism to actually raise the ball I guess the idea with the ball going up like it does is that it's supposed to represent some sort of ski lift mechanism or the ball going to the top of the slope essentially but there would have had to be another way they could have done it.
    11:16
    It's just a waste of real estate, really. But going back to the way the actual recreation of the table,
    11:25
    yeah, Fastlight's done, yet again, a pretty good job of doing it. All the plastics and everything are really crisp.
    11:33
    Playfield is quite crisp as well. I'm noticing that on the insert lights, They sort of have an orange tinge to them, and I'm not sure if that is the colour of the Playfield lenses or just the colour of the lighting that they've chosen. I think they've sort of gone with more of a warm, orangey light with the Playfield lights on mobile than what they normally do. I don't know. It seems yellowy to me Okay Now warmer I guess But it okay You can still see the actual inserts very clearly when they light up so that's not a problem. It's just an unusual tone, that's all.
    12:17
    As far as things that have been causing me trouble on the table, not really that much, really. It's actually running pretty well. Flippers feel tuned well to me on this table it's sort of the ball doesn't fly up the one ramp that you have in the game, it sort of just goes up there at the expected speed and everything else, yeah, it's playing pretty right to me, which is good Do they have the Black Knight emulation in this beta also? No, not yet I think it's potentially coming I think they're probably just wanting to lock down Wipeout first And then might add the Black Knight Stuff in a little bit later towards The end of the beta I think Not sure though because I haven't actually got Any confirmation from Farsight on that But that's what I'm assuming On the forum thread Flippy Floppy seemed to indicate that We were going to be getting Black Knight In relation to this Go around and then the next one they'd be working On would be Gorgar and then I asked the question right which is good and then I asked the question oh so then we'll get firepower after that and they're like no it seems scripted pretty fine and I'm gonna let you finish but you just said scripted so yeah exactly I'm like but it's the same system as Gorgar and Black Knight so emulate it just emulate it yeah just I don't care how good you have a script, it's never going to be as good as the real deal. I mean, that's... Well, I've seen the difference between Black Knight scripted and Black Knight emulated. It's amazing. The difference is incredible. And sure, that particular script job may not have been super good at the time.
    14:14
    But it's different enough. Like the fact that they're saying, well, what's the difference? Do you have videos about it? I said, well, for one, the HUD, the heads-up display, is completely different. Like, all you've got is this one score counter.
    14:31
    So that's not even representative of the real table. Like, it should have at least the four score panels and the numerals in them and the credit and the match and all that sort of stuff. You know, just like, you know, all those sort of, you know, the regular heads-up display that you get. And, you know, that will then allow you to do the, in Firepower, that would allow you to do the multiple back glass animation, where it counts it down as it releases. And, you know, having all the numbers rolling around on the back glass. It looks really cool. Right, because on those particular tables, they did basically like what they did with Genie, where they did this stylized score. You know, it has its own frame and little art. asset to it as opposed to just being the regular bit of score business. And that's what it should be. And because if it's directly emulated, you're going to get that animation on the back glass. And it's going to look really cool.
    15:30
    So, yeah, that's kind of like what I'm really looking forward to with that game. Because really, with Firepower, the multi-ball is the feature. And when you're missing that back glass animation, you're missing a whole lot of the game's feature, really.
    15:50
    And I'm almost... I don't know. I'd have to compare apples with apples, but I wonder if they've actually got all the sounds right in the script for that. With Firepower? Yeah. I don't know. I don't believe they do. But I'm not sure. You know, it's interesting. And again, this is your perception versus reality. Yeah, absolutely.
    16:13
    And I'm experiencing it with my 8-Ball Deluxe, and that is the way the soundboards worked, they couldn't do two sounds at the same time. So if one sound was triggering, it was going, and then it would either have to stop or get interrupted by the other sound. And that's the same case with Firepower, where I had thought that there were certain sounds that would continue even though other sounds were firing, and yet in Farsights, they suddenly stop and allow the other sound to pass through. But I guess there is a new soundboard out there that can process all those sounds at once.
    16:57
    Oh. And therefore it won't be interrupted. Sounds will just layer on top of sounds. Oh. So you think there's actually one you can drop and replace into the board and it will actually handle, because of the fact that they've got more circuitry in them now, it will actually handle the multi-channel. And more memory and all of the above, yes. The same soundboard also has the ability for you to drop in your own music. Ah, yeah, that's the pin soundboard, is it? Yeah, I think that's what, I'm not sure what it is. So anyway, I thought, oh, that'd be a really cool mod.
    17:33
    Not that Farsight would do it, but that'd be really cool to... You could basically, and imagine if it hit the launch lane, then you could actually theme it completely Star Wars and have the Star Wars music launch for the Rush music and all that. It'd be pretty cool. And then you could easily re-theme to Star Wars and have it convincingly re-themed.
    17:56
    Well, and if I ever had Centaur, I would certainly, as soon as multiple kicked in, throw in my Burly Bro music from The Matrix like I had in that one ROM.
    18:08
    For sure. Yeah, no, it'd be really... It'd be kind of interesting to do, but I just think it'd be fascinating to listen to these tables with all their original sounds, but their original sounds not being cut off by each other, just playing and multitracking it basically. Yeah, that would be really cool to hear.
    18:25
    So the beta, the other thing in the beta, which they've introduced is a new ball packs. So they've got the, the doctor who ball packs now. Okay. And I've also got glow balls as well. Now, these balls in mobile, they actually, you know, they don't have a lot of environmental lighting to them, of course, because they don't have that on mobile, but they do have a drop shadow that's glowing, and the ball itself has actually sort of got a very bright, fluorescent glow to it. There's about six colours you can choose of the glow balls. They're all, like, fluorescent colours. and I've got to say that while they don't look very authentic they make it a lot easier to play some of the really dark games in season one and two basically they get standing out so prominently on the playfields and even on things like playfields that are usually very dark in colour, imagine playing with a fluorescent yellow glow ball on something like Dracula right?
    19:28
    I mean a lot of people have done basically essentially that by choosing the happy face ball because it's bright yellow. That's right. And it is good for really dark tables. I have used that before as well, but I'm really tending towards these glow balls now on practically all the tables because it just makes the ball so much more prominent in the mix. Does it make the ball look larger? Because that is my problem with some of these ball packs and which ones you choose because the silver ball, I mean, I know all these balls are exactly the same size, but the silver based off of the shading and the color drop-off, then you throw in one of these bright balls, and it looks basically, it's kind of like the ceramic ball in Twilight Zone, where it just looks larger because you don't get that drop-off for the curvature of the ball. yeah it's uh they do have a they do appear to be larger but physically there's no change to them of course um they don't have any change in properties they're just a glow skin put on the ball but you're right they do appear to look different but your eye gets i found that my eye does get in very quickly when i'm playing with them so um i think some of the if you were put off by um the glow drop shadow and everything sort of throwing you off I'd suggest going for some of the darker balls the darker glow balls not really the light ones and you won't have a problem but what I would be interested to see is what they look like in DX11 because I think they're going to actually have a throw on them so they're going to actually affect the light being thrown around on the other objects now that is going to be interesting yeah that would be interesting so yeah that would be cool to see I'm sitting here snickering because my wife often is in the other room while we're recording these and so she only hears one side of the conversation and is not very interested in pinball to begin with so whenever all of a sudden you know start talking about glowing balls or balls went straight down the middle or it very becomes a very double entendre filled one sided conversation yes there's nothing like balls going straight down the middle and balls draining and yes now we're talking about dark balls with a glow it's just one of those things that I'll hear these snickers from the other room and be like oh my goodness yeah if you're only hearing one side of the conversation this is a nasty conversation yeah giggity yeah so are they probably introducing that with the glow pack with wipeout? Yeah, I think so.
    22:19
    I think it'll be going out with wipeout. That is something to consider. Normally, I wouldn't really bother buying a ball pack, but in this case, I actually would.
    22:33
    I think it might actually make a difference to how your scores are affected onto the earlier tables.
    22:42
    Just purely because it's so much more visible. The balls don't get lost. So yeah, have a think about it. Give it a go. And if you do end up buying a ball pack, let us know at Blockade what you think through our various contact methods.
    22:58
    Yeah, we'd like to hear. Hey, why don't we give some of this out right now just for the fun of it? Yeah, sure. Why not? Mix things up. You can drop us an email.
    23:06
    Blahblahblockade at gmail.com or you can drop us a note on Twitter. Jared is at Jared Morgz. I am at ShutYourTrap.
    23:17
    And the show is at Blockade. Yeah, so hit us up. So what was the other thing that I weren't... Well, you can think about the other thing. I wanted to mention the Steam sale that's going on right now. Oh yeah, in Barkins. Since we're in the digital realm of pinball. So yeah, Steam Summer Sale is going on right now. And both Zen and Pinball Arcade are on sale, as well as a lot of other... Pro Pinball is on sale. I think it's down to $12?
    23:53
    Instead of the $16 or $17 that it was. Various other wonky pinball tables that are offered are on sale.
    24:04
    The big guns, Zen and Farsight are on sale Just to give you a clue this is through July 5th so you should be able to get it even after listening to this podcast which is rare Usually we're behind.
    24:19
    But, yeah, so you can pick up. And the way Farsight prices these, basically just pick up the Pro Pack because it's all of 20 cents more than the standard pack. So Season 1 is right now at $20. Season 2 is at $20. Season 3 is at $20, and these are all for the Pro Packs. And then Season 4, here's your big bargain, is at 75% off right now for $10.
    24:47
    Wow, that's a bargain. And then Season 5 has the least, but hey, it's on sale, 25% off. It is $30 for the Pro Pack, which is basically the same price as the standard price if you didn't go Pro, which is also $20. Anyway, we always say to those of you that complain about consoles and being behind and everything, this is the time if you want to jump on board and not pay gobs of money that you already have previously paid. Even if you are thinking of maybe getting rid of your console sometime this year, do this now. Otherwise you're going to have to wait all the way until December.
    25:32
    There's no guarantee because oftentimes Farsight will do their sale only once. There's been plenty of times where they did it during the summer and did not do it during the winter. There's no guarantee it'll be here again in December.
    25:46
    If you're going to do it, do it. And do it now. Especially season four for ten bucks. That's a bargain. That's a good table since season four. Yeah.
    26:01
    Do it. If you want to talk real huge bargains, Zen is blowing out tables left and right. So a lot of their tables are only 75% off, which means you're getting tables for 75 cents, essentially. I'm talking about Venom, Deadpool, Excalibur, Civil War. Let's see what else we got here. Paranormal, Doctor Strange, Epic Quest,
    26:34
    Ms. Explosion, the huge sale, how can you resist this? 50 cents, Plants vs. Zombies. Oh, jeez. Do it. I wish I could get access to that. I wish I could get that. Plants vs. Zombies on mobile. I just don't think it's ever going to happen. They didn't get the license to write for it. No, they didn't. But then you got things like the Pinball FX 2 Core Pack. 75% off. It's $2.50. A lot of their stuff at 75% off.
    27:09
    The Pinball FX2 Originals season, I'm not sure which that is. Anyways, it's only $3.75. And then even newer tables like the Aliens Pack is 60% off at $4.
    27:26
    That's a bargain for that. It's a collection of tables. You've got various Star Wars and Marvel packs that are 75% off. So, I mean, a lot of times Zen will do either 50% off or 66% off. This sale, virtually everything is 75% off. So, again, now is the time if you have ever wanted to jump from console to PC or if you're one of those people that's like, eh, Zen's all right, but I prefer Pinball Arcade. Well, these kind of prices, what the heck? I mean, give it a go. Yeah. Jump on it. Jump on it. You'll be surprised like for the amount of enjoyment you'll get out of your 75 cents. You'll be pretty happy. Put it that way. Yeah. I mean, you know, like I said, the alien pack is fantastic.
    28:13
    The Star Wars packs are pretty decent. The being able to get, like I said, plans for zombies for 50 cents is kind of a no brainer. It's not that wonderful a table, but who cares? Epic Quest for that cheap. You've got to go for it. You've got to do it, yeah. Absolutely.
    28:34
    I have not paid full price for any of my Zen tables. You always wait for these sales. Speaking of Zen, I saw a tweet, a very interesting tweet from them this week. and it said 2017 is going to be a huge year for pinball from the Zen pinball team. Yeah. I wonder what that is all about.
    28:58
    I hope it's not just PR. No, I hope not, yeah. Because, I don't know, we're a good way through 2017 at the moment. So that suggests to me that they're going to be finishing with a big bang this year with some titles that they're holding out. Because we really... We haven't seen a release from them for a while now, have we? Yeah, now we haven't. And it was a single table.
    29:26
    Yeah, it was. So, yeah. I wonder what they've got on their sleeve. It'd be very interesting to see. It would be. You know, somebody on the forum started a false rumor that it was going to be Batman.
    29:44
    yeah no you know you can have fun I still say they need to do Harry Potter pinball because it's such an awareness oh jeez why would they not do that jeez come on let's have a little chat to Ms. Rowling and yeah and get it done absolutely it'd be so good anyhow oh I remembered the other thing I was going to talk about ah yes and that was we had the Brisbane Pinball Club meet at Netherworld last week and I got to play that crazy transporter pin that I was talking about in the last episode I can honestly say I've never seen that table me neither and I've got to say that for the era of table that it is it's a lot of fun it is brutal as anything there's so many opportunities to drain on that table it's ridiculous but it's a lot of fun the upper ramp for those who didn't see the pictures on Twitter it's got a very similar assembly to Flight 2000 with the ball juggler mechanism and although I think in this one it's actually done a little bit better because they've well yeah you can obviously see that they've copied that mechanism totally from Stern electronics, but that's fine because what they've done is they've also added a Moon Knight-esque crossover cross-playfield ramp to a spinning circle I guess you could call it like in Taxi, where you shoot the ball up and it spins around the little chamber, spinning chamber and as soon as I saw the crossover ramp, I thought, oh that's totally like Moon Knight in Zen, and you have that magically appearing ramp that you go shoot cross-bladed. I thought, that's really cool. So, yeah, nice one, Zen. I reckon that's where you got the idea for it.
    31:47
    So that's pretty cool. But the idea with this game is you shoot the drop targets and you light your locks and you shoot the big, long, long left ramp all the way up to the top of this lock mechanism and you lock your balls in there and then you start multi-ball. I pumped in a lot of coins into this in between tournament games, and I still didn't get multiball on it. It is a hard table.
    32:15
    And the way this person's done it is they put super bright flashes, LED flashes, right in the – Yeah, right in the – the problem is the flashes are right near the flippers, and they're in inserts in the play field. and it's just like, oh, so you basically complete the drops for Locke and then all of a sudden you just get blinded by these flashes of doom. You go, whoa!
    32:41
    My retinas are seared. Stick a fork in them because they're done. But it's got a spinner on the right-hand side of the playfield that leads underneath all of the upper playfield stuff. It's basically a tunnel that goes underneath it all. and it's a surprisingly fun game to play. Like, I repeatedly pumped money into it, and the other people that I was talking to there, they said, you know, that game, it's a really fun game. There's something about it that I really like. This is same era Bally as, like, Dr. Dude and Party Zone. Yes, that weird speakers on the top of the back box sort of hitbox thing.
    33:29
    And, yeah, it's got a charm to it. You know, Game Show, all those. Yeah. Bally, they were doing some good stuff. My only gripe is I hate those ramps. Well, I shouldn't say I hate them.
    33:48
    The really long, tall ramps that they always had in these games. No, the plastic. There's no metal ramps. There's no hair trails that Williams would have done. and I just think that they would look fantastic with the metal as opposed to the plastic. Now, part of my gripe about that is most of the time when I come across these tables, all the plastic has yellowed. Instead of being nice and shiny clear, it's now that yellowed plastic. There was a lot of yellow, especially the cross-playfield ramp, which was kind of a little bit ribbed. The ball went over this structure to make it look quite ribbed. and yeah, it was yellow, very yellow. And it's also, you wind up feeling like you're viewing everything through plastic. You know, because Bally would throw a ton of these ramps and they're wide.
    34:43
    And so think about no good gophers and those size, you know, well, they're not even ramps, they're return lanes basically, but going through the middle of the playfield. so you're looking through this plastic so yeah whenever they turn yellow it's just like it's not as nice looking as if you're just looking through wire so that's my only gripe about them but gameplay wise I think that yeah these tables are fun I don't have gripes with those I'd be happy to own this game if one came around it was cheap enough it's a fun game I think there's if you get used to it and get your eye in. You can have a lot of fun with getting the multiballs and shooting the... because I think the crossover ramp is your key to jackpots. I think that's where you shoot for the jackpots.
    35:34
    Yeah, fun game. Really fun. I would have to change the backlash though because if you got a table called the transporter it better have Jason Statham on it.
    35:45
    Oh dear. Oh yeah. No, this is... the full name of the game, it's not really apparent from the listing on IPDB but it's Transporter the Rescue. The idea is that you've been trapped by this massive alien creature that's on the back glass and you got to try and escape from it by using a transporter to beam me up basically and one of the screens in the attract mode is beam me up belly so yeah it all about getting out of there getting the heck out of Dodge And the other thing that I found interesting at the tournament incidentally, I did pretty terribly. I think I got like about 12th or 13th, I think.
    36:29
    The other thing that I spent a lot of time on was actually Batman 66. I decided, oh, yeah, I'm between games. I'm bored. I'll just drop a coin into this one and see how I go. I ended up staying on there for a good 30 minutes because I get replay after replay and yeah i really got my eye in for the table and i think it's one of those things that once you get your eye in for a table like that it actually starts to become fun because you know what you're shooting for you get used to the things you need to do and i was getting pretty decent scores i got like a 300 million score i think at one point um which on that game is fairly respectable, though, then I was standing next to the number one pinball player in Australia, as covered in a Gold Coast News article video.
    37:21
    So I was standing next to everyone and going, oh, I'm pretty happy with that score. Yeah, it's not a bad score. I got four billion on it the other day. Thanks, dude.
    37:29
    Yeah, well, that's a pretty bad score, isn't it, mate? That's what I said. That's pretty crap, isn't it? You guys, you took me down an hour. to get that. I went, oh, mate, I don't have the patience for that.
    37:41
    But yeah, it's okay. I'd gone to for Father's Day lunch. We went to this awesome pizza place in my town where I grew up and my parents still live called Warehouse Pizza in Laverne.
    37:57
    I've heard about this place before. You speak very highly of this place. My absolute favorite pizza. Anyway, they had Lord of the Rings there. And so I figured, ah, what the heck, I'll plunk in some quarters and play. Well, somebody had already plunked in one quarter, so I only had to put in one quarter to even get the game going. And all of a sudden it was one of those things where it was like, why am I doing so good? I had one of those magical first games where just like every shot I'm aiming for, I'm hitting, and I'm like, wow, I have no clue what I'm doing on Lord of the Rings. I don't think Stern did a very good job of keying you into what you need to be shooting for because lights just are on but they're not blinking and it just I don't know. To me it doesn't guide you very well.
    38:45
    It might have an exceedingly deep rule set as everybody says but it doesn't help while you're playing. It's one that you need to learn while playing not so much see from the very outset when you look at the game. Right. So anyway I earned a replay on that game and then I went and played the next and did really terribly but I earned a match on that game and then I went and played the next game and I earned a replay and a match and it was funny seriously it got to the point where it felt like every game it was handing me a replay I was like man it's just tossing these things out like candy I wound up walking away from the table with three credits on it because I was like, I think by that point I'd played five games already. I got, I got my quarter worth out of this. I'll let somebody else, you know, pay it forward if you will, let somebody else have their fun. But yeah, it was kind of, it was kind of funny. It was like, man, I've never done good on this game. And right now it's making me feel like a hero. Even though my scores were not brilliant by the imagination. Yeah. Um, you know, that's a little bit like a Batman 66 for me. I think one of the, one of the free games I got was a match. and then it was. It was handing out replays relatively generously for me. And I was going, well, you know, it's good because it keeps my hand in, like, between games and the tournament. And I go, oh. I was actually, my last game was Spider-Man Vault that I needed to play before I could sign off my tournament sheet. And I was going, oh, yeah, look, it was actually Batman 66 was right next to Spider-Man. That's why I picked it.
    40:26
    So I could keep an eye on the amount of people wanting to play it. and I was nearly at the point where I was going to end and I was going to replay our match and I was going to switch over to Spider-Man and play my tournament game, but I ended up just keeping on playing Batman all the time.
    40:44
    There's always a way it works where you're like, hey, it was time to go. Okay, well, let me just get this one last game and you're like having the game of your life. You're like, oh, come on, end already. Yeah, but I can't. Whatever you do, you can't make it end unless you physically let go of the buttons. Exactly. Because you're that dialed in. Which, that just feels so wrong. It does. It really does. I can't stop now. I can't. It's just not, the pinball gods will frown upon me for doing such a disservice. The last table that I want to mention before we drop this subject is, they had a taxi there.
    41:20
    And I saw some people, like, battling with it to get a four million point score. I was flat out getting 600,000 on it was just killing me just brutal as anything I could not believe how brutal it was it makes me think the one in Pimple Arcade is an absolute non tuned properly table I agree it's so easy on Pimple Arcade compared to the real life table like every shot in that game like the flipper strength in this one, this was a well maintained table I know the owner of this table and he doesn't muck around with this game, so the flippers were tuned correctly and they were they weren't sloppy, they were nice and tight and the ball did not race up that left ramp like it does in people like Kate it was just clearing the apex of the ramp and making its way around, it doesn't It doesn't have the turbo that it does in it. And I really think that a game like Taxi really does need to be dialed in real tight to make it fun. Because that's the fun of it. Like, it's supposed to kill you all the time.
    42:37
    Yeah, it needs to be a challenge. Yeah, it does. Because there's not really a lot to go for in that game. So the shots that you need to go for in the game need to be hard.
    42:46
    But, yeah, it was a beautifully presented game. But, yeah, it killed me real bad. But yeah, that was pretty much the wrap-up of the event. It was very good.
    42:59
    I quickly want to mention, we did wind up getting an email about when our first podcast was. Somebody actually answered. Somebody actually answered, and yes, it was in November of 2013. Yes. So the winner of that was Patrick Bonham.
    43:18
    Good on you, Patrick. he was going to get Jared's code for Snowball on Steam awesome thanks for emailing in and congratulations mate it's really simple folks we don't make it difficult no we try not to we just want to give away I actually have another code up my sleeve as well again from the same studio because they're very generous with their Steam codes so pixel jammer they've got another code that i got for filling a survey for their um nova drift um game that they were trying to promote which if i had seen i would get this twin stick shooter it looks amazing um but yeah i've got another code up my sleeve that i'd give away it's not pinball related the the code i've got but um i'll work out a way of um giving that away next time yep stay tuned to hear about that you got anything else to uh jaw on about there jared pretty much done. I'm spent.
    44:19
    I am continuing to play the Uncharted series. I am just about finished with the third game. Probably will finish it at some point today.
    44:31
    Then I'll be moving on to the fourth and final one that's out currently. You'll be catching up with the series. It's like doing a binge on your series. The sad thing is that my son keeps on walking in and going, well, what's going on now?
    44:50
    And I realized that in his eyes, it all just looks like the same madness going on. And basically, my description is always, well, there's a bunch of bad guys shooting at me, and I need to get rid of them and progress forward towards the treasure.
    45:03
    Didn't you already get a treasure? Yeah, but now I'm trying to prevent the bad guys from getting this treasure. Yeah, but that was what you did in the other game. It's a different set of bad guys. You just kind of realize, okay, fine, they're all the same, but who cares? They're fun.
    45:16
    It's different schemes different treasures. Just leave me alone. Well, actually, I've got to say, I had watched... I did a back-to-back of watching John Wick and John Wick 2. And then I went and played... I was in the midst of playing Uncharted 2 at that same time, and I happened to be in a huge firefight battle that was going through kind of narrow corridors, and it felt like, after having watched John Wick and all the headshots and just picking up these machine guns and firing and then moving forward, it was like, oh, this is like playing the movie. This is awesome. So it was really kind of fun. It was fun to do that.
    45:53
    That sounds cool. Now I'm going to be really sad that when I finish this game because then I'm going to be like, well, now what do I play? Yeah, that's right. You might have to actually start playing some pinball again. Oh, yeah, maybe. I don't know. For some reason, I'm getting the twinge to throw in God of War again. Oh, yeah?
    46:13
    We'll see. That's a... Why not? If you got the game, you might as well go back and relive it a bit. Yeah, the problem is it was a PS2 game. Now, I've got the remasters for the PS3, but it's still kind of rough to step back. Yeah, it would be. It's better to let the memories in your head be like, that was awesome and it looked incredible, and then you throw it in and you go, ooh, wow, really? Yeah, probably a better idea. There was a time when Gran Turismo 2 was amazing to look at. Yeah. I think I'll get it now.
    46:50
    Yeah. I'll get it. Okay, really? Interesting. Wow, yeah. Can't believe that ever fooled me. All right, folks. Well, that is going to be all the time we have for today. Hopefully I'll get my hands on the beta or the actual release. Who knows what's going to, I think, wipe out is intended to be released. this next Friday. Yep. I have a feeling next time we talk, it'll actually be out in the wild for everybody, so we can talk about that some.
    47:22
    Like I said, folks, go get on the Steam sale for both Pimble Arcade and Zen. You'll be happy you did. Yeah, absolutely. You can go and touch the glow balls.
    47:33
    Yes. I think I know what the title of our episode is. Yeah. yep true facts alright folks so until next time thanks for listening bye bye wizardamusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter routes easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10% off your order wizardamusement.com sales restoration customization don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favourite podcast hosting service that Blackade is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some Gin Ball.