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BDYETP 91: Dungeons and Dragons Revealed, AP Shakeup, Nickel City Grand Opening, Pulp Fiction Review

Bro, Do you Even Talk Pinball·podcast_episode·2h 3m·analyzed·Feb 3, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

D&D launch success vs American Pinball collapse highlights licensing importance in pinball market.

Summary

Kevin and Nick discuss Stern's Dungeons & Dragons pinball reveal as a strong thematic fit with celebrity voice talent and solid initial sales projections, contrast this with American Pinball's management crisis following Dave Fix's departure and the failed Galactic Space Force release, and examine how licensing versus original themes drives market success in pinball manufacturing.

Key Claims

  • Dungeons & Dragons LE units are selling very well and are expected to sell out

    medium confidence · Zach (Flippin Out Pinball owner) believes LEs will sell out; Kevin cites this secondhand

  • Dave Fix's departure from American Pinball was a termination, not a resignation

    high confidence · Kevin and Nick explicitly correct framing: 'They didn't renew his contract. They let him go. He didn't resign.'

  • American Pinball now has only two remaining staff members: an artist and a coder

    medium confidence · Kevin states 'Apparently there's two people left at AP, an artist and a designer, like a coder, not a designer'

  • American Pinball is releasing a new Galactic Space Force Classic Edition with 100 units at $7,995 MSRP

    high confidence · Kevin provides detailed specifications: 'they're going to build a new Galactic Tank Force Classic Edition, 100 units of a new Classic Edition at an MSRP of $79.95'

  • Dwight Sullivan has a history of creating game-breaking bugs that persist unfixed

    medium confidence · Kevin owns Mandalorian and reports: 'Dwight has to be aware of it because I understand that he's in pin side thread... it's the worst bug that I've encountered in any pinball machine that I've owned'

  • Original-themed pinball games do not sell in meaningful quantities compared to licensed titles

    high confidence · Nick: 'original themes do not sell they don't sell in a meaningful way' - consensus opinion reinforced by GTF and Barry O's failures

  • Spooky Pinball scaled back Evil Dead production after Scooby-Doo failed to sell through a 2,000-unit run

    medium confidence · Kevin: 'with Scooby-Doo... almost 2,000 of these. And they weren't selling. So they scaled it back. And with Evil Dead, they're doing a more limited run.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm within my two-year prediction of American Pinball is going to be no more. Technically, they're still around, but how much credit do I get for that prediction at this point?”

    Nick @ ~23:00 — Reflects on earlier prediction about American Pinball's failure materializing

  • “don't kill a pinball company by trying to make an original theme just because you like original themes”

    Kevin @ ~24:30 — Core lesson extracted from American Pinball's collapse; direct industry criticism

  • “It's fun. I love that companies are doing this, but they're not going to sell at anywhere near the level of a license game. And that's just how it goes.”

    Kevin @ ~25:00 — Acknowledges the market reality that has destroyed multiple original-themed companies

  • “Hats off to Spooky. Spooky is a family startup, and they made a lot of good decisions... this is the difference between it doesn't matter how much money you have... making good decisions versus bad decisions.”

    Nick @ ~26:00 — Contrasts successful boutique manufacturer with failed well-funded competitor

  • “He just started mode and timed it out. He would just sit there with the ball trapped. It was the most boring thing to watch. And poor Steve had to narrate rules that he worked on.”

    Kevin @ ~41:30 — Describes Escher's tournament play strategy making Galactic Space Force unplayable competitively

  • “They just took the ad for the whatever it was, the deluxe edition... they took the old one and just slapped this oval over the side... It's like most amateur hour design you could possibly do.”

    Kevin @ ~37:00 — Critiques American Pinball's marketing incompetence on new Classic Edition release

  • “Word is they're going to release Cuphead. Word is the code is not really done. They don't have the code. Like, it is just nothing good is going to come from this, right?”

    Nick @ ~21:00 — Expresses concern about American Pinball's ability to deliver remaining game project

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonAmerican PinballcompanyDave FixpersonSpooky PinballcompanyNickel City Pinball CluborganizationCritical RoleorganizationFlippin' Out Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball effectively ceased operations with only 2 staff remaining and Game 7 (Cuphead) code incomplete

    high · Nick: 'Word is they're going to release Cuphead. Word is the code is not really done. They don't have the code.' Lacking design oversight and code support infrastructure

  • ?

    event_signal: Nickel City Pinball Club opened in Buffalo with new Stern D&D machine arriving for club launch event

    high · Nick mentions club member Dave Sousa purchased D&D; Kevin/Nick planning launch party; dedicated wall of 6 most recent Stern machines for review purposes

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Spooky Pinball recognized as industry leader in decision-making quality despite smaller resources than well-funded competitors

    high · Nick: 'shout-out to Spooky... they made a lot of good decisions... this is the difference... making good decisions versus bad decisions'; contrasts with Deep Root and American Pinball

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Galactic Space Force unplayable in tournament setting due to mode timing-out mechanics incentivizing trap-ups

    high · Kevin describes Escher timing out modes at InDisc; Steve Bowden forced to narrate rules he worked on while broadcaster noted they need changing

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dwight Sullivan's code design approach is high-risk, mixing innovation with game-breaking bugs that persist unfixed

    medium · Kevin reports Mandalorian contains unfixed game-breaking bug in Pinside threads; notes Dwight's radical game changes (Ghostbusters bonus, Game of Thrones) create unpredictability

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.369

0:00
All right, coming up on this episode of Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball, we've got Stern's newest game, Dungeons & Dragons. We'll discuss that. We'll talk about the opening of the new pinball club in Buffalo. American pinball, there's a little shake-up there. And then this time, I think we're actually going to get to reviewing Pulp Fiction. All that and more coming right up. Double Super Jackpot!
0:30
I need a rim. I need a roof. I want a heart attack again. I need to go to school. I'm just fine with my life.
0:49
That's right. Nick Lane and Kevin Manning of Buffalo Pinball. Whoop-boom-shakalaka! What's going on, everybody? Welcome to episode 91 of Brody Even Talk Pinball for February 2nd, 2025. I'm Kevin, and that's Nick. Nick, how's it going? Good, by the way. Did you know, Kevin, we really should have, like, an intro that says this, but this is our 10th year anniversary of the podcast. Yeah, we should, like, have a centennial celebration or a decade celebration or whatever. I don't know. We celebrated a centennial in my work last year, so it's, like, stuck in my brain. We will celebrate by talking about mods you don't need. That's all the celebration I need in my life. I'm glad you filled that in, and I don't know what it is yet. I found some good ones, so don't look. Don't look ahead. This is all Kevin, guys. Kevin really does a good job of finding mods you don't need and crushes this segment. They also find their way to me. I have a listener submitted one today, too.
1:53
I forgot how bad they were until I went back and I looked at them when I was putting them in the rundown. I was like, yeah. There's no end to it. Every month we come up with some mods you don't need. It's just constant. It's amazing. It's the reason we exist, though, just to keep bringing you those. I'd love to see somebody create a mod you don't need but as a joke. Just so they get on the show. Yeah, just so they get on the show. I mean, maybe some of these are. or troll, but they'll probably end up making money. So, like, it's a win-win. Right.

  • “If you're a D&D person, you're a gamer. If you're a pinball person, you're a gamer in that sense. So there is that overlap with that theme, and there's no doubt this is going to convert people who aren't pinball people into pinball people.”

    Nick @ ~8:30 — Identifies D&D's crossover appeal potential for market expansion

    • Pinball Life
    company
    Multimorphiccompany
    Steve Bowdenperson
    Ryan McQuaidperson
    Kevin Manningperson
    Nick Laneperson
    Escherperson
    Deep Root Pinballcompany
    Dennis Nordmanperson
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
  • ?

    licensing_signal: D&D and Harry Potter (rumored JJP) represent proven IP appeal to gaming demographic already familiar with these franchises

    medium · Kevin mentions his 17-year-old son instantly excited by D&D announcement; Kevin cites Harry Potter as having 'even more potential appeal' than D&D if released by JJP

  • $

    market_signal: Licensed themes dominate sales; original-themed games fail at scale and represent strategic liability

    high · GTF and Barry O's failures; Black Knight: Sword of Rage underperformance despite established IP; consensus from both hosts and Pinball News coverage

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Dave Fix departs American Pinball after contract non-renewal

    high · Kevin and Nick confirm termination (not resignation) via Naps Arcade and Pinball News reporting; Dave's statement released

  • ?

    announcement: Stern's Dungeons & Dragons features Celebrity voice talent (Critical Role) and randomized content updates (weekly dungeon changes)

    high · Kevin and Nick discuss Critical Role involvement and Dwight seeding randomness so 'every sunday allegedly the dungeons are gonna change'

  • ?

    product_strategy: American Pinball's Game 7 (Cuphead) lacks completed code and faces uncertain launch timeline

    medium · Nick: 'Word is the code is not really done. They don't have the code.' No designer oversight remaining to ensure production quality

  • ?

    product_concern: American Pinball's marketing execution is unprofessional; new Classic Edition ad is low-quality mock-up

    high · Kevin: 'they just took the old [ad] and slapped this oval over the side... most amateur hour design you could possibly do... I've seen better graphics coming out of the Nickel City Pinball Club'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community loses confidence in American Pinball's ability to deliver reliable products after GTF quality issues and personnel exodus

    high · Kevin and Nick express skepticism about Cuphead launch; Steve Bowden had to defend GTF's mechanics on InDisc broadcast; tournament players time-out modes rather than play

    • 2:22
    All right. Let's kick this off by thanking some of our partners. Nick, do the honors. All right. For 2025, we got returning our friend. Once you go to Zach, you never go back.
    2:35
    FlippinOutPinball.com. If you're going to buy a pinball machine, I can't recommend going to FlippinOutPinball enough. Zach's been taking care of myself and other viewers for years. Best service. in the pinball industry in terms of buying pinball machines, flipping out pinball.com, premier partner. He's also been taking care of us at the club, so we appreciate you, Zach. Keep it up. And I've been enjoying his podcast because I've been really getting into pinball lately again. So keep it up, man. And then shout out to our other sponsors, Pinball Life. Pinball Life, been shopping at Pinball Life since 2011. I actually just put another order in. I bought like 200 LEDs. Going to work on some of my classic games and get those incandescents out of there. You know, save some electricity, save some headache from replacing bulbs. Really like all their products. Go there. They have great pinballs as well when you want to replace the pinballs in your pinball machine. But that's my go-to place for parts. Then we've got Multimorphic.com, maker of the P3.
    3:38
    Pinside.com. Who doesn't love Pinside.com? I mean, come on. That's where you go and buy and argue. and that's where Kevin mines for mods you don't need. I was just going to say, that's where most of these come from, yeah. And then TitanPinball.com, save 10% with coupon code, buff logo for silicone rings, pinball parts, and the awesome pinball mat. And I think some other folks will be coming back as sponsors. I just got to chase them around a little bit, but shout out to all the ones who renewed early this year. Happy to have you guys here. Thanks for supporting the show. Yeah, we appreciate it. And while we're talking, Multimorphic, quick shout out. They launched a new program this month, a customer referral program. So if you are an existing P3 owner and you get a buddy to buy one, you both save $1,000. So, like, they save $1,000 on their new inbox P3. You get $1,000 off for a future purchase. And you can also get 10% off each additional game kit that you purchase on that same invoice for the person purchasing a new one. So if you've been on the fence, I actually had a friend. He was asking me about the P3. He used to like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, I'm going to be that guy and pitch you on, you know, if you're looking to pull the trigger, you can save $1,000. And I would also save $1,000 in the future. So I think that qualifies anybody listening, too. So if you're listening and considering it, let me know, and we'll hook you up. All right? So thanks, y'all.
    5:00
    Okay. It's time to get into the news. Let's kick it off officially with Tim Kitzrow. Here's the tip. It's the latest pinball news. Show hunt. It's on fire. All right. Starting things off this month, the big news is the launch of Dungeons & Dragons, The Tyrant's Eye from Stern Pinball. Their first cornerstone title of 2025. This news coming to us from Pinball News. Tons of great call-outs.
    5:29
    So the design is by Brian Eddy. Rule's lead is Dwight Sullivan. Nick Lane, what else do we know about this game? Well, we know that it's a Spike 2 as well. You know, Stern's been talking about going to Spike 3 for a while, and everyone's been wondering, is this going to be the game? It's not, so it's using the same system. But we know that Ryan, Eddie, and Dwight Sullivan are both big-time D&D guys. This is like their dream team to work on. So it is nice to hear that when somebody's making a game, they really love it. You kind of expect them to nail the theme and get it right. they got the was it the critical hit there's a critical role whatever guys i'm not look i'm not a dnd guy if that's not obvious um but they got i think they they got people who are very well recognized in this in the dnd space dnd is like a billion dollar industry so it seems like there's a lot of excitement around this title and this game i heard zach talking about how ellies are selling very well. He believes they're going to sell out, which is good news, right, for Stern. So it sounds like they did a really good job out of the gate with the launch of this, you know, getting people working on it who are big fans of it and understand the IP, right, getting, like, the critical hit guys to do and gals to do the voice work for it. And, you know, the critical hit is something that's well known, I guess, in the space on YouTube for D&D. And that's what you want, right? If somebody's going to do a theme, you want them to do a good job of incorporating that theme, right? And it starts with getting people who really understand the theme, getting people who are recognized and associated with the theme. So, like, there's good reason to believe that this is going to be a successful game with Stern, and it should be shipping pretty soon. It sounds like people are starting to get their LEs at this point. Yeah, I saw Tilt Amusement had a video on with some gameplay, so they got there, so I'm sure Zach's getting his soon, too, and they're going to start rolling out to customers and stuff too. Good stuff. Yeah, it looks really cool. I'm curious about the state of the code because the launch, they did this quote-unquote reveal stream, which everybody's calling it a stream but it wasn't a stream. It was a pre-recorded gameplay video that they put up on YouTube. And then it's pretty basic in what they show. They don't get real deep. Dwight has the guy playing, I forget his name, the guy playing Trap Up and Dwight talks a lot and then he makes shots and he shows you know some of the basics the the dragon multi ball and the the lightness cube multi ball and stuff so um it has a lot of potential i like that they're like seeding the randomness into it so every sunday allegedly the dungeons are gonna change so that'll keep things dynamic and interesting as a as a homeowner um and yeah so So it's got a lot of potential, again, with certain kind of launches of these games and then build on them as they go code-wise. So I'm going to be curious when this comes out, and I know there's one coming to the club in Buffalo, so I'm looking forward to playing that, where it kind of goes from the initial launch code and on from there.
    8:42
    Yeah, and I think, you know, Dwight is like hit or miss on code, right? Like the one good thing about Dwight is that he's not afraid to mix things up and try things that are not tried and true. And that's how you get innovation, but also sometimes you're going to strike out when you do that. He's already tried some of the RPG elements with Venom, and he's also had kind of like buying items in Mandalorian. So he's kind of almost been working towards this game in some ways and trying these out. So I think that he's probably learned a lot of lessons and hopefully he creates something that really gels in this. Again, when I look at this game, this is not a game that totally appeals to me. I'm not looking for an RPG in my pinball game and, you know, continuing where I last left off and that kind of deal. But I think this is good for pinball because this is going to bring people in who are maybe D&D fans, right? Like when there's titles that will bring people into pinball, and I think this is a game to do it, right? If you're a D&D person, you're a gamer. If you're a pinball person, you're a gamer in that sense. So there is that overlap with that theme, and there's no doubt this is going to convert people who aren't pinball people into pinball people. So I think that's a win for pinball overall. Yeah, and I showed this to my son. He's 17 now, and I actually just told him when they did the teaser announcement. I was like, oh, the next game from Stern is Dungeons & Dragons. He's like, we have to get that. I was like, all right, well, let's wait and see if it's any good first. But just hearing the theme, he's like, that's awesome. He was sold based on the theme. So I think that speaks well to both, you know, the appeal of the theme and the potential sales for Stern. Because I know, you know, pinball sales have been down lately. It's been tough. And I think if, you know, the rumors of Harry Potter are true for Jersey Jack, that's got the same level of appeal, right? Like, even more so, potentially.
    10:39
    So, yeah, I think, you know, they just need to crush it on these themes to move these games right now with the market the way it is. and the economy the way it is and all that stuff, and prices where they are, and inflation and tariffs and all that crazy crap. So it's good. It's good to see. I'm excited to see something that has the potential to be a sales hit for these guys. And a word of caution to everybody. You know, like Stern has not been cranking out games with code that's even remotely complete these days. So know what you're getting yourself into. If you buy this game early and you can't wait, So not only are you going to be maybe dealing with some code that's really lacking, but there could be, obviously, you're a beta tester for some mechanical issues, right, as we've seen with X-Men most recently. I think this is the most recent example of that. And then the other thing, like talking about kind of like past sins of Stern and Dwight in particular, I've got a Mandalorian, and that game has a game-breaking bug in it to this day, right? Like, Dwight has to be aware of it because I understand that he's in pin side thread. The pin side thread is talked about. I've posted on it. But it's the worst bug that I've encountered in any pinball machine that I've owned, which just locks you out of basically progressing in the game. So, you know, to me these mistakes add up, and it's just a word of caution. And Dwight also has a reputation of completely changing the game, like he did for Game of Thrones, I think probably for the better. but also he kind of radically changed Ghostbusters and made the bonus kind of crazy. So it's a real crapshoot. I'd say balance your excitement with caution and force them to deliver a game that is not game-breaking bugs and has fully fleshed out code. It's also, like I talked about, where the sales are and the resale on these games. if you just wait, you can get a used one for a couple thousand dollars off probably in a few months. Unless you're like a new inbox buyer and you only want to buy new inbox games, then it's totally worth waiting because sterns are everywhere. There's tons of sterns go out. You're going to be able to buy this game secondhand or down the line or even new later if you want to buy a newer game. So I don't think you need to have the FOMO that was there during the pandemic when you were waiting years to get a game. These games are going to be cranking out, they're going to hit the secondary market sooner rather than later. So you're going to have the potential to buy this game once the code is fleshed out and possibly also at a better price.
    13:15
    True words that have never been spoken. There you go. We're doing our public service there. All right. Is that it with D&D? Anything else you wanted to touch on, or should we move on to AP? Yeah, I think that's a good overview. We're going to get to put our hands on it, I think, in the next few weeks. It's coming to the club. Dave Sousa has been a hero, and he's purchased it, so we'll be doing a launch party there. And Kevin and I will be able to start talking intelligently about new Stern releases, as we've dedicated a wall at the club to all the most recent Sterns. It's a rule at the club. It's a wall just dedicated to the last six most recent Sterns. So you guys are going to get some better reviews finally. There you go.
    13:53
    Awesome. So, all right, let's move on to the next item on our list. American pinball. Big shakeups at American pinball.
    14:01
    Dave Fix is out. The first thing that stood out to me about this announcement is that not that it was a surprise at all based on that interview that he gave with the Loser Kid podcast at the end of the year last year. It very much felt like the writing was on the wall for Dave at AP. But the fact that he kind of really positioned this the way he did. So, you know, on Nap Arcade it says he resigned, and then on Pinball News it said he, like, parted ways or something like that. It was like, no, they didn't renew his contract. They let him go. He didn't resign, okay? He didn't resign, yeah. I don't know. Nap Arcade was generous. They looked at that and said, we're not going to pay you anymore. Goodbye. Right, exactly. And this is also not a press release. It's just, like, a statement from Dave Fix. trying to position this to put himself in the best light. And, I mean, good for him, I guess. He gets people to do this. But he's also going to apparently be on the Pinball News, Pinball Magazine podcast again next month. He has to go back on. I guess that's this month, later this month. So that should be interesting. Yeah, there's more content for me and Kevin. I was worried. Yeah. Bad day for pinball content. It's not going away.
    15:18
    I don't know. Do we want to read? It's not rare. I'll just read you. Yeah, go ahead. So for those who haven't seen it, here's the statement that Dave Ficks released at the end of the year. 2025 should be an exciting year for American Pinball with Game 7 poised for release, which I believe will be the best game ever designed and produced by American Pinball. It has also been one of my greatest privileges and a personal highlight to have collaborated with the licensor and incredible team that has put their heart and soul into this project. 2025 should be an exciting year for American Pinball. Wait. He copied and pasted the same thing twice there Alright, so with a touch of sadness I am announcing that after my past Exciting four years at American Pinball Ownership and I have not renewed any contract For my continuation With American Pinball As ownership adjusts their operation And plans for American Pinball's future I wish them all the best And success that will come with the new Game 7 launch However I am very proud to leave American Pinball with their impending new game design ready to go and I will be excited to see how it is received later on this year when it goes into production and officially released. Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy 2025 as we continue into the exciting changes the new year will bring. See you all at Pinball Expo 2025.
    16:33
    Yeah, so Dave's out. Apparently there's two people left at AP, an artist and a designer, like a coder, not a designer. yeah the designer of their next game is not there anymore I don't know who's going to be there to like oversee the quality of production because usually once it gets to this point the designer is going to you know make sure everything's being assembled right it's playing the way it should all that if you don't have that there and all those resources are gone like what do you have I'm like I don't know and you also have like nobody to support or provide, you know, assistance with the game once people start receiving them. Like I'm very skeptical on all of this. The whole thing is crazy though, right? Like when you think about what's happened to American Pinball, and Laura knows we've talked about it in detail in the last couple of years, I mean, like them making GTF was a real head scratcher. But you can almost say that like, all right, they tried something despite all evidence to the contrary that it wasn't going to work, right? Like, they did it. They tried it. I think the real death blow over anything, well, number one, they tried something that didn't work with GTF. But, like, even people that like the game can struggle to get behind it because of the quality issues in the code and the mess in the game being broken, right? Which American Pinball had at least been known for years for having good quality, At least that's what I've heard. So they faltered there, right? They failed on two levels. But what's really like Dave's folly here is that he doubled down on the next game, right? Like making after the failed GTF, you would think that they would say, okay, guys, we've got to get a win. We tried something. It didn't work, right? Like we went for it. Try to do something different in the marketplace. We're going to do something safe here, right? and what we talked about last time is it sounded like Whitewater, at least based on what Whitewater 2, based on what Dennis Norman said, was further along than Barry O's, and they could have at least made Whitewater 2, which I guarantee would have been better and done better than Barry O's, which anything could be better than Barry O's. I mean, Ninja Eclipse has done better than Barry O's. So it's that doubling down, which I think just absolutely killed the company. It's too bad that Ryan McQuaid really never got a fair shake at designing a machine and being able to launch it in a way that one would want to. Steve Bowden is now out of work. Dave is gone. It's not like you want to see Dave out of work. You don't want to see somebody fail, but you don't want to see a company make what are obvious bad decisions, and then now this pinball company basically no longer exists. It exists on paper right now. Word is they're going to release Cuphead. Word is the code is not really done. They don't have the code. Like, it is just nothing good is going to come from this, right? There's no reason to be excited for Cuphead or think that's going to be better. My question to you, Kevin, is I'm within my two-year prediction of American Pinball is going to be no more.
    19:53
    Technically, they're still around, but how much credit do I get for that prediction at this point? I mean, I feel like you pretty much nailed it because this is like the writing's on the wall at this point, right? so all things considered I'm going to go ahead and give you a win on this one okay alright let this be a lesson kids anybody who's new in the hobby for the old timers and 10 years in pinball podcasting and more than 10 years in the hobby people say they want original themes but original themes do not sell they don't sell in a meaningful way so another example in the pinball history books this is where we're at don't do that don't kill a pinball company by trying to make an original theme just because you like original themes. Right. That's the lesson here. Because you want to go back to the glory days of the 90s when there was stuff like Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness and blah, blah, blah. You know, even Stern tried it. They did Black Knight Sword of Rage, and that was not even an original theme. They were building off of that established Black Knight popularity, right? They had to license that from the Williams owners. And even that didn't sell well. So it's like, it's fun. I love that companies are doing this, but they're not going to sell at anywhere near the level of a license game. And that's just how it goes. Hats off, by the way. Again, when another pinball company is defeated or goes under, hats off to Spooky. Spooky is a family startup, and they made a lot of good decisions, right? Like, this is the difference between it doesn't matter how much money you have, right? This is the case of making good decisions versus bad decisions. American Pinball, by all accounts, is way more well-funded than Spooky ever was starting a game up. But Charlie and Spooky consistently made good decisions. Whether Kevin and I like their games or not, they are successful, and they managed to be successful through good decision-making. So shout-out to them. It's a testament to good decision-making, and good decision-making rules over how well-funded you are any day. If I look at DeepRoot, all the money that they stole, terrible decision-making, right? Really killed them. I mean, obviously fraud and theft would have killed them eventually, but just make good decisions, folks. Understand the market, right? Like pinball is hard enough. Don't make it harder on yourself. Yeah, Spooky found their niche, and they buy the licenses that that niche wants, and they don't overextend themselves. You know, they keep their production levels low, like their runs low. they did creep up like with Scooby-Doo. They were like pushing the limits of what we're going to do, like almost 2,000 of these. And they weren't selling. So they scaled it back. And with Evil Dead, they're doing a more limited run. So, again, it's like, yeah, they tried it. It didn't work out. So they adjusted appropriately.
    22:43
    And instead, American Pinball is tripling down on Galactic Space Force. They're building more. Because who doesn't want even more of these games that nobody bought, right? God. So they announced five days ago that they're going to build a new Galactic Tank Force Classic Edition, 100 units of a new Classic Edition at an MSRP of $79.95, $1,000 less than the lowest trim level of the game, the Deluxe Edition, which we'll get to. There's a Part 3 of this coming.
    23:15
    To match that price point, AP is removing the following Deluxe Edition features. There's magic glass, inner hour blades, aura lighting system, the knocker, and supposedly the PCB that controls the robot and the UFO movement in the game.
    23:30
    Oh, I'm glad this is in here. Can we talk about this ad? Have you seen this, Nick? I've seen it. This is like a Kevin Manning segment, so please, by all means. Yeah, this is great. So they just took the ad for the whatever it was, the deluxe edition? Yeah, the deluxe edition, which has the lights, you know, basically the pin stadiums on the inside.
    23:53
    So instead of taking a picture of a new product, they took the old one and just slapped this oval over the side so you can't see the pin stadium lights on it. And they typed out $79.95. But then it's like they also, the seven is a big bold number. numbers. It's like most amateur hour design, quote unquote design you could possibly do. It's so bad. And again, it's like all of these things, they're like, why would any of this give you the confidence to put down $8,000 on a new pinball machine from this company, right? It's like, you can't even take the time to properly put together a graphic to promote this. Like, I've seen better graphics coming out of the Nickel City Pinball Club, which is a non-profit organization a club here. On people's time.
    24:43
    You're doing better ads coming out of there than this. Coming from a private company. What's interesting about the classic edition is that the one thing that I taught to I know people who like this game and own this game and the one thing that they like about it and they say often is it's like a beautiful machine. They like how the machine looks and fair enough. It can look pretty good. right? So with this Classic Edition, it removes a lot of things that actually make the game look good, right? Like, that's the funny thing is, like, what do you have now? You have a game of broken code and broken mechs that nobody wants.
    25:19
    It just, again, it just never ends, Kevin. We've got a club member and I really enjoyed meeting this member. I don't want to say a member's name necessarily on the podcast. I'll try to refrain from it. I don't think it matters that much, but he's got a GTF, and I would love to have a GTF at the club. I think the only problem is that this thing's going to break a lot, right? Like, we're going to be constantly fixing it. So it's a mixed blessing having it there. Well, we also saw Escher playing it at the InDisc tournament. Oh, yeah, he can't have it. Timing out modes to get to the Wizard mode. It would be a nightmare for tournaments. I got to say what is funny, and I love Steve Bowden, but I tuned into the InDisc, and Escher was on it, Just as I happened to tune into it, and Steve was doing the broadcast, and Steve bowed in, and Escher is just not playing the game. He just started mode and timed it out. He would just sit there with the ball trapped. It was the most boring thing to watch. And poor Steve had to narrate rules that he worked on. He's like, I might want to change that. I don't know if he was trying to defend it or not, but everyone's just like, yeah, this game is, you can't put it in a tournament. So that's right, Kevin. I keep on saying, like, I'd like to play this game, but it's just, yeah, Yeah, you're not rewarded for playing the game the way you'd want to play it, right? Anytime you can trap up the whole game, or it incentivizes the player to do so in a tournament. And people are probably screaming, listening to this podcast, well, yeah, it's not a tournament game, but I enjoy it at home. That's fine. That's fine. I'm just saying. Yeah. So there's a comment in chat I want to call out, because I'm sure there's other people who are going to get in the YouTube comments with a similar take. So Rockford Replay says, Original themes do sell. They don't sell mass quantities. Why pursue a license when you cannot produce the mass quantities to justify it? Who can't produce a mass quantity, though, right? Like American Pinball can certainly produce mass quantities if they were selling it. They make games for years. So it's not like American Pinball doesn't have the capability to produce mass quantities in a machine. And even Spooky, who they live in a town like of 100 people, can produce mass quantities. Like they make games over 1,000 units. So, again, it's not an excuse of not pursuing original themes. Like, if you can't make themed games, you probably shouldn't be making pinball, right? Like, now, Turner seems to be profitable at 100 machines and good for Turner, right? That's what it takes to do it, then, and okay. But I think you're just making life more difficult for yourself is the moral of the story. Yeah. And there's also, like, if you think about Alice in Wonderland for Dutch Pinball.
    27:56
    Yeah, they limited that to, what, 500, I think? Which, I don't know, for them makes sense because it takes them 15 years to meet their runs. You know, it took them 10 years to get all their Big Lebowski's out. So maybe for them an original theme makes sense. And even there, you're playing off the popularity of, quote-unquote, popularity of J-Pop. for whatever reason people still like idolize j-pop even though he's been garbage to the hobby and his machines like needed all sorts of other people to make him actually work and be uh functional um pinball people for whatever reason are amazed by his design so they took that white whitewood design of j-pop and they brought that to market and they they were like they probably made the informed decision of like okay this is not a licensing there's probably 500 pinball players who will buy this game and who will wait 10 years for us to make them all. Chris, the pin term, people ask this. I've been getting this question a lot. What are our dream themes? Okay, we'll answer it again and again. I want to put a caveat before I say my dream themes. I don't expect my dream themes. They'll never be made, right? That's why it's a dream. I'm not saying I would make it if I had a pinball company because I like to make money, okay? So dream themes would be black dynamite. I'd love a Black Dynamite pinball machine in the style of, like, Pulp Fiction. I think Black Dynamite's a hilarious movie. I highly encourage everybody to watch it. I'd like a Curb Your Enthusiasm pinball machine for sure. Can we get the Spice Store back in there? Yeah, the Spice Store episode. Use Spice Store mode. Latte Larry's for the win. Just like a sculpted Spice Store in the back. I love Latte Larry's. I don't have my Latte Larry mug today. I should have it. It would be appropriate. And then I want to see a good Indiana Jones. but that doesn't have the last two movies would be nice. That's a good place to start. What are yours? I feel like I've talked about these on the podcast many times over the years but it's been a while so in no particular order Tony Hawk Pro Skater I want to see that happen because it's the only way I'm going to get the music I like in a pinball machine.
    29:59
    And it's also I would like the variety of the music so it's like not just taking one band that I really like and making me sick of hearing their songs. It's like a mix of – and also it would never happen because of all the licensing. You would need to get all those songs, right? Plus, you know, the creativity of the mechs and stuff. We saw a cool homebrew at Expo of it. Really cool. I also think there's opportunities with video game themes. So stuff like Doom and Mortal Kombat, I would love to see that. Portal is also one that I've been – especially on the P3, I want Portal to happen on the P3. and that was a rumor that went up on NAP Arcade earlier this week, so hopefully that's happening. We'll see. And yeah so those are some of my go Okay there you go We answer that again in two months when somebody asks us There you go You need a frequently asked question on our website Kev Exactly. Oh, and before we get off of the American Pinball topic, there's one more piece of the puzzle here. So, Ulex Store yesterday, or four days ago, I guess, announced that they're going to start making AP merch, like shirts and towels and stuff. they're also a distributor of AP games so if you remember, so let's go back here so remember, so $79.95 for the AP Classic edition of Galactic Tank Force with all that stuff removed at Pinbrew Ulex Store is going to be there selling the limited edition for $58.95 with all the extra stuff so with the Invisiglass and the pin stadiums and the mech that makes the robot come out of the ship and the cow swing back and forth. $58.95 or... Wait, wait, wait. That's Legends of Valhalla. Oh, sorry. Legends of Valhalla. Sorry.
    31:53
    $89.95. GTF is still over... Yeah, GTF is still way overpriced. Yeah, but it's still... $79.95. So for an extra $1,000 you can get the limited version. Or you let somebody else open the box and you buy that for $2,000, left on top of that sale price, so $4,000 off. But Legends of Valhalla, sorry, there you go, there's Legends of Valhalla $58.95, which is crazy. That's, like, super low.
    32:21
    That's probably not a, I don't like that game, but it's probably not a bad price for that. The problem is, though, what's the service level at this point? There's a problem. Yeah. And then remember when they did that video about the signature edition of Galactic Tank Force and they were talking about it, it's like, guaranteed to go up in value. Get it now. They did that whole hype video.
    32:41
    So you get a brand new inbox for $5,000 off. Yeah, yeah. $99.95. That's the one with all the signatures on the apron and the 3D, or the holographic stickers they stuck on it and the special armor. Yeah. Dude, talk about taking a haircut. Yeah, totally. So there you go. And they're also doing $500 off any other new inbox American Pinball. So there you go. and you can get a bunch of shirts and stuff so you want like an AP rag or a shirt or I want to get down here's the graphic with the breakdown of the prices so yeah signature edition that's crazy how much they had dropped and then the LE so this is actually yeah this is the one with the tank treads and everything so and the turret so that's actually different than the signature special edition that I can't keep track of all the different levels.
    33:38
    And then, yeah, and then they've also got their lighting kit thing that you can put in back boxes. Yeah. I mean, I think if they got their code together on GTF and fix their mechanical issues, you know, and also the sound balancing, you might, you might have something that's like, okay, it's not for everybody, but you know, it's not the worst thing in the world. Right. Donnie with AP rag to wipe away the tears from buying a new M-Bot.
    34:05
    Oh, God, AP. It's been fun. It was a sad day for content last month with the news of AP and where they're at. Like, we really owe them a bit of thanks for the entertainment. But rest assured, somebody told me when I was lamenting that there will be more pinball companies to provide lots of content and laughter. We always say there's, you know, every time a pinball company goes away, a new one just comes in to take its place. So stay tuned. There will be more to come. All right. That's all we got for AP. Nick, you want to talk about the launch of the Nickel City Pinball Club? All right. I will do my best. So, you know, I think what we'll do is we'll snip this and clip it. And anybody who's curious about learning about the club and kind of all the work that was involved, this would be a good place to document that. So for everybody who's curious, we launched the Nickel City Pinball Club a couple weeks ago, just had our grand opening. That went out very well. This was almost two years in the making. It was almost two years ago that me and Matt Taylor discussed the idea of opening up a collective. Now, I think as I mentioned on this podcast before, people have talked about the idea of a collective in Buffalo for probably over 10 years at this point. It's just there was no need for it. In my mind, there was a location to play pinball. We had home league and all that. So it's like this is a lot of work, and I'll talk about all the work that's involved in it. Why build that? Why do that model? So, however, you know, almost two years ago we were at a point where a lot of locations had closed. Buffalo Pinball was banned from Pocketeer. And there's kind of some new blood that came into the pinball scene. And, you know, Matt Taylor and Dave Souza, like these guys, have always kind of wanted to do more for pinball. So me and Matt were talking, and Matt kind of said kind of the magical words or phrase that made me think, okay, this is doable, and that he would go out and purchase a building and be the landlord for the club. Now, this is a game changer in my mind because one of the difficult things about trying to do a club or collective is just, you know, affording rent, dealing with a landlord where you maybe can't make changes to the interior of the club or landlord decides to kick you out, right? Like it's just a lot of headaches and challenges. Well, that suddenly got removed. and now we can really create a club in a way that we truly envision it and want it to be. So that got me really excited, and I can't say enough good things about Matt Taylor. He's somebody that is kind of on the same level with me with the way we think, and we got really excited and said, okay, let's pursue this. One thing we wanted to do early on was we recognized that, look, there's a place in Buffalo, Pocketeer, that has over 80 pinball machines, and they have all the latest and greatest games. we're not trying to compete with a place like that, right, that already exists in the marketplace. There's plenty of locations that Buffalo Pinball will play pinball, like Masuda Trowels, Buffalo River Works. There's a home league where everybody owns the latest and greatest games. But let's do something different, and let's try to focus more on classic machines. Because certainly classic machines, I think, are better for tournaments, because one thing I know about tournaments is nobody says, you know what, I really want to wait around each round longer and watch somebody play a machine for 20 minutes straight before my turn. All right, so that got exciting to us. And, again, in our home league, all we do is play the latest games, which are great, but varieties of spice are less. So now we've brought to Buffalo something that fits in uniquely in this space. There's a lot of pinball to play in Buffalo, and I think that's awesome. And Buffalo pinball has played such a big part since 2013 in pinball in Buffalo, and something that I think Kevin and I are very proud of.
    37:56
    And I was talking to Kevin, right, we wouldn't have been able to get to this point of having a club if it wasn't for what Buffalo Pinball has done and building to that point. Because when I started talking to this about Matt, I was able to go out to some community members and share what we're thinking about doing. Like Donnie's in the chat right now with us, and he just loved it. I'm signing up. I'm a day one member. I talked to him. I talked to like Dave Sousa, like loved it. day one member, right? Like I started having these conversations with people and this club didn't even exist. And they just, they're like, I'm signing up. That's it. So it gave us a lot of confidence to move forward. So Matt bought this building, I believe it's called the, it's the old Shamrock. Yeah. Do we want to show some of the pictures of the old one? Yeah. Yeah. If you can show some of the pictures as we're talking. So this was a building from the early 1900s. It's a complete eyesore, as you can see in the chat. This is in Depew, New York. It had been vacant since roughly 2009.
    38:54
    This building was actually the subject on a radio program. It's a highly trafficked street, and people hated this eyesore.
    39:03
    When Matt bought it and showed me the interior of it, I was just like, I just don't even, I can't even fathom the amount of work involved in going through this, cleaning it up, and the transformation that it is today. So Kevin's scrolling through some pictures of it. Look at that. Okay, that's the before and after. So they're going to go before and after. You're going to see the difference. So what a transformation. And the fact that he pulled this off in a year and a half is, like, mind-blowing.
    39:34
    It is. I mean, again, Matt is a hero. This would not happen without Matt Taylor. So I cannot say that enough. Him and his wife, Kelly, and his father, Gary, they did so much work on their own. They had to hire contractors, but it was like every day a labor of love cleaning it up. So Kevin's showing, this is like the back entrance of it. So the members have key card access. We have 20 member spots right now. It's $1,200 a year, and you get seven-day-a-week access. The hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and then Friday and Saturday it goes to midnight. Right now we've already sold 13 memberships, which is remarkable. We've only been open two weeks. There's only seven spots left. And once that fills up, there's no guarantee that next year we're going to open up even more memberships. So once you get a member, you're basically a member for life as long as you pay your dues. That's my call to urgency. So if you're listening to this and you're in the Buffalo area and you're waiting around, I'm going to sell this out. I know I will, all right, as more people see this. So I'm hoping to get people who are good people, who are collectors and want to meet with other collectors. We just had a couple join last week who I really enjoyed meeting, maybe they're listening to this. And, you know, I've never met them before, but they said that they've been listening to the Buffalo Pinball Podcast since 2019. They got into collecting them. They had six pinball machines and they just joined. So, like, I love having the fact that we're meeting people that maybe aren't tournament people. Maybe they're newer to us, right? They haven't come to Buffalo Pinball events in the past. But it's just nice to find and connect with like-minded people, right? Let me just jump in. You know what's cool, Iggy? We're talking about, like, the growth since 2013. We were out at RPC on Friday for a four-strikes tournament. I was talking to some folks, and we were like, I was like, It's crazy to think that, like, this exists and, like, we got the club now. When we started Buffalo Pinball, there was, like, literally nothing, aside from a few collectors who had machines in their basements. And, like, now that – and we had people coming out from Syracuse to play in our league because they were so little. So now Syracuse has its own spots and its own leagues. Rochester's got its own spots and its own leagues. Buffalo's got, you know, all the stuff that we've done. And it was kind of like a moment to just sit back and, like, think about how crazy all that is.
    42:01
    Yeah, it really is. I mean, it's hard to sit back sometimes, Kevin, because, like, I don't know. Like, I just build, build, build. I never sit back and think about it or pat myself on the back. It's like, what can I do? I'll rest when I'm dead kind of deal. Right. But it is amazing, right? And it takes a lot of people. You know, you and I have led the charge, right? and I think we made a lot of good decisions, but it's just it lasts and it gets to that point by meeting, attracting, and connecting with good people. And I think that's what is going to lead to this club's success, right? A club is only as good as its members, so I want to keep and attract good people, good, talented people. That is what I want. There's some people who are a real pain in the asses in this community. This is not for them, right? And that's the beauty of a private club. You don't have to deal with them.
    42:48
    Yeah, so let's look at some more pictures. Scott, look at that interior. All right, you ready? So that's before. This is, like, when they first were, like, walking through and seeing what it was all. And then this is, like, how amazing is that? And these pictures. Kudos to Matt. He did a great job of, like, recreating the before and after photos. And these have really taken off on Facebook and gotten tons of exposure for the club. So, yeah. I mean, look at the ceiling there. What a nightmare. Yeah. All the work. And he tore this all down to the studs and, you know, redid everything. Everything. Flooring, walls. HVAC, windows.
    43:23
    Oh, my God. Yeah, and so this is like that spot you see in a lot of the promo photos that have been going around of like the kind of amber-colored ceiling and the couches. So those are underneath here. And then over on the right-hand side of this photo is where all the pinball machines are.
    43:41
    And, yeah, so they tore off that ceiling and found this cool, like, recessed ceiling in there. And there's lighting and stuff out there. Yeah, this is – I don't know when that ceiling is from. It could be, like, from the 30s, 40s, right? This was also, Matt believes, it used to be the home of maybe an old brewery owned it as well. So there's a lot of history to this thing. Yeah, it was the old trampoline as well, yeah. Yeah, and the vibe that we were going with since the beginning, I was always very – felt very strongly on this, is that, you know, it is a private club, and what is the theme of it? The theme is like private, social club, classy, speak easy vibe decor. So we've got like dark navy walls, black ceiling, you know, the wooden floor. We've got – I went out and I gave the club a $4,000 loan because we couldn't afford it, but I felt it was very important to have like rich leather furniture in there. you know I just I wanted my goal was I wanted people to walk in and say wow that was the that was my goal and you know people have said that I was talking to some folks last month who were interested in joining and they were on the fence and they were like ah this is pretty expensive even for $300 and we'll talk about the levels of it but then this particular person I'm talking about came to the opening party and was just blown away by the quality of the games and the club and signed up right then and there, right? So that was, I think, goal achieved. And when you talk about, like, approaches to designing a club, like some people design a club. One of my favorite spaces is Wormhole, and it's like wall-to-wall stuff that they have hanging in there. Like, they just throw a lot of stuff in there, right? Like, it's really cool. There's old banners in there.
    45:27
    That's a different type of aesthetic that exists. Some clubs maybe kind of go for, like, a more dive or punk bar aspect. I appreciate that as well. Like Buffalo Pinball has like a skull and it's more aggressive. That's kind of like our branding, right? We're a little more brash sometimes. So I wanted us to do something totally different and play off this like private club vibe. And that's why we went with this approach. I don't think that there's any right or wrong. If you're thinking about doing a club, just do something kind of unique that speaks to you. But that's what we've been running with, and I think it's worked well. And, again, I think it's something that's unique out there and will only get better over time.
    46:04
    All right. So I wanted to talk about this is like the back room that used to be the kitchen, I think, of the bar. This is just such a nightmare. Like who would look at this and be like, yeah, I can fix this up and make it look nice. I'm like, look what it turned into. So there's the main room, and this is like a secondary room that has some machines in it, but it's going to fill up as we go. I don't think there's enough plugs in that picture. I'm worried we might run out of plugs. Matt was thinking ahead. He's not messing around, which I appreciate.
    46:31
    Yeah, so it's kind of like the back area of the club. This is back towards where the bathrooms are. And I will also give Nick the opportunity to point out that it's completely handicap accessible, right? You know, there's a ramp in the back and the bathrooms and everything.
    46:49
    Yes, it's handicap accessible. There's a ramp. There's three railings, like, you know, obviously being very accommodating to everybody. We want everybody to have a good experience in there. We have room right now. We're thinking there's like 28 games in there right now. I think we're going to land somewhere between like 33 and 38 games and again it's not like how many games can we fit into this 2,000 square foot space it is as our treasurer I think articulated better than I can I wish I saw his words in front of me it's a social club with pinball machines in it right it's not it is not an arcade it's not a pinball arcade it's a place for adults. Adults can bring kids, but it's a social club for adults that has pinball machines. So right now, Kevin's showing photos that Dave Sousa's wife Dawn took. She's a professional photographer, did a great job. This was like the first day, this is, I think, a week before we had our grand opening. So you can see that awesome ceiling that Matt kind of restored and brought to life. We put in some LED lighting in there. Here's a story of how perfectionist I am. Matt put some LED lighting in there. It was like warm lighting. It didn't highlight the ceiling enough in my mind and didn't look as good as Dawn's photos did in person. So I went out and spent $200 to take that out. And God bless Matt. He did it. And he put in lighting that even looks even better. So I'm not messing around, guys. I'm throwing so much money into this personally. I want this place to be successful. I'm going to work my ass off for the next five years that I'm president of this and give you the best goddamn club possible in Buffalo. And, you know, again, I encourage good people that are easy to get along with and love pinball to be a part of this club. And as you can see from the photos, a lot of classic games. And I think people have remarked that they really enjoy the variety of games seen there. Especially Hardbody and Genesis. Especially hard body, yeah. You know, and we've already added, like, Matt's wife Kelly donated a lot of things to the club as well. What's not shown in the pictures, there's a table there, there's a coffee table, there's more lighting in there.
    49:05
    There's a side room in there that wasn't photographed because there weren't games in there at this point.
    49:12
    So that side room has more seating in it. It's bigger than just these photo show. So what's also really cool is I'm really grateful that, you know, we've got such great members. A couple of the members bought, like, their first new in-box games and chose to open new in-box games in the club with the rest of the members. That's buying your first new in-box game and opening it up is an experience that, you know, a lot of people remember, and it's an important thing. So just I really love our community right now, and just grateful to be connected to so many good, talented people. Yeah, and I'm just going to roll a little bit. So you had to talk a little bit about the grand opening celebration that we did. Yeah, so the grand opening was two weeks ago. You see Jeffrey Wirth there.
    49:59
    Yeah, we had like 30 to 40 people there to celebrate with us. It was members and some prospective members and their guests to celebrate it. Kevin Manning once again worked. There's Matt on the screen as the hero. So Kevin Manning once again worked his magic and got the media to show up. So we've gotten great media coverage just because Kevin is talented and knows what buttons to push. We had the DePue Mayor there. There's the DePue Mayor, which is a lifelong dream of mine to meet the DePue Mayor. And he declared, what was it, January 18th? Yeah, January 18th. Sorry, was it January 17th, I believe, was DePue Pinball Day. So that's him handing Matt and I that award. That's certainly an honor. And I think a lot of residents who don't even care about pinball again are just happy to have that eye sore gone in their neighborhood. And it's a win for preservation and kind of beautification of a neighborhood. And then also a sanctuary for people who love pinball. Yeah, I told Nick, I was like, when you guys are ready to go, I'll get the cameras there because I knew it was going to be a great story, right? I don't know, most people probably don't know, but there's been like a string of tragic fires in the Buffalo area that have taken down historic bars in the Allentown District and in the Cobblestone District and things like that over the past year. and obviously this building is not to that level of like historical uh significance but it was a story of somebody taking a building that was on the verge of being demolished and and thrown into the the dump and and brought back to life for this really cool and interesting uh use right and i always joke that like if if there's a pinball machine i can get media cover to come out because it's just cool in and of itself but i think it's also interesting from the fact that it's not an arcade, right? It's pinball, but it's like this interesting take on it. And I wrote a line about how it's like instead of golf clubs and golf balls, it's flippers and pinballs because it's kind of like a country club style vibe for pinball, right? And the media took it around with that, and we got TV coverage, newspaper coverage. We got some magazine coverage, all that. So it just, you know, speaks to the effort that you and Matt and all the club members have done to really bring this to life, and it's obviously been a big joint effort, right? Yeah, absolutely. So I've had in the last month three people who have heard this podcast or listened to this podcast reach out and say, hey, I've been wanting to start something like this up in my area. Somebody reached out from Austin. Somebody reached out from Baltimore. I forget the other places as well. Sorry. So I've had these conversations. So let's talk a little bit high level about the structure of the club and I can just refer people to this discussion to listen to and learn from, and then they can add, you know, you're welcome to reach out to me. I want to shout out to, first of all, Chad from the Delaware Pinball Collective. Matt and I spent at least a couple hours over the last two years talking to him, and we kind of learned from their experience about how structured it is and what to do. There's just a lot of research. I don't think people can appreciate, like, how much thinking that you don't – It's not just the heavy lifting. It's so much thinking through things, and we're still solving a lot of challenges that are going to come up and how to navigate that, how to keep everybody happy. But here's the high level of the club. So it is a 501c7 not-for-profit social club. Think of, like, Knights of Columbus or the Elks or I don't know what another good one. I mean, I think the Delaware Pinball Collective runs as that as well, right? Like nobody's making money off this, all right? Like no member is making money. All members have to pay, whether it's a lot of volunteer time, like all members pay their fee, they don't get a discount, and the club doesn't own any pinball machines. They're just collectors who love pinball and are willing to put their games there and share their games. So it's a lot to ask of people, and, you know, my games that are there, they're going to break, and guess who has to pay to fix the games that other people are playing? Me, right? or Dave Sousa or Matt Taylor, right? Like it's just what we do because we love and we want to share a game with other people. And think of this concept as well.
    54:28
    Kevin, you've got games. I've got games in my basement. You know a lot of people. How often do you have people over just to play pinball? Yeah, like a couple times a year probably, right? Yeah, I almost never outside a league, right? Yeah. Yeah, so rather than giving somebody a key to my basement and saying come over whenever you want, We've found, like, neutral ground, and people have access to it who are kind of like-minded, and we're sharing our collection. So that's kind of the idea behind it. And then in spirit of that sharing and also to drive some revenue to keep the lights on in existence, we want to also cater to people who like to play in tournaments and leagues. So we have two membership levels, the way we structure this. As mentioned, there is the full membership level for $1,200 a year. That gets you seven-day-a-week access, 365 days a year. You get the privilege of placing one pinball machine there.
    55:22
    You get to participate in all tournaments and leagues free of charge. You also can bring your immediate household family members to the club, which is nice, and you can bring guests to the club. A particular guest can come up to four times a year. You need to sign a guest book. This is, again, we're doing things by the book, literally and figuratively. just to stay into the kind of regulations of the not-for-profit status, right? The other level that we have, and that's limited to 20 people. The other level we have right now, there's not a limitation on it. We might have to put one eventually, but it is the associate membership level. That's $300 a year. That does get prorated based on when you sign up. So I think after the first and quarter two, it's about 75% of that rate. Think of the associate member as like a tournament and league membership only. They don't get key card access. But whenever there's a tournament or a league, those folks can come to the club, and the tournaments are free. So the games are all on Coindrop. You're basically paying for access to get in the club and play the games. It covers your IFPA fee.
    56:29
    And, you know, if somebody wants to do – there's no payout for a tournament. If somebody wants to do payouts or whatever, they can self-organize on their own. The club's not getting into that. And most people don't care, by the way. Most people are never in the money in a tournament. They just want to get together in a social aspect, and they want to get some competitive pinball in. They want to get IFBA points in the week catered to that.
    56:50
    And then we're doing a minimum of one tournament a month, and we're doing at least two team leagues a year. So there's going to be a winter team league and a fall team league, and team league each season is eight weeks long. So I think I did the math on this. Let's say you have 16 nights that you go for team league and you play in 12 tournaments. That's like less than $11 to get into the club and play like as much pinball as you possibly can during that period of time. You know, there were some people whining on Reddit and not understanding the concept, and I just think like these people either are terrible at math or they're just haters. I don't understand it, the amount of volunteer that goes into this and to make it happen, and nobody's profiting from it is just insane.
    57:37
    But into being charitable, I think, like, it's something new, right, and people aren't used to it and they haven't really thought about it. So anybody who's coming in good faith and trying to understand it, you're welcome to reach out to me. I'm happy to hop on a phone and talk it on a phone call and talk it through with you.
    57:55
    You know, there's members that are happy to give you a tour. We're having a membership drive next Saturday. You can come out for $20 from noon to 5 p.m., play as much pinball you want, and see if the club is a good fit for you. And if it's not, guess what? There's a place called Pocketeer, and they have over 80 pinball machines. So nobody is going hungry in Buffalo, New York, for pinball. There's something for everybody. It's just finding where you personally fit, right, like for how much you want to spend on pinball and what you're looking for. So it's Saturday, February 8th is the open house? It is. Yeah, and then we do have another level called a trial membership. And to me, the trial membership is like it describes, is somebody just wants to get their feet wet, wants to see if the club is for them. They can pay $30 and come to a tournament or even a team league and, you know, check it out. They can do that up to three times a year before they either can't come anymore or they have to upgrade to an associate or full membership. And the trial membership is also good for people who come from out of town, right? Maybe they only come to the club three times a year because they live in Rochester, Binghamton, or Pittsburgh. They can do that. So this is all, and somebody has asked, this is all in accordance with the IFPA. I checked with Josh Sharp because we're not preventing anybody from being an associate member. For the full member, yes, you need to be vetted by the board. You need to meet with them and do an interview, right? We're not going to hand over unmitigated access to somebody that might be sketchy or is a pain in the ass, right? Like there's a high level of trust, but anybody can be an associate member. They're not prevented from doing so, right? And, again, if you break down, it's less than $11 if you come to all the events. It is the cheapest way to play pinball in Buffalo, New York, if you think about it. Yeah, that was what I was thinking. So I live probably about a half hour away from the club, so I'm like. So do I. Yeah, it's like it doesn't – I probably wouldn't just swing by there often enough to justify the $1,200 a year, but if you've got an event, I'm going to come out. So the associate membership was a no-brainer for me. And I also have the luxury of having pinball machines in my house that I can just play whenever I want. Not everybody has that either, right? Yeah, and one of my favorite perks is we have a jukebox there. That was my thing that I said since day one. I was like, we need to have a jukebox there. Dave Sousa went out and found this one and full members get to put five CDs in there of their choice might be an asterisk there because I'll tell a story that I can laugh a little bit about now but this caused a little panic yesterday so Donnie might appreciate this because he was down there so here's the scenario there was a member was bringing a prospective member and their kids were there and joined the club and this member who's on our board reaches out and says, I think we, he's like, I don't want to be that guy, but I think we might need to put a profanity filter on the jukebox.
    60:59
    And he's like, you know, there's like a Wu-Tang song that came out. And my first reaction is like, I don't want to police the jukebox, right? This is a place for adults, like kids coming there at their own discretion, like, you know, guys, you know me, I swear, like a sailor, right? Like, I'm like, I don't want to do this. Like, there's a cancel button on the jukebox, all of that. and that. So I went back and forth, and then finally, we were talking, like, well, what is the song? And it Method Man from the Wu album and I encourage anybody who curious about this to go and listen to this song or don do what you want right But you need to listen to the version that not like the video version It's the version where they're speaking about 30 seconds to a minute, and it's just dialogue about basically sodomy and torture. So that came on at the club, and it was an awkward moment for some club members and not a good look. So, thankfully, I talked to the member who has that CD, and he's going to edit that part out. But, yeah, that's something we're working through. But here's the other thing to anybody who wants to open a club.
    62:05
    Just be prepared to deal with trying to make everybody happy, which is not an easy task, and dealing with things that you just don't expect to deal with. It is rewarding but also challenging. So we'll work through those things. We'll iron it out. Trying to make everybody happy is an impossible and thankless task sometimes, but there you guys go. I told Nick, I was like, none of what they've done is easy. Obviously, like, reconstructing an entire building, not easy.
    62:37
    Getting all these pinball machines together, not easy. Managing all the different personalities and tasks, especially when you think about it's like everybody's just a volunteer. So you're just, like, you know, you're relying on each other to do things to make this a success because you wanted this thing to exist, right? Because you all, like, want this cool place to hang out and have tournaments and stuff like that. So it's like you're just kind of all doing it because you wanted to have it. And, yeah, as we've seen through the years of through Buffalo Pinball and running tournaments and the summer open and people that come out, it's like – And it's also, like, human nature. Like, 100 people can tell you that you did an amazing job, but if one person, like, complained to bitches, you're like, God. You know what I mean? Because you want everybody to be happy, right? And you know you can. Like, that's what I do. Look, I've got a – my day job is, like, extremely stressful, like, extreme. I've never been more stressed in my life between all this stuff. But, you know, it's – I don't know. What are you going to do? I will tell this other story about the jukebox because Jay's not in the chat. So one thing that I said a Jay trap, okay, and I cannot wait. Jay is not a member of the club yet, which pisses me off because we set this trap. So in the jukebox that we got was a Dave Matthews band CD, okay, when we bought it.
    64:02
    And what I did was I asked Dave to put in a Kenny G CD in that spot. So anybody who tries to play Dave Matthews instead of Dave Matthews, they get a little Kenny G.
    64:15
    So that's also, like, if you want to hear Kenny G and you're listening to this and you come to the club, you know where it is now. It's in the Dave Matthews spot. And I really want to – don't tell Jay anybody this, because I want to hear, like, Jay get excited about putting Dave Matthews on. And it takes a while, right? Like, if a lot of people put tracks on, it takes a while for you to get to your tracks. so he might not figure out for a while that Dave Matthews is not playing, right? Like he might not connect it. So I want to see how long it takes him for him to say, wait a minute. He'll say, what's going on, Nick? I put Dave Matthews on. It's not coming on back. No, no, it's working fine. Just keep on hitting it. Why don't you put the whole CD on?
    64:54
    Kenny G over and over again. So there's another tip for you if you're doing a club. Make sure you put some traps in there. Awesome. Well, I just want to say a huge shout-out to Nick and Matt and everybody. Everybody else, yeah. All the associate members and the full members and board members and everything. I truly appreciate having this place around to go and play pinball. I know it's a lot of work, and I'm looking forward to everything that comes with it in the years ahead. So, nice work. It's an awesome space.
    65:23
    Thank you. All right. There you go. Okay. Let's give some game room updates. I'll go first since you've been there. Bathroom updates. Here we go. I'll be back. All right.
    65:36
    So I want to kick it off by saying weekly pinball streams on Buffalo Pinball are back, at least for the next few months. I'm going to start doing Monday streams again starting tomorrow night. I'm going to show off the new Princess Bride code, beta code update that got dropped a couple weeks ago. So I stream, I think it was last week, I did the Rick and Morty stream, showing that off, had a good time. And I was like, you know what, this is kind of a fun thing to do in the winter when there's not much else going on in Buffalo. So I'm going to bring it back. We're going to do Mondays at 7 because I'm an old man now. So I don't want to be up until 10 streaming.
    66:16
    But, you know, honestly, the 7 o'clock slot works better because I was normally just like sitting around waiting for 8 o'clock to hit to do that anyway. So, yeah, so Monday nights, every week, Buffalo Pinball stream, twitch.tv slash Buffalo Pinball, the place you are right now probably, or on YouTube. I'm going to try to simulcast.
    66:38
    Yeah, and we're going to kick it off with Princess Bride, and we'll go from there. So Multimorphic Monday is back tomorrow night, so tune in.
    66:45
    So other gameplay-wise and what's been going on in my game room, the new Princess Bride code is really awesome, and that's another reason why I want to show it off. I've been playing that a bunch.
    66:57
    So the code released at 1.0, but the team has been working away. They did two pretty significant beta code updates since the 1.0 release, and this one came out on January 16th. And look at all the updates. So it's been, like, lots of balancing, you know, changing of timers, values, like points balancing, things like that. and just for whatever reason like now this game is really starting to click for me I'm really enjoying it and really looking forward to showing this off for you guys you can see all the stuff they've been doing shout out to the Multimorphic team if you've got a Princess Bride you can jump over this is in the Princess Bride Owners Club thread on Pinzite if you want to grab it there's a Google Drive link to download the beta code and you can check it out but that's what I'll be playing tomorrow night so that's that let's see what else I've got a couple new so other like non pinball related game room update stuff I've got some cool Neo Geo game releases so if you don't know if you're a pinball person you're like what the heck's a Neo Geo it's an arcade cabinet that you can put different games into and they're literally just cartridges think of like you know video game cartridges from back in the day and you just plop these in and there's hobbyists who are making new games for it. This is a cool one called Vengeance Hunters.
    68:23
    Probably the best beat-em-up on the system. So if you think of Final Fight or Streets of Rage, games like that or Double Dragon. It's one of those sorts of games. Really cool. It's fun because it's got modern beat-em-up sensibilities in the classic cabinet. So that's really cool. Highly recommend that. and then I got this other one called Project Neon which is a shooter side scrolling shooter, top down shooter shoot em up kind of game, really cool vibes on that and art direction and audio, both really awesome, there's also a digital download I did of a game called Captain Burrell, it's more of a puzzle-y kind of game so if you have a way, you can even play that on emulators too so John Shepard I'd never heard of Neo Geo. So think of, if you're familiar with pinball, Neo Geo is like the P3 but in the arcade cabinet form. So you can take, you know, on the P3, it's a one platform. You can play a bunch of games. Neo Geo is like a one cabinet. You can play a bunch of games on it. So it was cool back in the day because you can have, like, up to four or six different games in one cabinet that you can cycle through and play. And then, you know, after a certain amount of time, the operator would swap it out with whatever the latest and greatest games were. So pretty cool hardware. That's of all the arcade games that I have in my game room, that's the one that gets the most play because it's just the most versatile, right? You can play all these different games. And I've got the Neo SE cartridge, which lets you load all the original ROMs onto that and play literally every game that was ever released for the system. So pretty cool stuff. So that's what I've been doing gameplay-wise. And, yeah, I think that covers it.
    70:12
    Nick, what are your thoughts? All right, well, I mean, I've been at the club every day, every weekend, like Saturday and Sunday for the last month. So I told myself I'm not going to the club this weekend to relax. I mean, I don't know how to relax. I had a colonoscopy on Friday, so that was fun. I got a referral for my first one, too, so we're colonoscopy bros now. I had my innocence taken away from me. It was actually really easy, by the way. I just, like, was just wiped out, though. Yeah. From the drug cocktails that they give you. You got to drink all that nonsense leading up to it, right? Yeah, drink it in. They give you, like, and they really kind of knock you out. But Martha, when she was driving me home, put on some Kenny G on the way home. So she knew how to. She's a good person. Scoop the soul, yeah. But, yeah, so here's the funny story.
    71:02
    For my game room update, I was going to sell Rush, right? I had Rush on the market. I had some people, you know, kick the tires. I had almost a potential buyer. Then I ended up keeping the game, and I opened up the outlanes, and I started enjoying it again. And then guess what happened, Kevin? I know what happened. I know. The node board issue happened, and my ramp and clock are broken. So if you guys don't know, there is an issue with a lot of rushes. Maybe all rushes out there have this. It's just a matter of when it blows up. I don't want to say they all have it. Nobody knows, but a lot of them do, and it's a ticking time bomb. the node board, when the node board blows, basically, and then the ramp and clock no longer work if you have a premium or an LE.
    71:46
    So, and the good news for me is that I would have felt terrible if somebody bought that game and, you know, after, like, 30 games it broke. I'm glad. So, anybody listening to this, you dodged a bullet, my friend. The bad news is, of course, it happened to me after I decided to keep it and enjoy the game. So, the problem is that I spent some time in that chat about it, and it's clear that Stern doesn't know what the fix is. They've just been sending out node boards and sometimes motors for those mechs, hoping it fixes it.
    72:22
    And apparently these node boards still blow eventually, even without the motors connected or disconnected. There's some heroes in that pin side chat who are actually testing it out and trying to figure out what the hell is going on. So it's just too bad, right, because my game has, like, over 500 games ahead of it for two years, and it finally went. Some people have gone quicker. Some people have hit 2,000 games, and it went. There it goes. So you just don't know when it's going to happen. It's a really annoying thing. I mean, on one hand, credit to Stern. They are sending out replacement parts. On the other hand, it's a little scary because I might get this fixed or replace the middle board only to have it happen five years from now because I don't play the game as much as when it's brand new. So I don't know. That's a whoa. But on the plus side, I do want to say that my favorite game from Stern,
    73:12
    they released three games last year, not counting, I'm not going to count, three cornerster games, I'm not going to count Metallica. They released Jaws, John Wick, and X-Men. I think the best game they released is Wick. I love that game. I really love it. I wish I bought a John Wick instead of Jaws. So I think I'm going to sell Jaws at some point. I am a co-owner of John Wick because it's at the club. I split it with Matt Taylor. And I think it's a great game. There's issues with it, but it might be the fastest Stern game that is out there. And I find it very addicting. My only thing right now is if I do buy one for my house, do I get the premium LE or pro, right? Like I don't know from a gameplay standpoint what's better. I like the game when it has all the features, but I'm afraid the premium is going to slow down too much and it's going to lose some of the thing. And I like how the car boops it on the Pro. Yeah, that's cool. I like the booping. So you guys are welcome to – if you guys think you know me well and you've listened to the podcast for years, help guide me. What should I buy? What version if I do get one for my house? Love John Wick. It needs some love, but it's a little confusing what's going on with that game. But good job to Tim and team. I think you guys got a lot of work to do. There are justified criticisms of that game, but Elliot crushed it with the design. So much fun. I haven't played a premium or Ellie. I've literally only played that one pro that has made it all over Western New York. So that was the one that James owned, then it was at RPC, and then Patrick owned it, and now it's at the club. Yeah, we're on the full way. It's six months. Yeah. So it's so funny. Borg Dog says premium for sure, and then RLM, 5K all day for a pro, right? Like, it's so hard, right? I wish I had time on the premium so I can make an educated discussion. What were the key differences in the premium? I don't remember.
    75:10
    Yeah, so I think a big difference is how you start modes is that shots comes down, so it kind of becomes like a bash toy that you ricochet off there versus just safely hitting into the scoop, right? That changes it, right? It becomes a shot that you hit that shot goes kind of out of control versus more flow and smooth. Right. The other more minor ones are it will lock the ball, right, and that just slows down the game. I don't need ball locks that much. Obviously, you can turn it off. It's got the pop-up target in the dance area, like not a big deal. And the car, like instead of boop, it kind of swings out and you bash it. Some people say they like the boop better. So, to me, the biggest thing is the trunk because now it goes from a safe shot hitting into the scoop versus the ball is out of control. Yeah. Right? And you've got to bash it. Yeah. But that game is pretty fast and brutal as it is. It feels like you don't even need that, right? Yeah, I know. I love that game. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, I played it a few times at the club. I haven't kind of, like, connected with it rules-wise or anything like that. I've got to spend some more time on it. Yeah. Dude, the rules are not intuitive. You've got to look it up on Tilt Forums. All I've got to say is the thing to know, I'm going to share this with you high level or anybody else that's listening.
    76:32
    It kind of has like crank it up modes, you know, like in Metallica. Yeah. And the way you get to crank it up modes is killing enemies. Okay. And the enemies are the blue dots. Okay. So you can spawn more blue dots by hitting the dance club area and they'll spawn more. And there's a counter. We'll say like how many enemies. and then you get into like a boss battle and that's a lot of points are there. Okay. Yeah, I would have never figured that out just playing it. Yeah. And then what's really tricky too is let's say you're in a mode and let's say a shot is lit for the mode. If there's enemies, like those blue dot enemies on that, you have to hit the shot to clear the enemies first before you can hit the shot to collect the mode shot. Wow. Okay. So it's not intuitive. It's creative and inventive, right? Sure. I can see why people are struggling with this because you don't even have time to go up and look at the display, but the display is not telling you things. The audio cues are not really telling you what's happening and giving you feedback. It's tough. Yeah. And then some enemies, Kevin, are like armored enemies, so you have to hit them twice. Oh, Jesus. Before you can hit the shot. Okay. And then you can get allies in there, and some allies will, like if you hit the ally shot, will clear like all the enemies of armor, right? It's kind of complex. Yeah. But if you put in a little work to understand it, you can appreciate it. And I can appreciate what they're trying to do with the game. Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool. I like the concepts, but, yeah, the game needs to provide the feedback to guide you along those paths too, right? Also, there's something really weird with the audio levels on that game. Like, there's, in the movie clips, there's, like, dialogue that's going on that's, like, buried. It's not, like, balanced right. Or I think he even, in lights out mode, I think he even says, like, lights out asshole or something like that. and you hit the button, but you can not even, it's not balanced in the game. It's very weird. Like, I don't know what's going on with that sound, and that will drive me crazy. So, like I said, it needs work, but it's my favorite game that came out last year. Let me reply to a piece that came out in chat real quick. He says, hey, Kevin, like the color DMD in your Tron. Is that LED or LCD? I've got the LCD in Tron. It's, yeah, it's good looking. It wouldn't, it's not like my favorite color DMD ever. Like, I don't think the graphics and dots in Tron are amazing, but it does a good job of taking, like, those video clips and making them better, easier to understand what's going on in them instead of just the smear of single color. Adding some color to those movie clips really helps. Mixed Iron Man has one, too, and it looks a lot better that way, too. but I've got the LED version in my Doctor Who mostly because it's got the LED board underneath it with the lights and the LCD would like smash into that if not and then in Royal Rumble I have the Pintu DMD because I didn't want to spend $400 or $500 on a color DMD for a $3,000 game you know what I mean so it's all relative all what makes sense for trying I wanted to put the best one in there so I got the LCD color DMD anything else for camera updates are you good let's i'm good for now all right you know what that means it means it's time for mods you don't need everybody it's the street for me as much as it is for the viewer let's do this amazing so uh steven i think this is the segment we need the video intro for steven steven silver's in chat so i was like we talked at one point he's like if you ever want you know some cool like animation let me know i think we need a we need this is the one this is We need a video intro for – So do we have Goran write a jingle and Steven Silver do an intro? That's the winning combo. Like the dream team. Get them in the studio together. They can workshop it. Do we have a Goran video today? We do. We got Goran coming too. Oh, God. You guys, people, don't go anywhere. This is where you kick it off. Yeah, exactly. This is where it's happening. All right. I'm pumped. All right. I struggle with the order of putting these in, but I'm going to start with this one.
    80:28
    These are – Well, this checks a lot of the new pin mod boxes, right? It's got a name that starts with pin. Actually, the company also starts from Pinnovation Design, and these are pin grips. Okay. Oh, shit. So, before now, you know, have you ever been playing pinball and were like, you know, I just can't hold this massive 200-pound, 300-pound machine properly? No. I wish there were a way that I could hold this better. Well, thankfully, people have 3D printers now, and they come up with stuff you don't need like this. These are pin grips. It's a 3D-printed thing that you slap on the side of your cabinet that goes around the flip button. How ugly that is. Why would you do that? Here's the selling point, right? Protect your hands from the metal edges on lockdown bar and side rails. Oh, my God. Okay, maybe on Thunderbirds. Maybe on Thunderbirds. The game that, like, cuts your hands. Well, that was the flipper buttons, though, so that wouldn't help.
    81:34
    Keep your hands from touching and smudging the glass. Heaven forbid you would touch your pinball machine, right? You smudge the glass by covering the glass? Like, come on, guys. Like, what? Provide, quote, unquote, locked in feel to comfortably put hands. I don't know what that means.
    81:52
    Remember that time I was holding on the pinball machine and I fell and hit my head and was bleeding on the floor? But if I'd only had this, you know? No, that didn't happen. That didn't happen because it doesn't happen. Better grip for nudging. No, that's not how nudging works. You take your hand off the pinball machine and hit it to nudge. That's how you nudge. You don't have your hand on the machine.
    82:13
    Smooth service for slab saves. Absolutely not. This is shit to get in the way while I'm trying to make a slab save. I thought it was textured, though, for grip. So how can it be smooth? The game is smooth to begin with. I don't know. I'm just reading it. Yeah, it's not your fault, Kevin. I'm sorry. I'm not jumping down your throat. I apologize. Protect wear and tear on the side rail armor and cabinet. I would counter that this is going to add more wear and tear because you have this thing that is like wearing on the powder coat of your armor and this piece of plastic that you're like slapping into the side art on your cabinet over and over again. Also, what do you mean by protecting wear and tear? Like, you don't want the art to get damaged so you can see the art, but then you cover the art up. It makes no fucking sense. Right, and you're going to damage the armor, the side art, with this piece of plastic thing that you're smashing into it.
    83:03
    Anyways, optional, Pin Grip Plus complements Pin Grip Pro to protect your cabinet, available for Stern Pro's side rails. So, it's, oh wait, here we go. There's a video. Let's watch this video. Do we have to? Okay, so, it's got this thing. So there's the part one. So that's the pin grips. And then you've got this thing. Oh, it has adhesive? You adhere it to the – no, you're going to ruin your game. Do not do this. Oh, my God. No, don't do this, guys. Do not do this. Let me tell you right now. Go to Titan Pinball. They have clear static stick or whatever things to protect your flipper buttons. Just get that. Yeah, they're static clean. Static clean. No adhesive.
    83:46
    Oh, adhesive on a pinball. God damn it. You're ruining the game. Don't do this. I did it. It's ugly. I did it. I got Nick going. That was a good one. All right. It's only up to a strong start in worst mod of the year, right? In January. Why? Who's going to top this? Chance loveth us. All right. If you thought that was good, wait until you see. Have you ever been like, you know, Godzilla, Zombie Yeti's good, but I can make a better back glass than Zombie Yeti. Well, here we go. From Pinball Pickers, alternate translate for Godzilla, Stern Godzilla.
    84:25
    What? Come on. This is a troll. There's no way. I think this might be the one that they tried to get on. Someone's trolling us. Someone wants to get on the episode.
    84:35
    Oh, my God. What the fuck? What does this have to do with anything Godzilla? Like, I don't know. Dude, someone's trolling. Yeah. You got to make the trolls, like, you know, almost be believable. There's no way. Yeah. That's hilarious, though. 125 bucks. $125.
    84:52
    This is hilarious. Free shipping. Yes, free shipping. It's like having a whole new game. This person, you win. This cannot be real.
    85:03
    I'm sorry. If you're listening, take your time, remove from the factory, translate, clean glass of all fingerprints, then install. It's like having a whole new game. This is like, all right, so if you're listening to the podcast, it is two, like, anime girls in bikinis on a beach. and it says the word Godzilla. And that's it. That's it. And the Stern logo. They stole the Stern logo. This is great. This is good. This is... I'm glad. I do like the logo. Somebody did the thing, right? Somebody did what I said in the beginning. You got on the show. Congratulations. All right. And last but not least, you know what? When we played Jaws at your house, when we made all the chum jokes?
    85:48
    Uh-huh. Of course we did. There we go. Yes, we did. It's Chum Chugging Brody. So, okay. You're like, okay, it's a little Brody figure. A little doll. He's got his thing here. Wait for the video. Okay. You want to see the video? I can't wait. Okay. Here he goes. Oh, look at him. He's chugging the chum.
    86:05
    Look at that. I mean, all right. I don't like it per se, but, like, I mean, it's creative. I think it's hilarious. Yeah. It's kind of, yeah. He's got the little thing in his mouth. He's just chucking away. It's kind of good. He's chucking away.
    86:23
    It's kind of good. All right, I can't play this because then we'll get DMCA from YouTube. Yeah. It's not for me. It's kind of silly, but okay. All right, based on your knowledge of pinball and pinball pricing and mod costs, where would you put the value of the chum-chucking brody?
    86:43
    Fuck. Fuck if I know. I mean, this is a – it's probably $300. Oh, you nailed it. $323. I'm good, dude. I know these guys. I know this bullshit game. Yeah. Hoping to keep things lean and 60, 250 euros, $323.
    87:02
    Minus shipping and taxes. So you have to pay shipping and taxes on top of that. So there you go. Speaking of costs and mods and bullshit, I just want to say that a full membership, all right? It's less than this. No, no. So associate membership. Associate membership is less than this, yeah. So I love the whining and pinball of something being expensive. It is the biggest farce I've ever seen. By the way, a full membership of $1,200 a year, 365-day access to hundreds of thousands of collections on machine, including the newest sterns, is less than a stern topper. Okay?
    87:33
    Okay? You guys are ridiculous whoever complains about the cost of something. You're nuts. Okay, let's go on. Christy made a good note in pointing out the important note. this will obscure a bit of the ball path on the upper play field. Competition players may want to bear that in mind. It will be different for different players and depends on how much of an issue that is for you versus the smile that Brody will bring.
    87:57
    It is an important note. It is important. Do you like to see your pinball when you play pinball? Yeah. Especially on that upper play field because the ball comes through so fast through there. That's like the part you need to see because it's right in front of the flipper, right? Yeah.
    88:11
    Amazing. So, yeah. That was the one that was submitted to me, by the way. That was the listener submitted.
    88:20
    Good job. You don't need to keep them coming. Yeah. I enjoy finding them organically, but it does warm my heart when people submit them to me. It takes a village. If you see something exceptionally dumb, please send it to me. Talkfanball.gmail.com or you can hit me up wherever.
    88:35
    Yeah. But the person that sent this to me has also said he probably might get it. And it's somebody locally. Appreciate that. We might be able to see Chum Chuggy and Brody in person. We won't out this person, though, but come and tell me afterwards who this person is. Exactly.
    88:50
    All right. There you go. There's another episode of Mods You Don't Need. And it's time for we're going to finally review the game we were supposed to review next month. Last month. I don't know how words work. It's Pulp Fiction, but let's do the intro first. Let's go.
    89:14
    or you can stop waiting for our ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready for Dry and Sad. Shower time!
    89:28
    It's Pulp Fiction, released in 2023 by Chicago Gaming Company. Game design is by Mark Ritchie. Software by George Petro and Josh Sharp. Artwork by Scott Patulski. And sound by the amazing one and only Dave Thiel, friend of the show, David Thiel.
    89:45
    Pricing is $79.99 for the Aziz, $8,000 for the standard, and $94.99 or $9,500 for the limited edition. Nick Lane, as an owner of this game, you want to kick this off? Yeah, I think the pricing went up on it, right? Maybe it did. The special edition is $8,000, so I guess... Yeah, that's what I said. Yep.
    90:09
    Alright. Yeah, what are we kicking off here? What are we starting with? Let's talk some rules. All right, the rules in this game. So I think it's worth bearing in mind that they've worked on this game for a number of years, and it shows Josh, I think, did an excellent job on rules.
    90:27
    How would I describe the rules on this? It's a mode-based game. Now, it's like five or six modes. It's got something that has play field multipliers, right? like being able to 3X the play field, collecting bonus.
    90:48
    I find on this that the rules are kind of like every time I play the game and I have a good game, I feel like I'm close to not beating it, but getting far into the game or having a really good game, and I just fall short. And I really like that about it. It feels like it's always right there. It feels like it's achievable, but I haven't beaten my game yet. So that, to me, is the mark of a good game in terms of rules. And some things that I like what it does is that in the multiballs, for example, we'll take the pawn shop one, and during it you're starting the pawn shop, and there's like three stages to that multiball and there's three stages to the briefcase one when you're in it. So in the pawn shop one, you're hitting the drop targets down and every time you hit the drop targets, it will play like a sound clip and the sound clip is like progressing through the pawn shop scene. So you don't even have to look up at the display to even know where you're at. You know the sound cues and if you're familiar with the movie, you're like, okay, I'm at this stage. So after you complete like the first stage, I think the lighting on it is, forget if it's green or red, it's like green, red, yellow, or it might work in the reverse order.
    92:11
    If you can pass through all three stages then you kind of do like a victory lap and that will be lit as an insert on the play field that you have to light to get to the end of the game If you fail, let's say you only beat one stage during that multiball, then starting pawn shop again is more difficult the second time around, but it will keep your progress that you made during the multiball. So I like that. It's like when you're playing, the first time you do it, it's easy enough to start the multiball. it's very important to try to beat it on the first time because even though it keeps your progress it's harder to get to start that multi-ball again I think that's a good balance of the rules rather than making you start from scratch on the multi-ball in progress and I do like the idea of I'm not just in a multi-ball scoring points but in the multi-ball I have certain objectives I have to complete so that therefore I can get to the end of the game. I think that's really good. The multiballs don't stack, so for people who hate stacking, there you go. Boom. Nothing to worry about. If you're in a mode, it just stops the mode. You play the multiball, and then when the multiball is over, you go into the mode. Which makes sense because if the mode has objectives, you want to focus on that, and then you can get back to the main modes when you get out. So I think that's smart. so yeah um i think that that covers the rules again i think it's the well balance and scoring there's there what i like about the game is that at least to me you know i'm not one who figures out an exploit for a game or look of an exploit i feel like it's kind of open-ended to the player what they want to focus on if they want to just try to get into a multi if you're playing competition they just want to get some multi ball or if they want to try to build up their characters and cash them out, or if they want to play through and vote, or if they want to try to get, like, a playfield multiplier going. It's a really good competition game because there's multiple paths to victory for it.
    94:12
    Yeah, and I like, like, the characters. If you think of, like, Taxi, he's got, like, Taxi vibes, too, you know, trying to light and then collect your characters, that sort of rule. So I played a lot of Taxi this summer when my son was working on his, and I was like, oh yeah, that's really smart and cool. It's a great classic kind of rule that works well in this game for sure. Yeah, it almost does a Medieval Madness homage, like when you start collecting multiple characters, like how it's like, you know, the kind of sound effects in there, even though it's not like built around into a multi-ball room in the way that Medieval ruled, the way that Medieval Madness is, you kind of see the love for other games in it. Yeah, plus it's got Jimmy in there, and who doesn't love Jimmy, you know what I mean? Don't fucking Jimmy me, Jules. No, that's one of my favorite call-outs.
    95:02
    Or, God damn, Jimmy, that's some gourmet shit. Amazing. We're not at the sound yet. Let's talk about art first.
    95:12
    When they first leaked the photos, the blurry photos of the game, I'm like, that cannot be the art of it. But then when you see it, I like the art style. Look, I mean, art is very subjective.
    95:23
    It's more of a throwback to maybe 80s or 90s art or even 70s art. It's not highly detailed where it's like let's have as many details and cram it into the space on the play field as possible, but let's like draw the player's eyes to the characters and make the shot lines easy to see. And it's kind of like a comic book. I don't want to say comic book because it's not like a zombie yeti comic book on X-Men where it's like everything's a comic book panel. It's more or less like instead of like hyper-realistic characters, it's more a little cartoony. So I like how it looks. I like the play field. I think it's highly functional. I think the back glass is really good as well in highlighting the characters in it. I love the side art of, again, it's meant to look like a game from the 70s. It's got the main colors of black, red, and yellow. It really pops. It looks fantastic. So I think, again, they crushed it on this. Yeah, I really like how it's got that kind of stenciled style look to the side, even though it's not. You know what I mean? Even the cabinet looks like a classic cabinet, but it's all like a modern machine. So it's a great throwback look while it's keeping real modern, too. So it's really crushed it. And, yeah, it's a great-looking game. And remind me, I see T.O. Pinhead is in chat. I've got a special message for T.O. Pinhead after we get done with the review. I want to announce. I like that. It's a cliffhanger. Exactly. There's a quick look at the play field, too. And look, it's got a gun right on the play field for everybody. You have a gun on your pinball machine. It doesn't get much more in your face than that. I love that. And I said this before. I love that we have a game for adults, right? Adults are buying this game, and we have an adult-themed game. They did not hold back on the cursing. They did not hold back on the artwork. They did not hold back on the adult themes, as well they should not. This is an adult-themed license, right? So they absolutely crushed it. Yeah, it's what you would want for this movie. Like, if you've seen this movie, all those things are in the movie, so it makes sense. Yeah. All right, let's talk about sound. Since we were talking about sound and call-outs and stuff, lead the way on that one. Yeah, so my favorite sound designer, David Theo, who is the John Williams of pinball machines, absolutely crushed it, knowing that he was behind the sound of this game. there's no doubt it's going to be good and Pulp Fiction I remember this came out when I was 14 years old the movie did and I remember I actually owned the soundtrack to this game so I think the soundtrack and the songs that he chose were great I do miss the little Statler Brothers I wish that was in there but you can't have everything you can't make everybody happy but I've not gotten sick of hearing the main Pulp Fiction theme even though I play this game a lot and it's just the nice touches in the sound, not only all the call-outs in the game and the way it draws you into the theme and what's going on, the shots you're hitting, but even the sound effects are just well done in key moments where the sound kind of gets louder.
    98:28
    David Thiel knows how to do sound in a pinball machine better than, I think, anybody else who's ever been in the industry. I don't think anybody else in the industry could have done this game justice the way David Thiel did, which is important because, again, Pulp Fiction is known not just for sort of the voice lines and the kind of hilarious voice lines and the language and the thing, but also the soundtrack as well. So it was really important to get this right, and it's hard for me to imagine how David Thiel could have done any better. The one thing that I was worried about with the sound was that it's a mono speaker, right? There's not two speakers in it, but somehow the game just sounds great. I'm really surprised by that. It's kind of like a small speaker in there as well. The bass is really good. It's got a sizable bass. So, again, just perfect sound design, great sound effects, great call-outs at opportunistic moments to make you laugh. You can just see the thought that went into it. They did not just sprinkle sound effects in there for the hell of it, but, like, how can they incorporate into the game, especially because that, you know, this game does not have an LCD display. So how do you communicate to the player what they need to do and what's going on to draw them in a theme? Well, sound, right? That's how you do it. I think, you know, earlier we talked about John Wick, and I think that game really falters because the sound is pretty terrible in the game and doesn't draw you in, right? Even though it has a display on it, I think this game, like, it doesn't need a display because the sound is so well done in it. Yeah, it's cool. This is such a perfect theme for Pinball because it's serious, it's adult, but it's also funny too, right? So it's – and Pulp Fiction has some of the legendary lines in it, and they're all in there. And it makes you laugh and you have fun even though you're shooting people and stuff. And there's guns and adult themes and stuff. So it hits on a lot of different levels. So the fact that they incorporated all that, especially in the call-outs, is so much more important.
    100:31
    yeah all right let's talk toys toys hmm deceptive on this game yeah there's not there are some toys like um what are the toys i guess in my opinion and the main toy i think the cool moment is the briefcase yes that is a very very very cool toy and it's very satisfying and it is a a pinball under glass moment so anybody who's seen the movie understands that there's the briefcase is a focal point of it. Nobody, when you watch the movie, you don't know what's in the briefcase. It's never revealed. It's something interesting, special, whatever. So when you start locking in balls for briefcase multi-ball, it plays a little, and again, this goes back to the sound, it plays a little clip of Jungle Boogie. It teases you with that, and the briefcase rotates over to Vincent. It opens up and kind of makes a little tease, like, okay, and it makes the player want to say, okay, I want to do that again. And then finally when you start the multi-ball, the thing is the briefcase is going back and forth. It's sparkling. Like it is such a great theme incorporation.
    101:37
    But that is kind of the main toy in the game. And to be honest, that is good enough for me. Yes, I like the optical illusion they make happen too because the ball kicks up out of this wire form on the left, goes through the back box, and then it makes you think that it's going into the breeze case, but it doesn't actually. It, like, locks in a subway underneath or something. So it's a cool trick.
    102:03
    Like you said, a cool pinball, world under glass kind of wow moment, which I like. I mean, and then other than that, it's just mechs. And the other thing is the pawn shop. It looks just like, you know, the drop targets in a scoop, but there's actually a subway there, too. So there's some cool tricks. So there's more to this game than you would get on a traditional, like, classic machine. You get, you know, subways and vertical up kickers and things like that. So they, like, made it look retro but built in some more modern features and things. So even though it doesn't have quote-unquote ramps, it's got cool stuff in there.
    102:44
    Yeah. Nice. Lighting and display. Right. So you were talking a little bit earlier about the challenges and advantages of maybe, you know, not having the LCD screen, right? I think when people think movie theme, they're like, well, how could you do a modern movie theme game and not have a screen in it, right? But I think they really nailed it with this. Absolutely. I mean, the lighting, the way it works, obviously, you know, the inserts lit or kind of things fading in and out or pulsing. And it does indicate, I think, at all times to the player what shot you should be prioritizing and going for. It's pretty obvious to figure out the game and intuitive. So that's good from a lighting standpoint.
    103:25
    The GI changes color based on when you start something, like the pawn shop turns green, flashing around.
    103:35
    The lighting is as well done as any pinball machine lighting can be, in my opinion. And it's got some nice touches that I want to call out. So, for example, in the back glass, when a character's voice line comes on, that character will flash on the back glass. And that's a nice touch, right? Like, you want to see more than that in pinball, and most pinball doesn't do that. Another nice touch is that when you start a scene, like, it plays a sound effect of a movie reel going, and the lighting will kind of flicker like when a movie reel starts going, right? So it mimics that as well. Again, this is a game that's highly polished.
    104:13
    In a way, a lot of Sterns aren't. In a way, that's almost like a Jersey Jackal. In a way, this game is even more polished than a Jersey Jack. Granted, they spent more time in this game than Jersey Jack does or Stern, but it does show them. This game just – it's like I look at the lighting and what more could they have done, and I can't answer that. I think they've maxed it out. It's fantastic. Yeah, that's another sneaky modern feature of it, too, is the RGB lighting. Really, that plays a big role in communicating to the player when you don't have the screen or maybe you don't have custom calls saying, shoot this or shoot that. You're using clips from the movie and the lights on the play field and the feedback from the different colors of lighting and things that indicate what you should be doing. And, you know, when we think about something like John Wick, it could really use the RGB lighting better to communicate to the player when things are happening and things like that. And Pulp Fiction, they took all of that into mind and did a really good job executing it, I think. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, crushed it. Gameplay, what do you think on the gameplay side? Absolutely love it, right? This is a game that's flat. There's no ramps involved. It's a throwback game. I love classic games. I would describe it as a medium playing game it's not short, it's not super long it's medium, I mean sometimes I can have games that are like 15 minutes, 20 minutes especially when you get the hang of it but then it can also be very punishing at the time I think it's a good appropriate challenge I like that, the shots feel good nothing's like a gimme shot But, yeah, I don't know what else to say about a more or less kind of – Yeah, like the in-line drop targets are cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of times. And the fact that, you know, that leads to a multi-ball, that's pretty cool. You're not actually – it's not like TNA where you're locking the balls in between the drops.
    106:12
    You're knocking down all three and then knocking it into the bag and it goes into that vertical up kicker into the briefcase. So that's cool. and then on the right there's another drop target by the roll scene scoop too, right? Or where you collect the characters. Yeah, there's a drop target there, and the funny thing is that could be a dangerous shot because sometimes it will shoot right back in the middle, so you've got to be ready for it. And if you hit it, it will put a ball save on the left or right out lane. Another shot I like, I mean, I like the, you know, as a classic game, it has that scoop at the top and trying to land it in the scoop and time of skill shot is cool and fun because then it encourages nudging while you're up there. is also trying to nudge when you're on the pop bumpers because there's targets to hopefully the pop bumpers will ricochet into and trying to hit that. So I'm a fan of, like, trying to nudge what's in the pop bumpers or trying to keep a ball in the pop bumpers as much as possible. One issue I will say that's been reported by a lot of users and I have this problem is that the pop bumpers, for whatever reason, need adjustment or not always sensitive and go off. I've played several games, including my own, where it's like my right top pop bumper won't always fire. I probably need to adjust it, but that's annoying. I do like the magnet shot. That's the shot that is used for one of the modes and also to collect the gun bonus and the playfield multiplier. It's not an easy shot per se. You've got to be precise on it, but it's certainly satisfying to hit. So it's a very well-designed playfield. And it's got, as this game was developed by Mark Ritchie, it's got, for the pawn shop, sort of that Indiana Jones three drop target lock, like same kind of idea that he used in that game to an extent. Yeah, for sure. And shout out to the OptoSpinner as they rip on this game.
    107:50
    Yeah, we do. Keep them going. And they make a cool sound because David Thiel knows what he's doing. All right.
    107:57
    Last ability. How do you see, you know, this is kind of a retro style game. Do you see, is there enough depth in this game to keep you interested in the long haul? Or what do you think? Well, I mean, absolutely. Look, if you're a Pulp Fiction fan, I don't know how you don't love this game. If you're not, like, a Pulp Fiction fan of the movie or theme, you know, I don't know. I can't speak for you, but I can say that beyond the theme, there is a great pinball game in here. I think the rules are well done and balanced where, like, you know, you can play to try to get through the end of it. And then there's also, like, playing and trying to maximize your score by going for play field multipliers, you know, things like that. It's also open-ended for, like, tournaments and strategies that you want to do in terms of risk-reward. So there's a lot to it. And there's so many call-outs and so many things to enjoy about the game. It's just so well done that there's certain pinball machines that I have in my collection where I go downstairs in my basement, I look at that game, and it brings me joy. Like, I'm just so happy to own that game, right? Like, I absolutely love it. You can just, again, see that it's a work of art. You can see the thoughtfulness that was put into it, the craftsmanship. and to me this game is a game that I always want to own and it will always be a part of my collection. Yeah, it feels like I like having a mix of depths and stuff in my collection, and sometimes I want to play a really deep game like Godzilla. Sometimes I just want to like a little more approachable, like think about like Tron or Iron Man where it's like, can I just do the thing, right? And this, like you said, kind of feels right in the middle. So I think it's a good fit for the layout and the theme, and it just kind of works. I think they did a really good job. Yeah, and as Donnie pointed out, so Donnie bought one for the club. Thank you, Donnie, since it's great to have Paul Fiction at the club.
    109:53
    He's right. So Tarantino basically said that they can do this license if they made it kind of like a retro 70s-style pinball machine, and it absolutely worked out. I can't imagine this game any other way, to be perfectly honest. It wouldn't be the same if it wasn't that. So it's just like sometimes the stars align and things work out perfectly, and I think this is a good example of, like, you don't need a video screen. If you just do other things right, get the rules right, get a good layout, the presentation, thoughtfulness, you can have an amazing pinball machine.
    110:25
    Let's talk quality. I know there have been a few little issues with this, especially, like, play field chipping and, like you said, the pop bumper. What are the major quality issues as an owner? Yeah, so if you're an owner, I highly recommend going to the Pinside chat, the owners group, and looking at some areas that you might want to consider adding Mylar to. I definitely Mylar'd mine. I helped Donnie Mylar some of his at the club. Like the scoops will take a beating. Some people care about that. Some don't. There was one terrible example of like on the right orbit, I guess, like just really coming off and peeling, which I think that's probably an anomaly, but I added more Mylar there on my game. I think, you know, that was a game on location, so maybe owners don't have to worry about it. But, you know, use your judgment here. I know there's the pop bumper issues that they probably need adjustment. I have not done that to mine.
    111:18
    What else can I say? I know Christy's in the chat, Christy and Scott in League. They own a game, and they had like a trough issue. So there have been some issues with this game, And one big complaint is that the people who sadly had ordered the fancy LE edition, they've had to wait way longer for their game than they thought they would have. So that was certainly annoying. They're just starting to get their games now.
    111:43
    But overall, it's not like anything insurmountable or should scare anybody off the game. I would just say just go to the owner's thread, look through things, and you should be okay. That is a cool topper, though. Amazing. It's an amazing topper. That's really good. we played League at Rob's house and he's got it one with the topper I was like yep that's cool so alright joy factor I think this crushes the joy factor personally for me yeah yes it's a 10 out of 10 for me for the joy factor like I said I just look at the game and think about the game being in my collection and I'm really grateful to own it and really grateful that the team behind it just you know they did a really good job they like when you take a license like don't waste that license on her and crush it and do the best job possible and they did don't just buy the license because you know it will sell a game and people buy it regardless because they can't help themselves but put that love and creativity into it and make the best product possible that's what this team did yeah this is uh this is a game that i can see myself owning in the future uh one that you know that it's funny patrick was like you know what's gonna happen is like everybody who bought it uh but they bought the limit the standards because they're waiting for their limiteds and they can wait and then they're going to unload their standards once their limiteds start shipping and that's what's happening now. So I'm like, okay, the prices, you know, for a used standard you can get one for it in the sticks, which is pretty great for a game like this.
    113:06
    Oh, you did. I can see you. I don't know why you're frozen on. Yeah, I can see you in my Zoom window, but not over here. Let me Yeah. yeah let me uh let me restart the uh okay you're good yep nick is back all right uh let's let's rate it uh what's your rating on this game it should be let me show the uh the ratings all right i don't have that pulled up because i'm uh i don't know what i'm doing if you ever want to see all our past uh ratings they're on buffalo pinball.com slash podcast.
    113:45
    Our score key is a 0-2 is a burn-in, 3-5 is an expensive night late, 6-8 is a solid game, 9-10 is a get your wallet out. Nick, you got your wallet out. Where would you put this game? Yeah, this game is a 10 out of 10. It is a testament to the best of pinball and what happens when a team really honors and loves the theme and you get talented people behind it. And I think it also shows that, yes, pinball can work and be successful making adult-themed games and not games that are sanitized and PG games. So let's see some more adult games. There's adults buying it. There's a market for it.
    114:22
    I hope this team gets to make another game. I know this is not the company's kind of bread and butter, but everybody who was a part of the design on it, congratulations to you. You're obviously being rewarded for your efforts by the sales of it. anybody else in the pinball industry should really look at this as an example of what to do in a pinball machine and now that you've officially had it in your collection for what four or five months now you can you can say determine definitively not a baby game right no it's not a baby game it's a medium playing game when you when you get to it but it's not a baby game the rules are again like i like that josh sharp did the rules he knew how to work with that layout and how to make it feel like it's like when you play iron man sometimes and you feel like you just you're so close to and you just get so close, right? Like, it teases you into thinking, like, okay, one more game. I got it this time. I was so close, right? It's like a psychological trick. It does a really good job of that. Yeah, I agree. And rating-wise, I mean, I can't, like, when I think about, like, how would I demerit this game somehow to, like, make it not a 10, right? It's like, I mean, maybe they have had some play field issues, right? So maybe that's, like, a half a point off or something. or if the, I mean, they took a hell of a long time to get this game produced. So that's like a timeout. That's a negative too, but also like now the game exists, so who cares, right? So I'll put it at like a nine and a half. I haven't, only because I haven't like, I don't have as much time on it as you do, right? But it's still like amazing. Can't think of anything other than a few like little technical issues, but you're going to run into that on most games anyway. So nice job. Awesome game. Great theme. perfectly executed. I love the classic feel and the modern tweaks that are in there. So it's really cool. Great game.
    116:11
    Alright. I think we did it. I think we did. So I got a personal message to Joe Cherovino. This is how important you are, Joe. So, if you guys remember back in the day, if you go way, way back, we used to do this fun little competition with Buffalo Pinball versus City Pinball in Toronto. started that, I think, in 2016 or 2017. The last time we did it was in January 2020, right before COVID hit, and then it's fallen off. Just so happened that Buffalo Pinball won that year, and we have had the trophy ever since. So I think it's time to resume that, Kevin. I want to – technically, it's our turn to go to Toronto, but also technically I have the trophy in my possession. So if you guys want to try to get that trophy back, you need to come to Buffalo. We'll host it at Nickel City Pinball. Let's rumble. Let's find a date this year you guys can come back and try to take your trophy back to Canada before we make you guys the 51st state. Well, you know, tensions between Canada and the U.S. have never been higher, so let's go. Let's take it up a notch. Yeah, let's do this.
    117:15
    Amazing. Also, Joe, shout out to Joe. Joe's got a podcast, Dude, Where's My Code? Check it out on all your favorite pinball platforms, podcast platforms. I just had some great interviews with some of the Multimorphic folks which I appreciate I always like hearing from those guys the newest ones with Nick Baldridge for Amusement Only Games so love what you're doing Joe keep it up alright just to wrap things up if you need a Buffalo Pinball t-shirt or something you can get it on our website buffalopinball.com click the merch button follow us on all our social media channels so when we go live you'll know it or when we have amazing important things to say You can find it out there. Email us, talkpinball at gmail.com. And like I said, Nick missed this earlier, but I'm going to be doing weekly streams on Twitch, weekly Mondays at 7. So if you want to re-up your subscription, you'll be getting more for your money there because I need something to do Monday nights during the winter because wintertime stinks. Yeah, and I will say this. Obviously, you know, we used to stream a hell of a lot more, and a good amount of revenue that kept us going was not that, you know, we need the revenue, but it's nice. It does help keep us going. We do this out of the goodness of our heart to share and try to entertain you guys. It takes work.
    118:31
    I understand subscribing to Twitch might not be the best thing anymore because we do a once-a-month thing where Kevin streams sporadically. And also, Twitch takes half of the money you donate. Half goes to Twitch. So if you like to support the stream, you like what you hear, consider donating. You can send a donation to buffalopinball at gmail.com via PayPal, family, and friends. We will gladly accept your donations. Thanks to all the people who have contributed in the past. Or you can buy yourself some merch and you get something out of it. Either way, it's appreciated. We appreciate everybody who just even participates in chat, asks good questions, makes jokes, and follows us along. So thank you, guys. Anytime. Yeah, for sure. And, of course, if you want to provide a little non-monetary feedback, you can drop a review on your podcast platform of choice. We always appreciate that, too. All right. Until next month, enjoy this brand new episode of Topper Talk. Again, we're not going to the office today, guys. We're going somewhere else, so stick around.
    119:27
    It's Topper Talk with Goran right now. Let's all have some fun. This is about plastic on top of your pin. Go and buy one now. There's a topper here and a topper there. Here a topper, there a topper, everywhere a topper. It's critical to the gameplay experience. You must buy one now. It's your monthly bill of toppers right now. Topper Talk with Goran.
    119:55
    Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Topper Talk with Goran. The part of the podcast where Kevin and Nick give me about three to five minutes to talk about everything happening in the very active and profitable topper community. Now today we'll be talking about the toppers for Evil Dead from Spooky Pinball. So let's head to the study and talk about that now. Okay, so here we are in the study, so let's dive right in. So this is the Evil Dead topper on top of the machine. Looks really nice. It's three-dimensional. The way they covered up the sides looks really great.
    120:26
    It's unique from the rest of the art and the back glass, which I like. It doesn't say Evil Dead on top of it again, which is always great. Now, one thing I want to note, which we'll get into a little bit later, is that this shows the collector's edition, but the collector's edition does not come with this topper. It does come with the topper, but this topper is an extra cost. The topper that you get with the collector's edition is kind of a RGB lit up plastic version of the upgraded topper, which still looks really nice, and it's great that it's included in the price, but from the marketing materials, I could see how at first glance it could be a little confusing. Now let's take a look at the topper in action. Okay, so here it is on top of the game. It lights up with RGB lights.
    121:13
    The sculpt on it looks fantastic. Then if we move forward a little bit, we can actually see it. It starts to move. It pops up and down. The lights change. I even like in their marketing materials, they even show it animated there as well. It really doesn't look bad. It does remind me a little bit of like a spirit Halloween prop. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Um, but, uh, my brain does jump to that a bit. Now the interactive topper is $1,400. It was a $1,500 or $400 initial down payment. Um, the topper is sculpted by a horror special makeup effects designer, and it says that the Cheryl topper has dozens of original movie callouts. The thing I'm unclear on is, are those callouts only unlocked when the topper is added, or if, you know, you have the base plastic topper as well, are those callouts included and they're just not in sync with the topper? So that's a question that I have. Not a bad price. I suspect that we may see some mod makers take some existing Halloween props from places like Spirit Halloween and try to make their own, but the sculpt looks really great on this. The movement looks good. I question how loud the motor may be on it that I'm not sure of, but overall way to go spooky pinball. I really appreciate that you provide your customers options of providing a base topper and then obviously being able to upgrade to something a little nicer. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Topper Talk. Tune into the next podcast for another episode and always get out there and buy a topper. Thank you for coming to my Topper Talk.
    122:52
    Thank you.